Title: Silent Screams

Author: NT aka Aku-chan

Pairings: Tala/Kai, Tyson/Max, Kenny/ Yasashiku(OC), Seiichi(OC)/Kai, Future BryanRei

Aku: You know.. I kind of miss Yasashiku... I killed him, didn't I?

Shiku: ...

Aku: my bad. sweatdrops Well, Sei is still alive at least! Nyaaa! Ain't he a cutie?

Everyone (not including Aku and Sei of course): ………………………………………

Aku: I'll take that as a no... I love him though! holds up 'I love Seiichi' signs

Sei: here's the next chapter. smirks

ooooo

Chapter Twenty-Two: Murdering

If one had listened carefully, they would have heard the shattering of glass echoing throughout the empty space. The black substance scattered away like millions of spiders, crawling across the floors and pooling into the corners. The colored wires hung limply, unattached and dripping in a midnight blue serum. And in the midst of death-coated shards lay a pale body, covered in the black, but dripping in that blue. It was art coming to life in a concrete form, a masterpiece that every artist would've wished to come. If only someone had heard the crackling of the fragile encasing, they would have witnessed a breathtaking beauty. His fake skin was melting off as he lifted himself off the floor. The ripples shuddered along the black lake beneath him, echoing from his dragged feet. An untouchable white overcame the endless black that was slowly succumbing to gravity, gliding off his skin like rape. From his moist bangs, lines of blue marked their territory over his body, dripping from the forehead, down to mix with the black. It glowed unnatural like neon paint with a light all its own. Nothing else touched his bare skin. It was in this state that he had approached the other, unaware of the lust and temptation he was presenting. He recalled more than he should have, it was evident in his knowing eyes that matched the color which slowly dripped from the sprinkled cuts where the glass fragments had kissed him in envy. He was aware that his hand held a soaked knife that before had rested innocently on the counter.

"How does it feel?" The other man spoke, laughter in his deepening eyes while disappointment edged his lips. "To be responsible for your murder?"

The other made no response to having heard anything, his eyes trained on the man before him with murderous intent. A soft sigh escaped the devil's lips, as he paused to glance at the bloodless corpse on his floor. "You know it takes me so long to make one. The effort I put into it and you don't even care. How heartless of you."

He stepped away from the body, drawing closer to his treasure which to the eye, seemed no different from the previous one. His lightless irises raked over the other's naked flesh, almost mewling in pleasure upon the serums that dripped in a poisonous delight.

"Oh, I take it you remember now." His finger trailed across the pale skin, receiving a slight flinch in the eyes as a response. "You remember everything, I see."

"Let the boy go." The only movement came from his moist lips with a harsh whisper erupting from his unused vocal cords, scathed from being encased for so long.

"Who? You mean that child?" He carelessly tossed his head to gesture the direction of the small boy who was sprawled on the gleaming mirrored floor. His hair followed after, gracefully dancing behind him from the movements of their master. "Are your maternal instincts kicking in, my lovely Kai?"

Letting out another hollow laugh, Seiichi reached his hand out, the desire to touch the other overwhelming his senses. But the motion was halted by Kai's hand, which slapped away the offending one for even daring to touch him.

"Don't touch me." The command wasn't fierce or venomous, but voided and spoken in an empty soulless voice, it was hard to tell if he had truly awoken.

"Kai, you sadden me. After all we've been through, can't you trust your nii-chan?" Seiichi mockingly pouted, as he delightfully watched the other's reactions.

"You aren't him. He died years ago," Kai spoke, although doubt tinged his voice. That doubt began to grow as the one before him continued to exist.

"Oh? But I'm standing right here, Kai-chan." A step closer made their breaths mingle in an erotic waltz that could only lead to sinful pleasures. "Kai, let's make more memories together, just you and I. Just like before. Don't you want that, Kai?" A stroke there and a touch here, he knew the large portion of the phoenix's heart and soul he had claimed as his own. It was remarkable how it never diminished even after all those years. "You hoped for my return, didn't you? No, you knew. You knew that I would return to you once more."

"You promised..." The scarlet-eyed phoenix whispered, as the touching continued and the soft caress of his soul engulfed him.

"Yes, I promised. And I always keep my promises."

ooooo

"Don't leave me, Eiichi-nii!"

That night was an abstract painting drawn up by the gods and hung hastily in the sky. The moon glowed orange with a feint of red to the eye. The stars weren't glowing brightly, dulled by the overpowering mist of a heavy fog and the air around was icy to the touch, almost stinging. But the background couldn't outweigh the image playing out before it. Two figures stood, casting long crescent shadows across the floor. The smaller one ran to the other, letting out whimpers, and the elder one wrapped his arms to embrace and comfort the tears out. Their shadows sculpted together like a masterpiece in the works.

"I won't, Kai. I promise." The two broke apart, as the taller of the two stepped backwards, eyes trained on the child. His smile calmed the nerves of the younger one, but did nothing to stop the events that unfolded. "I won't leave, Kai. I promise. You may not see me, but I'll return to your eyes once more."

"Eiichi-nii..."

A gunshot rang out and a single body fell, slowly drowning in the pool of its own essence. A cry rang through the silence, followed by unsuppressed sobs. The life was slowly draining out of him, as the puddle continued to grow larger, the inevitable stains already marring the floor beneath. The sight of his hand was morbidly fascinating as it lifted into the air, in a last defiance against death, and touched with the creamed cheek of the crying child. His eyes traced the bloody smears, marking up the innocence that he selfishly kept for himself.

"I keep my promises, remember that Kai," he whispered out, as his final breath left him and his eyes closed to the one who loved him most.

ooooo

"Eiichi-nii..." The claret eyes glazed over slightly as if in a trance created from Seiichi's own depthless ones. His nude body pulsed in the dim light overhead with crawling shadows from the creases of his muscles, raped by those twin soulless eyes.

"I'm here, Kai." His voice dripped off his lips like honeyed toxin, sweetened by the utopian memories. "Always here."

"Eiichi-nii..." He seemed so far gone once more, the strings binding his limbs once again to play marionette to his inevitable handler. But the strings were wired and burning to the touch, inviting a pleasure only known in masochism. He remembered that time now. The only pleasure was the self-inflicted kind; that was the time he was supposed to forget, so why recall it now?

He remembered someone with a voice like the falling of velvet petals, cradled in the overlying wind.

"Why are you doing this to yourself!" He could remember that disapproving voice, wavering with the need to comfort the one before him or himself. "Stop hurting yourself! Can't you see? Can't you see I feel it too... It hurts me when you're hurt..."

The tears had begun then; it was only a matter of time. Strong, fierce and confident in his everything, that was the role, wasn't it? So how was it he managed to destroy all traces of his former self in a single swipe, and before him no less?

"If you go, take me with you. I'll die, but it'll be okay as long as I can convey my feelings." Had the bleeding stop then like some subconscious action his body took upon itself to commence towards the feelings of its owner? It didn't matter if the bleeding stopped. He recalled the eyes, a fiery color of compassion and resentment, together in a moment of chaos. It was chaos in those eyes that he was fascinated by because before it had always been a sleepless serenity that he could count his insomnia on.

"But once you die, you don't return. You won't learn forgiveness, nor receive it. It's over then." Was that how it goes? The eyes were clearer this time, reminding him of a recent past – a cage to birds of the fiercest color that easily overwhelmed the sight of a solar eclipse. Those irises took on power when they directed at him, suggesting lust and an animalistic fervor. But those were merely the edges, the depth of those eyes holding something much more prevailing. He wished not to remember, but it was those looks and words which slowly forced him out of the grasps of these haunting ghosts.

"Let's make memories, Kai." The whisper of a devil entranced his heart, but he was never one to follow along that foolish path of dreamers. The snow-white hand rose up like life to grace the porcelain skin of the other, fingers dangling with their tips made of a juxtaposing death. But the destination was never marked in possession, swatting away by the single words of a fire legend.

"Don't touch me." His unwavering voice whipped out, causing the hand to halt in midair at the surprise. Like past dolls, those bloodstained eyes should have glossed over in a reverie, caught up in the nightmare of another life and yearning for the dream only he could offer. The hand plummeted in the air by the gravity of the breathing world around.

"I saw you die." Stated from between lined lips, Kai forced out the words that sought freedom. "You are not alive."

"Are you denying my existence, Kai?" He laughed uneasily from the turn of events, but that uneasiness soon morphed into amusement. A game, this life was, would turn out to have more twists and turns than he had previously predicted. No reaction came, no tinge of doubt even entered the phoenix's eyes. "So be it. What are you going to do now?"

He plated his hands down behind him against the table, as he leaned further backwards. His hair rained around him like tendrils of black fire and his eyes remained impassive yet left the other breathless.

"Are you willing to kill me again, Kai?" A glimpse in the eyes of his younger sibling answered for him. "I shouldn't ask about the will to kill, should I? The will to kill me is there. But can you? Can you watch me die once more, Kai?"

"Why won't you just leave me be...?" Kai whispered out, not expecting any answer.

"Because I will always love you. I treasured the fact that I was the only one in your life who held any meaning. But that was the past. Jealousy can be an ugly beast, but it doesn't compare to the deeds we've done to be with one another, does it?"

He remembered the vile words of the onlookers who knew of their past and of their relation. It was forbidden and disgusting, but they had found it natural and it felt too good to be bad. He was grateful for the difference between them that strangers wouldn't know. But most of all, he could recall every single task they were meant to do. As long as they remained in each other's arms, it was only another obstacle they had to overcome. What you received in the end overwhelmed what you felt after each moment easily.

"You look so much like mother." The eyes and hair, he knew, was inherited from their Russian mother, while his own looks were twins to that of their Japanese father. They were brothers, but to a stranger, they looked like strangers who turned into lovers. And it was blissful outside of the knowing looks and the eyes that could never understand. "But her eyes could never compare to yours. When you're happy, when you're sad or angry, when you're in pain, it's all beautiful. But my favorite is when you're in the midst of pleasure and pain and you no longer have control over yourself. You're breathtaking, Kai."

"Stop it."

"You remember our first time. You were unsure at first, but after our first kiss, you kept yearning for more. You cried out for your older brother, and it felt absolutely sinful. It was like nothing I had ever felt before. Not even those murders could amount to the utter bliss I feel whenever I had made love to you."

"Stop it. Stop saying those things."

"Do you feel dirty? Can you feel the sin crawl over you, Kai?" A smile blossomed over his countenance like a winter blizzard, and a soft chuckle escaped into the silence. "But our love was irrepressible. The more they kept me away, the more I hungered for your skin, your lips, your everything."

"Stop it!"

"I still long for you, Kai. I want all of you for myself. This craving is insatiable and I can't tame it. I need you, Kai, and you need me just as much, if not more."

"It doesn't matter. You aren't the same Seiichi. You aren't my Seiichi!" And with that, he drove the knife he used to kill his other self into the chest of the other. Pouring from the wound was the essence to show that he was alive and the heart within his chest was beating if only for a moment longer. He coughed and his body thrust forward, leaning against its brethren for its last support. He felt like the blood of his brother would seep into his skin, but he couldn't move from that spot. And that was how they waited, the table supporting Seiichi's lower body, as his upper body was sharing its last warmth with Kai.

"You... killed me," he finally whispered out between labored breaths, as his eyes began to feel weary and heavy. "You killed me... again..."

"Yes... I did, didn't I?" Kai answered back as softly, the knife already forgotten on the floor.

"Hah, I'm glad it was you..." Eyes closed gently and reopened again to burn the other's face in his mind. "I'm proud of you... Kai..."

"Don't... don't say that now." A pale, untouched hand traced through the black velvet strands, feeling just as soft as they had so many years ago. He was beautiful, it was undeniable. His skin was stunning like finely whipped butter, creamed to perfection. He savored the scent that was indescribable, and he knew was only emitted from the brother he loved with his entire being. "D-did I make a mistake...?" An outspoken thought was relinquished past his lips.

"No... no mistakes..." His skin was icing over, but it was a fitting death for a brother he had loved more than he was meant to. "It's just as you said. I'm not meant to be alive."

"Seiichi..."

"First time I've heard you say my name so simply."

"Don't leave me... please, don't leave me..." Tears formed along with the regret. He was witnessing the death of his brother once more and he, again, was responsible. The elder's hand rose to touch the other, but stopped. He stared at the blood running down his fingers and decided against marring the face of his younger brother.

"I must." The shared look between their eyes was one that seemed lost over the years. It was unnatural and forbidden, a sentence straight to Hell. But none of that mattered. "You're my precious little brother. I love you, Kai..."

The small boy not too far watched on at the two brothers who shared a love beyond his understanding. He watched at the one he feared died with his hand cradled in his mother's. The blood trailed down in his mother's chest like trails of unbroken promises and endless tears. It was a magnificent sight to behold, a moment to be treasured, but he wouldn't. He didn't want to treasure the image of his mother and brother together like illicit lovers. Because Seiichi was the one responsible for his mother's pain and torture and for his own.

So the painting of sinned purity and an undeniable love was burned away and soon to be forgotten because death meant no return. And he knew that as much as the other.

ooooo

"Seiichi! Where are you?"

"Over here, Kai."

"Seiichi, what are you doing?"

"I'm trying to figure out what to paint next."

"Hmmm... how about... you paint yourself?"

"Why would I paint myself?"

"Because I think you're very pretty! And paintings are supposed to be pretty, right?"

"But it would be missing something."

"What?"

"You, of course. The picture would never be perfect if you weren't there beside me. You're my precious Kai, after all."

"Hehe, and you're my precious Seiichi!"

ooooo

"Once you die, you don't return." That was the story told, and no mortal could change it.

"You're dead to me, Seiichi," he spoke like the murderer he was.

ooooo

To Be Continued...

ooooo

Aku: Umm... was that as bad as I think it was? I'm kind of unsatisfied with how I ended this chappie, but there is more! After all, I have to reintroduce those "others".

Kenny: We've been demoted to "others" now.

Tyson: So unfair! Where are we?

Max: Well, at least she didn't kill us off yet.

Tyson: What do you mean 'yet'?

Aku: evil smirk

Tyson: You're gonna kill us?

Aku: same evil smirk from two lines up

Tyson: AHHHHH! NUUUUUUUUUU! runs away screaming for a few more lines worth

Max: You wouldn't really kill us would you?

Aku: Not in this fic, no. I just wanted to scare him. Oh yeah, could you guys figure out who was the mystery person who said "Once you die, you don't return"? If not, you'll find out next chappie, hopefully! If I get writing on it, that is.

Kenny: Review if you'd be so kind or ebil or whatever you want to be.