(no subject)
Title: Right Back To You: Chapter Two
Pairing: none
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 5850
Notes: Ohno and Jun finally make their appearances, yay!
Previous Chapters
Prologue
Chapter One
Ohno Satoshi had never been on property that extended beyond what he could see.
He hadn’t believed such a place could exist at first. Even after he’d read the reports he’d gotten from Sho and Jun, both detailing all existing knowledge of Kitagawa’s estate, he’d been skeptical about it. They’d given him such a ludicrous estimate figure - a number exceeding the Royal Family’s property figure by almost three times - that it just couldn’t be real.
Part of Ohno just couldn’t bring himself to believe it because it seemed so wasteful. What could one man need with land that was big enough to include a lake? Even if his sister, wife, daughter and adopted heir still lived there, and they kept both house servants and man servants, well, the servants weren’t using the land for anything and the family couldn’t possibly be able to use all of it.
Even during the week spent from the border to now, Ohno hadn’t believed it could truly exist. But they’d been riding past the front gate of Kitagawa’s estate for ten minutes now and they still hadn’t reached the man’s house.
Even if on one level it was impressive that Kitagawa commanded all this land, Ohno thought it sad that all the land was private. He’d been watching the scenery pass by for the entire ride, and there was no denying that it was beautiful, but there were so many people who would never see this beauty.
Ohno stared out the window of the carriage, half-listening to Jun and Kitagawa making polite conversation about Kitagawa’s estate grounds and how well kept they were. Jun was good at that. It was why he’d been sent on this particularly important assignment despite his young age. He was good at talking to people; he made them feel important if they weren’t really, and he made them feel more important than they were if they were. He listened intently to what they had to say, and he knew how to talk to everyone without sounding condescending or offensive.
Ohno couldn’t do that. In fact, he wasn’t entirely sure why he was here.
He wasn’t the negotiator; Jun was. He wasn’t a diplomat; he didn’t particularly like talking to strangers and he didn’t have a way with words. He wasn’t a bodyguard; he couldn’t even imagine how Nagase and Taichi were able to live solely to protect someone else. He was good for nothing that wasn’t painting or clay. He was just a noble who happened to be friends with Jun.
But Jun had asked him for his company, and Sho had backed that request, and so here he was, dragging poor Taichi around behind him (poor Taichi who was sitting between Ohno himself and Nagase, placing Jun against the other carriage window, and trying his best not to look bored).
Circumstances didn’t stop Ohno from wishing that he was anywhere else.
It wasn’t that he and Jun hadn’t been well treated. The border guards had been courteous and efficient, and Kitagawa was nothing if not an apparently gracious host. The Lord of the Eastlands and his retinue had met Jun and Ohno and their bodyguards at the border crossing, and Kitagawa had provided for their lodging at all the various inns they’d stopped in all week. He’d dined with them every night and had been nothing but pleasant and friendly.
Ohno thought that was perhaps exactly what he didn’t like.
As soon as they’d met, Kitagawa had spoken to them as an uncle, or perhaps he’d been trying for a fatherly tone. He’d continued to speak like that since. He hadn’t bothered with any of the formalities that normally came with diplomatic talks; he’d simply treated them as children. Ohno knew they must have been children in his eyes - Jun was just twenty and Ohno himself was not quite twenty-three yet - but they were meant to be representing their king, and Ohno thought Kitagawa could have afforded them the courtesy to acknowledge that. Kitagawa also smiled a lot - a wide, creepy smile that made Ohno uncomfortable.
“What do you think?”
The voice invaded his thoughts abruptly, and Ohno blinked, looking at Taichi reflexively. The guard looked forward. It took Ohno a moment to realize that Kitagawa was talking to him, and he turned sheepishly to the man.
“I’m sorry, sir? I was lost in thought.”
Kitagawa, apparently done with Jun for the moment, motioned to the window. “You’ve been watching out the window this whole time. You seemed entranced - I wondered what you thought of the scenery.”
“It’s quite lovely,” Ohno said politely, “Everything is so lush, even this late in the year. I can see there must be a lot of work put into taking care of them.”
Kitagawa smiled widely. “They’re my sister’s pride and joy,” he said, “She oversees the planting and maintenance each year. It was at her insistence that we added the lake. She thought it would add to the beauty.”
Ohno usually knew a cue when he heard one; one this obvious was too much effort to miss.
“What’s your pride, sir?” he asked.
Kitagawa’s smile widened. “My boys.”
“Your sons, sir?” Ohno asked in polite confusion, shooting Jun a look. All the reports said Kitagawa had only one adopted heir, and if that was wrong ...
“My boys,” Kitagawa repeated.
Still smiling politely, Ohno was about to ask what that meant, but a nudge from Taichi to his elbow stopped him. Ohno blinked. Then he remembered. The one infamous Eastlands custom he’d heard about but had never wanted to believe really existed.
Pets.
Kitagawa had to be talking about them. What other ‘boys’ could there be if they weren’t sons? He had to have been talking about male Pets. Humans who lived off the money of the rich in return for use of their bodies - for whatever pleasure their owners wanted. According to his lessons, they’d become something of a status symbol in the last hundred years. The thought sent an unpleasant shiver down Ohno’s spine. He wasn’t sure who he thought was worse - the person who chose to live as a Pet, or the person who kept Pets.
“Will we meet them, Sir?” Jun asked, covering for Ohno’s too-long silence and trying not to sound too distasteful. He managed, because it was hard to pick out the subtleties of Jun’s voice unless you knew him as well as Ohno did.
“Of course!” Kitagawa said, his smile over-congenial as always as he looked back and forth at Jun and Ohno. He clearly hadn’t heard anything out of the ordinary. “In fact, you’ll meet them first thing when we get to the house. They’ll be out to greet us. They always come out to greet me when I return home.”
Ohno offered a smile, which he hoped looked properly excited, or at least appreciative. He was, frankly, a little disturbed by the idea (and Taichi knew it, because he was sitting more alertly now than he had been before; Ohno could feel it in the way Taichi’s thigh tensed). He hadn’t thought he’d ever meet a Pet; he’d somehow not even thought of the possibility of Kitagawa owning any. If they were a status symbol as had been suggested, he nearly hit himself for not thinking of it.
How was he supposed to act around Pets? Would he be expected to interact with them? Would he be expected to call to them like a dog, or pet them? Was he even supposed to touch another man’s Pet? Why hadn’t anybody thought to tell him things like this before they’d left?
It was a tense fifteen minutes spent before Ohno heard the driver shout instructions and felt the carriage jerk as the horses changed gaits. They were slowing down. Ohno pressed his face closer to the window, eager in spite of himself to see Kitagawa’s mansion - because if the grounds were as extensive and gorgeous as they were, the house had to be at least as beautiful.
Finally the building was just visible through the tree-lined path; squinting, Ohno managed to count four windows up from the ground at the tallest point of the roof. The young man couldn’t help it. He was awed.
The wealth in this family had to be unimaginable. Ohno wondered if Kitagawa even knew the exact value of all his possessions. (He figured the lord didn’t. How did you calculate wealth like this? It didn’t seem possible.) And from what Ohno knew, Kitagawa didn’t have all his money in one place.
They stopped at the end of the driveway and waited for the driver to open the doors. The man stayed patiently by while Ohno and Jun and Taichi and Nagase emerged. He bowed deeply when it was Kitagawa’s turn.
The man descended in a rustle of expensive silks, and waited a beat for them to admire his mansion close up. Though Ohno was annoyed that they were expected to act like awed peasants, he couldn’t help but admit that perhaps there was something to be said for the structure. His eye picked out the details in the brick work and the roof immediately. It was exquisitely done.
“My home, gentlemen,” Kitagawa said, not a little smugly.
“It’s beautiful,” Jun replied immediately.
Ohno just nodded, staring openly at the structure.
The front doors were opened from the inside, as though by their own will, but Ohno knew there were people standing behind them because the doors of the palace back home did the same thing. Ohno had always wondered how those men were given their cues. Then he and Jun were ushered inside by Nagase prodding them none too gently in the shoulders, because both were still gawking stupidly at the front.
They stepped slowly into a grand foyer that far outdid anything Ohno had ever seen at home; the lush decorations of the palace included. The short entry hall led straight into a huge, high-ceilinged, square room. At night it would be lit by two, many-tiered candelabra. Along the back wall, two grand staircases of marble came down from either side, combining into one stair that connected the ground to the second floor. The stair came out so far that Ohno wondered if there was room to walk under it. Doors branched off the foyer to the left and right, leading off to rooms Ohno assumed they would eventually be toured through.
But he wasn’t given time to wonder about the rooms beyond, because there were two lines of people standing to either side, lined up from the hall entry to the stairs, where the people who must have been Kitagawa’s family stood. They wore the same rich silks and furs as befit royalty, where the rest were all wearing various uniforms that indicated their status in the house. Maids were the most numerous, but there were men who looked like they were either butlers or man servants, and others who looked like they were chefs, and even an estimated number left Ohno feeling vaguely nauseous - who had the money to pay this many people?
A short pause as Kitagawa stepped in front of them and began walking again brought Ohno’s attention away from the people. It wasn’t just the number of people that made him uncomfortable, Ohno realized quickly. There was a strange tension in the air, though Kitagawa didn’t seem to be aware of it.
“I’m home!” the lord said loudly.
“Welcome home, Master,” the waiting servants said as one.
Kitagawa’s wife and daughter and adopted heir stood in a line, just in front of the stairs. Kitagawa exchanged brief greetings with them before turning back to Ohno and Jun and ushered them forward. “Gentlemen, come. Meet my lovely wife, my daughter Julie, and my heir, Jin.”
Ohno and Jun bowed deeply, expecting nothing in return and receiving an inclined head from the Lord’s wife and a polite curtsy from his daughter. Jin acknowledged their presence by sweeping his gaze over them, then looking off to the side as though bored. Ohno saw Jun’s jaw clench, but the younger man forced himself to calm.
Then Kitagawa motioned for his family to step aside. There, not three feet away, were the Pets.
Ohno wanted to turn away and leave, though he knew he couldn’t. (Taichi came up behind Ohno in his usual casually protective way, but Ohno wouldn’t blame him if he was trying to get a good look at the boys, too.) There were four Pets in all, each one male and kneeling as though they were a dog on his haunches. Each one was held on a leash by a stern looking woman - Kitagawa’s sister if her face was any indication.
“My sister, Mary,” Kitagawa said, “Ah, and here are my little boys!” He swept past his family to the Pets, introducing them in order with grand hand gestures to each, stopping at the side of the smallest boy. “These are my boys, Tottchi, Kame, Ami, and little Miya. Boys, I’m home.”
“Welcome home, Master,” they murmured obediently.
Though he was vaguely relieved that the Pets wore pants, even if the pants didn’t look all that substantial, Ohno found himself hoping quite fervently that the leashes were for show. All of the boys were very quiet, holding themselves still, and all of them looked demurely at the floor.
The situation wasn’t as Ohno had always assumed it would be. They were, for one, covered - at least partially - and for another, they weren’t being used publicly.
Ohno had pictured some sort of strange harem of naked men and women who had no care in the world, and who lounged languidly on silk cushions, moving happily at the beck and call of others. He’d pictured contentment with their life, because they’d chosen it. Here there were no women and, the third Pet in the line looked almost like he was trying to protect the fourth from view - with a start Ohno realized only knew there was a fourth by the way the last leash ran - but that was silly. Why should a Pet be hiding?
They were all pleasing to look at in their own way - Ohno had at least gotten that assumption right. They were all slender and their bodies were toned; which meant that whatever else a Pet did, lazing around was not it. Tottchi, the first boy in line had blond hair that tinted red when caught in certain light. His hair, where it parted to the left, fell just short of being in the way of his eyes. He was thin, but wiry, and his skin was evenly tanned. The second boy had almost wavy black hair, parted down the middle carefully and cut to the nape of his neck. His face was finely proportioned, and Ohno thought it managed to look disdainful despite that the Pet was kneeling on the floor. His frame was nearly too thin for his body, and he was just shy of too pale. The third boy had wavy hair which started out a dark brown, and by the time it dusted his shoulders was almost wheat colored. He was the largest of the four. His left shoulder had a large and distinctive birthmark, which drew Ohno’s eyes immediately. The Pet was turned just a little to left, sticking out his shoulder and definitely trying to keep the last one from being seen.
“Mary, have the boys behaved in my absence?” Kitagawa was asking.
He was standing over the last boy who couldn’t be seen properly. The answer was instant, and perhaps not as truthful as it could have been, but Mary kept a straight face as she spoke.
“Yes, Brother.”
They’d walked forward enough that Ohno could see the last Pet. Ohno nearly bumped into Taichi as he stopped and the older man didn’t. Vaguely ashamed - even Saya hadn’t caused his breath to catch like this - he wondered if his heart might stop.
The boy was beautiful in a strange sort of way. His face was thin and framed by dark hair that brushed his ears and fell forward to hide his face. From what Ohno could see, the boy had a cutely rounded nose and thin lips. The light that caught in his hair turned the strands a sort of dull red-gold. He was easily the smallest of the four Pets - he was too thin, because Ohno could practically count his ribs, and he was not likely much taller than Ohno himself standing. Like the other Pets, his eyes were aimed towards the floor, which hid their color and was slightly disappointing. His skin was fair and looked soft, and Ohno wondered what it would feel like under his fingers.
“Even this one?” Kitagawa asked his sister, nudging the small one’s arm with his foot.
Ohno couldn’t stop the flash of angry heat he felt at the careless gesture. Especially because the boy looked shaky and tired. But the boy just nuzzled Kitagawa’s leg, as though looking to be petted. The lord obliged, crouching down and stroking his fingers through the mop of wavy hair.
Ohno swallowed heavily. Every single instinct that he possessed wanted to take the boy and hold him, to hide the boy from the world, feel him tremble, hear his voice moaning - The young noble immediately looked away from the boy, disgusted with himself. The very thought of Pets had made him uncomfortable for so long, and he’d protested the trip vehemently, and he had Saya to return home to! Yet here he was, wondering what a stranger’s skin would feel like under his fingertips. Ohno snuck a glance over at the boy again in spite of himself. He looked away quickly.
“Yes, Brother,” said Mary.
“Is that so?” Kitagawa laughed and turned back to Ohno and Jun, a pleased smile on his face.
Ohno attempted to return it, but he was pretty sure he fell flat. Sneaking a glance at Jun showed that the younger man didn’t look much better. Kitagawa turned to face the small Pet again. He took the boy’s leash in hand, unhooking it from his collar and tossing it negligently at Mary.
“Miya. To your feet.”
Miya drew himself up slowly, in one motion, head kept bowed.
Ohno’s eyes narrowed and his gaze focused on the Pet. The boy moved like there was something wrong. Like he was hurt. Was this why Ami had been protecting him? Kitagawa took the boy’s chin in hand and tilted it up. The boy turned his face into the touch, closing his eyes, and Ohno wondered just what sort of relationship they had. He found he didn’t want to think about it too much, because the very idea of this man touching Miya made him see red, and the idea of Miya encouraging it made him feel a little nauseous.
Then Miya’s eyes opened, and he focused on something past Kitagawa’s shoulder, and Ohno saw that everything about him was a careful mask. Miya didn’t like Kitagawa; Miya was just used to him. Miya knew what would happen if he didn’t respond properly, according to the rules. And he was hurt. His eyes were glazed and focused on something far away from where they stood. He wasn’t mentally in the hall. He was just trying to keep himself on two feet. Ohno’s gaze drifted down to the boy’s pants. The thin fabric was trembling.
“Boys, you know how to greet our guests,” the lord said.
As one, the other three Pets bowed deeply on the floor and murmured, “Greetings, Masters”.
Miya didn’t move. He didn’t seem to have heard the lord at all. The lord’s lips turned down in a fleeting frown. He smacked Miya’s hip lightly, but not so lightly that Miya didn’t flinch in pain. (Taichi made a soft noise near Ohno’s ear that Ohno interpreted to be displeasure, but he didn’t move. This wasn’t their place to interfere.) The flinch brought more of a frown out on Kitagawa’s, and the lord’s eyes flicked to the side, as though trying to find the cause of Miya’s pain in Mary’s face.
His hand smoothed over the boy’s hip and his words were quiet when he spoke, “You too, Miya.”
Miya blinked. He seemed to register what happened all at once, and his face took on a distressed, almost shamed, expression. The boy sunk to the floor as slowly as he’d stood, trying to keep his balance. Ami, Ohno thought was the tall boy’s name, shifted. Ohno only noticed because the Pet was lifting his head to watch Miya like a hawk.
Miya made it to the floor and into a bow like the others. “Greetings, Masters,” he said quietly.
Ohno found himself just a bit surprised. Miya looked like the sort of boy who might have had a soft, feminine voice, but he most certainly did not. He had a fairly high pitched voice, which he kept carefully neutral, but there was nothing soft about it. Ohno wondered how much of that came from the pain the boy was trying to cover and how much was just Miya’s voice.
Kitagawa nodded as though in satisfaction and held a hand out to the Pet. “Good boy. Come. You may stand again.”
Miya allowed the lord to help him up, and made no protest when the man wrapped an arm around his shoulders. Kitagawa turned the boy around with him; Miya followed his movements fairly easily, but refused to look at them.
Ohno and Jun snapped to attention, and Ohno could feel Taichi and Nagase act accordingly.
“Well then,” the lord said jovially, “Now that we’re all acquainted, enough of this standing about! Let us head in. We’ll take lunch together. Mary, the boys will come too. Boys, you will treat our guests as your masters while they are here.”
Ohno frowned. What was that supposed to mean?
He was uncomfortably aware of the three other boys behind them as he and Jun followed in Kitagawa’s wake. Miya leaned heavily on the lord as they walked; Ohno couldn’t help but watch him in concern. He watched him so closely that he almost missed where they were going.
------
They were led through a door off to the left of the main hallway, and then led to a small room that looked like a glorified coat closet despite the lack of coats in it. There were two couches on opposite walls from each other, and a large chair behind a low, oak desk - and Ohno was a little surprised that such a small room existed in a mansion of such size. The walls were wood paneled, and the wood was stained a rich auburn. The carpet under foot spread across the floor in glorious, muted silver, and Ohno winced to think what the dirt on their boots was doing to it and how much work it must be to clean it.
Ohno and Jun waited at attention for Kitagawa to take his seat in the big chair behind the desk. Miya followed him around and promptly disappeared from sight. Ohno flinched in spite of himself at the possible implication. Kitagawa must have seen the look on his face, because he laughed. He reached down and his arm moved as though he was petting the boy.
“Miya, lovely, sit up. You’re disturbing our guests. They must not know what to think,” the lord said, and laughed.
Miya’s face popped up over the table almost immediately. He crossed his arms over Kitagawa’s knees and propped his chin on them. His eyes he kept purposefully away from Ohno and Jun. Ohno’s heart clenched. It could have been his own projection, but he thought the boy looked shamed.
“Please, boys, sit,” the lord said, waving at the couch to his right.
Ohno and Jun settled on it obediently; Taichi and Nagase slid into place, standing on either side of the couch, with barely a sound. Ohno set his eyes to the door as Mary appeared, and watched the other Pets enter. The three Pets took places about the room. The blond Tottchi sat happily by Ohno’s feet. Ohno shifted his feet aside for the boy to sit without touching him without even thinking about it. Kame slunk nervously to Jun’s feet and lay down. Jun shifted, crossing his legs just far away enough that the boy didn’t touch him. Ami draped himself over the opposite couch brazenly.
Ohno watched it all like it was some sort of ritual ceremony. Jun looked mildly annoyed by the delay. Nagase and Taichi looked like they were, for once, unsure what they should do. Kitagawa chuckled and looked to Mary, standing in the doorway as though waiting for orders.
“Lunch will be delivered shortly, won’t it?” he asked.
She nodded. “Yes, Brother.”
“Excellent. The boys must be hungry. I certainly am. You can go, then.”
Ohno and Jun smiled automatically. Mary bowed her head and left, shutting the door behind her. Kitagawa played almost absent-mindedly with Miya’s hair for a while, clearly thinking about something. He made no indication of wishing to speak, so Jun and Ohno kept quiet; Ohno trying very hard not to watch Miya. The silence was just getting to be too uncomfortable when a knock on the door interrupted them.
Kitagawa barely moved in acknowledgment. “Come.”
Various servants who’s faces Ohno didn’t remember came through, bearing trays piled with light foods. They were presented to the lord one by one; those that were approved were set onto portable tables brought in by two men. Those that were not were whisked away, and Ohno couldn’t say where they were headed. Perhaps to be eaten by the servants themselves, or maybe to Kitagawa’s wife and daughter.
“Jin will join us later,” the lord said, nudging Miya off his lap and standing to carve into the meat at his desk, “when we begin our talks. As my heir he needs to learn the business of politics. You understand.”
“Of course,” said Jun graciously.
Kitagawa selected the meat he wanted for himself, adding small bits to a spare plate, which he set to one side of the desk. He motioned to Ami, who unwound himself from the couch. He came to the desk on his hands and knees, and took the plate with a low bow.
“Thank you Master. We’ll partake.”
The boy all but slid back to his seat by the couch, motioning for the other Pets to join him. Miya looked up at Kitagawa, hands curled into a mimicry of paws and placed on his knee - like a cat or a dog looking for attention. The lord laughed and waved a hand at the others.
“Hungry? Yes, you must be. Go on.”
Miya slunk around the table, purposefully, Ohno thought, going around on the far side from himself and Jun. Kitagawa didn’t seem to notice. He turned to Ohno and Jun, waving heartily at the table. “Well, then, no need to be shy. Help yourselves, boys.”
Nagase, being closer, stood and selected the food for Jun and Ohno, taking small bites of everything. He waited a moment between each selection, appearing as though he were simply studying which bit to take next, but Ohno knew better. It was hard not to when Taichi was watching Nagase’s every facial twitch.
Nagase didn’t fall over ill or dead, however. He placed the chosen plates in front of Jun and Ohno, and selected far more quickly for himself and Taichi without asking permission. Jun looked mildly disapproving, but Kitagawa didn’t bat an eyelash.
“We’ll partake,” Jun said quietly.
Despite everything he hated about the Eastlands and Kitagawa, and all the tension and discomfort he’d felt since arriving, Ohno couldn’t say anything bad about their food. Everything he’d eaten was carefully prepared, and flavorful, and artistically presented - and there was little Ohno liked more than good food. So where Jun was carefully moderate about what he ate, Ohno was prepared to take everything left on the trays. Taichi swept the empty plate Ohno had been eyeing away neatly.
“Ohno-sama,” he said quietly, less reprovingly than teasingly.
Ohno pouted at the older man. Taichi grinned. He set the plate in front of Ohno and pushed the trays just out of the noble’s reach. Jun snorted quietly beside him. When Ohno looked over, eyes wide and lips turned down, Jun looked away to hide a smile.
“Thank you for lunch,” he said to Kitagawa.
The lord smiled. “Let’s eat.”
------
“This is your room, sir,” said the maid who hadn’t been introduced and who hadn’t bothered to introduce herself. She gestured into the open door and spoke like she was practicing a written speech. “Please adjust the room to your liking and enjoy yourself while you stay. The room for your guard is through the doors on right.”
Ohno nodded dumbly.
Taichi thanked the maid quietly. She bowed and shuffled off, eyes firmly on the floor. Ohno didn’t move, staring blankly through the open door. It took him a minute and a nudge from Taichi to remember that he was supposed to walk into the room, and he did so. Taichi closed the door behind him, moving from place to place and checking for whatever it was he usually checked for.
Ohno didn’t move once he was inside, staring blankly around the huge, nearly empty space. It wasn’t that there wasn’t anything in the room. It was that the room was so large all the furniture couldn’t fill it. It was so empty that his footsteps echoed softly when he finally moved a little.
Ohno shivered. Pets aside, Kitagawa’s mansion left him feeling cold.
“I’ll get Nagase and start to secure the area,” Taichi said quietly.
Ohno nodded distractedly, and was hardly aware of the older man leaving.
Jun was even acting strangely. He hadn’t looked up once as they’d been shown to their rooms. He hadn’t said anything to Ohno at all since they’d been dismissed from Kitagawa’s presence. Usually the younger man had much more poise than that. Ohno could relate, though. He himself still hadn’t quite wrapped his head around the events of the past three hours.
Ohno finally walked around his room, going to the window to the right of his bed. He threw open the curtains to allow the remaining daylight to flood the otherwise cold room. It took a minute, but he figured out how to open the window and stuck his head out. He breathed the chilly air in deeply and sighed, resting his elbows on the window sill.
It was a peaceful few minutes that he stood there, watching the dying light and wishing it would stay. Dinner, Kitagawa said, would be served after the sun went down, and although he was hungry, Ohno didn’t really want to go. Jin would be there, and Jin rubbed him the wrong way. Behind him, someone knocked on the door and opened it without waiting for Ohno’s answer. The door closed firmly, and footsteps strode purposefully up behind him. Ohno knew who it without needing to look.
“I don’t like this place.”
“Funny,” the older noble replied, “I was just thinking the same thing.”
Ohno looked over his shoulder and smiled faintly. Jun perched on the bed and watched him with an eyebrow raised. The older man snorted at him.
“If you recall, I didn’t want to come.”
Now Jun snorted. “Nothing in hell was going to get me to come here alone.”
Ohno turned to face Jun fully. He leaned back on his elbows and waited, just watching Jun silently. Jun looked down at the covers; his way of hiding a pout. It was a moment before the younger man finally huffed in annoyance and snuck a petulant glance at Ohno.
“I don’t want to stay here while we finish.”
Ohno knew how Jun felt. He sighed. “I suppose we couldn’t very well say no.”
“But he offered us people. For the night. People. To ...” Jun made a vague wave. “To sleep with.”
(It had come as a complete and sudden surprise, Kitagawa’s offer, right as the servants were whisking away the leftovers of lunch and the portable tables.
“You’ll stay here, of course,” he’d said, “There are more than enough rooms and the nearest inn is inconvenient to reach. Any of my boys will be happy to keep you company during the night, or however you choose.”)
“I know,” Ohno said mildly, “I was there, too.”
“And they’d have actually done it. You saw it. Any one of them would have done it as soon as we agreed. They’d have come here and not said a word and they’d have ... done ... with us. Even that small one who’s hurt.”
So Jun had also noticed. Ohno pushed away from the window and headed towards his bag, more for something to do than needing anything from it. It meant he didn’t have to look Jun in the eye. He wanted to deny it with his dying breath, but no sooner had Kitawaga finished making the offer, than his eyes had gone straight to that Pet called Miya.
Ohno fished through his bag, fussing with the shirt at the top of his clothes and re-folding it a few times. “I know they would have. I don’t like it, either.”
“ButIalmostsaidyes,” Jun blurted, his words rushing together so quickly that Ohno couldn’t quite understand him at first.
The noble turned and blinked. “Eh?”
“I almost said yes,” the younger man said again, softly. He didn’t look up. “That one with light hair. Ami? Under any other circumstances ... I would have taken him. I almost said yes even now. What does that make me?”
Ohno chewed on his bottom lip. He abandoned the bag and walked back to the window, leaning his elbows on the sill and checking the sky for stars. They weren’t all quite out yet, but the constellations that he could see were in slightly different places from the ones back home. The silence stretched between them; Jun growing ever so slightly anxious, judging by the way his shifting on the bed grew more frequent.
“No different from before,” Ohno said after a moment.
There was rustling that meant Jun was moving. Probably he was looking up at Ohno’s back. The noble shifted against the window sill. He didn’t turn around. “You’re no different than you were. You’re not a bad person. They’re attractive, that’s the point. They wouldn’t have been chosen as Pets otherwise. And I ... I would have taken one, too. If we weren’t here. If it wasn’t like this.” If he wasn’t hurt.
There was a gentle knock on the door that paused the conversation. “Young Master Ohno?”
“Yes?” Ohno called.
“Dinner is served.”
“Thank you.”
“Is Young Master Jun with you?”
“Yes.”
“Very good. Please come down and enjoy yourself.”
Ohno and Jun looked at each other. Jun stood and Ohno pushed himself away from the window. Neither moved towards the door. Then the younger man looked down at himself and frowned in displeasure.
“There’s no time to change for dinner, is there?”
“Probably not.”
Ohno laughed as Jun swore.
Pairing: none
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 5850
Notes: Ohno and Jun finally make their appearances, yay!
Previous Chapters
Prologue
Chapter One
Ohno Satoshi had never been on property that extended beyond what he could see.
He hadn’t believed such a place could exist at first. Even after he’d read the reports he’d gotten from Sho and Jun, both detailing all existing knowledge of Kitagawa’s estate, he’d been skeptical about it. They’d given him such a ludicrous estimate figure - a number exceeding the Royal Family’s property figure by almost three times - that it just couldn’t be real.
Part of Ohno just couldn’t bring himself to believe it because it seemed so wasteful. What could one man need with land that was big enough to include a lake? Even if his sister, wife, daughter and adopted heir still lived there, and they kept both house servants and man servants, well, the servants weren’t using the land for anything and the family couldn’t possibly be able to use all of it.
Even during the week spent from the border to now, Ohno hadn’t believed it could truly exist. But they’d been riding past the front gate of Kitagawa’s estate for ten minutes now and they still hadn’t reached the man’s house.
Even if on one level it was impressive that Kitagawa commanded all this land, Ohno thought it sad that all the land was private. He’d been watching the scenery pass by for the entire ride, and there was no denying that it was beautiful, but there were so many people who would never see this beauty.
Ohno stared out the window of the carriage, half-listening to Jun and Kitagawa making polite conversation about Kitagawa’s estate grounds and how well kept they were. Jun was good at that. It was why he’d been sent on this particularly important assignment despite his young age. He was good at talking to people; he made them feel important if they weren’t really, and he made them feel more important than they were if they were. He listened intently to what they had to say, and he knew how to talk to everyone without sounding condescending or offensive.
Ohno couldn’t do that. In fact, he wasn’t entirely sure why he was here.
He wasn’t the negotiator; Jun was. He wasn’t a diplomat; he didn’t particularly like talking to strangers and he didn’t have a way with words. He wasn’t a bodyguard; he couldn’t even imagine how Nagase and Taichi were able to live solely to protect someone else. He was good for nothing that wasn’t painting or clay. He was just a noble who happened to be friends with Jun.
But Jun had asked him for his company, and Sho had backed that request, and so here he was, dragging poor Taichi around behind him (poor Taichi who was sitting between Ohno himself and Nagase, placing Jun against the other carriage window, and trying his best not to look bored).
Circumstances didn’t stop Ohno from wishing that he was anywhere else.
It wasn’t that he and Jun hadn’t been well treated. The border guards had been courteous and efficient, and Kitagawa was nothing if not an apparently gracious host. The Lord of the Eastlands and his retinue had met Jun and Ohno and their bodyguards at the border crossing, and Kitagawa had provided for their lodging at all the various inns they’d stopped in all week. He’d dined with them every night and had been nothing but pleasant and friendly.
Ohno thought that was perhaps exactly what he didn’t like.
As soon as they’d met, Kitagawa had spoken to them as an uncle, or perhaps he’d been trying for a fatherly tone. He’d continued to speak like that since. He hadn’t bothered with any of the formalities that normally came with diplomatic talks; he’d simply treated them as children. Ohno knew they must have been children in his eyes - Jun was just twenty and Ohno himself was not quite twenty-three yet - but they were meant to be representing their king, and Ohno thought Kitagawa could have afforded them the courtesy to acknowledge that. Kitagawa also smiled a lot - a wide, creepy smile that made Ohno uncomfortable.
“What do you think?”
The voice invaded his thoughts abruptly, and Ohno blinked, looking at Taichi reflexively. The guard looked forward. It took Ohno a moment to realize that Kitagawa was talking to him, and he turned sheepishly to the man.
“I’m sorry, sir? I was lost in thought.”
Kitagawa, apparently done with Jun for the moment, motioned to the window. “You’ve been watching out the window this whole time. You seemed entranced - I wondered what you thought of the scenery.”
“It’s quite lovely,” Ohno said politely, “Everything is so lush, even this late in the year. I can see there must be a lot of work put into taking care of them.”
Kitagawa smiled widely. “They’re my sister’s pride and joy,” he said, “She oversees the planting and maintenance each year. It was at her insistence that we added the lake. She thought it would add to the beauty.”
Ohno usually knew a cue when he heard one; one this obvious was too much effort to miss.
“What’s your pride, sir?” he asked.
Kitagawa’s smile widened. “My boys.”
“Your sons, sir?” Ohno asked in polite confusion, shooting Jun a look. All the reports said Kitagawa had only one adopted heir, and if that was wrong ...
“My boys,” Kitagawa repeated.
Still smiling politely, Ohno was about to ask what that meant, but a nudge from Taichi to his elbow stopped him. Ohno blinked. Then he remembered. The one infamous Eastlands custom he’d heard about but had never wanted to believe really existed.
Pets.
Kitagawa had to be talking about them. What other ‘boys’ could there be if they weren’t sons? He had to have been talking about male Pets. Humans who lived off the money of the rich in return for use of their bodies - for whatever pleasure their owners wanted. According to his lessons, they’d become something of a status symbol in the last hundred years. The thought sent an unpleasant shiver down Ohno’s spine. He wasn’t sure who he thought was worse - the person who chose to live as a Pet, or the person who kept Pets.
“Will we meet them, Sir?” Jun asked, covering for Ohno’s too-long silence and trying not to sound too distasteful. He managed, because it was hard to pick out the subtleties of Jun’s voice unless you knew him as well as Ohno did.
“Of course!” Kitagawa said, his smile over-congenial as always as he looked back and forth at Jun and Ohno. He clearly hadn’t heard anything out of the ordinary. “In fact, you’ll meet them first thing when we get to the house. They’ll be out to greet us. They always come out to greet me when I return home.”
Ohno offered a smile, which he hoped looked properly excited, or at least appreciative. He was, frankly, a little disturbed by the idea (and Taichi knew it, because he was sitting more alertly now than he had been before; Ohno could feel it in the way Taichi’s thigh tensed). He hadn’t thought he’d ever meet a Pet; he’d somehow not even thought of the possibility of Kitagawa owning any. If they were a status symbol as had been suggested, he nearly hit himself for not thinking of it.
How was he supposed to act around Pets? Would he be expected to interact with them? Would he be expected to call to them like a dog, or pet them? Was he even supposed to touch another man’s Pet? Why hadn’t anybody thought to tell him things like this before they’d left?
It was a tense fifteen minutes spent before Ohno heard the driver shout instructions and felt the carriage jerk as the horses changed gaits. They were slowing down. Ohno pressed his face closer to the window, eager in spite of himself to see Kitagawa’s mansion - because if the grounds were as extensive and gorgeous as they were, the house had to be at least as beautiful.
Finally the building was just visible through the tree-lined path; squinting, Ohno managed to count four windows up from the ground at the tallest point of the roof. The young man couldn’t help it. He was awed.
The wealth in this family had to be unimaginable. Ohno wondered if Kitagawa even knew the exact value of all his possessions. (He figured the lord didn’t. How did you calculate wealth like this? It didn’t seem possible.) And from what Ohno knew, Kitagawa didn’t have all his money in one place.
They stopped at the end of the driveway and waited for the driver to open the doors. The man stayed patiently by while Ohno and Jun and Taichi and Nagase emerged. He bowed deeply when it was Kitagawa’s turn.
The man descended in a rustle of expensive silks, and waited a beat for them to admire his mansion close up. Though Ohno was annoyed that they were expected to act like awed peasants, he couldn’t help but admit that perhaps there was something to be said for the structure. His eye picked out the details in the brick work and the roof immediately. It was exquisitely done.
“My home, gentlemen,” Kitagawa said, not a little smugly.
“It’s beautiful,” Jun replied immediately.
Ohno just nodded, staring openly at the structure.
The front doors were opened from the inside, as though by their own will, but Ohno knew there were people standing behind them because the doors of the palace back home did the same thing. Ohno had always wondered how those men were given their cues. Then he and Jun were ushered inside by Nagase prodding them none too gently in the shoulders, because both were still gawking stupidly at the front.
They stepped slowly into a grand foyer that far outdid anything Ohno had ever seen at home; the lush decorations of the palace included. The short entry hall led straight into a huge, high-ceilinged, square room. At night it would be lit by two, many-tiered candelabra. Along the back wall, two grand staircases of marble came down from either side, combining into one stair that connected the ground to the second floor. The stair came out so far that Ohno wondered if there was room to walk under it. Doors branched off the foyer to the left and right, leading off to rooms Ohno assumed they would eventually be toured through.
But he wasn’t given time to wonder about the rooms beyond, because there were two lines of people standing to either side, lined up from the hall entry to the stairs, where the people who must have been Kitagawa’s family stood. They wore the same rich silks and furs as befit royalty, where the rest were all wearing various uniforms that indicated their status in the house. Maids were the most numerous, but there were men who looked like they were either butlers or man servants, and others who looked like they were chefs, and even an estimated number left Ohno feeling vaguely nauseous - who had the money to pay this many people?
A short pause as Kitagawa stepped in front of them and began walking again brought Ohno’s attention away from the people. It wasn’t just the number of people that made him uncomfortable, Ohno realized quickly. There was a strange tension in the air, though Kitagawa didn’t seem to be aware of it.
“I’m home!” the lord said loudly.
“Welcome home, Master,” the waiting servants said as one.
Kitagawa’s wife and daughter and adopted heir stood in a line, just in front of the stairs. Kitagawa exchanged brief greetings with them before turning back to Ohno and Jun and ushered them forward. “Gentlemen, come. Meet my lovely wife, my daughter Julie, and my heir, Jin.”
Ohno and Jun bowed deeply, expecting nothing in return and receiving an inclined head from the Lord’s wife and a polite curtsy from his daughter. Jin acknowledged their presence by sweeping his gaze over them, then looking off to the side as though bored. Ohno saw Jun’s jaw clench, but the younger man forced himself to calm.
Then Kitagawa motioned for his family to step aside. There, not three feet away, were the Pets.
Ohno wanted to turn away and leave, though he knew he couldn’t. (Taichi came up behind Ohno in his usual casually protective way, but Ohno wouldn’t blame him if he was trying to get a good look at the boys, too.) There were four Pets in all, each one male and kneeling as though they were a dog on his haunches. Each one was held on a leash by a stern looking woman - Kitagawa’s sister if her face was any indication.
“My sister, Mary,” Kitagawa said, “Ah, and here are my little boys!” He swept past his family to the Pets, introducing them in order with grand hand gestures to each, stopping at the side of the smallest boy. “These are my boys, Tottchi, Kame, Ami, and little Miya. Boys, I’m home.”
“Welcome home, Master,” they murmured obediently.
Though he was vaguely relieved that the Pets wore pants, even if the pants didn’t look all that substantial, Ohno found himself hoping quite fervently that the leashes were for show. All of the boys were very quiet, holding themselves still, and all of them looked demurely at the floor.
The situation wasn’t as Ohno had always assumed it would be. They were, for one, covered - at least partially - and for another, they weren’t being used publicly.
Ohno had pictured some sort of strange harem of naked men and women who had no care in the world, and who lounged languidly on silk cushions, moving happily at the beck and call of others. He’d pictured contentment with their life, because they’d chosen it. Here there were no women and, the third Pet in the line looked almost like he was trying to protect the fourth from view - with a start Ohno realized only knew there was a fourth by the way the last leash ran - but that was silly. Why should a Pet be hiding?
They were all pleasing to look at in their own way - Ohno had at least gotten that assumption right. They were all slender and their bodies were toned; which meant that whatever else a Pet did, lazing around was not it. Tottchi, the first boy in line had blond hair that tinted red when caught in certain light. His hair, where it parted to the left, fell just short of being in the way of his eyes. He was thin, but wiry, and his skin was evenly tanned. The second boy had almost wavy black hair, parted down the middle carefully and cut to the nape of his neck. His face was finely proportioned, and Ohno thought it managed to look disdainful despite that the Pet was kneeling on the floor. His frame was nearly too thin for his body, and he was just shy of too pale. The third boy had wavy hair which started out a dark brown, and by the time it dusted his shoulders was almost wheat colored. He was the largest of the four. His left shoulder had a large and distinctive birthmark, which drew Ohno’s eyes immediately. The Pet was turned just a little to left, sticking out his shoulder and definitely trying to keep the last one from being seen.
“Mary, have the boys behaved in my absence?” Kitagawa was asking.
He was standing over the last boy who couldn’t be seen properly. The answer was instant, and perhaps not as truthful as it could have been, but Mary kept a straight face as she spoke.
“Yes, Brother.”
They’d walked forward enough that Ohno could see the last Pet. Ohno nearly bumped into Taichi as he stopped and the older man didn’t. Vaguely ashamed - even Saya hadn’t caused his breath to catch like this - he wondered if his heart might stop.
The boy was beautiful in a strange sort of way. His face was thin and framed by dark hair that brushed his ears and fell forward to hide his face. From what Ohno could see, the boy had a cutely rounded nose and thin lips. The light that caught in his hair turned the strands a sort of dull red-gold. He was easily the smallest of the four Pets - he was too thin, because Ohno could practically count his ribs, and he was not likely much taller than Ohno himself standing. Like the other Pets, his eyes were aimed towards the floor, which hid their color and was slightly disappointing. His skin was fair and looked soft, and Ohno wondered what it would feel like under his fingers.
“Even this one?” Kitagawa asked his sister, nudging the small one’s arm with his foot.
Ohno couldn’t stop the flash of angry heat he felt at the careless gesture. Especially because the boy looked shaky and tired. But the boy just nuzzled Kitagawa’s leg, as though looking to be petted. The lord obliged, crouching down and stroking his fingers through the mop of wavy hair.
Ohno swallowed heavily. Every single instinct that he possessed wanted to take the boy and hold him, to hide the boy from the world, feel him tremble, hear his voice moaning - The young noble immediately looked away from the boy, disgusted with himself. The very thought of Pets had made him uncomfortable for so long, and he’d protested the trip vehemently, and he had Saya to return home to! Yet here he was, wondering what a stranger’s skin would feel like under his fingertips. Ohno snuck a glance over at the boy again in spite of himself. He looked away quickly.
“Yes, Brother,” said Mary.
“Is that so?” Kitagawa laughed and turned back to Ohno and Jun, a pleased smile on his face.
Ohno attempted to return it, but he was pretty sure he fell flat. Sneaking a glance at Jun showed that the younger man didn’t look much better. Kitagawa turned to face the small Pet again. He took the boy’s leash in hand, unhooking it from his collar and tossing it negligently at Mary.
“Miya. To your feet.”
Miya drew himself up slowly, in one motion, head kept bowed.
Ohno’s eyes narrowed and his gaze focused on the Pet. The boy moved like there was something wrong. Like he was hurt. Was this why Ami had been protecting him? Kitagawa took the boy’s chin in hand and tilted it up. The boy turned his face into the touch, closing his eyes, and Ohno wondered just what sort of relationship they had. He found he didn’t want to think about it too much, because the very idea of this man touching Miya made him see red, and the idea of Miya encouraging it made him feel a little nauseous.
Then Miya’s eyes opened, and he focused on something past Kitagawa’s shoulder, and Ohno saw that everything about him was a careful mask. Miya didn’t like Kitagawa; Miya was just used to him. Miya knew what would happen if he didn’t respond properly, according to the rules. And he was hurt. His eyes were glazed and focused on something far away from where they stood. He wasn’t mentally in the hall. He was just trying to keep himself on two feet. Ohno’s gaze drifted down to the boy’s pants. The thin fabric was trembling.
“Boys, you know how to greet our guests,” the lord said.
As one, the other three Pets bowed deeply on the floor and murmured, “Greetings, Masters”.
Miya didn’t move. He didn’t seem to have heard the lord at all. The lord’s lips turned down in a fleeting frown. He smacked Miya’s hip lightly, but not so lightly that Miya didn’t flinch in pain. (Taichi made a soft noise near Ohno’s ear that Ohno interpreted to be displeasure, but he didn’t move. This wasn’t their place to interfere.) The flinch brought more of a frown out on Kitagawa’s, and the lord’s eyes flicked to the side, as though trying to find the cause of Miya’s pain in Mary’s face.
His hand smoothed over the boy’s hip and his words were quiet when he spoke, “You too, Miya.”
Miya blinked. He seemed to register what happened all at once, and his face took on a distressed, almost shamed, expression. The boy sunk to the floor as slowly as he’d stood, trying to keep his balance. Ami, Ohno thought was the tall boy’s name, shifted. Ohno only noticed because the Pet was lifting his head to watch Miya like a hawk.
Miya made it to the floor and into a bow like the others. “Greetings, Masters,” he said quietly.
Ohno found himself just a bit surprised. Miya looked like the sort of boy who might have had a soft, feminine voice, but he most certainly did not. He had a fairly high pitched voice, which he kept carefully neutral, but there was nothing soft about it. Ohno wondered how much of that came from the pain the boy was trying to cover and how much was just Miya’s voice.
Kitagawa nodded as though in satisfaction and held a hand out to the Pet. “Good boy. Come. You may stand again.”
Miya allowed the lord to help him up, and made no protest when the man wrapped an arm around his shoulders. Kitagawa turned the boy around with him; Miya followed his movements fairly easily, but refused to look at them.
Ohno and Jun snapped to attention, and Ohno could feel Taichi and Nagase act accordingly.
“Well then,” the lord said jovially, “Now that we’re all acquainted, enough of this standing about! Let us head in. We’ll take lunch together. Mary, the boys will come too. Boys, you will treat our guests as your masters while they are here.”
Ohno frowned. What was that supposed to mean?
He was uncomfortably aware of the three other boys behind them as he and Jun followed in Kitagawa’s wake. Miya leaned heavily on the lord as they walked; Ohno couldn’t help but watch him in concern. He watched him so closely that he almost missed where they were going.
------
They were led through a door off to the left of the main hallway, and then led to a small room that looked like a glorified coat closet despite the lack of coats in it. There were two couches on opposite walls from each other, and a large chair behind a low, oak desk - and Ohno was a little surprised that such a small room existed in a mansion of such size. The walls were wood paneled, and the wood was stained a rich auburn. The carpet under foot spread across the floor in glorious, muted silver, and Ohno winced to think what the dirt on their boots was doing to it and how much work it must be to clean it.
Ohno and Jun waited at attention for Kitagawa to take his seat in the big chair behind the desk. Miya followed him around and promptly disappeared from sight. Ohno flinched in spite of himself at the possible implication. Kitagawa must have seen the look on his face, because he laughed. He reached down and his arm moved as though he was petting the boy.
“Miya, lovely, sit up. You’re disturbing our guests. They must not know what to think,” the lord said, and laughed.
Miya’s face popped up over the table almost immediately. He crossed his arms over Kitagawa’s knees and propped his chin on them. His eyes he kept purposefully away from Ohno and Jun. Ohno’s heart clenched. It could have been his own projection, but he thought the boy looked shamed.
“Please, boys, sit,” the lord said, waving at the couch to his right.
Ohno and Jun settled on it obediently; Taichi and Nagase slid into place, standing on either side of the couch, with barely a sound. Ohno set his eyes to the door as Mary appeared, and watched the other Pets enter. The three Pets took places about the room. The blond Tottchi sat happily by Ohno’s feet. Ohno shifted his feet aside for the boy to sit without touching him without even thinking about it. Kame slunk nervously to Jun’s feet and lay down. Jun shifted, crossing his legs just far away enough that the boy didn’t touch him. Ami draped himself over the opposite couch brazenly.
Ohno watched it all like it was some sort of ritual ceremony. Jun looked mildly annoyed by the delay. Nagase and Taichi looked like they were, for once, unsure what they should do. Kitagawa chuckled and looked to Mary, standing in the doorway as though waiting for orders.
“Lunch will be delivered shortly, won’t it?” he asked.
She nodded. “Yes, Brother.”
“Excellent. The boys must be hungry. I certainly am. You can go, then.”
Ohno and Jun smiled automatically. Mary bowed her head and left, shutting the door behind her. Kitagawa played almost absent-mindedly with Miya’s hair for a while, clearly thinking about something. He made no indication of wishing to speak, so Jun and Ohno kept quiet; Ohno trying very hard not to watch Miya. The silence was just getting to be too uncomfortable when a knock on the door interrupted them.
Kitagawa barely moved in acknowledgment. “Come.”
Various servants who’s faces Ohno didn’t remember came through, bearing trays piled with light foods. They were presented to the lord one by one; those that were approved were set onto portable tables brought in by two men. Those that were not were whisked away, and Ohno couldn’t say where they were headed. Perhaps to be eaten by the servants themselves, or maybe to Kitagawa’s wife and daughter.
“Jin will join us later,” the lord said, nudging Miya off his lap and standing to carve into the meat at his desk, “when we begin our talks. As my heir he needs to learn the business of politics. You understand.”
“Of course,” said Jun graciously.
Kitagawa selected the meat he wanted for himself, adding small bits to a spare plate, which he set to one side of the desk. He motioned to Ami, who unwound himself from the couch. He came to the desk on his hands and knees, and took the plate with a low bow.
“Thank you Master. We’ll partake.”
The boy all but slid back to his seat by the couch, motioning for the other Pets to join him. Miya looked up at Kitagawa, hands curled into a mimicry of paws and placed on his knee - like a cat or a dog looking for attention. The lord laughed and waved a hand at the others.
“Hungry? Yes, you must be. Go on.”
Miya slunk around the table, purposefully, Ohno thought, going around on the far side from himself and Jun. Kitagawa didn’t seem to notice. He turned to Ohno and Jun, waving heartily at the table. “Well, then, no need to be shy. Help yourselves, boys.”
Nagase, being closer, stood and selected the food for Jun and Ohno, taking small bites of everything. He waited a moment between each selection, appearing as though he were simply studying which bit to take next, but Ohno knew better. It was hard not to when Taichi was watching Nagase’s every facial twitch.
Nagase didn’t fall over ill or dead, however. He placed the chosen plates in front of Jun and Ohno, and selected far more quickly for himself and Taichi without asking permission. Jun looked mildly disapproving, but Kitagawa didn’t bat an eyelash.
“We’ll partake,” Jun said quietly.
Despite everything he hated about the Eastlands and Kitagawa, and all the tension and discomfort he’d felt since arriving, Ohno couldn’t say anything bad about their food. Everything he’d eaten was carefully prepared, and flavorful, and artistically presented - and there was little Ohno liked more than good food. So where Jun was carefully moderate about what he ate, Ohno was prepared to take everything left on the trays. Taichi swept the empty plate Ohno had been eyeing away neatly.
“Ohno-sama,” he said quietly, less reprovingly than teasingly.
Ohno pouted at the older man. Taichi grinned. He set the plate in front of Ohno and pushed the trays just out of the noble’s reach. Jun snorted quietly beside him. When Ohno looked over, eyes wide and lips turned down, Jun looked away to hide a smile.
“Thank you for lunch,” he said to Kitagawa.
The lord smiled. “Let’s eat.”
------
“This is your room, sir,” said the maid who hadn’t been introduced and who hadn’t bothered to introduce herself. She gestured into the open door and spoke like she was practicing a written speech. “Please adjust the room to your liking and enjoy yourself while you stay. The room for your guard is through the doors on right.”
Ohno nodded dumbly.
Taichi thanked the maid quietly. She bowed and shuffled off, eyes firmly on the floor. Ohno didn’t move, staring blankly through the open door. It took him a minute and a nudge from Taichi to remember that he was supposed to walk into the room, and he did so. Taichi closed the door behind him, moving from place to place and checking for whatever it was he usually checked for.
Ohno didn’t move once he was inside, staring blankly around the huge, nearly empty space. It wasn’t that there wasn’t anything in the room. It was that the room was so large all the furniture couldn’t fill it. It was so empty that his footsteps echoed softly when he finally moved a little.
Ohno shivered. Pets aside, Kitagawa’s mansion left him feeling cold.
“I’ll get Nagase and start to secure the area,” Taichi said quietly.
Ohno nodded distractedly, and was hardly aware of the older man leaving.
Jun was even acting strangely. He hadn’t looked up once as they’d been shown to their rooms. He hadn’t said anything to Ohno at all since they’d been dismissed from Kitagawa’s presence. Usually the younger man had much more poise than that. Ohno could relate, though. He himself still hadn’t quite wrapped his head around the events of the past three hours.
Ohno finally walked around his room, going to the window to the right of his bed. He threw open the curtains to allow the remaining daylight to flood the otherwise cold room. It took a minute, but he figured out how to open the window and stuck his head out. He breathed the chilly air in deeply and sighed, resting his elbows on the window sill.
It was a peaceful few minutes that he stood there, watching the dying light and wishing it would stay. Dinner, Kitagawa said, would be served after the sun went down, and although he was hungry, Ohno didn’t really want to go. Jin would be there, and Jin rubbed him the wrong way. Behind him, someone knocked on the door and opened it without waiting for Ohno’s answer. The door closed firmly, and footsteps strode purposefully up behind him. Ohno knew who it without needing to look.
“I don’t like this place.”
“Funny,” the older noble replied, “I was just thinking the same thing.”
Ohno looked over his shoulder and smiled faintly. Jun perched on the bed and watched him with an eyebrow raised. The older man snorted at him.
“If you recall, I didn’t want to come.”
Now Jun snorted. “Nothing in hell was going to get me to come here alone.”
Ohno turned to face Jun fully. He leaned back on his elbows and waited, just watching Jun silently. Jun looked down at the covers; his way of hiding a pout. It was a moment before the younger man finally huffed in annoyance and snuck a petulant glance at Ohno.
“I don’t want to stay here while we finish.”
Ohno knew how Jun felt. He sighed. “I suppose we couldn’t very well say no.”
“But he offered us people. For the night. People. To ...” Jun made a vague wave. “To sleep with.”
(It had come as a complete and sudden surprise, Kitagawa’s offer, right as the servants were whisking away the leftovers of lunch and the portable tables.
“You’ll stay here, of course,” he’d said, “There are more than enough rooms and the nearest inn is inconvenient to reach. Any of my boys will be happy to keep you company during the night, or however you choose.”)
“I know,” Ohno said mildly, “I was there, too.”
“And they’d have actually done it. You saw it. Any one of them would have done it as soon as we agreed. They’d have come here and not said a word and they’d have ... done ... with us. Even that small one who’s hurt.”
So Jun had also noticed. Ohno pushed away from the window and headed towards his bag, more for something to do than needing anything from it. It meant he didn’t have to look Jun in the eye. He wanted to deny it with his dying breath, but no sooner had Kitawaga finished making the offer, than his eyes had gone straight to that Pet called Miya.
Ohno fished through his bag, fussing with the shirt at the top of his clothes and re-folding it a few times. “I know they would have. I don’t like it, either.”
“ButIalmostsaidyes,” Jun blurted, his words rushing together so quickly that Ohno couldn’t quite understand him at first.
The noble turned and blinked. “Eh?”
“I almost said yes,” the younger man said again, softly. He didn’t look up. “That one with light hair. Ami? Under any other circumstances ... I would have taken him. I almost said yes even now. What does that make me?”
Ohno chewed on his bottom lip. He abandoned the bag and walked back to the window, leaning his elbows on the sill and checking the sky for stars. They weren’t all quite out yet, but the constellations that he could see were in slightly different places from the ones back home. The silence stretched between them; Jun growing ever so slightly anxious, judging by the way his shifting on the bed grew more frequent.
“No different from before,” Ohno said after a moment.
There was rustling that meant Jun was moving. Probably he was looking up at Ohno’s back. The noble shifted against the window sill. He didn’t turn around. “You’re no different than you were. You’re not a bad person. They’re attractive, that’s the point. They wouldn’t have been chosen as Pets otherwise. And I ... I would have taken one, too. If we weren’t here. If it wasn’t like this.” If he wasn’t hurt.
There was a gentle knock on the door that paused the conversation. “Young Master Ohno?”
“Yes?” Ohno called.
“Dinner is served.”
“Thank you.”
“Is Young Master Jun with you?”
“Yes.”
“Very good. Please come down and enjoy yourself.”
Ohno and Jun looked at each other. Jun stood and Ohno pushed himself away from the window. Neither moved towards the door. Then the younger man looked down at himself and frowned in displeasure.
“There’s no time to change for dinner, is there?”
“Probably not.”
Ohno laughed as Jun swore.