The Circular Object Mark I and II story, characters and concept copyright \xA9 Gregg G Guydish 2001, 2002 et al except the following: Zig Zag is copyright \xA9 Max Black Rabbit. Everything contained in this document \xA9 Gregg G Guydish, all rights reserved.
The Circular Object MARK II
\xA9 2001, 2002 Gregg G Guydish
Part II
"All That Remains"
Fallout from sex play? Who'd have done thunk it?
The next day…
"Amb." Chris rolls his head against her. "Amb, c'mon, wake." He tries to shake her by jiggling his body as she lies against - almost on top, of him. "Amber, wake up, I need you." Her eyes flutter and he feels her stretch out her limbs, a move that would be more erotic were he not in such dire straits. "Amba, honey, I can't feel my paws." She blinks and opens her eyes, then looks confusedly down on him, lifting herself with one paw against his chest, not understanding what she's seeing with her sleep clouded mind. Chris is stretched out spread eagle style, looking at her worriedly. The fog clears from her mind as she recalls the events of the previous evening, his statement about his paws finally sinking in. She sits up suddenly, her paw going to her mouth in shock, frozen for the moment in fear. "Babe, please, untie me." She blinks once, hard, then leaps to immediate action, fumbling to unbuckle his paws, first one, then the other and rubbing them frantically. "Oh my God, they're so cold!" Chris winces as he tries to sit up from his long night stretched out, his paws and feet scarily numb. Amber turns and releases his feet, noting they are as cold as his paws. She rubs them hard for a moment, terrified, mentally kicking herself for not releasing him last night. She looks up at him suddenly, a steely note in her voice. "Chris, can you make it to the bathroom?" He looks confused for the apparent non sequitur. "I don't think I can walk, Amba." "Here, I'll help you, we have to get your circulation back."
She takes him under his shoulder and half carries, half drags him the short distance to the attached bath, Chris barely able to help her with his numb, yet strangely tender appendages. She maneuvers him around and lets him finally rest in the bathtub as he looks questioningly up at her. She stops the tub and runs the water at full hot until the hot water came up, then mixed cold until the temperature was hot but not scalding. She grabbed his paws and held them under the running water, rubbing them vigorously, Chris stiffly moving his fingers and growling at the sensation of pins and needles fiercely pricking his fingers and toes. She releases his paws and shifts her attention to his feet, still worried how cold they are despite the hot temperature of the water. "Maybe we should go see a doctor." She says worriedly, looking over at him. "Or call an ambulance." "No," he tells her, the feeling starting to return to them, "no, Amba, it'll be okay." He changes his focus from his stinging paws to her face and gives her a lopsided grin. "Besides, do you really want to have to explain to the doctor how I got this way?" Her expression doesn't change and his joke falls flat. "I will if I have to to make sure you're okay." He shakes his head. "Amb, it's fine, really, see?" He holds his paws up to her and flexes them. Amber is unimpressed, and grabs his paws and thrusts them back under the faucet. He watches her work on his extremities for a while, then speaks, a nervous edge in his voice.
"Uhhh, Amb?" She doesn't immediately reply as she continues to work on his paws and feet. After a few moments she stops, then turns to look at him for the odd note in his voice. "Yes?" Her eyes narrow as a look of pain crosses his face. "What is it? What's wrong?" "Honey, I, uhhh," he chews his lip for a moment, "I need to relieve myself." She blinks at him once, then "so, go ahead, it won't bother me." His jaw drops open and he stares at her, then closes it with an audible snap. "Amba, I haven't done that since I was in diapers!" He tries to pull his paws from hers but she holds him fast. "You're not getting out of this tub, mister, until I say you can. So either you go where you are, or you hold it until you can stand!" He looks at her meekly. "Amber, I can't hold it." She sighs tolerantly, then, releasing one of his paws, reaches down to his lap and holds him under the water so he won't splash. She closes her eyes while he gets on with his little task that won't wait.
It was interesting, Amber thought idly as she waited for him to finish, holding onto a male while he did that. So this is what it feels like for the opposite sex when they urinate. She catalogs the experience and files it away for future reference. When he's done, she releases him and unstops the drain of the tub, but leaves the water running into it as she returns to work on his paws and feet, which, she's grateful to note, are beginning to look and feel a lot more normal. "I'm sorry, Amber." Chris says in a small voice, his chin down on his chest. Amber closes her eyes and exhales a short breath. "That's okay, honey," she pauses for effect, then continues in a barely audible mumble, knowing his sharp fox ears would pick it up, "just don't tell me you're into golden showers now."
After a few more minutes, she shuts the water off and looks seriously at him. "How do you feel now?" He looks up at her, a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth. "Better." He flexes his fingers and his toes under her critical eye. "Good." She relaxes her hunched shoulders, rolling them as she stretches, Chris watching with evident interest as her chest heaves and rolls along with them. She catches him watching her but politely ignores the look. Raising a paw, she points a finger and pokes him in the chest, her nose wrinkling for the scent of urine on him. "You, need a shower." "Will you join me?" He asks hopefully as his tail wags wetly in the rapidly draining water of the tub. She smiles and taps him on his nose. "In a minute, I have to pee too." He opens his mouth to make a lurid suggestion, then stops, remembering her comment about the matter. She notes his sudden pause and has no illusions about what he was originally going to say. Instead, he says, "I'll be right here." She stands and closes the translucent shower doors before stepping over to the toilet to relieve herself. Chris slowly stands, testing out his footing, then turns and peeks over the top of the doors, Amber again catching his eye and yelling at him for it. He grins and chortles before fiddling with the shower controls, adjusting the spray pattern and temperature to the ones he knows his lover likes. Her remark of, "I heard that!" a few moments later sends him into gales of laughter that only abate when she opens the shower door and steps inside. All thoughts left his head at the sight of his gorgeous mate, here, in the shower with him. Again.
~
Amber was quiet as they broke their fast together, and Chris respected her privacy, letting her have the quiet of her thoughts as they ate. He was placing their dirty dishes in the sink when he heard her speak to him from behind and turned slowly for the strange tone of her voice, worry chewing deep into his gut. "Chris," she looks at him abstractedly, "about last night…" Time to pay the piper, Chris thought. "Yes?" She pauses as if still gathering her thoughts in her head. "That second time we did it," another long pause ensued that left Chris feeling decidedly uncomfortable. "Uhhh, yes?" He asked nervously. "Wasn't that a little… rough?" He gives her a half-hearted smile. "Heh, I didn't hear you complaining last night, heh, heh." She looked at him seriously, both of her eyebrows rising significantly as a look of dull reality takes up residence on his face. He closes his eyes and swallows, then looks back at her. "Oh, yeah, you uhhh, couldn't complain about it, could you." She slowly shakes her head. She blinks, then tilts her head towards him. "Chris," she chews her lower lip for a moment, "I didn't know you even knew words like that, let alone that you'd ever actually say them to me." "Uhhh, yeah, about that…" he fidgets with his paws, unsure where to put them, or what to do with them, acting for all the world like he's never had to deal with the problem of fingers before. "Umm, Amber, I think it's safe to say that we were both a little out of control last night." Her eyes widen slightly. "Both of us? The whole thing was your idea, remember?" "Yes, both of us, and yes, I do remember who's idea it was." He places his paws on the counter behind him. "What was that thing you did to me?" She looks confused. "When?" "When you," he waves one paw vaguely in the direction of his crotch, "tied me. What was that? Where on earth did you learn something like that?" "Did you forget where I work?" He stops suddenly and blinks hard, feeling for all the world like he'd just been slapped.
"Amber." "Chris." She echoes his voice. "You can learn a lot of interesting things at a porn studio if you keep your eyes open. I think the better question is where did you get the idea for muzzles from?" A sheepish expression crosses his features. "Well, I… wait a minute! What do you mean if you keep your eyes open? Just what are you looking at there anyway?" "Duh, Chris, sex. What did you think I was looking at? It's my job!" "Your job is to keep their video network up! Not watch the videos!" Amber's fur bristles on the back of her neck. "Don't you dare try to tell me what is and is not my job!" Again Chris felt as if his lovers mocking tone had slapped him. He shakes his head and holds his paws out suddenly, palms forward. "Amb, I don't wanna argue about this, okay?" "Well I do! Okay? Where did you get the idea for the muzzles?" He holds his tongue and simply looks at her, refusing to give her the satisfaction of an answer. "It was that porn video of yours, wasn’t it? That's where you got the language you used last night as well, isn't it?" "Amber, that was just in play, you know I didn't mean any of it. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you." She folds her arms across her chest and looks away from him with a huff. "Well, you did."
Chris raises his paws to his face and buries it there. A very pregnant pause ensues between them as he tries to figure out a way to salvage the situation. Eventually he spoke, for right, or for wrong. "Then why didn't you tell me that last night?" "I was gagged, remember?" She says sullenly, still not looking at him. "Not then, after. When I removed the muzzle." He pauses very briefly, wondering if that was why she left their room after they'd changed positions. He mentally shrugs the thought away and plunges ahead. "Instead of saying anything, you just went right along with the game. If I'd known you were offended I'd have stopped then. Why didn't you tell me then?" His voice was soft, and tender. Amber is quiet a long time before she answered him. "For you. It was something you wanted so I did it for you." Mounting horror creeps across his face at her comment. He suddenly felt dirty, like he's used her somehow. "Amber, don't tell me you did all that just for me. Surely you got equal pleasure out of it, didn't you?" When she fails to give him a response he asks again, his voice almost cracking at her continued silence. "Didn't you?" Finally she exhales forcefully. "Yes." She finally looks up at him, but with a nasty edge in her eyes. "I enjoyed almost all of it, but, Chris, those words hurt." He stepped over to her and fell to one knee, reaching out his paws and taking hers in his own. "I am so sorry, Amba. I never meant to hurt you, and I am so sorry I did, please forgive me. Please?" She looks down at their linked paws in her lap. "Those movies are a bad influence on you. You bitched at me because I saw them, but, apparently it's okay for you to see them." She shakes her head. "That's not right." "You're right." He agrees. "They're gone. I'll get rid of them today." "You don't have to…" he cuts her off. "It's done." She again shakes her head. "I don't want you to…" "It's. Done." He states emphatically, once again interrupting her. She smiles weakly, glad he's going to do it, but still feeling bad for asking it of him, but feeling somehow encouraged by his returning smile. "Okay, I guess I can forgive you."
After a few moments Chris speaks again, in an effort to push past the unpleasant moment. "You know, if your boss knew about what we did last night, she'd have you in front of a camera in a heartbeat." "Is that a threat? You planning on blackmailing me?" He looks thoughtful, dropping one of her paws and raising his now free one to his chin, rubbing it there. "I hadn't thought of that. Gee, just think of all the things I could get you to do with that kind of leverage." She smiles and he's relieved to see it. He ducks away from her when she tries to smack his shoulder, standing again, Amber rising with him, their two paws still intertwined. "You know," she says looking oddly at him, "being in front of the cameras might not be such a bad thing, with the right person." "Really? Think I got a shot?" "Maybe," she teases, at least, you would be a better option than Zig's relentless crusade to get Mia and I into the same feature." Chris's eyes widened and his jaw fell open slightly. "You're kidding." She shakes her head. "Nope. Zig keeps insisting that she'd make us all famous with 'two red panda babes together' as she puts it." She laughs but stops when she next hears her boyfriend speak. "Ooooh, Amba," his eyes are glazed over, "you could seriously fulfill one of my fantasies with notions like that." She stares at the unbecoming look on his face and the drool on his lip but closes off the cold feeling before it could subdue her normal, sunny attitude. She successfully bats him in the shoulder this time, Chris slurping up his drool suddenly. "I thought I did that last night!"
She raises one paw and places it on his chest, looking alluringly up at him, and feeling his free paw come around and catch her waist. He looked down on her and smiled mischievously. "You know, I really liked being blindfolded." He says after a moment to let the last topic settle. "Where on earth did you come up with that idea?" She grins slyly back at him as she tilts her head and raises her muzzle to his. "Saw it in a movie, once." His mind reels at that admission, then all of his mental energy was diverted to her luscious kiss. When they part, long minutes later, he finishes his question. "Do you think we could do it again?" "Do what again?" "Last night?" She smiles coyly. "Maybe, but not all of it." She cautions. He nods his head, knowing exactly what parts they can never do again. "How about the blindfold?" A slow smile graces her features, like the sun rising, a beautiful thing to behold, he decides. "You really liked that?" He nods mutely, his tail wagging excitedly behind him. "Well," she affects a 'thinking about it' expression as she runs a paw over his chest "you'll just have to wait and see, won't you?" A momentary pause. "Or not see, as the case may be." She finishes, raising her head, he taking advantage of another one of her wonderful kisses. Kisses that are longed to be had, and savored when granted. Just like this one, here.
~
That evening Amber sat curled up in a corner of her couch, a hot cup of tea warming her paws and her long tail wrapped around her legs and feet, keeping her warm and comfy. She stared into the distance as she sipped the slowly cooling beverage, thinking about the day and night with her new boyfriend, Christopher, and about the things they'd done. The ideas he had, the words he spoke, and, possibly most important of all, the promise he made. She sips again and remembers stealing into his bedroom shortly before she left for the night, wanting to spend a little time alone with her thoughts after the time they shared together. She crouched down and slid open his bottom bureau drawer, pushing the sweaters and other clothing aside, and was unsure how she felt about the apparent lack of videotapes. She closed her eyes and sighed softly. Their relationship is just too new for her to know exactly where she stands with him. He may have discarded them like he said, or, he may just have moved them somewhere else, she really can't be sure without asking him about it, and that, of course, is out of the question. She drops the errant thought with a little shake of her head then, and lets her mind wander where it will, unhappy when it decides to settle back on videotapes. A certain videotape in fact, a tape she remembers seeing at Chris's place once, with a bound female on the cover…
Chris's thoughts surprisingly echo Amber's own, for all that miles of stone and asphalt separate them, and, as he climbs into bed, he recalls emptying that very drawer earlier in the day. It was with regret that he looked at the familiar, worn, covers for the last time, then slowly packed them away, muttering, "sorry ladies, it's been fun, but I've got the real thing now, so you have to go." He wiggles his fingers over them, gesturing goodbye to the tapes that have brought him so much pleasure. "Toodle-oo, caribou."
End part II