Foxbutt Ch. 03

Hi! The Foxbutt series so far:

Part 1

Part 2

This is my first ever furry story, so please let me know what you think!

***

Lily returns from the bathroom to find that Thomas has once again turned everything on. The store's computers are going through a boot process whose length is determined by how much the store budgeted for equipment, so it's going to be a minute or so yet.

The phone rings. Thomas picks up and issues the standard corporate-mandated greeting.

Lily watches the way he holds the receiver - too high for his mouth, so that the speaker can reach up to his ridiculous pointy fox ear.

His cute ridiculous pointy fox ear.

"Oh, yeah, we lost power for a couple of minutes," says Thomas. "It turned out to be a short in the coffee pot. Lily found the problem, she's really good at that."

Thomas listens for a moment. Lily catches herself staring at his ear - the way the black tuft at the end sticks out over the speaker. The way it twitches.

"We told the customers we'd be reopening in a few minutes - I'm looking now, and it looks like they're all still hanging around outside. Some new ones have joined. We're just waiting for the POS to boot up before we unlock the door."

His tail twitches, too. It swishes hypnotically, seeming almost to react to his mood, his thoughts.

"Yes, Lily warned me, it's been a madhouse. We still have plenty of stock, you can by all means send them over." He catches Lily's eye, gives her a look that seems to say "Here it comes."

Lily shrugs. Whatcha gonna do.

"If you're offering, that's great, thanks!" Thomas turns his mouth from the receiver and talks to Lily. "They're gonna send Dave from store 207 over to cover our lunches." He turns back to the phone. "That'll be a big help. We were kinda figuring we'd just go hungry today, the way it's been."

Lily smiles. The day's getting better and better.

"Okay, thanks. Yeah, I'll tell her. Okay, bye!" Thomas hangs up. "Corporate says you're amazing," he says. "They say good thinking, and commend you on your quick and decisive handling of an unexpected situation."

Lily grins. "Well, I thought so, even if it's not for the reasons they thought. At least I didn't scream, or chase you around hitting you with the broom."

Thomas chuckles. "'Unexpected situation,' they said. They've no idea. Oh, also, other stores nearby are already running out of stock, and it's not even midday yet."

"A storm's coming," muses Lily. "Oh, look - POS is online. Let's re-unleash the horde!"

***

Two hours pass in a blur.

Lily's voice is already hoarse. She's practically throwing the games at the customers, but the line does not get the opportunity to drop to zero again. Between noon and 1pm she throws all of her might behind getting customers in and out as quickly as possible, drawing on reserves of energy that she did not know she possessed - but the lowest she gets is two customers in line, around 12:15. That's when the first caravan shows up.

"I went downtown, but they were out," says the customer.

"I didn't think I'd seen you before," says Lily, wishing the receipt printer could keep up with her. It's her most annoying bottleneck.

"There was a whole line of us," he says, "and they told us to come here." He smiles. "We kinda got in the mood of it and convoyed down as one."

Lily peers around his shoulder. Unfamiliar faces, suddenly stretching back halfway to the door. "This is probably the first of many," she ponders aloud. She calls back: "You guys know this is the cash line, right?"

Half of them grumble over to Thomas' line. Lily glances over at him; his tail is all fluffed up.

She tears off a novella's-worth of receipt paper, hands it over, and wishes the customer a nice day. While the cash drawer remains open, she pulls out $15.81 in change. The next girl hands over four twenty-dollar bills as Lily hands back the change and the game - she doesn't even wait for her receipt, just bounces off towards the door.

From the girl's point of view, the transaction is over in three seconds, very efficient. Lily still has to scan the copy she's kept on the counter, bypass the nag screen telling her to sign the girl up to some ridiculous bullshit, and allow the horribly slow thermal printer to unspool another two feet of trash.

That's how we should be doing this, thinks Lily. Like the pirates in the flea market parking lot in the PS1 days. Taking a five-dollar bill with one hand and handing over a blue CD-R with the other, bam bam bam and you've broken the law three times in ten seconds, no arm-length receipts, no point-of-sale system, no orderly lines, just a crowd of people fighting to get to you, cash in one hand and merchandise in the other and a spine full of adrenaline and as much money as you can stuff in your pockets before it's time to haul up the tarp and run like hell.

"Sorry, one moment," she mumbles to the next guy, while the previous girl's receipt is still printing.

Still, could be worse, muses Lily, looking over at Thomas. Damn near everybody wants to pay on a card.

When her last customer opens the door, the wind rushes through, lifting the corner of a poster and flapping it around.

Lily feels sweat begin to form. With the shop so full of warm bodies and hot CPU fans, the AC has its work cut out for it.

In fact, she begins to realize, it's been a while since she heard it stop - and now she's distracted from this thought because she sees someone dressed like her and Thomas, and her stomach growls. Dave, apparently, weaves his way to the front of the store.

"Hi, I'm Dave," says Apparently Dave.

"Hi, I'm starving," says Lily, tearing off the unwanted receipt.

***

Two doors down, Lily chews slowly on her barbecue chicken wrap, staring off into space.

We haven't had time to talk about it, thinks Lily. We haven't had time to think about it. Thomas turned into some kind of six-foot fox thing, and we somehow had other things on our minds.

Or rather, we both noticed, on the same day, that he'd been some kind of six-foot fox thing all along.

She pictures him in her mind's eye, the way he looked, waving, as she left - his tail floofed, his ears pricked. Did he even know that that was happening?

He looks so uncomfortable wearing clothes, thinks Lily. His tail has to kinda poke out above the back of his pants.

Which leads of course to thoughts about how it must connect with his spine, which leads of course to thoughts about the cleft of his - Back on track, Lily. How could he put pants on every morning, go "Gah, that's really uncomfortable on my tail," and not go "On my what? I have a tail? WEIRD!"

This whole thing makes zero sense.

She had given thoughts to kissing him, of course. That's how we got in this situation, apparently, me collapsing his wave function or whatever.

But... how, exactly, am I going to kiss this guy?

Like, physically?

Mentally she Tetrises her and Thomas' mouths together, trying and discarding different configurations.

Pecking on the lips?

Licking my face?

Running my tongue all around his fangs?

She has not thought about Thomas in a sexual way since she became aware of his foxhood. I've been thinking of him in a more... curious kinda way. Although dating is kind of about curiosity, isn't it? Fantasizing, too - that's a sort of wondering about someone's body.

But it's a different category of wondering. Before it was just me being curious in a sexy way, now it's me being curious in an honestly curious way.

Is it still a sexy kind of curiosity?

Experimentally, she imagines.

Thomas' whiskers flickering tickly against her sensitive neck.

Thomas' hot muzzle stroking past her cheek.

Thomas' long, lithe foxtongue against her nipples.

Thomas' sleek fur gliding soft over her tummy.

Thomas' bushy tail curling around her forearm.

Thomas' fuzzy hips between her thighs.

Thomas' fur in her mouth.

Lily tenses in her seat, semiconsciously squeezing her thighs together.

Okay, so it's not just innocent curiosity. I'm still very much attracted to him.

Perhaps even moreso.

She takes another bite of her chicken wrap.

But that fur's gonna get fucking everywhere.

***

When Lily leaves the fast-food joint, the world is several shades darker than when she entered. She fights a bizarrely warm wind as she heaves open the door and reenters her territory, to find that the AC has not at all kept up with the heaving mass of bodies inside. Sweat forms on her forehead immediately.

Thomas' fur is all ruffled up, and his nose is wet. He looks bizarre. Apparently Dave is working the cash line, which is grumbling ominously. He's scowling at the damn receipt printer.

Oh God, thinks Lily. Right, desperate times call for desperate measures. She grabs a sheet of paper and a pen.

"Dave," she says as she slides in next to him, "start ringing 'em up." She plunges her hands into the cash drawer. "Don't stop."

"What're you doing?" asks Dave.

"An assembly line," replies Lily. "You need a receipt?" she asks the next customer in line.

"I guess not," says the guy, shrugging and pulling out four twenties. Lily hands over the change immediately, strikes one mark on the paper, and hands over the game. "ThankyouhaveanicedaycanIhelpthenextcustomerplease," she gibbers to his back as she stuffs the twenties into the till, her eyes moving to the next customer. "You need a receipt? No? Awesome."

"This is gonna get confusing," says Apparently Dave.

"That's what this is for," says Lily, striking another mark on the paper and handing over another game and change. "Twice as fast this way, someone asks for a receipt you just tear one off and hand it to them, we'll count them up and run more through as needed when it's died down a bit."

"Okay," says Apparently Dave. "Come up short at the end of the day, it's on you."

"She knows what she's doing, dude," says Thomas. "Look." Some people in his line are noticing that the cash line is moving much faster, and are suddenly realizing that they have some actual currency in their wallets.

"What I wouldn't give for another register," says Apparently Dave. "You need a receipt, man?" he asks to the next guy. "You sure? We've nearly got one printed up, here."

"Hey, Christina," says Lily. "Exact change?! I love you! Catch up later!"

Things continue in this fashion until the line, miraculously, empties.

"Tom!" calls Lily, counting up the marks.

"Yeah?" replies Thomas.

"Go eat!"

***

At eight fifty-eight, Lily wearily holds her hands up to Thomas. "Look at my hands," she says.

Thomas does so. "Eesh," he says.

"They're gray," says Lily. "My actual skin has turned gray."

"Money is filthy," says Thomas.

Someone opens the door, shakes the rain from his hair. "Do you guys have the new GTA?"

"No, sorry," says Thomas. "We sold out half an hour ago."

"Damn it," says the guy, and leaves without saying goodbye.

Lily covers her nose with her hands, and inhales. "I smell like money," she says. "Here, smell."

"Um..."

"Smell my hands," she giggles.

Thomas' whiskers tickle her palms, and Lily feels a warm flurry in her tummy, a cold shiver up her spine.

"You smell like..." Thomas inhales again. "Huh. My nose has been getting more sensitive all day."

"I smell like money, right?"

"You smell like Lily," grins Thomas. "But, like, rich Lily."

"Don't be silly," says Lily, "rich people don't handle money. They have people to do that."

"They have people to order pizza too," says Thomas. "I'm hungry. Are you hungry? You smell hungry."

"I'd order a pizza," says Lily, pulling out her keys and heading for the door, "but I'm Rich Lily, so why don't you do that while I cash up." She locks the door. "You be my pizza-ordering people."

Thomas pauses. "You, uh... you want it sent to my place, still?"

Lily hesitates. "You know," she says slowly, "I asked you out this morning because I knew that if you said no, I wouldn't have time to feel awkward about it. And then you said yes, and I didn't have time to feel awesome about it. And then you were a fox, and I didn't have time to feel bizarre about it. So yeah, since we sold out I've had time to think about it, and..." she grins. "Yeah, pizza at your place and obsessing over your foxhood sounds nice."

Thomas smiles, and picks up the phone.