Ice Castle (Prologue + Chp. 1)
Title: Ice Castle (mult-chp)
Author: xlolitsnozomix
Pairing: Akame
Rating: PG-13 for now
Words: 4500
Genre: AU, angst, romance, probably smut
Summary: A castle...that almost seems to suspend in the sky. Stories that haunt the castle. Rumors. Sayings. Legends. Myths. But one truth. A truth that should never be revealed. But when a sixteen year old boy, Akanishi Jin, enters the picture, it is already a little too late. Perhaps there can never be a happily ever after ending to this story of forbidden love. A story of an ice castle.
Warnings: probably BAD GRAMMAR LIKE CRAZY ;___; i'm SO SORRY D: but i didn't have any time is all T__T i was in a rush D: i'm sorry >_< hope you won't be too annoyed at it, lol XD
A/N: Wow. This took me two days to write XDD the plot bunny was ATTACKING ME LIKE CRAZY~! i hope you like it (: not much to say cept i hope you'll enjoy this plot ^___^;; comments and such things are appreciated~♥
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Prologue
Ice. The feeling of pure, unscathed, perfectly smooth ice. Coldness, yet a strange sense of calmness, of tranquility. The little boy runs along the hallways, his hand touching the surface of the glass walls, the feeling if ice, of winter at the tips of his fingers, the coldness nearly scalding his skin. The steps echo through the see-through walls as he bounds down the hallway. He is humming something in his throat, something that sounds like a lullaby.
When he reaches the end of one hallway, he stops, and looks out of the glass wall longingly. The bright, blinding sun looks like it’s about to break the glass in half, looks like it’s going to make it crack. The little boy sighs. A deep, distant sigh as he slumps to the ground, his knees crashing on to the freezing marble floors. And he lets out a little cry. So lonely, so sad.
No one hears him, no one cares.
Beyond that glass, that perfect, unbreakable barrier of glass that tempts him, is a world of freedom, of wonders, of things that he has never heard of here in this prison. This glass prison.
The boy’s sighs turn into silent sobs, hiccups that wrack his body as he sits there alone, neglected. A single palm is pressed against the cold, silent stone wall made out of glass, like he’s reaching out into the world outside of this place, outside of this penitentiary, this cage.
The boy has known this castle his entire life, this place where he was born, yet at the same time abandoned in a strange sense. This placed where he has grown up. This place…where he is entrapped, caged, like an animal in a zoo exhibit.
“They don’t want me. They never have. I don’t belong here. Am I a monster?” the boy whispers in silence to himself, broken sobs and hiccups still shaking his thin frame.
Outside the window he can see an endless sea of evergreen trees and he absentmindedly wonders if he will ever get to touch them. To stand beside them and take in the glory of their magnificence.
I am a monster. He convinces himself before laying his head down on the cold marble floors and falling into a restless, desolately silent slumber.
-------------------end prologue------------------------
Chapter 1
Merry music. It’s Christmas season already, so happy, so cheery, everything has a sense of joyfulness to it. Like a scene in a storybook, the lightly snow-covered road and neighborhood Jin’s car passes by looks almost magical. Sparkling, pretty, pleasantly cozy. Jin snuggles up against the soft cover of his seat beside his father in the car, the warmth of the heater melting the coldness in his frozen fingers.
“Are you sure you’re ready? This is gonna be a long drive,” his dad warns, smiling gently. His fatherly smile, Jin notices.
Nodding, he smiles back sleepily and yawns. “Yeah, I think I should be okay…how long is this ride?” he asks in between slow yawns.
“I think at least four hours. You can go ahead and sleep if you want.”
Jin sighs contentedly, pulling a soft quilt that smells like his mother around him. Like roses. He smiles and nods again, the warm heat and the foggy windows and the lullaby on the radio are the last things he senses as he falls into an intriguing dream. A dream of a boy trapped in a glass castle.
---
When Jin awakes again, it’s almost morning. It smells like coffee and croissants and heat. Peering curiously out the window, Jin sees miles and miles of outstretched fields, and beyond that, a giant forest of trees. Groves and groves of greenness and a breathtaking open sky.
He’s about to open his mouth and ask his dad where they are when he is interrupted.
“I bought some coffee and croissants for us this morning while you were still asleep. If you’re hungry go ahead and have some. It’s still really early.”
“Ah, thanks,” Jin replies gratefully, reaching for something in the paper bag between them. The steam of the coffee wrapping his arm in a thin layer of moisture as he reaches across it. Jin flicks his eyes and checks the clock for a second. 4:38 AM, it reads. Wow, early really is quite an understatement, Jin notes as he turns his head and checks his surroundings.
The rosy tip of dawn is just beginning to crawl out onto the very edge of the darkly painted sky.
A buttery, rich taste of the glazed croissant melts in his mouth as he takes a bite of the pastry, fresh smell of brown sugar and butter wafting into his senses.
“Mhmmm…” Jin sighs, taking a sip of the freshly brewed coffee. “Where’d you get all this? It’s really good.”
Jin’s dad laughs slightly, eyes still on the road but his chuckle is somewhat carefree, kind of cheerful for a moment and that sends a tingle of relief down Jin’s spine. Things have been kind of tense lately.
“While you were asleep like a little pig. I dropped by a little bakery about an hour ago,” he says.
Jin nods, and they are back in a comfortable bubble of silence again.
As Jin munches on his small breakfast, they speed faster than ever down the endless road of gray and black and the dark blue sky melting into a light aqua right before their eyes. As the dirt road becomes narrower and narrower, it turns into a bunch of sharp turns and twists. Their surroundings soon change from the golden wild grass fields and blue skies to a dense wood of tall, tall pine trees grown so closely together that the sky is almost hidden behind thick branches and emerald green leaves.
-
They continue on in silence for at least another half an hour or so until the car suddenly screeches to a halt as they enter a small clearing, stopping right into an ancient parking spot, it seems. The paint is old and worn-down and barely visible, barely separating the spots. It really doesn’t matter though, since there is only about space for six spots anyways. They are all empty and the only thing there is their old, battered up Honda.
“We’re here!” Jin’s dad announces, eyes wide and smile beaming.
Jin is quiet for a moment. He shudders. Something about this place is hauntingly familiar… like he’s somehow been here before.
But of course, he hasn’t.
That’s just ridiculous. So he shakes away those strange thoughts and looks around him. The sky is clearly shining above them now. Blue and beautiful and bright. A cloudless sky. The vines and tree leaves have fallen all around the miniature parking lot over all the time that has passed. It has a feeling that tells Jin this place has been unattended to. And not just that-but it feels old. Ancient. Mysterious.
But for some reason, it especially feels…sad.
“So…we’re going to stay here in the middle of nowhere for our Christmas vacation?” Jin jokes, looking back at his dad again. He can almost feel the caffeine of the coffee rushing through his veins and flowing through his body-he wants to just jump around and scream at the top of his lungs and look at the bright blue sky for a long time until he cries and take in copious amounts of this endless capacity of fresh air. He wants to breathe until his lungs burst.
“Actually, no. If you’ll follow me, you’ll see where we actually are,” his dad replies casually.
Jin decides to be quiet and just play along, so he actually does follow him, traces his father’s footsteps with precision and certainty so that he doesn’t get lost. It really wouldn’t be pleasant losing his way out here in this world of never-ending forests.
Jin follows the same exact path so perfectly that he doesn’t bother even looking up, his eyes just sticking to his father’s heels and trailing after him like an obedient dog. Unfortunately, he sticks to him so closely that when the latter suddenly stops, Jin smacks right into his father.
“Ooops! Sorry,” he laughs, scratching his head, embarrassed.
Jin finds that his father doesn’t even bother replying, it doesn’t even seem to be paying attention to him at all. Instead his eyes are glued to something in front of them, focused intently on it.
“Isn’t it just gorgeous?”
Jin blinks at himself before he turns ahead and looks up, the same spot where his father is looking.
Jin’s breath hitches violently and he gasps sharply, reeling backwards as he slams into a tree trunk, harshly. He finds that he cannot breathe any longer for his throat has closed up, leaving him wheezing and gasping in a frenzied panic.
Not only is what he sees is breathtakingly gorgeous, no. That’s not all. The scary part is that it is horridly, disgustingly familiar. And not a distance familiarity either. It seems as if the vision has just passed his mind just minutes ago.
A glass castle stands there. Pure, pure glass walls that line the endless corridors that are obviously translucent. The sun shines off the entire, gigantic structure and the light bounces off of the sparkling surface, causing it to glitter like a diamond, like a gem in a dark cavern. The magnificence and brightness of the entire building is almost blinding.
The glass castle is exactly the same one Jin has just dreamed about a couple hours ago.
---
“This is my son, Jin Akanishi,” Jin’s dad introduces warmly to the other man. Jin smiles bleakly and shakes the other man’s hand firmly, his fingers, Jin notices, are warm and his palm calloused.
“Hi, I’m Mr. Yamamoto. I am the owner of this estate. Nice to meet you, Jin. And how old might you be?” Yamamoto-san’s voice is rugged and raspy, low. Comforting in a peculiar sense.
“Sixteen. I’ll be seventeen in three more months,” Jin replies politely, still smiling bleakly. They are inside the glass structure now; the outermost walls a shining, impeccable clearness of glass. The inside walls, however are made of sturdy plaster, Jin notes.
“Really then? Well that’s lovely to hear,” replies the man, smiling with his crinkly eyes and friendly smile.
“Why don’t you run along, Jin? I’m sure there’s plenty of things that you’ll find amusing here,” says his father slightly nonchalant. Then, turning to the older, chubbier man beside him, he adds, “That’s alright with you, right Takeshi-san?”
“Oh yes, of course. Have fun, don’t get lost, now,” Yamamoto-san replies heartily. He reminds Jin of Santa Claus in strange ways. Probably his boisterous laughter and his cheerfulness in this place that is nearly almost dripping with sorrow.
Why does it feel so sad here?
Well, it might be the white as snow hair and his chubbiness that acts to the Santa Claus factor as well, of course.
Jin tiptoes quietly down a narrow hallway, the wall on his right side a bright cream colored made of fresco paint and on the other side…of course, a sheer wall of perfectly cleaned glass. The beauty of this place never ceases to take Jin’s breath away.
He mindlessly wanders who could have made such a gorgeous, magnificent estate.
After a couple minutes of wandering aimlessly down the same hallway and feeling like he’s been walking in circles, Jin finally spots something out of the ordinary.
At the end of the hallway, tucked in a small, hidden corner, is a staircase made of shining, glowing marble.
Jin gasps and contemplates for a second before continuing on, his steps measured and careful as he ascends the stairs, the coldness of the marble tiles making his feet go numb after a couple seconds. Outside, he can see that the snow has melted here already, no more visibly thick layers of whiteness coat the branches of the evergreens. The sun is almost completely outstretched across the sky now.
The view is absolutely stunning.
Jin almost wishes he could live here. This place is so inspirational, so magical. Like another scene in a storybook.
Jin sighs.
But, no way, though. This place is far too sad to live in. This unnerving feeling of grief and distress is still overwhelming and just being inside of here is making Jin’s heart ache.
When he reaches the second floor, it seems as if the whole thing just starts over again in the same pattern: a bunch of doors and rooms in the middle encased in walls that are not translucent while the outer walls are still miles and miles of stretched glass.
How would it look like at night, I wonder? It must be even more amazing…
Since the hallways lead in the exact same direction and pattern as the floor below it, Jin continues along his way, trailing inside the thin hallways until he sees yet another marble staircase that winds and twists up high high high along the sides of the castle.
“Huh, there’s probably a princess trapped somewhere up there, I bet,” Jin chuckles to himself, joking.
So beautiful, he sighs when he reaches yet another level. The ground is getting farther and farther away and the trees are getting smaller and smaller. Jin has never been a fan of heights much…
And the fact that the walls are so clean that it makes it seem like there’s nothing between his body and the world outside doesn’t really help one bit.
Jin gulps when he sees the fourth staircase, and contemplates angrily if he should continue or turn down before he has a heart attack.
Of course, curiosity killed the cat. So Jin continued.
Ten minutes later, he’s lost track of what floor he’s on now. Maybe seven. Maybe.
Oh geez! How high does this thing go up?! It doesn’t look that high from outside, Jin groans inwardly, hands and feet shaking almost violently now every time he looks down. Not fun, not fun. He shouts at himself, but still drags himself onward.
The staircases are long, stretching, and tedious to climb up and when Jin reaches the eleventh floor, he feels like he’s going to collapse any moment.
To his pleasant surprise, when he practically crawls up the eleventh staircase leading to the twelfth floor, there are suddenly no more hallways. No more hallways. Just one, single, lonely door.
White and perfect, it stands in the middle of the floor, surrounded by a wall that obviously leads to another room. One final room.
It’s kind of creepy, ne? He jokes to himself, but eerily feels a wave of goosebumps travel up his arm. After standing there awkwardly staring for a moment, he glances nervously at the golden doorknob on the door and it takes everything in him not to just start running back down the stairs as fast as he can, possibly tripping a couple times and maybe even spraining his ankle.
So finally, finally, slowly, slowly, he approaches the white door, like a mouse afraid to enter a mousetrap. The suspense is killing him and his hesitation is not helping at all with the fact that Jin is scared shitless right now. But honestly, he doesn’t even know why he’s so scared. Just a door after all. Just a door. It should be okay… right?
Shutting his eyes and with every ounce of cowardly courage he can possibly muster up inside him, he places a finger on the door, and then another, and another, until he has his palmed wrapped around the doorknob in a not-so-firm-kind-of-weak grip.
He opens the door.
Just like that.
He opens it.
And he is nearly blinded as a bright flash of yellow, orange, and golden light invades his eyesight and then everything goes white.
---
“Who is it?” The voice is gentle, pure, and in other words-nearly inhuman. Even though there is an urgency, a startled panic in the voice, it does not make it any less melodious.
As soon as Jin opens his eyes again after being momentarily blinded, the first thing he notices is that it’s still very very bright. Almost unpleasantly bright, like having a cop shine his flashlight in your face after you’ve been partying in a dark alley all night.
Yet at the same time, it’s almost warm, almost soft and comforting, like the feeling of sunbathing on a cloudless day at the beach.
Everything about this place oddly contradicts itself, Jin realizes with a jolt of surprise.
Jin looks up and expects to see a ceiling. Instead, there is nothing above him. Nothing at all. And on all the walls except for one, there is also nothing there. It almost feels like he’s floating, like he’s standing on a castle just suspended thousands of feet in the sky, among the clouds.
Then, he finally understands. Not only are all three walls made of pure glass, but so is the ceiling. That explains why is so fucking bright…Jin mutters almost angrily to himself as he looks up and realizes the sun is practically shining right as his face so he yelps a little and shuts his eyes, turning away from it.
Finally, Jin remembers the velvety smooth voice that spoke to him earlier and he searches around the gigantic room, twice the size of his own apartment.
Finally, at the very edge of one corner, he sees a tiny figure.
Small and petite and lonely. All alone.
Why? Jin wants to ask. Why are you all alone?
Instead, he clears his throat not very casually and says, “Ah, I’m sorry. Am I not supposed to be in here?”
The figure doesn’t respond, just continues turning their back towards him and looking out of one of the glass walls, a thick layer of cloud surrounding the entire floor, it seems.
“Uhhh…would you like me to leave? I’m sorry if I’ve intru-“
“Yes, please leave,” interrupts the soft, fading voice.
Jin stares, mouth still gaping open until he feels a sharp pang in his heart and turns around to leave. Just as he is hurrying to the door, still scorned and a bit angry at this ridiculously irrational person who won’t even bother introducing themselves, Jin is stopped in his tracks.
“Wait.”
Jin turns around slowly, eyes falling on the tiny figure so far away from him.
“Wait…who are you?” the person asks, still not turning around. The voice is so small and tiny, almost seems like it’s breaking since the person is so far away.
“I…” Jin begins. He doesn’t really know how to start. I’m a sixteen year old boy who’s come to this estate with my dad to visit a family friend? I’m Akanishi Jin? I’m your new house guest?
“Jin,” he says plainly. He doesn’t bother to add anything else.
“Ah, I see…” says the voice. He still can’t decide if the voice is a girl’s or a boy’s-too pretty for a boy yet too rugged for a girl. Jin prays he hasn’t stumbled upon a hermaphrodite or something. That would be…awkward…
“And what brings you here, Jin?” says the stranger suddenly. Jin watches with an open mouth and his heart pounding like a drum all the way up in his throat as the figure spins around and the clothes hanging on them twirls like a festive dress. Then the figure approaches Jin.
“Well?” the stranger says when he’s only ten feet away from Jin. Jin finds that he is at a loss for words and he struggles to do something, to say something. Anything at all.
A boy. Jin is sure now. A very pretty, very girly, very delicate boy. His bright yukata hangs about him like a too-loose bathrobe and even behind the baggy attire Jin can tell he is thin, skinny. So skinny he almost seems unhealthy.
However, there is a healthy glow in his rosy cheeks and his crimson, full lips pulled into a tight line. His eyebrows arch perfectly as a couple locks of golden and black hair falls delicately over his heart-shaped face.
Jin is still struggling to say something. He finally realizes he has been holding his breath this whole time.
There is something terribly out of place though. Something so wrong. So wrong. The only thing Jin cannot observe is the most important thing of all-the boy’s eyes. For wrapped all the way around the boy’s head and covering his eyes that Jin is sure are simply gorgeous, is a thick, black, unpleasant blindfold.
And instead of soft, porcelain skin hands, they are covered with tight, black cloth gloves.
What is wrong with this boy? Jin finds himself asking this question on repeat.
“I…I…came to visit…? See…my dad is old roommates with the owner of this estate…so we’re staying here for a month during winter break…” Jin finds himself rambling and suddenly stops when he realizes the latter makes an extremely peeved expression at either the mention of Jin’s dad or the owner of the estate, Jin can’t tell.
“I…maybe I should leave now…?” Jin pipes up suddenly, the air has suddenly turned cold and silent again.
“No…no…please … don’t leave…Jin,” the boy says suddenly, his hand suddenly reaching out for Jin and he steps closer, cautiously. His voice almost breaks. It’s so fragile, so sad, so, so sad. Full of sorrow and hurt and pain and Jin finds that his heart is wrenching in pain at the voice.
Jin reaches back and he touches him by accident-it was never intended, but as Jin’s fingers touched the gloved palm and the boy opens his mouth and says, “I’m Kazuya,” Jin fingers grasp at the flimsy black cloth that covers the boy’s hands, and he pulls.
Too late.
---
Kazuya is suddenly thrown into a fit of panic and he desperately reaches for the glove.
“No! Don’t! Give that back!” Kazuya screams. Who is this boy? This boy who has suddenly decided to intrude in his life and just make him lose his composure so easily like that? Kazuya cannot see the other boy, but he can tell by the boy’s voice that he must be very kind, very gentle, very handsome.
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to do that, I swear,” Jin panics, and Kazuya can tell he is just as worried.
Kazuya struggles to calm down.
“No, it’s okay…just…please return the glove to me…” he begs, almost pathetically. And then he is angry at himself for having been so foolish, so vulnerable. This will never happen again. Never.
In the change of air, Kazuya can hear Jin stepping closer and reaching towards him to hand him the glove.
But in somehow, in some way, Jin’s hands accidentally brushes against the center of Kazuya’s palm…and then it is too late. No, no…oh god…no…! His mind screams at him. Once again, it’s already too late.
The flashing starts then, bright and blinding underneath his eyelids they flicker in his mind a thousand images in a millisecond and for some reason they are still touching-Jin’s fingers still horribly touching Kazuya’s hand. He is reduced to nothing-no sound will come out as the flashes fly across his vision like a movie that’s playing on fast forward.
He sees Jin. He doesn’t even have to look at the boy yet he already sees him clearly, perfectly in his mind, the boy is laughing, now crying, now standing beside a gravestone, and now crying again. Kazuya watches the boy dance, watches the boy kiss someone. Not just anyone…he sees the boy kissing Kazuya. They are laughing, they are touching, locked in a passionate embrace and he sees Jin’s hands running up the side of his thigh and they are kissing-tongues and mouths and lips dancing together fervently as they both have their hands in each other’s hair. Then they are naked together now, on a white bed, and Kazuya is afraid to see what’s next. Kazuya watches in horror as the next scene he sees Jin sobbing, his entire composure broken and he is sobbing, loud, broken sobs and then Kazuya sees them again. Together. And then they are kissing again, laced in a lusty embrace of pure passion.
Kazuya screams then, yanks his hand away from contact of the other boy and screams. Piercing, Loud. Horrible. Kazuya can envision the other boy’s expression in his mind now. He is scared, shocked, stricken silent.
Kazuya continues shrieking and he feels himself fall over as he hits the hard marble floor and a shoot of extreme pain shoots up his arm. How could this be true? Never. Never. Jin…never…such things like that can never happen. No.
“Kazuya! Are you okay?” Jin’s voice is rising in a panic and Kazuya can sense him hurrying over to help him up. But no, he cannot touch him again. He cannot let him.
“NO! NO DON’T COME NEAR ME! GO AWAY. GO AWAY!” Kazuya screams, tears streaming down his face now and he is so scared. So, so scared. “Please LEAVE,” he adds, his voice cracking now as he backs away from Jin, curling himself up in a defensive position like a rabbit crouching away from a bobcat.
Before Kazuya as time to gauge Jin’s reaction, the door bursts open, the voice of a familiar man and Kazuya’s old nurse interrupts his ear-piercing screams.
“Kamenashi-san, what’s happened?” the nurse enters, hurrying to Kazuya’s side and somehow accessing the glove and replacing it on Kazuya’s hand once again. She sounds scared and angry. Loud. Startled.
“Ahhh, Akanishi-kun. Please…would you please leave. I should have warned you and added earlier that you should not wander too far. This is not safe. Come, come. Let us go back down now,” the voice of Kazuya’s uncle invades the second of silence and then they are gone, all gone, and Kazuya can only hear bits and pieces from his uncle’s voice that sound like, “Sorry about that…please don’t ever go up…you shouldn’t go past the sixth floor, next time…”
Kazuya sighs; slumps back on the marble floor and feels his chest breaking. His heart bleeding painfully.
“Are you alright, Kamenash-san?” the nurse’s voice is sympathetic now, worried, but still a little frightened.
“No…” Kazuya finds himself saying. He doesn’t know why. Things like this have happened in the past before, but not like this. No, never like this.
“I’m not okay at all,” he sighs, heart aching as he removes the blindfold, the bright light hitting him like a beacon from a lighthouse and he lays outstretched on the floor, a feeling of horror and sadness yet hope rising in his chest. “Maybe…I’ll never be okay ever again.”
-------------------end chapter 1------------------------
A/N : well? what'd u thnk ?(: comments? outbursts? announcements? Let me at em ^__~ please leave feedback so i can know if you guys would like more or not :] thanks so much for reading..i hope you enjoyed it ;D