Day Seven

The TSE1

A/N: Hello, my dear wonderful readers/reviewers. Much to my heart-breaking regret, the story has, and must, come to an end, as all good things do.

Aside from the philosophical part, I hoped you guys all liked my story, and I hope that it did justice to the awesomeness that is Jennyanydots and Skimbleshanks! I hope you like this chapter too, and don't find it too silly and fluffy (It's Romance fic, so a bit of fluff is inevitable, but still) and please review it to tell me!

I had to post this one day early because as of tomorrow I won't have access to a computer to post it (I will, however, have access to a phone so that I can see all of your lovely reviews!)

And…(drumroll) I am contemplating doing a sequel (not for the competition, just independently), although I can't make any promises yet! (grins annoyingly)

Anyways, enjoy, as I hope you always do!

*"*"*

Skimbleshanks was now officially bored of being alone. He had spent the whole day alone- Everlasting Cat, he had spent his whole life alone- and if he was to be alone, at least he wanted to be so somewhere worth being at.

So, keeping his glass-green eyes down to hopefully avoid being noticed, he stalked silently out of his den and climbed up the seemingly never-ending piles of junk to the one place in the Junkyard that could simply make him feel happy just by being there.

As he clambered up to the TSE1 train car, he noticed something rather unusual- he was not the only one who had that destination in mind. For up atop the car was none other than one fluffy white and gold kitten, and even more unusual than that: she seemed to be sitting absolutely still.

Indeed, Etcetera seemed to be in some sort of incredibly deep thought as she gazed up at a sky in dusky transition from afternoon to evening. As Skimble paced towards her, he was incredibly wary to stay slow and not accidently startle her- Jellylorum's youngest, in this case, seemed a little bit like a firecracker- one small shock and she would leap fifty feet into the air, land carefully on her feet, then start squealing as usual.

But much to his surprise, as she heard him step up onto the top of the car, she simply turned her head to him and smiled a small smile with a quiet "Hello, Skimble." Then, she turned back to her thoughts.

Skimble was so bewildered by Etcetera acting like this, that he simply stared a moment, sighed, and perched next to her on the metal roofing of the car.

They sat like this for a moment, until Skimble saw Etectera frown out of the corner of his eye. He turned to look at her.

"What's troubling ya, kitten?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing…" she murmered, still frowning and not looking at him.

"I honestly doubt that, lass. Now, you'll feel much better if you tell me."

"It's just something I thought…" she began. Then she turned to look at him, eyes wide with a mischievous glint. "If I tell you, will you tell me what you're thinking?"

"But Cettie," Skimble asked innocently, "What's to stop me from lying?"

"Well, Skimble," Etectera whispered, "I'm not sure if I'm meant to tell you this, but I just found out that I'm a little bit pshycic. So I would know if you were lying."

"Really?" asked Skimble, supressing the urge to chuckle heartily. "And who told you this, may I ask?"

"Cori and Tanto." Etectera stated persistently. "Well, at least I think they did…" She noticed Skimble's raised eyebrows. "I'm pretty sure they did! It's hard to hear what someone says when you pounce on them."

"Alright then." Skimble conceded. "But you have to tell me first, then."

"Must I?" Etcetera whined.

"Yes- if you're talking when you are supposed to be judging whether I was false or not, it will mess up the whole matter."

Etcetera shrugged and reluctantly accepted this answer. "Oh alright. It wasn't really anything too interesting. I was just… looking up at the sky, and it looked so peaceful. It made me happy to see it… and then… I just thought, how could anybody ever be sad when things were so beautiful in the world? Why can't we just enjoy them and share them with the people we love?" she sighed and giggled. "Okay, Skimble, your turn!"

Skimble had not expected that answer. To be perfectly honest, it had left him just a little bit dazed. "Oh, what- Yes, I mean…"

"Are you okay?"

"Yes- er, what we talking about again?"

"I was wondering what you were thinking about." Etcetera said. "And you have to tell me, or else it's not fair." she pouted.

Life's not fair, Skimble was tempted to grumble, but he held the incredibly cliché term back. "Just now, I wasn't thinking of anything much."

"Then before?"

"Before… Oh, I was just thinking of someone… someone I used to love very much."

"What happened?" questioned the wide-eyed kitten.

"They betrayed me." Skimble huffed. "And it's all over, now."

Etcetera stared at Skimble for a second, then turned her face back to the sky, which was growing a liquid-like sepia colour. "You see, that's what I was thinking of just then, really, too. If you love someone, and they do something to you, then you're hurt, obviously, and they're probably hurt too. So why dwell on those feelings? What in the world is stopping you? Why should you not simply forgive them and stop two people's miseries in one go? It seems so silly that we give some of our food to stray cats' charities to 'do good', when so often, we could do good so easily but we don't. It seems like a waste of both misery and happiness. Love is so easy. Why can't we just embrace it? Enjoy it? Share it? Spread it? Because of all the lessons that Jellylorum has taught me- whilst, of course, table manners are terribly boring and useful- she seems to have missed out one very important one - forgiveness."

Skimble was in shock. He couldn't move his mouth. Who was this kit and what had she done with Etcetera? Apart from the fact that she was speaking slowly enough for him to actually understand her, what she had just said was so… insightful wasn't what he meant. It was like… she had been speaking from another world. Like she understood something that the rest of them could never have a hope of deciphering. But what she was saying was so true! It was just… right. And then he realised. He finally understood what he had to do.

"Skimble?" Etcetera asked, looking at him curiously.

"Etcetera," he began, "when did you learn to speak like that?"

Turning her eyes back to the pink horizon for a moment, she mumbled gingerly "I dunno- it just seems like this time of the day has a certain meaning for me. Like how Jemima feels about the moonlight. That's sorta how I feel about the sunset."

Skimble took a moment to take this in. Then, he kissed the small kitten on the forehead. "You, Cettie, are a dear one."

Clearly, Etcetera took this the wrong way. "Eww, Skimble, you're way too old for me! Besides, I'm saving myself for Tugger." She paused a second. "Aren't you seeing Jenny, anyways?"

This once again reminded Skimble of what he needed to do. He gave Etcetera a grateful smile and hopped of car. Except he took one moment to call up: "Oh, and Cettie?"

"Yeah?"

"Forget about Tugger, will ya, lass? He's no good for you, ya know."

Etcetera just giggled slightly and looked back up thoughtfully to the horizon, as if contemplating the idea of actually erasing the Rum Tum Tugger from her memory, which is more than Skimble had been hoping for. Contented with this, he scrambled down the piles of rubbish, eagerly searching for one tabby-kind queen with tiger stripes and leopard spots.

"*"*"

"JENNY!"

Jennyanydots perked up her ears at the sound of her name, and them flattened them back down when she realised who it was. She did not want to have to deal with this now.

She heard a grunt from Skimble, who had presumably figured out that she had set a rock in front of her den opening from the inside to prevent his entrance.

"Jennyanydots, I need to talk to you!" he yelled.

"No, Skimble. I cannot bear to face you after what I have done. Please, leave me alone."

"But I've done something terrible!"

Jenny was a bit puzzled by this. "No, you haven't, dear. I have. I am the terrible one here." Having to fend him off like this was just doing miracles for her self-image.

"I never even gave you a chance to explain anything! I need to hear you! Please, open up the door."

"Skimble, you are not making this easy for me. Please, just go!"

There was moment of silence. Jenny hoped that perhaps he had gotten the message and left. This was before she heard him give a mighty grunt and ram into the wooden planks separating them with all his might, sending the rock skidding far enough across the floor for him to open the door, slide in and press himself up against the wood so that she could not exit either.

"Jenny, I must explain something to you myself. I have absolutely no right whatsoever to stop you from seeing any tom that you want. I want you to have love in your life, and I want not to stop that. If the answer, as I feel it may be, for today's incident is that you indeed do love Bustopher Jones, then-"

"WHAT?" cried Jenny.

"-I want you to be happy…" finished Skimble. "What does 'WHAT?' mean?"

"How could you possible think that I loved BJ?"

"Well, for a start, you call him 'BJ'…"

"Bustopher Jones, then." Jenny said.

"Well, you were kissing him." Skimble explained.

"Oh my Everlasting Cat, Skimbleshanks, I was only kissing him to make you jealous!"

This stopped Skimble right in his tracks. She didn't love Bustopher Jones! That was amazing news. But… why would she want to make him jealous? It had made him absolutely miserable. Why she want to do that?

"But… why would you do such a thing, Jenny?"

Jenny looked down at her paws, obviously extremely embarrassed. "When you came back, you hardly seemed to notice me. I thought you didn't like me anymore. I wanted you to like me."

Skimble looked at her closely. She had obviously been crying. Her eyes were red and puffy, and a bit of that gunk she had had on her face had washed off. Her head fur was also starting to grow out again. She was starting to look like the old Gumbie Cat once more.

"That's not the way, lass. You should have tried to talk to me."

"I did!" Jenny cried. "And you ignored me!"

Skimble had always been known to get a bit swept up on his first night back to the Junkyard after a while. He hadn't realised that he had hurt Jenny so. And that was the problem!

"Jenny, dear… I'm so sorry."

As he gently leaned forward to put an arm around her, she quickly swatted it away.

"I'm sorry too." She spluttered, wiping a tear or two from her eyes. "I never realised what a burden I must have been on you. It wasn't until Bomba told me that I even had a clue."

"Wait, what?"

"Bomba told me." she reapeated. "She told me how queens like me can be so annoying to you toms, and I didn't want to do that to you… so I let her change me."

Skimble thought that he was beginning to understand. "So, that's why…" he gestured to her new head fur and make-up.

"Yes that's why I looked different." she looked up at him nervously, as if she was afraid that he may just evaporate at any moment if she wasn't careful. "I didn't want to kiss him, Skimble. I really didn't. But after you came back, and I found out that it hadn't made a difference at all, and Bomba told me I had to, I just felt like I needed to just to get your attention."

Skimble raised his eyebrows. It sounded like Bombalurina had been up to a little bit more than he had thought whilst he was away. But he wasn't too mad. He had seen her crying through a window in her den earlier. Poor dear. The way Tugger treated her was just atrocious. He then made a silent pact with himself that he would never treat Jennyanydots like that for as long as he lived.

"Jenny, I just want you to know that I never want you to change a thing about yourself for me. Ever. I love you just that way you are."

Skimble was about to continue when he saw Jenny staring at him in amazement.

"You… love me?" she said quietly.

Skimble smiled at her with all the love that he had been holding up in his heart for so long.

"Yes, dear, and I forgive you."

In response, Jenny simply squealed with joy and hugged him so tightly that the air was completely knocked out of him. Partly to save himself and partly because he wanted to know, he then asked her: "And do you forgive me?"

Much to his relief, the queen did let go of him, looking at him in disbelief. "What on earth for?"

"Oh, I dunno, perhaps for ignoring you to the point that you felt to need to wear make-up and kiss another tom just to get me to notice you?"

Jenny laughed uncomfortably, but then smiled sincerely. "Yes, I forgive you."

They hugged again. Then, Skimble got an idea.

"Have you got anything important planned for the next few days?"

"Well, I'm on kitten-sitting duty tomorrow…"

Apparently, Skimble did not deem this enough of a reason to not grab Jenny's paw and pull her out into the dusky evening light.

"Where on earth are you taking me?" Jenny giggled girlishly.

"You'll see." Skimble said with a wink.

"*"*"

The round-trip to Glasgow and back was a pleasant trip.

Or Skimble had assured her so when they reached the platform. Although the weather in Glasgow was certainly questionable this time of year, as Skimble grabbed her paw and pulled her up the stairs to the hallway of the train, she could not have possibly been more optimistic about her upcoming trip.

Back at the Junkyard, apart from Skimble quickly whispering to Munkustrap where they were going so that nobody worried about them, they had left pretty quickly. Jenny had also dropped by to tell Electra (her official Gumbie Cat-in-training) that if she just put on Jenny's orange and yellow coat and went up near to the insects' and rodents' tree-trunk, they should stay in order at least until they got back.

Skimble led her through the hallways, until they got to what appeared to be the back of the train. Jennyanydots had never been on a train before, and although she must admit that whilst it was moving it was a bit dizzying to walk around, it was exciting nonetheless.

"Follow me." Skimble whispered. She did so, following him through what appeared to be some sort of grate. She jumped out of it, nimbly landed on her paws behind Skimble. She swivelled around to see where she was, and then she realised why Skimble had taken her here. They were standing on a small ledge on the end of the train (which thankfully had bars in front of to keep them from toppling onto the track), but that wasn't the special thing. Because from there, the cats could get a perfect view of the Jellicle moon.

"Oh, Skimble!" she exclaimed. "It's so lovely!"

Skimble, in response, took her up into his arms, and gently kissed her.

Now Jenny knew what a kiss was meant to feel like. And frankly, nothing could be more perfect.

*"*"*

A/N: And… it's over. I hope you liked it. Please review, and I'll hopefully be posting some new Cats fanfics soon.

Hugs to all you readers, reviewers and generally amazing Cats fans,

MoonlightSongs