AUTHOR: Sienna Edwards siennaedwards@hotmail.com
RATING: NC-17, slash
SPOILERS: UTN and AFF
SUMMARY:
ARCHIVE: only to Andromeda Uncovered… thanks!
DISCLAIMER: Andromeda et al are the property of Tribune Entertainment
NOTES: I had a lot of help with this one, especially from
my betas who went above and beyond. Maryavatar wrote the opening…. Thanks
Mary.
Tyr Anasazi, assassin, chef and, at the moment, bonded servant to one of the most powerful and corrupt FTA officials in this sector had shut off the lights in the kitchen and was just about to leave when he noticed the intruder. Tyr’s first instinct was to attack, but since he knew the likelihood of anyone breaking into his employer’s home was to go for the upper levels, not the kitchen he stayed quietly in the shadows.
There was a clatter as the intruder knocked over a jar of utensils. “Fuck! This is a kitchen, there has to be some food in here somewhere.”
The voice sounded young, with his genetically enhanced vision Tyr could see that the intruder was a small, slim boy in his late teens with dark red hair. Probably a toy belonging to one of the guests, judging by the thin cotton pants and tight vest. Tyr sniffed, soap, fresh sweat and another man’s semen. Definitely one of the pets, so why was he looking for food?
The boy tripped in the darkness and swore. Deciding on a whim to see why one of the pampered pets of the over-privileged, overweight criminals that ran things was raiding the kitchen, Tyr flicked the full sleeves of his tunic over the tell-tale bone spurs and turned on a low light.
“The food is behind you.” Tyr said to the startled boy.
“Uh, thanks.” Warily keeping an eye on Tyr the boy opened a cupboard door. Staring at the contents he said, “This isn’t food: these are ingredients.”
Tyr smothered a snort of laughter. “Why do you risk getting into trouble to get some food? Don’t you get fed up there?” Tyr motioned upwards at the luxurious guest quarters where fifteen FTA officials were currently housed.
The boy scowled and pulled out an apple. Biting down hard he spoke through the mouthful. “Fat bastard cuts my food if I piss him off.”
Tyr eyed the scrawny frame, “I’m assuming you do that a lot.”
The boy shrugged, crunching down the last of the apple, core and all. “If he wants to put things in my mouth he has to put up with what comes out of it too.”
Tyr winced as the boy raked around in his carefully ordered cupboards. “I’ll cook you something if you stop making a mess in there.”
“Deal.” Tyr felt his cock twitch at the sight of the huge, mischievous grin that appeared on the boy’s face. “I’m Harper.”
“Tyr.” Tyr bit back the almost automatic recitation of his lineage. Nietzscheans weren’t popular in this area of space and his employer had made it clear that he didn’t want it known that the ‘chef’ he employed was actually a highly skilled assassin. “Omelette?”
“Does that cook fast?” Tyr nodded. “Okay then.” Harper jumped onto the main worktop and sat cross-legged, smiling at Tyr. Tyr cracked three eggs into the pan and seasoned them. He was aware of Harper watching him carefully, despite his casual manner.
“Who are you with?” he said finally, sliding the omelette onto a plate.
“Feldane Hayden.” Harper picked up the fork but paused. “Um… you’re not going to tell them about this are you?”
“Relax boy. The FTA officials are as loathesome to me as they are to you.”
“Fat chance,” Harper said with his mouth full. “You’re not getting fucked by one of them. This is freaking good, by the way.” He stuffed another forkful into his mouth, chewed once and swallowed.
Tyr was pleased with the compliment but didn’t let it show.
“How long have you worked here?”
“’Worked’, nice way to put it. Thanks though. I’ve been here nearly a month.” He put another bite of egg into his mouth.
For a moment, Tyr was tempted to use the boy as an information source for the goings on of the FTA officials. There was a slim chance that being a pet of one of the officials lent itself to being overlooked and thus sometimes, privy to sensitive information. But before he’d had a chance to make his decision, Harper was pushing the plate away.
“I’m going to head back,” he said. “Uh… thanks for the snack.”
Tyr inclined his head. “My pleasure.”
Harper slid off the stool and left. Tyr listened to Harper’s footsteps as they rounded the corner and paused in front of the elevator door. After that there was just the quiet reverberation of the elevator.
Tyr tried to put Harper out of his mind while he made final preparations for tomorrow’s meals.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hayden smelled like perfume and wine when he’d walked in the door from his meeting. He was drunk and fell asleep after a quick blowjob. Harper lay beside him and waited.
There was a thin slice of moonlight that cut across the ceiling and he stared at it but didn’t really see it.
His mind was elsewhere.
He remembered his first day here. The prospect of a hot meal and shower, a place to sleep and clean clothes was enticing but he knew what lay just beyond the veneer. It was a nice facade.
He’d lain awake like this every night since he’d arrived, straining to hear the brush of ocean that lay just outside the window.
The ocean had lured him more than anything else. He’d had fantasies of going swimming in that ocean but he’d learned to read people as a kid and he knew that Hayden wasn’t the sort to let his pet wander about during the day when he was off corrupting small and large businesses alike. So he’d never asked.
Harper had free run of the suite but that was all. And free was a misnomer if there ever was one because he couldn’t leave.
Yesterday he’d gotten bored of staring out at the ocean, engaging in one-sided conversations with the single spider plant hanging from the ceiling, listening to all of Hayden’s crappy music choices on the stereo, feeling his stomach rumble because he’d pissed Hayden off one too many times. The suite was bare, really. King-sized bed with pale sheets, pale cream walls with darker drapes and mouldings. There was nothing to do. So he decided to see if he could pick the lock. Just for fun.
Oh, the trouble he’d get into if he got caught. Meiko would flip out and kick him back to the streets where she’d found him. Hayden would hit the wall, and probably Harper’s face as well. But right then, the cabin fever grate at him so badly with the open water so close, that he couldn’t think of anything more tortuous.
So driven by hunger and boredom, he slipped out of bed and picked the lock with some crude makeshift tools with Hayden snoring fifteen feet away. He knew it would be safer at night. Daytime was unpredictable. Sometimes Hayden would drop by unexpectedly for a quick fuck or whatever was on his perverted mind. And at precisely two-thirty each day, a housekeeper would come in accompanied by two security guards to strip the sex-soiled bed and clothing and tidy up. Harper had tried to make conversation with them a few times while being cornered by one of the guards while the housekeeper worked but they barely acknowledged his existence. After a few days of that, Harper just stopped trying.
He’d often wondered if there were any more “pets” like himself. He’d never seen any, though he’d thought he’d heard both female and male voices in the suite next to his the first week, but after that, nothing.
He was lonely, there was no denying it.
The lock had clicked open on the first try.
~~~~~~
Harper sat up and slipped out from under the sheets. He couldn’t fool himself; he was headed downstairs to the kitchen and this time he wasn’t hungry. And he sure as hell hadn’t been thinking about Hayden when he went down on him.
He took the elevator from the eighth to the first floor. When he pushed the door open he was surprised to find Tyr cooking.
Tyr looked up and grinned while he sprinkled some seasoning on a fist sized slab of meat. Harper spotted a plate with a small scoop of rice and some veggies already on the counter. Tyr slid the meat onto the frying pan and gestured at the stool with his chin. Harper sat down. “How would you like your steak cooked?”
“Huh?” Harper’s stomach rumbled at the heavenly smells.
“How would you like it cooked?” Tyr repeated patiently. “Most people have a preference.”
Harper had no freaking idea. “Uh… make it the way you like it.”
“Medium rare it is,” Tyr said with a smile. He turned the meat over, artfully sloshed in some wine and shook the pan as a plume of fire arced up.
“I feel I should applaud or something,” Harper said, laughing as Tyr slid the steak onto his plate.
It was clean in a matter of minutes. Tyr had to admit that it was nice for a change to have someone enjoy the food he prepared instead of claiming to be a connoisseur of fine cuisine and leaving most of it behind like certain FTA officials.
“Yum,” Harper declared.
“There’s more,” Tyr said.
“More?”
Tyr went to the fridge and, reaching far in the back, pulled out a small plate with a slice of cake.
“Umm…” Harper nipped a bit of icing with his fork and licked it off. Tyr ignored the tingle in his spine that was in response to the sight of Harper’s tongue in action. “Mmm. What is this?”
“It’s chocolate cake. There was a leftover dish from lunch and I thought perhaps it would be a suitable accompaniment to your dinner.” In truth he’d hidden a slice of cake away in the fridge, but Harper didn’t need to know that.
“What wouldn’t go with chocolate?”
“My sentiments as well.”
Harper wolfed down the next few bites and looked up to find Tyr with a grin on his face.
“What?”
“Two things, really. One: you’ve got crumbs on your mouth.” Without thinking, he reached out and swiped away the crumbs with his fingers.
“Uh… thanks, I think.”
Tyr didn’t give himself time to be mortified, he plowed on and said, “And two… you’re supposed to enjoy it.”
“Huh?” Harper felt his brain glazing over.
“The cake. It’s meant to be savored.”
Harper laughed, breaking the tension. “You’re kidding, right? The longer I take to eat this, the more likely it is for someone to see me and want a piece of it or want to take it away from me.”
Tyr settled on his forearms, statement serious. “Nobody is going to take it away from you.”
Harper smiled at him and Tyr felt a flush from head to toe. “Not in here, maybe. But when my contract here is up, it’s back to Meiko’s. Not the worst place I could have ended up, but I know there’s better.”
“Is she…”
“Nice? I guess you could say that. She’s pretty picky about the customers but it’s not a nice business. It’s a living, if you can even call it that. If I could, I’d…” The rest of the sentence trailed off. Harper cleared his throat and pushed the last bite of cake around on the plate.
But Tyr’s interest had been piqued.
“If you could, you’d do what, Harper?”
“I’d fix things. I raid the Nietzschean trash piles on my days off… salvage parts, build some stuff, try to sell it. Something to supplement what I make doing… this. Meiko doesn’t mind if I try to make something extra on the side, as long as it doesn’t interfere with the cash flow. She doesn’t tell anyone where I get the parts because I’d be dead if the Dragons caught me and apparently it’s hard to get good help these days. But most people don’t ask for me because I can fix their autohamper.” He dropped his head in his hands. “Oh, man, I have no idea why I just told you that.”
“Harper…”
Harper put down the fork very carefully.
“I’m not going to tell anyone,” Tyr said.
Harper just stood there and stared at him.
“Is it always like this?” Tyr said, not making any sudden moves. He really didn’t want Harper to leave. Yes, a mudfoot. Yes, a genetically inferior being. But Tyr, who had become accustomed to the company of his Pride before they were slaughtered, had to admit it. He was becoming tired of this solitary lifestyle.
“What?”
“When someone makes an off-comment that reminds you of your past, do you always react so strongly?”
“You have no idea, Tyr. But it’s not your fault. I can’t talk about it. I’m too freaking repressed to tell anyone anything.”
“Pasts are… ugly things. But they make you who you are. And even if your past was unpleasant, Harper, you are not.” He gestured at the stool again but Harper shook his head.
“I can’t. I have to go. But… if I can get away tomorrow?”
Tyr nodded and Harper smiled and made his escape.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There was a message on the com from Room 212. Lobster. Wine.
Room 212. Feldane Hayden’s room. Harper’s room.
Tyr prepared the meal and headed upstairs. He wondered
if Harper would see any of this food and without consciously meaning to
he’d selected a larger lobster than he would have. In case Hayden couldn’t
finish the food, perhaps he would leave the leftovers for Harper.
Upstairs, Tyr could hear the strange noises all the way from the elevator alcove.
Sounds of clothing being removed, mouths being explored.
Harper whimpering.
And the sound of taut, pert flesh being smacked.
Tyr went to room 212 and knocked on the door. After a moment, Hayden answered it, stinking like alcohol and sweat and clad in only a loosely tied robe. The air was rife with the smells of sex. Tyr handed him the tray without a word… he was looking past Hayden to the bed and trying not to stare. Harper was on his elbows and knees with his forehead pressed against the mattress and his ass in the air which was livid with handprints.
Hayden kicked the door but it didn’t close all the way. Tyr glanced through the crack.
Hayden climbed back on the bed and hit Harper twice more before lining up behind Harper and plunging in.
Harper was taken by surprise and yelped as he sprawled on his stomach. Hayden grunted and dragged Harper’s hips back in the air.
Harper writhed in pleasure and cried out when Hayden finally fisted his cock with a few savage strokes.
The scent of Harper’s semen made Tyr hard.
Hayden drove into Harper’s ass again and again until he finally howled his release, coming hard and deep.
Hayden pulled out and swatted Harper’s butt.
“You’re such a good boy. It’s too bad you’re leaving tomorrow.”
“Yeah,” Harper said. “Too bad.”
Tyr stepped into the elevator and jabbed the first floor button, breathing hard. He had no desire to hear if there would be an encore to that… performance. He hadn’t found it arousing, he told himself. His erection was just a normal physiologic reaction and had nothing to do with the sight of Harper on his hands and knees.
Right.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Harper wriggled out from underneath Hayden and stood up. He felt dizzy and sore, and slightly guilty. The spanking had not been fun but Hayden got annoyed when Harper didn’t seem to enjoy whatever was being done to him. It had helped that Harper had taken a few sips from the first bottle of wine beforehand. Not to mention that the fantasies that Harper had been using lately had centred around Tyr. Using Tyr’s image to get off while Hayden pounded into his abused ass suddenly made him feel…dirty. Harper shivered and stumbled off to the bathroom.
The hot water hadn’t helped the ache in his ass; if anything it had made it worse. The wine and unfamiliar food sat heavily in his stomach. Harper muttered a curse and pulled on a robe. Spotting the second bottle of wine Hayden had ordered but barely touched Harper picked it up and downed half of it in one go. Putting the bottle back down, he took one more look over at Hayden just to make sure the fat bastard was deeply asleep and crept out. Harper wasn’t sure why but he felt like he really had to see Tyr.
He did wonder why the door was ajar, but didn’t give it much thought as he hurried to the elevator.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tyr glanced up as the door to the kitchen opened.
Harper was moving very gingerly.
“What’s wrong?”
Harper rolled his eyes. “Hayden decided he wanted to spank me. He liked spanking me. A lot.”
“You didn’t enjoy it, I presume.”
“Not one of my kinks. Never has been. I probably won’t be able sit properly for a week,” he laughed sadly.
Tyr could smell something else too, now that the stench of Hayden’s semen had been mostly washed away. “Harper… are you drunk?”
Harper leaned unsteadily against the counter. “Um… just a little bit. I think. He let me have a few sips. I’m just not used to the good stuff.”
Tyr went to the sill and picked up a large green plant with thick, tall leaves. He broke off a leaf and put the rest of the plant back on the sill.
“You didn’t tell him you don’t like it?”
Harper shrugged. “It doesn’t matter what I want.”
Tyr took a sharp knife and slit the leaf down the center and pulled the edges open. The inside of the leaf was glossy and syrupy. He scraped the goo into a bowl and put it in the ‘cooler for a minute. He took it out and handed it to Harper.
“Here. Put this on… the tender areas as often as you can.”
Harper blinked. “For me?”
“It’s used for burns, which is why I have some in the kitchen. But I suspect it’s also good for…”
“Well-spanked asses?”
Tyr sighed. “Yes.”
“Maybe I should put some on now. It kinda hurts.”
Tyr herded Harper down the hall and into his room. “You may use my room.”
Tyr shut the door and went back to the kitchen to prepare
a hangover remedy for Harper.
Tyr had plenty of practise at making hangover remedies: one of the favourite negotiating strategies of the FTA was to get your opponent drunk enough to concede something favourable. Tyr was pretty sure Harper wouldn’t like the taste of the blood-red concoction currently whizzing around in the blender, but he was sure it would sober him up.
Pouring it carefully into a cup Tyr made his way down the hall to his quarters where he found Harper struggling with the tie of his robe atop his bed. Tyr tried to suppress the sensual shiver that ran through him at the sight of Harper’s slim form sprawled over his blankets.
“That’s not going to do you any good in the bowl,” Tyr said, nodding at the untouched bowl of salve.
“Tied the damn knot too tight,” Harper slurred, rolling over and getting to his feet.
Harper managed to flash Tyr twice before Tyr finally put an arm around Harper’s waist and pulled the robe off for him. Tyr pushed the cup into Harper’s hands and Harper took a sip and grimaced.
“Drink it all,” Tyr said, as Harper wriggled a bit more, trying to ‘help’. He finally settled down but Tyr hardly noticed… he was staring at Harper’s back.
It was covered in scars. There were some which had faded to the golden tan of Harper’s skin but there were two bone white scars that had formed over wounds too deep and too cleverly inflicted to heal properly. Both arced from Harper’s left flank to right shoulder. Like from a whip or blade.
Harper started wriggling again. “Um…”
Tyr scooped up a handful of the gel and slathered it on Harper’s backside, gently rubbing it in, trying not to notice Harper was half-aroused. It was a combination of Tyr’s touch and the close contact, but the alcohol too, no doubt. Tyr slid the robe back on Harper’s shoulders and helped him onto the bed.
“Sleep if you can. I’ll wake you in a bit.”
Harper mumbled his agreement and flopped onto the bed. Tyr pulled the covers over him and left.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Harper came wandering into the kitchen about twenty minutes later, groggy, still walking stiffly, but no longer drunk. Much.
“I threw up in your bathroom. I hope you don’t mind…”
“Of course not.”
“…I kind of missed. I cleaned it up pretty much though. Just thought you should know.” Harper sank down on the stool, wincing. “Nice view from your window.”
“I’m certain it’s much more impressive from the eighth floor.”
Quick grin. “Not really. Sure you can see for miles but from here the ocean feels so close.”
Tyr, not sure what to make of that last comment, placed an enormous glass of juice and a piece of bread in front of him. “If you don’t think you can hold down the toast, drink the juice.”
Harper picked up the glass, holding it with both hands like a child. “Juice. Definitely juice.” He took a few sips. “Um, can I ask you something?”
“Certainly.”
Harper set down the glass and Tyr steadied his hands.
“Have you ever done anything that you hated but did it anyway because there wasn’t another choice?”
“Are you speaking rhetorically?”
“I’m not so naïve, Tyr. Just because I’ve been wearing nice clothes and I’ve seen the inside of a shower recently doesn’t change what I am.”
“And what’s that?”
“Rent boy. Fuck toy. Pet. I’ve heard them all.” He shrugged.
Tyr quirked an eyebrow. “May I still call you Harper?”
“Like I said, it doesn’t matter.”
“Names are more important than you realize.”
“I don’t think he even knows my name. Which is a good thing.” Harper picked up the glass again and this time took a gulp. “Look, I should go. I’m sorry about all this. I dunno why I came down here, I’m not really at my best right now.”
“That’s all right: you don’t have to behave yourself around me.”
“I never behave. I’d still better go though. If I don’t sleep this off I won’t be all pretty and spankable tomorrow.” Harper smiled wryly and slid off the stool. “Thanks for the salve, and for not taking advantage when you had my ass in your hand.”
Tyr opened his mouth to reply but Harper was gone.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~