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A few days after Christmas, Kalani dropped by to visit Alise.

Well, ‘visit’ maybe wasn’t really the right word for it. It was the word she used when informing her mother of her plans, but the reality was more of leeching off of Alise’s rich family, under the guise of friendship. Alise had invited her over to watch movies, or rather, Kalani had brought up the original suggestion of hanging out, and Alise had taken her up on the offer. Normally, Kalani would leave Rune at home when going out, but, knowing that Alise had a Mauvian living with her as well, had unceremoniously stuffed the idol-loving kitten into the cat carrier she bought ages ago, and had taken her with her. It wasn’t really for the sake of allowing Rune to make new friends or anything- Rune already had that girl from the internet she was friends with (and hung out with)- but it kept the fluffy kitten away from her stuff and thus from using her computer to record anymore idol songs for the time being.

And, well, maybe Etoile could teach Rune a thing or two about how to be a proper Mauvian, or something, though Kalani had her doubts about that. Regardless of the reason, Kalani had headed right upstairs once she arrived at Alise’s house, and once more, unceremoniously dumped Rune in with the other Mauvian in residence, warning her not to come downstairs and bother them- the two teens were going to be watching movies, after all; it wouldn’t do for a couple of troublesome kittens to interrupt things, now would it?

Etoile, for her part, had been told in advance that another Mauvian would be coming over, and, though it didn’t sound like anyone she had met before, had prepared an assortment of sweets to share. There were the usuals, the leftover candy canes and gingerbread snaps (the prepackaged in a box kind), but there were some other things too, such as some candy hearts that Alise had bought just the other day, as stores were already putting out Valentine’s candy. She didn’t know if the other cat would like sweet things like she did, but if not, then all the more for herself, right?

After Kalani had left the room and closed the door, Etoile raised a paw in greeting, delighted to make the acquaintance of another Guardian Cat, especially another kitten like herself. “Hello!”

"Oh no, not at all," Etoile assured, delighted at what she perceived to be a compliment, "Alise buys me candy all the time, so this took no time at all."

Etoile loved sweets, after all, and as spoiled as it made her, Alise had no qualms at all about spending money on buying candy for the tiny Mauvian. Buying her loyalties, maybe, but as long as it made the kitten happy, the teen would continue to do so. In this aspect, this made Rune and Etoile's relationships with their respective senshi opposites of each other, given how Kalani only ever gave Rune her leftovers and candies she otherwise disliked (especially the sour ones).

"My name is Etoile, by the way- like the stars! What's yours? I really love sweets, do you?" Etoile asked her usual questions excitedly, eager to know more about her guest.

"Très bien! Then I hope you enjoy the assortment I have prepared today," Etoile replied, happy to have another sweets aficionado in her ranks. They were certainly going to have to have more meetings like this, where they could eat candy and talk! Certainly this was (hopefully) the start of a very beautiful friendship.

"It is very nice to meet you, Runelucia," the little cat continued, "That's too bad to hear about Kalani- I'm very lucky to live with Alise; she's so much nicer than the senshi I used to live with~"

"My last senshi... Ilse was so very very mean!" the little cat complained, recalling those dark dark days, before she came to live with Alise, "She'd never call me by my name, for one, and for another, she would never let me stay in her room!"

If Ilse could help it, she would have preferred that Etoile sleep outside, far far away from her house. Of course, the little cat always seemed to worm her way back no matter her attempts at casting her out, and so Ilse generally would ignore Etoile, allowing her younger cousins to fuss over the kitten when they visited, thinking it a suitable punishment. Admittedly, Etoile tended to enjoy the attention she got from small children, but she had wanted attention from Ilse.

"She'd never buy me sweets, either- Ilse always tried feeding me the most horrible things instead! She would get mad when I watched her tv, too."

In some ways, there was major overlap between Ilse and Kalani, if either cat stopped to think about it.

"Right? But things are much, much better now," Etoile replied, as she took another cookie for herself as well. She'd lost count long ago as to how many she'd had, out of the assortment of sweets that had been prepared for the two cats. It was hard enough to resist the temptation to go all in and devour everything before her companion arrived, and it was still taking a great deal of willpower to not go ham before Rune could have her share.

"These treats are absolutely the tastiest, don't you agree?"

"Oh, yes, they are!" Etoile replied, glancing at the candy dish that held the conversation hearts, and picking out one from the pile, "This one has, um... a frowny face?"

Alise had picked up a more sarcastic take on the traditional candy hearts, wisecracks, as they were apparently called, bemused at the concept of something opposite to the usual 'call me' 'text me' 'xoxo' and so forth. It would be something a teenager like her would be interested in...

"I don't like the grape ones, but the mint ones are great! I think they're, um... the white ones?"