Episode 2 #4
Give. He had to give. It was the only way to pass Master Alexi’s perception.
Willingness. Alexi trained not for obedience, but for actual want.
His own slaves, even if offered the chance, would never leave him.
He only kept those who could give up any thought of a different life and embrace the one he dictated for them.
Unlike many masters Rei had experienced, men and women who enjoyed the anguish and struggle of an unwilling body beneath them, Alexi desired only slaves who enjoyed their service.
His greatest victory was to bend a formerly free soul and craft them into a slave who would never again be anything else.
Lisa was his most recent acquisition, a dark success of his methods perhaps yet unfinished.
Rei let himself sway the smallest fraction of a motion toward Alexi.
“Precious,” Alexi murmured. He dragged his thumb across Rei’s cheek. “Have you let anyone else touch him?”
“No.” Sevastyan’s voice came from behind Rei, dark and foreboding, as if offering violence at the very idea. “No one touches but me. And you.”
Neither of them counted Lisa. But Lisa didn’t want Rei for body use, only for touch. For breathing.
“I’m honored,” Alexi murmured.
Sevastyan sank back down on the couch. “He knows you. And I trust you.”
“Again, honored.” Alexi’s voice sounded like he was smiling. He tapped Rei’s thighs, ordering them apart.
Rei adjusted his posture, spreading his legs. He swallowed, feeling his cock and balls hanging unprotected and on display.
“It explains how he retains a hint of shyness. Not a criticism, my honored student. Not at all. If you don’t let him be handled, he’ll naturally be used to only your hand.”
“You know me. I don’t use questionable holes. Rei is clean. And he will stay that way.”
Alexi chuckled. “Sometimes, sometimes, I think you judge me.”
“I need one thing I don’t have to doubt in this life. It might as well be what I keep in my bed.”
“One might say you’re traumatized.”
Sevastyan snorted. “I prefer to think of it as minimalism.”
Alexi chuckled. “Sometimes you’re so direct. What have I told you about that perfectionist streak of yours?”
“That it makes others think I look down on them. That it will stop me. Ridiculous. Results should speak for themselves.”
“Results have motives. Everything you do is too controlled, Sevastyan. Everyone else thinks you’re plotting against them. Your mother included.”
“I’m not plotting against them. I’m plotting how to rescue all of us from their inevitable failures. Who did they send to Seoul during this latest fuckup?”
Alexi patted Rei’s shoulder. “Go comfort your Master, pet. I’ve made him angry.”
“You have not made me angry,” Sevastyan remonstrated. “Their incompetence does.”
Rei turned in place and crawled to Sevastyan. He leaned his chest on Sevastyan’s knees and dared to lay one hand on Sevastyan’s thigh.
Sevastyan patted his lap. Rei eased himself up onto Sevastyan’s thighs, his legs tucked to one side and his bare bottom on Sevastyan’s legs. Sevastyan wrapped one arm around the back of Rei’s shoulders and pulled him, so that Rei’s head rested against his shoulder. Rei curled into Sevastyan.
“If you ever need to hide him from anyone, you know there’s a spot in my harem for your little bird.”
“And you would be the first I asked.” Sevastyan sighed heavily, stroked Rei’s head like he was a pet, and signaled him to return to the floor. “I have to go. Rei, stay with Master Alexi. Be good for him. He has all my permissions except for your hole.”
Rei collected himself on his knees but stayed facing Sevastyan. He bowed.
“Here, pet,” Alexi pointed to the floor at his feet.
Rei moved to him quickly. He kept his eyes low as Sevastyan took his farewell.
Alexi came back to the couch after seeing Sevastyan out. He poured himself more sparkling cider and leaned back. “This is rare, pet.”
Rei let himself lean in against Alexi’s leg for just a moment and then pulled back. Even that much initiative could bring punishment, but Alexi liked affectionate slaves. Comfort was one of the reasons he loved them.
Alexi chuckled, softly. He patted his lap. “Here. Let me hold you. Who knows when we’ll have the chance again.”
Rei rose gracefully and lowered himself onto Alexi’s thighs, sitting sideways. Alexi pulled Rei’s legs in and cradled Rei against his chest. He held him there with one hand and swirled his drink in the other.
“You may touch, pet. And get comfortable.”
“Thank you, sir.” Rei adjusted himself to keep his limbs from falling asleep. He ended up with his chest against Alexi’s and his cheek against the older man’s shoulder.
Alexi stroked his back. “You’re thin. Do you miss your master so much?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You should care for yourself better when he’s gone. It’s your duty.”
“Yes, sir.”
Alexi set his drink down and used his now free hand to stroke Rei’s bare thighs and the curve of his ass. “It’s hard, I suppose. We make you so dependent on us, and then we leave you.”
Rei tightened his grip on Alexi’s shirt and hid his face.
“I’m not scolding you, pet.” Alexi kissed the top of Rei’s head. “You’ve had a difficult day. Trust your master. He might have needed to make a point to some idiots, but he would never harm you.”
Rei said nothing.
“You can speak freely, pet.”
Rei swallowed and lifted his face a little, but not his eyes. “He could, sir. It’s his right.”
“Your master is a strong man. He doesn’t merely follow orders. He follows his own path. That path includes you. You’re more than a slave to him. And that’s a secret you should take to your grave.”
Rei’s fingers spasmed against Alexi’s chest. “I can’t be more than a slave, sir.”
“You’re precious to him because you are his slave. Not a slave. Ack, language is so limited. There are slaves, and then there are slaves. The ones whose submission matters. The ones you can love.”
“It’s too dangerous, sir.”
“So you know he loves you.” Alexi tilted Rei back and lifted Rei’s chin. “Look at me, pet.”
Rei blinked and lifted his eyes. He could count on one hand the number of times he’d met Master Alexi’s eyes. He dropped his gaze, trembling, but immediately brought his eyes back.
“You know.”
“It’s forbidden, sir.” Rei kept his voice soft.
“Someday, your master will be so powerful, nothing will be forbidden to him.” He stroked Rei’s face, not shying away from the burns. “Do you know why?”
“Because he’s like you, sir?”
“In ways, yes. But no. He’ll become powerful because of days like today. Because he’s strong enough to do what he did, and because he’s angry they forced his hand.”
Rei’s eyes moved from Alexi’s lips to his eyes, to an age mark on his cheek and back to his eyes. It was hard to maintain contact after so many years of carefully not looking others in the face.
Alexi passed his hands over Rei’s eyes, closing them.
“Rest now. You don’t have to look anymore.
Here, turn over and lie on the couch. Rest your head” He helped Rei stretch out and put his head and shoulders in Alexi’s lap.
He placed Rei’s arm around his waist, leaving Rei hugging him lightly, then picked up his drink and went back to stroking Rei’s back.
“Rest, pet. I’ll be here. No one is coming for you, not as long as I’m here. ”
Ellisandre
Ellisandre adjusted the wide belt on their baggy designer jeans, standing in front of their vanity and mirror.
The jeans were cuffed to show off the platform brown boots below.
Their button-down work shirt was tucked into the pants, the upper sleeves fastened in place with leather arm garters that matched the boots.
Ellisandre ran their hands through their hair.
The sides were freshly faded into short stubble that grew longer toward the sweeping length of white hair flowing over the top of their head.
They twisted the long straight locks up and pinned them into something like a top knot with a leather thong and carved wooden pin in the shape of a miniature spear.
They plucked the wisps of bangs out of the front and sprayed them in place in an arched fall to the side.
Their makeup was already finished, a minimalist natural look with a muted lip and smudged black eyeliner.
“Damn, you’re almost dressing down.” Ash sauntered through the open door.
The teenage hacker wore red and black plaid today, one shoulder of the shirt almost falling down his arm, showing the black long-sleeve shirt beneath.
His jeans were actually belted with a real belt, one of the pairs Collin had forced Ash to buy, meaning they had no holes and they fit.
It was the youth’s unnaturally bright red hair that was most distinctive. That and his eyes.
Ash had the worst eyes. His face could write the check for teen rebellion, but his eyes were those of a Rottweiler puppy in an alley, kicked one too many times for trust, one too few times to put it out of its misery.
Which was pretty accurately the boy’s life story.
Somehow he’d gone from being arrested for hacking Reevesworth Industries to working for them, but he wasn’t even eighteen yet.
“So are you,” Ellisandre snapped back. They opened one of their jewelry drawers and ran their fingers down the row of ear cuffs. “Ready to go up to Linda’s?”
Ash shrugged. “Sure.”
Ellisandre raised an eyebrow. Ash blushed and dropped his face. “Been ready, okay? Don’t rub it in.”
“Honesty is the best defense against being seen.”
“Yeah, well, you take honesty too far.”
Ellisandre grinned a little. They fastened a silver cuff to their ear.
It was just a cylinder with curved up edges on the top and bottom.
It needed something more. They added a looped chain that fastened to the top of their ear and the bottom of the lobe.
The chain swung in a loop part way down their neck.
Acceptable. They closed the drawer and opened a different one, this one filled with torcs.