A/N: ((peeks out from behind her chapter)) You're not going to hurt me for not updating sooner, are you? Well, here, have the chapter! Oh, and if any of you have read Le Petite Prince (The Little Prince), you might get the joke in here. You know the drill. Enjoy.

Chapter 18 – Obsession

Bombalurina stayed with Demeter, not saying much through the lonely nights, only staying by her side, as she took care of her kittens. Every once in a while they would hear someone come to the den, but it was often simply a visitor, and not the tom they'd expected. The red queen was very uneasy about the whole affair, visibly tense and constantly flicking her tail in annoyance, but Demeter refused to leave her kittens for even a moment.

There was a knock on the entryway, as both queens were entertaining the fast growing kittens, trying to teach them new words. Bombalurina looked back to see Tugger leaning against the entry way, looking surprised and confused, his sleep deprived eyes looking to the red queen.

"Hey, Tugger," Demeter said in surprise, grabbing Chanterelle and pulling her back over to her after she made a run for the maned tom.

"Tuggah!" the tiny queen kitten cried, the other two looking up, confused.

"Hey, kits," he said softly. "Do you mind if I take Bombalurina away from you for a minute."

Demeter looked over to her sister. Bombalurina pleaded with her eyes for Demeter to cover for her. "Yeah, go ahead." Bombalurina gave Demeter a death glare. "I owe him as much," she whispered. Bombalurina held back a sigh and got up, making her way to the tom. The two left together, followed by the sound of Raine giggling like mad, as Demeter tickled the tiny kitten on his stomach.

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"I had no idea you were back!" Tugger gave Bombalurina a reproachful look he must have imitated from the silver tabby himself.

Bombalurina grinned. "Are you happy to see me?"

"Hell no!" Tugger growled. "I'm angry with you. Where the hell have you been?"

"It's better," Bombalurina began, "That you didn't miss me."

"Who says I didn't miss you?" Bombalurina looked down, not answering. "Where did you go?"

"Around," she said. "I'm surprised you noticed."

"Yeah, well," he ran a paw through his head fur. "You're kind of my favorite queen."

"I'm flattered," Bombalurina said, with a lopsided smirk. "I just needed to clear my head. I wouldn't leave my sister behind."

"Yeah, her…" he cleared his throat. "You didn't tell her what I said, did you?"

"No," replied the queen. "She has enough going on to worry about you, Tuggs-darling." The tom nodded in understanding.

"He's been gone for a while, hasn't he?"

"That tabby can be gone for the rest of my life, and trust me, we'd all be better off that way!" Bombalurina folded her arms, furrowing her brow.

"Don't be mad at him, Bomb," Tugger said weakly. "He's had a lot on his mind lately, too."

"Like how to make Demeter more miserable?" Bombalurina asked. "Look, when he comes back, the last thing I want to do is see that smug face of his. If it weren't for the kittens, I would take Demeter and leave this place. She doesn't deserve this treatment."

"You're just angry," Tugger tried to say convincingly, but it sounded more bored than anything. He, himself, looked upset with the tom, and for good reason. Things were falling apart with Munkustrap missing, and while most cats were turning to Alonzo for answers, Tugger could feel the increased responsibility piling on him. That, along with previous problems, he was beside himself to figure out what to do with this previously non-existent stress.

"Yeah, angry," Bombalurina agreed. "Tuggs, babe?" she looked to the tom, who looked superbly uncomfortable with the thought of another question heading his way. "How do you feel about the kittens?"

The tom gave her a questioning look. "That's an odd question. Bombs, they're too cute not to love. Why?"

"If something were to happen to Dem or that stupid tabby she calls her mate, and I couldn't take care of them…or if one of us did something unforgivable, and we weren't able to care for them…do you think the others would take care of the kits?"

Tugger blinked. Unforgivable? But to save the long-winded questions that were sure to follow, which he had been getting a lot of lately, he simply gave an honest answer. "Of course they would, Bomb."

Bombalurina nodded, looking off in the distance, she absentmindedly patted Tugger on the arm. "Go get some sleep, Tugger, you look awful." And with that, the Rum Tum Tugger gladly did as he was told, for once.

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Munkustrap walked wearily down the streets. He, at first, didn't know where to begin. He did, at times, ask a cat or two about Demeter. But he got no answers. And he just continued walking further and further away without any answers. It wasn't until he was so far from the tribe's territory that he didn't even know the surrounding tribes, that he began to get results, much to his surprise.

He stopped at what could be considered a watering hole, where there were quite a few cats outside of a pub, not unlike the ones Gus often frequented, where some cats fed off table scraps. Others simply drank water, or other drinks. He stopped to get a drink of water from the watering bowl.

Some cats were stumbling about, and Munkustrap mused to himself that Skimbleshanks wasn't the only one who liked a drop of scotch in his tea. He began to wonder how long it would take for him to forget the tea altogether, as the cats in this area opted to.

A tom stumbled by, losing his balance and falling into the water, causing many cats to jump back and hiss in annoyance. Munkustrap was no exception, as he was in the middle of lapping up some water, and now his paws and muzzle were drenched. He sighed. "Well, now where am I supposed to get some water?"

The tom got up, chortling to himself, as he tried to shake his fur clean, and stumbled back over to get some more spirits to quench his thirst. Munkustrap frowned, as the cat didn't even pretend to apologize. "Aw, don't blame him," said a dark grey fluffy queen as she shook her paw to get the water out. "He's just suffering from a broken heart. Has been for years, poor thing."

"How so?" Munkustrap asked, really not interested, but his manners kicked into place before he could stop them.

"Some queen left him and his tribe long ago, and he has yet to get over it." The queen walked off, going to talk to her friends, leaving Munkustrap uneasy. It couldn't be…could it?

He walked over to the tom, who had quite suddenly lost his cheeriness and was on the verge of tears. "What's the matter?" Munkustrap asked without much compassion.

The tom hiccupped. "My life is a disaster!" he said, hiccupping again.

"Oh, now, why do you say that?" Munkustrap tried to pat them tom on his back, but the tom ended up leaning completely against the silver tabby, filling his nostrils with the smell of alcohol. Munkustrap made a side note to reprimand Skimbleshanks for his preference of scotch to liven up his tea.

"I've lost my mate, I was run out of my tribe, and I'm a drunk…"

"Well, then…if you don't like being a drunk, why do you drink?" Munkustrap asked, trying very hard to peel the tom off of him.

"To forget."

"To forget what?"

"The shame."

"The shame of what?"

"The shame of drinking…"

"Well--" Munkustrap finally managed to pull the tom off of him and hold him at arms length away. "That was pointless! Look, what made you start drinking to begin with?"

"I loved her," said the tom, hiccupping again.

"Her?" he asked. His heart began to beat a mile a minute. "Was her name Demeter?"

"No," the tom said, putting a paw over his eyes. Munkustrap let the cat go, the drunk crumbling to the floor, and turned to leave, thinking he had just gone through all that for nothing. "That was her sister's name." Munkustrap stopped dead in his tracks. His stomach seemed to fall clear out of his body. "Her name was…was…"

"Bombalurina?" Munkustrap asked, hoping he was wrong. But the tom instantly looked over to him, more focused than he was moments ago. Munkustrap felt a chill go up his spin.

"You know her?" He asked, getting up and racing over to the tabby, once again latching onto him like a leech. "Where is she? I haven't seen her in years!"

"Years?" Munkustrap echoed, baffled. "How long ago was this?"

"I haven't seen her…hic…in three years. I miss her so much…she just left! Without a single…warning!" He got angrier as he spoke, beginning to dig his nails into Munkustrap's flesh. "I miss her…why did she leave me?"

"Please…let go," Munkustrap said, trying not to hurt the broken tom, but not wanting to be hurt himself. "Just…let go of me!" Munkustrap began to shove the tom away, but he was a lot stronger than he looked. A few cats finally decided to pull the tom off of Munkustrap. Then they turned on him.

"What are you doing?" asked one queen, as she looked to the drunken other if he had any scratches on him. "He's never done anything to anyone! Why are you provoking him like this?"

"He's a stranger," said a different tom, who looked gangly, but ready to fight Munkustrap simply for having the audacity to breath in his presence. "I can't believe we let him drink from our water."

"I just asked him something!" Munkustrap defended as he backed away from the angry looking cats who would defend their drunken friend for better or worse. "It's not my fault he…"

A cat lunged forward and hissed at Munkustrap, causing the outnumbered tom to turn tail

and run. A few cats chased after him, but stopped after he was far enough away from their territory. After catching his breath, Munkustrap thought about the information he received. "Three years?" he muttered to himself. "Bomba could probably be 5 years, at the most, but…Demeter couldn't possibly be more than 3, and that's pushing it." He suddenly realized he had no idea if the two queens were littermates or not. One could look older than the other, but both be the same age, couldn't they?

Munkustrap sat down by a garbage can in an unoccupied alley and began to draw out the information on the grime collected on the lid before him with his paw. If Demeter WAS three, that meant she would have had to have been born in that tribe, if her sister was two years older than her. And her sister would have been mated at two years of age.

Munkustrap shook his head. Easily explained away! Demeter was a kitten born in that tribe, and known to be Bombalurina's sister. Why would she take a kitten away from a tribe…or their mother…so young? To search for their mother? Maybe she left them and Bombalurina set out to find her? That would make sense…

The tom slept for the night, contemplating how much he really knew about his mate if he didn't even know her age.

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Events like this continued to happen from there on out. He would ask a question to some cats, and they would admit they knew the two queens, and some would ask where they went.

"I haven't seen them in years," was the general statement.

Some would acknowledge memory of them with a look that terrified Munkustrap. It was a look of pain and anger and detest. Those times, little would be answered. Things didn't make sense…

"Those sluts are still out there?" some would comment.

Some were cheery of the memory, as though it were a fairy tale come to life.

"Bombie? That's a name I haven't heard since I was a kitten! I was beginning to wonder if she was a dream. I loved her so much!" These comments were made all the odder when the cats questioned were pushing eights years of age.

And there were, of course, the obsessive ones…

"You know where she is? Where is she? I have to see her! What have you done with her? Is she alright? If you've done anything to her…!" Sometimes it was best for Munkustrap to run.

And then there were the ones who were concerned about them.

"Did they ever find their mother?" asked an older tom, with genuine interest.

"No," Munkustrap said. "She died before they could find her. A former tribes mate told her. Well, them…"

"Oh," the tom shook his head. "That's all they ever wanted." He looked from side to side to make sure no other cats near them were listening, before leaning in close to the silver tabby. "Everyone was upset when they left. They made quite a few friends. I think one of them even had a mate."

"Which one?" Munkustrap interrupted. This was something he had heard at least three times already.

"The red queen," he said. "I don't remember her name. It was a long name. I was barely an adult back then. But I remember I would have liked to have her as a mate," he chuckled at the memory, scratching his ear with his paw. "Oh, he was so angry when he caught them trying to leave, though. That's a night I'll never forget. Dragged her to the center of the tribe's territory and threw her on the ground. I remember her sister was screaming for him to stop. I think he would have killed her…" Munkustrap held his breath.

"H-how did they get away?"

"The tribe elders made him stop, and in the confusion going on, no one saw them go. They were so silent, leaving. It hurt to know they weren't going to say goodbye. As though we were so easy to discard..."

Munkustrap's fur rose on end. "You must be remembering it wrong," he said. "Bomba's mate beat her! Maybe they were trying to get away from him."

The tom shrugged. "Ah, what does it matter now? I'm sure they lived out the end of their days somewhere peaceful."

"Um…" Munkustrap wasn't sure how to answer that, so he simply nodded.

He had come a long way, for a cat to travel. He had hitched a few rides, hiding in the back of trucks to ease the pain of his tired feet, and was surprised how far from home he had gotten in only a few weeks. Everytime he thought he was done, he burned to know more, almost certain of his findings. Though he was longing to get home to his kittens, it seemed, at times, he would have traveled around the world to follow this obsession to know.

But suddenly, the trail ended. There was nothing to investigate anymore. The trail stopped cold. At ten years in the past.

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Macavity grinned down to the small queen shivering before him. She was curled up in a ball, ready for the next blow that was achingly slow to come. But come, it did, and the queen rolled on the floor, before managing to get into a kneeling position and putting a paw on her cheek. Tears were streaming down her face.

"Now," growled the tom. "The next time I catch you with another tom, I'll make sure that really hurts." The queen whimpered in compliance before scampering away from the tom. He sighed with some satisfaction at the catharsis that brought to him.

There was a large amount of noise on the other side of the fence he was standing in front of. The ginger cat closed his eyes in annoyance before sighing and walking to the source of the noise. "What are you imbeciles doing now? There are treaty's that need to go missing, and I can't do it all myself."

The collection of fur parted to reveal the source of the commotion. A silver and black tom was getting up off the floor, breathing shallow breaths from the beating he just took. Slowly, he looked up to Macavity, anger in his eyes. The ginger cat grinned. "Who dragged you in here?" he asked.

"I came by myself," he growled, moving his shoulder as though it had a kink in it.

"What on earth would compel you to come here?" he asked with amusement in his voice. He knew why. But he reveled in the moment.

"Demeter was in your tribe before she…found sanctuary in my tribe. I had to know what happened to her." The silver tom looked as though he hadn't slept in days.

"You must be desperate to come here," he said, not bothering to hide the satisfied grin on his face. "Looking to get rid of her before she gets rid of you?" Munkustrap's eyes looked down momentarily, as though defeated. Macavity looked to the cats surrounding the tom, waiting for the sign from Macavity they could do as they wished with the intruder on their territory. With nothing but a stare, the cats backed away, leaving the two be.

"Far from home? Couldn't go back until you knew the truth?" Munkustrap was silent. Macavity waved the tom over to the other side of the fence. "Funny, how it led you straight to hell."