Chapter 17

"And now for the real reason I pumped you full of those aphrodisiacs earlier." Lukas spoke, the first words Arthur heard as he sat in his chair, the blood already moving through the filter before him. For the first time, Piotr had come to keep his spirits up. "Your filter yesterday was clean."

"It's out already? Wasn't it supposed to take a week?" Arthur asked, looking towards Lukas' voice.

"Yes, so I was hoping, since it's in your nerves, breaking those up a little, making your blood flow through you faster might break up any spots where it's still at. If after today it's clean again, I'll do a nerve sample test today. It'll take two days to discover if it's clean or not, but if it is, the next day we can go ahead and restore your sight. You'll be free to go."

"That's wonderful." Arthur smiled sweetly, his head facing his knees the whole time.

"Is something wrong?" Piotr watched, surprised at the lack of excitement over hearing such news.

"I haven't heard my fairies in two days. I'm wondering if they left me after all." He smiled softly. "Maybe there was just enough toxin left in my body to keep me hearing them. I don't know, but I'm kind of scared." He sighed, leaning gently towards Piotr.

"I'll keep you company enough if they're not here." Piotr spoke softly and Arthur nodded.

The words broke Antonio's heart, knowing in four days they would be going to the castle for the tryouts for the Assassin's squad. They didn't have forever. Once you joined, you only left the castle at the King's side. You never left on your own. You never brought anyone in.

This is why so many in the group were so angry at Lovino. In four days, they would say goodbye.

Dinner was a softer affair. Arthur curled up on Piotr's lap and ate, keeping his head laid against the other's chest, hearing his heart beat softly. It was enough to soothe him to sleep early.

He woke the next morning to find again he didn't know where he was. He was inside a building and prayed it was the school. He wandered, listening for footsteps or any other sound that might indicate someone to tell him where he was, but nothing came. The hallway he was in stretched out and it felt like he walked for hours, falling colder and colder as he went through before he heard a voice.

"You rubbish little twat. You should have died." Arthur stilled, feeling his heart pounding in his chest. This wasn't just someone else's voice. It was one of the priests from when he was a child. Another voice rang in, and Arthur turned towards the sound, feeling his heart clench at the words. "No one will ever love you. The church doesn't want you. There's nothing in life for you. It would be kinder to yourself to release your suffering. Just one step from the tower would do, you know. It's not hard. Just a single... step." Tears ran down his face as he remembered one of the nuns saying this to him. Another voice rang from behind him and he turned, throwing out his arms in an attempt to block the horrible words. He remembered every one of them. Each time they were said, who spoke them, and the fact that these were all said to him at only five.

"You were a burden on your mother. That's why she left you here. She's still alive, you know. I see her often, but she's never once asked about you. If you couldn't even earn the love of your own mother, why do you think anyone else would love you?" He screamed out in frustration, falling to his knees, holding up his hands to block out the sounds as more and more voices started joining in. They started speaking over each other so he couldn't hear the words themselves, but his memory made him know what they were all saying anyway. He fell, his face to the floor, sobbing in anguish before one voice over him sounded out.

"Thank you." He looked up, reaching out into the blackness and felt a hand wrap around his. "I didn't want to let you go, even if only for a couple of hours." He heard the words that were so softly spoken to him.

"Master?"

He was pulled back to his feet, tears streaming down his cheeks as the hand left him standing alone in the hallway. He felt the chill again and looked around, confused.

"Arthur?" He heard and turned, screaming before falling over backwards, his hands and feet both falling over the edge of the thin wall he realized he was on.

"Who's there?" Arthur asked, absolutely terrified. He knew the voice, but his head had been spinning so badly he couldn't place it.

"It's Nikolai. What are you doing here?"

"Where am I?" He asked, shivering and the other sighed.

"On the roof. You were about to jump." He spoke softly and Arthur stood dead still, afraid to move a muscle. "Where are you?"

"Behind you. Just turn and step towards me, alright?" He heard and it echoed with the voice of the nun. Just one step...

He crumpled down, grasped tightly to the stone. "Speak again so I know where you are, please?" He sniffed, moving his head to try and catch the sound. He felt a hand on his ankle pull and screamed as he fell into Nikolai's arms.

"You're not doing so well."

"I want to go back to Master. Please, please take me back!" He cried out, shaking like a leaf and Nikolai took off at a run. He could only feel steps and steps for what felt like forever before he was stood on his feet and he heard a knock on the door before him. It was a moment before the door opened and he could hear confusion before a gasp.

"Arthur? What happened?"

"He almost killed himself. He nearly jumped off of the roof." Nikolai panted and Piotr grasped Arthur tightly, holding him to his chest.

"Please, tell Sasha we need a lock and a loop for the inside of the room." Piotr panted out. Arthur could feel the other's weight waver and realized he was about to fall. He grasped him hard, keeping him upright.

"He almost died and you're worried about a lock?!"

"I can put it where he can't reach it, so he can't escape. He sleepwalks, Nikolai! There's nothing more to it than that!" Piotr cried out just before the wavering became too much for Arthur's sleep addled mind and they tumbled to the floor.

"Make sure. Yesterday it was the dock, today it's the roof. This is dangerous, and I don't want you getting all broken hearted if he kills himself." Nikolai grumbled before turning and walking away leaving Arthur shaking worse.

"The dock? I was just on a street. I didn't mean to go to the roof!" Arthur started to panic and Piotr nodded, holding him tightly.

"Do you promise that to me? That you're not trying to kill yourself, like you told Lovino?" He cried harder and Arthur stilled for a moment before smacking him hard in the face.

"I've never been happier than I was today! Why in the hell would I choose now to kill myself?! How could you even think that?!" He cried, the tears in his own eyes renewed as the answer came to him.

They'd been together. Arthur said he loved him.

Piotr had never said it back.

That's why he'd sleepwalked tonight.

Piotr was scared he'd been lied to, that Arthur was playing with him, but would run when he got the chance. "You don't have any faith in me, do you?" Arthur asked, surprised and heartbroken.

"It's not you I don't have faith in. It's myself." He spoke softly. "My first slave, the one before you, he wasn't like you. He was cold and calculating. He was a cold blooded killer. I forced him to be my slave and started training him. He fought back every step of the way. He caved, I'd thought. He said he would stop acting up. He started behaving. He started being friendly. I let him out of the room he'd been trained in and he walked to the top of the castle and walked off the edge." Piotr spoke softly. Arthur grasped him tightly.

"I'm not him!" He cried and Piotr nodded, but Arthur could feel his heart still pounding. He grasped Piotr's shoulders and shoved him to the floor. "Grant me my freedom."

"What?" Piotr's voice was strained and scared.

"Right now. Grant me my freedom. Tell me I'm free." Arthur growled out and Piotr sobbed, his hands falling away from Arthur.

"I grant you your freedom." He cried, hiccups marring the words. "You're free to leave me and go to your own life now."

"I don't want to go!" Arthur yelled out before leaning down, kissing Piotr hard. His hands clasped to moist cheeks as he pulled him as close as possible. He pulled away to take a few breaths. "I don't' want to be free of you. I give you back my slavery, Master." Arthur spoke as he kissed him again and again, all over his mouth, cheeks and chin. He could feel the tense of the muscles beneath him at his words, but hoped his actions helped. Arms finally softly and slowly reached up, wrapping around him.

"You really gave me back your slavery?" He asked softly and Arthur nodded.

"I love you. I don't want to be free of you ever. I'll always want to be at your side, no matter what. You granted me my freedom, and I gave it back. My life, my body, they are yours. They belong to you." Arthur cried and Ivan wrapped his arms around him tighter, sitting up, holding him as closely as he could.

"I love you." Piotr whispered and Arthur burst into tears, holding the other as close as he could.

Piotr lifted him softly and closed the door, grasping the knife they had from their kits and stabbed it into the door frame, blocking the door from opening. Arthur was carried to the bed and laid down, Piotr wrapping himself around him. "Why did you start to cry when I told you I loved you?"

"I was scared." Arthur sniffled, still clasped to him. "I never kissed anyone before you. I never thought about things like relationships or any of that kind of thing, and you came along and I don't know how to deal with it all sometimes! I get too scared or self-conscious, and you normally always say what I need to hear, but I told you. I told you two days ago I loved you. I was scared maybe you didn't love me back, maybe I was wrong." He cried out, for once not worrying about what he was saying. He needed to get it off his chest. "You say we didn't have sex, and maybe for you it wasn't, but that was everything to me! It meant the world to me, our first time and you didn't say it back! Maybe I'm just some cheap whore!"

"Arthur!" Piotr grasped him and held him to the bed. "I never thought of you like that! I never would have!"

"I know!" Arthur cried, grasping the hands on his shoulders. "You finally said it back!" he clenched his eyes. "God, I feel like some bloody twelve year old girl acting like this." He chuckled, shaking his head to try and force away the tears.

Piotr finally relaxed, falling to the bed beside him. "As long as you're truly happy, I can deal with it." Piotr kissed him. His body was starting to flood with the hormones of teenagers a few years too late. It was no wonder he was being so overly emotional. He didn't have the slow onset to prepare him like everyone else. This was all at once for him. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize it was bothering you so badly."

"I think it's why I sleepwalked tonight." Arthur blushed. "I remembered these horrible things told to me as a child, and I couldn't handle it, but you started talking to me. It was all the things you'd already told me in the past, but I couldn't hear the words I needed to. You'd never said them." Arthur pressed himself to Piotr's chest harder.

"I have now." Piotr spoke. "I love you, Arthur Braginsky-Kirkland."

"I love you, Master." Arthur smiled softly as he leaned up and kissed the soft lips before him.

They were able to sleep well after that.

At breakfast the next morning Sasha came down to the table. "I hear you almost walked off of the roof yesterday." He said sitting down beside Arthur.

"Yes, I'm sorry. I hadn't meant to. It was my sleepwalking. If you need to punish me again-"

"No, nothing like that. I'm actually going to have you talk to Lukas after exercises today. Both of you, if that's alright." He spoke softly and Arthur nodded, knowing Piotr was nodding as well. "Good. You go ahead and eat." He nearly whispered as he stood, patting Arthur on the head.

When they walked in, Lukas sighed. "Arthur. I have two reasons to talk to you today. Sit down, please." Arthur did as he was told, an odd feeling of dread coming over him. "First, the filter from your test yesterday came back clean. I can take a sample before you leave here for the final test." Arthur sighed, but the feeling of dread got worse. "Second, since you've sleepwalked out of the school one night, and almost threw yourself from the roof another, it's being recommended you be kicked from the program." Lukas sighed and Arthur sat up.

"It wasn't my fault!" He cried out. "I can't control my sleep!"

"I know. I'm not the one who recommended it, and that's what's so confusing to me. It was left as a recommendation in my mailbox around midnight last night. One of the members of the City Council knew you were going to try and walk off of the roof, and knew you'd been sleepwalking on the other side of town." Lukas grumbled.

"What do you mean, they knew?"

"Nikolai found you at two. They left the note two hours before you made it to the roof." He sighed and Arthur stared ahead blankly.

"So... someone either tried to get rid of me, or is trying to kill me?" Arthur asked, his hand unconsciously reaching for Piotr's.

"Yes." Lukas leaned forward. "The problem is, the request to have you removed from the school is official. I have to give them a reply as to why I should allow someone who's a danger to himself to himself to continue in the program, as well as eventually be near the King. This was made in such a fashion as to go over your head as well, Your Highness." Lukas watched as Piotr nodded, his eyes narrowing.

"Winter?"

"I doubt it." Lukas sighed. "There would be no reason for him to do this. He changed the listing of Arthur from Slave to pet, which I used as a hope to have this whole thing tossed out, as it had you listed as the slave. In case that doesn't work-"

"I will have my new Assassin's squad perform one quick mission, to kill anyone who may have written that letter." Piotr spoke in a calm voice. "That's what you tell them. This is my kingdom. There are two kings here, and they both recommend him to stay." Piotr sat tall. "I will not allow some childish temper tantrum to have him removed from me. Even better, I'll leave and talk to them now. I'll go ahead and call the court to my throne room and inform them of exactly what they're doing, and why it won't work." Piotr stood. "Arthur, you go to lunch. Stay with Antonio. Tell him it was my order not to leave his side until I return."

"Yes, Master." Arthur felt trepidation while Piotr left.

He was terrified. "Is it alright to go to lunch after this is done?"

"Yes. The notice I sent should keep you here the rest of the school day at the least." Lukas sighed, hoping Ivan was able to stop this. "There is that chance you'll have to leave after dinner, if things don't go as we're hoping."

"I have faith in my Master." Arthur smiled softly.