Happy

Happy

by Pan

Dakota hated her job.

It was only ever meant to be a temporary position - reception work for a few months after college finished, then onto her

real

career. But she was good at her job, and so when she'd informed them of her intention to quit, they'd offered her a raise. The next time she'd warned them she was moving on, she'd been swayed by the offer of a promotion.

Six years later, she was still there. Still pushing paper, still intending to move on, slowly accepting the fact that she'd probably be in this job until she died, slowly working her way higher up a chain she didn't care about in the slightest.

Just recently, for some reason, it had been worse than ever. She didn't just hate her job, she was struggling to find

any

kind of joy in life - she had almost started to worry that she might be depressed, until she'd spoken about it with Holly, another one of the girls in the office.

Dakota had no idea how the conversation had even started. She and Holly were as different as cheese and chalk - where Holly was brash and outspoken, Dakota was shy, avoiding attention whenever possible. Her accounting job, as much as she'd grown to despise it, suited her down to the ground; she could hide away in her office, alone with just her numbers.

They even stood in stark contrast to each other physically. Both were gorgeous (though Dakota would never, ever describe herself that way) but Holly was more than six feet tall, with red hair that went all the way down to her butt, and a curvaceous body...which she had no compunctions about showing off. In contrast, Dakota had a petite build, standing only 5'3 and weighing just more than 100 pounds. She had short, dirty-blonde hair, and always dressed as professionally as possible, wearing suit pants and (when she felt she could get away with it) flats.

The two of them had never gotten along, but last week they'd somehow struck up a conversation, and Holly had shared that she too had been feeling extremely down - as had many of the other women in the office.

"Maybe it's the new air conditioners they've installed," Dakota suggested, making a mental note to go and talk to Rob (the office administrator) about it.

"It's probably just the work," Holly said with a snort, and Dakota had smiled politely. She didn't think it was very professional to openly disparage their place of employment like that, but she certainly wasn't going to pick a fight with a co-worker.

She sighed with relief as Holly walked away, and sat at her desk, wishing it was Friday.

Only four days to go,

she told herself, her heart sinking at the prospect of the week ahead. At least on the weekend she could get high - she'd broken up with Skye because he seemed to do nothing but smoke weed all day, but recently Dakota had found herself turning to pot more and more, especially after the soul-crushing depression that she felt like she was experiencing.

Sitting down at her desk, the young woman checked her calendar. Nothing scheduled - just paperwork. Mounds and mounds of paperwork.

"Four more days," she said out loud. "Come on, girl - you can do this."

###

The clock had just turned to 10am when Dakota heard an unusual sound. Something she felt hadn't been heard in the office for a very, very long time.

It was the sound of a woman laughing.

Curious, she got out of her chair and followed the sound. It was coming from a cubicle on the other side of the room - Rob's! Peeking around the corner of the flimsy wall separating him from the rest of the office, Dakota was surprised to find Holly leaning against the accountant's desk, her laugh coming in snorts as she flirted with the young man. He had one hand casually stroking her hair, following it all the way down her back.

Dakota realized that her peeking mustn't have been as subtle as she'd thought, because Rob glanced up at her, and she was surprised to find herself getting warm.

Her eyes widened. Her face flushed. She felt something new, something exciting. Something she barely remembered.

She felt...happy.

Without a word, she left the (comparatively) raucous two, and headed back to her own desk. She felt strange...shaken. A smile slowly spread across her face.

She felt good.

###

The next day, Dakota came into work early. Her good mood had lasted the rest of the work day: a part of her wanted to question why she'd felt that sudden burst of happiness, but she somehow felt like examining it too closely could potentially make it disappear, and so instead she just basked in the warm feeling, enjoying the sensation of joy -

joy

! - as it coursed through her body.

It finally faded only when she got home to her drab apartment. Moving a basket of laundry out of the way, she'd sunk into her chair and spent the night watching reality TV, reminiscing about how good she'd felt that day as she filed reports and faxed photocopies of emails. Normally getting home was what she lived for, but for the first time that she could recall, she'd wished that she was back at work.

For the first time, she allowed herself to wonder - why had Rob's glance given her so much joy? It didn't make sense.

It must have just been a coincidence,

Dakota told herself, and realized that there was only one way to be sure.

Getting into work earlier than normal, her first visit had been to Rob's cubicle. He'd smiled at the sight of her, and that warm feeling had filled her body again - she'd enthusiastically returned his smile, and spent the next few minutes chatting about inanities, enjoying the small burst of pleasure that she felt every time Rob made eye-contact.

Again, questioning it felt dangerous, like trying to grip a small animal too tightly. The best way to keep it alive was to give it room, let it grow. With a smile, she dismissed any worries from her head.

Her morning had continued in much the same manner as the entire previous day, but to her dismay, her feeling of joy started to fade right before lunch, and when her break-time came about, she could hardly muster up the energy to go across the road and pick up a wrap.

What's wrong with me?

she thought, sitting in her chair, barely able to move. She knew that it wasn't normal, getting so much happiness from her co-worker's gaze, but she couldn't even be bothered wondering why it was happening. In that moment, nothing mattered.

The thought that maybe Rob would want something too managed to perk her up enough to pay him a visit, but she was disappointed to find that he wasn't alone - Holly was there, leaning on his desk, taking up his time. Dakota hovered nearby for a few minutes, but Rob's attention was clearly elsewhere - Holly was wearing a particularly revealing top (even for her) and his eyes seemed to be unable to leave her bare skin, especially the prominent cleavage that the redhead was showing off.

###

Blushing with embarrassment, Dakota got onto the train. She was wearing skimpier clothes than she'd worn in a long, long while. Nothing particularly scandalous, but for the modest young woman, she was exposing far more of herself than she was comfortable with.

She knew it was stupid. She knew it was wrong. But in that moment, she just didn't care - she needed to feel Rob's eyes on her again, to give her that feeling of happiness that she was suddenly craving so much.

Dakota's jeans were skin-tight, and her black top showed off her midriff. She knew her carefully-positioned necklace would draw attention to the cleavage that she'd made sure her push-up bra highlighted.

Dakota's face was bright red right as she walked into the office, right until she attracted Rob's attention.

His smile and adoring made all her worries float away.

...at least, until Holly walked past in a red tubetop dress that didn't even reach halfway down to her knees. Dakota wasn't interested in competing with the voluptuous older woman, and so she slinked off quietly, holding onto the last remnants of warmth caused by Rob's gaze.

###

At lunch that day, Dakota went to visit Rob, but was surprised to find a crowd of women surrounding him. Even Holly looked perturbed by the competition - she sat on his desk, her legs showing off her long, toned legs, but Rob didn't seem to care - he was too busy laughing and flirting with the other women of the office.

Dakota could feel the depression threatening to overwhelm her - even though she had no idea why Rob's attention was so important to her, she needed it. She needed to feel joy, to stop herself from falling back into the pit of despair. She'd do anything to feel those sharp spikes of joy once more, and so Dakota returned to her desk and started googling. She had something over the other women, and she planned to use it to full advantage.

She knew Rob's secret.

One quick phone-call later, and Dakota's appointment was set. She'd managed to convince him to squeeze her in at the last moment, and just the knowledge that Rob's attention would soon be firmly on her was enough to get her through the day.

Even though Rob didn't come near her once, a small smile was on the front of Dakota's pixie-like face until she left work that evening.

###

The second Dakota saw the look on Rob's face, she knew the pain had been completely worth it. His eyes positively lit up as she strolled casually into work the next day (well, as casually as one can stroll when they're unused to wearing three-inch heels). She hadn't even needed to draw his attention to it, his eyes had immediately locked on, and he couldn't look away.

Dakota was so happy, she felt like she could burst.

A year and a half ago, Dakota's cousin had visited the office. Only briefly, to pick her up for lunch, but Rob had followed her around like a schoolboy with a crush, discussing her various tattoos.

It was clear that he was an aficionado.

Dakota knew that she didn't have the body to compete with Holly, or most of the other women in the office. But she knew that by getting inked, she could stay one step ahead. And so she'd found the artist who had done such great work on her cousin, and gone into his studio the previous night, ready to pay top dollar to get a piece of art tattooed somewhere visible, somewhere obvious.

The idea of getting a tattoo had never really appealed to her before, but she knew that if it would draw Rob's gaze away from the other women and onto her, it would be worth every penny. And so Dakota (who wouldn't normally show off so much as an ankle) had come into work the next day in a floral shirt that left her newly-tattooed shoulders bare, as well as showing off a significant part of her midriff.

She almost needn't have bothered trying with the rest of her outfit - the second Rob saw her tattoo, it was all that he could look at. She hadn't even thought about what she wanted her tattoo to be until she'd been sitting in the chair and the well-groomed man with a needle had asked. Her mind had blanked, and so she'd pointed to the wall, and simply said "That."

As a result, Dakota now had a gorgeous tattoo of a black flower on her shoulder. It wasn't until he'd finished that Dakota realized why he'd given her such a strange look - the flower's petals were drawn to resemble pussy-lips. It was subtle, but once you noticed there was no way to see it as anything other than a black pussy.

Dakota's eyes widened in shock when she realized: she'd just had cunt-lips permanently tattooed onto her shoulder. She'd been up half the night crying about what she'd done, but the second Rob saw it, all her worries and concerns had melted away.

He liked it, and that just made her so happy. She couldn't be sad about anything while Rob was smiling at her. She knew she should be worried about how much stock she was putting into one man's attention, but it just didn't matter.

When Rob was looking at her, nothing mattered.

***

It was clear that Holly was furious. She'd pulled out all the stops - when the older redhead had arrived at work, she'd been wearing a form-fitting lycra dress. It was completely unsuitable for the office, but Dakota knew that was irrelevant - all that was important was whether Rob liked it.

The red latex showed off her thin waist and wide hips, but it was so tight around her legs that she couldn't keep up with Rob, following Dakota around the office as she completed her morning tasks.

He obviously loved her tattoo. Dakota basked in Rob's gaze - she couldn't ever remember feeling this happy. A part of her knew it was unhealthy, a part of her knew it wouldn't last, and a huge part of her knew that she certainly shouldn't have gotten a depiction of pussy-lips tattooed in such an obviously visible area, but at that moment, she didn't care.

She didn't care about anything except Rob's eyes on her.

Dakota couldn't help an excited squeal escaping her lips when Rob asked her to lunch, and (ignoring Holly's death-glare) she excitedly accepted.

Lunch with Rob - a full half-hour of his attention on her.

She couldn't wait.

###

It was 2am when Dakota's high began to wear off. She was still up - she felt so full of

energy

: she cleaned her entire apartment, finally got around to filing her taxes, and when there was nothing left to do, just flitted around the apartment, still buzzing.

Lunch had been amazing. She couldn't even remember what they'd talked about - her head had been so clouded with pleasure. Rob had asked her a lot of questions about her tattoos, and told her how much he admired it - how lewd it was, the way that she wasn't afraid to wear something so overtly sexual on her skin, like a badge of pride.

Dakota had mostly just smiled and nodded in reply, which Rob had been satisfied with. He'd paid for lunch, which had made her swoon, and when they got back to the office, explained that he had a full day ahead of him.

In a desperate attempt to attract his attention, Holly had been waiting by his cubicle, running her hands over the smooth latex of her dress, but Rob barely even seemed to notice.

Again, Holly stared at her with narrow eyes - if looks could kill, even her bubble of happiness wouldn't have been enough to save Dakota, but she didn't care.

She didn't care about anything.

In the early hours of the morning, however, a sudden deep exhaustion hit Dakota, and she fell straight into a deep slumber. Her alarm barely managed to wake her - the positive glow that had enveloped her the previous day was completely gone, and she felt worse than she had in weeks.

With a great amount of effort, she began getting ready, the only thing keeping her going was the knowledge that Rob would be at work. She hated how much his attention seemed to mean to her, but at the same time she knew that if she didn't do something to make herself feel better, she'd never get out of bed again.

In an attempt to play it cool, Dakota strolled by Rob's cubicle, hoping he'd notice and call her over. When nothing happened, she turned back, and was shocked to see what was distracting her co-worker:

Holly had apparently decided to try to steal Dakota's thunder - the tall woman was wearing what looked like a slutty evening-gown. Like the latex dress of the previous day, it hugged her waist and hips tightly, but Rob's eyes were firmly locked on the impressive amount of cleavage it showed.

And for good reason - Holly had gotten the top of each boob tattooed. The tattoos were a string of pin-up girls: above Holly's left breast, one was showing cleavage of her own, the next was bent over, exposing white panties, and the next was leaning back with her legs spread, showing off a patch of pubic hair.

On the right breast, the first girl was topless, the second was naked and spanking herself, and the third appeared to be touching herself and winking.

If she didn't feel so flat, Dakota would have been furious. Holly had flagrantly stolen her idea, and taken all of their colleague's attention for herself.

"Rob?" Dakota asked softly.

"Mmm? Oh, hey Dakota." Rob replied, without even looking up.

Dakota's heart sank. With her flat chest, she knew she couldn't compete with Holly's cleavage, and there was no way she could find a tattoo artist and get a new tattoo over lunch. And if she had to spend the next eight hours at work hearing Holly laugh at Rob's jokes, she'd end up killing herself - literally.

An possible solution struck Dakota, and while it didn't penetrate the fog enough to allow smile to appear, a close observer would have seen the hint of a twinkle in her eye as the cloud of depression lifted ever-so-slightly.

###

"Rob?" Dakota said again, as she returned from her emergency appointment at lunch. He was still staring admiringly at Holly's pale chest, marvelling at the way the woman's tattoos contrasted with the smattering of freckles on her cleavage.

"Hmmmm?"

"Sorry to disturb - I can see you're busy..."

"What is it, Dakot-..."

Holly's voice trailed off as she looked up and saw the new additions to Dakota's face.

The young woman had remembered that just a few doors down, there was a place that offered - among other services - facial piercings. She didn't know whether Rob had an appreciation of piercings to match his love of tattoos, but she was desperate, and willing to take the risk.

It seemed that her gamble had paid off - at the sound of Holly's surprise, Rob had turned to see what she was looking at, and Dakota felt her heart fill with joy the second Rob's smile appeared.

Grinning in reply, Dakota was surprised to feel a new sensation - she could feel the anti-eyebrow piercing beside her left eye shifting as she smiled. It stung slightly, but she barely felt it as endorphins began to flood her body.

"You like?" she said shyly, and as Rob nodded in response, she felt a small shiver of pleasure go down her spine.

Why did his approval feel so

good

? What was happening - it was obvious that Holly felt it too, and some of the other women in the office. When she walked by the others' cubicles, they were hunched over their computers, miserable. The only smiles she'd seen recently were Rob's and Holly's, everyone else looked like they felt as bad as she had, just a few minutes ago.

As well as the piercing to the side of her eye, Dakota had stretchers put in her ears, and a tongue-piercing as well. As she mumbled that information to Rob, his eyes widened with joy.

"That is so

hot

!" he said, "Stick your tongue out - let me see!"

Dakota obeyed, and her heart leapt again at Rob's reaction. He was like a kid in a candy-store, and it just made her feel so content, so excited, so...happy.

Again, Holly looked furious, and just for a second, Dakota felt a little sorry for her. Until the redheaded woman reached out and literally pulled Rob's face until his attention was on her again.

She didn't say anything, just stuck her tongue out...and out...and out...

Rob gaped at the sight, and Dakota couldn't blame him. Holly's tongue looked almost inhumanly long - Dakota had never seen anyone's tongue stick out that far before.

Almost immediately Dakota felt the joy she'd been experiencing just a few seconds ago start to fade, and panicked.

"Rob!" she said, and when he didn't seem to hear her, impulsively stepped forward, and - standing on the tips of her toes - pressed her body against Holly's, and poked her tongue out to meet hers.

Her action took the older woman by surprise, but upon hearing the excited sound that Rob made, Holly immediately leaned forward and pressed her lips against Dakota's.

Aside from an extremely brief experimental period in high-school (lasting less than a few days) Dakota had never had had any interest in women. Even as she accepted Holly's freakishly-long tongue into her mouth, the petite woman didn't get any particular joy from the act...but Rob's enjoyment of it caused a warm flush to spread throughout her whole body.