An Assassin's Lover (BoyxBoy)

The Nightmares That Haunt Us

"Dad. Stop! Please stop." A childhood Kenji of eight-years-old begs the menacing man standing in front of him. Kenji's dad, Junichiro Akairo, was holding a metal wrench in his hand. He smashes it against his young son's eyebrow. The blinding pain envelopes Kenji. Tears mixed with blood run down the child's dirty face.

"You despicable, good for nothing, runt. I'm going to teach you what being a man is all about." The terrifying man in a million-dollar suit sneers. He grabs a broom handle and starts beating his young child's body over and over. Kenji cries out in pain. Finally, his young body succumbs to the pain, and he blacks out. When he awakens hours later, he's lying on a concrete floor. "Argh." He groans, holding his stomach. His older brother, Kazu, looks upon his badly beaten little brother. Tears run down Kazu's face as he strokes the child's hair.

"I'm sorry, little brother. I'm so sorry. I should have gotten beaten, not you."

The image changes. Kenji, now a young teenager, is in the gym punching a punching bag. His father charges into the gym and grabs Kenji by the back of the hair. He drags the teenager to a nearby bathroom. He dunks Kenji's head under the water as Kenji struggles to breathe. He lifts Kenji's head up long enough for Kenji to take a quick breath before dunking him again. Every time right before Kenji is about to succumb to his fate at the hands of his own father, he is pulled up and then dunked again. His lungs burn badly in his chest. He struggles against his father's powerful grip. The last time his father dunks him, he slams Kenji's head against the side of the bathtub. It slices his eyebrow open. Blood flows into the bathtub mixing with the water. Kenji is dizzy and close to losing consciousness. His father lifts his head one more time. This time he throws Kenji on the ground and leaves him there gasping for air, a gaping wound over his swollen eye. Kazu finds Kenji a little while later. He picks him up and rushes him to the hospital. The doctor patches up his eyebrow and sends Kenji home.

The image switches again. Kenji is an even older teenager. His dad is holding the dog that Kenji holds dearly by the throat with a blade to its neck. It's the only thing Kenji has ever truly loved. A golden lab Kazu had bought him for his birthday. He named her Goldie because of the color of her coat. "Pa, please. Don't. I beg you. I will do anything. Please don't hurt her." Tears stream down Kenji's face as he begs his dad on his knees. "Pa! Pa! PA!" Kenji screams as his dad slice's the poor dogs throat and throws her on the ground in front of his youngest son. "You will do everything I tell you to do. No questions asked." Kenji's dad says and walks away without looking back at his son.

"Kenji. Kenji. Wake up!" Kenji is shaken awake by a man over him. "It's just a nightmare." Two strong arms wrap around Kenji's equally strong body. Kenji's body trembles as the other man pulls Kenji up out of his sleep. A side lamp is switched on as Atlas keeps one arm locked tightly around Kenji. Atlas had woken up to the sound of terrified wails coming out of Kenji's bedroom. It wasn't until he opened the door and saw Kenji lying in the bed sobbing and screaming that he realized the man suffers from nightmares.

Kenji blinks trying to let his eyes adjust to the light. His body is covered in a sheen of sweat. He peers over at the clock on the nightstand. It's 2 AM. "I'm fine." Kenji says, gently pushing Atlas off of him. Atlas looks at him concerned.

"You sure as hell didn't sound fine. You were screaming and sobbing when I came in here."

"It was just a nightmare. I'm fine." Kenji wipes the hair off his forehead.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Atlas sits on the edge of the bed. Kenji can feel the warmth radiating off the man beside him. Kenji shakes his head, embarrassed he had woken his host up in the middle of the night as if he was some child having a nightmare about monsters under his bed. The thing was Kenji's monster was real and very much alive. It was the person that bore him, named him, and turned Kenji into the person he had become. Now that monster was sending other monsters to try to kill Kenji.