A deep, ravenous black pool stared back at Kris, the man's gaze threatening to shred him into oblivion with the strength of its dark gravitational pull. To bring an end to him, with a mere glance. The man had succeeded in this task with countless others...many times before.
"Your woman believes I mean you harm." This low whisper came drawn across delicate lips that had once held a sickeningly sweet, angelic smile for the woman who had left their company...a smile that now came so strangely wrong and twisted as the man maintained his predatory stare.
"Perhaps you should listen to her, Mr. Mitchell..."
The smallest sigh slipped through Kris' nose in a thin puff of smoke as he gave this some consideration, snuffing out his spent cigarette before those same slender fingertips made their way to his designer frames. With his right hand, the tips of his middle finger and thumb came in light contact with the rim of his sunglasses to slowly draw them up and away from his face as they came gently nested in the deliciously tantalizing mess of his jet black hair. And this slight change had given him the faintest air of vulnerability and openness, his appearance coming off just a bit younger than his years with this gentle disarmament. The slow turn of his head, Kris finally came to face the man to his side, their gaze meeting in a violent collision of pale blue and onyx.
"You really believe I'm that fucking easy to take down...?" This question came just as cold as his gaze, and the man's affect became startlingly flat in response.
"Have you forgotten...?" The man murmured this question to a question lightly as the two continued to stare each other down. "Have you truly forgotten...how much I know about you? That I know you, Mr. Mitchell. Know everything about you, and who you really are." His voice came in a seductive purr with the slightest scent of sweet alcohol lingering on his breath as the man whispered mere inches from his ear. "Should I remind you...?"
"No...I remember." This lightest response came drawn forth through thin lips.
Thick lashes fluttered under the weight of this shared memory...and the flurry of darkly bitter, turbulent emotions it had managed to dredge up. The very event that had driven him to this place. And a small intake of breath, the faintest gasp of response, was all that was heard in this moment of silence until the smallest twitch of a smirk began to play itself along Kris' lips before a low, breathless murmur took them over.
"I also remember the look on your face when I had your fucking back to the wall..." And Kris felt the man blanch away from his personal space as the two locked eyes once more, causing a small chuckle to manifest from Kris' lip. "Yeah. That's the look." His tone took on a slight air of deprecating amusement at the man's expense as delicate brows furrowed in frustration.
"Do you not realize that I have the means to completely destroy you without a second thought?" This threat came in a strained hiss of contempt as the man glared at Kris, his perfect features shifting between rage and bemusement as Kris spared him a sardonic expression.
"I'd love to see you try." Kris gave an effortless smile to the man before flagging the staff behind the bar for another drink.
"Tell me something..." The man murmured softly, offering Kris an inquisitive look as delicate brows furrowed in curiosity. "...how exactly do you see this ending...for you?" And Kris chuckled lightly at this as he took a sip of his drink.
"I find that if you give too much thought to the end, you really don't enjoy the moment." He murmured this cryptic response before exotic eyes drifted up and away from his drink to gazes at the man to his side. "And you?" Kris whispered this mere inches from the man, his expression blank and void of emotion as he spoke. "How do you see this ending?"
The man turned away for a moment, offering up his profile to Kris as he sat in quiet contemplation. This seemed a question that he had given a fair amount of thought to. And Kris waited patiently for reply, taking another taste of poison before the man's delicate voice manifested to break the silence.
"If my life is any indication...Mr. Mitchell." The man paced himself with this response as he gazed upon the counter-top, his expression almost whimsical as he spoke. "Then I image the end to be quite scandalous." His Japanese accent fell heavy along these words under the weight of the alcohol and lateness of the hour.
And the two sat in an intimate moment of silence as they pondered together over this singular thought. The end. This concept so physically tangible. An entity, fully alive in its own right. The invisible, omnipresent spectator to this little meeting of theirs.
The end.
Kris took another hard swallow from his glass, his Adam's apple bobbing with this effort as the man beside him silently flagged his staff for another drink himself. And the two sipped, drinking deeply of this quiet, peaceful moment. The calm before the inevitable storm. They drank in solidarity to their single-minded dedication to destroying each other. A common goal that aligned them in this moment of silence before Kris offered the smirk of a smile to the drink in his hand.
"To the end, then." Kris deadpanned this cryptic toast. "And a long life." This well-wish fell flat as a small, sardonic chuckle manifested beside him.
"And I suppose I should wish you good health, then, Mr. Mitchell." The man responded just as caustically in kind.
The softer sounds of the environment slowly overtook the space once more. The music. The quiet conversations unfolding around them. The more boisterous laughter of the small group of foreigners that had invade the bar some time ago. These sounds ebbed and flowed, washing themselves against the very walls of this room. Like the tide coming moved by the beckon of its lover, the moon. And as one lover called to another, the man unintentionally turned his head towards a new presence in the room. An automatic response to the young man that stepped himself into the lounge through the lavish, elegant doors that led to an exterior garden, just a breathtaking as the interior of the estate. And Kris didn't miss the unintentional, almost tender smile that lingered along the man's lips at the mere presence of the boy.
Nor did he miss the fact that the child was not alone.
"Well now...isn't that interesting." Kris' voice came slowed along these words, like the young man's approach into the lounge with the young lady beside him.
And the young woman...her presence was so strange in this place of sin, though she herself was so very plain and almost boring in her average appearance in comparison to the other elegant guests in attendance. But...she was a light. A light in this darkness, one that the darkness simply could not comprehend as pale blue eyes drank her in. Soft, long auburn tresses freely tumbled along her shoulders and back, unhindered by ties or restraints. Her expression shy and soft, and so wholly innocent in this place of indiscretion. Though her gentle brown eyes shone with a warm, feminine maternal affection every single time she glanced over at the date beside her.
The man's young lover...
"Isn't that your boyfriend?" Kris murmured, gaining the man's attention away from the child.
"Hm..." The man lulled delicately. "So it would seem."
"And the girl with him...?" Kris inquired as he watched the two approach a small table set apart from the rest of the guests.
"A new client of his." The man mused with a level of bored indifference.
"Damn..." Kris murmured lightly to himself. "You have him working on your birthday?"
"He works every day, Mr. Mitchell..." The man muttered flatly. "Besides...he and I have something quite special planned once he's done tending to her needs for the evening." He murmured, a small smile coming to his delicate lips towards this thought. "She doesn't seem to be one to tire him too terribly with her needs. Sweet enough, I presume...but a little duller than most of my patrons, I'm afraid." A light, whimsical sigh passed through him in consideration to this as he continued. "Quite average and uninteresting."
"How can you stand it?" Kris whispered this question, his exotic gaze flitting from the couple to the man at his side. "Seeing him with another when he's so close to you?"
"It's called having a level of propriety and professionalism, Mr. Mitchell." The man murmured, lowly dismissing Kris' biting words as he himself continued to watch the child interact with the sweet young woman at the table in the distance. "All of this is merely business...for the both of us. And at the end of the day all business is easily put to bed, as it were." His voice grew low and dark as his penetrating gaze. "At the end of the day...he is mine." And Kris gave himself over to a small snort of laughter towards the irony in the man's choice of words.
"So that's the lie to tell yourself for a good nights sleep?" He chuckled through this question, earning another ugly scowl of contempt from his counterpart, fleeting as it was before the man turned away. "You really don't see it, do you?" Kris spoke softly, the smile growing more malicious along his lips. "That girl's completely infatuated with your boy." With this the man finally looked away from the table to spare Kris a bitter glance.
"Of course she's enamored with him. Everyone in this entire room fancies him." The man muttered darkly, his tone laced in a level of cynicism. "That's what he's paid for, Mr. Mitchell." His voice came almost angry as delicate brows furrowed towards Kris' incessant goading.
And Kris nodded politely to the man's festering rage, busying himself with another sip of his drink. Planning and scheming as the liquid slid across his tongue and down his throat before a small sign pushed itself through his slender nose.
"And wouldn't it really be something..." Kris murmured lightly, his gaze slowly drifting towards the man as he spoke, his cold exotic eyes plunging into the very depths of a sea of black obsidian. "...if he actually began to feel the same way about her?" The quirk of an eyebrow followed a malicious little smile that began to grow. "But I see I'm not the first to bring that to your attention." A little chuckle escaped him at the infinitesimal tell that flashed along the man's perfect expression of stone. "...pity..."
"I've never been given reason to doubt his loyalty to me." The man murmured, though a fleeting expression of dubiousness played itself along his face as he spoke these words.
"...is that so...?" Kris responded flatly, the smile swept away from his lips in a moment of seriousness. "You're a betting man, aren't you? Care to put it to a wager?"
"How stupid do you find me, Mr. Mitchell?" The man muttered, causing the slightest twitch of a smirk to play along the corner of Kris' lips.
"Well that's a bit of a loaded question, now isn't it...?" A small huff of discontent pushed itself through the man's lean frame.
"...or..." Kris murmured lightly, pushing through the man's failing facade. "...is it that you're worried that I might actually be right about him?" And Kris watch the man mull this thought through his mind, the taste of it coming to sour the moment as he gazed upon the couple.
"What exactly do you have in mind?"
"You still want me gone?" Kris asked lightly, and a silent bob of the man's head in concession came in response.
"Yes."
"If you're right...and the kid's still as loyal as you say he is, I'll cut my losses and close the Tokyo studio. Immediately." And the dubious, high arch of well groomed brows met this statement, but Kris could see the underlying intrigue lingering behind those black orbs.
"...and...?" The man murmured, now clearly interested in hearing the other half of this proposition.
"If I'm right, and he's as crazy about the girl as I think..." Kris paused a moment, the small smirk along his lips twitching up just a bit further. "I stay."
"And how do you propose we go about uncovering the victor of this little wager?" Both men now watched as the unsuspecting child shyly dismissed himself from the young woman's side in order to meet her needs in obtaining a drink for her.
And the smirk along Kris' lips blossomed and spread into a wide, predatory smile.
"Leave that to me."
A/N: I want to take this time to wish a belated Happy St. Valentine's Day to all of you. My love goes out to you all, from the very bottom of my heart. Yes. I have a heart. Stop laughing.
I also want to take this moment to allow a little bit of interactive play for this story. I will now be setting up teams for all of you to choose from. Like Twilight...but better. So I give you all Team Kris and Team Akito. Have fun aligning yourself with a team!
As a side note, I certainly hope that you can sense and catch some of the puns and dialogue sardonically linking this chapter with Fandom Angst's 'Creatures'
For those of you enjoying and reviewing this story, you have my thanks for your support. And for those of you waiting for updates on my other stories, you have my gratitude for your patience.