Page 5

Bash

I flipped the toast over in the pan and smiled to myself. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d made breakfast. Having Allyson sit at the bar, watching, felt almost normal. She was still wearing my shirt and a pair of boxers we’d had to roll about four times to get them to stay up, but she was still the prettiest Little girl I’d ever seen. I had a strange yearning in my heart to make this a permanent part of our life.

“Do you want Sprite or some juice?” I asked her.

“Juice, please.”

“Do you think your tummy could handle it?”

She played with her hair as she thought it over. “Yes, Sir.”

Someone knocked on the door and she jumped at the unexpected sound.

“It’s okay, baby. It’s just Smoke,” I soothed, hating she’d been scared even momentarily. “There’s nothing here you need to be afraid of, okay?”

“Yes, Sir,” she answered, taking a deep breath and blowing it out.

“Bash, hurry the fuck up. This shit is heavy!” Smoke yelled from outside.

Laughing, I rushed to let him in. I took a few bags from him and he followed me into the kitchen.

“Just set them on the counter,” I told him.

Allyson’s eyes grew wide as we started to unpack the groceries. “Sorry, Allybaby, I didn’t have much food in the house,” I explained, “so Smoke helped me out and ran to the store for me.”

“Let me get you some money to help pay for this,” she said, trying to scoot her butt off the chair. “You better not move, Little girl,” I warned.

She froze, and I winced, instantly feeling guilty for speaking so harshly when she’d just wanted to help. The reason I’d reacted so strongly was because I knew where her urge to pay was coming from—her fear of being a burden to those around her.

I set the plate with her toast in front of her. “Eat, baby.”

She averted her eyes and played with the hem of my shirt.

“Allybaby?”

Biting her lip, she looked up at me.

“I needed groceries for you. I don’t want you to eat the same fast-food junk that I do. You don’t owe me any money for them. It is my pleasure to take care of you. It makes my Daddy heart really happy.”

She nodded.

Smoke sat beside her on a stool and propped his head in his hands. “I want toast.”

“You gotta say please,” Allyson corrected.

“I want toast, please,” he corrected.

Allyson shrugged and nodded. “That was a little better.”

I added another piece of toast to the pan and fixed Allyson a sippy cup of grape juice.

“Thank you,” she said, flushing as she took several sips.

“I want fucking juice too.”

Allyson blinked several times and her mouth opened in disbelief. “You needa use manners, Smoke!”

I smiled watching them bicker back and forth, elated that her Little had come out to play again. Smoke was good at easing a Little out of their comfort zone. He was more soft-spoken and patient than I was.

“Please, give me juice now,” Smoke tried, taunting her.

She facepalmed and shook her head.

I handed Smoke a cup of black coffee, knowing that’s what he really wanted.

“About time,” he said, making Allyson dissolve into a fit of Little girl giggles.

“Was that not right?” he asked, feigning innocence.

“No! That was terrible!” She doubled over, grabbing her belly as she laughed. It was infectious and Smoke broke his facade and joined her, but soon after she started coughing and I had to tell them to settle down.

“You’re too cute, Little girl,” he said, reaching out and booping her nose.

I set his toast in front of him and he opened his mouth to speak, but our burner phones both dinged, signaling a text alert. He shot me a look and I hesitated. We knew who was texting us and we couldn’t just ignore the messages, but I hadn’t had time to tell Allyson what he and I did. I hadn’t disclosed my darker side yet. Taking a breath, I nodded and we both reached for our phones.

“What’s wrong?” Allyson asked. Her body tightened and she kept flicking her gaze back and forth to each of us.

“We’ve been called into our side job, Little one. I have to go, but I’m going to call Auntie Kay to come sit with you, okay?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I can just go back to the shelter.”

“No, you’re still sick and I want you here,” I reminded her, already dialing Kay’s number.

“I can wait outside then, until you get back.”

“Hey, everything okay?” Kay said, answering. I normally didn’t call her. She was more of a ‘text me’ type of person.

“Any chance you can be on Auntie duty for a few hours?”

Bless Kay, she didn’t even ask a single question or tease me about who she would be playing Auntie duty for. “Of course. I love Auntie duty. I’m on the way.”

“Thank you,” I said, ending the call and turning my attention back to Allyson.

“No, you will wait right here in this house, Little girl. You absolutely will not be going outside to wait for me.” Then not wanting her to feel like I was scolding her, I added, “That would make me very sad.”

Letting her know my true feelings worked like I’d hoped it would.

“I promise I’ll stay here. I won’t even touch anything. Please don’t make Kay come babysit me. She’s going to have to leave work and Leland will be mad at me because that’s more people who are missing work,” she said, suddenly sobbing. “I’ll be so good, I promise.”

Okay, so maybe my plan hadn’t worked as good as I thought.

Handing my burner phone to Smoke so he could reply for me, I walked around the bar and scooped my upset Little girl in my arms.

“Meet you in twenty?” I asked once he’d finished.

He nodded and shoved the rest of his toast into his mouth before heading toward the front door.

I carried Allyson up the stairs and back into my room before setting her back on the bed. “Look at me, Allybaby.”

She lifted her teary eyes to me and I reached out, cupping her face. I wiped her tears with my thumbs and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“Do you remember what Leland said about families loving each other unconditionally?”

She nodded.

“Do you remember how he said you could never be a burden?”

She nodded again.

“That still applies, Little one. You’re not a burden because you’re sick. I’m not a burden because I don’t want you to be here alone. Kay isn’t a burden because she’s leaving work to come over and sit with you while I’m gone. We’re just adjusting some things to make life work for everyone and it’s not a big deal.” I released her face and lifted her hand to my mouth to kiss it.

***

Allyson

Bash was so sweet and gentle… well, with me anyway. I’d literally seen him toss drunk customers out by their shirts before and I heard he’d beaten the snot out of some guy who attacked Rouge, another one of our coworkers and Leland’s Little girl, a few months back.

I took a shaky breath and he kissed my hand again. “Do you understand?”

I nodded. I still felt so guilty, though. I guessed it would take time to work through my fears. I knew Bash was off today, as well as Smoke, but Kay had been on the schedule to work with a few others.

“I want you to understand something, though,” Bash said, looking very serious. “I don’t want you here alone because I don’t want you to get sick and have something happen. You could vomit again, fall, and hit your noggin. You could start running a fever again and get delirious. I am worried about your safety. Not about you being in my home alone.”

“Yes, Sir,” I said. I was thankful he’d explained that to me, though, because I was worried about it. It was so kind of him to care about me that way.

He stroked my cheek. “I am going to text Auntie Kay your medication times, and when you need to eat. I want you to be a good girl for her, okay?”

“Yes,Sir.”

“It makes me really happy to know that I’m going to come back to a home with you inside, Little one. I don’t know that I’m going to be able to let you leave when you’re all better.”

My tummy flip-flopped at his words and I leaned into his palm. I wondered what his other job was. I hadn't known about it before or that he and Smoke worked together outside of the shop.

“I’m here!” Kay yelled before slamming the door behind her.

“I’ll be back soon, Allybaby.”

I nodded, hoping he wouldn’t be gone long. My heart was already missing him and he hadn’t even left yet.

***

“I don’t like this show,” Kay said, studying the television. “This detective is too sassy and she needs a spanking.”

I giggled. “She’s not a detective. She’s a forensic anthropologist.”

“I feel like that’s just a fancy word for sassy.”

Grinning, I lifted my sippy cup up to my mouth and took another drink of water.

Kay’s alarm sounded and she silenced it before walking over to the dresser and getting my next dose of medicine ready.

“Do you need more water, Allyson?”

“No, Ma’am. I still have lots.”

“Hmmm, you need to get on drinking that before Bash gets back and spanks us both.”

The idea of Bash spanking the Domme made me giggle so hard I started coughing.

She rushed over and patted me on the back until my coughing passed. “You really are trying to get me killed, aren’t you? Do you know what your Daddy would do to me if he found out I let you choke on my watch?”

Grinning again, I shook my head, not bothering to correct her about Bash being my Daddy. I kind of wanted him to be.

“I don’t know either, but I bet they’d never find all of the pieces of my body.”

“I promise not to die while you’re on duty,” I said.

“Thank you. That would be wonderful,” she said, clutching her heart. The corners of her eyes wrinkled, though, so I knew she was only kidding with me.

I took my medicines and she wrote down the times for Bash. It seemed like all the bossies in the group took taking care of us very seriously.

The doorbell rang and I looked at Kay. “Did you know someone else was coming over?” It seemed like Bash had a lot of company today.

“I didn’t. Stay right here, okay?” Her tone was serious and my tummy dropped.

“Yes, Ma’am.”

She shut the bedroom door behind her. I wasn’t sure, but that felt suspicious. Throwing the covers off of me, I crept to the door and pressed my ear to it.

“I’m sure she will be glad to see you. I think she’s doing a bit better today. The medicine must be working,” I heard her say.

I dropped my shoulders and let out the deep breath I had been holding. Rushing back to bed, I threw the covers over my body and tried to make it look like I hadn’t moved.

Kay pushed the door open and walked back into the room. “You have some visitors, Little girl,” she said.

I waved at Leland and his Little girl Rouge. Rouge was like the cool older Little we all wanted to be like. She was such a badass with her long dark hair and colorful tattoos. I’d heard she’d actually escaped a cult.

She held up a pink board game. “I’ve already had the flu, so I thought maybe you’d like to play.”

I nodded and scooted to a sitting position in the bed.

The doorbell rang again and then someone shouted, “I’m coming in!” from downstairs. I grinned when I realized it was Eloise. Kay must have forgotten to re-lock the door.

“It’s a Daddies Ink party,” Leland said, winking at me.

Eloise appeared a few minutes later carrying donuts. “I thought you might need a fun snack. I’m sure Bash is only feeding you rabbit food. And Daddy said it was okay if I came over, as long as I wore a mask.”

“He’s going to kill me if you feed her that!” Kay protested.

I reached for the donut box. “It was very nice knowing you,” I teased her, making everyone laugh as I picked up a pink-frosted donut and took a big bite.

Leland sat across from me on the bed. “It looks like there are lots of people who are willingly spending their days off with you, coming in to see you when their shift is over, and I see one who is even missing work for you. I don’t think people want to be around people they think are burdens, do you?”

“No, Sir,” I answered, my voice thick with emotion.

“That must mean you’re not a burden then, huh?”

“Yes,Sir.”

“What does that make you then, Allyson?”

“A f-friend.”

“A friend,” he agreed. “A very loved friend who will always have a place with us.”