Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the plot and my original characters. Anyone copying this or any of my ideas without asking will be hanged.
Oh The Cat Came Back
With heavy hearts the boys waited in the waiting room outside Lady Une's office. Quatre had wanted to take Sassy out of her case since she hated it but Heero had warned him that if she tried to escape again and managed it they would all be in a lot of trouble and Quatre had to agree with him. Of course this pissed off Cat to no end and she paced her small cage back and forth as she cursed everyone out for sticking her in this stupid thing again. She'd never been locked up in a jail cell before but she imagined that it was likely something like this- which just went to show you that people were inhumane creatures. Who could stand being in one of these things hours on end and not go a little crazy. After all statistics showed that people who continued to commit crimes after going to jail tended to get worse and worse as the years went by. Most likely the cages had done them in the poor bastards. They would have locked her up in one of these too but they had never been able to catch her so she figured it was partially the idiots' faults for getting caught in the first place. She never had gotten caught and had still died without even getting old enough to think about retiring. Figures.
"So what do you think she's going to do?" Duo asked as they sat there, each wishing that they were somewhere else, even a battlefield. "I mean she's a cat, you can't exactly ground a cat and its not like they can throw her in jail, she'd walk out through the bars." Duo joked hoping to relieve some of the tension.
"Who knows?" Trowa said with a shrug as his eyes scanned the area around him, a habit he had when he was bored or had a lot on his mind and needed a distraction. "Maybe she'll just request that we have her declawed."
"Yeah but it wasn't her claws that decimated Dorothy's skirt." Heero pointed out with a small smirk. "And what I want to know is why we needed to bring the cat."
Finally Lady Une's secretary reported that they could go in and trooping on after another they entered their boss's office, Quatre in the middle with the case. Lady Une raised an eyebrow slightly as she noticed that though they lined up and looked calm and in control they were getting off a rather combative air, even Duo and Quatre. It would appear that the pilots had come here prepared to do battle over the cat, Une thought with a hint of a smile. Motioning for them to take a seat she waited till they were seated before asking to see the cat. Lady Une watched Quatre lift the case which he'd set at his feet to his lap and talk softly for a moment into the cage before opening the door and pulling the cat out, Duo holding the cage for him. Lady Une couldn't help but blink at the powder puff that Quatre carried over to her desk. Why the thing was a white furball, the type of cat that belonged to over fed and gossiping upper class women, not five young and tough pilots who'd been soldiers since they were no more then boys. And this was the cat that had viciously attacked Dorothy Lady Une thought with more then a touch of amusement as Quatre came to a stop at her side. "So this is the cat that I've heard so much about. Its name is?"
"Sassy but everyone but me calls her Mao or Cat." Quatre said with a slightly nervous smile as he cradled the cat protectively in his arms as tough it were his first born instead of his cat. "And she really is a good cat, she just has a bit of a temper but we're working on it and I promise she won't be attacking anyone else."
Now what's the point in making promises you can't keep Cat thought as she shook her head at the very idea. What was she, a house cat? Not that she was going to start catching small rodents and birds mind you but at the very least she was the equal of any tabby cat out there. Fluffy or not Ca thought with a dark look.
"She's a very beautiful cat, Quatre. You can sit back." Lady Une said with a smile as she watched the cat watch her. There was rather something unnerving about that cat but for the life of her she couldn't figure out what it was. "Anyway to get to the matter at hand, I'm sure you're all wondering what exactly it is I have called you in to discuss. Don't worry; your cat is safe in case you were wondering."
"What can we do for you, Lady Une?" Quatre inquired with a happy smile as he walked back and took his seat, keeping Sassy in his arms in case she got it into her head to go investigating and then Lord only knows what trouble she would get herself into.
"Well the reason I called you hear was because I have a favor to ask you as well as something to discuss with you." Lady Une said as she leaned back in her chair. "The first has to do with your cat."
"With the cat?" Heero said as he and the other pilots looked at the cat who was just as confused as them as they all turned to look at Lady Une questioningly, wondering what on earth the favor could possibly be and how it related back to them.
"Yes, I doubt you're aware of it but Maia has taken a deep liking to your cat." Lady Une said with a small smile as she remembered the way the girl had talked about the cat. "As soon as she heard about what your cat had done to Dorothy she came to me immediately to plead the cat's case in case I had decided to punish the feline for her actions." Lady Une said in an amused tone as she looked at the cat. "Anyway the favor I wished to ask is if it would be possible for you to bring your cat to work all of next week and allow Maia to watch her."
"You want us to let Maia baby sit Sassy?" Quatre said wanting to make sure that he was getting all of this.
"Yes, I'm afraid that though she's recovered basically from everything that has happened to her she's still more withdrawn then she should be and she seems to avoid people, getting close to anyone." Lady Une said with a frustrated look on her face, a look that was there often when it came to her adopted daughter. She wanted Maia to have a good life, a happy one but she didn't know how to reach the girl and help her move forward with her life instead of letting the shadows of the past loom over her. "However she seems to have taken a real liking to the cat and I'd like to encourage that in the hopes that perhaps it will help her come further out of her shell."
What do I look like? A shrink? Cat wondered as she gave Lady Une a cool that said point blank she thought it was a stupid idea. And geez but at the most she'd been in the kid's company for like five minutes and it wasn't like she'd made an effort to be friendly to the kid.
"I don't see why not, if she gets to be a bother one of us could look after her and if not Sally would probably agree to look after her." Duo said with a considering look as he thought it through. "And Maia did seem to take an interest in Sass."
"You see next week Maia has exams but due to her grades she's been exempted from most of them meaning that she basically has the whole week off. Both of her exams are in the morning as well so she has the afternoons off. If she doesn't come here she'll simple stay home by herself and that's not good for her. If I were to mention that you were wondering if she would mind watching the cat for you it would give her something to do and mean she could spend more time with your cat." Lady Une said with a hopeful look. "I don't just want her to think I'm setting her up and besides you probably will need a cat sitter given your schedules."
A cat sitter, Cat thought with a dark look in the older woman's direction. She'd never ever been fond of Lady Une to begin with but the lady was getting more and more on her nerves every time the woman opened her mouth and Cat would have loved to shut her up. But if she attacked Une odds were her days were numbered and the woman was sadist enough not to make it a nice quick death. Besides if she acted up odds were that the guys would get into trouble and she'd always had the policy of never letting anyone take the rap for her. If she did something wrong she was the only one that should pay for it but since she was a cat there was really no way to do that anymore which meant the people she was living with were.
"Actually we have been trying to figure out what to do with her on Wednesday next week." Wufei spoke up for the first time, surprised that the cat was behaving so well and that Lady Une was letting the incident with Dorothy pass so easily. "I don't see why we couldn't do let her watch Mao."
"Yeah, besides it would be good for the cat to have some more female influence." Duo joked causing everyone to look at him like he was completely out of his mind. "What? Maybe she'd get nicer if she spent more time around a less violent atmosphere." Duo added looking pointedly at Heero who gave him a dark look in return.
"And plus we can pay her for it so she'll also get a sense of responsibility and pride in a job well done." Trowa said as he considered the idea. When he saw that Lady Une was about to object he explained his reasons. "She will be watching the cat after all, Mao can get into mischief very easily and she'll definitely be difficult sometimes. And really she is doing us a favor, now we won't have to worry about what she's getting into and that she's being well taken care of."
"Sounds like a plan to me." Quatre agreed with a nod, pleased that now he wouldn't have to worry about Sassy next week plus he'd be helping out Maia which was an added bonus. The kid had been through enough in her short life, and this was such a small thing that might mean a great deal to her. "If she wants the job it's hers."
"Thank you." Lady Une said with a smile before getting into the business side to discuss the coming weeks activities and the various concerns she had on certain things and wished their inputs on.
An hour later
"So how did it go?" Sally asked as she met them for a break in the cafeteria after the meeting with Lady Une. Sitting together on a long bench the guys had been smart enough to take Sassy out of the carrier but she now sported a collar and cat leash which she was chewing on quite thoroughly. "You know, Quatre, if you intend to use that thing you might considering dosing it with something she won't like the taste of." Sally added as she smirked slightly at the way the cat was going at it.
"Good idea." Quatre said with a smile of his own as he jerked the leash slightly in an attempt to get her to let go but the leather was firmly caught in her small teeth and she wasn't giving up on it without one hell of a fight. "And it went very well; basically Lady Une wanted to see if we needed anyone to watch Sassy next week since she knew how busy our schedules would be. She thought that looking after Sassy would be a good learning experience for Maia if we were interested." By mutual agreement the guys had decided not to go into any details about the whole meeting, they would only say what needed to be said so that Maia didn't feel like she was being set up or they were being forced to let her watch Sassy.
"Then why did she ask you to bring the cat?" Hilde asked with a questioning look as she watched in amusement as the cat gave up on the leash for the moment to stare at the chicken that was on Heero's plate. Now that was asking for trouble. In order to prevent there from being cat on the Preventers menu for tomorrow Hilde decided she better warn the Perfect soldier. "And Heero, watch over your chicken."
"My chicken?" Heero said then feeling a rather predatory look Heero's eyes narrowed and went to the cat who looked back at him with a decidedly innocent look. Dead give away, that cat never looked innocent and cute without a reason that benefited the furball. "Try and die, Cat." Heero said with a dark look in his eye that meant trouble.
"Hey, Heero. You're talking to the cat-who's the idiot now huh?" Duo said with a wide grin that died when Heero shot him an equally deadly looking glare that was enough to make a grown man faint dead away. Luckily Duo was use to them by now. "Sorry." Duo muttered sending Heero a pouty look. "Anyway I think she just wanted us to bring the cat to get a look at the feline that took Dorothy down-or her skirt anyway." Duo added with a laugh.
"Duo." Quatre said giving his friend a look that said that wasn't very nice though it was kinda funny. However he was the only one who seemed to be making the effort not to show it and it was beginning to get to him.
Meanwhile Cat wasn't about to let a little death glare stop her from getting some of that yummy chicken. She was sitting in between Heero and Quatre so it was either Quatre's chicken or Heero's, not a tough choice at all in her opinion. After all Quatre was the nice one, Heero was the one that threw her through doors. Getting prepared to pounce on it she stopped when she saw a familiar figure rushing towards them at top speed with a very evil look on her face. Oh the bitch is back and gonna make trouble, Cat thought in her head as Dorothy stopped at their table with anything but a nice look on her face.
"Why is that-that little demon here?" Dorothy said as she pointed a finger at Cat with nails painted blood red, her cheeks nearly as red as she stared at the feline with nothing short of pure hatred.
"She's not a demon, she's a cat." Heero said looking at Dorothy like she was a complete airhead for not knowing that. Of course he agreed with her but there was no way in Hell he was saying so. "And Lady Une asked us to bring her in." Heero added with what was surprisingly close to a smug smile.