Stella dropped her eyes to the cat, still feeling a little flushed but glad to have pushed herself out of her comfort zone to engage these two. The black sadness that roiled inside her receded a little at the interaction and she didn’t even notice the lie-trees all around her. The gentleman was charming, his voice rich and velvety and the cat was a truly handsome specimen. She felt something easing inside her, though whether it was voice or cat she couldn’t say. 

With a touch of warm laughter in her voice she spoke to his mention of having been adopted by the cat, “Well lucky you, he’s a handsome fellow.” 

Then the cat, Mowzer, launched himself up Mr. Eadoré’s back to perch for a proprietary moment on his shoulder, pausing to peer at Stella. 

[i]Oh yes[/i], she thought to herself regarding the pair, wild-eyed cat and blue eyed man. [i]He’s a bad boy alright. Poor man, a heart breaker and skin shredder.[/i] She endeavored to let both her appreciation of the cat and her sympathy for the man show in her dancing eyes as she bit her lip and regarded the pair. But the cat had made his point, or rather half his point and made his way down to the floor to curve around Stella’s legs. 

Contact, blessed contact. How wonderful, she thought as she let her eyes fall from the gentleman in front of her to the bad boy flirting with her at her feet. She knew enough to not try to pick such a majestic creature up but instead crouched down, heels to bottom and extended a hand to run fingers appreciatively along his lean, rumbling side. It was right that she should go to him. Her smile grew at the touch, cheeks plumping up charmingly and her eyes closed for a moment in absolute reverence at the first touch of fur in three years. It didn’t matter that she’d been unaware of the time passing, she felt it regardless and this touch was a gift. The feel of soft sleek fur over a lean, hard body that moved with such perfect sinuous grace made her sigh in bliss. 

“Oh he’s just perfect,” she breathed and then smiled up at the med-tech. She stayed crouched, her hand ready and receptive for Mowzer to brush up against, but never presumptuous enough to presume where he would want to be petted. She lifted her other hand to brush an errant dark curl out of her face. 

“You said he’d been in a cryo-bed? Fascinating, I didn’t realized they had them for animals. How lucky for me. Has he been examined since he woke?”