Michael found he didn’t need to think. Quickly, he stepped aside and sank gently to his knees, and for once, he beat Chris into formal posture, because Chris had to wait and see who stepped through.
“Sakai-sama,” Chris said, as he sank to his knees and bowed.
Michael could barely keep from closing his eyes. I don’t want to see him like this, he realized, achingly. Please, someone, send me away! But no one paid any attention to him at all, and frozen in indecision, he could only remain by the door, seeing but trying not to look.
Tetsuo bowed slightly to Ron in greeting, and Ron, suddenly serious, bowed carefully back. Chris raised himself and said, “Please allow me to introduce Mr. Ron Avidan, Master, my elder brother.”
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Avidan,” Tetsuo said, offering his hand. “It was kind of you to accompany my friend Sensei Anderson on her journey here.”
“Thank you, Mr. Sakai. I’ve heard quite a lot about you.” Ron managed to say this without the slightest hint of humor. “And may I offer my condolences on picking up the most annoyingly perfect slave on the whole planet?”
Tetsuo laughed even as Chris’s eyes flashed at his brother. “I have always been confused by the lack of value you Americans place on perfection,” he said cheerfully. “Here in Japan, perfection is sought after and admired and cherished.”
“Then you will cherish him,” Ron said with a crooked smile. “And I’m glad. Nice to meet you, Mr. Sakai, but if you’ll excuse me, I have some travel arrangements I need to figure out.”
“Of course. It has been my pleasure.”
After Michael closed the door after Ron and wished that he could excuse himself too, Tetsuo turned to Chris. “You are packing?”
“Yes, Master.”
“I wish to see this strap of yours.”
Michael tensed and closed his eyes.
Please, please don’t beat him in front of me, I don’t think I could stand it,
he thought.
Chris rose carefully from his knees and found the strap in the drawer and delivered it back to his owner, standing to offer it with both hands and a bow.
Tetsuo turned the worn brown leather over in his hands, caressing it. “This is very fine,” he said. “Anderson tells me that it is your property and not hers.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Tetsuo dropped it deliberately on the floor.
“You may not own this while I own you,” he said.
Michael blushed, down the sides of his face and across his throat
. Why didn’t he send me out?
he wondered.
Why keep me here for this?
Chris looked down at the strap and up at Tetsuo’s face. Their eyes met. With the slightest of nods, he went back down on his knees and picked it up thoughtfully. He glanced for a brief second at Michael’s back, saw the red along his face, and then looked up at his new owner and offered the strap up again.
“Please do me the honor of accepting this as a gift, Master,” he said.
“I accept it,” Tetsuo said. “I will see you at the main meeting area at ten o’clock.”
Chris bowed again, holding position until he heard the door slide shut after Tetsuo. Then immediately got to his feet, went over to Michael and jerked his head up with a hand in his hair. Michael yelped in shock, his face red and his eyes angry and hurt.
“How dare you judge my Master?” Chris asked.
“But—but...”
Chris shook him hard. “No buts, Michael. You were sitting here thinking that what was happening was unfair and ugly and shameful and you broadcast it to me and to Sakai-sama and probably to my brother!”
“Yes!” Michael said, squeezing his eyes shut. “Yes, and I’m sorry, but I can’t help it, it just seems so harsh... why did he have to do it in front of me?”
Chris let Michael go, and squatted down next to him. “Listen to me very carefully, Michael. What he did was his right. What I accepted was for me, an intense pleasure that defies explanation. But no one did anything to you. You opened the door. You closed the door. But you were not even here to Sakai-sama, unless you advertised your presence, which you did.
“You do not have the right to feel offended for me, or angry for me, or humiliated for me, Michael. Only I have the right to those things. But I need you to remember this feeling and watch for it, Michael. You were just in two places at once, you were witnessing what was happening to me and you were identifying with me. That is what a good trainer does, Michael. That is how a trainer feels. Otherwise, they may never be able to give a client the advice they need in order to deal with the emotions that are tormenting you right now. I’m sorry I can’t be more thorough in this lesson, Michael. But I am compelled to obedience.” He leaned forward and kissed Michael on the forehead and said gently, “And I love it, Michael. Believe me. Now get up and help me pack and say no more about it.”
* * * *
Word got out very, very slowly, and several people left before they heard. But the bath slave who overheard Ron and Michael told Ninon’s personal slave, who told Ninon, of course, but only after she also told one of Walther Kurgan’s favorite bedmates for the week, who after telling the slave who was her husband back at the house they served in in Sweden, teased Walther with the information while she kissed him all along his spine.
Ninon told Corinne while they shared a bath, in French of course, so that the Japanese bath attendant would not understand. But he did understand the names involved, and he asked one of the other slaves traveling with Sakai Tetsuo why everyone was mentioning his name in connection with that American trainer who caused all the trouble, and that slave told him that the American had in fact spent the night with Tetsuo and was seen wearing the house livery this very morning. The bath slave argued that Tetsuo-sama could have just lent the gai-jin a robe, after all, they tended to be very shy about their bodies.
But then one of the kitchen slaves interrupted them and said that she had delivered three pots of tea to Sensei-Anderson’s room yesterday, and who was her guest? Tetsuo-sama. And who served the tea? Pah-kah-san.
The secretarial staff, who would have been the ones to make any contracts were consulted, but true to their profession, they remained noncommittal, saying only that records of all contracts and sales were made available thirty days after filing.
Juan Matilino heard it from Ron, as they drowsily allowed the slave they had shared the night before to thank them for their attentions with massages. He then told his Brazilian friend Conrado, who told his apprentice, Hugo, who had spent an evening in the hot tub with Kim and Michael, and so the minute he saw Kim, he grabbed an interpreter and told her, after which in shock, she told Choi Jin Yong, her trainer, who after slapping her for spreading gossip—the first time that morning this had been the reaction—immediately turned and called his friend Ken Mandarin.
Who, when she got off the phone, stamped her foot angrily and screamed, “You mean I only had to buy him?” and while Andy and Cindy hid behind the couch, launched into an array of obscenities that they silently rated as one of her best. And then she collapsed onto the couch laughing until they came out and laughed with her, trading confused glances until she explained. At which point the very idea of their former trainer as a slave to such an important and good-looking and—well—sadistic man made them both so hot that they begged Ken for an outlet. Ken let them fuck while she called Marcy, who sat Stuart down shortly afterward and told him as well.
The only person Anderson told was Alexandra Selador, in a private meeting. Alex decided to wait until she got home to break the news to Grendel and Rachel. And although of course Shigeo Noguchi already knew—knew before anyone, really, since Tetsuo had announced his intention to do this thing weeks ago, and Noguchi-sama was used to his headstrong pupil getting his own way—Tetsuo had only explicitly told Jiro Abe, when he informed him that at the end of this, his third year in training, he would be going to America, to work with the great trainer Anderson, since Tetsuo had deprived her of Parker’s services. He added that the appropriate response to this news would be deep gratitude for this remarkable opportunity and an immediate desire to learn better colloquial English.
Jiro, who had been practicing his more romantic slang with Bronwyn in private, whispered to her over breakfast. She whispered to Dalton, who turned out to be the only one who told no one, only sat back in his chair with a satisfied smile on his face.
So by ten o’clock, when Chris accompanied the slaves who brought his and Michael’s luggage out of his room, he was getting a few raised eyebrows, a few knowing smiles, and a few envious ones. Always hating to be the center of attention in a crowd, he ignored them.
Until he found himself face to face with Geoff Negel.
“Good morning, Mr. Parker,” Geoff said, looking down at him. Geoff was in traveling clothes, a short-sleeved silk shirt and comfortable khakis.
“Good morning, Mr. Negel. I hope you enjoyed this year’s Academy.”
“I did, thank you very much. Listen, Parker—I was wondering if you might care to confirm or deny a strange rumor I caught this morning.”
Around them, conversation stilled and several people moved out of the way, distastefully. Others somehow managed to move closer, among them a rather affronted looking Dalton, who touched Howard Ward lightly on the arm. The two men turned toward the conversation.
“Why Mr. Negel, I didn’t realize you listened to rumors,” Chris said.
“Oh, of course I do. We all do, it’s part of the game, whether we admit it or not. Of course, some of us use rumors as well, don’t we?”
If that was meant to bait Chris, it failed. Chris merely raised an eyebrow, his face an encouraging blank.
Geoff compressed his lips and looked down at him. “But this rumor... I heard that Tetsuo Sakai has purchased you.”
“I say, Mr. Negel,” said Howard Ward, clearing his throat. “Perhaps this is not an appropriate time...”
“The Academy is over,” Geoff interrupted firmly. “Besides, if it were true, it’s hardly something shameful, is it?”
“But hardly topic of discussion in such a way, Mr. Negel. May I suggest a continuation at some more agreeable time?”
“Yes, Mr. Negel, the rumor is true,” interjected Chris. He nodded slightly to Dalton and Mr. Ward. Ward shrugged and nodded grimly in return. “Will that be all?”
“That’s a bit snippy for a slave, don’t you think, Chris?” Geoff smiled slightly, and behind him, Sam Keesey snorted in amusement, just as he was turning away. “You might have to learn to curb that attitude the same way you broke Michael’s spirit and made him into an automaton.”
Chris smiled, thinly and gently. “As you say, Mr. Negel.”
“As I say,” Geoff repeated thoughtfully. “You know, I have to wonder whose words you said this week, Chris. At first, along with everyone else, I assumed you were speaking for Anderson. But were you in fact speaking on behalf of our hosts the entire time?”
Michael heard that as he was accompanying Ron to meet up with Anderson. He stopped in his tracks, horrified, barely able to see over the shoulders of the people who were now crowding around the two men.
“Mr. Negel, I can only say that every word I have said this weekend has been my own, including the following: you, sir...are an arse.” Chris straightened his back and shot his cuffs as Geoff frowned. Out of the corner of his eye, Chris could see Dalton shaking in barely-contained laughter. But he looked back up at Geoff, who was taking a breath to respond and cut him off neatly.
“And if you wanted to intimidate a slave not your own by suggesting that you could judge their behavior, I suggest you choose someone who is a little less experienced than I. Now, if you wish to consult with someone about my poor attitude toward you, my Master is Mr. Tetsuo Sakai and he will be here shortly. In the meantime, sir, you are impeding me in my duties and I am forced to ignore you.”
Michael found himself laughing with most of the other people there who heard this exchange, and he even heard applause. He saw Geoff’s arm move, and wickedly, he thought,
oh, yes, yes, Geoff, raise that arm, hit him or grab him or try to, because the next thing you’ll know, you’ll be counting beams in the ceiling.
But Geoff only waved one hand dismissively and turned away, and Chris was granted a wide berth full of grins as he directed the slaves accompanying him where to put their burdens down. He gave only a nod to Dalton, who smiled gently back and inclined his head in that perfect butler bow that was the first thing he had taught Chris when he realized that a curtsy simply would not do.
There was no better farewell than that.
People had mostly drifted away by the time Anderson came down with Alexandra and Sakai, and the three of them joined Michael and Ron where Chris had arranged the luggage.
“This is the way it’s gonna go, folks,” Anderson said. “Mike, you’re heading out on tonight’s flight as planned, you’re going back to Long Island. I’ll be in touch with you when I get home, but assume that you will be there until your sale. I am going to Tokyo with Tetsuo for a week—I sure as hell didn’t spend a day on planes to turn around and go right home. I might as well see the sights. Ron, I’d like you to stay, just so I can have company on the way back, but if that’s not possible, speak up now, and you can ride out to Tokyo tonight.”
Ron pursed his lips. “You buying this trip?” he asked bluntly.
“My treat.”
“Then I’ll call home and get someone to feed the cat,” he said cheerfully. “Like I’d turn down a week in Japan! Look out Shinjuko!”
“Excellent,” Tetsuo said cheerfully. “There will be students and slaves at your service to make sure you enjoy your stay.”
Ron laughed. “Gonna send my own brother to serve me breakfast in bed, Mr. Sakai?”
“Ah, regretfully, if that is your desire, I will be unable to fulfill it. After staying here one additional day to help in the clean up, Chris will be going to Kobe, to join my apprentice Jiro Abe in making my new school ready there.”
Chris’s head snapped up—apparently this was the first time he had heard this. But he displayed no other sign of surprise or dismay, only interest in hearing his instructions.