A/N: This is a one-shot.

Disclaimer: I don't own Lysander, and Castiel and Leigh since they're mentioned. They're just good-looking products of the game "My Candy Love", which I also don't own.

Gris

"With their qualities of cleanliness, discretion, affection, patience, dignity, and courage, how many of us, I ask you, would be capable of becoming cats?"

- Fernand Mery

"We're all mad here."

- The Cheshire Cat

Mae was thoroughly disgusted with the yapping, yowling chihuahua at her heels. She did love animals, that was no lie, but in this case, she had a cruel urge to kick the irritating thing to the heavens, where it would be coldly rejected and sent to a darker place. It was a vain thought, for she wouldn't be caught dead kicking any animal as long as it wasn't attacking her.

But it was the most annoying thing!

The yapping halted abruptly, a deep, gravelly, otherwise frightening growl erupting from somewhere nearby. Mae need not turn her head to examine the source. Surely it was Gris, the large, fat, ragged Maine Coon that accompanied her on her way to and from the bus stop everyday. She didn't expect to see him today; her course had changed that morning, as she was walking to school today. Although, it was closer to Gris' owner's house, so it did not come as a shock to her. A whine escaped the muzzle of the dog as Mae heard the toss of the bell on its collar while it ran, the noise slowly fading. With a smile, she turned to greet the grizzly grey cat.

Gris' purr was half a snarl, but it was comforting to her; this cat had been her friend since the seventh grade, though he was (slightly) smaller then with young age. She had never seen him give a kind reaction to anyone but her, besides perhaps his owner when he heard the shake of the cat food bag. She remembered their first encounter, in which she had hopped a fence and cut through an overgrown back alley to avoid a crowd of rowdy, jeering boys, nearly stepping on his tail as she passed a thick, leafy bush that he had sprawled under. His presence had escaped her as she had been lost in reverie, and needless to say he was not hard to miss after that altercation.

Strangely, the cat's extreme personality was very human-like; it had growled and padded circles in front of her feet, furry shoulders hunched as if it were muttering angrily as it adjusted to another curled up position. Mae's interest had been piqued, though, and she'd pulled her sandwich out of her bag, plucking a piece of grilled chicken from inside and tossing it down before she continued on her way.

She had found him crossing the street the next day, and, oddly, he immediately recognized her. He'd sped to a trot, leaping onto the sidewalk in front of her. He had given her a half-lidded, mean look, one that she knew now to be relatively mild on him. His hiss had been his greeting, and it had frightened her at first, until he'd tranquilly followed her after she made a wide detour around him, half-meowing, half-yowling all the way. He had only quieted when she'd thrown a strip of chicken from her lunch down, which he ravenously devoured, purring contentedly. Since then, she had brought him some kind of morsel every day, and they'd become fast friends.

Mae leaned down and scratched Gris behind his nicked ears. "You're a mean cat, you know that?"

His purr was all that answered her as she tossed down a few cat treats, which he snapped up quickly. She'd started buying them when she realized that she probably wouldn't always have meat to spare for him. Sighing, she straightened up and started on her way once again, nearing the park gates. As she passed through, Gris darted ahead, batting at a a butterfly. She laughed mirthfully at the way the fat, muscular, mottled feline bounded around comically, completely entranced. So far, she was preferring walking over the bus by a landslide.

Lysander's attention was drawn from his book to the path to his right, where he heard feminine, bell-like laughter. His brow was furrowed; although oddly alluring, it was rather loud, something that he didn't necessarily appreciate. Glancing around, he noticed that the only other students that had been in the park that morning had already left, save one, whom was in the process of doing so. He half-smiled to himself—he's needed a reminder. Standing, he put his book in his back, briefly pondering the need for yet another watch. He had lost his, again.

Following his usual course, as he arrived near the shops, he found the source of the earlier laughter. In front of him, a girl with long, auburn hair grinned down at a huge, bumbling grey cat. Seeing the side of her face would have allowed him to place her identity immediately, if was not already capable of doing so at any angle. He smiled warmly at the sight of her lashes standing out so definitively, as if the shock of her blue eyes and milky skin didn't do the trick.

"This is the first time I've seen you come this way, at least at this time of day," he greeted her as he joined her at the curb. The smell of exhaust from a particularly run-down car briefly invaded his sense as the feline halted abruptly and shot him a quite unnerving yellow glare. She turned, blinking, each bat of her eyelashes like the sweep of a broom across ice.

"Oh," she managed, looking caught off-guard. Lysander recognized the concentrated look on her face, which, to anyone else, would appear to be standoffish. But really, it was the gears in her head turning as she tried to process what was going on. It was something she did often, so it was not hard to tell when she was brooding.

"...Oh! Yeah, it's not what I usually do. I mean, I usually ride the bus but it's really loud, and the mornings just aren't a good time for noise, for me. So I decided to walk, and Gris came with me. He's my...um, companion, I guess." She crossed her arms then, another habit of hers that he knew like the back of his hand; when she was uncomfortable, that was her defense mechanism (and in extreme cases, a cold glare and venomous sarcasm), though not particularly hard to figure out as it was fairly common in most people. Next, she pursed her lips, bouncing a little bit on her feet, and he could almost hear her mind berating itself for babbling.

Lysander did remember that name, one that she had dropped from time-to-time, and he rather liked what dimensions were available to his sight of the character. Because it certainly was one, such a mean-looking thing, partnered with a beautiful girl like Kitty Mae.

"He looks like a good one," he remarked, smiling.

"Yeah, he is. I mean, when he's not hungry, because all he does is yell at me then," she huffed, narrowing her eyes fondly down at the scruffy cat, who blinked lazily at Lysander. It seemed undisturbed by his presence now, likely by the lack of negative response from her. Although the tension in her limbs could have fooled Demon, and Lysander was under the impression so far that he was a particularly perceptive dog, and very protective of his owner and both their mutual best friend, Castiel.

Traffic paused at a red light, and the two set off in the crosswalk. As they reached the other side, passing the clothes shop, a high-pitched, feminine yelp echoed from behind them. Gris' ears swiveled and he let out a low growl as Lysander and Mae turned at the sound.

"Gris!" called a large, round woman as she waddled across the street in her apron, cars honking as the light turned green. The roll of the R was unmistakably Hispanic, the long E sound abrupt. "Gris!" she called again.

Gris hissed as she stepped up onto the sidewalk with noticeable effort, panting as she reached the trio. After she took a few moments to catch her breath, she straightened out and a hard look came over her features. "Gris. Here, kit-ty kit-ty."

Gris hissed again, a long growl ensuing.

The woman glanced up at Mae, scowling. "You just take cat, yes?"

Mae frowned, looking offended, as if it were an accusation. "Excuse me?"

"You take kit-ty. No need."

Lysander leaned slightly over to say softly in Mae's ear, "I believe she is asking you to take him."

"You take Gris. No need," she repeated, gesturing halfheartedly at the feline, who half-snorted in response. Confused, Mae gave the woman her usual blank, unfriendly stare, and Lysander stepped forward with a smile. "We'd be delighted," he replied politely.

The woman huffed. "Gracias, muchacho," she said, and, without looking in either direction, stepped back off the curb—directly into the bustle of traffic. Lysander and Mae both let out a surprised cry, lunging forward instinctively as cars obscured their vision of the woman. They strained to see her, until the long noise of a horn blasted from the center of the road, and they caught sight of her shaking her fists at a Suburban, which had suffered a mild fender bender at her expense. The window rolled down and a man leaned out, yelling incoherently.

"Callate, pendejo!" was all that the two really understood out of the string of curses exchanged, and a look from Mae prompted Lysander to lead her and her feline companion away from the scene. They reached the cafe without anymore incident, and though he was somewhat tempted to offer her something, as he knew of her fondness for various types of coffees, they were running late enough as it was.

Mae paused for a moment, drawing Lysander's attention. Leaning down, she scooped up Gris, who meowed in protest, but kept his claws sheathed as he tried to wrestle himself from her grasp. "I get to take you home then," she laughed, and the white-haired boy was once again smitten with the sound of it. "It's a good thing I walked today, huh?" She glanced at him now, and the smile on her face made his heart skip a beat as it melded into a mischievous smirk.

"What?" he inquired in amusement.

"Who's we?" she asked teasingly.

He frowned. "Excuse me?"

"Back there," she said, putting a ruffled-looking Gris down, who again snorted and licked a paw, bringing it to his face nonchalantly, "you said we'd be delighted to take him."

Lysander felt a rising blush. "Y-yes? And?"

"You know what that means, don't you?" she probed, grinning earnestly, and he was suddenly under the impression that she simply didn't know how alluring she was to him.

He sighed, smiling a little as he inwardly repressed the blush. "No, I'm afraid I don't."

"You get to take him. Part-time, at least," she explained, displaying a full set of pearly white teeth.

Lysander blinked. He glanced down at Gris, who regarded him lazily and with disinterest. "Oh. Well, I suppose that's true."

She giggled. "We'll take turns. I'll take him first!"

"Alright then," he replied with a wide smile. "Strange, I haven't had a cat since I was very young."

"You had a cat?"

"Yes," he said. "It's name...I believe it was...Cheeto."

Mae paused, and for some reason, Gris' head swiveled up with an almost humane look of incredulousness. She pursed her lips, seeming to suppress a snicker. "Cheeto?" she giggled again.

Lysander chuckled a bit himself. "I believe that was it. You would have to ask Leigh, I'm not quite sure, because we had it when I was very young. Actually, we had a few after that. I lived in the country, you know."

Mae blinked. "Really?"

"Yes," he began, as they approached the school. Musing to himself, he wondered if he could capture her attention just a little longer before they had to part ways for class, and started into his history. Although, the most interesting part to him was Mae's brilliant, cerulean-eyed rapture with the words that he spoke. It was the most flattering thing he had ever felt, and more importantly, he loved the comforting feel of her shoulder brushing his as Gris bounced ahead, leaping humorously into the air in chase of a rather clumsy-looking blue dragonfly.

Another A/N: Yeah, her name is Kitty Mae, in case that confuses you. I was going to go into a little more detail about that, but it was more in the back of my mind. Heck, maybe it will make for a good follow-up in the future. And lastly, please leave a review; they're wonderful inspiration.