“Ready for your present?” asked Joey with a grin standing over Lance. Looking towards the doorway Lance saw Chris with an equally big grin on his face.
“Ready and waiting,” smiled Lance but he couldn’t shake the sinking feeling in his stomach. Something wasn’t right.
“Here it is then,” replied Chris walking fully into the room hanging on to a leash. The leash was attached to a collar around a naked man’s neck. The man was shaking but Lance couldn’t tell if it was because he was cold or because he was scared. Probably both.
“What the hell?!?!” exclaimed Lance jumping to his feet upset. “You know I don’t like slaves!”
It was true, they did know. Unlike any other home, Lance’s was one were there wasn’t a slave to be found. Instead Lance preferred using robots to do the work that slaves normally did. He was one of the few Shepherds who believed that using the Lambs as slaves were wrong.
“He’s a pleasure slave,” informed Joey causing Lance to roll his eyes. “He’s too keep you company.”
“He’s a male though!” protested Lance.
“Have fun!” cried Chris dropping the leash as he and Joey ran as fast as they could out the door.
“Are you cold?” asked Lance with a sigh seeing his friends disappear. The man not knowing what else to do, nodded his head.
“I’ll be back,” informed Lance entering another room. A few minutes later he returned with a blanket and wrapped it around the young man.
“What’s your name?” asked Lance softly while removing the leash from the collar and gently forcing the man down on the couch before sitting down next to him.
“JC,” whispered the man, keeping his head down, not daring to look at Lance. “JC Chasez.”
“Is ‘JC’ short for anything?” asked Lance, gently placing a hand under JC’s chin to lift up his head so that he could look at JC’s face.
“Joshua,” replied JC tears running down his cheeks. “My full name is Joshua Scott Chasez.”
“Don’t cry,” whispered Lance. “You’re safe here, I’m not going to hurt you.”
“I’m sorry,” sniffed JC.
“Don’t be sorry,” replied Lance gently. “I know you didn’t have a say in this.”
The pair stared at each other in silence for a while until something occurred to Lance. “Did they bother to feed you?” he asked referring to Joey and Chris. Although they were his best friends they thought that slaves were expendable and sometimes forgot the simple things that a person needed to survive.
“A glob of something,” replied JC sadly. The last real meal he had was three days ago back on Terra, which now seemed like a lifetime ago.
“Follow me then,” smiled Lance taking JC’s hand in his and leading him towards the dinning room. There, sat the piles of food left over from the party earlier that night.
“Help yourself,” said Lance gently stepping back allowing JC full access to the food. JC was amazed. Not even on Terra did he eat so well.
Lance watched with amusement as JC dug into the food. He didn’t know what Joey and Chris had been thinking when they picked JC out for him. It wasn’t that male relationships were wrong in Cielville; it’s just that Lance never thought about being with another man. However he was finding himself to be attracted to the Lamb and that it self was a dangerous thing.
*~*~*
“You can stay in here,” announced Lance showing JC to one of the many guest rooms, it however was the closest guest room to Lance’s master bedroom. It was an hour until JC had finished eating and by that time Lance figured they were both pretty tired.
“My room is at the end of the hall,” he informed JC. “If you need anything come and get me since I doubt you know how to operate any of the robots around here. I’ll start teaching you those things tomorrow.”
“Thank you,” replied JC softly before walking into the room before Lance pressed the button to close the door. The room was very large and much nicer than the rooms he had spent the night in since being taken away from Terreville.
Terreville. Tears formed in JC’s eyes, thinking of his home. He missed his family, he missed Justin, and he missed Bobbie. Never would he be able to see any of them again.
Flopping onto the bed, JC hugged a pillow as the tears fell. Soon, he cried himself into a restless sleep.
*~*~*
It was the middle of the night when the soft cries woke Lance from his peaceful slumber. Climbing out of his bed and rushing to JC’s room, Lance found the man in the middle of a nightmare.
“Hey,” said Lance gently, sitting on the bed and began shaking the Lamb awake. After a few minutes of violent shaking, a pair of scared, blue eyes opened and stared up at Lance.
“You were having a nightmare,” explained Lance gently. “What were you dreaming of?”
“This,” replied JC softly looking down to avoid Lance’s eyes. “I thought I was back in Terreville and that I was dreaming that I was taken away from everyone and brought here as a slave.”
“Is Terreville, the name of the place you’re from?” asked Lance and JC nodded his head in a response. “What did you do there?”
“Painted mostly,” replied JC softly. “I liked doing art for what we considered the wealthy down there. My passion was music though. There weren’t a lot of opportunities to practice it down there though. I did write a song however that I was going to sing to my wife on our wedding day.”
“You were about to be married when they took you?” asked Lance shocked. “When were you supposed to be married?”
“In about eight hours,” shrugged JC. “I loved her, but the marriage was an arranged one between our parents.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault. You weren’t the one who selected me,” whispered JC, tears running down his cheeks.
“It’ll be okay,” replied Lance gently, taking JC in his arms. “I don’t know how, but everything will turn out alright. You’ll see.”