A/N: I learned so much Grecian clothing terminology because of this dirty fic. who'd've thought

peronai - the pin thingies that hold the tunic in place at the shoulders

perizoma - like a loincloth/underwear

Chapter 2: Confine

Furuichi woke up to the scent of relaxing incense, a teeming fog that made him wonder if he was half-conscious, hallucinating or high. Despite the paralyzing comfort he was in, he chose to kick off the sheets and get out of bed. His hands stalled the moment he felt the soft silkiness and expensive feel of the covers.

"Velvet?" Furuichi wondered aloud. He had read about it but had never seen or felt it personally. There was not one in his city who was rich enough to afford such luxury.

Then the questions in his mind started flooding in. 'Where am I?' His head turned to look around and examine the unfamiliar room. 'I don't know where I am.' He knew he wasn't anywhere he's been before. In his panic, he shot up to run to the door but met the floor instead.

He fell with a loud thud and just as he was scampering to collect himself, he heard the door open. In came a lady who walked with a dignified and precise rhythm. She helped Furuichi up and guided him to sit back on the bed, then knelt in front of him to check on his ankle.

"Are you hurt?" came the question that startled Furuichi.

"No." He mumbled.

"You must not rush. You are able to walk well enough if you would only pace yourself."

"Oh… okay."

Then, the lady stood up to point to a tray of fruits and wine on the table near the bed. "Help yourself to some food. You have been asleep for almost two days. Your body needs the nutrition." The onslaught of distanced, overly-polite advice ended with a sincere smile. Furuichi blushed after seeing such a pretty lady smile at him. He meant to introduce himself but before he could talk to her more, she had already turned to the door to leave.

"Your god would be pleased to know that you are awake." She said before disappearing from Furuichi's line of sight completely.

"What now?" Furuichi's confusion kept increasing exponentially. Try as he might, he couldn't recall how he ended up in here, where royalty probably reside. The dull aches of his head and stomach remind him that he really had been sleeping for nearly two whole days. He naturally gravitated towards the food on the table, even though he isn't familiar with most of them.

Furuichi had finished eating two whole golden apples, relishing in the fresh sweet-sourness of it. He left the cores to the side and started picking lime-colored grapes one by one. Once he was no longer famished, his curiosity took over and the learner inside him took to analyzing the rest of the stranger-looking food. With his attention completely dedicated to the fruit, Furuichi didn't notice the door to his room opening once more and someone helping himself inside.

"I've never seen this before." Furuichi wondered aloud as he held the strange fruit with both hands. "It's pink and then gradates oddly into green." He took a tentative bite to see what's inside then grimaced. "The skin is bitter." But he remained chewing and swallowed it so he wouldn't waste a thing.

"Huh, the inside is completely different from what I expected it to be." He rubbed his forefinger on the exposed white and then licked to find out the taste. "It's so brightly colored but it's bland." Furuichi was still sucking on his forefinger when he saw an arm reach from behind him to take the bottle of wine on the table.

"It's called a dragon fruit." was the unsettling introduction that came from behind him.

Furuichi turned to look at the silent intruder and was met with a bare, muscular chest. His eyes trailed up, slowly and in disbelief at how huge this person is. Whatever courage he had before seeing this man behind him, it was gone now.

Furuichi took a tiny step back to distance himself from the large man. The stranger's head was tilted back for downing the entire bottle in one go. He raised his hands to his chest, still holding the dragon fruit like it could protect him from anything.

"It's good that you're awake now." The deep, gruff voice seemed out of place with his gentle words. Furuichi stared at this man's face long enough that the god raised a brow in question.

"J-Jabberwock?" Furuichi stammered out of fear and the weight of realization.

"It's good that you know who I am."

Once Furuichi saw his face, he was reminded that he was saved by the God of Power, back in the pouring rain near the ore-mining caves. He took a slow step back as he remembered that he was nearly killed multiple times that day, the worst of the threats being the panther that mistook him for dinner.

When it dawned on him that his savior was in front of him, he quickly knelt down and pressed his forehead to the floor. "Thank you for saving my life!" He said in a strained, frightened voice.

Unbeknownst to him, Jabberwock scoffed at his show of gratitude. He bent down to pick Furuichi up and placed him on the bed as easily as if he was a doll.

"You are well now?" He asked and pointed at Furuichi's ankle.

He nodded yes.

"No fever?"

"I don't think so."

"This part?" Jabberwock checked as he lifted his tunic a bit to expose Furuichi's scraped knees.

"They're healing fine. It's not a big deal."

"Good."

The god plucked the dragon fruit from his hands and threw it aside. He held Furuichi's wrists apart and looked at his body from his neck to his chest, arms, stomach, groin, legs and feet. It made him uneasy but he steeled his emotions for now.

"I don't like this." Jabberwock said and then let go of Furuichi. Then the god left the room.

Furuichi remained staring into space, slack-jawed in confusion. He wanted to follow after the god and ask what he meant. Most importantly, he wanted to ask if he can be sent back to the city he grew up in.

While he was reflecting on why the God of Power would bother saving him from his mundane death, a lady entered his room once again. Like the first woman who checked up on him, she moved with a precise and calculated edge, so much that Furuichi questioned if she was human.

"Stand up straight, please."

Furuichi straightened up so jerkily that his joints crackled. He was embarrassed but it felt worth it because he saw the lady crack a smile at his little flub. The woman then undid the clasps of his tunic, working so efficiently that Furuichi didn't even feel her take out the fasteners until he was handed the twin peronai that pinned his clothes at the shoulders. She moved on to undoing his belt to let his tunic fall to the floor. He was asked to step out of the ring of discarded clothing pooled around his ankles and he did. Somehow, none of this felt intimate, like the lady was just doing a job and she probably was. But when she pulled at the tie of his undergarments, Furuichi backed away.

"You don't need to." He said in his most polite tone. "If I was asked to change clothes, I get it. But you don't need to undress me all the way." He brought both his hands down to protectively hide his loincloth.

"You don't need it."

"Hah?"

The woman quickly pulled away his perizoma before Furuichi could react. She then took out a bottle of perfume and sprayed it all over the boy's body. Furuichi was still sneezing out the overwhelming scents when another woman entered the room with a beautifully-flowing white gown draped over her forearm.

The first thing they put on was the collar, which was wine-colored, stiff and snugly encircling his neck. A blood red dragon emblem hung from the center like a pendant. Jabberwock's emblem.

The gown was secured using the collar as a starting point, then down under his arms and further down to the small of his back, to be tied tightly to give the illusion of a smaller waist.

It was silk and nearly see-through and Furuichi had never worn anything so tightly fitting in his life.

"Come."

It was a heavy crowd, loud with laughter and stories, yet somehow Furuichi heard his god call for him.

The gods were all gathered, seated in two neat rows on either side of the table teeming with food and drink, with Jabberwock at the head. As Furuichi poured his god's wine, his gaze wandered to the opposite end of the table, which it seemed, was purposely left vacant.

"That one's new. That one's definitely new!" Someone's voice rose out of the steady chatter and he pointed at the mortal cupbearer on Jabberwock's side.

"You're right! That's adorable!"

Furuichi felt the stares right on him so he scurried off to the back, where the other cupbearers were waiting. He felt an understandable relief when he was among them. First of all, they wore the same thing and being with them made him feel like he was less naked than he actually is.

"Don't look so nervous now." said the girl next to him. She was also a cupbearer, albeit to the Goddess of Healing instead. She smiled at Furuichi to comfort him, like a silent affirmation of his nervousness.

"Yeah, wine-pouring is the easiest thing we do." said another boy.

"It's what comes after that knocks me out all the time." said a different girl.

"After? That's nice." said another one right as he was called by his god.

Furuichi watched as the cupbearer walked to the table of the gods. The boy was greeted with an invasive hand cupping his buttocks and as he poured wine for multiple gods and goddesses, he was being groped and touched. They took turns gently caressing and fondling him until he was shaking and could no longer stand without support. Furuichi was shocked to see this god rip the boy's gown and take him on the dinner table right there.

The girl wanted to assure Furuichi that they were good gods. Furuichi could tell that she wanted to tell him that this fate is good too. Above all they both knew that right now was not the perfect time to claim that.

"Come to me. I want to show you to them." Jabberwock called for him again, like the first time. Like his ears were trained to hear his every command.

Furuichi tried his hardest to keep his face from revealing how terrified he is. He wished for his god not to do what he had just witnessed being done to the other cupbearer. He walked up to Jabberwock's side, never fully facing front to see the rest of the gods on the table.

"Come here." Jabberwock dragged his chair back and gestured for Furuichi to sit on his lap.

In his heart of hearts, he doesn't want to sit there. He would bolt if somebody convinced him well enough that he could outrun each and every god in the room. Jabberwock took the wine jar he'd been using to hide behind from and placed it on the table. With that, Furuichi gathered his fickle courage and sat on his god's lap. He remained adamant to looking down instead of meeting anyone's gaze.

"Are you shy?" He heard Jabberwock whisper. "There's no need to worry because you are mine, not theirs."

The boy wasn't going to budge and Jabberwock didn't press further. He chose to keep looking down and take only fleeting glances of the gods that he could see. Even in this dire situation, the fascinated learner within him couldn't ignore the fact that the gods he had doubted were all here in front of him, eating, drinking and being merry.

From what he could remember and recognize from the lessons back with the teacher, the one on Jabberwock's right is Lunana and the one on the left is Laymia. To Furuichi, they looked more beautiful than how they are depicted in art and literature.

"Humans are too frail for you, you know that." Lunana didn't bother to hide her distaste for humans.

Jabberwock ignored her and instead offered Furuichi some of the food on the table.

"She's right." Laymia said. Unlike Lunana, her voice held no malice.

"If Hecadoth didn't convince you that he was ill the night you took him here, he would've died already." Laymia explained, in a cool, calculating manner that was strangely reminiscent of the women who frequented Furuichi's room.

"If I hadn't stepped in to help, he would definitely be dead now." Laymia reiterated and Lunana was nodding in agreement.

"That's why you're the Goddess of Healing. Don't make it seem like I'm indebted to you." Jabberwock snapped back.

"But you are. That boy may as well be mine."

"Or mine." Hecadoth spoke up after keeping quiet beside Laymia for so long. But he wasn't one to argue so he stood up and left the banquet. For all the others, it seemed that he had his fill.

"Like I told you, mortals are too fragile for you. You may as well give him to Laymia to use as a healer." Lunana suggested.

"More likely than not, he'll end up dead in your care." Laymia may not have a pointed tone to lace her words with, but she made up for it with her unyielding statements. It was as if she already knew that what she said would happen.

"Laymia, I'm trying."

None of the gods caught the uneasiness in Furuichi when he heard the gods debating over him. He remembered the boy who was fucked at the banquet table and was terrified that the same thing will happen to him. Out of panic, he jumped off Jabberwock's lap and then he kept running away, out the great hall and into one of the stone ways leading outside, only to be stopped by a soldier. This soldier was immortal but he was not divine, but Furuichi wasn't about to fight him since his sword is real and so is the threat of death. He calmed down and was quietly escorted back to his room, where he was locked in from the outside.

He could hear his heart beat and feel his temples pulse. 'What did I just do?' He thought grimly. 'Will he be angry? Will they all be angry?'

Furuichi was terrified as to whether what he did had consequences or not. He only managed to keep himself from hyperventilating by going over in his mind how none of the gods came after him. If it was an insult to do that, then maybe he should've been maimed right then and there.

A loud bang reverberated across the room and Furuichi was on his feet in an instant. In his fright and surprise, he reflexively snatched a small knife from his dinner plate on the table. He crouched low and hid behind his bed. Before he could ponder on how pointless his efforts are against gods, or immortal soldiers, he was picked up by the waist and laid carefully on the bed.

"What are you doing?"

Still holding the knife to his chest, Furuichi shook his head. He looked up at Jabberwock and hoped that he would forget what he did. Apparently the god kicked the door open because he did not have a key.

"This is not nothing." The god plucked the knife from his hands and shot it like a dart to the wall. "Dangerous."

Furuichi remained silent. It was weird to be chastised like a child. It was even weirder to be chastised by the God of Power.

"Knives can cut you and you will not heal because you are not immortal."

"I know."

"I don't want you to die."

The sincerity in his voice made his heart stop. He couldn't look at the god directly when he was giving him that earnest face and those words of concern. Furuichi was unsure and on edge. 'Will there be punishment or not?' He worried.

"I won't die from such a small knife." Furuichi said so the god would stop gazing at him so intently.

"There are many ways you can die from a small knife." Jabberwock said and Furuichi believed the god had first-hand knowledge of that.

"I wanted to hide because I was scared."

Jabberwock felt guilty after hearing that statement. He understood that he was threatening and he understood the fact that it would be too easy for him to squeeze the life out of the mortal on his bed right now. When he thought about reversing their roles, he recognized the fright that should come from being under a god of immeasurable power.

"I'm sorry." Furuichi's words came as a surprise to Jabberwock. "I know you saved my life and I am grateful… but, is it too much to ask you to take me back to my home?" Furuichi asked, his heart pretty much dangling on this request.

"There are even more ways you can die from living in such an unsafe, unpredictable place." Jabberwock answered.

"I've lived there for fifteen years and only once was I in peril."

"Once?"

"Y-yeah…" Furuichi could sense that Jabberwock didn't take those words as fact. And so the boy explained, "that time, with the white panther…"

"That time, I saved your life three times."

Furuichi looked up dumbly, not knowing what the god meant. So Jabberwock inched away from the boy and raised his right hand as far away from Furuichi as he could. Soon the atmosphere in the room felt thin and the mortal could feel goosebumps spread all over his arms.

"What's happening?"

Jabberwock ignored him in the meantime and concentrated on the electric rod forming on his hand. Sparks and pure light illuminated the dim room, so much that Furuichi thought Jabberwock had commanded the sun to come to him.

"Stop!"

Jabberwock saw the fear in Furuichi's eyes and so slowly, calmly, the god released the electricity into harmless dim sprays of light. What was once the formidable form of lightning is now a glowing mist, softly spreading out all across Furuichi's room.

"I thought you knew about me from your lessons." Jabberwock said. "I control lightning. You were supposed to get struck by lightning during the storm, but I redirected it to hit the rocks."

Still nervous from the sight of lightning, Furuichi could only look up to meet Jabberwock's eyes and mouth a silent 'Oh.'

"The lightning was the first, the second, the white panther. The third was a far crueller death, and I couldn't leave you with that fate. So I took you here to the mountain of the gods. I thought you would be more grateful and I thought you would not wish to return to such an awful place again." As Jabberwock explained, he took Furuichi to his arms and pressed him tightly against his chest, embracing him.

"That sorry shelter you were crawling towards was infested with venomous snakes." Furuichi felt Jabberwock's hand stroking his hair, and the other hand wandered down to feel his bare back.

"You would have been bitten and become paralyzed for days. It would have been a slow death of you wasting away until your body uses up the last of its fuel. You would have been alone in there, unable to move and only waiting for death. I can't accept that fate."

Whether or not this was all true, Furuichi was deeply touched. It might be the reason that he didn't mind how intimately the god caressed him. After hearing the end of the story, Furuichi pulled back so he can smile at his three-time savior. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." He said in a cheerful tone, because even Furuichi noted that Jabberwock's mood deflated.

The god accepted his thanks by leaning forward to kiss Furuichi. He didn't feel the boy pull away and he relished at that. Jabberwock felt as though every dip and curve in Furuichi's body were all according to his liking. As he savored his taste, he also explored his body's design.

Jabberwock was content with the feel of the boy's soft lips against his but there was a nagging feeling coming from inside him that insisted he probe further and delve deeper. He took advantage of the boy's surprise and kissed him fully in the mouth. The god pushed him down the bed and pinned him under his body.

Jabberwock took immense delight in tasting his new boy. The sounds he made seemed desperate and drawn from real surprise, not like the usual noise he hears with whores. He only realized now how pliant mortals could be and this reminded him of how easily they could be made to bend to a god's will. He brought his hands down, felt Furuichi's chest, then down to his legs so he can rip off the flimsy gown he wore. He pulled away to witness with his own eyes the enticing mess he knew Furuichi would be, but was instead brought to a stop.

"Don't."

Jabberwock's hands stilled and he could only back away after seeing Furuichi look like that.

"Please don't do it." His voice was no more than a squeak. Somehow, Furuichi looked smaller as he tried to hide and fold in on himself. The god could see that the boy would not be happy if he continued.

"I'm not ready." Furuichi said while hiding his exposed lower half with his hands.

Jabberwock's desire was urging him to ignore the human's pleas. His eyes trailed down to Furuichi's long legs, which were laid bare for him to admire. His chest, though completely flat, were blessed with strawberry swell nipples which were obvious despite the gown covering them. Even his hands, which were obstructing the view of his genitals looked inviting, almost daring him to pull them away, so he can see his prize.

But he can hear him crying.

It reminded the god of his sorrow before death, and it reminded him of his resolve that he won't let this human die. That he won't let this human be unhappy.

It took all his resolve to sit up and walk away from his beautiful, vulnerable, pliant cupbearer. Sparks and light filled the air once more as he left Furuichi's room, only to be forged concretely in a concentrated electric seal on the doorway.

More or less, it was a symbol to keep out. Jabberwock's property.

Reviews would be greatly encouraging and are much appreciated. :3