cats to meet you

[fatemeter]

For a humble family-run business in the middle of nowhere, Tatsumi Textiles houses a surprising variety of things if you turn up at the right time - particularly recently, as its side trade in knit toys, phone accessories and other fluffy knickknacks has taken off. Naoto is aware of this. She's also aware that, nevertheless, ceiling-to-floor piles of adorable fuzzy kittens are not usually among them.

Yet here she stands as the door slides shut behind her, with a chorus of mews filling her ears in surround, and a rapidly growing apprehension that she should have told the senpai squad she was busy after all.

"Excuse me?" she ventures, after what seems like a very long while.

Comments

[realmenknitplushies]

And he's gone from making strange sounds to making even stranger noises before he manages to actually speak up.

"S-sorry, Naoto-kun. Just... these guys..."

[fatemeter]

For better or for worse, she doesn't hear him, because the orange kitten on her leg chooses this moment to turn its head and, in a fit of either playfulness or jealousy, pounce straight at the tabby that was trying to get Kanji's attention. Rolling across the shop floor in an almost cartoonish ball of fluff, they bump into a third cat which was in the middle of investigating the balls of yarn on display; it lets out a yelp of surprise, and promptly dives into the fray.

Naoto takes a step back again. With ears and whiskers pricking up all over the room at the commotion, she's pretty sure they need to defuse the impending catsplosion now, but - how?

"Kanji-kun..." she starts to say, but finds she can't make herself sound quite as authoritative as she wants to. ...Gosh, they're really cute.

[realmenknitplushies]

"Whoa, whoa, don't you-!" he starts as he notices the little scuffle starting up, but - dammit. He can't bring himself to shout at kittens. There are many things he can yell at, sure, but cats aren't included in that number...

[fatemeter]

Meanwhile, although Naoto may look like she's dropping to her knees out of sheer despair, she's really trying to make herself look smaller for once, on the off chance that the cats will consider her a less threatening presence and calm down. She knows it's unlikely, though - the scuffling kittens don't even give her a glance, although one of them does sail past her and into a nearby roll of expensive-looking fabric as she watches.

"On the other hand, play aggression is healthy behaviour for young cats, if I remember correctly..." she says, not sounding at all certain.