Sorry about the delay, my faithful reviewers! But here is the chapter that will MAKE you forgive me! And, don't worry; this fic won't be done for a while.
Chapter 6: Venice, the City of Love
The next day I was gone before Schuldich or any other Schwarz member could talk to me. I was walking the streets, smoking, checking my eyeliner while my reflection showed in the water, and looking at Carnival masks. The masks were so interesting and intricate. They seemed just the thing I needed and wanted, so I bought a few porcelain ones, but I couldn't find the right one for my face.
The entire morning I looked for the right mask. Some were too bold, others too revealing, and still others completely wrong for a person like me. Now there's a funny thought, "a person like me." I was no person. I was an animal. I am a murderer, I thought, and didn't deserve the title of "person". But who did?
Anyways, around noon I stepped into the fifth costume shop I had come across that day and looked at the masks. I picked a nice one out; it was silver with black glitter swirls and shiny ribbon. I slipped it on and it perfectly fit my face, so I looked in the mirror. It was perfect, hiding everything except my eyes… what betrayed me in those eyes? Everything I felt must be apparent in them. Sad but true: I couldn't hide my entire self. Some how, people would always know something more than I wanted them too, all because of my eyes.
Other people, normal people, could hide every aspect about them without a mask at all. But here I was, knowing that I was inferior to the breed I hated with such a passion and being unable to hide it. Maybe my father had been right, that the only thing I was good at was breaking things apart, despite the fact that it was he that usually broke me. Even as I stood there, looking into my eyes in the mirror, I wished that I were my reflection, in some parallel world, and far away from my so-called life here.
There was a man behind me, also wearing a mask, his with a base red and green outlines. I looked at him and wondered if he felt the same way, wanting to escape from himself and everyone who knew him into a world of someone else's making… to be with someone who understood him, but didn't know too much… with someone who would love him no matter what. Then, I looked at his eyes. A sweet chocolate brown with more experience than mine, but a kind of human nature… and I froze, my heart rate quickening as my stomach's bottom dropped. It was Siberian.
Already, I could see him discovering who I was as he took off the mask and looked at me, confirming my assumption of his identity. Quickly, I ripped off the mask, throwing it down to the ground to the shouts of the storekeeper, and ran out of the store, feeling over come with emotion and nervousness, knowing that he was pursuing me.
Have you ever had one of those moments when you were running away from something you wanted to run too? Because that's just what was happening to me. Yet, as I ran past locals and tourists, down alleys and over bridges, I didn't want to see him again, for fear of facing the consequences of letting my real mask slip in front of my enemy. Then, I had to ask myself what made him my enemy when we were both killers, and probably had the same haunting fears in the middle of the night.
I was about to turn a blind corner when I felt something grip my wrist so hard I jerked back, and was forced to the wall before I could fall, my neck snapping back so hard that my head hit the alley wall with agonizing force. My eyes, I didn't open at first, because I was too afraid at what they would see, but then I heard Siberian's voice…
"Nagi, I'm not going to kill you," he said lowly, for fear that he was being listened to. The tone of his voice was strange to me, because I had never heard such emotion in it. I opened my black-outlined eyes and looked up and him, ashamed at how much I blushed. What had Schuldich taught me since I had entered Schwarz? 'Emotions will betray you if you betray them.'
His eyes were gazing in mine, but now past the mask that most people saw, but he still couldn't tell what really lied beneath it. I wanted to bite my black lip, but was too afraid too. Uneasiness and guilt clutched my stomach, preventing the knot of my insides to ever come undone around him, though I was sure that I would… come undone I mean. That brought a thought to mind that made me blush rather furiously as I looked at the fine-looking Weiss member. My shaking arms and legs leaned heavily on the ancient stonewalls in the alley, too weak to move while he held me there, his powerful hands on my shoulders.
Siberian was handsome beyond any recollection I had previously had of him. His dark hair was swept across his forehead and his lips were gently parted. Though he wasn't winded at all, his muscular shoulders were moving up and down with the rhythm of his breathing. Oh, I wanted to be that air! Something that could pass so freely over his lips and into his mouth.
Then there was me, a little punk, shorter than him, thin, and incredibly feminine in build. A weakling lost without one supernatural power. I was his enemy, decked out in black clothes and even slight platform shoes that still didn't do anything to help my height. I was trying so hard to hide from everything and everyone, but I was there, wishing so badly that he wouldn't let me; that he would realize that he was the last thing that held hope.
Quietly, but rather harshly, he asked, "Would you mind explaining why you're running from me?"
I held my breath. I knew that Schuldich would've killed me for talking, but I couldn't help how much I wanted to talk with him. "You are Weiss."
His eyes twitched, as if I had hit him internally, but I didn't understand how something so obvious could possibly bother him. Maybe he was disappointed that it seemed to be the first reason to pop into my mind. Coldly, he muttered, "That didn't stop you last time."
Despite my urge to blush, I swallowed the need, and retorted, "I ran last time too, didn't I?" Oh I could remember hi lips so faintly and so longingly; if he were mad at me for that, I would've understood, but I knew that wasn't why he was angry, or even if he was, and it was at that moment I wished for Schuldich's power to read minds, because, try as I did, I could not read his eyes.
His head was somehow closer to me, either from his doing or my own, even now I don't know which urged it more, but his eyes never strayed from mine, nor did his hands from my small shoulders. "Why did you kiss me then?"
I held my breath and looked at his lips. I knew exactly why I had kissed him, for I had cried about it for hours afterwards; I just could not put it into words at this moment, and felt as though I needed some more pills to help it come back to me. Why… Why did they look so inviting when he said it? And why had he stooped down so close to my head? I looked back in his eyes and saw something in there I wanted to touch, but still don't know how to define. How did he expect me to answer… then again, maybe it was rhetorical, because the next minute, his lips were on mine.
I closed my eyes and gently let my lips move over his as his moved over mine in a kind of ritual motion. Heat melted our pairs of lips together for that kiss, and on those lips, I could feel his heart and almost taste his breath. For once, I was surrounded by his scent, the scent of flowers and sweet sweat and department store-bought shampoo. I could feel him leaning me against the wall as his hands strayed down to my ribs. My hands moved timidly up to the back of his neck, feeling the tips of his silky brown hair. The very best part about that kiss, as I can remember, is that I didn't wake up in the middle of it.
Siberian pulled back after a while and I opened my eyes to see why. His cheeks were tanner, not red or pink, but the way he was looking at me made me want to melt into him and the wall. My cheeks though, I'm sure, were a very dark pink color, and I kept my hands where they were on his neck. I didn't want to let go of him for fear that I would loose him forever… that, and he felt really good.
On his lips was the dull shade of my lipstick, which almost made me laugh if I could have, but I was too happy and confused to laugh. All I really knew is that I wanted more of what he had just given me. He had made me realize just how much experience I was lacking and how much he had to give me in some of the ways I had dreamt about late at night…but I was a far way from that, though not in thought.
Stumbling over my lips in the least bit as I drew in a breath, I sighed out, "Siberian-"
Before I could so much as finish his name, he was kissing me again, a bit more passionately than before as his hands strayed down to the small of my back. My eyes felt like they were going to roll into the back of my head from such ecstasy as I was experiencing. This was the one thing I had wanted my entire life that no one except my enemy could give me, which was pressed into that moment and against my lips, though I wasn't so sure he was my enemy anymore.
His lips were forceful in a very tender way, massaging mine into sweet submission. I pulled gently on his neck so that I could get closer to him, and one of my hands twisted around a small lock of his hair. I thought I was going to suffocate from his nose gently nuzzling mine as our mouths moved against each other, but he once again broke the kiss just in time, a small string of spit linking from our lips as we separated.
I blushed a dark crimson as I licked my lips and gasped for air. What was he doing? Why did he kiss me twice? Wasn't I supposed to be the one obsessed with him, and he was supposed to be the hardened part of team Weiss ready to kill should I lay another hand on him?
Siberian too was breathing hard, his air blowing against my slightly parted lips. Only, his eyes were smiling at me and he seemed incredibly at ease kissing a complete enemy. Quietly, and with a small smile, he said, "My name is Ken. Ken Hikada."
Almost obeying his thoughts, I gently breathed out, "Ken…" and leaned my head back against the hard wall in the Venice sunlight. So, I thought to myself; that was the name I could scream in my dreams at night. We were all alone in that alley, only a few locals passing by the side ways and all windows on that tiny street were closed and boarded up. Though we were in the open, we had our own private place, except it wouldn't last forever… but we both knew that.
The Weiss member was about to kiss me again when I asked him if this was such a good idea. He gave me a slight look of astonishment. I didn't mean to interrupt that perfect moment, but I did. So, we started talking.
I found out a lot about him that afternoon. Ken (his name gives me shivers to this day) had been a soccer player when he was kicked out of the league for accused drug use and was picked up by Persia to become an assassin for Weiss. He was 19 years old, coached peewee soccer for fun, and worked out a lot so that he could stay fit. I'm sure he said a lot more, but I didn't hear that much because I was just content being less than five feet away from him.
Maybe he learned a lot about me too, but he only just scratched the surface. I told him about my abusive father and being picked up off the streets by Estet and after a few years training being placed into Schwarz. It was amazing I didn't reach for my pills or cigs once around him, though it may have been a bit lucky for me. I doubt some perfectly healthy guy would've wanted to be with a drug-addicted smoker.
Midday turned to early evening as we sat in that alley, talking. Finally, a Gondolier passed yelling out that it was six o'clock, causing Ken's face to strain with worry. Apparently, Bombay was supposed to meet him in San Marco's square at four, but as soon as he was about to leave, he looked at me in the strangest way, and walked back over, taking my left hand in his two.
My cheeks reddened as I looked into his eyes again, wondering what he was doing. "Nagi," he said, sending chills of craving up my spine. "Do you want to escape tomorrow?"
I nearly yelled with excitement. "Yes," I managed to choke out without sounding too eager. He smiled kindly and kissed my cheek, my black lipstick still lingering on his lips. "Then meet me at stop 5 to go to Verano at ten tomorrow morning, and we won't come back until we're missed," he replied, kissing me one last time on the lips. Oh it was going to be a long time till I saw him next, an unfair amount of time.
I nodded and stood up on my tiptoes to kiss his cheek as well. Quietly and slowly, we bid each other good-bye. As soon as he was gone, I ran as fast as I could to my room in the hotel off the Canal. So much energy and electricity was pulsing through my veins that I was almost flying, the only thing keeping me to the ground having been the fact that Siberian was on the ground too.
I don't remember even touching the stairs as I sped up to the Schwarz floor. I went straight to Schuldich's room and opened the door… and closed it again! The images that had been burned into my mind from that moment will sadly stay with me forever, which I really did not want to see in the first place. Little did I even imagine that Schuldich could bend that way, or that Crawford could make him moan so much. Ugh, that was quite a sight, and one that I will NEVER record. All that needs to be known is that it had to do with sex (obviously), handcuffs, and whipped cream. No wonder I can't eat ice cream sundaes anymore…
So, with that stuck in my mind, I retreated into my bedroom, locking the door and falling back onto my bed, smiling as broadly as possible. This must be love. I felt my heart being pulled in every which way but the world was standing still, and my lips were tingling with anticipation and memory. Siberian was so good at everything that I needed! I could not get his face out of me mind. So I lay there for a while that night, giggling into my pillow as I thought about how we had kissed the entire afternoon between conversations. Oh, I could've stayed with him forever.
