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jeriendhal
Andrea whistled to herself, pressing her needle through the brown vatleather handbag she'd been working on the past two days, beading an intricate Mayan inspired firebird design on the flap. The elderly human was short, with iron grey hair drawn up into a bun at the nape of her neck, showing off the elf tip points of her ears, a leftover from a youthful experiment in body modding that she'd hung onto even after erasing her tattoos. The sleeves of her blouse rolled up to reveal her wiry arms, and her fingers were long and agile after years of working leather in her shop.
She set the piece down on the countertop as the shop's front door chimed, sliding back to let in a pair of foxen. One was tall for their species, perhaps six centimeters taller than Andrea, with dark brown fur and a black tail tip, dressed in an expensive looking, high necked blue dress, marking her as one of the Noble caste. The other vixen was short, about Andrea's height if you didn't count her ears, with black and white fur in a tuxedo pattern, and bright golden eyes. She was dressed much less conventionally, in a tight fitting, blood red leather bodysuit that covered her from neck to her wrists and ankles, even including a bag for her tail, and secured with perhaps more buckles, zippers, and straps than absolutely necessary. Andrea recognized the vixen and the suit immediately, having made it for her over seven years ago.
"Ali!" Andrea called out, recognizing the shorter vixen. "It's good to see you again. Who's your friend?"
"Hullo, Andrea," Ali replied. "This is my wife, the Vicountess Lady Sallivera Darktail. Salli, this is Andrea Kincaid, the leatherwor-" Ali's face suddenly took on a very stuffed expression, and she swallowed visibly before continuing. "The leatherworker I was telling you about," she finished.
"Darktail you said?" Andrea asked. "The same Darktails who bought out the station a few months back?"
"The same," Lady Sallivera confirmed. "I apologize for the disruption my initial arrival here caused."
"Not your fault. I'm just glad the station is getting all the repairs and upgrades it needs, even if it is going to up my rent." Andrea turned back to Ali, gesturing to her suit. "So what brings you here? Are you still working for the Red Vixen? I thought she'd disappeared."
"She's re-" Ali's eyes bulged briefly, and she grabbed the edge of the counter for support. "Retired," she gasped. "I started working for Lady Sallivera as her bodyguard, and we, um, hit it off well."
"Do you have a chair Ali can use?" Lady Sallivera asked.
"Sure, let's go into the back," Andrea asked, eyebrows raised in concern. She told the shop's computer to lock the front doors, and guided them to her workroom, pulling out a chair for the smaller vixen to sit down on. "What's going on, Ali? You sick?"
"No," she gasped. "Salli, you tell her."
"Alinadar showed me this suit that you made for her when she worked for the Red Vixen," Salli began to explain. "Including the remote for the smart straps that make it fit so well."
"Alright," Andrew said, wondering where this was going. The suit had been a custom order, and quite expensive. The remote lock for all the straps had made her think the Red Vixen had been using the younger vixen for more personal assistance than mere bodyguarding, but the pirate had assured her that wasn't the case.
"I've rather enjoyed seeing Ali wear it. Perhaps a little too much. Anyway, two tendays ago she put it on for me, but when I used the remote to let her out of it, it didn't work," Salli explained. "Not even when I replaced the batteries.
"Wait, twenty days ago?" Andrea exclaimed.
"We can open the bottom zip for the… ohhh… Necessary functions," Ali gasped, "but otherwise I'm stuck. And the armor weave between the leather and the cooling underlayer is too tough to cut without risking hurting me."
She covered her lips with her hand. "What's stuck in there with you?"
Lady Sallivera covered her face with her palm briefly before answering. "A personal vibrator. And before you ask, it's activated by contact with one's… personal… area, so I can't turn it off remotely. And it's set to vibrate at random intervals."
"With a frelling battery that's recharged by body heat," Ali added, glancing over at her wife in apparent annoyance.
"I see," Andrea replied. "How the hell have you been able to sleep?"
"It lets me… ahhhh… get fifteen minute catnaps, occasionally."
She took a deep breath, swallowing down the laughter that threatened to bubble up. "Well, let's see what we can do to get you out of that thing, eh?"
It took a half-hour for Andrea pull the stitches out from around the suit's circuit control center, and yanked both the power unit and the control chip. The suit's smart straps immediately released, and Ali let out a loud gasp of relief.
"I need to use your bathroom," Ali wheezed. Both she and Sallivera wrinkled their noses as the scent that had been contained in Ali's suit flooded the workshop.
"Go into the hallway. First door to your right leads up the stairs to my apartment. Take a shower while you're up there."
"Gonna. Thanks." Ali walked out, hunched over and slightly bowlegged, carrying a small bag she'd brought in with her, presumably with a change of clothes.
"Thank you so very much, Ms. Kincaid," Lady Sallivera said. "How much will it cost for the rescue and repairing Ali's suit?"
"Oh, this is free," Andrea said. "Poor girl has suffered enou-"
Lady Sallivera pulled her palm comp out of her pocket before Andrea could finish the sentence, as it buzzed it loudly. "What's the matter, Ali?" she asked.
"The frelling zipper is stuck in my fur!" Andrew heard Ali shout.
Andrea grabbed her tool kit and followed Sallivera up the stairs…
