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Nevin stretched out his shoulders and suppressed a groan. The last few days had been rather hectic - and he had kept the shop closed in the duration - as he tended to Eteri and helped her through the poisoning she had done to herself. Even without the plant in her system, she had been ill for several days - ill, and apparently even more prone to sleepwalking than before. The scene in the streets would haunt him for who knows how long - as she shouted in the street about the fact that the clothes she was wearing felt too restrictive and he should help her take them off. That had been an adventure and a half - and he had seen several women standing in the back of the crowd, glaring at Eteri -he didn’t know why, but the fact that one of them had a fan stuck in his mind.

But, it was six in the morning, and the shop was quiet. Eteri had seemed to be doing better, and with a day or two more of bed rest she should be fully recovered. So he had taken this opportunity to duck into his workshop and start planning. He wasn’t going to brew just yet - but he began to take inventory of what was stored up in here, what hadn’t been used in his efforts to keep Eteri going. So he was sitting at his desk, writing, when he heard a knock on the door and told his part time roommate to come in.

When she pulled up her shirt to ask him something, Nevin’s eyes glazed over and she asked a question, but whatever it was the man did not actually hear it. Somewhere in the far back of his mind, a voice demanded he take what was being displayed. That voice was promptly shoved in a little box and thrown into the furthest reaches of his psyche. Instead, he swallowed, trying to fight down the intense heat in his cheeks, and slid his eyes down from - from - that was a strange black mark. It was right between her ...natural endowments, and its proximity made his mind stutter to a stop again for a few moments.

“Nevin. Nevin, what red thing? Nevin?” Eteri’s voice registered in his ears as she walked closer, but things were swaying and it was very hard to focus. “Ah. You not feel good? No worry, Eteri hug!” THere was a bright and chipper tone to the words being spoken, and then -

soft

Nevin reeled back, trying to pull away, but the catgirl had a firm hold on his head, hugging him to her chest, and when he pulled away he ended up bringing her with him. She ended on his lap, half-straddling him, as she firmly tapped his nose. “What red mark?” She poked her upper abdomen again, and Nevin finally could get a response out.

“That’s from… where I had to do something to save you.”
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