Feline Charm

A/N: Yet another idea that I had that I'm sure would horrify more than a few fans. I once read a story in which this girl's cat could turn into Mistoffelees (humanoid version), and couldn't help wondering if the story wouldn't have been so boring and predictable if the cat was just a cat that the girl could communicate with...

Warnings: Cats of the four-legged variety. This one squicked even me a little.

Disclaimer: I have the unfortunate privledge of owning 'Catherine'. However, I do not own, nor claim to own, anything to do with CATS, jellicles, or other such related nonsense.

***


Catherine woke up in the lounge some time after midnight. She was still sparwled over the couch in front of the fireplace, the dying embers still giving off a warm glow and comfortable heat. Her novel was where she left it, and the blanket she'd wrapped herself in was still warm, but that wasn't why she'd woken.
A rough tongue was washing her neck, soft-footed paws kneading against her breasts.
"Misto...?"
'Shh, sweetheart, just lie back', the tomcat sent, his psychic 'voice' an awfully seductive purr. Claws pricked against her skin lightly, and Catherine was surprised to note that he'd somehow managed to undo the top button of her shirt. 'Is this OK?' The black and white tom asked her, ducking his head down to nose at her skin--- she could see his white tipped tail waving lazily through the air; 'Am I doing this right? I dont want to hurt you...'
"What are you doing?" Catherine asked quietly, keeping her voice down so as not to risk anyone overhearing. Her breath hitched. It was one thing to share an intellectual and emotional psychic bond with a cat, it was entirely another to wake up to that cat making some sort of attempt at a seduction. "-Why- are you doing what you're doing?" She pushed him off her chest and quickly did up the button on her bouse again.
'It's frustrating,' Mistoffelees told her plaintively from where he now sat on the floor, his meow echoing the plaintive tone of his 'voice'. 'I can't touch you the way I want to. I can't touch you the way -you- want me to. There's no release. I'm a grown tom for Eternal Cat's sake, and my mate isn't even the same species!'
"Mistoffelees..." Catherine hesitated. She bit her lip, her eyes pleading. "I love you, you know I do... but we can't--- we can't do anything like that."
The tuxedo-patterned tomcat began grooming a paw, his tail flicking in irritation. She knew from him that this was a cat's sign of derision or annoyance. She guessed it to be the latter.
"Misto, please. Dont be mad at me."
'I dont understand what the problem is,' the tomcat exclaimed, exasperated, 'you seemed fine enough when you said the words that bound you to me! You tell me you love and by heaviside do you get pissed off when you see me flirting with any queens, but you wont even touch me!' The bicolour cat looked away from her, and there was something hurtful in those yellow-green eyes.
"I'm sorry," Catherine replied, cowed. She pulled the blanket up around her shoulders, feeling more upset now than she ever had in the past during other relationships. Then again, she'd never met anyone so sweet, and intelligent, and interesting. Who was also a cat. "But it's... it's bestiality. It's wrong. You and I can interact on an emotional and intellectual level more than anyone---"
'Speak to me with your mind-voice, Cathy,' Mistoffelees demanded softly.
Biting her lip, the young brunette woman continued what she was saying using their bond. 'I love you, and I love our conversations, our time together, but we can't have a sexual relationship. Ever.'
'-Sex is part of it-!' The tuxedo-tom was up on his feet now, pacing back and forth in front of the couch with his ears flat against his head and his tail slashing back and forth though the air behind him. 'When you take a lifemate a whole half of the deal is that you can't go off and satisfy yourself with someone else. If you want sexual release, you come to -me-! And the same goes for me, I have to go to -you-.'
Abruptly he jumped up onto her lap, his forepaws braced against her chest so that he could look her in the eyes. 'You dont want the implications that go with that? You shouldn't've agreed to what came before it.'
"I..."
With the equivalent of a cat's sigh, Mistoffelees jumped down off her lap and wandered out of the room, not saying another word to her. It took Catherine quite a long time to gather the nerve to walk through the house and up to her bedroom. This was all becoming too much for her to handle. Far too much.