Were!cat hellinios you say? We’ll have I got a treat for you; SLOW 👏 BLINKS 👏
Assuming Markus and Illy are both “big cats” (leopards, jaguars, lions, snow leopards, or tigers) then technically speaking they wouldn’t be able to purr in their cat forms, since the five big cats don’t have the ability to purr in the way cats do as in evolution they sacrificed that for roaring. However, there is one sign of affection that is universal for all cats, big or small; the slow blink. All cats will do a slow and calm squinty-eyed blink to show love and trust, as closing their eyes makes them extremely vulnerable to predators and other threats - so if your cat makes direct eye contact with you and gives a very sleepy looking blink, that means you’ve won both their trust and their heart! And you can do it back at them to let them know the feeling is mutual, they will understand the message 💕
All of this being said, I like the idea of Markus and Illy both being closed-off and hesitant with being vulnerable around each other, for whatever reason - because of their jobs, the fact that they’re on opposite sides of a personal feud, just their personalities, etc - but slowly, slowly feeling their walls come down and doing their best not to show it to each other. They’re in denial about the fact that they’re falling in love, but they just can’t help it.
I’m imagining a scene where the two of them end up sleeping together (in the literal sense, no sexytimes - yet 😏), either in their cat forms or human forms, and as they’re both starting to fall asleep, maybe while Illy is talking about one of his adventures, Markus (I feel like he’d be more likely to confess first, idk why) slow blinks at Illy. At first Illy doesn’t get it, bc they’re both half asleep and he passes it off as Markus trying to stay awake and listen to the story just a little longer, but then he has to go back in his himbo brain for a second and remember what that gesture means in werecat culture and he suddenly just snaps to attention like “YOU LOVE ME???”, and Markus, still being half asleep, just goes “ugggghhhhh I was hoping you’d be too tired to notice, dammit”
Anyway that leads to Illy waking Markus up again, followed by a whole night of them talking to each other about how they feel, and how they’ve felt for a long time, and also both being really surprised that their feelings were reciprocated.
Before falling asleep again, Illy looks Markus in the eyes and does a slow blink back, and in that moment Markus knows he is loved. 🥰
People always question them on why they never vocally say “I love you” to each other, and their excuse is always that “it’s a werecat thing”, bc y’know, normal people just don’t understand 😤
P.S. while I was writing this I got the idea that Markus gives Illy the nickname “Silly Illy” - Illy hates it 😂
i am slow blinking at this rn
