"Ah- hmm?" I stirred as you reached over me to pause the movie on your laptop that was perched just-barely-not-precariously on the bed with us.

 

The movie paused mid-credits. You loosened your arms around me to allow me to yawn, stretch, rub the sleep out of my eyes, and attempt to be subtle in wiping the small amount of drool off my mouth. You then moved back in to continue cuddling me and gently stroking my hair. No wonder I'd fallen asleep.

 

"Awwww, I missed like, half of the movie! You should have woken me up!" I tried to sound reproachful, but the words came out just a little bit slurred as I was still sleepy, not to mention being warm and comfy all snuggled up with you.

 

"You're too cute when you're asleep! Besides, you picked one of those Hallmark things. You know what happened."

 

"Girl quits her big city job and decides to stay in small hometown with high school boyfriend who never left?"

 

"Bingo. You sit tight, I'm going to grab us some water." You gently extricated yourself from the mess of limbs and blankets, pausing to place the laptop onto the nightstand that it probably should have been on in the first place after trying your best to knock it off the bed.

 

I pouted slightly, more at your leaving than at missing the movie. I curled up with the blanket to compensate for the loss of your body heat, but it still wasn't the same.

 

"Here-" you clicked the mini-projector on, washing the ceiling with soft blue, pink, and purple swirls peppered with stars as the galaxy image swirled and rotated. "Just watch the pretty colours while I'm gone and I'll be back before you know it."

 

"N- no... fair... you.. know I like that, um... that one..."

 

The swirling patterns stole away my thoughts and attention even more quickly than usual. So quickly that it never even occurred to me that maybe it hadn't been sleep that I'd just awoken from.

 

By the time you returned with two glasses of water, I was too far gone to even notice. I hadn't even noticed that you'd left.

 

My only acknowledgment of you was the small moan that came out when you started stroking my hair again, then again each time I felt your warm hands on my shoulders applying gentle pressure to physically coax me even deeper.

 

I might have been vaguely aware that you were murmuring soft words into my ear, but the pleasure of staring into the swirling galaxy above me as the warm timbre of your voice flowed through my mind eclipsed any ability I once would have had to process your words.

 

Maybe they were simple words of warmth and affection. Maybe you were programming my open and defenseless mind. I wouldn't find out until it was too late, if I figured it out at all.

 

And that was perfectly fine with me. When it felt this good, I was perfectly fine with you re-writing my empty mind however you wanted.

 

As you gently pressed down on my shoulders yet again to emphasize some suggestion or another, hearing my little moan of pleasure as I drifted ever deeper, you knew the brainwashing was going exactly as planned.