It's all ok

A good brat is a contradiction in terms. Brats are by nature troublesome creatures in need of guidance and assurance.
Guidance that usually came in the form of spanking.
Terrence O’Conner was not a good brat. He was a good person, a good cook, and a good lover, but was often acknowledged to be a very naughty brat.
“Timothy?” The youth half-whispered. “Timothy?”
The man in question was Timothy Holkins, a blond cutie in his early thirties.
“Yes, Terry?”
Terry hesitantly stepped into the office. It was a tidy little office with sparkling clean windows and dusted wooden furniture. “I’m…” He trailed off.
“Ready to talk?” Timothy finished for him. He minimized the company’s website and turned the roller chair away from the computer. Terry immediately went to sit on his lap. “What’s wrong, Love?”
Terrence sniffled a bit and leaned his head against his lover’s shoulder. “I know you say you love me and I believe you.” He paused.
“But….” Timothy prompted.
Terrence sighed in frustration. “I know I believe you. Every logical fiber in me says you love me.” He took a deep breath. “But, I dunno.”
“Tell me.” Timothy prompted. “If you keep it in all you’ll be doing is making it worse.” He ran a hand through his boyfriend’s dirty blond locks.
“I just want…y’know, time.”
The older man frowned. “Time for what?”
“Time with you.” Terrence whispered. “I want to spend time with you.”
Timothy’s frown deepened in confusion. “But we do spend time together. We go fishing. We go to the movies, we went to that convention last month…”
“Yeah, I know.” Terrence interrupted. “But there’s always someone or something distracting us. Like at the convention, you ended up spending the evening with Jerry at that one discussion.”
“Love, I spent the evening with him because when I asked, you didn’t want to attend any of the panels.”
“No.” Terrence mumbled. “I didn’t. I wanted to spend time with you.”
“But…ohhh.” Timothy caught on. “If you wanted to…”
“Not sex, exactly.” Terry explained. “Just…holding.” He blushed and looked away.
“Why didn’t you say so?” Timothy asked bluntly. “I would have stayed with you.” When he didn’t receive an answer he wiped a tear away from his younger lover’s eyes and repeated his question.
“I…thought you knew. I spread out on the bed and asked if you wanted to stay…”
“Asking me if I wanted to stay and telling me you wanted us to spend time together are two completely different things. I’m not a mind reader.” Timothy gently scolded. “And holding back your feelings makes you angry, which makes you disrespectful, which earns you a spanking.” He patted his boyfriend’s rear to emphasis his point. “Understand?”
“Yes.” Terry sniffled and Timothy considered letting the incident pass with just lines.
No. That was unacceptable. Terrence O’Conner was his responsibility, his beloved, his Terry-cloth. He had expressed his desire for more personal time with Timothy and leaving the outburst at this afternoon’s bar-b-q unpunished would simply make the other man think all his reassurances had been lip service.
Timothy sighed and rubbed his temples. Terrence was not an ordinary brat; he called when he was going to be late, ate regular meals without being told to do so, worked hard at his job, managed his own finances and acted just like any other adult.
Except he had the need to know he belonged to someone. To know that that person was willing to correct his emotional failings. Tough job that.
Tough job that Timothy had taken on. “C’mon, Terry-cloth.” He set his smaller lover on his feet and stood up.
“Are you going to spank me?” Came the soft, articulate reply. It was always the same, the need to know beforehand that everything was going to be alright. The need to trust.
“Yes.” Timothy coupled the response by gently guiding the young man over to the couch where they could position themselves much more comfortably. Terry lowered his jeans and eased himself over his partner’s lap.
“Paddle? Hairbrush?” God, he looked so young glancing over his shoulder with that frightened, innocent look on his face.
Timothy shook his head. “Nope. Hand.” He tucked his left arm around Terry’s waist and positioned his right just above the bared bottom over his lap. “Why is this happening?”
“Because I got angry at the bar-b-q when you went to play Frisbee instead of having a drink with me.” Terry wriggled a bit.
“And? Why did you get angry over something like that?” Timothy prompted.
“Because I didn’t tell you what I was feeling.”
“Good.” Timothy nodded his head. “And next time you want to talk about our relationship, we talk. Not hide these things and let them fester until they come pouring out of your mouth along with a few obscenities. Understand?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” Timothy raised his hand and brought it down, hard, on the lightly tanned bottom. Terry jerked a little and tried to look behind him to see the damage. He ignored the look and continued on with his mission of turning the bottom scarlet.
It should be noted that however much Timothy wanted to go easy on his Terry-cloth, he never did anything half-way. A spanking wasn’t proper unless it was bare and left the guilty party with a bright red bottom.
A few smacks later and Terry’s bottom was indeed bright red. Timothy righted him up and sat him back on his lap, holding him as he sobbed out his frustrations with loneliness, with wondering if lack of platonic intimacy meant a degenerative relationship, with wanting simple quiet time to hold and love and to be held and be loved.
“Shhhh. Hush, little Terry-cloth, shhh. S’alright. S’okay.” Timothy stroked the smooth, blond locks and tried to ignore the fact that it was his good shirt Terry was crying on. “Hey, it’s ok. It’s all taken care of.” Terry snuggled against him and sniffled, trying hard to control his sobs. “I love you and we’ve taken care of this.”
“I’m sorry…” Terry whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
“Hush. You have nothing to be sorry for. We’ve taken care of the bar-b-q incident, and I know you want us to spend more time together. It’s fine.” Timothy rubbed his back and leaned into the couch, pulling Terry with him. “Calm down. The only thing you have to worry about is apologizing to Piper and Lance about what you said and we can take care of that tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow? Then what are we gonna do for the rest of today?” Terry looked up at him through red eyes.
“We’re going to calm you down, order a pizza and spend the night cuddling.”
Terry snuggled closer and breathed in the other man’s scent. “So, we’re really okay?”
“We’re just fine.”