Page 30 of Matteo's Mettle
“We could take out a loan.”
“Oh,sure,” she stretches the word out with liberal sarcasm. “Imagine pitching that idea to the bank. ‘Oh, hi, Mister Uptight Bank Lender Man, we’d like to start a business specifically to cater for plus-sized adults who like to dress as babies. Please give us all your money.’Pfft.” She scoffs after acting out her little monologue. “Like anyone would take it seriously.”
I laugh. “Well, not if you pitched it like that.”
She balls the napkin up and throws it at me. It lands on my plate. “Okay,” I hold my hands up in surrender, “let’s table the golden business idea again for now and go back to my original question. Matt and I are both kinda’ homebodies, so our weekends are always pretty free. So, how’s about I call you on Saturday and see what your day looks like?”
And that’s what we do.
Miraculously, Cherie and Kate have Saturday afternoon free when I call. Matt calls Ash and is ecstatic to discover that they, too, are available. He’s practically bouncing off the walls by the time the first knock at the door sounds.
Today he’s dressed in an adorable pair of footie pajamas, his perfect butt rounded with the additional padding of his diaper. His lounge room is already strewn with toys and blocks, brought out from his Little Room.
“I’ve never had playdates here,” Matt explains as he grabs me by the hand and drags me to the front door, “I’ve only ever gone to Ash’s house.” He’s sinking into little space slowly, and I expect that’s because he’s not yet comfortable with Cherie and Kate. After today, I hope that changes.
I know my expression is indulgent when I reply, “Well, this’ll be the first of many here, I’m sure.”
He swings the front door wide open and, before I know it, turns shy, ducking behind me. Cherie grins at me, while Kate bounces on her heels at her side.
“Hi, Uncle London,” Kate says excitedly, “we bought cupcakes! Mommy won’t let me carry ‘em, though.” She pouts for only a moment before she leans over the threshold and sideways. “Hi, Matty!”
He’s absolutely adorable, flushing pink and barely squeaking out his return greeting.
Ushering our guests into his home, I give him a squeeze. “Why don’t you go show Katie around, sweetheart? I’m sure she’s excited to see your train set.”
Bless her, she plays along immediately, grabbing his hand and tugging him back through the house, chattering about how she can’t wait to see what his toys are like. Cherie and I follow at a more sedate pace, sitting down on the couch and letting the other two do their thing. She seems a bit more relaxed than she did earlier in the week, the dark circles beneath her eyes no longer as noticeable.
We talk a little about how the rest of our respective weeks panned out, and then there’s another knock at the door. One glance over at Matt and Kate, both focused on building a tower with the blocks, tells me neither has heard it, so I get up and let Charlie and Ash inside.
“The other two are playing with blocks right now,” I tell Ash, who is dressed similarly to Matt, “so go nuts.”
“Ugh, don’t tell him that,” Charlie jokes lightly as his fiancé scampers away, “or he’ll wind up needing corner time.”
From what I’ve seen of Ash, he looks like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a bratty streak. Thankfully, Matt does not. Which amuses me, considering his need for regular spankings and also his whole ‘bad boy’ aesthetic.
Still, I chuckle and introduce Charlie to Cherie. I travel back and forth between the kitchen and lounge for a bit, bringing out coffees for us adults and sippy cups of juice for the littles, then settle back into one of the two armchairs facing the couch.
Cherie and Charlie seem to be having an in-depth discussion about Charlie’s plans for the kink community safe space and I don’t want to interrupt. Instead, I watch the others as they play. Matt seems to have slipped comfortably into little space, and the other two are right there with him. They each have a stuffed toy in hand and are enacting some sort of story. Kate’s decided that Ash’s stuffed penguin is the princess and that she and Matt, armed with a teddy bear and a plush sheep respectively, are on some sort of valiant quest to rescue the penguin.
“They’re kind of adorable, huh?” Charlie asks, and it takes me a moment to work out that he’s talking to me.
I tear my eyes away from the imaginative play and grin at him. “Every time I think ‘this is it; he’s reached peak cute little-ness’, I see him doing something new that’s even cuter.”
“And none of this is weird to you?” Charlie’s gaze is sharp and assessing, even though his demeanor is relaxed. “Josh said you’ve never done the Daddy thing before. And, I’ll admit, my own first Daddy-boy relationship was eye opening. It took me a while to get past some of my own prejudices, even though I was enjoying it…if that makes sense.”
I shrug. “Honestly, if someone had told me that I’d be into this, even a few months ago, I might have laughed it off as not my thing.” I shoot an apologetic glance in Cherie’s direction. “Like, I’ve never judged anyone for it. To each their own and whatever. But, yeah, the concept itself does come off a bit…” I trail off, not actually wanting to label it negatively. Clearing my throat, I shake my head. “Still, living it feels as natural as breathing.”
Charlie nods, scratching his stubbled chin as his expression becomes speculative. “Have you struggled with any of it? Like…for me, I never really got the bottles of milk thing when I started out. Weird, right? Totally down with the diapers and even the pacifiers, but I couldnotwrap my head around bottles.” He chuckles, the sound pleasant and a little self-deprecating. “I’m good with them now, but it took a while.”
“It was discipline for me,” Cherie pipes in, gently placing her half-drunk coffee down on the coffee table in front of the couch. She leans forward around Charlie so she can address the both of us. “It took me a while to understand that, even though Kate’s a grown woman, when she’s in little space she needs the rules and the consequences just as much as she needs the fun and the comfort.” She wrinkles her nose. “Spanking’s a hard limit for me, so we do corner time and writing lines, mainly.”
“I haven’t really come up against anything yet,” I shrug. “Maybe because I’d already seen so much of what to anticipate when I spent time with you and Kate,” I gesture towards Cherie, “and I didn’t really have any ideas or expectations going into this? I don’t know. I mean, it’s not like we’ve tried it all yet. And, sure, it took me some trial and error at the beginning to work out exactly how much control he needed me to take but, even then, I wouldn’t say it was a struggle.”
“Huh,” Charlie sits back. “Well,” he says after a long moment, “if that changes, any of us are more than willing to talk it out with you. Ted was kind of my mentor when I first joined the scene.”
“I appreciate that. And, hey, maybe that’s something your community center can look into arranging? Like…Q&A sessions, or mentorships, or stuff like that?”
“The Grove already has something similar in place for Doms in training,” Charlie muses, “but not so much for Daddies who aren’t Doms. At least, not that I know of.” Cocking his head, he stares off into space. “Considering how much Ted helped me, I think it’s a great idea.”
