She rubbed the side of her cheek against my leg as her tail swished back and forth in a relaxed fashion, flicking up whenever I caressed her. I was reluctant to get up just yet, not having been able to experience this level of comfort much in my life at all. Still, despite my reluctance, time was ticking.

I tapped her on the shoulder with my hand. She looked at me, still a little dazed, rubbing one eye with her hand. She pressed herself against me and wrapped her arms around my waist. It wasn't what I was gesturing for, but I accepted it for just a little bit longer. After a moment's passing of returning the hug, I looked at those beautiful orange eyes of hers.

"I'm sorry, but it's about time we get a move on."

I stood up by leaning myself against the brick wall against me, and stretched out my hand to lift her up the floor in turn. She pouted, puffing out her cheeks likely displeased at the rush, but she didn't try to argue against it. I decided not to worry about it and moved away from the temporary resting place, off into the unknown.

As we were walking, and the morning truly set in, I started feeling more and more passersby giving looks at us, either staring or whispering. Even with my jacket covering her tail and ears, her tremors as she held my arm and stuck to me close gave away her feelings of discomfort. 

"It's okay, don't mind it." I tried to assure her. "They'll forget about us as soon as we're out of sight."

The place we were heading to seemed to be quite busy, not exactly to a metropolitan extent, where you'd have hundreds of people blocking your view, but enough to where the entire sidewalk was sometimes fully occupied by a group of people, being forced to walk on the road for a few steps to avoid head on collision. Not long after we came across a string of shops all neatly fit in a square, where in the center of which a fountain was located where a couple of kids were running around it.

An electronics store, a grocery shop, a shop filled with exotic foods and spices, a flower shop, we were seeing an assortment of many different things to be bought. A surprise to both of us, as we'd never been to anywhere like this. The most I've ever seen before was a street with a couple shops next to one another back when I still lived with my parents. 

"What's... this?" she asked, staring at me wide eyed.

"I think" I muttered, "that's a sex shop."

Not only the fact it was here of all places, but how conspicuously all the toys were lined up in front of the curtains made me wonder about the sanity of the owner of this place. As I turned to face her again I could see her eyes glued to the windows. Didn't know she'd have an interest in these sorts of things, but a part of me was curious as well, though less for the items and more for the existence of it being there.

Despite that I could feel her tugging on my arm to go inside. I was hesitant, but didn't feel like drawing attention by resisting. Reluctantly I went along with her whim, and let myself get dragged through the red velvet curtains. The back of my jacket she was wearing flapped around as her tail was most likely swishing with excitement.

The inside was just as if not more flamboyant. The items shelved on the walls practically covering every fetish one could imagine. In contrast, the man who greeted us seemed plain and definitely not nearly as exuberant as one would imagine someone there working would be. His head was slumped into his hand so much that I mistook him being asleep for a moment.

In a slow and droning voice he greeted us.
"Welcome to Yorokobi Life, how may I help you." He grunted, as he laid his chin down on the desk in front of him.