I do not own Pepe or Penelope (it's also obvious I don't own the Louvre either!) or the cartoon "Louvre come back to me" which this chapter is inspired from.

I do own suitor Clarence Howard.

Author's Note: Flower meanings are in here: geranium means "stupidity," white hyacinth means "loveliness," euphorbia milli means "persistence," and white camellia means "You're adorable." Found it on the Web. Very interesting. It ends with a cliffhanger so hold on a little bit.

Chapter Five

Fight at the Louvre

Clarence Howard strode broadly to the suite of Penelope. He had a huge bouquet of geraniums in clear wrapping and wore a tweed suit. His brown eyes were loud about boasting about his popular heritage and about himself. His heritage was merely that his parents could speak four languages: Irish, French, Portuguese and English. He would never tell what his heritage was; he just said it was popular to get people to notice him.

Clarence was a dusty brown cat with no politeness to others and found it fun to put down others. He found Penelope to be very attractive and had agreed to court with her.

When he got to the door of the suite with the number reading #17 he pounded on the door with eagerness.

"I am coming," called Penelope. She had just finished pressing on of her skirts which she hung up in her closet. She wore a red dress with a string of pearls. She slipped on some matching pumps and hurried to open the door.

Clarence put on his best smile when the door opened.

"Good morning my dear," he said. Penelope smiled.

"Good morning Clarence," she said politely. "Oh, thank you for the flowers."

Clarence placed them in her hands gracefully and let himself in.

"I thought I would take you to the Louvre," he said.

"That sounds lovely Clarence," said Penelope as she put the geraniums on the small kitchen counter.

It was only an hour later that the two cats were inside the Louvre. Penelope was admiring the artwork, but Clarence was admiring something else.

The whole time he was walking behind Penelope to watch her walk. He grinned with lust when she had turned her head away from him so he could view her chest. He thought about the money her family had and how he would feel rolling in a carpet of money. Once he had married Penelope and the honeymoon was over he would take the cash and split. That was his plan. If only he could move it faster along.

They had both stopped to look at one painting that Penelope thought was just beautiful when Clarence leaned his head to view her backside. Something caught his eye.

In the huge room were two benches to sit on and a skunk was sitting on the one nearest to him. He was looking at him suspiciously. Clarence turned to the painting quickly. He looked again to see the skunk looking curiously at Penelope.

Clarence slipped an arm around Penelope's waist which made Penelope feel awkward. She wanted to move away.

"Clarence," she said facing him. "Might I go look at one particular painting real fast before we head off?"

"Of course darling," said Clarence. "I will stay here and rest my feet on the bench if that is fine with you."

"Sure." said Penelope cheerfully. Then she hurried out and saw out of the corner of her eye Pepe Le Pew.

Pepe had gone to the Louvre that morning to take a break from the perfume shop. He had called in sick and had ditched for the day. He was surprised to see Penelope there and felt like he should have apologized for startling her the a few days before.

He saw Clarence now looking at him fiercely. There was no one else in the room.

"What are you doing?" said Clarence getting close to him.

"What?" asked Pepe.

"Making eyes at my honey bun," said Clarence. "She is meant to be with me."

"Oh oui," said Pepe sarcastically. "You make a lovely couple. She's oblivious of your lust and you have some sort of fantasy about her and nozhing else."

"Do not call her 'oblivious,'" demanded Clarence.

"She eez," said Pepe standing up. Clarence realized now that Pepe was an inch and a half taller than him. "She eez innocently obliviously off you're ideas."

"Why do you care?" asked Clarence.

"I was raised to be a gentleman," said Pepe.

"How about you go home and be protective of your younger sister or something."

"I would because I have four of zhem, because of zhat I care for women."

"I will tell you something."

Clarence glared into the skunk's black eyes.

"You will never be with Penelope!!"

Pepe felt hurt for some reason that he did not understand.

"Why?" he said with a tone of hate.

"She would never go for someone like you," said Clarence with a snort. "You are not rich by the looks of it. You are lower class, she is upper class. She hates skunks. She is so timid and a nervous wreck that she will not have one clue of what is going on. I dress properly while you-" He eyed Pepe's attire as if was vomit. "Dress like a scattered brain child. You and your denim jacket, wrinkled jeans and loose shirt. Also, those shoes! I hate those shoes! Black high-tops are so juvenile."

Pepe's eyes narrowed. Clarence continued.

"She will never be in your arms! The only man she will be in the arms of is me!!!!"

His last word sounded like a door that was shut with a loud bang. Then Clarence took out a glove of his that he wore when it was cold, made out of leather, and slapped it in Pepe's face.

Pepe's nose scrunched up at the sudden pain since that was where the blow really hit him. He lost control of his calmness and smacked Clarence in the face. Clarence held his cheek in pain.

"You are certainly not worthy of her!!" was his response.

Pepe said nothing at the moment. Thinking that he had won Clarence walked out of the room. Then he heard the quick pace of Pepe.

"Eef you hurt her een any way," said Pepe almost nose to nose. "She had a shoulder to cry on and zhat's mine. Both shoulders as a matter of fact."

Pepe walked off and out of the Louvre for home. If it had been old fashioned, he would have challenged him to a duel.

That evening nothing went right for Clarence. He had bought a romantic dinner for Penelope and offered her some wine. Penelope was not into drinking of anything that could cause on to go drunk, but she politely had a sip.

At her suite Clarence tried to make a move. Penelope was about to go into her suite when he grabbed hold of her at the waist and leaned into to kiss her.

Penelope felt afraid of the sudden advancement and pushed him away.

"Clarence," she said gently. "This is too fast."

"No it is not." said Clarence. His breath smelling of blue cheese hit her nose. She coughed at the stink in his mouth. "Come one Penelope, it would be a great way to end the day by having some fun." He wiggled his eyebrows at the last word.

Penelope's heart beat in shock and fright. Just when she felt he was not a bad guy, he had to pressure her.

Penelope pushed him back and she broke into her apartment. She latched the door shut and leaned against the wall in fright. How could this be happening? Men coming after her for money or other things were not good to her.

She still felt shock from the event the next day. She had just finished a breakfast of poorly made pancakes when she decided to take a shower. Maybe she could get rid of that stripe again.

She was starting to get out of her pajamas when she heard the intercom buzz. Only in her very long night dress that was hot pink with lace that stopped above her knees she went to answer it.

"Yes?" she asked.

"You probably don't remember my name, but I'm-"

"What do you want Pepe?" she gasped timidly.

"Can I come up?" asked Pepe.

"No!" said Penelope. "I am busy right now. I really do not want to see anyone right now."

She waited for him to answer back. She heard nothing. So she went back to changing. There was a knock on her door. She slipped back on her night dress and a bathrobe of hers. She hurried to the door and looked through the peephole. She saw Pepe holding a bouquet of white camellias, white irises and pink euphorbia milli.