“So…what are we doing here, Master?” Blaine sniffs, raising a hand to shield his nose from the overpowering stench of pesticide, industrial cleaner, and sawdust. Kurt’s brow pinches and his nose scrunches, so Blaine knows he smells it, too, but it doesn’t keep him from grabbing a shopping cart and leading Blaine inside.

“I told you,” Kurt says. He nods to the greeter standing at the entrance, then heads immediately to the left, obviously sure where he’s going. “I need to pick up a few things for play time.” Kurt doesn’t look directly at Blaine when he answers but he still flashes a smile both devious and teasing.

“I know, Master, but…at The Home Depot?”

“Yup. At The Home Depot.”

When Kurt said they were going shopping for “supplies”, Blaine thought they would be hitting up Kurt’s favorite kink shop downtown. He didn’t foresee them going to a hardware store. Blaine looks down the aisles they pass, shelves reaching high to the ceiling and stocked with items like screws, bolt cutters, and hammers - things that Blaine wouldn’t ever imagine using during their scenes. Blaine didn’t know that Kurt had ever even been to a Home Depot. He doesn’t seem like the home improvement type. But that assumption is Blaine’s fault, not Kurt’s. Blaine has to stop judging by appearances. It’s a bad habit anywhere, not only in the D/s scene. He should know better by now. He’s seen enough alpha corporate business types stripped naked, shoved to their knees, and spanked till they cried in this past month living with Kurt to know that not everything in life is what it seems.

Kurt turns down an aisle labeled Tools and Hardware and begins searching the shelves.

“Isn’t this a little 50 Shades of Grey?” Blaine asks.

Kurt stops short in the vacant aisle and turns on Blaine. He pulls his sub forward by the knot in his bowtie until they’re standing nose to nose.

“No, it’s not,” Kurt hisses. “It’s what most every Dominant does, especially ones who make their own gear. E. L. fucking James didn’t invent it, she didn’t even correctly represent it, and don’t you ever, ever bring up that disgusting piece of shit to me if you ever want to sit comfortably again. Do I make myself clear?”

Blaine’s jaw drops and he nods, not eager to anger Kurt in a store where he has easy access to things like nails and staple guns.

“So” - Kurt releases Blaine’s tie and resumes his walk down the aisle, smiling as if that indiscretion on Blaine’s part never happened - “I think I’m going to need a packet of zip ties...” He grabs a clear bag of black zip ties from the shelf and nonchalantly tosses it into his cart. “Some of this pretty nylon rope…” A skein of blue paracord follows the zip ties into the cart. “What next? Ah, yes, sand paper…superfine grit to scuff up those sexy knees…” Kurt keeps walking, ticking items off his mental checklist as he puts them in his cart. Blaine follows, watching his Dom choose the devices of his torture. “Wire…” Blaine swallows when he sees Kurt add a roll of thin metal wire to the contents of the cart. He has no idea what besides binding his wrists and ankles Kurt might use it for, but it doesn’t look pleasant. Kurt leaves the aisle and turns a corner, pausing momentarily at a box of narrow wood strips. “Ooo, rattan,” Kurt coos. “I think we can use a few new canes. Don’t you, love?” Kurt picks through the bunch for an acceptable piece and slides it free. He holds it by the end and whips the air, the beige strip snapping back with a crack that makes Blaine’s knees rubbery.

“Uh…yes, Sir,” Blaine agrees in a weak voice.

Kurt tosses three choice strips into his cart and continues to an aisle labeled Bath and Faucets.

“And we neeeeed…” Kurt murmurs aloud as he roams the aisle, perusing the shelves. “Ah! Caulk.” Kurt picks up a tube and turns it over in his hand, running his palm up and down it suggestively. He reads the print along the side, an unsettling quirk to his lips that makes Blaine queasy. “Hmm, waterproof and flexible. Everything I need.”

Blaine stares at the long tube with it’s almost equally long, pointed tip that his Master puts in the top shelf of their shopping cart, and shudders. What the hell is that for? Worse yet…where is it supposed to go? That tube looks like it’s got some sharp edges. Or maybe…caulk…isn’t that used to seal up holes and gaps?

Suddenly, Blaine wants to be sick.

“Uh…w-what do we n-need that for, Sir?” Blaine asks, his voice shaking.

“Hmmm?” Kurt, examining a selection of towel bars, looks at his sub staring pale-faced at the tube of caulk. “Oh. A pipe under the kitchen sink is leaking, and I can’t get a hold of the building superintendent for anything.”

“Oh…yeah, well, I-I think he said something about going out of town to visit a sick cousin,” Blaine says, finishing off with a relieved sigh.

Kurt raises an eyebrow, looking Blaine over with critical eyes. “Why so nervous, pet? Do you not like caulk for some reason?” It sounds like a ridiculous question, but Kurt has come to discover that Blaine has some unique triggers to his anxiety, things from his past that manifest in ways that Kurt would never anticipate, so he errs on the side of caution.

“It’s not…it’s not that,” Blaine says. “I just…you said we were buying stuff for play time, and I didn’t know what you needed it for…and I thought…”

Kurt tilts his head, trying to riddle through Blaine’s thought process. Blaine doesn’t express himself clearly when he gets nervous. He stutters, loses words, withdraws. It can be cute when Blaine gets flustered, especially when Kurt introduces him to new things, but it’ll become dangerous if it gets in the way of them communicating. Communication is an important bridge in their relationship. It has to remain uncluttered at all times. Blaine needs to learn to speak his mind just as much as he needs to learn to trust Kurt implicitly.

“You thought that I was going to use it on you somehow?”

“Uh…maybe,” Blaine says quietly.

“Blaine…” Kurt’s voice is stern, compelling Blaine to answer honestly with an unspoken promise of punishment if he doesn’t.

“Yes, Sir. Yes, I did.” Blaine hangs his head, looking as embarrassed as he does ashamed.

Kurt looks from Blaine’s lowered eyes to the tube of caulk, noticing at once its obscene shape, and he can see where Blaine might have gotten that idea, but it also says a lot that Blaine didn’t know for sure…or that he was afraid to ask. It’s even worse to think that Blaine might try to find the answers to his questions by reading a trash work of fiction instead of coming out and asking his Dom. There’s so much that Blaine doesn’t know about what he’s gotten in to with Kurt, but Kurt loves Blaine. He’s made it his mission to teach Blaine.

And Kurt prides himself on being an exceptional teacher.

“That tube of caulk looks like it could cause some serious damage if I used it on you, don’t you think?” Kurt asks.

“Yes, Sir,” Blaine says, eyes fixed on his shoelaces.

“We had a long talk about this. We discussed your limits. I know what to expect from you, and you should know what to expect from me.” Kurt hooks a finger beneath Blaine’s chin and tips his head up. “Blaine, I’m not going to do anything that will put your health in danger. I’m not going to ruin your body. I’m not going to hurt you any more or in any way other than we discussed. I’m not going to do anything you didn’t sign up for. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Do you believe me?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Do you trust me?”

“Yes, Sir?”

Kurt presses his forehead to Blaine’s and whispers against his mouth, “Do you love me?”

“Yes, Sir,” Blaine replies, a smile spreading across his lips.

“Good.” Kurt hugs Blaine, sneaking his hands into Blaine’s back pockets and staking his claim by squeezing his ass. “Because I love you, too. This is the real world, pet. Not some garbage-y, poorly written novel. And in the real world, you belong to me and I belong to you. We talk through our problems, discuss our fears, and find solutions together. Doesn’t that make sense, pet?”

“Yes, Sir,” Blaine says, sounding calmer. “It does.”

“Now don’t get me wrong,” Kurt says, moving to Blaine’s ear to talk to his sub in private, “I am going to tie you down with that rope, and I am going to bind your wrists with those zip ties, and then, when I have you completely at my mercy…”

“Yes, S-sir…?” Blaine asks in that same wobbly voice, shaking with anticipation this time instead of fear.

Kurt grazes Blaine’s earlobe with his teeth, breathes hot against his neck, and digs his nails into the denim of his jeans. He lets his sentence hang in the air open-ended, giving Blaine something to think about on the way home.

“But that will have to wait till later,” Kurt says without indicating what specifically has to wait. Kurt feels the tension in Blaine’s muscles ratchet up a step. Blaine is not fond of waiting…which is why Kurt will make him wait as long as it pleases him. “Our sink is leaking. So let’s buy our stuff and get our asses home so you can fix it.” Kurt pecks Blaine on the nose, smacks him on the ass, and lets him go.

“I’m going to fix it?” Blaine asks.

“Yup,” Kurt says, strolling away with his cart, “in the nude.”

Blaine chuckles. “That sounds like the premise to a porno, Sir.”

“Exactly” – Kurt grins as he looks back over his shoulder – “that’s why I’m going to be filming you.”