Pairings: BernardoXGian, IvanXGian, LuchinoXGian, GiulioXGian, AobaXClear, AobaXVirusXTrip, AobaXRen, AobaXKoujaku, AobaXNoiz, AobaXBakshi, VirusXTripXGian, AobaXGian
Warning: Contains minor hints of rape, violence, extreme swearing and heavy scenes of smut. SPOILERS!
Disclaimer: I do not own Dramatical Murder or Lucky Dog 1. All rights go to the respectful owners
Chapter 16 - The CR-5
After a few minutes of getting prepared, Aoba looked around for anything he might have forgotten to take with him. He was used to looking for his duffel bag that held his beloved allmate, Ren. The days that went by were slowly getting the better of him and was causing him to forget more things by the hour.
He had momentarily forgotten that Ren had finally received a body. Even if it remained a puzzle for an outsider like Mink and the others, he knew deep down what was the truth. Although it could be perceived as cruel or dangerous, his scrap power could be used for either. It was something that both he and his twin brother were born with. Both Ren and his other self, Desire, had been apart of him ever since he knew how to talk.
Sei, his twin brother, had educated Aoba into thinking his previous thoughts over and taught him that his other self was merely looking out for him in his own way. Aoba sat on the bed picking up the headphones that Mink had left him along with the clothes.
He was in his room and was told to get anything he might have wanted to take along with him. It was an anxious and terrifying feeling knowing that he would be going outside and interacting among people again. Having been stuck inside a bedroom for only the floor to sleep on while being handcuffed to a pole had altered his vision and hearing after the first five months. He gripped the handle of the headphones and finally put the headpiece over his head.
It was a portable music player that could be turned on with the press of a button on the left side of the earpiece. He touched the side of the headphones and listened as the music began to play. Mink must have found out his favorite type of music as it was one of the songs that he recognized. Although he mostly listened to it during some of his painful headaches, he would normally use it for going to sleep with as well.
Aoba got up from the bed just as Luchino knocked on the door. "Are you just about ready?" Noiz was standing behind him, off to the side where he stood leaning against the wall and fooling around with his watch again.
"Uh, yeah...sorry to keep you waiting!" Aoba quickly rushed himself out of the room. When he walked past Luchino and stood next to Noiz, their eyes locked in place and both of them continued to stare at each other without saying a word.
Aoba had forgotten to tell Noiz that he had a pair of headphones back from the island but if he were to ask him where he got them...He felt nervous all of a sudden as he felt Noiz's eyes searching him from head to toe as though he had been given the special ability of x-ray to see through everything. "Wh-What is it...?" Aoba's curiosity as to why the man had been looking at him so intently got the better of him.
He saw Noiz point with one of his fingers to the pink headphones that sat on top of his head. "I take it that you got those from Koujaku." His tone sounded angry. Aoba looked at him dumbfounded and took the headphones off and slid them down to around his neck.
"Eh?" Aoba couldn't understand how he came to such a conclusion but decided not to press the matter any further and waited for Noiz to speak the reason.
"Hm...so you can accept gifts then?" Aoba, puzzled, looked down to what Noiz was doing with his hand in his pocket. Luchino was also intrigued by the conversation and had been listening close by. Noiz then pulled out the same box he saw before. The box that held Noiz's true feelings for him.
Now because of a small misunderstanding about Koujaku when it had really been Mink, was beginning to start something new with Noiz. 'Could this mean...he's jealous?' Aoba thought and fought off a small laugh. Noiz looked over to Luchino and stated, "You shall bear witness. Aoba, here." Noiz grabbed Aoba's hands at the wrists and pulled them up.
He then placed the box into Aoba's open palms. Noiz did not obviously learn the proper way of giving someone a gift yet and was now mixing up giving gifts and a marriage proposal. Aoba never understood how Noiz's mind worked nor what he was thinking when it came to important matters. Suddenly remembering where he was and who all was watching and staring at him, Aoba quickly took a step back until he hit Luchino's chest.
"Congratulations. I'll be sure to have Bernardo throw you two a wedding reception. I apologize for the rudeness but we do have a busy schedule for the next few days. Come along." Luchino disregarded what had just happened and lead the way to the elevator in the lobby of the floor.
Noiz followed after him and held onto Aoba's upper arm while Aoba still held onto the box that had been left in his care. A part of him was interested in seeing what sort of ring would have compelled Noiz to buy it while another part of him didn't want to have anything to do with the said wedding that Luchino had declared he'd do for them.
As he was being pulled along by Noiz he remembered something else. Where had Koujaku gone?
The sound of someone sneezing through the lower floor of the hotel could be heard by everyone standing nearby or working at the front desk. Koujaku had been chatting with Beni for some time before he stopped to notice that not everyone had been interested in a grown man talking to what they had perceived to be a toy bird. His red kimono that had suited his image as that of an ancient samurai warrior, had been pulled out of shape thanks to his and Mink's scuffle with one another.
He was told that Aoba had been sleeping still so he had promised himself to not disturb the younger man as he slept but he soon got distracted with talking with Beni about what might be happening back on the island. Beni tapped Koujaku with his beak. "How long do you plan on sitting here. For all we know it could have been false." Beni explained. Koujaku and Beni had originally stayed in the main lobby of the hotel to wait for Aoba as he had overheard Bernardo and Gian's conversation about sending him outside for some fresh air of their city.
He still didn't trust the men or Noiz and Mink but he strongly believed they wouldn't do anything rash. The elevator doors to the lobby opened up and out from it, Aoba, Noiz and Luchino. Beni flapped his way over to Koujaku's shoulder from his arm. "Well what do you know, the kid's out just like we heard!" Koujaku had to pin the tiny bird's beak shut with two fingers as he watched Aoba limp across the floor.
Although he was trying to hide it, Koujaku could see that his legs were still not properly healed despite all the rest he had gotten over the course of almost a week of being here. Koujaku stayed put, watching as Aoba was being pulled along by Noiz, a box firmly grasped in his hands.
"What...!" Koujaku stood up hastily. He could not be seen by the three men as the lobby had been bustling with other people, some being guests, others part of the CR-5 who were busy with following orders.
Koujaku wanted to tail them and see where exactly they could be going. It would have been awkward for him if he asked to join all of a sudden not to mention what Noiz would do later. He was not always such a pushover for Aoba but in this sort of mess, he felt as though he owed Noiz a bit for having known the man's location.
He thought his best bet was to simply stay put and just hope that Noiz was still good at fighting should something happen. "Well...it shouldn't be weird if you go, Beni." A smile came to Koujaku's face as he looked down at the bird brightly.
The bird ruffled his feathers and glared back at him. "Why do I have to do everything that you're too afraid to do?!" The bird snapped and quickly took off from the man's shoulder anyways, flapping his way toward the three that were heading outside of the hotel.
"Hm? You sure it's okay not to go with them?" A strange voice, one that he had not heard yet caused him to be on alert again. It was an awful habit of his since he was a young kid.
"And you are?" Koujaku asked. He tried not showing any sort of disrespect but kept a level of intimidation with his eyes and body language. The man who greeted him looked to be in his late twenties and wore an over-sized gray coat with a fur-lined hood that he used to hide part of his face.
His eyes were half hidden behind a pair of black circular sun glasses. Although the man was smiling, there was something off about it. "I'm sorry, I am Ragtliffe. Or if you prefer, others know me as 'the janitor'." Koujaku made a face at him. He wasn't sure what to make of this.
"If it's a joke, then I don't get it." The man laughed upon hearing this and quickly explained himself.
"I basically keep this place from being ransacked by the authorities. But I really only professionalize in getting rid of any unwanted evidence shall we say...but like I said, you may call me Ragtliffe. My father was a bit drunk at the time he was naming me." The man boldly stated.
Koujaku closed his eyes and said, "Look, I don't mean to be rude but what exactly did you begin a conversation with me for?" The man stared at him, still smiling like he had been doing for the past three minutes. "Merely scoping out our alliance's newcomers. Mr. Ortolani instructed me to do so."
The name sounded familiar to him but he could not place where he remembered the name from. The janitor heard a few footsteps shuffling about in the background of the lobby and took this as an opportunity to leave. "I will see you fine men in the future I hope. I look forward to working with you."
He wondered what the man meant as he said this and watched until the man was out of sight, walking down one of the halls of the main lobby of the hotel. It was rather busy for the day and the bellhops and the maids seemed to be incredibly rushed with their day-to-day chores. Koujaku looked around at the scene before him and pondered what it was he should or shouldn't be doing.
His bird allmate, Beni, had already gone ahead and followed after Aoba and Noiz and there wouldn't be much point in sending Beni at all if he took it upon himself to go chasing after him. Plus he would feel very embarrassed if Aoba asked him why he was there. He thought of Beni and how he had just sent him chasing after Aoba. Would he mind it if Beni tagged along? It never used to bother him as much as it was annoying to be woken up by him.
A few minutes before Noiz and Aoba had left the hotel he had witnessed Mink going off with one of the other members of the CR-5. The man had silently glared at him from afar as he walked out of the hotel but never said a word to him as he walked past. Koujaku was beside himself on what he should do for the remainder of the day.
He knew that the organization was aware of the danger that Aoba was in and would most likely bring him back immediately should something go awry while they were out. Plus there was Noiz. The man was arrogant but even he knew that he was exceptional at fighting. He sat down again, figuring that one of the members of the group would meet up with him at some point to give him a job of some kind seeing as Mink and Clear had already been asked to help.
But the only ones left were Gian Carlo and Bernardo Ortolani. There weren't a whole lot of options since Gian was the head captain and the leader of the entire gang despite coming off as a freeloader. Then there was Bernardo, an extremely busy man who never fought but knew an awful lot about connections and was handling their money situation. He respected the man for doing something commendable. But that didn't help his own situation which had to do with sitting on a sofa in the lobby with nothing to do except looking at the people that passed by.
This was the first time he found himself not knowing what to do.
BANG! The sounds of gunfire going off in the darkened room only caused the men to fire off even more rounds. The echoes it made as it ricocheted across the bare room, clouded their judgment as they tried to listen for the intruder's footsteps. A second round went off in all directions. The men shooting randomly could not pinpoint the intruders and were going in blind.
The intruders were Clear and Giulio. They had been sent out to deal with the men who had been causing a ruckus nearby some of the CR-5's turfs. At first Giulio had rejected the idea of having another person along with him, he changed his tune once Gian asked him to personally take the man with him.
He liked to work alone but also did not mind another person helping to take care of the stragglers. He never disobeyed his orders and made sure that every order carried out by Gian was seen through. "Damn you to hell!" A man called out to Giulio just as he did a flash step. It was not a move done normally by average human beings but Giulio was able to master such a feat and was able to disappear within the blink of an eye.
It was what made his job of killing easy for him to accomplish and after some time, he was known as 'Mad Dog' or 'The Knifer'. He was usually only seen with either Gian Carlo or some of his underlings who sometimes helped him out during the stickier situations but otherwise he preferred to work by himself.
Giulio reappeared behind the man who had cursed at him and slit the man's throat as he had done with the others. Clear also landed a punch on some of the men that were trying to regroup just a bit of ways from them in a corner of the building. "This wasn't the deal we made...Bakshi promised us we wouldn't have to run into this mutt." One of the men grumbled as he reloaded his gun while another man covered for him, shooting at Clear or at least trying to land a hit on him.
But all this did was graze the sides of Clear's arms and legs and his face. Another man went down to his knees beside him with Giulio's face distorting into an awkward smile as drops of blood landed on the front of his black trench coat. Clear took a moment to recognize the man's facial expression. He had seen something like this once before back on the island when the Alphas had attacked him and Aoba.
Two more men fell from Giulio's attacks and the number of men was soon growing less and less as though it were becoming a count down to a new year. Clear punched another man in the face as he was about to shoot at Giulio. Even though Giulio seemed to have heard the man coming at him, the expression on his face didn't change and stayed the same. He was enjoying this. It was as though he had just stepped out of a prison and was feeling the air for the first time in decades.
The man who had been grumbling to himself about the Mad Dog, pulled the trigger at Clear's back which had been turned toward him at the time. But because Clear wasn't human and had super hearing, he was able to hear the clink within the gun itself. He moved out of the way in the nick of time to see the bullet bounce off a metal beam and down to the floor. The man who had been covering for him stopped shooting and tried to sprint to the doorway of the building.
Giulio stopped in mid step from his half step while whipping one of his knives at a man he had been fighting with. He looked in the direction of the man who was running to the door. He stopped smiling as he walked slow at first and then made his presence disappear from view of the other men, only to reappear next to the man who was trying to get away.
"W-Wait! Please! Ung..." Giulio had stabbed the man in the back from behind and in between the shoulder blades. Clear was used to seeing men dying but not to the extent like now.
He punched the man he held by the collar one last time before letting him go. But the men he had punched were not dead and it seemed to be bothering Giulio quite a bit. The tall man loomed over each of the fallen men still left over from the fight, a crazed look in his eyes as he looked at the blood they had spit from their mouths.
"If I don't deal with you now...Signor Gian will not be able to rest." Giulio breathed and took a spare knife and stabbed and sliced each of the men on the ground in the heart and at their necks.
Clear overheard him saying this and thought back to Aoba and Noiz. This man had said something that he would have said if the roles were reversed. He looked down at his gloved hands. They both wore long coats, a scarf and gloves and were both exceptional at fighting. Clear begun to think that he might one day go crazy like this man in the future if he wasn't careful in keeping his emotions in check with his system.
He was not too tech savvy when it came to his robotic functions but he knew the basics and how they would lead to other things such as his odd lust whenever he watched Aoba in the past. He was overjoyed to see the man doing the things he liked but deep down somewhere he felt the urge to be doing something.
He knew what sex was and what it meant to do that sort of thing, but it did not explain the other feeling he felt along with the lust for the man. If one had been able to tell him the word that would best describe such a feeling, it would probably be obsession or possessive. He watched Giulio kill off the remaining men who were too busy shooting at Clear to pay attention to the mad man who had been killing them all.
"Aoba-san..." Clear had the urge to leave Giulio behind to go back to the hotel but he knew he couldn't do that as he knew what it meant to pay debts. It was the best thing they could do for the men helping to protect Aoba.
And if it meant the men who were now lying dead on the floor, were a threat to him, then he would swallow his discomfort for this cause. Giulio finished off the last man. It was necessary to deal with the G.D. in certain areas that were their turf or shops, and they were allowed to do so as it was against both their laws to enter one's turf without permission.
He pulled out a cellphone from his coat pocket to give the details to Bernardo. It was an untraceable phone that had been given to him like all the others of the squad and was only used on jobs that required him to kill. Which for Giulio had been quite a lot. "I have finished here. They won't be a problem any longer." It was short but it was the usual way for him to talk to Bernardo.
Giulio did not like Bernardo as much as Gian did and was not particularly close to the man but he followed the man's orders regardless. When Bernardo explained what else he had to do, Clear could see the annoyed look on the man's face as he replied with a simple 'yes'.
Giulio looked to Clear, his face had returned back to its normal, neutral state. One that looked sane compared to the one he had witnessed earlier. "We're to find the last group and return to the hotel."
He nodded in agreement and followed Giulio to the door. But before either one of them could step out, Giulio stopped in his tracks and turned to the side, looking down at one of the men that had his eyes open and his mouth gaping wide open with a bit of blood trickling from the corner.
Giulio's hand twitched a bit and then went ahead and pulled out a small, white handkerchief that he had in his pocket along with the phone. He bent down toward the man's mouth and wiped the blood off of the corner. He pressed the cloth to make sure it soaked up as much as it could hold and took his hand back, standing straight again.
He left the building along with Clear with a smile etched on his face.
A/N: OK, so I know this was supposed to show at least a bit of Noiz and Aoba having a scene of lunch (in my story notes anyway), but I really did not think Giulio and Clear's scene would take up 3k words. And I promised to say some things to let you in on some details on Luchino without any spoilers!
So Luchino Gregoretti is a bit of a ladies man and is in love with blondes, especially Gian Carlo's hair color, it seems to be his favorite. But he did use to have a wife and child who unfortunately died, why I'm still not sure even though I played the game, there's not that much backstory on it...
But he relies on the family and believes in it kind of like how a preacher believes in the bible or something. In short, he's got the personality of Koujaku but the 'take-care-of-it-all' attitude like Mink. You know the kind of thing where some people refer to Mink like a dad and I honestly think Luchino is sort of like that in a way even though Bernardo is technically older than all of them.
Um, just so everyone knows their ages, starting from eldest to youngest...
Bernard 31- Luchino 27- Gian 25- Giulio 24- Ivan 22.
Bakshi I'm assuming he's at least 25 or maybe older I didn't check yet but yea these are their ages.