When Trenet had finished dressing—also in clothing that allowed easy access to his cock, Asher noticed, heart sinking—Vrayl picked him up and he and Trenet left the bedroom.
Asher hadn’t been given clothes, but he couldn’t say he was surprised by that.
They walked by several rooms before turning into one that Asher unfortunately recognized. The bathing room.
His heart rate spiked automatically, but then he reminded himself that Trenet and Vrayl were both dressed. If they didn’t intend to toss him into the pool to sink, they probably weren’t taking him into the pool at all.
Sure enough, Vrayl walked past the pool, heading towards the area where Asher had relieved himself yesterday.
Asher gritted his teeth, digging them into the gag as his jaw tensed, but he got through that too. He had to squeeze his eyes shut and just try to pretend he was anywhere but here, butat least it was over relatively quickly and Asher was completely clean after.
Small mercies, he guessed, feeling worn through.
Once that was done, Trenet took a seat on a stool—stone again—that was in front of a countertop and mirror, one Asher hadn’t noticed before. Vrayl sat next to him in a matching stool, and then Asher was deposited into Trenet’s lap, sitting sideways, away from Vrayl.
What now?Asher thought tiredly.
He looked to the mirror in time to see Vrayl touch his hair, plucking up Asher’s braid with careful fingers. Looking at it now for the first time, Asher realized that the braid was a style he didn’t recognize. Instead of a three strand braid or a fishtail braid, his hair had been twisted into sections, and those sections then twisted around each other.
Asher watched as Vrayl took the tie out of the end then deftly began to untwist his hair. Even though Vrayl’s hands were so big in comparison to Asher’s, the Dresht’s fingers were nimble.
“So lovely, Asher,”Vrayl crooned, combing his fingers through the red strands without yanking or pulling.“Lovely and soft, like Dreshtian silk.”
Vrayl then picked up a comb from the lip of the counter. A comb, not a brush that would have made Asher’s hair go frizzy. As if Vrayl had paid attention to what Asher’s hair specifically might have needed.
Asher’s eyes fell closed as Vrayl began to comb his hair, unable to help the quiet moan that dropped out of his mouth. Fuck, it always felt so good to have his hair played with and tended to. It was an intimacy he’d missed, alone without his family or his friends on Vader-X7.
Vrayl seemed to be perfectly happy to take his time combing Asher’s hair out. Asher realized after several minutesthat both he and Trenet were making a rumble sound from deep within their chests.
It was nice, hearing it. Feeling it reverberate through him. It made Asher kind of mad, how nice it was, to sit and feel that rumble while his hair was played with.
Because that was what he was to these two, wasn’t it? A toy to be played with.
If only they also wanted to dress me up like a doll,Asher thought mutinously to himself.Then at least I’d get clothes.
Eventually the comb stopped moving through his hair, and Asher felt his hair start to be gathered into sections. He forced his eyes back open to watch Vrayl work, because paying attention to how a braid was styled so that he could replicate it himself was at leastfamiliar.
Even if the chances of Asher getting his mitts off anytime soon were looking bleak.
When he looked in the mirror to observe Vrayl, Asher was struck by what he saw in the full light of the bathing room. He saw himself first, and had to swallow and glance away for a moment before bringing his gaze back up. Asher hadn’t had a larger mirror on Journey-5, only the compact he’d brought with him from his older-middle sister. Aside from that, the only time he really “saw” himself was in pools of still water.
It was very different seeing himself now and how thin he really was. He didn’t quite have that sunken look of starvation, but his cheekbones were more pronounced than they’d ever been, and his collarbone stood out much too far. He’d never been bulky even when he’d been well fed, but now, sitting naked like this in Trenet’s lap, Asher could see his ribs all too clearly.
And then, bracketing him, were Vrayl and Trenet. Even now, after all his horrors, Asher could still recognize their otherworldly beauty. Their cobalt blue coloring and the sheen of their scales, the tasteful gold jewelry in Trenet’s ears and theinteresting orange spots on Vrayl’s cheeks—they were lovely to look at, really.
Still, Asher would have much rather be back on Journey-5 and not in their arms, waiting for what next they chose to do with him.
“See how lovely you are?”Trenet said, one of his big hands stroking up and down Asher’s thigh.“So lovely and so soft and so small. And you look so pretty like this, enjoying our mate playing with your hair.”
“Pretty and sweet,”Vrayl said with a smile as he twisted Asher’s hair around itself.“Our sweet, precious one.”
Asher turned away from the mirror, hiding his face in Trenet’s chest. He didn’t want to see himself in the mirror, held between them, and watch Trenet and Vrayl play at intimacy with their new pet toy.
He felt Trenet exhale, then lift his hand from Asher’s thigh to curl around his back, encircling Asher completely in a mockery of an embrace.“That’s it, little love. Just enjoy. All you have to do from now on is enjoy. Anything you’ll ever want is yours.”
***
Asher’s heart sank when the next stop was the dining room, table already filled with a number of dishes. He was hungry, of course he was hungry, it seemed like he wasalwayshungry these days, but he knew he still wouldn’t be able to recognize any of the dishes.
