"And Your Smile Drives Me Wild"

Hey Guys! I'm back with the long awaited sequel to Your Swagger Makes Me Smile. I must comment, above all, that I am especially excited for this story, because it will be a lot darker then it's ultimately fluffier sibling. To be honest, it was merely a few experiment chapters to help test on fanfic, but ever since, it has been positive and supportive response of you guys that had prompted me to keep it going. Yes, you have yourselves to thank for the co-creation of the sequel...snaps for you!

I have some very upsetting news though.

I re-writing this chapter because, as always, NOTHING goes well for me when I'm super excited. I was putting the finishing touches on this chapter (which I was actually very proud of) before the computer lost power for no reason and I, as with these things, LOST EVERYTHING.

Not to mention, another bizarre event in the life of Maddy including her 10 year old brother, and an airbourne, Kamikaze frill neck lizard with a good set of teeth. It sounds strange, but the bite on my brothers wrist is even stranger.

Either way: I figured, since I had 45 minutes before I have to go to dinner with my family, the night before school/my birthday, and I was very tired, I would post this a day early!

I must be off now, and unfourtunately I won't be able to revisit this anytime until after tomorrow (Since I'll be busy at school and with my birthday...Which I'm surprisingly afraid of, since I have the suspicion all my friends are planning to jump out of the bushes and sing "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU" in front of the entire school) but I re-wrote everything simply because I'm excited about this story, and I didn't want to dissappoint you guys.

Hope I don't!

My.Psuedonym.Was.Taken
aka The Bad-Lucked Birthday Girl

Note: This chapter may appear slightly vague. It is barren of any description and most things, but it is slightly necessary some chapters will be fairly ambiguous on settings and analysis of characters for these next few ideas to run smoothly. You will (hopefully) enjoy them none the less.


The nightmare was re-occuring.

The rain.
The hurt.
The pain.

The Rum Tum Tugger, above all.

Bombalurina awoke, as she had the past however-many-nights since her breakdown on that dingy rooftop, stuggling for breath against hiccuped sobs. The scarlet queen did little to soften her wails of anguish as she cried continuously. It was unbearable.

She was nothing, was a mantra that was viciously jeering at her insides, morphing the once confidant Bomba into a crumpled, manically-depressed shell of her former self.

What had changed that day she had seen the mischievious calico Mungojerrie as more then just a friend? What had lead her to spiral into sudden self doubt and to latch onto the affection the Tom offered her, even though it was merely ripping open old wounds caused by her childhood bestfriend/sweetheart...a certain maned, vain, Main Coon?

She didn't want to agree with her subconcious that it was Mungojerrie who had shown her she had never been truly happy. Dozens of repressed memories and emotions crept from within a mental Pandora's box, revealing to her what she had always feared. That she was content, but not happy with her status as a single, female, kittenless Jellicle. The thoughts had eaten away at her relationship with Mungojerrie, her self control around Tugger, and ultimately, they had begun eating away at herself.

She couldn't take any more of the unearthing of forgotten, hurtful memories. Or the neglect from a supposedly-nurturing Jellicle tribe...one she was no longer apart of. Or the inner torment that was the complete loss of self esteem, trust and love that was driving her to the brink of insanity.

She wished more then anything that the nightmares would stop.

Her desperate sobbing continued, masking the creak of the door to her room opening. The sniffles and rasps of her unsteady breath covered the soft padding of gentle feet across the cold floor, and near silenced the gentle, elegant voice cooing soothing comforts into her ears.

•••••

Macavity let his paws slip around the troubled queen, gripping her tightly until she began sinking her body into his. The Napoleon of Crime was doing something completely adverse to his reputation, to his lifestyle, to his very nature.

He was begging her desperately to stop hurting him.

It hurt more then any of the wounds or scars that had marred his body in the past. It hurt more then any past or present emotion his cold heart had ever felt. It hurt him more then the sense of rejection those kitten's had so stupidly, and unwittingly, validated to him all those years ago.

He just wished to the Heaviside Bombalurina wouldn't torture him with the dissappearance of her smile. He had dreamed so fondly of it for so long, and in his hours of need, a vivid mental picture of a laughing, inviting Bombalurina had been all her needed. The one thing that scared him most of all was her screaming. Since he had found her in the rain that night, so far from the ground of betrayal that was the Junkyard, her sleep-screaming and sobbing would jolt him awake. His heart would beat faster, his speed would inscrease as he bolted to her assigned room (close to his of course) and he would find her, broken from her slumber, but not broken from her nightmare.

Every night, she had screamed, and every night, he would cuddle her into submission, and curl around her protectively. Providing her what little warmth his cold heart could.

Tonight would be no differant, although Macavity desperately wished it would be.

•••••

"Awww...Simba!" The nasal voice of Tugger's owner cooed shrilly from the archway, alerting the tom of the horror that lay ahead. He had only gotten as far as the kitchen's island counter this time.

Damn.

The Main Coon hissed violentally as the click of shiny pink stillettos on the pale pink floor ganged up behind him, until his entire being was lifted into the air and replaced back on his pink daybed.

"Simba!" That demon-spawn chided him loudly, positioning it's face so he could stare at the hideous thing through the plastic cone. "You know you aren't meant to leave your little bed sweetie!" The creature's lips pouted and closed in on him, leaving a sticky pink smudge on the side of his muzzle. He gave a distasteful Mrrr in loathing for his circumstance, but that only made his owner giggle.

"Simba...you're such a silly kitty!" She added in a baby voice, getting up of the floor, brushing off her ridiculously short black skirt, eyes filled with some weird amusement at his Houdini like escape plan. He was aching to find Bombalurina, or at least know how she was, but he'd had no contact with the Junkyard since his return to the doom that was Renee.

Overbearing, pink, baby-voiced, pink, prissy, pink, girly, pink, "Aw that's so cute!", pink, "Oh my god, no duh!", pink, ditzy, hideously pink Renee.

Renee may have loved "Simba" but "Simba" did not love Renee.

She had been watching him round the clock since his initial visit to the vet, and had even gone so far as to trap him in a plastic cone to merely keep him under her thumb. Most cats adored their humans unwavering affection for them, but they had known no wrath such as Renee's. From the moment she'd seen him at the pound (where most animals would get purposfully caught by animal control with intent to be bought by some idiot human, and usually escape if they were scheduled for euthanasia) she'd fallen in love with him, and had to, as she stressed to the overweight attendant "Have him."

Oh, yes. She had him.

She had trapped him in her house for over a month after he was bought, simply because she was so enamoured at the prospect of his prescence in her life. Ever since, he would avoid her at all costs, only dipping in every so often so she wouldn't go looking for him and put up those ludicrous flyers. (Even though. Tugger admitted, that photo of him was a good one)

And now, he wished he could find the strength to crawl over to the cat flap of freedom, and return to the Junkyard. He needed to find Bombalurina and reclaim her trust. He needed to find out what had happened in his absence. He needed to kill Mungojerrie.

It would be a score to settle. But most of all, he wished that he was away from the pink of the house, and back to the beautiful red of Bombalurina right then and there. Pain that had been clouding his mind since his foiled attempt at escape began to dissappear, and a lightheaded feeling replaced it.
"Aww...I think the medication's making you sleepy..." Renee giggled as she replaced the water in the bowl next to him. Tugger snarled half heartedly as his eyes drooped, making him forget that his owner had drugged his water, and slowly letting him slip into a far more pleasant dream world.

•••••

Munkustrap was in shock.

He'd recooperated fairly quickly after Bombalurina has run from the Jellicles. Since his brother was rushed to his much-loathed owner in hopes he could be saved (He feared that he was alright, but the fact there had been no contact yet was fairly disconcerting). Since the Jellicles were plunged into chaos. Quickly after the twisted turn of events that had transpired days ago, a civial war had seemingly claimed the tribe.

There was Mungojerrie's side: They believed that Mungojerrie was a saint for "saving" Bombalurina from Tugger. Or at least, they felt sympathy on his behalf and secretely agreed with Demeter's angry slip or the toungue, and that Bombalurina had manipulated the sweet hearted calico tom into causing the trouble.

And then there was Tugger's side: They believed that Tugger was innocent. In fact, although sceptical on the basis of his past behaviour, they were more sceptical on Mistoffelees being able to weave such an elaborate tale on Tugger's "framing". He was a great magician and well respected member of the tribe, but not a good liar or storyteller. This all seemed to correlate with Electra and Victoria's story.

Then there was those who had their own sides. Munkustrap fell into this catagory. While Mungojerrie had been arguing angrily with Mistoffelees since Bombalurina's dissappearance, resulting in a few near-fights. Demeter's constant worry and fretting which was eating away at the protector's own mateship with the golden queen, and the suddenly reclusiveness of a select few tribe members, most of which were implicated some way in Mistoffelee's version of the events that had taken place.

The silver Jellicle protector found that none of that seemed to override the grief that settled over the tribe. Admteus was dead. Although he wasn't popular with many of the Jellicles, it had still come as a shock to everyone, and gave them a reason to be even more depressed then they were before.

The tribe was falling apart. Crumbling foundations where all that seemed left to save, and that is why Munkustrap had deceided that he and his last remaining confidant, his brother Alonzo, must finally seek his father for guidance.

Deuteronomy was the last resort to an issue, but 2 missing Jellicles and 1 dead one seemed to be enough of a cause to seek out his father.

With a heavy heart, he turned to look at Alonzo. The tabby was pale, and found he suddenly had no energy to breath. His sibling lifted his eyes to focus on his own - tears already streaming down his handsome black-and-white face.

They both stared at their forboding discovery. Yes. His face was peaceful, as was his position, but the body of their father seemed to chill them to the bone.

Old Deuteronomy was dead.

The brothers continued to stare at their father's corpse. Curled up on a book of nursery rhymes on his human's porch. Even though his death was obviously natural, it did nothing to ease the guilt in his sons' souls, and seemed to add the fate of the tribe on their shoulders.


Bit of a confusing/dramatic/rushed chapter?

I know! and I'm so VERY sorry but I must go now. I have a bus to catch. I'm REALLY SORRY IT WASN'T GOOD!

I was so cut when the chapter (which I thought was perfect) was deleted. You have no idea. I just hope this was acceptable. I will most likely go back and edit tonight, or when I actually have time!

Love you guys, please review. I had no time to edit, so I just skimmed for stuff, and since I was on wordpad, so the editing will be as bad as some bogan reading Shakespeare to a football stadium.

Maddy

(PS - I hope this chapter doesn't dissuade you from the series! I have a very cool storyline planned out. Lots of twists and turns. Please! Trust me on this one, and don't judge me!)