Chillin' in the Cat Cafe [Private/Yugiri]

The attack on American Shadow Fall had an abrupt, admittedly unfulfilling rersolution that seemed to make the entire event pointless--but Micah could care less. So long as he was fulfilling his duties sufficiently, Micah was as close as he could be to 'content'. That said, work as a whole slowed down dramatically for the whole division--in by extension himself--since many of their workloads were reduced without as clear of a goal to pursue. The slow down of workload also made logistics work less frequent, and as a whole, Micah was left with considerably more down-time.

Today was one of those furlough days, and without anything of immediate interest catching his eye, Micah decided to spend his day in total relaxation. He dressed in something casual and totally unrelated to work, so as to mentally distance himself from the work environment as much as possible.

A bell rung out once struck by the height of a door, and Micah stepped through the doorway. This was a cat cafe within Seireitei, so as expected the majority of the patrons here were shinigami, also on their off-day. Several felines roamed the floors, some fluffy contraptions on the walls, and the tops of bookcases and chairs. Customers came to spend their time being languid with the cats, perhaps read a book, and in general enjoy the calm and furry atmosphere.

Micah was led to an circular table with two chairs. He greeted multiple familiar faces with a smile and nod before sitting down and ordering some light herbal tea with cream. While waiting for his order, he took a book from his satchel and begun reading, taking his eyes away from the pages to pet and play with the roaming cats.

Micah's focus away from the pages was always brief, or at least not in full, whenever he motioned to curry favour with the cats. It wasn't until a particular kitty came to his empty seat, clearly staring right at him. Usually, cats stared at threats or prey--affection was rarely conveyed through more humanistic expressions like eye contact. Now this was something interesting.

Micah smiled affectionately, put a fabric on his current page before putting it down, and stood from his seat. At first he motioned to the front desk as if to order something else, but he stopped adjacent to the seat the black cat was on. Micah went to pick the feline up, move back to his own seat, and place it on his lap before softly petting its head and scratching the base of its tail. He spoke in a soft whisper,

"What a magnificent beauty you are. Truly different from the rest of these kittens."

Micah took the responsive purring as an affirmation that he was doing just fine. The cat suddenly talking, as cats typically don't do, didn't deter him from continuing. Occasionally, he'd move the hand patting her head to lightly scratch the underside of her mouth and around her neck.

"Hmm, quite curious, cats don't usually speak. This really shows how marvelous you are." Micah spoke his next sentence with a bit of a chuckle, "Either that, or the time off work has withered my mind, ahahaha!"

After he had his little laugh, Micah ended up respecting her wishes and stopped attending to the base of her tail. She said nothing about the neck scratches and headpats, however.

"Oh, this kitten knows my name! Very brilliant, but I wonder where she heard it from--I don't suppose it was a little birdy that told you? That would surely be an amusing sight."

"An eye on me? I'm very honoured and flattered that you would keep an eye on me and need to speak to me on serious business."

Micah smiled sweetly with his words, not because it was polite or pleasant, but because he couldn't help but smile from the growl. What a cute kitty cat. Neither his smile nor his petting stopped when she bit his finger. He was a full-fledged shinigami, after all; a little kitty nibble never hurt anyone. Actually, most cases of fatal bites on Earth were from humans and cats, but this was Soul Society. Micah didn't just let the nibbling off without reaction, though; in response, Micah lightly took the cat's tail and nibbled on it in retaliation. Nothing painful, of course. It may have elicited some odd expressions from onlookers, but Micah enjoyed himself nonetheless. His voice came out muffled through the tail still in mouth,

"Mhmm, I'm rithening, preath continue."

Micah almost started feeling a little bad, almost, but he still stopped nibbling. What a cute kitten. The headpatting still continued, though. The shinigami lifted his chest back up and leaned back into his chair, as if to show the cat that, as he was relaxing more, so could she.

"It's not often you meet a cat so invested with the Gotei. For such an elegant miss, surely I should listen. Please, go ahead."