Fic: A Cat's Tale2: Finding Red
author: Lucinda
rating: pg 13
no Willow pairing, I own nobody





Sabertooth wandered around Sunnydale, trying to find the
scent of the redhead -Willow, Magneto's cousin. He was supposed to
keep her safe, which meant he had to find her. He was rapidly
coming to the conclusion that this town literally stank. There were
also a lot of those dead people walking around. He ran into
two more as he meandered around trying to find Willow's scent. They
weren't much of a challenge.

Finally, he caught her scent on the breeze, along with the
murmur of voices. There was a male voice talking. He went towards
the voice, being careful not to be seen. She was there, Willow and
there was a boy her age walking with her. He was dressed in loose
clothing, and smelled of old bruises and those soft cake-like things
with the creamy filling. Watching them, he could see how
Willow was paying attention to every word the boy said. For some
reason, she seemed like she was interested in the whelp.
*Grrrrrr* ... he wouldn't do for her. She was Magneto's cousin and
deserved better than some brat still trying to figure out who he
was. The boy didn't seem to realize that she liked him, so
that was probably good.

He watched her, following quietly. She was a bit taller
than he'd expected, but still rather fragile looking. She wouldn't
even come to his shoulder. Her hair was a brilliant red that looked
almost like blood under the moonlight. It was natural, he'd have
been able to smell the dye if the color had come from a bottle. She
was wearing a fuzzy striped sweater and baggy blue jeans. She
carried a backpack full of something - books? She moved like she
wanted to keep the world from noticing her. He would have to keep
careful watch for the dead men, they would see her as easy prey.
She was small, probably weak, and timid - definitely a victim
profile.

They walked up to a house. He could smell two people
inside, an older man and an older woman. From the scent patterns,
they lived there, so he assumed they were her parents. There were
flowering shrubs in the front yard, and it looked... nice. The boy
left, going away, probably to his own home. Red went into the
house, and he heard her call a hello mother and father as she went
through the house. He circled around, knowing that she was headed
towards the rear of the building.

The light came on in a room. It was clearly her room, with
a bright fluffy quilt on a bed that had toy animals sitting long the
edge. She had a computer on a desk, and shelves of books. There
were paperbacks of varying thickness, and bigger books, like the
sort that had the many numbers and diagrams that Toad had used when
he was building things. There was a tank with little brightly
colored fish swimming around inside.

She was shy, and apparently smart too. He watched as she
pulled out several big books, and started working on what he assumed
was homework. She was moving rapidly through it. After she
finished with the three books from the backpack, she turned on her
computer. The computer made that noise that let it talk to other
computers away from here. He peeked through her window to see what
she was looking at.

It was Magneto's machine. The one he had used on the
politician. He remembered how it had made the big silvery light and
had made Magneto very weak after it had been used. Why was she
looking at it? He listened to what she was saying, but it didn't
really help him. She was talking to herself, identifying the
materials that had been used to make the thing. She had it figured
out pretty well, and was asking herself what it could be used for.
She was using the big words though, the ones with many syllables and
he was sure they didn't come from the same language.

She was smart, and shy, and small. She also seemed to be
brilliant at putting information together and getting more
information from pieces. That was definitely the sort of person
that needed protection. Now, she had protection.

end Finding red.