#kaden1

A man like Gwyn didn't make his way through a town like Krovstown without getting to know its law enforcement - occasionally, intimately. He'd managed to evade this particular gentleman's attention up until now which the sith almost thought was a shame once he got a nice eyeful of the kresnik's enticingly open top buttons. Regardless, Gwyn wasn't approaching with flirtation in mind this time. Not to begin with it. He crept up to Kaden's side where the other seemed to be idly spectating one of the lawn games with that vaguely disgruntled expression. Gwyn took a short moment to watch the exchange of the players as well, the tiny straw from his cocktail balanced between his teeth like a caricature of a farmer with a piece of straw, before his eyes drew back to Kaden's face inevitably. "Hello, officer," The young master drawled, "Don't you look charming. Are you here for pleasure or security purposes?"

He'd tried to keep himself from making an issue out of it any sooner than necessary. Krovs had plenty of lurking problems to sink his teeth into first, but the information Magnai had wrangled out of the pyromancer gnawed at him still. Merek had made it clear that his brain was too fogged with misplaced affection for a slave to listen to impartial judgement, but Magnai fortunately didn't suffer from any similar kind of affliction. He knew better. The slave should know better too. He might've left it alone until the next inevitable incident if Magnai hadn't laid eyes on the kresnik making rounds on foot in his uniform first, a scene about as serious to the varcolac as a child with a plastic sheriff's badge pinned to his shirt.

Magnai cut the elder off in the flow of festival-goers, one firm hand on the kresnik's shoulder to check them both into the opening of a nearby alleyway. He didn't bother with an introduction. Kaden knew him, years of absence didn't change that. "What the fuck is this I'm hearing about you and Hopper?"

It had started so well. Hell, it had even been fun for a while. One of the masters had rented Noah and instead of taking him to his suite at the castle they'd gone into town. That was different enough for Noah to appreciate in and of itself since he rarely found himself in town or getting to go there. Just the drive down was pretty nice, getting to look out the window and see everything since the master didn't seem interested in doing anything in the car. They'd gotten into town and the master's big, beautiful house and even the next couple hours had gone more or less according to plan. Admittedly, there was a little more pain than Noah would've liked since clearly this vampire had a sadistic bend to him but Noah had still gotten bitten and fucked so all good. He was a little roughed up afterwards but nothing he couldn't handle and figured he'd get taken back up to the Castle, looking forward again to the drive up.

That's when things had started to go sideways.

Instead of being finished with him, this asshole tied a rope to Noah's collar and decided to walk him around town like he was some sort of dog. He didn't appreciate that very much but humiliation came with being a slave sometimes so he rolled with it. He wasn't allowed to wear a shirt, either, but that bugged him least of all. The walk would have been fine but any time Noah tried to say anything, even if it was just a random comment, the vampire hit him. And not just a gentle tap, either, the first time he'd fully backhanded him across the face. That's when Noah got pissed. Not caring about consequences, he started to goad the vampire, dodging his hits as best he could, and would probably have physically fought back until the guy decided he needed to be publicly disciplined. So he'd dragged Noah to the park, tied him to a tree, and beat the shit out of him. Not exactly new territory for Noah but before he hadn't had a collar and his natural healing ability had been able to kick in. Not this time.

Noah must have blacked out because when he came to next, he was still tied to the tree but it was dark now. One of his eyes was swollen shut and he tensed immediately for more blows but it didn't seem like the vampire was still there. He couldn't see much and probably looked a mess but there seemed to be a small crowd around him, flashing blue and red lights nearby, and he lifted his head with some difficulty.

"The fuck's goin' on?" He mumbled, wincing because it hurt to talk. Damn. He hadn't felt this rough since...well, anyway. He hoped someone untied him from this tree soon. Feebly, he tried to pull at the restraints but it didn't do much good.

Either way, he had resigned himself to the fact that this was his life now. And even though part of him wanted to protest that he wasn’t some object to be packaged and sold to whoever wanted him, a louder part of him forced him to stay quiet and cooperate as much as he could. It was hard for him to break the rules, considering the suffocating upbringing he had received, even if he believed the rules were stupid and morally wrong. So, in that sea of vampires and penguin-dressed slaves, he decided to put on a brave face, plaster on a forced smile, and try to imitate the others in the hopes of making it through the night without too much trouble.

In that spirit, he grabbed a glass from one of the many trays carried around by waiters and awkwardly wandered through the ballroom. The moment he took a sip, his face twisted in disgust. “Ammazza, che schifo!” he muttered, struggling to swallow the sweet-ish yet bitter drink. He wasn’t even sure what it was, this was the first time he had tasted alcohol. All he knew was that everyone else in the room was sipping something similar, and he couldn’t understand how they managed it. He needed to get rid of the stuff immediately.

He started looking around for a place to ditch the glass without getting caught, when he noticed a man a short distance away, staring at him. Ric immediately lowered his gaze and blushed, mortified by his clumsy display. His instinct told him to run for it, but instead, he approached the dark-blond stranger.

“Could you forget what you just saw, please?” he asked in his usual soft tone, tentatively lifting his green eyes to meet the man's. “And while you're at it, could you pretend to be talking to me? Maybe even act like you’re fascinated by me? I’m not really sure what I’m supposed to do tonight, and I don’t think the people who organized this party would be too happy if I didn’t at least entertain one guest, like they told me to.” He added the last part all in one breath. He was fairly sure the man wasn’t a vampire. Ric had gotten to know most of the castle’s usual residents over the past couple of months, after all, and he didn't think the man was one of them. And hey, it was worth a try, right?

@kresnikxkaden