For HumanGuineapig's Coricopat Contest.

The Yard was silent. Nothing moved, nothing spoke. Except for one creature...a cat. A tom, to be exact. He was white with black and auburn markings, ones that almost looked like scratch marks. The tom walked silently along the moonlit path in the Yard, wondering what the others in his tribe would think if they saw him right now. Coricopat was almost always next to his twin, and the rare times he wasn't he was usually within sight of her. What they didn't know was that this wasn't by choice. She kept him close, and if he left her sight she tended to start panicking worse then Demeter. Not much scared his twin, but the thought of loosing her brother terrified her. So, he put up with it during the day and took walks by himself as she slept. Of course, he always mentally monitored her, so that he could get home before she woke up and started to panic.

Soon, he was climbing up the pile that led to his favorite spot. There, not only could he see thousands of stars, but he could also see miles of the surrounding forest. It was the only place where he felt he could truly let down all of his barriers and become himself. He settled on top of the pile, sitting on an old couch and looked up at the sky. He had only ben sitting there a few moments when a shooting star flew across the sky. He sat up, inhaling quickly as his eyes widened.

"Make a wish." Cori jumped, turning quickly to look and see who had followed him up the pile. His eyes grew even wider to see the Rum Tum Tugger. The maned tom was not only without is trademark belt, but also without a smirk. Instead, his arms were crossed over his chest and he was smiling...almost gently at Cori. He uncrossed his arms and walked over, sitting on the couch also. Cori blinked at him, a bit unsettled. He had always felt something a bit off about Tugger's actions, and a few run ins had convinced him that Tugger wasn't all he appeared to be. However, he still wasn't quite sure who the real Tugger was, and he could never get him alone long enough to find out. After a few moments, he turned his gaze back to the sky.

"Why do you always come here?"

"Hmm?"

"Why do you always leave your sister and come here? I thought you two were as inseparable as glue."

"Tantomile...clings. There was an incident when we were younger and I almost died. Since then, she has kept me as close as she could all the time. Paranoid twin sister syndrome, I call it. Our cousins agree." Cori smiled slightly and Tugger turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Okay, now you have to tell me more. What kind of incident? You have cousins? Why aren't they with the tribe?" Tugger was about to say more, but Cori started laughing.

"Hold on! Give me a chance to answer! Mistoffelees is one of our cousins, believe it or not, and we have two others, Tara and Dante, who lead another tribe. Tantomile brought us here after the incident." Cori paused for a second, a shadow passing over his face as he remembered. He looked down at his paws, ears flattening to his head. He seemed to pull in on himself a bit. "The incident was...I was...captured and r...r-raped by Macavity's father." He heard Tugger gasp, though he still hadn't looked up.

"What?"

"Yeah. See, it isn't Macavity whose evil. It's his father. Macavity wouldn't be able to pull even half of the crimes he's been accused of." A small smile flickered over his face. "He ran away from his father when he was young, and ended up with Tara and Dante's tribe. He explained who his parents were, and how he didn't want to live there and grow up to be like them. He was accepted, though some psychics monitored him to make sure he showed no signs of evil. Aside from a few attempts by his father to get him back, nothing really happened as we grew up.

"Then I became Macavity's lover." There was a hastily stifled choking sound from Tugger, but Cori ignored it. Now that he had started telling his story, he needed to finish.

"Macavity's father found out, and he was furious. Until he realized that he could use me to get to his son. So he planned, and waited. Then, when he got an opportunity, he kidnapped me. I-I won't go into detail, but I will say that he was brutal, and I almost died from the injuries I received. The rescue party finally arrived, and Makerik gave Macavity the ultimatum; join Makerik and he would heal me. Refuse, and I would die. I fainted at about that point, so I don't know how they got me out, and kept Macavity free." Cori closed his eyes.

"Macavity can easily be told apart from his father, but their appearances were close enough that I wasn't completely comfortable with him anymore. Eventually, Tara, Dante, Tanto and Misto all agreed that it would be better if Tanto and I came here. And for awhile, it seemed like I would be able to recover mentally and everything would end up fine, even though me and Macavity had both moved on."

"Then Demeter and Bombalurina came, saying all of those things about Macavity. I immediately went and told Munkustrap that they were wrong, but he wouldn't believe me. I wrote to Tara to ask her what to do, but she hasn't replied yet. I'm starting to worry that Makerik has done something to them."

They both sat in silence for a few moments, then Tugger looked at Cori.

"You said that both you and Macavity have moved on. Does that mean you're available?" Cori blinked.

"Umm...yes. But I can't see any tom wanting a broken, dirty, paranoid tom like me. And I'm plain looking, so I don't even have that as an excuse." Tugger snorted and Cori looked at him curiously.

"If you actually think that, then you haven't looked in a mirror lately, or talked to any of this tribe."

"What do you mean?"

"You're sweet, nice, amusing, a good friend and just all around amazing. You are the farthest thing from plain; I know of at least three queens, and four toms, who would be ecstatic if you agreed to be their mate."

Cori snorted. "You're making that up."

"No I'm not. If you hadn't told me, I would never have believed that you had been raped and tortured. You are amazing." Tugger hesitated, then gently grabbed Cori's chin and turned the stripped tom to look at him. "And that's what made me fall in love with you." He gently pressed his lips to Cori's.

Coricopat's eyes widened. He was frozen with shock for a moment, then he quickly and tentatively looked in Tugger's mind. The maned tom let him look, and see that he was telling the complete truth. He was rewarded when Cori began to tentatively kiss him back.

'I never would have thought you returned my feelings...' Cori whispered softly in Tugger's mind. Tugger's only response was to pull him closer and kiss him harder.

'Tir miret novyeh sahmel kyahmeiral murteih to eeveyah, Tro kekra tukmor*.' Cori's heart skipped a beat and a shaking paw rose to cradle Tugger's cheek.

I will never let anyone hurt you ever, my soulmate.

*I made up these words. They aren't real.

There will be more eventually, once I figure out what I want to do with this. I have vague plans, let me just get a bit more substance to them. For now, enjoy this!