Love/Hate (Lemon GarouxReader 🍋)

Forsaken

Mood: Rammstein's 'Mutter' album

~*~

Ryo's body twists and writhes out of pure instinct, pure terror. Tareo's is frozen, still under the rough, scaled and calloused arm of the hideous monster carrying him down a dim, stench-filled corridor after being give Gyoro Gyoro's permission. Waganma's limbs have gone completely limp, his mind a complete blank.
Ryo's little body fights for all its worth. His voice trying to break through the stinking hand still around his mouth making it difficult to breathe. A sharp scream for help that never makes it fully through and he is forced to swallow it right back.
His body fights in a fevered frenzy but his mind is suspended, stock-still in fear. There is a complete disconnect between the fight of his body and the flight of his mind. So much has happened already that he can no longer process any of it.
He thinks of you, reaching out for him, a fright on your face that he had never seen before as his monstrous kidnapper whipped him away. What is he doing here when he was right by your side on the broken street what seems only minutes ago?
He feels the ground shake as his troll-like captor carries him lazily down the cold, black hallway. Hears a crash. Then another. The crescendo of a terrible fight. It is close by but to him it may as well be miles away.
'Garou onii-san', he thinks but there is no urgency to the thought at first. As if a pleasant after-thought before suddenly snapping back to reality.
Garou onii-san!
Gyoro Gyoro's ultimatum to kill an innocent hero or him and Tareo. One life for another. The way he had not hesitated with his choice.
Ryo suddenly feels the sting of hot tears, barely recognising them as his own. It's not fair. IT'S NOT FAIR!
Why did they make Garou do that? They are forcing him to be bad, to be evil. And it's all because of him. Because of Ryo, because of Tareo.
He can't quite grasp at the complexity, the philosophical morality, of the situation but his heart begins to hurt. A tight squeeze in his chest that has nothing to do with the steel-like stringy muscles of the monster that keep him firmly in place.
Tareo cannot help but think back on his close call with Royal Ripper. He doesn't so much think as he is overwhelmed by the flashbacks.
He was lucky. Garou-sensei had been there, saved his life. He had arrived quickly. But for those moments between Royal Ripper appearing before him, a horrifying ghoul, and the secure sound of Garou's voice, those moments had been the most terrifying of his life. The sight of the blood-stained blades of Royal Ripper's arms were enough to make his stomach feel full of sickening lead. He had escaped a fate worse than death because of Garou. But now?
Garou was back there, fighting for his own life. Any glimmer of hope of Garou's victory is becoming quickly extinguished as the building shakes again, dust falling through the cracks in the corridor's ceiling and Garou himself appears nowhere to be found.
"Seems like Lord Orochi is having fun," the monster carrying Waganma spits. "Hey kid," he shakes Waganma unceremoniously, "wake up," his ugly grin flashes in the torch light.
But Waganma seems to have lost consciousness or to be in a complete state of shock.
"Where you wanna take these brats?" The one carrying Ryo asks, violently jerking his arm in annoyance, trying to get his prey to stop wriggling once and for all.
"Why we gotta take them anywhere? I'm starvin' now. Ain't no one around so we don't gotta share, do we?" It grins at the others. "Might as well just rip them up here now, eh? Have a little feast? Everyone too busy running towards them heroes right now."
Heroes?!
Tareo's face takes on a little more colour than before. Eyes widening. The heroes are here? Where? How far away?
"Alright brats," Waganma's captor announces as he drops Waganma against the wall carelessly and the other two follow suit as Tareo and Ryo are dumped onto the ground next to the original hostage, "don't squirm now. This will be over nice and quick."
The impact of Waganma's body against the chill, dirty stone begins to rouse him as his eyes slowly flicker open and he finds himself in a huddle with Ryo and Tareo on each side, backs to the wall, faced with a trio of ugly beasts blocking their escape.
Ryo tastes something metallic on his tongue, he feels his legs barely hold him so his hands brace against the wall as he rises slowly, body still acting of its own accord.
Tareo looks up from hands and knees, about ready to vomit.
"What...?" Waganma tries to make sense of the situation.
"Which one first?" One of the voices above them booms, guffaws. It's difficult to see their faces in the dark embers of the torches as the shadows dance across their scarred, deformed features.
"The fat one looks good!" A sharp finger prods at Tareo.
The conversation is lighthearted, comical even, from their perspective.
To their eyes, these boys are playthings. Their lives mean nothing and are worth nothing. How can they be when they're so fragile? So useless? The idea that each of these children is a living being, a being with their own little hopes and dreams, their own passions, own families, that they are cherished by someone and mean the world to them. This is a complete and utter nothing to a monster. These things have been forgotten by the monsters or never known in the first place. And if they are ever remembered, they are only done so with cruelty and the delirious desire to destroy these things that humans seem to find so precious. These boys are nothing but easy prey.
"I ain't even want to eat one of these disgusting things," one of the monsters confesses. "But I 'ave always wanted to rip someone open. Just see that little light go out the eyes." The voice grows more and more unhinged with every word, culminating in a psychotic chuckle. "I don't care which one. Just tell me and I'll-" he grabs Tareo by the back of the shirt, lifting him off the ground as it chokes him.
For Ryo, for Tareo, time freezes. It is only a second, but it lasts for an eternity.
And after that momentary eternity passes, Tareo falls to the floor again, a hand and half an arm still holding on to the back of his t-shirt, thick fingers slowly uncurling, letting go.
So gripped by fear, the boys hardly notice the sudden appearance of a hole in the stone block wall opposite them. Hardly register the monstrous heads rolling away from them on the dank floor, the bodies slowly collapsing in on themselves, falling forward as something mechanical pulls the three of them out of the way, something hidden behind a screen of dust and smoke.
"Are you alright?" A voice calls out from behind the dusty veil as the flexible, mechanical arms gently set Ryo, Tareo and a now fully awakened Waganma down.
Tareo squints, peers into the grey darkness, coughing. The voice seems familiar. And young!
"Are any of you seriously hurt?" The voice, urgent with concern, asks as Child Emperor steps forward. "Sorry if I scared you, but it looked like an emergency," he says gently as the slick, flexible arms retract quickly back into his backpack.
He seems only a couple of years older than Ryo and Tareo but his voice, despite its boyish charm, carries a sense of maturity and gravity which could only belong to an adult.
"We-we're okay," Tareo stammers as he glances at Ryo.
"You're bleeding," Child Emperor looks at Ryo, his eyes resting on his forehead.
This is news to Ryo as he quickly touches his fingers to a warm sticky patch on his forehead that he hadn't even felt until now. It stings but that is the least of his worries.
"Here," Child Emperor holds a small damp white square out to Ryo. "It's disinfectant. Please use it."
Ryo takes it, still processing too many things in his mind, and robotically wipes at the drying red stain on his hairline, just below his disheveled cow-lick.
"You're the hostage," Child Emperor turns half of his attention to Waganma, the other half always trained on his surroundings.
"Yes!" Waganma rises to his full height. "Where have you been? You're late!" He huffs, chest puffing out. This anger, this anger that feels too big for a young boy begins to grow inside and he doesn't know what to do with it. An anger masking a complete and utter fear. "What does my father pay you all for? We could have been killed!" His volume rises and rises as his arms swing about.
Child Emperor remains calm. He is the only one able to do so. Waganma is the original hostage. He does not know who these other two boys are but it is no time to ask questions. He is only relieved that he was able to save all three.
"I'm sorry for the delay," he says. "But please, keep it down," he glances down the corridor in both directions. "My job is to get you out of here as quickly and safely as possible. Please stay close to me."
He is about to start walking when he pauses and turns to the boys again.
"Is there anyone else? Are you the only three hostages?"
Ryo and Tareo look at each other. A mutual guilt over Garou's forced killing.
"There- there was-" Ryo swallows, a ball of something in his throat, something that makes it hard to get the words out.
"There was another hero back in the big room," Tareo steps up for him. Child Emperor looks suddenly surprised, determined.
"But he...he didn't make it," Tareo looks at the ground as extinguishing something bright in Child Emperor's eyes.
"I see," is all he says. "Let's go! Please stay as close to me as possible and-"
"GAROU!!!" Ryo suddenly howls at the top of his lungs.
Child Emperor freezes. The Hero Hunter? How does this boy know about Garou?
"Garou!" Ryo feels like he can't breathe, the air coming in strangled chokes as he turns on his heel and begins to run back down the corridor.
"Wait!" Child Emperor yells after him.
Dread and fear fill Tareo's eyes as he glances from Child Emperor to Ryo's receding from, barely visible in this gloom. Tareo feels his own small sting of tears now as he gives Child Emperor an apologetic look and bolts right after Ryo.
Impossible! The Hero Hunter? Here? And why are they running back to him?
Child Emperor whips around, grabs Waganma by the sleeve and gives chase to his rescuees, determined to not let them out of his sight.