When You're Gone

A/N: This is my first fanfic! So no flames, but I will accept suggestions!

Electra hissed as her tender tail suddenly filled with pain. The young black and reddish-brown queen flipped herself around in a quick manner to find a brown and white tom of equal age laughing his head off at her.

"What are you rolling about for, Tumblebrutus!" she spat, her teeth bared in despise.

Tumblebrutus sneered at the female.

"Hey! It's not my fault! Didn't you say to me not long ago that you could sense everything around you, 'Lecky?" he inquired, noting to use her hated nickname.

Electra scowled.

"Yeah, well I'm not right about everything!"

"You think you are…"

"What did you say!"

"Nothin'! Honestly!"

Electra puffed her normally well groomed fur outwards as her infamous temper unleashed itself. She took a swipe at the tom, which resulted in his ear bleeding.

"Honestly, Tumble!" she screeched. "There are days when I'm tempted to leave the Jellicles so as to get away from you!"

Tumblebrutus cradled his wounded ear as he felt like his heart had been divided in half. Sure, he enjoyed to jump all over "Lecky's" nerves from time to time, but in his heart resided nothing but like…no…love for the young queen.

A mixture of anger, heartbreak, confusion, depression, and a number of other feelings formed in the tom's chest.

"Electra," he stated sternly. "I believe you should know that everyone seems to want to avoid you! You're always so hateful to the people whom care for you. I'm surprised anyone would attempt to be your friend at all!"

Ouch.

Did he just say that? Tumble grimaced at the mistake in his thoughts.

Electra stared blankly at him for a moment before tears could be seen in her Egyptian-shaped, brown eyes.

"Electra?" Tumble asked cautiously. He had never known the tom-boyish queen to cry before.

"Just leave me alone!" she cried before tearing out of the junkyard.

"Electra!" Tumblebrutus called after her, knowing it was useless.

Pouncival sat down beside Tumble, unknowing of the recent argument.

"Whatcha callin' to Electra for?" he asked, curiously raising a brown eyebrow.

Tumblebrutus looked to his friend and shook his head as he walked away, storing himself in the trunk of junkyard car.

Jennyanydots was making her way towards the junkyard. She had recently been on vacation with her fleshy pets and was looking forward to seeing her grandchildren: Electra, Victoria, and Pouncival now that she was back.

The Gumbie Cat suddenly paused as her ears picked up a wailing sound. She turned to her right to see her granddaughter crying her heart out in a clearing.

"Electra…," Jenny mumbled, about to step towards the queen until:

"Hello, kitten," a voice came from behind Electra. Jennyanydots knew that voice all to well and ran off to the junkyard, knowing that telling Munkustrap was the best that she could do for Electra.

As Jenny continued to sprint, a dreadful could be heard behind her…The sound of a young queen's cry:

"Macavity!"

Tumblebrutus awoke from his trunk to a sound of absolute chaos. He sleepily pushed open the door and raised an eyebrow at the sight before him.

Cats were rushing through the junkyard, throwing worried looks towards each other and (especially) talking to Munkustrap about something.

Victoria and Rumpleteazer were on their way towards a severely freaked out Demeter when Tumblebrutus held his paw in front of them.

"'Ey! Wha's the big oidea!" Rumpleteazer spat, turning to Tumblebrutus. Something had obviously caused her to be extremely stressed.

"What's going on around here?" Tumble asked. The two queens blinked at him.

"Ya moin ya don' know?" Teazer asked. Tumblebrutus shook his head. Teazer and Vicky exchanged looks for a moment before Victoria spoke in her soft voice.

"Uh…Tumble…Electra…gotcatnappedbymacavity…"

Tumble was confused.

"Electra what?" he asked. "Sorry, I didn't catch that."

Victoria appeared to take a deep breath before she spoke again.

"…Electra got catnapped by Macavity, Tumble."

Tumblebrutus gaped at them and was about to speak when Munkustrap could be heard over all the meows.

"All Jellicles report to the tire!" he called.

Once the cats had taken a few minutes to assemble, Munku spoke again.

"I'm sure that you are all aware of what happened to Electra," he said as the cats nodded. Before he could continue, he was pushed aside by Electra's parents, Jellylorum and Rum Tum Tugger. Jelly began to speak in a panicky tone.

"Jenny said that Electra was crying right before Macavity found her. Does anyone know what caused her to cry and leave the junkyard in the first place?"

Pouncival looked like he was thinking painfully hard before his eyes widened and he looked at Tumblebrutus.

Tumble gave his friend a confused expression before realization hit him.

'Oh no…,' he thought. It was his fault that Electra was gone. While his thoughts wandered, Munkustrap gained control of the meeting again.

"Where's Mistoffelees?" he demanded of the crowd. Etcetera was the first to speak up.

"Misto's not coming back until next week," she said. "He's on vacation with his humans right now."

"Well, that's just great," Munkustrap muttered. "I suppose we'll just have to bring in a search party."

He looked out over the crowd before he spoke again.

"Alright," Munku said. "The search party will be made up of Tugger, Mungojerrie, Coricopat…" He paused. "And we need someone small…"

Tumblebrutus raised his head hopefully.

"…Pouncival."

The party left soon after the meeting, and Tumblebrutus resorted to sulking on top of the car.

Days passed and the other Jellicles began to wonder why there was no change in Tumble's behavior.

"But he hates Electra," Plato stated to Jemima as they passed the depressed cat.

Tumblebrutus followed the pair with his eyes.

'That's just what they think…,' he thought.

Electra sat quietly in her small prison, silent tears running mingling with the fur on her face. Lots of thoughts had passed through her head since she had arrived at Macavity's Lair. Although there was one that she found to be repetitive.

'I shouldn't have so hard on Tumble,' she thought. 'Now I may never see him again…so he'll never know how much I….love him.'

The young queen opened her mouth to speak when another voice came out instead of her own.

"'Ey! Whoitcha doin' down there!"

Electra looked up to see Mungojerrie smiling at her through a hole in the ceiling. A wide grin broke across her own face as Jerrie held Pouncival by his feet as he came down to get her. She reached up and held onto her brother as the group began towards the exit.

"Halt!" a raspy voice sounded behind them.

Tugger looked to the rest of the group.

"I'll hold them off," the tom said. "You all just run."

The group looked around at each other before, surprisingly, Coricopat spoke.

"We must get out of here," he said, to which the others quickly obeyed.

"But I won't be able to keep up," Electra stated as they began to leave. "I hurt my foot."

"I can help there," Pouncival said as he picked his little sister up, and the foursome headed for home, a slightly injured Tugger joining them halfway.

The entire Jellicle tribe had received news from Tantomile that the search party was on their way back. The cats huddled together with their loved ones, hoping that the search had gone to their liking.

Tumblebrutus sat next to Jennyanydots. He drooped his head every time a new cat entered the junkyard whom wasn't the search party.

"Now, Tumble," Jenny spoke. He turned to look at her.

"Yes?"

"If Electra comes back, I don't want to see you teasing her for a while. The poor girl's probably been through a lot of trauma."

"You don't have to worry about that, Jenny…," Tumblebrutus mumbled.

Jennyanydots raised an eyebrow, but decided to not push the matter further.

The search party entered the junkyard a few minutes later, Electra in tow. The tribe meowed their pleasure at the young queen's return. Jellylorum was about to step forward to hug her daughter when a different voice could be heard.

"Wait a minute! …What happened to her! I-Is she hurt!" Tumblebrutus spoke in a panicky tone.

The Jellicles stared at him as Pouncival backed away, holding Electra, for he was aware of Tumble's usual "teasing" personality. The silence was finally broken by Mungojerrie.

"I's jus' a sproined oinkle," he spoke. "Nothin' serious."

"Tumble…," Electra murmured, staring at him with teary eyes.

Pouncival looked down at his little sister in his arms, and Electra stared back at him.

"Put me down, please…," she whispered.

Pouncival gave her a worried expression, but nodded none the less. He set Electra down, and the Jellicles parted as she limped towards Tumblebrutus.

When the young queen reached him, she faltered and started to fall forward. Tumble caught her under the forelegs and pulled Electra up to meet him eye-to-eye.

"Tumble…," Electra started, tears forming in her eyes. "I'm so sorry I ran away…"

"It's not your fault, Electra," Tumblebrutus assured her. "It's mine."

Electra began to sob openly as Tumble held her close to him, her head buried in his shoulder.

"I'm so sorry!" she cried. "I never should have left! I never thought I'd run into him!" Electra rambled on until she cried:

"And I missed you so much because…," she looked up at him hopefully, courage forming in her eyes. "Because I love you, Tumble."

Tumble stared at her in shock. Electra stared back for a moment before limping off elsewhere, her hope lost.

"Ya here tha'?" a voice sounded behind Tumblebrutus. He turned to see Rumpleteazer and Jemima standing there.

"She loves you," Jemi finished for Teazer in her soft voice.

"Ya betta go foind 'er," Rumpleteazer advised. "Or else she'll neva know 'ow ya feel."

Tumblebrutus nodded and strode away from the pair of queens.

Electra sat upon her dumpster at the edge of the junkyard, crying silently.

'How could I have been so stupid?' she asked herself. 'I come back to the junkyard after being catnapped by Macavity, and I just tell Tumble that I love him!' The young queen buried her face in her paws, criticizing herself until she felt something around her tail. She decided to ignore whatever it was until "it" rubbed the side of her face.

Electra looked up and turned to look at her tail. She gasped when she saw another tail wrapped entwined with her own. She followed the mass of fur until her eyes locked with its owner's: Tumblebrutus.

The queen opened her mouth to speak, but Tumble held up his paw for silence…ending the movement by cupping her face.

"I love you too, Electra," he assure her, licking her nose fondly.

Electra smiled and snuggled her head under his chin. Tumblebrutus flashed the same grin as he placed a paw around her neck. The two fell asleep under the Jellicle Moon, no longer enemies…but friends. Wait…no…mates.

The End