Night's Omen

Ren had been spending a lot of time in the Hellcat's Hollow, off and on, because it was social interaction while still being entirely safe.  Elke could trust Dave and Ash (not to mention Darren, who had promised not to disappoint her in any way, shape or form, especially if he got more Elke kisses out of the deal) to keep her dependent little mess of a cougar safe, and he was slowly getting a grip on more human behavior.  He'd locked everything up tight, but he was starting to show a personality again, other than just afraid, and though he still seemed awkward in situations that he used to be able to brush right through without a problem, he was making progress.  He still wasn't fond of men, though.  Ash and Dave were helping with that in a lot of ways, particularly since Dave LOOKED intimidating, and Ash both smelled and felt dangerous.  Ren had eventually become comfortable with them during his little visits, and he was even getting used to the myriad of smells he ran into all the time in the Hollow.  He wasn't there often enough to know about their newest employee, though.

It must have been bad timing on his part, or excellent scheduling on Ash's, that he and Fairfax were never in the building together.  Either way, today's visit hadn't exactly been planned, and Ren was sitting at the bar chatting quietly with Dave while he nursed a coke for at least ten minutes before he noticed anything strange.

What.  Was.  That.  Smell.

His eyes were always gold anymore, which didn't help him look particularly well-recovered, but he'd spent far too much time in cougar form.  His canines had even elongated some, though the most damage was mental.  He was definitely displaying that currently, with his golden eyes scanning the room.

"Hey, Ren, you okay?" Dave asked, obviously noticing and getting suspicious.  He didn't need the kid spazzing out.

"Er, yeah, Dave.  I'm fine," Ren returned, looking back to the werewolf with a small smile.  He wanted to be reassuring, but he also wanted to know what that smell was.  Even worse was that he was well enough mentally that he KNEW he worried people, which only made it more difficult for him.  Sure, it made him want to get better, but it meant that he knew when they were worried and thinking he was messed up, and that wasn't good for his confidence levels.  He was at the point of trying to hide his slip-ups.  Like that one.  Still, though...

What the hell was he smelling?  He didn't like it.

Fairfax was having a jolly good time at his keyboard, twisting his fingers around a particularly convoluted, improvised jazz riff, and humming somewhat obliviously to himself (a nonexistent melody). He eventually ran out of ideas and threw together a slipshod ending before lifting his hands with flourish from the keys, and then settled them in his lap with a sigh. Then a few deep breaths. Guh, hopefully his asthma wasn't acting up. I'll grab a drink and relax for a bit, he decided, scooting and turning away from the keyboard and preparing to stand...

The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. What the... Instantly ill at ease, Fax cast a glance towards the door. No, no one had opened it...and besides, it was rather a warm evening, why on Earth would...?

Oh, that was definitely a smell, not a sensation or feeling. And not a good smell, not in the slightest. This was the sort of smell that made Fax uncomfortably aware of the stirring feline in the back of his mind, almost shifting in its sleep and growling, making its presence known. For Fax, he and his inner cougar were two distinct beings: he could borrow the cat's heightened senses and utilize them like the shifter he was, but this kitty wouldn't come out to play easily. Fax was too grounded a human for such things, particularly now that he'd been a shifter for a few months.

So this was not good. Something was making him anxious, or, that is, making his cougar anxious, anxious enough to blur the line just a bit. Nerves rattled, he cast his eyes around the room, sniffing tentatively, trying to track down...

Whoa. Feck. He'd been out 'people watching' (and thus 'smelling') enough to learn what different shifters smelled like, and he was smelling another feline. Not Liten, not Allison. Someone NEW. And yet oddly familiar.

And very offputting.

He squinted at the bar. Was it coming from the bar? Unconsciously, he was running his hand over his keyboard, almost protectively.

It didn't take Simon nearly as long to figure out what the smell was, even trying to dodge Dave's curious glances as he worked.  His golden eyes finally landed on the piano bench, his nose slowly narrowing it down to that particular person.

His eyes narrowed suddenly, understanding.

Intruder!

That cougar didn't BELONG here.  This was HIS place!  What was HE doing here? 

It wasn't as though he could just raise his hackles or shriek his warning, but it was there in the look on his face, and he was seriously DARING that other cougar to stay.  To approach would be a certain challenge.  He wanted Fairfax OUT.  NOW.

The line between human and feline was becoming more and more blurred as the scent shifted from unsettling to threatening, a distinction that even Fax could recognize before he caught Simon's eye.

And things went downhill from there.

It was a frightening moment, particularly for one as easily intimidated as Fax. These were very angry kitty eyes staring him down, and under other circumstances, Fairfax would have liked nothing better than to bolt. That probably would have been the case had he been just about anywhere else inside of the Hollow...but as luck would have it, Simon had caught him sitting right beside his keyboard. This, more than anything, was HIS spot. His little nook. He'd grown quite fond of his time at the Hollow, and spent his best hours sitting right here, plunking away. It was plenty for his cougar side to work with, especially when both halves were bleeding into each other so much at the moment.

Nuh-uh. Not his...

OH GOD LOOK AWAY.

No, no! Mine!

LOOKAWAYLOOKAWAYSCARYRUN.

This is MINE.

In the end, Fax simply stared back, unmoving, although his fear was likely manifest. The situation was intense enough that his cougar was struggling to peek through, demanding that it take charge; Fax hadn't the slightest clue that there was a goldish cast to his normally pale, olive eyes.

I'm not going ANYWHERE. Pleasedon'thurtme.

Simon had NEVER before been terribly aggressive, though he hadn't been one to just run away at the first sign of trouble.  Now, he preferred to get away if he could help it, but there were still just SOME things that he wasn't running from, apparently.  And why SHOULD he run?  He was a COUGAR, not just a human anymore to be abused as someone else wanted!  This other cat was NOT going to beat him, was NOT going to intimidate him.

This was HIS place.  HIS territory.

A staring contest wasn't going to solve this, though he saw the way the other cat's eyes were starting to turn gold.  The cat was coming, and he would meet it.  In fact, perhaps heading it off was the best idea.

Dave gave him a funny look as he got up from his seat at the bar to approach Fairfax, but really, who would expect two normally calm, quiet individuals to have a problem?

Ha.

BLOODY FECKING HELL.

The other cat was coming over, oh LORD, he was advancing! Absolute nonconfrontational coward that he was, Fairfax nearly panicked and fled. Nearly. But his inner cougar put its foot down, persuading him that this was not the time to be running like a blooming nancy-- this MATTERED.

This is my place, what the devil does he think he's doing here??

He can have it! RUN!

MINE.

RUN.

MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!

RUUUUUUUUUUN!

Crack. Thump-A#-diminished-major-seventh/V-with-a-hint-of-augmented-insanity. HISS!

Those would be the sounds of Fax turning to run, his knee colliding with the piano bench, springing backwards only to bump dramatically into the piano, and then whirling back to face Simon, catching his eye, and doing the first thing that instinctively jumped to mind: hissing.

It was a clumsy way to decide to hold his ground, but hold his ground he did. This was HIS piano! Er, place. Territory.

Simon could smell fear, not a good thing for Fax, and he actually smiled somewhat.  The problem with him was that the line between cat and human was so completely muddled and mixed up that it wasn't much of a line, so even now, when he was human enough to smile, he was cat enough to fight for territory.

He was a sad, mixed up individual, but he was going to WIN.

Ren didn't hiss back, but he approached slowly, more than prepared to jump the other cougar in an instant, a growl rising in his throat instead of that warning hiss.  As far as he was concerned, Fairfax had no room to be warning HIM.  This was HIS place, and he was going to drive this other cat out.

Period.

If anything, the sounds that the piano had made only startled and further irritated him, which was why he'd flinched and stared at the thing, but otherwise kept approaching.  Dave was, unfortunately, in the kitchen at this point, and Ren would ensure that this was finished before he came back.  In fact...

One wrong move, and he was pouncing.

Fax was going to be in serious trouble if he didn't stop resisting his feline side from spilling out into the open. All of his human-based fear was ruining his chances of making it out of this situation scot-free or without injury.

So, it was actually a good thing when Simon growled: it didn't matter how utterly freaked out Fairfax was by this entire situation, or how frightened he was, there was a half of him that wasn't going to TAKE THAT GROWL LYING DOWN.

This time there was no sound effect, but something probably went 'snap' in Fax's mind. His inner cougar flooded forward gratefully, mixing nicely with his human reasoning instead of completely compromising his senses. If there was anything Fax felt strongly about, passionately, even, it was music. His keyboard. And therefore, rather suddenly, the piano WAS his territory, this other cougar was dangerously close to encroaching on that territory, and HEY NOW BACK OFF.

No bloody way he was giving up his keyboard, even if this competitor wanted the rest of the damned place for himself. Fax leaned forward slightly, tense, and growled back. Bugger off.

Alright, enough build-up.  The other cat wasn't going to back off, had issued his own challenge, and was obviously going to fight for it.  So, that was that.

Simon switched from a mostly human stance to a cougar flying at Fax in an instant, and there was no going back.  He actually felt better in his cougar form.  Stronger, more capable, more dangerous.  He didn't feel so vulnerable and strange.  He'd certainly begun to get used to his human form and personality again, but there were still...inconsistencies.  Right then, there were no issues.  It was just the other cat that was the problem.  This was HIS place, Elke's place, and there didn't need to be another male cougar in it.

His attack was silent.  It didn't need sound.  Alerting Dave was the last thing anyone needed, and the last thing on Ren's mind.  It was that cat, making contact, and teaching him about territory that mattered.

Thank goodness for Fax that he had finally relented and allowed his feline instincts to guide him in this situation: otherwise, he would have just stood there, shocked and human, as a cougar leaped with every intention of causing him a great deal of bodily harm. Instead --with his own half-crazed voice howling DON'T KNOCK OVER THE KEYBOARD! inside his mind-- he also shifted, and had just enough time to begin to twist in the opposite direction of the piano. It wasn't quite enough to get out from underneath Simon, not a bit, and the other cougar slammed bodily into him.

And now things would get interesting. Fax was pleading with himself to try and at least move this fight away from his precious instrument, but he had to be kidding himself if he actually believed he could control a fight like this. Hell, he was lucky to even be thinking or believing or kidding or doing anything remotely human.

Actually, that wasn't lasting long. Soon he was a bit too preoccupied with keeping his aggressor away from his throat to be worrying about trivial things like that piano bench getting knocked over...bumping the keyboard stand...wait, WAIT, TERRITORY, MY TERRITORY--!!

Fax was coming out on the bottom of this fight so far, and his 'territory' was threatening to come crashing down. Time to voice his frustrating as only a cougar can, and oh LORD, did he ever voice it. He might have even finally gotten a blindly slashing paw to connect with his target...

Elke showed up, as usual, just at the absolute most important moment possible. Simon and Fax's hissing had alerted her senses, and she'd had to abandon her conversation outside with Ash, who'd stopped her on the way in to talk to her about Simon's recovery. The noises inside had peaked, and she'd moved so quickly that the Triste hadn't had to, which was something in and of itself - Ash would do well to employ her as a bouncer after this small feat of strength, something she rarely displayed.

Fax's paw connected with thin air as Simon would suddenly find his eyes wide and bulging. Elke's grip was firm and sharp, and she scruffed him like a mama cat would, yanking him up and out of the way, and slamming him down on his back to expose his belly. Elke was the dominant cat in this equation, suddenly. It was a hilarious thing to behold, the slender small brunette suddenly whipping a full grown male cougar out of the air, but to those parties involved, it was less than humorous.

"ENOUGH!" she commanded, her voice booming with power - and anger. It took a lot to provoke Elke, but when she was there, she was really there. A hand snapped out, fast as lightning, to intercept Fairfax's paw and slam him down on his back as well.

She would not release either of them, regardless of their struggle, and put a knee down on Simon's chest (thank god she was wearing jeans, for once). She inched down 'til she was millimeters from his nose.

"NO. BAD."

She turned to Fax.

"BAD."

Let the guilt begin.

---

Sorry for any powerplays, lemme know if I need to change 'em. This was a little complicated since Inoni wasn't on AIM.

In the front of his kitty cat brain was obviously the fight itself, dealing with this opposing cougar, but there was also the fact that he knew he was going to win.  Everything about the way the other cat moved told him that there was no way he was going to lose, and then he felt it.

Elke!

He looked towards the door for an instant to see her looking more angry than he'd seen her since she woke up with a young man in her bed, and he instantly shrank before that anger once more.  His eyes twisted back to see the blow he was about to take, hard, and it actually made no sense to him that he didn't feel it a second later.

Oh.  Elke.

There was no way in HELL that he was going to squirm and fight with HER when she snatched him up by the scruff of the neck, and he stayed RIGHT where she put him on the floor.  This was ELKE, and he did as he was told.  'NO. BAD.' was a bad sign, and he completely ignored Ash walking in the door after Elke and regarding the situation as much as he ignored Dave standing at the bar with a shocked look on his face.  Elke was what mattered.  Even the other cat in his place, in ELKE'S place, didn't bother him immediately.

At least Fax was 'BAD', too. 

Perhaps lying flat on his back, pinned by this little vampire, was not the most dignified of positions for Fairfax to find himself in as he was jolted back to his senses (such as they were)...but he was not mortified for long. Nor did he maintain his human senses --currently reeling, anyway-- much longer than that. Recognition of Elke's presence (rather than some arbitrary interloper slamming some sense into his brain) brought back the cat almost instantly, and upon hearing the fated "BAD" from her lips, he was disposed to cower.

Quite pathetically, really. In addition to the devastation inspired by ELKE being the one admonishing him, Fairfax simply couldn't stand being yelled at. His gentle, nervous disposition was indeed rather delicate when it came to such matters-- he strove so hard, normally, to get along with everyone he met and do his best not to upset anyone, so to receive such an angry, harsh reprimand from someone he admired so....

Sad kitty. Very sad, very distressed kitty.

Ignoring the laughter from Dave in the background as the pixie-sized woman body-slammed two large cats, Elke continued with her tirade. She sensed clearly that both of them recognized that they were in trouble, and that was fine. She gradually slid her knee off of Simon's chest, knowing he was more worried about what she was going to do than what the other cat would do at the moment.

"Up," she commanded, snapping her fingers. "Get back into your other form so I can yell at you more appropriately." Elke probably wasn't really going to yell, but she needed to establish that in this equation, she was mama cat, and her two... kittens weren't allowed to beat the living crap out of eachother in plain sight, regardless of whether or not they were safe here in the Hollow.

"Now," she said, folding her arms. "Explain. Fax, first."

Fax instantly obeyed, assuming his human form and cowering just as effectively as he had as a cougar-- probably more so, considering how particularly nonthreatening a human he happened to be. His explanation was punctuated by frequent apologies, wringing hands, and shuddering gasps. He was speaking far too quickly, and in considerable emotional distress, at that. This was NOT cropping up to be a pleasant evening.

"I'm sorry! I didn't do anything, I swear! I did nothing! It was all him, honest, he was looking at me--" he realized that sounded like a poor excuse for violence-- "sorry, I-I assure you it was a NASTY look, quite nasty, I hadn't done a thing to him, sitting inoffensively at my piano while he's...he's KNIFING me from across the room with his bloody eyes! Unprovoked!" To Simon, vexed: "It was fecking RUDE!" To Elke, mortified: "I'm sorry! I don't...can't imagine why I'm..."

His breathlessness was catching up to him, finally. He wasn't reaching for his inhaler just yet-- not until he was convinced that Elke wouldn't blame him for this fiasco. His eyes were wide and pleading. "Dunno...what happened..." he insisted. "Attacked...my keyb-- I mean...me...!"