LEGAL DRUG (GOHOU DRUG) FANFIC

Title: Sanguine

Written By: RinoaDestiny (Ann Koo)

Author's Note: Non-consensual sex mentioned; tread carefully. Thanks.

CHAPTER 8

He had no idea when he'd gone back to sleep; yet, during the long vigil, the fairer boy drowsed off. It was difficult not to, when the apartment was quiet and the soft breathing of the younger man on his lap put him at rest. That explained why he awoke, at first confused and bleary-eyed, to find that he'd come shy of resting his head against Rikuo's dark one. It also explained a lot about the uncomfortable silence now that Rikuo was awake.

Awake, and staring at him with the wariest expression he'd seen since Rikuo came back into his life. He sat by the bed, while his sable-haired companion pressed himself against the nightstand. At least, Kazahaya thought, assured, he didn't start screaming. Rikuo's withdrawal had been slower this time, as if he, too, had been caught off guard. There was a question hanging in the air, waiting to be asked.

Rikuo's eyes met his, confused and cautious. "You…I…you touched me."

Kazahaya inhaled, suppressing the sigh that stirred in his chest. "I know. Was I wrong?" A glance at the blood-smeared floor in front of him elicited a shudder. "I thought – I thought you were dead. You've been going on about dying and then you weren't eating…"

That green gaze dimmed. "You left me."

"I'm sorry, Rikuo. I broke my promise, didn't I?" To wipe away the hurt; to take away that look! To win back that trust that he'd offered him was going to take time. Foolishly, he'd thrown that aside and damaged it. "Were you…" The second question locked in his heart, and he was the one asking it. "Were you thinking about killing yourself tonight?"

"I – I wasn't."

"Then why? The shower? Why did you –"

Rikuo's eyes closed, shielding all readable emotion away. "You don't need to know."

"The washcloth is all bloody. Your skin –"

"It's none of your concern." The dull thud of Rikuo's head hitting the nightstand struck a beat of sound into the air. The boy's eyes stayed shut, dark lashes against blue-cold skin, and for the briefest second, Kazahaya swore he saw the old Rikuo back. Then, Rikuo sneezed, and the illusion disappeared as the shivering youth staggered to his feet, almost falling over. Viridian glanced his way, only to freeze in startled awareness. "How long was I out?"

Scrambling up, Kazahaya approached the nightstand – Rikuo had moved away slightly – and grabbed the alarm clock. Big red numbers glowed at him, nearly cheerful in the melancholy atmosphere. He saw his face reflected in the plastic, mouth shaping a reply. "I don't believe it! It's only four, Rikuo. When I found you, it wasn't even…" Noticing the stricken lines in Rikuo's face, Kazahaya trailed off, bewildered. Without meaning to, he slammed the clock down, only to wince as a jolt ripped through the other boy's body.

Rikuo was completely white. "That can't be."

"What?" Feeling helpless in the face of this newly revealed trauma was not an option. "You passed out, that's all. I overreacted, and –"

"No." Rikuo backed away from him, on the verge of a breakdown. Taut, stiff with fright, he seemed ready to bolt; instead, sinking down, his knees struck the floor with a thud. Kazahaya was beside him without thinking, but by then, his partner had curled within himself. His only working arm trembled as it lay around his head, and his words, raw with anguish, scraped an open wound into the disheartening quiet. "No. This can't be happening. Not again."

"Rikuo, what –"

"They hurt me last time when this happened." Rikuo wasn't even talking to him. The words were cutting, bleeding a wound that still ran slippery within. There was nothing he could do but listen. It was maddening, and Kazahaya bit his lip to restrain those all-too-ready tears. He'd cried enough. Rikuo's open hand clenched and an angry sob shredded any normality that could be resumed. "I don't want this!"

"Rikuo?" He dared not touch him.

"Why? Why? Dammit all, why?" A psychic shiver ripped through the room, dark and uncontrolled. Off in the distance, something cracked, tinkling to the floor. Kazahaya whirled, shock growing into terror as the room collapsed into night. He heard glass falling, piece by piece, onto the nightstand and off it. Rikuo's rage; Rikuo's horror; Rikuo's self-hatred – he tasted it in the air, tangible through the destruction caving in around him. He felt the room – the apartment – shaking, ready to fall apart. Rikuo's cries turned keen, full of self-loathing. "Damn it, why couldn't I do something about it?"

"Rikuo!"

"Kudou-kun!" He heard Kakei before the older man, a shadow shaped in darkness, swept into the room. A door slammed hurriedly a second later, and the large bulk of Saiga joined him just as the plaster on one of the walls broke, sounding like a ragged ruin. Kazahaya couldn't even tell which wall had taken the full brunt of Rikuo's unfocused power. "What happened to Rikuo?"

"He'd passed out, and when I –"

Something snapped behind him. He yelped. He heard Saiga-san above the noise, above Rikuo's enraged screaming. "Boy, snap out of it! Giving in to your anger isn't going to help!"

"Kudou-kun, please," his boss demanded. "We need to know, or he'll bring the roof down on us!"

"I told him that he was out for a while. He got scared, and then – then, things started to break." Kazahaya shook, remembering the vagueness of Rikuo's self-directed remark. "Kakei-san, he said that they hurt him before when he'd passed out." He made out the shape of the other man's glasses; of the terrible dawning of knowledge in the other's eyes. "What did he mean by that?"

Another tinkling of glass, and this time, the hallway slipped into shadow. They were in complete darkness, and Kazahaya cursed himself an idiot for thinking about forgetting to switch off the bathroom light when Rikuo held their lives in his hands. The mirror, he reflected, hadn't even been replaced, yet. What he noticed was that none of the damage directly inflicted them, as if Rikuo knew that assaulting them wasn't smart. More to the point, was Rikuo deliberately trying not to hurt them, knowing that he was in the room?

Kazahaya bit his lip, tasting the iron of blood. If Rikuo had closed himself off because he broke a mirror, and nearly struck him, how was he going to react when this kind of ruin became apparent? When he was the one responsible for nearly leveling Green Drugstore, and the people in it?

"No! No! Why couldn't I? Why am I so damn useless?"

Useless. He'd heard that word before. His breath stuck in his throat, nearly choking him at the memory. Useless. Rikuo had used that exact term to describe himself after he broke the mirror. It was his part of the self-blame, and Kazahaya had been quick to deny it. The air sparked about him, still potent with Rikuo's haphazard ability. Before, the breaking was done in fear. Now, it was done through anger – a fury that channeled within, vexed Rikuo, and was tantamount to self-destruction of a different sort. It was still deadly, however, and he saw it in its physical manifestations.

Kakei-san evidently thought the same.

"Kudou-kun, use your ability now."

"Now?" His head reeled, recalling fear, pain, and the splash of red blood. "Right now?"

"Do it, Kudou-kun!"

Kazahaya placed his hands on Rikuo's taut back, feeling the sensation of cloth and corded scars beneath his fingers. Rikuo wrenched away from him, crying out as if he'd been scalded, and the dark shape of Saiga intercepted him before he could make it far. Black upon black, and the larger figure of the older man held the struggling boy in a tight embrace. "Shhh…shhh, boy. It's okay. It's okay." For once, it wasn't Kakei-san playing mother.

Saiga-san stood in as the father comforting a tormented son.

What did that make him?

"Kudou-kun!"

That made him brother, partner, co-worker, and companion to Rikuo. His vision was hazy, the room changed, and someone caught him just as the memory he gleaned from Rikuo's mind froze his own in scarcely-spoken of horror and dread.

Blood in his mouth. He'd bitten the bastard's hand when he tried to clamp it over his mouth to keep him silent. He met Toshiya's glare with his own – he wasn't backing down to him – and noticed that the man's hand bled steadily. Fiercely proud, but bitterly aware of the retaliation he was going to receive, he couldn't hold back the one question he'd been asking since his captivity.

"Where's Tsukiko? What the hell did you do with her?"

Toshiya smiled at him, his face set and cold, and when the blow that struck him sent him to the cold, cold floor in a heap, he knew.

"Kudou-kun! Saiga, how's Rikuo?"

"He's quieted down some. I'll go and bring the flashlight up."

Toshiya at his side, fingers cruelly tangled in his hair. He winced as the man pulled his head back, feeling as if his skull was going to be torn out. His vision blurred; he couldn't remember what exactly had happened beforehand, but he'd been ripped out of the fog and his knees drove into the floor with punishing weight.

"Listen here, you little bitch. I don't like it when you don't know your place. Perhaps you'll learn once I put you where you belong."

"Toshiya! The boss doesn't allow for this kind of –"

"Shut the fuck up, Yoshiro! How did playing nice help that idiot Iwakare? The son-of-a-bitch killed him, and all you could do was play with glass!" The pressure on his skull increased, and his stomach hit the ledge of his "bed" hard. "Looks like he still has a mouth on him, and unlike you, I could give a fuck about what the rules are!"

"I'm not staying around to watch this, Toshiya."

"Did I ask you to?" A hard laugh echoed in the small room. "You go and play your games with the others. Leave this to me and my friends – we'll get him to listen and you won't have to throw stuff at him anymore."

A hesitant footstep out the door. "Don't kill him, Toshiya."

"Yeah, whatever, man! Get the fuck out already!" The door slammed, and Toshiya's breath near his ear tightened the knots coiling in his gut. "As for you…" The minute the hold on his hair loosened, he turned, desperate to escape. Escape to where? It didn't matter as long as he got out of the room. He threw an instinctual punch, knocking the man – frighteningly the same age as him – aside and onto the floor.

The small space was bleak, gray, cold steel, and four corners that gave him no advantage. He tried the knob, aggravation and stabbing fear swelling when he realized that the bolt had been sprung. He was exhausted; his body ached and burned, and he felt disconnected between his ability and the mental fortitude he needed to carry it out. Something struck him in the head, hurling him to the corner.

"You little piece of shit!" Disoriented, his alarm rose as Toshiya – face bruised purple – leaned in and seized a handful of his shirt. "Try that again, and I'll fucking kill you!" The man, gone totally cold, began dragging him towards the ledge that doubled as his prison bed. "Now get up there!"

He couldn't remove Toshiya's fingers from his shirt. Tried to, and half his lungs knocked out of him in a crippling blow that dropped him to his knees. "Bitch!" The edge smacked into his thighs and sank inward as he was pinned from behind. There was nothing in the room for him to break, and his arms twisted behind his back, sending shockwaves of pain that forced him to grit his teeth. "Fucking sonovabitch!" He wouldn't cry out – wouldn't scream.

"You even struggle, and I'll make you wish you were dead."

He couldn't catch his breath. If he could, he would say something. He didn't know what.

His jeans ripped – continued tearing as he writhed, aware of Toshiya's growing wrath. The fingers that clawed viciously at him drew blood, snagging on his boxers. He couldn't stop fighting back – couldn't just lay there and take it. The bones of his wrists ground together, and his arms strained as they were hoisted higher. Pain shot through his body, threatening to break through what remained of his self-control. Cloth slid around his ankles, and the beginnings of panic burst lucid in his brain.

Toshiya's breath hot in his ear. "Never been fucked before, boy?"

He swallowed his cry of panic as the sound of a zipper becoming undone unnerved him. Above him, he was sure – ashamedly so – that the man could feel him shaking. He didn't want to scream; to admit that he, Rikuo, had lost.

He did.

Anything, anything but this! He couldn't think – could do nothing but scream. Impaled, he couldn't rise; pinned, he couldn't move, and his insides felt as if someone had taken a knife to it and savagely sawed him in two. He heard his voice, high and unlike his own – raw and terrible – drowning out the grunting behind him. His fingers deadened, went numb, and he would've welcomed back the glass instead of this. Salt on his lips, and warmth on his thighs. Agony knifing his spine, splitting him from the outside-in, and it never seemed to stop.

Red, black, white imploded.

He never even knew when Toshiya stopped. Just felt a hand – the hand he bit – run through his hair, grabbing it and the floor met him head-on. His entire body afire with pain, the impact tore a cry from his damaged throat. Faintly, he was aware that he lay in blood, felt it pooling in between his legs, and the metallic odor of it made him retch. The bitter taste of bile stung, nauseating him.

There was a rustling of clothing and the click of the lock opening on the other side. Sound buzzed in his ears, distorted and strange, as if coming from afar. "I'm sure you won't give Yoshiro any more trouble," a voice said, chuckling. "Because if you do," and the tone went icy, "I'll cut you up good and then fuck you. They won't be able to save you, and you'll never see that pale bitch. Thinking about it, she looks a lot like you, doesn't she?"

Click of a lock; of a bolt being sprung.

Everything spun, gray, black, and red, and then faded to nothing.

"Kudou-kun! Saiga, take him to his room. I fear Rikuo's memories infected him."

Kazahaya turned, unbearably hot. His mind felt muddled, slipping into darkness. He wanted to strain against something, but he was too overwhelmed by the heaviness that sank him into oblivion. Not wishing to fight it – not conscious of why – he let it overtake him completely.

"No! Why? Why? Why did they do that to him?"

When he finally came to, Kazahaya shrieked. Utterly beside himself with Rikuo's residual emotions, he rocked back and forth on the bed, covering his face. Kakei-san quickly grabbed his hands, pulling them away, and he saw through the tears that Saiga-san and Rikuo were nowhere in sight. A circle of light illuminated the room – his room – with warm yellow. It was freezing; he bundled himself in the blankets, hearing the wind howling through the broken window.

His tears began to fall.

"How's Rikuo, Kakei-san?" He needed to know. He understood a large part of it, now.

Kakei looked haggard in the sparse light. "Saiga got him to quiet down. He was sobbing when I left them and I think the storm is over. But he did a lot of damage to this place and we need to keep low. If the people who did this to him are alert to psychic disturbances, they might have felt this one."

"We can't let them find him. We can't."

"Are you still in pain, Kudou-kun? The last time you received Rikuo's memory of Tsukiko during the cinema job, the effects lasted for a while."

He shuddered, remembering with distaste and horror the full import of the agony, shame, and terror his formerly stalwart co-worker suffered. Kazahaya felt the blood drain from his face; felt himself growing cold and numb. Iwakare, Yoshiro, and that bastard Toshiya! They were the ones who made Rikuo suffer. Toshiya, he truly hated. Toshiya was the one who broke Rikuo; who left him unconscious in his own blood. Iwakare was dead. But the other two – were they still alive?

"Kudou-kun? Are you all right?"

He wasn't, and neither was Rikuo. "They…one of the men…Rikuo –"

The mattress squeaked as Kakei shifted closer, holding his hands tighter. At least it wasn't his wrists, Kazahaya thought. After what he'd experienced through Rikuo's mind and eyes, he wasn't sure how he'd react to the same kind of touch. "Take it easy. Breathe. You're as pale as Rikuo is."

Was that supposed to make him feel better? "Rikuo killed one of the men. His name was Iwakare. I – I touched him when he passed out, Kakei-san. I got scared. They cut him with broken glass. There was blood."

"Did they do it telekinetically?"

"I think so. Rikuo – he smashed Iwakare's head open. Yoshiro –"

Kakei nodded across from him, deeply focused. He was very pretty and very tired. It wasn't every day he saw his boss like this, and tonight made all the other nights pale in comparison. A bruise from Rikuo's fist was nothing to Rikuo nearly leveling the entire top half of Green Drugstore. "That's our second man. What about him?"

"Yoshiro punished Rikuo for killing Iwakare. There was more blood, and Rikuo got cut by more glass. I didn't see anything else after that."

"And you saw that when?"

"I can't remember. When you gave me leave, it wasn't even night time, yet."

Kakei released one of his hands, rubbing wearily at the bridge of his nose. The dislodged glasses gleamed, skewed gracefully on an awkward slope. "You were screaming when you woke up. That was after I gave you the order to use your ability on Rikuo. What did you see that scared you like that?"

His mouth was dry. He tasted fear in it. "Toshiya…he and Yoshiro were talking, and Yoshiro…he left the room."

"What room?"

"It was a smaller room. There was nothing in it. All metal. It was cold in there." Kazahaya shivered despite the blankets. "There were no chains, no glass. No windows," he said, struck by the awful realization of why Rikuo couldn't do anything to get out. "The other room was bigger. It had a taller ceiling and they chained Rikuo in there. This room – they didn't need to."

"Go on."

"I think Rikuo hit Toshiya earlier. Toshiya hit him back. Rikuo didn't remember what happened before." His head hurt. "Toshiya was angry. He wanted to hurt Rikuo. Yoshiro...he didn't agree with Toshiya."

"Slowly, Kudou-kun. Take your time."

His breath hitched; the words becoming harder to say. Kazahaya pulled the bedspread, coverlet and all around him, unable to get warm. "Yoshiro – Yoshiro left. Rikuo, he…he tried to run, but the door was locked. He was scared, tired – he couldn't break it. Toshiya, he screamed…called him things…beat him." Averting his eyes, Kazahaya continued speaking. He couldn't meet Kakei-san's concerned gaze. "Toshiya…he tore…" He felt physically ill. "He tore Rikuo's pants off and…"

"Kudou-kun, it's all right. You don't need to say anymore."

His vision blurred with tears, and hastily wiping them away, Kazahaya timidly met the other pair of brown eyes in the room. Kakei-san looked as sick as he felt. The man's complexion was livid. "That explains most of it," Kakei intoned, sounding utterly detached. "That's why he's skittish. The abrasions. Trying to scrub himself clean, and he didn't care if doing so hurt him."

"Kakei-san…"

"Yes, Kudou-kun?"

He swallowed. "Toshiya mentioned he had 'friends'. What…what did he mean…?"

"It means this wasn't the first, or the last time. I don't know if they continued cutting him with glass, but this Toshiya evidently liked what he saw. He and his friends, if we follow the inference correctly –"

"What the boss is trying to say, kid, is that Rikuo was gang-raped." Saiga strode in, making a beeline straight for Kakei, as Kazahaya expected him to. What he didn't expect was how much colder his blood ran hearing Saiga-san's blunt explanation. "He has the scars and bruises to show for it. It was a lot of them against him by the looks of it, and all of them were particularly brutal. Damn it, Kakei – I'm getting one of your headaches just thinking about it."

"You've been getting a lot of headaches, and none of them are mine," the slighter male retorted. "I would've never expected…couldn't have seen this in Rikuo's future –"

"Of course you couldn't have. They were more powerful. They blocked you out."

"That's not making me feel better, Saiga. He's like one of my kids."

The sturdier male scoffed. "How do you think I feel, love? I saw the damn scars, and kept denying what I saw. But memories don't lie, and the kid saw it all. Did he get any names?"

"Yes. Iwakare, Yoshiro, and Toshiya. The first bastard is dead – Rikuo killed him in self-defense. It's the other two we want. I have a peculiar interest in seeing the last scumbag dead when we find him."

"Saiga-san," Kazahaya interrupted, disturbed by how quickly the mention of revenge surfaced. It wasn't that he didn't want to see Toshiya dead, but…. "What about Rikuo? How is he?"

"He's asleep. I washed him so that he wouldn't hurt himself anymore, and so he could warm up. I'm surprised he didn't freeze, boy. Certainly cold enough with him blowing out all the windows."

"Saiga, they imprisoned him in an unheated chamber. It wouldn't have mattered; not after what they did to him. He was probably hoping he would die and he didn't."

"Rikuo trusts you." Kazahaya said matter-of-factly, watching as attention focused his way. "He trusts you, Saiga-san."

Saiga shook his head, as if regretful. "No more than before, boy. He's scared himself, and that made it easier. Knowing him, he's the kind to bottle everything up, and tonight, a trigger set off an explosion. It's a breakthrough for him. Until he made the choice to face what happened and to react, there was nothing we could do for him. Still," the man grimaced, looking around behind his shades, "I didn't count on him to break so much."

"It's Rikuo," Kakei said emphatically. "It almost shouldn't be surprising."

"Almost," the other man countered, finally sitting down and throwing an arm around Kakei's shoulders. "We have bills to pay, love."

"This was his first choice. He's taking back control, even though he's lost it."

"I'm not following you, Kakei. He nearly ripped the damn roof off our heads and destroyed most of our lights and fixtures in the process."

"He allowed himself to get angry. He was afraid before, remember?"

"Ah, I get it. Do you think he's going to pull away?" It was one of the questions Kazahaya himself feared to ask. "Are we going to have difficulties reaching out to him?"

"Not this time, no."

"Kakei-san, I'm cold." The winter wind chilled him, mingling with the soul-deep iciness that originated from Rikuo's blood-drenched memories. Sometimes, he wished he could forego his ability to empathize, read, and absorb past events and emotions. But if he wasn't born with this gift – or curse, depending which way he chose to see it – Rikuo would be gone for good. He and Rikuo might not have met that Christmas, because he wouldn't be a runaway. Thinking quickly to the present – to now – he cringed.

Rikuo trapped between four walls, unable to understand what was to come. Rikuo, mind and body shattered, left unable to trust. Rikuo destroyed, lying in blood after being brutally raped. Rikuo – strong, brash, protective, and sarcastic. All of that viciously erased.

All of that, and without him there?

Kazahaya shoved the thought away, fighting off another case of the shivers.

"Take him downstairs, Kakei. I'll stay here and tape up the windows. Rikuo's on the couch; I guess you can make room for another. It'll probably be best to put a divider between them. Oh, and Kakei – there's still hot water for both of you. Rikuo needed a lot of it."

"Poor boy."

"I won't be long." Saiga stood, casting a broad shadow on the wall. Kazahaya reached out for the flashlight, holding it to him like a talisman. A hot shower and a soft bed. Heat to thaw his bones, and a pillow for his head. He wouldn't mind sleeping downstairs in the break room, away from the ruins of glass and plaster. "Boy, I realized one thing. You didn't turn red this entire time. It surprised me; although, it shouldn't have."

"Why?"

"Didn't you see that Rikuo was nearly naked?"

He stumbled out from beneath the covers, leaning heavily into Kakei-san's comforting grasp. "It's not the same anymore." Yawning, he willed the night to end. The flashlight was gently pried from his hand. "I thought I was going to lose him."

"Come on, Kudou-kun. Let's put you to bed. It's been a long night for all of us."

"Good night, kid."

Kazahaya turned – saw Saiga's poker face staring sympathetically back at him. "Good night, Saiga-san."