FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Over the coming days, Missy set up a routine for practicing both their fake relationship and the way to act around guests. Not a rigorous routine, mind, she still had her moments of wandering off to eat a bowl of popcorn, but she was definitely trying. Her real costume, on the other hand, was a mystery to Leo. He bought the materials and let Missy take care of the rest.

A few more days trickled in before Leo got a call while wasting time on the couch with Missy. “Hello?” Leo said.

“Hey, Leo, it’s Ruth.”

“Oh, hey, Ruth. How are you?” Leo’s polite nature kicked in, but he reminded himself not to indulge in anything she had to say. Missy merely stared, wide-eyed.

“I’m fine. Um, hope you’re doing well too. But uh, yeah, I just wanted to call back. This was supposed to be over mail, but I guess I could tell you.”

“Well? What is it?”

“You were accepted. Which is cool, I think.”

“Really?” Leo’s brow twitched. He wasn’t sure whether or not to feel ecstatic for Missy or exhausted for himself. “Any particular reason?”

“I thought it looked nice, so I voted. Nice lights and chairs. That kinda… good interior design. You know?” There was the clatter of a keyboard. “Oh, I liked the hint at Missy’s costume too. Looked really cool.”

“Hint?” Leo asked.

“In… the microwave reflection?”

“Ah, yeah. Cool, glad you caught that.” For crying out loud. Missy gave a wide, toothy smile.

“Also, kinda funny, you getting picked.”

“Why’s that?”

“No one else volunteered.”

Leo rubbed his eyes. “No one?”

“I mean, I maybe was going to but you know I saw your house and that worked fine. Really cool place, by the way.”

“Thank you.” His eye rubbing deepened. “Thank you very much.”

“Sure, no problem. I think the other judges wanted to check out your place too. They were like, you know, ‘Oh, Leo is such a nice guy.’ I mean, I said that too.“

“Great, thanks. Do you have a list of things I need?” Leo asked.

“Yeah, just sent it. I made sure I put grape candy on there. You don’t have to, I just like the stuff.”

“I remember. Don’t worry. That everything?”

“You picked a costume yet?”

“No.”

“OK, just checking. I was thinking a black cat for myself. Not that cats are scary, but people avoid them, so they are kinda scary. Sorta. Plus it’s cheap. Seems cheap. I just need the cat ears and a black shirt.”

“Sounds good. Hope that turns out well for you. I’m gonna go check my mail now, alright? Have a good day.”

“You too.”

Leo instantly hung up, and just as he did, Missy smashed into him with a hug.

“Oh my God, I’m gonna host a party! This is gonna be so cool! It’s gonna be the best party these guys have ever had!” Missy yelled into his chest. Her hug tightened. Leo smiled at the outburst, even if it was a little too loud.

“Easy now. This means we really have to try now, alright? So maybe we should get our story a little more straight.”

Missy pulled her head off of his chest. “You think we should be married or something?”

“No. I don’t mean that, but it would be good to go over that story too.”

“Why can’t we be married?”

“Well it would be weird if we were married and nobody had heard about it, right?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“I mean stuff like no hydraulics, alright? I was just following along before, but anyone who has the faintest idea how cars work isn’t going to buy that,” Leo replied.

“Damn, what the hell are we gonna say, then? You know it’s gonna be hard to explain how something as beautiful as me is gonna be made with technojunk.”

“Well, we do have that infinite knowledge machine you made and a few weeks.”

“Don’t you think this is a little too important to leave on the backburner?” Missy asked.

“We’re not doing that, we’ll be researching, like I said. Fortunately nobody there should know half of the crap we’re going to be saying, but even if they do and we’re smart about it, we’ll get by alright. I don’t think anyone is going to cry wolf if we remain firm.”

“That would be cool though, huh?”

“It wouldn’t.”

“Alright, well, maybe we should get started on our story right now!” Missy pulled back off of him but remained nestled closely. “Let’s go back to the very beginning.”

“You want to drop the college love thing?” Leo asked.

“We can be childhood friends, like in real life.”

“So what, we knew each other when we were…” Leo dug through his head. The first he recalled ever seeing Missy was young, really young. Where was she? Across the street? In the window? As he sat on his bed he could see something–

“We were four. My mom introduced us. Mostly. I was scaring you before that.” She smiled. “Maybe we shouldn’t go that far back, since you never wanna remember anything way back when.”

“I do want to remember, it’s just piled under a bunch of other junk. I’ve had a lot happen to me since then, you know.”

“Nothing as good as what we had, though. I wonder if you got all-timers or something.”

“It’s Alzheimer’s, and no, I don’t have that.”

“Whatever, how about 11? You remember 11? 10?”

“I remember being 10, yeah. That was when you thought hiding under my bed stopped being funny, so you jumped out of the closet instead.”

“I had to stay on top of my monster habits.”

“Did that have to include crawling through the window?”

“Not like your parents really wanted to see me, did they?”

Leo paused and glanced away. They certainly didn’t want him to see her now. “Do you remember why?”

“Probably because I’m too cool for school? I’m the best thing to ever happen to you? I made you not boring?” She smiled smugly. “Take your pick.”

“Maybe because you’re some sort of weird creature from the woods.”

“That makes me too cool for school!”

“Whatever. We can just say we were separated tragically as children.”

“Hey, that’s true!”

“I wouldn’t say tragically, but sure. Then we met up and now we’re here.”

“Is that it?”

“No, but that’s the general idea. Now we just have to fill every point.”

“Man, you do not stop being Leo for just even a second.”

“If I didn’t, we’d probably have a movie epic where you’re the daughter of lost royalty and how you need to take my hand in marriage to ward of those who would dare bring shame to your family name.” That sounded about right.

Missy tilted her head. “Hey, are you a mind reader too? But that’s the fun part, I don’t want it to just be ‘Oh, I found you later and we met up,’ ‘cause that’s boring!”

“What’s wrong with that? It’s simple and to the point, and actually what happened. Could just punch it up. After I left, you decided to look me up one day. However you did that.” Leo raised an eyebrow.

“Hey, it’s not too hard. I’ve got my ways.”

“But it’s something simple, and people have hooked up in weirder ways.”

“Yeah but it’s not how I want it to go. It lacks all that fun stuff, it lacks a good dose of me.” She placed a hand on her chest.

“That’s literally what happened, though.”

“I get it, but that’s not how would have wanted it to go, OK?” Missy said. Her mouth curved ever so slightly down. Leo nodded. Made sense. “We can put a lot cooler stuff in there and make it more uh, believable. No one’s gonna think we just did it and now we’re the best couple ever after a few months.”

“I’d rather nobody think that, but it comes with the territory, I suppose.” He shrugged. “Alright, what kind of interesting stuff did you have in mind? Keep it based in reality, OK? I know you’ve eaten enough television for a lifetime, but take it easy.”

“What about, umm…” Missy scratched her head. “Oh, I know. How about after highschool, ‘cause, you know, we were high school sweethearts–” she giggled “–we found each other online on the Internet. But we split since we didn’t wanna do the same things. Like, in college, since they’ve got a lotta programs for degrees n’ stuff. There wasn’t one near us that could do both what we wanted, so we had to split.”

“You didn’t want to stay together for true love? No matter what?” Leo asked, raising his eyebrows.

Missy’s expression hardened for a moment, then smiled. “Don’t joke like that! That makes it sound so much worse! We promised to stick together after, but it didn’t really work out. Not like, we stopped wanting to see each other but you know schedules and Internet made it tough.”

“I can kinda buy that. Seems a little too tragic. Still works. So, what, you wanted to get a degree in fine arts to get into special effects?”

“Uhh, sure!”

Leo pursed his lips. “You’re probably going to have to read up on that.”

“Together. We’ll read it together. You can explain all the hard parts to me.”

“Right, but you’re still going to have to understand it. People are going to ask questions, you know that, right?”

Missy huffed. “Sure I do. I’ll have them eating out of my palm.” There was a long pause, then she nodded. “Yeah, they won’t know what hit ‘em. Anyways, let’s get back to it.” She snuggled back up next to him and turned on the television.

“You’re going to brainstorm with that on?”

“It’ll give me ideas!”

“Yeah, what was I thinking?” Leo rubbed his forehead.

“So, we met as kids, you left young. Like you actually did.” She raised her brow and leaned her head toward him.

“Wasn’t my choice.” Not that he recalled what caused it.

“Then we met back in… No, we didn’t meet in highschool. Insteaaaaad, we met at an outta state thing.” Missy furrowed her brow. “What the hell do highschoolers do outside of state?”

“Math competition?”

Missy burst into laughter. “No way would I ever do that!” She likely wouldn’t have the aptitude for it regardless. Watching her try to do math on the spot would be painful.

“Just a generic field trip then? To a monument?” Leo said. His highschool wasn’t exactly rich enough for such a thing, but that was hardly relevant.

“Ooh, that sounds good. Then when people ask what monument we can be all like ’dunno, I was so focused on them.’ They’ll love it!”

Leo prepared to fire back with the preposterous nature of forgetting something that big, but he had no real room to talk with his scattered memories of the past. Instead he tilted his head and said, “We should probably at least have one in mind if they pressure us, alright?”

“Sure, I guess. Like the dick building in Washington D.C.”

“Yeah. That one. The dick building.” Leo shook his head. “Don’t call it that when we’re actually at the party. People will wonder where your college money is going.”

“Hey, it’s my money to waste,” Missy said.

“I thought I’d be the one supporting you in college? I definitely couldn’t be in college at the same time you are, seeing as how I’ve had an entire job going on.”

“Man, even in fantasy you’re supporting me. You’re the best boyfriend ever.” She leaned over and pecked him on the cheek.

“Save that stuff for the party, OK?” Leo wiped his shoulder on his cheek. “So I’m putting you through college after meeting up. I graduated first.”

“Yeah, I think you would’ve graduated first anyways. You woulda sat in class 25/8 and sped through all those credits.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment. Anyways, since you were away at college, that explains why you weren’t around to annoy anyone.” Leo leaned on the armrest. “I’m guessing we must’ve been together for about four or three years. I don’t think you would ever take summer classes, but whatever, I’m sure someone gallivanting in your realistic getup must’ve been a hard worker.”

“And I’ll take that as a compliment.” Missy nodded. “Oh, but like, maybe we were kinda like, in love, but we couldn’t say anything. You were all ‘oh I’ll help you through school’ before we admitted our love.” Her nodding sped up. “Yeah, that sounds good.”

“The L-word is a little strong, don’t you think?” Leo asked. Not that he should tug on that thread. Who knew what was actually brewing in her head. What was fact or fiction.

“Shouldn’t you love the one you’re dating? Huh? Huh?”

“I guess, but you’re making it sound like we’re gearing up to get married from the word go. Let’s just say I started supporting you halfway through your work when we started dating.”

“Ooh, ooh, I bet my parents weren’t happy with my career choice!” Her eyes widened. “Yeah! That’s why you had to support me! I mean, what parent would want their kid to be some kinda costume designer? That’s not like a math wizard who makes a hundred bucks an hour.”

Leo opened to respond but was interrupted by Missy patting him on the leg and saying, “That would also mean my parents wouldn’t wanna see you and why I’m way out here all alone. You’ve saved me from being a homeless college kid in debt. How sweet.”

“Any tragedies you’re leaving out? Maybe you were sick and had to miss an integral test?” Leo raised his eyebrows.

“Don’t you wanna seem like a hero?”

“I dunno, some people might get the wrong idea and think I’m starting to control your life. Paying for your college, giving you a place to live, and cutting off contact from your family?”

“Well, you’re already doing half of that.” Missy shrugged.

“Yeah but I’d say the situation of you not being able to get a job is a little different. Not that you’d want to get one, I’m guessing.”

“I’m already a professional maid and chef,” Missy replied.

“I think you’re stretching the definition of professional there, but I guess I can give you that.”

“And hey, what’s wrong with a little Stockholm syndrome, eh?” She nudged her elbow into him.

“I’m glad we can finally admit I’m a hostage.”

Missy rolled her eyes. “Well, I still wanna have the ring struggle. That would be such a fun story to tell. C’mon, can I have that one, pretty please?”

“Keep it a secret from me or something. I don’t want them to think we’re getting married any time soon. Do you want a whole swarm of people getting ready for a marriage that’ll never come?”

“I could probably get married in my costume too.” Missy shrugged.

“No.”

“Can’t blame me. That whole ceremony looks fun. You think I could pull off a wedding gown?” Missy glanced down and ran her hands across her torso.

“You’d pull off a gown because you’d complain about how tight it is.”

“Probably, but I could just fix it myself.”

“Not on a rental.”

“Whatever. I’d probably make my own anyways. No need for a billion dollar dress.”

“Let’s get back on track here,” Leo said.

“Oh yeah, let me tell you about my class schedule n’ stuff.”

“Maybe not that far.”

_

The days pushed on, nearing the very end, the penultimate day of the month. Leo did his part by gathering all the materials he needed for the party. Candy, drinks, coolers, some generic table foods, disposable plates and cups, and a whole hell of a lot of trash bags.

Missy spent a lot of her time cooking up new ideas for her fairy tale, which were either reworked by Leo to seem more credible or denied outright. Who needed to be related to the guy who worked on a flying turtle’s suit? She did, of course, with her reasoning being that the turtle was less popular, so it wasn’t as outrageous.

One of her ideas was even cooked up in the shower. “Leo! Hey! Lion!” she cried out.

Leo raised his head from staring at supplies and walked over to the bathroom door.

“What is it, Missy?” he asked.

“Open the door!”

“I can hear you just fine, what is it?”

“No, no, open the door, I wanna make sure you get this.”

Against his better judgment, Leo cracked the door open. Warm mist instantly hit him. How hot did she run that thing? “Yes, Missy, what is it?” The shower curtains at least hid her away behind a lovely patterning of abstract shapes. The window behind the shower still outlined her body through the fabric.

Missy grabbed the curtains and peeked around them. Her wet hair muddied her sleek bestial look. “OK, get this,” she started, “what if my family and yours didn’t really get along–“

“Is this going to be Romeo and Juliet, Missy? I’m not drinking any poison.”

“Alright, fine, how about this one. When you started supporting me, right, like the day you came and said you were gonna be a strong guy and put me through college, you did it on a rainy day after work. And I was like, ‘how am I gonna deal with all these bills’ you know? Since I’m on my own, right?”

“Did you happen to say that in the rain too? I’m guessing you looked like that?”

“I wasn’t in the rain, I was in the– you know, the bill building. Where you sign your life away?” She raised her hand, flicking some water in the process.

“The bursar, right, I got it. A little dramatic, don’t you think?”

“People love that stuff!”

“I’ll put it down on the list. You just get back to your shower.”

“In the rain, remember that! Dark overcast!”

“Yeah, gotcha.” Leo promptly shut the door. He sighed. Another thing to mull over and write down. He had a legitimate list by this point. All tragedies, little details about their fantasy relationship, the points she wanted stress. If only it remained a list. Instead, Missy had him put it all on a little cork board for her to go over. Admittedly it also soothed his desire to organize it properly, but a part of him wondered how far it was getting out of hand.

Leo plodded over to Missy’s room, where the cork rested against the side of her bed. It had been a while since he was in here for any amount of time longer than a few seconds. It had taken on a bit of the sweet scent that Missy bizarrely had. The room itself was also not as messy as he imagined it would be. Aside from her bed, which was a mix of tussled sheets and haphazardly placed pillows.

The man picked up the cork board and took the pen off her nightstand. She should really remember to put the cap on. He wrote down a little line near the beginning of their fake timeline about his dramatic reveal to her about paying for her college.

For a brief moment, Leo imagined himself in that scenario. Would he do that? He couldn’t exactly say no. Especially in this imagined scenario where he had some sort of crush on her. This fictional beyond fake scenario. He was already paying hundreds of dollars on clothing, bedroom materials, and one streaming thing she talked him into. An education on whipping up costumes was better than sitting at home all day.

“Hey, you got it written down? You got the rain part, right?” Missy said.

Leo turned around to see the woman clad in a town wrapped around herself. Another done up in her hair. That seemed unnecessary. “Yeah, I got the rain,” Leo replied. He held up the board.

Missy moved over to the bed and pulled him down onto it. “Let me see that.” Her eyes ran over every bit of the cork board. A little smile tugged at her mouth “Yeah, that sounds right. All of this is gonna be so cool. I just hope they, y’know, like me and all.”

“What, someone isn’t going to like you?”

“You do always say I’m annoying, ya know.”

“I don’t always say that.” Maybe a few times. “Regardless, it’s a party, the whole point is to be annoying.”

“You got all the stuff we need, right? I don’t want anyone getting upset and leaving. It’s my first party with this many people, OK? It has to be good.” She pulled the towel from her head and let it drop to the bed.

“I got everything the list told me to, and more. It’s going to turn out fine. People are going to love you. Especially how you look, alright?”

Missy groaned and placed her head on his shoulder, wetting his shirt. “I hope so. Everything’s gotta be perfect!”

“I don’t think anyone has the guts to leave a party early because they’re unhappy. It’d be rude, you know? These folks don’t split because they’re missing a can of coke or a slice of pie.”

“You never know! Maybe someone is hosting a way cooler party in town? Did’ja think about that?”

“That would completely destroy the point of coming to a close community kind of party.”

“Alright, if you say so. Just make sure that walking corpse, Ruth, doesn’t scare anyone off.”

“Believe me, I was making sure of that from the very beginning.”

_

“I have watched this for like five minutes and I have no idea what he’s saying, dude,” Missy said. She and Leo were sitting at the computer, staring at one of the many videos they had pulled up. This one was about constructing mechanical claws via 3D printing. Interesting, but not something he would’ve gone out of his way to watch.

“The video is only five minutes. Think of it like a string pulling on some gears.”

“Does anyone really wanna know how my fingers work?”

“If you want to have a party with the most fantastical costume ever, yes, you’re going to need to learn at least the basics of this. It’s your ‘project’ after all. I can’t do all the legwork.”

“But you’d do a lot, because you’re the big boyfriend!” Missy replied.

“Yeah, I’ll do some of the harder stuff.” Leo paused the video and clicked over to another tab. There was an arrangement of people in costumes in various states of undress. A gory mess of makeup, technical bits, and all sorts of chemicals.

“I don’t think I’d sit in a chair for like, six hours to look this good.”

“You’re going to have to, or at least say an hour.” Leo pointed to the head of a familiar rubber dinosaur. “See, you can’t just have a head like Mr. Godzilla over here. Too big. A lot of moving parts that would be way too loud.”

“I know that, but don’t insult my man like that.” Missy loudly sighed. “So what you got in mind to make me better?”

“I’m going to think of a flashy buzzword later, but I’m thinking we have some sort of layered system of masks.” He drew his hand up to her face, just in time for her to look at him. His index finger traced down from her twitchy ear to her jaw. “A skin you wear below, some really small tubes in-between, and then your helmet part. You pull on the skin, that tugs on the tubes, and that makes you all expressive.”

On cue, Missy gave a toothy grin.

“Right, like that,” Leo said.

“So like uh, fake muscles?”

“Basically, yeah.”

“You sure we can’t just do hydraulics?”

“No hydraulics.” Leo looked back to the screen. With all the pouring into this they had done, he had to wonder if they really could have put all this together. He could’ve been his own wolficus if he really wanted to.

“Now what about my fur?” Missy said. “We can’t use vantablack, that stuff’s expensive. Plus, I think it’d clash with my actual costume, ya know?” She slid the mouse out from Leo’s hand and clicked over to another page for a pitch black. “This stuff is cheaper and a little less black.”

“I don’t think we exactly have to worry about a fake price, but sure, we can go with that.”

“Add it to the list!”

_

“OK, give it to me again,” Missy said.

“It’s one in the morning. It’s going to be fine. Going over it again isn’t going to make you know it any better.”

“Just…” Missy held up a finger. “Just one more time. I wanna make sure I got it.”

Leo rubbed his eyes. His body was feeling the toils of sitting on her bed for nearly three hours. “Alright, where did we meet, lose track, and find each other again?” How many times had he said that now?

“Kids. Four years old. You moved away. We met again on a field trip to the… the… Washington monument. Exchanged numbers. Texted. Online messaging. Then we met back up when I started going to college.”

“That good?” Leo asked, shrugging.

“Is that enough? Maybe we should say what day it was.”

“No one is going to remember the day that specifically. No one. It’s fine.”

Missy gasped. “What about colors, foods, tv shows? Do we have favorites of those? I think we gotta come up with some.”

“I’m going to bed, alright?”

“No, no, no, no, no. No! We have to make this stuff work!”

Leo had never seen Missy get so fervent over something. Not unless she was, well… “Are you in one of your moods right now?”

“Moods?! Do you think I have time to get off right now?!” Missy went wide-eyed. The whites of her eyes in this light actually had something of a spooky effect.

“Easy.” Leo placed an arm around her shoulders and gently squeezed them. A bad idea, but he had done this before for the same reason. “It was only a question.” His hand traced down the length of her arm, easing into her stomach.

“Alright,” Missy said softly.

“I just want you to relax.” His thumb teased the band of her shorts. “OK? Everything is going to go just fine. Nobody is going to freak out. Nobody is going to be mad. Everything in the party will go just fine.”

Missy only managed a nod as his fingers slipped under her clothing. Sleep would soon be his, and she would be completely relaxed. Her breathing picked up as she eased back into his grasp.

Not the worst way to get a good night’s sleep.

_

The day had arrived and practically sped by as Leo and Missy arranged everything for the oncoming wave of people.

“Missy, c’mon, it’s been an hour,” Leo said. “You aren’t getting cold feet, are you?” He knocked on her door.

“I’m not! I just wanna make sure this is perfect.”

The day had arrived and she was nowhere to be seen. Not entirely a problem since it was still a few hours to go for the party, but he wanted her to be presentable by the time guests arrived.

Suddenly, the door swung open. Missy stood in the doorway, one elbow on the frame with a leg raised. “Do I look good?” A wig with golden highlights sat on her head with some random jewelry. Gold makeup rounded out her eyes, resembling the Egyptian eye. A familiar scarab necklace and golden collar hung from her neck. Below that was a spattering of gauze loosely wrapped around her, barely hiding her. A blue loincloth only added a shred more decency.

Leo stared a few moments longer at the fidgeting woman. “Hold on, Missy. No, no, no, no. You do realize there are going to be kids here, right?” Leo held up a hand.

“What’s wrong with it? I thought it looked great!” She tossed up her hands.

“Well, for one, your crotch and chest are barely covered.”

“It’s a cost–“

“Missy, you know damn well it’s not a real costume. I don’t want you walking around like that and you shouldn’t feel comfortable with it either. Especially not with kids.” He set down his blunt axe and ushered her back into her room. “Let’s make you presentable. We are not having this.”

“I’m covered up, so it should be totally fine. Anyone who thinks otherwise can shove it.”

“It would be fine if this were a singles party, but it isn’t, you’re here with me, right? It’s a family party.”

“Well, too late anyways. They’ll be here soon.”

“We’ve got an hour or two before everyone shows up,” Leo said. “Now c’mon.”

Missy grumbled, but obliged, plopping down on her bed with a frown. Leo followed after her, grabbing the gauze and scissors from her nightstand.

“Kids always have to ruin everything because they can’t handle anything,” Missy replied.

“You were a kid, you know,” Leo replied. He began carefully removing her chest pieces to let him get at the gauze underneath.

“Yeah but I got over it. I’m here now, aren’t I?” She huffed.

“What’d you do for these stains?” He ran a finger over one of the light brown patches. “Nice touch.”

“It’s a coffee stain.”

“Good work. It turned out great.” Leo ran a finger across her back, making sure he knew exactly where fur and body stopped.

“That tickles,” Missy said, arching her back.

“Just making sure I don’t poke a pin in you.” Leo wrapped up her chest, hiding away her cleavage. Not too firm a fit, lest it curve right back into naughty territory. “Now where should these go?” Leo asked, holding up the pins he removed.

Missy’s finger trailed along the back, showing him exactly where they should go, bit by bit.

“You going to be alright with kids here?” Leo asked.

“I’m gonna be fine. They’re a little gross and weird, but they’re whatever. You know, they look really weird since they’re just small people.”

“I guess I’m used to it.”

“Imagine if there were like a potato version of you running around. It’d be like that.”

“Sort of, I suppose, but you had better not start growling at kids,” Leo said. As long as she wouldn’t be visibly disturbed by their presence. Anger or otherwise.

“I do not growl!”

“If you say so. Just don’t do it.” He patted her on the shoulder. “Alright, stand up, we have to do the loincloth too.”

“Aw c’mon, that covers everything.” Missy pouted.

“Missy.”

The woman mumbled something, but stood up. “You did a good job on the cloth too,” he said.

“I better. It uses three kinds and trying to knit them and fold them, ugh, annoying stuff,” Missy replied. “But yeah, thanks.”

Leo stared at her hips for a moment. It was actually a nice bit of design that would be a shame to cover up. “How about we do this.” Leo unrolled a bit of gauze from its roll and placed it against her thighs horizontally, moving down to her knee. “This sort of cascading skirt along the side and hides your crotch. It’ll look like a ribcage.” That was Halloween-y, right?

Missy seemed to stare at it as if picturing it in her head. “Whatever, just fix it so little Sally’s mom doesn’t kill me.”

“You got it.” Leo was happy to introduce his own touches to the costume, covering up her shame and adding that little bit more flare. Carefully, slowly. Wouldn’t want to poke her now. The gauze fit nicely and even tucked into the band of her loincloth. “Better?”

Missy nodded. “Yeah. Better.” Surprising she even admitted it.

“You ready to knock ‘em dead then?” She had better be.

“You really think they’ll like me?” Missy asked, slowly replacing her jewelry.

“If they don’t, I’ll chop off their heads, alright?”

Missy’s frown lessened and flashed into a smile before being snuffed out. “Alright.”

Leo stood up. Just then the doorbell rang. “They’re here early. Hopefully to help set up. Do you want to come with?”

Missy’s eyes darted from Leo to door back to the floor. “Yeah, OK.”

The doorbell rang again. “Coming!” Leo called out. Pangs of unease hit him as he moved forward. Hopefully it would all work out. Mostly for her sake, but his reputation was riding on this a bit too. Leo cracked open the door.

“Hi there!” A friendly face said. Monica. Classic graying grandmother type.

“Evening, Miss!” Leo replied. “We’re all ready inside here.”

“Where’s the gal of the hour?” the older woman asked with a smile. “I’ve just been dying to see this costume after the other girls wouldn’t stop babbling about it.”

“She’s just round the corner. A little nervous, so you go easy on her for me, will you?” Leo replied.

“Of course!”

The man swung open the door. Monica’s excited face lessened.