Confession

Story by Iron-K on SoFurry

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CONFESSION

Written by Iron-K

A dreaded moment for anyone with a private fetish - having to confess it to your partner without knowing how they'll react! It's also one of my shortest stories (which given their usual length isn't saying much, it's still in the 6,000 word range) and serves as a decent excuse to write some mess scenes that are detached from wider stories.

I also did a mockup of the site mentioned in the story, though it won't work at all on IE and I make no apologies for it. The clip filters are fully functional and you can favorite and defavorite things on his account! Putting that together was a weird sort of Twitter approach to WAM fiction - just thinking up little titles and leaving what was behind them up to the imagination.

http://ironk.byethost13.com/gfact/

I'd sort of meant for this to go more in-depth at first, but in a situation like this, it's unrealistic to expect too much intelligent discussion of it... some experience from real life was drawn on here, because I've been through this myself, embarrassedly admitting it to my girlfriend. Years later, we're married. Which is just as well, because God knows I'm not explaining all that to anyone again.


The door to the bedroom creaked awkwardly ajar, giving away the age and slight disrepair of the living space despite the room's perfect newly-moved-into neatness. A green sandaled toe shuffled around the space in the door, nudging it open further before a stocky reptilian maneuvered carefully around it, carrying a pink rabbit girl over the threshold in his arms.

"Here's the inner sanctum - how do you like it?" Sidling out of the doorway and kicking it closed behind him, he spun round in a circle slowly to show Susie the room as she stretched her head up, her lop ears flopping behind her as she turned to look around.

It had been a while since Susie and Orphi had last seen each other - attending colleges a couple of hundred miles apart meant that it was difficult to get together at all when classes were in session. This term, after being put back into the student accommodation that he never liked at the start of the year, Orphi had hurriedly arranged to move out into a small apartment, and had been looking forward to showing the new more private living space to his girlfriend during the run-up to the break.

"You've got pretty good taste, for a guy," the rabbit girl admitted, nodding as her eyes went from the work desk at one side around to the nook along half of the opposite wall, where he'd placed the bed. "You get a good amount of light, too..." She whipped her head back around to look behind her, checking the last wall. "And you haven't put those Playmouse posters back up!"

"Yeah... Melissa stayed in the box for now 'cause I knew you'd notice," he said with a smirk. "I haven't found anything to go in their place, though..."

"Couple of framed pictures? You and me?" she suggested, gesticulating towards two of the walls.

"Hey, I only just moved into a flat, we haven't got a house together just yet..."

"It's still a normal thing to have up on your wall!" she insisted. "I'm going to have to send you a couple of photos I have..."

"All right, all right," Orphi nodded, quickly changing the subject. "You don't go back for ages, though, we've got the whole break together - ready for eight days of fun?"

"Yep," she nodded. She wriggled and made to step down, but he hoisted her up again and began carrying her over to the bed. He grinned to himself as he leaned down closer to her ear.

"And before that, ready for eight inches of lizard guy inside you?"

The rabbit girl sniggered. "Hah... you've got a big idea of yourself, haven't you?" she replied, stretching her arms up to run her hands over his hairless green head.

He shrugged as he nuzzled her hand. "Well, it starts to feel that big when I've been saving up for you..."

"You do that?" she asked, surprised, as she was let down on to the top of the neatly arranged covers. She reached behind her to prop a cushion behind her head. "I thought that you couldn't go for more than, like, twelve hours..."

"It's a struggle," he nodded. "I've left it alone since Tuesday - you're not going to disappoint me now, are you?"

"Right now?" she grinned. "I thought you said Toby was going to meet up with us..." But she closed her eyes as he stooped down to kiss her, rolling their heads against each other a little. He felt her mouth break into another smile, and as he wriggled his sandals off, she reached up to begin unbuttoning his shirt, reaching inside to stroke the yellower skin on his chest.

"We've got time." He responded by putting his arms around her underneath her unzipped light jacket, pushing it down off her arms as she wriggled her hands through the sleeves. Clambering on to the bed over her, his hands quickly moved to the bottom of her tank top and lifted it up over her head, exposing her midriff and light bra, while she kicked off her shoes.

"It's so great to just be able to touch you again..." he murmured, leaning backward a little to look at her as he ran the back of his hand up and down the light fur on her tummy. Her grin got wider as she moved a little against his hand.

"We don't have to keep the bed this neat, do we?" she asked, stretching forward and rubbing her nose against his as she patted the top covers.

"No," he smiled. "I think I'll get sick of doing it up every morning within the week, anyway..."

She giggled, nodding in agreement, and lifted the cushions arranged in the middle over to the head end of the bed. As she put her head on the pillow, he grabbed the lower legs of her slim tracksuit bottoms and pulled them a little, and she squeaked, hoisting her waist up as he tugged them off down her legs.

"You're wearing too much," she said, putting her hands behind her head to prop it up. "C'mon, get your own stuff off..."

"If you say so!" He stepped off the bed again and slipped his open shirt off, dropping it on the floor behind him before unbuttoning his shorts.

"Kind of messing up the room..." She swung her legs off the bed, sitting up as he got undressed, and her eyes dropped to below his waist as he hooked his thumbs into his already tented boxers. Grinning naughtily, she reached her hand forward over the top of them and grabbed his extended length gently but firmly, tugging him a little before pulling his underwear down all the way. He whimpered at her eager touch.

"Oh, it's for a good reason..." he stuttered, closing his eyes for a second and then opening them again to look at the underwear-clad bunny girl handling him. Stooping forward carefully so as not to make her let go, he reached around to quickly undo the row of hooks in the middle of her back.

"Wow... have you been practicing on someone?" Susie giggled as he slipped her bra off her shoulders, grinning as his eyes dropped to the gentle curve of her breasts. Untangling the top from his fingers behind him, he reached forward to cup both of them with his hands.

"Straight for them as always... you must really miss 'em," she said with a smile, leaning back a little and shifting from side to side to bounce them in his hands as he squeezed gently.

"And the bunny girl they're attached to..." he added, stooping down to kiss her neck. She dodged to the side and moved her lips to his, then suddenly pulled back.

"I nearly forgot - I've got a surprise for you," she smirked, her hands reaching down to her last piece of clothing.

"What, in there?" he asked, stepping back. "What did...?" He broke off as her smile broke into a grin, and she slipped her panties slowly downwards.

"Hey, you got a dye job..." he said, brow raised as he eyed the strip of brushed up and slightly darker fur that stretched from between her legs halfway up towards her tummy button.

"Yep," she giggled, parting her legs a little as she kicked her underwear off her feet and curled around to look down at it herself, wiggling her hips from side to side. "Trimmed and dyed it myself. D'you like it?"

"Yeah, I do... that looks..." He reached a couple of fingers out and stroked the fuzzy line down the way, curving over her groin and gently moving further downwards as she leaned back on her elbows. Suddenly she squeaked, lifting her feet and shuddering as his fingers reached her hood.

He looked up to her face again. "Does it make it feel that much better?" he smiled, reaching towards her entrance again.

"You're not the only one who's been saving up," she grinned back. She stretched her hand down to catch his hand, twitching as she brushed his fingers over her and then pulled him towards her.

He crawled on top of her as she lay down again, balancing himself on his other arm. A grin spread on his face as she placed his hand around her bare breast, and he eagerly squeezed as their mouths met in a kiss again. Settling on top of her, he brought his other hand up too, massaging her soft chest gently and dragging his forefingers down to rub across her nipples.

"Not yet," she shook her head, grabbing his wrists and pulling his hands away. "Give me some more kisses first..."

He winced, but let her place his hands on her waist all the same. Gently, he wriggled down and kissed her bare tummy, then moved his lips and hands down the way, grasping her hips and smiling as she squirmed in his grasp. Ducking down almost between her legs, he moved to one side and slowly kissed along her inner thigh, enjoying her squeaks as he shuffled backwards to continue down her leg and end with the top of her foot, as if kissing an outstretched hand.

"I never would've guessed you had a foot thing when we met," she laughed as she curled her toes, eeping at the ticklish feeling as he grasped around her sole with his palm, and she cuddled back into the pile of cushions. "You used to be so quiet - I've learned a lot about you since then..."

He smiled, completely caught up in the moment. "I don't have a foot thing, you've just got really cute feet. I've got something far worse than that," he shook his head, then instantly regretted it as he realized what he'd said. He bowed his head to kiss the top of her foot again, hoping that she just wouldn't ask.

"Hey, you've got something else you haven't told me about?" He hadn't been so lucky. Susie wriggled her foot out of his grasp and sat up, shuffling forward to sit opposite him with her legs crossed. "What's that, another part of me that I just didn't know people could like? Ears? Elbows?"

She laughed as she glanced down at them, but quickly saw his embarrassment as she looked back at his face. "Come on, it can't be that bad..."

Orphi turned away, frustrated with himself at having suddenly killed the mood. "Maybe later on," he said, then pounced forwards desperately, putting one hand behind her head as she yelped in surprise at being pushed back down on to the bed.

"No, you were going to say something!" she persisted, reaching up to rub his head as he felt his cheeks beginning to glow in panic. "C'mon, what's the big secret? You can tell me..."

"No, it's... nothing," he shook his head, and dove down to kiss her. But she dodged her head to the side, and he grimaced as she held his shoulders back with both hands, looking more anxious this time.

"I'm serious! What is it?"

"It's not a... er..." He grimaced, trying his hardest to think of the right words. He felt his heart pounding in his chest as she lay there looking up at him, an expression of growing concern on her face. "Would it mean anything if I said..." This was it - he'd put this off for a long time but he couldn't stop now. He tried to moisten his lips as he thought of the right words, but his mouth was dry and no really gentle way of saying it was coming to mind. "If I said I have... a slime fetish?" he eventually finished, pronouncing the words carefully and then squeezing his eyes shut before looking at her face again.

He watched, frozen in place with his heart pounding, as Susie stared back up at him. Slowly, she raised a finger and wriggled away to sit up, shuffling backwards towards the pillow end of the bed on her bottom to face him upright. He sat up on the bed's side, looking at the floor and only daring to glance at her face for a moment - her expression was very difficult to read, but he guessed that it was somewhere between surprise and curiosity.

"Slime fetish?" she repeated back to him, and he cringed, too embarrassed to look at her as he nodded. "Slime... like what?"

"You know." Still looking at the floor, he raised his hands up and gesticulated running them down his head and shoulders, then put his arms back down to his sides as he felt ridiculous.

"Like... gunge?" He twitched again as she said the word he'd been avoiding. "The stuff they used to cover kids in on game shows?" she filled in the silence. Her tone of voice wasn't disapproving or judgmental - it was as if she was asking something perfectly ordinary.

Orphi paused for a moment, sagging his shoulders a little as he considered this explanation. "...Yeah," he eventually confirmed with a bow of his head. "Exactly like that. Except... you know it wasn't just kids they did it to..."

He strained to look up at his girlfriend, who nodded. He was glad that he had got that potential problem out the way early. Without knowing what he was going to say he opened his mouth again, but before he could stutter anything out the rabbit girl's shoulders shook in laughter.

"God. For a minute there I thought you were going to say something really weird," she shook her head as she leaned back into the pillows again, stretching her legs down the bed.

"You..." He swallowed, shaking his head as she realized she was laughing not at what he'd said but with relief. "What, that's it? No... questions or anything?"

"Nope. I can't think of any. Do you want me to ask some?"

"Well, I thought you'd be more... curious," Orphi fought to find the word. "You really don't think this is... strange?"

She shrugged. "I guess it's just not something that I ever thought of as special before," she answered. Distractedly, Orphi reached over to her outstretched foot and took it into his lap, massaging it slowly as he tried to clear his mind.

Susie purred appreciatively and leaned back into the pillows. "So..." she drew the word out as she stretched her arms, "...what do you like about it?"

Orphi stayed silent for a while, his cheeks burning as he stared glumly down his lap. "Don't know," he shook his head. "Just always have."

"I guess plenty of guys like seeing girls getting muddy and stuff," she nodded, putting her hand on the wall of the alcove and curving over the side of the bed to poke her head back into his field of vision. He strained to flick his eyes up at her face. "But you like it when it's..."

"When it's... yeah," he completely failed to finish, nodding his head.

"Game show style. Hmm." She stayed in her awkward leaning position as she thought, and Orphi waited, trying to concentrate on her foot to distract himself from the silence as he waited for her to continue.

"I used to watch some of those, you know - I never thought there was a fetish for it. Must be a shame for you that nobody does it any more."

"Well, yeah... but, you know, there's always the web." He nodded towards his laptop, which was set up on the work desk at the opposite side of the room.

"Really?" she asked. She stared thoughtfully at her foot in his grasp for a moment, then suddenly pulled it back and swung it over the edge of the bed.

"Come and show me!" She bounded to her feet energetically, and beckoned to him as she walked away across the small room. As she passed his shirt on the floor she dipped down to pick it up, pulling it around her shoulders as she kicked the swivel chair a little way out from underneath his desk. As she sat herself down in front of his open laptop, he hesitantly slipped off the bed to his feet, heaving himself upright before stumbling naked over after her.

She had already pulled up the browser when he reached the desk, and was sitting with her hands poised over the keyboard. "Where do I go?" she asked.

"It's..." Orphi grimaced, thinking hard about what to show her, and breathed in to dictate the address to go to, but stopped. "Actually, could I do it? I'm... I don't want you to see how I get there." That had sounded worse than he thought. "Not... just now, I mean," he added hastily.

"Oh. Well... all right," she answered, disappointed. Orphi tried to ignore her tone of voice as she swung the chair around and got up again, turning her back and heading back towards the nook with the bed. He sat down in her place, surreptitiously making sure that his shoulders blocked the screen entirely from where she was standing, and hesitantly typed in the first few letters of the name of one of the clip sites he regularly visited. He paused for a moment before realizing that it wouldn't fill out the rest for him, as he'd cleared the history as he always did before anyone visited. Quickly, he completed it and swallowed again, tapping his fingers as it loaded.

The bright green page came up and he quickly moved down away from the title banner at the top, feeling like checking over his shoulder to see if she was still at a distance but instead keeping his eyes fixed on the screen. He looked worriedly down the list of clips, reading the titles that he had highlighted on his many previous visits, and tried desperately to remember the details of what was in the videos behind each of them, thinking which one was the least likely to shock her. Eventually he saw the heading for "Sat-AM Live", a show that he used to watch while he was in school years ago. He scrolled down the list under it and then, after hovering his finger over the button for a moment, clicked on a familiar name - "Goldie gunged in the cooler".

He breathed out heavily and swallowed in an attempt to clear the lump in his throat as the video window came up, and he immediately paused it and moved it to hide the title of the site that he was on. Then, after a moment's hesitation, he turned around and did something he'd never done while watching any of these videos before.

"I've got one," he said simply, to attract her attention.

Susie pushed herself up from where she'd been waiting. She had been leaning on the windowsill and watching a few people throwing a basketball around in the yard area outside. Nonchalantly she turned around, and even though he would normally have been distracted by how little clothing she was wearing, Orphi watched her face carefully as she came back over to lean on the back of his desk chair. The way that she didn't seem to think this whole thing was a big revelation was almost the most difficult thing about it. He turned to the screen, and she ducked down to give him a quick peck on the cheek, keeping her head resting on his shoulder.

"Go on," she encouraged. He felt one of her ears brush warmly against the top of his head as he nervously reached out and took hold of the mouse, then clicked the Play button.

The video opened on a close-up shot of a cylindrical tank of thick dark and light green liquid connected to the top of a cubicle, looking a little like the top of a giant water cooler. Orphi thought he heard his girlfriend gasp a little at the sight as the video stuttered at its start, and he did his best to resist the urge to turn the volume all the way down as the clipped end of a cheer from the audience played and the familiar announcer's voice started up a moment later.

"This week we've got Goldie in the hot seat - she's nineteen, comes from Bartford and she's studying chemistry at the city college. She..."

As the announcer continued, the camera panned out and down from the shot it had opened on, gradually bringing the show's gunge booth into full view. Seated inside, underneath the funnel-shaped spout, was a tall yellow-furred bunny girl, wearing a set of sports shorts and T-shirt, the clear front of the tank giving a view of her bare lower legs as she skimmed her toes back and forward across the floor - a detail that he'd paid a lot of attention to when watching this clip in private.

Trying to move his head as little as possible, he glanced hesitantly up at Susie, who was watching closely from over his shoulder. He turned his attention back to the screen - he'd watched the video a lot before, and was feeling very nervous about the unusual experience of having anyone else in the audience.

"I can skip the game if you want..." he started, reaching for the mouse as one of the show's presenters approached the tank to begin the section.

"No, I want to see what happens," Susie answered, grabbing his right arm and pulling it back, then rubbing his shoulder affectionately. "She's kind of nice..."

He began to nod in agreement, then thought better of it and looked back at the video. The presenter had been chatting with the on-screen rabbit for a while, and stepped back away from the booth as she wriggled nervously in the seat. She still didn't look anywhere near as anxious as Orphi felt, he thought.

"Goldie, let's get started - you've got to select one of the questions you can see on the pipes on the screen each time, and work your way over to the right hand side. But if you get any of them wrong on your way, then you'll hear the buzzer and, well, we really hope that it doesn't happen to you, but..."

He tailed off, holding his hand up to the gunge reservoir looming above her as there was another rising cheer from the studio audience. The yellow bunny girl laughed a little embarrassedly, shivering as she glanced up into the top of the booth.

Orphi stared at the screen without turning around as the game progressed, watching her expressions as she answered the questions, and tensed up as she reached the one that he knew she got wrong. He watched her leaning forwards tensely, waiting to be told whether she'd answered correctly.

"No!" The pretty rabbit girl's mouth dropped open at the presenter's sudden shout, and the corners of her mouth turned up a moment later as she realized what that meant for her. Orphi jerked forwards to turn the volume down as a loud repeating alarm blared out from the speakers. Goldie glanced up for a fraction of a second then squeezed her eyes shut as a wide column of the glutinous green stuff dropped from the tank above and splurged down into her face.

Orphi swallowed and shifted uncomfortably as he listened to the combined cheering and siren noise, and watched the flood of gunge slop over the teenage bunny, trying to ignore the fact that his girlfriend was right behind him. The contestant's ears quickly flattened down under the weight of the slime, slapping down behind her head one after the other as the falling gunge formed a small opaque dome shape glooping outwards from the top of her head and splattering messily on to the tank's walls.

A moment later the slimy curtain parted as Goldie moved her head forward a little, and her messy face became visible underneath the green downpour, with gunk dripping around her muzzle and off her chin. Her mouth was frozen half open in the same combination of shock and enjoyment that she had had just before the gunge had hit her, and she blinked her eyes a couple of times as waves of slop licked down over her face.

The downpour began to slow, the dome coming inwards and the shades of green mingling over and into each other as the gunge slid down Goldie's head and shoulders. She gave a high pitched squeaking giggle as she hunched her shoulders up, making Orphi twitch in his seat. He watched her wriggle a little back and forward underneath the thinning drizzle, leaning back to put her head under one last time as a wave of gunge slid down her chest.

The view switched to a wider shot of the studio for a moment, the cylindrical tank empty but with a film of slime still coating its insides, then back to the aftermath of the gunging - the sodden young rabbit girl was dripping with thick green stuff, blobs of it running down her shoulders as she shook in giggles. A slow drizzle of gunge was still pouring on to the top of her head, and her light clothing was stained, soaked and clinging to her chest and tummy.

"Wow," he heard Susie whistle from over his shoulder. He kept still as he waited for her reaction, his eyes still fixed on the screen as he watched the presenter talk to the dripping contestant. "They... got her pretty messy."

"They did," was all he could think of to say in response. Feeling his cheeks heat up even further as the video reached its end, leaving a frozen frame of the smiling gungy bunny girl on the screen, he hastily moved a hand forward and closed the window, remembering too late what was behind it.

"The Gunge Factory?" Susie read aloud from the top of the eye-catching green screen. He cringed inwardly at the sound of the middle word. "It sounds like you're not alone in this, are you?"

He shook his head. "No," he agreed, hastily getting away from the video list and back to the top level where the different categories were displayed. He suddenly got more confident as he saw the names of sub-fetishes that weren't his own. "But there's a lot of different... things that people like. Food's a popular one, there. There are some people who like seeing people sinking in mud or quicksand, or getting... pies in their faces," he moved the pointer over the list of titles, "and... er, that stuff I showed you," he continued, waving it over the "TV Gunge" heading.

"Can I see?" she asked.

He paused, a small pang of dread spreading in him at what she might see he had been watching through exploring the site.

"Come on!" she encouraged. "I know what it is now. What's the worst I could find?"

After considering this for a moment, he put his hands on the desk and hauled himself upright. "Yeah, sure," he said vaguely as he stepped back from the seat, feeling behind him for the wall and leaning back on it. His girlfriend spun the chair towards her eagerly and sat down, drifting the rest of the way round the circle to face the laptop before planting her feet on the floor. Immediately, she leaned forwards and clicked through to the section he had just been in.

"Where do they get all these clips from?" she asked, scrolling the window up and down the substantial list.

Orphi tapped his fingers on the wall behind him. "All over the place," he shook his head. "This site just collects all the ones it can find together - some of them are sent in by people who have old recordings, or a couple of the newer ones come from the shows' own pages."

"Are they all girls?" she asked. He looked down to see her waving the cursor over the feminine names at the front of the video descriptions that summarized their messy fates.

"Yeah. Well, there's a... you know, a filter - go up to the top..." He reached over to the desk, but she quickly moved to the top of the screen herself. She hovered around before unchecking the "Female only" box, and the page refreshed itself, this time showing a slightly longer list of scenes. As he returned to leaning on the wall, she tapped the down arrow, this time reading through the list quickly from top to bottom.

"'Safe Break', I remember that," she said as she scrolled down. "I used to watch it when I was off sick from school - one of the traps sprayed them with gooey stuff if they got the last combination wrong?"

"Yeah," he said, glancing around the room away from her. "That one wasn't very good, though. Or it wasn't... really what I like."

"What do you like? These yellow ones?"

He looked back to the screen and saw her looking at a cluster of videos that he had marked as favorites, highlighted among the normal video titles. Nodding in response, he frantically skimmed over the titles she was reading, just before she hovered over the one that he was afraid would catch her attention.

"Wow, there's one that says 'topless' here..." She pointed to it with her finger, then returned her hand to the mouse to click on it, eyes widening as the video opened. It showed a brown puppy girl in a perspex booth clasping her hands to her ample chest with her arms crossed as gallons of a sloppy yellow and green mixture were poured down on to her from multiple nozzles in the ceiling. Orphi wriggled uncomfortably behind the computer chair, feeling a twitch from between his legs at watching the squirming canine despite his embarrassment.

"Even I can see why this one's so popular..." Susie grinned as the camera view switched to show the rest of the stage, with the canine's bikini-clad mouse opponent sitting next to the tank and leaning instinctively away from the gunge-coated plastic wall as she watched the last blobby drizzle splatter out from the top of the booth on to the nearly nude puppy girl. The gungy victim slithered one slimy arm across to hug over both of her nipples, moving her other hand up to her face to wipe the gunge away and reveal her awkward smile. "How'd they get her in there like that?"

"I think that was an audience vote... natural versus silicone, or something," he responded, trying to sound as casual and vague as possible despite having the full clip saved away elsewhere.

"And they gunged her for having fake boobs?" Susie looked down at herself, lifting the shirt she was wearing a little. "Works for me... she must be three times my size!" As the video stopped, she looked over her shoulder up at him. "So which do you prefer?"

"What? Oh... natural, every time," he said quickly. "You'd have been safe..."

She nodded, a smirk visible on her face, and she turned back to the screen and looked down the list for the same show she had just clicked on. Nervously he cast his eyes over the video titles again, just as she read one out.

"Cute blue bunny girl gunged with her boyfriend"? she said aloud, tapping her chin. "Let's see it..."

He leaned over the chair as the video loaded, and felt it shudder as she jumped at the sudden loud whooping and cheering from the speakers. Leaning forward to turn the volume down, she watched as the fuzzy view from a handheld camera dodged around raised hands and silhouettes of heads in a crowd to get a clear shot of a blue rabbit girl being shown into a gunge tank on a dark stage, hoisting herself up to sit on the knee of the taller male feline already inside. A countdown started from the audience as the door was closed on them, and Susie strained to see the shaky image as a bright yellow flood spewed from the top of the tank to cover them both.

"You can't really see much..." she said. "Why do you like this one?"

"It's kind of..." Orphi hesitated, his eyes on the screen as the rabbit girl leaned back into the dome of gloop. "Thinking about being in there with her."

"You seem to like the rabbits," she said as the gunge ran out, watching the messy couple hug each other, the blue bunny putting the male's head under the yellow dribble.

"Yeah, I do," he answered. Composing himself and deciding to use the remark to his advantage, he stepped forwards to tentatively place his arm around her shoulders, crouching down to face her. "You should know that bunny girls are my favorites..." He tried to hold his smile as he saw her thoughtful expression, her head on one side with her tongue poking the inside of her cheek as she rolled it around.

"So... have you ever thought of me in one of those?" she asked.

Orphi winced, and shakily straightened up. Just when he thought it had been over, here was another awkward question. He considered denying it for a moment, before deciding that she wouldn't believe him if he did.

"Y... sort of. Maybe," he faltered as he remembered thinking about everything they'd just watched and more happening to the rabbit girl now staring up at him. He struggled for something to ask back, avoiding looking at her expression. "Did you say you used to watch these, too?"

"I did. They used to do it on everything on TV when I was in school." She was the one to hesitate this time, tapping her feet on the floor as she bit her lip to hold back a smile. "And I... kind of always wanted to get gunged," she finished, her smile growing as she watched for the reaction on his face. "Come on, you did too, didn't you?" He held his head still for a moment before nodding tentatively. "I always wondered what that stuff felt like..."

Susie turned to the computer again and tapped back up to the "Sat-AM Live" section. "I used to think about applying for my teacher to go on to this," she said, loading up a video marked 'Teacher's Chair'. "She'd never have done it, but I'd kinda hoped that she would escape and they'd put me in instead... yeah, this is it! I remember this..."

She propped her elbows on either side of the computer and watched the presenter drag the moment out as a short nervous-looking teacher dressed in a shirt and tie waited behind a desk in a spotlit alcove at the back of the studio set. Still stunned by what she'd said, Orphi leaned over closer, seeing Susie grin to herself out of the corner of his eye as the teacher clapped his hands together after hearing he'd escaped, and he walked out from behind the desk as a young, hesitant jaguar girl was led into the gunge chair in his place.

"It's weird, they always look so nervous but I don't think they'd go on if they didn't really want it to happen..." she commented, watching the girl squirm a little as she looked upwards, blinking under the spotlight. Orphi nodded, and leaned around the chair slightly to see Susie's smile as the escapee pulled the lever. The alarm sounded and the feline's hands shot to her ears just before she was enveloped by three waves of murky gunge from pipes in the ceiling and walls of the booth, covering her completely and splashing outwards on to the desk and floor in front.

"My mom used to hate it when I watched stuff like this," Susie laughed, shaking her head as the feline poked her slime-coated head forward out of the sloppy onslaught, her long hair hanging over her face and the stuff slithering down around her neck and shoulders. "I think she was kind of scared of it!"

"You know, I used to be, too..." he started, then turned his head as he heard an electronic tune tweeting from the other end of the room. He dashed over to his discarded shorts and picked them up to fish his phone out of the pocket, glanced to the video again to make sure that it wasn't going to suddenly make more noise, then flicked the phone open.

"Toby, hi," he answered it, breathing out heavily at the relief of the sudden reprieve.

"Hey, Orph - are you all right? I haven't just... pulled you out of anything, have I?" the voice on the other end chuckled.

"No, no, it's fine..." He pulled the phone away from his face and turned his head to clear his dry throat.

"Susie get there OK?"

"Yeah, she's right here," he said, looking over at her. She propelled herself around to face him with her feet, and he grimaced as she teased him by lifting the shirt and wriggling from side to side.

"All right, just come over when you're ready and we'll head down there. I'll be around!"

"Yeah," he nodded, and swallowed. "See you soon."

Susie leaned forward, her elbows on the chair's arms, as he hung up and tossed the phone on to the bed. "You look anxious," she grinned. "Going to be okay to see anyone?"

Orphi sagged. "Yeah, I'm all right... mostly... can't believe my luck at that last thing you said..." he stumbled.

"Well, you're not safe yet..." she told him as she pulled herself upright, bounding over to take his hands. "You're definitely showing me more when we get back!"