46Three weeks had passed since Tugger had gotten Munkustrap and Demeter's forgiveness. During that time, the kittens all began to grow a few inches, and talk better.
Yes, the kittens had passed into, what was for humans called: Teenagehood.
And it was having an affect on a few of them.
"Dem, you sure you don't want to play?" Munkustrap asked his sister in a concerned tone. Demeter shook her head, glancing over to the other kittens, including a certain tiger tom, played.
"Nah, you go ahead," she said, laying down. Munkustrap remained for a few more seconds, then ran to join the others. Demeter felt a little hurt, hoping he would stay with her. But alas, she was alone.
Not for long anyway.
Mungojerrie had noticed Demeter all alone as he tackled Alonzo. Mungojerrie and Demeter had become closer, and he hated to see the black and gold queen be alone and sad. So, he walked over there and tilted his head at her.
"Why aren't you playing?" he asked. She shook her head. "I just don't wanna..." she said. Mungojerrie became like a puppy, wagging his rear in the air as he spoke in an excited voice. "But it will be fuuuuuuuuuuun!" he whined. Demeter giggled slightly, but shook her head. "No, I don't want to play. I don't want to get-", but she stopped and put her head down again. Mungojerrie suddenly looked confused. "You worried you might get hurt?" he asked.
Demeter puased, but nodded.
To her surprise, Mungojerrie laid down next to her. "Looks like I'm gonna have to stay here to make sure you don't, then," he said, looking serious before giving her that cocky grin.
Demeter found she liked that cocky grin. A lot.
Soon, the games erupted into that of a mudfight.
"AAH! ALONZO!" Mistoffelees cried, luaghing as his tail was soaked in mud. However, he paled when he saw Alonzo and Cassandra mischeviously holding mud, staring at him."Um...guys?" Mistoffelees asked.
"GET HIM!" Alonzo cried. Cassandra laughed triumphantly as Mistoffelees ran away from the mudfire as fast as he could. He jumped over a giggling Demeter and Bombalurina, and managed to use Tugger as a shield for one of Cassandra's blows. "Misto! How could you?!" Tugger cried, the kitten earnestly trying to clean out his mane.
Mistoffelees giggled and continued to dodge the mud, although he wasn't doing very good. Even speeding up a little bit thanks to his magic wasn't enough to keep Alonzo and Cassandra's muddy wrath off of him.
Suddenly, he was grabbed and pulled under the hanging door of a small toybox. "Ssh!"
Mistoffelees looked up into the face of an equally muddy Rumpleteazer. The two kittens hid together as they saw Alonzo and Cassandra move above them. "Where'd they go?" "Maybe over here!" "Nah, there's Admetus!" "GET HIM!" "YIKES!" A grey and black figure tumbled in front of them, then took off at high speed. A flash of brown and black and white followed. Rumpleteazer and Mistoffelees burst into giggles.
"Oh, poor Addy!" Rumpleteazer snorted.
"Yeah...he's gonna be even harder to find then before when they're through..." Mistoffelees laughed.
He looked up and stared straight into her eyes. They were so clear...so green...suddenly, they realized they were staring. "Oh, um..." he said, turning and blushing. Rumpleteazer did the same, her eyes down from unknown but sudden embarrasment.
Without thinking, Mistoffelees waved his paw, and conjured up a beautiful white flower. He handed it to her shyly. She gasped. "For me?" she asked. He nodded with a small smile. Rumpleteazer took it from him, taking in its smell. Before he knew it, she had kissed him on the cheek.
Heaven...
Finally, the day came to an end. However, before Tugger left, he made sure to rub Bombalurina's tail with his own. Bombalurina giggled at the affection, but it just mad Munkustrap mad. Tugger had been flirting with Bombalurina a lot...and he didn't like it one bit...
"Munk," Demeter said, placing a paw on her brother's back. "Be calm," she said. "How could he? He doesn't even like her..." Munkustrap mumbled grumpily.
Demeter shook her head and looked exasperated at the red queen. "I'm sure it meant no harm," she said.
Bombalurina suddenly slid up next to him as they walked back to the den. "Besides, handsome," Bombalurina said. "You're the only one for me," she said, giggling slightly.
Munkustrap grinned as well, immediantly forgetting about the annoying Tugger as he followed Bombalurina into the den. Skimbleshanks and Jennyanydots were already laying down, a blanket and Skimble's arm wrapped around Jenny, the rest of the blanket over Skimble. "Night Mom, Night Dad," all five kittens chorused. Skimbleshanks felt a little swell in his chest as Munkustrap and Demeter called him and Jenny their parents.
Just like I dreamed, Skimbleshanks thought as he fell asleep.
However, Demeter began to shiver. She was trying to sleep without Munkustrap's comfort, but it was really cold outside that night. However, to her pleasure, Mungojerrie slinked over and put himself next to her. Immediantly she burrowed next to him, feeling warmth spread through her. Hey, she said Munk, not Jerrie...
Bombalurina glanced at how happy Demeter and her brother looked. She immediantly got up and walked over to Munkustrap, padding beside him. He appeared to be asleep, but Bombalurina saw him grin as she slept beside him.
Rumpleteazer wanted to go cuddle with Mistoffelees. But as she couldn't, she chose to cuddle up to her fathers back.
Two days later, and Mungojerrie and Demeter, and Bombalurina and Munkustrap had fallen asleep cuddled up close. Skimbleshanks saw this for the second day in a row when he woke up first, and smiled at them. Jennyanydots woke up soon after him. "Look at that, love," Skimble said with a point of his paw
Jennyanydots took in the smile and grinned lovingly. "Oh, it's soulmates in the making," she said. Skimbleshanks raised an eyebrow. "How do you know that?" he asked. Jenny smiled and then nuzzled her mates chest, making him purr. "We used to snuggle all the time as kittens..." she said. Skimbleshanks nodded, completely in bliss.
The kittens had woken up by this time, and had cleared the den to give the two older cats some privacy, because they already knew where that would lead to...
Rumpleteazer looked around excitedly, and smiled when she saw Mistoffelees. He smiled when he saw her, and pounced over to give her a nuzzle. "Wanna go see my humans fish pond?" he asked. Rumpleteazer nodded. "Sure, that sounds fun!" Mistoffelees smiled. Munkustrap suddenly cried "Hey, it's Dueteronomy!"
The six kittens looked over, and indeed there leader was walking through. But he had two cats with him-two none of the kittens had ever seen before. One was a tomkit, black with white and orange tabby stripes. The other was a queenkit, but this was a gorgeous one. She had slender silver fur with white tips on her tail. The kittens stared in awe-but Mistoffelees stared the most...
At the new queen.
"Hello, children," Dueteronomy said. He turned to the two kits behind him. "I would like to introduce you to Griddlebone and Jonathan, who have just joined us. I found them wandering the street," he said, introducing them. Jonathan smiled and said "Hello,". Griddlebone, however, went straight for Mistoffelees. "Hi," she said. Mistoffelees felt his heart speed up. "H-Hi Griddlebone...Welcome to the tribe..." he stuttered. She smiled, and then looked at him closely.
"You have magic?" she asked. Mistoffelees nodded proudly, sparkling up his fur. She smiled. "Me too!" she said, doing the same.
Mistoffelees felt as if he was in love.
"Do you know any lightning tricks?" he asked. She nodded, and Mistoffelees took the new queen by the paw and over to another part of the yard to show him. But he forgot something...
"Misto? I thought we were going to your fish pond? Misto? Mistoffelees?" Rumpleteazer asked, her voice breaking a little bit.