Nick and Catseye - Christmas plans

[x-catseye.livejournal.com]

Before seeing this post, Nick and Catseye discuss the holidays and make plans to see each other through the tough time of year.

Shuffling his feet behind him, Nicholas Gleason slammed the door closed to his room, and pressed his back against it. With his legs slowly giving out, the boy slid down, stretching his feet out to the side as his rear end found the floor. It had taken the boy every ounce of strength he had to even go to classes these past few days. It was horrible having to see his own classmates after the incident in the theater. After all, there's only so many times you can say "Hey, sorry I almost ate one of you" before it just gets awkward for everyone. And on top of that a day was looming in front of him that he had been regretting for over a month. Christmas. In particular the first Christmas without his family. The boy had kept it inside the past few weeks, but slowly the pain was starting to bubble to the surface. It seemed like the doom cloud was setting in again and predicting a long, gray winter for the boy. Closing his eyes, he let his head swing back to the door, trying to shut all of his thoughts out.


Jumping down from his bed, the purple cat padded across the room and tilted her head at him. He was radiating tension, and she didn't want to aggravate him if he wanted to be alone. She had come to his room because she was feeling mopey and wanting to hide from everyone, and she could have gone to the woods or her own room, but Nick wasn't everyone and Catseye knew she could hide in his room from everyone and have it be different from being alone, which she definitely did not want right now.

But in case Nick wanted to be alone, she curled up on the floor next to him instead of jumping in his lap which was her first instinct when he came in, and settled instead for resting her chin on one of his ankles until she could gauge his mood and what was bothering him.


Nick jerked slightly at the small weight on his knee, but instantly relaxed when he looked down and say the purple cat by his side. Even with the relief, he was still only able to muster a half smile as he looked down at her. "Sorry Cats, you just scared me a bit." Trying to make up for his sudden movement, he reached down and pulled her onto his own lap. Taking a deep breath in, he did his best to push his own feelings down for a bit. The boy knew that Catseye hadn't been herself over the past few weeks, and he decided that he should be strong for her sake at least. "Is there something wrong?"



The catgirl shifted into girlform and adjusted her weight a little so she was sitting on the floor with her legs in Nick's lap, her arms around his neck. "Nothing is wrong," she answered, giving him a smile, "I am still sad about seeing my fatherperson and confused about what happened to me when I was a baby, but that is not really something wrong. Is there something wrong with you?" She nuzzled his neck with her cheek. "I know you are sad about what that badperson did to you at the play but is there something else wrong?" This degree of moping seemed worse than the moping he'd done about what had happened at the rehearsal.

Nick flashed a brief smile. The feeling of Catseye's arms around his neck were comforting. It was enough at least for him to know that sharing with her would be the right thing. "I guess my stuff is about my dad too." Forcing his eyes open, he forced himself to find hers. "This will be my first Christmas without him and the rest of my family." He reached up and placed his hand on the side of her arm, looking for comfort. "I guess it's just finally hitting me."

Catseye stroked his arm like he was a cat she was petting, nuzzling his cheek again. "Christmas is about being with people you love and giving them presents to show that you love them," she mumbled, almost to herself. "I did not understand Christmas when I was a cat but I think I understand now." Her hand slid up his arm so she was stroking his back. "It is very sad that you will not be with your family for Christmas and I understand it hurts veryverymuch at Christmas because you remember many times at Christmas when you were happy with your family." It seemed almost wrong, when she thought of how sad Nick was that he couldn't spend Christmas with his family and she could spend Christmas with her brothers and mother but instead didn't want to because she didn't want to face them. "I do not like it when you are sad but I do not know how to make you feel better," she confessed to Nick, a hint of anger with herself in her voice.


Nick wrapped his free hand around the back of Catseye as he talked, although his eyes still stared forward. "You shouldn't worry about that." Although they were slowly becoming red and puffy, he forced his eyes to meet hers. "You can't always make people feel better. Even the ones you care about the most. You just have to be there for them, spend time with them, support them." With a smile he wrapped his hands around her arm. "But you're one of the best people at doing that. Better than most people who were never cats." He let out a playful chuckle. "Maybe that's your secret."


Preening at the compliment, Catseye hugged him in thanks before frowning over the question of how to make him feel better even though he was letting her off the hook. It was hard to stop trying to make him happy when his happiness was so important to her and made her happy too. "If you spend Christmas time with everyone at the school who loves you maybe that will help you feel better a little bit? Because then you can have new happy memories? I want new happy memories too and I want to be with you and friends from the mansion for Christmas because I do not want to see Evan and my mother for Christmas."


"I was considering just locking myself in here for Christmas." He flashed another quick grin at Catseye. "But you know it's always too difficult for me to say no to spending time with you." The boy cocked his head to the side. "What do you have in mind? Watching bad Christmas movies? Singing songs to the others?"


"Yes and yes!" Catseye answered, perking up. "I have not watched any Christmas movies and I have never sang songs at Christmas! Is it okay if I lock myself in here for Christmas with you?"


"You don't even have to ask me that Cats." He flashed a wide grin, the first he had been able to muster in weeks. He still had no idea how Catseye was able to do this to him. "Maybe later we can show off your singing voice to some of the people who stick around during the break."


"I have a veryverybad singing voice!" she lamented, though she giggled as she said it. "Your voice is the voice that we should show off!" She hugged him again, headbutting his shoulder gently. "Nick I am veryveryhappy that even though I am afraid to spend Christmas with Evan I can spend Christmas with you because I know I will be happy and have good memories when I am with you."


Nick held the girl against his shoulder. "As long as I'm around, I'll do my best to make sure you don't have to feel afraid of anything ever again." The boy meant it. At this point he would do anything to keep the catgirl safe.


"Nico says I have to face my family sometime," she informed him, making a face, "but I will wait until after Christmas because Christmas is supposed to be happy and I do not want anyone to be sad at Christmas." She frowned thoughtfully. "Nico says that I should not be afraid of my family because I am strong and good and do not deserve to hide from them and Nick I think what she says is true for you too I think you are strong and good and you do not deserve to hide from your friends when you did not hurt them at the rehearsal and did not mean to hurt them and I think you should not hide from Christmas because your family loved you and if you love someone you want them to be happy especially at Christmas but I think that if hiding is what makes us happy at Christmas then we should do it until Christmas is over."


Letting his head bounce back against the door again for a second, Nick thought about it for a bit. "I don't think you should have to hide from your family either Cats. Anyone should be lucky enough to get to know you. But that doesn't mean that when you do want to go see your family, Nico or I can't go with you." He flashed a smile at the girl, quickly thinking that sometimes he should take his own advice. "Maybe if you stay with me, I can actually come out of hiding for a bit. Even at Christmas."


"Yes I will stay with you yesyesyes and if you want to come out of hiding I will come with you," she assured him. "We should come out for eating I think because Christmas eating is always the bestest!"

"Christmas foods never really grew on me. My dad's students always got him fruitcake for a gift, and mom would give it to me for dessert for weeks." The boy paused to smile before continuing. He was always amazed at how Catseye could get him to talk about anything, even the one thing he was avoiding the most. "That's some of the nastiest food I've ever tasted."


"Fruitcake? I do not know what that is but fruit is never yummy so even in cake yesyes I think it would be icky. Christmas meat is yummy that is what I meant," she giggled in correction. "Turkey and ham and stuffing with sausage and meatballs and roast beef! Did you have those foods with your family at Christmas?"

"Sometimes we did. But my dad did this weird thing. He was so into his job that he'd bring it home with him. Every year we'd do a different cultures version of Christmas." His eyes fell to the floor. "I thought it was so stupid at the time, but I just wish I could do it one more time."


"Which ones did you do?" she asked curiously, head tilting. "Maybe we can find a different one that you did not do and I could read what to do and we could do it and it would not be the same as having Christmas with your family but you could do it one more time with me instead?"
"We did a whole bunch of ones from Europe and South America." He found his eyes wondering towards Catseye's. "But I would love to learn about any culture's Christmas. As long as you're there with me." He pulled his hands up, wrapping them around hers. "Tell me this. If you could spend Christmas anywhere in the world, where would you go?"


Catseye frowned in thought for a moment before answering. "I do not know there are many places I would like to go. I would like to go to Morocco again and I would like to see the BigCats in Africa or in South America and I would like to see fishies anywhere! I would like to go anywhere that was sunny and warm not cold and snowy and dark like it is here. I would like to go somewhere I could snorkel I like snorkelling veryverymuch. I would like to go snorkelling with you because you did not go with me in California," she reminded him, poking his shoulder with a claw. "Where would you go Nick?"


"I would go anywhere you would be Cats." The boy slowly began to get up to his feet. "But how about we start by looking up Christmas traditions in Morocco before planning our trip around the world?"


Catseye nodded vigourously, jumping to her feet and crawling under Nick's bed in her girlform. She dragged a heap of garland in various colours, large sparkly paper snowflakes and metallic-looking red bows out from under the bed and grinned at him. "Can we put some shiny decorations up in your room first?"

Falling back onto his bed, Nick simply shook his head back and forth for a few seconds. "The things you get me to do." But he couldn't help but let a grin appear on his face. "If it'll make you happy, we can decorate around here."


With a wide grin, Catseye flung the pile of garlands at Nick and began arranging them overtop of him as if he were a mummy. "I am going to decorate you first Nick because that will make me veryveryhappy!"


"Whatever works." he couldn't even pretend to be upset with the girl. It took more effort than trying to keep up with his upsetting thoughts in her presence.