“Jesus Christ.”

Weiss winced and smiled sheepishly at Val. “Listen. 2006 was a… different time.”

Val’s eyes flitted back and forth between Weiss and the screen. “This was definitely not okay in 2006.”

The superhero formerly known as Violet Angel had been living with Weiss for a little over a month. She’d consciously avoided checking her phone since she moved in, getting most of her gossip from Yun-hee, who’d become something of a regular at the Pink Mansion since Team Rainbow dissolved. And from what Yun-hee told her about the media circus going on in Prism City – especially the rumors surrounding Team Rainbow shutdown, which seemed to be spreading like wildfire – she was glad she hadn’t been active.

Fortunately for her, her girlfriend – my girlfriend, God it feels good to say that – had plenty of other ways to keep her occupied. There was, naturally, a lot of hypnosis going on. It felt like Val had spent almost half their time together in some altered mental state, whether that was trance or under the influence of a post-hypnotic suggestion. They’d almost run out of things to do; Val had been frozen like a statue, turned into a vapid slut, made to believe she was a French maid (complete with sexy outfit and dubious accent), and all sorts of other things.

As fun as the bigger scenes were, Val enjoyed the small stuff even more. Little things, like the arousal trigger Weiss first planted in her back at their movie date. Or the mornings when Weiss would find her in the bathroom, mindlessly playing with her breasts and drooling. Weiss loved to tease her titslave, and Val loved the moment that came right when Weiss snapped her out of it and her mind came rushing back to her, the mixture of embarrassment, arousal, and awe she felt when she realized the hold Weiss held over her mind.

But there were times when Val didn’t want to be hypnotized and Weiss didn’t want to be a hypnotist. During that time, Weiss brought Val to her room and tried to get her interested in video games. She’d seen some success; Val had gotten good enough at Pokkén to actually beat Weiss a few times, though she always stressed that she “mains a low-tier character” and she’d “been out of practice.” And they’d had a blast going though Dragon’s Crown, even though Val didn’t entirely appreciate Weiss’ infatuation with the Amazon character.

Where Weiss had seen less success was when Val tried single-player games. Weiss still offered support and tips, but without her actively helping Val within the game, the former superhero often found herself woefully out of her depth.

Right now, Weiss was trying to get Val to play God Hand.

“Fuck!”

Val did not enjoy playing God Hand.

She’d managed a lot better than Weiss had initially thought, acclimating to the game’s somewhat dated control scheme fairly quickly and getting to the stage 1-4 bosses with only a couple deaths. Unfortunately, the stage 1-4 bosses – two very effeminate men in gold and silver BDSM gear – were kicking her ass.

Val tossed the controller on the floor after her seventh death, groaning in frustration. “Weiss, this game sucks!”

“It’s an… acquired taste.” Weiss sighed and picked the controller up. “If you want, I can take care of these guys so you can get through the rest of the game.”

“I’d rather just stop. How much did you pay for this, again?”

Weiss scratched the back of her head and blushed. “Um… a lot.”

“Well, at least we’ve got those checks from the Bureau coming in.” Val flopped onto the bed in a huff.

“You look frustrated.”

“I sure do.”

Weiss grinned and laid next to her. “I think I know how to fix that.”

“Does it involve swinging a pretty crystal in front of my face?”

“Not exactly. Unless you want that, of course.” Weiss laid her hand on Val’s stomach and gently scratched. “After all, it’s not like I need a crystal to hypnotize you. I could use that trigger I planted in you all the way back when we first met, or I could haul out the flasher if I wanted to do some real damage.”

Val blinked, and felt her eyes already starting to grow tired. Weiss had a knack for slipping into her domme voice seamlessly. Just hearing that confident, seductive purr made Val sink down a little.

“Yes,” Weiss continued, her smile growing wider by the second, “you already know I don’t need anything at all to bring you down into trance. My voice alone can take your mind and lock it away. It’s not like you needed it, did you?”

“M-Madame…” Val squirmed.

“That’s right, my dear.” Weiss kissed Val on the forehead. “My beautiful, beautiful girl. God, I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of the way your eyes flutter like that, the way you blush and mewl when I tease you. That glassy, vacant, just… incredible look in your eyes when your mind sinks down, down for me.”

Val smiled, soaking in Weiss’ affection like a sponge.

“Just like that.” Weiss smiled back. “Exactly like that.” She kept scratching and rubbing Val’s stomach, with a devious twinkle in her eye that Val knew all too well. “Do you know what you remind me of right now? All sleepy and peaceful like this?”

Val opened her mouth to speak, but Weiss held a finger to her lips. “I don’t want you to answer, love. Just listen.” Val nodded, her eyes misting over just a tad more.

“Right now, Val,” Weiss whispered, “you look like a kitten. A little kitty-cat, snuggling up to her owner.”

“Um…” Val blinked. “Dunno if I… wanna be a cat.”

Weiss sighed and snapped her fingers. “Up, Valerie.”

And just like that, Val was wide awake again. She hadn’t even realized how foggy she’d gotten until Weiss brought her back. “Hi.”

“Hey.” Weiss sat up and scratched her leg. “I’m sorry, I know we haven’t done petplay before and I should’ve asked first–”

“No, it’s ok,” Val said, placing a hand on Weiss’ shoulder. “I just… I don’t really get it? Like, acting like a cat, it seems a little weird to me.”

“You wouldn’t have to act like a cat. Not in the ‘get distracted by laser pointers and yarn balls’ sense, anyway.” Weiss paused. “I mean, unless you want to get distracted by laser pointers and yarn balls. It’d be really cute.”

“Let’s pass on that for now.” Val rolled over and laid her head on Weiss’ thighs, looking up at her girlfriend. “So why are you interested in it? If you wanna explore it, let’s try and make it work.”

Weiss scratched her cheek and shrugged. “Well, what I had in mind was pretty close to the titslave stuff. But instead of playing with yourself, you’d be all cuddly and affectionate.”

“Like, more than usual?”

“True, you are pretty cuddly,” Weiss chuckled. “But the idea is that would be the only thing you could focus on. You’d be nothing more than an adorable kitty, snuggling up to your beautiful human owner.”

“My, I didn’t know you were so modest,” Val smirked. “But… I guess when you put it that way, it sounds pretty nice.”

“You wanna try it?”

Val thought for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, why not? Worst-case scenario, I don’t enjoy it and you’ll just wake me­–”

Before Val could finish her sentence, Weiss whispered that magic word, the one Val could never make out but which always dropped her right back into trance. Val’s eyes slipped shut as her body went limp, feeling Weiss’s hand caressing her cheek and her thumb parting her lips.

“Much better,” Weiss smiled, kissing Val on the forehead. “So open for me, so obedient. Just letting that sleepy bliss overtake you, emptying your mind of everything but your love for me.”

Val let out a quiet gasp as Weiss ran her fingers through her hair. “My sleepy girl,” Weiss continued, her voice lacking the arousal it usually had when she was in domme mode. She sounded… warmer, gentler. “You just want to cuddle and nuzzle me, don’t you? That’s all your sleepy, drowsy mind can think of, isn’t that right?”

“Mmm…” Val nodded slowly, lethargically.

“It feels so natural for you, to be so cuddly and affectionate when you’re so sleepy,” Weiss whispered. “It’s more natural than even thinking of yourself as a person. Because that just sounds so silly now, doesn’t it? So silly, that you can just let all those thoughts and memories of being a person fade away.”

Val shifted slightly, and Weiss petted her forehead. “Don’t worry, Valerie,” Weiss cooed, “they’re still there, if you need them. But you don’t need them right now. You know Madame, your owner, will take care of all of that.”

That was enough for Valerie to feel safe again, and she relaxed even more, a drowsy smile slowly spreading across her face. “You can just drift,” Weiss continued, her own smile growing wider by the second. “Feel content to let me hold you and let all those silly human thoughts go quiet. You’re my little kitten now, nothing more, nothing less.”

“Nnnuuuutthhhh…” Val murmured, struggling to make the words form properly. Speaking felt strangely alien to her.

So it came as a comfort when Weiss pressed her finger to Val’s lips and shushed her. “Kittens can’t talk, love,” Weiss chuckled, and Val lost all interest in speaking. That was for humans to do, after all.

Val nuzzled her owner’s thigh and purred, feeling utterly satisfied and peaceful. Weiss scratched Val’s stomach gently, and Val purred even more. Her mind was slow, not completely empty yet too lethargic to form any complex thoughts. She didn’t feel quite like a young, energetic kitten; rather, she felt more like an old cat, one that had seen and done all they’d wanted to do and was content to merely lay in the sun and laze about.

She stayed like this, resting in Weiss’s lap, for what felt like forever. She heard some strange noises from the television, but investigating them would take away valuable owner-nuzzling time, so she ignored it. Occasionally Weiss would give Val scritches behind her ear, and oh did Val like that. She mewled and even tried to lick Weiss’s hand, which made Weiss chuckle for some reason.

Eventually, Weiss snapped her fingers a couple times. “And up!”

Val blinked slowly. She almost didn’t want to wake up, but if Weiss commanded it, then she had to follow. She sat up with a sigh, stretching and yawning like she’d woken up from a long nap. Which, in a way, she had. “So, uh… I guess I’m into petplay now?”

“Valerie, trust me,” Weiss smiled, “that was hardly petplay. For one thing, you’d need some accessories to really get the most out of it.”

“Accessories?” Val asked, her mind still taking a while to catch up to her human-sized needs.

“You know,” Weiss said teasingly. “Some fluffy kitty ears… maybe a tail? Oh, but you don’t like plugs, do you?”

“Like wall plu–” Val’s brain caught up with her just a moment too soon. “O-Oh! Um, yeah, uh, n-not a fan of… plugs.”

Weiss chuckled and pecked Val on the cheek. “Head’s still a little fuzzy, huh? Guess you wouldn’t be in the mood to keep playing, then.”

“Ugh, god no,” Val groaned. “Sorry, I just can’t wrap my head around that game. You can keep playing it if you want, I think I’ve had my fill.”

“Good,” Weiss replied, “because I’ve been playing it.”

“Huh?” Val turned her head towards the screen, and sure enough, Weiss was now in a completely different area from where she’d left off. “Why’re you in a castle now?”

Weiss shrugged. “Because?”

Val rolled her eyes and flopped down on the bed. “Whatever. You enjoy your punch game, I’m comfortable being the one who can actually fight.”

“Oh, darling, if we fought for real you wouldn’t last five seconds.”

“Is that a challenge?” Val asked, raising an eyebrow. “You know we got CQB training back at the academy, right? And it’s been proven I’m strong enough to bench-press you?”

“Yes, I’m well aware of all that,” Weiss smirked. “But none of that matters when all I need to do is this!” She reached behind Val’s ear and scratched, gently but vigorously.

“H-Hey–” Val stammered, before her eyes slipped shut and she nuzzled Weiss’s hand, a wide, silly smile forming despite her best intentions. “Stooooopp…”

“Not on your life,” Weiss chuckled. “You can play the tough girl all you like, but deep down? We both know you just– FUCK!”

Val’s eyes shot open at Weiss’s outburst. “Wh-What’s wrong?”

“I died again…” Weiss sighed, tossing the controller on the bed.

“Oh.” Val smirked. “Not as easy as I made it look, huh?” Weiss reached for Val’s ear again, and Val backed away. “S-Sorry!”

“Good girl,” Weiss chuckled. “I think that’s enough God Hand for now. It’s getting late anyway. What do you want for dinner?”

“I dunno,” Val grinned. “But I know what I want for desert.”

Weiss rolled her eyes, but smiled despite herself. “I think I’m rubbing off on you. The old Valerie wouldn’t make a joke that bad.”

Val wrapped her arms around Weiss – her owner, her Madame, her girlfriend – and kissed her on the lips. “It’s like you said, Weiss; I could use a bad influence or two.”