Solangelo neko/royalty AU

The Festival of Nekos

(A/N:This is a couple days later after the last chapter.)
Npov

Today is the Festival of the Nekos. There are games and food and dancing and it is always so much fun; i can't wait to bring Will to it.

"Come on, Will! Hurry up!" I said as I excitedly pulled him through the crowds of people and nekos. Usually people don't celebrate today because most of them hate us, but if you were adopted by one or something like that, you might celebrate.

"Where are we going?" He had a blindfold on, but I had managed not to run him into any trees.

"It's a surprise!"

We were almost there. Just one more block....

Here it is.

I squealed at the memories I had had here. It was one of the only gelato places that accepted nekos to come in, and I had heard it also had the best gelato. Of course I couldn't decided this as I haven't been anywhere else for gelato. They won't accept me.

"We're here!" I said.

Will took off the blindfold and smiled. "I have never had gelato before."

"Then you haven't truly lived. C'mon, let's go!"

He laughed at my excitedness (A/N: is that a word...?) and I practiacally dragged him inside.

"Oh my gods, Nico is that you?" The guy at the counter said.

Oh my gods...

"Cecil?"

"It is you! I thought they took you to the castle!"

"They did. Bianca, too. But Will set all of us free." I gestured to Will.

"Thank you." Cecil said, "And Nico, so I played this prank on one of the palace officers-it was hilarious!"

"Hey, did you ever get your own place? I know you were saving up for one."

His face fell, "I got really close...."

"What happened?"

"This place caught fire in the drought. The entire town had a fee to pay to get it up and running again."

"Oh. My mom died because of the drought."

"I'm sorry about your mom, I heard about it." But then his face brightened again, "But im getting close again! I only have a few more weeks  of work to go!"

"Good job!" I laughed, "Well," I looked at Will and he nodded, "if you ever need a place to stay, you can stay at the castle with us."

He gawked at me, "Dude, you're living in the castle? You've come a long way!"

"Yeah. Thanks to Will." We ordered our food and sat down.

Soon Cecil walked back over. "I'm on lunch break."

I smiled at him. "We have so much to catch up on."

"First you've got a boyfriend." Cecil observed, "He is your boyfriend, right?"

I nodded.

"...and you said his name was Will and that you live in the castle together. Is he kin Will?"

"Yeah."

Cecil's expression immidiately hardened. "Well I've got to go."

He left.

"I don't think he likes royalty." Will said.

"Yeah, well...your dad highered the taxes by quite a bit and eventually he couldn't pay rent so he lost his house. That's why he's saving up for a new one. His girlfriend, Lou Ellen is working in the castle, and he works here. Together they're working hard to get a place to stay."

"Oh." He sighed, "My dad did a lot of bad things."

I looked at my lap.

Will tried to change the subject, "I think I met Lou Ellen. She was the doctor that took care of you." His nose scrunched while he thought. "Yes, I think that was her."

"Was she nice?"

"Yeah." He paused, "I feel bad for them."

I sighed, "And you've barely seen your kingdom."

"Does that mean the entire kingdom is like this?"

"Pretty much." I said, "Your dad made the taxes really high and so no one could afford anything. They lost money quickly and some lost their homes."

He groaned, "What has my father left me with?"

I snorted. "A (add word of choice) kingdom?"

"Apparently," he sighed. "I have to fix it. Except I have no idea how to lower taxes. Am I supposed to tell someone...? Or make an announcement?"

"Didn't your dad tell you?"

"All we did was argue."

"Oh. Well...maybe ask one of the people that worked for your dad before they worked for you. I would be able to tell you, but I wasn't that kind of servant."

He groaned again, "There are different types of servants?"

"Yeah. Some were supposed to stay with the king all day every day. Some stayed in their cage until they were allowed out, and they can't leave the castle. Some do stuff like that and only do out-of-the-castle jobs."

"I don't know who to tell."

"Well, after the castle I'll help you."

"Thank you!" He looked at me gratefully.

We made smalltalk until we finished our gelato. We threw our plates away and I said bye to Cecil. Then we walked back outside. I heard music playing and laughter coming from the right of us. I excitedly dragged Will that way and he laughed. Him being a human got a few odd looks, considering most humans hate us, but no one asked anything.

The song started playing faster and Will took my hands and started dancing with me. This time it seemed to flow, and it was much better than ballroom dancing. Will seemed to think so too.

Eventually I heard whispers, though.

"Is that the king?"

"He's at the neko festival!"

"No king has ever came before..."

"And is he dancing with a neko?!"

"He is!"

"Wait...is the king gay?"

"Yes, remember the newspaper we used to read? He fought with his father about it all the time."

"Oh yes...I remember now!"

Will didn't seem to notice, so I may have just heard because of my cat ears.

The song slowly came to an end and Will and I stopped dancing. He was grinning me happily.

"That was fun." He said.

"Didn't you do anything other than ballroom dancing in the castle?"

"Not really." He said, "It was considered 'unprincelike' and we were only allowed to do 'proper' dancing."

"That's terrible," I said.

"Yeah, well, let's continue celebrating, shall we?"

I grinned as he took my hand and I led him to the games.

Word count: 1057 words