Hi, everyone! Time for another chapter.
Disappointed with their friends, Felina and Razor meet in an unusual place.
Author's notes: I neglected to mention that the Felina I'm writing about here comes from the Happy Hour series, which is a collection of ficlets. You don't have to read them; all it would add to this story is background information, like the fact that Felina and Callie are drinking buddies.
Thanks to ulyferal for being my beta.
Thanks for reading! I'm flattered.
-AkaneKitty
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Drawing the Short Straw:
An Unexpected Meeting
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"What the hell am I doing here?"
Felina looked at her reflection in the ladies bathroom mirror. This was her third bar, stopping in a club called Pure. She was amazed that she had the restroom (and mirror) all to herself, but she remembered that it was last call. All available she-kats would be out near the bar trying to get last drinks or score free ones from inebriated toms.
Felina looked down at the sink. Sitting by the faucet was a half finished warm beer. Although she continued her bar hop, Felina only ordered a single beer from each bar and nursed it the entire time she was there. She shrugged off both sexes attentions toward her...even though she appreciated it, her heart and body wasn't in the right place. Felina wanted a friend. What she got was a smack in the face.
She didn't really understand it. Maybe she was more irritated at being ditched. After all, if some cute tom or she-kat spoke to her, she wouldn't brush off her drinking buddies just to go off with them. Supreme catches maybe...but everyone knew who those were and they would be encouraging her to score that tail. And trolling missions were just that: trolling missions. No one expected to be together at the end of the night unless the pickings were dire.
Felina sighed. Maybe she should just be drinking buddies with the Deputy Mayor from now on. Too bad she would be in budget talks all this month, but Felina could wait. As for now...
It was time to call it a night.
Felina grabbed her beer and overturned it, letting its contents drain into the sink. She then chucked the bottle into a nearby trash can. Checking out her reflection in the mirror, Felina grabbed a lip gloss from a small pocket inside her dress and dabbed it on. She debated with herself for about five minutes, questioning whether her dress showed enough cleavage, but she settled the debate by lowering her zipper a half inch. No sense not receiving any compliments just because she had a bad night.
Exiting the restroom, Felina decided to take a back exit out of the club, in order to avoid the crush of Kats on the dance floor. A cool breeze greeted her as she stepped out into the night. The bars were still in last call mode, so there wasn't anyone in the alley or streets. That would change in an hour.
'All right, Felina...Where to now?'
Her stomach growled. She could really go for a fishburger and a milkshake right about now but the best burgers were down at Rico's by the Wharf. She could hail a cab...however, her attire might be overkill for a burger this time of night. But Rico's did make a killing off the Enforcer club crowd by staying open later for the officers. His burgers were to die for...but going there alone...not something she wanted to do. Decisions, decisions...
"Damn it!"
Felina's ears flicked in the direction of the voice. That sounded like it was in the next alley over. It was faint...the bass from the club nearly covered it up. Didn't sound distressed, but rather annoyed...or frustrated. It could be nothing, but Felina had to at least check it out. She would kick herself if she discovered the next day that something happened and she didn't do anything about it.
Pulling up her dress on her right leg, Felina retrieved her non-service gun from its holster, which also served to hold up her thigh high stockings. Flicking the safety off, she moved quickly and quietly to the other alleyway, thankful the music bleeding from the clubs would cover any sound her stilettos made on the concrete.
Rounding the corner to the adjacent alley, Felina kept her piece low and slightly behind her, not wanting any light to be reflected by her gun. Slowly, she crept deeper into the alley.
There, in the shadows, was a familiar looking Kat hunched over a very familiar looking bike. The tom was small built and wore blue and black racing leathers. A jacket and helmet were laying on the seat. The bike was composed of the same colors as his leathers. The tom seemed to be getting even more frustrated as a panel, located at the rear of the bike, resisted his efforts to pry it off.
Felina pondered the situation for a moment. Blue, and black? Is that...
Suddenly, the kat's ear turned her direction. A split second later, a paw filled with what looked like a weapon came up, pointed directly at her, with the kat's body following suit. Reflexively, Felina brought up her own gun, keeping her claw off the trigger, but holding it dangerously close by. As her eyes got more accustomed to the shadows, she blinked her eyes in recognition.
"Razor?"
"Lieutenant?"
Razor blinked in shocked surprise, letting his glovatrix drop a bit. Standing before him was Felina, looking quite unlike he had ever seen before. Instead of a loose fitting uniform, she wore a black zipper halter dress that hugged her every curve, along with very high heels. And the way she set the zipper on her dress showed ample...and very lovely...cleavage. She was, as T-Bone would say, a total knockout.
Thankful the shadows concealed his stare, Razor coughed slightly to break the silence that had fallen between them. Mother always said to pay a compliment to a lovely she-kat than to stare and say nothing, so he did.
"Wow, Lieutenant...You look amazing!"
"Uh...Thank you."
Even though Felina was slightly in the shadows herself, Razor saw her redden slightly and lose that air of composure she had earlier...almost looking embarrassed. She recovered quickly by holstering her gun, very aware that she was exposing her holster turned garter to the SWAT Kat. She quickly covered her gun up with her dress.
"What are you doing here, Razor?" Felina asked trying to be nonchalant as she walked up to the tom's side. "This place will be flooded with off duty Enforcers soon, you know."
Razor's eyes had been glued to those hips as they came closer to him so had to snap his attention up to her face when she spoke, glad for the mask that hid his own blush.
"Yeah, I know." Staring down at his bike, he gave a disgusted sigh. "Not my choice though. I was out testing this new prototype Cyclotron when it suddenly crapped out on me. I was barely able to get to this alley before it quit entirely."
"Why couldn't T-Bone pick you up? I've seen him do it lots of times."
He snorted. "He probably would...if he wasn't on a date."
"Oh?"
"This is our usual patrol night and I was planning on testing the Cyclotron with him running backup. Except he informs me at the last minute that he has a date, and since I lost a bet, I was on my own for patrol."
"I see."
"And that made me so mad, I apparently left without my proper tools! Now I have nothing to pry this panel off to repair the bike." Razor looked at his bike in disgust. "Wait until that idiot gets his tail home, he's going to get an earful from me! However, that doesn't get me home right now."
Felina looked at the bike for a moment, and then raised the hem of her dress slightly on her left leg, revealing a small wallet like pouch secured by her stockings. Pulling it out, she opened it and grabbed what appeared to be a small multipurpose knife set out of it. She handed it to Razor.
"Will this do?"
Razor stared at it. "Uh...yeah...thanks."
"No problem."
Turning back to his bike to work on the panel...and slightly disappointed that he wouldn't see more leg, Razor looked back at Felina. "Nice kit. What else do you have in there?"
"Spare ammo, small ballistic knife, pen light..."
"Can I use that last item, please?"
"Sure."
Felina handed over the pen light and returned the pouch to her leg. Walking over to Razor's bike, she leaned against the wall a moment, watching, until Razor pulled his jacket of the Cyclotron's seat and spread it on the ground. He then motioned for her to sit down.
"Sit on my jacket."
"Thanks." Felina sat as gracefully as she could, curling her legs beneath her while Razor continued to work on the panel.
"So, Lieutenant...what brings you out here?"
"Bar hopping. That is, I was going to until my two so called 'friends' found the loves of their lives and ditched me." Felina sighed. "I tried to continue the hop afterwards, but I just couldn't get into it. That's why I was leaving early."
Razor made sympathetic noises. "Sounds like we're in the same boat then. Ditched by inconsiderate friends."
"Indeed."
As Razor continued to work on his bike, Felina eyed him more closely. There never was an opportunity to see the guys for long as they always left quickly to avoid her uncle's ire, so it was nice to get a chance to do so now.
The tom wasn't as brawny as his partner, his frame more lean and shorter in stature but she could plainly see he was really built and muscular...he looked...very nice.
"You know, SWAT Kat...You should wear your racing leathers more often."
"Oh?" Razor paused a moment to glance over at her. "Why's that?"
"Hmm, because it shows off those fine muscles of yours." Felina smiled a bit. "I'm guessing your g-suit hid them."
"I'm a nth degree black belt and load most of my ordinance. Of course I would have some muscles." Razor chuckled then gave Felina a sly look. "And may I say, your own uniform hid a very fine and lovely figure as well."
"My regular uniform is more about protection than looks. My dress uniform shows a bit more, but nothing like this."
"Obviously."
"So..." Felina's smile grew a bit bigger. "Anything else you're hiding?"
Razor knew a "trick" question when he heard one. Most of the time, she-kats asked him questions to see if he would blush, or get embarrassed. He wasn't sure why. While he did tend to get overshadowed when T-Bone was around, he didn't get flustered, or shy around them. Besides, he always had the perfect comeback for those types of questions.
"I'm not sure, lieutenant," Razor replied evenly, returning his attention to the Cyclotron's panel. "Care to find out?"
Felina was silent for a moment, but even Razor could hear the playful tone that crept into her voice when she spoke again.
"Awhile ago, I once told a friend I would eat you alive. Now, I'm not so sure..." Felina felt her cell phone vibrate and stood up. Giving Razor one of her best seductive looks, she murmured, "...so don't tempt me, Gunny."