Heyo, so, another interlude and then we'll be getting into some episode stuff again! fun times, I hope. I am getting my job schedule figured out still, and I have a lot of stuff to work on right now, so this story may drop to every other week (unless there is a major cliffhanger) though I'll try to avoid that. Best thing to do is keep an eye on my tumblr, hedgiwithapen, or my profile here, because if there will be a delay of more than 2 weeks, I'll make a note of it.)

Interlude: Business as usual

Things were as tense as they could be at STAR Labs, given the presence of kitties. Everyone seemed more wary, nervous, but Barry guessed that was the way of things. Something D. Wells had said the other night, about the "timeline" being intact didn't sit right with him. How could anyone know that a timeline was "intact? Maybe he'd meant that some larger, world shattering catastrophe hadn't occurred to replace the tidal wave, but somehow, that didn't seem quite right. Cisco and Caitlin were both a little more skittish as well, but Barry was willing to chalk that—and some of his own anxiety—up to knowing that Snart was still out there, and knew who all of them were. Even with their deal, Barry couldn't help but wonder what would happen the next time Cold's gun broke, or he got bored.

Nyoom zipped around the cortex, sending papers flying, and Barry raced to catch them before they scattered.

"We really need to invest in paperweights," Caitlin sighed, putting down her coffee mug.
"We have paperweights!" Cisco pointed out. "Felix, Santiago, Apricot, Spike…."

Caitlin grumbled. "If I find holes in my paperwork one more time…" she couldn't finish the sentence, Spike was a sweetheart, even if he did get a bit prickly at times. Scrap mewed, venturing out of Caitlin's pockets to sniff at the coffee and sneeze. "No, not for you." Caitlin said firmly. "You already get most of my breakfast, I need my coffee."
"She only gets most of your breakfast?" Barry asked, watching Nyoom run head-long into a chair, sit back, and shake her head in confusion before leaping onto it. "Nyoom gets all of mine sometimes. And Joe's."
"Bet he hates that," Cisco said, looking up from his new phone.

"Yeah," Barry sighed. "She's getting better at understanding, I think, aren't you, you goof?" Nyoom didn't dignify that with a response.
"Fuzz learned what "get off my face" means," Cisco said with a shrug. "Doesn't mean she listens. I swear, she keeps checking to make sure I'm still alive. And people say cats don't care." He said this last to Fuzzwhump, nestled in his shirt pocket, faintly snoring. He rubbed the darker grey lines under her closed eye, and the snoring switched to purring.
"I think it's safe to say that "people" tend to be wrong about many things." Dr. Wells agreed, whirring in on his chair. Apricot looked up from her next of documents, but decided she was too comfortable to move.

Cisco continued scratching Fuzzwhump's ears and chin, but at the sound of Well's voice she'd woken, her tiny heart racing. Cisco still didn't know what to make of his little kitten's sudden dislike of the man. He wondered if her power meant she could see the dreams he kept having.
He felt bad. It was hard enough that he kept having them, he didn't want her to, as well. They were just—dreams, anyway. Unless maybe they were visions, and she was giving them to him, but the thought was laughable.
"I think I'm gonna go," he said after a moment of trying to calm her. "I need to upload some of the videos I took. Make these cats internet famous."

"Cisco, are you sure that's a good idea?" Caitlin asked, glancing at Spike, happily rolling with several forms stuck to his newest spines.

"Relax, I only post the ones that could be any cat. Like Nyoom running into the chair, or Frieda and Georgia doing the mirror thing. Or I add in obvious edits to make it look like I'm trying to hide that the cats aren't actually magical, but well enough that the account I made for Metakitties has a couple dozen followers. Subscribers."

"You called the account Metakitties?" Barry blinked. Cisco shrugged again, and Fuzzwhump disapproved of the movement, her eyes still fixed around the area of Well's throat.

Cisco shushed her, and made his rather hasty retreat, promising catnip mice and a trip to the fishmarket.
There was an awkward not-quite-silence because cats, which finally Caitlin broke pointing at something on her tablet.

"These are actually really funny. Even if I didn't know them, I'd want to adopt all of them."
Barry sped over. It was a 6 second clip of Cisco narrating as the kittens spilled out of an overturned box, with Lord of the Rings music in the background, and set to attacking his untied shoelaces.

There was nothing on the scanner, and Sava had given Barry the day (and every major holiday for the rest of the year, he noticed) off, so they watched a few more videos before his phone rang.

"Heeeey, Iris, what is it?" Barry really hoped he sounded casual. Caitlin gave him and his failed attempt an exasperated glance.

"I hate to ask because it's your day off and all, but do you think you could give me a hand with my computer?"

Barry blinked. "Uh, I mean, I'm not the greatest but—"

"No, I'm sure you can figure it out, I just can't seem to. It keeps telling me to install something, but I have and it still won't work."

"What is it, it might be a virus or—"

"No, it's nothing bad, it's just flash."

Barry blanched, but shook his head. It was really probably nothing.

"Yeah, uh, I'll be right over."

And he was gone.
Caitlin sighed, and went back to her current project, which was an enhanced allergy medication for pet dander. Her promising career didn't have to be over, even if the lab wasn't getting grants anymore. It felt good to be doing something to help to world.

Cisco had become rather good friends in the last two weeks with Sage Jones, who owned a fish shop down by the harbor, and gave him a decent discount because "that cat is a-freaking-dorable" and in the fashion of grandmothers everywhere (though they were hardly older than Joe, Cisco guessed) "You need to eat more."
So he made his way down, locking his bike near the pier, following the smell of the salt air, and nodding to people who gaped at the sight of Fuzzwhump's perch on his shoulder. A few kids asked if they could pet her, and the tabby graciously allowed it, lapping up the attention but not shifting from her position.

Sage waved from behind the counter, and started wrapping up Cisco's usual with the ease of long practice.
"How's little Fluffball today?"

"Fuzzwhump," Cisco corrected, aware that they were teasing. "She's good. Hungry."

"Well, she's a kitten. When are they not?" Sage joked, handing over the wrapped packet. "Make sure you eat some of that, too. You look like you could use it."
The package felt heavier than normal, and the price was suspiciously lower than it should have been, but Cisco knew better than to argue, and biked home, Fuzzwhump sniffing and purring at their dinner.

Lorelei Sava looked around the community center's meeting room and smiled. It seemed that the notice she'd asked Detective West's daughter to put on her blog had been somewhat of a success, as had the emails. In addition to herself and Miss West, several others had shown up, most with their cats in carriers, though there were exceptions. The young man with bandaged hands, who had introduced himself to her as Dante Ramon and started flirting with Iris, and then every other young woman in the room, had his cat in his lap. The greyish kitten was wearing a garish collar that somehow combined bright orange and lime green tigerstripes with cutesy pink rhinestones, as well as a white bandage around the end of her stubby tail. One of the beat cops from CCPD, Officer Whitesmen, also had her cat out and free, though hers was floating several feet off the ground with a harness looped around the arm of the woman's chair. And of course, Havoc had balked at the idea of a carry case, and was currently sniffing at Iris's cat's face.
A few others trickled in, including a large, broad man in a leather jacket. His kitten looked like an oversized cottonball with fluffy white fur, amber eyes, and, Sava noticed in amazement, a set of stubby, white, fluffy wings.
Well, that was certainly new.

The meeting went better than she'd thought, though it was pushing the limit of her allergy meds. Iris took some notes, the man with Catwings—Timothy, his name was—explained he'd found her on the side of the road three months ago, and a college student admitted that she'd found her own "metakitty," a solid brown cat, at Christmas, taken him inside, bribed her roommates into saying nothing, and discovered he could make the can opener move without touching it.

"Or thumbs," Treva said. "So that's what what my roommates are calling him. His real name Is Professor Chuck Excelsior."

Kenna giggled a little at the name, getting the reference.

It was clear that most of the cats did have powers or abilities, but Sava wasn't quite certain what to make of Kenna Page's Eevee, which Kenna insisted was ordinary, or t library worker's Tuxedo cat creatively named Tux.

"Watch," the woman said. "Tux, kitty, can you say, 'dinner'?"

"Dinner," Tux meowed.

Everyone turned to stare. His human shrugged. "It's mostly mimicry. Like a parrot. I think he might understand some things, but he can't hold a conversation or anything. He only ever repeats things."

"Huh." Iris jotted something on her notepad.

"Huh." Tux yowled, as sarcastically as a cat could.
They chatted for a few more minutes, Sava telling the "outsiders" about STAR labs and suggesting them rather than normal vets, given the circumstances. She was a little disappointed that Captain Singh and his fiancé hadn't shown up, but Singh had made it clear that the only thing magical about his cat was Raoul's ability to eat anything left unattended for more than 15 seconds.

Meanwhile, then kittens and cats played. Freed from their carriers and harnesses by Havoc and Thumbs, they introduced themselves each other, Rita bumping noses with the kittens she had called family first.

(Tail?) Havoc asked, curious.

(Got froze.) Rita responded. (Bad man did it.)

(Bad people tried hurt my human's littermate's kits.) Havoc told her. (But am ok. Glad you ok.)
(How are others?) Goldie asked.

(Think fine.) Rita said. (been with Pianoman, not Sco.)

(Are fine) Koshek confirmed, floating over. Catwings seemed to take his hovering as a personal challenge, trying to flutter higher. (Fuzz say, saw Wheelman kill Sco, but wrong.)

Goldie mewed automatically and sat heavily. Iris looked over at the clowder, suddenly concerned.

(Goldie? What is?) Havoc asked.

(Is true. Fuzz say true.)

(Mousescat.) Koshek hissed. (true? Can no true.)

Goldie leveled her clear, regal gaze at him. (Am no lie. Wheelman…kill Sco.) She paused, but no meow came to signify a lie.

(I tell.) Rita said, lashing her bob of tail. (Sco is good people.)

(yes) Eevee agreed, batting at Koshek's twitching tail, nearly as fluffy as her own.

(Who Wheelman?) Thumbs asked

(Who Sco?) Catwings wanted to know

(Want play) Tux meowed emphatically.
A game of catch-my-tail and knock-over-the-chair followed, interrupted after fifteen minutes by Kenna's sudden shout.

"Eevee, what are you doing up there?!"
Eevee was hovering around the ceiling, while Koshek mewed pitifully from the ground. (Give back! Give back!)

"What was that about no powers?" Tux's human, Kim, asked softly. Tux repeated it, adding more snark to the heavy dose of sarcasm.

"My cat's Rogue." Kenna sighed. "Of course she is. No wonder STAR couldn't handle her. Good grief."
In the end, it took a bowl of treats to lure both Eevee and Catwings down from the basketball hoop where they'd perched, and a further twelve for all the cats to say goodbye in their own ways.
Still, all in all, it was quite a success, and Iris had a new story to put on her blog, and run by Mason Bridge, if he ever got back from the weekend vacation he'd apparently gone on.

Across the city, Joe West looked at the cat sleeping on his newly dry cleaned jacket and sighed. Just his luck that the world's fastest cat also shed, and had long white and grey fur to boot. Still, like with Barry, he couldn't stay mad. Nyoom was a cute little thing when she wasn't trying to eat his breakfast…and, he had to admit, even then.

Going for sort of Slice of Life here, but we;ll get back to your regularly scheduled Plot soon. Remember, I live on comments so please review.