Miranda hated cats.

Andy, however, did not.

Hence how she arrived home one night after work to find a ginger tomcat sprawled out in front of their fireplace like a smug apparition, licking his leg in front of her. Patricia, of course, was little to no help having spent the past five minutes simply staring at it and wagging her tail. She sighed.

"Darling!" She could hear rummaging coming from one of the two studies on the second floor; however which one Andrea was occupying she wasn't certain. "Andrea!" It was the closest thing to a shout the magazine tycoon ever came to.

"…Yes?!" Came the muffled reply.

"Darling could you come down here a moment?" She heard the creek of a drawer being closed before the soft padding of footsteps as her wife descended the stairs. Soon enough a brunette head was popped around the doorframe.

"What's wrong Mir'?" Soft quizzical eyes sought hers before Miranda pointed to the creature quirking a brow. "Oh, so this is Quentin… the girls said that they'd really like a cat for their birthday. I thought I'd surprise them as they're staying over at Becky's tonight from school. You remember?" Miranda nods whilst still eyeing up the feline who had now moved on to grooming his front paw. "I got him from the local pet rescue; I thought you might like the name?" She could feel the brown eyes of her lover on her, searching for a hint of a response from the editor. However before Miranda had a chance to so much as twitch an eyelid at the journalist's direction the cat started to walk towards her. So she did what any normal, middle aged woman would do; and promptly ran out the room. Leaving her highly amused spouse in her wake.

Andrea found her sat on one of the barstools in the kitchen nursing a coffee.

"Are we going to talk about your apparent fear of cats or shall I pretend that I haven't just seen the great "Miranda Priestly" run away from an overweight tabby cat?" She stopped short when she noticed the shorter woman was using visibly shaking hands to hold her coffee mug. "Honey… why did you never tell me?"

"Because it's a cat Andrea. A cat" She shook her head once before staring into the warm liquid. "I am supposed to instil fear, not feel it." Instead she felt a soft hand on her shoulder and a kiss to her temple. When she next looked up she noted that her journalist had kneeled next to her, allowing them to be almost eye-to-eye. "I didn't want you to think less of me." She whispered before being drawn into a kiss.

"I couldn't think less of you if I tried Love, I will always think you're amazing." She hadn't realised that there were tears in her eyes until soft thumbs wiped away the trails down each of her cheeks. "I can take him back to the cattery if you'd like?" She shook her head stating how unfair on the children it was. No she was going to live with that creature, so long as it stayed far away from her. At. All. Times. She'd grown fond of Patricia, her beloved St Bernard after the initial wariness. She'd get over a mangy tabby cat.

Or so she thought. Within a week the cat had managed to impregnate the majority of her impeccably clean townhouse with its fur as well as having a litterbox taking up space within the ground floor bathroom. She now ensured that the door was closed over to save the entire ground floor from smelling of cat. The girls were obviously thrilled earning Andy the title of "cool Mom" for at least three days afterwards as Miranda's fear of cats had been well known with the girls, hence them asking Andy instead, knowing she was the most likely to agree.

Eventually the creature had become bold enough to start trying to explore the rooms further into the house. This included her bedroom. One morning; whilst wrapped around a sleeping Andrea; she was awoken to a tickling on her nose. Twitching her eyes open she found the tail of the cat had been tickling her nose as he slept just above Andrea's head.

She was told that the scream she emitted was loud enough to wake the dead.

Certainly louder than any other noise than Andy had heard come from the softly spoken editor before. Once she'd removed the sleep fog from her brain she'd put the pieces together about what must have happened. The cat had sprinted away, leaving the room from the gap in the doorway that he must've created sometime in the night and her wife. Well, Miranda was sat up in some kind of daze, tears trailing down her porcelain cheeks. Her perfect white coif dishevelled from sleep. Andy's heart froze at seeing the normally unshakable woman she loved looking so distraught. For once Andy was glad that the girls and their younger brother, Spencer were staying with her parents for the weekend. As for her editor…

"I think I need help Andrea. I cannot live like this." There was a shake in Miranda's voice that she wished she could control. It was bad enough that Andrea had seen her lose control like that. "Maybe I need to see a psychiatrist?" At that comment the journalist snorted. It earned her the "stare" from her wife but it was worth it.

"I don't think you need to see a psychiatrist Babe, what I think would help would maybe be if you didn't immediately run out the room once the cat comes in? He's scared of you too you know, he's managed to realise the rest of us won't hurt him but with you before you notice he's there he's on edge." Miranda feels the bed dip behind her as she's pulled backwards into a tight embrace. "Do you think you could try I don't know, maybe touching the cat whilst the kids aren't here?" Other than the stiffening within her embrace Miranda gave no reply before finally sighing and giving a swift single nod. "Okay, I'm…" she lands a kiss to a temple, "…proud" and another "…of you." Before getting up to go find the tabby cat.

She returned minutes later with the long suffering, now no doubt partially deaf cat in her arms. It was purring, the thing was actually purring as Andrea tickled behind its ear. "Quentin, it's time to meet your other mother."

"We are not the mothers of this cat; we already have 3 wonderful childr-." She was stopped in her tracks when her hand was lifted and placed on the back of the cat. She sucked in an intake of breath, waiting for the cat to swipe at her. But he didn't, he simply leaned into her touch and started purring. After a few minutes of this Andrea looked into her eyes in question, with another single nod the cat was placed into her lap with the whisper of "I'll go get the lint remover… before you have to ask."

An hour later both Miranda and the cat had fallen asleep, leaving an amused Andy to herself to both get changed for a start to a lazy weekend. And snap a photo, of course. It'd been six years since the start of their romance; they'd watch the twins grow from prank pulling eight year olds to beautiful albeit-awkward 14 year olds. Spencer was coming up to four and was the spitting imagine of the younger woman but with the quiet watchful eyes of his other mother. However the biggest change she'd noticed was in her wife. A woman whom fiercely protected her private life, often seeming to be the devil herself in the way she handled business. With her fake, crocodile smile and her condescending sneer. It was only after leaving runway and bumping into the editor completely by chance that Andy had had the good fortune to see another side to the editor. A side in which she kept hidden, for fear of being hurt. A much softer, loving, warm side to the editor that was not funny due to some unfortunate plebe's expense, but funny in her own right. After being well and truly "courted" by her white haired spouse she was asked to move in with Miranda and the girls, agreeing almost immediately (she had originally wanted the editor to sweat a little over the outcome, relinquishing that to excitement, she had called back ten minutes later) and the rest they say was history. However Andy loved learning new things about her white haired beauty and seeing her lose her cool over a ginger haired moggy was both adorable and surprising, it reminded Andy why she fell in love with the editor all over again.

If only she knew how to remove the cat from her lovers grip… she wanted some cuddles too…