(I had more for this when i posted it and literally forgot to add it oops)
tommy runs down the halls towards the kitchens, if he can get out the back door he can climb up the tree he knows is nearby and wait until a human collects the dog.
he passes multiple servants in his mad dash, he can hear some futile attempts to catch the dog by its collar but the it bypasses them as fast as tommy does.
still the dog is slowed by having to dodge them enough for tommy to make it to the kitchen unscathed.
he can see jack's back and a couple other's crowded in a circle talking to the side. he bee lines towards them.
with no hesitation he climbs up the closets human by their clothes up to their shoulders, with no time to pay head to his claws.
the dog nearly runs the man over when it reaches them but it just barely comes to a stop instead, barking up at the man just once and then trotting around his legs expectantly.
the man gives a put out sigh and for a horrible moment tommy thinks he's going to be fed to the dog.
instead the man puts his hand out to point at the dog and shouts "Bad dog! Sit!"
tommy tries to pick his claws out of the mans shoulders from where they'd been digging in, keeping them dug into the mans clothes instead, and hesitantly looking away from the heavily breathing dog on the floor.
upon closer inspection, the clothes tommy currently has his claws stuck into are quiet thick and high quality, maybe he never even scratched the man in the first place, which explains why the man was not screeching in pain before.
which is good, but also bad because it means this is definitely not a kitchen staff member
he looks to the man's face just as he's gently picked off of the mans shoulders by jack, who rushes to apologize.
"I'm so sorry your highness, I know personal pets aren't allowed, this is a cat we just keep around to control the mice-"
Tommy's eyes widen at the first part of that sentence and he does a double take on the man he'd just climbed like a common street pole.
brown hair, brown eyes, regal outfit, and if you look closely theres a fricking crown hidden in the mans curly hair. this is the crown prince.
he'd just climbed on the crown fucking prince.
the prince shakes his head, waving his hand in the air "no no, its okay I won't snitch on you to the head maid anyways." he then gestures to the dog. "this is probably somehow techno's fault anyways"
"your highness you shouldn't say that-"
just then the owner of the dog comes running in, out of breath from running, but stops in the doorway when he sees tommy in jacks arms and the dog sitting calmly.
hes in a nearly matching outfit to prince Wilbur's, save for the royal blue accents being replaced with a deep red. theres a thin crown on his head too. this must be prince technoblade.
tommy starts to wiggle in jacks arms to leave unthinkingly, but tenses up again when it makes the dog on the floor look back to him.
the humans in the room notice the dogs behavior, and the pink haired prince walks up to the dog, who finally looks away from tommy, and simply frowns. it seems to make the dog droop.
technoblade then looks over at jack sheepishly. "sorry, i don't know what's gotten into Steve, he usually doesn't chase after cats, but he is still being trained."
"its alright your majesty we're just glad nothing happened to the cat."
everybody turns to the doorway where the head maid, the retired captain puffy, now stands.
jack and the staff in the kitchen visibly start sweating.
prince wilbur makes an aborted motion to step in front of jack to hide the cat in his arms. and prince technoblade calmly begins to pull out a leash from his back pocket and hook it to the dogs collar.
"oh none of that," she shook her hand at prince wilbur, and then pointed into the corner "before I only had my suspicions but Ive known for sure about that cat since niki put in the cat bed and I stopped hearing you all complain about any mice in the pantry."
jack and the staff all grimaced and looked to the offending cat bed, then to the floor.
puffy smirks, "plus," and walks in closer to jack and reaches into her pocket, shocking most of the kitchen staff by pulling out a small piece of jerky and holding it out to tommy. "me and him have an agreement."
tommy had met her before. he'd previously thought this women was a regular servant, they'd interacted on multiple occasions where she would find him, give him a little jerky, pick him up and then carry him into a room where she knew a mouse was nesting, usually a guest room of the castle or one in the servant quarters, and then close the door on him.
it was a sweet deal for tommy, he gets jerky and to be helpful and she gets a dead mouse or a few dropped to her feet when she comes back an hour later.
tommy is shocked she turned out to be such an important figure, but not one to be impolite or turn down food, he politely snatches the jerky from her hand and lets himself be taken from jacks arms into hers.
he'd thought she was just really scared of mice, a lot of the servants were, but rethinking that, she was probably making him prove his worth as pest control so she wouldn't kick him out.
she begins lightly petting him whilst she holds him, tommy will neither confirm nor deny if his body is purring against his will, and she bows to the princes, who are looking curiously at tommy, and then takes tommy with her from the kitchen.
also ideas for this, the real reason cats aren't allowed in the castle as pest control even though it would be effective, is because queen Kristen was super deathly allergic to them. even though she's dead now, the king kept the rule in place to protect his sons should her allergy have passed on to them.
also, puffy totally thinks she's training tommy to still be useful and still hunt mice, because she knows the servants have been giving the cat human food and she thinks its gonna make tommy stop hunting mice because she doesn't know that tommy has been leaving literal piles of dead mice at the kitchen back door every night.
also after a while of tommy killing mice in the rooms flawlessly, puffy started throwing tommy into guest rooms that she's having prepared for new guests, so that no guests will run into like, a shit ton of mice and think the castle is gross.
wilbur and technoblade in this au are twins, but wilbur is a little older, and theyre both super curious about tommy the cat, because they've never really gotten to pet and or see them up close.
like even if they've run into other cats and its been proven by this point in their life that they aren't allergic like their mom was, philza still usually makes them keep distance.
omg i just like this au like, I have such cool ideas for how wholesome it could be, the potential with cat shifter aus is unlimited
