This is Chapter 7 to a commissioned novel. It is set in the Two Weeks universe, and is universe canon. The story follows Talikin, a 29 year old fox who's fed up with nearly everything, and is looking to make a serious change in his life, and his boyfriend, Matt, a German Shepard that never outgrew his selfish, childhood habits. Unexpectedly, that change comes in the form of the pair being targeted by a secret society.

This story took me several hours to write. If it entertained you, tell me so by hitting the fave button! If you're feeling generous, drop me a comment down below. I read and appreciate every one

<<< PREV | FIRST | NEXT >>>

Like what I write? Well, I happen to have a magic portal that makes your dreams come true when you offer it a sacrifice! Access it via the commission link on my profile!

Please comment and tell me what you think!

Story Text: (FA formatting is crap. Download to read it the way it was meant to be read.)
The Vacant Years: Chapter 7

The nursery was still dark as night when Talikin awoke, with the first lights of morning yet to break the horizon. He knew where he was at once, remembering all too clearly the softness, safety and comfort of his combination bed and cage. He sighed deeply, and gave in to the temptation to curl around the giant wolf plushie that he was beginning to grow fond of. The gradually became aware of the clinging snugness of his sleeper, and the tremendous bulk of the giant diaper which he had been forced into that previous night. He was drowsy, and the coziness which the blankets and cushy mattress offered made forcing himself to think difficult, but he was otherwise clear of mind, and, for the first time since he had arrived at the strange place, he had time enough to think and collect himself.
“Awwight, Tawikiwn,” Talikin said, or, rather tried to say, his words obscured by the rubber nipple which he had instinctively kept clutched in his mouth all night. Scowling, he spat out the pacifier, but kept it ready at hand in case Sky came in to check on him. “Alright,” he said again, much more coherent, “questions…” Talikin had learned in engineering school that, if the answer to a problem wasn’t obvious, you were asking the wrong questions. It had served him well after years of troubleshooting complex machines, and it was the best tool he had for discerning his captor’s motives. “What do I know?” He said aloud, “They kidnapped me, and probably didn’t get caught. They know what they’re doing, so I’m probably not the first they’ve done this to. They have plenty of cash to spare, what with the condition this house is in, and they’re confident enough at keeping me helpless that they put my prison in the middle of a subdivision…” He pondered on these facts for a few moments. “What’s the most important question?” He asked himself, “Why did they do this to me? What’s their motive?” Talikin assumed better thinking posture, sitting up against the bars of his crib with a pillow behind him and his legs out, “kidnapping me, paying for this house, these diapers, the food… This all comes at considerable cost, but to what end? What do they gain from keeping me here?” The answer wasn’t readily obvious, but that might also have come from total lack of information. “Hmmm… They kidnapped me once, so they’d probably be able to do it again. But I’d be ready for them, this time, and I’d go to the police… but they’d expect that. Could they stop me?” Talikin rubbed the sides of his head. Too many questions, not enough information. All the analysis he could do would fall flat with such scanty facts as he had. What could he really know for certain? He was being held captive, forced into the role of a baby, and, in so far as he could tell, there was no reason behind it. Sky had claimed to be only one cog in a machine, but could he trust her word on that?
The toil of thinking without useful results tired him, and, after an hour’s fruitless mulling over of details, he sank back into the covers and pillows, letting his frustration go. To make a bad situation worse, his bladder ached for release. A vein bulged out of Talikin’s forehead at the betrayal of his body, and he cursed the rabbit for putting him in this position. Still, he didn’t dare call for her help, and didn’t expect she would let him go to the bathroom if he did. Bowing in defeat, the fox decided that wetting himself by choice was better than waiting until nature’s call became too loud for him to ignore, and released his bladder, hanging his head low as the absurdly bulky diaper soaked up his urine. It grew wet and warm, but was too thick for him to squish around in, so at least he didn’t have to do with the constant reminder of his ‘accident’. A few minutes after this, and with a great yawn, Talikin curled back around his plushie for another few hours of sleep. He would need all his faculties at 120% if he was to put up with this rabbit’s humiliating torments for another day.
***
The sun was high in the sky by the time Talikin woke again, and he started to find Sky leaning over the bars of his crib, grinning down at him and giggling. “Good morning, cutie. How did you sleep?”
“Whaah wew yuu dowin?” Talikin murmured back at her, eyes going wide in terror as he realized what was in his mouth. Sky began to laugh and clap her paws together as the fox’s face went bright red, then, sheepishly, he removed his thumb from his mouth.
“I was watching you sleep, my widdle thumb sucker,” Sky said, unlatching his crib bars and lowering them to the ground. Her words hadn’t been intended to be a jab at him, but they hurt nonetheless, and, unlike his used diapers, which were likely caused by whatever they had drugged him with, he couldn’t deny responsibility for that. She had caught him red handed, thumb in mouth.
“Please don’t call me that,” Talikin said, hanging his head in shame, “it’s so degrading…”
“Oh, you poor thing,” Sky replied, a hint of legitimate pity in her voice, and hopped up into his crib before going cross-legged, dressed in the same sweater and track-pants combo that he had seen her in before. The fox looked up at her, and saw that she looked deep in thought, something he hadn’t seen of her before. The smile was gone from the rabbit’s face, in its place was a look of confliction. “I know you must be pretty confused right now, huh?”
Talikin’s eyebrows went up. Since he had met her, Sky had always maintained a level of strict condescension, as though he were actually the baby that she had dressed him as. In her voice now was little more than a calm, caring demeanor, like one would use to tell a good friend that someone they knew had died. It unnerved the fox more than it should have, but this radical shift in manner was something new, so he put up his guard. “Who wouldn’t be?” he said, crossing his legs as best he could in the thick, slightly soggy diaper. She was clearly trying to put them on mildly equal footing for the first time, so he gave her the benefit of the doubt, but pressed the question, “you kidnap me, drag me her, dress me up like a baby, drug me, keep me here against my will… Why have you done all this? And why to me?”
“There’s a reason…” Sky said, looking indecisive, “but it’s not easy to explain.”
“I didn’t expect it to be,” Talikin replied, “but I still want to hear it.”
Sky sighed, then crawled over to the fox and sat down next to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders, “you’re too serious.”
“What?” Talikin asked, looking Sky in the eye.
“You’re too serious,” she grinned mischievously, “you asked why you’re here, and I told you.”
“Mhmm?” The fox said, not convinced.
“We’re here because not everybody gets the start they deserve… Think of it as a clean slate, sweetie. A very thoroughly new you, going right back to the beginning.” If Sky was trying to make Talikin think she was crazy, she was doing a very good job of it, and the fox’s face showed that.
“Who’s we?” Talikin asked, perfectly justified.
“The caretakers,” Sky explained, explaining nothing, “and every one of us has been right where you are now, so don’t pretend I don’t know what it’s like to be the one on the changing table, eh?”
That caught his attention. While not immediately useful, Talikin filed away the fact. Presuming she was telling the truth, all initiates to these ‘caretakers’ had to first undergo this unwilling regression therapy. That might be useful in figuring out their motives later on.
“So, Sky…” Talikin began again, watching the rabbit out of the corner of his eye as she circled around behind him again. She seemed to be purring, odd as it was, and reached up to rub his shoulders. The fox relaxed visibly, “That doesn’t really answer my question… of all the people in the city, why me?”
She giggled in a voice that he wouldn’t have been surprised to hear a four year old girl use, “Well, the main reason you got picked up is because of your boyfriend. He’s the one that really needs our help, you just got taken with him because of proximity.”
That came as a surprise to Talikin, and he craned his head around to look at her, “Wait, you mean Matt?! What did he do to deserve this?”
“Tali…” Sky said, as though the answer was obvious, “your boyfriend isn’t perfect, you know that.”
“Y-yeah, so? How is that any of your business?”
“Well, his caretaker is a friend of mine, and boy am I glad I picked you over him. He’s what we call a handful,” the rabbit said with a laugh, and wrapped the fox in a hug from behind, “but you don’t need to worry about him, you’ve got bigger things to worry about.” The last part was delivered more as a playful side as opposed to a threat, but it still got under Talikin’s skin.
“Yeah? Like what?” The fox said, trying to pry the rabbit’s paws from his belly. She squeezed him in response, and he bounced backwards instinctively, only realizing a few moments later that he had played right onto the bunny’s lap.
“Well, loosening up would be a start. Your biggest problem is that you don’t know how to have fun!” In time with her words, the rabbit rocked the two of them side to side, and nuzzled the back of his head. “Do you want to know why I chose you, Talikin?”
“Because you needed a new torture doll?” The fox replied stubbornly, wiggling in his caretaker’s grasp.
“No, silly!” Sky said, sliding her arms up to his armpits and holding on tight, then bringing up and wrapping her legs around his belly, “you wana know, cutie?”
“Let me go!” Talikin said, feeling her grip on him tighten, and began wiggling around. His struggles did nothing to dislodge the rabbit’s strong limbs, and his frustration quickly built into a red faced tower, “GAHH! Let me go let me go LET ME GO!”
“Awww, is baby all fussy?” Sky said, the condescending note ebbing back into her voice, and, as though she hadn’t done enough to goad the weaker fox into submission, began tickling up and down his belly and sides, some soft, feathery internal fabric rubbing against his sensitive spots and sending him into a frantic struggle to escape the tickles, “baby needs to lighten up, and I know just how to do it.”
“H-hehehe, N-no! Please stahahap!” Talikin said, anger all gone to nothing as he squirmed in his caretaker’s unbreakable grip, being tickled like the infant he was dressed as. To make matters worse, his bladder, which had filled during the night, turned against him with the unexpected stimuli, and began aching for release almost as soon as the torment began. He didn’t last long. Talikin’s bladder was stronger than average, but his muscles still hadn’t recovered from the relaxants which Sky had plied him with, and, within a few short minutes, a trickle soon became a flood and he felt the absorbent diaper core quickly swell to soak up his accident. He was left soggy, humiliated, and still being tickled. Sky seemed to catch wind of his predicament, and ceased her tickling for a moment.
“Oh, come on,” Sky said, more consoling now than before, “where did my happy little kit go?” Talikin sat, arms crossed, and pouted mightily. Had he seen himself, he would have realized just how juvenile a gesture that was, but didn’t seem to care.
“I am not a kit,” Talikin said, as firm as he could be, still dressed up in his woolen sleeper. Sky seemed legitimately disappointed by the outcome, and, still having the better of him, used her short, dull claws to scratch his sides and back.
“Lighten up, Tali,” she said, feeling the fox visibly relax at the scratching.
“Stop it…” Talikin said, only half-heartedly, and tried to pull away from the rabbit. She kept a firm grip on him with her legs, and kept on scratching away. It did feel good… VERY good, in fact. For what it was worth, Sky clearly knew how to make him purr. Even all the will in the world couldn’t have kept the fox in a bad mood, what with Sky’s obvious desire to make up, and even his very wet diaper didn’t concern him as she pulled him back to relative happiness, about the best he could possibly manage what with his current role as a very small child.
“Who’s a happy foxy?” Sky cooed in his ears from behind, seeing that her stead’s mood had shifted towards the better, still scratching, “Who’s a happy foxy? Is it you? Isss it youuu?”
Talikin snickered and blushed at the cooing, and rested backwards against her, “It’s me… I’m a happy foxy.” He thought it better to give in now, and suffer the minor embarrassment of being a happy foxy, then wait until she got to the more humiliating nicknames.
“Is happy foxy ticklish?” Sky said, her scratching turning to tickling in an instant, leaving the fox wiggling in her grip again, this time playfully.
“Hey! Stop it!” Talikin giggled, doing his best to squirm free of the rabbit’s grip, but only managed to turn 180 degrees to face her, and, feeling oddly giddy and happy, decided to fight fire with fire.
Sky, who had been laughing already, burst out into hysteria as Talikin’s small, delicate fingers went at her vulnerable belly and sides, just as she had done to him. It quickly became obvious that the rabbit was intensely ticklish, and fought even more desperately to escape him as he had done to escape her. “Oh you cheeky bugger!” Sky said, releasing her lock-grip on his waist and pulling away before dropping into a low, four legged crouch. Talikin realized that, like her, he was positively beaming, and couldn’t keep the smile off his face as they circled in the huge, barred in crib. Sky had her back to the side that was open, so he had no chance of running, not that he would have, anyway. Why didn’t someone tell him that play fighting like this was so much fun?!
Sky used her powerful legs to propel herself at the fox faster than he could react, and, in a fraction of a second, had Talikin on his back, pinning him.
“Think you can take me in a tickle fight, eh?” Sky said, laughing between her words as Talikin fought to get free, albeit unsuccessfully, “take comfort in knowing you never had a chance, cutie.” And then she fell upon him, tickling the hapless fox into insensibility, before they both collapsed, exhausted, side by side on the mattress, a broad, invincible grin splayed across both their faces. Sky elbowed him, “see? Now isn’t this better than being mister raincloud all the time?”
Talikin didn’t have an immediate answer. It wasn’t like he tried to be stiff and cold all the time, he had just always been a serious person. It’s how he got by in the world, always being the mature, responsible one while everyone else goofed off. Did this rabbit really expect to change that?
They sat there for a while, until Sky hopped out of the crib, straightened her clothing as best she could, and poked the fox, “Come on, cutie. Playing with you was fun and all, but it’s still my job to take care of you, and, if I’m right, you need a diaper change. Like, now.”
She wasn’t kidding. Talikin had been put in the most bulky, absorbent diaper that he had ever seen that previous night, so thick that he hadn’t been able to walk with it on, and he had soaked it almost to the point of leaking. Mind you, he had been in it for something like eighteen hours by now, and he had been needing to pee a lot more than usual, but still… he was a fully grown fox, and, if it hadn’t been for that diaper, he would have soaked his bed more than once during the night. What was this rabbit doing to him?
Talikin obeyed, not wanting to spark conflict after they had gotten off on such a good note, but quickly found himself as immobile as he had the previous day, barely able to stand on his own two paws, even with the crib for support. Sky walked over with a smile, and using the same, strange strength that she had used before, hefted him up by the knees and shoulders as though he weighed little more than a child. It was oddly comforting, being carried like that, and, heart still pounding from their intensely fun bout of tickle-fighting, he was more than happy to relax in her arms.
The diaper changing ritual had become routine by this point, though Talikin was a little disappointed to see the rabbit pull out another of the atrociously thick diapers, restricting him to either crawling or being carried once more. He reveled in the five minutes which she gave him to air out, even giving him the luxury of covering his otherwise naked nethers with a towel while he wiggled about his cramped legs, finally free of the inches of padding which they had been subjected to for so long. During this time she sat idle, staring thoughtfully around the room.
“If you have any questions…” Sky said, suddenly very serious, “I’ll do my best to answer them…”
The offer took Talikin, naked to the fur but for the hand towel which covered his loins, by surprise. Why offer him that now, all of a sudden? “Umm… okay,” Talikin said, deciding to give her the benefit of the doubt. He didn’t have any questions prepared, but a decent few weren’t hard to come up with, “this group of yours... the caretakers?” she nodded in confirmation, and he continued, “how… big is it? Like, how many people are involved?”
Sky made a sarcastic pff, noise, and rolled her eyes, “bigger than you’ll ever believe, until you see it with your own eyes…”
Talikin nodded, accepting the answer. He had to take into consideration that the rabbit could easily be lying to his face, but lies were better than nothing. He asked another, choosing his words carefully, “you couldn’t let me go, even if you wanted to. Could you?”
Sky laughed openly, and took to playing with his toes with one hand, “no, of course I couldn’t. You’re my responsibility, Talikin, you’re stuck here until you’re ready to be let go.”
Talikin’s ears perked up, and he grinned impulsively, “Y-you mean you’ll let me go… eventually, I mean?”
“Once you’re ready,” Sky said again, taking a keen interest in toying with the fox’s retractable claws, as though he were a cat. Talikin ignored her, and pressed the question.
“How long?” He asked, hopeful that she would give him a straight answer.
“That depends,” Sky said, doubtfully, “some cubs are ready to be let go of after a month. Some take longer, others take less. The fastest I’ve ever heard of is a week, but that was an exceptional case.” She watched as Talikin drooped. He wasn’t sure he could survive a month of diapers, cribs, restraint, baby food and other such humiliations… “Oh, cheer up, pup,” Sky said, standing up and scratching his naked belly, “you’re being negative again.”
“What did you expect?” Talikin muttered, “even if you can be fun and nice, you’re still holding me against my will… I just want to go home…”
Sky nodded in empathy, and kept rubbing him lovingly, “I know you do, Talikin. We all do… at first. But that’s because you’re still looking at this as a problem, not as an opportunity.”
The fox scoffed, “what kind of opportunity?”
“I already told you,” Sky said, standing and walking over to his head, “a clean slate. We’re such victims of circumstance, aren’t we? You, me, everybody… we’re shaped by what’s happened to us, things outside of our control. You’ve been given the gift to choose your own path, right back from the very beginning… and the only force that’s controlling you now, is you.” The words coming from the rabbit’s mouth came across as so prophetic that Talikin seriously considered calling her crazy, but couldn’t manage it… Could she be right? Was he just someone that had been put upon a set of rails by his parents at birth, then pushed along until the rails stopped? “Imagine if everyone had that chance, Talikin…” Sky continued as though she had never stopped, staring vaguely into the distance, “It may not be possible, but we can always pick a select few, those who can do great things with our help… Keep that in mind, and tell me that you haven’t been given a gift.”
Talikin was speechless as the rabbit set about changing him, and paid no attention as the diaper was laid under him, powdered, and then taped up around his waist once more. He briefly questioned his own sanity, but couldn’t truly say that Sky’s words didn’t make sense in a strange, nihilistic sort of way. Her question had brought up all sorts of questions that the fox wasn’t sure if he wanted to answer. Was he happy with his life? Could he change it on his own if he wasn’t? What had he accomplished in his twenty six years on this planet, and, more importantly, was it really him accomplishing those things? Or was he just a victim of relatively favorable circumstance, which had seen him reasonably successful in contrast to the billions of other, far less fortunate people he would never know.
The philosophical debate tired him mentally, so he shut it down, and ate his baby food mechanically after Sky strapped him into his high chair and fed the revolting stuff to him. He felt exhausted, both physically from their bout of play, and mentally from the questions he had forced himself to ignore, and put up no resistance as the rabbit unbuckled him, carried him into the den, and bottle-fed him another half-gallon of warm milk. It was almost certainly drugged, but he didn’t care. The smooth, fatty liquid did everything in the world to calm the little kit into further insensibility, and, whether by exhaustion, drugs, or both, Talikin quickly passed into unconsciousness, held firmly in his caretaker’s arms and gazing up into her warmly smiling face.

This story took me several hours to write. If it entertained you, tell me so by hitting the fave button! If you're feeling generous, drop me a comment down below. I read and appreciate every one