I still have a little ways to go to finish Arise (gotta get those sidequests done before heading into the final battle!), but the inner voice nagging me to write fanfics wouldn't shut up when it came to Kisara and Dohalim. Is it because they get less one-on-ones than the other party members? Is it because I'm an old lady who prefers her pairings to be low-drama? Who can say... So here is a one-shot to contribute to the fandom, sharing my interest in these characters and my adoration of cats!
Purrotector
"Meow!"
"Oh! Zareh!"
Kisara immediately strayed from the main road of Viscint, instead approaching a familiar black cat that was standing atop the railing that lined the city's waterway. She reached her hand out and the cat effortlessly maintained her balance as she nudged Kisara's hand with her forehead. "You've made yourself at home, my friend," Kisara said as she moved to scratch under the cat's chin; Zareh happily tilted her head up.
The group had been in Elde Menancia at Law's request for a visit to the ranch, but on their travels they heard tell of some troublesome zeugles. While mentally up for the task, their supplies were lacking, and so the group split up to gather up what they would need for the battles ahead. Had Kisara been accompanied by anyone else, she surely would have been drawn away from Zareh and redirected to the present chore–but she was accompanied by Dohalim, and chores never held his interest as much as the little distractions that kept the chores from getting done.
He walked up to where Kisara and Zareh were enjoying their reunion. "You must be pleased to see Zareh thriving. You always talk about her whenever you see a cat."
"Yes, well, just knowing she was Migal's companion makes her important to me." She stared at the cat with affection and moved her scratches from Zareh's neck to along her back, which prompted Zareh to lift her tail in approval.
Dohalim brought a hand to his chin thoughtfully. "You also just seem to enjoy interacting with any cat you see." There had been more than one meowing incident that raised questions from the other parties members, although it just made Dohalim chuckle. "Not to neglect to mention the shield you had crafted in resemblance of the feline form."
"I do like cats," Kisara agreed. She moved to a nearby bench and sat down, then patted her lap; Zareh turned on the railing like a skilled gymnast and padded over to where Kisara sat. She stepped onto Kisara's lap but did not settle, instead using a front paw to test the feel of the different pieces of armour that protected Kisara's entire front half. Dohalim sat in the empty spot next to them, and without delay Zareh abandoned her efforts to make Kisara's lap comfortable and settled on Dohalim instead. He stared at the cat, his arms stiffly at his side; Kisara immediately noticed the divergence from his usual posture. "Do you not like cats?" she asked.
"No, it's merely that I've never had the occasion to interact with them." Zareh stared up at him, and somehow Dohalim felt obligated to turn away. He inwardly questioned how he found it more challenging to maintain eye contact with a cat than with a human.
Kisara leaned towards them and let her hand hover in front of Zareh. As she had done earlier, Zareh bumped her head into the hand. "Me holding my hand out is a hello, and a way of asking if she wants pats. Her headbutt means yes." Kisara gave the cat a single stroke along her back, then looked over to Dohalim. "Now you try."
Dohalim's eyes turned to Kisara first, and her focused stare and tight-lipped smile said she would not be letting this go. With a sigh, Dohalim offered his hand to Zareh, who accepted his greeting with the expected headbutt.
"She likes to be scratched around her chin and behind her ears, and stroked along her back," Kisara instructed.
Dutifully taking these orders from his former subordinate, Dohalim ran his hand from Zareh's head down to her tail, then back to her head again. The cat's eyes softened and she turned around in Dohalim's lap before laying down and curling into a ball. Her chest rose and fell with a quiet rumble. Dohalim paused with his hand over Zareh's side and felt the vibration through her fur. "Is this purring?" he asked, knowing the word but having never really understood what it meant.
Kisara laughed. "Yes, of course it is! Do they not have cats on Lenegis?"
"Renans do not keep pets," Dohalim answered, "unless zeugles can be labeled as such."
"I would say not." Kisara leaned back and looked up at the buildings across the road. She shut her eyes briefly, a calm smile on her lips, then spoke: "Cats always had a big role in our lives. Me, Migal, Lagill... all of the orphaned children." Dohalim listened as he watched Kisara from the corner of his eye, his hand subconsciously patting the cat in his lap who was now fast asleep, though still purring nonetheless. "Before you became Lord of Menancia, our living conditions were...well, not liveable. We'd receive rations that were never enough, yet we still tried to save some because we would never know when we'd get more. Mice became a problem in Dahnan quarters, chewing through food storage bags and stealing our rations–and anything they didn't eat would be contaminated with their waste." Kisara reached over to Zarah and massaged behind the cat's ear; she sighed out an even louder purr. "Cats saved us. They caught intruding mice, and they helped keep us warm when the nights were cold. They'd curl up with us–probably as much to borrow our body warmth as we were borrowing theirs–and they'd be purring, just like this."
"So you're saying animals treated you better than Renans," Dohalim observed bitterly.
Kisara shook her head. "True as that is, that isn't my point. I've told you that that isn't your guilt to carry." She lifted her hand from Zareh's head and then pointed a finger at her. "And the cats proved troublesome for us sometimes too. They'd always be lurking when I snuck off to fish, and when I became focused on reeling one in, they'd swoop in and try to steal any catches I'd already made. I would get so angry," she said with humour, "but then at night we'd all be back to our mutual understanding, hunkered down together. Migal could teach them to roll over and spin around and sit up on their hind legs–in exchange for a small piece of fish, of course. That's probably why I knew Zareh was leading Alphen and the others to my brother; if anyone could teach a cat to act as a messenger, it would be him."
Her pause turned into a stretched out silence, the rumble of Zareh's purr still audible over the bustle of the market a short walk away. Dohalim lowered his eyes to the cat, and noticed for the first time that he had never stopped stroking her while Kisara was speaking. He wondered if this entrancement was also a power of cats, another symbiotic exchange wherein the cat got a soothing massage while the human heart was remedied by its purrs. Inspired, he spoke:
"Feline friendships:
A companion, protector, healer;
So thankful am I they were there,
A light in my dearest's life,
When the world would sooner snuff that light out."
Zareh's ear flicked and she begrudgingly lifted her head. Her mouth opened wide with a yawn, and her front legs stretched out. She pushed herself to a seated position, licked her front paw twice and then rubbed it over top of her head before hopping off of Dohalim and trotting along the pathway with purpose.
"I hope you don't take that as criticism of your poem," Kisara laughed.
"Perhaps cats are not the sentimental type..." Dohalim mused.
Kisara stood up and in her own cat-like manner stretched her arms upwards before letting them drop to her side. "Perhaps not. But I appreciate those sentiments, so...thank you for listening." She reached a hand out too Dohalim, which he accepted as he himself rose up to stand.
"My pleasure," he answered. "I feel I can understand both cats and you a bit better for it."
"Let's get back to our mission, Do. And we can't forget the bread Shionne demanded."
"Of course. Could she be filling buns with mabo curry again...?"