Paper Hearts - TuggerXMisto

Mistoffelees doodled messily on a scrap piece of lined paper when Mrs. Anydots placed a blue heart on top of his desk. A small blush spread across his face as he imagined giving his heart out to the Jellicle of his choice. He wrote his name in large, permanent marker and pulled the necklace over his head and around his neck.

Tugger watched as Dottie handed out pink and blue paper hearts to the class queens and toms. The rules were easy; keep the heart tied around your neck, the toms have after classes and lunch to get the queens to relinquish their hearts and vice versa. Tugger didn't see the point in handing hearts out, they would all end up with him before the day was over, with no exertion on his part. He watched as a blue heart was given to the mained tom's best friend, a small tuxedo tom named Mistoffelees. There was only one heart he really wanted that year, and he intended to get it.
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Tugger was standing in his group along side Alonzo, Plato, and Admetus. Alonzo and Plato were running their mouths about how they were sure to break Tugger's winning streak of hallway Romeo this year despite the mountain of hearts he already obtained on their five minute break.

The main coon looked over Admetus to see the small tux leaning against his locker staring in his direction. Tugger smirked and noticed Mistoffelees face mimicked his, curling into a small smile. He pushed past his group of friends making his way across the hall, easily walking thought the rushing students.

Mistoffelees stood up from his leaning position against the locker as the mained tom approached. "Hey, tux, no one's taken your heart yet I see."
Mistoffelees blushed. "I've not had the time to give it to them yet."

Tugger smirked, ready for the tux to willingly hand the blue heart over to him; it would be a badge of honor for the mained coon, he would wear it proudly over the other pink hearts. The only tom able to steal another tom's heart, he would go down in history. Mistoffelees looked down, his eyes drawn to the several hearts found all over the mained tom's chest. "W-where's your heart?" he asked worriedly hoping it was simply hiding under all the others.

"Huh?" Tugger asked then looked down to his chest. "Ohhh right, I gave the thing to Bomba, had to make a trade for her's." Mistoffelees face fell, he heard rumors that there was something going on between the two. Despite the years of friendship Mistoffelees and Tugger shared, the main coon has never mentioned that he had any interest in Bombalurina.

Mistoffelees began to feel as if he had been played as Tugger stared at him with that irresistible smile; still fully expecting to get the heart. The bell rang loudly and Mistoffelees pushed past Tugger. "I'm going to be late," he said in a dark tone, hiding his sorrow and anger behind his pride. Tugger was taken back surprised at the tom. He felt for sure he was going to retrieve Mistoffelees' heart at this time. He figured the sudden change in attitude was due to an unfinished project or anal teacher in the next class. He would have to wait for their lunch break.
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Mistoffelees waited patiently for Mr.Asparagus to start the lesson that would serve as the distraction he needed, to stuff his head with notes and useless facts he would never need outside of this class.

He sat quietly isolated at his desk, head on his arms and deep in thought as the other cats chatted mindlessly. He could hear the group of girls that sat in the desks beside him, their voices loud as they took advantage of the free time. His ears twitched as he heard the group squealing loudly beside him. Mistoffelees jerked his head up quickly with a loud huff ready to tell the obnoxious group of queens off.
The second he saw the group his words suddenly sank to the back of his throat. The queen bee herself was staring him down. Bombalurina had a large smirk across her face and blue Valentine heart with the initials 'RTT' dangling around her neck. "Did you have something to say to us, little Tuxedo?" Bombalurina asked in an over exaggeratively curious tone, the attention causing the other queens to look his way with straight, serious faces. He wished he would have just kept his head down and ignored their room shaking loudness.
Mistoffelees just shook his head, staring at the heart that wrapped around the glossy red queen that sat on the end of the desks. He thought back on his months with Tugger, all the flirtatious words and touching: was all of it really a facade?

"Excuse me!" he heard a familiar voice snap in an unfriendly tone. "Take your eyes off my chest, K thanks," Bombalurina said talking slowly as if Mistoffelees wouldn't get it in a normal paced voice. The tux turned away, rolling his eyes. Bombalurina was so self important she assumed everything revolved around her. You could bump her in the hall and she would accuse you of attempted rape.
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The bell rang and Mistoffelees began to pack up his stuff into a pile. When he heard that same loud queen exclaim she had lunch plans with the one and only, Mistoffelees looked to her and was caught by a teasing smile. He knew now that Bombalurina was intentionally pushing his buttons, she knew all to well Mistoffelees had feelings for her tom of choice.
The group of queens giggled excitedly around her, he noticed jealous glares here and there from her friends that the others didn't dare act on. The group walked out of the classroom still chatting about this valentine lunch date.

Mistoffelees picked up his binders and walked quickly from the room, glad that half the day was already over and he could soon retire to the comfort of burying his head in his pillow. Not paying attention to the traffic in the halls, Mistoffelees bumped into a large tom. He could hear shouting from the students behind him, telling the hobbit to stop blocking the pathway. He looked up prepared to apologize to the silent student he had run into until he realized that large tom was Tugger himself.

"Where you off to, tux?" Tugger asked with a large smile spread across his face.

"Lunch," he replied simply, attempting to walk around the large boulder blocking his path. "Why not spend your hour with me?" Tugger said with a smile, blocking Mistoffelees from going around him.

"No... I have better things to do," Mistoffelees claimed, finally slipping by Tugger and walking quickly down the hall.

"W-wait a second," Tugger said, spinning around to face Mistoffelees, grabbing his arm gently to yank the small tux to face him. Mistoffelees looked at Tugger with angry eyes as Tugger stared over Mistoffelees' body and feeling slight panic when he didn't see the blue heart that was supposed to be around his neck and no one else's.

Tugger used his finger to tip the pile of books that covered the small tom's fluffy white chest. The books were tilted enough to see the top of a blue heart; he felt relieved that the tux held onto it. "Why are you hidding your heart?" Tugger asked, concerned, looking back to Mistoffelees' eyes that were now looking away, filled with embarrassment. "If I hide it then no one can steal it from me, " Mistoffelees said sadly, looking to the side of the hall.
"If you want, I can make sure no one steals it," Tugger offered wrapping his finger around the lose string that held the heart to Mistoffelees' neck. Mistoffelees laughed cruelly at himself. "You are the last person I want to give it to right now," he said shaking his head. As Tugger pulled his hand away his face fell in disappointment. "Whats this about? You're acting weird all of a sudden," Tugger said, his brow furrowed.

"Nothing," Mistoffelees said looking away, hoping Tugger wouldn't drill him for an answer.

Tugger placed his hands on Mistoffelees' shoulders. "You can't lie to me," Tugger said leaning in closely, the serious look in his eyes were like nothing Mistoffelees had seen in him before. "I know you better than anyone ever will."

"I cant take this!" Mistoffelees said. He slapped Tugger's hand away as it began to caress his cheek. "You know exactly what you're doing to me!" he said, harshly reflecting the anger he held for Tugger at the moment.

"Wha-- I..." Tugger began to utter, suprised by the rush of anger in the young tux.

"Stop filling my head with your artificial words! " Mistoffelees yelled, causing Tugger to let go of his arm and look around hoping no teachers would come to scold them, Mistoffelees walked away fast, eyes closed tightly; attempting to hold back his sadness until he was alone.

Tugger stood there contemplating what had just happened; he didn't know why Mistoffelees was acting so emotional all of a sudden. He leaned his back against a nearby locker, letting his body slide to the floor. Tugger was so lost in thought he didn't even notice the scarlet queen that was standing in front of him.

"Hello, Tugger," He heard her purr hotly.

"oh, Hey Bomba," he responded, wishing he could be left alone for a while, but he had to keep up his reputation and keep the girls smitten.

"I thought we could go out for lunch, maybe skip fourth period and fool around behind the bleachers," she said seductively. The things these queens came up with to be with him! The bleachers were filled with dirt and grime, the worst place possible for that kind of action.

"No thanks Bomba, I have work to catch up on in fourth," Tugger lied, not that he didn't have work he needed to get finished, he just couldn't be bothered with it.

"Ohh," Bomba's face fell, her confident smile now frowning in disappointment. "Maybe we can hang out later?" Tugger wasn't expecting that, why was this queen so clingy all of a sudden? He made it clear that he belonged to no one.

Tugger looked up to respond when he noticed Bomba fiddling with the big blue heart he had given her. His eyes widened as the reason to Mistoffelees's mood clicked in, Tugger felt like a complete idiot for not getting it sooner. Of course Mistoffelees would assume Tugger had been leading him on, he was known for being the 'dog' of the school.
He quickly got to his feet. "Sorry, Bomba. Rain check," he said before bolting down the hall to find the tux.
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He looked everywhere; down every hall, poking his nose in every classroom, but the tuxedo was no where to be found. As the school bell rang, signaling the end of their lunch period, Tugger sighed. Now was as good a time as any to give up the search, he could always bump into Misto later but he didn't want the little tux making any stupid decisions now that Tugger was 'unavailable' to him.

He looked over to the sound of a bathroom door opening to see the very same small tom he had been looking for, his eyes slightly puffy and tinted red. Tugger frowned at how upset he had made Mistoffelees over a miss-understanding.

"Hey, Mistoffelees!" Tugged called catching the small toms attention who didn't look happy to see the maine coon.

"What do you want, Tugger?" Mistoffelees asked, his voice breaking slightly.

"I know your mad about Bomba," Tugger said, causing Mistoffelees to raise a brow; impressed that Tugger figured it out. "So you don't need to worry about her," Tugger continued looking proud.
"Wait... So you took back your heart?" Mistoffelees asked with concern for Bombalurina. Sure, he wanted Tugger's heart for himself, but you can't just ask for it back.

"well... No," Tugger said. Mistoffelees waited patiently for him to continue. They heard the second bell ring, signaling they were late for class. He rolled his eyes and began to walk past Tugger.
"Why are you taking this so seriously?" Tugger asked taking one of the many red hearts he had obtained. "They're just stupid construction paper cut outs," he said while ripping one in half.

"Tugger thats rude! That meant something to someone!" Mistoffelees proclaimed, feeling sorry for the queen who just had her heart wasted on the maine coon's apathy towards her romantic gesture, no matter how misguided it was.

"But they mean nothing to me!" Tugger shouted in desperation to appease Mistoffelees. "None of them," he said lowering his voice as teachers eyed him from their classes.

"Well, it means something to me," Mistoffelees said, his ears low and his head down, not wanting to see Tugger's immediate reaction to his proclamation of intimacy with the maine coon. He could imagine what it looked like; shocked, horrified, disgusted...

When no sound came Mistoffelees looked up slightly, Tugger's face was still. Not angry, not weirded out, but concerned. He had no idea the small tux held such strong feelings for him. He felt awful. He never considered dating the tom, they were always naturally comfortable flirting and touching; it might as well have been called a relationship, minus sex.

Mistoffelees walked down the hall deciding Tugger had delayed his class time long enough. The maine tom stared at his best friend, growing confused when he considered what Mistoffelees was to him: his best friend for sure, but potential lovers? Flirting was second nature to them, he never had to question them any further. He knew he had to make it up to him, he couldn't let this friendship be lost because he didn't know how to control his irresistible nature. He had the perfect idea. He smiled brightly, proud of himself for coming up with such a great plan.
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Mistoffelees was relieved when he walked into the hallway, only one more class until he could make his way home and forget about Tugger and Valentine's altogether. He looked around the hall curiously as he walked, expecting Tugger to jump out at him the way he had during his last breaks; to his disappointment, he saw Tugger walking quickly towards him, avoiding the crowd by walking directly in front of the lockers.
Mistoffelees was yanked out of the crowd, it was hard to understand how Tugger could always pick out his simple fur design, dull colours, and mouse-like height out from a crowd.
"What do you want now Tugger?"

"I'm here to make it up to you," Tugger said, his confident smile making Mistoffelees grow curious.

"How..." Mistoffelees started to question before Tugger's finger was pressed against his lips.

"Don't ask, just listen," Tugger said "I'm not completely sure how I feel about... Us," Tugger explained; he had never been on a two sided relationship, it was always the queen that worked to keep him interested and satisfied. Needless to say his relationships never lasted long. "But you're my closest friend, and I couldn't imagine losing that. So I have something to ask you..."
Tugger cleared his thoughts and went down on one knee; Mistoffelees, blushing harshly, looked around desperate not to look into Tugger's eyes. The few cats that lingered in the hall all stared and whispered at the odd looking couple. Tugger held onto Mistoffelees' hand, causing the tux to look towards him; his eyes wide in panic when he noticed Tugger pulling something from behind his back. "Mistoffelees, will you skip last period with me and be my valentine?" he said with a confident grin, revealing a large, messily cut piece of red construction paper meant to resemble a heart.

Mistoffelees let out a small laugh, relieved Tugger didn't go as far as he thought he would. He smiled as he bit his lip, Tugger stood up and wrapped his custom made red heart around Mistoffelees' slender neck, admiring the new romantic view he had on his best friend. "Well, I guess you deserve this now," Mistoffelees said pulling his blue heart from his notebook. It had completely passed Tugger's mind that the tuxedo hadn't been wearing it.
Tugger took the heart, holding it up as he looked at the large letters that spelled out 'Mistoffelees'. Using his free hand, Tugger pulled Mistoffelees' hip onto his; leaning his face close to the tux, his lips lingered teasingly as he grew proud of his two new possessions. He had achieved more then he thought he would.
"Happy Valentine's day, Misto" Tugger said in a whisper, his voice almost completely lost in the sound of Mistoffelees' heavy breathing. Tugger closed his eyes lightly as he closed the gap between their lips, his other arm now pushing against Mistoffelees' lower back as they kissed each other passionately.