The first thing Natsuo felt after he rounded the corner was the cold, steel surface of a blade at his neck.
Smiling eyes peered at Natsuo from behind the silver blade. "Boo."
A dark figure stood in front of him. With one arm, he held the knife up to Natsuo's neck. With the other, he leaned theatrically against an old, dilapidated wall of a house. In the dim lighting, he could have been taken for a mere shadow. Long, silken hair fell to the figure's waist, and through a curtain of bangs, two roguish eyes looked their prey up and down slowly. Ever so slowly. Finally, they worked their way up to Natsuo's face, and then to his eyes, where they remained for the longest time.
The eyes that stared back at the figure were hostile. Yet he had played this game enough to times to know that hostility more than often disguised fear.
Natsuo tried to shove past his captor, only to find the knife pressed against his neck even more firmly.
The figure cocked his head, the moonlight catching in his eyes. "What's the rush?" He spoke in a voice that made this all seem like some sort of game rather than a thievery.
"Why don't you stay a while?" His hand retired from its place against the wall, moving instead to reach out towards its victim's cheek. Natsuo couldn't help but recoil from the cold touch. Seeing the sudden jolt, the figure's eyes seemed to smile even more, as if this was precisely the effect they wanted. And as the figure began running a hand through his victim's hair, Natsuo noticed that his eyes weren't the only thing smiling. Now his lips took the form too, his grin growing wider and wider every time the redhead shrunk back or resisted. It grew with the growing fear in his victim's eyes, as if that was the only food in the world they needed.
As the figure's cool fingers felt along his lips, Natsuo could take it no longer. His teeth bit down on the roaming fingers with a crunch. And to his delight that wasn't the only sound he heard. The ping of metal hitting the ground soon followed.
As swiftly as if it was all he had been doing this his whole life, Natsuo pulled his dagger out from his shirt, and looked up to find that his predator had also recovered his knife and was standing there, just in front of him, the smile long gone from his lips.
It was then that Natsuo detected the salty taste in his mouth. Instinctively, his gaze wandered over to his opponent's hand. It was dark. Darker than the shadows the figure seemed to be clothed in. It was a liquid dark that ran down his fingers and formed a puddle of black at his feet.
Blood.
Natsuo felt the cold gaze of his opponent upon his neck. And it was no surprise that a moment later, his gaze wasn't the only thing he felt there. The cold, now familiar sensation of a knife had come to keep its master's cold-blooded stare company.
However, what did surprise Natsuo was that when he tried to retaliate and raise his dagger to meet the other's neck, it was already there.
So there they stood, two figures clothed in darkness in an alleyway painted black with more than just night.
"Hand it over." The shadow's normally playful voice had grown cold. It reminded Natsuo of an angry child who had just lost a game.
Natsuo's first impulse was to ask what he meant, but with a simple look at his attacker's knowing eyes and the way they stared hungrily at the bulge in his pocket, it was all too clear. He asked anyway. "What?"
The figure raised an unimpressed eyebrow. In place of a response, he merely increased the pressure of the knife against Natsuo's neck and held out an open palm.
It was simply mind numbing to Natsuo how, without a second thought, he held out his hand to him for the second time that night. Idiot.By way of answer he brought his knife closer to the tender skin on his enemy's neck.
The figure rolled his eyes. "This is getting us nowhere."
"Why don't you try letting me go, smartass."
The figure replied back quickly, before Natsuo had even finished talking. "No." Natsuo's proposal was obviously out of the question.
"Well, unless you've got a better idea…"
The figure simply stood there, with no answer better than silence to give. The sound of rats scurrying about the filth of the alleyway sounded in both the boy's ears. A cloud passed over the moon. The night wind howled in impatience.
Natsuo cleared his throat. "Well?"
His opponent seemed to groan inwardly as the next few words escaped his lips. "I don't know…" One by one, the stars crawled out into the night's endless expanse. Like a not so far off clever thought climbing into a certain mind.
Natsuo's attacker continued in a rather pained voice. "I hate to say this, but," To Natsuo's surprise, he felt the cold blade of the knife being lifted off of his neck. "I think I've finally found my match." A smile spread across the figure's face, as slick as jam, as he spoke these last words.
Natsuo simply stood there, not knowing what to think. One minute this guy has a knife to my throat. And the next… this.Natsuo shook his head.Maybe he's mentally retarded… As the redhead stood there, gawking, the word dumbfounded didn't even begin to describe it.
"So, I guess I'll be going, then." To Natsuo's utter disbelief, his attacker resheathed his knife and began to walk back in the direction he had come from.
Wearily, Natsuo watched him walk away for a couple of feet, before turning himself and resuming his own walk. After all, he still had a long way to go, and the night wasn't getting any younger…
It was then he felt what he should have been expecting the whole time. Hands shoved his back towards the ground, forcing his face into the filthy alley floor. As if he needed any clarification as to who had done this, an all too familiar voice came from behind his ear.
"I can't believe you fell for that." The regular sing-song playfulness was back into his enemy's voice, and Natsuo hadn't missed it a bit. And when his attacker flipped him over on his back, he found himself face to face with those eyes. Those pale eyes that all but oozed mischief from their catlike slits. For the record, Natsuo hadn't missed those either.
"So how about it?" The gleaming eyed imp spoke down at Natsuo from his seat on his victim's chest. "You ready to lose your ears, girl?" He leaned down for a kiss, but Natsuo's lips began to move before he got to them.
"I'm not a girl!"
The boy perched on his chest merely smiled. "And I'm an old woman."
"No! I'm really no-"
Natsuo's lips continued to protest, but the boy on top of him paid no heed. His lips silenced the other's words, as his arms began to work. With one hand, he pinned down the other boy's struggling arms. Meanwhile, with his free hand, he began to work his way down his victim's trembling body with startling expertise.
Natsuo suddenly found himself in touch with feelings he had never felt before. For every struggle, for every resist, the boy on top of him only seemed to become all the more involved. For every escaping moan came a firmer kiss to silence it. For every defiant kick came a bite to reimburse him for the pain. At first the boy kept up his futile fight, but after a while he found himself turning away just to earn the feeling of being pulled back into a tighter embrace. What had started out as a crime had suddenly turned into a strange sort of game; a game without rules. And as his attacker's tongue wormed its way into his mouth, he came to realize something.
There was no use in denying it any longer. Despite himself, he had come to enjoy this game of cat and mouse.
The boy on top of him was tugged on his shirt now, bringing him back to reality and the rapid surfacing of feelings that came along with it. He heard the fabric rip seconds before he felt the cool night air pour onto his bare chest. He couldn't help but let loose the shiver that crept up his spine. Before he knew it, he found himself caught up in this dance of torn clothing and uninhibited feelings.
Before he knew, it he found himself kissing back.
Much to Natsuo's surprise, his attacker's whole body seemed to go rigid at the unanticipated reaction. It was as if his whole body had suddenly froze. Even his practiced hands seemed to forget what they were doing. Yoji's mind whirled. Surely he had just imagined it. But as he looked down at the boy below him, he noticed something different about the way the redhead stared back at him. No, he realized, there was nothing imagined at all about the look in those dark eyes.
Natsuo could have laughed, the look of confusion drawn across the other boy's face was so comical. But instead, he found a cool smirk spread itself across his lips, as he reached up to pull the other boy's face towards his.
How had this happened to him? In a period of mere seconds, Yoji had gone from predator to prey. From hunter to hunted. He could have recognized that smug grin on the other boy's face anywhere. He had worn it more than often on nights like these. But never before had it gotten this reaction. Never before… had it been quite like this.From hunter to hunted. Yoji hardly had time to think, let alone close his startled eyes, before he felt the warm sensation of the other boy's lips on his.
Soon everything was back to its nonsensical tangle of unrestrained limbs. Without further thought, Natsuo pulled the shirt over his partner's head, shuddering slightly at the sudden sensation of warm flesh pressed against his. Without further thought, Yoji's hands seemed to remember their skill, as made their way down towards Natsuo's pants. Without further thought, the two strangers continued to explore places they had never before known existed. They continued to discover feelings they had never felt before. Together, they continued to create their own world. It was an exciting new place, where feelings needn't have names, where reason was irrelevant; a place where Pleasure came to steal you away to until morning. For, in this world where nothing made any sense whatsoever, thought was the last thing on the two boys minds. In the darkened alleyway of Forest Lane, thought was not welcome.
The sound of unzipping echoed throughout the alleyway's decaying walls. A sound soon followed by a gasp.
"You're not a girl!" Yoji's shaken voice had escaped louder than he had intended it to. It exited a shout, at best.
And as fate would have it, the two boys were not the only ones who had heard the sudden outburst.
Two swaggering men rounded the corner to find two filthy, shirtless boys clinging to each other among the muck of the street.
A boot caught Yoji in the face. Natsuo clung onto his arm in desperation, but it was no use. The night's spell was broken. Their secret, beautiful world was shattered. Clutching his cheek, Yoji, ran, vanishing into the night, as if he really had been nothing more than a shadow all along.
Quickly, Natsuo leapt to his feet and prepared to run after him. But not quickly enough to escape the large, brutal hands that locked onto a fistful of his long hair. Natsuo yelped as another hand seized his wrist and roughly spun him around. Two sneering pairs of eyes scrutinized the boy with unmasked distaste. Natsuo could feel something warm running down his scalp.
"You were right. He is Seimei's boy." The man on the right spoke to the other, as if asking Natsuo himself was simply out of the question.
At the mention of the name, Natsuo's blood ran cold. Seimei.All the pleasure and beauty of the past moments seemed to vanish all in a second, leaving him alone to face the harsh, cold truth of reality. Seimei.His heart seemed to beat so terribly fast now, as he remembered how he had ended up out here, in this godforsaken alley, in the first place. Instinctively, his hand flew to his pants pocket.
For the second time that night, Natsuo felt what he should have been expecting all along.
Nothing.
The man on the right brought his mocking eyes closer to the boy. Natsuo could smell the bitter ale on his breath. "Just wait until your master hears what you've been up to." As the sound of drunken laughter filled the alleyway, Natsuo could've sworn he felt those cold, unfeeling eyes on him already.