30 Days R2/S2 - Day 12 Sweet Iced Tea

[lilfluff]

This a Flashfic (or scene anyway) based on a prompt from aldersprig and kc_obrien's 30 Days of Flash Fiction: Round 2 Meme

My 30 Days of Flashfic: Round 2 Index Page

Title: Sweet Iced Tea
'verse: possibly aldersprig's Cali again. If not then another modernish setting in which slavery is still around.
Content note: Well, as mentioned above, slavery. And a hospital. And despite the opening paragraph no in-scene violence, just reference to it happening at other times.

Day 12 – Prompt: Sweet Iced Tea


Owen dreamed of pain. The pummeling he received the night before the first time he could remembered being sold. The time he fell after climbing to the apple he spotted after harvest. The belting he'd earned the last week for talking back at Mistress's son. He only realized he wasn't dreaming any more when he found he couldn't remember why he was hurting now.

His whole chest had a dull ache and after a few breaths he realized his throat was sore as well. What have I done this time? They must have had me howling to hurt just breathing.

He opened his eyes a crack when he heard and felt something new. Blinking at the sight of a young lady in a nurse's uniform. Curiosity had his head up to take a closer look. Leaving him blinking even more at the thin plastic tube in her right hand while her left wiped him down with a cold cloth. Wiped with the cloth where his legs met, uncovered with pants or a blanket. His hands being cuffed to the bed rails was almost beyond notice.

She looked up when he moved and smiled. "Hold still child, I'll be done in a moment. I'll let them know you're awake."

He nodded once to her and let his head fall back on his pillow and concentrated instead on the blush he could feel spreading across his cheeks. Coughing as he croaked out a, "Yes ma'am."

With nothing else to distract him while the nurse poked and prodded he stared at the ceiling and tried to remember what he could have done. It hadn't been a good day. He could remember Fiona picking him to come and carry things while she shopped. If I could just keep my mouth shut it would have been a good day. But what did I do, wouldn't get beat enough to get sent here just for whining. Why even send me here?

"You're awake!" Fiona's voice made him lift his head and look around again. She sounds happy. Happy I am awake? She rubbed his head with one hand, leaving his mental voice quiet and more confused than before. Barely noticing as his Mistress and Master came into the room as well.

"I. I'm sorry." Speaking softer still hurt, but didn't make him cough nearly as hard as before. "Whatever I did, please I promise I'll behave better."

Fiona's hand stopped stroking his hair, "You don't remember?"

"I remember, going to the market. Being stupid, talking back for no reason. I think maybe, did I drop the bags?"

A quick glance saw Fiona staring at him. Without a word she pulled the sheet away from his chest and stared at the bandages he'd ignored while the nurse had worked further down. "These. If not for you, these would have been mine, if I lived."

Mistress came up and put an arm around her and smiled down to him. "What you don't remember was the man who tried to shoot her. Who would have if you hadn't stepped in his way and grabbed his arm."

"I..." Owen tried to remember. A little of breakfast, some of the stores. He thought maybe he could remember starting to leave. "I did?"

"You did. I still have my daughter because of what you did. Is there any boon you would care to ask for?"

Owen didn't even have to think. "Yes Mistress." Coughing and going on in a softer voice once more. "Please, if Mistress would promise not to sell me."

"Sell you? Child, I had no plans to sell you before and I certainly have no intention to do so now. Surely there must be more that you would wish for than only that."

Swallowing and feeling his throat once more something else did come to mind. "May I have something to drink, Mistress?"

"Niall, my drink please." Master held out a cup, which she brought to his lips. The sweetened iced tea seeming to be most wonderful drink he had ever had as it soothed his dry mouth and throat.

"As much as you wish child, then rest and consider what to ask for."


* * *

Er, yes, the poor boy has been so beaten down that he would think simply asking not to be sold was asking for a great and unlikely favor. If you thought to suggest he ask for his freedom he'd probably look at you like you were insane. (I'm cruel to my characters I guess. I suppose it is a good thing they don't know where I live, yes?) Should I continue this, I do know what he does eventually ask for.


*****

The days so far:

1) the story starts with the words "It's going down." (LJ link)
2) write a scene that takes place in a train station (LJ link)
3) the story must involve a goblet and a set of three [somethings] (LJ link)
4) prompt: one for the road (LJ link)
5) write a story using an imaginary color (LJ link)
6) write the pitch for a new Final Fantasy styled RPG (LJ link)
7) prompt: frigid (LJ link)
8) write a scene in the middle of a novel called "The Long, Dirty Afterwards." (LJ link)
9) prompt: mourning dead gods (LJ link)
10) write a story set in three different time periods (LJ link)
11) Write a movie trailer style trailer for a story, existing or not-yet-written (LJ link)
12) prompt: sweet iced tea (LJ link)
13) re-write a story that everyone knows
14) write a vanilla story dealing with kinky subject matter (LJ link)
15) prompt: ascension (LJ link)
16) write a scene that takes place at the end of a long road trip (LJ link)
17) write an uncomfortable story (LJ link)
18) prompt: a step too far
19) write a story in which something goes BOOM
20) Write the end of the story "The Purple Bag."
21) Roll a d20 twice (Random.Org). Combine the themes of the two previous stories for those numbers
22) prompt: knight in shining armor
23) write a scene that takes place in a place that is war-torn
24) prompt: founding fathers
25) write a story set in a library
26) prompt: elemental
27) write a story using only one period. Bonus: write the story using only one /ending punctuation at all.
28) write a story set in a laundromat
29) (from Lilifluff) Randomly pick a number between 1 and 28 (Random.Org) . Re-write that prompt as a Spaghetti Western or Melodrama
30) the story ends with the words "coming up."

Comments

[meridian_rose]

Freedom might not only have been too much, but I'm guessing his mental state is such that he considers himself so much their servant/pet/slave that he can't imagine living without them now. I'll be interested to see what he does ask for.

[lilfluff]

Yeah. If he had asked for it I believe they would have been kind enough to say, "Let's switch you over to an indenture contract and we'll make sure you are prepared to be free when it's finished." Because right now? I don't know he'd make it a week before returning and saying, "Please, it was a mistake, take me back."

He has bought into pretty much every harsh thing he's been told. Asked to describe himself he'd probably say, "a rude, stupid, and worthless slave." After all, he wouldn't be sold so often if it wasn't true, right? (Never mind that the list of reasons I gave in the reply to Alder's comment on the LJ posting is almost entirely reasons that don't have anything to do with him) Basically he can't remember ever being in the same household for more than at most a year and a half. Having been sold that many times hasn't been good for his self image.

Hmm. We'd better add silly to the list of descriptors, because suddenly in addition to what I already figure he'll ask for, I'm also picturing him asking for a bell for his collar just to see if they'll say yes.

[aldersprig.livejournal.com]

Awr, *hugs the boy. gently* I wanna know!

[lilfluff.livejournal.com]

Poor guy hasn't had good luck, and as a result hasn't spent long in any one house. Sold more than once because his owners went bankrupt. Sold in more than one estate sale rather than being passed on to a relative. Sold once because he'd been given to someone and they really wanted a servant girl not a boy. Sold once not because he did anything, but to punish the one he'd been assigned to serve.

Throw in that the longest he can remember being in one house was only about a year, or a year and a half, and you get some behavior issues. But with all the other things that have gone on that's only lead to his being sold perhaps twice.

Meanwhile, who left the lawyers in charge of the hospital? Really, cuffing both hands to the bed? "Oh, but if we only cuff one he might pick the lock and sneak out and then we'd have to reimburse his owner. It's policy. I don't write it I just follow it."

But yeah, there's a good chance that there will be more (although at the moment none of they other prompts are saying their his).

[aldersprig.livejournal.com]

Aaaw, yes. That leads to some issues.

[lilfluff.livejournal.com]

Yeah, in a reply to Meridian Rose's comment on the DW posting I mentioned that he's basically bought into every criticism he's been given. After all, obviously he's rude and stupid and worthless, or he wouldn't have been sold so often and so many times, right? Never mind that almost everything on the list of reasons he's been sold doesn't have anything to do with him other than that he's the one being sold.

But that should be getting better now. Even if the writer is cruel and isn't going to let him just walk right out of the hospital (multiple shots to the chest? Yeah, that's going to leave more than just a few scars to brag about).

Hmm. Yeah, I'm going to have to at least try to write more, even if none of the other 30 days prompts seem to hook in at first glance.

[aldersprig.livejournal.com]

Yes please, moar.

Yeah, he... I have a rp character (laugh) who fixes broken slaves. She could fix him. Slowly.

[lilfluff.livejournal.com]

Although he must not be broken beyond possessing a sense of humor as I swear there's a feeling one of the things he asks for will be a bell on his collar, "You know, like the ones the kitties have," simply to see what their reaction will be.

[aldersprig.livejournal.com]

*giggle*