Part 16 - Stories, Family, Focus, and Anniversaries

The time to the next tea club meeting passed slowly, yet it came sooner than I expected. It was at Allison’s place again with her preference of tablecloth. Mike, who had gained the legal name of ‘Mira’ (although she didn’t mind her old one), arrived in a different, light-blue dress like the other one but to her knee and decorated in pink water lilies. She admitted this was an “absurd level” of dressing up for her but thought it was fun.

The girls indeed got along well with the new addition, even though the table didn’t have as much elbow room as it did when this started. Allison still snagged me into a conversation, metaphorically. Mira enjoyed green tea while Alexis offered to sketch her in her outfit. To my relief and guilt about feeling relief, Ashley came without Bethany. She showed off an anime on her laptop for part of the evening.

I mulled over those who hadn’t acquired different names, at least so far as I knew. Scott and Allison were responsible for the evening’s card games, which were a nice distraction from my own lingering worries. Nina, as always, found herself in a new, adorable dress courtesy of Allison. I marveled at how being a catgirl still managed to be new to her. She still sniffed everything like it was her first time. The shape of her hands mystified her when the others had gotten used to their shifted dimensions. There were times when I worried she was stuck because of something I did, but she expressed the same gratitude as the others.

Steve wasn’t far from putting her book up in an online store. She still wasn’t quite pleased with the editing, but she fanned out the manuscript and soon gained Mira as a promised reader. As the tea cooled and the evening wound down, I still carried the worries of the past week and before, but I returned to the creeping feeling that the group was so big I couldn’t focus on the individuals in it anymore.

However, as I watched what I could, I got the sense Nina was the same way. She stayed around her side and just enjoyed the warm varieties of teas Allison put in front of her with a different expression for each sip. Alexis always spoke more with her pen than her mouth. Scott was sometimes silly and loud, but there were also times when she would just sit and look around the room before she came to a question about something of Allison’s nestled away. And Allison was always the perfect host or guest.

For a time, attention turned to a surprisingly-extensive catgirl language guide that Ashley brought up on her laptop. Allison picked up the nuances quickly and I managed not to grimace as she used it in conversation.

Before the evening ended, I stretched out on one of the side couches and, one by one, the girls came to visit me. Alexis stopped by first with a sliver of ginger tea left in her cup. She gave me a compassionate range of space and asked how I was doing.

We’d offered up the formalities version of the question as the night began, but I finally found a sliver of courage to say, “I feel like I’m in over my head.” She listened carefully and reminded me what we always expressed to a new member or to any of us who felt in distress, “We’re all here for you.” We each did a mimed hug and that was it. It was nice but rare to talk to her like that.

Scott stopped by next, brushing her silvery coat and saying the best things about Mira. I worried she might feel like she was glossed over with no longer being the newest in the spotlight. If she felt that, it didn’t show.

She posed the same questions to me with an echo of Allison’s persistence. I acquiesced with a forced chuckle and told her, “I’m always unsure what to do when someone joins…uh…” She finished, “Joins this family?” Not quite how I would’ve put it, but I nodded for her at that. Eventually, she apparently scampered off to try a bit of dessert Allison was cooking up.

In her place, crept watchful Nina. Such a kitty in her lace and bows. Allison had recently whispered to me she wore a bra with “colorful bows” in between the “sizable satiny” cups. Not that I needed to know. I think it mostly amused Allison to tell me that.

Nina carried a rich aroma all over her which even she sometimes got wrapped up in sniffing. Lavender and orchid were the only ones I could readily identify. Glancing over at me, she asked meekly, “You okay?” I assured her quickly but left a sigh and an admission, “So many people around the table.”

She nodded and said, “Yeah, I don’t like crowds. Too many. Good tea though. Nice sweets.” She was so adorable, and I blurted out as such.

In her mind, she heard an adorable, blond catgirl say that back to her. She thanked me quietly and admitted, “I don’t know how I ever managed a blessing like this or what goddess I brought happiness that this is my life now. I keep…thinking I’ll wake up and have to turn all this in because it’s supposed to be someone else’s. That’s okay. I just…don’t ever want to take a single ounce of it for granted.”

I settled back on the couch and all I could do was nod to her words. She crept back to her tea, but I had a feeling she was still watching me. I had a sneaking suspicion about the one-by-one wave of girls visiting with me, but I kept quiet and waited on the next.

It was Ashley. She presented the same question to me after a few anime music videos and the latest wrestling news. I massaged my neck and admitted, “I messed up when I started with this power with you and Bethany. And I just worry I’m going to mess up again.”

I received the same assurances that things turned out fine with the both of them, and I nodded to that. But I persisted, “I know, but the fear is still there.” All Ashley could do was shrug and offer, “Fear is always there. What more can you do than what you’re able to do? Sorry…that sounds kinda dumb…but I wish I knew what more to say…” I appreciated it. After some quick takes from her on new animes and passing recommendations, I was alone again. But not for long.

Steve joined me next, still as classy and well-dressed as ever with an excellent taste in hats. She had several marks all over her manuscript. I read a little. It was good. Rough still but good. It didn’t take long for her to ask how I was doing like all the others had. They were wearing me down, so I gave a tidbit to her by saying, “I feel sick to my stomach and lost my lunch about the fear of touching someone twice or touching someone who isn’t meant to be here. If I lapse for one moment then something terrible could happen.”

She listened, mimed a pat on my back, and offered, “But think about all the wonderful things which have happened because of your touch. No matter what your power is…I like to believe it brings out what’s there. It brings it to the surface. It concentrates it…with cat ears and a tail. You’re not destroying or erasing people. You’re bringing them into focus. What if that old landlord had a dream about just relaxing in a sunbeam but could never find it? I know…for once, I feel like I’m moving towards my dreams and I’m so grateful…” I absorbed that quietly as Steve returned to the main tearoom.

There were only a few left and this time it was the new girl. Mira looked stunning, especially when she turned around. She settled closer to me than I expected but still far enough away that there was no chance we would touch.

She told me upfront, “You, more than anyone, deserve to smile. I’ve been talking with the others, and you’ve done so much for them. You’ve changed their lives. You’ve crystallized mine with so many smiles I’ve only ever imagined. That’s not a curse or something gone wrong or a mistake. That’s a gift that is best shared. And we all want to share something with you…” She beckoned, and Allison came out from the kitchen with a crudely-crafted cake from tea leftovers with oodles of frosting.

They all came in and did a happy “mew mew” song, which I couldn’t keep from smiling during. If the cake wasn’t going to give me a sugar coma, the whole scene would’ve buried me. The ringleader, Allison, planted a candle in the center of the cake, which barely even stood up after a lot of effort. But she lit it and proclaimed, “For our dear sister’s one month of changing our lives…we present a one month cake of awesomeness!”

I pointed out it was more than a month, but she shrugged it off as, “Close enough.” As for the proclamation of sisterhood, I could’ve reminded her I only looked like a sister of them, but Allison was quite persistent with the cake, and I blew the candle out.

Before serving it though, she reached into her coat closet and pulled out two of the heaviest coats she had and announced, “One last thing to make it official. The biggest hug possible!”

She set both coats to overlap and cover me completely. In the darkness and stifling warmth under the coats, I was crushed by eight catgirls surrounding me in their collective embraces. Even though she wasn’t much of a hugger, I could tell Nina was there too. I had no words, but I had plenty of soft, trickling tears.

Releasing me from the coats, Allison reminded me, “Don’t be sad. You got a veritable army of catgirls who are dedicated to spreading joy wherever possible, and we’re a mighty and purrrrsistent force fuuuur it!”

She was right, I couldn’t resist that force. I was completely overwhelmed. And the cake, while an absolute mess, was delicious.

Ideally, if this were the kind of story I wanted to share with the girls to bring on smiles, then that would’ve been where I stopped. A super-sweet ending.

But nothing ever really ends, especially when you think it should.

I had no idea then of what was coming in just a few days.