Aftermath

“LEE! My ass /hurts/!” Keiran shouted from the corner. Lee ignored him. As usual. “LEEEEEE! LEE! LEE! LEE!”

Keiran heard Lee coming up the stairs and he turned out of the corner, seeking comfort. Lee turned him back around and swatted his already stinging backside hard. “Turn around, face the corner, keep quiet, and try, for a moment, to think how you’ve made Eli feel. Really /think/, for once Keiran. Stop talking and use that brain you seem to forget you have on the best of days.”

Keiran whimpered and broke into tears at Lee’s outburst. He seemed to crumple into himself and Lee swatted him again until he forced himself to stand straight. He listened to Lee’s footsteps retreating down the stairs and he sobbed.

It wasn’t /fair/! Obviously he hadn’t /meant/ it when he’d said it. He’d only been taunting Eli, trying to get the attention he wasn’t giving him. Eli got /enough/ attention. God, Ben was always giving him attention. It wasn’t fair. Keir hated coming to Ben and Eli’s because /nobody ever paid him any attention/. It was always Eli this and Eli that.

He hadn’t meant to make Eli feel that bad…He hadn’t expected that reaction out of him. God. He shivered in the corner, starting to feel bad. Stupid Lee and his corner-techniques. It always worked—leave him long enough and he’d start to feel bad. Just as he was about to wail for Lee again, he heard his lover coming up the stairs and he shivered violently until Lee’s arms went around him and he hugged him hard against him. Keiran broke into sobs again.

“Lee, Lee, I know I was bad, I know I was stupid, it was /so/ mean of me, Lee! I need you to punish me, Lee, I know, but I’m scared, Lee. I don’t want the belt, I don’t, Lee!”

Lee kissed the top of his head, running a hand over his lover’s stinging butt. Keiran flinched, whimpering. He’d already spanked him the day they returned home with his hand and made him write lines. Yesterday, he had spanked him with the paddle and given him more lines. Today; hand, paddle and now the belt, followed by written apologies to Eli and Ben, separately.

Keiran shivered in Lee’s embrace until Lee pulled back. “Into the den, please,” he ordered. Keiran held back a sob and nodded, heading for the den at a quick pace. He wanted this done and over with. As quick as possible. He nearly threw up at the sight of the belt on the desk and he flinched when Lee ordered behind him to strip.

He turned, pleading one last time. “Lee, Lee, I swear I’ll be good, Lee, please, please, I can’t. Not any more, please. I won’t ever do it again, Lee, I won’t I swear!” he promised. Lee turned him to the wall with a swat.

“Now. Pants and boxers off, folded on the desk. Then hand me the belt. I won’t ask again.” Keiran nodded, tears tracking his cheeks as he shakily undressed, folded his clothes, and set them on the desk. He hesitated before he touched the tough leather of the belt and then he hastily handed it to Lee as if it had burned him.

“Stand against the wall, hands up, present yourself. You know the rules; you will count the strokes, Keiran, you will /not/ beg for me to stop or I will increase the number. You are allowed to cry.”

Keiran nodded. He hated the belt. He hated the belt and the cane the /worst/ of all the punishments because they were both so impersonal. Lee didn’t touch him; he didn’t speak until it was over. These were /disappointed in him/ punishments. The kind Keiran always felt Lee would never forgive him after.

He obediently moved against the wall, his hands up to support himself, his butt and legs in direct vicinity of the evil implement in Lee’s hands. Lee stepped forward, readied himself. “Count them, Keiran,” he ordered and landed the first with a loud crack as hard leather connected with already red and tender flesh. Keiran clenched his teeth, grunting out a quiet “One, sir.”

Lee landed the next three quickly, SnapSnapSnap. “Two, three, four, Lee, sir.”

By the sixth, Keiran was making a noise between a whimper and a whine. Lee knew he was going to break by eight or nine – he never made it to ten without crying out. Keiran shifted onto the balls of his feet and back with the next succession of swats. Seven, eight.

On nine, he broke. “N-nine, Lee, nine, sir,” he cried, sobbing loudly. Lee could hear him, intermingled with his sobs, apologizing quietly, over and over. Lee continued with increased vigor. Ten. Eleven, twelve. At fifteen, he examined the criss-cross welts across his lover’s once-white bottom and lowered the last swats to his upper thighs.

Keiran shook as Lee finally quit. Twenty stripes crossed his butt and his thighs. Keiran’s legs wobbled and he collapsed to the ground, ass smarting. “Ow, ow, Lee, Lee,” he gasped, lying on the cool hardwood floor, hands moving to his butt but he knew better than to touch. He simply sobbed, lying there.

Lee returned the belt to its home in the desk and then dropped to a crouch beside Keiran. His lover hissed as Lee’s hand moved over his butt and he wriggled away. “Don’t touch, don’t touch, pleeeeeeease, Lee,” he wailed.

Lee stroked his back instead.

“Lee, Lee, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’ll never do anything like that again, Lee, I promise, I won’t! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I-I…”  he hiccupped. Lee nodded faintly, smoothing his hand over his shoulders soothingly.

            “Its all over now, Keiran. No more, baby. It's alright; you’re forgiven,” he assured him. Keiran whimpered, nodding. “C-can I come see you now?” he asked in a hoarse whisper. Lee carefully tugged him up into his lap and Keiran wound himself around his lover, arms and legs both, sobbing into his shoulder. Lee made sure to not touch his butt.

            “Lee, I’m sorry. I love you, I would never do that to you, Lee, I can’t believe I said that! Eli must hate me, oh my God, and Ben…Lee, I /wouldn’t/! Never! I can’t…I’m soo sorry. I… Eli’s never gonna talk to me again, is he?”

            Lee turned his bruised face up to him, kissing under his eye, smoothing his tears away. Eli had done some damage – his face was pretty bruised. So were his ribs and his chest, and the back of his head had split open and needed stitches from its collision between the force of Eli’s anger and the pavement. But his face was the worst; more than once since their return home had concerned passer-bys asked if Lee beat him. He kissed his nose.

            “Its okay, bunny rabbit. It’s over. You’re gonna write an apology to both Ben and Eli and you’re going to deliver them in person. If they don’t want to see you again, that is something we’ll deal with, okay? I doubt that very much, though. We’ll talk with them. It’s alright.”

            Keiran nodded, beginning to calm down as he settled in Lee’s arms. He was always so comforting right after a spanking. He never did understand that – why Tops were so comforting, so /safe/ after just punishing them. But Lee always was. He felt himself relaxing, snuggling into his shoulder as Lee rubbed his back.

            After a while, Keiran looked up at his lover, eyes still red and teary. Lee leaned down to kiss his nose and then his lips. Keiran made a face. “Lee?”

            Lee nodded, his hands stilling on his back.

            “Lee, my ass /hurts/.”