by Nightcon

Die pounded again and again on the dungeon door and screamed to be let out. Kaoru sighed as he looked up at him. "Die! They are not going to let us out!"

Die let his head hit against the door. Shin-chan… where could he be! What was that bastard doing to his Shinya!?

"Shinya’s out there somewhere! We have to get out of here!"

Kyo stood up. "He’s right! What are we just sitting here for! We should be trying to find a way out." He looked around, the walls were totally smooth and the ceiling was too high for any of them to get to the ventalation system, even if they stood on each other’s shoulders! Kyo screamed with frustration and slammed his fist against the wall and winced.

Toshiya leaned close to Kaoru. "Ne, Kaoru, do you think Shinya is okay?" Kaoru frowned and squeezed his fingers. He had a good idea of what was going on, but he didn’t say anything.

He screamed and vainly tried to cover himself as his shirt was torn from his body and he was pushed back against the head board. Shinya shoved as hard as he could and managed to dislodge Yoshiki for a moment to scramble off the bed.

Yoshiki’s gun! He saw it leaning against the wall beside the door and made a dash for it. He screamed again as his legs were pulled from beneath his body and he fell hard on his chest with his face mere centimeters from slamming against the cold metal floor.

He looked back, Yoshiki had grabbed his legs from under him. Shinya whined and looked around for something, anything, to grab onto that he could hit him with. His eyes darted to the side of the desk, maybe there was a garbage can. His breath caught in his throat. A pair of dark eyes stared back at him through the grating of the vent. The eyes seemed to notice him and widened in shock, he heard a bumping in the vent and the eyes disappeared. Shinya’s heart skipped a beat.

Yoshiki was laughing as he turned over Shinya. "That’s okay, I like a little fight."

"Yoshiki sama, you are needed in the control room." The intercom crinkled beside the door quietly.

Yoshiki swore to himself as he paused, sighed and stood up. He looked down at Shinya who scooted away from him and scruched himself against the wall. His dark eyes were huge as he stared up at him.

Smirking, Yoshiki patted Shinya’s head and walked out of the room. Shinya knew there was no way he was ever going to get that door open. (Night note: I love Yoshiki, but this character works! Please don’t flame me for making him a jerk!)

A small sound of anguish escaped Shinya’s lips as the door swished shut. He stood up quickly and moved towards the door, stopping nearly as fast as he had gone. He paced in strange steps. His arms and hands were moving behond his control. He didn’t know what to do!

He remembered the eyes. Those eyes, there was something in them…

He spun to the grating at the side of the desk and dropped in front of it. It was very, very dark inside. He could hear the warm air softing blowing through it to smooth his curls away from his face. There had to be a flashlight in the room somewhere.

He stood up and looked around frantically; he didn’t know when Yoshiki would be back. He pushed stuff off the desk, threw open drawers, even dropped down in front of the bed to look beneath. They all had to have flashlights, especially on a ship as old as this. If they needed to repair a control panel in their room the person would usually do it themselves; it just saved time.

There it was! He reached to the back and pulled out a large utility flashlight. It flashed down the empty tunnel of the air shaft. He shivered looking down the tunnel but soon realized it was the tunnel, and those scary eyes, or being raped. He didn’t even think about it.

Yoshiki cursed to himself. Couldn’t the crew take care of one little thing by themselves!? So the ship was swaying a little, it was old!

He placed his hand on the panel beside the door and waited for it to scan. He was speaking as he entered the room. "I’m back Shin-kun." He sung and he stepped into the room and froze.

There was no Shinya.

He laughed to himself. Shinya couldn’t have gotten out; Yoshiki had locked the door. He walked to the tiny bathroom through the far wall and peered in around the doorway. He heart skipped. No Shinya!

"Shinya! Where are you?" He spun back to look in the room. Nothing!

Shinya moved surprisingly quickly through the grates. He had left the flashlight behind sinse it made too much noise and slowed him down. He had no idea where he was going but it was better than the threat of being raped!

Shinya froze for a moment, did he hear a noise behind him? It was probably a room he had passed that had a vent in it and someone was making noises but… he hadn’t passed a room in a while and was left in total darkness.

Shinya looked back over his shoulder, despite the fact he couldn’t see anything. There was something there, he could feel it!

"H-hello?" Shinya whispered. Was it Yoshiki? That face he had seen in the vent? Shinya didn’t hear an answer, but something quietly was coming towards him… he heard the bumping on the metal beneath him. With a squeak he started frantically flying like a bat out of hell.

Behind him he heard a whisper, loud and demanding. "Wait! They’ll hear you! And don’t go that way!"

Shinya gasped, his eyes darting around behind him but he still saw nothing. If it was a bad guy, and he didn’t want him to go the way Shinya was already going wasn’t that the exact way he should be going? He quickly crawled as fast as he could.

Shinya was so surrounded in darkness he didn’t see the drop in the vent until he was falling. The metal disappeared beneath him and with a loud gasp he was falling face first through the darkness. He felt propelled by the warm air surrounded him, going down that shaft with him to stream gently out of the vents.

Around him there was suddenly light and with his arms erect in front of him they hit, and then he rolled. He was on something warm and soft, and unhurt. His heart was like a kettle-drum in his ears. In sheer relief he fell back and closed his eyes, not bothering to look where he was.

There was a bumping again. He looked up at the air vent right above his head that he had fallen through. There was something heavy in there coming right at him! He jerked himself up and to the other side of the soft surface he was sitting on.

He looked frantically over his shoulder as a little pink-haired man dropped out of the vent and landed perfectly on the surface which he now noticed was a bed. At first from seeing the pink hair he thought it was Kaoru but then the man spun around to face him.

His face was dirty along with Shinya’s from being in the vent. He smelled like sweat and dust, and obviously hadn’t gotten the chance to shower in a while. Half his hair was faded pink, the other half a dull black from what had grown in. It grazed his shoulders and was ratty from not being washed or combed. He had thin eyes that swerved around Shinya’s face before he smiled brilliently.

"I thought I would never see another person look at my face again!"

Shinya screamed when the man jumped forward and hugged him. His mouth was instantly covered by the dirty palm that smelled strange.

The pink-haired man shooshed he quickly. "We have to be quiet. There are air ducts everywhere on this shift, our voices would travel too easily through them."

Shinya finally looked around. He was sitting in the center of a steamy, dark room. It was a tiny boiler room with huge steam machines all around them. He was sitting of a foam mattress, probably stollen from one of the rooms. The blanket was surprising. It had been white, but was dirty from the room. It was very thick and soft, and seemed to be stuffed with feathers. That was why it hadn’t hurt when he had fallen on it.

The man looked around quickly then back at Shinya. "This room distributes all the warm air to this floor of the ship. It’s the only room we can talk in a normal voice in and not be heard, but don’t scream again!"

Shinya squinted to see him through the steam. "Who are you?"

The pink haired man held out his hand. "Hide."

Shinya hesitently shook it and quickly withdrew his hand.

"How… how long have you been on this ship?"

Hide paused for a moment as he scrunched up his face and thought. Despite the dirt and grime Shinya thought he looked… very cool. "It’s been a while. Almost a year I think… I haven’t been counting the days." He didn’t seem to be comfortable with the question and spoke again before Shinya could comment. "Look, I know where your friends are."

Shinya gasped and grabbed his collar. "Where? Where are they?"

Toshiya had been trying to keep himself quiet by muffling his sobs against Kaoru’s collarbone. Kaoru was holding him on his lap in the corner of the cell. Toshiya’s hand almost tore his shirt since he was gripping it so hard but Kaoru didn’t notice it. Kaoru stroked his hair and pursed his lips. Where was Shinya? Was he okay?

He looked over at Die. He was pacing from one corner of the cell to the other while ringing his hands together. He was trying to look tough by gritting his teeth and snarling but when Kaoru looked at his eyes he saw the deep fear. He was working about Shinya more than any of them, after all he was Shinya’s lover.

Kyo was in the corner of the cell poking at a spider he had found, terrorizing was more like it. He was the only one not worried. It took longer for fear or panic to hit Kyo than the rest of them. He still felt they would get out of it with no problem. Or so the other’s thought. They didn’t see him gnawing the inside of his lip until he could taste the coppery liquid in his mouth.

"Fuck!" Die screamed and finally threw his hands into the air. "Where is he? Shouldn’t they have brought Shinya here by now?"

Kaoru bit his lip at the desperation in Die’s voice.

"Calm down, Die." Kyo said, looking back. The spider took the opportunity the scurry away.

"How am I supossed to calm down!" Die screamed in anger and fear.

"Well, for one you could stop screaming like a maniac at the rest of us!" Kyo screamed and pushed him.

Toshiya gasped as Die’s fist flew and hit Kyo square on his jawbone. Kyo fell back against the wall and threw his hand up to his face. He snarled, baring his teeth at the taller man and lunged at him. Caught off guard Die hit the wall with Kyo in front of him, throwing wild punches.

"Stop!" Kaoru jumped up and tried to separate them. No one noticed when the cell door opened and Yoshiki walked in.

"Well, well."

Kyo and Die stopped. Die shoved him away and raised a hand to his bloody lip.

Yoshiki smiled bitterly. "With the rate at you are all going I won’t have to kill you. You’ll do it yourself."

Yoshiki smiled wickedly at Die. "You, red. I need your help."

Die clenched his teeth at being called "red". "Where is Shinya? Why should I help you with anything?" He demanded. Kaoru took hold of his arm to keep him from lunging at the smirking older man.

Yoshiki saw it and raised his gun from his side. "Come on, and don’t you dare try anything."

Die glared until his eyes appeared almost closed. "Tell me where he is!"

Yoshiki smirked. "You’ll come with me or you’ll never see him again." At the same time he wondered where the hell Shinya was, but thought it best not to give it away.

Shinya gasped silently and pressed his hands against the grate as he stared into the room where the rest of his crew mates were being held. Shinya opened his mouth to call out to them until Hide squeezed in beside him and pressed his hand over his mouth.

They watched at Die and someone disappeared out the door and it was slammed shut again. Immediately Shinya started to pound his hands against the grating.

"Shinya stop!"

Kaoru and the rest gasped and looked up at the grating against the back wall above the single cot in the room. They heard the muffled voice and… the name that was said!

"Shinya! Are you up there?" Kaoru jumped onto the cot and tried to look up into the dark hole in the wall. "Kyo, help me!"

Kyo jumped up onto the cot as well and they pryed the grating from the wall, falling back as it came loose suddenly.

Shinya slid out of the wall and dropped down in front, where they are stood staring at him wide eyed with their mouths hanging open.

With a quiet, shocked sound Toshiya jumped on him and hugged him until he couldn’t breath. "How did you get here? How did you get in those grates?" He rambled so quickly the others had to hush him, Kaoru held his hand over his mouth.

"Hide helped me!" He whispered, excited. He looked up at the dark grate with a small flash of pink showed. "Hide! Come on!"

A quiet man jumped out of the grate silently and backed into the corner, looking at them all through veiled lashes. He felt very uncomfortable with other people around, he hadn’t been around others in so long. The only reason he had helped Shinya was because he had been in the exact situation, but seeing how much Shinya loved the others in the room he felt he had to help them all, as long as they didn’t get too close.