⌚ New Experiences

11. Different Strokes

"Any idea what's in it?" Paper asked. Spanky shook his head slowly. His eyes were resting on the parcel in his hands now, but he hadn't found any extra guesses as to what might be beyond the criss-cross layers of parcel tape.

And then he had to ask: "Did you look in the other parcels?" He was dreading the answer, although in some ways his paranoid could reassure him there. If they knew what Master had done to him, he was sure at least one of them wouldn't stick around any longer. So they couldn't have looked. Unless they were waiting to tell him what they thought of him before leaving. Or that his most shameful secret, of the things Master had made him do, would soon be plastered across the student bulletin boards.

"We're not thieves, Spanky," Lulu answered, a little disapproving. "I'll do terrible things to your body, and maybe even involve some of your property, but I wouldn't rummage through your secrets so casually. Not when you're not here to get worked up by it. Is there something you don't want us to know about? If you really, really don't want us to know, you can say. You're still allowed a little secret, to indulge by yourself."

"It's..." Spanky started, and then hesitated. The thoughts chased each other around his mind for two or three whole minutes this time, but it felt like hours with two sets of eyes on him. He could say it was a secret, and he was guaranteed to be safe from them poking into his activities with Master. But did he really want to be safe? He was sure that he was in love with Paper, and Lulu turned him on in ways that nobody else ever had. He wanted to be able to trust them. No, he didn't want a safe life. He knew he'd never have the courage to admit what Master had made him do, but he wanted to hold out hope that someday he would be able to share even that with them. He wanted, more than anything else, to know that when they found out, they might laugh or mock him but they wouldn't leave him or add to his insecurity. He just wanted to hope, and he found that the prospect of never knowing when his secret would be discovered was making him nervous, apprehensive, and just a little aroused.

"I want to tell you, but you might be freaked out. You might say I'm sick, and walk away."

"We won't," Paper shook her head for emphasis.

"Right. Anything you're so worried about us finding out must be intense. That just makes me more interested. And your Master says I can ask you, if you're ready to tell me about that. We talked awhile, and he's pretty sure I'd accept it. But this is down to you. Your choice, if you want to slam that door on us without ever exploring it."

"No," he shook his head, "No slamming doors, no secrets. It's... Master made me act kind of... childish. It's like a different way of being helpless. Acting like a little kid, and not being able to help it. Finding that some of my most intense memories, I can't access because I'm not old enough to understand them. I'm scared to tell you more than that. It's probably weird enough on its own. You can go look through those parcels if you want, but please... Take it slow, or you'll give me a heart attack. I mean, I said that much, and my heart's racing, and you're smiling, but I'm still terrified how you'll react if you find out... It's not even what I chose! Master didn't tell me what it was going to be, it was a surprise out of nowhere, I still don't know if it's too much for me to take. Please, let them be my little secrets, the lengths I've gone to, to show that I can't resist Master's commands. Until you're sure I'm ready, comfortable with..."

"Or uncomfortable enough to be fun," Paper smirked. "I don't think there's a word for that, but there should be. I know what you mean. And I promise, I won't open them until you say I can. Or until you're in a place where I'm sure you'd be out of your mind with nerves if I mentioned it, in a way you might enjoy."

"Thanks," Spanky finally stopped holding his breath, and forced his body to relax. He hadn't even realised how tightly he was holding himself until he could – maybe – relax. "You don't mind if I leave opening this, do you? Put it off some. Until I know it's not going to explode or something?"

"You can put it in the drawer," Lulu nodded and pointed, "Right after you got my box of needles out. Then it's out of sight, and you don't have to worry about it all evening. You'll only think about what I'm doing to you."

Spanky nodded gratefully, and dashed over to the desk. He'd normally be apprehensive even touching that box, which contained both a hundred and twelve silver needles, and a whole variety of other sharp and pointy objects. He'd never opened it, and it was only in his room because Lulu knew just how nervous it made him, every time he saw it while reaching for a bottle of ink or the secret bottle of scotch concealed at the back of the drawer. But today, it seemed the lesser of two things to be deliciously embarrassed and terrified by.

His paws were trembling as he fumbled and tore the layers of packing tape. There was actually wrapping paper under there, between yet more loops of tape. He could make out just enough to see that it was the most childish possible design, with cartoon pictures of mice holding up badly-spelled placards to wish him a happy birthday, and then a layer of belated Christmas paper featuring a certain well-known penguin from an animated movie. By the time he was done, it seemed that the crumpled ball of wrapping materials was almost as large as the present had been in the first place. He didn't even know how that could be possible, but it seemed Master was very good at picking precisely the right amount of wrapping paper to maximise the wonderful anxiety as he waited to see what was inside.

"So what is it, then?" Paper asked, sounding maybe just as excited as he was. The instant he heard her voice, Spanky froze.

As soon as he'd got to his desk, he'd opened the parcel. He didn't even think twice, and Master's power over him was apparently not diminished in the slightest by the presence of two girlfriends in the room. That was something he'd have to ask Master to be more careful about in the future, if Paper and Lulu were going to be in his room unexpectedly.

"Can we see?" Lulu asked, but didn't move to get up from the bed. There was a brief sound of movement, and the bedsprings groaned like someone had sat down very heavily before the pink cat continued: "That's not the way we do it, dear. When he's ready to show us, he will. That parcel contains several items, so we're giving him a chance to hide any of them that are particularly embarrassing before we move from the bed."

The only response was a muted squeak, that you couldn't believe had come from a tiger's mouth unless you'd spent a lot of time with a very nervous one. Spanky couldn't believe that Lulu would talk like that to– Well, he could imagine her using words like that to just about anyone and everyone, even including her tutors and faculty staff. But the low voice that promised the most wonderful punishments if challenged, it was a specific tone, and he'd never even thought of her using that on someone else before.

Lulu was squatting in of the middle the bed, still seated comfortably, with a content smile on her face. Paper looked a lot less content, but more surprised than upset. She was half sprawled out, face pressed down into the duvet. Lulu had one hand wrapped around Paper's neck, just beneath her jaw, and the other on the base of her friend's tail, slowly moving inside her dress through the back pleat. Paper gasped and mumbled, maybe some kind of protest, but there were no distinct words in her response.

Spanky gasped, eyes wide, and couldn't quite bring himself to close his mouth before he was distracted by the rattling and clunking of his latest surprise hitting the ground. The package had contained a dozen round objects of various sizes, most of them individually wrapped in layers of ribbons or bubble-wrap, and he couldn't make out yet if they were the same thing or all different. The ones without extra paper were coloured plastic balls, the kind of thing you could buy from a dispenser at the supermarket. Collectible items of some kind, distributed at random. Some of the others were stuck together in twos or threes, maybe larger items wrapped up in balls of clear plastic, and the whole set had originally been arranged in an approximate grid on top of a stiff board.

But the board wasn't stiff enough to keep its shape when held in one hand, especially not slightly tilted, and the mysterious balls were suddenly rolling all across the floor. Spanky was going to drop to his knees and try to gather up as many as possible, when he realised what he was still holding.