Johnny and Catseye - Backdated to Tuesday

[x-catseye.livejournal.com]

While waiting in Nick and Johnny's room for Nick, Catseye and Johnny discuss Jean-Paul and then her kissing of the wolfboy, discovering that what she did might not be okay, despite Nick's telling her so. She also discovers a crush Johnny has on an unobtainable woman.



When Johnny had agreed to let Catseye wait in their room until Nick came back, he had not expected the wait to be so long. He also hadn't expected to end up with an impatient purple feline curled up on the small of his back while he rested flopped out along his bed, attempting to read. Still, he grinned to himself at every impatient tail flick and idle kneading of those tiny claws (even if it did sting a bit), unable to resist finally speaking to her again. "Look, it's not my fault he isn't back yet..." He reached back carefully with one hand until his fingers found a pleasantly warm and fuzzy ear and then lightly stroked her head. Cat and classmate. It had taken a while to get used to, but...he didn't mind her like this, really. "What do you need to see him about anyway? I could always just pass the message along?"

The cat crawled off Johnny's back and padded softly across the room, then shifted into girlform. "Catseye just wanted to go play in the woods," she explained. She wasn't sure if Nick was avoiding her or was just busy or what, but she was finding that napping on Johnny was a pleasant enough way to spend her time. She wasn't as irritated as she seemed- she just thought she should pretend to be, in case Johnny was uncomfortable with the idea that she liked sitting on his butt. "What is Johnny reading? Does Johnny like to read with Mister Beaubier too?" she inquired.

The white-haired teen, unaware of this uniquely feline subterfuge, pulled himself up into a sitting position and watched Catseye lingering near his roommate's bed which rested along the opposite wall. He bobbed his head in acknowledgement of her dilemma and smiled apologetically, toying with the book in his hands, "Where's a wolfboy when you need him, huh?" Upon the question Johnny blinked, looking down at the paperback and folding the cover in his direction, though he already know the title. "It's called In Search of Snow," he answered easily, then showed it to her. "Mr. Beaubier's loaned me stuff before, but I guess we've never read together," he said pensively, not entirely sure of her meaning. Had they sat together reading? Had they read to each other? Either way the answer was the same, though the latter almost left him feeling embarrassed. He would be a little old for that, wouldn't he?
"Mister Beaubier is a very good reader," she informed Johnny with a happy grin. "He is very nice to loan Johnny books. What is Johnny's book about?" She went to sit on Nick's bed, close to Johnny but worried that if she sat on Johnny's bed with him in girlform it might upset him. "Johnny should read with Mister Beaubier, especially when Mister Beaubier is sad because Catseye thinks it makes him happy. Catseye likes to read with Mister Beaubier. It is one of her favourite things to do. When Mister Beaubier was gone and then sick Catseye was very sad because she did not have Mister Beaubier to read to her. But sometimes other people read to Catseye. And Catseye read to the NotVermin. Catseye read them The Rats of Nimh book. Has Johnny read that book?"

The idea of Jean-Paul reading to Catseye, as a cat or as a girl, almost left Johnny laughing softly and made the smile easy to return, "I bet. And it's definitely nice of him. The Beaubier Public Library has saved me from boredom more than once, especially before my own stuff got here." He paused at the question, looking down at the text in his hands and finally closing it after making a mental note of the page, then grinned and promised, "I'll tell you once I'm far enough in to know."

The boy listened as his violet-haired companion continued on, her tone as energetic as ever even as her words led his own mood into sobering territory. Gone and then sick. He shook his head. There was no reason to expect her to see it as anything more than that and no reason to attempt explaining. Her knowledge of the matter was limited, but she cared just the same and wanted to help their friend recover just the same. He pushed this restlessness out of himself by force and pulled his smile back into place, "Maybe I will." He dropped the book alongside his slim legs and pulled them up into a bend so he could rest his elbows against his elevated knees, "A few years ago, yeah. Think Nico and Jenner enjoyed hearing about their namesakes?"

"Yes Catseye hopes so, but Catseye does not know for sure because Catseye cannot understand NotVermin very well," she explained with a shrug. She'd noticed Johnny growing a little sullen and cocked her head. "Johnny is very sad that Mister Beaubier smells like sick and has bad dreams?" she inquired, a touch rhetorically since it was quite plain that he was. "Mister Beaubier will get better one day," she assured him with a smile. "Every day the bad things will go farther away because everything changes and bad will change into good soon and then Mister Beaubier will feel better, not all better but some better. And maybe he will feel bad again because good changes into bad sometimes but then he will be good again because bad always changes into good Catseye thinks, especially when friends help! He is already muchmuch better than before, yes?" she pointed out.

There was some small regret in being caught and called on the feelings he had tried so hard to dismiss, but Johnny saw no point in denying them now. He leaned a little more into his knees and nodded, admitting slowly, "...Yeah. I am." He fell quiet again, listening and nodding along with the optimistic proclamation he felt himself simultaneously embracing and rejecting. Some things, he knew, couldn't ever be good again...but life would keep going either way. Though Jean-Paul did seem to be getting better. Even enough to lecture him again. The boy finally smiled a little, weakly, pushing his tensed fingers through his white hair and repeating back softly, "...Muchmuch better."

"That makes Catseye happy," she nodded, bouncing a little on Nick's bed. "Is Nick trying to hide from Catseye? Did Nick tell Johnny anything about Catseye? When Catseye kissed Nick Nick said it was okay and he wasn't upset but now Catseye has not seen Nick so Catseye does not know. Sometimes Nick does not say what he feels so Catseye does not know if he is really upset."

If there was a better distraction from these complicated thoughts than being utterly blindsided, Johnny had yet to find it. He did his best not to gawk at his classmate upon this carefree and conversational confession, dropping his hand back against his knees as he tried to remind himself how to speak. "No," he replied at least, "Nick hasn't...I mean, we don't talk that much. Not about anything important..."

Catseye cocked her head. "Nick and Johnny do not talk about anything important? Are Nick and Johnny not friends?" She rethought the question. "What is important? Is Catseye kissing Nick important? Or Nick being upset? Or both?"

"We are," Johnny clarified immediately, if only to satiate Catseye's apparent bewilderment, "Just not the kind of friends that talk about that stuff." He wasn't really certain their relationship warranted any such label. Though, their relationship wasn't really the one on his mind just then either.

By now, the teen had allowed his anxious fingers to wind together and the awkward shock had almost faded from his face. It was actually beginning to make sense in his head. Nick had been less talkative than usual, introspective on those rare stretches that brought him back to the room for anything but sleep. Maybe they should have been talking about that stuff. "They both are," he said at length, wading cautiously into unfamiliar territory and uncertain he was prepared for what she might say next.

"Does Johnny think Catseye upset Nick?" she asked upon hearing that it was important. "Would Johnny be upset if Catseye wanted to say thank you if Johnny said Catseye was special and Catseye kissed Johnny?"

Johnny's lips pursed briefly, shifting into a small, awkward frown. As completely inexperienced as he was with the fairer sex, even he could see the potential problem, the miscommunication between his roommate and the girl currently perched upon his bed that sounded like it belonged in the context of some teenage romance flick rather than in real life."It's kind of hard to explain. But...well...where would you kiss me?" He faltered under the hypothetical notion, looking embarrassed, "I mean him. Where did you kiss him?"

Catseye frowned. "Catseye was kissing like in the movie Nick and Yvette and Catseye watched. Catseye kissed Nick on the lips, in the hallway. Did Catseye do something wrong?"

"Not wrong," Johnny answered carefully, the girl's expression making him regret his initial approach immediately. He was definitely in over his head here. "But maybe...it may have meant more to Nick than it did to you. Kissing on the lips is..."

"Meant more to Nick than saying thank you?" Catseye asked, still confused. "What is kissing on the lips?"

"Right," the white-haired teen confirmed, sounding certain again if only until the next question pulled him back into foreign territory. Defining what kissing wasn't was much easier than defining what it was, especially for a boy who had never kissed a girl in his life. His knotted fingers flexed restlessly against each other as he searched for the right words and did his best to keep a trace of color from creeping into his face. "Well, usually, it's not something you do with just anybody. It's...something you do with someone who's more than just your friend. You know?"

"More than a friend?!" Catseye found herself squeaking in surprise. "Like someone you are..." what was Nick's word? "attracted to? Someone you want to play bedgames with?"

Bedgames? Johnny almost asked, but was very relieved he didn't once his mind had taken the necessary instant to decipher the phrase. It took every ounce of restraint he had not to hide his reddening face against his knees, "Y-yeah. I mean, that's part of it..." Forcing sudden thoughts of Lil out of his head and shifting awkwardly where he sat, he ventured finally, "I mean, you can't just go around kissing anybody you find attractive, but...it's something that couples do, you know? Or...people who want to be or people who just...really like each other."

The catgirl's purple eyes widened as the implications of what she'd done finally dawned on her. "So Nick thinks that Catseye wants to be a couple? That Catseye is attracted to? But! Nononono! Catseye did not mean it like that!" She flopped back on Nick's bed helplessly, covering her face with her hands in a very human gesture. "Catseye did the wrong thing again," she lamented. She wasn't sure how to fix it, either, and the idea of asking Jean-Paul made her blush crimson.

She tried to take the focus of the conversation off herself, delay thinking about it for a little while. "How come Johnny said kissing is for people who want to be couples? Does that mean one person wants to be a couple but one does not?" Was that what Nick thought? That she wanted to be a couple with him? "Does Johnny want to be a couple with someone?"

"Not necessarily. I'm...not sure what he thinks," Johnny began, not entirely honestly, as he watched her collapse back upon the bed. It seemed far more likely that Nick's reaction had to do with his feelings for Catseye, rather than a misunderstanding of her feelings for him, but it wasn't his place to suggest something like that. He'd probably said too much already. "He could know you didn't mean it and just...feel awkward about it, you know? However you feel, you should probably talk to him about it."

The white-haired teen joined her reluctantly in blushing as the new series of questions began and he shook his head, "That's just how it is a lot of the time. It...sometimes it's one-sided, sometimes it's not." He thought of Lil and tried not to let his features sink into some forlorn pose. It was just complicated. He pushed back his light hair again, "Johnny do-...I don't. Not really."

"Catseye will talk to Nick, yesyes," Catseye said with an emphatic nod. She turned interested eyes on Johnny at his last comment. "Not really? Not really? Catseye thinks that means yes. Who does Johnny want to be a couple with? SquirrelGirl?"

The significance of Catseye's resolution was almost lost on Johnny as he found himself now squarely under the metaphorical microscope. He looked uncomfortable, protesting immediately, "It doesn't mean 'yes'. And even if it did mean 'yes', it wouldn't have anything to do with Dori." It wasn't as though the idea hadn't occurred to him and she had looked pretty when they went to the dance...but the idea of sharing anything beyond friendship was near incomprehensible. Besides, how could he have feelings like that for somebody who couldn't even be honest with him? Like Lil always had been. He pushed the thought away and returned his focus to his classmate still sprawled along the bed and looking at him expectantly. "Okay?"

Catseye giggled, forgetting her own issue now and sinking her teeth into pestering Johnny. "Okay, Johnny," she said with a shrug, "okay. But Catseye thinks that 'even if it did mean yes it wouldn't have anything to do with Dori' means that Johnny has a secret and that secret is he wants to be couples with someone!" She wasn't too sure who that someone was, however. It seemed like Lil was the girl he was with the most, but wasn't she muchmuch older than him?
"It doesn't and I don't...!" the boy insisted, resisting the urge to groan and dropping his hands behind him to catch his slim figure as he slumped back. Johnny was embarrassed and it showed and he could only watch Catseye, armed with a fresh smile and inquisitive eyes, and wonder why he had opened his big mouth in the first place. She was much more pleasant as a reading companion than as an interrogator.


The purple haired girl grinned more prominently. "How come Johnny is turning all red? Because he is telling Catseye he does not want to be couples with someone when really he does?" If he told her to stop asking questions she would, but for all his embarrassment he didn't seem to be getting angry about it. "Is it Angel? Inez? Yvette? Dani? Cammie? One of the Stepford girls? Maybe DiamondLil?"
Some of the names Johnny didn't even recognize and some of them made his features contort with near disgusted recognition, but the last deepened the color of his face and finally forced him to stammer, "J-just knock it off! I said I don't and I don't!" He exhaled tightly and shook his head, forcing an uneven smile as he offered the only distraction he could think of, "Come on, why don't we just read or something until Nick gets back? I have a copy of Tailchaser's Song around here somewhere. It'd probably be right up your alley..."

Noticing the blush, Catseye grinned even wider, but she understood that he was trying to change the subject and guessed she was beginning to upset him. In the past she might have kept pestering since she was still curious, but now she jumped onto his bed and nodded happily. "Catseye likes reading new books! Catseye thinks she should not talk to Nick right now because Catseye does not know what to say but Catseye would like to read with Johnny until Nick comes back, yesyes! And Catseye is sorry if she made Johnny upset because he likes DiamondLil. Catseye does not understand knock if off but Catseye will not tell anybody, Catseye promises!"

The feigned smile weakened as it became clear Catseye wasn't buying any of his denials, but her agreement to let the matter drop and her promise to keep a particular detail to herself allowed him to hold on to the remnants of a genuine one. Johnny looked to the violet-haired girl now seated close to him on the bed with worn affection. Just like any good cat she was elusive and troublesome and sometimes downright infuriating...but undeniably endearing. He relented finally, "...Just keep it to yourself, okay?"


"Of course! Catseye will be veryverysneakysmart! Catseye will never tell. Johnny is a good friend to help Catseye understand Nick and Catseye will be a good friend too and not tell anybody, Catseye promises." She hugged him somewhat awkwardly, nuzzling his neck for a moment before jumping down off the bed and going over to Johnny's books, finding the one he'd spoken of and bringing it back to him so he could read to her.