Jay & Catseye, backdated to 1/16 (Sunday)

[x-icarus.livejournal.com]

Lots of cuteness behind this cut. Catseye falls in love with Jay's big fluffy red wings, and he lets her snuggle them. He talks about some of his insecurities, and she just listens. It's all very sweet.


It was a scene of utter and perfect tranquility in Jay's room. Dust motes danced peaceably in the afternoon light, sunrays streaming through the windows warmly. It seemed as though the very moment itself was poised, holding it's breath to preserve the calm within the room.

FEATHER!

With a wild bounce, tumbling haphazardly from under the bed to the middle of the room, Catseye laid claim to her prize with a yeowl of triumph, the large pin feather clasped firmly between her front legs to preserve it from harm until she rolled to a stop, hind feet neatly sticking up in the air.

Jay was sitting on his bed, holding his guitar but not playing anything. He had barely touched the instrument since he had returned from winter break, and his brain still was not functioning properly to let him play anything beyond what Alison gave him in class. He glanced at the little leather-bound book and gold cross necklace over on his nightstand and sighed. Things just were not going well for him.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by the sudden appearance of a small rolling purple thing. He figured that the school was having an adverse effect on him if he had almost expected a purple catgirl to appear out of nowhere to play with the feathers that littered the floor. "Havin' fun there?" he asked with a hint of amusement (only a hint!).

There was a sudden return to silence as Catseye froze. Her head swiveled around just enough so she could gaze at Jay, looking at him upside down. A slow tilt of her world occurred as she twitched her tail to nudge herself back down to something a bit (or a lot) more dignified, flicking one ear casually. Catseye meant to do that.

She was awfully adorable, he had to admit. To himself, at least. He placed his guitar back in the open case on his bed, and gazed at the cat. "Y'all're the one who left me that pretty little egg for mah birthday, aren'tcha?" he asked, indicating the egg with a nod of his head in the direction of his desk, where it lay. "Eggs 'n feathers. Must be easy bein' a cat instead of a girl."

Catseye found the perfect egg. It hadn't been easy, considering the time of the year and had easily kept her out at ridiculous hours - only adding to the fun of the perfect egg for BirdBoy hunt, of course. "Mrrr!" She clung to the feather casually, now sprawled out on the floor in a ray of sunlight, looking for all the world as though she hadn't been tumbling around like a kitten on a catnip high only moments before.

"Are ya the one who's been collectin' mah feathers? Ah notice that the ones that fall on the floor tend ta go missin'. Are ya hoardin' 'em? Maybe usin' 'em ta attract a boy cat?" He was teasing, but Catseye was one of the only people (or more accurately, not-quite-people) for whom it felt comfortable.

Catseye is not a bird! Only birds did silly things like that to get attention. And humans. And... hrm. Well, all right, a lot of silliness went on of the sort. Catsye, however, was above such things. She eyed the feather discreetly, an entirely pleased gleam in her eyes. Her gaze then shifted to his wings, and it was quite clear that for a moment, Catseye was entirely enraptured. In a goofy looking "oh look at ALL those feathers" sort of way.

Jay had seen people stare at his wings before, usually in a "what the hell are those?" manner. When Paige first saw them back in September, she wore more of a "where the hell did those come from?" expression. So Catseye's look was a new one. (Not to mention the fact that it was coming from a cat.) "These are mine, Catseye. Look, don't touch."

The words were met with a slow transformation of feline features, going from utter admiration to desolation. Ears falling, Catseye scrunched down a bit lower, hugging the feather she had captured earlier to herself, a trail of white pressing against her cheek. "Meow." She made a very careful patting motion with one paw, delicately showing there were no claws out in the least, then made that odd, mewing sound again.

Jay raised an eyebrow at her. Well, if she was careful then it couldn't hurt. He might as well as indulge the kitten. "Fine. But carefully. Ah need these freaky things."

The feather was delicately placed on the ground, Catseye keeping an eye on it for a brief moment as she trotted towards the bed. Her attention was soon caught by something of an entirely different order though and after scrambling up on the covers with almost indecent haste, she slowed down, carefully padding towards one of Jay's wings, half propped up, half resting on the overly large bed. "Mrrr...." Very carefully, Catseye curled up right at the edge of the wing, then leaned her face forward, cheek pressing against the feathers while an expression of pure bliss spread across her face. Feathers!

Jay had once heard Mr. Worthington joke about how knowing the velvety softness of his wings was to know heaven. And looking at Catseye, Jay couldn't help but think that his wings were of the same order. "Ya'd think mah wings're laced with catnip or somethin'."

Catseye thinks Birdboy's wings are much better than catnip! Soon she was purring steadily, trying not to move too much even as she slowly shifted to her side, cuddling up careful to the wing. Feathers! Warm and clean smelling feathers and oh so soft and comfortable and Catseye had to work hard at not kneading the edge of the wing covered bed too much, a kitten's reflex to being safe and warm and content.

"Don'tcha have homework ta do?" Jay asked, reaching a hand down to scratch her between the ears playfully. "Or are ya just gonna pull that cute look on the teachers and hope they excuse ya? Because that don't seem ta work none for me."

A slow inch to the side, though her head remained rock steady under his hand. Classes are stupid. Catseye is on Birdboy's wing now. The smug undertone to her purr was undeniable, though it was soon overwhelmed once more by pure delight. She stretched out one paw, resting it further no the wing lightly, eyeing the play of feathers in utter fascination.

"Hold on a sec." Carefully picking Catseye up (and ignoring the indignant meow at having lost contact with the feathers), Jay lied down on his bed and put her back down. "There. So tell me, girl, which one of us is your favorite? Me, Kyle, or Forge?"

Feathers! More feathers this time and Catseye very carefully availed herself of the edge of a wing again, not quite squiggling to the side for more just yet, slowly stretching herself out to full length to distribute her weight properly before once more burying her face in the down. Catseye had room in heart for all of you. She gave him a quietly contented look, upset about the classes entirely forgotten. Silly BirdBoy.

"Ah'll take that ta mean me, then." He scratched her behind the ears again before putting both hands under his head for support. "So why do ya like being a cat so much more than bein' a real girl? Ah mean, Ah know that bein' a human can suck major ass most of the time, but bein' a cat ya gotta worry about your litterbox, and people steppin' all over ya, people bein' allergic to ya. Ya can't even talk, so ya make me do all the talkin'."

Catseye think worrying about people stepping on her is not a big thing to worry about. The hand going away was a sad woeful thing and normally Catseye would have decided to get this across - but there was a nice wing to sneakily edge onto a bit more, and there was more than enough wing for her to stretch out on and - feathers! So she decided to purr agreeably and let him do all the talking, which really wasn't a bad thing considering he tended to hide out and mope so much.

"Are ya likin' this place more than where ya were before? Hey, where were you before, anyway? Got parents, or are ya a stray from the streets?" Jay blushed almost as soon as he asked that. "Sorry if that's too personal."

Face still half hidden in the feathers, Catseye considered the questions. She wasn't happy about the classes one bit, still unwilling to concede the point and half suspecting it was a ploy to get her to be more human than cat as much as possible in some attempt to keep her that way. Still, she looked up and glanced around the room, eyes finally settling on a book with a picture of a car in a city on it. "Mrrr." Her tail shifted in one of those decidedly uncat like patterns it sometimes did, before pointing in the direction of the book, answering one of his questions at least though the less ecstatic and more somber look on the cat's face suggested that Jay's questions had spawned a few of their own.

Not daring to sit up (and end up making Catseye fall off his wing), Jay lifted his head to look at the book. "A big city, huh? Ah've never really liked big cities much mahself. Which is gonna make it hard to be a rock star, 'cuz Ah'll always be in cities." He noticed the expression on her face, even if she was a cat, and pet her soothingly

BirdBoy doesn't know The City right. She stretched under his hand and resolved to take him with her during a trip to town at one point. Show him the real things there were to see in The City and not just the boring busy not enjoying life things human concentrated on so much sometimes. But he was in that 'I want to talk but won't to other people' mode humans so excelled at, so instead of interrupting Catseye merely stretched one paw out encouragingly towards him.

"Ah'll have ta take ya home with me sometime," Jay mused idly. "Ah think you'd love it. There's lots of space ta just run around. We've got a stables, too, with more than its fair share of mice, Ah'm sure." He sighed. "Ah was just there a couple weeks ago for Christmas, and already Ah miss it. Ya can take the boy out of the country, but not the country out of the boy, Ah guess."

A low shift of pattern to the rumbling purr, enough to draw his attention and Catseye deliberately nodded once, before rubbing her cheek on his wing again, watching the ruffling of the feathers in reaction intently. Mine. The purring deepened, to that steady 'can go on forever' sound Catseye had perfected over the years, and she looked at Jay again, clearly listening to what he was saying.

Jay was smiling sadly now, feeling the familiar wave of nostalgia wash over him. "Ah don't belong here, not like Sam and Paige do. Ah can't wait ta just finish high school and start doin' what Ah wanna."

The wings were nice, but Catseye decided they could wait a bit before she continued to lounge on them. Carefully she squirmed a bit to the side to as to not walk all over the feathers and then rose to her feet, padding her way closer until she could curl up on his chest, sticking her nose shamelessly in the hollow of his neck. BirdBoy belongs. BirdBoy is just not seeing it right now.

The feeling of a wet nose on his neck and soft furry weight on his chest widened Jay's smile. He put a hand on Catseye's back and pet her. "And now Ah'm just babblin' like a loon."

There was a twist to not putting full weight on people. Sure, it involved draping herself a fair bit, but it also meant not getting evicted too quickly, as well. Purring, Catseye lifted her head up to amiably press her forehead to his chin, eyes closing slowly. She'd have to let him know that his voice had really pleasant undertones other humans didn't have, one day. Not like putting, but still very nice.

Rather like what the parts in Forge's prosthetic limbs did when she purred at them, really.

He was doing the drama queen thing again, he knew, and that would drive most people crazy. And Catseye didn't deserve to be part of his pity-party. So rather than continue talking and risk irritating her, he kept quiet and just pet her.