Episode 4 #5
“He takes care of me.” Rei looked down as well. “I know it might not look like it. I know you’ve seen things. But . . . if he’s a monster, he’s my monster. He’s the monster that chose me.”
Lisa looked up, catching sight of Sevastyan, and shut his mouth, schooling his face into stubbornness.
He held up his toothbrush to show Sevastyan he was doing as told.
Sevastyan said nothing, eyes moving to Rei.
Rei inclined his head, no fear in his body, just concern creasing the edges of his eyes as he looked at Sevastyan’s bandaged chest.
“I had to speak to someone,” Sevastyan said, addressing Rei as if Lisa wasn’t there. He touched the bandages. “These are just cuts. No worse than some I’ve given you.”
Rei’s eyes went to Sevastyan’s bandaged wrist.
Sevastyan held it up, turning his hand around to show that his wrist worked well. “It was a scene, little one. One that went . . . a bit far.”
“You . . . let someone . . . like . . .” Lisa’s shock echoed through the room.
“Yes.” Sevastyan addressed Lisa directly. “I let someone. How do you think I learned some of what you’ve seen me demonstrate?”
“I thought . . . ”
“You thought my pride wouldn’t let me kneel?
” Sevastyan raised an eyebrow. “Perhaps most masters you’ve met are like that.
There’s a reason only Alexi may touch Rei.
Most would undo my hard work.” He held out his hand and Rei came to him willingly, leaning into Sevastyan’s touch and taking the opportunity to press his palm over the bandages on Sevastyan’s chest. “I needed to make a contact. It was made. Worth the price. And worth your silence.” Sevastyan narrowed his eyes towards Lisa.
Lisa swallowed and nodded. “I won’t tell. Not even Alexi. I swear.”
“Bed, master?” Rei whispered, perhaps feeling the depth of Sevastyan’s fatigue.
“Bed.” Sevastyan pressed his lips to Rei’s head and turned towards the bedroom.
Rei knelt, helping Sevastyan out of his pants and pulling back the covers. Sevastyan stretched out and patted the mattress beside him. Rei crawled in.
“Lisa, take the other side,” Sevastyan ordered, pulling Rei in to be the little spoon to his larger one.
Lisa sputtered, face flaming. He looked longingly towards Rei.
“Turn out the blasted light and get under the covers, cur,” Sevastyan ordered, no give in his voice. “If you’re going to be here, you can be where I can keep an ear on you.
Lisa turned off the light. A moment later, the bed dipped and another body stretched out on the mattress. Rei reached towards Lisa and pulled him close. Lisa growled but the sound was quickly muffled. Rei might have put a palm over the starving stray’s mouth.
Sevastyan closed his eyes. All he wanted to do was sleep. He was going to have to trust the depth of Lisa’s love for Rei.
A moment later, just as he was drifting off, he felt shifting movement and the touch of a too-slender arm settling around Rei’s body just under his.
Under the cover of darkness, Sevastyan pressed his forehead to the back of Rei’s head and held him close.
There were too many thoughts, too many failures, too many dangers.
Sleep did not so much come to him as take him and drag him under, choking him as he sank into nightmares where only his grip on Rei preserved his sense of self.
Rei
Sweat running down his throat woke Rei. He stayed still, eyes closed, using his senses. His master was at his back, morning wood pressed against his rear as was common. But there was another body in front of him, pressed against his chest.
Lisa.
His fellow slave was shivering. Rei moved his hands. The sweat was mainly from Lisa. Rei opened his eyes. The curtain was mostly closed but mid-morning light streaked around the edges, casting the room in a dull glow. Lisa’s long hair was wet and sticking to his forehead and neck.
Rei put his hand against Lisa’s forehead. Burning.
“Lisa.”
Lisa muttered something in Russian and pressed closer.
Rei pushed up on one elbow. “Master.”
Sevastyan opened his eyes. For half a moment, they were unfocused, then his sight sharpened.
He looked past Rei to Lisa’s flushed face.
He sat up, reached out to put the back of his hand against Lisa’s forehead just as Rei had done.
“Try to wake him,” he ordered and swung his long legs out of the bed.
Rei put his hand on Lisa’s shoulder, shaking him gently. Lisa raised one hand and pushed the touch away. Rei lay back down, wrapped his arm around Lisa, and rubbed his nose against Lisa’s. “A-sa.”
Lisa whimpered and buried himself against Rei, clinging to him.
Sevastyan returned carrying part of the medical kit. The thermometer was in his hand. He pulled the cap off the end and handed it to Rei. “Under his tongue.”
Rei took the thermometer and tapped Lisa’s mouth. Lisa flinched. Rei pressed it gently inward. “Please?”
Lisa stopped resisting. Rei slid the end of the tool between Lisa’s lips, crossing fingers it was under his tongue. Lisa groaned and twitched. Sevastyan waited beside the bed until the tool beeped.
Rei took it out. “One hundred and two,” he said. Unreal. It couldn’t be in Celsius.