Chapter Text
Sunday, November 5, 2023
Ali needed a breather from the Gotham afterparty, having left her miscreants in Brunn's capable hands. She went through to the massage room and lay face down on one of the benches, just letting her muscles loosen up.
She stretched languidly, eyes half-closed, exhaling as she slipped into the meditative breathing she'd picked up from Christen Press. In, hold, out.. .
Ali was almost on the edge of sleep when a hand on her back brought her back to reality with a jolt.
She was no longer alone.
"Alexandra."
The familiarity of the voice took the edge off her shock, but the tone wasn't comforting.
"K-Kyle?" she stuttered, twisting around as much as he would allow to look up at her big brother, expression wary.
"Hello, Alexandra," Kyle replied, his tone even.
"Hi, Kyle," Ali tried for nonchalance, a difficult prospect when his hand was pinning her to the bench. "Weren't we good today?"
"That depends on your interpretation," Kyle said dryly. "The team, overall, was very good. You won, I'm proud of you. Well done.”
“That…does not sound promising.” Ali looked nervously at her big brother. “What are you trying to say without saying it, Kyle?”
“You were yellow carded, and what does that mean, Alexandra Blaire?”
Ali squirmed under Kyle’s hand. “Trouble,” she said reluctantly, knowing very well that she wouldn’t get out of it. Still, she couldn’t help adding, “please don’t be mad with me, Kyle?”
“Not mad, disappointed in your behavior maybe, but not mad. Are you ready to get your spanking over with ?”
Ali winced at the pointed question. Obviously she’d known what was about to happen, so it was hardly a surprise, but all the same…
The one comfort is he wouldn’t pull out his ‘weapon of ass destruction’. Not for me, not for a yellow. That’s for boyfriends and for male friends who’ve acted like fucking idiots far past yellow card behavior and need a reality check. The lexan was not something Ali wished to become acquainted with in a hurry, but neither was she overly concerned about that.
However, Ali did have her own arsenal of implements as Gotham captain, and of course Kyle knew where to find them. Being disciplined with one of her own paddles would be humiliating enough, even if they weren’t that bad.
A cleared throat reminded her that her brother didn’t care much for mind wandering.
“Yes, sir,” she said reluctantly.
“I don't think any paddle is needed, at least not any large one. I just might borrow your pickleball paddle, though that will come later, my hand first. Ready?”
Ali gave an almost imperceptible nod into her folded arms. “As ready as I can be, Kyle.” She dropped the ‘sir’, fairly sure her brother wouldn’t care about that anyway, and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.
With that, one of Kyle’s hands stayed on her back, the other reaching down to remove her shorts and briefs.
The first smack landed and surprised her, as it had been a minute since Ali was last spanked by her brother. More smacks fell in a rhythm as Kyle didn't pause until reaching twenty in his head.
“I'm going to give you a moment while I fetch your pickleball paddle.”
Ali nodded again, taking another deep breath. She was already crying quietly into her arms. Then she drew another breath and let it out slowly. It wasn’t going to be much of a pause, she was sure, but for now it was something. “T-thank you, Kyle,” she said, hoping the good manners might earn her some favor from her big brother, and perhaps some leniency.
“You're welcome, ready to finish?” Kyle asked as he put one restraining hand on her back.
“Yes, Kyle,” Ali responded, trying not to be nervous. She’d survived this far, and this was her big brother who loved her. He wasn’t going to let anything too terrible happen to her.
“We're over halfway through and they won't all be hard. Here's the first one.”
And with that the pickleball paddle smacked down once, twice, then again and again.
After ten more smacks, Kyle paused again, rubbing her back. “Okay, only nine more, but these will be harder, you don't have to count, okay? Deep breath…”
As Kyle trailed off, the paddle smacked down again, only harder this time.
Ali’s crying had intensified, her breaths coming with more difficulty as the paddling began, but when Kyle told her that those hadn’t been the hard ones, she cringed. His warning to take one more deep breath was heeded, and the next, harder swat got a loud sob from Ali that she was half afraid would bring the team running. I don’t want them to see me like this.
“Oww, Kyle, please, sorry…”
“Want me to finish these quickly to not scare your team ?”
“I don’t want them at all, Kyle…but if you have to,” Ali looked up, her eyes glistening and face damp with tears. She looked pleadingly at Kyle, hoping he might be lenient.
“I'll reduce the number, but you still have a couple coming fast that will be the hardest to seal this lesson.”
“No.”
The voice intervening made Ali jump slightly. She hadn’t seen Becky enter the room, and probably Kyle hadn’t either.
“Ali’s had enough, Krieger. Look at her,” Becky said, her tone like steel.
Ali didn’t want to think of what that meant for the state of her bottom, unless Brunn had heard it in her tone when speaking to Kyle.
“You're right. I'm sorry, Ali. But a piece of advice, Mom is coming to the final so I would be careful about getting carded because she will want to deal with it, not me.”
“No,” Becky repeated firmly, mouth set in a grim line. “Not unless Ali can handle it, and not unless your mother promises to be careful with her, Krieger. You’ve done enough.”
“That's fair, Mom would probably be willing to let you be there, but let's hope we win and it's not needed in the first place.”
Ali gave a watery snort. “Note to Kyle, you don’t let Rebecca Elizabeth Sauerbrunn do anything. She went up against the veterans for Carli’s sake, I heard.”
Brunn smiled slightly and nodded. “We’re defenders, aren’t we, after all.”
“Yeah,” Ali nodded back, head resting on her folded arms.
“You’re excused, Krieger. I’ve got Ali,” Brunn said calmly. “Thank you for your…assistance.”
“Understood.” With that Kyle left, leaving them alone.
Brunn winced at the state of Ali’s bottom. “That was with your pickleball paddle?” she asked, noticing the implement Kyle had left behind.
“Yeah,” Ali groaned. “Not all of it, but more than enough.”
“I’ll say.” Brunn got out a tube of arnica cream and tended to Ali so she wouldn’t bruise. “Kyle doesn’t normally discipline you, does he?”
“No. He hasn’t in years.” Ali grimaced. “He’s a Top, but usually only his boyfriends have to worry about him. Or his sub friends who have decided to brat a step too far.”
“Right, well, next time he might keep in mind that you aren’t built like them,” Brunn muttered. “Not that you aren’t strong enough to bear a paddling, but he ought to be more careful about how he administers it.”
Ali nodded, exhaling in relief as the cooling salve was rubbed into her burning bottom. “Thanks, Brunn.”
“You’re welcome.”