Chapter 13: The Ugly Truth

“Must we do this?” Iason demanded sourly as Cal worked and stretched his right leg the way the Riki had shown him. It felt rather demeaning to have the boy bend and stretch, pull and press his leg as he lay there like a slab of meat. “Are there not machines for this sort of thing?”

“Probably, but this way is better,” Riki advised as he leaned against the wall and observed the process. “The machines won’t properly negotiate your resistance ratio or the weariness of your body. Plus, if we ordered one, the wrong sort of people might start asking questions. We’re hiding out, remember?”

“Well then why can’t you be doing this instead of the furniture?”

Cal paused with Iason’s leg pressed into the android’s chest. “Am I hurting you, sir?”

“Yes!”

“No, you’re not hurting him,” Riki countered just as quickly. “Iason’s a big tough Blondie, he can take it. Keep going, Cal,”

“I don’t want him to do it!”

Cal stopped and stepped back in obedience. “I am sorry, my Lord.”

Riki rolled his eyes at Iason. “What is your problem?

“If I must be subjected to this ... this invasive procedure, then I insist that you do it, Riki!”

“Invasive?” Riki repeated, raising his eyebrows and moving closer to lean on the table where Iason lay. “He’s fucking bathed you, helped you dress and seen both of us naked hundreds of times, so how can this be invasive?”

“This is different! I did not request this, nor do I require it!”

“You require it to get better.”

“I can get better without this!” It was indecent for furniture to be touching him so intimately, especially when it hurt so much!

Riki saw Iason’s control slipping and spoke before he could help himself. “What’s the matter, Iason? You can dish it out, but you can’t take it?”

“Mr. Riki...” Cal warned quietly, but he was ignored.

“Don’t you enjoy being pinched and mauled and stretched to the point of pain? Isn’t it so much fun to have people watching your discomfort, your humiliation?”

“How dare...” Iason began.

“But wait, you’re not naked, or chained. It only feels really good if you can’t fucking move, isn’t that right?”

Iason forced himself to be calm, slowly levered himself into a sitting position before speaking again. “You cannot compare my situation to the training of a pet. Is that why you are making Cal do this, because you enjoy seeing me at my worst? Is this some sort of twisted revenge on your part?”

“Hell yes!”

Riki wished it was the truth, but he actually didn’t like seeing Iason in such a weakened and embarrassed state; in fact, he fucking hated it. There were times in the past where he’d wished what was done to him could be done to Iason, but seeing the Blondie so helpless and humiliated was far more difficult than he had expected. It made his stomach cramp and his chest ache, and he didn’t understand why.

“Bring me to my room.” Iason started to pull one of his legs off the table. “This session is over.”

“No!” Riki moved forward to stop him and was immediately caught in Iason’s strong arms. Damn it! He should have seen that coming. “Iason, you have to do your therapy!”

“I have to do nothing more than what I desire,” Iason growled and pressed his lips to Riki’s throat. “And what I desire is you, Riki.”

“Damn it!” Riki pushed against him, even as his head tilted to the side to allow Iason’s touch. “This is why, you mother fucker! You get like this whenever I come near you!” They both did actually, but he wasn’t about to openly admit to that. “So that leaves Cal, since Katze had to run out and tend to ... Whatever the hell he’s doing.”

“It is not the place of furniture...”

“A furniture’s goal is to serve his master in whatever manner is necessary, to promote his master’s good health, happiness and well being.”

Iason paused in the trail of kisses along Riki’s neck to pull back enough and stare hard at Riki, surprised that the mongrel had recited the rule so perfectly then glanced at Cal. “Leave us.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Don’t go far,” Riki demanded through gritted teeth. “You’ll be coming right back.”

Cal looked from one to the other, then stepped out of the room and closed the door.

“Iason, let go.”

“I do not wish it.”

“I could give two rat shitting fucks what you wish, let me go!”

Riki struggled and pushed against Iason’s chest until finally the Blondie released him. It pissed him off knowing that he was only free because Iason allowed it. The Blondie’s strength was incomparable with his own, even in a weakened state.

He stumbled back, caught himself, and pulled a chair in front of him, as if he using it as a shield. “What could you possibly have to say that couldn’t be said in front of Cal?” he demanded, still able to feel Iason’s lips on him and hating that he had grown instantly aroused by it. “Considering he has patched me up multiple times, thanks to your tender loving care...”

Iason did not miss the scathing sarcasm in Riki’s tone.

“Have you forgotten that you made him bathe me, feed me and sometimes had to helped me to piss after one of your precious fuck sessions?”

“I do not wish for Cal to do this.”

“Why?”

“I simply do not wish it! That should be enough...”

“You sleep with him in your bed like he’s a fucking stuffed doll, so you can damn well suffer through him doing your therapy.” When Iason’s icy gaze fizzled slightly in shock, Riki smirked. “Did you think I didn’t know?”

“Are you jealous, Riki?”

“Don’t be stupid!”

“It is only to sleep.” Iason assured, seeing through his pet’s bravado. “I would never lay hands on furniture in a sexual way, and if you believe such a thing could happen, then you truly do not understand their purpose...”

“If I thought for one minute you touched him like that, I would fucking kill you.”

“Riki!”

“I mean it, Iason. What you did to me is one thing, but if you ever, ever do anything to hurt that kid, I will make you regret it and I don’t give one sweet fuck that you think of him as your property.”

“Riki,” Iason’s eyes narrowed, curious. “Are you still disturbed about Daryl?”

“Don’t fucking mention his name!”

Iason blinked slowly, considered. “What happened to Daryl was out of my hands...”

Riki lowered his head. “I don’t want to talk about him!”

“I would never hurt Cal, Riki. Truly. I have come to care for him, just as you do.”

“Bullshit. All he is to you is a possession.”

“That may have been accurate at one time, but it is no longer the case. I would not wish any harm on him. I have not punished him for any of the times he has disappointed me.” Well, not once Riki had returned to Eos anyway, but that was because Iason understood that it was not due to Cal’s inability to do as requested, but more his own pet’s rebellious nature that caused the furniture to be unable to perform his tasks. “Does that not count for anything?”

“Would you free him?” Riki asked suddenly. “If it got you something else that you wanted, would you?”

Iason’s mouth opened, then closed again, recalculated. “Are you offering your freedom for his?”

“If I said yes, would you do it?”

“No.”

“What?” Riki’s eyes widened, he was sure that Iason would jump at the chance. “Why?”

“Riki, Cal is furniture, he has been conditioned to serve a master, and furniture that is no longer required by its master is either sold to another master or terminated. As terminating him would upset you more, my only choice would be to sell him, and I cannot promise that his life would improve with another.”

“But if you free him, he can go and be whatever he wants to be. You did it for Katze, why can’t you do it for Cal?”

“Katze had a unique quality that I could utilize, but he is not free, he still belongs to me. Cal is good furniture, but he does not possess any superior skills that would give him an advantage, such as what Katze had.”

“Then give him some money and send him on a transport off world, or get that casino owner friend of yours to hire him or...”

“It is impossible, Riki. There is simply no where else I could send him, no way that I could apply him...”

“And that’s all that matters to you, isn’t it, how others are of use to you? You don’t give a shit about anyone but yourself. All you ever do is use others for your benefit to get what you want.”

“Do not lecture me on such matters, Riki. Was it not you, a mere slum mongrel, selling yourself on the street to gain whatever you desired? You, who approached a Blondie and offered your body as hush money, just to serve your own pride?”

“That was different! I never...” Riki began, then flushed because it was closer to the truth than he wanted to admit.

He had never used his body just for money or status, only to get food or shelter when he had first been released from Guardian and then once he was established, to pay back a debt. It was what everyone did in Ceres. It didn’t make him at all like Iason.

“Was it not you who was so desperate to get out of the slums that you went to work for a black-market dealer without knowing or caring of the consequences, and then foolishly following me in Tanagura, creating a situation that you insist you despise, a situation you returned to of your own free will, all for your own selfish needs?”

“I had no fucking idea you were going to kidnap me, hold me captive! And you threatened to make Guy a mindless sex doll! You threatened to destroy my gang! How the hell is accepting an offer I couldn’t fucking refuse selfish?”

“You could have refused it, you chose not to because you did not want to live with the guilt of what would happen to them because of you, Riki. You returned to me so you would not have to feel sorrow over them; that was your true motivation; that is always your motivation. You dislike feeling remorse or guilt over others, so you make choices that keep you from doing so.”

Riki gaped at him. “That ... that’s bullshit! How ... You don’t understand humans at all you ... You emotionless piece of synthetic trash!”

“You wanted to return to me, Riki,” Iason growled, darkly, ignoring the insult. “I gave you your freedom for a year and what did you do with it? You went back to your old ways, barely existing, lazing around with your friends, too drunk to care about anyone or anything. Why did you not look for work again? Why did you not plot a way to get out of the slums you hate so much?”

“Fuck you!” It was true, all of it, and the fact that Iason knew it frightened and shamed him. Fucking Katze! Had he been spying on him that whole time, or no, was it Kirie? That motherfucker who had betrayed them all for money?

“You were back with your precious Guy,” Iason continued, in that horrifically calm, controlled tone that Riki hated. “Yet he didn’t move back in with you. You were always together outside, so why weren’t you fucking him?”

There was no way Iason could know that! No fucking way! “Who said I wasn’t?”

“I saw you in Midas, Riki; don’t you remember? I could tell how desperate, how needy you were with one look. If you were getting what you needed from someone else you would never have looked at me that way.”

“I was scared! I was scared you would try to take me back, and you did just that!”

“You were scared because you wanted to come back, Riki, and for no other reason. You belonged to me and you knew it then, just as you know it now.”

“Fuck you!”

Iason sensed Riki’s fragile emotional state and yet the Blondie in him refused to back down. All his frustration over the last few weeks had reached a boiling point. “Did Guy fail to give you what you needed, what you longed for every time I held you? Did that boy touch you the way I touch you, make you breathless and pant like an animal? Did you scream his name when you came?”

“Shut up!” Riki snarled, because it hurt, it hurt so much that he hadn’t been able to do just that. He’d turned away from Guy, refused to consider touching him; but that was out of shame. It wasn’t because he preferred Iason’s touch. It wasn’t because he knew that Guy could not make him feel the same things Iason had. It wasn’t!

“You were fading from existence, until I stepped in and gave you a reason to live again. I rescued you from your own self-annihilation, just as I rescued you the first time from a miserable, dead-end life in the slums.”

Riki stepped forward and swung his fist, but Iason caught his wrist in a vice grip, then did the same when he tried with the other hand. “Do you think being chained up, drugged, humiliated and fucked until I passed out was a better life?” he hissed, furiously. “You think I wanted to be tormented and ridiculed and reduced to nothing, just so you could show me off at a fucking party filled with perverts? That’s what you call a better life than what I had? That’s how you justify your insipid need for control, your ... your perversions?”

Iason realized that he had gone too far and considered making amends, but then realized that it was time they got to the core of the matter, time for Riki to face the truth. “You were undernourished, barely clothed and probably suffering minor injuries daily. I took you off the streets, tended you and gave you pleasure...”

“You kept me naked and fed on me, and used me as entertainment for your sick Elite friends! You beat me, and tortured me and fucking broke me!” He screamed the last two words and felt tears of pain and frustration well up in his throat. “Why! Why me? Why did you have to do that to me? I was nobody! Why did you fucking pick me?”

“You chose it!” Iason snapped, even as something tore inside his chest at the sound of Riki’s anguish. He did not possess a heart, but with Riki there were times he felt as if he did; a phantom pain in his chest that was without reason or cause.

He had been unable to stop thinking about the young, proud, beautiful mongrel that had responded so incredibly to him. He had never had a pet react the way Riki had, never had one that resisted such a natural way of feeling either. It had been intoxicating.

“You sought me out, Riki. You knew what I was, who I was, yet you couldn’t stay away. Why? Why did you come after me if you knew that something like that could happen? There can be only one reason, that you wanted it, craved it, just as I did!”

“No!”

“Lie to yourself all you like, Riki, but we both know the truth. You came to me willingly, expecting me to do those same things to you.”

“I didn’t expect to become your fucking pet! I just wanted to ... I just...”

Riki had been unable to stop thinking about what the Blondie had done to him in that small room in Midas. He’d dreamed about it, every night, so much that he felt like he was cheating on Guy. When he tried to have sex with his partner, a man he cared so deeply for, there was no comparison. It was nice, normal, and not at all satisfying.

It was pride that had him following Iason, and yet he had never fully formed what he would do when he found the Elite. He had never considered anything beyond being angry that the Blondie had managed to make him feel so dirty and perverted. He’d wanted the Blondie to pay for that, for making him feel like nothing, for changing his relationship with Guy. He’d wanted revenge, but he had also wanted to feel that way again. He’d wanted to see if his body could feel that kind of rapture again.

“I ... If you had ... if only ... I would have stayed,” Riki murmured and dropped his head as he felt all the anger leave him and his body sag from defeat, because Iason was right. They both knew the truth and the full horror of it slapped Riki hard in the face.

If Iason had showed him even a moment of tenderness, or respect, he would have willingly stayed and been the Blondie’s partner; but to make him a pet; to use such methods to condition him to respond and reply and heel like a dog ... Riki could never forgive that.