The maid had turned all the lights on when she had left, which must have been hours ago, considering she lived in the closest house, which was forty minutes away. They had been driving for nearly five hours now, and the boy had fallen asleep against the window despite a valiant effort to stay awake. Zechs smiled softly; the boy looked almost peaceful in his sleep. Zechs had been shocked that a holding cell for the human slaves had been so close to his home, but once inside city grounds all the buildings blended together, and even he had to admit that he would probably never have suspected it.
Zechs gently shook the boy awake as the pulled up to the entrance of the house. The boy flinched hard and curled into himself as he blinked his eyes open and tried to orient himself. His eyes met Zechs' for a moment, but he quickly lowered them to the floor. Zechs held in another sigh and undid the boy's seatbelt. Without a word, the boy slipped out of the seat and knelt at Zechs' feet. After staring at him for a moment, Zechs reached down and picked up the chain attached to the boys collar. Zechs turned and saw Riku holding the door open, staring openly with pity at the boy. Zechs wasn't worried that he would turn him in, though, as Riku was also an agent working on this operation with Zechs. In truth, Zechs doubted he would see anyone but agents for the next few weeks, until he left for the games. All the agents, even the ones that would deliver the meals he ordered, were to be disguised so cleverly that even the boy would be fooled. It was possible that even the slave would turn him in, scrapping the operation. They had to be wary of spies.
Still, watching the boy crawl hesitantly out of the car, Zechs doubted anyone could fake the look of hollow emptiness on the boy's face.
Zechs was brought back to himself as Riku pulled the car out of the driveway, leaving the two of them standing in the doorway. Zechs led the boy inside, closing the door behind them. Once the door was firmly closed and locked, Zechs dropped the chain, careful not to hit the boy with it, and allowed him to look around.
The house was no where near the level of decadence of Relena's mansion, but it was far above the average bachelor pad. It seemed more like a pricey cottage than a real home. In fact, before Zechs had bought it for this mission, it had been the winter cottage of one of Relena's ministers. It was ranch style, which Zechs didn't mind, and sprawled out over the wooded terrain. They had chosen this particular location because while the house was surrounded on all sides by a cleared plain, the yard soon gave way to dense forest. This would make it easy for Preventers to hide in the forest while guarding the house while also removing the problem of "nosy neighbors" or any neighbors at all, really.
The house had three bedrooms, one master and two guest, and four bathrooms, one in each of the rooms and one near the kitchen. Along with the kitchen, the house also had a study, a training room, a spare room, and a "playroom." Zechs hesitated to think about that room, as he had acquainted himself well with its contents in preparation for this mission.
Zechs walked up to the boy and tilted his face up, forcing him to meet his eyes. It was then that Zechs got his first good look at the boy. Zechs realized that not only was the boy several inches shorter than he was, but he was also very young, probably in his late teens.
"I need to know what to call you," Zechs said, releasing the boy's face.
"You may cal me whatever you want, master," the boy responded, his voice clear, soft, and emotionless.
"What name did your last master call you by?"
"She called me Blue, master."
"I see. Did you like that name?"
"I like whatever name pleases you, master," the boy said, staring directly ahead, but a slight tightening of his jaw betrayed his real feelings. Again, Zechs forced him to look into his eyes.
"What is your name?" Zechs asked, holding the boy's eyes with his own.
"Heero," the boy whispered softly, "My name is Heero, master."
"That's a good name," said Zechs, lowering the boy's face, "I will call you by it. And you must not call me master after every sentence, it's annoying."
"Yes..." Heero reasoned, trailing off as he kept himself from saying master again.
"Good, now take off your clothes."
Without any surprise or hesitation, Heero immediately pulled open his robe and let it drop to the floor. With another swift movement, the cloth covering his modesty was also on the floor, and Heero stood there completely bare. Zechs, however, was looking only at the boy's face, which showed no signs of what he was feeling. After a moment, Zechs turned and signaled Heero to follow.
Zechs led Heero to the bed room, where he asked him to stay as he entered another room. Heero could hear the sound of running water as Zechs returned and opened his closet. Not knowing what else to do, Heero simply stood there as Zechs shuffled things around until he emerged with a small pile of clothes. He set them on the bed, and once again signaled Heero to follow.
The bathroom was large, but not overly lavish. The bathtub was deep, but it was not a hot-tub, as many people kept. Again Heero was left with nothing to do as Zechs gathered the soaps and towels. Turning around with them, Zechs saw that Heero had yet to make a move, and gently propelled him toward the bath. A bit of confusion and suspicion on his face, Heero gingerly got in and sat down in the steaming water. Zechs immediately set to work bathing the boy and attempting to relax him, but Heero was stiff and unresponsive to his ministrations, which was only compounded by the fact that Zechs had not removed his chains for fear of him running away. As Zechs washed him, he could understand how the boy would be wary of him, as his hands brushed over the many scars Heero had received at the hands of his former masters. Still, Zechs could also tell the some of the tension in his muscles was from sleeping on the hard ground, and resolved to fix the situation.
Once Heero was clean, which was not a quick job at all, Zechs instructed him to get out of the tub and dry off, then ushered him onto a scale. Zechs frowned at the boy's weight, 115 pounds, but it wasn't as bad as he had thought. Once that was through, Zechs took up the chain and led Heero passed the clothes Zechs had originally thought to put on him. In the doorway, Zechs instructed Heero to go to the kitchen and move the chairs away from the table, then turned back into the room.
With a sinking feeling, Heero entered the small kitchen and did as he was instructed. As he was moving the chairs, Heero noticed with dread just how sturdy the wood table seemed, and that it would be just at waist height on the other man.
"Lay on the table," Zechs said as he entered the kitchen with a small box, almost echoing Heero's fears. Heero did as he was told, feeling as though he had swallowed a rock. He watched anxiously as Zechs removed a towel and lotion from the small box. Zechs approached the table with the two and gently pushed Heero to roll over, so that he was on his stomach, then, confusing Heero even more, placed the towel under his head. Heero flinched as Zechs squeezed some of the lotion onto his hands, but again Zechs made no move toward sexual contact, and began giving the boy a back rub.
"You're very tense, Heero," Zechs said. Heero had heard many masters tell him that, but none had ever tried to alleviate the problem. Zechs adjusted Heero's neck several times, forcing him to look this way and that, as he continued to rub the boy's back firmly.
After a few minutes Heero felt Zechs move away from him and rummage around in the box. Afraid to move his head, Heero could not see what Zechs was doing. When he returned, Zechs put another layer of lotion on Heero's back, and the boy was just starting to relax when he heard something hum behind hum and felt something vibrating against his back.
Heero spun around so quickly that he certainly would have fallen off the table had Zechs not caught his arm. In Zechs' hand was a small, plastic contraption vibrating softly with three small, rounded arms coming off of its round middle.
"Heero," Zechs warned, "Get back on the table and lay down."
More afraid of being punished than he was of the contraption, for it really wasn't all that big, Heero laid back down on the table, though he was tense once again and he was terrified of what Zechs was going to do.
But Zechs merely laid the vibrating gadget against his back once again and began to work it firmly against the boy's muscles, forcing them to relax and loosen. It was painful, but far from unbearable. Heero could feel that it was a good kind of pain, which he had not often felt before.
When Heero's muscles were completely relaxed, Zechs turned off the machine and set it aside. The massage had worked better than he had hoped at getting Heero's muscles to relax, but it had also brought a new problem to his attention.
"Heero, I'm going to straddle you," was all the warning Zech gave before pushing himself onto the table and settling his weight over the boy's thighs. Heero jumped at the feel of having the other man on top of him, but it was already too late. Zechs was much too heavy for him to push off, and he wouldn't dare to defy his master in such a way. Besides, Zechs was still fully clothed, so posed less of a threat to him.
"I want you to take a deep breath," Zechs instructed. When he felt the boy inhale, Zechs gently applied pressure to the vertebrae in the boy's back, increasing the pressure until he finally felt the bone shift back into place. He did it several times, until he was sure that everything was correctly aligned. He knew that this process was painful, but Heero never made a sound. Zechs gave his muscles one more quick rub down, as a reward, then pushed himself off Heero and motioned for the boy to sit up.
"How do you feel?" Zechs questioned.
Still staring at the floor, the boy responded, "Much better. Thank you."
"I must admit, I haven't done this in while. I was worried I'd make things worse rather than better," Zechs said with a small, nostalgic smile. Zechs had taken a course in massage while he was with Treize, hoping to use massages to tempt the other man into something of a more erotic nature, but had often ended up cracking his back for him instead.
Zechs glanced at the sullenly silent young boy next to him. He had never thought that the first thing he would do with his slave would be to crack his back, but, then again, he had never really thought of owning a slave before.
"You know that you are my first slave, don't you?" Zechs asked. The boy responded with a nod. "Then you know that I am new to this area. You will have to guide me until I fully understand the situation I have found myself in." Another nod. "I think it would help me to understand better if I knew more about you." A tight, quick nod. "Alright then, tell me about yourself. Have you had many masters?"
"Only eight," the boy said in a steady voice, staring straight ahead.
"So this number is low? How many masters do slaves usually have?"
"Most slaves will have about fourteen masters."
"I see. How long does a master usually keep a slave?"
"Good slaves are kept two or three years, and a master may keep a slave training for Collar for ten years or more, but bad slaves are only kept a few months to a year."
"So a slave works for over twenty years. Then what?"
"Then hey are no longer desirable. If they are skilled and less then hideous, they become one of the servants for the Owner. If they are less skilled or ugly, they are euthanised."
"By the Owner, who do you refer to?"
"The man who runs Collar."
"But who is he?"
"I don't know. No one but the top five finalists of Collar have even seen him."
Zechs nodded, for he knew that already. The entire reason for the operation was to become one of the top five in Collar in order to find out who ran Collar. Preventers wanted to bring the entire ring crashing down, and to do that they needed to start at the top.
"The euthanisations, where are they done?"
"L-2. The judicial system there allows the death penalty to be enforced two days after conviction for high crimes, such as treason. The slaves are falsely accused, convicted, and sentenced."
"No one's noticed?"
Heero resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "No one's noticed the slave ring, master, a few extra bodies on a planet like L-2 won't attract much attention at all," Heero said. L-2 was notorious for its corruption.
"I should have guessed. Now, just a few more questions for you. How can you be so open about this? Shouldn't it be a secret? Who told you?"
"You are my master, and as such I am not permitted to hide anything from you. If I do not answer a question honestly, I will be punished. However, everyone, slave and master, knows about what happens to retired slaves. Even the L-2 police force knows about it, but there's no proof, so there's no danger."
Zechs smiled and gently ran hand through the boy's hair. "You've done very well in answering my questions, and I am very pleased. I will reward you for this behavior later. Now, go turn on the other set of lights, I would like to inspect you."
Heero immediately obeyed, turning on another set of lights so that the kitchen was well lit. Zechs rose and approached him.
Heero was thin from being undernourished, but there were still traces of muscles on his arms and legs. He was lanky and somewhat short, but the light dusting of hair and his chest and the soft, dark curls of his groin attested to the fact that he had hit puberty and Zechs, with relief, accredited his height to his heritage, not his age. Zechs gently took one of the boy's hands. Heero had long, thin fingers. His hands were soft, but he had small callouses on his palm, as though he had been working with a sword or gun. Zechs pushed Heero to turn around, then slowly ran his hands over the boy's back. In the dimmer light, Zechs had felt the many scars on the boy's back, but had not been able to see them. Now, in the stark light, the scars stood out as the evidence to a brutal beating the boy had received. There were nine thick, scars running along his back at all directions, in addition to over a dozen smaller, thinner ones. Overcome by the sight, Zechs knelt left a trail of kisses down the lines of scarred flesh. Heero tensed in surprise, but didn't resist. Once finished, Zechs rose again. Deliberately, he ran his hand over the boy's ass, cupping and squeezing each cheek. Despite the scars, Heero was still a gorgeous young man, and one that he was expected to sleep with. Sex was actually the only part of the mission he thought he might enjoy, and he felt guilty about that.
"Do you approve, master?" Heero asked.
"Yes," Zechs responded immediately, "You are beautiful."
Heero frowned, as though hurt. Zechs caught sight of the look, and frowned in confusion.
"What's wrong?"
"There's no need to be cruel. I am well aware that my scars are... less than appealing."
Without a word, Zechs spun the boy around and kissed his surprised mouth. Heero's lips were open in a gasp, and Zechs took advantage of this to invade the boy's mouth with his tongue, making their first kiss deep and far from chaste. Heero said nothing, but his breathing deepened and, after the initial shock was gone, did his best to keep up with his master. Only when the two could no longer hold their breaths did they part.
"Now do you believe me?" Zechs questioned. Heero nodded, a slight blush stealing across his features. "I will assume that you are not a virgin, but I was told that you have not been with anyone in a long time. Is that correct?"
"I have not participated in sex for many months," Heero replied, attempting to regain his control.
"Then I will not take you tonight, but I will not hold back in the future. You must learn to please me before we leave for the Collar banquet, and I intend to allow you plenty of opportunities to practice."