[Pup]

  It was hard.

  Very hard.

  Nothing in her life before could have trained her for it and nothing had made her work so much for so little.

  ‘How do I make Moose happy?’

  She had made a list. Every pat she had received went on that list. She wanted to know exactly what she had done to earn those pats. Out of all the pats, a pattern emerged. First, she needed to do something worthwhile. Something that contributed to her home. Second, that something needed to not be mundane. Doing the cleaning she did anyways had never earned her a pat. Third, Moose had to give an order and be made aware of the outcome. Last, and the hardest, Moose had to be happy with the task.

  All but that last she understood how to accomplish. Even if her pat got shortened by Kitty, making Moose aware was worth the distraction being present. As she got better at interpreting Kitty and guessing what Moose wanted, she had even managed to get a pat without Kitty present to cut her reward short. The first time she did had been her greatest accomplishment in life. It might just have been to bring Moose his little book, but the pat and rumble she received had lasted so long she might have even fallen asleep.

  She wasn’t exactly sure about that part.

  But a task to make Moose happy? Even now it eluded her. She had yet to find any way to make Moose happy without Moose himself giving the order.

  She couldn’t carry his things, they were far too big for her to do so safely. A broken thing would be the opposite of happy, something to be avoided at all costs.

  She couldn’t clean up after him, he was far too clean and took care of himself. She couldn’t even wash him because of his size.

  ‘Lucky Kitty. Big enough but doesn’t even try to wash him back.’

  Maybe if she could work up enough courage again, she would try to get his other hand for herself. Kitty only needed one, right?

  She couldn’t even help him with whatever he did with his time. Most of the ship was far too complicated for her to understand. The radio alone was a nightmare to try and run. All of the reading he did seemed to be in another language or filled with words she simply couldn’t make sense of. When she had watched him do some of the math for their jump, her brain nearly melted out before she gave up altogether.

  ‘I never realized how much work there is on a bridge.’

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  Her only experiences with them had been during off hours or when nothing important was happening. No one wanted an untrained slave wandering around a bridge when people needed to be working. That had been fine with her. She had preferred the quiet back then.

  ‘I suppose I like the quiet now too. But I much prefer Moose’s low rumble.’

  She had managed to avoid the other two for the most part at least. She had come to realize that the ship was far too large to be a home. Her attempts to please Moose had led her to understand that, for the most part, he and Kitty lived on the darker floor. Almost everything they did was there. It was only when Moose was needed on the bridge or to pick up supplies that he chose to come down to the lower floor.

  Kitty simply stayed near Moose. Rather than have a need to be somewhere specific, she simply went where Moose was or stayed near the bedroom.

  That meant the lower floor was a public floor. It made a lot of sense as she looked back. While Moose had spent a lot of time there, almost all the time she saw him had been on the bridge. She never saw him wandering the halls like he did on the upper floor. It changed how she thought of the whole ship.

  Clearly, anywhere with a large security door was home. The whole upper floor was home. Those were the places where she could relax and be herself. Those places were for her. For her people. They were not places for the outsiders. But the rest? They were not hers. They might belong to Moose, but Moose didn’t openly claim them. If Moose didn’t, then she had no right to. Let the outsiders have the empty rooms and cold walls.

  ‘Why do these suits itch so much now.’

  The downside of that realization was that she had to go through public areas to get to the bridge. While her instincts concerning invaders had calmed down a lot, her shame had returned with force. It was like suddenly realizing you were walking through the middle of a busy station naked. The heat in her face hadn’t left for nearly a full day.

  Unfortunately for her, sometime between her last owner and now, she had found that clothing was incredibly itchy. It pulled and pinched her fur the wrong way. It never left her tail quite right. It held in a lot of heat she didn’t know she gave off before. And it itched.

  Itched like cleansers sometimes itched when they got onto bare skin.

  She didn’t know what had changed, but it was nearly bad enough to make her stay on the upper level.

  ‘I guess I could just take it off when I get to the bridge.’

  That was an enticing thought. The outsiders avoided the bridge, so it was basically the same as the other floor. If it was just Moose or Kitty she would be fine. The indignation of outsiders coming into her home kept the shame at bay in their areas, but only in their areas. If she got caught walking naked to the bridge, she imagined her embarrassment would be visible in the next system.

  ‘Why can’t I just not feel shame, like Kitty. It would be so much better.’

  As she walked onto the bridge, she could see that Moose was up and doing something at the map.

  ‘I hope he sits down soon. It’s hard to get close when he’s moving around.’

  There was a pleasant ping and Moose looked toward the console he always sat at. It seemed that whatever he was doing was finished.

  “Unidentified ship, this is sovereign territory. Present credentials or vacate the system immediately.”

  Her ears perked up and her tail started to sway. Her clothes forgotten entirely.

  ‘Soon… Soon…’

  She watched Moose with more intensity than she had ever put into looking at a person. As soon as he looked at her and rumbled, she would be at that station saying whatever she could.

  Her tail sped up as Moose began to turn.

  She might just get another pat sooner then she thought…