First: A story featuring a male keeper and a female Kept.
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They rode on for a while before Jasper broke the strange silence again â not with anything related to their previous conversation, but just to tell MĂ©lanie more about what heâd found and who heâd spoken to while at the market. Â After a few minutes, MĂ©lanie realized that he was giving her notes on his business â the people that he knew to talk to, the ones that he avoided, the ways that he tried to drum up more business. She found herself snorting.
âNetworking. Â Itâs the end of the world â as we know it â and youâre networking.â
âBut of course. Â Thatâs the way that these things go. Â You talk to a few people, make a few contacts, and hope that those can parlay into more sales and more, well, jobs. Â Youâd be surprised the number of people that want to hire someone whoâs unscrupulous.â
âI probably wouldnât be surprised,â she admitted. Â âThereâs a lot of questionable stuff going on out there. Â But you–â
âMe?â Â He endeavored to look innocent.
âWhat about the woman you gave away things to? Â Or your friend with the, ah, the herb business?â
âTwo very different questions. Â The nice lady on the run, well, I was honest with her. Â If she gets on her feet – sheâs the sort of person that managed to run away and leave everything behind. Â So I think she will get on her feet – sheâll remember me kindly. Us kindly. Â Â And – well. Â I can afford to lose a little money here and there, since itâs not really losing money.â
âYou still work for the stuff you sell,â MĂ©lanie protested, a little surprised to find that she was protesting this in specific. âItâs not, say, threading the loom or sewing the stitches or dying the fabric or even using a well-placed Meentik to create things â but thereâs work involved.â
He raised his eyebrows at her. Â âYou are not the person I would expect to say that to me.â
âIâm not the person Iâd expect to say that, either,â she admitted, âbut I worked with those things, and so did the house, sorting them all out, so you mustâve, too, for them to be there. Â If scavenging is work, so is stealing.â
âYou know,â he mused, âI do think that Iâm corrupting you, MĂ©lanie. Â I canât imagine you saying something like that even a week ago.â
âA week ago, I might have been terrified to have an opinion around you. Â I donât think thatâs the same as corrupting,â she answered sharply. Â
Surprisingly sharply.
He laughed. Â âAll right, all right. Â You certainly are willing to have opinions now. Â And I love it.â He kissed her cheek. âAlmost home. Â Is there anything that youâd like to do when we get there?â
She raised her eyebrows. Â âIf youâre coming on to me, you might try a different tack. Â From this angle, all I can think is I wanted to scrub the outside of the House and see if she needed a paint touch-up.â
âWell, I wasnât quite trying to come on to you, so Iâm, ah, well, I suppose if I wasnât trying too hard, it canât have failed too miserably, right?â Â
MĂ©lanie giggled quietly. Â “Okay, that’s — what were you trying to do?”
“Well, mostly, I was – ah – um. Â Trying to determine what you wanted to do when we got home. Â And if that happens to be scrubbing the House, well, then I’ll be hap – that would be a lie, I will be willing to help you.”
“You don’t have to help!” Â She blinked at him. “I’m still the slave. Â Remember?”
“My Kept, remember? Â And that means, if I want to help you clean the outside of the House, then I can. Â I don’t have to, of course. Â But I might want to, as you are quite nice company and, ahem, a little bit of a bad — good — influence on me.”
“You keep saying things like that.” Â She rolled her eyes at him. “As if you couldn’t manage being a good person on your own. Â And yet….”
“And yet?”
“And yet I think you could manage perfectly well on your own. Â Â Â I think you could manage to be good on your own. Â I think you are, actually.” Â She smiled at him.
He leaned in and kissed her cheek. Â “You are lovely and adorable and a little bit biased by the bond, I think. Â I know that you’re fond of me and I do try to be a good Keeper, but I think that you’re a little colored by the whole thing, especially by having a Keeper who isn’t a horrible asshole.”
“I – that might be a possibility,” she allowed slowly, although she didn’t really want to admit it.
“You don’t seem to like that?” Â He tilted his head. She struggled with an urge to say anything, anything that would make him not look slightly worried.
She swallowed hard and looked away from him for a moment. Â “I don’t like thinking that my opinion of someone is — is fake. Â I never felt like that about any of my previous masters.”
“I have it on good authority that if you think your owner is an asshole and they are generally horrible to you, the part of the bond that suggests you like them and that colors your impressions of them never has a chance to fully grow. Â On the other hand, I’ve heard suggested that it forces other parts of the bond to stretch to cover that feeling.”
MĂ©lanie blinked at him. Â “Do you have some Grigori pure-blood friend I don’t know about doing a scientific study on the bond of belonging to someone?”
Surprise made her tart and the grin he responded with meant she didn’t have a moment to panic about her response. “No, not exactly. Â But I’ve mentioned I’ve had a number of Kept over the years? And I’ve been asking a couple pertinent questions here and there. I’m pleased on some level that you like me enough that your opinions are colored, but–“
“Don’t you dare try to release me again.” Â She thought her voice was amazingly steady for the panic she was feeling. Â “Don’t even think about it.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Â He bowed to her. Â “I won’t. I was going to say something more like but I do think your opinions are a little colored.”
“And yet you’re a nice enough guy to color my opinions,” she countered cheerfully.
“I — cannot argue with that,” he admitted. Â “…thank you?”
MĂ©lanie found herself smiling broadly. Â “You’re welcome.”
Want more?
That is an amusing compliment! I am somehow not surprised that Jasper asked questions – he is a decent guy with a slightly off center moral compass, and I think he genuinely cared about his Kept, in some way or another. And actually wanted things to work out, so he asked. The really crappy Owners don’t bother to ask.
Jasper thinks of himself as a Keeper, someone who is responsible for her, and so even if he didn’t like her, he’d probably treat her better than someone who thinks of her as chattel.
I realize it feels like the bare minimum standard here, Jasper, but lots of people have failed to meet it so you gotta give yourself SOME credit!