The Ropes
By TerraMGP
Diana just looked up at the middle of the three story apartment building rolling a few pebbles around in one paw. This had to work, after all every single cheesy eighties movie had some scene in it like this. The main character would show up and toss a few little rocks at the girls window to get her attention. The two would have some cheesy conversation about whatever lame plot they were a part of and exchange bad one liners that would hopefully generate some buzz for the kids and then finally they would either find a way for her to hop down or decide to meet up somewhere else. Granted everything else in these movies made her want to puke, but it seemed like if nothing else this had to work. Careful not to pitch too hard the Chipette let fly with the first stone, watching it bounce with a loud thud against one of the panes of glass before falling back to the ground. A few moments passed before another one struck, and another each one getting progressively harder. Frustrated, Diana just growled and chucked another as hard as she could, stopping a moment later and wincing as the stone went though the window rather than bouncing away. She could already hear Esters mom in her mind, running up to the window and screaming out at her with some sort of threat be it replacing the glass or sending her off to Juvie.
Diana just looked up at the shattered window fragments and let out a sigh of frustration, letting the rest of the pebbles drop to the ground. “You know your going to have to pay for that right?” Diana tensed up before slowly turning around, feeling a small shred of frustration at the sight of Esters large ursine godmother standing there with arms crossed. Stone faced, Ruth simply took a couple of long striding steps forward towards Diana eyes drifting up to the broken window for a few moments. “Let me guess, You couldn’t reach Ester by phone and the buzzer isn’t working right?” Ruth laughed, her voice thick with sarcasm. Diana obviously knew how bad it looked. She and was just about to bolt when she felt a large paw being placed on her Shoulder faster than she suspected the massive bear could have moved.
“Look I just wanted to talk to Ester ok? I really didn’t mean to break the window. I mean seriously I was just throwing a few pebbles.” She looked at the ground where the small flecks of pea gravel now sat. jumping a bit at the sudden chuckle coming from the larger woman. She watched Ruth ducking down and scooping up the small stones before looking back up at the window. There was a small moment of calm before Ruth started to laugh and shook her head side to side causing a knot of confused annoyance to grow in her stomach. Ruth unceremoniously started to put an arm around the girl shaking her head a bit. “You do realize that’s not Esters window right? God Lillian is going to freak out when she notices that too… She’s always so up tight. Of course I’m guessing that means Ester didn’t tell you about her doctors appointment then did she?” Diana blinked a bit in shock before letting out another sigh of frustration. “Your kidding me. No she didn’t tell me. If she had I would have just stayed home today. As far as I knew she was going to be home all day.” Of course Diana neglected to mention that she thought Ester would be home alone, but then considering how protective Ruth was, Diana was stubborn but she was no fool.
Ruth had to fight hard not to laugh at the discomfort written all over Diana’s face as she walked Diana out to the front of the building once more. “Well I’ll tell ya what. I was going to wait around for Lil so I could get a few papers from her. Though since your waiting for Ester anyways how about we grab a bite huh? Better than sitting on the front porch for another half hour or so.” Diana looked at Ruth skeptically but kept her mouth shut for the moment. The whole situation had the ‘dad with a shotgun’ vibe written all over it. But on the other hand just what could she do exactly? Intentional or not she had broken a window, and Ruth had seen it was her. Appealing to this woman was probably the only way to avoid getting in hot water with Esters mom. The last thing Diana wanted was another set of restrictions to try and maneuver around. That didn’t make her feel any less disconcerted as the two of them approached the large black SUV sitting out in front of the apartment complex.
Even though it was less than a mile the car ride over to Applebees simply felt way too awkward for Diana. On the one hand she had to give the woman some grudging respect, Especially considering the leniency she had been giving her when playing babysitter on their dates, but that didn’t do too much to alleviate the gnawing feeling of approaching danger. Who knew just what the woman would do catching the chippette hanging around the back of the apartment. Even as they stopped she could feel Ruth’s eyes just staying on her for a long moment. It was better than being stopped next to some field to be sure but that didn‘t really make the situation easier. “Well? Come on you can’t tell me the food here is that bad. Besides I think the two of us need to have a talk.” Diana let out a small grunt of protest before popping the door open and walking towards the restraint without a single word.
It didn’t take long before the two of them were seated in a small booth near the back. Part of Ruth felt a tiny little jolt of clarity and satisfaction sitting there across from the annoyed-looking teenager. She watched as Diana gave a small glance at the menu and then shoved it to the side in frustration. “If you want something for dessert just try and keep the entrée under twelve bucks. Junes been on my ass about my food budget lately. Seems like she’s been penny pinching more than usual lately.” She bit back on another laugh as Diana eyed her with mild confusion and annoyance, then looked back to the table without so much as a shrug. Ruth simply turned her attention to the menu once more to make her decision just as the chipper looking squirrel who was apparently their waitress decided to choose that moment and stop at the table. “Hello, my name is Sandy and I’ll be your waitress today. Would You like me to start you off with something to drink? Maybe an appetizer?” Diana couldn’t help but shoot this rather annoying woman a sour glance before pushing the menu back towards her. “Coke…” She mumbled dryly handing her menu up towards the woman. “And I’ll have whatever’s on tap.” Ruth added “With some Mozzarella sticks. I need to eat something soon or I’m going to pass out.” Sandy took the wicked glance in stride and snatched up the menus before heading back to the kitchen leaving Ruth alone with Diana once more.
“So what’s wrong? Your usually only somewhat pissed off.” Ruth joked as she prodded the young teen in the arm a couple of times. “Don’t tell me your upset because of this place. Its damn better than the food at the mall, and you sure don’t mind any of that.” Diana just huffed a bit and shook her head at the comment. “Yeah, well, it doesn’t really matter how nice a last supper is now does it?” She asked with the same cold dry annoyance not even bothering to look at Ruth as she looked over the steak knife that had been laying with her other silverware. “Well that’s cryptic. Come on Diana you have to give me more than that. I didn’t take you for the ‘huffy, enigmatic, overly emotional’ teen type.” Diana winced a bit at that and just shook her head before locking eyes with her ‘host’ for this situation. “You know damn well what the problem is. Look you’ve been cool about things whenever you ‘watch’ us on dates or whatever you want to call it but that doesn’t mean I’m dumb. Ester told me how pissed you’ve been about me in the past, even more so than her mom apparently. The second you talk to her again she’ll go ahead and put Est under lock and key. I don’t want to have to wait almost half a decade to see my girlfriend again.” No sooner had the little outburst finished than the two of them looked up to see their rather stunned waitress standing there with a tray of Motz sticks and drinks. The squirrel awkwardly placed the coke down in front of Diana who quickly snatched it up and swigged down a quarter of it without hesitation.
Ruth gave the waitress a reassuring smile before picking up one of the motzarella sticks and dunking it in the ranch lazily. “You know… The way I see it she can only get so pissed over an accident, especially one that was my idea.” Diana blinked at this and looked up at the bear woman who was simply grinning from ear to ear. “The way I remember it, I suggested you throw the pebbles harder to get Esters attention and came off as too serious. You threw the thing, the window broke. No harm no foul.” As if to punctuate her idea Ruth bit down hard on the stick, only to gasp and swallow hard. “Agg! Hot… too hot…” Diana couldn’t help but chuckle at that, finally shattering her rather cold demeanor in one uncharacteristic chuckle fit. “That’s better. See Kiddo not everything is going to blow up in your face right? Look the bottom line is that I can easily understand Lillian’s position on this whole situation. Hell after that whole thing with punching out Ester I was ready to snap your neck myself. I’ve watched you two kids… you really care about her. Your not always the best at showing it the right way but I can still see it.” Diana reached out to pick up one of the sticks and snapped it between two fingers to let the appetizer cool before biting into half of it, chewing thoughtfully as she considered the whole situation.
“So your not going to spaz out on me because I’m not miss prim and proper?” she asked between munching bites topping it off with another huge swig of the soda. “Diana, I have a feeling that Lillian’s major issue is more a matter of beating on her little girl. That just wasn’t ok no matter how you cut it. I really don’t think you’d do that again, if I did I think we both know you wouldn’t be here right now and you damn sure wouldn’t be going near my god daughter again. Now nothing like that is going to happen again, now is it?” she asked with a small growl to her voice. Diana could feel the sudden shift in tone, quickly shifting from light hearted and comical to deadly serious in a bone chilling nanosecond. “What do you want hmm? It worked didn’t it? She likes me. Its not like I was just going around punching people for no good reason. Seriously will people shut up about it? She hasn’t had a black eye or a busted lip or anything else since has she?“ Diana quickly shook her head in frustration and swallowed the last of the Mozzarella stick. It took a hell of a lot to make her feel so much as nervous, but the implied threat from this woman more than qualified. “Yeah, well just make sure it stays that way. I could tell you were a good kid, a bit misguided but good.” Ruth took another sip of her beer and grinned again as if nothing had happened. “Now then, what was so important that you just had to get a hold of Ester right away?”
Diana was actually glad that she didn’t have to lie at this point. True, she had expected Ester to be home alone. She had expected to have a few hours to spend just with her mousie without worry of her mom breathing down their necks. Hell she had even had the idea in the back of her head that it might be nice to spend a little private time as well. Granted it was true that she had wanted to learn a bit more about D&D, and in particular how to run a game of her own. That fact was what now found Diana standing outside of a beautifully painted apartment door with Ruth fumbling for the right key off of her ring. She didn’t really know what to expect when Ruth had announced that they would be going back to her apartment but had not been too surprised at the lavish, gated complex that the couple apparently lived in. She was even less surprised as the apartment door started to swing open, revealing the spotless and rather spacious living room complete with a large and seemingly unused futon, huge plasma TV and the various knickknacks and doodads that almost screamed ‘typical carefree well off 30 somethings.’ Ruth seemed to be almost totally aloof to Diana’s amazement at the large apartment instead popping her shoes off and walking over to the large glass coffee table sitting next to the Futon. “You mind Guns and Roses?” Ruth asked even as she hit the play button, four high end speakers quickly starting on the soft intro to Don’t cry. “Just go ahead and make yourself at home ok?” Ruth called out as she walked into the next room which soon filled with sounds of objects shuffled around rising over the music. Yet again the level of awkwardness skyrocketed, but what could Diana really do about the situation? The chipette cautiously sat herself down on the pristine futon feeling so tempted to just reach out and skip though the songs to see what else was available.
By now, with transit time factored in, it was becoming clear that Ester was probably home already. Right about now she could just imagine Lillian walking into the house and seeing the broken glass, instantly freaking out at the incident and finding some obscure way to blame her for the whole mess. Not that she would be wrong, but it was annoying to know that even without any indicators she could easily guess that it would fall to her like everything else did. Just once it would be nice to not be assumed as the prime suspect simply because of her background, how she acted or even just how she looked. Thankfully Ruth seemed to be willing to diffuse the situation for some odd reason, and at this point she wasn’t inclined to protest. Instead she simply leaned back on the couch and closed her eyes, listening to the din of rustling from the next room combined with what she could only assume was music from Ruth’s youth. “Well Diana I have to warn you, if you want to learn this game your going to have to do some reading.” With that the ursine woman came into view both arms filled with a stack of gaming books which she promptly plopped down on the futon. Diana raised her brow a bit at that and let out another sigh. “Your kidding, You seriously expect me to read all of those? Who the hell makes a game this complicated?” Ruth smirked a bit at this and scooped up the Dungeon Masters Guide, placing it in Diana’s lap. “Well technically this has most of what you will need to run a game, but it might be best to read the others since they contain a lot of rules. Come on Kiddo its not that bad. I think you and I both know your smart enough to absorb all of this even if most people wouldn’t expect it.”
Diana winced a bit and took the book in paw, opening it up and slowly skimming over the first few pages. “Do you have to call me that?” she mumbled in mild annoyance. “Well that all depends. Do I have to tell Lil that its mostly my fault her window is broken?” The bear simply smiled and put a hand on the smaller girls shoulder once more giving a small pat. “Believe it or not I’m on your side here Kiddo. Its not easy being the one who always gets the blame. Getting singled out over just about nothing. Having all the authority figures peg you for the crap you don’t do.” Diana looked up upon hearing this, feeling quite confused to actually hear someone saying something like this. “Of course that would be the main reason you lash out right? All those little slip ups, maybe some way to justify all the bad things they assume about you? Figure you’ll show them. That if they are going to assume the worst you will give it to them?” Any excitement that Diana had about finally not being pigeonholed quickly melted away. She gave a quick jerk of her shoulder and then turned back to the book she had been reading over hoping to avoid the woman holding on to her still. “Oh come on. You know I’m right. Deny it all you want but that won’t change a thing. You push things just as much as you can because you figure they are all going to be pissed off at you anyways. I don’t care how cleche it sounds it’s the truth.”
“Yeah well what do you want from me huh? To just go ‘oh god your right. I should change my ways and be a good honest wholesome girl who just wants to spread sunshine and rainbows’.” Ruth growled a bit in aggravation bapping Diana on the back of the head. “No, I want you to realize that you have some people who will go to bat for you and maybe think about how this might affect Ester. You did just out and out punch her before anything else in your relationship. Do you really want that kind of behavior to continue like that? I can tell you right now that Lillian sure as hell won’t let that happen, and neither would I.” Diana didn’t take any of this well, simply looking back at the book and resuming her reading. It was hard to know what she should make of Ruth anymore. It pissed her off that other people kept trying to tell her how to run her relationship, especially when both she and Ester seemed to enjoy the way things were going. Sure it probably wasn’t the most normal relationship in the world. Hell it might even be a bit wrong to feel so aggressive against the one she loved. At the same time it felt, right. It felt good to have Ester crushed under foot or see her squirm. It wasn’t like Ester really minded it either, at least no from what she had seen. They both liked a lot of things that were alike though, like this game that Diana was slowly getting into. It was actually a rather fun little diversion, which was why she thought it would be fun to run her own game. Of course having to deal with all of these adults accusing her of horrible things put more than a little damper on her enthusiasm.
As time passed Diana slowly started to forget her anger at the situation, instead delving deeper into the surprisingly robust array of gaming books while her host occupied herself with a beer and some pro wrestling on that huge flatscreen TV. Diana had just finished skimming over the book Weapons of Legacy when her paw mechanically went to the next book in the pile, popping it open only to watch a character sheet and several photographs slipping down between her and the remaining pile of books. She scooped them up to place them back in but stopped as soon as she caught a glimpse of the first photo. The first picture was of this very room, the metal frame of the futon laid out with no mattress on it. Instead it seemed that a rather lithe and beautiful female body was strapped down tight to the frame with her ass pushed high into the air and head held in a tight latex hood. The young girls mind took a moment to process the picture until she saw the large brown-furred form standing over the futon with cat-o-nine-tails in hand having apparently just brought it down across her bound victims body. Slowly Diana looked over to the woman sitting beside her now screaming at the television and waving her half-empty glass of beer angrily. There was no mistaking, yet at the same time Diana simply could not accept what she saw. She flipped to the next picture, this time with Ruth sitting on the hooded head and pushing down hard in what seemed to be a very uncomfortable act for June as Ruth had apparently taken the entire muzzle into her body. Diana knew she should be shocked, or confused, or something upon seeing her loves godparents performing such… exciting acts. Again and again Diana flipped the pictures watching new acts unfold while at the same time doing her best to remain unnoticed. It was already apparent that she should put the pictures down and simply continue reading but it was just too fascinating to ignore. The chains, the leather, the pain and humiliation that the woman in the pictures had to be feeling. It was like someone had hit a switch in the back of Diana’s mind.
“So, Enjoying yourself?” Ruth chuckled. Diana looked up and instantly was snapped back to reality. For the second time that day she had that ‘hand in the cookie jar’ feeling. She knew that it would be smart to make up some excuse, or hide the pictures, or do something other than sit there under the critical gaze of the woman. Sadly she found that her body was unwilling to comply with any of these thoughts, instead sitting there with a picture of Ruth pushing Junes head into the toilet flat and in plain view of the large woman. Ruth reached down to snatch the collection of pictures away from her guest and looked though them again for a moment leaving Diana to squirm like a worm on a hook. “Ah yeah… I remember that night. I was wondering what we did with these things. So you see any of em you found interesting?” Diana swallowed hard still remaining totally silent. At this point it was hard to imagine this day getting any worse, especially since Ruth seemed to know that she went though all of the pictures. “That… looked… brutal.” Diana finally said softly, starting to think of some small way to use this to her advantage “that was way worse than anything I’ve ever done to Ester… I mean wow. That just looked really…”
Ruth smiled a bit at that and put the pictures aside. “Intense? Your right, that’s a lot harder than anything you’ve done, at least I hope it is. But that doesn’t mean that its worse. See Diana there is a huge difference between a little play between Mistress and slave compared to, well honestly I’d have to call it Assault.” Diana wanted to be mad at that, she really did. But too many things just seemed to sit wrong with her. “Mistress and slave? What the hell does that mean? How is it different exactly? I mean your hitting her with a whip. That’s pretty harsh.” Ruth shrugged a bit as one passive paw went to hit the off button on her remote. She turned back to the girl and started to smile. “Well considering how you were oggling those pictures I guess its probably better for me to explain this to you now than to let some know-nothing jackass teach you on the streets. See the way June and I work is a little less conventional than what you’d probably expect from a normal relationship. Sure most of the time we tend to act like the kinds of people you might see in a bad sitcom or playing the supporting role in a really bad book. But, well, frankly that’s more a matter of keeping people from getting on our case for being ‘different’.” Ruth sighed a bit as she thought of how best to explain this, wishing that she had thought it out before hand. “You see June is the kind of person who likes to take orders, not give them. She likes to be told what to do and how to act, and to be honest she kind of likes to be abused too. Its kind of like how Ester behaves from what I‘ve seen. Well at least it’s the same in that she’s rather meek and decided to hook up with a girl like you. Of course I could always be wrong.”
Diana tilted her head, shocked that this woman was being so open about something that from the sounds of it dealt with the couples sex life. She watched as Ruth just started to rub the back of her head thoughtfully. She could almost feel the words being shaped on the spot, see Ruth struggling to find the right expressions. “Now see I happen to be the opposite way. I like to be in control of a situation and, well I am bigger and meaner. I want my way and if that means putting someone down I’ll do it. I’m guessing you can relate to that a bit huh Diana?” The Chipette blinked a bit but nodded. It still sounded strange but it did make sense. “Yeah I guess it makes sense. Your in charge, she’s the bitch right? You make the decisions because you both know that’s what you both want.” This was where it got frustrating for Ruth. She knew what she wanted to say but it still felt like she was not getting her point across. “Yes, and no. It takes a lot more than that Diana. There is a huge difference between what I do with my Fiancé and how you act around Ester.”
“So… How exactly is this different from how Est and I get along?” Diana asked softly. She wasn’t trying to be rude at this point, it was genuinely a fascination. She never really had any issues figuring out that she was a lesbian, but this revelation was what Diana assumed finding that out had to feel like. It just seemed to be, right. To make sense. She wanted to learn more and to hell with any awkward feelings it may cause at this point. Ruth apparently picked up on this as well and started to scoot to the side a bit looking down at Diana like the comical doppelganger of some wise old sensai. “Well for one thing, June and I are very careful and meticulous about how things work. I mean think about it. If I just went off and did whatever the hell I wanted how long do you think its going to be before I push way past something she likes? Its like… Imagine if you had kissed Ester and she didn‘t like girls. That would be pushing things way too far wouldn’t it?. Its not like you really want to make her feel bad for no reason right?” Surprisingly enough that did seem to make quite a bit of sense. She just sat a moment in quiet contemplation, rolling the whole thing around in her head and trying to find the right words to explain what she thought what Ruth was saying. “It’s a bit like when I pick on her its different than when those bitches at school try to harass her? I mean I may be totally off on this but it seems like your saying that its ok because she is ok with it. That’s why its ok for me to do some things but it gets bad when other people do them right?”
Ruth nodded a bit, glad that it was not simply her that found the situation a bit awkward. “Well for the most part Kiddo… I mean there is a lot more to it, but I think you have the idea. After all when your mean to the girl you like, she still knows its you and knows you wouldn‘t do it if she didn‘t really like it. Now granted there is a lot more to it than that. I mean you can’t just jump from a few mean names now and then to.. That” she said nodding to the pictures. Not that there should be anything major going on between you two to begin with until your at least eighteen… and that’s assuming Ester ends up feeling the same kind of fascination about this that you seem to. But yes its much more complicated than simply having an abusive relationship that she’s ok with. When you are both older and a bit more experienced you will hopefully understand that.” This last statement obviously upset the Chipette a bit as she shook her head. “I don’t want to have an ’abusive’ relationship. I just… Well I like to watch her squirm. Those are two very different things.” Once again the conversation seemed to be seeping into the territory of abuse and mistreatment. It just felt so frustrating, especially coming from someone who apparently got her fun holding her wife-to-be in a toilet wearing a hood.
Ruth took a couple moments to try and focus her thoughts on the matter. Diana seemed to be getting so much of this, yet at the same time was missing out on something so basic. “Your right, they are. But its not something you can just have, at least not safely. Trust me on this one I know. Look Diana I think you know exactly what you want don‘t you? You know the kind of relationship you want to have with Ester and the kind of life you want. Am I right? Well unfortunately like everything else in life I will warn you its going to take a bit of work.” The bear woman grabbed up the glass of beer and took another long draft of it. She knew what she wanted to say, hell she even got the impression that Diana knew what needed to be said. It was just so difficult figuring out how to put so much complex information into words on the spot.
She sat there in contemplation for another moment or two, eyes resting on the girl that reminded her so much of herself years ago. This wasn’t just about making sure her god daughters first love was a good experience anymore. Ruth knew that Diana was a good girl, even if she was rough around the edges. Most of that would end up taking care of itself with time and the love of a good woman, which the chipmunk girl had apparently found. But honestly it didn’t sit right with her to just stand by and watch as Diana made so many mistakes and learned so many things the hard way. Just then the wheels clicked. Reaching over to where Diana had set the risqué gaming book Ruth picked it up and put The book of Erotic Fantasy into Diana’s lap. Diana mulled the rather dumb name in her head a moment before looking at Ruth feeling quite perplexed. “Tell you what. I’ll let you have this Kiddo, but only if you promise that you won’t push things with Ester any further than this book until your older, and only if she’s ok with it. You got that? And for the love of god don’t let Lil see you guys using that thing.”
This was probably the last thing Diana was expecting. Lord only knew what was in this book, or what she could do with it for that matter. Diana was admittedly quite confused by this, but still she had to admit it was thrilling at the same time. “Wow… well I mean honestly I have no idea how to use this thing yet but, thanks. I promise I won’t push things or make Ester feel bad. I wouldn’t do that anyways.”
Looking back Diana was actually kind of glad she had broken that window. Sure she might still have to do something for Ruth and June to pay them off, even if she was covered. She might just have to suffer though a harder set of rules on dates. But at this point, for the first time in a long time, everything was making just a bit of sense. Someone actually affirmed that she wasn’t bad by nature, and it wasn’t even some horrible crime to feel like she wanted to be the one in charge in her relationship. Of course those pictures of Ruth and June certainly were a nice little mental benefit.
Though as she took a moment to just lock in the images, one thing did seem to strike her as odd. “Um, Ruth. This may be an odd question but I gotta ask, who took those pictures anyways?” Ruth Stiffened a bit at this and looked over to the pictures sitting at her side for a long moment before shaking it off and turning back to Diana with a forced smile. “A friend… These are some pretty old ones. Back when things were different.” Diana was certainly curious about just who this friend might be, especially considering all of the other avenues that kind of thing opened. Judging from the look on Ruths face, this was one time when it would be best not to ask more questions. “Oh ok. Was just wondering. Thanks.” She was growing to respect Ruth far too much to cause any other major issues. Besides it was wonderful to have someone trusting her like this, someone who actually seemed to understand just how she was thinking. Honestly it gave her a lot to think about, and it made her feel a bit safer. “Hey Ruth? Would you mind if I asked you a few more questions? It still feels like I‘m missing out on something huge here.”
She was. Diana had the groundwork down almost from instinct, but so much was still up for grabs, still left open. Ruth took a moment to glance at the clock before turning back to her makeshift protégé. “Well ok then. I suppose now is as good a time as any, provided you don’t have to be home any time soon.” Diana looked at the clock for a few moments. It didn’t really matter too much, she already knew what her reply was, but it was probably better to at least make it seem like she didn’t. “Nope, I’ll be fine. I should have all the time in the world.”
