Secrets of the Enslaved

"What the fuck? Is that Dr. Feelgood?”

Andy’s ears were perked up and he had his head cocked to the side, as if he were pointing one ear up toward the ceiling to hear the music through the floorboards better. His new Master grinned and chuckled, knowing that his kitten was listening to one of Mötley’s best albums as he finished the schoolwork he’d undoubtedly started before the mess with the attacking Neko. He’d always worked best and quickest when listening to music, a trait they shared, and it wasn’t much of a surprise to him.

“Yeah. Ash tends to work better and quicker when he’s listening to music,” he answered, still chuckling. “What he listens to depends on the day and his mood, but he tends to listen to a lot of Mötley, for obvious reasons.”

“That’s no problem to me,” the younger Neko said. “I love Mötley myself, and I’ve found that I work better while listening to music. Dunno about quicker, but definitely better.”

“I’d yell up there for him to turn it up, then, but I doubt he can hear us with it as loud as it already is,” Nikki laughed.

“You forget that Nekos have better hearing than humans, Dad!” the older Neko yelled right before the volume was cranked up even more.

“That’s more like it, son! Blow those speakers!” he retorted, tears of mirth welling in his eyes.

“If it’s gonna be rock ‘n’ roll, it’s gotta be loud!” Andy added, a grin splitting his face.

“Well, let’s get started on the aptitude test,” their Master said once they calmed down a bit. “We’ll see where we need to start you off at once you’re done with that.”

“Works for me,” the younger Neko agreed.

Nikki handed over the books he needed and turned him loose so he could work at his own pace. With his new pet settled in to take his aptitude test, he headed to his office to continue working on a project he’d been working on for about a month. He’d uncovered old diary entries he’d written back in 1987, only one during December of 1986, that he was planning on turning into a book.

They were from what he, and most who’d been on the roller coaster ride with him at the time, considered the darkest point in his life. Sure, it was at the height of Mötley’s popularity and therefore should’ve been the brightest time of his life, but it was, in fact, anything but. The hard times he’d experienced due to his heavy drug use, particularly cocaine and heroin, on top of the demons he fought from his own childhood where chronicled in these diary entries. His thought was that, after many interviews were conducted to help piece the random scribbles together, he’d release them as a book to help steer others away from that dark, lonely path.

Shortly after he began reviewing some of those old diary entries, he heard another voice chime in with his bandmate Vince’s old vocals. He knew from the matching pitch, and having heard him perform before, that it was Ash singing along with the album he was listening to, meaning that he was probably done with his schoolwork for the day. It wasn’t surprising that he was singing if he was done; he was a helluva vocalist, sounding almost identical to his friend, and could bash a bass like a boss, just like him.

Andy came in soon after that, saying that he was done with his test, and grinning like a fool as they listened to the older Neko sing his heart out. While he went over his test so he could grade it, Nikki heard the younger Neko humming along to S.O.S., and he grinned at him encouragingly. When his companion started the song over, apparently trying to get the bass riff again, he nodded to let him know he didn’t mind him singing along if he wanted to. With a slightly nervous look on his face, he cleared his throat and waited for the cue, then started to actually sing. Although he had to sing a bass line due to the depth of his voice, he was a helluva vocalist in his own right, and that got the wheels in his head to turning.

“Damn, Andy. Who woulda thought you can sing like that,” he said, whistling when he was done.

The younger Neko merely blushed in response, apparently embarrassed and unused to accepting compliments.

“Hey, there’s no need to be embarrassed.” Nikki looked straight at him, his glasses still perched on his nose. “I dunno if you could hear it, but Ash was singing along with it, too.”

“He was?” Andy asked curiously, apparently surprised.

“Mmm hmm. That boy’s such a singer, it’s not even funny,” he chuckled.

“I never heard anyone else, though,” he said, his ears twitching.

“He sounds almost identical to Vince; sometimes it’s hard to tell ’em apart,” his Master told him. “In fact, they sound so much alike that, once he hit puberty, Ash would oftentimes come on tour with us and fill in for him when his voice was shot.”

“Seriously? What a childhood he had with you,” he said, sounding a bit jealous.

“I took him with me mainly so I could keep an eye on him,” Nikki said. “With him being a submissive Neko, I didn’t wanna leave him at home, especially with my ex-wife, Brandi.”

His new pet merely looked at him, but he knew he was curious.

“While she was a great mother to Gunner, Storm, and Decker until a certain point, she was never very fond of Ash.” He sighed, but he knew by the look on his face, he could tell he was pissed. “She kept telling me that I needed to send him to an orphanage since she didn’t know he was a Neko. I refused to do it, saying that his parents had made me his godfather for a reason, and that I loved him like a son.”

“So you took him on the road with you to make sure he stayed safe,” Andy said, nodding his understanding.

“Exactly. I didn’t want a vicious Neko to get him, or for Brandi to turn into Cinderella’s evil stepmother, in my absence. I also didn’t want him accidentally exposing his true nature to her if he got scared enough.”

Moments later, the volume of the music from upstairs was reduced before it stopped playing altogether. Knowing that his pet had never known the extent to which his ex-wife had hated him, Nikki snapped his mouth shut and motioned for his new pet to shut up, as well. The younger Neko was quite astute and immediately understood what he was trying to tell him and acknowledged the unspoken message with a nod.

“Hey, Dad.” Ash appeared in his office doorway, his footsteps eerily silent in comparison to a human’s. “Can I use your bass for a bit?”

“You still like my ol’ Thunderbird that much?” he chuckled, pulling his keys from his pocket.

“Well, I’d rather have a Dean because I like their sound better,” he admitted sheepishly, “but I’ll take what I can get.”

“Now you know there’s more than enough money to go around,” Nikki scolded halfheartedly. “If you want a Dean, I can get you a Dean.”

“You already spoil the others so much I never wanna ask for anything.” The older Neko hid his face behind his hair.

“Ashley, you’re like a son to me. You always have been, and you always will be.” He handed him the bass he’d asked for, gently using his fingers under his chin to raise his face. “I’m not gonna treat you any different than the rest of the kids, right down to how much I spoil you.”

He blushed furiously, especially when he realized his companion was in the room.

“I love you, Ashes.” Nikki wrapped him in a tight hug.

“I love you, too, Dad.” He returned the hug, but for some reason, he wished it was Andy who was embracing him and wrapped in his own arms.

Once he was released, Ash left the office with one of his “dad’s” favorite Gibson Thunderbirds in hand, leaving the older man and his companion alone once again. The younger Neko still sat in the chair across the desk from where their Master had been sitting, his tail twitching slightly. He, too, was attracted to his companion, despite having never identified himself as gay, and he couldn’t help but feel jealous of the older man. He’d enjoyed the time he’d held him in his arms and wished he could do so again.

Seeing the look on his new pet’s face, Nikki chuckled as he guessed what the problem was. Having had to raise himself on the unforgiving streets of Los Angeles after his mother’s unfortunate and untimely demise, he’d never really known any love. He hadn’t mentioned any friends he could’ve made during those harsh years, but even if he did have friends roaming around out there, that didn’t mean their love was exactly what he wanted. He admitted that there were a few other Nekos he’d befriended over the years, primarily because of their love for music, two of which he envied greatly, but other than that, Andy was silent. He made it clear that, so long as they weren’t vicious, they were welcome to come hang out anytime, so long as he could get in touch with them.

The younger Neko grinned at his Master, his ears flicking backward as he caught strains of a bass riff that he’d never heard before. He listened intently to Ash’s playing while Nikki continued grading his test, wanting to know if it was something he’d just never heard, or if it was an original piece the older Neko’d written himself. If he was a bit of a songwriter, that might bode well for their blossoming friendship. No one knew it, but he was a songwriter himself, and having a companion who shared his passions could only bode well…especially if that companion was a fertile with whom he could start a relationship later on down the road.



Ash completely ignored everything happening in the house around him as he played, uncaring if his Master and companion heard him or not. He was a talented vocalist and a skilled bassist, something he knew like the back of his hand because he’d been told so many times, and he couldn’t help but feel a bit egotistical due to that. In fact, he felt so egotistical because of having gotten all of those compliments over the years that he didn’t care if the other two figured out that he was playing a song he’d written himself.

It was a song he called Saviour, something he usually didn’t play, much less sing, unless he was in one of his more depressed moods, usually brought on by the anniversaries of his parents’ deaths. He was still feeling a bit depressed over their deaths at the moment, the anniversary of his mother’s having been just a couple short weeks ago, but the attack that morning had left him feeling a bit depressed, on top of it.

He felt bad for running off and leaving Andy to protect both of them at first, but he also felt bad for having to end another Neko’s life, even though it’d been in self-defense. A chuckle bubbled up from his throat as he thought about one of his favorite series of books, the Paranormal Romance series by Cheyenne McCray, as his fingers continued picking out the bass riff to Saviour of their own accord. If he and the younger Neko were any of the characters if that series of books, Andy likely would’ve been one of the D’Danann warriors named Hawk, while he himself would’ve been one of the gray D’Anu witches. He refused to kill unless there were no other alternatives, and obviously felt bad afterward if he did, but his companion didn’t seem to have such qualms.

Eventually, Nikki appeared in the doorway to his bedroom, chuckling as he took in his position. As was typical due to his odd quirks, he stood on his head at the edge of the bed, his back arched so that his ass and legs were stretched out across it. He used his tail, which was stronger than it looked and far stronger than a normal housecat’s, to support the bass from what normally would’ve been the top. His hair lay spread out around his head since he was upside-down, and he had his ears tucked against his head so that the headstand wouldn’t hurt them before he got up.

“Having fun there, son?” the older man asked, chuckling as he spoke.

“Of course, Dad,” Ash answered, grinning as he looked up at him. Since Nikki was easily six-four, he typically had to look up at him anyway, but he really had to when he was upside-down with his head on the floor.

“You need some help getting up from there?” he asked, still chuckling.

“That’d be nice since I’m gonna have a head-rush from Hell,” he answered, using his tail to put the bass on his bed.

“Yo, Andy! Can ya come up here and gimme a hand real quick?” Nikki called down the stairs.

“Be there in a sec!” the younger Neko responded, and he heard a chair being pushed back a moment later.

“Did you really have to call Andy up here, Dad?” the older Neko whined.

“I think he’ll find it amusing,” he laughed. “Besides, you know it normally takes me and Gunner both to get you up from there when you do that.”

“You’re a meanie,” he said, pouting at him.

“What’d you need, Nikki?” Andy asked, unable to see him because of where their Master stood.

“Just some help getting Ash up,” Nikki laughed.

The younger Neko started to question him until he stepped around so that he could see him. “What the Hell are you doing a headstand for?”

“He always does that when he’s playing,” the older man answered. “Don’t ask me why he started doing that; I doubt I’d wanna be upside-down while playing a bass.”

“Because I like it,” Ash answered, trying to shift a bit as his head began to hurt. “Now am I gonna get a hand up, or am I gonna have to back-flip off the bed again?”

“You get one arm and I’ll get the other,” Nikki said, addressing his new pet. “It’ll take both of us to get him upright so he can scoot onto the bed a bit more. That, and we’ll likely have to hold him up for a couple minutes because of the head-rush he’ll undoubtedly get, no matter how slowly we sit him up.”

“Works for me,” Andy agreed, nodding as he stopped by his right side.

His companion grabbed his right arm with one hand, the other sliding beneath his shoulder blades to help support his torso as they sat him up. His Master grabbed his other arm while using the opposite hand to support his head and neck the same way he undoubtedly had when he was but a kitten. On a count of three, they lifted him up as slowly as they possibly could to minimize the effect of the head-rush he was gonna get. Ash felt his abs crunching as he was sat up, letting out a soft groan from both his muscles working to get him upright and the way his head pounded from the head-rush.

The two of them stayed beside him and held up up, both of them feeling the slight sway of his body as disorientation took over for a moment. After a few moments, the dizziness left him and he was able to sit up without their help, but they still refused to leave. Once he felt up to walking, Nikki headed back downstairs to get started on lunch while Andy helped him down the stairs to make sure he didn’t fall.

Downstairs, they headed into the kitchen to see their Master already browning ground beef and Italian sausage while he waited on water to boil in the pot beside him. The scent was more appealing to them than most folks since they were part cat and, with a mischievous glance at each other, they got on all fours and crawled over next to him. Once beside him, they started purring loudly as they rubbed their cheeks against his calves, their ears perked up and their tails twitching happily behind them.

Nikki let out a soft chuckle, then had each of them look up by snapping his fingers. The older Neko, already knowing was he was going to do, looked up and held his mouth wide open like a cave. He chuckled again as he dropped a piece of the meat into his mouth, watching as he closed it and began chewing on it. Once Ash had his piece eaten, he purred again to compliment the chef, then crawled away since he knew he wouldn’t get anymore before lunch was ready. Their Master then repeated the process with Andy, who decided to just go sit in the floor by his companion rather than annoy him too much by begging for something he knew he wouldn’t get. Their silence just made all their bonds that much stronger, though, and they all enjoyed that silence.

Notes