So, this is my first time writing a fanfic here so… yeah. I've written tons of fanfics before but it's my first time actually posting one anywhere. I'm kinda psyched about it but I'm also kind of horrified. Anyways… please rate and review! I'd love to hear your feedback!
I don't own any of the characters or any of CATS.
Told from Demeter's POV!
"Stop being such a spoilsport, Munk." Macavity murmured, shaking his head at his younger half-brother. "Demie just fell. She'll be fine in no time. Why should she get to ruin everyone's fun?"
Munkustrap didn't say anything but rather just sat out beside me. "You're right. You guys keep on playing. I'll sit out with Demeter a few rounds. Fair?"
"No!" Tugger exclaimed, pawing at his elder brother's leg. "If you sit out then Macavity's team will completely demolish ours. You know that we'll lose!"
"It's just a game, Tug." Munk replied. "Besides, you'll find some other way of getting back at Macavity."
"But we have to win."
"Stop whining, Tug." Macavity murmured. "It's not an attractive trait."
Once the brothers were done bickering, Munk sat beside me outside of the area that we'd claimed as ours for playing.
"Tug seems sad. I think that you should just go out and play again."
He smiled. "Tug will get over it."
I didn't say anything. Tug did get over things quickly. One minute, he could be whining about something. The next, he'd be his usual self.
"Besides, I was a little tired." He said reassuringly. "I needed a break."
I knew that he was lying. Munk never got tired. He was always ready for another game. It wasn't until Bombalurina and I were called in by our mother that our games ever ended. We would play through storm and sunshine.
Nonetheless, despite my knowledge that he was lying, it did manage to make me smile and to feel a little bit better.
###
I was called out of my memories when Bomba called for me to come inside. I stretched out on the hood of a car that had been left in the junkyard.
"You go on in. I might just stay out here tonight." I yawned.
Bomba frowned. "Why? It's late. Hurry up-!"
"Look at the moon! Isn't it splendid?"
My sister shot her eyes heavenward and then, after holding her gaze there for a moment, dropped her eyes back to me. "If you say so. I'm going inside. You should too, Demie."
"You go on in. I want to sleep out here tonight."
Shaking her head at me, my sister went inside with a huff. I rolled onto my back to look at the stars.
"Good night for stargazing, huh?"
I jumped and fled from the hood of the car to hide in an empty trashcan. The voice had come out of nowhere and had startled me.
I heard that sound of someone landing softly on the ground beside me and my hiding place and when a face peeked into the garbage can, I could barely make out the white and black stripes when the moonlight caught the culprit's fur.
"Sorry." He said faintly. "I'd forgotten that you scare easily."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I hissed as I slowly crawled out of my hiding place.
He shrugged. "I just… I saw you sitting there and I thought that maybe you wanted someone to talk to. Or maybe I wanted someone to talk to. That's possible too."
I didn't say anything but rather just examined the features of the tom responsible for the scare. There was something about the patterns of his fur that reminded me of someone I'd known before.
"You don't remember me, do you?" he asked.
"I might remember. I just… the moonlight is messing everything up, that's all. You do look familiar-."
"Munkustrap." He said plainly, cutting me off as he turned his face up to look at the stars.
I didn't need the name to be said twice. My jaw dropped slightly and I shook my head. "Munk? But we… well… we haven't talked in years!"
He inclined his head in what seemed to be a nod. "We grew apart, I guess. Happens with kits, I suppose."
"I never forgot, you know?" I replied. "In fact, I was just remembering that time when I got hurt and you-."
He chuckled. "Which time you got hurt?" he asked humorously.
I smiled a little. "Well, we were all playing together—I guess we always were back then—and I'd hurt myself but I kept playing because I knew that Mac-." I stopped myself before I could say the name. It was a name that no one in the junkyard ever mentioned anymore unless it was with good reason. "Well, I knew that people would laugh and tell me that I was being a baby. So I kept playing and it got worse. You sat out with me because you thought I might be lonely. You never said as much—you only said that you were tired. But oh, Tugger was mad at you for sitting out."
He laughed, nodding. "I think I might remember."
We laughed and exchanged memories—some of which the other had forgotten. It was easy to fall back into our old rhythm. It was as if we'd never been separated in the first place.
"Why did we stop playing together?" I wondered aloud, shaking my head.
"Why do kits stop playing?" he retaliated.
It was a good question and one that I didn't have answer for. I couldn't remember the exact day in which we'd just stopped. It would've happened gradually—of that I was certain. And yet, at the same time, it seemed to have just happened suddenly.
"But it doesn't have to be like that forever, right?" I asked in return, surprising myself a little. "I mean, things like this—where old friends come together again—do happen right?"
He smiled. It was when he smiled that he looked most like the Munkustrap that I'd known when we were kits. "Yes, I suppose that things like this do happen."
"I see you around a lot." I admitted. "You always seem to be busy—always hustling about. I don't know why I never went out and talked to you. I guess that maybe I thought that you wouldn't be happy to see me."
He blinked. "Why would you think that?"
I shrugged weakly. "I don't know."
"It gets lonely sometimes." He sighed, shaking his head. "Being the protector of the tribe, knowing that one day I will be the Jellicle leader. It's almost as if no one wants to befriend me or truly get to know me sometimes. I'll walk by and no one stops to make conversation. They just nod respectfully and continue on. As if getting to know me is dangerous."
I inhaled sharply. Munk had sat out with me because he thought that I might be lonely. As if loneliness was one of the sharpest, bitterest blows that could be dealt to someone. And yet, there he was, telling me about his own loneliness.
"And then, Tug… Tug goes around making friends with everyone. Bomba still talks to him but not to me."
"I never knew that you-."
"It's okay." He said, sitting up straighter, shaking his head. "I shouldn't have-."
"Munk, you were there for me when we were kits." I reminded him, holding out a paw to him. He looked at me uncertainly.
"Demie, you shouldn't. Not if you feel obligated-."
"I don't feel obligated." I said. "I'm lonely too, you know? Not in the same way as you are. But I spend every day wondering why we let all of it fall apart. We were all friends once. We all loved each other's company. Why can't it be like that again?"
His forehead creased in thought. "It won't be the same."
"Of course not." I agreed. "But then, we're not the same as we were back then either. We grew up."
He nodded. "Okay." He gulped and I nodded, urging for him to take my paw.
He stared at me for a moment and then, finally, he reached out for me.