it's quantum.
Some of his father's boys were almost too pretty to bear, in Keigo's opinion, and Yukimura was one of them. Even in his current state - sprawled on the floor in his cell, hair dishevelled, clothes torn and bruises blossoming fresh across his face - he was unspeakably beautiful, turning his face up to stare at Keigo with an intense breadth of life in his eyes that made Keigo's heart quicken. Years under his father's servitude had done nothing to break Yukimura's spirit; the vivacity in his eyes and the sharp crack of rebellion in his voice were the same, lively and true, as they had been when he'd first purchased him. The man who had sold him, as Keigo recalled, offered nothing but scorn and warnings, saying, 'You won't break him, either.'
Yukimura's eyes narrowed, and Keigo finally managed to tear his gaze away, letting it wander Yukimura's slim figure and legs far too long for his yukata. There was blood on his inner thighs; Keigo could all too easily imagine the fingerprints bruised into the soft flesh there, as well.
"Has Your Highness finally become curious enough to seek out his father's bedmates?" Every last word dripped with venom. Keigo was at once repulsed and intrigued at the notion.
"If ever I were to sink so low," he remarked archly, "it would be for you, dear boy. Stand up."
Clearly suspicious of this left-handed compliment, Yukimura rose to his feet, unsteady. He looked further wary when Keigo extended a hand through the bars, a pair of keys dangling on a ring held between his fingers. "What is that for?"
"Your shackles," Keigo replied, "and your cell. I can't unlock you now, else the nursemaids will notice when they come in."
"You insult me," Yukimura snapped, moving to sit down. "I'm not so stupid as to think that you'd turn me loose."
"I would never insult Your Serene Highness," answered Keigo, voice quiet. The silence that followed swelled the room to bursting.
After too long a pause, Yukimura said, "Your kindness is useless to me. I cannot return home, marked and violated by your father."
"Ah, but what an honour, to be marked and violated by His Royal Majesty," Keigo quipped dryly, bitterly. "I don't expect you will return, no. I doubt your father would approve at all." Yukimura was staring at the keys, but still made no move to take them. Eventually, Keigo tossed them into the cell with a flick of his wrist.
"Take them or leave them," he said, "but that stablehand of yours will be disappointed if you fail to show tonight. He has a horse, and I doubt he'll leave without you."
I think I didn't use italics even once in that drabble. >>;
off to do yardwork. \o/
edit:
