Nick and Catseye at the Zoo - backdated to Sunday

[x-catseye.livejournal.com]

Nick takes Catseye to the Central Park Zoo on Saturday and the two discuss his sister in between peacock-related distractions.

"Do you think I could catch a peacock?" Catseye inquired, swinging the hand she had intertwined with Nick's as she led him around the Tigress and her Cubs statue in the Central Park Zoo. "BigCat could catch a peacock easypeasy but do you think I could catch one in regularcatform?"

Nick was happy to be out of the mansion, and even happier at the company he had chosen. The boy squinted at the multi-colored bird in front of them for a few seconds before turning towards Catseye with a playful smile. "I know he's tricky, but I've learned never to bet against you in anything."

"You could catch one too if you were a wolf," Catseye nodded. "I wish we could have peacocks at the mansion in our woods. Do you think they taste yummy?" The urge to shift and give chase to the bird in front of them, so that she could mimic the tigress statue with the bronze bird in her mouth, was hard to ignore.

"Peacock?" The boy quickly shook his head. "I doubt it. I mean I had pheasant once, and that was pretty nasty." The boy stopped himself again. It was hard to imagine the mindset he'd been in just a few months earlier when he was with Catseye. It was almost like she helped him be a completely different person. The person he was before the accident. "Thanks you coming with me Cats. I needed this."

Catseye squeezed his hand harder and gave him a happy smile. "I have not been to the zoo in a very long time. I wish they had cats here but I like the polar bears and the seals," she grinned, "they bark like you! Did you ever come here before? You said you had not been to the zoo 'since you'd been out here'," she quoted, remembering their conversation from earlier in the week, "but did you ever come with your family?"

"I did. But that was in Chicago instead of New York." He let his eyes turn towards the sky as he thought back. "We actually had to leave early because my sister was afraid of the animals." A half grin of uneasiness turned the corner of his mouth. "It's funny how some things turn out."

"Your sister, she is older than you?" Nick never talked about his sister freely, but Catseye wished he would. "She is not dead yes?"

"She's a year younger, and nope, she's alive and kicking." His eyes fell to the ground for a few seconds, and he quickly wanted to retreat into his shell. But Nick new that there weren't any secrets he wanted to keep from Catseye. With a deep breath he found the courage to move his eyes to lock onto hers once again. "I pulled her out of the house and took her to the hospital before my... accident. After that Dr. Essex arranged for her adoption, and I haven't heard a word from her." He felt a ping of pain in his chest, but simply squeezed her hand a little harder. "Sometimes I still see her face when I drift off to sleep at night."

Catseye hugged Nick in front of the tigeress statue, not caring who saw. "It is good you saved her," she said, kissing his cheek and nuzzling him on the neck with her own cheek. "I think if you have not heard from her it is because she is waiting until she has the right words and right feelings for what to say to you," she predicted, sounding very sure of herself, "because when you love someone you need to make sure you know the Right Things before you see them. It is not the same as hiding. Waiting is okay." Like how she was waiting to speak to her own family about acknowledging her existence. "She will talk to you one day when she is ready. Is she afraid of mutants?" Was that why she wasn't speaking to her brother, or was it just because she was too upset over the death of her parents?

"I really don't know. My dad was the only one that knew about my ability." The boy paused, considering what she said before smiling back at the girl. "I guess you're right, I should be ok if I just wait. There's a lot of things that I don't even understand about that night, so she must have the same things running through her head, ya know?" The boy leaned forward and gave the girl a quick kiss on the lips as his eyes lit up. "How did you ever get so wise about all of these things?"

"WingsMegan talked to me," she told him, kissing him back. WingsMegan wasn't to be confused with FloatingMeggan, but she was sure Nick knew the difference. "Lots of people talked to me. About waiting to talk to my own family. It is funny that family is muchmuchharder to talk to than friends yes?" she mused, somewhat rhetorically. "Is your sister afraid of all animals? Or just big ones in the zoo?"

Grabbing Catseye's hand once again, he turned back towards the exhibits at the zoo, keeping her right by his side. "I think it's just the big ones. I hope she doesn't have a phobia of wolves though." He gave her a half playful, half pensive grin to accompany the statement.

"Even if she does have a... phobia of wolves," Catseye shrugged, "she will like them when she knows you are one. Even if she is afraid at first. If she loves you she will love wolves too. I am sometimes a cat and I still love you even though you are a wolf," she giggled.

Nick paused at the last few words for a few seconds. Even trying not to dig into them too much, he still had to blink before he was able to muster up enough breath the talk. "I love you too, Cats." It was easier than he thought it would be to say. "Even when I'm a wolf."

"It is funny because everyone says canines and felines are not supposed to get along," she giggled, kissing him. "If you have never been here before I will take you to all the good animals! Do you want to go see the seals? Maybe you can talk to them with your wolf bark," she smirked, nuzzling his neck.

"I'd like that a lot." The boy breathed in deeply. Even without his enhanced wolf-smell, her scent had become quite familiar to him, and now was almost intoxicating.

"But first I think I will shift to catform and go get that peacock!" she announced gleefully, sounding completely serious.

Nick's eyes suddenly became huge, grabbing the girl and pulling her in close to his body. "No, no, no..." He had to giggle a little bit as it was true, couples do slowly start to sound alike. "Just stay here with me for a little longer."
Catseye made a poor showing of trying to scrabble away from Nick but after a moment she dissolved into giggles and let herself be held. "Okay! But I am hungry so if I cannot catch the peacock I think we should get hot dogs and then we can see if the seals would like some too!" She had no intention of disobeying the signs about feeding the animals, but the idea of the seals, animals that sounded so much like dogs, eating hot dogs greatly amused her.

"Then we'll go get you a hot dog first." Swinging the girl's hand down to his side, Nick couldn't take his eyes off of her as they went to try and find one of the most romantic spots in the zoo... a hot dog cart...