Soft & Still

Chapter 1

"Madame!" (Y/N) reaches up in the flicks of rays from the early morning sunlight to ring a bell at the street stall selling imports of fine China dishware from behind reinforced glass. "I've brought your delivery!" (Y/n) calls out gently looking around to see if she could find her client from around the rows of shelves made of a beautiful dark and polished wood. The Madame walks out from behind one of the shelves and her lips curl into a refined and gentle smile.

"Ah, yes," Madame takes dainty steps towards (Y/N). Her sun-bleached hair dotted with new incoming grays bounced with the vitality she bore as she found her way over to the girl she had previously ordered from. "You were correct when you stated that items of such high quality did not take you long to make Ms. (Y/N)," Madame reaches out her hands to take the box which (Y/N) held onto. (Y/N) dips her head in acceptance of the compliment and smiles gently as she hands over the box.

"You may look at the contents of the box to make sure that they are to your preference if you so wish Madame," (Y/N) offered to her client. She preferred to only serve her clients as best as she could with as much satisfaction as possible.

"Oh, may I?" The middle-aged lady replaces the box down onto the space in between her and (Y/N) before looking to her right then left and taking small steps away to find a knife to cut open its contents. It isn't long before she returns and poises the knife to carefully open the box without harming what's inside.

"Oh my, how beautiful," Madame sighs as a feeling of sweet bubbling contentedness rises within her and makes its way to her features making her already gently smile rather soft and heart-warming. She holds up this small bear plushy before cradling it to her bosom to use her free hand to run along the bear's soft ears and beaded eyes. (Y/N) looks upon her client gently as she sees the closeness the Madame has already developed with the plushie knowing within herself that this was another job well done.

"It's perfect, remind me dear, how much did I owe you? There is nothing I would change about this lovely thing," the Madame finally returns her attention to (Y/N) after what was slightly longer than a brief moment of connection with the soft stuffed bear.

"For this one, our agreed amount was $150. For the materials-" (Y/N) was interrupted while trying to do the price breakdown.

"Oh no dear, you don't need to tell me every little detail. I trust your craftmanship and business," The Madame puts the stuffed bear into the box and pulls out a pouch from under the front counter, "I have only heard good things about you and your work and seeing it for myself only proves that those rumors were all truth, no matter the price. Here you go dear," the Madame holds out the bills to (Y/N) who takes them with a smile.

"Thank you for your kind words, they truly do mean a lot to me just as each of these stuffed plushies mean the world to me, I hope that your daughters upcoming birth will be smooth and without complication," (Y/N) says with a gently inflection in her tone. Pulling out her own wallet, (Y/N) tucks the bills into its dedicated space before putting the wallet back into her bag.

"I can tell, you did so well with this little one, I can only imagine the thought and work that went into each one," the Madame picks up the box and begins to step back, "Then, I will not keep you from your day any longer. Thank you again and I will certainly call upon your services again in the future."

(Y/N) smiled widely and with an obvious joy, "Thank you so much! I look forward to it!" The lady grins and waves her off with a small 'get home safely' that (Y/N) replies to before turning on the ball of her foot to begin heading back home. There was still another order to work on before she could rest for the day.

It takes a good bit of walking before (Y/N) can get out of this more affluent area of the town to make it to where she and her family live together. (Y/N) had the option of moving out and living on her own a few years ago, but found that living at home was both more beneficial financially to her, but also helpful to her parents as she helped them out around the house through cooking and some cleaning while they were out working during the day.

It took roughly twenty minutes of walking, which was much faster than the thirty minutes this morning from walking with that bulky box with the plushy, to reach her house. Paying no mind to the outside as she was by now very familiar with the house that she had lived in since she was a child, she grabbed the copper door handle, twisting it and pushing the door open.

"I'm back!" She called into the empty house. Her younger brother was in school still and her parents were working. This made sense since it was still 10 in the morning. (Y/N) looks around the house noticing the dirt decorating the floor and the small dust bunny growing in the corner of the living room. Sighing, she decided to put off working on the order for a moment just to finish sweeping up the house to make it slightly more presentable.

Realistically, it didn't take long for (Y/N) to clean up, but by the end of it, (Y/N) was ready to begin work rather than to continue doing more housework. With a loud huff (Y/N) sat at her childhood desk, rickety in one leg and paint chipping, and stretched out her back in the matching chair she sat in. Finding a hair clip to push her hair out of her face, (Y/N) looked around the desk before finding the envelope she had received requesting the next stuffed animal. This one needed to be completed within the next three days which realistically wouldn't be difficult if it wasn't for the fact that the client also wanted two sets of clothes to go with the plushy, an original outfit and an outfit change.

The plushy itself wouldn't be difficult and would only take a day and a half, but the clothes made it difficult due to those not being (Y/N)'s specialty. Normally it took a day and a half for one set of clothes so two would take easily three days, but that was how long (Y/N) had to complete this order so it would seem late nights and hard focus would be in her very near future.

~~~~ 

Let it begin! I started with simply introducing our main character and what she does/who she is. I hope you're as excited as I am for this!