Hetalia - Axis Powers Fan Fiction ❯ Taming the Thistle ❯ The Thistle ( Chapter 1 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

I do not own Hetalia, Scotland is an OC, and no money is being made from this fanfiction.

"Now stay close to my side Arthur, I don't want to lose you in the crowds..."

Of course there were little crowds; most of the Market had been cleared for the king of the land and his young heir prince Arthur to wander through the pathways. Accompanied by their royal guard of course.

There were many things for sale, from furs to beads and herbs. That wasn't what the king was looking for though. They were heading straight for the slave market, where a new shipment of slaves from a newly conquered country had arrived. After all Arthur's father, King Romulus was known as a great conqueror that was feared around the world.
Arthur nodded, sticking to his father's side as they walked through the main part of the market, closer to the docks where slaves were sold and traded. There was a new collection coming in today and his father had allowed him to purchase a personal slave for himself. Romulus took him to the group of younger slaves and let his son mill about them. Arthur had never 'shopped' for a slave before and he was curious about them... a flash of red chair caught his eye and he walked towards its occupant, looking curious.
The boy was among a batch from a strange land known as Pictland. He was slightly taller and obviously older than Arthur, though with the ice in his blue eyes you would think he was much older mentally. There was no way of taming his fiery red hair, which looked like it had never been cut properly - it stuck up in spiked tufts and some of it fell to hide his left eye. He wore a patterned cloth round his waist, while his body seemed to have many tattoos of strange runes and symbols.

He had a harsh look on his face as Arthur gazed at him, glaring at anyone who dared approach him.
Arthur was not daunted by the glare, instead stepping closer. He was much more interested in the strange looking markings on the slave's skin to fear the harsh gaze watching his every move. Still looking simply curious he reached out to touch one of the tattoos on the boy's arm with a finger, "Do these mean anything?" Of course, he had no idea if the slave could speak English, but he thought he would ask anyway. Something about the other boy had attracted his interest.
The boy pulled his arm away, as if Arthur's touch had Byrne him. Though he didn't respond verbally, he gave a nod. He had a basic understanding of what Arthur was saying; he just couldn’t re-create it to communicate. Still, he didn't seek too happy with Arthur's interest in him.
At least the boy understood English, even though he didn't speak it, which made Arthur smile a bit. Perhaps it would be fun to teach the red-headed slave English. He was too excited to notice the hostility rolling off of the other as he called to his father, stating that he had chosen a servant. Turning to look at the older boy Arthur asked, "What is your name?"
The boy snarled at the slave trader who clasped a collar around his neck and handed the end of the chain leash to Arthur. The trader merely smacked the back of the boy's head and carried on with his trading.

He growled quietly as his blue eyes fell on Arthur again.

"Hamish" he said.

"Come along Arthur, best we return to the palace" said his father, leading his son and new slave back to their carriage for the journey home. Arthur didn't understand that Hamish's objections might be to the fact that he was now owning the boy, instead he was under the impression that the red-head was simply in some sort of shock. So, he smiled warmly at him, reaching out to rub the bumped part of his head in an attempt to console him. When the trading was finished, Arthur turned, leading Hamish by the leash to their carriage.

The ride back to the palace was rather quiet, since Arthur couldn't get much conversation out of Hamish due to language barriers. Still, he was eager to start teaching him English.
"Now don't be afraid to use violence if he doesn't meet your needs Arthur" replied Romulus once they had arrived back to the grand palace. "And if he dares to attack you, then call upon the guards and they will get rid of the problem... For now, you are welcome to return to your quarters, I have pressing matters to attend to..."

Hamish walked slowly after Arthur, well, as slow as the chain would allow him. He obviously didn't like his new surroundings, hating it even more than the Market place. Nodding, Arthur leads Hamish along back to his room where he looks over the older boy, ".... You're kind of dirty aren't you?" Not waiting for some sort of response from Hamish he calls for a couple of maids to make a bath for the new slave. A pair of simple breeches and shirt is brought for him as well. The heir pulls Hamish into the bathroom by his leash and un-clips it from the collar saying, "I'll be waiting outside, so come and find me after you're all clean okay?"

While waiting in his room, Arthur would start to gather some books, pen and paper to teach the new slave English. He then sat on his bed, looking over a book or two while he waited for Hamish to finish bathing. Unfortunately for the new slave, he was not foolish enough to leave him in there alone, he was tended to by one of the maids who scrubbed him rather thoroughly before letting him soak in the water.
Hamish didn't trust the maid, squirming and growling at her whenever she tried to touch him. It was a wonder that he got clean. As soon as he had the chance he got out of the bath, glaring hard at it. He ignored the clothes set aside for him and grabbed his own patterned cloth, tying it round his waist again. He glanced around the wash room for some kind of weapon, even to see if he still had his own but alas, those invaders had taken all of his possessions.

Hamish grew bored in this room and exited it to glare at Arthur. He kept his distance from the boy, not trusting him in the slightest. Arthur frowned, seeing the glare and the fact that Hamish was still wearing the slightly smudged, patterned cloth around his waist. Didn't he like the new clothes? Sighing, he got up from his bed and approached him, holding out a hand. He would try to get Hamish to change later, for now he just wanted the servant to learn English so that they could at least talk to one another, "... Do you want to learn English Hamish?"
Hamish stared at Arthur, folding his arms in front of his chest and raising an eyebrow at the shorter boy. He made a noise like he was clicking his tongue.

"No. Vile language. Tongue of trespassers."

So he knew some words. Not very polite ones though. The younger boy's hand fell to his side and his frown deepened, "But how am I supposed to talk with you if I can't understand what you are saying?" He crossed his own arms, expression turning into something of a glare as his sharp green eyes looked up, unabashedly into blue ones. Arthur understood nothing of the costs of war and how upset and traumatized Hamish could have been, and probably was. Instead, all he saw was someone stubborn and unknowing of how things, at least in his point of view worked. The boy’s frown deepened as he stated in a rather ignorant tone, "And we are not trespassers, my father won your land in a war!"
Hamish clicked his tongue again, narrowing his eyes. "No war but blood bath. Little chance against trespasser's boom sticks..."

He began to wander around the room, clearly disgusted by it. "Goddess Mother would be ashamed."
Arthur followed after him so that he could keep looking into the older boy's face as he spoke, "Well we won didn't we?" Moving to stand in front of Hamish he said, "I don't know who your Goddess Mother is... but if you let me teach you English... maybe I can understand..." Voice softening a little he added, "I want to understand."
Hamish stared at the blonde boy, trying not to laugh. He doubted the boy's words; after all he was one of THEM. Then again, those soft green eyes reminded him of a boy from his tribe, who he had considered a brother...

He sighed, mumbling a few words before looking back at Arthur. "Rules" he said firmly. "I am warrior, not prissy woman. This…" he pointed to the garb around his waist. "Stays. Now you teach me your gibberish tongue, child."
"Oi! No need to be rude." Arthur said, sticking out his tongue and further proving his younger age to Hamish before trying to control himself. The little Brit huffed and picked up a couple of sheets of paper. Carefully he drew out letters at a table, showing them to the slave and trying to make him copy each of the sounds they made and how they built up into words.
Hamish didn’t have a very long attention span, so he struggled to actually concentrate. When Arthur spoke he just seemed to stare into the distance, deep in thought.

Then he would get annoyed if Arthur broke him from his day dream. Mostly by growling at him. But Hamish did manage to learn some words begrudgingly before he gave in and lay down on the floor, trying to sleep.
Realizing that the other was tired, Arthur put away the books, paper, pens and ink. Seeing the other on the floor he sighed and pulled on his arm, trying to get him to sit up. "Come on..." The boy urged, normally servants weren't allowed to do this, but he saw Hamish as his personal slave, so it must be okay... He pulled him up onto his bed saying, "Sleep with me."
"You are a few moons too short for that..." grumbled Hamish as he was disturbed yet again and forced to move. He wasn't quite sure whether he liked the bed better than the floor but the blankets were decent enough. They didn't smell like sheep though, which annoyed him.

But soon enough he was asleep, circled up on his side.
Arthur frowned, not understanding what Hamish meant, he was just sharing the bed. It had to be more comfortable than the floor didn't it? Sighing to himself, he too curled up under the blankets and fell asleep. Hopefully in the morning, he’d be able to start working on Hamish’s English again and maybe the older boy’s mood had improved…
A few years passed and Hamish was now a late teenager, nearly reaching adulthood. He had been unable to escape the damned palace and was stuck as being Arthur's servant... Though in all honesty he didn't do much. Arthur was more focused on teaching him English to give him any tasks.

He would still look out the windows longingly, desperate to be in his homeland and with his people. It was unlikely to happen ever again, but he clung to the dream desperately.

The slave was able to make decent enough conversation with Arthur, even if he was a little slow and his sentences sometimes sounding quite broken... And slowly he no longer saw Arthur as an irritating child... Just an overly curious companion of sorts.
Having hit is mid-teen years Arthur was now spending more and more time learning the politics of his nation and how to run it. Slowly, he was learning more about Hamish’s culture and had, for the most part, grown out of some of his childish ideas about the world. Some things, like his views on those in power and how the chain of command worked… stayed. Any time spent outside was normally going over the English language with Hamish, true the older boy was a slow learner but he was picking it up. Though he would never say it out-loud, Arthur found the accent he clung to a bit interesting, maybe even cute? Hamish was picking up habits of Arthur’s languages slang, while Arthur was beginning to adapt the servant’s mannerisms, such as clicking his tongue when he was irritated.

On this particular day he returned to his room after some battle tactics lessons from a retired general and found Hamish at the window. It was probably the most common spot in his room that the slave hung around, Arthur walked over to him, "Hello." He greeted, dropping his cloak over the bed.
Hamish took a moment before he realized that Arthur had returned to the room. "Welcome" he replied, scratching the back of his head as he yawned. He glanced down at his garb, which now due to his recent froth spurt had become too small for him.

He needed the materials and tools to make s new one, because he still refused to wear any clothes that Arthur tried to supply him with. "I need a sheep."
Arthur blinked in surprise at the request, "A sheep?" He thought for a moment and nodded, "Okay... I think we can head to a local farmer this afternoon and get some wool for you. How does that sound?"
He would have preferred to have an actual sheep but he nodded, deciding that the wool would do just fine. "And a tree. Need wood and stone, to prepare tools and such."
At this Arthur hesitated, he was sure that his father would not object to getting the servant his own wool, but tools? "Should... should we see if another of the labor servants has tools you could use?" He offered in a softer tone, he wanted to help Hamish but also wanted to keep up appearances. It would be silly if it looked like he was running around doing errands for his own servant wouldn’t it?! Still, it had been nice, once that initial barrier of antagonism between the two of them had broken…
Hamish frowned a little at the thought. How could he work with another man's tools? That would be disgraceful. "They will not work, they will not be mine. They would betray my hands and ruin my work."
Arthur sighed, "I'll see what I can do." Looking at the clothes the other always insisted on wearing he did see that it was beginning to grow a bit short on him… For some reason, that made his stomach squirm just a little. Shaking his head to clear it, the heir spoke, "Come along then... let’s go get some supplies for you." Motioning for the servant to follow him, the young heir headed out of his room and out of the castle. The slave actually managed a smile as he followed Arthur. Now he was pretty sure that the other slaves didn't get this treatment so he was grateful for that at least.
The British heir lead Hamish out of the estate gardens to one of the farmers nearby where he would buy a decent amount of wool and some pieces of wood and metal for the servant to fashion into tools to use to make his new clothes. Handing the bundle of supplies to Hamish to carry he asked, "Is there anything else you want?"
Hamish shook his head, quite glad that Arthur was pretty much a push over. It seemed he would give him anything but his freedom. "That's enough" he replied to the boy, holding the equipment close to his chest. It felt good to be able to craft his own tools, he'd feel safe.
"Good..." Arthur said huffily, trying to demonstrate his dominance over the servant, "Because you wouldn't be getting anything else anyway." Walking back up to the estate, the heir returns to his room. Settling down on his bed he grabs a book and opens it, beginning to read in a sulky manner. He hadn't let Hamish push him into this decision had he? Still... the servant looked happy as he started to work.
Hamish couldn't help but smirk in all honesty; it was amusing that the smaller male was attempting to appear more dominating when he could easily dominate the other. He began to get to work, first cutting at the wood to form his tools. Then, with the tools he wove the wool, until eventually it looked like a long piece of cloth.

He smiled, ignoring the cuts on his hands and replacing his old tattered cloth with the new one. He was so happy with the change. Arthur got up and walked over to the station that Hamish had set up, looking over the new cloth that the servant was wearing and... "You've cut yourself." He commented with a click of the tongue, still trying to show that, even though he enjoyed Hamish's company he didn't want anyone to think that the older boy had any measure of control over him. "You should take care of that; I won't be giving you any slack with chores if you hurt your hand.”
Hamish tilted his head at Arthur and then began to laugh. He was copying his movement with clicking his tongue when displeased and was still trying to be dominant.

"You are amusing" he chuckled, ruffling Arthur's hair.
The heir huffed, knocking away the hand in his hair, "Do not treat me like a child Hamish." His scowl deepened as he realized just how childish that sounded. Crossing his arms and realizing too late that it made him look even more like the sulky teenager that he was, added, "Don't forget that I am your master here."
Hamish allowed a smirk to grace his face. "You say jump, and I won't" replied the servant with a tilt of his head. "I am not intimidated by you in the slightest, Little Rabbit~"
For a second Arthur simply stared at Hamish, caught off guard by the blatant refusal to submit, and then he glared. "I am not a rabbit and you /will/ do as I say, servant!" His arms lowered to clench fists at his side, why was this red-headed boy always so frustrating? Sitting there smirking like that... he just didn't get it.
Hamish laughed quietly and leaned down so that blue eyes met green. Then he grabbed hold of Arthur's wrists and pressed a kiss to his lips, a quick and strong one before pulling away.

He stood up straight, licking his lips. "You taste like a rabbit."

To be continued...
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