CHAPTER 2

Okay guys, so I've got two votes already and they're both in favor of Valentin (Vali), so there you go, it's OFFICIAL fellas, Romania's name is decided!

After a brief dinner Gilbert had retreated to his room, on the edge of his nerves, dreading this whole mystery surrounding the Sultan's decision to reward him, as he couldn't fend off a vague feeling that it was something foul involved in it. He walked up and took Gilbird - his little canary - out of its cage and played with it for a while rather absentmindedly, but that failed to make him feel any less uneasy. After some more time, he just flung himself onto his bed and laid there with his eyes closed.

It was almost midnight when the door suddenly swung open and the Prussian, who had almost dozed off in the meantime, jumped up to his feet at the sight of the Administrator Murat. A cold shudder crept down his spine, remembering the first time the fat, powdered courtier had barged in on him like this, shortly after his arrival, to search his room. Gilbert had shouted at the man and had demanded to be treated according to his rank, only to have the tip of a riding crop placed promptly under his nose. The non-believer would do better to keep his mouth shut if he did not want to be dragged outside and be given a beating in front of all the servants, Murat had warned coldly, and that was the moment when Gilbert had fully understood just how precarious his position was here. And so, he naturally assumed that the Administrator's presence could mean nothing good.

"In his majestic generosity, His Greatness the Sultan sends you this servant as a gift," Murat recited monotonously, "He's a Valah (A/N – Romanian) prisoner of war. He is very educated, speaks several languages, writes poetry, plays the flute and knows how to wield a sword…"

Gilbert cleared his throat, which felt suddenly dry.

"So… he is to be my secretary?" he took the opportunity to ask while the Administrator had paused to assess the effect of his words, even though said servant had not yet come into view.

A smirk played on the Turk's lips for a brief moment before he answered. "He is to be your servant and whatever else you wish him to be. His skills, his body and his life now belong to you…" He made a calling gesture and two Janissaries appeared, forcefully dragging a young man into the room.

"However," Murat went on, "despite his many qualities, he is also extremely rude, rebellious, disobedient and cheeky. His Greatness has expressed the hope that you will be able to handle him, and thus succeed where others have failed…"

The Prussian simply stood there, silent. He didn't like this at all, especially the way in which the Administrator had uttered the word 'handle'. But he knew that a refusal, irrespective of how polite he chose to phrase it, would be an offence to the Sultan and it would almost certainly result in punishment.

"And now," the Turk said, gingerly turning to the boy, "Valentin, I hope you have understood your instructions!"

Gilbert eyed the newcomer with curiosity. He was a tad shorter than him, his body lithe bordering skinny, had a very pale but almost unearthly handsome face, and eyes the same color as his own, shadowed by long bangs of strawberry blonde hair.

His careful observation was rather abruptly interrupted when the Romanian shouted something in a language unknown to the Prussian and spat right into Murat's powdered face. One of the Janissaries promptly moved and punched him in the face, and Gilbert flinched at the sound of cracking bones. The Administrator murmured profanities, wiping his face with an embroidered handkerchief, then made another calling gesture. The Janissaries shoved Valentin down on his knees at the silver haired man's feet.

"Come on now, kiss the hem of your Master's clothes" Murat instructed, his voice seeping with anger, pushing the tip of his crop between the young man's shoulder blades.

The Romanian pushed a strand of hair behind his ear and snorted back some of the blood that was gushing from his broken nose, then reached for the hem of Gilbert's black velvet coat and reluctantly brought it to his lips.

"Thank you… I-I'm very grateful to His Greatness for his gift…" the Prussian finally mumbled, taking a deep bow, and secretly sighed in relief when he noticed that the Administrator looked pleased with his answer.

"Very good then!" Murat concluded. "Oh and be careful… he bites…"

With another devious smirk, the Turk was gone, carefully closing the door in his wake. Gilbert was left standing in the middle of the small room, feeling utterly inane, while his new servant had retreated to a corner and was leaning against a wall with his arms crossed, pressing his bleeding nose with a piece of cloth he'd fished out of his pocket.

"What the hell?"

The Prussian cast a glance around the room, inspecting the fine carvings that adorned the walls, and feeling himself getting more and more worked up by the second.

"They're watching us, aren't they?" he shouted again. "He is watching, yeah?"

Somewhere in the back of his mind Gilbert knew that, since he was never away from prying eyes and ears, throwing a tantrum was a very bad idea, but now he just couldn't hold it back anymore. His fingers worked furiously to unbuckle his belt that suddenly felt too uncomfortable to wear and he threw it on the floor, along with his sheathed sword, and they hit the carpet with a dull thud.

"So… Valentin, is it? You were given instructions," he spat, "tell me, what am I supposed to do with you, huh? Fuck you against my desk while His Greatness is watching and stuffing his face with sweets?" he added pointing to the small piece of furniture on which he kept his papers.

"Is that what you want to do?" The Romanian snorted some more, but his voice was blunt and emotionless.

"Ha! When was this ever about what I want?" the silver haired prince jumped. "Because if it were, you wouldn't be here at all! I have no need of an additional someone to stare at me! Heaven forbid, they must have thought that I was enjoying too much privacy! It wasn't enough that I can't take a bath, I can't even take a fucking piss in this damned place without someone being around! Some reward this is, not that I was in need of his fucking rewards in the first place!"

It was late and Gilbert was tired, his little outburst had left him feeling all drained. Without any further words, he slid the coat off his shoulders and tossed it on the back of his chair, then flung himself onto the bed and turned his back on the other boy, pulling the covers over his head.

The Prussian had barely slept for a short while, yet he woke up again. He was still tired, but the nervousness that was upon him refused to let him rest. Now his anger had positively melted into fear. What the hell was the meaning of the Sultan's gift? What was expected of him? He had better figure this out soon or else… Gilbert had quickly learned that – especially as a hostage – a lot of bad things could happen to someone in this place. One could be beheaded, or impaled, or tortured to death. Or tortured period. Or whipped in public. It all depended on how much the Ottomans hated them, or on the nature of their offence. But there was also a rumor that as a hostage, especially if you were young, you could have the further misfortune of being bedded by high ranking courtiers and even by the Sultan himself against your will. And that thought alone turned his stomach more than everything else.

The silver haired boy shifted in his bed, glancing down at the servant who had fallen asleep curled up onto the floor, using his long coat as a cover. A pang of guilt shot through him at the sight, but his bed was so small that he himself had to be careful not to turn in his sleep and fall down, not to mention that he could barely stretch his legs properly. In fact, the whole damned room was so small and cramped that they lay pretty close to one another as it was. Anyway, said servant happened to be very attractive, he pondered. Gilbert was into both men and women, so he could tell. But he would have never forced himself on someone, a thing which he was convinced that the Sultan had no problem doing. It was very strange then how this young man, who was also a non-believer, had been given to him, of all people. Well, it was obvious that he was not exactly the compliant type, but it wasn't like they couldn't have broken him if they wanted, they had effective ways…

'His Greatness has expressed the hope that you will be able to handle him, and thus succeed where others have failed…' Do they want me to break him, to bring him to obedience? Yes… force me to do this, to hurt another non-believer, what better way to humiliate us both…?

Well the Prussian resolved that he wasn't going to do that. If they'd given the Romanian as his servant, fine, he would treat him as such. He would put him to work, give him chores, coerce him to do his duties if he had to, although he really hoped it wouldn't be necessary. And he would just play dumb for all the rest. He hadn't been with anyone since he'd gotten here so no one knew his preferences anyway. With these soothing thoughts he finally drifted off to much needed sleep…

The break of dawn and the hour when his daily duties usually started came around much too soon for the still exhausted Prussian, and he cursed, struggling to drag himself out of the bed. Recalling the events of the previous night, a groan escaped his lips, realizing that he wasn't alone in his room anymore. God, that was totally not awesome, in fact it was down straight awkward… Deciding that he had to face it, so the sooner the better, he sat up and glanced around the room, still blinking sleepily. And that was when the awkwardness suddenly turned into terror – Valentin was gone.

So, um… yeah… that's more like a chapter than the first one! :))) I have to say I'm so thrilled with the reviews and the follows, I'm a total addict, so well, after 'snorting' my daily dose I got to work :))))) So let me know what you think!