Coricopat waited for the other to enter the cab before stepping inside as well, "Where are you staying?"

Sighing, Mistoffelees told him the address. It wasn't the most expensive place to stay in London, but it was a large enough room for him.

The lawyer relayed it to the cabbie and then settled in for the ride, "Now, where were we?"

"You, I think," the shorter tom replied, shoulders tense.

The mottled tom sighed, "I don't know how much to tell you, or even where to begin, and frankly I'm not certain how much is your business at this point in time."

"You said you loved me," Mistoffelees said finally.

"And I do."

"That's what I'm trying to actually understand," the smaller looked out the window.

The mottled tom's ears flickered, "I don't understand what you mean by that."

"Well, it's just..." Mistoffelees rolled his shoulders. "Why would you love me?" He did not mean to sound quite so much like a needy kit but he couldn't wrap his mind around it.

"Why wouldn't I? You're charming, encourage my bad habit of speaking my mind, kind when you want to be, and intelligent. Not to mention the tact which you're capable of showing when you so choose," Coricopat replied, voice even but quiet.

"Also bitter, insistent and a dreamer," Mistoffelees replied, not looking at him.

"You've said it yourself, I'm bitter as well. Insistent isn't a bad thing. I... although I do have opinions on the lasting state of dreams, it's hardly a reason for me not to love you."

"If you don't think passion can last," Mistoffelees started and paused. "Then how could you ever expect someone to love you back?"

Coricopat removed his hat to run a paw through his headfur, "I don't expect you to love me back. And there are times where passion has lasted, I just have yet to experience such a time."

The smaller cat was silent for a long time. "What if I do?"

The mottled tom's ears flickered back at that, "What?"

"What if I do?" Mistoffelees repeated.

"Then we're both out of our minds and I have no idea as to our next step," he spoke before he thought through what he was saying

Mistoffelees' look was far from being actually impressed and he looked out the window for a moment, considering the street they were on as much as trying to look away. He hesitated another moment before shifting so he was on the same side of the cab as Coricopat.

The lawyer sighed, not looking at the other, even as he watched him move to sit beside him, "I didn't mean that as it sounded. I don't know what if you do. I have no answer for you."

Considering him another moment, Mistoffelees reached out a hand, gently tugging Coricopat's face around toward him. The mottled tom swallowed, turning his head to look at the other cat, "I-I..."

Taking a breath rather than responding, Mistoffelees leaned in and kissed the other, trying the motion out. Startling, Coricopat nearly drew back, but kept himself steady and carefully, hesitantly, pressed fractionally into the kiss. Aware they were doing this in a cab that was probably going to reach its destination sooner rather than later, Mistoffelees tilted his head at that, shifting closer.

Coricopat's arm wrapped around the other cat's waist, drawing him closer as he leaned down into the kiss, half aware that the horses were already slowing.

Drawing back, Mistoffelees' eyes were wide. "Should..."

Coricopat swallowed, pulling back, "We're nearly to your hotel. I...we..." Brows arching, Mistoffelees waited to see if he was going to finish. "I've no idea. We need to talk more, but we can hardly get out at the same place."

"It's not that uncommon for people to visit each other," Mistoffelees replied, not having moved back much. "So long as you leave."

"You wish me to be seen with you at a hotel where it could get back to society? I...suppose it's true that cats visit one another all the time."

Mistoffelees shrugged as the carriage stopped. "It's up to you."

Coricopat hesitated for another long moment before stepping out of the carriage and waiting for Mistoffelees on the sidewalk. The smaller tom slipped out, paying the cab driver before turning for the hotel, entering it and heading up the stairs to his room in one extended motion.

The lawyer followed him quietly, waiting until they were in the room before speaking, "We have to be out of our minds."

"It's perfectly reasonable that I would be seen with a lawyer considering the issues with my uncle," Mistoffelees said, going to the sideboard of the living area for a glass of water.

"That wasn't what I meant and you well know it," Coricopat responded.

"No," Mistoffelees agreed, leaning against the sideboard hard. "Anything to drink?"

"Water, please," the mottled tom murmured, leaning against one of the walls with a heavy sigh. Mistoffelees poured the second glass and held it out to him. "Thank you." He drew a deep breath, "I don't know what to tell you."

"For a lawyer, you're not terribly good with words," Mistoffelees sighed, looking down and taking a sip of the water he held. "One of us should have some answers."

"I'm a solicitor. I spend far more of my time working with papers than with spoken words. And answers to what questions is the problem."

"Point." There was a pause. "What are we going to do? What should we do?"

"Well, we evidently can't go back to how we were and what we were doing. We also can't really meet without cause, one can only encounter another accidentally so many times. What we should do is walk away, though I don't know if I have the strength to do that."

"You don't?" the Baron's heir asked faintly.

"I might, but considering the last time I tried you showed up on my doorstep and found out exactly how I feel about you? I don't know how well it would work for both of us."

"I don't think I would have reason to show up on your doorstep like that again," Mistoffelees replied, looking away.

"Do we think we'd be able to both walk away?"

"I don't know," the smaller replied and paused. "I, I just, I think I love you. It's certainly something I haven't felt before. But... I don't trust you."

Coricopat paused before nodding, "I know what you mean, to some extent. Though may I ask why?"

Mistoffelees glanced away. "If I give you my heart, what happens?"

"I consider it the greatest gift I've ever been given and I treasure it as such. I guard it, and I do my best not to hurt it." He paused for a long moment, "Though it feels a bit late to ask you, what happens if I give you mine?"

Mistoffelees gaped at him, shock evident in his features and pose. "Do you promise?" he asked, not answering the other's question yet.

"I promise it to the best of my ability."

"B-because I tried giving it to someone before and I got it handed back scorched," he said quietly and paused, biting his lip. "I-I would try to keep yours safe, and give it someplace to come back to."

Coricopat looked at the other for a long moment, "I've been there. I gave my heart away unconditionally to have it returned battered and bruised. We will have a long road ahead of us, both of us."

Blinking rapidly, Mistoffelees looked down at his glass again. "S-suppose so."

"If we choose to continue with this, of course," the lawyer corrected himself softly.

"Do you?" Mistoffelees asked. "Choose to?"

"I..." He nodded very slightly, his gaze dropping to the glass of water in his paw.

Swallowing, Mistoffelees set the glass down before it was obvious his paws were shaking.

The mottled tom glanced at him, "A-and you?"

"If I never saw you again," Mistoffelees said. "I might be able to manage a half normal attempt at a half normal life. But tonight seeing you was more like a punch in the gut and I couldn't bear it." A pause. "I want this."

Coricopat swallowed, "How on earth are we to do this?"

"I don't know."

"God..." he sighed.

Hesitating Mistoffelees finally left the side board, stepping closer to the other and looking up at him. "Can I...?"

Coricopat set his water glass down, "Y-yes."

Still hesitating, Mistoffelees finally rested his paws on Coricopat's chest, feeling his heart beat a moment before lifting on his toes and kissing the mottled tom gently.

Coricopat leaned down, as much to make the kiss easier on Mistoffelees as to lean into it slightly. He hesitated before one of his arms snaked around the other tom's waist. Arms wrapping around the back of Coricopat's neck, Mistoffelees pressed further into the kiss. The mottled tom's free paw moved to rest against Mistoffelees' cheek as he tilted his head further into the kiss.

Tail curling behind him, Mistoffelees drew back for a breath, burying his nose in Coricopat's neck. The lawyer's paw moved up to stroke gently over Mistoffelees' headfur, "I...God..."

The smaller cat smiled faintly, tail swishing and hitting Coricopat in the leg. "I love you."

"I love you too," he smiled slightly, his own tail swaying back and forth, "So very much."

Mistoffelees laughed faintly, clinging closer. "This has been done before..."

"It has, yes. And we'll find a way to make it work," Coricopat's tail settled enough to twine around the other's calf. Mistoffelees startled and glanced down at that. The mottled tom swallowed, carefully untangling his tail, "Sorry."

"It was fine," Mistoffelees said, running a paw over Coricopat's headfur, pausing before gently petting his ear. His ear twitched as his tail wrapped around Mistoffelees' leg again. He leaned into the touch, his own paw moving to caress the other's cheek.

Mistoffelees shifted in that, unused to being so entangled with someone else. Coricopat's paw paused in its motion. Leaning up entirely on his toes, Mistoffelees kissed the tip of Coricopat's ear. "I'm not used to this," he admitted.

The ear twitched, "It's...been a long time since I have been."

"Oh," he said. "Well..."

Coricopat offered him a faint smile before trailing a paw over Mistoffelees' ear.

"What are we going to do?" he asked. "If I stay here, if I move back to my uncle's. We can't be obvious."

"I...we will have to figure that out."

"One of us has to have a suggestion," the black tom murmured.

"I wasn't even certain you felt the same way until just a few minutes ago," the taller protested softly.

"I think I do," he said. "I mean, I love you, but it might be the same love you feel it's hard to tell..." he paused and took a breath.

"But it is love?"

"It is," Mistoffelees replied, faces close together.

"We'll...need to find a way to meet. Someplace or places, times, some way to agree to see one another for some pretense or other."

"If you're my lawyer..." Mistoffelees breathed. "That's one excuse. It is not a mark of disfavor for two men to be friends, seen in public."

"Granted, but we can hardly spend too much time alone, the two of us. Sometime certainly, and I don't know how much I can dance around what I think in conversations," he sighed. The shorter nodded, hands cupping the back of the other's neck. "We'll figure it out, though," Coricopat added at the touch.

"Alright," he sighed, and leaned up to kiss the mottled tom again.

The lawyer pressed down into the kiss, his arms tightening to draw Mistoffelees closer still. Tail curling again, Mistoffelees paused before he allowed the tail to wrap around Coricopat's leg.

The taller cat's breath hitched, one of his paws running down the other's spine as his own tail tightened slightly around the younger tom's leg. The black furred tom jumped at that, squeaking. The paw stilled in its motion, Coricopat drawing back a bit, "Sorry."

"That was, just unexpected."

"Still. I'm sorry."

"It wasn't... bad," Mistoffelees admitted after a moment.

The mottled tom's brow rose slightly, "You're sure?"

Pausing, Mistoffelees nodded, leaning back into the kiss and slowly stroked his own paw down Coricopat's back. The older cat arched at the touch, making a soft noise in the back of his throat as his paw traced over the shell of Mistoffelees' ear before settling to focus on the base of it.

That got another squeak as Mistoffelees got distracted-though he wanted to peruse that noise Coricopat had just made. Coricopat smirked into the kiss, continuing his ministrations on Mistoffelees' ear, his other paw trailing down to scratch at the base of the smaller tom's tail.

"That," Mistoffelees breathed, breaking back. "You..."

"Hm?"

The smaller swallowed hard. "D-do you have to go back?"

"I-I...the clerk may have seen us," Coricopat managed.

"So that would be a yes then?" Mistoffelees asked.

"It's an I probably should."

"Probably?" Mistoffelees was determined to be of no help.

"I don't want to."

"I don't want you to either."

The lawyer hesitated, "I could probably stay..."

"If you did, what would," he paused and swallowed. "Happen?"

"I-I'm not certain..."

"We, got to," he breathed. "Will eventually have to have some sort of answer."

"Do you have one?"

"Not yet," he replied. "I was hoping to follow your lead."

Coricopat swallowed, "So I have to have some idea of where I'm going then?"

"It would be useful," Mistoffelees said, smiling faintly, teasing.

"Do I get any input from you?" Coricopat murmured, brows arching.

"At the moment?" Mistoffelees asked. "On?"

"What happens if I stay?"

"Not to completely evade the question but, what would you want to happen?"

The mottled tom's ears flickered, "I...am hardly having thoughts that are anything but indecorous."

"No cat else is here," Mistoffelees replied, tilting his face back slightly.

"I-I suppose that's true..." Mistoffelees' paws slipped down around Coricopat's waist. The mottled tom swallowed again, "What would you want to happen?"

"I asked, first," Mistoffelees protested.

"I..." His gaze darted toward the door to the bedroom of the suite.

"You?" Mistoffelees felt not inclination to let him get away without answering, before he glanced at the door himself and swallowed.

"Do you really want me to voice it?"

"Yes," Mistoffelees said finally.

"I...That is..." He drew a deep breath, "I would wish to spend the night, by your side, in bed. Making love to you if you have no objections, simply holding you if you do."

Hazel eyes wide, Mistoffelees looked up at him for a long moment before pulling Coricopat closer by the waist and kissing him soundly. The mottled tom startled at that, but leaned into the kiss, his tail twining around Mistoffelees' leg again as he pulled him flush against him, one of his paws coming to rest on the smaller cat's hip.

"I want you to stay," Mistoffelees replied. "But I... I'm scared too."

"I know," Coricopat murmured. "I...I know."

"I just," Mistoffelees swallowed. "Tomorrow..."

"Tomorrow?"

"That's what I'm scared of," Mistoffelees said after a moment, but not expanding on exactly why.

Coricopat motioned to a couch to one side, "Shall we sit? And you're going to have to give me more of an explanation of what exactly you fear about tomorrow."

His eyes widened. "I-I do?" he asked, sitting down on the couch, though he hadn't fully disentangled from Coricopat.

"Mistoffelees, I can hardly read your mind. There are things that have me concerned about tomorrow as well, but what goes on in your head is hardly something I know."

The smaller tom glanced away. "Do you remember when I said I wasn't sure I trusted you yet?" The mottled tom nodded, his tail uncoiling to settle behind him. "If you walked away tomorrow, if this didn't survive the night it would be better but I don't, I don't want that to happen. I don't care how much easier it would be."

"I'm not planning to walk away in the morning. No matter how much easier it would be. I wouldn't do that to you."

"I don't believe you yet," Mistoffelees replied though he kissed him again gently.

Coricopat drew back very slightly from the kiss this time, "I know. You never did answer my question."

"I thought I did," he replied with a small frown.

"What you would want to happen? No, you told me that you had asked first."

"Oh, that question," he swallowed again, forcing himself too look up and meet the other's eyes. "Tonight, I want you to stay. I feel over saturated with you already and I want to take advantage of that."

"I'm planning to stay, it's up to you where I stay, be it on the lounge, or with you."

Mistoffelees shifted to entwine himself around the other. "I want to feel you. Part of me even wants to... know one way or the other."

Coricopat swallowed at that, "I-I see."

"You do?" Mistoffelees asked, chin tilting up slightly as he considered the other.

"I think so? I don't know. This entire evening feels a bit hazy, to be honest."

The black tom laughed softly. "Oh. I remember bits from the play, but those were mostly before you showed up. I still can't believe you... I'm waiting for someone to tell me it's a joke."

Coricopat swallowed again, "It's no joke. I...I love you, but Cat I'm terrified at the same time."

"What scares you so much?" Mistoffelees asked. "Besides, infamy and prison and scandal I mean. It's been done before."

"I fear it won't last. I want it to, more than I think I've wanted anything before. But at some point, for some reason, it will end. Whether because one of us walks away, or because something happens to one of us. Nothing lasts."

"Why can't it?"

"How can it?" the mottled tom replied.

"Who exactly did that to you?" Mistoffelees asked. "To make you say that?"

"I've seen it happen. Even the most passionate love affairs end, whether through the voluntary choice of one or both of the participants or the loss of one of them. I..." He shook his head, "God, I'm maudlin tonight." Mistoffelees shifted forward, placing a hand on Coricopat's cheek. The mottled tom leaned slightly into the touch, "How much of this do you truly wish to hear?"

"All of it," he replied quietly.

Coricopat moved away slightly, so they were not quite touching. "Cat...it's been ten years. But, honestly I'm going to have to start a bit before that, and please bear with me, this isn't going to appear to relate, quite yet…"

"Alright," Mistoffelees frowned at him slightly. "That's alright."

He drew a deep breath and began, "My sister, Tantomile, and I were, well, to put it simply we were always close. She was my twin, my first friend, even when we went our own ways for education and the like as we grew older we kept in contact, and continued as one another's confidants. She and a good friend of mine fell in love, deeply in love. She was a dreamer, but oh the dreams she painted," he smiled sadly.

"I didn't always agree with them, but the fire in her eyes when she spoke of women's rights, and the benefits they could have on society kept me listening. She... she was a powerful young queen, as I said a dreamer, but one who could pull anycat into her dream so long as they would hear her out. Ten years ago she contracted an illness due to a particular rally she attended."

The mottled tom shook his head, "She never recovered. My sister, twin, confidant, strong support, suddenly wasn't there. She never saw her dreams come to fruition. She never saw what could have been between herself and the tom she loved-though I saw what it did to him in the following years. He's recovered, but shortly after it happened I wasn't certain of that fact. Even with that, I couldn't give up hope and dreams. She, if she had left me nothing else she had left me the knowledge that even the unachievable should be faced and hoped for. I can say that part of my fear of dreaming goes back to then, and passion as well-having seen what happened to my friend when he lost her."

As the mottled tom continued to talk Mistoffelees kept his eyes on the other's face, though he listened to the tale quietly, trying to swallow down most of his reactions to it.

"Not long after Tantomile's death I...well I fell in love. There's no other term for it. It was with another tom, Franklin. He was nice enough, though he had moments where I wasn't sure what to make of him at all. It lasted for far less time than I hoped at the time, but I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did, looking back now. He never did love me, I was an amusement, a pass-time. I'm not certain that everyone around him isn't an amusement and a toy for Franklin to play with-I just happened to be the newest one at that time."

Coricopat sighed, shaking his head again, "It was after that, running so close on the heels of losing Tant, that I swore I wouldn't dream again, that passion was dead to me. I'd built dreams of my own, and I'd seen my sister weave her own, only to see them all fail. I'd watched my friend's heart break, and felt my own shatter. I swore I wouldn't dream, I wouldn't find passion again. And then you walked down those stairs and it all went out the window. Suddenly I want to dream again, suddenly I'm honest with someone like I haven't been without Macavity forcing it from me in ten years. Suddenly I find myself in love, beyond what I thought possible all those years ago." He looked into the other cat's eyes, "I do love you, but I'm so very hesitant to continue down this path."

"And I thought..." Mistoffelees swallowed the rest of the statement down, reaching his paws forward to take both of Coricopat's. "Thank you."

The mottled tom's ears flickered, "Thought...? And I've hardly done anything worthy of thanks."

"You were honest with me," Mistoffelees replied. "You even trusted me."

"I...could hardly be otherwise."

"Still," he said quietly.

"…You're welcome then."

Tilting forward, Mistoffelees kissed him lightly. The mottled tom hesitated, but gently returned the kiss, his arms slipping around the other to draw him nearer.

"Nothing you can't and don't want," Mistoffelees murmured. "But please stay."

"I will stay," Came the quiet reply. "And the same goes to you, nothing you can't and don't want."

"I want you," he replied simply.

"I...are you sure?"

"Yes," he replied, possibly the most sure answer he had given his entire life.

The mottled tom leaned in and kissed the other again, one paw moving to rest on Mistoffelees' hip. Shifting closer, the black tom entwined himself around the other. Coricopat made a soft noise at that, his free paw tracing down the other's spine.

Arching into that, Mistoffelees drew back. "Stay the night in my bed?"

The solicitor swallowed, but nodded, "If you want me to."

"Please," he murmured.

Coricopat kissed him lightly, "Very well."

They smooshed like 3-4 scenes and about a month's worth of plot into one love confession. So enjoy the chapter! Reviews make your author's hearts glad and full of happiness, so please take the time to leave us some feedback. It's worth it, I promise!