If I owned DGM, I would hold birthday episodes for each character.
Bruise
Chapter 19: Protection
Morning comes with the smell of autumn woods. At some point in the night, I managed to wiggle my way into Kanda's arms, hence the reason my nose was pressed into his chest, and I couldn't help but notice that I felt much warmer in his embrace than Lavi's. The bluenette's fingers rake through my hair, gently pulling out the knots and kinks they find, and I let out a slow sigh, reveling in this moment in his arms. That is until….
"Hey, Allen! I'm back fro―"
Lavi's cheerful voice is quickly cut off as I hear the door shut, followed by him yelling, "What the heck is going on here?!"
Scrambling up from the bed and out of a now awake Kanda's arms, I find myself on my knees in front of my boyfriend, bowing like a servant as I apologize, "I'm sorry! I was getting nightmares, and you weren't here, so I―!"
A sharp pain blooms in my cheek before I hit the ground hard, and I receive a hard kick to my stomach, knocking the breath out of me as Lavi booms, "I trusted you! We made a promise not to cheat on each other!"
My hair covered my eyes, but I raised my head just in time to see Kanda walk toward the fuming redhead, and he stands in front of him. The look in Lavi's eyes were enough to know that he was about to give the samurai the same treatment he had just given me, but before he could, Kanda punched him instead, sending him staggering back into the wall.
Fire blazed in the bluenette's eyes as he stalked closer, baring his forearm against Lavi's throat, and he hisses lowly, "If you dare lay another finger on him, I swear I'll beat you into the underworld. Do you understand that?"
Defiantly staring back at him, my boyfriend replies calmly, "I'd like to see you try. I knew the day I asked him out that you were in love with him, too. Does he know that?"
"Yes, he does. And what do you mean by 'love him, too?' If you loved him, you wouldn't abuse him."
"What are talking about?"
Obviously controlling his anger, Kanda punched the wall beside Lavi's head, the boom reverberating around the room, and he growls, "Don't drive my patience. I know that you physically, emotionally, and sexually abuse him, and he thinks it's his fault. How do you sleep at night?"
"Normally, I get in bed and pull up the blankets before turning off the lights. That about sums it up."
The samurai throws another punch, but this time, it hits Lavi on the left cheek, sending him to the floor. Eyes widening, I push myself up, spitting blood from my mouth on the way, and I run to my boyfriend, "Lavi?! Are you okay?!"
Nodding, he says, "Yeah, I'm fine."
"Moyashi―"
"Get out," I interrupt, glaring furiously at Kanda over my shoulder. "I want you out."
"Like heck am I going to leave you alone with him after what he did to you!" the bluenette protests, anger towards Lavi emanating from him.
"I said out!" I yell, standing and walking lividly towards Kanda. Even if I was several inches shorter than him, I was not a person to make mad, and as I get closer, he steps back until he had nowhere to go, back pressed to the door while I glare at him, seething with rage.
"I'm not a baby, Kanda. I know how to take care of myself, so I don't need you to treat me like I know absolutely nothing! Do you want to know why Lavi hurts me sometimes? It's because I'm not good enough for him, and I know that, so I try harder. Unlike you, he treats me like I should be. Did I mention the trauma he's going through? Not many people survive Road Kamelot breaking their mind, and it still affects him sometimes. Sometimes he can't think right, but I find that understandable," I fume, not caring about the hurt look in Kanda's eyes as I continue. "Now, I said for you to get out of my room and don't come back!"
oO_Oo_oO_Oo
Karou slams the door behind him, heart wrenching in agony as he storms out of Ally's room. How could she be such a moron?! He tried everything to protect her, but all he gets in return is her yelling at him and throwing him out of her room!
The bluenette's anger was still radiating from his body as he walks down the hallway, barely restraining himself from keeping his promise to Luke, but he had something to do first.
Taking a breath to calm himself, Karou knocks on Kem's office door, waiting for a response.
"Come in!"
Opening the door, the samurai leans against the door and closes his eyes, still struggling to stay cool, and Kem says, "Hello, Kanda. What may I do for you?"
"I have proof."
"Pardon?"
Opening his eyes, Karou stares at the scientist, "I told you that Lavi was abusing Allen, and I just witnessed it."
Oo_oO_Oo_oO
"I'm sorry, Lavi! I really wasn't―!"
"Shut up!" he shouts, ignoring my screams of pain as he whips my bare back. After Kanda had left, the redhead had tied my hands to the bedpost while I crouched on my knees, and apparently, the whip he had used on me had been hidden under my bed without me knowing.
The long strip of leather struck my back, eliciting another screech from me, but it didn't help as he hit me again and again. Hot, sticky blood ran down my spine, and I quietly beg, "Please…please, stop―AHH!"
The whip cuts off my plea, this time horizontally across my forehead, and Lavi leans down to my ear, whispering, "Don't tell me you don't like it. You love it. You love being treated as the trash you are. Kanda can't give you this much pleasure."
The leather strikes me again on my lower back, and I scream at the top of my lungs, cut off by another flogging. Lavi yells at me, "Say it!"
"I-I like it!"
"Like you mean it!"
Blood drips off my eyelashes, mixing with the tears streaming down my face, and I cry, "I like it! I want more, Lavi! Please, give me more!"
"That's right. Beg! Beg like the disgusting ho you are!" he shouts sadistically, laughing at me as I scream in pain.
Eventually, I feel myself becoming dizzy, the pain fading slightly, and Lavi's voice seems to echo in my head. Slumping forward, I let out a ragged breath, and I hardly hear the bang that resonates around the room.
oO_Oo_oO_Oo
"Hurry up! Who knows what Lavi's probably doing to him!" Karou demands, running through the halls with Kem, Lila, River, and several other people from the science division. The bluenette couldn't shrug off the dreadful feeling that something bad was about to happen, but he didn't want to think about it. Get there, Kanda. Just get there.
A scream echoes through the hall as the group nears Ally's room, and Karou speeds up, knowing she was enduring something awful.
Ten feet.
Six feet.
Three feet.
One foot.
"Allen?!" he shouts as he slams through the door, eyes widening in horror at what he saw before him. Luke had a whip covered in blood in his hand, smiling sadistically.
Ally had dozens, maybe hundreds, of lacerations on her back, blood flowing heavily down her spine while she cried in misery, eyes squeezed shut.
"You!" Karou yells, throwing himself into Luke hard, and he rammed him against the blood-spattered wall. Fury and love for the whitette tied to the bedpost welled up inside the samurai, and he drove his fist into the redhead's face over and over.
"Kanda, stop!" Lila cries, pulling Karou off of the now half-unconscious teen. Staring at the beating the bluenette had given him, Karou growled in hatred, cursing under his breath, and he turned toward Ally. She was unconscious, head lolling off to the side while Kem and River tried to untie her from the bedpost, and the others pressed towels, blankets, or whatever they could find to her back, desperately trying to stop the bleeding.
The bluenette froze, staring at the girl in disbelief. How could she let someone do this to her?
Once they got her untied, the team began to move her to River's back, but Karou jumped in between them, growling, and they didn't need anything more to place her in the samurai's arms. Protectiveness emanated from Karou as he ran towards the infirmary, trying his best not to jolt Ally, and everyone couldn't help but stare at how he was acting towards the whitette he was supposed to hate. Not that they didn't suspect this from the beginning.
Once they burst through the doors, the nurses had already prepared a bed for Ally, and Karou carefully laid her in the bed like he was placing million dollar piece of china into a bed of nails.
People were dashing around frantically, fetching water, gauze, and anything else needed. But as the bluenette quickly a wet a towel to help clean her of the blood, a nurse yelled, "Head Nurse, he's going into cardiac arrest!"
Karou's eyes widened as he and several others were jostled out of the vicinity of Ally's bed, but as this happened, he heard the sound of electricity, and when he looked over the shoulder of the person shoving him, he saw the nurses press the paddles to the whitette's chest before a cloth was pulled around the bed, blocking the view of the girl.
"Again!"
The bluenette stiffened, hearing the sound of the shocks over and over, and a woman repeatedly said, "Again!"
He paced, tears threatening to spill over in front of at least twenty people. Lila was on the floor, sobbing while her brother desperately tried to comfort her, but he just made things worse.
If Allen dies, I'll kill Lavi. I swear it! Karou screamed inside his mind, praying that he would hear the magical words he wanted so much.
"Again!"
Why couldn't he have been there? He shouldn't have let Ally kick him out of her room, leaving her alone with Luke. He shouldn't have let her say "yes" those few months ago and allow her to go through the nightmare she's been enduring. If she dies….
If he dies, it'll be my fault, he thought somberly, trying to get his head back to the fact that he shouldn't be thinking about what would happen if she died. She'll live. She had to live.
"Again!"
The stupid word stabbed Karou through his soul, tearing it open and letting all his emotions pour out of him. Thorns and barbed wire coiled around him, crushing and ripping him apart internally, and as he silently screamed for Ally's heart to begin beating again, that cursed word kept tightening the painful hold on him until he thought he would shatter into a million pieces.
"Is he back?"
The rest of the hearts in the room stopped as everyone awaited the answer, Karou hardly holding himself together.
"He's back."
Everyone exhaled in unison, but the cloth didn't move. One of the nurses came out from around it, and she said, "Thank you for your help, but I think it's better for you all to leave and come back later."
Most the people nodded, following the request, and after Lila was ushered out by her brother, the nurse turned to Karou, "We ask that you please―"
"No, I'm staying. I'm not leaving him again," he growled threateningly, glaring at the woman, but when she was about to object, he repeats, "I'm not leaving."
After a moment, she nods, pointing him in the direction of more gauze.
Karou did more than a lot of the nurses did, cleaning most of Ally's wounds because the nurses knew he'd done it before, but this time he didn't take care of the stitches. There were over two dozen, and he wasn't that great with using a needle.
Which leads to now, the bluenette running his fingers through his damp hair while he balances a book on his leg.
Rain pelted down on the roof, and Karou glanced out the windows near the top of the tall ceiling, water running down the panes quickly. Looking back at the whitette breathing softly in the hospital bed, he stands, taking the white cloth off her head, and he walked towards the door on the other side of the large room. When he got there, he opened it, the rain coming down relatively hard, but even so, he stepped out under the overhang, sticking his hand with the cloth in it into the downpour.
When it was completely soaked, the bluenette squeezed out the extra and brought it to Ally's bed, sitting again, and he silently ran the cloth over her face. The part that didn't have gauze on it, that is.
"Why did you do this to yourself?" he whispered, leaning down to kiss the tip of the whitette's nose. "Why wouldn't you let me help you before this happened?"
oO_Oo_oO_Oo
When I woke up, I could feel a wet cloth being run over my face, but I didn't open my eyes. It was obviously raining pretty hard outside, the sound of water pounding the roof echoing in my ears soothingly.
"Why did you do this to yourself?" someone says beside me, and I instantly know it's Kanda from the voice, the suspicion confirmed when he pressed his lips to the end of my nose.
"Why wouldn't you let me help you before this happened?" he continued quietly, the cloth withdrawn from my skin.
Opening my eyes and smiling weakly, I glance over at him, surprising him slightly, but I say anyways, "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, Yu. It's about learning to dance in the rain."
"That's the Aren I was waiting to hear," he replies, reaching out to stroke my hair. Leaning into the touch, I find myself missing the name I used to hate so much, always remembering when he said he gave me a cute nickname. Smiling, I murmur, "It's Moyashi."
"My Moyashi," he says, nodding. Then Kanda looks down, expression becoming somber.
"What is it?" I ask worriedly.
"You almost died. I thought you were going to die," he whispered, still not looking at me as his voice cracked.
"I've survived worse," I try to reassure. When the bluenette finally glances up at me, I see the shimmer of tears in his eyes, not to mention the drops running down his cheeks, and he says, "Your heart stopped. You really did die for a minute."
Reaching for him, I wipe away the tears, "I'm here now. I'm not going to die."
"Will you break-up with Lavi?"
At that, I hesitate, thinking this over thoroughly before nodding, "Okay."
"Good, because he has to live at the North American Branch from now on. He can't get near you anymore," Kanda said, giving me a chaste kiss on my cheek, but I wrap my aching arms around his neck, holding him there. Raising an eyebrow at me, he asks, "Yes?"
"Kiss me?" I whimper embarrassedly, staring at his neck instead of his face. Smirking, he replies, "I just did."
Frowning in frustration, I pull him closer to the point where he has to hold himself over me with his elbows on either side of my head, and he stares into my eyes, looking slightly caught off guard by my movements. Continuing to toy with me, Kanda placed his index finger on my bottom lips, and I part them expectantly, waiting for him to kiss me.
His lips come down on mine softly, moving gently as if I'd break otherwise, but I push against him harder in a false display of trying gain dominance. My technique works well, and I purr as the samurai pushes me back, slipping his tongue into my mouth. This was the way I liked to be treated. I wanted to be submissive to someone who would love me because dominance is different depending on who it is, and I've learned that. Lavi's version of it was that he would hurt me to feel power. But Kanda demands submission through his actions, but at the same time, I'm not treated like a slave of any sort.
Let him be my master. But I will never be his slave.
Author Note: Okay, so there is one more chapter left, followed by a really long author note as a chapter. Next is set a year later, and please, Please, PLEASE R/R!