A PRICELESS DIAMOND (count cain fanfiction - CaRi)
The room was almost completely dark, one single candle burning, leaving most of the bedroom in a pitch-black cold state.
Softly the door opened and a young handsome man walked in, holding a younger boy in his arms, trying his best not to harm him more than he was already harmed.
"Hang in there, sir" He whispered to the boy, "It'll be alright."
Carefully he laid his master on the bed and gently stroke some hair out of his pale face.
This had happened many times before, but he still couldn't help but worry about him. Every time the boy went out without him, he worried. Most of the time he actually gave him a good reason to get worried sick about.
"Please try to get some sleep, sir." The young man said and walked away to get some water and towels to wash the blood from the boy's body
When he came back and started to unclothe his young master, two beautiful golden eyes studied all of his movement.
"You shouldn't worry so much, Riff." The boy softly said, "It's not healthy to do so."
The young man looked up for a second and sighed, "It wouldn't be healthy if I didn't worry either, sir." He looked back at what he was doing without looking up again.
While he gave him some medicine and started to wash the blood of his body, he completely avoided looking into the boy's eyes.
The boy softly groaned when Riff washed his bruised arms and said, "Yes it would be."
The pain in his voice was clearly audible, and Riff knew this wasn't just from his bodily harm, but also from the mental wounds he got in his short life.
"It would be, because I'm not worth worrying about..."
The man looked up and dropped his towel without caring where it went to and turned red.
"If you say that one more time," He said, with a desperate voice "I'll see myself obliged to show you how valuable you are to some people, sir."
The boy smiled a sad smile, which made him moan from pain. At the sound of the boy, Riff continued to nurse him, while desperately searching for words to comfort him, to show him how valuable he precisely was. How valuable he was to him.
"You're wrong sir, you are the..." The man started, but he couldn't say it. For god's sake! This was his master, he was his servant. Saying something like that, he would get in trouble and he didn't want to get fired. He didn't want to get separated from this boy.
"What am I, Riff?" The boy asked, wondering why his servant had cut off his sentence like that.
"It's nothing sir, absolutely nothing." Riff didn't look up, hoping that the red on his cheeks would stay unnoticed in this darkness, but the boy had already seen it.
"If it's nothing, then why do you blush?" He asked kindly, "Am I doing that badly, that you don't want to tell me? No I don't think so." He smiled a little evil smile and said, "No, you wouldn't blush if I was that wounded, so speak up."
The man turned away, trying to avoid what he had wanted to say, trying to avoid that he would really say 'You're wrong sir, you are the most valuable person I know.'
"Riff, speak up." The boy ordered and the man looked over his shoulder.
Unfortunately he couldn't think of a way to get away from this boy, out of this room without telling him something.
"You are very valuable, sir, that's what I wanted to say." He softly whispered, while he looked at the towel in his hands.
"I'm not valuable, Riff." The golden eyes looked at his back and the man felt him looking at him, like he always felt what the boy was doing without seeing. "My father made that already clear to me, so did my mother, they made it all clear."
The young man turned around and what he saw made him curse the boy's parents.
On the bed lay the boy, shiny in the candlelight. If the situation wasn't like this, Riff would have thought of him as beautiful. His hair glanced in the soft light and his eyes seemed from pure, melted gold, shining like twinkling stars. But the man didn't think of him as beautiful this time, because he knew the glance and shine from those eyes were from tears. Tears that shouldn't have been shed. Tears that wouldn't have been cried if it was up to Riff.
"Cain." He softly whispered while he rushed towards the boy.
The boy wrapped his arms around the man and pulled him nearer. His head lent on his shoulder and tears left a wet spot on his shirt. The young man softly strokes his hair for a moment and sighed while he broke away from the boy.
"You're more valuable than you can imagine, Cain." He said "Never think of yourself as less than you truly are."
The boy looked up at the young man and tears were still rolling from his eyes. "Why do you keep saying that?" He shook his head and started to scream. "I can't stand you! Stop lying! Don't try to comfort me with your sweet talk when you don't mean shit of it!" He looked at the man who was wondering why this sudden outburst.
"Cain calm down." He said, trying his best not to take him in his arms and to hold him close, but he couldn't. He was still his servant and he was his master.
The room was almost completely dark...only one single candle was burning, leaving most of the bedroom in a pitch-black cold state.
In bed was a young boy... his face was pale and he was covered with blood. He shouted like hell to the man who was nursing him, making him blush while he didn't know he was hurting him this much.
Suddenly Cain himself realised that he was screaming and lowered his voice.
"If I'm that valuable Riff, then tell me why I would've been treated that way. Go! Leave me alone!" The boy looked at the young man and he saw that he was not attempting to leave. "Just go! I'm not worth all of this! Not you're loyalty, your concern! Just leave me alone and go!"
Riff looked at the boy without blinking his eyes and bowed his head.
"Stop yelling like that, Cain." He softly said, while he desperately tried to sound normal.
Somehow the young man was able to hide that he was being torn apart from the inside... Like those words kept echoing in his mind, making him lose concentration, making him deaf for the real world. The only thing he could hear were Cain's words over and over again.
'I'm not worth your worrying about...'
'I'm not valuable, my father made that clear to me...'
'So did my mother!'
'If I'm that valuable, then tell me why I would've been treated that way!'
'I'm not worth all of this!'
'Not you're loyalty, your concern!'
'Just leave me alone and go!'
Somewhere Riff realised Cain started to yell again, he heard the pain in his voice echoing in his mind. He didn't hear the words that were said, he only heard the pain, the loneliness, but most off all, the consequences of those years of trashing, the consequences of years living without any love in his life... only hate.
Suddenly Riff bowed towards the younger boy and in that fraction of a second it became completely silent in the almost dark room. While both waited for what would come to happen.
Outside the wind made the leaves rustle, killing the silence in the room. The candle started flickering in the draught of the sudden wind. In the room, shadows flashed over the walls, making it all scary... as scared as Riff felt like.
The second he bowed down, he knew he shouldn't do this, but he didn't care. All this time, he'd loved his master. In the beginning just as a servant loves a master, later as a friend, now as a beloved one. No matter if this was right or not, he was tired of waiting, watching, not being able to hold him in his arms when he felt like doing this. He was tired of not being able to show his affection to his most beloved person.
Softly their lips touched each other and both shivered.
Even if they are servant and master, Riff's deep feelings were not unanswered.
"..." The boy looked at the young man with eyes that resembled 2 huge golden plates. Carefully he swept a little blond lock away to see Riff's face completely.
"..." Riff looked down on the boy and blushed. "Sorry..."
The moment he tried to turn away, to hide his high red colour, the boy stopped him, by pulling him nearer.
"Don't apologise..." The boy smiled a careful smile, ignoring the new tears rolling over his face...
Suddenly, without either of them realised what happened, they lied on the bed, Riff on top of his master.
"Never apologise when you kiss me..." The boy said, just before he kissed the man's soft mouth again.
The moment Riff realised what was happening, he pulled away and tried to get from the bed... He couldn't do this, the boy was wounded, and he was still his master. Most of all... he'd given him medicine that could make him lose the ability to think straight...
"Riff, please don't run..." The boy looked at the man and tears still rolled down over his face. "Please don't leave me..."
"Why would I be going, sir?" Riff answered, trying to sound normal, while he continued to wash the blood of the boy's body.
The boy bowed his head for a moment, while he wondered why the man would... then he started to cry out loud.
"Because I said that you'd better go. Because I said I'm not worthy of your support...Because you deserve a far more better master then me!" He cried, giving the young servant a huge shock...
He'd heard him telling him this, but even though he'd heard it, he hadn't realised the boy truly meant it. Suddenly he got an idea and he kneeled down by the boy.
"Then, if you think like this, why don't you want me to go?" He asked.
The boy blushed and bowed his head, trying to find a reason not to answer.
"Why don't you want me to go?" Riff asked again, while he turned the boy's face towards his.
The boy was pale, with on his cheeks was a little blush to be seen. His hair was rumpled and his clothes were blood red, but still... It was totally clear to Riff that the boy was serious, no matter what kind of medicine he'd given him... this was Cain, with a total ability to think straight.
"Because..." Cain suddenly looked up; his eyes wet from tears, with a vast emotion in it...
"Because I don't know what I'd do without you!" Cain grabbed Riff's arms his eyes seemed to beg for some reply... a word, a sentence, no matter what...
"Because I can't live without you!" Suddenly Cain withdrew himself from Riff's arms, his hands in front of his mouth, his face red and his eyes wide with humiliation.
The world turned around in front of Riff's eyes... He'd always known he meant a lot for the boy, but he'd never even thought that he'd be the only thing to keep him alive...
Carefully Riff took the boys face in his hands and kissed him softly, making him silent in less than a second. Slowly the world became normal again, without a spinning feeling, without anyone shouting, with only the two of them...
After some time, the young man looked in the two huge golden eyes and smiled a little, moving a lock of hair out of the boy's face.
"Your parents were nuts, thinking that you're worthless, Cain..." He softly whispered to the boy. "Everyone with eyes can see that you're a priceless diamond..."
The boy closed his eyes and sighed, while Riff gently licked the tears from his face.
"They were?" He asked, wondering if the servant meant what he'd said.
"You don't leave a diamond when you see one, do you Cain?" The man softly answered; happily that he could finally tell him what he thought... what he felt...
Softly he turned the boy's face towards his and kissed him for another time. This time he was even gentler, warmer, more loving than before.
"Hmmm..." Cain looked up with curiosity written all over his face, "So you're staying?" He asked, hoping the answer would be truly yes.
"I promised before, Cain, I'll never leave you. No matter what..." The man embraced his master for a last time, surprised that the boy answered it by putting his arms around him for a moment, but also relieved that he didn't have to leave... "I'll never leave you..."
The boy smiled, "So you promised..."
Riff released the boy from his arms and took a new towel from the table. Softly he continued to wash and nurse the boy, happy that he could still be with him, knowing they both loved each other, knowing he would be able to love him even more now...
"But I'm not priceless, Riff" Cain suddenly said to him.
The man didn't look up to him, he just simply said: "Yes you are, sir... To me you are, and that tells me enough about how priceless you are..."
Cain smiled and for a second he laid his hand on the man's arm, feeling happy with his servant being nearby, being there for him.
"You never change, do you?" He whispered before he closed his eyes and fell in a deep, warm sleep...
The night had passed, the sun had come. Even though they had separated for the night, they woke together, as one.
On the bed lied a young boy, his arms in bandages, his body, dressed in a pyjama. Underneath the pillows was a young man, his arms around the boy, wondering what was so cold against his skin?
Slowly Cain opened his eyes a little, his thoughts wandering through his mind, thinking about his servant.
In an instant the eyelashes flew open, and he sat up in shock... Why was he on this bed? Why wasn't he in his own room? And why in God's name was Riff in the same bed?
The boy looked at all the pillows around him. They sure were nice and soft, but he couldn't lie back down, could he? It was his servant; he couldn't do such a thing...or could he... had he already done such a thing?
The boy moaned... he got to be kidding... no way... couldn't he have... Why didn't he remember anything... was it that ... bad?
Suddenly the pile of pillows moved and the arms pulled him back down.
"Don't go... cold... warmth..." he heard the man whispering, without hearing his whole sentence. Slowly he removed some pillows, trying not to touch the other's body...
"Speak louder if you're buried underneath a couple of pillows, Riff"
In an instant the pillows were removed and Riff sat straight up, next to the younger boy.
"Oh... my... god..."His face went totally pale when he looked at Cain. "NO!"
Riff jumped out of bed and started to walk up and down his room with his hands in his hair, while saying it couldn't be.
Cain lied back in the meanwhile and looked at the servant he adored so much.
"So what happened? I can't remember a thing..." Cain looked at Riff and smiled shyly, "Did we... do anything foolish?"
Riff stopped walking abruptly and looked at Cain with a pale face.
"I don't know either... I can't even remember that you came here last night..." He shook his head and sat down on the sole chair in his room.
It was quiet and both of them looked at the floor... what happened? Had they done something that they shouldn't have?
Suddenly the door opened and a maid walked in. She looked at her master and at Riff and nodded with a blush on her cheeks. Then she started to clean the room without paying any further attention to both of the red headed human beings.
Riff looked at Cain and wondered. Why wasn't she surprised at them being together in one room, without their normal clothes on?
He coughed.
"Ummm, excuse me, but this isn't what you think it is..." Riff said and the maid turned towards him.
"No, of course it isn't." She said with a know-all grin on her face.
Cain looked up and said the same as Riff and the girl nodded.
"Of course not, master." Then she turned away and walked out of the door, leaving two embarrassed males in the bedroom.
For a second time, it was all quiet in the room, until Riff suddenly looked up, hitting his head with both his hands.
"No, it can't be..." He looked at Cain, lying in his bed, looking adorable like always and he realised it truly WAS possible... no matter how much he would deny it...
"Cain?" He said, wondering if he should ask it.
Cain looked up with sleepy eyes, wondering why he'd waken him from that pleasant dream, until he found out it wasn't a dream.
"What? What is it?"
Riff looked at the boy and again he realised how much he loved him...
"What if... it really... did... happen?" He said, with a high red colour on his face.
"I don't know." Cain said and smiled a little, "Would you be that upset if it happened?"
Riff blushed and decided he would answer by truth.
"No not really I guess..."
Cain looked up and smiled a shy smile.
"Me neither..." He walked towards Riff and put his arms around him.
"So what's the problem?"
Slowly Cain pulled Riff's face closer and kissed him. He'd wanted to do that for a while, and he was happy to notice Riff also agreed with it.
Carefully they helped each other in the bed and enjoyed finally being together. Together they enjoyed the pleasures they could give each other...
In the meanwhile, the the head of the maids walked around the kitchen. She slowly looked up and wondered. Was it really okay that she'd put the master in Riff's bed? He was so cold, and riff would take care of his wild movements while he was asleep. She was sure about it. She'd made the best choice. She didn't get Riff awake, he was too fast asleep, but it was alright. Nothing would happen with the master if he was by Riff's side, would there?
She sighed, happy with her decision that it was the wisest thing she could've done.