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anonymous-dentist · 1 year ago

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Part Six of the Catboy in the Village AU

Parts: 1|2|3|4|5

There's something in the castle, and it's weird.

It's silent save for its footsteps. It follows Cellbit and his forcibly-assigned guard wherever he goes, but it doesn't follow Roier and his guard. It isn't the queen, because she has been there several times when the Something has been hiding in Cellbit's shadow.

It isn't doing anything. Maybe it's just spying on Cellbit, but that's a given. He's been watched for a long time, probably, based off of how much the queen seems to know about him, but the Something just... doesn't feel like a spy? Its presence feels too small to be a threat, and yet it's been following Cellbit for at least an hour every day since his forced stay in the healer's quarters. Why? And, more importantly, what?

Since his stay in the healer's quarters, and since Roier was finally given permission to make himself and Cellbit their own (non-poisoned) meals, Cellbit has slowly, but steadily, begun his investigation of Castelo do Gato. He's been accompanied by his guard the whole time, but his guard also doesn't give a shit about what he's doing so long as he isn't escaping or trying to kill the queen, so Cellbit really doesn't think that he needs to be concerned about any information leaking to the queen.

His information as of day four of his investigation, and as of his eighth day of being kidnapped, is as follows:

The queen has only been queen for a couple of months now, and her first directive was a global search for her long-lost twin brother. Her name is Bagi, and she is very annoying, and Cellbit kind of hates her a lot.

There aren't as many staff in the castle as there should be. This makes sense; the previous king and queen were famously secretive, especially after their son's disappearance and the outbreak of the war. More staff is being hired, but there's a thorough screening process involved that the queen herself oversees.

The castle's healer's name is Niki. She's very nice, and she's better at potion making than Cellbit is. She's one of the queen's closer friends, and she's been with the castle since the previous king and queen were in charge.

The castle's mage's name is Mouse. She claims to be a demon, but not the demon, and she thinks that the demon haunting the castle needs to go to therapy because earthquakes and flames are not healthy forms of self expression. She draws her sigils with blood, and Cellbit really likes her.

The demon shows up once a week and shakes the castle and tears through the halls screaming. This only started when the queen took the throne (go figure.)

The missing brother went missing at 11 years old, and his name... was Cellbit, but he's a different Cellbit. There are no portraits of him in most of the castle upon the orders of the previous king, who was with the prince the day he vanished.

Everybody keeps talking about empanadas for some fucking reason, especially Niki and Mouse. The queen goes silent every time.

The investigation would probably be easier if Cellbit could force the queen to, like, act normally and tell him the truth, but she's a lost cause. She nearly threw her bowl of soup at Cellbit at dinner when he casually mentioned to Roier wanting to get a new pair of goggles to pin his ears back with, she's crazy.

But Cellbit isn't an idiot. He may have been a serial killer in his previous life, but he also spent a few years doing odd jobs and investigations around his and Roier's hometown. It's how they met, and it's how Cellbit is going to get them back home and to their kids.

So Cellbit investigates. He gets himself a notebook from the queen, who seemed relieved that he was doing something other than trying to murder her for once. He snoops around the castle, claiming that he's trying to get to know the building and the staff now that he's been "brought back home." (Saying that is enough to make him gag, but it's what works.) He goes to the library. He takes a nap in the courtyard on Roier's chest.

He steals Niki's spare pair of potion-making goggles, and he puts them on. He ignores the pain; he's used to it, after all.

And he's followed by the Something in the shadows.

Roier thinks that it's the queen stalking him, but Cellbit really doesn't. He's been in the same room with the queen and the Something, and stalking isn't the queen's style. She's bold with her moves, something that Cellbit almost admires about her. Almost.

(It's just nice to see a queen talk to both her staff and her citizens. That's all.)

But Cellbit goes to the library even with his little stalker, and that's where he is now. Researching. Looking into the royal genealogy records for any depiction of the prince- a painting, a sketch, anything.

There's a Something under the table by his knee. He can feel it breathing on him even through his trousers; its breaths are short and warm and almost panicked, hm. Maybe it shouldn't be creeping around if it can't handle the psychology of being a creep.

Cellbit's guard is almost asleep on a nearby sofa. Cellbit lets him sleep, he doesn't give a shit.

He flips through Volume Seven of Família De Gato. He's at the old king and queen's grandparents, so he's getting close. He can practically taste the prince: bitter, and dead.

So dead.

Absently, Cellbit adjusts his legs under the table. He crosses them, accidentally kicking the Something in the head as he does so.

And then he hears it: a near-silent little, "Ouch!"

"Desculpe," Cellbit tells it, because he isn't that much of a monster.

There's a gasp, tiny, and then the chair across from Cellbit shoves itself back from the table in a clear panic. The pages of Cellbit's book fly as a running breeze hits them as the Something takes off.

Cellbit glances at his guard. Asleep, wow, great!

With a grin, he licks his lips. And then he's out of his chair and running after the invisible Something with his pen clutched in his hand like a knife and his notebook held in his other hand.

The Something screeches as Cellbit swipes at it with his notebook hand. He whiffs, but his fingers brush against what is clearly hair. Human hair, he knows what human hair feels like, he's brushed his teeth with it plenty of times!

The Something blows through the library's door, Cellbit close behind. He can hear his guard shouting somewhere behind him, but fuck him. He fell asleep, this is clearly his fault!

Sometimes in the war, the Enemy would cast a spell that sent a dark fog over the battlefield. Cellbit had to rely on his hearing to survive.

He doesn't need to see the Something to know where it is. He can even guess how tall it is based off of how loud its footsteps are. It's... small. Light. Very fast, but still slower than a grown man.

Cellbit blinks as the air in front of him flickers. Something appears before him briefly before fading out again: something, indeed, small. Pink. Yellow.

Cellbit knows a fading invisibility potion when he sees it, he's tested them on himself enough times.

It's enough to give him the confidence to lunge and scoop the Something up and into his arms. He holds it against his chest and can't help but let out a brief, triumphant laugh.

"Finally!" he cheers.

And then a foot is driven backwards and right into his junk.

Cellbit groans and drops the Something, and then he drops himself right onto the floor and watches as the Something becomes a Someone in front of him. Their potion wears off fully, revealing a red-faced and exhausted little girl standing above him with her hands on her hips.

"Don't touch me!" she shouts.

Cellbit nods. Fair enough. "Yeah, okay. Hello."

The girl takes a step backwards. Her dress, pink, is made of fine silk. Her skin, dark, has little golden stars painted onto her cheeks like freckles. Her hair, wavy, falls into her face. Her hat looks like pancakes, clearly custom-made. It sits right on top of her head between two twitching, nervous, fuzzy little cat ears.

Ah?

Only members of the royal family, and Cellbit, have cat features. So does this make this girl...?

Slowly, Cellbit sits himself up. He looks down at his notebook, flips to a clean page. Puts his pen to paper. Looks back up at the girl.

She looks... upset. Mildly so. More uncomfortable than anything, she keeps patting her dress down and wiping at her abdomen with the palms of her hands.

"I'm sorry I grabbed you," Cellbit tells her.

She glances up at him with a small frown. "It's okay. I probably scared you."

Cellbit shrugs. "Eh, only a little. I've been followed by worse things than children."

Her eyes widen. "Really?"

"Mhmm. One time, I was followed around town by a half-man, half-spider for months."

She gasps. Cellbit nods. (He's sure Roier wouldn't mind being called a Spider-Man. He'd probably take it as a compliment, knowing him.)

"I'm just curious, really," Cellbit continues. "You live in a castle, what are you doing following a weird guy like me around?"

Immediately, the girl shakes her head and sticks her chin out. "I can't tell you. It's a secret."

Cellbit nods again. "That makes sense. You were invisible and everything. I didn't know you were there until a few minutes ago."

"Really?"

"Yes! You just need to work on your timing. Even if I didn't chase you out of the library, I would've found you because your potion would have run out right next to me."

The girl's face falls. "Oh."

"Don't worry, I'll write down some information on invisibility potions for you for later," Cellbit assures her. "Here..."

He scribbles out a simple potion schedule for a potion of average strength. Potions last for fifteen minutes, no potions for six hours after you take three potions in a row unless you want your skin to vanish but your insides to remain visible.

And then he tears the page out of his notebook and holds it out for the girl to take.

The girl stares at it.

"You... aren't angry that I'm following you around?" she quietly asks.

"Nope. You seem like a nice girl, even if your mom is kind of a weirdo. Just don't follow me into my cell with Roier, and you can keep following me around."

Her nose wrinkles. "Don't you mean your bedroom?"

Cellbit opens his mouth to argue, but he's stopped by his guard turning the corner and running towards them shouting vague assertive noises.

Cellbit rolls his eyes and puts his pen and notebook away. So much for today's research...

The guard's eyes widen as he takes in the scene before him.

"Your highness!" he gasps.

He drops to his knee and bows his head, his fist to his chest in a salute.

Cellbit huffs, but the girl just smiles and skips forward to pat the guard's helmet and tell him to stand.

"Yes, Princess Empanada," he says. "Whatever you say!"

...Princess Empanada.

Well. This explains a lot of confusion.

But... if the queen is sure that Cellbit is her brother, why hasn't she introduced him to her daughter? Unless... she isn't sure.

Unless she isn't sure.

Bingo. Maybe she can see reason, after all.

#a.d.'s fics i suppose #a.d.'s fics i suppose.#catboy in the village au #and here's our little detective!#she's doing such a good job everybody clap for her

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