Gifts From the Sea [Batfam Bingo 2019: AU: Zoo] - Part 29 (rough draft)
A Batman fanfic by Raberba girl
Trigger warnings apply, including but not limited to unfair and abusive corporal punishment and Jason's potty mouth.
o.o.o
Jason eventually fell asleep, but woke up in a panic at the sound of the door opening. He was on his feet immediately. "Hey! The lady who took me from the warehouse, I need to talk- HEY! Get your fucking hands off me!" The guards continued to propel him forward like they didn't even register his attempts at resistance, and the softer-looking man who accompanied them impatiently scolded Jason in not-English. "LET GO!"
They didn't until they reached their destination, which turned out to be a tiled room with drains and elegant showerheads, as well as pictures on the wall and potted plants like a really fancy locker room. The robed man bustled around for a minute and then came back, thrusting a set of folded towels and a basket of toiletries at Jason.
Jason stared at the man, then at the stuff. He reluctantly accepted it, then waited to be left alone to bathe.
None of the men moved. The servant was starting to look impatient again. "Well, are you gonna scram so I can shower?" Jason growled. The man sighed and then reached out and-
Started.
Pulling off Jason's clothes.
"What the FUCK?!" the boy shrieked, dropping the towels and crap so he could grab his own shirt in an attempt to keep it on.
There was a moment of struggle, then the guards were suddenly there, and they made very short work of his clothes. Jason started screaming in a panic when they got his shirt off, but once the rest of him was exposed, he froze. He couldn't move, couldn't make a sound, could barely even breathe as he stood there naked and trembling.
The servant impatiently pushed him to stand under one of the showerheads. Jason managed to lower a hand to cover his junk, couldn't help wrapping his other arm around himself as if he was cold. The room was rather warm, but he still felt...cold.
After a long pause, the servant finally burst into an angry tirade and turned on the water. Jason flinched at the sudden spray of cold water and tears started to spill down his cheeks even though the temperature soon warmed up. He broke down and cried openly as the servant started washing him, impatiently scrunching shampoo through his hair and scrubbing soap over his skin.
"Don't...touch me...don't fucking...touch me...!" he managed to choke out, but couldn't bear to push the man away because that would require uncovering himself.
Once he was clean, the servant shut off the water and practically threw a towel over him. The guards had to pick him up and carry him into the next room, which was uncomfortably warm and steamy and contained several naked men lounging in a huge hot tub. Jason barely had time to struggle before the towel was pulled away and he was set into the painfully hot water.
He choked out a curse and tried to hoist himself out of the tub, but the servant shoved him back in and then exploded, shouting a long scolding lecture that Jason didn't understand a word of. The boy miserably endured it, legs curled to his chest as he stared at the water. The servant finally shoved at Jason's head in disgust, snapped out an order to the guards, and marched away.
The room was dead silent for a long moment. Then whispers and murmurs started up, many in languages Jason didn't know. Someone moved close to him, and he jerked away in alarm.
"Easy, now," the man soothed in accented English, raising his hands. His face was rugged but had a kind expression. "You're just a child... Are you new?"
"I was kidnapped," Jason spat. "This a sex trafficking ring or something?"
The man stared at him. "Er...no. We are...'guests' of the Demon's Head."
"The what now?"
"Ra's al Ghul. The man's on a mission to save the planet, which would all be very well and good if he saw us as people who can turn into seals, rather than intelligent seals who sometimes take human form."
Jason stared at him.
"It's not so bad," the man said reassuringly. "We're favored prisoners, get decent food and nice baths and such."
"I was kidnapped out of my dad's arms," Jason ground out. It had not escaped his notice that the man, who'd implied he was a selkie, was wearing nothing and therefore could not possibly have his pelt on.
"Ah...for what it's worth, I really am sorry to hear that," the man said. "But...you know, there's nothing any of us can do about it, so might as well enjoy what you've got now, right?"
"Fuck you!" Jason shouted, slamming his palm into the water so that hot liquid splashed into the man's face.
The man swore and moved away, looking fed up, but now the guards were approaching. Jason had barely moved to try to dodge before they seized him and hauled him out of the water. He screamed and struggled madly, aghast to be completely exposed again and in front of a larger audience this time. He was hauled into the next room, which looked like a sort of dressing room, and the same servant from before was marching toward him with some kind of stick in his hand.
The man seized Jason and slammed him facedown over a bench, then started whipping him with the stick. There were less than ten blows, but the first few were administered so viciously that Jason screamed in agony. All the fight had gone out of him by the time the man finished up with the last few perfunctory strikes and then tossed him aside onto the floor.
Jason sobbed, having no will to resist as two nervous-looking boys barely older than he was struggled to get him dressed again. He kicked weakly when the fabric brushed his throbbing butt and legs, but at least it was some sort of robe instead of pants, and there was no underwear this time.
One of the guards hauled him up and carried him to his room- his cell, setting him on the bed when they arrived. Jason groaned and rolled onto his stomach as the door was closed and locked. "Fuck...you...fuck all of you...!"
o.o.o
He snapped out of a doze when the door opened again, admitting the two guards, the child abusing servant, a middle-aged woman in a strict hijab, and an old woman with a much looser headscarf and a bag. Jason had been lying still for a long time, so he felt stiff and a little ill as he tried and failed to get up. He screamed when the guards took hold of him again, even though this time they didn't drag him anywhere. They held him facedown on the bed as the old woman shifted aside his robe.
"Oh, hell no," he snarled, but couldn't do anything to stop her from examining the welts on his bare butt and legs.
The old woman turned and started forcefully scolding the manservant, who protested whinily but eventually threw up his hands and stalked away. The two women exchanged a few terse words, then the younger one left as well. The older one turned back to the bed and rummaged in her bag for a minute, then started rubbing something on the injuries. Jason yelled at the first touch of the thick cream, but even though it hurt at first, it felt better after a minute. She bandaged him and then packed up her stuff, saying something to him that he didn't freaking understand because all he freaking knew was freaking English.
Then the guards let go of him, and they all left.
Jason struggled to pull the robe over his butt again, then lay still. He wasn't sleepy at all, but he felt too tired to move.
o.o.o
Over the next few days, his biggest problem was that he was bored out of his skull. The only thing to do in his cell was read; there were so few books in English and none of them were the kind that could suck him in for hours. He didn't have any contact with other human beings except when he was given simple meals and let out once a day to bathe.
Thankfully, they never took him back to the fancy communal showers and tubs; instead, the manservant would lead him to an isolated pool, throw clean clothes and a basket of toiletries on the ground, sneer at Jason in not-English, then self-righteously stomp away. Jason got the distinct sense that he was being punished, but other than the water being lukewarm and the guards never leaving, he much preferred washing himself like this. He hid his body underwater from the guards, and although they watched him, it was with impassive expressions, and they never approached.
It felt...really, really strange to be so bare when submerged in water. The sensation made the loss of Jason's pelt hurt more keenly, and he often cried as he bathed.
Only one of Jason's captors spoke English (that he knew of), a middle-aged woman with a shiny headband who'd poke her head in every so often, glance around the room, and leave again.
"I want to go HOME!" Jason always screamed at her.
"Be quiet," she snapped the first time. "Demon Head is good. You be good."
"FUCKING NO! FUCK YOU!"
She frowned and shut the door.
The second time, when she saw him racing at her, she pulled out some ninja move and the next second, he was blinking at the ceiling in confusion. She'd shut the door again before he got his wits back together.
The third time, he was waiting for her. He'd torn up several of the non-English books and was sitting on the bed, trying to look smug, when she opened the door and saw the mess.
Her face twisted, and then there was a minute when she was chasing him around the room. He tried to dodge out the open door, but she caught him just outside the threshold and dragged him back in, giving him a few hard spanks. He winced and hissed between his teeth when one of her strikes hit a half-healed welt from the earlier beating, but she had nothing to use other than her hand and his clothes were still on, so the sting wouldn't last long.
She swung him back around and shook him a little, hissing a short tirade in her own language before demanding in English, "What is wrong with you?! You little devil, you spit in his face when Demon Head is kind to you!"
"I - want - my - DAD," Jason snarled. "I was KIDNAPPED. I want to go home to my fucking dad. My father," he added, in case she didn't know the word 'dad.'
She stared at him. Then she let go. "...What is your age? How many years?"
"Fourteen," he said cautiously. He wasn't actually sure - they didn't exactly provide calendars here and he hadn't thought to keep track of passing days until it was too late, but whatever. If he wasn't fourteen yet, he would be soon.
The woman narrowed her eyes and studied him some more. "Seal father? He is in ocean?"
"No! My human dad who's probably filed a police report about his kidnapped son! He's looking for me!" Jason...really hoped that Bruce was looking for him, at least.
The woman made a gesture like she had a headache and muttered something in her language, then said, "Demon Head bought you. You belong to him. You are seal. Animal. Yes?"
"I'm not a fucking animal! Just because I can turn into one doesn't mean I am one! And WHERE IS MY FUCKING PELT?! WHERE'S MY PELT?!" Jason seized the garment he was wearing and flapped it for emphasis.
The woman stared at him a moment more. Then she turned around to leave.
"Oh, no you don't!"
She did her ninja thing again. He was still on the floor, trying to figure out what had just happened, when the door shut and locked.
A little later, a girl came in to clean up the torn book pages. Jason tried to make another break for it, but the guards caught him almost immediately and dragged him back into his cell, dumping him on the bed and looming over him. The girl stared at him like he was crazy and kind of scary, and seemed on edge while she finished her task.
"I'm not crazy for trying to escape my fucking kidnappers!"
The girl flinched at his raised tone and worked faster, not looking at him.
TBC
