Spanktember Prompt, Day 7: Rare Pair

Warnings: Parental spanking with a small paddle. I do not condone physical punishments of real-life children, or anyone who does not or cannot consent to such activities.

Summary: Rachel is adjusting to life with her mother in the picture. Some adjustments are more painful than others and Rachel finds that out the hard way when she mouths off to Shelby in front of her fathers.

A/N: This story was a lot of fun to write, especially with a very unsure Shelby. Hope you enjoy!

Attitude Adjustment

"RACHEL!" boomed the shocked and angry voices of both of her fathers in tandem. Rachel's heart began pounding in response. She'd done it now.

"Apologize to your mother, right now," LeRoy Berry ordered in his deep baritone. It was enough to send chills down even Shelby Corcoran's spine.

Shelby sat motionless on the sofa in the Berrys' living room, still processing the words her daughter had just thrown at her. If someone had told her four months ago that her dream of meeting her biological daughter, the child she had carried for nine months as a surrogate for two gay men, would come true—and that she would be welcomed into an active role in that child's life—Shelby would have thought they were crazy. Yet here she was, in the thick of parenthood alongside LeRoy and Hiram Berry as if they'd been doing it together from the start.

But four months hadn't been enough time for Shelby to become confident in her role as Mom. She was still so worried that she was going to do something wrong and Rachel wouldn't want her to stick around. And now her child had spoken the worst of Shelby's fears out loud.

"Why does she get a say?" Rachel had whined at her fathers. Then angry eyes had turned to Shelby as the girl continued. "You don't know my friends, you barely even know me, and you're going to say that I can't go hang out with them? I don't think so! Stay in your lane, Shelby!"

Rachel turned to her mother, still angry, but with a niggling feeling of guilt creeping in. As she met hazel eyes and she saw the hurt and confusion her words had put there, the guilt flooded in.

"I—I'm sorry, Mom. I'm so sorry. I had no right to talk to you that way—I was angry and I didn't mean it," the girl offered, her own eyes welling with tears to mirror those of her mother's.

Shelby blinked past the moisture blurring her vision and took a deep breath. "It's—It's okay, let's forget about it," she answered.

"No, it's not okay, Shelby, and we will most certainly not forget about this," LeRoy interrupted the woman. He wasn't about to let his child get away with the vitriol she had just spewed at her mother. Shelby didn't deserve it and he wasn't going to allow her to think she did for one moment longer.

Turning back to his child, he flung his arm out, pointing towards the hallway. "You can march yourself into the Study and park your nose in a corner, young lady. I will be in shortly to discuss your atrocious behavior," he said. At the end, he lowered his hand to his waist, his fingers brushing over his belt buckle. He didn't miss the way his child's eyes bulged at the not-so-subtle implication. LeRoy watched Rachel hurry off before he dropped his hand and his façade.

Hiram studied his husband. He hadn't missed the hand to the belt either. "Are you going to use your belt then?" he asked, his tone void of any judgment. Truthfully, he wouldn't blame LeRoy if he did belt their daughter. They weren't strict about many things, but if anything was going to earn the sharp sting of leather across Rachel's bottom, it was disrespect.

Shelby gasped and stared back and forth between both men. "Oh no, LeRoy, please don't! She didn't mean it," she pleaded. "I shouldn't have said anything. She's right, I don't know her friends or—or her very well."

"Hey," Hiram stepped forward to engulf the woman in a tight hug. "None of that. You have every right to step in and make decisions where Rachel is concerned. We all agreed that you would come in and be Mom right away. Rachel just isn't getting her way and she lashed out—she is the one out of line. We're not about to let her get away with that."

"I don't want her to hate me," Shelby cried into Hiram's chest (the man was much too tall for her to reach his shoulders).

"She could never," Hiram whispered, rubbing Shelby's back much like he would Rachel's. "She loves you, Shelby. She's a teenager and they're, well, basically tall toddlers—same tantrums, better vocabulary."

Shelby let out a garbled noise that was half laugh, half sob, and pulled back from the embrace. "I'm sorry, I sh-shouldn't be crying like this. I know she didn't m-mean it," she apologized.

"You never have to apologize for your feelings, Shelby. They're all valid," Hiram answered her.

"You are allowed to be hurt by Rachel's comments, Shelby, even if she didn't mean them. She said them and that's enough," LeRoy added. Then he sighed and ran a hand over his hair. "Let me go deal with her—she never handles waiting well."

"Wait! LeRoy—" Shelby stopped the man with a hand on his arm. He turned to offer her a kind expression. "Please don't use your belt. She—She doesn't deserve that. I can't…Please?"

The tears in the younger woman's eyes were too much for LeRoy and he opened his arms in invitation. She all but knocked him over in her haste to hug him. He wrapped strong arms around her and let her cry into her shoulder.

"Easy, Mama Bear," he soothed, "I'd never hurt her. I'm going to spank her—but I haven't made a final decision on the belt or not. It will all depend on Little Miss Rachel's attitude, I think."

"C'mon, Shel, I'll make us some tea," Hiram said as he gently untangled Shelby from his husband, "LeRoy won't be long and you can be the one to love Rachel up when it's over, if you want."

Shelby nodded and let herself be steered toward the kitchen while LeRoy made his way down the hall to his Study. This particular part of parenthood was never his favorite but he took it as seriously as everything else in his life. With a deep breath to ground himself (and a quick prayer sent to the heavens), he reached for the doorknob and turned.

Rachel was sent to the corner often enough that she had her own designated one in her dad's Study (and another in the kitchen for when her daddy gave the order instead). She hated the corner. It was always hot and sticky from her close proximity to the walls (made worse if she was crying, like now) and it never failed to make her feel like a chastised little girl. Her tummy was doing pirouettes as her imagination went wild with thoughts of what was to come.

The door opened and startled the fifteen-year-old from her thoughts. She let out a little squeak and then grew rigid in her corner, heart thumping a fierce tempo inside her ribcage. The door closed with an ominous click and then her father's footsteps clacked loudly against the hardwood floor, drawing ever closer. She held her breath as she felt the man behind her.

"You can turn around now," his deep voice said. Rachel could hear the disappointment dripping from every word.

"Please don't use your belt, Dad. I'm sorry!" Rachel pleaded before she was even fully facing the man. "I didn't m-mean it, I was angry!"

LeRoy regarded her firmly, his hands finding his way to his hips. "Whether or not I use my belt largely depends on you, young lady—but if you are only concerned with what is going to happen to you and not how your words affected your mother—"

"No, no, I'm not!" Rachel was quick to assure. She was well-aware that neither of her fathers took well to disrespect—and she had certainly crossed that line with her mom. "I—I know what I said was awful and out-of-line. I was just angry and…it was a mistake, Dad." She wiped at the tears meandering down her cheeks in languid little trails.

"Angry or not, you never speak to Daddy or me like that. What made you think it was okay to do so with Mom?" LeRoy asked. He understood the reason well enough, but wondered if his child did. And her answer would determine how he proceeded.

Rachel fidgeted under her dad's piercing gaze and then hung her head. She didn't know how to answer his question. She hadn't been thinking much besides being upset that Shelby had stepped in and told her she couldn't go to the Sing-Off happening at Ohio State's Lima campus that evening. It was a huge event among the university's a cappella groups and Rachel and her friends were dying to check it out (and jump into the action if they could). Her dads would have let her go and were about to say so when her mother had intervened and said absolutely not. Shelby pulled her Coach card, saying she knew plenty of her Vocal Adrenaline kids that had gone to that event over the years, and each time they'd found trouble—it was no place for a fifteen-year-old sophomore in high school. Rachel lost it.

Her father cleared his throat, jerking her from her thoughts. Rachel's gaze darted up to his face for a split second before falling again. "I—I don't know, Daddy."

LeRoy had to hide the smile that appeared on his face at his child's use of Daddy—his darling girl pulled that out for him only when she was very sick or in a heap of trouble. "Why don't you venture a guess," he prodded.

Rachel met his gaze again with pained and pleading eyes. He stood firm and waited her out. His child gave an exaggerated, drawn-out sigh and slumped her shoulders. LeRoy nearly laughed at the sight—boy, was his kid dramatic! She inherited that trait from her daddy, Hiram.

"It's not fair that Mom said no! You and Daddy were going to say yes! She can't—She's not—It's just not fair!" Rachel pouted, stomping her foot in emphasis.

"Daddy and I hadn't said anything yet, but we were going to say no too. Your mom just beat us to it," LeRoy told the girl. He held his hand up when she opened her mouth to argue. "And you were fine when Mom said yes to the movies last week when Daddy and I were going to say no. It was fair then, wasn't it?"

"But—But that was different!" Rachel huffed.

"Why? Because you were getting your way?"

"Dad—"

"Watch the tone, Rach," LeRoy warned. "It's fine for you to be angry and upset about decisions we make as your parents—that's pretty much par for the course right now. What's not okay is you speaking the way you did to Mom. It wasn't even that it was just angry words about the decision. You attacked her. You hurt her feelings, Rachel. She started crying after you were safely out of the room. Do you think that's fair?"

Her father's words hit Rachel like a ton of bricks, knocking the wind out of her. Her tears picked up speed, coursing down her face in new, blazing trails.

"I d-d-didn't mean to h-hurt her!" she spluttered, her heart aching at the very thought of causing her mother that kind of pain. She never meant…She wasn't thinking! And Shelby had only been around for four months. Rachel told her she barely knew her—what if her mom now thought she was a horrible person and decided she didn't want to get to know her further? What had Rachel done?

LeRoy sighed as his child's tears grew to an extreme level. He had no doubt his girl was blowing the situation way out of proportion in her drama-filled little head. Stepping forward, he pulled the distraught teenager into his arms and held her tightly.

"Mom's gonna h-hate me!" Rachel sobbed into his chest.

LeRoy chuckled then and Rachel snapped her face up to glare at him through a flood of tears. "It's n-not funny!" she wailed, pulling back from his embrace.

"Shhh," LeRoy soothed. "I'm not laughing at you, Rach. It's just—Shelby said the same thing about you."

"W-What?"

"Shelby thinks you'll hate her because she stepped in and said no to tonight's little adventure," the father explained. He saw understanding dawn on his child's face (and, with it—shame).

"I l-love her!" Rachel declared, taking a step back. "I t-told her she didn't k-know me—what if she doesn't want t-t-to anymore?"

"Hey," LeRoy sighed, his tone soft and calming. "It's going to be okay, sweetheart. Mom isn't going anywhere, no matter what you say to her."

"But—"

"Hush," he said, and Rachel's mouth shut with an audible snap. He bit his bottom lip to keep from smirking. Always so dramatic. "Your mom's already forgiven you and doesn't want me to have a discussion with you—" Rachel's eyes grew wide and shined with a glimmer of hope that LeRoy was loathe to dash but did anyway. "We're going to—You know better than to be so disrespectful. And, whether you meant to or not, your words were extremely hurtful. We're raising you to be a kind person, Rachel. You were not kind to Mom tonight."

A new wave of guilt crashed over Rachel at the knowledge that even after being hurt by what Rachel had said to her, Shelby tried to talk her dad out of spanking her. Her cheeks tinged pink when she realized that meant her mother was now privy to the fact that Rachel was still spanked (and that she would no doubt hear it happening). Her embarrassment was fleeting, however, when she thought back to how much she deserved what was coming to her—she even resigned herself to the belt!

Rachel's guilt was written all over her face and was enough to break LeRoy's heart. Not wanting to drag this out any longer, he moved over to his desk and opened the bottom drawer where he kept a small, hairbrush-sized paddle there for moments such as this. Rounding the desk once more, he grabbed the plain, straight-backed chair that sat unobtrusively in the corner (and also strictly for these moments) and brought it into the center of the room. Taking a seat, he rolled his right shirtsleeve up until it cleared his elbow, and steeled his heart in preparation for his upcoming task.

"Alright, Rachel, I believe I told you that whether or not I use my belt depended on you," he began, staring into tear-filled brown eyes. "I can see how sorry you are and I know you didn't deliberately set out to be hurtful. For those reasons, I've decided to use the paddle instead of my belt. Come here, please."

Rachel let out a haggard breath, one she hadn't realized she'd been holding, and felt her body relax the tiniest bit. For a moment there, she thought she was about to feel both implements. She was glad to discover she had simply been thinking the worst. Still, she found it hard to take the first step towards her dad, knowing what was coming.

LeRoy waited patiently for his child to come to him, knowing how hard that short walk could be. He'd been a fifteen-year-old before; he remembered his own visits to his father's Study to face the man's belt. And like his own father, LeRoy would never fault his child for her nervousness and needing to take her time.

When Rachel did reach his side, he wasted no time in turning her over his lap. Her skirt was flipped up over her back and LeRoy rested the paddle against the girl's covered bottom.

Rachel's breathing grew erratic as she wiggled over her father's firm thighs and waited for that first searing crack of the paddle. When it came, she couldn't help the shrill yelp that escaped. She gritted her teeth in preparation for the next one, not wanting to be caught off guard again. She was going to do her best to keep quiet and not make a fuss. She was acutely aware that her mom would be able to hear most if not all of her spanking and she didn't want to cause her any further heartache.

Back in the living room, Shelby sat nursing the cup of tea Hiram had made her—chamomile, meant to be calming. Shelby was feeling anything but. She kept waiting for any sound of her child's punishment starting. It had been ten minutes already—surely LeRoy was going to get on with it soon…wasn't he?

"You don't have to look like you're waiting for an execution to start," Hiram quipped, breaking the silence. Shelby jumped in surprise, splashing a bit of the now-lukewarm tea on her hand.

"Shit!" she hissed, switching the mug into her right hand so she could wipe her left on her jeans. "Sorry," she offered sheepishly, "I guess I don't handle waiting well either. And I hate that this is how the evening has played out."

"I get it. It's hard for us too. But it's quick and to-the-point—Rachel doesn't do well with lingering punishments. That girl wears her heart on her sleeve and has big emotions. She holds on to guilt and mistakes she's made…I know she's in there beating herself up. The spanking will hurt and she'll cry, but she'll feel she's paid for her behavior too."

Shelby nodded along to Hiram's explanation. That made a lot of sense in her own mind too—Shelby was much the same way. She was glad that her own daughter had parents that understood that about their child and found ways to help her. Not every child had that—Shelby certainly didn't.

"LeRoy is the stricter one out of the two of us and he takes respect very seriously. He's fair though and always listens to Rachel's side, making sure she understands where she went wrong before doing anything else. He's not going to give Rach anything more than what she deserves—I promise you she'll survive. She'll have a sore, red bottom but even that won't last forever—bit of tenderness in the morning, if that."

Before Shelby could respond, there was a very definite crack that sounded in the otherwise quiet house. Shelby jumped, spilling more tea on herself, and then her heart lurched at her child's answering yelp. She felt tears appear with the second swat and by the fifth, they were streaming down her face.

"Ow! D-Dad—Ouch! Please, it—it hurts!" Rachel's resolve to take her punishment quietly fell apart after four swats. Who was she kidding?! It had been nearly nine months since she had been over one of her fathers' laps, and longer still since she had felt the paddle. She had forgotten just how much it all hurt. The physical pain coupled with the immense guilt swirling in her belly—Rachel never stood a chance.

"Yes, it does—just as your words hurt Mom," LeRoy chided, aiming the paddle for Rachel's sit-spots. He watched as his child's olive-toned skin turned pink.

"Owahoww!" Rachel wailed, kicking her legs against the horrible sting. "Daddy, please not there!" Her right hand left the chair rung to reach back but she caught herself just in time. She grabbed a fistful of her dad's pants' leg instead.

LeRoy's heart broke at his child's cries and he hated himself for being the cause of them. Still, he knew this is what his child needed in order to let go of her guilt. He could tell from the sound of her tears that she hadn't yet. He sighed to himself—Rachel never did do anything the easy way.

"Mom's going to be making decisions just like Daddy and I do—some of them you won't like. I expect you to treat her with the same respect you show me and your father. Not throwing a tantrum like a toddler!" he scolded, snapping the paddle down in a steady rhythm.

"Ow! Oh—Ouch! I'm s-sorry. 'M sorry, Dad!" Rachel sobbed.

"Isn't—isn't that enough? How long does it…She's crying so hard," Shelby turned red-rimmed eyes on Hiram. The sounds of the spanking still going strong down the hall was tearing the mother's heart to shreds.

Hiram winced at a particularly shrill cry from Rachel, and squeezed Shelby's hand in sympathy. "I promise it sounds worse than it is. Rachel's crying more from her guilt than the pain in her bottom. It won't last much longer," he reassured her.

LeRoy landed the paddle four times in quick succession, all to the girl's sit-spots where she'd feel it most when she sat. Rachel cried and bucked across his lap, then went limp. The father let out a sigh of relief and tossed the paddle on the floor at their feet.

Shelby and Hiram let out their own relieved sighs when the sharp cracks and loud wails from the Study stopped. They could still hear Rachel's crying, but it had already lessened.

"God, I don't know how either of you do it," Shelby said, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand. She had long ago set her tea down on the coffee table, having grown tired of spilling it on herself. "I could never."

Hiram chuckled and threw his arm around the younger woman beside him. "It doesn't happen often, especially now. But you should never say 'never'—I thought everyone knew that," he teased.

Shelby rolled her eyes and pushed his arm away. Hiram had always been the jokester of the two men, but he looked at her now with a serious expression.

"I'm not a betting man, but if I were, I'd say the odds are fairly high—"

"How—How did this turn into me having to…to spank her?" Shelby balked, staring at the man as if he had grown two heads.

"Because I have a feeling this won't be the last time Rachel challenges you—and the more I think about it, the more I think that's exactly what tonight was about. She's trying to figure out the hierarchy. So, I think it's safe enough to say that there will be a repeat and when it happens, you need to be the one to hold her accountable," Hiram explained as if it was the easiest thing on the planet to do.

"Wha—I—I've never spanked anyone! And after the one I just heard, I doubt she'd risk that again—Right?!"

"You'd be surprised," Hiram laughed. "Rachel is pretty hard-headed."

Shelby opened and closed her mouth several times; she reminded Hiram of a fish out of water. "And anyway," he went on, "Even if she doesn't repeat her behavior to test your boundaries, she might just do it to test your resolve."

"What does that even mean?" Shelby asked, her tone shrill.

"It means that Rachel holds onto her guilt. She knows her dad and I will always forgive her and love her no matter what, but she's unsure about your love. She's going to be looking to see if you'll stick around."

"But of course I love her and I'm not going anywhere!" Shelby exclaimed.

Hiram's eyes softened and reached out for Shelby's hand, squeezing it gently. "I know that and LeRoy knows that. Rachel doesn't—and it's not even something she's consciously thinking. It's natural for her to test and see where the boundaries are."

"But that doesn't expla—"

"Rachel needs boundaries from you, Shelbs. She needs to know that she can mouth off to you and be a huge pain in the ass and you aren't going anywhere. And if it means giving her a very literal pain in her ass, well, that's what she's used to and what she expects. She wants to know what she can expect with you, too."

Shelby's brows furrowed as she considered the older man's words, but before she could say anything in response, the door down the hall opened and two sets of footsteps could be heard coming closer.

LeRoy came into the living room first, followed by a red-faced, red-eyed, (not to mention a red-reared), Rachel. Hiram stood first, going to give his child a big bear hug which the girl readily accepted. As he pulled back, he and LeRoy exchanged a glance, then as one, quietly excused themselves to the kitchen, leaving mother and daughter alone together.

Rachel shifted on her feet, sucking her bottom lip into her mouth and worrying it with her teeth. She couldn't meet her mother's eyes, too ashamed of how she had acted towards the woman (and too afraid of what she'd see there if she did meet them).

Shelby was just as nervous, her own fears swirling around in her mind with Hiram's revelations taking root. But she had to say something. She was the mother, the adult. Rachel was a child—one that had just gotten her bottom soundly spanked and was feeling embarrassed and unsure.

"Rachel—"

"Mom—"

The pair had started talking at the same time and stopped at the same time, too. Rachel went back to chewing at her bottom lip while she shifted from foot to foot and stared down at the floor. Shelby felt like her child looked, but again—she was the mother. So, she took a deep breath and tried again.

"Rach," she said, her voice cracking the tiniest amount. "Honey—" She stood up from her spot on the sofa and took a tentative step towards her child. She went slowly so as to not spook her—Rachel looked as frightened as a baby deer at the moment. "Can I give you a hug?"

Rachel exhaled a shaky breath, one she hadn't even realized she'd been holding, and finally met the woman's eyes. What she saw there was enough to bring her to tears once more. "Oh, Mommy, I—I'm sorry!" she wailed, flinging herself into her mother's waiting arms.

"Shh, shh, shh," Shelby soothed as her arms wrapped around Rachel's shaking frame and pulled her close. "I know you're sorry, sweetheart. You've been punished and it's all over now, okay? Everything is okay, baby."

"I-It's not! I h—hurt you!" Rachel cried into her mother's shoulder.

"It takes a lot more than a temper tantrum to hurt me, baby," Shelby reassured her girl.

Rachel could feel herself bristling at that perceived slight, and she knew her face was growing red in embarrassment. "It wasn't a t-tantrum!" she protested, her foot rising off the floor without conscious thought. Her mother's answering chuckle against her ear only made it worse. Stepping back from the hug, Rachel glared at the woman before her.

"I'm not a child and you have no right to—"

"Stop," Shelby ordered, her patented Coach Corcoran voice coming out full-force. She leveled her daughter with a raised eyebrow that never failed to send her students running for the hills. It seemed to have the same effect on her daughter. Good.

Rachel bit her lip and squirmed under that gaze. This was a new side to her mother she hadn't seen before and she wasn't sure how to handle this version.

"You are a child—my child—and I want you to be free to be that child around me," Shelby told the scowling girl. "It seems you're comfortable enough now to start showing this side of yourself and that is wonderful, Rachel. I'm ready for it."

Rachel furrowed her brow and cast a nervous glance towards her mom. While those words sounded positive in theory, they were being said to her with a noticeable bite to them. Her mother was scolding her? This was definitely new.

"Mom, I—"

"No, I'm speaking," Shelby said firmly—she even pointed a finger at her child in warning! Hiram's words came back to her and she shook her head a fraction of an inch. He was right—Rachel was hard-headed! And she could plainly see what the man had been telling her about their daughter.

"I'm not going anywhere, Rachel Barbra Berry. I am right here. And I am going to continue to be right here no matter what you throw at me," Shelby went on in a tone that was both reassuring and chiding.

Rachel wiped at the growing moisture in her eyes as she nodded along to her mother's words, feeling equal parts comforted and chastened by them.

"I am not, however, going to continue to allow you to speak to me the way you have tonight. I know you don't speak to your fathers that way and I'm not going to tolerate it either," the mother paused here, letting her words really penetrate her child's stubborn tendencies. When it was clear she had her daughter's full attention, she went on. "I know for a fact your dad discussed this issue with you at length just now. And while I'm sure he went over all of the major bullet points, if you are in need of more…detail…I would be happy to discuss it with you myself—I'm ready for that, too."

Shelby watched with some satisfaction as Rachel's face paled and her eyes widened almost comically—she even heard the girl gulp! The mother toyed with the idea of asking Rachel the very parental question, 'Do you understand me?' but thought better of it. Her child had gotten her message clear enough, she didn't need to belabor the point. Besides, Shelby would much rather take her child upstairs, get her into some comfy clothes, and then cuddle up in bed as they watched reruns of Friends and laughed until their sides hurt.

"No, Mom, you—you don't have to," Rachel assured her mother as soon as she found her voice again. Her hands crept back to clutch at her throbbing backside—she wasn't in a hurry for another 'discussion' with any of her parents, least of all her mom! In fact, she'd be happy if none of them wanted to 'discuss' anything with her ever again!

Shelby nodded and let her stern façade melt away. She pulled her child back into their hug that had been so unceremoniously interrupted, and kissed the girl's head. "C'mon, Rach, let's go get into our pjs and curl up in bed together. I am more than ready for that!"

Releasing her daughter from their hug, Shelby let the girl get a head-start. She then turned toward the archway to the kitchen, catching a quick blur of movement. Rolling her eyes, she called out, "I know you were watching the whole time. Don't be shy now!"

Two pairs of sheepish heads popped out from around the wood casing and gave her matching grins. "Well done, Mama Bear!" LeRoy gushed as he came fully into the room, Hiram right behind him.

"I told you. Didn't I tell you?" Hiram gloated.

Shelby shook her head and then glared at the pair of them. "Incorrigible. Both of you."

Her words were met with raucous laughter, which only made Shelby roll her eyes again. "Alright, I'm going upstairs with our child. I'm staying the night. One of you is on morning duty with her—I'm not getting up at 6AM on a Saturday."

"What? You're not ready for that?" they teased in unison.

Their laughter followed her all the way upstairs and just outside her daughter's room. She knocked and then poked her head inside. Stepping into the room all the way, she shut the door and shut the laughter out with it—she loved those men for making Rachel's room soundproof.