T.W - mental distress, gore

Akira's pov

"S-Sorry, s-sir…"

The words hit me like a gut punch. His voice is small, shaking—terrified. His whole body trembles like a cornered animal.

Shit. Shit. Shit. What do I do?

I lower myself to his level, careful, controlled. His breath is coming too fast, his chest rising and falling in panicked, uneven bursts.

"No, no, no, no," he mutters, his voice barely a whisper, barely there at all. His head is down, his body curled in on itself, like he's trying to disappear.

I glance around—no prying eyes, no eavesdroppers. Just him. Just me.

His name should reach him..

"Sebastian."

No reaction.

"Sebastian," I try again, firmer.

Nothing.

His arms are locked around himself, his body rocking back and forth, his fingers digging into his arms like he's trying to hold himself together.

"Go… go away… please…" The words crack, splintering under the weight of his fear.

My stomach knots. This isn't just panic—this is something deeper, something broken.

"Seb." His family calls him that. Maybe it’ll ground him.

Still nothing.

But then—his hands go to his hair, yanking, his face streaked with tears. He's slipping further, drowning in whatever horror has its claws in him.

No. No. No. I need to help hi- No. Breathe. Words. Words your words Akira.

"Seb!" I say, my voice firm, unwavering. "You are okay."

He whimpers, his breathing ragged.

"It’s okay." I try to calm him. "You are safe."

Nothing seems to work on him and my mind is racing as I look around to make sure nobody sees us. He needs to be in the shelter of his car. This isn't safe.

I raise my hand to support him up when-

No.

The memory slams into me so hard, I flinch.

The sharp crack of bone. The wet sickening sound of blood that followed. The reek of blood. The way the man had screamed, his hand gone, severed at the wrist, all because he reached out when he shouldn't have. The boss turned to me with his cold stare and said in a low deadly voice

"That's what happens when you forget your place"

It's like it's happening all over again. I stare at his shivering form, knowing I should help, every instinct screams at me to help but my hands stay frozen mid air before I drop the back to my sides.

"Don't touch"

"Sir" I say, unnaturally formal "get up"

His grip on his hair tightens, his hand turning white at the knuckles.

"Please.." He whispers, his voice barely there, begging "I-I'm...s-sorry... "

No. No. No. No. I haven't felt this helpless since..No. Boss is not here. He cannot...punish you for it. He is not here. He is not here.

I repeat the sentence in my head as force my hands forwards to remove his hands from his hair. -He is not here. It's an emergency-I gently unlatch his hands and he cowers at my touch.

The shouts from that man as his wrist was severed fill my brain as I try my best to ignore them. I grab his arm and support him up. His knees buckle under him but I hold him tight. I take on most of his body weight and lead him towards his car.

"It's okay" I try to be gentle as I lead him one step at a time towards the car.

His eyes are glazed, unfocused over as he stumbles forward with his arm draped around my neck for support. It takes all my energy to support him as he leans on me.

"Know your place"

He is not here. It's an emergency. I try to reason with voice in my head. I position my gun closer to my hand, ready to grab it any second. I quickly open the door to that back seat as we reach the car and try to get him inside.

"Sir" I hesitate "can you sit inside"

He doesn't even register my voice as his breathing becomes shallow again. It looks like he is choking on air itself as he shuts his eyes tight and his hands come up to his hair in a flash, tugging on them.

I made it worse-that's all you ever do- I try to refocus my thoughts. I need to calm him. How do I lower him into the car?

"Sebastian" I say firmly. Maybe a firm tone will help...to your boss?..fuck it.

"Sebastian get inside" I say authoritatively.

When panicked, people tend to listen to calm instructions and orders best. I lower him into the backseat and he immediately moves as far as possible, towards the other door and starts to rock himself back and forth.

The driver rushes out at the disturbance. I can't let him see boss when he is so vulnerable- I immediately stand between him and the door with the tinted window.

"Who are you?!" He asks, startled, and starts to take out his gun.

I notice his hand movements and, in a swift motion, pin his hands behind him and him face first with the car.

"I am Akira" I quickly explain "boss is in the car. He needs to go home"

"Fucking bitch!" he exclaims and tries to get out of my grip but fails.

This fucker. I quickly take out my gun and his body goes stiff as the cold metal makes contact with the back of his head.

"You either believe me" I say harshly, pressing the gun into his head "or your god"

I grab him by his neck with his other hand while maintaining the position of my gun and shove him into his driver seat.

"Drive. And drive quick." I say before slamming the door shut.

I sit on the backseat along with the shivering form of boss. I slide open the partition window and whisper in a low, deadly voice "don't try anything on the road"

And to make sure knows what is on the line, I show a small glimpse of boss. His eyes widen with shock as he aggressively nods. I shut the partition window close. Now boss. He seemed to be getting his breath back but his mind was still captive of whatever horrrors were playing in it.

He was utterly still, a stillness that is insanely inhuman, as he stared ahead with eyes glazed over. I sat on the opposite end of the seat, afraid he might reprimand me any second for what I've done.

The car comes to stop and I immediately get out. After motioning the driver to stay seated, I head to towards Boss's side and open the door. He does not register his surroundings at all, I notice. So with mind numbing maneuvering, I help him out of the car.

I try to lead him towards the house but my legs decide the garden to be a better place. I place him on the cool grass in the moonlit garden. Coming to stand among the shadows, to give him privacy, I hoped that the grass underneath and the flowers and fruits around, and the stars flecked across the dark sky would help him..become himself again.

After a few minutes, his breathing seems calmer. That's all I notice from my place; the night hid his features well. A few more moments pass by and he looks..himself, so I decide to make my presence known.

"Boss" I step into the moonlight and he turns to look at me.

He looks up at me and that's when I notice his red rimmed eyes. They eyes look distant as they stare up at me before he tries to get up. His knees almost buckle under him and I reach my hand out to steady him but he regains his balance and immediately draw my hands back.

"Sorry sir" I immediately mumble.

He walks away from me and quitely follow few a few steps behind. His demeanor shows no recollection of the events of the last one hour. Now it's him, The Boss, The Don, back in control.

"What were you doing there?" He asks, his voice impassive, with his back to me as he enters the house.

"Diana sent me" I say truthfully, hoping for least amount of consequences.

"To spy on me" He asks as pours himself a glass of water and I stand, attentive, in my server's uniform.

"Yes sir" I answer. No, to make sure he was safe, that's what I wanted to say but what I did was, to some extent, spying.

He stared at me, his eyes starting to get back to his normal unreadable ones, the helplessness, horror gone. I looked down- "Remember your place"- his words rang in my ears.

He turns his back to me but my eyes don't leave the floor. He clears his throat.

"Don't disclose the..events of tonight to anyone" He says before taking a sip of water.

Then continues.

"And I'm sorry-" His voice breaks, but he covers it up by clearing his throat immediately "-you had to witness that"

What? Boss, The Don, himself is apologising to me? That-that's new. I keep my gaze low as I nod slowly. How am I supposed answer that?

"Dismissed" He says and I immediately get my ass outta there.

Now I lay awake on my bed. Clothes changed, weapons hidden at their places, my knife sitting by my bedside table and my gun inside its drawer. The whimpering, and pleading of my boss won't let me sleep. That was not him. That was someone scared, someone broken, pleading to somebody. I've seen some of the prisoners mumbling similarly in their sleeps and sometimes awake too, after they've been tortured.

But He is the Don of the fucking American mafia. And as far as I've figured, their last name is Volkov, which is a russian last name. So clearly they've got some connection to Russia too. Watching him break, even briefly, was like seeing a shadow flicker across the sun—gone before you could process it, but now you know it’s not untouchable.

But what was even scarier was the way he went back to being him, like nothing had happened. But apologised that in had to witness it. The Don, my boss, apologised to me. That was the biggest shock amongst everything. Is it his humbleness or another game that they play? But why couldn't I figure out what he was testing by saying that?

My mind reels with the events of the last few hours and the unanswered questions. Sleep slowly weighted on me like a heavy blanket pulling me under. I sought relief in sleep. Had I learned nothing my whole life?

The next day

The shouts, the whimpers, the pleadings, the beggings , it all came. Came to haunt me while I tried to find solace in sleep. I finally was released from the clutches of my last demons of past when my alarm rang to startle me out of the nightmares.

I get ready and head downstairs for breakfast. The sounds of dishes clanking and food sizzling on the pan got louder as neared the kitchen. Diana and Eiran were making breakfast while Leo and Kai ate.

I entered the kitchen sound-lessly but Diana's head turned towards me immediately. She gave me the same happy smile that she gives every day.

"Morning Akira" she says affectionately and both Leo's and Kai's heads turn to look at me.

"Morning" I respond flatly, like every day.

We have breakfast and then rush off to school. The events of the night, boss, everything seems a lifetime away in this part of my life. Eiran drops us at school. We make our way through a bunch of idiots for teenagers with no concept of personal space or shutting the fuck up and head to our lockers.

"Don't remind her then" I overhear Kai saying urgently to Leo.

"No. It's alright" Leo says, uncharacteristicly serious.

"No it's not! They're fucking numbing you!" Kai exclaims exasperated, making me look over at them.

Numbing Leo? What's numbing him? Is he on drugs?

"I told you I'm fucking alright!" Leo loses control as he slams his locker shut and almost hits Kai with his other hand.

Kai looks at him wide eyed before turning squinting and saying calmly "no you aren't and I won't let you keep hurting yourself"

Leo fumes at his words "don't tell me what to do!" He grabs Kai's collar and slams him against the lockers.

Kai's head slams against the locker and involuntary tears slip out his eyes. Leo's hands drop from Kai's collars to his sides as he storms off into the crowd of kids.

I head towards Kai, we three have the same class in the morning and they are going to get us late.

"What happened?" I ask as a part of me felt weird at seeing him get rag dolled.

"Nothing" He looks down and rubs the back of his head.

He is lying. It's visible in-heck everything! But He doesn't wanna tell. I shrug it off and we both head to our first class.

The teacher had not arrived yet. We make our way to the back of the class and Kai saves a seat for Leo too.

I go on my phone and notice Kai peering anxiously at the door while fidgeting with his fingers and nails. What happened? They were fine in the morning.

The teacher enters the class and within minutes, Leo does too.

"You are late" teacher states sharply, staring at him through his glasses.

"Yeah" He answers and the girls start to murmer around me.

"Meet me after the end of the class" she says in a clipped tone.

"Sure" He says as he makes his way towards us.

He takes the chair beside Kai. And Kai stares ahead, not paying Leo attention when he looks at him. The tension between them is palpable. Leo has not smiled once today, it's probably something serious.

"Hey" He finally speaks up to Kai "I am sorry..for..that..earlier"

"Hmm" Kai murmers as he jots down some notes, not sparing him a glace.

"That's what I was trying to tell you" Leo says solemnly, opening up his own book "it's for the best"

I keep my eyes on my book but my brain drowns out the teacher's voice to focus on their conversation. I shouldn't be eavesdropping-

"I'll tell mom if I have to" Kai's determinance flashes in his voice.

"Don't you dare" Leo growls under his breath, staring daggers ahead at the teacher who doesn't seem to notice.

The rest of the day goes by fairly quickly but Leo seems unusually irritative and angry. Back at the house, I head downstairs at 4pm and wait for others to arrive. I swear these people don't take practice seriously. Who's late every single fucking day?

And that's when I hear two pairs of footsteps making their way down. I notice two people in biker gear. What?

"Why aren't you wearing gear?" Kai asks as walks towards me.

"You didn't tell me-" I start but Leo cuts me off.

"Ever check your messages?"

"No" I say staring at him.

"Just go and quickly wear your gear" Kai intervenes.

I nod and head to my room. I am down within five minutes and see both of them on their phone.

"Let's go" I say reaching grabbing the door.

We reach the base fairly quick and make our way inside. We had just entered the building when a wave of rushing, armed men pushes us to the side. Behind them comes boss and more armed men behind him. He looks intimidating with weapons and that glint in his eyes. He passes by us without sparing us a glance.

"What the fuck's going on?" Leo asks the reception lady.

"Raid at a trafficking centre of the japanese mafia" she informs him.

We three make our way to the practice rooms but Kai separates and heads to the IT cell. The day went fairly well, the people are complaint and nobody broke any bones. It would be a few hours before we decide to pack up and leave. We were heading outside when a fleet of black cars with tinted windows pulls up and boss exits from one of them along with the armed men.

The image of boss, hopeless and shivering flashes before my eyes and is gone in the blink of an eye.

Soon we start our bikes and leave. At home Diana was alone and Eiran arrived just before dinner, boss did not come. When Diana called at the base to ask because he wasn't responding, she found out that he was down at the cells. Probably torturing the newly captured prisoners for information.

After dinner, I head upto my room and work on my homework. It's 11 pm when I decide to go to bed. I turn off the lights and snuggle inside the blanket but sleep doesn't pull me under, like I hoped. My thoughts drift away towards the events of yesterday. It was almost the same time as it is now. Boss, the Don of American Mafia was shivering and pleading.

Somehow my thoughts drift from boss to the newly found 'family' and I find myself clutching the family photo in my hands and staring at it till my eyes couldn't comprehend what they were seeing anymore.

Eiran's pov

My hands feel heavier as I raise them to knock on the door. It's eleven in the night why am I even doing this?

A.N------- Hey guys;)

Hope you like it.

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