Sigma walked in to see Pein jacking off. He could understand how he felt: the room was cold and someone had spiked the pain-meds because everyone had a fucking headache now. Some idiot decided that smuggling weapons would be a good idea, too, so it was maximum surveillance for everyone. If Sigma had a say, he would've fucked that guy sideways with his bare hands.
"Hey, your appointment's up now," he said, biting at the bloody slit in his lip. "Get off your ass and go see the guard: he's this close to going bat-shit insane." The blue-haired prisoner held up his fingers and indicated a space about a centimeter wide. Then he went back to playing with the cut until blood welled up on his tongue and he swallowed it back.
Pein finished and dragged his pants up to sit around his waist. "Appointment? It's not my turn. Try Deoka: he's no good at remembering engagements." His eyes shifted to a shadow beyond the bars and a smile tore painfully at his lips. "You killed my mood."
Sigma slumped onto a low worn-out couch. "What mood? No moods exist here anymore. Try another prison, fucker." He pulled a matchbox out of his pocket and lit one, pressing the flame to his inner wrist until black spotting bloomed across the skin. "I'm telling you, you have an appointment."
"With who?" Pein was digging through a pile of dirtied clothing for his shirt. "I'm not seeing that one-eyed guy again -- he threatened to rape me if I didn't sign some stupid form-"
"He takes those threats seriously, you know. That guy don't fuck with anyone, either. He picks and chooses. You must've been special." Sigma smiled and the pain of the stretching cut made his pupils contract.
Pein tugged the gray shirt over his head and ran a hand down his face, feeling the piercings with his fingertips. "Who's the appointment with?" he muttered, pressing down on a bruise located near his jugular.
"The Sato chick." Sigma's eyes narrowed when the orange-haired man paused in his masochism. "Yeah, the one with the rack. You lucky fucker, you. God, I only get those scrawny little wimp guys that make me wanna rip their throats out every time they say one fucking word."
Pein grinned and the light caught his canines. "Jealously is unbecoming. Shut up and have fun with your boys: I have an appointment." He flexed his arms and strode out of the room, leaving Sigma to stare curiously at his leaving figure.
---
The moment the door closed behind him and he was locked into the sterile, white office, Pein's body jumped to life. His eyes glittered with excitement and his skin ran deep with adrenaline and want. Deep, deep with want.
"You're late," the young woman said, seated behind a large, blocky desk. "Your meeting was for three. It's three twenty." Her blue eyes surveyed him warily, but with practiced authority.
The pierced man looked up at the analog clock on the wall. "Sorry, Doc. I was busy." His footfall was loud and disruptive as he moved to take a seat in the stiff chair in front of her desk. "Need something?" he asked the woman with a sickly sweet voice, ruffling his own hair with an absent hand. The want hung in his voice like a discord.
The woman, whose nameplate read Katsumi Sato, shuffled through some papers on her desk. "We need to talk about your medication, and about what some alternatives might be. I looked into a variation of methods, so be sure to hear me out." There was something almost pleading in her tone and it made him shudder with bliss as the want ate at him.
"Sure thing," he drawled, watching her carefully with lazy eyes. "But what's wrong with my meds? They work fine: I can sleep and everything."
Katsumi sighed heavily and plucked a sheet from her pile. "I understand, but they aren't helping in other ways. You're overly emotional, especially pertaining to anger and happiness; you have an over-active appetite; you can't control your words -- the block on your mind has faded with time..." She licked her lips as her eyes roamed the page of notes, and the gnawing want burrowed deeper into Pein's self.
"So what?" he said, crossing his arms. "I think they work fine. What else did you have in mind, anyway, Doc?" A smile had long ago set itself carefully on his lips, and it leered back at Katsumi with unadulterated arrogance.
"A different brand, or a different vein of the same type of drug. Electro-shock therapy. Chemical bathing. Boot camp..." She looked back up at him and nodded solemnly. "You need one of those at least."
"Chemical bathing?" he asked, playing with his snake bites. "Sounds stupid. I like myself the way I am now. Don't try and reform me, Doc: I bite and it hurts like all fuck." His catty grin blared back at her, the way it twisted across his face unpleasantly.
Katsumi swallowed. "Please refrain from that language. I find it imperative that you try one of these options soon, so as to take over for your medication-"
Pein leaned forward and rested his elbows on the desk top. "I'm fine, Doc. I'm fine and all that stuff. I like my thoughts and my language and my philosophy. Is there a problem with personal expression?" The want was painful now.
She shook her head slowly and folded her hands. "I never mentioned a problem-"
"Come on, Doc," he prodded with sugared words and preying eyes, "I'm feeling put-out here. Don't you like me the way I am?" His head tilted slightly and it unnerved her to the point of perspiration.
"That's not the point, Pein," she said, eyes widening subtly. "This is serious. You've become a threat to yourself. I don't want this to escalate any longer. Now please stop joking around and focus on the task at hand. You're sick, Pein, and it's not getting any better!" Her voice, as quickly as it had risen, dropped to a whisper. Pein's smirk never lifted as he watched her chest heave with fascination.
"I like you, Doc. I like you a lot." His pupils dilated and he stood from the chair to tower over her. "You know that feeling where you crave something you can't have, so you go crazy? I mean, you look good enough to eat, Doc..." His eyes roamed her body and the want went white-hot.
"S-stop this! Sit down right now or I'll call security! And never speak of me like that: I am your doctor and not someone to be objectified!" Her face was red and her eyes were wide. "I said sit down!"
Pein chuckled and slumped back into the chair. "You're cute, Doc-"
"Stop it!" she snapped wildly, digging her fingers into her papers. "Please. I can't be worked up like this and you can't be acting so uninhibited. Calm down and think things over before you say them, or it'll get you into big trouble." Her azure gaze shifted to the clock momentarily and she sighed. "You'd better leave soon. But I'd like for us to meet again tomorrow about these options. Three in the afternoon, okay? Be here on time-"
Pein laughed deeply. "You want to see me again so soon, Doc? I'll be here tomorrow at three, and maybe we can get to some untouched business. I know how you enjoy my presence." The want welled up and finally exploded through him like hot syrup.
Katsumi gasped and jumped up from her chair. "You filthy man! Get out of here and I don't want to hear or see you again until tomorrow at three! Go!" She pointed to the door and Pein shot her another look before lumbering in that direction.
As he left the room and shut the door behind himself, his eyes rolled back into his head with a low, guttural groan. He'd better get back to the room quickly or he'd have to go to roll call with an erection. Again.
---
"Have fun?" Sigma asked, taking a drag on his cigarette and then dropping it to snuff under his shoe. He was seated at a metal table in the back court with this half-mute idiot named Poichi who nobody really liked. "Took you a fucking long time."
Pein had jogged up to them a minute ago and was sitting on the tabletop. "Fantastic. Most fun I've had all week. I'm seeing her again tomorrow." He looked distracted but his expression was smug.
"I see," Sigma muttered, grinning wolfishly through the haze of smoke he breathed out through chapped lips. "Lucky fucker, I always say. Hey, Poichi! Grab me that, will ya?" He nodded toward a pack of smokes on the ground.
The aforementioned man blinked for a long moment and then leaned down to grab the ripped box. He set it down on the table a second before Sigma snatched it up with talon-like hands.
"You're looking better," Pein commented, eyeing Sigma's constant grin. "What're you on?"
"Nothin', nothin'. I'm just happy, is all." He pulled out a cigarette and lit it with a lighter he had hanging around his neck on a string. "Warden mentioned a reward for anyone who doesn't get into a fight this month. Something like money or food..." Sigma was a magnet for fights.
"You're not going to survive that one," Pein mumbled, looking up as the sky flashed pale green behind his eyes. "Shit."
"What're you saying, fucker? I'm gonna own this. I need the money, anyway. Right, Poichi?"
The silent man nodded sluggishly, and Sigma rolled his eyes at him. "You're lookin' well-rested, Pein," he said slyly, leaning toward the orange-haired man. "What's your secret? Jerking off?"
Pein's smile cut across his face again. "So smart. Where'd you get those brains? Forget it -- " The sky flashed green again and Pein swore the clouds looked red. " -- I don't want to be you, anyway-"
"Bull," Sigma said, taking a huge drag on the cigarette, "you suck. I'm gonna get the hell outta here and then make it big."
"In what? Show business?" Pein was asking questions but he really didn't care. His vision kept inverting and it was driving him crazy. "You're not charismatic and you're a terrible actor."
"Shut up, fuck-face. I mean assassination. You think I got all these people with no skill?" He lifted up his shirt and flashed the 147 little cross tattoos he had on his abdomen. "Ninjas these days suck, with all their polite schooling and shit. I grew up when it was all life-or-death and nobody had some wimpy 'teammate'." He chuckled through the nicotine smoke and shook his head.
Pein briefly thought back to his own team. And then the thought faded and he was smiling along with his cellmate. "The good days. When I get out I'm getting my revenge." He tilted his ringed eyes to watch Sigma smoke and then to watch Poichi stare blankly into the distance. "I hate nowadays..."
"Same," Sigma muttered as a horn rang out across the court and prisoners began to make their way back inside the enormous brick building. "But, you know," he said around his cigarette, standing from the bench, "nowadays is what makes yesterday so fucking awesome."
Pein nodded slightly and walked beside the other young man toward the gate. Sometimes Sigma -- even rash, trash-talking, bipolar Sigma -- had his moments of clarity. And it was so unlike Pein's own clarity that it always seemed new and wonderful. "Right. I agree."
"Come on, Poichi!" Sigma yelled toward the seated man at the table, who was still staring vacantly. "Aw, forget him: the fucker'll learn his lesson and wake up some day." He tossed the smoke to the ground as they reached the gate and smirked dangerously at the guard, who immediately started. "Pein, you're lookin' kinda out of it..." His tone had dropped to a whisper.
Pein saw the looming hallway that led to the main room, and it looked far too yellow for his liking. "My fucking meds aren't working!" he snapped under his breath, trying to focus his gaze. "I hate this! Everything's all the wrong color-"
"Some of mine?" Sigma offered, pulling out a bottle of pills, which he wasn't even supposed to have with him.
"No: yours aren't going to work on me, anyway. But thanks." Pein gnashed his teeth and kept trying to conjure up the gray metal of the walls to no avail. "This fucking color thing!"
"Anything else?" Sigma asked, again biting at the cut on his bottom lip. "You're not walking in a straight line. Shit, here's a guard! Look normal, you fuck-head!" He punched Pein in the arm and looked away from the uniform-clad man.
Pein grimaced and forced himself to walk steadily as they passed the security personnel. If the guards found out you weren't mentally stable they put you in a solitary-confinement cell for three weeks and pumped you with sleeping drugs. It was like their paranoia went into overdrive.
"Good," Sigma sighed, rolling his eyes toward the ceiling in exasperation. "I hate those fuckers. Think they're better than us with their stun-guns and stupid badges. I'll kill them all one day." The blue-haired man gnashed his sharp teeth and dug his nails into his palms, so red indents leaked blood onto the ground.
"Okay, maggots! Hurry up!" the warden yelled as they entered the high-ceilinged main room. The burly man was holding a clipboard and kept jotting things down with a pen as he watched the prisoners file in and stand in a long line. "When you hear your name, say 'here,' you got that? I don't have time for any other chit-chat!" The red-faced man huffed and looked down at the paper in his hands. "Ataito Guya!"
Sigma turned to Pein slightly and smiled. "Stupid fuck can't even stand us. What kinda warden is that? I'll kill him, too, you know. Hey, there's the hot doctor." He nodded faintly to a wary-looking Katsumi standing just to the left of the muscular warden.
Pein grinned cattily. "Yeah, I know. Gets me excited. Want to make a bet on how long it'll take me until I fuck her?"
Sigma's smile widened a thousand-fold. "You're on! I'd say... twelve days." His golden-orange eyes shone with unadulterated anticipation.
Pein looked back over at the smaller, brown-haired young woman in the skirt suit. "Eight. And I'll take pictures for you."
Sigma nodded in agreement. "How about if it takes you anywhere from six to eight days I give you the bed and my food for a week. And if it takes you anywhere from nine to twelve days you give me the bed and your food for a week. Either way, I get the pictures. Sound good?" His tongue kept swiping over his cut and blood colored his lips.
"Fine," Pein said. "Here!" The warden had called his name. "I'll need to borrow Deoka's camera since someone stole mine. And are you going to make a new page?" Pein knew Sigma had a scrapbook full of photos of severed heads and dismembered bodies and other mutilated victims of his. Pein liked to look through it, and it pleased him to know that his doctor would get her very own section.
"I guess I can make an exception even though she's not dead. She's way too fucking hot, though." Sigma trailed off and stared blatantly at the woman, who accidentally caught his gaze and looked away quickly. "I'd fuck her."
"We all would. I still can't believe an all-male prison hired a female doctor." Pein glanced around at the hundred or so other prisoners and narrowed his eyes. "Cruel, but I approve."
Sigma chuckled under his breath and a guard shot him a killing look. The young man grinned back cattily. "But seriously, man, the first chance I get and they're all pulp," he said, flexing and un-flexing his forearms absently. "I'll rip their heads off and eat the fucking tongues out if I have to. If that's what it'll take to sate my anger, I'm goin' for it." He sighed and looked up at the domed ceiling with his bird-like eyes. "That made me hungry."
"You disgust me sometimes," Pein muttered with a dull smile, simultaneously ruffling his comrade's hair and staring intently at the watchful Katsumi. "But it works."
---
Katsumi almost didn't enter the office when she heard the warden inside screaming over the phone at someone. But she pushed the door open anyway.
"Excuse me?" she asked, clasping her hands in front of her. "I need to speak with you about a certain cell in block C." Her blue eyes surveyed the face of the man, which was red and round and upset.
"... Fine. Sit down." He gestured to a chair and leant back in his own. "Which one? Names."
She looked at the seat and sighed. "Sigma Kitae and Pein -- " She paused since the latter didn't have a recorded last name. " -- are the ones in cell 267 in block C." Then she sat down.
"Oh, them. What about them?" The warden was fiddling with a pencil and trying not to stare at Katsumi's chest. He looked disgruntled.
"They seem to be either off their medication or not using the correct dosage. Earlier today, at roll call, they both seemed distant and distracted." She looked past the warden's head to stare out of the window. "Perhaps manic."
"I see. Well, we can look into that. I can get a moderator to set up more cameras in the room. Anything else?"
Katsumi stayed quiet as she looked at her hands. "Well, I have a problem with them being in the same cell together..."
There was a pregnant pause as the warden stared at her and slowly got redder. "Why?" he asked in a dangerously low voice. "Do you have a problem with my celling system? Miss Sato, I'll have you know that it's a state-of-the-art-"
"T-that's not what I meant and I never intended to offend!" she exclaimed, jumping in her uncomfortable chair. "It's just that... Well, Pein is a mass-murderer: he killed 67 people at one time, never killed again and then was arrested. Sigma, on the other hand, is a serial killer: he's progressed his killing technique and victim count over time. He was arrested 15 years after he began killing. I find that placing both types of killers in one cell could... lead to problems."
The warden was silent again. Then he sighed. "I'unno. They've been cellmates for three years. The only problem is that they are perpetually horny. That's it. I mean, Sigma Kitae is bipolar and the Pein guy is just plain mental. Both are in the high-intensity block because their illnesses can't be controlled completely and so they're still dangerous."
"I understand that," Katsumi said quietly, blinking at the man. "But don't you think that Sigma, who is bipolar and has psychosis, might aggravate Pein's already-overwhelming delusions? I'm afraid that having that much bloodlust and intensity in one contained area might lead them to more violence."
Again, a pause, and Katsumi couldn't tell if it was because the warden was thinking or because he was too busy checking her out. "You know the guy next to them, Deoka Zawasta, is manic depressive and ate his first cellmate years ago? My smallest concern is Sigma and Pein, you see." He rolled his beady eyes toward the ceiling. "And the guy who they hang out with -- uh, Poichi... Yatato, I think, from block E -- at free time is schizophrenic. Again, Miss Sato, those two together is the least of my problems."
She only nodded. "I understand. Thank you." Katsumi stood and turned to leave.
"But, Miss Sato," the warden said suddenly, "since you're Pein's therapist you can still come back to my office later and convince me why you really don't want him with that Sigma guy. Maybe I'll think about it if your argument is strong enough..."
She had no intentions of having sex with him. "No, thank you, that's okay. Goodbye." She exited the office as quickly as she could and rushed back down the hallway to her own room.
---
Sigma stood in front of the mirror completely naked. "Hungry, hungry, hungry," he hissed, rubbing his stomach so the little tattoos rippled beneath his fingers. The dim fluorescent light made him look gaunt and sickly, but he knew better. "I eat so damned much and I'm still so fucking hungry!" He glared heatedly at the cracked reflection and then ran his hands through his blue hair. "You hungry?"
Pein frowned slightly and looked over at the clothes-less man from across the small room. "Yeah. It's the meds, not you."
"Right. Whatever." Sigma stretched dramatically and looked down at the floor where his pants lay in a puddle of gray fabric. "Who gets the bed tonight? I forget who had it last night..." Sigma's medication caused him to have relative short-term memory loss.
Pein didn't look up from his worn-out book. "I did."
Sigma grinned. "Fantastic. I'm fucking exhausted. Can we tell Deoka to stop snoring, too? He's fucking loud and it's pissing me off. You'd think metal walls would be able to stop the god damned noise, but no." He huffed and peered down with interest at his flaccid penis. "I need to get to business, man-"
"If you think for one second I'm getting off of this bed so you can jack off, then go fuck yourself. Turn around and do it against the wall." Pein flipped the dirtied page and began reading again.
Sigma twisted his face in something akin to a snarl, but far too humored. "Suit yourself. You get the floor next time, then, fucker." He promptly sat down on the cement and leant back against the cracked mirror. "You think Deoka will get pissed if I yell?"
"Yes. Yes I do."
"Good." The naked man closed his eyes, licked his cut and dove in.
Pein tried, for the sake of his peace, to ignore the animalistic growling of his cell-mate, but he couldn't. He shut the book, setting it on the bed, and leaned over to watch the blue-haired man writhe against the stone. "Feel good?" he asked, knowing it always did.
"Fucking great," Sigma breathed, letting his eyes roll back in his head. "But, damn, that chick would make a good fix right now..." He gnashed his teeth and jolted and then sighed.
Pein narrowed his eyes. "She's mine. I'm the one who's gonna fuck her." He slid off the bed and looked around for his now-buried shirt. "Don't even think about getting to her first."
"Never would I ever," Sigma joked through a hazy voice, rumbling in the back of his throat. "But she looks fucking delicious. Real sticky and sweet, like good candy." He groaned and lolled his head. "I'll have her after you-"
"You'll end up killing her in the process. Don't. I'd like to preserve her for as long as I can. And you're too possessive and rough." Pein scowled and looked at the 147 crosses on his friend's skin.
"Nothing wrong with that," Sigma murmured, sweating against his pleasure. "You wouldn't be any fucking better to her."
"Damn straight, I would be. I'd at least let her live afterward. You'd just kill her off." Pein was still looking for his shirt, distracted.
"But I like the sound of a woman's screams. That's half the fun. What good is it to fuck a woman if you can't make her completely yours?" Sigma had so many violence fetishes, Pein couldn't count them.
The orange-haired man blinked, bending down to pick up an empty pack of cigarettes. "I'm seeing her again tomorrow."
Sigma came. "Really?" he gasped, wiping his hand on the ground. "Take me with you."
"She'd flip a shit and call security. No, I'm not taking you with me." Pein was now trying to wrench open the window.
"Damn it. I have group counseling tomorrow," Sigma complained, stumbling to his feet and almost slipping on a mixture of spilt water and his own semen. "All we fucking talk about are feelings and shit."
Pein chuckled in monotone before pulling his arm back and smashing the glass with his fist. "It's too stuffy in here. Where's my damned shirt?"
Sigma clucked his tongue and decided not to put any clothes on. "I'unno. I can't find my fucking ID, either..."
"Probably Deoka," Pein muttered, staring out of the jagged glass and past the bars to the wide field below their window. "He took my pillow once, too." The pierced man turned to find his cell-mate dry-swallowing pills. "Doesn't that hurt?"
Sigma cocked his head. "No. It tastes like shit sometimes, though." He set down the transparent orange bottle. "I need more of that." His bony hands found another bottle of pills. "Say, you heard anything from Poichi about switching floors? He said he's moving to block E. Dude's fucked."
"Not at all," Pein said, falling back on the lumpy single bed. "I'm not moving no matter what, anyway. It's too hot on the upper floors." His neck felt stiff and his back hurt like all hell.
There was a pause. From outside the locked door, they could hear showers running and the echoing sound of boots against the metal floors. Someone growled profanity and then there was the sound of skull cracking against a guard's baton. They looked at each other.
"'Nother shower rape, eh?" Sigma mumbled, rolling his eyes. "Fuckers never learn." He walked over to stand next to the bed. Another pause. "Wanna have sex?"
Pein looked at him. "I guess. You're bottom this time, though."
---
"Hey, Doc," Pein said, stepping into the office. It was exactly three the next day and she looked surprised to see him on time.
"Hello," she said quietly, shuffling a stack of papers. "You look... especially... content." Her curiosity soaked the room.
"I fucked my cell-mate senseless," he said bluntly and with a crooked grin. She burned red and choked on her air intake. Pein sat down on the chair. "Jealous, Doc? There's plenty of me to go around-"
Suddenly she was reaching for the phone. "Hello?" she called into the receiver after pressing some buttons, "an inmate has recently committed an in-cell sex-crime. I need security to-" Pein snarled and grabbed for the phone, instead clawing indents in the desk. Katsumi screamed and jumped out of her chair. "P-please! I need someone down here! The man is unstable!" Her voice shook so hard, Pein swore they couldn't comprehend her on the other end.
"Doc!" Pein bellowed, "sit down! It was consensual; we do it all the time. Now stop that." His ringed eyes stabbed at her from across a span of six feet. "Come on, Doc, don't get me in trouble now. I know we're not supposed to have relations with other inmates, but we're all so goddamned horny 'round here. Cut me some slack."
Katsumi watched him stare at her and forgot about the man on the other end of the phone. "Uh, y-yes, sorry," she finally said, sitting down in the leather chair slowly. "I just need you to call the moderator and tell him to..." There was a pause and she nodded her head faintly. "Yes. Yes, thank you. Sorry about that. Goodbye." She hung up.
Pein eyed her pale face and the insistent smirk pulled at his muscles. "Thank you, Doc, that saved me. I feel that nobody here really understands the sexual frustration us convicts go through in this place." He hoped she couldn't sense his sarcasm as he peered at her with narrowed, glittering eyes. "I need release just like you do-"
"S-stop that! Let's talk about your medication. How are you feeling?" She refused to make eye-contact and he loved it.
"Fine. Eyes kinda blurry though." He was starting to taste the want on his tongue. It burned like good sakē as it hit his thoughts like a freight train. "Colors fucked up. But I can't find my meds..."
"I-I see. Is that something new? Or does this happen a lot?" Her voice wavered and the round pools of her pupils dilated when he licked his lips with a pointed tongue.
Pein's hungry smile grew and it pained him for some inconceivable reason. "It happens sometimes. You scared of me, Doc? You look a little pale..." In the back of his mind, the want reeled and spun and Pein craved to dig his hands into her skin and feel the living heat.
Katsumi sat up straighter and swallowed. "No, no I am not. Stay on topic and only speak when spoken to, please." Her blue eyes looked defiant, though wary. "Now, I'm assigning you a new medication which I think will work better. It's stronger and lasts longer, and will also keep your appetite in check." She pulled a large green bottle out of a drawer and set it before him on the desk.
Pein raised an eyebrow and picked up the plastic bottle. "If you say so, Doc. Can I go, or do you want me to stay?" His eyes tilted toward her and he choked back another sick leer. He was dizzy enough as it was.
"... L-leave. And I want to see you again tomorrow at four." Katsumi sighed deeply and tugged a bit at her jacket. "And please stop this... sex. It disrupts the calm of the block." When Pein cocked an eyebrow she shuddered. "At least stay quiet..."
"Thanks, Doc," he said in a polite tone and with a mocking wink, standing from the chair with his new medication. "See you tomorrow." And he turned on his heel and left the room with an air of satisfaction.
---
When Pein returned to the cell, Sigma was sitting on the bed flipping through his binder of victims. It was cold in the room, but the blue-haired man was still naked and had a cigarette hanging from his lips absently. As he flipped the photo-filled page with bony fingers, Pein saw his eyes light up and a small smile contort his face.
"What is it?" the pierced man asked, placing his new bottle on the nearby table. "Someone good? From a while ago?"
Sigma chuckled and touched one of the photos affectionately. "My first. She was young -- twelve, maybe -- and had these big fucking eyes like a deer's. I think I was fifteen at the time. I was so crude back then..." He gazed off into the distance for a moment and then giggled to himself, causing Pein to wonder again why he ever even tried to understand the guy.
"Let me see," Pein said, coming over to sit on the bed. He found himself looking at a photograph of a girl, her blond hair in tight ringlets, laying sprawled upward on concrete with a gaping hole in her chest and a blank look in her eyes. "What'd you do to her?"
Sigma blinked owlishly. "Cut her liver out while she was still alive. I did it with a fucking fishing hook." He pointed to the top right corner of the picture, and Pein could clearly see a bloody, rusted fishing hook laying on the ground near her body. "I was just starting out," Sigma was saying, "trying to feel out my tactics. I had a thing for girls, but guys were a lot of fucking fun, since they sometimes yelled louder. But I eventually settled on younger boys and older women. It worked out so fucking well that way." There was a happy smile on his face that Pein found both oddly touching and extremely disconcerting.
"I killed anyone," Pein said slowly, feeling kind of unprofessional at the moment, "but it was all the same to me. I just wanted the blood."
"I know what you mean," Sigma said knowingly, "I thought that's all I wanted in the beginning, too. But then I met this boy -- name of Raizo -- who was twelve or something. And he did this thing where he would cry and beg for mercy, and it was so fucking beautiful. It made me love him like I'd never loved a victim before. After that, I treated it as my art form."
Pein nodded thoughtfully. "Do you have him in here?" He pointed to the binder.
"No. He's the reason I archive this shit in the first place. I did keep him with me for a few months, though-"
Pein cocked an eyebrow. "You kept his dead body with you?"
Sigma laughed and it sounded more demonic than it was. "No, man, alive. Kinda like a pet for a few months. I bought a collar and leash and everything. Made him crawl on his hands and knees and eat from the ground. If he wanted something, he had to whine like a real one." Sigma laughed again and slapped his knee. "If he made a mistake, like spoke or didn't fucking beg when I told him to, I'd punish him: beat him or dunk him in the lake until he cried and couldn't breathe. I really loved that kid."
Pein found it hard not to sympathize with his cellmate's story. "What happened to him in the end?"
"I beat him so bad one day, he begged me to kill him. I mean, he had, like, ten broken bones and I think I fucking made him blind in one eye. He was a wreck, all bloody and sobbing and in a heap on the ground. I could barely hear what he was fucking saying since his tongue was all messed up."
"How'd his tongue get like that?" Pein asked, kind of already knowing.
Sigma scratched his cheek with a finger. "I cut it since he wouldn't stop crying that morning; I think I accidentally yanked on his leash too hard and he started fucking choking and began sobbing and shit. I cut it to make him shut up. Anyway, I put him out of his misery later on, so it was okay." For a moment, Sigma's eyes clouded with something akin to sadness. "That boy really made me happy, though..."
"Hm." Pein nodded as he thought about that. "I had people like that."
Sigma took a drag on the cigarette. "Victims? They dead?"
Pein paused and had to think. "No... they're not dead. They were childhood friends. I grew up with them." He watched the nicotine smoke drift into the air in big loops. "Sometimes I miss them..."
"Friends?" Sigma asked slowly. "Huh. You're a strange one. Anyway, what about this doctor lady? You'd better get a fucking move on." He smiled his usual catty grin and lay back on the bed.
Pein chuckled, stood up and stared at his companion's many tattoos. "I'm thinking about it. I almost couldn't stop myself today. She's just so..." He sighed and rolled his eyes back toward his skull. "So hot and round and delicious."
Sigma laughed and his pale stomach shuddered. "Why her, man?"
Pein swallowed back the want and looked at him. "What?"
"You know, I only choose people I have an attraction to. I like the submissive ones that fucking cry. But what do you like?" His golden eyes glittered at Pein and the latter man frowned.
"She's resistant but I can see right through her. She's afraid of bigger, stronger men, but she feels protected around them." Pein smiled unceremoniously and his headache stabbed at him. "Her type likes being dominated. Likes being owned." He looked at his naked cellmate smoking on the bed and watching him. "I like owning people. I'd like owning that."
Sigma nodded and tapped the ash from his cigarette to the floor. "I get that, I get that. What else? Does she look nice? Does she smell nice? Is it her voice? Her fucking expressions? It's gotta be something physical, too."
Pein rolled his neck. "What'd you like about the, uh, Raizo kid?"
Sigma sat up and stubbed his smoke out on the metal bed frame. "He had blue eyes and blond hair. I think I liked his soft tone of voice, but the main thing was his eyes." He grinned wider and stared into the distance. "They were big and held all this emotion. When he got scared they watered and it was fucking gorgeous. They were like pools. And he fucking cried a lot, so I was always happy." Sigma sighed and rubbed his forehead. "I wish I'd taken pictures..."
Pein nodded. "The Doc's got thick hair, the kind you can grab onto and pull. And she's got wide hips and thick thighs and really bright eyes. Kinda exotic. It's sexy. But she looks scared a lot, and that makes her appearance all the more tantalizing. I mean, she looks like a mother-fucking sex-pot and then she's all timid and shit." He sucked in a breath and licked his lips. "Makes me wanna take her."
Sigma laughed again. "Right. Raizo's personality made me wanna take him, too: he was shy and looked at the ground a lot and was super fucking polite. He got scared often and cried easily, and always said please and thank you. He wasn't me and I wanted that; I wanted to own that. He was mine. All mine."
"You had sex with him?" Pein asked, sitting back down on the bed. His headache was slowly going away, but the room looked hazy.
Sigma's eyes lit up. "You jealous? Yeah, I did. It was the best."
There was a silence and they both heard Deoka muttering something in a foreign language next door. Pein rolled his eyes. "Freak. What was it like? The schedule and the mechanics of it."
"You wanna hear? I'll fucking tell you." Sigma stood up and grabbed his pants off of the top of the nearby laundry pile. After pulling them on, he jumped back on the bed again. "It was always at night. I'd come back from work -- I was a construction worker for a few years -- and he'd always be crouched in the corner of the living room or something. I'd eat dinner and then feed him. Then I'd watch TV for a few hours. He'd just fucking sit there on the floor and cry, because I'd usually be drunk at that point and sometimes I'd hit him for the fun of it. Anyway, then I'd take him into to bedroom and fuck him out of his skull. Simple as that."
"No resistance?" Pein was interested.
"Nah. He'd scream and sob and beg and be all like 'No! Please, please!'" Sigma paused to laugh. "But he was so frail and weak: he couldn't stop me. Plus, he knew if he tried I'd be rougher, so, you know..." His smile was blindingly euphoric.
Pein cocked an eyebrow. "You loved him."
"Damn, I wish I hadn't fucking killed him. He was my favorite. After that, I took no more pets. He was the one." Sigma was totally serious and it amused Pein.
"I see. Well, the Doc's the one for me. And I'm gonna win this bet, you watch." He tried not to smile and instead looked out of the broken window. "I want a pet, too."
---
Katsumi pressed her forehead to the tiled wall of her shower. The steam pricked at her skin and the drops of water tracked wet lines down her body. She was exhausted.
It was late and she felt it, staring blankly at the white wall with half-lidded blue eyes. "My god," she breathed, rubbing her mouth. "What next?" She reached over and turned the hot water knob up.
Pein drove her crazy. He was deranged and twisted, untamed and uncontrollable, but charming as all hell. It was as though he were bipolar and never thought to do something about it. He was sick. But Katsumi knew, deep down inside, that she couldn't help but enjoy him.
He was entertaining and refreshing. He was relatively coherent compared to the other inmates. He was sly, mature and everything a tall, dark, mysterious man should be. That was why she was terrified of him.
"Why me?" she whined against the tile, stamping her bare foot. "I don't deserve this...!" She tangled a finger in her stringy brown hair. "Why is it always the obscene ones?" Katsumi had always been a bad-boy magnet, much to her dismay. "Why can't it be a calm, normal guy? One who doesn't kill people and live in a cell! One who doesn't randomly... have... gay sex..." She crinkled her nose and tried to wipe the thought from her head; prison sex was always on the violent side.
She thought back to her first time meeting him, and then his strange, wide, cat-like grin that snarled out at her from behind the bars. It had been -- and still was -- a weird smile, but his eyes never lit up and his disposition never changed, so perhaps it was less of a smile and more of a mask. A really sick, unhappy mask.
Katsumi wanted to help him. She wanted to sit down with him and get through that thick, color-clouded head of his for one second and try to talk. But she knew he was one of the irreparable ones, one of the ones who wallowed in malady and madness because it was easier than reality. Feel bad, take a pill, all better. For a while. It disgusted Katsumi, but she knew it was inhumane to take away that safeguard of theirs.
Pein was an odd one, actually, when it came to sickness. He was grounded, he was aware, he was able to recognize his surroundings. He could form complete sentences and put them into paragraphs and clauses. He could register objects and time. He was one of the better ones. One of the ones who was too sick to let go but too healthy to stay.
Katsumi knew about Sigma. He was the one with blue hair and the tattoos who had murderous and torturous tendencies. She knew he was sicker than Pein. Sigma was a lover of fights, someone with an insatiable bloodlust, and a knack for sexualizing violence. She knew no one else that got off on a mutilated, crying child, but Sigma did.
Katsumi had always been afraid that Sigma would make Pein's symptoms worse. That the younger, more wild, blue-haired man would somehow take his cellmate's problems and push them to the tenth degree. It was a fear that ate at Katsumi. She had nightmares of Pein walking into her office and showing her pictures of his latest killings. She had nightmares that Pein reveled in it. She had nightmares of Pein splashing through puddles of blood and gore with that twisted, unhappy smile on his face. Katsumi had a lot of nightmares.
---
Some guy was on the floor, on his knees, coughing like an idiot. Deoka walked in to see Sigma shove his dick back in his pants and tell the guy to "fucking wipe his mouth." Pein was laying upside-down on the couch with a binder in his hands. Deoka promptly decided he officially hated visiting this cell.
"Heeeey," he drawled, holding the word out for as long as it took to get Sigma to look at him. When the young man finally did, Deoka grunted. "I need... my camera back... now." He licked his lips and began bobbing his head up and down.
Sigma was silent and looked at Pein with confusion on his face. "Dude, I don't have your fucking camera," he muttered, rolling his hawk-eyes, "you do." He snatched a bottle of pills from the table and unscrewed the cap. "Stop fucking asking. And stop moving your head like you wanna fucking suck my cock."
Deoka took a moment to register Sigma's command. Once his head stopped moving he was quiet for such a long time Pein thought he had died standing there. "YOU HAVE MY FUCKING CAMERA!" he suddenly exploded, face turning purple. "DON'T FUCKING LIE TO ME, YOU BITCH! I KNOW YOU AND YOUR PERUVIAN WHORE OVER THERE ARE OUT TO FUCKING RUIN ME! STOP ACTING LIKE YOU DON'T MEAN IT; YOU HATE ME! YOU SLUTS!" He kept stamping his foot and flapping his arms like a large, overweight, red-faced bird.
Pein and Sigma stared blankly. Then Pein looked over at Sigma from his upside-down position. "Did he just call me a whore from Peru?"
"I think so," Sigma mumbled, tilting his head and sighing. "And I believe he called us sluts, the fucker." He looked at the other inmate on the ground, who was wondering what the hell was going on. "Luikito~" Sigma sang, and the red-haired male snapped his head to look at him. "Get going. And remember to fucking swallow next time; your coughing reminded me of someone with TB."
The thoroughly confused Luikito nodded hastily and dashed out of the room and down the hallway. Sigma smacked his lips and went to go sit on the bed.
"Gimme back... my fucking camera," Deoka was gasping from over near the door. The veins in his neck were bulging and, all together, he looked like an angry cow going into labor. "I want my... fucking camera," he spat again, advancing toward the two other men. "I want it... fucking... now..."
Pein sat up straight on the couch and sighed. "Look, man, we don't have your camera. So leave. We're busy. You're pissing us off." He narrowed his eyes malevolently. "I will seriously kick your ass into next Sunday if you don't fucking leave."
Sigma whistled. "Damn, you angry. Makes me want you."
"Shut the fuck up, Sigma. I don't want to hear a noise out of you." Pein felt his eyes fade into red and everything looked hazy.
"God damn it, take me, Pein." Sigma only half meant it; he wanted to see Deoka get beaten very very badly. "Then whoop his ass."
Pein was rising from the couch. The floor was slanting and the lights were yellowing and the room felt hot. "I'll kill you if you don't leave," he was saying under his breath, "I'll fucking kill you."
Deoka didn't register it and continued to pant and mutter under his breath. "I'll... fuck you... I'll fuck you so bad," he gasped, drooling all over his chin and shirtfront. "I'll fucking fuck you... so hard--"
"Dude," Sigma interjected with a sigh, "calm down. We don't have your fucking camera. Leave right the fuck now. Seriously, Pein, stop doing that." He was watching Pein bite at his own hand, like he did when he was nervous. Blood ran down the pierced man's forearm. "You're gonna ruin yourself, man, stop it," Sigma said, "it's fucking upsetting..." He sighed again and stood from the bed to grab a cigarette off the pile of dirty laundry.
Pein's world slowly melted like ice in a fire. Deoka's purple face was only a smudge on a gray background, and Pein decided--very slowly--that this might be hard. "Leave," he said again, his voice barely a whisper. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the smudge that was Sigma sit back down on the bed. "You little bitch," he hissed all too calmly, "I'll kill you. Right now, I'll kill you."
Deoka was equally incapacitated. "DON'T FUCKING LIE TO ME, WHORE! YOU HAVE MY CAMERA! I WANT IT! NOW! IF YOU DON'T... IF YOU DON'T GIVE IT TO ME, I'LL FUCK YOU! I'LL FUCK YOU RIGHT UP THE ASS! RIGHT UP THE ASS LIKE THEY DID TO ME! YOU'LL DIE A MISERABLE ANIMAL!" His eyes were wide and bloodshot, and his skin was boiling and beading with sweat.
"Shut the fuck up," Pein muttered, walking slowly toward the slobbering, raging man that was Deoka. "Be quiet and this won't--"
"WHORE!" Deoka screamed again.
And Pein lunged.
Sigma watched as blood splattered across the wall and dripped down the meet the floor. In the background he heard bone cracking against concrete and wondered idly if Pein was killing that obnoxious bastard.
He looked and saw Pein punching Deoka in the throat, snarling and heaving. It was enough to make him smile around his cigarette.
Sigma turned and vomited over the side of the bed. Sitting back up, he wiped his mouth with his shirtsleeve, smacked his lips, and faintly remembered that he hated the taste of digested food and bile.
Pein shattered Deoka's jaw with a punch and kept kneeing him the testicles for some non-apparent reason. His eyes were wide and opaque and his mouth was curled up in an irate grin. Deoka was so fucking dead.
"Hey, hey, hey!" somebody yelled suddenly, and the warden burst into the room with ten guards, the psychiatrist chick and this scrawny guy who Sigma knew to be the resident physician. "What the hell? Break this up!" The warden was waving his arms around and pointing to the bloody mess that was Pein and Deoka on the floor.
The guards quickly dragged Pein off of the destroyed Deoka and shoved him into a corner of the room where they attempted to sedate him. The doctor helped Deoka to his feet gingerly.
"THAT FUCK," he sputtered through a broken and bleeding mouth, "THAT STUPID WHORE!" He accidentally inhaled one of his loose teeth and hacked it out unceremoniously onto the floor with his own blood. "I'LL FUCK HIM. I'LL FUCK HIM SO HARD--"
"Shut him up," the warden groaned, motioning for another guard to administer sedatives. He then turned to Katsumi. "What do you know about this?"
She went pale. "N-nothing. I know nothing. He was fine earlier today..." At her boss' steely look she jumped. "I was trying to place him on a new medication! He was refusing to take it..." She eyed the full bottle of Pein's pills on the table nearby and felt dread build.
"Completely unmedicated, huh? Shit." The warden rubbed his eyes and swore again under his breath. "Try harder!" he growled at the unfortunate guard who was trying with all his might to stick the needle into Deoka's neck. "And what do you have to do with this?" he asked Sigma, who was watching the interactions with great interest.
"Nothing," he said, "though that bastard was annoying the shit out of us so I told him to fucking get lost."
The warden's face contorted. "Do you have any freakin' idea how deranged this guy is? Don't say things like that to him, fuck-face!" He was losing it.
Sigma's expression fell. "Watch your mouth, warden, or I'll fucking slaughter you--"
"Please, stop," Katsumi interjected, simultaneously watching Pein and Sigma. "Can we just wrap this up? I don't believe this is being handled well at all..." She looked distressed.
Sigma grinned and the warden shot him a look. "Yeah, yeah," the larger man said, "get these two crazies outta here." He looked long and hard at the half-sedated Pein over in the corner and frowned. "Now."
---
"Stay still!" the guard cut out, struggling to strap an irate Pein down to the table. His gloved hands fumbled with the buckles before pulling the leather ties tight around the seething man’s chest.
"The fuck!" Pein growled. "Let me go! What the hell do you want?!" His muscles bulged against the restraints and they forced red lines in his skin.
"The warden will be here soon," the guard was saying to the resident physician nearby, "so he’ll take care of this."
"Let me go!" Pein roared, thrashing around in futility. His head throbbed with pain and his vision was all a white blur.
"Shut up," the guard shot at him, "stay quiet. You’re pissing me off-"
"I’ll do more than piss you off," Pein returned with malice, "I’ll cut you limb from limb and make a dinner out of your organs. I’ll wear your intestines as a necklace."
The guard blanched and shrunk back against the plaster wall. The physician began scribbling something in a notebook just as the warden burst in with Katsumi on his heels.
"Okay," the warden huffed, "so I hear the sedatives aren’t working." He looked calm, but the veins in his neck throbbed and everyone knew he was on the brink of insanity.
"Right," the doctor said, "his body is over-heating from the lack of medication and he’s burning the sedative off as quickly as we put it in him." The gaunt man looked rather concerned. "We’re going to need something stronger-"
"Get a needle near me and I will destroy you!"
The doctor coughed a bit and turned to Katsumi. "We really need you to tell us what you know about his mental status."
The young woman blinked blankly. "He has had rapid speech patterns and lack of concentration in meetings." She paused. "But that’s not too uncommon. His spirits have been up. He’s been laughing…"
"Mania," the doctor muttered, nodding to himself and writing something else down.
"I’m not fucking manic!" Pein bellowed, straining some more. "Let me go!"
The warden rolled his beady eyes and grunted. "Sick in the head, he is. Get me some of that strong stuff: I’ll sedate him myself."
At Pein’s widening, livid eyes, Katsumi cleared her throat. "Why don’t I do it? It’s generally the case that people feel safer around someone they speak to often-" She cut off at the warden’s expression of anger, but then resumed with caution. "I’m his psychiatrist, it only makes sense…"
The physician shrugged. "Why don’t you let her?"
"…Fine," the warden mumbled. "Get her the syringe. Pronto." He waved at the guard to get moving and stormed out of the blindingly white room. The doctor shrugged again and wrote something else down, while Katsumi just closed her eyes and braced herself for the worst.
Pein, who had lay there quietly for a few minutes, was beaming with anticipation. "Well, Doc, thanks for looking out for me."
"Don’t speak, please," the doctor said absently.
Katsumi ignored him. "I wasn’t ‘looking out for you.’ I was just holding my own-"
"Yeah right, Doc. You were worried about me. I could see it in your face." He narrowed his eyes on her and pulled an honestly unsettling grin.
She paled and blushed simultaneously. "Q-quiet."
"You like me, Doc," he cooed with a simper.
"Please stop talking," the doctor pleaded.
"Don’t say that!" she squealed, covering her mouth with a hand. "Stop saying things like that!"
Pein sighed and rolled his ringed eyes. "You’re in denial, Doc…"
"N-no I’m not!"
"Stop talking!"
Both Katsumi and Pein, without explanation and without planning, looked at the doctor and glowered. The scrawny man shuddered and went back to writing in his notebook.
"I want you, Doc," Pein suddenly commented.
"W-what? What did you just say?" Her whole body ran with nerves.
"I want you." His eyes glittered with something on the edge of desire and danger. "I need you, Doc."
"Y-you really shouldn’t say things like that," she whimpered, feeling lost. "Y-you could get in trouble-"
"I swear to you, Doc: the second I get out of these fucking bonds, I’m going to bend you over this table and take you right here."
The doctor promptly scurried out of the room and left the wildly confused Katsumi in his wake.
"W-what?"
"You heard me." His voice grated against the air and made the room feel cold. The smirk in his voice was palpable.
Katsumi stared long and hard at his glazed, ringed eyes and shuddered. "Can… can you see me at all?"
His expression fell and he paused. "No. Everything is white…"
"Oh." She fiddled with the edge of her blazer and breathed a sigh of relief that filled the room.
"Why?" he asked lightly.
"…No reason." She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and slowly approached the metal table where he was strapped.
He furrowed his brow as her blurry form neared. "Why do you trust me, Doc?"
She halted and tilted her head. "What?"
Pein’s piercings rippled as he contorted his face in something akin to thoughtfulness. "I could reach over and rip your skin from your bones. I could kill you." His voice tightened for a moment. "Why put yourself in danger?"
Katsumi shivered and bit her lip. "I… don’t know. I guess… I’d like to believe that you’re safe to be around." Her tone of voice dropped to a whisper and Pein strained against his bonds to get nearer to her. "I’d like to trust you."
A strangely pleased smile spread across his face. It was marred only by the cuts on his cheek and his split lip from the fight. "Really? Hm. Come closer, Doc. I want you to see something." His unseeing, hazy eyes beckoned her closer and she cautiously came to stand beside the table.
"Y-yes?"
"Touch my face." His lips curled in a catty smirk. "Touch it."
She opened and closed her mouth at a loss for words and burned a bright red. "W-what?!"
"Touch it," he commanded again, voice rife with want.
Katsumi reached out a shaking hand and laid it gently on his cheek. The skin she felt was warm, running with blood and sinew and life, and shockingly human-feeling. Her arm jolted in shock.
"Were you expecting coldness?" he asked with some amount of hurt, but held the smile.
She didn’t answer and turned to running her fingertips over the ball-piercings that sat embedded on either side of the bridge of his nose. "Don’t these bother you?" she asked, gingerly poking the black protrusions.
He chuckled darkly. "Never. If something as small as that bothered me, I wouldn’t make a very good criminal, now would I?" It was a sardonic, measured statement that sounded on the verge of upset. His body pulsed against the restraints as he craved to grind her into himself, to turn her world upside down. The want was unbearable.
Katsumi pulled in a shaky breath and moved to lightly stroke the snake bites beneath his lip. The sharp, steel fangs had always glinted in the stark light of her office, and she’d always wondered what it felt like to have tiny blades pressed to your skin every day. "Why get these?" she murmured under her breath, accidentally pricking her finger on the point of one. A tiny blood bubble beaded above the skin and she felt clammy as she looked at it.
Pein eyed her face and then her hurt finger. "Feels good. Bring it here." He nodded his head at her hand and the muscles in his neck strained as he lifted his head higher above the cold metal he lay on. The sharp canines he bore shined in the yellow lighting and he looked very much like a hungry wolf as he opened his mouth slightly in an expectant grin.
Katsumi felt her heart flutter uncomfortably as she peered down at his waiting mouth. Slowly, and quite shakily, she lowered her hand and let him take her bloodied finger in his mouth.
Ever since she met the untamed, mysterious prisoner that was Pein, she’d always imagined that he had a forked tongue. One that was long and sickly and slimy; one that matched the record of him that said "mass-murderer/prone to delusions," and the photo of him that sported a demonic grin.
But the tongue that wound around her fingertip was searing hot and rough, like a cat’s. It was damp and welcoming and greedy. It sent pleasant tingles up her spine and wound excited nerve shocks down her legs to such an extent that she had to brace herself against the table when her knees began to give way.
"Hm, Doc," he rumbled in his throat, "you’re delicious…" His eyes had lit up and the haze had gone, leaving them brilliant and all-seeing. They pierced her and never left her face, and she blushed when—feeling a drop of her blood run down his tongue—they rolled back in his head with a pleased groan.
"O-okay, that’s enough," she peeped, feeling hot all over. She tentatively pulled her finger from his hungry mouth and stared at it before pulling that hand into a fist out of embarrassment. "N-no more. I have to go-"
"Aren’t you going to sedate me?" he muttered offhandedly, licking his lips and staring up intently at her face. The heat in his irises hadn’t faded and he looked positively ravenous.
Katsumi paused and slowly looked around the room. "…I suppose not. But, you have to promise to take your medication." Her cerulean irises surveyed his face warily.
Pein swallowed and smacked his lips a few times. "Will do, Doc." The sardonic smile reappeared. "You’re too kind. It makes me want you."
She blushed and crossed her arms. "S-stop that. I’m your superior-"
"Only by title," he whispered, baring his teeth. "You’re mine, Doc."
The guard suddenly opened the door holding a capped syringe in his hand. "Here you go, Dr. Sato. It’s concentrated." He looked sideways at the restrained Pein and scowled. "Hope it helps."
"Uh, thanks," she mumbled, taking the needle from him. After turning it over in her hands for a moment as the guard left, the color in her face faded. "I think I’m going to go back on my word, Pein."
His eyes narrowed and then widened. "Whatever you insist on, Doc."
Slowly she approached him and snapped the safety cap off the sharp. The clear fluid inside distorted her vision as she looked through it and at his waiting face. "Sorry-"
"Ah, it’s no big deal. Just another day." His smile held but the glint in his eyes had turned dark. "You gotta do your job, you know."
"Uh huh," she murmured, staring long and hard at the silver needle. Her hand trembled slightly. "It’s not your fault."
"Hm?"
"That you’re sick, I mean." Her chest felt heavy and tears pricked at the back of her eyes.
He vaguely registered her oncoming tears and felt uncomfortable. "Whatever makes you feel better, Doc."
She lowered the needle and made eye-contact with him. For a minute they both just stared and neither could tell why. Katsumi broke the contact with a blush and he chuckled slightly.
"Come here, Doc. I want a kiss."
"W-what?" She nearly dropped the syringe.
"A kiss," he reiterated. "I want one. Before I go under and don’t come back up."
"Y-you’re not dying," she stammered. "I’m not… k-killing you. This isn’t death row-"
His dark expression stopped her. "Feels the same. They’ll kill me eventually. I want a kiss."
"T-they’re not killing you!" she cried, feeling a tear finally spill over her lid. It was sudden and she wiped it away shyly.
Pein furrowed his brow. "Come here." He waited as she collected herself and felt the want suppress his rationality when her watery eyes met his for a moment. He finally understood why Sigma liked tears.
Katsumi moved even closer to the table and stopped. He narrowed his gaze and licked his lips. "Come on, Doc."
She quivered and shook her head. "I-I can’t…"
"Doc!" he bellowed, body shuddering with the mental exertion required to not rip from the bonds and have his way. "Don’t you dare deny me this! Don’t deny yourself this, either!" The ire in his eyes swam about with the burning desire. "I need you, Doc. I need to have you like you wouldn’t believe." His chest heaved and his muscles tensed. "I need to consume you."
She was terrified, but too interested to move. "W-why? I don’t get you…"
Pein groaned and gnashed his teeth. "Why entice me?" he questioned, out of his mind with craving. "Why stand here and entice me, Doc? Why not run?"
She couldn’t answer that.
"Come on! You lead me on! You drive me insane!" He saw red and green and gray. He was teetering between anger and insanity. "I can’t take it anymore!"
"I-I’m sorry," she sobbed, covering her eyes. "I didn’t k-know I was hurting you like th-this…" Her tone dropped to a whimper and all that filled the room were her quiet tears and his heavy breathing.
Pein lost grip on the anger and felt a sinking confusion, leaving his body boiling and cold and tingling wildly. "Damn it. Come here. All I want is a kiss, Doc. Then you can stick that thing in me." His eyes glinted up at her and the pupils dilated in expectancy.
Katsumi sniffled and looked back at the closed door before turning toward her patient again. Something like fear tore inside her, but the little point of interest and hope and yearning stuck out painfully and her heart thudded without abandon. Slowly, she leaned down, pulled in a shaky breath, and pressed her mouth to his.
He was strong and overwhelming, devouring her instantly and with relish. She melted and felt the tears roll down her face and then drop to him. A slow, deep rumble emitted from his throat, a pleased sound that spoke of release and content, and she felt accomplished. The bitter steel on his lips dug into her flesh and ignited a chuckled from him as he felt the pressure.
She pulled back and stared down at him with wide, watery eyes. His own pale, ringed ones stared back up, framed by the dark shadow of his eye sockets and the lack of sleep. "You like that, Doc?" he breathed heavily, leaning up with his head and running the whole of his tongue along her chin and up her jaw-line. Katsumi froze and closed her eyes as the wet heat travelled. When she didn’t respond, he laughed again. "I see. That wasn’t too bad, was it?"
She stood up straight and rubbed her forearm before nodding slightly. The syringe in her hand shook as her fingers trembled. "I-I need to give you this-"
"I know," he said, looking pleased. "I know."
She pulled up the short sleeve of his shirt and stared at his muscled shoulder before slipping the needle into his skin, past sinew and toward veins. His eyes turned to her and she winced at his expression.
"See you tomorrow, Doc."
"Y-yeah."
His devilish smile slipped back onto his face as the light in his eyes faded and he slid his lids closed. There was a silence as she stared at his unmoving form and then at the slow, relaxed pulse of his chest. Pulling the needle out, she tossed it in a nearby sharps-containment box and took a step back from the table. She looked around, felt alone, looked at his sleeping body and left the room.
"How’d it go?" the guard asked cautiously, seeing her shaken expression.
Katsumi walked past him. "Fine. Set him up for a three o’ clock appointment tomorrow, please."
"…Okay," the guard muttered, and shot a look at the door before following her down the hallway.
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