Be My Escape
By: Ceriadara
Kai Hiwatari is a nineteenth-century aristocrat shrouded in mystery. Rei Kon is a foreign, exotic slave who happens to be Kai's birthday present. Yuri Ivanov and Boris Kuznetsov are just troublemakes. KaRe, YuBo Yaoi
Everything had fallen dark, and it was all that he could do to remember to breathe.
The room was suffocating, filled with almost unbearable heat and humidity.
He couldn't remember how long he had been trapped inside of this hell – the moments of his capture played over and over in his head, like a nightmare.
He saw the swords of the soldiers flashing in the bright sunlight.
He watched as his sister dropped her basket and ran towards him, her tiny arms outstretched, reaching –
Silver flashed and steel was flung through her back.
A crimson liquid fell onto the ground, starkly contrasting the gentle white flowers that lay everywhere.
He had frozen, he had not wanted to move, he could not believe it, he would not believe it –
She was only five years old -!
He had gone limp in the soldiers' arms, only coming back to himself when he was being shoved into a tight wooden box like some animal. He glanced down to see a child's small, frightened face, and he saw his sister. Ignoring the wetness on his cheeks, he reached out on impulse and took his tiny hand in his own and pulled her close.
He felt her heart fluttering against her ribcage – thumpthumpthump – quick and darting as a sparrow. He held her close as darkness enveloped them.
All sense of time had left him.
He could have been in the box for hours, for days, for seconds – all he knew was that the tiny hand in his was clammy, chilled, and falling limp. He leaned his forehead against the rough wood and he sobbed quietly.
What was this?
Rei Kon bolted up from his mat on the floor. He heard a ceramic crash and felt a wave of cool liquid wash over his hand, followed swiftly by a sharp stinging pain. Cursing in his native tongue, he glanced over, pulling his hand up.
The small, earthy ceramic bowl was shattered, the water is contained currently soaking his meager "bed", if one could even call it that. He glanced down at his hand to catch a glimpse of bright crimson liquid.
Li-ying…
He bit back bile as images of his sister rose in his mind. Swiftly, he tore a corner of his shabby blanket, dipped it in water, and wrapped it around the gash, ignoring the stinging. He'd have to disinfect it, but he didn't have the time now. He needed to get himself together quickly…not that his nightmares were helping.
He ran through the events of yesterday in his mind. He had been removed from the center where he had been sent after the horrible journey, and had been brought by carriage to this…castle, for lack of a better word.
He had been introduced to – and brutally beaten by – a middle-aged man, and shown to an elderly one, who had given his approval. What was their name?
He couldn't remember.
He had been brought to the kitchens and unceremoniously placed under the rather violent jurisdiction of the head cook, Amaliji, who had shoved him into the dirty bathhouses with a rag and a crude bar of soap.
"кустарник," she ordered him. "Scrub."
She had left him, shoving a coarse towel through the door behind her. He had taken advantage of the opportunity, not knowing when he would have another chance to bathe again, and he made the best of the situation he could. He took most of the time to wash his hair – he really should get it cut, this was outrageous… - before scrubbing down his body quickly but thoroughly.
He had barely finished drying when Amaliji returned, grabbing him harshly by the ear and pulling him to a small, dank room on the second floor of the giant castle-house.
"Yours," she grunted, shoving him in and slamming the door shut.
He opened the door once he was sure she had gone, and used the little light left in the hallway to catch sight of some matches and an ancient-looking, beaten-down oil lamp, which he lit with quite a bit of trouble. A small, water-filled ceramic bowl rested beside a thin mat, blanket, and tiny pillow on the floor.
On the mat rested a nondescript tunic and pants, along with a plain cloak, which he promptly donned. No sooner had the hood slipped over his head than the door was thrown open and he was grabbed by a tense-looking Amaliji, who hauled him down the hall, giving him brusque instructions rapidly as they walked.
"Do not look at the masters in the eye. You are nothing to them. Do not speak; nod or shake your head. You will do as you are told. You will not rebel."
They neared two rather intimidating oaken doors and a set of two even more intimidating guards. They were dressed in full uniform, bearing a crest of a majestic phoenix. Rei gulped – he knew that crest, and he knew to fear the name that accompanied it…
Hiwatari.
The guards flanked him, their weapons at ready, as the doors swung open to reveal a grand, cold study. The older man who had inspected him earlier was seated behind a large, imposing desk. Before the desk, beside the fire, in a tall-backed armchair, there sat a much younger man – one who could not possibly be older than Rei himself.
Rei caught the very end of the elder man's sentence.
"…care of it."
The young man raised a slender eyebrow, turning blazing crimson eyes to look at Rei, who fought the urge to shiver under the gaze.
The guards watched him apprehensively, as though expecting him to run – but he had no intention of running. The man's stare frightened him, but at the same time, drew him slowly closer, like a small moth to a colossal flame.
"Kai," the elder man said, obviously speaking to the young man, "this is your present. It is entirely dedicated to you and you alone – your first personal servant, imported directly from a small village somewhere in China. We've made sure to teach it all the Russian that it will need to know here. Do what you will with it."
Rei fought the urge to glare at the old man, and kept his head docilely bowed – but not far enough. He made sure, after all, that he could see the young man…
Kai.
"Yes…Grandfather," he said.
Wine-colored eyes stared intensely at him, and Rei felt himself almost grow dizzy at the depths of that gaze. It was like fire staring at him, for just a moment, before the intensity retreated, falling back behind the walls of porcelain skin and two-toned hair.
The guards had escorted him out to the hallway, where he was met by Amaliji, who seized his arm immediately. She dragged him back to his room, nearly throwing him in, informing him that he was expected in the kitchen for six the next morning, where he would be informed of his duties.
These Russians were decidedly lazy, he thought. Six in the morning? Four was his habitual waking time, and luckily the hellish time in that box on the horrendous journey had not thrown his internal clock off. It was decidedly before six, and Rei decided that he might as well find somewhere peaceful to meditate before he began what was sure to be a hectic day.
He threw on the clothes that had been on his blanket last night – a pair of long pants and a thick long-sleeved shirt, along with his native black slippers. He tied his hair back with a stray piece of rope, pushing his bangs out of his face with some extra ripped cloth from his blanket. It was going to be gone if he kept this up, he mused.
He slipped quietly out of the room, blowing out the dancing flame inside of the oil lamp. He moved along the hallway until he reached a slightly brighter corridor, lined with intricately designed stained-glass windows. He moved quietly down the long stone hall, fading moonlight casting strange colors on the ground.
Reaching the end, he turned to come face to face with a large wooden door. The handle was old, black cast iron, the wood worn down and beaten. Slowly, he pushed it open, almost waiting to hear the hinges creak. Surprised when they didn't, he slid into the room, quietly closing the door behind him.
He marveled at the peacefulness of the place.
It was a walled courtyard, almost sixty feet across, nearly eighty wide. In the center, a tall willow tree grew, its tender leaves reaching up to caress the lightening, star-studded sky. Stones built a wall around its base, boosting it up, a small trickling stream of water nestled amid the roots. Small purple flowers blossomed near its roots.
Pillars, built into the stone walls, were covered in dark green vines. White lilies bloomed in the small, unobtrusive gardens in the corners of the small courtyard. Rei sighed, closing his eyes in momentary bliss.
He marveled at the difference – the stone corridor outside this room had been just as silent and moonlit as this simple garden, and yet the aura of peace resided only beside the willow. Pushing it away, he settled gently between the two largest roots of the ancient tree, closing his eyes in meditation, his back to the wooden door through which he had come.
He was broken out of his meditation when a loud yell rang out in the enclosed space. He leapt up, all senses immediately alert, eyes wide open in order to identify his attacker –
He blinked, lowering his hands as the man opposite him did the same. They stepped quietly closer. There was no sign of recognition from the other, but Rei knew the man – after all, not too many people had such passionate eyes.
He backed off, as much as he disliked doing so, and bowed. "Master Hiwatari."
The man blinked. "I'm sorry…what?"
"You are my master now, aren't you? The whole personal servant business…"
One blink. Two blinks. Three blinks.
It clicked.
"You're…you're my…slave?"
Rei flinched at the word, but nodded anyway. He straightened up as Kai stepped closer, fire-filled eye boring into his own. Closer and closer the Hiwatari phoenix stepped, until their chests had less than a hair's breadth between them. The young man towered over Rei, and the red-eyes looked down to meet his own.
A slender, artistic hand rose to caress tanned skin. "Who…?"
Cool breath wafted over Rei's face, and he fought the urge to close his eyes and enjoy the sensation. Instead, he responded to the man's question, "Rei…sire."
He felt Kai shiver.
That slender hand was at his chinbone now, the side of his neck, the other hand was creeping onto the small of his back, those artistic fingers were playing in the curls at the nape of his neck, he could feel the cool breath on his mouth…golden eyes fluttered shut, and then –
The simple wooden door slammed open, and each man leapt apart from each other as though the touch was fire.
Another man with hair the color of a sunset had burst into the room, cursing so fluently and quickly in Russian that Rei barely caught his words. His pale hands were pushing his bangs away from his face, which was screwed up in deep, angry thought.
He let out an inarticulate roar and slammed a fist into the wall, the cement crumbling beneath his now-bloody knuckles.
Kai moved instantly, grabbing the redhead's arm and holding him back. "Calm down, Yuri!" he bellowed, trying to detain the struggling redhead.
Suddenly, another force burst onto the scene, this one with a head of platinum hair. The shouting rose in volume, and now the redhead was screaming at the platinum-haired man, Kai in the middle of the shouting match.
Finally, he pushed the redhead out of the room and snapped a few choice words at the taller, lankier man of the duo before throwing him out of the room as well.
He slammed the door shut, and, forgetting Rei's presence, sank onto the low stone wall surrounding the tree.
He let his head fall into his hands as he let out a long-suffering sigh.
Rei stepped forward tentatively, settling silently beside the dual-haired man. He spied a trickle of something red running down one cheek, and slowly, slowly, he extended a hand to touch him on the shoulder.
Kai's head snapped up to glare at him before he realized who he was. The stare lessened in intensity, and Rei took a closer look at the man's cheek.
A shallow cut ran from him temple to mid-cheek, along with several other shallow scratches most likely made by fingernails. Rei made a small "tutting" noise with his tongue, unwrapping his bandana-like headband from his forehead. He dipped it in the clear stream of water and gently dabbed Kai's face.
Kai took the rag from him, his fingers brushing Rei's lightly. They both began to rise at the same time, each looking down, each unaware of the other's actions, of their proximity –
They glanced up simultaneously, and their lips met accidentally. Crimson and gold clashed, and tongues traded mouths briefly. Heat meshed together for a slight moment before the stunned participants pulled away.
Hands flew to mouths, "sorry"s were exchanged, and each promptly fled the scene, muttering about something or other that they had to attend to, neither willing to admit just how good they felt.
A/N Oh. My. Gawd. Y'all.
Okay, so excuses are the refuge of the weak, but I am weak, so deal.
Get this: I had a ten page freaking chapter. TEN PAGES. (This is only six.) And what happens? WHAT HAPPENS?! I run out of memory, that's what happens. Just as this is being saved.
Imagine my joy.
To top that all off, I'm hopped up on cold medicine (Nyquilllll) and suffering from sleep deprivation (my own fault X.x). So yeah. My apologies for the crap chapter.
By the way, you can thank the wonderful, wonderful RussiansNekojinlover for this update – without her, it would not have happened. Go check her out. Shoo, you little suckers.
Review with the comments on awfulness – give me target practice options. I kid, I kid. Review…sorry if I don't make any sense. I get like this when I'm sick. So yeah. Deal.
Much love,
Management
(Ceriadara)
P.S. Made a mistake in the first chappie – I think. Let me know what time period you think this should be in….I shall adjust accordingly. Much love.
