"Augh!" says Alex, flinging his arm over his face.

And Isabella kisses Sadde.

He kisses back, giggling a little but managing to not make any noises more damning than those.

"The disaster is past, Alex," says Isabella when she's done.

He puts his arm down.

"Man, how do you even get to walk around in public?"

"Most of the people in public aren't my sister!"

"Ah, so it's specifically an Isabella thing." He looks at her speculatively. "Yeah, I think you'll spend a few days in suffering."

"Ugh."

"He's a little weird when Renée dates too. She doesn't that often but it's never failed to freak him out, especially for some reason when she dates doms..."

"When it's subs she mostly acts like she always does, when it's doms she - acts different."

"Hmm... Different how? And even when her dom isn't around?"

"Depends on the dom, kinda, but especially when they're around, and just - she does what they tell her and there isn't a thing like that if she dates a sub. Her boyfriend now is a dom, he's sort of okay..."

"Well... I'd expect there isn't indeed a dom telling her what to do when she's dating a sub..."

"Congratulations, Captain Obvious, d'you want me to explain or not?"

"Sorry. Please, do."

"So when she's single she does what she wants and if she's domming somebody she also does what she wants but she has all these behavior changes if she's subbing for somebody, compared to being single. And it weirds me out."

"I don't know how you'd cope if I was a sub."

"Well, I don't know how I'd cope if you were a firebreathing dragon either and that seems likelier."

"He does have a point."

"Okay, that's kinda true."

"This one time Jackson asked me what it was like being a switch and part of the explanation included the sentence 'and if Isabella were a sub—okay, that's impossible, but if I were dating a sub...'"

Giggle. "I mean, there's someone every now and then whose personality is really at odds with their role..."

"Yes, and these people aren't you."

"Could've been."