Title: Better Than A Prince
Author: Kat Lee
Fandom: Aristocats with a surprise Crossover cameo
Character/Pairing: Thomas/Duchess, Marie/?
Rating: PG/K+
Challenge/Prompt: #125: Scales
Warning(s): None
Word Count: 1,098
Summary:
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to Disney, not the author, and are used without permission.



She's been a good kitty all her life. She's practiced her scales and arpeggios with true dedication and has never strayed far from her family. She's always had a yearning for a good adventure or, better yet, a great love story, but she's never gone off on her own to pursue one. She's stayed close to home except for the time that Edgar took her family, including herself, off into the countryside and tried to get rid of them.

Her mother, Duchess, has told her many times that that should have been more than of an adventure to last her a lifetime, but Marie quietly disagrees. That was the wrong kind of adventure, although the ending of the story was fabulous. Her mother and their hero, Thomas O'Malley, fell in love, and their family grew by leaps and bounds. Scat Cat and his gang are almost mainstays at home now, or at least they were up until last week when her father chased his old friend, Siam, away for, as he'd said with such silliness, looking at her in the wrong way.

She still doesn't quite understand what that means. She and Siam had been having fun, and she's been bored ever since Thomas sent him away. But now there's anew kitty looking in on her from the window that over looks the backyard where Roquefort says he has extended family living. Marie has never been in the backyard, but to hear her friend talk about it, it must be a fascinating but scary place. She's invited Roquefort to move his family inside, but he always declines, saying they don't like to live indoors and would rather take their chances outside. She doesn't understand that, but she doesn't push. She doesn't push any one any more,especially now that her brothers have been grown up and are fathers now themselves.

She has also grown, but her parents don't want to see that. It's not as if she ever speaks of leaving home, Marie reflects, padding closer to the window to inspect her visitor more properly. She has no intentions of leaving Duchess, Madame, or any of the others. Her whole family is here, so if she is to have an adventure, it's to happen here or, at the very least, have the common courtesy not to cause her to wander too far from home. She's had enough of that for the rest of her nine lives, thank you very much.

The cat on the other side of the window meows as Marie jumps up to look at him through the glass. It's definitely a tom, she thinks, and one who certainly isn't too refined. Why, she doubts he's ever practiced a scale or an arpeggio in his life! But he is cute enough, she supposes with his black and white fur.

She's just beginning to edge closer to the window when a mighty yowl rips through the kitchen. Marie scrambles backwards,upside down on all fours, as her father lands between her and her visitor. She hasn't seen Thomas look so wild and ferocious since the time he scared the human to get them a ride. She looks beyond his fully fluffed out bulk just in time to see the tip of her visitor's tail touch the window as he leaves.

"Dad!" Marie cries. "You did not have to do that!"

Thomas is still spitting when he turns around to face her. He forces himself to calm, licks a paw, and washes the top of his furry, orange head before answering her, "Yes, Marie, I did. You don't understand now,but you will one day. No common street cat is fit for my daughter!"

Marie almost reminds him that he was once a "common street cat" himself,but she holds her tongue simply because she's had this argument with him before. He's gotten so weird since her brothers grew up. He doesn't let her play with any one but Roquefort and her nieces and nephews. Still, she pouts, her fluffy, white tail drawing around her furry bum. "No, you didn't. We were just going to play."

"You do not want to play what he wanted to play!"

"How do you know? We didn't even get a chance to talk!"

"Because I know what he wants!"

"Sure you do,"Marie mews sarcastically back. "You know what every one wants." She rolls her blue eyes and flounces from the room.

Thomas sighs and shakes his head,then shoots a glower at the window to make sure the other tom is still gone. Duchess comes up and rubs her body against his. Purring, she kisses his cheek and reassures him softly, "She'll understand one day, Thomas."

"I wish that day was today!" He sighs, the fluff going out of his fur.

"I know, my dear. We only want the best for her."

He nods,but his little girl has walked away from him again. He lets himself drop to the floor. Duchess purrs and cuddles with him, but still, he can't quit thinking about all the strangers coming to "visit" his little Marie lately. "She deserves better than these . . . these thugs."

Duchess laughs.

"What?" he demands, his tail slapping the floor and his emerald eyes cutting jaggedly at her.

"Why, that is exactly what my mother would have said when we first met!"

"Well, you did, and she does, and besides, I'm not a thug!" He hits the floor with his tail again.

Duchess laughs and kisses him. "I know you think so, sweetheart. I got the one I wanted in you, and Marie does deserve better. She deserves a Prince."

"Better than a Prince," Thomas growls, still irritated.

Marie misses her mother's answer as Duchess laments quietly,"But one day, we are going to have to let her choose for herself much as Madame allowed me to choose you." Duchess kisses Thomas until she's eased away all of his anger, but Marie isn't so simple. She doesn't have any answers for her growing kitten, and she knows only time will prove who her match is to be.

Marie, meanwhile, has thrown herself, quite unladylike, into her own basket. They all have their own baskets now with the finest of pillows. She flops onto her back and gazes up at the picture she has hidden in the very top of her basket. A Prince from Agrabah smiles toothily back down at her, but Marie sighs and turns away. "I bet he'd said even you weren't good enough, Rajah," she says, but she knows it's a dream. She'll never get her Prince, but if her father has his way, she'll never get her mate,either.

The End