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_ The Toyshop _

I'd felt awkward as shit from the minute we'd stepped off the train. Making a trip downtown, usually, came with a sense of anticipation. Excitement, even. Which beachside bar would I be chilling out at? At which restaurant or cafe would I be grabbing a bite to eat or little something to drink? Would I be alone? With Stipe, my boyfriend? With friends? Maybe a combo of both? Today, though. Today was _not_a day for any of those questions. And it sure as hell wasn't a day where I felt anything close to excitement or anticipation.

"It's just up ahead," Stipe announced, guiding us with an outstretched finger from his place in my jacket's chest pocket. "Take a left into that alley, and it'll be a few shops down on our right."

My smaller wolf spoke with all the enthusiasm I felt missing. These grimy, traffic-free backstreets suited the bars and stores lining them well, well-hidden from the cleaner, brighter, wider streets that swarmed with tourists and locals alike. Strip clubs, massage parlours, crappy dive bars, and everything else in between packed themselves into these small, tight-knit two-storey buildings, suffocating you with the way that they loomed, almost lurched over into the narrow streets themselves. Even in the late-afternoon, with these backstreets all but empty, dull chatter and droning music seeped out from the open doors and windows. Gods only knew how much more oppressive this'd all be later that evening, once people had wandered their way from the main roads. I could not wait to get back to the station.

"What's wrong with you?" Stipe asked, shoving his small paw into my chest. "You've been in a funk ever since we left home."

"Have not."

"Have too."

"You think?"

"I know."

I broke from the back and forth to swerve into the middle of that cramped backstreet, avoiding the noisy waterfall pouring out from a busted drainpipe on the shuttered storefront we were passing. Somehow, it made this place seem even dirtier.

"So what's up?" Stipe pressed, eyeing me with a look that said he'd not give this up. "Out with it."

My jacket seemed to get tighter and tighter. Like it was shrinking, even. Rolling and shrugging my shoulders loosened things up, but it couldn't help entirely. "This is all so awkward."

"What is?"

"This." I swiped a paw through the air. Damn near connected with the walls either side of us, I'm sure. "Cruising the red-light district, heading to an... adult store. It's embarrassing."

"We're hardly cruising," he scoffed, head cocked, paw to his hip within my pocket. "Far from the best time of day to be anyhow. Nothing's open yet."

"Nothing, hmm?" I spotted a ferret standing up ahead, dressed to the nines in some shiny dark green suit, holding out some brochures or vouchers or similar. He glanced our way a second later. Locked eyes with mine. Damn it.

"Yo, yo, fellas!" He took an excitable step away from a grim alcove in the old brickwork. I saw the rundown entrance to some shady bar behind him. "A couple'a wolves like youse'll be all over this."

"No thank-"

"2 for 1 happy hour! All drinks, all cocktails, all everything!" I strode past him as fast as I could without breaking into a run. That didn't stop the guy waving those brochures up in my face as I went. Or at Stipe. "'ey, man, I see you. Tell big guy you want in."

"Oh, I think we're good, hon," he called back to the ferret. "Maybe next time."

"Youse serious?" The guy shouted after us. "We got live dancers later, Visoka _and_Maleni. Girls downstairs, guys upstairs. Whatever ya flavour..."

I couldn't wait to round the corner into an even narrower, seedier alleyway, grateful for these constricting brick walls blocking that guy away. The pressure and discomfort wasn't about to end there, though. Not with Stipe still peering up from my jacket pocket.

"So then?" He prodded my chest some more. "What's embarrassing?"

"Aside from that?"

"_That_wasn't embarrassing. That's just some guy playing salesman. He'll do that to anyone and everyone." I stayed quiet, working my way past stores with windows filled with lifeless neon signs. "What else?"

I growled through gritted teeth. He wasn't gonna leave it alone. "I don't want anyone to see me here."

"Like who?"

"Like anyone."

"C'mon, Jan. Who do we know who'll be here? No-one that'd find it weird."

"There might be. On the way back to the station."

"So then we don't tell 'em where we were." Stipe snorted out his visible confusion. "What's the problem?"

"It's... still embarrassing."

"Oh, quit being such a prude." He settled back, treating my pocket like a recliner. "Plenty of people do this to help spice things up. People like us especially."

"Like us?"

"Mixed-size couples."

"Hmph. And here I thought mixed-size couples were just like any other."

"They are- Hey..." Stipe put a foot to my chest, rubbing at me through my jacket. "Stop your pouting and loosen up some, sweetie. This isn't the big deal you're making it out to be."

As boring and as insignificant as Stipe tried to make this trip out to be, there was no shaking the dark cloud of dread hanging over me. Hitting up an adult store, looking for something to help make a Saturday night even more fun, sounded like a not so bad idea back at home. But a train ride and a short walk later, fast approaching a compact store oh so innocently named 'The Toyshop', I was having second, third, fourth thoughts and more. These places were the sorts that horny old men went to... right? Places where they bought the latest copy of whatever porno mags they preferred, because who's ever heard of heading online in this day and age? Man... and there I was thinking that stomping on toy cars was enough to get Stipe going. Being real, it sure put me thick in the mood, too. No doubt that not everything he talked me into felt uncomfortable... certain screw ups aside.

"Why'd you stop?"

"Hmm?" I glanced down at him, then back to the inconspicuously plain storefront we'd been heading towards.

"We're not gonna find anything fun out here." With a move of his muzzle, he gestured towards the curtained window in the shop's wooden door. "Come on. In we go."

That door opened effortlessly, barely even needing a downward push of its handle, practically inviting the both of us over the threshold from lightness into duskiness. The air got thicker, closer. At least to me it did. A deep breath was tough to come by. My eyes started to adjust, react, and not just from the darkness.

For such a small, compact place, this shop had so much jam-packed into every space, nook and cranny you could imagine. A whole bunch of outfits caught my attention first, hanging from numerous pegs all along the right-hand wall. Costumes, uniforms, that kinda thing. Nothing too risque... at least not compared to the leather outfits... harnesses... and more that I noticed towards the back of the shop..._So_much leather...

I tore my attention away from the wall, looking instead towards the counter at the far end of the store. Beneath some shelves full of what looked like a bunch of sprays, creams and tonics sat an older rat, snout buried in a newspaper, waiting for the next kinky customer to ring up at the register. Between him and us, a few small aisles formed from low, chest-high shelves practically overflowed with books, boxes, magazines and more, all firmly on display for the leopard and beaver already in the store to silently browse and admire. In a messed up way, this place reminded me of the convenience store down the street from our place. Except I wouldn't expect to walk in there to find fetish gear hanging from the walls while shopping for milk, or... oh wow... And I damn sure wouldn't expect to find the_biggest_fucking dildos you could imagine there, shamelessly on display, complete with a 20% discount slapped all over them. Jeez... What in the world was I doing here?

"Hmm..." Stipe meanwhile seemed totally unfazed, up on his feet, having a good ol' search of the store. "Where's the sizeplay stuff?"

"What about these things?" I muttered, half to him, half to myself, full focus on that end-aisle display. "Are these not part of a sizeplay section?"

"Huh? What's that?"

I pointed them out for him. Only quickly. "They're big enough to impale a guy, my gods. No wonder they're on discount."

Stipe spotted what I had. A huffy, full-blown scoff was his first response. "Come on, sweetie. Leave those things alone and help me find the_actual_size stuff around here."

"Hey, hey," I grumbled through clamped jaws. "Not so loud."

"Why?"

"Because..." Taking a pause, I scoped out those other two guys in the store with us. Neither of them had noticed us. That didn't help me stop feeling so tight.

"Because...?"

"I-ugh... Did we _really_have to come down here and do this in person?" With my first shuffled steps away from the door, I approached those batons posing as dildos. Only with the intention to use their shelving as cover away from everyone else lingering around. "Couldn't we have just ordered something online?"

Stipe shot a look that said the answer was obvious. "You don't have to wait days for delivery if you just go get it in person. And you can have a good browse through what else is on offer, too." He drifted back towards the shelves, and away from our conversation. "Oh, I wonder if they've got any fun sounding movies here..."

"You can find plenty of vids online. Why come here and fork out money for them?"

He sighed. Apparently that question deserved another obvious answer. "Stuff online's either super amateur, or just crappy quality rips from legit movies."

"Oh, so you need a certain quality of vids to get your rocks off to? A certain cinematic experience while watching guys step on stuff?"

Stipe flashed a sly, sweet smirk. "I do, actually." He reached up to stroke his little finger under my chin... then pulled it down to jab it into my chest. "And whatever happened to 'not so loud'?"

"It's still there," I sniped back, making sure to keep my voice between the two of us that time.

"Ah." He reached back up to bop the bottom of my lip. "And there I was thinking you were loosening up."

"I_am_loose."

"Sure," he replied, quick and half-hearted. His attention had already wandered back to the store and its stock. "Ahh! There it is."

"Wow, thanks for being not so lou-"

"There's the sizey stuff." Like a captain aboard a ship or something, from my pocket, Stipe threw an arm out towards the next aisle over. A small, hand-scrawled sign on the left-hand wall (the wall _not_covered in costumes and kink-gear) confirmed that as being the 'sizeplay' section.

"C'mon!" Stipe tugged at my shirt collar. "Let's check it out."

Reluctant, uneasy, and, with how hard Stipe kept pulling and prodding, left with no other choice, I dragged my feet over into that next aisle. Along the way, we passed a small, hip-height window in the wall, peering through into what looked like a neighbouring, Maleni-sized section of the store. Right next to the sizeplay section, surprise, surprise. With the window's size and position, I didn't have a hope of seeing inside properly, but I hoped whatever area sat beyond that glass wasn't any busier than this side of the store.

"So..." Shuffling and shifting around in my pocket, Stipe had eyes for the shelves and the shelves only. "Anything here you like the look or sounds of?"

I'd barely made it close enough to see the displays before he asked me that. A few steps more got me close enough and gave me enough time to get a good look at things. Not that it helped.

"Jan?"

Arranged on the top shelf, right in my eyeline, were stacks of model building sets. Similar to the kinds you might find in a toy store... an _actual_toy store... The small exception being that these intricate, immaculately detailed buildings were clearly designed to be assembled, flattened in some form or another, then rebuilt to do the same all over again.

"What are you thinking?"

My face started to warm, ears following right after. "I'm thinking I like the sound of heading back home."

"Aw, chill out." Stipe patted at my chest, far slower and softer than the prods that'd got me here in the first place. "It's better we get something from here than try a repeat of what we did last time."

"Ugh. Don't remind me."

"I_will_remind you." Back came one of his prods. "Don't want you back at the clinic, having that doc raccoon prying bits of plastic and metal out of your pads again."

"Guh." My hot ears splayed flat out while my muzzle dipped down low towards him. "That was so humiliating."

"Why?

"Why? Why d'ya think!?"

Stipe banged his eyes and shook his head. "It's not like he knew how it happened. Or why."

"Of course he did! You don't get _that_much crap lodged in your paw from _accidentally_stepping on a toy car just once..." Right there, right then, I realised how loud I'd got and how public our surroundings were. I dared to look up and away from my wolf in my pocket, peeking back over my shoulder to the rest of the store. Neither the owner nor the others had seemed to notice. Not that my face cooled down any.

"Stop being so hung up on all this," Stipe insisted, turning in my jacket hard enough for me to feel it. "Help me find something good. Something for both of us."

"Hey," A croaked voice called across the store. The store owner rat's. Seemed like he'd noticed me looking, head raised, peering up past his paper. "You two fellas okay over there?"

I all but froze, just about managing, sensibly or not, to turn myself fully towards the back of the store. "Uh-"

"We're totally fine," Stipe replied, a confident swish in his tail. "Just browsing here, thanking you." He peered up at me, grinning, glimmering with anticipation. "Aren't we, sweetie?"

Good gods, my eyes must've been the size of plates. Every part of me stayed locked in place, unable to move, right up until my jaw forced itself free enough so I could answer, "Yeah. Yeah, all good."

I spun back around so fast that it had Stipe barking out his alarm at me. It wasn't until I'd shrunk myself down, staying low in the hope I might get back to cover behind the shelves and away from the store owner, that Stipe managed to muffle out some actual words.

"Slow down... Anyone would think you're as excited as I am to get some new toys."

I said nothing. Simply shot him a look that I hoped shared just how totally out of place I felt right then. Either way, his cheeky smile and a stroking finger down and across my lips were the response.

"You're enjoying this," I groaned. "Aren't you?"

He chuckled. I grumbled. Screw it. If you can't beat them, join them. What other choice did I have?

Hunkered down, maybe out of sight, I quietly joined Stipe in checking out what this place had to offer. One thing was for absolute certainty: they had a selection of sizeplay stuff far larger and way more extensive than I'd ever expected to find. Not that I'd thought too much on that side of things. Up until that point, my concerns mostly revolved around coming down here in the first place.

Alongside those model building sets, whole fleets of toy cars in various scales sat boxed up and ready to purchase. Like the former, those too were clearly made to be used for specific types of fun. Models aside, the lower shelves were filled to the brim with all kinds of toys, equipment, supplies... Various stuff to help a Maleni and Visoka partner enjoy themselves on a more equal footing. My eyes flicked back towards those smaller scaled cars. I then saw tubes of lube stacked not so far from them. Was that... intentional? Hell, now _that_was something Stipe could _never_convince me to try!

"So?" he asked expectantly. "Does anything look good?"

I peered down at him. That tail of his was swishing about like no tomorrow. "It looks... like something."

"Like anything you wanna get?"

Man, Stipe really was so much more comfortable around all this. And there I used to think that shoving my wolf into my sock, ready for some pressing or an extended paw rub, would be the peak of our evening adventures. At least I did, before the model car incident... "I guess... What's good for you?"

His nose twitched like he'd smelt some bad milk. "We need to get something 'good' for both of us."

"I really don't..." I tried my hardest not to huff out my frustrations. Away from the toys, a small display case filled with those 'movies' Stipe had mentioned caught my eye. "Stefan Stomps Sturanja... that's _really_the name of one of these things?"

"Heh, yeah." Back came his cheer, tail still swaying. "That one's not that great. The special effects suck. Kinda takes you out of the mood."

"You've seen it?" He nodded. "...These are really that widespread?"

"I wouldn't call them widespread, sweetie..." His head tilted. "But I'm surprised you've not seen at least one proper sizeplay movie."

"It's..." That heat in my face made a comeback. "Hey, I just used to head online to find what I needed. It's not like there's a shortage of good stuff. Pics, videos, whatever."

"Hmm." Stipe started to smirk, eyes narrowing, like he was sizing me up. "Well now, I can't help but feel like you've been missing out on the _best_stuff."

I held up my paws. "Hey, hey, I'm not-"

"See, they've got my personal favourite here." He pointed at the display. I saw what he'd seen just as he confirmed, "Lowdown."

"And that involves...?"

"A scientist accidentally jabs themselves with some kinda serum that starts them slowly shrinking."

"...That doesn't sound like anything special."

"Oh, listen to you." Stipe poked at my nose, following up with a rub. "Jan, the movie critic."

"What I'm saying is, there's plenty of stuff like that online. Why pay for this?"

"Because the acting talent in this is worth the ten tolar price tag alone." He smiled wide, leaning up to carry on in a whispered, almost groaning voice. "Lemme tell you, there's this scene in a corridor... One of the assistants that almost stomps the scientist is this fox that is. Just. Hot. As. Hell... Mmf, and his paws... pads that I'd happily get myself smothered by any day."

"Alright, alright-"

"The first time I saw that scene, the thoom of that big, sexy guy stomping down, hard enough to knock you off your feet... Let's just say I damn near hit the headboard."

"Jeez, okay, I got it." I snorted hard, breaking into a chuckle that cleared the warm from my cheeks. "Sounds like quite the fox."

"Mhm..." He leaned to press the side of his brown-topped muzzle to mine, nosing between my whiskers. "Him and his paws were almost as hot as you. And yours."

"Tsk, thanks." I shook my head, hugging Stipe to my snout. "Sounds like a big compliment."

"Oh, trust me. It is." He closed his eyes, grumbling away with his biggest smile yet. "You know I'd hit the headboard for you."

"Oookay." Easing up my hold, I slipped my wolf back down into my jacket pocket. A quick glance around the store confirmed we'd stayed alone in our conversation. That allowed my own grin to last. "I... Hey, why was the assistant walking around that corridor barepaw anyway?"

"...It's a porn movie, sweetie." He patted the top of my nose, smile sweetening. "Mostly, I was far too busy admiring his paws to care."

We got away from porn flicks, from foxes, and from their paws. Well, for that last one, we didn't get away completely. I could always rely on Stipe to keep focused on feet, conversationally or otherwise. The whole time we browsed that little store's big offering of size-related paraphernalia, he couldn't stop mentioning how good they'd look, how great they'd smoosh or crush under my paws. It wasn't unexpected. He, we, spoke and joked about stuff like that on the regular. At home. In privacy. Not in public. If a store filled with three strangers including the owner could be called public. Whatever the verdict, I struggled and then some to get my comments and replies out for him. Fortunately, whatever the setting, Stipe could talk for the both of us and then some.

Those car sets kept on calling him, each time beckoning us back from whatever else had caught his eye. Boxes packed full of models of varying sizes, fully detailed, almost resembling legit replicas. After some thinking hard enough to start him mumbling, Stipe asked me to grab a set of the extra-small cars. The ones that'd be Maleni-sized to a Maleni, and in turn, tiny enough for me to balance on a fingerpad... or bury beneath a toe. Using these would 'emphasise my stomps', and 'make an even bigger mess', apparently. Seemed like Stipe was horny for me playing an extra-huge wolf that evening. Not that I minded. Far from it... In fact, I had to avoid thinking too hard about it, else I'd risk a different kind of hardness becoming a problem. Ultimately, The only issue I did have with Stipe's choice, however, was finding the sense in forking out a decent chunk of change for something that'd be a one-time use only.

"If you want me going supersize," I muttered into his raised ear, "then how about we grab one of these building sets? The smallest scaled one. At least those can be rebuilt and... reused again."

"Only if you don't come down on them too hard," Stipe rumbled in reply, halfway towards panting.

"They've got more of a chance than these," I rallied back, giving the box of cars a good shake.

"Sweetie. I'll have you ravage some towns another time." He patted the side of my muzzle, peering up past it with wanting, hungry eyes, quietly insisting, "Tonight, I wanna see those tiny cars crushed and crumpled into shattered foil. Pounded into ruined smears between your pads... one after another, after another... Right before you threaten me with the same."

"...Damn." When he put it like that, what else could I say? "Alright. I'm good with the cars too."

Selection made, box in hand, we headed along the aisle to get it paid for at the back of the store. On our way, I caught a glimpse of where the size section stopped and the vore offering started, stocked up with a whole different kind of equipment, playthings, movies... My mind would have raced away, thinking over the types of movies on offer there, the content showing people getting inside other people in however many different, vivid ways, if not for us making it to the register not long after. See, coming to a stop at that rear counter, placing those cars down by the register, would send my mind spinning for an entirely different reason.

The store owner stayed seated, snout still buried firmly in his paper, eyes unflinching to our presence just beyond and beside it. He read on, and on, keeping us waiting, second after increasingly agonising second. Too bad that the awkwardness wouldn't ease once the rat did decide to acknowledge us. Down went his paper and up he slowly went, standing from his creaky seat with a low, persistent grunt, almost as if me and Stipe were a nuisance. How dare we want to buy something in this guy's store...

At that moment, with the store owner halfway towards upright and our box of model cars waiting on the counter, something snapped. The awkwardness of our wait for him should have disappeared. Instead, it transformed, lingered, reminding me of exactly where we were and exactly what we were doing. We were in an adult store... a porn shop, aiming to buy something that we were, clearly, going to be using to get off with together from a complete stranger... Fuck.

"Just this?" croaked the rat, hunched over, giving our box on the counter an almost dismissive poke.

"Please," Stipe replied, bright and cheery enough for the both of them.

The owner's languid paw moved back towards the register. Finally, he lifted his head to make eye contact with Stipe in my pocket, then further still to make contact with me. "...You fellas find everything you were looking for?"

My tail tucked itself against the back of my legs. I needed way too long to answer, "Yes."

"Noticed you checking out the sizeplay movies..." He tapped a few keys on the register. The wait to find out where that comment was going felt excruciating. "...We had a shipment of new releases this week, if you saw those? With bonus scenes, not even released for streaming yet."

"Wait. Streaming-?"

"We did see them," Stipe replied, blindly placing a paw across my lips. "We might pick one of them up next time. There was some good stuff there!"

Next time? There was gonna be a next time? This one time was plenty enough for me. "Hey, sorry, but... do you two need to be talking about this?" Stipe went blank. The store owner, too. My tail worked itself firmly between my legs. "Only... could you maybe be a little quieter? Please?"

Eyes wider, Back straighter, the owner came to life the moment I mumbled to a stop. The corner of his mouth twitched upwards. Enough to put some teeth on display while he glared right at me. "Gotcha! No sizeplay movies for you fellas."

"Hey, hey!" Up went my paws, scrambling around for I wasn't sure what. "What part- Not so loud-"

"Just this model car set," the rat continued at the same ear-twitching volume. "The extra-small scale one... Looks like you two fellas are in for a good time later-"

"What the-! Hey, can- Stop..." Out in the open, I tried to hide away, arm across my face, staggering around towards the front of the store to find the fallout. Or lack of.

The leopard and beaver still browsed whatever they were browsing in the store aisles, while some husky hovered around the doorway, searching around like Stipe and me were not too long before. All of them were busy minding their own business, as if I weren't there watching them at all.

"If I might suggest something to you," the owner growled in that gravelly voice, waiting for me to turn back to the counter. "You ought to calm yourself down and realise everyone's in here for the same reason you are. Get over it."

"That's what I told him," Stipe chimed, arms folded, mouth all twisted with mischief. "And not just once."

I didn't say a thing in reply. Just left him and this rat we didn't know to pat each other on the back while I waited to pay for the cars, and for this whole damn thing to be over with.

The owner bagged up our box, handed it to me, then shot me a buck-toothed grin. "You have yourselves some fun, yeah?"

"Oh, you bet we will," Stipe sang. "Thanks, Pat."

Pat!? He... What? I gawked down at my pocket, then back up at the rat, watching his grin grow like there was no tomorrow.

I couldn't throw that bagged up box under my jacket fast enough, squeezing it to my chest beside Stipe as I turned away from the counter. Darting into an aisle, speed-walking past whatever sat on those shelves, I had eyes for the door and the door only, damn near colliding with that shorter husky on my way to escaping that dingy store, and this whole godsdamned ordeal.

Back out in the open, feeling as free as I'd ever felt in that tight, grubby opening called an alleyway, I took the chance to suck in and huff out the biggest breath I'd taken that day. Stipe still wore that same damn smile, reclining in my pocket, right near that box of cars I was halfway towards squashing way before I meant to. He had himself some explaining to do. "Pat?"

"Yeah."

"...You know him then."

Stipe's tail swished. "I've been here before, you know."

"What? ...When?"

"Not since we've been together, sweetie." With an easy sigh, he sat himself up to rub under my chin. "Can you do us both a favour?"

"That in there wasn't enough of one-?"

"Can you stop acting like we've just committed a crime or such like?"

"Huh?" I recoiled away. Of course, that meant he'd follow right along. "I'm not!"

"Could've fooled me. Especially with how tight you're holding that box." He patted at the edge of it through my jacket. "Is it hidden well enough?"

"Stop!" I growled, swiping the air as I started a march off down the alleyway. "Gimme a break." Again, that just meant Stipe would march along with me.

"Oh good, get annoyed," he carolled. "You can punish me for it later. Get me real good... right under your paws."

I didn't say a word, far too busy feeling the heat in my cheeks as I stormed past some coyote that I forced to swerve into a shuttered doorway.

"Jan?"

What a day... All I wanted was to get out of this red-light district, back to the station, and all the way home.

"Aww, come here you lug." As I closed in on the corner of that alley and the wider street proper, I felt Stipe shift, climbing higher, nearing the top of my pocket.

"Hey, hey." Annoyance or no, instinct kicked in, forcing my paw to jolt from the box beneath my jacket and over to him. "Watch it-"

"I'm just kidding around," he said softly, leaning up to smooch me on the lip. "Sorry, hon."

I sighed past him, blasting through the golden tints of his dark grey headfur. The tension went away with it, and the heat, too.

We stopped there on the corner, outside the first bar I'd noticed around this area that didn't look slimy as all hell. Ignoring a few passers-by on the street, along with anyone else inside that bar, I offered my Stipe a gentle nosing between his ears in return, hanging on to any lingering irritation to whisper, "After today... after all that in the store, and what you put me... Yeah, I'm gonna have to give you the steppies, that's for sure."

"Mmf!" He shuddered against my muzzle, a delicate paw pressing at my nose tip. "Oh, you'd better."

From the corner, I looked off down the street we'd travelled up on our way to the store. The scene had got busier in a pretty short time, with a few more people filling the limited space between the old brick storefronts. The sound of footsteps and the rolling of conversations echoed around between the numerous neon signs. Signs coming to life now that the late-afternoon crept closer towards evening. Those crowds developing under a strengthening red neon glow made it tricky to see too far down the way, but that didn't stop me finding a familiar face in a familiarly shiny, dark green suit. "...Oh."

"Oh, what?"

I turned my focus to Stipe there at the end of my creasing nose. "Is there another way out of this place? I don't really feel like going through round two with that ferret outside that strip bar."

He peered over his shoulder to find the guy, snorting out loud before smirking at me with a playful shake of his head... then a guiding point back down the alleyway we'd just left.

"Thanks." I nudged his nose with the tip of mine. "Just for that... I'll make sure you get the _big_steppies tonight."

"Ooh," he cooed, shuddering even harder than before. "Yes! Plaster me all over those pads, swamp me in your scent... Along with those cars, too. I. cannot. Wait."

We headed off away from that not-so-seedy bar, strolling back through that skinny alley. I reckon Stipe noticed the extra spring in my step as I hurried on our winding way towards the main streets, the station, and our home, stroking at me as he did.

"Sweetie?" he asked.

"Yeah?"

"You know, you don't have to squeeze that box so hard."

"...What?"

"No-one can see it. No-one's gonna know what it is."

"I'm not- I'm just... holding-"

"Chill out. You'll have a better time that way." Stipe scritched under my chin, grinning away with that wildly swishing tail of his. And the warmest of his smiles yet. "Trust me."