CATS Fanfic: Your Swagger Makes Me Smile

CATS Fanfic: Your Swagger Makes Me Smile.

Bombalurina stretched from her midday sleep in the warm sun. Opening her vivid green eyes, she peered down from the pile of junk. She'd fallen asleep in the sun on top of a mountain of trash, her perch being a discarded dining chair. She smoothed a paw over her scarlet fur before jumping her way to the ground, and padding off for another day in the jellicle junk yard.

The red beauty made her way to the general center of the junk yard. The sun was shining, and not a cloud in the sky, her mood was elated at the sight of her fellow jellicles. Spotting her sister sitting atop the TSE1 chatting idly with Rumpleteazer and Cassandra. Bombalurina joined them, skillfully leaping onto the bonnet of the old car, and continuing to the others on the roof.

"Good afternoon Bomb" Demeter greeted her cheerfully, shifting to make room in their little gossip circle.

"Afternoon Demi, Rumps and Cassandra" Bombalurina smiled and spread out across the warm car like the others. "How's Munku?"
"He's fine…" Demi replied, smiling happily at the thought of her mate,"I think he's patrolling the far side of the junkyard today. Something about Pollicles breaking a post in the fence" She added thoughtfully. Rumple snorted, not even opening her eyes as she laid comfortably in the sunshine.
"Stupid mutts they are"
"Agreed" The girls mused unanimously. Bombalurina was bored. It had been two nights since the last Jellicle ball, where Victoria had come of age and Gus was chosen to be reborn. Bombalurina smiled, he was a sweet old thing. Although, as the excitement soon wore down, she'd realized she'd been oddly restless. For some reason, seeing other cats at the ball begin partnerships only days ago had made her think. She didn't have a mate. Demeter and Munkustrap had each other. As did Alonzo and Exotica, Jennyanydots and Skimbleshanks…it made her some what displaced. She was beginning to feel slightly lonely. It was Cassandra's voice that brought her back to reality.
"It's a beautiful day." She exclaimed thoughtlessly.
"Well, it seems you beautiful ladies are taking advantage of that" A silky, masculine voice added in, followed by the sudden appearance of the maned main coon himself. Bombalurina could hear the flustered reactions of her companions, her eyes remaining closed; she felt the corners of her mouth twitch slightly.

"Well good afternoon to you too Tugger."

Finally fluttering her eyelids, Bomb's emerald irises fell upon the handsome sight of Rum Tum Tugger; Resident flirt. Tugger was a strong, muscular cat, with an attractive leopard skin coat. The tom was the owner of a very thick mane, which showed off his rugged good looks. Worse still, he was incredibly charming and sexy. Every female cat, at some point, must have had a crush on him. But he wasn't the commitment type. That was obvious. Bombalurina couldn't help but feel excited at his unexpected arrival. She and Tugger were always flirting back and forth, and Tugger brought a little interest to any situation. The Rum Tum Tugger was a curious beast indeed.

"Munk asked me to tell you he'll be back later." Tugger turned to Demi, unamused. "The fence turned out to be broken after all."

"Oh, you actually went with Munk to help?" Demi looked disbelieving. Tugger gave her a dry look, while I laughed.

"Last time I pass a message on to you." Tugger smirked at my pissed off sister. "Well ladies, I shall be off. The Tugger has more fans then yourselves you know…" He joked arrogantly, leaping off the car and flicking his tail seductively before disappearing behind an old pipe. Cassandra was caught staring longingly after him. She shifted so she was lying in a more seductive position then before.

"Mmmmm Rum Tum Tugger…where have you been?" She mused dreamily. Demeter gave her a stern look.

"Stop fawning over him Cass…" Rumple reprimanded, flashing Demeter a grin which she returned.
"Yeah Cass…" Demeter looked suspiciously cheeky, "Tugger is only a match for one queen…" She finished cryptically. Demeter and Rumple gave me pointed looks, Cass just looked peeved. I just rolled my eyes, turning away to hide my girlish blush. Ok, I had to admit. Tugger and I had known each other since we were kittens. We were best friends. As all the CATS grew it was obvious who the heartthrobs were, Old Deuteronomy's sons mainly. But when CATS grow, and eventually come of age, things change. My ex-best friend changed. He became vain and self centered. We had a lot of fights then, so we just drifted apart. Macavity changed too. Macavity wasn't always evil. He was once a kitten, just like the rest of us. It was like Tugger in a way. When he started to grow up, his antics started to grow too. Macavity's mischief began very much like Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer. But instead of settling for petty theft and jokes, he became more daring. Soon, fights with other CATS, cheating, lying, and foul play began, leading to his evil today. It was apparently, the night of my own coming of age ball that he left the jellicles. Although as to why I've never been sure. The last cat to have ever seen him that fateful night was my sister, Demeter. I quickly flickered my eyes to the tiny scar on her right ear, a flare of anger igniting inside me. Macavity had swiped her. I know Demeter's afraid of him the most. For years, I asked her to tell me what Macavity had said before he left but she only told Old D, saying it was better I didn't know. Shaking my head, I rid myself of depressing thoughts. Tugger wouldn't be the same. I just have to get over it.

Smiling faintly, I looked out to where some of the kittens were playing, watched over by Skimbleshanks and Jennyanydots. I watched the old mates enjoy each others company, gazing into one another's eyes lovingly. I sighed. That's what I wanted. Yes, it's true after all. Flirty, teasing, Bombalurina wanted a mate. Someone I could imagine, settling down with, maybe even (eventually), having kittens with. A thought dashed through my head. What would Tugger be like as a father? I banished the thought as quickly as it came. Why would I think something like that? Tugger's not like that. He's to busy being a playboy to even think of commitment.

I finally turned back to my fellow queens. The silence was getting tiresome. I needed conversation. Anything to keep my mind busy.
"So Rump…anything new?" I asked out of the blue. Rumple flexed her claws against the metal hood of the car leaving a few lines of scratches. She yawned, but remained her cheeky self.
"Nah Bombs. You know the days after the ball are always slow," she remarked.
"Rumple without gossip?" I grinned in mock-horror, "That's peculiar." Rumple smirked.
"Weeeelllllll…" Rumple's cheeky look lightened with mischief, amusement dancing in her eyes. "I wouldn't say entirely without gossip…" This caught Demeter and Cassandra's attention, as well as my own. Demeter wasn't facing us but the sharp cock of her ear gave away her intrigue. Cassandra faced Rumple, eagerly awaiting the news.
"Well Rumps, spit it out…"
"Rumple, you can't deprive us of your little secrets" I urged along with Cassandra. Rumple looked slightly hesitant for a moment.
"Well guys, I could tell you…" she taunted us with her tidbit. We all groaned, and even Demeter joined in the interrogations.
"Out with it, we're all waiting…" Demi lured Rump to say.
"Ok I'll tell you…" Rump caved, all of us excitedly waiting, "But…" she added, making us grumble.
"But what?" I prodded in annoyance. Rump sighed.

"I can't tell you Bombs." She admitted finally. I must've looked scandalized, because Demi and Cass started laughing pretty hard.
"WHY NOT?" I whined loudly, making Rump giggle.
"Cause I can't Bombi…you'll understand later" She winked making me grumble.

"Fine." I rolled my eyes, getting up off of the car and sliding down the windshield. "I'll catch up with you later." I padded off, not turning around but I could hear the giggles and whispers. I felt left out. There must've been a reason why Rump didn't tell me. I didn't want to mull on it though, I mean, someone's going to have to tell me sooner of later.

I ambled around a little while longer, but decided that there wasn't anything going on here today. Looking for some adventure, I thought I might head out into the streets for a little while. I slid through a gap between the two main doors of the junkyard gate, padding along the sidewalk. I needed to do something in case my mind drifted back to Tugsy. Tugsy? I haven't called Tugger that for years. Not since we had our first fight.

A younger Bombalurina sat by the TSE1. Jennyanydots den inside the hood of car was exposed and all of the kittens yet to come of age were playing around or talking with each other.

"Hey Bomba" A child's voice came from her right. A younger Macavity wandered out from an open pipe. Bombalurina smiled at the sight of a familiar face.

"Hi Macavity…" She replied innocently, facing her beautiful green eyes to his bluey/greeny ones.

"Whatcha doing by yourself? Don't you want to play with everyone else?" Macavity asked, curious as to why a kitten like her wouldn't want to be playing with all her friends. Bombalurina merely smiled, facing the dirt she pushed nervously around with her paw.

"I'm waiting for Tugsy." Macavity tilted his head to the side in thought, his ginger fur catching the sunlight.

"Why don't you just play with me until he gets here?" He offered the young scarlet princess, but Bombalurina shook her head gently.

"Me and Tugsy don't play with anyone until we're both here…" Bombalurina blushed slightly. Macavity frowned, whiskers down turned in disappointment. He uttered an 'Oh', knowing nothing else to say. He didn't want Bombalurina's attention to waver from himself, so he spoke again.

"Well, what do you and Tugger usually do?" This made Bombalurina giggle slightly.

"Well…" She paused bashfully for a moment, "Lots of the time Tugsy and I play Goodies and Baddies. We pretend we're big, fearless cats, like the Rumpus cat, or sometimes we pretend we're pollicle baddies." She answered childishly. The kitten Macavity just kept looking at Bombalurina, thinking over all the games that she seemed to enjoy.

"Which one are you?"

"I play the girl who needs to be saved. Tugger sometimes pretends to be the baddie, then he pretends to fight the goodie. But when Tugger pretends to be the goodie, then he pretends to fight the baddie."

Bombalurina twitched her whiskers as she talked excitedly of her best friend. Macavity smiled at the cute red kitten. Bombalurina was one of his favourite kitten friends. She was just so fun and so much prettier then all the other kittens he knew. Macavity felt all tingly inside his chest every time he talked to her, or when she laughed, he felt like laughing too. But he wondered why they didn't have more kittens playing a game that sounded so fun.

"Why don't you get someone to play the one Tugger isn't playing? Wouldn't that be more fun?"

"I guess. But Tugger's my best friend, and he says I'm his best friend too. Tugger says that best friends are supposed to play special games together."

Macavity didn't like the thought of his brother being best friends with Bombalurina at all. Macavity wanted to play with her, not watch her play with Tugger all the time.

"You can be my best friend too Bombalurina" Macavity told her, big aqua eyes shining with hope. The red striped kitten gave him a small smile, her eyes facing away from him.

"You'll have to ask Tugger…" She answered shyly. Macavity suddenly felt angry. Why does Tugger get to choose? If he was best friends with Bombalurina, he wouldn't make her wait until he showed up to have fun.

"How long have you been waiting?" Macavity questioned; a young sense of concern crept into his voice. Bombalurina looked a bit disheartened.

"A while." She sounded upset, her voice quieter and more reserved.

"A little while or a long while?" Macavity stared at her, but her eyes didn't meet his.

"A long while." Bombalurina covered a sprout of grass with dirt and gently brought her paw back to her side, watching the wind blow up he dusty ground. She was really upset. Macavity started feeling funny when he looked at her again. But she was upset. So this feeling didn't make him feel very happy at all. Both their ears perked up as a few kittens came tearing around a corner.

Bombalurina and Macavity instantly recognised the five other kittens as Rum Tum Tugger, Cassandra, Mistoffelees, Exotica and Tantomile. They watched and immediately knew what game they were playing together.

"You're no match for me, Rumpus Cat" Mistoffelees laughed, herding all three female kittens, who were screaming with joy.

"The bad guys never win…" Tugger playfully pounced around with Misto. They were play-fighting with each other. It was obvious that Misto was the bad guy, and Tugger was being the hero. After a few "brave" swipes, Misto made a fake choking noise and fell on the ground, purposefully sticking his feet in the air.

"I'm dead. Curse you Rumpus cat!" He added dramatically. All of the kittens before them laughed, the damsels in distress running to their saviour. Tugger was now surrounded by all three girls, lapping up their praises. Macavity turned to look at Bombalurina again, seeing she was extremely sad all of a sudden. It made him feel really sad too.

"Tugsy, you said you were coming to get me" Bombalurina caught everyone's attention. Her voice had cracked slightly. Tugger turned to see his best friend looking at him.

"I forgot" Tugger told her simply. By now, all the kittens were watching the awkward situation between the two. Bombalurina turned her head so she was looking at the ground, her voice becoming even more emotional.

"But this is what we do everyday…"

"Well I was coming but then Cassandra and Tantomile and Exotica came up and said they wanted to play with me." Tugger replied to her innocently, not understanding why his best friend was getting all distressed towards him.

"But…" Bombalurina wasn't looking at anyone, but they heard a sniffle, "You were playing Goodies and Baddies. That's our game…" Tugger stuttered a bit.

"Well they wanted to play and-"Tugger was cut off by a soft voice.

"You said that best friends were supposed to play special games together." Tugger paused a moment before answering again.

"Well Tantomile thought that Misto could be the Pollicle and-"

"You said that that game was our game and it was fun with just the two of us." A silence followed. All the kittens saw the single tear drop that fell to the ground. Bombalurina was completely still before, but she'd started to shake.

"You forgot about your best friend Tugsy." Now Bombalurina's voice wavered with sobs, "You forgot about me…"

The kitten Bombalurina took off. Everyone immediately running after her. Tugger was yelling out her name and asking her to come back, but Bombalurina's only answer was more tearful sobs. Bombalurina skidded around a pile of junk, followed by Tugger a few feet behind, then the rest of the group including Misto, Tantomile, Cassandra, Exotica and Macavity. Bombalurina followed the cleared path to another smaller clearing where Jennyanydots and Old D chatted happily. At the sounds of a kitten crying, they turned to see the lot run over to them. Bombalurina instantly ran into the arms of Jennyanydots and hid behind her legs. The rest of them catching up to Bombalurina. Jenny immediately tried to soothe the weeping red young cat.

"My deary, what ever's the matter?" Jenny asked her in worry. Bombalurina's little body was shaking, pushing harder into Jenny's legs. Tugger panted and tried to move around to see Bombalurina, but Bomb moved. They were just dodging around Jenny's legs.

"Bombi…Bombi…Bomb-"

Tugger kept trying to reach her but she just hid from him. Jenny suddenly looked stern, which was rare.

"Would anyone like to tell me why Bombalurina's so upset?" Jenny asked of the group standing nervously before her. By now, the other kittens, which were playing around behind Old D had come to watch the unfolding scene.

"It's all Cassandra's fault!" Tantomile suddenly screamed out followed by an aggravated "No it was Tugger's!"

Tugger instantly swung around arguing how it was obviously their fault. While Jenny tried to cease the screaming and yelling of their fighting, Macavity noticed the chance and crept around to the curled up ball that was Bombalurina. As Macavity hovered over her, Demeter emerged from the spectators, and padded over to reassure her sister. During the yelling, Tugger noticed his brother standing by Bombalurina and scowled. Immediately, he ran at the three of them, pushing him out of the way.

"Leave her alone Macavity!" Tugger yelled at his brother.

"NO! It's not my fault you're such a bad best friend to her!" This must have triggered something in him, because his eyes filled with fire and Tugger leaped onto Macavity screaming 'I AM NOT!'

Jenny turned in horror to the two kittens began rounding each other. Tugger took a few real swipes at Macavity, which he dodged. It was then, Tugger involuntarily unsheathed blunt, kitten's claws he didn't realise he had. This is when Old D yelled out to stop. Everyone was paralysed in fear.

Old D was not impressed. His booming voice made all the kittens shudder.

"What's going on?" He scanned the frightened faces. No answer.

"Mistoffelees, what happened that made Bombalurina cry?" He singled out Misto, who immediately turned away from the wise authorative cat. He didn't like being the center of attention, and remained silent. Old D turned to Macavity.

"Macavity, what happened?" He asked his son with a deep voice, edged so Macavity knew he had to answer.

"Well, Rum Tum Tugger wasn't very nice to Bombalurina Father…" Macavity looked at the red ball of fur, who he noticed was starting to calm down, Old D then turned to Tugger, who had his head down, side glaring at Macavity. Old D cleared his throat.

"What happened Rum Tum Tugger?" Tugger knew from the way his father said his full name he was in trouble. Tugger shuffled his feet. He shouldn't be in trouble. It was only an accident right? Tugger mumbled something inaudible. Jenny cut in and sighed. Shooing the rest of the kittens away, she turned to Tugger.

"Well Mr., I think you should apologize to Bombalurina for hurting her feelings." Jennyanydots motioned for Tugger to approach Bombalurina. Demeter was sitting by her sister and glared at him the whole way over. Bombalurina was now upright, head still lowered away from everyone's eyes. Tugger stood next to her, staring at his best friend.

"Bomb? Bomba?" Tugger tested, Bombalurina lifted her head and he looked into her eyes. Her beautiful green eyes were filled with tears. Tugger felt something stab at his heart. He hated it when she wasn't happy. "I'm sorry Bomb." Tugger apologized softly. She didn't do anything. Tugger felt an awful feeling rise in his throat.

"You're still my best friend aren't you Bomb?"

"No Tugger." A faint whisper resounded from Bombalurina.

"Yes we are!" Tugger raised his voice at that. Macavity jumped in, a steely gaze fixed on his brother.

"She doesn't have to be your friend if she doesn't want to be."
"Yes she does! We've always been friends! She's my best friend!" Tugger growled, his young temper turned again, towards his brother.

"She doesn't want to be friends with someone who's mean to her!" Macavity stepped forward, only to be held back by Jennyanydots.

"I'm not mean to her! She doesn't even want to be friends with you!" Tugger elevated his voice another few decibels at the ginger kitten.

"TUGGER!" Jennyanydots scolded the young tom. "I think Bombalurina can decide her friends for herself." Jenny cast a careful eye to the red kitten, who'd been sitting in silence. It was then she realized Bombalurina's friends were dictated by Tugger. She must be used to Tugger taking charge and doing everything for her. She looked pointedly at Old D, who returned a similar look of understanding.

"Macavity, Rum Tum Tugger, I think I need to speak with the both of you." Old D spoke in a very humble voice, waiting for his sons to come over to him. Macavity nodded and padded to his wise father, but Tugger had to be pushed away from Bombalurina by Jennyanydots. Tugger took one forlorn look at his friend.

"When I get back, we'll play Goodies and Baddies together Ok?"

"I don't like that game anymore." Bombalurina whispered, not seeing the wounded look from Tugger.

Bombalurina stared at the puddle on the side of the road. Snapping out of her memories. She sat up from her spot on the pavement, staring at her own reflection. She was still herself. Seeing no one around, she smiled childishly and danced over the puddle; careful not to touch any of the water.

"Is that Miss Bombalurina Ballerina I see?" A coy voice came behind her. She jumped, startled, and saw Mungojerrie standing on a pile of junk behind the low metal railing of the dilapidated metal chicken wire fence. She rolled her eyes, in an attempt to ignore him. She heard him laugh and some trash rattle behind her. She turned around; a smirk on her face to see Mungojerrie had slid down the junk pile. She laughed, skipping the fence and standing next to him.
"You're such a goofball…" Bombalurina smiled, Mungojerrie just grinned up at her.

"Fur ball." He replied with a jester's cackle, making Bombalurina giggle a bit. He got up from the rubbish, dusting himself off as Bombalurina looked at the sky. The sun was setting, and an orange glow shone over the junkyard. She must have been out wandering for longer then she thought. They should be getting back pretty soon.

"What were you doing out there on the street anyways Bomb?" Mungojerrie asked her curiously.

"Just thinking." She stated bluntly.

"About what?"
"You, Mungojerrie, are way too nosy…" She teased, leaning against him for a second as they walked. She didn't see the blush that appeared on his tortoiseshell cheeks.