What Happens in Vienna {ManxMan}

CHAPTER 2 (Tobias)

I have been working all day every day from the moment I could walk, starting with doing small things at the orphanage to earn a few coins and climbing up the ladder as I aged. It started with taking the trash out for a single euro, and somehow by the time I was eighteen I was working for a crime syndicate operating on the border near Switzerland. Where I am today was earned through years and years of hardships and struggles, literal blood, sweat, and tears were what got me here, and although I never had much, I am happy with how I have lived thus far.

As an orphan, I lived in a children's home in Vienna, a ghastly prison I never liked but came to accept as my home. All I knew of my parents was that one died in the military while the other abandoned me on the steps of the orphanage. I never knew them, I never bothered to look for them, and even now I feel nothing for them, not even bitterness. I took it as a simple setback that I would never let hinder me.

After years of working, my name was finally nearest the top of the syndicates, an Austrian weapons dealer by the ever-infamous name of Tobias Florian. I took much pride in my work, selling to rebellions, anyone who needed to get ahead in their way of life but didn't have the strength to do it alone. It may have been a bit, well, illegal, but now that the world was on a downward spiral, there was nothing legal about anything anymore.

My way was simply a means of survival, acquiring a mansion in Vienna after the worst of the bombing had stopped, setting up my own barriers and filling a warehouse nearby with all my merchandise. In the beginning, I only had a few loyal followers, but after a few years I had a small army at my disposal, all of them residing in our lovely home, the safest place on earth now, considering no one knew we existed.

Yet.

Along with my soldiers, there were quite a few young ones as well. I won't say I have a soft spot for children, but when the bombing started and I realized my old orphanage would be in the crossfire, I did feel a sense of panic and sympathy for the kids whose lives hadn't even started yet. So, I liberated them, brought them into my home, gave them sanctuary and freedom, and in return they had the choice of training to become a soldier in my military, leaving on their own, or simply living their lives within these walls I have claimed.

Surprisingly enough the majority stayed, perhaps they were loyal or had the idea in their minds that they needed to thank me for what I did for them, but I didn't mind either way. I rarely saw any of them as it was unless I left my study or my attached bedroom, which I couldn't be bothered to do most of the time. There was far too much to do as leader of this syndicate, the only time I even ate, slept, or bathed was when one of my guards forced me to.

"You need to eat, sir," or "You smell like a dog, sir". It's all I ever heard with those three, truly they were eyesores, but they'd been with me the longest, so I couldn't find it in my heart to do more than groan in annoyance when they lectured or nagged at me.

I was at my worst when I was bored, and unfortunately that was happening a lot more often. The problem was how many people under my roof gave me that look, those hooded eyes and flirty smiles, because I was a very weak man you see, and when I am tempted, I will not hold back. Not that any of them ever wanted me to.

Humans are strange creatures, always wanting to touch, to feel connected heat, to breed, I never understood it, but it did kill time, so whenever someone came to me requesting my bed and my time, then who was I to say no? I never did anything if the words "no" or "stop" were used, I thought myself a gentleman in that aspect, never taking something if it was denied of me, and that made them want me more for some odd reason I couldn't understand.

Wasn't everyone like that? What made me so special?

Yes, humans are strange to crave touch, but I do believe I am even stranger, as I abhor it. Whenever I take someone to my bed I tie them to it, I take away their ability to touch, it was one thing I could never deal with. Even now I don't understand why, being touched by someone always gave me a sick feeling, put me in a bad mood, so I avoided it at all costs, even with my guards. The only time they could touch me was if I was drunk off my mind and unable to comprehend anything around me.