*hides in fridge* Uhm... hello... I'm still alive... and so is this story! Not eaten by bugs or rats or fridge boy (though he tried -_-). I'm sorry it took me so long to write this, but I have a full-time job now which is very demanding.

Anyway, enjoy the new chapter, that the darling natzilla betaed with her beta-super powers!

Belly of the Beast

Chapter: 23 Day One

Elena was convinced she was about to die. Bludgeoned to death by a naked monster in human skin was not how she had envisioned leaving this world, but what was she to do. At least she'd be dead before he started eating her. That was a small consolation.

Holding her breath, she stared at the abomination with wide eyes, waiting for the pipe to knock her off. For a moment her senses sharpened like a camera in perfect focus. The outlines of her surroundings appeared in a stark contrast to the murky background. She could make out the tense muscles of the beast's arm that held the pipe, she could see every dirty matted hair, hear the dry sounds of insects crawling behind the walls. The dusty air chilled her sensitive skin and the stench of dead things and her own urine burned the little hairs in her nose.

The boy's pupils were two pitch black empty holes surrounded by brilliant green fire that consumed her and burnt her soul to crisps.

Suddenly they constricted to two paper thin slits and the world snapped back to a dull and faint static in the background.

The human beast tilted his head as if listening to something. Then his arm relaxed and before Elena could blink he was gone. The clattering of the pipe as he'd abandoned his position and crawled out of the room with terrifying speed still rung in her ears.

Slowly, she let out a shaky breath. Then she got up on trembling legs, seeking support from the moldy walls. Grabbing Reno's torn suit with numb fingers she limped out of the room.

It still smelled of him.

Elena wondered how his last hours had been. Had he been lucky enough to enjoy a quick, painless death? Had he been suffering while that bastard tore him apart? Had he been lonely, frightened?

Not knowing drove her almost crazy and also very very angry.

It wasn't fair, he hadn't deserved this, dying in a place like this, all alone, probably in pain. And for what?

Pressing her lips in a furious line, eyes hardening, Elena made a decision. She would avenge him. She'd kill that creep even if it was the last thing she did. Maybe he had had the advantage of surprise on his side the first time.

But not this time.

Clutching Reno's suit close to her body before putting it in the bag she had brought, Elena took a careful look around the corner but the hallway was clear.

Her eyes had a hard time adjusting to the darkness and they saw threatening shadows everywhere. She quickly grabbed a rusty metal rod from the ground, weighting it in her hand. Heavy and with a sharp pointy end. Perfect.

The hunt was on.

"What's up, yo?" Reno chewed on his bug with a frown while his hands weaved skillfully through the thick mane. Fridge boy seemed a bit on edge and his half lidded eyes kept darting to the hole in the wall of their pool room . "You not happy or what? It's your own fault, yo. If you hadn't wandered off by yourself we'd be done already. I know you hate bathing, but believe me, I'm not keen on picking all those damn insects out of your hair either. And how do you manage to get all these knots ? I detangled that just yesterday."

With a snort, Reno grabbed a small spider and pulled it out of fridge boy's otherwise surprisingly silky hair. Reno's own hair was presently lying on the wet tiles in tufts. He cut it off with a sharp shard of glass when it became too bothersome. He'd have done the same with fridge boy's but his special friend was very adamant on keeping his long hair. At least he had voiced his disagreement with words this time instead of using his pipe. Reno was surprised that he'd brought the pipe to the pool at all. They communicated mostly through language these days, which was a big relief. Teaching fridge boy the meaning of "No", "Yes" and "Stop" had proven to be most benefiting.

"rAt," was the almost petulant reply, followed by a hiss and a muttered, almost inaudible "bAth unhAppY."

"I heard that, yo." Smirking, Reno combed through a clean strand. It was a chore to get fridge boy to the pool after he had learned that he could get his cuddles without attempting to drown himself first. When Reno announced now that it was bathing time it was not met with appreciation and usually involved lots of bribes and excessive cuddling (and their other game) afterward. It was a tremendous improvement from before though, when fridge boy had outright refused him with a decisive "nO" and a quick retreat into his fridge.

"Only good boys get rats, you know the drill. Now stop being such a bitch about it, we're almost done, yo. Ah, what the fuck, stop moving, we're not done ye-"

Annoyed, Reno tightened his grip on the boy's hair to hold him in place and looked up to see what had made him suddenly leap on all four. The sight of the apparition at the door , though, froze him stiffer than a statue and he choke on his words.

Elena was at least as shell-shocked as her former comrade.

But who could blame her, considering the picture of utter absurdity that presented itself before her?

First, there was Reno.

Alive.

Or at least she thought it was Reno. From the sight of him... she wasn't actually sure.

He was crouched down by a large pool full of algae. Naked. His skin was hidden under a thick crust of dirt and dust, as was his hair. She could barely make out the color. The eyes staring back at her glowed in a radiant blue. A slimy, half eaten bug hung from the corner of his chapped lips. Lips that, just seconds ago, had been babbling incomprehensible noises in a raspy voice that sounded nothing like Reno, at all.

His hands were buried in the hair of her attacker, who lay on the tiles in all his abnormal, beautiful glory, one of his arms slung around Reno's belly in a loose, comical hug. He seemed tense now, staring at her out of emotionless eyes, his free hand blindly but surely reaching for his pipe and curling around it.

They looked like two muddy monkeys who'd been disturbed during delousing.

The first to regain his composure (if he'd ever lost it) was fridge boy. Sitting up, he morosely let his pipe clash down on the tiles and eyed her in what Elena thought to be a very threatening way.

"rAt," he declared, and after a pause, "hUngrY."

That seemed to break the spell.

Reno closed his gaping mouth and asked in an uncertain, small voice "'Lena?"

The female turk had a hard time understanding the word but when she did it left no doubt that the pathetic, starved creature in front of her was indeed Reno.

That revelation triggered an onslaught of emotion: relief that she had found him and that it had been the right decision to not give up on him after all ; happiness that he was still alive and seemed to be unhurt ; hot shame that he had to see her like this, with her pants soiled ; pity at his thin body and finally misery for the general state he was in as she realized how he must have lived down here all this time to survive in the company of that twisted creature. Seeing him like this and knowing it was him made her almost wish he hadn't survived at all.

Rather than turning into an animal, death might have been a mercy.

"Yes, it's me, Elena! We've come to rescue you! Get away from him you monster!" Elena's voice sounded shrill and deafening even to her, but she didn't care. She waved hysterically at the boy to shoo him away from Reno. But why wasn't Reno moving? She had come to free him from that creature that clearly held him hostage down here! But he just sat there motionless, staring at her as if she was the abomination in this room.

The boy was more inclined to react, growing impatient from the drama that he didn't understand. Baring a row of sharp white teeth at the intruder/rAt, he tensed and jumping at the speed of light, he was suddenly behind her in mid-air, his weapon ready to crash down on her before she could even fully turn around.

That seemed to pull Reno out of his trance as he shouted coarsely "Stop!"

And much to Elena's disbelief, the boy stopped midway, gracefully falling on all four beside her with an impassive stare.

Reno had gotten up to a kind of a standing position with his back hunched as if he wasn't used to it, his gaze focused on her still. He wasn't even trying to hide his nakedness. Slowly, he reached out a hand, saying something that sounded to Elena like "Come here. No rat." and was obviously not meant for her.

The boy seized her with one last dull but somewhat disappointed look before crawling back to Reno's side. Much to Elena's chagrin, Reno petted his head as the boy pressed his despicable, dirty monster body against him. This time she was almost certain that he said "Good boy."

And the boy actually purred.

"Reno, what's going on...? What happened to you ?"

Her friend looked away from her at last and fixed his eyes on the floor, but his stare was less ashamed than resigned.

Frustrated.

With her.

Reno gulped a few times, his jaw tightening, but he neither spoke nor showed any sign of wanting to leave this hellhole.

Her head was swimming and she gripped her metal bar tighter. This was a nightmare, it had to be! It was just so... grotesque. Shouldn't Reno be happy that she had found him? That he could get out of here? Why was he behaving so strangely, so irrationally? It didn't make any goddamn sense!

"Look, it doesn't matter right now. You don't have to explain," she tried, her voice growing softer. Who was she to judge him. Elena had no idea what he had had to endure down here all this time. Reno was probably afraid of her condemning him. He would need extensive medical and psychological care once they were back and it wouldn't be easy, maybe he'd never recover fully. But they would try their best.

Her words at last seemed to reach him and Reno fixed his glowing, now uncertain eyes, back on her. He must be heavily mako poisoned...

"Tseng and Rude are here too. We've been looking for you for eleven months, even after the official search was closed. I knew you were still alive, I never gave up on you. And I found you." Her biohazard suit rustled as she took a step towards him, hand outstretched. "It's over," She smiled, a little shakily. "You're safe now."

"Safe..." He repeated as his body straightened to its former height.

"Yes!" It was a mixture of a laugh and a sob as Elena finally reached him and clasped him in her civilized arms to shield him from all the nightmarish things he had experienced down here and welcome him back into the realms of cultured humanity.

After a brief moment of hesitation he returned the hug.

They stood like that for what felt like hours but must only have been a few minutes. Fridge boy observed the scene with uncomprehending eyes, a forgotten outsider to their intricate, artificial relationship.

Elena finally sniffled and wiped her eyes, breaking the embrace. "W-we need to go. Tseng and Rude must be worried by now."

Reno's grip around her only tightened though. His stomach cramped.

He was so fucking hungry for something else than rats and bugs.

And Elena looked so goddamn meaty.

"Reno?" Uncertainty crept into the blond's voice as she tried to pry his arms loose, gently at first, then urgently the more his grip tightened.

"rEnO," the beast purred. He was hUngrY, too.

Reno took a deep breath of her warm hair. She smelled so good, so healthy. Her rapid pulse and firm flesh intoxicated him, drowned out every other thought. Unable to resist, his tongue darted out to lick her salty skin and the dried blood from the wound of her forehead where fridge boy had hit her the first time.

Elena tasted forbiddenly delicious.

With a shaky breath he bit into her neck.

"Reno! Let go!" She was clearly panicked now and the stench of her fear had Reno inhale sharply. All of a sudden he let go, and pushed her away so hard that she fell to the floor, breaking a few more tiles.

"rEnO!" the beast babbled, feeling a great sense of accomplishment. After all, he had joined the conversation. And he wanted a hug too, so he clung to the bony body of his rEnO.

"...Gesefa Ouaheyo."

"W-what...?" Confused, Elena tried to get up but failed. Reno had resumed his crouching position by the pool, conflicting emotions flickering over his dirty face. The most apparent was despair.

"I don't understand... I can't understand you..." Her broken voice drifted through the room.

Reno closed his eyes, gulping a few times. His face furrowed in concentration as he repeated slowly, as if every word cost him a great deal of effort,

"Get.. the fuck... outta... here..., yo."

"...hAppY," the beast piped up, observing and trying to judge rEnO's expression. If he guessed right then he'd be a good boy and they could stop bAthIng and playing that stupid gAmE and maybe find a rAt or go to slEEp. The beast was getting tired of this, especially since they hadn't and probably wouldn't eat the big rAt Reno claimed was no rAt. The new big one knew rEnO and hUg and they had connected so maybe the new big one didn't qualify as food. The beast didn't like that. He didn't know how to react to that, he wanted it to go away and leave rEnO alone.

RenO was his.

"Yeah, happy. Good boy. I'm happy. Now shut up, okay, the adults are talking and this is kinda not going very well." Reno gently stroked fridge boy's beautiful face even though he didn't feel happy at all. Elena was a faint echo from his past, a bundle of hygiene, manners and trained behaviour that he couldn't understand or remember and she upset his new life. She was an alien intruding on his world. But first and foremost... she was food. Reno couldn't help it and he barely remembered why he should, but the part of him that hadn't been consumed by anarchy yet was trying to kick her out of here alive.

Elena couldn't understand a word of what he was babbling to the cannibal boy and she was crept out of her wits and frustrated and frightened and most of all shocked. Had he just tried to eat her?! She pressed a hand to her neck where his teeth had left a mark and drawn blood and crawled backwards, further away from them.

Her words couldn't reach him.

Whoever that man had once been, he wasn't Reno anymore. This creature was... damaged.

Inhuman.

A beast.

"B- but I can't leave you here," she croaked finally, this time succeeding in getting up. She couldn't say that she was totally convinced by her own words. "We have to get out of here." It was her mantra.

"...Leave." He took a deep breath in a last effort. "Please."

His tired gaze traveled to her through the quiet room, conveying the impossibility of her request.

There was no way he could go up with her.

He belonged to the beast now.

"Reno..." Helpless, she stared at the two of them crouched together in the darkness. Reno's arm was protectively draped over the boy's skinny shoulders. The boy himself clung possessively to the man that had formerly been 'Reno'.

Elena turned then and fled out of the room and through the abandoned hallways back to her friends.

As they had told her: Reno was dead.

The beast and Reno sat by the pool for a long time. Reno had given up on bathing his fridge boy. After a meal that consisted of raw rat, bugs but no fresh human meat, it was time to go back.

The beast demanded a story and Reno told him a tale about a boy that had once lived in a strange kingdom on the outside where it wasn't always dark and all kinds of dead food were aplenty. Where people did strange things and behaved in really unnatural ways, where there were a lot of confusing and inane rules that no one remembered how they had come to be. Where people twisted their selves into a nauseating number of different personalities to connect to other people through roles and social norms. Where everyone wore masks all the time and forgot what they were because they were so terrified of themselves that they couldn't bear it.

The beast didn't understand that world and neither did Reno.

They lay on the floor in a pile of rubble until they grew tired and then they both climbed into the new fridge they had dragged into their lair, huddled together in peaceful closeness, drifting into a dreamless sleep.

End

Review replies (still my favorite part^^):

BoomChick: Ah, sorry for the long wait! Yeah, Elena got unlucky :P But at least she survived which wasn't what I had originally planned for her :D

muertz: Oh, thank you for pointing out the mistake! Yeah, that creatures funny pictures, I'll go back and edit it :D I'm glad you otherwise enjoyed the chapter!

Divanora: I think if the beast was to suddenly meet hundreds of people all hell would break loose O.o And yes, no blaming Elena, if anyone touched me without my permission I'd punch them right in their faces :D I think the beast is slowly learning empathy, that's why he has an emotional connection to Reno and starts to get possessive of him too^^

natzilla: Hm, maybe because Elena is frightened? But I agree, no harming beastie!

Rina76: Heya! And again it took me ages to spit out this chapter :((( Working really eats a lot of writing time and energy :( Hahaha, I couldn't kill beast boy like that! And even though Elena is strong I highly doubt that she'd be able to. And surprisingly: no one was killed!

bloodrippedcupcake: Hey, sorry for the long wait! I feel horrible, but here's the chapter at last! And without a cliffhanger!

Lil: Elena was saved! And no worries about 'better' reviews, I adore every review I get! I hope this ending was happy for you, kind of?

Ilovwinning: NO! She is all right (at least physically) :D

Soyna: Yay, I'm happy you like it! Yeah, poor Elena's boob is the true victim here!

Viriam: Hello~ Thank you very much, I'm happy you enjoyed it! I haven't given up the story at all, actually I think about a possible sequel... I'm just slow with updates because I started a regular job after college that is very demanding. I hope you liked my other stories as well! They are co-authored thus they are different from the stories I write on my own^^

lilith dracul: Yes, I did! Sorry for the long wait!

Guest: Here you go :)

So here you have it, the last chapter! With this the story has come to a conclusion and I'd very much like to hear what you think one last time. I put a lot of thought and energy into this little story and it was frustrating sometimes, but also a lot of fun! I thank you so much for reading and for offering your shrewd and funny comments, they helped me develop this story so much!

(Btw. I'm toying with the idea of a sequel. Would you be interested in reading that? Anything in particular you want to see? Please let me know in a PM or review!)