This is a story I whipped up the other day. It's all written as of now, just hammering out a couple of kinks here and there to get it finished. It may or may not go up a rating in later chapters, but for now T is safe. Just remember, as with anything involving Asura, this will probably get a little dark in some spots. I'll probably post every wednesday, or more frequently, depending on the response.
The song lyrics are from Clarity by Zedd. Enjoy!
If our love is insanity,
Why are you my clarity?
You were traded out for other weapons all of the time. You were something different. The others were powerful, but you were not.
You were born without a trace of madness. You were entirely logical, and you were a flute. A creation of your witch mother and meister father. Of course your father hadn't exactly known your mother was a witch until after you were born, but that was another story entirely.
Your silly skill was nearly useless in the fighting realm. That's why you were so confused by Lord Death's latest command. Why would he want to pair you with his son? He seemed so quiet, and scared and strong; it didn't make sense for him to need someone like you.
The monochrome young man always covered himself, hiding from the world without violence. It was hard to see where you fit into the equation. But, the moment you touched the back of his shoulder for the first time, you felt it.
The madness.
The next thing you felt was his fist crushing your stupid, curious face inside out.
Nearly as instantaneously he was standing over you with a scarf dropped from his eyes, gold, wide and fearful. Silent apology glowed in their depths, you held your bleeding face and tried your best to give a forgiving smile, but your bleeding teeth kind of ruined the affect. It had been years since you saw his face. After that it was all creepy scarves and vertical eyes and layers upon layers of clothes.
There was remorse in those golden eyes when he saw the deep split in your lip as your tongue ran over the crevasse to soak up some of the blood.
You sighed. This was going to be impossible.
You'd never met someone so timid in your life. But, Lord Death trusted you to help his son so you would do everything in your power to get him 'back on the right track'. Whatever that meant.
"Hey Athura." Your messed up voice came behind your hands with a muted laugh toward the pain. He swallowed.
You extended your hand hoping he'd help you up after punching you so damn hard but instead he just stared at your hand like a feral animal. You let out another heavy sigh and pulled yourself to your feet. He's not rude, he's just really, really skittish. Or at least that's what you told yourself.
You took a swig from the water bottle attached to your hip, swished and spat the blood from your mouth to make sure no teeth broke under the impact before looking up to the man before you, "Your dad asked me to come watch you train with Vajra."
At first he just stared at you, searching for an ulterior motive, but when you sighed and wiped the blood from your quickly swelling split lips he finally choked a quiet, "Sorry for that."
You smiled delicately as not to hurt yourself, "Don't worry about it." Noticing his lack of a partner you tilted your head a little, "Are you here alone?"
You knew very well that Vajra was not going to make it today; it was all part of the ploy. Asura shivered. He wasn't the greatest fan of his own weapon. They were so unlike most technicians and weapons. Your technician was your closest friend and companion, you couldn't even imagine another way.
Weary of your question, he shelled back up. You were too curious for his comfort. Your eyes grew soft and he seemed to soften with you, just as you expected him to. "Well, since your weapon is late do you want to learn how to make illusions like me?"
"N-no. I'll just wait for—" He stuttered slightly as you grabbed his elbow.
He had already touched you. Stage one was already complete. You were not about to lose out on this perfect opportunity.
"You'll do great! I promise! I won't even tell Vajra you cheated on him." You winked over your shoulder and pulled him along until you reached a flat spot in the grass. You held up one finger as you explained, "Now watch, I'm going to fall into a state of meditation. Feel for my soul's wavelength, it will feel like gentle ocean waves. Grip it, and then, well, I'll explain it when you get that far."
You sat down with your ankles crossed right in front of his feet then patted the spot in front of you. He looked around nervously before following suit, his lanky limbs reminded you of a thin-legged spider as he folded himself as small as he could get. His scarves were back in place with those painted eyes staring at you unblinkingly. You could tell he was looking for any excuse to escape.
When he got to your level you realized how incredibly tall he was, it was hard to judge when he was standing because he was always nervously twiddling or pacing. Even now he was crouched and slouched and he was still very much taller than you. His gloved hands were braced on his knees as if he was ready to spring away, they had vertical eyes drawn on them just like his scarves.
You felt your heart fall heavily. You truly enjoyed seeing his face in close quarters no matter how brief, it meant he trusted you enough to look at him without judgment. When he put them back up it felt like he was slamming a door in your face. So you got to work and snatched his hands before he could pull them away, lacing your fingers with his. He went very still like a deer caught in your sights. Not a muscle moved but you could sense that he had already begun searching for your soul, so he was probably feeling the effects of your very special weapon ability.
You were a rare being. You could pull a suicidal person out of depression; you could reach into a persons very soul and remove all fear and anxiety.
Well, usually.
In this case you were at a loss.
You'd never felt something like Asura's soul before. It was a hornet's nest of anxiety and fear and insanity. Nothing about his soul was normal, and you'd felt a demon's soul before so that was really saying something. He sat still with your hands around his as you probed his soul, reeling in all the bits and pieces of his anxiety that you could. It was like bailing out a sinking ship with a suitcase. You had to pick up the shattered pieces of his sanity, pack them away carefully, and then transfer them into your own mind. But there was only so much you could handle at any given time and eventually you had to release him, falling back onto your hands to keep from collapsing. His hands hovered over your upper arms protectively as you caught your breath; a drop of sweat traveled along your hairline to your chin then fell onto your shirt.
His voice was quiet, delicate even, as he spoke over the top of your head, "how did you do that?"
"Lord Death asked me to try something to help you with your anxiety," You admitted solemnly. "But I don't think it worked."
You looked up at his face above. His face. Not those creepy scarves. Not hand drawn black vertical eyes. Gold eyes. Gold eyes were open and bright and looking right at you. No color had ever appeared so beautiful before in your whole long life. Maybe you just hadn't been able to get this close before but you could see now that his eye color was striated with dark browns and ambers bursting from the pupil, fading toward the edges to a pale yellow. But that wasn't all; everything was more crisp. Every color was brighter; every dark hair on his head was as individual as a snowflake with broken white lines that fell just above his eyes. You swept your gaze around the field to catch shades of green and colorful hues you'd never been able to see before.
How beautiful the world was through the eyes of a madman.
Speaking of...
You lifted your gaze back to your patient. Oh the way he looked at you almost broke your heart. You'd never seen him so vulnerable.
"I'm sorry." You tried to shift back, away from his floating hands and the inviting sensation of his erratic aura, but they fell softly as a blanket around your shoulders and held you in place. Asura of all people in the world, was waiting to hear your voice. Asura, of all people, was touching you. You bit your lip. You couldn't look at him knowing you failed him and Lord Death. You'd been so confident, too. Your new sense of sight set onto the blades of grass and the small bright bugs crawling over them. Asura was simply too complex for you to fix. "I'm sorry that I can't help you."
He was still staring at you with that same vulnerable look when you peered up at him from under your lashes. His voice was still timid, but this time he had a bit of amazement tucked into his tone, "When can you do that again?"
Your chin tilted to give him a slightly bewildered look as you tried not to become mesmerized by his eye color again. Honestly? You had never needed to use your ability more than once on the same patient before so you weren't positive. But you rendered a guess, "Um, probably tomorrow or the following day. That was kind of hard on me."
"You're really a weapon?"
The way he stared at you unblinkingly was unnerving, but you were absolutely not going to tell him to stop. You needed his subtle trust for this to work, and it didn't hurt that you were finding his face more attractive the longer you looked at him. You tried to shake the thought and replaced it with something more pragmatic. Maybe working with him would help you develop your ability. You nodded in the affirmative with the slightest curve of a coy smile.
Gold eyes flowed over the curve of your face like he was examining you. "Interesting. This, and your illusions?"
He had watched you grow up; he knew everything there was to know about your abilities so you were somewhat surprised that he was only just learning about your ability to quell souls. Lord Death had been asking you to bring about peace on Earth for at least 20 years. Asura asked you a few deeper questions about how it worked and how you figured out that you were a weapon.
Asura wasn't one to talk much so you couldn't help feeling a little flattered by the undivided attention. And a little embarrassed. Your boyfriend already hated when you took on individual cases like this because of how intimate they appeared. If he saw you and Asura right now you just knew a fight would be just around the corner.
You tucked a bit of hair behind your ear to look busy. "I don't use illusions, not true illusions; they're dreams. I can manipulate anyone into doing what I want by entering their dreams, but it works in a deeply relaxed state too. You're not a relaxed person by nature so it's much more difficult to reach your sleeping state. I didn't want to invade you like that but I had to, it wouldn't have worked any other way. I swear on my life that I'll never mislead you like that again." You smiled brightly, starting to sense what he was suggesting, "Was I able to penetrate your soul?"
His eyes were still showing but he had lifted a hand from your shoulder to cover his mouth with a scarf as he nodded an affirmative.
Your smile grew, but your lip split and blood burst into your mouth. You cradled your face with tears in your eyes and Asura jumped to his feet as if you'd hit him.
Bright eyes wide as coins, his hand touched the middle of his chest and his voice grew so quiet you could barely hear him, "Fantastic. You touched my soul and I broke your teeth."
You felt a twinge in your heart. You didn't want him to feel bad for hitting you when you knew how he'd react to your touch, you'd actually wanted him to, just maybe not quite so hard. "Don't be ridiculous." You waved your hand at him, "I shouldn't have snuck up on you, plus I touched your soul without your consent. Let's call it even."
The last thing he wanted was to agree to those terms, he felt terrible for hitting you but he also didn't want to go without the serenity of your soul. He never wanted to go without that feeling again. When you touched his soul everything just stopped. The crippling fear, the screaming anxiety that drove him to near madness, for just a moment it was all silent. It was the first time in his entire life he was able to feel the sensation of serenity. And it was beautifully addicting. Just hearing your voice was enough to put a damper on the madness, the closer he came the more powerful the sensation.
"Lord Death has asked me to spend time with you to see if I can remove your fears, would you mind that? I don't want to intrude on your solitude if that makes you feel bette-"
"Don't leave," he suddenly commanded, then added a quiet, "Please."
It was actually kind of endearing the way he reacted to your ability. This tough, powerful, spindly man was so unsure of how to react to your sense of serenity. You were sure that he'd never experienced anything like it before. You let go of your slowly swelling face, "I'll stay with you as long as you want next time, but I am going to have to go get this stitched up." You started to stand and he took a hold of your elbow to help. Your gaze fell to his hand on your arm and the way it enveloped the whole joint. He was a very big person. But he wasn't intimidating at all. He was too jumpy to be intimidating.
You followed the black and red lines of his outermost shirt with your eyes until your neck was crooked at a sharp angle, "Wow, you're way taller up close than I remembered."
Asura turned his head abruptly to the side, "There's someone observing you from the tree line."
How he knew that they were looking at you rather than him, you'd never know. But you did peek around Asura's arm to see a figure approaching. A man was watching the pair of you from the edge of the clearing with his hands shoved deep in his pockets, kicking rocks as he sauntered close. The smile that you'd initially intended for Asura instead widened at the silhouette. You waved broadly, "Hey Akira!"
The figure waved back before spitting out his cigarette.
To Asura this felt like an invasion on what had just become the most precious few minutes of his life. To say he was displeased would be a colossal understatement.
You looked back to him to find his scarves all back in place, all of his muscles were tense. He was ready to fight, but that was the last thing you needed to deal with right now.
"That's Akira. He's my meister. Don't worry though, he's about as scary as a newborn kitten." You explained with a smirk, but it didn't calm Death's Fragment. You sighed and moved around Asura to reach your long time boyfriend.
As soon as you looked back Asura seemed to disappear. You felt your heart sink again. Another door closed slammed.
At least Akira didn't appear to mind getting his girl to himself and he dropped a kiss to your forehead as he took your hand, the blonde was about as casual as they came.
"Did that guy fuck up your face?" He asked while clipping the last stitch in your busted lip.
"Yeah but I actually planned for it to happen. I needed him to make physical contact with me in order to forge the initial link. It was much easier to get him to talk to me than I thought it would be after his fist connected with my face."
"If you keep switching technicians on me I'm going to start calling you a pimp." He laughed, checking on his handiwork with a thumb to your lower lip.
You told him about everything you'd been able to accomplish with Asura on the way home and throughout the whole walk to the city. It had always existed, at least that's what Death always said, but you thought he was just being cheeky. It was called Damascus, it was a holy city with orange and red stone buildings and a beautiful network of canals for quick travel. The stones and walkways were old and twisted. It reminded you of another ancient city, a human city called Amsterdam except about 10,000 times hotter. You two had settled here with the other humans about a hundred years ago. Lord Death was easy to find if you needed him though, all you needed was a mirror. He resided nearby in Jericho with Asura, presumably to keep him in check in case anything went wrong.
You'd never been on a case with Asura before, but you'd heard the rumors. It was said that he was more powerful than Lord Death himself, but you weren't sold. He was perfectly gentle around you, he always had been.
As you walked through those old dusty streets your voice echoed and Akira nodded and "hm"ed in all the appropriate moments. You started rambling about monkeys and star ships and he kept nodding as if you were still talking about work. You glared. He was totally ignoring you! Akira was usually far more interested in your assignments, but this time he had a hard set mouth and rolled his eyes periodically. He always had a bit of a sore spot when it came to Asura. He felt like it was 'cheating' that he was created so powerful, rather than being born by a human mother and learning to find strength like Akira had.
"You can't fault him for his manner of birth, plus he has some serious anxiety issues you couldn't even begin to comprehend." You explained, your voice felt more exasperated with each syllable. "You'd be a loner too if you were terrified of everything."
Akira rolled his eyes, "I don't get why you're so interested, the guy is straight up retarded."
You punched Akira in the shoulder with enough oomph to leave a bruise. "Cut that out! He's just different."
He rubbed his arm with a grouch face, "Different a.k.a. retarded."
God he was such an asshole sometimes.
"Just stop." His sneer dropped at your terse tone. "He's just difficult to reach and I'm going to be spending a lot of time with him for the foreseeable future so quit being a jerk."
Akira held up his hands defensively before pulling the door open before you to walk through. He was making you dinner, but that didn't mean you had to suppress your glare as you passed. He sighed and followed you.
"Can we be done fighting? 'Cause I really want to just have a nice dinner and seduce you into bed."
You rolled your eyes as you lowered to your seat and flipped open your book to hid your face. You were still annoyed but it was passing quickly, it was hard to stay mad at Akira and his devilish grin.
Everything went without a hitch and by the end of the night Akira had you under his arm giggling into his side as you walked to the canal to skip rocks. If you weren't smiling at the way your boyfriend's eyes lit with sarcasm as you joked with him you might have heard the sound of a glass heart shattering from across the street.
Asura hadn't realized that you were busy tonight. It wasn't your fault and he knew that, but he was distinctly embarrassed to see you with that guy. To Asura, it was easy to see why you loved Akira. He was bright like the sun in the morning and he could make you smile with such ease. You didn't know how hard it was for him to talk to you earlier in the day or the way you made him feel when you used your ability on him. It wasn't your fault that he didn't ask whether or not you were available tonight, it wasn't even your fault that he had this piercing pain in his heart.
It wasn't your fault that the little bunch of flowers growing wild and beautiful on his earlier case to Faiyum had reminded him of you. It wasn't your fault that he wanted to show them to you.
He crushed the soft little things in a fist when you leaned up to kiss that guy.
It wasn't your fault that he was desperate for your attention, but he blamed you anyway.