Well, for anyone who read my other slave fic, "Master?", I did promise to put this one up! I hope this meets your expectations... ;) I really like this one 'cause usually it's NEAL who's the slave...but this one has a bit of a different take to the slavery...hope you guys love it! XD

Whatever Ryan had expected, this man definitely wasn't it. Looking back and trying to remember, he supposed that he had thought that the man would be a short, fat, ugly, middle-aged pervert. Perhaps the man's remaining greasy blond hair would be combed over his bald head in an attempt to look more attractive. He would be rich, but he didn't use the money to buy an attractive, lavish house. No, he had other things in mind for his money, but he really didn't care about appearance. He would probably also be very nervous and wary of what he said, so that he wouldn't be put in jail if there happened to be any undercover cops there. He would try to hide his nervousness, but he would keep glancing around and biting his right thumbnail.

But this man was nothing like that. He couldn't have been more than thirty years old, with perfectly coiffed dark hair. His skin was the perfect shade of tan, and his teeth were perfectly straight, perfectly white. He wore a nice dark suit that complimented his physique, along with a skinny blue tie. His solid gold cufflinks had the initials NC engraved into them, and his black briefcase looked like it was made of real leather. But most notable about him were his eyes - they were the brightest shade of blue that Ryan had ever seen, seemingly piercing into him as he spoke.

Even after he'd seen him, Ryan still began to judge him, decide what he would be like. For someone who was this attractive, he would definitely be a snobby son of a bitch. He would think he was better than Ryan - which was true - and he would make his disgusted opinion very obvious. He would turn his nose up at every one of Ryan's suggestions, and by the end he would grudgingly take one who's not as terrible as the rest, and then argue that because the person is not in good condition, he would only pay a discounted price. But, it's not like Ryan could go to the law about it - he was human trafficking, after all.

But then he was surprised again, when this man spoke perfectly politely and evenly. He was kind to Ryan, even when this man probably made more money in a day than Ryan made in a year. He didn't stare with disgust at the people, and he didn't look disinterestedly over Ryan's head when Ryan spoke. He made eye contact with Ryan - though Ryan wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not - and he listened, not interrupting when Ryan spoke. He could've been a model for World's Most Gentlemanly Figure, if such a thing existed. And then, adding that politeness to his handsome features, he would win for sure. It put Ryan almost in a state of unbalance, merging this man with the one he had created, who he'd thought he really was.

Of course, many people were surprised when they met this man after having judged them by reputation. Rumors surrounded him - that came with being rich. Most thought he was a snob. Even after they met him, they thought he was just acting gentlemanly, but didn't really give a damn about them or their troubles. But they were far from the truth...but then not a lot of people knew the real Neal Caffrey.

Neal walked down the row of cages and cells, glancing disinterestedly in each. Thin, sickly people sat inside, sometimes as many as six in the five-by-five-foot cells. They looked back at him through hollowed, drugged-looking eyes. Some looked hopeful that they would get to come out, but Neal had no interest in these. Some were old, but most were young. One woman, maybe only seventeen years old, looked larger than the rest, but definitely not as healthy. A young child sat in her arms, sucking on the woman's breast, right in front of everyone. But no one cared. No one noticed. It was clear that the baby had only recently been born, maybe in the last few months or so, but there were no men in the cell. Either the father had already been taken, or the father was one of these guards out here with the whips hanging off of their belts. It was probably the latter.

He continued on, looking in each cell without trying to look like he was looking for someone in particular. He had begun to think that he wouldn't be finding what he was looking for today, when he finally got to the last cell. A lone man sat inside, probably only a few years older than him with dirty blond hair and russet brown eyes. He looked intelligent, though his clothes looked dirty and awful with use. He glared hatefully at Neal, and Neal let a tiny smile creep onto his face. He liked the rebellious ones who actually had a brain. The ones who had been born into this forced slavery didn't know any different life, and wanted to please their master or mistress, because that was all they knew. They were so boring. But this man wanted to be free, that much was clear.

He turned to Ryan. "I would like this one, please," he told him with perfect eloquence and politeness.

As the cell was unlocked and the man was brought out, Neal noticed a look cross over his face - it was no longer showing hate toward him, but rather...worry, and maybe some sadness. Neal was confused by this at first, but then a door opened at the end of the hall and a man came in, holding tightly to the arm of a pretty woman with dark hair and bright blue eyes. Neal did a double-take, confused for a moment, but then he realized that it wasn't who he'd thought she'd been. She had a look on her face, one of anger but also a little of embarrassment, and her lips were swollen and red. There was a bruise forming on her neck, and she held her arms in front of her stomach as though it hurt, like she was protecting it. Those arms had bruises forming on them, in the shape of fingers, and there were four parallel jagged cuts on each of her shoulders that looked like they had been made with fingernails. Neal knew then what had happened, but he pushed the thought from his mind. He couldn't think about that right now, about the injustice of it. He was on a mission.

Neal turned back to the man being brought out of the cell, taking hold of his elbow so that he wouldn't run. The man didn't look at him, but rather looked like he was studiously focusing on anything but the man and woman who had entered. Neal opened his mouth to say something to the man, but just then the woman cried out, cutting off what he was going to say.

"Peter!" She cried. Neal turned in time to see her wrenching free of the man's grip, running toward him and the man he was buying.

"El, no!" the man exclaimed, worry making lines on his face as he put up his hands, a motion for her to stop. She ignored his exclamation and kept running. Just as the woman - El - put her arms around Peter's neck, hugging him tight, the man she had broken free from jerked El rather violently from Peter. She cried out in protest and pain at this, and the other man - Ryan, Neal remembered - pulled a whip from his belt, raising it high as he set his sights on El. Peter jerked from Neal's grip - not that that was too difficult as he wasn't holding to him tightly - and stood between El and the whip, putting up an arm in a flimsy attempt to defend himself and her.

"No!" he cried out, visible anger for the man and concern for El showing on his face and sounding in his voice. The whip came down, cracking against Peter's arm and grazing his cheek. Both places that had been hit opened with a fresh, thin cut, blood trickling out. Peter stumbled and the man shoved him to the ground as he raised the whip again, this time aiming for Peter.

The blow was stopped by Neal as he grabbed Ryan's forearm forcefully, in a strong grip that he didn't even look like he was capable of making with his thin form.

"Stop," he said, his voice becoming less than courteous for the first time since he'd been there. He stared right into Ryan's eyes, daring him to argue, before Ryan finally relaxed his arm, looking surprised. It was only then that Neal released him.

"Get up," Neal said to Peter, though he still looked at Ryan. Peter obeyed a bit slowly, not quite sure why Neal had saved him from the whip. Did he want to beat him himself? He was the new master, after all, and in breaking free of him and then running without permission, that was his very first act of disobedience. Neal would probably want to start breaking him in to his rules as soon as he got him. He cringed mentally at the thought. He just hoped that if this man was occupied with him, he would forget about El, like what had happened with Ryan.

Neal stared at Ryan for another moment before he turned so that he was facing both Peter and El.

"You two are...married?" he questioned, sounding hesitant but curious at the same time.

El stared at him through teared eyes, thinking that Neal was going to take Peter and leave her there. Peter wasn't much different, though his eyes held suspicion with that fear as they both answered, "Yes."

Neal looked like he was contemplating something for a moment before he turned to Ryan. In a voice that left no room for argument he said:

"I'll take her too."

Nope, Neal Caffrey was definitely not what Ryan had expected. When the woman had run away from the other man - Isaac - he'd thought that he could prove himself a good master to Caffrey by beating her for her disobedience, and then when the man stepped in front of her, he'd thought he could prove himself through the man instead.

He'd been more than shocked when Mr. Caffrey had grabbed his arm and told him to stop, in a voice that dared him to argue. This was when Caffrey's voice took on a slightly hard edge, one of warning, telling him that he didn't want to cross him. Just seeing that look on his face made him want to whip himself, just to make the young, rich man happy.

But this wasn't necessary as Neal talked to the man and the woman, curiously asking if they were married. He spoke in an even voice, like he wasn't any better than them, when, in fact, he was buying them, pretty much putting them somewhere between dogs and insects on the food chain.

This was another thing that surprised Ryan. Neal Caffrey was going to buy both of them, just because they were married and he didn't want to split them up. This was a kind action, one Ryan had never seen in any slave master that came along. Most of the time when there was a married couple, or a parent with children, or siblings, the people that came along got a kick out of seeing them separated - they liked seeing their pain and sadness at the knowledge that they would probably never see the other again.

Of course, by now Ryan knew not to assume anything when it concerned Neal Caffrey. For all he knew, Caffrey was going to go home, tie up the man in a corner, and rape the woman right in front of him, when he couldn't do anything to stop it but beg. He could be just like all of the other people that came by who got a kick out of the begging on both sides, pleading with him for him to stop. There were a lot of sadists in the world.

There wasn't a lot of paperwork that went in to buying people - for obvious reasons - but still there was some, to prevent former masters from returning and stealing back the slave they'd sold years before, and it took a while to get it drawn up. While Ryan sat at the computer at the front, he watched Neal Caffrey from the corner of his eye. He stood calmly near the door, hands clasped in front of him and legs spread shoulder width apart. It reminded Ryan of a bodyguard as Neal watched his new slaves in one corner of the room. Their hands were clasped in each other's but neither spoke, though Ryan noticed that their eyes frequently drifted to Neal. But they looked away as soon as they realized that Neal was looking back at them, too. Ryan couldn't decide if it was fear or respect that made them look away. Perhaps it was just that general awkwardness that everyone had when they realize that someone is staring at them, and they wonder if they have something on their face or in their hair.

The computer pinged that it was done, and Ryan refocused on that as he pressed PRINT and the papers came out of the printer behind him. As he took the papers off, Neal picked up the briefcase he'd set on the floor and placed it on the counter, opening it up to reveal stacks of cash, each bundle being $5,000.

"I think this should suffice," Neal said evenly. "Nine million for the woman and six million for the man."

Ryan nodded silently and handed him the papers that said the married couple was his. He started to reach into the briefcase to take out the piles of money, but Neal cut him off, saying simply:

"Keep the briefcase. I have eleven more just like it."

Ryan closed the briefcase and put it in the safe under the counter.

"Thank you, sir," he said.

"Thank you," Neal said, though his voice wasn't as polite as it had been when he'd first arrived. "You have a nice day."

This time it sounded like a warning.

"Why in hell would you buy both of them, Caffrey?"

Hughes' voice was both angry and confused as he talked over the phone to the young man. Neal glanced at the car beside him, where Peter and El sat in the back, wrists and ankles handcuffed to each other to prevent them from running. The door was closed so that they couldn't hear what he was saying.

"They're married, Hughes," Neal explained, sounding slightly exasperated. "I can't split them apart just for a case, because the chances of them ever seeing each other again if I did that are pretty much nil."

"But this is a mission." Hughes argued. "You can't let your feelings get involved in this! You need to find out what Burke knows, and that is it!"

"What if his wife knows something? What if she was there, too?"

"She wasn't on the footage." Hughes said flatly.

Neal shook his head patiently, even though Hughes couldn't see him. "But there are blind spots - she could've been in one of them."

"You're basing a lot of this off of theories, Caffrey, and I don't like the direction this is taking." Hughes' voice was one of warning.

Neal rubbed a hand tiredly over his face. "I know that," he said quietly. "It's just...I saw them, both defending the other even when they knew that it meant certain pain. They truly love each other, even in their worst states."

"You cost this division nine million more dollars extra, too, after he went for six million."

"You and I both know that that woman is worth at least nineteen million alone, and the man easily sixteen million. I acted confident, and I got a fifty-seven percent discount. And even if it was extra money, don't you think it's worth it in the end?" Neal argued. "We can catch these bastards at the head of this human trafficking organization, and stop them from destroying thousands of lives."

"This is personal, I know, but you need to focus. You have one job, and one job only - find out what this Burke knows, and report back. I don't want you to befriend either of them, do you hear me?"

"I hear you," Neal said with annoyance. "I'm not a dog."

Hughes' voice softened slightly. "I know that," he said after a moment. "We just need this one thing, and we can bring down the largest and most prosperous human trafficking ring in the Northern Hemisphere."

"Copy that," Neal said, glancing at Peter and El in the back seat again. They looked the same as they did before, not moving and silent. "I'm just glad that I insisted that that glass be put between the front seat and the backseat - I think these two are firecrackers."

"Thank God. Someone has a brain."

"Some people don't know any different," Neal said with a shrug. "Still, I feel like defiant ones will be easier than the compliant ones have been. So..." he adjusted one of his cufflinks that had come loose as his voice took on a slightly disgusted edge. "I have slaves to be a new master to. I'll report back later."

Peter and El watched silently from inside the car as their new owner talked on the phone. He looked exasperated, like he was trying to convince someone of something. He frequently glanced back at the two of them, apparently making sure that they were still there.

Peter was a bit confused. No, scratch that - he was very confused. First this man had saved him from that dreaded whip, and then he had bought him and his wife. He wasn't sure exactly why - it could've been compassion for their cause, but he highly doubted that. He'd seen what owners had done to their slaves before when they knew they were married or related, and it wasn't pretty. Most of the time they would hurt one to convince the other to obey them unreservedly. Peter shuddered at the thought of what this man might do. Sure, he looked charming and nice enough, but he had seen the darkness and coldness in his eyes when he had stopped that other man - Ryan - from whipping him. This polite, gentlemanly act was just that - an act. It was all fake, and when they were alone, he would no doubt let that coldness show through, and would make his and El's lives a living hell.

But, until he dropped the kind, polite act, Peter did owe him - once for saving him from the whip and another for taking El as well, so that they wouldn't have to be separated. So he would play the part of slave - he would be loyal, and he wouldn't protest at a direction from the man. But as soon as he started showing his real side - the cruel side - he was going to get the hell out of there.

So...you guys like? Please tell me! :)