A.N Well, hello again, this is SemiPrecious. This is my first time writing a Blood+ fic because I only recently discovered the anime, but it was love at first sight. I swear, I am SO gonna work at at Woolworths (about the only place I have the credentials to work --;;) for about seventy years and save every cent, then buy all the characters offa whoever owns them and keep Haji AAAALL to myself... or, I would, if I wasn't so sure that I'd be attacked in my sleep by jealous fangirls who froth at the mouth and say MINE! a lot... damn... well, I still have my dreams. -sighs regretfully before promptly falling asleep-
Disclaimer: no, I do not own Blood, if only because of the rabid-fanus-girlus-ophobia I suffer from -shudders-
Darkness.
Darkness, thick and smelling of dust and age, surrounded her from all sides.
It engulfed her like water.
Behind her eyelids, indiscernible shapes drifted like cobwebs through the musty gloom. The very air smelt black here, warm and dark and hazy, like smoke. Fog spiralled across the endless landscape; black on black it twisted like a shadowy dancer to the silent pulse of the world.
Blindly smiling into the silken warmth, a girl blinked languidly.
She was in the first warm stages of awake-ness, the blissful first few seconds where everything is cosy and right and as it should be.
Yes.
She couldn't move, her muscles seemed cemented in place, but she wasn't frightened. Darkness, like the black that could be seen between the stars, was all around her; but it was deep, timeless and oddly comforting. She couldn't help but feel that this had happened before, in a kind of dream or memory or something else that there was no word for. Still unable to see, she only closed her eyes and smiled, sinking back down into the silken silence. Slowly, slowly, she entered the dreaded second stage.
Ah, the second stage of awake-ness. The part of your brain that narrows its eyes to think: Hang on. Where exactly am I? Why am I not wearing any clothes? What am I missing here? What the hell happened last night?!
In a jolt of awareness realisation washed over her, colour and thoughts and feelings flooding her body. Her eyes snapped open to darkness. She clenched them closed and stretched them open, her breath quickening into shallow pants when it made absolutely no difference. Sick with fear and fighting the panic that doused the warm fire inside her, she once again struggled to move, and this time the dark gave way.
Her relentless scrabbling revealed to her that the blackness was actually the inside of a thick cocoon-like pod that boxed her in from all sides. Overwhelmed by claustrophobia she pushed her way through blindly, the thick gossamer strands twining round her slender fingers, sticky and strange. Forcing herself through the strings that surrounded her, she could have cried in relief as her fingers pushed through the shell into the cold, fresh air of the outside. With a strange crack, the cocoon around her fingers crumbled away.
She jerked back with a sharp cry as the first light pierced through the bulk. Gasping she flung herself face down to the floor, frantically clawing at her streaming eyes with pale, slender fingers. They burned, they burned so bad. The light stabbed through her skull like a white-hot knife, the pain forcing her to curl into a protective ball as the agonising whiteness continued to flash and spin behind her scrunched eyes. Beneath her eyelids, her pupils adjusted. After so long of nothing but dark, the sudden light was nothing short of torture. She lay unmoving, curled in the foetal position on the ground with silent tears streaking slowly down her cheeks, for a long while.
When at last the immense pain dulled to only the occasional throb, she dared to uncurl her arms from where they cradled her pounding head. Relieved that the intense light had dulled to a manageable level of brightness she tentatively reached out to brush away the remains of the sticky threads.
Cold.
It was very, very cold outside the protective warmth of her shelter, and the unfamiliar sensations caused bumps to pimple the length of her naked limbs and rack her skinny torso with shivers. Snow tumbled outside the cold grey room that she and her cocoon-pod-thing rested in, some whirling through the stone doorway that stood open to the white winter wonderland.
Blinking wide maroon eyes in a show of childish wonder, she gripped the sides of her grey cocoon and pulled herself to her feet. For a while she wavered, shifting her weight from foot to foot as she struggled to find her balance. Stretching her arms to either side she took a few wobbly steps across the freezing granite, slowly, as though she were an infant. Very carefully she sunk to the cold stone floor, and one finger reached out to delicately trace the edge of one of the many flakes that littered the ground. She blinked, a small smile turning the corners of her mouth at the texture. It was cold. She'd never felt cold before today – at least, she didn't think so. Her memories were all fuzzy and indistinct; she wasn't even sure what her name was, though she was strangely sure that she had one, and that it was important. That she was important.
She turned curious maroon eyes to the entrance of the grey stone building when her sharp ears heard the melodic sound of a young woman's laughter. Two women, if she wasn't mistaken, and an elderly man. Unsteadily struggling to her feet, she made her way to the doorway and peered outside.
She had never seen anything like it. More of the cold white powder was piled high in the boughs of naked trees and banked up against their grey trunks, with infinite numbers more of the frozen flakes coating the land in a thick blanket. She breathed out a sharp exhale as the cold air cut into her naked skin, startling slightly when her breath came out as white mist. How peculiar… did it always do that? She wasn't sure.
She only turned her gaze from its rapt exploration of the snowy landscape when she heard a sharp gasp, and turning saw the two teenage girls and the middle-aged man she had heard laughing before staring at her as though she were a ghost.
"Saya?"
The man spoke hesitantly, as though afraid he were dreaming.
"Saya?"
Tears swam in his eyes, and he took a slow step forward.
"Oh, Saya!"
Saya… her name was Saya, was it? Yes, that sounded about right. "Saya," she agreed, emphasising her name with a sharp nod that made her ankle-length black hair bounce. "I'm Saya."
"Saya," he choked again, stumbling towards her and throwing himself against her cold skin. He cried long and hard into her smooth shoulder, wrapping himself firmly around her naked body. "We've all missed you kiddo," he murmured tearfully, his soft lips tracing the words into her shoulder as she simply stood still, bewildered. "Of course you wouldn't know that. Joel said that you wouldn't remember anything, just like the last time."
The strange man drew away, his eyes shining brightly, and laughed. "Well, I guess introductions are in order. I'm Kai, you're brother. You haven't seen me since I was eighteen, but I'm almost fifty now." He gestured to the two teenaged girls, who were looking silently up at the pair with wonder in their vividly coloured maroon and blue eyes. "These two are your nieces, Aika and Aiko."
The two girls bobbed in greeting, gazing up at the woman who had always been the hero of their bedtime stories through eyes brimming with awe.
"They may not look it," Kai added conspiratorially, "but they're each thirty years old, almost to the day actually. You just missed their birthday by a week." He grinned expectantly, but Saya stood silent.
Kai.
Aika.
Aiko.
The names meant nothing to her, but just being around these people filled her with a curiously fierce protectiveness, so she knew that they must be important to her. It was all very strange, but she wasn't frightened. Unabashed she openly stared at the three, taking in their features through maroon eyes almost identical to Aiko's.
Kai had a shock of hair that tumbled down his back to finish at the base of his shoulder blades. Though mostly grey, there were enough ginger strands left to tell her that his hair must have been his most striking feature in his youth. His brown eyes were friendly but dulled by age and sadness; though they sparkled with joy now the loneliness that darkened their depths was unmistakeable. His face was brown and wrinkled around his eyes and mouth, the tough, leathery skin speaking of his hard labours out in the hot sun. He smiled kindly in response to her curious gaze, revealing a perfect set of straight white teeth. Her eyes slid to the right.
Aika and Aiko stood close together, unmistakably twins. Though they shared the same features – the same black hair, the same slightly snubbed nose, the same oval-shaped eyes and the same slender lips, Saya could tell just by looking into their eyes that the girl's personalities were worlds apart.
Aiko, the girl with maroon eyes that swam with flecks of crimson, obviously was a kind, loving soul. She had a calm and gentle spirit that sung of purity and quiet devotion to all those she held dear. Saya stared blatantly, her eyes unnervingly deep.
Under the heavy scrutiny, Aiko's lips twisted into a nervous smile. Her eyes darted madly, landing anywhere but on the elder woman's maroon orbs that were so like her own. She fidgeted slightly in place as a flustered blush painted her cheekbones a light crimson, and long, straight black hair slid over her shoulders to cover her face from the older woman's stare. Choosing to ignore this Saya just blinked owlishly and turned to the other twin.
Aika looked almost identical to her sister, with the exception of the dazzling sapphire orbs that replaced her sibling's maroon. Her black hair had rebellious streaks of blue the same shade as her eyes shot through, the ragged ends just brushing against her nape. The tilt of her chin, the twist of her lips and the determined flash of her eyes all told the quietly observing Saya that this girl was an arrogant one. Far from being 'evil,' she would none-the-less be a difficult one to like, if the haughtiness in her gaze was anything to go by. However, judging from the way the sisters' fingers were linked and the way Aika was standing so protectively in front of her shy sibling, at least one had managed to get through Aika's proud shell. Saya just smiled mutely, still feeling more than a little dazed. It was, after all, a lot to go through in one single afternoon.
"You must be exhausted, Saya," said Kai softly, noticing how she wavered on her feet. "C'mon. I'll take you home. There are a lot of people who want to say hello who've missed you just as much as I have."
Blindly trusting these three kind but odd strangers, Saya allowed herself to be walked along the concealed path. Kai had draped his jacket over her shoulders to conceal her nakedness and offer her a meagre amount of warmth. Uncaring of the temperature Saya simply walked along in silence, only half-listening to the excited chatter of her companions as she observed the outside world for the first time. Well, this should prove to be interesting…
Quote of the day…
'I said I'm selling my soul, not giving it away. That would be immoral and stupid.'
-House, M.C. House
A.N. Yes, I AM going to include random quotes that I like! (Seriously, I have, like, fifty Word pages of quotes that I pick up from the net and TV and just type down because I'm weird like that...) Spread the love, that's what I say.
Well, what does everyone think? To continue, or not to continue? That is the ultimate question... If you're wondering, yes, this WILL have a plot. -sweatdrops as audience members faint from the shock of it all- Yes, I know, I know. Terrible, isn't it? This has just been a tentative introduction type thing to see how well I'll be recieved, the good stuff will come next chapter, I swear!!
'Neways, review if you love me, review if you hate me, and hopefully I'll be seeing you next chapter!