Megan and Catseye's Hair Dye Experiment

[x-welshpixie.livejournal.com]

Catseye knocked on Megan's door three times, other hand gripping a box of hair dye. "Megan?" Three more knocks. "Megan?" Three more. "Megan? Are you there? Can I come in? It is Catseye!"

Megan pulled out her earbuds to confirm that someone, indeed, was knocking at the door. Goodness knew how long Catseye had been standing there while Megan had been rocking out to the Ramones. She scrambled across her bed to the floor and yanked open the door.

"Cats! What's up? Sorry, I didn't hear you at first."

The catgirl grinned in greeting at the other girl. "I just got here I was just knocking lots and knocking fast. Hi Megan! What are you doing Megan?"

"I was just listening to music and slogging through the reading I'm supposed to do for Literature this week." Her gaze fell from her purple-haired friend to box of hair dye she was holding. "What are you up to?"

"I am wondering if you can make me be black instead of purple when I am in catform? But if you are busy I can come back later? Ooooo! What book are you reading?" the catgirl asked excitedly.

"We're reading Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. It's OK, but kind of hard to understand the dialogue. I would gladly do something else right now," Megan added, glancing out the window at the gray wintry sky. "I used to bleach my hair sometimes. I bet I could help dye you black. But purple is my favorite color! Why would you want to change it?"

"Oh! Yes! I read that book in the summer and then I started reading all the books we are reading for class this year but I need to read it again now that the rest of the class is reading it," she mused. "It was veryvery hard to understand but I had lots of help and now I understand it and I wrote a lot of things down so I can help you if you want," she offered with a nod. "I want to be black so that I can go see my father but make sure he does not know who I am."

"Oh, you already read it? Sure, I'd love to take a look at your notes. But anyway, let's take care of this mission... spy mission?"

"Yesyes it is a secret spy mission!" she answered with a grin, though it faded when she thought of the real reason it had to be a spy mission. "When I was one winter old I could already be a cat and my father threw me out in the snow in a blizzard but I did not die I went to live with other cats and I went to the City and then I came to the mansion when I was fifteen winters old. I do not know if my father did not like cats or did not like mutants but I want to know him and know why he did what he did so I am going on a secret spy mission to see him."

"Oh... that's terrible. That your father did that to you, I mean. How can he live with himself?" She paused and thought for a moment about her own family. "My father died before I knew I was a mutant. Molly, my older sister... she left me after Mum passed away too. It's terrible the way families can be sometimes. I guess there's no other way to understand what they are thinking unless we ask. Or spy on them."

"I do not know how he can live with himself that is why I want to spy," Catseye said with a smile, sitting down on Megan's bed and handing over the hair dye. She had no idea what to do with it, and trusted Megan more than she trusted her ability to follow the directions on the box. Your sister left? Where did she go? Was she supposed to take care of you?"

Megan flipped the box over the back side and scanned the instructions. Seemed like pretty normal hair dye instructions. She began roaming around the room while she talked, gathering up a bowl to mix the dye in, an old t-shirt and some plastic gloves.

"She was my legal guardian after Mum died, and I think she went to London but I haven't heard from her in ages. Maybe she became a rockstar. Or a chemical engineer." It was probably one or the other, in Megan's mind. "She had way too much talent and brains for our family. She never asked to take care of me. But your dad... that's serious stuff." She pulled the little spatula out of the hair dye box and the dye bottles.

"She never asked to take care of you but she was the only family you had left? She should have taken care of you anyway even if she did not ask to because you are family! And she does not email or telephone?"

"No, nothing. And I was so mad when she left that... I haven't really tried to find out... I know it's not my fault but..." She couldn't really think of the right words to express what she was feeling. She normally kept these thoughts buried deep, where they couldn't trigger an emotional outburst and the pixie dust that could come with it.

Megan opened the small dye bottles and emptied them into the bowl, stirring them together with the spatula. It was a lot like paint. And painting made her happy.

"Ready to become Starry Night black?" she asked cheerfully. "How should we do this? If I dye your hair, will your fur be black when you shift to catform?"

"I do not know," Catseye answered, confused. "I thought you would know. And you are right it is not your fault and even if you were angry when she left you are not so angry now that you have a new home and friends are you? I can help you try to find her if you want to. If you are curious. Like I am about my father."

"Well, I don't want to put this on you in catform," Megan decided after a few moments. "It could really burn your skin. Humans can stand a lot more chemicals than cats can. Let's just try it on your hair and see if it stays when you shift. Here, put this shirt on over your clothes so you won't get any dye on them." Megan checked the instructions again to make sure she wasn't forgetting anything.

I have a new family here, and I like it here. Back home I had a lot of friends but they were like... not close friends. I would never have told them any of what I'm telling you now. And... maybe I should try to find my sister. I think our lawyer who took care of our parent's estate had her address but honestly... I didn't try very hard to find out. But maybe it's time now to find out what's going on."

Obediently putting the shirt on, Catseye pondered Megan's words. "If you do not want to know that is okay because yes you have a new family and new friends and knowing where your sister is does not change who you are. But knowing will not change who you are or what you have now either," she added with a smile.

"That's a good way of looking at it," Megan said, smiling. She grabbed her Ipod to look at the time, and began to coat Catseye's hair with the dark goo. After it was coated from root to tip, she glanced at the time again and began to wait.

"It needs to set for 15 minutes to be fully black," she announced.

"It smells icky!" Catseye retorted, wrinkling her nose. She tried to sit patiently while the dye was setting, but the catgirl's attention span quickly waned. "Do you want to read the <i>Tom Sawyer</i> book together while we wait?" she asked Megan.

"Oh hey, that's a good idea," Megan agreed. Her hands were covered with dye--and she had forgotten to put the gloves on, in true Megan-style. She went over to the sink and maneuvered the faucet on with her wrist, trying to get as little dye on it as possible. "I'm a little behind," she admitted. She lathered and rinsed and rinsed again, then dried her hands and went over to her book bag and grabbed <i>Tom Sawyer</i>.

~~~

For fifteen minutes Catseye tried to share what she'd come to know about <i>Tom Sawyer</i> thanks to Kurt's extra help over the summer with Megan. She had been watching the clock on Megan's phone diligently the entire time, however, since the smell of the dye was making her extremely irritated.
As soon as the appropriate minute showed up on the phone, she jumped off Megan's bed, abandoning the reading. "Offoffoffoffoff! How do I take it off now?" she asked, a note of desperation in her voice.

"Oh, I think I understand now. Religion is more of a day-to-day obligation, but what Tom Sawyer and the others really believe in is superstitions. But... why all the dead cats?" she asked, disturbed.

"Oh! Yes, come over here to the sink and let's rinse the dye off."

"Because they think dead cats can help them learn things that are hidden," Catseye pointed out, wrinkling her nose as she scurried over to the sink. "They are veryverysillystupid." Before Megan could catch up she had turned the water on and had her head under the faucet.

"Owowowowowithurtsmyeyes!" she yelped, jerking back suddenly, flinging long black wet locks of hair and globs of blackish water towards Megan.

Megan flinched as small splashes of the dye water rained through the air. One splatted on her nose and one on her cheek and she wiped them away.

"Wait, Cats, you need the conditioner," Megan said, grabbing the small tube of white stuff from the box of dye and skipping back to the sink to help Cats rinse (and half restrain her so the dye runoff wouldn't splatter all over the place).

With Megan's help Catseye got the dye set and her hair conditioned. A little nervously she stood squarely in front of the mirror and pulled the towel off for her first look.

"It is black! Very black!" she exclaimed, awed. "My hair is black! That is like magic Megan! Megan you made my hair black! Megan I am going to turn into a cat and see if I am black!" Still admiring herself in the mirror, Catseye shifted into catform and jumped up on the sink to see herself in the mirror. When she saw herself, however, she let out a hiss and growled.

"You're purple," Megan stated the obvious, mystified. She reached for the dye box and scanned the instructions, as if that might somehow offer some clue.

"Do not ingest. Do not use on animals," she announced when she got to the long list of safety instructions in fine print. "I'm not sure why it didn't work but... my great-aunt used to dye her show poodles. Usually pink and blue, but maybe there's darker colors available. I wonder what that stuff was?"
She went over to her desk and began a Google search.

Catseye jumped down and shifted back into girlform. When she did so, her hair was black again. "I do not understand!" she cried out, "why is my catform still purple but my girlform hair is black?!" She sat on the edge of Megan's desk and watched her searching on the computer.

"If there is special black animal dye that might work but how do I make girlform hair go back to being purple now Megan?" If it had to stay black she was going to be staying in catform as often as possible- she didn't want people to see her with black hair!

"It looks like we can get this henna-based stuff that is all natural and comes in colors from Light Rose to Darkest Umber, which seems almost black. You'd have to be in bright light for it to appear dark brown instead of black. It says it's safe for cats and dogs, so we should be able to use it on you in catform if we can find it."
Megan clicked on the "store locations" link.
"Luckily we live in New York! They sell it at fancy pet stores. We would need to take a bws or car," she said, her Welsh accent slipping through while she was distracted.

She bounced up from the computer chair, realizing that Cats was not happy. Grabbing the towel she used as a drop-cloth for painting projects, she wrapped it around Cats' newly black locks to soak up some of the water.

"We can fix this. Sort of. We just need some dish soap. It's harsh and it should strip some of the dye out. But I'm afraid the dye won't come off totally for..." she looked at the box again "3-4 weeks".

Catseye sighed, but she butted her forehead against Megan's in a catlike gesture of affection when Megan came close to adjust the towel.

"Well getting some out will be good," she convinced herself with a nod. "At least it comes out and I will not have black hair forever. It is very funny that my hair does not have to be the same colour as my fur when I am a cat," she mused, perking up a little.

"Now we can get the cats and dogs dye and dye my catform and see if my hair changes too or stays the same, now we can have two experiments! And I can drive now I have my license so I can drive us to the city!"

"Oh you can drive? This will be easy then," said Megan brightly. "Do you have a car? Anyway, we better get some of this off while it's fresh," she added, going to the mini kitchen area and looking in the cabinet above the microwave for the Dawn.

"There are lots of cars here!" Catseye told her happily, following her into the kitchen. "If you can drive you can take a car only you have to write your name down on a paper and you can only take special cars that belong to the school not other peoples' cars or else they might get angry even if you try to give them candy to say sorry because you did not know you should not take their car," she pointed out ruefully, the memory of her and Cammie's grounding still fresh in her mind.

"Oh, that's cool." Megan was only 15 and didn't have her license yet. She printed out the Google Maps page with the instructions to the fancy pet store with the natural dye.
"When you get it, we can try this again," she said with a grin. "After we strip as much of the black out as we can. But still, it was rather fun," she added cheerfully.