I'll be your island in the raging storm

- Chapter 52 -

-Katsuki- 

The cramped cages seriously are hell. He much rather be beaten and cursed at after moving into a house as a slave, then being trapped in here as to be sold merchandise. If life was good, he would rather have fucking neither. 

He got to get a small look at the town they were in as things were being set up. There is a huge fountain in the middle, with clear water that makes his skin itch with the need to bathe himself in it. Another shitty thing about being trapped here.

 No fucking water to clean himself, which makes the clean freak in him totally lose his shit. But something else had caught his eye. In the very dark corner between one of the buildings, was a person, and a dog? At least he thought it was a dog, he couldn't be sure from so far away. 

But he knew that it was a hundred percent a person, because of the strange clothes he wore. Why would someone need to be that fucking covered when it wasn't even that fucking cold? What a dumbass. 

Here he was, barely wearing anything, and he wasn't even chilly, and then this fucker comes in dressed like he's going to freeze to death if someone so much as just breathes on him coldly. Katsuki thinks he must have been some rich fucker's son or some shit. 

Probably a little pussy who could barely handle anything on his own. It pissed Katsuki off to no end, especially with the situation he's in right now. That's all he gets to see before the huge ass tent is pitched up, and people are starting to enter. Not in the area he's in though. 

That stupid old man keeps all of them in a separate area. Something about keeping the 'gems' hidden for better customers. Disgusting bastard. He ticks the seconds by in his head– A favorite pastime of his ever since becoming a slave– waiting for something, anything, to fucking happen.

 Twenty minutes pass, and he's about to fall asleep again when he hears someone enter the tent. There aren't voices whispering to each other, even though someone actually being shown in is rare. The last time someone talked without being told to, they got beat in front of everyone and killed. 

Katsuki's pretty sure he even got some brain matter splattered on his cage when it happened. Though, it's not like they are not allowed to watch. He can't see anyone, but he hears footsteps and talking. He knows the old man's voice when he hears it, but the other one is unfamiliar.

 It doesn't sound like a grown man or anything, more like someone his age. There is a sort of emptiness in his voice, thanks to the lack of tone or change in pitch even when he's the one asking questions. Questions about the same organization that owns this whole slave trade.

 Questions even someone with half a brain would know never to ask, so maybe someone not from here? Boots come into his field of vision, and the man quickly leaves. Now the idiot has done it. He's probably running off to tell a superior about this shady ass guy. 

He hears the old man leave. They aren't supposed to talk to people that come in, but this stranger is ringing something in Katsuki's brain. An instinct, a feeling. Katsuki has always had good intuition, so he acts on it. He talks quietly. 

If the man isn't interested, he'll just ignore him, and hopefully not tell the old man he was speaking. At least being beat would get him out of this fucking cage. He says he might have some information that could be helpful to him, if it's the Paranormal Liberation Front, he wants to know about. 

This catches the man's attention, and the boots turn in his direction. That's when the man crouches down, green eyes looking down at him. It's that snotty dumbass from before! Though he doesn't look like some rich prick from up close, save for the quality of the jacket he's wearing.

 His neck has some scars, and his eyes are hard and cold. Calculating. He can work with that. 

"What information." 

Katsuki tells him that he knows a lot, being a slave, he can give him the faces and names of the people that come here, including their current residences.  Not for free of course. He tells him that he'll let him know everything he knows if he gets him out of this cage. 

Green eyes flicker to the bars of the cage and back to him. He stares back at him, not looking away. 

"Do you promise?" 

Katsuki nods, holding his breath. He's not going to get his hopes up. Sure, this is the first time that anyone has listened enough to consider a deal, but he doesn't know anything about this person. He's still staring at him, and Katsuki feels shivers go up his spine. 

"I need to hear you say it." 

Katsuki glares at the asshole who is wasting their time. The old man can come back any second and catch them. He tells him that he fucking promises and to hurry the hell up, but he doesn't get to finish his sentence because the bastard stands up straight again and walks away from his cage. 

Fuck, fuck fuck! 

He pushes his face against the bars, trying to see where he's going. His boots leave his sight, and he swears under his breath. That little fucking snake! He hears the tents opening close and then no more footsteps. His heart slams against his chest and he feels his body heat up in anger.

 Great, now he's fucked. Maybe he can at least get a few clean hits in when the old man takes him out of the cage to beat his ass. He could do it, it's just a tent, he can just bust his way out, and then run into the streets. There's gotta be some alleyways in this place, it would be hard to find him then.