The Innocent (A 'Finder' Fanfiction)

Shadow of Pluto - 3 - Asami

It was past nightfall when the giant cast-iron gates swung open. Alex was driving. He had announced their arrival via phone when he had turned the car into the narrow road that led up through the hills near the city of Dubrovnik.

On the back seat, Asami stared off into the darkness of the car, ignoring the beautiful view of the illuminated old city, which they had passed by on their war here, and of the night shimmering on the Adriatic Sea. Akihito lay in his arms, cold out by some sleeping potion Alex had gotten them. When he had been awake, he had been all anger and hate and aggression.

His name was 'Arata', he had insisted, no matter what Asami had done or said. Even when he had kissed him, had pulled him close, had held him in his embrace, he had not changed his opinion ... he had not remembered.

In his eyes there had been nothing but spite and loathing and the will to murder. The glow and love once in there were gone, and Asami grit his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut at the mere thought.

He pulled the frail body close to his own, felt the warmth of it as if nothing had changed. But it had. Someone had taken Akihito from him, and he would get him back. He just did not know how.

For two days he had argued with the young man, had tried to convince him and talk him back to his senses. Nothing of that had worked. Nothing had made the slightest impression.

"You brainwashed me!", Akihito, no, Arata had spat at him. "You raped me! You will pay for it!", had been the words he had yelled most frequently, and in the back of the car, where his chest was about to collapse to squeeze the life out of him, Asami had to admit that there was some truth in it.

No matter if from information or imagination Arata's impression of him had sprouted, he had, in fact, brainwashed Akihito in a way ... at least at the beginning. And he had raped him. More than once. Then he had told Akihito that he liked it, that he wanted and enjoyed it, and he had used the reaction of the boy's body as proof for his words, no matter how often the other had begged him to stop, no matter how loudly he had shouted "No!".

And even though in the end Akihito had fallen in love with him, the beginning of all of that could not be erased.

'You brainwashed me. You raped me. You will pay for it', Asami heard the words repeat in his mind over and over again. It was true – he had done all that, and now he paid for it with a price that felt like his heart was slowly torn to shreds. It was only fair, he thought. And he would have been fine with it, no matter how much it would make him suffer, if only it was not Akihito who was actually paying the price for it.

He forced his eyes shut again, fighting nightmarish ideas pushing into his mind of what could have been done to the other to twist his mind like this. It was unthinkable. He'd rather his heart stop and the lights of his life just faded away, instead of imagining what Akihito might have been through those past months ... And for what reason? Just to hurt him? Or was there more?

The stopping of the car tore him from his thoughts, and he was glad about it.

With Akihito in his arms, he stepped outside and walked up the broad stairs to the main portal. Maxim was standing there clothed in a thick robe he had pulled above his pajama's. He looked tired and annoyed at the same time.

"What is the meaning of all of this, Ryuichi?", he tried to confront his brother, but the other just walked past him and entered the mansion, so Maxim followed. "First, you tell me to send you a private jet without giving any explanations. Now you show up here without any notice. And who is that? What is going on?"

Asami had walked up some stairs and into the very room in which he had lain for nearly half a year, and placed Akihito down on the large bed. One of the cats had been sleeping on it, and, despite all the adoration they had had for the injured man before, she hissed at the unconscious boy, ruffled her fur, then ran off and out of the room.