If you say a fucking word to any of them, I'll make you regret it, you little slut.
…
How long does it take you to learn to do as told?! You don't listen until you get your ass beat! You were told to keep your mouth shut, trashy whore! Stop screaming and take your fucking punishment!
…
You don't leave my side unless I send you away myself; you exist solely for my benefit and my pleasure. Until the day I slit your throat myself, I own your mind and your body, and I will do with them whatever I damn well please. Now kneel like the good little slut you are and put your mouth to use.
"Belphegor?"
The addressed blond jumped violently as he was jerked out of sleep by a voice from the doorway of the bedroom he had been sleeping in. He sat up quickly and glared from beneath his long bangs at the man who dared bother him.
"What." Unable to keep himself from hissing, Bel gripped the bed sheets beneath him tight enough for his knuckles to turn white. He couldn't stand people coming near him, much less bothering him when he was trying to sleep; why couldn't he just be left alone?
"I could hear you from the living room." The young man standing in the doorway held a look on his face that Bel couldn't decipher, no matter how hard he tried; caramel eyes were shining with emotion Bel had never seen before, and the look the other donned was not that of hatred or anger – so what was this facial expression he was being presented with? "It sounded as if you were having nightmares."
Bel didn't know how to respond to this; the only dreams he ever had were of nightmares, and he was only ever beaten and yelled at for keeping people awake at night when he would scream bloody murder in his sleep; why was this not happening now? "…"
"Are you okay?" When Takeshi moved further into the room, he wasn't oblivious to the way his guest tensed suddenly and his breathing hitched as panic hit him at his host's approach. "Belphegor? I'm sorry; I'll give you space."
Bel took a few deep breaths to steady himself before he replied. "I don't need your pity, peasant; get the fuck out of my room so I can sleep."
"Belphegor, it's almost midday." The young man known as Yamamoto Takeshi shook his head as he folded his arms against his chest and spoke in a gentle tone; he could see for himself how fearful his guest was, though the blond seemed prideful enough to try and hide it. "All you've done since you've been here is sleep. We need to go out and buy you some new clothing and anything else you'll need, and then I'm taking you over to someone else's home so that they can look after you."
Bel clenched his jaw at this before he shook his head. He made an agitated sound, almost as if he believed Takeshi was lying to him – but lying about what? "I'm not leaving my bed. Fuck off."
"Belphegor, I've let you sleep for two days now; it's time to come out for a little while."
It wasn't that Bel was irritated by Takeshi trying to tell him what to do – that was only a small part of his current anger - instead, what bothered him the most was that he just couldn't work out why he wasn't being abused for arguing and disobeying, and instead why Takeshi was being so…
What was Takeshi being in this minute? Not cruel and heartless for a start.
Bel didn't like feeling so confused and uncertain about his current treatment, because he couldn't remember ever having someone interact with him like this before, and he had no idea what to expect outside of the norm – outside of being beaten and raped and verbally abused.
"Belphegor." Takeshi remained patient as he tried to coax the other from the room. It wasn't going to be easy, but after having seen Bel in such a state after rescuing him from the Varia Mansion…
Well, Takeshi quite simply didn't want to give the blond any more reason to be so fearful.
"I don't want to come out; I'm comfortable here." A childish pout crossed Bel's face as he gripped his blanket tightly and tugged it further up his body.
"I'm sure you are, but wouldn't you be more comfortable with some pyjamas? It can't be very comfortable wearing such raggedy clothing all the time. If you come out of your room, I will buy you the most comfortable clothing we can find, and then we'll have lunch wherever you want to eat before I take you to my friend's house."
Bel couldn't deny the fact that he wanted new clothing; the only ones he had were what he had been released from the hospital in, and it was very uncomfortable and wasn't keeping him warm with the cold weather they were experiencing – and the fact that there was bloodstains and rips all through the fabric only made things so much worse... The only problem was, he didn't want to have to leave the bed. "Leave me here and bring me back stuff."
Takeshi didn't take Bel's demands to heart; he had no idea why the blond was like this, and if it were from the abuse like he suspected, he couldn't hold it against his guest; if that was the case, he would never understand Bel's pain. Trying to change his approach and be more understanding, he asked, "Is there a reason you don't want to come into town?"
Bel was stunned by these words; he had never had someone ask him a question like this before. Sure, he had had questions thrown at him often previously; he had had answers he didn't want to tell anyone tortured out of him by Xanxus and Squalo because no matter what, they always seemed to know exactly what he did and never had been able to go behind their backs without being caught.
This was the first time Bel hadn't been pinned to the ground and assaulted mercilessly just to make him speak.
"…"
"It's okay, Belphegor; you can tell me."
"…" Bel cocked his head to the side. He honestly didn't know what to say; what was there to say? He wasn't about to admit to anyone that he was scared of going outside, leaving the only thing he knew for a world of uncertainty and confusion. How was he supposed to tell someone he didn't even know that he had never so much as been outside in the Varia Mansion gardens before? That the only outside world he had seen in his eighteen years of living there was the grounds he stared out at as he stood on his balcony at night and tried to decide how to make his next attempt at suicide successful? No; Bel wasn't going to divulge this information any time soon, and if he ever did, it wouldn't be to someone he hardly knew. "I don't like going outside."
"No one will hurt you, Belphegor," Takeshi promised. "I'll be with you, and you'll be safe."
Scoffing, the blond shook his head. "Bullshit."
"It's not, Belphegor." Knowing not to push Bel any further when he didn't know the other's limits, Takeshi decided to give up for now; he would have to find an alternative to taking his guest into town to get him adequately prepared for his new life. "What if I take you to my friend's house now instead? Then when you're feeling more comfortable, we will organise clothing and everything else for you."
"…"
"There will be a nice, big bed for you that I'm sure is more comfortable than this one."
Bel shrugged. He laid back down on the bed and pulled the blankets over him. "I don't fucking care… I'm tired…"
"How about you take one last nap, and then we'll go to his house?" Nodding once he received another shrug in response, Takeshi offered a sad smile. "Okay. Sleep well, Belphegor." With that said, he turned around and left the room, closing the door as quietly as he could behind him.
~~XX~~
Bel sat in the passenger seat of Takeshi's car and watched the world go past him. It had been eighteen years since he had left the Varia Mansion grounds, and so the entire concept of 'town' was foreign to him. He had no experience outside of the walls he had once been a prisoner in, and everything he was seeing for the very first time was quickly overwhelming him.
"Ah, what a silly person." Takeshi shook his head at the car that had just cut him off. He sighed and tapped his brakes to put distance between the two vehicles before he turned to speak to Bel. "I don't like other cars being so close to mine."
Bel turned from the passenger window to look ahead at this, finding a grey sedan in front of them. Having had no experience whatsoever with cars in his entire life, he found it hard to understand. "Why?"
As Takeshi opened his mouth to answer the older male, he quickly shut it as he hit his brakes once more, harder this time as the traffic up ahead came to a sudden slow and the lacklustre gap he had been left with was not adequate enough for emergency braking. Finally, once everything had calmed down and traffic had sped back up, he said, "That's why. It's dangerous. Do you drive, Belphegor?"
Bel shook his head and then turned back to look out of the passenger window. He found that once they came closer to the edge of town, and the traffic lessened and their surroundings didn't look so cluttered with buildings, it was easier for him to relax; having lived for so long surrounded by nothing but nature, he didn't feel as awkward and out of place in this part of town.
And then, once they left town behind completely and turned down a dirt road that looked as if it went on forever, Bel was able to relax almost completely; the green paddocks on either side of him soothed him, lowering his stress levels as he didn't need to try and process new stimuli that only seemed to grow with every little thing he saw.
"Why are you bringing me out here, anyway?" Bel looked to Takeshi as he picked at the hem of his torn striped shirt.
Takeshi glanced at his passenger for a second before he turned back to the road. "Because as happy as I am to let you stay with me, I think it will be better for you to stay with my friend; he has more room than I have, and while I usually have friends over a lot, Hibari rarely has anyone visit, so that will be good for you, too. Besides; he also likes to keep to himself, so he really won't bother you, especially since you like being left alone, too."
The blond dropped his head against the window and sighed; it wasn't unusual for him to feel so tired all the time, and now that he was finally allowed to sleep, he found that it was all he was doing; he was only getting out of bed to use the bathroom, and once he was done, he would go straight back to sleep. Was it because he was constantly exhausted? Because his sleep schedule had once been non-existent? He didn't know; he was just glad that he had some sort of escape from the mess inside his head.
Bel looked out of the windshield when the car turned through a small gate. He instinctively tensed and sucked in a sharp, audible breath; Takeshi wasn't… seriously about to try and drive on a cliff, was he?
The older male grabbed his door handle and intended on opening it and getting as far away as possible, but he quickly stopped and gulped when he realised that if he were to try and exit the car, he would only fall to his death; what the fuck was Takeshi thinking?!
"Don't! Go back! Go back!" Panicking further as Takeshi didn't so much as tap the brakes, Bel could see them plummeting over the side of the narrow driveway; who the hell would want to live out here?! Were they insane?!
But when Bel realised how carefully Takeshi was driving, he slowly calmed down; it seemed the younger male had done this before, so it mustn't have been certain death like he had thought. But still… He was going to make it a point to boycott this driveway.
The house on the other end of the driveway caught Bel's attention once they came around the cliff wall. It looked very big, nothing like the mansion he had come from, but still bigger than the house Takeshi lived in. There was luscious green grass all around it, and the typical Japanese home rested next to a large koi pond with a bridge leading over it. There was some sort of shelter attached to the building, and when they got closer to it, Bel could see a black car beneath it. It didn't look anything like Takeshi's big, silver one; it was smaller, sleeker, and Bel found himself wondering if all the different kinds of cars he saw on their way out here said something about the owners; was there a reason Takeshi was driving something that seemed too big to be a logical choice for driving in town, and why this black car instead looked lustrous enough to easily beat Takeshi's own in a race?
People were confusing, and Bel wasn't sure if he would ever come to understand them and what made them tick.
"Alright, we're here." Takeshi stopped his car behind the black one and pulled up the lever beside his chair before seemingly touching something out of Bel's sight, because the noise of the car soon fell silent as Takeshi opened his door.
Bel did the same and stepped out onto the gravel of the driveway. He certainly didn't want to be here, but he had been promised a comfortable bed, and he was going to take that without hesitation. He didn't say a word as they stopped by the door, waiting for it to be opened; he simply pushed his way past once granted entry, not even caring to look at who his new host was; he just wanted to sleep.
Bel didn't listen to the conversation back at the doorway; he instead wandered through the house until he finally found a bedroom that resembled the set-up he had had at Takeshi's; a bed, wardrobe and a nightstand; nothing extravagant, but exactly what he was used to anyway. Truth be told, he was sure he would feel extremely uncomfortable if he were suddenly left in a room that actually looked as if someone lived in it, because he had never had that privilege before, and he liked his simple layout.
The blond closed the door once he was inside, and he was dismayed to find that there was no lock on the door; if someone kept coming into his room uninvited, he would have to find a way to jam the door shut, but for now, he would leave it as it was.
Bel didn't hesitate to approach the bed. He pulled back the blankets and then laid down on the king-sized mattress, finding that he was pressed up against a large window. He rolled onto his side and pulled the blankets up to his chin so that he could look through the parted curtains. He stared out across the green fields for what felt like an eternity as he watched the cattle he could see in the distance graze peacefully.
Somehow, being in a somewhat familiar setting without the anxiety of the men he lived with dragging him down, Bel was able to fall asleep quickly.
~~XX~~
When dinnertime rolled around and Kyouya found that his new guest had not made one appearance since his arrival, he decided not to expect the other for dinner; Bel obviously wanted to be left alone, and that was perfectly fine with him. However, he couldn't let the smaller male starve; who knew if he would leave his room to feed himself once he got hungry?
Kyouya cooked a small meal as he wasn't too hungry himself and soon dished it up onto two plates, leaving one on the bench as he took the other down the hallway and to Bel's bedroom. He knocked on the door but received no answer, so he pushed it open slowly. As stoic as ever, the police officer didn't feel any different as he found the blond still curled up in bed, seemingly fast asleep as the rays of the setting sun washed over him.
Kyouya moved to put the plate down on the nightstand before he then leant over the bed in order to close the curtains and leave the room, well aware that his guest had not awoken once; was Bel really that tired, or was it something more?
Kyouya decided not to think on it too much; it would probably only agitate him to try and understand just what went through Bel's mind. He would have to give it a few days to know for sure, but so far, he didn't think Bel was going to be much of a problem – especially if the blond just slept.
It wasn't until that night did Kyouya learn it wouldn't be that simple; having been sleeping peacefully in his room, he was suddenly jerked awake by a loud scream coming from the room next to his. Unalarmed, Kyouya remembered Takeshi telling him of the blond's night terrors, and let it go. Though the screams lasted for a few minutes, they were soon replaced by the sound of crying, and if Bel was awake or not, Kyouya didn't want to know; he wouldn't have any idea how to help if he were to go in there anyway; he would just make things worse.
Waiting for Bel to quieten back down, Kyouya soon went back to sleep, wondering what he was supposed to do with the other tomorrow when he went to work. Why he was asked to take the blond on board, he had no idea; did he look like a caregiver to those herbivores?
Oh, well; it was too late to refuse now, and Kyouya would just have to learn to deal with it.
