Blue Rose

…

O Rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm,
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.

- William Blake

…

Akako fumed, pacing around the room. She threw every vile thing she could get her hands on into the cauldron, all the while thinking about that damn annoying magician.

She wanted him in a way she couldn't understand. While part of it was that she wanted to win, wanted her magic to work on everyone – as it should – and wanted to rid herself of the one flaw in her perfect life… she also liked him in a different way. He was charming when he wanted to be. He was kind where others would be indifferent, and he made her smile while others only fulfilled hollow needs in her.

And he was an insufferable idiot that could insult her for no good reason other than she happened to be in the room. Her clothes were still stained and it would take more than normal means to get them cleaned. The fact that he thought it was funny made it all the more aggravating.

I hate him. I hate him so much. If he thinks that he can make a fool of me, I'll just make a fool of him.

But her spells didn't work. Anything by normal means would fail, since somehow Kuroba Kaito found a way to get around her attacks. She had, however, held him before. She'd caught him in a circle before, caused him pain before. Classic magic, magic developed long ago, all seemed to work.

She wanted him in her hands though. She needed a spell, a strong one that could bypass his barriers and make him hers forever. She'd make sure he never caused her such embarrassment again.

With a cursed out Latin word and a toss of hibiscus powder to add to the rest of the brew, steam erupted in a small plume, warming her hand. "Curse him!" She commanded the spell. "Curse him and make him mine! He will not ignore me any longer! Trap his heart!"

And just like that the red liquid calmed down. She watched it, unsure of what she had done. While most of her ingredients had been thrown in out of anger, she should document the spell and what she remembered of it.

Watching with some awe and fear as the spell took affect, the red pool of liquid turned to blue. The surface stilled completely, as if made of glass, and a white rose rested in the center.

Akako reached out, taking the rose in her hand. She saw a blackness surround it as she held it before the darkness vanished. Feeling the spell weaved around the flower, her eyes slowly opened further, understanding exactly what she had done.

She laughed. It echoed around the stonewalls until it faded into nothingness. Smiling to herself, she twirled the rose around. "You will be mine. You have no other choice but to love me. I couldn't have created a more perfect spell." With her thoughts traveling at a more sedate pace, it slowly sank in everything that would now have to occur.

Stopping and staring at the rose, a smile still on her face, she held it close to her body.

"… What have I done?"

…

Kaito was in an extreme amount of pain. He didn't think he'd ever felt something so horrible before. It was like his body wanted to tear itself apart.

If he hadn't been in his bed, trying to look over his history book, he wasn't sure what he would have done. The book, unfortunately, hadn't faired well. It was currently ripped apart, half on the bed and floor, the sheets not as shredded only for the fact that he didn't have the strength to tear them.

He may have screamed, he wasn't sure. His mother was off in Vegas again and he didn't share a home with anyone else to could come in and check on him.

It felt like an eternity later before the pain left, his breath coming fast as he stayed on his hands and knees, knowing something was really wrong but wanting to make sure the pain wouldn't come again.

His head was heavier. He knew that. It felt like he was wearing some kind of headband. His clothes didn't fit quite right and tickled, as if there were a dog under his shirt that didn't want to move. A few new bone features that had near pulled down his pants also caught his attention and he shifted a bit, making sure it didn't hurt to move them. He could feet two of his teeth, longer and now over his lips.

What was mostly noticeable though, as he looked at his hands, was that he had very, very long and thick dark blue nails.

All of that was weird and strange and something he could deal with. His heart rate was still up there though as he put one of his hands - watching out for the new nails - to his face.

He couldn't see out of one of his eyes.

Not understanding what just happened, Kaito, very slowly, found the edge of his bed and stood up. His pants didn't want to stay up so he had to hold them a bit in the front, his hand still moving to and from his eye to see if he could get his sight back.

Once in the bathroom, Kaito looked in the mirror. They only had one over the sink, though he knew both mom and dad had a full-sized one in their rooms. He hadn't thought he'd need them.

His hair was the only real thing he could pick out that was still… him. There were two small horns, aged-bone colored ones, on his head that curled around in a small half circle. His eyes were still his own color but he noticed they'd turned into slits, much like some cat's eyes did. One of them, the eye he couldn't see out of, was very pale compared to the other, almost as if there were a film over it.

That, and the almost black marks that speckled his face, starting near the top of his forehead like some bad art project until his skin was his own again, near his nose, was blatantly obvious. Just like his ears which were newly pointed and covered in a light blue fur.

That same fur was sticking out of his shirt, near his neck, and pulling down the collar revealed that it formed some kind of weird vest across his skin. He pulled on it, making sure it was real. While it was soft when he ran his hand over it, it felt like he was petting a really silky dog…

He looked behind him at what was definitely a tail, swishing it back and forth. It kind of reminded him of a wolf, it not for the fact it was longer and softer than he would think a wild animal's would be. It was light brown, not matching the unnatural light blue of the fur on his chest and ears. Taking off his socks, at least, showed his feet were normal, if not for the nails now baring the same dark blue color of his long, pointed fingernails.

"What's going on?" he asked no one, taking off his shirt. Turning as best as he could, he looked down at the fur and then at his back, seeing more of the same weird black spots, ranging from the size of a handprint to that of a freckle. At least he didn't have fur on his back too.

He sat on the toilet before yelping and making sure, this time, that the tail was out of the way, not really caring that some of his skin was now touching the lid.

Akako. Akako was the only thing he could think of. And if it wasn't her, maybe she knew what was going on. This wasn't normal and he almost no expertise when it came to real magic. This – most assuredly – was no make-up job.

Okay. First thing he had to do was accept something was wrong. Something was wrong. He let himself breath for a while, fiddling with his nails and wondering if he could cut them. They were way too long, even by girl standards, and they would rip apart any clothes he tried to put on – or back on.

Once he calmed down enough to think rationally, not running out the door holding up his pants and looking like he just escaped some bad Halloween party, he stood.

There was a tail. That was an issue. If he tried to put on any clothes it would just make them fall off like it already had. He had to let it go, his boxers at least staying up, as he tried wrapping it around him. It hurt too bad and he had to let it go.

Then an idea came to him and he sighed. Shifting his shorts down, he literally put his tail between his legs and looked at it as he moved it in front of him now, really uncomfortable and itchy as he pulled his pants back up.

"Now it looks like I'm wearing a diaper or something." He sighed and went through the drawers, looking for nail clippers. He found some, shaking his head when there was no way that it was going to work. The nails were too thick.

"Fine." Kaito picked up his shirt and put it back on, only putting a few holes in it.

He looked at himself in the mirror, touching the horns. There was no way he could hide those with anything, even a hat. They were too much on the side and a few inches thick.

"Well." He put a hand on his side, watching the nails, and stared at himself a while. The black on his face he could hide with some make up. That wouldn't be a problem. The horns… "Whatever." It was five or six last time he checked and the sun was still out, but hopefully no one would ask.

Walking was very uncomfortable. He ignored it as best he could, wishing he'd had Akako's number. At least he knew where she lived. There were a few people who turned to look at him and Kaito couldn't really blame them.

He rang the bell when, twenty minutes and about as many looks later he came to Akako's house. "Hey!" he shouted. "Open up or I'm coming in!" It might be harder with the new add-ons to himself, but he was still sure the wall wouldn't pose much of a problem.

The gate opened and Kaito walked in, looking around the large yard before going up to the mansion door and knocking. He'd love to look around, as he'd never visited her place before, but it would have to wait until he was less ticked off and had better depth perception.

Akako opened the door too fast for her to have been anywhere other than near it. Kaito took of his hands, wiping part of the makeup off his face, not that he needed to do that to get her attention. "What is going on?"

She looked him over, no real expression on her face. Eventually she stood aside. "Come in. I need to talk to you."

Kaito came in, not wanting to stand outside anyway. It wasn't cold or anything, but you could see her front door from the gate.

The door shut, an echo reaching throughout the house. Kaito turned and listened, noticing he could almost hear how far reaching it went. Maybe the new, larger ears, weren't just for show. Akako didn't move where she was now leaning against the closed door so Kaito tipped his head, waiting for some kind of explanation.

Akako let out a breath and it didn't get past him that she always kept one hand behind her back, even when opening the door. She brought it forward now, a white rose it her hand... only, it didn't move when she moved. It was like it was frozen.

Kaito raised an eyebrow. "And what's that?"

"Something you need to keep. It's you, or at least, part of you. I… I was messing around earlier and some things got away from me."

Kaito reached out and took the rose. He moved it about, seeing that it was almost as someone had hit a real one with liquid nitrogen. "And that's where the horns and tail came from."

Akako nodded, looking him over again. He twitched, trying not to move the tail when he did. It was harder to control than he thought it would be. It wasn't like he had control all through it. "It's a story that would be better if we were sitting. Follow me. Don't stray."

Kaito followed her as she went through the large main room, seeing a hallway that they ignored, going up the stairs instead. There was a nice lounge room once they were up there and Kaito looked around, not sitting like Akako did. The tail and all… "I'll stand. So, you did this?"

"My spells can't usually affect you. I wasn't even sure it would work." Akako sat down, not looking too comfortable, shifting even after she had settled. "Old magic seems to work on you, so I went with that. Unfortunately, not all storybooks find their work in fiction, and not all magic stays untouched by what human's create. I'm not sure which came first but… it looks like I may have put a 'true love' spell on you."

"You mean one of those 'only true love can break the spell', kind of things?"

Akako nodded. "I had foul ingredients in it though, so that's why," she waved a hand at him. "This happened. You shouldn't have messed with me."

"I accidentally got some neon paint on you!" Kaito pointed to himself. "You made me some weird, vampire-wolf-elf thing!" There is no way those two things equaled out. So she had some green paint on her shirt that looked like snot, it wasn't like she couldn't get it replaced. She had turned him into some kind of monster.

"That's not the only thing." Akako looked away again and that there made Kaito even more depressed somehow. It took a lot to make Akako upset.

"Yeah?"

"Nakamori-chan… When I made the spell, what I wanted was you. If you were with me instead, it would break the spell. I must have colored it with my feelings. When the spell was cast, it also put a veil over her memories. She won't know who you are."

Kaito blinked at her. What? "Like… huh?"

"Her memories of you are gone. It was what spell did. She should remember everything else just fine. Anything about you, or Kuroba Kaito, will have been faded over or forgotten."

Kaito found himself leaning against the wall. He looked like this, was half blind, and now… Aoko, what would likely be his only chance of getting rid of this, didn't remember him? It was a lot to take in as it was and that last piece just had him sliding to the floor, not caring so much at the uncomfortable tail or any of it, really.

"I hadn't meant to do that."

Kaito looked up, dully, at Akako. She truly looked remorseful but that didn't do him again good. Was he stuck like this now? He wasn't looking for love, not any more than the precarious relationship he had had before now. What would he do about school? What would he tell his mom?

"You can't fix any of this, right?" he asked, raising his hand and waving his fingers.

"No. It's a true love spell. Only true love that you feel and someone feels towards you will break it. You don't need a kiss or anything. It's not as clichéd as that."

"And I don't have that, and won't." He met her eyes, some hardness coming back, the emotion hiding under denial and confusion surfacing for a moment. "Not with you, and I don't know any other girls that I'm as close with." Keiko was only just a friend and always would be. It didn't matter. He hadn't been looking for that, not this soon. Kaito groaned and lifted his legs, resting his head in his arms.

"I'm sorry. Again, I didn't mean for it to go this far."

What was he supposed to do? Kaito didn't want to stay here anymore. He found himself getting up, walking back down the stairs and letting himself out. It was still light out and he didn't care this time when he got looks, a few people talking among themselves about him.

Normally, Kaito was good a rolling with the punches. He had to do that a lot, almost all his life. This was something he wasn't sure what to do with. He didn't have anything to fall back on. His mom was gone and Aoko was doing who knew what right now, not worried about him at all. It wasn't even the fangs and fur that would scare her away; it was the fact that he would be a complete stranger to her now.