HAT: Yeah, I entered another challenge, but *shrugs* who cares? It gets you more stories to read. Anyway, I hope that you enjoy!
Today is the day! I'll ask out Rumpelteazer and she'll be mine! I smooth out my fur and make sure that I look my best, but I feel I don't look good enough. She could have any cat in the entire junkyard, so why would she go for me? I shake these doubts from my head and walk forward, my heart pounding so hard in my chest that I'm sure it will burst out and everyone will see it. She turns to me, her dark brown eyes alight with excitement, allowing them to gain that green tint that they get sometimes and my insides melt.
"Hey, Misto, what's up?" she asks with that adorable Cockney accent.
"H-hey, Teazer," I stutter, mentally cursing myself for it. "What're you up to?"
A mischievous grin so I know she's going to rob someone. "Jerrie and I are gonna hit up the biggest house on Victorian Grove! They've got a lot of guard dogs and security, it's supposedly really hard to get into and no thief's ever been able to get into it in the history of it's existence, but that won't last for long because Jerrie and I've cased the place and we're going to steal some of the mot precious items in there!"
"How can you tell if it's that valuable?"
She shrugs. "It's got a certain scent. I can tell a real diamond from a fake one just by sniffing it, even a 5 karat from a 15, it's a thief thing... actually it's just us, only the best can do it and we did it at a young age in fact," she informs proudly.
Wow, she's certainly skilled, I think. "That's impressive!"
"Yeah," she agrees.
Do it! Do it now! "So, um... Teazer, how about in a few nights you and I," I see her tilt her head and wait for me and I can't help but feel like I'm going to be rejected so I immediately say, "could grab a few cats and have a party and now that you mention this, we could celebrate your accomplishment."
"That sounds great! Tomorrow night. See you then!" she says as she rushes over to her darker brother and quietly discusses their plans, making sure to hush when an adult walks by.
I sigh and realize how badly I failed. Turns out that today wasn't the day after all. I want to rake my paws through my head fur, but I can't exactly do that to show my frustrations since I don't want to explain to anyone my situation. Instead I go into my pipe and plop down, watching Rumpelteazer with a sigh.
"That was an epic fail," a familiar baritone voice says.
The fur along my spine instinctively stands up as I look at a ginger figure. "Shut up, Macavity."
The yellow eyed tom rolls his eyes and adjusts the collar that I made especially for him to keep him under control. He's still our prisoner, but he's been given a bit more freedoms for good behavior and the fact that I made that special collar, combining my magic with Coricopat and Tantomile's magic... that and having it be an electric collar in the first place is also a good thing and the Protector and Guards have remotes to activate the shock collar in order to give a little painful bit of electricity that leaves him on the ground shaking and rethinking his actions which led to it. Okay, yeah, it's shock therapy, but when none of the Guards are present, us magic cats are connected to him and if we feel anything go wrong, our magic activates the collar.
"Don't be mad because I call it as I see it," he growls before rolling his eyes. "Listen, I know how it is to get rejected, first time I asked a queen out she said no... so I'mma get you something to eat. If Munkustrap lets me, I'll take you out to dinner, if not, I'll either make you something or catch you something."
He's been surprisingly helpful, not that much, but when he is, he is. We discovered that he's always been a little protective of our sisters, which is understandable, and he threatened Pouncival over Jemima (we allowed that) as well as Plato over Victoria (also allowed) and so we've grown to somewhat trust him, but not always. We still thoroughly check anything that he catches for us to see if it's poisoned because no one ever knows. Still, something that's being worked on.
"Okay... thanks," I say.
After eating with him I go over to Tumblebrutus and talk about him helping me with my next trick for the kits later this week when suddenly I'm swept away by two of my brothers. I look up at silver and gold and wonder what on earth I did this time. I didn't play any pranks, I've been a good cat for the past few days so there's no reason for them to be angry. Suddenly we stop and they don't do anything but look at me with pity. I lift an eyebrow, but stay silent myself. What could they possibly want from me.
Tugger sighs. "Poor, poor Misto."
"Um... what're you talking about?" I ask.
"We heard about your fail with Teazer," Munkustrap informs.
That piece of mouse shit! Why would he tell them?! I think, my ear twitching while I look up at them. "I'm fine."
"No, secretly you're hurting," the silver tabby says with a sigh. "I know how that feels, but you've just gotta-"
"Go ahead and tell her, 'hey, wanna go out?' and give her a rose, give her a flirtatious smile," the black and gold tom says.
"No, just ask her out, no Tugger style."
"It'll give hi a chance!"
While they argue I walk away, rubbing my temples. Now that it seems everyone's gonna know, I'll be ruined. I slip into my pipe and get ready to take a nap and give up when someone stops to stand in front of the pipe. I look up at my eldest brother and groan.
"What do you want?" I demand.
"To play cards, you said we would," he says.
I groan. "Yeah, that's right. Sorry I forgot."
We go into my den that I share with no one anymore since Jemima moved out with Pouncival. He gets the cards from my drawer and I set up the table, getting some soda and a little wine on the side just in case it goes later than usual. I sit down and lean back in the chair while Macavity deals.
"You're in a real fix with Teazer aren't you?"
"Tell me about it... and it seems any advice I get from Munkus or Tugger doesn't seem right."
"Hm..." hums the ginger tom as he looks at his cards. "What do you wager?"
I pull out some money and place it on the table. "There."
Macavity puts some on the table too. "See, queens are like a card game."
I make a face. "I don't think queens will appreciate that very much."
He scoffs. "Let me finish... see, they're like poker or black jack or some other gambling game. You have to put up an offer, one that you hope they can't refuse, but it's a gamble because of the fact that they might like it or they might not, but you hope, like you do with any other card game... you hope you win and get the jackpot."
"And if you don't get it?" I ask, though I know the answer.
"It was a gamble anyway, you took that chance and you lost it... but if you have someone there to support you, it won't be so bad and you can get up on your feet again."
I nod. "Okay... that's... that's good advice," I mutter with a nod.
"Three kings!" my ginger tom yells, throwing down his cards.
I curse under my breath and watch my money be taken. I really hope that it's not a sign. I spend the rest of the night playing cards with Macavity and at least winning my money back before I send him out so I can get some sleep for tomorrow since I've got to look after my nephew, Wrata Tat Tat while she and Plato go out to dinner (which I get the feeling that he'll be in trouble)... yeah, Tugger named him while he was drunk, but Victoria liked it and stuck with it... yeah, I wasn't around to disapprove or give a better name therefore he's stuck with it.
"Night," I call.
"Night," he replies. "Remember what I said."
"I will," I assure before I close the door.
It's been a few days since the "pep talk" from Macavity and I've been unable to ask Rumpelteazer out on a date at all, but I guess I have only myself to blame. I'm afraid. I'm gambling with my heart and it's something I don't like gambling with at all. She could break it, she could stomp on it and not even know how much it tears be apart. I could end up looking at her every day and feel my heart break more and more until it shatters. I don't want to take that chance, but... It's a chance I have to take otherwise I'll be stuck in the "what if this happened?" and "what if I did this" area where I'm questioning why I didn't bother to take that chance.
"H-hey, Rumpelteazer," I stutter as I catch her alone.
She smiles at me and my heart flutters in my chest. "Hey, Misto, how's it going?"
I shrug. "Pretty good. What about you?"
"About as decent as it gets on a boring day like this. What's up?"
Her dark brown eyes gain that flash of green and I gulp. "W-would you like go go on a date with me?"
A smile and I'm standing there with my heart pounding in my chest while the noise echos in my ears while I wait for what feels like forever when it's probably been a few seconds. "I-I'm sorry, I'm just not in the dating game right now."
There goes my heart. Cracked and left in the trash. "Oh... okay, I was just wondering, it's no big de-" she kisses my cheek.
"Maybe some other time," she says with a shrug. "I just broke it off with someone so I'm still recovering."
I smile. "Okay... um, for now, let's just hang out?"
"Sure, I'd like that."
So my heart's not completely shattered, I have a chance later and that's at least something. I see Macavity looking at me with a look of both pity and pride. He knows what happened and I'm pretty glad that it happened like this because it's better than her outright being denied.
Suddenly I'm elbowed. "Ow! What?"
"Look at them," the calico queen says, gesturing to Victoria and Plato, who's trying to talk to the white queen, but getting nowhere. "Oh, Plato's in trouble."
I nod. "Oh, yeah."
HAT: Not end the way you thought, huh?
Gus: Not at all... a gamble?
HAT: Yeah, everyone gambles their heart at least once.
Gus: Uh-huh... some later or earlier than others. So, how about that? They're somewhat... no, they're not a couple.
HAT: Yeah...
Gus: What now?
HAT: Um... you say what you cam out here for.
Gus: Please, review!
HAT: Bye!
Gus: No... Get. Off.
HAT: *gets off his back and falls into a black hole* BACON!