The young golden-wolf girl, hardly more than a cub, giggled as she stumbled out of the elevator. It seemed that at some point between entering the lobby of her home Hotel Divinity, and the elevator reaching the top floor where the Four Corners’ penthouses were, the tablet she had been gifted earlier kicked-in. Regaining her footing, Danielle blinked as she looked at the doors lining the round room. The effects of the drug muddling the girl’s ability to remember where she lived. She stared at each door in turn, “uhhhhh…” She pointed at the one at the far left with a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign literally nailed to it, “...Mr Shadow…” Moving her finger to the door 90 degrees further to the right, a big jeweled rose acting as the handle, “... that’s Miss Amy…”

  Turning to her immediate right, Dani decides to try that door since it was in reach, “Mama! I’m home!”

  Sally Acorn seemed confused for a moment as she was finishing supper with her adopted-nephew Tails. She chuckled as she spotted Danielle’s pupils were hugely dilated, “wrong door, Dani-bean.”

  “Oopsie~” Dani giggled in response. Instead of leaving though, she stood there smiling like an idiot with her golden tail swishing happily.

  “You gonna leave?” Tails seemed rather short-tempered at the mere sight of the girl.

  “Miles,” Sally’s tone was chastising, but you could tell she was used to them not getting along, “manners. She’s a guest.”

  “Yeah,” he rolled his eyes, “an uninvited one…”

  “Don’t worry, Miss Sally~” there was as much sass as the 10 year-old Dani could muster in her altered-state, barely managing more than cocky-playfulness. “Windy-Butt is just grumpy from being a ‘Barnyard Bussy’ at The Stables all day~”

  Reacting with timing that showed she was used to situations flipping from 0-100, Sally already had a hand in the fox’s face as he rose in a flash with a snarl, “Tails, honey! She’s high out of her mind, let it go!” Showing her skill with distraction and diffusion of conflicts, she swayed up to the boy and kissed him deeply, “now… go wait in the bedroom. I’ll make it aaaallllllll~ better after I get her back home. ‘Kay?” she ended the promise with a shameless wink.

  “Bye-Bye~” Danielle tittered as he turned to head down the hall towards the bedroom. Tails responded with a ‘one-fingered salute’, flipping her off as he disappeared around the corner.

  Returning her attention to the girl clearly caught in a case of The Giggles from her drugs, Sally examined Danielle to appraise the symptoms: Unsteady feet that kept shuffling, tail whipping rapidly with no rhythm, fingers twitching, unable to control her laughter, eyes dilated and zipping-around unfocused, ears flicking in response to every little sound. Understanding that Dani was on a major Upper, she eased into her interrogation disguised as casual conversation, “feeling good?” Sally’s training to charm and trick information out of clients was also useful in other ways.

  “Yeppers~” Dani chirped

  Sally stepped over and cupped the golden-furred cheek, stroking it with her thumb. Danielle cooed at the gentle contact, not realizing the woman was checking her pulse with her pinkie and watching her breath. This sort of wellness-check was a part of everyone’s training once they reach a level of dependability to be considered for basic-management positions. Noticing the racing heart and increased breathing, the chipmunk pressed forward with her questions, “oh yeah?” there was a natural sashay to her hips as she walked to fetch a glass of water and handed it to Danille, guiding her to drink it. “What did you pop? Was it from a customer?”

  “No way, Silly-Sally!” Dani seemed super excited, “The Master gave me a tab of Rush!”

  This stunned the older girl to the point she accidentally spilled some of the water on Dani, “A WHOLE TABLET? FROM MISTER REECE HIMSELF?” Sally was so shocked for two reasons: Firstly that Ace rarely paid attention to her, even though she was one of his Four Corners… and secondly that Rush was so high-quality that even a decade-plus user of all sorts of drugs could ride-out a full night on a single tablet.

  Immediately scooping the girl into her arms princess-style, Sally carried Danielle to the door she actually belonged at. She kicked at the door with a large ruby upon it to knock since her hands were full. “Rouge! Open the door, bitch! Your girl is tripping HARD!”

  The door flew open after the sound of frantic footsteps, as the beauteous bat nearly ripped it off its hinges, “WHAT DID YOU GIVE HER?”

  A gleeful squeal came from Dani as she lunged out of Sally’s arms to drape herself around Rouge’s neck, “MAMAAA~!” She giggled, nuzzled, and nippled flirtatiously at her caretaker’s neck.

  Sally huffed, “I don’t hate you enough to use her to get at you!” She lost the edge to her voice as she returned to the actual issue, “Ace gave her a tab of Rush for some reason. I’ll call Vanilla since she’s good with this kind of stuff.”

  Rouge listened as best as she could while trying to get Danielle to calm down, she was tired and drunk after a long shift of entertaining VIPs at the Neon Firefly, the mainstay nightclub and brothel of the Mobius Strip. “D-did you say a full tablet?!” She slurred slightly, “but my baby is a lightweight!”

  Sally rolled her eyes at the slurring, “Just focus enough to make sure our princess is good.” A look of pettiness touched her eyes as she pulled out her phone and turned back towards her suite, calling over her shoulder, “you know, until a REAL mom shows up.” She quickly closed and locked the door, knowing how much it got under Rouge’s skin when someone calls her out for having next-to-no-talent as a parent.

  “Please ask her to bring Cream~!” Dani called at the locked door as she pressed herself against Rouge, nuzzling the generous bosom. “I love Creamy Extra-Lots~!”

  Rouge had to push down the urge to pursue the fight, her adopted-daughter needed her. “Yes baby-girl,” she gently peeled the girl off of her chest to start leading her inside, “we all know you’re sweet on her. Let’s get you to the couch.”

  “Okay~” Danielle leaned heavily on the young woman who had taken her in when her own father gave her into Ace’s servitude to square-up on a debt, “and I love you too~” she smooched Rouge noisily, “MMMWAH~!”

  Rouge tried not to let it show, but she was concerned that Dani was being so openly affectionate. Usually the girls as more guarded, even when drunk or high. Sass and bluster were what to expect from teh young wolf, not this lovey-dovey ‘UwU’ bullshit. As she got her daughter on the sofa, her phone rang, “Tellie!” She commanded the hotel’s AI-assistant, “connect my cell phone to the speakers!”

  The moment the call connected, Vanilla’s voice came through in a clearly metered and soothing tone, “we are waiting on the elevator. Is she comfortable?”

  “Hi Auntie Vannie~!” Dani sang from under the pillows she started burying herself beneath, “The couch is eating me~!”

  “Oh good, you can hear me. Hello, sweetheart. Listen, I know you hate citrus, but I need you to eat an orange right away.”

  “Eww! No way! They’re icky!”

  Cream’s high-pitched voice came through, “but what if I want orangey kisses?”

  Rouge understood Vanilla had already planned on Dani being difficult and recruited Cream to help. She wished she could “mom” that effectively. An idea popped into her head as the elevator ‘dinged’ on the other end of the line, “what about juice?”

  “Ooooohh~” Dani poked her head out of the pile, “a screwdriver?”

  “Juice, yes. Liquor, no.” Vanilla’s tone was firm.

  Dani grumbled and burrowed back under into the cushions.

  Rouge came over to offer a glass of orange juice, “here, baby.”

  “NO!” the childish and bratty nature of the voice coming from the cushions made Rouge’s eye twitch.

  “Come on now,” Rouge offered again as the elevator dinged through the phone and Vanilla hung up as they arrived on the floor. She held it closer, impatience starting to creep into her voice despite her efforts to sound gentle, “remember that Cream wants lots of orangey-kisses.”

  “I DON’ WANNA! YOU DRINK THE STUPID JUICE!”

  Between her long day, the stress of the situation, and the after-effcts of her drinking, Rouge’s nerves were fraying quickly. “Look,” she wasn’t offering now, “As your mother, I want you t-”

  Dani exploded from the sofa, a haze of cold-magic crackling with frost surrounded her raised fists, “YOU’RE NOT MY DAMN MOTHER!” She howled as her golden-fur bristled, “YOU’RE A WHORE WHO FELT SORRY FOR ME AND TOOK ME IN TO FEEL BETTER ABOUT YOURSELF!!!!”

  Rouge’s wings flared out and her eyes narrowed at this outburst, but she noticed Vanilla had slipped in. The rabbit was frantically pantomiming for her to think before she did something that she could never undo, trying to allow the bat a chance to be the mother she longs to be. In the passing second, a thousand thoughts flashed through Rouge’s mind. One of the thoughts was about everyone’s positioning in the room.

  Danielle’s eyes traced Rouge like a predator as the woman stepped to the side. After a moment of nothing happening, she started glancing around in expectation of a trick. Dani froze the moment she saw the girl in the mirror. Trembling, her breathing slowed as she looked at her hands. The tears that started leaking from those red lupine eyes turned to crumbling snowflakes as they passed through the freezing mist around her hands. “M-” the girl choked in a tiny, helpless facsimile of her voice… “Mama…” She became unsteady on her feet.

  As Dani passed out and collapsed, Rouge rushed to catch her as Vanilla screamed in warning, “LET THE SPELL FADE FIRST!!!”