Over the next three weeks, Damon carefully started to establish a routine. He removed the dinner tray and replaced it with breakfast early in the morning while the boy slept, and only returned in the evening when he came home from the office. He kept to the same timeframe over the weekends. He refused to answer any of Gabriel’s questions regarding why he held him or how long he would be there.

Somewhere near the end of the second week, Gabriel had begun to realise that there was a pattern in the way Damon treated him. If he screamed and fought, his dinner would consist of bread and water and Damon would enter and exit without a word. If he answered the man’s questions, he would receive a full meal, and Damon would bring in a basin filled with warm water and whatever he needed to bathe himself. Damon would also make a deal with every question asked. The questions ranged from his favourite movie to the name of his last boyfriend, and the rewards were anything from a toothbrush and toothpaste to books to read or clean clothes.

Once he recognised the pattern, Gabriel tried his best not to aggravate the man. More than anything, Damon’s complete silence when he upset him, had started to unnerve the boy. He wasn’t as scared anymore, for the most part the fear had turned into an uncomfortable fluttering in his stomach every once in a while. He was starting to get really bored though, and it showed in the way he paced and fidgeted.

Damon watched the change in the boy’s attitude, and when he noticed him reading the same book for the third time in as many weeks, he changed the routine. That evening, when Damon went down to bring the boy’s supper, he sat down to eat with Gabriel and started a conversation with the boy. He didn’t allow any long silences, but spent a good two hours talking about his own childhood and asking Gabriel questions about what his life was like growing up. By the time he left, Gabriel was half asleep, and Damon turned the light off as soon as he went out.

The next day was a Saturday, and Damon spent most of the morning waiting for the outburst he knew was to come. Sitting in his study, he smiled as he watched the boy stop mid-pace to start swearing and kicking at the bed. He had expected the change in routine to unsettle the boy, and wasn’t disappointed. He went down at the same time as always and turned on the light, but went straight back upstairs to watch Gabriel from his study. The boy kept on staring at the door for about ten minutes, before he started throwing books around the room and screaming at Damon. That evening at dinner time, he slipped a tray with food through a slot near the bottom of the door before going back upstairs. Gabriel stared at the food for ages before eventually walking over and picking it up to eat.

It was five days before Gabriel eventually broke. Where he usually finished everything on his plate, he started eating less and less. By the morning of the fourth day when Damon slipped into the room, more than half the food was still on the plate. When he returned to his study on the evening of the fifth day, Damon watched as Gabriel stared at the tray of food for almost half an hour before bursting into tears and crawling into his bed. That night, the man went to bed with a smile on his face.

XXX

On Friday morning, Damon called the office to let his secretary know that he wouldn’t be in. After breakfast, he headed up to his study and watched the boy for a while. The food from the previous night was still untouched on the floor, and Gabriel hadn’t moved from his bed. At around midday, Damon went down to the basement.

Damon watched as the boy froze on the bed when he stepped into the room.

“Gabriel.”

At the sound of his name, the boy scrambled out from under his blankets and ran across the room, throwing himself into Damon’s arms. He was crying so hard that he struggled to breathe. Damon picked the boy up and walked over to the bed where he sat down, holding Gabriel to his chest and rocking him soothingly.

He only spoke once Gabriel started to relax. “What’s wrong, angel boy?”

“You ... you just left me ... you can’t ... please don’t ...” Gabriel’s words were punctuated by small sobs as he spoke into Damon’s chest.

Damon continued to rock the boy as he spoke softly. “Shh. I’m here now.”

It wasn’t long before Gabriel fell asleep in the man’s arms. Damon held him for a while longer before laying him down on the bed and softly leaving the room.

XXX

On Friday evening, Damon once again went down to eat with Gabriel. He greeted him politely and asked if he slept well, but he ate in silence. It wasn’t long before Gabriel asked his first question. Damon suppressed a smile; once again, the boy reacted exactly as he’d expected him to.

“Why ... uh ...” Gabriel licked his lips and cleared his throat before starting again. “Why did you take me?”

Damon silently looked at the boy until Gabriel raised his head before smiling at him. “That’s better, now look at me when you repeat the question.

Gabriel nodded his head, but kept his eyes on Damon. “Why did you take me?”

“Because I was drawn to you. I noticed certain qualities about you since the very first, qualities that I found appealing. You are still very young, so I had two options. I could wait to see what life did to you over the next few years, but life has a tendency to suppress those very qualities that shone so brightly in you. The second option was to break you, to strip you down to the bare essentials of who you are, and then see what you can make of yourself once the normal progression of life was taken out of the equation.”

He could see that the boy was confused by his answer.

“I do not expect you to understand yet. How much you will eventually comprehend will depend on how strong you are.”

Gabriel nodded and turned back to his food. He took two bites before looking back at Damon. “Will you let me go?”

Damon answered immediately. “Yes. As soon as it is no longer necessary to keep you.”

Gabriel nodded again at the cryptic answer, but didn’t push.

Damon watched him scraping the last of his food around on his plate, waiting for the most important question. This time, he didn’t even try to suppress his smile when the boy spoke.

“Damon ...” It was the first time Gabriel had used his name, and the man recognised the significance of this.

“Why did you leave me?” His voice was barely above a whisper, and Damon only heard him because he was waiting for the question.

“Gabriel. I left you because it was important for you to begin to realise what you need.”

Something flickered in the boy’s eyes, as though he was on the very edge of understanding something, but it didn’t stay. Damon wasn’t really disappointed, he hadn’t expected it to happen so easily, but they were definitely getting there.

XXX

Over the next two weeks, Damon spent every evening having dinner with the boy. Gabriel was often the one to initiate a conversation, and he seemed loathe having Damon leave at the end of the evening, trying to keep the man a little bit longer every night.

Damon was pleased with how things were progressing, but he also realised that they could be stuck in this limbo of civility for too long, and he didn’t want to spend more than a total of three months on this project. He knew that after that time, he would begin to lose whatever hold he was starting to have over the boy.

When his closest friend Simon called him for the fourth time in the nearly two months since his birthday, Damon decided to accept his invitation to dinner. Gabriel had started to take a two or three hour nap most afternoons, and Damon waited until he was sure the boy was sleeping before he went in to leave a tray of cold meats and cheese for him.

XXX

Damon looked around The Trattoria for his friend and found him already seated at a table by the large window in the back. He smiled as he made his way towards Simon, realising that he’d missed this.

“Damon!” Simon stood up and clasped his hand. “What the hell have you been up to?”

Damon laughed. “I’ve been somewhat preoccupied lately.” He stated as he took his seat.

Simon watched him closely before breaking into a huge grin. “You’ve met someone!”

“You know me too well, Simon.”

“So, don’t keep me in suspense. Who is he and when do I get to meet him?” Simon leaned forward in his chair as he waited for Damon’s response.

“Well, it’s still a bit ... fragile at the moment, but if everything goes well, I’m hoping to introduce you sometime early next year.”

Simon frowned at him. “Next year? That’s almost five months away.”

“I know, but he’s not currently in a position to meet my friends.” Damon smiled.

“There must be something special about this one.” Simon observed. “Usually your relationships barely make it for longer than two months.”

Damon just nodded before changing the subject.

XXX

It was close to one in the morning before Damon stepped back into his house. He headed straight for his study. The boy was sitting in a corner, knees pulled up to his chest and arms wrapped tightly around himself, in a position eerily similar to the one he was in the first time Damon went down to speak to him. He quickly changed into jeans and a t-shirt before heading down to the basement.

He quietly slipped into the room and sat down against the wall across from the boy. Gabriel was crying soundlessly, only the shaking of his body betraying him. He didn’t notice Damon’s presence until the man spoke.

“Gabriel.”

The boy froze before slowly raising his head to look at Damon. Eyes flickering over Damon’s face he nervously licked his lips; he started to get up and then sank back down again, not sure what was expected of him.

Damon smiled at him. “Come here.” He spoke softly, and opened his arms.

With a cry Gabriel stumbled to his feet and rushed across the room where he fell down to his knees next to Damon and pressed himself against the older man’s chest, hands scrabbling for purchase in Damon’s shirt.

Damon shifted the boy until Gabriel was straddling his legs, and pulled him closer into his arms.

“Shh ... Angel boy. It’s okay. I’m here now.” He pressed soft kisses against the top of Gabriel’s head as he whispered into the boy’s hair.

He waited for the fresh bout of tears to calm before speaking again. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

“You ... you didn’t come. And I didn’t do anything! I didn’t break anything, or throw anything or ... or scream or anything. I did nothing wrong!” Gabriel wailed into his chest, jerking in shuddering breaths.

“I know, Gabriel.” Damon spoke softly, rocking the boy slightly as he rubbed small circles on his back. “I just thought you might want a break from me, that’s all.” He was careful to keep the smile from his voice.

“How can you say that?!” Gabriel jerked his head back to look into Damon’s face.

Damon watched him, seeing the sudden confusion in the boy’s eyes. He pressed Gabriel’s head back into his shoulder before speaking softly.

“You don’t know who I am to you anymore, do you? You don’t know who you are anymore.”

It was quiet for a long time before Gabriel answered. “Yes ... no ... I don’t know.”

“What did it feel like when you realised I wasn’t coming?” Damon asked.

“It hurt.” Gabriel spoke in a muffled whisper.

“I know.” Damon replied just as softly.

XXX

When Gabriel woke up again, he slowly became aware of the fact that his surroundings were unfamiliar. It wasn’t his bed, and from the little he could see in the dim light coming from an adjacent room, the space was much larger than the one he’d been living in over the past weeks. He scrambled up into a sitting position and without any thought he immediately called out.

“Damon!”

Damon could hear the panic in the boy’s voice. He turned off the tap over the bath and walked into the room, crossing over to the bed. As soon as he held his arms out, the boy launched himself at Damon. Gabriel didn’t know when it happened and he didn’t even try to figure out why, but Damon had gone from being his tormentor and his biggest nightmare, to his only anchor. The thought that Damon might not come back completely terrified him. It wasn’t even that he was scared of being left alone to die. He was afraid of being without Damon. He felt as though the only reason he was able to breathe, was the fervent belief he held onto that Damon would come back every time.

Damon picked the boy up and carried him into the bathroom, where he set him back on his feet. Gabriel allowed the man to undress him like a child, without any shame or fear. He lifted his hands over his head when Damon pulled his shirt up and steadied himself on the man’s shoulders to raise first one leg and then the other to let Damon remove his jeans. He kept his eyes on Damon’s face when the man helped him into the bath and carefully lowered him until he was seated in the warm water.

“Damon!” He choked out when the man turned to leave the bathroom, life suddenly returning to his body.

“It’s okay.” Damon placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder to press him back down into the tub when he tried to clamber out. “I’ll be right back.”

Gabriel didn’t take his eyes off the door until Damon reappeared, breathing a sigh of relief when the man stepped back into the bathroom. His eyes widened in surprise when Damon started to remove his own clothes, unconsciously licking his suddenly dry lips as he took in the man’s body.

Damon smiled to himself when the boy scooted forward in the tub to make room for him to climb in behind him. Without thought, Gabriel pressed back into the man’s chest as soon as he settled into the water behind him. Damon brought his arms up around the boy, pulling him in tighter, and Gabriel wrapped his own arms over Damon’s. They stayed like that for a long time, neither one moving or speaking.

When Damon started to pull back, Gabriel tightened his arms and pressed closer into his body, only relaxing when Damon spoke. “It’s okay, I just want to bathe you.”

He nodded his head and allowed Damon to pull back so he could grab a cloth and a bar of soap. Damon carefully, but thoroughly cleaned the boy. He had him stand up when he was finished with his upper body and then turn around once he had cleaned the back of his legs and his butt. Gabriel moaned involuntarily and leaned over to steady himself on Damon’s shoulders when the man started washing around his crotch. He closed his eyes when he felt himself begin to harden, not sure what to feel or think about this response. Damon didn’t give any indication that he had noticed, only helping the boy out of the tub when he was done and drying him off with a large towel. Once he’d dried himself as well, he slipped into a pair of silk pyjama bottoms, before helping Damon into a pair as well. He picked the boy up and carried him over to the large bed, where he gently laid him down.

Gabriel whimpered when Damon stepped away from the bed, but relaxed as soon as the man returned after shutting of the bathroom light. As soon as the man slipped into the bed beside him, Gabriel shifted closer, curling himself into Damon’s body. He fell asleep almost as soon as Damon wrapped his arms around him.

XXX

AN: I know this is moving really fast, so please let me know if any of this is confusing, and I’ll see if I can slow down a bit and clarify things.

Zoo-bie: A bit dark and twisted, and kinda creepy – but yeah, a nice man. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this.

Snuffdiva: Welcome! The idea is not altogether original, but it is usually written more from the point of view of the kidnappee, rather than the kidnapper, so you kinda miss the reasoning behind the whole thing. That’s a big part of why I didn’t drag it out – I was less concerned with Gabriel’s fears and feelings, and more with Damon’s perception of things. I have to admit that I had a lot of fun writing this.