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typewriterghcst · 3 years

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Title: Comme Il Faut

Rating: Gish, but there is a. uh. Suggestive Joke right before the cut

Fandom: The Cat Returns

Characters: a younger Cat King and Natori

Summary: He missed out on a lot of cardinal priming for his eventual position. Now unofficially under his advisor’s discreet tutelage, the new Cat King can’t quite say he’s sorry to have never been forced to learn the finicky etiquette surrounding a proper meal… but a bowl of homemade soup for his trouble isn’t that bad a motivator.

Notes: For the prompt ‘Over a cup of tea’ from this meme, which I again chose on my own bc I mean. I might as well right……. anyway, hopefully this won’t spiral out of control like the dancing one did rip Also despite the prompt being ‘over a cup of tea’, on a whim I changed this to ‘over a bowl of noodles’ because the Mr. Ping muse is evidently still hanging around even all these years later Filled with headcanons and some references to a much longer fic in progress detailing this particular part of their relationship coughs

&&&

“Your paw is in your lap again.”

The look this pointed but nonchalant observation earns him is affronted, exasperated, as the younger cat sets his unoccupied paw back on to the flimsy table before them.

“I don’t know why all this baloney matters, Natty. Is anyone really gonna give a crap if both paws aren’t on the table at all times..?”

“Well, they may come to the unfortunate conclusion that you’re feeling perhaps a bit feisty, but I suppose if that doesn’t bother you, then…”

Natori doesn’t have to look up from his work to know the new king most likely wears an indignant, scandalized look; he hears him shift in his seat anyway, leaning back, crossing his arms grumpily. When he speaks, it’s with a very characteristic sullen mumble.

“Don’t be crude.”

It’s here that Natori finally turns his attention from the portable stovetop to his companion, and it’s with a contrite smile, at least, which seems to appease Claudius somewhat.

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty. I shall behave.”

Claudius scoffs. “All you do is behave. Someday, I’m going to order you to live a little, and you’re gonna just keel over because I finally found the one thing you can’t do.”

“There’s worse ways to die, I suppose.”

“Not many.”

Then, silence, as Natori doesn’t respond in favor of adjusting the flame and fanning his (for once uncovered) paw over the foaming pot. Just a few moments of this is all it seems to take for Claudius’ minuscule store of patience to run dry. He flops onto the table before him with a dramatic groan, muffled only slightly by the surface his face is now smushed against.

“This is so boring—! If I’d had to do this as a kid, I woulda kicked my tutor in the shin.”

Upon the deadpan knowing look he gets from Natori, the king amends himself, “...Okay, I would have kicked more tutors in the shins. Whatever, isn’t there something you can do to make this less excruciating?!”

“Isn’t that what the soup is for?” Natori asks mildly.

“Oh, yeah. How’s that coming, anyway? Smells pretty good.”

“It won’t be long.”

In the silence that follows, Natori waits for another plaintive outburst from Claudius, but to his surprise, it never comes. Claudius instead seems to find absorption in his own thoughts, and it’s not long at all before he makes them known.

“Where’d you learn this stuff, anyway?”

“The cooking or the boring etiquette?”

“The cooking, duh.”

Natori hesitates, stirring the noodles briefly; he unintentionally gives the impression that he’s reluctant to reveal the truth, which only intrigues Claudius more. “...My grandmother taught me.”

"Did she teach you how to sew, too?"

"Yes," Natori answers patiently. In the fleeting time Claudius hasn't been paying attention, his advisor has already filled two bowls with noodles and is now ladling relatively clear, tawny broth over the top of them. Distantly, he feels his stomach growl in anticipation.

"Would you like some doubanjiang?"

"Some wha..?"

Wordlessly, Natori hands the jar to Claudius, who wastes no time at all in scrutinizing the paste or giving it a cautionary sniff.

“This stuff spicy?”

“It is spicy.”

Claudius hands it back. “I’ll take a rain check on it, then.”

“Suit yourself.”

“Gimme some extra beef, though.”

Natori complies, but once more without a word, and the reserve irks Claudius just slightly. He knows he isn’t, but it feels somewhat like he’s being ignored. He clicks his chopsticks together, and whether it’s out of impatience or peevishness, Natori’s chiding response is the same regardless— a mild, “Misusing one’s eating utensils is generally not recognized as acceptable behavior, sire,” as he places one of the bowls before the king.

Claudius grins at his advisor as if he’s come out the victor of some covert competition, but Natori can not for the life of him puzzle out what that competition might be. He might even wager the king himself doesn’t really know.

Then, seeing Claudius preparing to pick up his bowl and most likely gulp it down, he hastily adds, “A proper meal is one that’s savored.”

Claudius pauses mid-lift and shortly after deflates in frustration, plopping his bowl back down again. “Yeah, yeah, alright. We’ll do it the respectable way.”

Spoken while stabbing at a piece of beef with one of his chopsticks querulously. Natori resists the urge to put his head in one of his paws, making the mental note to address that another time.

“...you know, when I’ve been king long enough, I’m getting rid of all this stuffy rubbish.”

“The elders will decry the new regime as vulgar extravagance,” Natori remarks with a tickled laugh.

“They’ll get used to it.” Then, after finally taking a bite of his soup now that his momentary petulance has worn off, “Hey— your soup is actually good.”

“You sound surprised— not necessarily the most polite of ways to issue a compliment, I might add.”

“That’s not how I meant it,” Claudius grumbles. “I just… I mean…”

What he meant is consigned to remain a mystery, as he never does pick his trailing thought back up, descending instead into apparent morose rumination. Natori doesn’t rush him, unsure himself over what to say.

It had been not two weeks ago the two could hardly stand to be in the same room together without taking veiled potshots at each other, if not outright quarreling, at least when not accompanied by King Aelius or other companions. Reaching an understanding and two very genuine apologies did not make for an instant camaraderie on their own.

“...Thank you,” Natori does eventually settle on, his eyes still averted. “I-It’s not anything special, but I suppose it does remind me of home.”

Claudius looks up from his soup, and the stormy brow he’d been sporting softens some. He, too, then averts his gaze.

“Sounds nice.”

“I’m sorry,” Natori says, and though it feels like the proper response, he can’t explicitly trace what reasoning has led him to it.

Meanwhile, Claudius only shrugs, popping the last piece of cubed beef from his bowl into his mouth and propping his head against one of his paws (the other is, once more, folded in his lap below the table). “It is what it is.”

Continuing on, in a way Natori would have previously read as defiant or vindictive, he offhandedly stabs his chopsticks into the few remaining noodles and leaves them there, and the look he spies on Natori’s face when he turns his attention to his advisor tells him he’s probably committed a number of faux pas.

With a sardonic snort, he says, “Guess I got a long way to go, huh?”

Natori, while rather gently and methodically removing the chopsticks and laying them beside the king’s bowl, offers a more optimistic (if shy) angle. “You’ll get there.”

“With this soup, I will.”

Ah. One truth revealed, it seems. Natori meets Claudius’ wide smirk with a faintly playful look of his own, head canted just slightly in knowing amusement, and the tacit agreement seems to be all the king needs to add yet another inscrutable victory to his ongoing arcane list. Motivation and indulgence are often inexorably wed, after all.

#the cat returns #jfjfkd;a i finished another small drabble in record time :v #i started this one last night holy c rap #it's not very long but wOW is that a fast turnaround for me l mao

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dagnyart · 6 years

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I really like the art you did of them! I have never considered Glorfindel/Maglor before, could you please tell me your thoughts on them as a ship?

I’m very happy that people ask me more about them bc I thought that it’s mb very vierd and didn’t show my arts with them before.First of all they are my Cat and Flower OTP :DDOk, I‘ve always liked the idea of Maglorwandering and striding around Middleearth for Eru knows how many years andfinally arriving to Elrond’s lands where nobody lets him wander further. It seems to me that happened not so far from the Hobbit events. Just imagine:Maglor casually walks through the woods and gets caught by the border guard troops, he tries to run away that doesn’twork out, than he knocked down everybody around, but luckily or unluckily Glorfindelwas there. They had a great deal of a mighty fight, yet Glorfindel mighty won, partiallythanks to good sleep and diet, he is also high and ancient as fuck (andaccording to some theories he is equal to maia in power). Glorfindel is quitesmart so he notices that the vagrant he had caught looks bad and em.. dusty, his armor, though has some noble and oldpatterns, the sword is also good, so It’s better to take him to Elrond.

· Elrond sure recognizes him andexperiences lot of contradictory and mixed feelings, yet Maglor is his mummy inlaw and ofc it’s an intimate reunion allDisney films should have. Glorfindel, afterrealizing these two have known each other long before, all the feels and stufflike that… just gets extremely happy for them with a light heart. Maglor nowgets that Glorfindel was only doing his job, nothing personal, yet he hissesand glances grumpily for a week or two, bc, you know, «Who dared to defeat Son of Feanor , how dared he put adagger to his throat blablabla». Firstly, Maglor avoids every type of contactor conversation with other elves, gloomily walks around the huge libraries,around the gardens and has long-longmeaningful talks with Elrond. Yet Elrond is still a king and the times are getting darker, so Maglorhas long time for himself too. Here, inRivendell halls they have evening songs and they tell tales of old times whenthe night comes in, all gathering near huge fireplace. Maglor, being a goth child of his time, ofc doesn’t go therefirst couple of times. Then he eventually comes, finds a dark corner, sits andlistens. AAAAAAAAAAnd gets very surprised by not hearing any hatred or accusationstowards the Feanorians. Maglor long time haven’t sang butone time he sits in a garden under a beautiful blooming tree and sings quietly. Glorfindel having returned from surveying the borders, hears thesong by lucky chance and he likes it sooooo much. Maglor notices him yet continuoussinging. From this moment a specialbound forms between them.Some time later they’ll spend more timetogether bc Maglor feels much better, hegot used to being here, Glorfindel and him are like dinosaurs among the youngones in this realm and so on. Together they babysitting Elrond’s children, Maglor is an exceptional warriorwhich is convenient in battles and patrols, plus Glorfindel has a soft spot forhot musicians, and …well… Maglor sings way better than Ecthelion. They spend hours talking, Glorfindel talks Gondolin, his previous live,Ecthelion, and many personal things. In this hc Maglor had been so closely attached to his family ( esp Maitimo)-hesimply didn’t have the time and energy for someone else. I mean, he did marryand had a wife (I guess he did, or not, idk, but I’d prefer to think he wasn’tmarried, definitely not in this hc), yet she was once seen and gone in the verybeginning of their Middlearth journey. Sad as it is, but only losing everyonehe cared about, Kano slowly starts to take care and listen to himself, tryingto focus on his own happiness and priorities. That’s why Glorfindel is his first soulmate (who’s not a closerelative and not your child). One warm telling-tales Rivendell evening Kano, inspired by all he had heardabout Gondolin, sings a long, sad and magnificent song about the Elven City inthe valley of Tumladen and his voice echoes like a loud bell. Glorfindel staresat him across the hall, it’s hard to guess his emotions, the music and voicesgo silent. Overwhelmed by magic and grief of the song, all the feelings andmemories it evoked, Glorfindel comes up to Maglor and kisses him. Everyone in the hall is…genuinely shocked and impressed. Elrond is the first tocollect himself, so he quickly draws the attention from these two. Before this kiss they sure had tons of cute moments, but they didn’t attach anysignificance to it. So this evening had a huge influence on Maglor, such a strong influence heactually fell in love so hard he couldn’t breathe. After couple of days whenthey were walking around the gardens he mb could have said smth like “ It wasmy first kiss you know..” and Glorfindel would freeze plain shocked bc Kano isold as a moon, smoking hot and is simply a cinnamon bun straight outta Aman sohow can that possibly be his first kiss??? While Glorfindel looks at Kano andthinking stuff over, Maglor returns the kiss.. That’s basically it. They just live the fullest and love and feel loved fromthis time on.

#maglor #glorfindel #silmarillion #silm #lotr #cat and flower #maglor x glorfindel #glorfindel x maglor #maglor/glorfindel #glorfindel/maglor #silm headcanons

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