Ruth’s approval put a sour twist in her stomach. A small part of her wanted her to say she couldn’t go. That it was too early to go out after everything. But the bear already told her she couldn’t stay home all the time. Besides, home didn’t hit the buttons she needed pushed. 


Heidi’s mom dropped them off at the mall and told them she’d be close by. Heidi pulled the mephit toward the big doors before she could ask where. “Tinkerbell’s waiting inside. This is going to be so much fun. I’ve never been shopping with a friend before.”


“I’ve never been shopping.” The look her friend gave when Madison said that made her feel off. “Is that bad? I didn’t exactly have much spending money as an orphan.” Or free time when she thought of it. Her time in the system wasn’t a memory she looked at often. Somehow it was worse than most of what happened since Ruth caught her. 


“Never?” Heidi gasped. 


Madison rolled her eyes and nodded. “It’s not a big deal. Before Ruth my clothes were handed down.” And Ruth’s choice of clothing wasn’t particularly great either. She was lucky to have anything that didn’t scream child hooker. She could use more pants over long skirts. Given the bear’s sadism, she wouldn’t get any if she asked. 


The young tigress hugged her as if Madison were a lost puppy. The mephit stomached the sensation with the fact that her best friend meant well. Automatic thoughts of Heidi pulling her hair didn’t help. At this rate she might actually beg Ruth to do stuff to her. She gagged at the idea.


Tinkerbell waited for them by the central fountain. His eyes darted back and forth while hugging himself as though the tight shirt and miniskirt weren’t warm enough. She almost felt bad for him, imagining the humiliation he must be going through crossdressing in public. Pity turned to envy when he kneeled at their approach. 


“It-It’s good to see you, Mistress.” The donkey bit his lip. Heidi said nothing as she took a seat on the fountain. Madison watched her best friend raise her leg and felt her heart skip when the donkey crawled to kiss it. She tried to shield them from view but her small body wasn’t enough to hide anyone gazing. Strangely, no one was. 


“Isn’t he great?” Heidi said with a giggle. “Ruth’s lessons really helped domesticate him. Do you want him to kiss your feet?”


“No thanks. I like my feet unkissed.” She crossed her arms and shivered. Ruth once made Madison kiss her feet. It took an hour of spanking for her to give in. Madison swore she could still taste the leather soles despite having only done the act once. “Can we get going?”


Heidi huffed. “Fine.” From her backpack she pulled out a chain leash and a collar. Madison reflexively reached for her neck at the sight of it, pulling away when her friend locked it around Tinkerbell’s. “Come along, Tinkerbell. We don’t want to ruin Madison’s first day at a mall.”


“Isn’t the leash a bit much?” Madison bit her lip with concern, looking left and right for the curious glances of other shoppers. None seemed to notice. “It’s not Halloween.” In retrospect, Heidi shouldn’t have gotten away with it then either. 


The tigress looked at Madison as if she spoke a different language. She snickered. “This? No. And even if it was, Tinkerbell is a little bitch and everyone should know it. Isn’t that right, Tinkerbell?”


The donkey in question didn’t raise their head in response. “Y-Yes, Mistress.” Madison felt the nervousness of their words, but the blush across their face seemed different. Excitement? The short-tailed skunk shook her head and turned away, clasping her neck briefly when she heard metal clasp to metal. 


“I don’t like this,” she mouthed silently to herself. “It’s wrong. I’m just horny.” Ruth used her so much for relief that Madison expected it to get off in some fashion. Sometimes she imagined Terry in the role. Guilt strangled her when that wasn’t the case. Guilt had been meeting with her often since the BBQ. 


Since Heidi knew the mall better Madison followed her. Tinkerbell followed them both at the end of the leash, hands held behind his back with nothing better to do. Madison didn’t pay much attention to the first store they entered, though the dull warm colors gave her the impression it was some casual wear store. 


“Oh, this looks cute.” Heidi said more than once while picking out clothes. From tops, skirts, skintight pants, and more. By the time they reached the first dressing room Madison held a pile of them along with Tinkerbell. 


“Strip.” Heidi ordered after they put the clothes down. Madison’s heart jumped. Like lighting she turned to confront her friend but stopped when she saw the tigress facing Tinkerbell. The donkey stripped out of his short skirt and top, revealing a soft pink bra and panty set he further stripped away, leaving the collar and cage left.


Madison pressed her back against the wall at the sight. Remembering their dynamic, Madison crossed her arms to look unphased. She wasn’t sure if Heidi noticed her reaction, the tigress’s smirk could have been for anything. 


“Madison, what do you think would look best on him?” 


She shrugged. “I don’t know.”


Heidi pouted. “Come on, use your imagination.” 


There were two ways to answer Heidi’s question. The first was being literal. Despite Tinkerbell’s name and effeminate dressing, he was still a boy who couldn’t pull off girl’s fashion. Something baggy would be better for him, at least until he transitioned. If he wanted that. Madison gulped, wondering if he had a choice in the matter.


The second, and closer to what Heidi insinuated, would be what was more embarrassing for the donkey boy. The answer was the opposite in that regard. Clothes would need to be skin tight and form fitting, showing off his curves or lack thereof. Madison picked up a pair of cotton violet leggings. “Try these,” she handed them to Heidi.


Heidi tilted her head to Tinkerbell, “He’s wearing them, give them to him.” 


Tinkerbell accepted it graciously when she did. Too much for her liking. “Thank you, Miss,” he said. Madison felt sick to her stomach at the title. 


“Don’t call me that.” She all but snapped back. Tinkerbell’s blank face turned to Heidi for support. The tigress offered none. 


“I’m sorry, M–” He bit his lip. “Sorry. What should I call you by?”


“My name.” Madison crossed her arms. What should have been a simple concept seemed foreign in this damn town. “Don’t refer to me as a…whatever Heidi is. I’m not.”


“Why else would she have those piercings?” Heidi chimed in. Madison glared at her friend. She stuck her tongue out in response. “What? It’s no secret between us. He made fun of them after all.”


That didn’t make her feel any better. She kept silent as Tinkerbell pulled the leggings up. They were form fitting, tight enough that everyone noticed the outline of his chastity cage. The donkey blushed and tried covering his crotch but Heidi told him to stand tall. 


“Hmm…I like it,” Heidi said, pressing her foot against the donkey’s outlined cage. “I prefer him in skirts, but I think these kinds of pants are good enough. What do you think, Madison?”


“It’s fine,” Madison said, shrugging as she looked away. “He’s your b…whatever.”


The tigress frowned. “Why don’t you try these on?” Heidi handed her a pile of clothes. A strange sense of embarrassment washed over Madison as she stripped. Her best friend had seen her naked enough in Ruth’s instruction sessions, but Tinkerbell hadn’t. He didn’t know what her cunt piercings looked like. Ruth’s lack of underwear options for her meant she needed to cover her crotch when pulling on the offered options. 


The shorts were tight. Ruth had boxers that covered more leg than they did. “I’m not a fan.”


“Hmm…maybe you should pick some stuff out to try.”


“After seeing the fruity colors you gave Tinkerbell, I’d rather not.”


Heidi laughed. “Well there are other clothing stores. The mall is full of them. Come on.” She tugged Tinkerbell up by his leash, bought his newest outfits at the desk with her mother’s shopping card, and set off with Madison in hand to find another store. They weren’t spoiled for choice. Each store they went through, from casual wear, high fashion, and styles Madison couldn’t describe, were filled with nothing Madison found interesting. Heidi had no such issue, leaving each store with another bag for Tinkerbell to hold. 


“You sure your mom isn’t going to get angry?” Madison asked. They’d taken a pause at the food court. It’d been the first time she’d been in one where she felt relaxed. Easy to do when she didn’t have to worry about security throwing her out after finding her digging through the garbage bins. 


“About what?” Heidi sipped her soda carefree. Madison nudged her head to the bags Tinkerbell had beside him. “Oh, that? She’s been encouraging me to dress Tinkerbell up for weeks. If it wasn’t for work she’d be here helping.”


“And she can afford all of this?” 


“My mom’s well off. She’s the biggest realtor in the city.” 


“Then why are you in public school?”


Color dropped from Heidi’s face. The carefree confidence she had vanished to reveal the anxious feline who couldn’t sit on Madison’s face when the mephit was being punished. “Sorry,” Madison said, realizing she’d opened a wound. 


“It’s fine.” Heidi forced a smile but stared off into the distance. “Truth is, I did go to Rosebud Academy before. I got bullied a lot. Girls said I was too childish with my pigtails, boys said I was grody or annoying. A few ‘friends’ used me because my mom had cash and I was desperate for them. When it wasn’t enough they turned on me, threatened me if I didn’t give them what they wanted.” She tugged at one pigtail. “I’ve seen the inside of a toilet enough that I used to get panic attacks seeing them in public. T-That’s why I ran when I saw you strapped to one.” 


Madison reached for Heidi’s hand before she knew it. She didn’t know who these bullies were but the urge for retribution burned hot. “Heidi, I’m so sorry.”


The tigress sniffed. “It’s ok. Eventually I just broke. Couldn’t go to school without crying. So my mom transferred me to Cherry Blossom. This is my first year here actually.” With matted cheeks she smiled wide. “And I already have a best friend, a small friend group, and confidence. I’m feeling fantastic.” 


Tinkerbell carried a look of guilt at the story. Madison considered pressing, but Heidi left the table before she could. “Come on. I’m determined to find you something you’ll like.”


Madison appreciated that. She’d come to realize that they didn’t share the same tastes in anything. Heidi was girly, dominant, and excitable, everything the mephit wasn’t. In other circumstances they wouldn’t be friends. But they were now, and Madison couldn’t remember the last time she had one.


Traversing through the mall Madison thought she saw Terry just around the corner. The brown bunny didn’t notice her, and when she broke away to check she lost track of him. Heidi pulled her away before she could pick up another trail. 


The next store had a sign designed to look like it was made of scrap metal and junk. The Yard. She smelled leather inside, leather and metal. It reminded her of the sex shops. This one had rock music playing on low volume and mannequins covered in what she could only describe as punk. Short leather pants, spiked vests, fingerless gloves, chokers, studded handbags, and more. Given the collar Ruth used the idea of wearing leather should repulse her. Madison felt no such thing when staring at the mannequins. Instead she felt envious. 


“I think they’d look great on you.” Heidi said, slipping a hand into Madison’s back pocket. She froze, heart pounding with the tigress’s squeeze against her buttcheek. “Did anyone ever tell you that black looks good on you?”


“N-No…” Madison tried to sound mad. Angry that her friend groped her so casually. Her voice cracked instead, fluttering like when Terry worked between her legs. Heidi gave a knowing smile, leaning in to whisper.


“Pick out your favorites. Then go wait in the dressing room.” 


Madison didn’t consider herself reserved by nature. The pile of clothes she pulled from the shelves made her question that. Studded vests, tight black shirts with logos of bands she’d never heard off, studded leather belts, tight dark jeans, and even a pair of boots. She always wanted boots. Being on the run for so long made her hate sneakers. They broke down too easily after enough walking. Boots should last. She’d have asked Ruth for a pair if she thought she could. Her personal feelings of the bear aside, her adoptive mother had good boots. 


Heidi had Tinkerbell in a tight black skirt with a loose chain when Madison arrived. “Doesn’t it look nice?” Heidi asked her, flipping the skirt up to reveal the outlined cage. “Give him the right top and he looks like some punk rock star's plaything. Gosh, could you imagine?” 


Madison didn’t care. She set her choices down and started stripping, stopping when Heidi coughed. “Oh, no, continue.” The tigress crossed her legs and watched. “I love seeing you excited.” 


“S-Sorry,” Madison covered her chest with each arm, “First time I had a choice in my clothes.”


“I know. You’ve said so. That’s why it’s nice to watch.” Heidi leaned back. Tinkerbell fell to his knees at a snap of her finger, nestling under her hand when she returned to watching. “Show me the you you’ve always wanted to be.”


The question stunned her. Who she wanted to be? Madison never had the time to consider that. Before Ruth it was either survival in the streets or the hell of foster care. There was never time to consider who she wanted to be. 


Each of the shirts with a band name felt like an open invitation to talk about the music, so she tossed them aside. She ultimately chose a black shirt covered in white hearts with barbed wire piercing through them. It outlined her chest as one size too small. She almost took it off but Heidi’s smile encouraged her to keep going. 


Next came the pants. A pair of dark denim jeans, somewhere between gray and black. They were tight around the waist, leaving little room for her to think anyone could hear the clink and clang of her cunt rings when she walked, but loose enough in the legs that she could hold her leg out without worry. She’d take it for a run, but the dressing room was limited. 


Last were the boots. Like workboots they had a high collar she pulled when inserting her foot inside. Leather hugged her shins when she tied it tight. They weren’t platform, but she felt taller in them. Stronger too, like she could kick someone and they’d stay down. 


“Is that it?” Heidi asked when Madison stopped looking at clothes. 


“I could try on some more shirts or pants.” Maybe a skirt if Madison was desperate enough.


Heidi shook her head. “No, no. We need to get you more. Wait here.” 


“I thought this was my choice?” 


“Trust me,” Heidi said before she left, “You’ll love it.” The tigress returned with an assortment of studded leather items. Without stopping she pulled a pair of fingerless gloves over the mephit’s hands, then wrapped a studded leather belt through her pants loops. She gulped at the leather choker Heidi clasped around her neck, standing stiff like Ruth was collaring her. It was the hat that gave her pause.


“No.” Madison held her hand out. “That’s too much.”


Heidi frowned. “You sure? It’d look cool on you.”


The leather cap looked more appropriate for a biker than her. “I’m fine.”


Heidi shrugged and put it in a pile of clothes she was buying for Tinkerbell. Wordlessly she twisted Madison around to the mirror. Her heart leapt at the stinkbadger staring back at her. Her clothes left little to the imagination yet she didn’t feel exposed. The leather, cheap she guessed, seemed like armor ready to be battle tested. She caught herself smiling. Heidi grinned over her shoulder. 


“I think we have a winner.”


Madison nodded absently, “Y-Yeah. I guess we do."


“So let’s get the next outfit.”


She blinked. “The next?” 


“Well duh,” Heidi said, pulling out a leather skirt, “One outfit a wardrobe doesn’t make.”


Tinkerbell walked with four bags by the time they were finished, two each hand. Madison chose to walk around in her newest look. The world seemed so much smaller, as if she’d been standing with a hunch her entire life. 


“Anything else you’d want to get?” Heidi nudged her. “My mom can pick us up whenever.”


If Heidi asked earlier, Madison would have said no. But that was old Madison. The unsure Madison who put on a grumpy facade. This Madison was still a bitter bitch, but she had confidence. Wavering confidence that shivered her voice when she spoke, but confidence nonetheless. 


“I…” she bit her lip, pointing to a woman’s undergarments store, “I’d like to get some panties.” 


Whatever Heidi was expecting to hear it wasn’t that. “Panties?” She leaned in just to be sure there wasn’t an error on her end. 


Madison, blushing crimson, nodded with her chin hitting her chest. “Ruth doesn’t let me wear panties so she never buys them.”


“You’re going commando all the time?” 


Madison’s sudden nervousness was swept with annoyed surprise. “You’ve been watching me undress all day. Have you not noticed? Or did you think the rings down there were some special brand?” 


“I knew you weren’t wearing any today, but all the time is news to me. Does Terry know?”


“Of course he knows,” Madison snapped under her breath. “Well…I figure he knows. I haven’t exactly told him but we’ve…” 


The tigress’s grin went wide. “Oh my god, you did?”


“What’s the big deal?” She asked herself more than Heidi. Sex was commonplace in this town, far more than it should be. Ruth regularly made Madison eat the bear out up until recently, and she gathered Tinkerbell wasn’t exactly untouched by his excitable mistress. Yet admitting that she and Terry did the deed felt…not necessarily wrong but more of a suspenseful surprise. Like it meant something. A mark of their relationship? Madison shook her head so violently to shake off her overthinking that she nearly bashed Heidi. 


The tigress’s grip around her wrist held so tight Madison had to bite her lip to keep herself squealing. She dropped Tinkerbell’s leash when the donkey failed to catch up. When he arrived Heidi had flung her friend deep within a women’s lingerie store. Normally Madison would ask why they were there since nothing could be in their size. Given the mannequins modeled after teens and tweens sporting lingerie, she found it better to shut up. Highman was twisted. 


“Ok, so there’s a bunch to choose from.” Heidi babbled on about the different variations of panties. Boyshorts, thongs, the four different kinds of briefs, types with names that made Madison’s eyes roll such as cheeky and hipster, and more. 


The initial pairs Heidi handed her were much like Maidson’s clothes. Dark, edgy, sometimes emblazoned with skulls or gothic imagery. Something about them didn’t feel right. It wasn’t until she came across a light pink pair of bikini panties that she knew what she wanted. 


“Oh?” Heidi smiled. “So you do have a soft side.”


In the dressing room Madison modeled an assortment of pinks, light reds, and striped panties. It’d been so long since she’d worn them that the young short-tailed skunk forgot how soft the material was. It was as if a cloud was hugging her crotch. 


“Has Terry ever told you that you’ve got a cute smile?” Heidi asked. 


Madison blushed. “Shut up.”


“Make me.” Heidi crossed her legs with the challenge. Something about that pose, the confidence she exuded, banged against the stinkbadger’s heart like a drum. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that she’d drop to her knees that moment if the tigress asked for it, her personal preferences be damned. A small part of her wanted that. It whispered how much she missed the feel of someone holding her down, someone giving her a reason to struggle. 


Heidi, reading Madison like a book, smiled like she’d reached the same conclusion. She entered Madison’s personal space with a single step, then pushed deeper until the stinkbadger’s back pressed against the wall. Fingers trailed up her stomach, lackadaisically circling her burgeoning breasts before clutching her chin. The urge to say “Stop” inched over her tongue but she held it silent. Excusing herself with the idea that Heidi’s claws were enough to keep her quiet. 


They stayed there for tense seconds, lips so close she could taste Heidi’s breath. The tigress drank it in, shivering in anticipation. Madison mirrored her, unsure if the shivers were fear or desire at what her best friend would force her to do. She closed her eyes in expectation of a kiss, a violation of her mouth that the two had yet to share. 


“Turn around.” Heidi commanded in a soft whisper. Madison blinked, brow furrowing as if she misheard. The tigress raised hers in response, playfully letting her question the order. Madison knew she could overpower the tigress if things got physical. She wasn’t Ruth who towered over her and had years on the young skunk. Yet when Heidi grew impatient and grabbed her shoulder she didn’t rebel. What strength she summoned was enough to put up faux resistance ill-fitting of her gritted teeth. 


“Better.” Heidi held Madison’s hair to push her face to the wall while her other hand pushed the girl’s bum out. A single finger pulled her panty down by its elastic waistband until gravity let it hit the floor. The sudden chill of open air against her piercings made her legs weak. Heat pooled behind her piercings. Madison bit her lip.


“You’ve been such a good girl,” Heidi chided, casually groping her best friend’s ass. “I think you deserve a treat.”


“F-Fuck you.” Madison babbled. Her voice wasn’t in it. Ruth ignoring her for so long made the cravings stronger. 


“Such language.” Heidi pinched her friend’s ass. “If I had my collar around your neck, I’d punish you for that. But we’re friends, so I’ll let it slide.” Tinkerbell shuffled behind Madison at his mistress’s snap. “Tinkerbell, show my friend here a good time.”


There were a lot of things to process with Heidi’s statement. The first was the way Madison’s heart leapt at the image of Heidi holding her leash. Her anxious best friend turned confident domme, leading her around by a length of chain at all times. A tigress who, by all interactions so far, was as straight as herself but loved the feel of Madison’s tongue against her cunt. Pleasuring a lesbian was humiliating enough. Eating out a straight girl as a straight girl? Her body burned at the thought.


The second, and more intimate, thing was the warm and wet muscle flatly dragging itself across her tailhole. Madison had been fingered, fucked, fisted, and even had her ass expanded to hold a two-liter soda bottle for Ruth’s amusement. Anything wet she’d felt against her hole was the cold and gooey sensation of various lubes. She’d never felt the lips of another on it, nor a tongue gently making its way along her rim. Heidi had to clamp her mouth shut just to keep the young skunk from gasping. 


“Feels good, doesn’t it?” She whispered. “I make him practice every time he visits, right before he leaves. He knows how to be gentle, how to go deep, and can do it for as long as I want.”


She needed this. Not the trained tongue digging into her ass though Madison wouldn’t dare tell him to stop. No, she craved the internal disgust running up her spine whenever Heidi grabbed her. The shame when her body shivered at the tigress’s whispers. The silent resentment of enjoying the pressure of her best friend’s palm covering her mouth. Hatred made her legs weak. Juices of arousal trailed along her piercings to drip down with her revulsion as Heidi’s next words made her fur stand on end. “You’re making your new panties wet. We’ll definitely need to buy them now.”


Her fingers curled against the wall while Heidi flicked her nipples. Deep breaths pulled in her best friend’s scent. Some small part of Madison wanted the tigress to push her to her knees and eat her out, with enough freedom to let her look up with contempt to the girl while her tongue did as Ruth trained it. She may have desired cock but she knew cunt better. To be forced superseded both. 


So it was not Tinkerbell’s expert tongue that caused Madison’s leg stiffening orgasm. She knew she’d blame it on that and deny all evidence. But for a second of blissful lucidity she knew it was Heidi’s dominance and forceful nature that pulled her over the finish line. All it took was a week's worth of going without a touch from Ruth for her to realize it. 


Then it was gone. Excuses flooded her mind as quickly as the explanation came. Madison grit her teeth and hung her head to hide the shame of it all. 


“Well, what do you think?” Heidi asked, either not noticing Madison’s plight or simply ignoring it. “I’ve been hoping to get Mistress Ruth’s opinion but she doesn’t like guys. I doubt she’d be fine with Tinkerbell’s tongue down her asshole.”


“He’s…he’s great.” Madison huffed and pulled her panties up, shuddering at the cooled wet spots bracing against her. She turned around ready to ask if they were done, but Heidi’s face entering her personal space stopped her short. For a brief second Madison imagined her leash in the tigress’s grip. Ruth would let her wait until she was eighteen to find a new owner, but the bear never said there were options already. Being a girl and her student, Heidi already had Ruth’s favor. If she and Terry got together while enslaving her, Madison could live a dream life. 


Then her common sense slapped her when Heidi forgot to. 


“I think he deserves a reward,” Heidi said, pulling her backpack back on. “I brought my strap. If we head to the bathroom we can have another round while I peg him. Wouldn’t that be fun?”


Tinkerbell’s expression was a mix of shame and excitement. Madison figured she felt the same from a glance at the mirror she didn’t want to process. “Sure.”


Dressed and out, the trio headed for the bathroom only for Madison to stop. Her eyes widened and mouth dropped. Terry walked out of a clothing store with a smile, a laugh, and his arm interlocked around another girl’s. 


Her inner voice screamed while her mouth hung open in silence.