Doesn't Play Well With Others
After the whole fire thing Mariemaia, Cat and Alex became celebrities and soon it was all over the media about them and how they'd saved the lives of two soldiers. The fact that the cat had led the two humans to the fallen soldiers was the big selling point. All the reporters were busy trying to get interviews with the pilots about their hero cat and trying to get pictures of themselves with Sassy. Quatre was the only one willing to speak to them and only up to a point while getting their picture with Sassy led to over a dozen reporters leaving the scene bleeding from her teeth or claws. Needless to say many of the reporters had to call up reserve restraint not to portray her as a vicious furball which was exactly what she was. Instead they gave glowing reports about the daring cat who had risked its life to save the lives of two soldiers with the help of a brave young cadet and the daughter of the infamous Lady Une. Needless to say Cat was sick of all the attention in under a minute and made it her goal to attack as many reporters as humanly possible. Catching on pretty quick the pilots took turns holding the cat and telling her to behave herself, refusing to allow anyone else to hold her for their own protection. Deprived of her fun Cat sulked in their arms and was only allowed a small window to cause more problems the next day when they wanted pictures of her with the two men she'd helped save. Brought to Preventers as usual Mariemaia was put in charge of holding her since she was the least likely to get attacked by the cat and the cadet was at her side with the two soldiers they'd saved sitting in chairs in front of them. Having a small sense of fair play Cat refrained from attacking the weak soldiers but instead waited till the shoot was over then jumped out of Mariemaia's arms to play a game of hide and go seek. While everyone was running around looking for her Cat went to her pet carrier and pulled out the box of nails she'd taken from the garage the night before and hidden under her carrier blankie. Dragging the box by her teeth Cat dragged it into the Preventers parking lot and emptied the full container of sharp nails evenly under the tires of Dorothy's fire engine red BMW. Pleased with herself Cat batted the empty box under the car and then with her tail in the air ran back to the area where the shoot was and let one of the techs catch her.
)
Handed over to Duo who scolded her good for running off Cat wasn't feeling the least bit ashamed. She'd tried to figure out a good way to create a car bomb all week but Heero kept all that stuff in his room and his door was bobby trapped during the day when he wasn't home. She'd had the electrical surges to prove it. Plus with a car bomb there was always the chance you wouldn't kill the person you meant to or kill the right person but take some innocent person with them. There was a chance for that with the nails too but it was a much lower one and she was a cat for god sakes. She figured she could be cut some slack. Once everyone had been informed the cat had been found everyone packed up and Cat was handed over to Mariemaia for the day while the pilots headed in to work.
"Sassy, you need to stop running away from people." Mariemaia said as she watched the pilots go after saying good bye to her and Sassy. "What would have happened if you'd wandered into the parking lot and got yourself run over or if someone tried to steal you?"
Well I'm perfectly capable of getting out of the way of moving vehicles and I think I proved that since I was just in the parking lot sabotaging the bitchy witchy's car, Cat thought saucily as she looked up at Maia. And further more everyone in Preventers knew who she was so they'd have to be suicidal idiots to try and kidnap her. If they were strangers who were too dumb to not know any better she'd have had a nice bed of nails for them to fall on. Hey and they could have even dented the bitch's car when she sent them crashing. Now why hadn't she thought of that? Oh well there was always next time provided the bitch lived.
"What am I talking about? You'd cut the idiot's eyes out with your claws then eat them to add insult to the injury." Mariemaia said with a roll of her eyes and started to walk into Preventers with Cat wondering if she actually could do that and what eyeballs would actually taste like. She couldn't imagine that they'd taste good at all and decided she'd make the idiots swallow their eyes instead then force their mouths closed so that they choked on them. Now wasn't that a lovely thought.
)
Later that week
It had been three days since the whole fire incident thing and it had become apparent pretty quick that the fires had been a result of timed explosives that had somehow been smuggled into Preventers. As this wasn't the first incident where sabotage had been suspected or confirmed it was decided that person or persons unknown had been coming into Preventers and leaving unwanted presents in their wake. There were countless meetings about it but nothing had been found to indicate a solid lead and Quatre arrived home early wanting only a nap and another nap. Rubbing his hands over his face he was just about to head up the stairs when the door bell went off. Praying that it was someone delivering a package or asking for directions Quatre opened the door to find the elderly lady from across the street on his doorstep with her huge orange and brown striped tabby cat in her arms. "Mrs. Holmes..what a pleasant surprise. What can I do for you?" Quatre asked weakly as he got a funny feeling that he wasn't going to like this at all.
"Hello, Quatre dear. I just wanted to come over to thank you again for that gourmet cat food you brought over for my Cuddles. He just loved it so much and I'm sure if he could he'd thank you and Sassy for being so kind and thoughtful." Mrs. Holmes said with a beaming smile on her wrinkled face. The day before Quatre had brought over the cat food that Sassy had gotten as a gift from one of the soldiers she'd helped rescue. Since Sassy refused to eat cat food Quatre had decided to give it to Mrs. Holmes rather then let it go to waste. "Anyway since Cuddles can't thank you I thought I'd bring him over so that he could at least say thank you to your Sassy. If that's all right with you?" Mrs. Holmes added looking at him with huge blue eyes that made Quatre feel like he'd be repeatedly kicking a puppy if he said no.
"Well sure..uhm come in and I'll get her." Quatre said with a weak smile and after escorting her into the living room to sit down Quatre went to get Sassy who was currently sunbathing in the kitchen. Bending down he watched her get to her feet and turn to look at him as if she knew he'd come to talk to her about something. "Okay here's the story, Sassy. Our neighbor Mrs. Holmes is here with her cat Cuddles and she wants to introduce you to him. Now I know you don't like anyone as a rule and that you're fond of drawing blood but she's a sweet old lady and that blob she calls a cat is like her firstborn. So I'm asking you to play nice and not to bite her when she pets you or cause her pet severe damage or mental anxiety. Can you do that for me please?" Quatre asked and when she stayed where she was instead of running Quatre took that to be a yes. Picking her up Quatre carried her into the living room to find Mrs. Holmes still in her seat while her cat lay flopped in a huge kitty blob on her feet. Setting Cat down Quatre could only pray for the best. "Sassy..this is Cuddles. Cuddles this is Sassy."
)
God what does she feed you, Cat thought as she sat down to regard the cat that the woman had sadistically named Cuddles. You had to be pretty damn twisted to force that kind of a name on a defenseless creature after all. The poor thing had likely tried to comfort itself with food and that's why it was the size of a Catzilla. Wandering over because it was expected of her Cat sighed and sitting down again meowed at the tub of lard then thinking her job was done started back towards the kitchen when she was scooped up off the ground and held in midair to stair into the sadist's face.
"Well aren't you just the most adorable little thing." Mrs. Holmes said with a wide smile before setting Cat on her lap and began stroking her back. "Such a very pretty kitty, yes you are. You're obviously taking very good care of her, Quatre. I heard you were in a car accident but you're all better now aren't you, sweetie. Yes you are. You're boys took good care of you, didn't they. I bet all the boy kitties are camped out on your door step regularly."
Good God get her away from me was all Cat could think as she tried to figure out how to get away without attacking the old witch. Squirming Cat looked at Quatre frantically for help and salvation from this petting monster. Someone get this woman pumped on old people drugs right now, Cat thought and wished someone could hear her. Old people were suppose to be stuck in homes so highly medicated they thought plants were relatives not torturing poor innocent cats. She'd likely pumped poor Cuddles full of fatty stuff so it couldn't move fast enough to get away from her. Dear God someone save her from this thing disguised as a sweet old lady. Maybe she was Dorothy's grandmother, sent here to pretend to be the lady across the street in order to assassinate her. Or maybe Cuddles wasn't really a cat but a stuffed one. After all the thing wasn't moving at all and she'd never seen a house cat that friggin big before.
"Now I'm sure you and Cuddles will be good friends." Mrs. Holmes said as she lifted Cat up against to hug the cat to her sizable chest. Gasping as she was very nearly smothered and within seconds of digging her claws into the woman's bust in desperation. As a woman Cat could testify to the fact that no woman in her right mind liked a cat after said cat had dug claws into her chest. But she'd promised Quatre and..thank God Heero was here. Drawing the cat away Mrs. Holmes was all set to start petting her again when Heero walked into the room. "Why hello, Heero. I hope you've had a good day."
"Uhmm..hello." Heero said taking in the scene before him with a sense of dread. What the hell was Quatre thinking letting Sassy near the old lady. Old people were easily killed off and Sassy was Sassy for Christ sakes. It wouldn't take much for Sassy to send Mrs. Holmes into a heart attack he was sure.
)
Heero! Thank you God! Squirming desperately Cat managed to get loose and leapt off of Mrs. Holmes lap and ran at Heero like he was her salvation which he was. Heero would keep the evil one away, Heero scared everybody. Weaving in between Heero's legs Cat whimpered pathetically and gave a cry of pure relief when Heero leaned down to scoop her up into his arms more to get her to stop doing it rather then out of pity. Purring loudly Cat nuzzled against Heero's chest and tried to make herself as small as possible. She wasn't leaving his arms till she was good and ready and that was final. Quatre hadn't said anything about digging her claws into Heero after all.
"Awww looks like she's especially fond of you, Heero." Mrs. Holmes said with a weak smile as she fiddles with her open coat. There was always something about the boy that set her on edge and she couldn't imagine why the cat would be so fond of him given the bad vibes the boy gave off. Then again cats were perceptive creatures, perhaps the boy was just misunderstood. "Well it's close to supper time, I should be going. Any time you need someone to watch Sassy while you boys are out just give me a shout. I'm sure Sassy and Cuddles would just love to have a play date together."
Over my dead and worm infested rotting corpse, Cat thought with eyes that narrowed to mere slits. If the boys tried to stick her with these two she'd kill them in their sleep. Then she'd do the rumba on their corpses. Could cat's do the rumba? Well she'd damn well find out if they thought they could stick her with the sadist cat lady.
"Actually our boss's daughter has been cat sitting her. We thought it would be a good learning experience for her and help teach her about earning and saving money." Quatre said smoothly as he did his best not to gap at Sassy who was never affectionate to anyone or anything but was currently being affectionate to the extreme with Heero. She hadn't even shone anything resemble liking him before today. "But thank you very much for offering."
"No problem at all." Mrs. Holmes said with a smile as she picked up Cuddles who hadn't moved once since they'd arrived. Ushering her out Quatre and Heero saw her out, Quatre closing the door behind her with a sigh of relief that Sassy had behaved.
)
As soon as the door closed Cat jumped out of Heero's arms and racing across the wood floors headed back into the living room and to the window to watch the old woman leave and to make sure she didn't try anything funny. Eyes narrowed suspiciously Cat didn't move from her perch until the woman was in her house and had stayed there for a good five minutes. Once she was sure that everything was clear Cat hopped off the sill and went in search of something do only to find Heero and Quatre watching her with weird looks on their faces. What, Cat wondered as she cocked her head to the side. I behaved, didn't I?
"See I told you that was why she jumped on me as soon as I came in. She knew I wouldn't get sucked in by the old lady." Heero said with a chuckle in his voice as he shook his head at the cat's stunt. A pretty smart one too. At first he'd been shocked that the cat had come running to him but it hadn't taken him long to figure that she viewed him as the lesser of the two evils. "So you see she still loves you best, she just knows you're a sucker."
"I am not a sucker..she's an old lady. What was I supposed to do? Tell her that Sassy is a little monster half the time and that I couldn't bring her in on the odd chance that she'd get into one of her moods and attack?" Quatre said with a huff as he sent Heero an annoyed look.
"Well it would have been the truth." Heero pointed out logically. "Now you go to bed before you collapse because there is no way in Hell I'm carry you if you fall over. Especially since you don't want to risk falling on the cat and starting a world war in the process. She could pull it off you know."
)
"Yeah all we'd have to do is take her to a meeting of all the heads of the various federations and she'd have them all dead or at each other's throats in under an hour." Quatre said with a sleep smile on his face as he raised a hand to cover a yawn. "And yeah, I'm gonna hit the sack or my floor which ever comes first. By the way I stopped off at the hospital today, the doctors say Dorothy should be out of there by the end of the week."
"Like I care? Given that she crashed into the Preventers building you'd think they could at least keep her for longer. Have they found the kids yet who put those nails under her tires?" Heero asked with a curious look on his face. "I'm sure her personal plastic surgeon would just love to thank the kid or kids."
"No they haven't found the culprits yet. She's lucky she only broke some bones as it is. I've always told her she should drive more slowly in the parking lot, the impact would have been less severe if she'd been going slower." Quatre said with a shake of his blonde head. "And you have to wonder what kind of sick mind thinks putting nails under tires is funny. You really do."