Deep in the very first night I slept in this world of magic as a cat girl, a shadowy figure was staring at me and walked towards my fire. It revealed to be a kid boy with black hair and blood red eyes. He patted my sleepy self as he smiled, as if he hasn't smiled like that in forever. He heard my stomach growl a bit in my sleep and knew right away I haven't eaten in a while. He decided to go night hunting and by the time he came back and skinned all the meat he killed, morning rose and I was about to wake up, he hid in the shadows again and watched me in the distance.
Seeing me eat the food he got for me made him feel happier, and seeing me full of energy as I trained kept him entertained. So, he decided to help out more and do it on a frequent basis, hunt all of my meats for me so I wouldn't have to kill them myself. Turns out day by day, as he did this, I got suspicious of him and set up traps for him. Setting traps are easy if you know your physics well enough, and have enough creativity and motivation to make these contraptions work. He passed and dodged each sets of traps from every visit he did, making him intrigued by my intelligence and simply making him want to know me more and more. Like, how can a small kitten can be so smart to set such elaborate traps that actually almost caught him a couple of times? He felt so much emotion stirring inside him, he felt he couldn't take it anymore. He was willing to get captured this time, he wanted to meet me this time.
Finally, the night came. He knew more traps would be set up for him again. But to his shock, nothing came out of the ordinary. He thought, maybe I gave up after weeks of failing. This was all too perfect. He then was thinking maybe he should just stay near me, until morning.
But surprise surprise, he was caught off guard, and grabbed close to my face so I can see him clearly. Thanks to the extra tweaks in my training, I learned the skills needed to ensure no one sneaks a strike on me. Night Vision so I can see his face clearly in the dark, Sensitive Hearing so I can hear him coming, and for extra measure Sensitive Smell so I can smell people's scent nearby should my hearing be useless on him sneaking in.
"Who are you?"
His surprised looked change to a smile, "Your little hunter, my dear little kitten~. Nice to finally meet you, face to face like this, my pet~."
"Wha-?"
"I have fallen deeply enchanted by you, and I couldn't hide it any longer~, he said suddenly carrying a rose out of nowhere, "Won't you please be my desire~?"
I was so confused. His dear little kitten? My pet?! My desire?! I thought for sure this guy would be more of a serious straight face guy, or a gentleman or something. But he's a kid, and he's flirting with me like smooth butter! What the heck?! But somehow... I know this feeling... I feel like... like...
"Are you a pervert? What do you want from me, you creep?"
I felt like I just stabbed him twice in the heart with my words.
"How you wound me, kitty, " the boy said in disbelief from what I said, "I am a Fallen Prince, I'll have you know. Most of my subjects love me and call me by Your Grace or My Prince, but you may call me Lucifer. And what I want is for you to be mine~."
"A Fallen Prince? (Guide, what's that?)"
[FALLEN PRINCES/PRINCESSES IS A TITLE GIVEN TO ANGELS THAT FALLEN OUT OF HEAVEN'S GRACE, TURNED INTO A DEMON AND ARE GIVEN A RIGHT TO RULE OVER DEMON SUBJECTS DEPENDING ON HOW MANY THEY HAVE KILLED. THE HIGHER THE KILLS OF THAT PRINCE/PRINCESS, THE HIGHER STATUS THEY ARE.]
"(Guide, can you scan this Lucifer guy for me?)"
[OF COURSE, SCANNING •FALLEN PRINCE• "LUCIFER" NOW.]
Excuse me?! This kid killed over a ten thousand people and slaughtered over a million monsters?! His LV is way higher than I thought it would be... and his stats are no joke either... HOW?! He's a kid like me, right?! I feel like if I reject him the wrong way, he'll kill me on the spot without hesitation.
"Well, what shall you decide, my little kitten~, " he said in a flirtatious tone.
Think of something, Catherine! Think of anything! Anything to get out of this awkward and dangerous situation! Just! Say! Anything!
"W-Well... I can't! I... don't know you very well. Yeah! A-And you don't know me well either, right? So why don't we tone down a bit and start over? A-As... friends?"
I felt the mood change from the prince. I felt a horrible twist in my chest practically telling me that I screwed up and that he's going to kill me. Rest In Peace my short cat girl life, you will be missed.
"What are friends, " he asked so obliviously and innocently confused.
The twisted feeling stopped. Is... is he serious?
"I can sense you judging me silently more than usual, " he said looking at me with a small pout on his face.
"Well you can't seriously make me believe that you don't know the word."
He starts to pout harderI didn't think a person could even pout this hard. And then it dawned on me about her chat with Kath.
"(Guide... is friend... a word in this world?)"
[NO. THE WORD "FRIEND" DOES NOT EXIST IN THE ASTRA WORLD'S VOCABULARY.]
What the actual heck?! No wonder Kath was confused about what friends were! It wasn't because of distrust, it was because she legit didn't know what the word was. Now his pouting makes more sense.
"Ummm... friends means... they are close to you, but not romantically. Like they think of you like family, but not blood related."
He became silent, as if I struck a nerve somewhere. He looked sad, but tried to look away so I wouldn't see his face.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm sorry... I don't think... it'll work out after all then..., " he said mumbling, "H-Have a good day..."
He began to ran away, and at first I was hesitant. He just showed up asking me to love him, then he asks what friends are, and now he's upset? I was so confused, but I was also very concerned. So I decided to look for him.
"Lucifer! Lucifer! Where are you? Hey!!! Lucifer!"
As I accidentally bumped into a tree and realized he was at the very top of it. He looked sad, like he was going to cry. Why?
"Lucifer, there you are!"
He looked down and saw me there, he then turned his head away from me again in silence. He doesn't look like he wants to talk about it, but my instincts are telling me he needs someone to comfort him.
"I see you got your own issues you rather not talk about! But you know, it is good to talk about it! That way you don't have to bear your pains alone!"
Okay, Plan B. Get close physical contact with him to hug him. And it's probably the worse think I could ever do.
"I'm coming up there!"
I tried to climb and immediately fell off. I suck at climbing trees, but I knew there was a skill for climbing trees in my Cat Kin Skill Tree. I just need to hold it off and stay determined until then. So I kept trying to climb this tree to get to Lucifer and making a fool out of myself as I patiently wait for the skill to appear.
He secretly stared at me and my ridiculousness. What was I doing to myself? He thought maybe I'd give up after an hour or so. Nope. I tried to climb this damn tall tree for an entire day, ignoring the fact that I didn't eat at all. I just kept it up.
My stubbornness triggered one of Lucifer's memories. About his days before becoming a Fallen and was a well known angel and met a human named Lilith and how they use to get along. She was as kind as she is very stubborn and beautiful. That was until his own angel family, who mistreated him for a long time, manipulated Lilith into pushing Lucifer away and then threatened her to killing herself to protect him. Angered, he killed his own brethren, believing that family shouldn't be trusted. By the law of angels, he was banished from heaven and fell from grace, but his punishment didn't phase him. And right then and there, his body completely changed from an adult pure angel to a Fallen Prince child. But with so much pent up anger inside him, he killed so many monsters and innocent people's lives the moment he fell from heaven, until he couldn't feel any pain anymore. Several years passed by into the current year present, he began to rule over some demons out of curiosity, he then felt a unworldly soul fell into Astra and to Flair Forest. So he went on a mission to search for this soul. In which by then, that's where he met me.
He promised himself he wouldn't get attached to people he'd call family, but he felt like he could trust my words. Maybe give this friend thing a shot. Knowing I was doing the whole climbing thing all day, he owed me an apology. But he looked back, remembering how ridiculous he sounded saying all those flirty words towards me, while sounding like a some sort of desperate incubus, and felt embarrassed. He should apologize for that too. And before he knew it, I finally made it up to him.
[CAT KIN RACE PHYSICAL SKILL UNLOCKED: BEAST CLIMBER]
"FINALLY!!!"
"GAH, " he said in shocked realizing I was next to him, "H-How long were you-?!"
"Just now! Phew... that was exhausting day... So you ready... to talk... now..."
And I passed out right then and there, and leaned on Lucifer. I didn't eat, I haven't taken a break from climbing since I started this morning and I was repeatedly falling off this damn tree so I took some damage, I was going to pass out eventually. He smiled again, as he petted me, noticing the cuts and bruises in my body.
"I'm sorry for dragging you into my mess like this, I hurt you, even if it was stupid of you to try and climb a tree all day" he said with a bit of a chuckle, "I promise to take our relationship slow, now as friends, is what you call it. I'll win your heart the right way. When you wake up... let's start over... like you asked for."
He carried me and took me back to my little sleeping spot near my campfire. He healed my wounds with magic, and cleaned off the blood from the cuts with water. He thought about taking me to his home in demon territory, but decided against it since I'll get more wrong ideas about him. He then decided to go hunt again, since he heard my stomach growl again.
"I owe you a lot of food for what happened today, so wait for me, okay, " he said laying me down giving me a small peck to my forehead, "I'll come back with food, and this time, I will stay with you. I won't ever leave you."