Meggy shook her head, and chuckled at Chloe's question. "No, we have lots of kittens around here. S'mores is just the bravest of the batch. The kittens spend most there time hiding behind the t.v. in the cat basket with their mommy." She watched Tses slowly pet the kitten, and looked down at David for a moment before speaking.

"Tses comes and helps us out when she can. David and I appreciate it. But you have to forgive her for keeping to herself. She doesn't like when people find out she's got a soft spot." She grinned a toothy grin and Tses looked up and glared at the old woman.

"I don't have a soft spot, you old bat. S'mores is gonna be a tough alley cat one day. I don't have to have a soft spot for a wild cat." She said, sticking out her tongue. The statement seemed rude but Meggy just laughed again.

"You're just like an alley cat Tses. All hiss but even you need attention sometime."

The interaction showed a clear friendship between the two females. They didn't talk much about personal matters, but they didn't need to. There just seemed to be something closer between them that didn't need all the secrets.

Butterfly got up to peer behind the tv to where the kittens might be hiding. As she walked over slowly, she heard the cat lady speak about Tses and nodded her head, thinking to herself "That definitely seems like Tses." when all of a sudden she heard Tses's retort back. Butterfly spun around and stood with her mouth agape, surprised at what Tses had said. When the cat lady laughed, Butterfly relaxed a little and let out a heavy sigh. She then returned to finding the kittens and peered behind the tv to see a basket with 5 or 6 kittens in it. She didn't see the mama cat and assumed that she was either eating or came out when she and Tses got there. She looked over at the Meggy and asked "Can I hold one of them? Since Tses has S'mores and isn't willing to share." as she glanced over at Tses with a smirk.

Tses stuck her tongue out at Chloe, while Meggy chuckled once more. "Of course you can dear. They do love being held. Just be careful. The other cats will get jealous if you give one too many attention. Won't they David?" She cooed at her favorite, and S'mores butted his head against Tses hand. A few of the little kittens batted at Butterfly's legs and mewed piteously.

"Tses isn't much of a sharer. At least when people are looking. David thinks she fancies herself as a Batman sort of figure. The lone wolf only doing justice without reward."

"You've got a few nuts loose you old fart. You act like I'm secretly a nice person or something. Batty liar." She growled. Meggy laughed some more.

"What about you Chloe? Tell us about yourself? David just loves hearing stories." She smiled encouragingly, rocking in her chair and petting the cat on her lap who was watching attentively.

Butterfly picked up a fluffy calico colored kitten that she found was playing with her feet. She laughed at it's adorableness and stroked along its back and scratched its head as she walked back over to the couch and sat down next to Tses. Butterfly smiled and tried hard to conceal a laugh at the banter that was going on between Meggy and Tses. She thought it was hilarious and hid her laughs in going back immersing herself in playing with the kitten that she was holding. She waved her fingers in front of the kitten and giggled as the kitten tried to clasp her fast moving fingers in her paws.

She was still playing with the kitten when all of a sudden Meggy asked her to tell her and David about herself. This startled Butterfly and she blushed and kinda closed up, thinking about the life she had. She didn't wanna bring everyone down with her history. Butterfly sorta sheepishly looked back at the kitten and said "You don't wanna hear about me. I'm not that interesting and I don't really have any good stories to tell. The only good things that have happened to me so far have been after coming to New York."

The elderly lady stubbornly shook her head and David let out a mew of sadness. The kittens around her feet also mewed, mostly just to echo their older role model. "Dearie, of course we want to hear about you. We don't get many visitors, so we enjoy meeting the ones we do." Tses gave a little shrug of her shoulders and pet the kitten in her lap. It kneaded her legs then settled down into a tiny little ball of fur.

"Tell us about your hometown or something. Maybe a favorite store, place to hang out?" Tses tried to help out. She acted unconcerned but knew Meggy really did appreciate the conversation. The old lady was leaning forward, wrinkly little arms resting lightly on her floral dress and her eyes were kind, even with their fading eyesight.

Butterfly slowly returned her gaze to Meggy and looked over to Tses before she collected her thoughts of memories that she would tell. She thought about the mother who never wanted to spend time with her. The father she never knew who turned out to be a horrible man and the things that he had done to Ty. She thought about the loneliness, never having friends and being bullied and beat up as a kid. Butterfly's eyes began to fill with tears as she began to tell Meggy about her sad life before she came to New York, "I'm from Macon, Ga. I used to live in an apartment with my mom on a pretty shady part of the city. I never had any friends and my mom never really was around, at least none of it was to spend any time with me. I don't know what I did to make her not want me. My room and my books were my escape, my way to forget the loneliness. And I never knew my dad, but now that I know how he was I'm glad I didn't. I just wished that my brother hadn't known him either. I didn't even know I had a brother until I came to New York. And the only reason I came here was because my apartment got broken into the night my mom left me and I got scared and just tried to get as far from there as I could and the train didn't go any further than New York. I'm much more happy here than I ever was in Macon." Butterfly lowers her head and begins petting the kitten she's holding again, trying to avoid eye contact as she wipes away her tears and sniffles.

Well....this had taken a depressing turn.

Tses was not the best when it came to dealing with sad people. In fact, she was downright awkward when people started to cry. It made her feel like tiny needles were stabbing her into the base of the spine, and all she wanted to do was scramble away where she wouldn't have to feel empathy. Sure, she had convinced Chloe to tell them about herself. She hadn't quite expected all the... reality.

Tses knew life sucked. She spent her life on her own, with little to no direction to guide her. She knew what it was like for a parent to never be there for you. But tears just seemed like a waste. That didn't mean she didn't understand how someone could feel sad though. She had, on lonely nights sitting on a roof, wishing for something better. That pain, acute as a knife sticking in her ribs, a cutting pain that made breathes difficult to find and made it feel like you were carrying some heavy object on your back when there was nothing but air.

She knew that pain.

But she didn't know how to respond when someone else faced it.

But Meggy did.

Meggy was a good listener. As Tses started to squirm a bit, the old woman's eyes stayed focused on the younger girl, listening to the story. At the end, she gave a small smile, and David gave a mew of encouragement. "Sometimes, life puts us where we need to be. Not everything in our pasts are happy. Sometimes, there is much that makes us sad. Someone once said ---and my age makes it difficult for me to remember who---'When we meet real tragedy in life, we can react in two ways--either by losing hope and falling into self-destructive habits, or by using the challenge to find our inner strength.'. Perhaps coming here to the city is just a test to find your own strength."[/color]

Tses just blinked in shock. In all her years knowing the cat-lady, she never heard her speak of herself. It was always 'David'. There was a flicker of a younger woman, there, just for a second, then it was gone and she was cooing at the kitten again. "Things will get better, won't they David?"

Butterfly still sat with her eyes squinted shut and sniffling as her mind reminisced about those days. She hated it. She wished that she could forget all of those memories, the loneliness, the hurt, the anger, the depression she always tried to conceal and hide from people. She listened as Meggy spoke and tried to focus her mind on her words. Butterfly just felt like crawling into a ball, wishing she couldn't feel anything, but somehow Meggy's words got to her. "Maybe I am here for something, worth something. I have to be strong for my brother. He's what truly matters to me. Maybe, just maybe things will get better. And I'll be able to really figure out what I'm meant to do." Butterfly thought to herself. She glances over at Tses and saw the look of shock on her face. "I'm sorry Tses. I didn't mean to be so emotional." she said as she went back to petting the kitten in her arms. "Meggy, you're right, though I don't know what my inner strength is. Or exactly what I'm meant to do. I guess this is how my Mom felt when she left me to 'go find herself'. Meggy, how do you know about all of this and have so much wisdom?" Butterfly asked as she looked thoughtfully at the woman with the slightest hint of a smile.

As the shock settled, Tses gave a little half smile, and S'mores batted her hand in reassurance. At least the tears were stopping a bit. Otherwise that would have been a very uncomfortable silence with just Chloe crying and Meggy cooing at the cats. "It's fine. It happens... I am just not great with all the crying stuff. Nothing personal." She remarked quickly so Chloe wouldn't feel worse.

Meggy chuckled slightly at the question directed towards her. "We learn a lot through experience. David and I have been alone for a very long time, but we had friends and family for that much longer. You learn to be wise when you learn to listen and accept whatever life gives you, or whatever angels come along your way. You learn not to be picky what shape your blessing come in: you just learn to accept the blessing when they're there."

Tses shifted uncomfortably, catching a slight glance from the corner of the old woman's eye. She sent back to petting the kitten, avoiding the conversation again. She wasn't trying to be anyone's 'blessing'. In fact, she was typically the opposite. But there were the rare occasions she helped someone like Meggy and that seemed to put a little clearing on her otherwise flawed record.

Butterfly listened to the wise old woman's explanation, letting the words sink into her mind. She went back to petting the kitten, not even realizing what its name was. Without looking up, she said, "Thanks Meggy and Tses. What's this kitten's name anyway?" Butterfly kinda went silent for a while. She didn't know what else to say. She could talk about her brother, but she knew that would make Tses feel awkward, so she refrained from bringing him back up in conversation. But she smiled as she thought back to the memories she had made upon meeting her brother for the first time and them spending time with him. She giggled slightly at herself as she kept playing with the kitten and then thought about how mean she had been when they first met, picking on him for being so afraid of a poodle and teasing him about it. She knew that if anything tried to harm her brother now since they had gotten close, there was no mistake that she would do anything that she could to protect him. Then she thought about Tses and she looked over at her and said, "Tses, you know you really are a blessing. Even if you don't want to accept it. You could have just ignored me or left me to die earlier, but you didn't and you've been so nice to me. I really appreciate it."

Tses glanced at the kitten in Chloe's arms, and gave a small smile as she looked it over. "That one is Frost. The little runt next to her is Goliath." It was a joke Meggy and her had come up with, and secretly, they hoped the small kitten never grew to be full sized. It had a big heart, but a small body.

The next few comments made Tses fidget a little, and she looked back down at S'mores. "Kinda melodramatic there... you wouldn't have died, you're a tough kid. You've been doing well so far, haven't you?" She glanced at Chloe, gave her a half smile to prove she wasn't trying to be mean. "I'm not a blessing. Never on purpose at least. Anytime I do something right it's kinda an accident. So I guess I'm glad this time I accidentally sorta helped out." She pet the kitten, then felt restless and got back to her feet.

Butterfly smiled as she learned the kittens name and chuckled a little about the smaller kitten being named Goliath. When things turned to her more truthful and honest thoughts, Butterfly looked over at Tses and said somewhat seriously, "You think I've been doing well. I've been scared to death and I don't know what to do. I try to make it seem like I'm fine, but I'm not really. That's all my life has been, really. Putting up a front to make other people and myself believe that I'm okay when I don't know what to do with myself from one moment to the next. I wish I could tell you that what I'm saying is all just a joke, but it's not. Tses, you'll never know how grateful I am for the things you've done for me." She glanced back down at the kitten, wishing her brother were there to hug her. She missed him so much and the magnitude of his absence was really starting to weigh on her mind.

Tses looked out the window, quiet for a moment. She fidgeted, uncomfortable still with the conversation, but a glance out of the corner of her eye brought her gaze to the elderly woman's. She gave her an encouraging smile, so she put aside her pride and spoke up, turning to face Chloe.

"I've been scared to death most my life. I've been on my own since I was a kid, I've been living on the streets for ten years. Didn't have a house, didn't have a family. There was no way 'up'. And you know, making it seem like you're ok is part of dealing with it. You put aside your fear and focus on survival until you have time to register what you're feeling."

She sad on the edge of the couch, pushed her hair from her face and sighed. "I can tell you, it'll get better though. You're doing ok, whether you feel like it or not. Sometimes, surviving is all you have to do. You just hold on until things get better and if you make it. The more you struggle the stronger you can get. Maybe you need help every once and awhile. Maybe this time I helped you. But that doesn't mean you aren't already doing well enough on your own and your not getting somewhere."

It was all profound and touching... and then the discomfort set in and she looked away again, down at the kittens begging for her attention.

She wished Ty was here too. He was a lot better and dealing with all the sads and the tears...

Butterfly sat solemnly as she listened to Tses speak. Tses may have been a loose end every now and then and she may have a hard time with emotions, but she could be pretty wise and comforting when she wanted to be. She petted a few of the kittens that were close to her, smiling at Goliath as he went and pawed at her shirt.

When Tses got done speaking, Butterfly leaned over and gave her a hug and squeezed tightly as she whispered to her, "Thanks Tses. For everything. I don't know what I would do without you. You're like the big sister I never had. I love you." She sat there with her head on Tses's shoulder and arms still around her and hoped that Tses would just comfort her, like her brother would. Butterfly might have been 19, but that didn't mean that she didn't have her moments of feeling like a scared kid, of needing comfort and love shown to her.

Tses didn't know how to respond to Chloe's actions. The hug sent her mind back to a time she hardly remembered, and a younger sister she tried to forget. The smile, the words... it hurt, but, it hurt in a way she forgot her heart could. There was a comfort there, a feeling of connection. She did something that mattered, if even for a moment. Maybe they wouldn't find Ty, maybe they would. Maybe things would work out, maybe they wouldn't. But she hugged Chloe back for the moment anyway, and gave a sad smile.

"Love you too kid. No matter what happens if you need a big sister I'll be there." And she meant it. In the rocking chair, Meggy just smiled quietly and the kittens continued romping as if there wasn't a care in the world.