"Oh boy. It's going to be quite difficult to get enough fish Bombi. Do you think they'll be willing to spare enough for three kits?" Demeter asked, becoming worried as the two queens walked towards the dock.
"Don't worry Dem. We'll get enough for the kits and ourselves," Bombalurina reassured her friend. "The men at the docks are extra generous on days they get a big haul, and I can smell they did today!" The two raced down several streets, turning corners sharply, until they reached the docks.
Piles upon piles of all kinds of fish were stacked up. The two surveyed the all the tall mounds around them, mentally deciding which fish would be good tonight.
"How about halibut Dem? It's a fairly large pile," Bombi suggested. Demeter shrugged, not really paying attention to what the red queen was saying. She was looking for one of the few men who wouldn't shoo her away. After all the times she had visited here, she knew exactly which guys liked cats, and which ones didn't.
"I'll be right back Bombi," Demeter said, spotting one of the brightly-clad men she had been looking for. Stopping to quickly groom herself, Demeter made her way to the man, holding her head high and her tail up, like she was a haughty house cat. It always seemed to make the men think twice about taking her home with them. When she reached the man, she rubbed her head against his leg to get his attention.
"Hey Baby Kitty. How are you today?" the man asked, wiping his hands on the smelly, orange overalls the workers had to wear before kneeling down to scratch her behind the ears. Demeter purred loudly, enjoying how good it felt to be scratched.
"Who's your friend there Ernie?" one of the other men asked suspiciously.
"This here's my friend Bonkers. Want to pet her? She likes behind the ears and under the chin best," Ernie told the other man. He shook his head no before saying,
"No thanks. Make sure you don't give it any of the fish. They're for the markets."
"Yep," Ernie said, rolling his eyes at the retreating back. "Like any of you would notice anyway. Hey Baby Kitty, which fish you want today?" he asked after several more minutes of good scratching. Demeter mewed at him and rubbed up against his leg again. He picked her up and stroked her back. Carrying her around to all the piles, he stopped in front of the tuna.
"How much will you need?" he asked, surveying first her, then the heap of fish.
"Bombi," Demeter called. "Come out now." Bombi stepped out from behind the pile of bass she had been waiting near.
"You brought a friend, Bonkers?" Ernie asked. "Well, I suppose nobody'll notice some extra fish missing." Grabbing one of the large fish, he pulled a knife out a pocket in his overalls, and used it to cut the tuna into cat-sized pieces.
"We have to eat ours now, Bombi. If we don't, he won't give us enough for the kittens," Demeter warned. Groaning, Bombi began eating. Demeter quickly began as well.
"Wow. You two must be hungry. Take these too." Ernie handed them some more pieces as they finished theirs. The two cats each grabbed a piece and started off again, Demeter waving her gold and black tail to say thanks and good-bye.
As soon as the two reached the junkyard, Bombalurina spit out her tuna and began laughing hysterically.
"What?" Demeter asked, carefully her tuna on top of Bombi's.
"That was great," Bombi managed to get out through laughter
"What?" Demeter asked again, becoming annoyed.
"You back there. Purring that loud. I never thought I would see you, of all cats, sucking up to a human like that. Purring that loud!" Bombi began laughing again. "And the name Bonkers!" Demeter's face began to grow scarlet under her fur.
"It feels good Bombi; really good. You should find a human to scratch who'll scratch you sometimes. Munkus would be one happy tom if he could scratch me like that," Demeter told her friend. "And don't ever bring up the name Bonkers again, Dawn." Bombalurina stopped laughing at that name.
"Ok, ok. Did you have to go there?" Bombi picked up the tuna again and set off towards Demeter's box. Chuckling at how quickly her friends attitude change was. Demeter picked up the other piece of tuna and ran to catch up to Bombi.
"Just leave them here. I've got to round up all my kittens now. That'll be difficult. Will you stay here and get them to eat as they come in?"
"Sure thing, Bonkers," Bombi couldn't help but say.
"Shut up Dawn." Demeter jumped on top of her box for a slightly better view of the junkyard. "There's a group of kits; Etcy and Pounce might be with them. I'll have to check out that box later. Where could Admetus be? I guess I'll go get Etcy and Pounce for now." Walking towards the group of kits, she was surprised to see Admetus sitting with them. They all looked like they were having fun too.
"Hey guys. I hope you don't mind if I take Etcy, Pounce, and Admetus for lunch," Demeter said, interrupting the laughter.
"No, we should probably go too," Victoria told her, standing up. Electra and Misto stood up too. The six waved kits waved good-bye as they went their separate ways.
"It's nice you're finally playing with other kittens Admetus," Demeter said, feeling tempted to pick him up the way she used to, but knowing it would embarrass him. Admetus shrugged.
"I'm not so sure about Vic and Misto, but Leccie's nice, and so are Etcy and Pounce," he told her, motioning behind him. The two gave him identical, huge grins.
"That's good. I'm glad you have friends your own age. Anyway," Demeter quickly changed the subject, "I have tuna for lunch. We better hurry home before Bombi eats it all." The four decided to have a race home. Bombalurina looked up in surprise as four cats came bursting in through the hole that served as a door in the box.
"Wow! Ok, this box isn't big enough for five cats to be moving in. Calm down Etcetera, stop bouncing," Bombi said, trying to keep everything under control.
"Sorry Bombi," Demeter apologized. "That reminds me, there's a bigger box closer to the oven that I'm pretty sure is vacant. It seems like a better place to than this to raise three kits; I'm going to go look and make sure it's safe."
"That's great, but you're not leaving me here with three kits. Go later."
"Yes Bombi," Demeter said teasingly. Bombalurina stuck her tongue out at Demeter.
"By the way Dem, do you want me to tell Munku that little tidbit about scratching?" Demeter's eyes widened.
"Bombi, not in front of the kittens," Demeter warned through clenched teeth. Bombi just smiled at her, pretending to be sorry.
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A/N: Well it didn't take too long for me to type this chapter. I have an inhaler now, for my evil, persistent cough. Today was Winter Production audtions for drama. I wasn't allowed to stay after though. And even if I was, Mauro forgot to bring the monologue from 'Fiddler on the Roof' for me to read, so I would've had nothing to audtion with. I suppose I'll join stage crew instead.
Jemima-luvah: You should have your eye checked. It hurt again yesterday. That's not good. I love torturing you guys, you know that? I can have you, Etcies, and Vickie all yelling at me and still not write for two weeks. Yes, poor Robin. And China. And Buddy. All blind, possibly because of idiotic breeders. At least in Buddy's case. She's deaf too! It makes me cry. You need to stop talking about Macavity in my reviews, or I'll hurt you tomorrow. And you know I will.
Krissy4: That's not fair at all. Our schools actually decided to just give us a day off in January so we could stay in school longer. It was not fun. One of my friends flew up from Florida and I only got to see her once all summer because of how the school schedules worked out. Well, this chapter didn't take too long to type. Hopefully the others won't either. And thank you very much for your permission. :)
Demigold: Isn't kitten love sweet? And oh-so-adorable? Thanks for the review!