And now for something a little different. This is a small bit of what I’ve written in this vein, but I’m not sure if I’ll post any more here. Who knows what’s going to come of that declaration, but I thought this little bit could be classed enough as whump that someone would be interested. This is an absolute experiment, a complete rough draft, so know that. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!
themes | historic setting, desert setting; descriptions of injuries, descriptions of starvation and dehydration,
~*~*~
Dawn rose with the scent of hot dust. The air still and shimmering, the heat turning up its nose at the early hour. The sun had obliterated the long blue shadows of the mountains before kettles were placed on stoves for morning tea. It was customary in that part of the world, even at such a lonely outpost. A reliable thing, bolstered by spices, overwhelming to the tastebuds of the newly initiated, the unprepared.
Much of Seh Sharwala was overwhelming to the uninitiated. In fact, it was damned unfriendly, especially so to outsiders. It was as if the roads, the mountains, the Throne of Solomon itself conspired to throw anyone and everything back to where they’d come.
Snow-capped mountains thrust skyward, sharp and grey. At their bases, desert bloomed and sprawled out to the horizon in all directions. Winds whipped. Snow piled up on the passes. Sun beat down. Casual viewers and would-be conquerers need not apply.
And yet, the village remained. In much the same fashion as it had for millenia. It had not yet capitulated to the earth around it; had not desiccated, crumbled, and vanished into the perpetual swath of burnt amber. Their predecessors had, it seemed, struck a deal of mutual respect with the landscape around them. A kind of surrender, an understanding to leave one another be, that had lasted from before Alexander and would outlive the foreigners creeping north, their armies, whatever and whoever came after them.
it would certainly outlive the shade stumbling in the distance.
This piece is for the original Kestrel Sisters AU (not the BBU version). Leigh and Liliana have been kidnapped by Leigh’s former whumper, Malcolm, and are being held in an abandoned warehouse.
Malcolm and Leigh belong to @for-the-love-of-angst ! Thank you for letting me play with them!
<><><><><><><><><><><>
Warnings: lady whumpees with male whumper, captivity, referenced parental death/abandonment, homelessness, starvation, touch repulsion, touch starvation, implied torture, self-deprecating thoughts
.
It’s quiet in the dark concrete room. Leigh is awake, but silent, insisting on ‘keeping watch’ even though they’re both aware by now that she won’t be able to do anything to stop Malcolm if he comes for one of them.
Liliana is supposed to be asleep. She’s curled up in the corner, shivering, arms wrapped around her middle as if she could possibly hold in some warmth or ease the cramps in her empty stomach. It isn’t the first time she’s needed to sleep in the cold, and it’s certainly not the first time she’s gone hungry. Hunger has become such a familiar part of her life over the past two years that she wouldn’t know who she was without it.
She’s never let it get this bad before, though. There’s not ever much to eat, but there’s usually something. So far, in the time they’ve been here, which has to have been a couple of days, at least, he’s only offered them water. Which helps, of course, but can only go so far.
Another cramp threatens to rip her in half, and she curls in further on herself, biting back a whimper.
“Lili? You okay?”
It throws her off, still, how casual and familiar Leigh is with her. Giving her a nickname, acting like they’ve known each other for years. Which, for Leigh, they have, in a way. Apparently she was old enough when…they were separated, however that happened, that she actually remembers her sisters. Probably remembers calling her by that nickname when she was just a baby.
It’s all too wild and overwhelming for Liliana to quite get a grasp on, though. Part of her even refuses to believe it. To accept that her parents, the ones that she grew up with, the ones that she fled from as soon as she turned eighteen, aren’t even her actual parents, and that she…had? has? another set of parents out there who…what? Died? Abandoned her? She doesn’t even know, isn’t sure she wants to know. Leigh might be able to tell her, but they haven’t had a lot of time for chitchat in between being tormented by their captor.
“Are you awake?”
Oh, right. She’d apparently gone into a daze, unaware of how much time was passing since Leigh first addressed her. “Mhm. ‘m fine.” Her voice sounds atrocious. Going from months on end of hardly speaking at all to a couple of days of screaming and crying has not done it any favors.
There’s the sound of movement, and a moment later Leigh crawls close enough that she can actually make out her features in the darkness. A look of concern is etched into her face, though that seems to be her default right now, when she doesn’t look angry or in pain. “Are you sure? Is there anything I can do to help?”
“N-no.” Finally deciding that she can’t stand the cold of the concrete floor seeping through her clothes anymore, she shoves herself upward with weak, shaky arms, immediately regretting it when what little she can see disappears into a black void.
When her brain stops pounding into her skull and she’s aware of her surroundings again, there are hands on her, gripping her arms. Gasping sharply, she jerks away. Her spine slams against the wall, heart beating wildly.
“Sorry! I’m sorry. You almost fell, I was trying to help.”
It’sLeigh. Just Leigh, no one is trying to hurt her.
“S-sorry. Sorry.” She sucks in a deep breath, trying to calm her heart. “I j-just, um…got lightheaded.”
Leigh hums thoughtfully, but doesn’t say anything else right away. Liliana can almost feel her staring, analyzing her, but she can’t find it in her to worry about that right now. Her head has started aching again, rivaling the pain in her stomach, and she’s so weak and shaky that it’s taking all of her focus just to stay upright. An extra intense shiver nearly knocks her over.
“You’re freezing.” It isn’t quite a question, but it’s more than a statement. Liliana isn’t sure how she’s the only one shivering, in this frigid room, but then again, maybe it’s just her. She always struggles to keep warm.
“I’d offer to share some body heat with you, but…” Leigh trails off, leaving the thought unfinished. There are probably a couple of ways it could end. “But you just freaked out when I touched you,”and“But you smell like a dumpster,” are both valid options.
“I’m fine.”
Silence falls again. Liliana listens to Leigh’s breathing and tries to match her own to it, but it’s difficult to keep a steady rhythm.
“Listen, I know I’ve already said this once, but…I’m so sorry that you got caught up in this. You…do-…-e here…me…-colm…you…”
Liliana grits her teeth, trying to focus on the words, but they fade in and out, mixing with the pounding of her pulse in her temples. Then they stop, and she should say something, she’s being rude, but she doesn’t even know what was said and she’s not used to carrying on conversations and she’s not really sure what words even are anymore, her mind is just static and pain and cold and hunger, until she feels herself falling sideways and can’t do a thing to stop it.
She wakes lying on her back with her head pillowed on something softer than the concrete. There’s a hand on her face, and she flinches, trying to swat it away, but her arms are made of lead and won’t cooperate. The hand moves anyway.
“Shh, Lili. You’re okay. Can you hear me?”
She gives a sound somewhere between a grunt and a groan in response.
“Okay. I need you to tell me something. Are you bleeding anywhere?”
It takes her a moment to fully comprehend the question, but she shakes her head no.
“Good. That’s good.” Leigh hesitates, and Liliana takes a second to try and orient herself. Leigh’s face is above her now. She must be…yes, she’s lying with her head on her lap. The proximity makes her heart skip a beat, but she doesn’t have the strength to change her position.
“When’s the last time you ate something? Before…before coming here?”
Food. Liliana’s stomach groans at the thought. It’s a struggle to get her mind to go back that far, to remember the day before she was kidnapped, and even more of a struggle to put the memories into words.
“I…I had a…the end of…a sandwich? Like…like…” ¿Cuál es la palabra, cuál es la palabra? “…el pan, con mayonesa. Para el desayuno.” She doesn’t even register that she’s switched to the language she grew up speaking.
“Not a whole sandwich? Just…bread with mayonnaise?”
Liliana hums in agreement, holding up two fingers to indicate how big the piece had been. She’d hoped for at least a little bit of meat left on it when she pulled it out of its takeout box, but hadn’t been that lucky.
“¿Qué más?” Leigh urges softly.
“Saved the…the fries…for dinner.”
“Fries. Okay. Just…plain fries?”
“Mhm.” It had been about a handful. Most were the small, crunchy bits, but she didn’t mind. They had good seasoning, even cold.
“And that was…the day before you were taken? You didn’t eat anything the day of?”
“No. No pude encontrar nada.” She’d just thought she was hungry that morning. It was nothing compared to now.
“You couldn’t find…” Leigh cuts off, then after a moment leans down so she’s looking Liliana directly in the eyes. She tries to focus in on her, but her facial features seem to be wavering and multiplying.
“Lili…I could be completely wrong about this, but…are you…homeless?”
The shame is like a punch to the chest. It’s not like she’s tried to hide the truth from her…her sister. But she was perfectly okay with her not knowing. From what she’d gathered from her clothing and snippets of conversation, she’s a successful businesswoman. Might even possibly be the CEO of a company, if she’d heard correctly.
And her little sister lives next to a dumpster and survives off other people’s trash and charity.
Still, she can’t lie to her. So she nods, slowly, and whispers, “Sí.”
There’s no real reaction. Leigh leans her head back against the wall again, staring off into the distance, not saying anything. Before Liliana can go too deep into her spiral of she’s disgusted by me she’s ashamed to call me sister she wishes I’d stayed out of her life, though, something touches the top of her head, yanking her attention away. It’s…fingers. Leigh is running her fingers through Liliana’s hair.
She freezes, mind going in a dozen different directions. Someone’s touching her, and touching always means pain, but…this feels really nice? It doesn’t hurt at all, but it could hurt, it could change at any moment, she could grab a handful of her hair and pull…but then again this is Leigh, and she hasn’t treated her with anything but kindness over the past couple of days. But she really shouldn’t be touching her hair, her hair is gross, it’s greasy and matted and no nice, respectable person like Leigh should be putting their hands anywhere near it. Except it’s so gentle, and soothing, and she hasn’t been touched like this in…in years, and she can’t seem to do anything but melt into it, eyes drifting shut.
“You were probably half starving already,” Leigh murmurs. Liliana’s eyes flicker open at the sound, but are too heavy to stay that way long. “We ne-…-ou some foo-…-re really worr-…me.”
The pitch blackness behind her eyelids is inviting. Her head doesn’t hurt so much anymore, even her stomach has calmed, no longer trying to turn itself inside out. She doesn’t know what Leigh is saying, but her voice is soothing, despite the fact that it sounds very far away.
Suddenly the hair petting stops, and there’s a warm hand on her cheek, tapping. Pulling herself back up out of the depths of the darkness is difficult, but eventually she manages to pry her eyes open, the pain in her head spiking again with her return.
“Lili, you need to stay awake.”
Stay awake? Had she fallen asleep? She tries to answer, but words are hard. English, especially, is hard. “Cansado,” she finally manages.
“Sí, lo sé.” She doesn’t go back to rubbing her hair, and Liliana wishes she would, but she does keep her hand against her cheek, and that feels pretty nice, too. Occasionally her thumb strokes across her cheekbone.
They spend what could be an eternity like that, Liliana floating on the edge of consciousness while Leigh does her best to keep her on the waking side of it. Sometimes she nearly gives into the darkness again, and the tapping fingers bring her back. Sometimes Leigh hums, or talks, and even though she can’t concentrate on what she’s saying it’s nice to have the reminder that she’s not alone.
Finally, the lock on the heavy door turns with an echoing click that catches her attention. She turns her head on Leigh’s lap just in time to see the door creak open slightly, a man’s hand rolling three water bottles onto the floor.
“Hey!” Leigh’s voice rings out sharply, none of the earlier softness there now. The hand is gone, but the door pauses, not closing yet. “Tell Malcolm that if he doesn’t get some food in here right now he’s about to lose one of his pets.”
The door opens a bit more, and the man steps in - through the haze, Liliana recognizes him as one of the men who’d grabbed her from the alley - light spilling into the room with him. He squints in their direction, looking them up and down.
A sharp pain stabs through Liliana’s stomach, and she winces before shutting her eyes again. Leigh and the man are having a conversation above her that she can’t decipher. Somewhere in the distance, there’s the sound of a door shutting, then a hand begins carding through her hair again, fingers tapping on her cheek. She hums, but can’t make her eyes open this time. It’s just too hard.
The next thing she’s aware of is a scent. It takes her a moment to process it and place where she’s smelled it before. It’s…peanut butter. Her eyes pry themselves open almost of their own volition, even though she’s half convinced that she’s hallucinating.
“Hey, chica.” Leigh smiles down at her, but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes. “I’ve got food for you, open up.”
Liliana obeys automatically, and a small piece of something is slipped between her lips. The taste of peanut butter explodes across her tongue. Whatever it is, it’s chewy, with chunks in it that she identifies as peanuts. Leigh is waiting with another piece pinched in her fingers as soon as she’s done swallowing that one.
As she chews the second bite, her eyes flick up to Leigh’s face, and the granola bar she’s holding. A small smile crosses her lips when she sees Liliana looking at her. “You really scared us, you know that?”
Liliana isn’t sure what she did, but she whispers, “Sorry.”
“Just eat right now.” Leigh pushes another bite up to her mouth. “But let me know if it gets to be too much.”
“I can…I can do it.” Having to be hand fed is far too embarrassing. The look Leigh gives her is dubious, but she holds the granola bar out to her anyway. It takes all of Liliana’s strength to raise her arm and grasp it, hand shaking so hard she nearly misses, and once it’s in her hand she can’t quite seem to bring it any closer to her face. She feels pathetic. Leigh hasn’t had food while they were here, either, and she seems perfectly fine.
Without a word, Leigh wraps her hand around Liliana’s and guides the food toward her. It isn’t much better than hand feeding, but Liliana swallows what little pride she has left and accepts it.
She manages to make it through three-fourths of the granola bar before she decides she can’t hold anymore. Leigh wraps it up carefully and sets it to the side, then goes immediately back to petting her hair.
“We’ll try to get some more in you in a little while. There’s another bar here, too, that you can have when you’re done with this one.”
There’s something…questionable about that statement, but she doesn’t currently have the energy to figure out what and why.
They stay huddled together for a while longer, not speaking much. Eventually Leigh helps Liliana sit up again, which sends her head spinning, though not as badly as before. She takes more bites of granola bar whenever she feels she can. Leigh stays pressed up against her side the whole time, and Liliana is surprised to find she doesn’t mind it at all.
Then the lock turns and the door opens again, and Malcolm himself steps inside. A harsh shiver runs down Liliana’s spine at the sight of him. Leigh shifts even closer to her, face set like stone.
“Well, Birdy.” His voice is sickly sweet, his eyes roving over them with far too much delight. “I think it’s time you pay me for the food you ordered.”
Liliana can feel the way Leigh flinches, and finds herself reaching out to hold onto her arm. She doesn’t know precisely what the man wants, but she knows it isn’t good.
“I did you a favor,” Leigh spits. “I kept you from killing her with your neglect.”
Instead of getting angry, he smiles. “Hm. You’re right, the little one is the troublemaker, here.” His gaze is solely on Liliana now, and it makes her skin crawl. “Maybe she should be the one to pay up.”
“No!” Leigh is on her feet instantly. “I’ll do it. Leave her alone.”
“Leigh -” She may not know her sister very well, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t scared for her.
“It’s okay, Lili. Just keep resting. I’ll be back soon, alright?”
Liliana watches helplessly as Malcolm latches onto Leigh and tugs her out of the room. The door shuts and locks with an ominous clang. She’s suddenly freezing again without Leigh next to her, but she’s pretty sure that the way her body is trembling is more from fear than the cold.
She isn’t worth whatever he’s about to do to Leigh. She should have just left her alone.
This idea has been stuck in my head for a while and wouldn’t let me off until I do something about it.
I wonder if those who look at the wordless comic strip would understand what I was trying to convey…
In a dystopian where corruption is common, Kuroko was sold to the auction house as a slave by his parents at a very young age. He was often tortured, abused, starved and made to do harsh physical labors. One day, he saw a child and his parent interact with each other, and he was filled with longing for someone who would care for him, but believed that it would never be possible. When he saw the child throwing away a half-eaten food, he immediately went to dig it out from the trash bin. However, he was caught by his masters for doing so and thus, was punished. His masters then left him in the abandoned basement of their mansion with little food and water.
Akashi was maybe a prince or official-in-training sent to this rural town to deal with the corruption by his father as part of his training. As he was reading the notes about the town, he realised that slavery is a practice in the town and he immediately called for people to arrest those who took part in illegal human trafficking. He freed all the slaves in the mansion and gave them a huge sum of money to help them build a new life(so huge they could live comfortably for the rest of their lives). One of the older slaves then informed Akashi that there was still another slave, the youngest, who was bought when he was still a toddler, and that he knew nothing about a normal life. She then inform him that the kid is being locked up somewhere, as they haven’t seen him around for weeks.
Akashi immediately turned back into the mansion to look for that last slave. In the master’s bedroom, he found a dilapidated metal door cleverly hidden and picked the lock open. He head down the flight of stairs and open another door to find a young teenager staring back at him. As Akashi tried to approach the boy, the boy scurried and cowered away from him, up until he was cornered. The boy then went into a defensive position, curling up his body and covering his head while he whimpered in fear for the impending pain.
He was shocked, however, when instead of feeling pain, he was embraced gently. Looking up at the redhead, said redhead smiled kindly and told him, “You don’t have to be anyone’s slave anymore. You are free now.”.
Kuroko was so shocked to hear that that he cried, and Akashi simply held him as he calmed down.
After that, Akashi decides to bring Kuroko to his mansion and teach him about the normal life. Kuroko was, however, wary and terrified of everyone except Akashi, and he often still behaves like a slave. Though, over time, that changed, and Kuroko now acts like a normal person, except with recurring nightmares about his abuse.
Overtime, as Akashi showed Kuroko the ways of being a normal human(he refuse to send Kuroko back to his family after finding out from some old agreement papers that he was sold by his family), he slowly fell in love with Kuroko, finding him to be sweet and endearing. However, he is hesitant to act on it as he is worried that Kuroko would reciprocate his emotion out of gratitude and obligation.
When Kuroko realised that he too, loves Akashi, he then had to deal with his insecurities as a former slave and showing Akashi that his love is real and not out of obligations.
I am a horrible writer, drawing is the best I can do. Hope this would appease my mind.
