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Home for one

Yuji woke up to a soft hand carefully combing through his hair. Every strain that fell in his face, even if it was just the slightest bit, was brushed away over and over again. It was so calming that he almost fell back asleep again. Almost.

Slowly, the situation before falling asleep made its way into his head. All of a sudden, he was wide awake, frantic eyes scanning his surroundings. He only calmed down once he caught sight of Yuki.

The older was sitting next to him. It had been his hand that had been massaging Yuji's scalp. When Yuki noticed the dark brown eyes staring at him, he forced a smile. "You're awake again." He nodded. "I should be the one taking care of you." "No." Yuki replied. He scurried backwards ever so slightly, to try and lean against the wall, when Yuji registered the sound of metal clacking.

Within milliseconds, he had spotted the chain wrapped around the older's waist. It was connected to the wall. His heart sank to his pants. "This wasn't there when I fell asleep." Yuki merely shrugged. The thing he had wondered as soon as he noticed his new belt was more why they hadn't thought of it before bringing Yuji in here and beating the hit out of him because of an 'escape attempt'. One that they had not even tried to pull, not even thought about.

Some shouting from outside the door, the light flickering. The two were arguing.

While Yuji looked rather confused, Yuki was invested. The same shouting had woken him from his pain-caused slumber ten minutes ago already. Now, it was back.

"I say we get rid of the boy. He is a burden." "He knows our faces." "And? You are screwed already, Loui! It doesn't matter as long as we keep Yuki. He is worth a lot. Besides, back when we send out our demands, they were meant for one person. Why not only give them one then, huh? I never mentioned a two-for-one deal." There was a pause.

Yuki ignored Yuji's questions and continued listening while ignoring him. "He is already scared, he won't do anything if we keep him. But the other one is young, he might pull some stupid moves. Let's do that: Get the boy to the park where we get the money, once we have it secured we'll leave and give details for the second money hand-over." Pablo finished. Yuki couldn't see it, but Loui eagerly nodded.

"What do we do now?" "Well, the police will be waiting for us and a friend of ours in exactly-" He glanced at his watch "-three hours and ten minutes. It's a thirty minute drive, which means that we have two hours and fourty minutes left. I say, we plan everything out, have some fun and then take off."

-

Annoyed, Yuji slapped the older's thigh. He had, of course, not taken into consideration that he had been beaten up quite a few times by now. Which meant bruises all over his body.

Yuki winced immediately, trying to back-off. His face was suddenly captivated by fear. He looked at Yuji as if he had never seen him in his entire life, almost like he had been the abusive one all along. "Sorry. Sorry. I didn't think about it." At first, Yuki only stared back at him. His stare was blank.

Then, he nodded. Not a single word. Just a simple head gesture. "What did they say?" This Time, Yuki shook his head.  "Talk to me!" "You saw the video they made me sent, right?" Yuji thought about it. He then nodded even though he was still unsure. "The one during the match?" "Yes. It was singular." Yuki stated, listening closely for any approaching footsteps.

Still confused, the younger's stared back at him with raised eyebrows "And?" Once again, Yuji thought about the words. Their meaning started to sink in. "No. No, I won't let you go. You can't, Yuki. I will fight them, I will-" "You won't do shit! Please, Yuji." Yuki took a deep breath to calm down. He knew that the other did not deserve such harsh treatment "I love your optimism, you know that, but please. Don't make it harder for the two of us."