Callie and Catseye

[x-catseye.livejournal.com]

Callie visits a French-studying Catseye and the two discuss their summers before Catseye delivers a faux-pas by inquiring about Callie's relationship with Fred.

Balancing a book on her knees on the rec room couch, Catseye frowned and her tail lashed out behind her. "Ja-ay," she said out loud, "too ah. Ill ah. El ah. Noose avonz. Voose avay. Ills on-t. Els on-t." Jean-Paul had tried to teach her the correct pronunciation of the french tenses of the 'have' verb, but she knew she didn't sound the same as he did. "Nyah! This is too hard for Catseye!" she cried out, exasperated. "Catseye wants to sound like Mister Beaubier!"



From her position by the door, Callie found herself listening in on Catseye's studying. "You know," she said as she wandered over to her couch, her hands clutching something behind her back as to hide it from view. "I have a lot of French movies if you want something to listen to. To train your ear. They talk kinda fast, but it's dubbed too, so you'll now what's going on."

Lazily, the pink girl leaned over the back of the sofa. "How ya been Cats?"



"Catseye is good," the purple-haired girl nodded emphatically. "And Catseye would like to watch French movies with Callie veryverymuch. How is Callie? Did Callie have a good time on vacation? Where did Callie go?"


"Yay!" She always loved adding to her circle of people to watch foreign films with. With Vic and now Catseye, it was growing into something that could count as a social activity. "And it was great. We went to Vietnam and Thailand and I jumped off a cliff into water. It was amazing. So beautiful. And..." her voice trailed off as Callie pulled out the stuffed monkey she had been hiding behind her back. "I brought you a monkey."



"Ooooooooo!" Catseye squealed, taking the toy from Callie and poking at it with a claw, "a monkey! Thank you Callie! Catseye likes it veryverymuch!" She pretended to chew on it for show, since she'd written in her journal that she thought a monkey would taste good. "Did Callie see fish when she jumped into the water? Catseye learned how to snorkel on her trip to Malibu and Catseye thinks seeing things in water in Thailand would be verypretty!"



Her arms now free of the gift, Callie propped her elbows on the back of the couch and rested her chin upon her hands. "You're very very welcome Catseye," she smiled broadly. "I'm glad you like it."



And there it was again, Malibu. She knew she had missed a lot by not going with them. But then again she got to see her father, which was worth it. At least this way they had someone to share stories with who wouldn't yawn and point out that they were there. "Snorkeling huh? That's always fun. Were there a lot of fish? We went diving in Vietnam, and that was cool. But not as exciting what you guys have been up to I hear."







"It was lots and lots of fun," the catgirl agreed. "There were so many fishies! And lobsters! Catseye and Meggan and Vic caught some lobsters and ate them for supper! But Catseye thinks seeing monkeys would be even better! What other animals did Callie see?"





"Lots of birds," Callie said after pausing to think. "Fish in the water. Lots of different plants. Oh my gosh. I wish it wasn't so difficult to bring plants into this country from abroad because they're so beautiful. We went to the zoo and botanical gardens, so we saw a ton of animals and plants."



"So what else has been going on that I missed? I hear we have a new girl and stuff."


"Yes her name is Klara," Catseye nodded. She didn't know the new girl very well yet, aside from being with her during the adventure in the woods. "Oh! Callie missed it when Fred cooked burgers for Catseye and Julian. Are Callie and Fred a couple?"



There was a shrug from the pink girl. This was the second time she had been asked this question since returning from vacation, which was a little surprising. Had something happened while she was gone? Fred hadn't mentioned anything, or maybe that was the point. Maybe something had happened in Malibu and he hadn't told her but everyone else knew. She tried to remain calm and push these thoughts from her mind (because she knew logically that they were unsubstantiated), but even so there was a slight tremble in her voice as she spoke. "That's a weird question," she forced a smile, "why do you ask? Did something happen? Did he say something?"


"No, he did not say something. Catseye just wanted to know because Catseye thinks she is a couple with Nick now at least Catseye is going to try and be a couple and Catseye wasn't sure if Fred and Callie were a couple too so Catseye could ask Callie how she likes being a couple."


"Oh." Well she felt silly now, jumping to conclusions like that. It was stupid of her to do so. There was another nonchalant shrug from Callie as the girl thought of what else to say to help her friend. "Well I'm not really the person to be asking about this. Maybe ask Julian? No wait, scratch that, bad idea," she stressed those words as she quickly recalled what had happened to his relationship with Angel. "Um, I don't know. I mean I've always seen it as one of those things that you don't really know anything about until you do it, so if you're happy and everything then it's probably cool."



"Mrrt." Catseye thought about this so hard that she forgot about her book and it fell off her knees and on to Callie's feet. "Catseye thinks this is the bestest way anyone has answered about being a couple," she said with a nod to Callie. "Callie is supersmart!"


"Uh thanks." The reply was muddled as Callie was bending down to retrieve the fallen book. "Here you go," she handed the book to Catseye, "and just remember, if he ever tries to make you do something you're uncomfortable with say no. And if he doesn't respond to that... well I think that most of the mansion would come running to help you."




"How come everyone thinks Nick will try to make Catseye do something bad?" she inquired, confused.


"It's not just Nick," explained Callie as she leaned back on the couch. "I don't think he will, it was just a general 'he' more than a specific one. I should have said that. But yeah, sometimes people in general can try to manipulate you or do things they don't mean to and people get hurt. Does that make sense? No one should be able to make you feel bad about yourself or force you to do something you don't feel comfortable with."


By now the warnings were becoming so frequent that Catseye just nodded and shrugged it off. "How come Callie wanted to know before if Fred said anything to Catseye about Callie and Fred being a couple?" she inquired, changing the subject. "Are Callie and Fred not a couple?"


Callie felt the heat rise into her cheeks as the conversation turned to her and Fred once more. "It was silly of me. I was just... curious," she said trying to remain cool. "And... I don't know. I don't think so."



"Hmm," Catseye mused, frowning thoughtfully at Callie like a doctor trying to diagnose an illness. "Does Callie think about Fred a lot? Does Fred make Callie's blood boil? Does Callie want to be around him? Does he make Callie wirey and hot and bothered and..." what else had Jay said? "Oh! And does Callie want to be in Fred's head knowing what he thinks?"


The blush spread further across the face, and Callie shook her head slightly so that it was hidden beneath her red hair. She struck a pensive pose, hand in chin, to cover that she was taking deep calming breaths. Finally, when she was ready to speak, Callie stood up with a smile. "You know, sometimes people can't be placed in little boxes. Mutant. Nerd. Girlfriend," she said evenly. "People aren't that simple, we can't be categorized, and I don't like to do that. We're not specimens in a lab. We're much more complex than the labels we allow ourselves to have."


Catseye narrowed her eyes at Callie, realizing that she'd been trying to apply a name that Callie didn't want, the way she used to with peoples' names and that she'd done something wrong. If she'd been in catform, she would have arched her back and maybe hissed. "Catseye was just trying to help Callie," she said defensively. "Catseye did not know Callie didn't like using the names 'couple' and 'girlfriend'." It hadn't entered her mind that what she was doing was labeling people, including herself and Nick.


"I don't think the name makes something. Or maybe it does, I don't know. I'm sorry." Callie could sense the defensiveness in Catseye's voice and instantly recoiled. "I just... can we talk about something else? I'm really sorry for bringing this up."


"But... Catseye thought names were VeryImportant? That is why Catseye is supposed to call people by the names they had when they got born or the names they gave themselves?" Wasn't Callie one of the people who hadn't liked Catseye using the name she'd made up for the girl? But now she didn't think names made something? It was confusing. "Catseye doesn't understand." But it didn't seem like Callie understood, either. She said she didn't know. "What does Callie want to talk about instead?" she asked, happy to change the subject if Callie was as confused as she was.

"How about..." Callie thought about this for a moment. "What if I go get you one of those movies? I mean that would totally count as studying French. I guess. Maybe?"

"Okay," Catseye agreed, nodding emphatically. "Can Catseye make sandwiches?"

Callie laughed. "Yes please! Extra pastrami on mine!"