“Ow! Watch it, brute!” Metallic clanging and a rough shout – overwhelmed with deja-vu, Aris sighed, vainly struggling to remain asleep as he drowned his head underneath the blankets. The remnants of his dream – or rather, his memories – were still lingering in his head, and as the cell doors slammed shut he half expected to hear Yuya’s wail echoing off the cement walls.  

“Fuck!” But all he heard was a string of profanities, then a sudden loud, muffled bang. A faint tingle of alarm running through his body despite himself, Aris pulled his sheets off and sat up.  

“Hey, you, what’s your fucking problem?” There was a shadow on the floor – the boy had collapsed, he realized briefly. Lying limply on the floor but still pointing a finger accusingly at him, dark eyes glinting with venomous hate.  

A little amused despite himself, Aris turned on the lamp, making sure that he’d turn his smile into a frown of nonchalance before doing so. 

Fang was indeed sprawled on the floor, his dark hair matted with sweat and his skin deathly pale. His left hand was thickly bandaged. With his right, he pointed is middle finger at the man and growled breathlessly. “All you had to say was a fucking – he’s telling the truth – or something shitty like that! Or agree and say that the other guy started it! What’s your problem? Do you think being a dickhead is cool or something?! Why didn’t you help me?!” 

… Because it wouldn’t have made a difference. But he knew better than to try and explain – a brat like Fang would never understand. Sighing inwardly, Aris instead turned his attention to Fang’s bandaged hand. What was that for? He’d never seen an inmate return from the labs with a bandaged hand. In fact, he rarely saw inmates return from the labs at all.  

“Hey, get off the floor.” Interrupting the boy’s continuous stream of low, breathless profanities, Aris lifted his foot and nudged the boy’s cheek. “I don’t want to trip over you tomorrow morning.” To his surprise – and faint amusement – the boy’s head instantly jerked around and he snapped his teeth at the man’s toe. Of course, Aris jerked his foot back in time, suppressing the laugh that was bubbling dangerously close to tip of his tongue. Really, what did the kid think he was, an animal? 

“If I could, I would, you bastard!” Fang exclaimed, breaking off with a flinch as he lifted his elbow and obviously tried to push himself up. But, failing, the boy merely collapsed back on the cement with a groan. “They took so much of my blood that I can barely move my fingers, damnit!” 

They took his blood? Aris felt his brow twitch upwards in curiosity. But they let him live and return to the prison? Interesting – but before he could think about it any further he was distracted by a hand clamping down on the bit of mattress between his legs.  

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Aris snarled, shifting safely backwards away from that hand and growling as he watched the boy drag himself up on the man’s bed.  

“I’m too weak to climb the bunk, so let me sleep here, since it was your fault that I got punished.” Fang panted, hauling himself up and rolling onto the mattress. He flung his arms out, smacking Aris in the thigh but oblivious to the man’s murderous glare as he sighed loudly and relaxed. “Oh, I haven’t slept in a bed in the longest time…” 

“… Hey, you’re asking to die, aren’t you…?” Aris growled, irritated to find himself forced into a corner of his small bunk. “You think you can climb into my bed covered in sweat and dirty clothes?” 

Wait, what he meant to say was – you think you can climb into my bed? – period. But for some reason his mouth decided to add the other part. 

Fang turned his head, dark eyes hazy in exhaustion as he reached up and started fumbling with the front of his uniform. “Kay, help me strip.” 

“Fuck,” Aris sighed, edging himself off of his bed and heading up the rungs instead. At the very least, the linens on the top bunk were fresh – Fang had spent the night on the floor yesterday.  

“Eh?” As he was adjusting the blankets to his liking, the boy’s voice drawled from below. “Not comfortable with taking off my clothes? You were more than happy to do it earlier –” 

Grabbing the first thing he could see – the pillow – Aris hurled it down as hard as he could, where it hit something with a satisfyingly solid thud.  

“Gah!” Fang’s surprised yelp was followed by more annoying laughter. “Was that supposed to hurt, huh?! What’re you going to do now that you don’t have a pillow, stuuu-pid?”  

Holy fuck, seriously, someone, take him away. Agonized, Aris wrapped his fist in the blanket and smashed it into the wall with a muffled bang. I’m going to go insane if I have to hear his stupid laugh one more time. He didn’t even want to imagine how annoying it’d be to hear the kid crying. 

There was a pause, then a soft thump and Aris turned his head. His pillow had been thrown back to him. 

“Hey, thanks for letting me sleep in your bed,” Fang called, taking an exaggeratedly loud breath. “It smells nice. As expected of Flower-boy.” 

“My name is Aris,” Aris said roughly, grabbing his pillow, setting it down, and slamming his head firmly into it as he lay down and closed his eyes with a painful sigh. “Call me Flower-boy one more time and I’ll rip your balls off.” 

“Ugh.” Fang laughed again, his chuckle broken by a tremor of nervousness. “Let’s just stick with punches, okay? Good night!” With a faint click, the boy turned off the lamp, then rustled back into bed. 

Grunting in faint relief, Aris turned onto his back. The tightness in his throat disappeared for a moment, allowing him to relax – but as he dropped off into sleep, he felt an irrational fear seize over his body. Though by then, he was already slipping too rapidly into unconsciousness to drag himself out of the horror. 

Don’t do it. Yuya’s soft, gentle voice crooned him to sleep. Don’t let him in. 

Don’t make the same mistake again, Aris… 

*** 

“Oh-hoh, someone’s in a good mood today.” Rai’s chortle jerked through his black consciousness like a spear and Aris slammed his tray on the table, not caring that he was turning heads. Unperturbed by his hostility, the brown-haired boy leaned closer, lips stretching in a smirk. “What’s up, Flower-boy? Did little Fangie give you a rough night?” 

Unable to control himself, Aris’s hand flashed out, fingers tightening around Rai’s throat in half a second. Teeth gritting, he glared hard, watching dispassionately as the boy’s pale eyes darkened in fear.  

“Aris – Aris! Hey!” Dimly, a man’s voice grew in his head, then someone grabbed his arm. “Aris, let him go!” 

Blinking as Han’s alarmed shout ripped through the darkness in his head, Aris released the boy with a start. Rai collapsed onto the table, entire body trembling as he gasped for air. Nonchalant, Aris sat down in the bench and pulled his tray closer to him, ignoring his companions as Han urgently asked Rai if he was alright. 

“Alright – alright, I get it –” Rai managed to rasp, his voice broken and breathless but tinged with incredulous amusement. “I won’t call you Flower-boy anymore, sorry…” 

“Aris…” Han began warily, his dark gaze disapproving.  

“… I’m not like you two,” Aris replied, biting down on his loaf of hard bread murderously as he pointedly avoided their gazes. “I’m actually a criminal. You seem to have forgotten that. Piss me off and I won’t hesitate to hurt you.” 

Han paused, looking a little taken aback. But Rai just sighed loudly, scratching the faint marks on his neck with a rueful smirk. “Wow, you sure know how to be a good friend. Yuya would be proud.” 

Stiffening at the mention of Yuya, Aris lifted his gaze, his vision already blurry with fury by the time he met Rai’s smiling glare.  

“Don’t worry, Aris.” Despite his soft purr, Rai’s grin was bitterly vicious. “I’ll never forget that you’re a criminal.” 

Suddenly, the air across the table became as dense as iron. Han glanced between the two of them nervously, mouth half-open as though he wanted to interrupt but couldn’t find the courage to do so.  

Then another tray slid onto the table with a thunk and the silence broke as both Aris and Rai glanced over to see who the newcomer was. 

“Mmmm?” Bright-eyed, mouth stuffed with bread as another two swam in his bowls of soup, Fang plopped down next to Aris and pulled the bread out of his mouth. “Morning,” he said, oblivious to the mood as he chewed loudly and shuddered in bliss. “Wow, this is good. I haven’t eaten since yesterday morning. They didn’t give me food – can you believe that? How can they not give me food while they’re taking my blood?” 

Throwing Aris one last dirty look, Rai then turned to the boy and leaned forward curiously. “Ehh? Is that what they did to you yesterday? They took your blood?” He hesitated, but Aris could sense the rest of his sentence hanging in mid-air – was that all they did? 

“Yup.” Fang paused in his chewing to laugh sheepishly. “And I missed roll-call again! When I woke up I ran over here as fast as I could. Good thing I wasn’t late, right?” 

“Honestly,” Rai said, falling back a little as he eyed the boy in almost jealous amusement. “You’re the first person I’ve met who can sleep past those roll-call sirens.” 

Fang raised an eyebrow, agitatedly swallowing his mouthful of food before saying enthusiastically, “Aris’s bed was so cozy that I couldn’t get up.” 

This kid… folding his hands into fists under the table, Aris felt his shoulders tense up as both Rai and Han shot him surprised stares. “Fang…” he growled under his breath, reminding himself that strangling one brat a day was enough, “Just shut up and eat your food…” 

Evidently unable to find a complaint with that, the boy nodded and stuffed soup-moistened bread into his mouth with both hands. 

“Oi, oi…” While Han continued to stare at Fang in apparent shock, Rai leaned forward over the bench, their earlier fight temporarily forgotten as he gave Aris the wide glimmer-eye. “What’s this? What the hell is he saying?” 

“He dragged himself into my bed yesterday, said he was too weak to climb to the upper bunk because they took so much blood,” Aris replied calmly as he picked restlessly at the tomato chunks in his soup. “I didn’t want to deal with him so I took the upper bunk. The linens were fresh, anyway.” 

“Mhm!” Fang made an enthusiastic sound of agreement, gulping loudly and then opening his mouth. Immediately, Aris reached over and shoved his piece of bread, whole, between the boy’s lips. Then, suddenly aware of all three pairs of eyes at the table staring at him in surprise, he scowled darkly and got up.  

“You said you liked him, right?” Aris growled, grabbing his tray and turning his back to them. “He’s all yours, Rai. Little scumbags go together.” 

“Hey!” Rai’s annoyed voice shouted at his back but Aris walked away quickly, ignoring the grumbling complaint of his stomach as he discarded his tray and left the cafeteria.  

There were still thirty minutes left before the next work shift started, but the kitchen was always busy – he could show up early and help clean the dishes from breakfast, and probably grab an extra bite to eat while he was at it.  

Those stupid brats… Aris reached up and scratched the back of his head, closing his eyes in an annoyed sigh. After he’d finally managed to stop dreaming about Yuya – after he finally thought he’d learnt his lesson, that kid just had to show up. That kid with the same bright, black eyes.  

In his fuzzy irritation, Aris didn’t hear the quiet footsteps approaching until something bumped into his shoulder.  

“S-Sorry,” a woman’s voice murmured as they brushed past each other. 

Unconcerned, Aris continued for another two steps before it suddenly struck him that he’d just heard a woman’s voice. Stopping, he turned his head and met the brown-eyed gaze of a young woman with tan skin. She had also paused to glance back at him, and when she noticed him looking, her eyes widened with a start and she turned away quickly, scuttling along. 

Why is a woman here? Aris narrowed his eyes at the back of her head. She had to be a researcher – she was well dressed, in a brand-name green turtleneck sweater and blue jeans. But she wasn’t wearing a lab coat, and besides – researchers weren’t usually allowed inside the prison. Not without protective gear and the pretense of being a doctor. Unable to shake off a sudden sense of foreboding, Aris neverless forced himself to turn his back and continue on his way. But he couldn’t completely shake off the cold sting of suspicion lingering in his head. 

 … What is she doing here…?