Page 72 of Learning to Change

Joel was so confident about that fact, even Dean didn’t know what to say. “What…what about you pick the next game?”

Sighing, Joel shook his head. “I’m cute. I get to pick.”

Duh.

The little always got to pick the game…even I knew that.

“You’re right.” Dean cocked his head and looked thoughtful for a few seconds before his expression got very neutral. “How about you win, so you get to decide who gets kisses this time?”

Interesting.

“Everybody.” Joel’s answer came without hesitation and he bounced up from his chair. “I know. I know.”

He had a plan.

And the way Dean’s eyes got wide said it made him nervous…because he was smart.

“We…we have to pick up the game first.” Dean’s delaying tactic was just to give himself time to think but it was good to establish a routine for little time that included Joel picking up his shit. “Then we’ll do kisses.”

“Special kisses from the cutest boy with a cutie.” Joel’s happy dance was now very wiggly and he was humming what seemed to have turned into the special kisses song over and over. “Hmm…with a cutie.”

Some parts were coming in clearer than others but it was a fascinating distraction as we picked up the pieces, and it even seemed to make Dean more confident about the whole situation. I wasn’t sure why, but my best guess was that Joel was making it clear how much he wanted whatever it was that he wanted.

The song wasn’t completely clear about that, but I was guessing it was something naughty by how quickly he’d known what his prize would be.

Fuck it all.

We’d been set up.

He’d been the one to claim kisses as his prize for winning the first round and he’d said we got to pick what kind of kisses that time. His logic had been something to do with winning and being special and goddamn it. He was really good at that when he was little.

We were going to have to watch out for sneaky shit in the future.

“All done.” Throwing his arms out, Joel’s smile looked slightly wicked. “Kisses time. My turn to pick.”

Because he’d let us pick last time and we’d picked cheek kisses.

He was little and I was pretty sure that meant sweet kisses, but it seemed like no one had told Joel that rule…or told him about that assumption? Whatever it was, we hadn’t been operating from the same playbook.

“That’s right.” Dean looked relaxed in one breath and nervous in the next, but he wasn’t radiating panic yet. “You get to pick because you won and it’s your turn to pick the kisses.”

His slow tone as he repeated what we already knew said he realized he was walking into a trap of some sort. But he liked giving Joel what he wanted, so maybe it’d been deliberate? Dean wasn’t an idiot even though he liked the way Joel manipulated him, so maybe he’d wanted to see what Joel would do?

Giving Joel the room to explain what kind of reward he really wanted seemed like something a good Daddy would do. I wasn’t a Daddy, so I didn’t feel the least bit bad about wanting to control the entire scene, but I was, however, a good friend and let it play out without being a pain in the ass.

“Yes.” Joel was nearly rubbing his hands together like a bad Disney villain. “And because I was a good boy, I get dessert.”

He wasn’t going to forget that, so I wasn’t surprised when Dean nodded without arguing with him. “That’s right.”

Yeah, the more I watched the interaction, the more I started to realize that it was some kind of BDSM science experiment. Dean had mentally proposed a hypothesis and he’d designed a test for it. Did Joel know that?

Hmm…a better question might be, would he care?

No.

Joel was only concerned with winning.

His mischievous smirk and the way he was still wiggling made that very clear. “I’m ready.”

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