Ari giggles, lifting his arms over his head to give Tintin better access.

"Oh, ruin my fun."

"What, it's no fun if I like it?"

"It just seems - situationally inappropriate! This was meant as retaliation."

"I'm impossible to punish. You'll have to bite the bullet and decide whether to tickle me or not on its own merits."

Hmm.

Hmmmm.

Tickling it is, then.

Ari laughs until he's breathless.

Eventually, Tintin relents. "You are very good."

"You're wonderful," Ari giggles. "Let's get you therapized so I can do unspeakable things to you."

Blush. Tintin leads him back out into the therapist's office.

     "So, you've made your decision?" the therapist asks.

Tintin nods. "I want your help. The easy way."

     She smiles. "Excellent. My name is Doctor Seralis, by the way. Have you ever melded before?"

"No."

     "Are you familiar with the process?"

"Not particularly."

"Not at all," Ari adds.

     "Well, I'll touch Mr. Saint-Martin's face, and then my eyes will go black, and I'll say a trigger phrase, and then we'll both be unresponsive to outside input for a few minutes. If the meld lasts for an hour or more, which it almost certainly won't, you should get a Rod of Break Enchantment from the room console and tap us both."

"...that'll break a neural uplink?"

     "It'll break a lot of things."

Ari nods. "Understood."

     "Alright. Ready, Valentin?"

"Ready."

     Dr. Seralis glows blue, rises into the air a few inches, and grips Tintin's face in both hands. "Embrace Eternity!" she gasps as her eyes blacken. Tintin's eyes roll back in his head as the biotic field envelops him as well.

There they float.

Well, that's... disturbing.

Ari will request a magazine from the console and read until they emerge.

It takes about fifteen minutes. Then they float gently down to the floor, and Tintin blinks rapidly, returning to himself.

"Thank you," he says fervently to Dr. Seralis.

     She waves him off. "My pleasure. Really. I wouldn't do this if I didn't like helping people."

He nods, then turns to Ari. "Now, if you don't mind I'd like you to take me back to your room and fuck me until I can't walk."

Ari blinks.

"Just like that? No reservations at all? That's a big change."

"Not as much as you might think. I'm... usually very forthright, really. It was just this one thing that I couldn't handle. Riela helped me realize that it isn't that different from other things. That I can be - not casual, but reasonable about it. Instead of not allowing myself to think about it at all. And I already wanted to have sex with you, I just didn't want to say it out loud because that would make it too real."

"...Sounds like a very edifying fifteen minutes."

"Lord, it was only fifteen minutes?"

     "You knew you were experiencing dilated time," Dr. Seralis says.

"Didn't know by how much. It felt like hours. Kind of a vision quest."

"Well. You've made a request, and I'm happy to cooperate. Did you want to - go back into dom-sub mode, or just fuck as equals? I admit I kind of liked you trembling and flustered, but if that was just your anxiety..."

"No, no, I liked it too - let me see if I can tap back into it -"

He shrinks in on himself a bit, and his eyes soften. "Please?" he says quietly.

"Excellent," Ari says. He hooks his finger back into Tintin's belt loop. "Thank you, doctor; we'll be going now."

     "You boys have fun," she says serenely.

Ari pulls Tintin out of the office, breaking into a loping stride that Tintin can barely keep up with.

And Tintin follows, stumbling along, hard and dripping.

This time, they're not interrupted on their way to Ari's room. He thumbs the keypad and drags Tintin inside.

"Now, what do you want?" he asks.