Title: Finding a Place
Fandom: Cats
Rating: Gen
Length: 1000 words
Summary: Cassandra still feels like a foreigner in the tribe. Alonzo inadvertently helps her find her place.



Jellicle Cats don't fight often. But when they are backed into a corner or some great wrong has been done against them, they will fight. And when they do, they fight hard: with tooth and claw and a deeply ingrained ferocity.

Cassandra was still young in the eyes of the tribe, having come to them only a scant few months before the 'incident', when she witnessed the strength of a Jellicle warrior for the first time. She watched, safely hidden and unknown to either fighter, as a Jellicle tussled with a street cat. At first she was taken aback by the violence in it, the vehemence with which the Jellicle attacked his foe. To be fully honest with herself, she had been frightened. She had been drawn into the Jellicle society in the first place because of their usually peaceable way of life.

She had considered leaving, striking back out on her own. But because the cat in question was a young heartthrob of a tom named Alonzo - who had perhaps piqued her interest even then - she had held on to her doubts in silence and, although the incident was repeated every few weeks, eventually let them fade. If others had been involved, perhaps she would have been more concerned. But it was not the others. It was always Alonzo, and his quarrels were never with Jellicles, but always with the street cats that lingered around the edges of the junk heap.

Her fears might have faded with time, but at first his behavior frightened her. She grew wary of him and questioned her place within a tribe that would welcome a tom like him. And then she grew curious, and curiosity brought understanding. It did not take her long to realize that Alonzo picked fights because he felt he had something to prove, and that this was something he might eventually outgrow.

She knew better than to get involved with a cat like him. He would bring her nothing but heartache, and yet she felt drawn to him more and more as the weeks went by. She knew better, but she was sure: there was hope for Alonzo yet.

There was no thought of leaving in her head now, months after she witnessed that first fight. She was sure this place could become her home. And Alonzo… he emerged from most of his battles with a few scrapes, but this latest had left him bloodied and beaten, the picture of a downtrodden warrior. She couldn't leave him alone in his hour of need.

She didn't know what he thought of her. She was a foreigner still, and shy with it. She had never worked up the courage to talk to him, had always only watched from afar and turned her eyes away in demure embarrassment if he spoke to her or seemed to notice her at all. She found the courage now, when the other queens eyed him askance and tutted amongst themselves about the sorry state of his looks and the even sorrier state of his reputation.

She didn't waste time; she gathered everything she might need, including a healthy helping of bravery, before she even ventured close. She heard the whispers start as soon as she approached him. Let them talk, she thought haughtily. Her mother had taught her something of the healing arts when she was a kitten. She might as well make use of what she had learned.

If he would let her.

It took everything in her to ask. "Does it hurt?"

He had been sulking for hours now, and at first did not seem to have heard her. Finally: "Not so much anymore," he lied.

"I can help, if you want."

"Hah. I don't even know you. What do you care?"

She hated to see him so bitter. Alonzo was nothing if not a good tom deep down inside, but he had a cocky streak a mile wide, and she had known from almost the moment she first saw him that it would get him into trouble one day. She might be young, but she wasn't stupid. Or blind. So she disregarded the harshness of his words and pressed onward. It grew easier the longer she kept at it. "I care enough to offer to help," she said.

The words, and probably her quiet tone, put him in his place much more effectively than the scoldings he often received from the older queens. He stared at her.

She gave a slight smile. "That's better. Now do you want my help or not?"

"Yeah, I guess," came the sullen reply.

She helped him down from his perch and to the hidden-away space she had prepared for her work. And by the time she had finished cleaning his wounds and applying such healing arts as she knew might help, he had regained some measure of the affable joviality that drew so many of the Jellicles - and the queens in particular - to him. Indeed, she had cleaned him up well. He looked very fine when he parted ways with her, and he was even joking again. This time when she heard the whispers start, she was pleased.

It had become the first day in a new chapter of Cassandra's life. Alonzo's acceptance had given her a new place in the tribe. One by one the others would come to her for healing, as Alonzo had. The other queens even began to warm up to her as the days and months went by.

And Alonzo became more than just her first patient. He became a friend and confidante and, later, her lover as well. And all because she had one day found the courage to show compassion where the others found only disdain. It had been frightening to make that move, but every time he flashed her that brilliant smile or gave her a look only she could interpret, she knew it had been worth it. She wouldn't have it any other way.