(latvia)

"Nice digs!" the driver teased, when they met outside in the freezing cold, and that only made Raivis' mood darker. "When they told me you were here playing handmaiden I almost couldn't believe it. But lookit you!"

Raivis gave him his best scowl. It didn't help, because the Bragins' airship driver and head coachman laughed harder, not less.

"That's enough," he muttered. "Don't you think I hate this? You're not helping! But Toris says jump and I say how high, and so here I am, getting down on my hands and knees to scrub the floors for people I despise. Give me a break, at least?" If anything, this job was only intensifying his hatred towards the Empire Union.

The driver mimed wiping a tear from his eye. "I'm sorry, but - this getup," he gestured to Raivis' uniform, "it's too much! Guess they had nothing in your size for a valet. Lucky they had housemaid dresses that fit you! With the little apron, too!"

Raivis glared. "The tailor's gonna be back with my real uniform tomorrow. It was either wait for it and be a handmaid, or work in the stables!"

"Oh man." The driver had calmed, a fraction - Raivis was still Raivis, and there was business to be done between them - "but, y'know, it's really pretty smart - this way nobody notices you and your behind-the-scenes shenanigans and if they do, they'll look for a girl first."

"Nobody notices me anyway!" Raivis whined. "This is the same as regular except now I work too hard with too few breaks and for too little money! And there's no vodka! Only a bottle apiece! And I think the rats eat better than I do. And all the other servants treat me like I'm incompetent, o-or slow, and I'm only new here, I'm not a moron -"

"You are so cute when you're complaining," the driver said with a grin, which made Raivis madder still. "Like a bright red blowfish, all puffed up! Anyway. Didja get the keys?"

Red-faced, Raivis dug into the pocket of his dress (honestly, his dress, this place was such a humiliating nightmare) and fished out a copy of the ring of keys he'd been given.

"Had them cut yesterday. On my only break, I might add. This one," he pointed out the heaviest, "is the key to the inside domestic residences. It works on the outside doors, from the courtyard and from the front side entrance. The rest are for personal offices and living spaces. I don't have any keys for their desks so you'd better tell Toris to stock up on lockpick sets. Do they need a map?" he asked, pulling out a roll of paper, secured with string. "I have a rough one I've drawn so far -"

"You been busy," the driver approved, impressed.

"Y-yeah, well... I'm so tiny I could get lost in all the secret passages. A-and nobody notices a servant, anyway."

"And?"

"See for yourself." He handed over the paper. The driver slipped the string off, unrolled it and held it flat against the wall. "The most logical path," Raivis explained, tracing it with his finger over the driver's shoulder. "Then this one -" he traced it out too - "is where the guards patrol. I made friends with one of 'em, s-so I know their habits. For most of the guard we can spike drinks b-but there's one who doesn't get along with the others. And here's the schedule." Raivis pulled out a second piece of rolled-up paper. "Don't bother opening it. Of course it has to be that Mister Loner's working that day."

"Just our luck," the driver agreed.

"Anything else?" Raivis asked.

The driver shook his head. "Not right now. Oh - Toris and Feliks say hello."

Toris and Feliks who got him into this mess into the first place. Raivis twisted his lips in a grimace. "Yeah, th-thanks. What about Eduard?" When the driver gave him a blank expression he clarified, "The bondsman?"

"Oh, him. He hasn't been back in days."

But Eduard was like clockwork! "What do you mean?"

"Yeah, he just. Stopped showing up. Maybe you seen him around here?"

He hadn't. "N-not recently..."

"Huh." The driver shrugged. "Maybe you might wanna go check that he's okay."

"Y-you think - you think s-something might've happened to him?!" Raivis felt his heart pound as he began to panic. After all that work they'd been doing, did Crazy Ivan the Terrible get to him anyway?! Not Eduard...

"Hey man, I dunno," the driver said in a tone so casual it made Raivis flinch. Wasn't the driver's fault; he thought Eduard was a mere asset. An item. He didn't know him. "But he hasn't been in the base."

"You think it might be serious?" It sounded serious. What if it was serious? Oh god, it was serious!

"Dunno. Maybe he's been busy. But Toris wants to talk to him. Feliks gave away a bunch of the little spy toys the bondsboy made, they were hoping he could come by and make some more." He laughed, "Feliks says he'll make Toris pay him for them, so your little friend could earn a little dough, eh? That'd be nice! Says it wasn't fair that they didn't pay him the first time." And it wasn't. Work done was work paid. Even Raivis' servant job was compensated, although not much. Feliks' dogmatic boyfriend must've been rubbing off on him again, with his Opinions on bondspeople. "Anyway cariƱo. I gotta go look busy. Thanks for this though!"

"Y-yeah," Raivis replied, distracted.

.:.

Once inside the Duma, Raivis was still cold, a chill in his bones and clammy skin, his anxiety accompanying him as he ran through the halls. He was probably making a giant racket but he didn't care!

Arina, he thought, as he turned the corner into the domestic wings, past the library. That was Ivan's personal servant, the one he called Arisha, wasn't it? Then she'd know, she'd have heard something, wouldn't she? If anything - if anything bad happened - in Ivan's bed-chambers (he felt sick to his stomach!), she'd know! - Or instead, would she remain faithful to her master and not say a word about the cleanup job they'd all have to do if it were the case that Eduard - that Eduard were - oh, Toris would kill him -

"Raivis?!" he heard behind him. "Is that you?"

He stopped in his tracks, skidding on the floor. With the taste of metal in his throat, Raivis turned to find - "Eduard?"

Perfectly alive and safe, though confused. Raivis resisted the urge to hug him. "What the hell are you doing here?" Eduard said, his voice very low. "This place is dangerous for someone like you!"

Hah! Eduard didn't know what danger was. "N-never mind me! At least you're okay," he blurted out shakily. Eduard didn't look hurt.

"Last I checked," Eduard said.

Very well, if Eduard didn't obviously understand what sort of danger he was in, Raivis would make him understand. "Where have you been? Apparently these past few nights you haven't been by the base!"

Eduard held a finger to his lips before Raivis completely forgot he was supposed to be undercover and a little bit covert. They ducked to the side of the hall behind a column. "How are you here? Do you go back and forth or something?" Eduard asked.

Not with his schedule. Fat chance getting any more than a few minutes' rest here and there. "No," he replied, "I get information from the driver. He meets with Toris daily in the church."

"Oh," said Eduard brightly. "Then that's why Toris dresses like a monk?"

"No no," Raivis clarified, "that's his cover story. He calls it his legend. Some spy-term. Anyway. He's a 'monk'," and he punctuated that with the air-quotes, because if Toris believed in anything it sure as hell wasn't religion. "That's how he's been getting so close to -"

He cut himself off before he gave Toris' entire story away. Who knew how friendly Eduard and Ivan were these days? Eduard was still alive but - maybe not for much longer, because Ivan was still sick. And if he knew that, he wouldn't be thrilled that it had been Toris' work that had put Eduard in such a dangerous place. Right next to Ivan, all the time. Walking temptation. A grisly murder waiting to happen!

Why, if he were in Eduard's position, he'd be pretty pissed too. And if Eduard were upset with them, he'd never come back to the warehouse and they couldn't protect him.

"Anyway," he concluded, trying to be vague. "Toris has his ways of finding out."

"Okay, that, I buy," Eduard said, "but how would Toris know I hadn't been back? He's never there when I'm around and Feliks has been away more and more lately."

"Feliks has his little boyfriend. And we have feeds at the base, we can tell if you've been by -" here he put his hands on his hips and tried to look cross - "and Feliks says you haven't been in at all! And anyway, don't distract me! Why haven't you been by? Ivan hasn't forbidden you from outside contact, has he?"

Eduard shook his head vehemently. "No, he'd never do that -"

"Because he's had people imprisoned before, you know," Raivis supplied darkly.

"I - really?"

"Or maybe it was the Gospozha. I met her for the first time the other day; she's terrifying! Is she always like that?"

Eduard grinned. "Pretty much."

"I had to clean one of her rooms where she'd dropped a mug." And then pilfer her mail, and answer her letters.

"She's not so bad," Eduard reflected. "I don't have to deal with her much, I belong to Ivan - I, that is, I mean, he's the master, where I'm concerned."

"Right," he replied. "Anyway. Feliks was asking after you too. And me! I was worried too, I was worried sick, y'know, because of, uh..." such an embarrassing topic. "That, kinda. We were worried that you and Ivan were ... that he had maybe...well you know."

It shouldn't have been so weird to talk about! Eduard was matter-of-fact about it. Bondspeople were a fact of life; talking about this was like talking about taking an umbrella outside when it rained, it wasn't supposed to be weird. The right tool for the right job. Especially on Olyokin with all the Vitim and Times forcing you to be straight about such matters. Wasn't that what you used bondspeople for? That's what they were for!

But he couldn't make himself think of Eduard as a tool. "I only wanted to make sure you were alright," he finished, feeling stupid.

"Oh, Raivis, I... I'm fine, I've just been busy lately," Eduard said finally.

"With what?" he asked. "You were never busy before."

"That's, that's different. Things just got busier, I guess."

Raivis put on his best pout. "You could come and see me in the kitchens sometime, after work. I don't have any friends here besides you so I get lonely. And none of the other kitchen staff speak Standard. It's all Zvanie. And I hate Zvanie!"

Eduard raised an eyebrow. "It's more common to speak, here. Didn't you learn it growing up?"

He shook his head. "Didn't bother. Nobody likes you back home if you know any. I knew a word or two, once, but it got beaten out of me on the schoolyard. In Kilnus you speak only Standard." Like every other progressive planet in the system! Like normal people. "B-but anyway! I'm glad to see you're okay. I want you to check in with Toris if you can, alright? Even if you're busy. Please try. We worry about you, a-and Toris has connections! He can get you places in Kilnus if you ever need."

"Ah... Thanks," Eduard muttered. "I'll keep it in mind."

"Toris was also kind of hoping you'd come by to make more of those little Eavesdroppery things," he admitted.

"What happened to the ones I made?"

"Th-they kind of ... wellFeliksgavethemaway," he mumbled sheepishly. "Toris says he'll pay you for more of them though! I mean, s-something that high quality, you should have been paid for them to begin with."

Flattery put a radiant smile on Eduard's face. "And you're sure that Feliks didn't do that on purpose to try and get me to come back?" he teased.

"He'd never!" He might.

But Eduard didn't look offended. "Tell Feliks I say hi, and Toris - pass on my good wishes to everybody, okay?"

"Alright," he told him. "And you'll come back to the base?"

"Not tonight. I'll come back - tomorrow, how's that?"

"That's good," Raivis said. "I better get back to work."

"Me too," Eduard agreed, "take care of yourself, okay? And don't be seen."

Part of Raivis wanted to follow Eduard. What kind of work Eduard was doing? It had Toris and Feliks very interested. Maybe it'd make their job at the Duma easier to do later, if they knew exactly where to start looking. But the other part of Raivis knew that if he screwed up any more at being a servant, they'd fire him, and out the window would go all of Toris' nice plans. So with reluctance he went back to the kitchen to fetch a mop bucket.