AN: Undernourished category + boredom = this oneshot. Hopefully my characterization is decent. Adrian's POV. Lyrics used belong to Evanescence, song is called Lies (and really fits this manga, in my opinion). Boy's Next Door belongs to Kaori Yuki.

~ Myriad ~

"Rest in me and I'll comfort you
I have lived yet died for you."

- Lies, Evanescence

The boy's eyes are so... distant. Dead. Cold. Unfeeling, unflinching, even when I ran past him and away, covered in his fellow prostitute's blood, that first night we met.

I once compared his eyes to Wolfy's, my iguana. No emotions are betrayed in either of their glossy depths, just a single spark of life, maybe a glimmer of something when the sun catches them... If it ever had chance to. Wolfy never left the house, just sat waiting for me after work. Lawrence was a child of the night, and from the desolate look he wore, I think he was forced to stay inside too, much as my pet was.

That reptilian tattoo on his chest suited him with an irony only I would have understood. Like the tattoo, with the shackles around its neck, and like darling Wolfy with his name-tag, Lawrence was a kept child, forced to obey those who had branded him their own. I wanted to brand him as mine. I wanted to be the reason he lived. I don't want another childhood to be as awful as mine. However, from what I saw of him that night at the club, straddling another male carelessly, easily binding his wrists to the headboard, Lawrence had grown used to his life as a slave, which was a sad thought indeed.

Wolfy was used to his life too. He enjoyed Vicky's visits, it was clear from his reactions... but not from his eyes. Lawrence liked Vicky too. He became a whole other person, the child he should have been, when he was around her. He fussed over Wolfy and Vicky as I fussed over him; I would love to cradle Lawr in my arms as he did with my pet.

Maybe he would become my pet.

My secretive, wrong, dirty pet, with those awful eyes just staring so blankly, judging me for what I've done!

I hate it! I wish they'd all just leave me alone and STOP LOOKING AT ME!

"Adrian?"

I turn, knowing the psychopathy must be clear on my face. There is an angel in the doorway, calming, distant, key just slipping into his pocket as he leant idly on the door to close it with his back, so he didn't have to turn from me as he entered. His face is so gentle, so young... so tired. Vicky swings from one of his hands and he darts a brilliant smile down at her, but his eyes stay dull, as ever.

"Lawrence..."

I gasp his name like I'm dying, and I stagger over to him. He must spot my haggard expression, the desperation in my awful, lively eyes, so unlike his, as he quickly but gently pushes Vicky towards Wolfy with a gesture to go and play. As she slips past me, I collapse onto the fourteen year old boy by the door, who holds me with as much care as he holds Wolfy, or one of his many one night stands, even though I am far taller and heavier than him. He is so beautifully thin. My hands fist his jacket as though he's stopping me from sinking under the surging waves of madness, as though he's... my saviour.

"... You okay?" He asks after a while, possibly unnerved by my display of breaking sanity. I'm breathing heavily, still clutching him tightly.

I whip back at his query, and grasp his shoulders in what must be a painful hold, though he doesn't show any reaction. He never shows a reaction. None of the judgement I hate, which was in the eyes and hearts of my other victims. No fear, though he must know how his life will inevitably end if he stays around my fracturing mind. I stare into his eyes as though I can strip back everything and reach his soul, desperate to see something, anything that proves he is mine, and not toying with me as the others did, treating me as just another job to handle.

He blinks slowly, owlishly. My body shudders as I attempt to exert some control over my breathing, still staring wildly at him.

He smiles, lips curving into that delicious grin I love so much, and buries his face into my chest.

I remove my hands from his shoulders and hug him with a violent force, though he doesn't flinch, as I expected. I lean my head on top of his with a soft sigh, our hair mingling together, hearing a soft 'Aww' from the direction Vicky left in. I knew it was aimed at us, although I'm sure she doesn't fully understand the depths of our relationship. I realise belatedly that she shouldn't, yet - at her age, ignorance is bliss. At my age, ignorance is terrifying.

I can feel his heartbeat pounding against mine, his face pressed against my shoulder. He's still smiling, I can feel it through my shirt. I pause, lick my lips, and softly sing a part of a song I haven't heard in weeks, but the lyrics flood back into my mind with startling clarity. "They'll never see, I'll never be, I struggle on and on to feed this hunger, burning deep inside of me..."

Lawrence's smile widens, though I don't know why. "We'll be back in a minute, Vicky." He states, pulling away from me, clasping my hand in his dextrous, thin fingers, and tugging me into a different room. He closes the door, still clinging to me, and pushes me against the wall, lips finding mine with a passionate skill he'd learnt from years of being on the streets under someone else's orders. Our soft, gasping moans were hopefully inaudible to Vicky, but I didn't care that much as my mind was fixing on this boy's inordinate beauty, his scent... his body.

I felt something growl within my mind, desiring to do away with him as I had the others, blindfolding them, loving the thrill of anticipation in their young voices as they wondered what I was going to do with them, the fear as I whispered for them to relax as the knife would slip in so much easier that way, and the jerking, agonized, choking breaths as I held them down, almost lovingly, to wait for their filthy little bodies to still. My kiss grew frantic and violent. Lawrence smirked and pulled away, and I whined like a kicked dog.

He positioned his head by my shoulder, tilting upwards so his breath ghosted across my ear. It would be so easy, just to grab him and slam that frail bag of bones into the wall... He gave a soft, exhausted sigh, strange from one so young, and my mind cleared somewhat, the voices dying back.

Lawrence drew a long breath, and picked up where I had left off in the song. "Rest in me and I'll comfort you, I have lived yet died for you, abide in me and I vow to you, I will never forsake you..."

I tensed in surprise, and he put his hands on my shoulders, looking into my eyes as I had done to him earlier, massaging slightly with the pads of his thumbs. "I love you." I murmured, staring at him with a frightening intensity.

His soft, dark mouth quirked up in a smile, and something flickered in those dead eyes of his. Was that... love?

Lawrence's fingers danced across my chin before tangling in my hair, making me gasp and blink. When I refocused on his face, his eyes were dull again, like Wolfy's. But yet, though he was so like the animal I compared him to, he was so, so much more.

"I will never forsake you." He repeated quietly in response, and the horrendous voices in my mind were carried away for a time by the emotions that overtook me, love and lust and want and need; a sea, no, a myriad of multi-coloured balloons released in my broken mind by the soft gaze of a dead-eyed boy.

AN: I don't even know anymore... It went weird. Originally planned Lawr coming home with a balloon, but ah well. Review if you want :3

Other lines in the song's lyrics that describe the characters perfectly, aside from the ones used in the story by Lawr and Adrian:

Lawrence: "Bound at every limb by my shackles of fear, sealed with lies through so many tears, lost from within and pursuing the end, I fight for the chance to be lied to again."
Jester (to Adrian): "You will never be strong enough, you will never be good enough, you were never conceived in love, you will not rise above."