There will be magic, chapter 27, RukixKai, ReitaxAoi, YomixRuka
Title: There will be magic
Author: yukigafuru
Chapters: 27/?
Pairings: RukaxYomi, KaixRuki, AoixReita for now
Bands: Gazette, Naitomea, D... (and a surprise)
Rating: PG-17, for this chapter
Warnings: will be angst, yaoi, a bit of gore here and there
Genre: AU, Angst, Romance
Disclaimer: I am not connected to the real persons. This is just a figment of my imagination and I don't make any money nor profit in any way out of this (well, except gathering your love that is).
Summary: The age of magic and mystery is coming towards its end. But what if someone that has the gift to see the future can join forces with others who have the power to stop it? What will be born then? What will be found?
Chapter 27
When they woke up, Reita seemed to be sleeping comfortably with Aoi's legs as cushion, so everyone hoped against all hope that he was just sleeping and recovering. It took all of them quite some time to get up, especially Ruka and Yomi, who were embracing each other tightly underneath a mountain of blankets. By the time the couple had woken up, the others had already prepared the fire, talked about their next plan of action, and they were cornering Aoi to see it they could get him to confess anything about himself. That was the precise moment Yomi decided it was time to face the new day.
“You can't just expect us to let you come with us, be that close to us, when we don't know anything about you.” The dragon king had said. “At least tell us what exactly your powers are, what you are, so we know what to expect and are not afraid of you slaughtering everyone in their sleep.”
“You slept just fine tonight, didn't you?” Aoi replied.
The king answered by a growl. He was getting fed up with Aoi's nonchalant attitude. “Kai, you try something, I'm reaching my wit's end here.”
Before Kai had a chance to open his mouth, though, Yomi got ahead of him and asked Aoi, making everyone turn towards the place where he and his lover had been sleeping.
“I think you should at least tell us why you refuse to say anything about yourself.”
Aoi seemed to consider this for a while, before replying: “Very well. If you must know, I just think Reita should be the first to know who and what I am, to judge why I allowed him to be in danger for so long, to decide for himself, without anyone or anything putting strange ideas in his head. Although I know even now, you probably will try.”
“I promised not to interfere, but you know that I'm not in the least comfortable with your situation... Kai, did you check on Reita yet? Is he ok?” Yomi then asked, in a hopeful tone.
“I didn't get a chance, Yomi. And if you don't mind, I'd like to take Aoi and Reita to a side and do that.”
“What for?”
“Just humour me on this one, will you?”
Yomi accepted, a grumbling 'yes', but still a 'yes'. Once the two were safely out of everyone's hearing range, but still within their visual range, the two started talking.
“Are you going to repeat the same questions?” Aoi suspiciously asked.
“No, I won't. It's pretty obvious you won't tell me before Reita, at least unless you come to trust me.”
Aoi huffed.
“Do you trust me?” He sardonically questioned.
Kai smiled and answered. “Unbelievable as it may sound, yeah, I think I do.”
“Why? Just because I stayed with your lover back there? Nothing happened, you know. If I had been attacked, I might not have hesitated to hand him over.”
“I think we both know that's a load of lies. You would have kept your word and rather die than allow anything to happen to him. But anyway, I know trust is something one must earn, so I won't ask about your so well-kept secrets.”
“They're not exactly secrets...” Aoi sighed. “I really don't understand you, but that's beyond the point. What is it you want to talk with me about?”
“I'll do whatever you ask me to do, if it doesn't involve betraying someone else, as long as you tell me what is wrong with Ruki. I have the feeling you know.”
Aoi sighed again. “I'll just consider it even if you tell me the exact reason why Reita isn't waking up.”
“Even after I examine him, I might not be able to answer. It doesn't sound like a fair exchange to me...”
“It's enough for now.”
“Fine. Just please help me with him.”
“Why is he sleeping now, tell me that first?”
“I pushed some pressure points the day before. He was acting strangely, violently, without control, and it scared me.”
“Do you think he was impossible to reach?”
“I... Look, Ruki is the purest being I know and he was talking as if he was enjoying himself, about ripping men to pieces... and he looked at me with such hate... It scared me. I know that is not even the shadow of the man I love.”
“Are you sure you're not in love with the idea of being the protector of that kind of beautiful, pure soul?”
“No! I don't care whether he's pure or tainted, or even evil. I just know that the Ruki I love loves me back...”
“So if he suddenly stopped loving you, you'd give up?” Aoi finally reached the core of the problem. “Suppose that was the new Ruki, suppose that something changed him in such a way that you will never have the old Ruki back. Suppose this one doesn't love you. What will you do?”
“I...”
“Do you give up?” Aoi pressed.
“No... I'd still put him...”
“Stop lying to yourself. If need be, you'd tie him up and drag him along, in the hope that he'll fall in love with you again.”
“No, I couldn't do that. I wouldn't force him into anything.”
“And yet, there he is, asleep.” Aoi pointed. “Did you do that because he wanted that?”
“Why are you trying to torture me?” Kai, shaking, asked. “I didn't plan that, I don't know. Or maybe I do... and I just don't want to face it... But I'm not asking you to analyse my decision, I'm asking you to help me!” Kai cried.
Aoi sighed again, as if he was struggling with a naughty child. “Look, Kai, I can explain why things happened, and I will, but that won't change that they happened. In this case, the solution is not in finding the cause. That won't give you Ruki back.”
“I'd still rather hear it. Please.”
“Very well. He was affected by the same magic Reita was affected when entering the middle lands. Everyone here is more or less affected, but since his unbalance wasn't of the same nature as Reita's, he didn't respond to it in the same way. And the response wouldn't have been so drastic, if he had not entered that church. Even those foolish humans did not build that there out of the blue. They actually built it on top of the entrance to the catacombs. Those graves have been there long before the church was built, which makes the ground itself filled with magical essence. After all, life itself comes from magic, and so does death.”
Kai nodded to indicate he was following. “So Ruki came in contact with that, and it accelerated whatever change had already started.”
“He came into contact with death to be more precise, and not just that, he also had to kill himself. That snapped something inside of him, and allowed the darkness that had been lurking to grab hold of him.”
“But Ruki is...”
“He's a panther, yes, but he is a fallen panther, if you wish. The moment he lost his wings, darkness started to infiltrate his soul.”
“By the way you say it, it's as if even if he gets his wings back, he'll never...”
“Be pure again? That's exactly what I'm saying. If you wish, you may no longer consider him a panther, for he no longer is one.”
Kai shuddered. Their love had cost Ruki everything, and he had just found out that there was no way he could ever claim back what he had lost. And now, it seemed that their very love was vanishing.
“Is it?” Aoi asked, as if he had read his mind. As far as Kai knew, maybe he could do that too. Or maybe Aoi was just really good at reading others. “If something monumental blocks your way, do you just go back? Do you give up?”
“No. But I don't know what to do.”
“Then think about it, because only you can find the answers. You did ask for my help though, and I did promise to give it. So here it is: you might be able to annul the effects of the middle land's magic, just as I have.” Aoi said and showed his medallion. “But that would only solve half of the problem.” Aoi stopped Kai from asking more questions. “You have to figure out what the other half of the problem is for yourself.”
“Still, could I borrow that medallion?” Kai pleaded.
“No.” At seeing Kai's dejected countenance, Aoi softened. “I need it in order to keep Reita human, for one, and you'd find this medallion wouldn't help much Ruki's case anyway.”
“Why is that? How did it come into your possession?”
“I made it. I made it the day I decided I'd rather see this world come to its end than allow my loved one to be with someone else, without even trying to gain his love, even if that someone else would be his mate.”
“Reita means that much to you?” Kai gasped. “But then, isn't everyone supposed to be the happiest with their mate?”
“Is that what you call destiny? Because I think that's crap.” Aoi declared. “Did you fall in love with Ruki because he was your mate or did you fall in love with him and he with you and then he became your mate?”
“I think I fell in love with him the moment he looked at me, with so much love that it reshaped my very soul.”
“And if Asagi, for example, had declared that he was not your mate?”
“I'm not sure what I would have done.”
“Then be sure. Because there lie your answers. Now, if you please, can you tell me what is Reita's condition?”
“You just left me with more questions, you know? I just asked for answers.”
“Sometimes no one can offer you the answers which you seek, no one but yourself. I'm sorry.”
“It's fine.” Kai said and then began to check Reita's condition. He never used spells, for this time, he no longer had the medallion, but he availed himself of all the knowledge he possessed and while softly touching Reita's body, feeling his pulse, checking his responses, listening attentively to the hum of his magic, Kai was able to form some sort of diagnostic. He was happy to announce that Reita's internal wounds had healed completely and that there was no longer anything physical, nor magical, wrong with him. If Reita did not wake up, it was entirely because he refused to wake up.
“Is there anything I can do to wake him up?” Aoi asked.
“I'm not sure if he hears us, but he can feel your magic, and if you're right, and you two belong together, then that might just be what he needs. I did the same thing for Ruki once.”
Aoi shook himself. “I can't say he belongs to me yet because he isn't in love with me yet and I know for sure I am not his appointed mate. So there is nothing that my magic, nor I, can do, to wake him up?”
“If you put it like that, then probably not. However, the earlier blood loss will lead to dehydration and that can lead to...”
“How long?”
Kai looked at the looming dark clouds and the dust still blurring the horizon. “It all depends on that sand storm. If it comes, he does not have more than a day.”
“Thank you, for being frank. I think you might have just earned my trust, or at least a fraction of it.”
Kai's smile truly was angelic, Aoi contemplated, while he took Reita in his arms again and left Kai and Ruki alone where they had conversed previously. And for a few moments, he regretted keeping Kai at a distance, so he turned and in a whisper he hoped Kai did pick up, he offered his last advice: “If you wake him up, the two of you just might be able to create a seal.”
Kai did catch Aoi's whisper, carried by the breeze, but he didn't grab the meaning at first, although he did know Aoi had urged him to wake Ruki up. Kai now gazed upon Ruki's peaceful countenance, so peaceful in fact that if not for the soft breathing, one could easily assume Ruki's life had already left him; and Kai regretted making him sleep, he regretted extinguishing the fire in those eyes. It had scared him, he admitted to himself, Ruki's fire had scared the roc, the bird of fire. It was certainly a joke fate had decided to play on them, and yet...
Just when had he fallen in love with Ruki? Had it been after or before meeting him, the moment Asagi had suggested he would find his mate or the moment their eyes had met, when he had healed him, when he had seen Ruki's human form, when he had realized his sacrifice... when?
He couldn't even clearly remember the sequence of events, he just knew that since he had met the panther, those beautiful, mesmerizing eyes had followed him everywhere, in his waking moments and in his sleep, in the dreams of his future and when thinking of his past. In the end, it didn't even matter how it all had started, just what he felt now, at this moment, a feeling he knew he shared with his lover.
It all came down to that, he convinced himself. No matter how Ruki had changed or had been forced to change, as long as the very memory of Kai was still imprinted deep within Ruki's mind and soul, their love was still there, like smouldering cinders.
And just like that, Kai's fear vanished, like the changing sky when the mistral sweeps along the coast. He gathered Ruki in his arms, and applied force on the same pressure points as before, allowing the blood to flow freely, and Ruki to wake up.
It all began with a soft fluttering of eyelashes and his cheeks gaining a rosier colour. Then the panther's breath came stronger and at faster intervals, and finally his eyes opened, shocking Kai with their scarlet coulour. The light sapphire blue had given way to such a deep, shocking, enthralling colour, that now more than ever, Kai acknowledged the depth of the change. A small part of him had wished that when Ruki would open his blue orbs, he would be the Ruki Kai had fell in love with, the Ruki he knew, the Ruki that loved him back.
“It's still my Ruki.” Kai tried to repeat to himself over and over again. Aoi had taught him a new lesson, and he was determined to learn it well. But sometimes it takes more than repetition to learn about life. For Kai, this was one of those times.
A/N: Just came back from a lovely Gazette concert, where Ruki patter Reita's lovely behind. You can imagine how my plot bunnies are having a ball right now. Oh, the wonderful fanservice. LOL
It was a great live. As always.
.... Now for the fic. This chapter may look like a filler, but some really important stuff is being discussed here. If you read it carefully, later on in the fic you're gonna be... Ahhh. Or at least I hope you will. I hope you liked it too, although there wasn't really a lot of action.
Big hugs to my readers and squishes to my lovely commentators. You really do keep me writing!
Author: yukigafuru
Chapters: 27/?
Pairings: RukaxYomi, KaixRuki, AoixReita for now
Bands: Gazette, Naitomea, D... (and a surprise)
Rating: PG-17, for this chapter
Warnings: will be angst, yaoi, a bit of gore here and there
Genre: AU, Angst, Romance
Disclaimer: I am not connected to the real persons. This is just a figment of my imagination and I don't make any money nor profit in any way out of this (well, except gathering your love that is).
Summary: The age of magic and mystery is coming towards its end. But what if someone that has the gift to see the future can join forces with others who have the power to stop it? What will be born then? What will be found?
Chapter 27
When they woke up, Reita seemed to be sleeping comfortably with Aoi's legs as cushion, so everyone hoped against all hope that he was just sleeping and recovering. It took all of them quite some time to get up, especially Ruka and Yomi, who were embracing each other tightly underneath a mountain of blankets. By the time the couple had woken up, the others had already prepared the fire, talked about their next plan of action, and they were cornering Aoi to see it they could get him to confess anything about himself. That was the precise moment Yomi decided it was time to face the new day.
“You can't just expect us to let you come with us, be that close to us, when we don't know anything about you.” The dragon king had said. “At least tell us what exactly your powers are, what you are, so we know what to expect and are not afraid of you slaughtering everyone in their sleep.”
“You slept just fine tonight, didn't you?” Aoi replied.
The king answered by a growl. He was getting fed up with Aoi's nonchalant attitude. “Kai, you try something, I'm reaching my wit's end here.”
Before Kai had a chance to open his mouth, though, Yomi got ahead of him and asked Aoi, making everyone turn towards the place where he and his lover had been sleeping.
“I think you should at least tell us why you refuse to say anything about yourself.”
Aoi seemed to consider this for a while, before replying: “Very well. If you must know, I just think Reita should be the first to know who and what I am, to judge why I allowed him to be in danger for so long, to decide for himself, without anyone or anything putting strange ideas in his head. Although I know even now, you probably will try.”
“I promised not to interfere, but you know that I'm not in the least comfortable with your situation... Kai, did you check on Reita yet? Is he ok?” Yomi then asked, in a hopeful tone.
“I didn't get a chance, Yomi. And if you don't mind, I'd like to take Aoi and Reita to a side and do that.”
“What for?”
“Just humour me on this one, will you?”
Yomi accepted, a grumbling 'yes', but still a 'yes'. Once the two were safely out of everyone's hearing range, but still within their visual range, the two started talking.
“Are you going to repeat the same questions?” Aoi suspiciously asked.
“No, I won't. It's pretty obvious you won't tell me before Reita, at least unless you come to trust me.”
Aoi huffed.
“Do you trust me?” He sardonically questioned.
Kai smiled and answered. “Unbelievable as it may sound, yeah, I think I do.”
“Why? Just because I stayed with your lover back there? Nothing happened, you know. If I had been attacked, I might not have hesitated to hand him over.”
“I think we both know that's a load of lies. You would have kept your word and rather die than allow anything to happen to him. But anyway, I know trust is something one must earn, so I won't ask about your so well-kept secrets.”
“They're not exactly secrets...” Aoi sighed. “I really don't understand you, but that's beyond the point. What is it you want to talk with me about?”
“I'll do whatever you ask me to do, if it doesn't involve betraying someone else, as long as you tell me what is wrong with Ruki. I have the feeling you know.”
Aoi sighed again. “I'll just consider it even if you tell me the exact reason why Reita isn't waking up.”
“Even after I examine him, I might not be able to answer. It doesn't sound like a fair exchange to me...”
“It's enough for now.”
“Fine. Just please help me with him.”
“Why is he sleeping now, tell me that first?”
“I pushed some pressure points the day before. He was acting strangely, violently, without control, and it scared me.”
“Do you think he was impossible to reach?”
“I... Look, Ruki is the purest being I know and he was talking as if he was enjoying himself, about ripping men to pieces... and he looked at me with such hate... It scared me. I know that is not even the shadow of the man I love.”
“Are you sure you're not in love with the idea of being the protector of that kind of beautiful, pure soul?”
“No! I don't care whether he's pure or tainted, or even evil. I just know that the Ruki I love loves me back...”
“So if he suddenly stopped loving you, you'd give up?” Aoi finally reached the core of the problem. “Suppose that was the new Ruki, suppose that something changed him in such a way that you will never have the old Ruki back. Suppose this one doesn't love you. What will you do?”
“I...”
“Do you give up?” Aoi pressed.
“No... I'd still put him...”
“Stop lying to yourself. If need be, you'd tie him up and drag him along, in the hope that he'll fall in love with you again.”
“No, I couldn't do that. I wouldn't force him into anything.”
“And yet, there he is, asleep.” Aoi pointed. “Did you do that because he wanted that?”
“Why are you trying to torture me?” Kai, shaking, asked. “I didn't plan that, I don't know. Or maybe I do... and I just don't want to face it... But I'm not asking you to analyse my decision, I'm asking you to help me!” Kai cried.
Aoi sighed again, as if he was struggling with a naughty child. “Look, Kai, I can explain why things happened, and I will, but that won't change that they happened. In this case, the solution is not in finding the cause. That won't give you Ruki back.”
“I'd still rather hear it. Please.”
“Very well. He was affected by the same magic Reita was affected when entering the middle lands. Everyone here is more or less affected, but since his unbalance wasn't of the same nature as Reita's, he didn't respond to it in the same way. And the response wouldn't have been so drastic, if he had not entered that church. Even those foolish humans did not build that there out of the blue. They actually built it on top of the entrance to the catacombs. Those graves have been there long before the church was built, which makes the ground itself filled with magical essence. After all, life itself comes from magic, and so does death.”
Kai nodded to indicate he was following. “So Ruki came in contact with that, and it accelerated whatever change had already started.”
“He came into contact with death to be more precise, and not just that, he also had to kill himself. That snapped something inside of him, and allowed the darkness that had been lurking to grab hold of him.”
“But Ruki is...”
“He's a panther, yes, but he is a fallen panther, if you wish. The moment he lost his wings, darkness started to infiltrate his soul.”
“By the way you say it, it's as if even if he gets his wings back, he'll never...”
“Be pure again? That's exactly what I'm saying. If you wish, you may no longer consider him a panther, for he no longer is one.”
Kai shuddered. Their love had cost Ruki everything, and he had just found out that there was no way he could ever claim back what he had lost. And now, it seemed that their very love was vanishing.
“Is it?” Aoi asked, as if he had read his mind. As far as Kai knew, maybe he could do that too. Or maybe Aoi was just really good at reading others. “If something monumental blocks your way, do you just go back? Do you give up?”
“No. But I don't know what to do.”
“Then think about it, because only you can find the answers. You did ask for my help though, and I did promise to give it. So here it is: you might be able to annul the effects of the middle land's magic, just as I have.” Aoi said and showed his medallion. “But that would only solve half of the problem.” Aoi stopped Kai from asking more questions. “You have to figure out what the other half of the problem is for yourself.”
“Still, could I borrow that medallion?” Kai pleaded.
“No.” At seeing Kai's dejected countenance, Aoi softened. “I need it in order to keep Reita human, for one, and you'd find this medallion wouldn't help much Ruki's case anyway.”
“Why is that? How did it come into your possession?”
“I made it. I made it the day I decided I'd rather see this world come to its end than allow my loved one to be with someone else, without even trying to gain his love, even if that someone else would be his mate.”
“Reita means that much to you?” Kai gasped. “But then, isn't everyone supposed to be the happiest with their mate?”
“Is that what you call destiny? Because I think that's crap.” Aoi declared. “Did you fall in love with Ruki because he was your mate or did you fall in love with him and he with you and then he became your mate?”
“I think I fell in love with him the moment he looked at me, with so much love that it reshaped my very soul.”
“And if Asagi, for example, had declared that he was not your mate?”
“I'm not sure what I would have done.”
“Then be sure. Because there lie your answers. Now, if you please, can you tell me what is Reita's condition?”
“You just left me with more questions, you know? I just asked for answers.”
“Sometimes no one can offer you the answers which you seek, no one but yourself. I'm sorry.”
“It's fine.” Kai said and then began to check Reita's condition. He never used spells, for this time, he no longer had the medallion, but he availed himself of all the knowledge he possessed and while softly touching Reita's body, feeling his pulse, checking his responses, listening attentively to the hum of his magic, Kai was able to form some sort of diagnostic. He was happy to announce that Reita's internal wounds had healed completely and that there was no longer anything physical, nor magical, wrong with him. If Reita did not wake up, it was entirely because he refused to wake up.
“Is there anything I can do to wake him up?” Aoi asked.
“I'm not sure if he hears us, but he can feel your magic, and if you're right, and you two belong together, then that might just be what he needs. I did the same thing for Ruki once.”
Aoi shook himself. “I can't say he belongs to me yet because he isn't in love with me yet and I know for sure I am not his appointed mate. So there is nothing that my magic, nor I, can do, to wake him up?”
“If you put it like that, then probably not. However, the earlier blood loss will lead to dehydration and that can lead to...”
“How long?”
Kai looked at the looming dark clouds and the dust still blurring the horizon. “It all depends on that sand storm. If it comes, he does not have more than a day.”
“Thank you, for being frank. I think you might have just earned my trust, or at least a fraction of it.”
Kai's smile truly was angelic, Aoi contemplated, while he took Reita in his arms again and left Kai and Ruki alone where they had conversed previously. And for a few moments, he regretted keeping Kai at a distance, so he turned and in a whisper he hoped Kai did pick up, he offered his last advice: “If you wake him up, the two of you just might be able to create a seal.”
Kai did catch Aoi's whisper, carried by the breeze, but he didn't grab the meaning at first, although he did know Aoi had urged him to wake Ruki up. Kai now gazed upon Ruki's peaceful countenance, so peaceful in fact that if not for the soft breathing, one could easily assume Ruki's life had already left him; and Kai regretted making him sleep, he regretted extinguishing the fire in those eyes. It had scared him, he admitted to himself, Ruki's fire had scared the roc, the bird of fire. It was certainly a joke fate had decided to play on them, and yet...
Just when had he fallen in love with Ruki? Had it been after or before meeting him, the moment Asagi had suggested he would find his mate or the moment their eyes had met, when he had healed him, when he had seen Ruki's human form, when he had realized his sacrifice... when?
He couldn't even clearly remember the sequence of events, he just knew that since he had met the panther, those beautiful, mesmerizing eyes had followed him everywhere, in his waking moments and in his sleep, in the dreams of his future and when thinking of his past. In the end, it didn't even matter how it all had started, just what he felt now, at this moment, a feeling he knew he shared with his lover.
It all came down to that, he convinced himself. No matter how Ruki had changed or had been forced to change, as long as the very memory of Kai was still imprinted deep within Ruki's mind and soul, their love was still there, like smouldering cinders.
And just like that, Kai's fear vanished, like the changing sky when the mistral sweeps along the coast. He gathered Ruki in his arms, and applied force on the same pressure points as before, allowing the blood to flow freely, and Ruki to wake up.
It all began with a soft fluttering of eyelashes and his cheeks gaining a rosier colour. Then the panther's breath came stronger and at faster intervals, and finally his eyes opened, shocking Kai with their scarlet coulour. The light sapphire blue had given way to such a deep, shocking, enthralling colour, that now more than ever, Kai acknowledged the depth of the change. A small part of him had wished that when Ruki would open his blue orbs, he would be the Ruki Kai had fell in love with, the Ruki he knew, the Ruki that loved him back.
“It's still my Ruki.” Kai tried to repeat to himself over and over again. Aoi had taught him a new lesson, and he was determined to learn it well. But sometimes it takes more than repetition to learn about life. For Kai, this was one of those times.
A/N: Just came back from a lovely Gazette concert, where Ruki patter Reita's lovely behind. You can imagine how my plot bunnies are having a ball right now. Oh, the wonderful fanservice. LOL
It was a great live. As always.
.... Now for the fic. This chapter may look like a filler, but some really important stuff is being discussed here. If you read it carefully, later on in the fic you're gonna be... Ahhh. Or at least I hope you will. I hope you liked it too, although there wasn't really a lot of action.
Big hugs to my readers and squishes to my lovely commentators. You really do keep me writing!