Note: Thanks, Malaur! You gave me the idea for this "retaliation" piece. It was absolute and total sudden inspiration. This one's fer you! (Please realize that this, unlike the first, was written in only about two or three hours total. I spent days on the other one.)
Rowen hissed as he ripped the last piece of grey tape from his leg. He was certain he'd divested himself of all body hair in the removal process. He'd spent nearly two full hours looking like a post-modern mummy and was feeling kind of stiff now, his joints aching. Needless to say, he was more than a little peeved. It wasn't Kento and Cye he was mad at, though. He willingly admitted that he had more than earned what he'd gotten from them. Nor was he mad at Ryo - he'd helped Rowen get out of his predicament. (Sure, they'd practically shredded his clothes with the pocketknife they'd used but that wasn't the point.) No… he was angry at a certain blond. A blond that had done NOTHING to help him either before or after Cye and Kento's attack with the duct tape.
"That's the last of it, right?" Ryo asked him with a smirk.
"Yeah," he grumbled back, seriously considering how long he'd get locked away for murdering Sage. Then, something clicked in his brain. An idea… an evil, devious plot, even. Rowen lifted his chin to gaze up into Ryo's face, a darkly cherubic smile on his face. "Hey, Ryo?"
Eyebrows raised high enough to be hidden under his bangs, Ryo blinked down at Rowen, who sat too quietly on the floor, and asked, "What?" The blue-haired boy was up to something and he wasn't at all sure he was going to like it.
"You wanna help me with something?"
____
"We really should apologize, you know," Cye commented glumly, guilt radiating from his posture - slumped shoulders and all that - as he leaned forlornly against the counter. He flitted his eyes between the scuffed linoleum floor of the kitchen to Kento, who sat at the table, an overstuffed sandwich in his hands.
"What for? He earned it." Then, half the sandwich was gone and Kento chewed noisily.
"But-"
"No. Forget it. I'm not apologizing."
"We didn't have to-"
"What? Shove him in the back seat and drive home with him still wrapped up?"
"Kento!" Cye exclaimed, perturbed that the other could be so callous. He frowned and glared at his friend. Before he could continue his rant against Kento, though, Rowen sauntered into the room looking far too pleased with himself. Ryo was right behind him with a silly grin gracing his face, as well. "What are you two doing?" Cye demanded, suddenly afraid for his life.
"Not much," Ryo told him, scratching idly at his head, ruffling his long black hair.
"So - uh - Cye," Rowen said, sounding rather mobsterish, "you - uh - wanna make things okay with me?" He rocked back on his heels a bit, then leaned heavily against the refrigerator.
Cye's eyes flew wide. Rowen was going to hurt him, he knew it!
"Hey, don't you touch him, Ro!" Kento said, surging up from his seat, last bite of his sandwich forgotten - for the moment, anyway. Ryo was instantly in the large boy's way, acting the perfect mob bodyguard for Rowen.
"Take it easy, Ken," he said, patting gently on one of Kento's big shoulders. "We're not here for that. Just listen to what Rowen's got to say… I think you'll like it."
They both turned to gaze at the underhanded smirk on Rowen's wonderfully serene features. Then, slipping a companionable arm about Cye's suspicious shoulders, Rowen began his speech on the wonderful world of duct tape.
A couple of days later...
Sage stood patiently in the gym after school was out. Cye had asked him to meet with everyone there but no one had shown up yet. He glanced at his watch and sighed, then dropped his bookbag to the floor near the wall. He smiled a little as he thought of Rowen - he still had red marks from his experience with Cye's brand of vengeance. With a shake of his head, he was profoundly glad that it hadn't been him.
A flip of his head swooshed the hair out of his eyes for a few moments… and then he went down hard. Something heavy pinned him to the scratched hard wood floor face down.
"Got him, guys!" he heard Kento shout cheerfully.
"All right!" came the sound of Ryo's voice.
Sage turned his head and saw Rowen suddenly standing tall beside him. "What are you doing?" he inquired, amazingly keeping his flash of temper in check.
"Why, Sage… we're just playin'. No need to worry," Rowen assured him before turning to Cye, who stood just behind him, backpack in hand. "Uh, I think he should be face up, don't you?"
"Absolutely," Cye replied with a serious nod. "Kento?"
Waiting until the weight on his back had lessened, Sage squiggled his way free and ALMOST made it to his feet when Ryo slammed him back to the ground. Once again, Kento was sitting on him - his chest this time - but Ryo had to hold his arms down. They weren't restraining his legs… unfortunately, Sage realized this was because he wasn't in a position to do any damage with them. "Kento, get off of me now and I won't hold any of this against you," he offered.
"Nah. I like Rowen's idea better." Sage gulped at the twinkle in Kento's eyes. This was not going to be pretty.
"So, Cye… you got the tape on ya?" Rowen asked amiably.
"What?!" The word practically exploded from Sage's lips. He labored to free himself, his breath suddenly missing. His mind was feeding him horrific visions of what the others had in store for him.
A zipper sounded loudly, echoing through the gymnasium. "Right here," the British boy said, handing a very large roll of duct tape over to Rowen, who grinned like a juvenile delinquent on Halloween.
"You're too good to me."
Cye smiled and replied, "Anything for a friend."
"NO!!!! You can't!" Sage pleaded, his eyes tremendous in size.
"Hmmm… y'know, I think he's wearing a bit too much clothing. It won't hurt as much to get loose with that dress shirt and slacks in the way."
"Well, we can fix that," Ryo grunted, struggling to hold Sage's arms down now that the blond was putting up a real fight.
"NONONONONONONONONONONONONO!!!"
"Geez. He's kinda noisy," Rowen thought out loud. "I know!" He tore a piece of tape of the roll and smoothed it across Sage's mouth, then added a second strip for good measure. He nodded approval of his own work and said, "Let's get started!"
Reaching down, Rowen pulled the leather shoes from Sage's feet, then swiftly unbuckled Sage's belt and undid his pants, accidentally popping the top button off in the process. "Oops!" Together with Cye, he yanked the dark colored slacks from Sage's kicking legs.
"Ooooo! Nice boxers, Sage!" Cye commented. "Are they real silk?"
Sage shot poison-coated daggers at him with his pale eyes, the look heated enough to make titanium boil.
Rowen smacked against the blond's thigh, "Be nice." Then he took the tape to Sage's ankles, making a few passes then ripping it off. The knees were next. Moving up to where Ryo kneeled red-faced against the strain of holding Sage's strong arms down, he paused to consider a moment on the next part. "Kento, scoot back. We need to get that shirt off him."
It took several minutes but finally they had Sage in a workable fashion. He couldn't lash out with his legs because they were taped securely together… his arms were wrapped at the wrist and then taped down across his midsection… and, most importantly, he couldn't do much more than make loud groaning sounds of protest as Rowen had placed enough tape over Sage's mouth that it covered the bottom half of his face.
"Hmmm. I don't think we should wrap him up like I was," Rowen mentioned to the others, Ryo and Cye off to his side, Kento still plunked down on their squirming prisoner. "That's too easy and it's been done already."
"Well, what do you want to do, then?"
Rowen flashed an inspired grin at Ryo and said, "I think we should tape him to the floor."
"Hey, Cye?"
"Yeah, Ryo?"
"Got any more tape?"
The zipper sounded. "Here you are."
New rolls of duct tape were passed out among the conspirators.
____
"Wow." That was Kento.
"Tell me about it." Ryo.
Sage barely heard the words, he was so infuriated. He'd been strapped down by what seemed to be miles and miles of the heavy grey tape everyone seemed so infatuated with lately. He couldn't move. He vowed that he was going to kill each and everyone of his "friends" when he was freed. First, he was going to drown Cye… then, he was going smash Kento under a land slide… and Ryo, he would go up in monumental flames! But Rowen… Rowen was going to have a very special death. It would be something akin to the way the attempt on Rasputin's life had gone - multiple stabbings, beatings with blunt objects, poisonings, etc. - only, unlike with Rasputin, it would actually work.
"Let's go." Rowen.
"We're just going to leave him like that?"
"Yeah. Don't worry, Cye. The janitors'll get him out."
"I don't know how I let you talk me into this, Rowen."
"Having second thoughts, are ya?"
"No… but Sage…"
"Is stuck to the floor."
The voices grew faint and then disappeared. The doors clicked shut.
If he could have screamed, it would have brought down the building.
END