Vok'Rul talked harshly outside of the office. Viktor could hear his steady footsteps, followed by the long drag of his tail, as he paced around the room. He was talking to someone, but there was no one answering him. Either the alien had gone crazy, or he was talking on the phone. 

His thoughts were slow and sluggish, but he wondered what an alien phone would even sound like. Did they have texting, ringtones, and emojis? Alien emojis were something that he could get behind. 

He barely even noticed Vok'Rul crouching in front of him until something brushed against his leg. He jumped a little, startled at his lack of awareness. He glanced up. Vok'Rul had his phone in his hand. What was surprising, however, was that the other person on the call was hovering above the phone. It reminded Viktor of Star Wars. 

Distracted by the phone, Viktor forced himself to see what touched his leg. It was Vok'Rul's claws, lightly brushing against his shin. Viktor squeezed himself back into the closet some more, which wasn't too hard considering its size, and flinched as the movement sharply drew Vok'Rul's attention. The alien whispered something, tone reassuring, but Viktor merely squinted at him.

"Stop," he muttered, voice barely audible to his own ears. Vok'Rul withdrew his claws and looked at him worriedly. Viktor dropped his gaze back to his knees. What did it matter, anyhow?

He slowly became aware of his body aching. It was like his speaking brought him back to himself. Bruises probably littered his body from his tumble down the stairs. His eyes were heavy with exhaustion, so he shut them. He felt sick to his stomach.

Vok'Rul went back to murmuring incessantly at whoever was on the 3D hologram, and Viktor just wished that he would get out of the closet and talk somewhere else.

The alien stood to his full height and started pacing around the room. His voice was getting louder and louder, sharp with worry. Viktor let out an annoyed sound, wordlessly trying to tell him to shut the fuck up. It didn't really work, and now Vok'Rul was back in the closet doorway, trying to get him to look up. Ugh.

He went away, mercifully. He even left the room. Viktor was left with peace and quiet.

At least, until Vok'Rul came back in, wheeling the carrier that Viktor had come in with him.

His throat closed, and he felt like he could barely breathe. His back was pressed against the wall of the closet before he could even blink. Vok'Rul looked distraught at his reaction, glancing between him and the carrier. He stepped toward the closet, and Viktor let out a whine that he would deny making until the day he died.

The alien didn't seem to care about his wordless protests, though his face tightened in dismay. He crowded into the closet, grabbing Viktor with ease. There was no way to escape his sanctuary, which he had specifically chosen for its confinement.

Viktor fought, perhaps harder than he ever had at the arena. He would be damned if he ever let himself be put in a cage again. He kicked at the alien, mercilessly aiming for soft spots he knew were on the human body and likely on the alien's body, as well. He screamed and yelled, cursing and pleading with Vok'Rul to stop, stop it you motherfucker, please don't make me go in there. He struggled and squirmed, but the alien had an iron grip. Viktor didn't make it easy for the alien, but he still ended up in the carrier, nonetheless.

As soon as the door clicked behind him, Viktor threw himself against the cage walls. It was as cramped as he remembered. He could barely move his arms and legs without colliding with the cold material. His throat felt heavy, weighed down by the invisible collar. Its prongs were sharp into the soft flesh of his neck, and no matter how hard he pressed on his throat, it wouldn't budge.

The carrier was moving, and Viktor was distantly aware of more than one alien outside of it. The sharp sting of betrayal filled every sense. Was Vok'Rul getting rid of him, then? Bringing him back to the pet store? Viktor tried to convince himself that he didn't care what the alien did and that he'd be glad to be back at the pet store, filled with monsters he knew nothing about except where their weaknesses were, filled with the overwhelming scent of their odor, hay, and the disgusting goop they got fed, filled with.. with...

Viktor was knocked to the floor of his prison when someone lifted it up. He let out a wordless shout of anger, kicking the bars of the cage door. He heard Vok'Rul murmuring, face peering into the slots of the door. Viktor reached over and punched the door as hard as he could, relishing the way the alien flinched back despite the sharp pain in his hand. "Fuck you, you stupid alien bastard!" he screamed, horrified to find his voice choked with tears. He felt them start dripping down his face.

He struggled and writhed in the carrier to no avail. Wherever they were taking him, he had absolutely no choice in the matter. Maybe they were finally going to kill him. He shook his head, pressing his face into his hands hard enough that he started seeing shapes under his eyelids.

He was loaded up into a car like a bag of groceries, tossed haphazardly onto the floor. He snarled, slamming his fist against the wall. The sound got muffled by the car door sliding shut. Indistinguishable murmuring danced on the edges of his hearing. Viktor paid it no mind and tried to break out of the carrier, knowing it was useless. The latch to the door was above where he couldn't reach. He briefly thought about tearing the cast off his arm to use as some sort of lockpick, but it was flimsy enough that it wouldn't be any help.

Viktor tried calming his racing heart, sick to his stomach with the whiplash his emotions have gone through over the last day. His face was all scratchy from tears that wouldn't stop.

"I should've skipped school that day," he muttered to himself, gripping the thing bars of the cage door hard enough to leave marks on his hands. "I should've stayed home, slept till noon, and ate junk food. But no, it wasn't bad enough that I was abducted. Had to fight for my life in the-" his voice hitched and wavered, and he stopped talking.

Now, he was here in this carrier. Probably about to get shipped off back to the pet store. No one else would want him, Viktor realized slowly with a creeping sort of dread filling him. He was not very mentally stable right now, he could admit. What kind of alien would want an unstable pet? If he were a dog back on Earth, he probably would have already been euthanized.

Anger sizzling out of him like air from a balloon, Viktor slumped against the carrier. He didn't know if he wanted to live, that was the issue. He would never seek out death intentionally, but if he were to die tomorrow, Viktor thought that he really wouldn't mind.

Resigned to his fate of being dumped back at the pet store like an unwanted animal, Viktor barely reacted to the car door opening on the opposite side. Vok'Rul slipped in, maroon tail nearly filling up all the space in front of the carrier. He said something, and Viktor felt the car start up and move forward.

He had no idea how long they had been driving when they stopped. Viktor slid forward in the carrier slightly as they rolled to a stop. He shoved himself back to his original position, watching distrustfully as Vok'Rul exited the car, chattering to whoever was outside it.

The carrier was lifted out of the car, and Viktor shut his eyes, unable to force himself to see the pet store building come into view. Maybe if he just never opened them, this would all end quicker.

"Viktor?" someone said.

His eyes flew open against his will. Nikolas was crouched in front of the carrier, which had been opened, staring at him with wide, concerned eyes. He reached into the carrier, offering him a hand. Viktor took it, and he hoped the other man couldn't tell how hard he was shaking.

"What is going on, Viktor?" he said, tugging the teenager out of the carrier and quickly enveloping him in a hug. The ground was hard and cold under Viktor's knees, but Nikolas didn't seem to care, only offering him comfort that he didn't know he needed.

His arms were warm, encompassing, and so completely human that Viktor's eyes started watering immediately. He pressed his face into Nikolas's chest, trying to fight back the sobs that wanted to tear out of his throat. Grabbing onto the man's sweater, which was a dark red, Viktor opened his mouth to explain. All that came out instead was a choked, pitiful noise. He sniffled harshly but couldn't hold back the tears. His shoulders shook viciously. He let go of the weak restraint he had on his emotions.

"Oh, kid," he barely heard Nikolas mutter over the sound of his sobbing. Every time he tried to reign it in to speak to him, he just started up again. He felt terrible. His eyes were scratchy and aching, never seeming to stop filling up with tears. Viktor had never cried this much in his entire life, not even when he was younger.

Eventually, Viktor quieted down, having cried out all that he could. Every time he took a breath, it hitched and shuddered, but he could speak semi-clearly.

"I don't wanna be here," he admitted into the man's sweater after trying to relax in Nikolas's arms for a while longer. The older man was slightly rocking him, rubbing his back in soothing circles. He felt tears prick the corners of his eyes again, but it was easier to push them back. "I keep having bad dreams, and there's a guy that reminds me of the r-r - of the -," he grit his teeth, frustrated by his mouth's unwillingness to form the word. He could say it just fine in his head! "Of him."

Viktor continued speaking, finding it easier to breathe, even if his words wavered dangerously, "And there's this rude alien servant that threw me outside like an animal, and I can't understand anything anyone is saying, and I hate being so reliant on them, and not knowing if I'm gonna kicked out, or, or, or kicked. I hate flinching at everything, I hate these awful random attacks," he paused, lifting his head and pressing his good hand to his eyes, "and I hate being here. I wanna go home. I want my dad."

Nikolas was quiet in the wake of his outburst, but Viktor felt it wasn't a judgemental silence. The man's hand was still tracing circles on his back. Viktor dropped his hand from his eyes, turning his head so that he could see his surroundings.

They were in a house. Everything was large, but not quite at the level that the manor was. It looked homey. The floor was made of pale red wood that stood out against the white walls. There were a bunch of knickknacks that reminded him of his grandmother's apartment before she passed. Glass figurines of odd animals littered old-looking tables, fighting for space with stacks of books and papers.

"I forget, sometimes," Nikolas spoke quietly, drawing Viktor's attention back to him, "that you are only sixteen years old. What happened in that place," Viktor felt the muscles in the other's arms tighten around him, "was not something I would have ever wished on anyone, especially a child.

"It is remarkable, Viktor, that you are as put together as you are," Nikolas said, voice growing a bit cold with anger. "Most would have shut down in that place. Especially with all the abuse you went through. That selfish pig should have never targeted you."

Viktor shifted, speaking quietly when it seemed that Nikolas wanted a reply, "I dunno. It happened, I guess. I wish I knew that he was somewhere where he couldn't get me." His voice dropped to an even quieter whisper as he said, "Lilac came to Vok'Rul's house yesterday morning. I didn't know if - if that meant that he was free, too." Nikolas was shaking his head.

"Vok'Rul," he said, only slightly stumbling over the pronunciation, "does not seem like the type to watch too much... TV. Sonja watches a lot, mainly the news, I think. I saw him on the TV the first day I was here, which was about five days after you left the pet store. He was surrounded by a lot of police aliens."

Viktor felt ten times lighter. Some of the tension that had wound up in his shoulders ever since he had stepped foot on this planet dropped away. He gave a sigh of relief, sinking into Nikolas's hug some more. "That's good to know," he said genuinely. Nikolas let out a hum of agreement.

"I do not think he will get rid of you, Viktor," he reassured the teenager. He brushed his thumb over the younger one's cheek, causing the latter to look up curiously at him, eyes red-rimmed. The older man gestured with his head, and Viktor looked over in that direction. Through a doorway that Viktor had to twist completely around in order to see, Nikolas's elderly alien was sitting at a table that looked one breeze away from collapsing under its own weight. Beside her, looking defeated and concerned, Vok'Rul watched Viktor.

"He has not taken his eyes off you since you got here. I do not think he would willingly give you up. We got lucky, you and I," Nikolas said, squeezing the teenager. "Sonja came into the pet store a few days after you had gone. We had thought about breaking out to look for you. Without knowing where you had gone had made us hesitate."

The thought made Viktor warm, grateful that he had proof that they still cared for him. "Many aliens had come in to look at us, but Pink had put her foot down. Every day, she was getting us more used to them. It was not too difficult. She had good food and was easy to trust. I guess that on that day, she had decided we were ready to be sold."

It was a little weird, speaking about themselves as pets to be sold. Viktor wondered if he would have had an easier time trusting Vok'Rul not to harm him if he had spent those days acclimating to Pink. Probably not. The others had not gotten beaten as he had. "Sonja is one of those people that you can trust right away. They exude goodness. Vok'Rul is like that, too," Nikolas continued, nodding to Viktor when the teenager looked back at him with slight bewilderment.

"I am not sure where the others are," Nikolas said, rubbing Viktor's back still. His hitching breathing had gone away during their conversation. "I am not sure where your dad is, here or on Earth, or if you will see him any time soon. But I know that there must have been smart people abducted as well; scientists, politicians, anyone. They are working to prove our intelligence to these aliens, I am sure of it. We will be home, soon enough. But in the meantime, I do not think it would hurt to trust him. Even living as ... a pet, I think it is better than that place."

Viktor was quiet, ruminating over that. He glanced at Vok'Rul again. The alien had a brick of food pressed into his hands that he hadn't taken a bite out of. His yellow eyes were fixated on Viktor. He visibly brightened up when the human looked at him. Viktor felt a bit guilty.

Viktor pulled away from Nikolas, crossing his legs to sit on the ground instead of half-sitting, half-laying on the older man. The other let him do so reluctantly, settling into a more comfortable position himself. After a moment, Viktor sighed, rubbing his arms, "I guess you're right. I'll try. To trust him, that is. I'm trying to get him to realize that I'm sentient, too. It's pretty hard to learn their language, though, so I don't know if I'll have any luck." Viktor was glum in his repeated defeats.

Nikolas shrugged, "I can only say a few words, too."

Viktor picked at the cast on his arm. "I don't like that they can just..." he twisted his hands in a gesture, like wringing a neck, "manhandle me all the time, though." His hand traveled up to his neck, rubbing at the raised scar tissue caused by the shock collar. He saw Nikolas's eyes follow his hand's path, holding sympathy and regret.

"I know," he whispered. His throat was bare of scarring. The aliens at the arena had little reason to shock the others to the extent that Viktor had been when they could simply look in the teenager's direction for them to comply. The worst shocks they received were in the arena itself when they were encouraged to return to their cages. Viktor had ended up being unable to even feel those, they were so small in comparison to what he had grown used to.

They lapsed into silence. Viktor stared at his hands, trying to come to terms with all that had happened. It was reassuring, he supposed, that Vok'Rul was unlikely to punt him back to the shop. This would've been the ideal time to do so. It would probably take him a little longer to fully trust the maroon alien... but Viktor promised himself that he would try, at least. It would be hard, he knew. The distrust against these aliens ran deep in Viktor. Every movement they made was another attack against him, and it would be hard to break that habit.

Viktor met Vok'Rul's eyes again and held his gaze. He owed it to the alien to try.