Surprises...

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

I need a fix 'cause I'm going down...
Madeleine hummed slightly tunelessly along to the song, her foot tapping on the bed to the beat.
At least she had a sense of rhythm, even if she was tone deaf.
The Raging Quiet was open on her lap, opened at the page where Raven slept in front of Marnie's fireplace. This was a book she had picked up years ago, and fallen in love with. The twisted stories of witchcraft, ignorance and romance wove seamlessly together, and she liked the way they all slotted together.
Mother Superior, jump the gun...
And of course, like they did with everything, songs written by the Beatles played in the background just enhanced it.
There was a knock on the door.
"Come in," she called, not bothering to get up.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

In a box, Madeleine's belated birthday present sat, nestled comfortably in a cocoon of cotton blankets. Lee's hand rested on the box awkwardly, his eyes darting up and down the hall.
He was treading unfamiliar territory here.
Everything here... was... pink.
The wallpaper was pink. The floor was pink. The doors weren't, thank god, but some had been decorated pink. It didn't help that the box he was carrying was pink. Pink was everywhere. Pink, pink, pink; and it hurt his eyes a little.
What number was it...?
Dorm 16; the fabled dorm; the Heads' dorm.
And now he was going there.
Head down, and feeling more and more like some kind of criminal as he advanced along the Girl Dorm's corridor; a lone boy in a sea of pink; Lee found the dorm easily enough. Number 16; gleaming at the end of a long corridor, and where it sat, the corridor split, two dark pink tunnels speeding off left and right.
Holding his breath, and praying he wouldn't be seen, Lee reached out, and knocked...
"Come in!"
It was her, thank God. He didn't know what he would've said if Will or Macy had confronted him at the doorway, or if, worse still, he really had gotten the wrong dorm, and some random girl had answered.
That would've been... um... very bad. Very, very bad.
Lee pushed the door open, and closed it behind him as he entered.
"Hey."

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine looked up as Lee spoke - she'd been expecting one of her dorm mates to walk through.
"Hey," she said, frowning, slightly puzzled as her eyes found the box in his arms. "You know, you're not supposed to be in here..."
Well, he wasn't even supposed to be in the girl's corridor. What Professor Thandie would think if she knew that Lee Norris was up here in his fiancée's room...
Okay, wrong time to have that thought. Madeleine blushed as she sat up on the bed, setting her book down and scanning the room quickly, checking that it was tidy and that there was nothing lying about...
No, it was fine. They were usually quite good at being tidy, she and the other girls, so the room was okay.
"So, what are you doing in the oestrogen-filled neck of the woods?" she asked, looking back up at him, moving on the bed so he could sit down.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

"Dying, I assure you, dying," he grinned, hopping onto the bed beside her.
The box jumped slightly in his hands as he did so, and Lee pressed it hastily into Maddie's lap.
"Open it quick; I'm convinced I'm gonna get caught."
He'd spent so long trying to work this out; a good week more than he should've, but he had promised her that he was just making some final arrangements for it when she asked. In the end, it wasn't a lie. He'd been moaning to Jude about the birthday mess he'd found himself in, and Jude- who apparently was on very good terms with the local farmer- had pulled a couple of strings for him...

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

"If you're really worried about getting caught, I can lock the door, but that may not be the smartest idea in the world..." Madeleine said, taking the box - and it moved in her hands.
She looked up at Lee, narrowing her eyes in an impression of suspicion. "This had better not be a giant spider..."
Not that he'd do that - but the box was moving. And not just small movements; something was jumping around in there. Whatever it was...
She opened the lid of the box, and looked down into the nest of blankets...
And something mewled.
"Oh!" Madeleine squeaked, reaching into the box, and lifting out the small, fluffy brown tabby kitten that was inside. "Oh my god!"
The little cat was tiny, striped with coffee-coloured patterns. She had huge bright blue eyes, and Lee had put a little silver collar around her neck. Pleased to be out of her nest, the cat started wriggling around in Madeleine's hands, so she set her down on her lap, stroking the top of her head gently.
"Thank you!" she said excitedly, moving to kiss Lee's cheek. She'd always wanted a pet - Shaun had had a couple of goldfish (which died in the space of a week), and other than fish, pets didn't really suit their lifestyle, especially not cats, who couldn't be kept in one place.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

The shining, almost child-like excitement in Madeleine's eyes llifted Lee's heart enormously. Feeling suddenly very pleased with himself, Lee leaned over, slipping his arm around Maddie's waist. The kitten, sensing Lee was much more interested in Madeleine than herself, gave him a reproachful look, and buried herself almost posessively into Madeleine's waist, forcing Lee to move his arm up, around her shoulders instead.
Lee stared blankly at the cat.
"So it's going to be like that, is it?"

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine laughed at that, leaning against Lee as she scratched behind the kitten's ears.
"Something's telling me that you may end up regretting this," she chuckled. "You'll be spending life in competition with a cat!"
As if she had heard her speak, the kitten mewled and looked up at her.
"She needs a name," Madeleine mused. "You know, she's kind of coffee-coloured... I'm tempted to name her after a type of coffee, or would that be weird?"

[Kira & Lee Norris]

"It would be weird," Lee chuckled. "So, clearly, it'd be perfect."
He stared at the cat for a couple of seconds, musing it over.
"Coffee... um... cocoa?" Wait, was that even coffee? "Black?" he suggested feebly. "You know, like black coffee? Blacky? Except she's brown. Okay, wait- how about..."
...
"Yeah, you name her."

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine laughed, turning to Lee incredulously. "Cocoa? Really, Lee..."
The kitten shifted against her, and she smiled subconciously, studying the little patterns.
"What about..." she broke off, musing, looking carefully at the colours and trying to liken them to a type of coffee.
There, those very light bits - latte? No, that didn't sound right at all.
The little almost black parts behind her ear could be espresso, but no...
And then, she got it.
"Mocha," she said, stroking down the cat's silkily smooth back. "I think that's nice."

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Mocha.
Yeah, it was nice.
"Alright then," Lee said softly, looking at the kitten. "Mocha. Maddie, meet Mocha, your very own tabby."
Wow, a rhyme.
"And I'll just never speak again, shall I?" he said weakly, shaking his head.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine laughed. "No, please, don't never speak again."
Mocha moved on her lap, standing up carefully, before jumping off and landing silently on the floor, before slipping on the wooden surface of it.
There was a ribbon hanging from Madeleine's beside table, and Mocha went up to it, and pawed it, before jumping back as it swung. Madeleine laughed as she watched the kitten walk slowly about the room after that, gently nosing at the corners of bedclothes, nudging shoes with her paw; careful after the ribbon. Keeping one eye trained on her to make sure she didn't run into Kira's bat, Madeleine leaned forward and kissed Lee's lips.
"She's amazing," she said. "Thank you so much."

ooc: the word Mocha is a link, fyi

[Kira & Lee Norris]

"No problem," Lee smiled at her, then suddenly, letting go of her, Lee jumped to his feet.
The suddeness of his movement shocked Mocha, who gave him the dirtiest look he'd had in a while. Lee turned sheepishly away from the cat, and looked at Maddie instead, who wore a far more pleasent smile on her face.
"So this is it, huh?" he laughed, kicking the side of her bed lightly. "The Head's Dorm- whoa, hang on- is that a bathroom?"

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine stretched back on the bed as Lee jumped up, stretching her legs out in front of her.
"That's a bathroom," she confirmed, laughing. "Why, don't you guys have bathrooms?"
Dirty...
Mocha didn't seem to like Lee much, Madeleine noted; she had thrown him one harsh look and was determinedly ignoring him as he walked about the room. Mocha herself was exploring too, poking at the edge of Madeleine's patchwork quilt, and shooting glances back at the blue ribbon hanging from the table.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

"Not in our dorms we don't," Lee said, cocking his head to one side as he studied the bathroom. "We all have to share one big one... Christ, I'd heard rumours that girl's all had bathrooms in their dorms but..."
He looked back at Madeleine, narrowing his eyes.
"That's discrimination, that is."

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

"That's just dirty," Madeleine said, screwing up her nose. "And definitely discriminatory. You should complain to Professor Hoodham."
One communal bathroom? Jeez. No wonder boys got a bad press for being 'smelly'.
She felt a soft touch and leg and found Mocha pawing at her jeans. Smiling, she bent down and picked her up, cuddling her close to her.