honey don't feed me, i will come back.

But I've discovered that bratting comes in different flavors and different kinds of bratting usher in different responses.

A brat could rise to meet the challenge with a fierce tone and make me attitude about the affair. This is when the one running the scene needs to physically or mentally overpower. To make the brat know, not believe-- but know; that they are helpless in this moment and have abandoned their desire to fight back.

But they may take an approach of teasing. When offered a suggestion/command they may approach with an air of Oh, will I? that indicates less of a desire to be shut down and more a desire to escalate. To raise the stakes. To up the ante of a scene. This kind of bratting should be met with teasing in return. A reminder of why this dynamic exists and what this scene is leading to. I find when you say something and their eyes flash or they offer a whimper that's when you have them.

Another approach is that coy and inviting tone. This one carries more of a maaaaaybe... tone that may be seem have the language of rejection but the tone of pure invitation. It's an offer. A request for a roadmap, a desire to know where this is going so the offer can be accepted. It's saying 'I am not going to come to you, why don't you come to me?' and the correct response is to tenderly do so. At least in my experience, meeting coy tones with harsh tones doesn't work out.

Bratting is just another kind of communication in the language of a scene. Learning to listen and engage in kind is the key to a good pacing.

Essentially the tones boil down to Conflict, Teasing and Invitation. Each should be met in kind. The bold harshness of conflict should be shut down firmly. The smirking mischief of teasing should be rewarded with more fun and the invite should be met with promise.

I love the conflict for the same reason I love resistance play- I don't want to feel like I'm just playing along, I want to know that I am being overpowered/outsmarted.

I like to call the teasing kind of style "mischievous compliance". Obeying in such a way that makes it clear I'm definitely on board with what's happening and also definitely following the letter of the law rather than the spirit of it, and it's exactly as framed here, to up the ante.

But it doesn't mean the prince can't touch. He'll brush a hand against their arm any time he passes them, coax them far too close when he needs to say something, tell them to stand and watch over him as he changes and bathes for extra protection, keeping eye contact as he steps into his bath, bare and beautiful, but infuriatingly untouchable.

When the knight has had enough and they can't take the teasing any longer, they'd hatch a plan. They'd beg the prince for just one night, just one, and they'd let it go. It was all they needed. Amused, the prince would agree, but tell them they get only one night.

The knight would be called into the prince's rooms that night, and find the prince lounging in bed. He'd stand and ask them to help him undress, and they'd pull off the prince's silk clothes with trembling, nervous hands, dragging their fingers against his soft skin in wonder. They'd ask for permission to touch him properly, and he'd allow it with a laugh, spreading his legs and coaxing them closer.

The knight would take such care of their prince, mouth slow, fingers gentle, right up until they've got him sunk on their strap. Then their calloused hands would dig into his hips, their thrusts suddenly much faster, his gasps and moans at their chance in pace making them even more desperate. They'd press his face into his pillows, keep him in place, fucking him into the sheets, far rougher than a prince should be handled, but they can't find it in them to worry. If this was the only night they fully planned to take it, and use their prince like the precious prize he was.

And they aren't going to stop when it's so clear the prince loves it. They've watched him for so long, they know what he likes. His face is wet with tears and his fingers fist the sheets but he's begging them for more, back arching when they give it to him. He trembles at their touch, but he never tells them to stop so they use him till they're both too worn out to move.

When morning comes, the knight will assume their usual position, only to find out the prince has changed his mind. He tells them that he wants them every night, that he's craving their touch. But they'd just smile and tell him they only agreed to one night and that's all he's going to get. It's not their fault the prince underestimated them.

But they know he's not going to be able to get off alone after their night together and no one else was going to make him forget. He'd be desperately wanting their touch, the same way the knight had for so long.