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xp_logsCatseye heads down to the garage, meeting up with Forge and Kylun on the way. The RX-7 is ogled most inappropriately by Forge, but alas, his lovelorn sighs are not returned by the object of his adoration. Cars are heartless that way.
Forge was smug.
Now, there were a myriad variations on smugness where Forge was concerned, Catseye had learned, but this particular smug she knew. As they headed down towards the garage, she couldn't help but wonder which of the really fast cars he'd somehow managed to beg, borrow or steal the keys for, really.
And it was far easier to worry about that, than their actual destination.
The smug look was well-deserved, Forge felt, as he stepped into the garage and opened the key cabinet. Removing the clipboard, he took the attached pen and signed his name clearly on the line marked "1".
There were no other entries on line 1. This pleased him immensely.
Removing the appropriate ring of keys from the hook, Forge turned and, with a flourish, pressed the 'Unlock' button. Two short beeps echoed through the garage as the overhead lights flashed over the car he'd signed out.
Scott's prized RX-7. The Car.
"This is going to be SO cool..." he whispered.
Kylun eyed the car with misgiving; the last time he had ridden in it had been the day he and Alison had brought Paige back from the sewers, and she had given him a thoroughly unnerving demonstration of its capabilities. "Scott is very protective of this car," he ventured. "I am sure he would want us to take particular care of it."
"BrainyButtBoy would probably rather get run over by OneEye's car rather than scratch it," Catseye stated idly, leaning forward until she was almost nose to hood with the car, inspecting it up close. Really close. She could see her reflection on the hood, a strand of hair slowly toppling over her head to land on the car lightly as she watched it, unmoving.
"So true..." Forge murmured, using the cuff of his sleeve to buff the chrome on the driver's side mirror before opening the door. "Looks like we've got everything we need. Car, adult chaperone, directions - courage screwed to the sticking place?"
"Perhaps." Kylun smiled gently at Catseye, still apparently mesmerized by her own reflection. "Catseye, are you ready to meet your family?"
Catseye is terrified. Straightening up, the girl took a deep breath and smiled at the both of them, uncertainty lingering in the edges of her smile. "Catseye is ready!"
And sitting in the back, as uncomfortable as it might be, would at least keep her from succumbing to the desire to open the door and make a run for it during the ride over.
~*~
The longest walk is sometimes done across the shortest of distances. Catseye, with Forge as back up, goes through a very crucial moment. Sometimes, things aren't as simple as they seem.
Scrambling out, squirming by the narrow space left between the folded over front seat and the single side door of the car, Catseye then stopped abruptly, one foot lingering inside the car before she pulled it out and set it on the pavement of the sidewalk. The sound of the door closing, along with the to her as Kylun stepped out and leaned on the roof of the car went nearly unnoticed as she cocked her head to the side and listened intently for the sounds coming from the back of the house, the path to the front door wreathed in brightly colored flowers and a framework of wooden planks covered in vines.
Forge wiped down his glasses, the summer humidity fogging them up as soon as he stepped out of the air conditioned car. At a nod from Kylun, he walked around to Catseye's side, placing a hand gently against her back. Despite the heat, he'd chosen to wear a long-sleeved silk shirt, covering his metal arm. The Smiths were going to be shocked enough, no need to add to the confusion.
"Moment of truth," he whispered to her, "here we go."
Tail swishing once anxiously before suddenly going dead still, Catseye took a deep breath and held it, fighting down the instinct to run which was suddenly near overwhelming. Turning to give Forge something of a slightly wide-eyed look, she nodded once at his words and stumbled into the first of the many steps which would lead them down the flagstone covered path to the main door.
The cries of a boy yelling out cheerfully echoed from beyond the house, followed by more laughter. An older man's, low and amused. A woman's higher voice, rising out in encouragement, undercut by another, male this time, cheerfully taunting the younger boy about his throwing abilities.
Eyes fixed ahead on the house, as though she might be able to see right through it to the people in the garden beyond, the edge of which could be seen from the side of the house, Catseye walked right into the small, ornate gate of the decorative fencing around the front lawn and stopped, nearly overbalancing over it before steadying herself.
Trying not to snicker, Forge put a hand on Catseye's elbow, guiding her through the gate, around the flowerbed and towards the front door. Biting back the urge for a teasing comment, he settled for giving the taller girl a quick scratch between the shoulder blades and a nudge of reassurance.
"Doorbell's right there," he said. "Let's say hello."
"Mrr." She flashed him a smile at that thought, short lived though genuine while it lasted. As she turned to reach for the doorbell, she paused for a moment, one particularly loud whoop of laughter echoing the motion. Her attention was caught though, entirely so by something on the door. And for the briefest of moments, her hand wavered before she turned suddenly, corralling Forge neatly in the process.
"Catseye is not sure Catseye should do this." The whisper was unsteady, filled with an indefinable emotion as she turned Forge around, started to push him back down the path towards the car, the walls of climbing ivy rising and falling as they moved. "They sound so happy. Catseye..." she shot another look back, at the door – not looking through the house this time and beyond, though one might think it so. "Catseye is not sure Catseye has the right to do this. To change it all. Catseye knows and Catseye is not sure she should do that."
Welcome to my last month, Forge thought. "Hey, come on," he insisted quietly. "You've come this far. Remember what you told me about being brave? Means being scared, but doing it anyway? They're your family, that means they're going to love you and accept you, no matter what."
Pushing Forge along wasn't as easy as it had once been, Catseye started to realize, the progress being made for the front gate not nearly as quick as it might have been a few months ago. "Please." She didn't want him to see, didn't want him to know. Let him think it was her and not... that. "Catseye isn't ready. Catseye thought she was, but Catseye was wrong." More laughter drifted from the yard, words bouncing back and forth in merry teasing.
She stopped trying to herd him further away from the door, then, though they were both now facing the still open gate now. Instead she hugged him, tightly, despite the heat and the sun blazing down upon them. Making sure he could not look back, nor see the door.
"Please, Forge. Catseye would like to go now."
"Well, if you're sure, I mean..." Forge wiggled out of her grasp, arching an eyebrow. Catseye was usually the bluntest and most direct person he knew, and this evasiveness wasn't like her at all.
"I've got a card for the school if they want to call, just let me-" Forge reached past to see the window by the door, and everything suddenly clicked.
A simple decal, like the ones sent with a fundraising letter. The kind families would put up to show support of a cause, or a group, or an organization. Just three simple white letters on a clear background.
F.O.H.
Mouthing a curse, Forge looked quickly at Catseye, nodding. "We should go."
Eyes now filled with tears Catseye nodded, shoulders slumping as she mutely hugged herself. She started to walk down the path towards the still open gate and the car beyond, ignoring the laughter and cries from the garden, the sound of someone running to catch a ball which had gotten away from the players, the sound one she knew oh so well, after all.
Forge placed an arm gently around her waist, hurrying her along. Her tail was held low, an obvious sign of worry and stress - and an even more obvious sign that she was more than just the girl next door, purple hair and all. The last thing they needed was an altercation out in the middle of suburbia on some anti-mutant activist's front lawn.
Glancing over at Kylun, Forge jerked his head in an emphatic "get in the car!" gesture, keys already out and in his hand as Kylun opened the doors for them.
~*~
After the trio leave, life goes on, in a sense. But fast cars attract attention, like it or not. And the RX-7 gains a new fan, though for once, she doesn't keep his attention for long.
The ball bouncing from behind the house, hitting the enamoring building to rebound onto the main path leading to the front door went unnoticed by all of them. Footsteps muffled by grass also went unheard, as Forge and Catseye neared the door of the car, started to get in.
Picking up the ball, which had come to a stop upon the uneven flagstones, Evan straightened up and then looked towards the street in curiosity. The car caught his attention first, drawing an admiring smile from him, the whistle of admiration lost in the sound of the doors slamming shut.
The flash of purple hair though, was something else, and from the moment he spotted it the car was forgotten entirely. The football fell to the ground from his nerveless fingers as he took a few, stumbling steps towards the car, trying to get a better look. The girl was easily visible even when the car's engine roared to life, when the vehicle started to move slowly ahead. He knew that shade of lavender. He'd always known it, so well. Running ahead now, going through a gate that was open his mind noted, meaning someone had been here, those people had been here, Evan stopped only once he was in the middle of the street, watching the car drive away.
Unmoving, Evan stared. Repeating a series of numbers and letters over and over under his breath, committing them to memory, a slightly wild look to his eyes.
"Son?" The voice broke through his concentration, startling him badly enough that he whirled in place, nearly tripping on his own feet.
"What? Oh, dad. Hey. Uh..." He realized what a sight he must make, standing in the middle of the street, with the football he'd went to retrieve now at his father's feet. "There was this really cool car..."
Laughter greeted that, as the man picked up the football and straightened up, smiling. A hint of pride shone in his eyes and he lifted one arm, waiting until his eldest had walked back to him to sling it around the young man's shoulders. "That's my boy. C'mon, let's go back and try to teach Harrison a bit more about what a real sport is, huh?"
"Sure thing, Dad." Glancing one last time towards the now empty street, an unsettled look on his face piercing through, Evan repeated the license plate number he'd memorized one last time, to himself.
It can't be. It just can't be.
Forge was smug.
Now, there were a myriad variations on smugness where Forge was concerned, Catseye had learned, but this particular smug she knew. As they headed down towards the garage, she couldn't help but wonder which of the really fast cars he'd somehow managed to beg, borrow or steal the keys for, really.
And it was far easier to worry about that, than their actual destination.
The smug look was well-deserved, Forge felt, as he stepped into the garage and opened the key cabinet. Removing the clipboard, he took the attached pen and signed his name clearly on the line marked "1".
There were no other entries on line 1. This pleased him immensely.
Removing the appropriate ring of keys from the hook, Forge turned and, with a flourish, pressed the 'Unlock' button. Two short beeps echoed through the garage as the overhead lights flashed over the car he'd signed out.
Scott's prized RX-7. The Car.
"This is going to be SO cool..." he whispered.
Kylun eyed the car with misgiving; the last time he had ridden in it had been the day he and Alison had brought Paige back from the sewers, and she had given him a thoroughly unnerving demonstration of its capabilities. "Scott is very protective of this car," he ventured. "I am sure he would want us to take particular care of it."
"BrainyButtBoy would probably rather get run over by OneEye's car rather than scratch it," Catseye stated idly, leaning forward until she was almost nose to hood with the car, inspecting it up close. Really close. She could see her reflection on the hood, a strand of hair slowly toppling over her head to land on the car lightly as she watched it, unmoving.
"So true..." Forge murmured, using the cuff of his sleeve to buff the chrome on the driver's side mirror before opening the door. "Looks like we've got everything we need. Car, adult chaperone, directions - courage screwed to the sticking place?"
"Perhaps." Kylun smiled gently at Catseye, still apparently mesmerized by her own reflection. "Catseye, are you ready to meet your family?"
Catseye is terrified. Straightening up, the girl took a deep breath and smiled at the both of them, uncertainty lingering in the edges of her smile. "Catseye is ready!"
And sitting in the back, as uncomfortable as it might be, would at least keep her from succumbing to the desire to open the door and make a run for it during the ride over.
The longest walk is sometimes done across the shortest of distances. Catseye, with Forge as back up, goes through a very crucial moment. Sometimes, things aren't as simple as they seem.
Scrambling out, squirming by the narrow space left between the folded over front seat and the single side door of the car, Catseye then stopped abruptly, one foot lingering inside the car before she pulled it out and set it on the pavement of the sidewalk. The sound of the door closing, along with the to her as Kylun stepped out and leaned on the roof of the car went nearly unnoticed as she cocked her head to the side and listened intently for the sounds coming from the back of the house, the path to the front door wreathed in brightly colored flowers and a framework of wooden planks covered in vines.
Forge wiped down his glasses, the summer humidity fogging them up as soon as he stepped out of the air conditioned car. At a nod from Kylun, he walked around to Catseye's side, placing a hand gently against her back. Despite the heat, he'd chosen to wear a long-sleeved silk shirt, covering his metal arm. The Smiths were going to be shocked enough, no need to add to the confusion.
"Moment of truth," he whispered to her, "here we go."
Tail swishing once anxiously before suddenly going dead still, Catseye took a deep breath and held it, fighting down the instinct to run which was suddenly near overwhelming. Turning to give Forge something of a slightly wide-eyed look, she nodded once at his words and stumbled into the first of the many steps which would lead them down the flagstone covered path to the main door.
The cries of a boy yelling out cheerfully echoed from beyond the house, followed by more laughter. An older man's, low and amused. A woman's higher voice, rising out in encouragement, undercut by another, male this time, cheerfully taunting the younger boy about his throwing abilities.
Eyes fixed ahead on the house, as though she might be able to see right through it to the people in the garden beyond, the edge of which could be seen from the side of the house, Catseye walked right into the small, ornate gate of the decorative fencing around the front lawn and stopped, nearly overbalancing over it before steadying herself.
Trying not to snicker, Forge put a hand on Catseye's elbow, guiding her through the gate, around the flowerbed and towards the front door. Biting back the urge for a teasing comment, he settled for giving the taller girl a quick scratch between the shoulder blades and a nudge of reassurance.
"Doorbell's right there," he said. "Let's say hello."
"Mrr." She flashed him a smile at that thought, short lived though genuine while it lasted. As she turned to reach for the doorbell, she paused for a moment, one particularly loud whoop of laughter echoing the motion. Her attention was caught though, entirely so by something on the door. And for the briefest of moments, her hand wavered before she turned suddenly, corralling Forge neatly in the process.
"Catseye is not sure Catseye should do this." The whisper was unsteady, filled with an indefinable emotion as she turned Forge around, started to push him back down the path towards the car, the walls of climbing ivy rising and falling as they moved. "They sound so happy. Catseye..." she shot another look back, at the door – not looking through the house this time and beyond, though one might think it so. "Catseye is not sure Catseye has the right to do this. To change it all. Catseye knows and Catseye is not sure she should do that."
Welcome to my last month, Forge thought. "Hey, come on," he insisted quietly. "You've come this far. Remember what you told me about being brave? Means being scared, but doing it anyway? They're your family, that means they're going to love you and accept you, no matter what."
Pushing Forge along wasn't as easy as it had once been, Catseye started to realize, the progress being made for the front gate not nearly as quick as it might have been a few months ago. "Please." She didn't want him to see, didn't want him to know. Let him think it was her and not... that. "Catseye isn't ready. Catseye thought she was, but Catseye was wrong." More laughter drifted from the yard, words bouncing back and forth in merry teasing.
She stopped trying to herd him further away from the door, then, though they were both now facing the still open gate now. Instead she hugged him, tightly, despite the heat and the sun blazing down upon them. Making sure he could not look back, nor see the door.
"Please, Forge. Catseye would like to go now."
"Well, if you're sure, I mean..." Forge wiggled out of her grasp, arching an eyebrow. Catseye was usually the bluntest and most direct person he knew, and this evasiveness wasn't like her at all.
"I've got a card for the school if they want to call, just let me-" Forge reached past to see the window by the door, and everything suddenly clicked.
A simple decal, like the ones sent with a fundraising letter. The kind families would put up to show support of a cause, or a group, or an organization. Just three simple white letters on a clear background.
F.O.H.
Mouthing a curse, Forge looked quickly at Catseye, nodding. "We should go."
Eyes now filled with tears Catseye nodded, shoulders slumping as she mutely hugged herself. She started to walk down the path towards the still open gate and the car beyond, ignoring the laughter and cries from the garden, the sound of someone running to catch a ball which had gotten away from the players, the sound one she knew oh so well, after all.
Forge placed an arm gently around her waist, hurrying her along. Her tail was held low, an obvious sign of worry and stress - and an even more obvious sign that she was more than just the girl next door, purple hair and all. The last thing they needed was an altercation out in the middle of suburbia on some anti-mutant activist's front lawn.
Glancing over at Kylun, Forge jerked his head in an emphatic "get in the car!" gesture, keys already out and in his hand as Kylun opened the doors for them.
After the trio leave, life goes on, in a sense. But fast cars attract attention, like it or not. And the RX-7 gains a new fan, though for once, she doesn't keep his attention for long.
The ball bouncing from behind the house, hitting the enamoring building to rebound onto the main path leading to the front door went unnoticed by all of them. Footsteps muffled by grass also went unheard, as Forge and Catseye neared the door of the car, started to get in.
Picking up the ball, which had come to a stop upon the uneven flagstones, Evan straightened up and then looked towards the street in curiosity. The car caught his attention first, drawing an admiring smile from him, the whistle of admiration lost in the sound of the doors slamming shut.
The flash of purple hair though, was something else, and from the moment he spotted it the car was forgotten entirely. The football fell to the ground from his nerveless fingers as he took a few, stumbling steps towards the car, trying to get a better look. The girl was easily visible even when the car's engine roared to life, when the vehicle started to move slowly ahead. He knew that shade of lavender. He'd always known it, so well. Running ahead now, going through a gate that was open his mind noted, meaning someone had been here, those people had been here, Evan stopped only once he was in the middle of the street, watching the car drive away.
Unmoving, Evan stared. Repeating a series of numbers and letters over and over under his breath, committing them to memory, a slightly wild look to his eyes.
"Son?" The voice broke through his concentration, startling him badly enough that he whirled in place, nearly tripping on his own feet.
"What? Oh, dad. Hey. Uh..." He realized what a sight he must make, standing in the middle of the street, with the football he'd went to retrieve now at his father's feet. "There was this really cool car..."
Laughter greeted that, as the man picked up the football and straightened up, smiling. A hint of pride shone in his eyes and he lifted one arm, waiting until his eldest had walked back to him to sling it around the young man's shoulders. "That's my boy. C'mon, let's go back and try to teach Harrison a bit more about what a real sport is, huh?"
"Sure thing, Dad." Glancing one last time towards the now empty street, an unsettled look on his face piercing through, Evan repeated the license plate number he'd memorized one last time, to himself.
It can't be. It just can't be.
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no subject
Date: 2005-08-04 08:08 pm (UTC)And...
BrainyButtBoy would probably rather get run over by OneEye's car rather than scratch it.
Scott says: Smartest cat in the world!
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Date: 2005-08-04 08:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-05 12:59 am (UTC)