Disclaimer: I do not own MoonChild.
Full Moon
The beach is unusually warm tonight. The heat-wave in Mallepa has moved on, but something of it still lingers like an electric mist and when Kei lights his cigarette, he can feel a sense of liveliness crackling in the air. The sand scratches against his bare feet, slick, rough tension like the sudden silence before a thunder storm. Sho is watching him with curious eyes and although Kei feigns ignorance, the vampire can feel the weighted presence of Sho's gaze. It makes Kei think of sunlight, so long ago, a tender caress on his skin that only now burns malevolently. Kei flicks the butt of his cigarette away into the sand before the fire can singe his fingers.
Finally, one of them opts to speak.
"Na, Kei," Kei's taller companion drawls, leaning against the outside of their car.
Nearby, Kei lifts himself onto the trunk of the convertible and puts his feet against the banister. The move brings Kei eye level to the other lanky man. It is easier to hear and answer a question this way. It also soothes Kei's pride over the few things he lacks.
"I've been thinking," Sho says slowly with an inquiring tilt of his head. He stretches out his words teasingly in the same way a mischievous child might pull on his taffy. Kei prepares for a serious if reluctant conversation. "Why do you smoke?"
Kei's mouth opens minutely in surprise but the vampire recovers swiftly, "Why do you insist on being an idiot?"
Unusually, Sho isn't perturbed. The youth only hums and stares straight up at the moon. His smooth neck is bared suddenly in its stark luminescence. Kei fights the well-known instinct that suddenly makes its old presence known, sharp and low in his belly. It slowly abates as Sho continues obliviously, "I'm being serious. It's not like you need to breathe, right?"
Kei raises an eyebrow. He covers the quickening of his almost nonexistent pulse by jabbing at Sho's chest with a finger. "It's not like you need that giant stash of porno under your bed, right?" Kei mimics.
It's amusing to watch Sho's face turn tomato-red, hilarious to see Sho stammer and deny it with twitching eyes. Sho crosses his arms and is dangerously close to a full-fledged pout. The expression's cuteness rivals the one on child-Sho, only - was it? - a few years ago.
"I-I do not," Sho manages coherently.
After a torturous moment where Kei leaves Sho silent and tense in his denial, the vampire flops down on the car lazily. He curls up like a cat until only a glimmer of one of his eyes can be seen.
"It's only a vice. One I've had since I can remember, even in the Before," the vampire offers in reconciliation.
Sho seems surprised at this rare tidbit of information and leans over Kei to peer at his secretive companion. In the starlight, the hard lines of Sho's face are softened and Kei can see more clearly the boy he once knew, the boy that is slowly slipping away with Sho's adolescence. One day, Sho will lose his love of clashing colors and eclectic hairstyles. Sho will lose his impertinence and his brashness. He'll lose his love of staying up late and sleeping when the day shines, he'll lose his love of easy smiles and even easier rapport, he'll lose...so many things. Only youth is immortal. Kei has existed long enough, let go unwillingly often enough, to know this lifetimes over. Even vampires acquire the bitter scars of time, burdened on what is left of their heart, their soul, if not their skin.
"A vice?" Sho prompts impatiently.
Kei blinks out of his reverie. The vampire stretches out a finger to trace it down the bridge of Sho's nose affectionately. "A vice, a whim," Kei says slowly and his finger traces back up. "Like this," Kei continues with a painful flick.
Sho grabs at his face, protecting the injured appendage, and glares. It should be expected by now, but Sho's retort is still indignant as ever, even muffled through his hands. "A whim? So I suppose you could stop anytime you wanted to, as you should when you decide to harass me."
Kei smirks at Sho's wordy pretentiousness and raises himself up on one arm. He grunts as he fishes the automobile's keys from his pant's back pocket. "It's getting late." Kei throws the keys at Sho. "Let's come back to the ocean again, soon."
Sho catches the keys deftly but looks at Kei perplexedly. "But we come every month when the moon is full. Isn't it boring, getting stuck in this routine?" Sho laughs.
Kei is silent. A brief moment later, his head bows. The moon is a well-known presence, swathing Kei in illuminating, familiar, cool shades but Sho still feels uneasy. For a moment, the vampire seems heartbreakingly forlorn, maybe even agitated to Sho, but then Kei smiles and everything is quieted, smothered to sleep in a strange eerie beauty.
"Always," Kei's voice is soft as night, "when the moon is full."