D. Gray Man [Ticky and Rhode, gen] (Week 1 - Prompt 5) Title: n/a Author: Aviy Rating: PG-13? Word Count: 1,101 Warnings: Uh. Torture? Author Notes: What does it say about me that I have way more fun writing torture than angst =\ Not actually very squicky.
"How about this, history teacher?" Ticky asked, and then very deliberately inserted his thumb into the man's lung.
There was an impressive amount of screaming from that, and if not for its overwhelming volume, Ticky would have complemented the man. They'd been at this for perhaps twenty minutes now, and the teacher had only just given up on begging for his life and moved onto screaming. For a portly, balding Japanese fellow, Sasegawa-sensei had a great deal of endurance. He must have gotten it from all of that 'practice' with his young students. Understandable, really, Ticky thought, as he pushed another finger through the thin tissue of the lung and encouraged a fresh wave of tears to fall from the terrified teacher's face. He'd seen the trim uniform Rhode wore, and knew the way she liked to dress herself up, with stocking and frills. And who could miss the way she would skip around, flit up to someone's side and off again, or the fact that she had no modesty at all? It wasn't something that was to Ticky's own taste, but if it were, Rhode would certainly meet any ideal.
"Don't worry," Ticky murmured, leaning down until he was close to the teacher's face. He drew his hand out of the man's chest. There was a bit of blood on the thumb and forefinger of his right glove, but otherwise not a drop anywhere. Well, not yet. As soon as his hand was removed a wet, rasping sound began to build in the teacher's frantic breathing. "We're almost done, history teacher."
Ticky stood back up and looked over his shoulder to where Rhode was perched daintily on a student's desk. She didn't look like him. Ticky could feel his own features, was aware of how his grin became slack and amused in these moments, knew his eyes were lidded from the undeniable seduction killing offered him. He was enjoying himself, and he looked like it. Rhode, on the other hand, was enjoying herself as well, but instead rested her chin in one hand and twirled a sucker around inside her mouth. Her eyes were alert, but her smile almost serene. When Ticky turned her way she raised a cheerful "OK" sign with one hand.
Tipping his head at her in acknowledgement, Ticky turned back to the history teacher, who was where he had been throughout this entire parent-teacher conference; sprawled, helpless and terrified, back in his chair. His arms were pinned in place by two unsharpened pencils that Ticky had passed through the man's wrists and the chair's arms before allowing their matter to intersect again. The result had been, as he understood it, excruciatingly painful.
The teacher was whispering something, over and over like a mantra now that he'd stopped screaming. It was probably a request or a prayer but Ticky wasn't listening and the increasingly heavy gurgling sound in the teacher's throat made the words hard to understand. He supposed it was time to end it.
"You're lucky." Ticky half turned and picked up his top hat from where he had put it down on the teacher's desk twenty minutes ago. "It seems our Rhode thinks you've suffered enough." Ticky had never seen one of his victims look so relieved. Perhaps he had gone a little overboard this time, this man wasn't even an exorcist. But Rhode was here for a show, so he'd wanted to give her one. Ah, well. He put his hat on. "I take it you've learned your lesson then?"
The teacher managed to gargle out a hoarse "yes", followed by another and another as that mantra replaced his first. The man was crying again, and for a brief moment Ticky genuinely felt bad for him. It was a terrifying situation, after all. All the poor fellow had wanted was to have sex with a little girl, and instead it ended up like this. Rhode had something of an unfortunate effect like that.
Smiling, Ticky lifted his cane, and across the room Rhode slid off her desk and walked over to the blackboard.
"Well, it looks like I'll leave you here then," Ticky said, and tipped his hat at the teacher, and met his eyes. Ticky waited, just a moment, for the minute relaxing of the teacher’s twisted features, for the faint rise of the eyebrows, twitch of the mouth, the certain sort of light that would appear in dark eyes that even Ticky couldn’t quite understand but knew the name for anyway; hope.
When he saw that, reflexive, unwanted minute speck of hope appear on the teacher’s features, Ticky lifted his cane and with it pushed inside the man's body.
The cane slid through his stomach as if it wasn't there, and indeed it wasn’t as long as Ticky didn't want it to be. Unhindered, it passed muscle and veins and blood without making a mark, until the tip encountered a single vertebra, and, with a small shove, moved the tiny link of spine about an inch back. It took Ticky about half a second, spines were easy to find, and judging from the teacher's stunned lack of reaction, it didn’t hurt at all. That was fine, it wasn’t really the pain Ticky was interested in. "It'll take you a while to drown like that, history teacher. I wouldn't want you to miss it."
As Ticky turned to go, he tapped at the man's paralyzed knee once with his cane, and for a split second he could see the dawning realization in Sasegawa-sensei's eyes. Then he was facing Rhode, who was just finishing writing something on the blackboard in pink chalk, signed with a heartmark.
"'Tomorrow's test is cancelled'?" Ticky quoted, feeling a helpless sort of smile cross his features.
Rhode slanted a sly look up at him, "It's not like he's going to be around to give it, Ticky~"
"Aah..." Ticky sighed and turned toward the door as, behind them, Rhode's history teacher began to beg again, only now his words had been reduced to nothing but soggy, unintelligible whines. "Rhode."
"What is it?” Rhode slipped her hand into Ticky's own and laced their fingers together as they headed for the exit. Except for the bit of blood on Ticky's glove, they were both untouched, and would leave looking just as well kept as they arrived.
"Did you lie?"
"Not a lie~ I just... waited!"
Ticky frowned down at her.
"Don't be like that, Ticky! This way you don't have to help me study, right?"
"Well," Ticky absently shuffled a package of cigarettes out of his coat pocket. "I suppose that's true."