The Mansion On Drachmian Border

Past Event: Four Months Before

He liked it when she hugged him afterward.

Her hands wrapped around him and his resting on her naked back. He would have to move soon, get up from the sweaty sheets and take a quick bath before making breakfast. But it wasn't like he could get up without his Master's permission.

How could hands that made him feel dirty and hurt him, feel so nice now?

Maes honestly doubted sex could be a pleasant experience, something in the back of his head said that, yes, it could, but what he was experiencing now wasn't sex, that it was something much darker and painful. That voice was wrong though. Master called it sex, so it was sex. She was smarter than him and knew better.

She was smart and he was stupid. It's only natural he listened to her.

Master kissed him lightly on the lips pressing their chests together.

He felt numb. He hated her, she was an absolute nightmare and he wanted her gone. At the same time, his Master was right, he wouldn't be able to survive on his own, she was right when she called him a 'stupid whore, whose only talent was obeying Master's orders.

He was useless, so useless, so stupid, so powerless. He was a burden to his children. To his Master he was nothing but a sentient doll, she could do with as she pleased. He was ugly with bags under his eyes and a constantly pale face.

How much he wanted to just stop existing. To take one of the kitchen knives and slice his wrists.

He was so tired. Eight children, he had eight children including a two-month-old baby to take care of. He loved them more than anything and they were the only reason he was still alive but they run his ragged. It was impossible to give each of them the attention they needed, cook, clean, do laundry, be in Master's bedroom, and still somehow function.

Maes was going to die soon. He felt it in his whole body. The way that the constant pain sometimes left him breathless, his heart always felt like it was either too fast or too slow, he threw up at least once a day and he no longer was sure what the cause was. He sometimes couldn't move, he just laid or sat somewhere until the strength in his legs returned and he was able to walk.

Master was so kind she called a doctor for him to check if anything was wrong.

'He's just stressed and his body reacts to it, nothing to worry about. I can give you some stronger pain killers but honestly, those Amestrian men are way too delicate if they can't handle a little pain.'

Little pain was fine, it's when it got out of control that it became a problem.

Maes decided he didn't like that doctor. But Master was nice to him for the rest of the day. She let him sit down with his blanket and brought him tea and he didn't have to make dinner that day, because she reheated some left-overs. She could really be kind sometimes.

He loved her.

Love, hate, it was difficult to tell a difference.

His master kissed him again before pushing him away. He didn't want to get up, his pain was going to get worse.

„Sweetheart, could you make a salad for lunch, the one I like?”

The question was innocent in itself but the answer to it made him nervous. Master liked the salad he made using macaroni and feta cheese, both of them were missing, macaroni used in Monday's soup and feta in yesterday's lunch. Master said she would buy macaroni but she forgot and now he was at fault.

„I... We don't have macaroni and feta, Master” he flinched, curling up when she sat up. He expected her to hit him, or junk his hair, or yell.

„I know,” she said instead „I'm planning to go to town, so I'll do shopping, alright?” she leaned in and kissed his head „I swear, everything is always so dramatic with you, I only hit you if I'm angry and people can do a lot of things they don't mean, when they are mad, so don't act like I'm some kind of psychopath.”