A Bet To Lose, Chapter 16 free porn video

Richard woke up in a state of utter anticipation, almost giddy with excitement, completely hard. He had, of course, dreamt of Susie, and she had done many enjoyable things with him, some of which were unclear and some of which violated basic laws of physics. It wasn't a wet dream, he had never had one of those, but it was very close. It had been easier the previous days, even when he was spending time with her in public, because it wasn't happening that same day - but as the promised time was approaching, it took force of will and self control to not act like a total spaz at the breakfast table, even if he was wearing a pretty pink dress. Of course, his mother had taken notice of the subtle changes in his attitude, although she certainly wasn't going to say anything about them. He wasn't quite jumping up and down, but the last time she'd seen him act anything like this, it was before a Christmas that he'd actually cared about... was he nine then? Younger, older? She didn't remember. She didn't even remember what it was she'd bought him and his sister. All she remembered was that it was the year she'd kept the presents in the trunk of the car, to make sure that they wouldn't find them early, and then nearly forgot where she'd put them herself. Neither of them noticed Zoe's look of concern. Zoe knew that whatever Susie really did with him couldn't be terribly bad, otherwise he wouldn't be so desperate to go back for more of it, and she knew that after having enjoyed so much private time with Leslie, worrying about it was a bit hypocritical, but it wasn't the same kind of relationship at all. She dithered for a bit, both of them playing games to pass the time, before she made a decision. Susie had power over him, power freely given but power nonetheless, and besides, he was her little sissy brother so she had the right and the duty to look after him. 'Susie, I really want to know just what it is you're doing with my little brother,' she texted. There, it was out. She'd said it, and it could not be unsaid. She didn't expect a reply right away and didn't get one. Susie was in the middle of a long conversation with her father, one of the last ones before he left the country, about men and women, puberty, responsibility, and Richard. A lot about Richard. Susie got the impression that she was taking a final exam of some sort. Fortunately, none of the discussion involved traditional responsibilities such as housework or a woman's obedience to her husband; Susie didn't think she could keep a straight face if he started talking about that. And then, as parents do, Majid started talking about himself, and Susie patiently endured it as she had before, and then he told her that Fatima no longer needed to be coming every morning to check on her, that she had clearly shown that she was grown up enough to be fully responsible for the house. Her aunt would still help on request for things like housework, but Susie had assured her father - with a straight face! - that she might need her aunt to help buy stuff and deal with big things like the pool, but nothing else. After lunch with him, she checked her phone and found Zoe's question trickier than everything her father had said to her combined. She might have replied with something along the lines of 'This is our private time, please respect that' or 'Wasn't I clear at your birthday party that this was for me and him?' But that just wasn't the right way to treat her friend and future sister-in-law. Instead, she texted back, 'Okay, come over and stay for a sleepover, and I'll show you. Bring your rainbow jammies.' She was in on most of it already, and there was something altogether thrilling about completely treating him as her pet right in front of his big sister. Zoe texted her mother saying where she planned to be with Richard that night, getting 'Have fun, and be careful!' within five minutes, and Susie texted her boyfriend her own instructions. He was to bring his rainbow dress and matching high heels, along with his own rainbow pajamas, and his sense of anticipation tripled. Boy clothes? Why would he need those? [12:45 PM] Zoe: Sleeping over at Susie's tonight with Ricky. [12:46 PM] Leslie: YOU'll be sleeping. [12:47 PM] Susie: We will be sleeping ||eventually||! I actually don't mind if you guys come for dinner and stay overnight. Richard, reading but not participating, felt his pulse quicken. This meant that she was not going to wait to have fun with him from the moment he walked in the door, and they will have been doing it for hours before dinnertime. [12:50 PM] Leslie: Parents won't be home until late tonight, and Caroline's working. [12:55 PM] Caroline: yeah im on lunch break, working a 13 hour day, were so backed up, every single gd uber and taxi in the whole gd greater area wants a plastic shield for corona [1:15 PM] Susie: Don't worry about it. We can do it again tomorrow, this isn't a one time thing. It's basically my house now. [1:17 PM] Caroline: complete with french maid [1:18 PM] Leslie: :laughing: [1:20 PM] Susie: LOL, I haven't bought him one of those outfits yet [1:20 PM] Zoe: YET [1:20 PM] Caroline: >yet [1:21 PM] Leslie: :regional_indicator_y: :regional_indicator_e: :regional_indicator_t: [1:21 PM] Richard: Just don't expect the accent, I can't do it right. [1:21 PM] Susie: Practice makes perfect! [1:22 PM] Richard: Oui, madame. [1:22 PM] Zoe: Omfg [1:23 PM] Leslie: Why is this so funny?? [1:23 PM] Leslie: You're making me actually hurt from laughing again! [1:25 PM] Caroline: my dad came over and asked what i was laughing at, told him it was porn, thats easier to explain [1:27 PM] Caroline: 3 walk ins, in last 2 hours fucking kill me "At least she's getting paid well," Richard said. Zoe had overheard the telltale jingle of bells and met her little brother in the living room as he basically waited on the couch, his phone in hand. He was wearing the full jingling outfit that Susie had given him, bells on his dress and socks and Mary Janes on his feet along with his thick diaper underneath and adorned with the extras that his mother had bought him at the mall. He was just so incredibly cute, Zoe thought, almost like a real Japanese lolita. There was something missing, though. Oh, right, makeup, but it was yet another burning hot day and they were going for a walk soon. Forget it. She wasn't wearing any, either. "I think her dad's paying her overtime, too," Zoe agreed, suddenly getting an idea she felt like sharing. "Can you imagine if she does marry a charter pilot, and starts a company with him, and becomes a big tycoon and gets as rich as Susie's dad?" Richard was about to say something but Zoe overrode him. "Imagine if she had a daughter of her own who had her own house and found a little sissy of her own to sleep over with her." she continued, gently tapping Richard's nose. He laughed. "I could see that happening! Doesn't she want to live out in Alaska? There would be nobody to see anything they did." "Well, unless his big sister checked up on him so he wouldn't get into too much trouble," Zoe said, smiling. "Thanks for doing that today, big sis," Richard replied, returning the smile. "Well, of course. You remember, Leslie's dad said you shouldn't be out like that by yourself." He nodded. "So either she picks you up or I walk over there with you. I mean, you could just go over there wearing something a little less bait-y, but neither of us would ever make you do a thing like that," Zoe said in a dominant a tone as possible, and she almost broke out laughing. His smile continued. "God, you are just too precious. Get up and give me a little twirl, Ricky, I want to hear those bells jingle." He immediately did so, twisting his body to make his dress jingle loudly, and as the dress flared out, Zoe clearly saw his pink, puffy diaper. This time, she couldn't stop the laughter. "Wow, she's got you in that too, huh?" she asked, pointing. "It suits you. Just make sure nobody else sees it." He nodded some more, pleased that his sister was getting into it by treating him this way. The dress was knee length. Somebody at the wrong angle could catch a glimpse, but it was unlikely. "You could actually be an anime character, I swear," she said. "Those are the traditional vestments of the High Priest of Whereverthefuckia, whose goddess commands him to spread peace and love throughout the land with the power of searing holy light. And then you wave your pretty scepter and a building explodes, and there's a bunch of sirens and dogs barking." Richard clenched his stomach in laughter. They hung out on the couch together until the fateful message finally came: Susie's dad had left, heading straight for the nearest coastline where he was due to embark on one of his own giant cargo ships. Richard was reminded of 'My parents aren't home' memes, and while some other boy might have sprinted straight for her house at top speed, he jingled along, holding hands with his big sister, his phone and keys in his belt pouch. It was the middle of the day, and they did hurry a bit because it seriously was burning hot out there. A couple of high school freshman boys were riding bikes, doing tricks on the path in front of them, and they openly, brazenly stared at who they saw as girls, one of which was dressed like they'd never seen anyone dressed in the real world before. Richard smiled at them and gave a little, dainty wave. "Hey, um," one of the boys opened a conversation with, "do we go to the same school? I don't think I've seen you before, I'm Jack," he said, holding out a hand to shake because he didn't know what else to do. Richard could have laughed at him. Did he really want to get to know that girl in front of him better? If he did, he'd probably wish he hadn't. "No, we don't go to the same school, I don't think," Zoe lied but gently shook his hand anyway. She actually did vaguely recognize him, but they didn't attend the same classes. "You're wondering what the outfit's for, it's for a very special event." That part, from Richard's standpoint at least, was not a lie. "I know, you want to date her, but this little cutie here is taken, and you don't want to mess with the boy in that relationship, believe me." Also not a lie, and Richard nodded along. The boy didn't say anything in response, just went back to his bike tricks, but the brother and sister did hear the boys taking pictures. Richard was totally unconcerned and told his sister as much. What were they going to do? Blackmail him? He chuckled, wishing them good luck with that. Wearing a businesslike black dress, the item that best conveyed total authority in her wardrobe, Susie greeted them at the door, and Richard immediately gave his princess a jingling curtsey before they walked in, and she gave him a kiss in return. "Ricky, your big sister is worried about you and wants to see how I treat you, so act like we're alone," she commanded him, smiling, the thrill visible on her face. "Yes, Your Highness," he immediately replied, sort of expecting that and enjoying the thrill as well, hoping that his big sister would be okay with this and knowing that she'd never treat him quite the same way again; he didn't want her to, he wanted Zoe to know that this was who he was, this was what he was like when he was with people he trusted. Zoe blinked, a surprised smile creeping up on her face. She had been half-expecting him to call her something like 'Mistress', but that made a lot more sense. "Let's give those cute feet of yours a break," Susie said very lovingly as she brought him into the living room, reaching for the booties and kneepads, and he immediately undid his Mary Janes and pulled off his socks. The kneepads went on first, and he sat down so she could tie on his booties. "Your hands need a rest, too," she told him, and tied on his padded mittens. The bondage items fascinated Zoe, but the look on his face was the most captivating. He was in a state of sublime bliss, utter euphoria. If she had just walked in, she would have thought that he was high on powerful drugs. "This dress is good for now, but let's keep you safe," Susie told him, and he eagerly lifted up his arms so that she could put him in his reins. "Now, come along. Over my knee," she told him, guiding him as he crawled along, and he did exactly that. Zoe watched with her mouth partially open. She had known it was something like this, but she had just watched him intentionally and willingly put himself over the knee of the girl he had just called 'Your Highness'. She couldn't recall their mother having ever spanked either of them - she had given both of them the occasional swat as kindergarteners but never anything like this - and the purpose here was totally different in kind and in tone. "Your Highness, what did I do?" her brother asked in a much more meek tone than he had ever used with her, even as Sunshine. Susie's voice was soft, gentle, and very comforting. "Do? Silly boy. You were perfect this past week. You followed my lead, you did what I told you, you did exactly what I needed you to do. You dealt with your mom the right way, you made a great impression on my dad, you didn't mess up on the boat or in the pool, you did everything right and nothing wrong, you were even a very good boy for your big sister." She said that last part with a smile at Zoe, and then she leaned over and lovingly kissed Richard on top of his head. "I'm not punishing you for anything." She gave his butt a sharp slap with the spatula, making his whole body twitch in surprise and the bells on his dress jingle. Even Zoe jumped slightly. "I'm spanking you just because I want to." She started in earnest, giving him loud slaps that mostly came from the wrist (she had secretly tested them on herself), occasionally causing him to yelp and whine in exaggerated pain, his dress jingling with every strike, as she whapped his legs just below the diaper - never the same spot twice - as Zoe watched in rapt fascination. She had once seen something like this online with paid actors, but in person - and with her brother! - it was different, and she watched as if she were studying for a test. She visualized herself sitting where Susie sat, or perhaps taking Ricky's place, with Leslie in the other position. Zoe knew Susie wasn't hitting him all that hard - she was bizarrely reminded of professional wrestling - and she gained a better handle on the concept of cruelty. If Susie had invented some excuse to do it, Richard would have been needlessly sad and hurt at having disappointed her; as it was, both of them were very satisfied, with Susie dishing out stinging whacks and Richard happily accepting them as her submissive sissy. Susie wound up her arm for harder strikes, and Zoe looked on in alarm, but the spatula came directly on top of his puffy diaper instead of his bare legs and Zoe tried not to laugh. Susie delivered two more quick whacks to his bottom, just below his diaper, and then put down the spatula and gently patted the lightly reddened area where she had struck. "Well?" Susie asked in a motherly tone. "What do you say?" "Thank you for spanking me, Your Highness." "You're very welcome, baby. Now come along, there's something you have to give me," she said, and she nudged him off her lap, and he eagerly climbed up the stairs on his mittens and kneepads as Susie held his reins, trying not to kneel on the bells on his dress, and Zoe knew that what would have been intolerably humiliating for most other teenagers was foreplay for him. Zoe did not follow, of course; she knew what came next (the two of them), and very soon after Susie closed her bedroom door, Zoe heard the telltale, unmistakable sounds of an irregularly creaking bed. Zoe continued to stand there, mute, her mind a tempest of emotions, arousal not least among them, hoping more than anything in the world that Leslie's treatment worked. She badly wanted to do what she had just witnessed with her girlfriend, but even if Leslie consented, she'd just feel like shit doing that to her screwed-up body. Then again, she thought as she heard her brother and his girlfriend going at it like rabbits, Leslie had been actually hurt, actually abused by her birth parents. The idea would have to be brought up carefully if it were to be brought up at all, a while after Leslie's treatment had - hopefully - worked. She sat on Susie's expensive, comfortable couch for a good twenty minutes, listening, relaxing, and fantasizing, and eventually it stopped and she wondered what they were talking about up there, but Richard hadn't complained one iota when she'd told him to stay upstairs for three hours. She hadn't wanted him coming down and seeing Leslie sitting on a diaper, especially if Zoe's fingers were in her, and Zoe certainly wouldn't have wanted him listening in on their conversation or even being curious about it, and she could afford him and Susie the same courtesy now that her question was answered. It was probably all lovey-dovey, 'I hope I pleased you, Your Highness' stuff, anyway. "I had no idea boys could do that," Susie said, still embracing her sissy pet, his leash still firmly wrapped around her hand, her tender-feeling breasts pressing into his baby dress and reins. The two of them had been rolling around on the towels on Susie's bed, holding each other, him staying in her from the top, the bottom, the side. He had prematurely ejaculated less than a minute in, but to both of their surprise, he had simply kept right on going anyway, and he'd come a second and final time. She had come... three, four times? More? It had been a haze of pleasure and lust throughout. That time must have done it, Susie thought, that time was the time that would keep them together for sure, him as her willing submissive sissy baby pet slave forever, and if it wasn't that time, then it would be tomorrow, or the day after that. "I didn't either," Richard said, still holding her, his padded mitten gently holding her lower curves. God, he'd hit the lottery, he'd hit all the lotteries at once, and he had something else to tell her but didn't want to sound like he was bragging to his princess, his mistress, his forever owner. "Waiting was awful, but I'm so glad I did," he settled on saying. She understood immediately, smiling and kissing him. "You're such a good boy. I didn't need to put you in chastity after all." She giggled lightly, intentionally. "Of course, now this is what I expect of you. You'll always wait from now on." He drew in a breath. "Don't worry. I won't keep you waiting too long," she said, kissing him on the nose. "Now, how long are you going to keep holding on to me?" "Until you tell me to let go, Your Highness," he replied, and her heart jumped. She giggled again, shuddering a bit. "Let go, sissy boy. It's bath time. Carry your diaper," she instructed him, as was not about to put him back into it for such a short distance. With one mitten carrying the diaper and the other on the floor, he crawled along with her holding his reins, his jingly dress and nothing else over his nether regions. "Zoe, we're taking a bath, do you want to join us?" she called downstairs. Zoe blinked. She knew it was just a bath, that they were all done with the sex part, but sharing a bath with them and the fluids that she was sure must be oozing... it was all too weird for her. "No thanks," she said, shaking her head. Susie smiled and led Richard in, stripping him of his baby gear and jingly dress, and the two of them sat together, cuddling in the rapidly filling tub. "I missed this so much," he told her as they held each other close. "This, and not the last part?" she jokingly asked him. "Well, yeah, that too, but the after part is just so... perfect." Richard grasped the concept of 'aftercare' but there was no need for it, not with them. She never did anything to him that required that kind of care afterwards. He was just relaxed and happy and at peace with everything. He kind of did want to have sex with her again, lift her up and plant her on his lap for another round, but he was completely spent. He didn't say anything else, he didn't want to ruin anything with more words, like how he was glad Zoe didn't freak out watching them; he just wanted to be with his princess for as long as he could, and she had the same feelings about him, so they stayed in the tub for a good half hour until the warm water stopped being comfortable. Zoe was watching music videos on Susie's couch, enjoying the 7.1 surround sound, when she saw them. Her mouth opened again, and she turned off the video because it had suddenly become a meaningless distraction. Susie had changed into a simple top and skirt and changed Richard's dress into his shorter one that left his diaper exposed. He was back in his mittens, booties, and reins, but the most shocking part was his head. He had his pacifier strapped in, headphones on his head, and the VR helmet strapped around his eyes. Zoe was certain he was blind and deaf just from the way he moved, from the way that Susie was guiding him with touch, from the way he oh-so-carefully scooted down the stairs on his puffy diaper. "Scoot over," Susie said quietly, and it took Zoe a second to realize she was talking to her, and she moved over a bit as Susie sat on the far side of her, giving Richard plenty of room to curl up on the couch between them. Zoe experimentally poked at Richard's booties. They were so soft, were there springs inside or something? "Be careful," Susie warned her. "If anything pushes on the bottoms, he'll get poked." "So he has to crawl," Zoe understood, keeping the same quiet voice. She looked at his face. His expression was mostly hidden, but Zoe was very certain that he was in an even deeper state of bliss than he had been before, as he rhythmically, contentedly suckled on his pacifier. Susie looked over the very comfortable boy at his big sister. "You look like you want to say something else," she said with a half-smile. "I don't know what TO say," Zoe replied honestly. "I get that this is his thing, that he's letting you do this to him, I mean, I knew it was something like this, I guess I'm just surprised to see it." She really shouldn't have been, she realized, after the mermaid suit. "I'm not doing anything to him, I'm doing things for him," Susie replied matter-of-factly. "We have a give-and-give relationship. I give him what he wants and he gives me what I want. What do you think is the worst thing I've done to him, what have I taken from him?" Zoe looked at her friend, pursing her lips as she thought. There was a bunch of stuff she might have said, but it was all stupid. Susie obviously hadn't taken anything from him that he actually wanted to keep. And the other question, the worst thing she'd done to him? How could that even be a question when he was clearly enjoying all of it? "You're right, you didn't," Zoe admitted. She had wondered whether Susie was going easy on him because she was there, but that couldn't be right. She'd planned all this out, top to bottom, and Zoe being there had not changed her plan. "And I never will," Susie promised. "He's my pet, and how do I treat my pets?" Whiskers was a very pampered, fully clawed tomcat who ate fish every day. 'Just as long as you don't neuter him,' Zoe might have joked, but they had just done very much the opposite, and she just nodded. She might have asked what Susie was getting out of all this, but the answer to that was even more obvious, not even counting the fact that she could tell him to do nearly anything. Richard had found his answer of what he could give his princess. "Hold this button down if you want to talk to him," Susie said, showing Zoe the microphone. "But I've got a movie for us to watch." "What's that?" "Toy Story 1, I've never seen it before. You and I can watch it in 4K, and he gets to enjoy it in 3D," Susie replied, smiling and playing with one of her boyfriend's pigtails. Making this work had taken longer than it should have. She'd even committed a bit of piracy herself because she did not want to explain to her father why she wanted two versions of the same movie. "I... wasn't expecting that," Zoe admitted as Susie started setting things up on the TV and her laptop, pairing Bluetooth connections and making sure things were synced up. Zoe would have thought that with so much control over Richard's hearing and vision, that she could make him... and there, Zoe realized the problem with her own thinking. Susie probably could make him watch something stupid or overly girly if she wanted to. She just didn't want to. Why would she? "The first time we did this, we just did radio shows," Susie explained. "His whole world, pretty much all day, was nothing but the radio show and me touching him." Susie took Zoe's look of interest as concern. "He loved it, the time flew for him, he said 'Already?' when he had to go." Susie's imitation of his voice made Zoe laugh a bit. "Right now, his world's just us touching him, and when I push these buttons, it'll be the movie and us touching him," Susie continued, her voice growing more smug, more dominant. She loved being in this position, the power and security it gave her. Other girls around the world had to deal with unruly, adulterous, and obnoxious men who would lie to them, beat them, manipulate them, leave them hanging, and all the other horrible acts of heartbreak and hurt that her pet would never, could never, do to her. And now she was bringing his sister in on it as well. Susie pushed the buttons, starting both versions of the movie as close together as possible. "Is it working?" she asked through the microphone, and Richard nodded. "There's nothing else in his life right now, Zoe. All he can do is watch his movie and cuddle his princess until I say it's time for him to be a big boy again. If he has to go pee, that's what his diaper's for. I can even feed him through his pacifier, but that's not the plan for today." She caught the look on Zoe's face. "Now, which of us do you envy more, me or him?" Zoe laughed again. "I kinda want to do some of this stuff with Leslie, maybe take turns, but not while her body's still messed up." Zoe couldn't help but run it all through her mind again: Leslie being cured of her condition had been something they'd anticipated for a long time, and then her birth parents had almost fucked everything up, and then things had been put right by her brother, the very same little sissy baby whose ankles she was idly, unconsciously petting. Susie nodded and smiled. "Don't tell him this, but one day, I'm going to be like that and order him to take care of me." Zoe couldn't help herself from making an 'Oh, wow' smile of interest and excitement, but the movie was starting in earnest so she didn't reply. Zoe mused on the irony. She was watching a movie about living toys when her friend had basically turned her little brother into one. Susie was thinking the same thing, idly playing with his cute pigtail, when she felt him tap her three times with his fluffy mitten. Confused, she sat up and looked at him, not remembering right away what it was for, and he did it again. Crap, that was his safeword, why the hell was he safewording?! Fumbling and panicking a bit, she managed to stop both the movies and then started pulling everything off his head at once, unstrapping the pacifier from his mouth. "Ricky, what's wrong?!" she asked, confused. "The 3D was giving me a headache," he explained lamely. The migraine had been building up for the past ten minutes or so, and he hadn't wanted to admit to himself that he had needed to stop until it started getting bad. He also figured out that she didn't remember his gestural safeword right away and wasn't going to blame her. "I'm so sorry! I totally forgot that could happen!" Susie apologized. "Are you all right?" He smiled and nodded in reply, and Susie sighed, both in slight relief and in frustration with herself. Her family'd had a 3DTV half a decade ago, back when they were popular, and while she had been fine, her youngest brother and father had both found it unusable. Why hadn't she considered that the same thing might happen to him? Sighing, she looked at the glasses, wondering if she could or should set them to 2D... forget it. She synced up the headphones with the TV and put them on him again, buckled his pacifier back in, and left the glasses off. "There's your answer, Zoe," Susie said. "That was the worst thing I've ever done to him. Oh, and just in case, his safewords are 'boondoggle' and doing something like a tap three times in a row." "Not using the light system?" Zoe asked. Susie shook her head. "It's not right for us. Besides, I didn't want to give him a common word." They watched the rest of the movie together. Susie was still mentally kicking herself for having screwed up like that, especially in front of Zoe, but the exchange had actually convinced Zoe that her little brother was in good hands. "Do you want chicken or beef?" Susie asked Zoe as the movie ended. "Whichever one you pick, I'm doing the other tomorrow, they're not frozen." "What, you don't have any spam?" Zoe asked, deadpan, and Susie stared at her. "I'm joking, you know I'm joking!" "I know you're joking! It's a bad joke!" But she started laughing anyway. Richard could feel her laughing but decided not to be curious. If his princess and big sister wanted to include him in the conversation, that was up to them. "Seriously, which one do you have more of?" Zoe asked. "Beef, but why does that matter?" "Leslie and Caroline are coming over tomorrow," Zoe reminded her, and Susie could have kicked herself again. She'd prepared for two; stretching it to three would be doable, but five would be tougher. Zoe was not about to say that Susie was unused to these sorts of practicalities, although Susie was already thinking it anyway. "Right, making morgh again. And I'm going to need some help from our little sissy here." She started taking off his headphones. "I can do it if you want, leave him the way he is," Zoe mischievously suggested. "I'm teaching him. You want to help out, you can do the table this time," Susie replied, unstrapping his pacifier because he might need to talk at some point during the cooking. Before long, he was in his rainbow outfit (the baby dress and rainbow boots just looked silly together), mincing along in his heels as Susie showed him, step by step, how to cook the dish. There were too many steps to memorize at once (oil, onions prepared two different ways, tomato paste, and that was just the start...), but he did remember most of it, and his five-inch heels were constant reminders to be careful with what he did. "You know he's just going to gobble it up like last time," Zoe said. Her brother tended to eat quickly, and she figured it was a boy thing. She'd been preparing tea while she set the table, giving Ricky a straw for his cup, and she made the reason apparent as she held out his mittens. "Let's slow him down a bit." She'd been thinking of this the whole time. "Great idea," Susie agreed, and Richard did not complain as his big sister tied on one mitten while his princess tied on the other, leaving him in front of delicious food that he'd helped cook himself but couldn't eat without help. They did help him, of course, taking turns slowly feeding him bites as they talked about the food and how it was cooked, and Richard was part of that conversation, talking normally as if they weren't in the middle of feeding him like a baby. [6:11 PM] Caroline: cant believe im on a dinner break, my dad calls it that, its been 11 hours already this is not light work [6:12 PM] Zoe: Please tell us he's paying you big bucks for this. [6:12 PM] Caroline: shit were hauling it in, hes even giving me commissions now, just so tired, 2 more horus to go today [6:12 PM] Susie: Your dad wouldn't be putting you through this if he didn't NEED you to do it. [6:13 PM] Caroline: i know, he said as much, thats the only thing keeps me going [6:13 PM] Caroline: so hows the sleepover [6:14 PM] Zoe: We're pampering Ricky like you wouldn't believe. Zoe showed the chat to Richard, and all three of them shared a long laugh. [6:18 PM] Caroline: a shoutout to whoever ate that undercooked bat, never let it be said that a single person cant change the world [6:20 PM] Leslie: LOL. Can you take me tomorrow Caroline? [6:20 PM] Caroline: dad said i can stop at 5 tomorrow no matter what so yeah [6:21 PM] Susie: Already planning a dinner for five people. :) Zoe still found it surprising, even though she knew she shouldn't, that Richard could happily talk about oil temperatures and how thyme and tomato went together even while he was very carefully holding his cup of tea between his padded mittens, sipping it through the straw. But what was surprising about it? He was just him, and he continued to be just him even after Susie untied his mittens so that the three of them could play pool. Richard sunk two balls on his first break, and explained it by saying that they'd been saving up his hands. Heather did check in with them, and Zoe texted back details about the dinner they had just eaten. And then it was pajama time, as Susie explained, dressing herself into a silken shirt-and- pants set that Richard found very wonderful on her, and brother and sister changed into their rainbow jammies. Zoe kept her socks on, but Richard had his booties and mittens on again, pacifier firmly in his mouth and headphones on his head as the three of them watched rare Korean anime together. Then it was bedtime, and as Zoe took a bath by herself, Susie checked Richard's diaper, unsurprised to find it wet. (He'd let go halfway through the anime and didn't even squirm.) She changed him into an identical one, led him upstairs, took his headphones off and plugged them and the remote mic into chargers, helped him onto the bed, and cuddled him like a pillow as she undid his pigtails for the night, telling him what a good boy he was as he suckled on his pacifier. Everything was just so perfect for Richard, so utterly devoid of flaws, that his mind started wandering into dark places again, thinking of how everything could rapidly go totally wrong. Somebody could T-bone Caroline at 90 miles an hour, Leslie's treatment could fail - that was a serious possibility, it was experimental after all - random horrors could cripple or kill any of them. But Richard knew the odds of that were low, that people were occasionally hurt by things they'd never worry about and nearly all of most people's problems were brought on by their own actions, and he had no intention of bringing problems for himself or anyone he liked. He wanted the rest of his life to be just like this.