A Bet To Lose, Chapter 12 free porn video

"Time to get up, Sunshine," Zoe told Richard, zapping him awake with the shock collar around his neck. He stood up and his Little Miss Sunshine outfit was the only bright thing in the room; everything else was dark. "Let's see what we've got for you today," his sister said, rooting through his nearly pitch-black closet. "One of these, a couple of these, one of these, and one of these." She jammed a corset over him, and the flesh that was on his midsection went immediately to his breasts and ass, his ribs crushed. His feet were shoved into ballet boots, and shocks were used to keep him upright. A disc went around his waist, and he knew that if it touched anything, he'd be shocked heavily and for a long time. His mother and sister cooperated in shoving the gag, which looked like a scoop of ice cream, into his mouth. "Stop squirming, we're just trying to help you," his mother told him firmly. "It's to make you a better person, Richard. You're much easier to carry this way and your new father will appreciate having a son like you." The pedophile who had tried to blackmail him was standing there, naked and smiling. NO, Richard thought, there was NO way she'd do that, NO way he could be... Wait, there really was actually no way! Richard, suddenly aware of where he was and what he was doing, tore the collar off with one hand, the bondage melting off of him, and pointed with the other, and the man screamed as he was immolated. His mother and sister stared at him with empty, hollow eyes, but of course it wasn't actually them, and he rocketed himself into wakefulness with anger and disgust. "Just get fucked," Richard muttered to his subconscious, pissed that it had even fed him such a thing. He could have had a flying dream, a video game dream, even a really weird dream with lots of interesting imagery, but no, he just had to have a nightmare about that crap instead. It was still dark out, and, annoyed with himself, he went back to a dreamless sleep. Even after a morning shower and brushing teeth and combing his long hair (his mother told him that he could have it as long as he liked as long as it was combed), he looked haggard as he slowly ate breakfast that morning. His sister was going to wait until their mother was gone before asking him what was up, but Heather had noticed as well. "Richard, is something wrong?" "Real bad dream," he said. "What about?" Heather asked. There was no way he was going to tell her much of anything. "People hated me while pretending to love me," he said. "I went lucid and hated one of them back. It was real bad, I don't want to talk about it." His mother patted him on the shoulder and kissed him on the head. "It was just a dream, Richard." She'd had bad dreams of her own. A primary recurring theme was her husband, gaunt from drug abuse, pursuing her in the darkness like in a horror movie. Sometimes, he would get her on drugs as well. Other times, he would simply consume her alive. And her children - far younger than in real life - were always there, watching it happen. She would never tell them that they had such a prominent place in her recurring nightmares. "So, what was the dream actually about?" Zoe asked him once their mother had left for work. "It was kind of about the stuff we've been doing, and I really don't want to talk about it." He looked away for a moment. "Zoe, have you ever considered the idea that my sissiness might need to be forced out? I mean out into the open, not out of me. Like, if you somehow made me do sissy stuff or pushed me into doing it even if I didn't want to, that I'd become a better person for it?" The question was so jarring and utterly alien that Zoe blanked for a second. "Ricky, I have literally never thought that about you or anyone in my entire life. Even when I was pissed at you, I just wanted revenge, I didn't think it'd make you a better person or anything like that, that's sick." She thought of what their mother had done to her and decided not to mention it; Heather certainly wouldn't try it on him, at any rate. "I know that you and Susie are doing kinda bondage sex stuff but that's different, and she won't even lock you into anything, remember? You know Leslie doesn't see things that way and neither does Caroline." She almost asked 'Where are you getting this from?' but she had a reasonable guess as to the answer. What he needed at the moment was reassurance, and she had plenty of that to give. "Nobody is ever going to do anything like that to you. Ricky, this is you we're talking about, nobody CAN. You wasted the last guy who tried anything close, well okay that was Robert, but still, you." "I wasted him in the dream when I went lucid, too," Richard said, smiling a bit. "See? It was just a stupid nightmare caused by some demented shit you saw on the Internet. I can't tell you that you're totally safe from everything in the world, but you're safe from THAT." "Zoe, I needed that. Thank you so much," he said, smiling. "You want to do some more fun stuff, like yesterday?" Richard felt like he was spitting in the nightmare's face by asking. "I've actually got a major backlog I want to catch up on today, but if you want to just hang out and chill for a while, we can." Richard smiled a bit. His sister needed some time to herself, and just knowing that reminded him that she was a normal person. "It's okay, do your backlog. Do you have any more outfits like that Sunshine one in your closet?" "I checked, there's nothing else back there that will fit you. We're doing wash tomorrow, I think Mom's got a couple of dresses in there." "Eeeeeewwww," Richard replied. The idea of wearing his mother's clothes was just plain disturbing. "Yeah, I figured you'd say that." She put her arm around him, hugging him protectively. "Your big sister is going to go read some healthy and fun stuff. Well, maybe not totally healthy." She giggled a bit. "You wear whatever you want, little sis, and try to stay out of the darkness for a while." "I will," Richard replied, smiling at her with renewed innocence. He felt like he'd puked rotten garbage all over himself and she'd cleaned him up. Richard put on his floral print housewife dress and his pink, jingly socks just because he liked how they sounded and felt, deciding not to put on his heels and to leave his hair loose for the moment. He sat at his computer, considering how he was going to spend his time. He wasn't in the mood for games - he wasn't even in the mood for fiction of any kind. He wanted to stay out of the darkness like his sister had recommended. He started browsing around, and he remembered what he'd been into and decided he wanted to get back to. He was going to teach himself to become a real hacker! Of course, searching 'how to be a hacker' wasn't actually going to help him, and he knew that. Instead, he just immersed himself in every piece of computer lore he could find, learning about opcodes, buffer overruns, cryptography, Ring -3, and TCP/IP, soaking it all up, meditating in a sense, trying not to think about that other stuff, occasionally jingling the bells on his socks and smiling. He was struggling to understand things and he was confused some of the time and he was at peace with himself. If he couldn't understand something, he moved on to something else. It was his angry focus without the anger. Zoe called him for lunch, snapping him out of his trance, and he actually frowned when he realized she'd already microwaved the burritos they both liked. "I guess there's not really anywhere else to eat within walking distance anyway, just the ice cream place," he lamented. His guts were a little bit sick of ice cream. "Why'd you want to eat out?" she asked. "I've got a bunch of money I haven't spent, too," he reminded her. "And Mom's giving me two hundred and fifty bucks when she gets home." He looked at her solemnly, and she smiled at him in his pretty dress. He looked so serious after having jingled down the stairs. "You've done so much for me, Zoe. Especially this morning. I kind of want to spend it on you." In a way, he wanted to reward her for what she wasn't doing, would never consider doing, to him. "I'd like some of it, but I think you should spend at least some on Susie." "Why?! What could I possibly buy her that she could want and not have bought already?" She chuckled. "You don't understand girls, Ricky. You can't buy her something she can't just buy herself. You can only buy her something she didn't know she wanted until you bought it for her. I know, it's tough, but you don't have to even plan it. Just, next time you're somewhere, even the thrift store, and you see something she might want or that just seems to be missing from her house, ask her if she likes it, then buy it for her. You know how you hear people say 'it's the thought that counts'? That's the thought that counts." "That's twice today you've really helped me." She smiled at him. "It's like you've totally forgotten who owes who here. You probably saved my girlfriend's life just last week, remember? I'm just glad to be able to help you, little sis. I'm still on my backlog today, but we can spend some more time together tomorrow before Leslie's mom comes to pick us up." She was reading an exceptionally convoluted and wordy fic about some high school kid who got sent to a fantasy world that was more or less of his own making. "Okay. Thanks again." The siblings smiled at each other and returned to what they had been doing. Richard barely remembered in time to change back to boy clothes before his mother got home, and after giving Richard his money, Heather asked her children to set the table - and scratch her back, which her daughter reluctantly did - as soon as she got home. She'd had a bad itch she just couldn't reach for hours, and rubbing hadn't helped. She didn't want to have to keep asking her kids, she knew she had a backscratcher somewhere in the house, but where did she put the thing? It wasn't in her drawers, she knew that. Of course! She knew her children's closets were full of storage. It was probably stashed away in there somewhere. Making sure not to touch Richard's computer at all - that was where he kept his private stuff, after all - she went through his closet and started opening boxes. "Richard, could you come here please?" Even before she'd finished the first couple of words, Richard was immediately rushing to his room, his sister close behind, knowing immediately what had happened just from her tone of voice. Many of the boxes had been opened, and she was holding up the housewife dress he'd worn that day. He'd thought of various things to say to her when she found out, but all he managed to say was the most basic: "Mom, I dress up sometimes, but I don't actually want to turn into a girl." Her tone was very serious. "Where did you get it all? Does Susie know about this?" Abruptly, Richard laughed. "Think really carefully about those two questions, Mom," he said, smirking, and she stared at him. "Don't they kind of answer each other?" Heather relaxed somewhat, her major concerns gone. Her first worry had been that he was stealing from her or someone else to be able to get such things, or doing even worse things for the money - maybe even with those skills of his! - and she'd also been worried that this would turn his wealthy girlfriend off. Apparently, the opposite was true. "It's... basically how we met," he continued before she could ask anything else awkward. "Don't ask specifics. Please?" Heather's own parents had pried too much into her own affairs when she was a teenager, and she understood where he was coming from. "I'm just having fun, that's all, and she is too." "I'm sure of the sort of fun you've been having with her," she said, returning the dress to the box where she found it. "Have you been having any of this fun outside?" He nodded. "Zoe, do you... of course you know. You've been participating in this as well." Zoe nodded. "All your friends know. He's been doing it with your whole group, hasn't he?" She continued to nod. The idea gave Heather some comfort. Doing perverted things with one's significant other was different from doing them in public - she'd done things with their father that she would never tell them about - and Richard certainly couldn't be doing anything really perverted or off- putting in a group of four girls while still remaining their friend. "Not all the time, though, not tomorrow," Richard said, holding up a placating hand. "Susie's dad's home, and he's going to be there with us at the YMCA at 3. It's Leslie's physical therapy day." "Susie bought you those swimming trunks, too," Heather said, and her son nodded. She sighed. "Well, I have some more personal time. I'll drive you over there. I haven't been swimming in a while, either." Richard was mortified at the idea. "Mom, we've already got a ride, and if you tell him about any of this-" "First, you can tell your other ride that it isn't necessary. Second, I might be dumb, but I'm not stupid, Richard," his mother stated firmly, cutting him off. He still looked nervous and Heather knew exactly what he was worried about. "Your mother is not going to make a fool of herself or you in front of your girlfriend's father!" Her own mother had almost done exactly that. If that woman had been any worse, Richard and Zoe might very well have never been born. "I don't even think he knows she's my girlfriend, Mom." "If you're spending any time with her in front of him, believe me, he'll find out." Richard had to acknowledge that she was right. He was very good at roleplaying, as Susie could certainly attest, but convincingly roleplaying 'not her boyfriend' for an hour - with both of them wearing very few clothes! - in front of a man who was surely very suspicious of any male anywhere remotely near his daughter? No, that was not going to happen. Not showing up would have been even worse. "And, Mom, while we're at it," Zoe suddenly said, "I'm bisexual, and Leslie is my girlfriend." Richard looked at his sister in alarm. She had chosen to drop that on her mother when she was in the middle of processing what was with him. Why had she done it then? To take the heat off him? To make it seem like a minor thing in comparison? (The answer was somewhat of both. Zoe figured that both at once would be faster and have fewer consequences than one at a time.) Heather took a deep breath, looking at her daughter in shock. "This is what Robert meant," she realized. "He meant this. He knew about you, both of you." "Yup, he did," Zoe replied. Heather almost asked 'Why didn't you just tell me?' but realized that the question was foolish. Her children didn't entirely trust her. That was why they'd looked at her that way last week. In a rush, she also realized that as Richard had known so much about the sort of horrible place where her brother had almost sent his cousin, he must have been worried that she would do the same. Granted, the boy was just thirteen and prone to overreacting, but why had he ever imagined that she would do such a thing?! Was she that bad of a mother - maybe she was? Her emotions started getting the better of her. First that, now this. Her tolerance for the unusual was far below that of her children, and she felt like her moral foundations were shifting out from under her. "I need time to think," she said, trying not to cry. "You two just stay up here, and I'll call you for dinner, and we can talk about this then." Zoe almost said something apologetic, that she didn't really want to stress her out, but then she remembered the thing with the unwanted dresses and that nasty email from her cousin and decided that this was a modest and appropriate revenge. "All you have to do is nothing, Mom," Richard said. He'd been thinking of that one for some time. [5:22 PM] Richard: Mom knows everything. About Zoe and Leslie, too. [5:22 PM] Zoe: She's processing it all. [5:23 PM] Zoe: If she does something REALLY stupid this might be the last time you hear from us for a while. [5:23 PM] Richard: Until Friday, she actually said she wants to drive us. [5:24 PM] Zoe: Yeah, hopefully she actually does that and isn't building to a super freakout. [5:24 PM] Leslie: I just told Mom all that. She and Dad wish you luck. [5:24 PM] Caroline: wishing you luck here too [5:24 PM] Susie: Good luck, Ricky and Zoe!! :hearts: [5:25 PM] Richard: Thanks, everybody. I think we'll be okay. [5:25 PM] Caroline: lets be real here if she tries anything you'll crater her and she has to know that [5:26 PM] Susie: I don't want it to come to that. [5:26 PM] Richard: I don't either, I REALLY don't want to use that on our mom. [5:27 PM] Zoe: She doesn't hate us too much and we won't hate her too much, it's that simple. [5:27 PM] Zoe: And if she does anything "for our own good" it's fucking asteroid time [5:29 PM] Richard: Zoe just said that she'll probably just tell me to give the dresses away. One of you can pick them up. [5:29 PM] Zoe: It's ME we're both more worried about. Her fucking BROTHER was about to send his kid to torture prison, remember [5:30 PM] Richard: Astronauts will know what happened if she does that, they'll see the crater from space [5:30 PM] Zoe: She's my mom, and I have no idea what she's thinking. That actually hurts a lot. [5:31 PM] Susie: I always know what my dad is thinking. He told me I should. I wish your mom was the same. :( [5:31 PM] Richard: She just called us for dinner in a nice voice BBL Heather felt like she was in a Twilight Zone episode and wished for her child to enjoy being feminine. 'Granted!' the monkey's paw had replied. 'It's your son!' Of course, that didn't help her decide what to do. She vividly recalled a scene at her workplace five years ago, in which an angry, stern member of upper management had asked a tantruming worker, "What are you trying to gain here? What do you hope to accomplish by doing this?" What could she do that her children wouldn't hate her for? She certainly knew what Martin - who she was starting to consider an incredibly nasty person, worse than the boy she remembered - would have recommended. He had wanted to punish her son just for telling him and his family things that he didn't want them to hear. His answer would have been to forcibly stop their behavior with heavy-handed means, and a part of Heather was suggesting that she ought to be doing the same thing. But her children weren't his, and they certainly weren't behaving in the way that Michael was. Despite their mistrust (and fear, she had to admit) of her, they didn't even conflict with each other anymore! What was she thinking? Was she really about to ruin her own family, destroying her relationships with all she had left of her husband, because her son enjoyed dressing up like a girl with his friends - and his luxuriously rich girlfriend enjoyed him doing it! - and her daughter had a teenage girl-crush? (She didn't really believe - didn't want to believe - that Zoe had permanent lesbian tendencies that she wouldn't simply grow out of.) Heather thought again of what Robert had told her and abruptly remembered why she'd been talking to him on Friday to begin with - she'd just given her son the money he'd earned for doing that! Good God, was she really about to piss off Richard to no good end?! The boy could destroy people! She might have been dumb, but she was certainly not stupid! "Dinner's ready," she shouted upstairs, acting like as much of a mother as she could, and her very worried-looking children came down. Heather had mixed spam and peas in with standard macaroni and cheese, with tall glasses of water to wash down the salt, and her children quietly sat down to eat. She took a breath. "Zoe, if you and Leslie have real feelings for each other, then I'm not going to interfere with that. As long as what you are doing is safe - and I know she is disabled - I am not going to be angry with you." She sighed in defeat. "It's your life, and it's your choice. Just be careful, and don't put any pressure on her. It's her life too." Zoe breathed an enormous sigh and laughed slightly in pure relief. "I won't, Mom." She still couldn't forget any of the nasty shit that her mother had done to her, but the hatchet could stay well and truly buried if her mother wasn't going to get between her and Leslie. Richard was confused for a bit. Pressure? Leslie wasn't that bad off, she didn't bruise easily or anything like that... oh. His mother had meant emotional pressure. That wasn't going to happen, either. "As for you, Richard, as long as Susie isn't going to try to put you on hormones or something like that," Heather started. "The hell, Mom, what stories have you been reading?!" Richard blurted out, interrupting her, before his mind caught up with him and he realized that there was no way she was remotely coming from that point of view. "She's not crazy." "Well, as it turns out, neither am I. So, as long as it's safe, I don't care what kind of fun you have together. And that goes for both of you." Heather felt a weight lifted from her shoulders as she said that. She remembered her own parents all too well. She felt like she was getting gradually hedged out of her children's lives, and they were so young, and she remembered how her own mother had tried to worm her way into her own life - that word 'vicarious' again - and how it hadn't helped at all. She wasn't going to be the queen bitch. She wasn't going to be the one to blame. Not again. And she certainly wasn't going to be like that prick older brother of hers! She had her children and they had her and that was all there was to it. She shook her head. He was just so young. "Richard, I know that this thing of yours makes you think you're invincible. There's just so much that can happen to you, you're not Superman." His mother was giving him what he wanted, so he tried not to get angry with her for basically suggesting that he was the kind of teenage moron his cousin was. "I've learned this one, Mom. Believe me, I know. I'm not going to do anything too stupid and especially not alone." How could he possibly tell her that he'd learned that very lesson in an up-close way just yesterday? He was very glad that no one would tell her - she really would freak out if she heard about that! Instead, Heather was worried that Susie would get tired of him and then do something like expose his secret to people at Richard's school when it reopened. She was dumb, not stupid, so she refrained from saying something like that out loud - he was in love with her, he would be mortally offended by the idea. And society itself was changing so fast, so much activism for causes she'd never even heard of before, maybe it wouldn't even hurt him socially? The heartbreak would, she knew, much more than any exposure, but she certainly wasn't not going to tell him not to date the rich girl because she might break up with him later! Besides, he certainly wasn't emotionally vulnerable in the sense that he could be easily bullied or picked on. The boy was fearsome to adults! God help the child who picked on him, no matter how he liked to look! Wait, how did he like to look? "Richard, if you would like to, I want to see you wearing your favorite outfit. Would you please go and change into it after you have finished your dinner?" Her tone of voice was as polite as she could make it. Especially after her foolishness with her daughter, if her son thought that she was telling him rather than asking him to do a thing like that...! Richard was startled by the request. He was certain that a mother asking her son to dress up was something that he would only ever see in unrealistic fantasies or outright abuse. 'I'm not going to dress up for my mom!' was, of course, an option, and one he almost took. He turned to Zoe, who was surprised, delighted, and extremely amused, giving him an enormous grin. If he could start openly dressing so cutely full-time at home, then there would be fewer things stopping her from treating him like her little sissy brother the way they both enjoyed. Well, of course, when Susie wasn't treating him the way she wanted. "Okay," Richard replied. He almost added 'No pictures', but that would have been silly. There was no one in the world that she could have shown such things to, and if she later were to go crazy enough to try to blackmail him with them, it would be like threatening to light herself on fire. He decided to enjoy his food instead of worrying about impossibilities. They ate quietly, in silence and general relief. It felt like they had all just signed an armistice to end the cold war. And then Richard, smiling a bit, went upstairs to change . "I don't understand him at all," Heather quietly said to her daughter once his door closed. "How can someone so... well, you know how he was. So antisocial, so... protective of himself, so vengeful, he's still so..." She couldn't think of a word that both matched what he was and she actually wanted to say about him. "...and now he wants to be at least a little bit feminine?" "Mom, that's WHY he's like that. You know those animals with the armor and the spikes on their backs, and they have soft underbellies? That's Ricky. The whole reason he has that stuff is to protect his soft side." "And sometimes he can jump on someone's head," Heather replied, and Zoe groaned at her mom's videogame joke. Heather smiled and suddenly thought of a way to possibly patch things up with her daughter. "Speaking of people who need a softer viewpoint, perhaps it's Michael who should be wearing dresses." She was expecting good humor and reconciliation; instead, her daughter stared at her with alarm, almost panic. "Don't ever say that!" Zoe whispered harshly. "If Ricky heard you say something like that, he'd freak!" She was freaking out a bit herself. Christ, that had been just like what he'd asked her after his nightmare! "It was just a joke, Zoe," Heather softly replied, a bit startled and not understanding. The way her daughter was looking at her, she had just said something utterly offensive, and she made a serious effort to figure out how it could have been. "God, you just don't get it," Zoe hissed in frustration. "It's not funny, and if you want to see his soft side, don't ever make him think that you want to do this as a punishment, to anyone, for any reason, ever!" She almost blurted out 'He'll KILL you, Mom!' Instead, she decided on "He'll just do that thing again instead!" She was watching his door upstairs to make sure it was still closed. How could she even begin to explain this? Heather needed no explanation. "Or you would," she said softly. "I understand." She did understand, then, even better than her children did. Dressing so femininely, especially for a boy, obviously wasn't completely a sexual thing, but it was in that vicinity. Therefore, adding force to the equation was in the same general category as rape. What she had previously done to her daughter was completely unconscionable, extreme fraternity hazing at the very least, and she had basically just told a rape joke. "It's a very personal choice," she chose to say aloud, and Zoe heard all the regret and realization in her voice. Richard's door opened, and Heather was surprised that there wasn't much to be surprised about, except for the colors on display. He wasn't wearing makeup, but he had done his own pigtails very well, a pair of rainbow ties holding his hair. Heather had worried that he was going to appear wearing something revealing or even pornographic, but instead he wore his full rainbow outfit, his dress against his knees and his gloves at his elbows, his socks and medium heels on his feet. He slowly walked downstairs, smiling the whole time but still slightly expecting his mother to freak out. "Did you pick that outfit yourself?" Heather asked. They were appropriate first words to ask him, the first time she saw him dressed like that. "Susie picked it for me, but it's still my favorite." Heather nodded. "All right. If this is who you want to be, then this is who you should be. As long as it's tasteful and modest, you don't need to dress like a boy or a girl on my account," she said, clearly and carefully. What she had really been afraid of was that he would have looked like that one boy she'd seen on television, that boy whose mother allowed him - or urged him, or possibly even forced him - to wear revealing and rather disturbing outfits. What she saw in front of her was simply a cute hairstyle, what was almost just an extended shirt, a pair of tasteful, long boots, and fancy gloves that he was wearing just because she'd asked to see the outfit. "But I won't have you dressing like a slut in public, Richard, and so we're clear, that goes for both of you," she warned anyway. "That's too far." Zoe just scoffed angrily, feeling doubly insulted but not replying. Richard's tone was mollifying. "Mom, I don't do that. Even, like, at the pool, you know what trunks Susie bought for me." "I'm aware," Heather replied. "But now I need to know. Did you actually go where you said you were going?" "We didn't lie to you, Mom," Zoe replied, annoyed. "Especially not about the pool, Leslie really has to be there on Tuesdays and Fridays and I really want to be there with her. We did go to the frolfing course, and he did get his socks and shoes muddy when carrying her over. What he was wearing sometimes wasn't what you expected, but it's actually where we went, every time." "And made additional stops I was unaware of. I understand," Heather replied, knowing like she had to sound like as much of a parent, be as much of a parent, as she could. "I'm not a fool, Zoe. I knew that the two of you would start keeping things from me as you grew older, and I know that you're keeping things from me now. And I'm well aware that I've made awful mistakes as a mother, but I'm concerned about you, both of you, about your safety and about your health. I don't want you, either of you, to do anything that's going to ruin your lives later on down the road." She sighed, turning to Richard. "I don't want to be scared of you and I don't want you to be scared of me, either." He chose his words carefully, trying not to be harsh at all. "Can we just not do bad stuff to each other anymore, Mom? Me or Zoe or you?" He wanted to say more, but he didn't know how to phrase it, and his words got caught in his throat. Heather was expecting her son to promise something, to do something for her if she left them alone, and she suddenly remembered what she'd come home to last week. "You did all the chores like that, didn't you?" Richard found himself blushing as he nodded. "And you very much enjoyed it. You don't need to say anything, your mother understands. All right, then. No more bad stuff, no more forcing you to wear clothes you hate or attend social events with people you detest," she said, turning to Zoe. "I won't keep either of you from spending time with your friends or anything like that, I won't judge you for the way you are. But. The two of you have shown me that you are not normal teenagers. Therefore, I don't want to see any of the normal teenager crap from either of you. No drinking, no smoking, no lying - and I know you're not going to always tell me everything, that's different - keep your grades up, keep doing your chores however you're dressed doing them, keep the moody phases to a minimum, I know it's all hormones, no pointless arguments or teenager tantrums, you actually use those brains of yours and don't get into any dangerous situations, and above all, absolutely no drugs of any kind. I won't have any of that in this house or in my children. Do we have a deal?" "Just one more thing, can you never, ever go through my closet ever again? I checked, there's nothing of yours back there," Richard said. He had been through every box in the closet while finding places to store his new wardrobe. "Either of our closets," Zoe added firmly. "I'll leave both of you your privacy, I can do that for you. Then do we have a deal?" Richard glanced at his sister, who seemed much more annoyed than he did. "Deal," Zoe said after a bit. She wanted to slap her mother for her earlier 'slut' comment, but she was more than willing to just put this all to a permanent stop if she could be openly in love with her girlfriend without worry. "Deal," Richard agreed. "All right, then. This is our family now. I'll respect you and you'll respect me. I am concerned about one more thing. Richard, you said that this is what brought you and Susie together, and I won't ask details. But would the two of you still be together if you didn't allow her to dress you?" The question cut to the quick, jarring his sense of self. Yes, they'd been doing a great many very intimate things, but was he really her boyfriend or more like her pet? If, one day, he had to be done with being a sissy, would she be just as done with him? Zoe came to his rescue. "Mom, she loves him for who he is. Don't ask him if she'd love him if he was someone else, he doesn't know and she probably doesn't either." "All right, that's fair," Heather replied. "Give your mother a hug." Both of her children leaned in to hug her, Zoe very slightly more reluctant than her brother. "I'm going to go relax now. I love you and I want the best for you. Both of you." She turned to Zoe. "Even if I'm sometimes so terrible at showing it." She went upstairs to play a monotonous game that would let her brain lose focus on everything else. "My ass," Zoe muttered quietly once her mother was out of earshot. Her brother looked at her. "Never mind. It's fine, it's over, we don't have to worry anymore." They immediately went to give their friends the good news. [5:35 PM] Leslie: Needing to wait for someone when you're worried about them is one of the worst things. [5:37 PM] Susie: It really is. [5:38 PM] Caroline: rickys been feeling the same about you, you must have figured this out [5:39 PM] Susie: I'm with my dad. Ricky's just waiting to be with me again. He's not waiting while worried. It's different. [5:42 PM] Leslie: I'm going to play games. I really can't sit here stressed. Zoe TEXT ME when you get this!! [5:44 PM] Susie: I'll stay in the chat, my dad'll be doing work stuff for another hour or two. [5:46 PM] Caroline: just sitting here watching a movie rn [6:03 PM] Richard: /tts We're back! [6:03 PM] Susie: OMG that made me jump [6:03 PM] Caroline: ok hacker boy howd you do that [6:03 PM] Leslie: Didn't even need the text! What was that? [6:03 PM] Zoe: lol I saw him do it [6:04 PM] Richard: ```/tts``` (text to speech) is great stuff. :smile: It all went fine, best it could have really! Wearing my rainbow dress right now :grin: [6:04 PM] Zoe: She ASKED to see it! [6:04 PM] Susie: I AM SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW!! :hearts: [6:05 PM] Zoe: Leslie **we don't need to hide from her anymore!!!** [6:05 PM] Caroline: this ended better than the movie did [6:05 PM] Richard: Yeah she made us a deal, we can do whatever as long as we don't get into regular teenager trouble like smoking or drugs or something [6:05 PM] Leslie: This is one of the best days ever, I am not even kidding [6:05 PM] Leslie: THE BAD THING we were so worried about WON'T HAPPEN [6:05 PM] Caroline: like the two of you were ever going to do regular bad teenager shit lol [6:05 PM] Zoe: IKR!! to both caroline and leslie (edited) [6:06 PM] Susie: And now Ricky can hang up all his pretty outfits and put his boy clothes away for special occasions :slight_smile: Like tomorrow lol [6:06 PM] Richard: Good idea! :) [6:07 PM] Leslie: I just want to know, this is just a question, Ricky did you threaten your mom at all? [6:08 PM] Richard: I tried not to. I think she was feeling a little threatened anyway, but I didn't give her any ultimatum or anything like that, btw SHE MUST NEVER KNOW ABOUT THE PEDO BLACKMAIL THING or she will **actually** have a heart attack. [6:09 PM] Zoe: It feels like she's doing what she thinks she has to do, not what she wants to do. If she doesn't go back on it, that's good enough for me. [6:09 PM] Richard: She actually said the word "deal" so we're good. [6:10 PM] Leslie: If this is all okay now, anyone for Cards Against Humanity? [6:10 PM] Richard: You play that?! [6:10 PM] Zoe: Ricky, if you and her get blank cards at the same time, SHE WILL WIN. Neither Caroline nor Susie had played it before, and it was a very entertaining evening indeed. Heather found her backscratcher before she went to bed. It was in her secretary in plain view, where it had been the whole time.