Warnings: Minor cursing.

Chapter 10: My Ocarina

When we reached the hospital, I immediately followed Clausy while Ness went with Lucas. I told Lucas' doctors to call me when he woke up.

I waited for a long time as Clausy's wound was patched up. During that time, Captain Kurtz found me outside of the room where Clausy was being cared for. He asked me if I wanted to say any last words to Mike, since he was about to be arrested.

I followed him to Mike's room. He waited outside as I entered. I found him lying on the bed staring at the television. He saw me and turned it off.

"Oh hey," he casually said.

I sighed before giving him a disappointed look.

"Didn't expect this, huh?" he asked. "Finding out the handsome, good-willed officer you've been working with is actually dealing with drugs?"

I sat down on a chair next to the bed. "Why?" was the only thing I said to him.

"For my own enjoyment," he answered.

"You have fun selling drugs and trying to kill people that use them?" I restated.

"No no," he said. "What's fun is that I got to travel."

"Travel?"

Mike looked away, sighing once. "I was a farm kid. 'Til I was fourteen, I was doing all the farm work for good-for-nothing adults that tricked me into believing that they were my parents."

"Tricked?" I asked.

"Apparently my parents abandoned me, and what luck to leave me with those shits. Sure, they gave me food, but they shut me up in a barn with the animals. I was only restricted to a shack that was my bed and the fields I worked on."

I was kind of surprised. I didn't expect Mike to have come from an agrarian background.

"Then, I met Nick. He secretly visited me at night while my parents were asleep in the house. He kept coming many nights more, and we got to know each other really well. We ended up crushing on each other, having sex and stuff. He helped me escape, and I lived with him until we were eighteen."

"You lived with Nick for what, four years?"

"Yeah. Surprisingly Nick's parents are good-for-nothings too. They didn't even care about me as long as Nick did whatever they wanted. To me, he looked like he didn't mind putting up with their shit. I learned that it was because he took all his parents' money before we fled together to Onett. We lived with his friend, who Nick apparently knew really well too."

I nodded when Mike noted that, assuring that I understood what he meant.

"I was in shock learning what Nick had done. I thought he loved me as I did to him, but he thought of me as nothing more than a 'very good friend'. Of course I was mad, but he told me that there was more fun in having a lot of friends that you could have fun with than just a single person. He took me to a gay bar, and then that's when I changed my views."

"So you became a slut," I said.

"Call it what you want, but I had fun fucking or being fucked by other guys, or even less if that was all that I could get. Though, I got bored of all the clubs in Onett. That was when Nick offered me a way to make money so that I could travel and find new clubs to have fun at."

"Soda Drug dealing," I answered.

"Yeah. Nick discovered how to make that drug with his friend, and they gave them to me to deal to buyers. Those cooks went crazy for them after I sold it to just one person—guess he said a lot. You could say I was the one that started the hype for it. Some of the money I made went to Nick—but the rest was for me to use to get to places and hang out at bars and clubs."

"So how exactly did you get into the police field?" I asked.

"I attended college—one that didn't need high school graduation fortunately. Got my law enforcement training there, and applied in Onett. Passed the tests with flying colors. I figured if I could get into dealing with narcotics in law enforcement, I could find new targets to sell the SD to, and I did."

"I see," I said. "So now it's all over."

"Yeah. I kind of expected that I would screw up somehow. Maybe it was the mistake of partnering with you."

"That supposed to be an insult?"

"Take it as a compliment—you're good, you know."

"Whatever." We both smiled at each other.

"It was good working with ya," he said.

I didn't say much else except smile. I stood up and began to take my leave.

"Oh yeah, about Claus." I turned back to him, widening my eyes at the reminder.

"How do you know him?" I asked.

"I remember his orange hair and face a few months ago. I met him at Fourside."

"During another one of your trips?" I asked.

"Yep," he said. "Guess how I met him?"

It only took me a second for me to think about it. My eyes widened upon the idea.

Clausy went to a gay bar?

"He…went to…?" I muttered.

"Yeah, I met him at a club. He was being harassed by some ugly trannies. Saved him from them—so I thought he could repay me."

My eyes widened a little.

Clausy had sex with Mike? He did this to me behind my back?

"Oh—" Mike added, "it's not what you think. He didn't come onto me. I kinda drugged him with a small depressant, so he couldn't really resist me. But all I did was give him a blow job, that's all."

"That's all?" I asked. "Just a blow job?"

"Yeah. Sorry."

"No, it's fine," I lied. It did hurt. I should be really putting the blame on Mike, but it was Clausy's fault for entering a gay bar.

What if…he had been going to gay bars at Fourside since he moved?

No, he wouldn't do that to me…

…

I left the room without another word, walking past my captain.

I went back to where Clausy was being taken care of. A doctor and nurse that came out of his room said that his wound has been stitched up, and that he's sleeping for the moment. I looked through the glass pane of the door to see that Clausy was indeed, asleep.

I stared at him for a while.

I decided to check on Lucas. It turns out he woke up just a while ago but was experiencing some trauma—he cried for his mom and refused to talk to anyone except Ness. Thanks to him, Lucas eventually calmed down.

What the nurse that had tried to come in examined the situation as Lucas experiencing trauma. After hearing what had happened to him in the past, she hypothesized that the rape may have retriggered the painful memories, causing him to relive post-traumatic stress.

Another nurse with some tools in a box for a rape kit followed behind me as I walked inside the room. Lucas sat up when he saw me, still holding Ness' hand.

"Ninten…" Lucas muttered.

"Hey," I responded. "Everything okay?"

"…Yeah," he answered, looking down. "Sorry about that."

I nodded very slightly and grabbed a chair, sitting next them. I pulled out my phone and activated my tape recorder.

"I know this is going to be hard," I began. "But some people feel more at ease when they talk about it."

He understood what I was getting at. He nodded hesitantly.

I showed him my phone taping the situation and set it down on the edge of the bed. "I need you to tell me exactly what happened to you. But you can take all the time you need."

"Ninten…" Ness said. "This can't wait until later?"

I shook my head. "Sorry, but I need his statement as soon as possible."

"It's okay, Ness," Lucas reassured. He took a deep breath before beginning.

As expected, Nick was the one who led Lucas away from Ness. He said he had to go so that Ness, Claus and I were safe from what he could do. Ness and I protested against that fact, which made Lucas smile. He continued on.

He detailed how he had been drugged and step by step, described how he was taken down: how his clothes were removed, and how the suspects' sexually assaulted him.

The more I listened to how they abused Lucas, the more I wished I were there to shoot them in the mouth with my gun.

Lucas ended up with a few tears, but he managed to say everything that was needed. Ness ended up silently crying too, most likely feeling guilty about this.

I shut off my tape recorder. "You did great, Lucas."

"So…what next?" Lucas asked.

"You'll have to testify in court when the time comes," I answered. "It may be in a few days after we get everything processed."

"A few days…" he mumbled.

I turned to the nurse behind me. "How's his condition?"

"Only minor physical injuries," she answered. "After we run the rape kit, we'll tend to them with pain cream and whatever else is necessary. He will be free to go afterwards."

I turned back to Lucas. "Lucas, do you know what a rape kit is?"

"No?" he answered.

"It's just a physical examination. What the nurse will do is take a lot of samples from you. She's trained and she'll treat you with care, you just have to listen to her. Ness and I will be there too as well."

"What kind of samples?" he asked.

"DNA samples, like fingernail scrapings, hair, saliva, any penile discharges," the nurse answered. "And since you said you were penetrated, I will also have to take a sample from there."

"Oh…" Lucas looked a little worried.

"It's painless and quick, don't worry," I told. "After the exam is done, you'll take a quick shower, they'll treat you a little more if they need to and then you can go home with Ness."

"Okay," he said.

"Well, if you'll just follow me now," the nurse said. Ness helped Lucas get out of the bed and we followed the nurse to another room.

Lucas was examined. He didn't look like he felt awkward through the exam.

Mid-way, a doctor came by to tell me that Clausy was awake. Ness stayed while I left the room to go see him.

Clausy was casually lying in bed. He put on a smile when I came into the room.

"Clausy…" I whispered, approaching him. He was lying on his back, where his gunshot would be at. "Are you okay? It doesn't hurt?"

"Sorta," he answered. "But the doctor said as long as I don't put too much pressure on my body, it won't reopen and it'll heal quick."

"Oh…" That meant no sex. Not that it mattered for now.

"They said I can leave after resting a little more," he added. "So, how's Lucas?"

"He's doing okay," I said. I sat down next to him and rested my head on the bed.

"You tired?" he asked.

"Yeah." Half a day already passed since we had gotten to the hospital, and I had not gotten any sleep. I was awake because it was my duty to make sure that everyone was okay, and now that I didn't need to do much anymore, I just wanted to drop.

And, so I did. I didn't wake up until it was leaving time.

When I woke up, Clausy was being checked on one last time while I waited outside the room. Captain Kurtz and a few officers had already escorted Mike out after seeing that he had already recovered finely.

I called Hurley and asked about the situation with Nick. Ness had told me that he learned Nick was on his way to Twoson. I gave the Captain the information and he had already ordered Hurley and Twoson's police station to patrol the town's perimeter—it'd normally take half the day by car to reach the next town and it hasn't been that long yet at all. Hurley had explained there was no sighting of him yet.

He also had a thought he shared with me about "The Ink". If "Ink" was spelled in a different matter, it'd be like "Inck." Rearrange that, and what do you get: the mastermind behind the whole Soda Drug business.

After talking to Hurley, I called Lyra and told her I had rape evidence to bring in. She wanted me to hurry up and give it to her for comparison since they had already gotten the DNA of our suspects, Jamal and Ruben.

By the time I finished talking to her, Clausy just finished his check up and was prepared to leave. We met up with Ness and Lucas at the hospital entrance, where they were about to sign out. We made it just in time. We exited the building together.

Clausy put his arm around my shoulder, like I was acting as his support rather than boyfriend. We talked small talk on our way to our car, which I would be taking everyone home in. After chatting with Lucas and making sure he was okay, Clausy got inside the car and waited for me.

"So is it finally over?" Lucas asked.

"For now," I said. "They're trying to find Nick right now. But we'll get him."

"Good," Lucas responded. "I knew I was right to be careful around him…"

I chuckled. "By the way Ness, you said you were talking to Nick when you said you learned he was going to Twoson."

"Yeah…?" he said.

"Did you get out of the car?" I asked.

"…Yeah. He exited the factory a while after you guys entered. And…well I talked to him."

"You just talked?" I asked.

"Yeah. I wanted to…kill him—" he strangled the air in front of him, "—after he told me what he had done to Lucas. But Lucas was my priority, so I left him alone."

I had a feeling that he did more than just talking to Nick. But whatever, he was safe, even though he acted rash.

"Hey, what's the hold up?" Clausy exclaimed from the car. He was waving at us from the window.

I sighed. "Can you go keep him company for a bit, Ness?" I asked.

He took it as a sign that I wanted to talk with Lucas for a little. "Sure thing." He left us standing on the sidewalk.

Lucas was smiling as he watched Ness. "I can't believe how much we've went through," he said.

"To think you were just a little 8th grader with a middle school crush," I told. "And now you're his college boyfriend."

"Yeah…" Lucas giggled afterwards. "You know…you've been a great help, Ninten."

"Hey, it's no problem for my best friend," I said, putting my arm around him. We both smiled.

"I really can't thank you enough for all that you've done. You did a lot for me when we were younger, and even now."

"You wanna pay me back?" I asked. He looked at me and nodded. "Just take good care of Ness."

"I will," Lucas responded.

I took one step ahead, expecting Lucas to follow behind me. However, he reached for my shirt sleeve and tugged on it. I looked back at him, and he was looking a little depressed.

"Something wrong?" I asked.

"Yeah, a question...kind of personal."

I stepped in front of him, blocking the view of him from our boyfriends. "Well, they won't hear. No one else is around."

Lucas took a deep breath. "So, they raped me," he uttered.

"Yeah?" I questioned. "Do you feel okay?"

"Not really," Lucas answered. "It's still...discomforting. But that's not my point. It's...Ness."

"What about Ness?"

We both looked over at Ness, who just playfully punched Clausy in the face. Lucas held his arms together. "What if…he doesn't want to do it with me?"

I reassuringly grinned at him. "Why would you think that?"

"...I'm not pure anymore. So if he wants sex, I don't think I would do well for him."

I sighed, and then gently put my hand on his shoulder. "Lucas, we both know Ness would do anything in the world for you, and he's very considerate. That means he loves you no matter what's wrong with you. It doesn't matter if you think you're impure, he knows you're hurting right now and he'll be patient as much as you want."

Lucas slowly nodded at me. "Right...okay."

"All better?" I asked.

"Mostly." Lucas nodded once more.

"Good, now let's go." I turned around and gave him a cheerful smile while he followed me. I entered my driving seat while Lucas sat in the back with Ness.

"Looks like our boyfriends are getting along pretty well," Ness said.

"Maybe too well," Clausy added.

I punched Clausy's face in the same manner as I saw Ness had done earlier. "Shut up Clausy."

I drove us back to our neighborhood. I parked at my house since we came in from the road near my house. Clausy and I watched Ness and Lucas walk back to their home before we went inside our own home.

I brought Clausy to our bedroom—he wanted to relax a little before having some dinner. I told him I would make an omelet as he waited.

After spending some minutes whipping up an egg and frying it, I brought it to the bedroom, plain and simple on a plate with a spoon. Clausy was sitting on the bed, almost slouching. I was a little worried his injury would reopen in that position.

"Clausy, you might open your wound like that," I warned.

"Oh, right…well I guess I'll eat standing up." He stood up as I gave him the plate. He ate comfortably while I leaned against the wall, closing my eyes.

"You could just sleep on the bed," Clausy said while chewing.

"I'm fine," I said.

I needed to talk to him, that's why I was forcing myself awake a bit more.

I needed to know a truth.

Clausy finished eating and put the plate down on the dresser. He gently sat down, sitting upwards so that he didn't worry about his wound.

"Did you want to sleep now?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm pretty tired. Oh…today's Tuesday…" Clausy stated. "Missed two days of class."

"We'll catch up tomorrow," I told.

"But all the classwork, though."

"Our teachers will understand if we tell them what's going on."

"Right."

I turned my face away, hiding my frown as I recollected my thoughts again.

I really couldn't believe it.

Mike and Clausy?

Why would Clausy do such a thing? How can he?

But that time…like Mike said, it was kind of against his will.

…Or maybe he actually wanted it? Was Mike even telling the truth?

When Mike was being put into the ambulance…Clausy recognized him.

…

"Something on your mind?" he asked. He was looking at me, a little worried.

He's either playing dumb or just innocent right now.

"Mike," I boldly said.

"…" Clausy immediately know what I meant. "So…you talked to him?"

"Yeah."

"…He told you?"

"…Yeah." I sat down next to him. I think he felt that I was a little disappointed in him.

"It's not what you think," he said.

"So tell me?" I demanded. "You go to a gay bar to look for someone to have fun with, right?"

"…Well—"

I couldn't control myself. "What—were you trying to find someone to get off with after not having me for a long time? You couldn't wait for me or something?"

"Ninten."

"And—how many times have you gone to a gay bar? A lot of times? Once? But even once doesn't excuse you from—"

"I was stressed, okay?!" he raised his voice at me.

"…Sorry," I said.

"No, I'm…sorry." He wrapped an arm around me, putting his head against mine. "I…was disloyal. I didn't stay true to you."

"Clausy…"

"But I didn't go to a gay bar to go fuck some other guy," he said. "I only went to one because…I didn't know what I was doing."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"A lot was in my head at the time. It was during the week when my mom died. I had to watch over Lucas a lot when he wasn't talking to Ness, so I didn't get much time to myself. I couldn't really think straight. I mean, it doesn't hurt me as much as it does Lucas…but thinking about my mom dying…it still hurts."

I was starting to feel guilty about my initial thoughts.

"You know, I never heard the full story about what happened," I told. I felt that if Clausy told more and got it off his chest, he'd feel better.

Clausy looked at the wall in front of us. "I didn't really want to go into detail because...it hurt a lot trying to remember everything."

I wrapped my arms around him. "I'm right here."

He smiled and kissed my head. He sighed and sat in a moment of silence, until he began to speak.

"When my dad got a new job, he was replacing someone else that had just lost his job. None of us knew him, or how we had made his life miserable until he came to our house unexpectedly, with a gun. He targeted my dad, until he decided to kill all of us…"

"Know what, how 'bout I kill your little family?! Wouldn't that be much better?!"

"Don't you dare!"

BANG! "Shut up!"

"…He shot the ceiling, scaring Mom and Lucas," Clausy continued. "Then, he aimed at Lucas first. My dad argued and tried to calm him down…but nothing changed. He was going to shoot. I was about to push Lucas out of the way, and take the hit, until…"

"HINAWA!"

"M-Mom…?!"

"…" I wanted to tell him to stop.

"I tackled the guy while he was still surprised at who he shot. I managed to kick the gun away and lock him—he was surprisingly weak. Lucas was holding Mom in his arms. I wanted to be there, holding her too.

…We didn't know Dad had a phone behind him. He managed to call the police and had them listen to all of the shouting going on, so they knew what the situation was like. They were able to track where we lived, but they got there too late."

I held onto Clausy tighter.

"The ambulance came with the police. I thought Mom could have been saved. But then Lucas went insane. I panicked—I thought I was going to lose Lucas too. Then, he fainted. We all ended up in the hospital…I stayed with Lucas while Dad stayed with Mom. As soon as Lucas woke up, he rushed to where Mom was. Dad held him back, and managed to calm him down. But Lucas was barely managing to hold himself together.

…But, that was right before…before—"

"Clausy, stop." He didn't notice the tears dripping down his eyes until he wiped one off with a finger.

"S-Sorry…I shouldn't be crying."

"It's okay to cry," I told him. I felt like tearing up too, but I held it back.

Clausy sniffed hard. "The family went downhill after that. Dad kept working but couldn't keep it up since Mom was always on his mind—our minds, too. Lucas somehow managed to keep himself together, but only for a little while. When Dad got fired, he abandoned us. He thought Boney and I could take care of Lucas, but when he left us, it only made him blame Dad for everything. He started to hate him and believed it was his fault Mom died."

"Stop…"

"I tried to convince him wrong but he didn't get over it for a long time. What made things worse was that Boney was feeling tired too. I could sense he was really sad after all that happened. He was already growing old…I thought Mom's death and Dad running away just sped up his worries and made him die early."

"Clausy…!"

"Poor guy…he died thinking we weren't gonna make it. And Dad…I don't know what he's been up to all this time…maybe he's gone to be with Boney and Mom now—"

"Stop it Claus!"

That was the second time I didn't call him by his nickname.

We both looked at each other. Tears were falling down our cheeks. Our lips were quivering, and our breathing almost abnormal.

"I'm sorry…!" was the last thing he said before we embraced. We cried on each other's shoulders.

It was a blur that night. I didn't remember if anything else was said or done. We managed to calm down and fell asleep in each other's arms.

Clausy did feel better the next morning. He felt so grateful that I was with him. I told him that I would always love him, and he said the same.

Like I could see with Ness and Lucas, we were an unbreakable couple.

Nothing much exciting happened after. Clausy and I managed to reconnect well the following morning, so we didn't worry about anything else except continuing life. We resumed attending classes at the university. Lucas testified in court after the next couple of days, where Mike and his two friends were being charged with rape and found guilty easily. With all that done, Lucas seemed really happy from the on. Ness was satisfied with the result as well.

They were even happier when I told them Nick had been found and arrested.

All the troubles in our life were gone, and we made it through college life with ease.

Before Onett University's graduation day, Clausy took me out for a fancy dinner on our anniversary. Well, it was technically also Ness and Lucas' anniversary too, so we all ate together. At that particular restaurant, customers as couples are randomly put on a TV screen as spotlight, just congratulating their love for each other. Customers could also ask to be put on the spotlight at a certain time as a request, with only for a little fee. Guess what Clausy had done? He asked to put on the screen and he proposed to me.

How could I reject him even after such a cheesy act?

Ness eventually proposed to Lucas, except he didn't go for something easy like Clausy had done. Not that he was competing, of course. But he told us the plan and we went along with it: we all went to Ness' last college-level baseball game, which was after graduation. Ness shamelessly announced and promised to all of the spectators that if he fails to make three home runs in a row, he'd quit baseball, which was an extreme shock to the audience since everyone knew him well. But if he made three home runs in a row, he wanted everyone to cheer loudly at the end of the game.

What he didn't add to that was that he wanted everyone to cheer loudly when he was proposing to Lucas. Clausy and I dragged Lucas to the field entrance and pushed him towards Ness. Lucas was feeling nervous having the eyes of a big crowd, but that didn't matter much after he saw Ness kneel down with a ring in a box hidden in his pocket. I think I was about to go deaf that day from how loud the screams for them were.

Life was amazingly normal after college. We each focused on our own separate careers, but the four of us had unbreakable bonds. We never stopped contacting each other—we always had time to spend for each other just to hang out or chat. We had been through so much together—it was hard not to enjoy our friendships.

I look down at my chest and felt it. A small object was poking me and my shirt.

It was the silver ocarina Clausy gave to me when he came back to Onett.

This ocarina may seem like an unimportant and unpopular instrument, but it was my most cherished gift from him.

It was a reminder of how thankful I am to be living life with Clausy right now. If I never met Lucas, I would never meet his twin brother: his sexy, twin brother who is now my husband.

And it was that one boy's twin who gave me this ocarina immediately at our reunion: a gift that guaranteed we would be together forever.