Like Twins

The whole team building session felt like a failure already. No matter what happened, it probably couldn't repair the damage done so far. Team building company? Blood Talon sighed. If this did anything, it was ruin the team. This was definitely the last time he ever spent money on something like that; perhaps he wouldn't even pay for this. Calling going through an obstacle course and collecting blue plastic tokens a 'treasure hunt' just underlined how stupid the team builders were.

Hiro was now trailing the group, carrying the sobbing Doormat. Blood Talon soon lost them from sight, trying to catch up so he could still watch Kazama. What the guy did to the little guy was rather brutal - could that really be necessary? - but he was still as intriguing. Deadly, dangerous and extremely hard to influence. That was the Jin Kazama he was obsessed with, and the other Japanese could call himself 'Jin' all he wanted, it wouldn't matter.

While walking, he had 'Hwoarang' next to him, whining about the weather and whatever came to mind. Obviously jealousy set in again, but the Blood Talon didn't want to meddle in the middle of team building. Anything could happen right now, and he wanted more control of the situation than he could get here.

After a few more obstacles, the group was closer together again. Blood Talon cast a few glances back at the others, trying to keep track of moods and whatnot, then felt the ground give way under his feet. There was no chance to avoid falling, and soon he found himself down in a deep pit. The walls didn't seem easy to climb, but what worried him more was the hungry-looking alligator approaching.

This company was nuts.

It opened its big mouth, and Blood Talon backed away a few steps. That thing was probably faster than him, so he needed to think fast. He jumped up, pushing himself out from one of the walls, placing a firm kick that shut its mouth, then landed behind it. As he was about to attack it, the alligator quickly turned around; he had definitely been right about that thing's speed. It faced him with slight reluctance, but showed no signs of having given up.

For a second, he caught himself staring at the saliva dripping down its sharp teeth, but he was quickly pulled away from that when the alligator lunged forward. He dived to the side just in time, more out of luck than out of skill. When it attacked again, he was more ready, jumping away at the best of his ability. It had only lasted for a handful of seconds, but his breath was already agitated. Probably from the perceived danger.

He caught sight of a tree towards the new end of the pit and moved quickly over to it. The complication to their movements would surely be easier to interpret for him than for a stupid animal, and besides, he doubted it could climb. This was probably the way out. But when he spotted the stupid animal start trying to move around the tree, he quirked a smirk, moving behind it and unleashing his most powerful kick down on its head.

That made impact enough to influence it, but he didn't intend to wait and see what the alligator planned on doing now. He kept kicking it as hard as he could, and after a few more hits, it was motionless. Didn't look conscious, so he breathed a sigh of relief, ready to climb up the tree and out of the pit.

Laughter came from behind. Not normal laughing, but a dark, cruel laughter at the animal's expense. When the Blood Talon turned, glowing eyes met his. Devil Hiro was out, complete with markings, horns, and talons, leaving only his wings unexposed. Doormat, whimpering and sobbing, gazed confusedly at Hiro from behind, but it seemed to have forgotten the little guy existed. It suddenly lunged forward and roughly shoved BT up against a tree. In a low, rumbling hiss, it spoke with a hint of amusement, "My host is too neurotic when it comes to loved ones." Its talons dug in. "Why didn't you kill it?"

And his heart started racing, not helped one bit by seeing his blood slowly covering the creature's fingers. Weren't they all right there? Were Jin and Kazama seriously just going to let it do this to him? "I thought we covered the topic of manners last time," he answered dryly, "do you really want me to resent you?"

"Fear, resentment, anger, frustration." It smirked and licked the blood off one of its talons. "You're threatening me? You are such a turn on."

That was insulting! "Believe me, if I ever threaten you, you'll know." He grumbled, shifting to a slightly more comfortable position. It was hard to improve much given there was still a set of talons through his skin. Now how to get this over with? "You are not worthy," he attempted in a firm, disappointed voice, "so get away from me. I don't have time for the unworthy."

Devil Hiro grimaced and the talons tightened, digging in further. It leaned in and scraped its teeth over the flesh of Blood Talon's neck, just barely hard enough to leave blood-less scratches. "You abuse words. Worthiness means nothing coming from you. One day, that word on your tongue will make me rip your throat out." It shuddered and flicked its tongue out onto its captive's neck.

Great. Now what was he supposed to do? Scream for Kazama to come help? No, that was out of the question. He rolled his eyes, letting out an exaggerated sigh. "Rip my throat out? And take away the life of the only one worthy?" He paused, moving his hands up Devil Hiro's sides. "Would you really do that? I thought you were smarter than that..."

It practically purred in reaction to the contact. As its grip began to loosen, it spoke in a soft whisper, "if you truly are the only worthy one, I'd rather destroy you myself than have you dirtied by the hands of another." It clearly indicated the other Jins with a glance away. It laughed cruelly and gave BT's earlobe an enthusiastic suck. "If I can't have you, no one will."

Was that an opening to try to get it to behave? Probably not, but he couldn't see what other ways out there could be. "Well... what are you willing to do, to... have me?" He asked curiously, sliding one of his hands up into the ravenblack hair. Couldn't hurt, could it?

"I'm willing to take you. I'm willing to destroy those who get in my way." It pulled back just enough to glare furiously into the Blood Talon's eyes. All signs of amusement was long gone as a low growl rolled in its throat. "Are you trying to manipulate me? I am not as stupid as my smitten host. Are you trying to control me, little one?!"

"Manipulate is such a crude term." Quirking his lip up in distaste, the Blood Talon shook his head. "I'm not like the unworthy ones. You cannot just take me. And as for control, I want to be the leader of this group. Kill me if you must, but as long as you threat me like a thing, you will not have me."

"Oh?" It gave a nasty grin and roughly ran a talon down its captive's arm. "That's right, you prefer the ones that ignore you completely. Such a waste to ignore this tasty Korean. Tell me, tasty Korean, if I wooed you by taking you out, drugging you, and taking advantage of you like normal people, where would the fun be in that?"

"If you think taking me out would win me over, you know far too little about how to claim a worthy one." Blood Talon shook his head with a quirked brow, then added, "are you done? We've got people waiting for us, and if you're not going to give me any respect, I'll go find someone who does."

It stepped back as if it were letting him free, but before he had a chance to move, the sharp talons came down on him, swiping him violently across the chest. "Respect," it spat venomously, "is earned. You are worthy of your name; worthy of much more, but you are not worthy of my respect!" It pressed its talon threateningly against his throat. "If I was interested in treating you like a thing, I'd already have you stashed away and barely clinging to life! If I decide not to kill you right now, it will be out of the little respect I have for you!"

~~~

This is a collab, written together with Chlover. You can find her author profile here:
http://games.adult-fanfiction.org/authors.php?no=26260