❝ SHOW ME YOUR TEETH.

From the violent thud he created by moving this abruptly, Nina was about to throw her hand back out of fear, but much to her surprise, he accepted the physical touch. The pressure on her fingers being quite strong, a quiet yelp couldn’t be restrained from her thin lips. ‘Don’t worry, I will handle this.’

Glancing at the top of the vehicle, an idea caught her mind. On the roof of the van was a window panel, just made in case an accident would happen so the patients and anyone inside could escape. Retrieving her palm as slowly as she could, the bag falling from her thighs, a few steps sufficed the girl to stand under the panel.

“I…I am here, can you hear me? I just want to make the view better for you.”

Making sure to articulate correctly, she wished to let her presence be known. Jumping a few times to reach the ceiling, Nina managed to progressively slid it open, the stars that seemed to be dots in the marine sky furnishing a soothing light. Turning her face to focus on the small frame, she once more went to sit down on her initial seat, this time BOTH hands forming a barrier around his.

“Erica, she is gone.”

     This isn’t where he is supposed to be -- he’s supposed to be outside running atop the roofs with wind in his hair and laughter on his lips as he chases after his long time companion. Yet confined to this space he felt trapped and betrayed. He’d only been doing what had been asked of him..! He’d only killed who he’d been told to kill and take the tags of those he’d been told to.

     Punishment wasn’t to be given when he followed orders; he’d been promised so often that everything would be fine if he did as he was told and suddenly everything he had learned had turned on its head. This wasn’t right, this wasn’t right..!

     Mikhail gave a frightened whine as the hand that had been holding his disappeared, fingers extending as far as they could within the tight fabric wrapped around his form searching for that one piece of comfort that had been given to him. Except the feeling of fresh air caused his gaze to snap upward to the window panel that had been opened for him; the ache in his chest grew larger with the desire to escape and be free once again.

      S̶̨h̡͜͡e̢ ć͢a҉͠n̡҉'t̸̢̡ b̸̛͡e͜͢ ̢͟g̢͜one͜, ̵̡̧s҉̵̢h̵͠ȩ̷҉ ̕ḩ̸͢a ̀t҉̶o ̶̨h̵̵e̡lp̡ ̵m̡͢͜é̷͝,̶̀͡ ̵p͏l͝e̷a͘se͞

tagless​ wants a lollipop.

    Having a { vague } recollection, of the boy,     Sig brought her  a x e  to rest over her     shoulders.                              He worked with Erica, from      what she could remember, &&. both of      them were bat shit crazy !

    But, finding the kid alone, Sig takes it up     -on herself to see if everything was good…     “Oi, kid… where’s your babysitter?” He     should answer  q u i c k  so she can get on      with work of her own.

     “Huh..?”

     Babysitter? He didn’t have a babysitter -- pfft! All he had was Erica, and he hadn’t seen her in a few hours--

     Oh..! Maybe that’s what this lady was talking about! A large grin split Mikhail’s features in two with the realization.

Inside the fairly small emergency van, it was almost complete silence apart from the sound of the wheels making their way toward the clinic. His pained words were making the nurse just as much hurt, for this child who had a heart forged in gold, it was harsh.

On another hand however, there was reason for him to be forced in the straitjacket in addition of being tied to a bed. Nobody had enough fingers to count his crimes. In an attempt to provide him mental support, Nina slid a hand under one of the belts, (that Theo and a bunch of Twilights had managed to pull over him) holding his knuckles.

“Soon we will arrive…”

With her free hand, the care taker held her shoulder bag on her lap, short legs dangling from the bench she was sitting on.

“I’m sorry, I don’t have the right to undo these, and in your condition…It is better not to.”

     The trembling from his body (whether it was from fear, stress or a combination of both) was so severe it felt more like he was being forcibly shaken from side to side. Eyes darted from side to side as he continued to search for a way out but he was only met with the inside view of metal walls and not a single window to peer through for the comfort of outside.

     Fingers suddenly touching his own had caused a powerful flinch throughout his form in an attempt to push himself away -- but... the belts had made that near impossible. His hand shifted away as much as he could make it, mumbled words still audible under his breath.

      E͡r̀͟͠i̢kà,͟ ̨͡h̶͡e͜l̨p͏ ͏̢m̛è̴͠,̡ ̷͏h̡͢͡e̸̢͘l̶̕p̵ ̡me̵̛͜,҉̢͝ ͟p̀l͢e̛ą̡͡s͘͜͠e͏,̵͜ ̴̴҉I ͞did ̕͟͝n̵͟o̴͠t̷͝͞h͜i̢̡n̴͠g̴̨ ҉w͠r͟͡o͢͝ņ̷͟ģ͏̴

      I̢ ̢̀d̷̶͠o̡n'̶̀͝t͟ ̢͜w̴̕a͜͠n͢t̶̀ ͟i̡̕t͘,̷͡͝ ̢͘͠I͝͏̡ ̀͘͜w̢̕͞a͟͝n̛t̴̢͘ ̡́́to͏҉҉ ̡̕͜go̴͡,͡͠ ̷́I̢̕͞ ̷̢̢d̸̢͝i͡d͘͜͡ wh̵̢a̡̨t̴ y͝o̵͟͜u̷ ͜҉s҉̶aid͞

     Erika..! Someone, anyone..! He couldn’t move, he didn’t know where he’d been taken and all he wanted was to leave. His punishment for being captured would be severe, but anything was better than this.

     Mikhail twisted and turned, but it did him no good, and his ankles stung painfully with every movement he made with any attempt to get out of his confinement.

     Gasp... What were those..! On the ground, right in front of that woman! They looked like discarded tags from this distance, and the boy was practically sparkling as he dove forward (nearly tripping her in the process...) to wrap small fingers around the chain and hold them up proudly as he sat up on the ground.

     A prisoner refusing to eat wasn’t a new concept, but when that prisoner was a young boy, tied and restrained and frightened, it quickly became another story. His trembling hadn’t stopped since his confinement, but it had subsided greatly with exhaustion.

      I d͡͏i͢d͠ ̵n͟҉o͏̨t́͢͡h̵҉̸i̷͝n҉͜g͏̀ ̸̛w͘rò̶͜n͏͏̡g̷̕,͢͞ ͝I ͟͏̀ḑi̶͡d̸̕͜ ̵̀͢n͢͟͞o̶͘͢t͡hin̶̡͝g ̶̷w͏̧r͝͠o̸͟͞ń͢g̢,͞͞ ̸̕I̡ ̧͞d́͟i͜ḑ n͟o̴͡t̷̨h̶҉in̨g̛ w̸̡̛r͢o̴͜͟n͠g̢.̡̧.̶͝.

     Mikhail’s head had been placed on a pillow, arms kept tightly around himself forcefully from the jacket strapped onto his person; he mumbled quietly, eyelids drooping further every moment. He was tired... tired and scared and nothing here was familiar enough to find any comfort in.

     He heard footsteps and his eyes shot open once again, and his legs pushed painfully against the bed he’d been assigned to press himself against the wall to isolate himself further from whomever had dared visit.

     “Eriiiikaaaa...~ I’m tiiired...”

     Is he actually speaking to his partner in crime? No. -- But does he realize that? Absolutely not. Erika and her brother looked quite a lot alike from behind in the dark...

tagless

     This was not where she had meant to go. Not at all. The people didn’t seem nice and so she kept to the shadows until they disappeared altogether, revealing her whole form – tail down between her legs and ears flat against her head with as much of a frown on her face as there could be. 

     And to top it all off, once she had gotten away from the crowds and thought her to be safe from people, she looked up once more and saw someone. There was sharp teeth (however they were mostly hidden) and red eyes and it all seemed so menacing. She shrank back from the figure a bit, but she didn’t run away; perhaps Nina was scared, but she didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings and they weren’t yelling or anything, so… Everything just might be okay. Maybe.

     Finally given enough freedom to travel on his own -- or perhaps the idea of freedom; he may have slipped his watch... -- Mikhail had immediately took the opportunity to explore places he hadn’t yet been given the opportunity to. Granted, Ergastulum wasn’t the biggest place, but he’d been cooped up for longer than he would have liked and there must have been something new..!

     A new place for Twilights to hide and tags to accumulate, at least.

     Ooorr... that’s what he had been thinking until his eyes had captured something large and furry hiding in one of the alleyways. He gasped lightly and stopped, then dropping between the buildings to get much closer that anyone else would have thought safe to the creature.

     It was a nice enough day outside, not too much sun but not too many clouds. The temperature was rather nice too, a little bit cool but just warm enough to keep someone comfortable.

     Though she’d not been doing anything, really, it was still a productive day for her. She’d managed to snag a really cool ribbon bracelet from some shop at some point. It was even red, to match the ribbon in her hair! How cute was that? Very cute.

     While she was lost in thought about her ribbons, she got an odd feeling. That feeling you get when it feel like someone is watching you. Stopping herself, the Shinigami turned around, searching for someone. It was odd, but something made her look up and- Oh! There was a boy up on that roof…

     He was staring right at her, so she decided to stare back. Seemed like the right thing to do.

     Oh, look..! He’d caught her attention somehow and he immediately grinned to show off all of his pointed, pearly teeth. She looked fairly normal -- and there was no sign of her having any tags... It was rare for someone like her to come into this area. Usually the normals were more than just a little frightened of coming into Ergastulum, so seeing someone new was always a pleasure.

     “Hiii..~!” Mikhail chimed loudly, throwing one of his hands up into the air to wave down at the girl from the building he had perched on.

     Why was it that every time he left Yukio’s house and went off somewhere it seemed that someone was staring at him? Of course he knew they weren’t actually staring since people couldn’t really see him or anyth–

     —-They were getting closer. And closer. Not to mention the outstretched hand that actually came in contact with his headphones… Which also meant this guy could actually see him. Of course he was still a little confused about this whole situation, but he’d leave the ‘what-the-fuck-are-you’ talk for a little later.

     “… What are you– no. No. Why are you touchin’ my headphones??”

     Ahh..! Cool! Having placed his fingertips against the headphones on the other’s head had made Mikhail’s grin pull wider; the texture was smooth save for the slight indentations where the screws and LED lights were. It reminded him of the tags he collected (a few of them had jingled in his pockets as he had bounded over), and that was enough to keep him interested in them.

     Wooaaahhh..!! Look at that guy! Mikhail’s childish curiosity quickly got the better of him the moment crimson eye landed on the smaller figure -- well... mostly all those little light up bits that dotted the other’s outfit. They flashed and flickered and it took all that the boy had not to reach out and touch one.

      Not to say that he had any self control because, frankly, he didn’t.