To Rack And Ruin
A/N:No one belongs to me. You should be used to that by now. R and R is your friend
"Ne... Luka?"
Here it comes, thought Luka. Where did I come from? Why am I here? He'd been expecting it. He was only surprised Kei had managed to hold it back for so long. Impatient little sod. He grunted in vague, and unwilling, acknowledgement.
"Why did you turn me?"
Luka stopped without answering, and waited for Kei to catch up, continuing to walk through Mallepa's crowded streets with the younger man at his side. He sighed, breath clouding the air. They both fed early these nights, in a vain attempt to fend off the bone-deep cold of winter. Moments slid lazily past, and they kept on walking.
"Luka?" Kei found the heavy silence unbearable. Luka was deliberately not answering.
"What?" The tone he used made it painfully clear that he didn't want to answer, knowing that Kei was young and would clumsily carry on regardless.
"Why did you turn me?" he asked again, still patient.
"Why did I turn you?" repeated Luka, not even looking at Kei. He was in a bad mood. He let out a short, bitter laugh. "Why not?" Ah, such petty cruelties were all he had left now. The world had grown accustomed to him, and lashing out at himself and his young charge was the only way to assuage his rage.
But Kei looked at him with such wounded, piercing eyes that he relented, hating himself for causing such distress. "I'm sorry, Kei. I didn't mean that." Goodbye petty cruelty.
Kei didn't reply, just fixed his eyes on the floor and kept walking.
His passivity only annoyed Luka even more. Dammit, Kei, say something! Yell at me, change the subject, anything! Just don't act the martyr. It doesn't suit you.
"Don't you want to know the reason?" he snapped impatiently.
Kei jumped a mile. "...Yes." He felt his heart rate return to something approaching normal, and tried to look like he hadn't been startled. "But you didn't want to answer."
What the hell happened to you? Where's the annoying Kei who always asks questions? The naïve Kei who's always putting his foot in it? The inexperienced, emotional mess I've come to actually like?
There was no answer, and the subject was duly changed. "I'm cold," remarked Kei, as if he hadn't expected anything at all.
Too damn right, thought Luka darkly. It's fucking scary.
"You never warned me about winter," he continued.
Fine, we'll play your game. Let's pretend it never happened. "I'm not perfect. I forgot, I guess." His bad mood began to melt away as he immersed himself in the mundane doings of life. As if he was normal. Pretending was too easy. Dangerously easy. "Fancy a little drink to warm up?"
Kei smiled briefly, as brittle as the slices of sharp sunlight that cut through snow-heavy clouds on a clear winter day. Luka could only just remember what it looked like, what it felt like.
Cold.
"Sure."
It sounded so innocuous to anyone listening. So simple to be a vampire in Mallepa. Because no one cared. And in nightclubs everyone's too drunk or high to know who they are anyway. To Kei and Luka, it was an invitation. The predatory instinct came easily to the two men. Single out the one who strayed from the herd, make him believe they were his friends, convince him he was just leaving and usher him out the back.
They shared this victim, just another nameless faceless mortal, thinking 'waste not, want not'. Another easy meal. That was Luka's problem. Everything was too easy. There was nothing that made him really feel anymore. Except Kei. Kei could provoke those feelings in him, even if it was just annoyance.
"Ah, that's good!" said Kei, with his usual regards for contemplation. He wiped blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, glowing with satisfaction. "So warm!"
Luka relieved the body of its thick winter coat, and slipped it around his own shoulders, ruffling the collar up around his neck.
"What are you doing?" Kei was suddenly appalled.
"What? He doesn't need it." He was pleasantly surprised to note that it was fur-lined. I don't deserve such a luxury, he thought. Oh well. "I, on the other hand, intend to get the maximum use out of it."
"You can't do that!"
"Do you want one?" he asked out of politeness.
"No!"
"Then your problem is...?" Luka knew what the problem was. He just wanted to hear him say it out loud. "Go on." It sounded like a challenge.
"It's stealing!" gasped Kei, oblivious to all implications, as usual. "Stealing from... from the dead! It's just ..." He fumbled for words. "Wrong."
Luka stared at him, half in disgust, ignoring the fact that this enigma was what he had begun to miss. "You're unbelievable," he almost spat. "You go out and kill every fucking night; who are you to condemn me?"
"Killing is... different." It sounded lame, even to Kei. He was aware of the proverbially thin ice creaking beneath his weight. "That's survival. This is just... stealing."
"Oh, you'd be surprised," said Luka in a low, acid tone, "at how far survival goes." It takes more than blood to survive. That was rule one.
Kei didn't understand. It was purely the dangerous tone that shut him up.
Luka knew it. You condemn me for stealing from the dead, and who was it that took the life? Who had the first bite? Killing's second nature to you now, and you're good. Oh damn you're good. And that angel face of yours never slips. Are you that far-gone already?
"Let's go," he muttered, angry at the world once again.
"You'll ruin me, you know," remarked Kei, and Luka couldn't tell whether he meant it light heartedly or not. The night was growing old, and the languid moon began to pale.
Kei pulled his stolen coat higher, grateful now for the meagre warmth. He hadn't killed this man, partly out of pointed principle and partly because there's only so much a vampire can drink in one night.
"Mm?" Luka glanced at him, dragging himself from his dark thoughts. "You say something?"
"I said you'll ruin me."
"Oh." His dark, brooding eyes returned to the ground and they continued their homeward journey. I know, he thought. I've done nothing but ruin you. I've ruined you very well. All I can do for you now is try to ruin you gently.
And that's not enough.