⌚ New Experiences

12. Pick and Mix

"Looks like he's sharing all of them," Lulu gave a giggle, as Spanky's still-mysterious gifts scattered for everyone to see. "Grab that one for me, Princess."

Paper darted forwards as soon as her neck was free, going for one of the objects. She kept her legs on the bed, as Lulu was still holding her tail, and hurried forward as fast as she could with her close-trimmed claws to pull her across the carpet. She managed to snag the requested item just before it vanished under the bedside cabinet, and held it out behind her for inspection. She didn't utter a word of protest, making it quite clear that she was willing to obey her friend. Any other day, that realisation alone would be enough to render Spanky speechless.

But right now, the girls only had half his attention. His eyes were fixed on a wide, flat piece of flexible plastic in his hands. At first sight he'd thought it might be a chopping board or some similar item, just a smooth green surface. But now he could see that it was curved slightly, an irregular shape, with a wide dish section at one end, like a spoon stretched out width-wise until it was almost rectangular. Half of his mind was just trying to think of anything it could be except for what it looked like, while the other half was desperately trying to think of a way he could put it in the desk drawer without his girlfriends noticing.

It was a scoop bib, the kind of thing that would put a wide trough under a baby's mouth to catch any spilled food. And as he turned it the right way up, he could be quite certain that the collar and clips along the top edge were neither the right size nor a suitable style for a baby. This was perfectly sized to fit his chest, and he knew that he'd be wearing it just as soon as Master wanted him to. That was fine, he thought, just as long as he could keep it out of sight while–

"Ohh, what's this?" Paper laughed, struggling with sticky tape and around one of the items that had gone flying when he turned around. Spanky immediately dropped the bib where he hoped they wouldn't see it until later, hooked on the arm of his desk chair, and raced to gather up as many of the trinkets as he could find. There were a lot less than he thought there should have been, leaving him to conclude that they'd rolled into some hidden places under the furniture, or Paper and Lulu had harvested more than a few while he was fixated on the largest present.

"I can open that," Lulu offered, "Unless you want to show me you can do it yourself, like a big girl."

Spanky blushed like a beetroot, even though the comment wasn't directed at him. He could just imagine being dressed like a cub, and addressed like that, would make him feel so incredibly dependant, so helpless. It turned his mind to mush just at the faintest suggestion. And knowing Lulu, that was probably her intent. She knew just how to push his buttons, even if she was groping blindly in a room without even knowing the buttons were there.

"I got it," Paper muttered in response, "I should have... No. Okay, fine. But no talking to me like a little kid. That's for the foxcub."

"Heyyy!" he protested, but he knew he had no real argument. If they wanted to treat him like a cub, there was nothing he could do to stop them, and as much as he didn't want to admit it, that was something that would make him feel alive again, give his drifting lifestyle some flavour and direction. He was dreading it, but also wanting it just as strongly.

"Oh, he's noticed us," Lulu smiled, doing a perfect impression of a predator as her tongue flicked across the back of her teeth. "Don't worry, we picked one present each to use on you. The rest are yours to open and experience whenever you see fit. Though I'd recommend against unwrapping one when there's anyone else around."

"Yeah, why are... wait... you know what they are? I didn't even know I was getting a... You were asking if you're allowed to know, and you already..." he spluttered to a halt, not even knowing where he stood now.

"I didn't know," Paper shook her head, "I still don't, I can't get this darned thing open. I mean, I knew you'd be getting a present. It's kind of... it was my idea for us to be here when something arrived for you, but it was Lulu who called your Master when we found out about her schedule change."

Spanky just stared, his mouth still hanging open. Lulu took the ball out of Paper's hands, and quickly sliced through the tape with carefully-sharpened claws. Two hemispheres of red and white plastic sprung apart to reveal the largest pacifier Spanky had ever seen. It looked like it could have been made for a giant's baby, or an infant the size of a grown man. The plastic bulb was so large that it would probably fill his whole mouth, and there was a plastic guard a few inches across, in pink and decorated with raised decals of alphabet blocks.

"Oh, nice," she turned it around to look at it from different angles, and then passed it back to the tiger in her lap. "Don't worry, Master didn't let me in on your big secret, either. He said he would, because he was sure I'd be happy with any scenario as long as I'm in control. But I thought I'd rather hear it from you. See, you've been prepared for tonight already, even if you weren't so clear on the details. You wouldn't have had to open the parcel if you weren't willing to share at least some of your secrets with us, and you wouldn't have dropped your balls ev– Don't laugh, or you'll both be getting that spanking later – everywhere unless you were excited about the prospect of me seeing them. You wouldn't have let us see that thing if it went beyond what you'd already shared."

"These... balls... pacifiers?"

"They're all different. That's all he said. Each one will have a certain effect on you if you open it yourself. Or if somebody else opens it, the effect kick in when they give it to you. Some of them even do different things depending who opened them, but we'll have to experiment to find out the rules of each game. Won't that be fun?"

"Uhhh..." Spanky couldn't bring himself to answer that either way, but he nodded almost without thinking.

"There's one that I knew. One that doesn't have a specific connection to ageplay, and could be just an innocuous item concealing a pervertable purpose. That's why I had my pet fetch this one in particular." She was holding up a tape wrapped present, this one more like a disc than a ball, though its coating of bubble-wrap was bulky enough to round off the edges, and let it roll in all directions. Inside there was a bright yellow shape, but Spanky didn't have a clue what it could be.

It was hard to guess if Paper knew, either. She was looking at her own hands instead of at Lulu, trying hard to hide the blush that came with the last few words. And when he thought about what he had heard, Spanky's mind started racing.

She was so relaxed. She enjoyed this as much as he did, he was willing to bet. But Lulu had used those words. "Princess", "dear", and "my pet." There was no ambiguity there. And Paper reacted without a second thought when she heard those terms of endearment. Paper was Lulu's pet, as surely as Spanky was. They would both obey her without question when she used the right tone. And finally, after so many clues that he couldn't believe he had missed, Spanky started to realise that he and his girlfriend has been hiding exactly the same secret from each other, while Lulu used their guilt like any other tool in her arsenal of exquisite torture.

But he'd already seen that Paper could take control of a situation when she was pushed, so maybe it was possible to switch both ways. Would she be growling orders to him while Lulu yanked her chain? It was something he'd never even dreamed of, or at least never expected to actually happen. His worlds were colliding, and all the things that made him happy were going to be mixed together, a hundred impossible fantasies and he knew that whichever one was true, it could only end well.