The Kitten, the Thief and the Traitor

"Girls, I was just... where in Ra's name did those come from?" Ariam interrupted herself as she walked into Astarte and Femii's room, freezing out of pure surprise. The two girls were cross-legged on the floor between their beds, laughing and surrounded by five balls of tabby fur.

"Aren't they cute?" Femii giggled, picking up one of the kittens and letting it bat the air in front of her face. It blinked madly and wriggled, wondering why it was suddenly floating in the air.

"Apparently I'm not the only girl in the temple with a secret lover," Astarte grinned, nodding her head in the direction of one of the temple cats, who was lying on her side and looking very pleased with herself as she licked one of her new children. Ariam grinned at her and sat down next to her friends.

"They are officially the most adorable things I have ever seen," she announced, picking one up gently. It mewled and batted around blindly with its back legs, causing all three girls to "awwww!" in unison.

"They are gorgeous..." Femii agreed, sighing. She gasped suddenly, sat up a little straighter. "What are we going to do with them?" she worried.

"We can't keep the hidden, that's for sure," Astarte decided firmly. "Remember the fox incident?" All three girls cringed a little at the memory- they had once found a baby fox cub and decided to keep it as a pet, having to hide it from everyone else. It didn't last very long before the poor thing escaped and got them into a whole lot of trouble.

"Well, I can find a home for one of them," Ariam told her friends. A small smirk began to creep across her face as she spoke. "There's this man in the town... I see him when I go to the market. He's always complaining how lonely he is. Maybe he'd take one of them."

"Still leaves us with four, but it's a start," Femii reasoned. Ariam grinned to herself: said man would definitely have something to say about this.

********

"No," Bakura announced flatly, his arms crossed across his chest. Ariam pouted.

"Pleeeease?"

"No."

"Why not?" she whined, gazing up at him imploringly, her usually ice-cold eyes shimmering with liquid sadness. "Don't you think she's cute?"

"I am not a cat person, Ariam," he told her firmly, nudging the poor thing with his foot. Both of them stared up at him, scandalised.

"But she's cuuuuute!" the temple girl whined, her voice threatening to crack with tears. Sighing, he rolled his eyes.

"It's not staying, and that's the end of it." Ariam cast him a look of pure hatred.

"If we don't keep her here, they'll find her and her brothers and sisters and kill them!" she told him, glaring. He grabbed hold of her shoulders and shook her lightly.

"I am not having a cat in this house, Ariam. That is the end of the argument, and don't even think of arguing. They're bad luck and they get everywhere," he replied. Muttering something about "can hardly call this place a house", Ariam stormed out of the room, doing her best to slam the curtain that covered the doorway. Rolling his eyes again, Bakura leaned his forearms on his knees and stared at the kitten. It stared back.

"Listen, pipsqueak, I don't want you to go any more than she does," he told the cat quietly, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder in the general direction she had left. "But you're too cute! No offence."

"Meow," the kitten shrugged, staring at him with understanding amber eyes. Bakura picked it up in a surprisingly gentle grip and put it down on his knees, letting it pad around his lap.

"It's nothing personal, but I'm the Thief King. I can't like cute things." He laughed as the short whiskers brushed against his bare stomach, running a finger up and down the cat's ears. "Plus, if you stay here, Harak will literally eat you alive," he added. Luckily the falcon was still out victimising some field mice, so the little cat was safe for now. The thief watched as she padded around in a circle a few times on his lap, before lying down and nestling her head on top of her paws. Grinning, he pulled his hand away from the soft fur and tucked it behind his head, watching the animal's tiny chest move up and down.

"Well, that's officially the scariest thing I've ever seen," Ariam's voice announced from the doorway. Bakura quickly jerked round to look at her, disturbing the poor cat and sending her tumbling to the floor. She shook herself delicately and, after sending a disgusted look at her former bed, skipped off to bat around a feather that had blown in when Ariam had arrived. Bakura smiled guiltily at the girl. "Don't give me that look, I saw you."

"Saw what?" he demanded nonchalantly as he stood up, grabbing her arm and spinning her into his chest. "I didn't see anything."

"Bakura, just admit it," she smirked. "You like cats."

"I do not like cats. Small, fluffy, bad luck bringing, getting everywhere..... things," he finished, almost lamely. It was Ariam's turn to roll her eyes.

"Say what you will," she smirked in a sing-song tone. "I saw what I saw."

"Ariam," Bakura began dangerously, pressing her back against the wall. "What will it take to get you to shut up about cats?" A pair of soft lips attached themselves to his, a grin curving them upwards in a silent pleading gesture. The thief indulged her for a moment before pulling away, fakely pensive. ".... yeah, I can manage that," he smirked after a moment's "thought".

After what she saw that night, the poor kitten never looked at feathers the same way again.