Here, Kitty, Kitty

If You Win

Warnings;
. Swearing
. Sexual tension towards the end, I guess? Just hormones in general.

"A curse? Seriously," Uma muttered with disappointment, twirling one of her long braids between her fingers.

"It's what tha little one said," Harry said with a small shrug, shuffling around on the stool he currently sat on. "Ain't much use, is it?"

The teal-haired Captain grumbled incoherently and rested her chin on her hand, the fingers of her left hand repeatedly drumming against the table as she thought.

Truthfully, the new information Harry had somehow obtained from Cassie wasn't of any use to her. All it explained was the little cat's reluctance to discuss the matter with them, and why she'd gotten so touchy when Uma pressed her for an answer earlier. It didn't tell them who on the Isle had the magical capabilities of turning someone into an animal or - if Uma had to aim a little higher, take down the barrier itself.

Cassie didn't seem to know anyone on the Isle, that much Uma was certain of. After all, if the little cat did have someone, they'd have surely come for her by now. This mean that - since Cassie had inherited the curse from her dad, whoever had spelled the Cheshire Cat was somehow directly linked to the trickster himself. But Uma barely knew enough about Wonderland or the infamous Cheshire Cat, and she had no way of knowing who on the Isle would have a grudge against him. The only one she could think of was the Queen of Hearts, but surely if the psychotic woman had some magic in her then she wouldn't be spending her days running a salon in the middle of the Isle. It just didn't make sense.

"She say anything else?" Uma asked the first mate.

Harry gave another shrug. "She said she hangs 'round with tha witches."

"It can't be them," she told him, shaking her head. "Who in their right mind would spend time around the people that made them turn into a cat whenever they wanted to? Cassie's weird but she's not stupid."

Harry rolled his eyes but gave a small nod to show that he agreed with her statement.

"What time is it?" Uma wondered randomly.

"What are ya on about?" Harry sighed. He was bored, and the fun he'd had with the little cat had only sustained him for so long.

The Captain ignored his careless attitude toward her question and leaned forward, fiddling around with the pocket watch he had around his neck. She pushed down on the button and the charm popped open, a faint ticking reaching her ears.

"It's almost twelve," she uttered toward herself, clasping the charm back in place as she leaned away from Harry.

"An' yar point is?" Harry droned.

"If Cassie's under a curse then she's gonna turn back into a cat. It might happen at midnight," she explained.

"I don' think so. I chased 'er aroun' all mornin' when she was human, Uma. There's no way it's happenin' at midnight."

"You got someone watching her at least?"

He nodded. "Aye. I sent Gilly down there."

Uma raised her brows, slightly surprised Harry had decided that - out of all of them, the son of Gaston was the best to watch the prisoner. "That a good idea?" she inquired pointedly.

"Well, your way didn' work now, did it?" he said, and she glared. "An' I doubt she wants ta see me after what I did. So," he breathed. "I reckon Gill's tha best decision."

"By the way, what did you do?" She'd made damn sure before that Harry knew not to hurt Cassie too bad, but he'd left that ship looking like the cat that ate the canary, so to speak, and Uma was allowed to worry about how he handled the little cat. After all, Harry was quite the easy one to push, and from what Uma had experienced it seemed Cassie was rather fond of finding the right button. Cassie was the only one she knew of that had magic, and even if it wasn't hers and it was just a 'punishment' of sorts, she was their only clue to finding the real spell caster.