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"I've told you a thousand times already, Ben. You don't need to thank me for that!"

The grizzly bear chuckled softly as he stirred all the vegetables in the pan with a spatula. Behind him and sitting on a stool, a smiling zebra followed his every move with a mixture of admiration and embarrassment. Their kitchen was filled with sizzling sounds and delicious smells, and the heat was building up in the small room even though the bear had opened the window before. Our neighbors are going to be jealous, Ash thought, crossing their legs. They usually felt jealous too whenever they saw their roommate cooking, but the zebra had gotten used to it over time. Feeling competitive with a professional cook didn't look like such a good idea, in retrospective.

Besides, there were other things they were better at.

"It's not as if I was paying you," the bear said, turning to look at them. "So stop complaining! Besides I really like doing this for you."

"And I also enjoy helping you feel better, so there's no need for this!" Ash reminded him, raising an eyebrow. "Seriously. You don't need to cook for me."

"Okay. See it this way. I'm going to place a plate in front of you, and then you're free to eat if you want, or ignore it if you can," Ben offered, shrugging playfully. "Does that sound any better?"

"Oh, god, I don't know why I bother. You always do what you want!" the zebra complained, rolling their eyes. They weren't feeling annoyed, though - it was just that they hadn't expected the bear to be that excited or insistent about repaying a favor. It was kind of cute, in its own way, and Ash knew they'd never say no to the bear's cooking.

They didn't feel like they'd done that much, though.

Ben was studying to be a professional chef in one of the most prestigious cooking schools in the country. His classes used to take most of the day - from 8am to 3pm - and, according to the bear, they weren't precisely indulgent. At the same time, he had been training for his next judo tournament, which would have taken place in a few weeks, and even though that seemed like a long time for Ash, Ben and his coach had always seemed to act as if they were always running short on time. From 4pm to 7pm, Ben had been training every single day in order to get stronger and more agile. When he had arrived home after that, he still needed to study a lot of applied chemistry and other stuff that Ash had no idea about in order to pass his tests. Then, the grizzly bear would just cook something, eat it and go to bed.

And the next day, he'd go over the same routine, over and over. He could rest on Sundays, at least. Or, well, now he could rest every day.

But even then, the mere idea of having to make so much effort themself scared Ash. That was why when they had noticed the bear was struggling to keep up, the zebra had offered him a new way of relieving stress that they were familiar with: hypnosis.

Ash wasn't a professional, of course. In fact, they'd only learned the basics thanks to a thriving internet community that had accepted them in the past. The zebra's first induction had been a complete disaster, with the sub even getting angry after getting zero results. However, they'd gotten better over time and now they could easily plan a good session, either via text or voice-chat, or as they did now, face to face.

When he had first offered Ben that option, the bear had been a bit skeptic. Ash kind of believed everyone was, at least at some point. They had explained to him clearly that the process wasn't as ridiculous as the thing people usually saw on TV or in questionable performances, and that it was quite a natural thing that he didn't have to try if he didn't really feel like it. In the end, Ben had agreed, mostly because he was curious to see what would happen. They'd had a few very successful sessions, since the bear had proven to be kind of easily suggestible, and since then they'd been doing it now for a while. Both were getting used to it quickly. It hadn't been such a big deal for Ash, who had been mostly looking for a chance to try that in person, but it seemed Ben was really grateful - as the dinner he was cooking at that very moment proved.

Then, of course, the government had decreed confinement and the bear had been forced to forget about studying or practicing judo for a while. This had been a new source of stress for him and having so much free time every day wasn't something that Ben was used to, so they had looked for any excuse to have a session at night. It had been like that every other day.

Last time, Ash had tried a few things and they were curious to know if they had worked. But that would have to wait.

"Here," the bear said, once he placed the plate on the small table they both shared. He then put another plate for himself on the other side and sat down in front of the zebra. "Let's see if you can resist without eating it for too long."

Ash looked down, but even before they did, they could already feel their mouth salivating. Ben had asked the zebra about the vegetables they liked most the day before and then had gone out to buy groceries for the whole month, including Ash's list of favorites. The smell now that they had been carefully cooked by the grizzly bear's expert paw was simply too appealing to ignore it.

Even though they knew doing so meant betraying their former words, Ash picked up a slice of zucchini and slowly put it in their muzzle. Then, they ate more. And more. Ben looked at them, with a sly grin on his lips.

"I knew you'd love it," the bear said, chuckling, before beginning to eat, too.

"Honestly, if I didn't have a girlfriend already, I'd consider marrying you," the zebra said, still amazed at how delicious Ben's food was. They gave him a stern look. "You know I mean it."

"I know, I know! And I must say I've accepted way worse propositions," the bear informed them, with a teasing look.

"Oh, is that so?" Ash raised an eyebrow. "Well, well. I'll consider it for the future, then. But you'll have to cook a lot for me, so maybe you should think about it too."

"Oh, wait. Asking me, a chef, to cook? Yeah. I definitely have to think it through."

Ash chuckled.

The rest of their dinner went by calmly and both focused on their respective dishes, despite never ceasing their conversation. When, after a short while, the zebra ran out of food, they thought it had looked like a bigger ration before they started eating. They could have had the same food again and again, but unfortunately and even though Ben had served them a more than reasonable amount of food, there was none left.

"Aaaah, this was delicious," Ash said, with a satisfied sigh. "Thank you very much, Ben."

"You're welcome," the bear replied, standing up. He had also finished his food by now. "I already told you, I owe you one! And..."

"Oh, no, no!" the zebra interrupted him, guessing what he was about to do. "Let me wash the dishes, please. You've already done your part."

"You sure?" Ben asked.

Ash could tell the bear was asking just to be polite - he probably didn't want the zebra to do that for him, but at the same time, he was tired and had already spent a long time cooking.

"Yeah! Go to your room if you want," Ash answered, picking up the plates.

"Will you come by when you finish?"

The bear had tried to disguise his interest as mere curiosity, but Ash could see right through his words. They couldn't help but smile.

"Sure! Sure, I'll be with you once I'm done here."

"Cool! Thanks."

Even though they didn't want to look like they also wanted to have one of their sessions, Ash tried to wash the dishes as fast as they could. Their hooves went over the white ceramic frantically as they remembered the last time they'd been toying with the bear and then smiled to themself. Of course Ben wanted to have another session. Of course they also wanted to have that. It had been very obvious that both of them enjoyed that much more than they were willing to admit.

After a few minutes, the zebra placed all the plates in the dish rack and dried their hooves quickly. Then, they headed to the bear's room.

They found their roommate sitting on bed, checking his mobile phone for messages. Ash could tell there weren't many since, as soon as they entered the room, Ben looked up and gave him a warm smile.

"Oh, that was quick!" the bear observed. There was a hint of teasing in those words.

"I didn't have to wash too many things," they answered, shrugging. Then, they walked towards the bed and sat on its edge. "Apparently, you had already washed everything you used for cooking. You're so efficient."

"Oh, thanks!"

"Okay. So is there anything worrying you?" the zebra asked, tilting their head. It had been their customary line before all their sessions, despite how much the things have changed in the last weeks. Generally, when Ben wanted a session, it was for a reason.

"No! Well, I mean. It's not a big deal," the bear said, trying to play it cool as they placed his phone on the bedside table.

But there's something, Ash thought.

"You can tell me. You know that, right?"

"Yeah, but honestly, it's not something I should worry about," the bear answered, with a smile. Then, it faded from his face after a few seconds and he looked away. "I just feel like I haven't been doing enough these days. I mean, I know I have no obligations and that, and I have kept training, but still... Sometimes I feel like... like I'm wasting..."

"... like you're wasting your time?" Ash helped him.

"Mhm. I know! It's silly. I shouldn't feel like I'm supposed to do the same under these circumstances but... I can't help it. I guess I'm used to doing too much stuff and now I just can't get used to this, haha."

Ash gave the bear a long look. It didn't look like he found that situation funny, but instead, that laugh felt and sounded like a reflex action. The zebra could tell that Ben was actually more worried about being worried than the thing he was supposedly worried about, but even then, there wasn't much advice they could give him.

"I'm not sure what to tell you," they began. "You know that I think you should be less hard on yourself, but that's easier said than done."

"Yeah."

"Honestly, this seemed like one of those situations in which you'll either snap out of it by yourself or just wait until you forget this feeling for a while," the zebra said, shrugging. "So... my advice is that you should try to be... patient and let time do its thing? I know it's not very helpful though."

"Well, maybe not. But speaking about it already makes me feel better," the bear assured them, with a shy smile. "Thanks."

"You're welcome. In the meantime, I can help you think about other things. Or maybe not to think about anything at all. That is, if you want me to do that tonight, of course."

For a few seconds, it looked as if Ben was struggling between admitting openly that he'd love that or just agreeing half-heartedly. Ash knew that the bear had his pride and that it could be difficult to get past through it. It wasn't as if they hadn't done that before, though.

"Uh... Sure. Yeah! I'd love that," he finally said, widening his smile.

"Good! Well then, I guess you want me to help you feel nice and relaxed, don't you?" The bear nodded and Ash grinned. "That should be easy. You're already very experienced at this."

"Am I?" the bear asked, tilting his head. "I mean, what I remember from the last times is that you were making most of the effort. I just had to follow."

Ash placed one of his hooves on the Ben's knees and he blushed a bit. They could almost hear him gulp.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is that I like it a lot," the bear tried to explain, a bit flustered. "But I usually feel like I'm not doing much."

"Well, isn't that exactly the point?" Ash asked, with a friendly grin. "Besides, think of it this way. I give you some suggestions, put them in front of you, so to speak. Then you're free to follow or ignore them."

"That sounds familiar!" the bear noted, still blushing. He couldn't help but smile, though.

"Now. Want me to show you something interesting?"

It took Ben a few seconds to raise his eyes and look at the zebra. He could tell that wasn't an ordinary sentence. No, if he agreed to that, he'd be crossing the point of no return and their session would have started. He had no idea what Ash would do with him - he usually remembered most of it by the end of their sessions, though - but he knew that question, harmless at first glance, was going to be the beginning.

But he wanted that. He knew his sessions with Ash made him feel really good and he wanted to feel like that again. Forget about his obligations, about his worries and the whole situation everywhere and just focus on... whatever the zebra wanted him to focus.

"Sure," he said, giving them a sheepish smile. "Go ahead."

"Okay. Give me your right paw."

The bear didn't react immediately.

"What?" he asked, a bit confused.

"I said 'give me your right paw'" the zebra repeated, with a bit of a teasing tone. "Come on. I promise it won't hurt you."

"I know, but..." Ben began, but he couldn't finish the sentence.

Ash grew tired and grabbed his wrist, placing the bear's paw on his lap, fingertips facing the ceiling. Ben stared as his fist opened and close a few times, trying to see if something weird was happening already.

It wasn't.

"See? That wasn't so terrible. Was it?"

"No," the bear admitted. He smiled nervously. "But I don't know where you're going with this."

"Oh, don't worry! You're about to find out. Look at this."

And just like that, the zebra pressed the center of his palm with one of his hooves, gently. They did it cautiously but firmly, as if expecting a reaction - just like they had pushed a button and were now waiting for it to trigger a mechanism. Ben opened his mouth to say something, but the words that came out of it made him even more confused:

"Hello! My name is Teddy."

The words floated in the silent room for an instant before vanishing completely. It took Ben a few seconds to process what he had just said and then he stared right at the zebra, confused.

"Whaaaaaat?" he asked, puzzled.

It looked as if Ash was making a huge effort not to show how much fun they were having.

"Well, I mean. You said that! Why are you asking me?" Ash asked, raising an eyebrow.

They're toying with me, Ben thought, a bit embarrassed. The idea wasn't completely unpleasant, though. Besides, the zebra was simply touching his paw. That wasn't too bad.

"Guess we can only try again," they said, grinning widely.

"No, wait-" But it was too late. "Hello! My name is Teddy."

This time it felt even more embarrassing. Simultaneously, though, it felt good.

"What is this, Ash?" Ben asked, looking away as his cheeks turned red again.

"You heard yourself. You said your name is Teddy," Ash explained, with the kind of tone that one would use to repeat something pretty obvious.

"But my name isn't Teddy," Ben replied. "My name is Ben."

"You sure?"

And then they pressed his paw again.

"Hello! My name is Teddy."

The grizzly bear gulped. He hadn't noticed the first two times, but now he could clearly see that he was repeating the sentence with exactly the same tone and rhythm. Almost as if it had been recorded at some point, as if there was an audio tape inside him and the zebra was playing it over and over.

It felt... weird.

"So what is your name again?" Ash asked. They looked curious.

"I... uh, Ben! I already told you," the bear replied, feeling slightly annoyed. Not in a terrible way, though. He actually enjoyed it when the zebra toyed with him like that, but he was beginning to wonder if that session was going to be about ridiculing him instead of helping him relax, which had been what he'd wanted from the beginning.

"Uh, I see." Ash caressed his wrist softly. It felt nice. "Give me your other paw, please."

Ben let out a soft growl, but decided that it was better to give it to the zebra anyway. Ash placed it on his left knee, similarly to what they'd done with the bear's right paw. Sitting like that, with his palms facing upwards on his lap, looked a bit like he was about to meditate, the bear thought.

"Good. Let's try this one." Ash pressed it, just like he'd pressed the other.

Again, Ben felt the words build up in his throat until they came out.

"Teddy is a happy bear," he said this time.

He could feel the warmth in his cheeks get even more intense and he even looked down in embarrassment. After a few seconds, the bear decided to look up and say something, but then Ash pressed his left paw again and he felt the same sentence escaping his mouth:

"Teddy is a happy bear. Hmm... Ash, what...?"

"Hmm. I don't know. It looks like Teddy is feeling happy right now," the zebra said, shrugging. They were still grinning.

"Oh, come on," the bear said. For some reason, he was smiling too. "Stop toying with- Hello! My name is Teddy. H-huh. Stop that!"

"Sorry! I thought you liked it," Ash said. For a second, it almost looked as if they were considering to stop there.

"I do," Ben admitted. For some reason, he was beginning to feel himself full of warm, happy feelings. That was weird, but at the same time, it felt good. And wasn't that why he'd asked the zebra for help to begin with? "I'm just a bit confused."

"Why?" the zebra asked, curiously. "It's not as if you're going to forget your name, right?"

"Of course not! I... I couldn't possibly forget that..." the bear objected, although he didn't seem to be feeling completely sure.

"Besides, if you forget about it..."

"Hello! My name is Teddy."

"... you just need to press your paw and then you'll remember." The zebra caressed his right wrist again and Teddy let out a soft growl.

Yes, that was beginning to feel exactly how he wanted it to feel.

"Mhm. I guess you're right," the bear said, still smiling. He really felt like smiling. A lot.

"Let me press somewhere else," Ash said, and even before the zebra moved his hoof to a different part of his body, the idea already sounded good.

The bear then felt a soft pressure on his stomach.

"Teddy has no worries," he recited, automatically.

His voice sounded kind of childish now that he thought about it - no, not childish, but the tone someone would use when talking to a child. At first, that struck him as odd, but Ash pressed his stomach again...

"Teddy has no worries."

... and then it just felt natural. A completely wholesome, warm, comfortable and natural reaction to having his stomach pressed. He'd said the words with the same tone once again, but was it even important? Probably not.

Gentle pressure on his left paw again.

"Teddy is a happy bear."

He was. He was a very happy bear. He could feel all those happy, pleasant feelings swirling around, fluttering their wings like butterflies inside his body, making everything nice and cozy. His smile was so wide that he could feel the slight tension in the muscles of his face - although it wasn't an uncomfortable thing, but the visual evidence of how good he was feeling, and in turn it only made him feel even better.

"You look so adorable right now," Ash said then. They were smiling, too.

Ash. For some reason, Teddy had forgotten about them, but maybe it was simply because he was feeling so happy and good and there was no need to worry about anything else.

"Hello! My name is Teddy," he said again. He hadn't felt the zebra pressing his right paw this time, but it was obvious that they had, or else Teddy wouldn't have said that. It was starting to feel automatic now.

"Such a dopey smile. Heh. Just like a big, cuddly stuffed bear."

Stuffed bear? Teddy tried to reach out to his intellect through all those warm, fuzzy feelings that kept him... so happy. A happy bear. No worries.

Stuffed bear. Yeah, that made perfect sense. Sometimes, stuffed bears could be pressed and then they said things. Nice things. Warm things. Stuffed bears had no worries or thoughts and they were always smiling and happy. It felt right that he was one, too. Was he? For some reason, even despite all the beautiful sensations tingling inside him, Teddy had a feeling that there was something wrong with that, like...

"Teddy has no worries."

... like, it only made sense that he was a stuffed bear. The same tone again in his sentences. The same wide smile covering his face. It all felt so, so good.

At that point, he could barely see the zebra in front of him. If he tried, he could, but it wasn as if his eyes and mind were simply too unbothered by whatever could be in front of him - he just didn't need to pay attention to it, he could just keep sinking into those good feelings and forget about the rest of the world.

He could feel the hoof gently tapping his shoulder, though. His eyes moved slowly to the face of the zebra in front of him - he wasn't even sure he could remember their name at that point - and watched him happily as they pressed his shoulder gently.

"Teddy is so light you can carry him around," he heard himself say.

And then he knew it was true. His whole body felt so light and fuzzy and warm. His fur had never been softer. There was a tingling feeling all over his body, as if a simple breeze of air could blow him away, or as if he was floating easily in the middle of some kind of calm, safe ocean. His body felt weightless, ready to be carried around by whoever wanted to do that, yet at the same time, Teddy knew he couldn't move a single muscle.

"Teddy is so light you can carry him around."

So light. But he needed to be carried around, there was no point in trying to move. He was a stuffed bear and stuffed bears didn't move, they just waited there, happy and thoughtless and soft and floaty. His mind didn't have to think those thoughts - in fact, Teddy couldn't probably think many thoughts at that point - but it simply knew. He was a stuffed bear. His mind didn't have to think...

There was a flash of black and white moving in front of his eyes. Someone was caressing his head softly and Teddy felt as if in other circumstances he might have let whoever that was know that he was enjoying that. But Teddy didn't talk unless they pressed his body, and he was smiling so much. The gentle caress moved down to his forehead and he couldn't see a thing, because there was nothing he wanted to see, or nothing he wanted to worry about. His thoughts were getting more and more scarce, and Teddy knew that his mind didn't need to notice them at all, because stuffed bears had no thoughts, they had no mind, and their head was full of...

A soft pressure in his forehead.

"Teddy's head is full of cotton."

Cotton. Cotton, cotton, cotton. Cotton... co... tton... cott...

* * *

Ash kept caressing the bear's head for a short while, before taking their hoof away.

They took a long look at their work, feeling slightly proud. The bear was smiling widely, completely absent. There was a blank look on his face and it didn't look as if he had a single worry left in his mind, or a single thought to think about. Where Ben had been sitting before, there was only a cute stuffed bear now, with a dopey smile and a completely lost mind. Gone.

The zebra chuckled softly, picked up one of his arms, and let it drop. The arm was heavier than the bear probably thought and felt it was, and it fell easily back to his lap, limp like a rag doll. There was no reaction. Just a little change in his stance - now one shoulder was slightly lower than the other, but he was leaning on the wall nice and comfortably, so Ash didn't think that would make him fall. And if he did, he would just remain like that, lying on the bed like a stuffed bear someone had left there. A very happy and fuzzy teddy bear.

"I hope you enjoy it, Teddy," the zebra said, petting his head. "I'll come back in a few hours and help you to sleep. But until then..."

They pressed the bear's stomach again.

"Teddy has no worries." His voice had a dreamy, drowsy cadence, but it was just the same tone as any other time he'd recited that sentence.

Ash chuckled. Adorable, they thought. Then, they stood up and walked out of the room, turning off the light and closing the door at their back.

In the bed, they left a smiling, motionless bear that had a few hours to enjoy - a few hours in which he could be truly, utterly happy.