The Innocent (A 'Finder' Fanfiction)

Gemini - Chapter 12

The boy lay half on top of him, sweat drying between their naked bodies, chests still heaving against each other. While time passed and the night slowly settled outside the windows of the top floor apartment, Aaron stared at the ceiling and listened to the breathing of the other cuddling at his side.

He knew what to do. He knew how to do it.

But somehow the warmth of the body next to his and the tenderness of that skin nestling against his own made him hesitate.

At some point he fell asleep, the last step of his work still not accomplished, and only awoke when the light of the early June morning seeped in through the gaps in the shutters already.

With a sigh, he moved, and so did the young man at his side. Smiling, Arata looked up from where he still lay, as if he had not moved an inch the whole night.

Aaron smiled back, before he knew it. But then he sat up. There was no time for pretending to himself that he liked hugging and cuddling. He didn't need it. Nor did he want it. He never had.

With the back to the other, he remained seated on the side of the bed, leaned his elbows onto his knees and propped his face into his hands.

"Is everything alright?", Arata asked. For some reason which Aaron did not understand, this new boy's voice seemed a tiny notch higher than he thought Akihito's had been.

Hard, he swallowed and recalled the new lies he had spun.

"They found us. My men ..."

Arata behind him stopped his breathing with a frightened gasp.

"They contacted me two days ago. I did not tell you because I didn't want to frighten you. I want to protect you, Arata, but they will not let us go. They ..."

He broke off and let his head fall even heavier into his hands, allowing his shoulders to sink.

Silence spread for a while, until there was a shudder behind him. Suddenly, warm arms wrapped around his naked chest.

"I don't care, as long as I am with you", Arata whispered. 'Sweet lies', Aaron thought.

"I know ... In want to get us out of here. But they will not let us go. There is only ... only one ...", he broke off again and waited for the other to pull him even closer into the embrace and ask: "Only one what?"

"Only one chance for us, they say. If we get rid of Asami Ryuichi ... if you prove that you will not sell us to him, that you are loyal to us ... to me — then they will allow us to leave in peace."

"Oh ...", Arata hummed. His chin rested on Aaron's shoulder now, so he raised a hand to pat the boy's head.

"They think you could get close to him, still. You were the only one who ever managed that, but at what price, Arata? I cannot allow it. I will not allow it!"

The Japanese's hair was really soft between his fingers. 'Kind of nice ...', he thought.

It took another long while for Arata to answer, and Aaron just waited. When the boy finally spoke again, it was hard for the Russian not to laugh. Stupid kid! He could probably ask him to jump from the seventh floor right now, and he would do it.

"Maybe I still can do that. For you and me?"

"No!", Aaron shot back in faked disbelieve and irritation. "No! Arata, I can't allow that. I will find another way ... There must be another way ..."

The young man kissed him on the cheekbone, right there, where the scar ran down along his face.

"I can play being ... that ... person again. Can't I? And that man would not succeed at trying to brainwash me into believing his lies again. Instead, I would play him this time. Right? I would make him think that I still believed him."

Aaron turned half around. With strong hands, he grabbed the other by the shoulders, fear and desperation oh so very showing clearly on his face – a perfect act, he congratulated himself.

"I will not allow that, Arata. I can't! I can't lose you again", he hissed, but the boy simply blinked at him slowly and reassuringly.

"I know I can do it. You have saved me, Aaron. Now I can save us. I can prove to your men, that you were right to believe in me. I can get close to that guy, if only I meet him, and then I can ...", he broke off and his next blinking was less confident.

The Russian pulled him into his arms and held him tight. "You would have to ... maybe you would have to sleep with him, to ... No! I can't allow that, Arata. I will not allow him to touch you. He hurt you so much. He hurt me. He must pay for all of it, but–"

"Stop!", the young man shouted and tore loose from the arms engulfing him. He grabbed Aaron's face and kissed him, longingly, lovingly, like he wanted to draw all the breath out of him because he needed it to live himself.

Then he straightened up and hissed: "I will do it. For you and me! Get me to him and I will kill him! I will punish him for everything he did to us."

Tears streamed down his cheeks a moment later, and his eyes burned with feverish determination that was fixed on Aaron's face, as if that man was the only thing in the world that mattered now. Never had anybody looked at him like that ... Not even close ... not even once.

It was a lie, that was the sad thing about it all, Aaron realized, even at this moment of his triumph. He got what he wanted, and it seemed he might even be granted much more than he had ever expected to archive in terms of revenge.

Only that now there was this small, little, burning itch inside him, that did not want these eyes to look at anybody else ...

He had made somebody his, and he did not want to share.