AN: I watched Interview with a Vampire, and was inspired. Sooo... I took that, added in my fan girl-obsession of slash, particularly slash of the RaitoxL kind, and voila. Not to mention I wanted to try my hand at writing something a tad more mature. I didn't proofread this as many times as I would have liked, but I don't have access to the internet anymore, so when I do get a chance to get on, I post what I have. More than likely this will be edited at a later date, but in the meantime I welcome all of my readers to point out any punctuation or grammatical errors they see. Also, if this makes no sense, I'd love to hear about that, too! Thank you!
Warnings: L's name (come on, you should already know that one), slash, smut, OOC-ness, AU.
Death Is My Beat
Pain can drive a man insane, if he is weak enough to succumb to it. My chest ached, blood from my broken lips spilled down my chin and stained my school uniform. I had long since given up on trying to defend myself from their blows. Instead, I curled into myself on the dingy ground of that dark alley, longing for nothing but oblivion. Release from the pain.
I had been on my way home from cram school, ever the responsible student. I was bored and tired, both normal for me, and my feet carried me down the same path I had traversed countless times before. Right at the stoplight, four blocks straight, cross the railroad tracks, left at the convenience store, two and a half blocks, then cut through the alley...
My feet carried me without any direction from my mind. I was preoccupied with my boredom and thoughts about this rotten world I was trapped in. Trapped, powerless, unable to change a single thing about it. It left a bitter taste in my mouth.
I was so preoccupied that I didn't notice that I was entering the alley, almost home. I didn't notice the shadows. I didn't notice the shapes, four of them, disconnect from those shadows and move towards me. I didn't notice...
Until they swarmed me.
Then there was nothing but pain, and the dim thought in the back of my head whispering, "Protect your vitals. You'll live with a broken arm, but maybe not with a ruptured spleen."
This world is rotten.
XoXoX
I can't say if I blacked out or not. There was pain, and suddenly (minutes later, hours later) the blows stopped raining down upon me.
The night's breeze drifted around me. Cold. The side of my face was pressed against the gritty cement. Cold. Hands gently ran through my hair, checked my pulse. Cold.
Awareness slowly came back to me.
Hands?
My eyes, previously clamped shut in agony, cracked open, and I saw him.
A man, possibly in his twenties, though it was difficult to tell, stared down at me with bottomless obsidian eyes. There were dark rings etched underneath them, and his skin was so pale he almost seemed to glow in the darkness. Shaggy black hair framed his face and stuck out in every direction. He was eerily beautiful, in a dangerous way. It rolled off him in waves, but I wasn't afraid.
"You're injured," he said needlessly, as if I hadn't known.
"No shit," I rasped back at him, and his thin lips, slightly darker than the rest of his skin, quirked into a feral smile. His eyes glinted in amusement.
"Perhaps I should get you to a hospital." He gripped my chin with his thumb and forefinger. "There may be internal injuries." His thumb brushed across my bottom lip, smearing my blood.
"I'm fine. Don't need a hospital. My house is practically just around the corner."
His thumb, stained with my blood, drifted to his lips. His tongue flicked out, tasting. "Do you require assistance?"
I tried to move, to uncurl myself, and stiffened. "Yeah."
"Shall I carry you?" He spoke in a monotone.
My pride was wounded, sure, but it wasn't dead. No way in Hell was he going to carry me like I was four. "Just help me up."
And he did. Carefully he pulled me to my feet, and when I stumbled, he wrapped an arm around my waist, and draped one of my own across his shoulders.
We were the same height. He was thinner, but surprisingly strong.
I'm ashamed to say that he ended up supporting my entire weight as he followed my directions to my house, but he didn't seem to mind or even notice.
We moved steadily, in silence.
"Um," I mumbled. "You saved me."
"I did."
"Why?"
He made a sound in his throat, irritated. "That is inconsequential. You should just be thankful."
"Okay... Thanks."
"You are welcome."
My home came into view. "I can make it from here." I didn't want my family to see me like that. It was inevitable, I probably looked like I had been run over by a truck, but the least I could do was show up on my own two feet. That would be slightly less humiliating.
The stranger seemed to sense my thoughts, and nodded in understanding. "You are certain?"
"I appreciate this, but I've got it now."
He released me almost reluctantly. "As you wish, Yagami Raito-kun."
"Thanks again." I hobbled towards the front door, not looking back. Of course I was grateful, the stranger had probably saved my life. That didn't stop the flush of humiliation, though, so I didn't look back. Even though I was tempted to.
It didn't occur to me that I hadn't told him my name.
XoXoX
Two weeks passed.
My injuries (sprains, bruises, and cuts, but thankfully nothing broken) healed. I barely thought about the stranger during the day. I was busy with school and trying to convince my father that I didn't need his colleagues to escort me everywhere I went.
Yagami Soichiro was having none of it, and my "babysitters" remained.
Sometimes, being the son of the Chief of the NPA really had its downsides.
I did think of the stranger of the stranger as night, as I lay on my bed, unable to sleep. My recollections of that night were hazy. Details were skewed for me, but I remembered his eyes. Dark, deep, like pools of shadow. They were beautiful.
They haunted me in my sleep.
XoXoX
Hands on me in the darkness, caressing and teasing me. They were cold, unnaturally so, but they left fire in their wake, burning my skin.
"Raito-kun..."
I gasped as they trailed down my bare chest.
All I could see was black, and abruptly I realized it was because all I see are his eyes. I couldn't tear my gaze away from them. They mesmerized me, and I would die, happily, if it meant I could look into those orbs for all eternity.
"Please," I gasped, begging. Begging for more, for completion, for him to stop tormenting me.
His hands gripped my hips, holding me down, and he pressed his entire body against the length of mine. I cried out as he rubbed shamelessly against me, skin on skin. It burned, and nothing had ever felt so amazing.
Sharp teeth nipped at my earlobe, and I cried out again. A rumbling laughter rolled through his body, and he kissed the delicate skin of my neck just below my ear.
Then he whispered one word to me.
"Soon."
XoXoX
I had been having those dreams since the night in the alley. It was mostly why I found sleeping difficult. They were dark, sensual dreams about another man. A man. And not any man. One I had only seen once, and would probably never see again. It was frustrating.
It was oddly... exhilarating.
XoXoX
Another two weeks passed. My father eased up, and I could finally walk to and from school without one of his detectives following me.
Despite the fact that a month earlier I had been cornered and nearly killed by a group of thugs, I didn't deviate from my normal path. I still walked the same streets. I'm not stupid. Far from it, in fact. I knew I was tempting fate by walking through that alley. I knew that the people could come back to finish what they had started. I knew I was being foolish.
But my path didn't change.
I tried to convince myself that it was because I wasn't afraid of them. I wouldn't cower before them. I would prove to them, and to myself, that they couldn't break Yagami Raito. I wouldn't change for them.
It was partly true.
Deep down, though, where I wouldn't acknowledge it, lay the knowledge that I didn't change my path because I hoped I would see the stranger again.
And, only a few nights after my father's men stopped following me, I did.
XoXoX
I was on my way home from cram school, again. The night was a little warmer than it had been recently, so my blazer was off and hanging over my shoulder. I loosened my tie as I walked.
And there it was. The alley. I moved towards it without any hesitation, just as I always had, and as I always would.
I was ten feet away from the entrance when he moved forward into the light. He stood hunched over with his hands buried deep into the pockets of his baggy jeans. A long sleeved white t-shirt covered his arms and chest, he wore scruffy looking tennis shoes with no socks, and altogether he kind of looked like a hobo. I was surprised at his clothes and posture. It didn't match up with the dangerous (haunting, beautiful, sexy) man I had remembered and dreamed of.
He glanced up at me through his bangs, and the sight of those eyes knocked the breath out of my chest. "Is it wise to continue with this same route after what happened?" His voice, a rumbling baritone, washed over me. It was him.
"Those thugs won't break me. I'm not afraid of them."
He shifted his weight onto one foot, and used the other to scratch his leg. "Admirable. Foolish, but admirable."
I grit my teeth in anger (excitement). "I don't care what you think about it."
He tilted his head to one side. "I suppose not."
I took a few deep breaths to calm myself. "Thanks, again, for... You know. Helping me."
He simply nodded.
I was nervous, and shifted on my feet. "I didn't ask for your name before."
He was silent for a moment. "You may call me Ryuzaki."
"I'm Yagami Raito."
He nodded again.
One of my hands drifted up and ran through my hair. "Well then..." I was at a loss for words. It was awkward, seeing him again. This was the man who saved me, saw me in my weakest moment, and was also the same man I had been having wet dreams over for the past month. What could I say?
"May I escort you home, Yagami Raito-kun?" He took a step towards me.
"Sure." I continued walking, and he fell into step beside me. We didn't speak until we were in front of my house, and then we spoke only to exchange our good byes. I went inside, and closed the door on him.
I dreamed of him again that night.
XoXoX
It became our routine. The nights when I had cram school, I would walk home, and he would meet me, always there where we first met. Sometimes we walked in silence. Others we debated or joked with each other, and I quickly learned that his mind was just as sharp as mine. It was refreshing, having someone I could talk to or not, depending on what my mood was, and Ryuzaki was always willing to listen or respond back to me.
I never realized how lonely I was until I met him. It's nice, having a friend.
XoXoX
"So, no ghosts, Raito-kun?"
I scoffed. "Dead is dead. There's nothing after that."
Ryuzaki's thumb drifted to his lips. "All of the electrical energy which powers a person's body must go somewhere, Raito-kun. You know as well as I do that energy cannot be created or destroyed. Something must happen to our beings."
"It's dispersed into the air. Or something. I don't know what happens to us when we die, but we certainly don't become ghoulies."
"Am I correct in assuming that Raito-kun does not believe in any supernatural beings, then? No ghosts, shinigami...vampires?"
I rolled my eyes. "Fantasies. There's no God or the Devil, either, as far as I'm concerned."
"I see."
We walked, side by side, so close our arms would occasionally brush against each other. I found that my skin burned in reality, just as in my dreams, when we touched. It was entirely too pleasant.
XoXoX
His lips were pressed against mine in a deep kiss. He tasted sweet, and I loved every second of it.
We broke apart for air, and his lips trailed down my chin to my throat. His teeth slid along my pulse. "No vampires, Raito-kun?"
A cold hand trailed down my back until he was pressing against my entrance. His fingers were slick, though I hadn't noticed any lube.
I didn't notice anything when he pressed a finger inside of me, stretching me. Sounds, whimpers and moans and meaningless words, tore out of my mouth as he found that bundle of nerves inside of me which sent waves of pleasure through my body, making my toes curl.
He bit down, hard, on my throat, and I arched off of the bed. It hurt.
"Ryu...Ryuzaki..."
"Shh..." He breathed, and his lips found mine once again. It took me a moment to realize that the sweet, coppery taste was my own blood.
He pulled back slightly as he pressed a second finger into me. I thrashed against the movement, wanting more. He never hurried. It was always a smooth rhythm. In, out, in, out. A third finger, and I knew I was almost there. "Please..." His fingers brushed against my prostrate again, and I clung to him desperately as I came.
He looked down upon me, as if transfixed. He whispered, "'Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight, for I never saw true beauty till this night.(1)'"
His lips were red with my blood.
XoXoX
I was more tired than usual lately. I sat in school, tapping my mechanical pencil against my desk while pretending to listen to the teacher. I didn't hear a word he said, though.
I was paler than normal, too, and I was having an even harder time sleeping at night. The sun went down, and suddenly I was feeling great. I was full of energy. When I did fall asleep, my dreams were full of Ryuzaki. Ryuzaki touching me. Ryuzaki kissing me. Ryuzaki taking me...
My neck ached, too. During those few, brief hours of rest, I must have slept on it wrong.
XoXoX
His hand fisted my erection, pumping it up and down slowly, lazily. He licked a path down the inside of my thigh before sinking his teeth into the sensitive flesh.
"You taste delicious, Raito-kun," he murmured to me, licking blood from his lips before taking my length into his mouth and I clasped my hands over my mouth to muffle my screams.
His head moved, tongue lapping at the tip and along the underside of my erection, and his teeth nipped me gently. I came with a broken sob and lights flashing before my eyes.
He moved to lay next to me, and pulled me into his arms.
"You have awoken."
"Yeah... What?" I was awake. He was here, in my bed, holding me to him. Dimly, I realized this was wrong. He shouldn't be here, doing these things to me while I slept. There were laws against these types of things, but I couldn't feel the righteous anger that I was entitled to. Instead, my mind was groggy, and I felt drunk. My body was limp, and I could barely move.
His fingers moved through my hair, massaging my scalp. "You have done so well, Raito-kun. We are almost there."
"Almost where?" I was so weak. My tongue had difficulties forming coherent words. "You shouldn't be here, doing this. Rape... My father is the Chief of police. He'll..."
Ryuzaki chuckled and tightened his arms around me. My ear was pressed to his chest. "Soon that will not matter, Raito-kun. I have searched for a companion for such a long time. I am glad that I found you."
He had no heartbeat. "You don't... have a heartbeat..." I tried to struggle, but it was too much.
"Death is my beat(2), Raito-kun."
"What are you?" Fear sliced through me, making me feel nauseous. Or maybe it was my drunken state causing me to feel that.
"Nosferatu." He turned us, so that I was laying on my back and he hovered over me. "I am the living dead, Raito-kun, and soon -very soon- you will be, as well."
I wasn't drunk. I was weak from blood loss. He had been feeding on my for weeks. Everything he did to me in my dreams he had been doing to me in real life. I closed my eyes against the coming flood of tears. "I don't want to die." The tears streamed down my cheeks despite my efforts to stop them.
"It's only a little death." His tongue lapped at my cheeks, finding ever tear in the darkness. "Your reactions are understandable, but I know you have longed for me just as I longed for you. Your loneliness and boredom called to me; I answered. I am here with you now, and will be for eternity."
He was right, of course. Perhaps it was just my weakened state, but the thought of eternity with this man wasn't so awful. I didn't have to admit it, though.
He laughed and kissed me softly.
"Does it... Does it hurt, Ryuzaki?"
"L. My name is L Lawliet."
"Okay, L. Same question. Does it hurt?"
"A little, but it is over quickly, and-" he nipped my chin. "I will make it up to you."
"I'm pissed at you," I slurred. "So you better expect me to beat you before I let you do anything to me."
"I am warned," he purred, before sinking his fangs into my neck.
The edges of my vision began to grow fuzzy. I don't know why I was being so accepting about this entire thing. I was scared, yes, but it wasn't the gut-wrenching fear that one would expect. But he was right. I had been bored and lonely before he made his way into my life. I would miss my family, but the thought of living without him seemed worse than the thought of dying for him.
When had he weaseled his way into my heart?
My eyes closed, and Yagami Raito died.
XoXoX
(1) Quote from Romeo and Juliet, by Shakespeare.
(2) Quote from The Poet, by Michael Connelly