158.)

The beach house was predictably freezing, and Blossom was predictably underdressed. But lately it wasn't so bad to come in together, pull the blanket off Blossom's bed downstairs, and cuddle on the sofa until the heat kicked on. I had been mulling over the "babying Blossom" thing for a while, and I thought that if I got to rewrite Blossom's identity, it would be one that respected the thermostat.

"I want to try to write tomorrow, I think," I told Blossom. I still didn't know what to write, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity. After all, the beach house was supposed to be for working on Academy Works. Maybe inspiration would just come to me.

"That sounds great, cupcake. And if I can help in any way - theoretically, or practically - I'm at your disposal."

Mostly, the best thing Blossom could do to help was to stay out of the way.

"But, that leaves tonight free," I added. Sundays were usually a wash, since we had to go home relatively early. If I was going to spend all day tomorrow writing, then... "I could try babying you?"

"Yes, that sounds rad as heck!" Blossom did her best to keep her cool, but she grinned like a dumb schoolgirl. Not because she wanted to be babied more than she wanted to do the babying, but because anything uncommon was interesting to her.

"I have no idea how this is gonna go," I mumbled. We were still cuddled up together under the blanket. My anxiety was building like a block tower, and it was bound to come crumbling down sooner or later. Probably sooner, at this rate.

"Well, let's lay some groundwork first, okay? There's no wrong answers here, and there's no way for you to lose this, or mess it up, or anything like that. If it lasts 30 seconds and you get bored? That's a win. If we go all night and I'm your melted little babyslut by morning? That's a win. If you break down crying halfway through what you wanted to do? That's a win. It's all win conditions, love."

"I don't think games can have only win conditions," I sulked. "I'm not aiming for a participation trophy here."

Honestly, my fears were two-fold. Firstly, what if I sucked at it? What if I couldn't baby her properly? What if I wasn't good enough? And secondly, what if I hated it? What if it felt boring or hollow? How was I supposed to keep up that act forever? I couldn't just let her baby me without reciprocating...

"Listen, as long as we both know that we can safeword, then we're golden. And remember our yellows, okay? A slow-down doesn't have to end a scene the way a stop does."

"Right..." I could slow it down. I could do little edits or tweaks if I needed to, like in Bluey. I could do this. Probably. But the question I kept coming back to was: what is this scene even about?

As time ticked by and the house grew warm, I thought. I wracked my brain to come up with a compelling story that fit all her criteria. All the while, Blossom asked tertiary questions to try to distract me, which was not helping at all.

In the end, I didn't have anything new or fresh or interesting. I felt like I was going to botch this whole game. I felt like I started with my king out in front of my pawns. But Blossom wasn't on the other side, playing against me. I was on the other side, waiting for me to lose.

What was it Stephanie said? Be my own lawyer? Be my own ally.

"So, what's the plan?" Blossom asked, folding up the blanket and putting it on the back of the couch for future cuddling.

"I don't know yet," I sighed. "I'm going to wing it..."

"Good; don't overthink it," Blossom said. "You're a brilliant writer, and I'm sure you sometimes make stuff up just on the spot when you write. So be that Amy. Don't be the Amy who thinks she has to be perfect; perfect is the sworn enemy of good."

I sighed. Amanda the Writer. Not Amanda the Fucking Mess of a Human Being. Okay...

First off, I needed a character. I needed to be someone else. Amanda wasn't a top, and she sure wasn't a caregiver. But I didn't have to be Amanda. Who was I? My head swam with moments in Academy Works. Nothing was simple enough...

I must have been standing there a while, because Blossom interrupted my thoughts.

"Babes?"

"Sorry, um... I just don't know. It felt easier before." It felt like I was about to take a test for a class I had never been to. There was so much pressure...

"Okay, okay, so let's think about this another way - how about I wait in my bedroom, and you come in and just go right into things? I think us both being here cuddled up together in the same space could be spooking you?"

At least, that's how Blossom would have felt about it.

"No, like. Build up? In a story, there's always build up..."

"Do you want to do build up?" Blossom asked.

"Not really..." I mumbled. I just wanted all this to be over with. I just wanted to do a good job.

"Do you want me to start? How about you give me, like… a couple words, one or two or three, with the theme you wanna do, and I'll try and initiate it? Would that help?"

"That's not very baby," I sulked. It was my responsibility to be in control. We hadn't even started and already I was messing up.

"Right, but you need a hook, right? You need that first step. Think about the scenario you wanna do and just go with it, get it rolling, get it started. Anything you want. Basic or perverse or extreme. Something from a story or something you didn't wanna use, or… or a fantasy you've had, about me?"

It was presumptuous, but Blossom was betting with a pretty good intuition.

A majority of my fantasies with Blossom involved me ending up in diapers. But this wasn't the moment for any of those. Why did I agree to this again?

"Maybe we'll just do your cheerleader thing...?" I offered. I didn't have any better ideas.

"If you want to, then that's great!"

It wasn't like Blossom hadn't gotten herself off to similar fantasies a thousand times anyway, so it was a good baseline.

"Okay... so then you're..." I tried to imagine the whole thing as an ABDL story. There would be the chapter where I discovered her secret. The chapter where I used it to blackmail her. But those weren't very fun chapters. No build up, right? So I'd skip forward to some time in the future, after some of her "new normal" had been established.

"You go in your room," I said awkwardly, "and I'll be in there in a moment." I had to get some stuff from upstairs.

"Okay!" Blossom said cheerily. "I'm super excited, so just try to have fun with it."

Blossom went into her bedroom. I stood alone in the living room for a few moments, thinking to myself. Every choice felt so definite, so impending. Did Blossom already like diapers? Was I forcing her into them? Which was the right answer? But I couldn't let her wait in that room forever, so I went upstairs to get some supplies.

Amanda's Rating for Babying Someone, so far: zero of ten. Literal Hell.