Title: Birth in the death
Chapters: 4/8
Author:
fallen_am_i Genre: Angst, Romance, AU, Supernatural
Warnings:Boylove, mentions of suicide, probability of character death
Rating: PG-13 to PG-15
Pairing: Tora x Saga, some ShouxHiroto
Synopsis: His dream was to fly, to travel freely everywhere he wanted... And that night he was going to do it. If...
Disclaimer: I own the story only...
Coments: A big thank you to
xme_chanx for beta reading :3
Chapter 4:
Shinji…
That was the nave he gave that fateful night, when he was asked about it. Nice sounding and simple, and he liked names like that. He couldn’t remember if he was related to this name or if it was just by chance that it popped into his mind. It could be the name of a person he used to love a lot, or even his own name, when he was still a human. When he was, yes… Because humanity doesn’t depend on a still beating heart.
Shinji was still alive, after so many years. Hot blood was flowing in his veins, his body was pulsing as everyone else’s, his muscles were functioning like when he used to be a young man. He could run fast for a long time without getting tired, feel the piercing cold of the ice or the burning from a fire like everyone else in this planet called earth. But he was not human. He had lost the right to be called one a long time ago, when he lost his last of his beloved ones. When people were growing old around him and died, while he was still remaining with the gift of youth unspoiled on his beautiful features. When he couldn’t feel sorry for any more deaths and lost souls, completely understanding the meaning the circle of life had. That was the stage when the change came. His heart kept beating and he was still warm, but only on the outside. His sight froze, unable to show tension or passion anymore. His lips never smiled again, as he had forgotten how to do it during the ages. Tears had dried out even longer ago and there was never sweat from stress on his clothes. Anger, jealousy, friendship, loyalty. Love. Nothing existed for him as he grew distant to other people, cutting forever the line that was keeping him as one of them.
He stopped living the circle of life and became a part of it…
Like a book you don’t read, that man, who was maybe called Shinji once, started to forget the memories he had from when he was really alive, happy moments and tear-shedding events. And he was fine with it, as there weren’t any feelings left in his still alive, yet deserted heart. He had long lost his name, but the people in the world had given him new ones, all of them betraying the fear he was inspiring to them, the bad omen and luck. His favorite one of those creative names was Tora, a name he kept through the centuries and was recognized by it. Tora… It’s sound was enough for eyes to widen in fear, for pleads and mercy to start flowing like ariver from desperate mouths.
But he was not merciful, nor cruel. He was just playing his part in that never ending circle, watching people leaving life and entering a different stage, better or not. He didn’t care. He couldn’t care, not when it was only natural for death to come, to leave place for a new life to be created. Not that he expected from humans to understand that, of course. Three centuries were needed for him to drive away the believes he had as a human being. But he made it and he accepted his own fate, gaining precious immortality by losing something even more important. The chance to find his own peace of mind one day. He was there, present at the story of many people around that world, helping them write their ending without him being noticed. And that’s what kept him safe and distant from everything. Till that fateful night…
Tora or Shinji, he didn’t know which one he preferred anymore, had cursed many times that starless night, when his fate brought him to the same path as another soul’s, that boy who was called Takashi. A coincidence. That’s what he thought it was in the start, when he sat at the rock by the cliff for the first time, waiting to deliver the final scene for that fragile being. A coincidence that created a mistake, a word he learned about only then, followed by another new word for him. Consequences. He was seen, talked to, even made fun of, things he thought he had thrown away in the infinity of time. Yet he was wrong. For those feelings were still there, locked away in a dusty corner in his old heart, sleeping eternally. Till that boy with the shiny brown eyes awoke them. Takashi…
It was like an earthquake shaking what he was taking for granted, making the rocks on his heart move away and flow down, along with everything he had long forgotten. First came surprise. Surprise that a mere mortal could see him and face him, even though he was scared of what Shinji was inspiring. Then worry came to rest inside him, as all the logic in the world was not enough to explain all those events happening since he met the boy. Worry about completing his mission, doing what he should do. Worrying about the price he had to pay as days and nights were passing by and he was still there, pretending something he was not anymore and playing blind in front of his duties. Till curiosity won the best of him and he surrendered finally in fate’s rhythm, wandering where this new game would lead him too, and about the identity of that witty young man, who if he knew about what Shinji really was, he would probably wet his pants or beg for mercy like everyone else was doing. But Takashi didn’t and that was driving the dark-haired man crazy. Takashi saw him too early, and he was not supposed to…
Then curiosity was turned to care, with small bits of uneasiness. Uneasiness, because he could feel his insides warming slowly, every time he was meeting with the boy. He could feel his mind finding some of the desired peace during his time spent with Takashi, his lips stretching in to smiles more and more often, and those hazel eyes, so beautiful but cold, distant, were now warm, burning with a fire he used to know once, but he was still afraid to name. Every inch of his body was overflown by a vital energy, making his cell working again full of life, like it was reborn. And like that, in one single night, Tora, the cruel tiger who was ripping bodies blankly with his claws, became Shinji, a man with feelings and emotions, who cared deeply about the cause of all of his problems. A wild being that was turned into a lamb, just so that he could see a pretty, genuine smile plastered on Takashi’s face. Because that became his new mission…
That smile was glued in his mind weeks after, on a quiet evening, as he was striding down the roads of Tokyo, doing what he was meant to all those centuries. Dressed in black, making the pale color of his skin bolder, he walked between people silent and unnoticed as he was looking for his next job. The next person to deliver. He had managed somehow to shut Takashi out of his routine, ignoring the fact that he was still a part of it. It was like his life was dividing in two, one that was as it used to be for years and one that started having sense only at nights, when the boy was with him.
He was following a random path, just where his instinct was guiding him to, at the essence of a slowly beating heart, tired and overworked from time. He was going to do the same ritual as always, but his thoughts were stolen again from the boy, his youth and his curious eyes as they were always staring back at him with affection. A feint smile softened the edges of his mouth, melting the coldness of his once stoic features. One smile of those he always kept and showed to Takashi only, to please him, as the boy loved seeing Shinji smiling…
“Isn’t it time to stop this madness?”
A calm, almost singing voice echoed close to him. Shinji was not surprised at all, he had heard the heavy steps behind him, he had felt that foreign to his surroundings scent invading his personal space. A scent somewhat mysterious and harmonic, one that he knew well where it belonged to. He never answered, he just kept going on, trying to spot more trails from his next client, irritating the figure that was stalking him.
“What the hell got into you Tora?” The figure walked fast enough to reach the dark-haired man, anger and worry toning his usually kind features. They were not both walking at the same height and pace, never looking at each other. It was not needed, as no one else could hear their talk. “Everyone is on the move, waiting orders about you!” he snapped, throwing a folded paper in his hands. “How could you underestimate him, Tora?” he shouted louder, taking out all of his trapped feelings. “The only reason you and the boy are still alive is because you used to be one of his best and he wants to hear your side of the story!”
Hazel eyes roamed calmly on the white surface of the paper, looking carefully on the lines till he finished reading, crashing the paper in his closed palm.
“None of your business…” he finally said calmly, not even glancing at the man next to him.
“Yet it is! Since the moment that shit came to my house!” he pointed at the man’s closed fist in visible anger. “Can’t you get it yet? Your stupid acts affect all of us! You are opposing the flow of nature!”
“I am controlling it, Shou…”
A loud, ironic laugh escaped Shou’s lungs. “Control it? Then why is he still alive Tora? Why don’t you do what you should from the start?”
Silence was all he got back, not that he expected any different. He knew Tora for ages and he knew quite well his reactions, though the dark-haired man was full of surprises lately.
“What is it?” Shou asked in a calmer way, rubbing his forehead in soothing circles. “Were you bored? Were you trying to piss our Lord off? Was it the boy?” A desperate sigh. “What made you do all of this?”
Silence once again, yet something shone inside those hazel eyes, a small glimpse of light in the general darkness. Shou bit his full lips. “The boy…” he concluded darkly, realizing that even an iceberg like Tora had his weak points after all. Finally every piece fit in place as he could notice genuine care about that fragile being in every single act his old friend did.
A smile curled Shou’s lips, small and bitter. “Who would ever expect it…” he breathed lowly. “I was the soft one, yet you-“
“Stop.”
His usually cold voice released trapped fire, warning the blond man, like a thunder before it hits the ground. Shou stopped, his eyes softening a little, realizing completely what was happening inside Tora’s world. That he was not Tora any more. Shinji had taken his place.
“You know how you feel better than me, anyway…” he stopped walking, making the dark-haired man pause his moves too. “This is the final warning…” he said boldly, wide brown orbs locking on the man across to him. “A week, he said. You have one last week. Talk to the boy, tell him the truth if you want. Bid him farewell like a person who cares would. But if till Sunday midnight he is still alive, then I’ll come for him. Me, or whoever gets to him first…”
Those were Shou’s final words and a silent agreement was signed between the two. Shinji nodded, moving his eyes away and focusing somewhere else, on his right hand that was trembling in anticipation.
“Now let me do my job…” The cold tone had returned in his voice again as he closed his eyes to feel, sense and hear that weak soul calling for him, that old candle which’s flame was slowly going off.
Shou chuckled in irony. “I am here exactly because you are NOT doing your job!”
A sigh in disappointment, a loud blow of the wind and then nothing. Shinji was alone on the street once again, smelling slightly Shou's sweet scent before it disappeared completely. He shot a last glance on the place the other was moments ago and then he looked away, at the direction of a big hospital. He felt shiver rushing on his body, an invisible weight resting on his right hand as he closed his eyes and raised his hands in the air, becoming the wind, the soft breeze. Every bit of his existence became small particles of dust, flowing freely towards that direction, in a room in the upper floor. someone was waiting there for him…
When he opened his eyes again, Shinji was inside a white room, plain, with the stereotypical hospital bed and a small TV. An old woman was sleeping on the uncomfortable mattress, pale looking and really tired. Close to her, on a chair, a younger woman was leaning back, also asleep due to late hour. Her cheeks were wet, her lips frozen in a pained expression. For one tiny moment, his eyes were lowered at the height of the floor, feeling remorse and… sadness? Emotions he’d never recalled before inside him. Emotions a man like him was not supposed to have… but that small moment of weakness ended and he was above that woman’s bed. He closed his eyes and took a large breath, his hand touching gently that frail one. He grabbed tightly and pulled back, like he was using force to raise the woman up. A thin line of blood ran from her palm, painting red his own.
If the woman on the couch was awake, she would feel a warmth in the air around her, the feeling you get when you set a caged bird free. And if she could see what Shinji could, she would see that aerial figure standing from the bed, looking exactly like her mother but transparent. She couldn’t witness that though, nor Shinji, who was still holding on that old-looking hand.
“I knew someone would come for me today…” she said in a mere whisper, though no one could hear her anymore. Eyes mirroring bitterness looked at the girl, still sobbing in her sleep. “I am so tired… But she’ll cry tomorrow… She’ll cry a lot…” regret was painted all over her features, for the faces she would never see again. She pursed her lips, looking at the silent man, who was giving her the time needed for the final farewell. And right then she knew that no matter her years, it was still unfair to leave that cruel yet wonderful world.
“Hey… In the place you’ll take me… Is it nice?” she asked with hope in her words. “Is it peaceful and happy?”
Shinji shrugged his shoulders, his hazel eyes looking softly at her. “Maybe…” he mumbled lowly, his voice sounding like echo in the wind. “No one wants to leave that place…” he had never passed further than Hade’s walls but he had seen people passing by. All of them smiling, looking like they knew the secret of true happiness. He smiled encouragingly at the woman, who smiled back at him kindly.
“You know…” she started with good-willed voice, “I was expecting you scary, with bones and cruel smile…” she laughed with her imagination. “But you are so different… You eyes are warm and you calming my last moments here… I would never expect a son of death having that air around him, that aura that only people in love have…”
He gave her an enigmatic smile, but he never answered back. He just raised his hand in waiting.
“Are you ready to go?”
The woman went closer to her daughter one last time, leaning and leaving one last kiss on the pale forehead, a small breeze waved the young woman’s fringe. She merely hummed in her sleep, her thing fingers rubbing gently her temple as a few tears ran from her eyes. The girl felt it even in her sleep. Death’s presence…
“Now I am ready…” the woman whispered and grabbed that pointing hand, surrendering herself to him, to guide her at eternal peace.
With a nod, him and the woman were dust, dark and silver, scattering around, going to the place all the souls that deserved it went.
t.b.c.
A/N: I know i am terrible xD i just realised that it's been two months since i posted DDDD8 work keeps me busy along with boring studying >.> I have some problems with my hand too, some of you know... It is better now, sometimes it still get's tired, but i think it's from stress and over using it... So, here i come clean with what is going in the story...
aleksiina_26, if you read this, you were too close in your guesses xD I am using mostly the name Shinji, to show which personality rulled over his body in the end... :3 I hope you like it... I am almost done writing this story, and job is finished at the end of the month, so i am going to have more time for a while... :3 Also, happy belated easter, though here easter is tomorow xD
Comments are always apreciated <3