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It was midday when Owain realized that although he spent a long period of time in the Blue Kingdom, he hadn’t yet seen the Red Kingdom’s Empurror at all.
It wasn’t that the man was worried for the energetic, sharp-tongued cat-like human who entered his life like a wrecking ball and ruined the carefully made walls that he had made way before he even arrived at the Blue Kingdom. It was normal for him to see her out and about, running around, catching mice, or working on something for the Red Kingdom, and not yet having seen her making her way around to where he stood, building, was… well, it irked him in a way he never thought would irk him.
So, despite himself and the ego Nom keeps on telling him he has, Owain decides to put his building materials down to go and find the cat, whom he definitely didn't concern himself with.
On the way over, Owain ignores many things from the other members of the Blue Kingdom.
For example: Mae Maezes running away from Nominal as he screams something along the lines of “WE KILL MAE MAEZES!” while Scott stood on top of a tree dying of laughter.
That wasn’t concerning… at all.
But, once again, he just ignores it and continues making his way to the Red Kingdom.
Although this time he didn't even make it fully to the gatehouse before he saw the familiar shape of Kitty and their feathery crown stumbling into the Blue Kingdom.
“Kitty?” Owain had to force himself not to show any type of emotion as he got closer to the cat.
“Lion!” Kitty’s eyes lit up as he spotted the taller man, and a strained smile formed on her face.
“Kitty, are you okay? You don't look well.” Owain’s voice betrayed him as he watched Kitty sneeze.
“I’m…” Kitty shook her head out a bit, “I’m okay.”
It was abundantly clear that Kitty was infact not fine and infact was down with something. But he understood that the person in front of him was stubborn and had no direction for taking care of themselves when they were sick.
“Kitty, you're sick. Why’d you come all this way, you could have sent a pigeon or just stayed home.” Owain really hoped that he wasn’t showing any emotion rather than just worry for a monarch such as the one in front of him. It was normal for a knight to be worried about a monarch… but was it normal for him to be worried about an enemy monarch?
“You forget I cannot read and write as well as you do, Lion! And I wanted to see you.” Kitty’s voice as they answered forced a wince out of Owain.
“Okay, Well..” Owain took a glance around the area. Once he knew that the others were nowhere in sight, or even watching, he looked back to Kitty who kept on sniffling and coughing more than he liked. “Follow me. You look half-way to passing out and I don’t think you should go back to the Red Kingdom at this moment. You're sick and you need some sort of rest. Knowing what’s been happening lately, you're not going to be getting it over there.”
Kitty looked at Owain like he was some sort of crazy. The Empurror of the Red Kingdom resting in the Blue Kingdom while he could be working more on what the kingdom needs?
“But-”
“No Buts, Kitty. Up, up, come on, follow me. You can rest at my house since you’ve decided that my bed is ‘rightfully yours’.” Owain didn’t wait for Kitty to answer before he started to make the walk back up to his house near the blacksmith and near the castle.
Reluctantly Kitty followed him, moving around a bit slower than he used to be before she had gotten sick. Owain took time to pause when he walked up a bit of stairs to wait for Kitty, helping them when they looked like they needed it.
When the two of them reached Owain's house, Owain ushered the little kitty to settle on his bed and into an extra pair of night clothes that the kingdom kept in a chest just in case it was needed (Of course Owain went down stairs to gather a few things while Kitty struggled into the clothes).
Only after a few minutes Owain walked back up the stairs with a wet cloth and a cup of water. Kitty glared at him as he walked closer, setting the cup down on the bedside table and moving to put the wet cloth down.
“You're going to sog me!” Kitty whined, before Owain sighed and pushed the hand that Kitty held up to try and stop Owain.
“Let me, Kitty. I’m guessing you have a fever and this is going to help it go down.” Reluctantly, Kitty moved their hand down and leaned back into Owain’s bed to let him place the cloth on her head.
Once the cloth was placed on Kitty’s forehead, the glass of water was forced into their hand.
“Do you want me to drink it?”
Owain, if he didn’t have his armor on, he knew he would give Kitty the ‘Yes, you idiot’ look. But he only gave a nod before disappearing downstairs again.
While Kitty drank the water, Owain started working on making a cup of tea and setting up some medicine for them to take.
Almost as quickly as he got Kitty to drink the water, the smell of Echinacea tea filled the small house. The walk back up the stairs was tedious, handing the cup of tea and the medicine.
“Whats that?” The amount of questions that Kitty was asking today was going to be the bane of his existence.
“It’s tea and medicine. You're going to take the medicine and chase it with the tea.” Owain pushed the medicine into Kitty's hand who just sniffed it and let out a slight bleh noise.
“It smells weird.”
“It’s going to smell weird, it's made of herbs and other stuff that's good for you.”
“Do I have to drink it?”
Owain sighed, wishing he was able to rub his temples. “Yes, If you want to get better, then you should.”
Kitty sat there for a moment before looking down at the medicine. “Does it taste bad?”
Owain let out another sigh. These damn questions. “It might. I don’t know. I don’t get sick often.”
Kitty looked up at Owain, eyes full of confusion, “You don’t get sick?”
“Not often--” Then Owain realised that Kitty was using the questions as a way to put off taking the medicine. “Kitty, take the medicine.”
“But-!”
“Kitty. Take the medicine.”
“Ask nicely, Lion!”
This stubborn cat making things difficult for him to take care of it.
“Kitty, Can you please take the medicine? It will help. And you have the tea just in case the medicine does taste bad.”
At that, Kitty listened, taking the medicine with a grossed out look before pushing the small cup it was in into Owain's hands and taking the tea.
Owain shook his head once, setting the small cup down on his desk.
“Why are you doing this..?” Kitty muttered, staring at the tea that Owain made for them.
“Because you shouldn’t be moving around when you're sick. Even as an empurror.”
Silence filled the room. Owain sighed a slight bit.
“Lion cares?”
“I do not. I just don’t walk you walking around like this.”
“Katie told me that you saying that means you care.” Owain was going to have a long talk with Nom about making sure Katie kept her mouth shut.
“Drink your tea and get some rest Kitty.”
A slight huff left Kitty’s lips.
“You're no fun.”
“Kitty.” It was easy to tell that Owain sent a glare to the cat.
“Okay! Okay! I’ll rest.”
Owain smiled under the helmet, taking a moment to check if the cloth needed to be changed out as Kitty set the tea down on the bedside table. They’d barely taken a sip out of it.
“Owain?” He paused at the sound of Kitty calling for him as he turned to walk out. He’d heard her say his name many times, sometimes said the wrong way, but many times said the right way. “Can you… stay with me for awhile?”
“What?” Owain turned to look back at them.
“Like.. till I fall asleep?” Kitty sounded almost… scared.
“Why? You're safe here.”
“I don’t know.. I just…”
Silence before: “Yeah, Sure.”
Owain walked over to his bed, watching Kitty move over a bit. Only after he made sure he had enough space to sit down next to him, he sat down.
“Thank you..”
Slowly Kitty fell asleep, it’s head moving to lay on the lion's shoulder. Owain almost totally froze, watching the sleeping form of Kitty.
After making sure they were fully asleep, he took off his helmet, eyes strained onto Kitty as the softest of smiles formed onto his face.
“No,” Owain sighed softly, pulling Kitty closer, “Thank you, Kitty.”
Maybe Owain did concern himself with Kitty.
And maybe Owain did fall asleep, and Kitty saw his face.