He’d closed his eyes again, ready to sleep the rest of the morning off, when he heard the distinct chime of the doorbell. His tablet started buzzing, too, in a distinct pattern that warned Johan exactly who was calling.

His mother.

He wanted to ignore her, but Anna Tracht wasn’t one who gave up easily. With a frustrated growl, Johan rolled over so he could answer Anna’s call—voice only.

“Oh, good, you’re awake,” Anna said cheerfully. “I’m coming in.”

“Don’t!” Johan said. “What do you want, Mom?”

“Nothing I can say over comms. I’ll see you in a few minutes.” She hung up on him, giving Johan no opportunity to deter her.

Fuck. Johan sat up and squinted at the state of his bedroom. He wasn’t sure when the last time he’d changed his sheets was, and he couldn’t see the floor at all. He still stumbled out of bed to pull on sweats and a shirt, both of them from the vicinity of the laundry basket. They were clean enough, probably. It wasn’t like Johan exercised in these clothes.

He really didn’t want to be awake. Johan shuffled through the mess in his bedroom and shut the door behind him just in time to see his mother walk through the front door. If it were up to Johan, she wouldn’t have access, but it was hard to lock her out when his parents owned the apartment.

The first thing Anna did was wrinkle her nose and say, “This place is a sty.”

“You don’t have to visit,” Johan answered defensively, skulking toward the kitchen island.

It wasn’t like he didn’t know the place was a mess. The coffee table in the living room was covered in old plates and mugs, while sweaters and jackets were piled up on the chairs. Dirty plates were stacked up on the kitchen counters. The floor was visible, at least, because Johan knew his mother liked to do these unannounced visits and it wasn’t worth listening to her whining when she couldn’t make it to the couch. There used to be a vacuum that ran automatically to clean the floors, but it had gotten stuck on something and broken, and Johan never got around to fixing it.

“I do, because if I didn’t visit, I’d never see you.” Anna looked over her shoulder, to something out in the hallway. “Don’t stand around there like an idiot. Come in.”

For a second, Johan’s vision went white.

His mother was inviting somebody else into his apartment.

She was inviting a stranger into his home.

Johan gripped the counter and tried to remember all the breathing exercises the therapists kept pushing on him. Count to five, breathe out. Count to five, breathe in. Or maybe he was supposed to count to ten, or three, and he was breathing in the wrong order, or—

A young man followed Anna into the apartment. He was taller than Anna, with dark, curly hair and olive skin. Not heavily muscled, but still fit. The clothes he wore were just a plain beige shirt and plain beige pants.

And around his neck was a bondcollar.

Anna said something, but Johan couldn’t hear her. He was focused on this interloper in his private, safe space. It was bad enough when his family visited, but now a complete stranger he didn’t know was traipsing about his apartment.

“Who is he?” Johan asked, still clutching the kitchen counter. “Why the fuck did you bring him here?”

“Don’t be uncouth,” Anna snapped at him. “And I just told you. This is Emil Kiraz, and he’s going to be your bondservant from now on.”

“My… bondservant?” Johan looked back at Emil, and no matter how many times he went over that statement in his head, it didn’t make sense. Emil didn’t look like a bondservant. He wasn’t a thin, tortured girl, and he wasn’t a large, stupid brute. “I don’t want a bondservant.”

Emil snorted and averted his gaze, although it was hard to tell if he was amused or annoyed by the situation.

“This isn’t optional,” Anna said. She snapped her fingers at Emil and walked closer to Johan, Emil right at her heels. “Every time I come to visit, this place is worse. When I talk to the university administration, they tell me you’re skipping your classes, not watching the lectures, and failing to turn in your assignments. You’re clearly not taking care of yourself. So if you want to continue to live here, on your own, then Emil is staying with you to take care of all your needs, understood? If you don’t like that option, you’re free to move back in with me and Vasilis.”

They were too close. They were both much too close. Johan backed away, but the only real place to go was his bedroom, and he knew his mother would find her way in. He couldn’t even lock her out of his own private room.

“Please, Anna,” he wheedled, trying to bury the panic. “I don’t need anybody else.”

“If he doesn’t want me…” Emil started, very carefully, “I’m sure there are other things I can be doing.” He even took a few steps back, easing some of Johan’s tension.

“Absolutely not. After that whole mess?” Anna glared at Emil. “No, why don’t you make yourself useful? There are some anti-anxiety meds… somewhere. On the coffee table, I think. If not there, in the bathroom.”

Emil immediately headed back to the little living room area, lifting up objects in search of the pills. Not that it would do him any good if he found the medications. Half the bottles were empty, the other half expired.

“I’m fine,” Johan protested, although his hands were shaking. “I don’t need anybody. I’ve been taking care of myself.”

Finally, Anna’s expression melted a bit. “Honey, I know you haven’t.” She crossed the distance between them and settled her sharply manicured hands onto his shoulders. “You know that I’m trying to look out for you, right? But things aren’t working. You haven’t even visited your therapist recently. I can’t force you to do any of that, but at the very least, I can give you some help. Emil is going to look out for you, all right? He’ll clean up the apartment, he’ll make sure you’re getting your assignments done on time. And if you’re missing sex, he can help you with that too. I made sure his contract included sexual services.”

“Mom!” Johan covered his face to hide his blush. He hated how nosy his mother was. The few times he’d gone on dates in high school, she’d been there right after with condoms and informational packets. She offered to have her friends teach him about any sexual practices he might want to learn. She even gave him a subscription to a premium porn channel one year, probably so she could snoop on exactly what kind of porn he watched.

Anna wasn’t deterred by Johan’s reaction. “Look, Dimitri told me you’d asked about a membership at the club he frequents. If you’re into that, then having a bondservant is the perfect way to practice.”

Oh no. That was even worse. Asking Dimitri, one of his mother’s closest friends, for information on a BDSM club had been a huge mistake. He’d regretted it almost as soon as he’d asked. Dimitri had started gushing about the “baby dom” and how it must run in the family.

A rattle from the living room drew both their attention. Emil had found a medication bottle and was shaking it, the clatter of a single pill sounding deceptively loud. “You might need to get a refill.”

I don’t want a refill, Johan thought. He was tired of the drugs that barely made a difference. He was tired of telling doctors his problems only for them to suggest things that made him remember the worst days of his life.

There wasn’t anything wrong with him, anyway.

Emil read the bottle, then frowned. “This one’s expired, actually. It says it’s from two years ago?”

Right around the time that Johan moved into the apartment. Johan could have sworn he’d cleaned the living room at least once since then, but he couldn’t remember exactly when that would have been.

Anna sighed loudly. “And this is why you need a bondservant. You can send him on errands for you, while you actually attend your classes.”

He didn’t want to go to class, but that had been the condition for Johan being allowed to move out. He would attend the university and take all the appropriate business and finance classes, anything that would prepare him to take on a job at the family conglomerate. Taking classes was still preferable to being stuck in the same house with his parents.

“I don’t want a stranger living with me,” Johan said, hating how desperate his voice sounded. “I can handle my own life. Please, Mom. I’ll go get dressed right now.”

Despite the pleading, Anna gave him a cold look and said, “No. You’re taking Emil, and that’s final. His contract is for the next three years. He’s staying here for at least six months. If after six months he’s not working out, I’ll send him back and we can talk.”

“What?” Emil shouted. “That’s not the deal!” He dropped the med bottle and walked over to them.

“Six entire months? Uncle Hannes knew after just three if he liked a bondservant or not.”

Johan’s uncle was a captain on a merchant ship, transporting goods from Cadmus to Atalanta Station. When Johan was a child, there’d been a short period of time where Uncle Hannes would contract bondservants on Cadmus and annul the contracts as soon as they reached Atalanta, usually because he didn’t like the bondservant after all.

That changed around the time Johan was ten or eleven, but he still remembered his mother complaining about the constant string of contracts getting broken and the legal annoyance that caused. Not to mention Anna’s complaints afterward, when she wished Uncle Hannes was still going through bondservants instead of having settled on just one.

Anna slammed her hand down on the counter. “Johan, there’s no fighting this, so stop whining. Emil, the deal is exactly what I laid out, and if you would rather be working off your debt within a mining facility, I’m sure I can arrange that, too, and find somebody more agreeable than you.”

Emil glared at her with pure contempt, but Anna wasn’t cowed. Johan had seen her face off against more intimidating people in court, so he wasn’t surprised that Emil's attempts did nothing.

But that did give Johan a way out. He couldn’t do anything about the situation, but maybe Emil could. If Emil decided he couldn’t deal with Johan, if he was the one to break the contract first…

“Fine,” Johan said. “Send me the details of his contract so I know where all the lines are.” After a pause, he added, “If that’s all, Mom, can you just leave already?

She rolled her eyes at him but started heading toward the door. “Yes, yes. Let me know if he gives you trouble.”

Johan kept watching until Anna was completely gone.

“So…” Emil said, giving him a strained smile. “Johan, was it? Guess I’m your new bondservant.”

“Whatever. You can… clean up around here. Or something. I’m going to get changed.” Johan fled back to his bedroom, desperately hoping Emil hadn’t noticed just how rattled Johan was.