Same Old, Same Old [M-S]

[Sharpie]

"I'm sorry, I..." He'd messed up, he could see that. He wasn't stupid, after all. He wasn't sure what would be worst though, if she just laid under him and let him do as he liked or if she pretended to like it. Having sex with someone who hated it was a very different thing from someone pouring a cup of wine or fastening someone else's sandals for them while hating it.

"If you would rather do something else, that's fine, honestly." He laid down, looking up at her. He would like her to be happy, but that wasn't exactly realistic, not in some horrible grotty place like this. ""Is there anything you would - anything you don't want me to do? I mean, anything in particular. Or - How would you prefer to do it?"

If they even had to - although for all he knew, her master might like checking on the men who came here and how they were being serviced. Men in the throes of passion likely wouldn't notice if they suddenly had an audience, after all - and most people in Rome were surrounded by slaves their whole lives and tended to forget that they were conscious people who could see, think, feel and speak.

It didn't immediately occur to him that she could probably describe numerous sexual acts in details that would leave him blushing and squirming all without turning a hair. "Can I... can I look at you?"

It might help, it might not. This whole thing was so stupid, just because he'd suddenly got hit by reality or something.

 

@Sara

Edited September 14, 2022 by Sharpie

[Sara]

She sighed as he led down. There had  been times she hadn't bedded the men who visited her - Iophon, for example, but he'd offered other services to the house. Like Jason, she didn't know the lengths Titus would go to to see the men who frequented the Elysium's walls satisfied. She wouldn't put it past him to have the other girls or boys act as spies. Just because she hadn't been asked to be one, it didn't mean it didn't happen. 

"I would rather you didn't...do it from behind." She offered with an almost embarrassed grin. It always felt more degrading, for reasons she couldn't articulate. But his question made her frown and she peered down at him, tilting her head. "Look at me?" She glanced down at herself, she was already naked. "You are looking at me, Tiranes." she was confused. 

 

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[Sharpie]

"I meant, do you mind if I look at you," he said, suddenly understanding her confusion. He was not ever going to do it from behind, not with anyone; that would make him no better than the utter bastard of a Roman soldier who'd taken his grunting pleasure from Jason - an act he would never forget, but that blended in with all the other horrible things he'd seen and experienced that day nine years before.

"How would you like to do it, pretty Ione?" he asked instead, suspecting that everyone who paid to have her just had their own way with her and never bothered what she might like, or not. As if she was a slab of meat or something - he would never understand how the Romans could see a slave and not realise that slave or not, they were still human beings and not just mindless creatures put on earth to serve their Roman overlords.

 

@Sara

[Sara]

"Oh." she blinked, still confused but deciding not to ask him to explain again lest he thing she was an utter, utter moron. She cleared her throat and shook her head, mousy brown hair falling over her shoulder. "No, no I don't mind if you look at me, Tiranes." She gave him a small smile, hoping he didn't understand her confusion. 

But his second question caught her off guard and she blinked. Jason was not the first to ask - there had been a couple of others who had wanted to believe, desperately, that she was doing this willingly as if she was their girlfriend or something. It always made her sad, but...she didn't think Jason was asking out of some sort of delusion. She figured he might actually care. She blushed a little, awkward, and shifted to kneel. Now what to say? She ventured for honesty. "Can you...kiss me?" She asked quietly. "But if you don't want to, that's fine-" She hurriedly added, "I understand." 

 

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[Sharpie]

"Pretty Ione," he said. Someone this innocent and guileless was as out of place here as Tiberius would be in a slaver's camp - though Tiberius was utterly utterly Roman and had the pride and arrogance of being a member of the Imperial family. He wouldn't be out of place for long, probably. Her smile was somewhat shy and he returned it with a slow smile of his own.

He lifted a finger to her lips. She seemed to have that sort of nervousness that led to filling a space with chatter, that was uncomfortable with silence - not that there was much silence to be had here - someone in another room was exclaiming, quite loudly, "Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck..."

He shifted to sit back up and leaned in to press his mouth gently to hers again.

 

@Sara

[Sara]

The finger on her lips quieted her and she looked at him with those big doe eyes of her. She was good at taking instruction - always had been, even when she had been a free woman. It was just in her nature - maybe that's why she'd been sold to a brothel despite being ill suited to the work in most other respects. 

And then he leant up and replaced his finger with his lips. She smiled against them kissing him back. She hadn't even had much of an opportunity to do this when she was free besides passing flirtations with boys her age. It felt...better, even if the kiss was chaste in comparison to everything else going on in the building, everything they were likely about to do. She moved to loop thin arms around his neck, running her fingers over his shoulders as she kissed him, pulling him gently to lie down on top of her. 

 

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[Sharpie]

All right, she seemed to want him on top, which was fine, he could cope with that. It seemed as if the only thing he'd really messed up earlier was going too fast, and he could correct that easily enough. He found her breast with one hand, gently cupping it - she had fairly small breasts. He supposed some men might like more of a handful, but it was enough, and they were in perfect proportion to the rest of her.

His other hand slipped behind her head, stroking her hair.

His arousal was back and no doubt she would feel his manhood poking her thigh, but he was in no real hurry to get it in and get it over with.

 

@Sara

[Sara]

She smiled against his lips as he moved a hand to her chest and the other threaded through her hair. It was tender - most unlike their interactions of before, and the majority of hers here. She sighed softly as she pulled back for air. She was feeling far more comfortable and in a way...excited. It had been so long since she'd had a man treat her with the kindness a wife would expect. 

She could feel him and she leant up to capture his lips in a kiss once more as her hand smoothed hair from his forehead. Then she dropped back down again with flushed cheeks and a soft smile on her lips. "You are so handsome." She murmured quietly. She meant it, sincerely. And then she moved her hand to grip him and gently, slowly, moved it within her. She let out a little gasp at the sensation and reached up to kiss him again. 

 

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[Sharpie]

"And you are very pretty," he told her. She was, too, the scar left behind by the barbarous barber's knife would surely eventually fade to nothing more than the faintest of lines - he had at least kept his knives sharp, which made for better healing.

She took hold of him and guided him into her - yes, had just been too fast earlier. He began to rock, trying to make it, if not completely pleasurable, at the very least bearable. It was nothing more, really, than dealing with a physical need, but it was more rewarding than having to take care of himself. If he could make it even somewhat more pleasurable for Ione too, that would be good; Jason was not at all the sort of man who only cared for himself. He spent his life being at someone else's beck and call and responding to their every whim (although Tiberius was a considerate master, on the whole). He didn't want to leave Ione feeling as if she was nothing more than an object - doubtless plenty of her customers made her feel like that on a regular basis.

He lowered his mouth to hers again in response to her wordless request for another kiss.

 

@Sara

[Sara]

She smiled against his lips as he ducked down to kiss her at her urging as he started a slow, much more sedate rhythm than earlier. It was not exactly pleasurable, but nor was it not pleasurable. She'd only really enjoyed sex a handful of times in her short life, but she knew the reason she enjoyed it wasn't through this alone. But she liked Jason and the fact he was clearly making an effort to make it better for her, made her heart thud heavily in her chest. 

She deepened the kiss as her nails dragged across his back and she tilted her hips to meet his rhythm with one of her own. And then, to surprise, she felt the familiar tugging deep within herself and between her thighs. She choked as she pulled away from the kiss and offered him a breathless, slightly bemused smile. "Keep going." She grinned at him. "...Please." 

 

TAG: @Sharpie

Edited October 14, 2022 by Sara

[Sharpie]

Ione was soft under him, pliant rather than rigid, which must mean something, even if it didn't mean much; Jason didn't think she was faking it (she hadn't struck him as being the sort who could fake it convincingly, which was what had caused the earlier interruption after all). Even so, he was nearly brought up short again as she pulled away from the kiss. He thought he had done something wrong, again.

"Keep going... Please."

He had almost reached the point where he wouldn't be able to do anything else, but that quiet plea and the smile she gave him meant that he didn't stop. It wasn't the fierce, urgent sort of coupling that he had thought it might be, this was something altogether calmer, more tender.

And then he was at that point where he couldn't stop if he wanted to, and the pace increased, but not so much that he would hurt her.

"Oh, Ione..."

 

@Sara

[Sara]

She was breathless, although she wasn't exactly exerting  herself and her toes curled into the thin sheet on her pallet, her face and chest flushed and fingers gripping his shoulders. She wasn't close, she knew that, but it was pleasurable. Which was everything to her and as his pace increased and he called out her name she moved her fingers to softly cup his cheek, a breathless smile on her lips. 

"You can spill," She said as she rolled her hips to match his rhythm, letting out small gasping noises between her words, "I-I am protected." And then she leant up to kiss him with hunger and a deepness and an intimacy she'd craved for so long as her arms around his neck tried to pull him closer, flush against herself. 

 

TAG: @Sharpie

[Sharpie]

Her breathing was fast in his ear, as if she had been running... It was hard for him to catch his breath, too. It had been a while - long while, indeed, since he had done anything of this sort, and something about Ione was what he had needed. She was not the sort of person who would flourish in a place like this. She reminded him somewhat of a weed that would struggle to grow up between flagstones and yet would have the prettiest of flowers in the harshest of places - he did not think she would like the comparison if he told her, though.

Her motions beneath him were matching his own and it was only a moment after she spoke that he did indeed spill, unable to keep from doing so even as she pulled him down, closer against her, keeping him inside even as his movements gentled.

 "Did you... Are you...?" he said, and brushed a strand of hair from her forehead, looking down into those wide guileless eyes.

 

@Sara

[Sara]

Jason finished and Ione shuddered and slowed her movements to a stop as he did. She exhaled deeply, her skin warm and flushed. She finally dragged her eyes open as Jason brushed hair from her face tenderly. She felt her heart flutter. She was so very unsuited to this work. 

"I'm well. I..." She gave him a grin, "That was perfect." And she leant up to kiss him. Slowly. Gently. As her heart rate began to settle from its ferocious rhythm. Then she pulled away and with a contended sigh she shifted out from under him, moving to sit up against the wall - the coolness of the plaster making her shudder. "I...would say I hope to see you again, Tiranes, but...I understand if you don't wish to come back." She gave him a slightly more wavering smile. 

 

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[Sharpie]

She didn't belong here. Again, the picture of a tiny, delicate flower struggling to grow between flagstones came into Jason's mind. If she was here too long, she would break,  or - he didn't think she would die a physical death, but something about her would, surely.

It was hardly perfect, but he returned her grin with a slow one of his own, responding as she moved to kiss him. He didn't think that was something she offered many of her patrons, not genuinely, openly, like that.

"I can't promise to be back, but... if I do come, I'll ask for you." It was something he could do, a tiny thing that did lay within his power. It might matter to her - he was sure he wouldn't forget this encounter, although perhaps not for the reasons Ione's minders might like.

He sat up, again, drawing apart from her a little. "Am I going to be chased out soon by one of the bouncers, or do we still have some time?" he asked.

 

@Sara

[Sara]

Ione smiled softly and nodded with a little sigh. That was all she could really ask for with her current lot in life. It was not as if she could offer to meet him outside of work hours - she rarely had time off and when she did she needed to sleep, eat, bathe and all the other mundane facets of life. And that was if she got time off which was rare outside of festival days. Her dominus was improving the Elysium but to do so at cut price meant the girls needed to earn their keep. 

She chuckled as he drew apart and glanced at the curtained door. "We have some time." She stretched to reach for a cup and poured some weak, nasty lora into it. Small improvements - she remembered when the girls didn't even have wine in their rooms. She was breathless and flushed but it was only polite to offer it to him first. "Your dominus is a good man to give you time off, Tiranes." She gave him a small smile. "What else will you do with your day?" 

 

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[Sharpie]

She offered him some wine - it was all but vinegar, really, but it was doubtless all that was allowed to her and the others here, and it wasn't as though the wine that Jason was allowed was much better. It was still rough, possibly actual vinegar, even, but it was at least liquid. He passed the cup to her after taking a mouthful or two.

"He's... I don't know. He reads a lot." He read entirely too much, in Jason's opinion - but then, Jason came from a people for whom reading wasn't a thing that was necessary, save reading the signs left by animals when they passed, or the tamgas one clan left for another. "I don't have all day, though I've got a while before I'm expected back." He shrugged; he might go to the baths - Tiberius probably wouldn't appreciate his body slave smelling of sex and such a cheap brothel as this, but it was hardly something to tell the girl you'd just been with.

 

@Sara

[Sara]

Ione's brows rose and she offered Jason a small smile as she accepted the cup of wine back. She hugged a hand around her knees that were drawn up to her chest. "He can read? I've always wondered what that must be like." Her look wasn't unkind but it was pensive. To her - besides the letters 'I O N E' which had been pointed out to her under a very crude drawing on a wall in the Subura, she just thought it all looked like odd squiggles. She'd never felt any need to learn even if she could afford the time and expense. What could be contained in the letters that would be worth it? 

She nodded at his explanation, noting he didn't answer her question, and offered an opinion of her own from her inference: "I am the same...we sometimes get some festival days off and I never know what to do with my time. I sometimes just...walk...until I find something to look at or somebody to speak to." 

 

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[Sharpie]

Jason shrugged. Tiberius had, slowly, been teaching him to read, but he didn't want to rub yet another thing in Ione's face - they might both be slaves but their lives were very different from one another. Despite everything that had happened to him, Jason was very aware that he had ended up in a place that other slaves might envy - and really, it wasn't all that long ago that words written on inscriptions and scrawled on walls had been a puzzle to him. He'd been shown his slave tag before they'd put the collar on him but the only reason he knew what it said was because they'd read it out to him.

"I don't know what I'm going to do for the rest of the day - probably go back to my master's." He shrugged. These days, he'd spent time with Azarion - if he could, if his cousin wasn't racing or otherwise busy - but it hadn't been all that long ago really that he hadn't known what to do with festival days either. Though he'd usually had some money to spend and he didn't think Ione had even that.

"There's plenty of things to look at - I don't suppose you've ever been to any of the forums? Though maybe you don't like crowds - there are so many people in Rome, aren't there?" Even an Imperial slave like Jason didn't find it easy to get away from people when he wanted to, when he was allowed to.

 

@Sara

[Sara]

"Who is your master?" She ventured with an easy smile. She was not trying to pry, it was just her natural curiosity more than anything. "You are dressed finely, he must be important." She offered. 'Finely' was relative, of course - but Ione who usually spent her days naked, in a cheap gaudy toga or her only spare plain tunica considered anything but those, finely dressed. 

"I've...been to the market twice but no...not the Forum. I mainly just stay in this regio, when I have to look for business." She smiled at him. "But the crowds..." She wrinkled her nose. "There were so few people on my island, in my village...I don't think I'll ever get used to how busy it is here. Is it busy in Sarmatia?" 

 

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[Sharpie]

"I belong to a man called Tiberius, he's a senator," Jason said, unconsciously careful of giving his master's full identity away in a place like this, even to a girl as sweet and innocent as Ione. Even after half a lifetime, the words 'I belong' and 'my master' tasted bitter in his mouth. He was the son of the steppe, his father a chief, he should not belong to anyone except himself, despite the bronze tag and the iron collar.

He couldn't help chuckling at her words, glancing at his discarded tunic. Right now, at this present moment, he wasn't finely dressed, or not finely dressed; he didn't have a stitch on him. The tunic was an ochre colour with two violet stripes sewn to it, of blue cloth overdyed with red (or red overdyed wit blue) in mockery or mimicry of the fine deep purple stripes of his master's senatorial tunics. Not at all what he would have chosen to wear, given the choice, but he could allow that it might be a finer cloth than Ione's few bits of clothing.

"It's horribly busy here, all the time," he said in agreement, and shook his head. "No, not at all busy - Sarmatia is a vast grassland plain and wide blue skies and an endless horizon." And he missed it every day, but it was an old sadness now.

He could make a guess at how and why Ione had come to Rome - he had heard Tiberius and others decrying the pirates that raided villages around the deep blue Mare Nostrum, selling their freeborn captives into slavery.

"So, what's your favourite place in Rome, if you have one?" he asked, trying to move them past the heartsickness of remembering home.

 

@Sara

[Sara]

Her eyebrows rose and surprise registered across her face. "A Senator!" she exclaimed with a grin. "How important!" She could only imagine that the life of a slave in a household like that was beyond comparison to her own life. Spurius' domus floated into her minds eye. She couldn't imagine anything grander, but she understood the place where Jason lived must have been. 

But the conversation meandered on and she tugged the blanket up to cover herself against the chill that seeped into the windowless cell. She smiled softly to herself. "It sounds beautiful. Like somewhere I would like." She nodded. "Peace and quiet." Those were some of her favourite things. Her brows rose though as he asked a question and she stuttered. "I...I don't know. I rarely leave this place but...but I went to the games not long ago for the first  time, on Cerealia and I met a kind man who showed me the horses at a stables near there. I liked it there. It was peaceful." She smiled. "And you?" 

 

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[Sharpie]

"You were at the Cerealia games?" The surprise was evident in his voice; she had not struck him as being the sort of person to go to the games and find any sort of enjoyment there. "If you were there, you saw what happened to him, the one who did this." He brushed the scar on her collarbone with one gentle finger, withdrawn as soon as he realised that he'd touched her.

She tugged the rough woollen blanket up to cover herself and he gave her an apologetic look, that turned into a smile and a nod as she mentioned seeing the stables somewhere nearby.

"I like horses, too," he said, picturing the stables of the Palatine and the fine horse his master had given him permission to ride, and the stables of the Whites where his cousin was - he didn't think they were peaceful places, but he certainly found them calming, so he could understand what she meant.

"If you get the chance to visit any of the public gardens, I think you'd like them," he told her. She would like the serenity, he thought.

 

@Sara

[Sara]

She nodded but her face blanched as his fingers featured over the scar on her collarbone. She merely nodded a touch. "We sometimes get some festival days off. And...yes...although I could barely see it was him and it was so...bloody." She grimaced, shuddering. She was squeamish still, despite enduring the indignity of slavery.

But she nodded at his suggestion, smiling. "I'd like to visit them, I should think. Do you have one you'd recommend? If I ever get the chance?" From down the corridor she could hear the footsteps of one of the bouncers - heavy and uneven, and the catch of his breath (from climbing the stairs). She sighed and grimaced at Jason. "I fear we only have a few moments left Tiranes." 

 

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[Sharpie]

"He deserved it," Jason said. He'd been a lot closer to the arena than she had - the Imperial Family had their own box, draped with purple. The Vestal Virgins had their own seating, and the Consuls and other officials, and the other senators. The poorer someone was, the further up the tiered seating they sat - as a slave, Ione had probably been way up at the top with a very distant view of the torchlit arena sands and what had transpired there. Why she had been at the Games in the first place was a mystery; she didn't seem at all the sort of person to relish the blood sports that were so popular with the Romans - though not as popular as the races.

"If you can visit them, I think you'd like the Gardens of Sallust," he told her. It was where his master had taken up residence. "Just... if you can, wear a tunic. You won't stand out so much, then."

He turned his head as he heard the heavy footsteps of what could only be one of the Elysium's guards coming up the stairs, and went to fetch his tunic, fumbling in the folds. He held a coin out - even as a slave, Jason could spare her an as. "It's not much, but this is for you."

He'd give his payment for her time to the guard, but she ought to have something before the guard could snatch half or more of the meagre cost of her time.

 

@Sara