Title: (title goes here) (still looking for a good one... any help is appreciated)
Author: Jaded
Chapter: 7/?
Pairing: Sho/Kei
Rating: PG-15
Warnings: Marijuana, naughty words, David rambling... oh and unedited
Disclaimer: Gackt owns Moon Child right? (I guess that means he own Kei too huh? *wiggles eyebrows*)
Jaded's fore-words: My brain hurts... I finished this a couple days ago... Nothing too interesting I guess... I need some ideas... le sigh... uhm wow I'm using a lot of dots. I'm going to quit now. So uhhhh this is dedicate to everyone who has stuck with this through... uh my laziness. *coughSATCHIcoughSOUBIcough* :) ...enjoy?
Soft flute-like music traveled down the hallway and into Sho's room through the cracked door. It was gentle and lullaby-like and easily brought Sho from his slumber.
He rubbed his eyes and sat up reaching for a pair of cotton pants and standing up. He pulled them on and walked to his door and down the hallway.
In the living room David was laying on the floor across from the couch, legs up against the wall as if he were sitting not the wall and leaning against the floor. His pink and blue and purple and white and black hair was flopped and sticking up in all directions and a oval-shaped, hollow instrument was held to his lips, the soft notes Sho had woken up to flowing from it as David lazily moved his fingers over the holes in the top of the instrument. His eyes were closed in relaxation as he played.
Nearby, laying on her back as if she'd just flopped backward off the couch while her legs stayed on the furniture, was the girl from the night before. Gabe.
"What's that smell?" Sho asked groggily, rubbing his forehead with his palm as if it would help his brain remember why the scent was so familiar.
David opened his eyes with a flutter, revealing murky, hazel-green. He removed the mouth piece of his instrument from his lips and looked at Sho as if he just realized he was there. Gabe put the end of a joint between her lips and inhaled the smoke.
Then she reached across the floor over her head and handed it to David, who copied her - even handing the joint back - before breathing out.
Sho scowled angrily. He was reminded of his brother who was always high off his ass.
"What the fuck is this?" He asked instead.
"Marijuana," David responded. He pointed with a jerk of his thumb in Gabe's direction. "It keeps her chill. She grows it in her Urn. You never saw it because the Butter-fly captured you and then… And then something happened to you that I don't know of… What did happen anyways?."
"Keeps her chill?" Sho questioned, ignoring David's rambling and still feeling pissed.
"Yeah. Didn't you notice how last night she was all" - David did a goofy hand motion around his head - "psycho and then she was all calm and shit. It was because she got her Urn back and with it her pot. We think she's what you call bi-polar."
Sho sighed, closing his eyes and angrily rubbing his temple with the thumb of one of his hands.
"That doesn't explain why you're smoking it too, David."
David shrugged with a dopey kind of smile.
"I do it every now and then with her. Ya know, to keep her company."
Sho shook his head feeling pissed but not wanting to deal with something like that so early after he woke up. If it were up to him, he'd make them get rid of the pot and never let David anywhere near that shit again. (And that thought frightened him just a little.) So instead he went into the kitchen for coffee before coming back and sitting on the couch.
David had his head tilted back to see the room - upside-down - and laughed stupidly.
"Play another song, bunches-o-honey," Gabe requested and David giggled before bringing the instrument to his lips. He played a considerably shorter, more upbeat one than before.
"What is that?" Sho asked when he was done, deciding to ignore the still smoking girl on the floor nearby.
"What?"
"The instrument, what is it?"
"Oh," David said and looked at it as if he forgot he was holding it. "An ocarina."
"A what?"
"Here," David groaned, rolling feet over head into a kneeling position. "I'll show you."
And he shuffled somewhat awkwardly on his knees, barley going anywhere, over to the tv. There was a game system of some sort hooked up to the tv that hadn't been there before. Sho thought it better not to ask, sighing into his coffee.
David placed a plastic game cartridge into a slot in the top. Then he turned on the game and held the sideways-E-looking control in his hand with his left thumb over the joystick in the middle.
After a minute the starting sequence to the game played. David hit start and chose his game from a menu. (His name was Jorge. Sho had no idea why.) The game opened up and a blonde guy wearing all green was standing in the middle of a field.
David pressed a button and it showed the front of the guy and he was holding the same instrument that David had. David pressed a set of yellow buttons as displayed on the screen and a song played.
"See? Instrument. Here in the game it's magical. THE Ocarina of Time. I love this game."
Just then a horse rode up to the blonde in the game.
"EPONA! YEY!" David exclaimed throwing his arms up in the air before he jumped on the horse in the game.
Sho realized David was completely lost to the game and decided to lay down on the couch. He glanced out the window and noticed the light rain. It was then he remembered.
He looked at Kei's bed and found it empty.
He sighed and closed his eyes, ready to wait for the blonde vampire to return.
It was late in the evening when Kei returned from wherever he'd been. He was soaking wet and dripping water onto the floor. As he took off his jacket he sniffed the air a little and frowned.
"Was Shinji here?" He questioned, hanging up his trademark red coat to dry.
"No," Sho said with a slight glare at David and Gabe, who were sitting in from of the tv playing a racing game against each other. Gabe was some sort of dinosaur and David was a princess and they drove what looked like go-carts.
"Then why does it smell like marijuana... and peaches?" Kei asked moving to sit on the couch next to Sho.
"Them," Sho said shortly, nodding in the direction of the two zoned teens.
"Gabe's bi-polar-maybe and she needed a smoking buddy," David said tonelessly as he shot something at Gabe's racer, knocking her off the track. "And I'd never had peach before."
"..." Kei said and turned conversation away from the odd subject. "Well… I saw something strange walking home."
"We live in Mallepa. Be specific," Sho said with a short laugh.
"I saw a tall, blonde guy dressed as a pirate and a tall blonde girl dressed as a clown holding a mideival sword and both of them were running from what looked to be a very large group of angry gypsies who were all carrying giant, inflatable weapons."
"...Does that not sound like our blonde friends?" David questioned, glancing at Gabe wearing a frown of confusion.
"They were our blonde friends," Gabe deadpanned, taking advantage of David's distraction to blow up his racer. "I win."
"Fuck you."
Sho opened his mouth to say something mature but-
"Aww, fuck you too, babe." Gabe practically crooned back affectionately.
"Whore."
"Slut."
"Skank."
"Douche."
"Cum-guzzling dumpster whore."
Sho's jaw hit the floor and Kei looked a mixture of shocked and repulsed.
"Only for you, babe."
"...I just lost." David said flatly with a pout.
Gabe smirked.
"So why aren't we out looking for our friends again?" David asked restarting the game. Gabe shrugged.
"Don't know. Don't care," she said plainly and revved her racer's go-cart engine as the countdown started.
"You know all."
"True," Gabe said and smiled smugly. "They'll find us one way or another. Don't worry-"
"I wasn't."
"And besides, they sound fine."
"…Riiiight~." There was a pause. "I'm done. I quit. I'm bored," David suddenly announced and threw down his controller.
"You're just pissed because I win every time," Gabe said and crossed the finish line for the last time.
"There's a reason I don't play poker with you," David grumbled and crossed his arms sulkily over his chest like a two-year-old.
"We're not playing poker," Gabe stated the obvious.
"ShutTheFuckUp."
"Pantelónes."
"...I'm not even going to comment, banana."
Kei and Sho looked to one another for answers but neither seemed to know even the slightest about what the fuck was going on.
Later that night, after Gabe had left and Sho had gone out for a couple of drinks with Toshi and Son, David and Kei were the only two left in the apartment, confined to watching a mindless movie together. Kei chose to stay behind and David had to because there was no way in hell Sho was going to let him tag along and there was no way in the universe that Kei was going to let the sneaky little color bomb get away with running around Mallepa at night without supervision. (Gabe didn't count to either of them.)
The Labyrinth was playing on the tv as the two sat on the couch, idly talking about whatever, David occasionally throwing food up into the air to catch in his mouth.
"Sho really doesn't approve of drugs, does he?" David said quietly out of the blue, staring into the bowl of popcorn in his lap. Kei turned his head to look at David, wondering why he'd brought this up. "Well- That didn't really sound right. I don't approve of drugs. Marijuana's different. It's natural. Not synthetic. And in moderation the effects aren't horrible. I guess what I'm trying to say is, why? Why did he-"
"It's because of his brother, Shinji. He does pot all the time. There's almost never a moment when he isn't high," Kei said flatly.
"It bothers you," David said lifting his head to stare softly at Kei. His hazel-green eyes were dark and comforting, knowing. Kei met his gaze full on, his brown eyes just as dark as David's, but shining with annoyance.
"It's because Shinji's hurting Sho isn't it. By doing drugs and getting into trouble because of it… Sho's seen the problems involving drugs and that's why he got angry earlier…" David continued, his voice soft as if he were rambling out his thoughts after the first sentence. Then his eyes widened and shimmered as he came to a conclusion. "You love Sho don't you."
Kei looked at him impassively, gaze locked into the short teen's. Meeting someone's gaze implied honesty, sincerity, and trustworthiness. It's why people who lie efficiently make earnest eye contact. It's why, to really tell when a person isn't lying to you, you need to pay more attention to a person's body than to their eyes.
It's something David has a natural talent for. It's why he loves sarcasm so much. It's why he's a self-proclaimed bullshit detector. It's something he's tried to pay acute attention to.
It's why he noticed the way the air seemed to suddenly get very uneasy and Kei tensed subtly. The lines of his face seemed to be a lot more sharp then before, standing out better.
And so David carelessly discarded the bowl of popcorn and scooted closer to Kei, keeping his eye contact as he moved closer. Hazel-green and deep chocolate with striated dark emerald greens held together like clear packaging goo holds a product impossibly stuck to it's packaging.
"It's okay," David said, placing his hand on Kei's leg with his whole body facing the blonde.
"What are you trying to reassure me about?" Kei questioned cynically, his voice quiet and almost demure.
David pushed himself closer, reaching out and pressing his body up against Kei's. One of his arms moved across Kei's chest and his hand fisted the fabric of the vampire's shirt as David gave him a one-armed hug, laying his head on Kei's shoulder.
"It's okay that I know. I won't ever use it to hurt you intentionally," David said gently, hoping the warmth he was trying to convey through his words and with his presence would reach Kei.
An arm moved to wrap around his shoulders.
David continued after there was no other response from Kei.
"It's okay that you love him. It's not weird because you raised him. It's not weird because you've been alive longer than he has. It's not weird that you're both men. I don't know if you've noticed, I don't remember if I've told you already, but I'm gay, Kei. I'm open-minded and gay. In fact, you being this close to Sho comes as no surprise to me."
David felt some tension seep out of Kei at his own admission and felt a small surge of positive flare in his chest. It was working. He realized by revealing something about himself and honestly, sharing his true thoughts about it all, he was making Kei feel less vulnerable and subconsciously easing whatever doubts or fears might have been swirling around in his head.
So he continued.
"It's okay because you're not the monster you think you are," he whispered and waited for Kei's reaction. He knew he'd stepped on thin ice with this one and was wondering if it would hold weight or crack and crash through.
Kei's whole body practically tensed and he paused in his even breathing pattern for a moment. The air was very heavy and the once comfortable contact between them felt very forced.
'How do I fix this?' The thought immediately flew through David's head and the almost immediate answer was 'push it.' And David believed, what the hell? There were two ways this could happen, Kei could get angry and shut down, ignoring the weight that was David's words or he could accept them and crack.
"I mean it, Kei."
"How can you say that?" Kei spoke, only the second time since David discovered his secret.
"Because that's who I am," David said near a whisper but not quite.
"You're a monster?" Kei inquired skeptically, sounding confused.
"No. Not what I meant," David said truthfully, gently urging placidity. He didn't want to talk down to Kei. "I meant that I can say that because of who I am. You forget that I'm half vampire, Kei."
And Kei had forgotten. Which made him remember that David was eating.
"Won't you need to go feeding soon? You've been eating quite a bit lately," Kei said out of the blue, speaking in accordance to his thoughts.
"No. But I'll know when my mouth or stomach start to ache. But even then, that's pushing it. I won't have to worry until I start getting sharp pain or cramps though. But don't change the subject on me or I'll get seven different kinds of lost," David said and admonishingly pinched the skin covering Kei's ribs in the sensitive area under his arm. He received no reaction, but then again he wasn't expecting one since they both knew what it was to mean.
He sighed softly.
"You're not a monster," David said, repeating the root-reason of their tentative conversation. "Not by my definition anyway. By society's definition you are. You need to stop thinking like society and start thinking like Kei."
"What do you define a monster as?" Kei asked, relaxing into the couch with David against him, resigning himself to the overworked conversation topic. Sho had tried and failed to convince him of the same thing David was trying to do.
"Society defines a monster as something ugly and terrifying and unusually large. A monster is something to be horribly afraid of, and I agree. But you are none of these things. Because I define a monster as something that is cruel and malicious and wrongfully sadistic. A monster is inside."
"Then by all accounts I should be classified as a monster."
"Because you kill? Because you drink blood? Because you kill human beings? Look at me! Am I a monster then because I do the exact same things? No. You don't see me as a monster. Sho doesn't see me as a monster. …And he most definitely doesn't see you as a monster."
David shifted, sitting up and looking Kei straight in the eyes again. His gaze held nothing but honesty and Kei could tell this was what David actually believed. He wasn't just trying to sweet talk Kei.
"You don't enjoy killing, Kei, if that's what makes you loathe yourself so much. …You have a conscience. You care. You are nothing but kind except when it's unneeded. What it is you enjoy is feeding yourself. How is it wrong to enjoy what you eat?"
Kei was quiet and after a delayed moment where neither did anything but stare at the other David spoke again.
"Killing and death are just as important as life. Without them we, or humans I should say… but then again I should group all carnivores and omnivores into one for this conversation being completely logical… So without killing, more than a billion animals on this planet wouldn't eat. Without death, we wouldn't appreciate life. I consider us just another part of nature. …We are the predators that humans thought they didn't have."
David blinked and laid his head back down on Kei's shoulder.
"We are just humans and then some, Kei. We're just like every other predator out there, except we think like humans. We are just as vital to this world as a wolf or a lion is."
"Is that how you deal with killing people?" Kei questioned, not trying to be harsh like his words implied. David stiffened and for a minute Kei thought he'd hit a nerve but then David relaxed again and sighed.
"We kill people, yes. Individuals, Kei. And I'm all about individuality and variety. But the thing is… These people are just like the cattle humans kill for their burgers; Minding their own business and then suddenly someone is attacking them and they're bleeding everywhere. Yet people don't kill their dogs or cats or parrots. Just like we don't kill our friends. We are all life. We are all food for something else. We are all individuals any way you twirl your moral compass.
"How is killing a human you don't have any emotional attachment to any different to killing cattle instead of a pet?"
David fell silent after that. It was the bombshell he'd decided to drop as (what he predicted to be) the end of the conversation. And he sat patiently cuddled up against Kei, waiting for a reaction.
Kei saw the logic and reasoning and truth as David saw it in the teen's words. He couldn't believe it though. For David it was how things were. For Kei it was just another person trying to force him into being okay. He didn't like hurting the people he cared for, but that didn't mean he'd change just because a teenager with too much knowledge could speak about horribly realistic but still too naive ideas.
There was truth in David's words. And Kei could feel them sticking in his head. He hated that someone as naive, as innocent, as David could speak so eloquently about something so disgusting.
These things most, annoyed Kei.
And he found himself gently pushing David away before standing up swiftly and rushing out the door, his red coat forgotten.
David watched him go. In his head he was second-guessing and doubting what he did, hoping that he didn't do anything too horrible to Kei, pushing like he did. A small tendril of self-loathing guilt tried to slither around him and drag him down but his self-love slapped it away and it slunk back into the dark recesses of David's mind.
He suddenly felt completely drained and retreated to his room, forgoing cleaning up and only turning off the tv on his way. He stripped down to his underwear and turned on music before curling up with Bob in his bed, a nest of pillows and blankets. It didn't take long for him to fall asleep with Bob realizing his master was distressed and cooing and purring reassuringly, helping David along to dreamland with his fluff.
Jaded's after-words: Reminding you to review or drop a comment or answer this question. - How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could smoke crack?
thanks for reading. :)
