FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The handle for the window squeaked as the human began to turn it.

"Be careful. If you don't go slow, the window gets all jacked up."

"Is everything difficult to use in this piece of shit?" Eric sneers.

"You wanna walk?" the feline growls, tightening her grip on the steering wheel.

"Kidding. Kidding."

He carefully turned the handle and watched as the window started to gradually sink, before tilting sharply to the left, where it became stuck.

"Oh, goddamn it!" she barked, trying to keep her eyes on the road, but was able to hear the telltale clunk that meant the window jumped from alignment.

"I went slow!" he claimed, grabbing hold of the window to jerk it to the side.

Luckily for him, he was able to find the loosened track and wiggle the window back into place.

"Just leave it halfway down for now. Me and my dad need to fix it."

"I can see you've both made tremendous progress." he snorted, looking at the bare metal of the door, the interior door panel nowhere to be seen.

"It's a start. Though to be fair, the car didn't exactly come with that part." Sammy shrugged.

"Huh. Always assumed you just never bothered to put it back in." Eric smirks, leaning towards the window to feel the pleasantly brisk outside breeze on his skin.

Though a bit chilly out, he needed a breath of fresh air after spending too much time inhaling the odor of gasoline and stale cigarette smoke that clung to the interior.

"I'm not that lazy."

Eric turned to give her a knowing look.

"Oh, fuck off." she rolled her eyes, turning off the highway down an exit ramp.

Sammy gripped the steering wheel with both hands, rapidly cranking it to the side with a grunt as the car turned down the exit ramp and onto another road.

"Need to replace the power steering too." she comments, sinking back into her seat.

"Always something. So, how did you get your parents to give you back car privileges?" Eric asked, resting his arm on the door.

"I said we planned on going to the mall and gave my dad the sad eyes. Didn't work on my mom, but he caved."

"So, you only lost the car for two days and got to enjoy his scotch?" he clarifies.

"Yup. I'll be more careful next time. Don't think I'll take his good stuff. Kinda feel bad, but it is what it is." Sammy explains, while she rolled down her window.

Unlike the passenger's, the driver's window went down without issue.

"Guess that means no more walking in this heat. Assuming this car doesn't break down, of course." the human teased.

"At least I have one! Beats nothing." she shot back as the car bounced over a pothole.

Sammy was one of the many at school that owned a vehicle. Some of the snobbier kids had their parents buy them the newest and most expensive luxury cars that cost more than some of the teachers made in a whole year. Most drove whatever they could afford, mostly sedans and wagons from the 90's or early 2000's. Whatever was cheap and ran well enough.

Sammy wasn't like the others.

Always had to be different.

She had always had her eyes on cars from the 80's. The boxy and sleek designs. Bright and metallic colors. Those futuristic sports cars that came with a hefty price tag. Sadly, she wasn't able to afford any of the cars that defined the decade. The feline settled on something from the late 70's instead. She wanted something masculine. A muscle car perhaps. Again, her budget meant that her options were limited. After scouring through classifieds, internet ads, forums, and even police auctions, she finally found something that was enough to satisfy her.

It was a two-door coupe from the late 70's. 1978 to be exact. Diamond patterned grille, black headlight bezels, vinyl interior. 170-horsepower 350 cubic-inch V-8. Thick, black tires for added traction. Damn near every state back then was using this car as the vehicle of choice for law enforcement. Everything should have been perfect for Sammy, but of course there was a catch.

A big catch.

It was a jalopy.

A bucket of bolts.

A rusty, clunky, gas-guzzling piece of shit that barely ran.

The original color of the car was unknown. Each part was swapped out and replaced with none of the colors matching. The only reoccurring color was the reddish brown shade of rust that tarnished most of the vehicle. What paint remained was bubbled up and already flaking off. The interior was stained and worn to the point of multiple holes and tears. Each time she sat down, her rear or tail was pinched by the split vinyl covering the seat. The headliner was ripped and crudely stapled to the roof. The coupe would constantly backfire or stall out for seemingly no reason. Whatever punch it had in its heyday was long gone in its current state. The only saving grace was the previous owner went with the cassette deck instead of an 8-track.

"Alright, I'm sorry. I'm grateful you have a car and can drive us around. Ok?" Eric sighed as they pulled up to a stop sign.

"Thank you." she smiled, the car rumbling as it idled.

The car started to make an odd rattling noise after they pulled away.

"Uhh, is that normal?"

"For this car, yes." she nods, reaching out of the window to adjust the side-view mirror.

"Is it even inspected?" he asked with a suspicious tone, turning to face the cat.

"Ha!"

"I hope you don't expect me to chip in if we get pulled over and fined." Eric frowned.

"I might. What happened to the good old days when you didn't need emission tests and having a muffler attached to your car was optional?"

"You mean, like, 30 years before we were born?"

"Yup."

"I don't know, but I imagine car fatalities were horrific." he shuddered, looking out the window at the homes they passed as they drove through the neighborhood.

"No clue." she shrugged, exiting the street and pulling onto a main road.

"And is that the muffler I'm hearing then?" the human chuckled.

"Yeah." she growled, the rattling noise coming from the muffler that was only held on by zip ties, Jubilee clips, and a twisted metal coat hanger.

"Pfft." he laughs.

"And here's how you fix that sound." she grins, reaching across the bench seat to open the glove compartment.

She briefly takes her eyes off the road and fishes through the registration, insurance, candy wrappers, and an open pack of cigarettes, to pull out a small novelty metal lunch box full of loose cassette tapes. Snapping open the lid, she shuffled through the mixtapes and picked a random one, stuffing it into the cassette deck. Already in the middle of a song, the aftermarket speakers popped to life with a repeating, distorted, heavy metal guitar riff, along with a steady punch of a snare and kick of a bass pedal.

"Oh god." the human groaned in anticipation of what was to come.

Sammy was already feeling the hold of the music tightening around her body, controlling her like a marionette. Her head started to snap forward with each riff of the guitar, flinging her bangs away from her eyes, almost knocking off the knitted cap that fit snugly around her furry head.

"RE! Duh-na-NAH-na. SPECT!" Sammy shouted, starting to thump the steering wheel with her fist to the rhythm.

"This is going to be a long ride." the human whined as the groove metal crackled through the speakers.

"WALK!" she snapped her head towards Eric to bark in his ear.

"Ugh!" he yelped, covering his ears with his palms.

---

The jalopy at long last pulled into the sprawling, and mostly empty, parking lot of the mall. Cracks and pot holes blemished the lot. Through the holes and fractures in the asphalt top, one could see the original grey concrete beneath. A dozen or so light poles were installed in the center of each set of parking spaces inside of the spacious lot, though only a quarter of them were still in working order and actually lit up. Located just off of one of the major roads of the city, the mall sat high atop a hill with a small forest lining the perimeter around the concrete palace.

"Guess we can park near the front then?" Eric comments.

Sammy rolled her eyes. They could hear the crackle of the loose pebbles of asphalt being kicked up by the tires as they cruised towards the front of the mall and pulled into one of the many vacant parking spaces. As the car's brakes squealed to a stop, she shifted the gear stick into park. She also pulled the emergency brake as a precaution.

"Haven't been here in a while." she states, pushing her seat belt free.

"Yeah, you ain't the only one." he smirks, pushing the button on his seat belt, which didn't want to come loose.

The feline pauses for a second to look over and watch Eric tug on the belt to try and yank it free. He growls and violently jerks on it, but still remains hooked.

"Need a hand?" she says in a teasing tone, reaching over to help.

Grasping the buckle and release, she gently rocks it side to side and lightly tugs on the belt, which then snaps free.

"See? Sometimes you just need to be gentle. Didn't I teach you anything last night?" she says with a knowing smirk.

"Gentle? Didn't you give some old lady the finger on the way over here?" Eric taunts, fishing his fingers through the open door panel to pull the door release.

"Well, yeah. But that was because she was going five under in the damn passing lane! Old fucks have no place inside a motor vehicle." Sammy vents, pulling the door open and stepping outside.

"Harsh."

"Eh, bite me." she shrugs, slamming the door shut and locking the car up.

Eric does the same and slams it hard enough to make sure it's properly closed. As each door was thrown shut, a pillow of loosened rust showered down on the ground below. The calico zipped up her purple hoodie after stepping out. Unlike the last few days, today was oddly chilly and had a chance of rain. Eric wore only a windbreaker over his violet graphic t-shirt. Sammy moves over the passenger's side, where both she and Eric take a moment to fix the window, seeing as there was a chance it might rain. After the window pane is realigned and rolled back up, they both start walking towards the entrance of the mall.

Made in the early 1980's, it was one of the first indoor malls to be erected in the area. The facade of the entrance was in the shape of a elongated rectangle, the upper middle covered in large, tinted bay windows, while to their sides was a series of smaller, checkerboard style windows with white borders around each square. Above the side windows was a twin set of sculpted red eaves that accented the glass panes, while also protecting those below from any rain. Two thick black columns stretched from the entrance and up into the eaves. A portion of the facade went above the roof and formed a pediment, also bordered in red, with a metal ornamental crest installed in the center. Three spotlights jutted out from the stucco covered building that illuminated the name "Northview Park Mall" that was boldly emblazoned above the entrance in a curvy lowercase font, brightly displayed by the fluorescent pink neon lights behind.

"This place is open, right?" Eric asks as him and feline approach the doors.

"Should be." Sammy shrugs.

They step up onto the sidewalk and walk to the doors. It was hard to tell if the lights inside were even on through the tinted glass. Just as they were starting to lose hope, the automatic doors pop open with a hiss.

"Guess that answers that."

The human and feline pass the doors and pull open a second set of doors to enter the lobby. A warm gust of air blows over them as the heavy door was pulled open, quietly closing behind them afterwards. The mall was in the shape of a squashed T with the lobby being at the very base. Small beige tiles were installed to the floor with a repeating cross-like pattern of purple and pink every few steps. Both sides of the stubby corridor were lined with the glass windows of various shops. For every store still open, there were four or five vacant spaces from the previous failed businesses. A visitors desk was seated in the middle of the lobby, though it was now just a lonely desk with nobody to work it. Not much of a loss since the bustling foot traffic the mall had once received had significantly dwindled down to maybe a couple dozen at most during the slower days.

"Ugh." She sighed at the state of the mall. "Kinda depressing, ain't it?" Sammy asks, looking over her shoulder to see the human closing his eyes and sucking in a deep breath, letting it out with a happy exhale.

"Yeah, a little. I love these kind of malls though." he smiles, stepping forward next to her.

"What do you mean?"

"You know. The colors. The neon. The smell. The warmth. I love it." he grins.

"I like malls too. Get a very nostalgic vibe in here, but you didn't exactly grow up here, so I'm guessing it's something else you love?"

"Shh-shh-shhhhhhhh. Listen." he shushes, tilting his ear up towards the empty hallway.

Through some far away speaker was the sound of a classic song from the 1980's. She was familiar with the original version, but this was slightly different. The keyboard synth that usually held a fairly upbeat tempo was now slower and more distorted, the punch behind the notes instead sounding more sloppy and drawn out. The normally smooth, feminine voice speaking the lyrics now suffered from a downwards shift in key, giving it a deeper and oddly eerie tone one might hear inside of a dream as the lyrics crackled through the decades old speakers.

"Sweeeeeet dreeaaaams are made of theeeeeese.......whooooo ammmmm I tooooo disaaaagreeee....." the once crystal clear vocals slurred through the mall's intercom.

To Sammy's ear, it sounded like an old beat up cassette deck was in desperate need of a belt change, but to Eric, it was something soothing and relaxing.

"Eurythmics. 1983. I personally think 'Here Comes The Rain Again' deserves more attention than this single, but whatever. What's your point?" she asks as she started walking up the hall.

"My point is how everything comes together in here. It's real life vaporwave." he replies in a relaxed voice.

"Vaporwave? Isn't that that one genre or something that's all about weird ass computer graphics and CGI shit and jazz with pictures of statue heads?" she rolls her eyes.

"More or less, yes. I like it though. Possibly more than shoegaze and chillwave combined!" he proclaims, catching up to the cat.

"I have no clue what the fuck that means."

"Microgenres. One uses a lot of distortion, feedback and sounds really ethereal. The other is kinda lo-fi with tons of reverb and old ass synthesizers." he explains, the pair now walking side by side.

"Not since diving into the conspiracy side of YouTube have I felt that I have gained so much information, yet somehow ended up dumber." she jibes.

"Oh, shut up! You're telling me that the loud shit you listen to doesn't have smaller genres?" he fires back.

"First, it's not shit and if you say that again, your ass is sleeping on the couch tonight. Second, yes, but I don't get into that kind of oddly specific stuff. I only like thrash, power, and New Wave of British Heavy Metal. I don't fuck with grindcore, black metal, death, or metalcore." the calico defends and takes a brief pause in reflection. "Alright, you have a point, but shut up."

"Ha! With how much you love 80's stuff, I thought you'd be into the same thing as me." Eric chuckles, laying his arm over her shoulder, pulling her against his side while they walked, echoing with each footfall.

"I do like some stuff like that you've showed me before."

"Synthwave?"

"No. Synthwave actually originated in the 80's. Seems people can't seem to make up their minds on what to call whatever it is being made recently."

"Uhh.....retrowave?"

"Sounds dumb as hell, but that's it."

"Why isn't it just classified as synthwave when it sounds the same?"

"Cause it doesn't? Shit like John Carpenter is dark and filled with those amazingly deep bassy synthesizer notes from a Roland keyboard. And a bunch of artists back then didn't solely focus on the synth either. It was just an instrument and it had its place. Today is literally just keyboard. Some artists get it right, but some of the stuff just sounds so fucking cliché and corny as hell to be frank." she rants as they start to approach the T intersection of the halls.

"For someone that claims to not get into subgenres and feign ignorance to it, you sure do have some elitist opinions and can honestly sound a tad hypocritical. No offense." he comments.

"I......yeah, you're right. I can be a snob sometimes I guess. You do you." she admits, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Really? Wow. I won an argument for a change!" he mock cheered with a grin.

"Alright, now shut up. Which way we headed?" she asks, lifting her head to look down each direction.

"Me? I should be asking you. I haven't been here before."

"Oh, right."

The end of the hallway opened up into a comfortably large food court that, much like the rest of the mall so far, was deserted. Sammy looked left and right, both corridors identical in layout with no real landmarks to show where the shoe store was since she couldn't see any of the store names from where she stood.

"Directory." Eric gestured forward, walking her up to one of the few illuminated upright displays of the interior map of the mall.

Scanning her eyes over the glossary of stores was met with countless occurrences of black electrical tape adhered to the store names to cover up the ones that went out of business. Though sad, it did make it easier to find what she was looking for.

"You are here. How does it know?" Eric joked, pointing to their starred location on the directory.

Sammy slowly turned her head and simply stared at him with a blank expression, save for the burning hatred displayed in her eyes from such a bad joke.

"Sheesh. Rough crowd." Eric grumbled as he tugged at the collar of his shirt.

"Left." Sammy exhaled, resting her arm across his waist and pulling him against her as she led them down the west hall.

The couple leisurely strolled down the corridor, glancing over at the shops that still remained. Presumably, the rent of the mall wasn't expensive since most of the stores were smaller locally owned businesses. This confused the both of them. One would think the rent would be high to provide enough income to keep the mall afloat. Another odd mystery of the town. Vitamin supplement stores, candle shops, discount clothing stores. Finally, they came across the shoe store.

"Try to contain yourself." she teased.

"Says the person who forcibly gave me a footjob at the pizzeria." Eric points out.

"Like you didn't enjoy it." Sammy grins, walking inside.

An electric chime rang out once they passed through the entrance. Inside was smaller than a retail store, but still had a decent selection of footwear. The store was split into sections for men, women, and children, along with aisles for specialty wear such as athletic and construction. To their surprise, there were actually people inside. Probably had something to do with the large 'STORE CLOSING SALE!' sign taped to the display window.

"Signs of life?" Eric poked her in the side with his elbow. "Maybe this place isn't as dead as you'd think."

"Nah. It's like the desert. Vast wasteland of nothing and no one. Then as soon as something dies, the vultures circle and swoop down to pick the remains clean. Or in this case, buy cheap shoes." the cat replies with a dramatic speech as she heads towards the men shoes.

"Jeez, you make everything sound so gloomy." he frowns, following behind.

"Only when I like to!" she smirks.

Some of the aisles had shelves that reached to chest height, while others had racks that nearly touched the ceiling. The women's shoes seemed to be the biggest section of the small store and had the larger shelves, while the others were shorter. Looking around, there was maybe around eight people or so shopping around, which was triple the crowd they had seen anywhere else in the mall. There was mostly women browsing around, along with two men that appeared to be the husbands. Neither of the men seemed to have the same enthusiasm Eric was showing, but that didn't exactly surprise her either.

A fan of skater type shoes and canvas hi-tops, she normally skipped the women's and went to the men's department instead. She hummed to herself and looked over whatever was still left. Skipping past the track shoes and boots, she made her way down the aisle towards the footwear that was more suited to her tastes.

"You in the right section?" Eric raised a brow.

"To me, I am." she nods, crouching down to see what sizes were left.

"Alrighty then. What kind are you looking to get?"

"I dunno. Probably the same kind? You know I'm a person of habit." she shrugged, crouching down to look for the same model she was currently wearing.

"Good luck. I don't know about you, but every time it's time to get a new pair of shoes, I can never find the same ones I wore before. Guess it's a good thing though. Nice to change things up." Eric chuckled, leaning against the shelf.

"Yeah, that happens to me too. Annoying as shit." she growls, unable to find the same shoe.

She pulls a shoebox free from the shelf and opens the lid.

"These look nice." she comments, pulling out a shoe that had the bottom half of a normal flat tennis shoe, but the upper half resembled a hi-top. "Could do with more color though." she frowns at the all black fabric, laces and rubber.

"Yeah. I like the ones you have on now. Matches your fur." he smiles, looking at the white, orange, and black colors of her shoes.

"Fuckers were a lucky find. Snatched them up in a heartbeat. Don't know if I'll have the same luck here." she sighed, closing the box and shoving it back in the stack on the shelf.

"Well, you don't know that yet. How long have you had them for?" he asks, moving beside the cat to help her look.

"A little over a year and a half."

"Hmm. Still a chance they'd have them." he nods, scanning over the wall of shoe boxes.

Sammy didn't have her hopes up of finding the same shoe, so she looked over at the other brands instead. The selection was decent enough. There just wasn't much that appealed to her. Basketball shoes, which she considered to be nothing more than overpriced status symbols. Slip-ons, which never fit her right since they didn't have laces. Generic looking athletic shoes that just seemed ugly to her. Boat shoes, which simply made her want to douse the entire shelf in diesel and set it aflame. Frowning, she found herself returning to the last section of the rack that held the street wear.

"Let me go ask the clerk if they have anymore in the back." Eric offers, standing back up to go find whoever was working the counter.

"Alright." she growled in disappointment, searching for a suitable compromise.

Pulling out a few different boxes, she flipped the lid and took a peek inside each one. Though she had never touched a skateboard in her life, she found those shoes to be the comfiest. They had a pleasantly snug fit with the padded interior walls that hugged her feet. The soles weren't bad either. She also loved the vibrant colors and design some of them had as well. Most were a bland two color pattern in usually white or black, but there were a couple brands that always had an acceptable diversity in appearance. So far, she had only found two that weren't a colorless design. One was a high-top with a charcoal black base and a deep purple trim. The alternative was a lo-top with a red base and a metallic grey leopard print design. Both had an appealing design, a fat tongue, and a soft, cushiony inside. Despite the pleasing look, she still didn't think they had the same character that her old shoes did. At this point they felt like a part of her and her look, like wearing a pair of glasses.

"Wait, these aren't even my size." She examines the boxes closer. "Ah, fuck it all!"

Sammy angrily grabs the boxes and tosses them back onto the shelf, which slam against the backside with a bang, attracting a curious look from a customer behind her at the outburst.

"What?" the feline barks towards the antelope she noticed staring, who quickly turned away.

Eric walks back over from the counter and into the aisle.

"Uh....find anything?" he asks hesitantly after hearing her yell.

"Let's go." she huffs, nearly hopping back up off the ground, trudging forward and knocking him aside with her shoulder.

"Wait, hold on." Eric lays a hand on her shoulder, following behind.

"What?" she hisses, snapping her head back to glare at him.

"Hey, hey, hey." the human hushed softly, taking his hand off her shoulder and holding it up.

The agitated feline burned a hole through him with her wide eyes.

"Just.....come over here. Let's just walk away." Eric said in a calm tone, laying a palm on the small of her back to gently guide her forward.

As he put his hand on her body, he could feel the vibrations of her silent growling. He lead her out of the aisle and towards the back of the store.

"What's wrong?" Eric asks, taking her hand and gesturing towards a small bench one would sit on while they tried on shoes, so she could sit down.

"Pissed." she spits as she drops down on the bench.

"Why? Cause you couldn't find the same shoes? Sam, just relax." he took a seat beside her, carefully dropping his arm around her shoulders.

She remained silent, but tried to shake his arm off. Not wanting to agitate her further, he pulled his arm away. It wasn't the first time he'd seen her get so worked up over something so seemingly insignificant. Even she'd admit that she had a temper and wasn't a stranger to mood swings.

"I don't know. I got disappointed, then angry, and now I feel like a fucking idiot." she sighed through clenched teeth.

"Hey, it happens to everyone. Just take a minute to calm down, okay?" he purred, looking over her.

The girl's shoulders were raised and tensed up, tail thrashing behind her. As he watched, her body started to eventually slump, her rapid breathing returning to normal. She still didn't want to talk. These small episodes were embarrassing for her. Making her feel like a spoiled child. Her mind just made things worse at times. Magnifying and worsening the slightest fluctuation in her mood. Over time, she improved, but was still prone to these sort of outbursts. Leaning closer, she let her head drop onto his shoulder with a quiet thump.

"There you go." Eric smiles, returning his hand to her shoulder, pulling her against him.

Most of her aggression was channeled through music, movies, TV, games, or whatever else that she found herself lost in. What helped most was when Eric was over with her, sitting down in the basement and doing it all together. Just being with someone, especially him, made everything better.

"Still feel stupid." she grumbled, closing her eyes.

"It's okay. All in the past." he joked, patting her back.

"It literally just happened." her eyes snapped open so she could look up at him.

"In the past!" he smiled, giving her tail a playful tug.

"God, you're an ass." Sammy chuckled, pushing off of him.

"If it helps, I looked up those shoes on my phone and found a few people selling them."

"Really? Nice. Kinda don't want to talk about that now though." the feline frowned a bit.

"It's okay. Placed an order for them, just so you know. Assuming they ship them out today, they'll be here next week probably." Eric pats her on the back.

"Thanks. Guessing you'll be wanting these then?" she lifts her legs to show him her worn shoes.

"I mean.....yeah. Unless you want to hang on to them." he smirks.

"We'll see."

"Since we're here, think there's anything you'd want in this aisle?" Eric grins, nodding forward.

Turns out, they had landed in the woman's section with three ladies already looking around. One there age, one middle age, and one elderly woman. They all seemed to have looked up at some point and gave a surprised look to see an actual human shopping in the mall.

"Ugh. Doubtful." Sammy groaned, staring down the aisle, both sides packed full of different kinds of female footwear.

"C'mon. Humor me. Let's take a look. Not like there's much else in this mall to do." he smirks, looking over to his girlfriend.

"If it'll shut you up." she sighed, standing up from the bench.

"Woo." he quietly cheered, getting up.

He followed Sammy as she stepped into the aisle. Inside, both sides were lined with racks that extended up to the ceiling, each one neatly packed with shoe boxes and a small display of the more popular models installed in the front of each shelf. High heels, flats, sandals, boots, and everything else your average woman would want.

"Anything catch your eye?" Eric smirks.

"Gimme a minute, damn." she groans, lazily strolling down the aisle, gazing at both sides.

"Alright, no rush."

The calico grudgingly browsed the wares, not particularly enthused at the idea of getting something more feminine to wear. Nothing really caught her eye except for the price tags on some of them.

"Fuckin' 99 bucks for these?" she states, flabbergasted as she holds up the display pair of designer high heels.

Eric turned to look over the shoes, which were a mostly plain pair of royal blue colored suede heels with a golden buckle on the toes.

"Damn. Not even that attractive to be honest." he frowned, looking around to find something better and more affordable.

"Hmm. Makes me wonder what shoes here have you creaming yourself." she quietly taunts, setting the pair back down.

"Why don't you find something and we'll find out?" he grins back.

Shaking her head, the cat went back to looking for something to wear to appease her companion. The last time she wore something you'd get in this aisle was probably sometime back in middle school, which was around the time she came into her tomboy nature. She stood in front of the shelves that were unoccupied by the other women who were also looking.

"How about these?" he suggests.

Sammy turns to see him dangling a pair of cork wedges from his fingers.

"Ugh, fuck no. Looks like something a MILF stripper would wear." she grimaced, turning back to search for something that better fit her, while one of the woman gave her an odd look at the comment.

"And? What's so bad about that?" he teases, putting the wedges back.

"Perv." she ignored him.

"Tease."

After another search, she stumbled across a pair of a flats that weren't too bad. The others had annoying details like flowers on the toes or lacey material, but the ones she found were a plain black canvas. Boring, but to her, acceptable.

"Thoughts?" she asked, keeping her back to him as she lifted up one of the shoes.

"Eh....." he droned, unsure of how to politely respond.

"Say no more." she dropped them back in the box and slid it back onto the shelf.

The two searched in silence for something that would appeal to each other. Eric would find things too feminine or exotic and Sammy would fine things too generic and boring. Each exchange only led to disappointment and annoyed growls from the feline.

"These?" he reveals a pair of open toed heels.

"I told you, no heels. I'm not jacking up my posture just so you can get a boner." she rumbles.

"Quiet, shit." he blushes, looking up and down the aisle to make sure no one heard the lewd statement, blushing further when he heard the teenage girl giggle.

Grinning, she couches down to see what was hiding on the bottom of the shelves. Flip flops, more wedges, and sandals. She wasn't a fan of flip flops with the annoying sound they constantly made with every step. Wedges were out of the question, since they would add to her already tall figure and make her uncomfortably tall. Hmm, something tells her Eric would probably be into that actually, but not right now. With nothing left, she shrugged and went through the sandals. There were plenty of styles to chose from, ranging from what were basically leather flip flops to strappy ones and even chunky platform ones. Sammy wasn't exactly patient. Skipping through everything she deemed to be too "girly" she soon landed on a pair of gladiator sandals.

"Curious." she hummed to herself, tugging the box free.

Inside were, of course, a pair of gladiator sandals. The insole and base were a dark brown leather. Thin, reflective black straps crossed to each side, four of them covering the foot, while one thicker strap with a zipper on the back wrapped around the heel and ankle. Solid metal studs were stamped across the straps that covered the top of the sandal, giving it a sort of heavy metal appearance. Sammy was surprised at the discovery and only hoped Eric would enjoy them too.

"Yo." she called to the human, turning and standing back up.

"Hmm?" Eric looked over his shoulder, spotting the sandals in her hands.

Curious, he spun on his heels and took a closer look.

"Oooooh. Very nice." he smirked, nodding in approval.

"I actually like these. Looks like something Halford would wear to the beach if he was a chick."

"I have no idea what you mean, but sure." he nods, happy she found something to her liking.

"Ugh. Metal illiterate." she grumbled, putting the sandals back into the shoe box.

The calico walks back over to the bench and sits down, setting the box beside her.

"Gonna give me a hand?" she purrs, pressing her legs together and sticking them out in front of her.

"Do I look like I work here?" he teases, kneeling down at her feet.

"Would be a dream job I bet."

"Eh. I feel I'd see a few too many that I wouldn't like." he shudders.

"Well, you can be my little Al Bundy for now." she grins, shoving a foot forward to grind her shoe into his chest.

"First of all, gross, and please don't kick me anymore." he whines, taking her heel in his palm, before she could add another bruise to his body.

"Shut up and take these off." Sammy chuckles, lifting those shoes higher.

The human reaches for her laces, but receives a light kick to his hand.

"With your teeth." she grins.

"Sammy." he pouts, pushing her foot down, before someone could see.

"C'mon. You want to see me wearing those, don't you?" she says with a frown, looking down at him.

It wasn't the first time she'd given him her sad eyes, but the effect was just as strong as it was the first time. The calico's eyes were open wide. Her blue iris now just a thin ring around her pupils that were dilated to a point that they took up the majority of her eyes. Her whiskers twitched above her lip that was curled into a blubbering frown.

"Alright." he caved in with a quiet, shrill whine.

Sammy's abused weapon of cuteness vanished in a literal blink of the eye, disappearing in a flash of her eyelids.

"Good boy." she grinned, once again lifting her feet.

Looking around them one more time and seeing that the women had moved on to a different aisle, the human grumbled and reluctantly opened his mouth. He snapped at the orange laces, snatching the tip between his teeth and yanking his head back to pull it loose.

"And the other?"

As he opened his mouth back up to respond, the other shoe came flying and landing under his chin, snapping his jaw shut. Scowling at her, he dart his mouth forward and quickly pulled the other lace.

"Thank you. Now get these shoes off for me." she chuckles, pressing her unlaced shoes to his belly.

Nodding, he takes hold of each shoe and gives her heel a careful tug, popping the snug fitting sneaker free from her foot. He holds it in his hand, gazing at the dark opening as he moves to place it in front of the bench.

"Something on your mind? I think I have an idea of what you want to do...." she purrs, looking down at his longing expression.

The human squirms anxiously.

"And what would that be?" he bites his lip.

"I think you want to shove your nose into my smelly shoe right in the middle of this store." she growls with a knowing look.

Eric whines quietly and eventually nods.

"Do it."

He looked up at her with a hesitant look.

"There's people here....." he shakes.

"Better do it quick then." she whispers, leaning forward and putting her elbow up on her knee.

Blushing, Eric gave one more cautious look over his shoulders, before lifting her worn shoe to his nose. He could already feel the cat's musk tickling at his nostrils the second his nose grew close. With a light sniff, he let out a quiet moan, before shoving his nose deeper until it touched the insole. He knew how stupid and pathetic he had to have looked, but couldn't help himself. The idea of getting to smell a female's freshly used shoe was just so goddamn arousing to him, despite how weird it appeared. Eric took a deeper sniff, feeling the warmth from the stuffy shoe, greedily inhaling his girlfriend's addictive scent. It was just as strong as the first time he took it in and just as hot.

"F-fuck." he shivered, stuffing his nose into the toebox for one more lungful of her foot musk, before pulling his face free.

"Did my shoe bitch enjoy that?" she sneered playfully, bumping his chin with her socked foot.

"So good." he shamelessly admits, setting her shoes down on the ground.

"Socks, please." Sammy requested next, scratching down his shirt with her claws hidden behind the socks.

Nodding, he reached to take hold of them, only for Sammy to lift them and press them to his nose like before. Eric let out a quiet growl and wiggled his nose into the slightly damp cotton socks, sniffing at the black colored fabric. While he was busy huffing her paw perfume, his hands were rolling down her socks, freeing her foot, while also pulling off her socks that were still held to his face.

"To think you used to hide this from me. Can't really blame you, honestly. Sock sniffer." she teased, bringing her now bare furry feet to the carpeted floor.

"Nearly had a heart attack when you caught me." he smiles, dropping her socks to the ground after one last whiff.

"I bet. I was just amused and confused." she giggles, wiggling her toes.

"Thank fuck for that." he lets out a breath, pulling the shoe box over to his lap.

The human opens the lid and pulls out the left sandal, unzipping the back of it.

"Your foot, my dear...." Eric asks in a posh tone.

"Remind me why I shouldn't kick you again?"

"Cause you love me."

"Another mistake in my short eighteen years on this Earth." she jokes, lifting her right foot to his hand.

Eric holds her by the ankle and guides her foot down to the gladiator sandal, sliding her foot inside. She sets her foot down against the cool leather insole, wiggling it forward, while he zips up the back. Moving her foot to the side, she waits for him to drop the second sandal. After the second was zipped up, the calico stood up to get a feel for them.

"How are they?" he asked, looking up at her, while he stay kneeled.

"Feel a little stiff, but they are new so whatever. Soft though." she nods, doing a few little hops to see how they felt.

"Why don't you take a walk around?" he suggests.

"Don't mind if I do." she growls in a malicious grin.

Sammy lifts her leg and drives her sandaled foot into his sternum, shoving him down onto his back, foot still planted on his chest.

"What are you doing?" he spits out in a strained voice, scrambling to grab at her ankle.

"Walking." she innocently replies, starting to shift her weight onto the foot.

"Don't!" he squeaks out, trying to push her off.

"Take a breath." she advices as she steps up onto him.

Despite her size, she was deceptively light for being so tall. The human sucked in a breath and held it, feeling her entire body weight pressing down against him on a single foot. He prayed that she wouldn't do any damage to his body. Sammy lifted her arms out into the air at her sides to keep herself balanced on his squishy torso, taking a tentative step down on his neck.

"Get off, please!" he squealed, head twisted to the side while she stood on top of him.

"Relax. I know I'm not THAT heavy." she rolled her eyes, lifting the leg that was on his chest, putting her entire weight on his neck.

The pressure was heavy and just as he was worrying she would injure his spine, she hurriedly drops the other foot to the ground to alleviate the stress. She wasn't entirely evil after all.

"Jesus, Sam." he whines, rubbing his neck.

She smirked and took a few steps forward, walking down the aisle and back a few times, getting used to how the sandals felt. It had been so long since she had worn something open toed like this too.

"Well how are they?" Eric grumbles, lifting himself up to sit on the ground.

"Nice. Will be nicer after I break them in though." she smiles, surprised at how she liked them, doing an uncharacteristic spin on her heel.

"I'm happy you like them. They look very nice on you too." Eric smiles back, eyes locked on her beautiful furry feet inside the sandals.

"Care for another close up?" she grinned, walking back to him, dropping her foot onto his crotch.

Seems the little walk on the impromptu catwalk was enough to make him noticeably excited.

"Oooh, you really like them." she smirked, keeping her foot on his groin, lifting the other and knocking him back down on the floor.

He sucked in a breath and let out a muffled groan of pain and pleasure as she stood on him, his leg kicking once she started to grind down on his length.

"Y-y-y-you could say that." he panted, sighing in relief once she stepped off of him and sat back down on the bench.

"Seriously though, you think they look good on me? I can't remember the last time I ever wore a pair of sandals." she asked, looking down at him.

"I love them." Eric smiles, moving to kneel in front of the bench.

The feline slides back in her seat and lifts her legs to the bench, her heels on the bench, while the rest of her foot hung over the edge.

"Very, very pretty. Sexy if you ask me." he quietly compliments, gazing at the furry pair of feet.

"Do I need to say what I think you want to do now?" the cat purrs, flexing her toes in a teasing manner.

"Nope." he blushes, leering at the furry digits that danced inches from his face.

Giving in to his desire, he leaned in and kissed over her exposed toes, giving the tips of each one a loving smooch. He absolutely loved how soft her fur felt against his lips. His tongue peeked out to flick over the blunt claws poking out of her toes. After feeling her standing on his cock that was already standing at attention after sniffing her shoes, he was slowly starting to forget he was even in public. His eyes flicked up to look into her own as he opened his mouth. Sammy lifted her toes up for him, who instantly slipped her first two toes into his mouth, resting them on his tongue, while he closed his lips and gave them a rough suck.

"Naughty human." she growled, wiggling those digits inside of his wet mouth.

He pumped his head back and forth, working those wonderful toes along his tongue, darting his tongue between them, licking them clean. His soft, pink tongue slithered around those plump digits, lathering them with his slick saliva, sniffing at the top of her foot, his nostrils buried in her warm fur. Her paws were always so perfect. Soft, warm, and always amazing fresh from her shoes. Never too sweaty or musky, but consistently the ideal balance between. Eric continued to run his tongue over her toes, shoving it underneath, pushing his head down so that he could actually her thick, smooth pawpad, licking over the slight dampness and the divine tastes that it held. He paused and slipped his tongue free, inching down to press his nose into her toes that had remained untouched, sniffing at the satisfying aroma, before pulling back to shove those same toes over his lips.

"Have you guys found anything else? Sorry we couldn't help you with what you were looking for." an anteater asks as she rounds the corner from another aisle.

Eric spits her toes from his mouth and snaps his head back, but was too slow. The clerk stopped and looked over the couple with a confused, and bewildered expression. She questioned what she saw, but knew for a fact that he indeed had the feline's toes in his mouth. Willingly in fact.

"No, we found something else. Thank you though." Sammy chirps, seemingly unfazed.

"Uh, yeah. We're okay." Eric gulped, finding his voice.

The woman's eyes looked down to notice that the cat had her other foot firmly pressed against the human's groin.

"I'll be up front if you need any more assistance." she quickly speaks and immediately turns and walks away.

"Thanks!" Sammy waves, turning to grin at her boyfriend.

Eric's face was beet red, his brow moist with perspiration.

"What? Acting like it's your first time getting caught." she laughed, batting his face with the sole of her sandal.

"Shush! That was bad!" he blushed, feeling that familiar burn of embarrassment, the severity of which he hadn't felt since he was caught by Sammy months ago.

"I can see something that isn't complaining." she purrs, feeling how hard he was underneath her other foot.

The act of getting caught made his manhood throb in fear and excitement.

"Please, Sammy. Can we just leave now?" he begged, standing up and readjusting his pants to hide his erection.

"We were just getting started." she whines, crossing her arms.

The feline was used to doing risky things in public with her past lovers and was no stranger to getting caught. However, she knew Eric wasn't exactly used to this kind of behavior, and seeing how he helped her earlier, she figured she should return the favor.

"Alright, but I'm wearing them out." she sighed, standing up and patting him on the shoulder.

"Oh god, what if she's the only cashier." Eric panicked, burying his face in his hands.

"Relax, fuck. I'll do the talking. Shit." she chuckled, kissing him on the cheek.

"That was not okay. I got carried away." he trembles.

"It's not the end of the world. This place is about to close down anyway, so it's not like we'll be seeing her again. Don't worry. You don't know what she saw." Sammy stated, rubbing his back.

"She saw your toes in my mouth, Sammy. What else could she have seen?" he frowns.

"My foot on your cock?" she shrugs, watching his face turn into irritation and fright.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Let's go, okay?" Sammy huffs, changing the subject.

"Fine." he exhales, hanging his head.

"It'll be okay. We'll leave and you can watch me walk in my new shoes." she smiles, kissing him between the eyes.

"Alright." he pouts.

Sammy bends down and tosses her old shoes into the shoe box, picking it up and heading down the aisle with Eric trudging along behind. The feline leaves the aisle and heads to the cashier, dropping the box down on the counter. Of course, the only person ringing people out was the one that happened to catch the couple moments ago. The cheeks of the anteater turned a crimson shade, along with Eric's, once they briefly made eye contact.

"Uh, hello. Find everything you were looking for?" the clerk asks after clearing her throat.

"Didn't find those one shoes, but we found them online though. I'll be wearing these out, so my old shoes are in the box." Sammy replies as if nothing was amiss.

"That's good." the clerk nods, opening the box to make sure everything was in order, before scanning the barcode.

"Yup. Figured I may as well pick up a pair of sandals though. Don't wear them much, but my boyfriend insisted." the feline grins, unable to help herself.

Both Eric and the anteater cringed at the words, the human turning to the side so as to not face the counter.

"That'll be $19.95, please." the clerk states, hoping to finish the awkward ordeal.

"Hmm? Oh, right. Pay the lady." Sammy says to the human, while the cashier places the shoebox into a plastic bag.

Eric looks over and glares at the feline, before remembering that he had agreed to pay for them beforehand and that she didn't have enough cash on her anyway. He stumbles forward and dives his hand into his pocket to pull out his wallet, fumbling and dropping it. Chuckling, Sammy bends down to pick it up for him.

"Thanks." he growls, pulling out a $20 bill and nearly throwing it on the counter as he snatches up the shoebox and hands it to Sammy.

"Need a receipt?" the anteater asks, gulping in a mutual embarrassment for him.

"Nope. Keep the change." he rapidly answers, spinning on his heel and grabbing Sammy's hand to pull her out of the store.

"Have a nice day!" Sammy smiles as she's being dragged out.

Eric comes close to tripping over his own feet, while he leaves the store.

"C'mon, Sam." he whines, letting go of her hand so that he could hurriedly walk out of sight from the front of the store windows.

"What? Never been caught before?" she teases, catching up with him.

"Hell no! That was horrible and you're just making it worse!" he grumbles.

"I was playing it cool! You were the one spazzing out." she defends, walking beside him.

"I couldn't help it! You should have asked for the money before we went up, so I wouldn't have had to be there."

"I'll admit that I should have done that. Whatever. I freaked out earlier and you did now, so let's move on." she sighs, taking the bag from his hands.

"Fine. Ugh. I hope no one else saw." he winces, stepping closer to lay his arm around her waist, pulling her in for a comforting side hug.

"There were maybe 4 other people in there and I didn't see anyone during your "fun", so I think we're in the clear." she reassures, hugging him back.

Eric lets out another quiet whine, but nods. The two continue down the corridor, which ends in a circular cul-de-sac of stores, with a decorative fountain in the center. The feline walks over to the fountain and takes a seat on the edge, setting down her bag.

"They feel good on your feet at least?" he asks, sitting down beside her, looking down at the new pair of sandals.

"Yeah. A little snug, but I'll try and break them in." Sammy yawns, listening to the splashing of the water behind them.

"You mean you'll actually wear them for real and not just for me?" the human excitedly asks.

"Sure." she rolls her eyes, anticipating his reaction.

"Thanks!" he smiles, pulling her in for another tight hug.

She expected a more vocal one with more cheering, but smiled anyways.

"I should be thanking you. Good thing everything was 75% off too." she smirks, propping a leg up on the tiled edge of the fountain, turning to look inside.

Much like the floor, the fountain was tiled in purple and pink, forming charmingly simple patterns and designs. The tiles inside were a combination of bright blue and white arranged in a checkerboard layout. When the mall was more popular, their used to be gold fish and other kind of colorful fish inside. As the years went on, the fish, much like the mall itself, died out and were never replaced. Stray coins littered the inside of the fountain, along with small bits of trash like cigarette butts and gum wrappers.

"Got a coin?" Sammy looks over at him.

"Hmm? Let me see." he fishes around in his pockets, but comes out empty handed.

"Nothing?"

"Sorry. Didn't exactly get my change at the shoe store." he sheepishly rubs the back of his head.

"I wouldn't put it that way. You literally said, 'Keep the change' and left." she snorts, digging her hands into her pockets, finding only her empty wallet, half pack of cigarettes, and a lighter.

Searching her hoodie pockets next, she pulls out some lint and a bottle cap.

"Better than nothing." she sighs, flicking it into the water with a ping.

The beer cap drops into the water, fluttering around as it descends to the bottom of the shallow fountain.

"Whatcha wish for?"

"For this mall to stay open. Nothing in here now, but I have memories of this place, dammit. Sucks." she frowns.

"Guessing you went here a lot?" he asks, rubbing the top of her foot.

"Yeah. Me and my parents. I remember this place during Christmas. Crowds and crowds of people. Lights and decorations hanging from the ceiling. A huge Christmas tree in the food court with those big glass ball ornaments. My dad would squeeze my hand so I wouldn't get lost. Thought he was going to break my fingers with the death grip he had. He was always worried I was going to get snatched up some day in those crowds." she half smiles, thinking back on those wonderful memories.

"Aww. I remember those kind of days too. Back when there wasn't online shopping and you needed to actually track down what you wanted and call up the stores, hoping they had the toy you needed. Ever think about the hell our parents went through back then trying to make us happy on Christmas?" Eric chuckles, massaging her ankle.

"Oh yeah. My mom said she actually misses those days. Said it was part of the thrill to be running through the stores to hunt down whatever the biggest toy back then was. She says it's just boring now. You go on the computer and can have your shopping done in, like, half an hour." Sammy laughs, splaying her toes.

"Yeah. Even Black Friday is too tame nowadays. Sure, it's busy, but you don't really see those hordes of shoppers trampling over each other. At least, not around here I think. I know we didn't have that kind of action back in my old town." he smirks, kneading her toes next.

"I love those kinds of days. I don't even go out on Black Friday with anything in mind to buy. I just love being part of the crowd. The energy is real. Half the time I don't even buy shit either." the feline smiles, listening to the warped music playing through the speakers above.

"Mhm. I love it. I know people get scared being around so many people, but I think it's fun. Hmm, though I do get freaked out being the only human surrounded by so many animals." he jokes.

"If by freaked out, you mean aroused, then I believe you." she teases, pinching his finger with her toes.

"I'll agree to that. Sometimes. It can be intimidating."

"Yeah." she sighs, looking around them.

Her eyes drifted around the mall, remembering the shops that used to be open and were now closed, the shutters pulled down over the vacant storefronts, her smile shrinking into a frown.

"Ready to get up?" she sighs, biting the inside of her cheek.

"Yeah. Where to now?" he nods, standing up and brushing off the seat of his pants.

"Getting hungry?" she asks, feeling her stomach rumble.

"I could eat."

---

Eric takes a seat at one of the many empty tables in the food court, wiping the specks of dust from the surface as he drops into the chair. With the limited options, he settled on a cheesesteak and a large drink for his lunch. As much as he wanted to dig into the melted cheese goodness, he politely waited for the feline to return first.

---

She takes a quick glance around the food court to see that most of the spaces were vacant with an outline of the sign of what used to reside there. Limited to only a sub shop, pizza place, and a bizarrely out of place vegan cafe, she settled for the healthier option, since she was still feeling heart burn from the greasy pizza they had eaten for dinner the previous night. The feline's sandals padded along the dully colored tiled flooring as she walks towards the unusual eatery. Flowery wallpaper adorned the inside of the small enclosure behind the counter. Messages that were supposed to be uplifting, but instead coming across as eye-rollingly pretentious were also painted on the walls in a thin, elegant script. "Synergy" was displayed above the eatery on a rectangular outline with a cartoony heart and brain both on top and below the name.

"Swear to god if this place is just a front for some pyramid scheme bullshit...."

As Sammy approaches the empty counter, she begins to wonder if it was even staffed for today. A small bell sits in front of the register with a handwritten sign saying, "Please ring for service!". Shrugging, she slaps the bell, dinging while the vibrations cause the thin layer of dust that accumulated over days to disperse off of the chrome surface and into the air. It takes a moment for the clerk to realize that the bell wasn't just her imagination and burst through the kitchen door. A chipper lovebird emerges, whistling a song as she approaches the counter, eager for a customer that would help her break from the boring nothingness that was her 6 hour shift at the mall.

"Hi there! Welcome to Synergy, where health food and brain food meet! What can I get for you on this lovely day?" she smiles, taking her place in front of the register.

Sammy glances up at the dark, approaching clouds through the glass roof atrium above, but chooses to not bothering pointing it out.

"Uh, yeah. Guessing you have salads?" the feline asks, realizing she forgot to even look up at the menu board.

"Oooh, of course. We have a Californian cherry and walnut salad that comes with our homemade raspberry vinaigrette. There's the Quinoa Tabbouleh salad that comes with organic quinoa, freshly chopped parsley, and parsnips. We also have a beet salad with baby spinach, thinly sliced beets, balsamic vinegar and locally sourced goat cheese! Now, if you want something gluten free or looking for a detox-"

"I'm gonna stop you right there. I don't know what the fuck a parsnip is and goat cheese smells like smegma, so just gimme that California whatever it is." Sammy interrupts, just wanting a simple salad with no frills that she wasn't too shocked would difficult to find at such a place.

The bird quickly nods, that smile still creasing her yellow-green plumage.

"Now, that comes with greens, chopped walnuts, cherries, non-GMO and steroid free grilled chicken. Anything you'd like to add or remove?" the avian chirps.

"It's fine. Can I get a water with that too?" Sammy asks, tapping her foot in annoyance.

"Sounds good! What kind would you like? Purified, foreign, spring, ionized, boiled, reverse-osmosis. Oh, we also have some treated with UV light to remove any impurities. They say you can't taste the difference, but I beg to differ!" the lovebird giggles, punching the order into the register.

"Tap. You have tap water back there, right? You know. From a sink? The kind that doesn't even cost a full cent for a glass of?" Sammy growls, losing her patience.

"Tap? Hmm, if that's what you prefer, I suppose. We still have a carbon filter to help filter out all the bad stuff, like fluoride, though." the bird shrugs, appearing unnerved by the idea of ingesting something so "tainted".

"Do I look like I'm worried about fluoride?" the feline hisses, exposing her pearly white, though intimidating, teeth and pointy fangs.

"If you think all it does is just give you a white smile, you would be wrong. I have some literature I could send to you sometime if you'd like?" she offers, looking up at her.

"I like to live on the edge, so I think I'll pass. I'm sure the booze I drink and the cigarettes I smoke should be enough to kill any bacteria in me." Sammy says with a slight grin.

The cashier tries not to shudder at the thought of poisoning her body with such things.

"Want some lemon slices in your water?" she offers with another smile.

Sammy takes in a long, deep breath, whistling through her nostrils as she attempts to keep herself calm.

"Yes. I'd love that. Thank you." she answers through her teeth.

"Wonderful! That all comes to $11.76 please!" the bird tweets as the register prints out her receipt.

Checking that Eric's back was turned, she reaches under her wool cap and tugs out a $20, handing it to the cashier. She opens the cash drawer and counts out the cat's change, counting it out in front of her, before handing it to Sammy.

"$8.24 is your change. Can I have a name for the order?" the colorful avian asks, smiling up at Sammy.

"Sammy." the feline growls, taking her change and stuffing the bills back into her cap.

"Alright, Sammy! I'll have your order out in a jiffy. If you've enjoyed your experience at Synergy, we do accept gratuities!" the bird chuckles, pointing out the plastic jar next to the register.

With the knowledge that the only encounter she was ever going to have with this person was finally coming to an end to keep her sane, the Calico drops the 87 cents into the empty jar, her face blank and expressionless.

"Thanks!" the bird chirps as she turns and walks back into the kitchen.

The feline steps back and massages her temples, letting out a drawn out sigh as the conversation finally came to an end. While she thought over her choice of meal and how she could have ordered from an employee that was most likely stoned to cope with the boredom, her belly started to rumble. She leaned back against a pillar and looked up at the glass ceiling that covered the food court, able to faintly hear the panes rattling at the approaching thunder that rolled over the valley. Good thing she brought her hoodie. Peeking over her shoulder, she sees that Eric still hadn't touched his meal yet. Sammy frowns and lets out another sigh, feeling bad for keeping him waiting. Turning back, she jumps in fright at the bird crashing through the kitchen door once again, this time holding a tray with a modest sized salad on a plate. With another rumble in her stomach, the cat eagerly steps back to the counter. The avian looks up and notices Sammy, but instead of just handing her the food, she picks up the copy of the receipt and looks around the food court.

"Order for Sammy!" she announces, eyes soon falling back on the cat.

The stunned feline raises her hand, closely watching the cashier to make sure something wasn't wrong with her.

"I'm Sammy." she answers, though sounding like a question for how odd the situation was.

"Oh! Here ya are! One California cherry and walnut salad!" the lovebird smiles, holding the tray to Sammy.

"Uh, thanks." the tomboy grabs the tray and takes one last look at the bird who waves goodbye.

Sammy quickly powerwalks over to the lonely human, feeling like she just had a brain aneurism.

"Fuckin' aliens man." she shakes her head, dropping her tray on the table and taking a seat on the other side of him.

Her tray slapping against the table wakes Eric up from whatever daydream he was having.

"Was wondering where you went. A salad, huh?" he smiles, sitting back up in his seat.

"Figured something lighter and healthier for a change, at the expense of my mental health." she rolls her eyes, snatching the plastic fork up from the tray and aggressively stabbing at the leaves on her plate.

"Looks good at least. Nice and fresh." he comments, picking up his hoagie that was thankfully still warm.

As he looks between their meals, he soon realizes something was wrong.

"Hey. You didn't have any cash back in the shoe store to buy your sandals and I don't remember giving you money to buy your food either." he narrows his eyes at her from across the table.

Sammy pauses, a forkful of greens inches from her maw.

"Funny how that works." she shrugs, not having thought of a believable excuse beforehand.

"Sammy! Did you force me to buy those just to embarrass me?" Eric whines.

"Eat before your food gets cold. Err, colder. You didn't have to wait for me, but I appreciate the gesture." she changes the subject, taking a forkful of greens into her maw, which had a pleasant crunch to them.

Not needing to hear anymore and figuring they could talk later, Eric grumbles and hungrily chomps down on his food, tearing through the thick Italian bread and into the cheese that was still warm, but not scalding hot. He finds the steak a bit thin and dry, but was too hungry to complain. The cheese and grilled onions and peppers made up for it at least. At first, Sammy was envious of the monster of a cheesesteak he ordered, strings of the cheese dragging out with each bite, but started to change her mind the more she picked at her salad. She wouldn't have liked each element of the dish, but found it created a perfect harmony of taste and texture as she consumed more of it. The crunch of the walnuts, the sweetness of the cherries, the tangy tartness of the raspberry vinaigrette. She even felt the chicken was actually grilled and contained a light smokiness to it.

Eric continued to take bite after bite of the hoagie, tearing into the thick roll and swallowing each mouthful of comfort food goodness. They both ate in relative silence, listening to the rain that finally began to pelt the glass atrium above.

"Damn. Don't forget to come up for air." Sammy snorted, tossing a thin paper napkin in his direction, while she picked at her salad, feeling like a proper lady for once in her life.

Eric nods and takes the napkin, dabbing the smears of cheese that stained his chin. He only pauses to wash it down with a few glugs of sugary cola. Eric normally didn't eat so aggressively, but worked up an appetite for how long they were out and just having to stare longingly at his meal, while he waited for Sammy was just too much to bear. In a matter of minutes, he left his plate clean from any traces of the melted cheese or spilled toppings.

"Ohhhh, that was good." he sighs with a smirk, leaning back to let his meal digest.

"Certainly sounded good, you noisy fuck." Sammy teases, bumping his shin with her foot.

Unlike him, she paced herself and took her time enjoying her meal. Not because she was the pinnacle of manners, but that her meal wasn't as large as his and felt she really needed to savor each bite.

"Sorry. Was tasty though. Steak was a bit eh, but the cheese was damn good." he comments.

"Did they actually melt real cheese or just used that canned shit?" she asks, taking another bite of her salad.

"Real cheese. I think I tasted provolone and American in it. Pretty sure doing that would get you killed in Philadelphia though." he jokes, nearly letting out a belch.

"To be fair, I don't think it would take much to killed by those Philly jagoffs." she quips, crunching down on a walnut.

"Never been there, actually." he shrugs, his straw loudly sucking up the last drops of his beverage.

"It's not too bad to be fair. Just stay away from the people and don't wear anything sports related. Knew a friend that nearly got his ass kicked at a hockey game there for wearing a different jersey." Sammy growls, scraping up some of the dressing with the side of her fork.

"Damn. Why?" he frowns.

"Cause they're assholes and I guess that would be more fun than actually watching their shit hockey team. Might as well be watching the fucking Ice Capades instead. Pussies." she sneers.

"Sounds like a rivalry between cities, I guess. Never really understood it to be honest." Eric rolls his eyes.

"I will admit that they can be stupid. Usually just stems from losing to someone a lot. That and growing up while listening to your family hating on them, the fans talking trash to each other all the time too. Guess that's just how it goes. They call you assholes, you call them assholes, and everyone goes home. Getting physical is different though. Anyone that will actually get into a fight over sports is just a fucking idiot." she nods, finishing her salad and pushing it away.

"I can agree to that. Hobbies and stuff like that are supposed to take your mind off of things and make you happy. Some of those rabid fanbases just miss the point completely." the human chuckles.

"Guess people just need to relax. I get hot headed, but not all the time." Sammy yawns, tossing her fork on the cleaned plate.

Eric opens his mouth, but chooses not to comment, smirking at her.

"Right?" she growls, lifting a foot and pressing it to his groin.

"Eep. Yes, of course." he nods with a blush.

"Good. Wouldn't want to make me annoyed, would you?" she purrs, shifting her sole over his crotch, grinding over it with the sole of her new sandal.

"Course not." he huffs, biting his lip.

Looking up at his flushed face, she continues to rub that teasing foot over him, firmly pressing down with her toes, slowly twisting it as if she was stomping out a cigarette.

"That was so hot earlier. Playing with your paws with those people around us." he gulps, growing hard under his pants.

"What about when we got caught?" she teases quietly, sliding her heel over that now swollen cock of his.

".....it was kinda hot." he shamefully admits.

In hindsight, he realized that past the panic and fear he felt in that moment inside the shoe store, was one of the hardest erections he had ever had, aside from when he first began getting physical for Sammy this week.

"Did that turn you on? Some stranger discovering what a little paw slut you are? Showing your true colors with my toes in your mouth?" she rumbles, bringing up her other foot to add it to his groin.

"So much, Sammy. I never want to get caught, but that was one hell of a rush. At least after we left, cause that was still humiliating." he blushes deeper, whimpering at her constant teasing.

"Not a fan of humiliation?" she grins, dipping her foot under him to give his testicles some attention as well.

"No. I don't mind it when you do it, cause we know each other. It's pretty hot, frankly. Just you, though. Only you. The way you tease me and use me like that. God, I love you." he pours out his feelings.

"I'll keep that in mind. You know you can always trust me. I won't put you in a bad position, unless I know how much you'll love it. Kick and cry, whine and beg as much as you want. I know what you really want. All I need to do is just feel that fleshy human cock of yours. Feel how hard you get. Your body is always going to speak the truth." she says in a sultry tone, those paws of her never once stopping.

"Didn't take very long for you to get to know what I like." he pants, opening his legs, now shallowly humping her sandal clad paws.

"Mmmhmm. Wanna know what I think your cock would love right now?" she quietly chuckles, her claws scraping over his zipper.

"What?" he closes his eyes, trembling from her touch.

"To blow a hot load inside your underwear. Right here. Right now. In the middle of the food court." she whispers, now doubling up on her actions, his chair inching back as she shoves her soles harder against him.

"Oh god, Sammy." he whines, toes curling inside his shoes, mouth agape as she works him.

"But for now, I think we should get going." she states, returning to her normal voice.

The feline pulls her legs back and stands back up, stacking up their trays, as if nothing had happened. Eric's eyes snap back open, looking up at her with a dumbfounded expression.

"Care to grab my stuff?" she asks, gesturing to the shoebox inside of a plastic bag.

Eric whined and sheepishly nodded, his underwear stained with his pre that clung to his tip, just seconds away from his orgasm.

"Don't you whine at me." she warns, though in a playful way as she dumps their plates and cups into the trash can, before setting their trays on top.

Sighing, he nods and grabs her bag, standing back up, hunched over slightly in disappointment.

"Don't worry. You know I'll get you later." she teases, kissing his nose.

"You better!"

---

The cat and human walk hand in hand down the opposite end of the mall. While they walked, Sammy sniffed at the air, dropping her head back down on his shoulder.

"Smell something?"

"Mmhmm. Perfume and cologne from that one shop up ahead. Still smells the same after so many years." she smirks, spying the store a few spaces ahead.

"Maybe they only sell certain brands?" Eric guesses, swinging their arms with a teasing smile.

"Care to find out?" Sammy chuckles, stopping in front of the storefront.

It was a nationwide chain that sold beauty supplies, fragrances, soaps, and skin products. Square signs hung in front of each window announcing a buy one get one free sale on all discounted items. Tubs of cream and bottles of the latest celebrity endorsed shampoos and lotions were neatly stacked in a pyramid behind the glass.

"May as well. Not many more stores to check out, sadly." he nods, walking inside with her.

Seeing as it was one of the few surviving stores, inside was relatively busy. Either drawn by the sales or the 20% coupons they seemed to bombard everyone's mailbox with, the store was nearly twice as busy as the shoe store. Sterile, white lighting hummed overhead, drawn out by the idle chatter of the customers and the clerks trying to up sell them on frivolous items. Sammy looks around the displays and takes in the aroma of the mixed perfumes and cologne testers that were spritzed on the wrists of curious customers. Unlike outside where the scents spilled out, she found that inside it was a bit too overpowering.

"Enough to make your eyes water." Sammy comments, dodging an approaching employee to walk down one of short aisles with Eric.

"Ugh, yeah. Would be nice if it wasn't so damn strong." Eric shivers, finding the mix of flowery and fruity perfume and spicy, masculine cologne to be almost enjoyable.

"Need help finding anything?" a sheep asks from the front of the aisle.

"No, just browsing." Sammy curtly replies with a faint growl.

"Let us know if you lovers need any help, okay?" the sheep smiles, stepping away towards another potential customer that walked into the store.

Eric and Sammy both shared a mild blush at being called a couple. Come to think of it, their relationship was still unknown to everyone, but themselves.

"That obvious, hmm?" Eric teased.

"We were holding hands when we walked in." she points out, browsing their selection of lotions and soaps.

"True." he nods, figuring she wouldn't mind if he laid his hand on her shoulder.

Sammy reaches over to stroke the top of his hand with her thumb as she explored the store.

"You take bubble baths?" he asks, picking up containers of bath bubbles to test the scents.

"Nah, not really. More of a shower girl." she answers, examining the wicker baskets full of bath bombs.

"Really? I take baths more than showers. Should try out some of these bath bombs. Might like them." he suggests as he sees the basket.

"I tried them once and wasn't a fan. Used this yellow one and after it dissolved, it looked like I was bathing in a tub full of piss." she snorts.

"Ew. The colors can be odd. Not sure how I feel about bathing in black water either." he states, pointing out some bombs that resembled round lumps of charcoal.

"Yeah. Now imagine what that shit can do to fur. Not permanent, but can fuck with the color of your fur if you lay in it for too long." she informs, moving to the other side of the aisle.

"I think it's worth it. I think your fur is very beautiful." he smiles, pecking her on the cheek.

"You don't have to keep flattering me. I've already slept with you." she jokes, swatting his rear.

"Tease. See anything you like?" he grins, jumping from the unexpected spank.

With an undecided look, she finds an endcap stocked with organically scented oils. Interested, she picks up a bottle at random and pops the cap, giving it a smell. Her nostrils were tickled with the aroma of lemongrass and orange.

"Mmm, I think I like this one." she smiles, passing him the bottle.

Eric gives the bottle a sniff, agreeing with the nice scent.

"I like it too. How much?"

Sammy spins the bottle around to find a tag.

"Hmm, half off for $5.49. Not too bad." she answers, keeping hold of the oil.

"Two for the price of one is a good deal if half off and one for free." he points out, stepping beside her to browse the other oils.

"Pick out one you like then." she offers, looking over them with the human.

"Not sure if I'll have a use for massage oil though." he raises a brow, taking a few more bottles to smell.

"Well, it's not for you, obviously." she grins at him.

"I see how it is." he rolls his eyes, giving one of the oils a sniff.

"Which one do you have there?" she asks.

"Eucalyptus spearmint. Smells nice." he offers her a smell.

The cat leans in for a sniff and nods in approval.

"Not bad. What else do you see?"

"Hmm.....coconut?"

"You think I want to smell like half a Piña colada?"

"Guess not. How about patchouli?"

"I bought gladiator sandals. Not Birkenstocks and a bong."

"Ugh! Damn picky cat. How about lavender cedarwood?" he sighs, running out of potential options.

"Hmm, sounds good, but I don't know if I would like to smell like it. Let's just go for the minty one." she shrugs.

"Gotcha. Picked the best one first I guess." he smiles, snatching up the container of oil.

"Good job, human. Shall we check out?" Sammy asks, not seeing anything else of interest and not exactly wanting to deal with anymore clerks asking too many questions.

"Sure." Eric nods, once again taking her hand and walking with her towards the counter, avoiding the other customers browsing the aisles.

Sammy steps up to the cashier and plops down the two bottles.

"Hey there. Find everything okay?" a cheetah asks with a smile, scanning each bottle.

"Yup." Sammy replies, leaning against the counter.

"That's good. Do you have an email address you'd like to share?"

"Not particularly."

"You sure? We send out coupons and offers weekly!"

"I'm sure. No thank you." Sammy glares at the fellow cat.

"M'kay. Do you have an awards card with us?"

"No." Sammy growls, already knowing what's coming next.

"Oh! Would you like to sign up for one? Every tenth purchase is half off." the cheetah recommends.

"No! The hell do I need a card for? I don't even shop here. I have money! I give you money and you give me my things!" Sammy snaps, fed up with the constant questions, still not over the bird from earlier.

"Sammy. Chill." Eric butts in, easing her away from the counter, prying her fingers off of the edge.

"If you don't want one, it's fine. Not like I'm getting commission on any of this shit anyway." the cheetah rumbles, tossing the two bottles into a plastic bag.

"Sorry." Sammy grunts, shaking off the human's hand.

"$5.87, since I think you'll bite my head off if I ask you if you have a 20% off coupon." the clerk huffs.

Eric steps forward to pay, but is elbowed back by his girlfriend. She then reaches into her cap and pulls out a $5 bill and a buck, handing it to the clerk.

"Guessing that's the money you forgot?" Eric chuckles.

"Mhm." she nods, pocketing her change after the cashier rings her up and passes her back a handful of coins.

"Have a nice day." the cheetah speaks, the friendly facade she'd normally use, now gone.

"You too." Sammy replies in a similar tone as she takes her bag.

"Sorry." Eric sheepishly apologizes, walking away with feline.

The cheetah sighs and leaves the counter, approaching another customer.

"Hey there! Need any help finding anything?"

---

Plastic bags rustling with each step, the couple leisurely strolls down the corridor, nearing the end of the unexplored stores. Eric's nose soon picks up the smell of buttered popcorn.

"There a movie theater in here?" he asks with a smile.

"Yeah. Certainly isn't a megaplex. One of those older ones that has maybe four or six screens." she nods, able to see the reflection of the theater's sign on the tiled floor the closer they walked.

"Huh. Wanna go see something?" he suggests, caught off guard when the cat stops in her tracks.

She looks up at him with an excited look plastered on her face.

"Really?" she asks, speaking calm and collected, though he could hear the eagerness in her voice.

"Yeah. Sounds like the rain is getting worse. Might as well kill an hour and a half and let the weather clear up a bit." he nods, hearing the heavy rain pelting the roof above them, almost drowning out the distorted music playing through the speakers.

"Sounds like a good idea." she half smiles, trying to act casual, though the enthusiastic wagging of her tail helped him see through her guise.

They both walked forward, but the cat had an unusual pep in her strides, nearly pulling him to the theater's entrance. On the far end of the corridor was a grand entrance with two crimson double doors. A neon sign hung above a lit up marquee. "Hollywoodland" was emblazoned in a blocky old timey font in a vivid red and orange neon. Below the sign was a lighted marquee displaying the current movies and their show times.

"Looks like we're just in time to catch one." he smiles, double checking his phone to see the time.

"Got about 15 minutes to kill too." she smiles back, neither of them recognizing the movie about to be played.

She wasn't concerned. Just getting to sit down and relax in the theater was more than enough to make her happy.

"Um....are you paying? I only have two bucks and I'm telling the truth this time." she frowns, about to flash him those sad eyes of hers again.

"Of course. What kind of boyfriend would take his girlfriend to the movies and expect her to pay?" he chuckles, kissing the top of her head.

She couldn't feel the kiss through her wool cap, but the sentiment was enough.

"Thanks." she half smiles, walking to the box office.

The calico steps aside and lets Eric stand at the window. Through the tall and narrow pane of glass, the ticket seller was slumped back in her chair, feet kicked up on the counter. The lizard snapped her chewing gum between her teeth, thumbs tapping at the touch screen of her phone, oblivious to Eric.

"Uh, hello?" he speaks through the small intercom.

The lizard doesn't look up and instead lazily reaches over to pull the stand of a microphone towards her mouth.

"How many?" she asks, the boredom evident in her words as she continues to text with one hand.

"Two, please." he answers, pulling out his wallet.

"$10.70." she states, the heels of her sneakers resting atop a series of scuffs on the counter, presumably her usual resting position.

The lizard hits a button on the top of her desk twice, a slot spitting out two tickets with a whir. She tears them free and finally looks up from her phone, passing them under the glass to Eric.

"Thanks." he smiles, taking the two ticket and passing one to Sammy.

The lizard replies by blowing and popping a pink bubble, returning to her phone.

Eric gives Sammy a shake of his head and pulls one of the doors open, motioning for her to enter.

"Why, thank you." she purrs, bopping his leg with her tail as she walks inside.

"Anytime." he purrs back, walking in behind.

That vague scent of popcorn hits them full force as they move into the lobby. They both pause to bask in the wondrous odor.

"Always smells and tastes better in the theater." Sammy moans quietly.

As expected, a red fabric covered the walls, the carpet a matching red with golden colored diamond patters. In front, was a snack bar, a bear sweeping up the front of it with a broom. To their side, was a set of bathrooms and another room with the words "ARCADE" displayed in glowing purple electric sign in a loud font.

"Oooh, want to check out the arcade? Have time to kill after all." Sammy asks, almost bouncing on her heels.

"Gonna put those two bucks to use?" he teases, heading over to the room with the cat.

"Mean!" she pouts as they cross the lobby and enter the arcade.

Eric steps inside first, glancing around at the sparse selection of games, while Sammy moves to the change machine. Unlike the warmly lit lobby, the arcade was illuminated with black lights, causing the colorful swirls in the dark carpet to pop and glow.

"C'mon, you fuck!" she barks, smacking the machine with the palm of her hand after it spit her dollar back out.

Growling, she switches to the other bill, sticking it into the slot, which quickly sucks it into the machine.

"Having trouble?" he asks over his shoulder.

"Only with this piece of sh-goddamn it, work!" she snaps as it rejects the dollar again.

The calico tears the bill from the slot, pulling it taunt between both hands, furiously grinding it against the edge of the machine to smoothen it out, before violently cramming it back in. Once again, the bill is sucked into the machine. Just as her eyes grow wide in rage at the anticipated outcome, the machine buzzes and ejects four quarters.

"Fuck the other dollar for now. Let's see what we have to play in here." she huffs, palming the coins and stepping over to the human.

"Slim pickings, I'm afraid." he frowns at her.

Sammy's eyes dart around the arcade after only getting a partial glance when they first entered. Slim pickings, indeed. She saw only a claw machine, an out-of-order pinball machine, two arcade cabinets, and a smaller tabletop arcade.

"Only means we won't have to worry about what to play first." she shrugs, approaching the leftmost cabinet.

It was clearly an original cabinet, most likely a permanent staple since the mall had first opened. Elaborate and beautiful artwork originally covered both sides of the cabinet, giving the player an idea of what the games were intended to look like, since the games themselves were still quite technically limited back then. Without the powerful processors and graphical horsepower, it was up to the imaginations of the players to fill the gaps and look past the simple graphics. Sadly, most of the original artwork had been tarnished over the years. Scuffs, tears, and other stains stripped the vinyl layer away, leaving the bare wood exposed beneath. The control panel had more interesting wear. The black finish on the metal was worn away where one would rest their hands as they played, leaving behind a uniform patch of scuffed metal, attesting to the popularity it had once had. The monitor was scratched and hazy, though it still gave off an oddly calming glow of the CRT screen behind. Looking down, the carpet was prominently worn down from the multiple decade's worth of people standing glued to the spot as they played. She could even see little pockmarks left behind from fallen cigarettes, making her chuckle at the mere idea of actually being free to smoke in a public building. To her, it was a time piece. Something that should be preserved and cherished.

"If walls could talk, hmm?" she smiles, giving the joystick a testing swirl, seeing that it was stiff and sticky from what she hoped was just people spilling their drinks.

"Why? What are they saying?" Eric chuckles, laying his chin on her shoulder, cupping her hips in his palms.

"I can see it clearly. People lining up to play these. A dozen or more waiting their turn, laying their quarters on the cabinets to mark their place. Guys and girls rocking Walkmans, listening to whatever cassettes they bought down at Tape World, before coming here. High schoolers drinking whatever beer they stole from their dads or got their older brothers to buy for them. Can still smell the cigarette smoke if you try hard enough. I bet there was a cool little cloud of it hovering above, looking even nicer in the black lights. All the combined sounds of those blips and beeps of the games. God, you know people were blown away by some of them back then. All the chatter of people yelling over each other to try and coach their friends of how to beat a level." she smiles, having a powerful nostalgia for something she wasn't even born to experience.

"Man. You're like a medium or something." Eric laughs.

"Just gotta know how to read things." she chuckles, brushing her fingertips over the cabinet.

Sammy takes one of the quarters from her hands, dropping the rest on the control panel. She plops the quarter into the coin slot, hearing it land with a hollow clunk, making her think that the machine had either recently been emptied or that she was the first to play it in a good while. The monitor that was displaying high scores faded away to the main menu. To her surprise, it was a multi arcade.

"Looks like we still have some choices to make after all." she grins, looking through the selections.

There were two pages worth of games. Luckily, it was all the classics with none of the filler.

"I'll go get change from that other dollar." he smirks, patting her shoulder.

---

"Barrel! Barrel!"

"I know! Shut up!"

Sammy's eyes turned to slits as she focused, knuckles white from her tight grip on the joystick. She twisted and snapped her wrist forward, watching the little figure on the screen climbing up a ladder.

"Get the hammer!"

"Fuck the hammer!"

She flicks the joystick up, the figure leaping over the barrels, rewarding her with 100 points each time with an addictive sound effect. Her eyes made quick glances up to check her points, close to beating the high score. As she grew closer to her goal, she felt an intense amount of stress the longer she played, palm and fingertips growing slick and clammy as they worked the controls. The microswitches clicked and clacked as she made full use of the joystick, maneuvering the overall wearing man along the platforms, scaling the ladders and jumping over the barrels. With just one more level to clear, the feline's fingertip slipped over the button. In the fraction of a second it took to recover, she missed the tight gap she needed to clear the barrel and landed on it instead.

"Fuck!" she shouted, watching the character spin in place, before falling down with a halo over his head.

The feline growls and slaps the joystick.

"Fucking right there too!" she vents, wiping her hands off on her jeans.

"Hey, you still got the high score!" Eric points out.

"Wait, did I?" she gasps, looking back up at the screen.

After the "Game Over" screen faded, her score was flashed, along with her opportunity to put in her initials.

"Fuck yes! Suck it EDD!" she yells in her victory, seeing her outscore the previous high score holder by only 300 points.

Eric rolls his eyes and claps, chuckling at her reaction. The feline works the joystick and buttons one more time as she quickly enters the letters. He watches and raises a brow at the entry.

"I don't know your middle name, but I do know that isn't your last name." he states as he looks over the entry of "SAE".

"For someone so smart, you can be pretty dumb." she sighs, patting his cheek with a grin.

"Oh. Awww. I didn't do anything though." he smiles, kissing her forehead.

"Like that's important. This is, like, the retro equivalent of carving you and yours lover's name in a tree trunk." she laughs.

"Mhm. Want to try the other machines?" Eric asks.

"May as well. Only have one quarter left anyway." Sammy nods.

After a brief look over at the other cabinet, they discover that it was only another multi arcade, similar to the one they just played, but with only half of the games instead. Seeing that it was the same ones she had already been playing, she passed on playing again. She was interested in playing the table top cabinet, but quickly finds out that the coin slot was jammed, much to her disappointment.

"Lame." she sighs, flipping the quarter into the air with her thumb.

"Want me to try and win you something out of the claw machine?" he offers, looking over at the only machine left.

"Those fucking things are always rigged, but be my guest." she snorts, tossing him the quarter.

"You'll see!" he proclaims, catching the coin and walking over to the back of the tiny arcade.

The human steps in front of the small machine, looking through the fingerprint smudges smearing the glass to see a few remaining stuffed animals. Feeling confident, he drops the coin in the slot.

"Which one do you want?"

"You really think you're going to win something?" she raises a brow, moving over beside him to see what prizes where inside the machine.

"What can I say? I'm feeling lucky today." he grins.

"Whatever you say. How about the tiger?" she suggests, pointing at the stuffed feline.

"Your wish is my command." Eric hums, grabbing the joystick and twisting it to the right.

The arm of the crane swings to the side as the human carefully tries to align the claw directly over top the animal. He gives the joystick a few taps forward to inch the claw towards the waist of the tiger. His thumb taps the red button on the top of the joystick, releasing the claw that drops into a steady decline. Eric holds his breath and presses his nose against the glass as he anxiously watches. Sammy stands to his side with her arms crossed, skeptical that anyone could win these things. The outstretched claw lands perfectly on the tiger with two of the metal fingers on either side of the stuffed animals hips.

"Perfect!" he cheers at the excellent landing.

The metal hand pauses for a moment, before lifting back up. As soon as it pulls away from the stuffed tiger, do the claw actually react, closing its arms around nothing, inches above the toy.

"What?! C'mon!" Eric yells, slapping his palm against the glass as Sammy laughs behind him.

"Dude, I told you these things were bullshit." Sammy chuckles, scratching her claws down his back.

"Ugh. I wanted to win you something though." he pouts, lightly banging his forehead against the machine.

"It's okay. If we ever go to a fair or something, you can try to outsmart the carnies and win me something then." she smiles, picking her bags back up.

"Fine, I guess. Damn thing." he growls, turning away.

"Don't worry about it. Taking me to the movies is a much better gift." the feline purrs, brushing over his rear with her tail.

"Yeah. Plus you already have a tiger, right?" he teases, walking back to the entrance with her.

"You're the one with a tiger." she teases back.

Though it may not have been too long, perhaps ten minutes or so, the normally silent and dusty arcade was filled with the familiar sounds it hadn't heard in ages. Laughter, yelling in triumph and frustration, the sounds of buttons clacking over the digitized sound effects that chirped from the speakers of the cabinet. The couple was able to breathe a new life into the neglected play area that hadn't seen such energy in ages despite how short it may have been for. As they turned and left, the silence once again fell over the arcade, leaving it behind for the next person that may decide to step inside for a nostalgic distraction. With the couple now gone, the only thing left behind was the comforting glow of the CRT monitor and the looping high scores for each game, and at the top of one were the newly entered initials of "SAE".

---

Their footsteps were only a silent thud over the carpet as they stepped into the theater. Sammy juggled a box of candies, a big tub of popcorn, and a large drink, while Eric followed behind with her bags and a drink for himself. She didn't want him spending any more money, but, being the polite gentleman that he was, Eric had insisted. Sammy cringed at the idea of buying anything at the snack shop for how overpriced it all was and was used to just sneaking stuff inside. Had she known they would have been going to the movies, they probably would have stopped off and packed their pockets full.

Sammy turned around the corner and entered the theatre, looking around to see no one in there except for an elderly couple. Even with a few minutes before the movie started, she thought there would have been a few more people. She remembered how the movies were always crammed pack when she used to come here with her parents, since the theater was the cheapest around the town. Of course, that was back when the mall itself was equally full of people as well. The feline walks up the steps and takes a seat at the back of the theater, sitting down and placing her drink in the cup holder. Eric sits in the seat beside her, dropping her bags and nudging them under their seats. The calico pauses to pull out her wallet, carefully slipping her movie ticket inside.

"You save your ticket stubs?" he smiles.

"Of course. Got a cigar box full of them. Started saving them years and years ago." she grins.

"Really? Probably some cool memories in that box. Makes me wish I saved mine." he nods.

"It's pretty neat to look through all of them and see some highly acclaimed movies that were relatively unknown at the time. Cult classics and stuff like that. Of course, you also see some movies that ended up sucking ass too." she smirks.

"Should go through them sometime. Probably some cool ones. Hope the ink didn't get all smeared either."

"These shitty ones you get nowadays do. Nothing but a receipt. I like the old ones that were printed on thick stock. All nice and glossy." she sighs, shifting in her seat.

"Good thing this place is still old school. I think I'll start hanging on to these." he states, pulling out his wallet and slipping it inside.

"Just hope this movie doesn't blow."

"Eh. Even if it does, this ticket is worth saving. It'll remind me of our first date." he teases, pecking her ear.

"Date?" she snorts, ear twitching against his lips.

"Well, yeah. Shopped around, bought you a few things, had lunch, and now we're at the movies." he points out.

"Huh. Alright, you got me. I'd say this date has been one of the better ones I've had." she smiles.

"Really? I'm happy you've had fun." he smiles back, leaning in to give her a kiss.

"Just walking around this place was fun. I like just fucking around like this." she replies around his lips.

"Now that you have your car back, we can do this all the time. Well, assuming it can make it far." he smirks.

"Bite me." she rolls her eyes.

"Careful now. I just may." Eric grins.

The calico turns to nip his neck, causing him to jump with a quiet yelp.

"Not if I do first." she purrs.

"Damn your sharp teeth." he whines, rubbing the light mark on his skin.

"Better to eat you wish." Sammy sneers.

Eric playfully pouts and keeps massaging his neck, leaning forward and peering down to look over the other couple sitting in the theater.

"And I thought we'd be alone." Eric chuckles, sipping his drink.

"Guess not."

Sammy slides a claw under the lid of the candy box, slicing it open and taking a palm's worth of the malted milk balls. He sits his drink aside and reaches over to take a handful of the overly buttered popcorn from the tub that rested between her thighs. She tosses the sweet morsels into her muzzle, crunching down on them as she gets comfy, leaning back in the thick cushioned chair that hugged her body. Enough of the house lights were on to illuminate the stairs and the exits in a comforting yellow haze. The two of them sat and watched the previews for the latest movies coming to theaters, sharing their remarks on each one. Horror movie remakes, lame action sequels, Oscar bait, chick flicks, and the like.

"God, is anything worth watching anymore?" he groans, pulling off his windbreaker and stuffing it into the empty chair beside him.

"Not much. At least nothing that this theater will get in. A lot of the good movies and dramas and whatever don't bring in enough people, so they don't bother playing it cause they'll just lose more money." she sighs, eating another mouthful of popcorn.

"Well that blows. And companies wonder why no one goes to the movies anymore with everyone having Netflix nowadays." he nods, gulping down his drink.

"Watching something at home is nothing like going to the movies though."

"Oh, sure. Watching previews, buying overpriced food and drinks, only to have someone talk through the whole movie." he rolls his eyes.

"Hey, you insisted on buying snacks and the only other people here are those guys and I doubt they'll be talking much." she replies, popping another candy in her mouth.

"True, true. Wonder if they can even hear us?" he says quietly, looking down at the older couple.

"Pretty sure they'll just be able to hear the movie." Sammy chuckles, watching the elderly fox fiddle with his hearing aid.

"Still like watching movies alone, though." he comments.

"I do too with some movies. It's nice coming to a theater though. It's an experience. Being part of the crowd, feeling their reactions to the movie. All the laughs, screams, and gasps. It's nice." she smiles warmly.

Eric turns to look at her and sees a rare expression on her face. The calico was reclined in her seat, eyes half lidded as they watched the previews, those furry ears slightly drooped to the side, the corners of her lips constantly curled in a permanent half smile, while she quietly munched on her snacks. She looked so relaxed, content, and more importantly, happy.

"You really do like the movies, huh?" he smiles, leaning towards her to slide his arm across her shoulders.

"What makes you say that?" she smirks, offering him some of her candy.

"For starters, how adorably excited you looked when I first suggested coming here." he teases, cupping his hand under the tilted box of candy to take some.

"Was not." she blushes lightly.

"Was too! Never seen your tail move like that." he grins as he eats the malted milk balls.

"Shut up." she whines, blushing harder.

"You're too fun. Still haven't answered my question though." he continues, laying his head against her own.

"Fine. I've always loved coming to the movies. It's the perfect place to relax. They keep it at a precise temperature to keep everyone comfortable. These thick, soft cushions that are sculpted to your body. So dark and it can be very quiet too. It's like your isolated too with these insanely thick and noise proof walls. We all paid to be here so usually no one is talking or fucking around on their phone. We're all here for the same reason. To escape. Relax. Forget about all of worries and troubles for an hour and a half. It's weird. I kinda feel safe in here. There's no pressures or anything. You can just let your mind go. I don't know." she muses softly, that smile still on her face.

"Wow. I like hearing you talk about stuff you love so much. It's cute how passionate you get with the littlest things." he smiles back, pulling her closer against him.

"Me and my parents came here countless times. I saw so many good movies here. It's like a part of me, I guess. I love movies and the experience in the theater is something I'll always love too. Just being here makes me feel good. Doesn't matter how shitty my mood is. I'd love to buy a ticket just to sleep in here." she chuckles, nuzzling her cheek against his.

"Well, if you want to take a nap, just let me know." he smirks, kissing her nose.

The house lights finally start to dim, cloaking the theater in darkness as the previews come to an end.

"Finally." Sammy smiles, wiggling back down in her seat.

Eric laughs and sits back as the opening credits fade into the screen.

---

Sammy was hunkered back in her seat, methodically taking handfuls of popcorn as the two watched the movie. The film itself was some generic CGI laden blockbuster that didn't really appeal to either of them. Had the theater had the version in 3D, it may have been a bit better. It was more style over substance, which wouldn't normally be a bad thing, but the story and acting itself was too dull to handle. The feline still couldn't complain. He was paying for it and just being able to go the movies was a treat in itself.

Eric watched and sipped on his drink, an arm around the calico's head, his own resting on hers that was laying on his shoulder. Setting his beverage back into the cup holder, the human lays his now free hand on her thigh. She cuddled up closer, dropping the empty tub of popcorn down at her feet.

"Having fun?" he quietly asks, petting her leg.

"Mmhmm. Even with the mediocre movie, I'm enjoying our time." she nods, dropping her hand on his, brushing over the top with her thumb.

He smiles and turns to give her a kiss, smirking at the taste of buttery residue still on her lips.

"Mmm, taste better than usual." he teases, breaking the brief kiss.

"Sorry." she chuckles, wiping her lips afterwards with the sleeve of her hoodie.

His fingers knead and massage her thigh, moving inward to tease her more intimate areas.

"Since when are you all hands?" she purrs, parting her legs slightly.

"Ever since you teased me in the food court." he grins, nipping at her neck.

"Oooh, still excited?" she rumbles at his bite.

"Very. Hope you don't mind a bit of a distraction from the movie." he grins, his fingertips dipping under her waistband to sweep over her fur.

"I think this movie is worth missing."

With her permission, he turned in his seat, supporting the back of her head and keeping it held against his shoulder as the other hand began to dive under her panties, immediately feeling the burning heat of her sex. Using only the tip of his middle finger, he gently dipped it between her lips, working figure eights against her damp flesh, while his thumb tweaked her nub. She let out a quiet huff in approval, closing her eyes and turning her head to kiss at the nape of his neck. His thumb pushed down and swirled around her clitoris, his middle finger continuously prodding and teasing her cunt. Sammy takes a deep breath and exhales through her nose, toes curling in her sandals at the teasing.

"How's that?" he whispers in her furry ear, licking over the tip.

"Keep going." she pants, shifting herself forward against his finger in need.

Feeling her natural lubricant starting to coat his digit, he carefully eases it into her needy tunnel, wiggling his finger and curling it to rub against her roof. That finger batted from side to side, suddenly giving it a sharp twist.

"Fuck." she gasps, biting her lip.

Eric's finger starts to pull back from her, wiggling himself free of her, before thrusting that digit back inside, the heel of his hand hitting her clit with a muffled slap, where he began to grind against it, causing her to bury her muzzle into the crook of his neck to quiet her moan. Adding another finger, he steadily pumped them into her wet passage, wiggling them deep inside of her, twiddling the tips of his fingers against a particularly sensitive cluster of nerves.

"Nnngggh...." she grunts, her hips rocking against his pleasing fingers.

"Guess I'm getting better at this, hmm?" he breathes in her ear, now nibbling on the end.

"Don't get too cocky."

He quickens his movements, fluttering his fingertips inside of her, attacking the most sensitive areas of her core. It wasn't long before he could feel driblets of her heat trickling from her sex, helping him as he went even faster, pulling out only to give her rock hard clit a few squeezes from time to time. The heels of her sandals scraped against the floor, kicking lightly with a whine at the aggressive approach. The human soon slid his fingers free, unable to help himself as he gave them a cleaning lick for good measure.

"Hmmph." she growls, giving him a sour look after he pulled back, her tail thumping against the seat in need.

"Don't worry, I'll make you finish. I'm not a meanie tease like you." he nudges her with a smirk, before sliding down out of his seat and kneeling down in front of her.

"Ugh. Don't get too dirty down there." she grimaces, looking at the sticky, dried puddles of spilled drinks and old, stale pieces of stray popcorn.

"Not the floor I'm worried about." he playfully jeers, earning a smack from her thick tail.

He drops his hands on her knees, gripping them with his finger, while he does a double take over his shoulders to make sure they were indeed out of sight, before finally lowering his head between her legs. The heavenly aroma of her powerful, pheromone laced musk hit his nose with a nearly tangible thickness, growing stronger until his lips finally pressed against those of her loins, kissing the tangy beads of dew coating them. Much like before, he peppered her labia with a flurry of kisses, even sucking on each lip after he took his time slowly licking over every inch of her alluring cunt.

"Mmmm." she moans quietly, sinking back in her seat, burying her muzzle into the crook of her elbow to stifle her cries.

Eric's tongue prods her tunnel, flicking it up through the folds, parting them as he forces himself inside, curling his tongue and unfurling it after he enters, immediately letting a groan of his own at her taste. While he pumped his tongue in and out of her slickened cunt, he used the bridge and tip of his nose to tease her clit, petting and stroking her calves while he worshiped her marvelous womanhood. Her muscles tightened with each lick, biting at the sleeve of her hoodie, hissing through her teeth in pleasure with another moan the rose in pitch as he pulled away to attack her clit next.

The human suckled on his love's stiff nub, swirling his tongue around it, feeling it pulsate on the surface of his tongue. He quickly grew to love playing with it. Such a chubby, fat nub of nerves that always made her squeal. Of course, he had to keep in mind the lessons she had taught him from before. Keeping her clit firmly sealed around his lips, he returned his fingers to that heated tunnel, aggressively finger fucking the feline, judging how fast he could go by those muffled cries and moans.

"I'm close. Faster. Faster, please." she attempts to speak, but only gets out a mumbled slur between squeals and groans.

Eric didn't need to hear the exact words to know what she wanted. As an explosion occurred onscreen, the brief flash of light was enough for him to look up and see her with her face buried in her arm, her eyes rolling back in her skull, her forehead wrinkling as her body shook under the threat of an orgasm. His lips tightened around her clit, rapidly batting it with the tip of his tongue, timing it with thrusts of his fingers, hammering her drooling honey pot. Her legs jolted forward, kicking the seat in front of them as her body was overwhelmed with the tingling, head spinning wave of bliss as her climax shook her to the core. The human jumps from her spasm and hurriedly moves down to suck and lick at her cunt as she orgasms, sending a burst of her honey straight into his mouth, squirting over his taste buds and filling his maw with a puddle of feminine heat.

"Mmmm, Sammy." he rumbles from between her legs, swallowing her flavorful squirt.

The calico dropped her arm from her face, melting into her seat, panting and trying to catch her breath.

"God, yes. You're getting better." she pants, eyes still rolled back, a streak of saliva having dribbled down the corner of her mouth.

"Really? I'm glad you think so." he smiles, pulling the feline's pants back up for her.

"So good. Fuck." Sammy chuckles, body still tingling.

Eric sits back down beside her, wiping his chin and cheeks clean.

"Better than the movie?" he smirks.

"So much." she snorts, leaning over to give him a kiss, able to taste herself on his lips and tongue.

He murmurs quietly and deepens the kiss, stroking her cheek, until she pulls back away. Sammy lets out a yawn, cupping her mouth as she does so.

"Sleepy now?" he smiles, returning to their original position, laying her head back on his shoulder.

"Mhm. I'm gonna take a quick nap. No point bothering trying to finish this movie anyway." she nods, yawning again.

"You really able to sleep with all this noise?" he asks, glancing up to see a skyscraper collapsing as the reluctant hero of the movie repels down the crumbling side of the building with a makeshift rope, causing the theatre to physically shake from the thunderous bass and noise.

"Yeah. At a certain point, this kind of noise helps you sleep. Comes from falling asleep to horror movies and thrash metal at a young age." Sammy laughs, pulling her legs up on the seat, turning on her side to fully lay against him.

"I wouldn't know. I'll wake you up when the credits roll then." Eric nods, pulling her closer, massaging her furry ear between his finger and thumb, looking up to try and put together everything he'd miss so far in the movie.

The cat whines quietly at him playing with his ear, something that always made her feel vulnerable with how easily it would turn her into a subby, purring bundle of fur. She rarely let anyone touch them, but felt safe and comfortable enough with him to allow him near them, usually keeping them hidden under her wool cap she rarely left without. As much as she still disliked giving in, she was soon purring against him, tail curled up around her waist to keep her warm, eyes closed and head tilted upwards into his hand.

As the movie went on, the feline had indeed fallen asleep, quite quickly as well. Regardless of how many gunfights, car crashes, or explosions onscreen, she never once stirred, even when Eric had jumped during some of the scenes from the unexpected blasts of noise.

"Huh. Impressive." he laughs, glancing down to see the girl still in a deep slumber.

Shaking his head, he continued rubbing her ears, even though she was no longer purring after falling asleep. She was the lucky one, he thought, the longer he watched the movie. Packed with action, but somehow still boring. There was maybe half an hour left, but to him, it felt like an eternity. The hero was captured and held prisoner by some Russian accented villain with a scarred eye. After the bad guy revealed his entire evil scheme, he was quickly dispatched with a headshot by the hero's partner that had miraculously survived being trapped in a burning building a few scenes earlier. Of course, the headshot was without a single drop of blood. Damn PG-13 movies.

"Thank the lord." he sighed after the screen faded to black and the credits began to scroll.

He gave the slumbering feline a gentle shake.

"Saaaaammmmyyyyyy. Movie's over." he cooed in a singsong.

"Hmm?" she grumbled, sitting back up in her seat with a yawn, stretching out her cramped back.

"Nice nap?"

"Mmhmm. How was the movie?" she asks, punctuated with a pop of her stiff vertebra.

"Did you have a dream?"

"Uh, no?" Sammy answers with an odd look.

"Oh. Well if you did, it would have been better than watching this. That being said, just sleeping was probably better anyway." he jokes, gathering their trash.

"That bad, huh? I still had fun though. We should do this more often." she smiles, grabbing her empty candy box and cup.

"I know you did. I agree, though. I'd love to come back, but for a good movie next time." he replies as the house lights come back on.

"Even if it is a good one, we'll make it fun." she grins, getting up beside him.

Eric chuckles and grabs her shopping bags from under the seat, along with his windbreaker. The pair make their way through the aisle and descend the short staircase, passing by the elderly couple that still sat in their seats. The old fox duo watches the human and feline pass by and make their way out of the theater.

"Isn't that sweet? Reminds me when we went to the movies on our first date all those years ago." the old woman reminisces, turning to see her husband with a lecherous grin spread across his grayed muzzle.

The lady squints at his questionable expression after turning to face him.

"And just what are you smiling about?"

"My hearing aid was picking up more than just the movie!"

---

"Did you have fun?" he asked as he pulled his windbreaker back on.

"I really did. Wasn't as depressing as I thought it would be." Sammy nods, handing him one of the bags after he gets his jacket on.

"Depressing?"

"In a way, yes. To see a childhood monument like this can be a bit heartbreaking." she frowns.

"Well, maybe a store will move in and will be a huge hit, bringing in tons of people. No need to give up hope. Even so, we can keep coming back and make a day out of it. Browse the stores and share some nostalgic memories of these kind of places." he suggests, holding her hand.

"Kinda sounds like visiting a grave." she sighs, squeezing his hand.

"Don't be so bleak. If people keep coming, it'll never be dead." he smiles, while the two of them walk down the first corridor towards the entrance.

"I'm surprised you'd even offer to come back after getting caught like that in the shoe store." she snickers.

"......shush. I'd come back if it makes you happy." he blushes.

"Thanks. Just hope we don't become like those mall walkers. That is assuming this place stays open that long." Sammy jokes.

"Even if it closes down, we can sneak in and explore. Just like that one guy on YouTube that travels around to document malls like this one." Eric shrugs.

"Oh yeah. I like those videos. Wonder if he'd ever come up this way." she laughs.

"Certainly fits the criteria of the places he visits." he adds.

The couple pauses their conversation as they approach the glass doors leading to the parking lot.

"Thought this would be done by the time the movie ended." Eric whines, staring at the rain that continued to fall.

"At least it lightened up a good bit. Not the downpour it was earlier." the calico points out.

"Says the person with a hood." he grumbles, zipping up his windbreaker.

"To be fair, I'm usually wearing this." she chuckles, pulling her hood up over her head, zipping up her hoodie as well.

"The one time it actually rains." he snorts, opening the first set of doors and leading her through.

"Oh yeah. Since you're being the perfect gentleman, how about driving me home too?" she smiles, pulling her car keys out of her pocket.

"You really want me to drive that death trap?" he frowns.

"It's not the first time you have." she shrugs, tossing him the keys.

"Fine." he pouts, catching the keys.

She pushes open the last set of doors, waving him out into the rainy outside. Keys in hand, he rushes outside, running towards the car, doing his best to dodge the puddles that filled the potholes. Sammy rolls her eyes and chuckles, walking out into the rain, crossing the parking lot with a brisk walk.

"And I thought cats were the ones scared of water!" she taunts as she nears the car.

"Come on, come on!" he barks, struggling to unlock the driver's side door.

"Wiggle it! I told you that last time!"

Taking her advice, he jiggles the key, while turning it, which actually works. He tugs the key back out and throws open the door, diving across the bench seat to unlock her side next.

"Thanks." she smirks, sliding into the car, slamming the door shut as the human does the same.

"Let's hope I don't have to push this thing home." Eric frowns, shaking his head and wiping his hair to flick off whatever rain stuck to it.

"Oh, quit bitching and start it up." Sammy growls, setting the bags down at her feet.

Eric jams the key in the ignition and cranks it. After a short period of the starter whining, the car rumbles to life with the a quick squeal of the belt. His ears perk to a distinct grinding, while her car idles.

"What's that grinding?"

"Hmm? Huh. That's a new one. My guess is the alternator. Nothing to worry about just yet." Sammy answers.

He turns to give her a sour look as he shifts the car into drive, pulling out of the parking spot.

"At least it's not a manual." she adds, turning to lock her door.

"Surprising for a car this age." he nods.

Sammy guides him to the exit of the parking lot, before giving him instructions so he could find the highway, since he wasn't familiar with the area.

"Stay straight and you'll see the entrance ramp on your right in five minutes or so." she tells the human, opening up the glove box to pull out an old pack of cigarettes.

"Gotcha. Ugh, don't tell me you're going to smoke in here?" he grimaces once he sees her reach for the pack.

"My car, my rules." she shrugs it off, pulling out one of the few cigarettes remaining, tossing the nearly empty pack back into the glove box, while she reaches for her lighter.

"It's raining, in case you didn't notice." Eric reminds her.

"Unlike you, I'm not afraid of melting." she rolls her eyes.

The calico carefully eases the passenger's window down just enough for the smoke to leave, without much risk of the rain entering or the window itself shifting out of place again. She then flicks the top of her wick lighter open with a ping, striking the flint wheel and leaning downwards a bit to light the end of her cigarette. With a quick puff of smoke, she pockets the lighter and leans sideways against the door, taking a long drag off of her smoke.

"Ugh. I wish you didn't smoke." he comments in concern, cracking his window open as well.

"Same here, but it's not easy to quit. Also, I like how it feels." she shrugs, sliding the tip of the cigarette out of the window to flick off the ash.

"Since you're making me breath this and I'm the one driving, then I'm putting on some music." he states, pulling out his phone.

He reaches over into the glove box, pulling out the lunch box and flipping the top open.

"I know you didn't take out that adapter I had in here." he says, giving her a look.

"No. I didn't remove that blasphemous piece of hardware." she answers after another drag of her smoke.

"Sometimes you need to get with the times." Eric smirks, pulling out a fake cassette tape with a headphone cable wrapped around it.

"Blasphemy!" she repeats.

Keeping his eyes on the road, he unravels the cord, ejecting the tape she had in the deck and tossing it back in the box, which she then puts back in the glove compartment. Eric pushes the nonfunctioning cassette into the deck and plugs the cord into his phone, opening up his music player to select a song. After settling on a selection, he taps his screen and locks his phone, setting it down beside him as the music began. Sammy's ears had a skeptical reaction to the sounds of partially distorted smooth jazz and deep bass notes spilled from the car speakers.

"Vaporwave?" she knowingly asked.

"Mhm. About time I get to play something in here for a change." he nods.

Sammy kept her comments to herself and didn't judge the mundane tunes just yet. Instead, she leaned back in her seat, resting her feet up on the dashboard, while she took another relaxing drag of her unfiltered cigarette. Her eyes stared at the blur of the asphalt as they drove, the wipers quietly squeaking as they rhythmically slid back and forth to clear off the rain that pelted the glass and roof. A chorus of voices started to vocalize over the beat, though she couldn't make out the words, since they were muffled and mixed out quite a bit. When they did become clear during what she could only assume was the chorus, the lyrics were punctuated with a quick flurry of notes by a saxophone that eventually became a brief solo of sorts. Eventually, the voices became louder, singing long, drawn out notes over the drum beats and hi-hat loops. Just as she was starting to get into it, the song faded and the next track began. It was a more clear and upbeat tempo, a wonderful constant drum kick, with a catchy and repetitive trumpet section. She wouldn't have believed that the song was even from this millennia. The artist perfectly captured the feel and sound of a song from the early 80's that never once felt cliché or overdone. Needless to say, Sammy was honestly impressed.

"Don't think I don't see you getting into this." Eric teases, seeing her foot rocking to the beat.

"Only because you can't keep your eyes off of my feet." Sammy fires back, crossing them and stopping her movements.

"True, but don't dodge what I said. You're liking it, aren't you?" he asks as they reach the entrance ramp, where Eric rapidly turns the steering wheel to drive around and enter the highway.

"I give it a soft pass." she shrugs, too proud to admit she was enjoying the music.

"Then you won't mind if I don't tell you who it is." he grins, carefully merging into the flow of traffic.

"Course not." she bluffs, knowing she could hopefully sneak a peek at his phone.

"Suit yourself." he answers, sliding his phone under his rear as if he already knew her intentions.

Sammy quietly whines and takes a final drag of her cigarette, flicking it out the window.

"You need a can or something in here so you don't keep littering." he scolds her.

"And I keep telling you that there's not filter. Just thin paper and dried leaves. Perfectly biodegradable." Sammy replies, scooting closer towards him.

She moves her arm behind his back, giving him a squeeze, the other hand petting his thigh and giving it a squeeze.

"If anything, this car is doing more harm than that cigarette butt." she chuckles.

"Probably hurts your wallet more than the smokes too."

"Yeah. My dad usually helps me out with filling it up though, since he drives it around sometimes too." the cat replies.

She slips her hand under his jacket, dragging her claws down against his back, the other hand slipping off of his thigh to discreetly reach for his phone. Eric lets out a quiet groan, leaning back into her hand and those claws that felt so good scratching him. Chuckling, she scratches harder, slowly pulling his phone out just enough to turn the screen back on and get a quick glance at the artist that was playing.

"I don't think so." he sneers, shifting his weight to the side so the screen would remain covered, catching on to her game.

"Dick!" she groans, pulling her hand out from behind him, moving back down to her side of the car with her arms crossed.

"What? I thought you didn't like this!" he teases, enjoying being able to toy with her for a change.

"I don't!"

"Do too!"

"No! I was just taking your phone cause I wanted to turn it off." she lies.

"Fine. But we both know why you really want it." he continues with a grin.

"Yeah, to play some real music!"

"Nope. I'm driving, so I get radio control. We both abide by that rule." he firmly states, looking into the rearview mirror as he switches lanes.

Sammy pauses, trying to think of a reply, but comes up with nothing.

"But here's my phone, since you want it so bad." he chuckles, pulling it out from under him, sliding it down the bench seat.

She doesn't take the bait at first and instead watches him closely, unsure of if this was a trick or not. Well, of course it was. Why else would he be offering his phone? Even knowing it was a set up, she let her curiosity get the better of her.

"This means nothing." she growls, snatching his phone and unlocking it to see the artist's name.

Swiping his phone open, her eyes grow wide with annoyance.

"The fuck is this!? I can't even read this shit!" she yells, trying to make heads or tails with the artist's name that in Japanese characters.

Eric only laughs in response.

"I don't really know it either." he admits.

"Then how did you find it?"

"Stumbled across it and bought the album. The tracks are in English though."

"Dumb." she frowns, passing him back his phone.

"If it makes you feel any better, I'll burn you a copy. Not that you want to listen to it or anything, but just so you can destroy it." he says in a teasing tone, patting her back.

"Good." she quickly replies.

"You're silly." he smiles.

"Shut up and so I can continue not listening to this."

---

Sammy laid on the seat, body resting against the locked door as they pulled off the highway, listening to the music that fit well with the rain that drummed over the metal roof. The human hummed along to his favorite choice of music, driving carefully in the rainy conditions, starting to familiarize himself with the area. As much as he feared crashing her car, he found it difficult to keep his eyes on the road. They would always peer over at the attractive pair of furry paws trapped inside those alluring gladiator sandals. He didn't know if she did it just to tease him, but every so often, those thick digits would curl and wave, as if beckoning him towards them. God, they were marvelous. An alternating pattern of solid black or orange covered each furry toe that were certainly eye catching. Those ebony claws were as well. He made a mental note to ask her if he could possibly paint them at some point.

A sudden pothole caused the both of them to bounce upwards, startling the both of them.

"Yeah, that's good for the car." Sammy comments with a smirk.

"Sorry." he apologizes.

"Driving distracted is dangerous." she purrs, keeping her gaze straight ahead, her toes flexing once again.

"She IS doing this on purpose!" he yelled in his head.

The feline's cool blue eyes were constantly turned in his direction, inconspicuously watching his perpetual ogling of her paws that were practically placed upon a pedestal for him to gaze at. As he took a turn onto another road, they both shifted in their seat with her legs further sliding down the dashboard, now directly in his line of sight.

Eric gulps. At least he didn't need to turn his head to stare at them now. Why was he being so modest all of a sudden, anyway? Maybe it was the teasing itself that turned him on so much. All those times he had to sneak a sniff or two at her socks when she wasn't around. How much of a rush it was at the risk of being caught. Just like what happened at the shoe store. It didn't even occur to him of how hard and turned on he had gotten when he was first caught by Sammy smelling her socks all that time ago, but the thought of their friendship ending and being the laughing stock of the school was certainly the only thing he felt at that moment.

"Wonder how this oil is." she says to herself, loud enough for him to hear, snapping him from his thoughts.

The cat bends down and picks up the bag from the beauty store, pulling out one of the bottles of lotion. Keeping one leg up on the dashboard, she brings the other back to the seat. She uncaps the bottle and pours a bit of the scented oil into her palm, before wiping it over the top of her paw. The cigarette smells that lingered in the car was soon replaced with the delightful scent of lemongrass and orange.

"Hmm, certainly goes in well." she comments, slowly working the oil into her fur, brushing her fingers up and down over her foot, even pressing them between her toes to make sure they were coated in it as well.

As she massaged in the oil, her foot inched forward, until it pressed against his leg. His hand gripped the steering wheel tighter at the feeling of her sandal clad paw touching him.

"What do you think?" she asks with an innocent smile, lifting her leg up so her foot was nearly touching his cheek.

Eric gives the road a final look and slows down, turning his head to give his direct attention to her paw. He feels his pants shrink a size once he takes a close look at that feline paw. The colorful blotches of orange and black shined against the white fur from the oil, her claws sparkling now as well. The scent rose and tickled his nostrils that happily accepted the fruity notes. He didn't think it was possibly for them to look any softer, but he had now been proven wrong. The human could only imagine how they would look after a week's worth of oiling and massages.

"Amazing." he eventually replied, jumping once he realized they were still driving, craning his neck away to stare back out the windshield.

"You think so?" she smiles, playfully nicking his cheek with her toeclaws.

"Very much so. You know you have the prettiest feet in the world." he groans at the teasing scratch.

"Well, now I wonder which one you like more." she grins, swinging her other leg over, holding both of her paws side by side.

Eric spies a stop sign and punches the gas, accelerating towards it and slamming on the brakes, looking for any reason to stop the car. Sammy barely holds back a laugh and holds on to the dash so she doesn't slide off the seat. He turns in his seat and holds the bottoms of her paws, keeping them supported as he begins to rapidly kiss over the tops of each toe.

"Goodness me." she chuckles, watching him furiously peck over her toes, which she curled upwards.

After each one received a kiss, he started back at the furthest toe on her right foot. This time, he savored each kiss, appreciating how they felt against his lips. Seeing as it was the oiled one, the fur had a slippery coating that immediately gave him some ideas. The oil left the fur plush and soft with a lovely scent and sheen. He progressed down each toe, kissing the tops and undersides of them, until he moved to her next foot. Without the oil, the fur was still pleasant and enjoyable. Personally, he loved them with her natural scent. The idea that he loved the foot that was slightly sweaty and with a light musk instead of the fragranced one, made him blush. Being such a paw slut that he loved them "dirty" instead of "clean". Of course, he didn't like them literally dirty. A natural musk and dampness was heavenly to the perverted human, though. He wouldn't complain if they were fresh from a shower either, but always preferred them fresh out of her socks and shoes.

"Hard to chose, but the left one." he finally admits after one last kiss.

"No oil then?"

"I like the oil, don't get me wrong. I think I'd just like them more natural if I'm going to be smelling and worshipping them." he adds, wiping his lips that now had a thin coating from the oil.

"Oh? Help yourself then." she offers with a grin, unzipping the back of the sandal on her left foot, dangling it from her toes.

Eric blushes further and checks to make sure no one was behind them. With the coast clear, he pulls off that sandal and gives it a curious look. The soft leather was already a tad intended with an impression of her foot from the walk around the mall. It wouldn't be permanent, however. At least not until they received daily use for a month or so. He pressed it flat against his nose, sniffing aloud at their scent, letting out a soft groan at her paw musk that clung to the sandal, mixing with the scent of the new shoe. Pulling back, he stuck out his tongue and ran it over the insole, licking from her heel impression and up towards the toes.

"Fuck. Didn't think I needed to specify I was referring to my feet." she purrs at him, watching the odd spectacle, not expecting him to worship her sandal.

"Couldn't help myself." he huffs, setting the sandal aside, looking forward to when they'd have more "character" for him to enjoy.

The human takes her now bare paw by the ankle, immediately pressing his nose between her toes, closing his eyes as he relishes in the sweaty scent, huffing at the smell trapped in the fur between her toes, where it was notably stronger. Sammy grabbed at his nose with her flexible digits, keeping it held in place, forcing him to endure more of her paw perfume, which he willing accepted.

"Sniff. I want to hear it, slut."

Unable to nod with her tight grip, he replied by letting out a breath and taking a long, deep inhale, loudly filling his lungs with her godly stink. Fuck. How he loved it so. The paw stink he had gotten used to had an added layer of a leathery scent from the sandal that made it even more intoxicating. Her other foot started to once again grind against his groin, feeling his stiffness even through her sandal.

"I see you're right where I left you in the food court." Sammy jibes.

"Fuck, that was cruel. Leaving me like that." he moans, feeling another spurt of his pre soil his underwear.

"That's right. My human needs to cum sooooo badly, doesn't he?" she coos, letting go of his nose, unfurling her toes in front of his lips.

"Yes!" he begs, groaning at the sight of her toes dancing, teasing him to play with them.

"Good. Pull up and park on the curb. I don't need anyone pulling up behind us." she instructs, pointing forward.

They were in front a series of apartment buildings with the tenants parking in front. Whining that they needed to pause AGAIN, he hurriedly stepped on the gas and parked behind an SUV. Throwing the car in park and killing the engine, he could now finally focus solely on those tantalizing paws that had been teasing him all day long. Still in the same position, he held her ankle and tilted her paw downwards, guiding her first two toes into his mouth, where he hungrily sucked them. Each toe laid against the sides of his tongue, while it flicked upwards, lapping at the musky gap between, his lips tightly sealed around the joints of her digits. He moaned and bobbed his head, turning his gaze upwards to stare directly into his lover's eyes as he passionately sucked and worshipped her toes.

He forced her toes against the roof of his mouth with his tongue as it began to thrust it forward and back, dragging every taste bud against her leathery toepads, savoring all the flavor they had to offer as he polished them. Sammy giggled to herself at the ticklish feeling of his tongue moving in such a way, the other foot firmly pressing down against his shaft under his clothing.

Her toes wiggled in his mouth, drumming on his tongue that continued to slide over their undersides, tickling them, which only caused them to spasm and wiggle more.

"Mmmm, I'm starting to really get into this toe sucking thing too. Fuck, that feels nice." she growls.

He moans in return, the both of them staring into each other's eyes, holding their heated glares as the human relentlessly felatted her feline digits. Sammy helped him by starting to pump her toes into his mouth, watching him part his lips a bit so that she could watch his wet tongue flicking and coiling around them, coating them heavily in saliva, before he clamped his lips back down. The human's hand dropped back onto her sandaled foot, pushing it harder against him as he thrust his hips upwards against her. Finally, he popped her toes free, licking over each one with rough, forceful flicks of his tongue, giving them another lick between. Eric then switches to her last toes, holding them apart, while he stares at her with a lustful glare, sticking out his tongue that began to lick over her toe, easily wide enough to cover the entire toe.

"Good boy. I want you to slobber all over this foot like you've been wanting to do all day. Lick it good." she encourages in a low tone, holding her toes apart for him.

Eric pushes her two toes into his open mouth, shoving them down at the very back of his tongue, before slowly pulling them downwards, aggressively forcing them over the full length of his tongue as he licked upwards, thoroughly combing her fur and cleaning those sensitive pads. Unable to hold back, Sammy lets out a heavy sigh at the new tactic, groaning at how his tongue massaged her toes. The only times she ever saw him with an ounce of aggression was when he was worshipping her paws. Fully giving into them and her orders. Showing the raw passion and emotion he had for them and herself. Even when he was love making, he was sweet and loving, but turned into a horny beast when it came to her feet.

Once her toes fell from his mouth, he slithered it between them, weaving in and out of each one, pulling his tongue back, only to sloppily lick over them. That fat muscle made its way into the gaps of her toes, licking over the smelly fur, pulling back to sweep back across her toes, leaving them soaked with his spit, a thin trail of it branching from the tip of the claw on her big toe to the tip of his tongue.

"Get that cock out." she growls, getting high of his own arousal at this point.

"Yes, ma'am." he pants, finally speaking.

He fights with his belt and yanks it open, undoing his pants and pulling out his cock in all its swollen glory.

"Oh, yes. My poor boy needs to cum badly." she moans.

His cock was painfully swollen. His veins bulged, visibly throbbing at the blood surging through it. Pre bubbled from his tip, leaking over his foreskin, the pearly white fluid trickling down his shaft that was stained and coated in the mess. She almost felt bad for leaving him hard and blue balled in the food court once she saw him, but was happy she would be able to see the mess that would have been otherwise wasted in his underwear. Sammy reached back for the bottle of oil, looking up at him to slowly lick her lips in a arousing, teasing way as she began to drizzle the oil over the side of her paw and sandal. Eric stared at her, his mouth agape in excitement and lust once she realized what she was doing.

That oil soaked into her already soft fur, drowning it and the insole of her sandal. After dumping out a suitable amount of oil and then some, she recapped it and set it down. The cat turned on her side a bit, lifting her foot sideways above his cock, lining his tip up with the small opening between her arch and sandal. Giving him another look, she could see his body stiff with anticipation, eyes frozen on her paw as it began to lower. He shivered as the tip of his member made contact with her, now resting at the space between her paw and sandal, biting his lips with a grunt as she rubbed herself over his cock.

"You want this?"

Sammy presses down just enough to let his foreskin retract and his glans to enter that slickened gap.

"Yes! Please!"

She pushes down harder, going at a restrained pace to let him feel every second of his cock entering.

"Only if you promise to give me every drop of human cum in your fat, swollen balls."

She pushes down even harder, but his tip manages to stay held in place, bending her toes against the sandal to make the gap even tighter.

"Yes! Everything! Please, Sammy!"

With a sadistic grin, she shoves her foot downwards, his cock disappearing inside of the gap with a quiet, wet pop. Eric throws his head back against the seat with a loud moan, bucking his hips upwards, his cock spearing through the gap to emerge out of the top, his entire manhood nestled between her sole and sandal.

God, it felt incredible.

The smooth, slightly cold leather insole and her hot, damp, furry foot.

Both sandwiched around his stiff, swollen manhood that had been ready to burst hours ago.

It was already too much to handle.

"God, Sammy." he finally groans, looking down in awe of his tip peeking out from the snug tunnel, the rim of his glans tickled by her fur as it was pressed against the sandal.

She lifts her bare paw, toes still wet with his saliva, and presses her sole to his face.

"You're not done. Lick my paw. Lick it and fuck my foot."

Her heel rests on his shoulder, keeping his hands free so they could clutch her sandal and foot.

"Yes, Sammy." he obediently answers, cock bulging as he replied in such a submissive way.

He opens his mouth and furiously licks over her sole. Much like he did with her sandal, he firmly plants his tongue to her heel, before dragging it upwards to the toes, giving each one a suck and lick. While he slobbers over her sole, he holds the other foot and starts to lift it up, curling his toes as her foot and sandal slide back up over his cock, holding it in place, before shoving it back down, crying out between licks as her paw and sandal stroke his manhood. Eric didn't expect to be getting a shoejob, but the seed of that fantasy had been planted the second she picked out those gladiator sandals.

Eric's tongue makes its way to her dark pawpad, licking around the outside of it, his nose trying to sniff at her toe musk, but was unable to after the dutiful tongue bath he gave them moments ago. With forceful, drawn out strokes of his tongue, he licked that pad, causing it to shine with saliva, moaning with each lick at the warmth and taste it provided. His hips bucked with each thrust he made with her foot, while Sammy would twist her foot from time to time, keeping him on edge with each sideways jerk, causing him to sharply moan as the tight, oiled up gap spun around him.

Sammy sat in her seat, mostly motionless aside from the occasional twists of her paw and sandal. She lost herself in the moment, the stink of his pre and arousal filling the car, along with the naughty sloshes of his cock penetrating the sandal gap. Though she couldn't compete with the blissful arousal he was feeling, she truly enjoyed it when they had these encounters. Seeing him lose and devout himself to her paws.

To lick them with such staggering passion and lust.

To feel his cock throb as it fucked them.

To cover them with every ounce of his sticky appreciation.

Yeah. She was enjoying it.

His lips wetly smacked against her pad as he kissed and sucked it, even nibbling on it, which cause her foot to jolt. The two of them took turns controlling the other paw. Either he'd be holding it and setting the pace or she'd be stroking him with it, while he turned his attention to the foot in front of his face. The longer it went on, the closer he grew to an orgasm and the sorer her ankle got from remaining in such an awkward position. Eric soon kept her foot held down over his cock, now rapidly slamming himself into the gap, fucking it with all his might, giving the other foot a parting kiss now that he was too distracted.

"I'm gonna cum, Sammy. I'm gonna give you the mess you want." he huffed, eyes rolling back in his head, panting and groaning as he rutted with her paw.

"All of it? Hmm? Is my naughty human going to blow his load all over my paw? Can't he handle an oiled up shoejob?" she purrs, sighing in her head that it was almost over, since it felt like her foot was going to cramp up any second.

"Yes! Yes!" he gurgled, hammering that deliciously oiled up hole, never once faltering, even after the first shot of his orgasm rocketed out.

That first shot came as his cock was shoved through the top opening, exposing his cumming tip, splashing over the steering wheel.

"More!" she yells, tensing up her sole against his shaft.

As he thrust again, the next burst was caught inside the gap, shooting against her insole, splashing back with enough force to spray against her sole as well. By the time his cock reemerged, an unusually powerful wave shot from his quivering tip. That thick, sticky ribbon of seed managing to hit the roof with a muffled splat, instantly sticking to the nicotine stained and torn headliner, where it dangled above them.

"Cum!" she barked, wide eyed at the human's performance.

Body trembling as it convulsed with an orgasm hitting him with the force of a freight train, his next two cumshots came seamlessly together, literally pouring from him like a fountain. Sammy wiggled her toes in the nearly three second long cluster orgasm as Eric basically pissed cum over her.

"Fuck yeah!" she sneered, returning to pumping her foot over his cock, since he was completely frozen in ecstasy.

His orgasm sputtered out with a series of rapid, though weak, spurts, draining the last of his load that had been boiling in his balls for quite some time now. Sammy chuckled quietly as he finished, pulling out her phone to take a picture of the sticky white shower he had given her, making sure to capture the dangling strand of cum still stuck to the headliner.

"I've never had someone shoot that high before." she jokes, easing her foot back up off of his cock.

His member, still hard, but completely spent, flops limply back against his chest in surrender. Sammy leans in to peer at the damage he had done to herself. Her toes were completely drenched from his pissing cumshot, the thin, watery load fully soaked into her fur. The sandal stuck to her sole, needing to wiggle it off from the hot wad of semen sticking between them, pulling it off to see the side of her sandal was coated in the mess. His seed dripped from the metal studs on the straps, an unusually arousing sight. The brown leather insole was now a shade darker from having absorbed his load. She didn't know if it was permanent, but fully intended on wearing them stained or not.

"That.....hurt. Worth it. Kinda blacked out there for a second." Eric spoke, lurching forward, catching the strand of dangling cum on his cheek.

"Glad I didn't finish you off in the food court after all." Sammy smiles.

"Uh uh. Hmm? What the... Eww. Eww! EWWW!" he whines as he notices what was sticking to his cheek.

"Let me." Sammy purrs, moving in to remove his cum with one delicate lick to his cheek.

"Thanks." he chuckles, giving her a parting kiss as she pulls away.

"Big baby. You don't see me reacting like that when you cum." she teases.

"Mhm. Speaking of which, did I do good?" the human wearily sighs.

"Mmm, very. God, I love when you blow like that. Never saw you leak like that before." she murmurs, pulling her foot back, looking up at him as she gives her toes a tender lick to clean off his load.

"Y-yeah. Guess I was too excited." he gulps, watching her lick her own toes.

"I can tell." she whispers, keeping eye contact, smooching over the tops of her toes, smearing her lips with his seed.

"God.....that's really hot." he shivers, unable to pull his gaze away.

"What do you think? Want another one for the road?" she offers quietly, watching his stunned cock twitch in reply.

".....goddamn it."

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