"I can't believe you are so thoughtless! You never ask me what I might want! Damn you!"
Faith ran out the door in tears. Shannon was trying not to cry. She said nothing to their parents and followed Faith out the door. She knew where Faith was going.
Shannon found Faith in my arms sobbing. And then she began to cry. I still didn't know what had caused this. Faith was crying so hard, she couldn't speak. She held on to me as if she would never see me again. And when Shannon managed to get out a word, I realized my thoughts were not that far off.
"We're moving!"
And then Shannon walked to us and I put my arm around her to hold her tightly as well. Neither of the girls would let go. It was clear I was not going to get any information from them like this. So I tried to comfort them, telling them that it would be alright. But inside, I felt real fear. I was going to lose them both and I didn't know how to stop it. Although the tears didn't go away, the sobbing stopped.
"Let's go into the living room to talk this out", I suggested. But neither of them would let go of me. "Faith, Shannon, I will hold on to you, I won't let go. But I also can't help you until you tell me what's going on."
They relented. With my arms around them both, we all sat down on the couch. They both pulled in close to me, Faith with her face buried in my chest.
"Ok, now tell me what happened."
Faith still was not ready to speak, but Shannon spoke up. "Dad got a promotion. I guess he has always wanted international experience. Well he got it ... in Japan."
I clamped my mouth shut. Japan? Holy shit! How was I going to solve this one?
Faith pulled her face away from my chest, just enough to speak. "Fuck it! I'm going to tell them I love you and that I won't leave you."
Again, I said nothing.
But Shannon spoke up. "Faith, you can't. They will go ape shit."
"I don't care. They never bothered to ask us where we wanted to live. I'm an adult. I can make my own decisions."
Shannon looked at me. "Aren't you going to stop her? Please, Sir. Say something."
I took a deep breath. "You're right Faith. You are an adult. So start acting like it."
They were both shocked by my response.
"Look. You need to sit down and think this out. You are both adults. You have options. Getting into this big fight with your parents will solve nothing. If you want to tell them about us, I'll support your decision. But you need to be prepared to face the consequences. Shannon is right, they probably will react badly. But do you understand what they might do? They could abandon you, disown you."
"I don't care!"
"Yes you do. Once your emotions have calmed, you will realize that you do care. And don't misinterpret what I am telling you by thinking I want to avoid some big confrontation with your parents because I'm fucking their daughter. Quite honestly, I don't give a shit if they know because I don't care what they think of me. My only concern is you ... both of you. If you tell them, you may face some real pain. And I don't want to see you get hurt."
Faith looked up at me and kissed my cheek. "You really wouldn't care if they knew?"
"I would care if they knew, because the impact to you could be devastating. But no, I don't care what they think of me."
"So what do we do?" said Shannon.
"We calm down and let our emotions settle. Go home. Get some sleep. Let me think about this for awhile."
"I don't want to go home" said Faith.
"Neither do I", said Shannon.
"Both of you, go home. We'll talk in the morning", I promised.
We all got up from the couch. Faith wrapped her arms around my neck and held on for a few seconds. It was not the same desperate hug from before. She kissed my lips and said good night. Then Shannon wrapped her arms around me and buried her face in my chest. She finally looked up at me and kissed my lips.
"I can't lose you now, Sir. Not with the way I feel about you. Not when I'm ready to give myself to you."
I smiled. "There will be an appropriate time for you to kneel before me and give yourself to me." And then I kissed her back. "Now go, the both of you."
Once the girls left, I looked at my hand. It was trembling and I couldn't stop it. I could not imagine life without Faith. I was also becoming very attached to Shannon. It was suddenly clear in my mind that I would accept Shannon's submission to me, once she formally asked. I really cared for her and I could see myself loving her very much. But I was about to lose them both if I didn't come up with an idea to keep them close by. And no matter what happened, I needed to be calm for them. I needed to let them pour out their fears to me, but remain steady for them. But just how was I supposed to do that when my fear of losing them was causing my hands to shake. Quite honestly, I had not wanted to send them home. I wanted to hold them tightly to me, rather than sleep alone. Either way, I was not going to get much sleep tonight.
And then I remembered a thought I had months ago, but never mentioned it to Faith. I had considered discussing it with her, but I had forgotten about it and never sat down to talk with her about it. Would it work? Would their parents accept the idea? Faith and Shannon would need to do some home work on their own to prepare their argument with their parents. This had to work. I didn't see an alternative. Faith's original idea of telling her parents that she would not leave me would likely cause them to take her away from me, kicking and screaming all of the way. I couldn't let that happen.
I sat down to make some notes about things the three of us would need to do. I was feeling better about this idea as I made my notes. But we still had some work ahead of us and I knew I wasn't going to sleep tonight regardless.
The next morning, the girls showed up to take Maggie for a walk. They didn't look like they had slept well either.
I tried to help them relax. "After you walk Maggie, come right back. I have an idea to talk with you both about."
"What is it?" said Faith.
"Not now. Go for the walk first."
"Yes, Master." She pouted a bit, but it seemed to lift the spirits of both of them.
Maggie got somewhat the short end of the stick because her walk got cut a little short. Faith and Shannon soon appeared at my patio door minutes later. I had them sit down at the kitchen counter as I arranged my notes.
Shannon looked at my notes. "You really do have an idea. You've been busy."
"I have been busy. This is going to take some work to prepare yourselves. And you need to prepare for convincing your parents you need to stay. Quite honestly, I wish I had suggested this earlier because I think you should do this even if your parents were not moving. I think you should enroll in college here."
Faith tried to stifle a groan, but Shannon started to smile.