"Man, I'd totally kill to bathe right now." Kat muttered, drinking some water and refilling it from the stream. "You were so lucky chem teacher, you got yourself a hot cat-girl girlfriend and got to bathe yesterday and everything." For a fraction of a second, she looked at Tomas, too fast for anyone but you who'd been looking at her to notice. "I wonder when we'll find some cute cat-boy for me to play with..."

"I'm worried about May." You don't bite the bait, giving Katherine the level look that warns her you're being serious. "She hasn't said a word, and after what she went through..."

"We all went through the same thing." Kat's response is so fast you flinch slightly, realizing this may be a touchy subject. But the tension she showed quickly vanished. "But yeah, it got her hard."

Glancing at Kat for a moment, you turn to the feline of the group. "Monica?" You call out, and she released your arm immediately.

"Rick!" She declared.

"That's Kat." You state, pointing at the blonde.

Monica tilts her head. "Purrsian?"

"Kat." You said.

"Puuuuurrrrrr." She muttered, making a face. Monica twisted her lips a little, "Ca... Kawt." A pause. "Kat."

The aforementioned ex-student blinks in surprise and then shoots you a mock glare. "This is the lowest form of bribery you could've done, you're a monster." Despite her words, she's grinning like a mad-woman, approaching Monica. "But I ain't so cheap." Taking a step forwards, she stops right in front of Monica and puckers her lips. "Kiss?"

"You stop that, I'm trying to get her to stop jumping random people." You stated with a deadpan.

"But I'm literally asking!" Kat replied.

Meanwhile, Monica seemed to be looking for something on the floor, fortunately not seeming to have paid much attention to Kat's request just yet.

"C'mon!" Kat presses. "Please?"

An instant of hesitation, this felt like a bad idea, but... maybe there was hope. "Fine, just... wait." You frown, shifting your attention to Monica. "What are you doing?"

Monica's eyes immediately lock back on to you and she puckers, clearly asking for a kiss. Blinking in slight surprise, you then frown and bring out the bottle. Except it gets snatched from your hand and Monica turns towards Kat and hands her the bottle. "Wha...?" Kat seems uncertain what's going on.

And then you start laughing, realizing that every time you'd prompted Monica to kiss it'd been after making her gargle some water to make sure her mouth didn't taste of rotten meat... or at least less so. "Wait, what's so funny?" Kat insisted, seeming more confused.

"She's saying your breath stinks." You pointed out, holding back the laugh in your tone with ease. Being a teacher certainly had trained you for such an event. "Just gargle some water and it should be fine."

"Gargle some... she thinks my breath stinks!? HER!?" She couldn't help herself in gawking. "It's minty fresh! I still have toothpaste dammit! I brushed this very morning!"

"It's her opinion, not mine." Laughing was harder.

Disbelief is clear across her face as she stares at a growingly impatient Monica and then at you, but complies. "This better work." She muttered, drinking a bit and then spitting it out. "If this is just some joke you're making up and she won't-." And then her lips were sealed by Monica's.

And then Kat was pinned to the ground as the feline kept going. There were certainly no complaints even as the young woman undoubtedly noticed that Monica had the intention of removing her clothes next one way or another.

"Kat..." You sighed loudly, shaking your head. "We're not in a good situation right now."

"I know, I-." Whatever her response might have been it was drowned in the next kiss.

"You knew perfectly well this was going to happen." You intoned, approaching the girl as she was now trying to fight Monica off but to no avail.

"I thought you had her under control!" She cried out just before her blouse is ripped and her chest exposed.

"Monica!" You call out in desperation, to which the feline turns her head at you.

"Rwick?" She stated, giving the protruding piece of flesh a single long lick that makes Kat shudder.

"Oh Sweet Baby Jesus." The young woman blushed tomato red, trying to push Monica off with even less result than before.

"Monica, stop!" You declared, approaching her and reaching to her, but stopping just shy of actual contact.

The look Monica shot you was not one of anger but rather vexation, she didn't swat you away, but instead snorted derisively and kept at what she was doing.

Which was Kat.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING TO MY GRAND-DAUGHTER!?"

Monica leapt and turned around, facing towards Mr Gabriel, growling as all her hairs stood up and her body immediately took an aggressive stance. "Monica!" You stated loudly before she could react, placing yourself in front of her, and more importantly, in front of Mr Gabriel. The feline paused, doubt, hesitation, anger, moving to concern, her eyes flickered towards the red face Mr Gabriel who was breathing very heavily and almost snarling, then at you. "Stop." You stated, ignoring the cold sweat that was going down your back as you saw her claws unsheathing. "Stop."

You grasped her claws, she looked down at you, then at Mr Gabriel, then at you. "Rick."

The tone was a chill down your spine, a warning, she was going to kill Mr Gabriel, and the warning was for you to get out of the way. You clenched harder. "Kat." You turned to the girl. "Get out of here, now."

She didn't need to be told twice, you waited until Mr Gabriel had calmed down, the man shooting you a glare, followed by one at point-blank range at Kat. She became deathly pale.

"Monica, Stop." You said, clenching her paw and staying right between her and the retreating Kat and Mr Gabriel. "Stop." You repeated, ignoring your hammering heart and raising your tone. "Monica, Stop!" You said firmly just as she'd been about to take a step further.

That made her pause. She looked at you, frowning. Her hand pulled out of your grasp. A loud snort left her, she took a step back from you, looking down at you. The look in her eyes appeared to demand an explanation. But you kept looking at her firmly, keeping your breath under control, until she eventually appeared to let go of the idea of carrying out the violence she'd intended, claws retracting, shoulders relaxing.

"Rick." She said, now in a huff. A great inward sigh followed as you realized that, save that moment of contempt, she'd been doing exactly what she was used to doing. She was someone who'd spent her life getting amusement when and where she wanted with anyone who struck her fancy, and right now a girl had offered kissing.

And Mr Gabriel had clearly stepped into her fun.

You had no doubt Mr Gabriel would tell you just how much of a fuck up it had been on your part not to expect this just as much as Katherine had, or maybe he'd just let it indefinitely hang over your head like a guillotine waiting to fall... but regardless, right now your responsibility was trying to help Monica in regards to this in some way.

You took a second to glance at Monica's confusion and considered what to do here. You couldn't really hope to even begin explaining to her what "permission" meant by sheer force of the fact that Kat had been the one to ask for it. Sure, she'd changed her mind about what "it" meant, but how could you properly explain the nuances to Monica? She barely knew four words! And that wasn't without adding the grandfather's reaction.

How were you meant to explain to Monica, someone who appeared to have taken faithfully to the doctrine of "Anywhere, anywhen, no limits" to heart... about why someone else might be upset about her fucking someone? How in the world could you show her about things such as jealousy or protectiveness? You figured there might be a way were you to use other examples and then apply them, but...

The communication wall reared its ugly head once more, without finding a way around it there was little hope to properly explain such complicated ideas.

"Rick?" She asked, drawing you back to reality.

And you realized you had to make a decision about how to tackle this right now, and hopefully prepare or at least plan for coming back to the subjects at hand whenever it was that she could process the information properly.

You couldn't reassure her, not really, she had been in the wrong at the last moment and you had little doubt that congratulating her directly and without reserve would undoubtedly end up being bad on two fronts. The first in that she'd do it again, the second that the others would surely know or find out you'd rewarded her. The amount of worry about the second part was far lesser than the first, especially when you considered what'd happen when you reached civilization. If she stuck around, how well would she react to things? Better start working on her learning now rather than later.

There was also the insidious thought that if she reacted too negatively to civilization then there would be higher odds she'd leave back to the forest... but you put that thought away for now. "Come." You motion her to follow, looking at her with a forced calm smile.

She appeared to catch that there was something off about your expression, but not what; Monica looked uncomfortable as she started walking beside you, glancing between you and the glaring Mr Gabriel. "We will talk... later." His tone was chilly but not aggressive, his eyes didn't even move towards Monica, he just turned back towards the glowing red Katherine and continued sternly talking to her.

Tomas was a couple of steps in front of them, remaining quiet. Alicia shot you a complicated look that spoke of one teacher's disappointment in another, but there was certainly something else in there that felt closer to sympathy.

You had the decency to admonish yourself for your mistake, but it was more important to move ahead. You definitely were going to need to figure out some way to put things down for Monica, explain her... everything, try to get her under better control. And yet... as you looked at May, thinking about her quietness, an idea crossed your mind, you chewed on it as everyone began to settle down and prepare to get back to moving ahead. It would only be once everyone had calmed down that you'd speak up again.

"I think we should help Monica learn English." You finally declared.