Page 24 of Xerxes Ascendant
any cat (felis catus)
without defence or reasonable excuse.
for any reason.
Sub-section 9(b): Violation of the prohibition outlined in sub-section 9(a) shall render the individual subject to incarceration for a minimum period of25
a million
years.
- Deviant Activities Act 2022 (XRS) [with amendments from Kyle, who was aghast to discover there was no law that prohibited the murder of cats]
CHAPTER 8
Kyle
“I’m so glad you’re back, Kyle,” Misha told him happily at work the next night, head tipped back so Kyle could apply his eyeliner. “Master was a right grumpy bastardwhile you were in hospital.”
“He’s a right grumpy bastard all of the time,” Kyle muttered. He leaned in to get a better angle, carefully scoring the pencil along the lip of his friend’s eye.
Mish, who by now would normally be complimenting or critiquing Kyle’s efforts to meet his exceedingly demanding make-up requests, instead fell still under his hands. “I see he’s not the only one. Perhaps the men and I should strike in protest of these horrific working conditions.”
“Hey,” protested Kyle with mock indignation. “I make a single testy comment and suddenly you’re unionising?”
“Well,yeah,” the twink drawled, spinning around and winking at him. “You’ve joined the ranks of the evil management team now, haven’t you? I consider it my civic duty as a lowly grunt worker to ensure your job is made as difficult and unpleasant as possible.”
“There’s certainly a lot of grunting in your work,” teased Kyle, tossing the eyeliner back to him. Misha, all arms and legs,fumbled the easy catch. “What did Epsilon do? Anything I need to talk to him about?”
Itwouldn’t be a pleasant conversation to have, especially with their current dynamic, but if Akira was mistreating his staff Kyle owed it to all of them to say something.
“Nah,” Mish assured him, marking the words with a careless gesture as if to physically shoo Kyle’s concerns away. “Master was just being his usual cranky, enigmatic self, if he even bothered to show up to the House at all. Barely saw him, to be honest, but whenever we asked him something, he got all snarky and confusing like he always does, you know?” He exhaled with a quick snort. “We missed your ability to translate incomprehensible, sardonic growls into normal Universal, Kyle.”
Cranky. Snarky. Confusing. That all summed up Akira very well, but Kyle had long since learned that those traits were defence mechanisms – whether in response to his innate social awkwardness, or the fears he desperately tried to keep hidden. The man had been struggling, and with Kyle gone there had been no one here to help him…or even recognise why he was lashing out.
“Just go fuck him back into that adorable, chill mood you had him in before,” suggested Misha with a wide, shit-eating grin, suggestively walking his fingers up Kyle’s arm. “While you two were…dating or whatever it was you were doing, Epsilon was a freaking sweetheart.”
Sweetheart.
The word wrenched at Kyle’s insides with a force it had no right to wield. It was just a word, a generic endearment, two syllables of nonsense noise jammed together and deemed to have meaning. Something that had been uttered countless times by billions of people in thousands of languages – until Universal was declared the only one allowed to be spoken.
Sweetheart. It meant nothing. Just a word.
Sweetheart.
Sweetheart meant Akira.
“I’m not fucking him anymore,” Kyle said shortly. “Not dating him. Not having anything to do whatsoever with the irritating ass.”
Mish whistled. “The same ass that everyone has to pay a thousand credits an hour to get near?” He shrugged when Kyle shot him a glare. “Just saying.”
“Your foundation is blotchy,” Kyle accused, smirking when that had the other man diving for the mirror to examine a reflection that was, of course, perfect. “And I have a training session with Tyler to get to.”
“Ah. You mean our new submissive who decided only fifteen minutes ago that he wants to train as a Dominant?” Misha asked with the airy, self-satisfied tone of a man who knew everything that went on at House Epsilon, including the earlier conversation between Kyle and Tyler that he’d made the mistake of thinking had beenprivate. “Good luck with that.”
“I hope all of your clients tonight are skinny virgins,” Kyle retorted, picking the two traits he knew his friend enjoyed the least.
To a response of exaggerated horrified gasping andfuck you sincerelys, Kyle laughed and headed downstairs to the House’s training room. Tyler was waiting for him just inside, standing in a pose traditionally associated with submission: his hands clasped behind his back and his eyes lowered. Kyle cleared his throat to announce himself and Tyler hurriedly raised his chin, adjusting his stance to something more relaxed.
