A Talespin fanfic by Lizzy Spencer (KarmaCat) Page 4

 
      The next afternoon August was in her hotel room packing her things. The only plane that was going back to England was leaving late, about four A.M. the next day. She liked to have things done early.
       The doorbell rang and she ran to answer it, thinking that perhaps it was Leslie coming to visit her before she went on her honeymoon. But when she peeked through the peephole her eye beheld something else. It was a tall cat, a rather intimidating - looking panther, in a business suit.
      "Delivery for Ms. De Sante."
      She opened the door. She could smell the starch in the panther's suit. He held a rather large vase filled with about twenty Fire Island Blooms.
      "Why I - who is this from?"
      "Mr. Kahn, ma'am."
      "Mr. Kahn?"
      "Mr. Kahn."
      "Oh. I, um, well, I don't quite know what to say. Tell him I said thank you." She smiled and laughed nervously, taking the vase.
      The panther handed her a small, gold-emobossed envelope. Kahn's symbol was on it. "Perhaps you would like to tell him yourself."
      She raised her eyebrows and placed the vase on a table next to the door, studying the envelope with extreme interest. She began to close the door without thinking, but the panther caught it in his tremendous paw. "Wait a second, miss."
      "What-? Oh, you want a tip."
      "I wouldn't mind one, but that's not it. You see, there' s more."
      "More?"
      Another panther appeared with another vase of twenty flowers.
      She gasped. "Well!"
      And another.
      And another.
      August shook her head, watching incredulously as a total of twenty panthers appeared with twenty more vases of Fire Island Blooms, flooding into her hotel room like a great colorful parade.
      "I don't believe this! I - my God!" She turned to the first panther. "Do you know how much it must have cost to import all these?" She looked away and blushed, feeling snotty just for having said it.
      "More than three times my monthly paycheck, miss." He leaned in close to her and spoke in a whisper. "If you don't mind my saying, you must be something special. To my knowledge, he's never done anything like this before."
      She swallowed. "Never?"
      "Never."
      "I didn't even know he was...I mean, I didn't know he was interested...I can't BELIEVE he's interested...if I had known I would have-"
      "That's far out of my league, miss," he said, straightening his tie and returning to his businesslike manner. "I just deliver things." His men flooded out the door and he waved a good-bye to her. She watched him walk down the hall with his twenty twins. He took a glance back at her and winked, mouthing, "Good luck".
      August just shrugged with a stunned look on her face.
      She closed the door behind her, leaned against it, and opened the envelope.
      It read:

      Miss De Sante-
              It would please me greatly to meet you
              at the Gilded Swan restaurant this evening;
              Seven thirty.
              Feel free to bring your magic tricks.
                               -S.K.

      August laughed a little, and then looked up at her hotel room, which had been transformed in five minutes from a mere four star room into a sunburst. The poor panthers had actually ran out of surfaces to put the vases! They had to put some of them on the floor.
       She shook her head and wondered how any woman in her right mind could refuse.
 
                                                                                 
The twenty panthers had piled onto the elevator quietly, but as soon as the door closed, they began to laugh like drunken soccer goons.
        "Dang, you see her? She was hot!"
        "Hey Rob, you owe me five bucks, man! Remember that little bet we made?"
        "Tell you what, I wish I had the money he spent on those flowers."
        "What bet?"
        "Hot! The woman was hot!"
        "Heavy! Those vases were heavy!"
        One of them rang out in a mock falsetto voice, "Oh! Flowers!"
        "You know, the bet we made about Kahn's preference, boys or girls?"
        "You bet on that?"
        "Perverts."
        "Come on. You guys can't honestly say you didn't have your doubts."
        The elevator grew silent.
 
                                                                                  

August De Sante accepted Shere Kahn's invitation that night, and she didn't end up going back to England for another month.
        And that was only to get her things, at least, the ones she hadn't had sent.
        He recalled something Leslie said to him once when she found out about their engagement. "Well, I'm not surprised you love August, Shere. Heck, everybody loves August, what would make you any different?"
        Of course, he thought, of course. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with this woman. She had become his best friend, his other half, and thought it rather ironic, considering he usually seemed more fond of stolid, hard - to - get women, not open and friendly ones. Patricia just laughed and told him that he, being a male, had no idea what he wanted when it came to women.
        "Besides," she said, "how long do you think you would last with a woman whom you felt didn't need you? Not you Shere, not you. You need to be needed, appreciated. All men do, in the long run. She's good for you. She brings out the best in you."
        All he knew was that he wanted August, and now he had her, and he didn't want anyone else.
        A year later they were married. It was a small wedding, very intimate, only a few family members and friends; one of which was a very happy, very vocal Patricia. That same year Sarabi came, who was born with a serious look on her face. Two years after that came Orly, who was born laughing.
        And two years after that, August was dead.