Perfect Enemy

...First Part: Krad...

I looked around me, completely mystified. I was overwhelmed with all the things around me. A sound came from somewhere and I scrambled backward, hitting something hard and unmoving. I looked around to figure out the movements, and then, experimentally, I tested some of the movement again. I felt these movements as a part of my being and glanced down to see what my mind somehow registered to be called 'hands'.

New information flooded me, a little at a time, but still fast enough for me to remain so engulfed in wonder.

I flexed my fingers, rotating my hands about in front of me to study them; how far they could rotate willingly and whatever other motions they were capable of. Extending my arms, I gazed at them from a distance for a while, then bent my elbows to draw them back to me.

I felt more tension and movements that I hadn't noticed before. 'Legs' was the information I somehow recognized. 'Feet'.

My body, I thought.

It was all new to me. I was awestruck by it.

I touched myself with my hands, exploring this form I had. I felt my fingers on my arms, watching wonderingly as they moved along to my shoulders, scrunching up the sleeves of my shirt into intricate patterns made of the folded, crumpled material. My arms were crossed over each other on my shoulders. It felt odd so I uncrossed them, continuing in my exploration to touch my neck and then my face.

I noted how my nose stuck out from my face and my eyes were sunken into it, and the differences of all the contours. My lips, I found most intriguing. They were loose and had no definite form like the rest of my face. Muscles could pull them into different positions – some which took more effort to hold than others. They were soft and smooth against my fingers.

And there was something else – long strands of something that was soft and smooth in a whole different way. 'Hair'. Lots of it, all a yellowish sort of color called 'blond'; all pulled back at the back of my head and streaming behind me at a very long length. I combed my fingers through the stuff at the front of my head, which wasn't bunched with the rest of it, and was shorter. I liked the feel of it gliding over my hands when I pulled them away.

My hands touched along the rest of my body, as well. My chest, down over my stomach, and my legs. Every bit of me was just as amazing as the rest.

When I bothered to look at my surroundings again, the first thing that caught my eye was something else that moved. I was startled by it. Something in my chest pounded quickly.

What I saw was a form that looked similar to what I felt mine to be, except this one had shorter, violet hair. He was doing the same thing I was just a moment ago.

I wanted him to realize I was there – this other form. I wanted to touch him, too, and see what he felt like in comparison to me. My lips parted, and I tried to figure out how sound worked. My mouth formed words, but I couldn't hear them.

Then he saw me. He looked curiously at me, moving slowly closer. "Wow..." he said. His hand moved toward my face and I flinched away. He pulled his hand back quickly, obviously taken by surprise by my rejection.

But it wasn't a rejection – just an impulse. One of the things I had yet to figure out how to control.

I tried to speak again. "Who... are you?" I breathed, still not able to find the sound I wanted.

He puzzled over this for a moment, and a look that I recognized to be confusion flitted across his face. "I'm... Dark..." he said. "Who are you?"

That hadn't occurred to me before. I didn't know. But then a voice inside of me said something. It wasn't exactly a thought, but there was something inside of my mind that was telling me something. Krad, it said.

"I'm... Krad..." I said, in the same uncertain way that Dark had.

I reached out and touched his cheek. Dark didn't flinch away from me. He just sat still, wondering at the feel of my fingers on his skin. "Cold..." he said. "Your hands are cold..."

I looked at his eyes. They were a similar color to his hair; a deep violet, getting darker until they were black in the center. I studied the rest of his face, too. And then I saw his lips. They looked as wonderful as mine felt. I touched my fingers to his lips to see if they felt like mine, too, but then he moved away.

I snatched my hand back, looking down at my legs again.

But then Dark put his hand under my chin, tilting my head up toward him again. He touched my lips in the same amazed way that I had touched his.

I reached my hand out again to touch his face again, trailing my hand down his neck and over his collarbone, and then pressed my palm flat against his chest. "You're... warm..." I told him, finally mastering sound. My throat vibrated a little when I spoke – that came with making the sound.

Dark's lips stretched into a new expression. A 'smile'.

I turned my attention back to Dark's chest. There was a thumping inside it, just like there was in mine. "Feel mine," I said, turning my gaze back to his face.

Dark looked confused, and the smile faded.

"My heart," I told him, moving his hand from my face to my chest. "Feel my heart."

I waited for a while, hoping for a response. "I feel it," he said. "Can you feel mine?"

"Yes," I replied, finding a smile of my own.

Dark leaned closer to me, then. "I like the feel of your lips, too," he told me.

"I like yours," I agreed.

The most amazing thing happened, then.

Dark tilted is head ever-so-slightly to one side, and his lips touched mine.