PLANE
Chapter 12
"Hi guys!" Alexis let herself in and plopped down next to Kate with her dad on the other side. "I see you started your first tattoo." It was still covered so she couldn't see it.
"Yes, took him four hours and he needs another four sessions at four hours each. Talk about painful! It really hurt. He used this long, thin, very sharp, pointed stick that he kept dipping into the ink. Anyway, it's cheetah head with a big open mouth that will have my face in it. It goes from here all the way to my elbow," Kate explained to her.
Alexis was curious about it. "So what does it do? I don't know much about tattoos."
"Better not. One woman in the family with tattoos is more than enough," Rick told her.
"Technically, I would be in his family," Alexis corrected him, "but I have no plans to get a tattoo just yet. Did you propose, Dad?" To her it sounded like he had.
Kate smiled at both of them. "Not yet he hasn't."
"Well, she already kinda asked me but I'm waiting for an official offer." Then Rick grinned at Kate.
"I want a ring, babe."
Alexis burst her bubble. "We don't do rings, Kate."
"No? What do you do?" She only knew what she was used to seeing done.
"You get matching piercings," Alexis said and proceeded to tell her why. "They have to be in full view of everyone so everyone knows that you're taken."
"Oh, that's what those are. I didn't know it meant they were married. A piercing? Isn't a few tattoos enough?" Kate looked from Rick to Alexis.
"Well, Dad could get a tattoo but to be married you'll still need a piercing," Alexis insisted.
"You're getting a tattoo, babe. I don't care where but you're getting a tattoo." Kate grinned at him. "Maybe right on your butt."
"Whose idea was it for her to be a Tattooed Monk?" Rick looked at Alexis.
"I have no idea." Alexis hummed as she looked at the ceiling. "So why am I here?"
"That would be me. Okay, when I went home I got to spend a lot of time with my dad which was great. And I also spent time with my best friend there. Her name is Lanie. Anyway, when I finally got to go back to work, which is another story, my first case took me to Richard Castle." Kate smiled broadly at both of them.
"A different Richard Castle," Rick said since he knew it wasn't him. He hadn't set foot on the Prime Material Plane for a while now.
"Yes, that Richard Castle is a well known writer. He mostly writes murder mysteries. Someone kills someone, he writes it all down, and eventually he tells you who did it, and sends them to prison.
"Anyway, he managed to convince my captain that I should allow him to assist with the case. To force me to allow him to follow me around for my case. I refused and quit my job, so I've been waiting around for just about a full week for you to come get me."
"Wow, that's some tale!" Rick exclaimed.
"So why did he want to follow you around on your job? I thought you were a homicide detective. Doesn't that take training?" Alexis questioned her.
"Exactly!" Kate said. "Part of why I said no. I also said no because he was an ass and just wanted to have sex with me. We call it wanting to get into my pants."
Rick bristled. "You better have said no."
"You're sweet and no need to be jealous. I'm all yours." Kate stroked his cheek. "But there is one more thing. He has a daughter named Alexis."
Alexis gaped at her in shock. "NO!"
Kate looked at Alexis. "Oh, yes. She's 15 years old and could almost be your double. Her skin color is similar to your and she has long orange hair just like you."
"Talk about weird. Well, I'm not 15 years old, I'm 17. But that is just so weird." Alexis tried to think that over.
Kate focused on Rick. "You said you're 36 years old and Alexis is 17 years old, so you were 19 when she was born?"
Rick nodded. "Yes, that's right, I don't know about the Prime Material Plane but here once you're 19 you're recognized as an adult. There are 15-year-old Wizards walking around here. I'm betting even your Master Monk teacher isn't all that old. Not around here."
"I didn't ask him. I just know he has a lot of tattoos. A whole lot of tattoos." Kate wasn't sure she was ready for that many.
"Who says you have to get that many, Kate? Get what you're comfortable with," Alexis offered.
"That's true. I hadn't really thought about it like that." Kate began to think about that. She could just pick and choose as she progressed. Look ahead and decide what she did and didn't want. "Yes, I can do that."
"I'm really glad you're home, Kate. You need to be here, not there. So, if there's nothing else, I have a date." Alexis got up to leave.
Kate smiled. "So I hear. A Triton, not that I really know what one is exactly."
"He's nice. This is date number four, I think. I'm going down to him and he's taking me somewhere. Most likely underwater but I'm prepared. I just hope it isn't too cold. Breathing water doesn't make the water warmer." Alexis hoped he understood that part or this might be a really short date, maybe even their last.
"Have fun. You can tell me all the details later. I promise not to tell your dad." Kate whispered that last bit and grinned at her.
Rick's eyebrows shot up; he'd heard what Kate said. "Guess I know who's getting tied to the bed tonight."
"TMI, Dad, way, way too much. Just make sure to take Kate to a Cleric after you're done. And I'm leaving now before you reveal too much more." Alexis made her exit listening to those two laugh at her.
"Tying me to the bed tonight, are you?" Kate grinned impishly at him. Suddenly she was even looking forward to it. God, but she loved him. "Before I find all the marks on my body in the morning I'm going to tell you now. I love you." Kate leaned over and kissed him.
.x{O}x.
Kate had left Rick in bed and was standing in front of the mirror looking herself over. A lot like last time, she had marks in various areas of her body. They would all fade eventually, some sooner than others, but that wasn't what had her concerned. It was the other things they'd done that had her concerned.
While looking down instead of in the mirror, given she wanted to see with her own eyes instead of what was in the mirror, she was a bit surprised when a pair of arms slipped around her from behind. Looking in the mirror she saw Rick and immediately relaxed.
"Tears. Gods, I did hurt you this time." Rick felt his heart sink. He didn't ever want to hurt her, not in any way if he could help it.
"No, babe. You didn't hurt me. I mean, well, yes, some of it hurt but I'm not hurt. This will all fade over time like it never even happened." Though she was going to remember it forever.
"Then why the tears?" If she wasn't hurt then why was she crying.
"Because I love you." Suddenly new tears fell causing Kate to wipe them away.
"You're going to have to explain that one. Or is it happy tears of joy?" Sometimes, hell, maybe all the time, women were a mystery he might never solve.
"Partly." Kate spun around so she could face him instead of talking to the person in the mirror. Now she reached up with both hands and cupped his face. "You need to understand. I love you. I love what we did last night. …Maybe a little too much. You called me a slut amongst other things last night. Forced me, well, asked me, to call you Master, instead of Rick.
"I enjoyed it, babe, and that's what has me scared. I can see myself letting you break me. To turn me into your slut and you, my Master. I can see it and I would do it because I love you so much. I'd let you do anything you wanted to do to me. Whatever that was. To be your slut and that's what scares me.
"If I let you break me and I become totally submissive, I'll stop training. I'll stop doing a lot of things because you will be my Master and I will be your slut. I'll enjoy it but it doesn't have a future. A slut for a year or two and then I'll be discarded. Because this will change you as well. You won't be the man I fell in love with. You will be my Master because you broke me, and I let you break me. I let you change yourself into someone else.
"I'll enjoy it and that's what scares me. I can see it happening, babe. I really can." Kate moved her arms to go around him and buried her face against his chest. His beautiful, broad, smelly chest. Yeah, he stank a little, but he was hers and she was keeping him.
"Then we stop completely. I'll get rid of those things. We can call it an experiment that didn't work out. Maybe find something else to take your mind off of it. Forget that you could ever become that person." But Rick didn't yet know just what.
Because she loved him so much and her walls were long gone when it came to him, it had her smiling. "What have you got in mind?"
"We could always reverse it. Have you tie me to the bed," Rick suggested since they did still have those restraints.
Kate looked up at him, more than a little surprised at what he said. "So I can turn myself into your dominatrix? Teach you to call me Mistress?"
Then Rick shook his head. "Yeah, dumb idea. Forget I ever said anything. In fact I was never here."
Kate planted her face back against his chest. "Good idea." That wasn't a road she wanted to go down either. In fact, anything that took them anywhere near either of those roads was out.
Rick was quiet for a couple of minutes but then he said, "I've got another idea. How are you with being an exhibitionist? Risking being caught having sex in what might be semi-public places?"
Kate started grinning into his chest. "I'm listening."
He gave her a hint. "We're going to need Rings of Water Breathing."
Kate looked up at him. "Sex underwater? Can we even do that?" Being underwater if you didn't have weights on you was kind of like being in zero gravity to her way of thinking.
"Just need to be able to breathe water, warm water, be naked and willing. Might be able to get Rings of Flying or Levitation and have sex in the sky," Rick put forward. "If you want different, this would definitely be different."
"I'm willing to try it. But what if we get caught? You're the Commander around here. What will that do to you?" She wasn't willing to risk his standing as Commander in this place.
"Give people something to think about, I suppose. Besides," Rick grinned, "who says we're going to get caught?"
"I'll try just about anything once," Kate told him. "But I need you to get rid of those straps, please. I'm not taking us down that road. It doesn't hold a future for us."
"Consider it done. Since I have today off and you start your training tomorrow, got any thoughts on what we do today?" Rick queried. She knew almost as much about this place as he did. He knew more, of course, but she knew enough.
She still hated surprises. "I do have one but we're going to need Alexis and Talia first," Kate said into his chest.
"O-kay." He had no idea what she was thinking this time. "Go take your shower and dress your tattoo. I assume they want you to do something with it, while I talk to Alexis and Talia and find a place for us to meet."
"Thank you for understanding." Kate raised up on her toes so she could kiss him.
"I love you, Kate, and you're probably right. If being a slut was your dream I love you enough to make it happen even if it did change me. We can throw those things in the trash on the way to our meeting with Alexis and Talia."
"Good plan." Kate let go of him and headed for the shower. SLAP! "Ow!" Kate rubbed her butt since Rick had just slapped her there. "You better get going, babe, before I change my mind and make you call me Mistress." Kate smiled wide as she stepped into the shower. They had just crossed a threshold and achieved something she had long thought was impossible. They had decided on a life-changing event together because they each loved the other so much. That alone had Kate smiling while she made sure only water touched her tattoo. She was in love.
.x{O}x.
Kate helped Rick toss those straps into the trash as they walked. "Where does the trash go anyway?" She still had a lot to learn about this place.
"It all gets incinerated in a magical fire that never goes out." Rick used his hands to simulate a POOF!
"Interesting. So where are Alexis and Talia meeting us?" Kate asked as they walked for one of those many transport doors.
Rick's eyes lit up. They did almost every time he talked about his daughter. "Alexis and her Triton, and Talia and her Centaur are meeting us in a park. One that has a lake per Alexis's request."
"So I get to meet her Triton. That should prove to be interesting. I've never met a Triton before. Have you had a chance to meet him?" Meaning what did Rick think of him?
Rick nodded. "I have and he's nice. He may be be Royalty in his Domain but he doesn't act like it. He's about as down to Earth – pardon the expression – as you can get."
"Talking Prime Material Plane on me, are you?" Kate grinned and raised up to kiss his cheek.
"I've been practicing." Rick opened the door and selected a destination. And since those two walked everywhere hand in hand, Kate vanished with him and the door closed behind them.
Rick pointed out the next task. "It's a gorgeous park but it's enormous. Now we just have to find them."
.x{O}x.
They had finally found each other, made introductions, and now all of them were sitting on the edge of the lake with bare feet in the water. Though the Triton was already barefoot. Now the Centaur was more sitting on his hind legs and not in the water. But Talia was while leaning up against him and he in turn had an arm around her, protecting her.
"I see they've started your first tattoo." Alexis was looking right at it. It didn't look like much yet and it had a sheen to it. Some kind of covering, she was guessing.
Kate reached over to touch it. "Yes, It's going to be a cheetah head with my face in its mouth and greenery all the way around. Cheetah was the name of the tattoo I chose. Once activated it never turns itself back off. At first I gain an extra ten feet of speed in what I do. Maybe even swim faster. Ultimately it could reach sixty feet but that's a long ways off." Kate wasn't even sure she would live long enough to achieve that.
"Ten feet, impressive and always active, you say? You're definitely going to need training. Just walking and you'll leave Dad here in the dust," Alexis chuckled.
"Hey!" Rick protested. It wasn't his idea to have his leg bitten off.
"I asked for you two because I have an idea. You can tell me I'm nuts or simply tell me no, but I have an idea. This may take a few years maybe, but…" Kate took a deep breath. "I want us to do some training together. The three of us. I know the Prime Material Plane better than anyone here. So if I join you on these little missions I could help. You are a Whipsinger, Talia is a… I forgot to ask. Anyway, with me as a Tattooed Monk we could do a lot together.
"We would need to train together so we could understand each other. To know what the other would do given any situation and not have to command it of anyone. We would just know." Kate looked at them expectantly.
Talia sat up straight and left her boyfriend for a moment. "I like it and so you know, I'm an Acrobat. I'm not sure what that means to you, but basically it means I jump around swinging my double bladed staff. I like to think I'm pretty good too.
"I'm up to knowing Flair, Trapfinding, Pole Jump, Evasion, Sneak Attack, Sure Climb, Kip Up, Detect Magic, and Grapple Line. I still have a lot to learn yet." Talia knew she had only just started.
"Kip up?" Kate asked since she thought she knew what the others meant… maybe.
"It means I can get up quickly if I fall or am knocked down and not allow you to hit me while I do it. You don't get a free swing at me, basically," Talia explained.
"She's quick and with those boots she wears, she's very, very quick." Alexis had seen her in action while hunting down that damned elusive Lich they still had yet to find.
Talia beamed at the compliment and leaned back against her boyfriend.
"So? I mean, I still have a lot to learn and perhaps we don't start right away, but maybe eventually?" Kate looked left and right between those two.
"I like it," Rick said thoughtfully. "It means there would always be someone guarding your back and if you get outnumbered by too much, three is better than two."
"I like it too. Just finish your first level of training, get that tattoo working, and come find us. We can work on it between your training days." Then Alexis looked at her dad. "Now if I could just talk Dad into it he could make four."
"BABE!?" Kate turned her head to look at him. What was he keeping from her?
Rick defended his choice. "She doesn't know what she's talking about."
"I do so, and you know it. Just because you lost your leg doesn't mean a thing," Alexis countered.
"Tell me about it." Kate turned her attention to Alexis.
Rick tried to stop her but Kate batted at him. "Shush, I'm listening!"
"It involves replacing his leg, getting the right kind of boots and going back to training on how to shoot a bow. We have better bows, Dad. There's even one now that has these blades like Talia uses with her rod that are on each end of the bow. Even if he gets in close it can be used like a sword. You just need training.
"Granted we didn't have it then, but we do now," Alexis pointed out.
Kate turned to face Rick. "What do you think, babe?"
"I'm Commander. I can't just up and go off training for months, years, and just up and vanish to go with you to hunt down Evil. It doesn't work that way." Rick fought against that again with his daughter.
Alexis decided to fight dirty now that she had something new to fight with. She had Kate now. "Stop being a coward, Dad. So you lost a leg. We can fix that. Better than what you have now. Not perfect, but better. Or don't you want to have Kate's back when she comes with us?"
"That's fighting dirty, Alexis, and you know it." Rick looked at her and only saw her smiling at him.
"Babe?" Was any of what she was hearing true? Better leg, better movement, better Rick?
Rick just groaned, fell onto his back onto the grass, and stared up at the sky while kicking the water with his bare foot. Since he only had one real foot left.
