Once again, she did exactly what the old her would do. Jezebel burst into tears and launched herself back into the safety of his arms. "I miss my Master!" she wailed it, letting out all the terrible pain and loneliness and sorrow that had taken hold of her in one cry.
He tsked and chuckled, cradling her. "Such an emotional little slave. It's alright. I'm here and I've always been here. You never have to leave again, if you don't want to."
Jezebel sniffled pathetically against his chest. "You promise?"
He laughed above her. "Pet, so... here's the thing. After you showed up like that, I- Ah, I did something bad."
There was something in his voice that made her scared, just a little, some note of remorseful guilt. When she looked up at him, he glanced back and almost flinched. "W-what do you mean?"
"I couldn't let you go again. I don't know what it is about you and your crazy antics, but I can't just let you run again, not without some mark of mine." That's when he lifted her hands and she blinked down at her wrists.
Each one had a seamless black circlet wrapped around it. Jezebel twisted one and studied it and found no clasps, no release.
"They're called eternity bands," he said softly, lifting her fingertips to touch her neck, so that she could feel the one there. "They're very discreet, but they don't come off easily. Please don't hate me, Pet, but I'm keeping you and loving you whether you want me to or not."
Her crying intensified and she burrowed into his embrace, though she couldn't really get much closer. She sobbed and started pouring out with everything.
"I'll never hate you and I couldn't ever hate you and I miss you so much, Master, and I miss showing you movies and things and I miss flirting with you and cuddling with you most of all and I think that's the one thing I'll miss most when I'm your slave and - and - and I miss my Master!"
He pulled away from her to stare into her eyes with a look like she had struck him. "That's what I missed! God, how could I have been that blind..."
Jezebel sniffled and stared into his deep, soothing eyes, so cold that they tamed her. "What do you mean?"
His expression was changing, turning into something lighter, his mouth curving upward into a grin of excitement.
"I've been wondering all this time where I went wrong, Pet, because you said you felt like you had disappeared. I had thought I was filling all of your needs. When I took you out of the dungeon, you had company. When I spoke with you about the books you had chosen, you had mental stimulation. You weren't stagnant, and I didn't leave you alone or bored long enough to let your mind get too cluttered.
"But then you said you'd disappeared and that's an interesting choice of words, isn't it? I had already known that what I was doing, while hotter than hell, was borderline brainwashing you. I'm not exactly a moral person, but I was trying to be careful about it because I loved those date nights too, Jezebel. I loved them more than anything, and I never wanted to erase you or suppress all of that crazy personality."
He stroked a thumb under her eyes and she tilted her head, not entirely sure what he was talking about, but having a vague idea. As intellectually brilliant as she was, she was exactly as emotionally stupid.
She couldn't remember emotions to save her life, but she did remember the words she had said and the fact that they had felt real when she first said them.
But then she had felt an actual disappearance over the past few weeks and now, in the wake of that, she couldn't remember the other disappearance.
"Look, will you let me try again, Pet? And this time, you're not allowed to run when it's scary or when I mess up because, despite your romantic fantasies, I'm not perfect and I'm only human."
Jezebel curled closer to him. "I don't think I can live without you, Master. Can you fix me?"
He laughed and cradled her. "Lovely kotik. There is nothing in you that needs to be fixed. There is something that needs to be filled and satisfied, but nothing that needs to be fixed. Come on. Let's take a bath together. You've ruined your lovely hair and I need to fix it. And then there's all these scratches and all these wounds. Let me be Master again and let me get to work. For right now, that's where we'll start, little Holly Golightly."
It wasn't a choice and Jezebel crawled out of the cage after him, taking his hand when he held it out. When he tugged her into his arms, he tsked over her hair and stroked it back.
She had taken scissors to parts of it, she remembered, on a bored spur of the moment attempt to cut the locks.
She remembered an irritation when she looked in the mirror and saw how glossy he had made her look, how he had pampered her into a well groomed Pet at his knees.
Already that thought made her wet again, for how good he was at taking care of her.
He didn't take her to the slave bathroom either, which she partly expected.
After showing up drugged and shivering to death on his doorstep, and after he had shown her the eternity collars, she partly expected him to drag her to the dungeon, to start a new version of training that involved her school and classes.
So she squeaked in delight when he took her to the bathtub, instead.
He smiled at the response. "You seem like you could use a friend and some decadence for the moment, Pet. Come here and get in."
He was ever the Master, ever the caretaker, and his touch was gentle when he smoothed his shampoo and conditioner into her hair. He poured water over her and washed her down, with the touch of all of his routines.
After that was his haircut. He stroked his hand down her hair and went to work evening the locks, until they were as perfect as he needed. Jezebel's hair was a hell of a lot shorter afterwards, though, and he tsked again.
"Sorry, Pet. I tried to keep as much as I could, but you must have razored some of it."
"It's okay. I was high and my hand kept shaking, actually."
To which he shook his head and sighed. "Come on. Bend over the bed so we can both feel better."
***