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Princess was not a big fan of Gavin’s new friend. She rarely liked the visitors he brought over, aside from Tina, but that was mostly because Tina always brought her tuna treats and had a nice soft lap. Princess had standards, after all. The other visitors were all rather loud, and either tried too hard to be nice to her, or didn’t try at all. Too often, she had been shoved aside by a large foot and had been forced to defend her honor by sinking teeth and claws into the offending ankle. Gavin always seemed distressed by that, but really she was doing him a service by pointing out how rude his guests were. She wasn’t sure why he never did the same when he was getting manhandled all over the apartment, but well…Gavin wasn’t the smartest.
Princess knew this because she often had to take care of the poor man. He never remembered to give her enough food, so she had to imagine he must be practically starving himself. She had learned that a good way to remind him to eat in the morning was to pop open the fridge door with her paw and yowl to notify him of the change. It always brought him scrambling into the kitchen, sometimes even dripping wet out of the water room. Princess always accepted his answering yowls with a humble sort of grace, puffing up and threading between his legs as he rifled through the fridge and took out food for himself and for her. She had never bothered to learn what most of his noises meant, aside from ‘Princess’ and ‘treat’. She absolutely had no idea what he meant when he shouted ‘no’, but he certainly seemed to like it a lot. Sometimes she could tell he was trying to call her over, but unless he used her proper name she was uninterested. Princess had standards, after all.
Tonight, she had been waiting by the door for him to come back and give her her nightly pets, but when the door opened she was greeted by the shiny black shoes of the new friend. Ugh. The night was ruined yet again. This was the third time this particular man had been back into the apartment, which meant that Gavin must be fond of him. The ones that came back frequently were usually worse, because eventually they stopped coming back, and then Gavin would have one of his fussy weeks. Princess hated those, because he always dripped all over her coat when she curled up next to him in bed. It was better when the interlopers left right away.
Annoyed, Princess turned tail and pranced away from the door pointedly, letting Gavin know just what she thought of his behavior. He let out an exasperated sigh, but still let the other man into the apartment and shut the door behind them. The two of them rumbled back and forth at each other before the tall man approached her and squatted down, holding out his weird hand for inspection. If she could have rolled her eyes, Princess would have. They had done this whole song and dance the first time he came over, but somehow his scent just wasn’t satisfactory. It was weird. And his hand wasn’t very good at finding the right spot behind her ears.
To prove her point, Princess trotted pointedly past the outstretched hand and went to rub up against Gavin’s legs. He smelled of sweat and work, but at least he smelled like Gavin . That was good enough for Princess. She was incredibly pleased when he reached down and picked her up, murmuring her name and a few other words, scratching absently at just the right spot behind her ear. A soft purr was just about to rumble out of her throat until she was shoved unceremoniously into the arms of the other man. To his credit, he seemed just as distressed by this new development as she was. His arms were stiff and awkward around her body, and he let out a few awkward yelps as she squirmed away. A shame, really, that his arms were just as unsatisfactory as his lap.
Princess had tried the lap last time he was here, after much coaxing from Gavin. But after a few minutes of wiggling around it had become clear that this lap was just no good! It wasn’t warm, and the legs were bony and awkward! She had no desire to sit on that lap, so she had made a quick exit. Now, betrayed by Gavin and forced to make an undignified landing, Princess yowled in annoyance and bounded away to sit on top of the cat tree and look down imperiously at the two men. Gavin, to her surprise, seemed genuinely annoyed, which only made her more determined to stay up there. She had done nothing wrong in this exchange, she certainly wasn’t going to deal with any consequences.
Gavin and his visitor spent a little bit more time fussing about in the kitchen before they exited into the bedroom and shut the door. Princess’s ears flattened down onto her head as she watched, now feeling even more put upon. That was the thing she hated most about visitors, when it came down to it. The bed was her bed! She was the one who should be snuggling up on it, if she chose to do so. She was the one who had guided Gavin towards setting it up with only the softest and nicest blankets and pillows by shredding the ones that didn’t live up to her standards. And yet whenever there was a visitor, Gavin had the nerve to shut her out of the room altogether, only letting her back in in the morning. And then the bed always smelled disgusting, like sweat and whatever other man he had let in there.
Princess spent the evening sulking, pacing about and knocking a few things off the counter just so Gavin knew she was displeased with him. Maybe she just wouldn’t wake him up for breakfast this morning. That would show him. Bored, and still feeling rather vindictive, Princess made her way over to the bedroom door and settled down to get some good yowling in. It was only then that she noticed the door was slightly ajar. The idiot visitor must have forgotten to latch it properly! Stupid mistake. Carefully, Princess nosed open the door and slipped inside. Her eyes easily adjusted to the darkness of the bedroom, only illuminated by a thin sliver of light from underneath the door of the water room.
On the bed, laying on his back with the covers draped messily across him, was the visitor. He had a strange light of his own, and part of Princess wanted very much to pounce on it. But no, she was here to assert her dominance, and do Gavin a favor by showing this visitor it was a better idea to just leave now. She jumped up onto the bed and stepped carefully across the blankets and onto him, putting the full weight of her paws against his stomach and chest. His eyes popped open, but so far he was managing to stay admirably still. Not that Princess had any respect for him.
Kneading at his chest (claws in, she wanted this to be a lengthy punishment, not to be hurled across the room), Princess circled exactly three times and laid down in a bun shape. Her tail was pointedly right in the man’s face, showing him just what she thought of his presence in her spot. Gavin always hated it when she did this, complaining and batting her fluffy tail out his face. Sometimes he even started sneezing. She hoped this man would start sneezing and have to leave the bed.
But…there was nothing. No response. Not even the tickle of an annoyed huff against the hair on her tail. Princess was about to get up and try again when she realized something very interesting. While the lap and the arms had been terribly uncomfortable and weirdly cool, this spot was incredible. The chest underneath her was radiating warmth, and also slightly vibrating? Like, a nice buzz that rumbled up through her feet and into her body like a nice purr. Wiggling slightly, Princess turned to face the visitor and give him a suspicious look. Was this some sort of trick?
But the visitor was simply watching her with careful eyes, light blinking softly in time with the buzzing in his chest. He made no move to push her off or wrap his arms around her and trap her. Satisfied, and suddenly far less annoyed, Princess closed her eyes and relaxed. She could nap here. Gavin emerged from the water room eventually and made a couple concerned noises, but to her surprise Princess found that the visitor shushed at him and allowed her to stay on his chest, even flapping a hand at Gavin to deter him. Suddenly, this new visitor was meeting all of her very demanding standards. Princess flicked her tail happily and decided that maybe they could keep this one.