Forever Caged [Complete]

Chapter 12: Friends


Reyvn sighed, stepping off the last rung of the ladder. He brushed the dust off that had caked on him again, and went to set the feather duster down. He glanced up at the ticking clock hung on the wall behind the desk. Had it been three hours already? He hadn't noted the time when he had entered the library, but it was significantly darker outside than when he and Lesara had arrived home. He decided he'd take a break for now anyway, and set his dust-mask down and went to check the bathroom. He was actually glad Arna wasn't there when he arrived, because he needed to make use of the toilet first.
He flushed and went to go wash his hands when he was done, and decided to wait a few minutes to see if Arna showed up.

Arna almost fell through the door, then slammed it shut behind him before going to the toilet and throwing up. "GOD I have never tasted such awful cooking!" he yelled before noticing Reyvn was there. "Oh... uh... sorry. Cherry cooks bad when she's upset." He rinsed his mouth out, and went to turn on the bath's taps. "That stuff's been roiling in there for a while. I'm glad it's out." Arna then stripped off his shirt, inspected the mud stains from the day's work, and rid himself of his shorts before sitting on the edge of the bath. 

Reyvn nearly fell off the vanity's chair when Arna stumbled in. He watched the other boy, scared witless for a handful of seconds. He forced himself to calm, and righted himself. Seeing Arna made him glad he'd skipped out on dinner, and just when he was feeling hungry again the redhead made him lose his appetite. He wondered if he should apologize, thinking he made Cherry upset in the first place. For some reason then, he felt his face get hot, and he averted his eyes from Arna's nudity. "Did she say...why she was upset?"

Arna shook his head. "She has that sour smell girls get every so often. It happens like once a month." When the bath was full enough, Arna slipped in. "Um... what I wanted to talk about... er... what were you and Cherry talking about earlier?"

Reyvn let his eyes wander back to Arna. He still didn't want to talk about this. He shut his eyes, and sighed softly, organizing his thoughts. "She said that she...was thinking about replacing you, with me." He paused for a moment, watching Arna's reaction. "That you didn't 'satisfy,' whatever that means. I can only guess what she meant, but, I told her I wouldn't do it, even though she-" he paused again, looking away, "even though she said Master would listen to her before me, and she'd tell him to keep me if I did what she wanted."

Arna splashed around for a moment, mulling over what Reyvn had said. "Hmm... I wish she would tell me what she wanted. The whole reason Master got me was to keep her occupied. Then he found I was pretty agile, so I got to do other things too." He smiled like a daydreaming child. "I love gardening. Getting dirty is kind of fun." He then kneeled in the tub so he was submerged to his nose and blew some bubbles, still in thought.

Reyvn watched the pale, freckled boy in surprise, not expecting him to take it so well. He expected sadness, or anger, but not this. He gave a small smile, relieved. He let the tension flow out of him, and leaned against the short back of the chair. "You do a nice job with the garden," he said softly. He only got to enjoy it once and at night, but he still liked it.

Arna smiled. "Thanks. Hey, you're pretty dusty. You should hop in and clean off before that dust gets in odd places." Arna cringed. "It is not nice."

Reyvn made a confused face, and then got what Arna meant. "I guess so," he agreed. He stood and began to strip. He set his clothes on an empty space on one of the metal shelves, then carefully stepped into the tub on Arna's right. He dipped under, letting his long black hair soak up the water, then came back up and took a breath before leaning against the tub's wall.

Arna turned off the tap once the tub was full enough and went back to blowing bubbles, watching Reyvn out the corner of his eye. "You know, you're very tense."

Reyvn turned deep blue eyes on Arna, his face blank. "It's just what I learned," he said quietly. "My other master was very...cruel."

Arna nodded. "That answers my next question," he said to himself. "Yeah it gets hard to calm down here. Master is usually pretty lax but Cherry scares me." He went over to Reyvn and leaned on the wall next to him, obviously looking Reyvn over. He touched one of Reyvn's fresher cuts and asked, "Where did that one come from?"

Reyvn flinched away from Arna's touch, half raising an arm in defense. "Why do you want to know?" His eyes widened slightly in realization that this was the first time he'd ever answered a question with a question. He'd only been here three days, and already he saw changes in himself. He decided however, that he liked them, because he did not like the pathetic wreck he knew Koumori had made of him.

Arna smiled and said, "Calm down. It just looks too new to be from your old master is all. Here." He squeezed between Reyvn and the wall, and placed his hands on Reyvn's shoulders. "Cherry and even Master do this to help work out kinks after a hard day's work." He put a light pressure on Reyvn's shoulders and began massaging him.

Reyvn shifted, uncomfortable with Arna sliding behind him. He let Arna touch him, and slowly relaxed. The redhead was gentler than he'd anticipated, and he could feel himself sag forward as the massaging eased the tension from him. He didn't know something so simple could feel so lovely. He let out a soft noise, enjoying Arna's hands.

Arna pulled Reyvn against his chest. "Careful, you'll drown if you lean over too far. Once I fell asleep in the tub and woke up spewing water like a fountain and Master pushing on my chest." He started to rub down Reyvn's sides. "Wow, you really are tense! When was the last time you had a good massage?"

Reyvn sighed, flopping against Arna. "Too long ago that I don't remember." He felt strangely at ease with Arna touching him now, even though the wounds on his lower body still weren't entirely healed.

Arna looked down at Reyvn. "You're really pretty. I hope I fill out as nice as you when I'm done growing. I'm still all long and stupid-looking." As if to make a point, he lifted his leg out of the water and pointed his toes. "I could touch the sky with these legs, but they're all skinny." He rubbed lower on Reyvn, trying to be careful to avoid his wounds.

Reyvn gave a small smile, his head tilting to one side. "I don't think you're stupid-looking." He forgot about his cuts for a while, not minding how low on his body Arna was touching.

Arna noticed two prominent dots on the boy's neck. "Hey what happened here?" he asked, nuzzling to point at what he meant.

Reyvn flinched, leaning forward. He blushed, and wished his hair wasn't sopping wet so he could make it slide to hide the bite marks. "Um...Lesara."

A goofy grin spread across Arna's face. "Ohhh what didja do? Or was it an accident? He's kinda clumsy."

Reyvn frowned, and pulled away from Arna. "I'd rather not talk about it." He swam to the other end of the tub, and reached for the bottle of shampoo. He poured a large amount of it into his hand and began working it into his hair.

Arna watched him for a bit before saying, "You really oughta lighten up. Your hair'll turn grey." He splashed at Reyvn's chest, then disappeared under the water.

Reyvn's frown deepened, and he turned to face the rest of the room as he continued cleaning his hair. He leaned back to rinse it out, then started on conditioning and washing the rest of his body. He half turned, watching Arna for a moment. He thought to himself, 'How can I lighten up when everyone seems like they're out to get me?'

Arna came back up with a loud splash and a "Rahh!" before throwing his arms around Reyvn, laughing. "Wassa matter? Never learned to play?"

"Ahh!" Reyvn yelped, and would have flown out of the tub if Arna wasn't holding onto him. His heart raced for a few beats, then calmed down. "N-no, I didn't. I've spent my life with an old veran, and not much else."

Arna splashed Reyvn playfully. "Really? Wow... I don't really know how to explain it." He thought for a moment. "Want me to teach you?"

Reyvn held an arm up to keep the water from getting in his face. He made a small splash at Arna, and said, "Sure."

Arna's jaw nearly dropped. "You're not serious, are you?" He aimed a bigger splash at Reyvn. "What did you do for fun?"

Reyvn frowned, and held his arms up again. "Of course I wasn't serious." He slid one arm behind him and dipped his hand in the water, then brought it quickly back around and sent a splash-wave at Arna. He purposely avoided the other question.

Arna let it hit him and grinned. He then dove under water, and went to grab Reyvn's ankle, then proceeded in tickling him behind his knees.

Reyvn let out an "Eep!" when he felt Arna's hand around his ankle, and jumped out of reach. Or at least, tried to. Instead he ended up falling forward and making a loud 'slap' when he hit the water and went under. He felt Arna's grip slip, and took the chance to swim to the opposite side of the tub. He put both arms behind him, preparing a wave for Arna when he came up.

Arna came back up for a brief moment and took in a huge gulp of air before attempting to dive back down again, unsuspecting of Reyvn's mega-wave. The water caught him off guard and he ended up sputtering a bit. "You lie, you know how to play better than most of the people I know!"

Reyvn smiled a bit. "It's not hard to learn." He sent another splash Arna's way, though not so big this time.

Arna waded through the splash, bracing himself, then threw himself at Reyvn with a mighty "Raahh!" His arms locked around the boy and he swished him back and forth. "Bwahaha, you're mine now! Now what will you do!"

Reyvn would've stumbled backwards if Arna hadn't immediately grabbed him. He blushed, and tried to wriggle out of the redhead's grasp. His wings flapped, growing almost long enough to whap Arna in the face.

Arna made a face and let him go. "Hey, your flappies got me, no fair!" He studied Reyvn's wings for a moment before asking, "Can I touch them?"

Reyvn sighed, and leaned his hips against the edge of the tub. He made a face, contemplating Arna's request. After believing he could trust the other boy, he said, "Sure," and turned around.

A freckled finger slowly raised itself and traced along the edges of Reyvn's left wing. When Arna got to where it should have connected to Reyvn's body, he paused a moment, then brought his hand around. "This is so strange, I've never seen wings like this. All the ones I've seen have feathers." He slid his hand down the length of the wing and muttered to himself. "They're so pretty..."

Reyvn let himself relax, feeling Arna's hand slide around his wing. It twitched when the hand went through the empty space, but nothing else. "Thank you," he said softly. "Master said I belong to a race called the Requiems. Do you know anything about them?"

Arna thought about it for a minute before speaking, still petting Reyvn's wings. "Not really, no. Oh, but Rendell might. Sometimes when I go over there, he makes me fetch books. He has a big library too, and I'm allowed in there. He might have something for you there." His hands slid down both wings till they were flat on Reyvn's back, then Arna began to massage him again. "I'd be careful though."

Reyvn nodded. "My old master gave...Master Lesara some information on my race, but I can't read the papers yet." He let out a small sigh of pleasure, enjoying the back rubs. "Be careful of...Rendell?"

Arna bit his lip. He knew he had said too much. "Uh... I mean for Cherry. She has that sour smell again, so while you're with Rendell, I'll be visiting a lot," he explained. "She gets super mean sometimes. I don't really like her, but nobody really does except Master. I don't know why, he doesn't even let her in his hall."

Reyvn heard the pause, and glanced back at Arna. "You sound like...I shouldn't trust either of them," he said quietly.

"And you shouldn't," Arna said in a matter-of-factly tone. "Cherry's a girl, and Rendell is just weird if you ask me." He prayed to himself that Reyvn wouldn't ask too many questions. He would get such a whipping if he ruined the 'surprise' Rendell had set up.

"I see." Reyvn leaned forward a little, resting his hands against the lip of the tub. "So I shouldn't trust girls? Why is Rendell weird?" He closed his eyes, letting Arna continue to work on his back. Now that he was relaxed, he didn't feel so afraid to ask questions.

Arna kept rubbing, and thought about his answer for a moment. "Well, girls have this thing they do called 'mood swings.' Their temper is way too fickle. And Rendell is just eccentric. I can't think of a good way to describe him." He could think of a few choice words, but he wasn't sure about whether they were appropriate. "He really likes string," he said.

"What's weird about liking string?" Reyvn's hands slipped then, and he fell forward. He caught himself at the last second, right before his face hit the floor, and pushed himself back up. He stared at the patterns in the stone for a few seconds, then said, "Maybe you better stop."

Arna fumbled a little and tried to put his arms around Reyvn's middle when he slipped. "Yeah, I probably should. Well... it's not so much the string as what he does with it. He is really skilled with making things, but it's like an obsession." He stopped and told himself he would not say another word on the matter. He instead scrubbed at himself and muttered, "I hate freckles. Can't tell what's supposed to be there and what's not."

Reyvn turned, watching Arna for a few moments. He gave him a questioning look, then smiled. "You're not familiar with them yet?" He sank into the water, and dipped his head back to wash out the conditioner.

Arna continued scrubbing. "Well, some of them yeah. But sometimes new ones pop up and old ones fade into normal skin. Here look at this batch." He pointed to a closely grouped bunch on his stomach and said, "The way they're bunched together makes me think of a duck. I don't spend a lot of time studying myself, but things like that kind of stick."

Reyvn glanced at Arna's stomach, running his hands through his hair. "What's a duck?"

Arna made a funny face. "It's a kind of bird that waddles. I think the humans brought them here. They taste good though. But if you ask Cherry, she could probably give you a good map of my freckles." His face scrunched more, and he briefly thought it would stay that way. "That's why I don't like women. They forget nothing. You stumble at the wrong moment and they bite your face off about it. Forever."

Reyvn finished with his hair, and stood up, giving Arna a funny look. "Then why are you with her so often if you don't like her?" He waded out of the tub, and reached for a towel.

Arna followed close behind and grabbed a towel for himself. "It's what I was bought for, actually. She got lonely being by herself so I keep her company. Though, I don't do a good job of it. I hide a lot."

Reyvn dried himself off thoroughly, careful of his cuts, then wrapped the towel around his waist. "I'd hide too if I could," he said quietly. He sighed, and sat down at the vanity's chair and took one of the brushes and began sliding it through his hair. He looked down at the cuts on his hips, moving the towel out of the way a little to inspect them. They were almost entirely healed by now, and didn't hurt to touch them. Great. He paused in his grooming, then looked up to Arna. "You asked earlier...why Lesara bit me."

Arna stopped ruffling his hair long enough to look up at Reyvn. "Yeah," he said cautiously. "You didn't get in trouble already, didja?"

Reyvn shook his head. "No...It was because I was sick." He looked down. "My other master gave me something called...aphrodisiac, I think, before I got here. But it conflicted with my own body, so...Master Lesara had a doctor over to help, and...It gets fuzzy after that, but that's why I have all these new cuts."

"Doctor? Did he call the skuzzy green haired guy?" Arna wrapped a towel around his waist and went to the mirror to inspect his face. "He's a good guy. Face never moves though."

"I couldn't tell what color it was, but it reminded me of tentacles." Reyvn frowned, and started moving the brush through his hair again. "He...wasn't very nice with me. I don't think I like him."

Arna turned to face Reyvn, somewhat bewildered. "You mean his face moved? He never changes expression when he comes to give us checkups or to rescue Cherry." 

Reyvn nodded once. "He was ok at first...Like most doctors I've had see me. But Master let him help with the drug, and..." He shook his head a little, not wanting to think about it.

Arna patted his head. "Yeah sometimes he does get a little weird, but only if you're crying." He thought about Rendell again for a moment, then headed for the door. "Well, I'm going to get dressed. Nice talkin' to ya."

Reyvn watched the redhead leave, a little saddened. He was actually enjoying the company. He frowned, and cleaned up the bathroom a bit after draining the tub, then headed for his own room. He reached it without incident, and set his clothes in the small pile forming near the door. He shuffled through his suitcase for something to sleep in, found a pair of soft blue shorts and slipped them on. He flopped on his bed, pulling the nearest pillow close to him.