Kat's knees were resting upon the plush crimson carpet of her Mistress's study. A fire crackled in the fireplace, filling the deafening silence in the room. Under normal circumstances, it would've been cozy, almost familiar to Kat at this point. But now, the air was thick with anticipation.

Finally, Mistress Alexa cleared her throat and looked down at Kat. "Okay. Let's talk," she said.

Kat's eyes stayed glued to the carpet. "Talk?"

"Yes, talk. What happened yesterday?" she asked, crossing her legs and looking into the fire for a moment, as if for answers. Then, she turned back to Kat and continued, "Why did you disobey me? And I want the truth, Kat."

Kat pursed her lips and squirmed as a number of thoughts floated through her head. Because you own a person. Because you're not a good person. Because I hate being your slave. But none of them seemed right. Especially that last one, for some reason, it just felt wrong. But Kat knew it to be true, she just knew it, even though they all felt like lies.

Eventually, she slouched and sunk down, confessing, "Because I wanted to see what you would do, Mistress."

Mistress Alexa didn't speak, leaving Kat with the echoes of her words. Kat fidgeted nervously, before continuing, "I'm sorry Mistress. It was inappropriate of me."

"Yes, yes it was," her Mistress said.

Kat thought back to her conversation with Cobb, and for a moment, remained quiet. Then, looking at her hands, she said, "I disrespected you."

"Yes, you did," she said, eyebrows raised. "I'm surprised at your awareness. Why, though, Kat? You had to have known you'd get in trouble."

Something swelled within Kat. Something sad, something heavy. "I... wanted you to hit me, Mistress," she said, looking away. "I... thought you would."

Mistress Alexa coughed. "What? Did you want to be hurt, Kat?"

Kat looked up at her, a sad look of surprise on her face, a frown on her lips. "No Mistress! I... no, I didn't want to be hurt. But I knew it would happen. It always happens," she said, slouching back down. "It always happens."

Now it was Kat's turn to stare into the fire, as if for answers. But within the orange gold glow of the flickering flames, she found nothing but wood turning to ash. Then, she turned back to her Mistress, and looked up at her, almost expectantly.

Her Mistress opened her mouth to speak, but only sighed and sat back in her chair, closing her eyes for a moment. "Kat, sweetie," she said, gently, "I would never hit you, especially not out of anger."

Kat shook her head. "Lies, Mistress. You tell me ot to lie. Why would you lie to me?" she muttered.

Mistress Alexa chuckled sadly. "Kat, I promise you - and I keep my promises - but I promise you that I will never, ever, strike you out of anger. I may spank you, but I will never abuse you."

"How... how could I know?" Kat asked.

"Well," her Mistress said, "That's where trust comes in, Kat. I'm not that kind of person. Those kinds of people belong in the courts. Kat, do you know what the punishment for abusing a domestic slave is?"

Kat shook her head.

"It's a lifetime of indentured servitude." She leaned on her fist. "And those people have it coming. All slaves deserve some modicum of basic human dignity."

"Human," Kat said with a bitter laugh.

"You don't think I see you as human?" Mistress Alexa asked, eyebrows furrowed. "I see you as human, Kat. A human I own, but a human nonetheless. A human with emotions, and feelings, and hopes, and dreams. Just like me."

Kat sat there, staring at her knees. This couldn't be true, could it? Her Mistress truly saw her as something deserving dignity? No, not something, someone. Tears welled in the corners of her eyes, threatening to spill over at any moment. She clutched her uniform's skirt and grit her teeth. "But why, Mistress?" she asked, voice shaking. "How?"

"How? I... just do, sweetie. I just do." Mistress Alex leaned forward and pet Kat gently. "Are... are you crying? Oh no sweetie, no no, come here."

Her Mistress bent down to Kat's level and, carefully, pulled her into a soft embrace. Kat leaned into her Mistress's arms, burying her head into Her shoulder as the tears began to flood her eyes. "W-Why? Why are you doing this?"

Mistress Alexa softly scratched her back, shushing her tenderly. "Because I love you, sweetie. And I only want you to be happy."

"I-I still just don't get it. Why me? Why love something you own?" Kat cried.

"Somebody, Kat. Somebody. You're not a thing to me. You never were," she said, petting Kat. "You never were a 'thing', and you never will be. Kat, you're beautiful. You're lovely, and sweet, and well mannered, and mild tempered, and gentle, and obedient... you're a wonderful slave. And I'm proud to own you."

Kat leaned into her Mistress's shoulder even more, burying her wet eyes in the soft cloth of her Mistress's shirt. "I still don't understand."

"You don't have to Kat. All you have to know is that I love you."

Kat could feel them. The tears coming in full force. The sobs welling up in her throat. "Thank you Mistress," she said, breath shaky, voice nervous. "Thank you."

She'd been given the day off. Her Mistress had kissed her on the cheek this morning before leaving for work, and said that she should take it easy today. Cobb would handle everything else, the cooking, the cleaning. She should take some time to herself. The problem was, she didn't know what to do with that time. Last time she'd had a free day, she'd simply slept through most of it. Now that she had nothing to do, she had no idea what to do with it.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

So, she spent some time reading. It wasn't exactly the most fun way to pass the time, but it was relaxing nonetheless. Yet, her mind always seemed to wander away from the words. Thinking back to yesterday almost put tears in her eyes again, though whether they were from shame or joy she couldn't tell.

Her Mistress said that she loved her. What did that mean? Could one love a slave as they loved another human being, or was it more of the type of love that one felt for their new car? The love of a thing, for a thing. Or perhaps it was like the love felt for some new toy or trinket, something to be loved for a bit, and then forgotten about, thrown to the curb.

She closed her book and blinked, staring up at the ceiling. It was all strange. She felt... strange. Like she cared. The realization hit her like a stone to the chest. She cared whether or not her Mistress loved her.

She was in for a bad time if that was the case. Or was she? She wasn't so sure anymore. Standing, she walked over to her window and looked out it, to the rain-soaked gardens below. Something about the way the dew sat on the petals of the flowers was quite beautiful. She could see her carrots starting to bloom, and the tomato plant she'd planted had a little sprout coming up. Things were growing, she thought with a smile.

Perhaps she was too.

.That night, her Mistress called her into her room. She'd gone without thinking much of it. At this point, going to her Mistress's room at night meant cuddles and sleep, most likely, which, she had to admit, was becoming kind of nice. It'd been so long since she'd been held the way her Mistress held her, and she was starting to grow fond of sleeping in Mistress Alexa's bed, almost looking forward to it. It meant cuddles and sleep. Both things she desperately needed.

When she'd arrived tonight, however, after knocking three times and patiently waiting for a response, she found her Mistress waiting with soft looking hemp rope bundles. Her Mistress let her in, and ushered her onto the bed with as few words as possible. Kat felt her stomach knot, but kept quiet, simply crawling onto the bed and waiting, as she'd been instructed to do.

Then, the ropes came, looping around her thighs, her arms, her chest and her breasts. Her ankles were bound together, as were her wrists, by the soft rope, and her mouth had been taped shut. That last part had really worried her, made her squirm a bit, but apparently it was a special tape that only stuck to itself, according to Mistress Alexa. But that and the ropes and the silky blindfold that'd been wrapped around her eyes left her in darkness and silence, waiting.

And then... nothing. Nothing happened.

She'd squirmed at first, even tried to rebel against it at one point in what was almost a panic, but her Mistress's soft shushing and gentle caresses had helped soothe her. She felt a warm hand run down her back, to her backside, cupping a butt cheek and giving it a little squeeze. She hadn't even made Kat get undressed, leaving her in her uniform as she was tied up. Despite her internal protests, she found herself more and more at ease, even if she was so sure something bad would happen.

Something along the lines of sex.

But it never came. Instead, she'd been left in the darkness of the blindfold, tied up, untouched, resting in the embrace of the warm bed. She wasn't even sure her Mistress was in the room anymore, much less how much time had passed. The anxiety that swam in her gut like eels started to subside, and a more serene calm started to pass over her. A resignation, of sorts.

She couldn't break free. Couldn't even move really, just forced to lay there, bound, gagged, blinded, thinking. It was actually... well, rather nice. It left her with nothing but her thoughts, a meditation in a way, and for the first time in so long, they didn't confound or hurt her. They were peaceful. Accepting. If this was how things were, if she was bound like this, then so be it, she decided. And besides, something deep within her, something she could only really touch right now, welled up. That strange feeling, that one that had been haunting her, it was back, and with a vengeance at that.

She thought on it, squirming a bit. She hadn't felt this in so long. And finally, she thought, after some soul searching, she was ready to call it what it was. She'd been avoiding it, afraid of it, this feeling that lingered in her heart and her mind. This strange feeling that coaxed her toward her Mistress, instead of scaring her away. She'd not felt this way in forever.

Trust.

It was trust.

There was trust here. Not just in being tied up, though surely that required plenty of trust. But it was deeper than that. All the caresses, the gentle scoldings, the punishments and rewards, they were all culminating into trust. She was starting to trust her Mistress. Mistress Alexa had had plenty of chances to hurt her, to abuse her - and why should she need to be tied up for that to happen? A fetish? Mistress Alexa had been dressed in her silky pajamas when she'd called Kat in, so Kat doubted it was that. From everything she knew about BDSM, a play scene typically involved more than pajamas, some rope, and time alone with one's thoughts.

So what was this, then? A chance to meditate, she decided, to think on things. And so she did. She thought of her Mistress's lecture, the way she'd cried. She thought of her conversation with Cobb. She thought of that night at the Auction House, when she'd first met her Mistress, and then, she thought of the night spent cooking with her. The dancing. The wine.

When her Mistress eventually touched her, she jumped. She'd not heard the door open, so it was quite possible that Mistress Alexa had been there the whole time. She reached over, pet Kat softly, and said, "I'm about to untie you. When I do, I want to know what you did while being tied up, alright?"

Kat nodded and gave a muffled, "Yes Mistress."

Mistress Alexa leaned over and planted a small kiss on Kat's forehead, and then proceeded to undo the knots at her wrists and ankles. Then, taking the rope away, she took off the tape around Kat's mouth and, lastly, undid the blindfold. Kat blinked, eyes adjusting to the light, and rolled her head to face her Mistress.

"So?" Mistress Alexa asked.

"I meditated Mistress," she responded.

Mistress Alexa caressed her cheek in the palm of her hand. "Good girl. What about?"

"About... us, Mistress," she said, a blush rising in her cheeks.

"Oh? And?"

Kat blinked, and buried her face in the sheets. "I..."

A hand caressed her hair, and nimble fingers pinched gently at her ear. "Go ahead, Kat. I want to hear what you have to say."

Kat moaned. "I... I trust you, Mistress. Or at least, I'm starting to."

Mistress Alexa smiled widely and chirped. "Oh Kat," she said, sitting beside her on the bed, "that's wonderful to hear. I'm so proud of you. I want you to trust me Kat. I want you to believe that I have your best interests at heart."

"I want to, Mistress," Kat said softly. "I do."

"Good girl," she said, laying down and pulling Kat into a close embrace. "Who's my good girl, hmm?"

"M-Me," Kat stammered.

"Yeah, you are," Mistress Alexa said, giggling.

For a little while, the two cuddled in silence, Kat leaning into the embrace and breathing gently. Mistress Alexa slowly stroked her cheek, and her hair, shushing her and cooing to her and humming to her. Kat felt like she could fall asleep at that very moment, in the warm embrace of her Mistress, the safety of it all.

But then, Mistress Alexa spoke again. "My business party is soon, Kat. Two day's time from now. Will you be ready for it? I expect you to serve my guests."

Serve? Kat thought on that. What did that mean? She'd serviced guests before, and served them too, and there was a big difference there. "Serve?" she asked.

Mistress Alexa nodded. "You will serve them Kat. Drinks, mainly. But I expect you to be on your best behavior, understand? This is a very important dinner party, and a lot of money rests on it going well. You be my golden angel for the night, and I'll make it up to you, I promise."

Kat thought on it for a moment, before saying simply, "Yes, Mistress."

"Good girl. Now scoot over. I'm tired too. And get out of that uniform."