Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Fandoms: Yu-Gi-Oh GX
Title: Paint, Wine, & Roses
Characters: Hayato, Asuka, & Misawa (also Ryou & Camula, and mayhap some Haou later)
Word Count: chapter 1: 2,626||story: 2,626
Genre: Drama, Angst||Rated: PG-13
Challenge: Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, section I, #07, multichapter with exactly 4 chapters; Written for the GX Non-Flash Bingo, #007, Maeda Hayato; Written for the Halloween Trick or Treat (Advent), Day #1: use a random character generator three times. Use all of these characters in a fic. (characters: Hayato, Misawa, and Asuka)
Notes: This takes place in the world where Juudai is the incarnation of the Darkness of Destruction. Johan has been broken by him and Ryou...well, this is how what happened to him is revealed.
Summary: Hayato is just a wandering artist, seeking new vistas to paint. In a world where the incarnation of the Destructive Darkness seeks to rule, even a wandering artist can be more than what he seems.
It wasn't much of a road. It wound down from the high reaches of the mountains, widened enough so that a handful of houses and a sprinkling of buildings that thought highly enough of themselves to be known as shops could huddle together, and then wound down out of the area. A road that went from nowhere to nowhere, so far as the eyes could see, at least as far as those who lived in that little village thought.
Hayato thought of it differently, but that was because he'd spent months traveling on it. He'd spent months traveling on almost any road, and as far as he was concerned, they were really all one road that connected to each other on different levels and in different places.
Death Koala understood when he said something like that, but Death Koala had been with him since he was barely more than a boy himself. They'd walked the same roads together, or driven them, or whatever they'd needed to do. There weren't many others who'd done that.
The village rested ahead of them, providing a place to rest at last after the long journey out of the peaks jutting up behind them. Hayato clucked at the mule that pulled his small wagon along, trying to get just a little more speed out of the weary creature. The sun hadn't completely set yet, but long shadows already stretched their fingers across the land, and after the rumors he'd heard the last few days, it was probably better to get inside before it was too dark to see.
The closer he drew to the village, the more he could see people who seemed to have the same idea as he did, as they hurried about their tasks, casting worried looks to the sky more and more with each passing moment. As Hayato reined in his donkey, one of those people paused to look at him.
"Who are you, stranger?"
None of the ones that he could see were armed, either by conventional weaponry or duel disks, but Hayato replied politely nevertheless. "Only a traveler. Is there anywhere that I could stay for the night?"
"Just for the night?" The local gave him a stern, judgmental look.
"Maybe longer. I don't know yet." Hayato gave a pleasant shrug. "I'll want to check the area out to see if there's anything I'd like to paint while I'm here. That's part of what I do." He reached behind himself into the wagon, not surprised to see the other take a careful step back as he did. For being as far out of the way as this village was, it clearly had tasted the horrors of the war.
He pulled out one of his showpiece paintings; the ones that he kept around not to sell but to show what he could do and the skill he had in doing it. A simple valleyscape, that was all this was, one gloriously crafted in shades of green and blue and brilliant gold. He took a moment to make certain it hadn't suffered any damage, then flipped it around to show.
"I paint. I also sell a few odds and ends." He gestured to the back of his wagon; one couldn't see much in there, but he knew what he carried. "Now, is there an inn around here?"
The local said nothing for a moment or two and Hayato had about resigned himself to locating an empty patch of ground and hoping he wouldn't be bothered when he pointed toward one of the buildings. "Over there. They don't have a lot of space, though. Better hurry."
Hayato nodded at once, clucking to the donkey and heading over that way at a pace just a fraction speedier than a lazy amble. He could almost feel the local's eyes on his back as he made his way over there. He'd see that one sooner or later, he thought. Curiosity clearly had him bit, even if he didn't want to show it. After all of his years of travel, Hayato had learned how to tell when someone wanted to know more.
It came in handy for both of his professions.
Getting a room at the inn wasn't possible, since it was really more of a tavern that sold space in front of the fireplace to travelers. Hayato was more than willing to put up with that. Rumors flung themselves out on the wind and the most recent ones said that to sleep outdoors meant one would perish in the most horrible ways sooner or later.
Not that sleeping indoors always protected one, but the terrors that stalked in the night seemed more likely to go for what wasn't protected by even a thin layer of wood.
So Hayato put his donkey up in the stable, parking the wagon and what supplies he didn't think he'd need in a spare space there, and taking what he would need in there with him. The main room of the tavern had been empty when he'd left and now it seemed everyone in the village who could fit their way in there was doing so.
"So you're a painter?" The tavern keeper asked, pouring drinks at the same time. "What's a painter doing in this neck of the woods?"
"Looking for new scenes to paint," Hayato replied, not missing a beat. "Even these days, I have to make a living, and this is the best way I can."
He wasn't lying, of course. His painting kept him in food and drink and shelter. His other job he did from the sheer love of it, if one could call risking his life something he did out of love. Which, of course, he did. He wouldn't have done it otherwise.
There were hmphs and murmurs and a few questions tossed about; those he answered to the best of his ability. The crowd here was something of a mixed one; a few humans, a few spirit types, one or two who looked as if they were a little from either category, if not actually both.
"If any of you are interested in checking out my paintings, I can set up the ones that are for sale tomorrow," Hayato said, taking a drink from the mug the tavern keeper handed him. "And I can show you what else I've got." He considered for a moment, and decided not to mention the supply of rice wine he carried with him. In this corner of the woods, beer seemed the more likely beverage. At least this was decent beer, and not something inclined to take the polish off of wood.
Dozens of other little conversations sprang up as it became clear he wasn't going to produce things for them to buy right then and there. Hayato sipped at his drink, pretending to be lost in his own thoughts, when in reality, he kept his attention flicking from conversation to conversation, listening for anything that might catch him for more than a few seconds.
It wasn't until nearly half an hour into the evening that anything really came up. He didn't show any extra interest by so much as a twitch of one hair, but just kept on drinking his beer and making small designs on the counter in front of him.
"Yeah, I saw it. Saw them, really, there were two of them." This came from someone who bore the rough clothes and callused fingers of an archer. "I don't think they saw me, and that's probably why I'm here right now." He shook his head, fear flickering across his face.
"Are they coming this way?" Hayato couldn't see who asked that; either they were very small, or very far in the back, but he wanted to know the answer as much as they did.
"Do they really work for him?" Hayato didn't need to ask who that was. There were few people who dared to speak Haou's title, let alone his name. Rumor had it that spells had been cast that allowed him to know when someone said either one of those, and no one wanted his attention brought down on them for any reason whatsoever.
The archer drained his cup of beer and gestured for another, which the tavern keeper quickly brought. "I think so. I didn't stop them and ask where they were going." He let out a rude snort at the very thought. "And who else would they work for?"
Hayato's grip on his cup tightened a fraction. I'll have to see them. That ran more risks than he wanted to think about, but he needed to do it, for the sake of everyone else back at the base, not for himself.
"Should we lock up tonight?" Someone else wanted to know. "Would locks do any good against them?"
The archer threw back his beer with a speed that meant he couldn't have tasted it at all. "How should I know? But if it comes to that, it's better than not doing anything at all."
Hayato saw nothing to argue with in that. He finished his own beer and waited for the crowd to thin out so he could get himself situated by the fire. The tavern keeper gave him the usual rules to the general effect of 'don't burn the place down' and 'I don't sell food, get your own meals' that Hayato had heard from dozens like him in dozens of places like this. He had food with him, and once it was just him and the fire, he nibbled on bread and apples and made his plans.
Night fell over the village. All those huts and homes that had the good fortune to have locks put them to use, even without knowing how useful they could be. Better safe than sorry, in a world where the armies of evil roamed freely.
In the shadows of the tavern, one spirit hid itself, waiting and watching. Death Koala would've preferred doing almost anything else, but especially having a good meal and a good sleep by the fire with his partner, but duty called, and just like Hayato, he understood that some pleasures had to be earned a little more than others.
They'd both heard the rumors, even before they'd come here, and this seemed the most likely place for the ones they searched for to strike next. This little space in the road wasn't much at all; it offered little to the world around it, and thus would be the kind of place a pair of hungry vampires would feel free to drain to the very last drop. So here they would wait until they knew one way or the other.
Death Koala didn't move a muscle. At a moment's thought it could return to its card, safe in Hayato's deck case, but until it knew what was going on, it wouldn't. That was a last move, a way to get back without being seen or being able to be tracked by anyone.
He had no way to tell just how much time passed other than by the slowly rising moon. Long strings of silver slipped across the valley, broken on occasion by the passing of clouds and the tossing of the wind through the trees.
Somewhere in the middle of all of that, two figures emerged from the shadows. Death Koala froze, suddenly wakeful. Few beings could sleep in the presence of evil such as this. He couldn't see who they were, but he could recognize the sense of twisted evil in them all the same.
One of them moved up close to one of the houses, resting a slender hand upon the door. Death Koala couldn't hear anything being said, but far too soon the latch opened from the inside and the door swung open. There stood a young man, eyes glazed, signs of an internal struggle all over his features. The one who stood at the door let loose a deep sigh of anticipation before reaching out to grab him by the hair, bend his head to the side, and sink fangs that shone in the moonlight into his neck.
Vampires!
Death Koala had seen others of this kind before, spirits mostly. It was said there had been another breed, born from the intermarriage of the undead spirits and humans, far more powerful than either of their progenitors. No one knew what had become of them over the centuries, but this stranger bore many of the signs of being that breed.
He couldn't get a good enough look at the other one to be completely certain just yet. Whoever it was, they stayed a few steps away, wrapped in a cloak that made it harder to tell what they were paying attention to, their companion or the area around them, watching for trouble.
The vampire sucked and sucked, draining their victim dry, until finally letting him drop the ground carelessly, then turned toward the other.
"Your turn," a soft female voice floated through the evening air. "Make certain you don't disturb anyone else."
Death Koala saw a small nod as the second one moved forward, selecting another house. He still couldn't get a look at their face and he wanted to. Under normal circumstances, he and Hayato wouldn't have stayed in such a situation. Their mission required them both to remain alive at any costs, so staying where they could become vampire chow wasn't a good idea.
But they were looking for someone and if there was any chance that this vampire could be that someone, they had to investigate it.
The second vampire set one hand on the door, much as the other had. It took longer this time, with the set of their shoulders indicating a strain the female vampire hadn't felt. Just when Death Koala thought it might not work, the door opened. This time the man was older, and somewhat more aware of what was going on around him.
The female vampire breathed in the air closer to them and chuckled. "He has a family. He thinks we'll leave if we take him, and they'll be spared."
"And they won't be." A flat statement from the second vampire, spoken in a male voice.
Her laugh tinkled over the entire village, and Death Koala suspected that anyone who was still awake heard it and anyone who wasn't shuddered in the grip of foul dreams because of it.
"Perhaps for tonight. But we'll come here again and again, until there's no 'here' to come back to. Now, have your dinner."
Shoulders stiff, the second vampire sank his own fangs into the neck of his victim, his movements a little more unpracticed than hers. He did seem hungrier, however, and almost as soon as she had, he finished the grisly deed.
Death Koala inched just a fraction closer, glad that the wind wouldn't bring his scent to them. He didn't know if vampires would find his kind tasty or not and he didn't think now was a good time to find out. What he really wanted was just a look at that other vampire's face.
Both of them turned and now the moonlight fell directly on them both. Death Koala hadn't entirely been expecting this, and a small squeaking noise came out from him as he caught sight of the second vampire's face. Both of them turned toward him right away, one in curiosity, one in rising anger.
"A spy!" she hissed, fingers clutching into fists for a moment before she gestured, a swarm of bats appearing in the area above them. "Find this spy and bring them to me, my little darlings!"
Death Koala decided that discretion was clearly the better part of valor, and let himself fade to his card.
To Be Continued
Note: Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the chapter. Please let me know what you thought of it if at all possible.