[Laruku] [Tetsuhai] Taste of Love

[radhaj]

Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: Those people are not mine. I only wish they were
Warnings: All sorts of ickness: slavery, bdsm, bondage, all sorts of kinks, including the fact that Hyde is a minor in this one. Like, really a minor. You have been warned.
Summary: In a country where slavery is the main source of income, Hideto sacrifices his own freedom to protect his sister's. Young and impressionable, he finds himself giving his trust to the kind slave trainer that bought him, but there is no hope anymore for the inexperienced boy to ever experience what love is now that he's no longer in control of his own life... or is there?


Chapter 2

Tetsuya wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand as he walked the familiar streets of the Slave Market. The summers were always unforgivingly hot in Sklabitia, but this year had to be record-breaking. Yet there was no rest for the slave trainers. While the rest of the population stayed at home when the sun was at its highest during midday, the Market was still bustling with the buyers, the sellers and the sold.

Tetsuya supposed he could have waited before coming here again – the day was especially hot, after all. But there was no guarantee it would get any better in the next few days, and he had just sold one of his girls to her new Master yesterday so he was looking to replace her already. He usually worked with at least three slaves at the same time, as he liked using them to help with each others training, so he hoped to take back maybe even two new ones home today, considering he was down to only two now.

The Slave Market was never a happy place. How could it be, when the trade of human lives (or mostly-human, he corrected himself, when he saw a cat-girl flicking her tail out the corner of his eye) was happening here. But Tetsuya, having been in the business ever since he was fifteen and having known he would be years before that, was well used to it by now. He was not said to be one of the best in this for no reason, after all, he had trained more slaves than he could count by now.

Most of the slaves weren't exactly sad either. Mostly they were resigned. The great majority of them had been born knowing they would be sold some day, after all. They had never had any other prospects in their lives as they had been pretty much bred for this, only able to live out mostly “normal” lives until they matured.

Then again “mature” was a relative term as well.

The Slave Market was a slight mess, however. Slaves that were still to be trained were sold alongside those who were ready for their Masters already. Younger ones beside older ones, human beside others, males beside females who got mixed with ones whose gender was... less defined. There was no system, and one always had to pass through all of it, looking for what they wanted exactly. And Tetsuya was looking for fresh slaves, ones that had yet to be molded and trained, and sometimes even had yet to be broken. Those ones were, of course, sometimes more trouble than they were worth, but at least they raised a challenge and made things more interesting for him.

Quite like this one, he thought, as he stopped before one of prettiest ones on sale that day. So pretty, and so ripe for picking. Still had a fire in the eyes, not broken at all, possibly someone who used to be free and sold into slavery because of debt or a similar circumstance. Tetsuya could deduce all of that with a single glance, from the way the slave stood, from the posture, from the attitude and the expression on the face. And yet, no matter how lovely otherwise this particular slave seemed, it was a male. Sure, he was androgynous enough that even Tetsuya wavered for a second before dubbing the gender on him, but he was sure of it now. And Tetsuya specialized in females only.

“Does the boy interest you, Sir?” there was suddenly a man beside him, obviously the one selling the boy, and Tetsuya cursed inwardly. He obviously stood staring for long enough that he had seemed like a potential buyer, and now the man won't let him go easily, trying to convince him to buy as persistently as these annoying people could. And although Tetsuya knew he was experienced enough not to fall for any marketing tricks, he still lingered. It won't hurt to listen for a bit, after all. And maybe he should expand his horizons anyway. Males were getting a very quickly increasing demand lately, and he could perhaps use one too? It would be especially useful if he could pair him up with the girls, so they'd have some other male to practice their skills with...

“He wasn't born into slavery, was he?” he asked, and suddenly the pretty slave, who had been looking down before that, looked up at him with wide eyes. He seemed surprised that someone was actually showing interest in him. Even weirdly hopeful. Tetsuya ignored it, however.

“Yes, Sir, I see you're experienced in the business. He's indeed only being sold in hopes it would pay off a debt,” the seller explained in the meantime, and Tetsuya nodded as it was just like he had expected. He circled around the petite man, looking over his slender figure that was scantly clad in the usual, small silky clothes that slaves usually got to wear while in the Market. His hands were bound by a piece of rope behind his back, also as usual.

He was very well built, Tetsuya had to admit. His skin was slightly bronze, as if he spent most of his time outside, but not overly so (a farmer, probably, Tetsuya noted in his head). He also was skinny, but more in a fit than bony kind of way. He had a fair bit of muscle, Tetsuya could see once he casually lifted up the shirt to look at his stomach (it was completely normal to inspect merchandise like this, since they were supposed to serve very intimate needs and body was important after all), and though he had yet to be shaved, even his cock and balls seemed lovely when Tetsuya tugged the waistband of his pants down to inspect them in broad daylight, making he boy blush from embarrassment though he stayed still and quiet.

What worried Tetsuya most was how tense the man had become when being touched like this, like he was barely holding back from protesting incredibly much. It meant the boy could possibly be very hard to break, which of course made sense considering his circumstances. He obviously knew he had no choice, as he did hold back after all, but after he was bought, he would probably become troublesome.

There were laws preventing slavers from just giving up on slaves, and once bought, a slave had to either be kept in good conditions or sold to someone else who was willing to take care of them. It was probably one of the very few laws that were there for the protection of the slaves, since that meant they wouldn't just be thrown out once they got old. The Masters took permanent responsibility for them when buying.

And of course, Tetsuya approved of those laws completely. But it did mean that, since this pretty male slave would just be relieved once he was bought once and his debt had been paid off, he could start misbehaving incredibly afterwards without fear of Tetsuya just changing his mind about it. And Tetsuya would not be able to sell him to anyone else, since the boy won't have any incentive to not look like he was troublesome and thus scare off any potential buyers.

“How large is his debt?” Tetsuya asked then, since it was meaningless to keep thinking about it so much without even knowing what kind of money the talk was going about.

“Two thousand one hundred forty pieces of gold, Sir,” the seller answered immediately, “Plus an extra two hundred because of marketing expenses.”

“Marketing expenses” only meant that the man trying to sell the boy was only hired buy the true “owners” of him to take care of the business, and that was his agreed upon reward. But Tetsuya didn't really care about that. Only one thought was circling in his head now. This was really expensive. No wonder the boy looked so hopeless, and so surprised when someone showed interest in him. The market for males was fairly young. That meant there was a slight disparity as far as prices went – people were willing to pay a lot for a trained one, as the supply was low, but because of the risk involved, and because there was no knowing if they would be able to sell the slave well, slave trainers usually bought them first-hand for only pennies.

But this one was very expensive. Quite a few trainers probably already passed on buying him. It was just too risky. Of course, if the training went well, Tetsuya would probably be able to sell him for ten times the current price, but what was going to guarantee success?

“Please, Sir,” the boy spoke up, unexpectedly, and Tetsuya stared at him surprised, “If noone buys me by the end of tomorrow, they will take my sister instead. I beg of you, don't let them do it. Please buy me,” the pretty man pleaded, and Tetsuya was not sure how to even respond. Slaves rarely ever dared speak up themselves, but then again, this was not a regular slave, so maybe it was not that unexpected. Still, Tetsuya could not allow himself be swayed by the sad story. Every slave had one. He couldn't afford being sorry in this profession.

But this did give him more information about the slave. The boy was sacrificing himself for his sister, which meant he had great values. He also sounded polite, which was a very important skill for slaves to have. It also meant that he just might be grateful enough to be bought to not cause as much trouble for Tetsuya as the slaver feared he would.

“What is your name, slave?” he asked then, preferring to talk with the boy directly rather than ask the seller, now that he knew the man was not afraid to speak up.

“Hideto, Sir. Takarai Hideto.”

“This is your family's debt then, not a personal one, if your sister is involved?” he continued questioning, as he wanted to know if the boy had just been irresponsible enough to land himself in this situation.

“She borrowed the money to make ends meet after our parents died,” the boy answered, looking down, “I knew nothing of it until a few days ago.”

“I see,” Tetsuya spoke, a bit pleased by the honesty of the answers he was hearing, “Very admirable of you, then, to take responsibility for her actions. But do you truly realize what you are asking for? This is not something you will be able to ever get out of. It is completely permanent, you will never be free after you're sold once. You will lose your identity, you will only be valued by your skills of pleasing another and ability to mindlessly obey. In the eyes of society, you will completely lose your status as a human and become a property instead. Are you truly ready for that?”

Normally, when it came to usual slaves, Tetsuya would have never bothered asking any of this. But by the sound of things, it was not only that this Hideto hadn't grown up knowing he would one day be sold – it was obviously a completely impulse decision on his part to do this at all.

“She does not deserve such a life, Sir. Please. Not my sister,” he answered after a few moments, looking slightly pale after hearing everything Tetsuya had to say.

“And you think you do? Besides, you did not answer my question,” Tetsuya pried further. Hideto closed his eyes, struggling with an answer.

“No, but... better me than her,” he finally whispered, and looked up afterwards to look the taller man in the eyes again, “I am ready for whatever it takes, Sir,” he spoke as determinedly as could be expected, and Tetsuya nodded to himself again.

The boy probably was not ready, despite everything he said. But his sister would be no better, and Tetsuya could understand the boy's wish to protect her – he had two sisters himself, even though he hadn't seen them in ages. Maybe the sob story had affected him more than he cared to admit after all...

His decision had been made, Tetsuya realized. It had been ever since he saw the boy – he never would have spent so much time on him, if he hadn't already wished to buy him. And he was being slightly reckless, maybe, but all the things that would have deterred every single other slaver just made it more challenging and interesting for Tetsuya. He wanted to test himself. He wanted to see if he was capable of taming this boy to the same level that he did all his slaves.

“Start the paperwork,” he said, turning to the seller, who had been silent while his customer talked to his merchandise, “I am buying him.”

After hearing those words, Hideto's face twisted as he was very obviously torn between rejoicing, and starting to cry (or maybe be sick) as the realization that he was truly about to become a slave hit him. In the end, he managed to compose himself somehow, and opened his mouth to say something.

“Do not thank me,” Tetsuya interrupted him before he could start absent-mindedly, “It will save you the trouble of regretting it later on. And you will regret it,” he promised seriously. Hideto just grimaced again and frowned, his features setting in an expression of determination.

“Thank you,” he said as if on purpose, and Tetsuya almost laughed out loud. If that was not pure rebelliousness already, then he did not know what was.

Was he going to regret doing this later? Very possible. But he had made up his mind, and his pride won't let him back down now. Soon, he was sitting down and signing the paperwork that made a previously free-man his complete and absolute property.

And, as he scribbled “Hyde” in the slot asking for the purchase's new name after considering it for a bit, he was actually quite looking forward to this. But he won't be getting a second slave today after all. The one he just bought sounded like he'd be enough of a handful for a while.