all my problems are handmade >> tat&cat

[Deleted]

t a t t o n    l e   r o u x   .

So here I am, just enjoying my day at the mall when I see the most ungodly sight. 

My sister. 

Cathy, that is, she's the only one I've got left - get it, cause RIP Emerson? The whole all stars campaign is a lot less fun when you're still grieving your sister's death, but I will say the memes make it a little easier. Like, robbed queen, yesss. Anyways, Dante & I are out with my grandpa's credit card and so we of course got loaded up on snacks and iced mochas before heading out the food court. I always get these fat ass pretzels with all the salt on them because fuck my cholesterol, I'll figure that out when I'm like 50. 

Yeah, I've got some years to me, baby. I don't plan on going anywhere, I'mma be my family's problem until the day I die too. The whole ride up the escalator I'm on my phone, showing Dante the Young Love reboot tweets and Trylle Fray's ugly new face every few seconds. I mean, look at Theo and Andal and then look at Trylle, who the fuck did he go to, man? 

So we're just minding our business, right, walking along the store fronts on the second floor when I spot her, that little bitch. She follows me everywhere, I swear, mommy's little favorite. Meanwhile I get to be Eurydice's biggest headache - hey, I'll take what I can get honestly. Truth be told, I haven't seen her much since I moved out and in with grandpa and she took that trip to District 2. Whatever, "shit, Dante just go without me, k? I'll be a minute," I gots some investigating to do. 

It's like she's on the same trail just seven minutes late, "CATHY!" I yell out over the edge, pressing my chest to the glass railing as I wave my arms out and over, "CATHYYYYYY!" Nope, nothing. 

Time for a different approach. I start chucking popcorn chicken at her head from the floor above, missing once or twice but eventually I get her right in the back of the head. She starts looking around her but not above, so I'mma just keep throwing. Alternating between tossing them at her and tossing them in my mouth, I can't help but laugh when the third I pitch gets stuck in her hair. Cuuute. 

[d7m fraser birk ♚ frankel]

Cathy Le Roux

It is Cathy’s whole personality now. Pursuing a way to get back to District Two so she has been told several times by several people. Trash attracts trash and all of that.

She has been told that there is a little office hidden in the mall where she can contest a declined travel permit, she has been sent on various wild goose chases but this tip off seems at least a little more realistic than the rest and hopefully it does not involve having her name entered on some crude social media page. That is the last time Cathy Le Roux is ever touching social media again although she is found interest in the audio book and music apps on the mobile device that she has finally taken out of its box.

While she is walking through the atrium of the mall, Cathy is listening to a fictional audio book through the barely visible ear buds. A tale of lovers struggling due to a long distance, in a land with real names and not numbers. It is hard to grow attached to the characters in this story as it is told to her by an eccentric Capitolite who uses the same voice for every character.

It is hard to navigate through the mall with a voice yapping in her ears too. So many around her are walking with brightly coloured headphones. She has always valued her senses, being the quiet one of the family, her hearing has always been her talent. She has always been good knowing what is coming next…

Is that a chicken nugget in my hair? Cathy pats the back of her blonde curls and tries to detangle the piece of chicken from it. She looks around whilst hitting the pause button on the audio book. Is it that Gabrielle finally out to seek revenge? She looks up. It is her sister, Tatton stood on the level above munching on the pieces of chicken and still flinging pieces down at her. Now she is not surprised that this is the way she is greeted by her sister, it is not something new.

Now for the awkward interval of riding the escalator up to Tatton. This is the right level she needs to be on to get to the office anyway and it won’t harm catching up with the sister she has not seen for a while.

Cathy hands over the piece popcorn chicken that tried to make a nest in her hair to Tatton. ”Did you drop this? It is not proper to waste food, Tatton.”

[Deleted]

t a t t o n    l e   r o u x   .

Cathy drops a popcorn chicken into my hand and I scoop it into my mouth without a second's hesitation. Mmm, nuggets, and it's still warm! 

"Thanks! I'm starving," I say before taking a deep slurp out of my iced mocha. I sip until I feel a headache forming, and honestly I sip a little more after that. The barista man put his whole baristussy into this, let me just say. Gemcut Malls has it alls, really, whatever you need this is the place to go! I'm curious to know why she's here, or with what money she's buying anything with. Eurydice is a stingy woman, and the stingy apple doesn't fall too far from the stingy tree. 

I'm talking about Cathy there, me on the otherhand? That bad apple grew legs and got the hell out, word on the street is Cat's trying to do the same again. "Did you drop this?" She asks, and I feign a surprise as I look to the cup of nugs in my hand. "Well by gosh, I think I did!" My hands are full now between the chicken and the coffee so something's gotta get devoured, I take another fat sip of my coffee as some guy shoves past me and Cathy to get to the escalator. Um, excuse me? Family bonding moment here, what the fuck! 

Yada, yada, proper this, proper this. I roll my eyes at it - how about you properly get off these nuts? "Oh, Cathy," I say as patronizingly as possible, "Cathy, Cathy, Cathy," younger by seven minutes and none the wiser. How have I let her get this far in life like this? She's just so uptight, I don't know how we're siblings nevertheless twins. Guess she's doing it right though, considering she's the favorite.

"Sometimes you just have to ask yourself: who's watching!" Who cares! 

Have a little fun, forget about doing things the right way. I grow a grin that says just watch before hoistering my coffee under my arm, popping the lid off my chicken and stuffing another in my mouth before dumping the few remaining bits over the edge. It's a mall and we're teens, the whole point is that this is our stomping grounds, y'know? 

"Proper that! Oh shit-" the smile runs off my face as soon as I realize who that just landed on. "Shit, back up," I say, ushering her from the glass railing out of sight, "I totally just dumped that on a mall cop, I gotta go!" Disrupting the peace is like, my whole thing, dude. I grab Cathy by the hand, pulling her in front of me before pushing her, and by extension myself, into the closest store front to hide in. 

Ooo, lingerie. Come through, Opal's Secret. 

[d7m fraser birk ♚ frankel]

Cathy Le Roux

Everyone in Cathy’s family seems to have their futures all set out in front of them – the living one’s that is. Cathy just has her mother’s manicured fingernails gripping tight onto her shoulders. Soon she will be locked away in a tower and the only way she will be freed is if she grows her hair a hundred feet long. With locks now barely past her breasts, she will be waiting many years for it to grow. That is why she needs the permit in her hands, right now and the train ticket booked straight back to that little haven she spent the few sparce month relishing in.

Tatton throws a whole lot of nonsense words at her. Cathy rubs her temples with one hand and pulls out the earbuds with the other, slipping them into the front pocket of her floral bag that is hung diagonally over her shoulders. She does not know how many times people have gasped after learning that the pair of them are twins, somehow Eurydice pushed out two opposites in the same sitting. Cathy is quite jealous of her though. Jealously is not a terrible trait to carry, there is definitely a better alternative to Cathy’s life, and it seems Tatton is living it under their grandpa’s roof. There is freedom carried in that cup of chicken and iced coffee and the only place Cathy will get it, is in the next District over.

Cathy’s eyes follow the pieces of chicken that are dumped over the side by her sister. There is a mall cop down bellow rubbing their had and shaking their fist up at them. Cathy is collected by the force of Tatton and pushed away from the crime scene. She really does not have time to be involved in her sister’s antics right now.

They end up in the nearby lingerie store, hiding behind a rail of colourful and frilly brassieres. ”I think they saw us come in here – what is your plan now?” Cathy says, peering through the rail of D-sized cups. ”I don’t have time for this and now they will be looking for me too.” There is quite a thrill inside of her though, the same type that filled her when she swapped the boxing gloves with Gabrielle’s opponent. If not for her already pencilled diary appointment, she would admit it to her sister. ”Thanks Tatton.”

[Deleted]

t a t t o n    l e   r o u x   .

"I think they saw us come in here - what is your plan now?"

"Uhh," oh sweet Cathy, "I don't know," this is the part where you let the universe have its way with you, you know? Things tend to just work out for me when I get myself in these situations, mostly because I know how to get out of them without getting caught. Kinda hard with 145lbs of dead weight in the shape of my sister hanging around me, but in her defense I did literally drag her into this. I just take us deeper and deeper into the store, passing by mannequin babes until I feel the heat of the store attendant's glare leave my neck. 

Phew, if anyone asks, we've been in here the whole time. Easy, I think? I hold my thumbs in the strap of my backpack as I eye up the merchandise: panties, thongs and everything in between. They've got some cute ones out today, I keep checking over my shoulder to make sure trouble's not coming our way. Lord knows Cathy has never done this before. She gives me a half ass thanks, but you know what? 

I'll take it, "you're welcome, Cat!" 

I say it with a beaming grin - she probably wants to kill me right now. And what is she in such a hurry for anyways? "What, don't have time to run from the cops with your own sister?" She has half a thought to wonder where Dante went off to; probably back to the food court, that's what I would've done. I take another sip of my iced mocha latte, obnoxiously loud on purpose as I suck up the bottom contents of the cup. 

"What happened to loyalty?! I swear," and I stuff a peach colored shaping panty into my bra as I tell her so. Shhh, she better snitch or I swear to god. I give a staged huff before turning on my heels away from her and head through the perfume section, the last place any sensible person would go. If anything'll deter a mall pig, it's this.

"Need anything?" I offer, "heard there's a pretty good discount going on." Five fingers, baby.

[d7m fraser birk ♚ frankel]

Cathy Le Roux

Cathy is dragged further and further into the store, deeper into the mess that her sister has caught her up in. Does a criminal record affect a travel permit? It probably definitely does! She needs to get out of here, pronto but the girl sticks out like a sore thumb. Blonde haired girl, yellow floral bag wearing a white hoodie and navy shorts, she is not exactly walking around incognito right now and there is nothing prude enough in this store for her to waste her money on to change her appearance.

She is sucked into it now and she is going to have to rely on Tatton to get her out of it. Back to being little lost puppy that she used to be when they were all under one roof.

”That is so obnoxious.” Cathy says out loud as Tatton slurps loudly on the coffee. She bites her tongue, she has always been so good at keeping those thoughts in but wow, Lil Cathy Le Roux is hella mad right now. She tries to trace back teachings planted her mind by the zen career academy back in District Two. Something about controlling emotions and using them to get out of sticky situations. Cathy has always favoured containing them and internally flailing to solve a problem. Hiding amongst lines of panties is her best bet right now it seems.

Cathy bites her bottom lip and shakes her head as Tatton slips the panties into her bag. ”All the money our family has, and you really have to do that?” Now shoplifting has been added to the list of crimes, along with what will probably be marked down as assault on a mall cop.

”The only thing I need right now is for you to get me out of here.” Cathy says. She is probably being a little too uptight, but she doesn’t want to wait around long enough for Tatton to add another felony to the mix. ”There is apparently a travel permit office on this floor, do you know where it is?” Cathy prepares for the incoming questions on where she thinks she is travelling too but if there is anything she has in common with her twin, it is getting as far away as possible from the Le Roux matriarch. ”Help me get out of here.”

[Deleted]

t a t t o n    l e   r o u x   .

When little Cathy Cat calls me obnoxious, all I can do is beam with pride - that's the reaction I wanted. 

Thanks for playing along, sis. It's all empty now so I just tuck it behind a pile of thongs and try to forget about it. Littering is for ugly people but I don't see any trash cans, so what's a bitch to do, y'know? All things considering, Cathy is a pretty tough nut to crack, and I'm... pretty easy. I fall apart quick and I have a bad temper, but not her, the worst I can say about her is that she's a judgmental little snitch. She doesn't yell though, she doesn't kick and scream and throw tantrums quite like I do, so I have to get her some props where they're due. 

"All the money our family has, and you really have to do that?"

"Yeah, it's like, the principle," I say, adjusting myself to feel a bit more nonchalant. Steal from big businesses, Opal's Secret isn't even a District 1 brand, it's from the Capitol. That's how they trick ya, all the tags say made in 8 so there's nothing about this place that says my money's going to hard working people of my district. Plus, I don't want gramps to know I'm out here buying lingerie with his money. That's just embarrassing, the less he knows the better.

I eye up a bottle of fleur de bouquet as Cathy complains - you know, I don't know what that means but it smells like flowers. I spritz myself on both wrists and then an extra puff just for my dearest twin, spraying her at the chest before putting it back on the counter. The travel office? That's why she's here, "so you're trying to leave again?" Typical, for all the loyalty in the world us Le Rouxes have been pretty awful at sticking together recently. 

Whatever, I don't know why I'm so bitter. It must be desperate though, because she's asking for my help and that's something I rarely ever hear from Cathy. Sure, I got her into this mess, but it still feels good to be needed for once. She's got these puppy dog eyes she's never grown out of and I just roll mine in response, "fine, I guess I can help," I say with fake hesitation. 

It would be nice of me, I guess. 

"Stay here," I command before squeezing my way out of the department store and checking if the coast is clear. Sure enough, that pig is on our floor, two stores down talking to some lady with teal hair. It's time to get creative here; the travel office is right across the gap in the second floor, a dark and dingy closet of a room with a flickering light. Government funded, I'm sure, I make my way back to Cathy pondering how to do this. 

Okay, let's figure this out. I start digging in my bag looking for anything to disguise Cathy or myself or both. "We're gonna have to sneak past him. No problem for us," well, for me, I pull Cathy's hood up to her hairline and giving her a thumbs up. I check my six and nine (lol 69) before placing my bag on the table, quickly swapping my crop top for a collared tee I have. A Freezie work shirt from over the summer, I keep forgetting to throw it away already. Then I slip on a beanie and some shades. 

"Inconspicuous as fuck, am I right?" Plus they both smell like roses, that should help. 

[d7m fraser birk ♚ frankel]

Cathy Le Roux

A mist of perfume fills Cathy’s lungs as her sister sprays the bottle into her direction. Thank god she does not have asthma, she just wafts away the strong stench of roses that lingers beneath her nostrils. Cathy is quite surprised by Tatton’s reaction after she reveals her reason for being in the mall right now. No lecture on why she should not go to Two. No mockery on how Two is such a disposable District. Instead, she is given a helping hand. It seems a sweet act, but Cathy just thinks her sister wants rid of her. No matter the motive, Cathy is just blessed that someone is finally genuinely helping her.

Cathy waits by the rows of bottled perfume as Tatton disappears off, making sure their course out of here is clear. She just grips onto the strap of her floral bag, a stiff figure that is awkwardly lingering in the store with so many eyes that are dropping glances at her as they pass by. There are a few whispers too, comments on how uncool she looks right now. Is that child lost? one clearly jests from the brassiere section where they were once hiding.

Tatton finally returns and throws her bag onto the table in front of them. Picking out the perfect disguise for herself and then just drawing the strings tight on Cathy’s hood that is now suffocating her head. ”This is not going to work, Tatton.” Cathy worries but Tatton is already leading the way out of store, donned in her new attire while Cathy looks exactly the same. Minus the hair that is now covered on her head.

The air changes outside the storefront, the mall has got busier in the short minutes they have spent within Opal’s Secret. To the left, there is no mall cop to be seen. To the right, there is no mall cop to be seen. Relief slips from between Cathy’s lips. The travel permit office is within sight, a dreary looking place that will finally take her to the final destination…”You!” Something grabs at the back of Cathy’s hood, pulling it down from her head. Cathy reluctantly turns round, and it is the same mall cop that she watched popcorn chicken be volleyed at by her sister.

”It wasn’t me, it was-.” Cathy looks at her now goofy looking beanie and sunglasses wearing sister. ”It wasn’t me!” Cathy pleas, she is sounds desperate right now. ”The girl is still inside the store.” She turns back to Opal’s Secret, pointing at a random figure that is browsing the stock in there. Surely that will not be enough to throw the cop off their scent. Not with her guilty trembling and desperate words.

[Deleted]

t a t t o n    l e   r o u x   .

"This is not going to work, Tatton," my dearest twin says, negative as always.

Not with that attitude it won't, pigs can smell fear from a mile away. Or maybe that's truffles. "Sure it will!" I say, speaking out my positive manifestations. It works like a charm, speak it out into the universe and it will be, you know? We walk a little bit, some old lady bumping into me with her ugly kid but I bite my tongue trying to keep my disguise up. I'm not Tat, in this moment I'm, uh... Pat. Sure. And Pat has balls of steel and the patience to match. 

So anyways, this is the part where everything goes to shit. I swear my sister just has this aura about her that makes it impossible to get away with anything, the staunch "you!" being met with a practical yelp from Cat. I look over and she's been snatched, bitch, hoodie down and long blonde hair freeing itself in the air conditioned wind. "Hey, hands to yourself, bro!" I shout back, standing up for her the best I can.

But it's that damn mall cop again, of course.

I thought the coast was clear! Sorry sister, usually I'm much better at this. But also, usually my entourage is too. She pleas desperately, tossing out a red herring that lands three feet ahead of her. He doesn't even look over his shoulder, instead scanning Cathy and then myself after. "What's with the shades, boy?"

"Uh, I ain't no boy," I say, scowl on my face. This is why we don't fuck with cops, they're always assuming people are up to no good for no good reason. I might be disrupting the peace, shoplifting lingerie and disguising myself in public, but I'm an upstanding citizen otherwise, damnit. It's obvious the jig is up though, especially with my sister blubbering on the verge of tears, so I guess it's time for me to step up.

Sigh, and do the right thing, I guess. 

I take off the shades first and the beanie after, my own hair a mess as I let it down. "Look, it was an honest mistake, I got jump scared by the terrible prices here and dropped my chicken right off the edge. Swear by it," I lie like my mother taught me. The hard way, of course, lying to her and testing if I can get away with it - very rarely I could, but I could! "And she didn't do anything," she never does, good little Cathy Le Roux, "so let her go, yeah?" 

I don't know who I am bossing around a cop, but it's kind of fun. He looks me over with his hands on his hips before calling something over the radio, a 456 or something, "what's that mean?" 

"Means you're coming with me, both of ya." 

A fat grimace takes place on my face as I look to Cathy, well shit.

[d7m fraser birk ♚ frankel]

Cathy Le Roux

Half of Cathy’s hair is captured by the manufactured breeze of the mall, the other half is still awkwardly tucked into the neck of the hoodie. While her sister argues with the cop, she adjusts herself and lets all of her locks flow down her back. If she is going to end up is a custodial cell today, at least her first ever mugshot will look good. Now what does a criminal record mean for the renewal of her travel permit? It will not be a helpful mark on her papers, another hoop to leap through. Thank you again, Tatton.

She grips onto the strap of her bag with both hands now, all hope landing onto the wise words of her sister. If there is something that she admires about her twin, it is how street smart she can be. If anyone can get them out of Tatton’s own mistake! It is Tatton.

"Means you're coming with me, both of ya."

Oh dear.

Cathy swallows the pathetic tremors and blubbering from earlier. Admitting defeat so early is not something she was taught at the school in Two. Now is the time to put that confidence into practice. ”And if we don’t come with you, what happens to us then?” Her hands slide down the straps to the zipper of her bag, she rummages through the miscellaneous contents for her purse. ”We are daughters of the mayor, it will be a lot of paperwork over a few pieces of split chicken…”

Cathy pulls out a thick wad of cash from her purse, a once unneeded treasure that she has been carrying and saving for a long time. ”This will should settle the bill?” Cathy peals out five bills from the wad, quickly slipping the rest back into her purse before further bills are pursued by the cop that snatches the bribe from her.

”Now, my sister is sincerely sorry for the accident, right?” Her eyes flash at Tatton, Cathy is carrying the same stern look of disapproval that their mother permanently has sketched on her face.

[Deleted]

t a t t o n    l e   r o u x   .

So, this may or may not be all my fault. I genuinely feel bad that I dragged Cathy into this, she's probably seconds away from pissing herself and the pig in white doesn't seem interested in going easy on us. It's a little embarrassing, how I fucked this up so hard. Whoops, you live and you learn, right? Haha- how much jurisdiction actually have though? He's just a mall cop at that, are they even like, real cops? Be for real.

Cathy takes over and that is what actually makes me nervous. What does she know about handling this? She questions him about what will happen to us, and my bet's that we're gonna get two jacked up mugshots and get banned from the mall. Which sucks, don't get me wrong, but I'm not gonna panic until I'm in handcuffs somehow. But get this: she fucking bribes him, bro! I look at Cathy just like what the hell are you doing?! Even I don't have the balls to do that, pulling the Eurydice card both ways - paying off the enemy and flexing political status at that. 

In a way, I'm really, really proud. I can't lie, I never expected it from her.

She looks to the cop, and then me, and then the cop looks at me. "Now, my sister is sincerely sorry for the accident, right?" She says, taking control of the situation entirely in a way I never expected. I swallow my doubts and spit up a "yup! So, so sorry," as the mall cop counts through the bills. Easily a hundred bucks for some spilt chicken, hell, I'd take it too. "Are you really trying to pay off a cop?" He says, stuffing the cash in his pocket regardless as he puffs out his chest. 

"Nooo, no way, consider it like a tip. For your great job at keeping the mall clean," his big old head did a great job at catching all that popcorn chicken. Credit where credit is due, he looks us both over before resigning. "You two stay out of trouble," he says, before pushing past me. For a second I just let myself be stunned before turning to Cathy, "you are batshit for that. I'm so impressed," she might just be my sister after all. 

I nudge her with my elbow with a laugh before starting towards her destination. I honestly don't know much about getting a travel permit besides where the pop up station is, "I'll pay you back by the way, it's only fair." And I'm not one to break a promise, I won't even use gramps's money, I'll use my honest to god green goods. We're staring down the travel station now and I let Cathy take the lead, she seems to know what she's doing more than I gave her credit. 

[d7m fraser birk ♚ frankel]

Cathy Le Roux

It is a simple success. Cathy pats her purse; it is a little lighter now but at least she won’t have to pose for some unflattering portraits. It is honestly so astonishing that something so uncreative like that just worked for her and she actually opened her mouth. Took the reins herself and washed the dirt from her own hands without someone standing over her dispensing the soap. All of it by Cathy. A proud moment over spilled chicken. Now she needs to go back to Two and build more.

The cop warns them to stay out of trouble, Cathy nods and flashes him a smile as he finally leaves the pair of them alone. ”Do not tell anyone I did that, especially-.” She hopes she does not have to name drop their mother to Tatton. If that woman found out she has been waving around the mayor card and dishing out her money to the cops, she will never be allowed out of the house again.

”Yes, I think I may need a reference for this new permit. I was going to ask someone outside of the family, but you will do.” Tatton is the only option she has, it is a perfectly fair payback for getting them both out of sleeping on a jail cell tonight rather than in their own beds.

Cathy does not wait for Tatton to follow, pushing forward across the upper floor of the mall into the direction of the temporary travel permit office.

The light is not flickering in the window anymore. Complete darkness looms over the totally derelict-looking storefront that Cathy was assured was the correct location. She tries the handle, but the door does not budge. Another rattle and nothing. There is a janitor pushing a mop bucket across the floor close by. ”It closed ten minutes ago, will be for another month. Nearest place for a permit is the mayor’s office.”

If Cathy’s vocabulary extended to the realms of curse words, the loudest fuck!!! would be slipping from her lips right now. Instead, she places the earbuds back in, hitting replay on the audiobook on her phone. ”You can go back to your friend.” She says, leaving her sister behind outside empty store front. If only she could just leave this District behind as easily.