Title: Behind the Name
Author: Dorri
Summary: After Puss receives a letter from home, Shrek and Donkey quickly learn more than they ever knew about their feline companion.
Rating: T (for language and violence).
Disclaimer: Puss In Boots and all other Shrek characters belong to Dreamworks Animation.

Chapter I:
The Letter

Shrek curiously looked down at the infants snuggled together in their little cot, his face harboring a grin. His daughter looked up at him, her blue eyes full of curiosity as she reached her tiny arms out to him, cracking a wide smile of her own. Her brothers slept on peacefully, one of them with his thumb tucked securely in his mouth. "Well, look who's awake," Shrek commented as he reached in to pick up the infant. He already had a washcloth draped over his shoulder as a precaution, knowing all too well that spitting up was practically a guarantee, especially for an ogre baby.

Shrek placed the baby against his protected shoulder and headed out of the bedroom, glad that only one infant was awake at the moment. Just as he had a seat in his favorite recliner, the door opened and Fiona stepped inside, carrying the mail.

"Oh, we got another letter from Mom," Fiona stated with a smile as she glanced over each envelope, disregarding most of them as junk. "Puss! You got mail, too!" the ogress yelled as she waved a crumpled, tan-colored envelope in the air. The feline scampered into the room eagerly, snatching the envelope from his companion in a haste.

"¡Gracias!" he called over his shoulder as he disappeared again into the back room. Setting aside the rest of the mail, Fiona turned her attention to the envelope from her mother, sealed by the royal, golden seal.

"Hope there hasn't been a disaster with Artie," Shrek commented with a smirk as he bounced his giggling daughter on his knee. Fiona's smile grew as she read through the letter.

"Sounds like everything's going just fine, Sir Doubtsalot. Artie's had a rough start, but it sounds like he's getting the hang of things. And Mom's getting pretty anxious for us to visit. She's really wanting to see the kids again."

Shrek chuckled at this. "She thinks that, but I guarantee after spending enough time with 'em, she'll be hidin' up in a tree until we leave."

"Oh, come on, they aren't that much trouble."

At that moment, the infant ogre leaned forward and regurgitated every last bit of her breakfast all over the floor.

"Well…not always," Fiona stated with a sigh. "I'll get something to clean that up."

As Fiona retreated to the kitchen, the front door burst open, revealing the smiling face of Donkey.

"Speaking of trouble…" Shrek mumbled, getting to his feet.

"Oh, don't act like you ain't happy to see me, big guy!"

"Donkey, do you have to come over here every morning?" the ogre asked in annoyance as he grabbed a cloth to wipe his daughter's mouth.

"Oh, shut up. I ain't over here every morning. I'm only over here…what…four days a week? Last time I checked, there were seven days in a week," the donkey replied smugly.

"Donkey!" Shrek hissed, trying to keep from raising his voice out of fear of making his daughter cry, as well as waking his sleeping sons. "So far, we've had a surprisingly peaceful morning, but you are ruining that right now."

Donkey narrowed his eyes. "Well, you just a ball of sunshine this morning, ain't ya?"

"Don't pay any attention to him, Donkey," said Fiona as she walked past her friend, a wet rag in hand to clean up the mess on the floor. "We'd have to worry if he didn't act like a grouch."

Shrek rolled his eyes but said nothing.

"Well, I ain't stayin' long anyway. I was just here for Puss. Me, Gingy and Pinocchio are havin' a guy's day out. Prob'ly do the usual: go to a tournament first, and then we'll head over to the theatre for a play or two. I've been dyin' to get out and have some fun all week!"

Shrek managed to hold back his sigh of relief at hearing his friend say he was leaving. He jerked a thumb behind him. "I think he went back there," he said. Whistling, Donkey walked on past him to retrieve his feline friend. As he approached the partially opened curtains, Donkey opened his mouth to address the cat.

"No," he heard a voice mutter with heavy amounts of despair. He quickly shut his mouth and quietly approached the curtains, highly curious now. Looking through the opening, he spotted the feline just a few feet away, his back turned to him. His ears were lowered slightly and he appeared to be holding something, though Donkey couldn't make out what it was. Only when he heard the sound of paper crumpling did he realize that it must have been a letter.

The cat became a blur as he dropped the letter and went for his things, throwing on his feathered hat and boots, not even bothering with his sword. Donkey chose that moment to step into the room.

"Wassup, amigo?" he greeted, acting as though he hadn't witnessed a thing. Puss muttered a quick "Hello" but nothing more. He ran past Donkey, keeping one paw on the rim of his hat as he went.

"Wait, where're you goin'?" Donkey called to his friend as he turned and followed after him, though he received no response from the cat. He entered the living room just as Puss was opening the front door.

"Woah, woah, woah, Puss, where are you going in such a hurry?" asked Shrek.

"I…I just have something to take care of, señor. It's nothing."

Noticing the cat was not looking him in the eye, the ogre's brows furrowed in concern. "What is it?"

"I told you, it is nothing."

"But-"

Before the ogre could protest, Puss was already out the door and sprinting away, never once looking back. Shrek looked over towards his wife, who appeared to be just as dumbfounded as he was. He next looked down at Donkey. "Donkey, did he say anything to you?"

Donkey shook his head. "But right before he ran out, I saw him reading a letter. I bet that'll give us our answer," he said as he nodded for Shrek to follow. The ogre handed his daughter off to Fiona and followed Donkey into the bedroom, finding said letter partially balled up on the floor.

"I don't know, Donkey…If he wanted us to know, he would have told us."

Donkey ignored his friend as he smoothed the letter out with his hooves, bending his head down to read it. Shrek watched him with growing anticipation, his concern mounting when he noticed Donkey's expression change drastically as he read on.

"You really should read this," he said quietly, picking up the piece of paper between his teeth and handing it up to the ogre. He had to bring the tiny piece of paper extremely close to his face in order to read the even tinier words.

Hola, mi hermano.

I'm sorry it's taken me this long to write back, but you know how busy we keep. The money you sent us last month really helped us. Papá seems to be doing a lot better since his breakdown, but Víctor and I are still pretty worried about him. He doesn't talk much these days, and now he barely eats. And I'm really sorry to say that that is the good news. I hoped I would never have to deliver this message, but I'm afraid Mom has taken a turn for the worst. We thought she was doing better for a while, but I really think this is it. We don't know how long she has, but we think it's only a matter of days. I wish it was better news.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut this letter short. I need to take care of my chores. We all wish you the best.

Your brother,
Benito

Shrek stared at the wrinkled letter for a long while in disbelief. "He was…actually being serious about all that? I thought he was just saying all that to get out of trouble," he said, reading over the letter again.

"I know, same here."

"This whole time…he's been supporting his family and we didn't even know it. Well…I mean…he did technically tell us, but…I don't know, we could have helped him."

Shrek continued to stare at the letter in awe, though he was no longer actually reading the tiny, smudged words that resided on the parchment. He eventually turned his attention to the trash bin.

"What're you doin'?" Donkey asked with a raised brow as he watched the ogre walk over and shove his hand down into the bin.

"Looking for the envelope….Ah!" Shrek pulled the slightly torn envelope from the bin, relieved to see that the return address was still legible. "Come on, we're going after him," the ogre said sternly as he walked out of the room. Donkey quickly followed after him, looking rather surprised.

"You really think we should?"

"Why not?"

"Well…I mean…it's clear he don't want us involved with his personal life."

"You're the one who wanted to read the letter."

"What's going on?" Fiona asked worriedly as her husband reentered the living room. The larger ogre only sighed in response as he handed the letter to his wife to read. She took it with a bit of confusion and hastily read over it. "Oh, no," she said after a few moments, her expression becoming remorseful. She looked up at her husband. "Did you say you were going after him?"

"Well…" Shrek looked from his wife to Donkey, now beginning to question if it really was a good idea to go after the feline.

"I think you should," Fiona stated firmly.

The male heaved another sigh. "Well, I want to, but…"

"He needs his friends, even if he thinks he doesn't," Fiona urged. Donkey finally found himself agreeing, as did Shrek.

"Will you be okay with the kids?"

"I'll be fine. Hopefully they'll keep sleeping for most of the day…if I'm lucky."

Shrek smirked. "I wouldn't bet on it."

"I should really tell Dragon where I'm going. Who knows how long we're gonna be gone?"

Fiona smiled. "Don't worry, if your family comes by, I'll be sure to tell them what's going on. I'm sure Dragon will understand."

Donkey smiled. "And…if the guys come by looking for me-"

"I'll tell them, too."

Shrek held up the envelope to look over the address again. "Let's get going, Donkey." The ogre turned and planted a quick kiss to his wife's lips. "I'll try to get back as soon as I can."

Fiona followed the two males to the door, giving a short wave and a faint smile as they retreated from the swamp. Not long after they disappeared through the forest, there was a loud cry from the bedroom, forcing Fiona's shoulders to slump as a sigh escaped her. "You have really bad timing, sweetie."

Author's Note: I have to say that I'm rather…shocked. I mean, Puss is such an awesome character and yet there aren't many stories that center around him. Most of the stories that do focus on him aren't very good, and the very few that are good haven't been updated in years (watch me do the same thing). It seems like everyone is obsessed with Artie. Meh, the kid's okay, but I'm afraid my love is for Puss XD.

Now, I'm pretty sure Puss was just pulling that story about his poor family out of his ass in order to save his ass. After all, Puss is well-known for his trickery and deceit. Hehe, ain't he a stinker? But there's always been that question in the back of my mind - what if it wasn't a lie? I always thought it'd make for an interesting story. In fact, after I first saw the movie, I actually wanted to take the idea and make it into a one-shot, but I never got around to doing it. But then after recently watching Shrek 2, the idea returned...and really branched out and took on a life of its own. And I'm glad I tackled this idea four years after seeing the movie since my writing has improved vastly since then. My writing was still very noobish back in 2004 and 2005. Not that it's spectacular now lol, but it's better.

Also, I apologize for the first chapter being so short. Normally my chapters are never under 3,000 words, but I typed the first 20,000 words of this story before deciding to publish it, so when I went back to start splitting the story into chapters, it was hard for me to determine the best cut-off place for chapter 1. This was the best cut-off place, I'm afraid. Hopefully this will be the shortest chapter.

Even though the first 20,000 words are complete, updates won't be daily, as I want to give myself time to get more of the story typed up, as well as give people time to read the story and review. I don't want to scare people off with fast updates, and I'd like to get an idea of whether or not people are going to enjoy this story. I swear it's always so hard for me to publish a brand new story. It takes me the longest time to finally click that "Submit" button, especially if it's for a new fandom. I'm always terrified people are going to hate what I write D:

Self-esteem. I has none.