Syd returned from the bathroom topless, and immediately went back to kissing Octavia as she stood in the middle of the room. With his face buried in her neck, she giggled and feebly tried to escape. 

"You're making me feel overdressed." She said in a low voice. "And turned on."

"Oh, you weren't already?" With one hand he groped under her dress. "You pervert. Getting horny when we're just talking."

She closed her eyes and basked in his touch and his kisses in silence. He was such a beautiful man, his touch was so tender despite his strength, and he knew her so well. He always made her feel so safe. She sighed softly.

With his lips brushing her earlobe, he whispered: "Let me top you, Babe."

She lifted her knee up to rub it against the bulge in his pants. "How would you wrest control away from me, my dear?" She said in a mock haughty tone. "What could you possibly do to me?"

"Oh, I dunno…" Like a ballroom dancer, he made her dip backwards and gave her a hot kiss that made her knees go weak. When he helped her stand upright again, she was blushing and giggling. He narrowed his eyes at her. "You're just baiting me into doing stuff."

"That is how bratting works, as I understand it." She chuckled.

He laughed out loud. "The great Octavia, a brat." 

She raised her eyebrows at him. "You expected me to surrender willingly?"

"Would be nice." He said as he looked her in the eye. "You have something to make up for."

With a sly smile, she replied: "What would you want to do to me?"

"I wish I could hypnotise you…" He mused. 

"Well, I'm glad this isn't just about putting your cock inside me." She joked but she was distracted, there was an idea forming in the back of her mind.

He kissed her again. "We can always do that later."

"Can we now…" Her voice trailed off, she was still thinking about it. This was such a bad idea, she realised but it might just work. Syd could do it, oh she couldn't wait to see him do it, but it would never work. Would it?

He paused, noticing her pensive look. "What's up?"

She smiled at him as she continued to think. "I have an idea, but I don't know if…"

"I'm in! Let's do it." He interrupted her with an eager look.

She frowned at him. "I haven't worked out all the kinks and…"

"Yes! More kinks!" He grinned and pulled her closer. "I know you, if I leave room for hesitation, you'll chicken out. If we press on, we can make magic happen. You and me, we can do this. Whatever this idea is."

"I do not 'chicken out'." Octavia huffed with an awkward laugh. "I postpone until we're in a better space to negotiate."

"Bla bla bla, let's do it." He talked over her as he looked at her with his big brown eyes. "Come on. What's the worst that could happen?"

She thought about it for a moment. "I could feel terribly embarrassed and I'd need you to stop."

"Ok. We can deal with that." He caressed her arms to reassure her. "What else?"

She gave him a wry smile. "You could feel bad and want to stop."

"Ok. I'll survive." He smiled at her. "Is that all?" 

She buried her face in his chest, cuddling him and basking in his scent as she went over what her idea would entail in her head. It was quite possibly the most foolish idea she had ever had. Syd would love it.

"What's your safeword?" He asked as he stroked her hair.

She stood up straight to look at him. "My safeword?" No one but Eddie had asked her that in a good, long while.

Syd gave her a knowing smile. "You know mine is 'exit'. What's yours?"

"I can do 'exit'. That's fine." She nodded and stared off at the floor, lost in thought.

He gently rocked her in his arms. "Anything else you need?"

"I need…" She tried to identify that insecure feeling that made her hesitate so much. "Your reassurance…"

He immediately hugged her, whispering: "You and me, Babe. We can do anything. If one of us gets hurt, we can deal."

She closed her eyes. "I want to put ideas in your head. Foolish ideas."

"You have my enthusiastic consent, Octavia." He nodded his head so she could feel it. "Yes, please." 

She inhaled slowly, gathering her courage as she caressed upwards over his back and his neck until her hand was on the back of his head. Then, she steeled herself, made a fist and tugged on his hair. "Drop into trance."

His eyes slammed shut and his hands let go of her as he swayed on his feet.

"Do it one more time for me, Syd. Just sink and fall and follow my words into the familiar, dark depths of trance." She held him close, to steady him as he stood there, and so he could hear her voice clearly. Her hand was still in his hair but she gave him some leeway. "I probably need you to be a little more deeply hypnotised than this, so please pay attention. Open your eyes and look at me."

His eyes opened slowly and he gave her a dazed look.

She paused to bask in the beautifully blank expression on his face before she tugged on his hair again. "Drop. Even deeper down."

His eyes rolled up and his head lolled in her grip as if his neck was made of rubber. A sigh escaped his lips as he surrendered to her.

She shushed him and cooed: "When you feel like you've settled down, my dear, when you feel all serene and quiet and entranced, look at me again."

It took a second before his eyes opened, but he probably couldn't see her with his eyes crossed like that. For all intents and purposes, he was gone. When she tugged on his hair again, his knees buckled and she gently let him slip and laid him down on the floor.

"I want to give you a gift, my dear." She murmured as she sat down next to his head, staring at the floor, looking for the right words. "And I know you will make good use of it. For this scene, for as long as we want to play like this, you are an amazing hypnotist. I know you can just mimic what you've seen me do over the years, a part of you will just pretend to be me. But you can also rely on your impressive bluff skill and on the stereotypes and tropes you've seen out in the world. But the most important thing, my dear, is your confidence. You know deep in your heart that you are my peer, and that I love it when you hypnotise me. You have no doubt that you know all my preferences and my weaknesses. Just take a moment to let that sink in."

His eyelids fluttered and there was a faint smile on his lips as he lay there, as if he was asleep. 

"And if it makes things easier…" Octavia was just talking stream of consciousness at this point, just giving him more ammunition to use against her. "You can just forget that I've said this. You can just forget any part of our play together that would make you feel like you're not a hypnotist. Because you have always been my favourite hypnotist. We haven't played for a long time, because I've started this thing where I rarely bottom for anyone anymore. But you still know my weaknesses from before. And you've missed my trance face. So you're going to revel in playing with me. As long as you want."

She got up and leaned on the edge of the bed. There was no way back now. Either this was going to work, or it would become utterly ridiculous. Which wouldn't be the first time with Syd. But it was out of her hands now.

"Can you feel that?" She said softly as she looked at him lying there on the floor. "You're waking up. You're ready and willing and able. Take another deep breath, it will help you rise up."

Syd sat up and grinned at her. "You could have just asked. But you always have to be a little difficult, don't you?"

She wondered how much he remembered. "I eh…" She bashfully lowered her eyes. "It's hard to ask for what you want."

He stood in front of her and offered his hand to help her up from the bed. "Dance with me, Babe." 

Nerves tightened her throat as she took his hand and he pulled her closer for a kiss. But his kisses were the same as before; he made her feel safe and loved.

"I love you." He whispered between kisses, his lips brushing against hers. "I love how skilled you are at hypno things. I love how you can drop me unexpectedly. And I love the way you just drift into this state of quiet compliance when I want to play with you. You know it's coming. You want it. So you rise, or should I say sink? To meet me. Don't you, Babe?"

Octavia sighed. She felt a familiar fuzzy feeling between her eyes and a heaviness in her limbs. The nervous feelings subsided, only to be replaced by the warm glow of arousal. With a moan, she softly said: "Damn you…"

He finally stopped kissing and drew back just enough to make eye-contact. With an innocent look, he asked: "What? What have I done? I don't think I've ever heard you swear like that before."

"Damn you." She moaned again as she slowly blinked at him. "You know exactly what you've done."

His hand moved up over the back of her neck to cup the back of her head and trap her in his gaze. "It's not like I've commanded you to look deep into my eyes." His voice took on a theatrical quality, slow and with emphasis on certain words. "It's not like I've told you to take a deep breath and relax. It's not like I have triggers that will instantly drop you deep into trance."

She could feel herself sag in his arms, too heavy to remain upright by herself. Her vision narrowed until she could only see his big brown eyes, staring her down.

"I can see it in your eyes, Babe. You wish I had. Secretly, you want me to be your perfect fantasy and bring out all the hypno tropes you love. But I don't need all that, do I? I only need…" His hand gently massaged the back over her head while the other pressed against the small of her back. And he didn't blink once. "This. This connection we have. I don't need to wrest control away from you, when you give it to me so willingly. Don't you, Babe?"

Her only reply was a breathy moan, her face had gone too slack to be able to talk. What have I done? She vaguely thought to herself as she realised how much he was playing with her. She had no resistance left, the only thing keeping her awake was his attention, his monologue.

"How does it feel?" His voice turned impish, teasing her. "To be this helpless? When normally you are the puppetmaster? All these men kneeling at your feet. And now you're here. Helplessly waiting for me to finally give you permission to drop. Isn't that right?"

His face swam before her eyes, grinning and hypnotic at the same time. She nodded meekly, her lips trembling until they managed to form an almost inaudible "Please."

"No. Wake up." He forced her to stand upright and then let her go.

She looked at him, dazed and confused. As the trancy feelings faded from her head, she realised that he would never make it that easy. "Damn you." She gasped.

He laughed impishly. "You said that when I started playing with your head and now you're saying it when I stop. What do you want, Octavia?"

Stepping back to lean on the bed, she composed herself. After a deep breath, she glanced at him and considered her answer. Did he want her to resist more? Did he want her to beg? What did she want her answer to be? Was this experienced kinkster giving her space to shape the scene? Or was he just a terrible tease?

"You want to show me your box of hypnotic baubles, don't you?" He said with a sly look. "You want me to dangle your favourite shiny rock in front of your face until your eyes cross."

"An enticing idea, to be sure." She had recovered enough to sound confident. With her chin up, she met his eyes. "But you're looking for a bit more of a challenge. That's why you woke me up. You want to start over and watch me resist more."

"You're telling me what I want now?" He raised his eyebrows at her and made a little beckoning motion with his hands.

She rose from the bed and came towards him, without really knowing why. Feeling doubt creep in, she gave him a charming smile. "Watching me resist is fun, right?" 

"Oh Octavia…" He embraced her, his hands returning to the spots on her lower back and the back over her head, her weaknesses. He grinned, looking into her eyes and staring straight down into her very soul. "You have no way to resist me."

And in that moment, she knew it was true.