HTYT: Yes, another experimentation using Avenged Sevenfold and YGO, this time starring someone different.
Yami: It would be nice for me to star in something...
HTYT: Yami, you are in my OTP for YGO, what more do you want?
Yami: A fucking medal would be nice.
HTYT: DREAM ON Pharaoh boy. Anyway, please enjoy this slightly twisted story!
XO
She made the mistake of walking into that bar when she did.
Mana hadn't had any idea what Mai had been dragging her into. She thought she was going into a generic nightclub, with dancing, music, drink and people.
Oh how wrong she was.
She gasped at the people around her. They didn't call this club 'City Of Evil' for nothing. All around her there were men and women grinding against each other, almost like a worshipping dance to the band playing at the centre of the room. And that was where she was sure the place was a gateway to hell...but in an intoxicating way.
The two guitarists looked almost like twins, but when they stopped between songs, the lip-lock they shared was enough to make a band slash fan squeal at her fantasy fulfilled. Their hair easily reached 10 inches above their heads in tricoloured spikes, and each had striking eyes surrounded by black make-up lines that burned into her soul as she watched them perform. She found it mildly amusing that one was left handed, and the other right handed, but she didn't care as they moved together as they played. The taller's long fingers seemed to move at a ridiculous speed, hitting every note without fail.
When the vocalist started up though, her attention was drawn away from the sexy guitarists and pushed onto the spiky haired blond at the front. His voice was harsh, almost like he'd been gargling with gravel, but something about his tone was as hot as hell. His eyes slanted slightly, and were heavily lined with black. And there was something about the way he moved that sucked her in like a vacuum.
Mai tapped her on the shoulder and handed her a drink, breaking her fixation...and when she looked back up she caught sight of the bassist. Oh god, the entire band was walking sex wasn't it? The pale skinned, white haired man had delicate sweet facial features, but somehow he still managed to look masculine as well as beautiful. His fingers moved expertly on his bass, backing the entire band with a rhythm.
And then finally she caught a look at the man behind the drums. Like the two guitarists, he and the bassist looked like they could have been one good twin and one evil twin, the similarities between them uncanny...
Mai nudged her arm, and gestured towards the bar. Somehow her friend had already gone through her cocktail and was desperate for another, so Mana followed her through the crowd of grinding, heated dancers, and to the counter. And there she felt herself blush as a tall brunette woman half-lidded her eyes and smirked, the blue in them darkening like the night sky. "Can I get you something?" Her voice was full of an underlying seductive tone, and she leaned in a little to Mana, revealing her cleavage a little, and the blonde felt herself become fascinated by a small tattoo on the left side of her chest: A skull with bat wings on it.
Mana stuttered a little but forced herself to look up to the girl's eyes. "Um, I'll have a Long Island Iced Tea?" she blurted out, then tilted her head down so her fringe fell over her face. Why was she acting so stupid? Why couldn't she be like all the confident people in this club, dancing, flirting, without a care?
The drink took a few minutes to make, and she turned to watch the band as they interacted with crowd. The two guitarists had an arm around each other, smirking as they drank with a short red haired girl and her blond friend, apparently a couple too from the way he had his hand on her waist in a possessive manner. Like the woman behind the bar, she could see a tattoo on them although the red-haired girl's was on an exposed part of her stomach, the same tattoo as that of the girl behind the bar, and her friend's was on his collarbone area...was it some sort of all-access thing? Or was it part of a club or a cult?
The bassist had basically mounted the drummer on a chair and was making out with him, their tongues occasionally visible as they battled for dominance. Mana felt herself blush an even deeper shade of red as she found herself strangely turned on by the action, gulping and breathing slowly to try and calm down, seriously unsure whether this place was where she wanted to be.
She jumped as the girl behind the bar tapped her shoulder, and she went for her purse to pay, but was stopped by her, her hand soft and manicured with black nail polish. "For the new kids, the first night of drinks are on the house."
Mana was surprised, but thanked her anyway, and sipped at the sepia coloured liquid in its glass, and gasped in shock. It was the best Long Island Iced Tea she'd ever been given...immediately she worked on drinking more of it, not noticing the girl at the bar smirk evilly at the band vocalist...
As if it had been designed to give her confidence, just mere minutes after finishing her drink, Mana was on the dance floor. Mai had disappeared completely, but she didn't even think about her as she danced hips to hips with a tall man with long brown hair. He was dressed in purple and black, and as the song got to its solo, he leaned down and brushed a strand of her blonde hair from her eyes. She felt warmth flood through her body like wildfire at his touch. Slowly, he stepped around her back, running his hand across her chest as he went, causing her to tingle all over and her mouth to water.
She allowed her gaze to follow him as he walked away, and her body seemed to speaking for her. Her feet moved and everything seemed to move in slow motion as she followed him away from the floor.
Too entranced, she hadn't realized the band were playing again, a heavier song this time with a drum beat almost like an automatic gun. She forgot as the man motioned for her to continue following, and tilted his head in the direction a table near the back of the room.
When they reached the table, the brunet man motioned for her to sit down, and then just as she sank onto the plush armchair seat, he leaned down and kissed her. She didn't even have time to react, but after a moment, she didn't care. Something about him drew her in like a moth to a flame, and she wasn't going to stop him. When the kiss did end, he smiled at her. "I'm Mahad."
"I'm Mana..." she replied, still dazed from the prolonged lip-lock.
"Mana...I like it. I want to introduce you to a few of my friends. Have you ever thought about getting a tattoo?" he fired the question at her and she shook her head in reply.
"No, but maybe it would be nice," Mana looked at herself, imagining herself with tattoos covering her body...maybe not that extreme, "Maybe just one?"
"I'm a tattoo artist myself, so if you did want one, I could do it for you," Mahad smiled, and she felt her legs turn to jelly. Oh, she was glad she was sitting down. She watched his arm wave in the air, and smile spread across his face as one of the members of the band nodded and smiled back, pointing a finger.
Then the girl from behind the bar suddenly appeared through the crowd, a blond man who looked similar to the vocalist walked up. What was this, a bar full of look-alikes?
Both sat down at the table with her and Mahad, who locked hands momentarily with both and then introduced them. "Mana, this is Anzu, and Malik. Apart from being bar staff, they also run the entire club. Anzu's the band's manager, and Malik owns the building."
She felt a little overwhelmed. In the space of less than an hour, she had drank, flirted with the bar staff, danced with and kissed a complete stranger, and was now standing with him and the owner of the club, and the manager of the band that played there.
An arm crept around her waist and she blinked at the owner. Mahad glanced down at her and smiled again, and her legs turned gelatinous all over again. Did the man know how devastating he was?
"-And Yami says that he has the solo completely worked out now, and that he just needs your help to sort all his tech out." Apparently the entire time she had been in a daze over the man next to her, Anzu had been talking to them telling them about the band. "Mahad's one of the roadies when the band goes on tour. And he does all their tattoos," Anzu bragged about her friend, who seemed to take it as if he was used to it.
"You didn't tell me that?" Mana exclaimed, before realizing there hadn't been time for them to exchange much apart from their names. "You said you were a tattoo artist but," her eyes wandered to the inked arms of the band, "I didn't know you did all those."
"Yeah, well, we've all been friends a long time, and they helped me open my first tattoo place," he nodded over to the band and in a break in the song the rhythm guitarist gave them a wave.
The chatter between the four turned from friends and the band, to music, then drinking while listening to music, then to alcohol, and then Anzu and Malik had to get back to the bar. So once again, Mana was alone with Mahad. His hand stroked at the area just above her tummy, and he motioned a set of stairs leading up to a balcony. "I could show you some tattoo ideas if you want. I have a couple of rooms here for people who want them on short notice. I never tattoo someone drunk though." He grinned and revealed a tattoo on his wrist: a skull with batwings.
Mana let herself be led up the stairs to the balcony, and followed Mahad through the people to a small open doorwayed room with a curtain across it. He tugged the curtain to the side and revealed a surprisingly clean little studio. "This is my first and favorite tattoo place," he spoke, a proud tone in his voice.
The blonde girl walked around the room, surrounding herself with the inks and the equipment. And everything was pristine, clean and disinfected. "It's cleaner than the tattoo parlours I hear of," Mana mentioned, raising an eyebrow.
"Clean it every day," Mahad mentioned walking up to Mana and softly pressing her against the wall behind her, kissing her with a passionate edge.
Mana moaned loudly in shock at the motion, and allowed herself to be sucked into the kiss. He tasted so good, like mint and cream. He lifted her a little and she wrapped her legs around his waist. The entire situation was so unfamiliar, and yet she couldn't stop herself from continuing. Her body was on autopilot. And being that she couldn't currently see her lips, she didn't notice that tiny black splinters were making their way across them, darkening her skin...
She felt Mahad press himself against her a little harder and felt him digging into her a little. Oh god, he was turned on.
Suddenly she broke away from the kiss, terrified. How could she let herself do that? She pushed herself away from him and against the wall even harder, scared at what he would to her for breaking away. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I just..." her eyes welled up with tears.
But instead of anger, she felt her chin being lifted, and a pair of gorgeous eyes gazing into hers. "Hey, no big deal," he smiled, and this time it was a gentle one that reassured her. "Now how about that tattoo?"
XO
"What's with the skull bat in this club?" Mana gritted her teeth. The actual tattooing part was just as painful as she thought it was going to be, but it wasn't anything she couldn't handle. Anyway, he was almost done. "It's everywhere."
"It's the logo for the band. Everyone who comes into the club regularly tends to get one as support and to spread the word. If you come in more often, I'll tattoo one on you if you want," Mahad rubbed at the area on her stomach which he was decorating, finally finished, "And we're done."
Mana looked down and grinned at the artwork. He was actually amazing at this. From her belly button, tiny, intricate vines wound their way in spirals outwards for a few inches, then at each directional point there was a tiny flower blossoming. "Wow..."
"You told me to go with the flow, and I got a feeling you like flowers," he motioned to the black flower clips on one side of her hair.
While Mahad cleaned up and placed a bandage over her stomach, she lay still, wondering how she had been so impulsive. In one night she had done things she never would have done, and it wasn't even under alcoholic influence: she'd just gone with it.
Her tattooist helped to her feet and led her outside again. The curtain had been open the entire time, but it hadn't bothered her at all. One of the girls, the red haired girl from before, had poked her head around the door and complimented her style of dress, and she'd even been nice enough to bring her some water.
The band were taking a break, and were sat just a few feet away at a small table. The smaller guitarist was sat lying across the taller's lap, and both were laughing at their bassist who had drank an entire pint in less than 5 seconds. Mana gave a giggle at the situation, and noted that Malik and Anzu were curled up with the lead singer, and momentarily her mind wandered to the wild possibility that the THREE of them were some sort of a...couple. The possibility was confirmed 10 seconds later when both kissed him, then got back to the bar, this time the one at the top of the room.
"Hey! Mahad! Get your ass here!" the slightly british accent rang above the rest, and Mana let herself be taken over to the table. The drummer, who had his arm around the bassist again, motioned to the two empty seats next to him, "Sit down and introduce us to your friend." the way he raised his eyebrows made her nervous, but she still felt compelled to stay there even though her brain was telling her to get out, that something wasn't right about the entire place.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a strange face, and gasped. She could have sworn she had seen some contorted face of a demon, or something otherworldly glaring at her, but when she blinked the face was gone and nowhere to be seen. She quickly looked around, searching for the face in the crowd, but could see the apparition anywhere.
Mahad didn't seemed to have notice her falter, and he sat down, motioning for her to take the seat next to him. She sank down only the comfy seat and Mahad's arm wound around her shoulders.
They must have stayed talking to the band for at least an hour, talking, drinking and sharing hilarious stories about each other, the best ones being Yami, the lead guitarist, lying drunk on the floor of an elevator talking about his 'bum-bum', the drummer, Bakura, running through the park after what he described as a 'fuckin' stallion duck' and Ryou the bassist drinking a few too many and projectile vomiting across their favorite bar when they were younger. All this going on, and the fact it was covered by a bandage stopped her from noticing that her tattoo was spreading: the vines were growing.
Mana only noticed the change when she tipped her drink on herself, and glanced down to see the damage. Her breath caught in her throat, and she turned to look at the man who had tattooed her. Mahad's eyes had turned completely black, and a dark smirk graced his lips. The band smiled evilly, and suddenly she noticed that the entire club was looking at her as she stood up in panic, and everyone's bat skull tattoos seemed to be laughing at her, mocking her...
She couldn't stop it, and soon the vines were filling her skin in like a drop of ink spreading across a page. They wound their way up her neck, melding with her already blackened lips, and seeped into her eyes and nose, and she couldn't look away as they coloured her hands all the way up to her fingertips. Tears filled her eyes and somewhere in the group by the bar, she saw Mai for the first time that night, and she was grinning, her eyes dark like Mahad's and her arms around another blond who was smirking.
Mana felt herself become light-headed as the darkness began to take over, panicked, and turned to Mahad again. "What have you done to me?" she exclaimed hysterically.
He said nothing and stood up, leaning just in time to catch her as the last part of her skin filled in and she fell like the others had, dizzy from the transformation, and before she lost consciousness, the last words she heard registered with her brain:
"Welcome to the family."
XO
The club opened at midnight, and immediately the place was teeming with the regulars and a few new faces, Mokuba being one of them. His girlfriend Rebecca had told him about this place because of the music, and he had decided it would be a good time to check it out.
The first place he headed to was the bar and ordered a beer, but just as he was about to pay, a hand stopped him and the bar girl shook her head. "New kids drink free for the first night. House rules." The girl was strikingly beautiful: bright blue eyes, golden blonde hair, almost like Rebecca.
Mokuba smiled and thanked her, liking this place already.
Mana turned to the refrigerator and took out a drink for herself. When she woke up at home, safe, well and calm, she had assumed that the entire thing had been a nightmare, albeit a realistic one that she could actually remember. But then she had been drawn to that club again as if she had been called there by some sort of force. She applied for a job at the bar, and despite that everyone had the tattoos of the bat skull somewhere on them, which she found out was called a Deathbat, she wasn't asked to get one. Nothing like what happened that night had happened again, nor did she witness it happen to anyone else, so she had taken it as a very vivid bad dream and brushed it aside, assuming she had been there before and just not remembered, leaving her wondering why her mind would distort the image of the place as it had that night.
She scratched at the back of her neck a little. She had been getting some pain there lately, like there was a weight there. Then someone stood at the bar called for another cocktail and she leaned down to get fresh liquor bottles to make the drinks for them and forgot all about it.
She'd never noticed it: she was never so vain to look at herself that closely. But at the bottom of her scalp, just hidden under her hairline was a black mark, inked into her skin like a tattoo. The only way anyone would have known it was there is if they were looking, or if they had shaved her hair off. And whoever was looking would see the mark of that night that she thought was a dream, the night she was drawn into the club by a friend: a tiny skull adorned with a pair of bat wings.
XO
HTYT: I actually liked how this came out. Some of my oneshots I look back on, and they just don't seem to hold that spark anymore...but this one I read back a few times and still liked it. And I hope you readers did too!