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"Mixed Blessings a Cat Tail "Written By: Kaeru Shisho Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Gundam Wing
or its characters, nor do I make any monetary profit off this story. Rating: NC 17 Warnings: AU, male/male pairings of a most ridiculous
nature; told from Quatre's point of view, so beware the fluff. Pairings: 1x2, 3x4 Summary: The GW boys are all cats finding their little paws in the big, bad world. For Dyna Dee. A/N: The author needs her head examined, as does
her friend and editor, Waterlily, who suggested it, but I wrote it
just the same in order to make you laugh and as an eleven chapter
gift to Dyna Dee! " Mixed Blessings a Cat Tail " Cat
in the Hat Chapter 3 - Cattitude We didn't get as far as my house. I had to stop and yawn more than once and stretch in the sunshine that shot through the blanket of clouds. I wasn't the only one. The others took a moment to enjoy the warmth. I wondered how it would feel to have Heero's dark, short fur; wonderful now, but would it very quickly become too hot in summer? Duo was orbiting a patch of dry grass as if he were about to coil up for a nap. Heero nipped Duo on the tail to get his attention. Apparently, he only got a mouthful of fur, because Duo didn't squawk. "What?" "Howard is calling you." "You can hear him?" Duo asked with a look of wonder. "He couldn't possibly," Wufei snipped. "With all his talking." Duo ignored the Siamese. I guessed he was used to the other cat's criticism "Sleep's calling me, I know that." I listened as hard as I could. I didn't hear a man calling Duo, but I did hear metal chimes. "I hear bells," I announced. "Four bells." "Drat. I must return to duty," Wufei told us. "Tea and service to the Master of the ponds." That sounded very bleak, to me, but I didn't tell him that since he appeared very inspired, so maybe it involved having a nice lap to nap on and treats. "It must be nice to be so important," I told him. "Oh, it is, but the sacrifice can be great. Like now." "We won't have our visit today then," I decided. "It wouldn't be fair to exclude you, because of your obligations. Besides, it is much later than I thought," I said sniffing the air for the hint of open food cans (none) and judging the time by the angle of the sun (nearly dinner time). "Miss Iria will be returning from her workplace very soon, and she might not enjoy the surprise of extra company." Duo shook out his fur. "Time to get in a good snooze before dinner, then. Okay, well, that's okay. What'll we do then?" "Would tomorrow in the morning be acceptable?" Wufei asked. "I see no reason why not. Let's plan that!" This was so much fun, having friends and plans. Heero agreed. "We'll all collect at Cat's place tomorrow." "Where is that?" Wufei asked. "I'll get you on my way," Heero told him. "Very well. I was extremely fortuitous meeting you today," he said, canting his head toward me. "Until then..." Wufei said, trailing off the end of his thoughts until he just blinked and walked away, mincing through the weeds, head and tail held high. "Man!" Duo said in a gasp of surprise. "I've never heard him so polite. He nearly went overboard with the compliments." "And he didn't question the distance to Cat's house. He never likes to go far afield." Heero gave me one hard glare. "I believe he thinks you are flirting with him." "Who me?" That wasn't possible! I didn't even know how to flirt! "I'm not and I wasn't! When-?" "Yeah, sure! Let me harken back to a minute ago," Duo said, "Tickling his nose with your tail?" "That was being playful!" "You are no longer a kitten," Heero reminded me. "Oh. I hadn't thought of it that way." "Time you did, especially," Duo winked at me, "if you already have attracted an admirer." I thought he'd forgotten about that. I wished he had. Maybe it was Wufei leaving the "kills" by the door. "No, wait a minute!" "Say what?" Duo paused to look back at me. I could rule out Wufei from my secret admirer list. "It's not him." "Huh?" asked Duo. "The secret admirer is not Wufei. It can't be. He would have known the path to my house and not asked for help." "Good point." Heero said, accepting my brilliant deduction. "He's not one to attempt a bluff." "He can't act worth shit, you mean," Duo re-stated. "A-and I didn't mean anything by my playing around." "'Course not, little buddy. So, if you aren't interested in him, you might wanna turn down the charm a notch." "Oh, I will. I will!" I liked Wufei a great deal, but I hadn't thought of him or any of my new friends as more than trusted friends. I knew what it was they were hinting about; Rashid had explained everything to me in very plain talk. Even though I didn't think the feather and wing parts were important, courtship was courtship with the same ultimate goal. The essential points were the same. Weren't they? But Wufei was a male cat and so was I. That didn't fit the scheme at all. Why me? Fish. Of, course, Wufei liked fish and I promised him some new ones to observe. I smiled, contented. I'd reasoned everything out. Almost. The little offerings of dead animals could be part of a trap. I had the sinking feeling that my secret admirer would turn out to be a giant raccoon-and-cat-eating snake. Heero nodded his approval and then turned to follow Duo, the only one who seemed perfectly comfortable forging a path through the weedy growth, despite the bounty of fur, or perhaps because of it. He felt none of the burrs taking hold. And then I imagined how nice it would feel to have another cat groom the burrs out of my fur and... maybe I understood the friendship of Heero and Duo a little better. "See you tomorrow then! Bye!" I called out to my friends. A ca-t-cophony of voices returned my farewell, before all the tails held high above the grasses waved, and then disappeared, leaving me to find my home by myself. It wasn't hard or far, so I guessed the rule about not traveling alone didn't apply. "Think!" I knew that since I'd walked out to the fields with my friends and it wasn't all that long ago that I should be close to home and to the right. I could see the trees towering in the distance and headed in that direction. Flirting with the Siamese cat? Oh, my goodness no. I was certain Wufei understood just how things stood between us and wasn't confused. Duo and Heero just saw things differently; I guessed, and put it all out of my mind. Ooh! A cricket! He hopped right into my path, so I pounced. I missed of course and he sprang high into the air, landing a little further away. "I see you!" I jumped and he leaped. What fun! He leaped twice in a row. I had to bound over the tussocks of grass and weeds buzzing with bees to keep up. I couldn't help myself, though! My last spring landed me on the clump of weeds he'd settled on. It must have been, literally, the last straw with him. I mean, he must have tired of our game, because he spread his reddish wings and took flight. "That's not fair!" I also took off, vaulting the thickets as if there were wings on my feet. I hadn't felt so free and strong and able before, so I cried out just for the pure joy of it, "Weeee!" I nearly ran head-on into a tree trunk. "Getting a little far afield, catling." I reared back so startled by the looming bark barrier and the creepy voice from above me that I did a backwards somersault. I righted myself very quickly and looked around for the source of the voice, a strange voice a little like Duo's with the chirping but also mixed with a normal cat's meow. Then in sank in—the animal had called me a kitten! "Whoever you are, show yourself! "I'm visible if you'd only look up." I did and detected something in one of the trees! I was positive. Bigger than a squirrel. Smaller than a... a cow. Slinking along a limb, it had eyes and they were looking at me now! The other animal didn't move. It remained crouched on the limb only moving the eyes. The longer I stared the better I could make out the form. I marveled at how well camouflaged it was. The tan with brown and black spots melted into the shadowy limbs. I kept the face in view as best I could. It was a cat, I guessed. But I wasn't positive. He held his ears erect with interest so I could see just how tall, deeply-cupped, and wide-rounded they were—not like any cat ears I'd ever seen! Was that a cat? It was a cat face. The eyes studying me with equal intensity were green with dark "tear-streak" markings running from the corner of the eyes down the sides of the nose to the whiskers. A wild cat! There was a wild cat in my trees! What should I do, I wondered? "Hello?" I called out to test the waters, but he didn't return my greeting. He made a funny noise, which I couldn't tell was friendly or not. So far, I hadn't met a strange cat I didn't befriend, so there was that. And yet, there was the hissing beast that had chased away the raccoon, which could be friend or foe. I most certainly had to defend my territory from dangerous creatures, and this one had the potential to be dangerous. But, I realized when I glanced around, I wasn't near my territory. I wasn't near anything I'd seen before. I couldn't very well just run for home; I hadn't any idea which way to go and it wouldn't do to get any more lost with a possible predator on my tail. Friend or not? I decided to find out for certain. It was daylight and too fine a day for dark evil creatures to be lurking about. Now, how to meet his stranger? Was I to have to go to him, or her? "Are you coming down?" I asked; although, I wasn't really sure if I was hoping he or she was going to or not. "No. I like the scenery up here." Well, if the cat wouldn't come to me, then I would go to him- or her! I promptly discovered that tree climbing was best done with longer claws. Lucky for me mine were at least in the beginning stages of growing out. I could get a secure grip on the trunk. Removing a paw and moving it to the next higher notch, was a trick that required practice and strength. I could do it, but when I looked up I could see I had a long way to go yet. I dropped back down to the ground. I backed up and took a running leap, clearing several feet of the trunk and giving myself a fair advantage from the start. I had saved myself half the climb in one leap! "Is that the best you can do?" came the taunting voice. I wasn't about to waste my breath, breath I might need defending myself, on foolish chatter. Putting my all into holding on and climbing up was of primary importance. I hauled all my weight onto a limb and caught my breath. "If you jump, you can get further faster." The voice was much higher up. "If I miss, I'll get further faster, too, just not where I'm trying to go," I snapped back. That's when I saw the other cat's tail. Not a long tail like Heero's or a fluffy grand tail like Duo's. This tail had black rings and a solid black tip—like a raccoon's! The base was fluffed out, signaling... what? My fur fluffed along my back and tail when I was afraid, but this other cat did not appear to fear me at all; I didn't know what his intentions were! Confusing body language meant our communicating would be all messed up. He leaped to another branch with the ease of a squirrel, but his movement was lissome and poised. He was certainly well-practiced and self-confident and beautiful—so fluid and agile. And- oh, dear whiskers- what long legs he had! His legs had to be easily twice the length of mine! Three times! Like a dog! Certainly this was no housecat! It was a ferocious (look at those fangs!) wild raccoon-dog-cat! What kind of a mess had I got myself into?! Why hadn't I insisted that Duo and Heero walk me home? Rashid was right. Curiosity can, in fact, kill the Cat! Oh, dear! I was so high off the ground! The tall, lanky wild cat drew very close and his tail flicked and then wagged. "You are a raccoon-dog-cat!" I cried out. "What did you call me?" "I don't know!" I wailed. I couldn't have told him my own name at the time I was so distraught. I was frankly scared out of my wits and it didn't help that when I looked down, down was so very, very far away. I was stuck! I could not hop up, of that I was certain. It seemed as though all the feral skills had been bred out of me. With very little effort, I could fall to the ground and probably to my death. If I wanted to continue being alive, even for the short amount of time it would take for the wild dog-cat to tear me to shreds, I would have to stand my ground, my branch (which was feeling far less sturdy than before, reducing itself to a mere twig), and brave it out. I came out of my crouch and treaded out on my bough one step. My head held high and a neighborly purr in my throat. "Let's not fight. Let's be friends instead." I closed my eyes and waited for whatever might come next. "I thought we were." "I hadn't expected you to say that at all!" "I greeted you." He flicked his tail in demonstration. "That's how my kind shows pleasure and excitement." "Oh! Well, I didn't know that. It's seems aggressive to me." "It wasn't." "I'm very glad to hear that." "So, how do you show... pleasure and excitement?" If this was intended to be a simple comparison of cultural manners, it didn't sound that way. His voice was pitched low and smooth and sultry. A purr bubbled up my throat in response. "Purring. Yes, I purr, too," he said before I could get in a word edgewise. "It's the language of love." I clearly wasn't used to his dialect, and decided to keep the conversation light and formal. You couldn't fault good manners! "My name is Cat and it's nice to meet you." "Cat?" He leaned very, very close and looked at my collar. "No, not c-a-t. Your name is Quatre." He said this with a husky trill that sounded like "Kaaaaa- traaa". "It's French for the number four. Quat would be the shortened form. It's written on your license." "My what?" He could read?! "License. That metal tab hanging from your collar. "Quatre of the Winner Family breeders. A-1 pedigree. I'm sure you've got papers, too." "I do, and I like to play with them, but I'm not allowed to tear them up. Nevertheless, I do, and then I have to hide the shreds under the sofa." Why was I telling him all this, I wondered? It had to be nerves. "Wrong papers, I think. The ones I mean tell where you came from." "The city?" "Not exactly. Your parentage. And if your parents have been shown, it will tell you if they have been winners and so on." "We are Winners." "Yes, you are Winner's Quatre, but I was talking about your parents' awards, prizes, ah... It's not important." "You seem to know a lot about me, while I don't even know exactly what you are." "I'm a cat." "You are?" I know I must have sounded terribly insulting to him. "I mean, you look so... wild." That could be taken as a compliment; I hoped he would see it that way. He seemed pleased. "In part. I'm a Savannah. That means my father was a wild Serval cat and my mother a domestic. Certainly you've noticed me before." "No, I would have remembered you." I let the import of his statement bounce off of me; I was so distracted by his supple body. (The entire conversation would have to sink in a few days, and then, when I was thinking straight, I could stumble across what he was insinuating.) In the meantime, I thought he moved gracefully in a tree, far more than any cat I'd seen, and those legs! "You are very athletic." "I am". He stretched out showing off his legs to their full length. "I've never seen such... fine legs on a cat." "I know. Comes with the breed. You may call me Trowa, if you'd like." "Trowa. That's a nice name." "Right. So?" "So... what?" He bucked his head into my side—gently, but I had to grip the bark with all my might to stay in place. "That wasn't very—" "It was a greeting. Now, get your bearings." The tall cat pointed his nose off to the right. "Over there, the clump of trees, is your house." I saw the trees, which looked small from this height, the fence and shrubbery portioning me from Heero's garden, and the hedge row separating the end of my property from a great expanse of carefully manicured lawns and gardens—Relena's. "I see how to get home now. Thank you." I made the mistake of starting to move and ended up frozen in place again. "Need a paw down the tree, or are you comfortable on your own?" "I'm certainly not comfortable climbing down," I said honestly. No good friendship came out of a nest of lies, Rashid always told me. "Very well." I was sure that he didn't mean that to sound as self-satisfied as it did. I also wasn't prepared for him to do more than lend me a paw, show me the safest path down. Without warning, I felt a tug at the back of my neck and then my paws left the safety of their untrustworthy perch. "Oh!" "Relax." He was carrying me like a mother cat would a kitten—how mortifying! In that position there was nothing I could do but remain limp and let him cart me, bouncing a lot, down the tree (he ran!). We ended up a little distance from the great trunk in a soft clump of grass. His hooded eyes were already surveying the territory for danger, or fun, I couldn't tell which, although I was beginning to sense he was not a "let's do it for fun" adventurer like Duo. "Thank you for the aid," I said a little snippier than I'd meant to, but I was still smarting from the disgraceful dismount from the tree. Trowa combined chirping with a meow in a voice that turned me into a puddle of cream. "Ahhhh my little catling, is that any way to thank your rescuer?" Catling! He just called me a kitten, again! "You can't fool me with your sweet talk! I know the word kitten when I hear it and I AM NOT A KITTEN! I'm a Birman and all my colors have come in, so that's proof!" I turned my back on him in an effort to march away, dignity intact. "Just a moment," he said. I stopped. I heard him sniffing. It was me he was sniffing; I felt a nudge from behind and was about to tell him to go away when a warmth spread from between my back legs. I tried to look between my front legs, upside down, at what he was doing, because I was certain it was he who had touched me, there. Another lick as his wet tongue rasped over my furry privates. "Your balls," came his muffled voice. I must have articulated some of my incomplete thoughts and he'd spoilt my polite anatomical reference with his own rude one! The nerve of this stranger irked me. No one had ever licked me there before. I meant to stop him. "Wh-what are you doing?" "Determining your sex. With all the fur, I couldn't tell for sure. You're male." I knew that. I did my best to look insulted, yet genteel. "I'll stop if you want," he offered. "That's enough then. You learned what you wanted." "You're purring, despite your attempt to look injured." "I wasn't-! You disrespected me!" "No, I find you very attractive and I was trying to seduce you. Entirely different." Seduce me? "But you're a male, too?" He smiled, sat back on his haunches, lifted his left leg, and proceeded to clean his privates—right there in front of me! "You noticed. Good." I noticed, all right. I couldn't tear my eyes away from the sight of him ravaging himself for me to see. "You- You're awful! I cried out. He looked up with those wild cat eyes, golden green, narrowed, and then laughed. "Yeah, aren't I?" "Yes!" "Well, you shouldn't be surprised." "I am! And why shouldn't I be?" "Didn't you get my message? I left ample proof of my interest." "Heero did find some scent marks and unidentified droppings-" "Not that! You have to have been tripping over them! Though I suspect a few might have gotten past you; those humans in your house tossed one out, that I saw. But you can't say you didn't see the last one; it was large enough to eat you, if it were a carnivore!" A chill ran down my spine. "Oh, no! Not all the little dead animals! You didn't ... leave a swath of death on my doorstep!" "They were gifts." "Gifts?! Haven't you more respect for life? There is nothing more valuable than life in this universe. Rashid has taught me that." "I do. But I'm a cat and wanted to impress you with my hunting ability. 'Sweeten the kitty', you understand?" Far too flustered to continue the conversation with the exciting, mysterious stranger, I bid him good day. "I must go now or I'll be late for dinner." "Quatre. Before you go, I just wanted to say, to warn you—" "About what? Talking to strangers? I think I've already broken that rule and paid the price." He looked hurt for an instant and then a little lost. "You're not going to like what I left today." "Hmmm? What was that?" I didn't quite hear him. I was distracted by his change in demeanor. Not so confident, even, I'd say, a little shy. He stepped away. "Nothing important." He turned back as if he'd changed his mind. "Just remember, Mandarin ducks mate for life and when one loses his mate, well, he's sad. Keep that in mind." "All right." I would but I didn't understand the significance of that information at the time. But I did check the door step and there it was—a beautiful duck! A dead duck! I knew what I had to do and do it quickly and with dispatch. I gripped the soft feathered body in my jaws and lifted—oh, it was heavy—the dear thing's body off the concrete and carried it -oh my jaws were tired—to the grass. There I had to put it down and rest a little. Trowa was very strong to catch and carry this here. Instead of carrying the bird, I dragged it by the neck to the far corner of the garden and hid it beneath the hedge. There, it could rest in peace and not bring my role as a housecat into question with Miss Iria. I licked my whiskers clean and purred at the lovely taste in my mouth. Blood! The duck's blood! I was, it seemed, no better than my peers, no less a primitive beast. I felt terrible. Later that night when I was drifting off to sleep-recalling the highlights of the day, like: Wufei with his guilty look and silvery fish, the cricket, and the best, or worst, of all meeting the wild cat, the sexy, sultry, oh-so terribly interesting, wild cat—Trowa's words came back to me. The mated duck who'd lost his mate would be sad. Could it be that Trowa put the lonely one who'd lost his dear love out of his misery? That he'd done an honorable service to the duck? And gifted me with the beautiful treasure. I would have been happier had I not tasted its blood, my first taste of creature blood, and discovered that it tasted so good. TBC
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