FIC Hilary Part IV
Mar. 7th, 2009 04:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jessara40k_ljAuthor: ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jessara40k
Story: Hilary (Temp title and open to suggestions for something more permanent)
Pairing: M/m
Rating: R
Warning: Sexual slavery
Word Count: Approx 5250 words
Summary: The obligatory shopping trip
Feedback: Welcome, but keep the criticism constructive
This time they walked in through the main entrance and Armand beckoned to one of the attendants waiting there.
“Yes sir?”
“Armand Terenev and companion. We have an appointment with Julio Veneti.”
“I’ll go and get him for you then. Would you care for a room to wait in?” Hilary was looking at the displays of cosmetics placed to the left but was that simply curiosity or did he want to take a closer look?
“Give us a moment. Hilary, would you like to take a better look at the make-up?”
“Ah...” Hilary looked up at him with surprise in his eyes, surprise and some sort of calculation Armand couldn’t quite follow. “I’m not sure. Your father wasn’t wearing make-up on Thursday but your brother was wearing it for a casual visit yesterday. And I haven’t seen you wearing it, so would you consider my wearing make-up to be excessive primping, or not wearing make-up to be failing to groom correctly?”
“As long as you stick to something fairly natural and avoid being garish I really couldn’t care less. Would it make you more comfortable to have make-up to wear if you want to?”
“I...yes, it would. But...I think it would take a while for me to find the right colours and everything.” Hilary bit his lower lip and looked down. “Maybe later, I don’t think now would be the best time.”
“We’ll see how much time we’ve got after we finish with Julio then.” Or perhaps he’d ask Louis to take Hilary shopping for cosmetics and give him the money for them; Louis would do well enough if he had Hilary to look out for. “And yes, we would like a room to wait in...I’m sorry; you didn’t give me your name, did you?”
“No sir, I didn’t.” The attendant had looked away while he was talking to Hilary, displaying admirable discretion, but he focused on Armand as soon as he’d addressed him. “I’m Eric Wasser, and if you will both accompany me?”
“Yes, of course.” Hilary moved closer to Armand as they followed Eric, but he resisted the urge to wrap a possessive arm around the boy’s waist or rest his hand against Hilary’s lower back. He didn’t normally do this; usually he sent the attendant ahead to give Julio a bit of warning and followed more slowly, so he was curious to see if there’d been any changes to the waiting rooms since he’d brought Terese and Antoinette to buy their outfits for their university send-off. There wasn’t much changed; comfortable seats, a complimentary mini-bar and a small bookshelf filled with magazines and anthologies - fact and fiction.
“Hilary, you heard the list of what I wanted Julio to have ready for today, is there anything else you think you might want or need?”
“Besides the robe you mentioned yesterday?” Armand smiled, and nodded at the subtle reminder. “You only mentioned trousers on Thursday, not skirts,”
“I didn’t think you’d want skirts, I mean they’re usually either awkward to move in, or pretty blatantly sexual.” And in the same category as just wearing one of those tunics as far as Armand was concerned.
“Yes, they are.” Hilary blushed faintly and glanced down as he replied. “But I saw how well Louis moved in his skirt yesterday, and if I’m going to learn how to dance I should learn how to move in a skirt first. The follower is supposed to wear some sort of skirt in most traditional forms of dance, isn’t he?”
“I’m not really that much of a purist, but Terese is.” Which was one reason she tended to wear skirts for anything where she might be dancing. “You have a point, anything else you think you should have for learning to dance?”
“I don’t know if it’s alright to wear flat shoes to dance, or if I should be wearing high heels to follow.” Hilary wrinkled his nose as he mentioned high heels, was that his own distaste, or a reflection of Armand’s? It didn’t matter, but Armand had no intention of even thinking about asking him to wear high heels; helpless did not appeal to him.
“Flat shoes will be just fine, as long as you’re comfortable in them. Terese would probably disagree in general, but in this case she probably won’t object to dancing with you in flats given her height issues. If your instructor says you should be wearing high heels we’ll talk about it again.”
“Because she’d only just be taller than I am without those heels she was wearing when we met? In that case I can’t think of anything else. I...what you’ve already told Julio to have ready...it’s more than I’d have thought I needed.” Hilary shifted about, looking uncomfortable as he spoke. “Thank you for being so considerate.”
“You’re welcome. I know you weren’t taught to expect much of your owner, but I was taught to take care of my people. And yeah, it’s more clothes than you’d need if I intended to keep you locked away and only allowed out if I wanted to show you off as my pleasure slave, but it’s a barely adequate wardrobe for my lover. Now, what’s the bare minimum you need for make-up?” He’d assume ten to fifteen sols for each item mentioned when he decided on the budget.
“Ummm...four or five shades of eyeshadow, three different shades of lipstick, concealer, lip balm, moisturiser - preferably one with sunscreen and maybe two shades of nail polish.” He’d give them between a hundred and fifty and two hundred sols then.
“Why get a moisturiser with sunscreen specifically?”
“It helps slow down aging.” Hilary sounded as if that was something that should have been obvious, and maybe it was if looking good was part of your job description.
“Ah...right.” What could he say to that? Armand didn’t want to think he was the sort of person who’d basically throw Hilary away for looking old - in fact he was pretty sure he wasn’t, not given that he thought Yukina was hot as hell and she was almost thirty years older than he was - but he could see how it would be a legitimate fear, especially since Hilary’d only learned about his trust fund yesterday, and probably didn’t have any idea what sort of income he’d get from it. “I don’t think I’m only interested in people who look young, but I appreciate that you want to take care of yourself. And at some point I am going to make sure you get the anti-aging nano-treatment.” As soon as he could schedule the appointment in fact.
“Is that why your Family look younger than they are?”
“Yes, it is, but that’s really just a side benefit. The main point is to make sure we stay sharp and keep us healthy for as long as possible. Usually humans start having problems around fifty, and it’s downhill from there, but the anti-aging non-treatment stops that, so we don’t have to worry about our Family Head going senile or anything like that.” This really wasn’t the right place to talk about this, but it wasn’t any sort of secret that most of the Families had the anti-aging nano-treatment at puberty.
“Armand, Hilary, is there anything else you’ve decided I need to find for you?”
“A couple of things, yes.” Armand stood as he spoke, glancing at Hilary before deciding that he didn’t need, and wouldn’t appreciate a hand up. “Hilary needs a decent summer weight robe and a decent skirt.”
“Details on the skirt? And any preferences on the robe for that matter?” Julio was still addressing himself to both of them, on a decision that concerned Hilary more than it concerned Armand, so he just looked at his slave, hoping that he’d get the hint.
“I...need to learn how to move in a long full skirt, so that’s all that’s important for the skirt.” Hilary paused and glanced at Armand for approval before continuing. “I think dark grey, or dark brown would work best for the robe.”
“Make it a reddish brown, or a chocolate brown, not a yellow or green brown.” Hilary should already know what suited him best, but Armand thought most yellow or green browns were rather ugly.
“I’ll see what I can find. What would you like to try on first, beautiful?” Well, Julio seemed to realise that Hilary was the one who’d be making most of the decisions today anyway, even if Hilary still hesitated for a few seconds.
“Shoes, I need to decide on the shoes first, do I really need another two pairs?”
He opened his mouth to say yes, then changed his mind. “It depends. Why do you think you don’t need two more pairs of shoes? You’ve only got those boots and a pair of trainers.”
“I don’t think I’m going to be leaving the apartment that often, except to exercise, and I don’t need shoes in the apartment, do I?” There was something wistful in that answer, and it did seem to be about what Hilary wanted.
“And you don’t like wearing shoes?” His feet were too perfect for him to be used to wearing shoes, toes spread wide instead of pressed together in their relaxed state.
“No, no I don’t. I’m not used to them. And I haven’t stopped growing yet, how long will they fit?” That was a relevant argument in some ways; it was pretty much the same line of reasoning as the one that made Armand decide not to bother getting really expensive clothes for Hilary, settling for good quality, but unexceptional, because the boy wasn’t fully grown.
“You have a point I suppose. Alright then, you can just pick one pair of shoes, the most comfortable.”
“Thank you.” It was an odd thing to be thanked for, agreeing not to buy something for Hilary, but then that wasn’t really what Hilary was thanking Armand for, was it? The note of near disbelief in his voice told Armand just how surprised Hilary was that Armand had bothered to listen to him, to what he wanted.
“You’re welcome.” Julio had been listening to their disagreement with a disbelieving look on his face, but he had the good grace not to comment on it and stayed silent until they reached his dressing room.
~~~0~~~
Hilary hadn’t been entirely sure it was appropriate for him to question his master about how many pairs of shoes he’d get, but it hadn’t exactly been a business or financial matter, and even if Armand had already made some decisions they hadn’t felt quite final. He still couldn’t quite believe that Armand had been so willing to listen to him, but it seemed as if he had.
“Do you want to try the loafers or the lace-ups first?”
“Whichever you think is most comfortable.” Hilary sat down beside Armand, waiting for Julio to bring the shoes he wanted Hilary to try on, checking that he was doing the right thing with a quick glance.
“Loafers then.” Julio brought three shoe boxes forward and knelt to help Hilary take his boots off. “Which pair do you want to try on first?”
“Ah, this pair.” He picked one pair at random, since he couldn’t see any real difference between the loafers Julio was offering for him to choose from; they were all a dark warm brown and fairly simple. The first pair didn’t feel quite comfortable, they rubbed at his heels when he tried walking in them, but the third pair he tried on fitted perfectly.
“These are fine. I don’t think I need to try on any more shoes, do I?”
“Not if those are comfortable.” Armand seemed pleased at Hilary’s quick decision; he guessed this was a bit boring for his master, and Armand hadn’t opened his folders yet. “How often do you exercise?”
“Every day if I can.”
“Right, then you need another three or four complete sets of exercise clothes. Julio?” Armand glanced at him with a question in his eyes.
“What do you need then, beautiful, and do you have a preference on colour for this?”
“Jogging pants, sweatshirt and T-shirt, and I could use some extra pairs of sports socks. And...it doesn’t really matter what I look like when I’m exercising, does it?” Armand probably wanted him to make the decision himself, but Hilary couldn’t help looking to him for confirmation.
“No, it doesn’t; but the same rules about natural fabrics apply here as everywhere else.” Rules? No, that was probably something Armand had arranged with Julio, and not something Hilary needed to concern himself with, except that he thought it was some sort of sign of quality.
“I’ll get Hilary started on trying the trousers and shirts on and then I’ll go find the clothes you added to the list today.” Julio paused, waiting for Armand to give orders contradicting his suggestion? Then he turned to Hilary with a smile. “I’ve put everything in the dressing room, and I can explain how I’ve set them up for you?”
“Ah...yes please.” Hilary still glanced back at Armand as Julio led him through to the dressing room, in case his master had any instructions about what he needed to choose. But Armand just smiled at him and began pulling papers out of one of the folders he’d brought with him. There was a standing unit like the ones he’d seen out in the store as they came here; with six rails sticking out from the main unit at mid-chest height, with shirts hung on each rail. And there were pairs of jeans folded on the table and some other sort of trousers hung on a standing rail, and more shirts at the other end, with long flat bags with the hooks of hangers sticking out of the top separating the two types of clothes.
“You only need to try on one shirt from each rail here - they’re all the same size and style, so you should be able to pick out as many shirts as you need for day to day wear from here.” The standing unit...Hilary couldn’t quite tell how many shirts were on each rail, but it was quite full. Julio moved over to the standing rail now, pointing to the trousers. “There’s a number of different styles of trouser here; in this case each pair is a different style, and so is each pair of jeans. I don’t think you’ll be ready to try on the suits or dress shirts before I return, so if you can just leave those for now beautiful, and focus on picking out the rest of your normal clothes...”
“Yes, I can do that.” He’d need to ask Armand how many shirts and pairs of trousers he had to choose...how many his master thought he needed.
“Before I go, do you prefer briefs or boxers, beautiful?”
“Boxers.” They were a lot more comfortable - and he’d noticed that Armand wore briefs, so even if Hilary did end up the same size as him there wouldn’t be issues of mixing their underwear up.
“Right.” Julio picked up a pile of boxes and left Hilary alone. He stripped and counted ten shirts on one rail before trying on the first of them, along with the first pair of trousers hanging up. He’d been pleased to realise that Julio had catered to his distaste for black, but he wasn’t sure he liked this particular shade of brown. But the trousers were comfortable and he decided to go get his master’s opinion of the colour.
“Armand? What do you think?”
Armand looked up, sweeping Hilary from head to toe in a single assessing glance; then shook his head.
“I don’t think white is really your colour, and that’s almost an ugly shade of brown.”
“I agree. But I wasn’t sure...how many trousers and shirts do I have to choose?”
“Fourteen shirts. But I wear my trousers two or three times before I put them in the laundry; if you’re willing to do the same you only need to pick two new pairs of trousers today, otherwise pick at least five. You can pick more if you want of course, but those are the minimums I want you to come away with for day to day. But don’t just pick all jeans, I want you to have at least one smarter pair of trousers.”
“You don’t want the chance to approve or forbid my choices then?” Then again Armand hadn’t really seemed to care about what he picked out last time either.
“I told you, as long as you’re decently dressed I’m happy for you to wear whatever makes you comfortable.”
“I understand.” Hilary smiled and went back into the dressing room, looking through the shirts like the one he’d tried on, picking out three of them, one each in light blue, light green and light grey and putting them on the empty standing rail. He’d look at the other colours if he wasn’t comfortable in any of the other five types of shirt, but he liked those best. He pulled on the first shirt from the next rail, then moved to look at the trousers on the rail, sorting through them to find the pairs in colours he liked, separating them from the colours he didn’t really like and starting with a dark brown pair.
The trousers were a bit loose around his waist, but the shirt was comfortable enough, and he pulled out the three of that style in the colours he preferred before trying on the next outfit. This pair of trousers were a lighter brown, but a dark tan colour rather than the almost orange shade of the pair he’d rejected, and they fit comfortably enough - although the shirt he tried on with it was a bit tight across the shoulders. He hesitated, then decided that the smart trousers weren’t really any less comfortable than the jeans and ended up picking out a dark blue pair of trousers from the rail, and rejecting one more style of shirt. So he had light blue, light green and light grey shirts in three different styles each, and the fourth style of shirt came in a selection of darker shades, of which he chose the dark green, the royal blue, the dark blue, the golden brown and the dark grey.
Julio had said he expected to return before Hilary finished choosing his day-to-day clothes, but he hadn’t come in to watch him changing last time either...Hilary dressed in the clothes he’d put on that morning and went out to see if Julio had come back.
“You’ve decided on your normal clothes then beautiful?”
“Yes, I have. You’ve brought everything that we asked for today?” It looked like it anyway, with how full the cart was.
“Of course. What do you want to try on first?”
“I don’t need to try on more than one set of exercise clothes, do I?” Hilary couldn’t help glancing at Armand as he spoke, wondering if his master was offended at the way they were ignoring him. But he seemed to be all wrapped up in the papers he was reading through, concentrating hard enough that Hilary was curious about just what he was studying, even though he knew he had no right to even ask.
“Not if it fits, no.” Julio glanced pointedly at the door behind Hilary, and he got the hint, opening it for him. “Thank you. Is that really all you want in the way of trousers?” He had a frown on his face as he looked at the rail with Hilary’s choices.
“Yes. It’s all Armand said I had to get, and I don’t really like wearing trousers, so they’re only really for when I leave the apartment.”
“Will you take two skirts then, instead of just one?” That might actually be a good idea...it would give him the chance to practice in a skirt just about every day, since he wouldn’t be wearing it that long. And his new shirts were all pretty short, too short to wear without anything else.
“If you clear it with Armand, then yes.” Not that he really expected his master to mind, but it wasn’t as if Hilary was spending his own money, really had any money of his own that he could spend. “You’ll leave the exercise clothes and robes are in the cart then?” Since Julio was hanging the skirts up on the rail with the trousers Hilary had decided against.
“Yes, beautiful, I will. Call me back in when you’re ready to choose your suit and the shirt or shirts to go with it, or if you need a second opinion.”
“I will.” Hilary smiled and began stripping his jeans off again - he’d only bothered to put them on when he looked for Julio to keep from embarrassing Armand, but Julio looked surprised and left swiftly. The robes were at the top of the cart now, the first one was a dark grey, and it fitted comfortably over his tunic - maybe a little loose, but that was all to the good and he put it to one side before moving to try on the skirts next. They tangled around his legs a bit, but that was why Armand was buying them, so that he’d learn how to move in a skirt, how to make it look graceful the way Louis had. He’d said the colour didn’t matter, but Julio had been considerate enough to select the colours Hilary preferred and he chose the dark blue and dark grey skirts. The exercise clothes now, and this time it seemed Julio had believed him when he said that what they looked like didn’t matter as most of them were black, but they fitted, and it wasn’t important that they made him look almost ill.
“I’m ready to try on the suits now.”
“So that’s why you don’t like black, beautiful. You’re right, you shouldn’t wear black near your face. Don’t you agree, sir?” Julio looked over at Armand, and Hilary waited to hear his master’s assessment.
“Yes...do you have problems with the sun, Hilary?” There was a concerned look on his master’s face and Hilary sound himself shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot as he answered.
“Yes, I burn fairly easily.” He’d found that out when he was pretty young, while he’d still had a lot of free time and one day his age group had snuck out to play in the sun without their supervisors to keep telling them to be careful and not run about so much. Half of them had ended up with sunburns, and Hilary’s had been so bad he’d ended up with blisters and monitored overnight by the doctor.
“Okay, that’s one more thing to add to the list. And yes, it’s perfectly fine for you to pick two skirts if you want them.”
“I didn’t think you’d object, but I couldn’t just assume that it would be allowed.”
“I appreciate your consideration. Pick two or three more shirts to go with your formal suit please.” With that Armand returned his attention to his papers and Hilary let Julio guide him through his choices.
~~~0~~~
“I’ve reserved a table at Passad’s, one of the in-store restaurants, for about an hour from now.” He’d expected this to take longer, but he’d warned Julio in advance that they’d stop to eat around one in the afternoon.
“Ah...should I use Julio’s dressing room to change into something different?” Hilary fiddled with his hair as he spoke, leaning forward towards Armand and tilting his head to one side.
“Not if you feel comfortable in that. Passad’s takes reservations, but there isn’t a dress code or anything. I picked it because of that.” It would be a good way to ease Hilary into eating out, something he’d need to deal with to be a proper companion for Armand.
“I’m as comfortable as I think I’m going to be outside your apartment building. Are we going to be carrying all of these bags with us?”
“No. That would be a bit awkward, don’t you think?” But Armand was reluctant to take the time to carry them all to the car, since he thought that with any luck they’d be able to finish the shopping trip before they ate.
“You can leave them here until the store closes - Armand booked my whole day to get you a proper wardrobe, beautiful.”
“Thank you Julio, we’ll do that.” Armand was surprised at the offer, but he wasn’t stupid enough to refuse it. “Hilary, we need to get some sunscreen for you, and some lube; is there anything else you can think of that you need or want?” He wrapped his arm around Hilary’s waist to start him moving towards the pharmaceutical department as he spoke.
“I don’t think there’s enough time for me to look for make-up before our reservation, is there?”
“I don’t know. Probably not if you’re anything like Louis. Actually I thought he might be willing to bring you to shop for that some time during the week.”
“I’d like that.” Hilary smiled up at him, in what looked like genuine pleasure. “As long he doesn’t mind. I...it’s probably going to take a while to pick out the colours and work out what looks good on me, and what doesn’t, and Louis’ probably more likely than you are to know what brands are good, and...he’ll probably give me better advice than you can.”
“No questions there.” Jerome rarely wore make-up, and kept to the bare minimum when he did wear it, and Armand had followed his mother’s example of never wearing it so he’d refused to take time from his studies by learning how to paint himself up to look pretty. “Is there anything else you’d be interested in?”
“Do you have a card player I can use when I’m exercising?” It sounded almost as if Hilary didn’t quite dare to actually ask for what he wanted, and that bothered Armand, but it wasn’t something he could deal with now.
“Portable you mean? Yes, but it’s nearly ten years old, and the headphones are shot anyway.” He’d bought it before he went to university, so he would have something to listen to when he was working in the library or one of the computer labs. “I’ll get you a new one. Is there any particular type of music you like?”
“I’ve only really listened to opera and instrumental music. It sounded good, but I had to try and analyse it and I mostly didn’t understand the lyrics in the opera since they were usually in foreign languages. I’m not musically inclined, so that made them hard to really enjoy.”
“I see. I’ve got some cards of opera in Ardisch, and I’m certainly not going to want to talk about all those fancy tricks composers put in, or musicians use to embellish their work. I like listening to it, but I don’t want to try to analyse it. Apart from opera and instrumental stuff I mostly listen to operatic rock - Sephiroth’s first couple of albums were opera, then when he moved to operatic rock I decided to branch out and found I liked the whole genre.” He let go of Hilary reluctantly when they reached the escalator, waving him to get on first. “We need to go down to the ground floor.”
“Right, down three floors then?”
“Yes, three floors.” The question was reasonable; they’d used a lift when Julio came to collect them. “Have you made a decision about what language you want to learn?”
“Could I start learning both languages, Catalyan and Cyric, and then stop one if it’s too much for me?” Was that part of why Hilary had asked about the card player? It was a good idea anyway if he wasn’t certain which of the two languages he wanted to learn.
“Of course you can. I’ll get some tutorial cards in both languages if you’d like?”
“Tutorial cards...are those supposed to help you start learning a language? I’d like that, to have something to think about while I’m exercising, otherwise it gets a bit boring.”
“Yes, tutorial cards are used for teaching yourself a language, among other things.” Armand had never needed to use tutorial cards for languages, but he’d bought them to help him with his degrees. They didn’t say anything else until they reached the pharmaceutical department, and Hilary followed his example.
“I don’t suppose you know what shield power you need?”
“Shield power? I just used whatever I was given at The Facility.” Hilary looked confused again, but this time Armand thought he saw a bit of resentment there as well, so at least he felt secure enough to let some negative feelings show. “I know it’s something that seems obvious to you, but I can’t work the meaning out for myself, only that it’s got something to do with what sunscreen you’re going to get for me.”
“Basically shield power is the number of times a sunscreen is supposed to allow you to double the time you spend in the sun without burning. So a sunscreen with shield power one should let you spend twice as long in the sun before you start to burn, and a sunscreen with shield power two will let you spend four times as long in the sun.” He scanned the department, looking for the sunscreen, since it had been rearranged since he’d been here last, and when he saw the sign he began guiding Hilary towards that aisle.
“Supposed to...so a sunscreen with shield power three would theoretically let me spend...eight times as long in the sun without burning. But it doesn’t actually work that way?”
“No, it doesn’t. The manufacturers cheat a bit; the testing isn’t done the way people actually use the sunscreen, and anyway, even with it you aren’t supposed to stay out in the sun for too long.”
“Only long enough to stimulate vitamin D production. That was all we were really allowed outside for once we reached ten and started training for real.” It sounded as if the last six years of Hilary’s training had been every bit as intensive as Armand’s own education, possibly more intensive.
“You can get all the vitamin D you need from your diet if you eat right, but there is a roof garden at the top of the building we’re living in right now; I just haven’t shown it to you yet.” Armand brought them both to a stop so he could look at the sunscreens, and decide which one Hilary needed.
“Would there be any point in showing it to me? You said we’d be moving out soon.”
“Yes, we will. But I was planning to show it to you tomorrow, so you’d have something else to do if you wanted while I’m at work.” Shield power four would do for Hilary; the sun wasn’t that intense here. “Carry these for me please.” He picked out three different brands of sunscreen that he knew were reliable, in case Hilary turned out to prefer one over the others. “You don’t have any preference in lube either I suppose?” Armand glanced around and began leading Hilary towards those as he spoke.
“No. Although I’d prefer something traditional; we were told the novelty lubricants don’t work so well.”
“No, I guess not.” Not that Armand had ever tried the flavoured lube or anything like that; he hadn’t seen the point. But now that he thought of it...”Would you prefer it if we used condoms? I’m clean, and you’re a virgin, but if it would make you feel more comfortable I’m happy to use them.” He knew that Jean and his crowd talked about how sex felt better without condoms, but he’d never cared to take the risk before now. Hilary was guaranteed to be clean, but he knew that the boy had no such guarantees about him.
“If you say that it’s safe I trust you.” Armand thought he heard a hint of sorrow in Hilary’s reply, but he didn’t follow up on that, instead picking out several small tubes of lube, in two different brands.
~~~0~~~
I've also posted a bit of background on the world and society here and on the Terenevs here.
jessara40kStory: Hilary (Temp title and open to suggestions for something more permanent)
Pairing: M/m
Rating: R
Warning: Sexual slavery
Word Count: Approx 5250 words
Summary: The obligatory shopping trip
Feedback: Welcome, but keep the criticism constructive
This time they walked in through the main entrance and Armand beckoned to one of the attendants waiting there.
“Yes sir?”
“Armand Terenev and companion. We have an appointment with Julio Veneti.”
“I’ll go and get him for you then. Would you care for a room to wait in?” Hilary was looking at the displays of cosmetics placed to the left but was that simply curiosity or did he want to take a closer look?
“Give us a moment. Hilary, would you like to take a better look at the make-up?”
“Ah...” Hilary looked up at him with surprise in his eyes, surprise and some sort of calculation Armand couldn’t quite follow. “I’m not sure. Your father wasn’t wearing make-up on Thursday but your brother was wearing it for a casual visit yesterday. And I haven’t seen you wearing it, so would you consider my wearing make-up to be excessive primping, or not wearing make-up to be failing to groom correctly?”
“As long as you stick to something fairly natural and avoid being garish I really couldn’t care less. Would it make you more comfortable to have make-up to wear if you want to?”
“I...yes, it would. But...I think it would take a while for me to find the right colours and everything.” Hilary bit his lower lip and looked down. “Maybe later, I don’t think now would be the best time.”
“We’ll see how much time we’ve got after we finish with Julio then.” Or perhaps he’d ask Louis to take Hilary shopping for cosmetics and give him the money for them; Louis would do well enough if he had Hilary to look out for. “And yes, we would like a room to wait in...I’m sorry; you didn’t give me your name, did you?”
“No sir, I didn’t.” The attendant had looked away while he was talking to Hilary, displaying admirable discretion, but he focused on Armand as soon as he’d addressed him. “I’m Eric Wasser, and if you will both accompany me?”
“Yes, of course.” Hilary moved closer to Armand as they followed Eric, but he resisted the urge to wrap a possessive arm around the boy’s waist or rest his hand against Hilary’s lower back. He didn’t normally do this; usually he sent the attendant ahead to give Julio a bit of warning and followed more slowly, so he was curious to see if there’d been any changes to the waiting rooms since he’d brought Terese and Antoinette to buy their outfits for their university send-off. There wasn’t much changed; comfortable seats, a complimentary mini-bar and a small bookshelf filled with magazines and anthologies - fact and fiction.
“Hilary, you heard the list of what I wanted Julio to have ready for today, is there anything else you think you might want or need?”
“Besides the robe you mentioned yesterday?” Armand smiled, and nodded at the subtle reminder. “You only mentioned trousers on Thursday, not skirts,”
“I didn’t think you’d want skirts, I mean they’re usually either awkward to move in, or pretty blatantly sexual.” And in the same category as just wearing one of those tunics as far as Armand was concerned.
“Yes, they are.” Hilary blushed faintly and glanced down as he replied. “But I saw how well Louis moved in his skirt yesterday, and if I’m going to learn how to dance I should learn how to move in a skirt first. The follower is supposed to wear some sort of skirt in most traditional forms of dance, isn’t he?”
“I’m not really that much of a purist, but Terese is.” Which was one reason she tended to wear skirts for anything where she might be dancing. “You have a point, anything else you think you should have for learning to dance?”
“I don’t know if it’s alright to wear flat shoes to dance, or if I should be wearing high heels to follow.” Hilary wrinkled his nose as he mentioned high heels, was that his own distaste, or a reflection of Armand’s? It didn’t matter, but Armand had no intention of even thinking about asking him to wear high heels; helpless did not appeal to him.
“Flat shoes will be just fine, as long as you’re comfortable in them. Terese would probably disagree in general, but in this case she probably won’t object to dancing with you in flats given her height issues. If your instructor says you should be wearing high heels we’ll talk about it again.”
“Because she’d only just be taller than I am without those heels she was wearing when we met? In that case I can’t think of anything else. I...what you’ve already told Julio to have ready...it’s more than I’d have thought I needed.” Hilary shifted about, looking uncomfortable as he spoke. “Thank you for being so considerate.”
“You’re welcome. I know you weren’t taught to expect much of your owner, but I was taught to take care of my people. And yeah, it’s more clothes than you’d need if I intended to keep you locked away and only allowed out if I wanted to show you off as my pleasure slave, but it’s a barely adequate wardrobe for my lover. Now, what’s the bare minimum you need for make-up?” He’d assume ten to fifteen sols for each item mentioned when he decided on the budget.
“Ummm...four or five shades of eyeshadow, three different shades of lipstick, concealer, lip balm, moisturiser - preferably one with sunscreen and maybe two shades of nail polish.” He’d give them between a hundred and fifty and two hundred sols then.
“Why get a moisturiser with sunscreen specifically?”
“It helps slow down aging.” Hilary sounded as if that was something that should have been obvious, and maybe it was if looking good was part of your job description.
“Ah...right.” What could he say to that? Armand didn’t want to think he was the sort of person who’d basically throw Hilary away for looking old - in fact he was pretty sure he wasn’t, not given that he thought Yukina was hot as hell and she was almost thirty years older than he was - but he could see how it would be a legitimate fear, especially since Hilary’d only learned about his trust fund yesterday, and probably didn’t have any idea what sort of income he’d get from it. “I don’t think I’m only interested in people who look young, but I appreciate that you want to take care of yourself. And at some point I am going to make sure you get the anti-aging nano-treatment.” As soon as he could schedule the appointment in fact.
“Is that why your Family look younger than they are?”
“Yes, it is, but that’s really just a side benefit. The main point is to make sure we stay sharp and keep us healthy for as long as possible. Usually humans start having problems around fifty, and it’s downhill from there, but the anti-aging non-treatment stops that, so we don’t have to worry about our Family Head going senile or anything like that.” This really wasn’t the right place to talk about this, but it wasn’t any sort of secret that most of the Families had the anti-aging nano-treatment at puberty.
“Armand, Hilary, is there anything else you’ve decided I need to find for you?”
“A couple of things, yes.” Armand stood as he spoke, glancing at Hilary before deciding that he didn’t need, and wouldn’t appreciate a hand up. “Hilary needs a decent summer weight robe and a decent skirt.”
“Details on the skirt? And any preferences on the robe for that matter?” Julio was still addressing himself to both of them, on a decision that concerned Hilary more than it concerned Armand, so he just looked at his slave, hoping that he’d get the hint.
“I...need to learn how to move in a long full skirt, so that’s all that’s important for the skirt.” Hilary paused and glanced at Armand for approval before continuing. “I think dark grey, or dark brown would work best for the robe.”
“Make it a reddish brown, or a chocolate brown, not a yellow or green brown.” Hilary should already know what suited him best, but Armand thought most yellow or green browns were rather ugly.
“I’ll see what I can find. What would you like to try on first, beautiful?” Well, Julio seemed to realise that Hilary was the one who’d be making most of the decisions today anyway, even if Hilary still hesitated for a few seconds.
“Shoes, I need to decide on the shoes first, do I really need another two pairs?”
He opened his mouth to say yes, then changed his mind. “It depends. Why do you think you don’t need two more pairs of shoes? You’ve only got those boots and a pair of trainers.”
“I don’t think I’m going to be leaving the apartment that often, except to exercise, and I don’t need shoes in the apartment, do I?” There was something wistful in that answer, and it did seem to be about what Hilary wanted.
“And you don’t like wearing shoes?” His feet were too perfect for him to be used to wearing shoes, toes spread wide instead of pressed together in their relaxed state.
“No, no I don’t. I’m not used to them. And I haven’t stopped growing yet, how long will they fit?” That was a relevant argument in some ways; it was pretty much the same line of reasoning as the one that made Armand decide not to bother getting really expensive clothes for Hilary, settling for good quality, but unexceptional, because the boy wasn’t fully grown.
“You have a point I suppose. Alright then, you can just pick one pair of shoes, the most comfortable.”
“Thank you.” It was an odd thing to be thanked for, agreeing not to buy something for Hilary, but then that wasn’t really what Hilary was thanking Armand for, was it? The note of near disbelief in his voice told Armand just how surprised Hilary was that Armand had bothered to listen to him, to what he wanted.
“You’re welcome.” Julio had been listening to their disagreement with a disbelieving look on his face, but he had the good grace not to comment on it and stayed silent until they reached his dressing room.
Hilary hadn’t been entirely sure it was appropriate for him to question his master about how many pairs of shoes he’d get, but it hadn’t exactly been a business or financial matter, and even if Armand had already made some decisions they hadn’t felt quite final. He still couldn’t quite believe that Armand had been so willing to listen to him, but it seemed as if he had.
“Do you want to try the loafers or the lace-ups first?”
“Whichever you think is most comfortable.” Hilary sat down beside Armand, waiting for Julio to bring the shoes he wanted Hilary to try on, checking that he was doing the right thing with a quick glance.
“Loafers then.” Julio brought three shoe boxes forward and knelt to help Hilary take his boots off. “Which pair do you want to try on first?”
“Ah, this pair.” He picked one pair at random, since he couldn’t see any real difference between the loafers Julio was offering for him to choose from; they were all a dark warm brown and fairly simple. The first pair didn’t feel quite comfortable, they rubbed at his heels when he tried walking in them, but the third pair he tried on fitted perfectly.
“These are fine. I don’t think I need to try on any more shoes, do I?”
“Not if those are comfortable.” Armand seemed pleased at Hilary’s quick decision; he guessed this was a bit boring for his master, and Armand hadn’t opened his folders yet. “How often do you exercise?”
“Every day if I can.”
“Right, then you need another three or four complete sets of exercise clothes. Julio?” Armand glanced at him with a question in his eyes.
“What do you need then, beautiful, and do you have a preference on colour for this?”
“Jogging pants, sweatshirt and T-shirt, and I could use some extra pairs of sports socks. And...it doesn’t really matter what I look like when I’m exercising, does it?” Armand probably wanted him to make the decision himself, but Hilary couldn’t help looking to him for confirmation.
“No, it doesn’t; but the same rules about natural fabrics apply here as everywhere else.” Rules? No, that was probably something Armand had arranged with Julio, and not something Hilary needed to concern himself with, except that he thought it was some sort of sign of quality.
“I’ll get Hilary started on trying the trousers and shirts on and then I’ll go find the clothes you added to the list today.” Julio paused, waiting for Armand to give orders contradicting his suggestion? Then he turned to Hilary with a smile. “I’ve put everything in the dressing room, and I can explain how I’ve set them up for you?”
“Ah...yes please.” Hilary still glanced back at Armand as Julio led him through to the dressing room, in case his master had any instructions about what he needed to choose. But Armand just smiled at him and began pulling papers out of one of the folders he’d brought with him. There was a standing unit like the ones he’d seen out in the store as they came here; with six rails sticking out from the main unit at mid-chest height, with shirts hung on each rail. And there were pairs of jeans folded on the table and some other sort of trousers hung on a standing rail, and more shirts at the other end, with long flat bags with the hooks of hangers sticking out of the top separating the two types of clothes.
“You only need to try on one shirt from each rail here - they’re all the same size and style, so you should be able to pick out as many shirts as you need for day to day wear from here.” The standing unit...Hilary couldn’t quite tell how many shirts were on each rail, but it was quite full. Julio moved over to the standing rail now, pointing to the trousers. “There’s a number of different styles of trouser here; in this case each pair is a different style, and so is each pair of jeans. I don’t think you’ll be ready to try on the suits or dress shirts before I return, so if you can just leave those for now beautiful, and focus on picking out the rest of your normal clothes...”
“Yes, I can do that.” He’d need to ask Armand how many shirts and pairs of trousers he had to choose...how many his master thought he needed.
“Before I go, do you prefer briefs or boxers, beautiful?”
“Boxers.” They were a lot more comfortable - and he’d noticed that Armand wore briefs, so even if Hilary did end up the same size as him there wouldn’t be issues of mixing their underwear up.
“Right.” Julio picked up a pile of boxes and left Hilary alone. He stripped and counted ten shirts on one rail before trying on the first of them, along with the first pair of trousers hanging up. He’d been pleased to realise that Julio had catered to his distaste for black, but he wasn’t sure he liked this particular shade of brown. But the trousers were comfortable and he decided to go get his master’s opinion of the colour.
“Armand? What do you think?”
Armand looked up, sweeping Hilary from head to toe in a single assessing glance; then shook his head.
“I don’t think white is really your colour, and that’s almost an ugly shade of brown.”
“I agree. But I wasn’t sure...how many trousers and shirts do I have to choose?”
“Fourteen shirts. But I wear my trousers two or three times before I put them in the laundry; if you’re willing to do the same you only need to pick two new pairs of trousers today, otherwise pick at least five. You can pick more if you want of course, but those are the minimums I want you to come away with for day to day. But don’t just pick all jeans, I want you to have at least one smarter pair of trousers.”
“You don’t want the chance to approve or forbid my choices then?” Then again Armand hadn’t really seemed to care about what he picked out last time either.
“I told you, as long as you’re decently dressed I’m happy for you to wear whatever makes you comfortable.”
“I understand.” Hilary smiled and went back into the dressing room, looking through the shirts like the one he’d tried on, picking out three of them, one each in light blue, light green and light grey and putting them on the empty standing rail. He’d look at the other colours if he wasn’t comfortable in any of the other five types of shirt, but he liked those best. He pulled on the first shirt from the next rail, then moved to look at the trousers on the rail, sorting through them to find the pairs in colours he liked, separating them from the colours he didn’t really like and starting with a dark brown pair.
The trousers were a bit loose around his waist, but the shirt was comfortable enough, and he pulled out the three of that style in the colours he preferred before trying on the next outfit. This pair of trousers were a lighter brown, but a dark tan colour rather than the almost orange shade of the pair he’d rejected, and they fit comfortably enough - although the shirt he tried on with it was a bit tight across the shoulders. He hesitated, then decided that the smart trousers weren’t really any less comfortable than the jeans and ended up picking out a dark blue pair of trousers from the rail, and rejecting one more style of shirt. So he had light blue, light green and light grey shirts in three different styles each, and the fourth style of shirt came in a selection of darker shades, of which he chose the dark green, the royal blue, the dark blue, the golden brown and the dark grey.
Julio had said he expected to return before Hilary finished choosing his day-to-day clothes, but he hadn’t come in to watch him changing last time either...Hilary dressed in the clothes he’d put on that morning and went out to see if Julio had come back.
“You’ve decided on your normal clothes then beautiful?”
“Yes, I have. You’ve brought everything that we asked for today?” It looked like it anyway, with how full the cart was.
“Of course. What do you want to try on first?”
“I don’t need to try on more than one set of exercise clothes, do I?” Hilary couldn’t help glancing at Armand as he spoke, wondering if his master was offended at the way they were ignoring him. But he seemed to be all wrapped up in the papers he was reading through, concentrating hard enough that Hilary was curious about just what he was studying, even though he knew he had no right to even ask.
“Not if it fits, no.” Julio glanced pointedly at the door behind Hilary, and he got the hint, opening it for him. “Thank you. Is that really all you want in the way of trousers?” He had a frown on his face as he looked at the rail with Hilary’s choices.
“Yes. It’s all Armand said I had to get, and I don’t really like wearing trousers, so they’re only really for when I leave the apartment.”
“Will you take two skirts then, instead of just one?” That might actually be a good idea...it would give him the chance to practice in a skirt just about every day, since he wouldn’t be wearing it that long. And his new shirts were all pretty short, too short to wear without anything else.
“If you clear it with Armand, then yes.” Not that he really expected his master to mind, but it wasn’t as if Hilary was spending his own money, really had any money of his own that he could spend. “You’ll leave the exercise clothes and robes are in the cart then?” Since Julio was hanging the skirts up on the rail with the trousers Hilary had decided against.
“Yes, beautiful, I will. Call me back in when you’re ready to choose your suit and the shirt or shirts to go with it, or if you need a second opinion.”
“I will.” Hilary smiled and began stripping his jeans off again - he’d only bothered to put them on when he looked for Julio to keep from embarrassing Armand, but Julio looked surprised and left swiftly. The robes were at the top of the cart now, the first one was a dark grey, and it fitted comfortably over his tunic - maybe a little loose, but that was all to the good and he put it to one side before moving to try on the skirts next. They tangled around his legs a bit, but that was why Armand was buying them, so that he’d learn how to move in a skirt, how to make it look graceful the way Louis had. He’d said the colour didn’t matter, but Julio had been considerate enough to select the colours Hilary preferred and he chose the dark blue and dark grey skirts. The exercise clothes now, and this time it seemed Julio had believed him when he said that what they looked like didn’t matter as most of them were black, but they fitted, and it wasn’t important that they made him look almost ill.
“I’m ready to try on the suits now.”
“So that’s why you don’t like black, beautiful. You’re right, you shouldn’t wear black near your face. Don’t you agree, sir?” Julio looked over at Armand, and Hilary waited to hear his master’s assessment.
“Yes...do you have problems with the sun, Hilary?” There was a concerned look on his master’s face and Hilary sound himself shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot as he answered.
“Yes, I burn fairly easily.” He’d found that out when he was pretty young, while he’d still had a lot of free time and one day his age group had snuck out to play in the sun without their supervisors to keep telling them to be careful and not run about so much. Half of them had ended up with sunburns, and Hilary’s had been so bad he’d ended up with blisters and monitored overnight by the doctor.
“Okay, that’s one more thing to add to the list. And yes, it’s perfectly fine for you to pick two skirts if you want them.”
“I didn’t think you’d object, but I couldn’t just assume that it would be allowed.”
“I appreciate your consideration. Pick two or three more shirts to go with your formal suit please.” With that Armand returned his attention to his papers and Hilary let Julio guide him through his choices.
“I’ve reserved a table at Passad’s, one of the in-store restaurants, for about an hour from now.” He’d expected this to take longer, but he’d warned Julio in advance that they’d stop to eat around one in the afternoon.
“Ah...should I use Julio’s dressing room to change into something different?” Hilary fiddled with his hair as he spoke, leaning forward towards Armand and tilting his head to one side.
“Not if you feel comfortable in that. Passad’s takes reservations, but there isn’t a dress code or anything. I picked it because of that.” It would be a good way to ease Hilary into eating out, something he’d need to deal with to be a proper companion for Armand.
“I’m as comfortable as I think I’m going to be outside your apartment building. Are we going to be carrying all of these bags with us?”
“No. That would be a bit awkward, don’t you think?” But Armand was reluctant to take the time to carry them all to the car, since he thought that with any luck they’d be able to finish the shopping trip before they ate.
“You can leave them here until the store closes - Armand booked my whole day to get you a proper wardrobe, beautiful.”
“Thank you Julio, we’ll do that.” Armand was surprised at the offer, but he wasn’t stupid enough to refuse it. “Hilary, we need to get some sunscreen for you, and some lube; is there anything else you can think of that you need or want?” He wrapped his arm around Hilary’s waist to start him moving towards the pharmaceutical department as he spoke.
“I don’t think there’s enough time for me to look for make-up before our reservation, is there?”
“I don’t know. Probably not if you’re anything like Louis. Actually I thought he might be willing to bring you to shop for that some time during the week.”
“I’d like that.” Hilary smiled up at him, in what looked like genuine pleasure. “As long he doesn’t mind. I...it’s probably going to take a while to pick out the colours and work out what looks good on me, and what doesn’t, and Louis’ probably more likely than you are to know what brands are good, and...he’ll probably give me better advice than you can.”
“No questions there.” Jerome rarely wore make-up, and kept to the bare minimum when he did wear it, and Armand had followed his mother’s example of never wearing it so he’d refused to take time from his studies by learning how to paint himself up to look pretty. “Is there anything else you’d be interested in?”
“Do you have a card player I can use when I’m exercising?” It sounded almost as if Hilary didn’t quite dare to actually ask for what he wanted, and that bothered Armand, but it wasn’t something he could deal with now.
“Portable you mean? Yes, but it’s nearly ten years old, and the headphones are shot anyway.” He’d bought it before he went to university, so he would have something to listen to when he was working in the library or one of the computer labs. “I’ll get you a new one. Is there any particular type of music you like?”
“I’ve only really listened to opera and instrumental music. It sounded good, but I had to try and analyse it and I mostly didn’t understand the lyrics in the opera since they were usually in foreign languages. I’m not musically inclined, so that made them hard to really enjoy.”
“I see. I’ve got some cards of opera in Ardisch, and I’m certainly not going to want to talk about all those fancy tricks composers put in, or musicians use to embellish their work. I like listening to it, but I don’t want to try to analyse it. Apart from opera and instrumental stuff I mostly listen to operatic rock - Sephiroth’s first couple of albums were opera, then when he moved to operatic rock I decided to branch out and found I liked the whole genre.” He let go of Hilary reluctantly when they reached the escalator, waving him to get on first. “We need to go down to the ground floor.”
“Right, down three floors then?”
“Yes, three floors.” The question was reasonable; they’d used a lift when Julio came to collect them. “Have you made a decision about what language you want to learn?”
“Could I start learning both languages, Catalyan and Cyric, and then stop one if it’s too much for me?” Was that part of why Hilary had asked about the card player? It was a good idea anyway if he wasn’t certain which of the two languages he wanted to learn.
“Of course you can. I’ll get some tutorial cards in both languages if you’d like?”
“Tutorial cards...are those supposed to help you start learning a language? I’d like that, to have something to think about while I’m exercising, otherwise it gets a bit boring.”
“Yes, tutorial cards are used for teaching yourself a language, among other things.” Armand had never needed to use tutorial cards for languages, but he’d bought them to help him with his degrees. They didn’t say anything else until they reached the pharmaceutical department, and Hilary followed his example.
“I don’t suppose you know what shield power you need?”
“Shield power? I just used whatever I was given at The Facility.” Hilary looked confused again, but this time Armand thought he saw a bit of resentment there as well, so at least he felt secure enough to let some negative feelings show. “I know it’s something that seems obvious to you, but I can’t work the meaning out for myself, only that it’s got something to do with what sunscreen you’re going to get for me.”
“Basically shield power is the number of times a sunscreen is supposed to allow you to double the time you spend in the sun without burning. So a sunscreen with shield power one should let you spend twice as long in the sun before you start to burn, and a sunscreen with shield power two will let you spend four times as long in the sun.” He scanned the department, looking for the sunscreen, since it had been rearranged since he’d been here last, and when he saw the sign he began guiding Hilary towards that aisle.
“Supposed to...so a sunscreen with shield power three would theoretically let me spend...eight times as long in the sun without burning. But it doesn’t actually work that way?”
“No, it doesn’t. The manufacturers cheat a bit; the testing isn’t done the way people actually use the sunscreen, and anyway, even with it you aren’t supposed to stay out in the sun for too long.”
“Only long enough to stimulate vitamin D production. That was all we were really allowed outside for once we reached ten and started training for real.” It sounded as if the last six years of Hilary’s training had been every bit as intensive as Armand’s own education, possibly more intensive.
“You can get all the vitamin D you need from your diet if you eat right, but there is a roof garden at the top of the building we’re living in right now; I just haven’t shown it to you yet.” Armand brought them both to a stop so he could look at the sunscreens, and decide which one Hilary needed.
“Would there be any point in showing it to me? You said we’d be moving out soon.”
“Yes, we will. But I was planning to show it to you tomorrow, so you’d have something else to do if you wanted while I’m at work.” Shield power four would do for Hilary; the sun wasn’t that intense here. “Carry these for me please.” He picked out three different brands of sunscreen that he knew were reliable, in case Hilary turned out to prefer one over the others. “You don’t have any preference in lube either I suppose?” Armand glanced around and began leading Hilary towards those as he spoke.
“No. Although I’d prefer something traditional; we were told the novelty lubricants don’t work so well.”
“No, I guess not.” Not that Armand had ever tried the flavoured lube or anything like that; he hadn’t seen the point. But now that he thought of it...”Would you prefer it if we used condoms? I’m clean, and you’re a virgin, but if it would make you feel more comfortable I’m happy to use them.” He knew that Jean and his crowd talked about how sex felt better without condoms, but he’d never cared to take the risk before now. Hilary was guaranteed to be clean, but he knew that the boy had no such guarantees about him.
“If you say that it’s safe I trust you.” Armand thought he heard a hint of sorrow in Hilary’s reply, but he didn’t follow up on that, instead picking out several small tubes of lube, in two different brands.
I've also posted a bit of background on the world and society here and on the Terenevs here.
