The drama starts in this chapter. Enjoy~
Luffy arrived at Master's den on time, but he wasn't there. Usually he was. Maybe he was in his room. So he ran to the couple's room and knocked on the door.
"What is it?" Mistress asked. Luffy took this as his cue to open the door and saw both she and Master in bed.
"A apologize for interrupting. Master was not in his den, so I checked here first," he said very professionally. "Is there anything you'd like me to receive or deliver before you rest?"
"Yes, I'd like a glass of wine. The one I have sometimes at night," Mistress said. Master just curtly excused Luffy from the room. Luffy knew exactly which wine was needed as Mistress was very specific on what types of wine she wants when. So he went down the wine cellar, which had a large quantity of alcohol that wasn't wine. He slid out the old wine but wasn't sure whether to get one glass or two so Master could have one… better safe than sorry, Luffy decided, and took two glasses.
Mistress accepted the wine as graciously as she could without sounding even a bit respectful, though she liked Luffy the most out of all the slaves. She didn't like him, he was just her least least favorite. Luffy poured the glass for her, though this wasn't his job, and one for Master, without looking either in the eye, as he was supposed to not. He asked if he should take the wine back and left uneventfully to return the wine to where it came from.
Luffy then stayed the night until Zoro went to be with him in his room. Luffy taught him how to play basic games and card games since he missed out on so much as a child. It was one of the best nights either had had.
Weeks went by and almost everything stayed relatively the same. He succeeded in maintaining the neutral behavior and tone when he spoke to Master. Master didn't hit him again. Because he was afraid of Zoro or didn't want Luffy to falter in his work, he didn't know. He was just glad the awful incident didn't happen again.
The only thing that had changed was his night shifts and breaks. They were now spent with Zoro in some part of the castle, away from prying eyes. They did all the same things they did as friends, but now there were physical acts as well. Zoro was glad and surprised that Luffy would return his kiss just as forcefully as Zoro did. Every time they spent the day and night together, they became more physical with each other. They just loved being together intimately, though it never went too far.
Luffy was pushed onto the bed below Zoro and had his neck attacked by Zoro's lips and tongue. Luffy put his hands into Zoro's short green hair, pulling at the strands, though they were much harder to grip compared to Luffy's longer hair.
After a while of Zoro kissing Luffy's neck and jaw, glad to hear Luffy's pleasant panting, he pulled away and finally saw Luffy with a blush across his cheeks and nose.
"Finally you blush. I've been the only one doing it for five years," Zoro said, enjoying Luffy's flushed face. It made him even sexier. Most people would call Luffy cute, but to Zoro, Luffy was sexy and secretly watched him in certain places while he ran down the hall away from Zoro's room.
Luffy grinned. "Well no one has ever been very physical with me, so I had no reason to. And I didn't even notice you blushed when you saw me until you told me you loved me," Luffy said warmly as he spoke the last few words. He pulled Zoro's head down and kissed him passionately. Zoro happily returned the kiss with an equal amount of vigor.
As Luffy kissed his lover, Zoro had his hands roaming down the other's chest before he began to unbutton the uniform shirt. Luffy didn't stop him as he pushed the garment dow Luffy's arms, exposing Luffy's toned, somewhat skinny, and flat stomach and chest. Luffy couldn't see Zoro's face very well at the moment and broke the kiss to say, "I bet you're blushing like mad right now," Luffy joked, out of breath from the kiss and Zoro's hands roaming his torso.
"So are you," Zoro whispered into Luffy's ear and then moved his mouth down from Luffy's jaw to his neck to his chest and stomach, giving wet kisses and hickeys across his skin. Luffy was having trouble getting Zoro's shirt off since he was under the teen and his hands were shaking a bit.
Finally, he shoved Zoro off and flipped them so Luffy was now on top, clumsily pulling Zoro's simple shirt off and over his head. Now it was Luffy's turn to admire Zoro's chest. While Luffy's was flat and toned, Zoro's was buff and even more toned than Luffy. Luffy was a bit embarrassed to kiss along Zoro's chest but did it anyways, not leaving hickeys like Zoro had.
While Luffy did this, Zoro twined his hands through his messy black hair and played with the strands Zoro's fingers were buried in. He pulled Luffy's face back up and the two kissed a while more before Luffy's timer in his head told him it was time to get things ready for lunch. Both were a bit irritated their interactions had to end.
Zoro told Luffy he wanted cereal again and the two put their tops back on and Luffy left to Master's room with a smile, not feeling Zoro's eye staring at his butt as he sprinted down the hall.
Moments like this were often and not very far apart. But shirtless was as far as they went.
When they were around others (Master and Mistress) they were acquaintances. The other slaves knew what was going on, and the child cooks would smirk at Luffy when he entered the dining hall with a smile that wasn't present before. Most of the others didn't care and supported Luffy finally having a romantic relationship, even if it was with a master. Luffy had told them briefly how Zoro viewed his life. That he didn't like how the slaves were treated or being here in general, which got the more skeptical slaves more open minded about it.
Luffy had gotten used to not sleeping for three days throughout the week and functioned normally anyways.
Whether Master knew about his son's and a slave's relationship or not, neither knew. He acted cold towards both, which wasn't unusual. Maybe Zoro's threat had scared him. Luffy didn't know that Zoro was still making passing verbal threats to his dad every time he saw him. To say their already bad relationship had tanked even further was an understatement.
Luffy gushed a lot about how awesome Zoro was to the slave's constantly. But they said nothing because Luffy hadn't been this happy in a while. He was a lot funner when he was ecstatic as well, so they benefited by his good mood and confidence in stealing what he could from the kitchen. Though Master hadn't been mean towards Luffy, he still stayed as respectful and neutral as he could around the man. But he had grown tired of bowing to the ground for Master.
A bad thing had happened from Master leaving Luffy alone. He took out his irritation at the other slaves. Whether he yelled and threatened the cleaners or cooks for "something they did wrong" or he hit them… well that was random. No one could anticipate his reactions to things because they were very sporadic.
But no one told Luffy because he'd feel like it was his fault, though that couldn't be proven.
One day, Master's temper had ruined everything. Everything for everyone.
Master looked at his dish, everything perfect and normal. But he felt like taking out frustration from even looking at Zoro on one of the cooks.
"Who cooked my food?" he asked coldly, the already quiet room falling dead silent. A terrified boy raised his hand. "Come here," Master commanded. The other cook slaves and Luffy watched apprehensively as the boy reached the dining table and bowed.
"Look at this," he demanded. The boy looked, but saw nothing wrong. The cook just looked at the dish in confusion. Everyone made Master's dish extremely carefully to make sure nothing was wrong.
"Is there a problem, Master?" he asked hesitantly. He didn't know how he was supposed to respond to this type of thing because it hadnt happened in a while and it hadnt been him that time.
"Do not act like you can't see it," he said. But still, the kid couldn't see the problem.
"I… I cannot see what is wrong," he said. Master smacked him in the face and knocked the child off balance. Then he fell and slammed his temple into the table close behind the table the masters were sitting at. The boy did not get up, and Master continued to talk as if nothing had happened.
"Don't you talk-" he began but was cut off.
"Joshua!" the kids and Luffy shouted and ran to the prone boy. They all either screamed of gasped at Joshua's blank open eyes. He was dead. Because of a made up problem, Master had hit him and Joshua hit hit head, killing him.
The masters looked at the scene, Zoro in horror and Mistress in surprise. Master, however, couldn't care less as he said a simple, "Oops."
What Zoro saw next startled him. He'd only seen these cooks reserved and respectful, and sometimes happy as they socialized with each other quietly. Now, they looked like rabid animals. Zoro had never seen anyone look so livid, even his father. Now they looked murderous, through their tears, as each one was in tears. Luffy was the first to look back to the dead child and closed his eyes gently.
"Do not look at me like that!" Master yelled at them. They each looked away in disgust with the monster and back to poor Joshua.
"Let us bury him," Luffy said quietly. Master felt no remorse. He had just killed a child and he acted like he had swatted a fly for good reason. All the slaves in the room wanted to gut him with the silverware in his hand. They wanted to kill him like he'd killed Joshua. But Master deserved it. Joshua did not. It was a stupid reason to make a problem out of it.
Then he angered them even more with, "Do what you like. But in the yard with the dead pets." He thought so little of his victim that he was going to force him to be buried next to dead cats. The slaves got up, their sorrow was now fury. The sorrow would come, but now all they could feel was rage. Luffy gently pulled the limp body into his arms and carried him with the others.
"Collect the others," Luffy said to the children, who were just starting to fall into immediate grieving and cried as they ran in different directions to get the other slaves working about.
Luffy walked to the pet cemetery, which would now have a person, and sat down with Joshua's body in his lap. Luffy's clothes were getting dirty but he could care less. He was glad Zoro didn't follow. He was, no doubt, making hell for Master. Zoro wasn't a part of this. He didn't know Joshua and he wasn't a slave, so it would be wrong for him to put himself in their business.
The others ran over, the bigger men carrying shovels and a tarp. Most of Joshua's family were crying when they already got there. But now that they saw him, everyone erupted into tears. Tears of sorrow and tears of fury.
Luffy gave Joshua's body to the children. He was their best friend. They deserved to hold him while he was still here.
The grave was dug slowly. The strong men who were shoveling the dry dirt to make Joshua's resting place had tears down their eyes. Joshua was the youngest of all of them. He was six. At age six, he was put to work and killed by his boss. He didn't get to learn how to read or write at all, like the rest of the youngest generation. Luffy was the last one to have learned anything as a child.
They wrapped him gently in the tarp they could use and set his down carefully, talking about him as the dirt was put back over his body.
Joshua's closest friend went looking for a grave marker and found a plain rock. "Does anyone have something to write on it?" she asked sadly. Luffy unclipped his pen and handed it to her. She thanked him and neatly wrote a simple: Joshua. No one had last names here and there wasn't enough room to write anything else on the stone.
They all stood or sat next to the freshly dug grave and remembered him. His life was too short, and spent as a slave, too.
"I don't want to be here anymore…" one of the children said.
"All he said was 'oops' after he murdered Joshua. I hate him. Master is evil…" a girl agreed with him. No one said anything else. They were all feeling the hate and sorrow and the desire to leave.
"We… should mutiny," the doctor said, surprising everyone that he was the one who had said it. "I know we're all thinking it. How can we not? He killed our family and felt nothing."
"Why do we even put up with him anyways?! There's more of us than him and even Young Master doesn't support him!"
"When I say mutiny, I don't mean murdering him. I mean ruining his life. He takes pride in this castle…"
"We'll burn it down," Luffy said simply. "That's not killing him and would ruin his life." Everyone looked at him with varying expressions. Shock, pity, support, sadness, and anger. But even with the differing expressions, they all had the look of resolve on their faces.
"What about Young Master?" a girl asked. Luffy pursed his lips.
"Zoro doesn't like it here. He hates this castle and doesn't want to live with his father and mother," Luffy explained and then looked up at the rapidly darkening sky. "We'd be freeing him from his cage."
Everyone thought about it. If Luffy was saying that, then it was true. "You'd be leaving him, Luffy. If we mutiny, we won't be returning. We'll be criminals."
"Joshua was my family. I won't ignore his murder," Luffy said firmly. "Zoro will find someone else…" But everyone could see the sadness in his eyes and the way lis lower lip was trembling. He took a deep breath to compose himself. "Besides, we won't be criminals. We have no last names and no pictures have been taken of us. As long as we change clothes and get far away from here, we won't be caught. We don't exist as long as we work here."
"We have quite a bit of planning to do," the oldest slave said. She had been working at this castle for forty years, since she was a teenager. "We'll talk about it tonight."
"I'll take tonight off. I'll say I'm grieving… which is what we'll be doing. I don't care if he hits me anymore. I know I'll ruin his life. That's enough to make me not care about his violence," Luffy said with conviction. "But everyone should be careful. Try and avoid him as best as you can. He killed Joshua by accident. Anyone could fall and hit their head."
"I think we should all call it a night. I know if I hear him talk little of Joshua's murder, I won't be able to hold myself back. But I don't want to be a murderer. You all feel the same, right?" Everyone nodded.
"We should go back," doctor said.
"We'll visit you before we leave, Joshua," his best friend said to his grave. No one was crying anymore. Their resolve and conviction had hardened. They'd be doing it as much for Joshua as for themselves.
Everyone gave the small grave one more glace and walked back to the castle.
When they entered the back entrance hall, they immediately went to the first floor cellar door. Everyone crawled through the tunnel and to their living area.
No one changed out of their uniforms. Everyone just sat on the bunk beds. Luffy spoke first.
"No matter how we plan this, I will be the key. I know the castle like the back of my hand and can go around at night without it being suspicious." The others nodded.
"Can you do it, though? You've never been a very good liar," a woman said gently.
"I won't be lying. I'll be pretending," Luffy replied. "I'll enjoy my time with Zoro here and plan. Anyone have any ideas?"
Zoro watched as Luffy carried the young kid's body outside and to the patch of trees in the corner of the property, crying with the rest of them.
"How could you do that?!" Zoro screamed at his father. "You killed him and said 'oops'!"
"It was an accident. I have nothing to apologize for; he's the one who didn't cook the food well," Master said heartlessly.
Zoro walked up to him and slammed his face down onto his plate and stormed off. He wanted to see Luffy, but he knew he had no place in the slave's grieving. He wasn't their family. He'd help Luffy when he needed it from someone other than family. Zoro stormed off into his room angrily and slammed his door behind him.
Everyone had trouble falling asleep that night, except Master of course. Even Mistress was not happy with what her husband had done. It was heartless and cruel, but she wouldn't say anything. Zoro had done it for her. She had left the table as her husband pulled his head out of his perfectly cooked food.
And so it begins... Review!