"Have a nice night, Sera," Taylor replied. He waited until she was inside before pulling back out of the driveway and heading back home.

Rose was inside, curled up in her favorite chair with a book on her lap and the new snake draped across her shoulders.

"Hey." Sera grinned. "You happen to know how the windows on Taylor's car got all decorated?"

"If I say 'no,' do I still get to ask you how your date went?" Rose replied, glancing up from her book. She marked her page with a finger, and made a mental note of the page number.

"No, but I will pester you about yours 'til you 'fess up." Sera grinned innocently.

"I won't tell you about my date until you tell me about yours," Rose replied, grinning. She set her book down so she could pay attention to her friend.

"Well, we went to dinner at that Italian place that I'm sure you saw." Sera smiled a little. "We talked and had fun. It was actually pretty fun. Your turn."

"We went to a movie and then dinner at the Asian place," Rose replied, using just as many details as Sera had.

"And then to tag Taylor's car," Sera added, raising her eyebrows and daring Rose to deny it.

"I did no such thing," Rose replied. It wasn't technically a lie.

Sera eyed her speculatively for several moments. "But you were there," she said, trying not to smile.

"I was with Damien," Rose replied. She didn't deny anything, but she also wasn't volunteering the information.

Sera snickered. "You should have seen the look on Taylor's face," she said with a grin. "He was stunned. He knew it was Damien, as soon as he saw it, but for a few seconds he was just dumbfounded. He had this expression that just screamed 'the hell happened to my car?!'"

Rose couldn't help but laugh.

"It must have been amazing," she said. "It was just window crayon, so it should wash right off. Damien was the one to actually write everything, though. I just happened to have the things in my bag from work earlier."

Sera nodded, grinning. "I think I might have gotten a good picture with my cell phone. I snapped it while he wasn't looking. It was just too priceless not to."

Grinning, she pulled out her phone and handed it over to Rose so she could inspect the picture.

Rose looked at the picture and couldn't help but laugh.

"You're right, that was priceless," she said. She handed back the phone. "Real quick, did you notice either of the cats behaving strangely earlier today while I was gone?"

"Well, that depends how you define strangely," Sera said with a shrug. "That one--" she pointed to the big tomcat "--was being a happy little lapkitty, and yours was pretty much normal. Maybe a little less spoiled than normal. Why?"

"Because the minute I walked in the door when I got home, they both went nuts and bolted behind the couch," Rose replied. "It was really strange. The snake was the only animal that didn't look terrified out of its skin."

Sera frowned. "Were you mad or something when you got home? Or was Damien?"

"Not at all," Rose replied. She'd actually been really happy when she got back from the date. "And they seemed fine when we stopped in earlier before we went out..."

"Huh. I dunno." Sera paused. "Although, come to think of it, your cat did seem a bit freaky when Taylor came to pick me up... I don't know. Maybe something happened while we were gone?"

"I have no idea," Rose replied. "I didn't notice anything out of place when I got back, and all of the animals but the cats were in the right cages..."

"I have no idea, then." Sera shrugged. "They seem to be okay now, at least."

"Yeah," Rose replied, as her dad's cat padded out into the room and stretched himself out on the small rug in front of the fireplace. "I totally forgot my parents were going on vacation and I agreed to watch that demon," she added. "I swear, he has to be part hellcat or something. He's allowed to go outside during the day, by the way. And he'll let you know when he wants to go out. He'll do something he thinks will piss you off so you'll throw him out."

Sera snorted. "Good luck to him. When I get pissed off at a cat I lock it in the closet." She chuckled. "When someone wants out, I'm used to them going and pawing at the door and then I let them out."

"He and my mother have staring contests," Rose said. "He'll make sure he has her attention, and then knock a piece of mail to the floor. Then he'll keep staring, and knock down another piece, and he'll keep at it until she throws him outside." She grinned. "And he's got a nasty habit of biting people's noses while they sleep."