Primal Eyes

Day 1.2

"…Wake up, Ventus…"

"…The time has come…"

Dream again?

Ventus rubbed her eyes gently, trying to shake off the rest of sleepiness that was still clouding her mind. She didn't know why but she constantly had this fatigue feeling lately. However on the other hand, her dream seemed to turning more vivid and memorable. She could now recall the fact that she indeed heard a voice in her dream, a voice so familiar but strange at the same time, a voice that sounded so…nostalgic.

Who are you?

Yet her question was never answered.

Seifer took her to a rather expensive-looking restaurant at downtown of Radiant Garden City, clearly indicating his attempt to impress her. But soon enough Ventus completely lost any interest (if it existed at first place) in this guy. Seifer was such an egocentric loser. During the whole fancy dinner, he talked about nothing but himself that he kept bragging about. Looked like the boastful guy didn't really want to get to know Ventus but he only wanted to gloat to some chick. Or maybe he believed this was a genius strategy to win over a woman's heart. Well, definitely not working on Ventus.

But despite the awful dinner they spent together, Ventus didn't excuse herself from going to their next dating event – an Organization XIII concert that was held at Cocoon House. In fact, she was the one who wanted to go to the concert, not only because she wasn't interested at all in the movie Seifer suggested they should go see.

It was purely impulsive that she wanted to go to this concert. To be honest, she was not really a fan of the band Organization XIII. She normally preferred opera or ballet or classical music over the pop music. But that day on campus, as soon as she saw the poster of the concert, she simply couldn't resist to the urge, that she wanted to go to this one so badly for some strange reason.

So after the dinner, Seifer drove her to the Cocoon House which was also located at downtown, not far from the fancy restaurant. It was still early when they got there, but people already started gathering. Crowds of fans could be seen everywhere near the hall.

Getting off the car, standing in front of the entrance, Ventus didn't feel too comfortable as she felt overwhelmed by the large crowd of passionate people.

"Ven, what's wrong? Aren't you the one who wanted to come here?"

"Yeah…I dunno. Sorry I just…You're right. I'll try to have more fun."

Ventus didn't bother to tell Seifer the truth. Just a second ago, when she uneasily stared at the crowd, her vision suddenly turned blurred, not only that, the next moment her whole vision was completely covered with crimson color. But that didn't last too long. As she blinked her eyes in confusion, the next second everything turned back to normal. Well, that was quite…ominous.

"Hey look guys, isn't that Seifer?"

"Wow, looks like he brought a hot chick with him this time. Lucky bastard."

"Nice~body~ I like her boobs, though she has a pretty face too."

"Yo Seifer, shouldn't you introduce your pretty girlfriend to us huh?"

After entering the building, they met several young males who seemed to be Seifer's friends. Ventus frowned inwardly as she heard the wolf whistling and the obscene comments coming from these men.

"What the hell guys? Watch your language! Don't scare her away, okay?"

Even though Seifer quickly shouted to his friends in attempt to prevent them from saying more inappropriate things, Ventus keenly noticed the gloating smirk appeared on the guy's face which he didn't even bother to make much effort to hide. Sighing inwardly, Ventus knew it from the beginning. The guy was just pretending to be a gentleman while he was pursuing her. In fact he was just another dick, just like the other men who only knew to think using the lower half of their body instead of their brain. Once they got what they were truly after…

Though not all men were like that, but nowadays good guys were too few, so few that they were either already taken or they were gay. And unfortunate for her, the only true gentleman she knew, Aqua, was already taken, by her best friend. Mentally sighing again, Ventus thought maybe she wasn't going to be lucky enough to meet her Mr. Right all her life.

"I'm Ventus. You can call me Ven."

The blonde simply introduced herself with a polite smile. She didn't have any want to deal with a pack of guys like them. If Seifer wasn't that dumb, he should be able to figure out the coldness in her voice and what it meant.

"Hey guys, the concert's about to start. We need to go. How 'bout we catcha later?"

Well, so the guy wasn't too dumb.

But his dickhead friends seemed not wanting to leave him alone so easily. Seifer had to drag his friends a little away from Ventus to prevent her from hearing their insider dirty jokes. Not like Ventus wanted to pay any more attention to those males anyway, she just let Seifer deal with their business and avert her attention to the surroundings. It was like her habit that the policewoman-wannabie always took notes on her surroundings.

As she looked around, her body suddenly froze when her eyes met a pair of melt gold.

Ventus saw a black-haired young man. The raven man held his arms across his muscular chest, leaning against the wall at the corner. His eyes are golden, a rare color that was soul-piercing. That pair of golden eyes was staring at her right there…

The black-haired man did not avert his gaze when Ventus' cerulean eyes met his. He was still staring straight at her. And Ventus found herself couldn't move her own eyes away from this man either, like she was enchanted by that pair of piercing gold.

This man…this man…

She subconsciously covered her mouth with her right hand, and before she realized, her legs stepped forward towards where the man was standing. Ventus could feel that her heart was shaking violently, that a strong shocking feeling poisoned her mind. She never had felt such a strong feeling before. That pair of golden eyes had seen through her; they penetrated her heart, her soul. As soon as the moment she saw them, she was deeply attracted like a moth attracted to flame. She was, enchanted.

"Hey Ven? What's wrong? What are you looking at?"

A hand on her shoulder had broken her trance, brought her back to reality. Ventus glanced at Seifer who was now standing right in front of her and blocking her view. She moved her eyes again to the corner where she saw the raven man previously, but no one was there anymore. The place was empty.

Could it be…could it be just another illusion she saw?

"…Nothing. I'm just…not feeling too good."

"You sure you okay?"

Ventus just nodded. Despite her calm looking outside, inside she was still too stunned. She couldn't help but ask the question how a stranger could elicit such strong emotions inside her. Who was he? Who was that man? Why did she…feel this way?

A sudden burst of cheers interrupted her thoughts. Looked like Org. XIII's concert was about to start.

TBC

A/N: I'm still alive…sorta. Sorry for the short chapter. But at least I let Vani show up XD.

I don't know if there are people still interested in this story or not since it's, y'know, gender-bending…I'd like to hear more of your thoughts, if possible.

Thanks again to those who are still with me. Thanks for all the reviews and favs.

Ah BTW, what your eyes see can be deceptive, sometimes.