I know that some of you will have trouble remembering the kittens' names; that's why they're named after pop culture. You should be able to get the colors right, at least.

Also, I will not tell you what I'm planning on updating next, because I obviously have no clue. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Sorry guys.

Chapter Thirteen - Cats, Part Four

Before going to bed, I finished tidying up. Tony put away his half-complete plans on a self-cleaning litter box, and I gathered the cats from their nap and moved them upstairs.

"I don't understand how they take up so much space when they're so tiny," Tony muttered, looking at the pile of cats sleeping on his giant king-sized bed.

"It's a cat thing," I told him. "This is another reason you're a cat. You're tiny and you like to take up an obscene amount of space."

He pouted at me, and I rolled my eyes. "Get in bed," I said. "Remember what I said about experimenting?"

"No," he claimed.

"Tony," I crossed my arms.

"Maybe," he muttered.

"Look," I said. "Maybe those bad sleeping habits are written into you, or something, but we should experiment. What if you're more productive if you get a proper sleep cycle?!"

"I can't," Tony whined, scooping up the nearest kitten, which was Tom, and snuggling him to his chest. "I just can't, Elle."

"That's what I'm here for," I told him, wiggling my fingers. "Sleep Magic falls under Chaos Magic. Kinda weird, yeah, but still true. Okay? I can help you sleep."

Tony pet Tom, thinking, and Simba got up and meowed at Tony, wanting his own cuddles. The other ones looked about ready to get up, too.

"Okay," Tony relented, climbing onto the bed and laying down. After waiting for him to finish, the cats began to climb all over him until they were comfortable satisfactorily.

"Do you want dreamless sleep?" I asked. "Or do you still want dreams? I can make sure they're not nightmares. I've been told you can get some pretty wacky dreams from it, though."

"Dreamless, for now at least," Tony said softly, stroking the cats. He closed his eyes and tightened his fists over the cats. "Do it now, before I change my mind."

"Eris's Sleep," I whispered, and the magic flowed from my hands and coagulated around Tony, his face relaxing and his hands unclasping.

The fog disappeared and I smiled at Tony before leaving the door to the room slightly cracked for the cats and crawling into my own bed.

"Goodnight, Tony," I whispered.

"Sir. Sir…SIR!"

"Wha-?" Tony scrambled awake.

"Sir, Mrs. Rigby appears to be having a nightmare," JARVIS told him.

"Fuck," Tony muttered, pushing the cats off him. The kittens meowed up at him, but Duchess merely leveled a look, and Tony distinctly remembered Elle mentioning that cats thought the world revolved around them.

"Not now, kitties," he muttered, leaving his room and barging into the one a door down.

Elle was tangled in the sheets, sweating crazily as she tossed and turned.

Without a thought, Tony threw himself on the mattress and shook her. "Elle, wake up!"

Her eyes snapped open with a gasp, and her eyes flared with magic, glowing. The blue of her eyes were nearly silver, and her pupil seemed to be an odd purple color a few shades darker than a hair.

But it was only for a split second, before her eyes returned to a normal light blue, and she settled down, still shaking.

"Elle?" Tony asked quietly.

"I'm okay," she said quietly, still breathing heavily. "I'm okay, I'm good."

Her breathing calmed and she looked up at Tony. "You're lucky you're okay, Tony."

"Why?" he asked.

"Tony, shaking someone awake from a nightmare can be dangerous. It can be even worse if you have magic. Mine didn't attack you because it recognized you."

"Recognized me?" Tony asked, sitting back on the bed.

She nodded. "I told you, magic works on a different frequency. And any living thing emits a type of energy that magic can recognize. While it's easier with other wizards, it's easy enough for me to recognize you, especially since I care about you a lot. Makes it easier to match."

She said it so casually, it threw him off. It seemed like she was doing that a lot.

"Are you okay?" Tony asked her.

"I will be," she said, shuddering. "I haven't slept without my husband next to me in a long time." Elle gave him a sad smile. "I'll adjust, I just miss him for now."

There was a meow by the bottom of the bed, and Tony looked down to see that the cats had followed him in. Duchess hovered near the door, but the kittens were all near the bottom of the bed. Tony reached over and scooped them up, remembering what Elle said about them making people feel better.

He passed Salem, Aslan, and Tom over to Elle who gave him a bright smile and started petting them.

"Thank you, Tony," she said. "You're a good friend."

And there it was. Just so casually – like the sky was blue. The sun rises in the east. It was a fact of life.

He pulled the other three kitties closer to him as Duchess joined them all on the bed. "Why do you do that?"

"Do what?" she asked.

"I just…why do you like me? Most people hate me."

She snorted. "Tony, most people are idiots. And we're still going to fix that." Her smile curved up. "Well, not the idiot thing, that might be too hard. But we're going to change people's opinions of you, you know that. And it's going to be a bunch of fun, too."

"I just don't get-"

"Tony," she said, grasping at his hands. She bit her lip. "Okay, so listen, there's this thing my guild does. We sing songs to each other; romantic others, friends, siblings, parents. And we find a better way of expressing things that way. Magic resonates with music on a different frequency, so most of us are pretty good at singing and stuff."

"So?" he asked.

"The first time I did it, it was to help Juvia get over her hatred of rain," she continued slowly. "When she couldn't control magic, it was raining all the time around her, which made the other kids mad at her and led to some bullying. Which led to her hating the rain. Singing to her helped her have fun." Elle looked up at him. "Did you replace your broken piano?"

"No," Tony said, shaking his head.

"Alright, then you're going to have to let me warm up," she told him. "I'm not very good at guitar."

She requipped out a guitar and a Memory Card, and let the card play for a bit so she could hear the chords, before stroking the guitar a bunch of times to match it with hearing. After a few minutes of playing the wrong chord, with Elle's face getting more and more frustrated, Tony spoke up.

"Hey, JARVIS," he asked. "Can you identify those chords?"

Elle facepalmed as she stopped strumming.

"Alright, you ready?" I asked him.

Tony didn't really look ready but he nodded anyway.

"Listen to the lyrics," I told him, and started playing. I'm glad that the song was pretty slow, because it'd be easier for me to switch chords that way.

"You don't have to beee a herooo, to saaaaaaaaaaave the woooooooorld.

It doesn't make you a narcissiiiist, to looooove yourseeeelf.

It feels like nothing is easy, it'llll never beee.

That's alright, let it out, talk to me."

I locked eyes with him as I sang, and even though I wasn't actually using magic, it still resonated with the music to the point of where my outline and the guitar were slightly glowing, illuminating his face.

"You don't have to be a prodigyyyy to beeee uniiiiique.

You don't have to know what to saaay or what… to think….

You don't have to be annnybooody, you can never be.

That's alright, let it out, talk to me.

Annxiietyy, tossing turning in your sleeeep.

Even if you run awayyy, you still see them in your dreeeeeeeeeeeeams.

It's so daaaark tonight, but you'll surviiiiiiiiiiive certainlyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

It's alriiiiiight, come insiiiiide, and talk to me.

We can talk here on the floor, on the phone if you prefer.

I'll be here until you're oookaaaaaaaaaay.

Let your words release your pain.

You and I will share the weight.

Growing strongeeer day byyy daaaaaaaaaaaaay.

It's so daaaaaaaark outside toniiiiight.

Build a fireeee warm and briiiiiight.

And the wind it hoooowls and biiiites.

Bite it back with, all your, miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Annxiietyy, tossing turning in your sleep.

Even if you run away, you still see them in your dreams….

It's so daaaark toniiiiiiight, it looks niiiiiice, fall asleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

It's alriiiiiiight, come insiiiiiiiiiiiiide, and talk to me."

He stared at me with silent tears running from his eyes as I finished strumming. The light faded away with the music, and I watched his pupils opens as he struggled with finding something to say.

"Come on," I said, smiling at him. "Let's go downstairs."

I took his hands and pulled him down the stairs, clicking my tongue so the cats would follow.

"What are we doing?" Tony asked.

I sat him on the living room couch. "We…" I said, going back to the stairs for the closet at the bottom. "Are going to build a blanket fort."

"A what?" Tony asked, eyebrows rising.

I smiled at him. "Therapy is about more than just talking to someone. Sometimes, it's about trying new things, and finding out who you are." I carried over the bundle of blankets to him. "I can't imagine that you had a lot of time to be a kid, growing up. Can't really see Howard being approving of blanket forts. And in my first life, I didn't get a chance either. But the second?" I grinned. "We would have sleepovers all the damn time, watching movies and eating candy and rolling around in our stupid, not-entirely-structurally-sound forts."

"So…" Tony trailed off.

"So we're gonna build a blanket fort," I told him. "The top isn't supposed to be structurally sound, by the way, so if you're okay with tying blankets together and shoving it under walls and tying it to weird places in order to try to keep it up, then you can work with that. If purposely messing it up gets annoying, I can take care of that."

"I'll try with the top," Tony said slowly, with a soft smile.

"Great," I smiled. "Make sure that the blankets hide us from the windows to block out light, but frame the TV so we can watch shit."

"And…cake?" Tony asked hesitantly.

I grinned. "And cake."

Tony stood up and reached for the first blanket, and I went back to the closet and started grabbing a bunch of unused pillows.

"What are those for?" Tony asked.

"The floor," I told him. "We'll probably have to cannibalize some of the stuff from some of the bedrooms. We can probably leave ours alone, though."

He snorted, standing on the couch so he can tie one strip of the blanket to the chandelier. "'Cannibalize.' That's great. What're we gonna watch?"

"You've seen all the Harry Potter movies?"

"Yeah, the first part of Book Seven comes out in like…six months." Tony shrugged. "Can't believe they're splitting it in two."

"Well, you can believe I'm from the future," I said. "Where I died several years after the last movie came out. And that in my last universe, we created Memory Cards so I could share films and stuff."

He stared at me, mouth open. "You have the last two films?"

I smiled and nodded. "Yep. This is what I call therapy. In which we build a blanket fort, watch a movie and eat cake, and sleep with cats. Though warning you, I'm totally going to cry. Multiple times."

"I probably won't."

I shrugged. "I've been told I cry enough for two people. Or three. Maybe even four. It's fine."

"You didn't cry that much earlier," Tony mentioned, raising an eyebrow and grabbing another blanket.

"It's always worse with music and dramatic flashbacks," I admitted. Which is part of what made watching the Tartarus arc so fucking emotional for me in the first life. I laid out some pillows around the coffee table and gently moved the cat bed (with four of the seven cats on it) on top of some of the pillows.

"So, the blankets will probably end up draping a bit like a circus tent," I told him, grabbing some more pillows. "That's fine. Make sure that you get enough lift above the coffee table so we can still eat cake and watch the movie."

Tony made a sound of acknowledgment as he continued with the top of the fort. "How are you going to be able to watch the memory on the TV?" he asked.

"We aren't, not really," I admitted. "Not the way you're thinking. We haven't found a way to transfer it to any of your technological systems. I was thinking that JARVIS could light up the screen white, and then I'd project the card."

Tony nodded as he finished tying off another blanket.

"Tony, hey!" I said, turning to him. I nodded my head to the statue he'd tied it to. "What happens if that falls over?"

"Most of the fort will fall down?" Tony asked, confused.

I rolled my eyes. "Like, will the statue break? Is it important?"

Tony shook his head. "Nah, it should be solid enough. Especially since it will fall onto a pillow if you're lining the floor with them."

I nodded and continued laying out more pillows. "Alright."

Tony hung up one last blanket, before reaching for the last one, and I showed him how to hang it so it could be opened like a tent, or a curtain.

I pointed to the last blankets on the couch. "Spread those out on top of the pillows so it's layered. It'll help the kittens from getting lost. I'll cut up two slices for us."

Tony nodded and did that, while I cut two more pieces of cake for us and put them on plates and silverware.

"Ready?" I asked, using my magic to carry the dishes and moving the curtain out of the way.

Tony nodded and leaned back against the bottom of the couch from where he sat on the floor, away from the pile of kittens next to him. I put a plate of cake in front of him and the other in front of me, as I sat down next to him on the other side.

"JARVIS?" Tony asked.

"Yes, Sir," JARVIS said, lighting up the television screen with a very dim white glow. I requipped out the Memory Card and laid it on the couch, angling it up so it'd aim at the screen.

"In case I fall asleep," I told Tony's inquisitive look, queuing up the film. "Here we go. Deathly Hallows, Part One."

Tony grinned to me left as I sat back down, picking up his fork and scooping up some cake.

One of the kittens meowed next to him, getting up to sniff at the fork with cake on it.

Duchess batted her kitten back and moved forward to sniff it instead.

"Don't let her lick it," I told Tony. "I have treats for them if they start to get annoying. But it's not a good idea to give them things with milk."

"Aren't they cats?" Tony asked, confused.

"Actually, Mrs. Dreyar is correct. There has been evidence found that milk is bad for cats," JARVIS announced.

"Anyway," I smiled at Tony as he nudged to cats to the side to protect them from cake...or to protect his cake from them? It seemed like both. "Let's watch."

And we settled down for our first movie night.

The 'waiting for him to get comfortable' thing that the kittens did was something my cats do. Once they plop themselves down on me, they don't want me moving, so they'll wait for me to settle in.

The song is called 'Talk to Me' by Cavetown. I've linked it on every site it's available (so everyone but fanfiction).