Page 94 of Psync
He closed the bathroom door and made a phone call. It took longer than he’d planned because he’d forgotten about the time difference—right now his aunt was in the middle of her pre-lunch meeting, which meant her assistant was busy too. He was willing to wait.
When he’d finished his call, he padded quietly back to the bed and climbed in, very ready to be wrapped around Eli once more.
He was certain his heart had stopped beating the moment he’d felt Eli’s fear when Hank grabbed him. It wouldn’t happen again—not with Hank, at least. Haruka had just made sure of it.
He brushed the hair back from Eli’s face and caught a glimpse of shadows in his mind. Haruka pulled him onto his chest—usually holding him was enough to banish the bad dreams that plagued Eli.
“No . . . please don’t.” Eli whimpered.
“It’s okay, Eli. I’m here.”
Haruka rubbed Eli’s arms to wake him, but he didn’t respond. Instead, Haruka’s mind was flooded with images of a small, dark-haired boy getting flung across a room, slapped, beaten, and abused—all by the same man.
“Eli!” He tapped him on the face. “Wake up.”
Eli’s eye’s fluttered open, but they were unfocused. Haruka was ready for the fist that came toward his face, so he caught it, held it firmly, and pressed a kiss into it.
“You’re safe, Eli. No one’s going to hurt you anymore.” Haruka fought against his own set of shadows as they rose. They wanted him to rend and tear, but Haruka couldn’t fight memories.
He held Eli’s struggling form in his arms and spoke softly in Japanese, hoping it would wake him up and make him realize where he was.
When the boy stopped finally stopped fighting, he pressed his face against Haruka’s chest, and let out a ragged sob. “He called me pretty.”
Haruka went quiet and began to stroke Eli’s hair.
“When he was lucid, he told me he took me because I was pretty like his dead son. When I acted like his son did, he would give me candy, and when I didn’t, he hurt me. I tried, but I didn’t know what his son was like, so . . .” Eli curled up into a ball.
“So, he hurt you a lot.” Haruka finished for him.
Eli made a choking sound and nodded into Haruka’s chest.
Eli hadn’t talked about his kidnapping before. Haruka had only caught glimpses of it in his mind, but they’d been bad enough for him not to push. He wanted Eli to tell him about it when he was ready.
It took a while for Eli to tell his story, but Haruka was nothing if not patient. When the boy choked or froze up, Haruka spoke to him in Japanese. He didn’t say anything important, just that Eli was safe and good and that no one could hurt him here. It seemed to work because, after a minute or so, Eli would relax and continue.
When Eli was ten, he was taken from his yard by a man who had recently lost his family to a fire. It wasn’t planned. The man had snapped when he saw Eli and took him. No one saw him do it, and since the man had no connection to Eli or his family, the police had no way to find him.
He’d spent eight days being tormented, beaten, and pampered depending on how well Eli had managed to act like the man’s son. On the eighth day, the man had overdosed, and Eli had crawled past his body to freedom.
Eli had been dealing with nightmares about his kidnapper ever since.
“I’ve managed to overcome most of the trauma, but I can’t sleep alone and . . . I don’t like when someone calls me pretty.”
No one ever would again if Haruka had any say in the matter.
After all of that—and being attacked twice on the same campus—Eli was still fighting to be able to live a normal life.
“You are very strong, Eli.”
Eli let out something that was half laugh and half sob. “Yes, I’m very strong. So strong I had a nightmare because someone called me pretty.”
“It was more than that, and you know it, baka.” Haruka loved every millimeter of Eli, but he wasn’t going to coddle him. “Don’t belittle how hard you worked to get here.”
Eli blinked up at him with his big Bambi eyes. Then the corners of his mouth twitched. He sat up and kissed Haruka hard. “You really just fucking get me.”
“I do.”
Haruka caught a flash of Eli thinking about his sister and how she was the only other person who knew his whole story and didn’t treat him like a sad, wet puppy. It was why he loved her more than anyone. And now he had Haruka too.
