"I'm in hell."
Well, not literally or anything, but it might as well be.
I live in a house of cock blockers.
I'm a legal adult, even if I'm still not completely certain if I'm almost twenty-one or over three thousand. I have run a street gang. I've stolen things for a living. I can talk to ghosts and apparently call up demons and monsters. Hell, I'm even three out of four marks to being the human servant of one of the youngest but most powerful master vampires in all of Japan.
But I'm going to shoot said master vampire in the head in the very near future if I don't get some soon. And if it were just Treeboy doing this shit, I might have actually done it. Hell, I might have even survived it. But no, the brat is in on it too. Seto, him I can write off with the whole mark thing and him being a possessive, overprotective bastard. Ryou is a whole other story, as always.
I don't know what's got them both in a snit about leaving Yami and me alone together. I mean, yeah, Treeboy knows about the fight and the black eye and all, since he saw me with it before the whole dream world thing started, but it seemed a bit too... too... something to be his idea to do this. As far as I know, though, Ryou doesn't know, though. Seto wouldn't have voluntarily told him, he's too nervous around Seto to approach him for information on his own, Yami would never tell him or anyone else, and I know I didn't tell him. Or at least, I'm pretty sure I've never told him. I guess I can't be completely certain there, not with all these blank spots in my memory.
You know, when I first woke up, I thought not being able to see was going to be the height of my new problems. Well, now that's mostly gone -- it's down to the occasional whiteout spell -- and then this starts showing up.
I can remember everything before the church perfectly. Everything at the church is there, but it's a bit blurry. The dream world is hit and miss for what I can remember of it, but it's mostly hits luckily. It's in the two weeks between when I woke up and now that the lapses are becoming more evident, and I don't fucking like it. I might be mostly retired, but a thief lives by his memory; I can't afford for it to go out on me.
But right now, all of that doesn't really matter because Cock Blocker #1 -- the one who's actually related to me -- is doing his best impression of a wilting flower. Frankly, I still think I'm in the right here, but it's hard to hold on to that when he's doing the kicked puppy thing.
"Surely it's not that bad, niisan," he finally mumbles. It could almost be cute, if it weren't for the topic at hand.
...and Jesus fuck, could three marks make me start thinking like Seto? Because that didn't much sound like me thinking there. That would be just my luck too, after all; get the demon out of my head and pick up a vampire instead.
"Yes, it is that bad!" I cross my arms and halfway consider throwing the same pout back at him. We are twins, after all, and if it works for him, it should work for me, right? "I haven't gotten laid in two weeks!"
There comes the frowning face of disapproval and perhaps a bit of discomfort. Surprise, he doesn't like talking about sex. I'm honestly shocked it took this long to appear. "And before you hooked up with him, how long had it been?"
Okay, I'll admit it: he had me there. Before Yami, there was only Malik three years previously. The less said about that, the better, though. No sense bringing up memories like that. "I don't think that really matters," I manage to get out instead.
The brat breathes in deeply and lets it out as a slow sigh, before turning the most pitiful eyes ever on me. "I'm sorry, niisan. It's just -- You almost died in there. I almost lost you. I just -- just want to have some time with you, like how it used to be."
I almost have to wonder if he means how it used to be when we were still in the apartment... or if he means before we came to Domino. Either way, there seems to be... No, there's no way in hell he's saying he misses the pre-Yami days. No way. I refuse to believe that.
"Is it absolutely necessary for you to crash with me every time I go to bed, though?" Maybe it's insensitive or something to ask shit like that, from the new frown he delivers. It's definitely whining. See me not caring, though. "I mean, doesn't Yuugi miss you?"
"Niisan..." Another sigh. Crap, this one's going to be big. He wraps an arm around me and pulls me to sit down next to him on the couch. I let him get away with it. Hell, who am I kidding? I'm a wuss for my little brother. "Yes, Yuugi does miss me, but right now, I'm more worried about you."
"Me?" It may or may not have come out as a squeak. "Why the hell would you be worried about me?"
"You almost died, and you can ask me that?" He sounds surprised. Okay, put it that way, and I can see why. "You're still sick, niisan."
"Wha--" I start to object, to deny, something.
"Niisan..." Wow, is that what I sound like when I start losing my temper? I wonder. "I know you. You're still sick."
"Just the whiteouts," I finally admit after an uncomfortable and long silence. There is no way in hell I'm admitting to the blank spots. Not a chance. I need to hold on to the last little bit of my pride here. "That's it."
He actually rolls his eyes at me -- which is actually way more impressive than it sounds, considering how goddamn polite he is. "'That's it'? That's plenty enough right there, you know. The marks Kaiba-kun gave you didn't help?" He's so damn polite about it, definitely unlike how I'm feeling on the topic. Color me impressed.
"I can see ninety-five percent of the time. I probably have the marks to thank for that." Besides, that they've slightly improved my healing abilities and gave me the ability to meet most vampires' eyes.
"More than slightly."
Oh crap, did I say all of that out loud? What the hell is happening to me? "Okay," I again concede, "maybe more than slightly."
"Niisan, I've been watching. You still cut yourself making breakfast, but you heal incredibly fast, maybe as fast as a Were -- almost as fast as a vampire."
"Maybe." That's all I'm giving up. What troubles me beyond all reason is that I don't remember what he's talking about, so he must have seen-- he must have seen me in one of those blank spots. Maybe I'll get stupidly lucky and he won't have realized that.
"You're not on the second mark. You're at the third one."
He states that so definitively that I just have to heckle him some. "Are you sure about that, brat? Vampires aren't exactly your area of expertise."
"Kaiba-kun admitted to me about the mark you already had. You're definitely on the third now."
24 May 2010
Wow, Chapter One done at last. I was starting to think it wouldn't happen anytime soon. My goal is to be done in the next few months, but I'm not laying promises on that. I'm going to try, but... yeah... no promises.
And the name. Apparently, I've long lost it. My original notes say "Cyber Fake", but somewhere along the line, it got in my head the wrong way and I typed the wrong title over and over. "Cyber Fake" is the correct title. I will be fixing links and references once this is up.
I'm part of the way through Chapter Two, and hopefully it'll be ready soon.
Comments are love!
~Apollymi