Metalia-sama

Endymion was still having trouble swallowing what he had done to Jadeite. More than a day had passed since he had found out, or rather seen first-hand, Jadeite's rape. He had avoided everyone, locked himself in his room and claimed to be feeling ill. Nephrite had come to check on him, but the prince made sure that he left promptly. It wasn't really a lie even, he did still feel physically ill. The thought of food would turn his stomach, and so he had avoided eating as well.

His day was spent mostly curled up on a chair, Beryl's incense burning on the table. He didn't go into the bedroom, he had even slept on the sofa last night because every time he looked at the bed, he saw Jadeite bent over it.

He was crying again. Everything made so much sense now. Jadeite's fear and Zoisite's hatred, everything.

Someone knocked on his door, but the prince ignored it. The person knocked again, but gave up after the second attempt.

He had raped Jadeite, and then the person that had once been his best friend ran to Zoisite for help. Zoisite had tried to help him, hid Jadeite from the monster, but the monster had found him. Eventually Jadeite grew to depend on Zoisite. He couldn't hide him from Endymion, but it was a safe place to go after the assaults. They had fallen in love.

“Get your hands off of him!”

Zoisite had reacted out of emotion, something Endymion had never really known him for, but then again, Endymion had never seen the man in love.

“No one will tell me what I did to you and Jadeite. But do know, that whatever it was, I am very sorry.”

Endymion cringed. There was no way he could ever give a proper apology for what he had done. His words had been like throwing salt on Zoisite's wounds.

“Please! Tell me what I can do to fix this! I'll do anything.”

“You've done plenty.”

Indeed he had. Zoisite had more than enough reason to hate him.

Another person knocked at the door.

“I took Jadeite again last night.”

So, that's what he had meant. Took him. Forced him.

“Master, you ra-”

Raped him.

The knocking continued.

“Go away...”

“In the fourth week you became violent with other people. If something didn't go exactly as planned, you would find someone to hit or slap as punishment for what went wrong.”

“Go away.”

“No one died.”

“Zoisite's execution was scheduled to happen quickly.”

The knocking continued.

“Go away!”

“I'll do whatever I want. You don't give orders, you follow them. Get in the bedroom.”

“LEAVE ME ALONE!”

The knocking stopped, and Endymion's stood from the chair. The last thing he remembered before losing consciousness was how he would love to strangle the person outside the door.

---

“Kunzite, what the hell are you doing?”

Kunzite looked up from his desk at Nephrite, who was standing with his arms folded in the doorway. Kunzite looked down at his desk and then up again. “Working.”

“Really?” Nephrite asked, advancing on the desk, which just held another unfinished letter. Kunzite didn't even both to cover it up. “Like hell you are.”

“What do you want?”

“What do I want? I want you out of your room for once, off your ass, doing some god-damned work around here!”

Like there was anything to really do anyway. “I told you, I am working.”

Nephrite snatched the letter from his desk. Kunzite wondered what was on that one. Would Nephrite figure out what he had been hiding this whole time?

Nephrite crumpled the letter and tossed it with the others. “The Master's been ill all day, did you know that?”

He hadn't. “Yes.”

“Right. I knocked on his door but there was no answer.”

“If he's ill, he probably doesn't want to entertain guests.” Kunzite contemplated coming down with whatever the Master had tomorrow morning. “Anything else?”

Nephrite slammed his hands down on the desk, his face blazing with anger while Kunzite just regarded him without an ounce of emotion. “You know what, I'm not thrilled with them leaving either, but you don't see me pretending that the world doesn't exist any more. Why don't you go pay them a nice friendly visit, since you're not doing anything anyway. You know where they are after all.”

Nephrite spun and left the room, much to Kunzite's relief. He went to reach into his jacket, but realized that he had yet to even put it on today. It was already dark outside, the whole day had passed without him noticing.

He pushed himself away from the desk with some effort and tracked down his uniform. The worn letter from Zoisite was in it still, along with the address of where they were. Would it even be worth it to go to see them? Zoisite wasn't going to come back, regardless of what he said to him. Kunzite placed the letter on the desk and then retired for the evening to his bed.

---

Much of their day had been spent in town. Jadeite was trained in his duties at the restaurant while he listened to Zoisite reacquainting himself with the piano. He would later complain about his playing, but Jadeite thought that it had sounded wonderful. He was able to sit at an empty table and listen for hours while Zoisite played the songs that Jadeite remembered from the palace.

Jadeite didn't have any work that night, and Zoisite would perform for the first time the next night, so the two of them had headed back home and prepared for dinner.

“We could use a fire,” Zoisite commented from the kitchen. “It's getting cooler outside.”

Jadeite nodded. “I'll go cut some wood!”

A pile of wood was stacked at the edge of the forest by the cottage, not far from the door. An axe that could use some sharpening, but still did the job, was provided as well, along with an old, thick tree stump as a cutting block. Jadeite grabbed the first of the logs and got to work.

It hadn't been long, he only had a small pile of kindling cut so far. He raised the axe over his head, ready to chop into another log when it caught on something. Jadeite tried to pull it free, but the axe wouldn't budge. Then it moved by itself, pulled from Jadeite's hands and flung aside. “What?” Jadeite managed to ask right before a hand was thrown over his mouth and another arm held his arms down at his sides.

“Miss me?”

Jadeite froze. He couldn't breathe, and he couldn't move even if he had been permitted. It was that voice...

“Because I've certainly missed you.” The words were whispered next to his ear, and then a tongue flicked over his earlobe. Jadeite cringed and tried to work air into his lungs.

“Are the two of you having fun? Playing house together?”

The hand holding his arms began to move, but even if Jadeite's mind had been functioning enough to attempt to get away, the Master was much stronger than he was, especially with Metalia. The hand covering his mouth moved as well.

“If you scream, I'll kill him right now.”

Jadeite could hear himself breathing, but it didn't feel like any of the air was working. How? How had the Master found them?

One hand trailed lazily down his chest while the other was behind him, grabbing him from behind giving his back end a good squeeze. “Unfortunately I can't stay tonight, but we're going to have some fun later. Very soon I promise.”

His tongue was dragged down the side of Jadeite's neck while the hand that had been on his chest was now significantly lower.

“Say hello to Zoisite for me. I'll be seeing him soon as well.”

Without any further warning, both hands left his body, and he could no longer feel the presence of a person behind him, but still he held himself perfectly still, afraid to move in case he came back.

Jadeite didn't know how long he stood there, but finally he turned his head to check that the demon was indeed gone. When that was confirmed, his legs fell out from under him and he crumpled to the ground.

“Zoi...” he whispered, afraid that the monster would come out of the night again to punish him for calling the name. “Zoi, please...”

He knew that Zoisite couldn't hear him inside the cottage, but he couldn't raise his voice any. “Zoisite...”

Tears formed and ran down his cheeks. The Master had found them, and he would be coming back for them soon. Jadeite knew what he would do when he did come back, and that couldn't happen. They had to leave. Now.

“ZOISITE!!!”

---

The sound of Jadeite's scream from outside made Zoisite's blood run cold. He ran from the cottage and quickly found Jadeite, crumpled by the wood pile. “Jadeite!” Zoisite called out as he ran to his lover's side, gathering Jadeite into his arms and holding him tight. He was trembling, and Zoisite could tell that it was the tail end of one of his old panic attacks.

Jadeite clung to the front of his shirt, whimpering, crying, and attempting to make noises that were intended to be speech. “He... Mas... dion... ba... fou... us...”

Zoisite couldn't make any kind of sense out of what he was saying, so he continued to hold Jadeite in his arms. “You're safe,” he said, over and over, “you're with me, you're safe.”

“He found us...”

Zoisite knew that he couldn't have heard that right. “Who? What happened?”

Jadeite continued gasping for breath, trying to get enough air into his lungs to speak. “The Master, he was here. He found us.”