✅ My Cousin's Keeper [NaNoWriMo 2021]

Epilogue: His Big Decision (2/3)

It's hard to believe that after 17 months, this story is finally coming to a close. This bonus chapter is posted thanks to Anon; thank you for supporting me!

When we got down to the kitchen, Tess and Spike were already sitting at the table eating breakfast. I wondered what they were planning for today; school had broken up for the summer, and they were free to do anything or nothing until it started again in six weeks time. Tess's final year in mandatory education, and Spike would be repeating all the classes that he had missed due to the ongoing drama with his parents. Only yesterday, he had come clean with his big secret; that his ongoing grades didn't give him any chance of continuing to a good university after the next two years.

Of course, Tess had taken charge at once. She knew exactly what she was doing, especially when dealing with the grotesque monolith of bureaucracy that was our public education system. She'd found and completed a set of forms, letting him apply to repeat a year of high school due to extenuating circumstances. She'd known exactly what she needed to write; and I was confident that she would have the issue dealt with correctly. But of course, that meant more problems for the two of them. After one repeated year, Spike would still have to complete his two final years of high school. Either they would have to go their separate ways, assuming that Spike was able to complete his schooling at the same time as looking after his mother, if she was out of rehab by then; or Tess could put off her own degree for two years so that they could go together. To be honest, neither sounded like a good option.

Today, Spike was in jeans and a check shirt. He'd shaved, but there was no way I could have mistaken him for a girl in that outfit. It was a big change; he was nearly always wearing his girl clothes now. And it made me a bit uncomfortable to see him like that. I knew that I could choose to see him as a girl; Frances had taught me how to think like that. But it felt like a deception if I did it when he was presenting himself as a boy.

"Morning, ladies," I said, forcing a smile. And I saw Spike's mouth turn up at the corners a little as well. He liked it when I said things like that, thought I had no idea if he cared whether I was choosing to say it, or acting under one of Ffrances's little compulsions.

"Morning, baby Gabby," Tess said. "Looking forward to today?"

Everything from her posture to her tone said she was the head of the household; and nobody else was going to argue. Spike, I sensed, had been traumatised by years of a violent stepfather demanding absolute obedience to his every whim; and was happy now just to have someone making productive decisions that he could easily go along with. And Ffrances... the more I saw her smile these days, the more I started to understand that she really had meant it when she said that she was a sub. This wasn't just an attempt to go along with what would make someone else happy, but something that made her content on a deeper level. Both of them were capable of taking control when they needed to, but to people with that kind of confidence, there was a quiet delight in a situation where they could just let someone else make the choices, without having to worry about the consequences of any mistake.

It had been a little more than a week since the start of my punishment. I couldn't tell Tess what to do now, and she knew that I had no choice about obeying every word she said. She had quickly assumed that she was in control, and now she seemed happier than ever. She was even cuter when she was energetic and joyful; and it seemed like I could have seen that joy from the start, if I'd just understood that premature adulthood wasn't something that had been forced upon her; but the core of her personality striving to be seen.

"Today?" I asked, disengaging myself from the confusing stream of speculation in my head, and catching up with what she had actually asked.

"Oh, yes," she said with a smile. "I made you lose track of what day it is, didn't I? Just like a little kid, surprised by every unexpected school day." I couldn't help blushing at that; realising just how easily she could remind me of my helplessness. Of course, Ffrances could have done that at any time. But Tess knew exactly what would give the most intense feelings, and she could apparently think of little punishments that I'd never even considered. It was that imagination that really set her apart from any other domme I'd met. When she was old enough to get properly into kinky stuff, I was sure that she would find it oh so easy to make her boyfriend (or girlfriend) beg for more punishment.