Chapter 23: Down Time

"So what I guess I'm getting at is, does he come up with the names before or after he sees our branch?" Alex asked looking for a few tools. Honestly he was getting bored, not with the torture obviously that was hard to get used too let alone get bored of. No he was bored with the awkward silence in between and he felt Rokuro might have been too. The bound man was in pretty rough shape, aside from all of the obvious cuts, scrapes, bumps, and bruises. He was missing two more teeth well two and a half one had been chipped in half when Alex had thrown creativity to the wind and started hitting him with a wrench. His arms were covered in burns and blisters ranging from third degree to charged black in some spots. One of his hands was missing all of its pinky as well as the middle finger down to the second knuckle. His right leg was limp and clearly dislocated from the knee and the left had a screwdriver stuck in his thigh. Even with all of this he didn't say a word and honestly didn't seem to care all that much, he couldn't have considering he was willing to have a casual conversation like this.

"A bit of both, Mockingbird was a complete coincidence." Alex grabbed the bone saw and moved over to the pool table where he placed the other tools he would be using such as a hammer, drill and several long but thin screws, as well as a multi tool.

"Guess I'm lucky I didn't end up getting called Eagle then." Rokuro actually laughed at this saying.

"If there wasn't already one I can guarantee it would have been you or Falcon." Alex joined in on the laughter placing the bone saw down and grabbing the drill and screws.

"Alright enough chit-chat, do you want to spill the beans or are we still going for two weeks?" Had it really been that long? Christ he needed a break, he had been at it for three days straight now and was starting to feel exhausted. But Rokuro was stubbornly keeping his mouth shut so Alex had no choice but to open it for him. Rokuro couldn't help but notice the sadistic grin that Alex tended to get during their time together. He didn't think it was on purpose but more a subconscious thing. Than again considering the Wretched Egg used that same grin maybe it was just a family thing.

"There you are." The sinister smile completely vanished from Alex's face as he looked over his shoulder to see Minatsuki glaring right at him. This confused the young man as he hadn't even seen her in the last few days so what had he done to piss her off?

"Minatsuki? What are you doing here?" She walked right up to him and jabbed a finger into his chest.

"I've been looking for you all day." Alex raised an eyebrow at this and smirked down at the small teen.

"Looking for me? Aww you do care." She scoffed at his teasing and decided to blow it off.

"You're a good lay, don't look too much into it." she walked past him and looked at Rokuro curiously. "You do this?" She looked back at her fuck buddy with excited eyes and a twisted smile. Unlike Alex who was starting to get bored with the whole thing she looked rather enthusiastic at his handy work.

"He has information I want, if he had just told me what I want to know I could have let him go but no. He wants to do this the hard way." She looked to Rokuro then back to Alex, this whole thing had her turned on. That along with the fact that he hadn't touched her in days left her feeling pent up. It wasn't just want at this point, she needed him. And she was going to get him. She then turned back to the tied up ex-Undertaker and took it all in once more before asking.

"You'd rather sit in this dirty old place and torture some poor bastard than fuck me?"

"Of course not, I just-" As he spoke Minatsuki lifted her dress up to show his what she had on under it, that is to say nothing. Her amazing ass was out in the open for him and him alone to see, that along with her drenched crotch gave Alex more than enough reason to throw his previous plan for the day right out the window in favor of a far more enjoyable one.

"Then what are you waiting for?" She didn't need to ask twice as he walked right next to her and kicked Rokuro onto his back, he didn't need to see. Alex turned back to Minatsuki and pulled her into him grabbing a handful of her rear as his smirk grew. He would have just thrown her onto the pool table and screwed her right there but there was just one issue, Alex had never been a fan of 'putting on a show'. It just felt awkward so they would need to find somewhere more private, like his room for example.

"Good news Rokuro you get the day off." Rokuro responded still sounding bored out of his mind.

"Could you at least put me back up?" The two others ignored that as they walked out.

Alex smirked down at Minatsuki, When they had got started she had climbed on top of him like she always had. But today he felt like being on top so without any warning he flipped her onto her back and lifted her legs over her head giving him more than enough leverage to keep her there. Minatsuki squirmed around at first and tried to break free of his grasp but once he started pressing the tent in his boxers against her panties she stopped fighting this new position and tried to hide her moans. This was so strange to her, she definitely liked it but she was so used to being the one on top that now that she was on bottom it left her feeling a little helpless against him. She very quickly decided she liked feeling this way.

"That face your making is pretty hot." She was gazing up at him with a look of pure lust. She didn't realize it but as he said that she had started blushing. The vast majority of her face was a deep crimson color and she quickly looked away to the side. He leaned down and whispered in her ear. "What's wrong, never been the one on bottom?" Why did she feel embarrassed? So what if he was on top, holding her ankles over her head, keeping her pinned to the bed while he grinded himself against her most sensitive area...

"No..." This took Alex off guard of course he had his favorite position but this was a bit extreme.

"Really? You've been on top every time you've had sex?"

"Well I've only ever had sex with you so yeah!" Alex's eyes widened in shock, HE had been her first time? Oh god he must have set a really low bar...

"Wait, were you a virgin before we started having sex?" If Minatsuki could move she would have shrunk but considering her current position she had to settle for looking further away.

"Y-yeah, so what?" What followed probably wasn't the worst way he could have responded. But it was pretty fucking stupid regardless.

"Well I mean it just seems like a shitty way to lose your virginity." And just like that the mood was dead, and even a braindead idiot could tell that the look on her face directly translated to: You just fucked up. Alex could tell she was going to respond... Negatively but he didn't expect her to snap the way she did.

"Get off of me!" She practically snarled at him. Freezing up Alex quickly tried to explain himself.

"W-wait, I-um-I didn't mean it like tha-" He stopped as he saw her face contort from anger to the brink of tears. Oh god he really screwed up.

"Just move alright." She sounded so dejected, so hurt. He had never meant to make her feel like that. He shifted off of her and she sat up looking away from him pulling her legs up to her chest. He needed to fix this.

"Look I didn't mean anything by it... im really sorry." He wanted to comfort her to somehow just sweep what he said under the rug, he knew that wasn't possible though.

"Was it really that bad?" Alex flinched at that, oh god he didn't mean to make her feel like this.

"It was amazing, YOU were amazing. All I meant was that there are better ways to lose your virginity than a drunken one night stand." Minatsuki stayed silent for a while, the air feeling tense. And then she turned to look him right in the eyes.

"What about you? What was your first time like?" this took Alex off guard initially. And then a look of shame flashed across his features only to almost instantly get buried under a fake laugh and smile as he tried to avoid her gaze.

"Well, let's just say it's not something I'm proud of." As he tried to brush the question off he felt her hand move over his own. Looking up he saw she hadn't looked away

"You know you don't have to keep things secret from me right?" Trustworthy wasn't a word he ever thought he would use to describe how he felt about his favorite psychopath but when she said that... he knew she wasn't lying to him. Still his voice was quiet and nervous.

"You won't tell anyone?" She nodded.

"Not even Yo." Alex let out a sigh and got comfortable. This was going to take a minute.

"Alright, I was fourteen, fresh on the streets." He pulled out his last cigarette and lit it before taking a long inhale. "I hadn't eaten in weeks, I got desperate enough to start digging through garbage to see if someone had thrown out some half eaten food. Then this guy finds me digging through his dumpster. He acted all nice and caring, put an arm around my shoulder and took me into his house and even cooked me a meal. After that he told me that he'd give me enough money to feed myself for a bit, but I'd have to do something for him." Minatsuki could tell where this was going. Young teens on the street selling themselves wasn't a new story and she knew that experiences like that could be traumatic. She didn't need to hear more if he didn't want to talk.

"Alex, You don't-" He cut her off and got right to the point.

"So I let him fuck me for twenty bucks." He took another inhale on his death stick before licking ash onto the ground. "After that I'd come back to his place pretty much every other week for about two months."

"Why did you stop?" He smirked at her question, god he loved remembering how that bastard bit the dust.

"Well the last time I walk into his place there's this guy pointing a gun at his head. Turns out the sick fuck had been doing this to a few other runaways, but when he did it to this guys little brother he messed up bad." Alex paused to take yet another drag out of his cigarette. "The guy told me if I let him kill the prick he'd set me up with a job getting more in a week than he'd give me in a year." He waited to see if Minatsuki had anything to ad or ask, when she stayed silent he kept going. "So I stood by and let him die. The new guy's name was Carols, and he was good on his word too. After that I didn't need to whore myself out anymore."

"I'm sorry you went through that." He smiled at this, it was nice to see that she didn't just keep him around for sex.

"It's fine, I've been through worse." He couldn't help but remember a few close calls as well as the time he had actually gotten arrested, now those were horror stories.

"Still, I couldn't imagine..." She trailed off as they looked at one another, something felt strange. They both felt it but neither could put their finger on what it was exactly. Alex didn't have time to wonder as Minatsuki acting on instinct locked lips with him. However just like last time he went still, he didn't know why it just felt a bit unnatural. She took this as a bad sign, a very bad sign. She backed off looking away feeling what she suspected might have been shame. He had just told her about him getting used and her first response is to kiss him? The fuck was wrong with her? "Oh god-I'm sorry-I just-shit!"

"N-no it's fine." He couldn't help but notice how unnaturally nervous they both were about this, He didn't like it. The state they were in didn't suit either of them especially considering it was over something so trivial compared to what they have done together before. When she didn't look back at him he took matters into his own hands. He cupped her chin and turned her head up to look at him before kissing her. They both felt the same strange feeling they felt just a few moments ago and while Alex was still just as confused Minatsuki just had her suspicions confirmed. She was falling for him or had she already fallen for him? She didn't know, she had never been in love before, not even a dumb childhood crush. But at the same time she knew that there was something there for the young man, something more than simple lust and desire. Alex on the other hand didn't know what to think, sure he liked Minatsuki but love... he wasn't so sure. He did however know that he wanted to continue their little arrangement. Putting her back into their previous position and moving back over top of her he broke the kiss and looked down at her with a wolfish grin. "So, wanna pick up where we left off?" She Smiled up at him feeling rather sad, it was clear he didn't have the same feelings but as long as he was sticking with her, well it felt worth it.

"Sounds great."