A young tiger-striped orange and black catgirl stifled a yawn as she stretched in her seat, scratching one of the triangular ears jutting through the sea of long red hair atop her head. She leaned back in her chair, free hand bringing the sheet of paper up to her face to continue reading.
"Sample... store at freezing... Blah blah. Can't he get to the point?" She grumbled to herself, skimming through the rest of the report. It wasn't so bad when it was on paper since then her boss was limited by room, she supposed. The rare emailed report was like an entire biology book by comparison. Sometimes she wished she was interning under some other researcher. Finished skimming, she tossed the report onto the desk carelessly, leaning forward and eyeing the box it had come with curiously. It was one of those cold storage containers, so good at staying cold that it looked chilled on the outside.
Standing up from her chair, she scooped up the container and made her way over to the sample freezer. Delicately pinning the box between a boney hip and one hand, she gave the freezer door a sharp tug with her free hand. No dice. The freezer was practically vacuum sealed shut or something. Trying to get it open was always a huge pain. It didn't help that the door was on the top and opened upwards, making the angle really odd to try and get any sort of leverage on. Another two attempts finally saw her succeed though, and she was met with a blast of chilled air. Shivering slightly despite her lab coat, which was too thin to really keep her warm, she set the box on the lip of the open freezer while keeping the lid propped up with one hand. With her other hand, she undid the latch that kept the box sealed.
Several test tubes nestled securely in a small styrofoam mold greeted her green eyes, filled with bits of rock and soil and a few small nuggets of ore. Prying them from their cozy container, she set them one by one in the slots for test tubes, taking a moment to curiously examine the contents of each one. The tubes were extremely cold however, and her poor furry fingers were starting to ache from holding them a little too long. Technically she was supposed to wear gloves for this sort of thing, but she didn't bother unless it was something actually capable of hurting her. As she hurried to unload all the test tubes from the container, her numb fingers fumbled and one of them tumbled out of her grasp. The tube smacked into the lip of the freezer, the lid popping open from the impact and sending a small handful of lumpy soil into the freezer.
"Ah! Not good!" She cried out in surprise, quickly catching the test tube before it could roll off the lip and ducking into the freezer. Scrambling frantically, she scooped all the soil back into it's test tube as quickly as possible. Teeth chattering from having her head and upper torso in the freezer, she glanced around frantically for the missing cap. Shuffling the contents of the freezer around gently, she found it's hiding place in the corner under the test tube holder. Grabbing it, she frowned as she noticed a bright green sprinkle stuck to the side of it. She contemplated where it could have come from for a moment, shrugging and licking the sprinkle free and returning the cap to it's rightful place on the test tube. It was just some soil samples anyways, so as far as she was concerned the five-second rule still applied and it was only like... Eight seconds, tops.
With the storing of the samples accomplished and catastrophe averted, she began rooting around the obscure corner where she had found the test tube's cap. Her efforts yielded her a frosted-over ice cream sundae, covered in sprinkles. The syrup had hardened like a shell, and there were visible ice crystals jutting from it all over. The ice cream had definitely gone more towards the 'ice' side of things, that was for sure.
"How did this get here?" She murmured to herself out loud, trying to recall. She didn't remember hiding this in here... Oh, that was right! She'd hidden it during the christmas party a month back. They had all kinds of food and stuff, and she decided to hide a sundae there to snack on sometime while working. She'd apparently up and forgot it was there and never got around to eating it. Giving a shrug at the solved mystery, she took the sundae with her as she pulled herself out of the freezer and let the lid slam shut with a loud 'thwump' sound. Still shivering slightly, she made her way back to her desk and set the frozen treat down as she plopped back into her sight, sighing in boredom.
She supposed she could busy herself reading or something. She'd completed all her tasks with storing those samples, all she had to do now wait until she was off the clock. She stared contemplatively at the sundae, giving it a poke with her no longer numb finger. Hard as a rock. There was no way she was going to be able to eat that thing, not without giving it time to thaw at least. Was watching ice melt the equivalent of watching paint dry? It probably was, although in this case at least she got a tasty treat out of it as a reward. Turning her attention to the small stack of books on the side of her desk, she rummaged through them for a moment for something to read.
"Read that one ten times... No... God this one had a dumb ending... Eh, maybe... Ahah, here we go!" Her rummaging ended as she found a book she had only recently purchased, having not actually had a chance to read yet. Leaning back in her chair, resting her feet up on her desk, she settled down to read. Every few pages she would look up from the story to glance at the ever-slowly thawing sundae. After the first chapter, she had started to pry a sprinkle off now and then. By the second chapter her stomach had started to rumble, causing her to glance at the clock mounted on the wall.
"Sheesh, still a half hour..." She gave her flat stomach a pat under her shirt in an attempt to placate it. She was always starving when she got off work because of the no snack rule. Sure she got a lunch break, but they always made her take that early on in the afternoon and she didn't get off until well into the evening. Returning to her book to kill the remaining time, the catgirl assistant soon found herself out of sprinkles. The sundae was still far too frozen to attempt to eat, but the rumbling of her stomach wasn't so easily dissuaded.
After a moment of thought, she propped the book open against her lap, holding the sundae in one hand and turning a page with the other. She'd turn a page, take a lick of the sundae, and repeat. Then it went from turning a whole page between licks to reading half a page. Then a paragraph. Then a sentence. In short order she was taking a lick for every word she read. By the time it was closer for her to leave, between the room temperature slowly thawing it and her constant licking, the sundae had softened considerably. Once she had finished the second chapter, she had started to nibble on it, and by the time the clock hit the hour, the entire top half of the sundae had been whittled away. Her stomach was appeased at first, but it was quickly demanding to actually get some substance into it.
Folding the page to mark her place, she tossed the book back into the pile. Ready to leave and get a proper meal, she contemplated what to do with the rest of the sundae. She couldn't walk out of the room with it, since someone would probably catch her... Best to finish it off, even if it was still a little frozen. Tipping the small plastic container up to her mouth, she used her tongue to pull one side up and out, opening her mouth wide to take a large bite out of the frozen treat. A few tough moments of chewing, her tongue thoroughly numb from the cold, she swallowed the sizable bite of heavenly vanilla and chocolate. The very instant it hit her stomach, her belly rumbled and she found herself taking half the remaining sundae in one large bite. Without pausing, the rest of the sundae was in her mouth and down her throat. Licking the plastic container for every ounce of ice cream that might be left on it, she blinked rapidly in surprise at herself.
Even accounting for how hungry she usually was by now, she didn't usually go at her food like that. A little embarrassed and glad nobody was around, she tossed the container into a waste basket and shuffled out of her lab coat. Hanging it up on the rack, she quickly left the room and made her way out of the building. The sundae had quieted her stomach, but she still felt hungry enough to be in a hurry. Giving a quick wave good bye to the secretary and the security staff she passed on her way out, she made her way to the parking lot and into her car. It was a short drive home, but her stomach had started rumbling halfway there and she found herself compelled to get something on the way instead.
A short stop at a drive through found her ordering a large burger with fries, and that sundae earlier put her in the mood for a large shake as well. The burger was devoured in a mere three bites, driving with one hand as she ate, and the fries just barely lasted her to her neighborhood. The last fry went past her hungry lips as she pulled into her driveway. The milkshake, already half gone during the drive, was finished off by the time she opened her front door. Her stomach full and strained from eating so much so rapidly, the young tiger-patterned catgirl shuffled her shoes off and stumbled over to her couch, flopping onto it with an 'oof' and quickly drifting off to sleep. The sound of soft snoring quickly filled the room, accompanied by a gurgling sound from the young intern's bloated stomach. Despite having been packed with food mere minutes ago, her tight stomach was visibly returning to it's normal flat shape at an impossible speed.
Unawares of any strangeness, the feline young woman shifted in her sleep as the pressure in her git vanished and allowed a more comfortable position.
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