Preemptive AN: Hi! It's Miss Miazaki (Simply Mia to some of the more audacious readers out there who like to nickname people they don't know and that may have negative and explosive reactions to any nicknaming. ) I know the three or four of you that care are like wtf, wheres my Malec or Orochimaru and my supermegafoxyhot O.C? Good questions, but if I knew the answers, you'd have a new chapter would you now? I think its a conglomeration of lack of inspiration, too much porn, not enough plot, confusion of the double plot I incorporated into the Malec fiction (and you the readers think its confusing? Imagine the inner workings of my head.). And SO, here we are with my new one-shot (most likely). Read it and weep, or review, whatever makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. P.S Hagi and Haji to me is interchangeable. Deal with it.
Awakening:
The Flower Haji had once left by the tomb had long wilted away, the petals becoming dry and dark from the unfeeling hand of time. The ribbon was frayed, but still held its original quality. Silky and blue it lay wrapped around the dried out flower stem, a tiny bow keeping it in place.
Only five years had passed since Saya had fallen into her slumber. Wrapped in her gossamer cocoon, she slept. Her dreams were of memories, which flitted past her minds eyes, one moment there and gone the next. Like sand in her fingers they drifted away, her unable to hold them. Sometimes her eyes fluttered, even opened, but exhaustion dragged her back into sleep seconds after.
Acutely aware of all this, even miles away was Haji, her loyal Chevalier. "Saya," he murmured as she momentarily woke to cry out "Riku!" and then succumb to sleep again. No one heard her voice but other Chiropterans, It was far too low a frequency for any human being to hear. Haji's human fists, as well as his heart clenched as he sensed her distress in his very core. He wished he could hold her and be by her side, but to disturb his queen in her slumber... no... he wouldn't even think about it.
The air in Rome as well as the streets were nice. Purposely he found places he had never been before, so as to find himself again, having lost his worldview again when Kai had demanded he show his reals opinion to Saya. When he had simply foolishly, stupidly blurted out that he loved her. As if that would make her choice simpler. As if that helped her to order him, so that he could be a servant properly and not have to dwell on his feelings for her, nor on the total disregard and nonrecognition she had shown him in Vietnam. He wouldn't have had to think about the betrayal she felt, or the tremor of fear that trembled down his spine whenever she drew that sword and her eyes glow red. But he had ruined it "Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!" he scolded himself. He dug the Claws of his Chiropteran hand into the flesh of his human one. The pain was more that pain, it was agony, but at least, it distracted him from hi perilous thoughts of Saya.
"I will simply go back to being a servant." he told himself this while looking up at the huge domes and steeples that dominated Rome. He turned his back on the Dome, and at the same time he turned his back on the hope of a love that wasn't unrequited. "And that is That."
But It wasn't. Not by a long shot.
The aged pink rose's paper like petals are torn away and carried off into their next lives by the wind. Saya remained still, unchanged, as the world tuned around her. "Hagi," she whispered, her eyes fluttering. "My..."
Thirty years had passed in what felt like a thousand to Kai. He had watched the two daughters of his worst enemy grow up to be sixteen and then stop aging. Then he had to explain to them why they would never age, and why their blood was poison to the other, their own twin sister. He explained to the that he was fifty-something and would soon be in the tomb where aunty Saya was... except that unlike aunty Saya, once he went in there, he would not come back out again. He explained that they had to stay together and love each other, otherwise aunty Saya would have lost her twin sister for nothing, and the world would be consumed by disaster. He explained to them everything and anything that he knew about them and about their parents. How, where, why. Everything sparing no gruesome details. They were adults now. And they had to learn to handle this together. HE told them they had three years left awake and to cherish them and live every day like it was their last.
Their horrified looks make him have to go drink a glass of bourbon after they left looking strangely disheartened. But he knew that they would've been more upset if they ever found out that he had kept something from them. He was happy to see the hope in their eyes as he called them both to a stop and told them that aunty Saya would be waking up soon. "Go visit her! " he called needlessly, already hearing them bustling upstairs to get dressed and ready to go.
He cried, but it was because of the alcohol content of the drink. Really. The rain lashed the windows, but it was nothing two Chiropteran Queens were unable to handle.
It was dark. Oh so very Dark. Yes, it was a darkness that deserved capitals. Blackness, surrounded in night, coated in abyssal black. Coal black hair swayed around her snow pale body in the Blackness, which is how we will refer to it from now on, my darlings. Saya was accustomed to the Blackness, you could say. Everything she has opened her eyes, if only for a few moments, it was there. Soothing her back to sleep, it surrounded her and comforted her. But as the red glowing eyes opened in the darkness this time. The Darkness wasn't warm and cozy like a mothers womb. It was oppressive, holding her in, keeping her back. The oceans inside the cocoon that had once rocked her to sleep now choked and drowned her. She whimpered, weakly scratching against the spiderweb silk of her cocoon, it gave, stretching. A few threads snapped, but she want nearly out yet. The air burned in her lungs, making her want to breathe. But she couldn't, not inside the strange thing that surrounded her. She had no memories, no name for it, but she knew that though it had been a good place to be. Her time there was over.
She was dizzy though. Having no air made her oh so very dizzy. She knew only that if she got out her lungs would stop burning. But how? The black Darkness. Now it frightened her. "No more!" she would have begged had she known the words too. But seemed that even the memories that she had once let sift through her hands had vanished into the Darkness. Bad, wrong, out. NOW! She screamed wordlessly as the last of the air in her lungs became stale and rushed up in bubbles. She thrashed, flailing her limbs as hard as she could.. The shaking of her body snapped the thin strands with which the cocoon was suspended.
It fell almost slowly to the cold gray stone ground. With a splash. Amniotic fluid splashed everywhere. It coated all the gravestones in the mausoleum with the slightly slimy fluid. This wasn't how a queen was supposed to exit her cocoon. It was supposed to be her tearing out of her chrysalis, she was supposed to be able to see and catch her fall, an instinctive ability which did not need memories.
The fall left her shaking from the sudden force. The instinctual fear of falling caused a traumatic firing in Saya's newborn mind. She lay there on the stone ground trembling from shock and the cold. She pushed her self up in a an attempt to crawl, but the ground was slick with the womblike fluids from the inside of the cocoon. She slipped, barely able to keep from hitting the ground again. Her arms shook, barely strong enough to hold up her meager weight.
She hadn't eaten in thirty years after all. Her stomach growled, feebly. She whimpered curling into a ball when she realized there wasn't any food or an exit to be seen. She turned onto her back, hoping it would stop the Darkness from spinning around her. A word came to her lips. Without thinking of it, she moaned out the name of her servant, her was rushing towards her with the urgency of someone who needed to outrun the hounds of hell. "Haaaaaaajjiiiiii." Haji heard her voice echoing in his mind, pleading, begging. "I'm on my way. Saya."
The girls sat in the room, each looking at the other and seeing their exact likeness with only the slight detail of eye color being different. Hanai and Kurenai. "We look like him," said the blue eyed twin. "We look like her." countered Kurenai "both of them are our parents. We cant just choose one and ignore the other." Hanai's eyes teared up. "It's not fair!"
Kurenai pulled her little sister into her arms. "I know," she soothed, letting her more sensitive sister cry herself out, before pulling her to her feet. "c'mon, lets go. No use dwelling on the past."
Hanai's blue eyes widened as she looked out the window the gage the weather. "It's like a typhoon!" she exclaimed. "If we go out there we'll surely get wet!" Kurenai threw a bikini at her.
"Let's test out the se Chiropteran powers shall we? I doubt anyone has the guts to get close enough to the window to see us." Hanai looked at her as if she had just announced contracting aids by pleasuring herself with an icicle she had journeyed to the north pole to retrieve and that the only cure was to run around in a typhoon wearing nothing but a string bikini.
"Don't look at me like that!" accused Kurenai. "Don't act like you don't want to know!" Hanai blushed. She was curious...
"Fine," she allowed, taking the bathing suit, and starting to change. "But if I get sick you are taking care of me till I get better. Deal?"
"Deal!"
The two snuck out through the back door, their father-figure, Kai, would no no doubt disapprove, Chiropteran powers or not. It was a fun time, chasing through the rain nearly naked. Before long their teenage attention spans had allowed them to forget completely about their aunty Saya. Hagi was also rushing through the rain. The Rain chilled him, because unlike the twins, he didn't get regular transfusions of blood to strengthen his body. And his self imposed abstinence of drinking of humans was something he was slowly beginning to regret. "If only it didn't have quite so many disadvantages" He though as sheet after sheet of rain swept over his tired form.. Flying to Japan to Rome was not as easy task. Even for a chevalier, flying such distances was something avoided when possible.
Haji knew there was no there choice at that point. Saya had been lying inside that damned grave for days. He could feel her fear, her distress, her confusion as they pooled into his belly to form a concoction of intense guilt. He had lost track of time, and Saya had suffered. How long had she lay there without her memories, waiting for her Chevalier to come and remind her with his blood. Too long. He was in a hurry, couldn't wait for a car, train boat or plane. He had to fly himself. Faster, more efficient, get to Saya. Soon.
Something good was close. She didn't know who or what, but good it was nonetheless. It warmed her, so that her shivers were less intense and calmed her spasmodically pumping hear. Here soon, here soon. She repeated the one word she knew without a doubt, existed. "Haji. Haji. Haji..." Carefully, for the floor was still a little slippery, she stood and pressed as closely as she could to the tiny gap between the two stones that closed her into the Darkness. A sliver of light touched her face as she gazed longingly as the blue sky above. She tried to reach through, but could only manage to fit a few fingers. She wanted out so badly. 'That's o.k. The good thing is coming.' her sense told her this. And she knew nothing other than her sense, so she believed it. Her toes curled in the viscous liquid coating the floor. The stone moved from under her, and she collapsed onto her back as the entrance was freed up a few centimeters more. The dried rose, along with the frayed blue ribbon managed to slide down and be jammed into the door way. Saya reached for them, her delicate fingers closing deftly around the thorned step before crying out and flinging the thing away from herself.
The ribbon's bow unraveled and the strip of silk clung to her fingers because of the blood from a small wound. The ribbon pleased Saya because it reminded her of the Good Thing that was coming soon. She wrapped the ribbon around her fingers, taking a deep breath of scent from it whenever she began to wonder if the Good Thing would arrive. Her sense told her that it would. So she believed. She sank into a fitful sleep on the wet ground of the Tomb. Was I her or was there more at the bottom of the place than before? Unbeknownst to her, the opening she had opened allowed more water to trickle into the small cavelike structure.
Eventually, Saya could no longer lie down. She knew this when she awoke choking on water. She coughed and gasped, her lungs burning. Dragging herself over to the wall wasn't a pleasant experience, but she knew she had to. Leaning against the wall in a sitting position, the water came up to her waist. The notion of time built itself if Saya's head, along with the fact that there wasn't much of it left if there kept being more and more covering the floor.
She fought to stay awake, feeling that if she fell asleep she would have to fight the water again. But it was just so hard. She made a clumsy knot to tie the ribbon around her hair, which at this point was longer than herself. Curling the black strands around her fingers amused her enough to keep her awake for a while, but eventually, her eyes drifted shut. She leaned forward in her sleep and collapsed into the water. Unable to wake up even as water filled her lungs.
Haji fell out of the sky, his wings having no strength left to carry him. He landed in ha heap at the foot of the stairway towards. They seemed to stretch up all the way into the sky. Haji righted himself and began climbing as quickly as he could. He knew he couldn't stop. When his wings disobeyed him, he would walk. When his legs disobeyed him, he would walk on his hands. By the time his hands disobeyed him, his wings would work again. No stopping. The stairs seemed never ending, but so was Haji's will.
He wanted to be relived and find her at the top, smiling a twirling a ribbon through her delicate fingers or maybe pulling the petals off a flower and letting them drift through the wind. But the tightening in his through and chest didn't allow him to believe that. Not even stopping for a breath, her ran to the stone that kept the tomb closed and in his Panic forgot the moving it was possible, instead punching straight through it and and climbing over the rubble to run and lift Saya out of the water "Saya! Saya!" he shook her, but she hung limply, not even breathing. Haji's heart stopped, his whole world narrowed to her. Her face was wet, she was facedown. Realizing this, Haji grabbed her chin and put his lips to hers in something reminiscent of a kiss. But it wasn't. It was CPR. He blew air into her lungs, and pulled back so that she could choke up the water it had replaced. Her lips tasted like the amniotic fluids from the inside of her cocoon. Haji grimaced at the taste, but the way his heart soared from being able to touch her lips to his, and that she was breathing again made him almost laugh. Almost.
Her Red eyes opened, she looked up at him with the eyes of a baby and smiled. "Haji," she said. Knowing now that Haji and the good thing were one she cuddled to him. Haji lifted her into his arms and carried her out into rain where she lifted her hands to it, laughing as the droplets trickled over her fingers. Haji used his memory from years ago to find Omoro. Knocking on the door, he wrapped her hair around her so that it wouldn't trail fluids on the floor. He too of his shoes for the same reason. Kai opened the door, and saw a naked Saya in the arms of and exhausted Haji. He stepped aside. Questions could be asked later. Saya watched him curiously with her wide open childlike eyes. "Does she remember us?" Called Kai. "She will soon," replied Haji. He would give he a bath first. He wanted to see a few more minutes of smiling wonder before awakening her for real.
The stick substance on her skin washed down the drain, leaving her skin more pearly and smooth that before. She had paled, due to lack of sun, but running around in the Okinawa sun would bring her tan back eventually. Her hair was more of a hassle. It was long and silky, but tangled. Haji didn't want to cut it until she herself decided how long she wanted it. With a comb he carefully picked through it, from bottom to top. The shampoo helped, and by the time he reached her scalp, there was no shampoo left. He found his own blu ribbon somewhere in the tangles and used that to tie of a long ponytail for her. The ribbon in his own hair now was red. He didn't now why he chose it, but he had his suspicions. Saya's eyes, a she questioningly squeezed a sponge confirmed them. He held out his arms, and when she moved into them he lifted her out of the tub and onto the thick, fluffy towel that was there to be stood on. He rubbed her dry with a towel and wrapped a bathrobe around her slender for. Then, he sat her down on the the tile. She pointed at him, and pushed him towards the shower. Her raised his eyebrow, but obeyed Quickly he stripped and rinsed himself off. Drying off and wrapping the towel around his waist. She smiled, rubbing her hand on his now squeaky clean arm. Haji found it amusing, that she would send him to take a shower just so she could feel someone else's clean skin.
He lifted her into his arms and carried her into his room. She squirmed, and picked at the robe around her shoulders. "Does it not please you?" he asked her. She didn't understand, but she tried to convey her discomfort. "In a moment you will have new clothes." Saya didn't understand, but his voice was soothing enough. Till then she herself with the smooth skin of Haji's bicep, something which left Haji with certain levels of discomfort rather left undiscussed. Once inside his Queen's room, He gently set her down, knowing the feeling of falling would probably sent her anxiety levels through the roof. She immediately Started extricating herself from the offensive fluffy pink thing. It landed on the the floor. Haji turned away from her nude body wondering if it had been a man with problems such as his who had invented the loose pants that Kai had laid out for him. He folded his towel careful before hanging it up. In one fluid motion, he pulled the white loose trousers on. Button down shirt however, had been taken hostage by Saya, who was currently wearing it inside out and trying to button the buttons into the opposite whole they belonged into. Haji sighed, amused, he fixed the shirt, since she seemed bent on wearing it.
She didn't seem to want to wears pants, or a skirt for that matter. When he approached her with them she squirmed out of his grasp, easy as water flowing. He coaxed her into at least wearing some boy shorts, knowing Kai would be upset if Saya ran around pants-less all day. It was noon, but the sky was dark because of the weather. Saya leaned out the window, catching raindrops on her tongue.
"Saya, come here." It was a request, but Haji's open arms were not ignored. She cuddled into his lap and looked up at him curiously. His eyes, his face, his neck. Her sight tunneled on the vein that pulsed in his neck, Her fangs extended. she wanted... She took Haji's head into deceptively delicate looking hand as an unexplained strength entered her limbs. Haji couldn't have pulled away of he wanted to. He winced as the sharp teeth pierced his skin. Slowly his body went limp, he knew it had something to do with having your Queen drink from you. Saya held him up easily though. Not a droplet escaped from her perfect pink lips. Waste not want not, as they say.
Warm pleasure coursed through Saya as she drank, and she moaned softly, pressing her body closer to Haji. Haji let her drink until he knew that if he did not stop her, his life was forfeit. "Saya, please." Sensing her Chevalier's distress made Saya pull back to see if he was alright. And that, was when her memories came rushing back. "AAH," she cried out. Falling back on the bed, she pulled at her hair, twisting and squirming. Haji took her back into his arms and held her still. Instead of the regular burgundy color her eyes had been till now, bright crimson shone. Haji's arm throbbed with a phantom pain, and fear twisted in his gut.
That is, until Saya began to cry. Then it was all replaced with devotion and care as deep as the pacific ocean. He rocked her, and gently stroked her hair. She stopped flailing, but her body was still wracked with sobs. She clenched his shirt in her fists, trying to calm her breathing. Eventually her breath slowed, and hesitantly, it seemed, she turned her face up to look at him. To his surprise, she wasn't frowning, pouting, or sad. A weak smile graced her features. "Hey Haji," she said, her voice rough from having not used it for three decades, "Sorry about that."Hagi shook his head. "It's okay," he soothed, returning her smile with a small almost unnoticeable curve of his lips. He could hardly contain the joy in his heart, but being a Chevalier had taught him how to keep his face at least nearly impassive. Saya hugged her chevalier as tightly as she could. Haji delicately held her back, closing his arms around her more snugly when he was sure she wouldn't snap under the force of his arms.
She leaned up to kiss him, but Haji stiffened to the point where Saya realized it was making him uncomfortable and backed off. "Haji? Are you alright?" she asked, looking worried and slightly dejected from being refused.
Haji, moved a few strands of hair out of her face. "It's not your fault. I am not accustomed to it yet." Saya's head tilted her confusion as clear as the night sky in her eyes
"To what?" Haji looked away and did not respond. "Haji, tell me." It was in her no nonsense voice. As good as an order. Haji sighed "Being close to you without feeling-" he trailed off.
"Feeling what? Haji be straight with me!" Saya exclaimed, getting fred up with all this beating around the bush. "I need to know," she admitted. "It bothers me that I still cant remember when you became so cold to me. To every one. What happened to the Haji from my memories when we were with Joel?"
"Saya... I..." The Chevalier hesitated, holding his breath and trying to remember how to speak "I'm scared... and, " his sentence trailed off.
"Why?" demanded his queen, "Why are you scared. Tell me and I'll fix it" With her memories restored, Saya was desperate to have things return to the way they were back at the zoo, in the manor with the old man Joel watching over them from a distance. When Haji was just a human.
Then it struck her. Haji was no longer human. How could he act like the human he had once been, thinking that she herself was human. Scolding her, caring for her, occasionally babying her. How could he, when she was a Chiropteran Queen and he was a Chevalier, bound and subjected to her will if she should choose to exert it. She had not even considered Haji's feelings, and she felt her cheeks her cheeks grow red and hot at the realization of how selfish. she had been the whole time.
But also, she could easily kill Haji! Her strength was thousand times over his. If she jut want careful.. she could... she would... in a fit of rage. She wanted to cry, but then Haji would simply find a way to turn it around and blame in on himself. He had always been that way, self sacrificing and kind to her no matter how irrational she was being.
"Hey, Haji," she murmured, trying to catch his attention, not knowing she already had it in the most undivided form reached into the drawer by her bedside. A few years ago she had gone camping and packed an emergency purse, Bandaids, antiseptic, a pocketknife, pain pills, and coil of rope.
"Saya! Just what are you-" Haji's question was cut short by a delicate fingertip to his lip.
She bowed holding the rope out in front of her. "If you're scared, you can..." she trembled, but then took a deep breath and regained her confidence "You can restrain me."
For a long moment, the only sound in the room was the breathing of the two chiropterans.
Saya started, not expecting the touch of his hand hand on hers and her breath halted sharply as the rope slithered slowly out of her hand. Haji's grip on her shoulder pulled her back into a sitting position. "You are sure?"
Saya nodded. "If I really want you to stop, I'll say.." She leaned back trying to think of an unusual word to use. Then, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Pale white skin that had't seen the sun in 30 years, black hair, long and wispy. Soft pink lips, without the red moons that were her eyes, she looked just like her twin sister."Diva..." she whispered. A pained expression painted her face and carved fine lines into her brow.
"I'll say Diva" She turned her eyes back t Haji her expressions as determined as when she had decided to protect her brothers. The facts that she only half succeeded was to be ignored.
Haji got up and locked the door. The resounding click made the finality sink in for Saya, no turning back now.
They wouldn't need the rope forever. Soon, they could trust themselves and each other with just a string tied around Saya's wrist. Then it became a thread around her ring finger. Eventually, it was replaced with a band made of silver with a tiny red stone set into it.
If Haji ever felt overpowered, or if Saya ever feared her own power, the delicate silver band would remind them both of the ropes that made them equal.
There was no one holding more power over the other, no fear, no Chiropteran Queen and Servant Chevalier.
If Saya wished for the past back, then the ropes were vines and Saya was the roses, delicate and pink as the blush upon her cheek, red as a place she'd only ever show Haji that went by the same name. Haji was the tower. Tall, erect, it stood, under sun, rain and snow. The roses bloomed, and vines wound around and around and around.
A/N: SO, what do you all think? Please review, but be kind, I'm but a weak maiden and cannot take the Flames of your hatred unwarranted.