The Accidental Slave (Aya's story Part 1) (16 page)

He was staring into the kitchen now and took a
few steps inside.

“Sure doesn’t look like the same kitchen I left
this morning,” he said and put down a bag of food. ”You’ve been
busy.”

“Go check out the rest,” she said behind him,
and he rewarded her hard work by making the rounds to first the
bathroom, where he gave a whistle and arched his brows in respect,
and then to the living room before he entered his bedroom, noticing
the clean sheets and tidiness.

“Check out your closet,” Aya said with a certain
pride and he did so, still without looking at her.

The sight of his closet with everything
organized and folded neatly made him take a step back. His eyes
quickly fell on the letters in the corner. They were copies of the
ones he had made for his personal files at the Masi headquarters,
the ones that would be mailed to England if he died. Jonul had
written letters too. One had been for Kato, and the general had
given it to him today, but Jonul’s other three letters wouldn’t be
sent home. The general had decided to keep Jonul’s death quiet for
now.

Kato wondered if Aya had read his letters but he
didn’t want to ask her. There was nothing dangerous in them; it
wouldn’t make a big difference to him if she had.

“You didn’t have to do this,” he told her and
finally allowed himself to meet her eyes.

“I know.” She smiled with that irresistible
mouth of hers. “But I couldn’t just sit still and let my mind go
crazy.”

“It’s nice though.” Kato smiled back, until the
pull to kiss her raised a warning flag in him. “I brought food,” he
said and turned away from her. “How does pancakes and fruit
sound?”

“Good.” Aya followed him to the kitchen. “Any
news of Aston?”

Kato frowned. He hated her questions about
Aston. The man was clearly on her mind a lot and she cared deeply
about him. Despite her claims that they hadn’t been intimate he
wasn’t sure, and the thought of Aya with another man made him
uncomfortable. The jealousy he had felt towards Aston in the market
place was nothing compared to how he felt after having spent the
last days with her - the protectiveness he felt about Aya, his
desire to be intimate with her again, and his longing to be the
only man she would ever look at with desire. Kato forced himself to
hide his emotions and focus on her question.

“He’s a little better and I let him know that
you are alive and well.”

“Thank you,” Aya said softly.

Kato unpacked the food he had brought home from
the headquarters. The slaves in the kitchen had packed him a bag,
and now he pulled out plates from the cabinets, enjoying how clean
everything was. He had forgotten how good it felt and it made him
miss his apartment in England.

This place was a dump even when clean, and he
was wasting his life fighting for a cause he’d never really
believed in. His brother was dead, all his cousins were dead, and
the only living family member he had left here, fighting this
rebellion, was his uncle the general, who he honestly didn’t like
very much. His uncle was a sadist, and only in the last few days
with Aya had he started to admit that to himself. When Kato first
arrived he had been so full of anger towards Diana and Oliver for
their betrayal that he just accepted everything his uncle and Jonul
put in front of him. Once he started asking questions he was too
deeply involved and couldn’t get out, so it had been easier to
follow along and suppress his feelings and doubts.

“Kato, how long did you know Jonul?” Aya asked
him, breaking his deep thoughts.

Kato hadn’t told her that Jonul was his brother.
He knew how disgusted Aya was with Jonul and he couldn’t bear for
her to think they were the same. For Aya to see him as a monster
was something he would avoid at any cost.

“Since I was a child,” Kato said and tried to
change the subject by asking her about her day. It didn’t work.

“Were you related to him?” she asked directly
and he panicked and lied.

“No. He was just a friend of the family.”

With a patient look that covered for the
uneasiness he felt inside, Kato encouraged Aya to eat and was happy
to see her dig into the pancakes and the fruit with great appetite.
At least they didn’t have to fight about food tonight.

“What do you do all day?” she asked.

Besides fantasize about you?
he thought
and looked down. “What do you mean?”

“Your work? What do you do at work?” Aya was
still wearing his blue t-shirt that went down to cover her upper
thighs, and his mind kept wondering if she was naked underneath. He
wanted so much to slide his hands up and feel her smooth skin.

He pulled his thoughts together and tried to
answer her question. “It depends. Sometimes I help translate things
or type things in English, sometimes I help out with computer
issues or help make ID papers, and other times I go on patrols or
transport things from one place to another. And then of course
there’s planning attacks and carrying them out as well as defending
the headquarters when the government attacks.”

“What happened when I was kidnapped?” Aya asked
with big serious eyes.

Kato shifted in his seat. “Are you sure you want
to talk about this?”

She nodded. “I just don’t understand why this is
happening to me. Why I was targeted?”

Kato sighed. “I get that, Aya, but it really was
very random and not because of our meeting.”

“Can you at least try to explain?” she
pleaded.

He looked at her with troubled eyes and then he
started to talk slowly. “We were on a patrol and you were spotted
from the car. You drew attention to yourself and Jonul decided we
should take you.”

“I drew attention to myself… how?” Aya wanted to
know. She looked so innocent and sweet.

Kato swallowed hard again. He didn’t like this
subject.

“You looked… happy.”

Aya opened her mouth in disbelief but sat quiet
for a while before she started talking in a low voice. “Actually I
did feel happy, because the marketplace is my favorite place in
Spirima and Aston and I were joking around. You know, Kato, I felt
safe with Aston and I guess I thought that because I had come to
help people no one would want to hurt me. Pretty naïve, huh?”

Kato didn’t answer.

“So I was kidnapped because I looked happy?“

“Yes, you looked happy and… beautiful.”

“But there are many beautiful women here,” Aya
argued, and it made him run his hand through his hair again,
frustrated that they were having this conversation that he had
tried so hard to avoid. “Not like you, Aya, there are no blond
women with blue eyes and a gorgeous body walking around this
country. You didn’t exactly blend in… and you looked so happy and
free.”

“And that was my mistake?” She said it out loud
but it was more a statement than a question.

Kato nodded. “I’m sorry, Aya!”

Aya looked lost and just sat there looking at
him. “Did you never question whether or not this was right or
wrong?” she asked quietly.

Kato took a while before he answered, going over
possible answers that could all open up doors he didn’t want to
enter. “What do you think?” he finally said, and tried not to sound
angry but more insistent and defensive.

They sat in silence for a while and then Aya
spoke again. “Who found me beautiful, you or Jonul?”

Kato thought back. “We were four men in the car
and everyone understood we were scouting for anything of interest.
Foreigners are by definition ‘of interest,’ because you are
nonbelievers in Masi and therefore fair game as slaves. When
someone is beautiful as well then no discussion is needed. Jonul
rarely took a slave. He chose you because you are a rare
beauty.”

“Kato, why don’t you tell me what you think of
me?”

Kato felt resistance. He couldn’t possibly tell
her the truth. It would give her too much leverage over him. He
needed to keep his head cool and figure out what to do about this
situation.

“I thought you were beautiful too,” he said and
left it at that, leaving out the fact that he had been awake last
night just looking at her and wondering how he’d got so lucky to
spend time with someone as pure and good as her. He didn’t want to
tell her that every particle of his body was longing to sleep with
her again and that her close proximity was sometimes pure torture
of longing and sometimes pure delight of closeness, depending on
the way she looked at him. He wished he had a magic wand and could
transport them out of Spirima with a magic spell and make Aya his
girlfriend instead of his slave, but he was smart enough to know
that if he helped her escape she would run as far away from him as
possible, and he couldn’t blame her. He was her kidnapper and her
prison guard; he was by definition the villain.

For Kato the thought of losing Aya was horror.
He would be left alone in this miserable war where the only
beautiful thing that had ever happened to him was her. The way she
snuggled up against him in the night, showed him trust by sleeping
in his bed, or asked him questions like he was interesting reminded
him of who he used to be. In those moments he could almost forget
their circumstances and feel normal. He would do anything for her,
except let her leave him.

Aya

Aya sat quietly in the kitchen, watching Kato.
“What are you thinking about?”

“Nothing”

“Don’t lie to me, Kato.”

His eyes were dark and his shoulders slumping
but he shook his head dismissively.

“I’m going to take a shower,” he said and
swallowed half a pancake in one big mouthful while carrying his
plate to the sink. For a minute he paused and she half expected him
to ask if she wanted to join him, but he didn’t. He walked the
twelve steps into the bathroom and closed the door. There was no
sound of him locking it.

It took Aya only a few minutes to wash the
dishes and bring the kitchen back into the same spotless order it
had been in before their dinner. Then she went to the living room
and sat down waiting for him.

When Kato came out of the bathroom he was
wearing a towel around his hips and his normally unruly hair was
falling down his forehead, making him brush it back with his right
hand. He stopped and watched her for a second, opening his mouth as
if he wanted to say something, but then he closed it again. Aya had
a full view of his magnificent body. Apparently his work as a Masi
fighter was physical, because his body was toned and strong. The
pull in her belly made her crave to touch him and she couldn’t help
staring at him. Kato caught her looking at him and she saw a frown
of confusion on his face.

“Would you mind if I shower too?” she asked and
was suddenly very confused about their strange relationship. The
attraction between them was so loaded and sexual, and yet there was
a new distance between them of guardedness that hadn’t been there
before they had sex. She didn’t want to be attracted to her
kidnapper but if she had felt anything for him before they had sex
it had multiplied after.
It’s simple chemistry
, her brain
reminded her from biology classes. But with Kato it had been an
instant connection from the beginning, and he had been so clear
about how attracted he was to her. But that seemed to have faded.
It was hard to believe this was the same man who had told her
yesterday morning that she was perfection.

“Sure, do you need anything?” he asked her.

“Just a towel, please,” she said and tried to
look away from his tempting six-pack.

Kato went to his room and brought back a towel.
“If you need more, you will find them sorted and stacked in my
closet,” he said in a friendly tone and she gave him a small
smile.

The shower did her well. She was wondering how
she could have been so obsessed about cleaning walls and floors to
get rid of Jonul’s energy and yet have managed to go without
scrubbing herself in boiling hot water. She had showered yesterday
with Kato, but now that she was alone she cleansed in a different
way by scrubbing her skin until it was red from the heat and the
scrubbing. She washed her hair twice and enjoyed the feeling of
cleanliness.

When she came out of the shower she dried
herself in the towel she had brought and put Kato’s blue t-shirt in
the pile of dirty clothes. There was no washer and drier in the
apartment, and she wondered how he washed his clothes. Jonul’s
toothbrush was gone and a new one had been added. It was still in
the packing; she ripped it open and brushed her teeth. She missed a
hairbrush but ran her fingers through her long hair in an attempt
to comb it a little. It was the best she could do for now.

She couldn’t sleep naked or wrapped in the
towel. It only just covered her breasts and bottom and would be
uncomfortable during the night. She needed to ask Kato to lend her
one more of his t-shirts.

Kato was waiting outside the bathroom, holding a
small pile of clothes. “Here, this might fit you,” he said.

Aya took the panties and the soft, feminine
dress in a dark purple shade.

“Did it belong to Jonul’s former slave?” Aya
asked hesitantly.

Kato nodded. “Yeah.”

Aya didn’t like the thought of wearing the dead
girl’s clothes. “What was her name?”

“I don’t know. Jonul only referred to her as
‘slave’ and she never spoke to me.”

“She never spoke to you?”

“No.” Kato sounded dismissive again.

“But you lived here, right?”

“Yeah, but Jonul didn’t allow her to speak and I
didn’t want her to get in trouble by asking her questions.”

“How long was she here?”

“I’m not sure. She died about two months after I
arrived.”

“Did he have other slaves?”

“Yes, before her. But I told you, he was very
picky with his slaves and hadn’t found anyone he wanted for a long
time until… he saw you.” Kato’s jaw tensed and he turned and walked
into the living room. He was done talking.