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Darkest Before the Dawn

Sensation.

The touch of fingers stroking him from neck to knee as he lay on what was possibly the softest bed in the world. The hint of dark cinnamon in the air, together with a fresh spring breeze.

It's winter.

The bed, as it bore him upwards, having been relieved of a weight that had previously been beside him. A vortex of black and white checkered behind his eyelids as his head spun, and he sank again, white darkening to black, and swallowing him whole.

"What did you do to him, Tyki?" Road asked, swinging her legs as she perched on a table.

They were resting in a luxurious solar room, and for once, it was just the two of them. The twins had gone out to wreak havoc, as usual, and Tyki had reason to believe that the Earl had gathered the more reliable Noahs to scheme some sort of apocalyptic nightmare for the Exorcists. But that wasn't his concern. His brow knit as he attempted to hold on to the pretense of being fully engaged in his newspaper, but Road had a way of getting into everyone's heads.

Sighing, he set down the paper and picked up his tea.

"Nothing," he said, taking a sip.

Road stared. Even her special portal here seemed to question his statement.

"That is," he amended, "nothing I haven't done already.

She bounced a little, restless. "Um, Tyki – "

"I know." He stood up and paced a little. "Maybe I pushed him too far."

"Maybe? You've probably traumatized him beyond therapy."

Any regret he'd shown was gone. That couldn't happen to Kanda. He had too much fire, too much will, to much –

"Well, we'll see." Tyki went towards the door to a special place in the ark. "Thank you for the extra dimension, sis. I'll owe you one." And he was gone again, back to his pet.

"Aww," Road pouted to the empty room. "Tyki's always leaving me."

The funny thing about getting to his insides was-

Kanda shook his head, but his body didn't stir. Caught in a half waking, half dreaming state, he continued his journey towards consciousness.

The funny thing about getting to his insides was that it wasn't hard. Somewhere distant, panic was rising, clawing its way up to his chest, reaching like fingers underneath his skin. Somewhere, someone caressed his naked heart gently, letting it pulse against the palm.

He thought he moved, but his body responded sluggishly.

Innocence.

Did he have any left? He pushed against the walls of his mind, trying to summon that pure light. There, there it was, was it there? No, the funny thing about his Innocence protecting his skin was that Tyki didn't even need to reach through him to fondle his heart. Tyki could just pry him open, cut him a cavity so deep, and there Tyke would be, nestled in the layers of his flesh, immersing himself in ecstasy.

He could feel himself losing his grip on the edges of this world.

The funny thing was –

He slipped.

"But it's been three months!" Lenalee cried.

"I know," Allen replied, frustration clear in his voice. "No matter where I look, or what I play on the Thirteenth's damn piano, I can't find him. I'm trying, Lenalee, believe me."

"And there's no more time to look. We just have to assume that he's still alive, since Tyki hasn't shown his face either." Lavi didn't sound happy about it, but he was also preoccupied with binding his wrist, which had been injured in the last battle.

"Still alive? That's not good enough, Lavi!" Lenalee was sounding more and more distressed.

"Don't worry," Allen said. "We'll find him." He sounded resolute. "We'll find him, and then I'll –"

"You'll what, Moyashi?" Lavi prompted, using the nickname to soothe his friend.

Gray eyes snapped to a single green one. "Don't call me that!"

Go higher.

The closer he climbed towards waking, the more the memories from the last few months assaulted him. Tyki in the morning, with a light breeze blowing through his hair from the open window, breakfast on a tray complete with a flower to match Kanda's eyes, and a hard-on underneath, predatory smirk in the forefront.

He remembered how he had fought into the night, until the jam he'd flung on Tyki's face stopped being funny, and he found out how jam felt in open cuts, and how it stuck the mess they made against his skin as he dropped to the floor helplessly, weakened by the continued ordeal. He remembered how eventually, he'd pleaded for Tyki to let him go, how he'd stooped lower and lower in what he would offer for his freedom, but Tyki would take it anyway, and never let him go.

"I'm going to – "

He heard himself say, as instructed, while his body burned for more.

Tyki promptly removed both hands and pulled out, kissing Kanda while he keened, trapped in memory and mentally urging his damn cock to just fucking ejaculate anyway, without any external stimuli. At first, he had ignored Tyki's instructions, and had broken fingers still on the mend to show for it. It had become easier to simply set aside his pride and say the words, and even though they clogged his throat, who was there to witness it but the psychopath?

It had taken five days for Kanda to start begging his cock to just become independent so that he could get the release that Tyki had been denying him. It would be bloody magical if he could just spurt it all in Tyki's face, and to hell with all the torture. It wasn't even his fault; the fucking Noah seemed to have absolutely nothing better to do than to come and play with him all day.

"You want this?" Tyki asked, slowly opening his mouth and winding his tongue around the head of his erection. "Tell me."

Blue eyes flashed with rage, but underneath, his teeth gritted against his desire and spat out a "Please," twisting in his mouth from sarcasm to desperate moan.

A gloved finger stroked him from back to front as Tyki unhurriedly took him into his throat, once, before stopping.

Kanda whimpered, and growled at the sound of him whimpering. His mind felt fuzzy and he felt ready to explode or die, but he also wanted his leg free so he could kick the bastard and finish the job himself.

"Tell me again," Tyki murmured, his mouth moving torturously against him. "You say it so prettily."

And he had, oh god, he had. He imagined he could feel the shame heating his cheeks even now, even as his body curled up a bit more on the pristine bed.

Tyki gripped the base of his shaft with two fingers, while the other hand took up exploring, and his mouth had worked on Kanda until he was ready to scream.

"Please, let me - I want – Please."

But the Noah just tightened his grip, preventing his release, and continued until the thoughts Kanda's mind produced were incomprehensible, even to himself.

And then he had left.

When Tyki finally relented, Kanda had learned how to climax without anything more than Tyki up his ass, in his mouth, at his command.

Each day, Kanda had greeted his captor with renewed hate in his eyes, redoubled from the day before, until it couldn't burn any hotter. The number of fucks he could give per day seemed to be increasing as his body acclimated itself to near constant molestation. He began to plan what he would do to Tyki if he ever got his freedom.

He began to get off. In general, he learned a lot. But the constant barrage on his pride slowly wore him down. He learned to submit, he learned to be wanton, craven. He learned to hate himself, and his traitorous body, but he would win the Noah's trust.

"You'll have to earn your pleasure, pet. Come, crawl to me, Kanda-kun." Tyki purred.

Eyes wide, Kanda dragged himself over to the Noah on his hands and knees, with very little of his customary grace. He didn't wince, and his lustrous blue hair hung all around his bowed head, getting caught under his palms.

Tyki frowned. Of course, he couldn't really blame his toy for his lack of grace, since his knees were bruised and his shoulder still healing.

Kanda looked up at him from where he knelt at Tyki's feet.

"Show me what you can do."

Without saying a word, Kanda undid Tyki's pants, fingers deftly freeing the Noah's member into his wet mouth, eagerly sucking at it like a thirsty man at a fount.

Kanda twitched. He could feel the rage in his chest and the ache in his groin. So he was domesticated, was he? Tyki would pay. Still, he closed his eyes again as he heard the door open.

Gazing at the body sprawled across his bed, Tyki suppressed a frown. It was late, and he'd returned from the first pointless mission from the Earl that he'd bothered to take on for a while. Ever since he'd managed to capture his love, he'd been blowing off the family patriarch in favor of continuously ravishing his prisoner. Of love, he added, in an attempt to cheer himself up. And he'd been deliriously happy during the training weeks, when he could feel himself battering against the bulwark of Kanda's pride, his prey lean and wild in his hands.

His captive was beautiful, with his hair half bound and his clothing strewn far from all the salient parts of his anatomy, twining around his extremities like lovers grasping at limbs. He drew his fingers along reddened lips, relishing the memory of abusing them to achieve their current appearance, and restraining the urge to yank Kanda awake, just for the pleasure of hearing him growl.

He loved to hear that growl. It reminded of the purr of a lion, at once pissed off and yet full of disregard. You know you're dead, it said, casual and deadly. Full of pride. He missed that.

And yet, when he thought of all the new sounds he'd taught his pet to make, he felt a renewed urge to press his weight against the cloth trailing around his lover's wrists and ankles simultaneously trapping and waking him. Kanda would whimper, shortly before closing his eyes and pleading in that deep voice while his legs spread before him and his ass tightened and he arched up against him. Even now, as Kanda turned on his side as though to avoid his gaze, Tyki found himself staring at his well-muscled thighs, and the brief dip before the bruised swell of his left cheek.

Giving in to his desire's relentless urging, he knelt on the bed and reached his tongue into that dark cleft, eliciting a startled murmur as the pretense of sleep fell away, and a sudden rigidity filled the body below him. He fastened his teeth into the nape of his beloved's neck to keep him from shifting, biting down with increasing force until Kanda submitted and allowed him to continue.

If he had forced the exorcist's head around at that moment, he would have seen that flash of fire, the fury brought on by humiliation, potent and searing. He might have seen the promise of death from a reawakened Kanda piercing through him, and laughed to feel himself so alive. One moment, before Kanda once again submerged himself into sensation to avoid detection.

There was a time when it was there without fail, burning so brightly that he was practically rubbing himself raw in his effort to satisfy his appetite for his captive. He could have physically sucked that defiance out of those blue eyes and ingested it, because it was delicious beyond comparison. But there was also the chance that the blue fire he craved would be curiously absent, which had been happening more and more. His own sense of peace would vanish then, and his rage would move through him until he finally managed to ride it out against Kanda's body. It was a good thing he healed quickly.

Lately, he'd taken to choking him by the pressure points in his throat to cause a brief blackout while he was still inside, fucking him, so that within five minutes, Kanda would come to, disoriented and raw, and he would be able to watch his lover's reaction when he finally processed who was buried inside of him. Sometimes he would be scared, like a small animal, and sometimes he would come roaring back, locked and loaded and reaching for Mugen. Tyki reached for his throat.

"No," Kanda panted, rough and desperate. "Don't do that."

Tyki hesitated, and pulled back. For now, he would test this new subservience, pushing against the boundaries until he reached the point when physical distress simply overcame free will, and he could feel the sinews corded beneath him as he struggled and gave voice to everything. He would bind his exorcist to himself, because even if he was broken, he was still beautiful.

After all, Tyki thought, as he lost himself in the body beneath him, he was Kanda.

As they lay entwined and exhausted on the bed, Kanda shifted his body closer to Tyki's, resting his back against the Noah's side. Unbidden, Tyki's hand rose to trace languid lines on his skin, until he eventually stilled into slumber.

But Kanda felt well. Tyki was his. Blue eyes stared at the far wall, and his lips curved ever so slightly. He felt better than he had for a long time, his stalker was asleep beside him, and if he had ever been known to utter the sentiment, he might have confessed that he was verging on happiness.

Tyki stirred, the morning sun through the window prompting him to awaken. The veils of sleep gave way to a sticky wakefulness and a pounding head, as if someone had clubbed his skull into unconsciousness. His eyelashes were gummed from from sleep and he started to raise a hand to rub them away, only to find that he couldn't.

The warmth next to him was gone.

The chains clanked as he swiveled in the few directions he could, straining for a view of his surroundings. Drool trailed down the sides of the oversize gag prying open his jaw. Looking for telltale traces of blue that would let him know he was not alone, Tyki attempted to phase out, even while suspecting it would be futile. A lock of his hair insisted on covering one eye, impeding his vision. And still, there was no blue, no exorcist, no Kanda. The door to their bedroom was closed and the room was empty. He restrained his rising panic. Kanda would return.

Tyki waved all his restraints, causing them to tighten around his limbs as he made as much noise as possible, in the hopes that someone would answer, even if it was Road and scarred her for life, though she was likely corrupted enough that even the sight of him on display wouldn't do it. He needed to chase after his beloved now, though part of him still couldn't believe that Kanda hadn't chosen to stay with him.

After all, hadn't he brought Kanda sex and flowers every day?

"KANDA! You're back!" Allen squealed, catching sight of a certain ponytail and pissed off demeanor.

"Whoa, my best bud is here!" Lavi pounced on him, manhandling him as usual in the process. Kanda's brow ticked.

"Kanda," Lenalee whispered, tears standing in her eyes as she went in for a hug.

"Tch,"

"Same as ever, too." Allen sounded disgruntled. Though it wasn't really true; this Kanda felt even more concentrated than before, each movement filled with intention. It was the same beauty that was apparent every time he fought, liquid and lethal.

"No, he's not quite the same," Lenalee corrected, still hanging onto an arm. "You seem like you've been working out, actually."

Lavi grinned, a wicked glint in his eye. "Yeah, all your recent activities must've been good for you."

Kanda growled, ignoring the suddenly dejected Allen. He seemed impatient, as though he had a mission to fulfill. "Look, I just came here for Komui."

"Wait," Allen said. "Aren't you coming with us to fight the Earl?"

"That's going to be your job, Moyashi. I'm doing mine." Kanda spun on his heel. "The Noah can suck my cock for all I care."

Hours passed, the sun crossed the sky, and Tyki found himself slipping deeper into hopelessness.

He fervidly went over his memories for the exact sensation of Kanda. He remembered the curvature of his spine, the musculature of his limbs. He remembered how his beloved felt when he held him back by his hair, and the thrumming of his throat when he couldn't breathe. How he tasted when the sweat mingled with blood, coppery and potent against his tongue. Was it all lost?

His heart jumped as measured treads finally approached and the doorknob slowly turned. He prayed, a little, to an unknown someone.

The light from outside the room cast a long shadow as his visitor walked silently over to the bed, long hair flowing freely in the chillness of the night air. His face was as peaceful as though he had found salvation through meditation. And that body that Tyki knew so well settled on the edge of his bed, extending a hand to release the gag, and deep blue eyes met Tyki's.

"Kanda?" Tyki tried to ask, but the sounds barely came out. His throat was dry from hours of losing fluids and interminable insecurity.

Kanda quietly trailed his fingers along Tyki's flesh, almost dispassionately, causing his skin to prickle against the contact. The exorcist's silent arrogance may have been unnerving for a lesser man, but Tyki waited in anticipation, breathing shallowly, though this may have just been the effect of Kanda's first voluntary touch.

"Innocence is a weapon." Kanda said calmly, as he backhanded Tyki viciously. Four simple words sliding out of a bruised, murderous mouth. His hand moved hard and fast down Tyki's abdomen, imprinting the trail into the Noah as mingled pain and arousal blossomed within him. The blue fire Tyki loved so much burned against the night, bright and fierce.

Tyki moaned in agreement, feeling the imprint of Kanda's activated Innocence on his skin.

"And Komui is making more, just for me."

And the deranged smile that Tyki was instrumental in producing in Kanda continued to spread across his lover's face, an expression that marked them as kindred. The same one that Tyki enjoyed wearing so much, yet shuddered at seeing in a mirror. And he wondered exactly what was in store for him, bound to Kanda's mercy.

But he didn't care. Rather, he thrilled at the thought. This, this was his love. Kanda, who was not just the perpetual scowl or disdain, but the murderous joy that convinced his opponents that he was going to fuck them up so badly they'd have to call up the Earl to put them back together. That familiar pinprick of light that his eyes reflected as the embers of his spirit grew into an unquenchable fury. It made him fall in love all over again. He could feel his spirit soar, hear his wicked, Noah soul sing. He wanted to possess it; he was completely lost to it.

And that smile was for him.

THE END