To be given a better name some other time...

Chapter 1 Part 1 - The Meeting

The night was young and yet it felt much too old for Aron as he sat in the corner of the nightclub, away from the old perverts dancing to the music that must have been before his time. Or, perhaps he just didn’t recognize the beat because he was so far detached from the humans surrounding him. Why was he like this? Why was he so detached from his species save for a few? He shook his head. This topic of thought didn’t matter right now as he observes the crowd while the overly colorful lights flash about in preplanned patterns.

“Where is he?” the boy thought to himself, “He should have been here by now.” Aron checked his watch and released a sigh of frustration. This was an unusual act for Aron while he was on the job. Usually the prodigy child withheld all information from onlookers by keeping his trademark pokerface. If anyone were to see him making such a gesture while on the job, they would likely believe they were hallucinating, for as soon as they would look back Aron was already stone-faced again.

Seeing that the time read ten p.m. Aron decided that the client would not be showing up this evening. With a slight pang of disappointment in his heart, Aron began to stand to leave the club and return home.

“Hello, there.” A silken baritone voice called out to Aron, “What’s a kid like you doing in a place like this?” The voice asked. This voice, Aron noted, was attached to a rather fetching man. He stood at approximately 176 centimeters, and could only have weighed a little over 60 kilograms. His eyes shown as a faint emerald in the dark nightclub, and his ragged yet well-kept mane of brown hair glimmered under the strobe lighting. Aron couldn’t quite place the man’s smell at the time, as so often is his habit, due to the fact that the club’s atmosphere was drowning in the scent of cheap colognes and alcoholic beverages. Aron noted no distinguishable characteristics upon the man’s light skin save for a small scar just beneath the man’s left eye.

“I’m not exactly here to play, mister.” Aron replied after a moment. He knew that this man could only be one of three types he could meet tonight. One, the man was the client and was extremely late. Two, this man was another pervert, in which case he could easily be dealt with. Or three, this man was a threat of which Aron did not know the origin, only that the man could be any number of the boy’s enemies. In any case, Aron decided to probe to see which one the man truly was, “Might I ask what your intentions are by coming over to speak with me?” There is was, Aron’s trademark question. If it was a client, they would answer with the predetermined reply Aron had assigned as the code name for the client. If it was a pervert, the man would say something to the effect of a pickup line or lewd comment. And if it was a threat, well, that varied.

“I’m here to discuss the Ghosts within my home.” The man curtly replied.

Ah, so this was the client. Aron sat back down and gestured for the man to sit across from him at the table. “You’re quite late, you know.” Aron began.

“I know.” The man replied.

“And, why might that be?” Aron queried. The man sat formerly across from Aron keeping a straight face with little to no emotion, and didn’t make any move to answer Aron’s question. Becoming slightly suspicious, Aron asked the man a question to further confirm his identity, “Remind me again, why we have met here tonight, Mr. Ghost?”

The man had no change in his facial expression as he replied so curtly that it was excruciatingly clear that it was rehearsed many of times. “To discuss the Ghosts in my house.” He stated simply.

Aron’s face did not change as his mood grew worse and the air around them began to cast a shadow upon the boy’s face. However, after a moment, an eerie smile began to spread across Aron’s face. He knew now that this man was not the client, and in fact could only be an enemy. This had happened to him once before where an enemy had snagged a client and forced the information out of them then came to the meeting place parading themselves as the client. “Oh, I see,” Aron stated in such a chipper voice that it did not match the blackness exuding from his being, “Well then, I hope you are able to get rid of them quickly, sir. I’ll just be on my way now.” The bite behind Aron’s words were so sharp that anyone who had seen him before would have never believed it was the same person or that such malice could have come from such an innocent looking boy.

A slight echo of shock ran across the man’s face as he stood to stop Aron from leaving. However, Aron himself was in no mood to analyze the break in this man’s projected persona. As Aron deliberately made his way towards the exit he faintly registered that the man was still pursuing him. So Aron formulated his next move against this man. He exited the club through a pair of heavy steel doors and pretended to continue walking away until they had shut completely. Once they had shut, Aron stood to the side of the two doors and waited for the man to follow. The doors swung open with a creek and Aron observed the man exit, looking about ahead to see where the boy had gone. Unfortunately for the man, Aron had been counting on this. He drew his concealed knife from within his boots and snuck up behind the man. In one swift motion, Aron had the knife to the man’s throat prepped for dismemberment at the drop of a hat. “Who are you, why are you following me, and what do you want?” Aron asked in a dangerously low voice.

A barely noticeable tremor rolled through the man’s spine in response to Aron’s questions. Good, the man should be afraid. “I-I’m Kaoru.” The man replied shakily.

“Alright, that answers one question. Now, who the heck are you with and why are you following me.” Aron asked more calmly. Even if the man gave a fake name, Aron had already seen his face and would be able to easily identify him later when he was alone.

But suddenly, without any warning, the man stopped shaking and returned to his composed state, and in one swift motion the man had released himself from Aron’s hold, confiscated the knife, and pinned Aron to the nearby brick wall of the building. The man leaned in close to Aron’s face but not so close that Aron could easily bite him if he should struggle. “I, Aron, am Hoset Kaoru. Leader of the underbelly of Hoset Incorporated. And, I believe you now know why I am here?” The man whispered menacingly.

Oh, yes, Aron new perfectly well why the man was here now. You see, a few months back, Aron had been indulging in one of his favorite hobbies, which also happened to be his job: Hacking. When he wasn’t hired to do some mundane job for some tech-illiterate clients, he partook in the sweeter, more forbidden fruit of breaking down secure walls into unknown databases. The more challenging the hack, the more fun it was for Aron. Unfortunately, this time Aron hacked into the most challenging system yet and found something he shouldn’t have. Inside were secure files of the ongoings and doings of the Hoset Mafia. Every dirty little secret, every money transaction, every possible thing they wouldn’t want leaked was within this wall that Aron had broken. And, Aron being the curious cat he is, was now about to be killed by the leader of this organization for peeking at their private information. Of course Aron wasn’t going to just go out without a fight, but he had to consider that this man now had his trusty dagger and would likely not be returning it without puncturing Aron’s flesh.

Aron let slip the emotion of anger onto his face before replying, “Well then, get on with it! I haven’t got all night. Stab me and leave me to bleed to death in peace, already!”

The man’s face ran through a cacophony of emotions at Aron’s words. A brief registry of shock, then confusion, and on to a surprising face that no one could have expected. His face morphed into that of an enamored smile. The actual bloody hell?! Was this man unhinge?

While Aron deliberated over whether or not this Kaoru fellow was completely nuts, he failed to realize that Kaoru’s face was growing dangerously close, and before he knew it, the boy’s lips were caught up in an even more unexpected kiss. Breaking away, Kaoru nuzzled the shocked Aron’s cheek and smiled in pure delight. Then the man pulled away and said with the straightest of faces, in all seriousness, “You’re cute. I think I’ll keep you.” And, with that Kaoru swept the stunned Aron up into the biggest bear hug he had ever received.