Black and Red: Part 5 ~ [The Pig Pen]

Black and Red

(Part 5)

Rukawa sat quietly on the couch, looking up at Sakuragi expectantly, waiting until the taller boy was ready to speak.

Sakuragi seemed to suddenly have trouble speaking. He kept clearing his throat and opening his mouth, but no words came out. He finally sat down in the bean bag chair again, hands buried in his hair, breathing deeply.

Rukawa didn’t quite know what to do, and reacted with an instinct he didn’t know he had. He got up and quietly kneeled beside him, a hand rubbing Sakuragi’s back. And without his conscious thought he was speaking.

“Are you OK?”

Sakuragi looked up at him, eyes searching his, as if the answer lay in Rukawa’s face. He nodded numbly and wove his fingers together.

“Are you sure you want to talk about this?”

Again, there was silence and Sakuragi shrugged, trying to sound nonchalant as he said, “I’ve just never told anyone this before.”

“Well, if you aren’t comfortable with it...”

“But you want to know.”

“Isn’t there a way you could explain what happened to me without telling me about you?” Rukawa hated the way it sounded, but he didn’t want to force anything out of Sakuragi.

Sakuragi inhaled deeply and stood again, a more determined look on his face this time. “Probably, but I need you to know.”

Rukawa didn’t ask why; he wanted to know as much as Sakuragi wanted to tell. He sat down on the couch once more, leaning towards Sakuragi, his eyes glued to the brown-silver of the other boy’s eyes.

“Well, to start off, I’m not human.”

Rukawa merely nodded.

Sakuragi took a deep breath, hardly believing what he was doing, but he continued on.

“My mother wasn’t human, nor was my father. My father, I never met. He died before I was born for loving my mother. He was a vampire, and was killed by his own kind for mating outside his race. My mother was one of the last of her kind, a psychic. No, not those people you see on TV that read cards or tell you about your love life or whatever.” Sakuragi shook his head. “No, my mother was a true psychic. You see, humans use maybe 15% of their possible brain power. My mother and her kind had total control over 100% of their brain power. Which made them almost a higher species. However, the reason there were so few is because humans, who fear what is different, killed them off during a popular period in time called the Salem Witch Trials, which took place not only in the Americas, but all around the world, only at different points in time.” He shook his head, his expression one of disgust. “And so my mother’s kind is few in number. In fact, I have no idea how many are left.” He sighed and shook his head. “And my father, like Isaid, was a vampire. They use maybe 25% of their possible brain power, and so can sometimes move things with their minds, occasionally make you forget things, and can control you... somewhat. It depends on how great your will is.”

Rukawa remained quiet, sitting, listening intently.

“So my mother raised me until she died, by the hand of a vampire that discovered her identity.” A growl formed in his throat. “He tried to kill me, as well. Only by then, I had developed my powers.” He looked at Rukawa, his eyes almost blank. “You see, I’m an ‘inbreed’. My brain power is beyond the possible limits, beyond comprehension. And to top that off, I have their strength.” He laughed bitterly. “So I can’t claim either as my race. I’m too strong to be a psychic, but I don’t crave blood, so I’m no vampire.” He chuckled again, shaking his head. “And I’m definitely not human. I can learn more about you than you know about yourself in about three seconds and remember it all.”

Rukawa raised his eyebrows inquisitively.

Sakuragi understood the motion. “No, I didn’t. Not with you.” He decided to keep the memory a secret. “Though I must say you project very well.”

“Project?”

“Project. You send your thoughts out to anyone that can hear them.” His eyebrows knitted together as a thought hit him. “Which, if what my mother said was true, isn’t possible in a human.” He looked at Rukawa again, then shrugged. “Well, exceptions to the rules and all.”

“So, I...project...my thoughts...” He touched his head lightly, as if that would somehow block his thoughts. “All of them?”

“No.” Sakuragi shook his head and brushed some hair from his eyes, falling onto the couch beside him. “I can only hear certain ones. In the club, you were telling me that you knew me, that I saved you. I heard that. But other than that, no.”

“Oh.” There was a silence, and Sakuragi felt suddenly better. A weight had been somehow lifted from his chest, and he felt...

...Relieved.

“Have you ever...told anyone...this?”

Sakuragi shook his head and looked into the kitchen. “Want a drink?”

“Water’s good.”

A few noises came from the kitchen, and a second later two glasses filled with water came dancing on air to the two boys, stopping in front of them. Sakuragi grabbed his and gulped it. Rukawa just stared. He watched his glass sit, motionless, on the air in front of him. Then he looked at Sakuragi, who leaned back against the couch.

“You’re serious about this, aren’t you?”

Sakuragi cocked an eyebrow and the fireplace flared to life.

“You didn’t believe me?”

Rukawa looked at the fireplace, a shocked expression registering on his face, then at the glass, grabbing it gently and looking at it from almost every possible angle. He tipped the glass sideways, and some water spilled out. About three inches from the floor it stopped, the water forming a small circle and floating on nothing. Sakuragi tilted his head to the side, and the water sailed into the kitchen. A splash was heard as it fell into the sink.

“Not really.” Rukawa gulped and took a sip of water. “But I’m beginning to have faith.”

Sakuragi smiled slightly. “As for what happened last night, for some reason you stumbled into a vampire bar on the wrong side of town. The vamp bar has blood, but they prefer their drinks fresh. You were about to buy them all rounds, to use the term ‘buy’ loosely, when I stepped in.”

“Why did you?”

Sakuragi looked away. That was one question that he had been asking himself all through the day, and he still hadn’t come up with an answer.

“To tell you honestly, Rukawa-”

“Call me Kaede.”

There was silence as they stared at one another. Sakuragi looked at him, marveling, not for the first time, at Rukawa’s almost feminine face, his soft features, his unruly hair, his icy eyes.

“Well, then, you call me Hanamichi.” He said quietly, his gaze roaming over Kaede’s soft-looking lips.

“OK.” Rukawa stared right back, wanting to run his hands through the coppery waves on Hanamichi’s head.

“To tell you the truth, Kaede...” He caught his breath in his throat as he broke his gaze away, knowing that if he watched any longer, he would have kissed the dark haired fox. “I don’t know why I did. But I stopped them. Then I blocked your memories, and took you home.”

“How’d you know where I lived?”

“I did a mind probe. I learned your name and address, that’s all.”

“You know about Kiko.”

Sakuragi slid his gaze back over to Rukawa, who had set down his glass, a tiny smile playing across his lips.

“You know about her.”

“Yea...”

Rukawa looked away. “Since you told me about you, perhaps I should return the favor?”

Sakuragi settled back onto the couch, stretching. “Sure. I’m actually dying to know.”

Part 4

Part 6