Black and blue, I'm begging you
Take me in, I'm surrendering
Black and blue, but if I'm with you
If I'm with you, I will live to fight on through
-Sia, Black & Blue
Chapter 4
First Date
Sparks flew as his blade clashed the wall, halted just shy of my cheek as his eyes darted over me. His lips parted, his eyes growing wide then small again. He squint, then placed his sword beneath my throat as he stepped closer, inhaling deep. "You smell of flowers."
He zeroed in on my hair, dropped his weapon to place one hand around my throat. He didn't squeeze and this meant a great deal to me. For one I was still alive, he hadn't killed me. Two, he wasn't strangling me. At least not yet. His brow furrowed as he reached with his free hand into my shoulder-length hair, grasping a small chunk from the underside. He pulled it forth, rubbing it between his fingers. "It's blue."
Though his grasp was loose around my throat there was a knot deep within it, great pressure building in my chest. My eyes stung as a feeble smile worked my lips. "It is."
He wrinkled his nose as he rubbed the electric blue locks between his fingers, letting them fall among the black. "I prefer the ebony."
He turned his battered shell on me for the first time, leaving both weapons on the ground as he approached the fire. He sat beside it. "I kept dreaming of the blue— blue just like that, and this—" he motioned to his mask, bound around his arm. It was splotchy now with something dark.
He picked up a stick, poked at the fire, stoking the embers. "Well you lived. I am entertained. Sit. Tell me why you've come to die by my hand. Entertain me a while longer before I grow bored of you." His head turned awkwardly on his neck, like a door in a jam that didn't fit. "Perhaps I'll let you live until you do."
"Do what?" I asked, taking a step toward him.
"Bore me."
If I was going to get him back I had to bring it, like really pour it out to him all the ways I should've all along. At this point I had everything to lose, at the hand of the one I was trying to save. "I'm not sure what you remember." I sat across from him, fixing my gaze on him as the flames flickered between us. "We met as teenagers, saved the world together a half dozen times. You helped me see the truth, enabled me to have honor, something I always wanted. Without you I wouldn't have either."
He nodded toward the katana, still in the dust. Cast aside, dirty, dishonored. "You're boring me." My Leo would never treat his weapons like that. This provoked my ire.
"Yeah, well it used to be you that bored me. I was the dark and you were the light." I picked up a stick, jabbed at the same log he was poking from the other side. Tiny sparks drifted up, scarlet stars, chasing the smoke. "Our first date had firelight too. I asked you out, since you couldn't get through the asking part without choking on your words." I snickered and he straightened, frowning as he blocked my stick then poked the stoked fire unnecessarily.
"I'm not afraid of anything." He argued.
"I didn't say you were." I scoffed. "It was after we lost Splinter. There was this whole weird grieving thing we did together." I shrugged. "Since we'd already done everything physical and said the "I love you" bits, it didn't seem like a big deal to ask for a real date." My gaze drifted into the blue of the flame …
Leo carried an armful of logs to the ring of stones near the cliffs edge. "Are you sure this counts as a first date?" He placed them on the pile, selecting one to add to the fire. "I mean, are you sure this is okay for a first date? Don't most people go out to dinner or something?"
He was nervous, though I couldn't say why. We'd made love weeks ago, spoken it the day before that… we'd skipped the order of things opting for the chaotic way we did everything else. I was fine with it.
I gazed at the valley below, clusters of varying shades of green swaying in a steady breeze. The same air carried cedar-burdened smoke across my ankles. The odor was heavy, thick and clung to my clothes. But the landscape before me, the sun a melting myriad of oranges and reds, dipping between two peaks across the horizon, remnants of a dusky blue sky fading to purple then black above an endless cascade of emerald and pine, the greatness of it all stirred something inside me, summoned a nameless energy to thrum beneath my skin.
The hike had been good for us, the trail smudgy in places where the earth was soft from a prior day's rain. He'd flip-flopped back and forth between needless chatter and an easy silence. I preferred the latter, slipping my hand into the curl of his, saffron rays piercing the canopy above, like strips of warmth taking off the slight chill. I could've done without the mosquitoes, and the damned cacophony of locust, tree frog and cicada that made my ears ache. But the occasional crunch of leaves beneath our feet as we played a game of "who is the better ninja" was particularly gratifying.
I enjoyed the faint ribbons of gold darting across the top of his head and edge of his carapace as he went ahead, clearing the path. There in the forest, or from the rooftop of a city beneath a night sky, in the shadows of the sewers he hailed from, or outlined in the white glow of a summer sun, sometimes the realness of him thrust itself upon me. The golden swirls adorning his shell, the chips and scratches, battle scars that he shouldn't have. Then there was his inhuman profile, the wrinkles around his eyes and the edges of his mouth, that shouldn't be there, for he was too young to bear them. But he was too young, we were too young for much of what we'd lived through. And through it all he was still beautiful, eyes pools of blue that I allowed myself to get lost in, knew full well that to love him was a dangerous undertaking, yet in the thrill and tragedy that was my life I indulged in him. I wasn't the least bit sorry.
With a final swipe of his sword he knocked back the brush and we were there, a large flat cliff that promised a breathtaking view and did not disappoint. As we stepped to the edge together I squeezed his hand. "I think this counts."
The sun dissolved behind the mountains leaving us by firelight, along with the small flickering jar of fireflies beside my bedroll.
Leo sat behind me, wrapping me in his arms. "Are you going to let them go?" He nuzzled my neck and I leaned into him more, hiding my smile behind the curtain of my hair. His breath tickled my ear. "There are real stars above us."
My heart fluttered, like the wings of the tiny glowing creatures desperate to break free of their cage. I glanced from them to the sky above, losing a breath at the stars upon stars, some minute specks like a cluster of freckles, others larger and many overlapping. It was a moonless night and I was glad for it. The sky was clear, deep blue merging with black, endless as the sea.
He pointed to the northern most cluster. "That is the black tortoise, warrior. He guards the North."
"The black warrior." I hummed.
His lips brushed my neck, sending little thrills throughout me. "You know the story."
My cheeks ached from my smile. "It's been a while, remind me."
He leaned back a bit, leaving my neck cold. "Xuanwu was the prince of a Chinese ruler. However, rather than take the throne, he left his parents when he was sixteen to study Taoism. While he was studying he was told that he had to purge all human flesh from his body. Since he had always eaten human food his stomach and intestines remained human. He prayed to the gods for guidance, and a sentient being appeared to him, changing Xuanwu's organs into divine ones. Once removed his original stomach and intestines were thrown to the mountains, and said to become a tortoise and a snake. The two became demons, terrorizing people. Now that he was divine, Xuanwu heard of this and returned to slay the beasts he'd unleashed. However the snake and tortoise showed remorse, so he forgave them, taking them in and training them to atone for their mischief. He appointed them the Tortoise and Snake generals, and they assisted him throughout his many quests. Eventually, he achieved divine status and was worshiped as a deity of the northern sky."
I tilted my head to the side, teasing him with a coy smile as I peered into his magnificent sapphire eyes. "What became of the Tortoise and Snake generals?"
He gathered me closer, his arms strong yet gentle, and I relished the way we'd settled into one another as if we'd been together for years. "I believe that along the way they found one could not be without the other, and when Xuanwu ascended they joined him, his eternal guardians in the sky." He pointed to a cluster of stars, but there were so many I wasn't sure what he was trying to show me. "See there, the snake is wrapped around the tortoise because they are one."
I searched the cluster of stars, trying to determine some arrangement that resembled a tortoise and a snake. Why couldn't they each be different colors, to make it simple? My toes curled as I leaned forward, his arms loosening as I searched the sky. "I can't see it."
He was patient as his large fingers cupped around my tiny hand, guiding it like a pointer. Star by star my heart began to pound.
A tortoise…and there woven around its body, a snake.
Then his voice, those words.
"We were written in the stars, Karai."