✅ Unusual Vacancy

Part 9 - The Staff

"Oh, does somebody need a diaper?"

The fox was the first grown-up Amy had seen since she started working here. It might only have been ten minutes, but her conversations with Cass seemed like another life. She tried to make a coherent response, to explain that she'd drunk a lot before she got smaller, but all that came out was an embarrassed mumble.

"Don't worry, little one. We'll have you sorted in a moment." She was tall and slim, and had her tail curled around her waist. Her outfit looked a lot like an old-school nurse's uniform, but the logo on her shirt pocket showed a caduceus featuring two snakes with big smiley faces and googly eyes. Amy's brow wrinkled in confusion for a second, as she noticed she'd just thought a big word, but now she didn't know what it had been or what it meant. She found herself staring at the snakes on the lady's clothes instead, and giggled a little as movement made their eyes jiggle.

The fox lady reached down and lifted Amy without any difficulty, carrying her over to a changing table in the corner of the room. The table looked huge, bigger even than the big meeting tables at the coffee shop. But it didn't take Amy long to realise that it was probably the normal size. She was still getting used to a smaller body, and everything she looked at was giant. Like the nurse's huge paws; when she had a hand under each of Amy's arms, her fingers were almost long enough to touch at the back.

"No, no," Amy finally got over the surprise long enough to find her voice. "I don't need diapers, it just surprised me shrinking so fast. I didn't use the bathroom before I got little."

"That's okay dear," the fox smiled, "It happens to a lot of little ones when they first come here. Sometimes Auntie Cass is a bit mean, doesn't tell you how small you're going to be. And I bet she gave you a big coffee at the start of the tour, didn't she? But I think you're still not used to being so small. Holding it might be harder than you think, because your muscles aren't as strong as a big girl's, and your little tummy gets full of juice faster. So maybe we'd better have you in a diaper for today, just to be sure."

Amy couldn't contain her blushes. She didn't even want to think about peeing her pants again. That she'd wet herself once was the most embarrassing thing she could think of, and she wanted to make sure it was going to be the only time.

"No, I'm a big girl!" she protested, but when she heard how her words came out she blushed so furiously that her cheeks felt like they were on fire. She knew she was a grown-up really, just turned into a little kid by her morph. She wanted to say she was a grown-up, and she didn't like this any more. But it was so hard to think, she couldn't find any of the big words in her mind, so she couldn't even say what she wanted. About the only thing she could be thankful for now was her thick golden-blonde fur. Before becoming a lynx, her skin had been paper white, and this much embarrassment would have left her looking like a beetroot with all the embarrassment. Behind fur, she would never see herself blush.

"If you were a big girl, you'd want to do the sensible thing so you don't embarrass yourself again. Wouldn't you?" Amy knew there should be a simple answer to those words, but she had to make a real effort to put the words in the right order and understand what the nurse had said. And while she was still thinking, the nurse smiled and spoke again.

"You know, I don't think I got your name. I can't just keep calling you little one. So let's start again. My name's Auburn, and I'm one of the big ones here. I'm a fox, in case you can't tell. Can you say 'fox'?" and she paused for a moment to swish her tail through the air over Amy's head, and to shimmy so her rich red fur caught the light in a wave. Amy couldn't help smiling at that little dance. "If you come in here when you have a problem, then I or one of my friends will always help you. Now, can you remember your own name?"

"Amy," she answered, and hoped she wasn't mumbling too badly, "Amy Pel– Petter?" She knew that wasn't quite right, but she didn't trust her suddenly-clumsy lips to try again.

"That's the sweetest name," Auburn smiled, and reached over to something on a counter by her side, "you're such a clever girl. You should get used to introducing yourself, because most of the little ones won't be able to read your badge."

She gripped both of Amy's ankles in one hand while she was speaking, and effortlessly lifted her up from the table. Amy tried to struggle, but felt a wave of dizziness rush over her once her legs were over her shoulders and the blood started to rush to her head. Auburn had done this lots of times before, and she didn't have any difficulty. She slipped two fingers into the waistband of Amy's soaked shorts at the side, and pulled them down to her ankles before lowering Amy's feet so her bare bottom rested on what felt like a soft towel. The shorts quickly vanished into a disposal chute, and a momentary flash of white made Amy realise that the nurse had taken her underwear too.

"Your pants are heat-durable aren't they, dear?" the fox asked, "I didn't think to ask, I'm sorry." Amy nodded, thinking that wasn't really the problem here. Like most modern smart clothes, her everyday outfit used generation-4 nanofibres which were heat-resistant to twelve hundred degrees, so they could be cleaned in an instant in the building's flash furnace. She wouldn't have cared that much anyway, replacing clothes wasn't the issue. The problem was that she was suddenly lying nearly naked in front of a woman she'd only spoken a couple of words to.

It could have been the most humiliating moment of Amy's life; but it had a lot of competition in the last hour. Amy did her best to cover herself, but she could see already that she had no choice here.