A.C.: My last day of 'relative' freedom -hisses- School's starting on March 2nd... I'm finally a senior! To a country that has the highest high school senior mortality rate! Buh? In the other news... that means that I have another year until I graduate... I feel... impossibly old... –palms face-
Disclaimer: have I ever done this before? I don't own beyblade.
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"I see him..."
The voice was filled with longing, an echo of his own
"Him?"
Inquisitive, prodding, disbelief in something that cannot possibly be true
"Him, but he doesn't see me. At least he doesn't, not yet..."
"What are you waiting for?"
A pause, uncertainty
"...I don't know..."
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"You must be Kuro Suzaku"
Kai smiled and Yuriy was immediately reminded how wrong that particular smile looked on the phoenix's face. Kai pressed his forehead against Yuriy's, purring slightly as a small shock of current passed through their brief skin-to-skin contact. His eyes were open once more, looking like rubies glittering brightly against the shadows.
He nipped the nape of his pale neck, twisting his body so that his stomach was flat against the covers while the smooth expanse of his back rubbed against Yuriy's abdomen suggestively. Yuriy swallowed, moaning slightly as he buried his face into the back of Kai's neck.
"Stop it" he muttered even though he knew that the phoenix probably wouldn't listen. Hell he wouldn't listen. Kai's leg curved outwardly onto Yuriy's, locking them together into a position that would risk breaking quite a few things should they tried to get out of it without the other's consent. Apparently the Neoborg's leader had forgotten how flexible his bedmate could be.
And as soon as it began it stopped, leaving Yuriy sweating on one side of the bed while Kai looked on amused, his eyes growing redder and redder by the minute. Then he was on him again, straddling the pale waist and shoving his tongue down Yuriy's throat.
"Nggg..." Yuriy bit at him, almost as if he was trying to eat him alive. Kai welcomed it entirely, not protesting even when Yuriy brought his hand down on his head, forcing their faces closer to mash their lips into one. Kai nibbled delicately on the corner of Yuriy's mouth while the redhead gave lingering licks onto the bleeding lips.
"You're fucking insane you know that?" Yuriy panted, tucking back the silvery bangs behind Kai's ear. "And..." Kai just melted on top of Yuriy's chest, hands slithering lower behind him to slip beneath the boxers and beyond. "You... nnggg..." Yuriy flipped them over, pushing Kai into the soft mattress. "Stop that." He grumbled, though he really didn't mean it. "Now..." Kai's eyes had gone quiet, no not Kai's... Kuro Suzaku's... the knife reappeared beneath Kai's throat, the dull part pushing into the jaw line. "...what did you just do?"
"What makes you think I did anything?" Kai looked disinterestedly at the knife, and then licked his lips as they locked eyes once more. Yuriy could again see the shimmering blue of his own eyes reflected in the pool of red. The effect was mesmerizing. Kai laughed, "You're not going to get any answers if you stare into my eyes, as romantic as it may be." Yuriy smiled, a mocking reflection of Kai's.
"Just... answer." He dug the knife in deeper to make his point. Kai shrugged, not at all bothered by the sharp blade dangerously close to his jugular.
"I didn't do anything, but your Kai's getting weaker." Something quiet burned in Kai's eyes. Something so akin to hunger that for a moment Yuriy wanted to run, test the wind and to see if Kai would follow.
"My Kai." Repeated Yuriy in disbelief, "What the hell are you talking about."
"My, my master Yuriy..." Kai gently pushed away the knife, briefly rubbing his cheeks against the flaming red hair. "Have you never wondered why Kai couldn't remember any of you when he first came back?"
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"Boris..." Ivan stood under the doorway as he gave the older teen a flat stare. 'You scared me' he was about to add, the words hanging on the barest tip of his tongue. But he didn't because they were both predators and admitting one's weakness could be fatal. Boris probably had read it all in his movements anyways; he was tense, that much was clear to even the blindest of people. "I thought you were one of the Saint Shields." A feeble excuse, however experienced they might have been they couldn't have broken through all the security set up around the mansion.
"I'm more dangerous than any of them combined." Boris grinned cockily. To this Ivan muttered 'I know'. If anything the grin widened until Ivan could have sworn that it split the falcon's face in two. "Now if you don't have any prior engagements..."
"...actually I do," Ivan interrupted, wondering how he could bypass this particular situation. "I'm pretty sure my bed is missing me... gack!" Boris simply grabbed him by the collar and began to drag the smaller boy behind him.
"Like I said if you don't have any prior engagements..."
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Boris pushed Ivan down onto the chair, handing him a piece of paper as he did so. Ivan raised an inquisitive brow before straightening in the paper to get a good look at it. Seeing that Boris was doing nothing to help, he irritably dragged himself towards the lamp on the side table and turned it on.
The surprise on his face was so incriminating that he couldn't have denied it even if he had wanted to. Ivan licked his lips nervously,
"Where... did you get this?"
Boris shrugged, casually rolling his shoulders though his sharp eyes were anything but.
"Saw it, drew it."
Ivan nodded understandingly, Boris had an uncanny ability to memorize patterns or logos that made it easy to identify a certain group or a gang from afar.
"It's..."
"Kuro Suzaku?" provided Boris, poking the shorter teen's chest. "Even I know that much, now tell me what it's doing on Kai's chest."
"You don't have the authority to ask that of me." Ivan hissed, slapping away the offending hand. Boris raised both of his hands, almost as if to placate the agitated viper. A glint of silver caught the snake's eye; the falcon was dead serious this time.
"News flash, we're not in the abbey idiot. And I think that the threat of dying is enough of an authority to ask... what the hell's going on?" Boris pushed Ivan over and made himself at home on the couch, one arm leisurely stretching behind the short Russian's neck to reveal a switchblade.
"How does everyone know that we're in charge of keeping Kuro Suzaku in line?" Ivan asked irritably, trying vainly to avoid the knife.
"Don't change the subject." Said Boris with an artificial sweetness on the borderline of mass-murder mode "it's unbecoming of you." The navy haired Russian squirmed nervously before slapping his face with a sigh. Boris looked at him in fascination,
"What?"
"I wasn't aware that you could do that without hitting your nose..."
"Keep it down." The low baritone of Sergei's voice halted Ivan from trying to bite off Boris' fingers. "They're getting curious." The muscular blond jerked his way towards the back where a couple of nervous looking group of people had gathered. Closing the door Sergei ordered, "Ivan, just tell him, it'll save you the effort of fortifying your laptop." Boris gave the blonde a half-curious look.
"You don't know?"
"I know enough when and when not to eliminate our subject, not much more than that." The blonde gave a half-hearted shrug, to which the viper responded,
"Which you refused to do this afternoon..."
"You didn't do it either when you were clearly ordered to do so should I fail."
Ivan growled; tossing the piece of paper and laying it flat on the table.
"Kai's not supposed to be alive."
"Well duh," responded Boris dryly, "I know we're pretty hard to kill off but I know for a fact Hiwatari was dead when we found him after his fight with Kingston. Just ask Sergei, he's the doctor."
"I said..." responded Sergei gruffly, "he stopped breathing, I never pronounced him dead."
"See, dead." The eldest member rolled his eyes.
"There are miracles." He pointed out,
"You're a Blitzkrieg first, Neo Borg second, a doctor-wannabe third, you don't believe in miracles"
"Perhaps not, but then what do you call Kai"
"A moron the way he's been going with Yuriy. It's like watching a badly written soap opera."
"Why can't we ever keep our conversations straight?" Ivan asked to no one in particular.
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"Hitoshi?"
"Yes..." and he stumbles on the word, his mouth feeling dry. He turns around slowly and is relieved to find that he's still in the kitchen, still doing the dishes (because Takao and Daichi would break them if they ever got the sink duty), still only has an annoying brother named Takao whose red-head sidekick was not present. It kind of reminded him of the other dynamic duo who would surely be doing what most sane people were doing at this time, sleeping.
"What are you doing?" a yawn and Takao resumes rubbing his eyes. It was cute really, how the navy haired Japanese had kept the habit for all these years. It brought in unwanted memories and he frowned, his mind lingering on the subject of his brother.
"Doing dishes." He replied, which earned him and odd look from Takao.
"How long could it possibly take?"
Indeed, he had been washing the same bowl for more than an hour now and still scrubbing. Perhaps if he continued he could get the aging yellow off, perhaps with the chips of paint, he could wash away the memories brought on by his conversation earlier with Brooklyn.
Takao took a seat on the chair, collapsing against the table.
"Ne Hitsohi-nii-chan." But he didn't continue, just listening to the dull 'tick' and 'tock' of the clock overhead. The silence stretched on for what seemed like an eternity, every second punctuated by the 'tick's and 'tock's before Hitoshi spoke again.
"Kane will be alright... he's just angry right now..." his hands methodically sponged the bottom leaving a trail of white foam. "He'll be alright." He dunked it in the sink a few times, rinsing out the last of the bubbles before drying it with a towel. "Just give him time ok?"
Takao replied in something that vaguely sounded like a muffled 'alright' before lifting his head. "But what about..."
The cup fell at his feet, shattering in to pieces of foam covered glass. The auburn eyes are deeply troubled and bleeding into a redder color. In that moment Takao realizes how similar they are, from the slim build to the basic facial frame. Shippou no Jin, Hitoshi, might have well been Kai's brother rather than his. He quickly stands up, making a motion to pick up the broken cup, before a hand closes over his stops him from doing so.
Hitoshi's feet are bleeding.
"Stay away from him."
"What?" Takao backs off, feeling a sense of dejavu away from this place in the rain and falling yellow ginko leaves. Hitoshi's hold does not loosen when he tugs at it frantically, wanting nothing more than to get out of the kitchen. Taking in a shuddering breath, Hitoshi releases him and looks down at him with the same kind of eyes.
"Stay away from him Takao."
A slow rebellion rose up in his stomach.
"Why? Kai's my friend!"
Hitoshi's laughter is harsh, ear-splitting in the quiet hour of the night.
"But that's not what you want from him. Stay away from Kai Takao, I mean it." Takao gives his brother a disgusted look before leaving. His footsteps are light and thuds in accordance with the clock. It is only after Hitoshi remembers to clean up the broken glass, even later he remembers the pain in the soles of his feet.
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Somewhere down the line Kai had pinned Yuriy against the wall. Somewhere down the line Yuriy had slipped off the bed. Somewhere down the line Kai was on top of Yuriy again.
His hands caressed the finned cheeks like a caring lover before pushing his face down for a tiny peck.
"You're beautiful like this you know?"
"Beautiful..." Kai echoed,
"You're beautiful..." Yuriy smiled, almost as if he was laughing at an inside joke. "You're beautiful and exciting."
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"Had fun?" the question wasn't asked for the sake of an answer but for sake of asking, to break the silence enforced upon them during their brief moments of unity in time. So his double did not bother answering, content to let the first create the ripples across their reality until they were separated, one light and the other dark.
There was no direct source of light here, not unless they called out the flames in their all too brief reunions for a spat or two. But the walls glowed a heavenly white so light that the both turned into a phase of monochromic gray, unable to tell which was which and who was what.
"We could be strong," the double said finally as their bodies began to fade. "We would be strong..." the first looked at him dully, eyes quietly wondering if the other was beginning to get desperate. "We... we will be."
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No one ate at the table. They were in various stages of sleep from Ivan's twitchy level one to Yuriy's deeper level five. That is, until Kai stood up to go about his daily business with a trip to Brooklyn's. Strangely enough Yuriy didn't stop him this time, instead, studying him with half-lidded eyes as he pulled on his jacket and opened the door.
"Be careful." Yuriy said finally, hand reaching for the coffee.
"Aren't I always?"
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It seemed as though perhaps Dragoon had swept through the apartment. He had already expected the emptiness of Garland's floor but he didn't expect that Brooklyn too would follow soon after. Boxes upon more boxes furnished the rooms; the only thing left unpacked was perhaps the couch and a few cups and spoons.
With cheer on the borderline psychosis Brooklyn served him tea, chattering on about how he had nothing to do now that he had given away most of his plants to other people in preparation for his trip back to Europe.
"One last question?" at Kai's startled look he continued, "It's only fair, that was our agreement after all." For a long time Kai mulled over the cup. Finally he stood up and dropped it, sending it shattering into pieces at his feet. Brooklyn only gave him a brief reproachful look for the broken glass.
"It doesn't put itself back together, it can't, it won't. But I did." Kai gave Brooklyn a long-suffering look, "why?" and he promptly squatted down, gathering the larger fragments and gathering them towards the middle of the floor. He picked up the smaller pieces and cut his finger on one, and again put them in the middle with the larger pieces. The handle was missing, sent scattering across the floor somewhere.
"Why...?" Brooklyn reached for Kai's hand. Kai flinched and withdrew, backing up against the cardboard boxes. "You're different, but you already knew that didn't you Kai?" And he closed the distance with a kiss.
They broke apart panting. Brooklyn leaned heavily on the prone form of Kai with the phoenix left feeling as if something important had been taken away from him. Kai could literally count the beads of sweat that sprung on the cinnamon framed brow. Brooklyn's cat-like green eyes were hazy with desire and something else he couldn't identify. They stayed like that close and intimate, feeling every breath that rattled each other's throat before trickling out in to the atmosphere. Then the redhead's eyes cleared, he lovingly brushed the silver locks away from Kai's face.
"I'm not your friend Kai," said Brooklyn in a matter-of-fact way. "I am your equal, but I could be more." He tugged the Russian back on to his feet and off of the cardboard boxes.
"Why are you helping me?" Kai fingered his lips, freshly bruised from the brutal kiss Brooklyn had gifted him with. The said teen smiled radiantly before pulling Kai closer to himself.
"It's always sad when a bird is caged. It doesn't matter if it is better off staying behind the gilded bars a bird should always hold claim to the sky." Brooklyn kissed Kai once more on the forehead, this time a chaste farewell. Scratch that, there was nothing innocent about their twisted relationship. "Your cage is of your own making, I wonder if you can break free of it..." and Brooklyn let Kai go. "You only have so long, don't waste it ne Kai?"
Kai didn't know when or how he got out of the apartment, only aware that he was running as if he could suddenly sprout wings on his feet. He hit the line of trees, the last reminiscence of fall disappearing with the coming chill and kept on running. Kept on running because he knew, he knew on the other side would be Yuriy. Yuriy, with his handsome face pointed to the sky just waiting for him to come back.
Was he a fool for letting it become like this?
He was a fool either way, for loving him when it should have been casual camaraderie and unbreakable loyalty. Fits of jealousy, hurt and envy when it should have been solid friendship.
His feet bounced off of the dark earth, then on spongy grass, then on carefully laid pavement before he jumped and cleared the fence for what it seemed like the umpteenth time. Frightened sparrows and pigeons took off in a flurry of feathers and there... Kai was aware how madly his heart thudded in-between his ribs and wondered if he too could hear it.
Kai landed on Yuriy, legs straddling the slim waist hand hands on either side of the vermillion curtain cradling the Russian's head. Their lips a scant millimeter away from each other and Kai wondered if Brooklyn had foreseen this too, then he closed the distance with a passionate kiss of his own by the fountain in front of the Hiwatari manor.
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They were there again, away from the prying eyes of the servants. Hiding out from their leaders because they couldn't be trusted to handle the truth, or could they?
"Kai's not supposed to be alive." At Boris' impatient flat look Ivan added hastily, "I mean that his birth wasn't... exactly planned."
"Explain,"
"How do you think bit-beasts are created?"
Now there was an age old question they had all privately nurtured during the colder nights. Neo Borg's bitbeasts were all man-made, even Kuro Suzaku was not a chance birth by something natural. They had all been created... but how?
"Cloning," Sergei stated flatly, "it's the only way they could have created Kuro Suzaku, by cloning the original. I don't know what they based ours off of but I can tell you right now that ours came after her."
"Him. Kuro Suzaku technically does not have a gender. But with Kai..."
"And this brings us to the subject of Kai and Kuro Suzaku how?"
"Elementary my dear Watson," replied Ivan mockingly. "Kai and Kuro Suzaku are supposed to be the same thing." when satisfied that he was not going to be interrupted for the duration of the explanation Ivan began to explain. "Yeah cloning, they acquired Suzaku from Kai's grandfather and had been trying to get a super-clone out of it."
"This is starting to sound like a bad movie..." ignoring Boris Ivan continued,
"Unfortunately, they didn't know how to keep a damned thing alive in that abbey," a snort from Boris, "they kept on killing the clones because they couldn't supply enough oxygen or whatever they were supposed to do."
"Wait one minute; you're saying that bit-beasts exist... physically?"
Ivan gave Sergei a dry look,
"Kinda late on the uptake aren't you? Geeze how do you thing Seaborg fights?"
"I thought they existed in another plane somewhere," retorted Sergei with as much dignity as he could muster, "maybe appear as a physical entity if called on, but most part spiritual."
"Well where were you when we started taking classes..." muttered Boris. Ivan waved his hand,
"Created bit-beasts tend to be easier to summon since most of them were created for fighting anyways. Also, since they weren't born in the other realm where pink unicorns and butterflies live; they really have no choice but to stick around."
"And..."
"So they actually need to be created within a living body. You can't exactly put a puff of gas in some kind of an incubator and hope it works."
"Dearest leader was dipped in a vat of liquid jello and he's fine..." Boris pointed out, "or not..." he added under his breath.
"He's a human... he's supposed to live and reproduce in this dimension." Ivan again ignored Boris' 'god, mini-Yuriys, where did we go wrong'. Seeing that Sergei might be the only one listening, he turned to face the burly blonde. "Anyways so they got a woman, got her pregnant and implanted the clone into the womb so it would grow in the body of the unborn fetus."
"If that woman was knocked up with a 'human' baby, shouldn't Kuro Suzaku be more... humanoid? As far as I can tell we mostly dissected animals though the whole rumor in the cafeteria about the mystery meat actually being the body of our dead comrades does seem quite possible right now."
"Who says Kuro Suzaku isn't humanoid?" at Ivan's grin the other two froze. "Anyways, the woman was the former wielder of Suzaku. That might have helped? Nine months later a baby was born and they successfully extracted the Suzaku's blacker half, what they didn't expect was for the boy to survive the whole process since it was his 'soul' that was supposed to be taken out."
"And the boy would be..."
"Kai," Sergei finished. "That sounds pretty far-fetched." Ivan shrugged,
"I'm only telling you what they told me, I only know the later parts. But Kai lived and they had no idea what to do with him."
"That means... Kuro Suzaku wasn't meant for Kai?"
"No. It was meant for his older brother who received the 'honor' after his mother volunteered for this project."
"Something went wrong," said Boris with uncharacteristic sagacity, "something always goes wrong."
"Da, it did. They began to wonder if they had extracted the right soul, they wondered if it wasn't 'Kai' that was in the bit."
"What happened?"
"Only one person in this world knows, maybe two if Kai remembers, but they're not willing to share..." Ivan seemed lost in thought, his red eyes focusing on something far away.
"You touched her, him..." Boris cupped his chin, bringing the boy's face into the light. With one finger, he delicately traced the lid, so different from Kai's but not unlike at all. "Your eyes... they didn't used to be that way... just like with Yuriy..." Sergei looked with interest. He too remembered Ivan's eyes being a shade duller, more hazel than red. "But his eyes..."
"Yuriy confronted Brooklyn after Kuro Suzaku took over, if Brooklyn does indeed have a god bit beast, he shouldn't suffer any effects from contact with Kai." Sergei seemed to be shaken by what all this meant. Boris pressed on,
"Yuriy?"
"Zeus takes away darkness..."
"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" for a long time no one answered than surprising even himself Boris said softly, "It means that Kai didn't betray us, In a way Kai never left us. It's we who left him, we who betrayed him and left him when he needed us the most."
Ivan grinned viciously, throwing a haunted look at Boris.
"You wanted to know the truth Boris? We are the traitors Boris, and that is the truth about darkness..."
Behind him, the sun began to rise...
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A.C.: ...woah... it's like a sci-fi/supernatural now... -cringes-
Ayatsuji- lol you guys are all the love I'll ever need ;D. Ehh TOEFL, have no idea actually, haven't even taken it yet. ;; kinda working backwards I took the SAT first (don't ask, it's a secret I'll take to my grave) so eh, I've been preparing-ish. Found out that I haven't been able to open a single English based workbook since the SAT. that makes it... kinda difficult. Just kinda.
And yess... return to the darkside!
Or not. Good luck on your college thingy kay? –shakes head- another year...
Sickofme- ah thank you.
Pikke Wood- Well Brooklyn's gone... for now. Don't worry, this is strictly a Yuriy/Kai (-crosses fingers-)
YuriyTalaIvanov- the bunnies did it. Err... Kai's been having problems. Getting caught in a triangle between Brooklyn and Yuriy will do that to anyone. And umm... Kuro Suzaku's being restless of late, we'll see more of him/her from now on.