Black Love, Assassinated- 37C, thy body temperature
Warning for chapter: Slight gore
A/N: I'm actually writing Chapter11 after posting this. Just have to vomit everything out.
Thanks for the love (love critics), do enjoy.
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"Hatred, the real kind that made the stomach roil, was impossible without an emotional bond."
-Nicholas Sparks, A Bend in the Road
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"So, have it been tough as an exorcist?" Tyki asked abruptly as he took another puff out of his cancer stick. The smell was a familiar one; one of richness, charm, and a little pinch of artistic power. It was oddly pleasing to her nose. She shrugged it off with another deep sip of her own black coffee. It paled in comparison.
Fuyu turned diverted her attention back to the present scene. She had been observing the stray dog outside yet again just now.
"Manageable," she replied shortly.
"Are you angry that I quitted and abandoned the class?"
"No." Fuyu was still not looking at him. Her eyes were still focused steadily on her coffee as she stirred the black beverage, observing the transverse waves formed. "Everyone needs their change. And you had gotten your friend to replace you. So it was alright, Sir."
His friend- the one who did the graphite artwork that brought them together. That one who started this twisted fate, the one who had indirectly paired the two of them up. He coughed at that thought, but smiled nonetheless.
"What made you do so?" asked Tyki, his question sounding a little demanding as he tapped at the cigarette a little. The ashes dropped on the ash tray lightly. He was not angry. He was not angry at all. That smile was to camouflage it all. What made you decided to kill yourself being choosing to be an exorcist? He had found out a long time ago, but could not and did not want to comprehend why she would choose such a path.
She fell quiet at that particular question. Memories rushed through her head and pushed her forcefully like a child in a stampede. Men and women, who had nothing on their faces, ignored the cries of a young child, as they rushed to be evacuated. To be evacuated to nowhere. It hurt her. She wanted to forget everything. She had thought it had long been erased from her memories. Now it was prickling her like a red raw wound slashed with salt.
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Red wound. Like red track marks dosed with grape wine as the blade went smoothly over her soft flesh. Slowly, the cold metal piece ran through and her pale skin, decorated with droplets of water, departed neatly to reveal more red mess. Maroon, burgundy, crimson, scarlet, blood; beads of them.
She had done it vertically instead of the usual horizontal way stereotyped by the media. She had known that it was the fastest way to end all these pain and drain out whatever that she wanted. Her life draining as it flowed along the pale marks of her veins.
It felt as if she was in that small humid bathroom again, surrounded by warm moisture, but feeling peculiarly cold. Like an iceberg, but she was not melting. Her eyes, dehydrated from tears, stared motionlessly as the blade went down, and down. Further down. And a new one; a new track, running down her soft flesh as she sat naked and empty in the bathtub filled with water. The blood dripped, steadily into the water, creating ripples of sickly pink patterns as it swirled its danger around.
She could no longer feel pain, grief, or confusion. Chloe's death, just her name, was enough to tear her heart into pieces and bits. It was her fault, god damn it. The guy with long crimson hair, whoever he was could just say whatever he wanted to. She just wanted to have Chloe back. And now she was to join her. In heaven. Or hell. Whatever. She pondered if God accepted people who committed suicide, she pondered if The-Almighty-One accepted people murdered by Akumas, she pondered if The-One-Up-There accepted people who caused their friends' death into the Golden Gates. She wondered if there really was a God. Was she having doubts now?
It did not matter now. She just need to close her eyes a little now, and laid her head back on the cold heartless tiles while she prepared herself for something eternal.
Then his image came to her mind. Her heart wretched at the sudden thought. His smirk accompanied by those charming dark eyes which held some sort of a dark secret. His touch when he laid his hand softly on her shoulder. The warmth as it shot right through, the sudden rawness hit her hard, she almost screamed out at the pain.
"Fuyu?"
It was her foster mother. Mrs. Mylene. Chloe's mother, the mother of the person she had killed.
"Dinner is already ready. We'll only start after your bath."
She froze at those words. Her tone tenderized her so much that she felt sick in the stomach. Something, whatever it was that tasted so bitter when it passed through her tongue, forced its way out of mouth. Her eyes were back into focus. She stared at the sick mess presented starkly upon her. What had she been doing? Something ran down her cheeks. Hot, warm, painful. Were those tears? She thought she had already lost them all to the inner conflict that she had been battling alone. His image floated into her head again, obstructing all other hatred- of herself, of the murderer, of the world. Those tears, or whatever they were, felt like acid corroding her skin.
"Fuyu?"
The mess of red and yellow whatsoever seemed to be whispering to her. Strangely, softly, quickly. She shook it off. This was not right. It could not have been what the rest could have wanted. To die naked in the bathtub? There should have been a more glamorized way. A death with a purpose? Exorcist? She suddenly recalled the crimson-hair man again. Yes, an exorcist. Her fingers went instinctively to the lower back of her neck. Yes, an exorcist.
"Yes, Mrs. Mylene. I'll be out in a matter of minutes."
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"You should stop smoking so much, Mr. Mikk."
The scars were still engraved upon her skin, the tracks a painful reminder to her past. The glove she had, requested from Komui, let her conceal her inner past. Fuyu unconsciously placed her fingers over the black glove.
Tyki frowned yet again at her response. She had been in a daze before she answered back. And her answer was not even relevant to his question. "I thought you were to further your studies overseas," he paused and emphasized the next few words, "As a student."
A slight "hmm" came out of her. "I just decided to be an exorcist. A change would have been appropriate."
"For?"
"It doesn't matter, Sir. Nothing important for Mr. Mikk to be concerned over."
"What made you think so?" Tyki almost barked out his question. He was feeling outraged by her answers. He wanted to grab her hand which was placed barely a few centimeters away from his. He wanted to shake her silly to find out the reason why she had lied and taken up to that corrupted side.
He did not. And he miraculously managed to calm down. She moved her hand further away from his. He sighed and took another puff from his tobacco. "We never first started out as teacher and student," said Tyki as he moved his face closer to Fuyu's, "I don't think you are very comfortable addressing me the way you are doing so now." He almost blew out his stream of smoke in her face. He did not.
"I enjoyed myself there," muttered Fuyu, her words laced with a thin sheet of ice, like cold satin, just not so soft, as she turned her head away. "And Master had been kind enough to take me in as his disciple." She almost revolted at the idea that he was kind. What lies, she mocked cynically.
"Master?" Tyki did not like that idea. The stream of smoke lingered past his jaws as it disappeared into the surroundings. His fingers drummed on the table a little, both unhappy about that and the way she had reacted calmly to his taunting. Yet his smile never waver the least bit.
"General Cross Marian."
"Hmm," muttered Tyki as he took a deep gulp of his coffee, the caffeine obviously lacking the power to dissolve the taste of tobacco. Then it clicked.
General Cross. Earl. Cell Roron. Delete. Raven. Black. Fuyu.
"Raven?"
Fuyu almost choked on her coffee as she looked up in surprise by the word that Tyki had subconsciously spitted out. "How did you-? Only my grandma calls me by that name…"
Silence draped over the two yet again. He had never felt this before.
He felt almost helpless.
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Unable to conceal my sorrow
I have already lost you
Thy hair scent
Left me hastily without even trying
and I'm unable to follow it anymore
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The sky grumbled deeply as it started to darken and cry. The tears fell down hard and cold, bruising him a little as they hit him on the head and shoulders. Kanda winced in irritation and cursed silently. He was just a few metres away from the station. The place was starting to rain. While it had been quite a distance, a journey of an hour at least, the place he had left could jolly well be affected by the weather too.
"Tch, baka Fuyu."
He took a glance at the two umbrellas that had been placed on top of the carton of apples in his hand and groaned. She would be getting wet when she head towards here.
And now he had to head back from where he came from.
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The shadow of your diminishing figure
Can still be seen even with my eyes shut tight
I kept searching
Searching for the lost image
Lost under the pale moonlight
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Tyki did not answer her question this time round. He did not have to. She did not do so previously anyway. He was the one who glanced out of the window this time round, his throat tight and sore. His eyes followed the stray dog still savaging around the area, the beggar pushing his house of cardboard under a shelter, the sweet old couple sharing an umbrella, the little stains made on the asphalt ground as rain fell on it, and that pissed off face of that Japanese.
"Fuyu," he said almost reluctantly, as words forced out of the surface like a diver breaking from the surface of ice water, "your comrade's back."
Fuyu turned her head almost immediately at his words, her jaws dropping a little, but her eyes had regained the spark that it used to have. "It's Kanda…"
"I guess you have to go," he said sarcastically as the two looked at the exorcist outside who had a face of impatience. "Goodbye then, Fuyu." Her name still tasted sweet on his lips as he said it, and he pushed his chair back as he stood up. She seemed so small in comparison when he towered over her.
"Thank you," muttered Fuyu as she got up from her seat which had been pulled out with grace by her ex-lecturer. Words could not be formed. She stepped out of her seat and smoothen the sides of her coat a little. "Ti…"
However, he moved so fast that she did not have time to react. Tyki simply leaned down and took her hand yet again, pressing her fingertips to his lips at first, then twice deliberately on hand, and the last on the back of her wrist. Lightly but his kiss, since the first touch, had already ached her heart so much as it spread its roots and strangled the small cardiac muscle. It felt as if time had been frozen at that time. Then he stood up abruptly and pulled her towards him.
He could hear the soft gasp as he embraced her in his arms, the rapid pace of her heart hammering, and the short intervals between the breaths she took. He could feel her trembled under his touch, as he pulled her small frame to his broad built, the warm heat radiating from her body as their body came into contact, when he placed her head onto his chest. He could smell the soft scent of her hair when he pressed his face onto it, feeling the saccharine scent that he had so long missed before.
His every touch of her had always made him sore and aching to kill.
He was aware how tensed her body had become when his hand went right through her chest and into her heart. He could feel the little struggle she gave. He could almost experience the pain she had gone though- but it was going to be a short one. He could almost sympathise with the agony when Tease went inside her heart. But he had to do it even though it was plain stupid to save her then to end her life- perhaps to make himself feel better?
He planted a deep and long kiss on her forehead.
He was a Noah, after all.
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