Asta weaves through the slightly crowded main street, laughing brightly and his backpack hitting against his back. Yuno chases after him with a backpack of his own and a bright grin on his face.
They're on a delivery mission again, so they have to pretend they're coming back from school. Running deliveries is Asta's least favorite job to get handed. It hasn't happened yet, but Asta's seen the TV shows when he sneaks out of the church to watch them from Granny Moira's window. People that want the deliveries he's tasked with will hunt and kill him just to take it.
But, it makes a lot more money than the pickpocketing jobs where Asta and Yuno have to play tag in the afternoon crowds. Money that is sent to the church as "donations".
Father will punish Asta for dragging Yuno into evil jobs like this... and even though Yuno keeps disagreeing and saying it was him who dragged Asta into this, Father is completely right. It's always Asta's fault and Asta knows this.
He just hopes Sister Lily never finds out. Sister prefers to keep food from him and he's barely ever able to eat right now. Sister keeps finding problems in Asta's work that he's never had problems in before... maybe Asta's just getting lazy and ungrateful and hasn't realized yet.
"Asta! You're lost in your thoughts again!" Asta snaps out of his thoughts with a start at Yuno's whine. He grins and turns to stare over his shoulder.
"Nu-uh!"
"Yeah-huh!"
"Nu-uh!"
"Asta!" Yuno whines again, stopping in front of one of the few alleys Hage has. "I'm being serious!"
Asta laughs loudly and turns around to walk back over to his brother. He glances around and spots the street sign a few yards away. They have one more street.
"Let's go! We're almost home!"
It was Asta's idea to call their delivery spot home. Everyone in Hage knows that Asta and Yuno are brothers, but everyone doesn't know that calling the church home can lead to problems if people outside of Hage ever visit.
Asta grabs Yuno's hand as they run closer to the delivery spot deep in the first alley they come across. Their laughter rings out loudly even when they stop in front of the stranger waiting for them.
"What the fuck 're ya lookin' at, ya brats?" The man sneers, kicking out his leg and missing Asta.
Asta glares up at him before huffing. "Mister Virta sent us!"
"Mister Virta?" Yuno shouts in protest when the man roughly grabs Asta by his shirt. "Where the hell'd you hear that name, kid?"
"Lemme go, stupid! The stuff Mister Virta wants to give you is in the backpack!" Asta kicks out his legs, trying to hit the man and make him drop him.
The man growls and throws Asta to the ground after he rips the backpack off of him. Asta whimpers when his face slams into the concrete before he slowly sits up. He rubs his stinging face, feeling something wet and sticky on his forehead.
The man tears open the bag and stares at the contents inside. He sneers and throws the bag towards Asta.
"What the fuck is that?! You tryna fuckin' trick me, boy?!"
Asta flinches when something hard hits his scraped up forehead. His stomach sinks as he blinks and readjusts his vision.
Three rocks wrapped in saran wrap sat scattered in front of him. Asta feels tired. Of course.
"One of the bags has what he wants," Mister Virta had said when he shoved the backpack into Asta's bruised arms. "The other is a decoy in case you shits get into trouble."
Yuno practically jumps forward with his backpack in his hands. "D-decoy! It's a decoy! Mister Virta didn't tell us which one was the decoy! In–in case we got in trouble! Look! Look!"
Yuno unzips the backpack and shows the man its contents. Dozens of bags filled with something white filled the bottom of the backpack.
The man sneers before suddenly kicking Asta in the stomach. Asta gasps for breath and curls over with his arms wrapped around his stomach. He wretches loudly before the man kicks him against his head.
"Nice try, but I gotta teach ya a lesson. Tryna trick me, you've got hell to pay!"
"You've got hell to pay!" A somewhat quiet shot rings out.
Asta startles awake, kicking out his leg instinctively and covering his head. Rapidly flashing lights of red and green and white blind him as Asta curls into a ball to protect himself.
Grunts and glass breaking and guns quietly going off continue to surround Asta, yet no kicks or bullets come for him. Asta slowly lifts his head to peek over his arms and immediately catches onto where the flashing lights are coming from.
The TV was playing; an old gang movie or something.
Asta practically melts into the couch as the adrenaline leaves him. He tilts his head and stares up at the ceiling with a heavy sigh.
"Just a dream..." More like a memory he never wants to remember. Asta closes his eyes and lifts his arm to cover them. He feels the phantom bruises pulse and ache from the pressure against his eyes. Fucking hell.
"Yuno..." Asta sighs again and lowers his arm.
Three days have passed and it's the first night Asta isn't at the hospital to watch over his brother. Yuno finally convinced him to go home; Asta has missed three days of school and called in two days of work.
Asta glances over at the TV when a bright flash leaves stars in his eyes. He glares at the bright colors and the highly inaccurate movie before he turns on his side to grab the remote and turns it off. Asta sits in complete darkness, still glaring at the TV.
Damn it! He won't be able to go back to sleep...
Asta hangs his head for a moment before he gets up from the couch. He ignores the ache in his back from the horribly cheap furniture and walks towards the front door.
He's in a pair of sweatpants and a tank top and his hair is probably a complete mess, but he doesn't care. Asta yanks the hoodie hanging off of the coat rack and slides on a pair of tennis shoes, not even properly putting his feet in, and unlocks the front door.
"Damn it!" Asta hisses under his breath as he grabs the house keys and makes sure his phone is in his pocket before stalking out of the apartment. He slams the door behind him, not caring if he wakes anyone up at the moment, and locks it before he trudges through the grimy hallway.
Asta hates dreaming of the past. It does nothing good for him and there is hardly any good in his memories. It always makes him remember what he had to do to survive and what he once was to keep living.
He slams open the door to the stairwell and doesn't even bother to see if it closes before he flies down the stairs. Something dark and cruel and vengeful claws at his chest, wanting out. Asta chokes it down and forces it back into its cage.
There weren't many choices in Hage. How Sister and Father treated him had infected most people who lived in Hage. Gangs and criminals infested the streets and businesses as well as the towns closest to Hage. Hookers and whores were on every corner day and night and the bars were always full and always open.
Asta trudges out of the apartment complex and into the chilly autumn night. He finishes tugging on his hoodie before he spins and starts walking south.
In Hage, Asta and Yuno were old enough to work when they turned ten years old. It isn't exactly legal to put children to work, but Hage didn't exactly follow the same rules as the rest of Clover. It was so far out of the way that the town itself was completely self-sufficient. Yuno could have gotten any legal job in Hage; the coffee shop, Dr. Zazou as a janitor, the school in Saussy, any farm or ranch. He was loved by everyone.
He chose the gangs because Asta was hated so much, he only had two options. Whore himself out or help out one of the gangs with deliveries, counting, or starting wild goose chases. Asta had a better chance of survival by risking getting a bullet through his head than if he had become a whore, even though he'd have probably made more money as one than what he made in the gangs.
The whores are the bodies that are discarded in the ditches like broken toys and ignored by everyone including law enforcement until they start to smell too bad. The gangs at least looked after their dead, even if their dead were hated and despised.
Asta knocks his knuckles against his head with a snarl. It hurts, but it distracts. Asta turns a sharp corner, ignoring a sharp whistle and a slow wave from across the street. He keeps walking, but still waves back at the two hookers trying to get him to come over.
Asta loved his family–he still does. The church back in his Hage is his home, just like how his apartment is his home. He won't ever stop loving his family back in Hage... but why couldn't they love him just as much?
"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Asta hisses out loud while hitting his own forehead, not caring at all at how he appears to others.
He hates how he always thinks this way when he remembers the past. He hates that he resents Sister and Father. He hates that his younger foster siblings, except for Recca, treat him the same, but they simply don't know any better. He hates that he enjoyed working for the gangs when he had to hurt people, had to threaten them, had to steal from them, and had to kill them.
He's good at fighting; he's strong and fast and knows how to fight against five people at once and win or fight against someone three times his size and win. He likes fighting, not because of the thrill or the violence, but because he was doing something that he was actually good at that protected his people and provided for them.
Maybe it's because he's fucked up in the head that he thinks this way, or maybe he really is as stupid as everyone in Hage thinks he is. Maybe it's because this world is a fucked up place and enjoying working alongside criminals and gangs and murderers is tame compared to what fate has planned to punish this world. Maybe it's because working with the gangs was the only way Asta could keep himself sane and keep the cruelty and the darkness born inside of him asleep.
Asta growls loudly and the cage snaps. He stops in front of a brick wall and slams his fist against it. A scream rips from his throat from the pain and the rage that can't stop flowing through his veins before he pulls back his fist and punches the brick wall again.
Three. Four. Five.
CRACK!
Asta screams again, tearing up his throat and tearing up whatever's left of whatever fucking facade he's put up to seem normal in his new life. He grabs his fist, blood dripping like a leaking faucet and skin scraped completely off the knuckles. Asta grits his teeth at the shooting pain when he squeezes his hand and kicks at the wall he cracked.
Heavy breaths leave Asta's mouth as he rests his head against the brick. His shoulders sag and he lets his hands fall limp at his sides. All the adrenaline and the rage and the darkness he always tries to drown drains out of his mind and body, leaving an empty shell.
Asta closes his eyes and sighs heavily. He's so fucking messed up.
Noelle pretends to be completely focused on filing her nails as she sits completely in the open. She pretends she isn't aware of each person stalking her and waiting to kill her and she pretends she doesn't feel her gang's eyes on her as she waits for the signal.
She keeps filing her nails with her dark sunglasses on despite being indoors and her entire outfit immaculate with dozens of shopping bags around her, all from expensive brands. Yami wants to use her as bait to draw out the people who almost killed her in the first place. She wants to actually use this as a shopping trip with none of the expenses coming out of her pocket.
Noelle fights to keep the smug smirk from growing on her face, knowing Yami is glaring at her and probably murdering her in many imagined scenarios. He asked for it since Noelle isn't even allowed to be in the fight. Still in recovery, her ass! She wants revenge on them betraying her gang and she wants payback for her favorite dress being ruined!
Noelle pauses in her filing at the thought of her old dress, which leads to thoughts of that entire incident and what happened afterward. It's been almost a week since she stumbled upon Asta in that cafe. He hasn't sent a single text, or called, since.
"What the hell am I thinking?!" Noelle shakes her head while lightly slapping her burning cheeks. "He's probably busy! He did say he was in college! Get it together, Noelle!"
Just because Asta will be her first friend outside of the involvement of wealth or criminals, doesn't mean she should be worried or anything! She's busy too! It's not that weird for him not to have texted her in the past five days!
Noelle huffs and goes back to filing her nails. She almost falls off the bench she perched herself on when her phone rings. She blinks and stares at her purse for a few seconds before she opens it to take out her phone.
An unknown number stares at her. Noelle frowns in confusion and accepts the call, placing the phone up to her ear.
"Hello?" Noelle speaks cautiously, carefully glancing at the people stalking her.
One. Two. Three–
"Ah! Noelle! Is this Noelle?" Noelle startles at the familiar sunny voice. Speak of the damn devil.
"Asta?" Noelle speaks brightly before she clears her throat. Fuck, she sounded way too happy to hear Asta!
"Noelle! Hey! I'm sorry for calling out of the blue! I completely forgot to text you so you could have my number! So much has happened and now that things have calmed, I just remembered that," Asta rambles, sounding incredibly guilty and sincere.
"It's not like I was worried or anything!" Noelle clicks her tongue, giving the crowded area another glance. "But I guess I can accept your apology since you never truly intended to ghost me."
One. Two. Three... where was the fourth?
"How are you? How is your injury?" Asta asks worriedly, making Noelle try and bite back her smile. She fails.
"Everything is okay. I'm doing fine. I'm at the mall right now. My... family is finally letting me go out on my own," Noelle answers as she holds her phone in between her ear and her shoulder so that she can continue filing her nails. She leans back and turns her head to move her hair over her shoulder, taking the moment to glance behind her.
Four. He moved around behind her when she was distracted with her phone.
Noelle easily moves back to her previous position and starts to file her nails. "How are you, Asta? How is school?"
"Ah–good! Great! Well... I just returned to school, so it's a bit stressful trying to catch up with everything, but I'm doing good!"
"You said something happened. Is everything alright?" Noelle asks, recalling what Asta previously said. It sounded like something sudden happened, likely something bad. Noelle ignores the dread bubbling in her chest.
Asta's long silence doesn't make Noelle feel any better. "...well, yeah. My brother–that day at the cafe. He wanted to go out for dinner to celebrate me passing my test while he was gone. There–the restaurant got shot up and my brother was hit. He's okay though! Still in the hospital for at least two more days! Everything's fine now! I promise!"
Noelle doesn't realize she froze until she sees one of the people stalking her move in a way that indicates they were wary. Noelle tilts her head straight and grabs the phone.
"What–I–that must have been horrible! I didn't–I hope he gets better! How are–are you–are you sure you're alright?" Noelle asks in genuine worry. She hides a wince and makes sure she keeps an eye on her stalkers.
Don't get attached. Don't get attached. Don't get attached. She doesn't even know who Asta is, so don't get attached. Don't get attached. Don't get attached!
"...just stressed is all. I've got a lot of schoolwork and a lot of work work to get caught up on," Asta answers eventually with a slightly odd tone, like he was forcing a smile on his face to ease someone's worries.
"It seems to be a bit more than–" Noelle sees Vanessa give the signal and forces a smile on her face "–I... understand. More than you realize."
And she did. Whenever her siblings got injured, she always took off work to be there for them despite it being a freebie for them to verbally abuse her. They were her siblings whether she liked it or not and she still cared for them... even though they despised her.
They have never done the same for her. Even with this most recent injury, they completely twisted the incident in their minds to put Noelle at fault. A sour taste fills Noelle's mouth. She wonders if they would ever at least take time off to visit her like Asta had done for his brother.
Noelle holds her phone in between her ear and her shoulder once more, waving at Vanessa as if she had just appeared. She bends down and grabs all of her bags before standing up.
"Your brother is lucky to have someone like you taking care of him, Asta. I wish him a swift recovery," Noelle states genuinely. Attachment or not, an innocent being harmed for no reason will always warrant her sympathy. Deserved or not.
"...thank you. That means a lot," Asta says sincerely. "Ah, I've got to go. Looks like my break's over. I'll text you later and good luck with your shopping!"
"Yes, text you later. And stay safe," Noelle says before she takes the phone and ends the call. She pretends to still stare at something on her phone as she glances at two of the stalkers when she passes them.
"Vanessa! I'm so glad you're here! I thought I was a goner," Noelle exclaims brightly, easily sliding into the fake interaction they all had planned previously.
The stalkers won't try to finish the job until Noelle is mostly out of the public. The parking garage for example. Noelle just hopes that no blood gets on any of her new clothes.
"Of course I came!" Vanessa hugs Noelle to her chest, lightly squeezing her shoulder. Noelle tries not to tense.
Something's changed or something unexpected happened. She needs to be on her guard in case of a fight.
"Running Dad's card dry, I see." Vanessa grins cheekily at the amount of bags Noelle had hanging off her arms. Noelle mirrors the older woman's grin and gives her a shrug.
"I have no idea what you're talking about, Vanessa. Now, let's go. My feet are killing me!" Which isn't a lie. She was shopping the entire time she was being tracked by the gang that almost killed her.
"Yes, yes. Dad's waiting in the car. Now, who was it you were on the phone with? A secret boyfriend?" Vanessa asks, genuinely curious with an arm wrapped around Noelle's shoulders. She starts to lead her to the exit that takes them to the parking garage.
Noelle averts her gaze as her face burns hot. "No! J-just a new friend!"
"Oh? When did you go out and socialize?" Vanessa asks with a narrowed stare.
"The last few times I went to get coffee for everyone," Noelle lies, thinking of the first thing that comes to mind. She mentally expresses her gratitude to whatever god is up there for somehow speaking smoothly.
"I wanted to try something different and with his incapability to mind his business, he recommended a tea of some kind. The last time I went–to meet up with Magna, he asked how I was doing since I hadn't been around," Noelle continues smoothly. Vanessa hums, still staring at the silver haired woman with a narrowed gaze.
Vanessa glances forward when they reach the exit and straightens her posture. "I'll let this go for now, but you aren't off the hook just yet. I want to know more about this boy."
"Vanessa!" Noelle exclaims, incredibly embarrassed. It isn't like that! She hopes...
Noelle straightens her own posture when she sees the automatic doors in front of them open. She lowers one of her arms to gather the bags together when Vanessa squeezes her shoulder.
"It really is true about what people say about the Bulls." Noelle freezes at the incredibly familiar voice behind her and snaps her head back. The man didn't have anything other than annoyance on his face as the three other people who had stalked Noelle stood behind him.
Noelle and Vanessa step away from each other, preparing for the fight. Noelle drops her bags and glares at the man as her abdomen stings.
The man takes out the very same gun that he shot Noelle with and points it at her. "The Black Bulls won't die from anything except a bullet through the head."
Hey! Hope you all like the new chapter! Man, I am just killing it with the updates right now! I'm so happy! Woo!
Anyways, a bit of an angsty chapter... poor Asta needs a hug. All the hugs. From everyone.
I hope you all are enjoying the story so far! Bye.
WhovianWhoudini
