'Sup~! Back, with another chapter completed~! A lot happens in this chapter, with finally some explanation that will go off like a ticking time bomb next chapter~! xD
Oh. Yes. I personally dislike OCs (Sorry for all of you who pour your heart and souls out just for that one special character; this author's a bit of a hypocrite.) So, don't expect these pronoun-only characters to really be special. They are simply ambiguous characters to get the story going and show the personalities of Kanda and Alma and how they gravitate/ repel each other. Nothing more, nothing less.
"Under the Bridge"- Red Hot Chili Peppers
"Too Many Walls" – Cathy Dennis
Even monsters once knew the aching of a heart. Between the accusers and the accused's diatribe, all stand as mindful hypocrites; scrutinized in a madness called supposition and propriety.
Madness, be not vain...the guillotine makes for poor, one-sided conversations of three...
It was early. Earlier than usual. Kanda sat at the table, fingernails digging into his hair, a cup of tea his only company on such a long night. He was such a damn fool. Telling Alma that I would even consider settling down just because I got lucky. Che. 'Lucky'? He had sex with a guy. How the hell could that be lucky? He snorted.
The damn brat looked so happy last night.
They both must have been fucked up in the head last night. Alma wanted a home with him.
Like a married couple.
Damn. He must be royally screwed to be in this situation.
No, wait...that brat is royalty, technically, besides him being 'dead' to everyone, the knowledgeable dead themselves.
Kanda sighed again, headache like a bunch of pelting rocks.
This was his hometown. As much as he thought no one remembered him, the Usagi took the word of an overly-friendly stranger - enough to help him out on the perfect date-rape.
NO. He was not going to go there. He was no defenseless - ugh - chick - and the brat was no bodybuilding jock.
Well, shit. Either way this can't be happening. The damn brat was emotionally needy and he hated liabilities.
But what could he do? Could he just walk through the door like nothing happened and deal with the consequences? Could he just tell him off and walk out without anything happening? Already, he could see the other's teary face and the red rivulets on the other's arms and legs.
Well, fuck. Was he supposed to just take everything with a 'Yes, my One and Only True Love.' or 'How about a footstool in the parlor, Dear'? The elder let out a sigh. Next he'll be saying things like 'If you get in the bathtub, I'll undress for you and play with your rubber duck~.' His hand reached to cover his mouth, almost throwing up.
His headache was only getting worse...
"Well, how about the two-story house on the edge of town! It's abandoned, so we could move in!" Alma positively ran circles around the other, looking for small signs of jubilance in the other. "Maybe, it'll overlook the river! That would be so lovely, wouldn't it? We could have pick-nicks in the summer, and skate on it in the winter! That way..."
Kanda grimaced. Damn it, what was wrong with him? Why was he enduring this when he could get this over with? Damn, how long would he keep stringing himself and Alma along as if he cared!
"...Yuu, do you hate this...?"
"Who ever said you could call me that?"
"Ever since last night...I really thought you loved me..."
"Why does it matter so much to you? You women always think sex means love! That night was nothing but a one night stand!" There. He said it. Now Alma would cry, and leave him.
Why did his chest hurt so much...?
"Damn it, Kanda! You're such a fucking knuckle head! IT MATTERS TO ME BECAUSE THIS WASN'T HOW YOU ACTED TOWARDS ME BEFORE!"
"That's all that was - an act! To a selfish, immature wannabe woman who doesn't leave me alone!"
"Damnit! Not now, Kanda! You think you can walk out of this like the rest of your life! Not now, not ever!" Alma paused, a tantrum threatening exasperation. "…And damn if I have to knock you senseless and tie you up to show you what you really mean to me."
Kanda snickered. "Che. Fine."
In a second, Kanda's arm was in motion as he threw a right hook at the other's head. Alma had only seconds to jump back diagonally, regrouping with a charge and ready with a punch to hit his target. Kanda slid to the side, using his hand to shove the other off in another direction, landing a kick on the other's backside. Alma growled, throwing a direct punch that was engulfed in the other's hand. Karma regrouped with another punch at the hapless swordsman who could only block it. "Teme!" Kanda moved to throw the ensnared younger like a shot-put as the other furiously kicked at Kanda's abs. Just before he was about to be thrown, Alma aimed a kick between the other's legs, throwing him loose and felling the thrower. Kanda doubled over in pain as Alma rolled in the dirt on impact.
"Damn it, brat, fight like a man!"
Said person lumbered to a crouched position. "Hardy har har! Some words from a guy whose hair's like a woman's!" He charged at the doubled Kanda, knocking him down fully as he grabbed his hands and forced him to look into his eyes, kissing him roughly. After a second, they parted lips.
"Damn it Kanda! Not now! You say I'm so bothersome, but that doesn't make you Saint Agatha! Don't say things like 'last night didn't matter,' or 'you know nothing.' Every time you try to write something like that off, I see more and more of you, and it hurts me! It hurts me because I know your lying to yourself like I did!" His voice broke, eyes still furious and burning. "You refuse to have a home, friends, everything…but, all you're doing is appeasing your crappy past by reliving the memories!
"Damn it, Kanda, I won't lose you to your cruddy past if I can help it! I will make you happy, even if I have to rewrite your memories!
"…You fool. Don't cry when you make threats." 'You were always like this…' The whisper came to his mind, and it all made sense.
"Fuck you!"
Kanda lightly chuckled. "Much better." He leaned up, and kissed the flustered fool he loved.
"Saa, you were saying something about the house on the hill, Alma?"
It was a beautiful house, emphasized by hidden decreptcy and longing in a worn ruby-red finish, wanting nothing more than to be reworked into the present from an occluded past. A musty scent of a saged, longstanding family pervaded the house, with a lovely staircase in the center rising from the stained earth, coupled by a mute clock; hands frozen on twelve, grasping for Heaven's embrace. A dank parlor gave visions of company and elegance hidden behind velvet curtains, and a kitchen breathed childish homeliness on wooden cutting boards and rose-red brick hearths. To the world, it was a sumptuous, Victorian home; a lily pond tucked in the back and playful, overgrown grass cart-wheeling in the front, standing sentinel over the town on a rolling hill.
"Well, Yuu, we'd have just enough money to make the house run again." Alma anxiously whispered.
"Sure."
Rain pelted the house that night, assaulting the windows and cutting through the playful grass. Windows rattled like cages upon sleeping residents, retaliating on quiet, unspoken truths lost even in dreams.
Black, and white; black, and white. Snow and soot. A black world, but no more harming than an aged photograph repulsive to even time.
This couldn't be all there is to life, could it…? This was his house, but he couldn't imagine being anything but a corpse. In that small corner of his mind, he would imagine tea for two, cordial conversations about nothing in particular, and perhaps a voice to call his own. It was bright, so bright it hurt just a bit. After every reprimand, every machination, every holocaust,
He would wait in the dark; listening and smothering every anxiety for that one moment when he could be in the other's world, and speaking to the empty silence in hopes of being heard.
He hated it. He knew the other 'wasn't real,' but that didn't stop the loneliness between the days, or the increasing madness whenever they had to part. The days grew even more disillusioned – quarrelsome - and he had to be quarantined to keep the madness from poisoning the family.
Sleep came like a trance to spirit away the soul into a fanciful night, and for a second, he would become anything the other wanted, if only for the chance to belong.
Days went by, then months...he became quiet, mourning the loss of a one, true friend as reality finally destroyed the dream.
The only thing to be sure of was the pain, censuring from all sides alike as reality became warped.
Apart, he grew sullen and rebellious, apathetic and forgetful as one last sanctuary from pain that the world had accepted as a fairy tale; as the other grew disparaging, watching days go by as he acted for the other all his dreams, in torn between the lunacy of it and the undying hope that he really wasn't alone.
A beautiful dress to greet you in on a snowy night, and the unfulfilled longing embedded in bones despite every attempt.
We really aren't alone, are we…?
Despite all the horrors the night brings, we find solace in the day, moving each new day to our past, mindful we still inhabit the memories, but unable to really live in something that we have left.
Similarly, Alma and Kanda worked on their new home, building from the past wreckage to their new present.
Summer came and went, Autumn a proposition. In that season, Alma worked up the money for a grand surprise. One night, during dinner, he slipped it in cake batter and watched with wide eyes as Yuu forked it out of his slice. A ring, perfect for his hand as it beamed in the candlelight.
They spent the night passionately between kisses and sheets, welcoming the gentle sunrise with joined hands adorned with gold.
In a house of the past, they have forgotten them for a happy present; in a world of many inhabitants, their world is only the other…
*snif, snif* I love happy endings for chapters. Sorry about the long wait. It seems like starting stories is always easier than finishing them. A lot of revisions, false starts, etc….
One more chapter~! One more chapter 'till the story is over~! *giggles* I can't wait~!
-I still can't get the image of Kanda saying "If you get in the bathtub, I'll undress for you and play with your rubber duck~." 0/./0 I really don't know where that came from…
To review or not to review~ that choice I'll let you review *Muah hah hah hah hah*