Got Milk?

By the time they landed at Sydney airport the following February, Tia and Amille were exhausted from the long flight, but full of excitement and optimism about starting their lives in a brand new country.

Once they’d finally made it out of the airport, they gave the address of their new home to the first taxi driver they saw, and within half an hour, were standing outside Hilda’s Attic.

It was an old building, and it’s certainly wasn’t the classiest area to live in, but it looked quite welcoming. Hilda’s Attic took up one end of the building, the rest was other shops and café’s. Rich scarlet curtains and warm antique lamps hung in the windows, and the tables inside were of carved wood. It had a historical kind of charm about it, and Tia fancied it might be a fun place to work.

Above the café, they could see some small verandas and windows looking down on the street.
Amille pointed at the second last one on the right.
“That should be our living room window!” She announced happily.

It was only 6am, so the café wasn’t open yet. Tia knocked on the side door they’d been told to use. Before long, it was answered by a plump middle aged man who looked to be of perhaps Italian descent, and seemed thrilled to see them. This, she correctly guessed, must be Mr. Leo Gavinos, their new boss and landlord.

“Ah! You must be Tia and Amille! And both even more beautiful than in the pictures you sent to me! Welcome, welcome!” He cheerfully helped them carry their luggage up a narrow flight of stairs and down the hallway to their apartment.

He asked how the flight had been, then handed them each a set of keys, smiling brightly.
“You two come down to the kitchen after you have ‘rest, ok? I have breakfast waiting for you both and you meet the other girls yes?” He told them.
“Thankyou very much, Mr. Gavinos!” Said Amille.
“Oh, no no. You call me Leo, ya? Go on then, you girls have nice time settle into apartment. I see you when come down to kitchen.”

Tia thought their boss seemed very nice, while Amille giggled about his accent.
The apartment had looked a bit bigger and nicer in the pictures they’d been sent, but they’d kind of expected that. Each of them had a tiny bedroom, there was a bathroom for them to share, a little kitchen, and a combined dining/living room which opened onto the shabby little veranda.

It was a little run down, with faded carpet and paint peeling off the walls in a few places, but everything worked and it was fully furnished. They inspected their home vigorously, their tiredness from the long flight entirely forgotten in the excitement. Delighted, they chattered together about the rugs and other decorations they might buy to pretty it up as they started putting their belongings away.

Tia and Amille were going through the kitchen, checking out the cutlery and dishes, when there was a knock at the door.
Amille opened it, revealing a tiny orange haired catgirl wearing a skimpy maid outfit and a beaming smile.
“I’m Cherry! I live next door!” She announced, proudly.
“Oh! it’s nice to meet you!” Said Amille, “I’m Amille, and this is Tia.”

“Nice to meet you both too! Welcome to Hilda’s Attic! Is the apartment ok? We heard you both just came from some boarding school, so maybe you aren’t used to living in a little place like this…”
“oh, I think it’s really nice!” Replied Tia.
“Yeah, cosy!” Agreed Amille.
“Great! Bev and Ari thought it was cosy as well, but they used to have these pretty curtains and stuff so it looked better. My room’s smaller, but I put lots of nice cushions everywhere! Come see it later!” Chirped Cherry.
She bounced into their living room and started peering at what she could see of their belongings. Tia wondered where she got so much energy from.

“Bev and Ari?” Asked Amille, “Were they the last residents?”
“Yeah! But they left to go work in Switzerland for this super-rich family that needed maids. Oh, right! I was supposed to bring you two down to the kitchen! We’re all having waffles with ice-cream for breakfast to celebrate your arrival!” With that, Cherry led the way down a set of stairs at the end of the hall.

The kitchen was rather crowded, and Tia felt overwhelmed as they were introduced to everyone. Aside from Leo and Cherry, there was a chef and three other cat girls who worked there. The chef, Al was a big, bossy guy with dark eyes Tia found a little scary, and the other waitresses, Apple, Shev, and Primula, were all so beautiful it made her self-conscious. But they were all very friendly and welcoming, so she soon relaxed a bit.

As soon as the introductions were over they began eating, and Leo began telling them about their job. Of course, the other girls would be showing them the ropes, but Leo seemed to enjoy telling them everything anyway. Tia hadn’t realised how many little things there were to think of as a waitress! She listened carefully to everything Leo said, determined to her very best.

The first couple of days after their arrival they didn’t have to work, and spent most of their time sleeping off the jet lag, then scurrying about the city buying the various things they needed. They’d each been given a few hundred dollars from the school to help them get started in their new life, so things were pretty easy financially.

The second night, they went to a nearby restaurant for dinner with the other waitresses. By then they were beginning to get a better idea of what life in Sydney was like for a catgirl. It was indeed a little more dangerous than they were used to.

Outside of Hilda’s, it was important to wear hats, and tuck their tails into their clothes to try to hide the fact they were H-mods.
The local laws thankfully recognised them as people rather than animals, but there were plenty of people who apparently didn’t agree with that, and the local police weren’t interested in helping H-mods when there were ‘real people’ in trouble. Shev and Cherry, who’d been there longer than the others, had had their handbags snatched on numerous occasions, and nothing had been done about it. It sounded like Shev had had some worse experiences, but she didn’t seem to want to go into detail.

Most frightening of all, a girl who used to work there, Kelly, had gone missing one night, and never been found. The police had barely lifted a finger to search, and there had been no response to the posters they’d put up. Leo had even advertised a small reward for any information about her, but only prank phone calls had answered.

“What do you suppose happened to her?” Asked Amille, worried.
“Who knows?” Said Apple, shrugging. “It could have been an extremist looking to kill off a disgusting H-mod, or…we’ve heard a lot of stories about girls from the brothel a couple of streets over been taken away and sold to perverts…”
“Well, we don’t know where they’re going,” Said Primula, sipping her milkshake, “But I think this city’s one of the most dangerous in the way of H-mod girls being kidnapped. They’re probably going to all kinds of places. Perverts wanting sex-slaves, illegal brothels…and then those places on the news…”

Cherry was shaking her head.
“Sydney’s hardly dangerous, compared to where I grew up. If you got into trouble with the police, you were ‘removed from society’, you don’t even get to go to court, they just stick you in a cell and you get sent off to any place where the laws allow H-mods to be kept as slaves, and they auction you off. I had friends who hadn’t even done anything and they got taken away…”

“How awful!” Said Amille. “One day they’ll have to make the laws decent everywhere though. Mr. Preston, who owns the college we came from, does lots of protesting, and he says that more and more people are taking an interest in H-mod rights.”
“Not everywhere though,” Said Apple, “Did you see the news last night? Thailand just passed new laws that forbid living H-mods from their country, except for scientific purposes.”
“That’s terrible!” Said Tia, shuddering. She’d once met a man with fox genes who’d been a test subject in Washington, and from what she understood, scientific research was just a poor excuse for torture.

“Speaking of laws, you two probably wouldn’t have heard, but the Australian government is trying to change the laws here to demand any permanent resident H-mod be sterilised… not that I really want to have children, but they can’t do that to my body! There’s going to be a protest about it in a couple of weeks. It’s a bit dangerous, but we’re going. You should both come too.” Said Primula, indignantly.
“Leo’s letting us all have the day off work because of it!” Added Cherry.
“Just how dangerous will it be?” Asked Tia.
“Umm… probably not very dangerous, but a couple of years ago, there was a protest for H-mod rights, and a catboy got shot by a group of extremists…and we heard a couple of people got snatched away in the crowd.” Said Shev.
“But a big fuss got made about it… a few months ago, there was a protest in Canberra, and they had a lot of police there to keep things under control. I don’t think anything bad happened to anyone that time.” Said Apple.

“We’ll definitely come, won’t we Tia?” Asked Amille. Tia nodded nervously. She wanted desperately to help stop such horrible law from being passed, but knowingly putting herself at risk of being shot or kidnapped… she didn’t know whether she thought the others were being reckless, or whether she thought she was being a coward for not really wanting to go.


The day after that was her first day of work. It was exciting and terrifying at the same time. She’d expected it would be fun to wear a fancy maid outfit, but it was so short, half her mind was constantly absorbed with ensuring nobody could see her underwear.
Watching the others working, she soon realised the occasional minor exposure was inevitable- any amount of bending, and she’d be exposed to some extent. And with the various acts of putting things down and picking things up involved in serving customers, bending would have to be done.
“umm… do you think Leo would let me have my hem taken down just a little bit?” She asked Apple.
The tall girl laughed at her.
“When Primula was new, she asked him that, and you know what he said? ‘would you mind if I cut your pay down just a little bit?’ he asked her. Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. Just hope none of them drop anything on the floor for you to clean up!”

Tia sighed. It was a given that most of the customers had only come to the café to gawk at the lovely catgirls, but she hadn’t anticipated showing her underwear off to strangers being part of her job! And how embarrassing- Amille was always teasing her about her ‘granny-panties’! She’d have to get some nicer ones…no, wait! Then wouldn’t it be as though she were encouraging men to look there? She didn’t know what to do!

The first few times she served the customers, she was terribly frightened, but as her shift wore on, she became more confident, and even began to enjoy herself. The customers were all so nice to her, smiling or laughing if she stuttered, and when they weren’t very busy some seemed inclined to chat with her.
For perhaps the first time in her life, she appreciated the fact she wasn’t quite a striking beauty- most of the lusty gazes and lewd suggestions were directed at the other girls rather than her.