trashchildren | For Joan

Once they get that far, Ted sits down as well, carefully threading the pants over his cast. It is, by far, the most boring part of this process.

"Can't wait to get this thing off," he comments. He looks at her with a smile to clarify. "The cast, not just the pants."

It's nice walking around with a bunch of Henry's drawings covering him, but that's about as far as it goes for positive aspects.

She laughs a little at the clarification as she helps him get his pants over the cast. "I bet. It will be really nice when we've both healed completely." She knows that they can't just put the whole thing behind them. The mental trauma will linger, even when their physical trauma has faded. But at least they'll be able to get back to their lives.

Once the khakis are free, Joan leans in, placing a gentle hand on his cheek as she kisses him again.

"I'd like to try something," she murmurs.

Ted smiles into the kiss, enjoying her soft touch on his cheek. He always feels so taken care of, and cared for, by her.

He raises his eyebrows at that though. "Alright," he answers, though he has no idea what she's talking about. But he's always up for trying stuff.

It warms her heart how trusting he is of her, to answer her with an affirmative without knowing what she has in mind. It's so important to her that she honor that trust.

"Did you bring any of your neckties here?" she asks. She thinks it's likely, if just because he might need to meet with official people at some point and might want to look presentable.

"Yeah," he answers with a nod, though somewhat confused. He knows he's definitely got the one from the gala, at least, and he thinks he might have packed another one too.

"Why?" he asks curiously. He's trying to come up with a reason, and can't quite find out that makes sense in their current situation.

"I want you to let go and trust me," she says, giving an explanation that probably only raises more questions. "Can you get the ties for me?"

She's gently taken control of the situation, and is being as careful and soft as possible, to make sure he feels safe.

"Sure," he answers. He's definitely puzzled, but he's always happy to do as asked. And he's not worried, because she seems calm and confident enough, as usual. He's trusting her request as well.

He gives her a quick kiss, then gets to his feet and heads go the dresser, fishing out the two ties and then going to hand them to her.

"Thank you," she says as she takes the ties from him. She puts one aside, and takes the other in her hands. "Sit?"

He does as asked. He still has questions, but he figures they'll get answered eventually.

There may be small stirrings in the back of his mind, but he's not paying any attention to it for the time being.

She gives him a gentle yet certain smile.

"I'm going to help you let go and concentrate on the pleasure I'm going to give you," she says, then lifts her hands, the tie draped over them. "I'm going to blindfold you." She looks at his face to gauge his reaction.

Ted blinks.

"Okay," he answers with a slow smile.

He wasn't expecting that, and he's not entirely convinced he'll like it (he likes to see her pleasure), but neither is he opposed to it. There's no fear or worry in his expression. Still mostly curiosity.

And he's definitely feeling pretty aroused by all this, but he thinks that's mostly the way she's taking charge, not to mention her talking about giving him pleasure.

She loves it when he takes such joy in making her feel good and watching his effect on her. But today she wants to do this for him. So much has been on his shoulders lately, putting him in a position of having to make difficult, weighty decisions. She wants to give him a few moments where he doesn't have to make a single decision, where he can let her take care of him.

There is one more decision he needs to make, though.

She nods toward the other tie. "I would like to tie that one around your wrists. I wouldn't tie it tight and I wouldn't knot it. You'd be able to free yourself immediately if you wanted. It would be a reminder more than anything else, to keep your hands still and let me take care of you. What do you think?"

Ted's eyes widen a bit as she finally explains. It's not entirely unlike a deer in headlights, but it's not quite like it either. He doesn't freeze up out of fear, nor does he look like he wants to be anywhere else.

"Oh," he breathes. He starts nodding before he answers.

He licks his lips. "Yeah," he answers softly, still nodding. "Yeah, I'd like that."

His eyes are still a bit wide, his body a bit tense, but it's becoming increasingly obvious that it's excitement and anticipation, not fear.

She sees how he's excited instead of frightened, and she smiles, happy and a little relieved. Considering his experience in Tucker's basement, Joan wouldn't blame him at all if he rejected the idea of being bound. That he didn't is reassuring.

"Good," she says, smiling at him, her expression so full of love for the man.

"Are you ready?" she asks, lifting the first tie

It's so not the same situation, his time in handcuffs doesn't even occur to him at the moment. And it's not like this is his first introduction to the concept. It's... occurred to him before. But in a vaguer sort of way, not with any expectation of actually doing it.

"Wait," he says. "Yeah, I just..."

He leans over and kisses her, somewhat more enthusiastically than he's done so far. He just needs to take a moment to appreciate her. He loves her so much.

She lowers the tie and leans into the kiss, humming softly, eyes drifting closed. He makes her feel so valued, so loved. She's happy she can help him feel valued and loved in return.

He cups her cheeks as he kisses her, holding her like she's something precious. And then after a bit, he pulls back slowly, dropping his hands and smiling at her. He just.. needed to get that out of his system first.

"Alright," he says, nodding and still smiling. "Yeah, I'm ready," he adds, to explicitly agree.

She opens her eyes and reaches out to gently, lovingly brush her knuckles against his cheek, just wanting to return that affection for a moment.

Then she takes the tie in her hands. She moves closer and gently puts the cloth over his eyes. She slides her fingers back along the cloth, her body softly pressing against his as her arms wrap around his neck to tie the blindfold behind his head.

That done she pulls back just enough to kiss him.

"I love you," she murmurs.

He didn't know it was possible to feel so loved and taken care of, and excited and nervous and aroused, all at the same time.

The tie doesn't cover completely, still letting a tiny bit of light in, so he closes his eyes as well. It's already kind of exciting, the way he feels her breath just a second before she kisses him.

"I know," he answers with a smile, just to say that yes, he really feels that right now, he knows it completely. "I love you too."

She smiles and touches his cheek, fondly smoothing her thumb over his lower lip. Then she moves further onto the bed.

"Come here," she says, reaching out to gently take his arm to guide him. "Come lie down."

He listens for her as she moves, and follows when she guides him. She told him to trust her, so that's what he's doing, just going along with whatever she tells him too. He's always liked doing that anyway.

He crawls further in, lying down on his back in what he thinks is probably the middle of the bed. "Like this?"

"Just like that," she says with a smile.

She carefully climbs onto him, straddling his waist, and picks up the second tie.

"Hold out your hands," she says, running the silk through her fingers.

Ted opens his eyes in surprise at Joan straddling him, remembers he can't see anything, and then closes his eyes again.

"Alright," he answers, lifting his hands slightly in front of him, smiling nervously. But a good kind of nervous. "I haven't, uh, done anything like this before. I mean, I want to, it's just, you know, unfamiliar territory," he says quietly, maybe nervously babbling a little bit.

She can hear the nervousness in his voice, so she puts the tie aside and takes his hands, squeezing them gently, and lifts one to press a loving kiss into his palm.

"I'm going to take care of you," she says softly. "If at any time you want to stop, say the word and we'll stop. Okay?"

Ted nods, smiling at the way she kisses his hand, and he sighs happily. "Okay," he agrees softly.

He's not scared, and he can't really imagine wanting to stop - though even so it's reassuring to hear her say that they can. He just... wants to be doing something, and so it's hard to stop overthinking when he's supposed to just lie here.

But he also knows that's exactly the point, that she's trying to get him to just relax and enjoy himself, without worrying about anything, or feeling like he has to do something. So he takes a breath and he tries to just relax, and to let her take care of him.

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