ALTERNATE: All The King\'s Boys

[Trillian]

He was fully caught up to the situation thanks to Kerr\'s succinct explanation.

"Wait," Lazarus ordered, and was glad Kerr obeyed his command.  The two of them faced off for a moment before Lazarus continued.  "I will deal with Rigby first thing tomorrow night.  I promise you he will not remain unleashed," he said, his upper lip curling in a sneer.  Whether it was because he disliked Kerr\'s accusations or because of what Rigby had done remained uncertain.  In reality it was a mixture of both.  "For now, set Ben down on my bed.  I will care for him."

Ben clung a little tighter to Kerr upon hearing Lazarus\' request, not wanting to be separated from his true savior but didn\'t verbalise a protest.  He knew Kerr would have to do as Lazarus said.  Everybody had to do what Lazarus said.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr frowned and hefted Ben a little when he felt him cling - not because he was too heavy for him to hold, of course, but as an automatic reaction to being told he would have to set his bruised little flower down.  He didn\'t want to leave him alone - and Ben\'s subtle cues told him that he didn\'t want to be left here - but he also didn\'t want to anger Lazarus, so he merely stood there, frowning indecisively until he\'d thought of something to say.

"With all due respect, you probably need to get down there and deal with what I did when I found them all.  I think I may have broken one of their arms or something - I don\'t know if you\'re in the habit of using your blood to heal or not, but he\'ll likely need it, from the way he was screaming when I left.  Also, this night is yet young and I don\'t feel my skills as a mental attacker are near as strong as my sire\'s; Rigby should be awake enough for you to deal with sooner rather than later.  I\'d rather just take Ben to my room where it\'s quiet and no-one will come in demanding my attention," he said, implying that Lazarus\' room was the most popular room in the house and Ben would get no peace there.

[Trillian]

Lazarus\' eyes narrowed as he stared at Kerr, disliking being denied his request, but there was validity in all of Kerr\'s points.  Lazarus very strongly wanted to talk to Ben, to comfort the boy and make him feel better, in order to better bond with him.  Kerr was right however, Lazarus had many responsibilities and leaving Rigby on the grounds to recover from his mental attack wasn\'t the best way to go about the situation.  He didn\'t share his blood freely though, and if one of the boys who\'d set out to rape Ben was hurting, then so be it.  He\'d made his bed and now he\'d be thrown out of it, with wounds to match.

He nodded eventually and graciously extended a sweeping hand in order to gesture Kerr to leave.  When the darker vampire left his quarters with Ben still in his arms, Lazarus stalked out of his room and then out of the house, following his blood bond to Rigby, who was in the maze.  It took Lazarus a few goes to find him, for even though he knew exactly where his fledge lay (and could hear the whimpers of a youth in obvious pain), he hadn\'t known to go to the fountain clearing until he figured it out after a couple of attempts took him very close to them.  He backtracked and was standing at the entrance of the fountain square, posed in a very domineering manner with his hands on his hips and looking sternly at the display in front of them.

Avon and Eric were hunched over a third boy on the ground.  Ah, damn, two of his lovelier boys.  His gaze found Rigby struggling to get up across the square, holding his head as though he was in a heap of pain, looking very much like a drunkard with a hangover.

Avon was the first to notice Lazarus and he paled visibly before standing up, facing him.  His action caught Eric\'s attention who did the same thing, revealing that it was Samuel on the ground between them.  Well, fuck.  This was a trio he was going to hate to lose, but he wasn\'t going to have them following Rigby\'s orders over his own.

"Get Jeffrey.  Tell him to bring his kit," Lazarus told Avon, who nodded and moved quickly to him, sidling past him and then running as fast as he could fetch the young man who knew how to bandage wounds.  Lazarus looked coldly at Eric, who seemed to shrink under his gaze.  "I\'m going to miss your mouth," he said frankly, which only confused the teen before a slow dawning of understanding found its way upon his face.  He began making noises but Lazarus silenced him with a raise of his hand before he turned to Rigby, who was sitting up at this stage and looking blearily at Lazarus.  Even through the haze of pain, Lazarus thought there was an intelligent guess behind Rigby\'s eyes as to what was going to happen to him.

Lazarus said nothing, moving to the edge of the fountain and sitting upon it so he could stare at the mess around him.  While Jeff made his way over, Rigby regained more and more strength while Lazarus watched, while Eric knelt at Samuel\'s shoulder and tried to hush the other boy\'s groans.

Jeff arrived with a very unhappy Avon in tow, who stood awkwardly by the tall hedge near the entrance and watched silently as Samuel was prodded at before he was bandaged up with some obvious pain.  Jeff only spoke at the end with the announcement that Samuel\'s collarbone should heal straight as long as he didn\'t move his arm for the next two months.  It was put into a sling and was dismissed by Lazarus, but the three boys stayed because they hadn\'t yet been told to go.

Rigby\'s gaze was sharp by this stage, though he still sat on the grass staring up at Lazarus, who was considering all his options.  Finally, with his mind made up, he turned to face the three youths who Rigby had manipulated to meet his own needs.  If they were fooled into this, then they were stupid boys who should\'ve remembered the lesson Lazarus gave them the first time around when they\'d picked on Ben.  Eric hadn\'t been part of that original group, but too bad.

"Go to your rooms and pack your clothes.  Take whatever out of them that you think will help you out there, on your own.  Blankets, pillows, whatever, I don\'t care.  I want you gone before I wake up tomorrow night, which means you have a day to say your goodbyes and get the fuck out of my house."

"Lazarus, he offered himself up to us-" Avon began, but Lazarus wasn\'t in the mood to hear it.

"GO!" he shouted so loudly that he was sure everyone in the household had heard him even though he was outside.  Eric and Samuel left but Avon lingered, and Lazarus didn\'t miss the wetness in his eyes.  To his credit, he turned around and left without another word, which left Rigby.  Lazarus turned to him next and glared at him.  "It\'s your fault I lost those three," he seethed.

"I can help you replace them," Rigby promised, though even to Lazarus\' ears the offer sounded distant.  It was like his fledge already knew of his fate.

"When our guests leave, you will be leaving with them," Lazarus told him.  "And they will be leaving very soon."

"You know I wouldn\'t do anything against you," Rigby swore, but Lazarus was no longer sure.

"I trusted you with their training, and the first thing you did was abuse it.  In MY HOUSE!  Against one of MY BOYS!" he yelled before recollecting himself and staring imperiously down his nose at his fledge.  "You can keep the account I set up for your use," he said, referring to the pool of finances he\'d given Rigby in order to help manage the household.  There was thousands of dollars in there, which should keep his fledge comfortable, and was a great deal more than he deserved.  "You can choose whether or not to go with our guests when they leave, but they\'ll likely want you to replace the one they lose."

Rigby stared at him for a moment, working out what Lazarus meant before declaring it.

"You\'re keeping Kerr," he said.  "He wants Ben," he added.

Lazarus said nothing, for he already knew this about Kerr.  Ben had taken to the darker vampire as well, which had pissed Lazarus off somewhat, but ultimately Ben belonged to him and his household, and hopefully Ben meant Kerr wouldn\'t be difficult to sway.  He was fairly sure Ben would ask him to - for Lazarus would tell him to.

[Existentially Odd]

When Lazarus dismissed him, Kerr turned on his heel and strode swiftly out of the room, before the ancient changed his mind.  He didn\'t have to be told twice.  Turning, he headed for his room and used his mind to open the door before him, not wanting to jostle Ben too much.  The simple act of closing it behind him made him aware of how much he\'d drained himself when attacking Rigby, however, and he knew he would need to feed soon or risk turning manic.
 
Still, Ben was his priority and he lay him gently on the bed before he curled up beside him, sensing that the mortal didn\'t wish him to go too far just yet.  Putting himself in Ben\'s place was difficult, he couldn\'t imagine how horrible the experience had been, but he was aware that there would be pain and there would be shame.  He was familiar with that himself.
 
"Are you in a great amount of pain?" he cooed, brushing Ben\'s hair back so that he could kiss his forehead and cheeks tenderly.  "If you are... how would you feel about taking some of my blood?  Not enough to turn you, don\'t worry!" he interjected hastily, sensing the boy looking at him in startlement.  "Just enough to heal your body and stop the pain - then maybe we could head down to the bathing area to wash you off?"

[Trillian]

"Thank you," Ben said so softly as he was lain down, in a voice that only vampiric hearing would pick it up.  "For saving me."
 
Kerr was right, there was shame.  The pain had dulled away to a mild throb, not enough to keep hurting him but certainly a nasty reminder as to what had happened.
 
The tears had dried up well and truly by the time he was in his room, cuddling up with Kerr.  There was something about the vampire\'s presence that seemed to make things a lot better.  It had been a great shock to be in the situation he was in, but now - even shortly afterward - he thought he could recover from the experience quickly, thanks to Kerr\'s attention.
 
"It doesn\'t hurt anymore," he admitted, "but a bath would be nice.  In a bathing room," he added hastily, not wanting to be in the main bathing pool area and preferring to maintain his privacy with Kerr.

[Existentially Odd]

Venturing back out of the room almost as soon as they\'d entered it made Kerr somewhat nervous - he knew Lazarus was out in the back garden by now, contemplating the mess he\'d left behind.  He wondered if he would get into some sort of trouble over it and could only hope that Ben being a favoured boy of the ancient\'s meant that he would be positively looked upon for rescuing him.

"I\'d like to promise you that no-one will see you," Kerr told Ben as they got up and left the room, "but I\'m afraid I haven\'t the resources to run any interference for you.  I\'ll need to feed soon, in fact, but it can wait until I find someone after your bath."  He gave Ben a reassuring smile as they travelled as swiftly downstairs as possible.  The vampire held an arm about the mortal, his body slightly turned towards his as they walked, as if he was trying to shield Ben with his body while his mind was recovering.

Unless Ben said something else, they both focussed on finding the least used bathing room as possible - stopping to get clean clothes on the way if he wanted.  Once inside, Kerr left Ben to get water into the tub while he went to get a towel, drawn to the myriad of pulses and heartbeats around him while he was thirsting this badly, but not making eye contact so that he could return to his young charge instead.

Re-entering the private bathing room, Kerr closed the door behind him and sat on the stool beside the tub, looking Ben over with a fond smile that declared he was pleased to see the mortal in one piece.  "I wonder what Lazarus will do about all this," he mused aloud, hands tucked between his knees and content to let Ben soak for as long as he liked.  "Stop Rigby\'s mental training for a start, I hope."  Ben might not be in a mood to talk about his chief tormentor but Kerr couldn\'t help expressing what was prominent in his overactive mind - the fact that he was thirsting also didn\'t help him think of less controversial, more soothing things to talk about.

[Trillian]

Ben felt cleaner emotionally as well as physically, when in the bath, especially with his saviour sitting beside him.  Even though Kerr\'s topic wasn\'t the most comforting, Ben didn\'t want to ignore it either.

"I don\'t know why he hates me," he said, his next breath drawn hitching as though tears were still close to the surface even though they weren\'t anymore.  He took a deep breath and let it out slowly as he looked at Kerr.  "From the start, ever since I came here.  I didn\'t do anything wrong."  He pleaded his case to Kerr, because he wasn\'t brave enough to plead his case to his tormentor and likely never would be.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr frowned, giving the topic his undivided attention.  "He\'s probably jealous," he guessed after a few moments of thought.  "Hasn\'t Lazarus always treated you specially?  Because you were... well, because he valued you highly?" the vampire changed course hurriedly, shying away from saying the word \'virgin\'.  It seemed indelicate, in light of current events.

"Maybe Rigby hasn\'t liked you because you attained more status than him, and he\'s the fledgling?  An ancient\'s fledgling, no less," he mocked, thinking Rigby likely felt himself better than everyone due to that fact.

Kerr had to admit that, on that count, he was a little jealous himself.  Angus had been very old but mentally unstable and not matching Lazarus in any way.  The fact that his own siring came of diluted blood further demoted him; Rigby\'s \'head stat\' likely made him almost equal to Kerr, who was chronologically two centuries ahead.  It wasn\'t fair, that such a horse\'s ass should be so lucky.

[Trillian]

Ben frowned at Kerr in puzzlement, hugging his knees in the bath.

"Lazarus wouldn\'t choose me over him though," he pointed out, figuring his own worth had diminished now that Lazarus had already claimed his virginity.  He looked at Kerr thoughtfully for a moment.  "Do you like Lazarus?"

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr\'s lips pooched out and he had to think about it.

"Um... yes, I think so," he said, giving a laugh.  "He\'s not really the sort of person I would have sought to spend time with but he\'s a lot of fun, I guess.  He hasn\'t managed to impart any of the wisdom he\'s learned from living through many ages yet, but I suppose that might come - I hope so, anyway, because if this house is all there is to him... well, that would be disappointing," he admitted, his mouth twisted into a crooked shape.

"How do you feel about him?" he asked Ben, feeling suddenly (inexplicably) nervous.

[Trillian]

"I don\'t know," he said, shrugging to accentuate this fact.  "He doesn\'t make himself loveable," Ben said, knowing that Lazarus didn\'t care about love, only about sex.  He liked the blonde Ancient enough to have given into him, to allow himself to be seduced, but there was nothing deep about their relationship.  It was all a power struggle.

[Existentially Odd]

"No," Kerr agreed and fell silent, thinking about Ben\'s living in the house.  The notion that he would be here without him when they left in just over a month\'s time made him nervous - what might Rigby do when there was no-one to outdo his powers?  The man obviously had no moral core.

"Do you think you\'ll be happy to stay here until Lazarus decides you\'re too adult for him and kicks you out?  I worry about you here, on your own and with Rigby picking on you - what happens when it\'s time for my family and I to leave?" he voiced exactly what was on his mind, feeling his heart pulled at the expression on Ben\'s face.

[Trillian]

Ben looked unhappy at the thought of Kerr leaving, he didn\'t say anything for a long moment before telling Kerr what he thought might happen.

"Lazarus looks after me," he said finally.  "I don\'t think Rigby can do anything worse to me," he told Kerr softly, with a pause.  "And Lazarus didn\'t like what happened, so he\'ll get Rigby under control."

Ben had faith that Lazarus would get things back on track.  Ben could cope with not having friends in the house, as long as he had no obvious enemies.  He thought maybe the three boys might feel bad about what they\'d done after finding out Ben hadn\'t been permissive like they\'d thought - Lazarus had been adament from the start that his house was about willingness, not about rape.

"He keeps boys until their mid-twenties," Ben said, "which means I have around nine or ten years.  I should be okay by then.  He gives them all money to start with," he said, impressed with how Lazarus did look after his \'staff\'.  He thought if he was older and had a little money, he might turn out okay.

[Existentially Odd]

Somehow, what Ben said only made Kerr feel disappointed and the thought of this lovely, creative boy turned into a man and released to his own devices caused a flare of emotion in him that had him speaking far more impulsively than he usually did.

"I don\'t want to lose contact with you when I go," he confessed.  "In fact, when you\'re free of Lazarus\' obligation, I think I\'d very much enjoy you travelling with us - if you\'ve a mind to do so.  We have to work on your reading and writing skills as soon as possible, so that we can write and keep in touch, what do you say?" he smiled, looking deep into Ben\'s eyes and feeling warmed by it.

[Trillian]

Ben\'s heart skipped a little at the suggestion, but he had more immediate ideas in mind.
 
"I\'m not obligated to stay here," Ben explained, for he\'d never considered himself a prisoner.  He figured if he wanted to go, Lazarus wouldn\'t stop him.  "If you\'re going away, I\'d prefer to go with you than stay here."
 
Ben didn\'t know anything about Kerr\'s vampiric family because he\'d not interacted with them - but they couldn\'t be bad if someone like Kerr was with them.