The party went on and on. Tracht made Alex fuck Nadia at one point. They watched Singh and Fontaine take a turn with Claude—they hooked a catheter up to his dick and fed it into his mouth. Other people came by and complimented Tracht on his choice of bondservant, or asked him why he’d picked Alex’s ugly mug. Food came in tiny morsels spread out over the course of the night, doled out as rewards for begging or performing tricks.
Tracht made Alex bend over a bench and used a crop on his ass. It didn’t hurt nearly as bad as when he’d flogged Alex, but the constant interruptions of people talking to Tracht, asking him about Alex, wanting to see Alex’s face or hole or cock—all of it left Alex feeling worse than he ever had on the ship.
By the end of the evening Alex was soaked with sweat and come and tears. He barely remembered the trip back to the ship, and if Tracht hadn’t physically manhandled him into the scrubber, he would have fallen into the bed covered in his mess.
It was a relief when he was finally allowed to lie down. Tracht pulled the covers over them and then spooned up behind Alex.
“You were so beautiful,” Tracht murmured into his ear. “Hoffman recanted his words after he saw you taking the crop.”
Alex turned his head away, exhausted and ashamed. He fell asleep with Tracht nipping at his neck and muttering more nonsense.
===
The next morning Alex felt just as shitty.
He had a headache and his body felt like a stranger. The sensation of Tracht stroking his hair was distant, muted, neither pleasant nor distasteful.
“Finally awake?” Tracht said. “I have breakfast for you.”
His stomach did feel empty, but Alex didn’t have the energy to move. He closed his eyes again with a minute shake of his head.
“Alex. Eat.”
Something squishy and wet pushed against Alex’s lips. He opened his mouth more out of habit than anything, and bit down on the slimy food, a tart liquid squirting across his tongue.
It tasted okay. Alex cracked an eye open to see what Tracht was feeding him. “What?”
Tracht was sitting upright against the headboard, his tablet on his lap. He’d put on a pair of loose track pants, but he was still shirtless. Next to him lay a tray of small, red fruit.
“A cherry orange. Native to Pylos,” Tracht explained. “If I understand correctly it isn’t actually a cherry or an orange, but it looks a bit like one and tastes like the other.” Tracht popped one into his own mouth. “Someday I’ll have to try some earth cherries or oranges. I’d like to compare the taste for myself. I’ve always balked a bit at the price.”
He fed another one to Alex, shared some anecdote about his first time eating an earth apple, and then Alex started crying.
It didn’t make any sense. Tracht was being fine. Alex was fine. His body ached and he didn’t want to ever see any of the people from yesterday ever again, but he was fucking alive and getting fed and why the fuck was Alex crying.
“Alex—”
“Fuck off!” Alex shouted. Oh god. He shuffled away from Tracht and ended up rolling off the side of the bed. He was still completely naked, and his body protested at the small impact.
Shit. He curled up into himself and hid his face in his hands. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it.”
He heard Tracht get out of bed, and then he felt Tracht’s hands on his arms, urging him up. He shook his head and made himself go limp and heavy.
“Alex. Get up.”
The harsh tone struck Alex deep, and he sobbed loudly. “I’m sorry. Please. I’m sorry.” He struggled to stand up, and his body shook. He didn’t dare look at Tracht’s face.
Tracht placed his hands on Alex’s shoulders. “What’s the problem now?”
“I don’t know!” he said between sobs. “I don’t know.” He shook off Tracht’s hands and got back into the bed, pulling the covers up around him.
He didn’t want anybody to touch him. But now that Tracht wasn’t touching him, Alex felt unmoored.
He flinched when Tracht got in the bed and spooned him, and he started struggling against him. It was more of a fair fight than usual, but in the end Tracht wrapped his arms tight around Alex and held him until Alex ran out of steam.
“I’m sorry,” Alex said again, his voice hoarse. “Don’t hurt me. Please.” He could feel Tracht’s hard cock against his ass, and the idea of getting fucked on top of everything else made his tears flow stronger.
“I might have overdone it yesterday,” Tracht said. He loosened his hold and started stroking Alex’s stomach, at times dipping dangerously close to Alex’s cock. “We’ll take it easy today, no matter how attractive you are right now.”
Alex turned his tear-stained face to look at Tracht, and sure enough, Tracht was leering in open lust. Then Tracht sighed and extricated himself completely, settling back against the headboard. He took one of Alex’s wrists and pressed a kiss onto Alex’s palm.
“I do prefer it when you cry because I actually inflicted something on you.” Tracht let go of Alex’s wrist and patted his head. “Eat more. Take a nap, or watch a vid. I need to do some work, but I’ll stay here.”
That was exactly what he did, too. Alex watched warily, expecting Tracht to change his mind, but Tracht kept his concentration on his tablet. His erection faded, and except for occasionally brushing his fingers across Alex’s hair—a reminder that he was still aware of Alex—, Tracht left Alex alone.
Alex didn’t know what to feel anymore. He had hated the party more than anything else Tracht had done to him. Which was ridiculous because it hadn’t really been that bad—he got to fuck a chick, he wasn’t on the receiving end of any of Tracht’s worst perving, and even the caning was tame. He’d gotten to eat too, so that was already a million times better than the long stretches where Tracht had starved him.
“What’s wrong with me?” Alex rubbed his eyes to get rid of the remnants of tears. “I don’t understand. Why the f—Why am I crying?”
“I’m sure it’s something to do with hormones and the severe emotional beating you took yesterday.”
“Emotional beating? You didn’t hurt my feelings! I’m fine!” As if Alex was so fragile he couldn’t handle some insults thrown at him.
Tracht chuckled. “Yes, I can see that. Now do be quiet and let me concentrate.”
Well, whatever. Alex ate the rest of the cherry oranges and let his mind wander. He still couldn’t pin down why he was feeling messed up and confused, but if Tracht wasn’t mad then it probably didn’t matter. He rolled a bit so that his shoulder touched against Tracht’s thigh, and that point of contact relaxed him enough that he was able to doze off.
Too soon, Tracht was shaking him awake.
“Alex. I have to go to a meeting.”
Alex shot upright and grabbed Tracht’s wrist. “No.” His voice came out needy. “I—don’t go.”
Tracht’s expression lost all its sympathy. “It isn’t up to debate. I need to negotiate in person.”
“I could go with you?” Alex let go of Tracht and scrambled out of bed. He started gathering Tracht’s clothes. “I’ll take notes. Look intimidating.”
“As tempting as that is, you’re in no state to be shown off.” Tracht allowed Alex to help him dress, even smiled at him when Alex kissed his bare foot, but he didn’t change his mind. “The only thing you’d accomplish at the meeting is to give the other party the impression I can’t afford a better bondservant.”
“Please,” Alex begged. “I don’t… I don’t want to be alone.”
Tracht scowled lightly. “This is getting tedious.” He petted Alex’s hair and sighed loudly. “Very well. Get dressed. I’ll call somebody to keep you company.”
“No! I want—” Oh no. Alex clamped his mouth shut around that last word, but it was too late. Tracht knew, and he grinned widely.
“Me? Oh, Alex.” He pulled Alex upward and kissed him hard, using his hands to keep Alex’s head in place and forcing him to accept the kiss.
Alex closed his eyes and let Tracht do what he wanted. He kept his mouth slack and his hands limp at his sides, and focused simply on getting Tracht to stay.
He whimpered when Tracht pulled away. “Please—”
“Mm. No. I am not jeopardizing my business. But in light of your frankly alarming emotional state, I’ll get a babysitter for you.” Tracht motioned towards the wardrobe. “Get dressed. And bring your cock cage over. I certainly don’t want you to get ideas on what you can do when I’m gone.”
Alex wouldn’t try to have sex with anybody, but from Tracht’s tone it was clear that there was no fighting this. He grunted and pulled on the closest tunic and leggings. The cock cage was lying on top of the wardrobe, taunting him. Like Tracht couldn’t trust Alex.
“I was good yesterday,” Alex found himself saying. “I called you ‘sir.’ And did what you wanted.”
“You were spectacular yesterday,” Tracht agreed. “I still need to go to this meeting.” He sat down by the couch and tapped on his wrist communicator. “Let’s see… Ms. Espinosa has other things to take care of. Dr. Singh is with her husband. Which leaves…” Tracht scrunched his nose and sighed.
Parsons’ voice filtered through the speaker. “Hello?”
“Mr. Parsons,” Tracht said, and he sounded as formal as ever. “If you are interested, I have a job for you. I’d pay you a full day’s wages.”
“Uh, yes sir!” Parsons’ said over the speaker. He sounded way too fucking eager, and Alex felt a confusing spike of anger. Parsons was an okay guy, but Alex didn’t want him here. Didn’t want anybody, really, except Tracht, and Parsons was a shitty consolation prize. Better than Singh or Espinosa though, so Alex bit down the rest of his protests and brought the cock cage over to Tracht.
“Come up to my cabin, then. Please be quick.” Tracht closed the communication and took the cock cage from Alex’s hand. “I’ll assume your budding friendship with Mr. Parsons means that you won’t attempt to punch him while I’m out.” It took only a few seconds for him to push Alex’s leggings down and cage Alex’s cock. Simple. Practiced.
Tracht took a hold of Alex’s balls and started squeezing, just enough pressure to hint at real pain and make Alex whimper.
“I could watch you cry for hours,” Tracht murmured.
He didn’t let go until Parsons was knocking at the door. “Captain?”
With a small sigh, Tracht pulled Alex’s leggings back up. “Yes, come in.”
Parsons stepped through the door cautiously. His eyes widened a fraction when he saw Alex. Alex took a few steps away from Tracht and settled onto the couch next to him.
“Alex isn’t feeling too well,” Tracht said. “But I need to go to a meeting. So please keep an eye on him while I’m out.” He stood up and walked towards the door. He stopped next to the shoe rack where his boots were neatly lined up, and it looked like he was going to put them on himself.
No. Alex crossed the space between them and took the boots from Tracht. “I’ll do it.”
He blushed extremely hard, and he saw Parsons staring, but whatever. It was just Parsons. Helping Tracht with his boots was Alex’s job. It was an easy way to get Tracht to like him.
Even now, Tracht was smiling, and he petted Alex’s head. Alex kissed each boot and slowly stood, and it really was worth it to have Tracht looking happy with him.
“If all goes well, I’ll be back within three hours,” Tracht explained, his eyes firmly on Alex. “I should hope that it’s understood, but please don’t touch Alex while I’m out.”
“Uh... yes, sir. But I don’t need payment for—”
Tracht pulled Alex into a wet, messy kiss, his tongue running over Alex’s lips and then darting inside Alex’s mouth. Alex gripped Tracht’s arms to keep himself steady, and then he tried kissing back to see if that would change Tracht’s mind.
He felt Tracht’s smile, but when Tracht pulled away—he pressed a final kiss against the corner of Alex’s eye—he said, “Behave yourself, Alex.”
Then he picked up his tablet and left.
Fine. Whatever.
Alex startled when Parsons cleared his throat. “Hey, uh. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine!” Alex snapped. He sat down on the couch and fiddled with the controls for the vid screen. “Nothing’s wrong with me.”
Parsons sat down on the other end of the couch, leaving a lot of space between them, like he was scared of Alex or something.
“If the Captain thinks something’s wrong... what happened?”
“Mind your own business.” Alex found a channel that was playing Chinese music and turned the volume up.
Parsons didn’t say anything through the first few songs, which suited Alex. If Parsons kept his mouth shut then Alex could ignore him.
“You don’t seem fine.”
“How would you know?” Alex growled.
“You’re being more of an asshole than usual,” Parsons answered. “I kind of thought we were friends now.”
That again. Alex turned to face him. “You sure you don’t want to blow me? Because you sound like you’re into me.”
That got a horrified expression from Parsons, which was just great. Yet another person who thought Alex was too ugly to be of any use.
“Whatever. Just leave me alone. Tracht’ll pay you for ‘watching’ me even if we don’t talk.”
The song ended and segued into a softer ballad of some sort. Alex hated it—he wanted the harsh music from before—and he was on the verge of finding a different station when Parsons said, “Ah, Xiaoyu loved this song.”
Alex pressed the button to skip to another station with extra force. “It sucks.”
“To each their own,” Parsons responded calmly.
Alex should have known that Parsons wouldn’t get mad. The guy was too stupid for any kind of sense. Who even tried to be friends with somebody who knocked you out cold? Alex sure as hell hadn’t attempted to like the people who’d beaten him up.
The new music was incomprehensible screaming, which suited Alex just fine. A quick glance over showed Parsons wincing, which gave Alex a small sense of satisfaction.
Naturally, Parsons ruined it by asking, “Why did you run off on me yesterday?”
“I was sick of your face,” Alex responded.
“Okay, but what was the real reason?”
Man, he was as bad as Tracht once he got an idea in his head. Alex picked at the fabric of the couch and tried to come up with a convincing lie.
The problem was that Tracht was right; Alex sucked at lying. Which made the truth easier than prolonging the conversation. “Saw a guy I used to know. Didn’t want to get into a fight.”
“Used to know…?”
It was kind of hard to hear him over the music, so Alex conceded and turned the volume down. “The guy who broke my nose, okay? He wasn’t done with me, I guess. I mean, yeah, I beat him pretty bad in the end.” Beat him, and taken his wallet. They’d used his account to buy their tickets off the station and disappeared before he came to.
Too bad he hadn’t suffered the same memory loss that Parsons had. Bad luck that he was part of station security now.
“That was smart.”
Alex squinted at Parsons. “Is that sarcasm?”
“Oh, no! I meant, running was smart.” Parsons shrugged. “Better than getting into another fight. You got punished with a piercing the first time. I don’t even want to know what the captain would have done to you if you’d gotten into it with somebody on station.”
Punished—oh. Alex rolled his tongue and played with the barbell. It didn’t even register anymore, most of the time. Kind of funny that Parsons thought the piercing was the punishment.
But Alex hadn’t thought not fighting was smart, just… he’d been too scared of Tracht to risk it. Normally he’d stand up for himself.
“Thanks. I guess.” Alex started flipping through channels again until he found a movie he could tolerate. “Have you seen this one before?”
They watched the movie mostly in silence. Occasionally Parsons would look over at Alex, or make a comment about the movie, but he seemed to get that Alex wasn’t in the mood to talk.
Around halfway through the movie, Parsons’ tablet started making noises.
“Shit. Uh, um—” Parsons looked over at Alex. “I have to take this call.”
Alex shrugged and turned the movie volume down. He watched with fascination as Parsons scrambled to get his tablet set up. In his rush to answer the call, Parsons dropped his earbuds, one of them rolling under the couch. Parsons cussed at it and finally just pressed the ‘accept call’ button.
“Hi, Lin-Lin!” Parsons plastered a wide smile on his face. “How are you?”
“Daddy!” a shrill voice said over the speakers. “When are you coming back?” The girl on the other end sniffled loudly. Alex peered over a bit and saw the same girl as in all of Parsons’s photos. His daughter.
“I’ll be back in about four months. The trip back is a bit longer. But what’s wrong?”
Meilin sniffed loud enough to be heard over the speakers. “Uncle Kai is a big meany! And everybody at school is being stupid. I hate Denise!”
“Really? I thought Denise was your best friend,” Parsons responded, and Alex had to give the guy credit for his patience because Alex probably would have snapped at the crying brat already. Yeash. This was the kid Parsons was buying stupid gifts for?
“No. Denise said her mommy said that I was too poor to hang out with.” Here Meilin huffed theatrically. “And that our new home is too small and dirty. I want to go back to the old place. Tell Uncle Kai to take me back home!”
“Oh, hmm. That’s going to be a bit tough. The old apartment was too big for just the two of you. I think it needed a family with enough people for all the rooms.”
“So just come and stay forever, daddy! And bring mommy back!”
Predictably, Meilin started crying for real. Alex wanted to gag, listening to Parsons trying to calm her down and spin some story about how her mother was in a better place, blah blah blah. It was like one of those soap operas his mom used to watch. Alex wondered if there’d be a secret reveal that the mother wasn’t dead after all, but she’d faked her death to be with some other lover.
At some point Parsons calmed Meilin down and convinced her to send her Uncle Kai to talk instead. Kai was a lot paler than either Meilin or Parsons, though he shared Meilin’s single-lidded eyes, and his black hair was styled into a short mohawk. A tattoo was just barely visible over his shirt collar, but overall he looked pretty normal.
So that was the brother-in-law taking care of Parsons’ daughter.
“Sorry about that,” Kai said. “She’s been in a snit for a few days now. Her friend Denise’s mother pretty much forbade Denise from coming over here once she found out about the move.”
“No, I’m sorry. I wish I could send you more money.” Parsons rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand. “I’m putting in all the overtime I can, but I’m not the only one in the crew who wants to earn more. I did catch a bit of a break when one of the other crew members got herself restricted duty, so her overtime hours were offered to the rest of us.”
Huh. From how much Parsons had spent on souvenirs the previous day, Alex thought Parsons must have been doing decently well.
“Have you made a choice about the school? Because I can’t keep stalling the principal. She’s threatening to just terminate Meilin’s enrollment.” Kai scratched his chin. “Gotta be honest, I don’t think the school is worth it. She can go to the public school instead. Save up your credits for her university fund.”
Parsons looked over at Alex briefly. “No, I was reading about what a difference the school makes for a child’s education. Just tell the principal I’ll have the money together before the next school year starts.”
Kai made a noncommittal noise and segued into an anecdote about Meilin. She came back later and Parsons talked to her some more, until it was time for Meilin to go to bed.
All in all they must have chatted for almost an hour. Alex started growing bored when they mentioned names he didn’t recognize, and he turned the subtitles on for the movie so he could watch it without disturbing Parsons. Not as exciting as watching the movie with full sound, but he kind of zoned out anyway.
He nearly punched Parsons when he touched his shoulder.
“Woah! Sorry about that,” Parsons said, retreating again. “I’m done with the call. I didn’t expect it to go on for so long.”
Alex shrugged and yawned. “Whatever.”
“Uh, so, yeah. That was Meilin. Normally she’s a bit more upbeat but I guess all the change all at once was a bit much for her.” Parsons stretched his legs out on top of the coffee table. “I don’t blame her. It’s been hard without Xiaoyu.”
“So, like, are you fucking that Kai dude?” Alex tapped his thigh and tried to imagine it. “He was okay looking.”
That was definitely not the right thing to say, judging by Parsons’ horrified expression. “What? No! He’s my brother-in-law. That’s—no. That’s disgusting.”
“Why?”
“Because! I married Xiaoyu. I wouldn’t do anything with her brother! And what kind of message would that send to Meilin?” Parsons visibly shuddered.
“I dunno. Nick and I sometimes fucked the same chick.” Alex smiled. “There was once when he found identical twin sisters. That was kind of funny. They didn’t have the same hairstyle so it was easy to tell them apart, but we kind of traded off in the middle so we both had both sisters.”
It was a pretty nice memory, actually, only Parsons’ reaction was kind of souring it.
“Did you—did you sleep with your brother?” Parsons asked in a hoarse whisper.
“Huh? No. Nick’s not into dudes. But it’s not like we had a lot of privacy. I didn’t mind watching him or him watching me.” That was apparently another abnormal thing, judging from the way Parsons stared, and Alex suddenly really wanted Parsons gone. Tracht wouldn’t have reacted like that, he thought with annoyance.
“Look, whatever. I’m gonna go sleep. You can just hang around until Tracht gets back and get your damned payment so you can send your precious Meilin to her stupid expensive school.” Alex stormed over to the bed and pulled the covers over himself.
“No! Alex, no, Sorry!” Alex heard the sound of Parsons approaching. “Hey, I shouldn’t have judged. Everybody has different—” he broke off. “What the hell is that?”
Alex peered past the blanket and saw Parsons looking in the corner. Looking at the small cage.
“It’s a cage,” Alex explained. “Obviously.”
“No, I get that. I just mean, what’s it doing here?” Parsons backed away a bit, until he was leaning against the back of the couch.
With an annoyed sigh, Alex sat up and propped himself up against the headboard. “What do you think it’s for? Tracht sometimes locks me up in it.”
Parsons started shaking his head. “No. That’s. That thing is tiny. How would you even—what the hell? What the hell?”
Alex looked at the cage and considered it. The entrance was low so that he had to crawl to get in, and not long enough for Alex to stretch out comfortably. The floor was covered in only a thin mat, so sleeping inside wasn’t pleasant, but Tracht had definitely done worse to him than stick him in the cage. He mostly didn’t like that he didn’t get fed as much when he was in the cage.
He shrugged. “I dunno. Better than getting whipped or… whatever.”
Parsons turned his attention back to Alex. “This…. This is allowed? Under the contract you signed?”
“Yeah. He’s got full control over my body. No body mods.” That had been smart. Alex was so, so fucking glad that he hadn’t let Nick talk him into that. God, fuck Nick for having even suggested it.
“But the piercing. On your tongue. That’s a mod. You could report him for that.” Parsons stood taller. “We should do that, actually. Go to the authorities. Mention that he broke the contract, and—”
“No! Fucking hell, are you insane? First you want me to run away, and now this?” Alex clutched at the blanket and reminded himself that hitting Parsons wasn’t allowed. “If he doesn’t pay my debt, who the fuck will? You?”
That killed some of the fight in Parsons. “I… no. But you don’t deserve any of this. You were really out of it earlier too. What did he do?”
“None of your fucking business,” Alex growled. “And I did the piercing voluntarily, okay? So you can stop feeling sorry for me.”
“Voluntarily… But why? Explain it to me, because I don’t understand…”
Anger rose up inside him, bubbling in his blood and threatening to send him rushing across the room to hit Parsons. “Because it got Tracht in a good mood, and otherwise he would have canceled the contract, okay? And don’t you fucking dare tell anybody else about any of this shit, because I’m gonna—”
The door slid open and Tracht marched in. Alex shut up immediately and scrambled out of bed in his direction.
Tracht smiled at him. “Were you good while I was out? And don’t lie.”
“He was fine. His usual self,” Parsons answered before Alex could. “And I’ll be going now. My shift is going to start soon.”
“You’ll have the bonus included in your next paycheck,” Tracht said as Parsons walked past them.
Once Parsons was gone, Tracht snorted. “I assume there’s something amusing to see on the security footage.”
Alex tensed and tried to remember if he’d done anything worth getting mad about. “I yelled at him at the end. But he was…” and he shut up, because he didn’t want to get Parsons in trouble either. He ended up shrugging. “He was getting on my case.”
“Hmm.” Tracht cupped Alex’s face and leaned in to kiss him, surprisingly gentle for him. “I might take a look later. For now, I’m more interested in celebrating my successful negotiation. Let’s take advantage of the bath while we’re on station and have access to it.”