Title: The Darkness
Author/Artist:Tsutsuji
Rating:T-M
Warnings: yaoi, dark themes
Word count: 500
Summary: It was too easy to welcome Conrad Weller's touch, without wondering what else might be hidden behind that cool smile...
A/N: 1 of 2 fics written for the Springkink prompt: Conrad/Murata: Nightmares - "The more things change, the more things stay the same" (The other is "ReAwakening.")
Murata realizes that he should have seen the signs sooner, but he missed noticing them again, just as he had the first time. Back then, he was blinded at first by the Shinou's brilliant light, believing that nothing could touch the golden king. Even when the signs first appeared, disbelief hid It from view for too long.
This time, he thinks, denial was partly due to his own weariness, his readiness for the long cycle of his lives to be over and his desire to live out one life unencumbered by ancient duty, to live in the present without looking over his shoulder at the past and keeping one dutiful eye on the future. But it was also due to other needs that made it too easy to welcome Conrad's attention and his touch, without wondering what else might be hidden behind that cool smile.
So, if their first time together was rough and urgent and painful, it was not really any more than he expected, even from Conrad Weller, and not any more than he needed for himself.
It wasn't until afterward, when the swordsman's arms closed around him from behind, trapping him, holding him still and muffled in the sheets, that Murata began to know what it really was that held him. The first chill of dread shivered through him even as Conrad's hands and mouth and body brought on a new wave of arousal. Even so, he couldn't stop himself from giving in, one more time, closing his eyes before he could see the darkness streaking up the arms that held him and aroused him, and crying out so he couldn't hear, although it still only sounded like Conrad's own voice, desperate and breathless in his ear. Until It laughed at him.
By the time he even thought of struggling, it was too late. Shoushu held him with Conrad Weller's strength. The darkness leaked like ink from the old scar around the swordsman's upper arm, and soft brown eyes lit up with deeper red within, like coals scorching rich earth. Conrad's carefully measured smile stretched into a grimace.
Murata knew then what he had willfully ignored all along: Shoushu would always arise again. This time, It had risen from all the tangled and repressed feelings, all the resentment and bitterness, grief and anger that Conrad had tried to pretend did not exist in his own heart. All of that darkness had simmered within him until It grew strong enough to manifest again. This time, Its fury had a new target - because Yuuri was too pure for It to touch, for now, but Murata's soul was well tainted by now, even if this incarnation was mostly innocent - and Shoushu remembered the Great Sage.
It remembers Murata Ken.
"You no longer have the power or will to stop me, 'Daikenja,'" It says, mocking him with Conrad's gentle voice, kissing him with Conrad's lips. "This time, I will end it all, without fail, and you will only be the first..."