Chapter 5
Mindlock
Author
The Last Kitten
Author's Note
So…here we are at chapter five.
It's been in the works for a while now and I hope it's up to the standards of the rest.
I feel the need to repeat something to both you readers and myself. I don't actually know any of the members of Dir en Grey.
My characterizations of them is a shot in the dark having read as many interviews and watched as much concert footage as possible.
I actually went to one of their concerts recently, unbelievable by the way, and I saw how each of them are on stage. How they interacted and reacted to the crowd, trying to get a more real since of them so I can write them the way I think they'd react or change if they went through what they do in my story.
Because they are real people I put as much thought in to my portrayal of them as possible as I am always a fan first, and I would literally keel over and die if I offended any of them.
That said, lets get on with the show.
AN2
I've been feeling weird about calling Toshiya "Tochi" for short, so he'll be referred to as Toshi or Toshi-kun from now on.
AN3
Sora means Sky
Nani means what
Antigone is from Classical Mythology. She was the daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta who defied her uncle, King Creon, by performing funeral rites over her brother, Polynices, and was condemned to be immured alive in a cave. ( and wickepedia rule!)
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Music throbbing in his head and cocaine throbbing in his veins, Kyo stared up at the flashing lights of the club finally finding their pattern.
Blue…pink…green…orange…purple…red…red…red.
It took him a moment to realize the changing had stopped, and he was glad for it, it was making him sick.
Slowly he rolled his head, left heavy on the back of the couch, to watch his friends.
Kaoru sat chatting with Shinya, a small sake cup in both their hands, and Kyo's thoughts echoed that of the rest of their small group in hopes that one small cup was all Shinya would drink.
The two yelled in to each other's ears before letting loose simultaneous barks of laughter.
Kyo couldn't hear the conversation and somehow he knew he wouldn't care if he could.
He lazily rolled his head to the right and watched as Toshi, ever the ladies man, quietly chatted up a petite woman with large doe eyes and a skirt the size of a handkerchief.
Then Kyo's eyes shifted to Daisuke, feeling up another mini-skirt on the dance floor. After a few drinks the man was emboldened, and Kyo watched the hazy meshing of the two grinding to the rock-techno beat, briefly wondering if it was all for show.
His eyes wandered slowly back to the ceiling, the red lights dimming softly, and suddenly his attention was caught by a slim shadow.
It flashed directly in front of him, across the dance floor, statue still, between blurring writhing bodies.
Kyo blinked slowly and heaved himself up straighter on the couch.
"Sora-san," he whispered into the ruckus.
She was standing there in the outfit she'd worn to the opening, and in the chaos around him he could still make out the glittering white of the bodus that clung to her frame.
But her eyes, her eyes were different, blue, like the sky.
And he'd never seen that shade before. They weren't dark or pale, just…blue, blue as the sky in May.
He locked eyes with her and for a moment he couldn't move. Her face was expressionless at first, as if she were trying to physically hold him, demanding his attention.
And then her brows began to move, and her eyes to soften in to a look of sympathy, almost sadness.
Finally her head began to turn and Kyo followed her eyes to Kaoru where a small red dot hovered just over his heart.
Kyo's head snapped back over to Skyler but she was gone.
Without a second thought Kyo was off the couch and tackling Kaoru out of the way of a well aimed bullet.
The shot rang out in the club above both music and chatter, and the following stampede nearly trampled all five of the group.
Toshi and Daisuke's women were quick to make their escape, and they pulled Kaoru and Kyo to their feet as Shinya drew his gun and covered their dash to the back exit.
Before he left though, Shinya's eyes scanned the club for the shooter.
He looked to the raptors and caught sight of bright pink hair leaving a high window.
Shinya cursed under his breath, he'd know that hair anywhere, and he was going to have a long talk with her later.
The ride to their respective homes was silent, but the air was so thick with tension a chainsaw wouldn't cut it.
Everyone took turns giving concerned glances at Kaoru and Kyo.
They knew the fireworks that would eventually go off.
As much as Kaoru loved Kyo he took very serious offence to being shot at, and for all intensive purposes this was Kyo's fault.
"What happened at the club was a warning," Kaoru stated the obvious.
Everyone except Kyo turned to look expectantly at him, and even their limo driver glanced in his rearview mirror.
Kaoru looked squarely at each of his friends before finally resting his eyes on Kyo's turned head lying against fogged glass.
"Do you care Kyo? Do you care that that bullet could have killed me…could have easily killed any of us?"
Kyo remained silent.
"She wouldn't have killed us." Everyone turned to look at Shinya. "It was Chibi-Usa, killing's not her thing," he said pouring himself a tumbler full of sake.
The group stared at the glass with worry, and even Kyo peeked over at the sound of clinking glass.
"Shinya…," Daisuke started, but Shinya looked at him sharply and he held his tongue.
"She was there," Kyo whispered.
"Nani," Toshi asked.
"She was there…she warned me about the bullet."
Toshi sighed, "Kyo…."
"You're high," Kaoru shouted. "She wasn't there! She's at home…with her husband!"
Kyo turned to him slightly.
"Yea," Kaoru twisted the knife. "And you know what he's probably doing right now? Fucking her brains out," his voice stayed raised and sarcastic.
"Shut up," Kyo warned lowly.
"Do you really think you can get in her pants? Huh? Do you think a man like Aleksis Dimitry would ever let a nobody like you get near his wife…let alone get in his wife's pants?"
Kyo shut his eyes and turned back to his window.
He was silent for a moment before deciding to further tempt a fist fight.
"I wasn't trying to get in her pants," he smirked. "Not to say that I couldn't if I wanted to."
Kaoru scoffed and shook his head while Shinya just took another drink and hung his. Daisuke touched his knee and gave his shoulder a squeeze before looking to his brother to say something.
Toshi looked from Daisuke to Kyo and tried to reason with him.
"Kyo…it's only been a few hours since lunch and Aleksis's already got Chibi-Usa after us…."
"She came to me," Kyo replied quietly.
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Skyler nearly cried out when her head hit the headboard again.
As expected Aleksis was being a bull tonight.
Normally pain was a happy standard in their love making, but tonight Aleksis was walking the line.
A step under and she couldn't get off, a step over and….
Within the first year of their marriage Aleksis had perfected her taste for sex, for his own sake if not for hers.
He could feel the beginning shakes of her orgasm, could see her grip the bed sheets tighter, the tightening of her spine. She pressed her face into the mattress to quiet the scream of her peek but the noise still carried, and the guards sitting in their living room snickered as they looked at each other.
Aleksis didn't bother being gentle as he pulled out and flung the bright pink strap-on across the room.
Having cum three times already he walked naked to the shower and closed the door behind him, and Skyler knew what was expected of her.
Clean herself up, change the sheets, hide the strap on.
But something was wrong. She was still shaking.
There was a piercing pain between her legs, and the stabbing only grew worse as she curled in to a tight ball. She'd learned, in all her twenty five years, that pain was unavoidable.
"It's knowing that you're going to make it through the pain that matters," the doctors all said.
'Be still, wait it out,' she thought.
But it went on. Five minutes…ten…. And then she felt it.
Soft black fur rubbing against her hand.
"Antigone," she whispered.
The cat rubbed and licked at her hand, and she gathered it close to her, rubbing gently at it's head.
A few minutes later Aleksis opened the bathroom door to release a billow of steam, and the sound of purring assaulted his ears.
Startled, he ran to Skyler's side wide eyed, and grabbing her by the shoulders he shook her.
She started and Antigone leapt from the bed escaping Aleksis's notice.
"Sky answer me," he demanded, Skyler's eyes searching the side of the bed for black fur.
Aleksis checked her over and winced at the slight trickle of blood between her legs.
Panicking slightly he pleaded with her.
"Look at me, Sky, sweetie…."
Her eyes fell on the window then the bed and he hugged her close to him, apologizing repeatedly until he felt a weak tug on his robe.
"Lexy…," Skyler whispered. "I'm…I'm ok."
"No you're not," Aleksis said shakily.
He held her out at arms length to look in to sad eyes, and Skyler could see his machismo quickly draining away.
"I'm going to call Dr. Khnum," he said laying her back down gently.
Having spent a good portion of her young life in and out of hospitals Skyler hated them, and she refused to go outright every time Aleksis forced the question.
No matter the size or depth of the wound, the hospital would have to come to her, and Dr. Khnum had been Aleksis's loyal physician for over twenty years.
The man was trained as an army medic, making him an expert at patching up all manor of nightmarish wounds, and after ten years of army medicine and fifteen in private practice Khnum knew the human body.
He could pull it apart and put it back together with his eyes closed, and in all Aleksis's forty-five years there was only one other person he'd met with comparable knowledge of the human physic.
It was the woman currently bleeding beneath him telling him she was fine.
Skyler's grip tightened on Natasha's robe and she was nearly yanked off the bed when Natasha rose to fast to reach the phone.
"Please…."
Natasha looked back at the slim arm attached to her.
'When had she gotten so thin,' she thought. 'When was the last time I saw her eat'?
"Please, don't bother Dr. Khnum with this," she pleaded.
Natasha slowly turned to wrap her larger hand around Skyler's.
She'd been neglecting her again and she kept her eyes on Skyler's hand as she sat back down and hung her head.
Skyler moved with some difficulty to kneel beside Natasha and gently smoothed her long wet nearly white hair behind her ear, but Natasha only turned her head, desperate to hide her shame.
"It's only a little blood…really I'm fine," she said hugging Natasha tight.
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Kyo was the last to be dropped off and he couldn't find words to describe the twisting feeling in his gut.
Why did Kaoru always have to be so damned…blunt?
'Blunt,' Kyo almost laughed, as if he himself was ever anything but.
It was rare for Kyo to use tact. He saw no reason to sugar coat reality.
The term 'break it to them gently' was lost on him, and most admired his frankness.
Him being set in his ways though, he couldn't bring himself to fully appreciate those closest to him, or anyone else's bluntness.
It was just, well, rude.
"Do you want me to come up," Kaoru asked quietly, watching Kyo take one last snort of cocaine off the knife he'd given him for his fifteenth birthday.
He wiped his nose silently, then, "she's not my type".
"Nani," Kaoru said. "Anything with a hole is your type."
"Shut up," Kyo smirked, and then he was very serious. "Quiet…soft…she's a doll, an illusion."
Kaoru nodded his understanding. Kyo couldn't stand weakness in women, and Kaoru had always thought his taste strange. He was a Japanese traditionalist who hated demurity.
He'd once told him, after dumping his longest running girlfriend of two months, "I want a woman to fix me dinner because she wants to, not because she thinks she has to."
The limo remained silent and neither of them moved until Kaoru's cell phone rang.
Kyo used that moment to make his escape, and Kaoru could only reach out for him as he tried to answer the call with his other hand.
The door shut nearly catching his fingers and he stuttered his hello.
"M…moshi moshi," he muttered giving his fingers a once over.
He sighed when he heard the all too familiar voice.
"Damn it! How many times do I have to tell you not to call me on this line? It's not secure."
Kyo walked through the door of his apartment building silently lighting a cigarette as he entered, and the door man didn't bother reminding him of the no smoking sign.
That argument had been getting ignored for four years now, and he figured he's save his breath. It was obvious that the wealthy had their own set of rules.
Kyo took a deep drag as he stepped in to the elevator.
"Did you slip him the invitation," a figure laughed inconspicuously in to a cell phone.
"I put it in his jacket pocket on the way home," the other voice replied.
The sparkling red of the woman's cell matched the plush gold of the lobby furniture beautifully, and the large gold ring on her wedding finger clinked slightly with the phone as she said her goodbye and clamped it shut.
Her long black hair stood out against her deathly pale skin and her bright red dress and long fox shoulder fur swept the floor as she stood and returned to her limo waiting just outside.
A large graying man opened the door for her and she smiled seductively at him as she got in, hitching up her dress to flash him her pale legs.
Stone faced he closed the door and walked to the passenger seat, sliding in and nodding to the driver.
A second set of eyes watched Kyo enter the elevator and the pale woman leave before being called over to help another resident move their shopping bags to their apartment.
"Yuki, you lazy ass! Get over here and help Mrs. Daberu with her bags," the floor manager yelled, simultaneously apologizing to the old woman.
Yuki complied quickly glancing one more time between the door and the elevator.
The last pare of eyes, watching all three parties, returned her attention to her own bags filled with first aid supplies.
She shuffled quickly to the elevator and entered the code to the penthouse.
The short woman held her face near the retinal scanner disguised as a black glass panel and a soft British voice called her name.
"Hana Yugera, cleared for pent house level."
Hana giggled at the espionage of it all. She loved the 007 life, even if she couldn't talk about it with friends or family. She was still young, nearly matching the age of her employer's wife, and she often held long girlish conversations with her, having to follow Skyler around for most of the day.
In the four years she'd been working for the Dimitry's she had become more than just Skyler's personal assistant.
The rich and often busy woman never went out with other men or women in a recreational setting, so Hana became the closest thing she had to a friend.
As the doors opened to the penthouse she was met by a pacing Natasha and two worried looking body guards.
The shorter of the two, at a mere six foot four, leaned over and whispered a warning to her.
"He's in a bad mood so be quick and keep quiet," he winked.
"Domo, Dante-kun," she smiled sadly at him.
Her long blue dress swished as she passed Natasha and she kept her eyes on the stairs ahead, walking quickly.
She knocked quietly when she reached the open master bedroom door.
"Hana-san," Skyler called from the bathroom.
"Hana-san, I'm in here."
Hana knew Skyler well. She only used an honorific when she was being official.
She would take the antiseptic quietly and tolerate no questioning about her injuries, she never tolerated any of her staff questioning or badmouthing her husband.
If an employee had a quam with Aleksis they went through her. That's just the way she was. She bore the brunt of many of Aleksis's business conflicts, and determined to shield him, most times she stepped in and smoothed out begrudgement before he even knew about it.
Hana entered quietly unable to meet her eyes and instead choosing to study the soft silk of Skyler's dressing gown. The robe cut high around her neck and hung low around her wrists and ankles.
'She's hiding from me,' Hana thought, a need usually brought on by undo embarrassment.
Anyone in the world lucky enough to have seen the woman's body could tell you it was a work of art, literally and figuratively. The art adorning that temple showed a whimsy few people were privy to, and Hana was proud to be one of those few.
She set the brown paper bag down on the vanity and stepped back watching closely the hand that slowly reached out to pick it up.
"So…," Hana began, but was silenced by the quick slide of Skyler's eyes.
She was still wearing her contacts, something she never did at home, and Hana knew she should tread lightly.
Her good since told her to leave, be silent and leave. But her heart held her feet in place, and as Skyler turned away from her she spoke.
"Dimitry-san," she swallowed knowing the woman's temper. "I…what happ…."
"That will be all for the night," Skyler interrupted her softly.
That was a good sign, she wasn't angry with her, just tired. Her soft tone was an acknowledgement of Hana's fiendlike status.
Both pleased and further saddened Hana nodded to her back and left her in silence.
Outside the door she crept in to the hall listening to the clinking of glasses.
Natasha would drink herself to sleep tonight and one of the guards would carry her to the couch. Much later Skyler would come downstairs, shake her awake, and help her to bed.
It happened every time Natasha hurt her. It was her own special way of punishing herself.
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Trivia for spoilers: What does Mrs. Daberu's name mean?