Caim woke up flat on his back, though that wasn't unusual. What was unusual was the softness he felt around him and the ache in his body that was more than what he usually felt. Slowly he opened his eyes and automatically froze, worrying that for once waking up on his back wasn't a good thing.

The bachelor apartment looked like what Caim always thought a college dorm would look like, only bigger. There was a bed pushed up in the corner with a table beside it covered in text books while the desk at the foot of the bed sat empty with only a handful of papers on top. An ashtray sat, overflowing, beside the lumpy couch Caim lay on and the whole room smelled like cigarette smoke. His head pounded with the stench and the rushing of pipes that signaled that someone was in the shower.

Slowly but surely he was able to sit up and found that he only wore his ragged t-shirt and pants; his sweater lay on the ground near the ash tray as though he had pulled it off and tossed it aside in a hurry and his shoes were nowhere to be seen. Caim suddenly wondered if the pain was from something he had never thought would happen to him.

No. No way. I'd have my pants off right? He wouldn't go to the trouble- And I'd be in way more pain right? I wouldn't be able to sit up…

For a minute he couldn't move, his body yelling at him to remain in the warmth that was a grey comforter wrapped around him despite hearing the warning bells ringing in his head, but then he leapt to his feet.

You moron! You have no idea what this guy did to you!

As he hurried around the back of the couch he noticed that there wasn't anyone else in the apartment, and that there was a whole set of clothes strewn about the space.

Do to you?! You don't know what you did to him!He groaned internally. I don't want to know.

He had just passed the door to what he assumed was the bathroom when it opened and the cigarette guy from the night before stepped out with only a towel wrapped around his waist.

"Mornin' Caim."

Caim turned as he caught his name- I told him my real name!? – and tripped over a boot that was laying in the short hallway. The guy winced as Caim fell and crashed shoulder first into the wall.

"Fuck," the guy muttered, flinching as though he were the one to fall.

Caim pulled himself up so he was sitting and, resting his hand on the wall to steady himself, started to get to his feet. Then the guy stepped forward and he lost his footing, falling back onto his butt.

"Here." The guy held out a hand and Caim pulled away from it as though he was being offered to grab onto the blade end of a knife. You really think I'm going to let you help me up? And how do I know where your hand's been…

It was only then that Caim noticed that his gloves were off and a lump formed in his throat; he felt as though the rest of the colour in his face had been drained.

The guy gave him a slight smile and wrapped his hand around Caim's upper arm anyway, pulling him to his feet.

He's stronger than he looks… that's not good.

"Nice tats," the guy said as he let Caim go.

I'm surprised you don't have your own.

Caim took a step back and the guy glanced back into the apartment for a moment before looking back at him. "If you're going, don't you want your stuff?"

I do, but I want to get out of here even more.

The guy paused and looked him up and down.

Caim took another step back.

"You don't look that well…" He glanced over through a doorway that must have led to the kitchen, then he looked back at Caim who had taken another step back. "

"I'm not going to hurt you," he said. "Why don't you stay for a bit and I'll cook breakfast or-"

Caim threw open the apartment door, which his hand had been reaching back for since he had started moving, and he bolted out into the hallway. He heard the guy call his name out but Caim was pretty sure that the guy wouldn't come racing after him in just a towel.

I'm pretty sure he wouldn't race after me period.

He took the stairs two at a time and burst out through the lobby, startling several college-looking students. As he sprinted down the street, away from the building and whatever had happened in it, he ignored the voice yelling out to him from a balcony.