A/N this is for BroadwayKhaos' Jellicle Week thing...I felt like a sort of twist to the themes..So here you have 'Day 1: Breakup' not anything like a normal break up! WARNING THIS WILL PROBABLY BE A TRAGIC STORY...sorry R&R PLZ this is my first story

No….he couldn't leave her; he couldn't leave her all alone. The love of her life had gone…leaving her behind.

"GUS! I know you love theatrics…but did you have to leave me so suddenly, so soon?" she could barely stand from the grief wracking sobs from her fragile form. The pale queen collapsed onto a velvet curtain he had brought to her when they were first mated. Rubbing her face into the fabric, she inhaled the faint scent of dust and paint and years of comfort. Jellylorum had been with Gus since they were barely adults, nearly thirty years they had spent together. She remembered the sweet feeling when she had moved into a den with him, loving his wonderful tales and smiling charisma. The face of their son swam behind her eyes, they now had grandkits too, but Gus wasn't here to see them.

A year after Grizabella had been reborn, Asparagus Sr. died. Not the wonderful glorious death he had hoped for but a quiet one, slipping away to the Everlasting Cat in the night. But she knew when she woke that he wouldn't be there, however much she hoped against it.

"Bast…why him? Why did you have to take him and leave me here?"

For the first time in nearly her whole life the loving and maternal queen felt like a kitten. She felt lost, scared and shivering in the rain, no tribe, no junkyard to shelter her. It was hard to grow older, to watch the kittens she had cared for grow up, To see her friends age and move on, to know that her darling kitten now had kittens of his own. It was hard to live with the fact she was getting old, that soon the Everlasting Cat might call her to the Heaviside Layer…he had already claimed her love. She was afraid to think her nine lives might be coming to an end.

The whole tribe was devastated by his loss, none so much as Jelly. There was a small funeral, even though his body was already beneath the earth. It was time to bury their thoughts of him, to put all of him to rest.

"Gus…ah there aren't many words to describe the old chap…he was the only father I every really knew…" Munk slid away from the group, saying the words they all felt.

"The best of story tellers, a wonderful actor, and, to many of us, a dear friend. It seems as though he would always be here, even when he left the junkyard his warm presence was here…you never really know what you can lose til you've lost it….Fireforfiddle, history decides that you were great, the only fiend of the fell." Munk smiled sadly, kissing his paw and pressing it to the old book of Shakespeare that had been Gus' prized possession all his life.

Other cats stepped out saying the words that none of them wanted to ever say, none of them wanted to say goodbye.

"Gus wove a magic much better than mine, he wove his magic on hearts, he used words to keep us enraptured," Misto followed the same gesture as Munk, kissing his paw and touching the book.

"Love you, Dad"

"We wish you a happy life-"

"filled with all things good-"

"in the Heavyside"

Cori and Tanto moved as one pressing their paws to each other's lips, and then gently caressing the book. The other cats continued their procession, Jelly watching numbly. Cassandra, Alonzo, Addie, Pounce, Demeter, Victoria, Mungo… all the familiar faces passed by her, all bringing a new and more painful memory of Gus.

"Goodbye my friend"

"No one deserved my sister more than you did," Jenny barely choked out her words.

Cettie simply cried, pressing her paw to the book and quickly retreating lest she go sobbing into her brothers arms. The other kittens seemed as heartbroken, not many of them able to say even the simple words the wanted to. When all of the cats had said their farewell the book was handed to Jelly, she would be the one left alone to bury the sadness and regret of her heart; she would be the one to bury the book of all of their love for her Mate.

Pulling the book close to her chest Jelly poured all of her memories into the pages, hoping that it would lift the wait from her shoulders….