A/N: Hi, all. I've lurked around this awesome category on for quite a while. It's only now I've decided to upload something I've written for Cats. I hope you enjoy it.

The Pariah Heroic

Heroes were the valiant ones, they told him. They rescued the helpless, aided the needy, saved the cataclysmic day. They were images of strength, of tall figures standing against the piercing sunlight. In the dimness of the place he was now, he wondered still if he could ever be one.

"A reject, found in the alley, Macavity," a whisper said to someone. "Not in bad shape. About same breed as Teaser, so they could work together once they're older."

He closed his eyes, imagining that he was asleep and dreaming. Dreams, they told him, were full of stars and skies colored with bright orange. Dreams resembled the flyers and posters humans left behind in the dust-silver trashcans. Rainbows and stripes and noisy jagged lines. It was sweet-sounding for a while until he heard someone walking towards him. He looked up.

"You're absolutely right," Macavity said, bending down a little for a better view. "He's not in bad shape at all. And judging by the scratches he left on Jyx, he'll be of frequent use." The cat reached up to pick at his thin, rough lips. "He's not too much a newborn; already a nicely grown young tom. The only thing now is if he wants to work for us. Kitten, do you want to work for me?"

He shook his head – it was the only gesture he knew of.

"Do you want to go back on the street?"

He shook his head.

"Do you remember how your mother abandoned you?"

He shook his head.

"Do you have a name, kit?"

He shook his head.

Macavity frowned, dark black pupils dashing here and there, inspecting his face. He straightened up after a while, towering over. Cracks in the board of wood overhead – or ceiling, from a cat's perspective – brought in slivers of light from outside. Standing there, a form shrouded in blackness but crowned by white, made him seem like a hero to the adolescent kitten. He was a hero.

"He will work for me."

"Work? You think a muted little reject-kit like that will manage to navigate the streets and carry out your complicated, precise missions all alone?"

Macavity smiled – not kindly, but slyly. "The muted little reject-kit won't be all alone. As you mentioned – Teaser's a good match." He turned his head around slightly, and his voice immediately changed tone from deep to something unusually good-natured, friendly. "Rumple, sweetheart."

He could see somewhere in the dim blotch of corner another black and orange cat, possibly the same age as he was – around the teenage years. She was facing the wall, pawing at a rusted old can in boredom. At the call of her name, she looked behind, the blue bright in her eyes and the disinterest evident on her face.

"Rumple, sweetheart," Macavity said again. "Do you think you'll like this tom?"

Her gaze shifted from the tall red tom to the younger one sitting in front of him, in one cursory glance. There was a pause of silence, and then she shrugged and turned back to her toy.

"Well, you're in luck, reject-kit," the henchcat grumbled. "The princess of the house likes you."

"And a princess she is. First good female I ever hired. That human object around her neck? The shiny pearls? Quick little poppet stole it herself."

Teaser– Rumple- however she wanted to call herself turned around again, beaming at the compliment from her master. Her ears flicked back and forth, and she held up part of the necklace to let it gleam in the scarce light there was in the room. At her age she was almost like a newborn. He saw Macavity return her a devious, assuring smile.

"This reject-kit," said the henchcat in his parched, rough voice, shaking his head. "He came from nowhere. The alleys a short run away from Jellicle territory. He hasn't even got a name."

Macavity scratched at his chin, his eye never leaving him. "Yowler, you remember many months ago, that master thief that gave me half the catch of the human fish catchers?"

"Jerrie, I remember," the henchcat answered, following the action of rubbing his chin. "Your greatest ever."

"Jerrie it is, then," Macavity nodded, smiling yet again. "Your name, kit, will be Jerrie."

Learning this new movement the hero was doing, "Jerrie" bobbed his head up and down in agreement. He now had a true name.

"You're naming it after your greatest ever?" Yowler exclaimed, yellow eyes wide. "Isn't that too much expectation from a reject-kit?"

"Not when he's already met them," Macavity shrugged indifferently, turning around to exit through a hole in the wooden-plan wall. "Come, Yowler. I'll alert the others to make way for another living spot. Rumple, darling, get yourself acquainted with your lovely new partner."

Sputtering in disbelief, the henchcat dutifully followed him out, leaving the two orange striped kittens alone. There was a long, voiceless pause as Jerrie sat where he was, trying to absorb all this new information, while the female busied herself with her tin cans. Deciding that there was nothing else to do, Jerrie walked over to her.

"What is your name?" he asked, genuinely curious. "Teaser, or Rumple?"

She shrugged. "They jus' call me both."

"What should I call you?"

She shrugged again.

"I think I'll call you both," Jerrie settled on, sitting down beside her in the corner. "Rumple… teaser. Rumpleteaser."

"That's new," she said, still concentrating on the toy. "I like it. You can call me that." Jerrie nodded in agreement, and she thought for a while. "…I thought ya couldn't talk."

"Why?"

"Ya didn't talk when Macavity was in the room," answered Rumpleteaser, fingering one of the pearls on her human necklace.

"That's 'cause I was shy. I'm alright now." He hesitated, and then held his paw towards her. "I'm Jerrie."

"I know. I was listening," she answered nonchalantly, ignoring his outstretched hand. He hastily drew it back.

"Okay," It was Jerrie's turn to think this time, for a question, a way to forward the conversation. "Why do ya stay with Macavity?"

Rumpleteaser smiled mischievously, her eyes twinkling. "Isn't he nice? I follow his orders, and he gives me stuff. He helps me a lot."

"Like… a hero?"

"What's a hero?"

"Someone who helps the needy."

She shrugged. "Well, I'm not needy. So I reckon he isn't one yet."

To Jerrie, he already was.