Valse De La Lune
The day was early. The sun had not yet made it over the tall, wispy weeping willow trees that surrounded him, making the sky a deep, deep navy blue. Everything was quiet. Everyone everywhere was still sleeping, their faces contorted by nightmares or set at ease by stories they alone told when they let themselves go to their undisturbed demise. The stars in the sky twinkled whites and reds and azules unable to be named by human imagination. Street lamps flickered their ill yellow lights onto the worn pavement below, making the melted gum and bird excretion from the earlier days look like nothing but flecks on a plate. Disgusting and bothersome.
He knew though, that soon the hour would pass and there would be fire in the east. Glowing and pulsing red and orange it would climb - as if it was not the sun behind the horizon, but a heart stretching slowly and surely to reach it's rightful place in the sky, embracing the world below once again. Sounds would thrive. The trees with their long, drooping branches and furry leaves would be bathed in light, becoming the dark lime-green they were meant to be. They'd shine like the smiles of children, swaying along in the playful breezes that came to tickle them. The birds living in the trees would gate fearlessly along the sidewalks contentedly and do spirals in the air, praising the sun for it's endless love and security. All the while this part of the world would be serene and brimmed with joy for many others.
But not now. So late was the dawn to rise. The wind now passed fleetingly over his skin, caressing those who would be asleep at this hour, but causing the hairs on his arms to rise and - in an odd way - awaken. The onyx eyes that envisioned the future as it would be did not seem to register the present, lost in the thoughts that were behind them. Long, creme coloured arms sprinkled with earthenware brown rested on top of lengthy, long shaped legs, contemplative. Both were muscular and chiseled. Thin, but used to doing any kind of work they were set to without complaint. A smooth rounded nose pointed out soundly to fall back down on thin Tuscan brown lips and a strong, yet rounded chin. His thin midnight eyebrows disappeared into a rush of spiky thick green hair. The only oddity on this body of his. Naturally that way, ever since he could begin to remember, his hair had began and stayed a bright leafy green. It was strange indeed and earned no end of teasing by most he was around.
But in time, as most do with those things, he learned to live with it.
The park he was sitting in now - the weather stained wooden bench, the pale multifarious sidewalk - he had named his. Yanagi Park. A place where, at times like this, he could be solitary for as long as he wanted without anyone disturbing him. In the afternoon he had other things to do, tasks to perform for those whose amusement held more pertinence than his own. But now he could contemplate the mysteries of the universe and life itself without any interruption, surrounded by the only things he dubbed his alone.
He knew better than that though. This park was communal. There was near to nothing in the world that he held to himself, for it all had to be given away to someone else. Not his time, not the clothes on his back, not his words...
"Zetsu~!"
Not even his own name.
The only things he had were the thoughts in his head, which made the solitary escapes that much more important. It was never for long, though. And it was more than likely that in what seemed just a few moments after he'd risen from bed that someone should come and seek him out.
This figure appeared in front of him with their face concealed behind a round cimarron orange mask resembling somewhat of a lollipop (the way a black canal swirled from the inside to the outside). Center right was a small, light-less eye-hole, where nonetheless a bright blue orb peered out, curious and soft. It smiled at him and then the person twirled around once, their much too large long-sleeved turtleneck passing their hands and stopping just above their knees. Wild ebony hair jutted and rolled in the figure of a dome around the small person's head like a jungle long past tamed.
Again, their squeaky voice piped up, not loosing the intense volume at which he had first heard it.
"Zettsan! What are you doing out here? All alone?"
The boy's name was Tobi. An orphan, or perhaps also an escapee like Zetsu himself, Tobi was an inquisitive one with enough sense to act like he wasn't. Around eight or so the child had been branded himself an eccentric with no visible mental or physical problems. There was always a song on Tobi's mind and it leaked through the whistles and hums that he let slip past his lips in most every minute of the day. Sometimes a happy ditty, at other times a sad one, but never angry. And it always seemed to go with the moment.
Suddenly, remembering that he had been asked a question, Zetsu shrugged his broad shoulders and sighed, feeling the quiet moment slipping away from him quicker than he could contain.
A long, drawn out 'mmm' came from the child's lips as he skipped over and hopped onto the bench his friend was sitting on, swaying his head from side to side as if there was a song in the still morning air that Zetsu could not hear. Tobi's much too large white shoes kicked up and down on, the laces of bunny ears flying in the air with each fall of his pale, skinny legs.
"It's like... five o' clock in the morning. Why do you get up so early, Zettsan? Is it because you can't sleep? Do you get nightmares a lot? I never get nightmares - in fact, I don't dream at all. Isn't that strange? Or maybe you don't dream either! That's why you can't sleep! But I can sleep, so no, I guess that's not it. What are dreams like, Zettsan? Oh, wait, I guess you can't answer that if you don't have dreams." The boy only took a breath to giggle to himself, putting a hand over where his mouth would be if he wasn't wearing his mask. Then he started on, "Sasori-no-dana gets up really early too, which is kind of strange. You suppose he sleeps at all, Zettsan? I don't think so, I don't think evil ever sleeps - ER, not that Sasori-no-dana's evil! But don't you think it's kind of weird that he seems to never sleep? Maybe that's why he's got those dark half moons under his eyes."
Like every time he talked to Tobi, Zetsu tried not to think about the questions or the subject of his questions.
Instead Zetsu placed his hands on either side of him, pushing himself up to a stand. "We should get back." was all he said, then beginning his usual, slow gate to the west. Opposite of the rising sun, opposite of the warmth. He had work to do now, in the place he called home for the time being. Tobi followed just as enthusiastically as he had sat on the bench in semi-silence, skipping and humming sometimes in front of, sometimes beside the taller man. It was how they spent most of their mornings, in invaded quiet and peace. It was probably how they would spend the rest of their mornings until they got old and could walk or skip no more...
"We're here, we're here, we're heeeere~!" Tobi sang joyously as he flitted to the entrance of their home and job. Zetsu looked up at the old red neon sign flickering above his head in simple reflex. Miller deLight, - Miller's for short - was a popular bar on Heiki street, (one of the main streets in the large town of 柳町 'Yanagi Town') where everyone was welcomed to drown their sorrows and party untill the sun rose over their heads. Many times even past that.
There were two floors to this extensive building. The first was ground level, filled with pool and card tables, maroon red leather bar stools in front of two long slick isles on the north and south side of the room. The carpet was a poker colour green, with specks of brick red and cornflower blue, the walls a pitiful tan hue that had been poorly picked.
But most could not see this when they were swimming in their own tears.
On the top floor the walls and carpet were no different. Only, after the wooden staircase there was a hallway with multiple doors and rooms behind them that were made for the residents and the overnighters; the ones that had passed out at the bar or gotten knocked out by a good nose bashing during the night. Of course for this stay they had to pay a small amount of money, but this way the top floor also doubled for a hotel of sorts for those who more or less needed it.
A long time ago when he was much, much younger, the place used to belong to a mean old couple that ran the was not called Miller deLight, but Café Global, famous for it's amazing foreign pastries and cappuccino. The floors had been the same, but the walls had been a capturing Tuscan hue, which Zetsu remembered staring at for hours and hours on end without tiring of it. And sometimes, when it got too loud, or when the drunken idiots inside of Miller's got a little too roudy, he wished that Café Global was still there. That he could once again hear the clicking of the nimble fingers that typed unceasingly, the smell of the African coffee grounds and French breads...
But he was never welcomed there like he was at his new home. The same detached feeling of belonging was a little less present at this place, but an actual standing point had been missing from the earlier one.
A tug on his T-shirt sleeve made Zetsu finally look down to Tobi, who was gazing at him with what the taller man could imagine was a pursed lip, raised eye expression.
"Whatcha' lookin' at, Zetssan?" he asked, cocking his head to the side in a bird-like manner."I always see you lookin' up at that sign when you get here, watcha' thinkin' about?"
"...Clouds." Zestu muttered offhandedly. It would be naught but a hassle to talk about the place that had used to reside on this lot. Tobi was fairly new. He'd only joined the group that lived inside of Miller deLight a couple years ago, as he'd been found by Zetsu himself, wandering aimlessly around his park.
And, of course, like with all the answers he received, Tobi did not seem satisfied. For this, Zetsu did not blame him, as he had a right to be unsatisfied with anything anyone told him to believe. The boy was not listened to, and he was lied to and pushed away constantly. Something Zetsu was not proud of, but nothing he had any control over.
"Aren't you gonna go in?" Zetsu asked, taking a deep breath
Tobi jumped with an 'Oh!' and turned around to the door, placing his small, hidden fingers around the golden handle and rotating it, pushed open the piece of glass and metal between them and the inside of Miller deLight.
Immediately they were stalled, being hit in the face with stagnate cigarette smoke and beer stench, making Tobi cough into his sleeve. Over just a short time the boy had quickly grown allergic to the scent of the small sticks of poison that so openly littered his own home.
Feeling just a small bit of pity for the child, Zetsu patted his back and urged him to keep moving, he himself starting to maneuver past the drunks passed out on the floor and the overturned bar stools to the slick wooden staircase on the east side of the room. There was no one handling the bars themselves while a group of men laughed heartily at one of the pool tables, hitting one of theirs on his back. Zetsu thought for just a moment that it was rather risky, to let the drunk alone take care of the shop, but he doubted that anyone would try anything when last year Sasori-no-dana had cut a drunk man's hand off when he had tried to steal a whole pack of Smirnoff.
Yes. Everyone remembered that quite vividly. And those who had not been present were told what had happened no doubt. This was the greatest bar and the one with the best security in the whole town of Yanagimachi after that incident.
When they emerged from the stairs and started down the long hallway, the first thing they heard was not the sound of snoring, but the sound of an angry bark.
"Fuck you. This is shit, man!"
The brash voice was familiar. As was the deep, cool one that answered him.
"You expect me to give you money for something you stole?"
At the very end of the corridor the boy and his friend turned to the left, entering a large, well-lit room with two couches up against the north and west walls the same colour and make as the bar stools downstairs. A short-standing table stood scratch lacquered and worn in front of them both. And on the far side of the room there was a skinny wooden chair next to a double-door opening.
And in the middle of the room, two quarreling men, staring each-other down.
Tobi and Zetsu were not noticed upon entry. Those in the argument were too busy for them now. The smaller one on the right (a man with short grey hair slicked back on his head) had skin that was exceptionally pale, his body exceptionally thick. His arms were bare, save for the single gold chain on his left wrist. His shirt was silk, an orange-red on which a great black dragon snaked around white lightning and snarled. He wore tight-fitting blue jeans that faded to a baby blue on his thighs and a wallet chain, dirty gold, disappeared into his shirt, snapping onto his belt loop.
His eyes shone luminescent mauve, fire-like as he glared up at his grey-eyed opponent. This man was considerably taller and thinner than the other and his hair was a charcoal black that jutted out every which way, but it was short and subdued. Around his neck was a simple white towel replacing his shirt so that it was clear to see how this one had just gotten out of the shower - the way some of the water droplets were still visible on his olive-toned chest. The man wore a plain brown leather belt that held up his skinny grey jeans, a single large fringing hole in the left knee. Black ink made to appear like stitches lay on the corners of his mouth, around on his shoulders and above his elbows, as well as on his wrists and neck.
"Hidan," he said, shaking his head, "I may look like a criminal, but didn't your mother ever teach you not to steal?"
Hidan snorted angrily, his eyes rolling wildly. "Shut the hell up, man! Found isn't the same thing as stole. I found this, OK? What's the big deal? And don't bring parental figures into this!"
"That's horrid logic and you know it."
"Fuck you, Kakuzu."
Tobi, having listened to the conversation good manneredly as he kicked his legs off the side of the west couch smiled. "That rhymed!" he sang. "Fuck you, Kakuzu~, fuck you, Kakuzu~!"
The smaller man laughed and pointed to the child, a wide grin displaying his bleach white teeth.
"See?" he said, "Even the kid hates you!"
"What?" was said kid's startled question.
Now it was Kakuzu's turn to snort. "Tobi is an impressionable child, he was only repeating what he heard because he liked the sound of the phrase. It doesn't mean anything."
Again, "Shut the hell up," was Hidan's retort to that.
Zetsu, who had not left the doorway, leaned against the wood and crossed his arms. This happened daily - Hidan getting angry at Kakuzu and it all turning into one big fight. If Zetsu had ten yen for every time he was witness to an altercation, then a long time ago he would've been able to easily buy even Sasori-no-dana out of everything.
Kakuzu laughed suddenly, surprising everyone in the room. Tobi jumped with visible surprise.
"I'll give you some money for it, Hidan," The taller man exclaimed. "I never said I wouldn't. Why do you always let me mess with your head?"
Hidan was stunned for a moment and then he smiled and punched Kakuzu in the arm once he realized that he really had been fooled.
"You rat bastard!" he laughed, taking out the subject of their earlier argument from his pant's pocket. It was a strange necklace, wrought together with round and jagged pieces of navy and cerulean blues, would-be-greens and an interesting iridescent turquoise that Zetsu had never seen before. On the very end of the necklace was a sea hued pocket watch type item. But apparently as Hidan described it to Kakuzu, it didn't open at all.
"Which pisses me off," he was muttering to himself. "Once in a while I'd like to get a bonus or something."
Kakuzu took the trinket into his large hands and inspected it, turning it this way and that. Finally, hand on his chin in thought he nodded.
"6000." he decided. The transaction was completed when Kakuzu handed over the money to Hidan and bowed his head in respect. It was a strange thing to do, the way he did it, but for some reason Kakuzu always bowed like this after a great deal had been done for him. Perhaps it came from customs in India? Of course, Zetsu knew not where exactly Kakuzu had come from, except that it was somewhere around the Middle East, and he did not really care to find out anything more about someone he rarely spoke to.
"Oi, Zetsu," Kakuzu called to him, bringing him out of his own thoughts once again. Zetsu raised an eyebrow at this. "Sasori-no-dana's got a girl coming to live in town, I heard. That's where Kisame supposedly went at least. Poor bastard has to go and pick her up from the airport, since he's got the slickest car of us all."
"Oh, baby, do I love that fucking Cadillac," Hidan put in, grinning as he sat down on the couch and rested his arm on it's head.
Kakuzu smiled and continued. "Word is she's a total babe, which makes me wonder how our short little red-head managed to pick her up."
Word is? Where was Kakuzu getting his info?
"Probably got her offa' the internet. You don't need to be real on the web," the man on the couch laughed.
Zetsu was quiet for a moment, contemplating this. "What's her name?" He asked.
Kakuzu again put a hand to his chin in thought. "It's something that starts with a 'D' and ends in 'ara'..."
"*Danshibara?" Hidan offered, laughing boisterously.
"Nah... like.. Darakudara... Or Darekakara. Daruigara?"
Tobi cocked his head to the side again. "Those don't sound like lady names. How about Daiyamara?"
Hidan scowled. "Shut up kid, it don't have to sound feminine."
The stitch man shook his head. "I forgot. But she's gonna be here soon anyway, so we'll find out won't we?"
"Personally I feel sorry for this bitch, whoever the hell she is," The grey-headed man commented. "If I was a girl I'd get as fucking far away from him as I could. No telling what kind of shit he'd want to do with me."
"If it was you, Hidan, I doubt anyone would want anything to do with you."
"That's fucking cold, man."
"It's true."
If Zetsu thought about it seriously, he too felt sort of sorry for the woman that had fallen in love with Kakyoun Sasori. Their 'leader' so to speak was a harsh, tyrannical tycoon that believed he owned the world and everything in it. He felt nothing, he loved nothing.
Although now, apparently, he just might.
"She must be just like him," Zetsu realized in a mumble. Perhaps that was why the girl felt like she needed to move here, because she'd found someone who was just as hateful and evil as herself.
"Jesus, I hope not," Hidan said, popping his neck with his fist. "It's hard enough just having one hard ass bastard that gets off on ordering us around already."
No one in that room could agree more.
Tobi crossed his legs in front of him and leaned forward. "Where's this lady from?" he asked in a quiet voice.
"Probably somewhere in the UK," Zetsu offered, knowing that the other two men would ignore the kid completely. "Sasori-no-dana has a lot of business over there."
Kakuzu nodded. "It's where he spends most of his time. I wouldn't put it past him if this woman was someone he met at a business meeting. But then again, if her name is Japanese, where in the world...? Everyone within a ten-thousand mile radius of this place knows about Sasori-no-dana. She couldn't be from here."
Hidan smoothed back his hair and smirked. "That punk's got no life. He's nuthin' but flat ass lucky-"
He was interrupted by a small 'oof!' that came from behind Zetsu, followed by a light thunk against the carpet. All heads turned to look his direction, but Zetsu hadn't made the sound and didn't know who had. Straightening up he turned around and looked behind him.
What he saw had him stunned.
"Oooh..."
「高い牛」
