“Somethin good happening I take it?”
	Helga held her sandwich frozen midbite.  The pig woman’s left brow raised itself as she gazed over to the rhino enjoying a salad next to her.  
	“Huh?” she asked, taking another bite into his fish sandwich.  The same kind of sandwich she brought to work ever since she started installing drywall.  
	“You’ve been smiling more in the past few days.  And swearing less whenever Carl messes up.” The rhino scratched the stubble across his face, making the odd comment about ingrown hairs.
	“Well, Carl has fucked up less.”
	Harold, the rhino, laughed, “He almost hit a pipe with the nailgun this morning.  Something good must be happening if you haven’t put him through a fucking wall.”
	She smirked, “Yeah, I guess so.  Though, if I’m being honest here, I figured you were gonna call me out on missing a few spots in the installation.”
	Harold dropped his smile, “You what?  Fuck, I haven’t checked yet.”
	Helga finished her sandwich, shrugged, and picked up her nailgun, “I’ll get them fixed before the break’s over.”
	The smell of wood and dust did little to distract Helga from her boss’s comment.  It had been half a week since she let Amy stay with her.  The porcine woman would be lying if she said the prospect didn’t make her nervous.  Despite her past relations, she’d never actually had someone stay over her place for more than a day.  She’d crashed at others, sometimes being a live-in dominant for a month.  But those were more in cases where her living situation wasn’t clear.
	At first, she wasn’t sure what to do when her vole asked for the hood.  Given what she was told, Helga’s first thought wasn’t to let the girl just hide like that.  But, in hindsight, she also found her vole’s masked form arousing.  She figured she’d get tired of it after one day, but the more Amy wore that mask, the more Helga felt the need to toy and abuse her.  The kind of abuse that her punkish vole craved whenever she walked through the door.
	Then there was the added benefit of having an extra pair of hands around.  While she’d never let an inexperienced hand touch her bike, it was helpful to have someone help clean around the house.  She was right about Amy only needing a gag and a hood for it.
	Maybe it’s time I make this official? Helga thought about the collar she bought after her first session with the vole.  It was a leather collar with softer quilting inside, and several studded but not sharp spikes lining the outside.  The pig imagined it around Amethyst’s neck the instant Tom pointed it out.  She kept making excuses to not buy it at Tom’s shop, telling herself that it was too early.  Tom, whether it was because of making a sale or because he knew her, disagreed.  Either way, she kept the collar in a lockbox back home.  It had only been a month since they started, was that too early?  
	Helga sighed, one night stands were easier.

***
“Your constant smiling is creeping me out.”
Amethyst heard Samantha smack Brian upside the head before she could respond.  The hyena gave a hushed squeal, staring at his lioness girlfriend in confusion, “What?  We’re both thinking it.”
“Because it’s rude to say,” said Samantha.
Amethyst couldn’t help but giggle at the two bickering, which seemed to weird out Brian even more.  It was true, she didn’t smile all that often.  In her mind, Amethyst would only smile in the form of a confident smirk.  But as of late, she’d been smiling like a smitten schoolgirl.  Which, in retrospect, she was.
“Although,” Samantha paused midargument and turned to Amethyst, “I have been meaning to ask: did something good happen recently?  After Saturday you seemed so worried, so I wasn’t sure what to make of it.”
The vole pondered on that.  Despite her argument with Jewel, and the ensuing violence she caused, something good did happen.  Since then, she’d been living under Helga’s roof.  Granted, it had only been for a few days, but she couldn’t help but think of everything that she and Helga did and could do.  When she left Monday morning for class, she was saddened that she had to take off the hood and be Amethyst again.  But this morning when she left, she was excited.  Because she finally had a place where she could just be something else.
“I moved in with Helga.”
“What?” the couple asked in unison.  Amethyst nodded before drinking some water, “Yeah.  I’m pretty much bound under her roof now.” she said with a smile.
Samantha seemed to be at a loss, “That is-”
“Way too goddamn fast,” Brian finished for her, his black spiky hair bouncing as his head turned, “Right?  I mean, it took me and Sam months before we decided to move in together.  How long have you known this woman?”
She shrugged, “About a month.”
“Ok.  So you start an S&M relationship with this woman, who you only met at one munch beforehand, a month ago, and now you think it’s ok to move in?” Brian’s hands gripped the table, “You don’t think that’s too fast?”
It was, but Amethyst didn’t like the alternative of confronting Jewel.  Besides, if Mama wanted to hurt her, then she could have done it a long time ago.  And she had a house key, so there was trust involved.
“Maybe she wanted to avoid all the bullshit,” the vole commented, “She’s been around the block enough.  So I trust her.” 
Samantha tried to find something to say as Amethyst grabbed her bag, “Anyway, I have class.  I’ll see you all tomorrow.” the vole said, leaving before they could say anymore.  She wasn’t mad at her friends.  They actually showed some concern.  But, for the first time in a while, she finally felt fine, happy even.
The drive home after her art history class was an expeditious one.  Not much activity on the road around one in the afternoon.  Parking on the curb of Helga’s house, the vole dragged her bag inside the ranch-style home, planted it on a kitchen chair, and stripped down.  After making sure all the window shades were down, of course.
She found her equipment on the table where she left them: four D-ring leather cuffs, a thick D-ring collar, and the leather hood with the blindfold and gag pieces removed.  Helga wasn’t going to be home until six, so she didn’t need to dress right away.  But the lack of any real assignment from her classes was enough to convince Amethyst that she should start her submissive duties.
With cuffs on her ankles and wrists, collar snug around her neck, and hood masking her face, the vole set about doing what any good slave should do when their owner wasn’t around: making the home presentable.  She first started with some vacuuming, gliding the loud sucker all over the house until she was sure she picked up as much dirt as she could.  Most of that time was spent near the garage, where Helga kept the shoes she got dirty from work.  
After that, the vole started making sure the dishes and dishwasher were clean and empty.  She briefly considered letting some sunlight in through the kitchen window, letting any potential passerby’s from the backyard see what a good submissive she was.  But she didn’t for two reasons.
First, that would be against Helga’s wishes of privacy.  Two, they would probably only see her mask and assume she was burgling the place. Checking the clock when she was finished, the vole found that only two hours had passed in all of her cleaning.  
What was she supposed to do for the next three?  The vole could work on a later project, but she had no real desire to open her books.  Maybe she could polish leather in the dungeon?  The vole turned to the doors that lead to Helga’s room, where she had spent a few nights nestled in the porcine’s arms.  The vole didn’t remember where her mistress kept the polish, but the closet seemed to be the best place to start.  
Seeing the room in disarray and surprised that she forgot about it, the vole spent the next few minutes picking clothes off the floor and making the bed.  Helga’s scent still lingered on the gray blankets, making her desperate for her Mama’s touch.  The vole touched herself as she imagined Helga bursting into the room, forcing her headfirst into the bed as her calloused fingers penetrated her ass and pussy.
The hooded girl took a deep breath as she took her hand away.  She checked a nearby clock.  From its red numerals, only two hours remained until her mistress came home.  With a frustrated sigh, she returned to cleaning and looking for any polish for the leather gear downstairs.  She scoured through Helga’s closet, searching through box after box until something caught her eye.
It wasn’t leather polish she found.  Instead, it was a large collection of videotapes, something that the vole hadn’t seen since she was a little girl.  Curiosity taking hold, she grabbed one of the tapes, reading “Rope Bunny,” off the poorly written marker title.   Now that she thought of it, Helga did have what looked like a VHS player in the living room.
A quick internet search taught her enough to get the tape rolling.  The TV opened with a fuzzy feed, as though shot through a terrible or old personal camera.  Helga’s dungeon came into view.  A white bunny with a sizable chest stood tied against the support pole in the room.  Her body was bound in rope patterns that rubbed through her crotch and emphasized her barbell pierced nipples.  The rabbit’s face was hidden by a black leather hood, the very same that the vole wore, but with the blindfold clipped in.
“You’re a bad little bun, aren’t you?” echoed Helga from the background of the video.  Her voice was younger.   The rabbit nodded as the pig came into view.  The vole’s mistress was a little slimmer, with dark black hair cut short and fewer tattoos across her arms.  She wore a sleeveless tee like on the day they first met, coupled with a leather vest and black panties that gave the camera ample view of her ass.  
The rabbit moaned as Helga twisted her nipples, “That’s it, bitch.  Tell me how much you want it.”
“Give it to me,” The rabbit said between squeaks and breaths, “Give it to me.”
Helga wrapped her hand around the bun’s throat, “Uh, uh, uh.  What’s the magic word?” she whispered to her captive, loud enough for the video to pick up.
“Mistress.  Give it to me, please mistress.”
Helga smiled and pulled the poor bun’s piercings.  Before the rabbit could scream, the pig forced her tongue down her throat.  The vole could imagine it vividly.  So many times Mama had thrusted her tongue into her pet’s willing mouth.  The strength of the pig’s tongue bringing her own to submission while she tasted Mama’s hot breath was enough to make the little punk’s mouth water.  
One of Helga’s hands shifted to the crotch rope, pulling it up and brushing the little knots against the bunny’s snatch.  The submissive’s squeals did nothing to stop Helga from ravaging her mouth.  The vole toyed with her moist pussy as she envied the bunny’s position.  While massaging her tits, she imagined her own special piercings for Mama to toy with.  Maybe rings big enough for the pig woman to slip a finger through.  
Helga softly bit into the bun’s lips and pulled them with her before letting go.  Giving a snorting chuckle, the butch piggy pulled out a flogger and twirled it playfully.  “Let’s make you nice and red.”
The vole looked at the clock.  She had an hour before Mama returned.  Spreading her legs wide as she took a seat on the couch, the vole brazenly toyed with herself as she watched Helga’s home movie.  
The boots could wait.

***

	The collar was still on Helga’s mind as she pulled into her garage.  Was Amethyst ready?  She only had the girl move in because of some drama back on her campus, so it wasn’t like it was a big decision.  
	She shook her head.  It was a big decision, no matter how much the pig tried to play it off.  Deep down, Helga knew it was too early to bring out that special collar.  But knowing and wanting are two different things that she struggled with as she turned the keys to her house.  
	The moaning snapped her out of the thought.  Followed by what sounded like porn, Helga walked through her home to find her vole, masked and wearing wrist and ankle restraints spread open on the couch and toying with herself in front of the TV.
	“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” 
	Amethyst stopped at Helga’s roar, looking dumbfounded at the pig as she crossed the room and grabbed the vole by the back of her mask, “Do you have any sense of shame?” she asked, slapping the girl hard, but not hard enough that the leather mask didn’t provide some protection.
	“Mama I-”
	Helga cut her off with another slap, “I let you into my house, and in your free time you decide to just toy with yourself on my fucking couch?  Over my rug?  Did you stain it?”
	The older woman’s ears perked when she heard her voice from the TV, “You fucking slut.”  Turning, Helga saw herself from maybe ten years ago standing in the TV, flogging a rabbit all bound in ropes.  She hadn’t seen the video in ages, but she knew exactly where it was supposed to be.
	Did her vole see the collar as well?
	“Did you go into my closet?” 
	“Mama, I can-”
	“Corner.  Now.” Helga’s voice ran cold.  Her vole didn’t talk back, crawling over to the wooden finish corners of the ranch house as the pig took a deep breath.  She had moved it too fast and it was clear that Amethyst wasn’t as ready as she’d hoped.  Helga knew there was potential and she liked the little bitch enough to make it work.  But the training wheels had to come off.  
	After checking her closet to find the box still hidden way in the back, Helga grabbed some restraints, the blindfold addition to the hood, nipple chain clamps, two clothespins, and a nice wide ringgag.  The video was still playing when she returned, having forgotten to turn it off.  Amethyst was still standing at the corner, her legs shaking.  The older woman could see the drips from the girl’s moist little cunt.
	It was time Helga taught her the difference between punishment and funishment.
	The vole giggled when the blindfold clipped back in.  Helga grabbed her mouth before Amethyst could egg her on, wrapping the gag tight around her, leading to a gagged laugh from the young punk.
	“On your knees,” Helga ordered as she pushed Amethyst to the ground.  Taking her restraints, she bound her hands and feet together in a way that forced her to kneel.
	“Tongue out.” 
	She put both her clothespins on the vole’s tongue upon compliance.  One of each side of her ring piercing.  Another moan seeped from her as Helga attached the clamps to her nipples.  The pig smiled as she elicited an open mouth squeal from the girl as she pulled the chain.
	“You are going to sit here while I clean your mess,” Helga growled as she tugged the vole by the chains, “And I don’t want to hear a fucking peep.  Nod if you understand, cunt.”
	With the nod, Helga pushed her little punk back into the corner facing her.  She promptly ignored the gimp as she set about rewinding the tape in the player and checking her couch and carpet for any stains.  She turned momentarily to Amethyst when she noticed two stains, thinking for a brief moment to shove the vole’s nose into it and then force her to lick it up.  The pig shook her head.  That would have been a funishment for the girl.
	After using some cleaner and a paper towel, Helga set about checking the box of home movies that her vole pulled out.  None beyond ‘Bound Bunny’ needed to be rewound, but she found herself nostalgic as she reread the names in her head.
	Dog Park, Licking Llama, Gimpy the Goat, all dumb names that she remembered vividly despite not watching them in years.  She felt an old stab wound in her gut when she saw ‘Raunchy Rats’.  First and only time she’d ever been with twins.  They were intense little fucks, often reminding her of her age whenever they outpaced her in bed.  Turns out they had a bit of a drug problem and saw her as someone with cash to spare.  Until they realized she didn’t, then just stabbed her and ran.
	In retrospect, she should really toss that video.  Bad memories.
	Picking up the box, she patted Amethyst’s head and said, “Now, I’m going to put this back in my closet.  I’ll be back shortly, so don’t worry.” 
	She looked at the hidden box in the back after she put the tapes away.  If Amethyst didn’t disregard her privacy as she did, would it have been a mistake to give her that collar tonight?  Was she just making another mistake like with Tay and May?  She shook her head.  There was no use in thinking of what-ifs.  Amethyst was different.  She just needed to be more firm in training her when it came to their relationship.
	“You know, I want a pretty physically demanding job,” Helga said as she walked back into the living room, “I’m on my feet a lot.  Carry some heavy equipment, and sometimes I get injured.”
	Seizing the vole by her hooded scalp, she gently dragged her bound bitch across the room to the couch.  Helga lazily planted herself onto the wood frame of the green bridgewater sofa with and kept her vole on the carpeted floor.
“Now, I don’t expect much coming home,” Helga untied her boots before kicking them off.  The resounding sound of them hitting the wall made Amethyst shiver, “I don’t expect you to be cooking, or waiting for me at the door ready to kiss my feet.  You’re a student, you have stuff you gotta do.  But,” she grabbed her gimp’s maw and forced her to face her, “is it fair that I open the door to find you touching yourself, on my couch, and watching my personal movies?” She moved closer, letting her warm breath push against the vole’s, “Is it?”
Amethyst shook her head.  Helga held the girl firm and spat into her open mouth, “Swallow.” she ordered.
She patted the girl’s head as she swallowed, “Good girl,” she whispered, “Now, and I won’t be mad if you’re honest, have you been touching yourself when I’m not around?”
Her gimp nodded.  The vole tried to speak, but nothing comprehensible came from her mouth being forced open.
“I thought as much,” She said while petting the hooded girl, “I bet you touched yourself all the time when you got home after our sessions, didn’t you?”
She nodded again.  Helga leaned in closer, grabbing the hood and pulling Amethyst’s head back slowly, “Well, and if you insist on wearing that little mask while you’re here then pay attention.”
A work scarred hand clamped down on the vole’s snatch, inciting a squeal from the gagged girl as Helga pulled her head back tighter, “This.  Is.  Mine.” She whispered with predatory vigor, “This, and every other hole on your body is mine because when you wear that mask, you are mine.  You’re a toy whose only purpose is to keep itself clean and ready for me.  Your pleasure is second to mine.  You don’t get to touch yourself unless I say you can.  You don’t get to cum unless I say you can.”
Helga’s fingers dampened from Amethyst’s snatch.  The pig smiled as she took her hand away and played with the chain clipped to Amethyst’s nipples.  The girl couldn’t stop moaning and squealing with each pull.
“Under this roof, you are under my protection.  Under that hood, you are my property.  My bitch.  My slave until I decide you’re fit enough to wear a collar around your pretty neck.  Now, tell me, is it fitting for a slave to touch themselves without permission?”
Her gimp shook her head.
“And do you think such a slave should be punished?”
She nodded.
“Good,” Helga hefted Amethyst onto the couch and over her lap, “I think twenty is appropriate,” she said as she undid Amethyst’s leg bindings to get a free view of her cheeks.  She then unlocked the gag and removed the clothespins from Amethyst’s mouth.  She didn’t remove the blindfold, however, as she grabbed the top of the hood.
“Apologize for each strike.”
The first slam came before Amethyst could process.  The girl yelped, struggling in her bonds but held steady by the older pig.
“I-I’m sorry for touching myself!”
“You’re sorry to who?” Helga asked with another slap on the rear.
“I’m sorry for touching myself, Mama!”
“Good girl.  That’s one.  thirty-nine to go.”

***

It was only after ten slaps on her right cheek did the vole realize that Helga meant twenty for each side.  Tears streamed as she squealed out her apology.  The pig’s strikes didn’t pick up, but the soreness of her tush heightened every hit.  
She hated this.
Whenever the vole struggled, whether from impact or some reflex to escape, Helga held her firm by the head and continued.  Soon it felt like a board of nails driven into her.  The vole never enjoyed the spankings in play.  She weathered through paddlings because she wanted Mama to reward her.  To call her a good girl and caress her with strong hands that sent electricity whenever they crossed the stricken areas.  
Now that hand was starting the pain.  Each strike felt like a burn or a stabbing.  She wanted to bite down on the armrest.  The air stung her right cheek as Helga started on the left. There was no pause, no encouraging whispers to push her forward, and no acknowledgment of her state.  Just more spankings and more apologies screamed.
On the tenth, she broke.  The vole shouted her safeword, “Pineapple!” 
Helga stopped.  She reached for the vole’s hood.  The vole didn’t want Mama to remove it, she didn’t want to be Amy, or Amethyst again.  But the play was over, and one of them had to come out.
“You ok, pumpkin?” Helga’s hands undid the back bindings of Amethyst’s wrists while she asked, absent of any aggressive tone.  
Amethyst shook her head.
“What’s wrong?  Was I too hard?”
“I couldn’t take any more.”
“So I was too hard.  Sorry, I guess I got carried awa-”
“No,” Amethyst kept her gaze focused on the sofa, “I couldn’t take any more.  I gave up.  I made a mess and I couldn’t take the punishment.  I’m sorry, Mama.”
Only the ticking clock filled the silence of the room.  Amethyst had failed.  She let herself be pushed too hard in the past, and now she just couldn’t cut a simple spanking for another mistake she made.
The Helga chuckled and the vole felt her ear piercings being played with, “God you’re adorable.”
“What?” She turned to the pig woman’s smiling snout, “But, I gave up.  I failed.”
“Failed what?  Your punishment?  I’ll just have to think of something else.”
“But...but I-”
“Look, you felt a limit and used your safeword.  That’s good.  You still have rights, even if I’m punishing you. Granted, if I didn’t think you could handle this on our first day, I’d probably send you home packing and not call ya again.  But,” she pulled Amethyst closer, “We’re long past that.  I may not have a collar around your neck, but that doesn’t mean I’m tossing you out because of a mistake.  You’ve made plenty already, that’s what training is for.  Besides, given your current ‘roommate’ situation, I wouldn’t just toss you out.  I would give you a time limit on how long you’d stay though.”
She blinked, “So, you’re not mad?”
	“Oh, I’m angry you went through my closet,” Helga grabbed Amy’s snout, “Mind telling me why you did that?”
	“I-I was looking for leather polish.”
	“Polish?”
	Amethyst nodded as well as she could in Helga’s grasp, “Uh huh.  I wanted to clean some leather gear downstairs while I was waiting.”
	Helga laughed.  Not a chuckle or a soft giggle.  But a full from the gut laugh as she let Amethyst go.  The vole’s ears fell as she watched her dominant get off the couch and head to the kitchen, still laughing.  
	She came back with two glasses of water, “The leather is already clean.  I do that after every session.  You should know, you helped the last few times.” she said as she handed one to Amethyst.
	The vole mentally slapped herself at the recollection as she grabbed a glass, “Oh...right.”
	“Now why don’t you go take a shower while I prep dinner.  I’ll have the rest of your punishment figured out by then.” 
	Her ass stung as the sound of punishment, “W-would it help if I was sorry?”
	“You better damn well be sorry, but no, it doesn’t.  Sorry is nice, but I’m not gonna let you rely on it with me.
	Amethyst tried not to think about her future punishment as the hot water poured over her.  Her right cheek still stung, but it was fading slightly.  Maybe Helga would have her sleep in the dungeon, or in a cage for the night.  Or restrict her underwear for a few days.  The vole bit her lip as she reached for her sex, only to grab her hand at the last second.  She reminded herself that her pussy wasn’t hers anymore.  It was Helga’s, even if she didn’t have the hood on she wanted them to belong to dominant.  She wanted to be a good slave.
	Slaves didn’t need to be anything but prepared after all.  They didn’t need to succeed in every topic thrown at them so they could get a good job and then get married, then have kids they neglect because they’re too busy-Amethyst shook the thought from her mind.  
	She wasn’t Amelia, she was a slave.  Helga’s slave.
	Back at the dinner table, Amethyst noticed a strange metal contraption before she saw Helga cooking.  It looked like a diaper, but thinner with a black trim running all over it.
	“Mama,” she pointed to the item, “What’s this?”
	Helga didn’t turn from her skillet, “Insurance.”