Rebirth 2
"Charles! Maria! It's about time you got here!" Edmund yelled from across the crowded room where he was waving to get their attention. He was standing behind a diminutive feline with markings that made her look like an oddly shaped raccoon. "Come on, I saved you seats!"
Charles lead the way toward the table, carefully avoiding chairs, tails, and paws that were in danger of being crushed in his antigravity field. "Now the whole restaurant knows our names... I wish he would use a little common sense now and then," he grumbled good naturedly.
"You know he's just burning off nervous energy. He'll settle down once he has a chance to introduce his new flame and see how accepting we are of her." She rested a forepaw on his shoulder as she walked in his wake. "Your mother is looking well."
Charles snorted, "She always takes better care of herself when he's away." He paused to let a waiter carrying a fully loaded tray pass by.
"What was it this time?" Maria knew how his father's behaviour upset him, but it was best to know the details before entering a family conversation.
"He went to the bar, got into a fight, and broke his parole." The short, clipped words told Maria enough that she just nodded. The pretty feline lass stood as they approached the table, smiling up at Edmund who (for a wonder) actually pulled her chair out for her, displaying his seldom-used gentlemanly manners.
As they reached the table, Edmund came around to hug Maria, then bent down and hugged his older brother whispering, "Mother is being... traditional..." He caught Charles' eyes as he bent to greet him, a pleading look in his own.
The elder brother nodded slightly, patted him on the back reassuringly, then took his place at the table where the chair had been removed. "Happy Birthday, Mother; you're looking well." He placed a small tissue wrapped box on the table in front of her and leaned toward her to accept the kiss on the cheek she always greeted him with.
Maria added, "Happy Birthday, Mother; it's good to see you again." She too kissed the elderly lady's cheek lightly before taking a seat to Charles' right side.
"Good evening Maria. Charles, your brother was just explaining to me how he met this lovely young... lady." The amount of polite venom in her voice made Charles wince. Their mother knew how to make words cut like knives, if she wanted to. "I understand it was at some party or other..." She waved her paw in a dismissive manner as if the subject was hardly worth her notice.
To her credit, the young-looking feline was the epitome of politeness. She took everything that Felicia said without even a glimmer of distress showing on her face. Edmund, however. looked like a dark storm cloud about to burst even as he held the cat's chair for her to be seated again as Maria took hers. "Who is this enchanting lady, Edmund?" Charles said, leering comically at the pretty young female and waggling his eyebrows suggestively, "And what is she doing with a cad like you in the first place?" His obviously flirtatious behaviour made the girl's tail curl with pleasure and her ears lift curiously toward him.
Maria gently elbowed him. "Stop it, Charles! You'll have her thinking Edmund's family is full of disrespectful people." She reached across the table and took the feline's delicate paw in her own. "I am sorry for my mate's behaviour; when he sees a pretty face, he loses all the sense Man gave him." She smiled warmly. "Since Edmund seems to have lost the use of his tongue, I am Maria Spensor, and the cad to my left is Charles; he's Edmund's older brother."
A soft smile echoed hers as the feline gently squeezed her paw. "Clawdia Blackwood, and I am very pleased to meet you, Maria. Edmund speaks highly of both you and Charles."
At this point the matriarch of the family broke in once more, "Yes, I'm sure he does. My boys have always been close." She made a show of reading over the menu, though the speed at which she flipped through the pages belied her interest in their contents. "How was it you came across her again, Edmund?"
The younger male winced slightly, but straightened his shoulders as Clawdia placed her paw on his in a show of support. "We met," he said as his fingers laced with those of the delicate feline, "at a fundraiser for cross-species families. Clawdia was there with her parents as part of their political campaigning. I'd received an invitation, since I am now one of the notable young business men of our generation. I wasn't going to go, but Harris talked me into it at the last minute." He paused and looked at the diminutive feline with such tenderness that it made Charles heart ache for his younger brother. "She caught my eye right off; I've never seen a feline with such striking coloring before."
Clawdia giggled demurely into her napkin, her eyes lowered as she down-played the compliment. "Edmund is a rather striking figure in a tux. He whisked in and swept me off my feet onto the dance floor before Father knew what was happening." The look in her eyes when she gazed at Edmund was full of tender affection and something that could be more, if it were allowed to bloom and grow.
"Well!" Felicia sniffed loudly, "What was that Harris thinking? You know I would never support something like that. We have enough trouble from those degenerates as it is without you visibly lending your support to them." Edmund became stiff once more as his mother lashed out at him across the table. She may not have struck him physically, but Charles could see how painful a blow those words were to his brother. Before he could speak, however, he was startled by a pleasant surprise.
Sitting up a little straighter in her chair, Clawdia cleared her throat politely, "Are you finished?" She looked pointedly at Felicia, and so levelly that it took the matriarch aback. She remained silenced for the nonce, her mouth open but no words escaping it. "I've dealt with your kind all my life, Lady Pennington. Would you like to know what I've discovered about the traditionalists?" She paused for a moment, but it seemed that the wind had been taken from Felicia's sails. "To a body, you are all so caught up in your own importance that you can't see the crisis that is facing us. If we don't break down the species barriers and start to accept that, no matter who we are, we can love whom we choose, we will not survive past the current generation." She delicately placed her napkin on her plate and looked at Edmund, a touch of that sweet tenderness back in her eyes once more. "We love whom we love, Lady, and there is nothing in our biology to change that."
Charles almost applauded. The only thing that kept him from doing so was his mother sharp hiss of indrawn breath at this show of insubordination. "Charles, are you going to let her speak to me that way?" There was a combination of disbelief and awe in her voice, but also a healthy dose of ire.
For a moment, there was silence while all eyes turned to Charles. Maria placed her paw over his in a show of support, but he already knew she would back his decision regardless of her personal feelings. This was his family after all. "Yes, Mother, I think I am," he said firmly into that silence, his eyes meeting the young felines as his lips turned up at the corners in a slight smile. "I think you've gotten too large an opinion of yourself lately, and it's good to see that Edmund finally has someone on his side that is willing to back him on his decisions." He paused for another moment to let that sink in, then reached across the table and gently shook the feline's paw. "I think you will make a wonderful addition to Edmund's life Miss Blackwood, and I for one am deeply pleased that he met you."