Watching the prestige. he's in his spot, she's lying back against him, wrapped around a bowl of popcorn. They're over in 4A so the others can join in, so Sheldon's let her keep her clothes on for now.
"So Wolverine and Batman are in a love triangle with the Black Widow?"
"Basically, yes. But with stage magic"
"As if by Magic, David Bowie appears!"
That Night
They're lying in Penny's bed. They're both naked, to prevent overheating and optimise oxytocin production. She's wearing her collar and cuffs, as is their nightly ritual, but he was too distracted to do more than hold her as she drifted off to sleep.
He's thinking about Misdirection. It's all about tricking you into thinking you see something you're not
Howard's card trick. Break it down, look at it step by step. Lay basic ground rules - Howard does not have actual magic powers and is not smarter than me. What do I actually see? A deck of cards is produced by Howard and shuffled. A card is selected by another person, looked at and returned to the pack, which is then shuffled again. A method is used to produce a number that is turned into a card, which is revealed. The card is then confirmed to be the persons card.
He's studied a lot of magic online, the basics are simple. Trickery, misdirection, making you assume something that is actually false. Doing something that is actually hard and a lot of work so people assume you didn't.
Possibilities .The deck could be marked. The cards could be shaped or tapered. A marker card could be in the deck. Discarded as Howard said he could do it with any deck. Though that could be a bluff, he never actually did. there are (52! or approx. 8 x 1067) ways to shuffle a deck of playing cards.
The method of choosing the card varies. Could he have memorised the whole deck? No, his memory is nowhere near good enough. Could it be the trick tells Howard the position and he has to vary the number. Too many variables in a 52 card deck. Maybe the trick cuts the variables? A stacked deck would do it, but the first shuffle rules that out. unless that shuffle is fake? What if the deck is misdirection?
Misdirection. I'm assuming I'm an impartial observer. That the trick is between the two he's watching.
There is one obvious other option. But he baulks. do they really hate me that much? He has to know.
"Penny?" He shakes her shoulder. "Penny?"
Sleepy murmur. "What is it sweetie?"
"Do people really hate me?"
"Huh? What Sir? "
"Howard and Leonard and Raj. Do they hate me?"
"No Sir. Oh honey. They don't hate you. Not 'hate' hate anyway." She rolls over, brushing her hair from her face. "You can be kind of an ass at times but they don't hate you."
"I've been thinking about Howards magic trick."
"What, the card trick still? "
"You know I can't let go of things like this. "
"Oh god it's been eating you up this long? "
"I can't forget it, can I? I Don't forget. I've just thought of one solution that fits all the parameters, but I don't like it. "
She sits up a little, looking worried. "Don't like it? Why?"
"Because it'd mean everyone I thought was a friend conspired against me. Betrayed and belittled me. Lied to me. Laughed at me behind my back. Laughed at my face."
She looks taken aback. "You're taking it pretty hard honey, it was just a joke. A trick."
He frowns "A joke at my expense. I realised I'd assumed it was a one on one trick and I was an observer, outside of it. But it wasn't, was it? I was part of the trick, It was you all vs. me."
In the darkness he can't really make out her expression, but that wouldn't tell him much anyway. But he knows her body intimately, can feel the long muscles in her limbs bunch, feel her stomach tense with guilt.
She sounds hurt and guilty "Hey, that makes it sound really mean"
"So I'm right. They faked the whole thing to trick me."
"yes, Ok, the trick is there was no trick. It was Howards idea, it was just to see the look on your face as you tried to work it out. You looked so confused and irate. And I'm sorry. I didn't realise how much it'd hurt your feelings"
"Penny, remember the last big trick that was pulled on me? the can opener in my arctic hunt for magnetic monopoles? The one that almost cost me my job, my career and my life here in Pasadena?"
"Leonard told me about it, they messed with your detector or something so they could come home?"
Sheldon quivered with rage. " I invited them along on my research mission to share in my glory, to help them by letting them help me! They didn't have to come, they chose to, greedy for the fame and wealth that success would bring. But they couldn't take it and so deliberately sabotaged my instruments, faking a reading for a monopole that would have proved string theory. It would have been my Nobel Prize, if it were true. "
She seems shocked. "He didn't say it was that big, he made out you overreacted"
"of course he did, it was his idea to fake it."
"now that was mean of him"
"But you, Penny, You knew it was a trick, you knew and you laughed. I trusted you! I trusted you and you laughed!" He pulls back from her
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry Sheldon, I didn't know you properly then, it was before the agreement and everything."
He sighs. "I can't hate you, Penny. But I am hurt and disappointed"
She puts her hand on his chest, thinking fast. "I know you can't forget what happened, but you can offset it. Remember, positive reinforcement and actions?"
"How do I forgive that?"
She swallows, nervous, but sure she's on the right track. Offset the negative reaction with power and control, his biggest vices. "Punish me, Sir." She holds out her hands, wrists together. "Punish me until you're satisfied then let it go"
He goes suddenly still. She knows she's hit a nerve, he's analysing a reaction he's not sure about.
"Punish you?"
"Yes. I'm yours, I've wronged you. Punish me.".
In his head the inherent rightness of her statement struck home. It's what he had been doing all along to everyone with the rules and strikes and lessons, just never so directly. She understood it too.
He rolled her onto her belly, thinking fast. If he told her to be still he knew she would try, but if he pushed her too far she would move and result in feeling more guilty, not less. Restraint was needed.
"Hands above your head"
She was already cursing her quick tongue. It felt right when she said it but it scared her now. What would he do?
He had left an old belt looped round one of the bars that fixed her headboard to her bed, useful in a previous experiment. He tugged it free of the pillows now and locked her wrist cuffs together through it, pinning her wrists to the head of the bed.
Hands pinned. Now feet. He locked her ankle cuffs together and pulled, stretching her out. Her feet were to the end of the bed, where from previous inspection he knew there was a handle on the mattress. Taking the belt from his neatly folded pants he passed it through the handle, between her ankles and back.
He yanked it tight and she struggled in the half light.
He felt strange, light headed and powerful but not erect, it wasn't sexual. He ran his hand down her taunt body, feeling her tense and whimper in expectation.
Face down and stretched out her mind was racing. She struggled, feeling no play in the bonds. He had been quick in the dark room but scarily effective. She held her breath.
The first blow was a firm swat, open handed on her ass. She yelped from surprise more than anything, it hardly stung. The second and third were the same, hardly more than warming her up. She snorted a little in relief, this was the best punishment he could think of? She had gotten off lightly, she got a worse ass slap from passing guys on most nights out drinking.
Sheldon frowned in the dark. It wasn't working. Wasn't enough.
He had no implements like the crop to use here, and his belt was pinning her feet.
Necessity was the mother of invention though. He picked up Penny's hairbrush from the nightstand.
She felt him pause and shift his weight, then put one hand in the small of her back to hold her down.
The blow came out of nowhere, a sudden hard slap on the underside of her buttock. In the silence of the room it sounded like a thunder crack and she yelped. It stung!
He lifted the hair brush , considering targets.
Too high and you risk damage to the coccyx, the tail bone, also the spine, the nerves to the kidneys.
He recalls seeing her naked, the pair of charming dimples in her back just above her buttocks.
The very centre of her ass was too delicate, the outer edges not sensitive enough for his purpose.
Spanking wisdom from books and the internet held the lower two thirds of the buttocks and the top of the thigh as the best targets.
He cracked the smooth wooden back of the hairbrush down on her other buttock. She squealed and struggled.
Holding her steady with one hand he set about a steady pace, he didn't play or tease, make her count or beg or thank him, he just held her down and spanked her, hard, working out his feelings of anger, frustration and betrayal.
She struggled, writhing under the steady stream of blows. It hurt! It wasn't a sexy warming ache like a playful spank or two, it was a deep throbbing ache that lasted until the next blow landed on top of it, awakening it to fresh agony. She pulled as hard as she could but she could not get free. She was helpless, she couldn't get free and it hurt!
If she begged him, would he stop? Or would that just get further blows? And she had earned this, joining in on a cruel joke on someone she cared so deeply for. It had been cruel and heartless to play a trick like that on a man who didn't know how to fight back.
The guilt rose up in her throat, choking her. How could she feel so bad about hurting someone who was hurting her so much now?
But she did. She sobbed and buried her face in the pillow, letting it all out in a cathartic flood of tears.
"I'm sorry Sheldon! I'm sorry!" He didn't slacken his pace so she buried her face more, wailing and sobbing.
Her breathe is coming in wracking sobs when she realises he's stopped. Her ass and the backs of her thighs are a mass of aches but the blows have stopped.
She feels him undo the belts and then lie down next to her. He pulls her into his arms and holds her tight. "It's ok. It's ok. You did well. I'm proud of you. I forgive you"
She presses her face to his chest and sobs "thank you. I'm sorry " as he holds her. His arms hold her as he gives her a slow and tender kiss then holds her close.
Next morning She awoke slowly, feeling pained by an angry ache but unburdened by guilt.
She tried to move and felt stiff and sore, her body from waist to knees was one solid ache.
Sheldon was sitting up in bed, looking aghast at her behind.
She looked down at her ass and was stunned. Both of her buttocks were a solid mass of dark red and ugly purple blotches. "Holy crap on a cracker!"
Sheldon carefully ran his hand over then, asking in a low voice "does it hurt?"
"ow! yeah, well, Of course it hurts, that's the point. I hurt you, you punished me". . She says it proudly and he nods.
Hesitantly he says "I've never really thought about safe words before, I didn't think I'd need them but I never thought myself capable of doing something like this to you. You understand safe words?"
"I know the idea "
"From now on use Red for stop, Amber for slow down and Green if I'm being hesitant and you want more. "
"Yes sir"
"I'll think of something more suitable for us later. I don't want to ever hurt you like this again"
He gets up and heads into the bathroom, coming back with her best hand cream. Aloe for the bruises. He squirts some directly onto the aching flesh and carefully rubs it in.
As he massages it in she asks "how do you feel sir?"
"Better, girl. You were right, once I had punished you it was easy to let go of the anger and betrayal ."
He smiles down at her bruises. "These are going to take a while to heal"
She wiggles "I'll wear them with pride!
He strokes a bruise and she winces. He looks worried but she reassures him. "It's ok . I think I need to feel this for a few days as a reminder who's I am and not to hurt your feelings."
He carries on his tender ministrations and she blushes and pushes her face into the pillows.
.
