"Herbivore. Wake up."
Bel cracked an eyelid open as he heard Kyouya's voice. His room was still dark, and the clock he had been bought the day previous that was now sitting on his new bedside table flashed five o'clock. He groaned.
"Herbivore, get in the shower and get dressed. We're leaving soon."
"Go 'way…" Bel rolled onto his side so that his back was to his host. He was too tired to wake up, the tablets he had taken having knocked him out cold and given him the first unbroken sleep he had had in – well, maybe his entire life. "Tired…"
"We have a long drive ahead of us; get up and get ready." Kyouya flicked the bedroom light on.
Bel frowned. "What…? Why…?"
"I have to attend a conference, and I am not leaving you here alone for so long. You are coming with me."
"I don't wanna…!"
Kyouya rolled his eyes. He stepped away from the door he was standing next to and approached the bed so that he could pull the blankets away from his guest. "Don't be so childish, herbivore. Get up."
It wasn't until the skylark saw just how exhausted and weak the older male truly was did he finally relent in his demands. He sighed. "Fine. I will gather clothing for you and put it in the car. You may shower at the hotel we will be staying at when we get there, but no later."
Bel barely heard these words; he had simply collapsed back into a deep sleep, unable to wake up after finally, finally experiencing a pleasant sleep.
~~XX~~
The car ride had been mostly silent. Bel had slept through most of it, and after he had woken up, he just stared out of the window and watched the world go by. He had been getting better in cars, less fearful of other vehicles, but he still annoyed Kyouya at times by playing with everything he could reach. Today, however, the blond seemed too tired to want to do much.
"We are almost there." Kyouya glanced at the smaller male from the corner of his eye. "We'll go straight to our hotel; the conference doesn't start until tomorrow."
Bel sighed. "Why did you wake me up so early if we don't have to be there until tomorrow…?"
Kyouya didn't reply, and Bel was too tired to push it; he just wanted to sleep.
"What's a conference?" The blond turned away from the window to look at the other.
"An information session. It is being held to discuss my job; we are looking at changing things and bringing new things in."
Bel nodded. He wasn't very interested; he just wanted to know what a conference was. "Sounds boring."
Kyouya shrugged. "What do you want for lunch?"
"Not hungry…" Bel felt sick at the idea of eating; he was scared, terrified of the possibility that Kyouya was lying to him and was only transporting him to someone else. It made him remember things he wished he didn't, and he wanted to die.
"Fair enough." Kyouya didn't press the matter; he could respect that Bel may be feeling disconcerted by all of this without having been told beforehand; he himself often felt the same way with these sorts of things.
Bel sighed. He turned back to the window, not interested in talking; he just wanted to sit there and try not to feel so sick.
~~XX~~
When at last they arrived at the hotel, Kyouya checked them in and they went up to their room. On the way up, they were stopped by someone calling the skylark's name.
"Kyouya, I should have known you would show up."
Bel growled at the blue-haired male standing behind them. They were tall, with heterochromatic eyes, and their hair spiked up at the back. There was something about them he didn't trust, and his every instinct was telling him to kill; kill the other before they got him, first.
"What are you doing here, herbivore?" Kyouya narrowed his eyes.
"Same reason you are." The newcomer moved forward, and Bel couldn't help but snarl. He received a sly smirk in response. "He is cute, Kyouya. I always knew you had a thing for blonds."
"You are mistaken, as usual; I am caring for him; nothing more."
"Kufufu~" The stranger's mismatched eyes narrowed in what Bel could recognise as malice; he had seen it all the time before he had been taken away from Xanxus. "You make him sound like he is a child, Kyouya. Come on, just be honest; you fuck him every night, don't you?"
Before Kyouya could even reply, Bel lunged past him and charged at the blue-haired male, but despite how much anger he had inside him, he had been so badly neglected for his life, he didn't have the strength to free himself from Kyouya's arms when the younger male pulled him back.
"Ti cazzo ucciderti! Rifiuti!"
Kyouya didn't understand what Bel was yelling about as he had never bothered to learn Italian, but even if he didn't understand, he knew that the man standing before them would; the other was Italian, and whatever Bel was saying was enough to make him snigger. The blue-haired man replied back in Italian, and his comment only seemed to make Bel angrier.
It was then Kyouya decided it was time to leave, because if they stayed around, he himself was going to lose his temper, too; he knew the other all too well, and they conflicted dangerously. "Come, herbivore. We're going to our room."
Surprisingly, Bel allowed himself to be pulled away, and while he trembled in anger as they walked, he soon calmed down when they entered their room; there was no one else in there, and so far it didn't look as if he were about to be given to someone else.
Kyouya moved to sit on the bed closest to the door. He dropped his bags next to him as he looked out onto the balcony, but when he felt the mattress dip next to him, he quickly tensed and looked back beside him; why was Bel so close all of a sudden?
"What, herbivore?" Kyouya instinctively pushed himself away from the smaller male; he all of a sudden felt too crowded and needed his space.
Bel didn't take the hint; he instead followed the other as he stared at Kyouya with a blank expression. "Who was that?"
"Mukuro Rokudo. A herbivore you are better off having nothing to do with." Kyouya felt sick; why couldn't Bel give him room? The blond himself hated people near him, so why was he doing this?
"You grabbed me before." Bel blinked beneath his long bangs. His voice was stoic, but Kyouya could still sense desperation in the older male. "That's the first time… you've touched me…"
Kyouya blinked. "…"
"Why don't… Why don't you touch me? Am I… disgusting…? I don't understand… Everyone always touched me… when I didn't want them do… They did… really bad things to me… But you don't like to come near me…"
"It's complicated, herbivore. I am not disgusted by you; I simply do not feel comfortable around others."
Bel disregarded those last words and instead moved forward. He lowered himself so that he was able to rest his head against Kyouya's chest and listen to the younger's heartbeat, the same thing he had done with Dino that time. "No one… ever made me feel safe around them… They just hurt me…"
"What did they do to you?" Kyouya was stiff, and he made no move to embrace the smaller male; he didn't like this contact at all, but unlike whenever Dino had tried to hug him, he didn't attack Bel; he allowed the other to do this.
Bel was silent for a few moments before he looked to the balcony. He spoke in a bitter tone. "What did Squalo tell you happened with my balcony?"
"He said you fell off it, but you didn't, did you?"
Bel shrugged. "Don't know… I can't remember much… Even after it happened… It's just a blur… I remember standing on it, and… And then… Blackness… Lots of pain… And waking up in my bed…"
Kyouya closed his eyes; did he dare reveal that one of the motivating factors for him to have joined the police force in the first place was because he understood what it was like to be in Bel's situation? Maybe it had never been as bad as the blond's childhood, but still, Kyouya had lived with his uncle as a teenager due to his parents. Part of him had been able to reign his anger towards them and instead use it as a means to help people in the same position. It was a dark secret of his no one else knew about, not even Dino. "…"
The blond sighed. "…I… I like… being close to you…" To Kyouya's disbelief, the older male's tone was shy, a hint of childish innocence buried deep within it, and it was enough to break through the skylark's icy exterior and wrap his arms around Bel.
Bel was stunned for several seconds, having never imagined the younger male would hug him back. He wasn't surprised that the hug only lasted for a few seconds, but he didn't complain; he had still enjoyed it.
"Cavallone was the first to touch me and not hurt me…" Bel dropped his head against Kyouya's shoulder. "It made me wonder… What is it like to not be afraid of touch…?"
"I don't know." Kyouya backed away from the older male at this. "Ask Cavallone."
"You're afraid of touch, too…?" There was a hopeful tone in Bel's voice, as if he wanted to hear that, yes; someone else could understand him.
"It is not that I'm afraid of it; it simply makes me uncomfortable." With that said, Kyouya stood up. "Go have your shower and get ready for lunch. We will find somewhere quiet to eat."
Bel didn't feel like arguing; maybe if he obeyed, Kyouya would be kind enough to let him have another nap before lunch.
~~XX~~
Bel had been oddly well-behaved all day, and as soon as they had eaten dinner, he had taken his sleeping pills and gone to bed. While he was resting peacefully beneath his blankets, Kyouya wasn't; the skylark was too busy staring through the darkness of the hotel room in Bel's general direction. It was rare for his mind to be clouded by someone else, but tonight, he found that he couldn't stop thinking about the blond. He wanted to know more about the damaged male, to feel his skin, to taste the flavour of his mouth, and to feel how tight he was - but Kyouya knew he couldn't do any of that; if he tried, Bel would lash out and all of the progress that had been made with him may be reversed.
No; Kyouya was going to have to wait for Bel to come to him – but would that ever happen? He could dream.
