A/N : Let me just take a moment to prepare you for the next two chapters...I realized how my mind works when it comes to seeing the cats as either Cat-like humans or Human-like cats, and can convert them in my mind easily from house kitty to sexy Jellicle on Stage...((cough))...Anyways, I know I had trouble switching between the two when I first started reading fan fics, so just be prepared for it. And i apologize to anyone I give a headache to!


Chapter 13 – Between two worlds

Bombalurina was sitting on an old tire looking up at the stars. It was a very beautiful night in the junkyard. So why was the most beautiful queen so sad?

The answer was simple: she was worried about her sister. While Demeter had grown into a beautiful cat, the two sisters didn't get to see each other that often. After the red queen came back to the junkyard that one day after those fateful events that brought her to her human family, she was torn between two worlds. Sure, the junkyard was where she grew up, where all her friends were, and where she felt the most comfortable; but her human family gave her nourishment, affection, and a warm place to sleep. While she would often enjoy said things, she found she could hardly do anything at times, worrying about her sister.

Time had passed for them, and the two clung to each other as much as they could. The kitten was no longer considered a kitten, and had reached that fateful age where she was not really considered a cat yet. In fact, there was an obvious division between the kittens and cats now that Demeter (and Mistoffelees) were their age. And with that, Bombalurina felt that she couldn't let her sister reach cathood without the love of a human family. As unconventional as they seem at times, they can keep their cat family member safe. And most importantly, she didn't want what happened to her to happen to her dear little sister…

Pawing at her collar, she looked up at the sky again. Her sister was doing her best to be braver for Bombalurina's sake. But she must have felt so alone.

"Oh, there you are, Bomba." Tugger came over with a smirk on his face. Bombalurina turned and smiled at him, but not her usual sexy smile. She then turned back to her thoughts. But Tugger seemed unfazed by the red queen's silence. He sat next to the cat and gave her a knowing smile. But the queen actually pushed the tom away slightly with her paw, eyes still fixated on the stars.

Tugger seemed upset at the obvious audacity of his sexiest fan's behavior. "What's bothering you?" he asked in an annoyed voice.

"Nothing," she said absentmindedly.

"Obviously something, if you're ignoring me."

"That's a little presumptuous of you to think that my world revolves around you," the queen said hotly.

"Well, it hardly revolves around anyone else, does it?" Tugger asked smugly.

"There are quite a few toms in the junkyard, Tugger. And all of them are quite fond of me." At this, the queen stole a glimpse of the tom beside her. He was smiling for some reason. "You don't believe me?"

"I just got a vision of you and Pouncival together as a couple," he said. The queen waved her paw at him to see him off, not wanting to be disturbed any longer. But the tom was hardly wavered. "What's wrong? Seriously, Bombalurina, you don't give me enough credit. You know, Munkustrap talks to me all the time about issues in the junkyard."

"No he doesn't, you conceited fluff-ball!" Rolling her eyes, she turned to the tom. "If you're going to lie, at least make it believable. Munku wouldn't trust you with his hairball, let alone entrust you with the issues of the junkyard!"

Tugger, (happy at having gotten the queen's full attention) tried to look serious. "Go ahead, try me. And I'll have you know that the placement of the mirror in my den was an IMPORTANT junkyard issue!" The queen sighed with exasperation before turning away. But the tom stayed there, obviously too stubborn to get the idea that Bombalurina didn't want to talk with him about anything serious. "I can help you," he said with an odd reassuring tone.

She looked back at the tom she usually considered juvenile. So it was a bit odd to see him looking so serious. Sighing to herself, she thought it couldn't hurt to try and take the oddly colored Maine Coon about her problem. She never really told anyone either way…

"It's my sister," the queen said, testing the waters. She expected to see a mischievous look on his face, but he remained serious. Thinking this wouldn't be so bad, she continued. "Look, when I was gone that while back…it wasn't like I was actively searching for a family."

Still, the tom was quiet and seemed to be listening intently. A little scared of the tom's ability to sit and listen for once about something that wasn't about him, she turned her gaze to the sky and looked up again. "I was walking around the area because I told her I would show her around. I wanted to find a good place to take her so she could take her mind off things. Then…well…I'm not too sure what happened next. All of a sudden I was being carried away and..." She closed her eyes momentarily at the memory. "They locked me in a cage and I had no idea where I was."

She stole a glimpse at Tugger, who seemed slightly surprised by what she was telling him. (It seemed he was listening.) She sighed. "I was there for a while, and the humans were pretty nice. I thought it best to be nice to them…for my safety of course." Tugger had a look that he didn't agree, but Bombalurina ignored that. "And they said they were putting me up for 'adoption'. I was adopted pretty quickly."

"Cause you're beautiful," Tugger stated matter of factly. "Humans love pretty cats."

"Yes," Bombalurina said, turning to him. "That's the only reason they took me in, I think...But they're nice, they really are. But I didn't want to leave my sister. And I don't want her to go through that either, Tugger. She doesn't have any experience with humans; she won't know what to do. I don't know what would happen to her if she goes through what went through! She would freak out!"

Tugger held up a paw to calm down the normally level queen. She realized she had been getting slightly frantic. (Keeping this all in for so long, it seemed to come streaming out of her mouth). She took a moment to take a breath and regain her composure. Slightly embarrassed it had to be Tugger she went slightly insane in front of, she cleared her throat and took a deep breath.

"Did you ever think of trying to get her to join your family?" Tugger asked seriously.

"Of course I did," said the queen, feeling belittled. "My family has been raving about getting another cat as long as I got along with it. I told Demeter about it, but she wants nothing to do with humans. I can't tell her why I want her to come with me…"

"Why not?" Tugger shrugged at the absurdity of it all.

"Think about it," she said, staring down the Maine Coon. "I tell Demeter what's happened to me. She thinks I'm so much stronger than her... If she knows that I was scared, then she will be petrified to even meet a human! She wouldn't want to come live with one. But if she has a collar, like mine, she won't have to go through that."

"But she won't get the collar if she's too afraid to meet your humans, and makes a bad impression because she's too scared," Tugger said. Bombalurina was impressed that he understood.

"Exactly! My humans wouldn't want a frightened cat that won't go near them. She needs to at least tolerate them. And I have to do it soon…they're looking around for new cats. They brought home this one to 'test it out' with me, and I had to be so mean to him! He was cute, Tugger. Do you know how hard that was!" The Maine Coon smirked. He seemed to understand.

"Look, what you need is to try her out on a family," Tugger said, getting a playful smile on his face.

"You're owner is insane, Tugger," the queen stated.

"I didn't mean HER," he said, slightly offended at having his intelligence brought down a peg. "And hey, she lets me do what I want…she's not that bad. What you need is a family that won't mind a random cat in their house for maybe a night or two."

"Well, how in the Everlasting Cat's name am I going to find someone like that?" Bombalurina asked. But Tugger seemed to have something in mind.

After telling her his carefully devised plan, she smiled brightly at him. "You actually have a good idea or two in that over-combed head of yours, Tugger." The two got up, and Bombalurina brushed against the cat. Tugger smiled, then tickled her chin. The queen, in turn, gave a sweet smile and purred. Then he licked her cheek.

The cat looked up at him in surprise. "You shouldn't have had to be scared," he told her seriously. When the cat smiled up at the oddly considerate Tugger, he smiled sexily back. Maybe he was an arrogant, conceited, self-absorbed, all of the above, but he had his moments. And Bombalurina liked this side of him. (But still wouldn't want to see too much of it…It threw her off too much).

Demeter watched the kittens play. Mistoffelees was racing about with the toms, playing with them in full kitten mode. Skimbleshanks made sure the little ones were safe in their play area. No one had seen Munkustrap in a while, but Tugger told them all he went to visit the silver cat's house to make sure he was okay, which he was. But for some reason, he wasn't coming back any time soon.

Alonzo was lying on his back and lounging next to Cassandra, who was looking off into the distance. Demeter frowned to herself. Now that she was no longer a kitten, Tugger and Alonzo flirted with her incessantly, and frankly, she didn't like it. She began to feel like they were flirting for the sake of flirting, as they each obviously had their queens they were most interested in. Games were all she was good for, and not even that, as she wouldn't allow it! So with pushing their advances away, she began to feel she really wasn't pretty, not like her sister.

Looking up, she saw said sister coming up to her, smiling. "What's the matter?" Demeter asked, smiling slightly.

"You look bored," the queen said.

"There's nothing for me to do," the not quite cat said. "I don't feel like playing with the kittens, and there's no one to talk to."

"Are you bored without Munkustrap around?" the queen asked.

"What?" Demeter sat bolt upright. "What makes you say that?"

"Because he's your friend…" The red queen said slowly. "And you don't spend too much time with the other cats. And you don't seem interested in the older cats lately."

"Oh…that makes sense." Demeter sighed slightly, trying to calm her fast beating heart.

"So…have you ever been to his house before? Tugger told me it's a nice family there. And that they feed him sometimes."

"No…" Demeter said cautiously. "Why would I go over to another cats' house? They're family would shoo me away."

"Oh, his family is real nice, like Munku himself," Bombalurina assured her. "Think, if they like TUGGER, they have to like any cat, right?"

"I guess so," Demeter reasoned.

"Come with us tonight! My belated birthday gift to you, okay? We'll get out of this stuffy junkyard for a while and go visit Munkustrap at his house. It'll be fun!"

"We?" Demeter asked.

"Tugger and you and me! He knows where Munku lives, after all. It'll be good, you know. You need a little time away from the junkyard, either way." Demeter considered this for a moment, and then nodded. The whole idea seemed good to her! She did miss him after all…as a friend. And it's not like she would have to be left alone with him, anyways. (She had dually avoided him when she could, but didn't have the heart to be rude to him when he spoke to her. This odd behavior continued ever since she started getting that butterfly feeling in her stomach.) She deserved a little time with them just being friends again.

Bombalurina hugged her sister before getting up and going back to Tugger. Demeter watched her as Tugger went up to the red queen, who lifted her chin up and smiled at her. For a moment, the thought that the two were up to something came through her mind. Then she let it go…nah, her sister wouldn't do anything to upset her…would she?

"Where do you three think you're going?" Alonzo let the idea of tribe protector get to his head as he cut the three cats off before they could leave the junkyard.

Tugger sighed. "Just move, Alonzo. We're going to go see Munkustrap."

Alonzo huffed a bit, apparently feeling his territory being pressed upon. "I don't see why you have to go see him. You guys shouldn't be leaving so late anyways! Do you know how dangerous it is out there for you three?"

"Exactly… 'you three'…There's three of us!" Bombalurina said shortly. "We'll be okay."

"But you have no idea what it will feel like if something happened to you," Alonzo said.

"I imagine it would hurt," Bombalurina retorted.

"I meant for me," Alonzo whined. "You have no idea how hard it is to keep after everyone like this!"

"JUST MOVE!" Bombalurina said, ready to clock the cat square across the head. Alonzo, never before realizing how forceful the queen before him was, quickly stepped out of the way. As they passed him, Tugger ruffling his mane at him, Demeter laughed. But Bombalurina was hardly amused. "What's wrong with that cat?"

"He's just getting used to things as a leader," Demeter explained. "He's never had to defend the tribe without Munkustrap here. He's having fun with it." Bombalurina stared at her sister in obvious annoyance. "He'll calm down once he's used to the seriousness of his work," the gold queen assured her. Bombalurina smiled it off and nodded.

Tugger let the two queens down the streets. Bombalurina was sure that he was quite used to being followed by two beautiful queens, but she didn't mind watching him as he did his casual strut down the streets. Taking note of the area to get to said house, she kept looking to her sister. The closer they got to the house, the more nervous the red queen became. Her sister might be very angry with her after tonight. But if it would help them be together again outside of the junkyard, she would do anything…

When they arrived at Munkustrap's family's house, the two queens paused to take in the residence. It was a small house (a one story little abode), compared to her family's house, but seemed…what was the word humans used for something that was small but cute? Ah yes, quaint. But from what Tugger had told them about the family, she wondered how they all fit in there…

Out of the side of her eye, she saw her sister chickening out. She was crouched down and backing away. But Bombalurina quickly put and arm around her sister's shoulder. "Don't worry. We'll go in with you. All you have to do is go in that little kitty door."

"Okay," Demeter said. She was about to take a step into the unknown realm, before stopping and turning to the two. "Are you two going to go in too? I mean, go in first…" Bombalurina looked to Tugger, and the look in their eyes must have scared Demeter. She was about to run away! But Bombalurina grabbed her sister's arm, Tugger the other, and with one fluid motion, shoved her through the kitty door.

Tugger pressed against the door, bracing for the queen's attempt at exiting. "Get that lawn gnome!" he cried before grunting at the shove against the door he was holding.

Bombalurina raced over to the smallest lawn gnome and dragged it with great pain to the kitty door, before Tugger somehow managed to shift his weight so that his back was against the door. Using his now free paws, he helped her drag it the rest of the way, and skillfully stuck it against the door so that the flap would no longer open.

"Let me out!" the queen called softly from the other side of the door.

"Don't worry, Demeter," Bombalurina said, trying to not race to her sister's rescue this time. "This is for your own good!" she told herself that more than telling it to her frightened sister. "We'll be back for you in the morning! Just have fun with you friend until then, and we'll be on our way!"

"Bombalurina!" the queen on the other side of the door whispered loudly. "Tugger!" But Bombalurina pulled herself away. It was for her sisters own good…her own good. She raced off with Tugger, until they stopped at a corner, panting slightly from their run.

"Nice work, Bomba," Tugger said with a smile. "I didn't think you had it in you. And that 'have fun with your friend'comment was classic."

"Huh?" Bombalurina looked up vaguely, still trying to ignore her protective instincts.

"You know…" Tugger said, a mischievous smile on his face. "Demeter? Munk? Friends?" Bombalurina stared blankly. "As in they're one night away from being mates," he further explained. "Don't tell me you haven't noticed."

Bombalurina digested this information for a moment. "You mean…"

"I thought that was another reason you agreed to Munk's house!" he said, slightly taken aback from her obvious obliviousness.

Suddenly, it hit the red queen like lightning. "OH, CATNIP!" Bombalurina dove into a run back to the house, but Tugger was clutching tightly to the queen's tail.

"There's nothing you can do now!" Tugger yelled to the cat. "They're meant to be together anyways! We just gave them a push in the right direction!"

Bombalurina turned around, annoyed at the cat pulling her tail, baring her claws as though ready to strike. "She'll kill me for this! I didn't mean for THAT to happen! Oh, Everlasting Cat, she'll hate me for sure!"

"Look!" Tugger grabbed the queen's shoulder and shook her into a thinking form. "Think about it! Munkustrap and Demeter! What could be better? And you won't have to worry about your sister any more, no matter how things turn out, right? Cause things are bound to turn out well. And then…you and I can focus on a bit of 'friendship' of our own." Bombalurina took a moment to grasp this idea, and then smiled roguishly at the tom in front of her.

Maybe things will turn out for the best…

Ultra Special Blah Blah Blah...

I was surprised how long this chapter turned out...Just saying is all...

Satin-N-Crimson: I thought you would like this chapter! You got so excited when they had their fluffyness earlier. ...You might get scary at the next chapter, and go crazy with fluffiness enzymes...I shall be scared...Lol!
Enkeli-kitsu: I thought it was more the Super Cat, lol. Lol, don't get over-excited, about the kitten, kitty! I'm still not sure EXACTLY what his roll is, but definitely more important than "Attacked Cat #1" in the credits.
Demo the Obsessed Jackalope: Voila! I have continued, and soon as you demanded! Hehe. And now I have to work on my next chapter ((Is excited)).

Thanks to all the reviewers! Anyone else who might kinda sorta be reading and following, don't be shy, review! I dare you!