Politics
Movement in the darkness, pushing on his chest. It coiled around his body, tender and warm, a weight on his side; Aiden’s arm around his back. He breathed in deep, stirring a bit. Kisses on his neck, soft and full, down to his collarbone. He brought a hand up, fingers sloppily trailing along Aiden’s spine. Waking up next to him brought wind to his lungs—yesterday had been real.
“Good morning,” Aiden whispered, lips pressed to his skin.
“Good morning, angel.”
A snort against the base of his neck, kisses trailing up. He watched Aiden’s hair bounce as he came up to meet him, a kiss landing squarely on his mouth.
“What are we doing today?” Aiden asked, words brushing against his lips.
“We need to talk to Zea.” While Aiden’s eyes looked black in the dark, any resemblance between them was long gone. “You have time to serve.”
Aiden’s gaze dropped for a moment, somber. “I don’t wanna see him.”
“I could go in your place. I don’t know what he wants you to do, but I’ll bargain on your behalf.”
Aiden nodded. “Tell him I’m good with numbers and safety provisions. I was a manager for seven years leading a staff of over two hundred people.”
“I think he’ll be more interested to know you like to cook.”
Aiden stared at him. “Okay, then, tell him that. I took cooking classes in France and spoke to multiple chefs in Italy.”
“Did you cook with them?”
“With the French guy, yeah. We were in Paris for a week, so I used my vacation to do something different that time.”
He briefly wondered how Ben May had felt about that.
The entrance hall burst with laughter, wine glasses full to the brim. Aiden watched him take the stairs down, hiding around a corner.
The only guest that didn’t look very entertained was Zea, with a glass of water in hand and an eye roll on his face, which was starting to become characteristic of him. His sobriety allowed him to spot Nathaniel first, locking eyes when he reached the bottom of the stairs. They held the stare as he came over. His approach soon caused the others to exclaim with delight.
“Where’s Aiden?” Victoria promptly asked, speaking in her faux sweet tone.
“Upstairs.”
“Well, call him then; there’s work to be done. My staff wakes up at sunset,” Dolion chimed in.
Sunset? Was their sleep cycle backwards? If that was the case, it’d explain how they were always awake at the same time as Paradise, speaking with Charmaine while she worked.
“What kind of work?” he asked, taking the empty seat by Zea.
“Housework; I just don’t know what exactly. We have someone who takes care of that, so I don’t have to,” Dolion explained.
“Except he signed with Zea, not you.”
Dolion glanced over at Zea.
“It’s part of the deal,” Zea added. “He’ll be working here for a while.”
“Twenty-five years. We’ll assign him a role and let him live with the staff. I play fair.”
“Is that in the contract?” Nathaniel asked.
“What do you mean?”
“His living conditions. Are they in the contract?”
“No, but there’s no pride in leaving one’s servants out on the streets, is there? I have an entire wing of the building dedicated just for them. Working for me is a privilege.”
Seraphina laughed. It sounded like nothing Nathaniel had ever heard come out of a sentient being before, loud and deep, thunderous. With the way she leaned her head, he supposed she was looking at Dolion.
“So that’s what you’re telling people now? That’s rich.”
Color rose to Dolion’s face, one hand closed into a fist. “Those are facts.”
“For as much as that might be part of your PR campaign, we both know that’s not the reason you have so many servants—so many people in your house at all times.” Seraphina leaned one arm on the table, head tilted sideways. “Don’t make me laugh.”
“That’s neither here nor there,” Venn interrupted, reaching for the nearest wine bottle. “Nathaniel just wants to know if his boy can sleep with him.”
His pulse skipped at that, blood running cold. Zea stirred in his peripherals.
“That’s not how it usually goes,” Victoria explained. “If one of us is interested, we go to them. That’s what my club is all about.”
“Are you still fucking him?” Zea’s voice was quiet, bordering on sentimental.
Sitting very still, Nathaniel held his breath. The entire table grinned wickedly—they hadn’t told Zea anything. Somehow, he still didn’t know. “Wasn’t that part of your plan?” he tried, turning to Zea with a scowl.
“Yeah, exactly. I didn’t think—didn’t think you’d still be doing that. He betrayed you.”
“Maybe that’s my type,” Nathaniel mumbled, reaching for a wine glass himself.
Zea leaned closer. “You don’t actually…”
Instead of looking at him, Nathaniel watched wine pour into the glass.
“Aiden’s contract,” Zea blurted out. “Why did you want to see it?”
“I’ve told you that already; I’d never—”
“No, why did you really want to see it? Did you go over the fine print to know if he could be yours?” There was so much hurt and betrayal in Zea’s voice that he could feel the rush of his own pulse.
He put the bottle back down. “I was trying to send him to Earth,” he confessed, low and sincere. “For a second chance. That clearly didn’t happen, but what you said is interesting. I might need to check the contract again.”
“Unfortunately, Aiden’s mine for the next twenty-five years,” Dolion reiterated.
“Now, you’re just trying to piss me off,” Zea concluded.
“I don’t think he is.” Victoria found Nathaniel’s eyes, smirking. “You should’ve seen how protective he was last night, guiding Aiden by the neck. It was kind of hot.”
His stomach burned.
“He thinks you’re competition, when he should really watch out for me.” Venn’s eyebrows bounced.
“Aiden is a servant,” Dolion practically shouted, “not a sex slave.”
“No one said that, and anyway, Nathaniel’s ahead of us all.” Victoria shrugged.
“It’s not slavery if it’s consensual,” Venn clarified.
“You’re all insane.” Nathaniel almost laughed. “You’re disgusting.”
“It’s fine if you don’t want to share; we’ll just wait for our turn.”
He decided against looking at Victoria. A warmth rose in his chest, ugly.
“He doesn’t mean that.” Zea shook his head, a dark figure in his peripherals.
Suddenly, the table fell silent. Following their gazes, Nathaniel saw Aiden at the bottom of the stairs, wide-eyed. Dolion was the only one who had to move his chair back to look at him.
“Perfect! The man of the hour. Anne.” Dolion motioned to one of the servants. “Please, show him to the human wing. He’ll need the briefing and a role.”
“It’d be in your best interest to put him in the kitchen,” Nathaniel commented, getting a look from Dolion. “He’s cooked for the French before.”
“There, wonderful; send him to the kitchen, then.” Dolion waved the servant away.
“I’m not a pet,” Aiden clarified, an unexpected surge of bravery swelling within him. “I’ll do what I have to and nothing else.”
Aiden’s attitude brought an air of entertainment to the table, although they tried not to show it too much, eyebrows bouncing. They weren’t taking him seriously at all.
“Aiden,” Nathaniel called, “you’ll be just fine.”
Their eyes met over Zea and Victoria’s heads.
“I don’t need you to protect me.” Aiden’s tone was serious. It drew his eyebrows together, table whistling.
“I think we’ve got this all wrong,” Victoria commented.
“Anne, please,” Dolion urged, annoyance in his voice.
The human pointed at the door. Aiden obviously didn’t want to leave, too stubborn to disengage without proper conflict, but there wouldn’t be one. He realized that. Reluctantly, he let the human guide him out.
“So you call dibs on him, that’s fair,” Venn continued as if nothing had happened. “We did push the two of you together for about a month, after all; that’s simply a testament to the operation’s success. Zea, you chose impeccably. Cheers.” Venn lifted his glass.
“Of course I did; he looks just like me.”
“Now that you have options to choose from, will you?” Victoria asked, addressing Nathaniel. “Or will you simply have both?”
“You talk like I’m not here,” Zea interrupted.
“Zea and I are not together; he’s made that very clear,” Nathaniel explained, noticing Zea grow still. “Unfortunately, he’s not into women, but I’m sure you already knew that.”
“I didn’t, actually, and anyway, that’s not what he told me when I—”
“Don’t,” Zea cut her off, grabbing her arm. “We get it.”
The fire in Nathaniel’s chest wrapped a knot around his throat. “No, we don’t get it. Did you—?”
“Yes,” Victoria spoke over him. “We did.”
The scowl on his forehead dug deep into it. “Zea—”
“I trust her,” Zea cut in, finally turning to look at him. His face was warm, red on the nose. “That’s her job; it’s what she does. Attraction has nothing to do with it. It’s not… emotional. I didn’t touch her; I didn’t even look at her. I—I don’t know how to explain it.”
“You should see it for yourself.” Victoria shrugged. “It’s really nothing like what you’re thinking it is.”
“Can we talk about something else now?” Dolion interrupted, visibly annoyed. “The last thing I want to hear is what you do at that stupid fucking club. The mental image is harrowing.”
“She doesn’t even undress,” Zea continued, making Dolion look at him.
“No one wants to know that.”
“I’m just saying it’s very professional.”
“It wouldn’t be the most sought out club in The Abyss if it weren’t,” Victoria added, swirling the wine in her glass.
At this point, Nathaniel wasn’t exactly sure what she did at that club, but refrained from asking. Instead, he sipped on his wine and listened to the table move on. There was something in his chest, a feeling that didn’t sit right, uncomfortably tight behind his heart. Zea told him they had nothing between them just yesterday, yet cared to know about his involvement with Aiden, upset by it even. His entitlement was completely unjustified.
Finishing his glass, Nathaniel turned to Zea. “Can I talk to you?” His voice was low, so the others wouldn’t hear it.
The look on Zea’s face was somewhere between suspicious and fearful, but still he got up, nodding. With a brief excuse, the two left for one of the side rooms. It turned out to be a small office with a couch, a couple of armchairs and some bookshelves. Zea closed the door behind them, hesitation in the way he moved, lingering close to the frame.
“What’s going on?” Nathaniel asked, his tone as nice as he could make it. “I thought we had agreed on where we stood.”
Zea scowled. “What are you talking about?”
“Tell me you remember last night.”
“You mean when you broke into my apartment and told me to move on from you.”
He blinked. “That’s all you got from that conversation?”
“Yeah. That was the gist of it, wasn’t it? You just can’t wait for us to go back to normal. Must be why you’re hanging around Aiden so much.”
“That has nothing to do with it.”
“Yes, it does; he’s a stand-in for me. That’s why you’re with him, because you fucked it up with me. Don’t think I forgot the very first thing you did when you saw me again.”
Heat crawled up his neck. “I don’t know what was, but I don’t—”
“What about when you asked me to stay the other night, huh?”
“You were holding my hand—”
“Or how hard you were in the ballroom two days ago? Grabbing me like I fucking belong to you.”
“I wasn’t trying to go back in time,” Nathaniel cut in, louder now. “I didn’t want to relive what we had, because that’s impossible; I just…” A sharp breath filled his lungs. “I let my emotions take over. You know how I feel about you.”
Zea squinted. “What are you really doing with Aiden? Why do you care so much?”
His heart choked him. “He’s not just some replacement to me.” The heat on his face burned through his skin. Humans were beneath them; he knew exactly how he sounded. The embarrassment that came with his feelings wasn’t at all lost on him, but he had to say it; Zea needed to know. “We got to know each other over time, and he’s really not what you think he is. He’s nothing like you, actually, but we still managed to get along. I’ve changed a lot since you were gone.”
A scowl slowly pinched Zea’s eyebrows, eyes wide with fear. “What are you saying?”
“You know exactly what I’m saying.”
Zea’s eyes widened with despair. “You can’t feel that way for him; he shouldn’t even be here! You were supposed to hate him!”
“I don’t. I know what he did and I know I deserved it too. We’re both terrible people, Zea; you know that by now, and while he’s no better than us, he’s not any worse either.”
Zea stared at him, shaking. “You can’t be fucking serious.”
“I am.” The conviction with which he spoke turned Zea pale.
A scream ripped through Zea’s throat, hands coming up to bury into his hair. It was such a bizarre sight that Nathaniel had no idea how to react, breath coming in short—he’d never seen Zea like this. Always the strongest of the two, Zea had only broken down during the Great Expunging, but even then, it hadn’t been nearly as upsetting as this.
He tried to approach, but as soon as he took a step forward, Zea perked up, eyes locked on him, a sudden silence now filling the room. His blood ran cold. Somehow, this was stranger than the screaming. Zea’s hands left his head, eyes alight. When he charged at Nathaniel, familiarity resumed; he knew how to deal with this.
“You can’t do that to me!” Zea shouted, flinging punch after punch, unable to land a single one. It only made him angrier. “You’re not leaving me!”
“I can’t leave you,” Nathaniel countered, sweat on his brow despite how naturally his body dodged and blocked Zea’s attacks. In a frenzy, Zea wasn’t giving it his best.
“You fucking traitor! Degenerate!” The pain in Zea’s voice broke his heart, worsened by how pathetic his moves were, distraught.
It wasn’t uncommon for the two of them to fight their differences, but this went beyond that. Zea was still incredibly fast, aiming for any unprotected areas that he could reach, but the timing was off; Nathaniel could easily take his wrist and twist it. He didn’t go all the way, of course, pulling just enough to draw a yelp out of him.
“We’ve been over this,” Nathaniel panted, his voice a lot sterner than he’d meant it to be. “I’m not leaving you, and you’re not leaving me either. What we have has just changed, not ended, so stop acting like a victim. You clearly have Victoria now.”
When he let go, Zea brought his arm close to his own body, rubbing the wrist. Their eyes met through scowls.
“I have nothing to do with her,” Zea defended. “She owns a business, and I just happened to go there a couple of times. We didn’t have sex.”
“What the fuck did you do then?”
“She got me off in other ways. There was never any contact; that’s not what she does.”
He squinted. “What did she do to you?”
Zea rolled his eyes, color rising to his cheeks. “Her whole thing is, she blindfolds you and you can tell her what to do. If you don’t want to, you can just give her a blacklist and let her do whatever she wants. In the end, you get off and that’s it. It’s overrated, honestly.”
Almost instinctively, Nathaniel parted his lips with something vile on his tongue, but ultimately decided not to say it. Zea had fully embraced The Abyss’ lifestyle over the years. They had nothing in common at this point.
“You should try it sometime; get the edge off.” Zea shrugged, the ghost of a smirk on his face.
Nathaniel scoffed. “Yeah, right. I meant what I said about Aiden; I will not be seeing her.”
The smirk never fully formed. Instead, Zea kept his eyes down, still holding his own wrist. “What you feel for him is fabricated.”
“You don’t know that.” His words were bitter, spoken as he crossed for the door. There was no counter, or any vocal response; Zea just watched him pull the door open and walk out. He hesitated for a moment, in case Zea had anything left to say, but nothing came.
The human wing, he came to realize, was just outside the main entrance. A small door on the wall gave way to where the servants stayed, a long hallway with several doors on each side and elevators at the very end. Since they couldn’t fly, that must be how they got around. The architecture was just as beautiful and baroque as across the hall, only barren in terms of furniture; no pictures, little decoration. Servants came and went in a hurry, yet he still stopped one of them. They pointed to a door where new recruits usually watched the briefing. He thanked them before leaving.
The briefing room looked like a small lecture hall with cushioned chairs in rows and a platform down the stairs. A projector screen showed a blueprint of the building, the floor they were in. Aiden was the only one in the audience. Nathaniel’s presence interrupted the presentation, causing Aiden to turn and glance at him.
“Please, carry on,” he announced, not meaning to interrupt, but Aiden got up and walked over regardless.
Aiden’s eyes weren’t up on his own, set straight ahead, eyebrows drawn with concern. Without a word, he crashed-landed into a hug, face hidden in Nathaniel’s neck, arms wrapping him tight. Nathaniel reciprocated just as strongly, unease in his chest.
“I’m sorry about earlier,” Aiden whispered. “I do want you around; I need you. I’m… so scared.”
“You’ll be fine.”
“I don’t want to be here. The way they talk about me; the way they feel about me is—it’s… terrifying.” Aiden’s shoulders shook as he talked, muffling his words on Nathaniel’s skin.
“No one’s going to hurt you.”
“I can’t believe how right you were.” Aiden pulled away just enough to look at him. “When you said I was a commodity, you really meant it. I’m not… a person here.”
“Yeah, but you’ll be alright; I’m with you.”
“You’re missing the point. I have a uniform, a schedule and a small cubicle to sleep in. I’m a prisoner.”
“That’s what selling your soul entails. You couldn’t possibly think you’d keep your freedom after signing with a demon.”
“No, but this is much worse than I thought. Back when I signed, I saw no future for myself; I had no plans, I’d just… do whatever they wanted, but that was before I met you. Now I do have plans. There’s so much I want to do with you. I just wish I could.”
Pulling Aiden closer, he pressed a kiss to the side of his head, burnt sugar in his lungs. “Things won’t be like this forever. You’ll come out the other side,” he reassured, squeezing.
“Why can’t I answer to you? Zea passed me over to the other guy, so can’t you just take me from him?”
That was a good point.
“I don’t know. I have no idea how this works, but I could talk to him.”
“Please,” Aiden begged, tugging on the back of his shirt. “I’m fucking terrified.”
He touched Aiden’s face with a hand, trying his best at reassurance. “You’ll be okay. I promise.”
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