be discreet

[msmage]

It's not much later, in Isabella's room, that she asks:

"So... is Alex really a dom?"

Comments

[catalexis]

Alex appears to have left by the back door and is already in the car behind the wheel when Isabella and Sadde get there. "Mom drove here separately, get in," he says.

[peterxy]

Tobias reassures Renée that it won't be necessary - he doesn't quite say that it would be unseemly to let a sub pay for a dom and his family's food, but it might be obvious that that's what he's thinking, given his earlier behavior.

[mrmage]

Sadde gets in and holds onto Isabella. "Please don't let him take me back. He'll- he hated you, he'll never let me come back, he'll destroy your collar, please."

[eclipsi]

"Sh-sh-sh my lovely we'll think of something," Isabella says, wrapping her arms around him. "Put your seatbelt on. You can sit in the middle right next to me. Take deep breaths."

[mrmage]

He obeys - he couldn't not, he doesn't even think about it.

[eclipsi]

And once they have their seatbelts on and Alex is pulling out of the parking lot she resumes holding him. "Oh pet, I'm so sorry."

[mrmage]

Heavy breathing.

[eclipsi]

"It's okay. We'll figure something out, lovely."

[mrmage]

Cling.

[eclipsi]

Soothing noises and holding and petting and telepathically warning Alex to keep his face shut.

[mrmage]

Eventually he does calm down. Which means he's not shivering anymore, or breathing heavily. He's just- clinging. "It- maybe asking you not to tell anyone wasn't such a good idea."

[catalexis]

"You think?"

[eclipsi]

"Alex. Shut. Up."

[mrmage]

He winces again when Alex speaks. "I- didn't think."

[eclipsi]

"I had no idea she'd set up something like this - as a surprise - I'm so sorry, lovely."

[mrmage]

"'S not your fault," he mumbles.

[eclipsi]

Squeeze. Pet pet pet.

[mrmage]

"Fuck," he says at one point.

[eclipsi]

"Pet?"

[mrmage]

"I'm just- fuck, did you see the way he looked at you, at me, he was okay with me going to school, he won't be anymore. Fuck."

[eclipsi]

"If he doesn't want to lose his other two kids he won't want to go to court for child abuse."

[mrmage]

"There's no evidence, I used magic to heal everything, he never abused the other two, unless you count indoctrinating them into whatever nineteenth-century view of roles he has as abuse, it's literally my word versus his, a nice preacher of a congregation, everyone loves him, handsome, rich, who would believe the wayward kid of the crazy sub-turned-dom who left him and then drove herself into a ditch seven years later."

[eclipsi]

"...I'd need to look up whether role pressure is considered emotional abuse in this state..."

[mrmage]

"I don't even know if there was any pressure, from what I saw Jonathan and Sarah did just happen to be their roles, and Tobias just teaches them what those roles mean."

[eclipsi]

"I meant on you, pet. If it's your word against his but his word is 'that's a sub' and yours is 'no I'm not', then that's all that would take to establish it."