Forge and Catseye

[x-catseye.livejournal.com]

Backdated to Saturday

Forge is having cope failure issues and gets a thwapping for hiding in his lab instead of greeting Catseye upon her return.

Forge wasn't in his room. The room smells like WindyGirl and ShinyBitsBoy, she thought to herself. That was odd. Tail flicking from side to side, Catseye padded silently down to the labs, anticipating that she'd find Forge there in the land of BadSmells. After opening the door with her tail she entered the room and pounced when she saw him. "Mrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrt!" she exclaimed happily, dropping a dead mouse from her mouth.

"Holyshitwhatthehell!" Forge exclaimed, turning around just in time to
take a cat at full speed to the chest, sending him stumbling back into
a bookshelf and sliding down onto the floor. "What in the world... I
mean, seriously, who throws a..."

He blinked when he finally focused on the purple cat and his voice
trailed off. Slowly, he reached out a hand to stroke the spot between
Catseye's ears. "You're here," he whispered quietly. "You're really
here."

After bumping Forge's hand with her head and purring for a few moments, Catseye bit the skin between his thumb and forefinger. Why is ShinyBitsBoy down here in the BadSmellPlace instead of finding Catseye?!

"Ow!" Forge exclaimed, waving his hand briskly. "Okay, okay. I
deserved that. It's just..." He got up and started pacing, the action
familiar at least if not particularly helpful. "So much has happened.
Jay left, then Jennie and Marius vanished, then you left. Sure, Jennie
and Marius came back, and things were better for a while, but it
wasn't the same. Then Attilan vanished and I was gone for two and a
half years, and when I came back nothing was the same, not for me. I
needed someone to be there who understood, but nobody did. They
couldn't know what it was like."

He kicked the side of a cabinet in frustration, clenching his hands.
"Then Jay came back and I thought things would be cool, but they're
more awkward than ever. He's turned into... I don't know, he's lost or
something. Kyle... Kyle is the only one of us who's got his
shit together. And you were gone and now you're back and things
aren't like they were. I just... I don't know what's going on."

The lavender cat shifted to human instantly and pounced on Forge, wrapping him in a hug. "Catseye doesn't really know what's going on either because ShinyBitsBoy is very confusing. ShinyBitsBoy is not really silly enough to think that things stay the same forever, is he?" she inquired, still holding on to Forge until he decided to pull away.

Forge resisted the hug at first, but then relaxed and just held his
friend for a few silent moments. "I didn't want anything to change,"
he mumbled into her shoulder. "But everything did anyway. Everyone
left and came back different and then I left and nothing was
the same, everything was chaotic and crazy and..."

He finally pulled away and turned to rummage through a drawer. Lifting
aside dogeared catalogs, lab reports, and color-coded binders, he
finally found what he was looking for at the bottom of the drawer. A
framed photograph that he dusted off carefully and looked at with a
small grin. Just a simple black-and-white photograph taken years ago
by a tree behind the mansion; Kyle leaning against the tree, Forge and
Jay sitting in front of him, arms across each other's shoulders, and Catseye behind them, her head resting atop Forge's with a lazy smile.

"Simpler times," he said, turning the picture towards Catseye. "Thought they'd last forever."

Eying the picture, Catseye gave Forge a sympathetic smile. Then whacked him in the back of the head with her palm. "SillyShinyBitsBoy! Nothing lasts
forever! ShinyBitsBoy knows that! Humans change and cats change
too! Changes are sometimes bad and make things harder and make ShinyBitsBoy sad but sometimes changes are good. Catseye noticed ShinyBitsBoy and
WindyGirl smells in ShinyBitsBoy's bed so ShinyBitsBoy cannot be sad about all the changes."

Muttering under his breath, Forge rubbed the back of his head, but
smiled nonetheless. "Some things never do change," he grumbled
good-naturedly, then leaned forward to bump his forehead
affectionately against Catseye's. "But yeah. It's good. Things are...
huh. Yeah. Things are good. I'm glad you're back."

With a purr, Catseye gave Forge a headbutt and hugged him tight again.
"Catseye is very glad to be back. ShinyBitsBoy is right that some things
never change. Mansion will always have SillyKittens who need thwapping.
ShinyBitsBoy cannot stop all the crazy and the changes. ShinyBitsBoy cannot
stare at the picture and be sad," she informed him, gesturing towards the
photograph, "ShinyBitsBoy should be making new pictures."

"I will," Forge said. "I promise. It's about time."

Things aren't going to magically be better, he thought to
himself as he reached out to hug his friend close again. But right
now, it's enough.