Anime: Beyblade
Genre: Mystery/Drama bit of suspense, I suppose.
Author: Aethyrial Flame
Disclaimer: I own nothing out of this story that is recognisable as the work of others.
Summary: In a world of hope and light, sometimes the darkness isn't always what it seems... ONESHOT
Darkness.
It surrounded him, embraced him, circled and swept over him in a mocking echo of a lovers touch. Slyly, softly, it danced and whispered at the edges of the fires glow, all dark haunting things and glimmering eyes beyond the light, lissom shapes and rending edges.
Hope.
Too many, it was represented in the littlest things; a smile, a flash of long hair, glimmering secrets veiled buy flesh, the secret heart of a flame. Reborn, again, and again, and again, everlasting and eternal. Never had he rested; always, he forged onwards, ever forward, never back.
He ached.
Damp, chilling snow nudged his ankles, whispered in a shuddering caress across his body, the sickening, icy crunch making his skin crawl and writhe in the muted lamp light. Distant memories of it; soft, fat, lacy flakes drifting from the sky in delicate swathes, dusting the landscape with cotton candy puffs.
Ice melting before it hit his skin.
Such delicate things, humans were. All big, trusting, limpid gazes, disturbingly delicate skin –broken so easily!- and long, coltish limbs. Laughing, joking, they swarmed and surrounded him, unfazed buy his cool disdain, his icy, anti-social façade.
With gentle touches and whispered murmurs they lead him from the darkness, showed him what he had long forgotten. But… the darkness always returned, that sweet, sweet craving, that rush of power filling him to dizzying heights…
And they tasted so good…
Trusting thoughts, swirling with all those time honoured traditions; love, friendship, honour, moral integrity. It would be easy; oh, so very, very easy; to rip and tear them asunder, to taunt them and tease them, helpless, blind little children running in the dark, breaking and shredding asunder.
But on the ice… he'd been ready for it; broken down and wearied, lost to the dizzying rush of power. Just a little more- a little more and it would end! The dark, frigid depths of the sub-artic liquid had perilously surrounded him, greedily reaching out to snuff his life, his light.
And they'd stopped him. Chocolate eyes lit from within, a reflection of his own light, had glowed at him with such promise, such entreaty, that he'd moved before he even realized that he needed to. And, step buy languid step, he'd moved from his salvation to his doom.
Bitterness curved the silken edge of his mouth, and he didn't turn, didn't move, when another stepped up beside him, the echoing wind of their movement strangely crisp in the sodden air, a swirl of icy mountain glens in the damp, slush-cold streets.
Blood-red gleamed in the darkness, and garnet rose to meet crystal. Words like feather touches, insidious lures hooked and tipped, wrapped snugly around him. Like so many other times, it would be so easy to give in, to luxuriate in that sinful darkness….
Never feed on the innocent.
Oh, and how dark he was… all cold, aristocratic angles and harsh lines, wild and feral and gazing at him resentfully, jealousy a diamond sharp edge shredding his promises. Slowly, a dark smirk curled the bitterness from his lips, the predator within surging hopefully.
Languidly, he moved with effortless grace, almost flowing across the darkened street with the sinuous walk of a born hunter. In return, the hunter to his own fire took a step forward, warning gleaming in his gaze.
His laughter broke the silence.
Deep, rich and husky, the insidious lure in it, the promise of a good time to be had, curled out and sank delicate, feathery touches in the other, who blinked in surprise. Uppers arms bared to the cold night air, scarf slithering with a silken whisper around him, he leant against the cool metal, standing in the light.
Bewilderment. It was such a strange taste upon his tongue, sharp and sour with the faintly acidic, abrasive edge of fear. He was used to, it however, and the quick, defensive anger fuelled buy that selfsame fear that followed soon after. Gaze hooded as he drank it in, he watched as fists clenched and a body bowed, muscles rippling and tightening with a feral promise.
But he stepped away, head bowed, and stalked back into the darkness from whence he had came, disappearing back into a world full of sweet, sweet pain…
The sound of his name on the wind broke the glittering darkness that gilded his finely honed features, shredded the wild rage that curled so lovingly around his heart. And, a beacon of hope amidst the darkness, he began to glow once more.
"Kai? Kai, buddy, were are you-oh, hey!"
Sheepish laughter and naïve, trusting eyes. Pure hearts that broke him, again and again, to the yoke of humanity. Freely given love hidden in jokes and laughter as they mobbed him like a swarm of puppies, all begging for a skerrick of attention.
His bid for freedom neatly and almost –almost!- painlessly cut off, he tilted his head forward, long, sweeping bangs hiding the utter hopelessness that he felt; and oh, how he appreciated the irony of such a sentiment…
Imagine. Him, the ultimate embodiment of hope, and the destined destroyer of mankind, bound to save its future for another day, at least, buy the comradie of a mismatched group of teenagers.
Let it never be said that he, alone of all his brethren, had feasted upon the ultimate temptation of the innocent. Let it never be known that he, who had been tempted before all others, had given in. Let it never be seen that he, who projected such ice, was perfection embodied with the flame of creation.
He, the last Phoenix, bound to mortal flesh and mortal desires.