PILLOWTALK - CHOICES

Finally together again, Nicolle and Edwin were in yet another safehouse, one arranged through Sandra’s shadowy friends, waiting for an announcement of a verdict from the World Court. With some help from “gentle troublemaking as a hobby” types from The Event Horizon, thousands of WorldNet servers had been fed anonymous and untraceable video files of Nicolle, her sisters and their families. Most of the human faces were digitally disguised but Sandra, Edwin, and Eric and Talia Carlson had insisted on taking the risks associated with showing themselves. It seemed imperative to them that people see genuine humanly-recognizable emotions. They knew not everyone that they hoped to reach would be able to read catgirl expressions easily.

The Event Horizon team had done their best to show that intelligent catgirls were loving and helpful, and they’d certainly shown how beloved these were by their humans. They carefully played on sentiments, portraying the catgirls as children of not only these few families but as new children of the entire human race. Event Horizon people did multilingual voiceovers extolling ohana, sem'ya, kazoku, jiātíng, familia. They kick-started a viral response to their videos, but soon realized it hadn’t been needed. Comm-lines to legislatures and palaces in a hundred countries were jammed within seventy-two hours, and they stayed that way. Servers went down from traffic overloads. A global virtual club sprang up overnight, formed by kids: Students and Kids Supporting Kats, “sksk” (they insisted on the lowercase). Two days after that, a similar virtual army had arisen comprised of parents, relatives, teachers and so on: The Catpeople's Liberation Army Worldwide: The CLAW.

The others were asleep, but Edwin and Nicolle had become nightowls. At last, they’d stopped watching the headlines rolling across their screens:

“The Chairman today pledged to support their struggle against their oppressors…”

“The Holy Father has expressed his love for these new children of God and wishes…”

“The President asked for a joint resolution from Congress granting full citizenship…”

Edwin and Nicolle lay together with her snuggled against his back as had become her habit. They'd been making sleepy small talk about events of the day. It had also become habit to talk together in the dark; their room had to be reprogrammed to ignore them and leave the lights off. They’d run out of topics, she thought, when Edwin said, "Have you ever wondered how it came to be that we’re together like this? I mean, I've told you about what my life was like before. I'm surprised every day when I wake up and you're with me."

"I know, and I'm happy every time you wake up next to me."

"Did I ever tell you I didn't plan to get a catgirl that day? I was only trying to find out if I could afford one. Why did I decide to choose you, that day?"

"Oh, Edwin... You know how I sense things you can't, yes?"

"So?"

She gave a sigh. "I knew when you looked at me that day that you needed someone," she whispered. "I could almost feel the loneliness. I needed someone, too. So... I chose you. And I did everything I could think of to make sure you'd choose me, too."

"You chose me?"

She moved to nip the skin on the back of his neck lightly with her little fangs. Almost as a mother cat will lift her kitten by the nape of the neck. Then she let go and gave the spot a little lick. "Oh, yes, and I chose well." She did the little snuggling thing that he'd learned meant she was done talking and going to sleep. So, he closed his eyes, remembering that day when his old life died and a new one began.

His last conscious thought before sleep overtook him was, "I can die now. Everything that happened before was worth it, just for her."

Next: Part 17 / 25, “Pillowtalk - Memories”