TRIGGER WARNING SEXUAL ABUSE

Melone carefully placed Fugo on Ghiaccio's bed. He was still unconscious and would probably sleep for another hour.

"He doesn't like being touched," Ghiaccio said leaning in the doorway. "His professor abused him. He almost killed the man for it."

Melone looked at Fugo's face again. He remembered Isabella's words:

Some people are very uncomfortable with touching...Past trauma could lead to a person not wanting anyone to touch them...Or...confused with how they feel, they may lash out against another's touch.

It all came back to touch. A sense so simple and basic, and yet held so much power, the perceptions of the physical. Most of Melone's interactions with people had always been entirely physical whether it was the giving over of his body or a simple laying on of hands. He had very few personal interactions of the mind alone. Ghiaccio was as close to that as he'd ever had with another person. His emotional intimacy with his partner was growing at an alarming rate and Melone didn't know how to properly navigate the new terrain. As he looked at Fugo, his mind drifted back to the one who had taught him the pleasures of the physical and their weighty importance in relationships. Memory quickly fogged over his brain and he found himself back in his own childhood bedroom.

"Melone."

Mela had the book open on the bed before him. The Kama Sutra. She would frequently take it from their mother's shelf when she was away. Ever since their mother had divorced their father, Mela and Melone were left home alone more often than not. Melone was twelve and Mela was fifteen. She flipped the pages delicately with her painted nails. He really liked how the pink gloss shone on her toes. Melone always loved how they looked and wanted to paint his nails too. She'd even done it for him once, but his mother smacked him in the face later when she saw his fingers. Now he made sure they only ever painted his toes which were easier to hide. He loved it when Mela would paint his toes, it excited him. Sometimes, she even let him paint hers. That didn't happen very often because the excitement he got from it caused his hands to shake, making him mess up the paint job. Those were some of the times when Mela would hit him. She would always use her left hand to do it so she'd hit his right eye.

"When a girl touches her lover's lip with her tongue and, having shut her eyes, places her hands on those of her lover, it is called the 'touching kiss,'" she read from the book and then looked over at him. "Have you ever kissed someone, Melone?"

He shook his head. He'd seen it many times and always wanted to himself, but girls usually avoided him. She took his hands in hers and leaned in close.

"Why don't we practice, so you'll be good when you finally meet a girl you like?" Mela had been his first kiss then. She had also been his most frequent kiss as well. By the time Melone had made out with his first girl at sixteen, he'd become a pro and knew all the tricks to make a person melt in his hands.

After that, they would often peruse the book to learn more. There was more than just kissing techniques and sex positions. There were listed all different ways in which to please another, and all the proper ways to communicate in bed to bring two souls closer.

"'But pressing with the nails is not a usual thing except with those who are intensely passionate, i.e. full of passion. It is employed, together with biting, by those to whom the practice is agreeable,'" Mela read. "Y'know, Mom used to bite Dad a lot. Remember those spots on his neck?" Melone's eyes widened remembering the mornings his dad would come down to breakfast to have marks on his neck and chest that looked like he'd pissed off their cat in his sleep. She continued reading.

"'The biting, which consists of unequal risings in a circle, and which comes from the space between the teeth, is called the 'broken cloud'. This is impressed on the breasts.' I want to be bitten on the breasts," Mela crooned.

"I-I could bite you," Melone murmured and looked at her shyly. He always wanted Mela to be pleased with him and he'd be lying if he said he'd never thought about her sexually. He didn't want to be yelled at or hit; he only wanted more kisses and love from her. She was the only person that ever showed him this level of affection. She listened to him, even if his problems were petty.

"Maybe if you put your mask back on. Seeing your blind eye is a real turn off," Mela said snidely as she tossed his medical eye patch at him. He carefully put it on without making eye contact with her. He only looked back up once his eye was hidden. "Better. Now, where do you wanna bite me?" She said flirtatiously.

He'd gotten very good at foreplay with Mela even though they had never actually had sex. Even if they had, Melone would have blamed himself for the abuse. Since penetration meant rape, he would have been responsible for raping the one person that he cared the most about. She had already been abused by their father which led to the divorce. She told him all about it in great detail. He was honored that she trusted him so much.

He knew she had been telling the truth because his father used to visit him too until he started locking his door at night. That had quickly stopped. Unfortunately, Mela didn't have a lock on her door. He always wondered if things would have been different if he hadn't locked his door back then. He never told anyone about that abuse, not even Mela. It only happened twice and Melone was so young, he'd never even considered it as real. It only came back to him late at night while he slept. Those were the nights he crawled into Ghiaccio's bed for comfort.

Mela was a master tease. She did everything in her power to make Melone sexually uncomfortable. She thought it was funny when he would get an erection by her hand after he would spend so much energy trying to fight it. She would page through the book pointing at sexual positions and explain to him what each revealed about someone's personality.

"So is all of this related to the compatibility of astrological signs?" Melone asked. His mother had several books on the subject that Melone referenced religiously. He checked his and Mela's horoscopes every day.

"Well, the book doesn't say but proper pairings probably make a lot of these positions more pleasurable," Mela mused. "I bet there are certain positions more suitable for Leos and Scorpios." Melone was a Leo and his sister, the fiery Scorpio. Melone blushed.

"Melobello, you're so cute when you're embarrassed," she whispered and leaned in to kiss him. He swallowed as she slipped her hand into his pants and turned the page. "What's your favorite position in here?"

It was quickly becoming difficult to think. He'd touched himself before plenty of times, but this was the first time someone else had done it for him. He tried not to think about it and merely looked at her feet instead.

They were so pretty. They were smooth and pale and small. The curve of her arch was so delicate yet strong. She was a gymnast and it showed.

"Melone...which one?" She breathed in his ear. He swallowed and pointed at a picture. "That's a fun choice."

He continued to stare at her feet. He wanted to run his fingers over each toe and trace the ends of each nail.

Heat grew in his abdomen.

There's a bit of chipping to the paint.

Melone knew this feeling and he tried to fight it.

Maybe she'll let me repaint them.

The pleasure was so close.

Pink or purple...uhhh...would look so pretty.

His body betrayed him and she laughed.

"Oi, Melone?" Ghiaccio broke into his thoughts.

"Huh?" Melone looked up.

"I said, you wanna just go watch something? I'm fucking exhausted after all that," Ghiaccio repeated.

"Yeah, sure. That sounds di molto." It was the most pathetic usage of his phrase he'd ever uttered and Ghiaccio picked up on it.

"Mel, are you okay?" Ghiaccio asked quietly. There was concern in his face.

"I'm fine. Let's go downstairs," Melone said and walked towards the door. Ghiaccio moved out of the way as Melone closed the door behind him.

"I already told Sorbet we're here. He said Gelato still hasn't left his room yet," Ghiaccio said as they walked downstairs.

"I bet we won't see him at all today," Melone said as they sat on the couch. Ghiaccio propped his feet up and started flipping around until they found some thriller on TV. Melone didn't care what they watched, he just wanted to be close to Ghiaccio. He moved in closer and Ghiaccio's body moved in a way that felt like he was accommodating the shifted weight against him. They watched in silence for ten minutes when Melone finally rested his head on Ghiaccio's shoulder. He didn't say anything and Melone didn't do anything more.

He knew Ghiaccio was tired and that may have been a lot of it, but then Melone felt a weight on his head. Ghiaccio had leaned his head against his. Melone's heart raced and he closed his eyes. He was so close, he could smell Ghiaccio. He smelled like mint. He wondered if it was his body wash. It made Melone want to lick him but he knew that behavior would get him kicked off the couch and he was enjoying this closeness too much.

"I feel like it's partly my fault," Ghiaccio finally said.

"What's your fault?" Melone opened his eyes again.

"Gelato. I talked a lot of shit last night."

"He didn't do that because of you," Melone said. "He would have done that anyway."

"How can you be sure?" Ghiaccio asked.

"He's been hurting for a very long time. He hasn't been right since we came back."

"Oh." He knew Ghiaccio didn't talk to Sorbet and Gelato much and may not have known the extent of it all.

"He doesn't want to lose Sorbet. I can relate," Melone said before he could stop himself.

"What do you mean by that?" Ghiaccio asked softly.

"I wouldn't want to lose the person I love either. I can't imagine going through what he did. Having to see the one person I love most dismembered before my eyes?"

"It would be hell," Ghiaccio whispered. His hand moved a bit and bumped into Melone's. Melone had taken his gloves off earlier and the contact of warm skin felt nice. Melone moved his fingers to graze against Ghiaccio's fingertips. Ghiaccio didn't stop him. His fingers danced in between the spaces of Ghiaccio's fingers until he enlaced them. Ghiaccio's fingers seemed hesitant but relaxed loosely around Melone's grip. He waited to be rebuked for the move but the yelling never came. There was only a sigh from Ghiaccio. He wondered absently if this was what it was like for Gelato.

They sat like that for a time just watching the movie. Melone's mind wandered as he watched Ghiaccio's fingers. He wondered what he would look like with nail polish. He thought blue would be the best color for him or would red be better? It would match his glasses. Maybe Ghiaccio would let him do his feet too? That was probably pushing it. Ghiaccio seemed very uncomfortable with his feet. Melone wished he could show him that there was nothing wrong with it. It was just another part of the body to be loved and admired in bed, and he realized more and more that he did want Ghiaccio in bed.

He had a dream about Ghiaccio this morning. They were making out in bed upon waking and Melone climbed on top of Ghiaccio and rode him until they were both a post-orgasmic mess. It was such a nice dream to wake up to but then he had to leave before Ghiaccio woke up and noticed his physical affliction. The way Ghiaccio had acted in the dream coupled with moments like this made Melone really want "romantic love" (as Glacé would say) with his partner. Melone had had crushes on people and maybe they bordered on love but they were never like how he felt towards Ghiaccio. He hadn't really noticed it until Glacé had pointed out the ambiguous nature of their relationship. That was when Melone realized he wanted more. He remembered how upset Ghiaccio was today when Purple Haze attacked. Melone was in a lot of pain but he had noticed the way Ghiaccio pet his hair before leaving him in Giorno's care. Maybe he was delusional and was just seeing what he wanted to, but it seemed like he cared about Melone. At the very least, as a friend which was already more than Melone had expected from him.

He heard a creak on the stairs and slowly sat up, letting go of Ghiaccio's hand. He saw Fugo coming down and decided this was his signal to go. He stood up and looked back at Ghiaccio.

"I'll give you guys the room," Melone said and smiled.

"You don't have to go…" Ghiaccio said.

"You guys need to talk. I'll be upstairs if you need me." He looked back at Fugo as he began to head towards the stairs. "Glad you're feeling better," Melone said as he passed. He walked up the stairs and into his room.

"You're home early!" Glacé chirped.

"Yeah, I actually got home a bit ago. Something happened today at the party and we had to come home."

"It was Daddy wasn't it?" Glacé said in a tone that was more statement than a question. "I felt him get hurt, but then he wasn't hurt anymore, so I thought I should just stay here."

"That was a good call. We were all there so it wasn't a big deal." Melone sat down next to Glacé on the bed and summoned Babyface. He pulled the vial out of his bag at the end of the bed and popped it into the slot on the computer. The screen loaded and a message appeared on the screen.

[Delete the current data?]

Melone felt his stomach drop. He looked at Glacé and then back at the screen. I can't make more than one. Shit. What do I do? He knew that Glacé was not going to be able to track these guys and he didn't seem capable of mixing with pre-existing DNA combinations.

"Cazzo," Melone cursed.

"What's wrong?" Glacé asked.

"I need to be able to track the enemy tomorrow, but you can only track Daddy. I also can't make you a sibling either, so I'm not sure what to do," Melone sighed.

"Can I see it?" Glacé reached out his hand for the bottle and Melone unplugged the vial from the computer slot and handed it to him. He opened the vial and drank what was inside to Melone's horror.

"What are you doing!?" Melone reached out but it was too late. Glacé cocked his head and looked up as he smacked his lips like he was tasting it.

"Northeast 48.2 kilometers," Glacé said. Melone's jaw dropped.

"Di Molto! How did you know that would work?"

"I know where all the salt and vinegar chips are within a hundred kilometers. I figured it might work the same way." Glacé smiled. Holy shit. By absorbing it into his body it had effectively become part of his DNA. He supposed eating entailed a different process than merely breaking matter down to absorb the way he usually did. He'd never actually fed a Junior in a traditional way before. Melone sat in awe. He really didn't know the first thing about his stand's true abilities.

"Thanks, Isabella. Can't wait to tell her about this one," Melone shook his head and hugged Glacé to his chest. They spent time planning out the mission tomorrow on the computer. They would either be briefed tonight or tomorrow morning, assuming the party didn't get out of hand, but he knew how responsible Risotto was. He wondered if Fugo would still go on the mission with them after today's events. They hadn't heard yet yay or nay on that one. He supposed that Risotto would bring that news home with them.

Melone thought about going and talking to Gelato just to see how he was doing when there was a knock at his door. He looked to Glacé who hopped off the bed and hid in the closet while Melone de-summoned Babyface.

"It's open," Melone called and pulled open his other laptop. There were so many tabs open about cocaine and heroin and details of how to concoct. Glacé's gonna get me placed on a watchlist. He started closing them one by one as Fugo walked in.

"Hi. I just wanted to apologize. For attacking you earlier. I don't remember doing it but I'm really sorry I did," Fugo said.

"It's okay. Ghiaccio said you don't like being touched. I'm working on that," Melone said as he gave him a sad smile. "I'm talking to my therapist about a lot of stuff I need to work through. It's good to talk to people, you know."

"Yeah. I think Anger Management has been helping me with that. It gave me Ghiaccio to talk to," Fugo rubbed the back of his neck. Melone wasn't sure if he should offer since he didn't know Fugo that well and he certainly shouldn't trust Melone after today but he just wanted to reach out to him. He knew the pain that Fugo felt and he wanted him to know he wasn't alone.

"I know...what it's like…" Melone began. He swallowed and looked away. "Having people touch you when you don't want them to." He looked back up at Fugo and said, "If...you ever wanna….talk about it…"

"Uh, yeah. Thanks, Melone. Thanks for the offer," Fugo said quietly. "Same goes for you. If you wanna talk, I'll listen." Melone nodded and found he'd lost his voice. "Okay, well I just wanted to tell you that. I'll be downstairs."

"Yeah," Melone managed as Fugo closed the door, leaving him in silence.