A Game of Poker, Chapter 10: Total Betrayal
Title: A Game of Poker
Author: Bookkbaby
Rating: Teen
Warnings: YAOI
Summary: LUCKY Pair. It started as a simple game of poker, but a little white lie from Lavi changes everything. ['If you lose... you spend the night here, with me, and let me do whatever I want with you.']
A/N: This is my first multichapter fanfic for the DGM fandom! Yay! I’m fairly new to the fandom, but hopefully I haven’t made any unforgivable mistakes.
Warnings: YAOI, which means BOYS LOVING BOYS. If you dislike that, then the back button is easy enough to find. Please click that and leave. Limes are in the future, and lemons in the uncut versions (not on fanfiction(dot)net). Maybe some OOC, spoilers for the end of the anime later on.
Disclaimer: I don’t own these lovely characters, that honor belongs to Katsura Hoshino. (Though if Hoshino-sama ever has a sale, I call dibs on Tyki… what?) I don’t own anything but a copy of the anime series and all volumes of the manga in English. Anything you don’t recognize (like the plotline of ‘A Game of Poker’) does belong to me. Everything else… not so much. Please don’t sue.
Beta’d by Misster Cackles! All remaining mistakes are mine.
Last Time On ‘A Game Of Poker’:
"Of course." he said, stepping towards his employer. The Earl turned down the dark alley, leading him to the piece of their Ark. Whatever this 'surprise' was, whatever the 'job' was, Tyki was sure he wasn't going to like it. He never did.
And Now, The Continuation
A Game of Poker, Chapter 10
Total Betrayal
Lavi moaned lightly in pain. The Dreams hadn't yet been able to get a scream from him, which he took pride in even though the girl had become more brutal as a result. Road had started using the flames of the candles as well as the point to inflict damage. His jacket was burned to tatters and so was his shirt.
The skin on his chest was just lightly burned, mostly from when the Noah had burned off his jacket and shirt. His chest was bright pink in places, the skin shiny as if it were covered with a glaze. The Noah hadn’t actually taken the flame to his skin yet, for which he was grateful. As it was, the burns only made his skin feel hot and itchy unless he stretched too much or Road pressed down on them. For the most part, they could be ignored.
His arms had been sliced open by the sharp edges of the spikes. His chest had been sliced into as well, the cuts on top of the burns making his chest burn like hell when he breathed. Road had cut into his face too, carving a line from his forehead to jaw and narrowly skirting his green eye. The cuts weren’t as painful as the candles, but there were only so many she could stick into him before he died.
The Dreams seemed to be playing with him, drawing the sharp edges of her candles along his skin in seemingly aimless patterns. She hadn't removed his eyepatch, even though his bandanna was long gone and on the floor, no more than a pile of ashes. He mentally cursed the eyepatch, willing the Noah to remove it so he could use his eye's power and escape. In this sort of situation it was well worth the cost, but with his eye covered he couldn't even activate it. He very rarely regretted wearing the patch, since it saved him from quite a few stares and cruel comments, but now he wished he had never seen the damn thing.
The Noah of Dreams was gifted with illusions, but even she would need to tread carefully when dealing with what his eye could produce if he put some effort into it.
His legs hadn't been touched since those first few spikes Road had flung at him. The girl seemed to be having too much fun with his chest and arms to poke his legs full of any more holes. A small blessing.
"You haven't screamed for me yet, Lavi-chan." Road complained, pouting. A candle was in her hand and she traced the sharp point lightly over the still-bleeding cuts and painful blisters on his chest. He clenched his jaw, refusing to give her satisfaction when an ominous, concentrated rush of air alerted the two to a new arrival.
Lavi lifted his head, a bit dizzy from the pain, to see the black portal of the Noah's Ark appear in the room's center. Two figures stepped out of it, one painfully familiar to the redhead. Even so, it took him a moment to realize who it was.
"Ty...ki?" he managed to say. A sudden flash of knowledge hit him. He knew with sickening certainty how the Earl planned for him to meet his end. The Pleasure seemed just as surprised to see him, shock making those golden eyes widen briefly before the Noah's face resumed its usual nonchalance.
"Is this the 'surprise', Earl?" he asked in his best 'bored' tone. Inwardly, his stomach roiled at the sight of the damage done to Lavi. Some of those were bound to scar, though the Pleasure hoped the cut on the redhead's face healed without one. The cuts and burns that covered Lavi's upper body were terrible to look at, but Tyki found himself less worried about how the Exorcist's skin was no longer smooth and perfect, as the Pleasure preferred in his partners, and more worried about how much the redhead was hurting from said injuries.
The Earl nodded, and Tyki noted that his chipper, energetic motions were back. The Pleasure felt his stomach drop.
"Road-chan told me you were talking to Lavi-chan here last night and that some interesting things were said."
The Noah girl skipped over to Tyki and the Earl happily, jumping onto the Earl's back as if the large man was giving her a piggyback ride. The Earl just laughed.
"Lavi-chan hasn't said anything. He's been pretty quiet - I haven't even been able to get him to scream." Road seemed disappointed, but Tyki felt an inexplicable surge of pride and horror.
"Apparently you've spared this Exorcist's life a few times, Tyki-pon, and from what Road-chan heard you've been having - shall we say relations? - with him." The Earl tilted his head quizzically to the side, as though he was a small child asking his parent to explain something that had confused him. Tyki could feel sweat slide down the back of his neck but struggled to keep calm. If Road had heard the entire conversation the other night, then she, and consequently the Earl, already knew most of the facts. Denying that he and the redhead had slept together would probably be useless, since their chat had been clear enough for Road to infer what they had done.
He shrugged, hoping no one saw how tense his shoulders had become.
"We had a bit of a dalliance, Earl, but nothing important." he lied, turning a bit to look evenly at the redhead strapped to the wall. He pretended the hurt look visible in Lavi's uncovered eye didn't make his own heart ache. "Has he been causing problems for us?"
Road answered before the Earl could.
"He's been distracting you, Tyki. You haven't killed any of your targets even though I've gotten all of mine. Lulubell has destroyed the Innocence of one of her targets and I think she found her second target today. Jasdevi hasn't, but that's not a surprise."
Tyki recalled the Earl saying earlier that no one had been succeeding, berating himself for not realizing it was a test. He should have known something was fishy, not just been relieved that he wasn't the only one failing. If he had been more surprised or asked more questions instead of just being relieved, perhaps the Earl would never have sent Road to follow him.
"But we can fix that!" The Earl seemed overjoyed, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. The moment froze for Tyki, knowledge of what the Earl would ask him to do crystal clear in his mind the instant before the Earl requested it.
"This boy is on your list, correct? Kill him for us then, Tyki-pon, and destroy his Innocence." The large man reached into his pocket and produced a familiar palm-sized hammer. The Earl extended the hand holding the shrunk Ozuchi Kozuchi to the Pleasure, who took it numbly. There was no way to avoid the redhead's death now. He could not refuse to kill him and there was no chance of Lavi being rescued by one of the other Exorcists.
Time seemed to freeze.
Shocked, he stared at the hammer in his hand.
For a moment, he had actually hoped that Allen Walker had heard about Lavi's predicament and would storm the Noahs' stronghold in order to rescue the redhead. Tyki certainly couldn't spare the hammer-user again under the watchful eyes of Road and the Earl. He could feel the two staring at him, their eyes like knives stabbing straight through him.
His own neck would be in jeopardy if he blatantly refused and it wasn't as if refusal would save Lavi anyway. The Earl would simply string the Pleasure up alongside the Exorcist and torture them both. What would he lose if he followed orders and kept his head down, as he always had? He would lose a bed partner, a very satisfying one, but that didn't feel like a complete answer. There was something else he'd lose if he killed Lavi now, but he couldn't imagine what that could be.
The sound of Road's skirt flapping as she slid off the Earl's back reached his ear, the sound so similar to butterfly wings it startled him out of his thoughts. Butterflies. The Tease.
Slowly, piece by piece, a plan began to form in his mind. It wouldn't be a blatant refusal, or even an obvious one, but there was a way to keep the redhead alive and preserve his own hide. If the Earl ever found out, then Tyki was a dead man. If even one part went wrong or something seemed off with Lavi's 'death', then he would be under suspicion. Was it worth it?
If he succeeded, then yes, yes it was. In any case, he doubted he'd be able to kill the Exorcist so easily. He had tried, that first night, but even with his hand around the younger man's heart he hadn't been able to do more than gently tug.
This one act could mean betrayal of his family and everything his 'side' believed in, but he would be fine so long as nobody ever found out.
Taking a deep breath, he tried to project an air of unconcern.
"Of course, Earl." he said, responding to the Earl's order. He clenched his fist tightly around the hammer resting on his palm, letting purple bolts of electricity surround his hand. He had destroyed lots of Innocence by now and was familiar with the amount of damage it could take before breaking. As the purple sparks fully encased his hand and began to chip away at the Innocence, he took a deep breath and began executing the first part of his plan. The crackle of dark energy was the only sound in the room, seeming to echo in his ears as his heart sped up, self-preservation instincts chastising him for what he knew was a foolish move. If the Earl caught him...
Even with that knowledge, Tyki knew that Lavi might never forgive him for destroying the hammer, even if Tyki succeeded and saved his life. Lavi was a fighter and would never be able to stay on the sidelines while his friends fought and died. That quality was what kept him from being a Bookman, even if the redhead hadn't realized it yet. The hammer was not something he could destroy to keep his boss happy, especially when he had other ways of making the man think he was doing his job.
While he couldn't let the hammer pass into his body as though it were one of his Tease - besides the fact that it could poison him, the hammer wouldn't be able to pass through him - there were other ways of hiding it. Years of cheating at cards had given him nimble fingers and he slipped the tiny hammer up his sleeve without appearing to move his hand. In the same instant, he summoned a Tease into his palm. The butterfly-like golem was crushed into his fingers, not visible to any of the observers. The crackling of the dark energy around his hand grew louder.
Tyki could feel Lavi watching him. Betrayal radiated from the redhead's figure - he didn't even need to look to know that. Satisfaction radiated from the Earl and the other Noah in the room, meaning he had probably successfully fooled them so far. He fervently hoped he continued the charade so believably.
The Pleasure felt the butterfly-like golem turn to dust in his hand, the complex, living machinery reduced to dust in a matter of minutes. He let the energy fade slowly before opening his hand and dumping the remains of the 'Innocence' to the floor. Most matter, he had learned, was reduced to the same shade of gray-black when disposed of in such a manner. With Innocence, in most cases not a shred of power remained after being destroyed by dark energy. Allen Walker was the only exception that Tyki knew of, so even testing the dust would reveal nothing to the Earl.
The easy part was over. Now his plan would be more difficult.
A surreptitious glance towards the other Noah and the large man in the room confirmed that he had fooled them so far. A glance towards the chained redhead proved the same, that Lavi really did believe his Innocence had been destroyed. A part of him wanted to reassure the Exorcist, but he clamped down on those instincts as even a reassuring look or expression could unravel his entire plan.
He pretended to fix the gloves he always wore, avoiding meeting anyone's eyes, then moved the hand that had held the Innocence into his jacket pocket. Carefully, he let the hammer fall into the pocket, knowing it wouldn't be safe in his sleeve for long. The moment he moved his arm too much, the Innocence-laden weapon would fly out from his sleeve and land on the ground somewhere.
"Now just kill him, right?" he asked, turning to look at the Earl and Road as he summoned another Tease into his free hand. He didn't look at Lavi. Road nodded and smiled as the Earl clapped appreciatively.
"And to think I was worried you may have betrayed us! Excellent job, Tyki-pon, now please finish it."
The Pleasure pretended to laugh along with the other Noah and the Earl, turning towards Lavi.
"I knew Tyki would never betray us. He's too smart for that." Road said smugly, leaning against the Earl's side.
"Yes, you were right this time, Road-chan."
Tyki turned towards the captured redhead. His self-preservation instincts had yet to shut up about how incredibly foolish he was being, but he had been trying to ignore them. Even so, soft whispers drifted across his mind, reminders than it wasn't too late to back out of his plan. If he killed the Exorcist now, no one would be any the wiser as to the Innocence in his pocket. The next time he left, a few minutes would be all it would take to destroy all evidence.
He began to walk towards the younger man, pace slow. He could see Lavi's fear, the hopelessness that overtook the Exorcist. At one time, he would have greatly enjoyed causing that look in an enemy's eyes, even this enemy. That time was in the past.
His mind tried again to convince him, images of the bodies of the other Noah who had defied the Earl circling his mind like vultures. The images chipped at his resolve to carry through his plan, making his steps slow even as he drew within striking distance of the younger man.
There were so many things that could go wrong if he attempted this. There were so many things that could go wrong after he succeeded, assuming he did. If even one thing that could go wrong did go wrong, then he was as good as dead, and for what? It would make so much more sense to do as he had done for years and follow orders. He could find someone else to warm his bed once Lavi had died. If he still missed the redhead that much, he was certain there were a few people he could convince to wear a red wig and an eyepatch when they spent the night. Common sense and logic had a very convincing argument, especially since the plan had been so risky to begin with.
His life would be so much easier if he killed the Exorcist now. Still, part of him was reluctant and cried out in protest against ending this particular life.
Uncertain, he finally looked up and met Lavi's gaze. He saw the fear there. He could see the uncertainty and the hopelessness. With a deep breath and a prayer to a God he didn't believe in that he wouldn't regret his choice, he made his decision.
He lifted the butterfly to his lips, kissing one of the seemingly fragile wings, then moved the Tease towards Lavi's chest.
"Just take a small bite of his heart, Tease." he said, voice loud enough for all in the room to hear. As the golem slid inside the Exorcist's chest, a green eye widened in shock.
Line Break
Lavi had watched in growing horror as the Pleasure had destroyed his Innocence, a force greater than his shackles keeping him still. His heart sank, dropping like a stone to his feet and then sinking completely out of sight and beyond his reach. The physical pain seemed secondary, even with his nerves screaming at him.
Even in this situation, some part of him had held on to a foolish hope that Tyki would turn out to be some sort of knight in shining armor. Lavi didn't normally play the role of 'damsel in distress', but he was certainly in distress at the moment and could have used any help he could get.
The Noah slowly approached him, one of the carnivorous butterflies called the Tease in his hand. The redhead could remember how the Pleasure had used those golems to nearly kill Allen, though the white-haired boy's Innocence had repaired his heart and saved his life. In this case, Lavi knew he had no chance of a mystical rescue.
The Pleasure continued to approach, drawing well within arm's reach of the Exorcist. Lavi watched with mounting despair as Tyki raised the butterfly to his lips and gently kissed it.
"Just take a small bite of his heart, Tease." he said, voice cool and emotionless. Lavi could feel his eyes widening, hurt pouring through him as the Noah shoved the golem into his chest. Utter surprise overtook the distress when the expected pain of the bite did not come. The fluttery feeling of wings beating next to his heart disappeared as if the Tease had vanished.
"It's one of the most painful ways to die." Tyki said softly, but audible to all. "Everyone else I've killed this way dies screaming for mercy as their heart pumps blood through the hole."
The Noah removed his hand, Lavi's eyes seeing an empty palm for a nanosecond before another Tease appeared. Instantly catching on, Lavi began to convulse in his invisible shackles. His arms strained against the holds as if trying to grab at his heart in a futile struggle to push the blood supposedly gushing from it back inside his veins. His hands clenched into fists as he threw his head back against the wall, cries of pain issuing from his lips. He couldn't outright scream - Road had been torturing him and he hadn't screamed, so it would be suspicious if he did so now. He let his convulsions weaken and his cries grow softer and softer as if he was truly dying. He allowed his body to slump over, cries ending as he let himself go completely limp.
"Wow... he didn't even scream." Road said, awed. The redhead felt the shackles supporting him disappear, sending his body falling forward. He controlled himself, trying not to noticeably brace for the impact and just let himself fall. To flinch now would be disastrous.
He let his body collapse to the ground, letting his arms fall were they would and only slightly shifting his face so that his cheek struck the floor instead of his nose. He bit through his lip to stop the cry that rose in his throat as the impact sent several shocks through his body and drove some of the candles in deeper. At least none of his vitals were in immediate danger - none of the spikes had hit anywhere fatal. The flames, too, on the tips of the candles had gone out from the sudden rush of wind. He concentrated on taking only the shallowest of breaths, careful not to make a sound or allow his chest to rise or fall more than was absolutely necessary.
"Now then, I'll just call an Akuma to take care of the body." Lavi heard the Earl say, totally upbeat.
"No need. I've already done it." Tyki responded easily. Lavi heard the sound of a portal opening, then the clack-clack of dress shoes move across the floor. He kept his body limp as two arms lifted him carelessly. The Exorcist could feel air move over his face as the Akuma carrying him turned and presumably took him back through the portal - Lavi didn't dare open his eyes even a crack in order to see.
A set of curious eyes followed the redhead, but their observance went unnoticed by the others in the room. As the magical doorway closed behind them, Lavi could hear the Earl praise the Pleasure's coldhearted 'murder'.
Line Break
Lavi didn't breathe as the Akuma set him down on something soft, didn't dare move until he heard the wooden door to the room close behind the servant. Then, and only then, did he sit up to look around. He winced at the motions, hissing at the pain of his recent injuries before taking deep breaths and pushing the physical pain to the back of his mind. Bookman’s lessons on meditation had been difficult, but it did the trick when he needed to clear his head.
First priority - find something to bandage his wounds. Removing all of the candle-stakes by himself was out of the question, as there was no way he'd be able to keep enough pressure on some of wounds to prevent himself from bleeding out. The one in his shoulder and in his arm would need to stay until he could get help and possibly the two in his abdomen as well. The one on his thigh and leg he could pull out by himself, assuming he had enough bandages. All of them hurt, the pain growing every time he moved and radiating out from the spikes. Now that any adrenaline he had was done pumping through him, he felt the wounds more fully but at least now he could act to minimize the pain.
The cuts and burns would be easiest to deal with, since the burns weren’t serious and could just be left to heal on their own. His cuts he could probably get away with just wiping off for now, rather than washing and bandaging. Most had been pretty shallow anyway. His arms still leaked a bit of blood and the crimson liquid stained his chest, but nothing bled heavily. His shirt and jacket had been burned off, so he had nothing of his own he could tear up for bandages.
He began glancing around the room he had been taken to. He assumed it was Tyki's bedroom, since he doubted the Noah would have the Akuma servant take him somewhere unsafe.
The thought caused a warm glow to heat his heart. He had been so confused before as to why the Pleasure hadn't killed him and even though he still didn't fully understand, he knew one thing for certain - Tyki wouldn't kill him. If the Noah had truly been planning on killing him, then the perfect opportunity had just come and gone. Even if Tyki had been reluctant and needed an excuse to kill him, then being forced to do it under the eye of the Earl was the best he could get. The Pleasure wasn't going to kill him. That one piece of information was worth much more to Lavi than a few hours (most of it spent while he was unconscious) in the hands of a psycho girl and her sadistic employer.
He felt a pang when he thought of his Innocence, supposedly lost, but Tyki's actions made him doubt the man had actually destroyed the hammer. If Tyki could fool the Earl in regards to the murder of an Exorcist, surely he could fool a few observers as to whether or not some Innocence was destroyed? Lavi wasn't holding his breath hoping for the return of Ozuchi Kozuchi, but he knew there was a possibility that Tyki had saved his Innocence as well.
He almost wanted to laugh; if he ever told anyone else back at Headquarters about this, they would think he was crazy or hallucinating. Tyki Mikk did not save Exorcists, or their Innocence, but the Pleasure had saved Lavi's. Just the thought fed new life into a part of his heart the redhead had thought was dead - his hope for the future. Warmth enveloped him, even though there were a lot of questions he wanted to ask.
He looked around. The room was spacious and mostly empty but for a closet, a dresser, a mirror hanging in between the two, the bed Lavi was currently occupying, and a night table next to the bed. All the furniture was made out of hardwood and was plain and undecorated. The bed was set with the headboard against the back wall and more than big enough for two people. The sheets, the redhead couldn't help but notice, were fine black silk. He ran his fingers lightly over the cool material, then realized what he was doing and stopped himself.
He slowly got out of the bed, careful not to shift the candles in his body, and moved over to the dresser. There had to be something in there he could tear up and use for bandages, since he was beginning to get really dizzy from the loss of blood. He wouldn't pass out, he wasn't to that point yet, but the sooner he stopped the bleeding, the better. His steps were a bit unsteady as he reached the dresser, leaning on it slightly as he wrapped his fingers around the brass knob of the top drawer and pulled.
The drawer was filled with black slacks, neatly folded and carefully placed in neat piles. With a sigh, he shoved the drawer closed and reached for the second knob. That drawer contained what he had been looking for - piles of the white shirts Tyki favored wearing. He began to reach for one, then hesitated. Sure he had been deposited in the Pleasure's room with wounds in need of attention, but he doubted Tyki would appreciate it if he tore up a shirt or two to fix his injuries. The Pleasure had pretended to kill him rather than actually kill him, but the Exorcist knew they weren't close enough for him to assume Tyki wouldn't mind.
He swallowed the sudden lump in his throat, forcing himself to remember how the Noah had saved his life in very dangerous circumstances. He should be grateful for what he had, not foolishly wishing for things he could never have. That way lay madness, even if the reminder that he would never be anything more than a convenient partner to the Noah killed his good mood. The way the Pleasure had saved his life did make him wonder, but he was too logical to believe it was anything more than a whim of the Noah's. A dangerous whim, but the man was dangerous so it wasn't a surprise. If the older man hadn't been able to avoid killing him, Lavi was fairly certain the Pleasure wouldn't have lost sleep over the act.
He had to be rational here, since thinking with his heart had gotten him into trouble before. It had, after all, landed him in this situation.
The warmth that had expanded in his chest dissipated. He shoved the drawer shut and moved on to the third. He closed that one almost as soon as he opened it, eyes registering the black underclothes for a brief instant before he shut the drawer. The fourth simply seemed to hold accessories - several pairs of pristine gloves, a few ties and those ribbon-things the man was so fond of wearing. Dress socks and hair ties also took up some of the space, but nothing usable. Lavi sighed quietly and closed the drawer.
He slowly turned and nearly tripped over his feet as he moved towards the closet. He stumbled slightly, reaching out to catch himself on the door and wincing at the soft 'thump'. Gritting his teeth, he pushed open the door. Maybe there was some sort of hamper where he could find an already ruined shirt to rip up. He briefly noted the suit jackets hanging up along some other clothes, but quickly turned his attention to the floor of the closet. To his surprise, pants and shirts littered the closet floor, as if the owner of said articles just threw them in the general direction of the (almost empty, Lavi noted) hamper wedged in the corner. Lavi smiled thinly, figuring Tyki didn't put away his own clothes. The man probably had servants for such menial tasks.
Slowly, taking care not to drive any of the spikes deeper into his body or rip open any of his wounds further, he knelt to dig through the pile of old laundry. The action did pull on some of his injured muscles, but he ignored the pain. Clean cloth would have been better, obviously, but with no way of telling what the Pleasure's reaction would be Lavi wasn't about to risk it. After a few moments of digging and shoving aside a pair of the Noah's undergarments rather hastily, the redhead found a shirt. It was, or rather, had been, one of the Pleasure's nice silk button-ups, but was already stained in several places by what looked to be blood. Lavi could see several tears in the material, marking where the Noah had been injured.
He held the shirt with one hand, resisting the urge to bring it to his nose and inhale deeply. The Exorcist got to his feet slowly and moved back towards the bed. He sat next to it, leaning his back against the silk covered mattress. He took deep breaths, not moving for a minute while he cleared his mind from the pain clouding it.
Once he had the pain under control again, he regarded the shirt. Slowly, he lifted it to his mouth. He would need several long strips, but his arms wouldn't be strong enough to get it started. Before this, maybe, but definitely not now. He brought the cloth up to his teeth and began to bite into it. He ripped the shirt into pieces and began the slow task of bandaging him own wounds.
One shirt would not provide nearly enough cloth strips for all his injuries, but he wasn't about to rip up two. With a sigh, he took one of the pieces of silk - what had been the collar, of little use as a bandage - and began to wipe off the blood drying on his face. The cut there was a bit deep, but seemed to have stopped bleeding. He vaguely hoped it wouldn't scar. The Exorcist moved on to cleaning off his chest; he spat into what would henceforth be termed a 'rag' and ran the cloth over the injuries. The white cloth was quickly dyed crimson, long before he moved to his arms. Trickles of blood still ran from the cuts, but nothing major.
His arms were in much the same condition. The 'cleaning', if it could be termed that, stung a bit, but he wanted to get at least some of the blood off. When the rag was soaked he dropped it by his side and took stock of his other injuries. He paused again to relax, arms exhausted from that little bit of exertion. He had needed to move slowly in order to avoid aggravating his wounds, but he hadn’t been able to completely avoid pulling on the injured muscles.
He stared at the silk rags. He had enough bandages from one shirt to wrap at least one of his major wounds, though wrapping two might be pushing it. The only question was which spike to remove.
Lavi grinned wryly as he looked down at the blue, orange, and pink wax stakes. The one in his shoulder would be impossible to bandage tightly without help and the one in his arm would be far too difficult. The two in his abdomen he could probably get by himself, with the added bonus of being able to bandage them together. Still, putting pressure on both at once would be difficult, and he would have to pull both out in a short amount of time and get both bandaged rather quickly. That would be too hard to do while trying to keep pressure on both stab wounds, so that was out. The one in the lower part of his leg was painful, and would probably take the least amount of bandages. He might even be able to wrap the wound on his thigh while he was at it.
Taking a deep breath, Lavi drew the leg with the stake protruding next to his shin towards himself. He grabbed the candle firmly with one hand and, pressing down on his leg with the other, yanked. The candle slid out partway, as his hand slipped up and off the spike. His leg tensed at the pain and he cried out, just barely remembering to muffle himself so no passing Akuma came to investigate. The wax stake was slick with blood and not easy to grab. He stopped for a few moments, breathing deeply and trying to get his leg to relax. Gritting his teeth, he tried again. The quicker he got this done, the less pain in the end.
The candle came free as the redhead hissed in pain and pressed down firmly on the now freely bleeding wound. He grabbed one of the strips of silk cloth blindly, quickly moving it into place and beginning to wrap the white cloth tightly around his shin. It wouldn't be perfect, but it would do.
He ended up grabbing two more strips of cloth before the wound was bandaged tightly enough so that the bleeding had mostly stopped. He could still feel a small amount leaking from the injury, but the only way to fix the leak would be to completely re-bandage his shin and he knew he had done the best he could.
He eyed his 'stock' of bandages. He had four more strips, so he could potentially wrap his thigh-
The sound of the door opening broke him out of his thoughts. The redhead looked towards the door, frozen in place against the side of the bed.
Tyki Mikk stood in the doorway, several rolls of clean bandages in his hands. The Noah's expression was unreadable as the man took another step into the room and shut the door quietly behind himself. The Exorcist tried to relax against the side of the bed, but he was suddenly very aware of where he was - the Pleasure's bedroom - and that he was only half-dressed. He could feel his face flush and he looked away from the Noah.
The redhead didn't know exactly where he stood with the man - everything had started for them because of a stupid game he had pretended to lose. The last two times he had seen the Pleasure, Tyki had half-heartedly tried to kill him. Just now, the man had saved his life and now the redhead was hiding in the Noah's bedroom until he could (presumably) make his escape.
The Pleasure was unnaturally silent as the man knelt next to Lavi, dropping the bandages carelessly on the floor. The Exorcist wasn't sure exactly what the man was thinking, as Tyki let none of his thoughts cross his face, but he could tell the man was thinking hard about something. He swallowed heavily as an intense golden gaze looked over his injuries. Tyki's eyes rested on each candle-spike, drawing briefly over each cut before the Noah's eyes rested on Lavi's only bandaged injury.
Noticing where the Pleasure was staring, Lavi hastened to explain.
"I wasn't sure when you would get here, so I started wrapping some of my injuries." he explained, inching back until he was pressed against the bed. The Noah's stare hadn't moved. Lavi shifted uncomfortably, wondering if he had overstepped. "I- the shirt was already ruined, so I thought you wouldn't mind if I used it-"
"It's fine."
A pale gray hand reached out to touch the spike impaled on the thigh of his other leg. Lavi winced involuntarily as the light touch shifted the stake just slightly, sending fresh sparks of pain through his leg. The Noah's hand immediately retracted.
"I need to pull that out, lovely, or else I can't wrap it." Tyki said softly. Lavi nodded, not too sure what to make of the strangely quiet Pleasure. He relaxed as much as he was able, spreading his legs some and bending his knee slightly so that his thigh was raised a bit off the ground. The Noah moved in closer, taking off his gloves and absently putting them in his pocket before reaching out to press one hand on Lavi's thigh and grabbing the candle gently with the other. The redhead gave a soft, almost inaudible cry of pain as the stake was pulled out, hands clenching into fists on the ground.
Silently, the Noah grabbed a roll of bandages and began to unravel the end of the cloth strip. He took the free end and began to wrap the white material around the bloody wound. The bandage was a bit too tight, but the Exorcist kept quiet. The soft hands sliding over his thigh, close to the place his legs joined, were distracting even though the Pleasure was not trying to excite him. Though injured, the redhead was only male and couldn't help but take notice.
The Noah didn't even seem to notice, apparently lost in his own thoughts. Not for the first time, Lavi wished he knew what went on inside the Noah's head.
TBC…
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Author: Bookkbaby
Rating: Teen
Warnings: YAOI
Summary: LUCKY Pair. It started as a simple game of poker, but a little white lie from Lavi changes everything. ['If you lose... you spend the night here, with me, and let me do whatever I want with you.']
A/N: This is my first multichapter fanfic for the DGM fandom! Yay! I’m fairly new to the fandom, but hopefully I haven’t made any unforgivable mistakes.
Warnings: YAOI, which means BOYS LOVING BOYS. If you dislike that, then the back button is easy enough to find. Please click that and leave. Limes are in the future, and lemons in the uncut versions (not on fanfiction(dot)net). Maybe some OOC, spoilers for the end of the anime later on.
Disclaimer: I don’t own these lovely characters, that honor belongs to Katsura Hoshino. (Though if Hoshino-sama ever has a sale, I call dibs on Tyki… what?) I don’t own anything but a copy of the anime series and all volumes of the manga in English. Anything you don’t recognize (like the plotline of ‘A Game of Poker’) does belong to me. Everything else… not so much. Please don’t sue.
Beta’d by Misster Cackles! All remaining mistakes are mine.
Last Time On ‘A Game Of Poker’:
"Of course." he said, stepping towards his employer. The Earl turned down the dark alley, leading him to the piece of their Ark. Whatever this 'surprise' was, whatever the 'job' was, Tyki was sure he wasn't going to like it. He never did.
And Now, The Continuation
A Game of Poker, Chapter 10
Total Betrayal
Lavi moaned lightly in pain. The Dreams hadn't yet been able to get a scream from him, which he took pride in even though the girl had become more brutal as a result. Road had started using the flames of the candles as well as the point to inflict damage. His jacket was burned to tatters and so was his shirt.
The skin on his chest was just lightly burned, mostly from when the Noah had burned off his jacket and shirt. His chest was bright pink in places, the skin shiny as if it were covered with a glaze. The Noah hadn’t actually taken the flame to his skin yet, for which he was grateful. As it was, the burns only made his skin feel hot and itchy unless he stretched too much or Road pressed down on them. For the most part, they could be ignored.
His arms had been sliced open by the sharp edges of the spikes. His chest had been sliced into as well, the cuts on top of the burns making his chest burn like hell when he breathed. Road had cut into his face too, carving a line from his forehead to jaw and narrowly skirting his green eye. The cuts weren’t as painful as the candles, but there were only so many she could stick into him before he died.
The Dreams seemed to be playing with him, drawing the sharp edges of her candles along his skin in seemingly aimless patterns. She hadn't removed his eyepatch, even though his bandanna was long gone and on the floor, no more than a pile of ashes. He mentally cursed the eyepatch, willing the Noah to remove it so he could use his eye's power and escape. In this sort of situation it was well worth the cost, but with his eye covered he couldn't even activate it. He very rarely regretted wearing the patch, since it saved him from quite a few stares and cruel comments, but now he wished he had never seen the damn thing.
The Noah of Dreams was gifted with illusions, but even she would need to tread carefully when dealing with what his eye could produce if he put some effort into it.
His legs hadn't been touched since those first few spikes Road had flung at him. The girl seemed to be having too much fun with his chest and arms to poke his legs full of any more holes. A small blessing.
"You haven't screamed for me yet, Lavi-chan." Road complained, pouting. A candle was in her hand and she traced the sharp point lightly over the still-bleeding cuts and painful blisters on his chest. He clenched his jaw, refusing to give her satisfaction when an ominous, concentrated rush of air alerted the two to a new arrival.
Lavi lifted his head, a bit dizzy from the pain, to see the black portal of the Noah's Ark appear in the room's center. Two figures stepped out of it, one painfully familiar to the redhead. Even so, it took him a moment to realize who it was.
"Ty...ki?" he managed to say. A sudden flash of knowledge hit him. He knew with sickening certainty how the Earl planned for him to meet his end. The Pleasure seemed just as surprised to see him, shock making those golden eyes widen briefly before the Noah's face resumed its usual nonchalance.
"Is this the 'surprise', Earl?" he asked in his best 'bored' tone. Inwardly, his stomach roiled at the sight of the damage done to Lavi. Some of those were bound to scar, though the Pleasure hoped the cut on the redhead's face healed without one. The cuts and burns that covered Lavi's upper body were terrible to look at, but Tyki found himself less worried about how the Exorcist's skin was no longer smooth and perfect, as the Pleasure preferred in his partners, and more worried about how much the redhead was hurting from said injuries.
The Earl nodded, and Tyki noted that his chipper, energetic motions were back. The Pleasure felt his stomach drop.
"Road-chan told me you were talking to Lavi-chan here last night and that some interesting things were said."
The Noah girl skipped over to Tyki and the Earl happily, jumping onto the Earl's back as if the large man was giving her a piggyback ride. The Earl just laughed.
"Lavi-chan hasn't said anything. He's been pretty quiet - I haven't even been able to get him to scream." Road seemed disappointed, but Tyki felt an inexplicable surge of pride and horror.
"Apparently you've spared this Exorcist's life a few times, Tyki-pon, and from what Road-chan heard you've been having - shall we say relations? - with him." The Earl tilted his head quizzically to the side, as though he was a small child asking his parent to explain something that had confused him. Tyki could feel sweat slide down the back of his neck but struggled to keep calm. If Road had heard the entire conversation the other night, then she, and consequently the Earl, already knew most of the facts. Denying that he and the redhead had slept together would probably be useless, since their chat had been clear enough for Road to infer what they had done.
He shrugged, hoping no one saw how tense his shoulders had become.
"We had a bit of a dalliance, Earl, but nothing important." he lied, turning a bit to look evenly at the redhead strapped to the wall. He pretended the hurt look visible in Lavi's uncovered eye didn't make his own heart ache. "Has he been causing problems for us?"
Road answered before the Earl could.
"He's been distracting you, Tyki. You haven't killed any of your targets even though I've gotten all of mine. Lulubell has destroyed the Innocence of one of her targets and I think she found her second target today. Jasdevi hasn't, but that's not a surprise."
Tyki recalled the Earl saying earlier that no one had been succeeding, berating himself for not realizing it was a test. He should have known something was fishy, not just been relieved that he wasn't the only one failing. If he had been more surprised or asked more questions instead of just being relieved, perhaps the Earl would never have sent Road to follow him.
"But we can fix that!" The Earl seemed overjoyed, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. The moment froze for Tyki, knowledge of what the Earl would ask him to do crystal clear in his mind the instant before the Earl requested it.
"This boy is on your list, correct? Kill him for us then, Tyki-pon, and destroy his Innocence." The large man reached into his pocket and produced a familiar palm-sized hammer. The Earl extended the hand holding the shrunk Ozuchi Kozuchi to the Pleasure, who took it numbly. There was no way to avoid the redhead's death now. He could not refuse to kill him and there was no chance of Lavi being rescued by one of the other Exorcists.
Time seemed to freeze.
Shocked, he stared at the hammer in his hand.
For a moment, he had actually hoped that Allen Walker had heard about Lavi's predicament and would storm the Noahs' stronghold in order to rescue the redhead. Tyki certainly couldn't spare the hammer-user again under the watchful eyes of Road and the Earl. He could feel the two staring at him, their eyes like knives stabbing straight through him.
His own neck would be in jeopardy if he blatantly refused and it wasn't as if refusal would save Lavi anyway. The Earl would simply string the Pleasure up alongside the Exorcist and torture them both. What would he lose if he followed orders and kept his head down, as he always had? He would lose a bed partner, a very satisfying one, but that didn't feel like a complete answer. There was something else he'd lose if he killed Lavi now, but he couldn't imagine what that could be.
The sound of Road's skirt flapping as she slid off the Earl's back reached his ear, the sound so similar to butterfly wings it startled him out of his thoughts. Butterflies. The Tease.
Slowly, piece by piece, a plan began to form in his mind. It wouldn't be a blatant refusal, or even an obvious one, but there was a way to keep the redhead alive and preserve his own hide. If the Earl ever found out, then Tyki was a dead man. If even one part went wrong or something seemed off with Lavi's 'death', then he would be under suspicion. Was it worth it?
If he succeeded, then yes, yes it was. In any case, he doubted he'd be able to kill the Exorcist so easily. He had tried, that first night, but even with his hand around the younger man's heart he hadn't been able to do more than gently tug.
This one act could mean betrayal of his family and everything his 'side' believed in, but he would be fine so long as nobody ever found out.
Taking a deep breath, he tried to project an air of unconcern.
"Of course, Earl." he said, responding to the Earl's order. He clenched his fist tightly around the hammer resting on his palm, letting purple bolts of electricity surround his hand. He had destroyed lots of Innocence by now and was familiar with the amount of damage it could take before breaking. As the purple sparks fully encased his hand and began to chip away at the Innocence, he took a deep breath and began executing the first part of his plan. The crackle of dark energy was the only sound in the room, seeming to echo in his ears as his heart sped up, self-preservation instincts chastising him for what he knew was a foolish move. If the Earl caught him...
Even with that knowledge, Tyki knew that Lavi might never forgive him for destroying the hammer, even if Tyki succeeded and saved his life. Lavi was a fighter and would never be able to stay on the sidelines while his friends fought and died. That quality was what kept him from being a Bookman, even if the redhead hadn't realized it yet. The hammer was not something he could destroy to keep his boss happy, especially when he had other ways of making the man think he was doing his job.
While he couldn't let the hammer pass into his body as though it were one of his Tease - besides the fact that it could poison him, the hammer wouldn't be able to pass through him - there were other ways of hiding it. Years of cheating at cards had given him nimble fingers and he slipped the tiny hammer up his sleeve without appearing to move his hand. In the same instant, he summoned a Tease into his palm. The butterfly-like golem was crushed into his fingers, not visible to any of the observers. The crackling of the dark energy around his hand grew louder.
Tyki could feel Lavi watching him. Betrayal radiated from the redhead's figure - he didn't even need to look to know that. Satisfaction radiated from the Earl and the other Noah in the room, meaning he had probably successfully fooled them so far. He fervently hoped he continued the charade so believably.
The Pleasure felt the butterfly-like golem turn to dust in his hand, the complex, living machinery reduced to dust in a matter of minutes. He let the energy fade slowly before opening his hand and dumping the remains of the 'Innocence' to the floor. Most matter, he had learned, was reduced to the same shade of gray-black when disposed of in such a manner. With Innocence, in most cases not a shred of power remained after being destroyed by dark energy. Allen Walker was the only exception that Tyki knew of, so even testing the dust would reveal nothing to the Earl.
The easy part was over. Now his plan would be more difficult.
A surreptitious glance towards the other Noah and the large man in the room confirmed that he had fooled them so far. A glance towards the chained redhead proved the same, that Lavi really did believe his Innocence had been destroyed. A part of him wanted to reassure the Exorcist, but he clamped down on those instincts as even a reassuring look or expression could unravel his entire plan.
He pretended to fix the gloves he always wore, avoiding meeting anyone's eyes, then moved the hand that had held the Innocence into his jacket pocket. Carefully, he let the hammer fall into the pocket, knowing it wouldn't be safe in his sleeve for long. The moment he moved his arm too much, the Innocence-laden weapon would fly out from his sleeve and land on the ground somewhere.
"Now just kill him, right?" he asked, turning to look at the Earl and Road as he summoned another Tease into his free hand. He didn't look at Lavi. Road nodded and smiled as the Earl clapped appreciatively.
"And to think I was worried you may have betrayed us! Excellent job, Tyki-pon, now please finish it."
The Pleasure pretended to laugh along with the other Noah and the Earl, turning towards Lavi.
"I knew Tyki would never betray us. He's too smart for that." Road said smugly, leaning against the Earl's side.
"Yes, you were right this time, Road-chan."
Tyki turned towards the captured redhead. His self-preservation instincts had yet to shut up about how incredibly foolish he was being, but he had been trying to ignore them. Even so, soft whispers drifted across his mind, reminders than it wasn't too late to back out of his plan. If he killed the Exorcist now, no one would be any the wiser as to the Innocence in his pocket. The next time he left, a few minutes would be all it would take to destroy all evidence.
He began to walk towards the younger man, pace slow. He could see Lavi's fear, the hopelessness that overtook the Exorcist. At one time, he would have greatly enjoyed causing that look in an enemy's eyes, even this enemy. That time was in the past.
His mind tried again to convince him, images of the bodies of the other Noah who had defied the Earl circling his mind like vultures. The images chipped at his resolve to carry through his plan, making his steps slow even as he drew within striking distance of the younger man.
There were so many things that could go wrong if he attempted this. There were so many things that could go wrong after he succeeded, assuming he did. If even one thing that could go wrong did go wrong, then he was as good as dead, and for what? It would make so much more sense to do as he had done for years and follow orders. He could find someone else to warm his bed once Lavi had died. If he still missed the redhead that much, he was certain there were a few people he could convince to wear a red wig and an eyepatch when they spent the night. Common sense and logic had a very convincing argument, especially since the plan had been so risky to begin with.
His life would be so much easier if he killed the Exorcist now. Still, part of him was reluctant and cried out in protest against ending this particular life.
Uncertain, he finally looked up and met Lavi's gaze. He saw the fear there. He could see the uncertainty and the hopelessness. With a deep breath and a prayer to a God he didn't believe in that he wouldn't regret his choice, he made his decision.
He lifted the butterfly to his lips, kissing one of the seemingly fragile wings, then moved the Tease towards Lavi's chest.
"Just take a small bite of his heart, Tease." he said, voice loud enough for all in the room to hear. As the golem slid inside the Exorcist's chest, a green eye widened in shock.
Line Break
Lavi had watched in growing horror as the Pleasure had destroyed his Innocence, a force greater than his shackles keeping him still. His heart sank, dropping like a stone to his feet and then sinking completely out of sight and beyond his reach. The physical pain seemed secondary, even with his nerves screaming at him.
Even in this situation, some part of him had held on to a foolish hope that Tyki would turn out to be some sort of knight in shining armor. Lavi didn't normally play the role of 'damsel in distress', but he was certainly in distress at the moment and could have used any help he could get.
The Noah slowly approached him, one of the carnivorous butterflies called the Tease in his hand. The redhead could remember how the Pleasure had used those golems to nearly kill Allen, though the white-haired boy's Innocence had repaired his heart and saved his life. In this case, Lavi knew he had no chance of a mystical rescue.
The Pleasure continued to approach, drawing well within arm's reach of the Exorcist. Lavi watched with mounting despair as Tyki raised the butterfly to his lips and gently kissed it.
"Just take a small bite of his heart, Tease." he said, voice cool and emotionless. Lavi could feel his eyes widening, hurt pouring through him as the Noah shoved the golem into his chest. Utter surprise overtook the distress when the expected pain of the bite did not come. The fluttery feeling of wings beating next to his heart disappeared as if the Tease had vanished.
"It's one of the most painful ways to die." Tyki said softly, but audible to all. "Everyone else I've killed this way dies screaming for mercy as their heart pumps blood through the hole."
The Noah removed his hand, Lavi's eyes seeing an empty palm for a nanosecond before another Tease appeared. Instantly catching on, Lavi began to convulse in his invisible shackles. His arms strained against the holds as if trying to grab at his heart in a futile struggle to push the blood supposedly gushing from it back inside his veins. His hands clenched into fists as he threw his head back against the wall, cries of pain issuing from his lips. He couldn't outright scream - Road had been torturing him and he hadn't screamed, so it would be suspicious if he did so now. He let his convulsions weaken and his cries grow softer and softer as if he was truly dying. He allowed his body to slump over, cries ending as he let himself go completely limp.
"Wow... he didn't even scream." Road said, awed. The redhead felt the shackles supporting him disappear, sending his body falling forward. He controlled himself, trying not to noticeably brace for the impact and just let himself fall. To flinch now would be disastrous.
He let his body collapse to the ground, letting his arms fall were they would and only slightly shifting his face so that his cheek struck the floor instead of his nose. He bit through his lip to stop the cry that rose in his throat as the impact sent several shocks through his body and drove some of the candles in deeper. At least none of his vitals were in immediate danger - none of the spikes had hit anywhere fatal. The flames, too, on the tips of the candles had gone out from the sudden rush of wind. He concentrated on taking only the shallowest of breaths, careful not to make a sound or allow his chest to rise or fall more than was absolutely necessary.
"Now then, I'll just call an Akuma to take care of the body." Lavi heard the Earl say, totally upbeat.
"No need. I've already done it." Tyki responded easily. Lavi heard the sound of a portal opening, then the clack-clack of dress shoes move across the floor. He kept his body limp as two arms lifted him carelessly. The Exorcist could feel air move over his face as the Akuma carrying him turned and presumably took him back through the portal - Lavi didn't dare open his eyes even a crack in order to see.
A set of curious eyes followed the redhead, but their observance went unnoticed by the others in the room. As the magical doorway closed behind them, Lavi could hear the Earl praise the Pleasure's coldhearted 'murder'.
Line Break
Lavi didn't breathe as the Akuma set him down on something soft, didn't dare move until he heard the wooden door to the room close behind the servant. Then, and only then, did he sit up to look around. He winced at the motions, hissing at the pain of his recent injuries before taking deep breaths and pushing the physical pain to the back of his mind. Bookman’s lessons on meditation had been difficult, but it did the trick when he needed to clear his head.
First priority - find something to bandage his wounds. Removing all of the candle-stakes by himself was out of the question, as there was no way he'd be able to keep enough pressure on some of wounds to prevent himself from bleeding out. The one in his shoulder and in his arm would need to stay until he could get help and possibly the two in his abdomen as well. The one on his thigh and leg he could pull out by himself, assuming he had enough bandages. All of them hurt, the pain growing every time he moved and radiating out from the spikes. Now that any adrenaline he had was done pumping through him, he felt the wounds more fully but at least now he could act to minimize the pain.
The cuts and burns would be easiest to deal with, since the burns weren’t serious and could just be left to heal on their own. His cuts he could probably get away with just wiping off for now, rather than washing and bandaging. Most had been pretty shallow anyway. His arms still leaked a bit of blood and the crimson liquid stained his chest, but nothing bled heavily. His shirt and jacket had been burned off, so he had nothing of his own he could tear up for bandages.
He began glancing around the room he had been taken to. He assumed it was Tyki's bedroom, since he doubted the Noah would have the Akuma servant take him somewhere unsafe.
The thought caused a warm glow to heat his heart. He had been so confused before as to why the Pleasure hadn't killed him and even though he still didn't fully understand, he knew one thing for certain - Tyki wouldn't kill him. If the Noah had truly been planning on killing him, then the perfect opportunity had just come and gone. Even if Tyki had been reluctant and needed an excuse to kill him, then being forced to do it under the eye of the Earl was the best he could get. The Pleasure wasn't going to kill him. That one piece of information was worth much more to Lavi than a few hours (most of it spent while he was unconscious) in the hands of a psycho girl and her sadistic employer.
He felt a pang when he thought of his Innocence, supposedly lost, but Tyki's actions made him doubt the man had actually destroyed the hammer. If Tyki could fool the Earl in regards to the murder of an Exorcist, surely he could fool a few observers as to whether or not some Innocence was destroyed? Lavi wasn't holding his breath hoping for the return of Ozuchi Kozuchi, but he knew there was a possibility that Tyki had saved his Innocence as well.
He almost wanted to laugh; if he ever told anyone else back at Headquarters about this, they would think he was crazy or hallucinating. Tyki Mikk did not save Exorcists, or their Innocence, but the Pleasure had saved Lavi's. Just the thought fed new life into a part of his heart the redhead had thought was dead - his hope for the future. Warmth enveloped him, even though there were a lot of questions he wanted to ask.
He looked around. The room was spacious and mostly empty but for a closet, a dresser, a mirror hanging in between the two, the bed Lavi was currently occupying, and a night table next to the bed. All the furniture was made out of hardwood and was plain and undecorated. The bed was set with the headboard against the back wall and more than big enough for two people. The sheets, the redhead couldn't help but notice, were fine black silk. He ran his fingers lightly over the cool material, then realized what he was doing and stopped himself.
He slowly got out of the bed, careful not to shift the candles in his body, and moved over to the dresser. There had to be something in there he could tear up and use for bandages, since he was beginning to get really dizzy from the loss of blood. He wouldn't pass out, he wasn't to that point yet, but the sooner he stopped the bleeding, the better. His steps were a bit unsteady as he reached the dresser, leaning on it slightly as he wrapped his fingers around the brass knob of the top drawer and pulled.
The drawer was filled with black slacks, neatly folded and carefully placed in neat piles. With a sigh, he shoved the drawer closed and reached for the second knob. That drawer contained what he had been looking for - piles of the white shirts Tyki favored wearing. He began to reach for one, then hesitated. Sure he had been deposited in the Pleasure's room with wounds in need of attention, but he doubted Tyki would appreciate it if he tore up a shirt or two to fix his injuries. The Pleasure had pretended to kill him rather than actually kill him, but the Exorcist knew they weren't close enough for him to assume Tyki wouldn't mind.
He swallowed the sudden lump in his throat, forcing himself to remember how the Noah had saved his life in very dangerous circumstances. He should be grateful for what he had, not foolishly wishing for things he could never have. That way lay madness, even if the reminder that he would never be anything more than a convenient partner to the Noah killed his good mood. The way the Pleasure had saved his life did make him wonder, but he was too logical to believe it was anything more than a whim of the Noah's. A dangerous whim, but the man was dangerous so it wasn't a surprise. If the older man hadn't been able to avoid killing him, Lavi was fairly certain the Pleasure wouldn't have lost sleep over the act.
He had to be rational here, since thinking with his heart had gotten him into trouble before. It had, after all, landed him in this situation.
The warmth that had expanded in his chest dissipated. He shoved the drawer shut and moved on to the third. He closed that one almost as soon as he opened it, eyes registering the black underclothes for a brief instant before he shut the drawer. The fourth simply seemed to hold accessories - several pairs of pristine gloves, a few ties and those ribbon-things the man was so fond of wearing. Dress socks and hair ties also took up some of the space, but nothing usable. Lavi sighed quietly and closed the drawer.
He slowly turned and nearly tripped over his feet as he moved towards the closet. He stumbled slightly, reaching out to catch himself on the door and wincing at the soft 'thump'. Gritting his teeth, he pushed open the door. Maybe there was some sort of hamper where he could find an already ruined shirt to rip up. He briefly noted the suit jackets hanging up along some other clothes, but quickly turned his attention to the floor of the closet. To his surprise, pants and shirts littered the closet floor, as if the owner of said articles just threw them in the general direction of the (almost empty, Lavi noted) hamper wedged in the corner. Lavi smiled thinly, figuring Tyki didn't put away his own clothes. The man probably had servants for such menial tasks.
Slowly, taking care not to drive any of the spikes deeper into his body or rip open any of his wounds further, he knelt to dig through the pile of old laundry. The action did pull on some of his injured muscles, but he ignored the pain. Clean cloth would have been better, obviously, but with no way of telling what the Pleasure's reaction would be Lavi wasn't about to risk it. After a few moments of digging and shoving aside a pair of the Noah's undergarments rather hastily, the redhead found a shirt. It was, or rather, had been, one of the Pleasure's nice silk button-ups, but was already stained in several places by what looked to be blood. Lavi could see several tears in the material, marking where the Noah had been injured.
He held the shirt with one hand, resisting the urge to bring it to his nose and inhale deeply. The Exorcist got to his feet slowly and moved back towards the bed. He sat next to it, leaning his back against the silk covered mattress. He took deep breaths, not moving for a minute while he cleared his mind from the pain clouding it.
Once he had the pain under control again, he regarded the shirt. Slowly, he lifted it to his mouth. He would need several long strips, but his arms wouldn't be strong enough to get it started. Before this, maybe, but definitely not now. He brought the cloth up to his teeth and began to bite into it. He ripped the shirt into pieces and began the slow task of bandaging him own wounds.
One shirt would not provide nearly enough cloth strips for all his injuries, but he wasn't about to rip up two. With a sigh, he took one of the pieces of silk - what had been the collar, of little use as a bandage - and began to wipe off the blood drying on his face. The cut there was a bit deep, but seemed to have stopped bleeding. He vaguely hoped it wouldn't scar. The Exorcist moved on to cleaning off his chest; he spat into what would henceforth be termed a 'rag' and ran the cloth over the injuries. The white cloth was quickly dyed crimson, long before he moved to his arms. Trickles of blood still ran from the cuts, but nothing major.
His arms were in much the same condition. The 'cleaning', if it could be termed that, stung a bit, but he wanted to get at least some of the blood off. When the rag was soaked he dropped it by his side and took stock of his other injuries. He paused again to relax, arms exhausted from that little bit of exertion. He had needed to move slowly in order to avoid aggravating his wounds, but he hadn’t been able to completely avoid pulling on the injured muscles.
He stared at the silk rags. He had enough bandages from one shirt to wrap at least one of his major wounds, though wrapping two might be pushing it. The only question was which spike to remove.
Lavi grinned wryly as he looked down at the blue, orange, and pink wax stakes. The one in his shoulder would be impossible to bandage tightly without help and the one in his arm would be far too difficult. The two in his abdomen he could probably get by himself, with the added bonus of being able to bandage them together. Still, putting pressure on both at once would be difficult, and he would have to pull both out in a short amount of time and get both bandaged rather quickly. That would be too hard to do while trying to keep pressure on both stab wounds, so that was out. The one in the lower part of his leg was painful, and would probably take the least amount of bandages. He might even be able to wrap the wound on his thigh while he was at it.
Taking a deep breath, Lavi drew the leg with the stake protruding next to his shin towards himself. He grabbed the candle firmly with one hand and, pressing down on his leg with the other, yanked. The candle slid out partway, as his hand slipped up and off the spike. His leg tensed at the pain and he cried out, just barely remembering to muffle himself so no passing Akuma came to investigate. The wax stake was slick with blood and not easy to grab. He stopped for a few moments, breathing deeply and trying to get his leg to relax. Gritting his teeth, he tried again. The quicker he got this done, the less pain in the end.
The candle came free as the redhead hissed in pain and pressed down firmly on the now freely bleeding wound. He grabbed one of the strips of silk cloth blindly, quickly moving it into place and beginning to wrap the white cloth tightly around his shin. It wouldn't be perfect, but it would do.
He ended up grabbing two more strips of cloth before the wound was bandaged tightly enough so that the bleeding had mostly stopped. He could still feel a small amount leaking from the injury, but the only way to fix the leak would be to completely re-bandage his shin and he knew he had done the best he could.
He eyed his 'stock' of bandages. He had four more strips, so he could potentially wrap his thigh-
The sound of the door opening broke him out of his thoughts. The redhead looked towards the door, frozen in place against the side of the bed.
Tyki Mikk stood in the doorway, several rolls of clean bandages in his hands. The Noah's expression was unreadable as the man took another step into the room and shut the door quietly behind himself. The Exorcist tried to relax against the side of the bed, but he was suddenly very aware of where he was - the Pleasure's bedroom - and that he was only half-dressed. He could feel his face flush and he looked away from the Noah.
The redhead didn't know exactly where he stood with the man - everything had started for them because of a stupid game he had pretended to lose. The last two times he had seen the Pleasure, Tyki had half-heartedly tried to kill him. Just now, the man had saved his life and now the redhead was hiding in the Noah's bedroom until he could (presumably) make his escape.
The Pleasure was unnaturally silent as the man knelt next to Lavi, dropping the bandages carelessly on the floor. The Exorcist wasn't sure exactly what the man was thinking, as Tyki let none of his thoughts cross his face, but he could tell the man was thinking hard about something. He swallowed heavily as an intense golden gaze looked over his injuries. Tyki's eyes rested on each candle-spike, drawing briefly over each cut before the Noah's eyes rested on Lavi's only bandaged injury.
Noticing where the Pleasure was staring, Lavi hastened to explain.
"I wasn't sure when you would get here, so I started wrapping some of my injuries." he explained, inching back until he was pressed against the bed. The Noah's stare hadn't moved. Lavi shifted uncomfortably, wondering if he had overstepped. "I- the shirt was already ruined, so I thought you wouldn't mind if I used it-"
"It's fine."
A pale gray hand reached out to touch the spike impaled on the thigh of his other leg. Lavi winced involuntarily as the light touch shifted the stake just slightly, sending fresh sparks of pain through his leg. The Noah's hand immediately retracted.
"I need to pull that out, lovely, or else I can't wrap it." Tyki said softly. Lavi nodded, not too sure what to make of the strangely quiet Pleasure. He relaxed as much as he was able, spreading his legs some and bending his knee slightly so that his thigh was raised a bit off the ground. The Noah moved in closer, taking off his gloves and absently putting them in his pocket before reaching out to press one hand on Lavi's thigh and grabbing the candle gently with the other. The redhead gave a soft, almost inaudible cry of pain as the stake was pulled out, hands clenching into fists on the ground.
Silently, the Noah grabbed a roll of bandages and began to unravel the end of the cloth strip. He took the free end and began to wrap the white material around the bloody wound. The bandage was a bit too tight, but the Exorcist kept quiet. The soft hands sliding over his thigh, close to the place his legs joined, were distracting even though the Pleasure was not trying to excite him. Though injured, the redhead was only male and couldn't help but take notice.
The Noah didn't even seem to notice, apparently lost in his own thoughts. Not for the first time, Lavi wished he knew what went on inside the Noah's head.
TBC…
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