Big shout out goes to Gaaraluva15 for giving me my first review! Give a big cyber round of applause!

The sadness finally begins! Enjoy it! Cry freely! (I sound like a hippie….)

Disclaimer: Even if I was alive in the eighties, I still don't think I would own the rights to CATS. So sorry to disappoint, m'dears.

Mistoffelees awoke that morning feeling very guilty indeed. It burned in the pit of his stomach and he could not shake the feeling that something had gone horribly wrong. Misto wondered how he would get back on his mate's good side. He stretched lazily in the bed and rolled over to face his mate. Her side of the bed looked untouched and he assumed that she had slept on the couch. He winced, thinking that if she had, he would never hear the end of how unjust he was or how horribly uncomfortable the couch was. He often thought that the husbands were banned to the couch, but if he had upset her so much he could understand not wanting to sleep in the same bed with him. If he were her, he wouldn't have stood all of the grief he had given her. She was so patient, how could he ever show her his gratitude?

"Look, Vicky. I'm so sorry," he admitted as he peered over the bed frame at the couch.

The aforementioned furniture item was bare. Alarm quickly shot through the young tuxedo and he quickly leapt out of bed. He searched the den, but did not find his beloved spouse. What he did find was that her things were missing. Either they had been robbed or she had taken her things and left. He dearly hopped it was the former.

He darted out of the den and immediately began asking each Jellicle if they knew of Victoria's whereabouts. Each answered him in the negative, only increasing his anxiety and agitation. Where had she gone?

His head was in a tizzy as a very corpulent tuxedo cat approached him known as Bustopher Jones, the cat about town. He owned nine clubs, one of which was where Mistoffelees performed his magic shows. The rotund cat had waddled all the way to the junkyard in order to ask why Misto, his own nephew, would desert his job.

"Where have you been, lad? You are precisely two hours late! I have half a mind to fire you," Bustopher, who always prided himself on punctuality, was quite upset that his nephew had not showed up for work.

"I need to find my mate!" Misto exclaimed, anxious to search further for his darling love, trying to cut around his uncle.

"You need to go to work, or I will have to fire you," his uncle stressed, stopping Misto with his spoon pressed the tuxedo's chest.

"You won't fire me, because I quit!" Mistoffelees shouted, pushing the spoon away and running off to find his sweetheart.

Bustopher merely stood there dazed and slowly began to realize that he needed a new performer to replace his nephew. He had never been turned down, nor had any of his employees ever quit and this stunned him greatly. He could not keep his own nephew employed under him! He sluggishly returned to his prestigious club, wondering how he would manage to entertain his guests now.

Meanwhile, Mr. Mistoffelees was searching everywhere for his mate. Her favorite haunts were his first priority, but she was nowhere near any of them. He searched familiar places, unfamiliar places, and everywhere in between, but to no avail. She was nowhere to be found! He had even searched for her at her human's mansion, but she had not returned there.

After a tireless day of searching, Misto slunk to his drainage pipe den and crawled into the cavity of trash contained therein. He sat heavily upon the bed and rubbed his back paws, which were aching terribly. His searching had been fruitless. He felt as though he were about to cry. He had lost his precious treasure and didn't know where she was. She could have been in danger for all he knew! Maybe, he had missed someplace?

The presence of another cat aroused him from his thoughts. He looked up to the tall form of another of his uncles, the Rum Tum Tugger. Tugger was a black bodied cat, with gold leopard spotted fur around his paws and in a v-shaped patch down his neck. He sported a gold and black striped mane and headfur. Usually, this tom was all playfulness, but he looked beyond gloomy.

"Misto, I have to tell you something," he sighed.

"What? What is it?" Misto asked hurriedly and looked to his companions face.

Tugger stood there a moment, trying to collect his thoughts. He had the worst possible news Mistoffelees could have received in that moment. He had heard he had been searching for Victoria all day. He knew a great deal about their situation.

"Victoria came to my den last night-" he began but was interrupted by the petite tuxedo tom.

"What? Why?" he asked, impatiently.

"Because she wanted a place to stay the night before she left you in the morning," Tugger admitted, avoiding eye contact with Mistoffelees.

It took a moment for what Tugger had said to sink in. Mistoffelees felt as if someone had punched him in the stomach, knocking all the air out of his lungs. Was Tugger telling the truth? It was too much to believe.

"She… she what?" the magician asked, shock and grief overtaking his features, too staggered to fully understand the gravity of what Tugger had said.

"She plans to get a Separation of Mates. I'm sorry kid, but she's leaving you, for good," the rock star cat explained.

"No, no, no, no…" Misto denied, tears welling up in his eyes.

"I-I'm so sorry," Tugger sighed, wringing his paws.

"No!" Misto shouted, thrusting himself onto the bed, and he sobbed, "T-this can't be h-h-happening t-to me!"

Tugger could only shake his head and sigh once more. He turned and left, knowing that nothing could possibly ease Mistoffelees' woes. How could you even remotely comfort a tom that had lost his queen?

Days turned into weeks and weeks turned to months. Mistoffelees had lasted five moths without Victoria, but he still needed her back desperately. He was a shell of his former self. Always feeling that a piece of him was missing and knowing exactly what that missing puzzle piece was. Sometimes he felt hollow and numb, but sometimes his heart ached and he was overly sensitive, emotionally. He became much gloomier and he never smiled. His luster for life had been dimmed significantly and many of the junkyard cats thought he could never recover or ever be the same cat again. He only had one reason to go on.

Much to his uncle Bustopher's astonishment, Mistoffelees did not return to work for him. He found a job at a cat grocers shop (a grocery run by and made for cats.) Tugger also worked with him there as the custodian. It was not an illustrious career in the least, but Misto felt he was serving others. Plus, it was a lengthy and demanding job which provided an easy distraction from the haunting thoughts of his mate. He worked with utmost diligence and soon found himself to be the manager of the entire facility. He enjoyed the seclusion of his private office, but there were periods in the day where his mind was left to wander. He would often open the bottom drawer of his desk and look at the memorabilia it contained. In that compartment he kept his mateship photo and Victoria's locket stored. After carefully taking out the picture and tracing his fingers over it, he would put it away and lay his head on his desk and fold his arms over his face. Sometimes, the grief was so much that he could not keep the tears in and he would shed his held in tears. He regretted ever arguing with Victoria. He was so dense and obstinate! If he had known that she would have left him, he never would have resisted her!

He was in this position and state of mind when he heard a crash outside of his office. No matter his feelings on the inside, he was still the head of the store on the outside. With a sigh, he rose from his desk and looked out of his office window. The scene below him came as no surprise. The Rum Tum Tugger had crashed into a stall of oranges, causing the spherical fruits to roll off and onto the floor, causing him to fall flat onto his back. It was nearly comical, but Misto knew someone had to clean it up. Ironically, the janitor had caused the mess to begin with. He left his office and approached the main coon.

"What are you doing?" Mistoffelees asked in exasperation, eyeing the mess.

"Well, I was watching these kits and wasn't looking where I was going. Sorry, boss," Tugger explained, picking himself up gingerly off of the floor.

Mistoffelees raised a brow and looked to see where these kits where. Behind the stall were two giggling kittens; one a black and white tuxedo male kit with a bright red bowtie spot, white face and a white v-shaped bib and the other a black and white tuxedo queen, with a white face, a small ruffled white bib and hints of tan edging her face, arms, legs and sides. They immediately ceased laughing when they met the manager's eyes. To him, they looked somewhat familiar. Especially the beautiful blue eyes the little girl possessed. They boy had the exact same eye color as Misto himself. Curiosity quickly took over his thoughts. Misto turned his gaze back to Tugger. He was very interested in these kits.

"And who's kits are distracting you from your job?" he questioned, waving off the fact that the queen-kit had the eye color of his former mate.

They could be distant relatives, right? Other cats had eyes like hers right? He was just being obsessive. She did say she had a sister once…

"Just a… a queen… I know," Tugger answered evasively.

"Would you mind telling her to get a kit-sitter? You hardly do your job as it is!" he snapped, assuming that Tugger would tell him if it was a queen he knew.

No, it could not be Victoria. She would not walk a mile near him, he was sure. It was just a ridiculous, foolish hope that she would one day return to him.

"She's shopping around. She's a single mom, Misto. She needed some help and I offered it," Tugger said, hoping that would touch a cord with the former magician.

It did.

"Get back to work, I'll watch them," Mistoffelees offered.

The two kits stared at each other in shock. Mr. Un-fun was going to watch them? He had not even smiled so far! Tugger nodded with a large grin and gently shuffled the kits over to Misto. They stared blankly at the tuxedo tom and he ushered them into his office. After telling them to make themselves at home, but not to touch anything, he settled down to his paperwork. At first they just stared at Misto, but after a full five minutes, the young tom-kitten sighed and began to poke his sister in boredom. She reacted quickly and smacked his paw away. They began to push and shove each other, almost immediately.

"Mister! Make her stop!" the young boy whined.

"He started it!" the young queen piped up.

Misto instantly rolled his eyes and turned away from his paperwork. Apparently, telling them to sit and be still was not going to be on the agenda.

"Do you two always fight?" Mistoffelees asked tersely and added, "Just call me Misto,"

"Yes, we do, Mr. Misto," The girl answered, ceasing hitting her brother.

"Mummy says the same thing!" the boy exclaimed with a surprised look.

Wonder why? Mistoffelees thought sarcastically. He needed a way to entertain them or they would never sit still. What was required was a diversion. He knew just the one. Besides, he was a bit rusty anyway.

"Well, how would you two like to see a magic trick?" Misto asked.

The two looked at each other in amazement, then looked to Misto and nodded eagerly. Mistoffelees immediately made a rose appear out of thin air and handed it to the small queen. She squealed in delight and sniffed the flower, exclaiming it was real. The boy became jealous and demanded he have something. The magician took his deck of cards out of thin air and asked the boy to choose one. The small tom-kit grumbled but grabbed a card, showed it to his sister and placed it into the deck.

"Is this your card?" Mistoffelees asked, showing the kitten the ace of diamonds.

"You didn't even look to get it, but it is," the boy replied.

"No it isn't," Misto answered.

"Huh?" the two kittens asked, puzzled.

"Because it is really this!" Misto answered, twirling the card in his paw with a flourish.

With that action, the card disappeared and turned into a toy mouse. The kittens eyes grew wide and the young tom-kit took the mouse, flabbergasted. A small smile grew on Mistoffelees face.

"You know, you look better when you smile, Mr. Misto," The young queen-kit mused, eyeing Mistoffelees' face.

"Thank you," Mistoffelees said, growing self conscious.

"Do another trick!" The boy exclaimed.

With another smile, Mistoffelees conceded. He did many of his famous tricks and amazed the kittens every time. He was enjoying these new companions of his and lost track of the time. They were such special kits. Something about them made Mistoffelees somewhat cheerful. All three were disappointed when Tugger came to retrieve them, saying their mother was growing very tired and they needed to return home. The kittens moaned, but did as they were told. The boy hugged Misto goodbye and the girl kissed him on the cheek saying:

"You're a good guy, Mr. Misto,"

A sad smile was on Misto's face as he watched them go. He enjoyed spending time with those kits greatly. If only he had kits of his own.

Another chapter up! Yeah! And this time, sadness begins to play a factor. A great factor. It seems our dear Mistoffelees was willing to sacrifice his job over Victoria after all. He was sorry immediately. Perhaps, he didn't deserve to be left in the end?

Let me know what you think. Again, review, review, REVIEW!