Chapter Text
Part 1
With each step he took the pain in both his shoulder and his right ankle throbbed simultaneously, making him grit his teeth. The ache in his lower back had dulled slightly, but was still present; an annoying burning sensation that intensified whenever he breathed what his body considered was the wrong manner.
The clouds breaking open above him was just the cherry on top of an already fucked up evening. He flinched when the ice cold drops covered him like a sheet; the hushing sound of the rain pouring down loud enough to cover up the ringing noise in his ears. For just a couple of seconds he hoped that the cold rain might help with the too hot throbbing in his shoulder and his ankle, but all it seemingly did was make the pain flare up even worse and turning him into a drowned rat in mere seconds.
Nearly tripping over a raised root forced him to pause his trudging finally and he listlessly looked around. He only vaguely recognised his surroundings from the last time he had fled the house and had started wandering around. He was pretty certain he would be able to find his way back without too much trouble. He was also very certain that he did not want to go back yet or at all even. What even was here still for him to go back? Returning would only mean more of the same thing: more whacks of the cane, more poisonous words spat out from a malicious mouth. More pain that was becoming harder and harder to force himself past.
Where could he go, though? He had no family to run to, no friends willing to help him hide. Shit, he didn't even have enough money to buy a damn bus ticket! Even if he had enough in his pocket to afford a ticket, he wouldn't know where to go to. Wasn't that truth even sadder and more difficult to swallow than what was awaiting him if he returned?
He could just keep walking, he figured, and his feet obeyed before he had even fully made the decision. Just keep walking and see where he would end up. Nothing could be worse than what he was leaving behind.
Not even blinking when the rain occasionally hit him straight in his face, stinging his eyes, Naruto kept trudging onwards, staring unseeingly ahead. Perhaps he could go to a bus stop or the train station to wait out the worst of the rain; where he would go from there … He didn't know yet; everywhere was better than here, that was the only thing he was really sure about.
This late in the evening and in this horrible weather, there was barely anybody else outside. The couple of people he passed by, were rushing home with their dog, urging it to run as fast as it could. The dog appeared a lot happier than its owners; its tongue lolling out as it yipped brightly, running alongside them and splashing its own fur with mud from the puddles they ran through.
An unexpectedly loud thunderclap had Naruto flinching against his will; the heavy rumbling turning the lingering ache in his head to a pounding headache. With how much his shoulder and ankle were smarting, he had almost forgotten that the cane had managed to swipe his head as well. Clearly the back of his head hadn't forgotten it; the pain throbbing rhythmically.
Cursing, loud enough to overpower the loud hissing of the rain, abruptly broke through the daze he had fallen in and he blinked, turning his head back and forth. For just a couple of too long seconds a spike of anxiety shot through him as the cursing fully registered and he had to remind himself he was on the street and not back in the house, so the cursing wasn't coming from him.
The cursing happening now wasn't even coming from a man. Instead a red haired woman with one half of her head shaven stood in front of the open boot of a car, seemingly having trouble heaving some boxes into it. She was only dressed in a black T-shirt and a short jeans skirt; clearly she had just been as prepared for the weather to take a turn for the worse as Naruto had been when he had fled the house. The red open-toed heels she wore couldn't be pleasant right now either.
As Naruto watched, the woman turned incredibly aggrieved and ended up throwing her purse with full force into the boot, looking ready to kick the ever living shit out of the boxes next to her. She actually stamped her foot on the ground once and made a move as if to lash out, but perhaps the fact that she was wearing open toed heels and not something that would offer more protection kept her from actually kicking the boxes.
All at once she deflated when her anger abruptly disappeared and her shoulders slumped when she dropped down to sit on the edge of the boot. The lid shielded her from the worst of the rain, but she couldn't be comfortable in her wet clothes; especially when the wind was gradually picking up speed.
She looked so miserable, so utterly defeated, that before Naruto actually realised what he was doing, his legs were already carrying him across the street and towards her. Another quick look around showed that they were the only ones left in the street; all the others having found refuge from the rain.
Crimson eyes stared at him tiredly when he halted next to her.
"I'm telling you right now," the woman said, surprisingly fierce, "that if you think you can try to mess with me, you picked the wrong target tonight. Fuck off before I decide to test how sharp my heels can be."
Naruto held up his hands. "No messing, I swear. I just figured you could use some help in getting those boxes in your car." He nodded at them. "They look heavy."
"They don't only look like it, they are," she said dryly, but stood up, straightening up. She grimaced when some raindrops hit her in the face. "But by all means, if you like fucking up your muscles, feel welcome to help me lift them."
"Lifting them with two might not be that bad," he said, even though his shoulder already twinged at just the sight of the first box.
Whatever, he had offered; he would be a douchebag if he walked away now. What was an extra spike of pain added to the general mess he already was anyways? Might as well do something useful.
That'd be the first time then, an all too familiar voice piped up poisonously in the back of his mind, but he ignored that one. He had become good at ignoring it after all these years.
"I'll take the other side," he suggested, figuring the woman wouldn't want to stand partly in the gutter.
"'S fine, thanks," she sighed and waited to grab one side of the box until Naruto bent down, grabbing a hold of it by the sharp corners.
Right as he straightened out again as much as the heavy weight would allow him – what the hell was even in this box? Concrete? – something stung him in his neck.
Something sharp that started to burn slightly and instinctively, he loosened his grip on the box to slap a hand across the burning spot. His fingers touched something else right before landing in his neck; something warm and wet, something that felt oddly like another hand.
Right as he wanted to turn his head to see if some jackass was behind him, the woman snarked, "Thanks for warning me; you want to flatten my fingers completely?"
He opened his mouth to explain him, because it must have been some kind of mosquito who had bit him, but the burning sensation started to spread. When he blinked next, the world was turning … blurry? His tongue felt somehow too big for his mouth and he started to feel sick, like his stomach was boggled down with something heavy.
Frowning, he tried opening his mouth to tell the woman something was wrong, but the step he took forwards was the wrong one. He stumbled over the two boxes while the world started spinning uncomfortably around him, turning even blurrier, and there was a sense of panic that had his hand shooting out to grasp … something, anything that could keep him upright, but instead there was nothing.
Nothing but an increasingly blurrier world and a ground that was getting uncomfortably close until –
Stupidly the first thing he thought upon waking up was, I'm not back. The bed's too comfortable.
The mattress he was lying one was firm yet comfortable and unlike the threadbare mattress back at the house, he could keep lying here forever, even with the mild headache he was sporting. The pillow was equally soft as comfortable and the blankets keeping him tucked in were far more luxurious than his own had ever been.
For just a couple of seconds he entertained the thought that somebody had brought him to the hospital, but opening his eyes, it became instantly clear that wherever he was, it wasn't at the hospital and it definitely wasn't back at the house. Although this place must have some kind of medically trained person because when he raised his head, he felt a slight tug. Raising his hand curiously, he felt the scratchy cloth tied around his head, indicating some kind of bandage.
Oh right, he had caught a whack of the cane against it, but even though he had developed a headache, he hadn't actually realised the whack had been severe enough to require a bandage. His head wasn't the only part that had been treated; a faint mint like sharp scent emanated from his shoulder, indicating that some kind of cream had been used to treat the bruised area there. Pulling his legs from underneath the blanket, he raised an eyebrow when he saw the bandage wrapped around his ankle; the cloth ended tied around the middle of his foot, offering resistance when he moved his foot slightly.
He couldn't immediately smell or feel any type of bandage, but it wouldn't surprise him if the bruise on his lower back had been treated as well. The fact that while he was still aching slightly, he pain had definitely decreased a lot was proof that whoever had taken care of him had been quite thorough with it.
Parking the question why anybody would go through that much effort for somebody like him, Naruto carefully turned his head from one side to the other, taking in the room he found himself in.
Even if the medical treatment seemed to be done by somebody with a lot of experience, the look of the room instantly made it clear that he definitely was not residing in a hospital. A dark wooden nightstand on his right contained a pitcher, a glass with water and some strips of medication – painkillers, he realised after catching a glimpse of a name printed on the foil part. Through a large window grey daylight flooded the room, but he couldn't immediately discern any kind of latch that would allow him to open it or even keep it ajar.
There were two doors: one right across from his bed, which presumably led to a corridor? And a second one on his left, opposite from the window; that one either was some kind of closet or perhaps an attached bathroom? If it was the latter, he really was in some kind of luxurious place, but he had no idea how he had got here.
A bookcase filled to the brim with both novels and comics stood in between the first door and the window. A small television was crammed into the corner, standing on top of a sturdy desk. He thought he could see the bundled up cords of a console and a bunch of videogames stacked underneath it on the top shelf. Right in front of the window there was a table with two chairs; a platter with a bowl of rice and a plate of yakitori had been left for him to find.
Pursing his lips, Naruto silently took everything in. He thought about the sting he had felt in his neck, the burning pain, right before the world had started spinning and he had lost consciousness. He thought about the woman he had been about to help before somebody had clearly snuck up on him to sedate him. The woman had either been in on the ruse or she was a victim just like him. Considering she hadn't appeared alarmed at all even when he had started stumbling, though …
He shook his head and brought his thumb to his mouth, absently gnawing on the nail. He had no idea why anybody would go through the effort of sedating him, but he had absolutely no clue why he would wake up so comfortably. This could all be an attempt to have him lower his guard, of course, but …
The corners of his mouth twitched as he entertained a new thought. How ironic was it that after clearly having been abducted, he woke up more comfortably than all the years he had spent in that house?
He eyed the rice and the yakitori; his stomach grumbled on cue as if the sight of the faintly steaming food was his body's reminder that yes, fuck, it had been quite a while since he had last eaten something decent.
It probably – definitely – wasn't a smart idea to eat food after he had been sedated and taken to a room in god knew where, because who knew what had been put in the food, but … It couldn't really get any worse, could it? Would it really matter that much if they had put some kind of poison in it? Sure, it would probably hurt for a while, but … He had already been hurting for so long; at least it would be over quickly then.
Lowering his feet on the floor – soft carpet actually, making him curl his toes – he put more weight on them to test them first. He had no idea how long he had been out; at the very least one full night considering it was day. With his injuries and how long it had been since he had last eaten, though, it wouldn't surprise him if his legs would give out on him.
His legs held his weight surprisingly, although his steps were still unsteady as he made his way to the table on shaky legs. Dropping down heavily on the chair, he took one more look at the rice and yakitori before he shrugged half-heartedly and picked up the chopsticks. He might as well eat; no sense in wasting food even though he had no clue what its origins were.
A look outside showed nothing but an endless sky with clouds drifting past. When he concentrated, he thought he could pick up the faint noise of traffic somewhere in the distance, but he might also be imagining things. Wherever he was, he was clearly in some kind of apartment building and on a rather high floor. He supposed that was a strike through possibly escaping through the window then.
The door opening in the corner of his eye had him turning his head and lowering the chopsticks. He hadn't even been aware of how much he had eaten already; the bowl was already reduced to around a third of the rice left.
A dark haired man stepped into the room. He wore a simple white shirt and black slacks, but his whole aura screamed power. Aura that was only aided even further by how devastatingly handsome he looked. With his piercing black eyes, his sharp cheekbones and his pretty looks, it wouldn't surprise Naruto at all if the man earnt his living as some kind of model. Even the spiky hair in the back, which would look stupid on basically everybody, didn't detract from his beauty.
With his looks and his muscled lean form, he had been the most popular guy in his school, no doubt. He didn't look to be around Naruto's age; maybe a few years older. Whoever he was, he wasn't somebody Naruto had seen before. People with his kind of looks were hard to forget after all; if he had attended the same school or had even lived nearby, Naruto would have remembered him for sure.
So they didn't know each other. Yet Naruto was here in a place familiar to this guy. Had been brought here on purpose obviously, considering the man didn't even look the slightest bit surprised at seeing him. The man's presence only added to the mystery even further, because what could this man possibly want from him? Had Naruto somehow offended him even though he didn't recognise him at all? What the hell was happening?
The man nodded at the bowl. "You know, I think most people would be a tad more wary when accepting food from somebody they don't know," he remarked calmly.
Naruto looked down at the rice and back at the man. "Yeah well, don't really have much going for me, so," he muttered, poking at the rice listlessly. At least the food tasted good. "Can I know why I'm here? I don't think I've ever seen you before."
"You haven't," the man confirmed and stepped forwards until less than a couple of steps remained between them. He titled his head to the left. "You look remarkably calm, given the circumstances."
Dark eyes narrowed slightly. "You going into shock?"
Was he? He didn't think he was at least, although he also couldn't remember ever having gone into shock before, so who knew?
"I don't think so," he said befuddled. "At least I don't feel I am? Don't think I've ever gone into shock before, though, so I can't tell."
"You're a peculiar one," the man spoke lowly, looking thoughtful.
That was rich, coming from him, which was precisely what Naruto told him because his brain to mouth filter was non-existent even now. "And you're not? When you're the one who brought me here? Why even go through all that effort? What did I do to you?"
"You? Nothing," the man answered lightly before his eyes started to gleam and he smirked.
"As for why you are here – because you are worth a lot."