Melody lounged on her bean bag chair, laptop open in front of her as she pecked away at the next chapter.

Don’t forget FRIES. All consent should be:

Freely given - It should go without saying that coercion is not consent

Revocable - Everyone involved is free to change their minds at any time

Informed - All parties should know what they’re signing up for

Enthusiastic - ‘I guess so’ isn’t consent!

Specific - This is like Informed! You need to know what you’re agreeing to, or you can’t really agree to it

Pursing her lips, she skimmed over the text, then tabbed back.

Revocable - Everyone involved is free to change their minds at any time, and you shouldn’t make assumptions about future behavior based on current behavior. Someone might be interested in trying something once, but that doesn’t mean they want to keep doing it in the future

Nodding, she looked over the paragraph one more time. It was good. Great, even. Basic, maybe, but that was the point. Screenshotting the half page, the tabbed over to Flutter–she refused to call it Z–and dropped the image with a caption.

‘Working on my book! Everything a beginner needs to know about safe, healthy kink and BDSM - I’m just trying to make the community a better place ❤️ ❤️ <3’

Posting the preview, Melody smiled and returned to the document, beginning to write the next paragraph, before a notification interrupted her flow. She glanced over at Skip, who had taken a spot on Melody’s bed to edit, then clicked on the notification.

‘New activity in the following document - Sex Book placeholder title’

Pulling up the correct section in the shared doc, she scrolled down to Skip’s commentary.

When using restraints–be they rope, cuffs, or leather–always make sure you provide a degree of mobility. Make sure to leave enough space so that circulation and blood flow aren’t cut off.

Suggestion: Make sure to leave enough space to fit two fingers beneath the restraint, so that circulation and blood flow aren’t cut off.

Glancing up, Melody asked, “Two fingers?” She hadn’t written that–and Skip wasn’t supposed to know about BDSM beyond the most cliche tropes.

“Yeah.” Skip kept their eyes on their own laptop while they spoke. “‘Enough space’ is pretty vague, I wasn’t sure if that meant like…’as long as my fingers don’t turn blue’ or ‘it should hang loose around my wrist’, so I looked it up and two fingers seems to be a good test.”

“Right.” Nodding, Melody accepted the suggestion. “Though if you’re confused, you can just ask me and I’ll fix it.”

“Sure.” Skip pursed their lips, returning their focus to the document.

Melody shifted for a moment, then went back and undid the correction. Her finger hovered over the trackpad of her laptop for a moment, hesitating, then she shook her head and cleared her throat. “It’s just, I want to make sure we’re being clear.”

Skip raised an eyebrow. “That’s why I suggested we change it.”

“Okay, but I know the ‘two fingers’ thing, and I didn’t put it in there on purpose,” Melody explained, setting aside her computer and shifting to stand by the bed. “Give me your hand.”

The corner of their mouth tweaking up in a skeptical half-smile, Skip offered their hand, palm facing forward. Melody raised her own, pressing their fingers together, emphasizing the difference–Skip was just bigger than Melody, and their hands were no exception.

“Your pinkie’s almost as big as my thumb,” Melody pointed out. “So, if we’re trying to be clear, what’s ‘two fingers’? Yours? Or mine?”

Skip pulled their hand back and glanced away. “Sure. So what do we put instead?”

“You need a feel for it, it’s hard to just say,” Melody explained, shaking her head. “Never mind, I’ll rewrite it.”

Scooting forward, Skip shook their head. “No, you said that’s why you needed me. To take vibes and put them into words. So let’s figure this out–how much pressure is too much?” Raising one hand, they squeezed their own wrist for demonstration, barely wrapping two fingers all the way around. “Like, this? Looser?”

Melody rolled her eyes. “If you’re squeezing down on the skin, that’s too tight. Your hand isn’t big enough.” A thought struck her, and she got to her feet, crossing the room towards her closet as she said, “Hold on.”

Skip waited, puffing out their cheeks and sighing as they waited.

Melody's closet held a menagerie of debauchery. An entire shelf was given over to toys–vibrators, dildos, plugs. Impact play implements were categorized by type, and a plastic bin held lube, condoms, and dental dams with enough of a supply to outlast the apocalypse.

She lingered lovingly over her collection for a moment before reaching to a hook on the wall, taking down a length of rope from her array of restraints.

Walking back, she held up the coiled rope for Skip to see. “I’d like to show you, okay?”

Skip extended their wrists without argument. “If you say so.”

“Alright, then take off your hoodie.” Melody said, nodding to their baggy sleeves. “Those are going to get in the way.”

Hesitating for a moment, Skip tugged at the wrist of one sleeve before simply pulling them back, bunching the fabric around their elbows. “This is fine.”

“Are you sure that’s comfortable?” Melody asked, eyeing the clump of wadded cotton riding up to their shoulders.

Skip shrugged. “It’s cool.”

Nodding, Melody lifted the rope, doubling it over itself before wrapping the coil around their wrist. “Okay, do you feel that?”

“It’s soft,” Skip commented, sounding surprised. “I expected it to chafe more.”

“It’s silk,” Melody replied, holding the rope in place, pinching it with her finger to keep out any slack. “I don’t skimp. But do you feel how you have room to rotate your wrist without it digging in anywhere?”

Skip followed her suggestion, turning their wrist. “Okay, I get it. It’s snug, but there’s no squeezing pressure.”

“Exactly,” Melody said, moving to secure the rope in place with a quick bowline knot. Her fingers moved deftly, lacing the rope around itself and pulling it snug, and when she had it tied she automatically slid two fingers beneath the rope cuff, testing the gap between rope and skin.

Skip didn’t comment.

“I feel like I could slip out of this,” Skip said, using their free hand to fidget with the rope cuff. “If I pulled hard, made a fist, and pressed my thumb to my palm. Or I could just untie it with my teeth.”

“Probably,” Melody conceded, taking Skip’s fidgeting hand away and moving to bind a second coil of rope around it. “No bondage is going to be foolproof–and that’s a good thing. We’re not trying to make you actually helpless. What if I had a heart attack or something in the middle of the scene?”

“Okay.” Skip nodded thoughtfully as Melody tied their wrists together, leaving a length of rope between both hands so that it worked like a pair of handcuffs. “So it’s not a problem if I can escape-artist Houdini my way free?”

“No. And,” Melody said, reaching over to tap on her nightstand, “always keep something sharp on hand to cut the rope in emergencies. How does that feel?”

Skip extended their hands, testing the restriction, pulling the rope taut to see how far they could spread their hands. “I think I can describe this.” Raising their wrists to inspect the knots, their gaze narrowed thoughtfully, though their reaction seemed purely academic. “What do you think about a visual aid?”

Nodding quickly, Melody reached for her phone. “That's a great idea.”

Pulling back their hands slightly, Skip added, “I don't want to be the model.”

Keeping the camera lowered, Melody nodded. “Can I just use this as a placeholder, and we'll get someone and do a photoshoot once the book is done?”

Considering for a moment, Skip nodded, extending their hands to show off the rope work.

Melody snapped a couple pictures, then put a finger beneath the rope and pulled, snapping a couple more, getting different angles of her handiwork. While she did, Skip pulled at the bits of rope they could reach, toying idly with the fibers. “We should make sure to write about how it won’t really be foolproof, too–I think a lot of people won’t know that, I expected it to be more…binding.”

Smirking and unable to help herself, Melody reached forward, taking the rope that hung between Skip’s wrists and pulling sharply forward. Skip’s hands followed the rope, the restraint acting as an extremely effective lead, so that greater size and strength were completely canceled out. The surprise helped, too, but more than anything, it was the rope cuffs that did their job, demonstrating that ‘escapable’ did not mean ‘ineffective’.

“It’s not about permanence, it’s about control,” Melody began, her smirk spreading into a full grin. “Get it?”

“Yeah, I get it,” Skip shot, shaking their head and lifting their wrists. “Take these off, okay?”

Melody nodded, the thrill going out of her a bit as she moved to deftly undo both knots, leaving the rope to fall into Skip’s lap. “Did that help?”

“It helped,” Skip said, rubbing their wrists, though their skin showed no redness or signs of discomfort. Pulling their sleeves back down, they added, “I get it.”

“Cool.” Melody picked up the rope and coiled it in her hands.

Skip glanced back at their laptop, then shook their head and yawned. “I’m getting pretty tired–it’s almost eleven, I should probably get some sleep.”

Halfway to putting the rope back, Melody looked over her shoulder and widened her eyes by a fraction. “Oh? I feel like we were making good progress.”

“Yeah, but I know when sleep calls,” Skip explained, shaking their head. “I don’t want to be dead on my feet at work tonight, we’ve been getting hammered lately and I’m barely keeping up as it is.”

“Right, okay,” Melody said, checking her phone. “I should probably get working, anyway, it’s about to be peak delivery time.”

Closing up their laptop, Skip blinked heavily a few times, emphasizing how hard the fatigue had suddenly hit them. “It’s a good start, though,” they offered, as they shuffled to the door. “Once we get it done, I'm thinking it's going to be a big hit.”

“Yeah,” Melody agreed absently.

As Skip left, Melody couldn't shake the feeling that she'd done something wrong.

She shrugged it off. She hadn't said anything inappropriate, Skip was emotionally bulletproof, and even if both of those statements were wrong, it wasn't her job to babysit anyone's feelings.

If Skip wanted to raise an issue, they could. In the meantime, Melody had work to do.

Checking her phone, she was distracted from work by a couple notifications. Her preview had a few replies, and she scrolled down, reading them.

‘Can’t wait!’

‘Looks cool!’

‘P U S S Y I N B I O’

‘Melody, who the fuck are you to tell people how to do healthy kink? If you want to make the community a better place, delete your account.’

Melody stared at the last one, rereading the words twice more before she turned off her phone screen and shook her head.

Deliveries could wait, she wanted to get more writing done first.

...

Great news! The audiobook for The Baby Bet was fully funded, and is now starting production!

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