(a back tracking of sorts)

:>"Vixxy. I'm glad you came back. Now, has the time since our last kiss been
too long for another?" Panda waited for a reply, his back still to the the
intruder.

Vixxy smiled.  "I taught him too well," she thought.

:>The soft padding sound stopped abruptly, while the master, who had been
lighting the last few candles in the far corner, had disappeared.

:>A woman's sweet voice finally replied from behind Panda, closer to him than
he had originally judged. "There is no time for that now. I am to bring you
back to the Taskmistress... now."

:>"Hmm. I see. And that is the only mission in your heart right now, as we
talk here, a mere few feet apart?"

:>Panda suddenly felt a hand slide down his furry shoulder to his chest, the
fingers parting and running through the thick black fur like a hungry comb.

:>"There may be time for that later my love. But right now you have something
the Taskmistress wants, and she pays my bills so... "

:>Panda grinned. "Can't argue with that logic. Alright. I'll go peacefully.
After all I *do* have the fanfics she wants so badly. I just have one
question; how do you propose to get me out of here? I'm guessing there are a
half dozen bounty hunters parked outside somewhere who will pounce on us the
:>moment we leave here. And when I say pounce I mean it literally. The Blue
Tigress has been called in, and she has probably been watching all of this
from just outside the circle of chaos. She of all of them I fear the most,
for her methods are sometimes... I shudder to think of it. Any how, you have
a problem on your hands."

:>Vixxy kneeled down behind Panda, her hand still ruffling through his soft fur
as she thought about their escape. "Hmmm. You have a point my dear. Perhaps
we will have to fight our way out of here. You.. I... against all of them...
What do you think of the odds?"

:>Panda smiled and turned slightly to face his long lost love. "Sorry. I
wouldn't know. I'm a poker player, not a race horse expert. But-  maybe it
is time to
play a bluff hand... "

:>Vixxy just smiled and giggled. It was almost like old times...

After a long time spent under the candle light in the dojo, Vixxy and Pandy got
down
to business.

"Listen, Panda, if you had just done what the 'Mistress asked, you wouldn't
be in this mess right now," she murmured as she ran her fingers through his fur.

He sat upright.  "What do you mean?  I have my computer at home on auto-
pilot, and I've been sending her some 'fics, just not all of them!"

"And she appreciates it greatly," Vixxy said, trying to calm down her lover,
"but that's
not why she's mad right now.  Her boss is furious and is telling her to pull out
all the stops to get back the one 'fic she sent you!"

Panda paled.  "You mean she's been waiting for *that one*?" he said
incredulously.  He rummaged through his cari-sak.  "Heck, I've got it right...."
Then, a stream of obscenities poured from his mouth.

"What is it, Pandy?  Surely you have it on you!  It's been long enough!" she
teased.

He looked at her with a wry grin.  "No, I don't," he said, "and don't call me
'Shirley' ."

Now it was Vixxy's turn to pale.  "You mean..."

"Yeah, we have to get that 'fic from my house, which has probably been raked
and ransacked by the bounty hunters she called after me."

Vixxy cursed fluently, and in different languages.  "Okay, I'll apprise the
'Mistress of this new hitch in the plans and we'll figure out something.
In the meantime....."


Foxtrot the Furryous, BTFH on vacation