The other good thing about writing in third person is we get to see a bit more into the evil Kyou's personality.
And I feel that I must make some response to Amanda's statement. Yes, my descriptions are flowery, but I don't think you have the right to criticize my work when you don't even put up any of yours. I happen to enjoy reading flowery descriptions, so that is what I write. I'm sorry if you don't like it, but that is the way I write, and I don't think I really want to change that. Thank you for saying I have potential, but I don't think you quite understand the way I work.
And I'm sorry I've been blackmailing for reviews, people, but I've had stories before where no one posted reviews at all, and I wanted to see if people would actually review if I asked for them in a less than polite manner. Thanks again. ~Omoide
Running a hand through his hair, Taichi wondered if he should just leave. True, he was an hour and a half early by his own choice, but he really didn't like this area, for some reason. It gave him a feeling of always being watched, and his heart reached out to each and every person he saw. He didn't want to have to be there, but if this was where Yamato was...
Then where was he?
"Hey, Taichi," a soft voice from an alleyway called out, and Taichi whirled, more than a little frustrated and angry with himself. The keeper of Courage didn't get frightened of being on the lower side of town. He didn't. Not after staring down angry monsters about to kill him.
Ok, so that had scared him too, but that wasn't the point.
He knew it was cliché, and a bad one at that, but he decided to ask anyway, no matter how stupid he'd sound in doing so. "Who's there?!"
"I just want to know something, Tai," the smooth voice continued, a cough breaking the thin but beautiful sound. "Come here for a second. I won't do anything to you." A bitter laugh cut through the air, stabbing at Tai's heart in the process, although he ignored it. "Not that I could, anyway."
Yeah right, Taichi thought to himself, but he obeyed. After all, what was the worst it could be?
Well, whatever, whoever it was, they were a frickin' coward. There was no one in the alley.
"Long time no see, Tai."
Whirling around, Tai growled softly, trying to sound as menacing as he could, and failing utterly. "Where the fuck are you, coward?!" he asked, not exactly in the mood to be polite. Whoever this person was happened to be taunting him and keeping him from meeting with Yama. Two very good reasons to pound them into the dirt and leave them there.
"Right here," the voice replied, forcing Tai to whirl around again with another growl that died on his lips.
When he'd last seen his friend, Izumi Koushirou, the boy had been smiling and laughing as he went off to college four years early. The boy who stood before Tai now had so little left of the memory, Tai almost had to shudder. It had been less than two years!
Bruises marred the once perfectly crafted pale flesh, eyes once shining with hope and brilliance now dulled with the anger and roughness of the streets. His clothes could only possibly be called rags if one were being more than generous about the matter. But that wasn't what scared Tai the most.
A harshness had come over his gentle genius. That innocent smile he'd once seen on Koushirou's face had faded, replaced by the hopelessness of a man about to disappear into the waters of the ocean as he watches his friend leave him to drown. He leaned against a trash can for support, breathing heavily, half his face in shadows, half in the meager light.
"K-Kou-chan?" Tai asked, moving forward quickly.
Virulent laughter burst from Koushirou's torn lips at that, stopped only by a coughing spell. "No one's called me that in ages, Tai."
"What the hell happened to you?!" Tai had to ask, reaching out to support his friend, eyes filling with the pain of shock and anger that someone had done this to his Kou-chan.
"College, you idiot." There was no bitterness or mocking in the answer though, and for a moment the boy he'd been could be seen through Koushirou's eyes. Then it was gone, and nothing remained.
"Yamato, come meet to Shin," Kyou ordered, motioning his boyfriend over to his side. Yamato obeyed with slight hesitation, but nothing that couldn't be remedied. His control over Yamato was still absolute, and nothing, no one would change that.
Not many people saw how much Yamato and Shin looked alike. That was what had drawn Kyou to Yamato in the first place though, the softly seductive innocence in his eyes. On top of the fact, he'd always been a sucker for blondes.
When he'd discovered they were related, it had been even better. Waiting for a chance to play his trump card, he allowed Shin to stay at school undiscovered.
But here, tonight, at this party given in honor of the soccer team's victory, where the captain was most conspicuously missing, this would be a perfect time to shatter Shin, to punish him for leaving. And it would tie Yamato to Kyou even more.
A double bonus.
Shin didn't have his dark eyed lover to protect him. No, he dared to come to the upper side alone, and that would be his downfall.
How beautiful the night could be...
"Yes, Kyou?" Yamato's soft, almost hesitant voice asked. Once his voice had been the strongest, indifferent to everyone and everything. Once his voice had been the one questioning all authority.
And now he belonged to Kyou.
There were a score like Yamato waiting for him on the lower side, fearing his wrath, but something about Yamato made him even more possessive. Was it the way he'd crumbled so easily? The way he seemed to think he deserved the pain? No... there was something else. Something almost--
Kyou didn't want to think about that.
Shin's eyes widened with a tinge of fear as Yamato arrived, but it was already too late. Standing side by side, everyone could see the resemblance between the two.
And now, as everyone commented on it, it was time for the final blow.
"Hey, Shin, you know, you remind me of someone," Kyou smiled thoughtfully as Shin's azure eyes begged him not to do this. "I know!"
"Who does he look like?" another of the soccer players asked--Shida-san, wasn't it?--curiousity blossoming in his silver eyes. Other shouts of encouragement fueled Kyou's determination.
"No, never min--"
"Tell us, Kyou!" Shida-san pushed, laughing.
"Well... he sorta reminds me of this kid I saw down on the lower side..."
Silence filled the room.
"Something's wrong with Shin-niisan."
Anshin looked up from where he was sulking, obsidian eyes instantly alert. "What's that, Ai-chan?"
Ai's golden eyes slightly glazed over as she spoke again, starlight curls making her seem all the more ethereal in the fading sunset rays. "His mind screamed." Her gentle, childlike voice fit her appearance so well, but the intonations in her voice hinted at something more than just another child off the streets.
"What's wrong with Shin-chan?" An asked, moving closer, but not daring to touch her yet. It always happened like this, as sunset disappeared into twilight, the magic hour of long past. Visions would come to the child, for children are always the ones with the most power, and they'd learned to trust them.
"He's been found out. Kyousuke-kun's telling everyone about him."
KYOUSUKE?! The single name that could send fire raging through An's blood, could cloud his vision with the hazy red that could only be assuaged by fiery death. An remembered all too well the night Shin didn't come home, how he'd had to search all the lower side to find his lover, beaten and broken, trapped in a room. He remembered it still. And he would never forget.
"Kyousuke goes to Shin's school?" he managed to grind out, his mind helpfully pointing out all the ways a certain person could die.
"Hai."
Damn him! An thought to himself, mind racing. Damn him a thousand times again and again!
Now if only he could figure out who he was talking about.
It took only a few years to become cold and bitter enough to withstand most of what the streets could throw at him.
It took only a single boy--no, young man--to destroy that cold.
"K-Kou-chan?" Tai asked, moving forward as if to stop a dream from vanishing between his fingers.
Torn lips parted in virulent laughter at those words, the bitter stream stopped only by a heart-breaking cough. "No one's called me that in ages, Tai," Koushirou whispered, trying to distract Tai from the tears forming in his eyes at the tender nickname.
"What the hell happened to you?!" Tai asked, eyes filling with a rage Koushirou knew could come at a moment's notice for no reason other than one of the people he cared for was hurt.
"College, you idiot." Koushirou couldn't put the bitterness he felt into those words, not with Tai's chocolate eyes staring straight at him, boring into his soul. He never thought he'd see Tai again. After all, it was only through An and Shin that he saw anyone anymore.
Tai's eyes narrowed slightly as he helped Koushirou stand. "I'm the stupid one, remember, Kou-chan? You'll have to be a bit more specific."
"You're not stupid, Tai," Koushirou replied with vehemence. "I just don't want you to do anything rash."
"Like go pound the fucking shit out of someone?" Tai asked softly, voice gentle even as his words were harsh.
"Would you really do that, Tai?" Koushirou whispered, his voice suddenly so vulnerable and very full of pain. "I'm just a stupid--"
"You're not stupid!"
"Yes I am."
"You're the smartest person I know!" Tai tried to protest.
Koushirou bit back his next retort at Tai's pleading, innocent look. "If you say so, Tai."
"Kou-chan, what's wrong?" Tai pushed, trying to figure out what was going on with his friend.
"I just thought I should warn you. Shin said you were meeting Yama--"
"You know Shin?!" Tai burst out, eyes ablaze with his curiousity. "He's down here? Tell me!"
Koushirou's eyes turned cold. "Tai."
"Please, Kou-chan?" Tai pleaded, chocolate eyes melting Koushirou's resistance with their sweetness.
"Shin lives down on this side with three other kids. Anshin, Nozomi, and Ai. Anshin's from the upper side originally, but he came down here. Nozomi and Ai were picked up by those two, and they're protected. Shin's their scout, and he went up to the upper side to find out information about Yamato for two reasons. One, because I asked him to, and two--"
"Because they're half brothers," Tai finished. "But how does he know Kyousuke?"
Koushirou pulled away from Tai abruptly at that. "I have to go."
"K-Kou-chan?"
"You don't have to go, Izu-chan," a gentle, sharply seductive voice whispered from the shadows. "Kyousuke's busy. He won't come looking for you."
"An, you said you'd leave once he showed up," Koushirou replied softly.
"I was worried."
"And that explains everything."
"No it doesn't! What's going on?" Tai asked, trying to find that sweetly caressing sound in the shadows of the alley.
"Nothing you need to concern yourself with. Yamato's heading down this side. You'd best get going."
Shin ran. His mind ran far and away from the party, screaming and crying as everyone burst out with questions all at once. He couldn't do this alone. Where was An? Probably taking care of the girls like he promised.
"Ne, Shin-chan? Are you really from the lower side?" Kyou asked, prodding the boy with his elbow.
"Leave him alone, Kyou," Yamato pleaded from beside the taller youth. "I'm sure it's just a coincidence."
Kyou's eyes flashed at that, and Shin could follow his train of thought. How dare Yamato stand up for that nothing, that bastard Shin?
Don't, Shin inwardly begged Yamato. Don't put yourself in danger, Nii-san.
"You're right. It's probably nothing," Kyou agreed with a smile, only Shin and Yamato catching the slight glint in his eyes. "Shin, chotto hanashite mo ii?"
Shin nodded slowly, and together they excused themselves from the party and began to walk.
They'd gone a good ways before Kyou spoke up. "So, you decided to come back to me after all, bitch?"
Shin winced. "I'm not anyone's bitch, Kyousuke."
"Oh, really." It wasn't a question, and it wasn't a statement.
"What do you want?" Shin burst out finally.
"Don't you already know? I want what's mine," Kyou whispered fiercely, gripping Shin's chin in his right hand as he drew him in for a deadly kiss.
The taste of sweetly poisonous thorns slipping into him; the feel of the deadly soft lust within Kyou... it was almost enough to make him forget everything that had happened.
Bruising force, a flick of the wrist, hands captured behind Shin's back as the world slowly faded to Kyousuke.
This was the job, after all, and damned if he was gonna screw it up now.
Yamato waited for another twenty minutes. Kyou hadn't returned, and neither had Shin, although no one noticed the disappearance.
It wasn't that Yama was worried, no that was an emotion he didn't have, it was just that he wasn't sure he should stay without Kyou.
And the fact that he wanted to go looking for the missing Captain.
Stepping outside for a breath of fresh air, he made his decision. It was time to take a walk...
And now we wait for Omoide to finish more.