#Valentine has what he would call 'cuteness aggression' and what Jon would call 'an urge to kill'. him

[fissions-chips]

cat and mouse

(tiny jon AU- tw for violence and injury)

   “Oh?~”

   Jon paled as the shadow fell over him, stumbling back against the desk as a sinister grin and pink-tinted glass suddenly filled his vision- mismatched eyes widened as the figure leaned down to his level, Valentine’s head tilting in lupine fashion as he whispered. 

   “Oh… oh my god. Look at you.”

   His voice, even hushed, echoed in Jon’s ears, and the little man staggered back, heart pounding in his chest. Suddenly, something pressed to his back, and he found his retreat blocked by one huge hand, thumb and forefinger seizing him by the middle and lifting him into the air. 

   “What a predicament you’ve found yourself in, Jon-“ Valentine purred, voice tinged with baffled amusement, watching as Jon flailed about between his fingers- idly, he curled the rest around the tiny man, Jon letting out a frightened sound that reminded him of the squeak of a mouse. “You’re so cute.”

   Almost absentmindedly, he pressed the nail of his thumb against Jon’s neck, a frantic, rabbit-fast pulse hammering beneath it. Jon yelped, the other man’s grip suddenly shifting around him, tightening. A low chuckle filled the air as Valentine lifted Jon closer to his face, eyes glittering with something sinister as he watched the other begin to struggle. 

   “So… delicate. I could just-“ 

   Jon gasped, the air suddenly squeezed from his lungs by ring-clad fingers- sharp, splintering pain raced down his body, his ribs crumpling in his chest and his limbs threatening to snap like matchsticks. “Val-“ he tried to choke out, the sound trickling off into a strangled whine as the nail’s edge pressed to his throat broke skin. “S… Stop-“ 

   Another hand joined the first, circling Jon’s shoulders and skull and squeezing- the little man’s voice, pitifully small, broke off into a tiny, choked gasp. Valentine’s odd eyes were wide and unblinking, staring down at his hands and the figure trapped between them. Break him, a small voice whispered in the back of his mind. Break every bone in his stupid little body and feel him die.

   He could feel the crush of ribs and he could feel the bruising of flesh and he could feel the way Jon’s struggles started to fade, thin chest heaving a little less each time beneath his fingers. In his mind, he could picture Jon’s eyes rolling back beneath their lids and his head falling to the side- he had dreamed of it countless times, he had seen it happen before. Bright teeth gold and gleaming as the other gasped for air, dark blue irises breaking up like water poured into paint. 

   I’m going to kill him.

   Overwhelmed by the violent impulse coursing through him, Valentine only watched as his hands shook with effort. Jon’s body twitched between them, falling limp- his heart still hammered, but it was faint, and reality suddenly came crashing back to him. 

   “I’m… getting ahead of myself.” He muttered, something a little like hysteria in his voice- and then, he let go.

   Jon dropped like a stone, hitting the desk with a quiet thud. For several moments, he didn’t move- crouching down once more, Valentine’s brow lifted, and he reached out a hand to seize the tiny figure once more. 

   “You’d better not be dead-“ he called out. “Because if you are… I’m about to make sure of it.” 

   Just as his fingers brushed Jon’s shoulder, there was a thin, strangled sound. The little man shifted, and began to cough, his whole body shaking with the force of it. Weakly, he tried to rise up onto his arms, limbs trembling, and sank back onto his stomach. It took him several tries. When he finally made it to his feet, he staggered back, still half-stunned from the drop. 

   “Careful.” 

   Valentine’s hand blocked him from the edge once more, and Jon flinched as he brushed the other man’s fingers, falling down against the desk with a yelp. As soon as his back met the wood, Jon shrieked, pain spiraling down his body like an electric current. “G-get away from me!” He hissed, eyes wide with terror. “Don’t touch me!” 

   His whole body was shaking. Valentine leaned closer, eyes glittering with cruel amusement as Jon scrambled to get further from him. A dark, ugly bruise was beginning to form beneath where his thumb had pressed to Jon’s throat- Valentine could imagine that the rest of his body would look similar before too long. “Don’t be silly,” he muttered, plucking Jon up once more by his middle. The little man shrieked, but all it took was a slight bit of pressure and Jon fell still, trembling. “You don’t want me to do that again, do you?”

   Jon didn’t look at him- instead, he stared straight ahead, shivering. After a moment, he shook his head slightly, and Valentine grinned. 

   “Good.”

   Scooping Jon up into his hand, Valentine began looking around the room, eyes narrowed. Where to put you… He could hardly leave Jon out-and-about while he was at work, and as tempting as the idea was to carry him in his pocket, he didn’t want him to somehow get loose in the commotion. Not when he still had so many wicked little torments to inflict upon his pocket-sized enemy. 

   This is going to be so much fun.

   — — — — —

   “Well, it could be worse.” 

   Jon bristled, but didn’t answer- instead, he drew his knees up to his chest, glaring at the other man through the glass of the jewelry box. 

   “It was a gift, I think?” Valentine had explained, reaching up to pluck it down from his closet shelf with one hand, Jon grasped firmly in the other. “I can’t really recall who I got it from- that happens a lot, I’ll admit.” 

   Jon knew who had given it to him. He knew. And yet, he said nothing- angering the other man would only end with his death, and he was too tired to speak.

   With that, Jon had been unceremoniously dumped inside, the latch clicked shut behind him. It was an old-fashioned thing, all brass hinges and edges, but the glass that made up its panels was crystal clear- despite being trapped, Jon found that he felt horribly exposed. Pressing further back into the corner, he tried his best to ignore the way Valentine was peering into the box to watch him, like some curious animal, and kept his head down. 

   His whole body ached with the memory of the massive hand that had curled around him, nearly snapping him in two. Jon wouldn’t have been surprised if something, his ribs or his shoulder or his hip, had cracked under the pressure- he didn’t want to move enough to find out. 

   What little even footing had existed between him and Valentine was now stripped away entirely. Before, he could fight back, sneer or snap or chase the other away with threats of vengeance. He had given as good as he got- or at least he had liked to think so. Now, he knew that if he tried to speak, the other man would only laugh at how small his voice sounded, and he didn’t want to tempt him into snatching him up again. The glimpse Jon had gotten of Valentine’s face, before the other man had decided to try to crack his skull open, had been… horrifying, on a scale Jon didn’t know how to describe. There wasn’t a word he could come up with for the kind of violence he had seen behind the other man’s eyes. 

   He knew that violence was going to kill him. He just didn’t know when. In his current state, however, Jon knew it was going to hurt.

   “Tomorrow, I’m taking you to research and development,” Valentine hummed, dropping the box none-too-gently onto his bedside table. Jon was sent tumbling across the glass, slamming into the bottom with a hiss- slowly, he picked himself upright, relieved that now, at least, there was the appearance of a solid surface beneath him. “That’s where this happened, right? I’ve got to figure out more about that Koboi crap I picked up, it’s… bizarre. Sci-fi bullshit. You’re lucky you didn’t find the fucking lasers.”

   At least the other didn’t acknowledge his attempted theft- it would have been nothing but a point of hypocrisy. Jon knew ‘Koboi’ wasn’t a name that fit under Phonetix’s umbrella, though he himself couldn’t place it either, try as he might. Taking note of Jon’s suspicious glare, Valentine laughed, pulling a cigarette from his case and lighting it. 

   “Oh, not to fix you- not for all the money in the world, my friend. You’re going to play ‘lab rat’ for the day with one of my scientists- the one who handles less-than-legal developments.” 

   Jon paled. 

   “I hope,” Valentine continued, “That you’re the kind of rat they stick needles in all day.” Taking a drag, he said nothing for a moment.

Jon sank back against the far wall of the box, shivering, staring down at his own shaking hands. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. 

   Valentine watched from the corner of his eye. After a few moments more, he stretched, before bending down to check that the latch on the box was secure. “Anyways…” He drawled, before tapping on the glass sharply- Jon startled as the sound echoed around him, his ears ringing. 

   “I’m going to work now. I don’t think I need to make any sort of threat- your current position gets the point across, right?” 

   Blinking back at him, Jon sat bewildered as he waited for the echoing to fade- then, sudden anger flooded him. Anger at the other man, anger at his predicament, and anger at the stupid box he was trapped in. Curling his lip in a sneer, Jon flipped the other man off, unsurprised when Valentine only snickered. 

   “There it is- precious spite. The only thing you have left, at the moment.” Standing, Valentine dusted himself off, snuffing out his cigarette on a nearby ashtray. “Try not to let it lead you to do something stupid, okay?”

   Turning, he moved to exit the room, shutting the light off behind him- as his fingers brushed the doorframe, however, he paused, tilting his head behind him to give Jon a warning look. 

   “Or next time, I’m going to break something- permanently. See you tonight, Jon.” 

   With that, he closed the door behind him, and Jon was left alone.