His hands were shaking as he held the blade under the water, trying – almost desperately – to get the right angle so that the blood would easily run from weapon to drain. His breathing was uneven. There were tears in his brown eyes. His shaking worsened.
"i'M iMpReSSeD."
Ryou startled, turning with wide eyes and holding the knife at the ready. "Wh-Who's there?" he demanded shakily his panic growing. "Answer me! Where are you hiding?! How'd you get in here?!"
A dark chuckle from somewhere to his right. But when he turned, there was no-one to be found. "i cAn gEt iNtO aNy pLaCe i wAnT. a sTuPiD LoCk wOn'T kEEp sOmEoNe LiKe mE oUt."
"Someone… like you?" The words made no sense to him.
"yEs." In a sudden swirl on shadows and purple cape, the tall man appeared, easily looming over Ryou with his superior height. He lashed out with one hand, catching Ryou's wrist when the Brit attempted to cut him. He chuckled. "WeLL tHaT wAsN't vErY CiViL oF yOu, nOw wAs iT."
Ryou's expression was one of anger, until he suddenly noticed the maroon that had been splattered across the stranger's face, stained his tan hands, and blossomed across his dark shirt. Surprise widened his eyes. His body relaxed just the slightest bit, barely noticeable.
After a moment, the young boy gestured to the still running sink. "Do you… um… want to… maybe… um… clean up?" he asked haltingly.
The man looked startled by the sudden suggestion; he had expected no kindness from Ryou, not after the attack. His expression slowly relaxed into a slight grin. His tongue flickered out as he licked at a dab of splattered blood near his mouth. "iT'd bE a sHaMe tO wAsTe sUcH DeLiCiOuS bLooD," he muttered in that same warped voice. "tO JuSt wAsH iT dOwN tHe DrAiN LiKe tHaT… I cOuLdN't pOsSibLy."
Ryou rolled his eyes, showing a surprising amount of attitude that was very much unlike him. "The blood you're drenched in is not the only blood in the world. There are plenty of others you could bleed out."
"sPoKeN LiKe a tRuE mUrDeReR," the tall man chuckled.
Although Ryou had almost completely relaxed, he tensed once more at this comment. His expression became guarded. Defensive. "I'm not a-" he began insistently.
"dOn'T LiE tO mE!" the man snapped suddenly, startling the Brit. Veins pulsed in the Egyptian's face. But he recovered quickly enough, smothering his anger with another grin. "I aLrEaDy kNoW tHaT yOu KiLLeD a mAn; tHeRe's nO nEeD tO pReTeNd tHaT yOu DiDn-"
He froze, feeling the sudden bite of knife to throat. It dug slightly into the skin, causing the slightest bit of crimson to well up. Shock shook him up more than the pain did; he hadn't even seen the young boy move.
"Please shut up," Ryou ordered, just as polite while cutting someone's throat as he was when speaking to a policeman, as he would later that night. "or I really will have to kill you."
The man looked startled for a moment. Then, slowly but surely – almost eagerly, despite how one would usually respond to a death threat – he began to laugh. And it wasn't the awkward, hysterical "heh heh" of somebody thinking to themselves, 'Oh my god this guy is insane and he's going to cut my fucking throat open!' laugh. It was more of a sudden cackle of amusement, of twisted, psychotic amusement.
Ryou hesitated upon hearing this laugh. He lowered his arm slightly. Confusion entered his brown eyes. "Huh? Wait, why the bloody hell are you-?"
He let out a yelp as the man used the opportunity to duck down. When Ryou struck instinctively with his blade, he only found blonde hair. The man grabbed him by the legs, spread them slightly, and then slid behind him. He stood again, purple cape tangling around him. As Ryou turned, raising his blade to strike, the man's hands locked onto his wrist with just as much speed as Ryou had shown earlier. He squeezed slightly, tight enough to be painfully, and caused Ryou to drop his knife.
Once the Brit was disarmed, the Egyptian wrapped his arm around him, forcibly, like a straightjacket. It seemed to be a hug of sorts; an awkward, startlingly inappropriate for the situation at hand, bone crushing embrace.
The man's breath was hot by his captive's ear. It still smelled faintly metallic, likely from my blood he had ingested previously. "yOu'Re rEaLLy CuTe, yOu kNoW ThAt?" he whispered, another chuckle in his voice.
Ryou had been struggling to free himself, but at these words he froze. Memories danced in his brown eyes.
He recalled that boy. He remembered thing like his laughter. The way he protected him from the teasing of the bullies. He flashed back to the fun times that they had shared. Embraces, kisses, love. But then…
Lies. Betrayal. Anger, an overwhelming anger that burned everything else. The icy blade in his hands. The sensation of blood staining his pale skin, perhaps forever. A sense of relief, but also guilt. The sudden tears. The panic. The running faucet.
His voice was faint when he returned to reality; faint and haunted. "No… I'm not cute at all."
The man frowned. "yEs yOu aRe."
The pale-haired boy raised his voice. "No I'm not!" he shouted. A choked sob escaped his lips. He swallowed the next one that threatened. Gasped for air. Accidently released the sob. The boy struggled to find his words. His shoulders shook. "If I was cute… I couldn't possibly be. Because…. B-Because…!" Ryou shook his head frantically. "If I was cute he never would have tried to leave me," he insisted, voice stronger now, full of conviction. "He would never have abandoned me."
The stranger's frown deepened. "iS tHaT wHy yOu hAd tO KiLL HiM? bEcAuSe hE wAnTeD tO aBaNdOn yOu, LiKeLy FoR aNoThEr pErSoN?" Spoken so nonchalantly, as if he were discussing the weather and not murder.
Ryou looked away. The guilt and pain in his eyes had been swept away by the darkness that now lingered there. "If I can't have him," he murmured in a softer voice than one would have ever imagined possible. "then nobody can."
"oF cOuRsE."
His words jolted Ryou back to reality. He struggled to turn, to look at his captor. "R-Really?"
"oF cOuRsE," he repeated. "aN aSsHoLe tHaT wOuLd aBaNdOn a BeAuTy LiKe yOu – JuSt tO hOOk uP WiTh sOmE sTuPiD, UgLy, mAn-StEaLiNg wHoRe – dOeSn'T dEsErVe tO LiVe."
"Exactly!" Ryou blurted out, stunned by this stranger's unquestionable understanding of what he had gone through, why he had done what he had. Then all of what the man had said registered. The Brit blushed a faint rose color. Played with his long white hair. He became the picture of a shy schoolboy, shedding his murderous skin with no trouble at all. "A- A beauty?" he stammered, flustered but pleased. "You really think so?"
"tHaT iDiOt cOuLdN't sEE hOw dAnGeRoUsLy BeAuTiFuL aN oBsEsSiVe LoVe cAn bE."
The man's voice now came from the shadows. Ryou was startled. He hadn't even noticed that the embrace was gone until the stranger had begun speaking again. The Egyptian was quiet for a moment; Ryou almost thought he had left. But then at last he broke the silence with three words, none of them any louder than a whisper.
"BuT I cAN."
Ryou looked around, trying to find the man. There was a light in his eyes now. Hope. Excitement. Delight. "Really? Do you mean it?"
The man suddenly appeared in front of Ryou. "yOu hAvE aN aMaZiNg NaTuRaL TaLeNt. i'Ve nEvEr sEeN sUcH a pErFeCt mUrDeR cArRiEd oUt BeFoRe, aNd tHiS wAs OnLy yOuR FiRsT aTteMpT! yOu WiLL bE tHe gReAtEsT KiLLeR tHiS wOrLd hAs eVer sEeN."
He was positively glowing now. "Are you quite certain?" he asked eagerly.
A squeak escaped the young boy as warm lips were suddenly crushed against his own. The man's arm, a steel bar pinning Ryou to him, brought the two of them as close as possible without the removal of clothes.
The sudden kiss caught Ryou off guard. But although the man's lips were slammed to his with enough force to nearly jar a tooth loose, it was not altogether unpleasant.
At last the man pulled back. "dEaD CeRtAiN," he breathed, disappearing into the shadows once more with only a single wink to promise that he would return again someday.
It wasn't until an hour or two later – while Ryou was giving the police a false testimony concerning his boyfriend's mysterious disappearance – that the Brit would finally realize that he had never asked the man for his name.