“Hello?” “Hey, Viper, it’s Chris. I’m at the front door, I tried ringing the doorbell but there was no answer.” “…FUCK! I got sidetracked whilst errand running, I’m so sorry. Listen, the door’s unlocked, feel free to let yourself in and make yourself at home. I’m gonna be another 30 minutes or so at least so please don’t wait outside for me.” “Ooooh right. Hey, don’t worry about it these things happen, I’m just really glad you left the door unlocked now, hah. I’ll let myself in then, let me know when you’re almost here OK?” “Absolutely will do, I promise I’ll be as quick as I can! Oh also feel free to go in any room you want, I know you haven’t seen the new place yet and I’ve got nothing to hide, haha. See you soon!” “Wait wha-“ Before Chris even had a chance to respond his dragoness friend had hung up on him. He thought it odd that she ended on such an open invitation to basically do a forensic investigation of her new home but he just shrugged it off and opened the door to let himself in. He was greeted by a very friendly and warm decor, with an unsurprisingly large amount of purples strewn into the general colour scheme. Chris chuckled, remembering Viper’s fondness for the colour and though it not being his favourite colour himself, still admiring the stylisation of her new place. At first, Chris thought he’d prefer not to be nosy and decided to make his way into the living room and sprawl out on the sofa. The sofa was extremely comfortable to lie on and the gatox at first felt like he could have spent a whole hour there. However, after a few minutes Viper’s words came ringing back in his mind about having a look around. He thought to himself it would be extremely unlikely the dragoness would say something like that flippantly. Maybe she actually wanted him to find something? Curiosity now creating a scratch that had to be itched, Chris somewhat reluctantly lifted himself from the comfy sofa and gave himself a tour of the new place. There wasn’t much downstairs other than the kitchen, the hallway and the living room so Chris decided to go upstairs and have a look there. He made his way to the top of the stairs and as he was about to go down the upper hall towards the bedrooms, he noticed a door that looked very out of place compared to the rest. The door was painted in a lot more of a pastel shade than the rest of the place, coloured a pale red and adorned with a big plushy star hanging in the centre. Chris looked over the door and found it very odd. He knew Viper was usually a big fan of consistent theming generally speaking, so to see this door sticking out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the decor of the place caused more than a few raised eyebrows from the gatox. Could this have been what she wanted him to find? Figuring it wouldn’t hurt to investigate further, he grabbed the handle of the pastel red door and turned it to open it. If he thought the door looked out of place compared to the rest of the home, the room itself might as well have been on a different continent. Gone were all the purples and elegant tones present, instead replaced with warm pastel colours. The room was mostly painted in light cream with soft blues and reds as accents. Instead of the hardwood flooring of the rest of the apartment the whole floor was covered in soft plush carpet, with many large pillows, plushies and soft cosy blankets strewn all over the floor and resting up against the walls. “I see what she’s done here, it’s a cosy relaxation room. Aw, how sweet~” the gatox thought to himself, smiling and already relaxing slightly, absorbing some of the cosy atmosphere of the room. Just as he was about to set himself down and test the comfort of some nearby pillows, something caught his eye that almost made him jump. In one of the far corners of the room there was an absolutely huge plushie of what looked like a striped hyena, matching the colours of the room. It was mainly cream coloured, with a red and cream mane, pastel blue stripes and pawpaws and beige belly. The plushie’s eyes were made closed and its arms were flopped to the side, as if it was sitting against the corner of the room relaxing and sleeping. Chris must have guessed the plushie had at least a good 2 feet of extra height on him. He had always liked plushies and such generally but he still sometimes felt a lil embarrassed about it. Seeing this enormous and extremely soft and squishy looking hyena though was too much temptation for the little gatox. After all, no one was watching right? What harm could it do? With this train of thought being enough to eliminate his hesitation, he walked on over to the plushie and near flopped on top of it, wrapping his arms around the plush’s soft squishy body. The moment he did so, he felt an immense wave of comfort and relaxation overcome him. “Gosh you’re so soft…” he thought to himself, squeezing the plush just a lil bit tighter as he sank into its soft, stuffed plushy embrace, unable to take the smile off his face as the plush hyena wrapped its big plushy paws around him. It took a few seconds longer than it perhaps should have done for Chris to realise that the plush was now hugging him back, suddenly his eyes went wide open in mild panic as he tried to wriggle free, was this some kind of prank Viper had decided to pull on him? “Oh no! Sorry did I scare you? Don’t worry I promise I’m not going to hurt you!” Chris was now even more alert. That voice sounded kind of similar to Viper’s but at the same time he could have sworn she wouldn’t have been back for another 15 minutes still. It was only after a few moments of dumbfounded looking around that he finally realised where the voice had come from and looked up at the head of the plushy hyena snuggling him, still with a look of shock and disbelief on his face. “You… talk!?” The hyena chuckled at this sudden realisation from the gatox. “I sure do! I’m Zephyr, I guess I’m what you’d call a living plush hyena gal. It’s so nice to meet you,” she said with a warmth and sincerity that Chris did not feel very often coming from other people. It helped put him at ease slightly and he stopped struggling against the plush’s surprisingly strong grip. “OK, OK, I’m sorry was just a little… surprised by the sudden hugging back. I saw you in the corner and you looked so comfy and soft I couldn’t resist but come over and give you a squeeze. I hope that’s OK…” Chris shyly admitted, feeling pretty embarrassed by the whole affair. However, the plush hyena replied to this by giving Chris another gentle squeeze in her plushy embrace. “You have nothing to apologise for you sweet little thing. Actually Viper’s told me a lot about you, I was secretly hoping that you might come in here and find me so I could give you a big hug!” Chris expression once again turned to confusion as he heard what the plush said. How much did it - well he supposed she - know about him exactly? At the same time, her tone that was simultaneously friendly, animated and engaged, but also calm and soothing. Chris took a look at Zephyr’s face, properly this time. Her eyes were now wide open, and the expression on the plush's face was one of warmth and curiosity. “So what have you heard about me exactly?” Chris inquired, causing the plushy hyena to smile at him again. “Just what Viper’s told me. She tells me about all her friends, they all seem so nice, yourself included! I really hope I can meet them all one day.” Chris could sense a purity in her manner of speaking that seemed to radiate from her. It was obvious to him that this plush hyena gal was a being of pure love and affection, and she could tell that the hyena's enthusiasm to meet him was genuine. More and more, he felt the love and warmth radiating from Zephyr and onto his body, causing him to blush slightly as he gripped a lil tighter onto her squishy plush body. “Can I… stay here a while please? This is… so nice” Chris asked Zephyr, a lil hint of shyness in his voice. This was met with an even tighter squeeze from the plush yeen, causing another wave of warmth and affection to flow through him. “Of course you can you sweet bean. Here, let’s make ourselves nice and comfortable…” With that, Zephyr got up whilst still holding Chris under one arm. She grabbed some nearby pillows and formed a super soft cosy pile with them in the corner of the room where she was resting previously. Then, she grabbed a blanket from the centre of the room and dragged it with her to the pillow pile, settling herself down in the corner with gatox in tow and throwing the blanket around both of them. Once she was done, she threw her other arm back around the gatox and held him in her tender plushy embrace. “How’s that, sweet little gatox?” “Absolutely perfect…” And so they settled into each other for a nice long snuggle together. Chris had never felt so relaxed in his life, feeling all his worries and anxieties melting away into Zephyr’s soft plush fur. So relaxed he felt in fact, that he completely lost track of time and didn’t even think to check if Viper had gotten back home yet. He was sure Viper would come looking for him if she was worried… yeah that’s right, it wasn’t a problem at all. Chris brushed off the concern and continued to sink deeper into the the plush hyena’s tight but tender snuggle. It was only after some time that Chris looked up and saw something that he could have sworn wasn’t there before. A large zipper pull, poking out from just under Zephyr’s neck ruff. “Huh, what’s this?” The gatox wondered aloud, prompting a giggle from his new plush friend. “Oh that! That’s my little secret. It only appears if someone hugs me for a while, and if I can sense they’re interes-“ Before Zephyr could even finish her sentence, Chris, in his completely relaxed state, absent-mindedly reached out to the big zipper tab and pulled on it, revealing a zipper opening to what was inside Zephyr. To his surprise, it wasn’t all stuffing, but instead the opening revealed what looked like a super cosy and inviting inside. It was lined all over with what looked like stuffed, super soft material, almost velvet like in feel. There was still definitely enough of a visible space however for someone to fit inside. “Well you’re an eager one, aren’t you?” The hyena gently cooed into Chris’s ear, slightly breaking his absent minded relaxed state and causing him to turn a bit red. “It’s OK little gatox, you have nothing to be embarrassed about. I’d absolutely love to have you as stuffing for a while,” she reassured Chris, with such a gentle and caring tone that Chris couldn’t help but hang onto every word and melt inside. Chris pulled down the zipper further to create a big enough opening for him to step inside, revealing more of the inner lining. It looked so inviting and soft, in the same shade of blue as the hyena’s stripes and paws. Reaching one hand in to feel the the inside of the lining, he felt how soft and nice to the touch it was. It was all Chris needed to eliminate any tiny lingering sense of hesitation as he climbed his way into the opening. Once fully in, that same extremely soft, stuffed lining started expanding somehow all over, squeezing his body in what felt like an all body hug, yet somehow not causing Chris to feel overheated. He could feel himself being squeezed and kneaded all over, almost like Zephyr was giving him the most tender and intimate massage possible all over him. Just then he saw the opening he came through start to close up, though by that point he didn’t have a care in the world as he was lost to the sensations of his new plush home. Just then, he felt something unexpected - a feeling of being squeezed around just his mid-torso specifically. “Can you feel that? I’m hugging myself around my stomach so you can feel it. I can tell how much you love being inside me, it’s absolutely adorable. Gosh you’re such precious stuffing, you know that?” Chris was glad at this point no one could see him as he turned even redder. He wasn’t used to such compliments and being suddenly flooded with so many of them for simply enjoying what he was experiencing rendered him speechless. Before he could even think of an answer to muster up, a wave of warmth started flooding through Chris’s body unlike any he had ever experienced. And then another, and then another. A constant flow of warmth, love and adoration that set every atom in his body alight. “You know Chris, that’s not just my love, it’s the love of all of your friends coursing through you. Can you feel their warmth? They care about you so much Chris, you are extremely loved, appreciated and wanted. And I’m going to keep you inside me until you feel it with every fibre of your being.” And with that, Chris was reduced to barely coherent sentences. Unable to ever muster a single response to the tidal wave of love, affection and validation showered upon him. Each wave coursing through him making him feel more and more relaxed and never wanting it to end. After some time, he was able to get out a single sentence. “Mmmhhh thank you… my big lovely plush caregiver.” ———- The front door to the apartment opened again, this time, a fluffy purple dragoness stood at the entrance, her arms filled with various bits of food shopping and other items. “Hey Chris I’m home! I’m so sorry to keep you waiting, I hope you weren’t too bored.” To Viper’s surprise, she didn’t hear an answer. “Hello? Chris? Are you there?” She wondered aloud as she walked on over to the kitchen to put the shopping on the countertop. No sign of the gatox in there. She ambled on through into the living room, wondering if perhaps he had dozed off on the sofa. Once again, no one to be found. Feeling increasingly confused, she continued through the living room and back into the main hall before making her way up the stairs. When she got to the top of the stairwell, she at first turned her head towards the hall leading to the bedrooms, before noticing out of the corner of her eye that the pastel red door was ever so slightly cracked open. Having sworn she left it closed when he left, she grabbed the handle and gently tugged it to open the door. She scanned the room and started to piece things together: A few of the pillows had been moved and seemingly bundled up in the corner, along with one of the blankets which was now wrapped around a slightly more stuffed looking sleeping plushy hyena. The hyena gently opened both eyes, still resting her paws around her belly, and gave Viper a warm smile and a wink. A knowing grin made its way onto Viper’s muzzle, before she gently closed the door again and whispered to herself. “Enjoy your stay in the Zephyr suite Chris, you deserve every moment of it.”