[i]"Handsome!" [/i]

Pauline startled, one hand to her suddenly pounding heart when the enormous spotted cat yowled up to her. Pale blue eyes widened in surprise, and then delight. It was hard sometimes, talking to her parents through a cold glass screen, pretending that their peacefully sleeping faces could actually hear her, would know or remember a single thing she said to them. It was doubly hard talking to her younger brother, because Seth was… Well, he was [i]Seth,[/i] and nothing could be more unnatural to the irrepressible red-headed kid than just lying there, immobile and senseless…

Handsome’s arrival was more than welcome at this moment. But even so -

"You scared the [i]snot[/i] out of me!" she laughed, bending down just a little to try to pet him. "You get around quite a bit, don't you Handsome? I don't think Owen's going to appreciate - "

Pauline’s voice trailed off as Handsome scooted away just out of reach of her fingertips, tail twitching madly - though thankfully not with that angry warning growl the miner pod pilot had become so bloodily familiar with. The cat’s back haunches bunched, swayed just a little as he eyeballed Pauline for a second more, and then he launched himself away from her like a shot!

Had she…. [i]Had she just been challenged to a game of tag by a cat? [/i] 

[i]”HA!”[/i] Pauline’s realization came just a split second too late as Handsome bounded away from sight, around a corner and out the cryobay doors, but she sprinted after him anyway, some small, hurting part of her heart eternally grateful for the happy distraction. She raced out into the hallway, turning just in time to see the spotted cat staring at her from around a corner just a little further down, and then disappearing all over again.

Pauline could have cared less for the bewildered stares or the amused cocked eyebrows as she ran – she was just laughing way too hard, and trying [with only limited success] not to skid into the walls at every turn. She laughed even harder when Handsome did a one-eighty in mid-stride, raced back toward her as she pulled up, and then? [i]Then that cat actually lapped her![/i] Ran right around her, and then darted back off on his original trajectory, away from her and back down the hall.

“Oh c’[i]MON![/i]” Pauline laughed loudly, incredulously, “Was that [i]entirely[/i] necessary, you shameless show off!?” 

But whatever Handsome might have thought of her question, he gave no indication. The enormous cat was off yet again, his two-legged playmate behind him once more by some respectable distance. Pauline very nearly ran over him or – worse yet – might have trod on that magnificent tail, when she turned that last corner, and belatedly realized he had come to a full stop. Only a quick leap and a hard smack of her shoulder into a quarter’s door kept the enormous cat from underfoot.

Handsome acted like he didn’t notice a single ungraceful moment. Rather, he pawed lightly at the door, looking up to her expectantly, but did not yowl again… Oh! Maybe an invitation to sit then? [i]Such[/i] a gentleman, the giant cat was!

"All right Handsome, you win," she whispered breathily, her face glowing with a thin sheen of sweat as she slid down the outside of the door to her bottom. Pauline pulled her knees to her chest, and grinned when she realized the cat was curled up next to her where she sat against the door. Her fingers lovingly pet the unbelievably soft fur behind his ears, along his cheeks, and the thick grumbly roar of his purr traveled up her legs, all the way to her belly.