⌚ New Experiences

3. A New Day

An alarm chirped somewhere. An easygoing fox turned over in bed, His eyes crept open, a broad smile decorating his face. His fur was more than a little ruffled, and his tail twitched side to side as he tried to remember the night before. A bottle of rosé winé on his nightstand, or rather a bottle that had formerly contained wine, gave him a hint why his brain might be feeling as fuzzy as his face right now.

Grooming took him just a couple of minutes. His fur was always close-trimmed, so he didn't have to cope with the nightmare-inducing bed-head of some of his friends. He could remember that date night had gone surprisingly well, given that he could barely keep his eyes off the package leaning against his desk. A gift from Master. From someone that his most assertive girlfriend didn't know anything about. And, he realised, he hadn't told Master everything about her either. He'd let the man who practically owned him assume he'd do something as natural as dating a vixen. Somehow, his relationships with other members of Homo lycalopex had never turned out that well, and his current intimate relationships were with a tiger, a leopard, and a blue kestrel. Plus whatever species Metamorpheus was, on the far side of the Internet. Well, he could tell Master about his fluctuating taste in women the next time they spoke. Today he had more important things to think about, like that package.

He'd had to leave it on the desk while Lulu was here yesterday. He'd tried not to spend too much time looking at it, but he couldn't stop trying to guess what was in a large parcel a few inches thick. She'd seen it, of course. She'd read the large label on the side, and said the words aloud with a sarcastic grin. But she hadn't pressed him further, and he found that he was already waiting for the other paw on his tail. Her claws had raked his skin hard enough that he would struggle to get the bloodstains out of his sheets, but with Lulu that didn't have to mean she was in a bad mood. Somehow, what she might have seen as some kind of infidelity had just added an extra spark to their date night before it could become too routine.

Now he lifted the parcel up onto his bed. It sagged slightly in the middle, bending under its own weight. Soft, but mostly stiff. He couldn't put it off any longer, he needed to know what Master had sent him. But because a few weeks of hypnosis online had helped him to become a rather obedient slave, he reached for his cellphone first, and called up the chat app.

'𝖬𝖺𝗌𝗍𝖾𝗋, 𝖨'𝗆 𝗈𝗉𝖾𝗇𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗆𝗒 𝗀𝗂𝖿𝗍 𝗇𝗈𝗐', he quickly typed. He knew he was allowed to, he didn't need to see a reply, but he still felt a rush of pleasure when he read Master's words back to him.

He used his claws to slice through the outer layers of grey wrapping, and pulled and gnawed at the many layers of tape until they peeled away one by one. There was layer after layer of shimmering grey, wrapped around the package like a rolled-up blanket and trussed with layer after layer of chaotic tape. He was overjoyed when he got through enough to see what looked like blue denim underneath. A pair of jeans, maybe? But he had no idea why Master would send him something that already made up about half of his wardrobe. Seeing a tiny glimpse just made him more excited, more determined to discover what this surprise might be. Somewhere in his mind, he was sure that he was going to love it. Not just because Master knew him so well, maybe even better than he knew himself. Not just because he trusted he would enjoy whatever Master wanted him to do. But because of an indistinct memory that he already knew what this was going to be. That he'd agreed to this, letting his excitement build to a peak, and then been coaxed to forget so that the surprise would be just as intense.

He didn't have the faintest idea what it might be. It wouldn't be clothes, would it? Those would have been easy enough to buy for himself. He went through new fashions so fast that he had a loyalty card with Priè Marche, the local designer outlet, and he was sure that whatever Master had in mind, there'd be something there to fit. He could even have ordered something online, and then told Soanky to go collect his new outfit from the store, if he wanted to turn the screws of humiliation a little tighter.