Witch Hunter Robin Fan Fiction ❯ Power and Control ❯ 2 ( Chapter 2 )

Warnings and disclaimers in the first chapter.

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Power and Control- Chapter 2

Haruto Sakaki didn't *do* mornings very well. He had managed to oversleep again and nearly killed himself on the way in to work. Operating a motorcycle when you're half awake and in a hurry was definitely hazardous to your health, and he found out the hard way. Sakaki had not been paying attention and ran a red light at a fairly large intersection. Luckily the oncoming car had seen him and had ample time to stop, but not before blaring the horn and yelling obscenities at the young man, of course.

Sakaki pulled into the underground garage of Raven's Flat twenty minutes late. The white knuckle ride in had saved him nothing in the way of time. Kosaka was going to have an aneurism. This was the third time he had been late in as many weeks. But there was no use in delaying the inevitable. Sakaki pulled off his helmet, shook his unruly dirty blonde hair out of his eyes and unzipped his leather riding jacket on the way to the elevator.

When the elevator doors opened Sakaki, took a cautious look around. He could see the back of Hattori's head seated at his desk, engrossed in whatever he was doing. Robin and Karasuma were gathered around the coffee maker in the small kitchen, chatting amicably. Amon was standing off to the side, sipping his coffee, not quite brooding. He noticed Doujima had not made it in yet. Typical.

Sakaki continued his scan of the office; Kosaka was nowhere in sight. Sakaki's heart leapt for a brief moment at the thought of not being caught coming in late again. He strolled over to the coat rack and hung up his jacket and placed his helmet on the overhead shelf. He was about to join the others when he heard Kosaka's voice bellowing behind him.

"Sakaki! I thought I spoke to you about your tardiness. This makes how many times in the past month?"

"Three," Sakaki mumbled without turning to face the short man.

"Three!" Sakaki visibly winced at the volume the other man had reached. He glanced up and noticed that the others had stopped their conversation and were now watching his verbal lashing. Unwilling to let this go on any longer he turned around to face the bald-headed man.

"Look, I know I'm late. There is no excuse for it. I'm sorry. I'll do better," Sakaki said, trying to placate the man. His admission caught the other off guard.

"Well, see that you do," Kosaka demanded with an attempt to maintain the authority in his voice. Sakaki gave him an affirmative shake of his head and went on his merry way. Let him save up for whenever Doujima decides to grace them with her presence.

"Good work, Sakaki. I'm beginning to think that you and Doujima are trying to find out who can piss off Kosaka the most," Karasuma said as he entered the tidy little kitchen nook. Robin giggled softly.

"Nah, Doujima is way better at it than me," Sakaki answered as he moved to the coffee maker. He picked up the carafe and poured the steaming liquid into a mug as he listened to the others resume their conversation.

"Hey, where's Michael? He's usually up and about by now. Come to think of it I haven't seen him at all this morning," Karasuma said.

"Maybe he's still sleeping. We were up pretty late last night working then Mr. Zaizen came by and-" Robin was cut off abruptly by the sound of shattering ceramic. They all turned to look at Sakaki. The coffee mug he had been preparing lay in ruins in the sink. For a brief moment Sakaki appeared not to notice but then shook himself out of his stupor.

"Guess I'm not having the best of mornings," He said with a nervous chuckle. Robin and Karasuma stared at him with wide doe-eyes. Sakaki looked to Amon who surprisingly showed not the contempt he was expecting but concern. Sakaki filed that reaction away for further analysis later.

"You didn't cut yourself, did you?" Robin asked as she rushed to his side.

"No, I'm fine. Just my usual klutzy self," Sakaki answered. He picked up the pieces of the broken mug and threw them in the trash. He wiped his hands on his jeans in an attempt to look nonchalant. "I'm going to go see if Michael's alright- I mean, see if he overslept or something." Sakaki avoided making eye contact as he all but ran from the room. The others were left bewildered, staring at his retreating back.

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Sakaki walked quickly down the hall to the last door on the right. Michael's room. He gave a quick knock before he opened the door he knew would be unlocked. Michael's room did not have a lock, just as none of the doors of the STN-J's inner sanctum had locks. The only doors with locks were the ones that could take Michael outside of the building. But Michael was not allowed outside of the building.

"Michael?" He whispered to the eerily quiet room. There was the sound of a sigh and the soft rustling of fabric.

"What do you want, Haruto?" Michael responded. His voice sounded weary. Sakaki stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. He could see the silhouette of a body in the large cathedral window.

"I wanted to see if everything was okay. Everyone was starting to ask questions and I didn't want … I didn't think you'd want someone to-"

"I left a note for Kosaka. I told him I wasn't feeling well. That should keep everyone from suspecting anything," Michael interrupted. Sakaki moved toward the figure in the window only to have him move in the opposite direction.

"Are you alright? Robin said Zaizen was here last night." From the shadows Michael gave a sarcastic snort.

"Yeah, he was here all right."

Sakaki made another attempt to get closer to the copper-haired teen and again Michael turned away from him. It was Sakaki's turn to sigh in defeat.

"He hurt you again, didn't he?" Sakaki asked. He saw Michael's shoulder's tense and his body become rigid. Sakaki walked up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder. Michael slowly turned around to face him, his head lowered. Sakaki looked to him for an answer and was given one after a few seconds.

Michael raised his head to meet Sakaki's eyes. As soon as he stepped into the light Sakaki gasped and took an unconscious step backwards. There was a large bruise on Michael's cheek that was swollen and colored an ugly deep purple.

"He hit you?" Sakaki stammered. Michael nodded in the affirmative. Sakaki reached out his hand and gently cupped the injured side of his face. Michael leaned into the caress. "Did he….did he-" Sakaki began with uncertainty.

"Fuck me?" Michael finished for him. Sakaki swallowed hard and nodded. Michael sighed heavily and turned away from him. He strode over to his bed and sat. Michael pulled his knees up, wrapped his arms around them, and buried his head. "Yes," his muffled voice answered.

Sakaki took a seat next to him and put his arm around the troubled teen. "Are you okay? Did he hurt you? I mean, besides the obvious" Sakaki asked. Michael laughed a bitter, horrible sounding laugh at that.

"You mean, am I bleeding internally? Did that bastard shoving his dick up my ass with no thought to preparation rip my insides? Then the answer to that question is no. I will not be permanently damaged. There was some bleeding but nothing that won't heal within a couple of days," Michael said in a clinical and detached manner that frightened Sakaki. But Michael didn't stop there. "If you're talking about what he's done to me emotionally well, that's a whole different story."

"Michael, what can I do to help you?"

"Help?" Michael repeated incredulously, his sky-blue eyes boring into Sakaki's pale violet ones. "Do you have your gun on you? You can put a bullet in the back of my head and end this misery." Michael buried his face in his hands and pulled hard on his orange locks.

"Take it easy," Sakaki said as he forcibly removed Michael's hands from their white knuckled grasp and pulled the younger boy to him. Michael crumbled into the embrace and began to sob.

"Please Haruto, end it. I'm a prisoner here. He'll never let me leave unless I'm dead. That's the only way I'll escape him," Michael pleaded. Sakaki grabbed him by the shoulder and pushed him back so that they were face to face.

"Never. Michael, promise me that you won't do anything to hurt yourself. I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to you. We'll find a way to get you out of here and away from him." Sakaki pulled him back into his arms and hugged tightly. "I promise, Michael. I promise you," he whispered into Michael's hair.

Sakaki held the computer genius until the tremors in his body stopped and he seemed more at peace. Though, he ruefully wished that his own mind could find a way to squelch the rampant thoughts of murder and vengeance spinning in a wicked cadence. He wanted nothing more at this moment than to see Zaizen dead, preferably by his own hand.

"You'd better get back to work before they send a search party in after you," Michael's tired voice stated. He pushed himself upright and rubbed at his blood-shot eyes. As much as Sakaki hated to admit it, Michael was right. The others in the office might start to question why he was gone so long. If suspicions were raised, then the relationship he had with Michael might be found out, which might lead to Zaizen's abuse of Michael being uncovered. In Sakaki's mind the latter was not such a bad thing if it meant he could get Michael out of this situation and make that bastard pay.

"Yeah, I guess I should. Do you want anything? Are you hungry? Thirsty?" Sakaki asked. Michael shook his head in the negative and moved to stretch out on the bed. "I'll come back to check on you later. Let me know if you need anything before then, okay?"

"Sure," Michael answered. His eyes trailed Sakaki as he stood up from the bed. Sakaki placed his hand on Michael's cheek and leaned down to kiss his lips. Michael closed his hand around Sakaki's wrist, holding it firmly against his face and deepened the kiss. Sakaki moaned his surprise into the other boy's mouth. When the two parted they were both slightly breathless. Sakaki smiled at his lover and attempted to remove his hand, but Michael's grip only tightened.

"We need to be careful, Haruto," Michael said, his eyes suddenly serious. "Last night he hit me because he thought I might have said something to Robin about….about what's been going on. If he finds out about us, I don't know what he might do. He's been acting very erratic." Michael loosened his fingers from Sakaki's wrist and crossed his arms behind his head. "He hadn't come around for a few weeks. I was hoping that he finally got bored with me. But last night it seemed like he was angry at something and looked to me as an outlet to vent." He shook his head to clear his thoughts. "I don't know, but I fear he might become more violent so just watch yourself around him."

"Don't worry about me; you get some rest and I'll see you later," Sakaki said, hoping his smile didn't appear too fake. He left the room and gave Michael one parting glance before he closed the door behind him.

Once outside the room, Sakaki leaned heavily on the wall, Michael's words still running through his head. Zaizen was becoming more violent and looking to take it out on Michael. I've got to figure out a way to get him out of here, Sakaki thought. He took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and walked down the hall to the control room.

As Sakaki rounded the corner he looked up to see Zaizen arriving at the office. His eyes narrowed dangerously and it was sheer willpower alone that kept him in his place. If he had Robin's power, Zaizen would have been reduced to ashes where he stood. He watched as Zaizen said his good mornings to the rest of the office and wanted nothing more than to rip the phony smile off his smug face. For a brief second Zaizen meet Sakaki's gaze. There was a momentary look of shock on the old man's face, but he quickly subdued it and proceeded into his office.

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Takuma Zaizen sat down behind his desk. He was puzzled with the reaction he received from Sakaki this morning. The boy was glaring daggers at him. He must have seen Michael. That was the only explanation, though Michael knew better than to tell anyone. Perhaps last night's lesson was not enough, and the redhead needed a refresher. A wave of excitement reverberated through his body. So, the pretty blond thinks he knows something, does he? Well, we'll just have to find out how much, Zaizen thought to himself.

Zaizen turned to his computer console and gained access to the security system. Once inside the program, he pulled up the video display on the cameras hidden in Michael's room. On the monitor he could see Michael lying on his bed, apparently sleeping. Zaizen backed the video feed up a few minutes. When the recording started playing he was met with a most unexpected surprise. His dear Michael was engaged in a rather passionate kiss with one Haruto Sakaki.

"Interesting. Very Interesting."

TBC………….

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