OHMYFREAK! It's been forever since I updated! :( It's sad but I've been flooded and I had to (unfortunately) prioritize my stories, sending this one into the oblivion that is my mind :P But I got back to it!

Felixfeles: -looks at watch- you fail :P
FantabulousMe: Well, one would assume that a cat with his expertise and skill would to a lot of good with powerful kisses such as those ;)
Angel56277: Honestly, I don't -_- I spend most of my time on the computer writing and making youtube videos... It's school that's sucking my life away! This story would have been done in NO time if I wasn't so burdened by society's expectations of me and my academic success!

Enjoy :) Lord knows when I'll have time to update (though it will be sooner than it took me to update this chapter)

The maine coon ducked out of the stuffy den out into the clearing of the junkyard. He spotted Demeter and Bombalurina chatting happily as they lounged in the relaxing, early evening sun. He casually swaggered over to the two queens, eyes intent on the golden queen as she came into greater focus. "Hello, ladies. Nice evening, isn't it?" he gave them a kind and oh-so-very charming smile.

"Save it, Tugger," Demeter chortled, saving him the effort of trying to get on her least horrible side. "I guess I'll talk to you later, Deme." The scarlet queen sat up excitedly, it had been forever since the sexy coon had called on her and she wasn't the least bit tentative to take the first opportunity to spend time with him.

"Erm... Actually, I was wondering if I could ask you something, Demeter." The two looked at him suspiciously, neither pleased with the turn of events. Something was up with the flirt; he didn't just speak to the golden queen if there wasn't a catch. "Everlasting, Demeter! You don't have to be so strung up, I just want to ask you a favour is all. Nothin' special."

She straightened her back and met his gaze evenly. "Alright," she agreed. "What do you want?" Next to her, Bombalurina crossed her arms in preparation for the tom's imminent fail.

"It's about Jemima..." he started. "...And Misto."

"Come on!" Bombalurina groaned, throwing her arms up in the air in defeat. "It always has to be about that damned magician, doesn't it?"

Tugger's brow shot up in unexpected surprise, slightly shocked into silence. He quickly regained his composure and prepared for retaliation. "Is there a problem with me being concerned about my friend?-"

"It's not about you being concerned! I couldn't care less if you feel bad that he got sick," she stormed. Demeter watched in silent awe at the unusual outburst and the revelation of emotions she only seemed to discuss with her. "The problem is that you keep bending over backwards for this cat and I can't get the time of day! How am I supposed to feel when you disappear for a few days to go hang out with your buddy?"

The coon reached up and fluffed his mane out in a force of habit. He could feel the anger welling in his chest, he needed to stay calm though. Afterall, it's not like they never fought before, just now the whole 'friend' card was more off-limits than usual but a lot more relevant. "What are you talking about? You hang out with Demeter all the time! I don't complain when you're busy running around with her..."

"She's my best friend, Tugger," she stated matter-of-factly. "This is different-"

"Yeah, and he's mine, there's nothing different about it! You and Demeter hang around even more than Misto and I do." He could see from the look on her face that there was no stopping her from fighting all night. Neither wanted to back down but neither wanted to make a huge scene- scratch that, Tugger wanted a scene. He would gladly have all the Jellicles involved just to shut her up. He wasn't one to fight, it was rather pointless in his opinion. he had no problem arguing; hell, he'd even play the devil's advocate for a good argument! But this was fighting, he didn't care for it.

"Yes, but at least I know when it's time to spend with Demeter and time to be with my tomfriend. You just want me to be there whenever it's convenient for you, it's never about what I want," Bombalurina ranted. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Alonzo and Admetus whispering quietly and pointing at the trio, she began to feel a little self-conscious but that wasn't nearly enough to get her to back down.

"So I'm just supposed to just not care that my best friend is in there dying because you want a good lay whenever you please?" Demeter's eyes widened in shock at the blunt remark, she quietly cleared her throat and shifted uncomfortably in the middle of the battle.

The scarlet queen chuckled harshly in return. "That's what you do! Look at those spots, Tugger. They don't change, they never have since you were born, and they never will."

"Ooh, she's a fiesty one, eh?" They all snapped their gazes to the tiny, old pollicle who had stealthily sneaked into their crossfire; going undetected by all three of them.

Bombalurina grimaced at the sight of the ugly, wrinkled dog. "What is that?" her nose recoiled in the stench of the decaying animal.

"I," interrupted the graying pollicle, obviously unimpressed by her manner. "Am Soljian. I've been brought here to help heal your little tuxedo friend," he informed. She just rolled her eyes.

"Of course-"

"Don't talk back to me, miss! I am an old dog with plenty of time on his hands, don't think I won't enjoy making someone's life miserable during my stay!"He looked to Tugger who happened to be snorting at the crude old tom. "Don't think I'm bailing you out either! I'm not here to deal with your relationship issues, who do you think I am, Dr. Phil?"

"Who?-"

"Bah! You need to get out of this place more. Anyways, I was told to come out and talk to this Chemi-mani person." He scoped out the entire cluster of cats before turning back to the mained tom.

"You mean, Jemima?" Tugger corrected. Returning his gaze back to Demeter.

"Yeah, her. Whoever you were coming out to look for," he snuffled noisily before breaking out into a fit of dry, unpleasant coughing, wheezing, and heaving.

Demeter slid to the end of her little ledge and sat up with new found interest. "What do you want with Jemima?" Soljian moved to speak but was interrupted by the coon, it was probably better that he deal with the kit's mother as opposed to the miserable creature.

"We think that Jemima might know something about Misto getting sick," he explained soberly, ignoring the scarlet queen's eyeroll.

Demeter shook her head in confusion. "What does she have to do with Misto?"

"We're not too sure. He was just asking for her, it's probably nothing but we just want to make sure." Nodding her head slowly, the golden queen quietly agreed to letting them speak to her daughter. The two thanked her before Tugger turned to lead him towards the watering hole.

"We're not done with this discussion!" Bombalurina called out from behind them. Tugger waved back to her over his shoulder without giving her another word, he doubted that he would be making it to their 'discussion' any time soon.

The old dog started to laugh and wheeze beside him, at one point the flirt thought that he was choking to death but reconsidered when the laughing had started up again. "Is it like this all the time around here? You cats are worse than the damned pekes!" he exclaimed as he continued to laugh, more so at his own joke.

"Nah, we're usually pretty quiet here. It's just her and a few others. I'm sure that the pekes have us beat." They rounded a stack of broken doors to the nice clearing that held the famous watering hole. It's famous because the water hasn't yet been contaminated by the disgusting sludge that leaked out from underneath the rotting garbage and rusty metal.

Asparagus was watching quietly over the kittens as they made little garbage towers and chased after each other with pawfulls of water, shrieks and giggles pierced the air at an unimaginable decibel. Tugger quickly began narrowing in on the little red queen, his partner in crime scowled angrily at being placed in such a stressful situation and began grunting his distress.

The coon quickly spotted his target; catching her eye and enticing her over to the side of their play group so that they could speak in a more private setting. Asparagus stared at him worriedly and with a twinge of suspicion. He caught the golden tom's gaze and gave him a questioning glance as he nodded towards the old, arthritic dog next to him. He just shrugged non-chalantly and led the little queen away from her cluster of friends.

"What's up, Tuggie?" her chestnut eyes sparkled happily with the excitement of being picked specifically out of the group of kittens, Etcetera was extremely jealous and she knew that she would be somewhat famous when she returned to her circle of friends.

Tugger gave her a tiny grin before he began to explain the situation to the little queen. She frowned in thought and in worry at the mentioning of her name from the sickly tux.

The coon watched her intently as she mulled over the information for a few moments. "Do you have any idea why he would be asking for you?" She slowly shook her head 'No'. There were reasons that she hoped he would be calling out her name but she couldn't think of anything they had done or talked about in the past few weeks that would have him asking for her.

"Did he say anything else?" she inquired. It was no secret that the young queen had a crush on the tribe's magician; in fact the only one who hadn't acknowledged it, probably for her sake, was the tux himself.

"He can't really say anything now, but you must be pretty important," Tugger encouraged. The small queen kitten smiled broadly.

In the background, Tugger could hear the sounds of shrieking kittens as they crept towards the trio in search of their playmate. He turned around to see the tux's sister among the group, worried as ever but still contented to be around her friends. His mind went to the queen's sickly brother waiting silently in the old Gumbie cat's den, waiting for a miracle... or death.

Thinking about the two immediately brought his mind to the morning of the ball, when he last saw the vibrant tom in perfect health. As if hit by a ton of bricks, his mind immediately focused in on the tux's present. He remembered the cutesy little card that he had snatched from the young tom's paw thinking that the sender was one of the kittens, specifically his admirer, Jemima.

He watched the little queen as she waved to her friends; there was no way this little angel could be out to get Misto, right? Beside him, Soljian was scrutinizing his stare, slightly appalled when he came to the conclusion that the flirt was openly checking-out the young kit. He cleared his throat loudly, attracting both cats' attention. Tugger immediately set to business.

He knelt down to meet her eye level. "Jemima, babe." The soft hazel eyes of the dimple cheeked queen made it that much harder to convince himself that he was mentally accusing her of attempted murder. "Do you ever, I don't know, send gifts to Mistoffelees?"

Her face became serious and concerned. "No... Should I? Would it make him feel better?" Tugger let out a sigh, glad he could scratch her off his list of suspects but disappointed and even more agitated that they didn't know what, or whom, were responsible.

"She could be lying," Soljian grumbled from the side. He huffed disappointedly when the coon had released the little queen to go play with her friends.

Tugger turned from watching Jemima run off to face the old tom knowingly. "She's not lying, I know a liar when I see one."

"It takes one to know one," came the hoarse ans semi-friendly reply. Tugger stopped, unsure whether to take it as an insult or a friendly joke.

"Pretty risky claim for someone I've only known for a few hours." The old dog chuckled darkly, granted every sound emitted from the antique creature was dark and rusty.

"Oh, please," he began, his little cane stabbing the earth with each step and his tail following limply behind him. "You drink, you lie, you sleep around, you cheat. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if you steal! But if I know anything about your kind is that you are master manipulators, you'll do and say anything to get what you want-"

"What exactly are you getting at?" Tugger's voice was sharp and demanding. This old dog didn't know a thing about him and he was already bashing him and his lifestyle choices? The audacity! Tugger chuckled internally at the word, remembering how much he apparently sounded like Mistoffelees. He stared hotly at the grayed beast, his stare sharp as glass.

"That you cats are a nuisance that are not to be trusted! It's a miracle the humans would keep you in their homes, let alone refrain from exterminating all of you meowling beasts." He turned to walk on, leaving a slightly put off Tugger behind him. It was honestly not where the coon had suspected he was going for, he didn't appreciate having his species being badmouthed by a lunatic pollicle, but he couldn't reprimand him for his biased views seeing as he was Quaxo's only hope for survival.

Still somewhat angered, Tugger walked along in silence; fighting every urge to leave the miserable ass behind. After a few minutes of silence (save for the incessant wheezing and coughing from the older of the two) Soljian's grey muzzle lifted curiously to smell the late evening air. The maine coon stopped and watched as the droopy lips frowned in discontent.

Raising an eyebrow, he moved to question the healer."What's-"

"Shhh!" They stood in silence for an extra few minutes before Tugger officially decided he was looking after a delusional senior. His train of thought was loudly cut off by the sounds of breaking glass, twisting metal, and shrieking cats.

"Macavity," Soljian whispered knowingly. Tugger's heart nearly stopped at the name; his mind reeling until it focused on one small, and very vulnerable tuxedo cat: Quaxo.

-Dramatic music- GASP! EGAD! What will happen? 10 bucks says that Tugger will trip and fall on his face and the entire junkyard will be slaughtered in a bloodbath of rage because Macavity's World of Warcraft account had been hacked... make it 20!

Please Review :) They are much fun and awesome to read xD Well, for me -shrug- Not many people read them on their own