Explanations?

Chloe and Joanna

Chloe looked at her friend from across their little table. They had picked up a tub of ice cream in the lounge and then walked right back out into the garden, and were now sitting cross-legged in the grass, each with a small bowl and a spoon.

An awkward silence stretched out between them, neither girl knowing how to break it. Chloe was staring at her friend, who was still in her “**** girl” outfit, though the black collar was the same she always wore, a leather band with a small metal ring. Chloe had seen it on her friend a hundred times, but she’d never thought much of it. But now, with the harem outfit and her new knowledge, she couldn’t help but stare. Had Theo put a leash on that ring? Or a chain? Chloe didn’t want to know, and yet she couldn’t help but wonder.

Finally, she broke the silence.

“So… What does it mean? That Theo is your “master”? If… if it isn’t too rude to ask? I don’t mean to pry, but i -“

”It’s fine, Chloe. It really is fine. You’re my friend, you can ask me about my relationship. If you’re sure you want to know?”

Chloe thought about that for a moment, then nodded. “I’ll let you know if it’s TMI.”

Joanna nodded.

“Well. In that case… Well, it means he’s my Master. He sets the rules, he makes the choices, and he gives the orders. Not… not about everything, we have limits, and we check in, and we both have a safeword if we need it. I’ve had to use it before, very few times, and every time Theo immediately stopped or changed what we were doing.”

Chloe’s brows furrowed as her friend spoke. Rules? Orders? It reminded her of the way the worst kind of fundamentalist spoke about relationships and marriage.

”Rules?” She asked. “What kind of rules?”

”Well… There’s a few. I’m not allowed to drink without permission. I have to spend at least 30 minutes a day on exercise, to take care of myself. I am not allowed to remove my collar. Whenever we’re in a scene, I have to call him Sir or Master, likewise anytime he calls me ‘pet’ ‘princess,’ ‘****’ or…”

Despite what she was saying, Joanna had been remarkably calm and even-keeled, but now, she blushed.

”or certain other things, unless we’re in public. I am not allowed to be hypnotised by another person. I am not allowed to…”

The blush deepened “uh… do certain things. And I am not allowed to complain about his discipline, unless I need to safeword. Oh, and, if I am in doubt, I must safeword.”

Chloe’s head was swimming with the information, but she had made it through both Hegel and Kant, so she could handle a list of rules. Her brow furrowed as she sorted through them. Some of them were straightforwardly about Joanna’s health and wellbeing, like drinking, exercising, and having to safeword if in doubt. She could understand having rules like that - she didn’t want anyone deciding how much she had to exercise, but she could understand. Others were about power. Not removing the collar, needing to call Theo Master, not being hypnotised by anyone else… She could understand why Theo would want to impose a rule like that, though it did not mesh with her understanding of him. But there was a last rule…

"Discipline?" She finally asked. “What sort of discipline? Does he hurt you?”

There was an edge to her voice that made Joanna pause before answering.

“Sometimes, discipline involves pain, yes.” She said, slowly. “Though those are more often Funishments than actual discipline. Other times, it may be imposing a task or new rule for a while.”

”Funishment?” Chloe asked.

“Ah.. a fun punishment. You know… a spanking for pleasure”

”I don’t know,” Chloe replied, keeping her voice carefully neutral. She did not like what she was hearing, but at the same time, she knew Joanna was confiding in her. The other girl was fidgeting the way she did when she was nervous, her hand playing with the ring of her collar. Almost more concerningly, she was breathing very slowly and speaking deliberately. Chloe hadn’t spent enough time with Joanna to know her in and out, but she did remember when the other girl talking about an anxiety attack once - she had been breathing the same way, carefully and controlled, to keep another one at bay.

“I.. are you okay, Jo? We… we don’t need to go through all this right now. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

Joanna gave her a small smile, and nodded.

”No… It’s okay, Chloe. I trust you. And I… I would rather you get the whole truth from me. There’s a lot of misinformation about relationships like ours. And I don’t want you getting the wrong impression. Especially of Theo.”

Chloe nodded, took a breath, and asked her next question.

“A fun punishment?”

”Well…” Joanna replied, her blush returning. “Sometimes I break the rules on purpose. Or disobey his orders. So he has a reason to punish me. I… I enjoy getting spanked. I like… certain kinds of pain.”

”I couldn’t imagine,” Chloe replied. “Asking Theo to spank you… I don’t think I could ever do that.”

”Maybe you should try sometime”

“With Theo?” Chloe replied, incredulous.

“I…” Joanna started. Fuck. She hadn’t meant that… had she? “I just meant… when you get a boyfriend. Maybe you’d like it.”

Chloe just shook her head. What was that? Had Joanna actually meant with Theo, or had she spoken too quickly? Since when was her shy artist friend this… forthcomming?

”And the other punishments? The ones that aren’t… ‘funishments’? Does Theo hurt you for breaking his rules?”

”Our rules,” Joanna corrected her. There was a fire in her eyes, now, a heated urgency in her voice that surprised Chloe. “We agreed to them together. I even asked for some of them. And I asked him to punish me if I broke them.”

Her speech was fast now, and she was speaking louder than Chloe could remember having ever heard before. “This whole thing… I asked for it. I asked him to keep me in line. To take control of me, within the parameters we established. I asked him to correct me if I don’t show him the respect he deserves as my Master. I asked him to include the rule about not questioning his discipline.”

Chloe held up her hands in surrender at her friend’s verbal onslaught.

”Easy, easy. Okay, I get it. You enjoy this kind of relationship, Theo didn’t push you into it… But why? Okay, you enjoy a spanking… but why the rest? Why the rules and the “master” and the collar and everything?”

Joanna considered the question for a moment.

”There are a few reasons… but fundamentally, it just feels right. There are so many things i don’t have to worry about, and I can just… let myself trust Theo completely, and trust in his guidance. And i know that even if I make mistakes, Theo is there to correct me. I don’t have to feel guilty, or unsure, or doubt in my relationship. If I make a mistake, Theo will correct me, and i don’t need to be guilty about it. And it works the other way too. When i do something right, when i follow the rules or a difficult order… I get to feel proud of myself, for being a good girl for my Master…”

There was a distant, happy look in Joanna’s eyes, but at the last sentence, she seemed to snap back to reality, and she quickly looked away in embarrassment.

“It’s okay, Jo,” her friend said, though she was fighting hard not to look away herself at the more-than-romantic look in her friend’s eyes. She hadn’t understood whatever was going on, yet. He couldn’t help but worry for her friend - If anyone else had told her that her boyfriend was spanking her or giving her rules or punishing her, Chloe would’ve been… well, she wouldn’t have been sharpening a knife, but she’d be doing something. But the way Joanna was explaining it… it almost sounded reasonable. But only almost. Did Joanna enjoy this? Was she consenting? Chloe didn’t doubt it. But was it healthy? Chloe wasn’t so sure. It didn’t sound healthy, needing someone else to punish you and keep you in control. On the other hand, she trusted that Theo wouldn’t be doing anything unhealthy or unsafe, at least on purpose. But he wasn’t perfect. And there was the hypnosis, too. She had never believed that hypnosis could do anything terrible, and what she’d heard from Theo didn’t seem worrisome... but then again, she had never believed in pagan goddesses either, and she would not have believed that Theo enjoyed spanking his girlfriends if anyone had told her. But now did not seem to be the time to bring up hypnosis.

“Earth to Chloe?” Joanna said. “You seem pretty far gone.”

“I’m sorry, Jo. It’s just… a lot to process.”

There was a look in Joanna’s eyes at that, disappointed and resigned look, and it hurt Chloe to see.

“I do believe you, though. I’m happy you trusted me with this. And I’m happy you have a… relationship you love. But I’m still struggling to understand it, I’m sorry.”

Joanna nodded in response, and seemed relieved, though the disappointment did not entirely leave her eyes.

“Now,” Chloe said, rallying a little. “I think that’s enough heavy conversation for now. There’s a huge hotel here to explore. Do you want to join me? We can go explore the other levels, if you’re interested?”

Joanna was about to beg off, tired after the long day and disappointed by not finding Theo, not to mention emotionally exhausted by the long conversation - and the suspicion and worry she had seen in her friend’s eyes. She knew Chloe meant well, but she wished that once, just once, she could share the truth of her relationship, bare her heart about the most important thing in her life, and hear “I’m so happy for you!” He had heard the concern in Chloe’s voice before, and she hated it.

But she could see that Chloe was trying to cheer her up. It was something she admired about the young girl, a certain indefatigable cheer, an infectious will to make things work out.

“Sure,” she said. “I could use a walk to stretch my legs, anyway.”

There was an awkwardness to the process as they both stood, and Joanna cringed internally. Still - better awkward company than depressing loneliness.