Bokutachi wa Akuma: Chapter Twenty-Three

Today seemed hotter then any other day, but that did not seem to bother this young boy. Everyone in the square was wearing shorts or skirts, t-shirts or tank tops, or even dressed; everyone was dressed as lightly as they could be. Standing out, was the boy dressed head to toe in all heavy, black clothing. Ruka wore his hood as he always did, he couldn't stand the sun, where everyone around him loved the sun.

He sat on the bench surrounding the large fountain in the center of the square. The boy’s eyes stared over his shoulder, staring at the water rippling in the pool of the fountain. Ruka could not seem to focus on anything lately, even school was off in his daily schedule. He dipped his hand in the water, tracing his finger over the surface of the water. A boy, dressed in light weight shorts and a bright coloured t-shirt ran up, hopping on the fountain, running across the concrete rim and running away, zoomed passed Ruka. The boy was obviously hyperactive and running to get somewhere on time. Ruka stared at the boy until he was out of sight. He had been losing focus almost every moment of every day since that day that he had attacked Maruki. He had no longer felt guilty about it, but now he couldn't get it off of his mind about the taste. It was a disgusting experience, yet it was amazing.

Though it was always on his mind, he promised himself that he would never do it again.

Time shifted around him, everyone was moving and changing, in quick motions, Ruka had not moved, he only stared at the buildings and the trees surrounding the park. He looked for that boy, he held an aura as he ran by him making him want to see him again for an unknown reason.

The clouds were rolling in, and the sun had gone. How many hours had it been since he had seen that running boy? The crowds in the square were diminishing, yet Ruka had still remained.

Thick black clouds took over the sky, swallowing it whole, yet Ruka stayed on the fountain. Down came the rain, thick sheets and heavy drops moved their way through the square, darkening the brick and concrete.

The rain moved in thick, oblong waves shielding the rest of the city behind a thick, matte wall of heavy drops. Then it started with a bang, the next stage of this flash storm. Running with papers or their jackets over their heads, the remaining people ran in and then out of the square, seeking shelter.

Drenched to the bone, Ruka still sat, dripping from every possible area, soaked with water. Drenched with water as well, that boy from before had finally returned to the square, walking slowly. The boy’s shoulders were slouched forward, he didn't seem to care how wet he was getting. Ruka stood up, walking in the boy’s direction. Hiding under his hood, Ruka was slightly questioning himself as to why he was approaching this boy.

“Shitsureishimashita.” He spoke softly his voice almost completely masked by the sound of the rain. He looked to the boy, his eyes looking to the boy timidly.

The sad looking boy stopped, looking up to the other drenched boy. His eyes were dripping water from the brow, his eyes scanned over the boy dressed in all black, he looked, different to him.

“Yes? Can I help you?” the boy’s voice was sad, defeated even.

Ruka looked to the boy to see if it was sadness he sensed or not.

“Are you all right?” Ruka was curious as to why this boy was feeling sad. It was an epiphany to him, Ruka wanted to use this boy as his own type of guinea pig, to try and relearn human emotions. This apparently emotional boy seemed to be the perfect test subject.

The other dripping boy looked to Ruka, confused as to why this strange boy was asking him such a personal question.

“I'm fine. I just confessed to a girl, again.” The boy’s eyes widened, he looked off to the side embarrassed. “I, I don't know why I told you that.” The boy rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, even more embarrassed now.

Ruka tilted his head, trying to relearn what the concept of ‘confess’ was. Fine? Confusion? Ruka wanted to relearn these feelings again

“Confess? Love?” It was a concept that Ruka could not remember. The boy nodded. “Declined?” It was very common for boys to confess their love for a girl in Japan, it was a shared concept between boys and girls of all ages.

The boys head dropped down as if he were sad, yet he held a particular smile.

“Yeah but its not the first time I have been declined by her.” The boy smiled up at Ruka, somehow confident in his failure. The boy was sweet and kind hearted. He was confident about trust with strangers as well, he trusted easily. “My name is Kousuke.” He held out a hand for Ruka to shake.

Ruka had memory of this when he met Kazuki’s friends and had seen it on television, he held out his hand as well and took the other boy’s to shake. He was weary of telling him his name, but if he played his cards right, he would not have to.

“Hajimemashite Kousuke.” If it were a possibility, he would never have an introduction like this again. “How long does this normally persist on for?” he still shook the boy’s hand, not understanding that it only was supposed to commence for only a few shakes.

Kousuke pulled his hand back from the other’s, smiling as he did.

“Not at all.” Kousuke looked up to the sky, seeing the thick black clouds were not going anywhere anytime soon. Rain kept coming down in thick sheets and heavy drops, and Kousuke was now getting cold. “Well stranger, I don't know about you, but I am getting very cold.” The rain dropped the environmental temperature, the rain was almost felt like freezing rain itself.

Ruka looked to the limited sky, not effected by the cooled temperature of the water on his skin. He slowly lowered gaze to Kousuke, shaking his head slowly.

“I do not feel the cold.” That confused the young boy. To him, Ruka should have been freezing, compared to him, he was soaked to the bone. “Good bye for now Kousuke.” Though not good with reading emotions, Ruka could see that the boy was trying to leave; he was getting sick of the boy being around him as it was.

Kousuke did not say anything else, he waved to Ruka and continued through the square, running.

Ruka looked around his surroundings, looking as to what direction he needed to walk in. finding his location, Ruka left off into the direction he had set for his destination.

Kazuki's home, that's where he still lived, but that was not where he was going now. He walked away to a small area in the city with smaller apartment buildings. Out of all the buildings, he only needed to find one. It took the young boy a while to find the right apartment , but once he found it, he was confident and headed straight for one of the doors, knocking loudly.

Being the bubbly boy he was, the black haired male skipped to the door, opening it slowly.

“Hell-“ He cut himself off upon seeing who it was. “Ruka kun? What are you doing here?” Aiya stepped aside, allowing Ruka to come inside from the rain.

His soaked clothing was dripping from everywhere, soaking the entrance mat; his black hair stuck to his forehead as he looked up from the floor. He rose an arm and pointed off into the house.

“Kaore.” He said blankly, still not remembering his first name.

Aiya closed the door behind Ruka and looked up at him pointing into the depths of their warm home.

“Maruki?  You want to talk to him?” the boy nodded and dropped his hand and stared at the floor silently. Aiya remained silent for a moment before taking a few hesitant steps; he stepped around the stature like boy and into the house to look for Maruki. “I’ll, I’ll get him for you.” Aiya stuttered quietly for a moment, hesitant of his actions.

Aiya looked in the living room and the kitchen for Maruki, not seeing any sign of him, even though he was just in there, he continued to the rest of the house. His bedroom was clear, the bathroom was clear; that only left two rooms, the storage room and his own room. The storage room was always empty, and of course Maruki was in the most likely room, his own room. Aiya peeked inside, seeing Toki trance around playing with something.

“Maa chan?” Aiya peeked his nose in, trying to see if Maruki was actually in there.

Attached to a stick, Maruki was throwing a mouse around his floor, playing with Toki with the stringed toy. Toki was hopping and prancing on air in delight, cheerfully chasing the toy as Maruki would pull it into a now location for her.

“Yes Ai?” He left the toy in in one spot for too long as he turned to face Aiya in his doorway. Toki took the toy, prying the stick from his loose fingers and ran away with the entire toy. Maruki spun on his ankles and faced Aiya fully. “What is it? Who is at the door?” Since finding out what happened that day, Maruki had taught himself how to deal with things. Since Ruka had admitted to being an unknown, mythical creature, Maruki had trained himself to withstand the sunlight; though it still effected his eyes due to his remaining sensitivity, he get sure that it would pass.

Unaware of what his time could be that he would lose his mind like Ruka had with him, he was always on guard for Aiya when it came to him hurting himself. Rarely these days Maruki would allow Aiya to help him with the cooking, knowing that he was a clumsy man sometimes. Even opening the mail was risky in Maruki's eyes. There were times that Maruki thought that he was being over protective over Aiya, but it was fir his own safety.

To both of their worry, there had been times that Aiya had been doing the evening dishes and cut his finger; but with ease and a brotherly hand, Maruki would help him clean the wound and cover it with a bandage. This had happened on multiple occasions, giving Maruki and Aiya the assumption that the day that he would become thirsty would never come.

★ “Maruki. You don't have to do all the house work you know.” Aiya leaned himself over the back of the couch, staring up at Maruki cleaning off the dinner plates into the garbage. “You have been overprotective since that day Maa, everything will be fine, it’s been months and nothing has happened so far.” He pouted, this had been the longest that he had not done anything in years. The only thing that Maruki allowed him to do when he was home, was walk Satsuki.

Placing the dishes in one neat pile, Maruki leaned himself over the island counter, thinking silently.

“There is a good reason that I am overprotective, Aiya.” He rolled his sleeves up, getting ready to start hand washing the dishes. “Neither of us know what could happen if and when that happens to me what happened to Ruka.” Warmth filled his coffee coloured eyes as he scanned over Aiya's feminine features.

“I don't want to hurt you Aiya. And if I ever did anything to you, I would never be able to forgive myself.”

Aiya stepped back, off the couch; he walked to the island beside Maruki, placing a hand on his.

“I trust that you would never hurt me.” He smiled softly down at his oldest friend warmly, confident that if anything was to ever happen, Maruki would know what to do.

Maruki looked down at the smooth, shiny counter, not sure if he was ready to allow Aiya to do anything.

“Fine.” He stood up, looking up at Aiya sternly. “But you are only drying the dishes, that's it.” It was small, but it was more then he allowed in over a month.

Aiya smiled at that, he accepted that offer wholeheartedly. Giving Maruki an enthusiastic nod, they began with the nightly chore of cleaning the kitchen. As Maruki had stated, Aiya was to only dry the dishes and put them back into their rightful place. While he was cleaning up the stove and counter, Aiya was left standing off on the sidelines.

When the dishes were started, everything was going fine, just as the tall, black haired boy had stated. Both of the plates and cups were put back into the cupboard neatly, the rice steamer was cleaned and put away; the only thing left to clean were the utensils, the one thing Maruki feared with his clumsy friend.

Chopsticks were clean and dried. Curry spoons were clean and dried. Serving spoon was clean and dried. On their very last item to clean both of them thought that they were in the clear with any happening to occur. Pulling the knife from the wrap of the towel, Aiya had almost dropped it; considering the fact, he would have been better off if he let it fall to the floor where the only damage it would cause, would having to be rewashed.

“Ah~” Giving himself a mini heart attack, Aiya had caught the sharp chef knife, on the wrong end. His surprisingly quick fingers had gripped tightly around the sharp blade of the knife, cutting deeply into the flesh of all four of his fingers. Aiya then dropped the large knife to the floor, tiny drops of blood following it to the black and white tile of their clean kitchen floor.

Maruki panicked at that moment, his soft, almond shaped eyes wide in fear. Despite what could have happened at that moment, Maruki dropped the dish towel back in the water and grabbed the drying towel from Aiya's hand, wrapping it around Aiya frail fingers. The sharp knife had cut deeply into Aiya's soft flesh, the blood had already soaked the towel.

“Aiya, you clumsy nut.” His voice was soft and tender; he knew it wasn't his fault, it's a person’s natural reaction to try to catch something as it was falling. “C’mon Ai, we’ll get that cleaned and wrapped up.” Maruki began to pull on Aiya to get him to walk to the bathroom.

Aiya held his ground, looking down at his caring roommate softly.

“Maruki…” he hesitated, looking down at his hand and back up to Maruki. “You.. you're all right?” He had been bleeding profusely, and yet Maruki had not had a reaction to it. Aiya was terrified for the few moments he was near Maruki, but how could they tell if he was going to react to it or not? Aiya stepped with him to go to the bathroom to get it wrapped up.

Maruki held the towel around his fingers tightly, perhaps a little too tight; he was still bleeding though and they could not take any chances of Aiya getting a small infection from just a cut.

“I'm okei Aiya. It’s not me we should be worried about, it’s you.” He looked over his shoulder at the fragile friend of his. “You are the one that is bleeding all over the place.” Maruki chuckled lightly and pulled Aiya to the bathroom.

Little did the both of them know, there was always a chosen one. For those who came from the aristocrat creature, there was a chosen human that they were to feed off of for the first time. Ruka had never had the need to feed off of anyone, for Maruki was his chosen one. Aiya, was not Maruki's chosen victim, perhaps in his still mortal mind, Aiya was too precious to him to hard in such a manner. ★

Aiya opened the door further in hearing that Maruki was in there. Opening the door all the way gave Toki the opportunity to run out into the hallway and play with the toy further.

“Um.” Aiya paused, pointing behind him in the hall. “Ruka is here to talk to you. He didn't say what it was about.” Aiya looked down to his roommate on the floor, hoping nothing bad was going on. He stepped forward and offered to help Maruki up.

Grabbing his hand, Maruki pulled himself up questioning to himself why he had a visitor on such a rainy day. Being followed by a still playful Toki, Maruki made his way down the hall into the entranceway. Hugging the corner of the wall to look in, he saw who it was, dripping wet onto his carpet.

“Ruka kun?” He stepped around and looked him over, seeing what a mess he was; he must have been outside since the flash storm had started.

Ruka looked up, a pinch more emotion in his eyes then normal. He dropped his hood from his head to see Maruki fully.

“How do you do it?” His hollow voice seemed distant as usual. “How did you teach yourself?” Ruka stepped onto Maruki's level, becoming taller then him now.

Maruki's brows furrowed, his eyes narrowed at Ruka's sudden confusing question.

“Do what Ruka kun?” He leaned his weight on one leg. “Wakarimasen.” Maruki looked to his official creator of his new life quizzically.

Ruka towered over Maruki slightly, his light brown eyes looked over Maruki emotionally. His eyes darted off to the side, his mind wandering and thinking as to how to word something.

“Show, emotion for, everything?” Ruka was awkward in asking, like a child asking a parent about sex.

Maruki chuckled slightly, it had obviously slightly upset Ruka for he darted his questioning gaze back to Maruki quickly. He leaned himself on the wall, shortening himself slightly.

“I don't do anything special. It's just, me.” He placed a hand loosely on his small hip. “Did you forget?” he sounded stupid with his knowledge of Ruka, but there was a possibility of losing past life things such as emotions.

Ruka had looked up at Maruki, stump. He wasn't sure at all if he had an answer to his returned question. He looked down and stared blankly at the floor. There were possibilities of losing emotions and feelings from the past life, but that normally took years to lose; but Ruka on the other hand, had no idea how long it has been since he had been mortal.

“I have found someone who will help me learn again.” Well that answered Maruki's question. “He is my test, because, I want to me like you.” Ruka had a sense of desperation in his voice, like he missed feeling.

Maruki was happy and bubbly and always like to smile, but he also got mad and sad at times as well. That was something that Ruka wanted to experience again. Though he considered himself far from it, to Ruka, Maruki was perfect, emotion wise; visually, Maruki was not bad looking either, the perfect vampire. In Ruka's travels around the city, he had seen many unappealing humans, seeing someone like Maruki was refreshing to him.

Perhaps Kousuke could help Ruka unknowingly in his attempt to feel again.

Maruki looked to Ruka with great sympathy in his bright, coffee eyes. Reaching to him, Maruki placed a hand on his shoulder, sending him a sweet, warm smile.

“I'm sure you could do it yourself if you put your mind to it Ruka kun.” Maruki dropped his arm to his side again, keeping his award-winning smile plastered on his full lips. “Ganbarre Ruka kun. What's his name?” Maruki smiled softly now, feeling hope for the young, emotionless vampire, standing in his doorway, dripping wet.

Ruka nodded continuously. He was ready to feel again, and was prepared for a long and difficult road to get to that.

Without saying a word to Maruki again, he turned, slipped on his shoes and left out into the rain again quietly.

Maruki looked around his entrance, confused and lost for words. When Ruka left, he took a few steps back and left into the depths of his house again, looking for Aiya quietly.

Sitting on his own bed, Aiya sat quietly, petting a sleeping Toki who had tuckered herself out playing. Peeking into the door, Maruki smiled softly at him. The room was dimly lit, Aiya had only turned on his desk lamp.

“So what did he want Maa?” Aiya spoke softly, almost a whisper in order to not wake Toki.

Maruki tiptoed over to Aiya's bed, sitting on the other side of their small, cute cat.

“He just came over to ask how I taught myself how to feel emotions?” Even in repeating it, Maruki thought to himself that it sounded stupid. “And to tell me that he could have found someone that could teach him how to feel again.” Maruki began to pet their long-haired cat, looking off to the clean floor of Aiya's bedroom.

Without looking, both of the roommates hand had touched the other’s soft flesh. Aiya had pulled his hand away shyly, cradling it in his other hand on his lap. Maruki was a roommate, and his boyfriend, and that one kiss; that was a mistake on Aiya's part where he was lost in the moment.

“That's why he came over?” He avoided the awkward situation between him and Maruki just then. His feminine, dark eyes looked up to him, questioning the visit as well. “He doesn't know how?” As a human, and a happy one at that, Aiya couldn't grasp the concept that someone didn't know how to feel.

Maruki nodded, looking down at Aiya's hands softly.

“He said he wanted to be just like me.” Slowly raising his gaze back to Aiya's, he reached across the sleeping kitty and grabbed Aiya's hand softly, entwining their fingers together. “But he can’t be just like me. Because he doesn't have you Ai.”