so this is called fluff. it is a whole lot of it too...and its really long too! so long fluff for you pretties. This is a little depressing and repressing at the same time, but i think that you guys are strong. i wrote it while listening to a ton of really sappy songs like jar of hearts and defying gravity...though that one isnt sappy that one is empowering...so read and review and since i dont want to do a disclaimer, you can just pretend you know i dont own cats, because if i did plato wouldent exsist and Munk would be my mate...read and review once again!

Victoria ran as hard as she could to the nearest den that wasn't her own. Plato was extraordinarily drunk once again, and was causing her physical and emotional pain. Though she loved him, that love had decreased as the days went on before the jellicle ball. She wasn't sure if she wanted to go through with this mating thing, not with the tom that abused and used her often. Tugger wasn't even as bad as Plato. If Victoria was given the chance, she would have chosen Tugger.

Running through the rain and the mud, she eventually found the one den she knew that she would be welcome into, and that it wouldn't be full. During rain storms, more cats went out to patrol the junkyard so the queens usually all stayed in one den. Though being alone would be nice, Victoria wasn't about to go into someone else's den alone, and risk getting caught by Macavity.

Thump, thump, thump, thump, went her paws as she ran across the metal of the pipe. He had to be in his den; they usually didn't wake him up for patrol, as the rain would dampen his powers and render him useless. Sure the rain would do the same to Macavity, but he was more powerful and strong and they didn't want the smaller cats to get hurt, even if it means that they older but smaller toms couldn't participate in protecting loved ones.

"Misto?" A groan came from the back of the pipe, more specifically from a pile of blankets that made the small, black and white tom seem twice as big. "Can I stay the night?"

"Yeah, grab your blankets. You know which ones I mean." Victoria used to spend many nights at Mistoffelees' den when she was younger but didn't want a whole new den to herself. He had offered to take care of her until she was ready. By the time she had gotten her blankets, he had managed to scoot his pile of blankets over so that he could give her a hug from behind. Almost like an instinct, she pressed her face into the warm, short and smooth fur.

"Why did you come here?" he asked. "I thought you were spending the night with Plato."

"I needed a change of scenery."

"Bull. You used to spend so much time here it is like a second home. Besides, I thought you were happy with Plato. What happened?" Victoria knew that she could tell the truth about Plato, and about how she had feelings for Mistoffelees, instead she nuzzled in tighter before turning so she had her back to him. A small tear slid out of the corner of her closed eyelid.

"Happiness is what happens when all your dreams come true." Then she fell into a sleep that was wonderfully dark and empty, giving her the best sleep in a while. She was safe with Mistoffelees, though she knew that sooner or later she was going to have to shut the voices in her head up and tell him how she felt.

While she slept, Mistoffelees went over the thoughts running through him. Part of his mind wanted to wake her up and declare his love for her; another part wanted him to just find out what Plato did and make her change her mind. Finally, the third part wanted him to get up and high tail it out of there, like he often did every day. When they shared the den, they had only been friends but that friendship was kindling to something bigger called love, when it was a vast and unfriendly expanse that both of the cats had to cross to get to the other side.

He still thought that love was something that was deserving attention, but not as much as it should have. On the unfortunate day that he would have to see Victoria, his Victoria, be mated to that awful tom Plato, he would cry himself to sleep and then go off and find himself a new life. Being all together depressed wasn't a lifestyle he liked for himself.

Plato treated her like a trophy, a prize that was his and he made sure that she knew that as well as the others. She wasn't drowning, but he kept trying to save her. It was one of those relationships in which the male made himself bigger than the rest so that he could show off. Misto was sure that he was possibly monopolizing the entire junkyard population of queens as long as they weren't already mated with someone bigger than him. Etcetera and Electra were sisters who used to do everything together, and were almost exactly alike until Plato came and dated one but made out with the other.

If he were to do those things to Mistoffelees' Victoria then Plato would surely not walk straight for a week. Munkustrap would be told, Tugger would be put to shame, life could be normal and Victoria could be his. Stop it, stop it right now. You know better than to think of Victoria like that. That small voice in his head started screaming again. Mistoffelees spent the rest of the night dreaming what he would do to Plato and how he would dance on his grave.

That morning, Munkustrap had gone straight to Plato's den after hearing a small whimper and seeing a flash of white running through the mud and rain while he patrolled. If he wasn't there he would go to Victoria's den. If that tom did something horrible or just plain uncalled for, he would do many things to that stupid little punk. The soft thumps of his feet were soon accompanied by his brother, the infamous Rum Tum Tugger.

"Hey there bro. Are off to kick Plato's but so hard he will land in Mac's den?" Munkustrap looked at his brother partially questioning. How did he know what he intended to do?

"How did you know I was going to do that?"

"She was like a daughter to me too, you know." Victoria had been rescued at a very young age from Macavity's evil clutches, and Munkustrap took care of her with some help from the older queens and Demeter, who was now someone that he spent most of his free time with, but they weren't dating. He had no time for love.

Sooner rather than later, they had made it to Plato's den. Once inside, they had found Plato sleeping on a pile of papers. They forgot that he still didn't like blankets after his owner tried to kill him with one. Tugger thought that the different approach to murder deserved creativity points. Munkustrap almost agreed with him there, if it wasn't for the fact that their father was sitting right there.

Plato let out some very gross sounding moans, and to Tugger it had sounded like a hangover. Soon they found Victoria, running out of the general direction of Mistoffelees den. She wasn't as perky as she usually was, and her coat wasn't gleaming like it had when they had taken care of her. She was a chalk outline of herself, and it made the two toms who worked so hard to keep her clean and pure, happy and perky like the usual Victoria they knew.

"Victoria, are you okay? Last night I think I saw you running. Oh-"Munkustrap started, about to ask if she had been injured by Plato. There were shallow gashes coming up her side until her shoulder blade. Some of them were pink, though most were ripped open because she was running.

"What happened?" Tugger asked. Victoria thought of a lie and thought of one fast.

"Last night I went to my owners before I went to Plato's and I ran into a pollicle and climbed a pine tree. Jumping down hurt afterwards."

"Then why did you come running from Mistoffelees' den?"

"I went to him to see if he could heal them."

"Let's get you to Jenny's. Tugger, you know what to do." Munkustrap escorted the white queen to Jennyanydots' and Tugger went to go and ask his little black and white buddy if he had seen a certain white queen.

The pipe was suddenly empty feeling, and once Tugger was in, he noticed that the stack of blankets that Misto was so good about taking care of was in a small bed on the floor. It had been right next to his. Oddly enough, to contradict what Victoria had said, there were small blood stains in the blankets now, and there was some white fur sticking to the blankets. Tugger was going to be very traditional about waking his long-time friend up.

"Hey look! Victoria!" he yelled loudly. Misto jumped a few feet in the air, before giving Tugger a cold look.

"Not very funny." Tugger gave him a look.

"Last night, a white queen that you have fondness of went missing and this morning was found with various cuts and bruises as well as some extra skittish acts. She also came running from your direction. Care to explain?"

"Last night she came running in, claiming she needed a change of scenery from Plato's den. Then she left early in the morning. I didn't do anything, but I don't think she loves me anymore." By the time that Misto had finished his sentence, Tugger was gone. Maybe he was hopeless for romance, like Tugger had deducted a few months ago.

Days passed and Mistoffelees still hadn't heard anything true about his dear's courtship with Plato. There were rumours that he heard from Jemima that she had heard from Electra, who she had heard from Demeter, who overheard Munkustrap and Jenny talking. The rumour was that they were breaking up and leaving each other for good, but something must have been lost in the translation from Jemima.

Mistoffelees found that his den was rather comfy, and if you got ten hours of sleep you would want more and more after that, as well as learning that reading a spell book from cover to cover would help you with your magic. Tugger would drop in and invite him to a party or something, just to sober up the dull cat that he was becoming. Being depressed was a talent worth learning, and he was going to master the skill.

On nice evenings he would go to his favourite spot in the junkyard and just practice his magic and dancing to see if he could do it well. Practicing his magic was easy, dancing was a little harder. If he didn't get enough sleep his muscles would start to have issues, and if his muscles had issues then he couldn't support his body while dancing. That wasn't the problem though, it was emotional heartbreak. While he was dancing though, which soon became every night that there was a sunset, a queen kept coming and watching him dance.

This queen didn't show herself to him, but he could only think that it was Victoria, Demeter or Jemima, and it was one of those three. It was Demeter. After watching him, she would tell Bombalurina to tell Victoria about his dancing spot. Then the two would go there together. What they didn't know was that dancing was all that Mistoffelees could hold on to. His love had disappeared overnight, and now he was just a pile of flesh and bones, waiting for the great expanse of life to swallow him up.

Victoria knew that his dancing was pain inflicted, and that he was really heartbroken, but that is what made the dancing so interesting. He would twist and turn, jump and spin in such a broken movement that it looked beautiful. He held himself higher as he danced, and it made her feel a little better about herself.

While the queens were off watching Mistoffelees dance his painful dance, a council meeting was being held for the sake of Victoria's wellbeing. Munkustrap had called it together as soon as possible, because he knew that if he didn't his most beloved adopted child would be stuck in an arrangement that could kill her and another cat.

"Old Deuteronomy, you do know why we have to change the mates. Victoria doesn't love him as much as she used to and now that he just hurts her-"

"Enough youngling, you still have much to learn. I know that she doesn't love him anymore, but she still has to do the inauguration of the mating dance with him. I will let her not have to mate but the dance is mandatory. Also, after the dance she can become a queen, which is much better than the alternative." Munkustrap was so happy he could have hugged his father. After leaving a quick good-bye and a hug, he went to go and find Mistoffelees.

(I am not a line break, but this here small and pointless intermission is.)

Mistoffelees was still dancing. His feet ached, and he had a raging headache, but he danced to keep the goblins away. Sometimes he wished that if he just closed his eyes the monsters would go away and he could be happy again. That didn't always work. He knew that Demeter was watching him dance, and he didn't mind that as she was nice enough to him, almost like a second mother. The first one wasn't much of one, mind you, but still.

"Misto! I have great news. Then I have some bad news. Which would you like first?" Munkustrap asked, out of breath and rather excited. Mistoffelees glumly replied ''bad news.''

"Okay. Victoria has to do the mating dance with Plato, but the good news is that she doesn't have to mate with him! Isn't that great?" Munk could have sworn on Growltiger's slippers that he saw Mistoffelees look livelier than he usually was.

"I will be right back." He said before leaving the silver and black tabby in the dust. So Munk sat there and admired his paw. He found a white hair, and thought to himself; figures as much, I am going to go old before my time.

Running fast as his four paws could take him, Misto searched for Victoria until he found her chatting with a few of her queen friends. Though he knew what he was going to do, he asked himself if he had enough bravery and stupidity in him to do it. Sure, it was a little fast and a little stereotypical, but it had to be done, and now it could be done.

"Mistoffelees!" the white queen chirped happily, though inside she and her friends all knew that she was more scared that Griddlebone on Growltiger's ship.

"I know this is in a rush, but since you don't have to mate with Plato anymore, will you go to the ball with me and become my mate? I have loved you since forever it seems, when you were just a young kitten staying in my den, and now I know for sure that these feelings do exist. Please?" All of her friends, which were only about four, gave a soft 'awww' to add to the moment. Victoria blushed.

She knew what she needed to do, but once again she had to ask herself two very important questions. First, was she brave enough to follow on with the actions planned in her mind, and secondly, was she stupid enough to do it? Ignoring the inner voice of hers, she leaned forward and gave Mistoffelees a kiss. It was awkward at first and a little shocking for both of them, but they knew that it was going to happen anyways.

"Does this mean that you will?" Mistoffelees asked hopefully.

"Yes it does you silly tom." Victoria smiled, and the happy couple went to find Munkustrap.