Cats 'n Dogs

*A rewrite of a short fairy tale I came up with last year, about a stubborn feline princess forcing herself upon a human-canine hybrid's home to prove royalty can do things just as well as peasants can. (another rewrite with additional material is already creeping up in the back of my head, argh!)

*warning; there's only one short erotic scene in this fantasy-like story ;-p

*Literotica rules apply

*Critique appreciated

*****

Sylvi sniffed the cool air of the spring evening on her balcony. She didn't feel like studying to be the next ruler of the country the whole evening again. She wanted to do something different, something to cheer her up and relieve her from her boredom.

Seeing the lights at the garage just outside the castle gave her an idea. She used to visit there when she was little, the owner being a friend of her father since they were little boys. He always had a few funny stories to tell, but she hadn't been down there since they started to groom her for the throne.

She left her room, peeked inside the maid's common room where they usually spend the evening and found two playing cards. 'If anyone's looking for me, I'll be in the library.' she said.

The maids bowed their heads. 'Very well, princess.' one of them said.

She smiled and went to the library, taking a couple of history and biology books from the many bookcases and left them open on a table at the fireplace. Satisfied it looked like she was reading them, she left the library and found a maid in the study across the hallway.

'I'm going to take a quick bath.' she said. 'My heads needs clearing from so much reading.'

The maid bowed. 'Will you need anything?'

'No, thank you. I'm just going to soak in peace and quiet for a while.' Sylvi said and smiled wider as she went into the direction of the bath, but turned to the back-garden before reaching it.

There, she unlocked a small door in the castle wall leading outside, and locked it again before walking down the quiet road to the garage.

*

Sylvi walked into the office of the garage, found it empty, but there were sounds of hammering coming from the workshop so she went there.

'Uncle!' she called out to her father's friend like she did as a little girl.

The sound of hammering from underneath a truck stopped for a moment. 'Sorry, the boss is out for the moment. You'll have to come back tomorrow.' said a young man's voice and the hammering continued.

She moved around the truck to see a pair of legs sticking out from under the front of the truck. Its hood was open and chains hung down from a crane to the engine.

'If it's just a moment I'll wait.' she said, not liking the idea of having to go back to the castle already.

The hammering stopped. 'It's better to come back tomorrow, we have too much work to do tonight.' he said, followed by the sound of a rattle.

'He always had time for me.' she said, thinking there was no way he wouldn't make some time for her visit after so long.

'Sorry to disappoint you, missy.' he said, continuing his work. 'But we really have no time to spare right now.'

'Missy?' she said, getting irritated from the lack of respect she received and huffed. 'I'm no missy! You're talking to the princess, so show some respect and apologise!'

The rattling stopped, several tools were shoved from under the truck and Roh rolled from underneath it. The human was a little taller than her, probably only a few years older than her, she guessed.

He wiped his sweaty face with a rag and looked at the angry face of Sylvi. 'Sorry, princess, but I really don't have time for pleasantries right now.' he said, checked the chains, grabbed the crane controls and lifted the engine block carefully from the truck.

'When royalty is present, peasants are supposed to pay attention and listen!' she said, clenching her fists while he moved the engine over a stand and set it down.

He sighed and turned to her, taking a good look as it was the first time he had seen her in real life. She was indeed the beauty that people said she was, pure white thick fur and long curly hair, bright blue eyes, large fluffy tail, and the cream coloured dress suited her very well. She was a full member of the Kat species for sure.

She looked up at him, thinking how he dared to look down on her with grease all over his face, his light-brown hair all over the place, and pouted.

'When I'm finished with this job, you can come back and I'll give you all the attention you need, but for now I have more important things to attend to.' he said and unhooked the chains from the engine.

'Are you saying this thing is more important than a princess!?' she snapped.

'Right now it is.' he said, unscrewing a side panel. 'If we don't get this truck fixed by tomorrow morning there won't be a delivery of grain to the mill, no flower, milk, vegetables and meat to the town, and there will be plenty of people who will have no breakfast because they don't have a chef with a personal garden.'

'Can't they just use something else to eat for breakfast?' she huffed.

He stopped working for a moment. 'You have no idea what's needed for a healthy breakfast, do you?'

She looked away, folding her arms. 'Of course I do!'

'When you have a chef who always cooks for you so you don't have to?'

'Are you saying I don't know how to cook!?'

He shrugged and continued with his work.

'I'll have you know I can do such things!' she said. 'Just wait and I'll show you a breakfast that will make you beg for my forgiveness!'

He heard her stomp her feet as she left the garage and chuckled. 'Oh boy, she's one feisty cat.'

*

She went back into the castle through the same back-door and grumbled on her way to the library.

'Princess? Are you all right?' asked the maid who saw her in the hallway.

'I'm fine.' Sylvi said. 'I just have something to do.'

She went through the selection of cookbooks and took three of them to the small kitchen used as extra capacity in times of large banquets. It was also next to the store rooms so she had enough ingredients at hand to make breakfast for the first time.

'I'll show you what I can do when I set my mind to it.' she said and opened the books.

***

Roh woke up from the sounds of a table being set. He had repaired the engine together with Mr. Moss, the garage owner, and finished putting it back into the truck in time. Since it had become late Mr. Moss told Roh he could use the stretcher in the office to get some sleep while he drove back the truck. Roh yawned, stretched and sat up, scratching his head. He felt groggy, but since he had a few hours of sleep it would be hard to fall back asleep now and decided to get up and see who was busy in the kitchen.

To his surprise he saw Sylvi arranging plates on the table, putting containers of food down and unpacking silverware. She saw him standing in just his pants as he scratched his chest and let out a yelp.

'Don't you have any decency!?' she said, looking away.

'Not after having worked all night and just a couple of hours of sleep before I got woken up again.' he said and walked over to the sink, splashing water in his face to help him wake up. 'What are you doing here at this early hour?'

'I told you I would make breakfast.' she said with pride. 'And you'll admit you were wrong and I was right.' She glanced at him as he dried his face and noticed his long brown tail. 'You're Kanine?'

'Yeah?' he said and sat down at the table.

'I should have known where the rudeness came from.' she said, rolling her eyes.

'No, that's called honesty.' he said and looked at all the food laid out on the table.

She saw him checking out everything and taking a spoonful of the porridge. His emotionless expression made her smirk. 'Impressed enough already to beg for forgiveness?'

He swallowed, grabbed the can of juice in front of him, poured a cup quickly and took a big gulp.

Again, his face became frozen for a moment, then tears came out of his eyes. He put the cup down, took an egg, tapped it with his knife, tapped harder, hit it on the table and looked at the small crack in the shell. He poked at the blackened strips of what might have once been bacon and looked up at her. 'I'll be begging for forgiveness alright.' he said. 'Except it's for mercy.'

Her smirk vanished. 'What!? This is a great breakfast!'

He pointed to the porridge, 'Salty.' then to the juice, 'Sour.' eggs, 'Rocks.' bacon. 'No idea.'

'Nonsense!' she said. 'You just don't know excellent food when you see it!' She took a bite of the porridge to prove it and discovered new facial expressions.

'It's the best I ever had..' she said with a hoarse voice.

'I can see it brought you to tears.' he said, grinning slightly.

'I just had bad luck with the kitchen!' she said. 'I had to use the extra one because I didn't want to bother the chef in the main kitchen.'

'Sure..' he said, leaning back in his chair, poking at what he guessed was supposed to be bread, but could probably be used as a blunt weapon. 'Still looks like you royalty can learn a few things from us peasants.'

She leaned over to him, looking into his eyes. 'I'll show you I can do whatever you can and then you'll have to admit you're wrong and I'm right.'

He smiled and leaned closer to her. 'Fine. If you can prove that, I will publicly announce I was wrong and say how great royalty is.'

She grinned. 'All right, it's a promise.'

'So, how will you do that?'

She pondered for a moment. 'I'd need a place with lots of ordinary work to be done.'

He nodded. 'Something like my home on the farm with the family.'

A devious smile grew on her face. 'Wait here.' she said and walked out of the kitchen. 'Don't you dare to leave before I get back!'

'Wait. What are you going to do?' he asked, then looked at the scene on the table. 'And what do I do with this..?'

**

When Sylvi got back she found him doing the dishes, and the table empty. A glance at the trash-can showed it hadn't been thrown in there.

'What did you do with the food?' she asked.

Roh let out a series of small burps. 'Excuse me..'

'You ate it all!?' she asked, seeing him swallow a few times.

'I couldn't throw away a breakfast that a girl put together for me with so much effort.'

She puffed up her cheeks. 'Who said it took so much effort?'

A tiny smirk appeared on his face. 'The bandages on your fingers and the singed fur on the back of your hand.'

She felt her cheeks blush because he had noticed her hands. 'That was just from some needlework and an accident with a burning candle!' she said. 'It had nothing to do with cooking for you.'

'What's this?' he asked, seeing two big bags on the floor beside her.

'I've accepted your challenge.' she said, folding her arms and looking smug. 'I'll come with you to your family's farm and show you I can do the same work there.'

It took a moment to register the meaning of her words, then his jaw dropped. 'Wait, what!? Coming to my farm!?'

She nodded.

'Are you crazy!? You can't just leave the castle!'

'I can. I move often between the castle and our mansions so they'll think I'm at one of the other places. I already said I'd be going away for a while to study.'

'What about the king and queen? They'll know you're missing.'

She looked away, pouting. 'They're too busy with ruling the country and entertaining guests or visiting others they won't miss me for a long time.'

He shook his head, leaning against the kitchen sink. 'And what would my family say when I show up with the princess at the door!? "Hi mom, I brought someone who wants to learn about living and working on the farm. By the way, she's the princess of our country too." They'll go nuts!'

Sylvi shrugged. 'Something like that.'

He looked up and sighed. 'What did I do to deserve this..?'

'You were the one who started it. Or do you want to admit I'm right already?' she said with a sly smirk.

He turned to her. 'Fine. I'll take you.' he said, then muttered 'You'll get sick of it soon enough..'.

He grabbed his stuff from the office and left a note for the boss stating he'd gone home and would be back tomorrow.

'Let's go then, before anybody shows up while you're here.' he said when he got back to the kitchen.

He wanted to leave the kitchen when Sylvi cleared her throat and turned back to her. 'Yes?'

She gestured at her bags. 'Well?'

'Well, what?'

'Aren't you supposed to carry these for me?'

'Rule one for peasants, each carries their own baggage.' he said, then left for his car.

She huffed and grabbed her bags. 'Fine.'

*

They'd just left the town when Roh thumbed the steering wheel. 'So, how will we introduce you? And I'm Roh, by the way, short for Rohkeus.'

'As myself?' Sylvi said, looking around at the landscape.

'And let the whole country know where you are?'

'Right. Don't want to be found and dragged back to the castle.' she said, frowning.

'Who could you be impersonating..?' he said, pondering. 'Ah, I know.'

She looked at him.

'There's a friend of the boss who's Kat, and he's shown me a picture of his niece who's just as white as you. I can introduce you as her. I believe her name's Lumi.'

'Sylvi nodded. 'They don't know her?'

'No. She lives some distance away. I can say you came to see what you want to do in life, and he asked me if I could show you around the farm.'

'Sound good.' she said and smiled while looking at the road ahead. 'Lumi..'

*

After an hour's drive, Roh and Sylvi arrived at his family's farm. 'There are two square buildings with a courtyard, connected by two hallways. Living room, kitchen, and the master bedroom are in the front building, my little sister and I have our rooms in the back building.' he said while she looked at the wooden one story buildings on raised ground.

'You have a sister?'

'Yeah.' he said, parking the car. 'She's ten, and there she is, coming out the front door.'

Sylvi watched as a brown furred girl in overall hurried down a couple of steps to them, her tail wagging. Her short muzzle, short ears, big eyes and curly hair to her shoulders made her very cute. She looked at Roh.

'What I lack in Kanine looks, she makes up for it.' he said, getting out of the car.

'Brother!' his sister said and jumped up into his arms. 'Welcome home.'

Sylvi stepped out of the car and the girl looked at her. 'Who's she? Your girlfriend?'

'It's not like that.' Roh and Sylvi said at the same time.

'Pentu, meet Lumi. She's the niece of a friend of Mr. Moss.'

'Hello.' Pentu said with a big smile. 'Nice to meet you.'

Sylvi smiled at her. 'Nice to meet you, Pentu.'

Roh put his sister down. 'Now go tell mom that we have a guest.' he said and gave her a pat on her back.

'I will.' she said and hurried back to the front door.

'I see at least one of the siblings knows how to be polite.' Sylvi chuckled.

He pulled their bags out of the car and put one of hers down in front of her. 'Watch what you say, or I'll let you carry both of your bags inside.' he said and took his and her other bag to the door.

She grinned and followed him inside.

*

'What's this about a guest-' Roh's mother said as she walked out of the kitchen into the hallway and froze the moment she saw Sylvi.

'I know what you want to say.' Roh said as his mother looked at him. 'Mom, meet Lumi, the niece of a friend of Mr. Moss. She did get her nickname princess for a reason. Although she needs some fixing before she looks exactly like the princess.' he chuckled.

Sylvi smacked his arm. 'Are you saying I need fixing to look as good as her?' she huffed.

He smiled deviously. 'No, I said you need fixing to look like a princess. Your natural look is much better.'

His mother looked at him. 'You really know how to compliment your girlfriend.'

'It's not like that.' they said at the same time again.

'No?'

Roh shook his head. 'Lumi is looking around to see what she wants to be in life and her uncle asked if we would show her around the farm and let her work here for a while. I thought it wasn't a bad idea since we have room and you can use some help around the house.'

'That's a wonderful idea.' his mother said and took Lumi's hands in hers. 'I hope you'll like it here. There's lots to be done.'

'I'm sure I will.' Lumi said, thinking how young and human his mother looked. 'Miss..?'

'My name is Wenta, but just call me mom like my kids do. While you're here you're part of the family.'

'Well, I'll leave her in your capable hands, mom.' Roh said and grabbed the bags. 'I'll take these to the guest room in the back and then get some sleep.' He looked at Sylvi and winked. 'Mom loves to have another pretty girl around the house, but don't let her spoil you.'

'I've never heard him talk about any girl like that.' Wenta said as they watched him walk to the back building. 'Are you sure you're not..?'

'No way!' Sylvi said, shaking her head, but Wenta smiled softly as she saw Sylvi twirl a lock of her hair.

'Let's go and have a cup of tea.' she said and Sylvi followed her into the kitchen.

*

It was the end of the afternoon when Roh arrived at the kitchen and sat down at the table while his mother had started on dinner.

'Where's Lumi?' he asked, taking a piece of bread to tide him over until dinner.

'She's with Pentu at the barn, taking care of the horses.' his mother said, giving him a smile. 'She's quite enthusiastic to be here.'

He recognised the look in his mother's eyes. 'Forget it, mom. That's not going to happen.' he said, standing up to check on Sylvi and his sister.

'What isn't?'

'Whatever you have in mind.' he said with a slight smirk and left the kitchen.

*

The barn was attached by a covered path to the back building and Roh found the girls brushing the two horses.

'So, how's she doing so far?' he asked his little sister.

'I like her.' she said. 'She's too good for you. I'm telling you just so you know.'

Snickering came from the other side of the second horse.

'What are you talking about? I have no such thoughts.' he said.

'You'd better not.' said Sylvi.

He shrugged. 'Who would, with such a haughty princess..'

'You wish you had a girl like me at home.'

'All the more reason for me to spend more time at work.' he snickered and went back.

'Then you can live there!' Sylvi said while Pentu snickered.

*

Roh used the time before dinner to chop some firewood, then went to the bathroom to take a quick shower. He had turned it off and stretched before reaching out for his towel when the door opened and Sylvi and Pentu walked in naked. Sylvi almost bumped into him, saw his wet and naked body and let out a short meow before trying to hide herself.

'Brother!' his little sister said. 'Why are you here!?'

'Can't I take a shower after getting all sweaty?'

'Couldn't you have said something!?'

'I didn't hear you. Didn't you see my clothes back there?'

Pentu realised they've been so busy talking that she hadn't noticed. 'But we have a guest here so you should be more careful!'

He chuckled. 'Right. Well, I'm done, so you have the bathroom all to yourself.' he said and stroked his little sister's head, then bowed to Sylvi, who glanced at him. 'My deepest apologies, princess, for such a terrible sight.'

She felt embarrassed as she remembered her biology lessons, which hadn't prepared her for the real thing.

'Sorry, Lumi.' Pentu said.

Sylvi smiled softly at her. 'Don't worry. Now, let's start with washing your back.'

*

Sylvi and the siblings had barely sat down for dinner when Roh's father came in and grabbed his wife to kiss her passionately.

'Dad, not now.' Roh said.

'Can't I show my love for your mother?' his father said with a grin.

'Not in front of our guest.'

His father saw Sylvi at the table now, who looked away shyly. 'Sorry, son. I didn't mean to embarrass you in front of your girlfriend.'