Lil and Catseye

[x-diamondlil.livejournal.com]

Lil tries to read in peace and is interupted by everyone's favorite purple-haired catgirl.


She wasn't quite sure why she'd taken the book out of her drawer that afternoon. The novel with torn pages and water stains was one of the few things from her marriage that the blonde could still manage to handle without wanting to fall to pieces. Her first gift from Madison after a discussion concerning her training name - her real training name unlike the ridiculous one Garrison insisted it was. Running her fingers over the cover affectionately, Lil couldn't fight the smile that tugged the corner of her lips. "The original Diamond Lil," she chuckled to herself. Tugging the green organza ribbon from which her wedding ring dangled out of the pages to tuck in her pocket, the blonde carried the book - along with a bag of Amara's cookies - outside. Weather didn't bother her; in fact she was glad the lingering winter would probably keep most of the mansion's inhabitants indoors while she took sometime to herself. Gossip about Lil reading flying faster than JP around the mansion wasn't something the Canadian looked forward to being teased for. She settled against the base of a tree with the novel in her lap, fingering the ring in her pocket as she read.

The purple cat stalked through the branches of the tree, hunting the blonde woman silently. She made no noise- it was easy because there were no leaves to rustle. When she was directly over Lil's head, she leapt with a battlecry onto the golden head. "Mrrrrrow!" FlyingCatDeathFromAbove!

"What the fuck!?" Lil screeched when she was pounced on. Fingers flew from her book to her head, reaching for whatever had landed on her.

Catseye let herself be caught and licked Lil's cheek when Lil pulled her off her head.

The brief anger she'd felt disappeared when she lowered Cats. "Don't do that, Furball," she told the girl sternly and carefully put her on the ground before scratching between her ears.

"Mrrrrrrrrt!" Catseye arched her back to the scratches and rubbed up against Lil's legs. She spotted the book and lumbered over to it, purring, and placed a paw on it. "Mrrt?" What is SillyDreamsWoman's book?

"Nuh uh. Not while you're all fur and paws." The blonde woman tugged the book away from the girl-in-cat-form. "No offense but it's old and kinda special to me and I don't wanna run the risk of it getting more stains or tears."

The purple cat hissed in disapproval and leapt back up into the tree. She crouched down on a branch, legs tucked up underneath her, and glared down at Lil with her best deathglare, tail swishing back and forth unhappily. If cats could pout, it would be a pout.

Lil rolled her eyes and stood up. "Oh for fuck's sake, I said no offense!" Frowning up at the cat, she planted one balled fist on her hip while keeping a hold of her book in the other. "I didn't mean that you were gonna destroy it or anything. Just that I'd rather not risk it since you've been climbing around in trees and probably have dirt on your paws. Hands. Whatever," she breathed, blowing her hair out of her face. "I didn't mean it, Furball. The book's special to me, okay, and I'm protective of it."

Catseye licked first one front paw, then the other, indignantly, then used one paw to wash her face. And continued to glare.

The giantess' gaze hardened and without another word, she sat back down at the base of the tree and started reading. The girl wanted to be offended because she was going to be treated like the animal she was choosing to be, then fine. She could glare and hiss and pout all she wanted; Lil was simply going to ignore it.

They were at an impasse. Catseye crouched in the tree, watchful, for the better part of an hour while Lil read. She knew that Lil wasn't the sort to sit and read, so the fact that the book could engage Lil so made Catseye think it must be a very special book. She was still smarting at Lil not thinking the cat was clean enough to look at the book or even be talked to about the book since she'd never meant to touch it anyway, just learn what it was, but she was still very curious about it. Eventually she ran down the treetrunk and sat in front of Lil. She made a great show of washing her paws diligently, then took a step towards the blonde woman and mewed plaintively.

Green eyes flicked from the pages to the purple cat and Lil gave a heavy sigh. "Alright," was she said before scooping up Catseye and putting her in her lap with the book resting a bit further down her legs. Lil gave the student a scratch behind the ears again to further smooth things over but didn't say any more about the novel.

Pleased that Lil had accepted her catform, Catseye relented and shifted into girlform in Lil's lap so she could ask Lil about the book properly. "What is SillyDreamsWoman reading?" she asked, leaning back against Lil's chest so Lil would be able to see the book over Catseye's much-grown girlform. Luckily Lil was as tall as she was in girlform so when she leaned back, Lil actually would be able to see over her rather than still having her gaze blocked the way some smaller people would.

Lil sighed when the girl shifted but said nothing of it or that fact that Catseye was still calling her 'Silly DreamsWoman.' She didn't feel like arguing again. "It's called 'Diamond Lil' which is where I got my Beta training name from. It was a gift from someone who's still back in Canada and who I've been missing a lot lately."

"Is that why it's special?" Catseye asked, remembering what Lil had said earlier. "Because it gave SillyDreamsWoman her name? Or because CanadaFriend gave it to SillyDreamsWoman?"

"Both," she replied with a frown. Her hand disappeared back into her pocket to grasp the wedding band that rested there. "Madison, my husband, gave it to me when we started dating and training together. Because my name is Lillian - Lil and because my skin is as hard as diamonds, he thought it would be a good name for me. So, he gave me this."

The purple-haired girl pondered over the name and poked Lil's arm with a claw to see if it really was as hard as diamonds. "Catseye thinks DiamondLil is a good name!" she agreed. She then cocked her head in confusion. "SillyDreamsWoman's husband is CanadaFriend? And SillyDreamsWoman and CanadaFriend are in different countries just like MisterNathanSoftHands and SadGentleHands? Is that why SillyDreamsWoman gets sad sometimes? Because she misses CanadaFriend?"

Lil shook her head. "Not just like Nathan and his wife, no. Madison and I... had a fight. A bad one because I felt like he loved something more than he loved me. So I left him and came here. But yeah, I still miss him. A lot sometimes. Especially lately." Stupid anniversaries and too much time to think.

Sensing that Lil was upset, Catseye shifted so she could put her arms around Lil's waist and give her an awkward hug, nuzzling her neck. "What did CanadaFriend love more than DiamondLil? Another human? Catseye is confused." She'd said 'something' but Catseye wasn't sure if she was talking about a real 'thing' like an object or a person.

The taller woman froze when the girl hugged her. She wasn't good with physical forms of comfort that came from anyone besides lovers. Hugs and nuzzles from a purple-haired female with a tail fell into the uncomfortable category. Lil tried not to squirm as Catseye held her, denying the urge to push her away but she didn't reciprocate either. "He loved a robot more, though I dunno if 'love' is the right word. Madison's powers make him able to control metal so he was needed a lot on something called the Box Program. Basically, he could meld with this robot and control it from the inside... and I think because he kept doing that, it started to mess with his head and he got dependant on it." She sighed and clutched the ring harder. "He spent more time with it and seemed to care more about it than he did me."

Catseye didn't let up on the hug- she liked hugs and Lil was warm- and frowned at Lil's explanation. "Sounds like ShinyBitsBoy," she pointed out. "Sometimes human boys forget how to be humans and talk to other people when they are doing things they think are VeryImportant and they forget that people are MoreVeryImportant than shiny things. Catseye is sorry DiamondLil thinks CanadaFriend does not care but Catseye thinks running away from CanadaFriend is something only SillyKittens should do."

"I didn't run away from him," Lil said softly. One hand lifted and awkwardly patted Catseye on the back before falling to her lap again. "I left him. It's not the same." Except it was. "It's complicated but I didn't run away from Maddy. I left so that he realizes that he misses me, too. We talked before but it didn't help because he went right back to playing with the damn robot so I came here for training while waiting for Maddy to figure out if he wants me or the Boxbot more." She wasn't convinced the decision would come out in her favor, even if he had called. "Thank you, though."

"DiamondLil is welcome," Catseye said with a smile, nuzzling Lil's neck again before pulling away and sitting up. "Catseye thinks running away so CanadaFriend can understand that he misses DiamondLil is sneaky!" She wasn't entirely sure if she thought it was SneakyBad or SneakyGood, though. The catgirl wasn't a fan of lying to people, preferring to be direct and honest, but on the other hand she knew Lil wasn't doing it to be mean to her husband- she was doing it so he would stop playing with shinythings and figure out that he wanted her more than the shinything, and she hadtried to talk to him... "Can DiamondLil read some of the book to Catseye?"

A small smile crept over Lil's lips; being dubbed 'Diamond Lil' once again warmed her heart some and endeared the girl more to her. "I can if you want but the story's not all that great and I don't know if you'd really enjoy it." The story about a bowery club singer in the 1890s didn't seem to Lil like something Catseye would be all that interested in.

Catseye shrugged and flopped back against Lil's chest again. "Catseye likes it when people read to her even if the story is not great. Catseye will probably nap anyway."

Lil looked from the book to the girl and back again before sighing in defeat. "Alright, Furball," she agreed as she lifted the novel, turned back to the front page and began to read to Catseye from the only book she owned.