A/N: I don't own anything. I also use swear words because I am a grown up and I can.
Hi everyone, somebody suggested that I turn this fic into a series so I have. This will be (mostly) one-shots that follow in order (I'll let you know if one doesn't). Thanks to all for reading, but for those who have already read the first chapter, there is a second that is brand new. I'm on tumblr under the same name so feel free to send prompts and/or follow.
It's raining. That's the first thing she notices when she rises from her bed in the early morning hours. It's fitting, she thinks, because it seems that ever since she was old enough to know anything at all, there's always something just off, always something that tarnishes her waking hours ever so slightly. This day, it is the weather threatening to mar her mood, and for that she is grateful. For years, she was accustomed to the wrath of her mother or some other entity that deemed her unfit to lead a life that was anything other than miserable at best. She can handle one day of rain.
She cherishes the time she has to herself, even if it is the early morning. She spends the time before her many –she still fights to believe how many there are- pupils awaken remembering the days when it was herself and four other girls, one of whom is now long gone and another is off in LA doing who could even guess what. The fifth, she does not ache to remember, because that's the one she can never forget. Her first true friend in she doesn't even know how long, is never too far from her mind. She does not need to spend her mornings remembering that.
She is not alone, she smiles, as the Coven's cat population have all taken to joining their Supreme as she sleeps and carries out her far too early morning routine. She knows that it is most likely because she has the biggest bed and is the most open to their affections, though she likes to think that the felines flock to her in order to honor her in their own way.
She sighs with longing as she recalls Myrtle, the first headmistress to welcome the animals to the academy. She recalls a time when she was a girl, around 11 or 12, that Myrtle had taken her out to help with errands. Cordelia had taken to reading alone in her room outside of classes, because it was clear to her (especially after a rather gruesome run-in with a group of older girls) that nobody wanted anything to do with the terribly shy and "untalented" daughter of the Supreme.
Myrtle, who had already felt a strong motherly instinct toward the girl, felt it her duty to take the young witch under her wing. So they went, running around town gathering supplies for their brood that did not fall under the jurisdiction of either their housekeeper or Spalding. Young Cordelia followed dutifully as Myrtle weaved in and out of shops, stopping in question only when they suddenly paused at the entrance of an alley.
She can still see the scene in her mind, as Myrtle asked her if she had heard the gentle 'mew'. The two stepped into the space between shop buildings and around the dumpster to the place the soft noise had come from. That was when they saw a mess of fur in the form of a mangy mother cat and her two small kittens in a box that read, 'free 2 gud hom'.
She hears Myrtle's voice as she tells her that they must take them all with them.
"A great Himalayan will bring such joy to our home! You know Dear, a cat is a great friend to a witch. They are perceptive creatures. They know when we need them and we need not even say a word. They have their own magic, I'm sure of it. This is a wonderful happening indeed!"
And so that is how Fluffy, Scruffy, and Joe made their home at Miss Robichaux's, with other strays joining their ranks as the years pressed on. She gazes down into the garden, where their stones have long since been placed and nods reverently toward the only salvation from bitter loneliness outside of Myrtle that she had ever known in her youth.
"Everyone needs a place to belong," she remembers herself telling a very young Nan, when the new girl had asked the brand new headmistress about all of the cats lounging in the garden.
Cordelia smiles wider at the pile of cat that always seems to find the way to the foot of her bed at night. Myrtle had brought them in to be friends to her when none of the other girls would. They haven't let her down yet, she ponders.
But it's memories like those that force the image of messy blonde curls and striking blue eyes lined in brown to the forefront of her mind once again. 'Misty always loved the cats,' she can't help but think. Then again, Misty always loved everything. She tries not to consider how far that love extended, because some things are too difficult for even the Supreme to bear.
She's proud of the strives that Queenie and Zoe, her new council, have overcome. They've grown over the past year in ways that surprise even her. She's torn over Nan's untimely death and often wonders why she's unable to contact her spirit though she has tried tirelessly since ascending the figurative throne. She hopes that Nan is at peace. She worries for Madison, though she knows she shouldn't. It's just that when she tries to reach out into the universe to check on her, to make sure that she is safe even though she has betrayed the Coven time and again, she feels her presence in the house and not in Hollywood and it doesn't make one bit of sense.
But she's trying. She's trying to be a good leader, a good mother to these girls, many of whom no longer have anyone but her to rely on, and it's hard. When the press asks her about what she's doing, she's the beacon of positivity. But in the mornings when she only has herself to answer to, she hopes that she is somehow enough.
She glances at the clock on her nightstand and knows that soon, the pitter-patter of feet belonging to the youngest of her charges will soon fill the halls, and the groans of the older girls fighting for additional sleep and over shower stalls will awaken everyone else. Deciding to start her day for real, she composes herself. The soft splats of rain against her windowsill do not faze her. She knows very well that the rain is a metaphor for her life and of her beloved Coven. The rain will wash away the darkness and give life to newness. The earth will be nourished. The sun will return. She can handle one day of rain.