A/N: Eh-heh, writers block and a new story that popped into my head kept me from updating, sorry! Okay, just to clarify, since I got this question, I'm going off the American/Broadway version of the show. This is why Alonzo is not black and white but black and gold. Really, I would call him black brown gold...he's just an explosion of color to me, heh, but I have watched (incredibly recently) one of the tours that came by and though I'm a Munkustrap fan, found myself watching Alonzo the entire time, and thought he was just adorable! It's not that I didn't love Alonzo before, it's just I felt that I loved this particular version of Alonzo I saw. It's also why Mistoffelees is trying to impress Cassandra (they were close in this other production I saw) and what not. Personally, I find the black and gold version Alonzo beautiful. Side note, in the recent tour, I stage-doored some of the actors, and when I asked one person who he played, and he answered "Alonzo", my response was "I'm in love with you!" I should have been embarrassed, were it not for the fact that he answered straight away, "You know who he is?!?" I think he was more fascinated with me, as he kept calling me the only Alonzo fan in the world, than I was with him. (I'm so bad at the stage door, heh...) ANYWAYS!!! Now that that's cleared up, please ignore me and read, just read! And review, heh. As always, if there's anything that's unclear, I want to know so it's not confusing! I am trying to learn as I go along, after all...



Chapter 6

Griddlebone spun the rope with bottle tied to it on her paws as she walked assuredly back to where she had last seen Macavity. Finding him would be rather difficult, considering how he makes good use of his territory, never being in the same place at once. He didn't even have a favorite haunt. One day he would be in the abandoned warehouse, as cliché as it was, the next he would be in the park. Possibly hiding under some daffodils. And as though that image wasn't seared painfully into her brain, she once found him "half asleep" under the statue of a bunny rabbit. What's more, he had planned on conducting business there later, probably as a test to see how seriously he could be taken under the jovial eyes of a furry woodland creature staring down at them.

This fact always troubled Griddlebone. (That he was unpredictable, not his love of cute, fuzzy animals.) Obviously, he wasn't a tom to be easily tied down, and so this would create a problem when it came to trying to get him to be her mate. Yes, that's right - the lovely Griddlebone had fallen for Macavity. And though he had hardly a manly baritone like that of her former lover, he had an evil cackle that could make any queen swoon. Or faint due to fear, but she didn't bother with the particulars.

But now that she had the bottle, everything would change. She would win Macavity over.

If she could only find him!

It seemed like it had been hours of searching, but she finally stumbled upon a small trace of ginger fur left behind on a trashcan in the alleyway. She felt the trashcan lid. It was still warm, yet Macavity had managed to vanish so quickly from sight as though he knew she was coming. She glanced around before realizing there was a fire escape that seemed accessible to a tom with Macavity's prowess. The only problem was Griddlebone lacked any power of levitation.

The queen looked the situation over. This was going to take some time…

------

Rumpelteazer watched her partner in crime as he looked intently at something on a wall. She looked to see what it was, but saw nothing, before looking back to Mungojerrie. His eyes had a look of intensity in them that she had rarely seen before.

"Mungo, what is--?"

"Shh!" he said, and she quickly put a paw over her mouth. She saw something move out of the corner of her eye. Then a flash of orange and black as the tom lunged for the object that had moved. He moved his paws quickly on the wall, before something dropped. Mungojerrie quickly put his paws over it. Then a smile grew on his face.

"Haha!" he yelled triumphantly.

"What is it, what is it?" she asked excitedly, dancing from foot to foot in anticipation.

"Give me a second," he said, as he once again looked intently towards the object covered by his paws. His ears were forward in intense concentration. Carefully, he moved his paws back, and – zoom! A lizard began to run away.

Mungojerrie lunged and pounced, missed, and pounced again. On the third pounce, he pinned the tiny creature to the floor by the middle of its back. The tom grinned, before trying to get a better grip on it, then resorting to bending his head down and grabbing it with his teeth. But as he removed his paws, the lizard slipped forward just enough that the tom grabbed it by its tail. In short form, the lizard let go of its tail and raced off.

The tabby tom looked horrified as he spit out the tail. "Ewww!" He said, spitting the remnant scales out of his mouth. "It left its tail behind!"

"I can see that," Rumpelteazer said, more astonished than horrified at the sight.

"The tails' still twitching," Mungojerrie said, putting his paws over his mouth in disgust.

"Yeah, that it is."

"And it was in my mouth!"

"Well, that's your fault."

"Ewww! That's never happened before!" The tom began making retching sounds, and Rumpelteazer rolled her eyes.

"I'm sure it wasn't that bad. For Everlasting Cat's sake, Mungo, you chase and eat bugs!"

"But they don't let go of their twitching tails!"

"Yeah," Rumpelteazer agreed. "Either way, there went our lunch. Unless you can catch a rat."

Mungojerrie shuddered. "What if the rat lets go of its tail?!"

"Ew…" Rumpelteazer hardly liked the thought of it, even though she knew she had handled rats by their tails time and time again, she didn't want this time to be the first time she be left with such an incident to remember. "Well, why are we catching animals when we can steal some?"

"I was bored," Mungojerrie said, shrugging. He used his paw to flick the tail into the street, and hoped to be done with that. "Do you think it will come after me?"

"After you fall asleep," Rumpelteazer said helpfully.

"Oh, well, thank you, Teaze…"

"Anything I can do to help," she smiled. "Now, I'm in the mood for argentine joint. That was so good last time. I mean, sure, our owners kicked us out and what, but it was worth it."

"Yeah," Mungojerrie said, smiling to himself. "And that look on her face when we were right back in the house later that night, as though she never threw us out. Ah, that was classic." Then he stopped as he saw a familiar cat walking in their direction. "Hey, isn't that that magic-type cat?"

Rumpelteazer smiled at the sight of him. "Oh, yeah. Where do we know him from again?" Then her face fell. "Oh my—the bottle! He's coming back to reap revenge for giving him that fake bottle!"

"We should get out of here, Teaze." The tom took the queen's paw and was about to run in the opposite direction, when the cat known as the Magical Mr. Mistoffelees looked up and noticed them. The two cats froze in their places.

"Oh, hello," he said, surprised to find them there.

"Hi!" Mungojerrie managed to squeak. He cleared his throat, and in a more normal pitch, said, "So, um….how are you? You're not…angry beyond all recognition and looking to turn two innocent, sweet cats into your magical experiment, right?" Rumpelteazer elbowed him in the ribs.

"No," Mistoffelees responded, confused. Then he smiled sadly to himself. "At least not yet."

The two cats gulped. "Oh…" Rumpelteazer said. "W-w-why is that?"

"Oh, it's just Cassie," Mistoffelees said with a sigh. "I had everything I wanted for a few seconds, and then I just ruined it because I was too shy."

Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer exchanged glances, before the queen dared to step forward. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

"Well," Mistoffelees said, seeming to shrink down at the thought. "Let's just say, the love potion worked fine, but I seem to have trouble with queens no matter what."

"Love potion?" Rumpelteazer looked over to Mungojerrie, confused, before remembering what they had told him. "OH! Oh? Wait, what? The love potion worked?"

This time Mungojerrie whacked Rumpelteazer upside the head. "As it should have," he said, emphasizing each word.

"Right, right," Rumpelteazer said quickly. "Well…give it time to work its magic. That's how…uh…we understood it to work, right Jerrie?" He nodded in agreement. "I mean, love isn't so easy a thing to work with, right? It needs time to…grow, or whatever."

"Hmm," Mistoffelees said, nodding. "I think you're right. I mean, a really well made potion would work in subtlety as not to interfere with the delicate lives it deals with, right?" Rumpelteazer opened her mouth to respond, but having no clue as to what he meant, she simply nodded. "Thanks, you two." With that, the tom trotted off, a new kick in his step.

Rumpelteazer and Mungojerrie turned to one another. "It works?" She asked.

"It works, apparently," Mungojerrie agreed. "That's straight from the magician's mouth! I thought we made that up!"

"So did I!"

"We have to get that potion back."

"Agreed. But how? He doesn't have it! And I'm not gunna try and take it from him."

"Well, maybe one of those other cats have it. The ones who were with him when we gave it to him."

"Right, Alonzo or that other cat." Rumpelteazer sighed at the thought. "What was his name? I think I know who I want to use the potion on first." She looked over to Mungojerrie, and was surprised to see him frowning at her. "What?"

"Nothing," he said haughtily. "Just that you would need a love potion to get his attention. He would never be interested in you." Rumpelteazer's jaw dropped, then she gave him the angriest look she could muster before pushing the tom back. He fell off the curb and landed on his back on the street.

"That's what you get."

"Ahhh!" He screamed, wrestling to his feet.

"What?" she asked, aghast.

"It came back to haunt me!" He threw something to the side. "The zombie tail! Ew! I landed on it. Ugh!"

The queen smiled in satisfaction.

------

Macavity stood on top of the building, staring out to the city that he planned to make his own by the end of the year. Then all the queens would be his, all the toms would fall at his feet, and all the riches would be in his possession. And it all would have been his sooner if his lackeys weren't so…lackey-like.

He saw out of the corner of his eye a white paw come up over the side of the building. That was followed by another paw, and then a queen hoisting herself up onto the building, gasping for air. Macavity let out a cough, lest he point and laugh at the queen. But that wasn't very appropriate for the Napoleon of Crime to do.

Griddlebone took a moment to catch her breath before hoisting herself over the edge. She took a few deep breaths in, quickly groomed her coat, and let out a long sigh, before coming to Macavity's side, as composed as could be.

"What do you want, Griddlebone?" he asked in a gruff voice.

The queen made a show of slipping something over her neck. She then looked at the tom and smiled seductively. "I was just looking for you."

"And somehow, I find myself unimpressed by your ability to find me," he said. "I heard you wheezing from a mile away."

"That was a long climb!" she defended.

"And you should be grateful I didn't leave from here the moment I heard you coming."

"Is that your way of saying you wanted me to find you?" she asked hopefully.

"I enjoy watching the sunset from here," he said, narrowing his eyes at the queen. "And I knew you weren't a threat if you could barely make it up here. You have too much fur – it insolates too much heat. I'm surprised you could haul that enormous tail up here. And how you manage to function with those ribbons tied around your feet, I can only wonder – and I'm the smartest cat you'll ever meet. So you can imagine how your entire anatomy, and choice of adornments over said anatomy, in confusing me, confuses everyone."

Griddlebone was dumbfounded, unable to give any response. He was sure she didn't understand a word he had said. She instead fiddled with the thing around her neck, as she pouted. In a moment, Macavity recognized the vial, and with little concern for the queen wearing it, tore it from her neck. She squeaked in surprise, then look livid with him.

"What is this?" he asked. "Do you know what I went through to play with that one queen's mind? Where did you get it? Did you take it from her?"

"Um…"

"You did, didn't you?" Macavity sighed, looking at the vial in his paws. "And now, what she must think of me, knowing how angry I'll be that she doesn't have it." He smiled to himself. "Well, we can't make it look like I was the one sabotaging her, now can we?"

With a flick of his wrist, the tom tossed the bottle over the edge of the building. Griddlebone nearly dove for it, but Macavity grabbed her by the scruff of her neck, before pulling her back.

"You fool," he said as she steadied herself. "What did you think you were doing, jumping after that?"

"It's going to break now!" she said, more concerned with the bottle as she leaned over the building to see what had become of it.

"Break," he said sarcastically, scoffing. He grew serious suddenly. "Oh, yeah…" There was a big chance the bottle would break once it hit the ground, and he would have to feign belligerent anger at the queen for giving him back a broken bottle. He hadn't thought his actions through…

----

Bombalurina walked along the streets, pulling the petals off the rose in her paw one at a time. She sighed to herself, wondering how she had fallen for the Cat About Town so easily. Over a flower, a flower! Of all things, she fell for a flower. She pondered over this when--

Smack!

All she saw were stars for a moment, and when her sight cleared, she felt a huge lump on her head. What had hit her? She looked around her, but didn't see anything on the ground. Her ears fell back against her head in confusion, and she felt something hit against her cheek.

"What the…?" She felt the side of her face and found a vial hanging off her ear by a small rope. "What is this thing?" After managing to get it off her ear, she was faced with a vial. "Oh! It's the vial that one kitten was supposed to take care of!" Then she looked up, wondering where it had fallen from.

"How did she manage to lose it?" she asked to no one in particulat. After a moment of clouded contemplation – as she was still bent out of shape from the pain – she decided it would probably be best to give it back to the queen who lost it. The question was, where to find her? She wasn't about to climb onto the building to try and find her, so she thought it best to look around the area where she first met the queen, as she might hang around there.

The red queen let her mind drift as she walked down the sidewalk, thinking about nothing important, wondering what she would have for dinner that night, when she would go to get her collar cleaned. Then a voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Hmm…" came the masculine voice. "Now there's something you don't see everyday."

The queen turned to look at the tom, and found herself speechless when she saw who she was dealing with. Before her was the most handsome tom she had ever known to exist, and what's more, he had his gorgeous brown eyes on her. He leaned against the wall, looking her over, and for the first time in her life, the queen thought for sure she would melt.

The queen smiled coyly at the tom. "What's that?"

"Do I even need to answer that?" he asked, looking her over, a smile emerging on his face.

Normally, she wouldn't encourage such pathetic pick up lines. But who could resist that voice? …or that face? …or that body…

"What's your name?" he asked, getting up from his leaning stance against the wall and taking a few steps closer to her. She hoped he would keep on walking to him, but he stopped just a few inches from her, his eyes going to the vial around her neck. His eyebrows rose lightly, before looking at the queen a little differently.

Confused, she answered with a still flirty smile, "Bombalurina." She could feel the blood rushing to her face at the intent look she was getting from her prospective lover. Or, as she had already began referring to her as in her mind, her mate. Oh, what a couple they would make! He was gorgeous, she was gorgeous, they'd be gorgeous together, and spend their lives entwined in passion and ---

"That's a silly name…"

…and suddenly, gorgeous turned into sniveling, sorry excuse for a rat.

"Oh…" she said, with a forced smile on her face. "And what's your great name?"

"I am the Rum Tum Tugger." He ran his paw through his head fur for emphasis.

"…and you need to emphasize a 'the' in front of that name?"

"When you have a name like that, it needs something special, baby."

"Like a better name? I agree."

The tom twitched his ear. "You don't like my name?"

"You don't like mine," she countered. She flicked her tail and began walking off. She heard footfalls behind her, and tried to ignore them. And continued to try and ignore them. Ignoring…ignoring…la lala…she couldn't hear the footfalls, he wasn't there. She would just try and pretend that he wasn't—

"What is it?!" she finally asked, stamping her foot and turning to stare at him.

"I can't believe you don't like my name," he said, sneering at the queen. "Especially with a name like yours."

"My name is perfect," she said, putting her paw on her hip. "A particular name for a particularly perfect cat!"

"My name happens to be particularly particular," said the tom, losing all finesse he first presented himself with as he leaned in close to the queen. "Better than your name, any day! What is it supposed to mean, anyway?"

"I don't know," she hissed. "It means me, a beautiful queen with beautiful markings that any tom would die to be with!"

"Oh, yeah," he said, rolling his eyes. "Any tom is dying to be with you, that's why you need this little trinket around your neck, huh?" He flicked his paw at the vial around her neck, causing it to sway across her chest.

"What?" Bombalurina asked. "What does this have to do with anything?"

"Yeah, like you don't know," scoffed the tom. "Mistoffelees told me all about these things! Trying to trap a tom like that, it's disgusting! It baffled me at first that I would even take notice of you. I mean, come on, when's the last time you saw a red queen? Only toms are red! But then I see you're wearing that damned love potion and it all makes sense now! You're usually not my type, you know?"

Bombalurina furrowed her brows. "You're not making much sense, you ineffable twit." With that, she turned on her heels, and began walk away. Still, the tom followed at her heels. "Why are you still following me!?"

"I can't help it, now can I?" he growled, as he walked by her side. "I can't have a queen as beautiful as you walking around with a love potion around her neck. You would make all the toms run after you, and then you would be in trouble." The queen rolled her eyes, wondering if this was some elaborate game he was playing. "Of course, if that can make a tom like me chase after you, then I'm certain it can do a lot of harm to any tom that came across your path."

"I have no idea if you're hitting on me or not," the queen said, eying the tom suspiciously.

"I don't know, either!" The Rum Tum Tugger said. "But I can't let you loose on the city or the toms lose on you." Completely confused by this tom she found irresistible not a few moments ago, the queen let out a sigh and tried to ignore him. "Toms like him, for example."

"What?" Bombalurina looked up just in time to see an orange tabby knock her down on the ground. By the time the queen looked back up, she saw Mungojerrie proudly holding a vial in his paw.

"Look, Teaze!" he said cheerily. "Miracles do come true!"

"Oh," Bombalurina said as she watched the tabby female run up to her comrade. "It's that horrible cat!"

To the queen's surprise, the tom beside her yelled, "what are you doing knocking queens over?"

"Well," Bombalurina said as she got up, "if you were so concerned, you could do something to help me up!"

"Just sharpened my nails on a tree, earlier," the tom explained, showing his perfectly manicured nails to the queen.

"Oh, forget it," Bombalurina said, then set her sights on Mungojerrie. The tom let out a squeak of surprise, before turning and running. "You know I'm not going to let you get away with that, Mungojerrie!" She ran after the tabby tom.

"I'll save you, Jerrie!" Rumpelteazer called out as she took after the two.

Instinctively, the Rum Tum Tugger went running after the three. But after a few strides, he stopped, brushed off his coat, and asked himself, "Why am I chasing them for?!"