Well.

This took forever to come out.

My apologies, good sirs. Thank you for all of the support.

TRIGGER WARNING for abusive relationships and mentions of sexual abuse/exploitation. (Nothing too bad though, it's still T so calm down.)

xxx

Hunk looked over at the kid next to him in concern. Keith's raven hair hung in his eyes as he drew what looked to be music notes absentmindedly in his notebook, completely disregarding the lesson plan on his desk. A bruise had already started to form on his elbow where he had caught himself on the hard, tiled floor. Hunk had watched the whole thing go down. He had wanted desperately to step in, of course, but if he did that, it would lead to a friendship which would lead to time-consumption and personal questions and a one-sided bond, and frankly that was much more painful than any beating. So he just let it be for the moment and decided to check up on the boy later, when it would have less of an impact on the guy.

Glancing up at the front of the room, the dark-skinned teen saw that the geometry teacher had his attention focused on writing out a problem on the board. He took the opportunity and ripped out a piece of paper from his notebook, scrawling the sentence "Are you okay?" onto it, folding it up, and then tossing it onto Keith's desk. The fair-skinned boy looked up in surprise, seemingly snapped out of a daze. Casting a curious look at Hunk, Keith motioned around the room. Who's this for? Hunk shook his head and pointed at him. It's for you. The lanky teen raised an eyebrow. Are you sure? The bigger kid nodded once more, waving dismissively with his hand. Yeah, I'm sure.

A curious look set into the pale boy's face as he unfolded the paper. Had he never been passed a note in class before? He blinked at the page several times before picking up his pencil, scribbling a response, and tossing it back.

Yeah... Why?

Why would he be? Hunk wrote another response down and tossed the paper back.

I saw what happened earlier

The two continued to pass the paper back and forth, simply forgetting about the teacher seeing.

Oh. Well I'm fine. You were smart for not stepping in.

I wish I could have. That wouldn't have done anything though.

Yeah. I understand so no hard feelings.

:)

Just as the musician was writing another response, he saw Hunk snap to attention out of the corner of his eye and realized the teacher had noticed their note-passing.

"Garrett! Kogane! That's enough! We are here to learn, not joke around. Please start taking this class seriously!" The instructor turned back towards the board. In his peripheral vision, Hunk could see Keith smiling ever-so-slightly to himself. As Hunk scribbled down another equation in his notebook, he prayed that he hadn't made a mistake and gone too far with the deaf boy. He didn't have enough time to maintain friendships.

xxx

Katie sat at the crowded lunch table with her sketchbook in her lap. You could never know what might happen to spill, so she had opted to keep her precious drawing book in her lap, even if it did skew the angle a bit. The table was ridiculously loud, as it was the "art freak" spot in the cafeteria. Kids stood, threw food, yelled, did last-minute homework, drew, and even painted. All at the same time. It was quite hectic, and that was an understatement. Katie didn't mind, though. As long as she fit in somewhere.

The other students had learned to stop asking her about how she never ate and only stuck all the food in her bag for later. She would either blow it off or get angry, and an angry Pidge was not something you wanted to deal with. The fifteen-year-old had also been on edge as of late, so bothering her was practically asking for death. So instead, the group didn't ask any questions.

"Whatcha got there, Pidgeon?" She looked up to see a dark form looming over her and suppressed a shudder.

Katie picked up her pencil, attempting to pull herself together. Weakness was never a good sign to show. "I thought I told you not to call me that." Him using the name her brother gave her made her sick.

"And I thought I told you that I don't take orders from my girlfriend." A tall, raven-haired guy stood in front of her, his swept-back hair gleaming from the mounds of gel that held the dark strands in place. He was dressed just like his personality: dark and scary. A black and white varsity jacket covered up most of a crimson shirt that hung far too low for anyone's taste, and the light seemed to glint off of his multiple ear piercings. He leaned in, and Katie felt his hot breath on her ear as he spoke. "Don't let it happen again."

She tried not to flinch away from him. "Sorry, Derek."

Even if his personality was downright repulsive, nobody could deny his attractiveness. Chiseled jawline, perfectly straight nose, fair skin that seemed to glow, angular mouth, and to top it all off, deep grey eyes that sent most of the schoolgirls swooning. Derek was the picture-perfect guy, the rebellious bad boy, a known playboy. He just seemed perfect, didn't he?

Wrong.

Nothing could be more wrong.

Even the "bad boys" weren't as ruthless and cruel as Derek.

Derek grabbed Katie's wrist with much more force than was necessary. "Come with me, Pidgeon."

"W-Where?" She could already feel her body freeze and her entrails turn to ice as she cleared her throat, trying to dispell her fear.

His grip tightened. "Come with me." As in come with me and don't ask questions. Goosebumps broke out on her skin as she slowly shut her sketchbook and put it back in her bag, which she slung over her shoulder. She tried not to see the stares that the other kids were giving her. They knew that Derek was particularly harsh, but still, they denied it and refrained from stepping it because what would they be able to do about it anyway? As Katie walked away, she could feel her hands trembling. It was only a slight tremor, but she scolded herself nevertheless and tightened her fist.

I have to do this. I'm doing this for him, I have to.

Derek gripped her shoulder and steered her towards the exit. The girl straightened her spine and tried not to stiffen up. She knew what being afraid meant. She knew what showing weakness meant. So she didn't show it as sweat began to break out on her forehead and her stomach began to churn with a nervous anxiety that only Derek could give her. His grip was still threateningly tight on her shoulder as he shoved her down the hallways and into an empty supply closet, flipping the light on with his spare hand. Wordlessly, she handed him her backpack, which he threw to the floor and kicked it against the doorway to make sure that nobody could tell the light was on. She prayed that it didn't mess up any of the precious food she had stored inside of the black bag.

Katie cleared her throat uncomfortably. "I thought we were doing this after school?"

Derek turned around and shot her a glare. "I told you no questions."

I'm doing this so that I can ask questions, though.

She went silent. Derek stepped towards her and studied her with his cold, cruel eyes. Pidge looked away towards the floor. She couldn't stand his eyes.

"How much?" Her voice was timid and quiet. That was the one question she was allowed to ask.

"Hmm." Derek tapped his cheek with his index finger in fake indecisiveness. "That depends." He frowned an put a finger under her chin, lifting her face up to him. "You've been disappointing me lately."

"Is this..." Katie took off her coat. "Is this better?"

He raised an eyebrow, curious. She had never done that before. "Not quite."

"How..." She undid the first button on her shirt and swallowed thickly. "How about this?"

Derek smiled like a wolf and stepped forward, eyes gleaming with hideous thoughts. "That's more like it." He grabbed her by the waist with one hand and studied her cruelly, his finger tracing the outline of her jaw. She tried so very hard not to shudder. As his hand moved lower, he leaned in and whispered something that chilled her to the bone. "My little toy, you're so fragile. I could break you right in half." She could not help but shiver a little and turn her face away. His rotten breath was hot and agonizing on her neck. Aggressively, he grabbed her face and turned it towards him as she made a small noise of protest. "Remeber," he hissed, "You give me what I want and I give you what you want. So do as I say or I'll see to it that you never get another sliver of information."

She took a shuddering breath and tried to keep the tears at bay. "Okay."

Derek leaned in and kissed her viciously like he was a starving animal receiving a meal. It wasn't even kissing at this point, it was him attacking her face with his perfectly-shaped yet cunning mouth. One hand gripped her waist and the other her face; they kept ever-so-slowly slipping downwards until one found her skirt. His tongue pushed its way into her mouth against her will as he shoved her violently against the shelf of spare school supplies. There would definitely be a bruise there later. Katie tasted peppermint on her tongue and felt bile rise in her throat. Ever since they had first made the deal, she hadn't been able to taste mint without gagging. The overpowering stench of Derek's hair gel made her dizzy and overflowed her senses. Not that it wasn't already overwhelming.

Derek bit Katie's lip, making her almost yelp. He pressed harder, his hands going even further while she tasted peppermint and smelled the musk of expensive hair product and squeezed her eyes closed to at least block out the sight. It was at times like this that Katie chose to take herself somewhere different, just to briefly escape. Just to be anywhere else, anywhere. Maybe it was because of just how harshly he was handling her, but Katie could only think about how she and Derek had first come to make the sick, twisted deal that she was now participating in.

It was when Matt had first disappeared. She was hanging flyers around the school, figuring that if anyone knew something, it would be her fellow students. As she was hanging the last poster, she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around and recognized the boy as Derek, a junior. She had seen him around some but chosen to keep her distance. He was involved in all sorts of dangerous gangs. Pidge notice just how close he was standing to her and sidestepped away from him and his heavy cologne. "Yes?"

He held up one of the flyers in front of her face and said, "I can help you." The freshman's stomach twisted in a sort of nervous anticipation.

"Wh- What? You know something about Matt?" Her eyes got wide and she willed herself not to get her hopes up. This could be a trick from the dangerous playboy...

"Yeah. I know some stuff. Well, my buddies do." He smirked and held the paper lower, underneath his chin.

Quickly, she dug into her bag and yanked out a pen. "Could you give me their names? Or numbers? Please, anything you know."

The teen raised an eyebrow. "You think I'm gonna give it to you for free? Seriously?"

Well, what was she supposed to think? The flyer didn't have any sort of reward posted on it. But... she would pay anything for a bit of information. "You want money? I don't have much right now but I can get as much as you need, so what's your pri-"

Derek stepped a bit closer to her and put one of his arms on the wall behind her. "Whoever said anything about money?" Katie dropped her pen in shock. Was... Was he wanting her to..? There was no way. "Then what do you want?" She kept her voice steady and ignored what she already knew to be true. She was very intellectual, and even someone who wasn't would have been able to figure it out.

Derek smiled, but not in a good way. It made her stomach turn. Leaning in, he whispered, "You."

"No! No way! She tried to break away from the boy's grasp, but he caught her by the arm before she could run. "If you say no to this, you're never going to find your brother. I can make sure of that." Katie gulped. Her brother... he had to do it... for him. As horrible as it was, as disgusting as it sounded, she had to do it. There was no other option. Pidge bit her lip and looked down at her feet, her last flyer crumpling in her hand. "How much?"

"I dunno. Depends on how much info you want."

Katie was firmly pressed up against the wall, no space left between her and Derek. Finally, she looked up at his disgusting handsome face. "Why me?" Why would he choose her, of all people, to play this wicked game with? There were so many other girls prettier and more popular than herself. Why even do this at all?

"Because," he drawled, "You're pretty. You're thin. You're helpless. You'll do anything I want."

A spark of anger flared up in her chest. She wasn't the type of person to be controlled by others. Her tongue acted before she had a chance to think about it. "Oh yeah? Says who?" Derek held up the flyer and tapped the black-and-white picture in the middle of it. "Says Matt."

Katie's flashback was violently interrupted when she felt Derek tugging on the hem of her skirt. Her heart froze. He had never tried that before. And so she started to panic.

No. No.

No!

Fear flared in her chest as she tried to push him away, but he didn't even seem to notice. His mouth was all over her face and neck and his hands were tugging at her clothes and it seemed there was nothing she could do about it. She didn't want it to happen like this. She didn't want to lose her virginity to this... monster. Involuntary tears leaked from her eyes as she realized that even if she had the power to stop it, she couldn't. She had to get this information. Tears fell from her eyes and down her neck, wetting Derek's face. Finally, his attention was drawn. He pulled back and looked at her, evaluating the situation. Dropping his hands and turning away in disgust, he said, "A few of my buddies saw him put up a fight with three guys in the alley behind the supermarket."

She didn't even trust herself to respond. She scrubbed furiously at her face with her wrists, angry that he had finally made her cry. Without another look at her, he left, but the message was clear enough.

Do it right next time. You signed up for this. This is on you.

xxx

Okay.

So.

I wanted to add Derek in as an actual canon character, but I simply couldn't find one that matched correctly. The big option was Lotor, but his personality isn't like Derek's at all. I went through list after list of characters from the show but couldn't find a good candidate. So I made Derek. If you have an idea for who I could replace Derek with, message me. I'd be more than happy to change it.

Also.

I'm sorry this took so very long to come out. I have some great ideas for how this story will play out and my list of notes is about a mile long. This is gonna be a long one. The only problem is that I am literally swamped with all my school work and dual credit is a pain in the ass. I will also be taking multiple courses over the summer, when I usually write the most, so it may be delayed a while. My apologies. I will try my hardest to get my ideas into text.

Sorry for the long wait for this short chapter, they should be lengthier soon once the plot gets rolling.

Feel free to leave a review with any ideas you have for this story!

OhHHh I almost forgot but I have a YouTube now (check out my Voltron Edits). It's t-gwinn. *shameless self-promotion*

Thanks for reading, my good sirs.