A Friend In Need...

Rox slunk through the dark city; emotionless steel buildings rising above him on all sides and towering over him imposingly. It was night, and there were no streetlights, no flashes of car headlights, just a few dingy windows on the upper stories of the skyscrapers to provide a little bit of light for Rox’s straining eyes.

Like some sort of criminal, Rox pulled the hood of his cape further over his face, although he didn’t know what or whom he was hiding from. There was no one on the streets – no one to see him and no one to care. He was completely and utterly alone. Like a cat, he rounded corners with caution and sleek quickness. He felt as though he was being watched, but how could that be? The streets were black and barren, and he had left everyone he had ever known behind. Pausing and frowning, he listened intently and peered through the night as best as he could, but nothing seemed out of place.

And then, suddenly, he disappeared.

-o-

The next thing Rox knew, he was stumbling along in a daze, yanked forward by a tug at his neck, like some sort of sick, twisted puppet of a dog. He suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, coming to his senses and realizing that he did not wish to be urged onward against his will, and with no idea where he was being led.

A cold cruel laugh rang out into the night, and Rox’s head snapped up to see his leash – for he was indeed leashed like a dog – being pulled along by a man with glinting silver hair was flowing in the back, but stuck out at sharp angles near the top. He gave a particularly harsh yank, causing Rox to nearly trip. His hood slipped off, revealing mussed, softly spiked blonde hair and crystal blue eyes, which grew suddenly wide at taking in the new surroundings.

In stark contrast to the dark, quiet city from which he had come, he was now being dragged down a street bustling with bright lights from neon signs and glowing red, yellow, and green traffic lights. The streets were busy with speeding, shiny cars that blared their horns into the night as they streaked and skidded in some sort of organized chaos. The disturbingly clean sidewalk was lined to his left with what appeared to be mostly glowing storefront windows that reflected the busy, lighted street so brightly that it was almost impossible to see what the shops were pandering. But after peering intently as he was pulled along, Rox caught a glimpse past the reflective surface and realized with a disturbed lurch of his stomach that the merchandize displayed within was… humans.

Much like himself, leashed and additionally forced into revealing outfits. So this was some sort of… readlight district? And it appeared as though he had been captured and was the newest addition to the collection.

Another exceedingly unsympathetic jerk of the leash forced Rox’s head to jerk to the side, where his line of vision met directly with a brunet male in a window who had eyes much like his own, hands pressed to the glass and a concerned expression on his young face. Rox felt an immediate connection, which gave him an ominous sense of foreboding.

-o-

Rox was thrown harshly into a dank and musty storage room. Unnatural light filtered in through the boarded up windows, and Rox wrinkled his nose at the cloud of dust that stirred up where he fell. Somewhere along the way, the silver haired man had handed him over to someone new, someone with sharp features, two long scars in the shape of an ‘X’ across his face, and electric blue hair that was styled in much the same manner as the silver haired man.

“Rox…” his new captor said with a disturbing growl, looking down at the blonde who still lay crouched and on guard on the floor, and Rox wondered how this person knew his name. “Oh Rox. You don’t have to do this, you know. Walk the streets for just a little bit of money, not caring if it’s right or wrong.”

Rox glared up at him, fiercely. “I’m not a –”

“Dear little Rox.” The man growled, pulling the blonde to his feet and holding him tightly, uncomfortably close. “You don’t have to dress up in those little outfits, sell yourself in the night…”

“I’m not a –”

“If you just stick with me…” the man was saying, and by this point Rox had a very bad feeling about where this was going. “I can keep you… safe. You will be mine and none of the others can touch you…”

“I don’t want YOU touching me!” Is what Rox wanted so badly to spit back, but the blue haired man had pulled the small blonde to his chest into a terrible, crushing embrace, and Rox gasped for air.

“Let. Him. Go.”

Both Rox and his captor snapped their attention to the rafters, where a hooded figure was crouching. His eyes were covered by the darkness from his hood’s shadow, but his mouth was clearly visible, and pulled up into a toothy smirk that Rox recognized almost instantly.

‘Alex? … what is he doing here?’

Alex, whom Rox was sure this new arrival was, just so happened to be his best friend since childhood. Rox had absolutely no idea how Alex had found him, as he had snuck away from home in the dead of night without telling anyone, but somehow he didn’t mind so much that he had been followed, as it looked as though a possible rescue was in progress.

The man with electric blue hair snarled, looking as though an intervention would make his day. “Oh? And I suppose you are going to stop me?”

Alex’s smirk twitched up just a bit more in the corner. “Yes. I am.”

Rox wasn’t quite sure what happened next – it was all a blur of swishing cloaks, the sharp glint of a sword, and loud voices – because before he could even take it in properly, it was over. Alex stood, chest heaving and head hung down as a result of so much exertion being made use of so abruptly, over the bloody body of Rox’s captor. It really was him… tall and thin, crazy bright red hair, facial tattoos and all. A million different comments and questions raced through Rox’s mind – how did Alex get there? How had he found him? Why had he risked his own life to save Rox? Thank you. I owe you one – but the first thing he said was:

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Alex smiled, not as smirk as before, but a lighter, friendlier smile. “I think.” He said. “That I am saving my best friend’s ass.”

Rox scowled, and wanted to say that he ran away for a reason, that he didn’t need babysitting, that he didn’t need a best friend…

But when Alex stepped forward, pulled him into a hug that was so very different from the forced embrace Rox had been unwillingly been inflicted with just minutes earlier, Rox realized that maybe, just maybe, he didn’t have anything to run away from after all.