[i]Yes, I do want to be left alone to think. Thank you for finally listening to what I’m saying, Kate. That’s so very considerate of you to do after forcing me to snap at you.[/i] She tightened her fists as she thought about screaming those words at Kate. Ugh, she was being even more insufferable than she usually was when Claire turned her down. 

“That’s nice.” Claire said. 

It was all she could manage without screaming at Kate that maybe finding out someone you’d known since you were children suddenly wanted to fuck you wasn’t something a normal person would react any better to than she had. She was so glad when Elijah interrupted the silence and actually answered her question.

“I don’t know. I think she may be willing to talk if she’s still around.” Claire said. “Elena never seemed like an evil person to me, even if she may be hard to deal with at times. Competition is fierce even when you’re the biggest and best like we are.”

Claire shrugged. They could always try to talk with Elena afterwards too, as long as they didn’t get caught trying to find out what the woman had been doing. They were more than her as well. Claire didn’t want to start a witch hunt, but they could probably rile up enough people from the circus that wanted answers as well. Elena would be pressed to answer them somehow then.

They reached the cages, and Claire sighed in relief to find the area undisturbed. She’d not been all that afraid that something may have happened to her kittens, but at least there were no nasty surprises waiting for her either.

“Of course this is where I feel safest.”

Claire smiled with her whole being. It was her home among home, her sanctuary where she could feel protected and be left alone when others wanted to bother her. It was where her family lived, even though she had never had a large family she had one when she had her cats.

“Cheer up, Kate.”

She sighed, but apparently it had to be this way because Kate couldn’t give her even one hour to gather her thoughts. It wasn’t like she could do anything about the confusion she felt. If Kate wanted to distance herself from Claire because of it, it would be a shame, but it would not be her fault in the end. She hoped this would just be another one of their fights years from now, assuming they had survived the events at the circus by then.

Claire entered the cage of Solomon, after making sure the rest of her big cats were well fed and alright. She sat herself with her back against his stomach where he was lying. She spent a long while trying to gather her thoughts, but she felt mostly annoyed by the way Kate had acted. Finally, she managed to gather her thoughts about the two of them together as more than friends by talking to Solomon. She kept her voice low and whispering.