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A: Oh you were a wily one; a sly, cagey tiger. Your sleek crimson fur streaked with black, your yellow eyes seeming to glow. Dangerous? Certainly, thrillingly so.
It was a source of pleasure to get near to you. But we had to be careful, we couldn't get closer than this.
There was no one else I wanted like I wanted you. The way we talked, the connection we shared. Not that I could trust everything you said, you were a demon after all; you lied. But now when I look back I think maybe we both lied to ourselves.
We’d slip through the streets while everyone slept. From Rome to London, Edinburgh to Uz. Again and again, six millennia of circling each other. Repeatedly drawn to one another, like we were linked, a ball of yarn tethering us to each other. We were always opposite poles, magnetically pulled together. From the very beginning, from before even that. From the very birth of the first stars. Bigger and brighter.
Of course, we were sworn enemies, like alley cats who’d bite and scratch and scream all night. From our drunken banter to our heated arguments, always caterwauling. That clever tongue of yours would trip me up, make my certainties uncertain. No more black and white, instead shades of grey. We threw all the rules I knew out the window, into the sea.
You and me, we carved out our own side, a group of the two of us. All these years and no one heard. It was a precious, but a treacherous thing. there were times I feared I was damned and times I hoped it was all just part of some cosmic joke, part of Her ineffable plan.
...I miss you.
…
C: You're so wonderfully, wonderfully pretty, with your pure white fur and eyes like sapphires, you could surely win all the pedigree prizes. You are a Duchess amongst cats, your elegance had me like putty in your paws. You knew that I'd do anything for you.
From lending a hand as part of our arrangement to my daring chivalrous rescues, I’d always turn up in the nick of time. We would share a companionable conversation and I’d indulge you in your little temptations. Crêpes in Paris perhaps, or tea at the Ritz. Watching you eat might be my second favourite hobby. The delicate way you would lap up cream, the sounds you would make. Foreplay with fondant fancies.
Then back to your bookshop to curl up by the fire and sleep for a while, while you read the next critically acclaimed novel. It was almost enough, but you aren't the only one who is greedy, and I wanted more. I wanted to run off together, into the stars, you and me. It was a fantasy I had, the grooviest thing, the perfect dream.
But you said no.
So we stayed to face certain ruin and somehow survived. I’d like to say it was our feline reflexes or our cunning, but perhaps it was nothing more than sheer dumb luck. I’ve learnt not to question things, not always anyway. Curiosity killed the cat, or at least sent him on a million lightyear freestyle dive into a pool of boiling sulphur.
And so we found ourselves in an uneasy truce with our superiors. We had landed the right way round, paws down heads up. We made it through hell fire and holy water in one piece. And we were free.
And then I kissed you, and that went down like a lead balloon.
...I miss you. You're so clever. How can someone as clever as you be so stupid? How could I miss someone as dumb as this?
I love you, let's go!