Ever since he started to live with Fluke Ohm had improved his quality of life. He was finally eating properly, spending less hours at work just to come home earlier and enjoy time with the man of his dreams and even looked more happy. Boun called him "too whipped", but he was feeling fine for the first time in a long time. Even if his nightmares were still a problem, Fluke was there just beside him to welcome him in a warm hug and murmur sweet nothings until he could find sleep again.
However, what the detective didn't share with his life partner was that these nightmares were becoming more and more realistic, to the point he barely could separate what was reality and what belonged to the dreamland until he woke up drenched in sweat.
He started to feel the same weight as Kao when it came to the pressure to solve the Shadow case, but the lack of evidence and the fact that more victims were popping up across the city left him totally bewildered, something that imprinted itself on his subconscious.
The nightmares were both very similar and totally different: in all of them, Ohm had a night of incredible sex with a man whose face he couldn't quite identify. After the sexual act, the other always ran away from him. When he tried to run after him, the man would turn to attack him with a knife or a gun and the detective would fall dead in a pool of his own blood. He was scary to say the least, but the message was clear: not knowing the Shadow's identity was eating away at his sanity.
"Shh… I'm here. You're safe, Ohm. Everything is okay now…", Fluke's sweet voice was trying to calm him down. He probably woke him up with his screams again.
"F-Fluke…"
"Shh… No need to say anything, my love. I'm here, okay?", Fluke said pressing his plump lips on his temple, making Ohm feel warm inside.
A quite long time later, when the detective had finally regained his senses, he turned to bump his forehead with Fluke's. "I don't know what I could do without you!", he smiled and pecked the tempting lips.
Fluke savored his bottom lip after the kiss, like trying to suck Ohm's imprint there. E then raised his big eyes at him and asked softly "Do you wanna fuck?".
Ohm furrowed his brow and hugged the smaller male, cuddling him on the bed. "Fluke, I love you. I love you with every and each cell of my body, but that doesn't mean that we have to fuck all the time."
The sight of the trembling lip made Ohm realize that wasn't the most wise choice of words. "Hey… Flukie…", he sighed heavily, "I'm trying to say that you don't have to offer me your body to show anything. Do you get this?", he tried to look for confirmation inside the sparkly eyes which were about to dissolve into tears.
"Oh, my love! Please don't cry, huh?", Ohm said, peppering kisses from one shoulder to the other, the smooth skin shivering in response.
"These are happy tears, you silly!", Fluke said welcoming the other inside his arms and both cuddled like that until sleep again.
********
Members of the special crimes unit were gathered in the small, stuffy room trying to think of a way to capture Shadow.
"I don't know, man, we never got a real witness. The only one who could help with anything, Loom's maid, refused to speak to the interpreter and said she'd rather go to jail than reveal any information about the 'demon', as she calls Shadow.", Boun said impatiently. "By the way, stopping to think about it, we don't even know if Shadow ia a woman or a man, as we've been assuming all this time.", he concluded.
The investigation didn't go any further and the superiors demanded results from Kao who ordered the meeting to try to elaborate a new strategy.
"Well, at least now we know that one element has changed...", it was the Chief of Police who was speaking. "Now the bodies don't show up with signs of recent sexual activity anymore. Whatever happened, he's losing the desire for the thing…", he gave a bitter smile to his team.
The media wasn't sure of what to do about that information, especially because everything evolving sexual acts was way out of the tv broadcasting rules, but also becausw they didn't know what that meant. If it was weird to think that all the men murdered until now had sex with their own killer before losing their lives, it was equally unexplainable the fact that Shadow had stopped that behavior without leaving a clue for them.
"Not only that…", Ohm said rubbing his index fingers on his temples. "He also seems to be more careless. As if he has little time to kill victims and clean everything up. Before, his cuts were precise and clean, now he does everything abruptly, as if he wants to finish as soon as possible."
"Maybe he left the cake on the oven and had to come back to check!", Boun tried to crack a joke, getting only hard gazes at him. "Tough crowd, huh? Well, let's be honest here, if I were a serial killer, I wouldn't be wasting time at the crime scene either if that could increase the risk of getting caught!", Boun shrugged.
"It's just…", the detective began, but found himself interrupting his own sentence. He had a very strong hunch that something had changed in Shadow's mind to affect hia modus operandi, but not knowing how to express this to his colleagues, he preferred to remain silent.
"Your coffee, Ohm…", the soft voice whispered in his ear as he placed the paper cup in front of him.
"Thank you." The word was simple, but Ohm's gaze was soft and tender as he stared into Fluke's big brown eyes.
Before taking his seat at the conference table, Fluke gave Ohm's shoulder a slight squeeze, a signal indicating that he was there to help him. After their little housewarming party everyone at the Police Station knew they were a couple and were honestly relieved at this fact. It was pretty awkward ro watch Ohm and Fluke pinning in each other for weeks until they finally gave up and decided to announce they were together.
However, after hours arguing in vain over various theories that went nowhere, they decided to call it a day and wrap things up. They could always come again the next day to try to analyze what they had and what could be done.
The team was gathering their belongings to going home when Fluke called softly:
"Love…"
"Yes?", Ohm turned to face him. Somehow, his bright eyes looked hesitant. "Something wrong, Fluke?", the detective raised a hand to touch the boy's round cheek.
"No… I mean, yes. My aunt is sick and I need to visit her. I won't be at home tonight, okay?", Fluke said, biting his lower lip.
It wasn't the first time he'd been away that week or the ones before and Ohm hated it. He had nightmares often, but having Fluke by his side helped him calm down more easily. Without him, the sleepless night took over his mind and created lively scenarios that only increased his anxiety.
"It's okay, love! All for the family, right?", Ohm decided to say, unable to make the selfish request, preventing his beloved one from meeting his own aunt. He was close to giving a peck on the desirable lips when something crossed his mind.
"By the way, we live together now, but never talked about meeting each other's family, huh?", Ohm wiggled his eyebrows at his lover, teasing him.
"One of these days, ok?", Fluke answered as always and Ohm decided to let it go. He was probably too worried with his aunt to pay attention to his jokes anyway.
But when the detective was climbing his car to go home, Fluke came running to him.
The smaller male tiptoed, putting his hands on his boyfriend's shoulders and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. "Don't forget to have a glass of warm milk before going to bed, ok?", the boy said with a smile before heading to the bus stop, not even waiting for an answer. Ohm smiled to himself and touched his lips, treasuring the sweet taste of his lover's lips. He was indeed a lucky man.
Perhaps Ohm should have avoided milk after all. It was true that some nights drinking it helped him to sleep, but that night it only helped to color his nightmares.
As usual, he was having sex with someone whose face he couldn't see. He was panting heavily and moaning uncontrollably, feeling he was close to coming any second.
Suddenly, the person raised a hand and Ohm identified the glint of a blade in the other's hand. The person lowered the knife to Ohm's throat and he tried to fight his attacker, more sweat flowing from his skin. He could barely control his breaths, feeling his lungs about to burst. Suddenly, he felt something warm and liquid spurting through his body: blood or milk, he didn't know. The liquid kept changing color from red to white. Was he dead or was he just the victim of a bad prank?
The detective managed to wake up and felt the cold bed beside him. With some effort, he remembered Fluke asking him to drink warm milk before bed. Fluke.
"FLUKE!", Ohm shouted in fear, calling out to his beloved. A little disoriented, the detective got up and went to the bathroom. After washing his face with cold water, his brain was able to work properly and he remembered that Fluke wasn't there, but visiting an aunt.
Returning to bed, Ohm took out his cell phone and typed a message to Fluke. He was about to put the phone back on the nightstand when the information of "Fluke is typing…" appeared on the screen. He then decided to wait. To his surprise, Ohm fell asleep and woke up later when the phone rang in his hands.
"Fluke?"
"No, man! It's me, Boun! I'll send you the address of a hospital. We just won the lottery!", the blonde said and bid goodbye quickly, leaving Ohm confused and curious.
********
A few hours later, Fluke had finally joined Ohm.
"Oh, you're finally here!", the detective's smile was so wide that a huge weight was lifted from Fluke's shoulders and he couldn't help but mirroring it, his happiness extending to himself automatically.
"Ohm, you scared me so much when you called me to come to the hospital! Why are we here? What happened?", Fluke asked worriedly.
"I know, I know! I'm so sorry, but I wanted to speak in person! Good news, love!", Ohm hugged his narrow waist, swapping him out of his feet, making him squeal.
Fluke couldn't resist laughing at the other's joy and asked, also contaminated by his excitement: "That's great! Please share with me?".
"Shadow left a victim alive!", Ohm said simply.
For a moment, Fluke didn't know how to react and dropped the visitor's badge he had been holding the whole time. As he was too anxious to meet Ohm after he sent the hospital address in a message to meet him there, Fluke grabbed his things and went to the place without thinking too much.
"Oh my God! Certain things never change, huh? You're really clumsy, love!", Ohm said, bending down to pick up the badge. "So, like I was saying… we got lucky this time and Shadow…", Ohm stopped.
The detective was about to get up when he looked absently at Fluke's shoes. The same leather boots with two buckles on the side with gold trim. There was something splattered on them. Something that had recently dried and left a dark stain in the surface.
"You got your shoes dirty, love. Let me help you!", he said, taking a handkerchief from his pocket and brushing the dirty spot.
However, when trying to clean the shoe with the small piece of cloth, it soon got the stain transferred to it, dying itself a very strong shade of red. Guided by his instincts Ohm brought the handkerchief to his nose and the scent filled him with nausea.
It was blood.
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Notes:
This was the first part of this story! I hope you all enjoyed this so far because we're about to start the fun part! 😊