FAFOP: A Keeperverse Anthology (complete 10/5)

[kerry]

This is an anthology of ten short stories that take place in bbykimmy's Keeperverse. 

i. Wendy

At least the coffee is hot, Wendy thought as she sipped a steaming beverage from a styrofoam cup. Not great, but hot.

The room was exactly what she expected: a small meeting room, maybe it was a classroom on Sundays? Anyway, this Unitarian Universalist church had provided the space and advertised the meeting, and she felt lucky to have discovered it. She hadn’t even known this group existed, but as she looked around at the various faces in the room—none of whom were even interacting—she realized a simple truth: If anyone needs a support group, it’s us.

It seemed to her that everyone here must be feeling the same way she was: bewildered, lost, angry, bereft, and (she had to admit it) ashamed. Well, why not? No one asked for this thing; it just suddenly had affected each of their lives, and it seemed to be spreading like a particularly virulent virus with no sign of an end. Is this the new normal? she wondered.

Taking a sip from her cup, she ignored the various sweets on the table. She didn’t feel like eating, and frankly sweet foods just reminded her too much of Ellie. Truly, the girl had always had such a sweet tooth: Wendy couldn’t keep enough cookies and other goodies in the house to satisfy her. She had tried to stop the girl’s outrageous eating habits, but it didn’t take her long to realize that, no matter how many sweets she ate, Ellie never grew fat. At first, she was fearful her harping was making her daughter bulimic, so she stopped pushing hard. Still, as a mom she had to be concerned.

“I swear, Mom,” Ellie had told her. “I’d never do that.”

And Wendy believed her. Of course she did; the relationship between them was so strong that she was confident that her daughter would open up about something that important. People called them “the Gilmore Girls” because their lives were so totally intertwined that, aside from work, you rarely even saw one without the other. They could (and did) talk about anything, sharing conversational topics like sisters instead of mother/daughter. Some people they met actually thought they were sisters; it helped that Wendy did not at all look her 44 years of age. They hung out together as good friends would, each enjoying the other’s company and sharing likes and dislikes. It was nice that Ellie had moved back in after college; both of them realized that it would never be a permanent situation, but neither was quite ready to let go.

And then…

People were taking their seats in the large room. She’d thought they might be arranged in a circle, but they were not. She realized that a circle with this many chairs would be unwieldy and wouldn’t fit into even this generous space. And now the many rows of chairs were filling up. Many of the people were her own age, but some were younger. Ellie’s age, she thought. Unbidden, her mind took her back to the last day she had spent with her daughter.

Ellie had been wanting to go to Six Flags with her mom all summer, and time was waning. Finally, on a Sunday in August (could it really only have been a few weeks ago?), Wendy had said yes, but on the condition that they spend at least a few hours at the water park. Ellie may have liked roller coasters, but Wendy’s first love was water slides. They made her feel like a kid again. Fortunately, each of them also shared the other’s affinities as well, and the day had been a joyful explosion of coasters and swimming. Late in the afternoon, sipping lemonades in reclining chairs beside the wave pool, they had taken the time to breathe and just chat.

“This has been a fabulous day, Mom,” Ellie said.

Wendy agreed. “We got awfully lucky on the weather. I thought after yesterday we’d surely get rained out.”

Ellie smiled softly. “I guess Mother Nature ran out of moisture after the storm.” She paused, her eyes scanning the pool. “Mom?”

“Yes?”

“We’ve never talked about this, but...what do you think of them?” Ellie nodded gently in the direction of a particular section of the pool, roped off from the rest. In it, a group of young people frolicked and played, chasing a beach ball or tossing smaller balls to each other.

“Honestly,” Wendy said, “I try not to.”

Both women found themselves absorbed in gazing at the group, some of whom were clearly wearing collars and (both women knew) rubber-coated absorbent swim diapers beneath the waves. The diapers were a recent invention; no one wanted to share public pools with so many constantly leaking adults, so PetSwim diapers practically leapt into being. Now, Pets were not allowed into public pools without them. The company was so successful that there had been talk of an IPO in the very near future.

“Truly,” Wendy said, “I don’t understand it. There was a time when this kind of activity stayed behind doors. I mean, enlightened folks understood that kinks existed, but you never saw it out on the streets.”

“Or in the water parks,” Ellie said. “But this isn’t just a ‘kink,’ Mom. You’ve read the reports: as hard as it is to believe, The Bond seems to be real.”

Her mother smiled a smile that meant, As real as my desire to sleep with George Clooney, but didn’t say anything. Ellie kept going.

“It is, Mom. There have been too many reports of people just pairing off suddenly, even people you’d never expect. Like that actress? You read about her.”

Wendy nodded. “Well, it just seems to me that, if it were real, you’d see older people ‘bonding’ as well, but we both know that it seems to be something that only happens to people in their 20s and early 30s...prime experimentation age.”

Ellie was quiet for a moment. “No. No one’s been able to explain that.”

Wendy smiled again. “You know what I think? Remember back when you were in high school and the Gay Straight Alliance suddenly started filling with trans and non-binary people? I mean many of them were, but some were just experimenting...trying something on. Lots of those kids ended up as straight as a ruler; you know that. Well, I think this is a lot like that: people are very impressionable. And those with kinks see a way of taking their desires out of the closet, so…”

Ellie shook her head. “I don’t think so, Mom. I mean look at them. You’d have to be beyond submissive to parade around pretty much naked except for a diaper and enjoy someone throwing a ball so you could retrieve it and bring it back. And you know they need those diapers, right? If that wasn’t real, they wouldn’t have been manufactured in the first place. And stores like Pets R Us wouldn’t exist. I mean, when in your life has the culture given in so completely to a mere kink?”

Wendy watched as the “Pets” swam up to their “Masters” or “Mistresses,” returning what had been thrown and receiving loving pats on the head or neck. Sometimes they would go glassy-eyed for a minute, as if they’d been transported somewhere else. She turned to her daughter.

“They are dedicated; I’ll give them that.”

But Ellie wasn’t smiling. “Sometimes I...I worry it will happen to me.”

Wendy reached out her hand. “No, Honey, that’s silly. You’re not like these people. I think you really have to have some kind of kinky side to you, and we just...don’t. We’re what the kinky folks call Vanilla.” She shook her head. “God, I know a lot about this subject these days. A lot more than I used to anyway.”

Ellie’s smile was a weak one. “I hope you’re right,” she said, still gazing at the pool. Suddenly, her eyes shifted their focus. “Hey, Mom, look at that.”

Her attention had been drawn to one couple in the main part of the pool, very close to them. A group of people were wading out of the deeper water and gathering around them, calling to them, but they only had eyes for each other.

“Jessie,” someone yelled over the sound of the waves and people playing. “Jessie? Who is this woman?”

Someone else in the group responded. “Her name is Cat. Why won’t they speak?”

“Does anyone know what happened?”

The closest woman to the couple, a short redhead, turned to the gathering crowd. “I don’t even think they knew each other until now, but they were just swimming and suddenly they both stopped. At first they went under; I thought they were just goofing around. But when they came back up I saw the look in their eyes. I think they’ve...bonded.”

The woman called Cat slowly moved toward the other woman and reached out her hand. The one called Jessie shrank back a bit, as if afraid, but Cat drew even closer and placed her hand on the other woman’s head, patting it gently as one would do to a child. She said something that was inaudible to the women sitting in the recliners, but her hand moved down and she took Jessie’s hand and led her away from the group. Their friends called after them, but neither woman responded or even indicated that they had heard as they headed in the direction of the changing rooms.

“Mom,” Ellie said, “did you see how tenderly they looked at each other? I don’t think that is a kink.”

Wendy’s eyes followed the two women through the crowd until she lost sight of them. Then she turned back to her daughter. “No, it didn’t seem so,” she said.

Ellie looked at her. “What if...what if it were me?”

Wendy thought about that possibility seriously for the first time. “I honestly don’t know,” she said.

That had been the last conversation she had had with her daughter.

“It happened the very next day,” she told the group gathered in the classroom. “The same way. We were at our favorite restaurant, and she was in the middle of her meal, when a striking brunette woman walked past our table. Their eyes met, and…”

She couldn’t go on. It was far too shameful. Her daughter was a Pet. She hated even thinking the words, but you couldn’t get around the truth. For the past two weeks, Ellie had been living with the other woman, whose name was Susan, in a condo in the city. She hadn’t seen her daughter since she had gotten up and left that table, and she wasn’t sure when she’d see her again. She wasn’t even sure she wanted to see Ellie like that. Wendy only knew what was going on because Susan had come to the house to pick up Ellie’s car. She’d sell it, of course: Pets’ belongings transferred immediately upon registration to their Owners, their Keepers. It was the new law, and there was nothing Wendy could do about it. They’d rushed that law a bit: banks were concerned about all of the sudden loan defaults, so they pressured Congress to transfer the debt. Susan would sell the car, pay off Ellie’s loan, and use the rest of the money for...whatever. Though Susan had tried to reassure her that she cared deeply for Ellie, Wendy could only think of the gifted, multi-faceted daughter she had raised: the scholar, the cello player, the choir singer—God, that voice! Would she ever even use it again?—reduced to someone’s Pet, owned by someone like a slave.

That was what brought her here tonight, more than anything, to the Families and Friends of Pets meeting. She’d been reading the CDC reports on The Bond and the havoc it was wreaking around the world. They thought perhaps it was a kind of virus, and only two already-infected people could find the connection, but no one knew anything for sure yet. Still, the laws had had to catch up quickly, or the country would have collapsed. A whole new Pet economy was springing up, but so many people suddenly simply dropped out of their lives that the older economy was in jeopardy. So the laws were written, codifying what people observed about Pets and Keepers even though no Unbound, as they were called, could really comprehend it.

The woman sitting next to her put her hand gently on Wendy’s.

“Mine was with me too,” she said, but Wendy never heard it. All she could do was stare at the woman. She’d never seen anyone so beautiful in her entire life. And she knew, in an instant, that she wanted her. No, she needed her. The rest of the world grew fuzzy; all she could do was look into her eyes. Nothing else existed.

“What’s your name?” the woman asked.

“W-Wendy,” she said as the woman’s hand rose to stroke her hair. It felt like...heaven.

“I’m Jeanine,” the woman said, “and I’m going to take really good care of you.”

In the front of the room, the speaker was saying something about The Bond having shown up in an older population in recent weeks, but neither Wendy nor Jeanine heard her. Without another word, they got up and Jeanine, taking Wendy’s hand, led her out the door.

[violetbaby]

Oh wow! This is an amazing story! I loved it, and enjoyed the part at the end of course.

 

I like how you included a couple of things I've seen elsewhere like the whole discussion of Pets R Us...would love to see more in the future!

[foofybabykitten]

That ending! o.o The twist!

It looks like Marcie is about to become intimately acquainted with the keeper and pet world. 

[thedman]

BAM! I love that ending. No buildup or clues to speak of. Just boom it hits you

[SGTbaby]

Wow! Talk about a twist!

[kerry]

2 hours ago, violetbaby said:

Oh wow! This is an amazing story! I loved it, and enjoyed the part at the end of course.

 

I like how you included a couple of things I've seen elsewhere like the whole discussion of Pets R Us...would love to see more in the future!

Thanks so much! I'm still working out what would happen if I continue the story, but I'm leaning toward writing another chapter to see where it would take these characters. If I do that, I will definitely be aware of elements from other stories. I like the idea that this universe has some continuity.

2 hours ago, foofybabykitten said:

That ending! o.o The twist!

It looks like Marcie is about to become intimately acquainted with the keeper and pet world. 

It does, doesn't it? One thing that interests me (besides the family and friends dynamic I've set up with FAFOP) is how older people would react to this Bond. Not that Marcie is all that old, but she's a heck of a lot older than most of the protagonists in other stories. 

42 minutes ago, thedman said:

BAM! I love that ending. No buildup or clues to speak of. Just boom it hits you

 

10 minutes ago, SGTbaby said:

Wow! Talk about a twist!

Glad you guys liked it. I'm making this one up as it goes along; I didn't know about the twist until two-thirds of the way through. But it is interesting. I wonder if there is any chance that mother and daughter could meet as Pets...

[ELLIE52]

Inundated, viral trending.   Is there a cure?

[kerry]

 

33 minutes ago, ELLIE52 said:

Inundated, viral trending.   Is there a cure?

It took a long time to find meds that could stop the progress of HIV/AIDS. Cure? If they are right that it's a virus, they first have to isolate it before they can even run tests. But the way it is spreading, they may not have the usual amount of time to do that...

 

[Wannatripbaby]

Well this one is certainly unique! Instead of focusing on the hot stuff like the Keeper/Pet dynamic, you decided to take on an outsider's perspective (until the very end) to show this world from a heretofore unseen angle.

I personally don't think this story needs to continue. You've conveyed its message and, now that the Protagonist is a pet, you can't really explore this story's core theme (the FAFOP support group) any further. You'd have to take everything in such a drastically different direction that you might as well just start a new story.

That's just my 2 cents anyway.

[kerry]

3 hours ago, Wannatripbaby said:

Well this one is certainly unique! Instead of focusing on the hot stuff like the Keeper/Pet dynamic, you decided to take on an outsider's perspective (until the very end) to show this world from a heretofore unseen angle.

I personally don't think this story needs to continue. You've conveyed its message and, now that the Protagonist is a pet, you can't really explore this story's core theme (the FAFOP support group) any further. You'd have to take everything in such a drastically different direction that you might as well just start a new story.

That's just my 2 cents anyway.

Thanks for the feedback, Trip. 

I'm not so great at writing smut, so I thought I'd try to see the rest of this world. (Which doesn't mean there might not be some smut later on...) When so many people are becoming Pets, there's a lot of collateral damage. Frankly, I'm surprised anyone ever leaves their homes anymore: their lives could change so drastically in an instant anywhere out in the world. Continuing my HIV/AIDS analogy: what if the virus could be transmitted by mosquitoes? How would that have altered the world back in the 80s in irredeemable ways? (Reagan might have acknowledged its existence, for one thing.) Anyway, I'm still toying with how to continue Marcie's story within this concept, but I'm working on another chapter that does go in a different direction, though still within the concept. We'll see how it turns out.

[ELLIE52]

It could be that someone who works with the CDC or something like that wanted to see their spouse put in their proper place.  Why do the pets no longer get clothed, I am missing that part?  Do pets physically start taking on features, like being hairy, in the long run?  Do you get to alter your pet physically towards being catlike, foxlike, etc.?

[violetbaby]

1 hour ago, ELLIE52 said:

It could be that someone who works with the CDC or something like that wanted to see their spouse put in their proper place.  Why do the pets no longer get clothed, I am missing that part?  Do pets physically start taking on features, like being hairy, in the long run?  Do you get to alter your pet physically towards being catlike, foxlike, etc.?

One of the things in kimmy's initial story was the fact that a pet's body is no longer truly human, and one thing is they have a higher body heat, so clothes are very uncomfortable. Hence why Pets will wear lighter clothes. And it would be especially bad in hot areas I would imagine.

[kerry]

I'm having fun writing this piece. It's kind of cool adding to a new universe. I hope that bbykimmy feels good about my contribution.

ii. Dawn

It was late. Not that being late was all that unusual: Dawn was late for things so often that her friends and co-workers joked about Dawn Standard Time being a whole extra time zone. But she really didn’t want to be late tonight. The meeting was too important to her.

Of all the people to become a Pet, Damon was the very last person she would have expected. He was such a strong man. Not strong as in I can lift 1000 pounds, though there was nothing wrong with his musculature. She could attest to that. But strong as in you always felt safe with him around. He was unflappable—that’s what he was, unflappable. No matter what came along, Damon would be able to handle it. And that’s why she trusted him so deeply. That’s why she fell in love with him.

And now he was a Pet. And she was definitely flapped.

Damn that stupid Bond anyway. How could it be so strong that he could just leave her, drop her like...like...something you’d drop. Like something rotten maybe. Something you could throw out without even thinking about it. And for what? For that Kelsey? She wasn’t even all that pretty. Why did she deserve Damon?

It was the Bond. One day he’d been everything she could want in a fiancé; the next he did not come home from work. She’d tried his cell phone and it rang straight to voicemail. She left him a message and hoped he’d call back soon. But when it was getting near time to go to sleep and she still hadn’t heard from him, she started to worry. What could have happened?

She called the police but they told her she needed to wait 24 hours. “Get some sleep,” the officer told her. “He’s probably drunk somewhere at a friend’s house.” And the thing is: she could sort of see that. He didn’t drink too often but he was going out with Brian after work; maybe he got wasted. It would be unlike him, but it was certainly possible. They had no plans tonight and it was Friday. She thought about calling Brian, but it was much too late and, besides, it was likely that Brian had been drinking too. They were probably both passed out on the couch after a gaming session. So she decided to try to sleep and call in the morning.

First, though, she thought she’d try his cell phone one more time. It rang straight to voicemail, just like the last fourteen times. But this time the message wasn’t from Damon. It was a woman’s voice. “You have reached a phone that used to belong to Damon Woodley, but Damon no longer needs it. If you are a friend or family member, call Kelsey at…” At first it made no sense at all to Dawn, but she called the number anyway.

The woman picked up on the first ring. “Hello?”

“Where’s my fiancé?” Dawn demanded. She’d told herself not to get angry, just to try to get some information from this woman, but she just couldn’t. Damon was everything to her.

“I take it that this is Dawn?” the woman asked.

“Damn right,” she said. “Now do you know where my fiancé is or not?”

The woman laughed. “He said you wouldn’t understand.”

“What? Who?”

“Damon,” the gentle voice responded. “He said you’d be upset.”

She practically threw the phone. “Upset? Of course I’m fucking upset! My fiancé disappears and I get a message from some random woman saying call her? Wouldn’t you be upset?”

The woman spoke again. Damn, that calm voice was annoying. “Take it easy, Dawn. He’s perfectly safe.”

“He’s safe?” she exploded. “He’s safe? Oh well isn’t that just great. Where is he safe?”

She could hear the woman’s smile over the phone. “He’s right here with me.”

“And who the fuck are you?”

“I’m his Keeper.”

Dawn’s blood ran cold. Of all the possibilities that had been rushing through her mind, bonding was not even on the list. “His…”

“Keeper, yes. I know it must be a shock to you, but I want you to know he will be well cared for. I’m deeply attached to him already.”

Dawn had no clue what to do. Of course she had read all about the Bond and its results. She’d seen the Pets being walked in the park. But it made no sense. If he had to bond, wouldn’t he have been a Keeper? And wouldn’t he have bonded with her? Wait, she thought. That would make me a Pet. No fucking way! Into the phone, she said, “Um, Miss Keeper—”

“Kelsey,” the woman interrupted.

“Kelsey,” Dawn repeated. “Kelsey the Keeper.” She was totally losing it and she knew it. This simply couldn’t be happening. And then: that’s it! It’s all a mistake. “Listen, Kelsey, I’m thinking maybe this is all wrong. I mean you couldn’t possibly have my Damon.”

“I don’t,” the woman said.

“Well, that’s—”

“I have mine. He bonded with me. We’re linked forever. Do you understand how this works?”

She’d read the reports; she’d seen the Pets...but not Damon!  “Let me talk with him,” she said. “I need to hear him tell me he’s...yours.”

There was a moment of hesitation. “I guess I expected that.” Her voice became muffled, as if she was talking to someone else with the phone covered, but Dawn could still hear her. “Damon? Sweetie? She needs to speak to you.”

A male voice, equally muffled, responded: “N...no, Mistress. Please! I don’t want to...I can’t.”

“You can, because I’m telling you to. I’ll be right here; it won’t hurt too much, and I’ll give you a treat when it’s over.”

“A treat?”

There was a pause, and then the voice said, softly, “A treat.” And Dawn could hear the male voice groaning as if in pain...or ecstasy. She stood there, phone in hand, mesmerized and appalled in equal measure by what she was hearing. And then…

“D...Dawn?”

His voice! “Damon! Oh I’ve been so worried! Tell me this is all some mistake, please!”

He hesitated. Her voice in the background: “It’s OK, Honey. Just talk with her. She won’t bite.”

“D...Dawn,” he stammered again, as if trying to get his tongue around the word, “I’m afraid it’s t...true.”

It took a moment for Dawn to process that simple sentence, and then she suddenly did what she probably should have been doing all along: she began to cry. “You can’t!” she spoke through tears. “What about all of our plans? What about the wedding? We’ve invited everyone! You just can’t! It’s impossible.”

A whimpering sound came through the phone, and then Kelsey’s voice: “You’ve upset him.”

“I’ve upset him? Are you kidding?” The tears were flowing freely now; she was not even trying to hold them back. “Do you know what you’ve done? Do you?”

“I know this is a lot to take in,” Kelsey said. “Some Keepers don’t bother contacting friends and family, but I thought it best to leave that message so you’d at least know what happened.”

“What happened is that you stole my fiancé and now you’re going to make him a P—” Dawn found that she could not say the word.

“A Pet, yes. But I’m not making him one. He is one.”

Dawn tried to bring herself under control. “But we were going to get married!” she moaned.

“I know, and I’m sorry about that. This was not planned. There was nothing either of us could do about it. We just met and...bonded. But please...I know you don’t know me, and goodness knows what you think of me right now, but please know I will take good care of him. He’ll be the best cared-for Pet you’ve ever seen.”

The tears burst forth again. She spoke through them. “So I’ll be...able to...see him?”

“I think you'll know the answer to that if you think about it, Dawn. Do you know how cruel it would be for me to let him be with you again? To show him what he has lost when there’s nothing we can do about it? I didn’t even feel that great about letting him talk to you tonight. No, I have to protect him. He’s my responsibility. Besides, you don’t really want to see him as a Pet, do you?”

Dawn considered. No, she didn’t. Never ever. It would just be...too hard.

“I have to go,” she said, and hung up before her tears had the chance to betray and belittle her even more. Then she threw herself on her pillow and cried herself to sleep.

But now she was focused entirely on getting to that meeting. A week had gone by. Kelsey had come to pick up Damon’s computer and a few other things that she could now lay claim to under the law. She was medium height, brunette, maybe a little bit overweight, maybe a bit overly made-up, but she was all apologetic and genuine when she came to the door. She had not been there long. She said they lived in the city, so it was unlikely that Dawn and Damon would accidentally run into each other. And she said he’d taken very well to being a Pet. Dawn wanted so badly to hate her, but she just couldn’t. The woman was so sweet, so sincere.

“He’s really a very good boy,” she said, but Dawn didn’t want to hear any details.

She pulled into the church parking lot and found a space open pretty near the door. She almost thought the word “lucky” until she realized how stupid it sounded. Exiting her car, she made her way to the big door and pulled it open.

There were signs in the entryway that pointed to the FOFAP meeting. Room 6, it said. She wandered down the corridor until she found it, a large meeting room filled with people. Could there really be this many people like me? she wondered. She didn’t see any open seats, so she stood in the rear. One after another people shared their stories about children, friends, co-workers having bonded and been lost forever.

“It’s even worse than dying,” one woman said. “If my Bobby were dead I could visit his grave and still hold him in my heart. But like this? He’s out there somewhere; I know that. But I'll never see him again. And I can’t even discuss him with my friends. It’s too embarrassing.”

A couple of women stood up and left about halfway into the meeting, so Dawn finally had someplace to sit. The leader, a man of about 50, was speaking.

“We’ve all lost loved ones to this terrible virus, if that’s even what it is. And now the CDC is reporting that older people, in their 40s and even 50s, are succumbing to the Bond. It could strike anyone, even those of us gathered here. But the thing to remember is that, if it does happen, it isn’t personal. It isn’t about you. And it’s no one’s fault, not the Pet and not the Keeper. It’s the virus, the randomness of the Bond. That’s all.”

“But that just makes it worse,” a young man said. “There’s no one to be angry at, no one to hate.”

“Yeah,” said the girl next to him. “I want to throw something, but there’s nothing to throw it at.”

Several others expressed their agreement, and the leader let them speak. When they were through, he looked at them wistfully. “I wanted to throw things too, after Mary was taken from me. But what would be the point? It’s all chance, or fate, or something you can’t rail at. I cried for about a month, but in the end you have to move on. Nothing will bring them back.”

There was a silence in the room. Then a blonde woman in her 30s spoke. “But what about the hole she left in my life?”

The leader’s smile was sad. “We all have them. And I know that doesn’t make yours any better. I think in the end we just have to learn to navigate around our holes, or we’ll fall in. And that wouldn’t be good for anyone.”

When the meeting ended, Dawn rose to get some coffee and a sweet roll from the table in the back. It wasn’t bad coffee, but the Danish she chose was superb. As she stood there, a young man came up to her.

“You’re new,” he said.

“Yes,” she said. “It just happened.”

He sighed. “It’s happening everywhere.  I lost my sister last spring.”

“My fiancé, just last week” she said simply, and he shook his head.

“Maybe next time, you can talk about it?”

“Maybe,” she offered as she finished the Danish.

“Hey, be careful with that thing,” he smiled. “You just set a new land speed record for Danish-eating.”

She thought she should perhaps be embarrassed, but all of the embarrassment had been wrung out of her in the last week. She simply shrugged. He raised an eyebrow.

“You say this just happened?”

She nodded.

“And I’ll bet you’ve been ignoring your meals all week, haven’t you?”

She thought for a moment and blushed. “Um, I guess so?”

His smile was gentle. “That’s a common reaction to something this shocking, but it is not at all healthy. Let me take you out and get something to eat.”

Damn strange place for a pick-up, she thought. But she suddenly realized that was hungry. “Do you do this a lot?” she asked.

“Come to meetings?”

“No, pick up women at them.”

He smiled. “Never until tonight.”

She returned the smile and nodded her head. “Let’s do it,” she said, and the two of them headed toward the parking lot.

“Got a favorite place?” he asked.

“Surprise me,” she said, and climbed into his car.

[ELLIE52]

World in Chaos.

[Wannatripbaby]

Well THAT was unexpected! So if this continues it'll be a sort of Anthology series? Spinning a new tale of loss and woe with each chapter?

Also I JUST came up with pretty much this exact idea yesterday! I was like "What if someone did a Keeperverse story about a normal couple, but then one of them Bonds to a pet?" Of course in my mind it wasn't quite this heartbreaking. ?

[kerry]

 

33 minutes ago, Wannatripbaby said:

Well THAT was unexpected! So if this continues it'll be a sort of Anthology series? Spinning a new tale of loss and woe with each chapter?

Also I JUST came up with pretty much this exact idea yesterday! I was like "What if someone did a Keeperverse story about a normal couple, but then one of them Bonds to a pet?" Of course in my mind it wasn't quite this heartbreaking. ?

I have a few other ideas for possible storylines here as well. (And there is always the possibility of coming back to one or more characters...)

[fyunch]

This is fun.  First male Pet so far.

[kerry]

45 minutes ago, fyunch said:

This is fun.  First male Pet so far.

Yeah, I've been thinking there is something wrong there...

 

[aldl4811]

Really a wonderfully written start, looking forward to more 

[SGTbaby]

Like the intro of a male pet...I was actually wondering when it would happen. I also like how she is getting a little reckless but then again massive upheaval in her life. Looking forward to more!

[kerry]

12 hours ago, SGTbaby said:

Like the intro of a male pet...I was actually wondering when it would happen. I also like how she is getting a little reckless but then again massive upheaval in her life. Looking forward to more!

Her recklessness is probably a conscious attempt to forget her loss, at least for an evening. I suspect it won't be entirely successful, as he has suffered losses as well and the subject is bound (no pun intended) to come up.

BTW: although I'm writing in an anthology structure, don't worry: at least some characters will reappear. 

[kerry]

iii. Marcus

Marcus Wilson sat in the driver’s seat of his two-year-old SUV, cursing his luck. For the fifth day in a row, the traffic was a nightmare. And he hated traffic. Shit. He really needed to move closer to the city. His car inched forward before coming to yet another standstill. Ahead of him, an endless line of red tail lights wound up the road, and as far as he could tell, no one was moving at all. He slammed his hands down on the steering wheel. Why this stretch of highway was clogged so badly was anyone’s guess. His traffic app didn’t show any accidents ahead, and there weren’t even any places for at least five miles where traffic would merge from an entrance ramp. Nothing to explain this fucking awful mess day after day after day. Nothing to free him so that he could just get home. He glanced at the traffic app: he was still over an hour out. A whole fucking hour in stop and go traffic! The exit he’d just passed, Willow St., was supposed to be less than half an hour from home. But no. Not during yet another Kick Marcus While He’s Down Day. Sure: it wasn’t bad enough that his world was broken; let’s add the mundane awfulness of a truly world class traffic jam. Why the fuck not?

God! He needed to get out of this traffic. Maybe he should reroute onto surface streets. Probably no better, but he had to at least check.

“OK Google,” he said, “what’s the travel time home on Rapid Run Road?”

The computerized voice responded. “The travel time on Rapid Run Road is one hour fourteen minutes due to heavy delays.”

Jesus! Rapid Run wasn’t living up to its name today. Didn’t yesterday when he’d actually tried it, either. He might as well stick it out on the highway. His car moved up another twenty feet or so. At this rate I’ll get home in time to go to work tomorrow. Not for the first time this week, he wondered if he should just get off and stay at a hotel. He could get off at the next exit; there was a place there with a Bob Evans in an out-building. He could get dinner and maybe even breakfast in the morning, and he’d be a whole lot closer to work when he got up...and much less stressed. So why not?

Well, for starters, he thought, he had no change of clothes and no toiletries with him. So that was a non-starter. But it was nearing 7:00; he could get off and eat dinner. Maybe traffic would die down some by the time he was finished. If I ever get to Mammoth Rd.

The very worst thing about being stuck like this, especially this week, was having time to think. He had been trying to keep himself busy so he wouldn’t think about it. He’d made it very clear to his colleagues that the topic was off limits, and they’d all rallied around him; even his boss had done his part, keeping him busier than usual to keep his mind off things. But in the emptiness of this goddamn traffic jam, all he could do was think. He tried to go over contracts in his mind, but he found he couldn’t keep them straight. He turned on the radio looking for a diversion, but his rotten luck continued. "Sara Smile." It was so ridiculous he actually laughed, probably for the first time all week. How many times had he sung that song for her when they were growing up, when she was crying or hurt about something. Too many times to count, but what was a big brother for?

Sara…

After their parents had died, he’d promised to take care of her, to be there if she ever needed him. And he’d tried. God he’d tried. But he couldn’t protect her from the fucking Bond. And knowing that it wasn’t his fault didn’t help worth a damn. That guy at the FAFOP meeting was full of shit. Navigate around the holes in our lives. Fuck him! You couldn’t navigate around a hole this size; you just couldn’t. Especially not if the fucking car can’t move!

He looked at the navigation panel. Two more miles to the Bob Evans. So he had been moving after all. Didn’t feel like it. Didn’t feel like he’d been moving all week. He’d been mostly a zombie since it had happened. Well, after getting extremely pissed off about it when he first heard. That guy David calling himself Sara’s “owner” when he stopped by to explain things. And a glimpse of Sara herself in the back of his car, seated in some sort of cage-like contraption like an animal. Well, that’s what the Bond did, wasn’t it? Turn people into animals? She hadn’t even looked at him.

He’d nearly taken a swing at the guy, but he knew the score. Of course he did. Didn’t everybody by now? And anyway both Eddie and Veronica had bonded just in the last month; he’d been through it all before. And he had to give David props for having the balls to come to his house to tell him; as far as he knew, neither of his friends’ Keepers had done that. Ronnie’s sure didn’t; Jared had been so panicked he’d started a police search before he learned the truth. Shit. Was it worse to lose a sister or a wife? He honestly didn’t know.

Sure he did. It sucked royally to lose anyone.

FAFOP was supposed to help. Maybe it would, if he gave it time. But he honestly didn’t know how he could keep going to meetings to listen to so many people just like him with those unfillable holes in their lives. Not when his own hole was so fucking huge. The words of the damn song played on repeat in his mind: “It’s you and me forever…” Fuck. It was supposed to be that way. He’d envisioned the growing friendship he would have with his sister as years went by, now that she wasn’t just a kid anymore. She was such a kind, giving soul. And now...this. How could he keep going when he knew she was still out there, but he would never see her again? That she was David’s fucking Pet. How did anyone keep going?

He was finally at the exit, and he eased his car out of the traffic, hitting thirty for the first time in over an hour and a half as he drove down the ramp and pulled into the restaurant. He liked Bob Evans; the food was decent and cheap, and their banana bread kicked ass. And he loved eating breakfast for dinner, too; he’d never ordered from the actual dinner menu in all the times he’d stopped at one of these places.

He pulled the car into a stall and got out, pausing to stretch after being stuck for such a long time. Walking into the restaurant, he saw the bakery displays. Banana bread. He’d always loved the stuff. Maybe he’d even buy a loaf and bring it home. Hell, maybe he’d buy two.

Marcus sat down and ordered a cup of coffee, black, while perusing the menu. He had just decided on an egg skillet when the waiter came back. He looked up. The waiter was a blonde boy, about Sara’s age, he guessed: good looking if a bit girlish in build. His name tag said his name was Hunter.

“Have you decided what you’d like?” the boy asked, pen poised over the pad in his hand.

“Yes, I—”

For the first time, his eyes met the boy’s. That’s all it took. Marcus forgot all about his dinner, all about the traffic jam outside, all about everything except Hunter’s deep blue eyes. He felt his mind grow fuzzy for a moment, and he watched as something similar crossed the boy’s face. Those eyes...they were stunning. And all Marcus could think was that he needed to possess them.

The boy had stopped everything at the moment of the Bond. He didn’t seem to know what to do at all, but that was OK because, somehow, Marcus did.

“Sit down,” he told the boy, and the boy immediately sat, not across the booth from Marcus but right next to him.

“Wh...what’s happening?” asked the boy, his eyes never leaving Marcus’s for even a second.

Marcus smiled. “I believe we’ve bonded.” He reached out and gently stroked the boy’s face with his fingertips, allowing only the merest touch, but Hunter’s eyes immediately turned up, and the boy let out a soft moan. It felt gloriously vivid to Marcus as well, and he continued stroking while he explained.

“You belong to me now, Hunter. But don’t worry: every instinct in my body suddenly wants to take care of you. You’ll be safe with me.”

Hunter smiled. “I know,” he said.

Marcus stared into his Pet’s eyes, wanting nothing more than to gaze upon them forever. But there were some things that needed to be done. He tried to remember them all. Registration. But it was after 8:00; the offices would be closed. He’d have to wait until the morning. What about equipment? He had nothing in his condo that was right for a Pet; he’d need to buy things. And from what he’d read, the very first thing he had to buy was a package of diapers; Pets did not maintain their bladder control for long after the Bond. It was one of the most curious aspects of the whole thing, that and the other odd body changes that they went through.

“My name is Marcus.”

“Marcus,” the boy repeated. “Do I call you that?”

“For now, anyway,” Marcus said with a grin. “We’ll see about later. Meanwhile, we have things to attend to.”

There was no way he could let this boy out of his sight. It had only been maybe five minutes, but he felt that losing Hunter would hurt as much as losing Sara. It was insane, but that’s how it was.

“What about work?” Hunter asked.

Marcus shook his head softly. “You won’t need to worry about that anymore,” he said. “Where did you live before now?”

The boy was unfazed by the phrasing. “In a dorm at the University.”

“You won’t need to worry about those things, either.”

The boy nodded. “I don’t need them,” he said. “I just need you.” He allowed his head to nuzzle into Marcus’s neck. “Please...take me home.”

They sat there like that for a few moments until a couple at the next table interrupted them. “Excuse me, Waiter? We’d like a check if you’re not too busy with your boyfriend.”

Marcus felt steam rising to his face. He turned harshly to the man who had made the comment, every protective instinct in his body on High Alert. “Any issues you might have with my Pet, you take up with me.”

“Pet?” the man asked.

“That’s right,” Marcus said. “Now find another waiter or waitress to get you your bloody check.”

He guided Hunter out of the booth, dropped the boy's apron on the table and, standing, took him by the hand. The couple continued to stare at them, but Marcus didn’t care. Only the frightened look in his Pet’s eyes made him do anything at all, and what he did was gently scritch the boy on the neck, whispering, “It’s all right, boy. They can’t hurt you.”

He led Hunter past the couple and out to the register. Turning to the hostess, he said, “Hunter is going now, and he will not be back.”

“All night?” asked the girl.

“Ever,” said Marcus, and he turned and walked Hunter out into the night. He didn’t know how quickly their bones got brittle, though he’d read it happened as they lost body mass. It was one reason Keepers could pick them up so easily, but he didn’t think it could possibly happen instantly, so he wasn’t worried about buckling the boy into the back seat of his car.

“We’ll get you a carrier,” he said, “but not tonight. Tonight, we’re not going far.”

Marcus drove across the parking lot and pulled up to the Holiday Inn Express office. “Now I’m just going to run in,” he said. “I won’t be long.”

Hunter whimpered. “Don’t leave me, Marcus. Please!”

Marcus smiled. “You have nothing to worry about. I just need to get us a room, and I don’t really know if this place is Pet-friendly. I’d rather not take the chance.”

“But—,” the boy began.

“But nothing,” said Marcus in a clipped tone. “I’m the one who decides things here. Unless you think differently?”

The boy shook his head vigorously. “No. I’ll wait.”

As Marcus left, he could feel the boy’s eyes on him the whole way into the registration office. Fortunately, the hotel did have rooms available, and it took no time at all to rent one. When he was through, he rejoined his Pet in the car.

“We’re going to need to go through the lobby,” he said. “Do you think you can do that without holding onto me? I think it might be better not to advertise our relationship to the staff.”Clearly, Hunter didn’t want to, but the boy nodded his head and followed Marcus through the lobby to the elevators that took them to the fourth floor. As soon as they were in the room, Marcus led him to the bed and started removing his clothes. When he had the boy down to just his boxers, he examined his property. The boy was beautiful. Marcus had never had a gay thought in his nearly thirty years of life, but at this moment all he wanted was this boy, and he knew somehow that this was all he would ever want.“T

He reached out and ran his fingers through Hunter’s hair, and the boy gave out a soft whine and reached back to place a hand on Marcus’s upper arm. A shiver rocketed through Marcus at the touch, and he suddenly wanted nothing more than to take the boy into his arms, but he held back. Something inside told him that he needed to make certain that Hunter understood what was happening, that a moment of mad passion without ground rules might potentially jeopardize everything. So reluctantly he pulled back and simply looked at his beautiful Pet.

After a moment, he spoke. “What are you feeling?” he asked.

The boy didn’t hesitate. “Safe.”

A smile slid across Marcus’s face, but he maintained his focus. “You understand that you are now mine? That your old life is over forever? And that nothing in this world will harm you as long as I’m around?”

Hunter nodded. He was totally guileless, totally innocent, totally his, and Marcus found himself growing hard, but he had to ignore his own needs in order to set this up properly. He fought through his emotions.

“Do you understand that your body will change? That Pets are fundamentally different from humans?”

The boy’s eyes dropped for a moment. “I...feel something different, yes, but I know so little about this. How will I change?”

“Are you feeling warm?”

“Yes.” And he reached out his hand once again to Marcus, who gently guided it back down.

That’s not the heat of the moment, Honey. Or not just that anyway. That’s your body going through the Change. It happens after you’ve bonded; that’s why I stripped your clothing so quickly. Not just to be able to look at your lovely skin and frame, but because I knew you’d start getting uncomfortably hot in any kind of clothing. But now there is something else I must do, and you’re going to have to be a very good boy while I do it.”

“I will. I promise.”

“Good. Then you need to stay here and be quiet and calm while I run to the Walgreens across the street.”

Hunter’s face grew frightened. “N...no, don’t leave me. Please!”

Marcus grew warm at the boy’s desperation. He wanted him more than ever, but he had to do this. “I have to, Hunter. And you are going to be good. I’ll only be a few minutes. But there is something I need to get right away. Now I want you to curl up right here on the floor and just wait. Can you do that?”

He hated telling the boy not to use the bed, but he needed to understand that beds were for humans, not Pets, at least not unless they were doing something together. Hunter’s face betrayed his surprise at the command, but he lowered himself to the floor and curled up.

“Good boy!” Marcus said. “Here’s a pillow to make it more comfortable. Now I’ll be right back, and if I find that you’ve attracted any attention I’m going to be cross. Understand?”

The boy nodded, and Marcus left the room.

Walgreens only had one pretty generic kind of Pet diaper, but beggars can’t be choosers so Marcus bought two bags and was back in twenty minutes. He wasn’t quite sure what he expected to find, but what he did find was Hunter, still curled up on the floor, sound asleep. He was completely adorable; Marcus’s heart melted. The Change was exhausting on a Pet’s body; he had read that. It happened so quickly—in just weeks the boy would lose several inches in height and become so light that Marcus could pick him up. The calories that were being burned in the new Pet as he lay there sleeping were incredible to contemplate; no wonder he was tired.

Marcus gently went about diapering his charge, and Hunter hardly even stirred. At this point he was, for the first time in his life, grateful for Sara’s bedwetting. He’d helped get her into diapers for years, until she was old enough to do it herself, so he knew what he was doing.

Sara. Marcus suddenly realized that he had not even thought of her since the Bond. She’d faded into the background with everything else the second Hunter came into his life. Is that how it was going to be? His feelings for the boy grew by the second; would everything else in his life simply be overwhelmed by them? He shook his head: no, Keepers have jobs, have lives beyond their Pets. He knew that. But damn it was strong.

He sat on the floor next to Hunter and gently petted the boy’s head, running his fingers once more through the boy’s blonde hair. His eyes opened.

“M...Marcus?” His whole face brightened to see his Keeper. He stretched and arched himself toward him, and suddenly he stopped and looked down. “What...what am I wearing?”

Marcus smiled compassionately. “It’s a Pet diaper,” he said. “You’ve seen Pets wearing them, surely.”

Hunter looked confused for a moment. “But I don’t need diapers.”

“I’m afraid you do, dear boy. And that one won’t be dry for long: Pets have no control over their bladders. You’re already losing yours as we speak.”

Hunter’s face fell. “But—”

“No buts,” Marcus said sternly. “I know what is needed and what is best. You want to please me, right?”

The boy nodded, once again nuzzling his head into Marcus’s body. The warmth was amazing. Marcus had never felt anything like it: holding Hunter was like taking a hot shower, and as he relaxed into it he felt himself becoming hard again. His hand reached almost automatically down to the diaper and found Hunter equally aroused. He knew he was breathing heavily; both of them were. He quickly stripped off his shirt and pants, pulled the Pet onto his body and began rubbing his groin against Hunter’s diaper. God this feels fantastic. Hunter was so...alive. Marcus had been with several different women in his life, but it was nothing like this. Just touching Hunter made him inflamed, and as the two rolled on the floor together, hands running over each other in a frenzy, members grinding together beneath boxers and diaper, everything seemed to grow white hot. The world around them vanished; all that existed was Hunter, whose breathing was rushed and frantic, whose hands were all over him, whose groin was thrusting against his, whose body was writhing and whose lips were kissing his. Marcus had no desire for anything else in the world, and the world was growing smaller and smaller, tighter and tighter, until finally it exploded in orgasmic fire as he heard the boy cry out in intense, rapturous joy and he gave in to his own and the thrusting subsided and they lingered, holding each other, part of each other’s lives now irrevocably and forever.

As his breathing returned to normal, Marcus considered what had just happened. It was so very different from any sexual encounter he had ever had. He’d felt in complete control throughout the moment; he could have done anything at all to the boy and he knew Hunter would have allowed it. But he had had no desire to penetrate him, none at all. It was strange: Hunter was a Pet, not a person. He was property. His soft, warm touch was arousing and Marcus had wanted nothing more than to bring the boy to climax and then to come himself, but there had not been a fraction of an instant when he felt he was with another man. He was just outrageously turned on. What was it if not gay sex, though? Bestiality? Hunter’s breathing was normalizing and the boy’s head softly rested on Marcus’s shoulder. He had no word for this; he didn’t think anyone did. But the compulsion to have sex with the boy, to grind up against him even without removing that final layer of clothing, was impossible to stop. It was as if they both were animals. And the orgasm had been one of the best he’d ever had. He had read about the havoc the Bond could wreak with sexual stimulation, but he had never dreamed it could be this...amazing. If this is what Sara is doing, he thought, why should I feel bad for her?

He could tell by Hunter’s breathing that the boy had fallen back asleep, and he smiled. It would take a few weeks for the Change to be complete. He thought about FAFOP; maybe he’d even go to another meeting just to let them know what the experience was like. Maybe not. He couldn’t have understood when he was Unbound; how could they? In any event, there were suddenly many, many things that needed attending to. And he intended to enjoy every single one of them.

[Wannatripbaby]

Wow! I think that was definitely the best chapter yet! And that's coming from somebody who normally doesn't like M/M stories.

The anger in the first half was palpable and it only made the payoff with the Bond that much more sweet.

I know I was the only vocal proponent against continuing this after chapter 1, but now I'm very glad you decided to do it! ♡♡♡

[bbykimmy]

I LOVE THIS CHAPTER and I'm totally not interested in M/m.  Trip's analysis is right on.  It's entirely because of his frustrated anger in the first half that his epiphany is so sweet in the 2nd half.

The bonding is such an intense, visceral idea, these first few moments of "Owned at First Sight" - I love that FAFOP is basically an anthology of bonding stories.  I adore it.  It's not quite congruent with how I originally envisioned the history and acceptance of the bond, but it's really solid in its own right.

I want the Keeperverse to be like the Diaper Dimension, you can totally have these differences and deviations and still be a valid part of the universe.  I love it!

Chapter 1 is probably still my favorite, but chapter 2's premise is so incredibly enticing that I may want to make a story fueled by that concept myself!

[kerry]

1 hour ago, Wannatripbaby said:

Wow! I think that was definitely the best chapter yet! And that's coming from somebody who normally doesn't like M/M stories.

The anger in the first half was palpable and it only made the payoff with the Bond that much more sweet.

I know I was the only vocal proponent against continuing this after chapter 1, but now I'm very glad you decided to do it! ♡♡♡

Thanks, Trip! This was actually the first chapter in which I knew where I was going from the start; I think the story is coming easier. ?

1 hour ago, bbykimmy said:

I LOVE THIS CHAPTER and I'm totally not interested in M/m.  Trip's analysis is right on.  It's entirely because of his frustrated anger in the first half that his epiphany is so sweet in the 2nd half.

The bonding is such an intense, visceral idea, these first few moments of "Owned at First Sight" - I love that FAFOP is basically an anthology of bonding stories.  I adore it.  It's not quite congruent with how I originally envisioned the history and acceptance of the bond, but it's really solid in its own right.

I want the Keeperverse to be like the Diaper Dimension, you can totally have these differences and deviations and still be a valid part of the universe.  I love it!

Chapter 1 is probably still my favorite, but chapter 2's premise is so incredibly enticing that I may want to make a story fueled by that concept myself!

I'm so glad you like it, Kimmy. Since this is a universe created by you, it's important to me that you do. As I said earlier, I'm trying to see both individual stories and the greater picture of the way such a Bond would end up working; I don't necessarily do smut well, so I needed a different foothold in the verse. I have several more chapters, I think, before I run out of ideas, but there will be some recurrence of characters. ? And as to Chapter 2, I'd love to see what you come up with!