Marriage of Convenience

Part One

Started 10/05/01

Tapping her fingers lightly on the console, Cheetara looked once again at the chronometer. Only a few minutes had passed although it had seemed like ten minutes. The

cheetah sighed and glanced at the hand-wrapped gift.

If Pumyra doesn’t get here soon, I’ll be late.

As if on cue, the doors swished open. Pumyra stepped into the control room. “I’m here. You can leave.”

“Thank you, Pumyra.” Cheetara smiled gratefully, picked up the gift, and headed out the door.

“Have fun,” Pumyra called out behind her. She had no idea if her fellow ThunderCat had even heard her.

Cheetara walked quickly through the hallway. Tygra and Panthro, who were carrying a white trunk, came out of a storage room blocking her path. The cheetah deftly ducked under the chest and walked ahead of them. She gave them a grin and wave before turning back around.

“I need your help in the laboratory tomorrow morning,” Tygra remarked.

“And I you promised to help me check the new com-links,” Panthro requested.

“Okay,” Cheetara called out over her shoulder as she turned a corner. She made her way to the end of the hall to the elevator. She pushed the down button and stood in front of the doors. As a beep sounded, the doors slid apart. Cheetara went into the elevator as Lion-O was coming out.

He held the doors open with his hand while he asked her in a panic, “Have you seen Snarf?”

“Take it easy. Did you check the library?”

“No.” Lion-O stepped back into the elevator and let the doors close.

“He was helping the twins with their studies,” Cheetara explained. “He’s probably still there.”

The Lord of the ThunderCats sighed and raked a hand through his hair. “I’ve got to find him. He’s got my schedule book.”

Cheetara shook her head and joked, “What did you do? Make a date with someone else tonight, and now you can’t remember who?”

“Well, uh...”

Cheetara gasped and lightly but playfully smacked him on the arm. “By all the seas of Thundera! That’s terrible!”

The elevator stopped and opened its doors once again. Lion-O followed Cheetara as she stepped out. “I can’t help it! I’ve got too much to think about.”

“You better hope you find Snarf,” Cheetara teased him. “We don’t want to get calls from furious women.”

As Cheetara walked past the library, she peered in. WilyKat and WilyKit sat at the table arguing with each other as Snarf covered his ears and tried to calm them down. The cheetah gestured into the room. “There is he.”

“Thanks,” he called out after her as she continued her journey. She waved in acknowledgment without turning around. The cheetah soon stepped out of Cat’s Lair. She breathed in the fresh air as she clutched the gift to her. For the first time in weeks, she was free. In a golden blur, Cheetara raced away from the confines of the ThunderCat fortress.

*****

With a slight hesitation, Cheetara knocked on the door of a friend she found living on New Thundera. In the past two years since her arrival on Thundera, the cheetah had found a few of her friends she grew up with. She carefully straightened the bow on the wrapped gift as she waited for the door to open.

At that moment, Cheetara’s friend did open the door. The two hugged each other and her friend announced, “It’s so good to see you. Come in!”

“I hope I didn’t wake your baby. I know how much they sleep when they are this young.”

“Actually, you arrived just in time. Keelon is feeding her at the moment.”

Cheetara walked in and was taken to the baby room. In there, the father was giving the baby a bottle.

"Look, Keelon. Cheetara came by to visit us."

"The Thundercats finally let you have a day off?" Keelon joked.

Cheetara smiled. "Yeah. I'm sorry I missed the baby shower, Celena."

"Oh, that's all right. You're a Thundercat. You are always busy."

"I did bring little Jamie a gift."

Celena smiled gratefully at her friend. "Oh, thanks. That was very nice of you." She took the offered gift and opened it. "Oh, this is a cute dress for her. Thanks, Cheetara.”

“You’re welcome. She’s so adorable.”

“Do you want to hold her?" Keelon asked.

"I would love too," Cheetara replied. Keelon set the bottle down and walked over and gently handed Cheetara his infant daughter. The baby cooed in Cheetara's arms. "Oh, she's a cute one."

"Yeah, she is," Keelon said proudly as he put an arm on his wife shoulders. "We're thinking about having another one."

Cheetara looked at the happy couple surprised. "So soon?"

Keelon wrapped his arms around his wife. "Why wait?"

"Well, you will wait until I'm ready." Celena responded.

Cheetara looked at the happy couple. The cheetahs were in love and so right for each other. She felt like an outcast and lonely in the midst of the married couple. Cheetara looked down at the baby in her arms. It looked so innocent and adorable with its wide brown eyes and big smile. Her small hands reached for Cheetara's hair and pulled it.

The cheetah was surprised at the baby’s strength as she untangled her hair from Jamie’s fingers. Holding a child in her arms brought up old feelings of desired motherhood for the cheetah. She accomplished her goal of being a Thundercat, and although she loved it, the cheetah also had a secret desire to be a mother. She wanted to carry a child inside of her, someone she created with the love of a husband. Cheetara was ready for all the responsibility of motherhood: feeding, hugging a child, seeing joy in their face, their looks of confusion, watching then crawl, watching them walk, hearing their first words. There was so many things she loved about motherhood, and she wanted every bit of it including the midnight feedings, their crying, the diaper changing, dealing with them when they got fussy. She wanted it all: the good and the bad. However as she got older, she did not see any of that happening.

Jamie began squirming and fussing. Cheetara handed the baby back to Keelon. “I think she wants to finish her bottle.”

Celena laughed and remarked, “She does eat a lot.”

“She takes after me,” Keelon said proudly. His wife patted his tummy and smiled. “I won’t argue with you on that.” She leaned up and gave him a quick kiss.

“Okay, you two. I can leave if you want to be alone,” Cheetara joked.

Celena shook her head. “No way. You just got here. Please stay for dinner.”

“I don’t know...”

“You’ve got to. It’ll be nice talking to someone different,” Keelon insisted.

Celena wrapped her arm around Cheetara’s shoulders and led her out of the nursery. “Besides, we have a lot of catching up to do. You haven’t told me anything about yourself.”

*****

On another part of Thundera, Lion-O began his date with another woman. He never found anyone exclusive to date. They were all self-centered, obnoxious and money spending. Strange how they were never like that when he asked them out though. The women were so kind and innocent, but when he took them out, they had a whole new personality.

Lion-O took his date, Liana, to an exclusive restaurant. He asked for the private room so they wouldn't be disturbed. The last thing he wanted was to get his face in the papers with this latest lady.

"Oh, Lion-O, this is so much fun. I never thought I would go out with the Lord of the Thundercats. My friends were all jealous when I told them I was going out with you."

“Really?” He asked, disinterested. Lion-O studied the menu intently although he already knew what he was going to order. “Shall I order for you?”

“No,” Liana replied. “I’m capable of ordering for myself. I’m very independent, you know.”

As a waiter walked by the room’s entrance, Liana cleared her throat. “Excuse me, waiter!”

He stopped and looked into the private room. “I’m sorry, ma’am. I’m not your waiter.”

“Then go get our waiter,” Liana seethed.

Lion-O shrugged his shoulders as the waiter rolled his eyes. “Of course.”

Liana turned her head back around. “It’s so hard to find a restaurant with decent service. They either come too often or take too long.” The Thunderian woman began rearranging the items on her side of the table.

Another waiter entered the room, notepad in hand. “Are you ready to order?”

Before Lion-O could speak, Liana tersely said, “Yes. I’ll have the steak...medium well...with only the slightest tinge of pink. I don’t want any dressing on my salad but put extra croutons on it. On the baked potato, I want salt, butter, chives, cheese, and pepper in that order.” She glanced at the waiter, then commented, “Never mind. Just bring out all the side items separately. You’ll get it wrong anyway.”

Lion-O held in a groan. With an apologetic look to the waiter, he commenced to tell his order. When he was through, the waiter took the menus and left. The Lord of the ThunderCats leaned in to Liana and said, “I don’t think you should be rude to the waiters. They might spit in your food or something worse.”

“They wouldn’t dare,” she replied. “They know you could fire them if they did such a thing.” Liana gazed at Lion-O and wrapped a tendril of her hair around her finger. “So, what it like living at Cat’s Lair with so many people?”

“It can be hectic at times, but I’m use to it. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“I imagine so,” she purred. “I bet it’s tense when there is fighting. How do you handle it?”

Lion-O took a moment to get a drink. “Easy,” he finally answered. “We don’t fight.”

“Oh, come on. I don’t believe that for a minute.”

“It’s true. We sometimes disagree, but we never fight. I guess we all have learned to live with each other.”

Liana batted her eyelashes and smiled. “That sounds heavenly. Living in such a grand place where no one fights and snarfs to serve you.”

“Snarf and Snarfer are not servants,” Lion-O corrected her.

She shrugged, “Whatever. My father always told me I would do something great with my life. Despite my beauty, I have lots of intelligence.”

Lion-O took another drink to hide his scoffing expression. He was beginning to think of a way to get out of this date early.

“So,” Liana leaned her head toward him, “what happened between you and Cheetara?”

The Lord of the ThunderCats gave her a questionable look. “What are you talking about?”

Liana picked up a roll from the breadbasket and pulled it apart. “It’s okay. You can tell me. Everybody knows that you two had to have dated while living on Third Earth, living in such close quarters and all. At least that’s the rumor anyway.”

“And that’s all it is, a rumor,” Lion-O irritably replied. “Excuse me for a moment.” The lion got up and walked out of the private room. He went to the maitre de and whispered, “Is there a private phone I can use?”

“Yes, my Lord. Follow me.” Lion-O followed him into the kitchen and was pointed to a phone hanging on the wall. He thanked the maitre de and hastily dialed a number.

“Cat’s Lair, snarf.”

“Snarf! Thank Jaga! You’ve got to get me out of this date,” he exasperated.

“What am I supposed to do?” Snarf asked.

Lion-O leaned against the wall and remarked, “I don’t know. Um, uh, oh. Call me with the com-link. Make up something important that can’t wait, so I can leave.”

“But that is breaking the Code of...”

“Snarf! Just do it!”

“We don’t even know if the com-link works. Panthro and Cheetara just finished them this morning, and they haven’t...”

“It’ll work. Just wait a few minutes before you call.”

Snarf sighed. “Okay, if your sure.”

Lion-O hung up the phone in relief and made his way back to the table. The waiter was just bringing their salads to them. Liana huffed as she picked through the lettuce. “You put dressing on it! I told you explicitly not to do that. It’ll have to go back.”

She turned to Lion-O. “Is everything okay?”

“Oh, yeah,” he replied. “Just had to check...”

A beeping noise interrupted him. Lion-O breathed a sigh of relief and took out the com-link. “Lion-O here.”

“You better get back here to Cat’s Lair. Someone has, errr, sabotaged our defense system, snarf.”

“Acknowledged. I’ll be there as quick as I can.” Lion-O looked at Liana and hid his smile.

“I need to go.”

She pouted and asked, “Well, can’t the others take care of it without you?”

“Oh, no. They’ll need me there. It’s uh...top secret.”

“Well, maybe I should go with you,” Liana offered standing up.

Lion-O’s eyes widened. “No, you stay here. I would feel bad if you didn’t get to eat. I’ll take care of the bill on the way out.”

“Call me!” she shouted at him as he raced out of the room.

*****

Lion-O was glad that he returned home. Never again would he date Liana. This was something that has been happening quite often with the Lord of the Thundercats. All the women he dated were not the type of woman he wanted as his wife and certainly not as a mother to the next Lord of the Thundercats. As he was about to go upstairs to his room, he saw a light on in the kitchen. Curious as to who it was, he went inside. He found Cheetara sitting at the kitchen table. Her back was to him.

“Hey, Cheetara, how are your friends with the new baby?”

“Fine,” Cheetara said.

Lion-O noticed that she didn't sound cheerful at all. He walked over and sat across from her. Her elbows were propped on the table, fingers intertwine with one another and she had her chin resting on her fingers looking dejected. “Are you all right? Did something happen at Celena's house?”

“I'll be all right. It just that everywhere I look someone is having a baby. I just wish one of those days it would be me,” she explained. “I'm not getting any younger.”

She looked at the clock. Her eyebrows wrinkling, she looked back at Lion-O. “What are you doing back so early?”

“Bad date.”

“Again?” Cheetara questioned.

“Yep. The women I've dated are into only three things: themselves and my power and money. They don't care about Thundera and the people. It's hard finding a life partner. Sometimes, I just wish I could skip the dating and go straight to marriage, and then have a child so an heir is provided.”

Cheetara smiled wanly. “I know what you mean. It's hard finding the right person. I just wish I can skip finding the right guy and go straight to being pregnant and becoming a mom.”

The two sat quietly for a moment. Suddenly, an idea came to Lion-O's head. He remarked, “Here's a thought: Why don't we marry each other?”

Cheetara became wide eyed. “Excuse me?”

“We get married. If we get married, you can have a child and I can have an heir. Both of our problems will be solved. I'm not some egotistical jerk, and I'll take care of my kid. I know you're not arrogant, and you care about the people of Thundera.”

“I know you're not a jerk, Lion-O. You're quite the gentleman, but this marriage thing....I don't know.” Cheetara shook her head. “This is kind of sudden.”

“There are people who've had arranged marriages and had a kid. This will be like that, except it will be easier, because we already know each other.” Lion-O pointed out.

Cheetara's heart started racing profusely. She could not believe that he was actually serious. The thought of getting married was scary enough. But to marry the Lord of the ThunderCats, well, that raised her fear to a whole new incomprehensible level. “Lion-O, we can't just jump into something like this. You're talking about something that will change our lives. Do you understand the importance of marriage?”

“Of course I understand what I am asking, Cheetara. But I mean it. It would help both of us. We would just bypass the whole dating thing, finding a mate and all that, and I can focus on more constructive things. I mean, what's the purpose of dating anyway? From what I've experienced, dating only allows you to know the other person, and then, you may not get to see the true person. You and I...we don't have to do that. We've already lived with each other for six years without any problems.”

“You do have a point. You are the ruler of Thundera and dating can get in the way of your responsibilities.”

“It will be a marriage of convenience.” Lion-O said.

Cheetara stared at him and repeated, “a marriage of convenience.” The cheetah became quiet. It would solve both their problems, and so far, it was better than nothing. At the rate they were going, they would never find anyone. She looked back at Lion-O and smiled. “All right. I'll marry you. A marriage of convenience it is,” she said and held her hand out for a shake.

Lion-O took her hand and shook it.

Lion-O and Cheetara spent the night talking about how everything would be done. They came up with a well-created plan. They would tell the others at the end of the council meeting that next day about the marriage, convince the Thundercats that they were in love, and get the wedding over as soon as possible.