Imagine Being Loved By Me

Chapter 6

Growing up on the city streets, robbing and stealing for food and shelter, fighting to the death to claim the last piece, making promises he had no intention of keeping, all of those things sculpted him into who he was. 

The very city he was assigned to for this mission, one he didn’t visit very often, was the city he was forced to stay in, in order to complete his assignment. It was why he jumped at the chance to go to space and live amongst the stars, so he could forget where he came from. Living such a hard life as a young child damaged him in ways he was dealing with in the present. It caused him to make decisions that weren’t in his best interest because he couldn’t find another option he could tolerate. 

Before, when he was undomesticated, he stole and cheated everyone. The kind ladies in the marketplace, the cruel businessman he ran across in the street, his own peers, it didn’t matter. He didn’t have a code of honor if it wasn’t about putting himself ahead of everyone. The old and the young were equally not receiving his respect or consideration. So it didn’t matter who he stole from. 

It wasn’t until he tried to steal from The Madam of his city’s most popular brothel that he got a taste of refined living.

The Madam was always kind to the street kids. Throwing them a bone when they were desperate, as if she could relate. Liam hated her for it, he hated the pity on her beautifully painted face. But when he actually struck out against her to steal her purse one night, the look on her face was anything but pity, and the grip she had around his thin wrist was tighter than even the old butcher’s son managed to hold.

She had taunted him then, calling him a “naughty little boy” while he struggled to release himself from a woman’s grip. He remembered being indignant at her taunts, remembered yelling at her that he was 12 years old and nearly a man. He knew how immature he sounded now, fifteen years later.

It wasn’t until she managed to pull him into the moonlight to get a good look at his face that she stopped taking jabs at his pathetic attempt to rob her. She didn’t look at him long, only briefly, then she was pulling him in the direction she had come, back to the brothel.

That’s where he found out that he could make money based on his looks alone. If he managed to add a little grace and keep his mouth shut, she promised to pay him an allowance, plus feed, clothed, and house him.

He was wild and rugged, but one thing he knew to do quickly was to get his act together when an opportunity presented itself.

So, at twelve years old, he became the city brothel’s resident tea pourer for every important guest.

Sure, it took a little more than acting. He had to look the part, so the Madam had the older girls treat his hair and skin and make sure he was eating right until he was glowing. It took about a month to go from looking like a scrawny street urchin to a refined-looking, and he hated using the word to describe himself, pretty young boy.

He worked there for two years. It was where he realized life was unfair no matter where he went on earth. 

The place that saved him physically, was also the place that scarred him mentally. He would get very unruly when some of the clients were abhorrent to the ladies he had grown to care for. The abuse some of the men would inflict, the outright torture some of the girls had to endure that he witnessed, sparked in him a ferocious protective spirit. The Madam had to pull a few favors to save him from skin-splitting whipping sessions that were ordered against him, and that one time, death. All because some men felt the need to be complete animals to girls he grew to view as older sisters. 

One day, the Madam had told him a story in front of the entire house of girls. She said they were like royalty mentally. A queen in her, princesses in the women of the brothel, and a little prince in him. They had to remain dignified and, above it all, always moving as if they deserved the world, even when the world gave them scraps. That was how they would remain alive in a society that could be so evil. 

He cried himself to sleep after that story. 

The Madam had saved his hind from being killed as recompense for attacking an important man of the clan, and instead of her usual punishment, she told him that story. The lesson was to get self-control and hold his head up high, even in the face of detestation. 

What wasn’t mentioned in that story, however, was another lesson, a fact that he couldn’t ever forget. The prince could never do anything to help the princesses because, even though he wasn’t acknowledged, there was a King who ruled everything. The patrons of the brothel had right of way. Those men were the King. And if he interfered in whatever torture they were inflicting on the girls for their own sick pleasure, it would result in him being handled in any way the King saw fit. 

So he managed to get a hold on his tongue and his actions for a while after that until he met the General of the clan he was a part of now. 

It turned out, he wasn’t just quick with his movements, but he was quick-witted too and a fast thinker. He managed to impress the man over tea because he made a comment on how easy it was to steal from the army barracks at the base.

The Madam always served the General personally, so when he let those words slip out of his mouth in her presence, her hands were quick to wrap in his then long hair and pull. His neck snapped back so quickly he barely had time to react. Granted, he was much stronger than he was when he was 12. He had muscle definition by that point, and he was even quicker since he never stopped practicing, but there was something about the Madam’s strength that never seemed to wane. And though he could fight his way out of the grip of a man two times the Madam’s size, he never seemed to be able to with her.

It wasn’t until the General laughed, a loud boisterous sound that was emitted directly from his gut, that the Madam loosened her hold on his hair. He threw himself into a quick bow, begging forgiveness, but it wasn’t needed.

The General wanted to know more, he wanted to hear the story behind Liam’s statement. 

That was when The Madam was asked to allow him to leave with The General, so that he could put those fast skills and quick wits to better use. It was the start of another new life after The Madam took a chance on him. He didn’t think he would be sad to leave until he actually had to. That’s when he realized that The Madam was the mom he never had and the ladies of the brothel, his sisters. 

Brothels on every planet in many cities are always a popular meeting place for important men, sometimes to recreate, sometimes to discuss business. Whenever he is requested to meet at them, because of his past connection to a popular brothel, he could never bring himself to engage with the woman beyond accepting tea.

The Madam and the girls, though not the same, are forever ingrained as his family. Ladies he should forever respect, and at times, defend. 

Even if it was only in his heart.