Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ Midvalley's Serenade ❯ Blood and Thunder ( Chapter 14 )

Blood and Thunder

Skip Walker didn't come back. I had seen the air thicken, just as I had when I generated the sonic wave that killed Bill McFarlane and was dead certain that Legato was responsible for Walker's removal.

Miss Adelaide was foresighted enough to bring us another bottle of bourbon.

"That Skip Walker…humph. Not much of a musician, if you ask me," she said to me. "First he's late, then he up and goes without a by your leave with three sets left to play. If you pick up the slack and finish the night out for him, I'll tear up that check you wrote for the damages. I already talked to the guitarman and the bass player. They want to play with you. Heck, that Walker feller was paying them slave wages. And his music didn't sound nice like yours, Midvalley."

I turned to Nick. He was pouring shots. He pushed a glass over to me and one to Legato and kept one for himself.

"What do you think? Should I stay?" My eyes went to Nick's.

"I came to hear you play," said Legato.

"So did I," said Nick. "I've got a bad taste in my mouth from what I heard before. Restore my faith in musicians, Midvalley."

"I'll do it," I told Miss Adelaide. "Just give me more time I've got to talk to these other players and see what kind of song list we can put together."

"Could you start in fifteen minutes? Any longer and my customers will start leaving for a livelier spot."

"You got it, Miss Adelaide," I said.

I started to think, and reached in my pocket for a pen and a scrap of paper to write on. I stared at the ceiling, remembering song titles and glanced around the barroom trying to think of ideas for the playlist. My eyes kept going to the shadowed booth where Caine and Ned Pitts were still kissing. Somehow, Pitts hadn't left when Legato had made his hypnotic suggestion. Strange.

Oh, yeah, "Lip service", I thought and wrote it down. "Cocksure." Get them going-- audience favorite. "Under the Weather." "Kiss me, stupid." "Five Moons Waltz".

I studied Caine and Pitts more closely and thought I detected just the slightest increase in the intensity of their kiss. Caine's gloved fingers grasped ever so slightly more around Pitts' nape and he seemed to settle just a little deeper into the embrace. But now it seemed as if I were looking at a single entity. The level of concentration on both their parts was uncanny. I was picking up pointers and suddenly wished I had paid more attention to my sniper's lessons.

"So," said Nick, "thought of any song titles besides "Lip Service?" He'd been just as curious as I was about the action in that back booth.

"Don't mock me, priestman. You two get to laze around getting drunk, but I've got to go to work. There's a rough crowd in here. We don't even know what happened to the last musician that pissed them off," I said with a speculative look at Legato who chuckled, "That was no musician."

I walked over to the bandstand and shared a quick conversation with the guitar player, Randy. He had been putting together a song list while I was. It turned out we had about two set's worth of song's in common so far. He had heard me play at the Come Back Inn. That's where he'd met Skip Walker, who had lied to him about being great friends of Lenny and me.

The bass player, Jason, it turns out had had a copy of "Hornfreak Gold" and used to practice to it. He could also play "G-string".

"You won't be disgusted by the way I play it, trust me," he said.

So we were able to add more songs.

"Come on, let's go, guys," I said. "Miss Adelaide's getting antsy."

I strapped Silvia around my neck. Jason started us going with a nice heavy bass line and we swung into "Lip Service". Randy filled in with rhythm when he wasn't playing lead. He was a real professional. The music we made was good, not great, but the dance floor filled up, and I could just tell we were going to click. We just got better and better as the set went on. And the audience was generous with applause after the last number.

I didn't have much time between sets. I wanted to spend most of it with Jason and Randy to see if we could make the third set even better than the second, and work out a couple of intros and endings.

I grabbed a shot and checked out Caine and Pitts again. I thought they were breathing just a little deeper. I overheard Nick and Legato talking a little about Dominique, who apparently had money woes because of a gambling debts that she was paying off by working extra assignments. I could see Nick was intrigued by this.

Jason, Randy, and I made it through the third set without too many clinkers. Considering we hadn't rehearsed, we were doing really well, and by the time the fourth set was done, we had actually made music that I was proud to have played.

"It's been an education," said Jason after the gig was officially over.

"I can't wait to tell everyone I jammed with the Hornfreak," said Randy.

" Hey, knock it off you're embarrassing me." I said and shook his hand. "If you two want to jam with the Midvalley Five, there's going to be a graduation dance in a couple of weeks at Evergreen's Academy. Swing by and join us if you don't have a gig. We can always use some good musicians."

Adelaide paid them, then they packed up and left.

I finally sat down. I was feeling a little melancholy. Sometimes I feel a let-down after a gig, and this one had started out so badly.

"God, that was hard work," I said.

"And you made it look so easy," said Legato.

"I work at it," I said. "I wish I had more time to work at it."

"Well, Chapel has been telling me he would like to work more assignments and you appear to be telling me you would like to work fewer."

"I will be happy to work whatever assignments I am given. I was merely thinking that with a new class graduating, there might be a need to get them field experience as soon as possible. There are only so many jobs to go around after all."

"You think like a manager, Midvalley. I was just discussing that this morning with Chapel the Evergreen and Leonof. Because of that concern we were wondering whether we should end your partnership ahead of time to provide two mentors for new apprentices. Chapel here seems to have such an instinctive grasp of field work, that we had our doubts about whether the full two year apprenticeship was necessary. The negative reaction of some of the students to being taught by someone they see as an inexperienced agent made us decide to at least maintain the appearance of a full apprenticeship."

"This is no criticism of you, Chapel. I was definitely in favor of splitting your team up simply because I think your superior skills need no extra honing. But my opinion was in the minority. There seemed to be some concern about the sketchiness of your field reports though. But not everyone can be a Midvalley.

Quite frankly, I personally doubt you need a partner at all, but I am offering you an arrangement that will get you both what you want. The apprenticeship will last the full two years, unless of course, as you know, there is a death or severe injury.

What I am offering you is the chance to do extra missions, with Midvalley here as a consultant, in name only if you wish. The only other constant is meeting the criterion of the 100% success rate. The more missions you take on, the greater the potential for failure. But I doubt you're concerned about mission failure, Chapel.

As for you, Midvalley, as a consultant, you wouldn't bear the responsibility for mission failure, since that ultimately is the agent's concern."

I had mixed feelings about the proposal. The idea of having more time to compose was seductive. I realized that I had begun to enjoy composing even more than performing. The exploration of new ground, the creation of new songs stretched me in a way that playing "Cocksure" or "Moons Rise" for the 500th time never could.

On the other hand, with Nick taking on more assignments, I knew I'd see less of him and that deepened my sense of melancholy. I knew it was Nick's sense of honor about seeing his debts repaid that made him request the extra assignments. I suspected that there was more to Nick's debt than I was aware of. I also noticed that he was more generous with his money than I was, a sucker for widows and orphans. I worked two jobs and had a sizeable balance tucked away in the Epril Town Bank. Chapel worked two jobs and was always on the edge of stony broke. He obviously needed the extra jobs. We hadn't even parted yet I found I felt oppressed by the thought.

Get a grip, Midvalley, I told myself. You'll still see him.

Legato was looking at me impassively as he waited for my response.

"Yeah, I like the idea," I said.

"I wondered if you would. For a minute you looked as though you'd lost your best friend."

I didn't say anything.

"I'm not deaf, blind, or stupid," said Legato. "I didn't need that Walker to tell me that you two are more than partners.

I didn't say anything , but Nick just chuckled and held up his open hands in a gesture of surrender, "Well, you caught us out," he said with a sheepish but ingratiating smile which made him look somehow guilty and innocent at the same time. "Are we in real big trouble?"

Legato laughed softly, "I've been told you're brave, Chapel, and all the reports indicate it. Now I see it in person."

He paused a moment and then continued, " My official position on liaisons is to ignore them, just so long as they don't interfere with the missions. Just remember the two concepts-loyalty and success, loyalty and success."

Legato sighed and said, "I've gotten quite hungry again. I don't suppose you two would care to join me?"

Nick scratched his forehead as if he were a little embarrassed and said, " Midvalley and I were planning to indulge in that sausage in buns snack you mentioned yesterday when we got back home."

Legato had to chuckle again at Chapel's audacity. I blushed and gave Nick a side-long glance. Legato and Nick were laughing. Still laughing, Legato turned to the back booth and called out with his most magnetic persuasive tone, "Caine, Pitts, don't you think you should be getting back to the academy?"

Caine and Pitts were still sucking away on each others lips with a static but mesmerizing intensity and showed no sign of stopping to comply.

Legato gave a sigh of surrender, " I guess not." He glanced at Nick and gave me a benign look. "Well, go then if you must, but remember, I've got my eye on you."

"It's been fun, Legato," Nick said as he left some bills on the table to cover the bar tab.

"It has been, Chapel. I'd like to get to know you better. You've always been a little hard for me to read, but I must say I enjoyed the evening. And thank you for the music and the company, Midvalley," said Legato. "We'll have to do this more often. It was almost like old times."

We stepped out into the street. It was two o'clock in the morning. There were a couple of taxicabs outside the saloon, their drivers hoping to earn some extra cash by chauffeuring drunks home.

"I don't want to wait much longer , Midvalley," said Nick.

We took the cab and were back at the academy in almost 5 minutes. Then up the stairs we walked to Nick's apartment and entered. He closed the door behind us. I knew Nick wanted me. I knew I loved him and wanted him, but found myself slipping deeper into melancholy.

"What's the matter, Midvalley," Nick asked. He sounded a little anxious for me.

"Not sure exactly, but I think it's what Walker did to "Silvia's Tune". I wrote that song in memory of my mother. It's beautiful like she was, but he made it sound ugly. I felt sick."

Nick folded his arms around me and hugged me for a long moment, then brushed my lips with an affectionate kiss and unfastened the top button of my trousers, but stopped at that point. He looked at me with concern and said, "You're still feeling blue. I can tell."

"A little," I answered.

"I know a cure for the blues," said Nick he said with a touch of his playful humor.

"You do?"

"I do" he said softly and held my face tenderly and closed my mouth with a kiss, then guided me back towards his bed. He eased my zipper down, and nudged me gently down on the bed and straddled me, and slowly unbuttoned my shirt until my chest was exposed.

"I want to feel your skin on mine," I said and unbuttoned his shirt. He unbuttoned his pants, slipped them down on the floor, tugged off his shirt and helped me off with my shirt and pants and then embraced me tenderly as if he could not get enough of our closeness He touched my skin with sighs of pleasure. I slid my hands over his sleek muscled arms and shoulders and pulled him nearer. My mouth blindly sought his and I kissed whatever part of him lay in its path, his chest, neck, chin, until I found his lips with mine. We rested with our mouths and tongues commingled, our hands slipping, touching, clasping flesh. The passion of his kisses, the bold questing of his tongue erased caution and the clouds of melancholy that had gathered in my heart began to melt away. I began to respond, my heart rate rising and my breath panting, when I felt a sudden pain in my head and heard a velvet voice in my mind.

"Just like the good old days, Hornfreak."

I stiffened. Nick pulled out of the kiss with a sigh and looked at me with surprise.

"What's the matter, Midvalley? Don't you want this?"

"I have to take a leak first. Sorry. I'll be back soon. I really ought to shave. Can I use your razor? Thanks."

He looked a little troubled but I heard him scrape a match and inhale his first drag before I reached the bathroom door.

"He's quite the romantic isn't he. He reminds me of you when you were younger and not quite so jaded."

Legato laughed softly. Intimately.

"Remember that outbuilding near the weapon range where you showed me how to fire my other pistol. Your lips on me were so exciting that I called out your name when I came."

My cock was flaccid. I took it in my hand and guided the piss into the toilet bowl and flushed when I finished.

"Seeing how you hold him reminds me of how you used to hold me, Hornfreak."

I washed my hands and got the shaving brush, mug and straight razor from the medicine cabinet and soaped up the brush.

"Remember the day you said, `I love you, Legato?' I do."

I lathered my face.

"You were full of gratitude and sweet surprises in the old days."

"But Master Knives wanted you and you left me…" I mumbled as I sharpened the razor on the leather strop.

"I wasn't gone a month and when I came back to visit, you had already taken up with that drummer in your band."

I angled the razor and carefully scraped my cheek.

"I supposed it was because of your mother's profession that your cock was so fickle. No offense. In a way I admired your sexual appetite."

I shaved the whiskers from my chin.

"I have had to find other outlets for my tension."

I passed the razor over my other cheek and rinsed the blade.

"After all these years, you're head over heels in love again. How nice for you."

I began to shave my neck.

"Does he know we were lovers? Ah, I see you kept our little secret from him."

"Midvalley?" I heard Nick call from the next room.

"Careful, that's a sharp razor. You could nick yourself."

The razor skidded on the slippery lather on my neck and sliced a deep cut through the skin there. In the mirror I saw blood gush from the wound. I felt strangely faint and distanced from my body as I watched the red drops spatter on the white tiled floor. The razor seemed too heavy for my hand to hold and it fell to the floor. I stared dumbly at the razor and the spattered blood.

"What's taking so long, Midvalley," I heard Nick call from outside. He nudged the door open, took one look at my bleeding neck and the razor on the floor, said, "Fuck, Midvalley…" and sprang into action. He grabbed a towel, applied it to my wound and pressed my hand to the towel guided me out to a chair and said, "Sit down before you fall down. God, you look out of it."

He was in the bathroom a few seconds and returned with a first aid kit. He wet a gauze pad with antiseptic and wiped the cut. He placed a thick gauze pad against the wound.

"Hold that in place a minute, Midvalley," he said. He wound more gauze around my neck and secured it with adhesive tape.

I started to shiver.

"God, Midvalley, you're like ice," he said and shepherded me to his bed, settled me in and covered me with a sheet. He pulled a coverlet from a closet and tucked it around me.

"Are you in pain, Midvalley?"

I suddenly realized my head hurt. "My head aches," I said. He disappeared into the bathroom again and brought me a glass of water and pills for the pain. I sat up and swallowed them. My hands shook on the glass and my teeth chattered. Nick took the glass from me, set it on the table and turned off the light. He slipped under the covers, pulled me into him and covered me with the warmth of his body and held me. It seemed to me I couldn't get warm for the longest time, but little by little the shivering quieted, I drifted into sleep and I dreamed.

I am a boy again playing hide-and-go seek. I am searching for Legato. First, I am at the Academy walking down the corridor where classes are held , I turn down another hallway and I am in my mother's whorehouse. I walk down the passageway with the rooms where the whores entertain their customers. Jackie's, Laura's, Amy's, Suzanne's, Marie's…I hear a sound in Marie's room and open the door.

Legato stands in front of a mirror dressed in Marie's blue silk dress with the ruffled petticoats below it. He is tying a black velvet ribbon around his neck. When he sees my reflection in the mirror he turns, smiles, and lifts his skirt like a can-can dancer and flashes his cock at me. Then he spins and with his back to me, lifts the back of his skirt with its petticoat slips and I see the pink moons of his ass. I look down at my crotch and I see I am an adult now. My cock is hard with desire, but when I look up, Legato is gone and the only sign he has been there at all is the sound of the door shutting behind him and my rigid hard-on.

I follow him down the hall but lose sight of him and turn in circles trying to find my way. Behind a red door, I hear a sound.

"I'm in here," Legato murmurs in a provocative voice.

I open the door. Legato is on his hands and knees in the red room with his back arched and his dimpled anus like an open invitation to me. My cock is so hard, I step forward to take him.

"Fuck me, Hornfreak," he says with his head twisted back to look at me over his shoulder. "Where's Silvia? Where's your horn, Hornfreak?"

I look down and see I am wearing a white dress I lift the skirt and see the thatch of my cunt. I blink my eyes and begin to look again, but the sound of his voice distracts me. It is coming from behind a pink door.

"I'm in here, Midvalley," his voice caresses my name like my mother's did.

I open the door and I am in my mother's room. I see him lying on my mother's bed wearing the pink dress I loved so much, the one that she had died in. Legato lies with his eyes closed as if asleep and smiles with his head turned away half in shadows.

"Legato," I call to him. He turns to smile at me and I see he's been shot in the head at point-blank range.

"It's only a little blood. Kiss me, Midvalley, kiss me again."

He rises from the bed and moves toward me. I see the white of his skull through the broken skin. It scares me and I run from him for the door. I hear the sound of footsteps outside, the scrape and stamp of heavy boots and the sound of drunken laughter.

"I'm here, Midvalley. Help me," I hear him say in his soft, rich voice.

I open the door on a dark night with a blue moon shining. I am seized by large rough hands and shoved, pulled and pushed down a dark alley. I register fragments, a crowd of men, stink of piss, stale beer and rank lust. I know this place from before and my heart contracts in fear.

"What a pretty pink shirt," says a hoarse, drunken voice. I know that voice from before. I drag my feet and resist the pulling of the hands. I am so scared. I scream for help but no one comes. I scream again and a rough fist rocks me with a kidney punch. I hear a low rough growl in my ear, "One more scream and I will kill you first and fuck you after."

I feel desperate but powerless. I start to sob because I know what happens next.

"No! God, no! Don't do this!" I cry. "No, please, not again. Please!" I beg them to stop. But they are stronger than I am, there are too many of them and they don't want to stop.

"Doesn't he have pretty lips, such pretty lips. He's a hornplayer. They do some fancy tricks with their mouths."

Strong arms shove me to my knees. I hear his fly unzipping.

"Open your pretty mouth and play a tune on me," he demands. Someone yanks my hair, my head rocks back and he thrusts his cock between my lips.

"You want to play a horn again, you suck me good. Might be hard to play again if I break your teeth."

He fucks my mouth with his dick and I try very hard not to gag.

"Ah, ah, oh, uhnn, ah, oh," he groans his voice thick with the pleasure of his imminent orgasm.

"That's a great tune, Jimbo. He can play me next."

"Why should you wait, he has another opening, stupid."

Jimbo comes, flooding my mouth. "That's good eatin', boy. Get his pants down, Roscoe. Got two more customers for you."

I hear a new voice, avid with lust. "Look at his pretty white skin, all soft like a whore's. Bet you know some whore tricks. Open wide, pink shirt," and he shoves his prick down my throat, and gasps as I start sucking in fear for my life.

Behind me, hands are on my ass and I hear the voices, "Feel that skin. That can't be no man's ass. If he didn't have balls I'd swear he was a girl. Ooh, baby, I wanna be in you an ile!" I feel a sharp tearing sensation as the man forces his cock into me. "Oh, God, it's so hot and tight" he moans. " It's better than a woman. What shall I call my pretty pink whore? I want to sing you a love song," he says as he rams me hard. "All pink and white like that lady from the whorehouse, yeah, Silvia, that was her name."

"Suck me, Silvia, with your pretty pink lips," says the voice in front of me.

Inside I feel like my soul is dying, but I suck him like a whore. I don't want to die.

"Oh, Silvia, I love to fuck your pretty white ass. I'm coming Silvia. S-s-silvia. Oh-o-h, aa-ah, unnnhunnh!" groans the voice in back.

The one in the back is pounding into me so hard, my teeth catch on the cock I am sucking. He pulls out of my mouth and punches me so hard, that I lose consciousness but wake to hear them talking.

"Get the choke chain, Ike. This fucking bitch bit me. Gonna teach this goddamn dog a lesson. Don't bite your master." They beat and punch and kick me, until their arms and legs are tired.

"Man, he's all over blood and cum. Glad I fucked him already. He ain't so pretty now."

"A ho's a ho. Pretty don't matter. He's just getting' broke in. This'll be some easy ridin'. I get hard just thinking of all the jism that got pumped in his hole and I'm gonna add my load."

Someone throws a chain around my neck.

"Back up on your hands and knees, bitch. Get up, dog."

I hurt so bad I can hardly move, but the hands on the chain start to pull it tight. My vision starts to go dark. I am so fucking scared they will kill me, I somehow get to my knees.

"That's the way, bitch."

My head is wobbling and my body is trembling, but I try to stay still as a statue, afraid they will kill me if I faint. I am helpless to stop them. I have no control.

"Now stay on all fours like a good dog. Mount up, Roscoe. Open your mouth for Ethan, Silvia."

I obey. Even when he calls me by my mother's name and my heart is breaking and I want to kill them all so bad, I can taste it, I still want to breathe.

"This `uns a good bitch. Like a goddamn pointer dog, just like a goddamn bird dog. Didja ever see anything like it?" They both laugh and laugh and fuck me hard until my mouth and ass overflow with come. Finally they stop and the alley empties but I am still on my hands and knees waiting for the next. I lose track of time, but I'm a good dog so I wait patiently for the next. They trained me well. I obey because I'm a good dog and I don't bite. After I don't know how long waiting, finally my body gives out and I fall to the ground. Maybe they'll kill me and maybe they won't. I just don't care any more. My eyes overflow with tears.