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Borderline Consciousness: Chapter 2 |
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Please read Disclaimer:
(Please comment when you're finished.
Okay, the characters so far in this story do not belong to me, they belong to themselves.
This is not meant to be romantic (yet) and will contain the following: a plot, an actual story where the characters don't like each other right away, action scenes, VARIOUS PARADOXES, etc.
Given a PG-15 rating for: Gayness, cursing, male x male relationships (later), blood (later). Rating is versatile; will change near the end, though.)
Chapter 2 - Why Do I Keep Meeting Such Strange Characters?
Aoi looked around in the dark, trying to see where this guy was leading him. Right when he entered the blackness, he heard a loud, almost deafening creak, and the sound of gears spinning, as well. The sound was coming from behind him, he was sure of it.
Just as he looked back, he could see the whiteness of the realm disappearing, and then the door shut with a thud, and everything was black.
He blinked a couple of times, trying to adjust his eyes to the darkness, but to no avail. It was pitch black, and he probably wouldn’t be able to navigate properly, had Uruha not been guiding him by his hand.
It was surprising to him that Uruha was able to trek through the darkness with ease, he didn’t even hesitate or stop, he just proceeded as if it were in broad daylight, instead of a dark unilluminated corridor.
After a long silence, Aoi became slightly frightened due to the fact that there seemed to be no end to this journey through the darkness, and it was becoming oppressing. He decided to break the silence, for his own sake, of course. His voice was shaky and quiet, he sounded perturbed; this was probably allocated to the fact that he was beginning to have a fear of this enveloping blackness.
‘Uruha.’ He thought, looking ahead of him, in the direction where he thought Uruha’s face would be. ‘How long have we been walking?’ he really didn’t feel like asking the question, it probably wouldn’t do him any good; but he was glad to break the silence. It seemed that his mental clock had shut itself off, for Aoi felt like he had lost his sense of time completely.
‘Hm? I’m not sure, to be honest with you.’ Uruha thought-answered his query. He couldn’t actually care less, but he could feel Aoi become tense at the short, laconic reply that he gave. Clearly the raven haired man wasn’t very fond of the darkness, especially when it was endless as the current was, unfortunately.
‘Aoi-kun, do you need a hug? You seem rather tense. But I believe we’re almost at our destination.’ Uruha tried to reassure him, but it didn’t work to much avail.
Instead, that just made him feel even more constrained; why couldn’t they just be there already?! Apparently, as Aoi had just recently realised, he had a phobia of the darkness. And yet, he was surprised he didn’t just freak out when he blinked his eyes or went to sleep...
Despite the fact that it was dark as hell in here, Aoi nodded in an attempt to answer the blonde’s question. He really did need a hug; believe it or not, no matter how much he tried not to admit it to himself. Even if he was callous and lonely, he did need a bit of love once in a while. It was just the fact that he could not bring himself to embrace this very truth, no matter how rigorous his attempts. For once, he felt vulnerable, and it was the extreme fear that drove him towards insanity.
‘Uruha... Please. I hate this place so much; I just want to get out of here. It’s so freaking dark.’ He whimpered, his voice quiet, and it trembled as he spoke; his voice was barely audible, even in the appalling quiet of the black tunnel. He actually stopped walking, and Uruha attempted to drag him from his position, but his struggles led to no success. Quickly, he surrendered, and ceased his pulling of Aoi’s limbs, leaving the two standing in the dank silence. Again, Aoi felt the powerful urge to obliterate the eerie quiet.
‘God I feel like I’m gonna die... ********, I NEED A HUG NOW, URUHA!’ Came Aoi’s shriek, and he practically charged at the other man, almost knocking him to the ground.
Uruha clung to Aoi for dear life, as if he would fall backwards at any moment because of the force at which he had been pummelled by the other man.
‘Holy s**t, Aoi-baka! Calm the hell down!’ Uruha managed to shout, and his voice echoed off of unseen walls.
Uruha was now being clung to by Aoi the same way a plant would be clung to by a leech; the brunette was practically strangling him, crushing his bones, cutting off his circulation, and constricting about 95 percent of the blonde’s internal organs, just by performing that one action.
His eyes snapped shut, and he could barely move his arm to pat the other on the head, in an attempt to calm him down. But what’s more, Aoi was now sobbing uncontrollably, his vice grip on the blond was unfaltering.
Before he died of air loss (Uruha could swear his face was purple already), he mustered all his strength to peel the hysterical body of Aoi away from his own, and to his own dismay, he ended up flinging him quite far away.
‘Oh Lord almighty.... What the hell have I done?!’ He didn’t even notice that he had almost run out of air to breath; his mouth hung open in severe panic.
He started freaking out, running around in circles like a headless chicken; he had just lost the person he was in charge of bringing to the boss. He made an oath, promising to deliver him to the boss! What was he going to do?! Kai-bocchama was going to have his head!
Of course, Uruha was so preoccupied with the fact that he had ‘misplaced’ Aoi that he hadn’t heard the huge creaking noise, coming from a door that was being opened. The creaking, thankfully for Uruha, became loud enough for him to hear it above even his own screams of fear and panic.
He turned in the direction where he thought the noise had come from and he heard a pair of voices conversing.
‘Godammit, Uruha was supposed to be back already! I can’t believe Kai-bocchama sent us in to get him. Ugh, we actually have to work now.’ Uruha recognised the voice; it was that of his best friend, and subordinate, Hiroto.
‘I know, right.’ Came another’s voice, ‘We get paid for just sitting and doing nothing already, and it’s not like our pay increases when they send us on missions.’ He groaned; he was obviously annoyed.
‘What the hell, guys?’ Uruha called out to his subordinates, although he couldn’t see them. All he could see was the light emanating from the doorway.
‘Oh, we didn’t know you were coming back already, Uruha-sama.’ The owner of the anonymous voice replied; Uruha had a feeling the other guy was smirking at him in the darkness.
‘...Miyavi, is that you?’ Uruha queried; he hadn’t spoken to the flamboyant secretary in ages, but he could still recognise his voice a bit.
‘Yeah, you guessed correctly, for once.’ Miyavi snickered, and added, ‘Where’s the kid you were sent-‘
‘HEY! I’m not a freaking kid, dammit! I’m ********-‘ Aoi cut in, apparently he was close to where the group was congregated, if he had heard their conversation. ‘Even if I’m younger than you, I’m still not a kid!’ Honestly, Aoi had forgotten how old he really was, so technically he couldn’t form a good argument on that particular subject. But although he said he wasn’t a kid, he sure acted like one, seeming to argue about even the littlest things. But to appease his anxiety, Miyavi said nothing more about the subject at hand.
Uruha sighed and slapped himself in the forehead; how immature, that little brat was beginning to get on his nerves. Again.
‘Yeah, if you say so...’ Miyavi stated, trying to control himself. Usually, he was rather hyper, but his job required him to stay calm at all times, no matter if he was on break or not. So if you were comparing him to Aoi, you could say the two were polar opposites.
Now, if there was proper lighting, one would see that not only did Miyavi act flamboyantly; he also had the hair, piercings, and tattoos to prove just how flamboyant he really was. Miyavi frequently dyed his hair, but right now, it was various shades of pink, purple, and blue. He also had his lip, eyebrow, nose, and both ears, pierced. Since his vest was sleeveless, you could catch a rather good glimpse of the many tattoos he had on his arms and hands.
On the other hand, though, Hiroto was completely different story. One could say that compared to Miyavi, Hiroto was rather plain; but that would apply to almost everyone. No, Hiroto wasn’t plain or boring; he was just simple in his demeanour. His hair was dirty blonde, and it just barely brushed the tops of his shoulders. You could even compare Hiroto to a mouse, seeing as he bore a striking resemblance to one, at least appearance-wise; but other than his appearance, nothing else could be compared to a mouse. He wasn’t overly quiet, and his voice was not small and squeaky, but it was actually low, and rather loud.
‘Uruha tell the ki- err... other guy,’ (Thank goodness he caught himself; he really hated causing conflicts), ‘to walk towards the light.’ Hiroto called out to his friend in the darkness, even though he wasn’t sure where exactly he was.
Aoi wandered almost blindly through the darkness, and he could hear the stranger saying something about walking towards the light, so he did as he was told. ‘Thank the gods there’s light...’ Aoi thought, his fear finally beginning to slip away from him as he neared the light that was radiating from the doorway.
‘Uruha?’ He called out into the darkness, hoping the blond was still around there.
‘Yeah? What do you need, Aoi-kun?’ He heard the now familiar voice answer him, coming from a few feet ahead of him.
‘I heard voices coming from around here...’ his voice trailed off as he saw the outlines of the two figures standing in the darkness, not too far away from Aoi. ‘Oh. Who are you? I didn’t think you guys were still here...’ Aoi hesitantly began rubbing the back of his head with his fingers, and he could feel his face getting hot and red. ‘Oh s**t... this is embarrassing.’ He thought, and then stopped himself after he realised what he had just thought. He could feel his face flushing an even deeper red hue at the fact that he had let that slip.
Hiroto chuckled at his mistake nonchalantly. ‘You don’t have to be so embarrassed, you know. It’s not like I can see you anyways. Uh... Why don’t we go back to the base?’ He stated, changing the subject.
Uruha quickly agreed, and so did Miyavi, while Aoi just stood there and nodded, even though he had a feeling they weren’t paying him any mind.
Miyavi was the first to walk through the doorway, followed closely by Hiroto, who was directly followed by Uruha, and finally Aoi stepped through, although he was hesitant; he was the one who had wanted to get out, and it was finally his chance. As the previous figures walked through, they were enveloped by a flash of blinding light. The last thing he saw before he entered the doorway was the unending darkness of the tunnel.
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The sensation literally scared the crap out of him; he felt as if his insides were being pulled out of him through is back, if that were even possible. Thankfully for Aoi, this very sensation lasted only about a minute but that was enough to make him feel nauseous. His eyes were shut tightly in anticipation and it was not until he felt the ground beneath him that he collapsed from the pain in his sides, but his eyes snapped open, observing his surroundings carefully.
His chin rested on the ground, his eyes darting from place to place. His arms lay flat on the ground, his nails digging into the dirt beneath him.
He rolled over onto his back, not even attempting to get up off of the ground.
‘Aoi? Where are you?’ He heard a voice call his name, and he immediately perked up, quickly pushing himself off of the ground, not even bothering to pat the dust off of his clothing.
‘Yeah, I’m over here, Uruha.’ He answered curtly, walking towards the voice. But before he could take another step, he almost collapsed again, this time from the shock afflicted on him by what he saw before him.
Was this... sunlight?! He gasped loudly; there was real light out here, and trees, and grass, and flowers, and the latter. It had been a long time since he had seen any natural living things; aside from human beings, of course. Apparently, the doorway had led them to an open meadow, just at the edge of a forest.
He saw Uruha approach him, and he could see a soft breeze ruffle his hair a bit. Aoi blushed at the sight, and looked down at his feet, chewing nervously on his lip ring.
‘Come one, Aoi, we have to get to the base by sunset. We don’t have much time left.’ He said gently, holding out his hand to the other man.
‘Why do we have to get there by sunset?’ Aoi’s head snapped up, and he stared at Uruha quizzically.
‘I’ll explain later when we get back to the base.’ Uruha said quickly, his gaze resting elsewhere. We have to go now, the others are waiting for us. Come on.’ He said, beginning to run into the woods to where the two men that he had met in the black tunnel were waiting for them.
Aoi ran after him, and as soon as the two others saw him, they both let out a sigh of relief, simultaneously.
‘Okay, thank the lord you’re alright. We thought you fell over somewhere in that direction...’ Hiroto said, motioning his head in the direction of some dark mountains behind them. ‘By the way, what’s your name? No one told me what it was.’ He said, scratching his temple.
‘It’s Aoi.’ He said laconically, averting his gaze. Apparently, Aoi had trouble with eye-contact, seeing as he could never look directly into someone’s eyes if he could avoid it. If he did make contact with someone’s eyes, he would end up blushing furiously, which really didn’t make him feel too good about himself. It made him seem as if he had some type of social problem, or so he thought.
‘Okay, Aoi.’ Hiroto smiled; the name was short and easy to remember; thankfully it only had two syllables, otherwise he would probably forget it. He had even had trouble remembering Uruha’s name when the two had been introduced; but it had been years ago. ‘Mine’s Hiroto, in case you hadn’t heard. And this is Miyavi.’ He said, pointing to the man standing next to him.
Aoi looked around in the clearing of the woods; the four of them were just standing there; apparently, they were waiting for something. But for what?
Miyavi finally spoke, breaking the silence. ‘Uruha, do you have the whistle with you?’ he asked, turning to the taller blond man.
‘I was supposed to have it?! No one gave me any whistles!’ Uruha wailed, his face contorted in annoyance.
‘Well, how the hell are we gonna get back to the base, then?! The whistle’s the only thing we can use to get there with! And you know how tight the security is nowadays.’ Miyavi retorted, glaring at the other, and he looked even more annoyed than him.
‘Goddamn, stop arguing, will you?! We don’t have all day to get back to Headquarters! Unless you want the-!’ Hiroto yelled, but he was cut off by Uruha.
‘Don’t say it, Hiroto! You’ll make them freakin’ come after us! Even when they’re asleep they can still hear us!’ Uruha almost snarled at him. He knew how dangerous even thinking about the name was.
What in the world were they talking about?! What was a whistle going to do for them? And what was the forbidden word that they were yelling at each other for almost using? Aoi had become confused again.
‘Wait!’ Miyavi suddenly exclaimed, flailing his arms around like an idiot.
‘What is it, Meev?’ Hiroto asked in a bored tone, using the nickname he had given his friend.
‘I remember that Kai-bocchama gave me the whistle! I have it!’ Miyavi shrieked excitedly, digging around in the pockets of his cargo pants.
Suddenly, he stopped digging, and his expression faltered as he looked up, his mouth gaping. ‘...And I lost it. I lost the whistle. WE’RE GOING TO BE EATEN ALIVE!’ Miyavi shouted at the top of his lungs, and he began to have a panic attack.
Of course Hiroto, being the only sensible one there at the moment, quieted him.
‘JUST SHUT THE HELL UP, MEEV!’ He yelled, his voice echoing through the woods. ‘Apparently you forgot that the whistle was made from nickel, you imbecile.’ He said as-a-matter-of-factly. He had become calm again.
‘And how is this going to help us?’ Aoi spoke for the first time in a while. ‘How does knowing that the whistle is made of nickel help us at all?’ He asked, raising his eyebrow in question.
‘Uh... it doesn’t?’ Miyavi had guessed; he, too, had calmed down.
Uruha gave him a smack upside the head. ‘You really are an imbecile.’ He said in a serious tone, his eyes half-lidded.
‘Ow, dammit! You hit hard!’ Miyavi whimpered, massaging his head where he had been hit.
Hiroto sighed, and continued. ‘The fact that the whistle is made of nickel means it has magnetic properties.’ He explained. ‘I can’t believe you forgot, Meev; seriously.’ He turned to Miyavi, as he rolled the left sleeve of his jacket up, exposing his forearm.
Aoi gasped at the arm in shock; from afar, you couldn’t see that it was made of metal. But when the forearm was exposed, you could tell that there was something up with him. The arm was made from a platinum looking metal and up to his shoulder, from his wrist, was made from the metal.
‘Yeah, I assumed you’d react that way.’ Hiroto laughed amusedly. ‘Most people have that same reaction.’
‘Wha...What happened to you?! Are you like, a cyborg, or something?’ Aoi asked, his eyes widened in amazement. ‘Or is it just a prosthesis?’
‘It’s prosthetic. The only part of it that’s real is the hand.’ Hiroto answered with a downcast smile. ‘I lost from my wrist up to my shoulder in battle. I uh... lost one rib, too.’ He said, lifting his shirt to show him the prosthetic rib he had in his left side.
‘Holy crap!’ Aoi exclaimed, and then looked down in embarrassment. ‘...I’m sorry, for asking so many questions. But that’s really amazing... What happened that you had to get prosthetics?’ Aoi asked him again.
‘I used to be in the army and I was sent to infiltrate some Azarian city where they were making some nuclear detonators. I actually picked one up; I know smart of me; and it burned through the flesh on the entire left side of my body, as well as my arm and thigh. All that were left were the bones in my arm. I was pretty beat up... I lost a lot of skin, but I managed it managed to grow back, along with the muscles on my body and hand. But all the muscles and ligaments in my arm were gone, and they wouldn’t grow back no matter what. The prosthetics serve as a container of sorts for the bones, I guess. The doctors actually had to make me artificial muscles and they had to reconstruct my lungs. I was actually in the hospital for a few years recovering. There were actually times when I thought I wasn’t going to survive.’ He finished modestly.
‘And it was all because I decided to pick up a detonator; I actually thought it was inactive... Pssssh.’ He laughed at himself for that.
‘Wow. That must have been really painful.’ Was all Aoi could say, he was so bewildered at what Hiroto had experienced. Hiroto seemed so quiet and modest, and yet he had been in the army and survived an explosion that could have killed him.
‘Okay, let me see what I can do about that missing whistle...’ Hiroto said, crouching down on the ground, placing his hand palm down in the dirt.
At first, nothing happened and Aoi looked at Hiroto with is eyebrow raised.
‘What’s supposed to happen?’ He pestered him with yet another question.
‘You see,’ Hiroto answered with a smile, ‘My arm has a function where it can serve as a super-powerful electromagnet. I can use it to draw the whistle towards me.
What the two didn’t notice was the whistle flying at an insanely high speed towards Hiroto’s arm, and it happened to be right behind Aoi. But it wasn’t until too late that they noticed that.
There was the sound of flesh and muscle being ripped apart.
A high-pitched shriek emitted from the lips of Aoi.
And a thud as his body lay limp on the ground, creating a cloud of dust.
The blood red whistle clanged to a stop against Hiroto’s arm.
/End Chapter 2/
 xo_Deidara · Tue Jun 24, 2008 @ 02:02am · 3 Comments |
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