A/N- Hello again, dear readers and reviewers, I hope this update finds you all healthy and happy.
First, I want to thank you guys for all the wonderful reviews I got. You've blown me away with your warm kind words, I thank you with all my heart ^_^
I want to address two issues before we begin.
One- I got people saying that Kanou's behavior here is much colder and crueler than in the Manga.
You are correct, I'm not trying to hide it, but the reason for this is that in this AU story Kanou spent the last five years in 950A, and this would make anyone colder and tougher. Don't you agree?
Two- Romance is lacking now, I am well aware, it will take time to develop. I hope you got enough faith in me to endure until it comes… and it will, eventually.
So, here we go.
Warning- some violence and gore ahead (not rated M for nothing…)
Enjoy.
Silver and cold
"Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.
Where have you been?
It's alright we know where you've been..."
Welcome to the machine- Pink Floyd
.
Maintenance duty
.
Heart tearing, hope shuttering, soul hunting sobs seeped into Kanou's dream. Those were the cries of a desperate child that already lost faith in the world.
Kanou opened his eyes and realized that those cries were not part of his dream, but originated in reality.
Ayase was crawled into a ball next to the wall, his head leaned over his knees and he tried his best to keep his voice down, but in vain.
'Shit…' Kanou frowned, what time was it? Two or three hours before wake up call, and he badly needed his sleep. He remembered Gion's words about the maintenance of a candy, a killer indeed.
"Hey, candy-boy, if you lean that way against the wall you'll get pneumonia, and you can forget about me spending the credit to get you meds!"
"So…Sorry…" Ayase answered, still weeping, he pushed away from the wall.
Kanou growled and burrow under his blankets. "Keep it down; I'm trying to sleep here." He turned his back to the boy and closed his eyes again.
Ayase covered his mouth with his hand, and he did, he tried his best to keep his sobs at bay, but his useless efforts only made it worst. He couldn't help it, and when he nearly screamed into his hand; he realized he had to change his tactics. He decided to bite on the palm of his hand, channeling all his helplessness and fears and self-loathing into this act, converting his anger and angst into an actual physical pain. It worked; he stopped crying, stopped bothering the man beside him and allowed him to sleep. Blood tricked down his mouth, he could taste its bitter metallic flavor trickling down his throat.
For some odd reason, the silence bothered Kanou more than the cries so he let out a deep, angry roar and straightened up with a swift movement.
Ayase flinched, the man looked like he was going to smack him, wasn't he quiet enough?
"Cut it out!" Kanou shouted, taking Ayase's hand out of his mouth.
The blood dripped on the sheets and Ayase observed it with horror.
"I'm so… sorry…" he started weeping again, shivering all over.
"Enough!" Kanou yelled at him again. "What is wrong with you? Why are you sitting here crying in the middle of the night, huh?"
Ayase shrunk on his seat. "I'm… I'm sorry…"
"Stop those fucking apologies and tell me what the hell is the problem!"
Ayase gulped, he was not keen on sharing his embarrassing situation.
"Spill it!"
Ayase blinked at the raging man, contemplating and deciding he had nothing more to lose. "I…I" he stuttered, blushing. "I need to… go to the bathroom… really…bad."
Kanou gasped at him astounded. "Is that all? This whole drama is over going to the fucking bathroom?"
"I… I don't know where it is and I… I don't want to go there… by myself."
"Yeah." Kanou admitted that the boy had a point; Ayase's wondering around alone in the afterhours was definitely a bad idea.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be." Kanou said while opening a cabin in the nightstand "Here…"
He placed an article in Ayase's hand, a black hooded sweatshirt. "Get this and your shoes on."
Ayase nodded and put the huge shirt on, it was clean but still it held Kanou's scent in it. It hung down from him, like a dress, going all the way down to his knees.
Kanou himself got out of bed and put on his shoes. "Ready?"
Ayase blushed and nodded again.
"Let's go."
They crossed the large dark dormitory of sleeping inmates and reached the gate. Kanou looked up searching for the strolling robots. "Hey there, rust-face let me out!"
The passing robotic guard stooped on its trail and then approached the gate. After it preformed the identification protocol, it let the gate open.
"Aren't there any human guards in this place?" Ayase wondered as they stepped out to the hall.
"Nope." Kanou answered "950A is a 100% automated facility."
"And… if I want to go out at night… will the robot let me out?"
"No, it only let you out because you were with me. You have to reach a certain statues here to get mobility privileges. By yourself, you can only get out of the dormitories after wake-up call. Bathroom is this way…"
Ayase let Kanou lead the way, and followed silently, his belly ached and his lower back registered pain too and it slowed him down. He could feel something wet pouring out of his body, making his thighs sticky and he had to bite on his tongue not to cry out again, once recalling what it was and what actually happened only few hours ago. 'Stupid blonde' he scolded himself 'you should be grateful you're still alive.'
The hallways were strangely quiet, only random vents blowing off, or an android passing by, disturbed the stillness, but as they approached the bathroom, a sound of commotion emerged from within.
"Wait here, I'll check it out." Kanou said and Ayase nodded.
Kanou had a bad feeling about it as he reached to the bathroom and he regretted opening that door the second he did. The sight spread out in front of his eyes was horrific and sickening.
Turns out that some grays were having a party; along with a few browns and a random green. They were all involved in a massive orgy, some with each other, but most of them were raping the gray candy. And the poor boy was in a sorry state, almost unrecognizable as a human being. His face was a pulp of bloody mess, his jaw was broken open, and he lost most of his teeth and one of his eyes. His repulsive appearance however, did not stop the men, as they took turns at fucking him in his puddle of blood. They were all high on drugs and alcohol and they were going to wake up tomorrow with a hangover and a dead body.
"Wanna join us?" one gray winked at him.
At that moment, Kanou missed his old plasma machine gun the most. There was nothing he wanted more but to ash them all down.
He slammed the door close and looked at Ayase. "This place's taken. There's another bathroom on the other side of this hall."
"Ok." The boy said, forcing down his pain.
"Damn it." Kanou cursed softly under his breath, the blonde walked so slowly and they really needed some distance between them and the party people. Kanou grabbed Ayase and scooped him up in his arms. "Let's get it done, already."
Fortunately, the bathroom on the other end of the hall was deserted, and Ayase could use it safely. Kanou waited for him near the sinks as boy came out to wash his hands.
"Wash your hole too." Kanou commanded.
"What?"
"With water and soap, every time you take a dump. Always keep it clean, ok?"
"Ok." Ayase said, blushing. "Please don't look…"
Kanou snarled but averted his gaze.
Ayase put some soap on his hand and reached for his behind. Luckily, the huge sweatshirt that Kanou gave him kept the cleaning act hidden anyway. Ayase washed his abused entrance and with this opportunity he cleaned his inner thighs as well.
"Done." He announced softy as he finished.
Kanou's gaze fell on him again. "One more thing..."
Ayase winced away wondering what perverted demands Kanou will claim next. "Yes?"
"Never hurt yourself again. If you have a problem, or a request or something you need done, always come to me. Don't suppress it by injuring yourself. Got it?"
A small smile found its way to Ayase's lips as he nodded.
"Hurry up now, I want to go back to sleep."
oOOo
Two hours later, Ayase experienced his first wakeup call in 950A, and it was dreadful. The sound of the screeching alarm woke him up in frenzy.
"It's alright, don't panic…calm down." Kanou said, holding the shivering boy in his arms, petting his hair. "This is just to make sure everyone is ready for line-up."
"A line-up?"
"Get dressed."
Ayase wore his black outfit and followed Kanou out of the curtains. Everywhere, inmates were at different stages of waking up. Some stretched and yawned loudly, others cursed the damn alarm and tried to hide under their blankets, some formed groups and chatted in good spirit, others were already picking up fights.
Two men approached Kanou and Ayase. One tall and dark with a gorgeous mane of dreadlocks, carrying a tablet and the other was shorter and somewhat chubby with a small mustache. They all moved as if this was their morning routine.
"Zack, Hassan… good morning." Kanou greeted them respectfully.
"Morning, sir." The chubby inmate replied.
"What do you got for me, Zack?" Kanou asked and the taller inmate handed him his electronic sheet.
"Those are the updated stats, sir." Zack explained "We are at day sixteen to maintenance and we completed 48% of the tasks."
"We are 5% behind schedule." Hassan, the man with the mustache added. "It could cost us 500 group credit points."
"We cannot lose 500 credited points over maintenance duty." Kanou stated "We need all the credit we can get before we go downstairs."
"Yes sir, we know."
"Who's slacking?"
"Well…" Zack grinned. "Everyone…"
"I got this." Kanou said, after examining the data.
"Who's the boy?" Hassan wondered, referring to Ayase.
"My candy." Kanou answered, petting the boy's hair for the second time that morning. "Ayase, say hey to my lieutenants."
"Nice to meet you." Ayase whispered, blushing.
"Cute kid." Zack chuckled.
"Zack, I want you to arrange the men and block the gates when they open."
"On it." Zack nodded and took his leave.
The alarm finally died out and replaced by the announcing system. "All inmates please report to line up. All inmates please report to line up."
"Let's go." Hassan said. "It is very important not to miss the line up." He explained to Ayase.
"Why?" Ayase asked.
Hassan smiled at the boy "If you miss the line-up five times in a raw, the system considers you as dead, and takes you off the utility database. Then you can get really dead."
Without understanding much, Ayase followed Kanou and his second in command to the bars at the end of the cage, all the inmates lined up there, waiting quietly in order.
"Morning line-up is now commencing." The announcing system declared.
Zack came back to take his place next to Kanou at the line up. "It's done."
"Good." Kanou nodded.
Ayase noticed the gathering of three robotic guards on the tracks up the ceiling; it looked like they were up to something.
"What are they doing?" He asked Kanou.
"They came to scan us, to see if everyone is still alive." Hassan hummed.
"Why? Aren't everyone still alive?"
"Most of the days, most of the people are mostly alive." Zack smiled at the blonde and winked.
At once, all of the robots activated their laser rays, passing from one inmate to the other, scanning them up. Ayase had to close his eyes as the irritating rays threatened to blind him.
"Scan completed- Black team's population at 100% capacity." The robot declared in its surpassingly feminine voice. "Morning line-up is completed."
Its declaration was followed by the clacking sounds of the gate opening.
"Not so fast!" Kanou raised up his voice above the commotion.
Zack and the rest of Kanou's troops lined up at the gate, preventing anyone from going out.
"What's up with that?" an inmate complained.
"Yeah, man, it's breakfast time!" said another.
"Let us through!" one tried to push his way out, but he bounced into Zack's firm body and was pushed away.
"Hold it right there, you scummy cunts!" Kanou roared at the blacks. "I have a list of tasks here, saying that we lag behind at 5%. The following names I'm going to call out will not get their breakfast due to a major delay in task completion: Tom, Charlie, Fred, Tyler, Jamal, Ronnie, Alex and Pavel. Instead of breakfast, you are going to use the extra time to finish your tasks. If I see anyone of you in the dining room, I am going to break his teeth. If you don't finish your tasks until noon, there is no lunch either and as for dinner… you know where I'm heading."
"This is not fair!" one of the men listed protested. "The Greens and the Browns lag at 11%"
"The Grays lag too."
"I don't give a shit about the Greens or the Grays!" Kanou scolded them, greatly annoyed. "Let me remind you that in three weeks time, we are going downstairs. Downstairs, as you all know, is a motherfucker; and we'd need all the credit we can get! It's been a while since I put someone in a comma so you are all welcomed to try me! "
This was it, from the looks on their faces; it appeared that the punished inmates accepted their faith.
"Hassan, I want you and your men at the kitchen until it closes, if any of those lazy fucks enter it, let me know."
"Certainly." Hassan nodded his head.
"Let's go." Kanou turned to Ayase.
Ayase held on to Kanou, like a frightened little child, as the huge mass of Blacks made its way to the dining hall. Inmates of all team and colors mingled further down the stream, and they all flowed into the dining room.
There were rows and rows of steel tables and benches, and Kanou noted that all the strategic seats near the exits and the walls have already been taken.
"Let's get in line." Kanou said, pushing Ayase gently in front of him.
The dinning hall resembled any other industrialized huge kitchen hall. There was a line to get trays plates and cutlery, another line to get to the counters that served the food and a line to the dishwasher. The difference between 950A's dining hall to others was that androids served the food and they did it behind screens that could close down and lock up.
Ayase was surprisingly hungry; he took that as a good sign, feeling safe enough to develop a healthy appetite. Kanou behind him and Zack at the front, he did not even register the lusty leers he got from other inmates, but Kanou did.
"If you want to keep your tongue suck it back in!" He growled at a blue.
Ayase approached the first counter at his turn, curious about the menu.
"Name." The android asked in a metallic voice.
"Ayase Yukiya."
"Status check… completed."
Ayase gazed at what he was served; it was a 250 ml carton of preserved milk and nothing more. His eyes wondered around the room and he saw inmates walking around with huge amount of food on their trays. Why was he treated so differently?
Kanou was next in line, and the androids served him with abundance. A huge mound of scrambled eggs, big fat sausages, a nice variety of vegetables, cheese, coffee and even two cupcakes.
"Why did I only get milk?" He asked Zack, not hiding his envy and disappointment.
"Welcome to the system, kiddo." Zack answered. "Here you get fed according to your status, and you gain status by earning credit points."
"How do I earn credit points?"
"By completing tasks. You're a newbie, so you haven't got a chance to complete tasks yet."
"This is so cruel!" Ayase pouted "I could starve to death before I get enough credit!"
"950A is a bitch…" Zack answered in what was revealing to be the mantra of this place.
Kanou led the three of them to a table, all the while Ayase's belly was rumbling and he ogled the other inmates' plats, smelling the wonderful smell of freshly cooked food that he had no access to and he was nearly drooling.
"Hey, Nii-san!" came a voice from behind "Can I join you?"
Ayase turned to look at the speaker, it was a man clad in green, with yellow bleached hair and a black shiner on his left eye.
"Sure." Kanou said.
So Zack sat to Kanou's left, and the green to his right, leaving Ayase standing with his practically empty sad tray, confused.
"Sit in my lap, Ayase." Kanou turned looking at him.
For a second there, Ayase thought that he man was joking, but Kanou's face looked ever so serious. The boy blushed. "I…I really don't think that…"
"It is safer that way." The man explained.
Ayase was not given a chance to think it over; Kanou just grabbed him and placed him in his lap.
Kanou's body was solid and firm and it radiated a surprisingly tremendous amount of heat. Reluctantly, the boy admitted that he felt comfortable, bundled up in Kanou's arms.
"Try not to move so much." Kanou groaned with a tormented low voice.
"Sorry."
"Dig in."
"Huh?"
"I said- dig in, I'll share my food with you."
"Really? Would you do that?" Ayase was nearly moved into tears, he wanted to say thanks but got ignored, Kanou's attention was already elsewhere. With hesitative movements, he picked up his fork and nibbled into the tasty food.
"What's with the decoration?" Kanou asked Gion.
"Nothing, really." The green smirked at the black.
"Whatever…"
"Ok, ok… some of my teammates got into their pretty little heads that I owe them 500 credit points."
"And why is that?"
"Because I may have said something about …say… smuggling some dope for them."
"Did you lie to your fellow inmates, Gion? That is beyond stupidity."
"Did not!" Gion erupted "I actually made all the proper arrangements! I have a guy who has a guy at the loading bay at 445S."
"So what went wrong?"
"Of all the motherfucking automated shipments to this godforsaken hellhole, my lousy ship was selected for a random inspection."
"Harsh."
"You think? It gets even better because I used every credit point I had to make the deal and now I got zip to pay them back."
"Pay them back with your ass." Kanou kindly suggested.
"My ass's too old."
"And ugly."
"Geez, Kanou, you're such a sweetheart."
"K…Kanou-san…" Ayase's voice was just above a whisper. "Can you please help him out?"
"No, it's fine, cutie." Gion smiled at Ayase "I'll just have to… come up with something brilliant soon, or I'm thirteened."
"Good luck." Kanou said.
"Kanou-san…" Ayase was not ready to give up, but he was ignored again as newcomers arrived to the table, seating opposite to them.
At first Ayase thought that his vision has gone bad to produce a double image, but no, the two young men of the Blue team were indeed twins.
Kanou glared at them, chuckling. "Well, well, the Kuba brothers are here. Is it already the time of the month? Ne, Homare?"
"I'm Misao." The Kuba Kanou referred to, kindly corrected him.
"I don't give a fuck. Fuck off."
"Why? Can't a man enjoy his meal in his randomly selected seat?" The real Homare asked.
"Random my ass, get the fuck away from me!"
"We will not back down until you agree to join us." Misao said it plain and simple.
"You guys can't take just a simple 'no' for an answer. Should I tattoo it on your ass?"
"We know who you are." Homare continued, quite bravely, giving the fact that Kanou was pissed as hell and ready to beat the shit out of them. "We know who you are and we are willing to use it."
"So you're down to blackmailing now… how lame." Gion grinned at the twins and got also ignored.
Misao smeared jelly on his bun, Homare sipped on his tea, both not taking their gray eyes off Kanou.
"What do you think you got on me, brats?" Kanou chuckled.
"We know that you're military, sir, even better, we know that you are silver." Said one of the twins.
"No one else can go against Raus and win the way you did, Kanou-san. Your low profile days are over." Said the other.
"Only silvers can move like that, Kanou-san."
Kanou's smug smile disappeared into a frown "So you got some brains up there….great…" he muttered."Now get the hell out of here if you want to keep it inside."
"Kanou-san, please…let's not resort to violence…" Homare placed his teacup down. "Why can't you see that? We can help each other! We must work together! Please, sir, you are probably the only pilot in 950A. We need you."
"And you need us."Misao continued "With the upcoming war against the Reds and their Orange and Yellow allies. You could use some reinforcement."
"As the leaders of the Blue team we are willing to…"
"Brats…" Kanou sighed, interrupting their plotting "Childish brats! Why should I bother with pathetic amateurs such as you? If you have a death wish, go and find some other creative ways to kill yourself and leave me the hell out of it!"
"But… but Kanou-san, don't you want to get away?"
"I'll be nice just this once to give you a free advice, ok? Mark my words- the only way out of 950A is in a body bag! Got that? The sooner you get this ridicules idea out of your heads the better. Now get the fuck off my face!"
"Brother?" one Kuba turned to the other and he nodded. They got up slowly, picking up their trays.
Homare turned to look one last time at Kanou with disappointment, but Misao was in rage, he searched for Ayase's eyes and when their gaze locked he smirked at the boy.
"He knows…" Misao said, just two simple words.
'What?' Ayase wondered. 'Who knows… and what exactly?'
"Fucking brats." Kanou growled "Are we done here, Ayase? Did you eat your fill?"
"Yes, sir."
"Let's go."
oOOo
TBC
OooO
A/N- I'm done for now. Now it's your turn to speak your mind, I'll be waiting anxiously. Please review, thanks in advance. See you soon, XOXO.