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16 - Break (Goddamn Bats)

"Snrk."

The otter started awake; the sound of her brown-bear husband's laughter startled her like a backfiring car. She didn't even want to look at the clock; it was probably ridiculously early in the morning, and her husband was still awake, glued to his new phone.

"Mmm?"

"Sorry, hon. Just a funny video. Here, let me show you."

Yoko opened her bleary eyes, and used Ben's shoulder to hoist herself up behind him on the bed. The phone screen was blindingly bright, especially in the dark bedroom. It made her eyes hurt.

"This is hilarious," the bear continued. Truth be told, Yoko wasn't even able to pay attention to the video itself. The otter was just too groggy. She couldn't even hear any sound from it; it was all being piped into her husband's ears. She wasn't going to say anything, though. She just wanted to humour him and get back to sleep.

"That's great," she said, "Lovely stuff, do you think you're ready for bed?"

"Mhm... in a bit. Oh, right, hang on, let me give you one of my earbuds..."

"Don't worry about it," Yoko said, tracing a finger down his back. "Just get some sleep, ok?"

"Ok, love you." Ben was still staring at the screen even now; he'd gone back to scrolling through an endless cavalcade of videos. Yoko turned the other way, placing her pillow over her head to block out the light. That phone was practically flooding the room with its blue-white glow.

"Does that phone have one of those 'anti-eye-strain things?" Yoko asked.

"Hehehe." Ben giggled. He wasn't even listening. Rather than risk a tiff, she decided she'd ask him in the morning. Sleep was more important to her right now.

Yoko had been incredibly proud of herself for getting him that phone. It had taken her weeks of sifting through scalpers and seeking out deals, but she'd managed to snag a real top-of-the-line smartphone for Ben's birthday. The expression of shock and joy on his face when he unwrapped it. It was one that she would not soon forget. He spent a good chunk of the day glued to it, just testing out the features and sharing them with Yoko with the wonder and excitement of a child on Christmas Day. It was cute watching him fiddle with it.

That was a week ago. And he was still at it. It wasn't so cute anymore.

When she woke up, Yoko swore that Ben was in the exact same position she'd left him in when she went to sleep. At least he wasn't still awake. The phone had slipped from his hands, and laid precariously close to a puddle of saliva. He snored very gently. She got the sense he was not going to be awake for a while.

She glared at the candy-bar of glass and metal, the source of her ire. She wasn't about to let this drive a wedge between them.

It was a good thing they both had the day off today.

She picked up his phone, careful not to wake him, and left him to grunt and grumble in his fitful sleep. He wouldn't be up for a while. Plenty of time for Yoko to prepare.

--

Ben's fingers were already groping for his phone as he came to. He hadn't even noticed himself drifting off to sleep. He'd blinked and it was suddenly 1 in the afternoon. He groggily looked at his bed, seeing that his phone was missing. He sat up a little, looking underneath the bed, under his pillow... there was no sign of it.

"Yoko?" He rolled onto his back and groped for the empty indent where his wife would have been. He called her name again, louder this time.

"Have you seen my ph-"

Soft whispers poured into his ears. He forgot the earbuds were still in. Then he forgot how to think. He was well conditioned to the babbling nonsense, a mixture of heavy breaths, soft murmurs and tongue clicks. Like some alien language that his body understood perfectly. It made his whole body quiver with pleasure. He stumbled up and out of bed, a dopey smile curling its way across his face. Out of the bedroom, down the hall, and into the living room. Yoko was waiting, her paws up on the coffee table, her toes splayed out. She was holding his phone to her lips, whispering into the base of it. He didn't even have the time to be surprised or mad. The whispers were already guiding him to his spot, the place where he knelt and leant forward to kiss and lick her paws. The indentations in the carpet were starting to fade; he hadn't done this in a while. Good to be reminded.

The two paws clamped around his snout, and he shivered from the soft texture and the perfumed scent of them. He looked into Yoko's eyes, and the pink rings pulsing through them.

The words became coherent.

"You've been making some bad habits, haven't you?" Yoko's voice was gentle, but chiding. "You're starting to pay too much attention to your silly little toys, aren't you little boy?"

"Nnhn..." Ben whimpered. One paw pushed between his lips, the toes resting on his tongue. "Nnnnllaah..."

"That won't do, will it?" Yoko continued. "We need to nip this habit in the bud. To _break_it."

She was so beautiful like this. Whenever she looked at him like this, with those pulsing eyes, it was like he was falling in love for the first time.

"You need to remember who you're supposed to be paying all your attention to. This phone, this silly little thing, it was starting to become the centre of your universe. Or it was trying to. You and I both know that you only have eyes for one thing. And what is that thing? Who is that thing?"

"You...." Ben lowed, his tongue dragging along her toes before she shoved it a little further into his mouth.

"Yes. Me. I'm the centre of your world. A little trinket like this? Not a chance. It could never compare."

She flung it forward, letting it clatter onto the table close to him. He glanced toward it instinctually, but only for a moment. Yoko's fingers clicked, and her eyes pulsed and gleamed.

"Ap ap ap! Back to me, now, darling. Don't let it tempt you away."

Ben would have said yes if he didn't have a maw full of paw.

"I think we need to do something about this, don't you?" Yoko pulled her paw free from Ben's mouth, letting it rest on the table.

"Do you see that glass of water?"

Ben hadn't noticed it. A wide brimmed pint glass, full to the brim of water, was off to one side of the table.

"Do you know what I want you to do?"

Ben whimpered. A little bit of him felt a twinge of fear and surprise. She wouldn't make him... she'd spent so much money on it, and she wouldn't be so jealous as to-

Flash. Flash. Flash. Pink pleasure flooded through him, and he returned to his default state as a mindlessly smiling idiot.

"Yes, Mistress..." Brad's sleepy paw picked up the phone by a corner. He held it over the rim of the glass. The little scream inside his head that told him to stop was too quiet to have an effect. With a tinkle and a splash, the phone fell in. He didn't stare at it. He never took his eyes off of Yoko, grateful for her guidance.

She reached down, leaning forward to grab the glass, and lifted it to her lips to take a sip.

It was such a transgressive thing. A powerful reminder of her hold over him. A reminder of what really mattered. Her. Just her.

--

"Good boy. Back to licking."

Yoko settled back, swirling the phone around in the bone-dry glass. He seemed to have bought it for now. She wouldn't keep him twisting in the wind for too long once he woke up - just long enough to get a bit less dependent on it. Seeing the bags under Brad's swirling eyes made it clear just how sleep deprived this damn thing was making him. As he slathered her paws with his tongue, Yoko began to idly tap at the phone. First order of business was to install a proper light filter on the screen, and a few other things to limit his usage.

The screen was quite pretty, and swiping from screen to screen felt even more right than any other phone she'd used.

...Maybe she could borrow it for a while until he earned his privileges back.

Just a little while.