Lucrèce winced as he took a seat, the movement agitating new and old injuries alike. He didn’t even try to look Rafael in the eyes. Instead he looked off to the side, down at the floor with a blank stare. Emptiness in his eyes. Lost in his own muddled thoughts while he barely registered the feel of the wet cloth.
Rafael didn't react any at Lucrèce's behavior. It happened to everyone, eventually. Hopefully, he would just accept his life now. He'd gotten a good offer, to be Alcides's personal 'lady.' It was better than most could hope for there. The man sat the cloth down when he finished, moving to the side to grab the same style of clothes Lucrèce had woken up with that morning. He undid Lucrèce's dress, helping him into the shirt and doing his best to not aggravate his wounds.
Lucrèce shrugged into the shirt Rafael helped him with, and he couldn’t help a relieved sigh at the feel of it. Far more comfortable than the dress. Not his favorite clothes, at least. They couldn’t compare to his usual outfit—the thought made him wonder, what happened to his old clothes? His vest and coat, his ribbon, his cravat, his belt, and all the rest of his accessories? He just barely remembered being stripped of them when he’d first been taken.
More likely than not, they had been sold or put away somewhere Lucrèce could never find them. Rafael was quiet as he helped the other finish changing, offering his hands to help him stand once more. They had to get him to the bedroom, after all. Alcides wouldn't have him anywhere else if he wasn't working during the evening.
Lucrèce figured he wouldn’t be getting those clothes back any time soon. Assuming that they hadn’t been sold, the best chance he had was maybe gaining Alcides’ favor and asking for them eventually. Even then it could be just a futile wish.
He followed alongside Rafael as they made their way to the room, just as wordless as the man leading him.
Rafael opened the door for them, leading Lucrèce directly to the bed. He nudged gently, to get the man to lay down. The boy from before, Malachi, was there too, moving over to sit on the bed by where Lucrèce was.
"Here," he said, offering some food. It wasn't on a platter, now, and it didn't seem near as fancy as what Alcides would eat.
Lucrèce laid down on the bed at first, then when he saw Malachi propped himself up on one shoulder and attempting to sit, wincing at the effort. He managed to sit up just enough to lean against the headboard, reaching out to take some of the food the boy offered with little reservation. Or rather less than he did before when Alcides was the one insisting he take it. “Thank you.”
"You're welcome!" Malachi stayed sat on the bed, humming some to himself as he took a bite of his own food.
"I didn't think Master would send anyone back, and I was waiting for Rafael to come back so we could eat." The boy let his legs swing over the side of the bed, looking content.
Lucrèce simply answered with a smallish nod at first. Partly to bug some time while he ate the gifted food, and partly because he was almost too tired to come up with a half decent reply. At least not at first, he wasn’t completely against conversing with the boy. Particularly after what Daren had told him about Malachi. “You like it here?” he finally said, noting the boy’s legs swinging. He looked just like any child would in their family home, Lucrèce mused, as if he wasn’t in a prison.
"Mhm!" It was just Malachi and Lucrèce now, Rafael having returned to tending to Alcides. "Master saved me when my parents died, he's been really nice to me! I lot nicer than the other kids who would come in sometimes. Besides, Master picked me himself instead of me being a gift!" The boy continued to swing his legs, laying back on the bed.
"He even gives me toys sometimes!"
Lucrèce made an effort to suppress his frown, forcing a smile on his lips instead. Malachi was happy, but in a way that made his own heart ache knowing the story Daren had told him. “So there are other kids.” He took another bite as he considered asking about them too. Eventually he concluded that he didn’t want to know, whatever the answer. “I see. And where do you keep those toys?”
"There were," Malachi corrected. "I'm the only one allowed in the house though." The boy looked ready to continue down that conversation path, but he lit up as Lucrèce asked about his toys.
"Master lets me keep them under his very own bed!" he announced, looking quite proud. He hopped off of the bed, pushing the blanket up so he could reach under and pull a small crate out. There were simple wooden toys inside, but some of them did seem to be of high quality.
Lucrèce wondered for a moment if he should feel relieved that the children weren’t allowed in the house. It seemed like a good thing, considering what happened inside the house, so he let those concerns float away right along with a soft sigh from his nose. He peered over the edge of the bed to examine the toys. While simple, he was surprised Alcides would be a man to indulge a child with such high quality toys. He reached down to pick one up. It seemed he still had a lot to learn about Alcides, even if he didn’t particularly want to.
The toy was simple, as the rest were, a duck on wheels with a string attached, but there was more to it than that. It was well maintained, polished to a soft sheen, and the wood was high quality as well. The string attached to a metal piece, which easily reflected Lucrèce's face back up at him. The wheels were wooden, but the axels were metal, and they too had the same level of polish as the rest.
Malachi looked up at Lucrèce as he picked the toy up, humming some.
"That's one of the first ones Master got me when I was little," he explained, smiling some. "He'd let me pull it along while I walked with him! I was too little to do anything, so I got to go with him all day!"
Lucrèce set the toy back down after he’d sufficiently examining the makings of it. He’d had one of his own, or at least one similar, in his own childhood. “How old are you?” he wondered aloud. How long had Alcides imprisoned the boy—as gilded of a cage as it seemed. How long had this horrible business been going on under his nose? “You make him sound so kind.” Kinder than he was to Lucrèce.
"I'm…" Malachi started to count on his fingers before holding his hands up. "Seven years old! Master always lets me go out into town on my birthday with one of his friends!" Malachi moved to push his toys back under the bed, pulling himself back up to sit next to Lucrèce.
"And he is! He's really kind, we just gotta make sure we behave. He's a lot better than some of his friends… but, he always gets mad at them if one of them hurts me! He keeps me safe…"
Lucrèce finished his last bite of food, and pulled his legs up into the bed as he watched Malachi count on his fingers. He couldn’t help let his heart warm at that. The boy was just so young, it hurt to think that Malachi didn’t know how life was supposed to be. Men weren’t supposed to just be decent when subjects behaved. Even his own father, a firm supporter of discipline, wasn’t like Alcides. “I…That’s good. I’m glad he’s good to you.”
Malachi went back to kicking his legs over the side of the bed, humming a tune to himself as Lucrèce thought.
"Master is good to everyone, once he's sure they'll listen and behave," the boy said. "I'm sure he'll be nice to you as soon as you do that!" The boy gave Lucrèce a sweet smile of encouragement, humming again as he laid back on the bed to stare up at the ceiling.
"So, why did Master send you here so early? Aren't the customers still here, or did Master end things early tonight?"
Lucrèce couldn’t even force himself to smile back at the boy’s naïve encouragement. It only made him angry, if anything, but he swallowed down that emotion too. He said nothing in reply, trying to keep his expression flat, in the space between Malachi’s well-meaning comment and his question—the question earned a despairing sigh. “No, he didn’t end things early. He just ended my own time early.” His hands came together in his lap, pressing one thumb into the middle of his other palm in a self soothing gesture.
"A-Ah." Malachi paused for a moment, smile faltering before returning to normal. "Master must really like you, then, if he'd let you do that." The boy was grasping at straws, trying to not give up how shaken this seemed to make him. It didn't really work, though.
“I’m not so sure about that,” Lucrèce frowned right back. His eyebrows furrowed together. He noticed the way Malachi faltered, and he thought he might as well have the grace of changing the subject of conversation again to make the boy more comfortable. It was the least he could do, after all. “Do you and Rafael get along well?”
Malachi did seem to relax some at the subject change.
"Mhm! We're both Master's favorites, so we both spend a lot of time with him. He says I'm too young to be around the customers, though, so I wait in here while Rafael helps instead. He's really nice, if a bit quiet. Master said he lost his tongue in an accident." The boy moved to sit up again, facing Lucrèce on the bed.
"Do you think you'll get to be one of Master's favorites too? It's just been me and Rafael for as long as I can remember!"
Even with the subject change, Lucrèce stayed tense throughout their conversation. An accident. He wasn’t sure how to respond to the slight flaw in Malachi’s story, other than using it as another clue to piece things together. It was what Alcides had told him, and kept him away from customers, so he protected the boy’s innocence. If not, then to an extent. “I don’t know. But if I do, it won’t be entirely a bad thing if I get to spend my time talking to you.”
"That would be nice! Me and Rafael get a lot of alone time when Master isn't around, but it'll be nice to be able to talk with you." Malachi smiled, back to being completely relaxed.
"It'll be nice for someone else to join us."
Lucrèce nodded solemnly. It would be a good thing, he supposed, for the boy to have more company, and a better chance for survival for himself. “How long is m-…” he tried to force the word master from his throat, just to try and get used to it, but he could manage it yet, “is he gone for? How long are you alone, I mean.”