Jean-Paul and Catseye

[x-catseye.livejournal.com]

Sniffing out that Jean-Paul has returned to the mansion, Catseye goes for a late-night visit that doesn't exactly progress the way she anticipates.

He hadn't been pushing himself as hard the past few days as he'd originally been after arriving in New York, but Jean-Paul was still tired. The cafes and restaurants he'd been frequenting to make sure Miss Lee could keep an eye on him meant he'd been eating more, since it was there and gave him something to do, but it wasn't the sort of eating that actually assuaged hunger or helped him make up any of the energy he'd been expending.

So he was tired.

Being back at the mansion didn't help his nerves, but at least there were simple things he could do to minimise damage here. Like taking everything off the walls and sitting it on the floor - just in case. The windows were another matter, but he hadn't come up with an easy solution for those, if there was even one to be had, so he just had to hope that he didn't send off a shockwave or whatever it was to break them.

Which was why he'd fallen asleep on the couch in the common room instead of in one of the bedrooms. It was farther from windows and other breakable things.

It had been a long time since Catseye had brought anyone a DeadThingPresent, since she knew it wasn't really something people did, but she thought Jean-Paul might be amused by it since she had left a dead mouse in his bed at their first meeting, so she had been out for a late night hunt and was headed towards his old suite to leave it in a shoe.

Jean-Paul was back! She had felt like jumping out of her skin when she had smelled his scent earlier in the evening. He hadn't written anything on the journals so Catseye hadn't told anyone she could scent him, and she wasn't certain he wanted to see anyone tonight, but she couldn't resist bringing him things to show how glad she was of his return.

One of his windows was unlocked, so the purple cat climbed through very carefully, not wanting to wake him up. Except she didn't hear breathing from the bedroom. Assuming he was in the other bedroom, she continued on through the hallway and into the common area, where she stopped in her tracks. He was sleeping on the couch!

They had a long-standing agreement that she could not sleep in his bed, but now he wasn't sleeping in it either! And he had never said she couldn't nap with him on the couch. Dropping the DeadThingPresent on the floor by the couch, the purple housecat leapt onto the edge of one of the cushions and very carefully poked at his lap with her paw, debating whether she should climb on him or just cuddle in next to him.


It was an uneasy slumber the cat found him in, but not one that presaged violent nightmares, at least. He didn't wake at the gentle nudging, didn't even shift. Jean-Paul stayed where he was, floating perhaps just a little bit closer to consciousness than he had been before.

Since he hadn't woken screaming, Catseye figured he was sleeping soundly enough that she could sleep on him without him noticing, and crawled up onto his chest, crouching down with her feet tucked underneath her and her tail wrapped around herself, watching over him as he slept.

There was something on his chest. Jean-Paul's eyes opened as that weight settled in and he moved them slowly down so he could see what was actually there before panicking. His instinctive reaction was to sit up and get away from whatever it was, but he held himself motionless once he caught sight of the purple fur. "Please move," he said, voice very soft.


Obediently, Catseye climbed down off his chest, instead snuggling in against JP's shoulder and resting her head on his upper arm. "Mew?"

"It is not safe for you to be here, Catseye," Jean-Paul said, his voice still carefully modulated because he didn't want to frighten her, but she needed to understand.

Catseye shifted to girlform and stretched out alongside Jean-Paul. "How come? Is there danger?" She angled her head around the room, searching. "I will protect you!"

"No," Jean-Paul said. "I am the danger. When I am sleeping, it is not safe for you to be here." The lack of emotion in his voice should have spoken volumes. The truth of his statement was eating away at him, keeping him from trusting himself - he couldn't let anyone else trust him, either. Especially not girls whose cat-form was small and so very breakable.

"Because of nightmares? I nap with Jay when he has nightmares and stabs with his sharpmetalwings but he says that I keep the nightmares from coming." She nuzzled Jean-Paul's cheek affectionately. "I can keep the nightmares away."

"It is not so easy," Jean-Paul replied, moving his hands to her shoulders so that when he sat up and moved away, she wouldn't topple off the couch. It wasn't that easy and Jean-Paul wasn't willing to take the risks that Jay apparently was when it came to Catseye's safety. "But I thank you for the thought." He noticed the dead animal on the carpet near his foot and glanced from it to the girl, brows rising a little.

"I brought you a present. I thought it would be funny because now I know that people do not really like DeadThingPresents," Catseye said with a small smile, sitting up next to Jean-Paul. "It is a joke." She folded her hands in her lap so she wouldn't be tempted to touch him and make him uncomfortable again. "I understand you do not want to hurt me so it is okay if you do not want me to nap with you. I am happy you are back even if I cannot nap with you. Do you want me to read to you so you can fall asleep?" She remembered how he had enjoyed it in the past when he had been unable to sleep.

"No," Jean-Paul said, attempting to soften the refusal by asking, "You have a book you would like to read? I do not see why you cannot nap. It is just better that I not nap at the same time."

Catseye tilted her head at him, confused. "But you are the one who needs to sleep not me. I do not need to read right now. I just wanted to read to you so you could sleep. I want to help make your head better so you are not a danger and we can nap together and read together again."

"Sleep does not help my head," Jean-Paul said, expression turning just the smallest bit rueful. "It is better to be awake when others are near. It keeps... accidents from happening." At least, that was what he hoped was true. It hadn't been, in Boston, but Boston... had been a special case in more ways than one. "Again, thank you, though."

Gaze falling defeatedly to her lap, Catseye nodded, biting her lip. "I... I should leave then. You should sleep and if you cannot sleep while I am near I should not be near."

Guilt trickled down Jean-Paul's spine, but it was better this way - safer for her, for him to keep himself isolated. "Thank you for the present."

"I have a real present for you," she smiled, a little ruefully. The catgirl wasn't naive enough to believe that life never changed and people stayed the same in your life forever, but she still mourned the loss of the way things had been in the past. But that didn't mean she didn't have hope that things could be just as good, eventually. She wasn't going to give up on Jean-Paul. "Just a minute, I will bring it." She dashed out the front door without waiting for a reply, and a short time later had returned with a box the size of a coffee mug. "This is for you because I am happy you are back."

Jean-Paul opened the box and couldn't help the smile that quirked up the corners of his lips when he realised what he was holding. "Ah," he said, turning the mug over in his hands. "This is wonderful." He got to the fusty nut with no kernal and laughed quietly aloud. "Thank you."

"You are welcome. I hope it makes you happy. I will let you sleep now Mister Beaubier but if you need anything I will be sleeping outside the door so just call okay?"

"You do not need to sleep outside the door, Catseye," Jean-Paul said, still holding the mug carefully.

"I know," she nodded, and gave him a quick hug before smiling and turning towards the door.

The door closed quietly behind her before Jean-Paul could think of something to say to her that would adequately convey the fact that he appreciated what she had given him, even if he couldn't really show it. Standing, he tucked the mug into one of the cabinets in the kitchenette, then moved back to the couch and collapsed face-first onto it. The cushions were hard, but it was better than some places he'd slept - and at least there were fewer things to break in this room than either of the bedrooms.

Glancing toward the door, he thought he caught the flicker of light and shadow that would indicate someone moving there, but he didn't hear anything. Jean-Paul let out a slow breath and watched the door until his eyelids got too heavy to hold up any longer. It was quiet and the nightmares seemed very far away in that moment, so he let himself drift off again, listening to the wind outside the window that was still slightly open.