Me: This is mainly written for LoveofVelma, he's gonna have a hard day today, but it's still for all of you.

Invy: BlablaScooby not hersblablaWarner BrosblablaHanna Barberablablaapple pieblabladisclaimer. Bla.

Me: You noticed? Invy talks again :D

Apps: Enjoy!


"Scoob, like, now?" Shaggy asked, indicating to the clock which showed the green glowing numbers 1 and 32. "It's in the middle of night!"

Scooby nodded, the most serious view a dog could make on his face.

Sighing, Shaggy stood up from where he had just sat down to change his clothes and go to bed. Something had clicked again and he had drawn late in the night, everyone else long gone to bed. When he finally decided to follow this sample, Scooby had opened towards him, that he had to pee and that right now. Not only that, he wanted to go to the park to do so. Why so, it could be tried to be explained here, but it would only be understandable for dogs. Being like he was, Shaggy couldn't say no and stepped out of his door, tip-toeing in an attempt not to wake the others. They crept down the stair and made their way to the front door, where Shaggy put on a jacket. Summer or not, it was still a bit cold outside at this time of the night.

Once in the park, Scooby began to run a bit faster, on a search for the perfect place to pee.

Shaggy knew that this could take a while, so he decided to sit down on the nearby swings. He made his way over the sandy ground and was surprised to see a person already sitting in one of the two swings. Approaching, he was even more surprised to see that this person was very little, a kid, probably. A woolen, green beanie was placed on the girls head, along with her untamed hair doing a perfect job of hiding her ears. Since she was sitting with her back to him and couldn't hear his steps, the noises they'd normally make swallowed by the sand, he decided to call out just as she turned her head sharply, staring at him with wide eyes. He smiled as she mustered him warily, her eyes taking in every detail.

Shaggy waited for her to finish, not wanting to get her shocked or something else. Finally, the wary look was taken back and replaced by a curious, though still alerted view. Without any words, Shaggy slowly stepped closer before sitting down on the swing beside the girl.

"Like, what are you doing here all alone?" he began a conversation, hoping he hadn't gone too far with asking this.

"I could ask you the same. And I'm not alone." the girl said, holding up a small, black bundle that had been unable to see while lying in her lap. The slight 'Meow' coming from the bundle made pretty clear what it was.

Shaggy smiled. "Me neither. My dog's running around here somewhere."

"Dog?" the girl looked around, seeming slightly panicked. It took Shaggy a moment to get that she was probably afraid of Scooby chasing and barking at the cat if he would come over to them.

"No reason to worry, Scooby's a total cat-friend."

"Oh. Okay." she let her hands fall back to her lap, stroking the cat which purred slightly.

"Yours?" Shaggy asked, talking about the purring cat lying in the girls lap. She tilted her head, seemingly thinking about what to answer, before she gave slight nod and continued to stroke the cat.

Shaggy thought. He didn't want to offend the girl, but it seemed just strange to him, a girl like her, maybe 14 years old, sitting on a swing at a time like this.

"Um... don't your parents worry about you?"

"As if they'd care." she mumbled a quiet answer, making it very hard for Shaggy to understand her words. It surprised him, but he had no time to ask any further, as he heard someone calling him.

"Raggy! Raggy!" Scooby slithered to a halt just before him, his tongue hanging out of his mouth and a very satisfied look on his face. He sniffled and took the scent of the girl and the cat on her lap, curiously walking towards her and sniffing at the pair a bit closer. The girl seemed frightened, but relaxed, and for a very, very little moment, Shaggy would have sworn that he saw her sniffing Scooby, too. But that just had to be his imagination. Seeing that he was indeed a very friendly dog, she stretched out a hand and scratched him behind his ear, a slight smile creeping on her lips when Scooby looked very relaxed.

Shaggy stood up, stretching and yawning, he really had to get in his bed.

"Come one Scoob, I'm getting really sleepy now." He turned to the girl. "It was nice meeting you... sorry, I think we haven't changed names yet."

"Lila. You?"

"Shaggy. Okay, it's a nickname, but nobody calls me by my real name."

"Bye, Shaggy. It really was nice meeting you." she said honestly.

"Bye." he smiled one last time, before turning around, walking off with Scooby. He should've probably said that she should really go home or something, but it felt strange telling it to a girl who seemed to be so... mature.

"R'ange r'mell." Scooby crossed his line of thoughts.

"Strange smell? Who? Lila?"

"Reah."

"Why?"

"Rhe r'melled... rike ra r'at."

"She had a cat sitting on her lap, it's normal for her to smell like it."

But Scooby shook his head, of course the cat had added to the smell, but there had been something cat-like in the girls own smell...

------------- Meow -----------------

Fate goes funny ways, they say.

Well, at least it was was Shaggy thought when a sense of déjà vu hit him upon seeing a girl sitting on a swing, moonlight hitting her from behind, her face hidden in the shadows. It wasn't as late as it had been the night when they first met, but still pretty late. She had her hair opened and her beanie in place just like the other night.

He saw the girl stiffening slightly as he approached her, but she either knew it was him or it was indifferent for her, since she made no attempt to look at the newcomer.

Shaggy sat down and looked over at her just in time to see Lila wiping away a lonely tear from the corner of her eye.

"What's wrong?" he asked softly, careful not to sound too worried. Lila shook her head as an answer.

"Is it about your cat?"

Head-shaking.

"Another animal?"

Nope.

"An alien?"

Lila was just about to shake her head again, obviously ready to give a negative answer to everything before even thinking about it, but then stopped, looking over at him to shot him a small smile, showing that she appreciated his tries to lighten up her mood, but didn't really wanted them. She didn't thought about turning her face to him, taking it out of the shadows it had been hiding itself in. It took her some seconds to get, why his view got more worried as he saw at her face, the large bruise over her cheek lying revealed in the moonlight. Quickly, she looked away.

"What was that? Did you got beaten?" he asked, not able to keep the worry out of his voice anymore.

Lila sighed, her shoulders moving up and down with the noise as she thought about wether tell him or not. Well, he found out a part by himself. She couldn't hide that from him now.

Nodding, she gave a positive answer to his question, she didn't felt like talking.

"By who?" he asked, trying to get further step by step.

Here Lila shook her head again.

"Then... why?" Lila looked up. Something crossed her face. Something looking like great anger. And it snapped.

"WHY? WHY?! There you are, some stranger the only thing I know of his nickname and you're the person to worry about why I got beaten? If it's so interesting, then here you have your damn reason. I'm different, okay?! DIFFERENT! I'm nothing like you or people you know and just because I'm not like any other, not NORMAL, I got beaten, fine?!" she yelled at him, emotions rushing through her whole body like water down a waterfall.

She had expected everything from him, to slap her, to yell at her, but not this, not this face that wasn't upset in any way, not this still worried face. Taken aback, but also feeling the sudden urge to run, she turned around and did as her head told her. She took off into the parts of the park which were overgrown, running with a speed Shaggy thought about as very rare - the speed he and Scooby could get to while being chased by a monster.

With a sigh, his head hung down, that was definitely not what he had been up to. He should come back with Scooby for a night walk soon. As soon as possible.

------------- Meow -----------------

As soon as possible, ASAP for short, turned out to be two weeks later.

His heart already hurt by just looking at her, her small frame shaking with sobs as he slowly approached from behind. He noticed the bag on the sandy ground sitting besides her as he sat down on the other swing.

"Lila?"

"Go away. Really, it's better for all of us."

"I don't think so. What happened?"

"He threw me out."

Shaggy nearly fell off the swing. It made sense, Lila sitting here sobbing, the bag besides her, she looked a bit homeless like this. "W-Why?"

"He can't stand me. My... speciality. Told me, we'd make a surgery about it. You wouldn't have agreed if you were in my place."

"Speciality? Honestly, Lila. Everybody is special, if I look at me and my friends, I often wonder how we even got to be friends, we're just so different. In which way are you... special?"

"You are not like your friends, but still you're friends with them? That are things you think of? I'd be glad to have just one friend, different or not! The differences you're talking about, they're nothing like mine. Your differences aren't something your own father would want to get away from, would want to destroy. Nothing he'd take a credit to get it away."

"Lila, for god's sake! Like, I won't ever be able to truly understand the topic if you don't explain yourself a little bit farther."

"Okay, if you're so eager to write me off as freak and leave to never come back, fine. I'm PERFECTLY FINE with it. Just because you're one of the few who've ever been nice to me in my whole life, that doesn't mean ANYTHING. You want to know why I'm different? How I'm different? FINE!"

She stood up, still shaking with sobs and Shaggy could see the tears leaving streaks over her face. She raised both hands at once, the left hand ripping the beanie from her head while the right hand gripped at something at her back, something hidden under her pullover, and pulled it out. Shaggy had imagined many things, but that wasn't one of them.

Sitting on the girl's head, maybe one inch over the place most people had their ears, twitching with her whole body, were two cat-like, fluffy ears, black fur with red tips. Now not hidden from views anymore, a black tail hung from her behind, swinging around as if it was joyful not to be under the pullover anymore. Lila stood there, fists at her sites, her trembling view staring on the ground in front of his feet.

"Satisfied?"

Shaggy just sat there and looked. You can't judge him, everybody would be a bit dumbfounded at a sight like this.

"Yeah, stare at the cat-girl, after all, you're just like everyone else. You begin to hate me, you never want to have anything to do with me anymore, I know the routine now, I've gone through it quite some times. Go on, stand up, get your un-tailed behind out of here, leave me standing here, it's not like I need any help, I'm perfectly fine alone."

Shaggy stood up. A bit uneasy, he walked over to Lila and pulled her towards him softly, giving her enough space to escape, but still an embrace. She leaned her head against his chest, crying into it, one fist slightly battling against his chest.

"You're just... just... like everyone... You're not supposed to be..." then, she went limb in Shaggy's arms, letting him wonder just how much time had passed since she had gotten thrown out. He turned at a sound behind him, finding Scooby sitting there, a curious view on his face. He trotted over.

"Rold rou r'it r'wasn't just r'the rat's r'smell."

Shaggy smiled. "Hand me her beanie, would you?" he said, nodding towards the green piece lying on the ground, which must have fallen there somewhere in the last minutes. Carefully, he placed it on Lila's head, making sure her ears were hidden from views. He asked Scooby to get him Lila's bag and took it on his own shoulder. Lastly, he put her tail under her pullover. It was unlikely they'd come across anyone, but not impossible. Beginning to carry Lila towards Mystery Inc. he asked himself just what exactly he would do when he was home.

He should wake Velma at first...


Me: Heh, I've got no idea how I should continue with this, so I probably won't.

Apps: Though, if someone asks just nicely enough and gives a good idea how to go on with this story, it could be possible that this story is going to have more than one chapter.

Me: But it probably won't. Since Lila won't have a surgery, but I somehow don't want her to live with Mystery Inc., it doesn't looks that good.

Invy: Yep, and that's about it. Bye, leave a review and all this stuff.

littlebixuit