Alright then, now from, it's time for something completely different. Now before we start this is the first time I've done a Cats fanfic so if the characters are OOC...try and go easy, plus with no one knowing what the canon is when it comes to relationships, it was a nightmare trying to figuring out who could be related to who in my head-canon. Having said all that, your probably wondering why I'm writing this for, am I right?
Well then, I've recently got into a Cats mood of late as I'am going to see for the first time in September in Glasgow and then I thought 'Why the hell not?' So thus, here I'am now a fan. After diving into the fandom and seeing what was on offer, I then notice one paring that caught my eye, PouncexJemima. I'm pretty neutral among the other parings in Cats, but after seeing a few pieces of artworks and reading some of what fanfiction of this pair I could find, this little ship really struck a chord with me and I decided to write a oneshot on this pair as there really isn't that much on the site.
After writing a action story with a lot a violence, I guess this one is to cool down and relax. Mind you, i don't think this is good, this is pretty much an experiment to see if I can write a Cats fanfic, if you like it and want more, then I'll know that I did alright. So time for you to read!
Just a Little Confession
An overcast mist hung around the Junkyard that cold and dreary Monday afternoon. There had never been at least one break in sky that day for sunshine and as of a result, hardly any members of Jellicle clan could be seen in the junkyard as the majority couldn't be bothered to turn up that day and decided to stay with their owners or in their own dens. For the few that were scattered across the junkyard, it should've been a peaceful day for them.
Too bad that wasn't to be the case.
The cause? Two certain brothers, both born from the same litter, named Pouncival and Tumblebrutus were caught up in yet another petty little argument.
"She just had to lock us outside for what you did!" Tumblebrutus argued looking down at his slightly younger brother.
"What you blaming me for?!" The younger Tom snorted crossly, "You were involved as well—"
"Oh shut up," Tumblebrutus replied sarcastically as he lay back on the side of Pouncival's prized chair, much to his brother's chagrin noticing this. "What matters is that we won't be allowed back in the house again for goodness knows how long!"
For those who would've just turned up and witnessed the two Toms quarrelling, they most likely would've questioned what all the fuss was all about. The truth was rather amusing in some ways. Sometime yesterday, Pouncival and Tumblebrutus had gotten into yet another small quarrel over which cat would take possession over the new cat basket that their owners had bought for them (including their eldest brother Plato, who during the argument was sleeping upstairs on their owner's bed). Of course it was there for them to share, but the two feuding brothers didn't quite catch that and eventually it ended up into a fight between them over who would take the basket.
It just also happened to be the moment when their female owner and her husband appeared during the small fight between the two tom-kits. Suddenly the two rolled over hitting a small table with a rather expensive vase, quite a very special one for the family, on that they sent accidentally tumbling to the ground where it smashed onto the wooden floorboards. The less said about the reaction of their owners the better as not so long later, the two cats were kicked out the house and were not allowed back for the time being, leaving only Plato in the house.
It wasn't like they enjoyed be outside, far from it, cats like them loved be out the house, it was just that it had dawned on them that with them out the house, Plato would take the new basket for himself meaning that both Pouncival and Tumblebrutus would not be getting the prized object that both craved for.
And it was all over a basket.
"Can we give up now?" Pouncival moaned as he sat down beside Tumblebrutus.
His older brother sighed before replying, feeling like he had tired himself out with arguing. "Alright then, forget the basket story then."
Pouncival heaved a sigh as he felt himself about to fall asleep, all felt—
"But another thing!"
Pouncival growled as he sat up turning to look back at Tumblebrutus. "What is this time?"
The slightly older brother by only a few minutes explained what was wrong now. "Listen, I can't help but notice that with that attitude you and your antics, it is probably the reason why you haven't found yourself a queenfriend."
"…No, it's not," Pounce replied grumbling rolling his eyes. "You're the problem I can't get a queenfriend. Besides, I haven't seen you trying to pull a mate."
Tumblebrutus chuckled at his younger brother's fighting words. "You know it takes time…something that you don't have, Pounce."
"Well you aren't no good then!" Pouncival retoured.
"Well you aren't good either then."
"You suck at it!"
"You couldn't do it to save your life."
From anyone watching the two brother's clash of words, they would of thought it was a comedy routine of some sort. The two of them carried on the squabble for about a minute until they both got fed up trying to outdo each other, though they both did have a lingering doubt on their minds about the fact that neither had a mate and that now was that point in their lives to make a start on it.
"You know what?" Tumblebrutus said in a calm manner after a long pause of silence.
"What?" Pouncival muttered as he lay down on a piece of rusty steel plating.
The older brother sat down beside Pouncival. "Thought about who you'd like to have as your future mate then?"
Pouncival looked at him skeptically at his question before he started to think over the question. "Well em…don't know really…"
"No chance with Bomba, eh?" Tumble remarked giving his brother a playful punch to the shoulder.
The younger Tom could only groan at the memories from that name. Bombalurina. Being the young immature feline that Pouncival was, he was known to try and hang out with the fully grown flirty feline queen, he clearly did have his eye on her even he was just a mere kitten to her. Despite his best efforts, Bombalurina's flirtatious nature with nearly every other male cat in the junkyard made poor old Pounce to feel like just another Jellicle cat in her eyes.
To make matters worse for him, she had started to get closer to Rum Tum Tugger, of course those two always had an on/off relationship, but something had felt different when those two cats were around each other in recent days. Then came the big news that shocked the Junkyard, Tugger and Bomba were finally going to become mates.
To this day, Pouncival could never imagine in a million years the thought of Tugger ever settling down to have kittens of his own, but yet there it was, something that no one ever thought they'd see, especially Etcetera, who went into a long mope for a good full week over Tugger. However, it was the thought of Bombalurina finally going to settle down, even though afterwards she still had some aspects of her flirty nature, made Pounce go into a small bout of depression of his own.
Nevertheless, this was only short as he then got over the scarlet queen and the young Tom returned playing around with his brothers and his friends like good old times.
Pouncival cast a glare over at Tumblebrutus. "I've grown up since then."
"Yeah but your still a stupid cat like ever," Tumble muttered to himself that Pounce didn't catch. He then thought of another idea while talking about queens…
"Anyway then…trying to make your move on Jemima yet?"
This made Pouncival splutter and fall off the plate of metal he was lying on and blushing a furious shade of red. "W-what? S-she's just my best friend!"
"CLOSE best friend I'd say," Tumble winked.
"Hold on now!" Said a now flustered Pouncival "W-we're just a tom and queen-kit who just do various things like normal friends do, get it?"
"Oh sure," replied Tumblebrutus sarcastically.
Of course, Tumblebrutus always knew an easily route to get under his younger brother's skin; in this case, it was Pouncival's newly developed crush on Jemima. The younger Tom always had a good close friendship with the young calico cat, being the two youngest cats in the Jellicle tribe, they always seemed to have a closeness that some would think would be quite deeply caring. Ironically, the only one who didn't seem to notice this was Tumble himself, he knew that Pounce seem to have his heart on Bomba and no one else, when he went into a moody depressing after some certain news with the two certain older cats, the one feline in the junkyard who had to cheer him up was none other than the little kitten, Jemima.
Since then, the two were as close as best friends could ever be playing around and normally sticking up for each other. Recently though, Tumblebrutus had noticed Pouncival getting quite flustered at times when Jemima would ever give him a friendly hug or when he'd be asking her parents, Demeter or Munkustrap, if Jemima was around.
Tumblebrutus began to slowly get an idea what was going on in his brother's mind, so he began testing the waters around him by teasing him asking if he was in love with Jemima, naturally just like any stubborn young kitten, he would get cross say he wasn't, even though the expression on his face pretty much gave the game away to Tumblebrutus. Pouncival was in love with Jemima.
"Oh come on now," said Tumblebrutus. "You so totally fancy Jemima, nearly the entire tribe seems to notice this."
"Look, I don't, she's my friend that's all!" replied a nervous looking Pouncival
The two of them were silent for a moment before Tumblebrutus got up and starting walking away with a haughty grin on his face. He had another idea to get Pouncival annoyed.
"Wait, where you going?" Pounce replied following him.
Tumblebrutus carried on walking. "Oh just going to tell her that you don't have any feelings for her whatsoever."
"But…she might not be in the junkyard today!" Pouncival explained frantically trying to stop his brother. He then thought he briefly noticed a flash of dark red from somewhere, but didn't bother to think about.
Then Tumblebrutus stopped and slowly turned to look at Pounce. "You know, I think your right. She's probably not in the—Oh look there she is over there!"
"Where, where?" Pouncival reacted quickly turning around looking around, only to realize that she wasn't there and had been tricked by his brother, who in turn was chuckling loudly at Pouncival's reaction.
"Oh man!" Tumblebrutus carried on laughing. "You so totally had a love struck look on your face when I said her name! Come on, what's the truth then?"
Pounce groaned quietly, he had no way out of this, his older brother had backed him into a corner he couldn't get out off, and he lowered his head like a naughty kitten getting a telling off from an older cat. He began muttering something that Tumble could just barely hear.
"I'm sorry what was that?" Tumble explained crossing his arms.
Pouncival replied muttering a bit louder that Tumblebrutus could just make out something about Jemima in there.
"Bit more?" Tumblebrutus requested with a smirk, he slowly getting under his brother's skin once more.
This time however, Pouncival took a deep breath, stared his brother eye to eye with a determined look on his face and let his feelings all out. "I love Jemima!" He snapped angrily, making Tumblebrutus silent. "Yeah I know she's my best friend and all but…I don't how I got these feelings for her, just happened like that. But…I don't know if I would be good for her or not, I haven't got Tugger's looks or do magic tricks like Misto, stuff that she seems to like, I'm just this kitten who just jumps all over the place pulling pranks on the older cats. I'm not good for her to be honest, but if she's happy with another tom then…that's ok. Yeah…um…"
Pouncival's confession had started off well, but had ended on a whimper, a rotten confession. He hung his head sadly seeing how it hadn't worked well for him, but then he noticed Tumblebrutus staring ahead with a stunned look on his face, probably one of the rare times that Pounce had seen his brother looking like that. At first Pouncival thought that Tumblebrutus was looking stunned over his confession, but then he noticed that he wasn't staring at him, but in fact something behind Pounce.
The young tom slowly turned round not knowing what to expect, but when he did see what was behind him, he could've died of a heart attack on the spot. It wasn't the whole tribe behind him, it wasn't even Macavity, but for once, he'd wish it was. Why was that?
It was Jemima.
Pouncival could only stand there helplessly not knowing how to react; Jemima had heard his confession about her, but in not the way Pounce would've liked. Her normally wide eyes were now widened in shock and her stunned expression really said it all.
An awkward silence fell between the three young felines before Tumblebrutus broke the silence. "Erm, well then…I'll leave you two to it then." And the older Tom sneaked away, without giving his brother any silent words of encouragement, walking over to a pile of garbage to watch them from a (safe) distance.
Pouncival then turn to look at the young queen-kit in silence as he tried to find the words to say to her. "Well...I guess you heard all that what I said, right?" He uttered, in which she nodded in reply, though Pounce notice her stunned expression soften.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean for this—"
"No, don't," Jemima interrupted. "Pounce, do you really mean that about me?"
The Tom rubbed the back of his head nervously; he had never felt so flushed in his life. "Yes…I do, but if you like anyone else, t-then, that's your own choice, but I don't want our friendship to be ruined by this."
He sadly lowered him head, only for Jemima to suddenly to pull him into a comforting hug. Pounce stood there not knowing how to react with his heart racing a mile a second. He glanced over to Tumblebrutus relaxing among the garbage he was in, which the older Tom watched the scene with a grin on his face.
It was then he heard Jemima giggle and Pouncival abruptly felt the worse about what she might say.
"I like you too!" She smiled happily as she pulled away sill with her arms around him and that sweet expressive that Pouncival loved so dearly.
"You...you do?" Pounce asked, this time the stunned look was plastered on his face. "Even if I'm not like the other Toms?"
The young kitten nuzzled into his chest. "Of course, your always so much fun to be around and the only Tom who I can always rely on as my best friend!" She then leaned in to give him a kiss…on the cheek. "But let's take it slow, ok?"
Pouncival felt himself grinning and had found a new burst of confidence within him and then wrapped his arms around her slim waist. "I can wait, together we can do it. I love you, Jemima."
"I love you to, Pounce" Jemima replied sweetly and the new couple stood there in each other's arms and rested their foreheads on each other's.
From his spectator spot, Tumblebrutus chuckled to himself as he got up. "Well, I guess I'll leave you two alone for a while, ok?" He chuckled to himself as he walked away smugly, then he heard the sound of their laughter and something hitting the ground. Turning round, Tumble could see the young couple laughing with one another as Jemima lay on top of Pouncival giggling.
Young love.
Tumble decided to keep quite and promptly walked away. Ah yes, he was happy to see Pounce get off his back, he could enjoy relaxing on his own…on his own.
Tumblebrutus suddenly stopped and began having a revelation at what it meant now that Pouncival had Jemima to love, his younger brother had found someone, but he had no one to love!
"Oh Everlasting cat no!"
Oh dear poor Tumble! Ah well, how was that then, was it good utter crap as I think it is. If you like it, would like to see me carry on with some more Cats stories in the future? As I said before, this is my first Cats fanfiction so I have no idea what to expect. Here's hoping though!