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Knife in the Dark: Scene 11"Wow." Indie breathed in the seat next to Blaze. He was sitting very still and clenching his jaw. A frown crossed his face, the muscles in his neck twitching as he tensed involuntarily. Blaze watched him carefully. Her own nerves were on fire too, even after that slightest of contacts with the empath.
"What am I feeling?" She asked him, daring herself to put a hand down on the table for him to take. Indigo didn't look at her. Instead he took a few breaths, before turning her hand over so it lay palm down on the cool surface. He placed an index finger on her skin, below her wrist. Indie began making small circular movements with his hand. Blaze watched disbelievingly as out of nowhere a slight pattern began to appear.
It was a warm copper coloured motif, running in tiny lines like a henna tattoo. Beginning at the wrist, it extended under Indigo's touch to tangle between her fingers. The lightest tint grew darker and more definite as he did not take his hand away. Blaze had barely started to worry if this marking was going to be permanent when Indie broke the silence between them to quash her fears.
"Don't worry, I've got good at this. It usually only goes permanent if I want it to. It's weird 'cause I don't design the patterns. Its like they are already here under the skin. My powers just bring them out. Doesn't seem to matter if you're mutant or human either." His voice had taken on a trance-like tone and Blaze found herself mesmerised by the slow electric tingle underneath her flesh. Her hand moved in Indigo's gentle touch, seemingly of its own accord. Her eyes never left their fingers as they interlocked, caressing, letting Indigo work his magic.
"How do you do it?" He wanted to know. "How do you live with all this emotion? You're nowt like anyone else I've ever touched Blaze."
"I bet you say that to all the girls…" Blaze teased, trying to gather a modicum of sense back. "You've touched Stifle, but you still don't trust her. Why?"
"You're bloomin' obsessed with Stifle…" Indigo moaned. "She's a weird one. Her powers cancelled out mine any time I tried this. But we had a run in with…another gang. Stifle came to the rescue but she got knocked out. It must've knocked her powers out too, 'cause when I went to grab her out of the way, the dragons appeared on her wrists where I had hold of her. They wont go away now either. It was nuts, she got the tattoos, but she's just so cold inside. I can't trust someone who refuses to let themselves feel." All the while Indie was speaking he kept stroking Blaze's hand and wrist. To Blaze it felt amazing, and addictive. The more he touched her, the more at peace she felt. She hadn't felt this calm in a long time, if ever.
"I don't understand." She began softly, letting him take her other hand without a fight. "How are you making me feel like this? I'm…calm. I'm never calm Indie."
"I know, I can tell." He looked at her and their eyes met. "You're worried about all the secrets you keep. You don't have to. I don't get impressions of why you feel all this stuff. That's telepathy right? I just get the raw emotions. While I'm touching you they bleed off into me. It'll help you be calm for a while." The tattoos were still growing. They were a tangle of pale lines up to Blaze's elbows now. In the dim light of the club, she couldn't tell what they were supposed to be. Blaze pushed the thought from her mind. Indigo said they weren't permanent, so they weren't worth worrying about. When she had started to trust him, she didn't know. Blaze pushed that thought from her mind too, despite the fact that she never trusted anyone easily. Right now, it didn't matter.
"You still haven't answered my question." Blaze asked hoarsely, "What am I feeling?" For a moment she wished she hadn't asked. A shadow crossed Indigo's face, and she felt him almost withdraw his touch. Blaze suddenly decided she didn't want him to break away. That swell of almost childish emotion made Indigo smile. The sudden change from dark and brooding to this smiling young man took Blaze's breath away. He really was handsome when he smiled…
She didn't know how it happened. Maybe she initiated it, maybe he did. All Blaze knew was that Indie's lips were suddenly on hers and she was kissing him desperately. He tasted of the beer he'd been drinking. His mouth was warm and inviting. His kiss was hard, almost demanding like a challenge. Their hands were still tangled together, their bodies pushed close besides each other. It was insanity, but it was good…
They broke away to catch their breath. Insanely, Blaze downed the rest of Indie's dark brown beer without even thinking about it. They barely spoke to each other as they stood and moved for the exit. Blaze's head was swimming, her pulse frantic. She couldn't think straight. But then again she had no desire to think. They didn't say anything to the others, just hailed a black cab and left. The taxi driver was treated to a show straight out of the movies. Blaze didn't object at all as Indigo kissed and caressed her skin. He left her numb, and she didn't want it to stop.
Streetlights raced past outside the car windows. The one-way systems and traffic calming measures led them around nameless blocks of tall buildings. The wealth of the industrial revolution had shaped this city into a maze of narrow streets and broader main roads. Red brick and white stone monstrosities were equally grey from the smog of the city's industrial past. Georgian and Victorian architecture gave the city an eerie haunted feel in the darkness and the half-light. The cab blitzed past tiny parks with stunted shrubby trees, before glancing over the raised section of the Mancunian Way, past the universities and out of the city centre towards Blaze's flat.
Stumbling from the lift, drunk on each other, Blaze and Indie were almost a single entity. He pushed her up against a wall in the hallway to kiss her again. He was so rough Blaze could almost feel her lips bruising. She didn't care, she wanted more, and she was breathing so hard she could have been recovering from a near drowning. The flat's key was in her pocket. She unlocked the door without looking and entered backwards, dragging Indie in after her and letting the door slam shut.