Miss Kitty
A/N This shall be interesting, um not entirely sure where I'm going with this one. Set between Ep 19 and 20 - the flashback. I've had to update this to first person present tense, seeing as I somehow forgot that's what I was doing for this one. Sorry.
New Sunnydale, the world without shrimp 2011
"TARA! Come here, you gotta see this." Willow calls out to me, I was busy making lunch whilst I thought Willow would be capable of watching the baby. River was curled up in her cot, barely two months old. Her little toes crawled along the air as they lifted a little off the mattress, Willow was just in complete awe of the little person they'd created, she was so perfect. And tiny, super tiny. It was the arrival of Miss Kitty the Second that had caused Willow to cry out, her warm furriness had settled in beside the baby for a snooze. And it was the sweetest looking thing, according to Willow who most certainly wasn't sleep deprived and would take anything right now.
"What is it now?" I say, the tiredness slightly draining me as of late and getting a task done is seemingly impossible with Willow calling her every five seconds to check things. As I walk into the bedroom behind my crazy wife, my head inclines down to rest on her shoulder my arms reaching around her waist and we glance down into the crib. Miss Kitty has decided to rest her head on River's chest and go to sleep, a manoeuvre that is incredibly adorable to look at.
"I just can't believe she's ours. Hey good job you." Willow replies, kissing my cheek lovingly as we both stare down at the blanket bound duo. I give a little crooked smile, however annoying it is being dragged away from the task of food, I love her too much to deny how cute she is when she finds something adorable to look at. Really just a big kid in an adult's body, bustling with life one minute then completely drained the next.
"Thank you, and hey, you helped." I say, nudging Willow a little, pushing our smells together as I lean down and pick the cat out of the crib, brushing her fur back behind her ears. The way that made her purr and snuggle deep into her preferred human's arms. That's right, she prefers me, I think it's because I'm warmer and maybe softer, Willow can be a little heavy handed when she's not careful. She'd always favoured me over Willow, not that we're competing. The black and white cat that resembled our first so much. I had spilt a few tears when she'd erm, kinda been hit with that crossbow. I decided on not showing it in front of Dawn though but it'd hurt, I loved our first Miss Kitty, sometimes even more than Willow hates frogs.
"Only a little bit." Willow replies, still looking down at River, who was now snoozing peacefully and perfectly, and having of the 'most little in and out breaths' ever.
"No a lot, if you weren't there I would've picked out like a boring cat, like a less adventurous version, which would've been much less fun. Remember that day?" I remember it, we were at the animal shelter and...
*Flashback* Sunnydale, the world without shrimp 2000
We were at the rescue centre, there were countless little kitties running around, all looking for a home to call their own. Unfortunately there weren't any dolphins or half-camels but there were lots and lots of cats. Each one with their own little personality, some were big bullies picking on the smaller ones, some were crouched in the corner dreading attention, and some were in their own little worlds, dancing in their own perpetual kittenness.
It was all too adorable to be able to handle, so Willow clung to my arm in an attempt to regain her composure. I was smiling, I don't think I've ever seen Willow that excited about something, don't think I have since to be fair, well excluding when our little one came along of course, oh she was uncontainable. It's one of the things I love most about my Willow, there was always something amazing waiting around each corner of our relationship. That day it happened to be Willow's love of the kittens in front of me, it was hard to ignore the beaming smile radiating from my stupid face.
"Oh, w-what about that one?" I had said, pointing at a small little ginger thing in the corner, it was skittish and cute but Willow thought it lacked the finesse. If they were choosing a kitten, they had to be perfect, so Willow believed I was perfect, and I deserved a kitten to represent me so. "Cause of t-the gingeryness, remind me of you." I still had the remnants of my stutter back then, it seems to have all but gone now but then it was all so new.
"Yeah, but dummy you already have me, you don't need anymore redheads in your life, we're crazy enough." Willow replied, she was standing just above me, her knees clashing with the linoleum. I's laughed at Willow's comment about the reds, they were certainly crazy. That's when Willow saw the perfect specimen of kitten to take home.
"Oh, ohhh. Tara, that one. Definitely that one." Willow cried out to me pointing across the little pen holding them all in. She'd spotted a little black one with white paws, it was twirling alone, spinning round and round all on of its own accord. A weird one. That would be the one Willow would pick out, a perfect little misfit. Perspectively it was probably how Willow viewed herself, as a social misfit, not guided by any rules and certainly not fitting into the norm. She was Willow, a law unto herself. She still is.
When we got the newly named Miss Kitty Fantastico home to my dorm room however, the kitten's energy level came right down. She settled right into my lap, curling her head under her tail and purring softly as I curled her long fingers around the kitten's ears, scratching nicely.
Over the coming weeks Miss Kitty nestled into different areas of the room, she especially liked to crawl up beside us when we were asleep together. The warmth is probably what did it, as we're kinda known for being cuddly sleepers the warmth leaked out of both of us and onto the sheets. And Miss Kitty had discovered one night this was the perfect place to spend her nights. A fact to which Willow would notice in the morning when her stomach felt rather furry for a change. Sometimes her tail even scooped out the redhead's face and would tickle her nose. It was very adorable to be party to, Willow-giggles.
New Sunnydale, the world without shrimp 2011
I put the new Miss Kitty back into the crib with the non-stirring River, once again marvelling at our little human. We'd found this version of our famous kitty at a nearby shelter when we moved back to Sunnydale, or the new equivalent, when River arrived we thought it might be a nice place to raise her, with the Hellmouth kinda gone and everything, and it just seemed fitting and we know everyone.
And after the opening and invite for all Scoobies and slayers to live here. It had turned into a bit of a memorial town, there was now a statue outside the town hall and a plaque listing the achievements made against the forces of evil. Buffy visited every now and again but couldn't quite deal with the hype of living here, now there were hundreds of slayers fighting for the rights of the good and Buffy's new job in the police department with Faith, she thought it best she stay in San Francisco. But Xander and Anya are just round the corner if ever we're in need of a babysitter.
"Oh and Tara I was talking about River, when I said good job." Willow confirms a few minutes later, just making sure I know what a splendid job I really had done giving birth to our daughter. Because Willow feels she must congratulate and remind me that I did a great job at that, one of her things.
"Oh."