The Intimacy Institution

Hi guys! Christ, I'm SO sorry I didn't update sooner, but I've been so busy the past week that I didn't have time to write! But yeah, hopefully you remember what happened in the last chapter? Yeah, Clear popped up and scared the crap out of Aoba... And so it continues... ^^

Chapter 4

"Aoba? Are you okay?" Aoba heard a familiar voice call. When he opened his eyes again, he was supported by Sly's arms, because his feet had almost slipped under him. Koujaku stood in front of him with a worried look on his face, and beside him…

"Master? Please don't be dead~!" the gasmask called out and came really close.

"W-who are you?!" Aoba blurted out without thinking about being friendly first. He just wanted him to get the newest weirdo out of his face.

"I'm Clear, bisexual route. Just as yourself, Master!" the man sang, but Aoba still couldn't speak.

"Oh, I'm sorry if I scared you, Master!" he then said and took a step back to let Aoba get some space. He stood up on his own feet, relieving Sly from holding him. Koujaku looked suspiciously at this 'Clear'.

"Then why don't you take off your mask instead of scaring the shit out of people?" He held his hand out in front of Aoba in protection, even though it was totally unnecessary.

"No!" Clear then yelled. "I can't! I've been told not to," Sly started giggling to himself, something Koujaku and Aoba had stopped caring about after a while.

"You guys here with your faces. Here we have a copycat, a scarred ninja and now a gasmask? Are we on some kind of mission I don't know of?" Sly laughed loudly, only finding it funny himself. Koujaku's face went red, so Aoba felt like he should defend Clear. Also for Ren's sake.

"It's fine. If you don't want to, you don't have to," he said friendly and smiled at him. Clear clapped excitedly; you could almost see the stars and flowers float around his head.

"Thank you, Master!" he cheered.

"Oh, by the way, I'm A…" Aoba began, but was then interrupted. By a bell?

"Ohh, lunch!" Clear was thrilled, as read by his voice and the way he hopped up and down. Without another word he turned around on his heels and walked downstairs towards the cafeteria. Oh, a lunch bell. Aoba was about to call out to him, but Koujaku shook his head.

"Don't worry about that airhead. Let's go find Mizuki," He took Aoba by the arm and a giggling Sly followed the two as they walked the last short trip to Mizuki's room.

"Wanna join us for lunch?" Aoba asked happily as the trio stood in Mizuki's door. The latter was in white sweat pants and a purple tank top for the heterosexual route, and the room was dark. He scratched his neck and let out an awkward laugh.

"Ohh, this is kind of embarrassing, you guys. I just made plans with someone else, and later we're gonna go out, so…" He apologized and said he wanted to make it up to them, but Koujaku interrupted him.

"It's okay, Mizooks. We'll just see you later," Mizuki waved at them and closed the door.

"No worries, guys. We'll just eat by ourselves," Aoba said trying to cheer them up, but the atmosphere was still a bit lousy from the rejection. They all went to the cafeteria downstairs, Koujaku and Aoba walking next to each other and Sly walking behind them and hiding a grin behind the hands put up in front of his face.

"So, Kayak-Jack. You've already been here for a year, eh? Tell us your secrets," Sly pushed when they sat by the same spot as they had in the morning. The room was crowded with people who'd been here since the bell rang or hadn't even left. The breakfast table had been replaced with another one; one for lunch. All kinds of hot and cold dishes were lined up in color order, starting with red pepper and tomato salad, and ending with purple crab cakes on black caviar. Aoba had filled his plate with as much as he could, even though he'd only come to green on the scale, and sat now between Sly and Koujaku so they wouldn't freak out on each other.

"It's Koujaku. And there are no secrets you won't learn about in the classes," he tried explaining, but Sly wasn't satisfied.

"Not that, Blowjaku, I don't care about the classes," he said. Aoba was guessing it was true, since he was on the a/trans/pansexual route. He wondered what they were going to get taught there at all.

Sly leaned closer to Koujaku behind Aoba and spoke: "Do people fuck each other for money here, do heteros go gay, do the straight people dunk the bis' heads in the toilets? Spit it out!" Sly sounded so excited, and Koujaku's face went all red.

"Why, you!" Sly had pulled back to his seat, and Aoba had to hold Koujaku from jumping him. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Don't freak out on me, my brother's sick, you know," Sly completely changed attitude and spoke in a sad voice. Koujaku's anger seemed to slowly dissolve and he sat back down. "That's right. I'm sorry," he said in an apologetic tone. Sly only giggled in response.

"To your information, no one dunks anyone's head in a toilet, thank you very much," Koujaku responded irritated. Aoba was a bit relieved at this: not that he was afraid of being bullied, but he was happy no one else was bullied (so he had to help them out).

"What about prostitution?" Aoba asked. The two others looked at him with a weird look. It wasn't like him to ask that kind of thing.

"Uhm, not what I've heard of," Koujaku answered hesitantly. "Although…" Sly leaned closer to Koujaku and focused all his attention on his answer.

"I've heard that some people on the asexual route sometimes do services for money. I don't know if it's sex or favors with money, or what it is. Besides, they're mere rumors," he added the last part, and felt pretty uncomfortable when both Aoba's and Sly's eyes were on him.

"Don't tell me you're going to see what you can buy from them, guys," Aoba, who had spaced out for a moment, suddenly woke back up and shook his head.

"No, no, that's not it. I just wanted to know what kind of place this is," he assured, and Koujaku sighed with relief.

"Oh, hoped so. At least you're not some weirdo," he said and laughed the awkward situation off. Sly, who'd been silent for a while now, then spoke:

"Well, if you guys aren't going to check it out, I sure am," he said with a bit of an offended tone. Koujaku then felt bad for indirectly have called him a weirdo, but didn't think much about it. After all, it had been Aoba's idea to invite Sly to lunch, not his.

"Then let us know how it goes," Aoba said and sent Sly a kind smile. "You bet," Sly nodded. The pack continued their lunch, which was as delicious as the breakfast had been. Meanwhile Koujaku sat and pointed a few of the people he knew out, and told the others a bit about them:

"Mizuki's girlfriend over there, Usui, was here for 2 months last year as well. She's on the heterosexual route, as you can see by the color of her uniform,"

"Wait, so you can have partners while you're here?" asked Aoba.

"Yes, sure. It's your private life, so they can't prevent you from seeing anyone. There is only one route you can't touch, though," Koujaku explained in a serious tone.

"Let me guess: the asexual route?" Sly asked, sounding a bit bored. Koujaku had been talking uninterrupted for a long time, and Sly was losing his patience.

"No, not them," Koujaku pointed to a small table closest to the door. "The ones without a route. Some call them The Factionless, The Unclear, The Doubtful, pick your favorite,"

Aoba and Sly turned their eyes to where Koujaku had pointed, where four people were seated, and the first thing they noticed:

"They aren't wearing a uniform?" they said in unison. Koujaku nodded.

"They've come here, but haven't decided on a route yet. They're with a special team who helps them select one before the first two weeks, or they get expelled,"

Aoba looked closer, and saw a familiar face in the group.

"Hey, the guy in green rammed into me this morning!" he exclaimed, and now Sly woke back up.

"Want me to give him the same treatment?" he grinned as he clenched his knuckles together. Aoba quickly shook his head.

"I was wondering why he wasn't wearing a uniform, but I guess they don't need it after all," Aoba stated, and Koujaku nodded. They decided to finish their food quicker, because Sly said he had to do something important afterwards.

"I'll see you at dinner, Aoba," Koujaku waved at them both as he returned to his room. He wasn't sure if Sly was going to join them, so he wouldn't want to include him in a promise.

"Sure," Aoba waved back, and now stood with Sly near the exit of the cafeteria. As soon as Koujaku was out of sight, Sly turned around and started walking back to the tables with food. There were still lots left, but it was getting a bit cold from standing out for a few hours.

"What are you doing?" Aoba asked when he saw Sly pick up a new plate and start filling it with food. "Are you still hungry?"

"It's for Ren," he said in a very serious tone, which surprised Aoba. He really cared for his brother, didn't he?

"Want me to help you?" Aoba looked around for anything Sly hadn't already taken.

"You can bring him some water," he said unsurely, so Aoba grabbed a jug. What was he feeling right now?

"Are you sad about your brother?" Aoba asked with concern in his voice, but Sly laughed it off.

"Nah, he's fine. He just needs to rest. Be careful not to drop that thing, or it'll break to a million pieces," he added when he saw Aoba's insecure grip on the glass object. He switched hands right away, and thought about why he was so careful about not dropping it. The two left the eating area on tiptoes, just in case.

"We're coming in, Ren," Aoba said after knocking Ren's door. The gay route's hallway and rooms were just like the other ones he'd seen so far, so it didn't seem they treated some routes better than others. What a nice idea.

Aoba opened the door with his free hand, for both Sly's hands were occupied at the moment. The room was completely dark, with only a few beams shining through the curtains. There were pillows and covers all over the floor, and a little ball of blankets and duvets sat in the middle of the floor, taped to a funny machine, while looking at a projection from a coil on the wall. It was obviously Ren, but he looked so different from this morning: he was pale, looked tired, and had a mask over his mouth. Poor thing…

"Hey, oniisan," Sly greeted cheerfully, as if it was nothing, and when Ren turned to the two, Aoba was surprised by the look on his face. He smiled.

"Hi, brother. Hi, Aoba," his face lit even more up when he saw Aoba come in too, but the latter was still a bit stunned by Ren's face. How could he look so happy in this state?

"I gave him a bit of medicine and left him with my coil," Sly nudged, and as far as Aoba could see the coil had been used to display an animal show on the wall like a big theatre screen. But it seemed he was too tired to actually watch it, though.

"We brought you some food, Ren," Aoba said and pointed at Sly's plate. Ren smiled from ear to ear, and unwrapped himself from his fort of softness. Aoba sat the jug of water down on the table in the middle of the room and helped Ren to a chair. He had a bit of trouble walking, but he made it without falling.

"When will it wear off?" Aoba whispered a bit concerned, because Ren's posture was about to collapse in the chair, which was kind of unsettling.

"I'll put him to sleep when he's eaten, then it'll be gone till he wakes up. He doesn't usually get something that strong, but his condition has worsened the past few months, so he needs something else to take the pain," Sly explained as he sat the plate down in front of his brother and put the chopsticks next to it.

"Thank you for the food," Ren chimed, and picked up the chopsticks to eat. Meanwhile, Sly had found a straw for the jug, so he could drink easily. Aoba had to admit: he felt a bit creepy for just staring at Ren while he was eating. Of course Sly didn't seem to have a problem with it.

"Are you going to be okay?" Aoba was worried now, so he felt he had to ask.

"Yes, it's not severe," he smiled. "I'll be fine by dinnertime, so I can join you guys," The last part was more of a question like: 'Can I join you for dinner?'. Aoba nodded fast.

"Of course! Sly can join too. Koujaku will be there too, but I'm not sure about Mizuki,"

The two told Ren about the past hours; about the Gasmask guy, Clear, how Mizuki almost straight up rejected them, and what they'd talked about at lunch. When they were done talking, Ren had finished eating too. Aoba offered to take the plate and jug back to the kitchen, so he said goodbye to the two and left the room with a nice feeling. He liked those two.

Now the four were back together again in the cafeteria, and sat by their 'usual' table. Koujaku was in a particularly good mood, Ren was well again, and Sly was, well, cheeky as ever.

"But have you seen how those guys make up to her? They're a second away from each building her a nest of gold nuggets, and throw rocks at each other," he grinned and eyed three young people, where the two boys seemed to flirt a bit excessively with the girl.

"They're new. The girl's name is Mio, and the guys are Kio and Nao or whatever the hell they're called," Koujaku explained. He was seated next to Ren, and for once didn't look annoyed by it. Most of the time they'd had a long conversation about animal shows on different channels, and they seemed to be getting along fine. Aoba heard Sly complain about how his room had no heat, so they need to get it fixed before he could sleep there. To be nice, Aoba offered to share his room with him for a couple of days, but Sly (thankfully) thanked no, because he just 'crashed with his brother'.

"What about that girl over there?" Ren asked and pointed to a girl with long blonde hair and a pink bow that was sitting a few tables away.

"That's Clara, heterosexual route," Koujaku explained, but was then cut off by Sly, who burst in.

"She's mighty fine, isn't she?" he smirked, and Koujaku blushed a little.

"Well, if you're into that kind of girl," he mumbled and stuffed his mouth with delicacies from the dinner menu. It was even more spectacular than the lunch and breakfast combined, and every bite bombarded your taste buds with new sensations. From bread, fish, and beef to vegetables, potatoes, and sauces were lined up and ready for serving. They all ate to their hearts' content, and were totally stuffed within 30 minutes, and it was getting late.

"Want to hang out tonight?" Koujaku asked, and as much as they all wanted to, they knew they needed to get some sleep before tomorrow. They said goodbye and split up, so Aoba was left on his own to find back to his room.

But first, he looked a bit around the entrance hall again. It was such a beautiful sight, that he couldn't help but stare at every little detail.

Thud.

Huh? He heard something, didn't he? He turned his eyes from the chandelier in the ceiling, and to the floor, where he saw a little package with a string, that seemed to have fallen out. Did someone drop it?

The second he'd thought of that, his eyes caught a guy opening the front door, so he hollered at him.

"Hey, you!" he called, and the man stopped his action.

"What?" he said in a dark voice, and barely turned his head to look at Aoba.

"I think you dropped this," he said and picked up the package from the floor. The man in the door turned around and walked towards him, and Aoba could see his face now. It had a dark color, a bit like Mizuki, and a big nose. He had long brown dreadlocks that were red at the end, which matched his white and red uniform from the asexual route. Wait…

"Are you one of those who sell people stuff?" he asked, but the man didn't answer. He stood a few feet from Aoba, who was surprised how tall the man really was.

"Go to bed," he simply said and yanked the package out of Aoba's hands and dropped it on the ground.

"But isn't it yours? Is it someone else's you're only holding on to? What other kind of stuff can you get? Are there oth…" He was cut short when he received a fist to his shoulder. It hit him so hard, he took a few steps back, and gasped for his breath.

"I said: 'Go to bed', so leave it alone," he repeated blank faced and went out of the door. Aoba rubbed his shoulder and stood back up straight. That guy… He left the package on the ground like he was told, even though it bothered him why anyone would even leave stuff in the middle of a hallway. He humped a bit, but made his way back to his room safely.

Ahh. It was nice to be back, and away from all the other people. They were nice and all, but he liked being alone for now. He took off his clothes immediately and put on a simple top that he could sleep in. He sat down on a soft chair by the window and checked his coil. He received a message from The Intimacy Institution, probably tomorrow schedule, but he was too tired to read it. But he also received another message from and unknown sender. He shrugged and opened it up.

He heard a song, like the ones in old 8-bit games, and then an old game layout popped up. What kind of retro thing was this? How could a coil even run it? It showed a little film of a knight, who rode a white horse to a big castle, which he then entered. Inside were lots of little people, who all cheered for the castle's king. Then it changed to a brick wall, where there was a heart shape, but the heart was missing. Then it was over, and closed itself down. That was weird.

"… come on, we haven't got all night!" someone yelled. It sounded very quiet in Aoba's room, so it must have come from outside. Aoba looked out of his window and saw a few guys running back and forth between a car, and a small shed behind the château. He recognized the guy with the dreadlocks from earlier, who punched his shoulder. It still kinda hurt. What an odd guy.

He decided he didn't really care, and he was too tired to even think anymore, so he turned off the lights and plopped down on the bed. Ahh, so soft. He turned a few times before he was fast asleep.

BOOM!

Aoba was awoken in the middle of the night. Again. Still being half asleep, he pulled the covers over his head and shut any noise out of his head. Seriously, what is it with this place and sounds in the middle of the night?

Hope you liked that chapter, please review and tell me if you did ^^ I know, it was pretty long; I DID have my doubts wether to split it into two stories, but Nah. Please tell if if you want one big chapter or a lot of small ones, because they tend to get longer O.o Byyyeeee