FIC: We Found Love in a Hopeless Place (Thunderheart, Walter Crow Horse/Ray Levoi, NC-17)

[carlyinrome]

TITLE: We Found Love in a Hopeless Place (1/?)
RATING: NC-17
FANDOMS: Thunderheart
PAIRINGS: Ray Levoi/Walter Crow Horse
SUMMARY: When he comes of age, Ray is sold to a new master as a bed slave. A virgin, he has no idea what he's meant to do, and his frustrated master gives another of his slaves, Walter, an ultimatum: one month to teach the poor virgin how to please his master, or he'll be sold to the mines. Walter is kind, and something about the boy has his heart, and he agrees to the deal.

Neither of them counted on falling in love.

Written for Day 10 of Writer's Month 2019 for the prompt dark AU.

Ray woke up in the morning thinking it would just be a normal day, and now he was here. He’d been torn out of his life and thrust into this hell, and if he didn’t find a way to make it work, they’d send him somewhere even worse.

Ray had woken at dawn, as he always did, and washed and dressed himself. Then he went to help his mother make the daily bread, but he’d barely gotten his hands floured when the slavemaster came for him.

“You, boy,” the man said, and as he had his whole life, Ray shrank back a bit. “You’re coming with me.”

Ray’s mother put her hands on his shoulders, pulled him back against her. “Where are you taking him?”

“To auction. He’s of age now, and he eats more than he’s worth. The master is selling him.”

He’d barely had a chance to say goodbye. His mother was still crying as the slavemaster’s men led him out of the kitchen, put him in the cart, and drove him into town.

At the auction house, Ray was stripped naked, scrubbed, and chained. He was packed into a dark room with scores of others. Outside he heard the bustle of town; he’d never been anywhere outside his master’s manor tucked away in the rolling countryside, and there was so much noise here, so much dirt, so many people. His head spun.

He stayed in the dark for a long while, and then men were grabbing him and pulling him into the blinding light. They put him on a platform, and made him show his teeth. People yelled from every direction, and before he knew what had happened, they were taking him off the platform and delivering him to a tall, beefy man with an ugly-looking whip on his belt. He was put in another cart, and he was driven away from town, away from the manor, away from his mother and the only life he had ever known.

It was a long ride. Eventually, he slept. It was dark when he woke, the cart rocking beneath him as the wheels passed over a stone road. There wasn’t much light, but he could make out the outline of a grand house with a tall gate all around it.

Ray was taken into the house the back way, through the slaves quarters. He was scrubbed again, and then pushed to the floor facedown. The man with the whip held him down, his knee in Ray’s back, as he applied a burning brand to his hip. It hurt more than anything Ray had ever experienced, and he could smell the sear of his own flesh, but he didn’t make a sound.

After that was done, they removed the chains. The man with the whip looked at him.

“Do you want me to use this?” he asked, fingering the whip.

Ray shook his head, but he couldn’t summon words. It was enough. The man nodded. “You obey, and I never will. My name is Radley, and I’m in charge of you slaves. I’m going to take you to your master, now. You’ll do everything he says, or I’ll lash you bloody.”

Ray nodded, and he followed Radley up the stairs into the main house. His eyes focused on the stone floor beneath his feet. In all his eighteen years, he’d rarely had occasion to be in his old master’s main house or to interact with the family at all. He wondered what had changed. What they wanted of him. What job they had bought him for.

Radley led him to a far wing of the great manor, finally pushing open a door and entering a bedroom. Ray felt a stone of worry in his stomach. This was his master’s private space; this was not the kind of place he had ever been, and he didn’t know what to do. Was he to be a valet? He hadn’t the training for it. This had to be a mistake.

The bedroom was luxurious, with furniture of well-crafted dark wood, and sumptuous bedclothes. Ray’s new master was sitting on the bed, wearing a dressing robe. He was middle aged, a bit younger than his old master but at least one score and ten older than Ray. Maybe more. He wasn’t good at judging that kind of thing. He hadn’t had much practice. He was thin and grey, and he had a hard kind of gaze.

“Kneel, boy,” Radley said, and Ray sank to his knees a few feet from the bed.

The master looked at him from the bed. “He’s pretty, Lucius,” he said. “How old?”

“Just newly of age, sir.”

“Untouched?”

“By all accounts. The women at the auction house examined him.”

“Excellent. You may leave us.”

Radley left. Ray felt the stone in his gut rise up to choke him as he finally realized what was happening. He was here to be a bed slave.

Ray’s new master came off the bed. He dropped his dressing robe, leaving him naked. Ray put his eyes on the floor.

“Look at me, boy,” the master said, and, gut roiling, Ray did. The man walked toward him, put his hand out. Ray flinched, and the man grunted. “I am your master, boy, you’re mine to do with as I please. Flinch again, and I’ll give you something to fear. Understand?”

“Yes, master,” Ray rasped. He let the man touch his face.

“You’re a beautiful thing,” he said. He stepped back, went to sit on the bed. “Come here,” he said, and when Ray started to get up, he added sharply, “No. Crawl.”

Ray crawled to him. He felt like he would be sick. His master’s cock was hard, bobbing between his legs. When Ray got to him, he looked the man in the face so he wouldn’t have to look at it.

“Suck it, boy,” the master said.

Ray hesitated.

“What?” the master hissed.

Ray could barely conjure a voice. It came out a whisper. “I don’t know how, master.”

The man sighed. He stood, grabbed Ray by the arm, and hoisted him to his feet.

“Fine,” he snapped. “On the bed, on your belly. I’ll fuck you first.”

Ray felt the muscles in his legs shaking, and tried to stop them, but they were working on their own. He ground his teeth, and pressed his face into the silk of the pillowslip, and tried to remember how to breathe.

“Well?” his master said after a moment. “Get yourself ready, boy.”

Ray looked up. “I—I don’t know what you mean.”

The man smacked him across the face. Ray’s vision flashed black and white, like lightning going off behind his eyelids, and he couldn’t help it. He started crying, his whole body shaking. He didn’t know what he was expected to do, and he didn’t want to do it anyway; he wanted to go home to his mother and his little bed in the corner of her room, to the manor with its rolling fields and the lazy cows with their beautiful, sad eyes, where nothing was ever harder than carrying a heavy bag of flour. It was gone, it was all gone, and now this was his life, a receptacle for some awful man’s come—

The master grabbed Ray by the hair, yanked him up, slapped him again. Again, again, the smacks landing all over his face and shoulders.

“You insolent brat,” he screamed. “Stop crying this instant!”

If Ray had thought it was impossible before, this was even worse. He could have more easily stopped the tides.

Ray hid his face, and after a while, the man tired of hitting him. He stormed off to the door, shouted for someone. Ray didn’t know how much time had passed, but eventually he heard the door open and close softly.

“Yes, master?” a voice asked.

Ray looked up. He had expected Radley and his whip, but it was another man, a man he hadn’t seen before. He had dark copper skin and long hair the color of a raven’s feather, hair that went almost to his waist. He had kind eyes, and spoke softly.

“I want this slave beaten,” the master said. “Tie him up and lash him until he stops this foolishness and obeys.”

“What foolishness is that, master?” the raven-haired man asked calmly.

“This—this crying. I paid for a bed slave and received a squalling child.”

The raven-haired man looked at Ray for a moment, then back at their master. “He’s a virgin, I take it?” he asked.

“Yes,” the master snapped.

“And just newly of age?”

“Yes.”

The raven-haired man shrugged. “He’s a kid. A scared virgin. Scared virgins cry the first time they’re breached. If you beat him, he’ll only cry more.”

The master growled. “I paid good money for him.”

“You paid for a virgin, master,” the raven-haired man said. “Virgins, by their very definition, have never done this work before. If you want an experienced lover, you can buy from the pleasure houses. If you want a virgin, there’s one on your bed.”

The master looked at the raven-haired man for a long time. Then he looked at Ray. Ray wiped his face and tried not to cry anymore. It didn’t work.

The master looked back at the raven-haired man. “Walter,” he said, “do you think me harsh?”

“No, master.”

“But you feel for the child.”

“I just don’t see the need to beat him, master.”

“You didn’t answer my question. I’ll leave the choice to you: You can take him with you. Keep him for a month, by your side and in your bed. In that month, you’re to teach him how to take a cock and properly please his master, and at the end of that month, you’ll return him to me so I can use him for the purpose for which I bought him. Or, if that work isn’t to your taste, tell me now. I’ll gag him so I don’t have to listen to his crying, fuck him raw, and in the morning sell him to the mines.”

“I’m sorry,” Ray moaned. “Please, give me a chance—”

The master backhanded him, and Ray felt his lip split and tasted blood. He shut up, burying his face in his hands.

He heard the raven-haired man—Walter—speak. “Don’t damage him,” he said. “I’ll take him. Don’t send him to the mines. You’ll shorten his life decades. He’s just a kid.”

The master prodded Ray in the ribs, and Ray looked up.

“Go with him,” the man said. “For the next month, he is your master.”

Ray jumped to his feet, and ran to Walter’s side. He was trembling, but he stood still until Walter nodded. “Thank you, master,” Walter said. He touched Ray’s arm gently, just enough to get his attention. “Come on, kid. Follow me.”

“Thank you,” Ray said once they were out of the master’s earshot.

Walter looked at him, an expression he couldn’t quite read, his mouth crimped down tight. “You’re welcome, kid.”

“Ray.”

“Ray. Don’t make me regret it, okay?”

“I won’t,” Ray promised. “I’ll do everything you say, I promise. I don’t want to go to the mines.”

They walked back downstairs, into the slaves quarters. Once they reached the kitchens, Walter told Ray to sit, and he did. Walter went through the larder until he found some bread and cheese, and an apple the size of a fist with a shiny, red skin.

“I bet you’ve not eaten in hours,” he said. “Eat that, now; I’m not having you get sick and skinny.”

Ray felt too sick to feel hunger beneath it, but he obeyed, eating every bit of what he was given. Once he was finished, Walter led him back through the sleeping quarters to a small room with a single bed in it.

“You’ll bunk with me,” Walter said. “Do you need the bath?”

“No. I just want sleep.” He looked at the cold stone floor, wondering where would be the best place to settle down for the night. Maybe Walter would give him a blanket; he’d been kind so far.

“No,” Walter said, before Ray could ask for one, “you’re not sleeping on the floor. There’s room enough in my bed, and you need to learn how to share one with a man.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”

Walter nodded, slowly, heavily. He stripped down to his underclothes, and for a moment Ray wondered if his tutelage was to begin right away, but then Walter just crawled under the covers, laying down for the night.

“Come on,” he said. “It’s already late. Get settled.”

Ray slipped under the covers. He slept on his side, and he rested himself so the hip with the fresh brand was positioned up. This left him looking at Walter, who slept on his back.

“Thank you, sir,” he whispered.

Walter gave him another of those long looks. “It’s Walter, Ray, you understand?”

“Yes … Walter,” he said.

“Good. Now go to sleep.”

Impossibly, Ray found sleep quickly, cuddled beside Walter in his bed, listening to his quiet breathing.

Comments

[storyfan.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about this movie just the other day. Great au, and I’m wondering if you have further plans for it.

[carlyinrome.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Um, I haven't abandoned it, and I definitely know a lot more about what happens in the story, but it's pretty far down on my list of WIP priorities, to be honest.