Ok. I edited the chapter. Here is ch. 7. Many thanks to Quidam the Nameless. I ahve now finished ch. 8. But I'd like some feedback. I mixed up the chapters and had accidently posted this one twice, but it's fixed. Critique is more than welcome. Enjoy!

-Serendipity Kat

Chapter 7: Dancing and Drinks

As they drove away from the house, the only thing running through Mungojerrie's mind was the scene of the queen sitting next to him running out of the room with tears on her face and then it faded away into the next scene of when she apparently laughed at something Goldith had said at the top of the landing. Her laugh was… unexplainably… he struggled to find the right word. It was… sexy? Beautiful? Intoxicating? He couldn't figure it out. And then when she gave him that small smile after he asked her if she was ok… it was like… magic. He looked over at her, sitting there calmly. Nothing like the first time he'd seen her: all fire and energy. And presently she was nothing like the scene where she was running out of the room: crying and vulnerable. And it also wasn't like when he helped her sit down and she smiled at him. That was like the calm after the storm. And now… it seemed more like apprehension. Bast, he hadn't seen anybody with that many faces, that many emotions in a long time. It intrigued him.

Soon they pulled into a parking lot and in front of them was a respectable looking building with a green and light yellow awning and gold edged doors. The windows were covered by pale green curtains and there was a warm glow emanating from the beyond the curtains. Above the awning was a large sign that glowed in green and read Slater's. Mungojerrie spent time here when he needed to get away form everything and he didn't want to go to The Rose. The Rose was as much of a local bar as one could get. It was a shot-only, no water, girls dancing on the counter kind of bar. (Think Coyote Ugly ) Slater's was an upper-class club/bar. Here there was actually live bands and dancing. And you could get drinks other than shots. It was a nice change of place. Besides, at The Rose, he basically knew everybody there was to know. He didn't want to bring her there until she was more comfortable in his company and when she hadn't been stressed out almost 45 minutes before.

He pulled into a parking space and got out. And before she could open the door, he was opening it for her. He leaned on against the door and offered her his paw. She just looked at him like he was crazy and hesitantly placed her small paw in his large one. He gently pulled her to her feet. There she stood, about 6 inches away from him. It was a dark night with no moon and no clouds. The only light came from the glow of the green neon lights above their heads. His eyes met hers and he couldn't tear himself away from them. In her blue eyes, he saw a spark. Of what, he didn't know, but he had a feeling that it had to do with him and with the unexplained "memories" that had come to him since he'd met her. She was staring at his chest and he began to feel a bit self-conscious. True, he wasn't ripped, but he did work out. Her eyes then met his. Suddenly, though, she turned away and leaned towards the seat and made a grab for her wrap. As she did, he caught a flicker of something in her eyes. He moved away because he knew that if she turned around and looked at him like that again, he was gonna kiss her. And if he did kiss her, it could very well be fatal; for both of them. He closed the door and locked it. He put a gentle paw on the small of her back as he led her to the entrance and before he could do anything, she opened it for him. He looked at her in surprise and she smiled at him. It was a thank-you kind of smile. He smiled back and entered. But then at the second set of doors, he did the same thing for her, except that he added a little bow. She giggled and curtsied. He smiled as he followed her into the club.

The light in the club wasn't as dim as most, but it wasn't bright like a store. There were small tables everywhere and in the center of each was a small gold lamp with a green shade. The tables were surrounding a wooden dance floor. There was a stage on one end and a disco ball swung around slowly as music seeped from the hidden speakers. There was a good-sized crowd milling around either side of the dance floor or sitting at the tables. A band he didn't recognize was setting up their equipment as he led her to an empty table and hailed a waiter.

"May I get you anything?" asked the waiter smoothly.

"A Bud and…" he broke off and gestured to his companion. Teazer looked up and thought for a moment.

"Umm, a Tequila Sunrise, please." She said finally.

"Coming right up." With that, the waiter glided away into the crowd.

Teazer was silent on the drive to the club. She needed to think. Luckily for her, Mungojerrie didn't seem inclined to pry into her thoughts. She liked that. Mungojerrie, what a tom! She couldn't believe him, leaving to take her out in the middle of dinner. He also didn't seem to give false pretenses or put on airs… like Reaper had. There was something about him too that made her want him. But she couldn't! She needed to come to terms with her feelings for Reaper. Even though it had been a while, and he was the one to hurt her, she still had feelings for him. Or at least she though she did. She had been with him for a long time and it just didn't seem right or completely plausible to completely forget all her feelings for him. She had given away a part of her heart to him and knew that she wouldn't get it back. While she didn't completely know how she was going to get over him, she did know that she had to face him… it… sooner or later. She hoped it was later.

She snuck a glance over the tom driving. He was focused intently on the road, the muscles in his arms were tense as he gripped the steering-wheel. A tux... and a church… the memory floated through her mind and she blinked. What was THAT? She wondered. This was another thing. Since she'd arrived, she'd been having these visions or memories or thoughts. She couldn't put a name to them for they were a bit of all three.

By this time they had arrived at the bar. She was impressed by the look of the place. As a fashion designer, she could appreciate the subtleties in the color scheme. Green and light yellow, it was beautiful. And then with the gold… it was nice enough for a dress color scheme. Maybe something with one sleeve and a full skirt… she tucked the thought into a back corner of her mind. She brought her mind back into focus on him as he got out of the car and strode around to her side of the car and opened her door. She looked at him from underneath her lashes as he held out his black and red paw. She placed her paw in his.

As their eyes met, an intense feeling coursed through her and hummed in her veins. And then, in front of her it was as if a cloud of fog appeared and from within, a pale blue light penetrated through the mist and in its place, she could see a grassy area. The 'vision' expanded and on the grassy area a house materialized into existence. It looked almost identical to Cattail Manor, but it wasn't as run down. The lawn outside was neatly trimmed surrounded by an iron fence with flowery images chiseled into the bars. There were hedges around the outside of the grass filled with colorful blooms. It could have been in the late spring, but she wasn't sure. The entrance was something similar to a carriage drive. The walkway leading from the wrought-iron gate went for a ways and then split into two paths to make room for a fountain. Soon after that, the walkway merged with a tiled walkway with two columns in the front and back. The columns were circular and seemed to blend seamlessly into the stone cover above the entrance. Underneath the entrance there were two figures. They seemed to be a male and a female. They were holding hands, but Rumpleteazer couldn't see their faces. But what she could see were the rich garments that clung to the bodies. There was a pause, and then, one of the faceless bodies turned to face her. She was shocked at what she saw: a pair of deep blue eyes and little freckles across the bridge of a nose. She was looking at a mirror image of herself.

She jerked her head a bit and the vision faded. She looked up to see Mungojerrie's eyes boring into hers. She turned back towards the car and gathered her wrap up. If she wasn't careful, she'd fall into his eyes… his beautiful green eyes. When she had retrieved her wrap, she looked back to where he was standing and saw that he'd moved away from her.

Once they were inside the club and seated at a table, she was able to finally look around. The interior wasn't extremely dark, but neither was it very bright. It sported gold wall lamps with green shades which emanated a warm glow to the room. There was a nice size dance floor and a stage with mikes set up at the front. Nobody was up there now, but according to the chalkboard off to the right, there was a group scheduled in hour. Just then a waiter glided over and asked her what she wanted. She thought for a minute and then said, "A tequila sunrise." The waiter disappeared and she was left with Mungojerrie.

They sat across from each other, staring, in silence. All around them were the usual sounds of a club: glasses clinking, faint music from hidden speakers, shuffling of paws, whispers and the occasional laugh, and the brush of fabric moving against others. It was a very calm and romantic atmosphere. She turned away from his eyes and looked down at her paws. She gracefully removed the wrap from her striped shoulders and set it beside her on the table. She looked up again to see him watching her with slit eyes. She took a deep breath and looking down at her paws, broke the silence.

"I, I'm sorry for causing, a, a, scene, back there." she said quietly. "I didn't mean to get upset at your mom. It's just that she asked me something that I couldn't answer." She looked back up at him. "And I'm not ready to talk about it just yet. But I'm very sorry for disturbing dinner."

Mungojerrie smiled and reached for her paw. "It's fine. I never liked the formal dinners anyway. I mean, no offense to Jennyanydots, but this kind of thing is more like my kind of stuff." He looked at her paw as it was dwarfed by his and continued on, "I understand that you don't want to talk about it, but it does help to let it bleed off. If you ever need to talk, I'm there for you. You're… I don't know… you're different from anyone I've ever met. I don't mean to scare you, but I feel as though I've met you somewhere before." He stopped. He didn't want her to think that he was some kind of stalker and also he didn't want to turn her off. He really, really liked her and eh wanted to get to know her better, but he couldn't do that if she thought that he was some kind of jerk.

Her blue eyes met his and in them he saw something that looked like recognition. She spoke.

"I, I, you… you too?" she asked incredulously. "I mean, I felt it too. When I first saw you standing at the door something… I'm not sure what… but it seemed to hit me between the eyes. It was a spark of something…"

By this time their drinks had arrived and Mungo pick up his Bud and held it out to Rumple. She did the same thing with her tequila sunrise and pushed her blonde hair out of the way.

"To friends." She said rather shyly. As she said this, she saw a warm smile creep across her companion's face. She blushed.

"You consider me a friend?" he asked curiously, trying to suppress his happiness. If she did, then that would make it easier to… 'Stop it!' his common sense shouted in his head.

"I do. You stood up against your mom. You stood up for me." She was still surprised that he had done that. Reaper couldn't have cared less about what had been said to her. "I mean… isn't that what friends do?" she said shyly, staring into his eyes.

Mungojerrie smiled and said, "Of course." He noticed that she was still speaking softly. He looked into her eyes and saw sadness and guilt… and fear. What was that about? He wouldn't harm her. "Well, if you consider me a friend, then you're my friend too." His ears twitched and he heard the opening chords of a song. He stood up and held out his paw. "Dance with me?"

She smiled and put her paw in his. "I'd love to. I really like this place. It's very… calm."

"Before you go, I'll have to show you The Rose. It's the local bar." He added on to the end of his sentence when he noticed her quizzical expression. "My friend, Tugger, his wife co-owns it with her sister."

"Oh, well I'll be here until sometime after New Years. Whenever the new season starts, then, I'll be back in New York City." She smiled and together they moved out onto the dance floor.

An upbeat song started to flow from the speakers and the two of them moved together to the beat.

As he swung her around the floor, his mind tried drifting, but he wouldn't let it. He was thinking about what it would be like to kiss her.

Soon a slower song came on and Rumpleteazer instinctively moved closer to Mungojerrie. Soon she had her arms around his neck and his paws on her waist. It felt good to be held like this again. But then she involuntary stiffened when, instead of Mungojerrie holding her, she imagined… no she felt Reaper. She froze when she looked up and instead of Mungojerrie's warm green eyes, beheld Reaper's yellow ones. The yellow ones that could be as calm or cruel as possible. She couldn't move, if she did, he might hurt her.

Mungojerrie stopped moving when he felt her freeze. He looked down into her eyes and in them, instead of a clear blue, they were cloudy and there was fear more potent than he'd seen it. She was staring at him as if she'd seen a ghost. He released his grip on her waist, but her arms were still frozen around his neck. He gently reached up and took her arms off his neck and lightly held her paws. "Teazer? What's wrong? Teazer?" he asked hesitantly. He wasn't sure if he should use a nickname considering he'd only known her the past couple hours. But he decided to anyway. Maybe, just maybe, if he did it might snap her out of whatever was going on inside her pretty head. It might show her that he cared.

Rumpleteazer saw him… felt him… he was there… in front of her… the pale blond and white tom. He was dressed in one of his ever-immaculate outfits. This time it was a black tux. He had on a cream colored shirt that seemed to blend in with his fur. He wore a bow-tie, his short brown hair was slicked back, and he wore diamond cufflinks. He was picky and thorough on details. And he had expected her to be that way too. There she was… all shining and diamonds… his jewels. Not hers, never hers, always his. She was in a stunning red and gold floor-length dress. It had a sweetheart neckline and came off the shoulders into three-quarter length gold filmy angel-wing sleeves. The bodice was lightly embroidered with thin gold thread and the shirt flared out at the bottom in a fishtail style. The dress was one of her best creations.

And yet… somewhere in the small neglected corners of her mind was a faint memory of dancing with Mungojerrie. But she could focus on that, she could only focus on what she saw in front of her at that very minute, not what actually was, only what she saw. She remembered that night. Oh, yes it had run through her head at least a thousand times.

It was the night he proposed.

Whatcha think? I'd really like some feedback.