My Ticklish Adventures 2

Loving Laughter

I stood before Talia's home. My plan was simple, tell Talia I couldn't laugh anymore, and let everything else fall in place. It involved using her to my own advantage, but it was for a good reason, right? Besides, there's no real harm done. The toughest part would be keeping a straight face the entire time. Taking a deep breath, I put on a dejected look, and opened the door.

"Thank you very much!" A bright bubbly voice sang. Talia grinned as the customer walked away with his box. Upon seeing me, her smile grew. "Hiya, Mari! What can I do for you?"

I waved, weakly smiling. "Talia, can I talk to you?"

In almost an instant, she was there by my side, arm wrapped around my shoulder. "Whatcha need?"

I frowned, hopefully, I was at least half as good at acting as I was at emotional care. "Talia...I have a problem..."

She frowned in turn, "Well that's just no good! Just tell me what it is and I'll be sure to fix it up right away."

I spun a lock of my fur around her fingers, "Well, you see...I can't laugh..."

Talia gasped. "Can't laugh? Oh that's terrible! Almost as terrible as the time I burned an entire cake by adding too much yeast because I was distracted because Gummy was telling me this story about how he found out he was a really good baseball player and I didn't even know he even played baseball!" She continued, going on and on about something I could barely keep up with until I intervened.

"Talia? C-can you help me laugh again?"

Her eyes widened, nodding her head. "You betcha! I know what'll make you laugh!"

I almost brightened up in anticipation, "You do?"

"Yep! My serenade about a tortilla will make you laugh!"

I blinked, "A...serenade about a tortilla?"

"Well, actually, it's more of a wrap!"

I bit my tongue, trying not to laugh at that incredibly lame joke. The corners of my mouth twitched as I tried to keep a straight face.

The bubbly tiger stroked her chin. "Hm...Oh! Oh! Oh! What would bears be without bees?"

I shrugged in response.

"Ears!"

"..."

"...Nothing?"

I shook my head, snickering on the inside.

"Ooh, this calls for extreme measures!" Talia picked up her pet bird and set it on the counter.

"Gummy, you're in charge until I'm back!"

Talia started marching upstairs, motioning for me to follow. When I finally got upstairs, Talia giggled with glee. "Alright, lie down on the bed and close your eyes, I'll be ready in a jiffy!"

I almost accidentally squealed with delight as I did as I was told, resting my head back on the pillow as I shut my eyes, anticipating the fun that would follow. Soon, I felt my legs be lifted up and placed on some sort of cushion. Soon there was the sound of wood colliding, and a lock and key turning. I had a pretty good guess of what Talia was doing, but I had to play along. "Talia? What are you doing?"

"Shh...I'm almost done! Ok, lift your arms up!"

I began to breathe heavily, not out of fear, but out of giddy anticipation as I felt something soft wrap around my wrists and pull tightly. "C-can I open my eyes, yet?"

"Yep! Go ahead!"

I slowly gazed at the situation I was in. My feet were now locked in a set of stocks, I tried to lift my legs up, but they were obviously sealed. Looking up, my wrists were tied to the corners of the bed with a ribbon, most likely from Ava's room.