Chapter Text
The last of today’s shipment is almost unpacked and catalogued when the garish blue light fills the front windows of her store. She glares at the sight before bringing her attention back to the task at hand. Cat lifts one of the last packaged books out of the box, slides it out of its protective wrap and flips it over, hums in satisfaction. Poe’s Raven, a first edition in what any collector would consider fine condition, especially for something published so long ago. She rubs her hand along the spine, but only feels the smooth surface under the tips of her fingers. Minimal cracking. Cat smiles, knowing she has the perfect millionaire collector already lined up. It will only take an email to make this sale.
She returns it to it’s safe place before taking a sip of her drink and rolls her eyes again at the holiday lights strung up outside. Christmas. The reason her street, and therefore her book store as well, is lit up like a fireworks display after dark. Curtains of white-blue lights line the streets, daring any passer-by not to be in the Christmas spirit, even when it’s warm enough outside to sport your beachwear. Cat doesn’t have a problem with Christmas, quite the opposite. She enjoys the season of giving, relishes the opportunity to shop for her loved ones and friends, but National City is a far cry from the snowy holiday seasons of Massachusetts where she spent the majority of her younger years.
Her musings are interrupted by the sudden arrival of her furry companion. She strokes her fingers along the back of his head, down his back and feels the stiff vibration of his purr in her fingers. “Ah, Carter, it has been quite boring lately, hasn’t it?” He never opens his eyes, only wiggles a bit to encourage her petting.
Her business has quite a few dedicated customers, but in this day and age, an email and a shipping box is the closest thing she has to customer interaction. Cat sometimes wonders why she even keeps the storefront, but the thoughts fade away when she remembers the warm afternoons spent people watching on the couch in of the front window. Bare feet tucked underneath her, the dark fitted clothing she prefers to wear is in stark contrast to the startling blonde of her hair and the brightness of her hazel eyes. She turns heads without the use of her magic and to her satisfaction, it doesn’t take much to lure innocent onlookers into taking a quick look inside her quaint bookstore. She craves the company and as of late, she wonders if it would be worth it to leave her extracurricular activities behind and just be a normal person.
Carter’s insistent meowing catches her attention again, so she rises to lock up for the night and retire to her apartment behind her store. “Yes, Carter, time for dinner, for you and me. Maybe tomorrow we’ll have an interesting visitor. I have a feeling about our new neighbor.”
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Kara stumbles out of a cab at a bit past nine. Her lead had fallen through and stranded her on the other side of the city right after dinner. After hailing a cab and fighting traffic all the way back to work and then all the way home, she was ready to call it a night. She retrieves her backpack from the backseat and slings it over her shoulder as she starts up the sidewalk. The bookstore downstairs is dark, not unsurprisingly at this time of night, but it makes her frown anyway. She caught a glimpse of the woman that runs it yesterday and has been intrigued ever since. The older woman stared right through her as if they had known each other forever, all the while, holding a battered book with one hand and running her slim fingers up and down the back of a beautiful Siamese cat sat beside her. The haunting gaze had startled Kara, left her a bit uneasy, but she had hoped all day to get back home in time to stop in and introduce herself.
She trudges her way up the staircase slowly and when she finally gets to the third floor landing, she stops. Her apartment door is cracked open and light is spilling from inside and she hears…humming? She pushes the door open slowly and freezes when she sees her visitor. She’s older, maybe in her 60’s, with short dark hair, a dusting of grey at her temples and throughout. She has dark, round, tortoise shell glasses balancing on the end of her nose and is weaving throughout her apartment in a flowing red gown, picking through Kara’s things with the tips of her fingers and a smile.
“Excuse me?” Kara says with as much authority as she can muster at this time of night. She’s weary from her long day, only wants to eat and collapse into bed until after the holiday is over. “Ma’am, I think you’re in the wrong apartment. This is 3G.”
“Oh!” the woman exclaims with a hand to her heart, “Bonjour ma chére. Your door was wide open, I was afraid something was wrong, so I let myself in.” She stops in the middle of the room when Kara drops her backpack and her phone on the coffee table.
“Do you live in this building?” Kara asks, taking timid steps forward towards the seemingly friendly woman.
“Oh, oui…yes, I live right next door, darling. I mean no harm, of course. My name is Katherine, Katherine Grant. What about you, dear?” she asks, moving closer and extending her hand outward in greeting, palm down towards the floor.
“Kara,” she responds, taking the woman’s hand for a brief, friendly squeeze.
“Oh, Kara. What a beautiful name…and a beautiful young woman indeed. It seems you haven’t lived here very long, have you?”
“Um…no, I haven’t. You said my door was open?” Kara asks, doing a quick inventory in her head of all her belongings. Nothing seems to be out of place, save for a few envelopes askew on her desk by the window. The woman seems harmless, if not a bit eccentric, and Kara relaxes. “Wait, you said you live next door? Are you rehearsing for something at night? It’s just, I keep hearing you repeating something, over and over again.”
“Oh, yes darling. Rehearsing. That sounds lovely. Oui, rehearsing for a fantastic play,” the older woman says as she smiles and twirls lightly in the middle of Kara’s rug. Her smile is wide and carefree and Kara can do nothing but return it with one of her own.
“Well, Katherine. It’s been lovely to meet you, but I’m very tired, so I’m sure we’ll see each other again soon,” Kara says slowly, doing her best not to offend. She does have to keep living here, best to make friends, eccentric or not.
“Oui! Yes, I should definitely be going my dear, I know how much you young people run around. Have to get your rest…that’s right,” Katherine says as Kara passes her on the way to open the door for her. She takes a moment to swipe Kara’s phone and hides it in her hand in one of the folds of her flowing gown. After a brief glance towards the kitchen and a murmured chant from her lips, she follows behind with a determined walk. She turns in the hallway and gives almost a bow in departure. “My dear Kara, so lovely to meet you, I wish you a Merry Christmas, un Joyeux Noël!” she says and with a final flourish, she is gone.
Kara clicks the door shut behind her unexpected visitor and shakes her head with a laugh. She locks up…twice, just to be sure, before eating the leftovers she has in the fridge. She collapses into bed shortly after, ready for sleep, and ready to relax and enjoy her first Christmas Eve in National City.
-------------------------------------------------
“Bonjour mon amour!”
“Mother.”
“Oui chéri?”
“Mother, you haven’t lived in Paris for over 15 years.”
“Oh, darling. You know what they say, you can take the girl out of Paris…” Katherine trails off as she pilfers Cat’s refrigerator for some sort of breakfast.
Cat rolls her eyes, hops off of her stool at the kitchen counter to retrieve her mother’s favorite croissants from the other side of the cabinet. “Here, mother. I got these for you. Your favorite.”
“My darling, you are wonderful. Merci beaucoup. Mmmm,” the older woman says as she turns the oven on to warm and turns back to the fridge for butter.
“What has you in such a good mood? You’re never this happy first thing in the morning…have you been up to no good?” Cat asks with a mischievous grin. “Without me, mother? That’s not fair.”
“No mischief, Cat. Well, not much, anyway. I met our adorable new neighbor is all. Young, blonde, very sweet. I’m sure you’ve seen her coming and going, darling. She’s just your type,” she says with an evil smirk.
Her daughter’s face hardens just a bit at her teasing tone. “I don’t have a type, mother. And how exactly did you ‘meet’ her? I don’t believe I saw her come in until after nine p.m. last night.” Cat freezes when she realizes she’s just given herself away.
Katherine rounds the counter to get closer. “Well, her door was wide open so I let myself in, to make sure everything was ok, of course…”
Cat snorts in derision.
“I think I may have picked up her phone by mistake on my way out,” she continues, producing the smart phone from her pocket and sliding it across the marble counter top with the tip of her finger.
“Mother, you don’t have a phone.”
“Oh. My mistake.”
“What exactly are you trying to pull?”
Cat sees the other woman stiffen. Katherine walks back to the oven, retrieves her piping hot croissants from the oven with a flourish of her hand. “I know you’re lonely, Cat,” she begins speaking lowly, all the previous playfulness gone from her voice. “And I know you’ve considered giving up your birthright in the past to quell that loneliness. Since the moment you saw that young woman the first time, I’ve seen that longing in your eyes.” She turns to look her daughter in the eyes. “Witches can’t fall in love, Cat…but you can make sure your affection is returned…or you don’t have to be a witch…you can choose that path.”
“Mother, you’re assuming a lot of things at the moment. Is it the holidays? Are you emotional?” Cat asks, trying to deflect the conversation away from herself. She pauses when she feels a firm grip on her arm. She turns easily in her mother’s grasp.
“I want you to be happy, Cat.”
She’s distracted when she hears the front bell ring. She pulls her arm from her mother’s grasp. “Stay here, please.” She walks through the curtain which separates her kitchen from the counter of her shop. Carter follows quickly, leaping onto the counter, meowing, flicking his tail for attention. “Can I help you?” she calls lightly, only seeing the back of her first Christmas Eve customer.
Kara turns, catches the older woman’s eyes and smiles. “Yes, hello. My name is Kara. I live upstairs…I was wondering if I could borrow your phone. It seems I’ve misplaced mine and I have no water in my apartment,” she laughs. “Every time I turn on the tap, it sounds like jungle music in my pipes.”
Cat smiles tightly, hearing her mother’s quiet, maniacal laugh behind her in her kitchen.