lol okay so this is long (and its even more dmmd woot!) okay anyway, I've been told this is kind of creepy but i don't really care i think its cute. Basically ever member of the dicksquad is going to get their own baby Aoba for a day. uwu anyway, this is Noiz's day (he's not very good with kids lol) either Mink or Clear will be next. Enjoy and as always tell me what you think
The morning came slowly. No matter how Noiz slept, he was never comfortable. Still unused to the pleasure that came with physical contact, Noiz made a point to sleep with at least one body part touching Aoba at all times. They usually slept the whole night snuggled against each other - something Noiz took an almost shameful pleasure in.
But that night, whenever he woke, Noiz always found Aoba away from him. By the time morning came, Noiz felt no more rested than he had when he'd gone to sleep 12 or so hours earlier.
The two had gone to sleep early, both exhausted from some . . . well, some activity they'd done earlier in the evening. In their familiar routine, Noiz had turned his back to the door and opened his arms to Aoba. Aoba nestled his back against Noiz's bare chest and Noiz circled his arms around the smaller man, reaching up with one hand to stroke Aoba's hair. He was careful to stroke it lightly, so lightly Aoba almost couldn't feel his fingers. Almost religiously, Noiz continued stroking Aoba's hair until he fell asleep, nestled comfortably in his arms. It was only then that Noiz could begin to fall asleep.
He woke up three times and found Aoba far away from him. He tried to pull Aoba back into his arms with some success each time, but no matter how tightly he kept his arms around Aoba, Noiz couldn't seem to keep a hold on him. Finally, around one in the morning, Noiz gave up and turned his back on Aoba, flipping over onto his stomach.
When the early light reached him, Noiz awoke with his head and shoulders hanging off the bed. Sitting up slowly, he groaned, flopping onto his back and rubbing his eyes. The room was bathed in a muffled glow. The sun strained at the blinds that covered Noiz's windows. Beyond them, Berlin was waking slowly.
Rolling over, Noiz blinked and rested his hand on his arm. He looked over the sheets towards a small lump on the other side of the bed. Throwing a look over his shoulder, he saw the flashing red numbers at the top of his alarm clock.
"Aoba." He groaned, reaching for the small lump. "Come on, we overslept. It's past 9:30."
The lump scooted away from him, sighing slightly. Noiz frowned and chased after the lump, resting his hand on the side.
"Come on, idiot. We've got to get up." He scratched the lump slightly - was Aoba sleeping on his side or something? his already slight form looked much smaller than it had last night - and sat up, stretching his back. "Yo. Aoba."
The little lump squirmed and Noiz frowned, grabbing the covers and ripping them off Aoba.
"Come on. We have to -" The rest of his sentence got lodged in his throat as he saw the form beneath the sheets.
It wasn't Aoba.
And yet, it was.
Light grey eyes blinked open slowly, accompanied by two small fists that reached up to rub at them. A small red mouth opened, revealing a set of even smaller teeth. Long blue hair swung forward into the boy's mouth as he yawned. Spitting it out, he let his tongue run over his lips, still blinking tiredly. He wore nothing but a long grey shirt, the same shirt that Aoba had fallen asleep in last night. It reached down to his knees and past when the little boy sat up, fisting his hands in the extra material at the shirt's bottom.
"What the -?" Noiz breathed, staring at the little creature sleeping in Aoba's clothes. "What even -?"
The boy looked at him, seeing him for the first time. His grey eyes dimmed then grew really wide as they shifted over Noiz's form.
"STRANGER!" he cried, pushing the sheets over towards Noiz in an attempt to scramble out of them. "STRANGER!" he screamed, falling out of the bed. His little blue head disappeared over the edge and then Noiz heard a light thump as his back hit the floor.
Noiz was completely awake now. He leaned over the side of the bed and blinked at the little boy as he lay on the floor, dazed from his fall. "What?" Noiz couldn't seem to get his mouth to work. "What?"
The little boy looked up at him, blue eyebrows dipping low over his eyes. He pointed up at Noiz with a shaking finger, fear blooming across his little face the longer he looked.
"You're a stranger!" he said shakily. "I'm not supposed to talk to you."
And then he got up and started running, little feet thumping on the carpeted floor.
"Wait, Aoba?" Noiz called after the little kid as he saw his blue head round the side of the bed.
"HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME!" the little boy cried, disappearing through a cracked door opposite the bed - the closet.
"So it is Aoba." Noiz's mouth fell open. He stared at the crack the little Aoba had run through, scratching his head with wide eyes. "No way," he said, pulling the rest of the sheets off him and crawling across the bed towards the door. "No fucking way." He caught himself at the edge of the bed, folding a hand across his mouth and frowning slightly. "I mean," he continued as he got off the bed and knelt in front of the door. "No freaking way."
Inside, Noiz saw a little figure quivering behind a pile of t-shirts. He wanted to say something to Aoba, to help coax him out into the open, but instead he just stared at him, mouth hanging open.
"Goooooo awayyyyyy!" Aoba cried through the gap. He came forward a little, just enough so Noiz could see his amber eyes and long blue hair. He had a green tie fisted in his left hand, pulling it forward with him as he moved towards Noiz and the closet door.
"Oh my god." Noiz shook his head. "Oh my freaking god."
"P!" A high voice chirruped by his ear.
Little Aoba gasped, backing up until his whole body disappeared from Noiz's view.
"No, wait!" he tried to scoot closer to the door. "Come back!"
"Noiz?" A low voice spoke to him, padding lightly across the carpet to kneel at his feet. Looking down, Noiz saw Ren with two or three rabbit cubes lying on his fur.
"Jesus." Noiz blinked, reaching down to scoop up one of the little cubes. "Thank god. Tell me what's going on."
"To what are you referring?" Ren asked, looking towards the closet door. "I felt Aoba's distress through our shared thought circuit, and I came. Where is he?"
"In there." Noiz pressed one of the cubes and a little keyboard opened along the cubes surface. The others started bouncing along Ren's back, digging into his fur and rolling around down his spine.
"Aoba?" Ren poked his nose into the closet door.
"Stay away!"
Ren jumped back. Noiz felt his surprise and looked down at the little dog, resting his hand lightly on the top of Ren's head.
"That's Aoba." Where Aoba was concerned, Ren was rarely ever surprised. So to see him so shocked, only made Noiz more uncomfortable. It was rather unsettling that neither Noiz nor the little dog knewwhat had happened to his Aoba.
"I got nothing," he said, tossing the little cube back onto Ren's back. He missed by a couple inches and the little cube rolled through the closet door.
"P!" it called as it rolled and Noiz cringed as he heard Aoba gasp.
"I found him like this." Noiz spoke to the little Allmate, frowning at the closet door like it held the secrets to Aoba's mysterious transformation. "I woke up and all the sudden." Noiz's brow creased. "He's all small and stuff."
Ren poked his pink tongue out at Noiz, confusion written all over his little doggy face. "'Small and stuff'?" he repeated.
Noiz shrugged, biting his lip.
After a beat of silence, a little hand appeared in the doorway holding Noiz's lost cube. Blinking in surprise, Noiz looked at the shadowy face behind the outstretched hand, reading the fear written all over it.
"H-h-h-h-h-here," he stuttered. His hand was shaking around the little cube which blinked placidly at Noiz.
"P!" it called, jumping from Aoba's hand.
Darting back with a squeak, Aoba disappeared back into the darkness of the closet. Noiz caught his cube and watched Aoba's retreat, fondling the edges of the little cube with a frown.
"Now what?" Ren looked up at Noiz. "How do we turn him back?"
"I think first we need to worry about getting him out of the closet." Noiz slid across the carpet on his butt, sitting crosslegged in front of the door with the little cube in his hand. "Then we can figure out how he turned into that," - he pointed towards the closest - "and how to get him back to normal."
"Roger." Ren sat beside Noiz's crossed legs.
Looking down at Ren, Noiz smiled and rested his palm on the little dog's head. He still didn't understand the bond Aoba and the little dog shared, but he respected it all the same. He'd even grown to like having the little dog around even though he was sometimes underfoot. Ren made Aoba happy and anything that made Aoba happy made Noiz happy, so the two came to have a close relationship, both keeping a close eye on Aoba.
"Alright." Noiz pressed his finger between the cube's narrow eyes, opening his palm to allow the cube to transform. "Let's do this."
Between one breath and the next, the little cube took on the shape of a small rabbit. Green light folded over the little bunny, settling across the bunny's head and shoulders in the form of a small cap and green shirt. He blinked and looked up at Noiz when he set it down to hop around on the floor.
"Okay," he said, pointing towards the closet door. "Head on in there."
The rabbit just looked at him. Noiz would've sworn the little creature rolled his eyes too, his whiskers twitching indignantly.
"Come on." Noiz nudged him forward, tapping his palm against the bunny's backside. "I think he likes you."
"Of course he does." The little rabbit sniffed, straightening proudly. "I'm cute, just look at me."
"Yeah, and full of yourself." Noiz pushed Usagaimodoki towards the door as his siblings laughed on Ren's back. "Now get in there."
"Alright, alright."
He disappeared through the crack in the door, hopping slowly into the darkness where little Aoba hid. Noiz, Ren, and all the other rabbit cubes hushed, leaning forward to listen through the closet door.
"Go away!" Little Aoba called quietly.
"Yo." The bunny refused to back down.
"I said, go away."
"I heard you," the bunny sniffed. "But I'm not moving."
"P-p-please?"
"Why should I?" Noiz listened to the rabbit's indignant tone, rolling his eyes back into his skull. "
"Umm, I dunno. Cause you're freaky."
"I am not!"
"You're really small, though . . ."
"And since when are small things freaky! If you think I'm freaky you should take a good look at yourself!"
"Wait, are you that little cube?"
"I was." Noiz listened to the sound of the rabbit's feet hopping across the carpet. "But now I'm not."
"You're a bunny."
"Yep."
"Weird?"
"Since when is that weird?!"
"It . . . just . . . is."
"Hmpph! I've never been so insulted in my life!"
Noiz listened to the soft sound of Aoba's laughter. "You're funny."
"And you're a little brat!"
Aoba laughed again. Noiz could physically feel his heart softening. Looking down at Ren, Noiz knew the little dog was feeling the same way. His dark eyes were soft and his pink tongue was wagging in time with his tail.
"How dare you!? I am Usagaimodoki!" Noiz dropped his face into his palm and kneaded his forehead, listening to the proud rant of the little fluffball.
"Usagi- what?" Aoba's mouth fumbled around the long word. "What's that?"
"Ignorant child." The rabbit sniffed.
"Hey?" Noiz scooted carefully toward the closet's opening. "Aoba?"
His little figure was curled into the corner of the closet, still holding Noiz's tie. Usagaimodoki hopped around in front of him, pawing at the little green hat on his head. Aoba gasped when he saw Noiz and tried to hide, but there was no where for him to go.
"No, hey?" Noiz held his hands open, palms out to little Aoba. "Hey, look. It's fine. I'm a friend."
"You're a stranger." Little Aoba took one step forward. Usagaimodoki hopped around at his feet, rubbing his nose, looking at Noiz with wide eyes.
"No, but, I uh . . . I'm a good stranger." Noiz held out his hand, waving the little rabbit cube forward. "Right?"
"Oh, yeah." Usagaimodoki hopped into Noiz's palm. Noiz stared hard at him, willing him not to say anything sharp or sarcastic. "Noiz is great."
"Yeah?" Aoba took one careful step forward.
"Look, I've got more." Noiz turned and waved Ren forward. He opened the closet door a little, enough for Ren to squeeze through with half a dozen or so rabbit cubes on his back.
Aoba moved backwards, eyes wide, but when he saw Ren his whole face softened.
"Doggie," he breathed, reaching forward tentatively to stroke Ren's head.
"Aoba." The dog bowed his head allowing Aoba to pet him.
"Whoa." Aoba giggled, scratching his fingers through Ren's fur. "Hehehe, your voice is pretty deep."
"You hungry?" Noiz opened the closet door a little more. Ren walked forward and Aoba followed, stretching his arm out to keep it rested on Ren's forehead. "Aoba?"
Little Aoba looked up at Noiz sharply, blinking wildly. "I, uh . . ." he stammered, looking around nervously.
"What do you like?" Noiz was desperate to get him out of the closet. "I can make you anything."
Aoba looked down. After a beat of silence he looked back up, voice soft, "Ice cream?"
Noiz nodded his head, scratching the back of it with his palm. "Sure."
And that was how Noiz ended up in the kitchen, staring at Aoba with permanently wide eyes. After setting Aoba up at the counter with his bowl of ice cream, Noiz had sent Ren down to the local superstore to buy Aoba some appropriate clothes. He had called ahead and asked the manager to get Aoba something so Ren could pick it up. He hoped Ren arrived quickly because he could not have little Aoba parading around in his Aoba's clothes for much longer. The image it left in his mind was . . . distasteful.
"Hey, mister?" Noiz looked up and found little Aoba staring at him, a long streak of ice cream melting down his nose. "Are you okay?"
Once again, Noiz felt this painful jerk on his heartstrings. He could physically feel his heart melting. And he hated it.
"Yeah, ummm." Noiz looked around the kitchen, at anything but Aoba. "Eat your breakfast."
Little Aoba giggled and Noiz slid his gaze back to him, a feverish blush rising to his cheeks. "This isn't breakfast." He swirled his spoon in his melting bowl of ice cream. "It's dessert!" He smiled.
Noiz turned his back on the little Aoba and curled over the sink, digging his palms into the countertop. Damn, he's cute, he thought, still blushing madly.
"Noiz!" A high chirp by his ear alerted him to Ren's return. Sighing in relief, Noiz turned to the door and watched Ren shuffle in through the little doggy door Aoba had installed a couple weeks earlier.
"Good boy." Noiz knelt and stroked Ren's hair, opening the bag he carried in his mouth. "Now, go get him dressed."
"Roger." Ren wagged his tail happily, waddling over to where Aoba sat at his barstool.
"Aoba?"
Aoba, face colored dark with smudges of chocolate ice cream, looked down at Ren, blinking happily. "Hi, doggie!"
"You need to change," Ren said bluntly, backing up a few steps when Aoba hopped down from his stool. "And possibly take a shower."
"Why?" Aoba wiped his chocolatey hands on his face as he followed Ren out of the kitchen and down the hallway towards the bathroom. "What's on my face?"
When Aoba was gone, Noiz sighed heavily and collapsed into a kitchen chair, kneading his forehead tiredly.
"What the fuck?" he murmured to himself.
Five minutes later, Noiz was up and calling his office. "Yeah, hey," he said once the receptionist picked up. "I won't be in today. Something's come up."
Laughter echoed down the hall and then a large splash. Growing worried, Noiz held the phone to his ear as the receptionist babbled away, heading down the hall with a worried frown.
"Aoba?" he cupped one palm around the phone, gently pushing the door open with his other. "Everything all right in there?"
The door slid open at his touch and Noiz just stood there, mouth gaping, at the entryway. The bathtub was full of water and there was even more spilling down from the shower head. Bubbles and suds of every kind covered the rippling surface of the water, hiding the bare blue headed boy who sat in the middle. But the water wasn't only in the tub: it was on the floor, the ceiling, the counter top, pooling at Noiz's feet in thick soapy spirals.
Giggling, Aoba rolled over, kicking his feet high up in the air. Far away from the water, with his nose pressed into the cold corner tile, Ren huddled with a mound of bubbles sliding down his back. On either side of him, Noiz's rabbit-cubes clung to the wall, trying desperately to stay out of the soapy bath water.
"Really." Noiz closed his eyes for a second, pinching the bridge of his nose with his free hand. "Really, Aoba?"
Aoba perked up in the bathtub, still giggling crazily. His eyes landed on Noiz and warmed with a grin as the little boy cupped his hands in the water. "Catch!" he called, throwing his watery arms in Noiz's direction.
Noiz stood there as water dripped down his sides, turning his green sleep-shirt dark. He closed his eyes and sighed into the air, tipping his chin back up towards the ceiling.
"I'm going to have to call you back," he said into the phone, hanging up. Little Aoba rolled with laughter in his feet and Noiz sighed again, pinching his eyes shut.
"This is a nightmare," he said gloomily. "I want my Aoba back."
"Heehehehe. I am Aoba." Aoba laughed, sinking down in the water until just the top of his head was visible.
Noiz scowled down at him. "But you're not mine."
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Two hours and the first tickles of one severe migraine later, Noiz was sitting at the park with his head in his hands.
"A five year old," he muttered into his palms, shaking his head slowly. "He had to be a five year old."
"Hey, Noiz!" A little hand fumbled for his, pulling gently on his pant leg to get his attention. Slowly, Noiz peeled his face out of his palms, blinking at the small blue-haired boy his boyfriend had become.
Aoba smiled when he saw him looking held out his hand with a wide grin. "Look what I found!"
It was a frog. A fucking kid caught a frog.
"Aoba." Noiz sighed reaching down and gently peeling the sticky little animal off Aoba's palm. "Please don't tell me you put it in your mouth."
Aoba scowled playfully, amber eyes twinkling with mischief. "Noooooooo."
Noiz's forehead disappeared back into his palm. "Oh shit."
Aoba ran off giggling, his feet digging into the grass of the little park. Noiz was sitting on a park bench between the grassy part of the park and an elaborate plastic playground. A gravel road divided the whole thing and from his position on the bench, Noiz could see Aoba running back and forth, a wide smile stretched across his small face.
"Kids are quite a handful, aren't they?" A mother pushing a stroller walked up to Noiz and put her hand on her hip, rocking a little blonde boy close to her chest.
Noiz smiled grimly at her, massaging his temples.
"Is he yours?" The woman nodded to Aoba.
Noiz looked to the little boy with both eyebrows raised. Ren was trotting around at his feet with a couple rabbit cubes perched precariously on his back. They were far enough away from Noiz that he couldn't hear what they were saying, but obviously whatever Ren was saying was not going over well with Aoba. With his hands on his hips, the little boy bent and plucked a big flower out of the grass. Ren began barking, snapping at Aoba's ankles as the little boy stuffed the flower into his mouth, stem and all.
Noiz dropped his head back into his hands. "In a way," he said, looking back to the mother.
"He's a cutie," she smiled. "He's got incredible energy though."
Noiz watched Aoba run towards the playground. Two feet before the playground mulch, Aoba tripped, falling spectacularly and landing flat on his face.
Noiz's eye twitched. "You have no idea."
"Keep a close eye on him," the woman said as she moved on. She smiled fondly, looking down at the baby in her arms. "They grow up so fast."
"That's what I'm hoping for." Noiz sighed, gaze drifting back to the playground center.
Minutes passed. Noiz kneaded his forehead with his fists and stood up, looking for the little blue boy. "Time to go," he muttered to himself, looking to the playground.
Noiz didn't seem him at first. Frowning, he stood up, looking for Aoba's little blue head among the sea of children. Scratching his head, he sat back down, pulling a clear plastic keyboard out of the back of his pocket. Tapping the keys, he tried bringing up a live feed from one of the cameras of his rabbit cubes, but found there was no signal. Scowling, he slipped the keyboard back into his pocket and turned his body towards the playground, looking for Aoba's little figure among the other kids there.
Five minutes went by. Then ten. Then fifteen. Then twenty. At twenty-five, Noiz stood and started making his way over to the playground, face drawn tight with worry.
"I'm gonna kill that kid," he muttered under his breath, sliding easily between the roiling mass of children rushing into their mother's, or father's, arms. "I swear to god."
By the time Noiz reached the playground it was almost completely deserted. The sun was hovering over the horizon, sinking slowly and with great dramatic purpose. Its light painted the ground in shades of orange, drawing long shadows across the surfaces of objects it didn't touch. Stepping onto the mulch hesitantly, Noiz began looking under all the ridiculous plastic contraptions, looking for his little Aoba.
"Aoba?" he called, touching the edge of a plastic slide, warm with the last of the sun's light. "Hey, Aoba?" He scowled furiously, tripping over the playground mulch. "Come out, you little shit," he muttered under his breath.
"Noiz!?" A high voice cried out of the darkness beneath the slid and Noiz bent, finding Ren and a couple of his rabbit cubes stuffed into a dark cranny between the plastic and the ground.
"Ren?" Noiz scooped the little blue-haired bundle out of the darkness, grabbing his cubes and setting them on his shoulders. "Hey? Wake up. Are you in sleep mode?"
Noiz touched Ren's small black nose and the little black dog blinked awake. "Aoba!" he called, struggling in Noiz's arms.
"Hey, hey." Noiz let him down gently, crouching beside the little blue dog. "Ren? What's wrong? Where's Aoba?"
"I don't know." The little dog pawed at the ground and turned in a frantic circle, sniffing the air with his nose. "Someone kicked me."
Noiz scowled, eyebrows furrowing darkly over his eyes. "Who?"
"Data missing." The hackles on the back of Ren's neck rose and his little mouth split into a furious scowl. "This is not good."
"Thanks, Captain Obvious." Noiz stood and watched Ren dig at the ground around his ankles. "But who would mess around in your data like that? That's a huge risk, leaving that big of an impression on the Allmate."
Noiz knelt in the mulch and began tinkering with Ren, worry drawing a dark line across his brow.
"Excuse me!" A breathy voice came up to him, accompanied by the sound of heels digging into the mulch.
Noiz stood, blinking in surprise when the woman from before ran up to Noiz, her face darkened with worry.
"Your son!" she called, holding her baby tightly to her chest. "I just saw him running off with two men!"
Noiz's eyes widened then narrowed sharply. "Where'd they go?" he asked, trying to be as kind as possible while worry churned his insides into mush.
The woman pointed, her mouth puckering. "Want me to call the police?" she asked as Noiz bent, scooping Ren up into his arms.
"Yes, please." Noiz growled, running off in the direction the woman had pointed.
Crossing the street, Noiz burst out into the late afternoon traffic. He paid no attention to the horns honking wildly behind him and the sharp screech of tires.
"That was unnecessarily dangerous," Ren said from inside the crook on Noiz's arm.
"Well, that's what they get for building a playground so close to the road." Noiz's words were sharp and clipped. He had eyes only for the alley the woman had pointed to.
The corner came quickly and Noiz rounded it easily, stopping when he saw two familiar figures heading down the street with little Aoba walking between them. He was holding a melting ice cream cone in one hand, licking the chocolate as it dripped down his palm. The group stopped when Aoba shivered, dropping the rest of the ice cream onto the dirty pavement.
"A-o-ba." One voice chided, kneeling at Aoba's level and wiping his face with a napkin. "What a mess you've made."
"Shit!" Noiz cussed, taking off down the alley.
"HEY!" he shouted. "ASSHOLES! STAY AWAY FROM HIM!"
The trio turned at the sound of Noiz's voice. Aoba's little face brightened when he saw Noiz and he waved furiously, a wide smile splitting across his lips. Virus and Trip looked unhappy, but not particularly surprised at Noiz's sudden appearance.
"Noiz!" Aoba cried, taking a faltering step towards him. "Look who I found! They know my name just like you do!"
"I told you we'd have trouble." Trip slid a nasty look in Noiz's direction.
"Although Aoba's form was unexpected." Virus straightened his glasses, eyes narrowing sharply. "I have faith we can deal with this nuisance."
"Noiz, he - AH!" Aoba shouted as a hard hand circled around his upper arm, yanking him back into a steely set of arms.
Noiz's temper peaked and he dropped Ren, rushing at Trip, Aoba's attacker, with his fists raised. "I SAID LET GO OF HIM!" he shouted, knocking Trip back into the brick wall with a fist to his gut. He had a hand around his throat before the bigger man could react, forcing him onto his knees with a kick to his shins.
"Ow!" Aoba cried as he was thrown away from Noiz. He landed hard on the pavement and was immediately picked up by Virus. "HEY!" he cried, pounding little fists against Virus's tight grip. "Leggo!"
"Let him go." Noiz's hand tightened on Trip's throat. He looked back at Virus with hard, flinty green eyes. "Now!"
"He's not yours to control." Trip tried to speak, spitting the words against Noiz's clenched hand. "You don't get to tell him what to do."
"What and you do?" Noiz's tightened his grip until he heard bones creak."Let go and I won't make a mess of things," he growled at Virus.
In his arms, little Aoba was shivering, looking back and forth between Virus and Noiz with wide eyes. It seemed he wasn't sure who to be scared of: Noiz with his vicious, protective anger or Virus with his greedy grasp and hard, emotionless eyes.
As quickly as Noiz had gained the upper hand, he lost it. The tables turned sharply when Trip pulled a gun from the waistband of his pants, clocking Noiz upside the head with it.
"NOIZ!" Aoba shouted, struggling viciously in Virus's arms. "NOIZ!"
"Told you we could manage it." Trip spat, pressing the bottom of his heel down into Noiz's ribcage. Bones cracked beneath Trip's weight as he trained the gun between Noiz's eyes. He flashed Virus and little Aoba a killer smile. "And Aoba is ours."
"How long do you think he will stay like this?" Virus asked, holding a screaming Aoba upside down by the ankle.
"Hard to say." Trip shrugged. "I don't know much about Aoba's split personalities."
"So that's what this is." Noiz coughed, struggling to sit up. He pushed backwards with all his force on Trip's heel, but nothing he did moved the brute's foot even one inch.
"Of course." Trip shrugged cooly, clicking the safety off the gun.
"I do hope he changes back soon." Trip shook Aoba roughly until his scream's stopped and his eyes flickering shut. "But I have to admit, he would be more fun to break like this." His eyes were made of evil. His entire being was one dark amorphous mass that posioned the air around him.
"You're sick." Noiz coughed.
"And you're dead," Virus grinned.
The gun clicked. A bullet fired. Someone dropped.
But it wasn't Noiz.
It wasn't Virus or Trip either. No by some unfortunate stroke of luck, the bullet that had ricocheted off the alley wall missed both of them, favoring a softer, kinder flesh. Hanging upside down from Virus's grip, Aoba's eyes flew wide open and he began screaming anew. Blood began dripping from his little body, staining his shirt and his face and everything else.
"No!" Noiz cried as Virus dropped Aoba, taking off with Trip close on his heels. "No!"
Policemen rushed around Noiz. Some went to go find Virus and Trip while others knelt beside him, prying his arms away from Aoba.
"No!" Noiz cried again, trying to beat them away. "He can't die! Not now! Not like this!"
At the end of the alley with her head in her hands, the woman who'd helped Noiz cried with her baby tucked solidly against her breast.
Beneath the throng of arms, Aoba kept bleeding, taking shallow breaths. His eyes shuttered closed and his head fell back.
Little Aoba died as Noiz watched, tears falling heavily from the man's blonde lashes.
And Aoba, the real Aoba, awoke.
Albeit not immediately. It was several days and three or four blood transfusions later before Aoba finally woke. He jolted out of his slumber with a hand over his heart, sipping the air in shallow breaths.
"Aoba?" A rough voice asked from beside him.
Turning his head, Aoba blinked when he found Noiz's face so close to his.
"Wha - ?" He asked, blinking again and collapsing back onto the pillows he'd abandoned. "Noiz? Why am I . . . Why are we in a hospital?" He cringed and pressed a hand to his chest, feeling the bandages taped there. "And why am I . . . oh my god is this blood! Noiz, what the hell! What happened?"
Aoba turned to Noiz with wide expectant eyes, but found nothing but heartbreak in his boyfriend's gaze.
"Please." Noiz bent, resting his head in Aoba's lap. He sighed and shuddered. "Please, please don't ask."