Fic: Controlled Violence, Ch. 16/30
Nov. 29th, 2009 12:19 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
khemlab.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
whatwekeepCharacters: (for this chapter) Liev Schreiber, Hunter Parrish, Nick Oliveri, Christian Kane, Josh Homme, Sean Maher
Rating: R
Warnings: Slavery, Sexual Situations, Profanity
Word Count: 2,619
Previous Parts: Ch. 1: Liev's Provenance, Ch. 2: Liev v. Madsen, Ch. 3: Lord Bale's Gym, Ch. 4: The Charity Ward, Ch. 5: On Tour, Ch. 6: An Unwelcome Interruption, Ch. 7: Hunter's Provenance, Ch. 8: Home Sweet Home, Ch. 9: Training Begins, Ch. 10: A Fighter's Life, Ch. 11: Growing Up, Ch. 12: Music, Tattoos, and Women, Ch. 13: Liev Fights, Ch. 14: Done Talking, Ch. 15: A Born Boxer
Summary: In an age when slavery is mandated by law, a type of gladiator-style fighting has arisen. Liev is an aging fighter who brings extra income to Lord Bale's household by training other fighters. Hunter is the newest fighter in Lord Bale's stable. Liev is searching for a suitable match for Hunter's first fight.
Author's Notes: Character photos for Lord Bale's household can be found here. Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
poisontaster for opening up this sandbox, to devilc for introducing me to it (and for the Indigo Blue and Agent Homme), and to fleurlb for some choice casting suggestions.
The Indigo Blue, Present Day
Note: Additional character photos and some mood music for the Indigo Blue can be found here.
***
Liev raised an eyebrow and smirked, nodding slightly toward the tall redhead on stage. "Seriously, man?" Liev knew the signs. Kane had been pointedly not watching the singer (who was more than merely "talented"), all the while idly teasing the label off his beer, his index finger gently caressing the condensation on the side of the bottle.
"Fuck off," Kane growled, tugging too hard at the beer label and causing it to tear.
Liev raised his hands off the table in surrender. "Hey, none of my business. Just thought you might have more sense than to be fucking a BIS Agent, is all."
Kane froze with his beer bottle halfway to his mouth, his eyes widening with surprise. "Jesus, is it that obvious?"
Liev considered his words carefully; he couldn't reveal exactly how he knew Agent Homme wasn't just your average slave out for a night of musical fun. But Chris was a good friend, and he deserved to know that his cover wasn't really blown. "I know pretty much every fighter in California," he said, "and that one would definitely stand out in my memory. So he's not a fighter. With all that ink, what else could he be, besides an Agent?"
Kane tipped his head to the side, acknowledging Liev's point with a shrug. "And what about your little piece of tail?"
Liev smiled and took a sip of his whiskey. These signs he knew, too. While not-watching the redheaded singer, Chris had been sneaking appreciative glances at Hunter, who was being monopolized by Nick at one of the pool tables. Liev could see the attraction; Hunter smiled easily and often, his whole face lighting up like an angel's. Not to mention the fact that he filled out his t-shirt and jeans in the sinful, careless way that only a very athletic young man could. Hell, Nick was straight as an arrow and even he seemed to be touching Hunter a little more than strictly necessary for instruction in the finer points of shooting pool.
"His name's Hunter. He's a fighter, or will be soon enough." He winked at Kane. "And not my piece of tail. Nice, though, huh?" A small smile spread across Kane's face and he actually blushed, his face glowing briefly in the light of the pub lamp that hung low over their table. Liev chuckled and politely changed the subject. "You playing tonight?"
"Maybe." For the first time, Kane turned his attention to the stage, running a hand roughly through his hair. He seemed agitated. Liev supposed he'd be agitated himself if he was treading the murky waters of an affair with The Man.
"Nick's up next."
That got a little smile out of his old friend, but wasn't enough to coax Kane's eyes away from the stage. "Maybe he'll even keep his clothes on this time."
"Don't count on it." Liev took another sip of whiskey and turned his attention toward the stage. Though no musician himself, he could appreciate the Agent's gift for a deft turn of lyrics. He'd been coming to the Indigo for years now as Nick's guest, and he could have had an invite himself had he really wanted it. On any other night, he would have loved to lose himself in the show, let the whiskey warm his head and take him out of the moment. But tonight he had more pressing matters on his mind. "Chris?"
Kane raised an eyebrow questioningly.
"You ever think about fighting?"
His brow creased, Kane turned back to the table. "What, like you? In the ring?"
"Yeah, like me. In the ring." He sipped his whiskey, mind wandering back to a night, oh, ten years or more ago now. "Not like picking fights in a bar."
Kane grimaced at the shared memory. "That was a long time ago." He took a pull of his beer. "And ill-advised."
Liev snorted. Ill-advised didn't begin to describe it, though a much younger and more hot-tempered Chris had made a pretty impressive showing before Liev had felt the need to step in. "We were all young once."
He flagged down a server, gesturing for another round, which was on the table before he'd even had time to fish some cash out of his wallet. Service at the Indigo was good. He leaned forward, elbows on the table. "I have a favor to ask you."
Turning back to the table, Kane sighed. "I'm not going to like it, am I." It was a statement, not a question. "You're trying to liquor me up and get me to agree to something stupid."
"It's not something stupid. I just need someone to pair up with Hunter for his first fight." He glanced over at Hunter and Nick, who were racking up the balls for another game. "I've been looking for a match-up for three days now, and all I'm finding are guys that are either way out of Hunter's league or total sadistic bastards. I need someone I can trust. And I know you're in a position to make it happen if you want it to."
"That's not something stupid?" Kane blinked as if in disbelief. "Man, I'm trained as a body slave. I'm not picking any fights with your boy."
"That explains why you're so damn pretty," Liev teased with a wolfish grin. "And you know I wouldn't ask if I didn't think you could take him."
Kane laughed, his longish hair spilling over his forehead. "Now you're trying to win me over with flattery. Nice. I'm not a fighter, and I ain't been pretty in twenty years, Liev."
Liev tilted his head to the side, considering. "Fifteen," he offered.
Kane grinned, his eyes sparkling. "Yeah, okay. Maybe fifteen." He sighed and put his elbows on the table, looking Liev in the eye. "You're serious, aren't you." He toyed with the edge of the label on his new beer bottle thoughtfully. "I mean, I'm not in bad shape, but I don't have any formal training, you know that."
"I know. And normally I'd train you myself, but Hunter has to get over that initial fear of the unknown, and it's not going to happen if you're in my gym. He needs to meet a stranger in the ring." He tilted his head to the side, gesturing without looking toward Agent Homme, who was packing up his gear and heading offstage. "I bet your friend there could show you a thing or two."
A strange expression crossed Kane's face. There was definitely something simmering between him and the BIS Agent, and Liev was pretty sure it wasn't all sunshine and roses. "Fine, but you are gonna owe me bigtime. Like, new guitar bigtime."
Liev smiled innocently. "Like, introducing you to Hunter bigtime?"
Kane rolled his eyes. "What do I need to do?"
Agent Homme had finished packing up his gear, and was making his way nonchalantly over to their table. Time to go; he couldn't be seen, even briefly, socializing with Josh in public. Liev stood and grabbed his coat. "Just send someone over to negotiate a fight, preferably to be scheduled within the next month or so. It shouldn't be you; fighters don't usually make deals on their own behalf."
Kane nodded, his eyes cutting over to the approaching Agent. "I'll work something out."
"I won't forget this." Liev clapped him on the shoulder and stepped away from the table, barely avoiding Agent Homme as he went to gather Hunter. Hunter protested, wanting to stick around and see Nick perform, but Liev hustled him out the door anyway. He had to go, and there was no way he was going to leave the kid in that audience alone. Nick flipped them the bird as they climbed the stairs to the exit at the very beginning of his set. Liev returned the salute in kind and stepped out the door to hail a cab.
***
The pale form on the hallway floor took Hunter by surprise. The first thing he thought was that someone had slipped something into his drink at the Indigo Blue. He blinked in the dim light, hoping to clear his eyes, but it didn't help. There was definitely a naked person - a naked man - kneeling, very nearly prostrate, outside of Liev's door. Liev wasn't in the house yet, having taken a few moments to settle up with the cab driver. Hunter stepped tentatively closer to the pale, shivering form and realized it was Sean. "Hey," he said, crouching down beside the man. "Sean? Are you okay?"
Sean shook his head, not looking up. "I forgot." His voice was choked; he was crying. "I forgot completely." He shook his head again and tapped his forehead against the floor. "So stupid, so unforgivably stupid..." Sean hit his head against the floor again, harder this time.
Hunter immediately slipped his hand under Sean's forehead. He didn't know what was going on, but if Sean damaged himself he would be punished for sure. "Hey, don't do that, okay?" Other than keeping the man from self-harm, Hunter was at a loss. He'd never seen the body slave anything other than completely composed. This...mess on the floor in front of him didn't even seem like it could be the same person. He reached out tentatively and put a hand on Sean's shoulder in what he hoped was a comforting manner. Sean's skin was damp and cool; he was absolutely covered in sweat. He heard Liev's soft tread behind him, approaching, then coming to a standstill.
"Sean." Liev spoke softly, but Hunter could hear the concern in his voice. Hunter looked up over his shoulder at Liev's dark form, feeling close to tears himself. Something was really wrong with Sean, something bad. "It's okay, Hunter. Let me see him." Liev took his coat off and Hunter stood up, stepping away from Sean, giving Liev room to move in the narrow hallway.
Liev crouched down beside Sean and draped his coat over the shivering form, stroking Sean's back. "Shh, I'm here. It's okay, baby, I'm here."
"Liev, I - " Sean choked on a sob. "Liev." He raised his body off the floor and tugged the jacket around himself, clutching his arms against his abdomen as if in pain. "I'm going to be sold, Liev, he won't forgive me this time, I'm so useless, so useless." He rocked back and forth on his knees, shivering and crying. "I prepared myself and I waited for hours, and he didn't come, and I couldn't remember...remember what I was supposed to do...and I came here, and there was no one around, and..."
"Shh, shh, it's all right, I know." Liev reached out for Sean, seating himself against the wall as he wrapped the shivering man in his arms. "C'mere. You didn't do anything wrong. Everyone forgets things." Liev held Sean against his shoulder and gently stroked the back of his head, murmuring reassurances.
Hunter backed away tentatively. He'd never seen either man like this, Sean so broken, Liev so tender. It felt both like he'd stepped into some alternate reality and like he was intruding on something very private. "I...Liev? Is he going to be okay? Can I...can I do anything?"
Liev looked up as if he'd forgotten Hunter was still there. "Yeah, it's okay, kid. He just..." Liev sighed and shook his head. "It's my fault. Should've known better than to leave him alone like this."
"But isn't Michael here? And what about the other house-slaves?"
"Same difference. Listen, could you find him some clothes?"
"Yeah. Yeah, of course." Hunter turned and strode quickly down the hall to his own room, glad for the errand. He paused at the door, wondering if it would be weird to bring Sean a pair of his underwear. He had some that were still in the package, so he grabbed the whole pack and found some clean sweats and a t-shirt, then turned to go back to the hallway. When he turned the corner out of his room he was stopped dead in his tracks by the sight of Sean and Liev kissing. And not just kissing, but groping at each other and Sean was making little whimpering noises and...
Hunter stepped quickly back into his room, his heart pounding and his face burning. He took a breath to steady himself and surreptitiously adjusted his jeans, which were becoming a bit too tight for comfort. Thinking quickly, he cleared his throat and called out, "I found some stuff!" Then he slowly counted to ten before he stepped out into the hallway again. At least Sean's face was no longer a sickly shade of gray, but Hunter had a hard time meeting his eyes when he handed the clothes over and hastily excused himself, saying he was worn out and needed to get some rest and that he hoped Sean would feel better by morning. He guessed that was a fair bet.
He, on the other hand, was destined to spend a very uncomfortable night alone in his bunk. He lay sleepless for what felt like many hours, staring up at the ceiling. It was the strangest thing. He had never, ever thought he'd somehow miss being someone's sex toy, but now he felt exactly like that was what he missed, like he was a worn-out toy that had been discarded. Seeing Sean first serving Lord Bale, and now with Liev...it felt almost like jealousy.
There was hardly any light in his room, just the bit that filtered under the door from the hallway. He could see clearly enough to know that when Nick came home, the light under his doorway was disturbed by not one, but two, pairs of feet, stumbling and giggling their way down the hall. Hunter slammed his head back into his pillow in frustration. It was...he knew at some point he'd been destined to be a normal kid, a normal teenager. Two bouts of body slave training and three, no, four (can't forget Lord Kutcher, the one-night wonder), masters later, he wondered what "normal" even meant. He was pretty damn sure that a normal eighteen-year-old could, at the very least, fucking masturbate when it felt like he was going to explode otherwise. Commerce had made sure the bile would rise in his throat if he even tried to touch his own body, but they hadn't fixed him enough to make the urge go away. Not that it mattered what his urges were, not anymore. But whatever they'd made him, whatever they'd made Sean, it sure as hell wasn't normal.
Hunter sighed and closed his eyes, trying to relax and go to sleep. It should have been better, being a fighter. It should have been...more honorable, he supposed, than being a body slave. But he'd never been alone like this as a body slave. There had nearly always been someone with him, if not for sex, then at least for comfort. And he'd never been scared like this as a body slave, either. Fear used to come in short, sharp doses: he feared that pinch of the needle (and eventually he feared the lack of a needle and the comfort it brought), and he had known the quick twinge of fight-or-flight when Master Fehr stepped over the edge. But whatever was going to happen, it had happened quickly and was over with. It wasn't this constant fear niggling at the back of his brain, wondering what would happen when he fought. Trying very hard not to wonder what would happen if he fought and lost.
At some point, Hunter's thoughts stilled enough to let him sleep, but it seemed like he'd just dozed off when he heard Nick knocking at his door, waking him to go cook breakfast for the fighters.
Ch. 17: The Final Countdown
Rating: R
Warnings: Slavery, Sexual Situations, Profanity
Word Count: 2,619
Previous Parts: Ch. 1: Liev's Provenance, Ch. 2: Liev v. Madsen, Ch. 3: Lord Bale's Gym, Ch. 4: The Charity Ward, Ch. 5: On Tour, Ch. 6: An Unwelcome Interruption, Ch. 7: Hunter's Provenance, Ch. 8: Home Sweet Home, Ch. 9: Training Begins, Ch. 10: A Fighter's Life, Ch. 11: Growing Up, Ch. 12: Music, Tattoos, and Women, Ch. 13: Liev Fights, Ch. 14: Done Talking, Ch. 15: A Born Boxer
Summary: In an age when slavery is mandated by law, a type of gladiator-style fighting has arisen. Liev is an aging fighter who brings extra income to Lord Bale's household by training other fighters. Hunter is the newest fighter in Lord Bale's stable. Liev is searching for a suitable match for Hunter's first fight.
Author's Notes: Character photos for Lord Bale's household can be found here. Thanks to
poisontaster for opening up this sandbox, to devilc for introducing me to it (and for the Indigo Blue and Agent Homme), and to fleurlb for some choice casting suggestions.Note: Additional character photos and some mood music for the Indigo Blue can be found here.
***
Liev raised an eyebrow and smirked, nodding slightly toward the tall redhead on stage. "Seriously, man?" Liev knew the signs. Kane had been pointedly not watching the singer (who was more than merely "talented"), all the while idly teasing the label off his beer, his index finger gently caressing the condensation on the side of the bottle.
"Fuck off," Kane growled, tugging too hard at the beer label and causing it to tear.
Liev raised his hands off the table in surrender. "Hey, none of my business. Just thought you might have more sense than to be fucking a BIS Agent, is all."
Kane froze with his beer bottle halfway to his mouth, his eyes widening with surprise. "Jesus, is it that obvious?"
Liev considered his words carefully; he couldn't reveal exactly how he knew Agent Homme wasn't just your average slave out for a night of musical fun. But Chris was a good friend, and he deserved to know that his cover wasn't really blown. "I know pretty much every fighter in California," he said, "and that one would definitely stand out in my memory. So he's not a fighter. With all that ink, what else could he be, besides an Agent?"
Kane tipped his head to the side, acknowledging Liev's point with a shrug. "And what about your little piece of tail?"
Liev smiled and took a sip of his whiskey. These signs he knew, too. While not-watching the redheaded singer, Chris had been sneaking appreciative glances at Hunter, who was being monopolized by Nick at one of the pool tables. Liev could see the attraction; Hunter smiled easily and often, his whole face lighting up like an angel's. Not to mention the fact that he filled out his t-shirt and jeans in the sinful, careless way that only a very athletic young man could. Hell, Nick was straight as an arrow and even he seemed to be touching Hunter a little more than strictly necessary for instruction in the finer points of shooting pool.
"His name's Hunter. He's a fighter, or will be soon enough." He winked at Kane. "And not my piece of tail. Nice, though, huh?" A small smile spread across Kane's face and he actually blushed, his face glowing briefly in the light of the pub lamp that hung low over their table. Liev chuckled and politely changed the subject. "You playing tonight?"
"Maybe." For the first time, Kane turned his attention to the stage, running a hand roughly through his hair. He seemed agitated. Liev supposed he'd be agitated himself if he was treading the murky waters of an affair with The Man.
"Nick's up next."
That got a little smile out of his old friend, but wasn't enough to coax Kane's eyes away from the stage. "Maybe he'll even keep his clothes on this time."
"Don't count on it." Liev took another sip of whiskey and turned his attention toward the stage. Though no musician himself, he could appreciate the Agent's gift for a deft turn of lyrics. He'd been coming to the Indigo for years now as Nick's guest, and he could have had an invite himself had he really wanted it. On any other night, he would have loved to lose himself in the show, let the whiskey warm his head and take him out of the moment. But tonight he had more pressing matters on his mind. "Chris?"
Kane raised an eyebrow questioningly.
"You ever think about fighting?"
His brow creased, Kane turned back to the table. "What, like you? In the ring?"
"Yeah, like me. In the ring." He sipped his whiskey, mind wandering back to a night, oh, ten years or more ago now. "Not like picking fights in a bar."
Kane grimaced at the shared memory. "That was a long time ago." He took a pull of his beer. "And ill-advised."
Liev snorted. Ill-advised didn't begin to describe it, though a much younger and more hot-tempered Chris had made a pretty impressive showing before Liev had felt the need to step in. "We were all young once."
He flagged down a server, gesturing for another round, which was on the table before he'd even had time to fish some cash out of his wallet. Service at the Indigo was good. He leaned forward, elbows on the table. "I have a favor to ask you."
Turning back to the table, Kane sighed. "I'm not going to like it, am I." It was a statement, not a question. "You're trying to liquor me up and get me to agree to something stupid."
"It's not something stupid. I just need someone to pair up with Hunter for his first fight." He glanced over at Hunter and Nick, who were racking up the balls for another game. "I've been looking for a match-up for three days now, and all I'm finding are guys that are either way out of Hunter's league or total sadistic bastards. I need someone I can trust. And I know you're in a position to make it happen if you want it to."
"That's not something stupid?" Kane blinked as if in disbelief. "Man, I'm trained as a body slave. I'm not picking any fights with your boy."
"That explains why you're so damn pretty," Liev teased with a wolfish grin. "And you know I wouldn't ask if I didn't think you could take him."
Kane laughed, his longish hair spilling over his forehead. "Now you're trying to win me over with flattery. Nice. I'm not a fighter, and I ain't been pretty in twenty years, Liev."
Liev tilted his head to the side, considering. "Fifteen," he offered.
Kane grinned, his eyes sparkling. "Yeah, okay. Maybe fifteen." He sighed and put his elbows on the table, looking Liev in the eye. "You're serious, aren't you." He toyed with the edge of the label on his new beer bottle thoughtfully. "I mean, I'm not in bad shape, but I don't have any formal training, you know that."
"I know. And normally I'd train you myself, but Hunter has to get over that initial fear of the unknown, and it's not going to happen if you're in my gym. He needs to meet a stranger in the ring." He tilted his head to the side, gesturing without looking toward Agent Homme, who was packing up his gear and heading offstage. "I bet your friend there could show you a thing or two."
A strange expression crossed Kane's face. There was definitely something simmering between him and the BIS Agent, and Liev was pretty sure it wasn't all sunshine and roses. "Fine, but you are gonna owe me bigtime. Like, new guitar bigtime."
Liev smiled innocently. "Like, introducing you to Hunter bigtime?"
Kane rolled his eyes. "What do I need to do?"
Agent Homme had finished packing up his gear, and was making his way nonchalantly over to their table. Time to go; he couldn't be seen, even briefly, socializing with Josh in public. Liev stood and grabbed his coat. "Just send someone over to negotiate a fight, preferably to be scheduled within the next month or so. It shouldn't be you; fighters don't usually make deals on their own behalf."
Kane nodded, his eyes cutting over to the approaching Agent. "I'll work something out."
"I won't forget this." Liev clapped him on the shoulder and stepped away from the table, barely avoiding Agent Homme as he went to gather Hunter. Hunter protested, wanting to stick around and see Nick perform, but Liev hustled him out the door anyway. He had to go, and there was no way he was going to leave the kid in that audience alone. Nick flipped them the bird as they climbed the stairs to the exit at the very beginning of his set. Liev returned the salute in kind and stepped out the door to hail a cab.
***
The pale form on the hallway floor took Hunter by surprise. The first thing he thought was that someone had slipped something into his drink at the Indigo Blue. He blinked in the dim light, hoping to clear his eyes, but it didn't help. There was definitely a naked person - a naked man - kneeling, very nearly prostrate, outside of Liev's door. Liev wasn't in the house yet, having taken a few moments to settle up with the cab driver. Hunter stepped tentatively closer to the pale, shivering form and realized it was Sean. "Hey," he said, crouching down beside the man. "Sean? Are you okay?"
Sean shook his head, not looking up. "I forgot." His voice was choked; he was crying. "I forgot completely." He shook his head again and tapped his forehead against the floor. "So stupid, so unforgivably stupid..." Sean hit his head against the floor again, harder this time.
Hunter immediately slipped his hand under Sean's forehead. He didn't know what was going on, but if Sean damaged himself he would be punished for sure. "Hey, don't do that, okay?" Other than keeping the man from self-harm, Hunter was at a loss. He'd never seen the body slave anything other than completely composed. This...mess on the floor in front of him didn't even seem like it could be the same person. He reached out tentatively and put a hand on Sean's shoulder in what he hoped was a comforting manner. Sean's skin was damp and cool; he was absolutely covered in sweat. He heard Liev's soft tread behind him, approaching, then coming to a standstill.
"Sean." Liev spoke softly, but Hunter could hear the concern in his voice. Hunter looked up over his shoulder at Liev's dark form, feeling close to tears himself. Something was really wrong with Sean, something bad. "It's okay, Hunter. Let me see him." Liev took his coat off and Hunter stood up, stepping away from Sean, giving Liev room to move in the narrow hallway.
Liev crouched down beside Sean and draped his coat over the shivering form, stroking Sean's back. "Shh, I'm here. It's okay, baby, I'm here."
"Liev, I - " Sean choked on a sob. "Liev." He raised his body off the floor and tugged the jacket around himself, clutching his arms against his abdomen as if in pain. "I'm going to be sold, Liev, he won't forgive me this time, I'm so useless, so useless." He rocked back and forth on his knees, shivering and crying. "I prepared myself and I waited for hours, and he didn't come, and I couldn't remember...remember what I was supposed to do...and I came here, and there was no one around, and..."
"Shh, shh, it's all right, I know." Liev reached out for Sean, seating himself against the wall as he wrapped the shivering man in his arms. "C'mere. You didn't do anything wrong. Everyone forgets things." Liev held Sean against his shoulder and gently stroked the back of his head, murmuring reassurances.
Hunter backed away tentatively. He'd never seen either man like this, Sean so broken, Liev so tender. It felt both like he'd stepped into some alternate reality and like he was intruding on something very private. "I...Liev? Is he going to be okay? Can I...can I do anything?"
Liev looked up as if he'd forgotten Hunter was still there. "Yeah, it's okay, kid. He just..." Liev sighed and shook his head. "It's my fault. Should've known better than to leave him alone like this."
"But isn't Michael here? And what about the other house-slaves?"
"Same difference. Listen, could you find him some clothes?"
"Yeah. Yeah, of course." Hunter turned and strode quickly down the hall to his own room, glad for the errand. He paused at the door, wondering if it would be weird to bring Sean a pair of his underwear. He had some that were still in the package, so he grabbed the whole pack and found some clean sweats and a t-shirt, then turned to go back to the hallway. When he turned the corner out of his room he was stopped dead in his tracks by the sight of Sean and Liev kissing. And not just kissing, but groping at each other and Sean was making little whimpering noises and...
Hunter stepped quickly back into his room, his heart pounding and his face burning. He took a breath to steady himself and surreptitiously adjusted his jeans, which were becoming a bit too tight for comfort. Thinking quickly, he cleared his throat and called out, "I found some stuff!" Then he slowly counted to ten before he stepped out into the hallway again. At least Sean's face was no longer a sickly shade of gray, but Hunter had a hard time meeting his eyes when he handed the clothes over and hastily excused himself, saying he was worn out and needed to get some rest and that he hoped Sean would feel better by morning. He guessed that was a fair bet.
He, on the other hand, was destined to spend a very uncomfortable night alone in his bunk. He lay sleepless for what felt like many hours, staring up at the ceiling. It was the strangest thing. He had never, ever thought he'd somehow miss being someone's sex toy, but now he felt exactly like that was what he missed, like he was a worn-out toy that had been discarded. Seeing Sean first serving Lord Bale, and now with Liev...it felt almost like jealousy.
There was hardly any light in his room, just the bit that filtered under the door from the hallway. He could see clearly enough to know that when Nick came home, the light under his doorway was disturbed by not one, but two, pairs of feet, stumbling and giggling their way down the hall. Hunter slammed his head back into his pillow in frustration. It was...he knew at some point he'd been destined to be a normal kid, a normal teenager. Two bouts of body slave training and three, no, four (can't forget Lord Kutcher, the one-night wonder), masters later, he wondered what "normal" even meant. He was pretty damn sure that a normal eighteen-year-old could, at the very least, fucking masturbate when it felt like he was going to explode otherwise. Commerce had made sure the bile would rise in his throat if he even tried to touch his own body, but they hadn't fixed him enough to make the urge go away. Not that it mattered what his urges were, not anymore. But whatever they'd made him, whatever they'd made Sean, it sure as hell wasn't normal.
Hunter sighed and closed his eyes, trying to relax and go to sleep. It should have been better, being a fighter. It should have been...more honorable, he supposed, than being a body slave. But he'd never been alone like this as a body slave. There had nearly always been someone with him, if not for sex, then at least for comfort. And he'd never been scared like this as a body slave, either. Fear used to come in short, sharp doses: he feared that pinch of the needle (and eventually he feared the lack of a needle and the comfort it brought), and he had known the quick twinge of fight-or-flight when Master Fehr stepped over the edge. But whatever was going to happen, it had happened quickly and was over with. It wasn't this constant fear niggling at the back of his brain, wondering what would happen when he fought. Trying very hard not to wonder what would happen if he fought and lost.
At some point, Hunter's thoughts stilled enough to let him sleep, but it seemed like he'd just dozed off when he heard Nick knocking at his door, waking him to go cook breakfast for the fighters.
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no subject
Date: 2009-12-01 01:30 am (UTC)I love seeing Josh through Liev's eyes and the interaction between Kane and Liev had me on the edge of my seat. (And yes, I wonder at Liev and Josh's backstory. I wonder if it has something to do with Viggo slipping out of the country one step ahead of Commerce.)
Sean just breaks my heart. And I love your Bale. So ... remote and unknowable.
Nick! Taking it off at the IB? Oh dear.
And finally, poor fucked up Hunter who really, really needs to get laid soon.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-01 04:09 am (UTC)YAY! I'm so glad you didn't hate what I've done with your club and your characters, lol.
I wonder at Liev and Josh's backstory.
They share some common interests. ;)
Nick! Taking it off at the IB? Oh dear.
Hahaha. That guy can't keep his clothes on anywhere. Did you check out the music links I posted with the character photos? That is totally my Nick. Albeit with more clothes on.
And finally, poor fucked up Hunter who really, really needs to get laid soon.
Poor body slaves in general. I totally think that Commerce fucks them up more than the rest of the slave population.