Chapter Text
Ancel woke slowly. There was someone near him, and that didn’t make sense - he slept on some cushions on the floor, and Lois slept on the bed, aside from when they were both out of it and the servants put them in the same bed. Sometimes Lois kicked him off before he was awake, even then.
He was in the bed now. And someone was stroking his hair. He opened his eyes slowly, looked up and saw Lois’s Kemptian features staring down at him.
“How bad is it?” Ancel rasped.
Lois shrugged, looked at him. “You’ve got a few days to recover. And he wants one of your little fire shows for some friends, and-” Lois shuddered. “I hate them. I hate him. And I hate them.”
Ancel nodded. He doubted many pets actually liked their masters - liked the gems and the silks and the cushions, but not them. He wasn’t sure what to say. When Lois was asleep, he was a lot easier to talk to. It was just when he was awake he could be kind of a bitch.
Lois pressed some food forwards. He’d saved some grapes for Ancel. Ancel looked at them, and looked up at him. “Well, fuck. Am I dying or you after something?”
“After something,” Lois said softly. “But not yet.”
Ancel nodded, and shrugged, reaching out and eating a grape.
“If you die,” Lois said quietly, “that’s my fault, isn’t it?”
“Nah.” Ancel shrugged. “Not like you’re going to do it to me, are you?” He paused. “If you kill me then yeah that’s your fault, but-”
“I got you mixed up in it because he liked you.”
“I don’t-” Ancel snorted. “You treat it like this place is bad. But I’m happy you got me mixed up in it. I’m having fun. I like the baths, and your jewels…” He paused, crunching through another grape. “You can let me play dress up again, if you want.”
Lois looked at him, and then nodded slowly.
“I ain’t gonna die.” Ancel told him. “We ain’t gonna die.”
Lois considered, looking at him, and Ancel glanced away. He frowned as he noticed something on the bedside table. “Your book changed.”
“What?”
“The green one’s the same, but the red one. The cover’s still the same colour, but the marks on the spine are different. This one’s longer.”
Lois stared at him, eyes widening. “You noticed that?”
“I see a load of stuff.” Ancel shrugged.
Lois looked at him. “I want two things from you. I’ll explain the other one later. But I’m going to teach you to read and write.”
“Why?”
“Because,” Lois said softly, “I said so, and I can get him to throw you out if I wanted.”
Ancel shrugged, wincing as he popped another grape in his mouth. “My arms hurt.”
“Warm bath might help,” Lois told him. “You know how to fight?”
Ancel stared at him, and then looked down at himself, and then looked back at Lois. He lifted a hand, rolling one delicate wrist ringed with bruises. “I ain’t for that.”
“But you’re fast. And I thought street boys fought a lot.”
“I tend to climb out of trouble, not stay in it.” Ancel looked at him. “I’m fast. That’s useful. Fighting just gets your face wrecked.” He finished his small pile of grapes. “I got a pretty face.”
“You do,” Lois admitted, making Ancel preen slightly.
“So the fuck do we do now?” Ancel asked.
“You can go to sleep again if you stop whimpering,” Lois muttered. “I’ll sit with you. I’ve got a new book.”
Ancel snorted. They were allowed to wear jewels and Lois was more excited by a book. “His friends coming, that mean we get gems in our hair again?”
“You do,” Lois told him. “I won’t be having the pleasure of joining you, he’s going to be having me to himself for a few days.” He looked away. Ancel thought of the ruby bracelets, and managed a weak smile.
“I’ll learn to read for you getting me this. But whatever favour you’re gonna ask, I’ll do it if you don’t scream.” He shrugged. “You know what I mean.” The kind of screaming that didn’t stop. The kind that would get Lois killed.
Lois looked at him, and swallowed. “Vere doesn’t practice slavery, you know? It’s… it’s what makes us better than those barbarians in the south who kidnap children.”
Ancel raised an eyebrow, and Lois looked down.
“Vere isn’t meant to practice slavery,” Lois repeated. “They aren’t. There are… there are rules.”
“Contracts?” Ancel shrugged. “I ain’t signed one.”
Something about him saying that seemed to shock Lois, even though he must have realised. He looked at Ancel and nodded. “I’ll write you one if he doesn’t.”
“I’m a pet’s pet?” Ancel looked at him curiously, glancing at the boy’s body. “Want to make use of me?”
Lois frowned. “No. Not… not like that.”
“So this favour-”
“No.” There was an edge of brittle panic to Lois’s voice, and Ancel felt guilty - he’d pushed him too hard. He reached out, and squeezed his hand.
“You ain’t my type.” He paused. “My type is fabulously wealthy, marble baths and caskets of gems, and-” He shrugged. “I dunno. Don’t like fucking much. Likes watching fire shows but’s happy with a blow job or whatever. Certainly not creative.”
Lois nodded. “You should rest. You need to be ready to do your fire shows.”
“I will be,” Ancel muttered. He lay back down on the blankets, and was surprised when Lois curled up against him. The boy tensed at first, when Ancel hugged him, but when Ancel didn’t hurt him he relaxed again. Ancel wondered if he was lying - if both of them were lying. Plenty of pretty boys ended up dead, and he couldn’t be sure he’d do better. But he had to believe he would. They would. “We’re going to get out of here, you hear me?” He paused, and prodded Lois in the arm. “And grab me a necklace, I wanna wear it while I sleep.”
Lois rolled his eyes, but did as he was asked.
Returning to his room, after the party of nobles from Arles was gone, Ancel was surprised to see Lois lying on the bed. The boy was asleep - he hoped he was asleep. He was pale, and his face was bruised, and his ribs were as well. Ancel hurried to him as best he could, checked him over. He was breathing.
Ancel shook his shoulder, and the boy whimpered.
“‘S me,” Ancel told him. “It was great, you know? One of Councillor Guion’s sons gave me a earring, ‘s just amethyst but… he said he’d want me after. So maybe he’ll take us. Audin ain’t gonna waste money, if he can sell us he’ll sell us.” He paused. Lois was just staring at him. His eyes were open, and he was looking at Ancel, but he weren’t seeing him. Ancel took a breath, and tried to keep talking, mentioning the nobles he’d met. “They liked the fire dancing. Said I’m unique.” He grinned. “And I am.” He paused. “And you know who was there?”
Lois shook his head. There were tears on his face now, and Ancel squeezed his hand. “The fucking King of Vere. And he said I was pretty, he’d have liked to have met me a few years back-” he tossed his hair. The King of Vere had thought Ancel was pretty, which was about the most amazing thing that could ever happen, so far beyond a dream that he felt dizzy even thinking it.
“You ever seen him?”
“The King?” Lois whispered. He shook his head. His voice was hoarse. He had screamed, Ancel thought. But the screams had stopped.
“Something’s wrong?”
“Everything’s wrong.” Lois answered. “He keeps giving me… I can’t think. I can’t- it’s not just the wine, it’s-” He looked at Ancel. “You’ll have to have it. I need- I need to think, I have to-”
“He’ll notice if you’re not off your head,” Ancel pointed out.
“I’ll pretend.”
Ancel could see dozens of problems with that, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he looked at him. “You’re fucking stupid, you know.”
“You said you owe me.”
“I do. But if you can get the drugs away from him, neither of us have got to have it. We can act. Make him think- make him think we’re out of it.” Even now, the constant smell of challis filled the air, and thinking was harder than it should have been. There had been a lot of wine, although he’d pleaded not to have to drink until after the fire show. You couldn’t play with fire when you were drunk. The men had laughed, but they’d listened. He could make men listen to him. “We’re going to survive.”
Lois looked at him, his pale blue eyes flickering with something that Ancel thought might be hope. Ancel reached out, and squeezed his hand. “We’re going to survive.”
Lois nodded, and fell asleep again, between one breath and the next. Ancel tried not to worry.
Turned out that Lois was really fucking stubborn. He thought it was important that Ancel could read and write, and so Ancel had to learn. He'd sit there, and watch as Lois wrote out letters, and made him copy them, and made him tell him which letter each one was, and put them together - first for words, and then the words together into sentences.
Ancel found it boring. But Lois wasn't above fucking bribing him - Ancel could wear whatever he wanted out of the casket after a lesson, but if he refused then he didn't get any jewels other than his bracelet and earring. So he tried to study.
He didn't get why it mattered to Lois - only that the boy was clearly from a better background than Ancel, and was clearly not willing to spread his legs for men on the streets. Maybe he thought they'd have more chance of getting another pet job if they could read their contracts.
Ancel thought that was pretty fucking unlikely - he thought men liked it when the pets had no idea what they'd agreed to. But Lois was stubborn and Ancel'd take the bribe, so he didn't argue.
Lois always burned the evidence of their lessons - or rather, he let Ancel burn them, which he did with relish, watching how the paper curled in on itself.
The lessons were going well. Better than the rest of the stuff - the Councillor was in a mood, and the doses of challis in the air seemed thicker. At least Lois seemed to be able to act drugged off his head enough that the man wasn't questioning it.
Only - now that Lois wasn't always drugged, he was doing worse. He'd have nightmares, and wake Ancel up by how he'd tense, and go quiet, and sob in silence. Ancel didn't know exactly how Lois could wake him up when he was in bed and being silent, only knew that it woke him up every time.
He moved to sit by the younger boy, stroking his shoulder. Lois flinched.
"You're okay," Ancel told him. "'s just me. He don't bother us in the middle of the night often, you're okay." He rubbed at his back. "He... Is this your first contract?" He'd never had a formal contract, just gone along with it, but Lois wasn't like him, Lois was fancy.
"Second," Lois said quietly. "First one treated me better..." He shivered. "I thought... I thought it..." He whimpered, and shook his head.
"You're doing well though, with a Councillor," Ancel answered. "'s about the best we can get. Given ain't neither of us going to get the King's attention..." He paused. "We got riches. We got nice clothes and we... we're gonna run away. We'll buy a house somewhere. Do something."
"The fuck can we do?" Lois whispered.
"I dunno. I mean. I can perform. And I can perform, you know, if it comes to it. You can just... be pretty and read books."
Lois managed a damp smile. He was shivering. Ancel shoved him over in the bed, and lay down so he could wrap his arms around him.