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"description": "Started this one when I started getting gunpla on the brain again, and it ends up being relevant to me RL later in odd ways.\n\nAnyways, this one has been in the works (and mostly sat there rusting) for a while. So if any parts suck please let me know! I'll fix it when I redo all these stories into 'proper' novels some day.", "description_bbcode_parsed": "Started this one when I started getting gunpla on the brain again, and it ends up being relevant to me RL later in odd ways.

Anyways, this one has been in the works (and mostly sat there rusting) for a while. So if any parts suck please let me know! I'll fix it when I redo all these stories into 'proper' novels some day.", "writing": "Collared Chapter 31: Gift\nBy TerraMGP\n\n\tNothing was going the way Gretchen wanted. But then what else was new?\n\n\tBeing owned, and owned by a couple at that, should have been easy assurance of endless sexy times and abuse. Instead her beloved Mistress was a long way down I-94 and her Master was spending most of his days passed out on the couch. \n\n\tRationally that wasn’t their fault. She was still in high school and he was working two jobs on top of class. That’s what Gretchen kept telling herself when she found herself. That was the ‘objective’ way to look at it. It also sucked. All of her dreams were so close, and yet so far away.\n\n\tBut in her nearly 20 years of life, Gretchen had learned that things can always get worse. It was usually her fault, too. Which was why she found herself standing there near the JC Penny side of the mall. Her big clunky sneakers kicked and dug into the tile grout while she waited and watched the furs slipping out into the mall proper.\n\n\tAt last the figure she waited for crossed her gaze. A red panda girl, much like her beloved Hui. Except evil. Evil and inverse of evertying which made her Mistress the goddess on earth she was! Mistress’ snotty, haughty, self obsessed older sister. A nightmare in pastel pinks and blacks, carrying a bag of clothing on one arm while looking around the entrance.\n\n\tA sane girl would ignore her. Especially someone who knew her. The last thing Gretchen wanted was to put up with Xiulan’s constant teasing and eternal un-asked for judgment. Except she couldn’t do that. Because Gretchen was the one who had invited Xi in the first place.\n\n\tA few cursory tightening of Gretchen’s digger-clawed digits and the mole began to trundle her way over towards the perky teen. Gretchen held up a hand and gave a small little nod of recognition. The other girl gave her a giggle-snort in response before holding up the bag of clothing she’d gotten. The brown paper held aloft like a trophy in half a dozen ‘monster hunting’ type games.\n\n\t“You bailed out of that one real quick..” Xi snickered “I thought you dragged me out here to help you clothes shop.”\n\n\t“For Master.” Gretchen huffed\n\n\tXi snickered and shook her head “I donno. I mean sure, I know his size. And a ton of other things. That’s what happens when you end up getting all femmy and sissy with your bestie-”\n\n\t“I meant for me to wear. For him” Gretchen grumbled and shoved her paws deep into the front of her hoodie. “Based on what Mistress likes to wear sometimes I figured something like Hot Topic might be better. Or like, I donno, those really trendy places normie girls shop. Like Old Navy .Old Navy is one of those, right?”\n\n\t“Oh, oh honey. Honey no. Nooo” The condescension in Xi’s voice was honey-thick. Still she began to walk along, leading the way without even having to say a word. Even in the presence of someone she hated, Gretchen was a ‘follower’ after all. “Honestly you could do to spruce up your wardrobe regardless. So I don’t mind helping you. But if I do, you can’t keep doing ‘this’”\n\n\t“Doing what?” The chubby mole’s eyes narrowed under the wild curls of her unkempt hair.\n\n\t“This” Xi waved her free paw frantically up and down in Gretchen’s general direction “All of this. This pretending you don’t know what the hell you’re doing.”\n\n\t“Who the hecky says I’m pretending?” Gretchen shot back “Look are you going to help me or not? Because I can keep that fifty I was going to give you if that’s how you wanna be about it.”\n\n\tThe eye roll from Xiulan was painful to watch, mostly because it was hard enough that one might imagine she’d detached a retina. “I’m not going to take your money.” Xi sighed “Trust me, I don’t need it.”\n\n\t“Then why are you-”\n\n\t“Come on. I ‘promise’ we’ll hit up the right spots. But you need to dial back on this whole thing you do. The one where you pretend to be all mopey all the time and not know the ‘basics’ of how to be a girl yourself.”\n\n\t“I know how to be a girl. I just don’t know how to be cute!” Gretchen stamped her foot, then winced. There were people around her, and many of them stopped to look at the two of them.\n\n\tWith that, Gretchen slumped her shoulders, and allowed herself to follow along. Xiulan kept talking. Some kind of dismissive rant that the mole merely nodded her head to or occasionally grunted in the negative. True, she’d brought all of this on herself. But then that didn’t mean she had to like anything about this.\n\n--------------------\n\n\tWhatever else could be said about Xiulan, she was confident. Gretchen knew that already, but every second she was stuck with the annoying girl seemed to further drive that point home. Xi led the two of them into the land of gothy clothes and ‘Nightmare before Christmas’ merch with an energetic stride to her step. Her tail, and to a lesser degree her rump, swaying happily.\n\n\tPart of Gretchen wondered if her own discomfort played a part in that happy sway. Some small part of Gretchen had to confess that her Mistress’ older sibling had a cute ass. Why not? The two were very close to identical even if they weren’t actual twins. Somehow that just made her hate Xi more. Surely the perky girl knew what she was doing, and unless she was told otherwise the only girl Gretchen knew she should have eyes for was her Mistress. Plain and simple!\n\n\tA porcupine girl with dyed headfur and hole-filled arm warmers leaning over the counter with a bored expression and a cute, trim figure quickly dragged that assertion of absolute loyalty though the mud. \n\n\t“Why is being a slave so hard.” The words slipped out before the dumpy girl could control herself. The cute girl looked up and quirked a brow. Xiulan made a deliberately poor attempt to stile her snicker. Shame heaped upon shame, and her owners weren’t even there. \n\n\t“Don’t mind my friend. Just going out for a lil makeover.” Xi giggled. The counter girl actually taken aback a touch by the little flirtatious giggle. The wah then turned on her heel and walked from the counter back to Gretchen with the most annoying catwalk strut. A tail thwap to the mole’s nose punctuated her sassy movements and was followed quickly by an arm around her shoulder. “So I suppose the first question is, which one are you looking to impress more? They both have similar tastes. But not identical. My sis may like to pretend she’s Justin’s willess little puppet but I know her better.”\n\n\tAll of that was said too loudly. Gretchen tried to turtle-tuck herself into her hoodie. The porcupine girl’s gaze changed from confused bewilderment to something that could either be judgment or curiosity. Gretchen wasn’t good at telling facial expressions and honestly didn’t care.\n\n\t“Sir, mostly.” She sighed.\n\n\t“Well ok then. Off with the top” Xiulan’s grin had gone from mischievous to positively malevolent\n\n\tGretchen stood there dumbfounded. She yanked down her hoodie and puffed herself up. “Y-you want me to strip? In the store?” She snapped “I don’t remember being told I have to submit to-”\n\n\t“The hoodie.” Frustration dripping from the wah’s words. “I’m not going to make you show off your bra in public. I’m not your Dom.”\n\n\t“O-oh. Right. Bra.” A few moments of awkward laughter and embarrassed hesitation passed, then the already ratty WMU hoodie began to lift up over her head. The shirt underneath was a soft, almost pastel purple A smiling anthropomorphic Nidorina in glasses and an overly large knit sweater. The words ‘Legally Distinct Nida’ in a faux air brush font over top.\n\n\t“Jeeze.” Xi scoffed “So you really do wear something under there after all?”\n\n\t“Y-you thought I didn’t?” both sets of digger claws shot out to cover Gretchen’s already well covered chest. The girl behind the counter simply snickered. That disaffected little goth laugh managed to flare Gretchen’s cheeks. More from anger and shame than arousal. Probably.\n\n\t“Relax. I’m just saying you never take that shit off. It’s like Justin with his coat. Except he takes it off sometimes.” Xi’s tail swayed this way and that. She made her way up and around Gretchen, taking hold of the sweatshirt by its hood. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s cute. Not my lil sis doing a gothy E-girl aesthetic cute. Then again he might not mind that.”\n\n\t“I don’t think she’s cut out for that one.” The girl behind the counter chimed in.\n\n\t“Hey! W-what do you know? You don’t even know Mistress!” The words slipped out before Gretchen’s brain could catch up. She quickly turned away and frantically brushed her diggers over her nose in the desperate hope to get the creeply-crawlys out of her spine.\n\n\tThe counter girl gave a disaffected hand wave and returned to her phone. Xiulan, meanwhile, kept snickering even as she slipped behind Becky and put an arm around the clearly uncomfortable dirt-girl. “Look if you want to attract your Master’s attention then you gotta work for it. Especially if you’re not willing to get your paws dirty. Or any of those barely-used holes of yours”\n\n\tThe girl behind the counter smirked a it and Gretchen flailed more. She shoved her ‘friend’ away and whined a deep throaty whine “H-hey, I’ll have you know I’m… I’m very good about attending to Master.”\n\n\t“Oh yeah? Cause I know for a fact he told me you two haven’t gone ‘all the way’. That part I won’t fault ya for. He’s a romantic idiot. Either he or sis is gonna do that somewhere special and try to make it all ‘first time’ and shit.” The giggly red panda girl curled her tail around behind Gretchen, cutting off her egress, in spirit if nothing else. “So I’ll make it easy for you. When was the last time you ‘attended’ him?”\n\n\t“Wednesday” The emotional wound Gretchen had suffered was bare in her tone.\n\n\t“Yeah? What? Did you put that whispery muzzle of yours to work?” The words slipped by Gretchen’s ear in a whisper. Xi leaning in and murring them, almost purring them to the other girl.\n\n\t“Y-yeah!” she barked, before her voice slipped back into its meek stupor “I mean kinda. He’d just gotten home from work a bit before that. A-and I got home. And he was laying on the couch. H-he smelled like sweat and motor oil. I knew he had to be so stressed, So I kinda, sorta…”\n\n\t“Aaaand?” Xi’s mocking coo almost ready to burst\n\n\t“I think he liked it?” Gretchen whimpered\n\n\t“You think?” Xi murred “What, didn’t he tell you?”\n\n\t“He, uh, He didn’t wake up.” she muttered\n\n\tXi stood there, slack jawed. A half stumble sending her into a shelf full of frilly black and purple things and Jhonen Vasquez stuff.\n\n\t“It’s not my fault!” Gretchen grumbled “Look, you know how tired he gets. A-and it was one of those days when he had class before his shift. It could happen to anyone!” She reached a paw out to grab her hoodie. XI, stunned as she was, had enough presence of mind to pull the item away.\n\n\tThe shock did fade, though. Soon replaced with a bemused little smirk. The fashionable cam girl paced her way forwards and slipped around to Gretchen’s other side. She slowly and confidently backed her ‘friend’ up into the same set of shelves, grinning ear to ear. “So the loser’s finally putting in effort for once in his life? Fine. I guess if he’s going though all that, I can help his little second bitch ‘comfort’ him a bit. Guy is my bestie after all!” The lyrical tone of her words and chipper smile on her face only seemed to make Xi look just a bit more Yandere.\n\n\tA quick turn on heel and Xiulan’s eyes met with the girl minding the counter. The girl grinned back. Any attempt to continue looking aloof had now been utterly shattered.\n\n\t“You mind if my friend here tries a few things on?” Xiulan purred. She didn’t even wait for Gretchen’s protest. Already snagging up a baggy shirt with built-in striped arm warmers and a set of skull barrettes.\n\n\t“Nah.” The counter girl snickered “But I think I have a few suggestions. \n\n--------------------\n\n\tThis was a mistake. All of it. They’d only done a couple of stores so far and the Hot Topic was already enough to make Gretchen’s social battery breach and nearly pop. Being a dress-up doll for Xiulan and that shop girl was an hour of harrowing hell she could never get back. Especially the twenty minutes of the two other girls trying to tame the poor mole’s headfur. \n\n\tAt some point she’d fled. Xi had mocked her abilities as a masochist if she found it that hard to showcase a few cute outfits her Master might like. Supposedly her charismatic companion had stayed on in the store for a while afterwards in order to smooth things with the shop girl. \n\n\tGretchen didn’t trust it. That bag was too heavy Xi to have just ‘gotten a few things for herself’ after the clothing-based assault. Worse, she came out with the number of the girl behind the counter! For Gretchen! As if she wasn’t in a committed relationship with her owners and whatever people or objects they told the dumb little dirt licker to worship!\n\n\tSure, Xi claimed that the girl had also given her number to the insufferable wah. That was clearly just a ruse, though. Xiulan was just looking to fuck with her.\n\n\tSpencer’s wasn’t much better. Xi refrained from involving the staff that time around.. But loudly talking about what kind of sex toys Gretchen might get to ‘entice’ her Master didn’t make the experience any more comfortable. Gretchen had stormed out again once she was sure the manager would come over to see what they were up to. She wasn’t going to go through that twice. \n\n\tSo now there they were, walking away from the food court. What few ideas the mole may have had utterly exhausted. She was a dry well in almost every sense of the word. To make matters worse Xi was skipping along behind her. Another ten minutes of Gretchen’s life taken up so that Xiulan could get herself a Julius which the peppy extrovert sipped happily while singing along poorly with the mall music.\n\n\t“It took me four days to hitchhike from Saugatuck”\n\n\t“Saginaw” Gretchen chimed in\n\n\tXi shifted on her heels and spun around, looking somehow both impish and confused. “Huh?”\n\n\t“It’s Saginaw.” The mole corrected once more. “Nobody hitchhikes from Saugatuck. They drive really expensive cars and stay where they are.”\n\n\t“Isn’t that Grand rapids?” Xi’s big bushy tail swaying this way and that as she danced along the line of questioning.\n\n\t“No, Grand Rapids tries to be the purple version of Portland from Portlandia. Instead it’s just the purple version of Portland in real life.”\n\n\t“Ok, Miss Smarty pants, then what’s Kalamazoo then?” Once again the pretty pastel panda pranced her way along without so much as missing a beat. Never once coming close to running into someone. Never once tripping over the occasional protrusion be it slight turn in the mall’s pathway or the looming threat of benches.\n\n\tIt was an impressive display. It was also annoying. So much so that a part of Gretchen really wanted to kick her ‘friend’ right over just to teach her a lesson. If only her stubby legs would reach.\n\n\t“Kzoo is a meth distribution hub, naturally” A single raised digger-claw punctuating Gretchen’s school-marm tone. \n\n\tThe red panda girl huffed and spun on one foot, whipping her tail in Gretchen’s general direction as she did. “People keep saying that, but I haven’t seen anything like that. You’d think if those kinds of drugs were around here it’d be all over where you and Justin live. All of those houses look like they could be drug dens.”\n\n\t“Or just occupied by other college kids without a ton of money.” Gretchen was doing her best to laugh off the implication, and it didn’t work very well. She instead looked down and tapped her digger claws together a bit. “\n\n\t“And yet here you are with the cash to rent a room instead of having your dorm paid for. Plus you have enough left over to go out and buy your boyyyyfriend something.” Xi drew the word out with as much teasing as she could. A big grin plastered over her face as she gave Gretchen a small shove.\n\n\t“You have enough to come out with me and help… and you keep ogling every clothes store we go by. Can’t you just order stuff online if you want it?” Gretchen’s voice had taken on a huffy tone and she shifted back on her heels, the sneakers scuffing a bit from her short-legged shuffling. “A-anyways, I still don’t know what to get. The clothing thing didn’t work out. It all just looks stupid on me. So what else is there?”\n\n\tThere was barely any effort from the lithe red panda to hide her exasperation. She took a few small steps around the mole and put an arm around her. The similarity between Xi and her little sister clearly made Gretchen uncomfortable. Which was a nice bonus. “The clothes weren’t the problem, sweetie. Then again, why are you so worried? Just buy him a couple of boosters or something at the game shop. The hell did Justin do to warrant this much effort? Isn’t he just there as a bonus package since you got with my sis?”\n\n\t“What? N-no!” Grey cheek fur quickly flushed as the flesh under it grew dark from blushing. The shock at how obvious she’d apparently been left Gretchen speechless for a few long moments as she ground her diggers together and shuffled her feet back and forth. “I, well, ok maybe it was like that before. I guess. But don’t go around telling him that! T-that’s not… that’s not why I want to get him something though.”\n\n\t“But then why-”\n\n\t“He’s going to meet my parents!” The mole finally yipped. “I already know it’s going to be a disaster and I want to at least get Master something nice”\n\n\tXi snickered to herself and put a paw on Gretchen’s shoulder “So you want to bribe him. And you can’t take Hui instead? I’m sure she’d love to go.”\n\n\t“They… wouldn’t really be cool with that… It’s going to be bad enough already. I don’t want to make it worse than it has to be” \n\n\t“For him?” Xi snickered “Or for them?”\n\n\t“Oh I don’t really give a shit about how they feel.” It felt a bit like a lie. Gretchen nervously ran her digger claws up her arm, bunching up her hoodie in the process She tried to smile, tried to laugh it off. The anxiety just kept rolling around in her chest until it felt like she was going to burst. She could feel Xiulan’s eyes on her. Feel that burrowing, questioning gaze. “What? I mean it!”\n\n\t“I didn’t say anything” Xi snickered “look, you wanna try Spencer’s again? Maybe something from that shop that sells all the wall hanger swords and bongs?”\n\n\t“I… yeah, ok. First one I guess” The poor mole’s tone had deflated like a zeppelin.\n\n\tXiulan scooted a bit closer and put a paw around Gretchen‘s shoulder, ignoring the clear discomfort it brought. “I get what it’s like when you wanna impress someone. I also get what it’s like when your parents can’t know. You think I tell my folks any of the shit I’m up to? You think your ‘mistress’ tells them she’s kissed a girl and she likes it?”\n\n\t“I’m sure she didn’t like it” Gretchen mumbled “She was just being nice”\n\n\t“Not the time, not the point.” Xi sighed “The point is don’t worry about it so damn much. I know Justin, he’ll be cool. You wanna show off an actual literal boy who has actual interest in you because that’s ‘normal’ and it shuts your folks up. Right?”\n\n\t“Right.” The mole muttered halfhearted\n\n\t“Right. So if you really truly wanna give him something as a thank you besides just a blowie then just relax. I promise we can find something he’ll like.”\n\n\tGretchen wrinkled her nose and huffed loudly “This slave is already property. Her body is not her own. Master and Mistress can use it any time they like. I cannot give a ‘gift’ of something I do not own.”\n\n\t“Riiight.” Xiulan sighed “come on. Let’s see if they have any of those plasma ball thingies.”\n\n--------------------\n\n\t“Ok.” Xiulan giggled “Last stop!”\n\n\t“What do you mean last stop?” Gretchen looked around nervously. “I thought you said you were going to help me find something for Master.”\n\n\t“Duh. And that’s why this is the last stop. You didn’t think anything else was good enough. I knew you wouldn’t think anything else was good enough. So I made sure this would be where we ended up.” The impish wah pranced her way up to the side of the shop and stood beside it. Faux innocence plastered over her face and her body swaying side to side. It was the kind of gesture that would work for something like ‘Build A Bear’ or some niche clothing shop. But no. It was hardly anything so simple and pure.\n\n\t“A tattoo parlor?” Gretchen stared for the longest time. Fist at the sign, then down to Xiulan. “A tattoo. You want me to get a tattoo? Really?”\n\n\tXi shrugged. It was impossible to keep that stupid smirk off of her muzzle even as her tone stayed unnervingly cheery and innocent. “What? It’s not like you’re super orthodox or anything. Besides you said you wanted to do something big.”\n\n\t“I didn’t mean this big! Besides, I don’t even know what his mark would be. Or I guess the household mark. Do they even have one yet? Is that just something in bad fan fiction?” Equal parts worry and expectation crept into Gretchen’s voice as she tapped her digger claws together at the tip. She began rocking a bit, whining and whimpering while shuffling from foot to foot. “B’sides. I kinda figured if it was a slave thing I should get like, you know, branded or something.”\n\n\t“Oh my- Fiction! My dumb little brat of a sister writes fiction. Nobody is getting branded by their kink partners in the god damn twenty twenties. Jesus Christ on a cracker I cannot believe I have to tell you that.” Xi stomped her way to the other side of the tattoo parlor door then back up to her ‘friend’. Nervous pacing that didn’t sit quite right on the normally carefree young woman. “Nobody is going to put a skewer though your tits. Nobody is going to make you do forced labor all day then eat them out all night. Nobody is going to chain you up to the urinal at the game shop and make you get addicted to the musk of unwashed nerdy boys all night with a hood and a big ol’ free use sign around your neck. Oh my god are you blushing?”\n\n\tGretchen was indeed blushing. She knew it, too. The second Xiulan said it. The poor girl buried her face into her paws and whined loudly taking a few steps back and nearly falling over herself “What? N-no! Shut up!” The nervous little dirt-brushing shuffle of diggers over nose once again sent frustrated barbs into her brain. “A-anyways can you quiet down? This isn’t exactly a private spot you know. You wanna get us thrown out?”\n\n\t“Oh please. I could probably give any mall cop here a handie out back and they’d probably never even file a report.” Xi scoffed.\n\n\tSomething about the way Xiulan said those words had the tone of a magical girl announcing her arrival, at least to Gretchen’s ear. It was equal parts disgusting, impressive and hot. Almost enough to make her feel just a bit less furious.\n\n\tAlmost. But not quite.\n\n\tThe mole girl eventually got herself together enough to offer up a pathetic little smile. It was soft and weak. It only lasted a moment. But it was something. “Look” she sighed “I know some of this stuff is a bit extreme. I know Master and Mistress probably wouldn’t do most of it even if Mistress writes about it a lot. I get that. But part of me still wants some big overt mark that says ‘I am property and I have no rights’. And then the other part is just freaking the frick out because that’s a massive step and I am not ready for it. Especially not without their input. I’m never going to find ‘love’ again so I can’t screw this up!”\n\n\tXiulan’s paw came to rest on Gretchen’s shoulder. A moment later the red panda was curled around her neck. A tight and shockingly friendly embrace which simultaneously set off every warning bell in Gretchen’s head and yet left her feeling theoretically comforted. That comfort did fade the longer the hug went on. Soon it was more discomfort than anything. She returned the hug nervously until finally Xiulan pulled back and let out a sigh of exasperation.\n\n\t“Listen. Don’t.”\n\n\t“Don’t?” Gretchen raised a brow\n\n\t“Don’t get something unless it’s what you want to do… and don’t wait on something if it’s what you want.” Xiulan took a few steps away from the store front, then a few more. Before either of them realized it she’d made her way up to the glass wall leading outside and was sitting on the metal outcrop helping to hold the glass in place. “You know Justin’s tat? The big raven wing thing on his back? With the chains?”\n\n\t“Y-yeah?” It was a bit awkward for Gretchen to come out and say it She’d seen her femmy-ish, bishonen Master shirtless before. For all the perving out to hardcore taboo porn the reality of actually seeing a boy she ‘liked’ like that was kind of hot. Not as hot as servicing her owners, naturally. But in her fucked up mind even that was enough to make her start breathing heavily.\n\n\t“Oh would you knock it off?” a sharp hand wave, almost a smack, from the seated red panda before she slumped back down with elbows on knees and chin in paws. “Look, my point is that you gotta get out of your head. That… I know you’ve heard a bit about the teacher who kinda ‘trained’ us back in our senior year at high school. I mean Hui would have obviously told you if nothing else.”\n\n\tThe rebuke wasn‘t much of a shock to Gretchen. The rest of it was, though. She shifted back on her heels and nearly fell on her ass. “She didn’t, actually. Not too much.” Even someone like Gretchen knew there was a line. Her Master having endured forced feminization and humiliation for months was a hot idea. This girl who basically looked like her Mistress going though it as well made it even hotter. But that was the extent of it, and even that was something she didn’t feel safe sharing.\n\n\tXi, however, seemed to feel differently. Her eyes, so different from Hui’s, sparkled a bit from where the red panda sat “Mistress… that’s what I called the woman… She was originally going to get a tat for me. Going to ‘mark’ me. Same sort of thing we were talking about a second ago. I, I kinda chickened out. Apparently she’d already paid so she just got Justin something. I just figured if I did it and then… and then if she threw me away…”\n\n\tBefore Gretchen could say anything, Xiulan had shot up and was holding a finger to the girls lips. There were tears in the panda girl’s eyes. Her tail bristled. Her chest heaving in spite of herself with stifled little sobs. “Don’t. I know what you’re going to ask. Don’t.”\n\n\tThe mole simply nodded and took a step back\n\n\t“Ok, so I might be confused here. But I don’t really don’t get your point. So you’re saying because you didn’t get the tattoo for her, she let Master have it. And now you regret it. But I ‘want’ to get branded with their mark. So…”\n\n\t“So I’m saying don’t get too into your own head.” Xiulan sighed “I’m probably being stupid doing it but that’s the point. If you ‘really want to get a mark then you need to figure it out for real. Don’t just fantasize about a branding and get in your head about how things ‘should’ be until you just fuck yourself up. Gahh I had a whole thing for this!”\n\n\t“You really liked her, didn’t you?” The words slipped out before Gretchen could stop herself. She saw the hurt filling Xi’s eyes. The pain. The hate. She also saw the blush on her cheeks. The way her tail bristled and swayed. “S-sorry.” Was the only thing she could stammer.\n\n\tA sigh shattered everything else the red panda had built up. Her whole body melted into a jelly of resignation and repression. “Like I was saying, just don’t go getting in your own head and fucking everything up.” She sighed “If you want to do something then go ahead and do it. But don’t go thinking you ‘have’ to do some massive display of servitude, or letting your self hate screw you out of what you really want. Ok?”\n\n\tThe two girls just stayed there for a long moment, neither one saying anything. Gretchen took a few moments to look at the tattoo place, then gestured for Xiulan “Come on” she sighed “I think this can wait for later.”\n\n--------------------\n\n\t“So what one did you settle on?” The anxiety which had gripped Xiulan a mere hour ago had melted away, replaced with her usual chipper smile. \n\n\tGretchen’s legs were still trembling a bit from the Uber. The fact that people actually expected you to get in a car with other fucking people you didn’t know and have them drive you somewhere was the most unhinged notion and she wouldn’t have done it if Xi hadn’t paid. Once again Midwestern guilt winning out over her totally rational anxieties. Still she kept as brave a face she could and raised the clear plastic bag from the hobby shop up to eye level. “Um, MSN-06S Sinanju Stein? Am I saying that right?”\n\n\tXiulan shrugged and held back a snicker “I unno. I don’t Gundam. And that’s not what I meant. You said you were only getting the model to hide the ‘other’ box, right?”\n\n\tThe poor mole paused. She turned the bag slowly and a small shiver ran up her spine. “You know what I got.” the words muttered while she gazed at the ‘all day wearable’ app-controlled insertable that had been tucked in to the bag along with the model kit.\n\n\t“Ya know, if you give this all to him before hand, I bet you would get to wear the ‘smaller’ gift out to the party thing you’re dragging him to. That could be a lot of fun.” Xiulan’s words were cut off by a small shove from Gretchen and a loud, whimpery whine\n\n\t“Let’s just go.” Gretchen sighed “I’ll worry about the rest later.”\n\n\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "Collared Chapter 31: Gift
By TerraMGP

\tNothing was going the way Gretchen wanted. But then what else was new?

\tBeing owned, and owned by a couple at that, should have been easy assurance of endless sexy times and abuse. Instead her beloved Mistress was a long way down I-94 and her Master was spending most of his days passed out on the couch.

\tRationally that wasn’t their fault. She was still in high school and he was working two jobs on top of class. That’s what Gretchen kept telling herself when she found herself. That was the ‘objective’ way to look at it. It also sucked. All of her dreams were so close, and yet so far away.

\tBut in her nearly 20 years of life, Gretchen had learned that things can always get worse. It was usually her fault, too. Which was why she found herself standing there near the JC Penny side of the mall. Her big clunky sneakers kicked and dug into the tile grout while she waited and watched the furs slipping out into the mall proper.

\tAt last the figure she waited for crossed her gaze. A red panda girl, much like her beloved Hui. Except evil. Evil and inverse of evertying which made her Mistress the goddess on earth she was! Mistress’ snotty, haughty, self obsessed older sister. A nightmare in pastel pinks and blacks, carrying a bag of clothing on one arm while looking around the entrance.

\tA sane girl would ignore her. Especially someone who knew her. The last thing Gretchen wanted was to put up with Xiulan’s constant teasing and eternal un-asked for judgment. Except she couldn’t do that. Because Gretchen was the one who had invited Xi in the first place.

\tA few cursory tightening of Gretchen’s digger-clawed digits and the mole began to trundle her way over towards the perky teen. Gretchen held up a hand and gave a small little nod of recognition. The other girl gave her a giggle-snort in response before holding up the bag of clothing she’d gotten. The brown paper held aloft like a trophy in half a dozen ‘monster hunting’ type games.

\t“You bailed out of that one real quick..” Xi snickered “I thought you dragged me out here to help you clothes shop.”

\t“For Master.” Gretchen huffed

\tXi snickered and shook her head “I donno. I mean sure, I know his size. And a ton of other things. That’s what happens when you end up getting all femmy and sissy with your bestie-”

\t“I meant for me to wear. For him” Gretchen grumbled and shoved her paws deep into the front of her hoodie. “Based on what Mistress likes to wear sometimes I figured something like Hot Topic might be better. Or like, I donno, those really trendy places normie girls shop. Like Old Navy .Old Navy is one of those, right?”

\t“Oh, oh honey. Honey no. Nooo” The condescension in Xi’s voice was honey-thick. Still she began to walk along, leading the way without even having to say a word. Even in the presence of someone she hated, Gretchen was a ‘follower’ after all. “Honestly you could do to spruce up your wardrobe regardless. So I don’t mind helping you. But if I do, you can’t keep doing ‘this’”

\t“Doing what?” The chubby mole’s eyes narrowed under the wild curls of her unkempt hair.

\t“This” Xi waved her free paw frantically up and down in Gretchen’s general direction “All of this.  This pretending you don’t know what the hell you’re doing.”

\t“Who the hecky says I’m pretending?” Gretchen shot back “Look are you going to help me or not? Because I can keep that fifty I was going to give you if that’s how you wanna be about it.”

\tThe eye roll from Xiulan was painful to watch, mostly because it was hard enough that one might imagine she’d detached a retina. “I’m not going to take your money.” Xi sighed “Trust me, I don’t need it.”

\t“Then why are you-”

\t“Come on. I ‘promise’ we’ll hit up the right spots. But you need to dial back on this whole thing you do. The one where you pretend to be all mopey all the time and not know the ‘basics’ of how to be a girl yourself.”

\t“I know how to be a girl. I just don’t know how to be cute!” Gretchen stamped her foot, then winced. There were people around her, and many of them stopped to look at the two of them.

\tWith that, Gretchen slumped her shoulders, and allowed herself to follow along. Xiulan kept talking. Some kind of dismissive rant that the mole merely nodded her head to or occasionally grunted in the negative. True, she’d brought all of this on herself. But then that didn’t mean she had to like anything about this.

--------------------

\tWhatever else could be said about Xiulan, she was confident. Gretchen knew that already, but every second she was stuck with the annoying girl seemed to further drive that point home. Xi led the two of them into the land of gothy clothes and ‘Nightmare before Christmas’ merch with an energetic stride to her step. Her tail, and to a lesser degree her rump, swaying happily.

\tPart of Gretchen wondered if her own discomfort played a part in that happy sway. Some small part of Gretchen had to confess that her Mistress’ older sibling had a cute ass. Why not? The two were very close to identical even if they weren’t actual twins. Somehow that just made her hate Xi more. Surely the perky girl knew what she was doing, and unless she was told otherwise the only girl Gretchen knew she should have eyes for was her Mistress. Plain and simple!

\tA porcupine girl with dyed headfur and hole-filled arm warmers leaning over the counter with a bored expression and a cute, trim figure quickly dragged that assertion of absolute loyalty though the mud.

\t“Why is being a slave so hard.” The words slipped out before the dumpy girl could control herself. The cute girl looked up and quirked a brow. Xiulan made a deliberately poor attempt to stile her snicker. Shame heaped upon shame, and her owners weren’t even there.

\t“Don’t mind my friend. Just going out for a lil makeover.” Xi giggled. The counter girl actually taken aback a touch by the little flirtatious giggle. The wah then turned on her heel and walked from the counter back to Gretchen with the most annoying catwalk strut. A tail thwap to the mole’s nose punctuated her sassy movements and was followed quickly by an arm around her shoulder. “So I suppose the first question is, which one are you looking to impress more? They both have similar tastes. But not identical. My sis may like to pretend she’s Justin’s willess little puppet but I know her better.”

\tAll of that was said too loudly. Gretchen tried to turtle-tuck herself into her hoodie. The porcupine girl’s gaze changed from confused bewilderment to something that could either be judgment or curiosity. Gretchen wasn’t good at telling facial expressions and honestly didn’t care.

\t“Sir, mostly.” She sighed.

\t“Well ok then. Off with the top” Xiulan’s grin had gone from mischievous to positively malevolent

\tGretchen stood there dumbfounded. She yanked down her hoodie and puffed herself up. “Y-you want me to strip? In the store?” She snapped “I don’t remember being told I have to submit to-”

\t“The hoodie.” Frustration dripping from the wah’s words. “I’m not going to make you show off your bra in public. I’m not your Dom.”

\t“O-oh. Right. Bra.” A few moments of awkward laughter and embarrassed hesitation passed, then the already ratty WMU hoodie began to lift up over her head. The shirt underneath was a soft, almost pastel purple A smiling anthropomorphic Nidorina in glasses and an overly large knit sweater. The words ‘Legally Distinct Nida’ in a faux air brush font over top.

\t“Jeeze.” Xi scoffed “So you really do wear something under there after all?”

\t“Y-you thought I didn’t?” both sets of digger claws shot out to cover Gretchen’s already well covered chest. The girl behind the counter simply snickered. That disaffected little goth laugh managed to flare Gretchen’s cheeks. More from anger and shame than arousal. Probably.

\t“Relax. I’m just saying you never take that shit off. It’s like Justin with his coat. Except he takes it off sometimes.” Xi’s tail swayed this way and that. She made her way up and around Gretchen, taking hold of the sweatshirt by its hood. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s cute. Not my lil sis doing a gothy E-girl aesthetic cute. Then again he might not mind that.”

\t“I don’t think she’s cut out for that one.” The girl behind the counter chimed in.

\t“Hey! W-what do you know? You don’t even know Mistress!” The words slipped out before Gretchen’s brain could catch up. She quickly turned away and frantically brushed her diggers over her nose in the desperate hope to get the creeply-crawlys out of her spine.

\tThe counter girl gave a disaffected hand wave and returned to her phone. Xiulan, meanwhile, kept snickering even as she slipped behind Becky and put an arm around the clearly uncomfortable dirt-girl. “Look if you want to attract your Master’s attention then you gotta work for it. Especially if you’re not willing to get your paws dirty. Or any of those barely-used holes of yours”

\tThe girl behind the counter smirked a it and Gretchen flailed more. She shoved her ‘friend’ away and whined a deep throaty whine “H-hey, I’ll have you know I’m… I’m  very good about attending to Master.”

\t“Oh yeah? Cause I know for a fact he told me you two haven’t gone ‘all the way’. That part I won’t fault ya for. He’s a romantic idiot. Either he or sis is gonna do that somewhere special and try to make it all ‘first time’ and shit.” The giggly red panda girl curled her tail around behind Gretchen, cutting off her egress, in spirit if nothing else. “So I’ll make it easy for you. When was the last time you ‘attended’ him?”

\t“Wednesday” The emotional wound Gretchen had suffered was bare in her tone.

\t“Yeah? What? Did you put that whispery muzzle of yours to work?” The words slipped by Gretchen’s ear in a whisper. Xi leaning in and murring them, almost purring them to the other girl.

\t“Y-yeah!” she barked, before her voice slipped back into its meek stupor “I mean kinda. He’d just gotten home from work a bit before that. A-and I got home. And he was laying on the couch. H-he smelled like sweat and motor oil. I knew he had to be so stressed, So I kinda, sorta…”

\t“Aaaand?” Xi’s mocking coo almost ready to burst

\t“I think he liked it?” Gretchen whimpered

\t“You think?” Xi murred “What, didn’t he tell you?”

\t“He, uh, He didn’t wake up.” she muttered

\tXi stood there, slack jawed. A half stumble sending her into a shelf full of frilly black and purple things and Jhonen Vasquez stuff.

\t“It’s not my fault!” Gretchen grumbled “Look, you know how tired he gets. A-and it was one of those days when he had class before his shift. It could happen to anyone!” She reached a paw out to grab her hoodie. XI, stunned as she was, had enough presence of mind to pull the item away.

\tThe shock did fade, though. Soon replaced with a bemused little smirk. The fashionable cam girl paced her way forwards and slipped around to Gretchen’s other side. She slowly and confidently backed her ‘friend’ up into the same set of shelves, grinning ear to ear. “So the loser’s finally putting in effort for once in his life? Fine. I guess if he’s going though all that, I can help his little second bitch ‘comfort’ him a bit. Guy is my bestie after all!” The lyrical tone of her words and chipper smile on her face only seemed to make Xi look just a bit more Yandere.

\tA quick turn on heel and Xiulan’s eyes met with the girl minding the counter. The girl grinned back. Any attempt to continue looking aloof had now been utterly shattered.

\t“You mind if my friend here tries a few things on?” Xiulan purred. She didn’t even wait for Gretchen’s protest. Already snagging up a baggy shirt with built-in striped arm warmers and a set of skull barrettes.

\t“Nah.” The counter girl snickered “But I think I have a few suggestions.

--------------------

\tThis was a mistake. All of it. They’d only done a couple of stores so far and the Hot Topic was already enough to make Gretchen’s social battery breach and nearly pop. Being a dress-up doll for Xiulan and that shop girl was an hour of harrowing hell she could never get back. Especially the twenty minutes of the two other girls trying to tame the poor mole’s headfur.

\tAt some point she’d fled. Xi had mocked her abilities as a masochist if she found it that hard to showcase a few cute outfits her Master might like. Supposedly her charismatic companion had stayed on in the store for a while afterwards in order to smooth things with the shop girl.

\tGretchen didn’t trust it. That bag was too heavy Xi to have just ‘gotten a few things for herself’ after the clothing-based assault. Worse, she came out with the number of the girl behind the counter! For Gretchen! As if she wasn’t in a committed relationship with her owners and whatever people or objects they told the dumb little dirt licker to worship!

\tSure, Xi claimed that the girl had also given her number to the insufferable wah. That was clearly just a ruse, though. Xiulan was just looking to fuck with her.

\tSpencer’s wasn’t much better. Xi refrained from involving the staff that time around.. But loudly talking about what kind of sex toys Gretchen might get to ‘entice’ her Master didn’t make the experience any more comfortable. Gretchen had stormed out again once she was sure the manager would come over to see what they were up to. She wasn’t going to go through that twice.

\tSo now there they were, walking away from the food court. What few ideas the mole may have had utterly exhausted. She was a dry well in almost every sense of the word. To make matters worse Xi was skipping along behind her. Another ten minutes of Gretchen’s life taken up so that Xiulan could get herself a Julius which the peppy extrovert sipped happily while singing along poorly with the mall music.

\t“It took me four days to hitchhike from Saugatuck”

\t“Saginaw” Gretchen chimed in

\tXi shifted on her heels and spun around, looking somehow both impish and confused. “Huh?”

\t“It’s Saginaw.” The mole corrected once more. “Nobody hitchhikes from Saugatuck. They drive really expensive cars and stay where they are.”

\t“Isn’t that Grand rapids?” Xi’s big bushy tail swaying this way and that as she danced along the line of questioning.

\t“No, Grand Rapids tries to be the purple version of Portland from Portlandia. Instead it’s just the purple version of Portland in real life.”

\t“Ok, Miss Smarty pants, then what’s Kalamazoo then?” Once again the pretty pastel panda pranced her way along without so much as missing a beat. Never once coming close to running into someone. Never once tripping over the occasional protrusion be it slight turn in the mall’s pathway or the looming threat of benches.

\tIt was an impressive display. It was also annoying. So much so that a part of Gretchen really wanted to kick her ‘friend’ right over just to teach her a lesson. If only her stubby legs would reach.

\t“Kzoo is a meth distribution hub, naturally” A single raised digger-claw punctuating Gretchen’s school-marm tone.

\tThe red panda girl huffed and spun on one foot, whipping her tail in Gretchen’s general direction as she did. “People keep saying that, but I haven’t seen anything like that. You’d think if those kinds of drugs were around here it’d be all over where you and Justin live. All of those houses look like they could be drug dens.”

\t“Or just occupied by other college kids without a ton of money.” Gretchen was doing her best to laugh off the implication, and it didn’t work very well. She instead looked down and tapped her digger claws together a bit. “

\t“And yet here you are with the cash to rent a room instead of having your dorm paid for. Plus you have enough left over to go out and buy your boyyyyfriend something.” Xi drew the word out with as much teasing as she could. A big grin plastered over her face as she gave Gretchen a small shove.

\t“You have enough to come out with me and help… and you keep ogling every clothes store we go by. Can’t you just order stuff online if you want it?” Gretchen’s voice had taken on a huffy tone and she shifted back on her heels, the sneakers scuffing a bit from her short-legged shuffling. “A-anyways, I still don’t know what to get. The clothing thing didn’t work out. It all just looks stupid on me. So what else is there?”

\tThere was barely any effort from the lithe red panda to hide her exasperation. She took a few small steps around the mole and put an arm around her. The similarity between Xi and her little sister clearly made Gretchen uncomfortable. Which was a nice bonus. “The clothes weren’t the problem, sweetie. Then again, why are you so worried? Just buy him a couple of boosters or something at the game shop. The hell did Justin do to warrant this much effort? Isn’t he just there as a bonus package since you got with my sis?”

\t“What? N-no!” Grey cheek fur quickly flushed as the flesh under it grew dark from blushing. The shock at how obvious she’d apparently been left Gretchen speechless for a few long moments as she ground her diggers together and shuffled her feet back and forth. “I, well, ok maybe it was like that before. I guess. But don’t go around telling him that! T-that’s not… that’s not why I want to get him something though.”

\t“But then why-”

\t“He’s going to meet my parents!” The mole finally yipped. “I already know it’s going to be a disaster and I want to at least get Master something nice”

\tXi snickered to herself and put a paw on Gretchen’s shoulder “So you want to bribe him. And you can’t take Hui instead? I’m sure she’d love to go.”

\t“They… wouldn’t really be cool with that… It’s going to be bad enough already. I don’t want to make it worse than it has to be”

\t“For him?” Xi snickered “Or for them?”

\t“Oh I don’t really give a shit about how they feel.” It felt a bit like a lie. Gretchen nervously ran her digger claws up her arm, bunching up her hoodie in the process She tried to smile, tried to laugh it off. The anxiety just kept rolling around in her chest until it felt like she was going to burst. She could feel Xiulan’s eyes on her. Feel that burrowing, questioning gaze. “What? I mean it!”

\t“I didn’t say anything” Xi snickered “look, you wanna try Spencer’s again? Maybe something from that shop that sells all the wall hanger swords and bongs?”

\t“I… yeah, ok. First one I guess” The poor mole’s tone had deflated like a zeppelin.

\tXiulan scooted a bit closer and put a paw around Gretchen‘s shoulder, ignoring the clear discomfort it brought. “I get what it’s like when you wanna impress someone. I also get what it’s like when your parents can’t know. You think I tell my folks any of the shit I’m up to? You think your ‘mistress’ tells them she’s kissed a girl and she likes it?”

\t“I’m sure she didn’t like it” Gretchen mumbled “She was just being nice”

\t“Not the time, not the point.” Xi sighed “The point is don’t worry about it so damn much. I know Justin, he’ll be cool. You wanna show off an actual literal boy who has actual interest in you because that’s ‘normal’ and it shuts your folks up. Right?”

\t“Right.” The mole muttered halfhearted

\t“Right. So if you really truly wanna give him something as a thank you besides just a blowie then just relax. I promise we can find something he’ll like.”

\tGretchen wrinkled her nose and huffed loudly “This slave is already property. Her body is not her own. Master and Mistress can use it any time they like. I cannot give a ‘gift’ of something I do not own.”

\t“Riiight.” Xiulan sighed “come on. Let’s see if they have any of those plasma ball thingies.”

--------------------

\t“Ok.” Xiulan giggled “Last stop!”

\t“What do you mean last stop?” Gretchen looked around nervously. “I thought you said you were going to help me find something for Master.”

\t“Duh. And that’s why this is the last stop. You didn’t think anything else was good enough. I knew you wouldn’t think anything else was good enough. So I made sure this would be where we ended up.” The impish wah pranced her way up to the side of the shop and stood beside it. Faux innocence plastered over her face and her body swaying side to side. It was the kind of gesture that would work for something like ‘Build A Bear’ or some niche clothing shop. But no. It was hardly anything so simple and pure.

\t“A tattoo parlor?” Gretchen stared for the longest time. Fist at the sign, then down to Xiulan. “A tattoo. You want me to get a tattoo? Really?”

\tXi shrugged. It was impossible to keep that stupid smirk off of her muzzle even as her tone stayed unnervingly cheery and innocent. “What? It’s not like you’re super orthodox or anything. Besides you said you wanted to do something big.”

\t“I didn’t mean this big! Besides, I don’t even know what his mark would be. Or I guess the household mark. Do they even have one yet? Is that just something in bad fan fiction?” Equal parts worry and expectation crept into Gretchen’s voice as she tapped her digger claws together at the tip. She began rocking a bit, whining and whimpering while shuffling from foot to foot. “B’sides. I kinda figured if it was a slave thing I should get like, you know, branded or something.”

\t“Oh my- Fiction! My dumb little brat of a sister writes fiction. Nobody is getting branded by their kink partners in the god damn twenty twenties. Jesus Christ on a cracker I cannot believe I have to tell you that.” Xi stomped her way to the other side of the tattoo parlor door then back up to her ‘friend’. Nervous pacing that didn’t sit quite right on the normally carefree young woman. “Nobody is going to put a skewer though your tits. Nobody is going to make you do forced labor all day then eat them out all night. Nobody is going to chain you up to the urinal at the game shop and make you get addicted to the musk of unwashed nerdy boys all night with a hood and a big ol’ free use sign around your neck. Oh my god are you blushing?”

\tGretchen was indeed blushing. She knew it, too. The second Xiulan said it. The poor girl buried her face into her paws and whined loudly taking a few steps back and nearly falling over herself “What? N-no! Shut up!” The nervous little dirt-brushing shuffle of diggers over nose once again sent frustrated barbs into her brain. “A-anyways can you quiet down? This isn’t exactly a private spot you know. You wanna get us thrown out?”

\t“Oh please. I could probably give any mall cop here a handie out back and they’d probably never even file a report.” Xi scoffed.

\tSomething about the way Xiulan said those words had the tone of a magical girl announcing her arrival, at least to Gretchen’s ear. It was equal parts disgusting, impressive and hot. Almost enough to make her feel just a bit less furious.

\tAlmost. But not quite.

\tThe mole girl eventually got herself together enough to offer up a pathetic little smile. It was soft and weak. It only lasted a moment. But it was something. “Look” she sighed “I know some of this stuff is a bit extreme. I know Master and Mistress probably wouldn’t do most of it even if Mistress writes about it a lot. I get that. But part of me still wants some big overt mark that says ‘I am property and I have no rights’. And then the other part is just freaking the frick out because that’s a massive step and I am not ready for it. Especially not without their input. I’m never going to find ‘love’ again so I can’t screw this up!”

\tXiulan’s paw came to rest on Gretchen’s shoulder. A moment later the red panda was curled around her neck. A tight and shockingly friendly embrace which simultaneously set off every warning bell in Gretchen’s head and yet left her feeling theoretically comforted. That comfort did fade the longer the hug went on. Soon it was more discomfort than anything. She returned the hug nervously until finally Xiulan pulled back and let out a sigh of exasperation.

\t“Listen. Don’t.”

\t“Don’t?” Gretchen raised a brow

\t“Don’t get something unless it’s what you want to do… and don’t wait on something if it’s what you want.” Xiulan took a few steps away from the store front, then a few more. Before either of them realized it she’d made her way up to the glass wall leading outside and was sitting on the metal outcrop helping to hold the glass in place. “You know Justin’s tat? The big raven wing thing on his back? With the chains?”

\t“Y-yeah?” It was a bit awkward for Gretchen to come out and say it She’d seen her femmy-ish, bishonen Master shirtless before. For all the perving out to hardcore taboo porn the reality of actually seeing a boy she ‘liked’ like that was kind of hot. Not as hot as servicing her owners, naturally. But in her fucked up mind even that was enough to make her start breathing heavily.

\t“Oh would you knock it off?” a sharp hand wave, almost a smack, from the seated red panda before she slumped back down with elbows on knees and chin in paws. “Look, my point is that you gotta get out of your head. That… I know you’ve heard a bit about the teacher who kinda ‘trained’ us back in our senior year at high school. I mean Hui would have obviously told you if nothing else.”

\tThe rebuke wasn‘t much of a shock to Gretchen. The rest of it was, though. She shifted back on her heels and nearly fell on her ass. “She didn’t, actually. Not too much.” Even someone like Gretchen knew there was a line. Her Master having endured forced feminization and humiliation for months was a hot idea. This girl who basically looked like her Mistress going though it as well made it even hotter. But that was the extent of it, and even that was something she didn’t feel safe sharing.

\tXi, however, seemed to feel differently. Her eyes, so different from Hui’s, sparkled a bit from where the red panda sat “Mistress… that’s what I called the woman… She was originally going to get a tat for me. Going to ‘mark’ me. Same sort of thing we were talking about a second ago. I, I kinda chickened out. Apparently she’d already paid so she just got Justin something. I just figured if I did it and then… and then if she threw me away…”

\tBefore Gretchen could say anything, Xiulan had shot up and was holding a finger to the girls lips. There were tears in the panda girl’s eyes. Her tail bristled. Her chest heaving in spite of herself with stifled little sobs. “Don’t. I know what you’re going to ask. Don’t.”

\tThe mole simply nodded and took a step back

\t“Ok, so I might be confused here. But I don’t really don’t get your point. So you’re saying because you didn’t get the tattoo for her, she let Master have it. And now you regret it. But I ‘want’ to get branded with their mark. So…”

\t“So I’m saying don’t get too into your own head.” Xiulan sighed “I’m probably being stupid doing it but that’s the point. If you ‘really want to get a mark then you need to figure it out for real. Don’t just fantasize about a branding and get in your head about how things ‘should’ be until you just fuck yourself up. Gahh I had a whole thing for this!”

\t“You really liked her, didn’t you?” The words slipped out before Gretchen could stop herself. She saw the hurt filling Xi’s eyes. The pain. The hate. She also saw the blush on her cheeks. The way her tail bristled and swayed. “S-sorry.” Was the only thing she could stammer.

\tA sigh shattered everything else the red panda had built up. Her whole body melted into a jelly of resignation and repression. “Like I was saying, just don’t go getting in your own head and fucking everything up.” She sighed “If you want to do something then go ahead and do it. But don’t go thinking you ‘have’ to do some massive display of servitude, or letting your self hate screw you out of what you really want. Ok?”

\tThe two girls just stayed there for a long moment, neither one saying anything. Gretchen took a few moments to look at the tattoo place,  then gestured for Xiulan “Come on” she sighed “I think this can wait for later.”

--------------------

\t“So what one did you settle on?” The anxiety which had gripped Xiulan a mere hour ago had melted away, replaced with her usual chipper smile.

\tGretchen’s legs were still trembling a bit from the Uber. The fact that people actually expected you to get in a car with other fucking people you didn’t know and have them drive you somewhere was the most unhinged notion and she wouldn’t have done it if Xi hadn’t paid. Once again Midwestern guilt winning out over her totally rational anxieties. Still she kept as brave a face she could and raised the clear plastic bag from the hobby shop up to eye level. “Um, MSN-06S Sinanju Stein? Am I saying that right?”

\tXiulan shrugged and held back a snicker “I unno. I don’t Gundam. And that’s not what I meant. You said you were only getting the model to hide the ‘other’ box, right?”

\tThe poor mole paused. She turned the bag slowly and a small shiver ran up her spine. “You know what I got.” the words muttered while she gazed at the ‘all day wearable’ app-controlled insertable that had been tucked in to the bag along with the model kit.

\t“Ya know, if you give this all to him before hand, I bet you would get to wear the ‘smaller’ gift out to the party thing you’re dragging him to. That could be a lot of fun.” Xiulan’s words were cut off by a small shove from Gretchen and a loud, whimpery whine

\t“Let’s just go.” Gretchen sighed “I’ll worry about the rest later.”


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