FRANCE, NANTES 2017
"You cannot exactly refuse this, Ton père l'a commandé," Iquan, the young masters father's buyer, said. As of recent his father has passed away and he sat now where his father did at the age of seventeen. He had known he was going to have to continue this sick game at one point and with the way Iquan was acting this wasn't news to him.
"I'm aware. I'll accept it as it has been said. I know what's to be done. I will deliver Monsieur Iquan." He spoke. Unlike the child who first stumbled into that play room, nothing seemed to move him. Not the prices put on human lives, not the inhumane they were treated with the buyers. He has seen too much, absorbed it all.
"We are bringing in a batch that's going over to Deutschland in two days time. I trust your father taught you well." The man said happily now and drowned the whiskey before him on the table.
The night the ladies came in you had them kept on the play room and you picked up the file Von had left at the doorway and scanned through it. None of these women were French. Mexican, American, Mexican. Dominican. Huh. He puts it beside their faces and reads their details just to make sure they matched the details.
Like all the women who had seen the boy in his late teenage years, he was incredibly attractive. And that factor calmed the commodity down. He even went as far as flirting just to have them trust him for them to be shipped off at dawn. This batch sat silent unlike the problematic ones his father dealt with.
"Von, C'est un lot étrange." The young man said and von shook his head. He didn't know what was wrong with them either. It was giving up. They had surrendered.
"They had already been sent in from "Resort Donna". That explained a lot. The men there could be abusive and controlling they did their job. They tamed and with good reason. Women could run. They could escape they could fight. Break will and break spirit and any will to live.
"Les Allemands peuvent aussi être impitoyables," the young man and von sighed because it was true. Germans would have no mercy and finally he asked the weights.
"First shipping 52kg 159cm."
"Good. Suivant." The young masters approved.
"Second shipping 56kg 158cm."
"Suviant." He said and moved to the third.
"Third, 49kg 160cm." Von read out and the young man flinched and folded his arms.
"I was hoping not to have a rotten fruit in here. Father was more linient with these bad goods." He said and the third woman snapped up and glared at him for what he said. "You must be the American."
"What the hell are you?!" The woman shouted and the young masters snorted back a laugh and squatted where she was kneeling and chained. She was beautiful no lie. Her eyes were a deep green and her features prominant and bold. Her lips were full and her hair a start black color.
"What? Between you and me who should be considered an object here? Didn't that resort break you enough. Amazing." He says like he was window shopping for a toy he saw at first sight.
"What do you want? This is illegal?" She says and he laughs now unable to hold back his laughter.
"Von....where did you get this one from. Let's see what's your name." He flipped through the file to find her profile and then looked into her eyes and smiled. "Daniella."
*. *. *
"Where did you get this scarf?" Venice pointed into my bag and I pulled out the yellow scarf. I had had it for years maybe it sparked something? Why were you looking at me horrified? You suspected me in your head. Not completely but I can see it, the uncertainty.
"I got it from a trip from Paris before my parents passed." I answered and your face fell.
"Oh I see. It's just that Felicity had the exact same type. Sorry, I must be losing my mind." You were and I loved every second of it. The little bit was you were still holding onto the strength you thought you had. Let go. Lean on me.
"Don't feel like you're losing your mind on your own. I'm right here." I loved the taste of your skin, so I kiss the back of your hand. Just this afternoon I was the only one in your space in your head. I want that again. I want to feel you on me like you were the skin on my bones.
"Q, this can't go without saying. We need to talk." You said. Finally, moment of revelation.
"Of course lay it on me." I said and I knelt before you and I looked up. I want you to know I'm here. I can be all you need just say the word.
"I don't want to go back to a space where Jace and I were. We were unsure, we were just a convinience to each other. I needed him and he needed me. But not in the way I would like. I don't want to give myself like a toy I want to be with someone. Your heart, your soul everything." Even the way your mouth shaped those last words had me undone.
"So what do you want us to be?" I asked and kissed your hand again. Finger by finger my lips would touch just so I could comfort you and reassure you.
"We are clearly attracted to each other. And there's a whole complication of you hating me before. I don't know what this is. I don't think love is supposed to feel like this. It doesn't." She said.
"How would you know what love feels like?" I asked and her eyes snapped to mine directly. You didn't look offended, which was good because eit wasn't meant to be an insult I was genuinely curious. You weren't getting the real idea of what love was from any corner. Not your family, not your ruined relationships, not from that man in a different room from ours.
"I don't know." You whispered and lowered your head.
This is why I was your solution. You were never a maybe or a hope for me. You were the one thing I set my eye on. Please don't change. Be the way you are, clueless and hopeless only then will you truly need me. I rose from my position on my knees and my lips landed on your neck. You gasped. Let's try this one more time.