Rating
“Aw fuck, I almost beat that level! What the hell, game?!” Matilda nearly threw her controller at the TV from sheer rage, having her character just die for what seemed like the thousandth time since turning on the game. Just as she was about to clear level 2 — the first level having already been hard enough — the game threw some sudden obnoxious curveball at her, leading her to accidentally jump her character into a pit.
What a waste of $30 — the last $30 she had, too, before Nea would go ahead and give her another gift of fifty dollars. Nea was extremely generous — or rather, it was moreso that Nea was the one out of the two of them who had a stable, well-paying office job, and Nea felt bad for the lackadaisical and sometimes apathetic Matilda (or, Tilly, a cute nickname she sometimes called her.) It wasn’t that hard to give Matilda $50 a month — though sometimes Nea wondered if she should give her a bit more.
After all, it wasn’t necessarily Matilda’s fault. Her job at the local supermarket was awful. Tilly tried to work there for almost 6 months, to the expense of her mental health when customers would spit in her face and call her names. Or when management blocked her from getting anywhere up the corporate chain and instead took every opportunity to demean and disrespect her. Matilda wasn’t by any means a sensitive person, but when that sort of abuse came at her 40 hours a week (sometimes more)… she had enough, burnt out, and quit without submitting a two week’s notice. Since then, she lacked the energy to apply to jobs or make a name for herself again. Her life full of energy and go-getting was reduced to a life of buying disconted video games, playing them for two hours, and giving up to never touch them again.
Nea, meanwhile, was pretty startled by Tilly’s sudden outburst. Hearing her from the kitchen in the next room and unsure what the hell was going on, Nea rushed into the other room to check on her roommate. “Tilly, what’s wrong?” Nea asked with alarm.
“Just this fucking stupid game,” Tilly groaned, shutting off the console and throwing her body back against the couch. “Seriously, why do they make these things so hard? It’s impossible!”
Nea bit her lip, then responded after a moment of contemplation. “You get pretty bored pretty quickly of easy games too, though. Maybe it’s time to find a new hobby?”
Matilda wanted to quip back with some sort of response, but words fell flat. Nea was probably right; her recent hobby in video games was almost certainly making her more irate than usual. “I mean, sure, I can try, but like… what? What kind of hobby?”
Nea let out a light chuckle. “Not particularly a hobby, but, if you’re up for it, you could help me around the house a bit.”
Matilda snorted. And then she realized that Nea was probably serious and she probably should be helping with housework. But if getting past a difficult level in a video game was too much work, mopping the floors would almost certainly be ten times worse.
“Sure, I’ll… consider it,” Matilda said, though Nea knew through her roommate’s hesitation that she was lying completely.
Nea silently moved back into the kitchen, beginning to work on some scrambled eggs for herself and Tilly. She knew just how Tilly liked them — more milk, with some shredded cheese in them. Nea liked hers with spinach and tomatoes — felt it gave her a better start to the day. Of course, she didn’t have work that day, as it was the start of the weekend. Still, Nea liked to be prepared for her day.
She was kind of bothered, though, especially when she heard Tilly turn the game back on to immediately start yelling obscenities at it again. Tilly certainly couldn’t do this all day, right? Let alone all week or all month, or longer.
Nea was going to say something. Maybe it wasn’t possible to convince Tilly to work through an ultimatum or pressure, but perhaps there was a way Nea could receive additional encouragement. Nea was experimenting with relaxation hypnosis videos in the past few days. Of course, the files were pretty low quality and didn’t work, but Nea was resolved to find something. And maybe Tilly could hop in on it too.
Matilda certainly looked a lot happier when Nea brought her the eggs, finally turning her attention from the game. “Aw, thanks Nea! You always make my mornings better with your cooking.”
Nea chuckled a bit. “Well, might as well make some for you since I’m making them anyways. We’re running out of eggs, though… maybe you could come grocery shopping with me?”
“Ah, maybe,” Matilda dismissed Nea and went to take a bite, clearly intending to go back to her game after.
Nea felt something in her tick. While she was definitely used to Tilly having most of her attention taken up by video games and three hour naps at 4pm, Nea hated being dismissed so casually. Now was the right time to say something… even if Tilly wasn’t exactly thrilled to hear it.
“Um, listen, Tilly… before you go back to your game… can we talk?”
Tilly turned to Nea, her eyes a little confused. She swallowed her bite of the eggs, and then spoke. “Uh, sure, what’s up? Anything wrong?”
“No, it’s not anything wrong! It’s just…” That was a lie — there was certainly something wrong with how Nea was paying for quite literally everything. “I’m… really tight financially, paying completely for the both of us.”
“Oh. You want me to get a job again,” Matilda replied, trying to hide the way she deflated in disappointment.
“Well, I mean, that would be good. I know you have a lot of healing to do from your last job.” Nea smiled, trying to sympathize with Tilly. “And… I can’t exactly afford therapy for you long term. So I was thinking… well…”
Nea blushed a little — it was pretty embarrassing to suggest this, after all. Tilly looked at her, anxiously awaiting what she would suggest.
“If you’d… like to try hypnosis files?”
“Uh… what?” Matilda blinked, bewildered. “You’re… you’re serious? You’re not joking, you’re for real?”
Nea shrunk. Part of her knew that would be the response. “Y-yeah… I mean, there are some good files online, done by actual hypnotherapists. I’ve found some I think are pretty good. And… if it makes you feel better, I can do it at the same time as you. Like, with different files, of course.”
Matilda tilted her head up and sighed. Nea wondered if she really did sound crazy — after all, most of the files she found had barely worked. How in the world was she going to get Tilly to agree to it?
“So like, what kind of files would we be using?” Matilda finally asked.
“Um… well, you could use files for like, motivation. Like, motivation to apply for jobs, or motivation to deal with problems when they come up. If you like it enough, maybe we can get custom files in the future specifically for us.”
Tilly nodded, putting a hand to her chin contemplatively. “And you’d do these files too. But you have a job, so… you don’t need motivation, right?”
Kind of an assumption, Nea passive aggressively thought to herself. But she didn’t really need hypnosis files to get motivated, that much was correct. “Well, I suppose I’d be using them to relax better, y’know? Like, I feel like I’m always working. And always stressed. So… it could help me just unplug from real life for a bit and just take a breather, y’know?”
Matilda sat silently, still thinking about it and working through her hesitations. Nea was prepared for her to answer no.
“And if you don’t like it,” Nea interjected Tilly’s thoughts, “then you don’t have to do it, and we can find something else.”
Another thoughtful sigh came out of Matilda. Finally, she gave a wide grin to Nea and gave her an answer. “Alright, sure, I’ll try it if you try it too.”
What a relief, Nea responded with a smile. “Great! Thank you for… agreeing to try. I appreciate it a lot.” Nea stood up, taking her plate of eggs with her — Matilda meanwhile nearly forgot they were there.
“I’ll go find some files for us. I got some good recommendations. Let’s try it this evening, alright?”
Matilda gave a peace sign with an even bigger grin. Seeing that cute gesture always warmed Nea’s heart a ton. Despite Tilly’s chronic fatigue and lack of motivation, Nea held a warm spot in her heart for Tilly.
That’s why we’re roommates, right? Nea thought to herself.
* * *
The two had agreed to do the files together that evening, just in separate rooms. It was fine, right? Nea could trust Tilly that she was going to follow through and actually do something that Nea wanted for once… right?
At least, that’s what Nea hoped. She had found a set of nice, long files with great reviews done by some hypnosis YouTuber named “Calm Trance” — a simple but fitting name. Nea was pretty optimistic; she had seen the name online a few times with people saying only good things. There were some weird mentions about hypnosis kink and whatnot, but Nea brushed them off. It surely was going to be fine, right?
The file she had sent Tilly via email was titled “Hypnosis for Motivation and Getting Going”. It seemed exactly like what Tilly needed. The file Nea had chosen for herself, on the other hand, was titled “Hypnosis for Relaxation and Calmness”.
The two had agreed to start at precisely 7pm. It was 2 minutes before then, and Nea was honestly a little worried that Tilly would give up on it before even giving it a real try. But if anything… at least Nea would learn to relax for once.
7pm eventually struck — Nea almost missed it, but just in time, she started the video. Putting it on full screen, Nea was immediately pulled in by the calming sky blue and lilac spiral that filled her computer screen. The second thing Nea noticed was Calm Trance’s voice. It was a very soothing voice, so soft and loving. On Nea’s first guess, she had to assume that the voice was that of a woman’s. It felt almost like Nea was under a warm weighted blanket on a soft bed. Before the file had even really started, Nea felt much more relaxed than she ever felt before.
“Find yourself sitting or lying down in a nice, comfortable position. Feel free to close your eyes or keep them open for now,” the file played.
Nea took up the offer to close her eyes, sinking into a blissful state.
“That’s it… just find yourself visualizing whatever place is most peaceful to you. It could be an empty beach with a sunset… or maybe a warm living room by the fire place… or maybe even just a completely blank space. Wherever you find yourself, just imagine that place. Imagine yourself relaxing and feeling more and more idle in this state.”
Nea took a deep breath as the file continued instructing her to. With every breath she took, she felt her body disappearing into that calming place a little bit more. Her body softened, her muscles going slightly limp as she only moved her body to make herself more comfortable.
“Just relax… just fall deeper and deeper into my voice, following my guidance. That’s it. Trance is taking over your body. You can let it… soon enough, you’ll feel quite relaxed. Ready to let go. Ready to sink… and sink, and sink, and sink on five, sink on four…”
The voice started to count down. Usually in these files, voices would count down at a progressively slower rate, however this file took a different approach; Calm Trance’s voice counted down quicker and quicker, almost as if to confuse Nea and make her feel more disoriented. It was working, of course; as Nea tried to keep her mind steady, following the file, she found it harder and harder to concentrate. Her mind was quickly fading, much quicker than before.
The file continued, counting down quicker. Nea’s consciousness slipped further and further away with, “sink on three, sink on two, sink on one,” and before Nea knew it, she was too far in. Her mind disappeared as Calm Trance spoke, “sink, sink, sink…”
Nea was out of control. Now her subconscious could let the file do the rest…
* * *
When Nea came to, she was in a completely different place. Well, it was the same apartment, of course; it wasn’t like she just randomly wandered into the street. Now that would have definitely been bad. No, instead, she was in her living room. Her laptop was in front of her — oddly enough, the tab with the hypnosis file on her browser had been closed.
Funny, Nea thought. I hadn’t remembered closing that tab…
What was even more curious was what tab was open in front of Nea’s eyes. It seemed to be some sort of clothing shop. Not just any clothing shop, though; the site seemed to specialize in… French maid outfits.
That was even weirder. Nea never had an interest in buying maid outfits. Or maids in general. Nea wasn’t into that stuff — of course, she respected people who were, it just wasn’t her thing.
Right?
At least, she thought so. Nea couldn’t come up with a great reason why, but… her fingers began scrolling on her laptop’s track pad. There were all sorts of outfits, and in every one, Nea couldn’t help but imagine what she’d look like in it.
Do I want one that’s more like lingerie and shows off my curves? Nea began pondering her options as she scrolled through the dozens of selections. Or something more poofy and cute… ooh, they have multiple colors too! Of course, black and white is always a classic… But maybe I’d look cute with a pink and red dress.
Nea reached around aimlessly — her wallet, she needed her credit card. Suddenly, the reality of the situation slammed into her. What in the world was she doing?! She certainly didn’t have hundreds of dollars to drop on a maid dress, for one, as comfortable and soft as they looked. Not to mention, what even had gotten into her head? Nea remembered starting the Calm Trance file, and then falling into trance herself… but she could have sworn there was nothing about suddenly wanting to be a maid.
Not that there was anything wrong with being a maid, Nea thought, and I might look quite nice as one… oh, the poses I could take with it, and the way I’d look so cute while cleaning… Wait, fuck, no!
Nea snapped herself out of it once again. Despite feeling a mournful pang in her heart, she forced herself to close the tabs. All of the tabs — there were at least a dozen different maid outfit websites Nea had apparently been looking had.
Did I click some porno website while in trance or something? I swear to god… Nea sighed, staring at her computer screen wistfully. She didn’t have it in her to erase her browser history, not quite yet.
Forcing herself to think of something completely different — Tilly. How did Tilly enjoy her file? Was she having the same exact reaction? Or maybe Tilly found it helpful. Nea had to admit, with what she came to, Nea certainly didn’t feel any more relaxed. What a shame…
Nea moved to the living room, certain that Tilly was probably lounging and hanging out there after viewing her file. After all, they were only what, fifteen or twenty minutes? And almost an hour had passed.
Matilda was, of course, sitting on the couch, fervently scrolling on her computer. Her eyes were glued to the screen, wide in an almost frenzied way. Nea had to wonder if she looked like that just a few minutes ago, too… and then another thought occured — was Tilly also looking at maid dresses?
“Tilly?” Nea spoke up, her voice more quiet and hushed for some reason. Slightly less assertive than usual.
Matilda was jerked out of her daze, slamming the computer and throwing it aside to the left of her. Now Nea was certain that something was up with her, too. Tilly was almost certainly hiding something as well.
“Oh, Nea, ahaha… how did the file go for you?”
Nea paused, trying to think of the right response. She didn’t want to lie, but she didn’t want to tell the whole truth either. “Fine, I suppose. Not entirely what I was expecting. You?”
“Oh, it was great, I totally knocked out. And I feel so motivated now, y’know? Like, you know, you may have had something going on with this hypnosis stuff! Maybe I should, like, get more into it…”
Tilly tried to laugh it off. Nea remained suspicious, but forced a laugh to seem natural (and she probably didn’t.) Matilda enjoying the hypnosis or getting something out of it wasn’t what Nea was concerned about, oddly enough. Rather, Nea was concerned with what Matilda was looking at.
“So… what were you up to just now? Looking at anything interesting?”
The way Nea said the word ‘interesting’ must have sounded like Nea suspected Matilda was watching some weird porno, but Nea didn’t care in the moment. Despite that, Tilly blushed madly, trying to play it off. “N-no, it was nothing.”
“Really,” Nea responded. It was more of a statement or a light interrogation than a question.
That seemed to put Tilly at pause. Tilly may have been overall a dysfunctional person lately, but she was also a terrible liar. Bashfully, Tilly caressed their neck and avoided looking Nea in the eyes. “Well… when I came to I was looking at… something I’ve never been interested in before. A shopping site for… um… It was weird.”
Nea bit the bottom of her lip. She didn’t want to reveal she did the same too soon. “What were you looking at? Was it anything… weird?”
“Uh, well, it wasn’t anything sexual or horny or anything,” Tilly said defensively. “It was… hmm.” After a moment of silence, Tilly spoke quietly and finished her thought. “I was… looking at outfits.”
“What kind of outfits?” Nea wasn’t able to hide the slightly demanding tone to her voice, but thankfully Tilly didn’t mind.
“Like… royal outfits.” When Nea cocked her head in confusion, silently asking for more information, Tilly continued. “Crowns. Royal looking dresses and gowns. Also… furniture.”
An uncomfortable air of deep silence hung above the two of them, the only sound being their breathing and the ambiance of the fan above them.
“You ever thought about, uh, redecorating a bit?” The way Tilly asked made Nea think that she was trying to break the tension, but she only made it worse.
“I was looking at shopping sites too,” Nea admitted, not answering Tilly’s question. “I was… looking at… maid outfits.”
“Oh woah,” Matilda blinked increduously. “Any reason why?”
Nea shrugged. “I don’t know. But… maybe I picked the wrong files for us. I should have watched them beforehand. I’m sorry I dragged you into it, Tilly.”
“Oh, no no no, it’s not a problem. You just wanted to help. And, uh… between you and me, you’d look pretty cute in a maid outfit. So, like… maybe you should give it a go?”
Nea couldn’t lie — that thought was extremely tempting. It was almost like the vision of herself in a puffy large maid dress was burnt into her mind. It wasn’t just the image of herself in a maid dress that was so appealing to her. It was the thought of… being a maid. Serving someone. Making their home all pretty and clean, making food for their Owner… before being called into the bedroom where her owner could take off her clothes and order Nea to…
“No!” Nea shouted out, after clearly being lost in her thoughts for a while. “We… we can’t! We don’t have money for this, and it’s… it’s not right!”
Nea was of course disheartened to see the way Tilly deflated, but she was right. They didn’t have money for this, and it wasn’t good to act on impulse. Still, though, it was so disappointing. After so much thinking of how good she’d look in a maid outfit.
And Nea had to admit… Tilly would look quite good, strutting around like the royal lady of the house.
Nea put a hand to her head, hoping that would somehow stop the thoughts. Tilly eventually spoke up and broke Nea out of her bubble. “Alright, we won’t. Thanks for trying to help, Nea.”
“Right… right,” Nea nodded. “I’m sorry it didn’t do more.”
Before she could hear Tilly respond, Nea walked away, ready to flop onto her bed and scream the frustrated thoughts into her pillow. Why was she doing this? Why was her mind so… so stuck?
A bit before she retreated into her room, Nea grabbed her laptop from the living room. She sat it on her desk before hopping onto her bed. She wanted to scream. She wanted to scream so loud until she wouldn’t have to think anymore. But… she wasn’t frustrated enough to scream. All she could think to do was stare at her computer longingly. Might as well try to get some office work done to take her mind off of things…
As Nea opened the computer, she was immediately drawn to her browser history. There were hundreds, if not thousands of pages she had scrolled through. A few were bookmarked. These were very sudden urges, but… it couldn’t hurt to indulge just a bit more. She vowed not to spend any money… but if she could just look through a bit more… maybe that wouldn’t hurt…
* * *
Nea and Tilly avoided each other for the next few days. Neither knew why, but not speaking to each other felt natural. It was as if they both had some deep, dark secret that they had to keep from each other, lest the other would get mad at the other for breaking the promise they’d made to each other.
Or maybe Nea was just projecting — that was almost certainly the case. After all, Nea herself had broken the promise and gone ahead to buy more than one maid outfit.
She didn’t pick the cheapest option, either. No. If Nea was going to indulge in her strange, sudden obsessions, then she might as well go all the way in. Not much point in buying a new cheap maid outfit every three months after the last one would fall apart, right?
Still. Nea felt awful. Especially after she had told Tilly not to do the same thing. Nea had promised herself — just this one time. Just this once. Never again. In fact, she set the websites she was looking at all to be blocked. Not that Nea wasn’t smart enough to undo the block, just… it meant there would have to be another step. Another block for Nea to get through.
It hurt that Nea had given in so quickly. But it hurt more that Tilly was avoiding her. Hey, maybe the file did work for her a bit — Nea had walked in on Tilly job hunting at least a few times in the last few days. She didn’t say anything, of course, both to keep her distance and to not sound patronizing.
It was the first time in a few days that Tilly and Nea had dinner together. Tilly had offered to help with the food this time, but Nea felt obligated to make the food for both of them herself. Maybe it was to help Nea clear her own conscious after going back on her word.
Nea put more effort than usual into the food. They were having chicken baked in tangerines and ranch sauce — a simple dish, but a favorite of theirs. In fact, it was one of the first dishes Nea cooked for Tilly.
The two ate in almost complete silence. Nea asked how the job search was going. Tilly answered ‘good’. Tilly asked how Nea’s job was going. Nea answered ‘good’. That along was the extent of their conversation.
Suddenly, the silence was busted with a loud, sudden ringing of the doorbell. Nea’s heart dropped — she was excited because she knew what had arrived, of course, but she was anxious because it meant finally explaining to Tilly that she lied.
Oddly enough… Tilly looked just as horrified as Nea looked. That only confused Nea more — did Tilly suddenly develop a fear of doorbells, or something? Or did Tilly know?
The two rushed to the front door, anxious to answer it. By the time they opened the door, the mailman had walked away. There were two packages with addresses Nea had recognized. But more curiously… there were more than those two packages. There were at least five packages that had all arrived at the same time.
Nea and Tilly looked at each other. Suddenly, they both knew. They had both broken the promise to not indulge in their sudden desires.
“Uh…” Tilly blinked. “Well, this is… a situation.”
“It… sure is,” Nea echoed.
The two stared at the packages they had bought. It became clear in an instant exactly what these were — Nea had bought more maid outfits than she probably needed (though, to be fair, one was probably too much as it was.) Matilda bought… well, it was a bit more uncertain, but the boxes were fairly heavy so Nea had to imagine there were some items for Matilda to redecorate the apartment with, and Nea was almost certain she’d gotten one of those cheeky Spirit Halloween royal costumes as well.
To be honest, Nea wasn’t sure whether she should be more disappointed at Tilly using her credit card information without her permission — hell, with her explicit refusal — or with Tilly outwardly breaking her promise. But Nea couldn’t hold it against her, not with Nea looking just as guilty as Tilly was.
Nea inhaled sharply, and bit her lip. “Well, might as well bite the bullet and open these… very innocent-looking packages, shall we?”
Tilly laughed awkwardly a bit, trying to stifle her chuckling so as not to irritate Nea any further. “Right… yeah, let’s… let’s go do that,” she mentioned, as she helped Nea bring the boxes into the kitchen.
Grabbing a pair of scissors, Nea began chopping away at the packaging for her two pieces. While Tilly was preoccupied opening her hill of mail, Nea quietly pulled out the first maid outfit, the one she was most excited about. It was a simple black and white outfit, but what appealed to Nea was how full it was. It was so puffy, with frills on the collar and sleeves and much more so on the hem of the dress. It was tailored exactly to Nea’s measurements, and Nea had to stop herself from stripping and putting on the maid outfit right then and there. Just looking at the dress… it looked almost as if it was sucking Nea in. Some visceral urges came up for her, the kind she would get when she would crave chocolate or candy.
Somehow, someway, Nea found it in her to place the dress on the side of the chair. She folded it as neatly as possible, so as not to wrinkle the sheer perfection of it.
Matilda was still opening her packages — to be fair, her boxes were much bigger and much more cumbersome, so it would take quite a while for Tilly to go through them. Nea focused her energies on the other package, tenderly opening it so as not to potentially break the seams of the dress or damage the fabric. Fortunately, she was able to open it just alright. As Nea tore off the cardboard packaging, she unraveled the dress. This one had a much more elegant style, and was only slightly less frilly — not to mention, it was colored in lilac and dark red, two of Nea’s favorite colors. The fabric was sleek latex, a different feel for a maid outfit, but that only made Nea like it all that much more.
Nea wasn’t sure which one she loved more. She absolutely adored both of them. A warm flush filled her heart, overjoyed with her impulse purchases; however, her joy was soon shattered when she was faced with the memory that she betrayed Matilda. She did something wrong… right?
Nea set aside the dress, and turned back to the other girl in the room. Tilly seemed much more outwardly content with her purchases — or well, she at least didn’t seem like she felt devastated. Tilly was smiling, at the very least.
Not to mention, Tilly had already put on the long royal coat and crown she had got online. Judging by the fabric and the outward quality, it was clear they were not tacky halloween costumes. In fact, Nea almost had a heart attack just thinking about how much Tilly had spent on those items. It was almost better to not ask, which is what Nea resolved to do.
“You look…” Nea tried to find the right words — Matilda looked nice, that was for sure. But nice sounded too much like a compliment. “You look regal,” Nea eventually decided on. “Funny that we… both… broke our promises.”
“Ah… yeah.”
“Any reason why you think that happened?” She tried not to opt for a punitive tone; after all, Nea wasn’t scolding a child.
Tilly bit her lip. She couldn’t come up with a good answer. Neither could Nea.
“You’re not, uh… gonna put it on, are you? Or are you?” The pitch in Matilda’s voice sounded almost eager. Nea wasn’t typically this insightful, but she knew that Tilly wanted her to put on the goddamn maid outfit.
“I… I, um… I could,” Nea said bashfully. The silence in the room almost urged Nea in and of itself to put on the damn outfit. Turning around, Nea began slowly stripping off her basic household shirt and pants. She knew Tilly was looking at her, and though they were turned away from each other, Nea could feel the hunger in her gaze. She picked off one of the maid dresses — the lilac and red one, that happened to be on top…
She started slipping it over herself. It fit so naturally, as if the dress knew every single one of her curves. As Nea draped the garment over herself and began tying the apron around herself, she could feel a certain warmth washing over her. It felt so good just to be in the outfit. She felt like she was in a certain kind of maid head space.
Nea turned around to Matilda. Just as she expected, Matilda was gazing at her with admiration. And lust… her eyes looked so hungry for Nea. Not just for her body, but for control.
“Uh… how do I look?” Nea awkwardly broke the silence and asked, spinning around just a little to get a feel for the large hem swirling around with her.
“You look… um… wow. Fucking amazing,” she responded. “Um… you kind of look like you could just turn around and make me dinner, right now.”
Nea couldn’t lie, that idea sounded oddly hot and fascinating. But she did take quite a bit of offense to that. “Well, I did just make you dinner, you know. Could have at least said thank you,” she huffed.
“A-ahh, well, um, thank you.” Tilly grinned and nodded bashfully. “But like… hot damn. You look good in a maid’s outfit. Kind of… just how you should always have looked, y’know?”
A thick silence filled the air, a silence that only got worse and more uncomfortable when Tilly added, “y’know, you’d make a pretty good maid. And well… since I’m into all this queen shit now, then…”
Nea couldn’t do anything but stare bewildered at Tilly. It wasn’t like her to be so upfront and forward towards Nea; not to mention, Tilly always felt bad about asking her more functional roommate to do things for her. Now, she was insinuating that she would like for Nea to serve her as a royal lady’s maid. It sounded so absurd, and Nea wanted to get mad at Tilly for it since Tilly hadn’t done jack shit around the house and had no right to boss Nea around. But… the thought was appealing. Why was it so appealing?
“No!” Nea cried out, beginning to rip the maid outfit off of her — if she didn’t care about how much it costed or whatever, she would have grabbed the scissors and chopped it off of her body. “We… we can’t! This isn’t right! You’re not the one in charge here, Tilly — heck, you haven’t done anything around the house to warrant ordering me around!”
Nea could almost feel on her skin the way Matilda’s face dropped, and the way her body deflated. Working past that guilt, Nea ripped the outfit off of her and tossed it to the side. Nea wanted this, too, to serve someone and be a good, obedient maid — but she had to get past it. It wasn’t right. She had more important goals in life to pursue.
Even so, she couldn’t bring herself to face the disheartened Matilda. Nea grabbed her clothes, and with her back still turned, spoke seriously to her roommate and friend. “No more spending. No more of this maid and queen stuff, alright? It’s over. Understand?”
Tilly exhaled, responding with a sullen “I understand.”
Nea didn’t say anything else, and rushed back to her room in shame. Throwing herself onto the bed, she stuffed her face in the pillows. The cool fabric soothed Nea’s massive blushing just a little. She was so, so humiliated. How could she let herself go like that? Why was she acting like this?
Nea pulled her computer from the side of her bed. Shifting onto her back and rearranging her body, she opened her internet browser. No more, she made Matilda promise. And yet, Nea found herself going right back to her bookmarks…
* * *
Matilda laid down on her bed in the other room, guilty vibes rushing through her body. She made Nea so fucking mad. That was the worst thing she could have done. Even though Nea had also broken her promise to not indulge in her sudden desires, the face she had done no better was immensely frustrating.
She never liked thinking about this because she knew it would never work out, but Matilda loved Nea a lot. After all, she wouldn’t have chosen to room with her if she didn’t care about her. So seeing Nea that upset, and that flustered… it definitely didn’t have a positive impact on Matilda’s mind.
Matilda promised to Nea that she wouldn’t indulge anymore. And she promised to herself the same thing; after all, she couldn’t afford to waste any more of Nea’s money, and Matilda herself couldn’t afford to see Nea that upset again.
Still, though, Matilda swore as she threw herself back, groaning loudly. She picked up her phone, aiming to scroll through social media. At the very least, seeing other people happy and successful made Matilda feel at least marginally better.
As soon as Matilda opened her apps, though, she was blasted with targeted ads. Fucking advertising services, going through her search history like that. Still, those ads for new furniture, interior decor… and some ads for even fancier crowns and tiaras… Matilda couldn’t help herself.
“I’m not going to buy anything,” Matilda repeated to herself. “I’m not going to buy anything. I’m just… going to look a bit…”
* * *
They both lied to themselves, once again.
Nea and Tilly ignored each other when grabbing the plethora of packages from the mailman. In fact, they ignored each other just… in general. Whenever they’d sit together at the table (in the rare instance they would), they would eat in complete silence, the only sound being the clinking of the dishes.
They never hung out in the same room together. The one time they spoke to each other was for Nea to sullenly tell Matilda that she had more packages — Matilda, of course, was thankful for Nea letting her know. She wasn’t that far gone as to not thank her.
Either way, their contact was fairly limited. It was fine, though; Nea went to work, stayed late every day, and tried to get all maid thoughts out of her head. Easier said than done, of course; but it wasn’t a lost cause, at the very least. Tilly tried to do the same. She got back into the swing of things with applying for jobs. Finally, she had a few interviews she was waiting to hear back from. So it was a start, at the very least.
This went on for almost two weeks. The lack of interaction was killing both of them, but almost especially Matilda. She loved Nea, and she truly felt like… she let her down.
And at the same time, she felt like Nea should be doing more for her. Like Matilda was a queen.
The two’s isolation from each other went on until one odd day. Tilly was grabbing a snack from the kitchen in preparation for her next job interview — and also, to finish assembling the king’s chair she had ordered online. Nea had accidentally walked into her, making her drop the soup she heated up all over herself. Normally, Matilda would be the one to break into a flurry of apologies, but before she could, Nea stepped in.
“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry,” Nea spoke with bewilderment at her own clumsiness. “Aaah- um, was it hot? Here, let me get something for that, oh my gosh, I… I’m so stupid.”
What was she doing? Nea had never beaten herself up for a mistake so fixable. Normally, Tilly would be at her side, but today she sounded much more hesitant. “Oh, it’s… um, fine. Don’t worry about it.” Her words sounded strained, like she was forcing herself to forgive Nea.
Suddenly, Nea said something that neither of them were expecting in the slightest. “Can I make it up to you, somehow?”
Silence befell the two of them, a silence very familiar to them at this point. “Like… what?” Matilda asked, blinking.
“Like… anything you want.”
Matilda thought for a long while. It was clear she had options — Nea was way too far into this subserviant maid mindset that it’d be quite hard for her to resist. They both knew that. But did Tilly really want to take advantage of her like that?
She tried to suppress a smirk. Matilda was going to toy a little with her maid, just this once.
“Why don’t you bring me a new bowl of soup? I’ll be in my room, washing off… this.”
Matilda spoke with dominance. She spoke with an assertive tone. For a moment, she thought Nea would hate that, or would lash out at her for that… but there was a certain glint in Nea’s eyes. A glint that said that yes, she was perfectly willing.
“Yes, I’ll… make a bowl right away.” Nea felt the all-consuming compulsion to add on something kind of like, “Your Highness”, but somehow managed to suppress the urge.
Going into the kitchen, Nea began prepping the soup; obviously she wanted to get it to Matilda as soon as possible, so she opted for the microwave soup that she loved so much. Luckily it only took a few minutes — of course, Nea used only the fanciest bowls and spoons she had (cutlery that Matilda had gotten impulsively, at that.)
Grabbing it out of the oven, Nea had one more thought.
* * *
When Nea had made it into Matilda’s room, she was adorned with the most expensive and the most frilly maid outfit she had. It was almost hard to get through the door with the sheer size of the hem, but she managed to do it, tenderly with the soup bowl.
Matilda clearly had the same line of thought — she was in her fanciest dress with the queen’s cape and a crown bigger than Nea thought was possible. Not only did Matilda look royal, but she looked completely stunning. In fact, Nea felt almost small in her presence. Definitely inferior.
“You look quite nice today, um…”
“Madam,” Matilda urged with the same cocky smirk.
Nea blushed intensely, her entire body going hot. “Y-yes. You look quite nice today, M-Madam.”
“As do you, maid. Now… bring my food to me, would you?”
“Of… of course,” Nea responded, and after a moment of hesitation added, “Madam.”
Nea tenderly brought the food over to Matilda, setting it down in front of her on the bed. She even brought along a platter for the food so it wouldn’t spill all over her bed — Nea obviously didn’t want to make Matilda any more frustrated than she already was by her previously faulting.
Matilda began eating the food. Nea had a thought to leave, though she apparently made it obvious as it was crushed by Matilda.
“Don’t leave quite yet, maid,” she snarled, clearly getting off on the newly found power difference. “I’m not done having fun with you quite yet.”
“Y-yes, Madam,” Nea responded, bowing her head a little out of both shame and respect.
“It’s so nice to just let go of wanting to resist this, isn’t it?” Matilda admitted, reclining and gazing deeply at Nea. “You make an incredible maid, I must say. It’s far more fitting for you than being a boring office worker. I can promise you, I like having you in my life as my servant much more than your bosses probably do.”
Nea bit the bottom of her tongue; if she was in a “normal” state of mind, she would have at least yelled at Matilda for being so ungrateful, and at worst told her to fuck off.
“I have another request.” Nea looked at her roommate — her royal queen curiously as she spoke up again. Matilda shifted her body around, taking the platter with her. “Would you mind getting on your hands and knees?”
Even more disorienting confusion filled Nea’s head. She blinked. “Uh… why, Madam?”
“I’d like to use you as a footrest,” Matilda spoke with a smirk. “Do you have a problem with that… maid?”
“Um…” If Nea was being honest with herself, she did. Her usual self would have probably passed out if she saw what was going on at this moment. But it was okay, for just a while longer… right?
Wordlessly, Nea got onto her hands and knees in front of Matilda’s bedside. She could almost feel Matilda’s grin on her skin… but she loved to serve. She loved this. She loved it even more as Matilda propped her feet on top of Nea’s back. Matilda held back just a little, being sure not to put too much of her weight on Nea. After all, she had to test Nea’s back’s limits a bit, right?
Nea blushed, stifling more moans of pleasure and groans of pain as Matilda dug her heels in just a little.
“Feels good, maid?”
“Mm,” Nea hummed. She couldn’t find the right words to describe how she was feeling. It didn’t feel bad, per se. But it didn’t necessarily feel right either. Maybe that’s why Nea felt slightly aroused by the situation she was in. Service… was she always meant to service someone like this?
“Good,” Matilda took her response as an affirmation. “Just stay there as I finish my food…”
Nea did just as told. It was almost like Matilda forgot she existed as she finished her soup, stuffing it into her face. She was eating a bit more tenderly than usual, much more refined. Like a queen. She was Nea’s queen. And Nea was her loyal maid.
She didn’t even realize Matilda had finished eating by the time she took her feet off of Nea. The maid’s heart was pounding so, so fast, almost out of her chest. Hormones wracked her body so much she didn’t even notice the time pass.
“That will be all, maid,” Matilda finally spoke. She took her feet off of the human furniture, as Nea stood up and looked at Matilda with concern. They had broken their promise, once again.
“O…okay,” Nea got it in her to respond, heading towards the door.
“Nea,” Matilda stopped her, speaking in her normal voice that Nea loved so much.
“Yes?”
“I know we said we promised we wouldn’t do this anymore, but…” Tilly’s cocky grin turned into a nervous, inferior one. “It’s not a big deal if we break a few more promises, right?”