Cats and Dogs – Gossip
Kat Manx has excellent hearing, so it's no wonder she hears almost everything that happens in her hallway. Her ability to overhear rivals even the canine Commander's, so you can imagine the level of stupidity required to gossip around her lab door.
The way to tell if Katherine is listening is to watch her ears: if they twitch or move in any way, she can hear you. They're twitching right now, actually, as some particularly nosy cadets seem to have knighted her lab's hall as the gossip chain destination. Kat growls to herself; for some reason, she and the Commander always seem to fit into their little theories.
"I heard they've been friends for, like, decades."
Fairly true, thinks Kat, though the length of time is not entirely on the dot.
"I heard she's his best friend."
"I heard she's his only friend."
Kat charges to her door and is in the corridor before it can open completely. Her eyes read brimstone but the cadets are too startled by her ninja level appearance to notice. "You should have better things to do than gossip outside my lab, cadets."
The youngsters scramble away, ducking and spluttering apologies. However, Kat's ears pick up another talkative group approaching.
"I heard they're more than friends, if you know what I mean."
All Kat has to do is glare in their direction to send them on their way.
"One theory is that she wouldn't even be here if it weren't for the Cruger," says one cadet, and Kat might have let it be, but he continues. "A Kat in the lab and a fox in the bedroom!"
Katherine hisses in this cadet's direction and he slips, crawling away from her and then actually running to save his life. The cadets around him bow in apology and follow suit. Although her lips are still twitching, her outward anger subsides. She lets it sit on the back burner and goes back inside her lab.
"What's wrong, Kat?" Boom asks in his innocence, tangled in wires but concerned.
"It's nothing, Boom," Kat's response is measured, but sufficient. She only gets back to her work for a minute, though, before the voices outside start up again.
"Cruger told that new doctor that Manx is off limits, as in totally all his."
Kat's eyebrows quirk and this is more concerning than the rest: this is why Felix won't make eye contact with her if the Commander's lurking around. One day she heard Felix hum the theme to Jaws as Cruger came skulking down the halls.
"I saw one of the trainers checking out her ass one day and I'm pretty sure I haven't seen him around here since."
Kat has no idea what they're talking about, but Cruger wouldn't fire someone just for looking at her backside (let's face it, it's pretty great).
"She looks at him like he's a ball of yarn."
Now, Kat has the grace to look embarrassed. The remark is ridiculous, though...she has never looked at a ball of yarn the way she looks at Cruger. A ball of yarn...how absurd...
"What are you doing out here?!"
Kat bites her lip immediately, finding the vibrato in the rough, deep voice deliciously familiar. It does nothing to help her flustered appearance but it is comforting. The rumbling of a low growl cuts through to her core and she feels herself tingling all over. Damn, he is sexy.
"Doctor Manx is a busy woman and she deserves more respect than to have you gossiping outside her laboratory. So, unless you have valuable information on her research into quantum engineering I suggest you shut your yammering muzzles and find something contributing to do! Dis–MISSED!"
Kat's heart melts in her chest as a warm smile crosses her face. Once in a while she's willing to let Doggie be the alpha male and fight for her honor. He has always been good at looking out for her. She doesn't notice Boom noticing her and sinking down behind his current project to give the two some privacy.
"The nerve of some of these humans," Cruger grumbles to himself, shaking his head. He enters Kat's lab like his own quarters and immediately joins her at her console. "How is everything, Miss Manx?"
Kat smiles; he has always made a point of calling her Miss or Doctor Manx whenever he thinks someone might be around. "No one's here, Doggie, you can drop the formality."
He chuckles, giving her the benefit of the doubt. She doesn't call him Doggie unless they're alone, or she's trying to undermine him so he won't scare everyone into resignation from the force. "All right, Kat, what's up?"
"Well, I'm working on a time warp issue regarding the stability of Sam's time portals," Cat's pupils change in size as she examines the complicated expressions on her screen, though her slightly bored expression betrays the lack of her effort it requires.
"I see—I hope the cadets outside haven't been bothering you," says Cruger.
Kat's left ear twitches once and they both know it's a definite answer. "I don't know why all the kids seem to think my hallway is the one they can use as the grape vine."
"As the what?"
"It's an expression, how they get all their rumors and such," Kat says, shutting down the screen and turning her full attention towards him. "So, what brings you down to my lab, Doggie?"
"I need an excuse to see an old friend?" Cruger smiles again. He has been doing that much more of late, even if Kat's the only one who can tell he's smiling. Sometimes it can be counted as a smile if he's simply not scowling at the moment.
"No, but you never come down just for the sake of it," Kat teases in return.
"Well, actually, gossip is what has brought me here." When Doggie turns bashful Kat's ears perk. He notes her attention on him and continues. "One cadet asked me if you and Cadet Carson were in a relationship."
"Me and Bridge?!" Kat can't help but laugh as the words come out. No offense to Bridge, he's sweet, but she's...an adult?...his superior...an adult? "Aren't I a little too old for him?"
"Actually, I told the rangers how old you were back when I was explaining the history of their parents," Cruger offers casually. "They thought you were 25 by a stretch, 30 by exaggeration."
"Flattering," she drawls in an undertone with a smile. "You didn't tell them my birthday, did you?"
"No, I have no desire to incur the wrath I suffered when Boom tried to make you a cake last year."
"It was a sweet gesture, I just wish it hadn't blown up the lab in its progress," Kat seats herself on her chair. "So, you really came down here to ask if Bridge and I were a thing?"
"A...thing?"
"It's another expression, Doggie, it means to be a couple," Kat rushes out. "We have to work on your English figures of speech."
"My English is fine," he answers in Sirian, a choppy, rough, barking series of syllables.
"Fine isn't perrrrrr–fect," Kat counters in her own Felinae tongue, smoother and softer.
As the two laugh, Boom makes a confused expression to himself from his hiding place.
"I'll leave you to your work then, Kat," Cruger finishes laughing.
"All right, but it was nice to see you just to see you," Kat stands and catches his eye just before he leaves. "You should visit for fun more often."
"I would like to, Kat," he pauses once more with his back to her. "You can come out now, Boom."
When the Commander has left Boom rises from the floor in an attempt to be surreptitious, though he only manages to draw more of Kat's attention to him. "I wanted to give you guys some, uh, privacy."
"Why, it's just the Commander?" Kat vocalizes, though her mind is teasing her by asking 'but he has never been just the Commander, has he?'
"Well, you guys have these...moments, and I hate to intrude." Boom looks up at his mentor with adoration, admiration, and just a hint of a smile. "Besides, you really do look at him the way earth cats look at yarn."
Kat stutters, failing miserably in finding a decent retort. In her brain's floundering she only manages to snap, "Wh—I—n—get to work, Boom!"
The light haired man only smiles at his sister–like teacher as she sticks a pencil between her fangs, eyes darting around self–consciously.