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“Ugh! It’s fucking cold.”
Sero pushed his face deeper into a fluffy scarf tied around his neck. Yellow light illuminated his road back from work, the street quite and empty at such late hour. His last assignment took longer to finish than usual, his victim surprisingly resistant to his torturing methods. The last time he spent so much effort into getting the information was when he started working as a torturer.
His muscles ached from the extortion and Sero could still smell the metallic stench of blood on him, even though he took a thorough bath afterwards. Everyone already left the office, when he finally emerged from the room, leaving the place eerily quite and creepy. All he wanted right now was to lay down in his bed and pass out until his clock would ring to wake him up.
And it’ll be only a few hours from now.
Sighing tiredly, Sero glued his eyes on the white road ahead of him. His boots scrunched in the fresh snow, the white snowflakes were leisurely twirling around in the air, engulfing the neighborhood in silence. Although, he could still hear that someone was following him. The road he took back home was the fastest, but went through some really shady alleyways in which the worst scums of society liked to linger.
Sero huffed a silent laugh and kept walking – pretending like he didn’t notice the shadows following him. Inside the coat pocket, his hand curled around the pepper spray he always carried with him. It wasn’t like he was scared of being mugged, but it gave him the upper hand nonetheless.
Don’t think that all I’m good at is only torturing.
Shiu made sure through his extensive training, that Sero was always in good shape and knew one or two tricks of self defense. Making the decision of finally acknowledging his followers, Sero took another turn behind the high wall of a building and took a few quick steps, turning around and waiting until the assailants showed up.
There were three men, who stopped in their tracks after seeing him. Sero kept his cool, watching each of them carefully. From the first sight, all three looked like your average punks who just looked for trouble. Sero was sure he could handle them, the pepper spray ready to be used.
“Alright, that’s enough. Who are you?”
Leaning more on his right leg, Sero observed the trio slowly walking closer. Their faces were twisted in angry snarls, but so far he didn’t notice any weapons on either of them.
“You have balls to not recognize us.”
“And should I?”
He tilted his head to the side in confusion. Sero racked his brain in vein trying to remember if he ever met any of them. But he didn’t.
His reaction clearly angered one of the punks – the middle one, who towered above the other two by almost a head. He stepped closer, waving his hands furiously.
“You almost killed my friend, dickhead!”
More confusion. Sero had no idea, what that man was talking about.
“Eeee…”
“You work at Spirytus, right?!”
Now, everything clicked into place.
Ah… he must be a friend of one of my victims. Well…
“I was just doing my job. Your friend’s one to blame. Apparently, he put his nose where he shouldn’t have.”
The middle one screamed in rage, his face going redder from the adrenaline.
“Bullshit! He’s still lying unconscious in the hospital!”
“What can I say? I’m just that good at my job!”
Sero laughed, spreading his arms wide. This seemed to be the last push the gang needed to finally attack. They ran at him – led by their ‘leader’ whose arm was swinging up for the first blow. Sero waited to the last second, wanting them all to be as close as possible. Than, he pulled the pepper spray and pointed it at their faces. An intense smelling mist went straight into their eyes and all three screamed in agony. Stumbling on the snowy ground, clawing at their faces they circled around, bumping into each other.
“Fuck, my eyes!”
“This burns, holy shit!”
“You motherfucker!”
Sero watched them greatly amused. Thinking that the job was done, he turned around ready to continue his walk, but the moment his back was towards them, someone bumped into him, almost throwing him off his feet.
“Shit!”
Strong arms latched at his waist, pulling him back so he swung his elbow and hit the man straight on the nose. He shouted again and fell into the snow. Another two were ready to attack as well, their faces red, teary and swollen.
“Not so fast, asshole. We’re not done with you.”
“You really want to join your friend in the hospital, huh?”
Sero took off the scarf, throwing it away and took a fighting stance. He didn’t have to wait for long, before they came rushing at him.
He blocked the first few blows – his fists faster than theirs. Punch after punch send them on the ground, but they stood back up. The cold air burnt his throat, sweat started to gather on his back under the coat. His patience for this stupidity was thinning fast, replaced by the annoyance and anger.
It wasn’t common for friends, employees or family to try get revenge on them. Despite murder and torture being legal, some people were still against such cruel methods of earning money. Shiu had a fair share of such visits way before Sero joined him. There was a time or two, in his early years when he also had that pleasure, but they were few and far between.
Like right now, he had to deal with those idiots, who definitely thought he would be an easy target if they attack him together.
In your fucking dreams.
One after another, the men swung at him blindly, but were never able to hit a mark. Sero was able to kick or push them aside. He was sure that he broke noses on two of them, the third one had to deal with a broken wrist, but was still determined to come up as a winner.
“Aren’t you tired, yet?”
He huffed, a little winded, but the smile never left his face. Adrenaline pumped in his veins, making his giddy and craving more. He treated torturing as a job like any other. He woke up, went to work, tormented some punks and went home. Hurting people outside of working hours wasn’t his gig. But sometimes you have to break the rules if you want to survive.
“I’m gonna kill you.”
Their leader seethed and sprung at him with a raised fist.
“This is getting boring you know?”
Sero grabbed the incoming hand, placing his other on the assailant’s elbow and using the man’s own momentum, threw him over his shoulder back on the ground. The man gasped and twitched in the snow, cursing his name angrily.
Getting more pent up by the second, Sero panted and turned around to see if the other two were done. It was at that moment, when a sudden movement in the corner of his eyes caught his attention and he twisted, guarding himself for the incoming blow. What he didn’t expect was the fact, that one of this fuckers would bring a knife into the fight.
One moment Sero was standing over the taller man, and at the second a piercing pain spread from his side. He cursed and grabbed the hands which were holding a switch blade – now pushed deep into his body. The attacker started laughing maniacally, as if he won. Their eyes met for a split second. Sero growled and kicked the man on the jaw, sending him flying backwards.
He stumbled a few steps, one hand clutching at the knife. Blood quickly trickled through the thick coat, dirtying it. The sensation of a blade stuck in his side was uncomfortable – every move aggravated the wound, so after making a fast decision he pulled it out and threw it away.
In the meantime, the group managed to scramble back on their feet, cackling menacingly.
“You’re not so smart now, huh?”
“Oh, I’m just starting.”
Still being fueled by the adrenaline, Sero used the last of his strength and finally managed to knock out all three of them. When they were spread all over the pavement, Sero stood over them, squeezing his side, panting heavily. His vision blurred and he felt lightheaded, swaying on his feet. Stumbling back, he leaned over the wall and slid down, plopping unceremoniously into the snow.
Dark spots of blood stood out in the white where he fought. It still dripped steadily from the wound, but he didn’t have any strength to even push on it. Feeling on the verge of passing out, he searched for his phone. With trembling fingers he took it out of his pocket and went for the first contact on his list. He hoped that despite the late hour, this person would pick up fast.
He could barely hold the smartphone near his face while the signal rang steadily. After the third one, the line was finally picked and a muffled voice spoke sleepily.
“Do you know what time it is?”
Sero huffed a tired laugh, the black dots now dancing before his eyes.
“Shiu… hel...p…”
That was all he managed to breath out, before the darkness engulfed him entirely.
~*~
Sero had no idea how long he’s been unconscious. What he knew for sure was that what happened last night definitely wasn’t a dream. The pain he felt in his right side made sure of it. Gasping from the sudden stab, he tried to curl over himself. Strong arms were on him in a moment, preventing any movement. When the shock went away, Sero was than assaulted with the blinding lights overhead. His head split in half whenever he tried to open his eyes and he whimpered miserably.
“Stay still, idiot. Take it easy.”
The familiar baritone broke through the rush in his ears and Sero was finally able to squint his eyelids open, blinking away the blurriness.
“...Shiu?”
His voice was hoarse, throat raw and aching – as if he was inhaling glass shards.
“Who else?”
A hand went from his shoulder up to his cheek. Warm fingers stroked the pale skin and went higher to curl in his hair, tussling them delicately.
“What… happened?”
Sero’s eyes were glued onto the man before him, head tilting more into the soft touch. Shiu watched him with the same blank expression, but if you looked closer there were slight dark circles under his eyes. His long hair weren’t braided, but tied in a lousy ponytail – loose strands stood out in random places.
“You tell me. You call me in the middle of the night, mumble incoherently and than go silent. It took me thirty minutes to find you.”
Guilt squeezed his heart and Sero averted his eyes sideways.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know whom to call…”
“Normal people would choose 119. You almost bled to death, not to mention you were ice cold.”
“I’m sorry. You were the first thing that came to my mind.”
Shiu watched him closely, his hand going down back to rest on his face again. Despite the guilt and shame, Sero pushed into it closer, closing his eyes.
“I’m glad you’re okay. You did a good job with dealing with those bastards.”
The younger man smiled, looking up at his mentor.
“What did you do with them?”
“I called the police, obviously. Though, after I made sure they won’t bother us for a very long time.”
Sero laughed lightly, but hissed when the motion pulled on his stitches. Shiu noticed that and leaned more to grab his hand and squeezed it, hard.
“Easy.”
The younger man smiled thankfully, plopping back on the pillow. He was exhausted, but all he did through this last minutes was just waking up and existing. His eyes were closing on their own, but he tried to stay awake for a little bit longer. Obviously, Shiu noticed his struggles – his hands started to massage Sero’s to help ease the discomfort.
“Don’t push yourself. If you want to sleep than do it.”
“I woke you in the middle of the night. You must be tired, too.”
Shiu sighed, shaking his head.
“I would come even if you were on the other end of the country, idiot.”
Sero felt how his cheeks got warmer – the sudden rush of emotions partially dulling the stabbing pain from his wound. With shining eyes, he stared at his mentor tenderly.
“Really?”
Shiu watched him for a second, until a soft smile also appeared on his face.
“Of course.”
He scooted his chair closer and leaned over the younger man. Warm lips placed a delicate kiss on Sero’s forehead, making the man blush even more.
“...what?”
“Shut up.”
Sero looked at him shocked, but the giddiness started to crush his chest. A broad smile brightened his pale features, returning some of the color to it.