"Miss Sugar.”
The addressed Nidorina straightens up upon the call of her boss. She twists her head over her shoulder.
“Uh...yeah. Yeah?”
Approaching behind her, a lanky Persian stalks forward. Sugar grit her teeth at the sight of him, all thin and slightly scraggly from days of fasting.
Sugar joined a gang not long after leaving home. It's only been a couple of weeks, but she quickly learned who was in charge, and didn't like the boss himself was now walking up to her with that polite, shit-eating smile. Still, Sugar knew better than to show visible displeasure.
The Nidorina swipes down her chest with a clawed paw and awaits counsel.
"Good afternoon, Miss Sugar!"
"Er...ok. 'Noon," she stumbles, unused to manners of any sort.
"Surely you can do better than that?" He chirps, "You haven't struggled to use sweeter words before now, have you?"
Sugar grits her teeth. What a jerk. He's obviously taking a stab at her previous task: Seduce a rival gang member so her comrades could sneak by him. Stupid job, really. Sugar didn't know the first thing about flirting. And of course she failed tragically. It's only luck that her target was too slow to process what was happening and allowed her gang to leave in one piece while he stared in confusion.
"Yessir, Mr. Fritz." Sugar mumbles, snapping back to the present.
"Much better. Now," the large feline sits back on his haunches, his thick pink tongue lashing across a casually raised paw, "I hear you've declined the offer of raiding the nearby hamlet. You know the one: populated by Pikachu and the like. Electric types. Prime targets for a ground type such as yourself."
Sugar flinches slightly. She knew where this would go. "Yea-yes. Yes sir. I uh... Look, that's not me. I can't just-"
"I'll stop you there, Miss Sugar. All that will stumble out your mouth will be excuses." Fritz the Persian's expression never changed. Nor his tone. But Sugar felt the tension seep around them. Her gut clenches as he continues, "While you may have been misled by my choice of words, you weren't 'offered' this. It's an order."
"Well-"
"An order you declined." He cuts, "And then trotted your golden backside straight to my camp again."
Sugar held her breath. For once in her life, she's scared to respond.
"Our happy little family isn't doing too well. You know this. Low food, motivation, shelter.... I could go on, Miss Sugar. But you know very well our circumstance. And yet, still knowing this, you came back aaaand.... What? Planning on having a meal? While your companions are out there doing all the work?" He puffs through his nose.
Sugar opens her mouth, carefully choosing her words, "Sir, when I first started my er...'journey', those same Pikachu fed and sheltered me. I don't feel comfortable attacking them..."
"Now that is a moral predicament." He rumbles.
A shadow falls over Sugar, and she squirms as the Persian quickly slipped behind and wrapped her with his body. Her mouth ran dry, knees starting to feel weak. Fritz ribs brush her own thin body. But Sugar felt every single tight muscle and her instincts howled to start running.
"I'll give you time to decide. Be sure to have your feelings organized before your rendezvous."
Sugar gasps under her breath. "Y'mean I don't have to do it...?"
"Oh, but of course! No one has to do anything, Miss Sugar!" Fritz tail flicks. He smiles widely, a slight part in his lips revealing sharp ends of perfectly aligned teeth. "All I'm saying is, again, food has been on the short side. We may have to cut back on members to portion meals. Especially members who refuse to pull their own weight. Mm...but," Fritz tilts his head against Sugar, further breaching her personal space. The nidorina leans back as a single claw shoots out a Persian paw and catches the sunlight. "I can surely promise you a nice, safe, warm, wet place should you choose to laze about today! You don't have to worry."
The claw tip pricked Sugar's thinned stomach. She could hear the soft gurgle of Fritz's own empty belly and gasps, resisting the urge to back away or even scream. It wouldn't do any good.
"I implore you: Get it together, Miss Sugar. The group leaves in a few hours."
The sun is out. It's the hottest summer to date. And yet Sugar's spine tingled with a powerful chill flushing the heat from her body. She remained where she was and struggled to keep her racing heart from beating out her chest. Fritz's claw trails up and over her chest so it rests gently on her quivering throat.
Even stubborn voices in her head shouting at her to fight back drown in fear. Fritz smiles. He pads off without so much a glance back at his shaken lacky.

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