Chapter Text
Katie’s screams fill the cat's ears as she flickers in and out of existence, being thrown back and forth between reality and the ‘shadow realm’ by the jesters on stage. It seems their idea of a fun time is causing pain and fear to an innocent person.
The jesters had done this several times now, scaring the poor knight to tears just for the laughter it causes from members of both kingdoms. Not even Queen Cherri’s decree of, “banishment for 1000 years in the dungeon” made them stop. Instead, they used their last words upon the stage to scream, “Hey Katie, Freddy’s Ready!” and plunge the girl's world into darkness.
A moment of rest amongst the chaos has the knight sneaking up to be near her, seeking comfort.
“Katie, I’m so sorry.”
“I'm so scared.” she whispers back and Kitty can see much truth in those words. Tears threaten to spill out of the corner of the girl's eyes, she's shaking and hunched a bit, trying to make herself smaller.
Before Kitty can even get a word out Nom appears out of nowhere, his voice carrying a teasing edge that absolutely infuriates her. Can he not see how this is hurting Katie?! Is he that much of an absolute mouse-brained fool?!
“Katie, Katie, What is Freddy, they won’t let me see Freddy! What’s Freddy Katie?”
People are crowding around them now, they think it's a game, something to laugh at. Katie shakes her head vigorously, it's clear she’s overwhelmed and he’s not making it any better, just repeating the same question over and over.
It’s loud and there's so many people staring, it is starting to make even his skin prickle. Poor Katie…
Nom gets right up in Katie's face, forcing the redhead to take a step back, almost tripping over her own two feet. “Can I see Freddy?"
“I– no! You don’t want to see Freddy! What? Why are you– Stop!” her voice is shaking as she yells at him, panic seeping through in every word. The only response is a laugh her brother.
“Why?” He draws out the ‘y’, sounding like a kit that didn’t get his way. “I wanna see Freddy!”
Katie turns and runs off to the opposite end of the stands, creating some distance between herself and the other knight.
People have started to disperse, leaving the stage to go to watch the official banishment of the jesters by decree of their Queen. He huffs, stamping their foot before jumping down to follow the crowd of people.
“Asking ‘what is Freddy?’ And not ‘are you okay Katie’.” She grumbles, seeing the blue knight (not to be confused with their blue night, Apo) out of the corner of her eye. “I wonder why he cares so little about his sister and is just curious about Fred Bear” She says sarcastically, trying to speak loud enough to get the man’s attention. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to be paying them any attention, instead running past her to go chit-chat with the water mage.
She hesitates, stopping at the edge of the tree line to turn and check on Katie. The rogue spots Mae comforting the girl, gentle words being exchanged in soft whispers. She sees her laugh and he smiles, knowing she should be in good hands for the next little bit.
They have something important they need to do.
She turns back to the woods, running to catch up with the group. They aren’t going particularly fast due to the red jester travelling by golden snail.
He notices Nom trailing behind, chatting with their previous watery queen. Something seems off about the mage; although she's smiling and laughing with the knight, her hand balls into a fist, a small movement that not many may catch onto, but she’s got sharper eyes than most.
He creeps closer, attempting to listen in on the conversation.
“It was so funny, she screamed so loudly I probably could have heard it all the way back in the kingdom! I wish the jesters could stay, probably the best entertainment they could provide, honestly.” Anger pools in her gut but something makes her pause, the way Shan’s smile tightens, the way her actions seem forced, the way her fingers twitch slightly on the staff as though she wants to cast something.
Interesting, seems like some people don’t agree with the boy’s idea of ‘fun’.
Shan makes eye contact with them, eyes widening slightly.
“That's great, yeah It was so funny. Hey, Kitty, can you come here for a second? I have to go find,” She hesitates for a second, “Scott, yeah. I have to go talk to Scott.” She nods at Kitty before speed-walking away.
Kitty looks around, making sure nobody else is paying attention to the two of them, then grabs the knight's arm, pulling him off the path and away from the others. Nom doesn’t seem to realise she’s serious, he doesn’t even protest as he’s pulled away. Instead, he pesters her about where they’re going without seeming to actually care for answers. Annoying.
He pulls him into a small clearing, just far enough away that the group's voices are faint enough that she’s the only one that can hear them. She turns to look at him and nearly growls at the bored look on his face, like her reaction is just an inconvenience.
“You are a bad knight.”
That gets his attention.
Nom’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise, “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. You are poor excuse for a knight. You do not do good, only harm.”
Immediately his guard goes up, something unrecognizable flashes across his face before he settles into a safe confusion. “What on earth are you talking about?”
“I am not a foolish cat, I know right from wrong and you are not the first one. You are mean and cruel to Katie, someone you should be protecting instead of bullying. You are not a protector, you do harm.”
“What? I don’t need a rogue telling me how to treat my own sister!” He’s upset now, good. That means he's starting to understand, now if only he would actually listen.
“Well a rogue need not tell you if you did it right the first time! You treat her so poorly! You constantly belittle her and make her feel a fool for your own amusement. That’s not being brother, that's not even being knight! That’s being mean.”
“I’m not mean, she’s completely fine. She’s not a baby that has to be looked after all the time, Kitty.”
“She is not invincible either!” They shout. “You constantly hurt her with your words over and over, and what you did with Fred Bear showed that!”
“Please, It’s all a joke.” he scoffs.
“She was crying!” That seems to have an effect on him, the fire in his eyes dimming. He can’t exactly brush that one off easily.
“That’s not– well, I didn’t see–” He cuts him off.
“You were pushing her with your words, backing her into a corner with your questions while she cried. I saw it happen, she came to me for comfort and you pushed her away with your cruelty.”
“Well, I wasn’t the only one laughing, everyone else was aswell.” It's a weak defense and he knows it.
“Shes your sister.”
“I know,” he groans.
“Why don’t you show it.” he winces at that, it’s something small but she still catches it.
“I try too, I really do. I worked so hard for her, back when we were younger. I guess I thought she could handle it now that she’s older.”
They groan in frustration. “What are you not understanding? Katie is brave! She is able to do and handle so much, but at the end of the day you are still her brother! You are still someone who should support her, not mock her. I can see she looks up to you quite a bit, I don’t really understand why. You haven’t been very kind, and yet she still thinks of you like hero. Even with your cruel words.” His chest is heaving from how much anger she's poured into the words trying to make him listen. “You are not bad person, just bad brother that can get better.”
He seems to contemplate their little speech, finally going quiet instead of saying something stupid and digging himself a bigger hole to fall face first into.
“Well, what do you suppose I do then?” Finally! He asks the right question!
Kitty pauses, he didn’t actually expect to get this far, mostly expecting the Knight to just storm off or shout something strange like, ‘Wah wah, you're just red kingdom you don’t know anything!’ like so many seem to do.
“Comfort her? You laugh like it’s all a joke but you need to show you care. I know you both have not spoken in long time but from the impression I have been given you used to be very close.”
The corner of Nom’s mouth twitches upwards into a small smile and he nods slightly.
“As much as I don’t understand why, she misses her brother. She misses you in her own confusing human way that I don’t really understand. Just, be nicer, be a good knight. A good brother.”
He softens a bit, less tense, less of a performance of a person and more open. “You’re right.” Obviously. “Fine. I suppose I’ll… try and be nicer to Katie.”
There’s a faint chatter drifting on the wind, sounds like the rest are about to arrive at the dungeons.
She nods approvingly, “Good. Now is a better time than ever then.” They don’t let him respond, instead sprinting off to get just ahead of the group.
She finds a rather leafy tree just outside the dungeon and climbs it, using the thick branches as cover. He has the perfect view of where both kingdoms' members start to gather.
After a moment or so they spot the knight break through the trees, panting heavily. “Right, rogue.” he catches him mumble.
The jesters are stood in the front of the miniature mob, yabbering away about how unfair it all is while tomatoes are being thrown, the blue one starting to match his brother with the amount of red he's now covered in.
Nom’s not watching the spectacle, more focused on the edge of the tree line where his sister and her fellow rogue Mae are standing. Their huddled close, Katie leaning on Mae despite being the taller of the two. They hang back, seeming to not want to garner too much attention.
She notices the crowd going quiet, attention pulled back to the man on the golden Nautilus shouting about his ‘his last words’. The red jester's voice cuts through the crowd, “Hey Katie, Freddy's Ready.”
Immediately Kitty turns, about to get ready to leap down from the tree and bolt to where her friend just vanished from. Instead he pauses, realizing there's an opportunity here. Their eyes find Nom, his face is scrunched up like he’s thinking hard about something.
People are already snickering, some looking around to try and find out where Katie was standing before she disappeared.
The only ones not laughing are Cherri, Apo, Shan, Graecie and Mae. The Princess and her knight are glaring at the people around them, Shan is looking away, avoiding eye contact, while Graecie isn’t even there. He knows that knight would have knocked some sense into the jesters otherwise.
Mae is the only one actually doing anything.
She watches Nom look around at all the faces of both Red and Blue Kingdom members laughing, he sees Mae panicking waiting for Katie to reappear, and he moves next to the redhead instead of joining the others, causing her to give him a strange look.
Katie reappears with a shout, her sword is out and she swings it wildly, making Mae jump back and Nom throw his hands up placatingly.
Mae glances at Nom curiously and he nods slightly as if to say ‘just focus on her’. He gently approaches Katie, making sure not to make any quick movements or loud noise. Mae watches him closely, a lot like Kitty currently is. He seems to gesture back towards the general area of where the stage was and Katie nods shakily, looking over at Mae who nods. The shorter girl guides them to a small clearing close by, the laughter and chatter growing muffled in the trees.
Kitty takes a moment to observe Cherri and Apo, sees the way the princess moves to follow before stopping to glance back at her knight. Apo shakes their head and nods to the commotion back at the entrance to the dungeon. Hesitantly, Cherri follows.
She makes sure people have lost interest before following, jumping through the trees with as much grace as they can muster.
There's some small flowers in the clearing, dapples of yellow on the ground. On a decent sized rock in the center of the clearing sits her knight, Nom and Mae stood in front of her. Mae seems a bit tense with the man next to her while the knight seems to hover around, unsure of himself. He eventually settles on trying to get her to eat something.
The only face they can see from their angle is Katie's, though she's close enough to hear the three of them. By the time she’s reached them her knight seems to be doing a lot better, taking small nibbles of a slice of bread. Mae passes her a bottle of water and mumbles something about ‘staying hydrated after tears’.
An owl swoops by, hooting unnecessarily loudly and making everyone but Nom flinch. Katie particularly is the most affected, throwing their hands up and nearly falling off her rocky perch.
“Hey, it’s alright, are you feeling a bit better? You don’t have to talk, just nod yes or no.” the rogue asks. Katie nods, staring at her hands for a moment before speaking.
“Do you guys know where Kitty is? They usually help me when I get like… this. I’m sorry, I appreciate the help, I really do, I just– yeah.”
Kitty jumps down softly from the trees, landing behind the rogue and knight. Katie smiles when she sees him and they smile back.
Nom and Mae startle when they notice them, nearly jumping out of their own skins.
“Were you wa–” Nom cuts himself off at the glare he sends him, instead shaking his head and smiling.
Katie rushes forward and hugs them tightly. They lean into it rubbing small circles on her back in a way that she learned is quite comforting for her person.
She pulls back suddenly and turns to face Nom, asking him why he suddenly decided to help. The man shrugs, saying something about how he realized he wasn’t being a great brother and how he plans to try and change that thanks to something a friend told him. He glances over at said ‘friend’ which Katie catches, shooting Kitty a look. Mae also notices something but seems to shrug it off, giving Katie a quick hug and telling them to eat lots in case they get a headache from crying.
Nom mumbles something she thinks is supposed to be comforting (baby steps, she supposes), before turning to follow Mae back to where the rest are.
The moment both blue kingdom members leave earshot Katie is grabbing Kitty’s shoulders and shaking them hard enough to make her dizzy.
“What was that?!”
“I have no idea what you speak of” he replies, a smile on their face giving away his lie.
“You know what I mean! What did you say to Nom to get him to do that? He hasn’t been that nice to me since we were little!” she laughs.
“Well, I may have had a little talk with him where I may have called him ‘poor excuse for a knight’...”
Katie’s mouth falls open in shock before she breaks out into giggles.
“You are so getting extra fishies tonight.”
“A stack?”
“Even more.”
“More than a stack?! That’s like… a lot of fishies!”
“You deserve it. Thank you, Kitty.”
Kitty has a glorious feast that night, falling asleep with a full belly and a proud heart.