Author: Darker than Black does not belong to me. If it had, my favorite character would not have died. Thanks for reading!
Hei's eyes opened slowly as he forced every muscle in his body back into relaxation.
What could have possibly spooked him enough to wind him up like that? He was in his apartment, the shades were drawn, and he knew no-one had entered; what had every nerve quivering, then?
He shrugged inwardly and pushed himself onto his feet, feeling that perhaps a glass of water would help. He picked a glass blindly from his small cupboard and turned on the faucet, letting the water run a little to clear any lead or dirt from the pipes from the liquid. He tested the temperature, stuck the glass under the water until it was mostly full, then shut the faucet off. He held the glass in his hand for a while, looking at the impurities that would never be entirely filtered out fade into the water. They looked like little stars, winking in and out due to a turbulent atmosphere. He had seen the phenomena before, when the stars in the sky were actually stars. Then again, it could have been just a defect in the lens or mirrors; the telescope he'd been using that day wasn't exactly top grade. Certainly not as good as some of the one's he'd seen in Nick's lab.
Hei jerked slightly, but managed to calmly place the fragile glass on the counter before his hands clamped down on the counter. He hadn't dreamed in years. His one dream after so long would be a depressing one.
Or had it been?
Hei turned away from the kitchen, zombie-walking back to his futon, collapsing on it face first, breath a little too shallow. The man had been happy when he died. He thought he was going into space with his sister, that all his dreams had come true...
He had thought that Hei had believed in him and his dream.
That might have been what was getting to him. Hei had wanted to believe so badly, but only training and his personality kept him from falling entirely under the astronomer's sway. Nick had been charismatic, absolutely sure in his beliefs, and Hei had liked him for both his charm and his looks.
He turned onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. Nick had been the first person he had genuinely cared for since his sister had been taken from him. He had done his damndest to distance himself from the handsome astronomer, but there was just something that drew him, almost dragged him, towards the scientist. They had been almost carbon-copies of each other; same interest, same familial situations, same god-forsaken power.
And the same dead, tired, lonely eyes. Hei had looked at Nick and saw an older, blonde-haired-blue-eyed self and wasn't able to stop himself from trying to fill his loneliness by eradicating Nick's.
The sex had been very good, on the rooftop under the false/not-false stars, and for those few moments there had been no loneliness. Now, though, the loneliness hurt more than ever, now that Hei had "lost" a loved one again.
Hei threw an arm across his eyes and forced his breathing to become even again. He was BK201, the most feared Contractor in existence, supposedly a heartless, cold fucker; if that was the case, then why did he feel as if he was on the verge of tears?