A few days after my little night outing, I got a text to meet with Aku. She told me to go to the tea shop we visited before. I really didn’t want to see her, but I was willing to go since it might’ve been about compensation. When I reached the shop, Aku was standing out front.

“Hey…” she was a lot more unenthusiastic than usual.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“Just tired… I had so much paperwork to do since I ordered that raid. It also didn’t help that I involved you… sorry by the way,”

“I’m over it. But I’m not doing it again,” I told her straight.

“Yeah, yeah. I know. Let’s go inside,”

We went inside, we immediately went upstairs. Sherry didn’t even question it; she even closed the door to the upstairs after we went up. What did Aku want that was so serious? I twiddled my thumbs waiting for Aku to say something. She took a deep sigh while staring out the window.

“Here…” she took two small envelopes and put them on the table.

“What are these?” I asked.

“Compensation. I did promise you, didn’t I? Well, I decided to deliver it in person once I decided what to actually give you. Open them,”

I opened the first envelope and inside was a check for a large sum of money. The numbers were huge… a little too huge for my liking. I decided to see what was in the other envelope. Opening it, I discovered a simple slip of paper. It just read,

Check your ID

Curious, I took out my wallet and took out my ID. To my surprise, it had changed.

“The restrictions…”

Aku smiled, “I asked the higher ups and they gave me the okay to get rid of them. Now, you’re just a normal girl,”

I was baffled… this was just too much, “I can’t accept this,”

“It doesn’t matter. You don’t have to keep the money. Give to charity or something. It’s yours now,”

Aku kept staring out the window. There was obviously something bothering her. It was also bothering me since I had no idea what it was. I needed to do something…

“Aku… are you alright? You keep staring away,”

“Ugh… sorry,” she buried her face in her hands. Okay this was not good.

“You can tell me… or not. I think that I’m a great listener!”

She chuckled a little, “Well… I’ve been thinking about myself lately… I realized that I don’t really enjoy my job. It works me to the bone and I have to deal with so many shitheads. Working for the government has its perks, but it just feels like I’m not living my life. But I don’t know what I’d do if I wasn’t so I’ve just stayed working there. I’ve been working for the government for the past… uh… one hundred years,”

I began to understand a little, “Basically, you’re sick of your job, but don’t know anything else you’re good at so you stay in this job because you feel like there isn’t an alternative,”

“I think that’s about right,” Aku sighed again. We both sat there in silence. This was really out of character for her. Then again, I barely knew anything about her. All I knew was that she was a cunning, sassy, sometimes horny succubus that worked for the government, handed out IDs and didn’t like most of the people around her.

“So… what do you want to do?” I asked.

“I’m not sure,”

“Let’s start with the kind of things you like to do. Do you have any hobbies?”

“Nope,”

“Any aspirations?”

“No…”

“Ugh… we are going nowhere fast with this,” I said. I stared at her for a while. She was certainly attractive. It was a different kind of attraction to Heather. Aku’s body was curvy and very feminine. Heather, on the other hand, is strong and protective giving her a different kind of charm. She was still attractive as well, hell I loved her more than anything in the world.

“Do you want to visit my workplace?” I asked Aku.

“What is it that you do?”

“I’m a model,”

She stared at me like I was crazy, “Wait… you think I could be a model?”

“Why not? You’re attractive and alluring. You’d definitely be a hit,” I told her.

She seemed hesitant. Maybe she just wasn’t confident in herself. I guess her attitude before was more of a façade than anything. She seemed meek now and it made me want to hug her and protect her from all the troubles of the world.

“Tell you what,” I began, “Come to the studio tomorrow. I’ll give you a little rundown on what we do. You can ask my manager any questions about this as well; She’s a good friend of mine and Heather’s. You can watch me do my job and then afterwards you can decide on what to do. Sound good?”

Aku seemed reluctant, “Okay. Sure,”

“Alright then. How about we get some tea and sweets? I’ll get what you ordered last time,” I got up from the table.

Aku suddenly grabbed my arm, “Thank you,”

I gave her a smile, “Anytime,”

 

The next day, Aku showed up in front of my workplace. I greeted her and brought her through to the studio. She was standing up tall and had an air of confidence to her. This was more like the Aku I knew. Perhaps she recovered from yesterday.

“Celly, who is this?” Lily asked.

“I’m Aku Silver,” she held out her hand, “Celeste invited me to see what you all do here. I wanted to see what it was like being a model,”

“Okay!” Lily said with a smile. She enthusiastically shook Aku’s hand, “Well, we’ll be getting to work. Nice to meet you Ku!”

“Ku?” Aku said looking at me.

“She gives really terrible nicknames. We just have to deal with it,” I told her.

“Okay…”

I went into the changing room to get ready for the shoot. The clothes today were going to be suited towards beastkin with large tails. I put on the shorts and blouse while Lily worked on my hair. For today, I decided to go with a fox beastkin with a large fluffy tail. Personally, I kinda liked using the fox beastkin look. When I exited the changing room, Aku was shocked.

“Wow… you look…”

“Absolutely stunning?” I teased, “Yes I’m quite aware,”

“Not just that though. You changed your form for your shoot. I didn’t actually expect that you would transform for something like that,”

“Neither did I when I first came here,” I told her. The shoot went well. Aku watched me intensely as I changed to what I called, Model Mode. I learned how to get the confidence boost without the placebo, but it only seemed to work when I was on the job. Though I have no idea how it works, I still am grateful for it. When the shoot finished, I noticed Aku was watching me slack jawed.

“What just… your entire aura just did a 180!”

“Yeah… sometimes I forget that it really isn’t normal. I don’t know why, but when I’m on the job I get a strange confidence boost. It’s super helpful when we do the lingerie shoots,”

“L-L-L-Lingerie?” Aku stuttered. Her face was bright red. I don’t know what she expected from this job.

“So! What did you think?” I asked.

“I-I-I’m not sure,” she had totally lost the confidence she had before.

“Can’t help but overhear your little conversation,” Lily butted in, “Say Ku, do you want to try some modeling?”

“Um…” Aku seemed really flustered right now.

“C’mon!” Lily said grabbing Aku’s arm, “We’ll get you changed, take a few quick photos, and then we’re done!”

“Wait! I…” her efforts to stop herself from being dragged were futile. Lily had a death grip and she wouldn’t take no for an answer.

“Celly! Get a cup of the good stuff ready just in case!” Lily called to me.

“Gotcha!”

I got a cup of the “confidence booster” and waited for Aku to change. I could only hear the struggles as Lily worked clothes onto Aku and did her up. When the rustling finally stopped, I watched as the door opened and revealed Aku. Holy crap… She was wearing a light blue blouse and tan shorts. Her hair was done in a ponytail and she was wearing cute white sandals. Damn… she looked amazing.

“D-D-Does it look alright?” Aku said.

“It looks amazing!” Lily said, “Quickly, let’s get your pictures taken!”

“Here,” I handed Aku the cup.

“What is this?” she asked.

“A cup of confidence,” I told her, “Trust me. It works like a charm. I had to use it in the beginning,”

She took the cup and drank the whole thing down. Instantly, she looked so much better. Her confidant aura was back in action and she marched over to the studio. She looked like a natural doing all sorts of poses. A lot of them were… provocative. I guess that’s a succubus for you.

Eventually, the shoot finished. Aku looked super happy having actually done it. I gave her a huge hug and congratulated her on trying something new.

“Thank you so much Celeste. I really don’t know what I would do without you,”

“Nonsense! You pulled that off all by yourself. I invited you, but you actually came. If you wanted to stay at that job for real, you wouldn’t have come all this way. Be proud of yourself,”

She smiled, “I think… I think this is a good job. I want to work here someday,”

“We’d be happy to have you!” Lily shouted from across the room.

Aku looked the happiest I had ever seen her. I was happy for her too. She escaped the hellhole of her workplace and found somewhere she can enjoy herself. I’m really glad she showed me another side of her. Now, if only she would stop putting aphrodisiacs in eclairs…