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The Champion [Sekah & BlueAmbient]

Astra was crossing the room as soon as he heard the first knock on the door. So as soon as Karim finishes speaking, the door swings open and Astra reaches out. His right hand closes around Karim's throat, grip tight and pulling the young lord in close.

"Do not call me that. Do not call me mister." Astra's face is barely more than an inch from Karim's, teeth snapping. "If you must call me something let it be my name and nothing else." He stares at Karim, blue eyes angry as ever, letting the boy struggle for breath a moment longer. Then he shoves Karim roughly, and with no wall behind him, the young lord might even hit the floor if he doesn't catch his balance.

Astra stands tense, staring at Karim. His hands are curled into fists by his sides, but the fact he hasn't stormed back into his room should be hint enough that he's willing to follow the boy to the dining room. Karim might also notice bow that Astra is still wearing the same clothing he arrived in yesterday.
 
The door opened sharply, leaving Karim standing there lamely with his fist up in the air.

A moment later, Astra reached out and his fist clenched over Karim's elegant throat. Karim's pink lips gaped, trying to gasp in air. His hands pitifully went up and clung to Astra's wrist in supplication. Astra's face filled his whole vision.

Astra shoved Karim and let him go, and Karim stumbled back and sprawled on his ass, his head knocking into the wall on the other side of the hallway. He gasped in honking breaths, rubbing his neck where his tan skin was starting to form bruises in the shape of Astra's fingertips.

It took Karim a moment to realize Astra was waiting for something, and that thing was most likely leading him to lunch. Karim used the wall to scramble upright, feeling dizzy and still coughing from his strangulation.

Karim flipped his collar up on his shirt, to hide the bruises he realized were darkening on his neck.

Subdued, he led him down to the dining room, tensed the whole time for an attack to his back.
 
Astra follows behind Karim, a bit of distance between them. As they come into the dining room, no doubt everyone there can see Karim's tension. The tension spreads through the room when they see Astra come in behind their lord.

Astra stops in the doorway, eyes narrowed dangerously. Then he moves forward and stands at the end of the dining table. After a moment's pause, in which everyone moves as close as they can to the opposite end of the table without crowding each other, Astra picks up a bowl and ladles himself some of the soup. He then retreats to a corner of the room, where he can stand with his back to the corner. This is habit from his years in the gladiator cages; always protect your back.
 
Karim sagged a bit in relief that Astra took his bowl with such little trouble. He sat down at the head of the table after taking a bowl of soup and sprinkling it with crackers, and the table fell into slightly uneasy chatter.

Many of the slaves could sense something was off about the young master. One or two asked him what was wrong. He just smiled tremulously and said, "Nothing's wrong! How are you?" and things like that, while he tucked into his soup.

He kept glancing up at Astra with a guilty, nervous expression - shy, like a glancing puppy. He had a long free period after lunch, before his riding tutor came at 4:00. He wondered if - he hoped - Astra would leave him be for the afternoon. After all, it was only the first day, he thought. He was convincing himself he might be safe for a time, ever the optimist, when in all likelihood, he wouldn't be.

He finished his lunch, and got up to help the kitchen staff with cleaning up lunch, since he never shied from that aspect of cooking, either.

Sara, however, patted him indulgently on the shoulder and gently guided him back out of the kitchen. "You seem stressed, young master. Let us handle it, at least for one day. You just take the time to rest."

He knew she meant well, but in all actuality, it increased his tension. Now he had nothing to do to look busy with, if Astra - wanted him. Karim's hands twisted anxiously in his shirt, as he stood in the hallway in front of the kitchen.
 
Astra finished his soup fairly quickly, and only approaches the table again to put the bowl down. He reminds himself how awful he felt after eating the large breakfast this morning, so to be cautious, he doesn't take more now. The man returns to the corner of the dining room, standing there with his arms over his chest. His eyes stay locked on Karim the entire time, merely monitoring the rest of the movement in the room in his peripheral vision. He looks like a guard, standing there, but the only one he's really guarding is himself.

After everyone is finished eating, Astra stands in the doorway of the dining room, watching the door to the kitchen. When Karim is ushered back out of the kitchen, Astra moves forward, pushing the boy up against the wall next to the kitchen door. He's not gentle about the way his hands grip Karim's hips, making it clear what he wants. He doesn't care if someone sees, it would just bring his wish for death sooner. At this proximity, though, and with nothing but Astra to focus on, it would become apparent that Astra could really use a bath.
 
Astra grabbed him by the hips and pushed him into the wall. The hallway wasn't clear, and several slaves turned and stared, shock on their face. Someone ran to get the guards.
"It's okay, I told him he could do that, if he wants," Karim told the servants. "Um, Astra," Karim said tenderly. "Would you like to go have a bath? We have an amazing hotspring. I can show it to you, if you want."

And that way, he wouldn't be violently taken in the hallway, in front of everyone.

"We can . . . go out to the shopping district after, if you want. You need new clothes, don't you think?"
 
Suspicions would only rise after this display, and Karim's odd placation, telling everyone it was fine. Astra almost seems like he's not going to listen to Karim, but after a moment, he grits his teeth and steps back. He's silent, looking only at the young lord and ignoring the servant's still standing around and whispering. The one that had run to get guards returns quickly, two guards behind them and looking ready to tackle Astra.

The guards get close, but not quite in Astra's reach. His head snaps around, hands clenching and muscles tensing. He's immediately ready to fight, habit of a warrior. He even turns his body in their direction, briefly distracted away from Karim.
 
The guards are warned away, though, by Karim's brusque orders.

"No, José, Alexei, I promise you it's fine. I consented. We'd talked about it earlier today. Astra, you want to come with me to the bath?"

Under the varyingly confused, suspicious, pitying stares of the other servants, Karim beckoned Astra towards the hotspring. He didn't dare touch his arm and try to lead him. "Come on, I'll take you."

Faced with their Master's insistence this was what he wanted, the guards stepped back - neither really wanted to tangle with a decorated gladiator, anyway. But nobody's eyes looked trustful or assuaged. The door to the kitchen had opened and Sara was now staring out, squinting at Astra with a look of dislike.
 
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Astra almost ignores Karim; a fight would have given him some sense of normalcy. He's used to fighting, not this idle sitting in a room all day. But in the end, he does turn to follow the young lord. He does ignore the stares of the numerous people in the hallway; they mean nothing to him, and he doesn't care what their opinion of him might be.

At the hotspring, Astra stands and stares at the water. It's not that he can't swim, even slave children are taught that. He's uncertain about the hot water; a slave's bath in the arena cages consists of having cold water dumped over them, a rough soapstone, followed by more cold water. The steam curling up from the hotspring's water puts Astra on edge.
 
Karim hoped getting out of the tense situation with everybody staring at him would make it easier to breathe - but he found that going somewhere alone made it harder, instead.

Still, he led him into the bathing room, the wide wooden pool where his whole estate bathed, blissfully empty at this time of day.

Karim, oblivious to Astra's uncertainty, began to disrobe, pulling his shirt off and unlacing his britches to pull them down. He was cold and stiff with dread of when Astra would grab him and - you know - force him, but he was glad it wasn't going to happen in front of the eyes of other servants, now.
 
Astra is distracted from the water as Karim starts undressing. His blue eyes roam the young lord's body, mind going back to the night before, and to Karim's offer this morning. Astra isn't blind to Karim's fears; he can see the tension running through the smaller male's frame. Good, let someone else be on edge for once.

Astra stays where he stands, staring, watching Karim. He's never had a bath where one soaks in water, so he has no idea what to do. He would never ask, his desire for independence refusing to let him. But watching Karim, he starts to get the idea.
 
Karim realized belatedly that Astra wasn't undressing, and was just standing, staring at him. Karim's nerves itched, obviously having to force himself to untie and step out of his shoes, and take off his britches and underwear.

Standing bare before him was hard, after last night. Karim modestly crossed his hands before his groin, barely hiding his cock from sight.

Karim stepped down the steps into the deep bath and crouched into it, looking up at Astra searchingly.
 
Astra waits only a moment longer once Karim is in the water. He grabs the hem of his tunic and pulls it up over his head in a single motion. Dropping it to the floor, he drops his leather breeches as well. As he's been barefoot since he arrived, there's no shoes for Astra to take off, nor any undergarments, so he now stands naked before Karim.

Astra's body is  covered in scars. His chest and stomach, back, arms, shoulders, legs. Even his hips and the insides of his thighs have old scars, indicating he had, at one point before reaching his current strength, been in Karim's position; at the mercy of other gladiators. Some scars are small and faded, others are large, still others look freshly healed, brighter pink, like they're from barely over a month prior.

Astra walks into the water toward Karim, but his eyes are on the water. It feels strange on his skin, the hot wetness.
 
Karim ends up getting an eyeful of Astra's body as he looks up at him, when Astra finally disrobed. Ordinarily, he would have looked away, only Astra -

- Astra's skin is like a painting done of bruises and pain. It's awful, and strangely fascinating. Some of those marks looked like Astra had grown to manhood around them. There were other slaves here who had scars, but none like Astra.

It wasn't until Astra stepped into the warm water and started to walk towards him that Karim looked away, only to look back when Astra's eyes stayed on the bath.

That puzzled Karim, until he realized they likely didn't have hot baths in the gladiatorial kennels. So maybe it was his first hot bath? Karim didn't want to draw attention to that, and embarrass Astra.

He instead asked, "Would you like me to um, help? Rub your back?" Leyla had taught him to give her massages when he was a child, he thought he still remembered how to do it well.
 
Astra looks up when Karim speaks, blue eyes narrowing. He moves, putting his back against the wall of the hotspring. Clearly, he doesn't trust anyone to be behind him. There's still tension in his shoulders as he crouches down, but he's as relaxed as he's going to get, hands moving through the water.

Astra doesn't know how to bathe this way, and he doesn't see a soapstone anywhere, so he settles for rubbing his hands along his skin. His eyes move constantly, back and forth, between what he's doing and the young lord nearby.
 
He was rebuffed, Astra making no move to respond to his questions.

Karim picked up a bar of soap smelling faintly of ginseng and ginger from the perfumed bars left periodically around the edge of the bath. He came close to Astra, but not too close. He held out the soap. "Um, here's the soap. There's other scents - if you don't like it."
 
Astra freezes and stares at Karim, then looks to the bar in his hand. He takes it, oddly placid at the moment. The fact the hot water feels good on his skin might have something to do with that. Astra brings the bar to his nose, sniffing it. The smell is sharp, but Astra seems to like it as he starts making suds to wash himself.

Astra thinks nothing of the amount of dirt coming off him. His skin even lightens a shade. At the arena cages, slaves are only washed twice a month, and it'd been several days since Astra had had the opportunity.

Astra stares at Karim a moment, then quickly dunks his own head under the water. His shaggy blond hair darkens with the wet, sticking to his face. Astra doesn't even think about washing his hair; that had never been a concern in the arena. The only thing they did there was cut jt off when it got too long. But wetting his hair at least lets him push it back from his face for a while.
 
"Do you want some shampoo, Astra?" Karim asked him, his voice breaking with nerves. He kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, the moment when the shocking violence Astra was capable of revealed itself.

Karim had been too ensnared by seeing Astra bathe. He'd been openly staring, in fact.

Astra was very handsome. His scars also looked excruciating. Karim didn't know which was attracting his attention more.

Swallowing hard, Karim moved away, getting a bar of soap and a washcloth for himself, and washing up. He was thorough, scrubbing all the sweat from his dealings with Astra off.
 
Astra turns his eyes to Karim when the boy asks if he wants shampoo. The question confuses Astra. Slaves didn't get shampoo, so he doesn't know what Karim is talking about. Finally, Astra speaks.

"What is that?" His pride might not let him ask for help, or how to do something, but he's not above asking what something is. Astra stares, watching Karim bathe and awaiting an answer. His hands move through the water, pushing away the dirt that has come off his skin, the bar of soap now set aside.
 
He didn't know what shampoo was? Karim's eyes went wide with sympathy. "It's this," he told him, grabbing one of the many clay bottles surrounding the tub and showing it to Astra. "It cleans all the grease and dirt from your hair. Um. Try not to get it in your eyes, or swallow it, okay? It'd taste bad, and in your eyes it'll sting. You do it like this."

Karim dunked his head underwater, and began pouring the hair tonic in his hand. He showed Astra how to keep his head back and scrub his hair with backward swipes, so it stayed out of his eyes. He groped down in the bath, crouching, and ducked his hair under the water, cleaning all the shampoo out.

When he was done, he showed Astra his clean, curly hair. "Do you want some?" Karim asked, cocking his head like a puppy.
 
Astra watches closely, his face blank. But that's the most relaxed his face has been in front of Karim. When Karim offers him the shampoo, Astra moves forward, lifting one hand out of the water. The offer of being truly clean is too hard to ignore, so Astra's intentions of revenge are out to the side for now.

"Is this what nobles spend their money on? Slaves, jewels, and frivolous soaps?" The words are quiet, more to himself than to Karim. All of Astra's experience with nobles, aside from cruelty, has been to see them dressed in expensive silks, jewels, and smelling of sweet things.
 
"Nobles spend their money on all kinds of things," Karim said, handing off the clay bottle of shampoo. "But all my slaves and servants use those soaps too. And I don't have any jewels that weren't gifts."

He paused, considering. He crouched down in the water, feeling a little diffident and nervous, though he was starting to relax a little, against his will - the warm water, the lack of attacks or pain, lulling him into a false sense of security.
 
Astra falls silent again, pouring some of the shampoo into his large palm like Karim had done. Setting the bottle aside, Astra scrubs the soapy liquid into his blond hair. The lather quickly turns grey. Astra actually stares at the grey lather on his hands when he lower them.

Astra dunks his head, fingers running through his hair to shake out all the suds. When he surfaces, his hair is a shade lighter, even while wet. Astra shakes his head, spraying excess water around, before his hands lift to push his hair back. Blue eyes blink water away before fixating on Karim.
 
Karim watched him, mostly to give him tips if he needed them.

He didn't, accurately parroting what he'd seen Karim do. It was fascinating how much dirt was being scrubbed from him. He finally looked clean now, and his hair was a different color, his skin a lighter shade.

Their eyes met, and Karim wanted to look away, but undoubtedly it hadn't escaped Astra's attention he'd been looking. Karim's cheeks flushed bright vermilion when Astra's eyes met his. The boy's skin was flushed rosy from the bath's heat and his own embarrassment, and jewels of water slid down his slim form. He wasn't large or powerful like Astra. His body was lean and soft, even prettier in the light of the mage lights that lined the walls of the bath than the darkness of his room.
 
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Astra, now clean, focuses his attention on Karim. He had noticed how pretty Karim was, and the lighting on this room only accentuates that. Almost too pretty, for a boy. Astra is no stranger to sex between men, though it had always been violent. But that just goes along with everything else in his life, leading up to his arrival at Karim's manor.

Staring at Karim, heat pools in Astra's groin. Having the false freedom he does, and the young lord's offer from that morning, Astra's libido is rearing its head. He'd had a frequent sex life in the arena cages, as many fights over food ended in sexual domination between the slaves. But here, having a pretty thing like Karim at his mercy and without having to fight for it, does wonders for the warrior's sex drive.

Astra moves forward through the water, settling on his knees in the hotspring in front of Karim. His hands roughly grab the boy's hips and drag him forward to straddle his lap. He holds Karim close, hips to hips, and his cock stands hard against Karim's ass.
 
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