It was something of a scramble to get into costume. I was not used to the elaborate outfits Master Zechs bought for us, so even my relatively simple demon costume caused me some problems. The skintight material kept bunching up, and the wings constantly slipped down until Quatre managed to find a strap that I had missed and fasten it. I also helped Quatre, because he had been drugged when first donning the costume and couldn't figure out where some of the pieces of gauzy material went or how they were supposed to lie. Still, we had about fifteen minutes of extra time once our costumes were on to put on makeup.
"Wufei, are you alright?" Quatre asked the closed door.
"I'm fine," he responded quickly, his voice somewhat strained. Quatre rolled his eyes.
"Then could you open the door?" I wondered. "We need the mirror."
"Uh... For what?"
"To put on our makeup."
"Can't you... uh... use the slave's bathroom?"
"Nope!" Duo said cheerily, entering the room with Heero in tow. "We just came from there. Apparently all the makeup is in here."
"It has better lighting and a bigger mirror," Heero grumbled.
"Wufei, could you please open the door? Are you sure you're alright?"
"No! Yes! I mean... Just give me a minute!"
"You've had a minute," I pointed out, "and we only have a few more left if we want to make it to the party on time."
"K'so! How much longer do we have?"
"About twelve minutes."
"Shit!" he cursed, and there was the sound of something being knocked over.
"Wufei, open this door right now!" Quatre demanded.
"Here, I got it," Duo said, pushing his way past us to the door. He extracted a pin from his hair and proceeded to pick the simple lock on the door. It took him almost no time, the lock clicked open almost the second he inserted the pin into the doorknob. "And there's how we deal on L2," he commented proudly, a wide grin on his face. Heero looked grim and I thought for a moment that he would protest, but he merely opened the door and proceeded inside.
In the bathroom, Wufei was only half dressed and scurrying to pick up a jar of spilled body-jewels. He wore only a small piece of green fabric covering his modesty and green leather-like tights with attached claws that looked like lizard feet. There was a bottle of glue on the counter, along with gloves that matched the socks and an empty bottle of jewels.
Wufei looked up at us in shock, his face pale and panic-stricken. There was no way he could get his costume together in time on his own.
We moved as a group, suddenly, as though we had each been taken over by the same impulse. Quatre and Heero both dropped to the floor and began collecting the scattered beads. Duo pushed a startled and confused Wufei to sit on the toilet, then pulled a small chair over for himself while I hopped up on the counter. As soon as the other two had collected a handful of beads, we each began sticking them to Wufei's chest in a lessening scale-like pattern. The idea was that when we finished it would look like scale was melting into flesh as the eye drifted upwards. Wufei merely sat there in a stupor as the team worked in tandem to assemble his costume. When we were finished, a light dusting of a green sparkling dust gave Wufei's body an otherworldly tint.
We stepped back, as much to see our own work as to let Wufei see himself in the mirror. He was radiant, and he barely seemed to recognize himself. After a moment of staring, he turned to us and bowed deeply; a sign of gratitude.
It felt good to help out a fellow slave without being told or expecting anything in return. In other houses, I and the others would have let the slave flounder until the master saw. The master would always order the other slaves to help him, but he would lose some of his value in the master's eyes. If one was late too many times, the master would stop taking him, and he would eventually be sold.
There wasn't that kind of pressure, that kind of competition here. I was new, but I wouldn't doubt that if Master saw Wufei flounder, he would have helped him himself instead of calling us. Still, it felt good to do Wufei a favor, and the gratitude in his eyes told me that he wouldn't soon forget it.
"You look great, FeiFei. Now we gotta hustle!" Duo snapped, and Wufei found himself pushed out of the way while the rest of us crowded around the mirror.
Duo's makeup was simplest, since he was wearing a mask. He merely put some dark powder and sparkles on his face to make him look more mysterious. I put the same dark powder on my face, but also included gray eyeshadow and lipstick, to make my face look like it was constantly in the shadow. Heero and Quatre both dowsed themselves generously in white powder and sparkles, along with a sliver lipgloss and white eyeshadow.
"Boys, are you ready?" Master asked just as Duo and I finished putting the last of the sparkles into Heero and Quatre's hair. "Ah, you all look magnificent. Wufei, those jewels are stunning," he praised. Wufei blushed at the complement.
"I had help with them," he admitted. Yet another thing a slave under a different master would not do without prompting; give credit to someone else.
"Well, you're all lovely. Now, let's get going. This is the last party, so we don't want to be late!"
The last party was always held by the Owner and, though he never attended, it was rumored that he always watched. The party was more of an old-fashioned ball than anything, and it was the only one where every slave was expected to be at least scantily dressed. The masters all wore ancient outfits, male masters with military or royalty suits and female master with large hoops skirts. Our Master looked like the king of an ancient city, dressed in a long royal gold coat inlaid with gold embroidery. The tight white pants showed off his strong thighs and the high boots accentuated his tall stature.
The slaves were either dressed to mimic the masters or in some kind of costume. Many slaves were dressed in animal costumes, cats and birds seemed most popular this year. The other slaves, who chose to mimic the masters, were often in the tattered remains of what would have been a beautiful outfit. One slave was wearing a suit of armor, only the only pieces he had were the gloves, the pants, and the shoes. His entire torso was bare. Another fellow had been dressed in a hoop skirt, but the fabric was removed from the outside of the skirt, so that his undergarments were clearly visible.
Master took us directly to a table when we entered. The tables, unlike the rest of the party, were simple at first glance. They were small, meant to seat a maximum of four. The only alteration to this was the there was a large pillow chained to either leg. The chair, of course, was for the master, and the pillow was for the slaves.
Master sat in the chair, Quatre and I sat on the left pillow, and Duo and Heero slid onto the right pillow. This left Wufei standing awkwardly at the side, wondering what to do. Master seemed uncertain as well, but as another master approached he quickly made up his mind and pulled Wufei into his lap. Wufei squawked, surprised by the sudden movement, and more or less fell into Master's lap. He had to hold onto Master's neck to keep himself from slipping onto the floor, and Master put his arms around him to keep him steady.
It must have looked like a tender moment to Madam Long, who sat down across from Master with a laugh.
"I see someone finally managed to tame Dragon!" she gasped. Wufei reddened, but didn't respond.
"Patience can tame even the wildest beast. Or the most stubborn," he added, looking Wufei in the eye with a smile. Wufei blushed and rolled his eyes. I could only assume that he realized he had been stubborn, because I'm sure he would have offended otherwise.
"You must tell me how you managed to subdue him! Did you best him?"
"At swordplay," Master admitted, though he turned his face away from her in a somewhat pained manner. I wondered why, but didn't dare to ask. Beside me, Quatre looked concerned as well, but knew better than to say anything.
"My, you must be the best around! Or perhaps Dragon simply hasn't been practicing."
"No, Dragon is an exemplary swordsman. I must admit, my methods were... less than chivalrous."
"Did you cheat?" she asked, her brows furrowing in curiosity. "Because he never accepted cheating..."
"Master did not cheat," Wufei said hesitantly, looking to Master for approval. Master nodded, and he continued. "He simply found my weakness and exploited it. Any good swordsman would do the same."
"And what is your weakness?" the Mistress asked, looking very interested in the conversation. Warning bells went off in my head, but speaking would be considered rude, so I couldn't warn Master.
Apparently, though, Master sensed Madam Long's devious intentions, for he smiled and said, "Now that would be giving up the game, wouldn't it, madam?" He winked. "You'll just have to find out for yourself."
Madam Long pouted, but there was really nothing she could do. Instead, she turned her attentions to the slaves behind master, myself included.
"No!" she gasped suddenly. "It can't be!" she squealed. "Don't tell me you've purchased Shinigami as well!"
"No," Master quickly corrected. "Fortunately, I have not. I only took him on for a few days. Luckily enough, too, for he's far too much of a handful for me."
"But he seems so well behaved tonight," Madam purred, leaning closer to Duo, who leaned into Heero, who pulled Duo away from Madam Long.
"I managed to persuade him to behave himself at the ball. Trust me, he isn't always so docile."
"Oh, of course not," Madam Long said, sitting back in her chair and turning her attention back to Master. "All slaves are better behaved in public. That's only natural. But, of course, if he's as much of a handful in private as you say, it's probably better to get rid of him. He is Shinigami, after all. I've heard he's killed a few masters," she said, then laughed. "Of course, I don't believe it! It's about as much crap as him having ever been on Black."
"So you don't think he's done drugs?"
"Well of course he's done drugs! He just hasn't done Black. You'd know if he had, because the tips of his fingers," she said, reaching out and grabbing his hand, "would have a black spot," she announced, revealing Duo's fingers to be spot-free. Duo was glaring and struggled to get out of her grasp. She let him go, paying him no mind as Heero gathered Duo back into his arms. "That's one of the reasons it's called black. It's the most powerful Collar drugs, so powerful that it's rare for a slave to survive it. And it's the only one of the Collar drugs that's addictive."
"Really?" Master wondered.
"Yes, didn't you know? The Collar drugs are made so that they can be given to slaves once in a while, without needing to constantly up the doses. Slaves don't become physically addicted, though many do become mentally addicted to the properties of the drugs. That's why someone so often drugged, like Shinigami, wouldn't be a burnout by now."
"Huh. I hadn't thought about it," Master admitted.
Meanwhile, Duo was getting antsy, sitting quietly as the two masters talked about him. He kept squirming, even though Heero tried to hold him still, and eventually pulled out of Heero's grasp to tug on Master's sleeve.
"Yes, Shini?" Master asked. Instead of speaking, which was frowned upon for slaves, Duo merely pointed to the dance floor, where several pairs of slaves were dancing, along with some slave and master pairs. Master frowned as he looked over the crowd, then back to Duo. "You can go, but make sure you behave. I don't want you knocking anyone over."
Duo nodded cheerily, then grabbed Heero, hauled the other boy to his feet, and trotted off toward the dance floor. I looked at Quatre somewhat wistfully. I loved to dance, though I was not particularly good at it, and would have loved to dance with Quatre. But would he want to dance with someone so plain? So homely?
"You two can go as well," Master offered, perhaps sensing my yearning. I turned to Quatre, wondering if he wanted to go or not, but he had pulled me to my feet before I could even turn my head. He dragged me toward the dance floor in his excitement, and I had to pull him to a stop at the edges. He was radiant, joyful and excited. His eyes, such a perfect blue found nowhere else in nature. I looked deep into his blue orbs as I pulled him against me, his small form tucking snugly against mine. He smiled at me, and the other dancers faded away as we rocked back and forth in the tide of the music.