Hana: Happy New Year to you~! Happy New Year, to you~! Happy new year, dear readers~ Happy New Year to you~!
Allen: Um...and many more?
Hana: Say it with feeling, Moyashi-chan! Hell, sing it with feeling!
Allen: ...no. It may be a happy new year to you, but I'm sick in this chapter!
Hana: Aww, poor baby. -shrugs- Well, the year may have started pretty bad, but I won't let the YouTube BS keep me down. You can't control the circumstances, but you can control how you react to them. So let's make 2018 the best year we can make! WHO'S WITH ME?!
-crickets chirp-
Hana: Really? -sighs- XavierForest and I don't own D. Gray-man. Never have, and never will...probably for good reason.
Allen: Both authors only own the story that gets posted on Hana's account. Enjoy the new chapter, and Happy New Year!
Hana: Well, then there's Raku...hmm...
... ... ... ...
+ - Chapter 11 - +
"The hell are you doing?" Rouvelier growled, as he looked in disgust at the newest scene. "You had what you wanted, it's your own foolishness that even allowed…your trophy to be swiped from right under your unholy nose."
"Recall, Director, I had taken any and every precaution to ensure my angel never left."
"Apparently for you, not enough."
"I'll get him back," Apocryphos vowed, and he said it in such a way that it made the other man shudder.
"I had assumed homosexuals were a sin in themselves." Rouvelier dared speak up, "Why would you waste your time with a brat like that? Would you not pass judgement upon his soul?"
"As I have told you once before. There are times in my quest where God gifts me with an angel for the evil I vanquish upon this Earth."
"I see."
"If not for our agreement, you would be in a shallow grave somewhere right now."
Rouvelier grit his teeth as he bit back a comment that would surely get him killed. He couldn't believe that he was still associating himself with this monster. Still, ends must justify the means, so he would keep going until he got what he wanted.
On the other hand...that man would still be in jail, awaiting his execution, had it not been for him getting that bastard out. "Do what you will. I have business to attend to."
"Don't forget, Director, power is as much a weapon to use as it is a downfall to the one who wields it."
"Keep the philosophical garbage to yourself," Rouvelier said, waving off the remark.
"I speak only the truth." The killer firmly stated. The Director, however, paid no mind to the man as he left the scene. Apocryphos sighed, looking to his latest work. He looked to the body of the woman on the floor. "A shame. I was sure you would've been able to be a great asset. Not giving me the information I desire was your biggest, and final mistake."
Oh well. A pawn was nothing more than a pawn. They were indispensable, perhaps, but in the end, they're usefulness would wear thin. Apocryphos had no desire for...
Actually...a new pawn might be what he needs. Perhaps a rook? Knight? What would be the best piece to lure and capture the queen?
"Hm, it appears I have a horribly good plot afoot..."
He allowed himself one small smile before removing his eyes from the woman. It seemed there was still much work to be done.
. . - * - . .
Allen sneezed.
"No way in hell am I allowing you to get sicker than when you started out, kid." Raku groused, already taking the dirty dishes. "On that note, how're you feeling?"
"I cab breeds through my dose..." Allen murmured. "Ib's stubffed."
"So I can tell." Was the unamused expression in relaying his remark. "I'm starting to think you get a kick out of making me your damn nursemaid."
"You thinb I god sick on purbose?"
"You're supposed to get better..." Something seemed to dawn on the man, as he eyed Allen skeptically. "You never took the pills, did you?"
"..."
"DAMMIT BRAT! I'm, for whatever god damned reason, trying to make you better, and you intentionally let yourself get sicker? God fucking dammit, kid! You're going to be the death of me at this rate!"
"Sorry for nob trusting most pills." Allen felt the need to emphasize the last word. After all, drugs were all he had been given to make him physically too weak to so much as move...and it made him super vulnerable...and not in any good way.
The Japanese male was silent, before groaning in annoyance. Of course...of fucking course. He would think that after the shit Apocryphos put him through...so what the fuck do I do?
"Look, kid." Raku took that moment to stare his son's ex-lover straight in the eyes. He had to be direct. "These will make you better. They may make you drowsy, but I'll be here."
"You were there the last time too," the Brit bluntly pointed out. Raku had been there, and he'd let that monster have his way with Allen for months before finally taking action.
"That was then. This is now." Raku griped.
"Whud's the difference?" The younger countered.
"I'll protect you this time."
Allen didn't know whether to believe that or not. His faith in Raku was too low.
He looked away and absently scratched his right wrist, where a band of scarred chafed skin was highlighted by the paleness of the rest of his arm. There was a matching one on the other wrist, visible through the deformity of his flesh.
"Alright. What the hell do I do to earn you damn trust?" Raku wasn't going to give up...though he was half tempted to jerk the boy's hand from his wrist if he kept up with that quirk he somehow picked up. "I can only put up with so much of your bullshit."
"You're...abot lide hibm..."
"Like him? Do you mean Yu?"
Allen nodded, though he said nothing else.
Raku's face contorted as he scowled. "I'm considering forcing those pills down your throat if you continue being so uncooperative."
When Allen's heart sped up due to the fear Raku's words had generated, so too did the scratching.
The Japanese man made an annoyed sound as he quickly set down the dishes in his hands and held Allen's wrists. There was a bit of blood beneath the brat's black fingernails, originating from the new breach he'd made in the chafed area of his skin. "Great," Raku muttered dryly. "It's not like I didn't have enough to do before."
"Stob touching me." Allen tried to tug his arms from Raku's grip, but ultimately failed. He was too weak to put up any real resistance anytime soon.
"Stop being a selfish brat." Raku squeezed the boy's wrists, and only relaxed his hold when Allen winced and gasped out in pain.
"I will not hurt you."
"Liar!"
"Oi! You listen here, kid. I'm attempting to be civil for the first time in a long time. Cut me some slack. My job right now is to get you to full health. That includes your mental health."
"Why do you care?! What woulb you eber gain from helbing someone as...a-as..."
"Broken as you?" When he received no reply, he groaned, and released the boy's wrists, soon sitting himself at the bed's side. "I was that broken myself. Perhaps I still am, but I only became the man I was because of that person who gave my dark world some light."
"...Okagi, right?"
"There's a shit ton of darkness in my heart, and I've accepted that long ago. I was abandoned, I was given from one foster home to another...I did shit that got me a scolding, and slap on the wrist. I even did things that sent me to the slammer assuming they were able to catch me."
Allen cradled his right wrist as he side-eyed the man, warily scooting an inch further away. "You're not the obly one who's suffered."
"I know, and that's why I have no excuse for my actions. I'm just a bad person is all."
"...Okagi must've thoughb differently..." Just like Kanda did with him, Allen realized...at least when he wasn't being a pervert.
"Maybe."
"Why?" Allen asked, eyes on his hands. "Why did you want your son to suffer too?"
"Look at me," Raku said, his shoulders slumping. "I lost everything. Okagi died. I've been in and out of jail. The voices wouldn't shut up. I thought... I... I went to see him, and he was happy. You two were talking and holding hands and flirting. It wasn't fair."
Considering that, Allen took a tissue from the bedside table and blew his clogged nose. Truth be told, he'd like to think that he would have done differently, but he knew that if he'd been in the same position as Raku, his feelings would have... Raku was right. It wasn't fair. Still, that didn't mean he should have gone down the path he had. Was ruining his son's life satisfying? Did it make living somehow easier?
"That's why you're trying to make amends." Oh, he could breathe now...for the time being, at least.
"I'm trying to prove I'm the man Okagi was dead set on knowing I could be."
Allen was the same. He wanted to be a good human and live up to Kanda's expectations. His lover had been the one to prove that he wasn't a real monster, after all. Sure, it had been a humiliating experience, what with all the touching and him being spread out in front of that mirror, but it had been a real eye-opener.
He silently deposited his used tissue in the small bin half under the bed that Raku had put there after Allen had complained about how annoying it was to locate the nearest bin every time he blew his nose, especially since his sinuses were shot and he needed a tissue every five to ten minutes.
"Do you want to go back to him?" Raku asked after the silence between them had gone on for a while. The question, admittedly, caught Allen off guard.
"Back to...BaKanda...?"
Raku's attention snapped to Allen, before he turned away, his form shaking...wait, he was laughing?!
"What's so funny?"
"No, nothing, kid." Said the laughing man. "I actually called Okagi that shortly after we met."
"You...called your lover 'BaKanda'...?"
He shrugged, finally managing to calm down from his laughing fit, "We weren't exactly together. Obvious when we were, I ended up going from that to 'chibi'. He hated it. I loved the way he got riled up."
"I'm starting to question my life choices..." And he was. He really, and truly was.
"You do look short. I wouldn't be surprised if Yu called you out on that at some point."
"He calls me 'Moyashi'" the Brit grumbled.
Raku snorted and shook his head. "Of course he does."
"Shuddup."
"I haven't said anything to warrant that."
Allen huffed, and pulled his covers over himself. "I'm sleeping."
"Medicine first, then sleep."
"M'not takin' pills," Allen said, glaring at the man.
"How about a deal then?" Raku didn't miss the curiosity that flashed through those silver eyes. "If you take the medicine, I'll cook whatever dish you want the moment you wake up, regardless of when."
"Anything I want?" If the soup he was given was anything to go by...Kanda had gotten some of his cooking skills from this man...he still thought Kanda was better, but admittedly...Jeryy had them both beat, hands down. Still...it was free food...
"Anything."
Well, all he'd been eating lately was that soup... Even though it was nice, having something new would be even better.
"Fine."
"Thank god." Raku grumbled, "Dealing with you while you're sick is a pain in my ass."
"I'm doing it for the food."
"I don't even know why I'm doing this anymore," Raku said, his eyes vacant and his face blank. "You're annoying."
"I feel like taking that as a compliment, honestly."
"Uh-huh." Raku muttered as he stood. "On record, should I find out you didn't take the medicine, I'll make sure to serve you something undesirable."
"Um...undesirable...?"
The elder stood, wiping the non-existent dust from his pants, before turning to grin evilly at the silver-eyed male on the bed, "I'm certain you wouldn't wish to know, now would you?"
Allen shrunk back an inch and dropped his eyes. "I guess I'll take it then." If Raku was anything like Yu — and he'd seen a lot to suggest that he was — then that threat was very real.
"Good boy." The man said, "I'll get the medicine, and then I'll stick around to make sure you actually take it."
"Don't you trust me?"
"No," Raku said, before picking back up the dishes he'd set down and taking them to the kitchen.
"Well...don't I just have all the luck with Kandas." Sighed the British male. "Woo-hoo."
It wasn't too much longer before Allen began wondering what everyone was up to. Were they really looking for him? Have they moved on?
...how could he go back to them when he was broken beyond that repair? Filthy. Disgusting...undesirable...
He shuddered, a hand coming up to clamp over his mouth as bile rose in his throat. God, he hated this. He hated what that man had reduced him to.
He hated that Yu wouldn't want him anymore.
Being forced upon...humiliated as he had no choice but to unwillingly take what that monster gave...
Could this...have been what his lover felt? Huh...that was a strange thought to pass his mind. He recalled Kanda...that saying, his Yu...telling him about that...
Yu had said that it'd been someone he'd known... and that he'd tested negative for anything undesirable...
Allen froze as cold fear gripped his heart. What if... I have an STD? It's be just like that asshole to do something that fucked up the rest of Allen's miserable life.
Apocryphos was a rapist, meaning he'd surely had sex with a multitude of others without first checking whether or not they were clean.
"Oh gods..." Allen said, as tears began to well, "No...p-please no..."
His hands trembled and there was a tight feeling in his chest that made it difficult for him to breath. Gritting his teeth, Allen dug his nails into left wrist. Knowing my luck...
"What's got your panties in a twist, kid?" Raku's voice sounded, startling the younger out of his dark thoughts. "You gonna throw up? Use that bucket."
Allen numbly reached down to bring up the small bin beneath the bed and cradle it to his chest. After a moment, he hesitantly looked Raku in the eye and quietly asked, "Do you... know if... he had any sexually-transmittable... diseases?"
Raku paused, the implications of the question making him wince. "I don't." They'd never talked about those kinds of matters.
"O-Oh...I see..."
"Listen, I know someone." Raku sighed, running his hand through his bangs, "They'll check you for undesirables and none will ever know the wiser, because it'll be completely under the radar."
"What...kind of someone?"
"The kind of someone who will swear to secrecy, and take it to the grave." Raku explained. "I can't guarantee the results will be quick, so you may wait a while before getting them."
Allen slowly nodded, hugging the bin closer. "I want to be tested."
"I'll call them then." Raku said. "Take the medicine for now, and I'll make you something light to start when you wake up."
Allen nodded mutely. He didn't think he had ever been so scared in his life.
He hated thinking that there was something left inside him from that man.
No...a man wouldn't do such things...he was more of a monster, a demon only bearing the guise of a man with the false pretense of a God that he uses to justify what he does.
And it made Allen all the more unwell just thinking of it.
He set the bin back down on the floor where he could easily reach it in case his stomach decided to empty itself, before taking the pills and glass of water from Raku.
"Rest up, kid." Raku said, taking the glass from the shaking hands of the younger male, before turning to leave the room.
"...c-could you stay with me u-until I fall asleep...please?" He asked the figure that was just about to leave. With the fears plaguing his mind, he didn't want to be alone at the moment.
He wasn't really fond of Raku, but having the man with him was better than having no one.
Raku chuckled suddenly, and the younger looked to him curiously. "I was just reminded of the first time Yu got sick. Okagi was out of town, and I had no idea what I was doing."
"No...idea?" Allen yawned. Dammit, he wanted to hear this...
He laid his head down on the pillow and pulled his blankets up, both eyes on Raku.
Raku nodded, a look of fondness on his face, "I actually thought I was going to lose my only son, he was coughing, vomiting, and was shivering fiercely despite how warm his room was. I was so freaked out, I had rushed to our neighbor-at-the-time's house."
"Tha's silly..." He was getting very sleepy now. Warm and fuzzy too. Comfy... "then wuh happened...?"
The Japanese male cracked a small smile. "They assured me it was just a bug, but I didn't believe them."
Allen found himself chuckle tiredly. "And...?"
"And I'll finish this story when you wake up."
The younger pouted, but still yawned, "Fine...owe me..."
"If you say so."
Allen's eyes slid closed. "What about pictures?" Seeing a little Yu would definitely be a treat in its own right.
Raku quirked a brow and sighed. "I'll show you later."
"Ya said so, now ya gotta," the Brit mumbled.
Raku nodded, watching as the younger finally fell asleep. "He's got his work cut out for him, i can tell that much." He stated, before standing. Taking the glass of water, he turned to the doorway, and turned out the light. He gave a fleeting glance to Allen, and allowed a small twitch of the corner of his mouth to form a smirk. "Have sweet dreams tonight, kid."
... ... ... ...
Hey everyone! It's a new year, and I still need it, but R&R still doesn't mean "Rest and Relaxation"! Leave a review to let us know how we're doing, and feel free to show this story some love by favoriting this work! Follow so you never miss a chapter, and don't forget to check out XavierForest's stuff over on his page, and until next time, we'll see you again on...
Light within Darkness!