Updated 14th of August 2017
ED: This chapter is told more from and omnipotent version of Tyki's perspective. Just giving you a heads up now.
Warning: There is some violence in this chapter. Not really explicit, but suggested, and then lightly described.
Disclaimed: Nine bought a DGM magnet set once and that is the closest she ever came to owning theses characters.
"Seriously boy, how could someone who spent so much time gambling in this town get so lost?" Tyki was rubbing his temples in little circles. At first he had thought that teaching Red the way home would be entertaining and fun. He had been wrong.
The first five minuets where funny. In an ally that only offered only three ways to go, Red chose the wrong way four times. Once Tyki showed him the right way things went smoothly until Red had to turn again. Not only did he have a terrible sense of direction, but it seemed like the boy didn't even know how to read a map. For a while this was still fairly entertaining. Red claimed that he could still read a map, it was just hard to line things up properly when it was dark.
Things carried on this way for perhaps another hour. It wasn't too bad, Red was starting to get the hang of it and Tyki periodically made him walk back to the bar so that the path became firmly ingrained in his memory. Tyki was having fun. Red took a wrong turn, he laughed at the silverett and reset him, all was going good.
Then one of Tyki's old classmates recognized him on the streets. It was a pain, but keeping up appearances when recognized was always important. You never know who the Earls next investor may be. The conversation was painfully polite but thankfully short. Tyki waved him off and then turned around to be greeted by an empty street and a missing boy. That's when things ceased to be fun and his mood turned sour. It was one thing for a young boy to be walking around at night with someone like Tyki there to help him. It was a completely different thing for a young boy like Red, who's only skill seemed gambling and getting into trouble, to be walking around lost and alone at night.
The Portuguese still remembered when they had first met. Red had been cornered is some ally by a bunch of thugs, and the older man happened to be walking by when he called for help. Tyki had just started working at the mines and was looking to let loos a little. The thought to help hadn't crossed his mind until he saw the kids face. He couldn't have been more then ten and it looked like he was already bleeding from his head. That had bothered Tyki. Innocent children should not to be tampered with and especially not beaten. So he beat up the thugs and helped out the poor boy.
As it turned out his head hadn't been bleeding, he was not ten, and he was not as innocent as Tyki had imagined. The boy had a tattoo on his face, was actually 13 and a half (as the boy so clearly pointed out) and knew far more about the world then he let on. Enough that he knew not to give Tyki his name and gave him the slip soon after.
It seemed like every week after that he found Red getting beat up in a different ally by different thugs, and Tyki helped him every time. At first he felt bad for the poor boy constantly being targeted as he was. Then he started to admire his spunk when it came to dealing with the thugs. After a year of cleaning up the kids messes he eventually just sat him down and made him agree to simply let Tyki chaperone him when he came into town if he was going to have to help him every time he came anyway.
That was when Tyki learned about Red's black side. So much for the innocent child Tyki had originally thought he was. Red proved to be quite the little monster with a smile on his face. He was good at gambling, skilled at lying, and knew more about the filthy things in the world then your average adult. Once he got passed the shock of that Tyki came to find it kind of charming. Kind of like he was teaching a little brother how to refine his skills while keeping the good side of himself separate from it all.
Tyki never thought he'd have to go back to the days of having to check for the kid in every ally he walked past. Tyki had taken quite the liking to Red in the three years since then, so going back to this frustrating stage in their partnership annoyed him to no end.
The worst part was that Tyki wasn't sure if it was Red, or the old 'friend' who had stopped him, that he was mad at. Red was more to blame then the other guy, but Tyki also liked Red more then the other guy. The difficult time he had assigning blame for this situation also helped add to the irritation he felt.
Tyki was moments away from humbling himself to calling out for Red when he heard quite the commotion coming from an ally down the street. If I where a betting man I would put money on Red's location right now. Tyki started to head in the direction of the ally. Slowly. Maybe he should let who ever-it-was scare Red a bit and teach him a lesson about running off before Tyki got there.
"Help! Please?" Red sounded more then a little bit panicked.
So much for letting him learn his lesson. Tyki picked up his pace a bit. Then it sounded like someone was getting beaten, and suddenly Tyki was running.
He had just entered the mouth of the ally as the fighting stopped. It was almost completely dark and Tyki couldn't see very well, but he could make out one body standing over another and delivering a final decisive kick to the victims chest.
Tyki threw the culprit up against the wall. He was surprisingly light and small, if it wasn't for the fact he had just taken Red down, Tyki might have felt bad for him.
The boy he was holding against the wall grunted with pain and then opened his eyes. "Tyki?"
The older mans eyes started to adjust to the darkness and he dropped the boy at once. "Red? What on Earth happened here boy?" Tyki took another look around. There where four unconscious grown men on the floor not including the one the Red had just kicked.
"Well, they knew my master and didn't seem too interested in talking, so I just had to, um, help them move on I guess," Red shrugged. He had no idea why Tyki seemed so confused.
Tyki on the other hand was still having a hard time grasping what Red was saying. "So I am to believe that the one who put five large men on the ground was you?" Amber eyes looked at Red in disbelief.
"I did tell you at some point that I can hold my own Tyki." Red looked like he had resolved to not feel bad about tricking the older man into needlessly protecting him the last few years.
"Hold your own? Hold your own?! Boy this is a lot more then holding your own! And at the time I thought you where just trying to convince me to let you have a drink! This is not the kind of 'hold your own' that anyone would expect from you," Tyki felt shocked to have his role as protector for Red taken away so abruptly. It also hurt that Red had just used him like that for so long.
"I'm sorry Tyki, I thought you knew and just liked having an excuse to beet people up. I wasn't aware that you thought I was so weak," Red put his poker face on and apologized calmly to him.
Tyki recognized the look and knew that he had either hurt Red or that he was planning something. Given the situation he probably feels insulted because I underestimated him. Tyki shook his head. He wasn't the kind of man to hold onto petty grunges. Especially not over some misunderstanding. With a sigh he told him, "It's fine boy, lets just get you home. I'll show you the rest of the way tomorrow. We should leave now before another 'excuse' shows up."
Red nodded his head and let Tyki lead the way. The young boy had some how managed to get them quite lost, and the two ended up walking in silence for another hour until they arrived at the train station.
"I have lived under the assumption until now that you can make it home on you own from here, yes?" Tyki started to remove his gloves and other accessories to gather them into his hat. The Earl was so demanding when it came to his dinner parties.
"Yes Tyki, thank you," Red calmly thanked him and turned to leave.
"Hey Red, one thing before you go," something had been bothering Tyki since they left the ally.
Red dropped the poker face he had been holding on to since then in favor of a more curious look, "Yes, what is it Tyki?"
"Why do you always call for help first if you can handle them on your own?"
Red laughed a little, "Oh, that. Well at first it was to catch them off guard by making it seem like I was talking to someone behind them. Now I do it just to make sure that there are no witnesses in the area." Red seemed a little embarrassed to have ever used such a cheep trick.
Tyki shook his head and laughed. "That's clever Red. I admire your wit." Tyki resolved to fully forgive the boy. "Be sure to come here two hours before work tomorrow so I can finish showing you the way there and back. You had best not be late, I am not a patient man." Tyki pretended to threaten.
"Yes sir Tyki," the silverett said as he waved good bye. Red looked tired in every sense of the word.
AN: Hey guys! I'm back, My trip was awesome, and now I'm ready to keep at this. (Also this is one of the longer chapters word count wise, but because there is so little dialog it seems really short T_T.
So how do you feel about the POV change? I just wanted to mix things up a little. Also I just went through some of the older authors and stories that I used to fallow. You may not be aware of this, but the3leonine have been shipping DGM characters on this site since 2013. It's kind of crazy actually. A lot of the authors that I really looked up to back then haven't written anything for at least a year or more. It made me feel really nostalgic, which made me feel old because nostalgia is an old person thing. And I am NOT old. Not even a little. But it really got me thinking that I miss them. How many of you guys know Elvira Ryne, or NoName-Chan, or AllenxEdwared, or Kareta Bara? They are amazing writers, and have stories written pre DGM Hallow and pre chapter 222 or so in the manga. I think that should be kept in mind for their cannon stories, but their AU's where SO SO SO SO good. I'm only pushing these because they really where an inspiration for me, and Leona too. Who knows about Leo though. All right that's it for the trip down memory lain. As always I will answer any questions/ comments you have if you leave them in the reveries. Or PM me. What ever. PEACE. V-V