A/N: Yay! I got something up! (By the way, two spoken lines from the following story came from Facebook.) Enjoy!
Thorne frowned at the sight before him. "Shaiden, we need to talk."
His ninja sister didn't bother to look up. "About what?"
Thorne's frown deepened. "I think we need to have an intervention about your cat obsession...it's not healthy for a ninja like yourself."
"Thorne, I do not have a cat obsession," she replied, rolling her eyes. "I'm just studying them."
The ninja's brother stepped inside the room, shutting the door behind him. "And living like one."
Shaiden turned around and gave her brother a tiger-like glare.
The alchemist took a few unimpressed glances around the room. Siamese cats, tabbies, Persian cats, and all sorts of other cats were lying on every piece of furniture and every square inch of stone floor. There was even one reclining in the open window. The blue-streaked Defender contemplated pushing that cat off the ledge, but decided against it. Shaiden would probably kill him if he did that.
"Come on, you need to take a break," Thorne said, turning back to his sister. "Get out of the castle, soak in some sunlight."
The ninja rolled her eyes and put her gaze on the orange tabby she was feeding. "Thorne, don't worry; I'm just fine."
"Shaiden, you're staying up past three in the morning just to record one of these prissy feline's breathing patterns!"
"And to see how they sleep," she added, observing how the orange cat chewed its treats.
The alchemist crossed his arms. "Guess what? They sleep like cats. Case closed."
Shaiden resisted the urge to roll her eyes again. "Very funny, Thorne."
"I don't think you're getting enough sleep."
The ninja grabbed a measuring tape and held it over the tabby in front of her. "Yes, I am."
"You nodded off in the Capture the Crown round yesterday! If you had stayed awake, we wouldn't have King I-Love-Sugar-Free-Taffy for a ruler!"
Right at that moment, the two siblings heard a teenager's voice yelling from the throne room.
"Knightriss, this has sugar in it!"
A deeper, harsher voice shook the walls of the castle. "WELL, WHERE DO YOU EXPECT ME TO FIND SUGAR-FREE TAFFY, MY BOY?! THE SUGAR-FREE TAFFY STORE?!"
Thorne turned back to Shaiden and gave her a look. The ninja groaned and rolled her eyes.
"Alright, fine," she admitted. "Maybe I'm a little tired. But I'm alright otherwise."
Thorne glanced at the black and white cat lying in the window, currently eyeing a blue bird. Shaiden also noticed what was happening, and rose from the floor to observe the cat's behavior. She quickly sat on her bed and grabbed a pencil and notebook before returning her gaze to the cat.
"Look, of you're so insistent on studying these cats, why don't you train them to attack Kook?" her brother inquired, looking back at her.
"Actually, I'll planning on doing that next week. I'm training all these felines to be ninja cats."
Thorne felt his jaw drop to the floor. You have got to be kidding me. Shaking off his shock, he said, "Shaiden, please. You need to get away from these cats."
"Ugh, what are you so worried about?" Shaiden asked, turning to face her brother.
"I just want to make sure you're okay," he replied.
The ninja felt a stronger tug of annoyance in her chest. "I'm fine, now go away."
Thorne shook his head. "I doubt that. You're letting these cats control you-"
Shaiden shot up from the side of her bed. "YOU are overreacting! I am not letting my cats control me!"
"Being obsessed with something is letting it take control of you," Thorne replied as-a-matter-of-factly.
"I AM NOT OBSESSED!" Shaiden screamed.
Thorne calmly walked up to Shaiden and looked her in the eyes. "Then leave them alone for a while. Come outside, get something to eat, splat Gildar; just do something not related to cats."
Shaiden crossed her arms and looked angrily into her brother's face. However, when she saw the sincerity in Thorne's gray eyes, her anger quickly dissolved. A moment later, she sighed deeply, then finally replied, "Alright."
Thorne nodded. "That's the spirit." He began to walk out of the bedroom, gesturing for Shaiden to follow. She quickly removed the cat from the window, shut the window and locked it, then dashed after him.
"What are you in the mood for?" Thorne asked as Shaiden closed her bedroom door.
"Uh..." Shaiden tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Hmm...well, I am hungry."
Thorne pointed behind him with his thumb. "Well, Skabb is making rock soup for lunch, so why don't we go try out that new restaurant that opened last week?"
Shaiden nodded. "Alright. Anything to avoid Skabb's rock soup."
With that, the duo began walking down the hall. Once they were near the end of the corridor, Thorne offered another suggestion. "Crocness, Skabb, Tinkor, and I are going to see a movie this evening. Care to join us?"
The ninja rubbed her chin. "I don't know; I need to study my Siamese cat's-"
Thorne raised an eyebrow.
Shaiden groaned and shook her head, then replied, "Sure. I'd love to."
Her brother nodded. "Good." He paused, then gave his sister a weird look. "Are you seriously going to train those cats to be ninjas?"
