nightmarebat: Se pondrá mejor. promesa
It'll get better, I promise!
Love, Keta.
Chapter 13: A Necessary Explanation
Blood and brain tissue splatters the walls of the alleyways, and Toby leaps down from the rooftop. He yanks the knife out of his captor's eye and moves to cut the girl free; it's then that he sees Gohan's horrified look.
'How am I going to explain this?'
Toby pointedly turns away from his boyfriend, focusing on the girl instead, and he's grateful that she's asleep. But that makes her an ineffective distraction to block out the feeling of Gohan's eyes. "Please stop staring at me. If you have something to say, just say it. Once the girl's free from her bonds, Toby takes the knife and slides it through his belt; it might come in handy later. He turns then, and the older teen is all but staring at him. "I'm serious."
"How can you be so nonchalant about this?"
"Hm?" Toby's head cocks slightly to the side. "What do you mean?"
"You just killed eight people, and you're acting like it's nothing."
"Because, it is nothing."
"What?"
He wipes his hands on his pants, smearing blood and other fluids on the dark fabric. "I thought you were smart." Confusion crosses the raven's face. "There hasn't been a serial killer here in years, and then I show up and they find a body. Doesn't that stroke you as odd?"
"You're not-"
"I am."
"But-"
Toby laughs, cutting him off again. "I've killed nine people since I got here, not including these morons. And they certainly aren't the first ones!" He knows that the teen could take him down if he wanted, and so, Toby takes it as gesture of faith that he hasn't yet.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
He's curious, and Toby's in no mood to deny him his curiosity. "The same reason you didn't come clean about being an alien." Gohan flinches. "I didn't want you to find out this way... But I have friends who wound up like this girl probably would have... And you were conflict... It was just easier."
The demi-saiyan stiffens even more so, recognizing just how true the brunette's words are, and words just can't seem to leave his mouth for the longest of times. "Who was the first?"
Of all questions he expected, that one wasn't very high on the list. "My father."
Gohan would be lying if he hadn't thought of that idea shortly after he asked, but hearing the answer come from his mouth without any preamble and absolutely no remorse, it shocks him. He knew that bad things had happened to his friend, that much was certain from when he'd spoken of Lyra, but for this remorselessness… "What did he do to you?"
"The usual," Toby replies, and he grabs up the girl, thrusting her into the teenaged superhero's arms. "A few knives here and there and some beatings now and again. You know, stereotypical, abusive, asshole and all that bullshit." He contemplates moving the bodies, but at this point, he can't be assed to care. "Do me a favor and take that little girl to the police station... If you leave her in the alley right next to it and run off, no one will notice you, but she'll be safe."
"And what about you?"
The look on Toby's face is positively feral when he looks at the alien again. "I think that we need some time apart... You can decide if you want me to stay away... forever... Or we can put this whole thing behind us, and I'll go. You'll never see me again." A few steps down the alley and around the corner, and he's gone, vanished into thin air. Gohan thinks about following him, trying to talk this out, but the shock is quickly wearing off. He needs a level head if they're going to talk ably something like this, and it's not like he wouldn't know where to find him.
The house on Arclight Avenue isn't so far away.
The moment the door closes behind him, Toby launches into the nearby couch, shoves his face in and screams. The dust flies up around him, and when his scream cuts off, he sucks in a gulp of dusty air. He hacks out a cough then, annoyance piercing through the quiet rage that's making a home in his heart. "I'm such a moron," he mutters into the pillow. "Fuck!" His bottle of pills stabs into his thigh, and he pulls them out. The swiped meds stare back at him with disdain, the black writing yelling at him for being so stupid, and the rage grows bolder, demanding action.
He downs a couple and lies on the couch, intending on sleeping and forgetting this whole mess. Who gives a shit if the couch gets messy?
Gohan isn't sure where to go.
After he drops off the girl, he's left listless, broken and so very angry. He knows that he has to work off this overpowering rage before it spirals out of control... There's only one person he can trust not to say a word.
He sneaks into Capsule Corporation, careful not to let anyone know that he's there; he doesn't want to explain the blood. He knows where to find Vegeta at this hour, in the Gravity Room, and he knows that the man will not deny him a spar. In fact, Vegeta opens the door the moment he senses the teen's suppressed energy, that permanent scowl melting away when he sees the look on Gohan's face. "What happened, brat?"
"Toby," he replies, not willing to give any incriminating information.
"Did you have a fight?"
"More or less." He growls to himself, trying to stifle the rage that got him in so much trouble before. "He... He's not a good person, Vegeta." The remaining saiyan affixed him with a flat state. "I'm serious..."
"Neither am I, Gohan." Those words ring so true in his head. How could he have possibly forgotten that this was the man who tried to murder his father on more than one occasion? How could he have forgotten that Vegeta has killed more people than Toby could have ever done? "You need to stop thinking so much. The more worked up you are, the harder it'll be to come to terms..." He backs up, allowing the teen to follow him into the GR. "For what it's worth, I really like your boyfriend."
Gohan smiles just slightly. "I know... Me too..."