Varnish
By Limewah
Featuring RobinHypnotized and QButFurry

“…the last time that happened I…”
“… so good, I was losing my shit…”
“… salad, please? …. About you, Robin?”

The pink-haired deer realised he’d been slumping to the side, and immediately shot back upright.
“Huh? Yeah, uh… sorry…”
He was miles away. Where was he again?
He glanced around. The little restaurant didn’t have a ton of floor space; in fact, it felt a bit like a sitting room, with rugs on the floors, portraits and paintings on the walls, and lots of bric-a-brac. Even the wooden chairs they were sitting in felt like something out of a granny’s flat. It was pretty cosy… the sort of place where you could get away with nodding off in.
Yes, that’s right. Leem recommended this place to Robin and his boyfriend, Q. 

Q, a fluffy-tan furred lynx with a shock of messy orange hair, had his deep blue stare aimed lazily towards Robin. Meanwhile, Leem, a red panda with chestnut hair tied back in a tight bun, was quickly checking something on their phone, the glint of the screen shining off their round glasses and obscuring their own blue irises.
Robin looked down at the laminated menu in front of him for the first time.
“Uhm… I’ll have, uh…” he scanned through it until he saw something familiar, that he knew he’d probably like. “A portobello burger! Yeah!”
He sheepishly handed his menu to the smiling waiter, slightly worried that he’d come off as a dickhead or that he was wasting their time. The chipmunk didn’t seem to care - they just nodded and headed off towards the kitchen.

Robin had been spaced out for at least the last ten minutes since arriving, and couldn’t quite remember why. Q and Leem didn’t seem to have noticed. 
“So, yeah,” Q said. “I was thinking of taking Robin there…”
“Mm. Mm.” Leem, nodded along. “It’s… fine? I wouldn’t have paid full price for it, but it was a good time. Maybe I’ll see if my friend can give yis a discount too.”
“I mean, I think it’d be up our alley, right?”
Q looked at Robin, who nodded quickly.
“Uh-huh, yeah, totally…”
Robin was too embarrassed to ask what the conversation was about, and tried to listen intently and get up to speed.
But then Leem took hold of their glass of water and brought it to their lips, and Robin’s eyes alighted on…

Those claws.
Each one of the red panda’s claws was tipped with a coat of bright varnish, each one alternating between shimmering gold and glittery purple. They caught the sunlight through the window, bounced off the droplets of condensation on the ice-chilled cup, and the voices of the other two fell into obscurity again.

The nails…
They accentuated every little movement and hand gesture Leem made as they shot the shit with Q - and, presumably, Robin too. Robin couldn’t focus on Leem’s words. All of his attention was on each individual claw on each individual digit. Sometimes Robin looked down at the table, where Leem’s right hand was unconsciously eviscerating a red paper napkin. Then Leem would wave their left hand in a little circle while trying to figure out how to word something. 
The dance was… entrancing was the only word for it.

The varnish…
Did Leem know what they were doing? Were they trying to trance him on the down low?
Robin wouldn’t put it past Leem; he knew the kind of hypnotist they were. But the panda seemed perfectly absorbed in chats with the lynx, giving a little glance to Robin now and then, but only to include Robin in the conversation.

Not that there was any chance of that happening. His thoughts were slowly getting wound around Leem’s fingers - whether the panda was aware of it or not.
“Ah, crap… this place doesn’t take card?” Q sighed. “I didn’t realise… Is there an ATM nearby…?”
“There’s one like a five minute walk away,” Leem said, “But lemme get this one!”

Their wallet was already out, cradled in those soft, sparkle-clawed paws. Robin was magnetised to them all over again - it took all his effort not to look at them, to focus right on Leem’s face
“Don’t worry about it!” Q patted Robin on the shoulder. “I’ll be just a second.”
“Y-yeah, cool,” Robin croaked, looking down at his barely-touched plate of food. The burger was lukewarm at this point - not ideal for a mushroom. Could he ask to have it reheated? Would that be a bit much?
…Who was he kidding, trying to distract himself by focusing on his burger.
He was still thinking about Leem’s nails. His mind was full of purple and gold, and he couldn’t stop thinking about all the ways those varnished claws could dance through his mind…

“You like my nails?” Leem asked. Their head was resting on their left hand, and their nails were resting just in front of their smile, almost pushing past their lips.
“Hn? Yeah, yeah they’re great,” Robin sputtered.
“Mmhm. Do you ever paint your nails?”
“Not as often as I’d like,” Robin said, sheepishly. “I’m a little bit afraid to…”
“Just say ‘fuck it’, just go for it,” the panda said breezily. Their fingers slipped underneath their chin and were hidden from sight… but their right paw was still visible. Leem was tapping the claws of their right hand on the table - index to pinky, and back again. 
It was rhythmic and even, rolling back and forth like a newton’s cradle.
It could have been a nervous, unconscious tic. But it didn’t matter whether it was deliberate or not…
Robin couldn’t stop looking. 
His gaze kept sliding down from Leem’s face, towards the tapping, glittering clawtips. They were quite, the way panda claws tended to be, but there was still a danger about them, something that tapped in to Robin’s old prey instincts and made him watch and wait for them to pounce.

 “I was a little afraid of leaving the house wearing them… like, I was worried people might stare at me. But when I started getting lots of compliments, I realised people were staring because it looked good. My nails caught their eye, and it made them want to tell me how pretty they are.”
“Uh-huh…” Robin nodded. His eyes still bounced down to the nails, up to the face, down again.
The red panda lifted their other hand, and curled in their fingers to squint at the paint.
“I also found that I was way more conscious of my hands too. I’d focus on them, I’d keep wanting to stare at them out of the corner of my eye, or just watch how they catch the light.”
Leem was swaying and revolving their wrist to accentuate the point - the back of their hand turned towards Robin’s face, and the purple and gold flittered and flicked with their wiggling fingers.
It was easier for Robin to pretend he was listening now, with those nails at eye level. Easier to look away just enough to watch how the bright colours danced and complemented each other, but still close enough to Leem’s eyes that Robin could pretend to be making regular contact with them.

“That’s why you’ve been staring at them so intently.” Leem giggled. “You’re losing track again, huh?”
“Huh, no I wasn’t…” Robin shook his head.
“Well, what did I just say?” Leem was stroking the purple-tipped claw of their thumb up and down along their fingers. 
“Uhm… you said…” The deer kept trailing off, his train of thought vanishing.
“I didn’t say anything,” Leem giggled. “I’ve just been wiggling my fingers in front of your face for the last 30 seconds, and you’ve been following along so well. Q and I thought you were pretty quiet… that’s why he made up the excuse to step away, let me do my thing. We discussed it right in front of you, and you didn’t bat an eyelid.”

“Huh…?” Robin shook his head slowly. That didn’t sound right… but Leem’s nails trailed and traced through the air, and unravelled his attempts to remember.
He could feel something warm and wet on his chin. His faint awareness that he was drooling was wiped away by another twist and twirl of the painted claws.

“We made a bet that by the time Q gets back you’re going to be nice and tranced out.”
“Wha…?” Robin tried to go back in time in his mind again, but was pulled right back to the present, his head and shoulders now joining with those seemingly random but graceful finger-movements.
“And I think I’m gonna win…”
Leem’s grinning face was growing fuzzier and fuzzier. Their claws remained in pin sharp focus. Their index finger was pointed directly at the deer’s face, flashing their head-light luster into his eyes. It slowly moved up and down, as if playing with a lightswitch, and Robin followed. His snout was downturned, but his eyes remained fixated, glassy, reflecting the sparkles. 
The closer the finger got, the more his eyes crossed, the more he strained, the more his eyelids fluttered. The finger traced a little circle, and Robin followed only with his eyes; the rest of him was too heavy to even move.

“The thing is… these fingers are so fascinating to you, so dazzling, that you’d probably keep your eyes open and on them, even… when… you…”
Leem’s thumb and middle finger slipped in to join the index, only for a moment. Robin’s world slowed to a crawl. The next half second stretched out to a full ten seconds of anticipation, waiting for the familiar sound, waiting for the pleasurable drop.
The fingers pushed together, one last glint of purple and gold…
“Sink.”
Robin grunted, lolling back in the cafe seat as his chin touched his chest. But his eyes remained open, only just. Leem’s red hand had come forward, stroking his chin to lift it up, before sweeping the nails upwards in front of his eyes - purple, gold, purple, gold, purple. Robin shuddered with pleasure, unable to stifle his moans.

Leem’s left hand was stroking along Robin’s cheek, snapping to accentuate all the important words.
“And you still stare, even though you’re still Sinking, and the pleasure of staring makes you Sink deeper, and it feels so… very… good.”
Robin giggled like a drunkard. He was only faintly aware that he was dropping in public. He didn’t feel mortified. He felt exhilarated. He kept dropping further, somehow fractionating even though he hadn’t even come up for a moment of lucidity. 
He was infatuated, impossibly so, with the colourful sparkles.
A familiar golden-brown smear slipped into view before sliding in next to him. Warm fur, a familiar scent washed over him. 
“You got him good, huh?” That was Q…
“Yep!” Leem growled a low mischievous chuckle. “That means I win, that means I’m paying.”
“Fine… you’re pretty stubborn, huh.”
“Hey, it makes me a good hypnotist.”

Q’s lips were at Robin’s ear - the ear that was not bracing for another snap, anyway.
“Good deer. Deep deer. You did such a good job at dropping… even if you made me lose my bet. We should pick out some polish for my nails too, shouldn’t we?”
“Yeah…” Robin giggled. Pink and blue flashed in his mind, and he felt those colours join in with the purple and gold.
“Looks like we’re going on a little shopping trip after this, huh?” Leem said brightly. “What do you say, Robin?”
Robin couldn’t even manage a ‘yeah’. His mind was full of spinning, glimmering claw-tips, and little else.
He needed help to get up once they’d paid. More specifically… he followed Leem’s beckoning claws, lead along like a puppet on a string. It’d take a bit of fresh air before he was able to move on his own accord. 
And even that bit of lucidity wouldn’t last very long.