Children of the Mirror

...18th Part: Dark...

The night went on, and the drinking became more of a habit-like impulse that I had developed than just being out for a night to enjoy myself. I didn't really know what I was doing anymore – and Krad was here, which I thought to be weird. It did make sense, though. I had simply failed at avoiding him. It was pathetic, really. I wanted to get away from him, but I couldn't leave the town because I had the feeling that I was going to lose something vital.

I downed another glass of whatever thing I was drinking, nearly falling over backward when I tipped my head back to let it slip down my throat. I managed to catch myself somehow, though – or maybe it wasn't me, but I had no other reasoning for my staying upright.

A strange thought occurred to me. "You know what?" I asked Krad, turning to him and squinting as I tried to focus on his face. "I wonder what you'd look like if you were a girl."

"What?" he waved both of his hands in my face – wait; no, only one, but I'd swear I had seen two. "Dark, you are way too drunk..."

I ignored him completely, still considering my inquiry. "I bet you'd be insanely hot," I told him, grinning despite myself. But, damn, that guy was looking gorgeous, suddenly. The last of my sanity was very gone. I contemplated unraveling that tie that kept his hair up in a ponytail. I wanted to see it cascade over his shoulders and down his back, like some odd fountain of gold. I vaguely recalled seeing it like that before... a long time ago...

But Krad was glaring at me, so I didn't dare. I looked away again, feigning innocence.

"We should go," he stated in a strange, clipped voice. He grabbed my arm and pulled me up, intent on leading me away.

"Hey, you're not going anywhere until you pay up!" the bartender warned us.

I choked on my laughter. "I don't have any money!" I scoffed. It sounded like the most ridiculous thing in the world to me, paying for things.

"Well then how do you propose to take care of your debts, kid?" the man asked, folding his arms over his chest.

And then, even through my drunken stupor, I caught his eyes crawling over Krad's figure.

For some reason, this put me into a bizarre state of rage. "What're you lookin' at, scumbag?" I demanded, stumbling in front of my unlikely companion. I caught Krad's wrist behind me to steady myself. He shook me off, but I didn't really care. This guy was a total pervert and I wasn't going to have Krad blame me for anything that might happen to him. Even after such a long time spent trying to ditch him, the clearest thing in my head now was that the blond teen was my responsibility.

"You have to pay up somehow, cheapskate!" the bartender argued.

"We'll figure something out, alright!?" I shouted at him, smacking his arm away when he tried to reach across the counter.

"What is there to figure?" he retorted, shoving me to the side. I fell in a heap on the floor and he grabbed Krad by the collar, yanking him closer.

"Remove your hand from my shirt," Krad said darkly. His voice foreboded doom for anyone who actually listened to it.

"No," the ugly man said simply.

My anger built as he leaned his face closer to his. Krad tried vainly to turn away from the violation, prying at the bartender's fist. I stood up from the floor and ran at the man's arm, biting down hard into his nasty, hairy flesh. I cringed in disgust, but kept my face latched on until he released him.

I hadn't seen the beer bottle coming. He smashed it against the back of my skull, and my teeth released him. My face met the floor before I blacked out.

. . .

When I woke up, I was lying on the ground with a jacket tossed over me. There was a blessedly warm fire crackling on my left. Krad was sitting on the opposite side of the flames, just staring into them. He was sitting cross-legged, with his elbows on his knees and his head propped on his folded hands.

We weren't in any town anymore – that much I had figured out.

I groaned from the massive headache that came with being hung-over. "What happened?"

"You got drunk and pissed some people off. You can't fight when you're drunk, Mousy." He didn't take even one glace at me as he spoke.

I glared, but the muscle movement poked at my skull like the tip of a dagger. "Yeah, I remember that much," I retorted, sitting up and watching my vision shroud itself in black and red before going back to how it should be. "But what happened after that?"

"I picked you up and ran," he said bitterly. It was silent for a long while. Then he finally looked up at me. "Why did you do that, Dark?" he asked.

I was puzzled. "Do what?"

"Why did you defend me like that?" he clarified. "You attacked him like some sort of crazed animal."

"I was drunk."

Krad didn't reply. He went right back to staring at the fire.

I wondered what he was thinking about so intently.

"You're gonna burn your eyes if you keep staring like that," I warned him.

"What do you care?" he grumbled.

"I don't!" I said defensively; stupidly. "But I don't want to lead a blind guy around, either."

"I won't damage my eyes," he stated. Krad adjusted his position, unfolding his legs and bringing his knees in close to his chest, wrapping his arms around them. The fire made his golden eyes look glossy. "You didn't really leave," he whispered.

"No, I guess I didn't." I shrugged. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Krad covered his face in his arms. "I don't know."

I hadn't heard that in a while.

Taking a moment to just stare at him for a while, I laid back down and, pulling Krad's jacket tighter around my shoulders, fell asleep.