Kouki stood in the rain contemplating his life.
For an immortal, he didn't have many memories that were worth reminiscing about.
Immortality took away the pleasure of living, he mused.
He thought about the time when he had turned, or in his case handpicked to be turned, by Hanamiya. He had collected a special set of men to be soldiers in a territorial dispute over a human colony. He thought about the decades spent in fighting his own kind to establish supremacy of Hanamiya's coven above others regarding particular cities and villages. The fights were the worst in his opinion. He had suffered many a battle scar that his skin looked like a canvas of crescent shaped marks.
He was gifted.
He had felt it even in his human form (at the tender age of seventeen, he was of the opinion that it was his charisma; but later on, found out that it was much more. So much more.) He could feel things. Emotions, moods, even thoughts, sometimes, that emanated from whomever he focused on. That was not all. He could make them feel what he wanted them to feel. He could bend people and vampires to his will. Newborns, being volatile as soon as they were turned, with their overwhelming strength were assigned to him to control them. It was for mainly this reason that Hanamiya still kept him around. He could make an entire room full of bloodthirsty vampires, calm or angry as he pleased.
He thought back to the time when he had befriended another soldier, if he could call themselves that, Kuroko Tetsuya. Kuroko survived longer than the rest and was good at fighting though he hated it. He would feel like crying every time he fought though he was incapable of shedding tears. He hated taking away the life of another. Be it a vampire or a puny human. Humans were mere food. They never knew who lorded over their city and refused to believe in their existence.
Newborns lose their effectiveness after a year of turning. Gifted ones like him were kept alive and with the exception of Kuroko, Hanamiya had ordered him to dispose off the rest. It was a normal, routine procedure that they followed among all others that were issued. But one night, when they were in the room waiting for the next newborn to enter, fire roaring beside them, Kouki sensed that Kuroko was not feeling well. The aura surrounding him showed fear, nervousness and had a strange sense of steel to it. He observed that Kuroko had pursed his lips, furrowed his eyebrows and the moment a red-haired newborn - Kagami, if he remembered correctly - entered, he shouted an apology before bolting with the him. He had been hard pressed to follow them and kill them both but he felt averse to do so. All these decades, he had lived only for the fight, for the blood, for territory (did that even matter?) that Kuroko's betrayal to Hanamiya's clan seemed almost like a prison break. Kuroko had finally found someone and he wasn't going to destroy the happiness of possibly the one person he actually cared about in his existence.
He felt the depression settle as he sifted through the years in the same way as before. Nothing but bloodshed and fighting. Create more. Fight. Destroy the rest. Move to a new place. Rinse and repeat. It wasn't until half a decade later when Kuroko came back to see him.
This time, he was properly introduced to his mate, Kagami Taiga.
Mate.
That was new for him.
More than that word, what felt strange for him was the mood that they were engulfed in. It seemed...happy. Content. Joy. Acceptance.
He was flabbergasted when Kuroko told him about the places they had visited and of the vampires that coexisted in peace. How it was peaceful and there were options available to be nomads like them and no need for violence. He believed them because he knew they spoke the truth and also because he wanted to believe them. Anything to escape the hell that he lived in.
In one conversation, he was convinced. He left Hanamiya, glad that he wouldn't have to kill him, without a backward glance. He had been with his creator for almost a century but the bond between them was very fragile. Bonds forged by blood and very little else were too weak. He felt no remorse in walking away.
He traveled with Kagami and Kuroko across the country, exploring the world that they spoke about, stopping only to quench his thirst. But the depression from his fighting years continued to plague him in this new life as well. No fighting happened in the years that he spent with them but still he felt regretful most of the time. Kuroko deciphered that he was at his lowest only when he was hunting.
He could feel the emotions of the pitiful humans that he fed on as they died. He lived their thoughts as he sucked their blood. It sickened him. Part of him, what was left of his soul - if he even had one - died with his prey. He tried resisting but gave up when the thirst became too much to ignore. He felt wrecked for weeks after.
He took leave of Kuroko and Kagami and started to wander on his own, vying for self discovery. Anything to calm the storm raging inside him. Much like the one he was standing in right now.
He stood outside a seedy bar and looked up at the darkened sky as the rain pelted him as if he were made of stone. He didn't feel the rain, so the stone statue reference was right, he thought wryly. It was afternoon ; he shouldn't be out here and should go into the bar for shelter till the rain stopped like every other human but he refrained from doing so. He hadn't eaten in weeks and his eyes were almost pitch black instead of the usual blood red; if he stepped inside he wouldn't be able to restrain himself. Staying out here was a better option to avoid a massacre but he could run the risk of exposure if he didn't move soon. Weighing his options, he steeled himself, hunched his shoulders and pushed open the door of the bar.
The minute he entered he was caught, not by the delicious scent of numerous humans crowded inside the bar, but by the one - obviously non-human - entity sitting on the bar stool and smirking at him.
They hopped off the stool at the counter to skip and stand directly in front of him with an unnatural grace; unnatural even for him. He knew they were of his own kind, but that didn't stop him from thinking that they were extremely attractive with their crimson hair and golden eyes and lean physique and perfect pale skin and a sinfully curved mouth that was right now pouting at him.
It shocked him. In all his years of existence, more like a sentence, actions like this only constituted a declaration of war. But the emotions emanating from the stunning redhead, with the captivating smirk on those full lips that he found himself longing for, were nothing like he had ever encountered. The air was filled with...anticipation, satisfaction, relief and...a sort of warm feeling that he couldn't quite place.
"You have kept me waiting too long, Kouki." the beautiful stranger said in voice like wind chimes but laced with a tinge of reproach.
He could do nothing but stare back before stuttering out in his own velvety voice, " I-I am sorry!" and bowed deeply.
The stranger - the unearthly enchanting stranger - held out their hand and spoke in a soft, melodious voice, "Call me Sei, love. We are going to spend the eternity together after all."
He took the hand without stopping to make sense of the statement or his own actions and felt the warmth of the hand in his. At the smile that tugged at his own lips after seeing the redhead's beaming grin and slowly, carefully interlacing their fingers with his, he finally felt hope.