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You normally hated cats.
For the most part you loved all animals, cats being one of the only exceptions for a multitude of genuine reasons.
You thought they were sneaky, untrustable, mean.
That's why you stayed as far away from Nepeta Leijon as possible for the first few sweeps of knowing her.
You, Tavros Nitram, were afraid of a lot of things, and Nepeta was definitely one of them.
She certainly seemed nice enough, you guessed. She never actually called you names. The first time you talked, though, she started off by asking you what your "OTPs" were. That confused you a lot--you'd never heard of an OTP! She proceeded to tell you that she "shipped" you with your friend Gamzee! (To that you just blushed profusely and told her the thought was preposterous.)
She was about as into roleplaying as you were into FLARP, which you guessed was cool, and she didn't think any worse of you for your stutter and lack of self-confidence.
She still scared you, because she was the cat girl and cats were sneaky, untrustable, mean.
Right?
Plus, she hung out with the sweaty hoof-beast guy, and he scared the heck out of you. He scared Rufio, too, you knew it. He told you to stop being such a fool, that she was an ok girl and you should try to make more friends, but you didn't listen to him.
You only ignored his advice when he spoke of the cat girl.
Slowly, though, you started to like her.
Every time Vriska let out a sick fire aimed at you that was a little too, uh.. sick, and you were beyond Rufio's help, you trolled arsenicCatnip.
She'd tell you were "puuuuurrrfect" just the way you were, roleplay a little and get your mind off things.
She made you feel better.
Soon, you were flushed.
You tried to tell yourself not to feel that way, that it could just ruin the friendship you were growing with this not-sneaky, trustable, nice cat-girl.
Soon she was making the trip to your hive (you refused to go to hers, because caves and Pounce freaked you out) for some fun game-playing and movie-watching.
Not long before she arrived, you found yourself pacing in front of the entrance to your hive, shaking and trying to listen to Rufio's assurances that everything was going to be ok and you had nothing to worry about.
Your heart about stopped when there was an energetic rap at the door.
"Tavraaawr! It's me! Nepeta!"
You open the door quickly, vascular pump up in your throat.
Nepeta squeals and throws her little body at you, arms around your neck.
"Nepeta! I can't, uh, believe you're... here!" you smile, brown eyes warm as she cuddles up into you, making a rumbling sound that sounds suspiciously like purring.
"Neifur can I!"
The two of you continue on with your little greeting cuddle-fest. A little later, Tinkerbull joins in and shoves himself between the two of you and Nepeta squeals at the feels his cuteness brings.
Eventually, after many cat puns and games (mostly won by you, because you're the bomb!) you find yourselves on a couch watching a movie by troll Walt Disney, featuring roar-beasts and many happy songs.
You're both singing along (you found that you both love this movie a lot--it meets with Nepeta's love for cats and yours for troll Disney!)to a song when suddenly, you look down and whoah she's definitely really close to you and that's definitely her soft, paw-like hand on your leg and her head snuggling into the crook of your shoulder.
You try not to stiffen your spine, vascular pump going crazy in your chest.
You really really hope she can't hear your vascular pump from there because oh gog what if she can hear it would she think you're weird oh no no
Apparently she doesn't hear it because she just throws her legs over your thighs so she's settled into your lap, curling into your chest just like a particularly cuddly kitten.
As you bring a hesitant smile to your face and press your lips gently to her green-flushed forehead, all you can think about is how much you love cats.
