Chapter Text
“Fuck!” Giriko stumbled, falling over onto the cold dusty floor. This was it, wasn’t it? 800 years of bullshit ended by a stupid kid. Getting ready to feel his head slice cleanly off and roll and bounce off his shoulders awkwardly his body bunched up in anticipation. The tension kept getting worse and worse as he waited… and waited. This was taking too long. He knew time could slow down in pivotal moments but this was ridiculous. Daring to peek an eye open he was shocked to see Justin completely frozen, his eyes a darkening purple and his entire body wracking with sporadic shivers and twitches. What the fuck was happening?
Moving to get up Giriko saw Arachne appear from behind Justin, her eyes the same dark glowing purple. She approached them with heavy, but still somehow elegant steps. She unfolded her fan, and Justin fell like a rock. The way she looked at the brat’s body with such a haughty disgust made it seem like she was looking at something rotten and vile instead of just a dumbass. Giriko wasn’t paying too much attention to that though. He was too busy being completely awe struck by what had just happened. The sound off Justin’s heavy body slamming into the concrete was still echoing in his head.
“Pick him up Giriko, we’re going back.” Giriko’s throat felt dry, there was a weird weight on his shoulders, but nevertheless he stood up to pick Justin up. It felt more than weird to finally make contact with the kid’s skin. He wasn’t sure if he had ever managed to land enough of a hit on the brat to ever have felt this. He supposed that even if he had, Justin was so wrapped up in all the fabric of his clothes that Giriko wouldn’t of felt his skin anyway. Not unless he managed a precise hit on the brats face or hands. He was never all that good at precision.
Giriko tugged at Justin hand a few more times, before realizing that there wasn’t anything that’d get Justin up right now. He wasn’t wounded, he was out . Arachne had knocked him out cold. Wiping at his face with a well hidden groan Giriko knelt all the way down to lift Justin up and flip him over his shoulder. He wasn’t all that keen on lugging the brat back, but as he stood back up, Justin in tow, he was surprised to see how light the kid was. He was way too light honestly. It pissed him off. How the hell had he been having so much of a problem with someone as tiny as this? It seriously felt like someone could throw a beach ball at him and it’d knock him over.
Turning back towards Arachne he paled to see her staring at him with a questioning and impatient brow, waiting for him to get going already. He moved to say something in awkward apology, but she turned on her heel before he had a chance, motioning for him to follow and stay quiet. Giriko grimaced and started to trail behind her. There was an atmosphere that screamed he was in trouble. She was undoubtedly disappointed in him for losing to Justin, well… almost losing. His face turned the slightest ashamed red and his face knotted up in anger. This fucking brat was so insufferable. How could he keep fucking Giriko up like this? Why was he so impossible to beat?
A few more moments passed in silence, and Mosquito started to come into view, already having opened the car door to usher Arachne in. He had that normal annoying seriousness about him, but then he saw Justin. His eyes widened enough that it looked like they were going to pop out of his old head. Giriko would laugh if he wasn’t feeling the same way about all of this. What were they even doing here? What had Arachne done, and what did she want to have happen with the kid? He wanted to ask, but after the look he got he figured it wasn’t the time to push at it. Mosquito did it for him.
“My Lady, what is-? What are you doing? You surely don’t want to bring a Death Scythe back with us, who knows what could happen!” Arachne got into the car without so much as acknowledging Mosquito’s question. Giriko and Mosquito could only share a look for a brief moment before following to get in themselves. Mosquito shut the door Arachne got in before moving to get into the driver's seat himself. Giriko had a bit more of a problem.
He went around to get in, but then noticed it wasn’t going to be that easy for him. He had a fucking kid on him he needed to somehow ram in there without hitting Arachne at all. Lifting Justin off his shoulder he ignored Mosquito’s glare to hurry up. It was more than awkward folding the brat into a weird curled up ball and holding him tight against his chest, but it let him squeeze the two of them into the car and slam the door. They were like fucking sardines in this side, and Justin’s feet were dangerously close to bumping into Arachne, but they fit. Giriko wished Mosquito’s car had a fucking trunk he could’ve dumped Justin into. This was uncomfortable and he had to stare straight into Justin’s lap unless he wanted to look at the other’s surprisingly serene sleeping face and shining blonde hair.
The car jerked a bit as they started moving and Giriko felt his heart leap into his throat as Justin’s head rocked into his chest. This was too close. He had only been this close to Justin in combat when there wasn’t any time to think about anything but surviving. Right now he had far too much time to think about things. Far too much time to realize how much the brat smelled like roses and candle wax. How he had fucking little faint freckles that made him look even younger than he already was. How his tiny lips were rose bud red and wet with his heavy sleepy breaths. This was bullshit. This was what had almost killed him. The fucking brat on his lap almost killed him. He shouldn’t be noticing how pretty Justin was, he should be overcome with hatred and a burning desire to completely dismember him.
“I know what I’m doing Mosquito. He isn’t a threat anymore, he’ll be helping us.” Both Giriko and Mosquito made a weird noise of shock when Arachne finally answered the question. Mosquito was too busy driving to look at their witch in shock, but Giriko wasn’t busy at all. He looked over at her so fast, with so much shock that Justin’s head got bent weirdly and fell onto his shoulder. The words were coming out of Giriko’s mouth before he could even consider if he wanted to say them.
“What do you mean!?” Arachne turned back to look at him with an unimpressed stare and Giriko froze. He knew he wasn’t really supposed to be talking right now, but at the same time he fucking needed to know what the hell she meant by that. How the hell did she expect to get Justin’s help? She had heard him talk before, had seen him fight and probably had seen far far more of the kid before with her spiders. She had to know how devout he was, how impossible recruiting him would be. What the hell was she thinking?
“It would’ve been better for you just to kill him,” Giriko flinched and she sighed in disappointment before continuing on “but since that wasn’t an option here I hypnotised him. He won’t be useful in any fights as brainless and weak as he now, but he’ll have plenty of information for us.” The silence that fell over all of them with that was deafening. Giriko stared blankly into space for a bit. He didn’t know what to make of that. He looked down at Justin, the brat was still sound asleep, curled up the way Giriko had put him. There was something that felt gross about this situation. Giriko couldn’t put his finger on it. This was Justin, this was a war. Why the hell was he having any hesitations about this? The car jerked to a stop.
“I’m quite tired now, I’ll play with him later.” Arachne opened the car door herself, not even waiting for Mosquito to help her out. Giriko was in a state of complete shock. He watched Arachne get out and start back for her lair. It took a couple seconds to catch up and burst out the other side of the car, Justin still laying limply in his arms.
“Wait! What the hell am I supposed to do with him until then!?” Arachne looked back at him again, her expression still heavy with that annoyed disappointment. It burnt more at Giriko then he’d ever admit, but he couldn’t just let this go. He needed to know what the hell to do here. She couldn't just leave him with the body of her next… Giriko’s mouth felt sharp and dry, his heart bunched up weirdly. Justin was her next toy.
“Whatever you want Giriko, I really couldn’t care less.” With that she turned away firmly, saying without words that she wouldn’t be answering anything else about this. Giriko stood there weirdly, watching as Arachne disappeared into the building, ushered in by a handful of Arachnophobia members. Mosquito got out, also processing what had happened and locking the car to head in himself. Giriko felt weird when he noticed that Mosquito was staring at Justin. He held the brat closer to his chest and moved to head in himself.
This was stupid. All of this was stupid. Walking as fast as he could without drawing suspicion Giriko pushed and shoved past all the Arachnophobia members that welcomed him or tried to ask what had happened. A couple asked if he wanted them to take Justin off his hands, he might of kicked one of them hard enough in the ankle that they fell over, but he honestly wasn’t sure. He just wanted to get back to the fucking room he was staying. He wanted to be away from all of this.
When he got back to his room and threw Justin onto the bed to slam the door shut, he was shocked at how unrelieved he felt. This was still horrible. He still felt everything painful and heavy. He was away from all the bullshit around this but… as he stared into the cold dark wood of his door he couldn’t ignore how much his chest hurt. The crushing pain of being watched, of knowing what he was doing wasn’t going away. Why wasn’t it going away? Turning around with a groan of exhaustion he figured out why.
Justin was sitting up, he had woken up from Giriko throwing him. Giriko’s throat felt sticky. Justin was just sitting there, perfectly still, no discernable expression on his face, warm purple eyes. It was like a fucking bullet to see. To realize. This wasn’t Justin. Justin wasn’t around anymore and he never would be again unless Arachne decided to release him. Giriko had been working for Arachne long enough to know she’d never do that. Justin was as good as dead. This was like looking at a doll made out of his corpse.
“H-Hey. Can you hear me in there?” Justin didn’t move, he just blinked slowly and stared at Giriko with eyes that were even emptier than they usually were. There were a couple seconds of silence, of Giriko pathetically holding on to the hope that Justin would respond to him. Of course there was nothing. Giriko’s heart felt as if it had been rubbed raw with sandpaper. He didn’t know why this was affecting him so much, but it really was. He walked over to his bed and sat down heavily besides Justin.
He didn’t even look over at Justin. He didn’t want to see Justin anymore. He didn’t want to know Justin existed like this. He wished he had been able to kill the brat before now. He wished he could somehow undo this. Something stabbed through him with that. What the hell was he thinking? This was what Arachne wanted, why the hell would he want to ruin anything for Arachne? Looking painfully over to Justin he found his heart tear apart, pop open in a rush of hot bitter blood.
“Don’t fucking look at me like that.” Justin was still just staring, however he heard the command somewhere in his hazy broken mind and moved to look away. Giriko caught his face and forced the scythe to keep looking at him. It hurt. It hurt to have Justin’s eyes on him. It hurt to feel the heavy metallic tasting guilt drip down his throat and pool heavily in his stomach, but the idea of Justin following his commands and looking away hurt worse. He kept holding Justin’s face with a weird firm gentleness, and brushed his thumbs over the others soft warm cheeks.
He got a bit of a reaction with that, the kid bunched up and shivered a bit, obviously unused to being touched like this. Somehow that made all of this feel worse. It made Giriko feel as if he had been punched so hard in the stomach that all the air in his body had been forced out in a horrid whoosh of air. He pet at Justin again and made a pained noise when Justin leaned into it this time, chasing after the affectionate movement. This felt wrong in a million different ways. Giriko couldn’t even start to list them all. He couldn’t even tell where one disgusting facet of this ended and the next one started.
“You don’t remember me, do you?” Moving one of his hands up to run his fingers through Justin’s hair his hands hit the dumb little cap and he felt his organs knot up again. He didn’t want to… but he also needed to know. Grabbing the little hat he took it off and watched, waiting to see Justin explode. And waited. And waited. There was fucking nothing. Justin just sat there, his stupid purple eyes looking at him, waiting for instruction. He really wasn’t in there anymore. This wasn’t Justin, it obviously wasn’t, but the fact that Giriko could take off his weird religious baubles without him blinking really hammered it home.
“It’s probably for the best that you don’t know who I am.” Giriko’s voice was starting to sound wet. He was having a hard time holding himself together. His chest was aching. His soul was aching. It was getting hard to breathe with the entire room feeling like it was filled with burning hot oil that got into his lungs with every breath. Justin wasn’t having any of the same problems, one of his little hands had moved onto Giriko’s thigh to help balance himself as he was pulled forward by his face. Giriko felt like he had been stabbed so many times that he was more bloody mauled flesh than a person.
“If you remembered me you’d be trying to kill me.. You’d be screaming and disgusted that I got this close to you.” Justin’s rosy purple eyes were looking at him with such… such trust that it made Giriko nauseous. He wanted to see pale hateful blue again. Giriko wanted to see Justin’s bored eyes sharpen and turn into something annoyed but undeniably excited when he saw him one more time. One last time so he could appreciate it in the way he hadn’t thought to before. Angry tears started to drip down his cheeks and he brought Justin forward to meet their lips with a painful clash of teeth.
Justin wasn’t moving, he wasn’t rejecting but it was obvious that this husk, this puppet couldn’t do anything without being controlled. He couldn’t react to Giriko sudden rush of feelings, he couldn’t even understand them. He wasn’t there. Wasn’t thinking or feeling. He was gone. Justin was gone and Giriko was just left with this fucking doll taunting him. Showing him what he could’ve fucking had if things had been different.
Biting at Justin’s lips he looked for some kind of reaction, even if it was just a flinch of pain. He kept going, kept biting until his face was smeared with blood and Justin’s lips were so bruised and swollen and bitten that his teeth were starting to dye red. The brat still was just staring. Giriko grabbed Justin by his hair and threw him up the bed so he’d be lying down. Justin ended up landing limply, twisted up and face first in the pillows. It was pathetic, heartbreaking to see that the other didn’t even move to stop himself from suffocating. He had to wait for Giriko to flip him over. He couldn’t move at all by himself… he really was just a toy now.
“Justin.” Giriko’s voice was so hoarse and pained that one would think he was fucking dying. He flipped Justin over and felt a new fresh wave of pain come over him when he saw Justin’s eyes were closed now. With the haunting purple covered, with his golden lashes kissing the tops of his cheeks, his lips busted up and red… he looked dead. He was so limp he looked dead. He was dead in a way but Giriko still wasn’t ready to deal with that. He was still trying to deal with the fact that he had apparently been in love with Justin this entire time. He was in love with Justin. That hit him like a fucking landslide.
He didn’t want to be in love with Justin, especially not now. He didn’t want to realize all of this just in time to mourn. He thought he was done with that now that Arachne had finally woken up. He… he didn’t want this pain. He wanted Justin to wake up. He didn’t even care if the brat would try and behead him the second he realized where he was. He just wanted this pain to stop. He needed it to stop. He felt like he was dying. He had been so used to goodbyes and deaths that he had gone fucking numb these 800 years, but full, unnumbed pain of it was coming crashing back. He had let himself feel again when Arachne woke up, he had wanted to feel the excitement and chaos he had been waiting for all these years… now he was paying the price.
Tapping gently on the side of Justin’s face he held his breath. The brat’s eyes opened with fluttering gold lashes to reveal that horrible purple once again. Giriko couldn’t stop the weird choking noise he made in response. He knew they weren’t going to be blue. He knew that. It didn’t hurt any less though. Why had Arachne even done this? What information could a brat like Justin have? How were they even going to get it out of this husk? Giriko’s heart froze in his chest as he realized that Justin could still follow commands, could still answer questions. His lips felt dry. His chest squeezed tight.
“Justin, say something, tell me what you're thinking.” His voice was raspy, but it was clear that Justin still understood. Like a fucking wind-up doll the brat started to move with the direction, he looked to the side, taking in the room and trying to figure out where he was. It felt wrong watching Justin survey things while looking for an answer. Giriko couldn’t decide if this weird tin soldier behavior was better or worse than Justin lying there pretty for him.
“I’m thinking… I’m scared.” Giriko couldn’t breathe. He literally couldn’t, he was trying to breathe and relax and come to terms with what he had just heard but he couldn’t. He was turning fucking blue and feeling like his lungs were going to implode. This was too much. That meant… That proved that Justin was still in there. Somewhere deep and locked away under all the hypnosis but there . He was there, feeling and seeing the world through the body he could no longer control.
And he was scared.
Giriko couldn’t fucking blame him, it’d undoubtedly be horrific to not be able to move or talk while deep in the enemy’s base, under a fucking enemy, all while being completely unable to refuse any kind of command. Knowing that now, Giriko felt a little bit bad biting the brat’s lips into pieces, but he moved past it fast enough. He was too busy being fucking thrilled with this revelation to get bogged down by any kind of bad feeling.
“Tell me what you want right now.” Justin’s eyes were still purple, he was still stiff and motionless except for the occasional reaction or twitch in response to commands. It was pissing Giriko off. He knew it wasn’t Justin’s fault but he just fucking wanted the brat back already. He wanted angry blue eyed Justin. He didn’t even care that the second Justin woke up he’d be more than just angry and would probably never forgive him, because he would be himself again, and that’s really all that mattered anymore. He got his wish slightly granted when Justin’s purple eyes got a little bit wet and he responded to the command with a small strained voice. Showing the tiniest bit of his own, genuine emotions.
“I want to go home.” Giriko took such a heavy intake of air he surprised himself. He still took another much too deep breath though. He needed to. He had to keep himself calm here. He couldn’t go off and do something stupid no matter how much Justin’s tiny little voice ripped into his heart. Rubbing his face Giriko leaned back to collect himself. Thank fucking christ Justin couldn’t talk or move without being told to because he really needed a fucking minute to right all his thoughts here. This was seriously a lot.
Finally relaxing from all the ripping horrible tension of thinking Justin had died Giriko moved to sit down heavily from where he had been kneeling over the brat. This way his legs were hanging off the bed and he’d have to twist himself slightly to look down at Justin, but it was still far more comfortable. Rubbing his eyes one last time he steeled himself to open them back up and look down at Justin’s doll like form again. The brat didn’t look scared under all the heavy layers of hypnosis and purple glowing eyes, but Giriko knew he was. He had to say something here.
“Trust me when I say you're far safer here than you would be back home.” The chances of Justin trusting that were slim to none, but Giriko didn’t know what else to say. He wasn’t even pulling stuff out of his ass here anyway, he had a damn good feeling if Justin ran back to Lord Death sobbing about how he was hypnotized they’d slaughter him without mercy. They’d say some bullshit about how they were scared that he was still somehow under their influence or infected by the madness and then kill him like he was an animal and not just a crying boy looking for their help.
Giriko didn’t even notice he had grabbed onto Justin’s side protectively and was squeezing him far too possessively with the thought of Lord Death killing him. At least he didn’t notice until Justin’s voice cracked to life again, wet and sad, with a tiny, resolute, heartbreaking “Ok.”
The weight of that and the realization of what he had just done hit Giriko like a fucking 2X4. He had fucking forgot that Justin had to follow his commands right now. He hadn’t fucking realized that ‘trust me’ could even be taken as a command. He… He had just rewritten a part of Justin’s mind. He had done that because he was a fucking moron who wasn’t thinking about how much fucking control he had over Justin right now. He could do anything to Justin, Arachne could do anything to Justin… the brat was so hopelessly vulnerable here and Giriko didn’t fucking know what to do.
“Tell me what you want from me Justin, something I can actually do for you.” Justin had to fucking know that Giriko couldn’t bring him home or release him or anything else like that. He had to know that. Giriko could only hope he’d come to terms with that and ask for something else. Something Giriko could do to make him feel better, to make up for just a little bit of this horrible situation. Justin sat silent. A minute passed with absolutely nothing and Giriko felt his heart fall all the way to hell. He should’ve been expecting this, he should’ve known-
“Hold me.” Giriko blinked. Completely shell shocked by the firm voice that chirped out of the kid. He looked down at Justin, stupidly expecting to see some kind of expression shift or movement even though he fucking knew the brat couldn’t do that. There was another weird break of silence. Giriko swallowed thickly, painfully and moved to pick Justin up again. The kid was easy to hold, light and limp as he was, but it felt wrong. It felt wrong to touch Justin while he couldn’t move.
“Uh… can I somehow? Uh, move for me Justin.” Justin’s foot twitched weirdly at that and Giriko felt his skin light on fire. There was a weird mixture of excitement and fear in the air, he had no idea what Justin was going to do once he managed to move again, he might try and kill him for all he knew. Justin’s fingers curled up next and his back arched. He was definitely getting control back. Giriko could only hold his breath and keep the other wrapped up warm and tight in his arms. Justin bent weirdly a few more times before shakily reaching his hands up for Giriko’s face to connect their lips.
Giriko didn’t know what to do, just like how Justin had been still and unmoving during their first kiss he took that role this time. He had no idea what was going on, no clue how to process this. He couldn’t wrap his head around the idea of Justin liking him. It was too unbelievable. This had to be something with the hypnosis. Suddenly feeling very gross Giriko pulled Justin away, his stomach hurting when he saw empty purple stare back. There was no fucking way to tell what Justin was thinking, what he was feeling, what was the hypnosis and what was him. They needed to get away from this situation, at least for right now. It needed to wait until Giriko had more of this figured out. Standing up he put out his hand for Justin.
“Hey, come with me.” Justin’s hand slotted into his own immediately, unable to hesitate even if he wanted to. Giriko tried to ignore the sick feeling that gave him. Tugging Justin up he moved towards the door without a moment's hesitation. He was trying to run away from what had just happened, to ignore it and pretend everything was normal even though it really really wasn’t. Justin didn’t fight it, but he also couldn’t. His expression was the same it had been this entire time, empty and vacant.
Everything felt sticky, sickly. Justin’s eyes were boring into him. The brat was reacting in there, judging Giriko’s actions and not being able to express those thoughts at all. That was a horrible thing to know. He kind of wanted to sit Justin down somewhere and just leave. He wanted a break from all of this but he also knew leaving Justin alone like this was a bad idea. His hand hesitated over the door knob.
“What am I supposed to do here?” He didn’t really mean to say it out loud but he felt Justin’s hand twitch ever so slightly under his own. It was a weird, almost scary movement that made Giriko’s heart leap into his throat before he turned around painfully slow. He didn’t want to see the expression waiting for him, he already knew what it was.
“She said whatever you want, right?” Justin’s voice was mostly monotone under all the hypnosis but there was a hint of something dangerous under all of that. The words sounded heavy like medicated syrup that made you want to throw up, it sounded accusatory, disgusted, scared, relenting . Giriko could feel himself sweating bullets, each pore in his skin stretching around a thick drop of salty water.
“Yeah.”