Title: Rain Without Thunder And Lightning
Rating: M
Word Count: 2,500
Characters: Kurt Hummel, David Karofsky, Blaine Anderson, Emma Pillsbury, Sue Sylvester. (No OCs)
Pairings: Kurtofsky, Klaine. Background Brittana, Blainemiah, Finchel, Quick, Tartie
Warnings: Slavery, Dub-Con (due to the slave/master situation) and implied adult/minor sexual relations. (These are all I can think of, if I missed any please tell me)
Author's Note: The author in no way condones slavery or any other practice that limits the natural rights entitled to any human being.
Author's Note 2: Although this is my first attempt at Slave!fic and Glee, I've once before written a fanfic with no dialogue set during a long course of time, as an experiment, drawing also from Neil Gaiman's 'Coming To America'. I've attempted to reproduce in this one. It wasn't until I'd finished this chapter that he remembered once reading a Klaine slave!fic in which Kurt originally belongs to the Fabray's. It's an honest mistake and in no way an attempt to copy someone else's work.
Disclaimer: Glee and anything else you may recognize do not belong to me. The title comes from a quote by Frederick Douglass.
It's one of those things that people prefer to ignore, and simply regard as a part of life. It's not even called slavery. That's too harsh a word. There are no slaves in America. There are servants who aren't paid for their labor, but then again, there always have been.
When queries are fearfully brought up on the ethics of such a system, the Government replies that those men and woman have debts that they can't pay back. It's a completely legal practice, as the proud politicians of Washington smugly boast in their pressed suits.
The ones that question the fate of the children who are born in slavery receive a confusing answer, riddled with legalities and red tape. They all give up eventually and go back to their lives, the lump in their throats easing little by little until the desire of justice vanishes.
87523 is on his third name. The first one was Chris, but he can't really be sure, since it was his name only until he was five.
The first five years of his life were quite peaceful. He doesn't remember much from that time, but he knows that he had a mother with brown hair. He remembers walking with her, taking the longest path from the Master's house to hang the laundry up to dry, so that his mother could share a look with the Master's blue-eyed chauffeur, who answered with a soft smile.
He remembers other things, like the Master's youngest daughter. A sad little girl, chubby and lonely. She was around his age but they never talked much. The Fabray's were careful never to mingle with the servants beyond what was strictly necessary. Still, the younger slaves had it better, sitting on the floor in the dining room, waiting for Mistress Fabray's dainty hand to pick up a piece of food from her plate, and passing it to their waiting hands.
It was only when he was older that he realized that they were treating the younger servants like dogs. At the moment, though, no one cared. They only cared about the delicious piece of filet held in their Mistress' perfectly manicured fingers.
The part of his life in which he was called Chris ended when he was five. He didn't understand the reason why his mother's salty tears fell on his head as she hugged him tightly, mumbling words he couldn't make out, like she was trying the choke him, to take him out of this world that wanted to separate them. She let him go, though, brushing back his chestnut fringe with calloused fingers and looking at him with eyes that were too blurred from tears to see anything.
He supposes that the Master had to cut back on the expenses. That meant selling the servants that were too young to work. The back of the truck they were put in smelled of animals and rot. More than one of the children screamed for someone to let them out, that they were scared. No one came. Almost all of them cried. Chris did neither of those things.
The center was cold and efficient. Too cold to house human beings. A plastic bracelet was placed around their wrists, their identification number bold against the white background. Each of them were lead to a small separate cage. Chris had his small height in his favor in that situation, being able to curl up in the cage with the standard-issued grey blanket. That night, when the florescent lights went out, Chris cried silently.
He was bought five days later, following a medical examination that had left him standing, naked and shivering, under the eyes of the facility's doctor and his potential new owner. When he was five, he became Cameron, a house servant.
His new Masters were very wealthy, much more than the Fabray's. They didn't produce anything there, though. Their estate was made of an enormous mansion, and carefully tended gardens. His new Master smiled a lot, but Kurt remembers seeing a man be whipped for stealing a trinket, months after he arrived.
The fifteen crisscrossed gashes and the blood running down his back served as a warning to Cameron, even though it was not intended for him, specifically. He would never allow himself to be put in that situation if he could help it. He did whatever chores he was assigned as quickly as he could. He ate only the portions of food he was given and he never said no to anything his Master required of him.
Nine years passed quickly and with little trouble.
They ended when his Mistress caught Master Remington trying to sneak into his room at exactly two in the morning, for his weekly visit to Cameron's bed. He was sold in a week.
The center was still as cold and impersonal as it had been nine years ago. This time he was put in another section, with slightly bigger cages. He was sold quickly, but it was little surprise. He was healthy and obedient. A model servant.
The medical examination was more difficult this time around. As a five year old, things are much simpler and the only major inconvenience of standing naked under the doctor's eyes was the cold draft, present in every inch of the facility. As a fourteen year old, along with the cold, he had to deal with the shame and discomfort felt when the doctor weighed his testicles in his latex gloved hands.
He wasn't built to be a field servant, but he mastered all the tasks of a house servant. That was enough for the tall woman with short, blond hair to deem him adequate to take home with her.
He was fourteen when he became Kurt.
The new estate is a bigger version of the Fabray's. There were fields as far as the eye can see and the Master's house, stark white against the green fields. He kept his mouth shut as he sat in the car next to blond woman, who had introduced herself as Sue Sylvester. She also mentioned something about a General Zod before scoffing at his confused expression and turning at her heel, hollering for Liza to get moving.
He looked around before realizing that 'Liza' was most likely him and quickly followed the frightening woman to her car.
87523 became Kurt during a car ride with a strange woman. Out of all the names she swung at him, Kurt was the one that stuck for the longer part of the three-hour ride, due to a resemblance to one of those singing Von Trapp brats. Well, it was either that or Porcelain.
The Anderson estate is different from the Remington's and more like a larger version of the Fabray's. One thing that distinguishes it is the limited presence of their Masters. During his first year there, they don't even visit and as such there are almost no house servants. Other than himself, there's a red-headed woman with doe eyes and an inability to stop scrubbing any surface marred by the slightest hint of filth. Sue Sylvester called her an orangutan, whilst she introduced herself as Emma.
Along with a tall blond girl his age with a vacant expression called Brittany, the three of them make up the house staff, although, as he learns in the first days, it's not unusual for the field servants and the house servants to work with each other when the need arises. One of the field girls, Santana, can be often found around the house with Brittany, watching the blond with hearts in her eyes, though Heaven forbid someone to comment.
Kurt adapts. He does his work, sometimes helping in the fields, and he forges some friendships with the field servants, like the beautiful Mercedes, and even a short-lived crush on a tall, handsome and quite dim young man who calls himself Finn, and is always followed around by a tiny girl named Rachel with an extraordinary voice.
During most of the year, Sue Sylvester rules the estate with an iron fist. And she continues to do so during the very short periods that the Masters are present. Master Anderson is a handsome, tall man in his fifties who seems to be surgically attached to his cell-phone. Mistress Anderson, on the other hand, is a giggly, smiling woman who spends too much time circling the liquor cabinet. Poor Emma is nearly reduced to tears every time she's around.
According to Emma, they have a son at boarding school, but Kurt soon realizes that no one talks about the youngest Anderson. Not even his parents. Anyways, it's none of his business, he thinks, as the bleach he's scrubbing the floor with burns his hands.
A year after he's been bought he meets Dave. He's bought during the last week of the Master's stay to work in the fields. They don't talk much at first. Kurt's the small domestic servant and Dave's the burly field worker. Their paths hardly cross, but after a few months, he starts feeling eyes following him when he wanders out of the house.
It doesn't take him long to figure out whom those eyes belong to, but he doesn't approach him, either. He's learned not to get too involved with anyone.
Of course, that changes when Dave kisses a surprised Kurt behind the servant's quarters. The kiss is hard and desperate. He draws back, making a sound that resembles a wounded animal, staring at his blue eyes before going in again for another kiss. Kurt doesn't stop him, but he doesn't respond, either, standing as still as a statue against the chapped lips of the burlier servant.
Dave breaks the kiss and stares at the immobile man, before quickly running away, the laundry still at Kurt's feet where it had fallen.
He stays away from Kurt for about three weeks, before coming back, looking an awful lot like a kicked puppy. At first, it's just acknowledging Kurt. That's followed by his presence in the house, to bringing in sacks of flour and anything else the house needs. Those were chores that had always been performed, but never as often by the same person, which led to Mercedes looking at him with a knowing smirk.
He finds himself unable to deny anything when Dave brings him a sad, little bouquet of daisies one day. The daily gifts of flowers plucked on the way to the house continue for a week until Kurt kisses him by the backdoor.
A month of stolen kisses and small smiles pass before they manage to sneak away from Sue's eyes, during lunch break. They come back from the barn just two minutes before the end of the break looking barely put together and sated. Kurt's better at hiding his emotions but Dave sports a wide grin, which leads to knowing smirks from everyone else.
Over the following months, they became a topic that everyone's aware of but no one mentions. This suits them both fine, as they are both reserved people. Besides, Kurt relishes the companionship and the way Dave treats him as though he were a precious thing. The house servant realized quickly that the taller man had not had sex many times before. He manages to drag the truth out of him some weeks later, with Dave admitted that he had never slept with another man before, only female servants his previous Master had paired him with.
Dave says he managed to do what he was told, even though they were awkward situations for him, with the girls' raised eyebrows etched in his memory. Kurt kisses him and Dave smiles and claims this is much better.
He wonders if Dave ever impregnated any of those girls. He decides not to ask.
There's a minor scandal that year, when the same chubby little girl Kurt knew as Lucy, and now called Quinn, is sent away from of her family. Theories fly around and no one's certain of anything.
It coincides with the arrival of a servant named Puck at the Anderson estate, with a heavily scarred back.
Some months later, Quinn Fabray returns to her family home and the matter is never discussed again.
A few months later, Kurt realizes that he let himself delude himself regarding his situation. He was a servant, nothing more. It's then that the youngest Anderson first makes an appearance in his life.
Blaine Anderson was a very handsome and charming young man. Rachel quickly forgets her infatuation with Finn when the young heir asks for her to sing for them at dinner, after hearing her do so while she working outside.
Suzy, the mousy young servant Master Blaine takes home with himself quickly destroys any hopes Rachel had for a relationship with the Master by informing her that the young man had other inclinations.
Inclinations that were proven the following week, when Kurt's awoken from his slumber at two in the morning by a knocking at his door. It's not painful like it was that first time with Master Remington, so long ago. Master Blaine knows what he's doing, as he gathered from the story a gleeful Suzy told them about a shopkeeper near his boarding school.
But it's not like it is with David, either, even when the larger boy was still getting familiar with his body and didn't really know what he was doing.
Neither one of his Masters see anything but a body. David sees him.
He remembers hearing Brittany once say that it's better with feelings. He didn't understand at the time, but now he replays that sentence in his head as he stares at the ceiling and Master Blaine grunts into his neck.
That same summer, the higher classes are shocked when 25-year old Artie Abrams, after being given his half of the family fortune, frees the servant who had been caring for him for years and marries her in a quiet ceremony.
His peers are astounded when he introduces the lovely woman on his arm as Mrs. Tina Abrams and waits for them to great her as though they were equals.
An activist by the name of William Shuester sends them his most heartfelt congratulations.
The following day, Kurt tells Dave what happened that night, burdened with an unexplainable feeling of guilt.
Dave first looks betrayed, then helpless and finally angry. Angry at Kurt, for hurting him, angry at Master Blaine, for taking what is his by right, angry at himself for not being able to do anything against it. In the end, he settles for being angry at the world.
He stalks off without a word and doesn't look at Kurt for the rest of the morning. Comes the lunch break, he grabs him by the wrist and drags him away to the barn. In the end, Dave hides his face in the crook of Kurt's and the shorter man runs his fingers through his dark hair and pretends he doesn't notice the tears.
AN: Reviewing is caring