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allamericanfinalgirl · 3 months ago

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DID YOU TAKE MY LOVE AWAY FROM ME?

(𝙋𝘼𝙍𝙏 𝙊𝙉𝙀)

(TW Sexual Harassment and Assault, Drugging, Violence, Heavy Smut)

18+ MINORS DNI

(Word Count; 9k)

“Returning a favor?” Ari tilted her head to the side, examining Bobby a bit more thoroughly this time.

If she squinted hard enough in the light of the alley, Ari could make out tiny cuts on Bobby’s face hidden by his curls and shadows of bruises underneath his sunken, dark eyes.

“Sounds like serious business, Bobby,” Ari whispered conspiratorially, bumping his broad shoulder with her narrow one.

Ari could tell under the cool facade he was giving her that something had upset Bobby, from how he had left the restaurant in such a hurry and how Bobby had been trembling when Ari found him.

“You should get back inside.” Kid didn’t want to involve Ari in his mess; he had already let her in too close. “I don’t want you getting in trouble because of me.”

Ari’s glossed lips frowned, but she nodded resolutely. Bobby’s long shadow covered her as he rose to his feet.

Primly holding her gold-ring-covered hand out like a princess, Kid felt his ribs tickle when he laughed softly and closed his large hand around her small one.

Kid gently tugged Ari to her feet, so she stood chest-to-chest with him. “If you ever change your mind,” He looked down at their intertwined hands to see that Ari had left her business card pressed into his palm. “I’m only one call away.”

“Goodnight, Bobby.” Ari gave him a flutter of her fingers as she stepped back inside the restaurant, pausing and looking back over the shoulder of her pink minidress. “You know, you still don’t look like a ‘Bobby’ to me.”

And with that, she was gone.

Kid closed his eyes and inhaled the scent of Ari’s vanilla perfume when she left. His dark eyes snapped open in the alley, and he reminded himself why he was there.

Looking down at the cream-colored business card and swooping, sloping pink cursive letters that read, ‘Ari Arya, Mumbai in the Morning,’ Kid allowed himself a small smile before returning to being ‘Bobby.’

“Hey.” Ari glanced up at the sound of a woman’s voice on the walk back to the dining area of Kings. “You.” Leaning against the wall in an emerald green dress with a cigarette between her fingers, Sita watched Ari intently.

“You need to stop coming here.” Sita pushed off the wall and seized Ari’s wrist, twisting it over to reveal the recording device secured tightly in her fist.

“One day. They aren’t going to let you leave.” She tilted her head towards the kitchen window, where Bobby could be seen washing dishes. “He won’t be able to save you.”

“Who’s going to save you?” Ari shook her head, her voice low. “No one deserves to be treated the way you are.” She furiously whispered back, brows furrowed and dark eyes narrowed. “Someone needs to do the right thing, and I’m done waiting for that to happen.”

Sita sighed and released Ari’s wrist. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” She shook her head disappointedly and put out her cigarette. “You seem like a nice woman; don’t let this place and these men take it from you.”

Ari looked Sita in the eye, hoping she couldn’t see her tremble. “I won’t.”

“Ari.” The blonde looked up at the sound of her name to see her boss leaning in the doorway of the break room, blocking the rest of the station from her view. “You’ve been assigned to interview Baba Shakti in his home.”

The way her boss delivered this news made it clear he was not pleased by it. “I will be honest; we recommended other candidates before you, but he formally requested Ari Arya from Mumbai in the morning.”

‘Why is that such a bad thing?’ Ari thought, but she plastered on a grateful, kind smile while sliding the notes with ‘Baboon Boy’ scribbled with pink gel pen hearts in the margins underneath her keyboard. “I’m honored. I will get my supplies together and meet him.” She fought the urge to stick her tongue out at her boss's back when he turned to leave.

“Baba Shakti?” Ari said out loud to herself, confused as well as to what he, a guru, would want with her, a morning news anchor.

‘Bobby should know about this.’ Ari breathed shakily and rubbed her face in her hands as she gathered her notepads and pencils, suspicious of everyone she had passed on her walk to her car.

Between her assault that night in Yatana and the interview, Ari was completely on edge and trying to not let her late nights at King’s and her midnight rendezvous with The Beast bleed into one another.

Watching Mumbai below her as Ari rose in a glass elevator to Baba Shakti’s home, a grand and elegant place that contrasted his meek and humble persona.

Ari felt a curl of disgust when she caught the spiritual elder licking his lips and staring at the opening of her blouse. “Where would you like to begin?” She felt the cold, hard stare of the police chief standing guard behind her as she conducted her interview.

“Let me see these.” Ari jumped when Chief Rana Singh snatched the questions from her lap. She recognized his presence going up in King’s VIP room above her, where Ari could only imagine the unsightly things that took place up there.

After an uncomfortable half-hour of stiff interviews, Ari hurried to pack her things and leave the apartment.

An awful feeling followed her until she was free, outside in the fresh air and sunshine. ‘I need to tell someone about this.’ Weighing the pros and cons of going to Bobby or The Beast.

Chief Rana watched Ari Arya leave the building and turned to Baba Shakti. “She will be trouble.”

Baba Shakti’s eyes slid to Chief Rana’s with a plain expression. “Put a stop to Ari Arya.” One small ember could burn everything he built down, and he did not intend to let her go.

Sita did not like being proven right. And yet she was, anticipating Queenie’s reaction to a bad transaction with a client.

Or Ari Arya digging too deep into Kings.

Sita watched Police Chief Rana Singh sprinkle white powder on a tray of champagne glasses that Sita watched Bobby deliver to Ari’s table.

Sita watched as Bobby left the restaurant. Ari’s head lolled as she followed his quickly moving figure, removing herself from the grip her boss had on her thigh and following after.

Ari didn’t know it, but she had almost fallen into a wall when Sita risked reaching out to seize Ari’s shoulders and walk her to the back door, leaving her under Bobby’s care.

The alley door swung open wide, slamming against the brick wall as high heels clicked loudly on the pavement.

Dark eyes locked on a familiar silhouette crouched in the corner, holding the little yellow dog’s face in his hands and quietly murmuring to her.

“Bobby!” Ari shouted jovially, tripping off the kitchen stoop and throwing her arms around his neck. She reeked of sweet alcohol, which seemed out of character for Ari, who barely finished the champagne the men around her table would insist she try.

“What’s wrong?” Ari slurred, her brows scrunching cutely as she ran her index finger down Bobby’s bruised cheek.

“Are you crying?" She placed a hand on his chest, directly over the bruise from the hit he had taken for her only a couple of hours ago.

Kid gave a panicked look to a group of women in gorgeous dresses, diamonds dripping from their necklines, filing in through the back door of Kings.

“Help me.” Kid whispered to Sita, who could only pretend she didn’t hear. She had done her part for Ari, and Bobby had to take it from there.

Kid didn’t like how Ari’s eyes swam, gently cupping her chin and trying to force her to look at him. “Ari? Did you take something?”

“I think,” Ari hiccuped, swaying in Kid’s arms. “Someone put something in my drink.” She giggled and shook her head, her ponytail swaying back and forth.

“That rhymed.”

Kid’s blood ran cold, holding Ari tighter as if he were afraid someone would take her away from him.

“Hold onto me.” He bent down and looped her arm over his shoulders, lifting Ari into his arms.

“Alphonso!” Kid hissed, holding a loopy Ari in his arms. “Someone put something in her drink. She needs a hospital." He fought the urge to flip over the tray of white powder that Alphonso was preoccupied with. “Come on, man!”

Alphonso raised his hands placatingly, walking with Kid and Ari to the parking garage and ushering the young woman inside his vehicle. “We both can’t go. I will let you know how she is tomorrow night.”

Kid trusted Alphonso, but he didn’t want Ari to be alone. “I’ll keep your girlfriend safe; don’t worry.” Alphonso sped off in his car quicker than Kid would have preferred, but on her way to the hospital nonetheless.

“Fuck!” Kid slammed his fist into a nearby concrete pillar. He was the one serving drinks that night. How hadn’t he noticed someone spiking Ari’s glass?

After that night, Kid did not count this as stalking, but he began to ensure Ari made it home safely from King’s every night.

Pink light emanated from Ari’s apartment windows. He watched from the sidewalk below, hearing the sound of music reverberating through the windows as Ari’s silhouette traveled around the apartment.

Looking around at the young couples walking on sidewalks, Kid envied every man around him, wishing he could switch places with any one of them if it meant being a normal man.

A car passed by, casting a light off of the store windows, illuminating Kid’s reflection and highlighting the bruise covering his cheek and his swollen bottom lip.

It reminded him that he could not linger on these thoughts, as it would only remind him of the things he was not allowed to have.

When Kid finished a round of fights one evening, he noticed that goddamn plum hoodie that stuck out like a sore thumb in the streets.

He truly did not expect Ari to return to Tiger’s Temple. Not that he would have blamed her, but given what had transpired last time, he wouldn’t have come back underground either.

“Hi!” Ari whisper-shouted with her hood pulled up over her blonde hair, holding up a stack of sandwiches wrapped in lavender wax paper. “I made these for you!”

Kid’s stomach grumbling echoed in the alley, and Ari made a mental note to bring more food next time as The Beast devoured the stack of sandwiches she brought in the blink of an eye.

“Thank you. You don’t have to bring me food.” He didn’t mean that; it felt nice to have a homemade meal, but Kid didn’t want to allow himself to get closer to Ari than they had already become.

But there Ari was, night after night, with a tote bag filled with food and water.

Sometimes, Kid would be so weakened and beaten down from a fight that he would allow Ari to loop his arm over her narrow shoulders and walk him back to the fire escape he squatted in.

“I don’t mind!” Ari shared a fruit bowl with The Beast that she had brought for herself. “It gets lonely cooking for one, so I always make extra for my friends.”

‘Friends?’ Kid munched on a grape while giving Ari a once-over. She did not come off as the type who had illegal fighters as her ‘friends.’ “It’s hard to imagine you getting lonely.” He replied while Ari nibbled on a mango spear.

“Work keeps me busy.” Ari went quiet for a moment.

“I would like to think I’m doing something meaningful. That reminds me.” She searched inside her purse and held up her recording device. “Baba Shakti asked to meet with me.”

Kid’s blood ran cold. Chief Rana was Baba Shakti’s right-hand man. What if they had connected Ari to ‘Bobby?’

“Play it.” The Beast gripped Ari’s hands tightly in his bandaged ones. “Please.” He begged, relieved when Ari pressed play without hesitation.

Ari didn’t hold back, questioning the guru about his movement, taking over sections of occupied land, and vacating its people.

“Such serious questions for a sweet girl.” Baba Shakti tutted. “You be careful.” He said this at the end of the interview, dodging every question Ari had thrown at him.

“Sounds like a warning.” The Beast looked beside himself, getting up and pacing the alley. “And he didn’t say anything else?”

Ari disappointedly shook her head and said, "No. Chief Rana was in a hurry to escort me from the building; he was not very pleased by my questions either.”

The burst of energy left The Beast sitting back down and picking up a sandwich to take a large bite, deep in thought as to what this all meant.

“What do you want out of life?” Ari suddenly asked. “What do you mean?” The Beast replied, rubbing his chest to soothe a bruise.

The Beast never revealed his eyes to Ari, a frustrating detail in the whole process, but she respected his anonymity regardless.

If Ari connected that The Beast and Bobby were the same man, Kid didn’t know what trouble it would spell for them both.

“Live. Get by every day.”

Ari felt ignorant for framing the question that way.

“I can’t imagine you want to fight for the rest of your life. If you had the means to do something else in life, what would you do?”

The Monkey Man didn’t get to think that thought through much longer before a knife sank into a wooden beam, inches from his face.

Ari and Kid pulled away from each other in shock, scrambling to their feet.

The man who attempted to assault Ari on the night Kid met her was back.

‘He has to be from Tiger’s Temple.’ He thought, realizing he was most likely a regular from Tiger’s Temple who lingered to follow the ring girls to their homes.

Ari reached back and closed her hand on a broken piece of brick, unsure what she was going to do with it exactly, but she did not intend to cower in a corner this time.

Raising his bandaged fists, Kid stepped in front of Ari, flicking his fingers as if beckoning the man forward.

When the man lunged at The Beast, Ari reflexively threw the chunk of brick, which smashed her stalker square in the face.

Screaming in pain and clutching his nose, he grabbed the back of Ari’s ponytail when she turned to run and pulled her hair- Hard.

Kid seized the back of the man’s shirt and hauled him up against the wall of a building, snarling in his face through the monkey mask.

Dark eyes unfocused; Kid’s knuckles were white as he kept the man down with a fist gripping the front of a blood-stained shirt.

Something snapped inside Kid.

Kid didn’t realize it at the time when he lost his beloved mother, but something fundamental inside him had shifted.

His dynamic with the world was never the same again when Chief Rana assaulted and immolated his mother, still alive and crying out for her son even in her last moments.

The rage was deep-seated.

They’d hurt him and made him weak, and Kid hated the world for it.

Rage kept building and building inside him. Kid let out a frustrated scream as he swung out, losing patience and wanting to look at the man’s face smeared across the brick wall.

Kid hadn't realized that, with every self-loathing thought, as he brought back his arm and landed another blow to the face underneath him, he didn’t know that the fight was over.

He didn’t notice the red smeared on his cut and bruised knuckles; he didn’t hear his stage name over his grunts of pain.

“Stop-!” It was clear the man was incapacitated. Ari was afraid The Beast was going to kill this man. “It’s over now!” She grabbed his shoulder, and without thinking, Kid shoved Ari off.

Ari cried out when her shoulder connected with the pavement, scrambling back in shock as she stared up at The Beast.

In the blackout of his rage, Kid recalled pulling back. Ari’s stalker crouched in the corner of the alley with his arm broken. Both Ari and the stalker stared at Kid like he was a monster.

“Stay away from her!” Kid shouted after the stalker, allowing him to retreat down the alley and out of view. “Don’t fucking come back here!”

‘He shoved me.’ Ari rubbed her bruised shoulder, and her bottom lip began to tremble. Her large brown eyes were filled with tears.

“Is this what we are now?” The Beast lifted his mask to spit blood on the ground, and Ari saw the white enamel of a chipped tooth skip across the pavement. “I have to keep saving you?”

“Don’t yell at me!” Angry tears streamed down her pink, round cheeks as she snapped back. “I didn’t know that was going to happen! I never asked you to save me!”

It echoed in the alley, with Ari staring at the beast through the eyes of his mask: “I am so tired of being treated like a second-class citizen! I’m so tired of every woman I know being afraid to go out at night, get assaulted in an alley, or have your drink drugged-!

Ari clapped a hand over her mouth, choking back a sob as she turned her back on The Beast and hugged herself, humiliated.

Kid stared at her in silence, her admission echoing in the alley.

“I’m not afraid of you. How can’t you understand that?” Ari sniffled, hugging herself and staring at the night sky.

“I’m afraid of people like Baba Shakti and Chief Rana. But I don’t want to be.” She shook her head tearfully.

“I’m so tired of being afraid.”

Then Ari did something Kid didn’t anticipate: She held her arms out for a hug.

His brain screamed ‘Don’t.’ and yet, slowly, wincing in pain, Kid closed his arms around Ari’s trembling frame.

Ari dared to reach out to touch the side of his mask, and The Beast jerked his head back.

“What are you doing?” His voice was incredulous through the mask.

“Why aren’t you afraid of me?” Kid gently shook her shoulders, confused as to what was happening to him.

“Why-?” He bowed his head, shaking like a child. “Why are you wasting your time on me? I’m a monster.”

Kid had never felt more ugly. All Ari wanted was to help people, even if it wasn’t in the same way he did, and here he was, screaming at her.

“I’m sorry I shoved you.” The Beast lifted his head, and Ari could see his dark eyes shining through the eyes of his mask. “You need to stay away from me; I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You listen to me.” Ari resolutely shook her head and hooked a finger underneath his chin, tilting his head up from its bowed position.

“You are not a waste of time. You are not a monster.”

The demand in Ari’s tone is what Kid fantasized about while sitting in his fire escape, spritzing her fancy vanilla perfume in the air before uncapping her lip gloss.

He would run the wand along his cock, coating his fingers in the gloss, and fuck his fist to the magazine cover of Ari that Kid kept hidden under the mattress.

With his chest rising and falling from the fight, Kid willed his brain to calm down before Ari could see how excited he was.

Shifting onto her tiptoes and lifting the bottom of his mask, Ari closed her eyes and tilted her head to the side, quickly pecking The Beast on the mouth.

Ari tasted mangoes and blood when they kissed. She placed her tiny hands on his scarred and bruised chest.

The Beast hummed like a cornered animal and enveloped her in his bruised and battered arms, his mouth on her neck, his hands roughly caressing her waist and moving down her thighs.

“I’m sorry.” Kid pulled back and firmly cupped the side of Ari’s neck with his bloodied hand. “I’m so sorry, Ari.” He looked down, ashamed.

“I would never, ever hurt you on purpose.” Kid knew how dangerous it was to make promises in their situation. “I can’t promise you won’t see how ugly I am from all of this.”

Ari closed her eyes and lifted The Beast’s mask to kiss him again, closing her fingers in his matted and greasy hair. “You are the furthest thing from ugly; do you understand me?”

Ari wanted to take off that stupid mask and kiss his face. “I accept your apology,” she whispered against his bruised jawline.

Ari had chosen to trust The Beast. There was something about the way he held himself; he knew more than he was letting on.

“I think we should call it a night.” She suddenly felt very tired, with her shoulders drooping and her body heavy.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Kid gently stroked Ari’s dirty cheek with the back of his hand. “I can’t promise I will be inconspicuous, but I can walk you home.”

Ari paused, considering this. It would be nice if he knew where she lived. Holding her hand out, Ari linked her fingers through The Beast's, and they began to walk down the backstreets to Ari’s apartment complex.

Resting an arm against her fire escape, The Beast’s long, lean body hung over Ari’s small frame.

“I’m sorry about this.” He lifted his mask to kiss Ari’s bruised shoulder.

“You should be.” Ari mock pouted while dabbing disinfectant on The Beast’s cuts. But he could tell she had forgiven him, making him take a tote bag filled with medical supplies, food, and water with him when he left.

“Oh,” Ari paused and glanced over her shoulder with a bemused expression when The Beast began to climb down her fire escape. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you took my perfume and lip gloss.” Her pink lips curled into a grin. “It’s okay. You owe me, though.”

“I saved your life!” The Beast laughed tiredly through his mask and rubbed his jawline.

“That can’t replace my Tom Ford!” She called after him as he disappeared into the night. “Goodnight!”

There was a moment of silence, and then Ari heard the faintest, barely there whisper from the shadows.

“Goodnight!” Kid watched Ari blow a kiss into the alley, hoping she knew he had caught it from below.

After the night Ari had been drugged, she had not returned to Kings’ for a few nights. The news said she had been out sick for the week.

Alphonso had gotten Ari to the hospital; it had been a case of a spiked drink, but they could not trace the incident back to Kings’.

Ari found herself thankful for The Beast, for saving her in Yatana, and for Bobby.

Alphonso had told her what Bobby had done, carrying her to the parking garage and ensuring she made it to the hospital.

Visiting Bobby meant going back to the Kings, which didn’t thrill Ari. Neither did going back to Tiger’s Temple.

Taking a break in an alley, Kid was pleasantly surprised at the sight before him.

Ari was in a pink minidress that looked as if flowers were growing out of her skirt, her brown skin glowing underneath the streetlights.

“Hello.” She nervously wrung her hands together, the tiny yellow dog at her feet, licking at her ankles.

“How are you feeling?” Kid leaned back against the brick wall, afraid to get too close. He noticed the bruise on her shoulder from her encounter with the beast.

Ari’s mouth quirked into a pained frown, hugging herself tightly as she willed away tears by looking at the city lights above them.

“The doctor says I’m lucky you found me when you did.” Ari gave him a grateful smile and shrugged. “What I can’t understand is: Why?”

Bobby was hiding something. Ari wasn’t even convinced that was his real name, what his intentions truly were at Kings’, or why he had chosen to align himself with her.

“I don’t believe for a second that you’re here just to clean floors, Bobby.”

But in true pesky journalistic fashion, Ari would make Bobby her little project; she wanted to scratch the surface of him, crack his brain open into her lap, and read its contents.

Kid tried to be nonchalant, shrugging his shoulders as if to say, ‘What was I supposed to do?’

“I couldn’t leave you like that. You’re-“ ‘You’re too important.’ That was what he meant to say, but he stopped himself short. Ari tilted her head to the side in confusion when Bobby caught himself, biting his lip and shaking his head.

“I’m sorry you aren’t protected.” Kid finished before he said something that he regretted.

“That would be nice.” Ari was starting to feel as if this would never happen, but the thought was a pleasant one. “Bobby. I know how complicated things are for you, but I need you.”

Bobby closed his eyes as if hearing it pained him. “I need you to help me. If you want any of us to be protected,” She walked up to Bobby and put her hands on his chest. “I need you to speak for the people who do not have a voice. Who have had their voices taken away?“

Ari’s voice rose to a shout, clutching the fabric of Bobby’s vest in her hands. “Please, please, please,” she begged, resting her forehead against his chest, her blush staining his dress shirt. “You’re the only person I can trust now.”

An image of The Beast lifted in Ari’s mind, but Bobby didn’t know about him yet. “Listen,” Bobby dropped his head low so his mouth pressed against the side of Ari’s face. “I’m going to give you an address.”

Ari pulled away with a gasp, her face shiny with tears. “What?” She was silenced by his index finger pressed against her lips.

“Meet me at midnight.”

Sita, despite her cold, hard outer exterior, was silently rooting for Bobby and Ari, watching them huddle together in the alley with that damn little yellow dog.

“Don’t let her get hurt,” Sita had told Bobby after Ari returned to the club, lighting her cigarette in the shadow of the kitchen doors. “I mean it, Bobby.”

Raising a dark brow, Kid laughed incredulously; maybe Sita did have a heart after all. “Yes, Aunty.” He danced out of the way when Sita stabbed her cigarette out and chased after him, swatting his arm.

Ari stood at a street corner bodega, picking at the flaky layers of a roti she had bought while waiting for Bobby. She turned at the sound of a long and low whistle, relief flooding her features. “You came!”

Bobby gestured for Ari to follow after him, climbing the concrete steps of an apartment complex and entering Bobby’s place of residence. “Is it okay if we jump right into the questions I have for you?”

Bobby shrugged his broad shoulders and nodded, sliding to the floor with his back against a worn yellow couch.

Earlier, Kid had stood in his bathroom mirror, scrubbing any evidence of black kajal from underneath his waterline with a pack of makeup wipes and showering off the white chalk that coated his arms.

Hopefully, Ari didn’t notice.

Ari joined him on the floor with her side pressed against Bobby’s.

“Mhm.” He sighed long and low, stretching his arms behind his head and flexing his strained muscles, linking his hands behind his head, and relaxing into the couch cushions.

“Did you grow up here, in the city?” Ari felt Bobby’s unkempt curls tickle her face; he was nervous, and she didn’t want to cross a boundary or scare him away.

“No. I was born in a village. I came here as a child.”

Kid wanted to be as vague as possible; getting trafficked with the remaining children in his village to Yatana was not a memory he revisited often.

“Not a very stable upbringing.” He cleared his throat and scratched his jawline. ‘This is a bad idea.’

“What about you?” Every instinct in Kid’s body ran at the thought of getting to know Ari.

Ari blinked her large brown eyes in surprise when Bobby leaned in close, biting his lip.

“Oh, I grew up in Mumbai. I was a latchkey kid; my parents left me to my own devices.” Saying it out loud made Ari realize how privileged her middle-class upbringing had been.

Things she had taken for granted: a full fridge; a warm bed; two parents who deeply loved each other; and their daughter. Encouraging Ari to pursue a higher education and her career.

Bobby had never been able to depend on that.

“I’m so sorry that happened to you. I can’t imagine how hard it must have been.” How hard things still were for Bobby, even as an adult.

Bobby was not a man of many words and was a little awkward. Sometimes, during a dinner with the other station executives, Ari would watch Bobby in the throng of people and could sense both a deep, profound pain within himself and a white-hot rage simmering on the surface.

If Kid said too much and Ari connected ‘Bobby’ to The Beast, he needed to distract Ari, and he needed to do it now.

“Kings’ isn’t the type of place I would picture a man like you working for.” The recording device was balanced on her lap, and Kid wondered how much trouble that would get him in later on down the line.

“Why Kings? And why, as a janitor and waiter?” Kid fought a grin, rubbing his jawline to hide how the tone change in Ari’s voice, sharp and clipped, turned him on.

“What is this favor you are returning?”

Kid could feel his heart thumping in his chest. Why not tell her the truth?

Giving Ari a once-over, in her pink heart sweater and her blonde ponytail falling over her shoulder, she was the complete opposite of everything Kid was.

A dirty, grimy beast like him didn’t deserve to know a woman like her, and Kid couldn’t stand the thought of Ari getting hurt because of him; it was keeping him up at night and occupying his every waking thought.

“Bobby.” Ari placed a hand on his bicep, impressed by how toned it was under her fingertips. “I can tell this is hard for you. I don’t want to cross a boundary or disrespect anything you might be going through.”

Kid didn’t know why that struck a nerve, but it did. His throat closed, and he felt his eyes water, dipping his head low to hide how shiny his eyes were becoming with tears.

“I can’t risk you getting hurt because of me.”

Ari dared to touch the side of Bobby’s face, gently stroking his jawline. “It’s okay.” She whispered, moving in closer so her knees rested atop Bobby’s thighs, “We don’t have to talk about anything that makes you uncomfortable.”

Bobby breathed a sigh of relief, staring down at the heart-shaped pattern on Ari’s skirt. “I know you want answers; I don’t want to disappoint you.”

The journalist laughed softly and gently knocked Kid’s chin with her index finger.

“You’re not disappointing me.” She dared to lean in closer, their lips inches apart.

“Ari.” Kid’s chest rose and fell; he couldn’t tell if this was a panic attack or a secret second thing he had never experienced before. “Can I kiss you?”

Ari bit her lip and nodded, moaning softly when Bobby firmly cupped the back of her neck and crushed his chapped lips against her soft ones.

Stretched out on the gray, carpeted floor, Kid gripped Ari’s hips in his hands and guided her to straddle his waist.

‘Oh.’ Ari felt Bobby underneath her, pressing against the apex of her thighs. “Is this okay?” Bobby questioned, rubbing himself up against Ari as his boxers got tighter.

The moment with The Beast rose in Ari’s mind. It wasn’t cheating, but it oddly felt as if she were. The Beast and Bobby realistically would never cross paths, so why did Ari feel slightly guilty?

“Yes. I trust you.” Ari reached out and took his hands, finally running them over her body.

Kid watched in awe as Ari parted her pink, glossed lips at the sensation of his scarred, ugly hands on her soft skin. Ari brought his hands up and cupped his palms against her soft cheeks, pressing a sweet kiss into his palm.

“How long have you worked at..." Ari stifled a laugh when Kid bucked his hips and cut her off. “Bobby-!”

Kid allowed himself to laugh, rubbing his face in his hands before pushing himself upright.

“You like it when I do that?” He bit his lip and repeated the movement, deciding he could do this with no hands.

“Can you lay on your back?” Kid’s curls stuck to his face, shiny with sweat, and he watched intently as Ari nodded and allowed him to move them up onto the couch, hooking her thighs through the crooks of his elbows.

Ari took off her pink long sleeve, revealing a creamy pink brassiere. “It’s matching.” She unbuttoned her jeans to reveal the lace hem of her lingerie bottoms.

“You wore those for me?” Kid sat back in disbelief, Ari’s hands on his thighs as he undid the strings of his gray sweatpants, reaching down his front to free his erection, reminding himself he needed to stay somewhat fully clothed.

If Ari could see the bruises and cuts on his body; it was all over. ‘Fuck.’ He hissed when the fabric of Ari’s underwear rubbed against his front. “I wore this for you.” She replied, stretching out on the couch underneath him to show off a pair of see-through underwear decorated with tiny pink bows.

“You’re the prettiest girl I've ever met.” Kid briefly considered the reality that he might die right then and there from Ari’s electric touch.

Kid felt Ari’s hands travel down between their legs, and he gasped when he felt her fingers grip him with one hand, then the other when it became clear he didn’t fit in her small fist.

“Tell me to stop.” Kid knew he should pull away from Ari, tell her he was sorry and that she needed to leave, pretend like he never knew her, and get back to his plan.

But the way Ari’s big brown eyes gazed up at him as if he were the only man in the world, holding his hand while he rubbed his head against Ari’s pussy, was making Kid a little wild.

“Don’t stop.” Ari tossed her head back against the arm of the couch, listening to the sound of Bobby tearing open a tin foil package, relieved that he was responsible enough to think of protection.

Ari wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms tight around his neck, shining with sweat as they breathed in time with each other.

Bending Ari in half so her legs were above her head, Kid laid himself between her thighs, putting her ankles on his broad shoulders so their bodies pressed flush together. “I’m going to put myself inside you now.” He whispered, pressing his forehead tightly against Ari’s.

“Tell me to stop if it hurts.”

Ari’s eyelids fluttered shut, her pink lips parting as Bobby entered her, digging her nails tight into his shoulders as his long fingers helped stretch her open.

A brief thought entered Ari’s mind that Bobby would not fit inside her.

“I don’t think I fit.” He said it out loud, laughing to himself as he rested his face in the crook of her neck. Ari did the same, her body shaking from laughter underneath his.

Kid bit his lip, running a hand through his curls as he seated himself inside Ari while she cried out and screamed his fake name into his shoulder.

They frantically went at it, weeks of sexual tension finally coming out on the tiny yellow couch. Ari could only hold onto Bobby’s shoulders as he fucked her, his strong hands gripping the arm of the couch and his hips pounding into hers while he kept Ari’s ankles firmly resting on either side of his neck. It was an erotic sight.

“M’Gonna cum on you.” Kid slowed his thrusts, and Ari whined in protest, smacking his bicep when he pulled out and removed his condom.

“Where?” Kid breathlessly asked while slowly pumping his arm, watching Ari point to her lower stomach, where he could see the bulge of himself inside her not only a few moments ago.

Ari held Bobby’s hand when he came, dropping his head low and dribbling cum on her stomach and thighs.

“‘M'm going to kiss you here. Can I kiss you here?” Bobby begged, holding her legs apart with his strong hands.

“Yes.” Ari watched Bobby make a ‘V’ shape with his long fingers, pressing them against the apex of her thighs before sliding his tongue inside her.

Twisting at the waist and crying out silently at the ceiling, Ari ripped the material of the couch cushion under her sharp nails.

‘Fuck, she tastes good.’ Kid inwardly groaned. ‘Why does she have to make things so difficult?’

Looking down at him from between her trembling thighs with the most loving expression anyone had given him since his Mother passed?

Ari reached down and closed her fingers in Bobby’s silky hair, gently tugging on his curls to bring him closer.

“Kiss it; please kiss it, Bobby. Right there-!” She squeezed his head between her thighs as she came with Bobby holding her shaking legs apart, rubbing and kissing her throbbing pussy.

“Ri.” Kid got sloppy, his broad nose bumping her clit, her wet pussy soaking his face, fluid dribbling down his neck, and staining his t-shirt. “I’m going to make you cum again.”

Ari whined in protest when Bobby dribbled his spit all over her leaking pussy, flipping them over so Ari was sitting on his chest, his t-shirt soaked in sweat, and Ari’s cum.

“I can’t.” She cried, overwhelmed and lightheaded; Bobby had been holding out on her.

Kid intended to disprove this as he quickly rolled on another condom, experimentally pushing the head of him up into Ari’s pussy, watching her face contort as his grip on her hips slowly pulled her down onto him inch by inch.

A brief thought of the couch breaking entered Kid’s mind, which only turned him on more, reaching back and holding the arms of the couch and bracing a foot on the floor as he fucked up into Ari, making her bounce on his dick.

Ari noticed Bobby never once took his dark eyes off her while she rode him, her nails digging deep enough into the material of his shirt that her perfectly manicured nails left crescent marks in the muscles of his broad chest.

Ari felt like crying when the sensation welled up, low in her stomach, yet again. Bobby sat up and crushed his lips against hers, holding her firm against him as she came all over his thighs, her pink nails digging into his flesh.

“I’m sorry,” Ari said, resting her cheek on Bobby’s sweaty and heaving chest.

“I didn’t mean to make a mess.” She felt his chest vibrate when he laughed and drew her close, kissing her hard and closing a hand in her blonde curls.

“Don’t apologize.” Bobby laid Ari back on the couch and got up, walking to the bathroom.

“I’ll get you a washcloth and some water.” He called over his shoulder while Ari rolled onto her stomach on the couch cushions, watching Bobby’s frame disappear from view.

Kid felt Ari relax into him and sigh contentedly when he returned with a warm washcloth and a bottle of water.

“Thank you.” Ari moaned softly when Bobby cleaned the inside of her thighs and lower stomach.

“You’re okay?” He murmured, lying back down. Kid traced the column of Ari’s spine with his index finger.

“Mhm. I’m sleepy.” Ari yawned cutely and buried her face in the material of the tank top Bobby had changed into; it smelled familiar somehow.

Laying with Ari naked on the couch, Kid fell asleep to the pleasant thought of a world where he was a normal man—someone Ari could show off to her family and friends, someone she could be proud of.

He’d come home from better work to Ari’s voice, and the pink lights would be warm and inviting.

But Kid was a Beast, and The Beast did not end up with the girl in the end. His story ended with Chief Rana and Baba Shakti’s lives snuffed out by his hands, and Kid would see to it by any means necessary, even if that meant letting Ari go.

Ari watched Bobby sleep. He looked young and at peace when he slept without his brow furrowed and his mouth in a hard line.

“I can feel you watching me.” Bobby said this without opening his eyes.

Kid never smiled or laughed as much as he did when he was with Ari.

“I can’t help it.” Ari folded her arms over Bobby’s chest and cutely propped her chin atop her hands. She was admiring the different shades of their brown skin and how they complimented each other so well.

Ari felt Bobby’s chest rise and fall with his breaths. “I know you have work tonight, but I have the day off today.” She offered, coyly playing with the gold chain around her neck.

“I will be at King's tonight too.” Ari picked up on Bobby’s change in demeanor, hoping this enticed him, but she felt his body stiffen underneath her. “My boss wants me to be his ‘date’.”

“You’re coming tonight?” Kid briefly wondered if The Beast could change Ari’s mind, knowing she would most likely visit Tiger’s Temple before going to Kings’ as she usually did. “I’m working the VIP floor tonight; I don’t know how much we will see each other.”

Kid kissed the top of Ari’s forehead to reassure her, hooking an arm underneath her knees and drawing her close.

“I want to spend the day with you.” If tonight went as planned, having the alibi that he had spent the day with Ari would be good.

After breakfast, Kid dragged Ari back to the couch, making out to the TV droning on in the background noise until the sun went down again. “I’ll see you tonight.” He leaned against the doorframe, his curls falling on his face as he bent down to kiss Ari goodbye. “Be a good girl.”

Ari stuck her tongue out at Bobby and teasingly gave his chest a gentle push, blowing him a kiss goodbye as she left.

Dropping his smile as Ari disappeared down the steps, Kid went inside to prepare for Tiger’s Temple. The Kong mask glared menacingly at him as he wrapped his hands in the locker room, lingering on the previous night’s events and Ari’s body over his.

Shaking his head, Kid willed the thought of Ari out of his mind. ‘No distractions.’ He demanded of himself, rising to his feet and punching his fist into his palm.

The first thing Kid saw as he climbed into the ring that night was a hoodie in his favorite plum shade with curled blonde hair sticking out.

“You’ll never stop wearing that, will you?” Kid tsked disapprovingly at the end of his evening with a shake of his sweat-soaked hair, pulling down the fire escape ladder and gesturing for Ari to climb.

The night had started tame enough, but Ari could tell The Beast was on one. Punch drunk and surly.

“Don’t you chastise me,” Ari warned, feeling The Beast’s gaze trail up her thighs as she climbed. “I hear you yelling at Cobra to hit you harder.” She gave him a hard look over her shoulder. “I don’t like how Tiger calls you a monster. You don’t believe that, do you?”

The Beast suddenly advanced on her, metal clanging as he turned her body and seized her wrists, pinning her hands above her head. “Do you?” The voice coming through the mask was serious and low.

Ari turned her body around, releasing her grip on the ladder and fully surrendering to The Beast’s touch. If he let go, they would both fall.

“Hey! You’re supposed to be nice to me!” Ari’s brow scrunched, wrapping her arms around his neck. The Beast held onto the ladder with both bandaged hands and leaned far, far back, so they both hung over the alley from way up.

“For the record,” Ari looked directly through the eyes of the Kong mask so intently that Kid briefly thought he saw a brief flash of recognition on her features. “I never once thought you were a monster.”

“Close your eyes.” The Beast demanded, covering her eyes with his long, bandaged fingers as he lifted his mask and kissed Ari with such passion and longing that she thought she was going to lose all her air and float into the dark night.

Pulling away for breath, Kid hurriedly climbed with Ari up the ladder and into the fire escape room, his bandaged hands traveling down her body and lifting her into his arms with ease.

Reaching into his pocket, The Beast teasingly held up Ari’s lip gloss and perfume in his fingers.

“Looking for these?” Ari tried to snatch them, but he held the items high above her head. “Want to see what I do with them?”

Setting Ari on his mattress, The Beast leaned back against the wall, spritzing the air once with her vanilla perfume as he undid the ties of his sweatpants.

Removing the cap of Ari’s pink lip gloss, The Beast pulled his sweatpants past his hips to reveal his erection.

Licking his blood-stained fingers, Ari watched The Beast wrap his long fingers around himself as he began to slowly pump his hand while Ari watched with round eyes.

Coating his fingers in Ari’s pink gloss, Kid thrust into his newly bandaged hand. He had replaced the wraps before leaving Tiger’s Temple. He didn’t like Ari seeing the blood and scars on his bare hands.

Crawling across the small space on all fours, Ari straddled the beast’s waist. He took her hand and licked her palm the way the Lion did his paw after the thorn was removed.

“Like this.” Kid showed Ari how he stroked himself at the thought of her lately.

Knelt above his lap, Ari wrapped her soft lips around the head of him, sweetly kissing the top before taking him down her throat.

Kid wrapped his bandaged hand in Ari’s soft blonde hair, carefully pumping his dick in and out of her mouth.

“Come here.” Kid growled and pulled Ari upright, roughly kissing her swollen, pink lips.

Ari tossed her head back against the steel fire escape door as The Beast furiously fucked her against it. “Why won’t you let me see your face?” She whined, though it added a level of excitement while he took her like this. “You don’t trust me?”

“It’s not you I don’t trust.” The Beast slowed his hard thrusts to slow, lazy rolls of his hips. “We could get in serious trouble.” He carefully placed a hand against the column of her neck.

Ari placed her hands on his sweaty, bare chest, feeling his muscles flex underneath her fingertips.

Kid gave the sides of Ari’s neck the gentlest of squeezes, hissing long and low when he felt her clench tight around him. “Good?” He pulled back slightly to look her over, ensuring she was alright, still suspended in his arms against the door.

Squeezing and releasing the sides of her neck in time with how Ari clenched around him, Ari watched the Kong mask slowly tilt to the right, a hopeful feeling rising in her that he would finally remove the mask and reveal his face to her.

‘I might not see her again.’ Kid thought, running a thumb across her swollen bottom lip. ‘She deserves the truth.’

As the Kong mask slowly lifted, Ari’s dark eyes strained to see in the dark of the room, her heart pounding in anticipation.

The shatter of glass and voices shouting below distracted Kid for a brief moment, and to Ari’s disappointment, he lost his nerve.

Sitting back on the mattress with Ari’s trembling frame in his arms, Kid rocked them back and forth a bit, rehearsing the conversation over and over in his mind.

“You’re still going to the Kings?" Kid carefully brought up the delicate subject, playing with strands of Ari’s blonde curls.

“Mhm.” Ari nodded, resting her head on his bare and sweaty chest, feeling his heartbeat thumping. He felt comfortable and familiar in a way she could not explain.

“My boss is making me go. I wish I could stay, but I already missed the past few times because... When Ari trailed off, Kid knew why.

“Promise me you’ll stay safe.” The Beast pulled back, gently cupping Ari’s chin in his hand.

“Don’t stay late.” If Ari didn’t know better, he was not asking her; he was warning her.

“I won’t,” Ari reassured The Beast. She always closed her eyes when they kissed, and she wished he trusted her enough to show him the face under the mask, but this had brought them closer.

“You don’t have to worry about me; I have a friend there.”

‘Bobby.’

Kid was glad Ari couldn’t see him frown. “You trust him?” He walked the line, helping Ari redress. “I do,” Ari insisted, holding his bandaged hands to her lips, swollen from their tryst in the fire escape. “If anything, I wish he had more trust in me.”

“Promise me you will keep yourself safe?” If Ari didn’t know better, she would have thought she heard a bit of begging in The Beast’s usually gruff voice as he walked her back to her apartment and kissed her goodbye.

Kid wondered how he had found himself jealous of Bobby, wishing he didn’t have to hide half of himself from Ari. “I’ll leave early and come back to you. How about that?” She compromised with The Beast, who crouched in her window.

“Wait up for me?” Ari stood on her tiptoes and sweetly kissed The Beast goodnight.

“I will always wait for you.” After The Beast had disappeared from her fire escape, Ari noticed his mood had dampened as well at the mention of Kings, the same way Bobby had.

Ari only hoped these dinners with her boss would end soon, especially after the night she had spent with Bobby and with The Beast.

“It’s not about him.” Ari reminded herself of the bigger picture: she needed to keep her head straight and not let masked men or kindly waiters distract her from the fact that people were suffering and Baba Shakti and Chief Rana had eyes on her, as did her boss.

Ari reassured herself as she applied her pink gloss, her thoughts returning to The Beast, who applied the tube he stole to his fingers before touching himself.

Slowing her shaky breaths as the rideshare app alerted Ari that her car had arrived to take her to Kings.

Placing her recording device in her purse before leaving to meet her car, not knowing The Beast was perched on Ari’s roof, she watched her in the shadows as her car glided away into the dark night.

Ari was disappointed that she had not seen Bobby all evening. Her boss seemed to have more of an obsessive grip on Ari as of late; he could tell something, or even worse, someone had taken her attention from him, and he did not like it.

“Why don’t you sit here?” Ari protested angrily when her boss lifted her onto his lap. She shoved his chest and got off his lap, retreating to the alleyway.

“Hey!” Ari’s boss was furious, following after and seizing her by the elbow, pinning her to one end of a coat closet.

“Who do you think you are, you bitch? Embarrassing me like that?”

“Excuse me?” Ari was taken aback by all the sleazy smiles and feel-ups; her boss revealed his ugliest side yet. “You cannot speak to me like that!”

“If you want a job tomorrow, you’ll listen to every word I say.” Ari felt her blood run cold when he pressed his body into hers.

“Tell me, who is he?” He demanded, furiously spitting in her face as Ari began to hyperventilate, feeling the walls closing in on her like the night in Yatana.

“Get off me!” Ari tried to run, and he grabbed her, pinning her shoulders to the wall.

“BOBBY-!” She screamed, thrashing wildly in his arms.

Drawing her arm back, the way The Beast did in Tiger’s Temple, Ari closed her hand into a fist, slamming her knuckles into the side of her boss’ face with a bloody crunch as she broke free from the coat closet.

Falling to the floor, Ari winced when her tights ripped, taking her heels and climbing to her feet as she ran for the exit, leaving her boss to scream in pain while clutching his broken nose.

Hearing gun pops and screaming above her, Ari watched Kings descend into pure chaos. Women in diamonds and silk dresses ran with men with gold watches and richly embroidered dress shirts.

“What’s going on?” Ari grabbed Sita’s arm, and the look on her face was all she needed to know.

“It’s him, isn’t it?” Sita couldn’t reply, grabbing Ari’s arm and forcing her to follow her to the fire exit as the crowd became more intense.

Descending to the parking garages, it only got worse as a man darted from the shadows, limping and covered in blood as he climbed into a motorized rickshaw.

Alphonso swore and broke from the crowd, joining Bobby as he peeled out of the parking garage under a shower of gunfire from security.

‘What did he do?!’ Ari clutched her heels in her fist and ran for the nearest taxi, demanding to be taken to her news station; someone had to be giving live coverage of what had just transpired.

Every television she passed on the way to the station was projecting the high-speed chase through the streets.

Ari ignored the stares from her coworkers as she ran barefoot through the halls with her heels and purse clenched tightly in her fists, slowing to a stop to watch the late-night news anchor report live a terrorist attack inside Kings perpetuated by a man posing as a waiter.

‘Terrorist?’ Ari pictured the man she had laid naked with on his couch that morning. Now, the camera zoomed in on Bobby, cuffed, bloody, and limping as the police chased him across rooftops, helicopters hovering overhead.

“Is that a sniper?” Ari gasped in horror while the receptionist, whom she leaned on for support, could only silently nod.

“FINAL WARNING!” The officer in the helicopter yelled through a megaphone, but the waiter in cuffs did not stop running.

Ari clapped a hand over her mouth, watching in silent horror as the sniper aimed his weapon.

There was a bright flash and a pop from the helicopter; Bobby stumbled over the rooftop’s edge, crashing through a metal awning below, and fell headfirst into the river.

The receptionist helped clean Ari up and sent her home in a taxi, leaving the whole station perplexed by Ari Arya’s reaction to the man who shot up Kings.

“Turn here, please,” Ari requested tiredly when the taxi driver did not slow down at her apartment complex.

“Excuse me, sir. I said, Stop here.” Irritation turned to fear when the taxi turned sharply into an alley.

The driver turned the ignition off and looked over his shoulder. Chief Rana Singh locked sinister, dark eyes with Ari.

A sweet-smelling napkin was forced against Ari’s mouth. She tried to fight back as her world turned fuzzy and faded into static.

Queenie had found Ari’s recording device in her purse—the hours of conversation with a man whom Ari called ‘The Beast’ about the goings on at Kings.

It was incriminating, and Queenie would not stand for it, orchestrating Chief Rana to kidnap Ari and bring the morning news anchor to her office.

“Put her to work in the VIP room tonight,” Queenie demanded as Chief Rana carried an unconscious Ari away into the dark. “And then I want you to hunt down ‘The Beast.’ and bring me his head.”

#edited and proofread by the loml @youlooklike-stevienicks #monkey man #dev patel #monkey man (2024)#the kid monkey man #the beast monkey man #bobby monkey man #oc #ari arya #mine #writing #writing on tumblr #my writing

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