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The cat still seemed to be following him.

For half of the school day, starting from the time he'd went outside to eat his lunch instead of in the noisy cafeteria, Declan had felt eyes upon him. When he looked up from the book he'd held in one hand, he'd spotted a cat across the street, just staring at him. Not unusual for a cat to be staring at something or someone, but it still seemed to be a more intense stare than usual for a feline to be making at a human. He assumed it was because of the food in his hands, so he'd thrown some as far as he could near the edge of the school grounds. The traffic at the moment wasn't bad, easily allowing the animal to dart across if it wanted to. He was at the ready to help, now standing halfway between the road and the school, muscles tensed for a run to the road. It didn't move. Just continued to stare at him. Yeah, okay, tossing food by the side of the road wasn't a good idea. He made a point to check on it after his classes finished for the day. His mother wouldn't appreciate if he skipped out just to chase after a cat who might be a hungry stray.

But as he'd left a few hours later, the cat was nowhere in sight. At least not at first. Declan remained vigilant during his walk to his mother's house, until he spied movement close by, down towards the ground. The cat was now following him. When he stopped and tried to coax it closer, it didn't move. He really wanted the animal to know he would never harm it, he just wanted to make sure it wasn't lost or in need of anything. Nothing he did seemed enticing enough to make it come closer. Maybe he could just lure it closer to his mother's house, where she had a cat herself and plenty of treats to share. Majority of animals were motivated by food.

So he'd turned back around and continued walking, checking behind him every so often to make sure it was still following. At one point, it disappeared. He thought he spied a tail going around the corner of a building into an abandoned lot behind the protection of a few buildings from prying eyes of people on the street.

He knew he shouldn't. He really shouldn't. But he followed anyway.

Declan didn't think anyone would be back there, but here he was, nearly in an accident when someone suddenly stepped out from around the corner. The teenager reacted quickly, going back a step to avoid any contact, muttering a quick apology.

"Uh...Yes," he managed, now taking a moment to equally look at the man in front of him. The uniform suggested someone older and, noting the medals, someone old enough to have earned those. Someone in a clear position of authority over him, that deserved his complete respect. He was taught to always be polite to those above him, a feat that wasn't too difficult given the man clearly had manners himself. A nice change to some adults who just demanded what they felt was their right and treated him as less just because of his age. It was always difficult to keep up the polite demeaner with those types of people.

"Yes. The cat. It was behaving oddly and I wanted to make sure it was okay. Do you know it?" Had he been more familiar with the secret life of the city, Declan might have recognized a trap when he saw it. He'd look back on his later and realize the cat had been luring him somewhere more secluded this entire time.

Odd seemed like an understatement. Declan was no stranger to cats, for sure. Or a lot of different animals. He knew cats to stare at what seemed to be nothing or at people for various reasons. Never like this one had. It was almost predatory, the way he'd been followed around, but there had been nothing to suggest that in the animal's behavior. It was like he was being sized up, judged, for something. But that was absurd. It was just a cat.

"Oh....Well, thank you...Sir," the teenager responded, finding it difficult to hide his confusion over this whole situation. Not that he didn't have enough trouble speaking to people he wasn't familiar with already, there was something extra strange about this encounter he couldn't quite put his finger on. "I am happy enough to know nothing was wrong with it." And that would normally be the end of the interaction, where he'd return back to his mother's place and spend the rest of the day on homework and books, but...

"Um...Excuse me?" It went without saying that a city this big might have its own version of a police force or some neighborhood watch. Some extra protection put into place where the police couldn't always be. And clearly this man was a part of something, judging by the fancy uniform he was wearing. He'd never heard anything about a....Nega-what? King? How far was he supposed to extend his politeness to adults if said adult seemed to be speaking nonsense? "Sorry. No disrespect. I've never heard of any of this, you caught me off guard."