Planning

As soon as we entered the door everything quieted down and the slaves stared at us for a second before getting back to working on whatever their current task was.

I walked up the stairs and Derik followed me. Settling on Derik's bed I leaned against the bed post and watched him start doing some kind of paperwork that he smiled at.

I picked up a book from his nightstand since I didn't have anything better to do and passed some time.

"And you are officially free!" Derik announced loudly startling me.

"Alright, what do you expect me to do with that information?" I folded the corner of the page since I didn't want to move Derik's book mark and set the book back on the nightstand.

"To be honest I'm not sure, is there anything you wanted to do when you were a pet that you couldn't?"

"Well duh, there are a ton of things pets wished they could do but I already get to do most of them here." I rolled my eyes sarcastically.

There were still a lot of things I wanted to do if I could do them but most of them were stupid or not something I would say to Derik. Like I'd love to try the whole fall in love thing but like hell I'm saying that in front of anyone none the less Derik.

"What do you mean?" He twisted in his chair so he could look at me.

"Well, I've wanted to sleep in a real bed again for a long time, and I've wanted to have someone not look at me like I might kill them for a long time too. I've already gotten both of those things here." I played with my hair and smiled a little.

"Well I'm sure there's something we can come up with."

Well even if legally I wasn't a pet anymore, I still felt like one. It would be weird to leave the house without my collar or to not have to follow rules all the time.

*If I'm not a pet I'm basically a free loader here, I need a job. What the hell am I supposed to do if I'm not a pet, what do normal people do?*

"Hey, what's wrong, you look worried." Derik set his hand on my shoulder and sat next to me.

"Nothing, I just... don't know what to do if I'm not a pet." Settling into his chest I listened to the steady drum of his heart. Before I was a pet I was just someone's daughter, it's not like I could have life plans.

"Well, you can help me and Adam with fixing the pet's situation. You know better than me or him how bad it is and what will help the most, what we need to prioritize. You were trying to fix it before you met me, it'll be for the best if you take charge of the project anyways."

He rubbed little circles into my thigh as he talked calming my nerves a little.

"I know what I want to do." Smiling to myself I looked over my shoulder at Derik.

"What's that?" *God I love his smile.*

"I want hot chocolate," I announced smiling broadly.

Derik chuckled and got up.

"Of course, my lady, anything you desire." He bowed deeply and a girly laugh tickled my throat.

While he was gone I read more of the book on the nightstand. It was actually really good, some old-world book from before they knew about vampires. It was filled with inaccuracies but it still wasn't bad.

If anything the inaccuracies made it more interesting.

*I really need to find a hobby, Derik's busy most of the day and I don't really have much to do. I did a lot of things when I was a kid since my parents were always really busy with this and that.*

*Maybe I'll pick something up again but there's not a lot of hobbies you don't have to spend money on.*

Derik walked through the door holding a steaming cup and I smiled at him. Warm sweet creamy liquid greeted me. It was heavy and light at the same time, it was deep and smooth like liquid marshmallows.

"Adam wants to come over and talk to us for a while tomorrow. He also said that if you're still wearing a collar he's going to beat me up." A wide smile was on his face as he talked.

"Of course he did, I'd like to see him try." I highly doubt Adam could beat Derik up and just the mental image made me laugh.

"Me too but I'd rather work with him than beat him up."

"Well that's comforting." Lacing my fingers through Derik's I laid down looking at him. "Do you think we can do it, make a change?"

"Maybe, we'll give it a damn good try at least."

Chuckling softly, I smiled up at him. I'm not sure why being around Derik makes it so easy to be happy but I'm not complaining.

***

"Fall, wake up. Adam and Blake are here." Confused I stared at Derik for a second before finally understanding what was happening.

"Oh, okay." Willing my hair to be brushed I sat up and stretched.

"Most girls would kill to be able to do that, you know?"

"Is Blake Adam's pet?"

"Yeah, he can't free her like I could you though, she'd just end up a pet or a slave in a few days again." I nodded in understanding before walking to Derik's closet.

*Blake's a cute name for a girl, so what if it's a 'boy's name' more parents should name their kids that.*

Changing into some jeans and a T-shirt I walked back out and walked through the door to go meet Adam and Blake. When we got down the stairs I made Derik walk in front of me since I had no idea where they were.

Blake sat on Adam's lap at the dining room table and I'm starting to assume there's something going on between those two. There is literally no reason for Blake to be sitting with Adam since no one else would be mad at her here and he wouldn't force her.

Blake was eating hashbrowns and eggs and it smelled really good so I stopped a slave and asked if I could have some too. I also asked for raspberries because they sounded really good.

Adam smiled at us in greeting once he noticed us. I grabbed Derik's hand and had him sit next to me leaning on him.

"You ordered for yourself." Derik smiled widely as he talked. *Wait, was I allowed to, did I mess up? I didn't think, what if it makes him mad at me? I don't want him to be mad at me.* "No, Fall, it's a good thing."

I gave him and uneasy smile and Adam cleared his throat loudly.

"Well we need to figure out how we want to start." Adam had a look on his face somewhere between being uncomfortable and having pity.

"We can't do anything on a large scale unless we're able to take legal action. We need allies, and we need to make sure no one important gets in our way. We can at least operate on your territories without any interference but we can't get further without help." Getting back into my rhythm I leaned against the table and tried to ignore lingering anxiety. *I'll just push through, I'm sure it'll get better on it's own.*

"We could start with the Regional and the lords. Some of them might be able to see it our way." Derik gently put his arm around my waist like he might scare me as he talked.

"A lot of them will fight back, not only the lords but the citizens, getting people to adhere to any laws made could be close to impossible. Some people can't be changed, the only way to make them understand is to treat them the way pets are treated and some of them go crazy after they feel something like that. You might be able to control them to some extent by having consequences but they might never change."

"How do you know there's no way to change them?" Derik had a confused look on his face.

"They might see what's happening but they don't /see/ it, a few can wake up and realize everything but not everyone. When they realize what it's like they break, some begin to believe they are above it or get angry, some have their feelings shattered but even those who react well end up mentally scarred. I've been revealing the problem to people for years, making them realize, what you have to do to a person changes but it hurts them, it always does."

"Always?"

"Sometimes it's bearable to them and they start trying to change it but even when that's the case they aren't the same." I shook my head sadly.

I'd seen a lot of reactions but most of them become emotional wreaks in one sense or another.

"Well I guess you have more experience at this then us."

"I heard there used to be therapists, that helped people cope the best they could. Maybe we could have something like that again but, anyone in this generation would be scarred forever. I suppose for the next generation though, it might be for the best that everyone realizes."

"Well, maybe if people were exposed more gradually it would protect them mentally." Absorbed in the conversation I actually forgot Adam was were there until he spoke.

"If the pets can bring themselves to move on, and recover most of the way, vampires can do it too. Maybe what you saw was just the beginning phase of their shock, maybe they can recover most of the way with time." Blake speaking actually shocked me to muteness for a few minutes. She'd never talked to me before, and even with Adam what I'd seen was short quiet sentences.

*She must be more comfortable here, that's a relief.*

"I suppose you two make good points, besides I probably shouldn't have sympathy for the mental state of people who hurt others." As I talked a servant set what I'd asked for in front of me. Now distracted from the admittedly amazing food I picked at it.

"The Regional might not be as big of a problem as you think, he might be on our side. He could back up any legal actions we wanted to put into place instead of us having to rough up every vampire all the time." Adam pulled out his phone at the end of the sentence like he had something important to do, which he might.

"You talk like you know him very well, torturing the Regional isn't very high on my to-do list so unless you think you can get him to see it our way without that, I have my doubts." I ate as I talked and waited with an expectant look on my face for his response.

"He's a better person than it looks like, no one thinks they can trust him in their business because of his looks but he's smarter and more responsible than he seems. He could get basically anything sorted out for the lords if they asked but they assume he's too young to be of any help and he'll just end up being a hindrance. He wants to be overlooked and he has so now he'll let people question what they think they know about him. It's a game to him, everything is because he's smarter than most people give him credit for."

"You sound like you know him, Adam," Derik commented.

"I do, after all he's my cousin." We all stared in surprised silence at Adam for a second.

"Well then, I guess we should talk to the Regional," Derik spoke first and me and Blake nodded dumbly.