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When Fontaine wasn’t parading around with its usual show of trials and tribulations, Chief Justice Neuvillette’s job was, surprisingly, fairly uneventful. A combination of meetings, heaps of paperwork, and the occasional incident or two, but nothing significant enough to ever truly capture his attention in the fullest.
This, of course, shouldn’t either. Initially, it doesn’t. The Chief Justice is not a weak man by any means, but he does have a few…
Soft spots.
Neuvillette was about to grasp the ornate doorhandles of Palais Mermonia when a small movement registers in the corner of his eye. The Chief Justice whips his head around, instinctively preparing for some troublemaker to receive a swift whack on the head with his cane, but stops dead in his tracks when his vision registers what’s actually behind him.
There, just a few feet away, is small, white cat.
There’s nothing truly remarkable about this particular cat. It was collarless, tail swaying warily, big brown eyes staring up at the Chief Justice in an expression he couldn’t quite name. Patches of dirt, mud and grass pepper the cat’s otherwise snowy white coat, and it looks a little roughed up.
“Hello.” Neuvillette says politely to the cat, as if expecting it to answer. He blinks slowly, once, maybe twice, so he knows that the cat knows he means no harm. The cat, expectedly, does not answer.
Silence falls over the scene for a moment, uncomfortably so to the point where Neuvillette can feel passersby beginning to stare at him. The cat is also staring at him. He simply awkwardly waves at it, and turns around to enter the building.
“Was that… the Chief Justice? Did he just talk to that cat?”
“…I think so?”
The very next day, Chief Justice Neuvillette had decided to treat himself to a fine lunch.
He had a favourite spot for just that occasion, that being a small café tucked in a corner in the Court of Fontaine. He was, admittedly, a regular, but that only gave him the added opportunity of no one quite noticing his presence other than the occasion random who decided to look in the right window.
At the moment, Neuvillette was thoroughly enjoying a cup of coffee and some madeleines, soaking up the sunshine on the café’s small patio, immersing himself in a good book.
When, once again, a small white blob made itself present in his peripheral vision.
He turns to look, and, sure enough, the cat is there, sat by the entrance of the patio, staring.
“Oh. It’s you,” Neuvillette addresses the small feline once again. “Hello again.”
The cat’s tail sways just as warily as last time he saw it, but it doesn’t respond.
Neuvillette glances at the cat, down at his plate of madeleines, and at the cat again. Then, he takes a singular cookie off the plate and holds it out to the creature. He doesn’t know if cats are supposed to eat madeleines, but the thing is probably hungry and wants something from him.
The cat narrows its eyes at the snack, but after a moment, drifts closer. It takes about a minute or two in total, but soon Neuvillette has the small cat eating a madeleine from his gloved hand. Once the cat finishes its snack, Neuvillette attempts to give it a quick pet.
The cat spooks at the movement, and runs away quickly, turning around the corner and booking it down the street.
“Oh,” He says, to no one in particular. “Okay then.”
He has a ‘case’ on his desk the next day, detailing an allegedly ‘invisible’ local thief in the Court of Fontaine that has a penchant for stealing madeleines from local shops.
Chief Justice Neuvillette sighs loudly, a long day being finally complete. For whatever reason, today’s problems had an unfair toll on his brain, ranging from meaningless drabble he didn’t quite need to hear to Lady Furina making an absurd amount of noise about the intricacies of tomorrow’s trial. Either way, his brain is just about fried.
But his composure matters more at the moment. He can drop everything and be frustrated when he’s safely behind the closed doors of his apartment. He’s in the middle of taking a deep breath, at the bottom step of Palais Mermonia, when his shoes makes contact with something solid. He’s sure it’s not the pavement. The pavement has never been this fluffy.
He looks down, and, sitting at his feet, is the cat. A cat which, is noticeably holding a madeleine in its mouth.
“I thought that little issue might be your doing,” Neuvillette jokingly scolds the cat, “You’ve caused a fair bit of issues for me today, you know.”
The cat blinks for a moment, then drops the madeleine on top of Neuvillette’s shoe. Then, to his surprise, meows in response.
“For me?” He asks, bending over to pick the small cookie up. He pretends to inspect it, just to somehow humour the poor thing. He smiles softly at the cat and says, “Thank you. That’s thoughtful of you.”
Neuvillette continues his walk home, but can’t help but noticed a small blur following behind him the entire way.
“Is that a madeleine? Did Monsieur Neuvillette… just… pick that up off the ground?”
“… I’m hoping he doesn’t eat it.”
Chief Justice Neuvillette has had, frankly, a terrible day.
The rain is coming down in sheets, and the Chief Justice is only about halfway home, thanks to the Aquabus from the Opera Epiclese being delayed due to the sudden downpour. Neuvillette knows that’s his fault, but based on the events of today’s trial, Neuvillette can hardly feel anything but sorrow.
As he exits the Aquabus terminal, he takes a moment to twist the water out of his hair, watching the thick streams of moisture puddle with the rest of the rain, down the curb and into the nearest sewer grate.
He huffs, steeling himself to make the last stretch, back to the warm comfort of his apartment, when something catches his eye.
In between the large grey stones of the roads and the Aquabus terminal, wedged as far back into a corner in a poor excuse for shelter is a small, white cat.
No , Neuvillette realizes in a painful instant, it’s the small white cat. The same one he’s been running into all week. Another thick sheet of rain begins to pour overtop of him at the sight. He hears the remaining folks outside yelp at the sudden force.
Only this time, the cat pays him no mind, instead only trying to escape the flooding. It’s soaked to the bone— enough where Neuvillette can see its ribs poking out— shivering and calling out weakly.
By the time he even registers it, Neuvillette’s feet have carried him so, so close to the cat, where he kneels down oh, so slowly, gingerly reaching an open hand out for the cat to sniff.
“Hello there,” he calls out to it. The cat startles for a second, instinctively trying to back away from the larger form in front of it. But Neuvillette stays very, very still. He waits, and eventually, the cat begins to sniff and brush up against his hand, purring weakly.
“You’re quite hungry, aren’t you? You’ve been trying to get my attention all week, so I think you are.” He hesitantly reaches a hand out pet the cat, willing for it to not run from him like last time. To his relief, the cat allows it, pressing into his touch.
“Why don’t you come with me?” He suggests to it, warmly. “I couldn’t leave you out here in the rain. You’ll get sick.”
The cat simply meows back at him.
“I will take that as a yes.” With that, Neuvillette lifts the small, shivering cat into his arms, and begins half-walking half-running back home.
In this sort of weather, Pierre didn’t think anyone would be willing to make the journey to his humble corner store. The Chief Justice of Fontaine was not who he was expecting to see.
Monsieur Neuvillette was near soaked to the core from the rain, his long hair dripping water onto Pierre’s freshly-mopped floors.
“Monsieur N-Neuvillette! Whatever can I do for yo—“
“Cat food.” Neuvillette slams a hand down onto the counter, the other preoccupied by holding a blanket full of something .
“What-“
“Do you have cat food?”
———
Chief Justice Neuvillette now has a stray cat in his house.
The rain is still pouring, as Neuvillette’s certainty still wavers. The cat sits at the opposite end of the sofa from him, waddled still in a decidedly new blanket, munching happily on the food he’s provided for it.
Suddenly, it looks up at him. Neuvillette stares back, blinking slowly and softly, letting the cat know he, assuredly, means no harm.
To his delight, it blinks back.
Neuvillette takes the confidence and, very slowly, scoots a little farther down the sofa towards the creature. The cat watches him warily once again, but it seems fairly calm in his presence.
“Are you comfortable?” He asks it, voice ever so soft. “I hope so. I know it’s not perfect. I wasn’t expecting you, that’s all. But you’re welcome to stay, if you’d like.”
To his surprise, the cat gets up.
Its movements are slow and wary, but eventually more confident as it makes its way across the sofa and—
Plops itself right into Neuvillette’s crossed lap. It looks up at him and purrs, tail swishing behind it. Happily, he notices, this time.
A new sheet of rain hits the window.
“You will not believe the day I’ve had. Things going wrong left and— what is THAT ?” Lady Furina makes herself perfectly comfortable bursting into the Neuvillette’s office unannounced, before stopping dead in her tracks mid-sentence.
Chief Justice Neuvillette looks up from his work momentarily. “Sorry, what is what?”
“I mean,” Furina exclaims, “What is that .”
She points to the newest addition to Neuvillette’s office; a custom-made cat tree, and on top of it sitting in the cat-tree replica of the Chief Justice’s chair, is a small, white cat, fur much fluffier and body much healthier, with a small pink collar around its neck.
Neuvillette looks up to where Furina is pointing and smiles.
“Oh, that’s Madeleine.”