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We're alone, finally.

Kodi pushed the door closed and grinned at Ray. The black wolf could guess from his friend's expression that he knew something had been in his mind for the last minutes. One of Ray's eyebrows rose slowly forming a questioning arch as Kodi felt the power building around his eyes like static electricity, getting ready to be unleashed as a pleasant glow that would soon take the shape of a deep, captivating spiral colored in yellow and orange.

The wolf simply had that skill. Whenever he wanted to subdue someone or make them do as he wanted, Kodi could turn his eyes into small mind-control machines. They were usually powerful enough to reduce his target's brain into a sticky puddle and erase those pesky thoughts if he wanted.

And that was exactly what he intended to do with Ray now that he'd finally cornered him in a room and there was nobody around to intervene. The wolf's lips curled into a big grin as he got ready to release all the energy from his eyes, Ray tilting his head with a disoriented look.

And he would have looked more and more disoriented had his phone not rung precisely at that moment.

"Hm - sorry. I... Huh. I should pick that up," the dog-deer said, giving him a nervous smile. "Can you give me a minute?"

Kodi stepped away. He'd involuntarily got closer to his friend than he'd intended to.

"Yeah! No problem. You can answer," he said, smiling reassuringly.

Ray nodded and left the room, already picking up.

"Yes? Yes, it was me that called earlier. Hm, right, about that..."

Kodi waited in the room as his romantic interest walked down the corridor, doing his best to be patient.

He'd been planning that night for ages. Now that he had a place for himself, he'd been thinking about inviting Ray over and... well, push a few buttons in his mind, so to speak, so that they'd end up having an unforgettable night - at least for Kodi, that was, the wolf was still considering whether he'd let Ray remember any of that.

He had this weird feeling that his friend had been flirting with him, but he wasn't sure if it was his own anticipation talking. In order to find out, he was going to put the dog-deer in a deep trance and maybe ask him, maybe jump straight into action. He hadn't decided that either. The only thing he knew was that his friend was sweet and attractive and that he would look even cuter while drooling his brains out. The rest? Well, it wasn't that important. He'd figure out what to do later.

"Yeah, sorry," the dog-deer apologized once the call ended. He came walking down the corridor, an embarrassed smile on his face. "You know how my phone company is driving me crazy, right?"

"Mhm," Kodi answered. Their unfinished business was still a considerable distraction in his head, so he couldn't blame himself for not paying too much attention.

"They called again, just to make sure I hadn't changed my mind. Can you believe them?"

"No, absolutely unbelievable," the wolf muttered, shaking his head. He took a step towards Ray as he felt his eyes charging again. "I have an idea - you should just stop worrying about t-"

"Guys!" someone called from the living room, interrupting Kodi mid-sentence. The wolf thought he recognized Yuri's high-pitched voice. "Xyln finished setting the board game!"

Kodi frowned, irritated.

"What!?" he asked, raising his voice. "He said we weren't going to play until later!"

"Yeah, well, we're bored!" Yuri complained. That was believable - Kodi knew the bluebird had a tendency to get bored easily. "And the music isn't working!"

"He's right, the music won't work!" This time it was Xyln's voice that came from the living room. "And I'm not good with technology, so..."

"Wasn't Dylan going to check how to make it work and then we'd play the game?" Kodi asked, slightly exasperated.

"I looked into it. This machine is dead," Dylan's deep voice came from the living room.

"See? It's not going to work!" Yuri said, in a similar tone.

"I figured we could play the game in the meantime!" Xyln shouted.

"Okay, okay! Gosh, guys, lower your voice," Kodi asked, running towards the living room as Ray chuckled at his back. "My neighbors aren't that patient, you know?"

"Yeah, you're right. Sorry about that," Xyln apologized from the table. The blue tiger was building a weird structure with paperboard that Kodi had never seen before. He was just placing the last piece on top of it right now. Was that part of the game?

"Well, it's Saturday," Yuri thought out loud, "so they have no reason to complain."

"As long as they want to, they can find a reason to complain," Dylan observed. The grizzly bear had been lying on his back, his head under one of Kodi's desks as he untangled some wires. "Y'know, dude, I'm afraid this stereo won't ever work again. I hope you didn't put all your hopes on it."

"Nah, don't worry," Kodi said, scratching the back of his head. "It came with the apartment anyway."

The only other guest who hadn't spoken yet was Tyke, a dragon friend of Kodi that mostly kept to himself unless asked. The wolf never had been as grateful for his quiet demeanor as he was right now.

In total, there were six people in his living room. When he'd first planned to invite Ray over he'd pictured them both being alone. But then, after being asked, Ray had asked what was the occasion so he'd had to make something up. The wolf had ended up saying he was planning a sleepover. Of course, that meant he had to buy alcohol and everything, invite some of his other friends. Kodi had trusted the stereo would work, but the fact that it wasn't wouldn't kill him. It was the least of his concerns right now.

The only reason he was there was to hypnotize Ray out of his mind and then _somehow_get some private time with him.

"Okay, we're ready to go," Xyln said, carefully placing the last piece of paperboard on top of the structure in the middle of the table. He was sticking his tongue as he did it, eyes lidded as he concentrated on the... now that Kodi focused on it, he could see it was some kind of building. "We can start playing if we want."

"I'm not familiar with the rules," Tyke mentioned, getting closer to look at the paperboard building.

Xyln grinned at him. Kodi had a theory that the blue tiger was either swooning over Dylan or Tyke - the bear who was big on technology or the serious, slightly imposing dragon. To be fair, he'd invited the three of them to see what would come out of them sleeping under the same roof. Plus, if the tiger made a move and decided to flirt with any of them, that would be two or three less people Kodi had to worry about.

"I can explain them to you if you want," the tiger said, dragging his chair closer to the dragon.

"Jeez! Xyln, noise!" Kodi asked, his fur standing on end.

"Yeah, yeah! I'm sorryyyy," the tiger apologized, lowering his voice.

However, the black wolf was actually pleased that Xyln would lose some precious time explaining the rules of that seemingly nonsensical game to Tyke - that way he could probably spend some of that time with Ray, making sure the dog-deer stared nice and deep into his...

"I'm going to help Yuri with the drinks," Ray intervened just then, shattering Kodi's hopes. "Erm, I haven't played that game either, but I don't want to intrude and Xyln seems... really into him. It. Whatever. Could you give me a summary of the rules later?"

"Uh. Sure," Kodi answered, trying not to let those minor setbacks distract him from his goal.

However, as he watched Ray follow the bluebird towards the kitchen, he realized he wasn't sure what to do without him there. Dylan was still toying with some of the equipment that had come with the flat, and Xyln kept on explaining the rules to Tyke.

"So, the ostrich egg is the best used offensively, right?" the dragon was asking right at that moment.

"Well, yeah! You can use it that way. It's a very interesting strategy!" The tiger chuckled, getting imperceptibly closer to the dragon. "But you see, if you combine it with the lawnmower over here..."

If being unable to approach Ray in private before the night ends doesn't drive me crazy, this game will, Kodi thought to himself, clasping his hands together and making a huge effort to be patient and memorize the weird rules. They were so absurd he thought Xyln might be making them up, if it weren't for the fact that the tiger had a tendency to get very competitive when it came to board games.

Ray and Yuri walked back into the living room a few minutes later, carrying a few glasses with them. Kodi wanted to sit next to Ray, but the bluebird took that seat before he could, and Tyke was sitting on the dog-deer's other side. Oh well, he thought, a bit disillusioned. I'm guessing we've reached that point where things can't get any worse.

"So how long will we be playing this?" Yuri asked, taking a sharp look at one of the instruction booklets.

"Uh, a regular game is two hours," Xyln explained. "But, depending on how we play, it can be as short as one hour or as long as three."

Three hours??

"Shit, that's a lot more than I expected," Dylan admitted, sitting down next to Kodi. "So when are we going to watch the film?"

Film???

"I mean, it's a long night," Ray said, shrugging. "Game, film. There'll be time for everything, right?"

Ray sounded way more hopeful than Kodi was feeling.

"We have to throw the dice first," Xyln intervened, "and see who's the first to get a nineteen."

"A nineteen? Why a nineteen?"

"Well, you see. The first to get out of the prison gets the chocolate boulder, and..."

Kodi didn't pay attention to the explanation. His mind was still focusing on the fact that three hours of game plus a two-hour film was a lot of time. A lot of time that'd most likely eat their night.

When was he supposed to find time to hang out with Ray? Inviting the others had been a really bad idea. Next time he needed an excuse, he'd have to come up with something different other than...

"You okay, Kodi?" Ray asked.

The wolf was brought back to reality. One of his lower eyelids felt like it had been twitching almost imperceptibly. In any event, the dog-deer must have realized he was slowly losing his sanity and that, for the last few days, he'd had something in mind.

And in his eyes. Kodi could feel the hardly-restrained power building again. Asking - almost compelling him to do something he hadn't anticipated, but that would get him out of that situation once and for all. And he could hear that little voice in his head, telling him exactly what he had to do. After all, he wanted to be left alone with Ray, right? If that wasn't an option, he could always...

"Kodi?" Tyke asking, tilting his head.

He was the first one to go.

Kodi let the tingling sensation on his eyes grow stronger as the hypnotic power spread all over his irises in the shape of yellow and orange concentric circles. The dragon just stared at the display, eyes glued to the wolf's gaze as if it had suddenly got magnetized to his friend's head. The rest watched in awe as Tyke's jaw unclenched and hung open, shoulders sinking as his eyes mirrored the concentric circles for a few seconds before his body collapsed on the table.

The cardboard building dropped just at the same time, its precarious balance shattered.

"W-what..." Yuri mumbled before those eyes were turned in his direction.

The bluebird dropped like a feather - slowly but nicely - his limbs releasing the built-up tension as if it was melting, his beak opening slowly as those eyes closed, his body slouching on the chair.

Dylan had been trying to stand up, but after catching a glimpse of those eyes his body felt soggier than he could have anticipated. His hands slipped on the arms of the chair as Kodi's gaze turned towards him and channeled the overwhelming impulse to sleep into his already captive brain. The bear only let out a soft gasp as one of his eyes closed groggily. The other followed soon enough and Dylan slouched to his right side, loose like a rubber band.

Xyln watched the whole thing play out in front of him with a slightly shy smile.

"Oh," he mumbled, right before Kodi's eager gaze turned towards him. "So it's a different game we're playing..."

He couldn't say much other than that before Kodi reached for the threads that kept his mind functioning and cut them one by one.

Ray was the only one left. Kodi turned to the dog-deer, who looked just as surprised as the rest of his friends before they had been plunged into the depths of a mindless trance. Their eyes locked and the concentric circles began to appear on Ray's eyes as his body relaxed more and more, veeeeery slowly. It had been a long time coming, so Kodi wanted to enjoy the whole process. The wolf began by untangling those pesky knots that kept Ray's consciousness afloat, then guided him down firmly with a strong paw. The dog-deer's head began to swing in small circles as the tension in his neck melted down.

Just like a deer in front of an approaching car, Ray remained motionless as his eyes filled with light. Then, as the last sparkle of intelligence got lost into the growing yellow-orange circles, Kodi could see something formed... a not-so-distant memory, perhaps, or one last breath of that drowsy, almost defeated conscience.

It would soon sink down into the abyss, like the rest of Ray. But it was there for a second and then...

We're alone, finally.

The dog-deer made his best to smile innocently as the wolf in front of him closed the door at his back and looked into his eyes with a big grin. He's been waiting for this, too, was all that he could think before those eyes lit up like twin suns. He'd been expecting Kodi to do something like that for a while now - he knew the wolf was into him and there was nothing he would love more than letting him use those powers of his on him.

Ray was... curious. He wanted to know how that zoning out, white-noise feeling was like when it intensified. So when Kodi had invited him over, he'd simply said 'yes' and waited for him to make an approach. However, he had to admit said approach had been... clumsier than he'd expected.

Why had the wolf invited some other people to his house, Ray had no idea. Perhaps he wasn't the only mark the wolf had in mind. Maybe the wolf, just like Ray, wanted to find out whether Xyln would flirt with Dylan or Tyke given the occasion.

But he didn't care - he'd been fantasizing about those eyes for too long now. He wanted to let them wash everything away. Thoughts, worries, identity. Even if it was just for a while, he wanted to know how not being in charge felt like.

His phone rang right at that moment.Shit, he thought to himself. He considered not picking up for a second, but he knew he would regret it later.

"Hm - sorry. I... Huh. I should pick that up," he said, building his best nervous smile as the pleasant lightheaded feeling faded out. He was actually excited about the whole ordeal, but it looked like they weren't going to get a simple private moment. "Can you give me a minute?"

It wasn't such a good memory, but it was there for a second.

And then he was back in that table. The rest of his friends had already drifted off into that powerful gaze, completely subdued into a peaceful state of... Ray didn't know how it felt, but he wanted to know. His eyes were staring, motionless, and his whole body felt like it was wrapped in a hot towel.

Kodi chuckled softly.

The big wolf stood up and walked slowly around the table. As he moved past his friends, he placed a paw on their shoulders, making sure they'd sink even deeper into their mindless sleep. Finally, he stood right next to Ray. He grabbed the chair by its arms and made it turn so that the dog-deer turned his back to his other friends. They seemed to disappear in the back of his mind, and the feeling only got more intense as the wolf placed a claw on his chin and forced him to stare up into his deep, hypnotic gaze.

Ray felt his brain unraveling and he moaned weakly. Finally, was all he could think.

"Finally", Kodi echoed.

The overwhelming glow intensified and Ray blacked out.