Chapter One

Dull green eyes opened, dirty teal hair flowed in the wind making the hair messier, the teenager that the hair belonged to was dragged along the road heading towards a dark castle. The man pulling the youth tugged on the chains binding the teenagers wrists, causing the youth to fall to the ground.

"Get up you piece of trash, you're going to get me good cash or you'll wish you were never born." grunted the man with the chain, pulling on the chain allowed him to pull the youth to his feet and start walking again.

The castle was huge but the youth didn't dare look up for fear of being punished, if he were to look up he would be beaten and then the man would just sell him on another day. They walked to the front gates where they were greeted by armed guards.

"Easy there big guys, I was invited by the king." Reluctantly the guards moved aside to allow them to pass, the man nodded their thanks walking past with their slave following close behind.

They walked through the corridor heading for the grandest room in the whole castle, the throne room. It was large and brightly lit room, all the walls were white with gold patterns on the red borders near the top of the room. At the end of the room was a flight of stairs that led to a stage of sorts. The stage held one large throne that was obviously meant for a king and a smaller one right next to it for a queen.

The man pushed the youth to his knees and quickly knelt also, there was the sound of a door opening to the side of them but neither of them looked towards the sound as they knew it was the king walking to his throne.

"You may rise Adrian."

Slowly Adrian rose to his feet and looked up at the throne, the king was sitting on his throne with his head leaning against one of his arms.

"My king, I have brought the slave I mentioned in my letter. As you can see he is in perfect health and is trained as well."

"He is different, but I have no use for him. You may leave, Adrian."

"Your highness, I know he may not look like much but I can guarantee that he will make an excellent addition to your stock."

"As I said he does not interest me, now leave before I throw you both in the dungeons for wasting my time." The man known as Adrian growled, but none the less prepared to leave before the king made good on his promise.

"Wait!" The voice was quiet but was heard none the less, Adrian looked around for the owner of the voice, finally his eyes set on a teenage boy with hazelnut brown hair with a lighter shade of auburn on top. He wore white pants with a red top and if Adrian hadn't seen the both of them, then he would have mistook this newcomer for the king. The only difference was that this boy had brown eyes while the king had gold.

The king looked displeased with the newcomer but he beckoned the boy to come closer anyway, the boy whispered something into the king's ear making the king's eyes widen.

"Are you sure because if I find that you released another one I will have you in the stocks for a week, blood or not." The boy merely nodded causing the king to sigh. "Adrian, I have changed my mind. I will take the slave."

Adrian smiled whatever the boy had said to the king had changed his mind, both the king and his doppelgänger walked to where he was. When they reached them, the king handed Adrian a large amount of money, to which Adrian handed the chains to the king, who just dropped them to the floor.

"Pleasure doing business with you your highness." Adrian turned to leave but turned before he reached the door. "If I may be so bold your highness but who is the boy, why does he look like you?"

"It is bold Adrian but I will answer if you promise never to set foot in my kingdom again."

"I will try my very best."

"Very well, he is my twin brother but because I was born first I was made king when our parents died."

With that Adrian turned and left the castle, he was angry that the king wanted him to leave the kingdom but he also figured it was better this way because he could set up somewhere else.

The king turned to his brother and the slave he had just bought, it had been a hefty amount of money but he just couldn't say no to his brother no matter how hard he tried.

"Jaden I am going to my study, I do not wish to be disturbed. I trust you will sort everything out here."

"Yes brother." The king made to leave for the study but stopped when arms encircled his waist. "Thank you Haou, I know I can be a bother at times but I promise I'll try harder and thank you for saving this boy."

"Jaden, you are my little brother and I would do anything for you. Don't get me wrong you can drive me crazy but all we have is each other and I want us to be together as a family." Haou pulled the hands from his waist and turned to look at his little brother. "Now, why don't you get him sorted and if you need me I'll be in my study."

The king left and Jaden turned to the boy in front of him, he hadn't moved and that made Jaden frown. He had told his brother time and again that he didn't trust Adrian and that he didn't approve of bis training methods as most slaves would just remain silent and go about their duties. Jaden always liked to talk to them but in this castle they were not slaves just merely servants, they were paid for their services and could come and go when they pleased. It had been different when Jaden's parents were alive, they would beat a servant if the tea was too cold or if the table had one thing out of place and although Jaden loved his parents he was glad they weren't around anymore to do more damage.

Shaking his head, Jaden got back to the problem he had right now which was the boy in front of him. He approached the boy slowly, he knelt in front of the boy and placed his hand on the boy's shoulder. The boy flinched when he felt the hand on his shoulder, almost immediately he regretted the action as he was sure he was going to be punished because he could see the mouth of the person in front of him and when he flinched he saw the mouth frown deeper than it had before. Closing his eyes he waited for the punishment, but nothing happened.

Slowly he opened his eyes again, the mouth was still frowning but hadn't moved. Slowly the frown turned into a smile and the other hand of the person came up to his chin and gently tilted it up. The boy quickly closed his eyes, he had been taught never look at your master in the eyes or suffer a punishment worse than death. The last time he had looked someone in the eyes, he had been beaten and then for three days without food and water, he knew not to make the same mistake twice.

"Hey, my name is Jaden. You can look at me you know." The boy still didn't open his eyes, he had had sadistic masters in the past that made him believe they were nice and then punished him for whatever they had said he could do and he wasn't going to let that happen again. "What's your name?"

When the boy didn't reply, Jaden sighed and let his head fall to his chest and that's when he saw the chains still attached to the boy's wrists. "Do they hurt? I'll be right back with the key, so sit tight."

Jaden quickly ran to the guards outside the main doors, he knew he wasn't really supposed to go near the court yard without informing his brother first but he didn't really need to go that far. He received the key that Adrian had left with them and returned to the throne room.

The boy was shocked when the person that had spoken to him returned, they quickly released his hands from the chains. When he looked down he saw that his wrists were red and chafed from them, he had been wearing them for so long now that they were a second skin to him.

Jaden seeing that the hands were sore but the boy was doing nothing went to the throne made for the queen and opened the back. There was a first aid kit there that he had placed there when his parents had died in case there was ever a need for it. He walked back to the boy, opening the kit so that he could get the equipment he needed before sitting down to treat the boy's wrists.

Gently he took one of the boy's wrists in his hand, his other hand went to the anti-sceptic gel and began applying it to the boy's wrist. When he was done with that he wrapped a bandage around the wrist to make sure that they healed and repeated his actions for the other wrist.

"You know you never told me your name. I'm curious as to what it is." Still he was met with silence and bangs of the boy's face, slowly he smiled again. "Well if you won't tell me, I'll just have to make up a name until you tell me, how about Boris? You look foreign so I'm guessing that you've got a foreign name, well what do you think?"

The boy was so tempted to look at the person but was too fearful, he also wished to tell him his real name but had been taught long ago that slaves were there for the purpose of being seen and not heard.

"Nah, Boris is too lame and you don't look like a Boris." Jaden looked to the boy and held out his hand in front of the boy's face so that he knew to take it. When he did, Jaden pulled the boy to his feet making sure that he didn't trip. "We're heading to my room, you can take a bath and I'll make sure to get you some new clothes."

The trip to the room went in silence as the boy refused to talk and Jaden was thinking of ways to get the boy to talk without scaring him. When they arrived Jaden walked into his en suite bathroom and started the taps making sure that it was warm but not too hot.

The boy had yet to move from his room where he had left him, walking back into the room he grabbed the boy's hand and guided his to the bathroom. "There are towels in cupboard behind the mirror and some of my pyjamas as well. Just put whatever you want on except what you're wearing. I'm just need to take care of something and then I'll be back so do whatever you want till then. Just please don't leave the room."

Jaden left and the boy slowly looked up, he turned the taps off and slowly undressed. He entered the bath slowly lowering himself into it. He suddenly felt like he was in heaven as it had been nearly a year since he had had a real bath and the chance to bathe. Sure he had showered and washed but he hardly ever bathed like he was now.

When he entered Jaden's room, he saw that there was no one there but he didn't know what was supposed to be doing, it was obvious he was cleaning or making the bed as they were done already and then he froze. The last time he bathed he had been made into a bed slave, his blood turned cold, was that what he was now?

The boy began to wheeze and pant as he thought of what he was supposed to do, he didn't even remember passing out. When he came to, he was face to face with a teenager about his age with chocolate brown eyes.

"Thank God, I panicked when I saw you on the floor. You really should be careful, you could have been injured or worse!" said Jaden sternly but quickly stopped when he saw the boy in front of him was crying.

Jaden wrapped his arms around the boy rubbing his back in soothing circles and making shushing noises, trying to calm the boy down. When the boy's crying subsided, Jaden pulled him away to look at him properly. He had lovely teal hair and beautiful green eyes.

"Well now, it's nice to see your face for once instead of those lovely bangs of yours." Without realising the boy looked away from him. "Well it was." Slowly Jaden helped the boy to the bed. "This is my room, but because you haven't been assigned a room yet, you'll share with me for the time being."

Jaden remembered why he had left in the first place and went over to the desk just to the side of his bed by the door, on the desk was a basket of fruit. Jaden picked up the basket and placed it on the bed between him and the boy.

"Do you like fruit? If you don't it's fine I can get the kitchens to make something else." Jaden watched the boy who merely shook his head meaning that he would eat the fruit, however, he never made a move for the food. "You can eat, this food is all for you. But if you don't mind can I have a banana?"

The boy nodded his head as he thought that was appropriate, slowly he reached out and took a banana himself. Slowly he ate the fruit and before he knew it the basket was gone, Jaden reached for the basket to put it back on the desk but apparently the boy had the same idea, hands touching the boy quickly let go and bowed his head.

"It's okay." Jaden suddenly thought of something the boy might like, well maybe not like so much but maybe it would help him to open up a bit. "Come with me, there's someone you need to meet."

Jaden lead the boy through the castle until they reached his brother's study, he knew his brother didn't like to be disturbed but this may be what the boy needed. Knocking, he waited for the response. It came in the form of a loud grunt on the other side of the door.

Jaden entered the study and looked around the room, it wasn't his brother he was looking for but it appeared his brother was alone in here.

"Bro, where is Yubel?"

"In the gardens I think, why?" his brother replied without looking up.

"Because I want to introduce my new friend to her and I think she might be able to help."

"Okay, but don't hassle her too much. Stress isn't good for the baby and you know that she will make my life hell because of it."

Jaden laughed at the thought, a few years ago Yubel had been like the boy before him. She had been a slave before as well and Jaden figured that the best one to talk to would be her.

Jaden dragged the boy to the gardens, it was night and Jaden was a little disappointed because although the gardens looked pretty at night, they were more beautiful during the day.

Yubel was by the pond feeding the koi fish, she had only just found out she was pregnant and Jaden was ecstatic because it meant he was going to be an uncle.

"Hey Yubel, need to talk with you."

"What is it Jaden?" She had greyish blue hair on one side and white on the other, Jaden was sure she dyed it that way but never found any proof that she did. She wore black clothes that fitted her well but soon she would have to start wearing loose clothing when the baby started to show.

"We bought this boy off Adrian Gecko but he won't speak, won't look at me, he flinches every time I touch him and he won't eat until I tell him to." Yubel looked at the boy, she smiled sadly at him as she had been doing the exactly same thing years ago. Slowly she walked up to him but he refused to look at her.

"Hello, I'm Yubel Yuki. I'm Jaden's step-sister. It's alright nothing bad will happen here." She said quietly as not to scare him but he refused to do anything. "Jaden maybe you could leave the two of us alone for about ten minutes."

"Ok, I'll be feeding the fish at the far end of the pond if you need me." Jaden walked off leaving the two alone.

"I used to be just like you, you know. I was a slave once." The boy looked up in shock at her, he hadn't expected that. "It takes some getting used to but the Yuki's are wonderful people they help people when they can."

"H-How?" The boy stuttered quietly forgetting that he wasn't supposed to speak.

"How did I become the wife to the king of this kingdom?" when he nodded, she smiled again. "I was brought here by a slaver, he and his people had attacked my village and took all the women and children as slaves, they killed all the men as they were too defiant...We were then trained in how to be the perfect slaves and after years of being passed down from master to master, I was found by the Yuki siblings. They had come to town for a carnival taking place and they saw me in the cage, so they bought the carnival and set me free. I refused to leave as they had bought me and that made me theirs, I expected them to be nasty spoilt children instead they were kind to me and help me to get better. Haou was the one who looked after me and so we fell in love, but until his parents died, our love could never be as I was a slave and he was a prince but when they died, Haou declared his love for me in front of the entire kingdom and asked me to marry him and of course I said yes."

The boy looked astounded, he couldn't believe that this woman was once a slave but was now queen of a kingdom.

"Jaden is naïve but his heart is in the right place and trust me when I say talking to him would help because I know he will listen to you, you aren't a slave anymore and that means you have rights and the right to speak is one of them, another one is looking people in the eyes." The boy nodded, Yubel smiled before waving to Jaden to tell him he could come back. Yubel left after kissing both boys on the cheek.

"Shall we sit in the gardens for a while or do you want to go in?" He didn't really expect an answer but the boy headed towards the castle so Jaden followed. Jaden guided him back to his room where he collapsed onto his bed, the boy stood in the doorway waiting for something. Jaden quickly realised he was waiting to be invited in.

"You can come in...and make yourself at home, there's not much to do but if you're tired the bed is there."

Jaden quickly dressed into his pyjamas and crawled into bed he was about to turn the light off when he saw the boy lying on the floor by the foot of his bed.

"What are you doing on the floor, the bed is big enough for two." Immediately after Jaden said those words, he wished he hadn't, the boy's eyes had widened and he started to hyperventilate. "I'm sorry, did I say something wrong if you want I can get another bed in here if that makes you feel better."

After getting his breath back the boy looked at Jaden and slowly made his way to the other side of the bed, he also crawled into it and felt surprisingly warm. Jaden watched the boy for a while, he had his back turned to him but he smiled, it meant the boy was trusting him if only a little.

"Don't worry, I won't do anything you don't to and I won't push you to talk anymore although I wish you would because I wanna help but I don't know how. I don't even know your name and I know I joked around before but I didn't know you didn't want to speak to me. So I'm sorry for being pushy earlier."

"...It's not that I don't want to speak it's just that...that I was punished in the past for speaking and I don't to be punished." The voice was hoarse and squeaky from not being used in so long but Jaden heard it.

"You won't be punished here for speaking, as you saw with Yubel she was just like you at one point and she turned her life around and now it's your turn to do the same."

The boy turned around and for the first time looked him in the eyes willingly.

"You wanted to know my name?"

"Yes, but only if you want me to."

"I do, my name is Jesse Anderson."

X.X.X.X.X.

What did you think?

I actually wanted to make Haou the bad guy initially but then decided against it because I like him like this, being protective of his brother but at the same time having the responsibilities of looking after a kingdom.