Eleanor had been half-listening to the tech bro for the past twenty minutes-something about his crypto portfolio and how he was "disrupting the fintech space." The food court buzzed with weekend mall traffic around them, a chaos of competing conversations and the smell of Cinnabon mixing with Panda Express. Her tail swished lazily behind her as she nodded along, already mentally calculating three different ways to make his death look like an accident.
Then she saw Du.
The Zing.
It hit like lightning, that electric pull in her chest. Her ears perked forward, locked on target. The tech bro was still talking-something about blockchain now-but Eleanor wasn't listening anymore. Her claws itched beneath their pink caps.
"Oh my god, that's so interesting!" Eleanor giggled, placing a hand on the tech bro's shoulder. She gave him a playful shove.
He went flying.
The guy tumbled backward over a bench, crashing into a trash can with a metallic CLANG that echoed through the food court. People gasped. Someone screamed. A mother pulled her kids closer. Eleanor's tail wagged.
She didn't look back.
Her pink crocs thudded against the tile-each step heavier than it should be-as she bounced toward Du. That lopsided grin spread across her face, ears flopping with the motion. Her weighted bangles clinked softly.
"Hi!" Eleanor chirped, skidding to a stop in front of Du with a head tilt. "Sorry, did you see that? I didn't mean to push him that hard!" She laughed, bright and bubbly. "I'm Eleanor! What's your name?"
Behind her, the tech bro groaned somewhere in the wreckage of the trash can.
