A/N: Yay! Second chapter! Shoutouts to raptoregg64 and Calanarie! I might actually be able to get this story up in time! Yay! Misto does a magic show, and Plato plays a mean trick. The whole love triangle plays a larger part in this chapter, and Misto finally learns the name of his lady-love. Anyways, read, review and all that jazz.
I stood behind the curtain, waiting for it to open up. Tonight I wasn't going to simply appear out of nowhere like I usually did. It was tiring to do it night after night, and I was getting pretty bored of it, so I was going to do things differently tonight. It would probably take a hit on my salary, yet I didn't really care at this point. The curtain rose, and I stepped onto center stage to a nice applause.
"Good evenin' folks. How's you night been?" I asked, rubbing my paws together as a chorus of "goods" and the like were said. "That's good. Now, I'm going to do things slightly different than I usually do. Tonight, I'm going to perform a trick that one of you in the audience wants," I said, hoping that snow-white queen in the balcony would suggest something.
"I've got a trick for you," a brown and white tom, wearing a white dress shirt and jeans, said, standing up. The spotlight moved over to him. "Can you do card tricks?"
"They're not what I'm known for, yet I can turn a fair card or two," I replied as I saw the tom walk up to the stage. He walked over to the steps, smiling slightly and up onto stage.
"Now, I've been coming here every night and I've been wondering if Mr. Mistoffelees could do tricks that he's not planned," he said out to the audience. "I guess this is my chance to find out." There was a small chorus of laughter. Smiling and shaking my head slightly, I took the deck of cards out of his paw and shuffled it a few times. I flipped it over, showing the cards to the audience.
"Normal cards, normal deck," I said as I glanced down at the cards, quickly memorizing the order of the cards; I had a photographic memory. I shuffled the deck, being sure to keep the order straight in my head—this is where my magic came in. "Pick a card, show it to the audience, and place it back in the deck somewhere," I said, trying to not sound bored. Smiling, the tom picked out a card, showed it to the audience and placed it into the deck. If memory and magic served right, then he had the three of spades. I shuffled the cards a few more times, in my mind as well, and I pulled out the right card. "Is this the right card?" I asked, a confident smile on my face. The tom smirked as the audience laughed softly.
"No. I believe that's the four of clubs. I had the three of spades," he said. The smile on my face faltered for a moment as I looked at the card.
"Of course it's not. How could it be if it's this one?" I asked as I switched that card with a three of spades out of my coat sleeve. "How'd you do that?" I asked him softly as there was applause.
"Switched the cards," he said as he pulled out a three of spades from his shirt sleeve. "Sorry, mate, yet I just needed to impress Victoria, that snow-white queen. I hope you don't mind much."
"Of course not," I said with a grimace. "Now get off my stage."
The rest of the night went by pretty uneventfully. I moved back to doing most of my normal tricks, to prevent more humiliation from occurring. I was glad though when the curtain closed and I could leave.
"Hey, so who's the lucky queen?" Tugger asked, leaning against the wall, as I walked past him.
"Snow white queen, red dress, sitting front and center on the balcony level," I replied as I continued walking to my dressing room.
"That babe? You have fine tastes," he said, standing up straight and walking next to me.
"Yeah, sure. Whatever you say. Unfortunatly, that tom who sabotaged my show has his eyes on the same queen," I replied bitterly.
"Wait, so you didn't have that act planned out with Plato? Man, I thought only I would do something as lowlife as that for a queen," Tugger said, shaking his head. "So how'd he manage to bamboozle the great Mr. Mistoffelees?"
"That dirty lowlife switched the cards on me," I muttered as I walked into my dressing room and tossed my jacket onto the couch, not bothering to hang it up. I sighed and walked over to my closet, pulling out my street clothes and a nice bottle of hard liquor. Wonderful stuff that I wouldn't ever be able to afford.
"How'd you get that?" Tugger asked as he pointed at the bottle.
"Well, when you don't keep your alcohol under lock and key…" I said, shrugging slightly as I downed a shot of it. Shaking his head, Tugger pulled the liquor from my hand and poured it into the sink just as I was about to take another shot.
"No more drink, Misto. I've got an idea that'll make you feel better," he said. I looked up into his cocky smile and groaned.