Feliformia Ch. 14

"Drive faster!"

"I will not!"

"But, we must get there faster!"

"I don't even think they are open this early. We may have to wait outside anyway. Would you calm down?"

"NO! I must see the animals now!"

Syr rolled her eyes at Kitty, whose behavior had been beyond childish since she had learned about her impromptu trip to the animal café. Sitting on the passenger seat, the small Asian girl pointlessly tried to look farther down the road as if that would take her closer to the cake shop faster. She was known to be excitable, but this time it was a severe case.

This surprise had flicked a switch inside her brain. Staying home and being lazy was something she has been mainly doing because nothing was appealing outside her little cat girl world; it was either too uninteresting, like going out shopping, or too complicated, like finding a job and making money. But the opportunity of going out to play with real animals while having breakfast was exactly the kind of unexpected activity that had the potential to motivate her. Her current nervosity showed how veridic that was.

"Hey, Kitty. Why are you so pumped about going there? I knew you liked animals, but... That much?"

"I'm not sure... When I was little, my father and mother used to take me to a petting zoo. That was my favorite thing in the world. I could play with the rabbits, feed them, and play with the baby sheep... Have you ever done that, Syr?"

"Yes, I did. Aunt Michelle took me to a petting zoo once for Easter."

"And?"

"They were just small animals... I don't know. They were cute, I guess."

"Cute? They are all so ADORABLE. You must be broken for not being thrilled about going to the animal café with me."

"Oh... I am, Kitty, I am. But not for the reasons you might think."

"What does that even mean? What are you hiding from me?"

Since they have left the house, Syr repeatedly sent blurry messages to her friend, more than likely on purpose. The apparent goal was to confuse Kitty and, perhaps, prepare her for something bigger than she envisioned. The small cat girl was smart, but she still couldn't figure out the suspicious attitude her roleplaying expert friend imposed upon her.

Nothing has worked so far. Kitty had stared at Syr from very close, trying to make her crack and tell the truth. She had even tried to hug her and lick her neck, which had only resulted in a hand in the face pushing her back to her seat. It was useless; Syr just wouldn't give away her secrets.

As the car rolled down the road, Kitty asked the same questions all over again.

"So, are you sure there is a raccoon there? Clara said there was a raccoon."

"Yes, they do. But it's not there all the time. I told you, you have to manage your expectations."

"But, I MUST pet the raccoon! Or else I'll be super sad!"

"If she is not there, we can come back another time."

"SHE?"

"..."

"What do you mean by SHE?"

"The raccoon is a female. I know that much."

"You seem to know an awful lot about the animals they have?"

"Remember, Kitty. The owner is my client. We talk on a regular basis. I've been there too once."

"Is it a big place?"

"No. It's fairly small. It's a small lounge. So you can interact with the animals easily."

"Are the waitresses cute? Clara and Misti were, so, are they waitresses?"

"I'm not sure. You'll see once we get there, I suppose."

Unsurprisingly, Kitty had now shifted her attention to the two cute girls she knew worked there. They had visited her home a while ago to do business with Syr, but she had not managed to pull a lot of details out of them, not for the lack of trying; that Clara girl had a serious problem expressing herself. Did she behave like that because she was shy or because she was trying to hide something? Since Syr clearly hid something, the latter seemed more plausible.

A nasty, nasty thought ran through Kitty's head for an instant, though. What if Syr, Clara, and Misti had not told her much about the café because they feared she would cause trouble? She was aware of her own personality. Playful, childish, and sometimes a bit too intense. For the first time in a long time, Kitty wondered if she had gone too far with this kind of behavior. Perhaps it would be worth considering rebalancing her energy level and relaxing her most annoying behavior.

She sank a bit in her seat when she revisited in her head what she had done to her friends during the past month when refusing to take off her latex suit. It was mainly to be playful, but was it possible that she had hurt her friends a little by going too far? Erika was delighted to spank her every time she broke a rule, but Mark and Syr were more "normal" in general and wouldn't do the same. All of a sudden, Kitty felt a bit selfish.

"Hey... Syr..."

"Yes? What is it?"

"... I'm sorry."

"Sorry? For what? You did nothing wrong."

"Well, I've been a bit annoying recently."

"Annoying? Why would you say that?"

"You know... My... behavior. Sometimes I do extreme things... but I don't mean bad. I'm just... having fun."

"Aaah. We all know that, Kitty. But, yes, you made Master Mark anxious recently. He cares about your well-being a lot, you know. He just doesn't want you to harm yourself with your games."

"Oh, I know that. But he always lets me do all I want. And sometimes, I go too far because he will never say no."

"I don't think it's your fault, Kitty. Master Mark has to learn how to handle you better."

"Uh? Handle me better?"

"Yes. At times, he can be... spineless."

"OH MY GOD! Did you just say that, Syr?"

"... Please, don't tell him I told you that."

"NEVER! But I want to hear more!"

"Well, you know... Sometimes I wish Master Mark would be more... masterly. But he doesn't seem to like that too much."

"Oh, and this is why you blackmailed him this morning? Because you wanted to go on a trip with him during which he would treat you like a slave?"

"You make my idea sound terrible... but yes. That was part of it."

"Niiice!"

That last bit of conversation cheered Kitty right back up. Not only did she not feel nearly as guilty for having caused Mark some healthy distress, but her friend had validated that she wasn't the sole responsible person for the recent chaos at the house. It was great to have a friend like Syr, who could bring in a different perspective on things.

The car slowly made its way downtown, where the café was apparently located. Looking left and right for a parking spot, they finally decided to get inside an underground lot. It was simpler than trying to decipher the numerous parking signs out on the street, and with a long-term parking spot, they wouldn't feel pressured to leave if they had a good time and wanted to extend their stay.

After exiting the car and slamming the door behind herself, Kitty discovered something remarkable about underground garages. She began yelling like a mad girl...

"SYR IS A PERVERT!"

"KITTY! What are you doing?"

"It's echoing. It's fun! I can hear my own voice back."

"Cease this at once!"

"SYR IS OUR SEXY MAID!"

"That's it. We are going back home! No animal café for you. Get back in the car."

"NO! NO! I'm stopping! I'm stopping!"

"I thought you would."

"So serious... But you are still our sexy maid."

Syr slid a few fingers under Kitty's pink collar and yanked her toward the exit.

"Ack! You are going to snap my delicate neck!"

***

"There it is, Kitty... Just across the street! Look."

"The cakes and pets? That's a cute name for a café."

"I hope you like... Hey! Come back, Kitty! You have to look at both sides before crossing!"

"I did! Hurry!"

At that moment, Syr had regrets for not having brought a leash to control the uncontrollable. Being a stickler for the rules more than her friend, Syr nervously crossed the street, feeling delinquent even though there were no moving cars around. It was too early in the morning, plus it was the weekend.

Kitty, of course, arrived at the glass door first, just to hit her nose to an undesired closed sign dangling at eye level.

"NO! NO! That's not faiiiir!"

"Oh, it's not open yet. I told you. We are too early. We had no reason to rush."

Trying to look through the window, using her hands to create some shade, Kitty hoped to see some little critters.

"I don't see anybody, but there is some light."

"It doesn't matter, Kitty. Come. There is a park not far from here where we can go and wait. We can come back in half an hour."

"No! Look! The door is open!"

"Kitty! Close that door immediately! They are not open. It doesn't matter if it's unlocked or not."

It was another broken rule that made Syr cringe, but since Kitty wouldn't listen and walked into the café, she had no other choice but to follow her.

Once inside, there was nobody around. The lounge door was closed, and there was a vacant reception desk. Syr suspected that Lucy was probably upstairs, preparing her pets for the day, but that was not something Kitty nearly suspected.

To prevent further misbehavior from her friend, Syr took charge and called the owner over.

"HELLO? Lucy?"

"Where is everybody?"

"She runs the café by herself. Give her a minute. Don't be so impatient, cathead."

"Only Mark can call me cathead. You must not! Come on, Syr. I want to see the animals. That shy girl said there was a raccoon... I never petted a raccoon before. I must pet the raccoon!"

"Kitty. Stop bouncing like that and relax a bit, would you, or else we are leaving. HELLO?"

Nothing. Not a sound. But after a few more seconds, something unexpected happened. A small woman with brown hair creepily emerged from behind the reception desk, with a terrified look on her face. It was Clara, the same girl who had visited their home with Misti not long ago.

"Oh? Clara? What were you doing behind that desk? Is Lucy around?"

"... N... No."

Something wasn't right. The poor thing was shaking, and her wet eyes betrayed obvious distress. What was happening here? Why was Clara in such a disturbed state... and why was she hiding behind the reception desk? It was just bizarre.

"Wait... Clara? Are you crying? Are you alright?"

"... No. I... I messed up... everything."

"Where is Lucy?"

"At... at the hospital..."

"WHAT? Is she okay?"

"Yes... yes... A pet got hurt... and... I messed up. I don't know how to take care of the café..."

"Aaah. Okay. Well, it seems we've picked the right day to visit then."

"Meow! Yes. Syr is our slave! She does everything around our house."

"Kitty, I'm not your slave! Why would you say such a thing?"

"..."

But Kitty wasn't entirely wrong, and she had understood what Syr had suggested a second ago. For her friend, being a self-made maid, the words "taking care of a café" had resonated loudly within her core. The prospect of assisting in running a small coffee shop like this one was extremely attractive, and she was beyond confident that she had already acquired the qualifications to perform well. For years, she had role-played maid at home, secretly at first, then openly with Erika, and then even more around Mark and Kitty. She was ready for any household challenge that she would have to face.

"Kitty and I will help you. Kitty, do you want to go take care of the pets while I'm talking to Clara and figure out what needs to be done?"

"WHAT? SERIOUSLY? CAN I?"

"Yes... But I tell you... It might not exactly be what you expect."

"Stop being mysterious, Syr! I've taken care of cats and dogs before. I'm super good with small furry critters."

"Right... You are in for a shock. Clara, could you let Kitty into the lounge? While she is meeting with your friends, we will see what we can do for you. I suppose the amount of cake icing on the floor has something to do with your bad day."

"Y...yes... O... okay."

Clara wobbled around the desk, access card in hand, and approached the lounge door. Kitty amusingly crouched, more than likely expecting that a small cat would try to escape the room as soon as the door would crack open, which confirmed Syr's apprehension; her friend still had NO clue what was waiting for her behind that door.

As soon as the door unlocked and Clara opened it, Syr grabbed Kitty by her collar and firmly shoved her into the lounge.

"Close the door, Clara! Quick! Quick!"

***

"Ow! Syr! What was that for? I could have landed on one of the pets and...!"

Lying flat on her belly, annoyed by the sudden and unnecessary treatment, Kitty pushed herself back to her knees while whining. But her words ceased when she noticed something staring at her in the eyes, about a foot from her face. Two big black eyes were piercing her soul. In shock, she fell on her ass, and her back hit the door.

In front of her was a creature. Something she didn't know existed before. Her playfulness was gone. Her expectations turned to ashes. Her rational mind kicked in, but it couldn't comprehend what her eyes were seeing. And then, something that hadn't happened in a very long time happened, she trembled. The smile that had accompanied her since the first second she was told she would get to play with small animals was utterly gone.

Making two steps closer and sitting right in front of her was a giant raccoon. Kitty's brain attempted to rewire as if she had been injected with an experimental drug. It didn't feel real at all. It didn't feel possible. It didn't feel normal. Her head started spinning...

"Oooh... I... I don't feel... so good..."

Her teeth and cheeks began tingling, and her breathing accelerated. As her heart pounded relentlessly inside her little chest, her body turned limp and slid down the door like a ragdoll, and her eyes rolled up.

Everything went dark.

***

A few minutes after listening to Clara's story, Syr was already in control of the situation. She had sent Clara upstairs to fix things with her friend Oreo and immediately began cleaning the place. It was nothing worse than the trail of disorder that Kitty occasionally created at home. That said, she could understand how such a small event could have scared Clara if she had never faced similar situations before, so she didn't judge her for being unable to handle a minor kitchen incident. Perhaps she only had a stressful day.

It took a mere few minutes to clean the cabinets and food bottles. The chocolate cake that had exploded on the floor was a bit more work, and it was very tragic, but overall, this was just regular maid work, so Syr was happy to do it as efficiently as possible. Being helpful was her favorite feeling.

The main thing left for her to do was fixing the cakes that had fallen from the fridge to the floor and mopping the place. Somehow, there was cake icing everywhere, all the way to the reception desk. It seemed that Clara had panicked and dragged her feet here and there, trying to figure out a solution to her misery. That young girl seemed quite the anxious type.

Before tackling these tasks, though, Syr decided to go see how Kitty was fairing, surrounded by her new friends. Clara had left her access card on the countertop, so she grabbed it and headed to the lounge.

When she opened the door, a panicked black latex cat girl immediately gesticulated in front of her. Syr knew who she was because she had created her.

"Hi, Misti! So, how is my friend doing?"

Misti wrapped her arm around Syr's and pointed in the direction of a pile of pets that were quite agitated around a girl who was lying flat on her back.

"What in the world? What's going on here?"

As Syr approached, Kitty began moving slowly while groaning.

"Kitty?"

"Mmmm... aaah."

"Kitty? Are you okay?"

"S... Syr...?"

"Everyone, give her some breathing room."

All the rubber pet girls stepped away from the poor Asian girl who was slowly emerging from her unexpected nap.

"What happened, Kitty?"

"I... I don't know... I had this weird dream... About a giant raccoon..."

"..."

"Oww... That was weird. Maybe I was a bit too excited to come here."

"I would say... Did you faint when you saw the pet girls? That is kind of funny, actually."

"The... pet girls? Are... Are you saying that... I didn't dream this?"

"Oooh. Poor Kitty. Look behind you."

Rapidly coming back to her senses, Kitty had trouble making heads and tails of her weird dream and what had happened to her. And now that Syr talked about pet girls and asked her to turn around, she didn't want to believe that what she had not yet seen was real, so she feared looking anywhere else than in her friend's eyes.

"Come on, Kitty. Look."

"..."

With a great effort, Kitty managed to turn her head, apprehending the giant raccoon again. But no... her eyes first landed on the cutest thing she had ever seen, an adorable red fox. Syr walked to the animal girl and placed her hands on her shoulder.

"So, this is Vix... The red fox. She is the first pet I ever created for Lucy."

Misti rushed to Vix and wrapped her arms around her friend.

"And that one is Misti, the black cat. Yes, the same girl you saw at our house. Isn't she cute wearing this costume?"

Kitty's mouth was stuck open, and her throat was paralyzed. It couldn't be. Looking at Syr walking around those creatures so comfortably just didn't make any sense.

"And this is Meeka, the raccoon. Be careful, Meeka, Kitty wanted to meet you so badly. Oh! And the one over there, one of my most recent work, is Asha, the snow leopard. She might be my favorite one."

Embarrassed, Asha wrapped her arms around Syr and buried her muzzle in her chest.

"..."

"Don't you want to at least say hello to them, Kitty?"

"H... Hi..."

That was too much. Kitty didn't know where to look at anymore or what to think. For so long, she had dreamed of visiting the animal café so she could pet small furry critters, but now... She faced a bunch of surreal latex pet girls who came out straight from a fetish magazine. How was this even possible? The maths were hard to make but finally, the wires connected, and she managed to build her first intelligible sentence since she had entered the lounge.

"S... Syr!"

"Yes?"

"You... YOU LIAR!"

"Who me? Never... I'd never lie. Master Mark would never allow me to... EEP!"

Out of the blue, Kitty sprang to her feet and rushed to Syr. She threw herself in her chest and wrapped her arms tightly around her waist to give the strongest hug she could give despite her lack of muscle. Asha barely had time to dodge before the incoming bullet-girl hit.

"SYR! THAT'S AMAZING!"

"I suspected you would like them."

"WHY? WHY?"

"Why didn't I tell you before? We can talk about that later... I have to go back to the kitchen to help Clara. Will it be okay if I leave you alone with them? No more fainting?"

"YES! YES! TRIPLE YES!"

"Okay, but be gentle. They are worth more than gold to Lucy. So don't do crazy things to them, okay? Or else we are leaving."

"I won't! I won't!"

After peeling Kitty-velcro off her torso, Syr walked out of the lounge, confident that her friend would figure out what to do from there. Finding her out cold on the carpet was a bit unexpected, but she had quickly regained her vitality once she put her bearings back together. That little incident was a testimony of success. The surprise had worked flawlessly.

***

Kneeling on the floor, Kitty observed the pets who weren't too sure how to behave. The Asian girl had passed out once, and they didn't want that to happen again. Talk about a weird introduction.

The first one to move was Vix. She walked to the nearest table and grabbed a bottle of water that Lucy kept at all times on the tables. A choking client was never a good thing, so free of charge water bottles were a small price to pay to prevent them from ending up at the hospital because they ate their cake too quickly.

With the bottle between her two cushy paws, she approached Kitty, who was still mesmerized by what she was seeing.