Title: Bound for Hell
Rating: T
Pairing: Shiki x Akabayashi
Prompt from the Drrr Kink Meme: Shiki x Akabayashi life in high school. Except that this time, Shiki leads the relationship

Inspired by: Old Habits – Fanfic on the Drrrkinkmeme

Disclaimer: I own none of these characters!

THIS STORY CONTAINS MALExMALE RELATIONSHIPS. You have been warned.

The society was rotten.

Rotten to the core.

Shiki watched silently as the red hair kid in the same school uniform as him fight in the alleyway. It was five against one, but the boy with the dyed hair was holding his own pretty well.

Shiki knew of him. They called him the 'Red Devil.' They were in the same class together. The kid always came to class with new bruises and wounds. He also snored through the lessons every day still covered in dry blood.

Shiki remembered him because his snoring always irritated him in class but no one dared to wake him up, including the teachers. They were too afraid of the delinquent.

Yeah, the society was also a hypocrite.

So Shiki watched silently, watching the Red Devil beat the shit out of the five boys with only a few scratches, before he moved on.

Second day, the kid fought seven. He barely survived it, Shiki noted. He still watched the delinquent from afar in a safe distance. He was always just an observer.

The third day there were ten. And the fourth day fifteen. It was ridiculous and Shiki watched on grimly. They were playing dirty.

Really dirty.

But the boy with the red dyed hair still fought hard bravely, not at all looking despaired. He wore a grin on his face as if he enjoyed the bloody challenge.

But that day was different. Shiki's eyes widened when a boy took a baseball bat and swung it hard on the red head.

It connected.

While the red haired boy was down, they started to stomp on him. Several of them grabbed tools nearby to hit him with.

Then one of the boys pulled out a knife from his pocket. He nervously held it, the other boys urging him on to stab the red head. The peer pressure was too much.

Something inside Shiki snapped. He did not hesitate. He ran, not even realizing what he was doing as he took off his bookbag and used it as a weapon to swing it at the gang of boys. The sudden attack from behind surprised the gang and they dispersed briefly, trying to adjust to the new situation. Shiki grabbed the boy who was down on the ground, and pulled him by the wrist in one swift movement. Then they both ran down the alleyway, the red head confused and disoriented as Shiki pulled on his wrist.

"Get them!" one of them yelled finally as they ran after the two. Shiki rolled his eyes. Humans, they never knew what to do as individuals and always needed a leader to give them an order. So weak alone, humans were nothing but cowards that gathered around to gain what feeble strength they can muster.

"This way, Akabayashi," Shiki said bleakly and the boy nodded as he followed. Shiki led him to an abandoned construction site. They arrived at a narrow passage and a dead end.

The red head blinked, very confused now when the boy he thought was his savior led him to a dead end. But Shiki quickly started to gather the rubbles and yanked on the sack on the floor.

"You're the class president, right?" Akabayashi finally spoke, watching Shiki busily stack things together.

Shiki turned, his serious grey eyes staring intently at Akabayashi's own. "You can still fight right?"

"Uh… yeah. But why did you bring us to a dead end?"

"There's fifteen of them. You have too many blind spots," Shiki pointed at his head. "Think with your brain. You're stronger then them right? So if you fought them one on one, you can beat them."

Akabayashi blinked. Then his eyes widened as his mouth smirked into a grin.

"I like how you think," Akabayashi beamed brightly. Shiki just snorted.

The boys could hear the group of gang outside now, running through the maze to look for them. Akabayashi cracked his knuckles as faced the hallway. One by one, they tickled in, and Akabayashi had no problem beating them. A few of them would step over their ally, trying to get at the red head due to narrow space.

When one of gang came charging at Akabayashi with the crowbar, Shiki threw one of the bricks at the boy. It hit him right on the nose, knocking him down. Akabayashi turned to look back, surprised once again, but Shiki shrugged and replied, "They're fighting dirty."

He laughed as he punched the next kid saying, "I thought you were a goody-two-shoe quiet kid in class, Shiki!" Shiki didn't say anything as he continued to hurl bricks and cement sands toward the boys.

After 40 minutes or so, both boys were tired. The gang members were taking their turns in the passage way. None of them had the fresh vigor but the boys outside the passage still had much more energy than Shiki and Akabayashi combined.

Akabayashi gritted his teeth as he panted, "I don't think we can make it Shiki. I'm too tired and I don't think you've got enough strength to hurl another brick."

Shiki wordlessly pulled on the hose and stepped forward. "Move aside."

"Shiki?" Akabayashi asked, surprised at the boy taking the front line. If he remembered correctly, he didn't know how to fight. Shiki barked out loud in a loud voice.

"Hey you cowards! Do you think just adding numbers to your men is good enough to take us down?"

The boys in the back cackled, thinking that Shiki was trying to scare them off by yelling loudly. One of them spoke up, "He called us 'cowards' Oooo~ I'm sooo scared. What ya gonna do with some hose water?"

Shiki smirked.

"Did you think I was just throwing sand in your eyes so my friend here can beat you up? That was cement you idiots."

There was a chilling silence from all the boys as Shiki's voice rang clearly. "Want to know some basic chemistry when you mix water with cement? Go back to school you retards!"

And with that, Shiki turned on the hose and sprayed.

"Oh fuck! That was so fucking awesome! You turned them to blockheads! Get it? Blockheads!" Akabayashi slapped the Shiki on the shoulder as he hooted loudly. Shiki just shrugged. They were both drenched wet but since Shiki had made sure that they won't be covered in cement, they didn't have much to worry.

"So what happens to them now huh? Oh man… will they turn into concrete statues?"

Shiki shrugged. "If it dries. They better wash that stuff off soon. But since they're dumb, I don't think they know that they actually need more water to get rid of it before it dries." He smirked in amusement. "That was kind of fun actually."

"Fun? It was fucking awesome!" Akabayashi repeated as he slapped his knee and laughed even harder.

"Oh man, I haven't laughed like that in so long, wow!" the red head sat down and chuckled some more, feeling tired.

"Here, get up. You can lean on my shoulders," Shiki offered. Weakly, Akabayashi borrowed the raven haired boy's shoulder as they walked out of the construction site.

"You really do use your head when you fight. That's kinda cool. It's like a short cut or something," Akabayashi added. The sun was coming down and the sky was filled with brilliant colors of crimson blood.

Shiki just shrugged and did not say anything.

At length the red head just had to ask out of curiosity, "So, Mr. Grim Class President. Why did you decide to save me today? We've never talked in class. Don't tell me you felt obligated because I'm in your class or something."

Shiki was quiet for a moment, deciding how to word it first. When he spoke, Shiki looked only straight ahead. "I saw you save the kitten from the two guys stoning it."

"Oh, you saw that? Ahahaha…" Akabayashi laughed sheepishly.

Shiki continued on. "I was there before you arrived. I watched the boys stone the cat for awhile. I didn't do anything."

Akabayashi was silent as he watched the class president's emotionless face.

"I told myself that the society was rotten. There was nothing you can do about it. It wasn't as if I didn't know what the boys were doing was bad. But the strong eats the weak. I accepted it as fate, that you can't really change that," Shiki smirked wryly as he turned to face Akabayashi. "Then you came along."

"Me?"

"Yeah. You stormed in and beat up those boys. I actually felt relief that someone decided to take action instead of being a bystander like me. There were many bystanders there, not just me. All of us just watched and did not do anything. But you didn't care about your consequences or the rules of what was considered the 'norm' in the society."

"Huh… so that's why you helped?"

"No not really. I watched you beat the boys and get beaten every day and I didn't help at all."

"You were watching that too?" Akabayashi gaped now. It all sounded pretty unbelievable. "So why did you help now?"

"Because they were playing dirty." Shiki said with a scowl. Then he grimaced, not liking what he said next, "I guess, in the end I decided that I didn't want to be just a bystander or be what was considered the 'norm' of the society."

Akabayashi was silent for a second until he spoke up, "Wait, did you just compare me to a kitten?"

"Oh? You're not that dumb after all," Shiki smirked back haughtily.

"Wait a minute! Hey! I'm not a kitten! Totally not!" Akabayashi yelled. Shiki just chuckled as the unlikely duo of delinquent and the class rep walked together towards the sunset.

Shiki and Akabayashi started to hang out together often. Shiki told him straight up that the delinquent needed to stop snoring in class and study. The teachers admired and praised Shiki for being able to stand up to the 'Red Devil.' Shiki did not say much, not taking much credit in it. After all, they were praises coming from cowardly teachers, it didn't amount to much at all. It only clearly showed how much of a failure the school system was.

Akabayashi's grades moved up from 5th from dead last up to at least in the lower bottom tier. Shiki's grades still remained in the top 10 rankings, normally hovering between 7th and 9th.

"Oh man, no matter how much I study, I can never get past like 60 or 70% correct on tests. Though it's a big improvement from 10-20% huh," Akabayashi giggled as he sucked on the empty milk carton at the roof top during their lunch period.

Shiki did not say anything as he ate his melonpan. He used to offer half of his share but the delinquent continued to refuse, saying that he just needed milk. Shiki knew that Akabayashi never had money for lunch and was barely able to afford even one carton of milk a day. That being said, the kid sometimes even shared it with a stray cat in the neighborhood.

The society was unfair.

"Did you turn in the form yet?" Shiki asked, meaning the future assessment form that everyone in class had to fill out in the beginning and the end of each year. Shiki thought it was retarded that one had to decide their future when they were only still teenagers but that was what the society wanted them to do. Everything was set in stone for them. Like fate.

"Err not yet. I don't think the teachers would care much if I accidentally forgot if you know what I mean. I'm only good at fighting anyway and my grades suck royally. It's not like I have a bright future or whatever. I'll probably be a construction worker like my dad. Though I suppose I will try not to spend all my money on booze or beat up my wife like he does," he scoffed as he sucked on the air from the empty milk carton.

Shiki became thoughtful. "How about being a professional fighter? Like boxing or something."

Akabayashi chuckled as he leaned on the fence. "Me? Fighter? Get real. I like fighting but I hate following by anyone else's rules but my own." The delinquent's eyes glittered brightly as he looked into Shiki's own grim eyes.

"That's not very fair. You have something you're good at but this damn society won't allow you to shine," Shiki said after awhile.

"It's not like you have anything to worry about. I mean your grades are top notch. You'll get a good job at some company somewhere right?"

Shiki was silent for a while before he replied, "I haven't turned in my assessment yet either."

"Huh? Why?" Akabayashi looked back at him, surprised. "What's so hard? You can do a lot of things. You've got leadership, people follow your orders and when you smile, everyone's charmed. Hell, you even have good grades. I wish I had your grades at least."

"What's the point of having good grades in some unknown high school? It's not like it means I'll go to a good college. And going to a good college doesn't even guarantee that you'll land a decent job. There are plenty of Todai graduates who are jobless and turned into useless neets who stay home all day and night doing jack shit."

"… I guess that's true." Akabayashi agreed, swinging his arms around the iron fence. "I never thought about that."

Shiki just snorted. "You don't really think often, Akabayashi."

"That's true too!" Akayabashi laughed heartily. But Shiki watched his friend with a serious countenance.

"Don't you think it's unfair?"

"Huh, what's unfair?"

Shiki frowned when Akabayashi looked back at him perplexed.

"Everything. That your dad beats you up and your mom. That your mom cheats on him with another man behind the counter at the grocery store you guys own. The fact that you don't have enough lunch money to eat a piece of bread or cup noodles. That the society looks down on you just because you aren't good at what they think you should be good at. That you have something that no one else has yet they think you're a scum just because you can fight so goddamn well!"

Akabayashi blinked in surprise at his friend who erupted with anger for the first time. Though Shiki spewed out his fury, his voice was still cold and collected. Akabayashi just smirked sadly.

"Well, what can you do? That's just how it is, isn't it?"

"Well I think it's retarded." Shiki whined as he leaned against the fence as well, his back against them. Akabayashi looked forward at the blue sky above them.

"It's not that bad Shiki. If we try hard enough, think we can reach the top?" Akabayashi asked as he watched the birds in the sky fly high above.

Shiki snorted. "There's no point. The older generation will clip our wings. Those greedy geezers sit in their seat doing nothing because they want to keep their damn position and power. That's why all these talented Todai students have no job because the older generation isn't getting off their fat ass. They need to fucking retire and give the next generation a chance."

"Oh. That kinda sucks doesn't it." Akabayashi said as he watched the birds in the sky. "That's kinda too bad. I wish at least you would have been able to get a good job. You deserve it."

'No, you deserve it,' Shiki thought to himself. It wasn't fair that the society was rotten. It wasn't fair that it was a hypocrite. It wasn't fair that Akabayashi would have no future other than getting a blue collar work and it wasn't fair that no matter how hard Shiki tried to get good grades in college, he would just land in some normal job, get a normal wife and live a normal boring life. At one point, Shiki would have accepted this as fate but not anymore. Not after he met Akabayashi.

This wasn't what he wanted in his life.

"Akabayashi," Shiki said with a solemn tone. Akabayashi turned to look at his friend.

"Yeah?"

"If we can't go up, then there's no other way then to go down, don't you think?"

"Down?" Akabayashi frowned, not getting it.

"Yeah. Down." Shiki turned his head to face his friend.

"If this rotten society wouldn't allow us to go to heaven, then we can unearth how rotten this place is by digging our way to hell. No matter how smart I am or no matter how strong you are, if the society wouldn't give us a place up here, then we can make our own place."

Akabayashi listened quietly, still not really understanding him. But he always listened. He knew that Shiki never spoke unless he truly had something important to say.

"What I'm saying is, will you follow me to hell? If this damned hypocrite society thinks its better than us, then I think it's time to show them who's boss by going into underground business."

Akabayashi's eyes finally glinted with understanding, his grin spreading on his face.

"Would it involve a lot of fighting?" Akabayashi's eyes twinkled playfully.

"Yeah." Shiki smirked back ruefully.

"Will it be fun?" Akabayashi grinned wider.

"Hell yeah. Much better than a boring desk job or lifting some bricks and cements."

"Well then," Akabayashi smiled a smile that dazzled even the sun's rays.

"Guess I'll be following you to hell, partner."

Shiki got out of the black tinted vehicle, armored with bullet-proof windows. He wore an impeccable white suit as the men bowed before his feet. He was only in his early 30s but already promoted as one of the highest ranking executives of Awakusu-kai. This would have been impossible if Shiki had been under a normal company.

But in the underground world, skills that delivered the necessary results topped everything.

Akabayashi also got out of the car right behind his friend, wearing a gaudy red suit while sporting a cool shade. In his hand he held an ornate cane though he did not need it to guide his journey.

"Speaking of which, you should carry an umbrella," the young high school kid with serious face told his friend as he carried him back home.

"Huh? Why?" the delinquent asked his class rep.

"So when they fight dirty, you have a weapon to block them."

"That's silly. What if it's a sunny day?"

"Carry a cane then. I don't know." Shiki scoffed.

"What? Are you making me blind, limp and an old man all at once now? That's kinda mean Shiki-san." Akabayashi pouted and Shiki chuckled heartily. Shiki never had laughed so openly before.

Akabayashi smirked at the ornament on his cane before he placed it on his shoulders and followed his friend. Shiki was all business as per usual, barking orders at the men and kicking them into getting things done on time.

Back when they were kids, Akabayashi would have never guessed that he would live such a carefree life under the dark sky lit with neon nightlights.

Society was rotten.

Society was a hypocrite.

But that was alright with Akabayashi and Shiki. They knew how to play the game by the rules now.

Their own rules.

-the end-