Bratling Mine
"Hey."
Tobin didn't look up as her roommate tossed her bag on the table with a thud.
"What are you doing in here by yourself?"
No answer.
She walked over, snapping her fingers close to Tobin's head. "I know you're not asleep. Get off whatever planet you're on, you've been staring at that page for five minutes, and the book is upside down by the way."
"Go away, I'm studying and I don't want you here."
Tobin's voice was thick with unshed tears, and she turned her head, not wanting to show weakness.
The blonde's forehead creased.
"I don't think so. You don't order me around, kid."
"Remind me which one of us has a gold medal again?" Tobin snarked.
"Remind me which of us is older again?" Ashlyn returned.
"Just because you deferred starting so you're ancient--"
Tobin squeaked as a strong hand clamped over her mouth.
"Brat."
Tobin squirmed around to glare up at Ashlyn. "I," she said slowly and deliberately, staring at the older girl, "am not a brat. I'm just as much a...you know...as you are."
"All this time and she still can't say it," Ashlyn muttered, an affectionately exasperated smile curving her lips. The smile disappeared as fast as it had come. "Well, you're going to answer me anyway, little one. What were you doing alone in here, and why did you sound like someone'd punched you in the gut?" She scanned Tobin for signs of injury. "Are you physically injured?"
"No," Tobin mumbled. "Not that."
"Failed a test or something?"
Tobin scoffed. "No."
"All right, all right, Miss Genius. What is it then, bratling mine?"
Tobin sputtered. "I don't want--"
"You're going to."
"What are you going to do, beat it out of me?" Tobin mumbled.
"Don't be quite so dramatic," Ashlyn rolled her eyes. "But if you want me to make it difficult for you to sit through our professor's lecture in the morning..."
"No!"
"Then what is it?" Ashlyn demanded in exasperation.
Then she searched Tobin's face again, seeing how much the younger girl seemed to be at war with herself. "Or should I be asking who is it, Tobs?"
Tobin buried her face in her folded arms. "I can't!"
"Shhh, oh..." Ashlyn placed her hand on Tobin's back, rubbing firm, slow circles. "Let it out, Tobs, I have you. Tell me about her?"
Tobin jolted, lifting her head with a gasp, eyes wide. "H-how..."
"Sweetheart, you wouldn't be half this torn up over a boy," Ashlyn said gently. "Besides, how many boys do we really spend time with?"
Tobin's cheeks flushed.
"I don't remember her name," Tobin said warily, and Ashlyn doubted Tobin was telling the truth, but let it go. "But you know when we played Stanford?"
"I could hardly forget the final, bratling mine. That was quite the victory," Ashlyn's lips curled in a smile. "Jess gave it to us in the third minute, we just didn't realize it at the time."
"Well...she was one of them. Stanford," Tobin said quietly. "When...when her teammate got ejected for those two yellow cards, it messed her up. I could tell."
"Press, you mean?" Ashlyn prompted. "That's her name, right, Kristie Press?" She misspoke deliberately, waiting to see if...
Indignation contorted Tobin's face. "It's Christen."
A-ha. I thought so.
Ashlyn chuckled quietly and Tobin blushed scarlet, realizing the trap she'd walked straight into. "Unfair!"
"You're adorable when you blush, bratling mine. You should do it more often. Of course, for lying to me, I ought to have your other cheeks blushing."
Tobin squirmed nervously. "Ashlyn! You wouldn't, not when I'm a....not a brat, whatever you call me. I'm like you, not them."
"A Top, you mean?" Ashlyn suggested. "I think you blush far too easily to be one of those now, bratling mine. Maybe when you're a bit older and more in control of yourself. Or maybe you're a switch, you know."
"I...Ashlyn," Tobin groaned, feeling mortified by the conversation. "Can you not?"
"Hmmm." Ashlyn tugged Tobin's ponytail lightly. "So. What is it about Christen Press that has you tied up in knots?"
"Wouldn't you just love that," Tobin muttered, and Ashlyn smirked.
"Don't give me ideas, bratling mine. Answer the question."
"I...I don't know," Tobin confessed. "Her eyes - she looked so sad when her friend--"
"Kelley," Ashlyn supplied. "Kelley O'Hara." As if you don't know that, either. Tobin must have been deliberately avoiding names now.
Tobin nodded. "Yes, her - when she was ejected from the game for fouling on Whit. And when Whit and Kristi kept pushing their line, Christen looked even worse. Then when Christen's ball got called offside when she could have almost tied us."
"If I didn't do my job right, you mean," Ashlyn murmured.
"Which you did," Tobin said quickly. "I didn't mean you didn't."
"Unbeaten and untied, two years in a row. I wasn't going to lose us that," Ashlyn said. "And you're right about Whit, we should check on her and make sure Kelley didn't hurt her too badly. That kid knows how to tackle."
"She's my age."
"Exactly."
"So you're tied up in knots after we won because Press gave you puppy eyes across the field?"
"She's...she's a really good player and I hate to see her hurting," Tobin said quietly. "I want to be her friend."
"Is that all?"
Tobin gave Ashlyn a helpless look. "I don't know how it can be anything else."
"Concentrate on the friend part first, and if there's anything else, it'll follow naturally," Ashlyn said quietly.
"But if...if it does turn into..." Tobin sucked her lower lip. "Ashlyn we can't, if our families found out they'd go nuts."
"It's all entirely hypothetical right now, Tobs," Ashlyn said quietly. "Don't freak out on me, bratling mine."
Tobin dropped her head back on her folded arms, and her shoulders shook with stifled tears.
Ashlyn stood there, rubbing her back gently.
"Come on, little one. If you're going to cry I should at least give you a reason for it."
Tobin swallowed and looked up.
"Ashlyn..."
"You've been practically screaming for it since I walked in the door."
"But..."
Ashlyn's eyebrow went up. "Color, bratling mine?"
Tobin paused, locking eyes with her roommate without saying anything while Ashlyn waited patiently. Finally, she let out a breath, dropping her gaze.
"Green."
Ashlyn gave Tobin a long look. "I'll be in your room in five minutes. You know how I expect you to be."
Quickly, Tobin nodded and headed for her bedroom door.
Ashlyn's cleared throat stopped her in her tracks.
"I didn't quite hear that, Tobin Powell Heath."
Tobin swallowed. "Y-yes, ma'am."
"Better. Now do as you're told," Ashlyn ordered.
Tobin hurried into her room, trying to keep from biting her lip. She quickly undressed, leaving only her sports bra and briefs on, and folded her clothes neatly, putting them at the end of the bed. Then she picked up her pillow, putting it in the corner and kneeling on it facing the wall.
An intrusive thought pushed into her mind. What would mom and dad think if they knew about this?
Like they'd ever believe it, the sardonic part of her brain which seemed to have materialized the moment she settled into UNC answered.
Still, she felt a shiver run up her back that had nothing to do with the December chill - the dorm was well heated, after all.
A few minutes later, she heard a single knock on her bedroom door, the only warning she was ever given before her roommate opened it.
Ashlyn moved to sit on the bed. She, too, had changed her clothes for a sleek black corset top and tight trousers, showing off her well-muscled arms and legs. Her low-heeled shoes clicked as she crossed the floor, sending more shivers up Tobin's spine until the clicking stopped and Tobin's bed creaked slightly with the addition of Ashlyn's weight.
"Come here, bratling mine."
Tobin turned from her corner, and made to rise, but Ashlyn snapped her fingers and Tobin cringed, sinking to her hands and knees again.
She crawled across the bare floor, pillow tucked under one arm, and dropped it on the floor again when she reached Ashlyn's feet.
Tobin knelt in front of Ashlyn wordlessly, doing her best to keep her back straight.
It wasn't good enough for the keeper, however, who ran a finger up Tobin's spine, causing the younger girl to jerk upright and hold still.
"Why are you here, Tobin Powell Heath?" Ashlyn asked calmly.
"Because you want to give me a reason to be crying, ma'am."
Ashlyn snorted. "Such sass."
"It was good sass, at least."
Ashlyn rolled her eyes. "I don't know how Rampone put up with you in Beijing, I'm sure."
"I think the gold medal helped."
"Probably. That's enough distraction, bratling mine," Ashlyn added. "Don't think I didn't notice what you tried there."
"Is it trying if it worked?"
"Into position, Tobin."
Sighing, Tobin pushed herself up, draping herself carefully facedown across Ashlyn's lap on the bed.
Ashlyn rubbed Tobin's mostly-bare back, leaving the sports bra alone, and when she was satisfied her roommate had relaxed, she landed the first powerful smack over Tobin's thinly clothed bottom.
It cracked like a gunshot, loud in the mostly-bare room, and Tobin jumped, burying her face in her pillow. She squirmed and kicked as much as Ashlyn would allow as the punishing swats continued to fall.
"Owww, not so hard, Ash!" Tobin whined when she had got her breath back from the initial round of smacks.
"What was that again Tobin?"
"Please not so hard, ma'am," Tobin corrected herself, but the damage was done.
The next thing she felt was her own maple wood hairbrush tapping her right bottom cheek before the first solid swat landed.
As the burning swats peppered Tobin's bottom cheeks and sit spots, the girl squirmed and kicked in her roommate's hold, but Ashlyn didn't let up, didn't slow down. She was focused on paddling her roommate's thinly clothed bottom to a bright cherry red, unless--
"Car'nil!" Tobin babbled through her sobs.
Ashlyn stopped. "What?"
Tobin gulped in air, doing her best to steady her breathing. "Cardinal," she gasped, repeating herself as she shuddered over Ashlyn's lap.
Ashlyn set the brush aside, her well-muscled hand rubbing Tobin's scorched bottom. "I hear you, bratling mine. I wondered why 'Cardinal'," she added. "Now I think I see."
Tobin blushed, head bowed. "Stanford," she whispered. "Christen."
"Shhh, I know, Tobs," Ashlyn murmured. "I have you. I won't tell anyone." She rubbed Tobin's back comfortingly, until her roommate's sobs had died down to sniffles, and then helped Tobin remove her bra and get into her pjs.
She tucked the younger girl into bed, lying down next to her and stroking Tobin's hair.
"It's alright bratling mine. Your secret is safe with me."