The man took a step forward and Monoma stood there frozen, watching his advances for a solid minute before turning around and running. He screamed, rushing up the stairs to his apartment, the man following after him.
To his own surprise he ran passed his apartment to the neighbors, and started pounding on the door. "Hello, hello! Rui!" he screamed, and watched the knife-man's rapid approach.
"Rui, get the fucking door." He heard a voice from inside.
Then there was nothing and Monoma screamed again. As he did the door burst open and a tall man stood there, glaring at him. "What do you want k—" Monoma ducked under his arm, into the apartment right as the man got to the door and thrust his knife into the one that had opened the door for Monoma.
Monoma screamed again and ran to one of the doors in the apartment, opening it. It was a bathroom.
And Rui was in there, his eyes glazed over and a cigarette in his mouth. But when the bathroom door banged against the wall, his eyes snapped alert and the cigarette fell from his mouth. "Monoma," he hissed, "What are you—"
Monoma flung himself at Rui and they banged into each other, both tumbling to the floor. The man with the knife entered the bathroom a creepy smile on his face. "Hand over the kid." He demanded.
Rui stared at the knife-man but said nothing for several seconds. Finally, he ignored the question, and asked instead, "Where's Caz."
"Who?" knife-man asked.
"There is another man living here, his name is Caz, where is he?" Rui repeated, his eyes hardening as the expression on the other man changed.
"Oh… whoops, sorry, stabbed him."
"Stabbed him?" Rui asked, to make sure he heard right, his voice disbelieving.
"Yeah, whoops," the man gave a creepy smile at the both of them that sent shivers down Monoma's spine.
"Then we no longer have any deal."
Monoma's mind went blank at that statement. What was he talking about, what deal could the two of them possibly have?
"It was a light wound, he'll get over it."
"The hospital costs would be far more than anything you could give me. That's no profit."
"Well I didn't expect him to run to you, and you never told me about any guy livin here."
"That money was for me and Caz to get out of here and get a better life. That was the deal. One night with the kid, some extra cash for me and him. No one gets hurt."
"Sometimes things happen." The man shrugged.
"Fuck you."
"Well think of it this way, you give me the kid and you get your cash so you can pay the hospital bills. Don't and your little boyfriend's going to die."
"Don't make me go." Monoma didn't really understand what was happening but he did understand that Rui had made a deal. Money for him, that was all he needed to know.
"If I don't see my profit, you are not getting this child."
"Come on, it's just a kid for a few extra dollars, my buddies will get mad if I don't got the kid like I promised.
Rui's lips pulled back into a sneer. It was like he was a completely different person.
"Or I could kill you right now."
"Let's not be hasty. But on second thought, you probably should be because every second you waste talking to me, is another second your boyfriend loses some more blood."
Rui fell silent.
"So what's it gonna be sweetheart?"
"Fine, let's see the money."
The man reached in his pockets and pulled out wads of bills and money, everywhere.
Monoma couldn't believe someone was paying this much, just for him. Maybe he should up some prices, had he been selling himself cheap this whole time or was this guy just paying extra because he was that much creepier?
"Great, thanks." And Rui's quirk ripped out of him and he impaled the man sixteen times with different bones.
The money the man was holding dropped to the floor, and he was dead almost instantly. Rui removed his inhuman bones from the other man and then he dropped to the floor as well, unreal amounts of blood seeping from his body, onto the bathroom tile.
Rui searched the man's pockets for more money and found some more, putting it on the counter before dragging the man out to the balcony door and flinging him into the streets. "Alright, Monoma, here's some cloths and I need you to take warm water, and bleach and get all this blood off the floor, you can do that, right?"
Monoma nodded numbly.
"Okay, good job, I'm going to stop Caz's bleeding."
Monoma blinked and then slowly went off to find some bleach. He couldn't believe what had just happened. Was he witness to a murder? Should he tell someone? What was Rui going to do to him once this was all over. "There, there darling, everything's going to be alright." Rui crooned and then yelped.
Monoma peered around the corner where Caz had him by the throat. "You bitch, this is all your fault."
"I did it for you. For us." Rui croaked, his face turning paler than normal. "Yeah, sure you did," Caz backhanded him.
Monoma snuck back behind the corner and continued cleaning, but faster.
About thirty minutes later, Monoma was cleaning the last of the blood when Rui came in. He glimpsed a finger like bruise, on his neck where the turtle didn't quite cover and a bit of bruising on his face, where the concealer didn't mask everything.
"You did good, it looks very clean." Rui whispered.
"Uh thanks." Great, Monoma had done a great job at removing evidence from the murder scene.
But as he'd come to realize, Monoma didn't really care. He was almost glad the man was dead, as horrible as that sounded.
"Also, it would just be a good idea not to mention this to anybody. I mean, on top of the fact that he wasn't contributing anything to this society, you also helped cover it up."
"Don't try to threaten me."
Rui raised an eyebrow.
"You think I care about whether that sicko is dead or not? Well I don't. But don't think I like you either. I wouldn't waste one second in ruining your life. You love your boyfriend so, so much? Well how about I get him arrested for domestic abuse!" Monoma hissed. "Next time, why don't you think before opening your damn mouth."
Rui gritted his teeth, "Leave Caz out of it."
"And why should I? You tried to sell me off to some dude for a couple extra bucks!"
"You don't understand, Caz needs that money!"
"For what?" Monoma cried.
"I don't know, he didn't tell me! I just know that he needed it! All of it."
"How many kids have you sold for your filthy money?"
"None!" Rui screamed and put the skin between his thumb and pointer finger in his mouth. Monoma wasn't sure what he was doing until blood started running down his fingers.
He started to think that all those scars and bruises might not have been from just Caz.
"Listen, I won't tell anyone. But you better not hurt any other kids, or me again for that matter.
"I know. I don't want to." Rui whispered, closing his eyes for a minute. "I don't want to do any of this anymore."
"Neither do I." fighting, tooth and nail just to survive every day. Just to get through one more day, of one more week, of one more month, of one more year.
"I want… to help him."
"Only way you can help anyone is by helping yourself first. So do yourself a favor and break up with this guy. He doesn't want you, and deep down you don't want him either. You're just scared to leave, but I don't know why yet."
"He'll be sad, he'll be angry. It's not my place to leave first. I should stay until he wants me gone."
"Yeah well he's never gonna want you gone cus you make his life some kind of cake walk. But fine. Ruin your own life for all I care."
Rui sighed and told him, "You'll understand when you're older."
Monoma hated when people said that to him, especially since this idiot was only a few years older than him. How much more experience could he possibly have. "Dunno how many people you've dated, but I've dated three."
"Caz brings in most of the income. It'd be impossible to leave him. With the money I get, I'd never be able to afford an apartment on my own."
Monoma had trouble feeling sympathy considering his own situation.
"It's easier this way. Regardless, it doesn't really matter what you think."
"I guess it really doesn't. Whatever. I'm leaving now. Let's never talk to each other again."
"That will most likely be for the best." Rui said reaching into his pocket to pull out another cigarette. Rui didn't say anything else, and his eyes had that blank look Monoma had seen when he first came in.
Despite everything, Monoma didn't think Rui was a bad person. He made some pretty stupid choices, but when Monoma first met him. That first time they'd talked, he didn't think that was fake. When he helped Monoma and Album get away from the man before, he didn't think that was fake.
"Bastard." Monoma grumbled, turning to walk out. He stopped at the entrance to the bathroom, "If you ever decide you don't want to be a complete failure, come see me."
He knew Rui never would. But no one could say he hadn't tried to help. As expected, Rui didn't respond, just stared at Monoma blankly, as if he weren't even there.
Monoma sighed and shut the bathroom door on his way out. He walked through the main room, where Caz was on the couch, bandages wrapped tightly around his abdomen. Rui obviously knew how to bandage people, which made sense since he probably had to do it for himself often enough.
That thought didn't sit right with him, but it wasn't like he could do anything.
Or maybe he simply didn't want to do anything.
Either way, this wasn't his problem anymore.
Well at least he didn't have to worry about that man anymore. He still had nightmares that night though.
A/N This chapter is dark too, I'll try to do a bit lighter one next time with more Monoma Album. I already have something else planned for this duo, another obstacle, naturally, this one will be fun too. Anyway, hope you enjoyed, sorry it's kinda short, but I'll try to make a longer one next time!