Tugger had went to Munkustrap knowing this was not a chat about safety plans for the ball but he thought he might as well go there and see exactly what he had done wrong this time. Very much as he expected this was going to be about Victoria.

"You are taking Victoria to the ball? Are you out of your mind? You are not ruining that kitten for us you hear that!?" Munkustrap was already so worked up his face had turned red.

"Can you calm down? We are not going to the ball together, you know we don't take dates like that-" he started but his big brother just got more upset.

"That is the worst I've heard, you can't tell her you are going together and expecting her to just settle for sharing the attention, I can't believe you can still surprise me with your lack of conscience!" Munkustrap started waving his arms around being too upset to help himself.

"Can you chill and listen for a second? We are sitting together after the mating dance as friends, she didn't want to be pressured by the toms on her first ball" he said, not mentioning it was a certain tom she had wanted to slip away from.

"For real?" was all Munkustrap could say.

"For real." Tugger answered.

"I didn't know you were friends? Heh! I didn't even know you did something like that for a friend in need! You can't stop surprising me today can you?" His big brother started laughing.

"Bah! I can care about a friend" he said a bit hurt.

"Yeah yeah I know. But I don't think I have ever seen you talk, and I thought I knew about most things around here."

"Well you know I'm awake at this hour and she happens to be too usually so it just kind of happened." he muttered. "She actually told me to say hi from her when we met but you just went all tornado on me before I could say so" he started teasing his brother.

"Well thank you. I was going to talk to her as well about the ball but I wanted to clear the air at first" Munkustrap said trying to sound like normal again.

"What about Munk?"

"I wanted her to dance a solo at the ball. Everyone agrees she is the one who has the most talent of the new queens but-"

"She would love that!" Tugger blurted out "I know she has been a bit afraid of all the attention but I think that's changing and I think she is much more comfortable with everybody watching when she does something she's that good at!"

"So I take it that you have seen her dance quite a lot?" His brother asked amused at the uncharacteristic outburst. Tugger toned it down a bit.

"She is the best one and I think she would be perfect for it" he muttered. "But what?" Tugger remembered the sentence he had cut off.

"But we don't have any Jellicles who are prepared to do the mating dance this year and I was kind of hoping a certain rumour of your date and Plato would solve that for me, but I see now that I was quite uninformed" Munkustrap said a bit concerned.

"Yeah you are, he is actually the reason I'm booked afterwards" Tugger said. "But that can't be such a big problem, it's a lot of time left or just have some of the older couples 'renew' their dance?" Tugger said laughing as he knew how much his brother loved the traditions of the ball and wanted everything running smoothly and preferably planned out on beforehand.

"That is actually not a bad plan Tugger! Look! You managed to surprise me again, you better get going before you go back to disappointing me, this is highly unusual" his brother laughed out loud.

"Duh!" Tugger said like he had gotten hurt but smiled back eventually. "But do you want me to ask Victoria about the dance or should you do it yourself?"

"Why don't you ask her? It sounds like you are knowing her much better than I do, but make her come confirm with me afterwards will you?" Tugger smiled at his brothers need of control.

"Well I better get going, I think she is probably done about now and I can't keep walking around keeping queens awake all nights, they need their beauty sleep" He joked with his usual cocky tone.

"Aaand we're back to normal" Munkustrap teased back.

As they came to the door the rain poured down and the maine coon knew what that did to his long, perfectly groomed mane. With a sigh he asked if he could take a nap at his brothers until it had stopped. He could ask her in the evening instead.

Victoria finally got her friend inside and they were both soaking wet, Teazer both from rain and tears. First things first Victoria thought and brought out some towels and blankets to dry them up and keep them warm. They looked at each other and laughed at the sight of the other queen, neither had very long fur but when wet they both looked like they had shrunk three sizes.

"Let's dry up" Victoria said as she handed her friend a towel. "And then talk"

Her friend nodded and they got the worst of the rain out of the fur, knowing that it would take several more hours of grooming to get it all out. They were still really cold afterwards and cuddled up under a blanket each. They sat down on the bed close to each other so they could share some body heat. Victoria felt her friends warmth radiate towards her whole right side and it felt like there was an ocean between her right and left side of the body. She wanted her whole body to become warm like that but didn't know what to do. It had felt so much easier to just lean in towards her friend out in the rain, she almost wanted to go back out there just to be closer again.

"What really happened Victoria?" Teazer asked so low it was almost impossible to hear it.

"I don't know really" she started. "I was having such a weird day and then he said something about you and I got really angry and snapped at him and he left and I started to cry and then he came back and it just happened." she rambled. "But we didn't kiss! He- he washed my face" she said looking down a bit embarrassed for some reason.

"He washed your face?" Teazer said looking like that was highly unlikely, which it was.

"Yeah… I don't know why but I just felt safe for some reason, I looked horrible and he offered and for some reason it didn't feel scary, it felt okey...it felt like I could trust him" she said still looking down.

"But you can't trust me like that?" Her friends voice had started to tremble again and Victoria looked up into her eyes.

"Is that why you ran away? I thought you wanted Tugger first of the new queens, I even thought you liked him when you ran off like that" Victoria felt the warmth spread through her body.

"Hah! I don't care about him" her friend laughed out before she went back to her sad face. "I only care about you" she said looking into Victorias eyes.

"Oh" Victoria couldn't keep the look and felt her face go deep red when she looked down again. She decided to follow through with her plan to show Teazer all this had been for something good so she looked up again. "Can I… can I try something?" she whispered.

Her friend nodded looking into her eyes and Victoria leaned in and started washing off the remains of the tears on Tezers face just like Tugger had done to her. She tasted the salt on her tongue and it felt like warmth and electricity flowed into her and she started to get a bit dizzy but she didn't want to stop. Her friend carefully put her paw on Victorias in the lap and Victoria shivered feeling the fur rise in a whole new way in her neck. Her friend immediately removed her paw but Victoria grabbed it again and looked into her eyes.

"I think I only care about you too" she said hoping her friend would see the fire that had started burning inside her but afraid she might push her away. They were only friends and nothing more but at that moment Victoria realised that that was only half true. They were only friends but that didn't mean they only wanted that. She wanted something else.

"Can I try something too?" her friend asked and Victoria nodded. "Please don't hate me.." her friend whispered as she put her lips against Victorias and Victoria could feel her whole body go up in flames. She squeezed her friends paw in hers and met her friends lips making the kiss last what felt like forever and only a second. Her friends eyes widened before she smiled so big that the kiss ended early.

"I trust you too" said Victoria with a low voice looking down again.

They were still holding their paws together and Victoria felt that they had both started shivering. She didn't know if it was the rain or the kiss or both but she couldn't stop. She looked up at Teazer and saw that the orange cat shivered and smiled looking at her.

"Do you want to stay during the storm?" Victoria asked shyly and a bit afraid about what it meant. She was already dizzy from everything that had happened and didn't know if she could handle so much more right now.

"I'd love to" her friend said but then looked away with a concerned face.

"What's wrong?" Victoria asked realising she was terrified that her friend had changed her mind about everything.

"I just...I feel like everything has happened so fast...I'm really tired and uhm..I would love to sleep a little if that's okey? We can still hold paws if you want to?" Her friend said looking at her feet but squeezing Victorias paw quickly.

"Me too" she said smiling as her friends mouth smiled back at her.

The two young queens laid down facing each other holding one of their paws in between and fell asleep almost immediately.