The Royal Visit
As the last integrations were underway, it was time for Alisia to come down and see Aerials. She entered with an entourage; many people showed up to welcome her, which was amazing because I didn’t even tell them to. It was a great day, to say the least. She went to the port, and the marketplace, toured the housing districts, and the governing house, and finally arrived at my house.
“Ahem!” I opened the door for her. “Welcome to my humble abode!”
“Mm… Very modest. I really like how neat and cozy everything looks.”
“Oh, yeah—” She inspected my carpet and went across the various paintings on the wall. “It’s, it’s different for me.”
“I’ll say. I was sort of expecting a swamp shack—the one you’ve been telling me about.”
“Hah. No swamp shacks here.”
Alisia put her jacket on the coat rack and was impressed. You know, I was worried—I had a whole decoration team remodel my house to make it more casual (I think that was the word they used). They put all this fancy carpet down, the nice sofa, and a better and safer kitchen. I was happy she liked it, considering she was royalty and all.
“Oh, my!” Alisia gasped, looking at the ground.
“What?” I scanned the floor, trying to find some mouse or cockroach she probably saw. But there was nothing, it was just Jasper. “What? I—”
“Your cat!”
“Yeah, that’s Jasper. I told you I had a cat.”
“But,” Alisia choked on her words, “b—why is he wearing your underwear?”
“He’s not wearing my underwear.”
“Eric.” She pointed at the cat. “That’s your underwear. How’d he get it on?”
“What are you talking about? I’d be so weird if that was my underwear, but it’s definitely not my underwear.”
“But I—”
“No.”
“But—”
“It’s not my underwear, just don’t look.”
Truth be told, he was wearing my underwear. Through his weeks of bulking, Jasper had gotten so large that his small sweaters stopped fitting him. It’s not like he didn’t care for those sweaters anyway, there were a lot of scratches and bite marks on them. So, when winter eventually rolled around, none of the tailors had anything his size—I had no other choice. Plus, he’d worn it before back in the swamps, and, like—it’s normal.