AN: Yay! This hasn't been sitting on my computer for the past six months... honest. Okay so maybe it has and I was just far too lazy to finish it until now. Because I wanted something up for Halloween and this was the closest 'Blood and Roses' oneshot I had to being completed.
I'm afraid those of you waiting for that sci-fi oneshot I promised will be waiting a long, long while. It quite simply isn't working, and when I looked at it last I very graciously realised (as in turning the air blue in record time) that it actually doen't have a... what do you call those things... Plot! Yes. It had/has no plot and until I find one it's going nowhere. Sorry.
Warnings: Much lovely OCness in this. I love Yuugi when he's being all misterious and kick-ass and dominent and perhaps slightly over the top in character change and (goes on...).
Summery - "Go on. See he's been checking you out all night." "I don't think he-" "There look he's leaving out the back door! Did you see that look?! He wants you to follow..."
Blood and Roses
Follow Me, Follow Me
The night was, in a word, gorgeous.
The air was cool, the stars shone bright, the moon was full.
And the music that surrounded him in it's intoxicating beat as exciting as the perfect strangers he danced with.
His friend grinned tipsily at him when he returned, nudging another tiny glass of perfectly clear liquid towards him. He watched the blue flame lick at the alcohol a few seconds more before blowing it out and downing it. The heat burning his throat, he hummed as the fire reached his chest, slipping slowly down to his stomach.
The flashing lights coming from the stage had never looked more attractive.
His friend pulled him down into the seat next to him, leaning heavily on the low table as he ignored the other's slightly incoherent protest and moving closer so he could be heard over the music without having to shout.
"You seen him yet?" the blond grinned.
He frowned, "Who?"
His friend nodded discreetly over at the bar, he turned his eyes, trying to see without looking obvious. But he knew who the blond meant. That gorgeous creature sat alone by the bar, occasionally conversing coolly with the bar staff but never once moving from that spot. Turing down those that asked him to dance with a once-over then a subtle un-embarrassing refusal. His dark clothing seeming to suck the light towards him, make it glint off his silver gothic punk jewellery, inky black liner framing eyes as mysterious as the dark side of the moon.
And long white elegant fingers curved flawlessly around a delicate crystal glass of red, red wine.
"He's been watching you since we came in." Jounouchi said, a sly smirk crossing his features.
"What? You think he's interested? In me!?" He wasn't stupid despite his modesty, he knew just how many people, if asked, would lie with him tonight. He heard the whistles when he walked down the street in even his most sensible clothes. But the guy by the bar? "Way outa my league Jou, don't even think of tricking me into this one."
Jounouchi raised an eyebrow, "Don't tell me you haven't noticed him watching you?"
He scowled, "How could I miss eyes like that?" he asked a little bitterly. God if there was even a chance in hell…
"Look I'll prove it to ya." Jounouchi reasoned impishly, "We've run out of drinks right? Go to the bar and get some more. Don't be too discreet. Stand close but without touching. Give him a reason to stare."
He frowned again, but his friend wasn't going to let this go without a fight, so he sighed and gave in. It wouldn't be too bad right? He'd flirted with countless people that should have been out of his league and ended up in the palm of his hand.
He was stood by the high marble table before he knew it and bit his lip at the proximity, but didn't look. He didn't even have to talk to him right? He was just here to order drinks. He began to fish the yen out of his back pocket, waiting for the barman to finish mixing his latest concoction of an early death in a sweet tasting liquid when he heard the voice.
"How's your night?"
Strangely light, pleasant, warm. He looked up, thrown off balance at the blunt address, and could only stare. He hadn't realised just how close he had come, only a few inches between them. But for once the figure wasn't looking at him, rather at the half empty glass in his hand. Perhaps he had misheard and it was someone else who spoke?
But then the young man looked up from under his coal black lashes and dark eyes of a mesmerising colour met his own, a colour that should have been impossible for any human to posses.
They flashed as he smiled.
And despite his experience, his talent, Atemu felt his cheeks heat up.
He repeated his question. Atemu fumbled out an answer that he was good, having fun, it was a fine night.
The young man agreed, still smiling lightly as he lifted his glass to his lips, "Yes, a fine night indeed." Atemu saw a flash of pearly teeth, a pink tongue flickering as the red wine moistened those full red lips. He swallowed. Atemu felt an uncomfortable heat gathering in an area it really shouldn't be.
Atemu's drinks hit the table in front of him. He stumbled away from the bar but he felt the eyes that followed him, saw in his mind the smile that hadn't yet faded from the porcelain face.
He collapsed next to Jounouchi. The blond laughed and he felt the sudden urge to douse him in extremely flammable liquid. He settled for gulping down his drink, feeling the heat in his throat acutely as if someone had pierced the skin.
"Told you." His friend laughed, then nudged him in the side, "Go for it!"
Atemu suddenly saw an image of those slim fingers slipping past his waistband, of those dark eyes flashing in the heat of passion, of those red lips on his neck… "No."
Jounouchi looked as if he'd been slapped, "No? Jesus, 'Tem if you had drooled much more over there we'd all be swimmin' right now! You want him he wants you, why the hell not?"
"I wasn't drooling." Atemu muttered indignantly, hunching his shoulders. He was struck by an idea, "If I pretend I'm with someone perhaps he'll stop?"
Jounouchi raised an eyebrow, "Stop what? Wanting you?"
"Will you stop that!" Atemu hissed dangerously at him. Jounouchi looked at him questioningly. The frustrated college student turned back to his almost empty glass, rusty brown eyes reflected back at him, sharp defined features, naturally dark skin like caramel. Handsome, stunningly so, but not…
He got up to dance and leave Jounouchi brooding.
But he couldn't escape the gaze that followed him. The true reason he was avoiding any real flirting with the man of his dreams. Those eyes frightened him. Red wine mixed with purple irises. Amethyst. Not natural. But he knew even as he danced, even as he closed his eyes and forgot everything but the music and the warmth in his blood making his perception a little fuzzy, that he was falling. And hard. Without even realising he'd tripped.
Cool hands brushed across the exposed skin of his waist, his eyes shot open as arms snaked around his waist from behind but closed again when the figure began to move with him, flawlessly synchronised with the music's beat.
As the night got later, as the dances got slower, as the intoxication grew deeper, Atemu pushed himself back into the chest of the man stood behind him, tilted his head back so it could rest on his shoulder, closing his eyes with a sigh. Not noticing how the man's eyes flashed again as they roved over the exposed skin of his neck. Atemu's hands came to rest over the ones lying on his stomach, his skilled fingers barely noticing the pleasant chill on the other's skin. His heart fluttered in his chest as the stranger he met at the bar leaned over to whisper into his ear.
"What is your name?"
He told him.
"Family?"
A grandfather. The others all gone.
"College?"
The place, the name, what he was studying and why.
"Relationships?"
None. Not for a while.
The stranger smiled again, amethyst eyes darkening, this would be easier then he thought.
Atemu gasped quietly as soft, cool lips touched the heated skin of his neck. He wondered fleetingly how they could stay so cold through the heat of the room, of the wine, of the dancing. The moist tongue flickered across his skin, tasting it. And for some reason beyond his understanding he felt a flicker of fear at the feel of a sharp little nip that would otherwise have been pleasurable. A slight tickling sensation alerted him that the nip had pierced his skin but the stranger soothed the injury with his tongue before Atemu had time to think about it. He murmured apologies in that soft, fluid voice. Almost mournful. Almost apologising for things he had not yet done.
The arms withdrew from around his waist, soft skinned hands slipping off Atemu's hips from under his hotter fingers. He almost stumbled as the other backed away and he turned to see where the stranger had gone, but on the crowded dance floor, and through his alcohol-fuzzed vision, his dance partner had already merged hopelessly into the mass of moving bodies and blurring colours. A spell he wasn't aware of lifted and Atemu suddenly felt cold and exposed, a harsh reality brutally replacing the warm hidden world that had so embraced him before.
He stumbled back to the table where Jounouchi still sat, having watched it all with a lewd expression on his face. He snickered as Atemu looked determinedly at the low table, rubbing his arms to warm himself despite the heat of the room.
"Outa ya league, huh?" the blond laughed, at the expression on the other's face, "I'd say you have every chance of gettin' laid tonight, 'Tem. So don't pass up a lay like 'im."
"Jou, I told you to shut up!" Atemu's mood was swinging rapidly downwards, the strange pull in his chest and sudden feeling of vulnerability was putting him in a sour mood.
"Go on, 'Tem." His friend continued, pleasantly oblivious to the other's torment, "See! Look, I told you he's been checkin' you out all night!"
Unwillingly Atemu's gaze followed Jounouchi's finger and the direction it pointed in and found, once again, a flash of those eyes in amongst the crowd. The wine glass had been set, empty, on the bar. His figure distinguishable even in those black clothes due to the way he moved, like water around the clumsy rocks that were the other people.
"Why the 'ell not?" Jou, shouted, exasperated, and then he looked up in surprising seriousness, "Atemu, honestly, when was the last time you went with someone? I know you've got this whole searching for 'The One' quest going on right now but you are never going to find 'The One' if you don't get out there and start looking!"
Atemu tried not to show how much the speech had disturbed him, "I don't think he –"
"There!" Jounouchi had become impassioned by his own quest to find Atemu's soul mate for him, and he had was certain this mystery sex on legs guy was definite material for such a position (at least that's what the alcohol was telling him). Atemu jumped at Jounouchi's outburst, automatically searching for the source of it.
There was a door at the back of the club that led outside, a short cut down an alley to the main road and bus stop. With a sharp jolt to his heart Atemu saw his stranger slipping out of that door. Another single flash of those dark eyes had him staring long after the door had closed behind him.
"Look he's leaving out the back door. Did'ya see that look! He wants you to follow him Atemu. I know it!"
Atemu only just had time to hear Jounouchi's last exclamation; he had already stood up to follow.
"I'll finish yer drinks then?" Jounouchi shouted after him, gleefully, "Don't be late fer college tomorrow!"
It was like a dream, Atemu decided, everything had become like a dream. The way his surroundings blurred at the edges, the vague sense of needing to do something but not knowing what it was driving him forwards, the way he felt almost numb when his fingers met the surface of the door and pushed it open to let the cool air of the night brush over his heated cheeks. The muffled sound of the door closing behind him so the music was muffled and darkness enclosed in on him from the stars above.
Atemu stood alone in the alley, raising his hands to rub at his arms for warmth, the brick was damp from the rain earlier in the day, and the scent of moisture filled his nose. Where was his stranger? Had he read all the signs wrong? A flicker of fear disturbed him. The alley was deserted but the darkness seemed to be attaining a life of its own.
He gasped, nearly jumping out of his skin when a hand touched his arm, but the voice that seemed to caress his ears and coil around him like an affectionate snake calmed him.
"It's me." Was all that was said. But it was enough to identify who it was.
Atemu turned around, wondering how he had missed the person stood behind him with skin like snow that seemed to create its own luminescence in the darkness. And eyes so deep they could have been the dark side of the moon. Atemu shivered, but it was not because of the cold.
As the stranger stepped so close that their bodies touched he saw himself reflected in those eyes, a purple mirror in which his own image was doubled.
What was he doing? Standing here like a frightened rabbit as if he hadn't been through these steps a hundred times before? What was it about this stranger that paralysed him so? Why did he feel so out of his legue when he knew there was no legue that wouldn't accept him?
Impassioned and angered by his own hesitancy Atemu pushed himself firmly into that supple body and pressed his lips over the stranger's red, red mouth. A bolt of excitement charged through him, with his eyes closed Atemu could only feel the cool silk he was touching so intimately and it was a sensation that urged him to want more. He knew he had not read the signs wrong when the stranger pressed back, clever fingers trailing up his thighs as the arms came up to wrap him in a warm embrace. The other was talented, Atemu soon found out, as those lips coaxed him effortlessly into a slow game of brushing and touching and getle tugs and nips. Atemu had never been kissed in such a way that made his knees go weak and convinced him into beliveing they were the only two living in the world, but right now his only coherent thought was that he was not going to let this one go any time soon.
There was nothing more then the other's body and the warmth it raidiated, there was nothing but his silken touch and soft affection drowning him in sensation, there was nothing but his scent of fresh crisp air on a frosted morning, nothing but his taste of something spicy sweet.
Nothing but the sound of their soft breathing as they inhaled and exhaled each other.
Atemu felt his back touch the damp brick of the wall behind him, felt the other's hands pressing against his chest before trailing down to rest on his hips and push the two of them together more firmly, Atemu felt the damp on the back of his shirt but only cared about how the other's hair felt on his skin as he entagled his fingers into that mass of shimmering ebony and gold. Angling the other's head so their lips conected in almost seamless perfection and tongues began to join the game. Touching hesitently as if unsure of each other before Atemu, aroused by now by the hands that were resting comfortably on his behind, grew bold and allowed his tongue to work it's way past the other's and into that perfect mouth.
Where a sharp point pricked him as he brushed past the teeth.
Atemu felt reality tug him dangerously fast back into the real world. He pulled his head back and his mouth away from the other's in shock as a small growl resulted from the drop of blood that had dripped from his cut tongue. What the hell was that? The alcohol was still making him slower to react then he would usually have done and his befuddled mind was still working on a mounting lust, making it hard for Atemu to think clearly.
Making it hard for him to understand what he was seeing.
The delicious stranger that had watched him from the bar, that had danced with him under the bright lights, that had kissed him so passionately, was watching him with eyes that were no longer a hypnotising amethyst but a dark and swirlng red. He could still see the purple underneath, but the red that seemed born of lust and desire for things darker than ordinary pleasure misted over them. And those perfect pearly white teeth could finally be seen clearly under this almost non-existant light. Atemu's gaze was drawn down from the eyes that terrified him to the canines that were elongated and deadly sharp, curling elegantly around the bottom red lip.
"Wh-what?" He wanted to curse the stammer in his voice. But his body refused to comply as he tried to pull away from the wall and the other.
The other's hands moved up from around his hips, keeping a firmer grip than was necessary, and a taunting little smile pulled at his lips as he gripped Atemu's hands and pulled them above his head, pinning him against the wall.
"What's wrong?" His voice was sweet and kind, but Atemu was sure he detected the taunt in there, "It's me. It's only me."
It's only a nightmare, hissed a harsh voice at the back of Atemu's mind. He squirmed, wanting to escape and rush back inside where there was music and dancing and saftey and people. Real people. Not monsters of the night that moved like water and spoke like silk, who could entrance and ensnare the most expericened of people, who's eyes turned into the colour of lust and passion and blood, who's teeth were fangs like white icicles of the most desolate tundra.
But the grip around his wrists was iron stong, and the knee that had somehow worked its way between Atemu's thighs was distracting him in all the right ways. His breathing had picked up in both fear and arousal, the disturbing mixture of emotions only serving to confuse his fuzzy mind yet further. The body that loomed over him was imposing, it's dark shadow thicker than the night blanketed him so Atemu felt he could have merged there and then with his surroundings. There was a fire building in the pit of his stomach that refused to be extinguished despite the situation, there was his desire for the stranger still baring out his reason, there was the thrill of the situation that refused to listen to common sense.
He hated being trapped, hated the feel of helplessness, so why, in all of heaven and earth, were those exact traits such a turn on when in the arms of this gorgeous night creature?! He groaned as the other's knee moved so it rubbed against him intimately, pushing himself upwards along the thigh subconsciously until he heard quiet laughter in his ears. Atemu's eyes shot open a fierce red blush painting his cheeks as he realised what he had done. Okay, he admitted to himself, perhaps he had fantasised about being pushed up against a wall by a gorgeous stranger. And so what if this gorgeous stranger happened to be the singularly most dangerous thing or person he had ever come into contact with? If anything, that enhanced his arousal. And the only fear that came to him seemed to be from how much he wanted to enjoy this danger.
The stranger appeared only amused, "It's a game you see?" A gentle voice, a hypnotising voice. The voice of a serpant. "One that never grows old."
Through the fresh air and passing minutes, Atemu had felt himself sobering up, yet the building fire in his body was making him feel as drunk as he had ever been, only drunk on other things. But he scowled at the glowing eyes and asked, "To see how fast you can get one of us alone?"
A small laugh, a sly tilt of the head, "Oh no. That part of the game is far too easy, Little Rose," Atemu jerked a little at the sound of the nickname, but the other simply ignored it, "Your kind will follow like lost lambs the first chance they get. There is no victory in coaxing a lamb to slaughter." Here he smirked, the first look from him that felt dark enough to reflect what he was, "The true victory lies in how well the second stage is played. The real game is seeing how long your kind can last before they give in, before how long my kind can last before we give in."
There were implications in that last sentace that made Atemu shiver again.
"That is why, Little Rose," the stranger leaned in and brushed his cool lips over Atemu's own, trailing down to his jaw line and nipping a path up to his ear, Atemu tilted his head to give him more room and felt every word the stranger spoke next resonate throughout his core, "that is why they call me Yuugi."
That is why they call me 'Game'. The hissing voice, wind like, sounded smug with its own satisfaction.
Atemu's breath refused to flow smoothy into his lungs, "And... and the rules?"
"Rules?" He sounded genuinely surprised. A short pause followed, "There are no rules, not really. I suppose the only rule is the obvious metaphorical line: no children. That is a line no one may cross." The sharp glint returned to his eyes with a quiet giggle (for he could call it nothing other than a giggle, a twisted and darkened one), "But no changing the subject now. Your fate was sealed the moment you stepped outside tonight, you are not a child."
Atemu tried to concentrate, tried to work out what to do from what he wanted to do. And what he wanted to do terrified him and so he attempted to ignore it for what he should do. "Then, how do I play this game? For a victory?"
Raised eyeborws and barefaced amusment were his answers, "You don't. You have already lost." There was a pause so he could absorb the effect of his words. "And perhaps it is time to end this game." He spoke, with a sterner tone then before.
Atemu looked at him in true fear this time, knowing that the grip that held him was too strong, knowing exactly what was about to happen.
And wondering why he was excited.
Yuugi leaned forward again to kiss him, and his lips were so gentle and coaxing that Atemu couldn't help but respond in kind. The kiss was beautiful. He tilted his head to recive more of it and pushed against that mouth with an eager little moan, that velvet tongue of the other's slipping between their lips and stimulating his own into movement until their actions could be called nothing more than raw. He didn't even notice when his wrists were released from the iron grip, but he did notice the fingers that trialed down his spine and made him arch into the other's chest and the arms that wrapped around his waist and held him close, his own hands lowering to grip the other's slim shoulders and dig his nails into the black shirt when that mouth pulled away from his and lowered to his neck where his pulse was racing.
Atemu tilted his head back to expose more skin. Panting, his eyes closed, and a look of delirious expectation gracing his features. The other closed his mouth around the pulse, an open mouthed kiss onto his neck, marking him and invigorating the bloodflow with his tongue. Atemu relaxed completely letting himself all but fall into the other.
And then came the bite.
He inhaled sharply, the pain making his shoulders stiff and his fingers clench. It was hot. Heat that burned him alive from the inside out. The pair of fangs that had sunk so deeply into his neck felt like white hot irons branding him forever as propety. The tugging at his veins made him whimper and as weakness overcame him he stumbled and tried to pull away, but the arms caught him tight and a hand came up to hold his head and tilt it, better to ravage every inch of him. A deep growl resonated from the other's throat and into his own skin, forcing into him a distant sense of reality amd situation. But knowing what was happening didn't make him want to stop it. He was growing colder by the second, feeling fainter with every drop of blood that was drunk from his body, but he welcomed it. He welcomed the completeness of the agony and death of his sanity. He welcomed what the other was doing to him with open arms and a kiss.
And suddenly the fangs were gone, the tugging on his veins calmed, and he was exposed to the icy air of the night as his murderer pulled away. Atemu tried vainly to force oxygen into his lungs, holding onto reality with a steel will alone. He saw the crimson blood glisten on the other's teeth and tongue as if he had drank liquid rubies mixed with thick shadows straight from the wine glass he was holding so long ago. Atemu felt how warm the other felt now, how flushed and alive his skin was with colour, how richly the creature was savouring every moment with every sensation.
"How strange," even his voice sounded more alive, hot chocolate and strawberries, "that I cannot kill you directly. Why can I not take the last beat of your heart into myself? Why must I stop when there is so much left?"
A deep frown now marred his perfect features, a thoughtful demeanour fell over him, "Why are you different?"
He looked at him for a long moment as Atemu gasped for breath, dying in his arms, "I can only think of one explanation. That you are not meant to die. But I've never raised a fledgling of my own, I doubt I'd be any good." His eyes were searching for something Atemu couldn't understand, "But what do you think? Either way you are going to die."
Atemu couldn't have told him what he thought even if he had wanted to. His throat was closing into itself, his voice a shadow of a whisper and a whimper. But he knew one thing.
He refused to die.
Yuugi's eyes narrowed, as if surprised by what he had found, as if confused by what it meant. Slowly he lowed them both the the ground, kneeling and letting Atemu rest on him as his heart struggled to beat.
"At the end of it all," He muttered to himself, "It is not my choice. So I will give it to you. One or the other, Atemu, if you are strong enough to keep hold of what is left."
He raised the index finger of his right hand to his lips, Atemu saw him nip the tip with a sharp fang so blood blossomed and beeded like a large sequin on his white skin. He moved his other arm and braced Atemu against the wall this time, using the uninjured hand to gently part his blue lips open wider. Articulately and with great reverence, he dripped three drops of his own blood onto Atemu's tongue.
The blood burned. Lava on ice.
"Your death is unavoidable," the serpant in his voice, "but will your death be one of peace? Or will you play your own game?"
Yuugi stood then, looked down at him with half lidded eyes. There were black spots plaguing his vision, a lightheaded disease making reality spin and colours blur. But those amethyst eyes reamined still and constant. But then the other turned away and walked back down the alley to the deserted main road where he paused. Under his shirt there was a flash of light the shape of an ankh, but it was so dull it could have been nothing more than the light of a streetlamp. And then he was gone.
Atemu was left leaning aganst the vibrating wall of the club. Bleeding and half alive. His heart tripped over several beats, his lungs quivered pathetcialy in his chest, his body was too heavy to move and too cold to feel. He shivered and cursed and heared nothing over the roaring of the perfectly still air.
And he refused to die.
---
AN: Yay! It's finally finished! Took soooo bloody long! A gift for Halloween. Despite the fact I don't, really, celabrate it. Hmmm, now I need to find something to put up for Bonfire Night which is, like, OMG Monday! Bring on the dangerous fire and the ridiculous amount of fireworks! Oh, and the sparklers. All while pretending I'm not a pyromaniac. Should be fun.
There will be awful typos and mistatakes left, right and centre in the second half of this becuase I have been forced, thanks to ffn's new layout, to type it out, raw, straight onto the document page. Because, you see, half of this is on the computer at home and the rest is on my laptop here. I can no longer copy and paste due to the new thingys they're doing. I am, thus, not in least bit amused with ffn right now.
Either way I hope you enjoyed my wildly OC Yuugi! I love him like that.
Review Please!
(and it may pull me out of this uni haze to get to work on the other stuff that needs updating/finishing)
Happy Halloween and Review!