Nick and Catseye

[x-wolfcub.livejournal.com]

Nick meets his first friend from school in the woods.

Nicholas Gleason threw his head back and took in a deep breath of the deep forest air. It felt great to be out into the forest again. Trying to be sociable was very stressful for Nick, and the bare grass and dirt underneath his bare feet was just the cure he needed. The first smile that he felt in days crept over his face as he walked towards a rock at the edge of a clearing and fell back allowing himself to rest for a bit. He leaned back against his interlocking fingers as he waited for his biggest source of stress relief to show.

Loping comfortably along in her housecat form, Catseye reached the edge of the clearing where she could smell Nicholas. She climbed a tree, dragging a pink robotic squid along with her using her tail, each motion painfully slow so that she could ensure that Nicholas wouldn’t hear her. She wasn’t sure if he had heightened senses in his human form; if so, her actions were probably in vain, but Catseye was willing to take a chance to find out. When she’d climbed up to a comfortable height, she whipped MiniSquid around with her tail and released it, hurling the robot into the clearing at Nicholas while she tried to make herself very small and invisible so he wouldn’t know where it had come from.

As the robotic squid came crashing down to the ground, Nick instantly rolled forward onto all fours, the tension in his body already flexing his muscles to steel. "What the...", but instead of finishing, the last word came out as a howl as Nick was already transforming. His brown, fur-clad arms ripped through the sleeves of his shirt, and his feet tore through his new shoes as the new claws they once hid were already digging into the ground, ready to pounce at the object. As he prepared himself to spring, his nose suddenly zeroed in on the squid, or what he thought was a squid. He perked his head up as he tried to take in the whole situation. That's when he picked up the scent of something else. He turned his head towards the smell in a nearby tree. The smell of something distinctly feline.

Catseye shifted to girlform, legs swinging from a treebranch. "Nicholas needs Forge to make him a collar that changes clothes so he doesn't rip them all the time," she pointed out cheerfully.

Nick let himself shift back to his human form, his clothing now hanging in shreds around his torso. A smile rolled around the corners of his face. "Yeah I've heard about him." It was hard for Nick to control his emotions around others. In fact this whole week had been a continued attempt not to trigger an unwanted shift around others, but for some reason the purple-haired girl had a calming effect over him that kept his emotions, and his more wolf-like side, in check. "How's your friend?"

"What friend? Catseye has many friends," she answered, a little confused. She was having enough trouble remembering to call people by their real names; when someone used a generic term like 'friend' it made things even worse. But she assumed that since he was new he wouldn't really know who her friends were, and then she remembered that there had been a lot of talk on the journals about Yvette, and since she was hurt Catseye thought maybe he was talking about her. "The Yvette friend? Catseye thinks she is doing much better! How does Nicholas like the BigHouse and the woods?"

"Nicholas likes the woods, he's not so sure about the Big House yet." The young mutant couldn't help but laugh. It was relieving to be able to let his guard down, especially after spending the past few days doing his best to stay away from everyone else. "Hey, can I ask you a question? How did you adjust to it, the whole living in the mansion thing?" Nick bit the bottom of his lip, he hoped that he hadn't step on her toes by trying to delve into her personal history.

Catseye's brow furrowed in thought as she shifted so she could climb out of the tree, and shifted back when she reached the ground. "Catseye did not like being a girl for classes," she admitted. "Catseye lived like a cat for fifteen winters and Catseye did not even know that she was a mutant so when Catseye came to the BigHouse she did not want to be a mutant or a girl only a cat like Catseye had been forever. But Catseye likes to learn things so Catseye does not mind classes, and Catseye loves the humans at the BigHouse and especially being warm and not being in a cage or being hungry. And being skritched and napping on beds. Then Catseye found out that she has a human family and that Catseye was a human first and not a cat first like Catseye thought! Catseye's family was afraid of Catseye so the fatherperson left Catseye in the snow as a kitten and Catseye thought she was always a cat. Catseye was veryvery angry and sad when she learned," she admitted, although her words were unemotional now that she'd gotten past her father's actions. "Catseye left the mansion to live with Catseye's BigBrother. His special human name is Evan and he loves Catseye but the fatherperson does not so Catseye and Evan hide Catseye from him and from OtherBrother, but the motherperson knows now and she is happy Catseye is alive and Catseye is happy because she is a nice motherperson. But then Catseye did not think it was a good thing that BigBrotherEvan was teaching Catseye and looking after Catseye all the time and Catseye missed the BigHouse and her friends very much so Catseye wanted to come back so Catseye did come back. And Catseye knows that when Nicholas is at the BigHouse for longer time, he will like it as much as Catseye does because it has friends and warm beds and fun learning and woods!"

Gleason was taken aback for a second, not able to even open his mouth in order to get a word in, his cognitive processes were firing too rapidly to get a complete thought into his head. "I... uh... I..." But the boy just had to take a step back to think things through for a second. He slowly raised his eyes back towards Catseye, finally finding his voice again. "Well, I for one, am happy that you found your way here. I'm more than happy that I got to meet you." That was an understatement. Nick would most likely have gone insane if he hadn't been able to talk with a mysterious purple cat during his early days of the mansion. "And if your brother ever needs help confronting your father, you know that I'm there for ya."

Grinning, Catseye lunged as MiniSquid scuttled past, but she couldn't manage to capture it. "Catseye thinks Nicholas is very nice but Catseye does not think she wants to meet someone who threw her into the snow as a kitten because Catseye thinks when she sees him she might shift to BigCat and eat the fatherperson." She lunged again, tail lashing when the squid eluded her once more.

Nick laughed at his friend for a second before he too decided to join in on the hunt. You can take the boy out of the wolf form, but not the wolf form out of the boy. He jumped towards the MiniSquid, but instead missed again, falling on his face and rolling for a few yards. As he came up, he quickly thought for a few seconds of shifting into his more wolfie self, but instead got an idea. He turned towards Catseye with a smile. "That reminds me, I still haven't seen your big form yet..."

"BigCat does not always know friends from threats," Catseye explained, sounding a little sheepish and not understanding why. "When Catseye is in smallcat form, Catseye thinks like a human, but BigCat thinks only like an animal, and Catseye does not know if BigCat will know that Nicholas is part of BigCat's colony yet. Catseye does not want to fight Nicholas. Catseye and Nicholas will have to hunt and talk together some more," she pointed out. "And when Catseye thinks BigCat will not try to fight Nicholas, Catseye will take Nicholas hunting deer! Did Nicholas find the deer while Catseye was gone?" she inquired, pouncing at MiniSquid again. She hoped he hadn't- she'd been looking forward to taking him hunting herself.

"No, I haven't found any deer yet. A few squirrels, but that's it." Still trying to sneak behind the MiniSquid, Nick seemed to be about as stealthy as a bull in a china shop. After another dive, it quickly scuttled away from him. "Hey Cats, do you ever miss being a cat all the time?" It was a question he would appreciate some insight on from someone who lived the life. After manifesting his powers, Nick had thought several times of living life free as a wolf in the wilderness.

The catgirl distracted herself from answering by giving MiniSquid an enthusiastic chase for several minutes. "Catseye does not know," she answered truthfully, when it became clear after a long silence that she wasn't being granted with an answer to the question no matter how hard she thought about it. "Catseye did not have to remember so many names for people, or remember math or history books or lit-rat-chure." She smiled, liking that word because it had 'rat' in it. "But Catseye was not always warm and dry, and sometimes there was no skritching, and Catseye was always hungry. Catseye does not miss those things. Catseye likes learning things at the BigHouse and her friends. But there are a lot of sillystupid things about being a human that Catseye does not like. Does Nick like being a wolf better than a boy?"

"It really depends on the day to be honest with you." Nick continued skirting around the MiniSquid, but didn't seem to be having any better luck than Catseye. "There would be a lot of things that would be easier. I feel like I have to hide who I really am sometimes when I'm with people. Like there's something inside me that's clawing to get out. But i never get that feeling when I'm a wolf. I just feel more.. natural..." After another thrust at the MiniSquid and empty hands, the frustration of the young boy began to take shape on his face. "That's it." From his spot on the ground, Nick slammed his hand on the ground. When he pulled it back, it was no longer a hand, but a clawed paw.

"Being a cat is muchmuchmuch easier for Catseye," she agreed emphatically. "That is why Catseye loves the woods; because even in the BigHouse when Catseye is a cat, everyone looks at Catseye and sees a girl inside the cat so sometimes they treat Catseye different. But in the woods, Catseye can just be Catseye. But Catseye thinks if she was a cat all the time again, like before, she would forget how nice it is being... natural. Catseye needs to be a human sometimes to remember how nice being a cat is." She wasn't sure if she was making sense to Nicholas, but she hoped so. "And if Catseye was a cat all the time Catseye couldn't drive! Does Nick like driving?" She shifted to catform in hopes she could grab MiniSquid before Nick crushed it.

"Drive?" The word came out as a funny term to Nick as in this form it was all about the hunt, and the big wolf was zeroed in on his target. Running on all fours, Gleason approached the MiniSquid and quickly dove at it. But unfortunately in this form, Nick vastly underestimated the agility of the squid, and instead when slamming into the tree behind it. With a thud, the wolf slid down the front of the tree, his head coming to rest on the ground and the rest of his body hung to the side. As he shifted back to his human self, a smile spread across his face. "I think I need to get used to handling a wolf before I tackle a car."

Catseye was used to the mechanations of the evil MiniSquid and after a few more moments managed to pounce in catform and subdue it. Wrapping her tail around it, she shifted back into girlform and spotted Nick on the ground in front of a tree. She giggled and hauled Nick to his feet. "Yes, Catseye thinks so too. Soon Catseye will take Nick hunting and Nick can practice being a wolf lots!"

Gleason shook his head from side to side, trying to get all the cobwebs loose. "Thanks." A smile crept across his face. "And if you do that for me, I can help you with lit-rat-chur."