The morning was cool and hazy, but Cassiopeia could tell that it wouldn't be long before it burned off. She walked on one of the raised boardwalks that crisscrossed the docking yard where she worked with her boss, Mayra. They weren't on business at the moment; it was Saturday, and they were making their way out to Mayra's workshop.
"When I said it would be a lot of work, I wasn't exaggerating," said Mayra. She wore grubby casual clothes today: a faded, heavily modified green hoodie and a long gray skirt smeared with remnants of axle grease. She'd pulled her dusk blue hair into a simple bun at the top of her head, and her tan and dark blue wings bobbed contentedly behind her as she walked. "If you want to do this, we won't be starting right away. We're going to need a lot of parts, so I would start by taking inventory on Monday."
Cassiopeia could already see the hulking metal shape behind the workshop. She wondered if she should've put some pants on to keep from scraping her knees on sharp metal, or whatever else people kept in their workshops. Her full bladder throbbed, making her suddenly glad that she wasn't wearing anything under her knee-length sundress. Aside from that, she wore her usual socks and sneakers, and had her long green hair tied up in a lazy ponytail.
Mayra approached the door to the workshop with her key, only for it to open at a slight touch. She cursed under her breath and groaned, "Oh, not again!"
Cassiopeia followed Mayra into the workshop. It was well-organized, except for a half-finished electrical project on the work table. Across from that, a small hallway led to the bathroom and a small storage area. Unlike all the other times Cassiopeia had been there, the door to the bathroom was wide open. Seeing the toilet made her antsy, and she pressed her legs together; she'd had two glasses of water since breakfast, and three cups of tea. She'd used the bathroom just before leaving, but she'd quickly found herself needing to go again.
"Is it alright if I use the bathroom?" Cassiopeia asked nervously.
Mayra stopped and peered up the short hallway at the wide-open bathroom door. "It should be okay. Let me know if you spot anything hiding in the storage area, alright?"
Not knowing what that meant, Cassiopeia nodded and hurried toward the bathroom. Having a toilet so close made her desperation that much worse, and her legs began shaking as she shut the bathroom door behind her...and heard quiet squeaks, followed by a low growl.
A pile of gray fluff sat behind the door, guarded by a larger, angry fluff. It had thick gray fur and a slightly curled bottlebrush tail. It bared its little fangs at Cassiopeia, and she opened the door again, skittering back out into the hall.
"Miss May," Cassiopeia squeaked. "There's something in the bathroom."
"I heard," sighed Mayra. "She's got her babies in there too, doesn't she?"
Cassiopeia nodded.
"You might want to pee outside - you have my explicit permission, as owner of this yard," Mayra added. "This is gonna take a while. Have a look at the ship too, while you're out there. She's a Silverling model, like mine but smaller."