Despite some troubling times fighting off the villains of Nowhere and the much more recent deaths of her owners/parents, Courage could honestly say she was happy with her life. Katz treated her decently now, as Kitty had promised he would once she'd revealed her true gender. Actually, he appeared to be your typical British gentleman; opening doors, pulling out chairs, and overall being the most courteous person she'd ever met. He'd even bought her a birthday present! A book called Where The Red Fern Grows, which so far is amazing. Currently she sat in the farmer's cushy red chair, reading the book. "Cup of tea dear girl?" The smooth accented voice came suddenly, startling Courage so badly she nearly dropped the book.
The pink pup looked up at the red feline before her, holding a tray with a tea set on it, the drink steaming hot. With a smile she replied, "Yes please." The cat placed the tray on the coffee table separating the chair from the couch and made her a cup, already knowing how she liked hers after making her a cup nearly everyday for the past two weeks. After marking the page she accepted the warm beverage with a grateful smile and a slight tail wag. "Thank you Katz. How are you feeling today?"
"You are welcome." He sat down on the couch, nursing his own cup. "Fine, although I find that I tire easily." Clearly this physical setback from his accident upset him. As he sipped his tea Courage glanced at his tail, seeing the tip flick back and forth in agitation, but made sure not to stare openly. Katz, for some strange reason, did not like for people to look at his tail too much. Apparently this had always been the case, even as a kitten, according to Kitty, and Courage really did try to respect that, but it was the easiest way for her to gauge Katz mood.
"Well, you still have more endurance then me." He only frowned at her, not at all amused by her attempted humor. But she didn't mind. If she'd gotten ran over that day, she most likely would not be in a good mood either. Better than Katz for sure, but not by much. Especially not without some one to help take care of her.
"Yes, well, so does this coffee table." Courage cracked a grin at the cat's teasing insult, knowing he hadn't meant it to be hurtful at all, and it wasn't. Katz just made sarcastic remarks because that's who he is. And she kinda liked the playful banter, for all it's one-sided appearance. Somehow the snarky speech made her feel better then the sympathetic tones of nearly everyone else, which only served to remind her of what she'd lost. Katz showed something she could reach for, a new friendship that was unique from anything she'd had with either Eustace or Muriel.
"Oh, don't be so harsh." Kitty sat beside her brother with a mug in hand, probably coffee. Soon after the two moved in a secret rivalry about beverages had been unearthed. Kitty preferred strong black coffee, while Katz liked tea with two lumps of sugar. Personally Courage thought both were very good, but there was no way she'd convince either of them to accept this philosophy. "I seem to recall her out doing you on several occasions." Katz kissed softly at his sister, tail flickering in agitation as she picked at his wounded pride. While he could and did take most teasing well, there were just some things that served as sore spots for the tom cat, and none knew, or exploited, them better than Kitty.
Thankfully the tension broke when Bunny slammed the front door wide open, causing everyone present, excluding Bunny herself of course, to jump in surprise. "I'm home!" Kitty started purring and practically pounced on her partner, rubbing against her as always. Bunny set down the shopping bags to return the favor. "Oh, I missed you so much!"
"I missed you too." The cat purred louder and started making out with the other girl. We gave them a couple of minutes, but when they showed no signs of stopping Katz interrupted.
"Please control yourself." Katz sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and squeezing his eyes shut.
Kitty whipped her head around and glared at her brother. "Just because I'm not afraid to kiss the girl I like, while you are, doesn't give you the right to be grumpy."
Katz ground his teeth together and growled, "I do NOT want to snog that dog!" That hurt Courage a lot more then she was willing to admit, but she had experience brushing off mean comments, what with everyone claiming she was a stupid dog. Really, where did people come up with that? Courage knew she was no genius, but stupid seemed a bit harsh. She lacked traditional book smarts to be sure, but she was clever and came up with out of the box solutions for her problems. That had to count for something, right?
Although Courage hadn't taken offense, knowing that Katz had insulted her only in the heat of the moment, Kitty apparently did. She clicked her teeth together and let out a low, angry hiss. Bunny stepped back when Kitty released her, not wanting to accidently get caught in the cross fire that was to come, judging on how pissed the felines both seemed. Courage took a deep breath and muttered her motto under her breath before jumping between the duo. Katz jumped off the sofa and she had to place a paw on his chest to stop his advances. Kitty wasn't far behind, but Bunny had toughened up after the initial surprise and grabbed Kitty's arm. "That's enough, both of you!" Courage growled, low and warning. Even if she was smaller than both cats, it was instinctually for them to cower away from growling dogs. Katz seemed rather shameful about it, while Kitty obviously didn't care. She gave Kitty a small smile and spoke gently, "It's okay Kitty, I'm sure he didn't say that to hurt my feelings or anything, right Katz?" The pink dog turned her head to give the other cat an expectant look.
"Of course not." Katz agreed, though nobody knew for sure if it was sincere, or just so that the females would stop bothering him about his word choice. After that the animals returned to the respective seat, except that Courage now sat on the couch and Kitty in the chair. Putting Katz and Kitty on the couch together right now would be asking for trouble.
Everyone just stared at some inconspicuous spot in the living room, the silence awkward and heavy. Bunny cleared her throat , drawing all the attention to herself, and continued, "Um, I got you a couple presents Courage. You know, for your birthday?"
Courage's face scrunched up in confusion, not understanding why Bunny had bought her yet another present, when she'd already gotten her something last week. "But you and Kitty got me a new knife set last week." Although Muriel kept a set in the kitchen, they'd been old and dull, to the point where they couldn't even be sharpened anymore, so when Courage showed an obvious interest in learning to cook, it was only fitting that they buy her proper equipment. And to their credit, Courage did absolutely love them, and used them nearly every day, even if she kept Muriel's old set out stored in the attic.
"Yes, but that had been Kitty's idea, and she paid for most of it." Bunny explained. "I felt like I'd cheaped out on you on your birthday, so I got a gift that's completely from me." She held out four shopping bags, each from different stores, none of which were found in Nowhere, so she went out of town for this. Courage felt her heart clench in pure joy, and a bit of guilt, at the idea that Bunny'd went so far out of her way for her.
Deciding that trying to refuse such a gift would be not only pointless but also rude, she took all four and started with the heaviest bag first. Although they couldn't possibly have been wrapped, Bunny had gotten mounds of tissue paper to cover the top, so one couldn't simply glance inside. Courage eagerly ripped out the paper, throwing most of it into Katz lap, much to his disdain. The pristine animal hated when she made a mess, but she knew he'd keep quiet about it, for now. The first gift turned out to be a very nice looking pair of tall brown boots that came only two or three inches shy of her knee. They were quite lovely, with a zipper to make putting them on easier and two crisscrossing buckles near the top to look stylish. The next bag, which couldn't be bigger than her book, contained a set of silver hoop earrings. Courage couldn't help wagging her tail at them. Next up came a bag from...she probably shouldn't open this one in front of Katz. The Brit huffed in annoyance and The other two females just giggled horribly when Courage turned bight red. The Victoria's secret bag was pushed aside to be opened in private.
The last bag looked innocent enough, just a plain cornflower blue on the outside and not very big at all. The pinkette pulled it over, happily ripping out the paper and peering at the dress inside. The material felt like cotton and had a beautiful pattern of swirling black lines and occasional blue flowers on a white background. So, Bunny had gotten her a new outfit for her birthday, undergarments included. She grinned ear to ear, at least until she pulled the dress completely out of the bag. The others watched in confusion as Courage went from a blissful smile to a blank look. Her face suddenly lot all color and Katz swore she seemed ready to faint.
"Courage?" Bunny whispered, trying not to startle her obviously distressed friend. She'd liked it before she'd pulled it out of the bag, so what was wrong?
"Oh no!" Courage thought, nearly ready to panic. "What do I do? They're all staring at me! What do I do, what do I do?" A sleek red paw rested on her shoulder and she jumped, dropping the offensive garment on the floor. The dog almost fell off the couch, something she hadn't done in a month.
"Courage, calm down." Katz tried to soothe her, he really did, but at the moment he'd done nothing but send her further into her panicking thoughts. "They know something's wrong! And after Bunny went to all this trouble I can't even wear this dress! What f she gets mad at me? What if they all get angry and decide to leave?"
Courage jumped to her feet and ran upstairs ignoring everyone calling for her to come back. All she could focus on was getting to the attic, where Computer still sat. Computer, who knew everything there was no know about the small, timid girl. She'd typed him the details of every adventure, every doubt she'd had, and every scar she'd gotten. When ever something went wrong he always listened to her story and gave the best advice. She slammed the door shut and locked it behind her so the others wouldn't get in if they were angry enough to attack her. Right as the deadbolt slid shut something collided with the door, making Courage jump back with a high pitched whine. Whoever it was started thrashing on the door and Courage back away into a corner shivering, trying to keep herself from crying in fright. "Courage!" Katz yelled. still pounding the door. "Get out here right now!"
"What have you done this time, you twit?" Computer muttered in his monotone voice. I rushed to the desk, typing out everything that had happened today. It took me a moment to realize that by this time the only noise I could hear was the clicking from me pressing on the keyboard and the gentle hum from Computer. "Oh I see. Well there's nothing I can do about that."
The drawback of confining in my nearly apathetic computer was of course that sometimes he'd give these snarky comments that made me want to rip out my hair. Which I began tugging on without realizing as I squealed at him. "No!" I shouted, even though I typed my response as well. "What should I do?"
"Well go back down there and explain yourself of course, you stupid dog." I sucked my bottom lip into my mouth and began worrying it between my teeth. My heart palpitated so harshly for a moment I thought I might have a panic attack. What if I showed them and they decided they didn't want me anymore? If they left I'd just be alone in Muriel's house again, and I know I won't survive that anymore. So, I just passed the time sitting in there, curled in a ball crying until computer finally got angry about that, so instead I surfed the web to take my mind off the issue at hand.
Once nightfall settled another knock came, this time much softer. "Courage?" It was Katz, again, but he no longer sounded angry. I felt torn from relief that at least he had stayed, and horror that I couldn't leave the room without confronting one, possibly all, of my friends. "Are you okay?"
"Of course she isn't you twit." I gasped in horror when Computer ratted me out.
"Who was that?" Okay, Katz sounded impatient all over again, which wasn't a good thing at all. "Open the door right now!" The knob began twisting again as he tried to barge his way into the room. This time it lasted only a few moments before he left, going back downstairs. I sighed in relief and angrily smacked the computer on the top of the monitor. I jumped right after when I could hear someone running for the door, and I worried that Katz planned on smashing it down, or worse, hurt himself trying. To my horror though, there was nothing put a quiet ping before the door was shoved open. There stood Katz, holding a bobby pin in one hand and looking at me with narrowed eyes, full of anger. I whined and my ears flattened so far down they probably looked plastered to my head. "Who's in here?" Katz scanned the room before running to the bed and peeking underneath for any trespassers. Suddenly he jerked his head around to scrutinize me and asked sharply, "Are you hurt?"
"N-no." I whispered, my cheeks getting hot. "It's the computer."
"What?" He got off the floor to move closer to me, still glancing all around the room as he did so.
"The other voice." I mumbled, looking at my hands folded up in my lap. "He's the one who answered you."
"The computer can talk?" An eyebrow went up in disbelief and I bit my lip, not knowing what else to say to him about my highly unusual friend.
"Well of course I can stupid cat. I have speakers, don't I?" Computer's monotonous voice startled me so bad I jumped and ended up cutting my lip open on my own teeth. Luckily Katz was staring at the monitor is disbelief instead of at me. He always yelled when I accidently bit into my lip. "And yes, she is hurt. She just hasn't told you about it."
"Shut up!" I growled. I hated when the computer did that, as if how I felt about the whole situation didn't matter. "It's nobody's business but my own and if I don't want to tell them I don't have to!" Angrily I hopped off my stool and swiftly moved behind the desk and unplugged the computer. Harsh, I know, but if I didn't that blabber mouth would have told him everything. And if Katz here's about my...issues it's going to be from me, if he is told at all.
Hi everyone, Jacky here. I haven't been on in a really long time and this is outside my usual range of writing but it's been in my head for a long time. So I finally decided to post it, or at least the first half. I had planned out a whole story with this, but I want to post a brief piece first and see if it does well. If you all want to see part two, or even the whole story message me or leave a review. Oh and if anyone wants to take a guess at what Courage is hiding, the first person to get it right will be send a sneak peak, so make sure you are logged in. You all get this one hint, which I think a is pretty strong hint. "There is going to be a surprise final exam today. If you don't get a perfect score on this exam there will be consequences."