a/n: A short introspective oneshot, from Akito's point of view. Please do enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own Furuba, or any of the characters used in this oneshot's content; I write purely for the sake of personal pleasure and enjoyment, nothing more, nothing less.
Prompts: Late Night Shower, the story of Eden, Split Perspectives, Sadie~~ VISUAL KEI EQUALS LOVE, END OF STORY. Not really, but still. My point still stands.
Categories: Angst
Characters: Sohma Akito x Honda Tohru (Non-Romance)
Rating: T (For language and innuendo)
Summary: Wherein Paradise has three faces rather than one.
Sasukeluva 4eva presents;
•~•Eden•~•
An Akito x Tohru Oneshot
The natural assumption of mankind, those of whom worshipped the ideals of a higher being in their dismal, unassuming lives, of a faith which required them to be forever celibate to their one and only select deity, of a faith where their lives equated to that of nothing, was that there was an almighty presence in the Heavens above them—a living 'God', so to speak.
Such stories had stemmed back from over vast millennia, firm believers in the prospect of a sacred saviour—an all-powerful Lord of Life and Death—avidly invested in the preaching of their beliefs spreading folklore as to the true nature of what it was to be in the stead of one so recklessly bequeathed with the ideals of the people, in order to gather a following and preserve the integrity of their established 'religion' in the years to come; of a being so transcendent of their own kind that they, the God of the people, the 'ideal', were destined to be forever without.
Without one on par with them, without loved ones and friends; without the freedoms that all human beings had abused and taken for granted.
Simply… without.
Akito held many a similarity to the God of which many Western cultures idolised, in that regard.
He was perched on a pedestal so high above those deemed merely mortal, that he had lost sight of what it truly meant to be the representation of one's beliefs, faiths, aspirations and hopes; he could no longer distinguish what his role was in their lives.
In the lives of his precious Zodiac, the ones that had cured all of his 'withouts' time and time again; he had no equal other than that (non-literal) snake Ren (of which he adamantly, with such profuseness that had he been preaching it to himself, he would have had a firm assurance in the conviction of the claim, denied more than he would have liked to have), which pleased him greatly.
He had family, people that he held close to his heart (which thrummed with a soft tremor within his breast, the only sign of his deeply held affection for each of them), and they were more than eligible as supplicant friends in turn.
He had his own freedoms; the freedom of being able to contort his 'followers' to his every subtle whim, the freedom to do harm and not be denied or prevented, the freedom to share his love, divide it, amongst them in varying ways.
Violence was one of many that he showed he cared, as was a suitable means of displaying it, being the malevolent God of the Sohma family (his retribution not yet fulfilled until that one hindrance is wiped from the plains like the smudge of dirt that she was, is).
That tramp; the conniving basilisk of the Garden of Eden, the one that led Eve astray, and Adam in turn, by proffering the ripened fruits of God's finest creation (the test that he had devised in order to determine the virtuousness and verity of the two mortals) for their consumption.
And she, this Honda Tohru, had done this well; giving them her 'love' (as if it could ever replace or compete with his own; his was unconditional, whilst hers was based merely off of gratitude and greed for more), and tempting them to return it with their own (THEY COULD NEVER LOVE ANYONE ELSE, NO ONE BUT HIM—!).
She was a snake, more so than Ren, more so than Ayame, the very embodiment of it, and he could not have despised her more.
At first glance, one would think that the cursed Sohma Zodiac would be the foolish Adam and the foul temptress Eve (one can only guess who fell into which category; his men he loved mostly without fail, but the women were always trying to take them away from him—the fucking whores), but Akito thought otherwise.
In fact, in the fable of Eden, he was not 'God'; for God had forsaken his children once they gave into temptation. Akito could do no such thing to his family, for they were his, and he loved them. They were his, and they could not leave him, for he was their reason for living; they would not exist in this world, this paradigm, without him.
No matter their faults, and no matter who or where they came from (in his own twisted way, he loved his girls too, for they were a reminder that he would always have control, that his boys would always love him the most, irrevocably and without fail), or what they did to displease him, he would always accept them, always want them, always need and rely upon them (his loves, the ones he craved more than anything, so much so that life became a dull humming in the background of his obsession)—just as they would him.
He was faulted, broken and damaged, irreparable—so were they.
Thus why they could never leave one another; they healed each other's wounds, fitting together like a jagged, discordant jigsaw puzzle.
Akito would never even contemplate abandoning them; he loved them too much.
But God, he gave up on his first man and his first woman after they failed to dissuade their contemptuous desires, transcending carnal and base to where they stole what one would define as the literal terminology for 'forbidden fruit' (ironic that 'God' wished for man and woman to spread like a plague across his Paradise through the act of coitus, something that became a sin to do outside of wedlock, and yet the forbidden fruit that he worried so avidly for was not the chastity of his man and woman).
He cast them aside, wilfully isolating himself; Akito could not do such a disgraceful thing.
He craved love, needed it more than anything; to be near another, for him, was a blessing, and so his Zodiac were kept close, as close as they would allow. He permitted them their little pleasures, for as long as he had them within his grasp, within the very palm of his hand, then he was satisfied.
No, he was not God in the story of Eden, but rather, he was both Adam, and Eve.
He was Adam whenever graced with the presence of his younger Zodiac, cold, conniving and calculated; unsympathetic to the plights of others, ruthless in his displeasure, indifferent to those exempt from his family; he was Adam when he had no choice but to be seen.
He was Adam because he had been fooled by the pretences that made up that scaly child, that Honda Tohru; fooled by her promise to separate herself from his Zodiac, fooled by her false modesty, fooled by that fucking sinner's smile.
There was venom in her eyes, he knew.
He knew not because he was God, not because he was Adam, but because he was also Eve.
Hiding behind a male's façade, draped in rich, masculine finery that always seemed too soft against her feminine physique, bound by countless constrictive chest-binds, always playing a third role in secret; Akito knew all too well of the venom in the snake's haunting gaze, of the threat behind the gleam of kindness and complacency, the peril that Honda Tohru posed to her family, because she was the same as the rest of them—the other sluts that wanted more than they deserved from her boys.
She was Eve whenever she felt threatened by other women, a jealous streak so vile and wrought with bloody vengeance so horrific that none dared to trespass on what was hers, lest there be all hell to pay in compensation.
She was Eve whenever she rode her chosen few to the very brink of ecstasy, always in control, tempting them further with small, furtive actions that reeked of a hidden, disguised femininity that only those chosen would ever hope to see, and would inevitably crave more of.
She was Eve when she tangled herself amidst the sheets of her resting place, out of the sight of others, where she would cry softly for her father, for his touch, his love and his affection.
She was Eve when she didn't wish to be seen, when she couldn't be seen.
A twisted smile pulled at Akito's lips, as she sat on the balcony of her private garden, the silk fabric of her kimono bunched around her hips, pert breasts exposed to the naked chill of the night.
That's right… she might be God at all times (one far better than that of the one described in the Western Mythology she had just been pondering), she might be Adam in the company of others, and she might be Eve when she feels vulnerable, exposed…
But right now…
She was just 'Akito'.
A few more moments in blissful silence, before a sharp rap is heard at her door. Sighing almost ruefully, Akito readjusts her chest-binds, slips into her kimono, and places on the face of Adam once more (for no matter what face she is wearing, she is always 'God'), before striding to the door.
Even though it was short-lived, he is at peace, because for a moment, he was his true face amidst Paradise, amidst his own perfect little Eden, and for the time being, that would appease him.
~Owarimashita
Ending Remarks: Blah, I write pointless shit when I'm on an insomnia spell! This sucked. Terribly so. Made no sense to me. There goes my one moment where perhaps something remotely philosophical could have happened! FAAAIIIIILLLLLLL. /_\
Please do review, anyhow!
Next Akito x Tohru will be far darker, and extremely… detailed. M FOR A REASON PEOPLE. ;)
~Rin