Ciri continued to whine, and squirm, but it was indeed no worse than usual, even though that was certainly bad enough!
She took in his words, and part of her realized that he was right - not that she was going to admit that to herself right now.
To him? That was another matter!

"Aaiii! I getiittttt", she pleaded, now completely restrained from his firm hold on her hand.


A very short pause ensued, which she didn't know what to do with. This had never happened before.

And then it - quite literally - hit her. A pain unlike anything she'd ever felt before! It made it so that all the air was removed from her lungs after the first stroke.
That air came back with a vengeance, though, after the second, and she screamed like she was being murdered, part in surprise and shock at the escalation, but mostly because the pain was many times worse.


"AAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUHUUUUUUUUUUUUUU " she wailed, and now squirmed even harder to escape, of course to no avail. This was so much worse than anything else she'd ever gotten. And what little strength she had left was used to try to squirm and wriggle her way off his lap. Real tears followed very quickly, and she lay limp across his lap bawling her eyes out, completely hysterical.


"WAHAHAUAUUHUHUHUUUUUUUUHUUUUUAAAHHHH" she couldn't even attempt coherent speech anymore, and had lost touch with the world. All that existed was pain and shame.

Barbora sits on the stairs, rather surprised at the screams. If she wasn't seeing it with her own eyes, she'd think he's whipping the girl full force and no remorse. So far, she never had a reason to punish Ciri by anything harsher than saying no to some ill considered idea, since Daniel wasn't around to approve it and throw money at her so can she do stupid shit more efficiently, but she takes note to go easy on her, should the necessity arise.



Meanwhile, downstairs, Daniel gives what Ciri will probably consider a spanking of her life, but in fact just leaves a cople more welts on her cheeks and one or two on her thighs, for good measure. After the belt lands for the last time and leaves its mark, he gives Ciri a while to come to her senses, before he slowly puts her down on her own feet, still holding her so she doesn't fall. Belt he drops on the ground, it won't be needed now. He hugs Ciri, as always after a spanking so she knows he's not just a brutal dictator enforcing his own rules, though he wouldn't blame her if she seen him like that for a short time after a spanking.



"Alright, we're done. Try not to end up here again, okay?" He's not sure whether she even understands him right now, but that doesn't matter. He'll just hold her until she feels okay enough to talk.



Barbora, having seen everything, and secretly making sure Dan doesn't go berserk on the poor kid, quietly gets up from her stairs spot and disappears in their bedroom.


Daniel waits until Ciri calms down enough to be at least capable of putting together a coherent sentence, before speaking again.

"Come on, let's put you to bed. I think you've had enough excitement for one day." He says gently, when he deems Ciri capable of walking. He leaves her new underwear where it is, she can pick it up tomorrow, and slowly walks with her to her room, one hand on her shoulder.

The nuances on going easier on her than he could have, was entirely lost on Ciri. She was completely hysterical at this point, and lost to the world, so much so that she didn't notice at first when he stopped. When she was placed on her feet, she - completely involuntarily - did the spanking dance more intensely than she ever had, before she threw her arms around him in the embrace and blabbered something that vaguely sounded like apologies in response to his suggestion to not end back up in the same situation. She was completely adament that she would never, ever, do anything bad ever again!

All this time she hadn't noticed Barbora's presence at all, and certainly not now, even as she was winding down again in his arms, so she also didn't notice when she slinked off to their bedroom. Ciri looked up at him with great big watery eyes when he "suggested" going to bed, and nodded, completely forgetting about the thong that was left on the floor as well. Right now she didn't care about that at all. All she wanted was to hide from the world. She wasn't angry with him as such - she HAD felt bad about sneaking out, but when she thought that the reward was greater than the risk, she'd felt it was worth it. Now? Not so much.

When they got to the room, Ciri collapsed on the bed and hid her face against the pillow; a gesture Dan would know quite well by now. It wasn't "I'm angry at you and don't wanna talk to you". It was "I'm embarrassed and sore and don't know what to do with myself". She always liked it when he stayed with her a bit afterwards. Something about his presence calmed her down.

When eventually she did fall asleep, she slept like a rock until the next morning where she slowly blinked awake while lying on her stomach. For the briefest of moments, while she was still not quite awake, she'd forgotten what had happened the night before, and so sat up normally.
That only lasted a moment, though, as the pain receptors in her behind asked her brain what, exactly, it thought it was doing, and sent poor Ciri flying up from a seating position, letting out a loud yelp while she rubbed her bottom furiously.
She looked back at the bed sourly, as if it had been its fault, and sighed before she headed for the shower, wearing a bathrobe. The shower was nice - except the hot water on her still red rear - and she changed into a semi-long skirt, and a loose-fitting blouse. It was casual Saturday at the residence, it seemed!
Finally dressed, she then took a deep breath and made her way downstairs in search of breakfast. Right now she wasn't keen on seeing or talking to anyone, but...that could hardly be avoided. It wasn't that she was still upset - when honest with herself she couldn't say that it had been unfair - but.....definitely embarassing the morning after!

As always, Dan sits on the ground next to her bed and waits until Ciri falls asleep. While they never discussed this, it seems it makes her feel better, so why not. Once she's fast asleep, Daniel disappears from her room and closes the door behind him. That went...well, all things considered.



Next morning, to his everlasting regret, Daniel can't catch Ciri at breakfast. Not that he particularly enjoys her pain, but it's always entertaining to watch her figure out how to sit down. But early in the morning he got a call of a neighbor needing urgent help, and so he went. Barbora's been resting with a coffee and her laptop open, looking up some things they could do during summer that would be fun for all of them. She's torn out of her concentration, when she hears movement above and Ciri going into a shower. Which means, soon she'll be downstairs and looking for food. There are sandwiches, so she should be fine on that front, and Barbora's looking forward to her decision whether to sit down.



"Oh, good morning. How are you feeling today? Should I turn around so you can sneak out easier?" She greets Ciri with a cheerful smile and a little tease. Of course, Ciri already got her punishment, but she can't help it. "We've got sandwiches if you're hungry." She doesn't do much to try and avoid the awkwardness of this whole situation. It's obvious she'd heard everything yesterday. And considers it well deserved, but apart from that, not super important. Just another teenager learning their parents actually do have memories of their own teenage years and remember all the tricks...the hard way.

On an intellectual level, Ciri of course knew that Barbora would have heard everything that happened last night. She didn't know she'd SEEN it too, but she obviously would have heard. She blushed at the remark about sneaking out, and rubbed her butt for a bit without realizing she did it, until she caught herself and pretended she'd just been straightening her clothes.

"Mornin' " she mumbled, but headed over to the fridge to grab a couple of sandwiches, before the inevitable dilemma faced her: Eat sitting down - not a prospect she enjoyed - and simply enduring it, meaning less mess to clean up afterwards, or standing up, thereby underlining her own predicament even further, and risking crumbs on the floor which she'd have to clean up.
In the end, she chose the former, but deliberately chose to wait until she was certain that Barbora wasn't looking at her directly, before she very carefully sat down. She tried to stop herself from hissing, but failed, and tried instead to pretend that nothing had happened. If you just ignore something, it didn't happen, right? She took a bite of the sandwich, and closed her eyes, smiling. As usual they were very good. Taking a gulp of her glass of water, she settled down a bit, even if she still squirmed in her seat. That, she realized could not be helped.

Then something that had been on her mind a lot came up again, and...well, how often did she have the chance? Dad wasn't here, and she was. That didn't happen all that often, and...well, she didn't exactly want to have this conversation in front of HIM.

"Uhm....can I ask you something?", she asked cautiously.

It is a rare sight, usually well behaved Ciri rubbing her butt instinctively after a small tease, but she doesn't push it any further. And of course she picks a moment when she isn't looking to sit down. Funny how by trying to hide her yesterday's spanking at all costs, she makes it that much more obvious. Doesn't even comment on the hiss, when Ciri finally decides to sit down. Of course it hurts, but she's happy it doesn't hurt so much it would make sitting absolutely out of question. So that's good. She wonders whether to cut out bikini places from the vacation plans, but decides to leave them in. Ciri doesn't get in trouble nearly as often as she did when she was her age. While Ciri eats, Barbora gets back to vacation planning, until Ciri asks something.


"Hmm?" She looks up. "Oh. Yes, of course. Go ahead." She turns to Ciri and summons a smile, even closes the laptop to show she's giving her full attention. She can kinda feel this talk is happening because Dan isn't around, and possibilities start swirling in her head, but in the end, she shuts them all down and instead decides to listen what Ciri wants to ask, instead of trying to figure it beforehand.

Once she saw that she had her full attention, Ciri suddenly started to hesitate and slightly regret the impulsivity. But...well, in for a penny, in for a pound, as they said around here.

"I mean...it's...I don't quite know how to say it, but...", she began, trying to search for the words that would make this conversation less cringy. "Like....it's....it's hard to explain", she began, thereby buying herself a few extra moments to think of a way. Those moments quickly came and went, leaving her with the same problem.

"It's just that...like.. There's this guy at school", she began, already feeling the cringe running through her system threatening to smother her. "And...like....he's kinda cute?", she looked cautiously up at her before trying to avert her eyes again "But....I don't think he even knows who I am, or....or cares if he does", she went on. "I mean...how...how do I...how do I make him realize I exist?", she looked at her stepmom for advice. She didn't know how monumental a thing this was in her own life, really. The first time she'd expressed interest in a guy. Tomas was cute in the quirky, nerdy kinda way, but definitely still cute. "It's just that....I'm not doing bad at school so I can't really ask him for his notes or anything, because like...that'd just be strange and weird.", she went on, then sighed. "I...well, nevermind", she tried closing the discussion off, again regretting she'd opened this particular door.

Well she certainly sounds serious, and various scenarios show up in her head. Lots of scary stuff she might want to talk about, but when Ciri finally spills it, Barbora grins widely. So it's boys. High school boys. Easy enough.



"Ah, young padawan, you've finally decided to seek out the wisdom of your elders..." Barbora makes a face like a wise old master. "Heed my words and thine wish shall be granted!" She says pompously and then laughs. "Alright, alright. So you like a boy from school? Well, first of all, he's quite aware of you, you can count on that. Oh he'll do his best to act like not, cause his acne probably explodes, when you look his way. Boys this age...or any other age, really, are simple creatures. Thing is, if he has any feelings towards you, he'll be confused as fuck at what's going on. He'll need guidance, which you will graciously provide. Don't wait for him to notice you and take initiative, you might be waiting for a long time, while the young fool spends his nights overthinking whether to approach you and what will happen if he's wrong and you say no." Barbora explains cheerfully with the air of an expert. It's twenty first century, and waiting for the man to take initiative leads nowhere.


"Unfortunately, you'll not only need to do most of the work here, but for best effect, make it look like it's been his idea all along. Does he have any special interests? If so, express interest in being enlightened in them. Preferably somewhere where you both feel good. From there...if you play your cards right, you'll have yourself a boyfriend in no time. A bit of physical contact, a touch here, a hug there, when you get to know each other better." Or even if she plays them wrong. At this age, with hormones running wild, just a little nudge can get things moving. Best get the first heartbreaks out of the way early.

Ciri could feel herself blushing at the fact that she was talking about something like this with Barbora, but....when push came to shove, who else could she speak to about it? Dad was completely out of the question! And she was pretty certain that her friends were as much in the dark about these things as she was. Not to mention that she'd have to navigate the giggling and gossipping as well. She loved those girls like sisters, but....sometimes they annoyed her too.


She looked at her a bit puzzled, though, at the "Padawan"-remark. She could tell from her inflection that it was not meant insulting - and she knew her well enough tto know that it wouldn't be - but the reference escaped her.

So Ciri hung on Barbora's every world like she was back at Kaer Morhen and Barbora was Geralt.



She's honestly more like Dandelion, she thought to herself with a grin that she managed to keep contained to drink down Barbora's nuggets of female wisdom.
Ciri did find it a bit strange to be told that the woman - for so she thought of herself - could also pursue the man. She only knew one type of woman who did that, and that was not the kind she wanted to be. Nevertheless, it had time and again proven to be the case that she didn't quite understand the intricacies of this world.
And she trusted Barbora to not lead her astray on this matter, strange though the proposition sounded.


She honestly didn't know if he had any interests or hobbies, but she vowed to find out.

"Thank you", she said genuinely and gave her a hug

Could it be, that Daniel failed so totally and completely at raising this girl that she doesn't know Star Wars? Appalling. She had a better view of him, but it looks like she'll need to fix his mistakes.


"Glad to help. And keep me updated. Let's not tell Dan anything for now, just bring the boy one day and tell him. I want to see his face." She's pretty certain the reaction will be more or less okay, especially if the boy is not a scumbag, and she'll make sure to guide encounter towards peaceful end, without shotgun being deployed and slash or Ciri being unable to sit afterwards. He's reasonable most of the time, so there's very little risk...but just in case. Dad's can sometimes be unpredictable, when their little princess brings home a...prince, as it were.


"Now, wanna watch a movie?" She asks when Ciri lets go. "I seem to notice you don't know what padawan is...pointing to an inexcusable failure in your education from Dan's side, so if you feel like it, we can fix that. Oh and tell me more of this future boyfriend of yours. I'm all ears!" She says, not even considering the option Ciri might not succeed. Her own experience is somewhat old, but teenage boys are teenage boys and Ciri certainly isn't ugly, so she's pretty sure if she just comes up to the boy and declares him her boyfriend, there will be very little resistance. Might be some confusion, but nothing that couldn't be cleared up.