Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ A Little Older, A Little Wiser ❯ A Tale of Two Kitties ( Chapter 4 )

Luna raced after Artemis through the twisted London streets.

The building that Artemis finally stopped in front of was typical for London, aged brick and faded paint giving an impression of both great age and dignity. The two cats slipped quietly around to the back where a rickety metal fire escape clung to the side of the building.

"The third floor there was where she used to live." Artemis said pointing out the right window to Luna with his nose.

Luna gave a quick nod and the two ran up the fire escape to the window.

"Locked. Now what?" Artemis asked after a few futile efforts to get the window open. Unfortunately, paws and claws some times weren't the most useful of things.

"Well, we could see if the landlord's office is open." Luna said.

"Sure. I hope we can find something here. I know it was a long shot but I still would hate going home with nothing." Artemis said with a small sigh as he jumped down from the offending window.

Downstairs the pair actually got a break. The landlord had left his door unlocked when he left to go home and the two cats were able to open it and slip in unnoticed with minimal amounts of effort. The office was neatly organized, a toolbox sitting unobtrusively in one corner and a large metal desk dominating the center of the room. A couple of similar metal file cabinets flanked the desk on either side.

Luna started with the desk, looking for any clues as to Venus' whereabouts, while Artemis, once again forced to tackle the difficult task of opening something without the aid of opposable thumbs, took on the file cabinets. Luna had been digging through the papers on the desk for a few minutes when a sudden crash caused her to spin around in fright, heart racing.

There, sitting and staring stupidly at the file drawer that had landed next to him, was Artemis. He had been trying to get open the top drawer of the cabinet and had misjudged the force needed to push it open, accidentally sending both himself and the drawer crashing to the ground.

"Artemis! Are you okay?" Luna asked anxiously.

"Umm..yea. I guess so." Artemis finally said, frowning at the mess around him.

"Good." Luna managed to choke out before keeling over in a fit or laughter.

He looked up at her pathetically, a single tardy piece of paperwork finally floating leisurely down to land on the top of his head, causing Luna to laugh even harder. Artemis merely gave a long-suffering sigh and shook the paper off.

"Have you found anything yet?" He asked, trying to regain some measure of dignity.

Luna, after a few attempts to stop laughing, finally gave up and just shook her head. The white cat finally decided that ignoring his hysterical partner was probably the best course of action and started pushing through the pile of papers on the floor. When the landlord returned the next day they wanted to be as far away from this mess as possible.

Luna had finally managed to stop laughing and from her vantage on the top of the desk, she glanced down at the pile of paper Artemis was rooting through.

"Artemis!" she suddenly yelled excitedly and jumped down from her perch. Landing next to the white cat, she pushed him out of the way so she could pull out a half covered paper that he had been standing on.

The paper turned out to be a magazine page with several models showing off some clothing companies fall line. What had caught the black cat's attention were the words scribbled across it.

'To my fav landlord, Mina'

And sure enough, one of the girls on the page was Mina, dressed in a red shirt, golden skirt and a long gray coat. This was the first solid evidence that they had gotten that proved Mina had been in England. The magazine photo was only a little less than a year old though according to the date printed on the top of the page.

They had come to London because that was the last place anyone had know Mina had lived before she had joined the scouts. They had searched Tokyo specifically, and Japan in general for all of the girls with no luck. That was why the Artemis had volunteered to try London. And now they knew that they were on the right track.

Luna looked up from the paper at Artemis and found herself suddenly nose to nose with the white cat.

"Luna, what would I do without you?" he said and gave her a quick lick on the cheek before going back to rummaging though the stack of papers, "Wonder if there is anything else in here?"

Luna blushed. Again. And cursed Serena and Rei. Again. Those two hadn't been reunited for more than a day before they had begun causing headaches for Luna. Alternately yelling at each other and conspiring together, the two had gotten it into their heads that Luna and Artemis should be more than friends and had been taking every opportunity they could get to tell her so. And the fact that Artemis had been left completely exempt from the teasing only made it worse. Even casual things that had never mattered before were setting her off. And Artemis was completely clueless though she could tell he was starting to pick up on the new tension in her. They had been friends too long for him not to notice but he had yet to say anything about it.

Honestly, there were days that Luna couldn't remember why she had wanted the other scouts awakened. And it would only get worse with each one brought back.

After a few minutes more of searching they found the file for when Mina was a tenant. There was a forwarding address for mail but she had moved out over two years ago. Neither wanted to get their hopes up. They didn't have much to go off of from the autographed picture, but it was a clue as to what Mina was doing these days.

* * * * *

That night the two cats were bedding down on the roof of an older building in a quiet part of town.

"Luna?" Artemis asked, turning to look at his companion, her black fur causing her to almost disappear into the night.

"Hmm?"

"Do you think...Well, you are Serena's guardian and..."

"Artemis?" Luna asked, moving closer to her oldest friend, "What's the matter?"

"Do you think I failed her?"

"Serena?" Luna asked in surprise, "Absolutely not!"

"No, not Serena. Mina. I was her guardian. Her mentor. And I just let her disappear on me."

"Oh Artemis, don't you start too. None of this anyone fault. No one is to blame." Luna said, leaning against him, offering comfort as they had done a million times before.

"Luna, she was my charge and I abandoned her instead of doing my duty. She is the leader of Serena's guards, leader of the scouts. She was...is the princess of Venus. How do I explain to her...how to I ask her to understand...?"

"Artemis, shh. We all had our duty. Our main duty was to protect the princess and that is what we did. Venus would have been the first to tell you to stay with Serena."

"What if I didn't stay because of Serena?" he asked quietly.

"What? What else was there to stay for?" Luna asked, bewildered.

Artemis sighed. "Nothing Luna. Nothing."

* * * * *

The next morning saw a pair of cats, one black and one white, racing across the London rooftops.

"How much farther?" Luna asked as they ran. She really didn't care but she wanted to break the awkward silence that had appeared between them since the previous night. She was worried about Artemis. Something was going on inside of him and he wasn't sharing it with her. He had admitted that he was feeling guilty about Mina but that wasn't all of it. He was still holding something back. And it hurt that he didn't feel he could confide in her.

* * * * *

"Artemis?"

The white cat suddenly shook himself away from his thoughts and realized that Luna was asking him something.

"Sorry Luna, what was that?" He asked, trying to appear normal.

"How much farther?"

"Oh, not much. Though this is a really nice part of town. I wonder if this is the right address. Most people couldn't afford to live around here."

He checked his bearings before allowing his thoughts to once again consume him. He knew that he had almost done the unthinkable last night. And he had added to Luna's worries. She already was stressed over Serena and finding the scouts and fighting this new enemy that seemed to keep popping in and out of the shadows and know he had gone an added to it my admitting to the fact that he was feeling guilty about not being with Venus. Instead he had decided to stay with the Princess...and Luna.

He knew that they were just friends but sometimes he would find himself wondering if they could have been more. Before, when they had been fighting the Negaverse, there had been another cat. Watching Hercules and Luna had actually made him ill and had been what had first made him realize that Luna was more than just a friend. She was his partner. And he loved her. It had taken him a long time to realize that and an even longer time to admit it to himself.

God! How could he have done this? It hadn't been as bad before Darien arrived. But now Serena and Darien, so obviously in love with each other, were alternately making him want to claw them and trade places with them. And last night he had almost admitted to it. And if one thing was guaranteed to ruin a wonderful friendship it was some idiot babbling about love.

He shook himself out of his thoughts in time to realize that they had arrived. The house that they stopped in front of was a huge thing proudly showing off its Victorian architecture to all its neighbors.

"Mina lived here?" Luna asked in surprise, coming up alongside of him.

"And might still. That is, if the address is where she moved to and not just some friend of hers that she was staying with or something." Artemis said, looking at the house.

He approached the window cautiously and jumped on the sill. Inside was a mess. It looked as though a tornado had gone through this classy home, leaving clothes, books and who knows what else in it's path. Or more likely, her path. Artemis definitely recognized the mess. And while he forced himself to realize that many people were possible of leaving behind them such a disaster area, Mina was still the original tornado.

But they still had to make it inside to make sure.

"Artemis?" Luan asked from the ground.

He grinned down at her, "I think we may be on the right track.

* * * * *

Meanwhile, a man with fiery red hair paced back and forth in an enormous cavern. Once there would have been hundreds of others milling around as well but they had been destroyed. Only the strongest had survived that final attack, and many of the survivors had died afterwards from their wounds.

Suddenly a monster, a half tiger, half woman creature appeared in front of him.

"Back already?" The man asked in surprise.

"The scouts do not protect lands outside of their territory. There are no threats in the new hunting grounds, as you predicted." The woman said, her slitted eyes following the man's pacing.

"Good. And our energy reservoirs?"

"It is almost full."

"Perfect. Those two think that they are so smart, but I am the only one able to collect the energy we need. And with it, I'll be able to dictate how it gets used. No more waiting." The man said, a triumphant smile crossing his lips.

* * * * *

The two cats circled the house a few times looking for a way into the house but eventually were forced to just sit and wait. It was still rather early in the morning so they decided to just watch the house and see what happened.

After an hour or so a woman with a bunch of cleaning supplies arrived and entered the house. After that, the house seemed to come alive and muffled voices could be heard. Suddenly the door was thrown open and a young blonde woman in a business suit came running down the front steps of the house, juggling a pile of papers and talking into a cell phone.

"No...I'm on my way...uh huh...What do you mean they don't have it is stock!...They had it yesterday...okay, okay, I'll deal with it when I get in..."

Artemis turned to Luna with a huge grin on his face.

"Well, I think we may be getting close."

Luna pushed him slightly, "Why don't you follow her. I'll keep watch over the house, okay."

Artemis nodded and raced after the blonde while Luna did another circuit of the house to see if during all the morning activity a way into the house had been created.

* * * * *

Artemis raced after the blonde, following her down into the London underground and just barely making it onto the same train that Mina got on. Once on the train, Artemis decided that boldness was called for and wove his way carefully through the crowded train, dodging feet and ankles, taking special care not to let anyone trample on his tail.

Once he reached the blonde, still talking on her cell, he purposefully ran into her.

"Meow!"

* * * * *

Mina looked down in surprise. She had been talking to Lexia, her assistant about the day's agenda when something had slammed into her ankle. Looking down, she saw a small, white cat.

"Oh my god! How did you get on here, huh?" Mina asked, bending down to offer her hand to the cat to sniff.

Once the cat had sniffed her fingers, it rubbed its head against her hand.

"Lex? Yea, I'll talk to you when I get to the office, okay? Okay, bye." Mina said into her cell before sticking it back into the small purse she was carrying.

Cautiously, Mina picked the small cat up, surprised that it was so friendly. She would have thought all the people on the train would have scared the thing witless but it wasn't.

"Well, little one, I don't think you are supposed to be on here so we're just going to have to make sure you get off, okay?" Mina said.

She was wondering how the cat had managed to get on the train in the first place. It could have just been a stray. London was full of them and the cat didn't have a collar but it was also extremely clean. Most of the strays she had seen were rather more wary of people too. Maybe someone had brought his or her pet cat into the station and it had run away?

At her stop, she walked off the train with the little cat and went over to the information desk for the station.

"Excuse me?"

She talked to the man behind the desk, explaining that she had found the cat and was wondering if anyone had reported one missing or lost. The man called a few people and finally replied that no one was looking for a cat. He then offered to take the cat and place it in a shelter. Mina was tempted but the poor thing seemed to understand the man and meowed pitifully at her.

"No. If its alright with you, I'll leave my phone number her with you in case anyone comes looking for it and I'll just keep it for now."

"No problem, miss."

After leaving the station, Mina decided that the best thing to do was just go to work. She didn't have time to go home and drop the cat off so it would just have to spend the day in the office with her.

She stopped in front of a brick building and went in, taking the elevator up to the fifth floor. As the elevator doors opened see allowed herself a small feeling of pride to see 'her' agency. She had been able to rent out the entire floor of this business building. There were several offices but half of the floor was a photo shoot area. Magazines and fashion designers rented the space from her, using her photographers and models for their publications.

When she had first started modeling she had been having a hard time just keeping herself alive from day to day. But she had saved everything that she could and as her career had taken off she had been able to put more and more away. She had watched so many of the others party and spend their money on alcohol and the occasional drug. Mina had never been that big of a party person. At least not that type of party. She loved to hang out with people but she hated the way she felt when she was drunk. She had to be in control of herself. She didn't know why the thought of being drunk scared her so much but it was like a part of her demanded that she always be ready to take whatever the world threw at her and she couldn't do that when she was drunk.

So, two years ago, she and her partner, Alex, an awesome photographer who had been in the business for longer than Mina had been alive, had started Topaz Modeling agency. Mina had continued to model and Alex was still taking pictures two years later but they were already starting to get quite a reputation for professionalism and reliability. Occasionally there would be tight months but they were getting less frequent and both Mina and Alex were making decent money. Enough for Mina to be able to continue living in her house. She and two other girls had bought it together a couple of years ago but both of them had since moved out. It was more than she needed but she had grown rather attached to the thing and was glad she could still afford it. She could even afford a maid to come once a week and clean up the disaster area that Mina couldn't help but leave in her wake.

But she was still saving as much money as she could. It was an old habit and one that she wasn't inclined to try and break any time soon. And it was pretty easy to do since she didn't go out much anymore. She just had too much work to do these days.

Lex was sitting at her desk outside of Mina's office and smiled as she saw Mina walk over.

"What's up boss lady?"

Mina had hired Lex several months ago. She was a few years older than Mina and treated Mina more like a friend most days than a boss, giving her opinion frankly and honestly. For that alone, Mina was grateful but Lex also was so good at her job that it was hard to believe that she hadn't been doing it for years. Part of the growing reputation that Topaz was earning lately was because of Lex and her way of handling everything smoothly and efficiently.

Mina popped the small white cat down on her desk.

"Look what I found." Mina said with a smile.

"What a beautiful cat!" Lex exclaimed, offering her fingers to the cat, which sniffed them politely before shamelessly trying to get its head scratched.

"I found him on the tube this morning on my way to work. I think I'm going to keep him if no one tries to claim him. I've been thinking about getting a pet anyway. That house is just too large for just me to live in, you know?"

"That's great Mina. Were you going to keep him here for the day? The models will probably fall over themselves to pet him." Lex said without looking up from where she was petting the now purring cat on her desk.

"Hee hee. That's all right. Just as long as I get him back at the end of the day. Would you mind running out to the store and buying some cat food for me? I have to track down what happened to the shipment that we were supposed to get this morning. Just charge it to the company account and I'll deal with it later." Mina asked.

"No problem boss lady. Shopping with other people's money is always fun. As long as I'm buying food, you want me to pick up other things that you might need for him?" Lex asked as she grabbed her purse.

"That would be great. Thanks Lex." Mina said with a smile and picked the white cat up, "Alright you, stop distracting my staff. You can hang out in my office till Lex get backs with your stuff."

For the rest of the morning Mina was on the phone. The white cat had settled down on one of the chairs in her office and seemed to have gone to sleep.

Lex returned eventually with several shopping bags full of different types of cat food, litter, toys and a couple food bowls. She had even bought one of those cat-climbing things. The white cat had inspected everything carefully and seemed amused by it all. When the climbing thing had been set up in one corner, he had climbed to the top and sat there looking down at her.

"Hmm...Lex, I think you just gave my cat a superiority complex." Mina said, looking up at him.

"Nonsense. He's a cat. Cats have an inborn superiority complex. I had nothing to do with it."

Alex stopped by once, already having heard about the cat. It was nice to see that the office rumor mill was still working faster than the speed of light.

"Hey kido!"

"Hey old timer." Mina replied, not bothering to look up from the e-mail that she was typing.

"So where's the kitty?"

Mina waved in the general direction on the climber and went back to typing. Once she hit send she looked up to see Alex petting the white cat, which was almost falling over from pleasure.

"So, did you just come in to see the cat like everyone else or do you actually need me?" Mina asked with a slight quirk to her lips. People had been finding reasons to visit her all morning. She had thought about putting the cat out into the main area so people would stop interrupting her but had figured that then the fur ball would become even more of a distraction for people.

"Mina, you know I always want to talk to you. The cat's just an added bonus." Alex said, chuckling as he settled down into one of the spare chairs.

For the next hour or so they discussed business. These little 'meetings" that they had allowed the two of them to talk about what was going on so both of them were kept informed on what the other was doing and any problems that going on.

Eventually Alex had to leave. He was doing a photo shoot to do that afternoon and was meeting their clients for lunch before hand. As he walked out he gave the white cat a good-bye scratch under the chin.

"Thought of a name yet?"

"Nope. Any ideas?"

"Snowball?" Alex suggested teasingly.

The cat hissed.

Alex laughed, "All right. I'll take that as a no. I'll catch ya later Mina."

Mina looked at the cat after the door closed behind Alex.

"You know, if I didn't know better, I'd say you understood that."

The white cat just looked at her with wide, innocent eyes.

* * * * *

Alex gave Mina a ride home that night because she hadn't really wanted to take all the cat stuff, including the cat, onto the tube. He had helped her lug everything into the house as well before leaving.

Mina set up the climber in one corner and the litter box next to it. When she finished she watched the cat sniff around the house and wondered again where it had come from. It was just way too friendly to be a stray. But there hadn't been a collar on it, or even a flea collar.

Eventually giving up on her speculations she headed towards the kitchen and started dinner.

* * * * *

Artemis was looking for Luna. She had said that she was going to stay at the house but he didn't know if she was still outside or if she had gotten in. He couldn't smell her in the house so she was probably still outside.

So if Luna was outside, that meant he had to find a way outside. After prowling around the house a little he found an open window. It wasn't open enough for him to fit through but that didn't mean he couldn't push it open a little further.

Once it was open enough for a cat to fit through, he stuck his head out, looking for any sign of his companion. There was a slight movement in the shadows and then Luna materialized next to him at the window.

"Hey Luna." Artemis said. He told her all about his day, telling her about Mina, her job and her co-workers.

"We should go tell Serena that' we've found her." Luna said when he finished.

"You should go Luna. I'm going to stay here."

"What? Are you sure?" Luna asked, surprised.

"Yes. I think it's for the best. Someone should stay here to look after her. Besides, she knows I'm here and it would be wrong to just leave her with no explanation."

Luna looked at him for a moment, her eyes seeing more than Artemis wanted her too.

"I understand." She finally said.

"Thanks Luna."

"Anytime partner."

* * * * *