It had all started with one question, one that Mark was honestly kind of surprised that she hadn't asked him before.
"So, what got you into hypnosis, anyway?"
He looked up from his phone. "What?"
Jessica clicked her tongue, rolled her eyes, and leaned over the counter. "I said," she said, voice a bit louder, "'So, what got you in-to hyp-no-sis, anyway?'"
"I heard what you said! I meant- Gah!" He sat up on the couch, only to duck his head back down when she lobbed a washcloth at him.
"Then why'd you ask me what I said?!"
"Because I didn't know what you meant!" Mark laughed, tossing the towel right back. "Like. What do you mean what got me into hypnosis?"
"Don't you play dumb with me!" She levelled a finger at him, eyes narrowed. "There's always a start of darkness! Like, you see it all the time on websites or whatever." She dried her hands on the washcloth, stepped around the kitchen counter, and leaned against the back of the couch. "'So-and-so got me into mind control on such-and-such when I was a kid.' Like, a cartoon or whatever."
"Oh," Mark replied, turning his attentions once more to his phone. "I dunno. Well, I mean, I know, but. I dunno."
"You know, but you don't know." She leaned closer. "Baby."
He looked up at her. The second he turned to face her, she thunked her forehead down against his. Emerald eyes locked on his, wide, bottomless, enchanting. He blinked. Reaching up to his face, she cupped his cheek and simply held his attention for a moment. Not especially difficult, considering all their prior conditioning meant he was already drifting into the pleasant haze of trance.
Bottomless eyes. Enchanting eyes.
"That's bullshit."
Her deadpan cut through the fugue like a knife through butter, and just like that, the haze was gone. He had to hand it to her, Jess knew how to kill the mood like the best of them. "Don't you even tell me that there isn't some cartoon or some old tee-vee show somewhere that you didn't jack off to, like, a billion times when you were a teenager. Like."
She pulled away, gave his hair a tousle, and walked around the couch to sit next to him. "OK. Willy Wonka."
"Willy Wonka had hypnosis?"
"No, it didn't have hypnosis." She said, rolling her eyes. Only to blink and roll them once more, this time in thought. "Did it have hypnosis? No. No, I don't think so. But, uh. The girl. The girl with the blueberries."
"Veruca-"
"No, she was the squirrel one. Uhm." Jess pulled a pillow into her lap, and Mark took the cue to lay his head upon it. "I can't remember her name. But she was, like, the one that chewed all the gum, or whatever, and it turned her into a giant blueberry. And, like, a bunch of kids saw that movie when they were, y'know, kids." She stroked his hair. Mark closed his eyes, feeling the tension leaving his body already. "And now they're hardcore into that kind of thing."
"Mm," he said, nodding sagely. "Blueberries."
"Not blueberries! Blueberrification!" She swatted his chest when he started to giggle. She started to giggle, too. "Shut up! This is very serious! The epedimiology of fetishes is very serious!"
"Oh, yes, of course. My apologies, Professor Hirsch."
"Your apologies indeed!" She faux-snapped. "But you get what I mean, right? That was the thing that sent them down the path of fucked-up sex-ideas. What! What's so funny!"
Wheezing with laughter, Mark brought a hand up to cover his mouth. "Sex-ideas!" Her laughter turned harder in tandem, along with her whacks to his chest.
"Shut up, I couldn't think of anything better to say!"
"Fetishes! They're called 'fetishes!'"
"That would have made too much sense! Oh, my God, just tell me what it was!"
"What what was?"
"'What what was was!' Oh, my God! The thing that got you into hypnosis! I could just fucking zap you and make you answer like that, you know!" She went back to smoothing his hair, smile on her voice.
"But that wouldn't be fun," he murmured. Eyes shut, his breathing slowed with each stroke of her hand on his scalp.
"No," she finally agreed. "It wouldn't be."
Jess sighed, though not out of exasperation. The two sat there for a moment, quiet, still save for Jessica's hand on Mark's head.
"Was it from a tee-vee show?" She finally asked, though her hand didn't stop.
"No." He shook his head in her lap.
"Was it from a movie?"
He cracked one eye open. "Is this a game of twenty questions or something?"
She smiled down at him, eyes widening just so. "Ooh, that sounds like fun! OK, yeah, twenty questions. Two down. Or-" She tapped a fingertip against his forehead. "You gotta answer my second one. Movie?"
He shut his eyes once more, smiling. "Yeah, it was from a movie."
"Animated movie?"
"Animated movie."
"Alright." He could practically hear the smile on her voice, and he knew exactly why she was bubbling with anticipation. "Was it a Disney movie?"
"Yes, it was a Disney movie."
"Was it-"
"No, it was not The Jungle Book."
Jess instantly dissolved into cackling. "Aw, babe!" Head lolling back, she clapped her hands gleefully, and he couldn't help but laugh with her. "I was like, 'Oh, God, the fucking hypno-snake strikes again!' Ahaha!" Her laughter mellowed into giggling as her hands went once more to his scalp. "Fuck. I have no idea what it could be if it's not The Jungle Book."
"Think hard, babe. You're pretty much there already."
She was silent for a moment. Or two. Or three.
"Was there hypnosis in The Lion King?"
His smile widened. "Is that one of your questions?"