Chapter Text
Walking around the port, Welt didn't expect himself to see a boy hiding inside an empty metal container, hugging his knees together, huddled into a ball that shifted itself back and forth uncomfortably.
Golden eyes met a shattered emerald gaze before it reverted to the rusty wall of the container.
The boy looked delicate but fragile, with fresh injuries and old bruises littered on his pale skin. His cheek was bleeding from a maul from some creature. He was definitely far from being in good shape.
“Himeko, I think I found the kid you told me about,” Welt shouted into the distance, his voice echoing in the port. The boy hugged himself more tightly.
A redhead rushed over as the brunette exchanged a few words with her.
“… the Interastral Peace Corporation…”
…
“Topaz told you?”
…
“Poor thing…”
…
The IPC. Topaz. They seemed to be fuzzy, distant memories after he ran away from the crazy mask people.
Himeko knelt down to the same level as the boy. “Don’t be scared, it’s not like we’d eat you.” She held her hand out to invite the boy out of the container.
Dan Heng recoiled from the inviting hand. Who was this person? And… he knew this type of person too awfully well. The type of person who would pretend to be nice so that he’d fall for their tricks and follow them to whatever trouble that is in front of him.
“Are you lost? Did you just get separated from your parents?” Himeko asked, concern clouding her face.
Dan Heng tensed up. “I don’t have parents,” He said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Himeko looked at Welt, confusion in her eyes.
“Why are you asking?” the boy added.
“Which spaceship do you belong to? We can help–” Himeko said.
“I don’t belong to any spaceship.” Dan Heng was now backing into the corner of the container, summoning a spear and rubbing its handhold.
He could see the brunette raise a brow.
“I- if you wanna eat me, I will fight you!” The boy pointed his spear to the duo, looking at them with unconcealed fear in his darting eyes.
Himeko tried to reach her hand further into the container, but Welt shot her a glance and she retracted.
“So you don't have parents and don't belong to any spaceship.” Welt repeated what the boy said. “And your next stop is…”
“I don't know.” He shook his head, “ Don't know where my next stop is… ”
“Then would you like to board our Express, Dan Heng?” The brunette asked. He seemed less like a cannibal and more like someone Dan Heng could trust.
A long honk blared from the distance as a spaceship took off.
Dan Heng buried his face between his knees, his grip tightening on his spear.
It felt a million years before the noise subsided.
“For what?” He finally remembered the question Welt asked him. And he had to reply if he didn't want to… It's better not to think about it…
Welt replied with a smile. “I just saw you fight off that big monster. You must be a brave warrior, aren't you?”
Dan Heng nodded, his face slightly red. “But I'm scared of flashy lights. And loud noises. And-”
Welt's smile remained reassuring. “It's alright. You're not afraid of big monsters though– that's what a lot of people are scared of.”
The boy's shoulders lowered.
“And we need a guard on the Express. You're the best person for a guard.”
There was a glint in the boy's eyes. “No flashy lights? Or noises?”
“You'd be safe from them, I promise.”
XxX
Dan Heng looked around before sitting on the couch, after Himeko had tended to his wounds and it stung like heck. The place looked grand but cozy. His eyes were immediately captured by the giant illuminating whale on the ceiling.
The redhead Himeko was with them. She went into the door at the end of the corridor after the brunette, who introduced himself as Welt, said something to her.
The boy fidgeted with Cloudpiercer, finally relieved that there was some peace and quiet.
He was engrossed in staring at the spinning orb embedded inside the spear when he felt a gentle tap on his shoulder.
“Would you like to take a bath first?”
Dan Heng's slightly relaxed body tensed up once again. The water would be either freezing or boiling. His scalp tingled from the mental image of Welt and Himeko dragging him by the ears to the bathtub and dunking him into the boiling hot water and pulling on his hair when they scrubbed or scratching roughly at his back.
Before he knew it, he was fidgeting with the orb on Cloudpiercer again.
Welt's brows furrowed in puzzlement as he saw the boy seem like he had swallowed cyanide. “Dan Heng?”
“No bath…” Dan Heng was still looking at his spear. If this were an animation, Dan Heng's eyes would've been deep, dark spirals. “No bath… the water is too hot for me… and I don't want to be thrown into the water…”
“What about… a shower?” Welt inquired after pausing for a few seconds, “You can adjust the temperature if you want to.”
Dan Heng regained focus on the orb. “It feels like… rain? I read about it somewhere… Dan Heng likes rainy days, like how I stand under the umbrella and reach my hand out to catch the raindrops– But I hadn't even seen rain in a long time…”
Welt sat down next to him. “You want to feel the rain?”
The boy nodded.
XxX
In no time Welt and Dan Heng were in the bathroom of the Express.
The boy undressed himself, showing a slender torso with more bruises, including hand marks on his waist and Welt swore he saw bite marks and unexplainable small red marks littered on his inner thighs.
The sight of it made his heart break into shards. Whoever did this to Dan Heng was a million times more monstrous than the fiercest creatures in space.
As for Dan Heng himself, he didn't pay any attention to Welt’s nearly uncontrolled expression. In fact, he was more relaxed than he ever was for the day. “Rain, rain, rain~~” he repeated in a sing-song way as he flicked his hands as if there was something on them.
Welt tried to sweep what he felt into the back of his head. Maybe those injuries were from combat or insect bites, he was probably just way on his nerves lately. Dan Heng would be safe with him, and that's the only thing that mattered.
He turned the tap after the boy had finished undressing, allowing the sound of water splashing onto the floor to wash away any remaining thoughts about whatever that seemed uncanny.
When he turned back to Dan Heng from grabbing the shampoo, the boy was looking at his own hands with a blank expression.
“Do you want me to wash your hair? Or you'd do it yourself?”
No response. The water was dropping into Dan Heng's palms, forming two small reservoirs.
The water just seemed… different.
Then something happened. The water… formed a donut shape before the boy spinned it around his finger.
Welt blinked. He must be seeing things after the last Stellaron he destroyed. It wasn’t the fact that Welt was suspecting if Dan Heng was autistic, Himeko and Topaz mentioned that the boy “acts a bit weird but he’s a sweetheart” (Do people in this universe know what ASD is anyways?), but… the boy had powers with water? He didn’t hear anyone talk about it.
The sound of the shampoo bottle dropping onto the floor made them both come back to their senses.
Dan Heng turned around and looked at the bottle. “I will wash my hair by myself,” he said.
At that moment Welt caught a glimpse of the boy's pert nipples. They were dusted in a beautiful shade of pink, and the ring of bite marks seemed quite explainable at the sight. Wait. What was he just thinking? Ah, yes. He had to fetch the Vaseline and some bandages to tend to Dan Heng's wounds later.
XxX
Before Welt could come back to his senses, they were having dinner. Pom-Pom handed a glass of Cosmic Orange Juice to “the newest addition to the Express!”. The boy, with a curious glint in his eye, stretched his hand out to grab the glass as it touched his fingers and he felt it slipping between them and he tried to get before it falls down but–
A smash followed with clinkering.
“Oh…” He stared at the glass shards. The sound of the glass shards echoed in his ears. The fabric of the t-shirt suddenly seemed heavy on him, and it rustled on his skin uncomfortably. His mind went entirely blank. This couldn't be true.
“Dan Heng? Did you get hurt?” Himeko asked.
“...” The boy didn't take his eyes off the shards which Pom-Pom was cleaning up.
The creature only looked at Dan Heng for a moment before getting a spray bottle to wipe away the stain. Was it… angry at him?
He looked up to see Welt and Himeko looking at him.
Red blotches appeared on his arms by his own pinching.
The boy's breaking voice broke the silence.
“I broke the glass. Why aren't you punishing me?”
Himeko's eyes widened. “It's just an accident. Nobody said it was your fault. You don't deserve punishment.”
“B- but if I broke something, I must be punished…” He was visibly quivering.
“Who told you so?” Welt asked.
Dan Heng said in a soft voice, “B… Blade told me not to tell…”
“Blade?” Welt asked. He remembered the name from somewhere… where? Who was “Blade”?
The boy clapped his hands towards his mouth, as if it could stuff the words back into where it came from.
Was “Blade” the same person who gave Dan Heng all those scars? What else did they do to the poor boy?
He wanted to ask more, he wanted to help Dan Heng out of this… but even he can't take control of whatever he said, meddled by his own thoughts.
“Dan Heng, you haven’t done anything wrong. You don’t have to worry about punishment. As for anything related to the person, let’s talk about it tomorrow after a good night’s sleep, ok?”
Dan Heng nodded, hopefully in understanding.
They ate in silence.
XxX
The night ended with a short tour of the Express and Dan Heng insisting on sleeping on the floor in the Archive after knowing about its sheer amount of books.
Welt switched the lights off after the boy tucked himself in. The only thing illuminating the room was the floor with watery digital screens and the astral map wall. He closed his eyes, focusing on the small buzzing noises the electric circuits made.
“You broke our promise.” He saw a pair of crimson eyes.
Dan Heng said, “I'm very sorry. I didn’t mean to-” He hung his head in shame, not daring to look at Blade.
Blade held the boy into an embrace. The boy tried not to flinch from the eerie warmth of the man’s body. “I missed you…” The boy murmured.
“Dan Feng. Baobei. I know. I miss you too. But a promise is a promise. You didn’t keep our secret, so you have to be punished.” His voice was still as cold as ever. And he was talking to Dan Feng again.
Just as Dan Heng knew.
The man yanked his pants off in one swift motion, the cold air brushing the boy’s asscheeks. He tried to anchor himself, to not shudder or act up for any little change in the air flow or whatnot. He had acted up for the nth time that day and he had forgotten to “take some control into himself”, and if Blade knew he would get himself punished even more.
“You acted up? Again?” The man’s hand came into contact with the round flesh of the boy’s butt. Dan Heng shook at the impact, at the tingling sensation that ricocheted around his whole body.
“Huh? Tell me. We made a deal. We were going to prove them all wrong together!” Another slap. It felt like being whacked by an Antimatter creature. At least it wasn’t–
Something cold and slippery and wet touched his flaming butt cheeks. He squeezed his eyes shut and anticipated the impact.
He heard something move swiftly in the air. “We were going to outrun that goddamn karma of yours! Why can't you just be more like him?”
It was near. He could feel the icy sensation going colder and colder at the moment–
He opened his eyes. He was back in the Archive. There was no Blade. There was no Blade…
There was no Blade. But… he felt that something… was just missing inside him.
It was like a fiery hole inside him, burning and desperate to be filled up. He was longing for it. Longing for punishment.
No matter how many times he tried to punish himself… his fingers were never long enough to rival Blade's. It never felt like punishment. That button inside him just can't be pushed. The stretch… was far from pain. The feeling of his shirt rubbing against his nipples was hellish.
But Dan Heng had to be punished. For breaking that glass. And for not keeping that secret. And for acting up. What has gotten into him today? He knew he should be acting “normal”. He shouldn't be rocking himself (“Baobei, Dan Feng won't be caught doing that. It'd be a shame for him.”) or fidgeting with Cloudpiercer (“For the last time, Cloudpiercer is your weapon, not a toy!”) or flapping his hands (“Couldn't you just be normal for once? I'm not even asking you to be him now JUST BE A NORMAL PERSON !”).
His fingers alone didn't scratch that itch inside him, even if he plunged into the deepest. It only made him need more of it. Blade said he loved Dan Heng, no matter what. So it was for the best. And he himself wasn't enough.
Welt. He can find Welt. He remembered the times the other guys in the big cage room grabbed him and punished him. He didn't realize it was punishment then, but by how they said he used to be a “bad boy”, he knew he deserved all this. Welt was just lying to him about not getting punished. He was actually unhappy with him and punishment would come sooner or later…
And he had been bad. In front of Welt. With that in mind he slid the Archive door open and slinked out to the dark corridor.
Welt's room was at the end of the cart. He crept down the hallway, pinching his nose as he went past the door with the piercing coffee smell.
He opened the door with a small crack. The man was probably asleep, light snores audible from the room.
Now he just needed to get in.
XxX
Welt fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow. It had been an exhausting day and he didn't even have the energy to change into something else (he was practically a grandpa for Aeon's sake) so he decided to sleep in his underwear.
He was back. In his old life. Back with Joey. They were sleeping next to each other like one of those nights. But when he reached beside him to hug Joey… he was gone.
He sat up and uncovered the sheets, just for his eyes to meet his son licking the tip of his cock. His son. Licking the tip of his cock.
His son licking the tip of his cock. What in the universe–
“Joey! You- you’re not supposed to–” Welt’s bellowing was cut short by his own moaning. The boy stopped his movement for a second, but before Welt could ask him what he was doing this for, his dick was already being ridden on. A “–why?” was all he could mutter between whines from the overwhelming pleasure he had never experienced. He hadn’t touched himself since his teenage years, and took pride over being a virgin even at the not-so-ripe age of eighty-two. And now his son was riding cock for no reason? It doesn't matter if it feels good or not. If he tells anyone he’d most likely be doomed. Who would believe that Joey, the supposedly-innocent boy would actually rape Welt, his adoptive father?
This cannot happen to him. He raised his voice at his son for the first ever time, “Get down! Now! You shouldn’t be doing this!”
But Joey didn’t seem to be listening. Another jolt rushed through his body, and he knew he was–
“No! Don’t! Stop it! We’re not supposed to be doing this! Especially if–” He shouted as he opened his eyes to see a boy with a poker face on top of him– Dan Heng?
And he wasn’t exactly making a poker face. Tears were swimming in his deep green eyes, on the verge of rolling down his pale cheeks and onto the ground.
He tried to sit himself up. Maybe the boy just had a nightmare and needed comfort. But why was everything so heavy? He let out a soft whimper at the sudden pleasure as he moved.
That was when he noticed that weird dream had become true. Dan Heng was totally naked, revealing all his scars and bruises– which meant Welt’s previous worries were correct– one of his hands on a puffy, red nipple, rubbing and pulling at it; the other on his milky stomach, massaging the huge bulge from…
Welt looked down. His own cock was sheathed balls deep inside Dan Heng, with his hole stretched obscenely wide around it, revealing some soft, wet, pink flesh as it clinged to his cock for dear life. The boy’s hairless dicklet was fully erect, bobbing with every single little twitch with clear precum beading at the tip. The sight of it was so erotic that Welt wanted to grab the boy’s balls and– what was he thinking? This is totally not normal for a boy of Dan Heng’s age. He had to get the boy off his cock and tell him that he should only do this when he gets older. His hands were at the boy’s smooth armpits, about to lift him off.
“W-what are you doing?” Dan Heng asked, trying his best to not open the floodgates and let his tears out. The punishment was more overwhelming than he had imagined. Welt’s cock was much girthier than Blade’s despite being a bit shorter in length that every single little bump and ridge of it scraped through his butthole and it just made him gooey and limp and wanting to jolt all over and his butt was literally burning at the point when he managed to fully sit onto the man’s member.
Welt made his tone as stern as possible, “Dan Heng. Listen to me. Whatever you are doing now has to be stopped. This is not right in every single way. You should only do this when you’re older, with someone you truly love.”
But Dan Heng was already doing this almost every day when he was with Blade. Blade won’t let him cry or whimper or else it would be another few paddles to the butt– he resisted it at first. Cried on the top of his lungs or even had the audacity to kick Blade, in hope that the man would stop whatever he was doing. “Isn’t this how I’m supposed to be punished?” the boy asked as if every single living being in the universe should’ve known, “Blade always does this to me. There’s no way it’s wrong. And he does love me.”
No– it’s totally wrong– what else did Blade do to you– I’m not gonna–
A moan replaced all the words that were about to leave Welt’s mouth as Dan Heng lowered himself back onto his cock– the friction was unbearable and to make matters worse, he was so tight that Welt felt that his cock would get cut off.
He was practically seeing stars and he couldn’t even think straight. It felt like his brain took a hard blow from the pleasure he was feeling and it finally broke down and shattered and stopped working under the overwhelming force, giving in to the carnal desire to thrust into the boy, to breed the boy, to make him full with his cum. His hands grasped onto Dan Heng’s small waist, using the remaining crumbs of his sanity to avoid hurting the boy too much– there were already hand-shaped bruises there, overlapping each other.
The sudden movement made the boy tighten even more around him, tears finally rolling down his cheeks from– it's way too much. The tingly sensation was running a hundred miles per hour in his veins, across his whole body. He can’t take it. He can’t. He wanted to just faint right there and then from the sensory explosion, but he knew he wasn’t supposed to. He should let Welt chase his own high first, then he would be forgiven. Then Welt would stop asking those weird questions as if he hadn’t acted up at all. He was a bad boy. And bad boys needed to be punished.
By the thought, he bit his own lip to bottle up any sound coming out while getting filled up by the cock pistoning in and out of him, rearranging his guts and making squelches louder than the last ones. His butt has never been stretched that wide. It felt like he would break like that glass if it continues– then everything knocked him out like a tractor. He was seeing white and it was like he went to heaven. Maybe he was dead after the punishment? He didn’t know.
With a swift movement Dan Heng’s hole was gaping wide, clenching around nothing but the cool air of the room that woke the boy up from his high. Welt seemed like he was very unwell– his face was red and he was shaking all over, his eyes rolled back when the orgasm hit him.
“Welt? Welt? Are you dying? You ok?” Dan Heng snapped back to reality, not caring how the air tingled his skin and anything. Welt was still letting out short whimpers and moans– it was the most euphoric thing he had experienced since he was born. But at least he pulled out and didn’t cum inside the child… if he actually did.
He was still too busy panting to respond.
“Welt! Don’t die! I know I’ve been a bad boy and you have to punish me and you seemed like you didn’t want to for some reason and you’re probably… I dunno, but, please! Don’t die like that–” The boy shook Welt’s shoulders desperately, the dried tears on the brink of flowing back down again.
Welt finally mustered the energy to speak. “D- did you feel anything… leaking out…?” Sex was exhilarating, but at his age there was no way he could recover that fast.
“You’re alive… Thank goodness… Thank goodness you’re still alive… ” A wave of relief washed over Dan Heng.
Welt asked, “There really is nothing leaking out? I’m more concerned about if you’d get a tummy ache from it if I came inside you.”
Dan Heng shook his head. “It’s fine. You’re alive. I’m sorry that I broke the promise and the glass jar and…”
“Don’t blame yourself over this, ok? You’re too young to so-called ‘be punished by’ anyone, even with someone you love, and it’s also wrong to just do that if the person you’re doing it with hasn't explicitly agreed with you, regardless of your age, you get me?” Welt put on a stern face while getting his grandpa-back to stand up from the bed and carry Dan Heng bridal style before going to the bathroom to clean them both up. This cannot happen again.
Dan Heng tilted his head. “Blade– he does that. Even if I didn’t agree with him. It makes me unhappy, but after the punishment I’m a good boy. He pats my head and says that I’m his ‘Baobei’. He is happy that he kisses me. I want to be a good boy. I wanna make Blade and you happy.”
Welt sighed. Back onto the Blade matter again. How can a living thing in the multiverse be such a monster to abuse, to manipulate, to groom, to rape a boy who is likely neurodivergent? And how did it happen right under the IPC’s nose that not even Topaz knew? Now how could he tell Dan Heng that Blade wasn’t right, that he was getting abused by Blade and Blade had been drumming all the wrong values into the boy for whatever purpose? He opened the switch and blankly looked at the boy playing with another makeshift bath toy he had formed from water as if nothing had happened. As if Welt hadn’t fucked up and lost his control and actually did that with the boy. If they get caught for whatever reason, he was the one to blame, even if he told the truth that it was Dan Heng who “made a move on him first”. He always knew that the truth would seem more fake than a lie, but this hit hard. And who knows if he could have the willpower to stay put if this happens again?
They still had a long, long way to go.