Probably should have been mentioned this earlier, but thanks for all the nice comments, everyone! All the good vibes help me a lot with this.
Sorry it took longer than usual, but I’ve been feeling my… everything, lately.
I let them enjoy their treats for awhile before I broke up the fun.
“Alright, everyone, I have an announcement: today, we’re having movie night!”
I paused before correcting myself. “Well, Miranda and I are watching a movie, anyways. You two are invited, but I don’t actully care if you show up. You can join us, or watch it from the Min House, or just hide somewhere and do whatever.”
Miranda, bless her soul, had apparently been either appeased or abused enough to not protest my forceful inclusion of her, but after a moment the unspoken spokeswoman of the lesser Mins stepped forward.
“Pardon me, Master, but may I ask what you are watching?”
It was an odd question for Amber, considering the more practical bent of her questions when drawing my attention, but I got the feeling she was… testing the boundaries a bit. Not in a subversive way, but more trying to figure out what I would allow her, find the line so she could stay well clear of it.
Still, it would be interesting to see how far that boldness could go.
“You know, I’m not actually sure.” I said. “I guess I’m open.”
I waited, but Amber didn’t take the bait, merely stepping back with a polite curtsey to where she had stood before. Not bold enough, then, to raise her opinion unless she felt it was truly needed.
“Alright then,” I sighed, getting out of my chair. It was increasingly easy to adjust my arm around Miranda as I moved about, keeping her safely tucked against me as my body moved. Once I straightened up, I placed my free hand on the table, palm up.
“Anyone coming?”
Amber wasn’t the only one doing some testing though: there was something unspeakably fascinating about poking and prodding at the two of them, to see how long their courage would last before breaking, how long before a suggestion, in their minds, became an order they couldn’t refused.
It didn’t take a genius to realize that, interested in a movie or not, neither of them would be interested in being carried to see the movie, not by me, at any rate. Too much fear and (warranted) mistrust, too easy for me to simply close my hand into a clenched fist while they’re still inside, or to take them somewhere they didn’t want to go.
The pair traded nervous glances, and I didn’t have to look down to realize that Miranda was glaring at me.
“I- I mean, we, thank you for your generosity, Master, but… i-if you wouldn’t mind, would prefer to stay here for the moment.” Amber stammered briefly, before adding a quiet, ‘Please don’t’ at the end I think I wasn’t supposed to hear.
Interesting. I would have thought that had read far closer to a command than my unspoken question about movies. Maybe the fear of being held by me had overcame their normal reservations?
I shrugged casually. “Alright.”
And, really, it was. As much fun as it was to poke and prod at them to see how they reacted, I still didn’t care how they spent their time.
My business with them done, I turned and left, still cradling Miranda carefully. After a minute, she finally spoke up.
“What the hell was that about?”
It was more subdued than how she had talked to me before, but the anger was still present. It was, in my mind, a good sign, so I decided I’d give her a straight answer in return.
“…Honestly? I wanted to see what they would do. I asked them a question, because I wanted to see what they’d do with it. What choice they’d make.”
I paused and thought about it again, that small defiance, glaring compared to their short history of cowering subservience.
“And I did.”
As I arrived at my chair, I heard her huff, and it was with a little irritation, and maybe a touch less of a gentle touch than before, that I shifted her in my grip, moving her around until she sat on me knee, facing me as I sat down.
I refrained from reclining, instead focusing on the conversation at hand.
“Seriously, Miranda, you need to relax. I’m not going to hurt them, I’m not even going to touch them. Not unless there’s permission.”
I leaned towards her, my face stern. “Not unless you push me, Miranda.”
She didn’t flinch, but she tensed in a way that made me think she was stopping herself from doing it, and it was enough for me to be sure that I got my point across.
Pushing myself back, I popped up the footrest. “Your little friends are interesting, Miranda, and they’re fun, sure. But we all know this isn’t about them. Maybe it is to you, at least, but not me.”
I picked up the remote and start searching through movies, looking for something… simple. Something I knew already.
I felt Miranda get up, walking forward and sitting down at the base of my leg, back against my stomach, legs almost straddling the width of my thigh.
Eventually, I started the movie, an old favorite of mine: action, plenty of guns and dramatic moments, easy for me to watch in even if I wasn’t paying attention.
Which I wasn’t.
I gave it a valiant effort, I really did, but the sensation of her on my body, her thin form laying against mine, it was… distracting. To say the least.
Not too long into the movie, I moved my arm from the arm rest to lay it across her legs.
It held her closer to me, which was nice. It felt… affectionate, caring. Like placing an arm over the shoulders of your girlfriend, if adjusted for a different scale.
It also let me cover myself, which was something I desperately wanted to do before she noticed just how much I was paying attention to her.
As my arm set down carefully upon her, Miranda glanced up at me with a cryptic look, but she didn’t protest, so I was able to stay that way the entire time. It was nice. It was what I wanted in the first place: to protect her, to keep her close, to keep her safe.
And maybe, just maybe, to have a relationship of some form. Fondness, or affection, even.
It was hard to remember that, sometimes, when I felt her in my hands, the feel of her skin as she squirmed against my grip, so soft and helpless and mine, at last mine.
It was harder to remember when she looked at me, eyes distant and unfeeling, like I was nothing more than a means to an end, a trial for her to endure.
Harder still when she stared up at me, face filled with fear and horror and the realization that she had made a mistake, that she never should have trusted me, that I would-
…
It was hard, in other words. Hard to be kind and gentle when she was so madly alluring and bloody infuriating, and so a moment like this was something I wanted to treasure.
Hmm. I feel like I’m at a filler moment, trying to figure out how to best transition to where I want to be next.
