Almost had it that time Mungojerrie dived at the piece of string again. If any of the older cats saw him now he'd probably get a lecture on being childish and how, being almost a full-grown cat, he was getting too old for these silly kit games but the truth was, he loved playing these games. They made him feel young(er) and innocent-just how he'd been before Macavity got hold of him. Made him forget he had spent almost half of his life under the employ of the Napoleon of Crime as little more than a slave-taking orders given to him without complaint and very rarely being rewarded for his work. Even though he and his sister were now free from him thanks to the other Jellicles, (which is another story) he felt he had a lot of lost playtime to make up for. They both still went out looting most nights, although now it was mostly food, which they shared with the others, rather than valuables. They had tried their best to stop all together but old habits die hard. It was what they'd been taught, no, forced to do.
"Getting slow in your old age eh Tom?" Sarah teased, dangling the string in front of his nose. Sarah was the youngest of Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer's humans and the only one who could stand them, in fact the two of them would have been kicked out long ago if it wasn't for her. The two calico's in turn gave her the honour of being the only human they behaved for (most of the time). She giggled as Mungojerrie stood on his hind legs and caught the string in his front paws, giving her a playful nip on the hand
"Ok I take that back." She said, still smiling
So you should Mungojerrie thought, giving her hand a small lick where he'd nipped her.
"Sarah, time for bed." 'her mother called out from the kitchen
"Ok mum!" Sarah called back getting up off the floor and heading up the stairs towards her room. Mungojerrie lay in the cat bed he usually shared with Rumpleteazer but found he couldn't sleep out of slight fear. It was just him tonight. Victoria's owner had had something called a sleepover a while ago and it had looked so much fun she had decided she wanted to have one of her own. Unfortunately it was a girl's only thing. Not that he minded his sister going, he just didn't really like the idea of being alone at the moment. Macavity had a lot of cats working for him, which meant a lot of newly gained enemies, and like him, they had no objections to sneaking into someone's house to do a 'job', whether stealing or worse. Startled by a particularly load noise which came from outside he jumped out and darted up the stairs to Sarah's room. He ran through the door and sat at the foot of the bed giving a small mew. Sarah looked at him sleepily. "Feeling lonely without Kassy Tom?" She mumbled
he gave another mew and bowed his head as if nodding.
"Come on then." The girl sighed giving the mattress a pat. He happily obliged and curled up against Sarah's chest, purring lightly as he let her stroke him behind the ear. He slowly felt himself drifting off to sleep until
"Sarah what is that creature doing on your bed?"
Uh oh Mungojerrie thought sitting up
"Tom's not a creature mum, he's a cat." Sarah stated "And Kassy's disappeared. He doesn't want to sleep on his own."
"Well that's what he's going to do young lady. After what they did in the pantry and the smashed vase in the library, the last thing I need is him messing up your room as well."
"I promise he won't mum and if he does I'll clean it up. Just for tonight Pleeaase?" Sarah begged, giving her mother her best puppy dog eyes. The eyes she knew no one could resist.
"Can those eyes get any bigger?" Sarah's mother sighed rolling her eyes "Alright but just for tonight. Don't make it a habit young lady."
She shut the door leaving the two of them alone. Sarah lay back down and pulled Mungojerrie onto her stomach, resuming her stroking until she fell asleep, one arm still drapped over him. Mungojerrie contemplated her, trying not to move too much incase he woke her up. This was another one of many times that she'd looked out for him and his sister.