Crimson

Wild shots...

Vita was deeply regretting the moment he had agreed to letting Nero take charge .

When he had told Nero of what the Governor's daughter had said and the fact that they had to go back to the Haze , Nero had shown an excessive amount of excitement .

Even though he had told Nero several times that they were going strictly for work , Nero's excitement had not reduced .

Instead , it had reached a new peak each time he heard Vita's words .

Vita knew , he knew he could have easily decided that they did not need to go to The Haze .

There were several other means they could have applied , including paying other people to gather information for them but he had wanted to see him .

He had a feeling Juno would be there tonight and he wanted to find out if the ethereal image he had of Juno from his last night at The Haze had been his imagination , something his dreams had tortured him with to drive him insane .

So , when Nero had asked that he take charge of this mission so that it would not turn out like their last visit where they had come back without anything , Vita had agreed .

The truth was even though Vita was the captain of the brigade , he had not established such a strict system that his comrades were unable to lead , plan and make suggestions to him .

He had long acknowledged how slow their progress on this case had been for obvious reasons , he was distracted .

He had agreed because he genuinely wanted to try out Nero's method , Nero was crazy .

Sometimes his craziness worked in favour of missions and the times it did not work , all hell broke loose .

Also , he had a feeling things were not going well between Nero and the redhead which was a surprise .

Nero usually f****d them on the first day and spent the rest of the time they spent in that city hiding from the person .

It seemed the Nero had now become the seeker .

He had genuinely thought Nero wanted this mission to be a success , at Least , he would be able to vent then .

So , he had reluctantly agreed to Nero's suggestions for the night .

Now , he sat without a shirt , taking sips of a drink that he had forgotten the origins and a woman dangling from his knees .

People had kept offering him drinks when he had come in and when he kept refusing they would give him this look .

So , he had finally accepted one to prevent other people from offering him drinks .

He had also been ambushed by a lady that was thankfully dressed and very drunk .

She was dressed in the clothes that most of the dancers adorned .

The first question he had asked her was how many years she had worked here , she had replied two years .

Satisfied that she had worked here long enough to possibly identify the thief , he offered to drink with her .

He soon realized why The Haze kept their same dancers even though they had worked for a long time .

She had stopped answering his questions the moment he had began to ask serious questions , when he asked her other questions she had no problem answering .

But , she seemed to become extremely drunk when the question involved something to do with The Haze or the description of the thief .

He looked around hoping to find Nero .

He might be able to get information out of the lady .

He spotted Nero on one of the small stages close by .

He was naked and embracing a naked girl with large , round breasts .

He was definitely not getting any help from there and it seemed his theory of Nero being the Seeker for the red head was currently laying in the muds .

He turned the lady around and tried to push her into the chair before he further embarrassed himself .

When he had successfully raised her legs from the floor and shifted her slightly , she moved and no longer obstructed his view of the whole courtyard .

For The Haze's standard of normality , there was nothing really amiss ...

At that moment , he spotted two men up on a porch , the same one whose stairs he had climbed and met Juno .

One of the men was his Juno , the other , the Albino man that he had seen with Juno the last time .

The albino man was shirtless , his white hair flowing .

Juno was not shirtless but he might as well have been .

He was wearing the neck band that he had worn the last time . His neck was gleaming but the lights were too dim to make out what it was that gleamed .

The lights were in fact so dim , he should not have been able to recognize them at that distance but the Albino man's white flowing hair gave him away .

And Juno , he recognized regardless of light .

The albino man had noticed him while Juno drank something .

Juno turned to face the man , they stood so close they might have passed as one from afar .

From where Vita sat , he could not make out what was happening , only that they had moved closer .

And then , Juno pulled the Albino man and they were out of his sight .

He waited a beat but they did not return to the porch .

Nero immediately stood forgetting the lady that had been mumbling on his chest , her head hit the chair with a resounding huff .

He flinched at the sound and only moved away when she did not move , the alcohol was so effective she could not feel pain for now .

He moved through the throbbing crowd , heading towards the way that led to the stairs that would in turn lead to the porch .

When he had pushed his way to halfway , he noticed that they had also come down the stairs , he stopped and watched them .

Juno and the Albino man stood just a few steps away from him .

Up front , Vita could see their faces better .

The albino man wore a heavy frown while Juno was staring at the Albino man with a worried face .

Up close , Vita could also see Juno very well .

He sucked a breath in and released it as he took a small step forward .

Juno's hair had been loosely braided with gold hoops and in the dim light , they glittered .

His ears held small gold hoops and a dangling earring from another hole he had not noticed that Juno had on his ear .

His nose had a ring too and his face had been dusted with some kind of shimmery powder .

His neck held the plain , gold band tightly and gracefully .

And then his shirt had no sleeve , exposing the fact that someone had put ink on his chest and arms .

His waist too carried two strings of small pearls and beads .

It only emphasized just how small Juno's waist was .

A lump had begun to grow in Vita's throat .

He finally stopped in front of them and focused his gaze on Juno whose attention was on the Albino man , the frown had not left his face and the look of worry had not left Juno's face .

When Juno finally turned to acknowledge him , the lump in his throat only grew ,the shimmery powder had also been applied to his eyelashes making their movements more pronounced and impossible to ignore .

Juno smiled , a half smile that did not reach his eye .

Nero wondered what this man had said to make Juno so worried , if the man stopped frowning would Juno smile again ?

Were they lovers ?

Or friends ?

Vita hoped it was the latter .

A man came forward and bent to whisper in the Albino man's ears , he nodded and the messenger left .

The albino man turned and gave Juno a look before he turned and left .

Juno followed his movement with his eyes until he went far away.

He turned then and faced Vita again , smiling ,it was a smile that reminded Vita of flowers and gardens . The lump in Vita 's throat had also disappeared .

" He is not in a very good mood ".

Juno informed him at the same moment he grabbed two drinks off the tray of a passing server .

He held one out to Vita , tilting his head slightly when Vita hesitated .

Vita who had always maintained a state of complete sanity during missions then accepted his second drink of the day .

He downed the drink at a go and nodded at the way the Albino man had taken .

" Who is he ?"

Even though , his throat was on fire from the unknown liquid , he still couldn't breathe as he waited to hear his reply .

" That's Ali . He manages here ".

Juno also downed his drink and proceeded to open his mouth wide , swallowing air .

Vita chuckled .

It was funny that no one had mentioned that an Albino man owned The Haze, it would have been a pretty specific description .

" Do you know him very well ?"

Juno nodded .

" We are long time acquaintances ".

Juno gave him a look he did not understand , he was wiggling his eyes at him .

Suddenly , he grabbed Vita's hand , intertwining their fingers .

" Come with me ".

He ran ahead , skillfully weaving around the drunk guests and dancers .

Vita had begun to feel queasy for a while now , but , he had attributed it to how he had come to realize his body acted when Juno was near .

The feeling only intensified when Juno intertwined their fingers and ran ahead , through the crowd .

They reached a part of The Haze that was secluded and separated from where the people partied .

There , the moon had put it's complete focus , the place shone bright .

Juno turned to him .

" We can stay here , I noticed the noise was disturbing you " .

It was easier to see Juno's eyes here , Vita sighed .

He put a hand out and slowly reached out , he was giving Juno enough time to stop him , he would not be able to stop himself once his hands were actually on him .

Juno didn't stop him and just like earlier In the day , he touched his cheeks and caressed it lightly .

Inside him , a battle raged .

A part of him wanted to take advantage of the time and place to tell Juno how and why he could not seem to focus.

The other part thought he was extremely slow and should have already taken action .

As he caressed his cheeks , he thought of how he was very comfortable with him .

Well , not at this point , because for some reason it was increasingly harder for him to concentrate.

Juno said something that he could not make out , he tried to get his attention all to no avail .

Juno held his forearms and continued to say words that Vita still could not make out .

Everywhere suddenly grew dark and Vita finally succumimbed

Eventually , he blacked out .