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Barok saw how the Nipponese counsel was looking at his apprentice. His eyes shining with recognition, awe and longing every single time he caught a glimpse of the masked man.
Had they really known each other before? While improbable, it was certainly not impossible, being that they shared the same home country, aptitude for law and determination.
Yes, despite having concluded that the disciple assigned to him by Lord Stronghart was indeed of Japanese origin, he had grown fond of the aspiring prosecutor. While it had first started as a mutual understanding of having an unknown goal, with an unclear path upon which they both felt lost and hopeless, it had soon turned into a physical closeness.
That physical closeness had then slowly brought some developing feelings into the fray. Because, of course, nothing could be simply black and white when it involved Barok van Zieks. Some of those feelings could be described as blossoms in spring, or romantic if you will. However, some were ugly.
Despite slowly having learnt to trust both the young lawyer and his pupil, the ire he felt towards the Nipponese as a whole would still arise occasionally, making him feel disgust not only towards the apprentice, but himself as well. Along those, the familiar feeling of being undeserving would also rear its ugly head.
Yet worst of all, was the borderline obsessive possessiveness he would feel over the young man.
It often happened whenever Lord Stronghart would summon the apprentice to speak with him alone. The Lord chief Justice clearly knew more than he let on about the amnesiac man and the fact that Stronghart, of all people, might know something no one else did about him at the moment, made Barok’s blood boil with jealousy.
Those were the nights when Barok would push the younger man into his sheets the moment he got his apprentice through the door to his personal chambers. Well there, he would lay claim to his apprentice for as long as it took, until Barok was certain, he was the only one on the smaller man’s mind.
He was brought back from his thoughts as the masked man got up to deliver some notes to his desk and seemed intrigued by their Nipponese guest. As he made a bow, Naruhodou made a movement as if to reach out to him, but Barok was having none of it.
He grabbed his apprentice arm, pulled him back a bit from the defence counsel and sent the lawyer a death stare.
“My apprentice is not to speak to anyone and I think you, as the defending side of our current case, have fraternised enough with the prosecution, don’t you think?”
The skittish attorney recoiled at his piercing gaze as expected. His disciple, however, simply looked up at him from beneath the mask, tilting his head in a way that Barok inferred as a mix of irritation and confusion. Perhaps even a hint of concern?
“Come on then Runo!” The pink-haired girl accompanying the defence peeped up. “It looks like Mister Reaper would like some time alone.”
“Ah, yes, well…” Naruhodou started, unsure where to look, despite his eyes often flitting towards the cloaked man. “I’ll see you in court later then. Have a good day, Lord van Zieks… “
“and you too,” Naruhodou added while nodding towards his apprentice, before turning around and leaving the prosecutor’s office.
Good.
Barok was brought out of his growing anger by a tugging movement in his left hand. Right, he was still gripping tightly around his apprentice’s arm, so he let go, staring back at the blank mask.
While he couldn’t see the story his apprentice's eyes would tell, he wondered if the other could tell what his fiery gaze meant. Most likely he could, after all, it wasn’t the first time he had looked at the young man like that.
Luckily, his worry for Albert was too prominent on his mind that evening for him to give in to his urges to make the apprentice completely his that night.
He had initially planned to bring the other to the trial tomorrow, however, if he had to deal with the Defence ogling at his assistant throughout the whole trial, he couldn’t guarantee the safety of anyone in that courtroom. Thus, he decided his apprentice should remain in the office during the trial.
Alas, that decision would turn out to be for naught. His blasted apprentice had been starting to get a bit cheeky lately, and had actually gone straight to the Old Bailey to meet up with Barok directly after court was adjourned, wishing to assist with the further investigations regarding Albert’s contraption.
And of course, they would find themselves investigating the machine at the fair at the exact same time the defence counsels did. This time, the Nipponese Judicial Assistant was present and even she seemed to think she knew the man beneath the mask.
As she shouted “Kazuma-sama!” His apprentice had visibly been shaken and Barok felt an immense sense of dread and the need to intervene once again before his jealousy got the best of him.
For the second time in two days, he gripped his disciple’s arm with an iron fist, only this time he was straight up dragging him by his arm away from the other lawyers and refused to spare any pleasantries.
He didn’t even look back until he had rounded a corner, but once he did, he saw that after the initial shock, an infuriatingly amused smirk was playing on his apprentice’s lips.
That bastard.
_______
The apprentice would stay silent at all times, even during their most intimate moments. A side effect of being prohibited from speaking in public, only allowing soft sights or slightly pained grunts to leave his lips. But not tonight.
Tonight, he fucked his apprentice with renewed vigor, causing the, presumably, younger man to let more beautiful cries and moans slip past his forced silence.
On his back, beneath the prosecutor, caged between his arms as he should. With the mask off, his apprentice was right where he belonged, allowing Barok to take in every single intoxicating shift in expression from his youthful face.
Oh, how he wished he had a name to claim. He always felt a shiver of pleasure whenever his lover would utter his name, be it in solitude in their office or in the throes of passion - though especially in the throes of passion.
Perhaps, he should be given one, a name that only Barok would know, that only Barok would say. Alas, he already had an inkling at what name truly used to be part of his lost memories.
Kazuma Asougi
However, now was not the time nor place for such dreaded thoughts, so for now, he settled with drawing more pleads of his own name from the other by sinking his teeth in between his apprentice’s neck and shoulder.
“Aaaahhh, Barok!”
For every thrust, his apprentice would respond with a cry, a moan or a shout, getting louder and louder for each repetition, until he was full out screaming. Good thing the staff had left the manor for tonight. Then again, he wouldn’t mind if the whole world were to hear exactly who was currently on top of the mysterious amnesiac.
Another surge of possessiveness rose through Barok and he dug his fingers of one of his hands hard around his desciple’s waist, like the thorns from a rose, potentially causing scratches or bruises, but most prominently, making their presence known.
“You’re mine!” He growled. “And I won’t ever let that Nipponese man or anyone else have you!” Especially not Asougi, not him!
At those words, the younger man’s grip on Barok’s back also became more nails than fingers, thorns hooking into his skin. Both their iron grips on each other brought another dimension of pleasure to them both and soon, the smaller man let out an especially high pitched moan as he reached his peak. The prosecutor followed shortly after, spilling into his apprentice, marking him in yet another way.
As they came down from their climax, Barok, trying to calm his breathing, glanced over his disciple’s ravaged body. At the sight of the bruised, ravaged body, he once more felt the onslaught of self-deprecation come back. He always felt horrible after his mind began to clear up after a possessive streak. Before he even realised tears had begun to form, he felt a hand softly caress the side of his face.
“Barok?” The younger man asked with caution.
“I…”, he began, as he felt a thumb swipe carefully beneath one of his eyes. “Pray forgive the discourtesy of my saddened face in the aftermath of our activities.”
The apprentice snorted at that, but Barok just rolled his eyes back at him before continuing.
“I do not know what came over me, I just wanted to be closer to you than ever before,” Barok confessed. “Did… did I hurt you?”
“No, you didn’t,” the young man responded with a sweet smile that made Barok’s heart take a leap, before it turned into a sly smirk. “Besides, I think your back took the brunt of it anyways!”
Barok chuckled before wincing a bit, as his brain finally caught up with the fact that the scratch marks that probably littered on his back were starting to sting. The apprentice simply laughed at Barok’s apparent pain.
“I sure hope they’ll sting for a while, I want you to remember who gave you those, and I thought you’d figured out by now that I like you being a little rough with me,” the smaller man stated while tilting his head with a smirk, drawing shapes with his index finger on the prosecutor's cheek. Though his face morphed into confusion as he saw the almost dumbfounded expression on Barok. “What’s up?”
Hearing his apprentice admit he did enjoy their copulation even, or especially, with Barok in his single-minded bruteness, did make him feel a bit relieved. Glad he hadn’t misinterpreted the signs that the younger liked their current arrangement. While he had eventually assumed so, they had never really talked about it after all.
“I’ve never heard you speak so openly before.”
“Oh.” The apprentice curled in a bit more on himself at that and his eyes shied away from Barok. “I suppose I shouldn’t…”
It broke Barok’s heart to see the insecurity spread so quickly in the young man. He decided it was his turn to gently nudge the younger’s head with his hand to have him face Barok.
“I didn’t mean to admonish you. I was merely caught off guard to hear you voice your desires,” he spoke with a gentle tone. “And it pleased me greatly.”
Surprise was written all over his lover’s face, but Barok wasn’t done yet.
“Everytime you allow me to see you beneath the white mask or break through your silence, it delights me so.” He brushed away some stray hairs that had stuck to the apprentice’s forehead. “For every glimpse you give me, the more my feelings for you bloom. I want to get to know you better, my dear apprentice.”
The young man’s cheeks had turned deep red and he refused to maintain eye contact with Baroko any longer. “But Lord Strongh-”
“What Lord Stronghart has demanded from you is not applicable at the moment!” Barok interrupted. “You are to speak freely when in my presence alone.”
They both fell into a thoughtful silence at that. Had he gone too far? It’s true that Stronghart’s orders technically could overwrite any of Barok’s, but the amnesiac man had been put under his immediate care. They would, of course, be defying the rules set by their superior and the thought made Barok remember the excitement as a child, whenever he and Klint would sneak out for some adventures. However, he should not let his mind go down that rabbit hole right now. Nothing good would come from it at the moment.
Readjusting his focus back on the man under him, Barok saw that his face still held traces of uncertainty.
“Did I ask for too much?” Barok whispered.
“No! Or, somewhat, but not really…” the apprentice began, looking down at his hands. He took a moment to gather his thoughts and then continued in a much more quiet voice. “It’s just the first time I can remember that anyone asked me to speak freely. I don’t quite know what to make of it.”
Hearing the young man’s explanation, Barok was stunned in silence for a moment. That had not been what he expected to hear, even if, in hindsight, it made a lot of sense.
“Without any memories, I really didn’t have anything interesting to speak of.”
“But you do remember both British and Japanese law,” Barok reminded him.
“... And only you would find that interesting.”
“Ah, I suppose that might be true.”
The apprentice let out a small laugh at that and Barok felt the mood had improved once again. Though it wasn’t to last very long as the apprentice opened his mouth to speak once more.
“But once I arrived, Scotland Yard took me in for illegal entry into the empire and Lord Stronghart placed heavy restrictions on my socialising in exchange for an apprenticeship under you.”
“I wish I could offer you more…”
“Don’t.” The usually masked man responded with a slow shake of his head. “You’ve already given me more than anyone I can remember.”
Barok raised an eyebrow. “And that still isn’t a lot, is it?”
“Still more than I could as for, as an illegal entry, even a nobody on top of it.” The young man said with a lost look in his eyes.
After a thoughtful moment, Barok leant down and pressed his lips softly on the other’s.
“No, you may not be who you once were, but you are definitely someone,” he murmured against the younger’s lips. “You’re almost fully ready to stand as a brilliant prosecutor anyways, I will try to convince Lord Stronghart to revoke some of the restraints on you.”
At that, he felt arms wrap around his neck and he was pulled into a hug, with his face ending up on his apprentice shoulder and heard a small voice of gratitude.
“Thank you Barok.”
Words weren’t necessary anymore, so Barok closed his eyes and wrapped his arms tightly around the smaller man, while rolling them so they both were lying on their sides.
At the comfortable silence, Barok finally felt calm for the first time since the possessiveness had gripped him earlier the same day, yet as he lifted an arm to extinguish the lantern still shedding light in the room, the younger man slapped him on his wrist.
“Oh no, you’re not going off to dreamland just yet! We need to clean up now, don’t even think about leaving it until tomorrow or I will leave you with my ‘blank mask’ to cuddle instead!” The young man playfully threatened, while getting up to retrieve cleaning cloths and wads.
He would deny it later, but after the initial shock, Barok did let out a whine as the smaller man he just wanted to hold moved away.
“Ugh, you’ve only uttered a few sentences and I can already tell you’re going to be a handful,” Barok mused, wondering if the young man’s attitude had played any part in prompting Stronghart to order silence upon him.
“Oh, you haven’t heard anything yet!” The young man grinned. “I may not have my memories or all my personality intact, but there’s no taking back the lift on my speaking ban around you anymore!”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Barok replied and he truly meant it. He was already loving the biting banter that had been added to their strange relationship.
He watched his disciple clean up the worst stains while thinking how he didn’t deserve to be around this wonderful person, who willingly was dealing with Barok’s ugly possessiveness and self loathing.
More than ever, he wished for the young man to get his memories back so he could learn more about him and hopefully dismiss Stronghart’s order of silence. But at the same time, he was terrified that the lost past would give reason for his disciple to leave him, especially if he was who Barok thought he was, no matter how hard of a grip his dark side had tried to get on him.
He had initially assumed he was the one trying to bind his apprentice to him by trapping him with thorns and barbs. But if there was anything he had realised tonight, it was him, that had since long been ensnared by the other.