I don't own them (mores the pity!); they're Marvel's and Ah'm usin'em without permission:):) Ah ain't makin' a plug nickel! If ya'll sue me Magnus is gonna be right peeved ...

Rated PG for absolute purity of content! No sex, no drugs, no rock and roll:):)

This one is for my friend Daniela who wanted a happy Magneto story with a naked Magnus, someone other than Charles and a cat. Daniela Sugah, ya'll have NO idea how close ya'll came to reading a Magnus/Catseye story:):) *snarf*

Animal Life A Feline Tail by Dannell Lites

"I warned you about the toes," Lee Forester told Magnus. Chuckling low in his throat her bed mate kissed her on the forehead.

"So you did, my dear, so you did ..." Magnus stirred and stretched lazily a moment or two later, then collapsed back into his pillows. "I really should be going home. God knows what trouble my students have gotten themselves into by this time. The last time I left them for this long I had to fetch them back from Asgard. The time before that it was even worse." Lee looked startled. "Worse than Asgad?" Magnus nodded. "Poukeepsie," he proclaimed with a serious moue of distaste.

Saddened, the tall woman ruffled silver hair. "Such a broody mother hen!" she explained. "Do you have to leave right now?" She snuggled closer and sighed. Magnus kissed her hair softly. "Well, perhaps not just this moment," he conceeded, "but soon, I fear." Companionable silence fell unbroken for long minutes. It wasn't disturbed until something soft touched Magnus under the comforter's warmth. Startled the Master of Magnetism threw back the covers and instantly a small orange-brown streak climbed it's way up his body.

"Meow!" a tiny voice insisted.

"By The Eternal!" Magnus cried, extracting a pair of miniscule feline buttocks from close proximity to his face.. "What is *this*?"

"*This*," said Lee rescuing the errant feline in question, who was busily trying to lick off Magnus' nose with a raspy little tongue, "is Bubastis. She's a cat."

"Hsssst," protested Bubastis, casting a jealous eye at the mutant. Lee looked pained. "No, Bubastis," she explained, "He wasn't hurting me. I enjoyed it." She grinned. "A lot." Frankly skeptical, Bubastis rubbed her friend beneath the chin. "Bubastis!" exclaimed Magnus' lover in a shocked voice, "that wasn't a very nice thing to say! And no, he won't be staying forever ..."

"Puuurrrr," said a smugly pleased Bubastis.

Lee turned contritly to Magnus. "Hey, I'm really sorry," she apologised. "She's kind of young and pretty bad mannered. We're still working on anything more civil than 'feed me NOW, slave!' She thought you were hurting me." Sitting up even straighter, the Protector of Mutantkind reguarded the woman to whom he had just made passionate love with tolerant eyes.

"Do you have any other surprises for me, my darling?" he asked a bit nervously.

"Well," said Lee peering about, "Herkimer is around here somewhere ... "

"Herkimer?" Magnus said slowly, dreading the answer to his implied query.

"My garter snake," Lee supplied.

"Snakes," the most powerful mutant on the face of the earth thought with clenthed teeth. "Why did I know that it would be snakes?"

Lee would have sworn that it was impossible for the new Headmaster of Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters to grow any paler. And it didn't help at all that a small scaly reptilian head chose that exact moment to make itself known. Twined among the ivy, Herkimer was about eight inches long and green enough to hide among the rooms many plants. Magnus closed his eyes in trepidation and grabbed firm hold of his nerves.

"Ah - I really must be going ... " He hastily kissed the other, dressed with much greater speed than was his usual wont and headed for the door all the while keeping one wary eye out for Herkimer or any of his snaky kin.

"Chicken!" called Lee. Magnus paused at the door.

"For our next assignation, dearest Lee," he said "shall we go to *my* abode?"

The End!