Title: Esclave (Chapter 2/?)
Author:
keeconkPairing: AriYama.
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 2,615
Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine and the story is solely fantasy, totally has nothing to do with the real life persons. Some facts, however, might be based on magazine translations.
Summary: It's the party, and Yamada started to realise that he wasn't capable of doing anything right at all. How would things turn out for him?
A.N.: AU. Self-beta'ed.
( Chapter 1: Rejected ) -------
His chest tightened as he felt himself getting anxious, the underside of his hair felt damp from him sweating uncomfortably. Voices of people screaming repeatedly played over and over again in his head, the fear that he felt every single night in that basement as he heard other people being dragged away in the most inhuman manner from their bunks hunting him as if they were a rocket that was locked on him.
“HEY, WAKE UP!!”
Yamada’s eyes instantly flew open. His vision was blurry, but as it became clearer, he saw an unfamiliar face before him. “Mate, you were screaming for Lord knows why,” a soothing looking boy was looking straight at him, seeming to be concerned. He blinked, realising that he wasn’t in his bunk. It wasn’t the dark, with some distinct smell, basement that he had spent the past few years of his life in.
He finally remembered where he was when he sat up. It was a small, clean room with a window that gave him a view of the lake beside the big mansion. The sunset was shining dimly as the glowing light went through the rather transparent white curtain, reflecting a dazzling golden radiance through out the whole room.
“I know the ride might be long, but you had to get ready for the party tonight. Come on, mate. We need to get you some nice suit to wear,” the unknown boy spoke to him again.
“Oh.. okay… sorry, I fell asleep,” Yamada answered. He remembered being guided to the room by Inoo, the young man showed him where he could get his shower, the laundry room, and where he could have his meals. Apparently he had to use all the things that the staff of the house used.
“Keito, by the way. I’m Inoo-kun’s assistant. I take care of Daiki-san’s clothes and his other needs as Inoo-kun told me to. And from now on, I was told to take care of yours as well,” the boy said as he opened Yamada’s drawer, inspecting the wooden furniture that Yamada hadn’t touched just yet. When he got to the room, he was too excited with what he was getting and ended up falling asleep when he was rolling around the bed. A bed. Something that he hadn’t had for years now.
“I’m Yamad--..”
“You might need to think twice before telling me your name,” Keito cut him off. “You might be given a new name. So we should wait till your name is decided. And here, try them on.”
It felt so bizarre that despite of the fact that he was getting a better place to stay, there rest of what he was experiencing was just the same. He still had no right to say anything about himself, and now even his name might not even his anymore. Shaking his head, Yamada took the clothes that Keito handed to him. The fabric felt so soft and smooth against his rough fingertips, and a part of him couldn’t wait to try them on.
Even though it was his first day there, Yamada had learned that he should get used to people watching him changing, almost as if every single thing he did to himself was being assessed and if he did something undesirable, he was expected to fix it. He still didn’t know what to expect. His owner didn’t like him, but his personal butler told Yamada other wise. Things just didn’t make any sense to him at all.
“Looks good on you,” Keito commented. “A little bit too big for you, but I’ll get it fixed in a minute. Just go take a warm bath. I’ve put the dry shampoo that Inoo told me to give to you in the staff bathroom. You’ll find it there.”
Yamada nodded as he stripped himself off once again, getting into the clothes that he was wearing previously. He wanted to ask Keito what a dry shampoo was, but he figured there should be some sort of usage instruction so he could read it himself. At least he could still read.
With towels on his hand, he walked down the narrow hallway, very contrary to the big extravagant hallway that he walked through earlier that day when Inoo brought him to Daiki. The floor was tiled in black and white ceramic, very clean and stunning even though it was for the staff of the mansion. He passed a couple of people, bowing his head to greet them because technically he was at the bottom of the food chain in this household.
He sighed in relief at the familiarity of the bathroom, noticing that it was bigger than he remembered it to be because he was on his own this time. No Inoo, and no Arioka-san and her butler, Yabu. A smile curved on his face when he realised that this would be his first warm bath in years, remembering foggily how he used to take one when he was a child, his smile grew only wider as he stepped into the tub.
“Just so you know. You are to walk a step behind from me tonight. All the time and with no fail,” a voice disrupted him.
Yamada turned his head instantly to the source of the voice, finding Daiki leaning his body to the doorframe, was totally confused that he didn’t hear the door being opened at all. “Y-yes, Sir,” he answered him nervously.
“Inoo-chan told me that he toned your hair. Don’t mess it up.”
“I w-wont.”
It felt really uncomfortable to take a bath when Daiki was there with him. He hadn’t been able to make up his mind about how he would feel about his new owner. Would he be the nice one? Or the torturing one? Even thinking about that made Yamada’s spine shivered in horror. He pushed his worries aside, reaching out for something by the side of the tub that he believed would be the dry shampoo.
“What the hell are you doing?” Daiki frowned.
“…the shampoo…” Yamada answered hesitantly, sensing that he might just did something wrong already.
Yamada put the bottle down when he saw Daiki’s eyes were piercing at him, suddenly knowing why some of his bunk-mates told him that having an owner wasn’t really any better than being locked up in that basement. “Do I really need to train you like a newly bought puppy?” Daiki said snarkily.
Daiki turned his body, walking away from the bathroom while leaving Yamada all alone and confused in the bathroom without even closing the door again. Yamada could only watch the way Daiki’s back disappearing on the corner of the hallway, gulping as he worried what would happen to him after this. “Inoo-chan! I don’t want to keep him, I’m telling you!!!!” Yamada winced when he heard Daiki shouting somewhere in the building.
“Don’t mind him,” Keito suddenly popped in, he was smiling as he closed the bathroom’s door. “I figured that would mean you do not know what a dry shampoo is. Not to worry, mate. I shall help you with it.”
Yamada felt relieved that Keito ended up helping him with everything. The shampoo, that he had learned to be something that he would need to spray on his hair, re-blowing his hair, and helping him with his tie. His suit was black; a nicely patterned maroon vest was worn underneath it while the white, silk shirt wrapped him delicately.
He felt nervous when he walked into the grand entrance, noticing the dazzling creatures walking around elegantly. He saw Inoo and Yabu chatting friendlily towards each other by the big entrance door, yet somehow still managed to maintain the well-mannered movement in each of their hand gesture.
Wasn’t sure what he had to do, he turned half way, wanting to just hide in the kitchen, or somewhere. He wasn’t ready for a change as drastic as this. As he walked in a rush, he noticed how people didn’t really notice him, the clothes that he was wearing, and the ones that he thought was extra ordinary, seemed to be just pieces of nothing compare to what of those guests were wearing.
“Where are you going?” a hand grabbed him in his arm.
“I…” he answered, words seemingly to have betrayed him.
“Aren’t you the new boy for Daiki-san?” the stranger questioned him.
The boy before him looked a lot younger than Yamada himself, but his eyes were sharp and he could feel how firm his hold on Yamada’s arm was. He was dressed neatly, but Yamada noticed that his clothes weren’t any more expensive than what Yamada was wearing.
“Y-yes…” he answered.
“Then you should get your ass back to the grand entrance, or at least go meet your owner in the piano room,” the boy told him.
Yamada wanted to shrug the other’s hand away from his arm, but he couldn’t seem to do so as he felt himself being dragged across the grand entrance. Inoo and Yabu seemed to be distracted by the huge fuss that this boy created by dragging Yamada forcefully to the piano room. Yamada saw how Inoo left Yabu and followed them, worry clearly plastered all over his face.
“Ryutaro, what are you doing?” Inoo frowned as he tried to keep his pace to the other boy’s walking speed.
“Dragging him to his owner,” Ryutaro answered, his voice was deep, sending chill to Yamada’s spine.
“You have no right to. That’s my job, and as far as I’m concerned, Dai-chan hasn’t ordered me to do so,” Inoo replied un-amusedly.
“I have no other choice. My owner told me to,” Ryutaro turned to Inoo, frowning just as un-amusedly as Inoo, his hand not leaving Yamada’s arm at all.
“Daisuke-san… did?” Inoo blinked.
“Yes, so would you excuse me?”
Information was coming in a little bit too much for Yamada. Daisuke-san… now who was that? He couldn’t help but think that he had to remember so many names just in one day. Worse, socialising wasn’t something that the basement encouraged them to do back then. They said very little to each other, and only the bravest ones dared to tell their stories.
He felt himself being pushed to the corner of the piano room; his eyes quickly noticed his owner’s figure. Daiki wasn’t alone there. There was a man standing beside him, he was taller, looked well educated, and he looked… so much like Arioka-san. Are they related? Yamada wondered to himself.
“Oh so this is your birthday present from mum?” the man spoke up.
Daiki rolled his eyes, not looking happy at all to see Yamada being there. “I’m telling you for the nth time, Nii-chan, I do not want him,” Daiki answered.
“Why not? He looks really… cute. And I see Inoo did a good job grooming him,” the man with the glasses grinned. “A lot older than when Ryutaro was given to me, but I guess you wouldn’t want a kid either since you aren’t exactly a nurturing type.”
His owner didn’t reply his brother at all, but instead, he stood up and slapped Ryutaro’s hand away from Yamada’s arm. When Daiki took his arm instead, Yamada swore that his heart jolted in the most anxious manner he ever felt in his entire life because that would be the first time Daiki actually made any physical contact with him.
Trying to walk in the same pace as his owner, Yamada kept his head low, not wanting to look like a really bad pet. His heart was beating so hard because now he wasn’t so invisible anymore, every pair of eyes in the room simply for the reason that Daiki was there with him, making him realise once again of how insignificant he was.
He found himself being dragged to the first floor, trying his best not to stumble on his way up the stairs because Daiki’s fingernails were actually digging to his flesh while taking him upstairs. The familiar room door of Daiki’s that they were walking to felt like a huge gate to agony, Yamada couldn’t figure out why he was being taken there by Daiki personally.
“If you want to stay around longer, you better take note of this,” Daiki said to him straight forwardly once they were inside the big room.
“Yes, Sir,”
“Okay, first. The name is Daiki. Call me Sir one more time, and I would get you grounded in the barn,” he stated. “But do call me that when we have people from outside of the house.”
Yamada nodded, capturing a very mixed signal coming from Daiki. “Yes, Sir… I mean… Daiki-san,” he said, remembering the way Keito addressed Daiki.
“Now name, we need to give you a name,” he said as he flopped himself to the couch, not caring if Yamada was fidgeting nervously in the middle of the room. “Ugh, this is troublesome. Just tell me the name you have now.”
“Yamada Ryosuke.”
“Who gave it to you? Your previous owner?”
“No…” Yamada mumbled. “My parents.”
There was silence filling the room and Yamada could only watch quietly the way Daiki didn’t move even an inch after hearing his answer. The older boy (he believed he couldn’t be twenty by then, so Daiki must be older) sat up as he crossed a leg over the other. “Have you been bought before?” Daiki asked.
“No. You’re my first owner.”
Daiki stood up, making his way to Yamada as he casted his eyes over the younger boy. Yamada stood still, trying not to look at Daiki on the eyes because it was too nerve breaking to do so. He gasped when felt Daiki’s fingers against his chin, blinking when his owner hold on to it and turned his face to the right then to left as if he was inspecting every single inch of Yamada’s face.
“How old are you?”
“I don’t remember, Sir… no… D-Daiki-san…”
“How can you not remember?” Daiki frowned.
“I… I have no knowledge of what year it is, and I didn’t know how long it has been since I got locked up. I do know that I was ten when I got there.”
The man before him blinked once, but yet there was no expression that Yamada could read from him. “It’s 2011… April 15th,” Daiki told him.
Yamada gulped as he tried to remember his own birthday, wanting to calculate his own age so badly. He could feel his lips unconsciously curved into a smile when he found out that he still knew how to count, a feeling of happiness washing over him because he now could answer Daiki about his age. “I’m almost eighteen! A few weeks before my birthday” he exclaimed, gulping almost right away the moment he realised that he was misbehaving.
He swore that he thought he was so doomed for raising his voice like that, getting excited when his owner didn’t give him any right to do so just yet. But he could only stood like a dumb person when Daiki walk-passed him instead, heading to the door.
“Keep your name,” Daiki said. “And remember. A step behind me. I expect you to not say anything to anyone from outside of the house unless I allow you to do so, even when someone asked you something. Wait for my nod before you answer anyone. We’ll work on the other rules later.”
Blinking, Yamada was surprised that Daiki didn’t even bring up his sudden excitement over the discovery of his age. Yet, he didn’t waste anytime and quickly rushed over to Daiki, carefully making sure that he was exactly a step behind his owner.
Maybe Inoo was right, he thought.
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Obsessed much? ;A; I think I'm in love with this series that I couldn't help it but keep on writing. This is a world breaking record for me because I have never in my entire life updated my fic this fast.
Ehem, that aside.
Critiques?