Title: Wait for Sleep

Characters:Vincent's PoV. Vincent, Gil, Duke Nightray & mentions of the rest of the Nightray tribe, Break, mentions of Oz and Alyss.

Pairings/ Warnings: Implied Gil/Oz, eventual Vincent/Gil & Gil/Vincent, dubcon.

Long Summary: First in the Borderlands series. When obsession becomes desperation, young Vincent Nightray decides to take his brother's safety into his own hands. That decision leads to the darkest of places with consequences he never imagined. In "Wait for Sleep" in order to protect Gilbert from the dangers of the Abyss, Vincent acquires his own Chain. But the Dormouse is not as docile as it seems, and its demands are not so easy to sate. Kink meme fill.

Note: Takes place during the years Gilbert and Vincent are living together as wards of the Nightray manor.

Written to fill this prompt: "Vincent's Dormouse can put people to sleep, right? I bet if he uses it quickly they'll just drop off, but if he works at it, he can put someone under slowly, and talk them down to a sleepy, suggestible state." Yes, smut will happen, but I'm building up to it! ^-^

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters. Jun Mochizuki and Square Enix do.

Prologue

Cold hard ground. Nighttime sky.

"Gil…?"

Pain. Everywhere. Vincent opened one battered eye, groped the dewy grass with a blood-stained palm.

"Gilbert…!"

Iron gates creaking before him. Was that…the Doorway to the Abyss…?

"Where are you?"

Gone. His brother was gone.

The Abyss took him.

He lost his brother.

The scream, high and young and thin, wretched the air apart as the desperate, bleeding boy beat his small fists on the ground and began to cry.

"Gilbert, Gilbert, Gilbert, come back…."

The taste of grass and blood in his mouth. Choking gasping sounds as his sobs wracked his small body. If she stole him, if white-haired Alice took him when they got separated in the Abyss, he'll kill her, kill her, kill her…

Crying out to anyone and no one, Vincent begged, "Take me to the Abyss… Take me to Gil…"

A light. Vincent shielded his face. Please not a monster, make all the monsters go away….

Voices. "He's hurt!" A man with peppered-colored whiskers in servant's clothes held a lantern overhead. "Susie, I'll take the boy inside and get him fixed up."

"But Joseph-"

"I think the Duke'll want to meet him."

Over and over, babbling words as warm arms lifted him up carried him away. "I have to save him… We were in the Abyss… Help me find Gilbert… He's all I have… Help me find him…"

Footsteps echoing in dim-lit elaborate hallways. Stone statues and oil paintings glimpsed in the lantern light, visages staring out like ghosts. He didn't see where they took him, didn't care. The only consuming thought that wracked through his young mind.

This is all my fault.

Minutes or hours passed. Time made no sense and no difference. Shadows, vague forms hovered around him. Voices overhead.

Vincent must've fallen asleep at one point, because he remembered waking up. Not to the nightmare playroom of broken toys and broken people, but an open, luxurious room with morning light streaming through towering windows. A bed, a blanket. Clean white sheets up to his neck, clean white bandages hiding all of the bloody red wounds.

"Sir, we found him before the front gates. The child said he came from the Abyss."

Vincent babbled. He couldn't stop, he couldn't stop until they listened, oh gods, please…. "We were in the Abyss… And I lost him… Help me find my brother…"

A towering man by his bedside. Hard black eyes, long black hair. Impeccable clothes in rich fabrics.

"What is your name, boy?"

Vincent blinked. He realized this was the first time someone had spoken to him directly since he landed in the real world. In a soft raspy voice, strained from the screams and the endless, mindless pleas, he answered, "Vincent."

"I am the Duke Nightray," the man said gravely. He leaned down over the bed and gave the child a critical eye. "I can help you find your brother."

Hope lifted up his frail heart. "You can?"

The Duke nodded curtly, his penetrating gaze seeming to pierce right through him. "Tell me, Vincent, about Gilbert and what you know about the Abyss."

And so he did.