Chapter Text
“Look at you, a self proclaimed God dying at the hands of a mere ‘Angel’.” Tamsy mocks, relinquishing Tokushin’s threads from Mymo’s neck, though his external body was hard to break through, he made an opening in the core of his chest, where the past reporter’s weak spot was.
His ‘beyond-human’ form was nothing but an exoskeleton, hiding the real Mymo deep within it, and if anything, he looked like an unnecessarily large cucumber without any arms or legs attached, rendering him useless except for his big mouth.
As Tamsy rose to his feet, he looked out onto the horizon, the sun’s light shining through dense clouds that told him it’s morning.
He sighs, “well, I better get going, first picks of the day are the best.” He says mindlessly, walking away from a beheaded Mymo, unconscious guards, once again using the Watchman’s Book to erase their memories.
The blonde flies away on golden wings once more, grinning ear to ear as he makes his way to the closest town within his vicinity.
As Tamsy enters the foyer and is greeted by Semiu, who is neck deep in both endless towers of paperwork and porn magazines.
He takes one good look at her, noticing the eyepatch.
He takes out a bundle of various lady magazines, “oh my, I heard there was something going on at the Doll Festival,” he says, handing it to the receptionist as she smiles gratefully at the new material.
“But why are you injured, Semiu?” He asks, an oversized sleeve covering his mouth. She shakes her head, “nah I ain’t injured, Tamsy. Just tryin’ to recover an eye slowly,” Semiu explains as she wipes her glasses clean.
He raises a brow, “oh? Something big must’ve happened if you’re stretched thin as you are,” the woman hums in affirmation, “mhm, your ass should be talkin’ to the boss, he could really use some relief right now.” She says nonchalantly, glancing at him with her piercing gaze, despite only using one eye, before taking a peek through the magazines he bought her.
The blonde smirks, “well, that’s good. I needed to speak to him anyways, I got him a little gift,” he motions to the other bag in his hands, her eye glows momentarily, as she raises a brow.
“Just sweets?” She states, and he nods, “got them this morning while on my way back,” he replies, a soft yet seemingly off-putting smile on his face. Semiu sighs.
“I’m gonna take a wild guess and say he didn’t like it the first time?” Referring to his day off when he bought lingerie and cake for Arkha. And eating cake in Amo’s face, I guess.
The blonde’s eyebrow twitches at the memory.
He scoffs and rolls his eyes, “no he absolutely loved it, but he chickened out last minute and I left.” He says easily, as if he was merely an observer in the situation.
She shakes her head in disapproval, “and how many times have ya’ll fucked?”
He thinks, “a lot? We started way before Rudo came to the Ground.” The woman makes a face, pinching the bridge of her nose.
“You know what? Ion even wanna hear it, just go see the boss.” She orders with a tired face, looking as if just speaking to Tamsy had aged her 20 years.
As Tamsy says goodbye, turning away from Semiu, she speaks up once more.
“Ya’ll are using protection, right?” She asks, and receives no answer.
Just a small mischievous smile.
As the blonde’s figure disappears down the hall, Semiu flops into her seat, acting like she wants to melt into it and never move again.
Using just one eye hurts like hell.. And on Tamsy, too. Damn.
Semiu sits back up again, pulling out her large book of notes on the Cleaners that has all her initial observations, goals, reasons for joining, what team they’re on, etc.
As she flips to Tamsy’s page, she looks at her past comments and jots down another alongside them.
Tamsy Caines
Team Eager | Room 999
- Reason to Join : Wants to get rid of Trash Beasts.
- Jinki : Tokushin, a small wooden distaff.
- Essence : White with dark blue (bordering black) swirls, they change and are most prominent within the head and chest area.
- Abnormalities : Twisted love, maturely developed.
It’s gotten stronger.
Do not look for more than 3 seconds.
Post Doll Festival
Tamsy Caines is a threat.
As Tamsy enters Arkha’s office, the man’s already gazing outside the window.
“I’m back boss, and I brought you a gift.” He announces, setting the bag on the table but Arkha doesn’t turn around to face him, only looking outside.
The blonde stayed silent for a moment, mirth growing as Arkha continued to ignore him.
Regardless, he switches topics, “I heard that the Doll Festival went up in flames this year,” he comments, fingers fiddling with Tokushin within his sleeve.
Arkha doesn’t turn around, but he does speak.
“You said you were taking some time off for the Doll Festival,” his voice was stern and accusing, anger brewing underneath. Tamsy grinned, caught in his own lie.
He laughed, “we both know I never went.” He states, grinning from ear to ear as Arkha finally turns around, an evident frown on his face with his brows pinched together.
The man slams a fist onto the table, “Tamsy.”
The bag full of foreign sweets jostles from the impact, and Tamsy’s smile drops as he pulls his hair out, letting it flow freely now.
“Yes, boss?” He taunts, and Arkha sighs out of frustration, running a hand through his locs.
“You’ve crossed a line, Tamsy Caines. Rudo now knows there’s a traitor within the Cleaners and it took us days to clear our innocence, it’s just you who’s left.” He explains gravely, taking a sip of his coffee.
The blonde shrugs, “what’s a line crossed or two? We’ve done it before,” Tamsy remarks, a slight teasing tone to his voice as he looks down at Arkha.
He stays silent, observing Tamsy as he twirls his hair between his fingers, coming around to the corner of his desk to sit on it, close enough to reach a hand out and lift his chin upwards.
“As for Rudo, let me worry about that, okay?” He reassures, smiling in such a kind way that it almost makes Arkha’s heart skip a beat, but in the end it doesn’t. Because there’s that underlying knowledge of Tamsy being a heartless and manipulative man.
Arkha tears his face away from the blonde, “you’re done here,” he says with finality, turning away to look out his window again. The tattoo on his neck is also closed, refusing to look at Tamsy.
Tamsy scoffs and hops off his desk, just as he’s leaving, Arkha speaks up once more.
“Take the bag with you.”
He stiffens for a moment, then takes it with swift fingers and leaves.
As the door is about to close, Tamsy says one last thing.
“Don’t pretend you aren’t just as deep in a hole as me.”
And as the door closes, Arkha is left in his office with nothing but his thoughts and he wonders how he managed to let this exchange last this long.
Tamsy puts his hair back up as he enters the elevator right after throwing away the sweets and he’s seething.
Who does he think he is? Telling me to worry about my innocence!
He sucks in a breath, well it doesn’t seem like the news has reached him yet so there’s that to look forward to.
I wonder how long it’ll take…
The blonde smiles at the thought of it, their biggest source of information gone just like that..!
Thank you, Mymo. For being so weak and useful.
Admittedly, Tamsy liked Mymo for all the things he knew and he benefitted immensely from that.
As the blonde was absorbed in his thoughts, the ding of the elevator chimed and the doors opened, revealing a running blur of white and black.
He pauses momentarily, then peeking his head out to see who it was.
Telling from the white hair and black tips, it was Rudo.
Tamsy grinned.
That’s the way to the infirmary, isn’t it?
He calls out, “Rudo!”
The boy freezes and turns around, arms full of various gifts, sweets, fake flowers, etc. He looks at Tamsy, shocked and suspicious.
“Tamsy..?” He says, the blonde walks closer and smiles, “been a while, hasn’t it?” He greets, sporting a friendly smile as he makes his way beside the boy.
Rudo nods stiffly, “yeah..” He affirms, still awkward.
Tamsy chuckles lightly, “Semiu and the boss gave me a rundown of what happened while I was gone,” he explains, “remember, Mymo could’ve been lying to get under your skin, he is an evil sack of shit afterall, what he did.” He insults, motioning for them to continue walking.
Rudo follows, still eyeing him.
“But, if you do need confirmation, I wasn’t the one who killed your father,” he lies, putting a comforting hand on Rudo’s shoulder.
The cleaner looks forward, a sad look in his eyes.
He doesn’t speak, so Tamsy keeps talking putting on a caring facade. “I know you don’t like suspecting us, Rudo. We took you under our wings, provided you with so many new experiences, cleaned Trash Beasts together, but that’s what we do. We’re Cleaners,” he went on, taking slow strides.
Rudo hummed along, “no matter what Rudo, we’ll be on your side until you get your revenge.” Tamsy concludes, tone confident and trustworthy, it brings tears to the boy’s eyes.
He sniffles, which the blonde caught.
Tamsy smiles mischievously, “are you crying, Rudo?” He teases, laughing lightly.
Rudo pouts, “no!” He denies, rubbing his eyes with his sleeve and stares defiantly at Tamsy.
As they approach the infirmary, he eases back into a relaxed state.
Rudo turns to the older man, “thanks Tamsy, I guess I needed that.” He mutters, before walking faster to the door. The blonde huffs out a laugh, “you’re very welcome, Rudo.”
And as Tamsy falls behind the boy, no one sees the twisted grin on his face, eyeing his target with sadistic amusement.
Rudo opens the door and makes his way to Gountess’ bed, adding more flowers to his nightstand and sitting down to eat the snacks he brought.
Tamsy follows, sitting next to Rudo.
“This is Gountess, the Choker-maker,” Rudo starts, introducing the man to Tamsy for him since he’s asleep.
He hums, “ah, the boss talked about him. So this is what he looks like,” he feigns shock, eyeing him from head to toe. He looked just as sickly as last night.
“Yeah, he was kept captive and tortured by Mymo, that son of a bitch.” Rudo seethed, anger building up again.
He looked down at his hands, “he saved me, y’know. When I was fighting Mymo, I almost died but.. He bought me time, encouraged and shielded me, like how my dad used to.” Rudo rambled, and Tamsy listened with a debauched sense of thrill.
“I owe him a lot. I begged Enjin to find him after we beat Mymo. Regardless of what Gountess said about dying soon or not having much strength left, I wanted him to at least not be in pain for a bit.” Tamsy hummed along, letting Tokushin drop a small thread through his sleeve and under the bed.
Rudo remained quiet for a bit, and so did Tamsy. The atmosphere was solemn right before Eishia came in to do her daily check up.
She checked his vitals, breathing, overall health, etc. And she stood across from the pair, looking down shyly as she fidgeted with her hands.
“Um.. N-not to interrupt or anything..” She started, “but.. Um.. He’s looking p-pretty healthy and.. Has a good c-chance to r-recover,” she said, voice gradually getting smaller and smaller as she looked ready to dig herself into a hole.
Rudo pipped up with happiness, “really!?” He shouted, shocking the poor girl. She yelped and nodded, “y-yes! He’ll probably wake u-up again soon.. Maybe…” She confirmed, adjusting Gountess’ blankets.
The boy regained a spark in his eyes, thrilled to hear about Gountess’ condition.
Tamsy smiled at the two, “that’s good, I can’t imagine what Mymo did to him.” He said sympathetically, playing into his caring facade.
However, as the two teens began to chat away, with Eishia blushing nervously by Rudo’s enthusiasm, the blonde’s choker buzzed with noise.
“Tamsy?” It was Semiu, he got up and turned away, “yes, Semiu?”
Her voice was stern, “Arkha wants to speak to you, now.” She demanded, and Tamsy’s eyebrows raised.
“Oh? I just saw him, but orders are orders.” He relents, waving goodbye to Eishia as Rudo doesn’t notice the man’s disappearance.
But what neither of them notice, is the long thin piece of thread left on the floor that connects all the way back to Tamsy’s sleeve.
“Tamsy Caines, explain to me how Mymo was assassinated with no one conscious and all the guards on duty said the same thing,” Arkha says, a knowing glint in his eyes as he stares Tamsy down despite being seated, “the same as Amo, in fact, as she described ‘it’s like someone scribbled all over their memories’.”
The blonde shrugged, faking cluelessness. “I have no idea, boss. How does that relate to me?” He questions, looking elsewhere as he sides eyes the man.
Arkha sighs heavily, “Tamsy. I know you killed him.”
He laughs, hiding his mouth with his sleeve, “let’s say you’re right, then what? You want me to kneel for forgiveness and apologize? What’s so important about Mymo anyways?” He lays out the bait right in front of his boss, on a silver platter.
And he takes it.
“The information he has is crucial-” he begins, right before he’s cut off by the blonde.
“To who? You? Or Rudo?” Tamsy questions, smile gone as he stares at the man, eyes full of indignation.
Arkha scowls, “to everyone.”
He scoffs and rolls his eyes, “sure. But what then? How are you going to utilize the information? Go up to the Sphere yourself?” He pushes further, walking closer to the desk, looming over the other.
And Arkha quirks a brow, “and how do you know the information Mymo has is related to the Sphere?” He questions back, a small smirk on his face as if he caught Tamsy in his own lies.
But that doesn’t bother him one bit.
“It doesn’t take a genius to know, Arkha.” He glares, “you can accuse me all you want, belittle me all you want, but what do I get out of it?” He demands, and the Cleaner just sips his nearly empty cup.
He doesn’t look at Tamsy, only his cup, “what do you want, Tamsy?” He finally asks, but it’s more of a dismissal, like he’s trash on the side of the road.
“I want the fair exchange that you said you’d hold up at the start of this all, you haven’t given me a lick of shit since then.” He commands, recounting the beginning of their affair.
But rather than a vicious response, a bite, Arkha only looks at him.
Really looks at him.
“Isn’t my heart enough, Tamsy?”
His voice is pleading, weak. His eyes are full of fondness and hurt. The same look that woman had.
And Tamsy doesn’t answer, only looking at him with wide pale yellow eyes.
His heart.
His... Heart?
I have.. His heart..?
Ha! A twisted grin creeps onto his face as a dull ache ripples throughout his body.
Silence stretches between them, with the blonde watching Arkha speak into the collar on his wrist.
He speaks in a small, hushed tone, “Semiu, code extermin-”
Tamsy slams his fist on the table, interrupting their communication.
His wide smile still plastered onto his face, “funny how you use chokers now, boss, now that there isn’t anyone to eavesdrop. If you call anyone else up here, Gountess dies.” He threatens, fully serious.
Arkha just looks at him, none of that fondness in his eyes anymore as he lets go of the choker.
They glare at each other.
Gray meets yellow.
They fight. And gray yields first.
Arkha closes his eyes, hearing footsteps approach his office.
Semiu swings the door open, revealing her, Enjin, Delmon, and Bro.
Tamsy turns, a sour look on his face, seeing a formidable line up. But it only fuels his excitement on the inside.
The first to speak is Enjin, who is confused by Tamsy’s presence.
“You want us to exterminate Tamsy, boss?” He asks, and Arkha nods. “The fuck? Why? We don’t kill people,” he says, turning to leave.
“But I do,” Tamsy responds, pulling out Tokushin from his sleeve, enlarging it to its larger form rather than the miniature one to hide it in his sleeve.
They all assume an offensive stance, however the blonde ignores them and glares at Arkha.
He grasps a rope, pulling it harshly, “and I also make good on my promises, Arkha.”
He tugs it hard.
Downstairs in the infirmary, Gountess’ limp body shoots up with pain.
Oh it must be painful, Gountess. But don’t worry.. You don’t have to worry about your weak heart anymore.
He grins gleefully, a disgusting look as everyone witnesses his corruption.
The blonde turns back to the group, then signals to his choker.
A second later, Enjin’s choker buzzes. It’s from Eishia.
“E-Enjin! I’m so s-sorry!! Gountess, he.. He’s dying!” She screams, voice slightly distorted.
Everyone gasps, except for Tamsy and Arkha. They all look at him, shocked.
“A-Ah? Gountess?! What a-are you s-saying!” She’s shouting frantically, and in the back, a very faint and weak voice could be heard, “a.. A long haired... Woman..”
Tamsy’s grin only gets wider.
The connection is cut and silence looms over them all, watching the other Cleaners connect the dots right before Enjin pipes up again.
“You’re actually a woman? Ow!” Semiu stomps on the man’s foot, and the others glare at him.
“TAMSYYY!! HOW COULD YOU?! WE TRUSTED YOU!” Delmon shrieks, voice loud enough to be heard all across HQ.
He scowls, “shut the fuck up, Delmon!” And the man promptly goes quiet, rage evident on his face. He’s shaking where he stands, seething with anger.
Almost on Rudo’s level.. Mm.
“And no, I’m not a woman, Enjin.” He clarifies with a tight smile, adding a little lightheartedness to the situation.
Before Delmon could shout again, Semiu interrupts him. “Hold on now, how the hell did you kill Gountess?” She asks, not daring to look away for a second, her jinki activated.
The blonde spins Tokushin, not releasing rope, but reeling it back in. If they looked close enough, they could see a faint, thin thread fly past them as it joined the others on the distaff.
He held up a tiny string, and they had to squint to barely see it, “I entered his trachea by surpassing the epiglottis, through the bronchi and into his lungs,” he explained, wrapping and unwrapping the string around his fingers.
“Went into the arteries, in and out, then finally, filling both his lungs with string, I even managed to squeeze around the heart.” He says with glee, a disgusting smile on his face.
They cringed at the description, then finally scowled, realizing how cruel he was.
Without a word, Enjin lunged first with Umbreaker in hand, as Delmon readied Thirst Quencher, and Bro threw Cloth at him, hoping to immobilize him.
Tamsy spun Tokushin, creating a thick rope barrier around him and Arkha, separating them from the others.
He went around the desk and whispered in Arkha’s ear, “this isn’t over, Arkha.” He whispers, and for a split second, their eyes meet.
There’s something unspoken between them, a moment of weakness as Tamsy fully takes in Arkha’s expression, it’s affectionate and upsetting.
That’s a disgusting face.
…
I want him to look at me like that more.
The blonde returns a pitied look right before jumping out the large window, glass flying everywhere as he forms wings to escape, letting himself be carried by the winds.
The barrier disappears with Tamsy, and the others crowd Arkha’s desk, with Bro panicking first, “oh shit, he flew! Are you hurt, boss?” He asks, scanning the man from head to toe.
He shakes his head, “no, he didn’t do anything.” He states, still looking at his broken window and Tamsy’s disappearing figure in the distance.
Semiu slams her hand on his desk, trying to get his attention, “Arkha this is serious, we have a traitor.”
“Had, he’s gone now,” he says smiling, laughing at his own joke. No one else laughs, except for Enjin who’s desperately trying to stifle it as Semiu glares at him.
She sighs, “will ya’ll take this seriously? We just found out that Tamsy is the Angel who not only killed Rudo’s father, but also kidnapped Amo.” She explains, adjusting her glasses as she rubs her temples, to her side Enjin raises an eyebrow, confused.
“Wait, he kidnapped Amo? How? The fuck?” Everyone in the room sighs, and Semiu simply stares at the man, “Enjin. Amo told us that her kidnapper was a long haired blonde woman, does that jog your memory?” She reiterates, referring back to Gountess’ last words, fuck. Right, he died. Just fucking now.
He combs his fingers through his hair, “fuckk, right right. Okay, I gotta go. Eishia and Rudo are probably freaking the fuck out downstairs, we’ll go handle them,” he motions to Bro and Delmon, they nod and follows their fellow cleaner, where the latter yells as he exits.
This leaves Semiu with Arkha.
She taps her foot impatiently, “so?” She starts, raising an accusatory brow at her boss.
He smiles at her, “so?” He repeats, and she slams both palms on his desk, “so, why the hell didn’t you do anything to stop him?” She questions fiercely, frustrated at his lack of action and effort.
Arkha surrenders by putting his hands up in the air, “what could I have done?” He responds with a question, this only makes the receptionist angrier.
“Stop him? Hello? Arkha, you just let a traitor leave if you weren’t aware,” she mocks, gesturing to the broken window behind him.
He nods, “I know, but he looked too beautiful to stop.”
She makes a face, “seriously? You guys fuck half a million times and now you’re smitten?” She half-jokes, hoping that it wasn’t true.
But Arkha doesn’t say anything, only looking down wistfully at his empty cup. And she realizes.
“Holy shit, you’re actually in love with the guy.” Semiu states, shocked and concerned. “Why?”
He smiles, but it’s tight and forced, “fair exchange.”
She clicks her tongue and turns to leave, already imagining the stress and workload that’ll come in with one less formidable Cleaner now.
As she opens the door, Arkha speaks up, “don’t tell Rudo, not until he’s ready.” She scoffs, “when the time comes, you’re gonna be the one explaining why we didn’t tell him sooner.” She replies, closing the door.
Arkha’s alone now. Nothing but him and the gigantic broken window in his office.
He stares at it, wondering where Tamsy went.
Ever since then, Arkha goes to bed with a troubled mind.
Not because of Tamsy’s absence, but rather his presence, since he’s currently in his bed, fiddling with Tokushin in his hand.
The blonde always appears at night, and only in his room, as if haunting him.
And sometimes, Arkha does believe he’s being haunted by his ghost, but unfortunately Tamsy is alive and real, he’s checked.
They lay in his bed, Tamsy looming over him as his hair fell to the sides of Arkha’s face, shielding him from the outside world.
“I want you to look at me like that again.” He demands with a crazed look on his face, Arkha just looks at him and raises a brow, confused.
“Like what?” He asks softly, the blonde’s eyebrows pinch together, “I don’t know, like you love me to death?” He says it like it’s obvious.
Arkha lets out a weak laugh, “I do love you,” he whispers, bringing a hand to cup the other’s cheek.
Tamsy frowns, “but not to death?”
“No.” He confirms, I have an organization to look after. I’m a Cleaner. You’re an angel.
The blonde pushes himself up, the warmth of Arkha’s hand lingering on his cheek, “that’s good, ‘cause one day you’ll have to die, and I’ll be there to watch you.” He foreshadows, moving his hair to one side as he pulls Arkha’s pants down and sheds his own shirt.
The man under him lets out a breath, “are you saying I’d lose and die first? How about the other way around?” He teases, fully taking in Tamsy’s beauty.
The light is dim, but he can clearly see and map out every scar on the man’s body.
“Then we’ll just wait and see, I hope I die first, I want to see that face you made.” He brings it up again, yet Arkha has no idea what face he’s talking about, Tamsy’s mentioned it a lot during his nightly visits but never explains what it is.
He’s fixated on it, on him.
I wonder if it’s the face I saw through his memories.
I wonder what I looked like for him to be so adamant on this.
I wonder how I could love someone so cruel.
I wonder why I don’t want him to die first.
He brings his hands up to the blonde’s waist, pulling him up to his chest so he can nuzzle against his scarred stomach.
Arkha whispers against his skin, “stay in the morning.”
Tamsy runs his fingers through his locs, “I can’t.”
And the man doesn’t push him, simply pulling away to plant soft kisses along his body.
They don’t talk about it much, neither the unspoken tension, the Cleaners, or what relationship they have.
That’s one thing that’ll never change.
In the morning, like he said, Tamsy’s gone, the only trace of him left is a faint peach scent.
But Arkha doesn’t dwell on it too much, knowing he’ll be there in his room waiting for him under the covers in the middle of the night.
In a way, Tamsy Caines, you did ruin my bed for me for good.