Reluctance

Chapter 1

Author: Tana Uzumaki

Rating: T – M

Warning: Eventual yaoi/man to man smex, harsh language, a bit of gore

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Soul Eater, none of the other characters in it, Giriko or Justin Law, just the plot.

The sound footsteps echoed in the hallway that led to the basement. The only light came from the door that was left slightly ajar on one end, leaving it to reach only halfway through the passage.

There was a scratching sound, then a burst of flames that quickly enveloped the end of a torch. A low chuckle was heard as the footsteps came closer to the door at the end of the passage.

A heavy metal door creaked as it slid open. The flames from the torch that was passed on to other two which were attached to the walls of the room lit them up, revealing a man who sat still on the floor against a wall. His hands were held up by shackles attached to chains from each side and his head hung low, hiding his face from the light and from the eyes of the man who closed the door behind him immediately after his arrival in the room. He was stripped bare of all clothing. His rosary lay on the floor in front of him, out of reach, together with his iPod and headphones.

Giriko's brown eyes scanned the unconscious man's dirty, wounded and bruised body as he knelt right in front of him. Even after a week of being kept unclean, his skin still held its very light color; despite the bruises that marked all over him. Then he reached his gloved hand to tilt his chin, making him stir in his sleep. "Wake up, Father," he said in a sweet and taunting tone.

When the priest didn't open his eyes, Giriko used his other hand to deliver a hard slap across the blonde's cheek. "I said fucking wake up, Justin Law," he said, his voice now cold, especially as he said the priest's name—the one name that he will never forget, neither its owner's face.

He watched as the surprised blue eyes became blank and shifted away from his gaze down to the stone floor. He tilted the priest's chin up sharply so they could look back into his dark brown ones. And when they did, a smirk formed on his face.

"I'm bored… Entertain me," he said. The body of the priest shook for a while under him, ready to submit. But the eyes became determined, as it seemed, and Justin spat at his face.

"Burn in hell, heretic," he said, his eyes now lively and burning with anger, hate. He watched as Giriko wiped the saliva out of his face and glared back equally, taking hold of his chin forcefully.

"You still haven't learned, huh?" Giriko said, taking his free hand out of the over-sized brown gloves. Then he pulled out a pocket knife and held it up to linger at the space between their faces, letting it reflect light from the torches. Then he lowered it and cruelly slit a deep, open wound across the priest's stomach.

His smirk was printed across his face once more the moment he heard Justin's scream of pain. Then he put the knife away and used his fingers to make it bleed even more, earning more cries of pain that made his smirk turn into a cruel grin.

Justin bit his lips as Giriko deepened his cut even more. His shackled hands clenched into fists and his eyes were kept tightly closed. And by the time Giriko had relieved him from that punishment, he was already panting heavily from the pain and was sweating a bit.

"Now, what will you say?" Giriko asked, his tone coming back slightly to being sweet. It seemed he was in a good mood today. But Justin couldn't care less. Whatever the heretic did to him won't mater. He will never submit to a man of sin and vulgarity.

When Justin didn't answer, he felt an additional fresh cut on his chest, near his left nipple. This made him cry out again, but it didn't seem to make Giriko any happier anymore.

"No matter what… you do to me, I won't ever… submit to you!" the blond Christian panted.

Giriko only raised his eyebrow at the retort. He was tempted to punish him even further but he decided he'll give him time to think about it. He stood up and shook dust off of his pants. He cleaned the knife by wiping the blade's surface across his prisoner's shoulder and put it back in his pocket. Then he picked up his glove.

"All that damned reluctance… I wonder what's causing it. After all, your fucking god has abandoned you and all your allies are dead. Shibusen has fallen along with that carefree-looking fuckwit. Heh, who would have known that he could be so weak when it came to his son?" Giriko said, watching out for violent reactions. But so far, he found none; even Justin's fists had unclenched and only hung limply.

"Well, you're the only one left now… And I thought you'd be fuckin' dangerous to have around. But after I was done with you that one time… you never struggled again. And I thought you'd finally submit now that everything you could ever fight for is gone. Oh, except for these," he looked down at the rosary and the gadget on the floor in front of Justin.

He grinned when he saw the blond's passiveness disappear when he saw him move closer to his things, almost stepping on them.

Justin would have reached out to save his treasures if not for the shackles. He wouldn't have to watch them be destroyed, like how they had destroyed his friends. "No, don't… Not the rosary, please!" Not the only important things left in his miserable life…

"Hehe, too late. You just had to be too reluctant, did you?"

Snap.

The lights from two torches were extinguished while the last one left alit was taken. The heavy metal door creaked and slid against the stone floor with an annoying sound accompanying it. And then, footsteps started to fade, along with the little light that shone through the space around that metal door. He could hear a lock being bolted back into place from the other side of the door, from the far end of the passage.

But neither the silence nor the darkness seemed to have affected him. He stayed there, frozen in place, staring at where he could feel his broken things were. He could still see, even without the light, the broken rosary, the iPod crushed to pieces, his headphones pulverized on the floor.

And for what seemed like the first time in his life, he shed tears of regret, sadness and frustration.