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Ranmaru was ready for the teasing. Thanks to his aloof rocker image, he couldn’t even go near a cat without people making a big deal out of it, and that always annoyed him. He would rather not be filmed somewhere people paid to go to be surrounded by cats, but well, a job is a job. A clerk welcomed Quartet Night inside the cat café, the TV staff following them.
“Are you excited to meet the fluffy residents of Purrfect Coffee, my girls and my boys?” Reiji talked to the camera. “I know I am! And Ran-Ran!”
“Control yourself so you don’t stress the cats out with your chihuahua energy,” he replied to Reiji.
“How sweet of you to be so concerned for the cats’ wellbeing, Ranmaru,” Camus provoked in that sickening ‘butler mode’ voice. “But even Reiji knows better to behave around animals, he is an adult despite everything.”
“As long as he doesn’t come cryin’ to me if he gets scratched...” Ranmaru replied, deciding arguing with Camus wasn’t worth it right now.
“You meanies!” Reiji whined at the jabs, but quieter than usual not to disturb the cats.
“Let’s pick a table already,” Ai brought their attention back to the job, scanning the actual café area after the clerk had handed him a brochure with the cats’ profiles.
It was a big place. Over the wooden tables with soft-looking seats, there were colorful little tent-like covers for people to place over their unattended food and drinks so the cats wouldn’t mess with it. On one of the walls, vending machines for cat treats and shelves filled with cat-related merch. Another corner of the café was an area with computers and manga books, as well as stylish armchairs, on which two cats slept on, a black one and a striped gray one. For the cats, plenty of cat towers, window beds, water fountains and other ‘cat-ifyied apartment’ furniture.
As soon as the four sat down to look at the menu, Ranmaru felt something rub against his leg. It was a white cat with long hair and green eyes.
“This one is a female named Snowball,” Ai said, checking her profile in the brochure. “It says she is a little shy and doesn’t come to costumers without being offered treats, except for regulars. Interesting.”
“Ran-Ran, you should’ve told us you’re a regular here! It’s no surprise,” Reiji teased, observing the cat. Camus stared at Ranmaru amused, he didn’t even need to say anything to get on his nerves.
“As I keep havin’ to tell ya, cats like me for no reason and there’s nothing I can do about it.” He looked at Snowball, she looked back at him with those innocent shiny eyes and meowed. Damn, she was gorgeous. “Since you were so brave to approach me even tho you’re shy, guess givin’ you some attention is the least I can do.” Ranmaru brought his hand down and scratched behind her ears. Her fur was so soft, a sign that she was well-cared for.
After placing their orders, the next thing to do for the cameras was interacting with the cats while they waited. Ai sat on the floor next to an orange Scottish fold with the brochure open on his lap.
“This one is named Marmalade,” he said to the camera before looking down at the page. “He has a sweet personality and is very receptive to being petted by all kinds of people.” Ai reached over to pet Marmalade, but the cat got up and walked away as soon as he was touched. Ai just faced the camera again with a pout.
Ranmaru snorted at the interaction as he grabbed a cat teaser. “Even the sweetest ones have their asshole moments, that’s how cats are.” That was far from the first time Ranmaru had seen a cat reject Ai for no apparent reason though.
“Ai, let’s go to the cat treat vending machines,” Camus invited. Ai went with him, while Reiji stayed with Ranmaru.
“Hey kitty, do you want to play?” Reiji walked to a siamese cat sitting on a cat tree and dangled a ribbon toy in front of it. Unsurprisingly enough, it just stared with bored eyes at Reiji’s pathetic attempt.
“You’re not gettin’ any reaction outta it like that, playin’ for cats is pretendin’ to hunt something alive.” Ranmaru slowly traced the edge of the platform with the cat teaser he had, then stopped it for a moment and moved it back faster, mimicking a prey realizing it’s being watched. The siamese grabbed it with both paws and bit it in response.
“Oooh, makes sense! I knew I could count on your cat knowledge, Ran-Ran!”
“It’s common knowledge, nothing special,” Ranmaru retorted, realizing he had just explained how to play with cats and demonstrated it to Reiji while being filmed. Those damn fur balls, making him let his guard down. Ranmaru ended up having it chase the toy a little longer before Reiji tried again himself.
While Reiji played with the siamese, Ranmaru looked back at Ai and Camus to check how they were doing. They had both decided to feed the cats. Three of them licked the little popsicles Camus was holding, but the cold treat in Ai’s hand was snatched by Snowball, who retreated to a hideaway with the whole thing in her mouth. “Not again!” He complained, pouting once more.
Two more cats approached Ranmaru to get petted before it was time for Quartet Night to get back to their table. A male tuxedo named Mochi decided to sit on Ranmaru’s lap as soon as he took his seat. “We’re supposed to talk about the food now,” he said before his bandmates could say anything else.
On the table, a server placed two lattes with cutesy cat-themed art for Reiji and Camus, an espresso and a ham sandwich for Ranmaru, a herbal tea and a Bavarian cream for Ai, two donuts for Reiji and, surprisingly enough, just one slice of cake for Camus rather than the whole thing. All the treats had cat faces drawn on them.
“The presentation is quite fitting for a cat café, I’ve never seen this kind of decoration on-” Ai interrupted himself wide-eyed and looked down. Another tuxedo cat that had less black fur than Mochi had jumped on his lap as well and sat on its hind legs, facing Reiji and Camus as if it were joining the group for their snack time.
“Aww, what an adorable little fella!” Reiji gushed. “I knew Ai-Ai would win someone over sooner or later!”
Camus checked the brochure for its profile. “That is Mochi’s younger sister Mocca. She is always with her brother and gets jealous if Mochi interacts with the guests on his own.”
Ai was frozen in place and only managed to face Ranmaru. “What do I do?” He asked, looking more lost than ever.
“Dunno, let her sniff your hand?”
Ai brought a hand to the level of Mocca’s face from the side, and she turned her face to it and sniffed it closely. Something seemed to intrigue her, because Ranmaru had never seen a cat sniff someone so hard and for so long. But she still gave Ai’s hand a head bump.
“Pet her, Ai-Ai! Pet her!”
Instead of just doing as Reiji said, Ai looked at Ranmaru again. Seriously? He needed to be told how to pet a cat?
“Try scratchin’ under her chin.”
Ai brushed his fingertips against the underside of Mocca’s chin. She purred in delight.
“She is pleased!” Ai said with a huge smile and a glimmer in his eyes. Good, he was going to steal the show at that rate, so Ranmaru could relax a bit. Ai would definitely be the most interesting one to watch getting rejected by the cats and then acting all cute when one of them finally comes to him.
That however didn’t stop Reiji from commenting on how Ranmaru was the only one who managed to interact with nine out of the twelve cats by the time they left the café.
-
“Wow, this place looks even nicer than it did on TV!” Natsuki said as he entered the Purrfect Coffee cat café with Tokiya. “I hope we meet Mochi-chan and Mocca-chan!”
“The siblings that sat on Kurosaki-san and Mikaze-san? If they’re always together, they should be easy to spot.” Tokiya looked around trying to find the two tuxedo cats, but instead noticed someone else lounging in one of the armchairs, reading a manga book while Snowball the shy white cat snoozed on his lap. “Speak of the devil…”
“Maru-chan-senpai!”
Hearing Natsuki call, Ranmaru looked up to him and Tokiya a bit startled. They all just stared in silence for a few seconds.
“What?” He responded with a scowl.
“Let’s leave Kurosaki-san to enjoy his reading, Shinomiya-san,” Tokiya said, leading Natsuki to a table. They looked at each other and shared a chuckle as they sat down.