Free Once Upon a Pet Show (A Redpoint One Romance) by J.A. Marlow

the defective controller. Damien handed it over.
"And which one is next?"
    The bot zipped between his legs and headed in
the opposite direction with a fading whistle.
    "Right, the glowing cats." Glowing cats that
apparently liked things nice and hot, in contrast to Vallory's
daubpups who apparently hated high heat.
    Just the thought of her brought up her face in
his mind. A very nice face, and the rest of her was fine, as well.
Including a sharp mind.
    He found himself frowning as he moved to the
next problem enclosure. Yes, a sharp mind, and sometimes sharp
tongue, but there was something else going on there. While she was
obviously devoted to the needs of her pets, she wasn't so much to
the pet show.
    He automatically went through the motions of
finding the problem and starting to fix it, allowing his years of
working with the station to guide his way. Ah, the connection to
the station facilities had degraded. How odd. Testing should have
spotted the problem before pets were even put in the
enclosure.
    One part of his mind continued the repair,
while the other side mulled the problem of Vallory Schist. The
repair was more straight forward. The issue of Vallory proved more
challenging. The pets belonged here at the show. Cute, lovable, a
little mischievous. The attendees would love them.
    Was Vallory here out of a sense of duty?
Because breeders tended to do shows like this to show off new pets
or breeds, whether or not they were for sale? If so, there were
other avenues to get word out. She didn't have to come here.
Considering the expense of attending, even doing smaller shows on
whatever her home planet was would have worked better.
    Which brought to mind something else. Did she
even have a home planet?
    "I have a home. It's here," Damien murmured.
His bot gave him a firm bloop of agreement. He grinned. "Glad you
agree."
    He didn't even try more names with his bot.
He'd tried all morning to no avail. How embarrassing to be reduced
to looking up baby names in an effort to find a name. Why did it
bother him, anyway? He'd gone how many years without his bot having
a name, and now he was looking up lists of baby names to try out?
If he were looking through those types of lists, it should be to
look up baby names for a coming baby.
    He clamped that thought down so hard that his
hand flexed on a circle of metal. The sharp edge cut into his
hand.
    He took a deep breath and forced his hand to
open. A trickle of blood came from the fleshy part of the palm
under the thumb. His bot moved in close, erupting with worrying
noises.
    "It's fine," he automatically told it. One day
it would happen. One day he would find someone to share that life
with him. To set up a home and start a family.
    One thing he knew for certain, it would not be
with Vallory Schist, the self-proclaimed nomad.
    Her voice came drifting over the sound of the
crowds. Vibrant and clear. And angry?
    Damien finished reattaching the environmental
controls, pleased to find his scanner showing it working. The
temperature ticked upwards a fraction of a degree.
    He stood, trying to determine the direction of
her voice. Why angry? Other than in a hurry, she'd been in a good
humor this morning. Perhaps someone was messing with her pets? They
weren't far from her enclosure. Just down the service aisle a
bit.
    His bot tapped his hand with a metal hand.
Damien glanced down, realizing he still held the defective part. He
let his bot take it. It headed off down the aisle towards their
waiting cart.
    More raised voices, of which one was Vallory.
Despite himself, he found himself heading towards her enclosure. If
someone were giving her grief or bothering her daubpups, they would
find that both of them had another protector.
    Oh great. When did he start thinking like
that? Not good.
    And yet, he still continued on his way, unable
to stop himself.
    He slipped out of the narrow aisle next to her
enclosure. The public aisle on the other side was still full, but
there was an empty area