"I think we can just go into the living room and say hi, there's no special protocol here." 

"Suits me."

She trundles over in the direction she hypothesizes might contain a living room. "I heard a rumour there might be a ride home available."

There is a decent sized television in the living room, faced by a large brown couch that's faded more tan with the sunlight and age. John's dad is sitting on it, watching some black and white movie or another, because of course he is. "Oh? All done with your 'math'?" he says, managing to make the air quotes audible despite not using his fingers. 

"Dad!" John says. "All we did was math, seriously." 

"Of course you did," he says, turning off the tv and pulling himself up from his spot on the couch. "Anyways, come on Rosy," he says. "I'll give you a lift. You coming too, John?"

John had... not considered this option. And he's not sure how he feels about it. How does Rosy feel about this option? 

...tiny wiggle?

"...I'll come with," he says, since she seems to be in favor of it. (It's less time to memorize lines, but more time to snuggle Rosy. Kinda. Seatbelts make it difficult. They'll figure something out.) 

"Excellent. Our chariot awaits, sir and madam," he says, gesturing in the direction of the garage. John rolls his eyes, and leads Rosy to where the car is, so they can both get in. 

In retrospect it was silly of me to get excited about a car ride with you when I'd just got done saying you should stop snuggling me and memorize your lines, but in my defense, I'm holding your hand right now.

Holding her hand is good! He likes holding her hand. He likes it a lot. He's not sure what she's doing with her phone (telling her parents she's on her way back, maybe?) until his own phone buzzes and he checks it. 

...how exactly did she do that, by the way? John is probably not that talented. There's no way. He raises an eyebrow at her to show his shock, and grins to show that, yeah, well, it is a bit of time, but he likes holding her hand. A lot. 

And honestly, it isn't that much time anyways, because, well, they're already at the edge of the woods, Rosy's house seeming so much closer now than it does when they're biking and skating together. (What if it were further away, though. Then they could hold hands longer.) He gives her hand a loving and wistful squeeze. 

She squeezes back. And then picks up his hand and kisses it.

Cozy! Cute! (She loves him. It feels good, the way she loves him. Still sometimes feels like it can't possibly last, but, it still feels very good.) He grins at her and squeezes. 

They are very close now. And then he will have to say goodbye. Why are cars so fast? 

Well.

When they stop, she leans across the backseat to kiss him on the cheek. ...and then the nose. ...and then pulls back before she can make any bad decisions.

"Thanks for the ride!" she says. "See you tomorrow, John!"

(John might have liked it if she made one bad decision? Or more? But also he stands by her choices, despite his desires.) 

"See you tomorrow," he says. "Have a good night!" 

"You too!"

And off she traipses.

And then John and his dad head home (his dad waits to make sure she gets inside, because of course he does), and then dad (after some jokes) heads off to go to sleep and John heads off to secretly practice his lines. 

I love you. 💖

(So many feelings aaaaaaaaah.) 

(Okay he doesn't really want to think about this now, he has lines to memorize and he has a standard response for this.) 

I'm glad. 

And then, because apparently he can't send a message that short,

I hope you had a good time tonight? Even with mom being herself. Or well, more herself than usual. I hope it was still good. 

He rereads it. It sounds kinda silly, but he's tired, and he's reasonably sure Rosy won't mind? He sends it. And then pulls up the picture on his phone of his lines to memories. And starts reciting. (Quietly.) 

Well, you see, I was spending time with you, so of course it was good.

I'm glad.

he writes, without a trace of irony. And then, remembering, 

I feel like you wanted me to remind you about something? I think I may have forgotten exactly what, it was about mom, probably? Or is now not a good time. I do have lines to memorize :P 

Oh, right. I was just going to say that there's two basic ways you can look at the concept of children contributing to their parents' household. One of them is the way my family does it: the household is a shared project, you contribute what you can when you can, it's understood that if you need the rest of us to take up your slack we're there for you just as much as you'll be there for us when it's our turn to need things, everyone is putting in their time and energy and expertise toward the common goal of keeping things running. The other way is that chores are like the Hunger Games, existing to remind children that they aren't real people and don't get to choose their own obligations and it's up to the parents to decide how much to demand from them and when. (I decided I probably shouldn't make that comparison while still in your house.)

Feel free to ignore this line of inquiry until morning, I think memorizing your lines is more important than debating me about whether chores are a dystopian concept. 💖

John probably should just memorize his lines, but...

I feel like those are two extremes, though. I mean, yes, I don't really get a choice in doing my chores, but I don't think they're intended to remind me that I have no power, or as a tool of oppression they're things that my parents want from me and that I might, well, not do without their asking me to. Or telling me to. Even though I probably should, for better maintaining the household, like in your first example.

Thank you for not making the comparison while still in my house, though :P 

It probably wouldn't have gone wrong, but better safe than sorry, right? He sends it. 

The real test is whether they let me contribute on your behalf as soon as I've broken through the "guest" excuse. If yes, then the system ultimately rests on getting things done because they need doing, even though it seems to be more coercive about it than I'd like. If some nonsense about it being your specific obligation that you specifically have to fulfill without help, then the system ultimately rests on control for control's sake.

He thinks about this for a while. (Even though he should be doing his lines.....)

I think this one may come down to which parent you're talking to. Dad would be mildly amused but overall fine with it. I'm not entirely sure how mom would react. I think she might say something about how it's important that I learn to take care of myself, which isn't exactly the same as a specific obligation? Getting through the "guest" thing might be difficult though, I don't think it's an excuse. Like... you are a guest. You shouldn't have to take out the trash or do dishes or whatnot. Plus, once you're mine, I don't know how comfortable I'd be asking? I guess I'm supposed to know the difference between something given as an order or not, but I want to make sure I'm not asking things of you I shouldn't. Even if I wouldn't mind help with chores. 

I hereby announce that I'm going to bed right after I send this.

My love, it's always been my intention, regardless of considerations around being yours, that when we get into a serious relationship—which I rather think we are!—we become a little floating household unit of our own, operating under the same paradigm I'm used to, which confers no specific obligations but means that we get to both draw on each other's resources and solve each other's problems wherever it makes sense to do that based on our individual strengths, weaknesses, and circumstances. In other words, while I don't consider myself obliged to do dishes in your house, I consider myself entitled to—and you're entitled to help out at mine, if you're willing to use this power responsibly! (By which I mean, not trying to clean an entire mansion by yourself out of some misplaced notion of obligation. Please don't do that.) I didn't whip this one out tonight because I think we're still early enough in our relationship that it would raise eyebrows to describe ourselves as that serious, but I do mean to be that serious with you, and I do mean for that to entail being no more a "guest" in your house than you are in mine—where, for the record, my mother would be perfectly happy to accept your help with mundane household tasks. Again, assuming you're willing to use that power responsibly.

Is this system of probable oppression teaching you to take care of yourself? Or is it teaching you to regard basic household maintenance tasks as a chain around your neck, an externally imposed obligation that you're eager to escape? Moreover, even if it isn't, would your mother be willing to adjust her approach if it were? If what she says is "nobody likes living in a dirty house! You need to learn to take care of yourself!" but she won't let me help you clean your house and she won't let you pursue better ways to learn how to take care of yourself, then I'd argue oppression is the only remaining explanation that makes sense. Of course I don't mean to say she's oppressing you on purpose, like, she's not cackling to herself in her evil lair about how she's going to destroy your motivational system to keep you in your place. But the system is still set up as though that's its goal.

Sorry, I seem to have more feelings about this than I thought.

(He should be practicing his liiiines.....)

It might feel like an externally imposed obligation that he's eager to escape, but it wouldn't get done without the external obligation! That's the whole problem! (Why is he suddenly arguing the side "I should do chores", what's going on here.) The external force helps the right thing happen, because he's not good enough to make it happen on his own. Rosy seems to be, apparently, but he isn't. But making good things happen is what external force is for. Or like, the kind his parents exercise. Even if it chafes. 

Possibly this is a bad idea to continue to argue with her about, though? She says she has a bunch of feelings on it, and also it is late. 

The "floating household" idea sounds good, honestly, though I really don't want to take advantage of you by having such a concept -- though I would be happy to help out around your place if you needed it. (And I won't try to clean the whole place, or anything like that! That would take forever.) I... do guess I like the idea of you being not-a-guest in my house, though it may take some time for my mother to see you that way. (And possibly you'd have to come visit more often to make that happen, which has both good points and bad.) 

We can talk more about the second half later, if you want, since you said you're going to bed? But I'm not sure what better system there could be that would actually work, for me. You seem to be able to do that sort of thing on your own, from what you're saying here. I haven't been. 

Regardless: I wish you good night, and now I am off to practice my lines, for real. 

Sleep well! 

Okay. Now it is actually line practicing time. For realsies. 

I honestly feel a little weird at how the "guest" role gets enforced in your household, and I'll be glad to be rid of it as soon as I can. I'm trying not to judge but also I am judging. (You weren't allowed to eat food before I finished getting mine! What if I was really indecisive?? It's so inefficient! Borderline feudal! Like I'm some visiting aristocrat! Okay, okay, I'm done.)

If the current system isn't working for you, then you will eventually need to find a different one, and you might as well start now. If you need your parents to force you to contribute to the maintenance of your household, and don't do it otherwise, then what happens when you go to college? What happens when you get your own place? It seems like a very urgent problem, to me, to find a way to get you doing household tasks of your own accord, and the first step to that should be clearing the obligations out of the way so you can properly see what you're doing. Not that I expect to convince your parents of this. Well, maybe your dad.

Alternately, of course, you could just order your slave to keep your house nice and tidy for you 💖

Joking aside, it does seem like I'm much better suited to doing household tasks than you are—but, since I'm a ritualist, my time is worth a lot and will only get more valuable as I gain skill and experience, so probably we should reserve ordering me to clean things for kinky fun times and the rest of the time we should be hiring cleaning services and/or giving you trial runs on self-motivation.

(When does she wake up in the morning? How early? She couldn't possibly have written that at 6 AM which means she must have been writing it before that.) 

In general you're not really supposed to eat food until everyone gets some anyways, and it's only fair that you get first choice. Right? 

That does feel weird now that he's written it down though.

Man, what is he going to do when he gets to college. Rosy won't even be there. He'll just have to make himself do the cleaning. Or possibly have a roommate that doesn't want things to be unclean, and asks him to? That depends on who he gets as a roommate, though. Or just let the guilt about having an dirty room overwhelm him until he has to do it. That's the most likely outcome. 

In any case, I'm not sure what other system would even work, for me. And there's no way my parents (or well, my mom) would let me just... stop doing chores to see how it goes, I guess. Is it really an urgent problem? 

As fun as it would be to have my slave keep my house tidy for me (and I look forward to making you dress up as a maid and then doing fun things with it) I agree that the ritualist things are more valuable. 

(Extra Rosys!) 

If we end up living together, eventually

and that's a thought that's got a lot going on in it but he's not about to go into detail in this message

then I'll figure out how to get myself to clean, if I have to, I don't want to take up your time and it seems a waste to hire a cleaning service for things I should be doing anyways.