"Desks are a good idea! I felt super uncomfy having to set the laptop on the floor overnight, what if I stepped on it by accident..."

"Well, I'll handle cleaning up. Any freshening up you wanna do before we head out?"

"I could probably use a shower, and I think I forgot to brush my teeth yesterday."

Well that gets her a playful hair-ruffle. "Worth doing, then. And maybe a bit more of a bedtime ritual like tucking you in or something could be a good opportunity to remind you in the future. What d'you think, cutie?"

"Sounds great. Probably also good to prevent me from being on the laptop till late at night." She wiggles a little and stands up. "Okay, I should go grab some clean clothes and get into the shower. It's kind of a shame to not get to wear this blouse out but I guess that's what I get for changing so late yesterday." 

"Such is life. There'll be other chances."

Sable gets up and starts tidying up.

And Foxbox will go shower!

She emerges with another long skirt on, this one of roses, and a less formal v-necked top. And then ducks back because she just remembered she has to brush her teeth.

By this point Sable has put on her boots and is cheerfully waiting by the door. "Good girl for washing up and brushing your teeth," she says when Foxbox returns. "Ready to find a desk?"

"For sure!" 

And she slips on her shoes again and heads out to the car with Sable. 

And off they go to the store. It's a large building, with lots of couches and tables and more on display, all arranged into little sections of rooms. Much of it is made of real wood. "So, what do you want your desk to look like?"

"Is any of this real wood actually affordable? It's been largely regulated out of existence on my world to protect what remains of the old growth forest. What you can get is very expensive."

"Yeah, it's not the cheapest, but if you see something you want, go for it. I wouldn't bring you to a store I couldn't afford to buy you things from."

Foxbox nods, and after a few minutes' consideration picks out a relatively simple wooden desk - nothing too large or fancy, just big enough to fit beneath the window in her room and hold her laptop comfortably. 

"Does this one work for you?"

Sable gets out her measuring tape and starts measuring it to make sure it'll fit, then nods. "It'll fit just fine. Is it the one you most want?"

"I think it's a good compromise on size," she says. "It's easier to set up, and if we ever get transport worked out it'll probably be possible to take in parts. Something larger would be a massive pain that way. And I don't need a big desk." 

"Reasonable enough."

She finds a clerk, pays for it, and after a moment's thought accepts the offer of delivery. "Be a pain to try to fit it into the back seat," she comments.

And then out they go to the car.

Foxbox nods nods and smiles and hugs Sable's side, and then quickly un-hugs because she doesn't know this world's norms on that in public. She smiles and wiggles her butt, clearly swishing an imaginary tail to the alert observer. 

"DS?" she asks next, mischief in her eyes. "This is being an expensive month for mom I think.~" 

"To GameStop for a DS! And yeah, it is."

She ruffles Foxbox's hair, scritching where her foxears would be. "But I've got plenty of savings. And kids hugging parents in public is normal, in case you were wondering."

She starts up the car and drives off to GameStop.

"I have to say," Foxbox says, stopping at the Gamestop door, "I kind of like this world's malls. They're less of a thing in my world and they have this - life to them, you know? It feels like people are interacting and going about their lives. Obviously there are some problems with the public spaces being owned by corporations like this, but I find it cute that having spaces like this is good for business even in your messed up world. Some things humans just like." 

"Yeah, that is nice." She gives Foxbox a fond squeeze and they head in. The store layout is a bit cramped, with lots of shelves full of games and endcaps demoing consoles. She heads to the counter and asks, "Hi there! We're looking for a pair of DS Lites. What colors do you have in stock?"

The clerk replies with a tired retail smile. "Well, we've got blue, red, black, white, pink, and I think we might still have one or two of the green ones and ice blue ones in stock." Then he looks Sable up and down for a moment. "Actually, you might be interested in this one that got mistakenly shipped from Europe."

He turns to his coworker, who's stocking shelves near the back. "Hey, Jimmy! We sold the Euro lavender one yet?"

"Nah, nobody's gone for it, Pete."

"Go get it for me?"

"C'mon, get it yourself dude."

"I'm talking to some customers over here!"

"Fiiiine."

Jimmy heads through a door into the stockroom.

"Coworkers, yeah?" Pete jokes with a laugh. "So what kind of games are you ladies looking for?"

"Definitely the new Pokémon games, although we still need to decide which of us is taking Diamond and which Pearl. Maybe Mario Kart, so we can race each other? I might take Tetris. And the rest I'll leave up to my daughter. What sorts of things are you looking for, sweetie?"

"I'm not sure!" Foxbox chirps, playing up her natural enthusiasm for her audience. "I think a racing game could maybe be fun, yeah. Let me look at these other games a little?"

She goes over to the store display and starts looking at the games. 

(She carefully avoids catching the clerk's gaze as she browses.)

Pete considers going over to help, but just then Jimmy comes back, box in hand. Pete takes it from him and shows it to Sable. "I think this one was made for you, ma'am."