trans_9 | Hello Kittenland

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Hello Kittenland

Welcome to Kittenland, the most adorable place in Happy Happy Fun World! If you didn't like Kittenland, you probably had no soul at all.

There was the Kitten Go Round, a Merry Go Round where everyone could ride a kitten; the Nyan Cat Coaster, a rollercoaster where the carriages were in the shape of kittens with pop tart bodies, racing along a rainbow track to the constant sound of 'nyanyanyanyan'; the Kitten Petting Corner (with real kittens!); and the Hello Kitty Teacups.

And then there was the merchandise - the Nyan Cat Coaster had a shop of it's own, as did the Hello Kitty Teacups, both with a considerable range in merchandise; there was Kitten Candy, kitten t-shirts, kitten magnets, and more. Oddly enough though, you couldn't buy actual kittens.

[ooc: Feel free to make up any other kitten related rides or merchanise if you want!]]

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"Are you serious? You actually think a kitten would be useful?" he said, staring. "You do realise that in three years of fighting the Yeerks, we needed a cat morph a total of once. And that was because the place we needed to infiltrate had a cat, so we couldn't just acquire any cat - we needed the right one. And that turned out to not work so well anyway, because we had to keep making sure the real cat wasn't around every time. There are other morphs that are better, more effective, and don't have the same risks."

"You know, for once I'm admiring your resolve, but I was more thinking it's useful for fun. That's the word, isn't it? I swear it's the word you keep trying to tell me is real and exists in our vocabulary." She smiled, further pushing away her thoughts from earlier. "Unless you've been joking all along. Very clever, Marco! I'd never guessed that you weren't serious about not being serious when you didn't want to be serious."

She wagged her finger at him, then gestured with her hand after the kitten looking as if he were to jump off the table take off for one of the far doors.

"Very practical of you, too. In the spirit of practical thinking, you might want to catch him before he makes his break for freedom."

"Hey, I have plenty of morphs that are good for fun. Like dog. And dolphin. And dragon," Marco said, grinning on that last one. Sakura definitely knew how much fun dragon morph was. "And if I was going to morph a cat for fun, I'd at least pick one that was fully grown. Morphs don't age."

Reflexively, he reached up to grab McWonderful before he escaped. Sure, they wouldn't be able to keep their money, but that didn't mean Marco wanted to go and lose his to having to pay some fine for loosing a kitten. McWonderful wriggled around, not really happy about being held.

"None of those," Sakura said, "Are adorable. Or half as likely to get picked up and snuggled for no good reason."

If the idea of someone trying that with his dragon morph was amusing.

"My Irish Setter is plenty adorable," Marco countered. "And I wouldn't call getting picked up fun. I'll stick to moving around of my own free will, thanks."

"Maybe if you're a dog person," she said with a shrug, holding open the door to Marco's kitten's cage. His statement did give her pause. "You're saying you prefer to be ridden than to be along for the ride?"

Edited 2011-10-16 09:35 (UTC)

Kittens. After the last few weeks, what could be more relaxing than a petting zoo filled with small, furry, completely innocent animals? Even if they are creatures that seem to confuse love with possession and ownership. Eva tries not to think about that as she mills through the petting zoo, gravitating back to a particularly proud-looking Abyssinian kitten.

And then she hears an incredibly familiar voice, albeit one she never expected to hear in Kittenland. And more surprising, a female voice is with him.

Being the Really Not Nosey type, Eva crouches a bit behind a cage of adorable calicos and listens for a second before interrupting.

"Oh, Sakura, that's a remarkably poor choice of words around a teenage boy. You know that they've got a little hormonal homuculus managing their Broca's center, don't you? I'm sure they taught you that in your medical textbooks."

"Mom?" Marco said, spinning around and blinking. He hadn't expected to run into her here - actually the possibility that he might run into his mother while hanging out with Sakura hadn't occurred to him at all.

Although now that she was in front of him and going on about teenage hormones, it now occurred to Marco that his Mom didn't know about him dating Sakura, and he had absolutely no idea how she would react to that.

"Uh, what are you doing here?" he said, feeling weirdly put on the spot.

Kitten McWonderful meowed in irritation, clearly not happy with all this spinning around.

Edited 2011-10-16 23:32 (UTC)

Equally surprised by the voice (and face) she recognized as Marco's mother, Sakura felt herself starting to blush as Eva's words sank in. She hadn't honestly been thinking about it, though doubtlessly if Eva hadn't spoken up right then, Marco would have noticed.

"My master might have mentioned that in-between the lessons on how to keep men on track in spite of themselves." Her smile was small and half amused, hoping to avoid thinking on how she'd embarrassed herself. Sakura inclined her head toward Eva. "Hello, Eva. I hope you've been having a good day." Polite in tone, and sincerely meant. Her eyes flicked back toward Marco as the kitten he held mewled, but she held off saying anything on McWonderful's account, or stating the obvious when it came to potential whys for his mother.

It was far less strange to think of people in concepts of living, working families, if Marco and Eva were by and large still the exception to the rule. Thinking on that, she wondered if this should turn into her politely excusing herself and leaving them to family time. Sakura had no real good idea how that worked, let alone in the context of family dynamics from another world.

"Oh, for Heaven's sake, Marco. Women don't outgrow the pleasures of kittens." She rolls her eyes and shakes her head at him. "I could solve greater mysteries for the universe by asking what you're doing here. Short-legged kittens aren't exactly the bastions of masculinity."

She turns to Sakura. "I have, actually. And you? I hope having Marco tag along hasn't ruined the entire thing for you yet." She winks at Marco to remind him she's kidding.

"Hey, I wanted to go to Pirateland," Marco said, quick to assert that playing about with kittens wasn't his idea. And when his mother decided to be 'helpful' and point out that short-legged kittens weren't masculine, he shot Sakura a quick scowl. So, the kitten she associated him with was short and un-masculine. Great.

Sakura just smiles back at Marco. "He hasn't managed to drag me to Pirateland yet. Guess that means I get to keep avoiding the ninja versus pirate battles he keeps insisting actually happen."

"Oh? So you're a willing hostage of his?" Eva says with a very ill-concealed little smirk.

Then she whirls on Marco. "And when exactly was I going to learn about this?"

Oh man. Mom was starting to look kinda scary here...

"Uh. Soon?" he said, sounding not really at all sure or confident about that.

Wait a minute. Sakura had a hope (a faint, not very logical one) this was some strange parental mission to know where one's child was at all times, and that Marco hadn't magically checked in with Eva before going planetside.

Of course, that theory held no water, but for the brief second it flashed across her mind, it was tempting to pretend it could.

"Learn about what?" She looked from Eva to Marco, then slowly narrowed her eyes.

Oh, well. This is awkward. As much as Eva does love mortifying her son, she doesn't actually want to put him in any sort of social turmoil.

"He hasn't told me about you," she says bluntly.

"Well I was going to!" Marco protested, giving Sakura a slightly confused frown. Why the hell did she even need to ask what Eva was asking about? Of all people, she should know already.

Hey, don't look at her like that. Ninjas don't go around detailing all their friends to their parents! At least she never has. Sakura probably wouldn't even tell hers if she was dating, and she's certainly not doing that.

Right?

Right.

That's what she thought.

She kept quiet, thinking this was one of the cultural specific differences that she just didn't understand. A mother-son thing from Earth, such as it was. The polite thing to do would be hold her tongue and let them speak. Possibly look for an exit. Weren't family matters usually kept private? Even if it was family matters pertaining to who spent time with who, where, and when? If I can understand the need to be protective, she thought. Especially when there's been so long where there was nothing you could do to protect the ones you love.

She understood that feeling all too well.

"I'm not mad," Eva insists, although there is a trade of hurt and irritation in her face at being left out of the loop yet again. "So are you two..."

She points at each of them and waves her hand. "How long?"

Marco shrugged an affirmative, feeling weirdly awkward about admitting it out loud to his own mother. He'd never really figured that 'tell the parents' would actually figure high on the scale of importance when actually getting a girlfriend. Plus Sakura was weirdly quiet, and he had no idea what she was thinking right now.

"Dunno, it's too hard to tell with Stacy's mucked up time. Not that long. Although if you're going to insist on knowing all the details I'm going to get seriously creeped out, Mom."

It had to be cultural. It had to.

Sakura moved up by Marco, presenting open hands for the kitten he was still clutching. "Let me put him away," she said, offering a smile a half-second after she already should have been smiling. She wanted the both of them in sight, if there wasn't any clear and present danger. Watching for hints in body language would be more helpful than anything else.

Thinking on that, she forced herself to relax, shoulders falling as tension fled (for the moment). "Unless you plan on dancing around with him for the next," she glanced up at a clock on the wall. Analog. Her favorite. "Nine minutes. On the other hand, if you need more time, I do have all these extra tokens..."

That glare Eva gives you, Marco? That's a genuine pissed-mom glare.

But it quickly melts into her trademark levity, because it's just rude to be irritated at your son in front of his girlfriend. Especially when the opportunity to mortify them both presents itself!

"Let me help you put that kitten away, Sakura. I need to take a look at your hand to figure out what your wedding ring size is! Welcome to the family."

Somehow, Marco had actually forgotten that he was still holding a cat. "Hey, this whole thing was your idea..." he said to Sakura, before trailing off when he saw Eva's expression.

Oh man. Marco winced, knowing that this wasn't going to be good. The Pissed Mom Glare was never good. And sure enough, it quickly proved to be really, really not good.

"What - Mom!" he cried, staring at Eva in horror. Wedding rings? Wedding rings?! "Are you insane?!"

Sakura whisks the kitten out of Marco's hands, turns around and gone back toward the cage with nary a pause to give Eva an opening to actually help. Partly she doesn't want anyone to see her face, if her shoulders are tense in a mixture of surprise, shock, and (honestly) irritation.

Then sinking realization that if one person makes this mistaken assumption, than it might be less of an assumption than she assumes it to otherwise be.

The saving grace to this is her look of horror is directed away from either party, and the kitten is the only one to feel her unsteady hands for the beat before she's in control again. She forces her tone light, grasping for what seems to be -- humor, maybe. She doesn't know. Parents don't spend a great deal of time embarrassing their kids in public, if she should have remembered, with how Ino and her father interacted years ago, or how she'd felt her own mother impose on her while she was in the Academy.

Even if back then it had more of a taste and feel for dictations on how she should be doing in school, if she was doing well, if she was getting along with the other kids (which wasn't the point, she said once, if the rest of the time it was yes, yes, I'm doing well, Iruka-sensei says I'm really understanding this, why do you ask, it's fine, thank you, I'll be down for dinner, I already did my chores). Nothing like this, if she expected it once, if Sasuke had ever been the kind of fantasy she'd created him into being. Back when infatuation was infatuation, before she knew him, and before she really got a taste of love.

"It's all right," she says, an upward lilt in her voice. "I've got him in hand."

Is she supposed to blush? This feels more like flushing, a tie between anger and embarrassment and even more personal embarrassment as denial wavers. Making a fool of herself, being more stupidly, willingly blind because it's easier.

In a way, she wishes that the rising urge to yell comes to mind. Something high and outraged, turning to make a fierce denial of anything of the sort. It's why she made the kitten grab, forestalling herself, since as much as she does like Marco (ass that he is), and respects Eva (more as a paragon of herself and motherhood and survival than for anything especially bonding between the two), they aren't her people. Her people have only recently appeared, and none of those three (four, with the Mizukage) are the ones she relates to as peers. Fears, adores, respects, yes. But she'll no more turn around and deck Marco in the face for being part perpetrator in this than she will Tsunade, if the reasons are vastly different.

Naruto, she might have. Naruto will have said something right afterward, or made some noise she could take offense to, focus on, and then there'd have been that safe avenue to express the anger that was more at herself than anyone here. She's been stupid. She's been in denial.

Latching the cage door closed, she says, "I'm not sure if Earth has a similar saying, but we have one in Konoha that goes something like... Speak of tomorrow, and the rats in the ceiling laugh." She turns back toward them, smiling, subdued, awkward, and uncomfortable. "And you haven't even asked if we ninja believe in marriage."

Well, her teasing certainly seems to have elicited to appropriate response from her son, but she's a little let down to see that Sakura isn't quite taking it in stride. And here she was hoping that she'd have a team player in humiliating her firstborn-and-only.

"What? I think Sakura's a perfectly lovely young woman, and I have to say I'm pleased you're dating someone who can actually count past twenty this time." She shakes her head and turns back to Sakura. "You're such a step up, dear."

She pulls a kitten of her own out of the pens, using the moment to try and decide whether or not to descend into idle chitchat or continue making fun of her son.

"We have a phrase that goes something like that, only it's a bit more foreboding and forewarning. 'Cría cuervos y te sacarán los ojos'." Eva's smile goes all the way up to her eyes. "Breed crows and they'll rip your eyes out."

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