We pulled up in front of a hotel nearly a half an hour drive from where I lived. I got out of the car behind them and let them lead the way. It wasn’t a cheap hotel. I could tell by the fancy sign of the hotel name everywhere and the large and blindingly bright chandelier in the lobby. It wasn’t often that I was brought to a hotel for a night with someone, but those hotels were nothing compared to this.

It was only when we were inside the brightly lit building, did I note the kind of clothes the men wore. I wasn’t wearing the latest style, but my clothes looked like rags compared to theirs. Their clothes looked like they were taken straight out of the pages of a fantasy book with knee-high boots, high collars, even the one-shoulder cape. I was staring so much at the embroidery on Mr Mask’s sleeve that I nearly walked right into Mr Dreads’ back when he stopped to press the button for the elevator.

I could tell he noticed I’d been staring, but he did nothing but give me a closed-mouth smile, then proceeded forth once the doors slid open. I got in behind him and in front of Mr Mask. Could men who could afford to stay in this kind of hotel really need a prostitute off the street? That didn’t make much sense to me, but as long as they were going to pay me, I wouldn’t ask questions. I didn’t have a problem with playing dumb, deaf or blind in some situations.

We rode the elevator up to the highest floor and got off. I let them lead the way, walking down the corridor behind them until they stopped at a door they had to scan their hand on to get into. There was a number pad, but I had a sneaking suspicion that they had purposely not used it because I was with them.

They both gestured for me to enter first. I almost didn’t want to once I saw how clean the inside was, but I went in anyway, taking off my dirty and worn shoes near the door when I noticed the shoe cabinet. I didn’t have one at my house.

I could hear noises. More people? The further I walked into the suite, the more I recognized it as the sound from a TV. The large TV was the focal point of the living room. But my focal point was the small boy curled up half-naked on the couch. Could I really call him a boy? I couldn’t tell how old he was supposed to be. He just looked so small curled around one of the cushions.

Mr Dreads brushed past me, shook his head upon seeing the boy and took the cushion away from him. With ease, he picked him up and took him away down a hallway off to the left.

“So, where do you want to do this?” I asked.

“Are you clean?” Mr Mask asked me.

“I’m not carrying anything. Are you?” I asked. Shouldn’t he have thought about any possible diseases before picking me up and taking me to his place? STDs weren’t very common, but I doubted anyone wanted one.

“My kind are immune to human illnesses, so I do not care about what you may be ‘carrying’. I meant of any mind-altering substances,” he said, removing his cape and hanging it on one of the hooks on the wall near the entryway. “Come.” He started to unbutton his vest as he left the room, going down the hallway to the right.

I meant to follow him, but my feet felt glued to the floor. Immune to human illnesses? Yep. Definitely not human. It wasn’t like non-human beings were strangers on Earth, but if I was going to have sex with one, I’d like to know what he was. He could produce tentacles out of nowhere for all I knew. I wasn’t one to judge because I’d seen enough animated porn, but mental preparation was needed.

“I wouldn’t be able to pass a drug test, but I haven’t taken anything tonight,” I admitted. “If you want me to…” I didn’t want to. “It’ll cost you more.”

Sometimes the men I slept with wanted me a bit more compliant, so they’d give me a pill, a blunt, a line, or anything else they had. Sometimes I took it, sometimes I didn’t, sometimes it was the only way I’d get through the night without going insane or getting scared and bailing.

I forced my feet forward, and with a little jog, I caught up with him just as he disappeared into a room I suspected was his bedroom. I looked behind me towards where Mr Dreads had gone. The first door I saw was cracked, but there was another door at the very end of the hallway that was closed.

“What is your name?” Mr Mask asked.

“I’d rather not give you that kind of information,” I said, entering his bedroom and looking around. Spacious, no TV, a sofa bed, a half-empty bookshelf, a neatly spread bed, a balcony. Tidy. Clean. Not even seeing that he obviously had money was going to get me to talk. For all I knew, Mr Mask could be some serial killer or stalker. I had yet to see his full face even.

“Make one up and stick to it,” he said without missing a beat as if he had expected me to deny him my personal information.

“Kai,” I answered. “I prefer to get paid before we do anything.”

“You will be paid once you agree to my terms.”

This evening was just going to keep getting weirder I bet. “Go ahead.” I crossed my fingers, hoping he wasn’t into anything that I considered a hard no. I wasn’t into golden or brown showers, and I’d have to get offered at least two grand before I even considered doing a white dragon again. He and his friend were attractive. I’d been lucky to get a guy I knew I wouldn’t need mind-altering substances to let screw me.

Mr Mask took his gloves off and folded his arms over his chest. “You may call me Mr A. English is not my first language, so please bear with me if I do not quite understand what you say, or I do not get my point across the way I intend. Also, please let me know if I offend you. It is not my intention to do so, but I have been told that I tend to come across as very blunt or cold. I am willing to pay you a rate I devise and provide you with room and board for the night if you do as I ask.”

“Which is?”

“I need my laundry done.”

…huh?

“My belongings need to be separated by uniforms, bed linen, outerwear and denim, blankets, and casual wear which includes underwear, t-shirts, nightwear, socks, and pants that are not denim or part of my uniform. You will also be compensated for actions taken afterwards to ensure my clothing will be stored properly. Wash, dry, iron or steam, hang or fold my clothes and the money is yours.”

I stared at him for a long time in silence, waiting for the punchline. What the actual fuck was happening here? “You picked me up to be your maid?” I asked, hoping I was missing something. I had to steam and fold stuff? I didn’t even do that with my own laundry. No fucking or sucking or even a hand job? “You live in a hotel!”

“It is more of a fancy boarding house. You need money, food, and shelter. I need my laundry done. I am willing to give you what you need in exchange for you providing me with what I need. Is there a problem?”

There was no problem per se. “I thought you wanted to fuck me. You and that other guy.”

“When I asked how much you charged, I simply wanted an idea of how much you made in a night. And when I asked about you being clean, I was satisfying my own curiosity. Mr S has his own little human who would tear his penis off him if he dared stick it in someone else. And I, well…” Mr A looked away for a moment as if something else had caught his attention. “I do not fuck around.”

I exhaled heavily out of my nose and looked around the room again. This guy had given me no reason not to think this was a trap. Usually whoever picked me up could hardly keep their hands off me before we got to the bedroom. This guy hadn’t even bothered to touch me.

“There’s no catch to this?” I asked though I doubted he would have told me if there were.

“No. I am going to take a bath. By the time I get back, I will need an answer from you. If you refuse, I will personally take you back to where I picked you up. If you agree to my requests, please start immediately.”

“W-Wait!” I called when he turned his back to move to the bathroom. I had never had this happen to me before. Most times attention directed to me was either violent or sexual. “I-I’ll do it.”

“Good. The basket is in the corner. The machines are near the kitchen behind folding double doors. Please use only cool to cold water. I’d like for this to be finished by six tomorrow morning. Get at least half of your job done before then and you earn a meal. When completely finished, you will earn your breakfast as well.”

As if it would take me that long. “And the cash?”

“You will receive it in the morning after I survey your work.”

I nodded and took the gloves he handed me, taking them over to the basket in the corner of the room. I could feel him watching me, but just as I was bringing the basket out of the room with me, he went into the bathroom.

I went back out to the living room and quickly found the laundry machines. They weren’t as basic as the ones I had back home, but all I needed to do was read carefully. Easy.

I could feel someone else’s presence while I was sorting and loading the clothes into the machine but paid no attention. Mr Dreads was probably hovering to make sure I did a decent job. The clothes looked as if they needed to be brought to a professional instead of being simply thrown into a washing machine, but I was just there to carry out Mr Mask’s, or rather, Mr A’s orders.

“Who are you?”

I turned to face my company after closing the door and hitting the start button. Yep, anyone would mistake this boy for a teenager at first glance. I was six feet tall and since he just barely came above my shoulder. I’d take a guess and say he was around five feet and a couple inches tall. And that was being generous. Like the two I had arrived with, he had a strange accent like he wasn’t a native English speaker.

“I’d ask you the same thing,” I told him.

“Don’t you think you should answer me first since you’re the one in my home?”

I looked him over. He had strawberry blond curls, tan skin, hazel eyes, and was wearing nothing more than an oversized shirt and boxer briefs. A rather edgy-looking choker around his neck with a dangling metal ring caught my eye. There was a longer chain around his neck, but it was hidden inside his shirt. “Maybe you should consult with your roommates. I’m their guest, so I don’t think I should be explaining myself to you.”

“Baby, please do not talk to strangers,” came the voice of Mr S. I’d thought he didn’t speak English, but he probably just didn’t see the point in speaking to me. His voice had come from the kitchen where he was walking around in a pair of grey plaid pyjamas. It was strange seeing him go from fancy clothes to something as normal as pyjamas. “I did not wake you so you could annoy his guest. Meru eoru.”

“I’m not hungry,” the blond boy said with a wave of his hand.

A loud thunk sound startled me, making my shoulders tense. The blond boy had the same reaction, but instead of freezing as I had, he scurried off in the direction of the small table where Mr S had set out his meal. The sound must have come from Mr S setting the glass cup down on the table too loudly, but I had a feeling he did it on purpose.

I wasn’t the most curious person. From a young age, I learned the hard way to mind my own business and look the other way, but I was becoming curious about them. Earth was no stranger to otherworldly beings, but I was. I’d never even met a vacura, and they had been on Earth since before the last war before I was born.

“Are you two…?” They couldn’t be siblings, could they? Their features were so different, yet there was a possibility they were adopted siblings. Or maybe one parent’s genes were really strong in one of them. No. Maybe? “Never mind.” They looked so far apart in age, but I couldn’t really tell for sure. I mean, I didn’t even look twenty-one, but my birth certificate said so.

I leaned against the noisy machine and slid down to the floor with my knees drawn up to my chest and my eyes closed. I was suddenly feeling very tired. That came as no surprise. The week had been emotionally and physically draining. Jeff had been an emotional asshole, and then I had to bump into Phillip of all people. He was even worse than Jeff.

“Are you just going to sit there, or are you going to come and eat?”

I opened my eyes to see Mr A. He was without his mask, and I could clearly see the two black lines that started under his right eye, continuing down his cheek and neck, and disappearing where his shirt covered his chest. His lips were a tease, and I didn’t even like kissing. His hair that had been pulled back from his face in an intricate updo, now hung in waves around his shoulders which brought my attention to just how long it was. Like Mr S, he, too, was wearing pyjamas. It was beyond strange seeing him in such normal clothes.

“I thought I had to-”

“You can eat now but you will not get paid until later. Get up. You may wash your hands in my bathroom and come sit at the table.”

I had a rebellious streak in me that was itching to rear its head, but I hauled my ass off the floor and trudged into his bedroom to find the bathroom. The smell of his body wash hung thickly in the air, but I didn’t take time to inhale the fresh scent, instead opting to quickly wash my hands and return to the dining room. I sank into one of the chairs around the table, next to the blond boy who kept staring at me.

“Ooh, how obedient. I like this one,” the blond boy said which earned him a hard glare from Mr A and a poke in the ribs from Mr S who then told him to focus on his food. “Can’t I at least know why you chose to bring home a stranger?” he asked, folding his legs beneath him on the chair.

“He needs a place to stay for the night, so I am making him work for it,” Mr A explained, placing a plate of food in front of me. He stood behind the seat on the other side of me with his own share of food. “Kai, I apologize for forgetting to ask about your allergies.”

It took me a second too long to notice he was talking to me. “I can eat anything. Thank you.”

I tilted my head back to peek into the kitchen at the pots on the stove. Did they cook this? I stared down at the plate in front of me. It looked good. Smelled even better. But something was off. Was I really getting money, food, and a place to sleep for doing laundry? If there was a catch, I was bound to find out sooner or later, so I might as well accept the food now.