[ Nervous, forced smile when Mark gives him the ??? look. It's fine, don't worry about it. ]

You go on ahead. I'm still kinda nervous...

[ Which is the truth. Josuke is scared of multiple animals on a normal day; being almost jumped by one doesn't make him feel very brave about trying to pet anything else. Maybe He guesses Mark got his wish after all, he got to protect him from something. If he thinks about it too much, Mark sure did jump in front of him so quickly... it's a little romantic, right?

Well, Mark would probably do that for anyone. Still. He can privately think to himself that it was nice to be the one protected for once. ]

I don't have great history with cats either... it's probably just my luck. [ Genuinely curious: ] Where you'd even get the little guy, Ritsuka?