Mutual Foot Worship

*knock* *knock*

Karo 2:07 PM: Hey! I’m here

Karo stood at the door of Stella’s dorm room, a happy smile playing on the lion’s face as he held his phone, awaiting his friend’s response. It was a wonderfully crisp autumn day, the electronic bell that had rung just minutes prior marking the end of his afternoon classes, and allowing him to arrive for their get together.

“Come in!” Stella’s voice, sweet and kind as always, chimed from the other side of the door.

Having received the go-ahead for him to enter, Karo pulled the key fob that his friend had given him out of his pocket. A green flash from an LED signaled its approval when he placed the small plastic puck against the sensor on the door, and the ensuing click of the lock allowed him entry. Pulling the door open revealed not merely a “room” but a compact suite, complete with a living area, bedroom, and its own fully appointed bathroom.

The spaciousness of Stella’s assigned abode defied the typical cramped dorm room stereotype–a privilege allowed by her status as an upperclassman in the honors college. Hues of light green and cream, the university’s colors, adorned the walls, furniture, and accents of the suite. Meanwhile, providing a personal touch to the space was a display of the trophies and memorabilia denoting her college badminton accomplishments. The layout of the room exuded a sense of neatness that mirrored Stella’s own thorough nature. For Karo, it served as a familiar, spacious respite from the clamor of his own dorm room and its three inhabitants, often becoming a sanctuary for many nights spent on her couch or bed, the latter reserved for when the two of them were feeling cuddly.

Seated on the floor in front of the couch was Stella. The tigress was immersed in a full pedicure session, diligently grooming her toe claws when Karo entered. Each meticulous swipe of the file in her hand contributed to the uniformity of her toe claws, the fine abrasion refining the edges of the white keratin to a pristine state.

“Heya!” Stella greeted Karo with a small wave, briefly pausing from her task to acknowledge her towering friend’s arrival. “You know, there’s a reason why I gave you a copy of my fob, right?” she teased, a playful glint in her eye. “That’s literally an all-access pass to my room. You’re always welcome whenever you want to come in.”

“I know, but a little courtesy doesn’t hurt, right?” Karo chuckled, slipping off his shoes at the rack beside the door before walking over and settling down on the floor beside her. “What’s up?”

Stella resumed her pedicure, methodically brushing her toes off before reaching over for a finer file dedicated to the purposes of buffing and shining. “Just a little self-care,” she replied, deftly applying the tool against her claws to impart a clear luster to their alabaster surfaces. “Had to touch up on the polish, so I figured that I might as well rein in these claws as well since they were getting too long” She glanced curiously up at Karo. “Did you sort out that biology project trouble?”

A recent coffee mishap had erased hours of collective work between the lion and his group mates, with the laptop that said coffee spilled onto being very much bricked. To make matters worse, only the very beginning stages of their work had been backed up externally.

A dejected sigh escaped Karo’s lip, his mane shifting as he shook his head. “Um...not really. Dylan found a copy of our lab data on his Drive account, but barely any of the work that we did with it was there.”

With a sympathetic frown, Stella looked up at her friend once more. “That really sucks. Is there any chance a repair shop can salvage some of your data?”

“Not before the deadline,” Karo sighed resignedly. “We’re better off just redoing our work. I mean, we remember most of what we did, so it’s a lot of boring repetition at this point. Not the end of the world, even if it sucks a ton.” With a shrug as if to say, “what can you do?” he leaned back against the couch. “How was class today?”

Pausing momentarily, Stella inspected her toes once more. Evidently satisfied with the state of her claws, she set her file down and reached for a set of toe spacers and a bottle of nail polish. “Ugh,” the tigress rolled her eyes, thinking back to her day. She inserted the spacers in between her toes and began to apply a coat of emerald green polish over one of her claws with even, well-practiced strokes. “Professor Willard’s lecture became a timewarp again. The clock might have started ticking in reverse; his monologues feel like they go on for forever.”

“Oh, to have the luxury of complaining about a single class,” Karo groaned dramatically, leaning back against the couch. “While you were enduring your hour in Willard’s, I sat through three classes this morning, and I still have a two-hour lab tonight. Your schedule’s a dream.” While the bit of banter was all in good fun, he genuinely envied the freedom of Stella’s schedule in comparison to his own.

“The perks of almost graduating and having most of your requirements fulfilled,” Stella playfully jabbed, sticking her tongue out at him before refocusing her attention on the embellishment of her claws. It certainly was a perk, and one that was very well-earned. She had worked hard in her first two years of college, strategically taking on more credits than usual so that she could relax a bit for her final two years.

Karo sighed in mock defeat, and a comfortable silence settled between them as Stella continued her pedicure, and Karo looking over to observe her work.

“You know, I barely ever see you without nail polish on. I think I’ve seen you a total of one time with your claws unpainted.”

A not-so-subtle smirk appeared on Stella’s face as she finished up with her final toe. Screwing the brush back into its bottle, she quipped, “Oh? You’ve been that observant of my feet to know exactly how many times I’ve slacked off on keeping my claws painted, huh?” she teased. “Couldn’t tell, especially with how you gawk at them whenever I wear my sandals.” That statement couldn’t have been more true; in the elective course they shared, Stella often caught her friend devoting more attention to her feet than the educational material being presented to them. Admittedly, she may have had a small hand in the distraction, but she’d yet to hear a complaint from Karo about it.

“You mean whenever you take your shoes and socks off and intentionally tease me by rubbing your toes on my leg?” Karo playfully countered. “Or that time you put your foot into my pants when we had that day on architectural styles?”

A playful laugh escaped Stella’s lips. “It’s always dark in that lecture hall, and we sit wayyyyyy in the back of the class. Plus, you’re full of bullshit if you’re gonna try to tell me that you genuinely wanted to pay attention for a full hour on the history of Victorian era window designs.”

Karo could help but to chuckle at that. “Fine, fine… alright, you got me. I’d rather focus on your feet than focus on some boring presentation about windows. Happy?”

“Come to think of it…maybe your claws could do with some color too! It’ll spicen you up a bit!”

Before he could respond, Stella seized both of his ankles and locked them in a hold with her arm. His socks were pulled off in an instant, revealing a pair of large, sturdy paws, the tawny fur a shade lighter on his soles than on the rest of his body. One gold toe ring adorned the second toe of his left foot, shining in the light of the room. “You should show these off more often! You have a nice pair for a guy.”

Ascending to the couch with his feet still in her grasp, Stella delicately pressed her padded sole against Karo’s chest, the tips of her freshly pedicured claws gently digging into his shirt as she curled her toes. “I think my claws should be dry by now. Wanna help me check? Nothing beats the last time when you nearly sucked the polish off my toes.”

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