Engraved in Flesh

The First Gash

It's been eight weeks since Mook's breakdown. Things were finally looking up for the two of them. Well, almost looking up. Mook was currently holding Aru's hair out of her face as she threw up. She's been feeling sick lately, and it was wearing her down.

"Any idea as to why you feel so sick?"

Aru gasped as she finally stopped puking. She wiped her mouth with a small towel and shrugged.

"I mean, maybe it was something I ate? I really can't remember if I ate anything uncertain lately."

"Maybe it was when we had fish?"

Aru shrugged once more before standing up. Sighing, she decided that her next best choice was to wash up and get ready for the day. That was when Mook leaned down to kiss Aru, almost falling over when she evaded his kiss.

"Mook! You can't kiss me! I just threw up!"

"So? You're still beautiful and loving. It doesn't matter if you threw up, you're still kissable."

Mook nearly laughed when Aru made a grossed out face in his direction. She placed her fists on her hips and shook her head before pushing him out the door.

"Eww! That's nasty! You're so sappy and gross!"

"Haha, I love you too!"

Aru laughed and shut the bathroom door as Mook smiled at her from the hall. Shaking her head, she went on to wash up.

Mook was waiting downstairs for her when she was done. He had made her jasmine tea, her favorite. Accepting the seat and teacup, she quietly listened as Mook listed what he thought they should do for the day. Aru couldn't help but smile at herself. Mook has become more engaging and open compared to when he first showed up. It really was refreshing to see.

Mrs. Kim joined them in the living room not long after, happily accepting the cup of tea from Mook. After hearing their plans for the day, Mrs. Kim happily shooed them out of the house to get ready for Aru's aunts to come over for the day.

Aru and Mook were walking in peace to their first destination, a nice morning at the nearby park. After thirty minutes of walking, Aru recognized someone familiar.

"Ah! Rose! Hey! How are you?"

Rose, a short human girl, was a good friend of Aru's. She was able to stand Xena's humor, which meant that she was able to hang around them.

"Aru! I'm good, what about you?"

"I'm good. Where are the boys? They aren't old enough to go to war, or were they? It's been a while since I've seen you guys."

Rose blinked a few times before falling into a fit of laughter, Aru joining shortly. Mook was genuinely confused as to what was so funny to the two girls. Rose coughed a bit before speaking up.

"Those dorks? In the war? As if! They'd be kicked out before they were even deployed. Levi is still asleep, so the boys are back at his place. I snuck out to get away from their whining."

"Sure you were. We all know you were trying to find something to eat."

Rose raised her hands up in defeat at Aru's statement, admitting that she just wanted to grab a snack before the boys did. After a couple of minutes of talking, Rose invited the two for lunch. Aru looked at Mook, who agreed to the invitation despite having already made plans. The two then followed Rose to go pick up the boys. They waited in the living room as she went down the hall, distressed noises soon following her. Ten minutes later, Rose came downstairs with three boys following her. Aru greeted the boys, who Mook learned were named Levi, Needle, and Rocky.

Mook has never had this type of food before. He ate his burger in content as they all sat I the still fairly new McDonald's. It was a restaurant that opened three years prior, and it was going pretty well. Their food was pretty good, amazingly good in Mook's mind.

They all ran around a park afterwards. Well, most of them did. Rose and Needle raced around, but Levi grumbled about not having enough sleep. The next thing everyone knew, he fell asleep below a tree. Rocky was "exploring" the area, leaving Mook and Aru together. After a while of sleuthing around together, Mook and Aru said their goodbyes and left.

It was nearly dark when they were near the Kim house. They decided to go pick seashells by the water for Aru's mom. Everything was peaceful and perfect. That moment was perfect.

And then that moment ended.

It happened so fast, the two didn't see it coming. Seemingly out of nowhere, a group of men came out and walked towards the two. Mook seemed to tense up, shielding Aru from what he deemed the enemy. In a low voice, he attempted to instruct Aru what to do. Before he could give her instructions, however, the men grabbed up. Aru yelped as Mook was torn away from her grasp, watching him struggle to get away.

"ARU! RUN!"

Aru didn't want to run. She didn't want to abandon him. Sucking up what courage she had, she tried her best to pry the men off of her soulmate. Two of them men yanked her away, and Mook watched in worry, praying they wouldn't hurt her. All of a sudden, he realized where they were dragging him to. Before he could stop them, they tossed him into the water. In an instant, he transformed into a sea serpent.

He felt his entire world crumble as he looked at Aru. He couldn't read her eyes due to the darkness, but he was sure that she was terrified. The men took this moment as an opportunity, yanking Mook down with ropes. Mook cried out in pain as the hooks latched on to him and forced him to the ground. The pain of being a monster in Aru's eyes was far worse to him. Feeling as if he lost all hope for happiness, he gave in to the pain and allowed himself to fall into darkness. The last thing he heard was Aru's frantic voice crying out.

~ ~ ~

Aru was horrified. How could they treat Mook like this?! She was initially shocked to see him transform into a giant sea serpent, but she quickly got over the shock when she saw the men throw those ropes with hooks attached to them around him. She wanted to cry when he roared in pain as they forced him to the ground. Her heart broke when he began to give in.

"MOOK!!!"

She felt herself move towards him, running, as his eyelids dropped. She began to scream when two men grabbed her and began to drag her away from him. She thrashed around, hoping to cause a loud enough scene for the neighborhood to awaken. She then felt a hard object hit her in the bad of her head. Her world began to darken as she weakly cried out to Mook.

She was then left alone in the sand, unable to save the one she loved as he was taken away.