Author's Note: Another surprise project! (If you are uninterested in hearing my routine pre-pilot chapter rant, the most important bit of information is the second-to-last sentence). There was nowhere near enough KittyxKatz on , so I decided to publish this as an ongoing fic. Those who watched the episode "The Mask", which featured Bunny, Kitty, and Mad Dog, know the ending.

That said, I must make explain the way this fic begins. The thing about writing fics for cartoons- particularly black comedy/absurdist ones like our beloved CTCD- is that it's pretty hard to explain in a realistic fashion things like a presumably still alive dog being splattered across the front of a train, pulling a sink out of nowhere, etc. I believe TVtropes calls it Amusing Injuries/Hammerspace.

So, to make it easier for myself and for plot purposes, I've made it so that the train crash did kill Mad Dog. Besides that, every event of "The Mask" is present and has taken place. I also don't update super frequently. I'm working on a lot of projects right now.

Enjoy, folks!

Kitty.

…

From where I sat amongst flurries of chaos, hardly blinking at the intensifying efforts to rumble the train car to a stop, humans scurried around me with wavering murmurs of death on their lips. How could I be of such good spirit when there was a death so close to me?

My eyes rolled at my own inquisition.

It was pretty damn easy.

That, and the fact that a lady in yellow was clutching her own small dog to her chest as if there was a murderous plague taking the souls of any dog within range. I could just barely refrain from rolling my eyes again at such affection for anything canine; Courage was the one to thank for that small but significant bump in sympathy for them. And I was thankful. Being hateful took a lot of energy- and a spare halibut to beat the obnoxious animals with.

I look at my best friend beside me, whose face, too unprepared for any of this, pulls itself into a weak smile for me, trying to imitate my more earnest nonchalance. That was what pulled my face into a frown, my arm around her shoulder sympathetically.

He had been her boyfriend. When I told the Bagge family that she'd loved him, not a word of it had been lies. It was a bit heart-tugging. At most, he'd been only semi-aware of how abusive he'd been. That had been enough, though, for me to hate him- for him to die jealous and stupid. That was all I had to say on the matter.

Awareness soaked back into me as the train gave a last forceful tremble and stopped, the conductor bursting into the passenger car.

Sweat dripped down his thick eyebrows, which were arched over slightly frenzied eyes. "Alright, everybody calm down. The authorities are on their way right now. There's absolutely no need to panic-"

"Cut this crap," terror rattled a teenage girl's voice, "What happened out there?"

If it was possible, the conductor grew even more antsy, giving her a squeamish frown. "I-um, it was nothing that can't be fixed-"

Suddenly, Bunny's voice grew livid and tense beside me as she cut in. "We just hit somebody! Don't tell her it's no big deal!"

My eyes grew wide as the passengers' previous unease escalated into an uproar of panic. It had taken mere moments for all eyes to be off of her, the one responsible for the outburst, and out the windows to see how the outside world was responding to the crisis. Meanwhile, blind shock hollowed my mind of all else. Nothing had ever succeeded in enraging Bunny; she never felt very passionately about anything. Except Mad Dog.

"You know that I understand, B," I lied softly- a talent of mine- as she began to sob into my shoulder. "I don't think there was any other way to end it. But it's over now. We're free, Bunny. Finally,"

All I could do was hug the sobbing rabbit as the passengers' horrified clamor absorbed my words, and sirens wailed in the near distance.

…

A chill soaked the air around me- a bane Bunny was oblivious to. Whether it was because of her significantly fluffier rabbit fur or the fact that she was still lost in mourning, I didn't know. Her tears had dried to her cheeks, eyes glued straight ahead to the police crowding the flat front of the train. People were bickering about being off-schedule, having no food, the gaping distance between this barren track and the next town over.

At least these people had links out of here. Carpools, money, the likes. We were stuck here, glued to the spot as people slowly began filtering from the scene in cars. Both of us were dreading the moment when the stretcher would reveal the results of Mad Dog's grotesque death, and it was nearing with an ominous obviousness. I tighten the skin of my muzzle around my teeth as the paramedics retrieve bloody tools from where they had been working at the train's front hood.

Even I couldn't watch- so I can't describe in detail- the retrieval of what was left of the dog to flop nastily on the stretcher. All I could see between the cracks in my fingers was Bunny's eyes, wide open and heartbroken as a pair of crushed black sunglasses tumbled into the dust.

Emotions flecked into her dark green eyes, vibrant and locked before this scene that held so much poignancy for her. With the sensitivity of my hearing, I heard her feet inch back in the dusty ground.

My paw shot out. "Bunny-" Before I could finish, she'd turned on her heels and bolted away from me, away from the train. "Bunny! Wait!"

She'd cleared numerous yards of terrain before I could collect a gust of air and lunge after her, clutching to the torn remains of my white cloak with one paw. The moon dyed her outline a dusty blue as I pounded at the dirt alongside her, a paw on her shoulder to slow her down.

"Bunny, slow down! I can't even see…!" I could hear the sirens again, departing the scene we'd just fled from. The train rumbled away on the tracks at least a quarter mile behind us. Perfect silence enveloped the sandy plain, my ragged pants hanging in the silence.

At last, some seal on her consciousness seemed to break at my words, and her eyes darted around the desolately empty scenery around us. Her jaw floundered with horror for a long moment.

"Oh no…" After running all this way, we'd grown nearer to nothing and farther from any sort of civilization. Lost.

Things could not get worse. And yes, I'm aware of the taboo. I rubbed at my tired eyes with a dirt-soiled paw and groaned to myself. Let's see if this could get any worse.

Her senses gathered slowly, soaking in this desolation. We could turn back around and follow the train, but I doubted Bunny would agree to that. Neither of us had a cell phone; our links to civilized establishment were limited at best. All we could do was keep stepping silently onward at the pace we'd been moving, hoping for the ratty neon of a sign, the smell of car exhaust singeing the air, anything.

…

…

…

It couldn't have been earlier than 1 AM at night when the grainy texture of the sand beneath my feet began to thin, under it sitting a ragged patch of asphalt. My head was bowed down with the torn hood of my cloak blocking my view. Upon seeing the black spot amongst this sandy hell, Bunny's gasp answered my thoughts.

"Finally," she whispered.

I quickly tugged the fabric up and away from my eyes; cars whizzed down a road- a real, 3 dimensional road- their headlights drawing fingers of white and yellowish light behind them as they sped in and out of sight. The burning scent of car exhaust was the most aromatic incense imaginable to me then, and my shoulders sagged with relief, fatigue.

A feline sigh tumbled from my mouth. "Mmm, at last. But- where are they all going?"

My line of view had moved to the flashing neon only a few meters beyond the road; it seemed so flamboyant; a run-down place of leisure, maybe. A lounge? A motel?

None of the passing vehicles pulled into the ratty parking lot, instead rumbling passed as if they couldn't see the flickering neon "Katz …" sign beside the road. I couldn't see anything past the "Katz", as it had burned out. Nothing, as far as I could hear, was bustling behind the doors. Bunny and I exchanged apprehensive glances, our legs aching with exhaustion from the endless walk. Another look at the structure confirmed it:

"I've always wanted to meet Norman Bates," I deadpanned.

"And the only place within miles," Bunny added, sensing my sarcasm, and jumped the short fence lining the road as the traffic hit a dead spot. Nose twitching to pick up any danger, I bounded after her, crossing the cold black expanse of asphalt and strolling into the parking lot.

The green neon of the sign dyed every piece of litter a flamboyant hue; lone car tires that had tread the road for miles on end were suddenly lit up like Ferris wheels, and spilled fast food cups and their surrounding puddles became pools of color.

As familiar as the extravagant effect was, having spent a good deal of my idle time in lounges and bars, I was cautious. I tugged the hood of my cloak around my face more tightly than before, so that only the nose of my muzzle peeked from beneath the fabric.

I could feel my heart spring into a tumultuous rumble- a train rumbling noisily on its tracks- as I pulled open the heavy, blacked out door.

I stepped in first, Bunny close on my tail.

It was perfectly silent. The sound of the cars passing behind me vanished as the door slapped closed, not a human sound to be heard.

To my side, I heard Bunny mutter exactly what I'd been thinking. "How is it completely empty-"

"Shh-" Something was stirring nearby; I just couldn't tell what. The counter at the head of the room was unoccupied and uncluttered, as if waiting for us. There had definitely been people here a minute ago.

I knew a silent threat when I witnessed one. My hand instantly scrabbled blindly for the doorknob, only to feel a warm, furry wedge pressed on top of it. My first reflexive thought was, Bunny. But she stood at my side, both paws pressed into a hard, anxious ball.

Just as I the registered that we weren't alone, the prickling sensation of fur brushing past my feet choked the breath out of me. Stumbling back, my gaze slid up the length of a wine red tail and up the sleek body of its owner, standing between us and the door. A pair of unblinking, feline yellow eyes were evaluating me with equal curiosity, his long tail sweeping casually at the ground, paw releasing the doorknob; I tugged the hood back down over my eyes instantaneously.

"-C-cat?" How blasé of me, I know.

Before he could answer, Bunny began an awkward ramble; "Um, we're terribly sorry- we didn't know this, um, your-"

"-We'll, ahem, just be leaving…" I muttered in a voice husky enough to pass for male, claws lightly flexing beneath my cloak in case, for whatever reason, we wouldn't be leaving easily.

Instead of blockading our path, he moved smoothly from where he'd stood to behind the front counter and pulled a giant book from behind it.

Still holding us in a carefully executed look of mild interest, he gestured us over to him. I hesitantly complied, albeit with my hood draped over my eyes, and found myself suddenly startled by the impossible silkiness of his voice.

"Welcome to the Katz Motel. I'm Katz," I heard the faintest of tapping sounds, and observed how his finely sharpened violet claws tapped at the edge of the counter. "It seems I've frightened you,"

"No," Again, my lying at work. I steadied the quivering of my nerves and let my own claws tap together awkwardly.

"Hm," He gave my hooded figure another long glance and turned the enormous book to face me. "Very well then. Would you please sign in?"

As spacious as the room had felt a moment ago, I could feel something silently constricting my voice. Very unlike me. Irked with myself for the unnecessary cowardice, I made a casual reach out toward the pen he dangled before me, and froze just as my retracted claws snuck into view.

The tiny black weapons shot back into place as I whipped my paw back to my side nervously. Silence closed around me, and, before I could freeze up again, I snatched the pen from him and handed it to Bunny.

Sparks of suspicion flickered in those scrutinizing yellow eyes, while Bunny made an intuitive realization and began filling out lines in the book. My nerves were tightening firmer than before as we were sent to a shadowy hall, that menacing tapping still echoing behind me.

It was… surprisingly uninteresting. The room, I mean. Two single sized beds hugging either side of a side table, a wall lamp hanging over it, and a plum colored arm chair wedged in the corner. Hey, it wasn't like I was in any position to reject any accommodation, whether it be a suspiciously Psycho-esque motel room or a city trash can.

I sighed, and found myself rummaging through my pockets for the small toy mouse as Bunny disappeared behind the bathroom door. Such memories.

The trinket had hardly rested in my palm a minute before I heard an ear-shattering scream erupt from the bathroom. In the same moment that I'd taken to leap up and rush toward the door, a wiry force had coiled itself around my neck, first abruptly to jolt me backwards, and then tightening around my windpipe.

Unthinkingly, my own claws fanned out across the paw that choked me, scratching with little effect. Just as I was throttled backwards far enough that I should have been thrown on the bed, I was tumbling down, losing my frayed thoughts in the blackness.