The Nest

Leigh had just stepped out of the shower, her eyes closed as tightly as they could be, when she heard the front door of the apartment open, signalling that her roommate Alejandra had returned from work. Wrapping her short, well toned body in a towel, and with her blonde, pink-streaked hair still dripping, Leigh stepped into the hall.

"Leigh? You here?" Alejandra's voice called down the hallway.

"Give me a sec," yelled Leigh, making for her room.

"Nah, you don't need a sec," Alejandra called back, her voice excited. "I have something for you!"

Clutching the towel around her torso as tightly as she could, Leigh reversed course and tiptoed down the hall towards the living room, where her roommate Alejandra was now sprawled on the couch with a wrapped package in front of her. Her torn jeans and her ironic heavy-metal t-shirt, as well as her slightly twist-edged smile, gave her a playful slacker look, but in deep brown eyes Leigh saw the deep sincerity of friendship and excitement.

Alejandra looked up, saw Leigh's state of undress, and let her smile widen.

"Oh, whoops, sorry" she said, not sounding for a minute like she meant it. "Happy birthday, Leigh! I got you a present. You might want to go put on some clothes before you open it, though. Unless you got taken off no-looking for the weekend?"

Alejandra had been Leigh's best friend since high school. They were far more than roommates; they had been each others' emotional safety nets through the turbulent waters of their college years, and they knew more about each other than either of them did about themselves. Alongside these more consequential intimacies, they had been organizing each others' birthday parties for years now. Leigh knew that Alejandra had planned a fun evening out with all of Leigh's close friends- dinner and then dancing at a club- and she had been looking forward to it all day. It seemed her roommate and old friend might have other plans as well, though, and the mention of a present made Leigh unaccountably nervous.

"He... I thought he was going..." Leigh began to reply, then thought better of what she had been about to say. "He didn't say anything about it," she finished.

"So no, then" Alejandra said matter-of-factly. "Go get changed and then come back here so you can open your present!"

As Leigh moved to obey, she considered the nature of Alejandra's birthday present. Knowing Alejandra, this was unlikely to be something simple or straightforward. It could be something totally vanilla, even sentimental- given the history between them, it wouldn't be at all surprising- but it could also be something... a little more devious. And if Alejandra was in a devious mood, Leigh knew from experience that she had to be on her guard.

She was so preoccupied with anticipation as she entered her room that she didn't pay enough attention to the suitcase she had been unpacking from a recent work trip, left on the floor just inside her door. Too late, she realized what was happening as she stepped directly onto the edge with one bare foot and lost her balance completely. Grabbing the edge of her desk, she managed to stop herself from falling backward and hitting her head on the wall, but in the process she dropped the towel she was still clutching to her sternum.

Leigh froze in place. Her white knuckles were still gripping the desk edge. Her towel was crumpled to the floor around her ankles. And, with a slow sinking feeling of horror, she realized she was staring directly at her own firm, pale tits, the large pink nipples winking at her with the enormity of her mistake. It took her no more than a few seconds, or a few eternities in her own mind, to unfreeze and react by squeezing her eyes shut again. She began to get dressed with her eyes still shut, trying to will her racing heart into calming down, and tried to decide what to do.

Leigh had a choice now. The rule violation had happened in her own room, behind closed doors. There was no possible way that Alejandra or anyone else could be aware that it had occurred, unless Leigh said something.

Further, a now-dressed Leigh reflected as she peeled open her eyes and got out her little pocket-sized journal, this was maybe the absolute worst possible time for something like this to happen. She had nine black marks this week already. The consequences for a tenth were... an order of magnitude higher than anything that came before. And no one would blame her if, on today of all days, she decided to keep quiet. It was literally a victimless crime. It was a proverbial tree falling in the woods with no one to hear it. It wasn't even really her fault. And it would throw everyone else's plans into disarray. She'd be doing them a favor by keeping quiet. She could make up for it on another day- today of all days was not the right day for this. The most exceptional of exceptional circumstances.

Leigh was still trying to convince herself of these things when she realized, startled, that almost entirely without thinking about it or intending to do so, she had dropped to her knees and begun crawling the length of the hallway back to the living room. With her little book clutched in one of her hands. Caught by the sudden awareness of what she was doing, Leigh allowed herself a moment to feel sorry for herself before plunging ahead with what she knew she had to do. It was her birthday, after all.

Alejandra, still lounging on the couch and seeing her cute little roommate crawl back into the room with book in hand, raised a single dark eyebrow. "Uh oh, little puta, what happened here?"

"Fuck, I... Ali, just now, I dropped the towel on the floor while I was changing. And I... I saw one of my tits. Just for a second."

Alejandra almost laughed out loud. Her roommate sounded so genuinely, pathetically sorry for having seen her own body naked- something completely fucking normal that every other human being in the world did every single day. And yet, she knew her part in this.

"Oh, no, baby, I'm so sorry!" said Alejandra to the kneeling girl at her feet. "Fuck, that sucks, Leigh. I wish I could let this go, it being your birthday and all! But, the rules are the rules. Did you record it in your- wait." Alejandra paused as she thought of something. "Didn't you get your ninth mark yesterday?"

Solemn-faced, Leigh opened her book and pointed to the entry for that week. There they were; all of her infractions recorded there in Leigh's neat, careful handwriting, with black marks in the margin denoting each new entry. Counting them quickly in her head, Alejandra sucked in a sharp breath when she realized there were indeed nine of them, meaning that the current would be her tenth.

"Oh, shit," Alejandra breathed. "I... what does this mean?"

Leigh looked at the floor and tried to speak, only to find nothing she could say. Should she ask for leniency? Come up with an out for both of them? Beg for her fate? Reassure her worried friend?

If only she hadn't stepped on that fucking suitcase.

When Leigh said nothing, Ali continued. "I'm serious, baby. Should I call Ben and ask?"

Leigh looked up sharply at that.

"No," she said quickly. "Don't call Ben. He... he might be my boyfriend, but when you agreed to do this for me, I promised you would have a... free hand. Ben might set the rules, you have the absolute right to enforce them when we are at home."

Even as Leigh was speaking, she saw the uncertainty slowly leaving Alejandra's soft brown eyes, and a mix of other emotions flowing in to take its place. Resolution and determination were there, as were genuine affection and caring as Alejandra looked down at her best friend kneeling before her. But also... yes, it was there, if you looked closely... the whispers of an intense, growing lust. Leigh felt her own lust beginning to rise up in response. This is what she was built for, after all.

"Please, Ali," Leigh said, bowing her head to touch her best friend's feet. She felt a familiar flush of submissive energy flow through her body, outward from her cunt into her tingling fingers and toes, and at last, directly into her brain.

"Please allow me to record my tenth punishment mark, and please make sure, given that it is my birthday, that my sentence is correspondingly the harshest possible."

Leigh dared not look upward, but she heard the warmth and excitement in Ali's voice as she spoke. "Of course, Leigh. Actually, this might work out really well after all! We can try out your birthday present."

Instantly, the anticipatory dread Leigh had been feeling earlier, momentarily forgotten amid events, rushed back.

"Record your punishment," Alejandra said, pushing her roommate's face gently upward from its prostrate position with her bare foot until their gazes met. "Then open your present."

Ali obeyed, making sure the infraction was recorded neatly and in meticulous detail. She included the date, time, and precise circumstances under which she had come to see a forbidden flash of her own tit.

She also recapitulated the reason for the taboo. Her boyfriend and dominant, Ben, had issued a standing order a few days ago that, until he declared otherwise, she was not allowed to view any part of her own naked breasts or genitals, even by accident or while showering. There was no particular reason for the order; he merely liked to "keep her on her toes," as he put it, by issuing additional rules occasionally as it amused him to do so. Sometimes he was surprised that a rule turned out in its enactment to be much harsher, or much easier, than he intended, but she was given zero leniency in those situations- rules were rules, after all. It all felt deeply unfair, and- she had to admit to herself- the unfairness of it itself was incredibly erotic.

As she finished recording the infraction and closed her notebook, she looked up at Alejandra and asked "Should I get the crop now?"

"Nah," her roommate responded, her wide smile now fully returned to her impish face. "Open your present first."

The present was a medium-large rectangular box, fairly nondescript, wrapped in festive birthday wrapping paper. Leigh was as meticulous in unwrapping as she was in everything else. She did not tear at the paper; she never had, even as a little kid. She felt with her fingers to find the seams, slit the Scotch tape with a fingernail, and began unfolding the wrapping carefully. Focused on her task, she did not see Alejandra rolling her eyes at her fastidiousness.

At last, wrapping removed, Leigh pulled the large shrink-wrapped cardboard box and regarded it with a quizzical eye.

"It's a Google Nest camera," Alejandra helpfully explained.

"I can see that," Leigh said, more confused than sarcastic. "But... why? And how will it help with my punishment?"

Alejandra let out an evil giggle and grabbed the box out of Leigh's hands.

"Oh, sweetie, you haven't even begun to think of the possibilities! Think of it this way: I can leave you somewhere, you know, a little vulnerable, and train this camera on you. It streams video directly to my phone, or anyone else's phone I allow. Think about it! You'll never know exactly when you're being watched!"

Unbidden, a word popped into Leigh's head, one she remembered distantly from a college philosophy class: panopticon.

Who needs guards when your own imagination takes over most of the job?

Leigh felt something stir inside her.

"Oh, God," she breathed. "Are you... are you gonna..."

Alejandra smiled down at her best friend. "I felt bad that you were gonna have to miss your own birthday party, sweetie. Ten marks is ten marks, after all. But with this, we can still include you in the celebration! At least, we will get to enjoy your company... when we feel like it. You won't really get to enjoy ours, sadly, but I think you'll have other things on your mind."

Leigh shivered. Stealing a glance upward, she locked her gaze with her roommate's for half an intense second, drinking in the sadistic amusement she saw there.

Alejandra, not Leigh, broke off the eye contact. "Well, baby, we'd better get started. After all, I don't want to be late to your birthday, even if you can't go anymore."

"Yes, thank you Ali. I'll get the cane."

Rather than standing to fetch the cane and crop, Leigh crawled on her hands and knees to retrieve them from the box in the closet where they were kept. It wasn't required that she do so- in fact, she knew it made Alejandra a little uncomfortable- but it felt right in this moment nonetheless.

Alejandra was on her phone when Leigh arrived back at her feet, instruments of punishment in tow. Leigh knelt quietly and waited for her roommate to acknowledge her return.

"Looks like Jennifer's in the Bahamas or some bullshit right now," Alejandra said idly. "She's blowing up the 'gram with beach selfies. No sign of her dumb little pet jock in any of them."

Leigh snorted a giggle. "Maybe he forgot to like one of her 'artsy' shots so now he's in the doghouse."

They spent a little while longer gossipping about mutual friends and acquaintances, with Alejandra reading news off her phone and Leigh kneeling at her feet and reacting, still holding the cane and crop.

"Ohh, Cooper got a new puppy! Oh my God, she is adorable!" Alejandra held her phone out so her roommate could have a look.

"Oooooh, that fuzzy little FACE!" Leigh squealed, wincing as she leaned forward and found that one of her feet had gone to sleep from her position. "What is it, a golden retriever?"

"Looks like maybe a golden doodle?" Alejandra answered, pulling her phone back. "I'm not sure, exactly. My dog-breed-dar is worse than my gay-dar, and that's saying something."

"If they're there tonight, will you ask for me?" Leigh said. The unexpectedly intense sadness in her voice made Alejandra look up sharply.

"Oh, baby, I know it's hard," she said, drawing Leigh into a deep hug. "I know this really really sucks for you. That rule was so mean and unfair and you didn't even have to tell me you broke it and now you have to miss your birthday party. Honestly, it's hard for me, too. I wish I could forget all this and let you go. And I would, in a heartbeat... except that I know deep down inside, Leigh, there's a big part of you that really loves how much this sucks. That wants it bad. That's just over the moon with the idea of being made to spend your birthday party at home, kneeling naked on the floor, having no idea which of your friends might be watching you suffer at any moment. I wish I could be merciful to you, but I know that part of you would be so disappointed if I did. So you need to just accept it, okay? It won't make it suck any less, but just try to enjoy it, alright?"

Once again, Leigh marveled at how satisfying it felt to be dominated by someone who knew her so deeply. It was a kind of intimacy unlike anything else she'd ever experienced. Even though things were never sexual between them, she felt more connected to Alejandra in that moment than she ever had to any boyfriend.

A tear or two escaped from Leigh's stinging eyes as she buried her face in her best friend's stomach.

"Thank you, Ali," she whispered. "Thank you."

"Of course, baby," Alejandra whispered back, stroking her roommate's long dirty-blond hair. "I'm gonna make it so bad for you, because that's what you need, little puta."

Thank you, Ali," Leigh kept whispering over and over. "Thank you, thank you."

They stayed like that for a while, holding each other, Leigh crying softly and Ali stroking her hair a bit.

"Ali?" Leigh asked plaintively.

"Mmhmm?" her dark-haired friend responded.

"Thank you for helping me to accept my place. Will you please let me do your chores for a week to thank you?"

"Of course, puta. In fact, I'll be extra nice and let you do them for two weeks." Alejandra hated doing laundry a lot.

They remained like that, Leigh kneeling with her head buried in Alejandra's lap, for a few minutes longer before Alejandra stood up and motioned that Leigh should get in position for her beating. Breathing deeply, Leigh pushed up off the floor and stripped naked once again- making sure to close her eyes tight- and draped herself over the arm of the sofa, exposing her thickly-muscled runner's ass.

The mandatory beating- 5 strokes of the crop and 2 strokes of the cane for every punishment mark, repeated in full each time Leigh earned a new one- passed by in a red blur of pain. Leigh sobbed through most of it, choking out a "thank you" and a stroke count for each blow. Finally, Alejandra brought the 20th cane stroke down hard on her ass, directly on top of a welt that had already been raised by several previous strokes. As Leigh howled in pain, Alejandra put the cane down and shook out her sore arm. The things I do for her, Alejandra thought, as Leigh slid down off the couch onto the floor into a puddle of melted girl. Let no one say that a good caning wasn't hard on them both.

Looking down at her phone, Alejandra suddenly saw a text from Ben. Ignoring her sobbing roommate, she pulled it open and read it. Her eyes went wide for a minute, and she laughed quietly to herself. Leigh, still cradling her throbbing ass, didn't hear her.

Alejandra left Leigh curled up on the floor, recovering, while she herself went to get dressed for the evening. She chose a black miniskirt with fishnet tights under dark, high-heeled boots, a sheer black top, a red leather jacket, and a cute choker. She'd always liked the goth-punk look, even after she'd objectively outgrown it.

It took her a substantial amount of time to figure out how to set up the Google Nest, and get the stream fully working on her phone. The Nest, unlike a lot of its competitors, didn't save the video feed anywhere- it was live streaming only. For most people that was a weak point for the product, but it suited Alejandra's purposes just well. Of course, Google was probably saving the data somewhere for nefarious targeted advertising purposes, but, if that was the case... oh well. They'd give some loser engineer a show. Besides, from what she understood it was mostly audio signals that were routinely datamined.

By the time she had the Nest set up and working, she was running late. Without much time to consider Leigh's position, she finally decided on a classic. First, she gagged Leigh with a dirty pair of her own panties, with duct tape over her mouth on top. She then cuffed Leigh's hands behind her back and chained the cuffs together. The wrist cuff chain was not locked on, and they both knew that Leigh could remove them herself in case of an emergency. Leigh's ankles were chained together in a similar way, preventing her from moving her ankles more than an inch or two apart.

Finally, Alejandra drew out a quarter and placed it against the wall. "Nose," said said briskly. Leigh shuffled forward on her knees and knelt upright, straightening her back as much as possible, before placing her face against the wall. Alejandra inserted the quarter between her face and the wall and released, so that Leigh was holding it there with the tip of her nose. As a finishing touch, she got a pair of nipple clamps and applied them, enjoying Leigh's hiss of pain, muffled by the wall and her gag.

"Some rules, puta," said Alejandra. "You get a 10-minute break every hour. I'll set a timer. When you hear it go off, you may get up and stretch, and give your nipples a rest. But you will be back on the wall with the quarter in position and your hands re-cuffed behind your back well before your break is over. Don't forget to reset the timer. Also, at the break time, you can drink some water, but rub the panties in your filthy little crotch before you re-gag yourself."

Leigh couldn't nod or respond without losing her grip on the quarter. Already, the sweat on the tip of her nose was making things slipperier than she'd like. But she gave an "mphhh" to clarify that she'd heard. She knew that replacing the nipple clamps after the break was going to be one of the most painful parts of the torture.