Lucky Cat

       His brow furrows as he watches the two-tailed cat roll around in its own undead delight. Gripped between its paws, something glints pale green and glassy in the light, but Beau for the life of him can’t figure out what it is.

To be frank, it was distracting him from his duties.

He sighs, “Beatrice!”

A lightly feathered head peeks in through the doorway, eyes hidden behind their bangs but the usual, glossy-lipped smile ever present and at his service. He can’t help but smile as she giggles at his perplexed expression, her feathered ears quivering in delight.

“Yes, Beau?”

He jolts, remembering why he called her in here, glancing with concern over toward their odd pet, “Could you please check what he has? I don’t want him, ah.. “eating” something that makes him sick, again.”

With a startled gasp, she races over, glass wings tinkling as they flutter anxiously and disturb the contents inside. Without even bothering to brush her bangs back, she runs her hands all over their little friend before gently coaxing the item from his paws to hold it up, prompting Koneko to “huff” and rise to his paws, shambling off to cause trouble elsewhere.

Bea had always been the most attached to their little friend, even since they’d found him by Mother Mountain. Pampering him, giving him their coziest blanket, cooking for him - even though he at first seemed content to eat just about anything. Now, the little rascal would turn down just about anything that wasn’t real food.

His secretary/girlfriend strides over to him with a perplexed expression, what looks almost like a tiny glass marble pinched between her delicate fingers.

“What is it?” He mumbles, cautiously accepting it from her hand.

He turns it over in his fingers like a die as Beatrice offers an unsure hum, studying its sheen and texture. It had some give, not enough that he had doubts it would break, but enough to remind him of the gel-y substance floating from Koneko’s neck. Its shape vaguely reminded him of a leaf, or a petal, its pale green colour furthering the connection.

He taps it carefully against the arm of his office chair, rewarded with a small tink, tink from the action. So it wasn’t glass, but it wasn’t quite jell. It didn’t seem organic, and he didn’t quite feel motivated enough to send it down to the labs for investigation.

Finally, he groans low in his throat and runs a hand over his face before pressing a button on his intercom.

“Kuro, can you come to my room, please? I need your help, with… something.”

Beatrice eyes him as he waits for a response.

After a moment, he presses the button again, “...Kuro?”

Sighing after receiving no response, Beau rises to his feet to subject himself to their very own Glass Scientists. However, as soon as he opens the door, a bare-chested and fully feathered harpy - with an alarming lack of head - stumbles in.

He can’t help but feel stunned as he notices the flowing gel-like substance flowing from their neck, but their colour pallet is unmistakable.

“K..Kuro?”

Their jell swerves for a second before their shoulders jolt, as if remembering something. In one quick transformation, glass wings sprout from their back - not their usual location, but enough to inform him that this is, in fact, his friend.

Kuro reaches up, stroking their jell in confusion before slumping in defeat.

He chuckles, “Exhausted your energy today, did you?” He rolls his eyes humorously at her thumbs up, and extends the foreign object in his hand out to her, “When you said you had experience with creatures like Koneko, I didn’t think that you’d meant you are one. But can you tell me what this is?”

He passes a notepad to her when she perks up in recognition, rolling the bead-like object around in her fingertips. Seemingly full of excitement, she begins to write.

“It’s… a lucky petal,” He reads, brow furrowing, “They are meant to help you find… treasure?”

Another thumbs up, seeing how his friend couldn’t nod.

He looks back up at her, confusion plastered on his face, “How did it get here? Why did Koneko have it?”

She rolls her shoulders, writes again, “Maybe it’s something they’ve had for a while. You should give it back to them and see if they find anything interesting with it.”

He sits down and leans back in his chair to contemplate, stroking his temple. After a long moment, he finally nods.

“Alright, you know more about this than I. Fine, fine, I’ll hand it back to the creature whenever he wanders in again. That’s all I need, thanks.”

One more thumbs up, then with a clink of her wings she’s off, flying carefully out of his open window down to her own bedroom below. He closes his eyes as he lets his mind settle, wings drooping to the floor as Beatrice strides over and sweetly presses a kiss to his cheek before setting to work rubbing his shoulders.

“Tough day, sir?” She teases, and he scoffs.

“Your creature has been driving me up the wall,” He retorts in a gentle voice, “I’m just worried sick that he’ll make himself ill again, I know how much that frightened you.”

Another kiss, this time to his forehead after tilting his head back over the top of his seat. Her sparkling eyes twinkle with appreciation through her bangs as she smiles at him.

“I really appreciate that, you know,” She murmurs, “I was so worried he was really hurt… but if he’s causing you this much trouble, he’s probably okay.”

She gasps in delight as the topic of conversation trots in, “munching” on his favourite blanket, and crouches in front of him as he sits to receive her affection.

Beau furrows a brow, staring at the strange, two-tailed cat and then back down at the “Lucky Petal” on his desk. If what Kuro had said was right, then maybe the troublesome beast was pure luck, after-all.

Time to test that theory.