AN: Reposted from my friend's account! I hope we get the same reviews we got last time! …I'm so horrible when it comes to reviews! REVIEW ROAR! - wink -

(End Note)

I didn't take walks often. They annoyed me to no end. Always the squirrels running under cats' paws, always birds tweeting and filling the quiet morning with unnecessary noise. Always the stupid… Heaviside cursed… Jellicles… yowling and dancing all night and day.

I'm not as stupid as I look. I checked on the Jellicles often. I knew they had, what? 9… 10 new kits? There were two squealing females, one criss-crossed black, one a white, black, and orange tabby-striped. One pure white. Two of them had mirror brown spots, and another had some towards the center. The 8th was nothing interesting, and the 9th had plain black and white fur. And the last…

"Ow!"

My head whipped around to take in the scene in front of me. A black tuxedo kit lay on the ground inside my territory. I flared my nostrils. Jellicle.

I detected a hint of something else, but it was quite faint. To faint to read. I knew it must be one of the much newer kittens of that idiotic Tribe I was forced to live next to.

The kit turned in a circle. To my great surprise, it's eyes were open. The were bright green and curious. It was much too small to have its eyes open, even smaller than other kits.

Kits. The word coated my tongue in bile. I had just lost kits of my own. The only kits I would ever have. Other cats… they called me heartless, a crime-high hell-cat. Even Deuteronomy disliked me, no matter how civil the feeling was, it was there. But… but I cared about my kits! I couldn't go through it again.

"Alonzo, where'd ay' go?"

I blinked as my attention was once more drawn to the kitten in the snow in front of me. It did not writhe or shiver as normal kits would, it just lay there, twisting its small black head to take in the world around it.

"Lonzo, we were playing a game! Where'd you go? You're it!"

I winced in sympathy to the kit's sad tone. Like I said, I may be as evil as many cats think me to be, but I would never stand by and let a kit die while I could help. Especially on my own territory. Not even a… Jellicle… kit.

"Who're you? Do you know which way Lonzo went?"

The tuxedo-kit looked up at me, eyes wide as he took in my harsh, strong appearance. Then, to my great surprise, he walked right up to me and pushed his cold face into my chest fur, shaking now that he realized he didn't know me. My chest fur. Me, the Hidden Paw.

But I suddenly didn't care, and started to pick up the kit in my large jaws. That's when I saw it.

A faint spark jumped between the kits paws, light-blue and fizzing. I leapt back. The kitten fell onto his butt with a muffled thump. It looked at me in surprise, blinking, then got a stubborn look on its face.

"I wanna know which way Lonzo went! He owes me a game! I found him!"

I still strained to keep my body from comforting the small tux. I couldn't let this one live, I realized. It was too dangerous. To me, and… the Jellicles.

But I couldn't raise a long, curved claw against this kit. Maybe it was so small, helpless, and bold. Maybe the pain of my kits' own wayward birth was still too painful. Either way, I continued forward and picked up the kit, setting it on my back. The tux immediately snuggled into my ruff, burying its cold nose under my ginger fur. I sighed deeply and started off for the Jellicle Junkyard.

Once we arrived, I set the kit down on the h ad pavement. It woke up from the sleep it had fallen into on the way here. It looked up at me in confusion.

"You're home now," I told it.

It blinked slowly, then smiled. "Thanks, mister! Let's play again some time!"

I couldn't help but laugh softly at his eagerness. "I would like that, but it probably won't happen. Stay with your mother until she tells you you're old enough to go out on your own, okay?"

The sweet smile remained, but now it had a confused edge to it. "Momma? …Oh, you must mean Jelly! Kay, mister!" The kit paused, then its face brightened as the green eyes lit up. "Mister! Mister... I like that name! And I like you, too! I'll be Mister Mistoffelees!"

"You do that, Mistoffelees…" A scream of relief went up from the main center of the Junkyard, carrying right over the gate.

"MISTO? ARE YOU HOME, BABY?"

That was my cue to leave. As I turned to walk off, I looked over my shoulder at the kit and winked.

~ 1 and a half years later ~

I stared down at the small black form asleep in the dip below my rise where I made my nest. As the shimmering back rose and fall, I let out what I'd wanted to say for so long.

"Sleep well, Magical Mister Quaxo-Mistoffelees."

AN: UNASHAMED MISTO-MAC FLUFF! It didn't take long to write this one, and I think it turned out well. Review, or I'll let these two out of their cages to zap you.