"Is this a new fetish, darling? Do I need to come and tuck you in like a naughty boy who's been up late reading under the covers?" Cai looked up from his laptop to find Ro lounging in the doorway that connected their two suites, wearing a burgundy robe sashed loosely at the waist to expose his hairy chest. He had a smile on his face, but it barely concealed the expression of tender concern that lurked behind the younger man's deep brown eyes. Cai smiled back, opening his mouth to respond before realizing that Ro's words had already slipped out of his exhausted mind.

That wasn't an entirely unusual occurrence for the couple; Cai had fallen very comfortably into the habit of drifting in and out of trance whenever he and Ro had a chance to spend time together away from anyone who might not know about the particular details of their romance and the unique kinks they indulged in. The intoxicating nearness of his lover often made Cai feel fuzzy and empty and dumb even without a formal instruction to do so, and Ro never passed up an opportunity to enjoy the pleasures of making his submissive plaything that much weaker and more helpless. But this wasn't the fun kind of exhaustion, and it definitely wasn't the fun kind of bleary-eyed forgetfulness.

"I, um, sorry," he muttered, his brain finally catching up with the conversation, "I... I'm headed to bed soon, I promise." Cai rubbed his bloodshot eyes and glanced down at the time--it said '1:47 AM', but given the time difference between Oslo and Tel Aviv, there was still a chance that Dorthea was awake and waiting for his latest research. Not much of a chance, admittedly, and he wasn't sure how much more research he had in him with his brain all gummed up and sticky with the residue of long-denied sleep, but he hated to go to bed with so much more left to do. They weren't even close to a diagnosis in the Espensen case. And he wasn't sure how much longer they could wait.

Ro crossed over to him, his bare feet padding soundlessly on the hotel carpet as he approached. Cai wanted to tell himself that was why he hadn't heard the younger man earlier, but he knew he'd be lying--he was simply too tired to focus on two things at once, and the laptop had drawn his attention completely away from his lover. "Oh, my sweet boy," Ro murmured softly, stroking his fingers down the nape of Cai's neck and eliciting a sensual shiver from Cai despite everything. "I don't often pull rank like this, but I do think this is one of those times when Master knows best. You can't do your best work when you're tired like this, and your best work is exactly what's needed here."

Cai bristled slightly, not so much because Ro was wrong as because he was very, very right--Cai had been pulling all-nighters ever since his very first internship, and he hated to admit that the days when he could power through exhaustion with nothing more than determination and a pot of strong Turkish coffee were almost certainly over. But he'd probably read the last paragraph three times in a row, desperately attempting to cram one more iota of information into his weary brain, and he had to confess he hadn't retained a single word of it. Right now Ro's gently stroking fingers on the back of his neck made more sense to him than an entire library of medical texts, and he couldn't deny it.

"Come on, my silly little boy," Ro purred, his hands moving down to caress the tension out of Cai's tight shoulders. "Let's get you into that soft, warm bed and melt that fuzzy little brain down into a nice deep sleep for Master, so that when tomorrow comes you're all ready to think again." Cai's head drooped, jerking forward as he caught himself slipping away into a trance he hadn't realized he was aching for quite so badly. His eyelids fluttered, the text on the screen blurring into incoherent squiggles that he couldn't bring back into focus no matter how hard he tried, and his whole body slumped in his chair as he finally accepted the need to rest.

"Alright," he mumbled, trying as always to pretend that the decision was at least a tiny bit his own. "Just a... just a little break to rest my eyes, and then I'll--" He broke off as a wave of giddiness hit him, turning his attempt to rise to his feet and stagger over to the bed into a graceless clutch at the back of the chair he'd just gotten out of. Ro held onto him until the room stopped spinning, preventing him from falling all the way to the floor when the plastic mat on the carpet did its job a little too well and made the office chair roll freely for a good few inches rather than supporting his weight.

"And then you'll get a good long night's sleep," Ro commanded, employing the same firm tones he usually used to make Cai doubt his ability to resist his lover's hypnotic charms. "My drowsy little slut can't think right now, and trying only wears him out further. Isn't that right, pretty boy?" Ro had made him feel dumb and dreamy plenty of times before, but never in this loving, nurturing, oddly therapeutic sort of way, and Cai found himself responding to it even more deeply than usual--maybe it was the gentle affection in his voice, maybe it was the way he carefully helped Cai over to the bed before settling him onto the soft mattress, or maybe it was just the deep exhaustion that made Cai want to be taken care of, but it felt wonderful.

"There we go," Ro purred, unbuttoning Cai's shirt and brushing his fingers lightly up and down the exposed skin. "No more of those silly, sleepy thoughts for my good boy tonight, mm? Just deep, drowsy relaxation. Just the warmth of my touch taking him down, down, further and further into the maze of helpless mindfucked obedience until there's nothing left inside that empty head but a dreamy little slut who can't wait to dive into an ocean of trance." Cai opened his mouth to protest, more reflexively than anything else, that he was still capable of thinking for himself... but then Ro began to lightly caress his nipples and the thought evaporated into warm, heady bliss.

"Mmmm, someone likes being all dumb and drowsy like this, don't they?" Ro growled, sliding Cai's shirt off his shoulders and tugging it down until it formed an impromptu cuff around his wrists. His fingers rubbed lower and lower, teasing Cai's belly with caress after sensual caress, reminding Cai that the call from Oslo University had come in just hours after his arrival in Tel Aviv and well before they had a chance to satisfy Cai's simmering arousal. A tiny part of him felt guilty for enjoying this so much when a man was lying in the hospital with a mysterious, possibly life-threatening ailment, but Ro was right. Cai wasn't any good to anyone in his current state, and a break to recover his wits would do him a world of good. And nothing helped him recover his wits like losing them entirely to his lover's hypnotic talents.

The fingers brushed lower and lower, teasing the waistband of Cai's trousers until he squirmed helplessly on the bed, and Ro let out a condescending little chuckle as he caressed Cai's cock through the fabric. "That's my good boy. Deeper and deeper now, fathoms deep in the oceans of trance. All those cares, all those worries drifting away on the currents, leaving nothing behind but sleepy pleasure and empty, amiable surrender to my will. My silly little slut doesn't want to think anymore tonight, does he?" Cai's long white hair tangled into a bird's nest on the pillow as he shook his head repeatedly, unable to do anything more than affirm his Master's assertions. His hips rose and fell in an instinctive rhythm, his straining arousal now the only thing on his blank, blissed-out mind. All he wanted to do now was cum.

But Ro wasn't quite ready to give him that release yet. "Just let it all flow down for me, sweetie," he cooed, his hands moving up and down Cai's body from his sensitive nipples down to the bulge in his pants. "Let all that strength, all that will, all that intelligence and energy flow out of that silly, empty head into that heavy cock, those churning balls. There's nothing left in my good boy's mind, is there? There isn't a single solitary thought left in that fuzzy little brain because it's all down there in his cock waiting for me to let it out." Cai didn't know whether to say yes or no to that complex, confusing proposition, so he simply settled into a perpetual nod of agreement that didn't even try to figure it out. He wanted to accept everything his Master told him. The details could be absorbed by his submissive subconscious for later.

"It's all down there now," Cai murmured, finally unbuckling Ro's trousers and tugging them down to free the older man's trapped shaft. "It's all flowed out of my pretty plaything's head, making those balls so heavy and full, making that cock so big and hard and drippy for Master. My good boy can feel it down there, can't he?" Cai's head bobbed in an unceasing rhythm, no longer really even aware of Ro's words as much as the warm, soothing sound of his voice and the sensations the younger man was eliciting. Cai's penis drooled precum freely now, anticipating his release even though his mind had sunken too deeply into the ocean of trance to even understand what was happening to him.

"He's going to spurt it all out soon." Ro's hand wrapped around Cai's cock, sliding freely against the lubricated flesh as he worked the precum into every inch of the older man's shaft. "He's going to gush out every last drop of his strength and his will and his mind and then he's going to sleep so deep for Master, so very very deep that he won't even try to wake until I tell him. His exhausted brain is simply going to give up and obey me, dropping like a stone into the ocean of trance, and he won't have a single thought until I command him to return. Isn't that right, pretty pet?" Another nod. Cai had forgotten how to do anything else now.

Ro's hand began to move faster and faster, relentlessly tugging on Cai's achingly hard cock until the pleasure began to overwhelm him despite his best efforts to hold back his climax. He felt his balls tightening, felt his awareness gathering into a tangled knot of sensation right at the tip of his penis, and he knew he wasn't going to be able to stop himself from cumming. And it was that loss of control, that complete and total surrender of even his own body's responses that finally turned Cai on so much that he lost himself in ecstasy and let out a grunting, spurting spatter of jizz that covered his thighs and belly as he came hard for his Master.

"That's a good boy," he heard Ro say, but the words came to him as if through fathoms of warm water. Cai's mind felt profoundly empty, completely incapable of even the most basic cognition, and he felt rather than notice his lover cleaning up his messy ejaculation and taking off the rest of his clothes. After that, everything faded into a dim and distant haze of soporific exhaustion, and he fell asleep without even realizing that Ro had wrapped his arms around his good boy to gently and lovingly comfort him while he sank into slumber.

THE END