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.
Disclaimer: I do not own Dramatical Murder or Lucky Dog 1. All rights go to the respectful owners
Chapter 17 - Desire Reformed
Flocks of women gathered anxiously around the two men as they first stepped into the building that looked shabby on the outside but was rather extravagant on the inside with just a few cracks within the corners of the walls. The paint was also chipping away at the borders at both the top and bottom lining of the walls. Mink and Ivan had been sent out to handle a small group of men who were trying to take over one of their managed buildings that housed many women whose sole purpose in life was to earn money by sleeping with men.
In short it was a whore house. Although both of them seemed to be rather used to having women surrounding them, they also appeared to be very annoyed being around them. Mink's face scrunched up as a couple of women tried to flaunt themselves in front of him. Ivan, who had been the first to be surrounded, looked to have the situation under control by using constant flattery with them and one-by-one they each separated from the man.
Ivan was soon able to shoo away most of the women around him and casually looked over to Mink. He muttered something under his breath and walked over to him. He put one hand on the back of the man's jacket and pulled him out from the crowd of girls.
"Aw! But Ivan-sir...we hardly see any good lookers around these parts!" One woman cried out and hurriedly held onto Mink's hand. The man yanked it back again from the woman's grasp.
Without warning, Ivan shoved Mink to the side and put his hands on his waist. "This guy is off limits. Sorry ladies." They all pouted but seemed to accept this fact and soon the group began to disperse from their side.
"If you don't have any need for me, you should have just sent me back." Mink spoke coldly. He didn't care to be rude and stated what he had been feeling this whole time. They had just got done beating up a group of thugs from the G.D. who had been causing a bit of trouble at one district and now they were loitering around a place full of women.
"Damn it...this is all that bastard Bernardo's fault! He should have just let Gian come with me, at least he knows what I do for our town." Ivan muttered and continued to glare at Mink until the man glared back at him.
Mink had wanted to go back to the hotel to see what Noiz and Aoba were up to. He had known something had happened between the two but he did not know what except it was something that Aoba obviously could not talk about. He had been watching Aoba's expressions and the way he was more livelier than before when both he and Clear had arrived.
What was it besides being free could possibly cheer someone up in such a short amount of time? It wasn't the only clue he had as he remembered Noiz causing a scene with him in front of both Aoba and the group helping them.
He knew that Aoba had wanted to say something to him so he instinctively picked him up to carry him to his room so that he could have the privacy to say it but Noiz had stopped him along with the others before he could find out what it was that Aoba had wanted to say. Thinking more on this was what was making him feel bitter now. Hence why he wanted to go back so badly.
But he also remembered that the green haired man with the glasses had stated that he and Noiz would be going out with another one of their guys. He forgot all of their names and had given them each his own version of their names in his mind.
Ivan stomped like a large child who was going shopping with his father and it was making Mink angry. The way the man walked around was starting to feel a lot like back on the island when there used to be punk gangs who tried picking fights with him and his own crew, Scratch. "Least we're on the same wavelength, eh? You want to see that blue haired kid, don't you?" Ivan shot Mink a sly smile.
But Mink ignored the man's remark and began to walk out of the establishment. Ivan wrapped up what he needed from the employees that worked there alongside the women and walked out afterward.
It was not the most humble business to run but it earned money for their organization and the women themselves were kept clean and safe and were provided partial housing within the building. There were others just like it and Ivan had always visited them in person to see how things were going.
They both got into a car that was waiting outside for them and were now on their way to meet up with Luchino. Ivan had gotten the details from Gian by his cellphone that the trio had gone out for lunch. Ivan surprised Mink by saying he'd take him to the restaurant that they were at.
"Doesn't matter to me." Was all that Mink would say after he heard this. Ivan ordered the driver to drop them off at the location that Gian had told him.
The car sped off back to Daivan's center part of town.
Sounds of the hustling waiters and waitresses had constantly got Aoba's attention as it had been a long time since he had been in such a busy place. The twins had never let him out not even for a simple walk around their based hideout that was their private house. He could only imagine what the scenery outside the house was like and was reminded on a daily basis of his captivity by both their allmates.
His stomach grumbled as his nose picked up many scents as they wafted through the air. From pancakes to french fries and hamburgers, the restaurant had everything that had to do with breakfast, lunch and dinner. Aoba was also nervous as this was also his first time out with people while eating. It made him a tad jumpy when Noiz stared at him so casually like he was doing now.
The man had been staring at him ever since they walked in and would not stop except to check his coil for anything new from one of his rabbit cubes. He had launched a cube into the air as soon as they got out of the car and received an odd look from Luchino when he did so.
Since then, there had been no word on the cube's whereabouts or what it might have picked up along its travels through the town. The woman who had taken their order, had now returned with two plates with two dishes on each plate. One plate had two burgers with a side of fries while the other plate had one dish with just a burger and the other, just a plain sandwich along with a cup of coffee.
Noiz had surprised Aoba by only ordering for a sandwich as opposed to the days when they were in Platinum Jail where Noiz and Aoba had gotten separated from the the rest of the group and had come across the food stalls that were set up.
He would never have guessed that the man could ever change so much in just three years. Aoba assumed that Noiz would have wanted to buy just about everything from the menu since they were in a new country. But being in Germany for the most part must have toned him down some as looked to have seen these foods before or had the impression that he did.
Aoba softly bit into his burger and felt the warmth of the food go down to the pit of his stomach. He was well fed the past few days but it was still taking his stomach a while to adjust that he was being fed proper foods rather than candy by Trip's odd ideas of romantically involving cake and other sweets.
They did feed him but only ever take outs as they did not do any sort of home cooking for themselves. Thinking about those days, Aoba stopped eating after remembering a day when Trip had asked Virus about learning to cook because he wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate chips. But Virus simply laughed at the idea while Trip accepted the man's refusal with great confidence as though he was sued to Virus putting him down on certain topics. Aoba had overheard their conversation that day and tried to use it later against Trip. He had thought that Trip would get annoyed or at least somewhat angry from being a doormat to Virus. To Aoba, this was what he thought it was. But he was punished by Trip for trying to pit the two against each other.
Those men were not enemies nor were they friends. They were certainly not his friends either as he used to have thought in the past. Virus and Trip had set a line that neither would cross, as in one would never get angry with the other or upset about something the other was doing. Simply meaning, Aoba was not able to fulfill his wish of having one of them free him or at least help him escape.
He never mentioned the conversation to him after that day and feeling a bit of food at the back of his throat after taking a bite into his burger, he began to remember the day vividly. He coughed up the food while trying to hide the embarrassing moment with the bangs of his hair that hung down at the sides.
Luchino who had been sitting next to the man, pat him on the back gently. He may have been cold towards other men but he knew the man was still unwell and he felt as though this would be what it felt like to take care of Gian should the man ever get sick. Noiz had already finished eating his sandwich and was now working on his coffee. He didn't seem the slightest bit interested in his coughing fit but was still staring at him.
"Sorry..." Aoba breathed out. His voice was already starting to grow raspy because of the cough despite it being a small one. Luchino left Aoba's back and placed his hand on top of his head.
"Just your body's way of saying how thankful it is for being out of an enclosed space." He tried to soothe the mood with a bit of a chuckle.
Noiz sighed. "Betting it had to do to an old memory. Right, Aoba?" Aoba looked up from the plate that his head was hovering above. How did he know he was thinking of something traumatic?
As though he read the man's mind, Noiz shrugged his shoulders. "The past you wouldn't cough from one bite of food. I heard you were able to keep the food at the hotel down with no problems."
'So that's how...' Aoba thought as he wiped the edges of his mouth and lips with a napkin from the table.
Luchino smiled at this. "Then Bernardo must have told you. He's the only one that's the most informative towards others." After he said this, Noiz nodded. Aoba couldn't follow the conversation as he was still busy dealing with trying to get over the coughing fit that now left a weird sensation in the back of his throat.
It felt dry and dehydrated despite having had some water just earlier in the day. He took a sip from his soft drink that he had ordered and waited for his throat to settle down before taking another bite. Now he was the only one who had not finished eating. Both Luchino and Noiz were finished with their portions of food while Luchino looked like he was taking the extra burger he had and a bit of fries, with him as some leftovers.
"Feels like only ten minutes since we just got here. But it's been an hour now surprisingly." Luchino said as he looked at his cellphone clock. Noiz did this as well, confirming that he was right.
Aoba looked down. He was only able to finish 3/4th of the burger and it had to do with the fact of his memories being brought back one by one. It was not like he had suddenly gotten amnesia, but his body had been put through a lot so it became a bit much for his mind to fully understand what and when and how certain events happened.
His stomach growled once again but only from being full and not by hunger like last time. Both Noiz and Luchino got up from the restaurant seats and offered their arms to Aoba to help him out of the seat. But Aoba tried to get up on his own instead and ignored their arms. He knew it was rude of him to do so, but he could not depend on them for so long and felt the desire to try walking on his own.
This worked for about halfway to the door until he nearly collided with another customer. Noiz held onto Aoba's arm this time, firmly gripping it so that he was well balanced somewhat and all three of them left the shop.
Once they got outside, Aoba put a hand to Noiz's arm insisting that he let go since they were about to get into the car and that he was fine to get in by himself. But Noiz would hear none of it and helped him into the car anyways.
Before the car could pull away with all three of them and a few of Luchino's men inside, a car pulled up from the side. It was Ivan and Mink. Luchino made a disgruntled sound from his throat and got out in a hurry to face them. Particularly Ivan.
"Thought I told Gian I'd be picking you guys up." Luchino shot Ivan a bit of a glare but soon replaced it with a sign of defeat. He knew he couldn't exactly argue with the man that his own love interest was now seeing. It wouldn't have been very manly nor mature of him if he did.
But this did not mean that Ivan was mature enough to keep a lid on it. "Huh? Asshole, I was told to come here. Gian said to come to this place..." Ivan's mood was looking sour by each passing second.
Luchino rubbed his forehead with his hand and opened the door to the side he was sitting before they showed up. "Get in. You wasted your time coming since we're going home." At first Aoba was hoping to raise his own voice to suggest a stop but then decided against it as he had no idea where anything was in the town yet.
He had wanted to see what kind of city it was but he was fine with leaving it with just the restaurant. He had momentarily forgotten that he had the decide inside him and was most likely being monitored by the twins.
Mink did not give an complaints as he naturally chose to sit on the other side of Aoba with Luchino and Ivan sitting on the other side. Aoba was now squished in between both Noiz and Mink. He was petrified of the idea that something would start up like how Noiz used to start fights with Koujaku back on the island.
But neither one said a word to each other or to anyone for that matter and the trip had been a silent one all the way back.
When they finally arrived home, there were two faces he recognized. Koujaku and Clear. But one more person was standing between them almost as though shielding him from his vision as the car pulled up. Mink and Noiz both seemed to be baffled by the sudden appearance of the new person. Luchino stepped out of the car along with Ivan and he too noticed.
Only one word could escape Aoba's lips. "Ren...?" Although he had been partially hidden from view by Koujaku and clear, he could see that it was him. A bit pale in complexion compared his own but his deep, dark blue hair that contrasted from it, made up for the paleness of his skin tone. His eyes were a light gold almost to a light brown like his own but brighter.
Although Ren's hair was no longer spiky at the back and was now longer all the way around, it was definitely him. The man stepped forward, stepping out from in between the others and walked up to the car. He pulled the door open, stared down at both Mink and Noiz who sat next to him and then finally landed on him alone.
"A...Aob...a." It pained Aoba to hear Ren trying to speak properly as he probably never gotten the help he needed in the hospital into learning how to speak. Noiz stepped out first along with Mink who got out from the other side.
Noiz watched as the man leaned forward and hugged Aoba with all his might. Aoba was unsure of everything that was currently happening. He kept thinking that it would be just a dream like regular clockwork and felt like he would soon wake up from it.
"Ren..." Aoba returned the man's hug but still was not able to say what he wanted to say or ask.
Mink was the only one along with Ivan and Luchino, to walk away from the touching reunion. Clear, Noiz and Koujaku stayed behind to see where this would go. Although Koujaku looked mostly upset just by watching them hug, he remained neutral and calm while Noiz and Clear were both fidgeting. Noiz had one hand in his pocket while Clear was holding the bottom of his white buttoned shirt.
Ren nuzzled into the side of Aoba's neck, forgetting that he was not a dog. His nose tickled Aoba and he pulled his head back once he heard Aoba laughing quietly and trying to pull away from the embrace.
"Welcome home, Ren." Aoba said after seeing Ren's confused expression. Ren looked tired and Aoba could see a couple of scratches on the side of the man's arm.
He touched them and realized they were old ones. Aoba thought back to Ren being hospitalized. Perhaps they were made when he was there? He could see something like that happening as he never had been treated like a human before so the needles and whatnot must have scared him a bit.
After Aoba was done scanning Ren's body for any more cuts or bruises, he heaved a sigh of relief like he usually did when Ren was still just an allmate. He was always fixing him up so it had become a habit to look him over human form or not.
Ren straightened up and held onto Aoba as he did so. But this was most likely Ren's first time carrying someone so Aoba tried to insist for Ren to let him walk on his own. But Ren wasn't listening and went on to trying to carry him by picking him up from inside the car since Aoba's legs had been sitting out from the side and all he had to do was jump off the seat.
He could feel Ren's arms shaking and trembling from the added weight. The man may be strong physically, but he hadn't even done any exercises to help train his new body yet. Koujaku also tried to step in to help out but Ren looked at him intimidatingly as though trying to say 'I've got him.' Having known Ren for a long time, he trusted the man but was still nervous about him dropping Aoba.
Clear and Noiz hadn't said anything while this went on and they merely watched as the man tried to carry Aoba inside the hotel. Because the man had just gotten there by helicopter, he had not been shown the inside and what the hotel looked like. It was tough on Ren and his back but he seemed determined to see his private mission through.
He managed to carry him to the door of the hotel with a bit of help from Clear who helped to hold the doors open. Luchino, Ivan and Mink had been waiting inside for them and were currently seated at the lobby's lounging area. Ren let Aoba down slowly with Aoba clinging to Ren's shoulders. Koujaku then stepped in between the two, taking Aoba's arm with his own so that he could help him to one of the sofas.
"Stop being such a mom. He can walk fine by himself." Koujaku shot an angry glare to Noiz. But the man was indifferent to this and then pulled something out of his pocket. It was Beni, Koujaku's allmate.
"Hey! What did you do to him?!" Ren and Clear were the only ones to look around nervously. The sudden conversation seemed to have caught everyone walking nearby off guard and now were looking to see the commotion.
Aoba saw this as well and began to pull his arm away from Koujaku. "He was pestering me so I shut him down for a while. You shouldn't eavesdrop on a person's conversations." Noiz replied with a smile and was openly challenging Koujaku.
This caused the man to drop the argument as he had remembered the times that Noiz had eavesdropped in the past and how he felt about it. "You doing it is completely different from why I did it!" Koujaku took Beni from Noiz's hand, turned away from the man and continued to helping Aoba to the couches.
Aoba looked back as they walked and found himself only focusing his vision on Noiz. Although the man was constantly berating Koujaku and teasing him with small issues, he did not seem to give off the anti-social vibe like he used to do before when he was 19, back when he was not able to feel pain.
Ren soon followed after the two of them, still looking around at the large space inside the hotel and was obviously intrigued by his new surroundings. Koujaku waited for Aoba to sit down before sitting down himself while Clear and Ren and Noiz all remained standing.
Mink still had not said anything and seemed to be enjoying the coffee that he was drinking but neither of the others could tell whether or not he liked it for real. The sound of the elevator made a DING! sound and out stepped both Gian and Bernardo. They both said something to one another before parting with each other. Gian headed right for the group that were now sitting on the sofas while Bernardo headed right for the hotel's doors.
"Haa...Luchino...take me out sometime too...Bernardo and I worked our asses off." Gian lazily sat down in between Ivan and Luchino. The man was definitely tired with bags under his eyes like before and was looking as though he had just gotten out of a grave.
"Hm? You wanna go out?" Ivan asked him and had given the man his full attention. Aoba watched Gian's expressions as they changed from embarrassment to pouting. He felt the same way when both Ren and Noiz had hugged him. Was it really the same feelings as Gian's? Noiz did confess his feelings and even had a ring which could only mean one thing...Marriage.
Then there was Koujaku who at times looked calm during these odd events but he too must have had the same feelings that Noiz was experiencing, right? Soon Aoba's eyes had wandered from Koujaku to Noiz, to Clear and then finally Ren and Mink. Mink did say that all of them had feelings for him and Koujaku and Clear as well as Noiz, had all but confirmed it.
As Aoba heard Gian give Ivan his answer, he too felt like he had come to a resolution. He would answer their confessions head-on and would listen to each of them. Despite having given his virginity away to Noiz already, he felt it was the most that he could offer to help settle things between the group as it did them no good to fight among themselves over one person.
He then remembered that Ren was there. Too nervous to see if Ren was looking at him, Aoba tried looking from the corner of his eye to see if the man had been staring or not. He knew Noiz had been staring at him the whole time he was out with him and since they got back to the hotel.
Ren was not staring which for some reason made him breath out a sigh of relief. Was it because he was occasionally watched by Ren in the past that he felt the man would be staring at him still? It was not weird for Ren to get distracted but it would certainly cause a bit of problems if he misunderstood a situation with Noiz and himself.
He would most likely think the man was hurting him and might do something weird like biting his hand or something. He snapped out of his thoughts as Koujaku had been waving a hand in front of his face. "You don't look so good again. Maybe you need some more rest?" Aoba forgot that he had been sitting next to the man this entire time.
Sitting beside his childhood friend like this only brought back nostalgia but not the same heart-thumping moments like he had with Noiz during the morning of their out-of-the-blue moment together. He smiled. "No. Just remembering something..." He looked away from the man. He didn't want to come off as awkward or weird and felt the only thing he could do was look away.
"Aoba. Did...did something happen with you and Noiz?" Koujaku asked in a quiet voice, so as not to alert the said man. Aoba couldn't reply to the question. He was stumped on what to say, of course something happened between them but he was scared of what Koujaku might do if he said anything about it.
Not that it was his business but he was a friend. Who unfortunately held feelings for him. Even though he had come to resolving the matters in his own heart, he wasn't sure what to think when pressed by a question like this. All he could do was look down in defeat of his own feelings and told Koujaku the truth.
Although Aoba was still feeling unsure about telling the man this, he could not stop blushing from thinking about it. He looked over his shoulder to where Noiz had been standing. Noiz was smiling at him. How could he have heard them from so far away? Then it dawned on him that Noiz had given him the box that held the ring.
He had forgotten that the man gave it to him early this morning. 'But that means it...probably has a...listening program?' Aoba felt around inside his pocket and brought the box out, forgetting that he had been talking with Koujaku up until now.
He opened the box. It was still a ring but looking at it with a closer look he could see the inside engraved, 'Forever mine.' And upon a closer inspection to the words, they were lit up with a small light green hue that would be hard to see from far away. It was recording all right.
Aoba quickly turned back to see Noiz was now pointing out something that was stuck in his ear. He was out with the man the whole day and had not noticed him wearing it all this time! This caused him to become even more embarrassed. He hadn't noticed that Koujaku was still in shock from what he was told and was silently holding his hands into fists on top of his knees.
A/N: Phew. I power housed this one cause it was to me feeling like it went on a long time and me trying to squeeze info everywhere...but this is fun. OK so...we now have Aoba confessing to Koujaku about what he and Noiz did. Just so that you readers are aware, Clear might have excellent hearing but he can only hear from one side in this tale because he took on the Alphas so if you haven't played the game or watched the anime, Dramatical Murder, I suggest you do so to understand the story behind why he can't hear with both ears.
Um yea, so it does give impact as now Noiz is the only one who knows that he told Koujaku, don't worry he's not evil, I won't do anything like turning him into a surprise evil doer. But there is a surprise later on. And yes i know Mink didn't exactly get to do much of anything so far, it's mainly because that is his personality, he may be kind in this story but he's still got that odd stand-offish personality as well. Meaning he's just like 'Hm.' And, 'Yeah, so?' His replies are literally one liner sentences. He won't get much of a role yet until the end so spoiler for the story.
And for those who are thinking that it's a said deal that Noiz and Aoba are an item well...they are now BUT and no spoilers, but, there will be issues later on so keep reading to find out what happens next my readers!