[fic] SoG: Blue
Apr. 20th, 2005 02:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ickaimpUm... takes place after 'Bystander'.
The story just decided to take a really angsty and funky turn. Sorry about that.
• • •
Shades of Grey: Blue
by Icka! M. Chif
• • •
Things have turned a deeper shade of blue
And images that might be real
May be illusion
-Cowboy Bebop: Blue
Something was off tonight.
Hakuba wasn't quite sure what it was. Everything had gone according to plan, the shouting and shooting had been at a minimum, but there was just... something in the air.
And Kid was late.
It wasn't as if there was any schedule that they were keeping, in fact the lack of schedule was something that was supposed to work in their favour, but Kid usually showed up within a certain amount of time. It was starting to make him worry.
He was still trying to figure out what exactly was making his stomach queasy when he stepped out on to the library balcony with a cup of camomile tea to try to clear his head with a bit of warm spring air. School was over, they had graduated. With honours even. He should be feeling liberated. The day after tomorrow he was off to London for a week, then back to Japan for university. He was looking forward to telling Kid. And Kuroba. He'd just gotten the acceptance notification yesterday, after some mix up with some of Father's mail.
Although Mum was trying to encourage him to take a year off to travel abroad, see more of the world while he was still young. It was slightly tempting, but he was looking forward to the opposite, living in one location for a few years, especially with friends close by. Not trotting back and forth across the globe.
Now that was an unusual feeling, settling down. Odd, but good. Warmed his heart, as the saying went.
A flash of white drew his attention to the tree beside the balcony and he relaxed slightly, even as the worry shifted. Something must have happened after Kid had escaped the police for him to be hiding in the tree instead of coming inside. "Everything alright?" He questioned, moving closer to the tree. The kaitou wasn't lounging either, always a bad sign. It might have -looked- casual to a distant observer, but he could see the tense muscles and the tiny vibrations in the lithe frame.
"No." Kid answered truthfully. Another bad sign, no eye contact. Kid was resolutely staring ahead at the stars. Worry cranked up to mild panic.
"Anything I can help with?"
"No." Now the thief turned to look at him and the hairs went up on the back of Hakuba's neck. This was the Kid... this was the Kid shut down and without emotion. "It's over."
"What?" Over?
Kid wordlessly passed him a small clear stone, about the size of an eye, cut into many facets. It was one of the smaller stones from the necklace that had been tonight's heist, framing a large pigeon's blood ruby half the size of his fist. Hakuba noticed that the thief's usually pristine white gloves were torn, what looked like bits of dried blood around the ragged edges. Swallowing thickly, he took the jewel and did as the Kid had instructed about a year ago, held the jewel up to the moonlight to see if it would glow red.
And cry tears of immortality.
It glowed blue and leaked something that made his fingers burn, blisters forming immediately. He hissed in pain, dropping the stone into his tea, where it caused the liquid to roll, almost like it was boiling. He watched the reaction with not a small amount of trepidation, although it didn't appear to be interested in burning through the glass of the cup.
"It glows red when introduced to blood." Kid said mildly, the voice distant and cold. "I cut my hand removing it from the setting. It healed the cuts."
But not without a price. Nothing ever came without a price.
"The Necklace was rumoured to be cursed." He said thickly, cradling his blistered hand. Although it was supposed to have been the ruby that caused it, the colour of blood. "Something about cults and the undead."
"Yeah." Kid was looking away again. "Feed it enough blood on a consistent basis and I'm sure it'll save you from death. Although I don't know if you can count that as alive."
Immortality in exchange for lives. In exchange for your soul, stripped of humanity. How many people would you have to devastate to extend a single lifespan? He shivered. And he'd thought vampires and zombies were just stilly superstitions. "I thought you were going to destroy it."
"Smash it to bits." Kid agreed in the same frozen tone, a bit of disinterest creeping in. "I've been trying. It broke my hammer. And a sledgehammer. Dropping it from heights don't do anything to it. Neither did running it over with a train. I'm afraid to see what it would do to the ocean."
No wonder Kid was late. He'd been busy.
"W-"
Kid cut him off, rolling over his comment with chilling impersonality. "The Kid's job is done. He's gone. Go back to your England, Detective. It's over."
It wasn't done, his mind wanted to rail. The men in black were still out there, hunting for him. Toichi's killer was still on the loose. There were still things to do. In the end, all he could do was swallow and stare at the flat shadowed eyes and try not to hurt.
Then between one eye blink and the next, the thief was gone, the stone missing out of his teacup as well. He shuddered, gripping his arm with the uninjured hand. Something wasn't just off tonight. Something was -wrong-.
Priorities. Take care of his hand. Beaker for the Tea to analyse later. Call up Kuroba and scream loudly that he was out of his ever nutting mind.
Destinations in mind, he picked up the cup and staggered into the house, his mind churning in frantic little hamster wheels. The motions of cleaning up the blisters on his fingertips helped calm his mind and sooth his nerves a bit.
There were test tubes in his computer desk, he pulled some out and poured the remains of the tea into two of the tubes, sealing them tight. The tea in them was no longer the usual yellow-golden colour of dried camomile, but more of a greenish tinge now, with an odd almost pearly sheen to it. One of the tubes he tucked back into his desk, among other less interesting samples, the other onto his bed to be taken care of once he woke his brain up.
Which brought him to Kuroba.
As his conversation with Kudo and Hattori had so bluntly pointed out, he had become the kaitou's most obvious weakness. The only person to really get close to the thief. Most of it due to the fact that he was bloody possessive of the kaitou, something that had been illustrated throughout the past year and a half that went both ways. He guarded Kid's back to the best of his ability and Kid guarded his, although his protection was a bit of the odd sort.
Usually by deflecting attention, allowing Hakuba to work in the shadows. Although Kid was firm in his insistence that Hakuba keep his fingers out of certain things, mostly dealing with the darker variants of grey. Usually for his own safety. What he didn't know he couldn't implicate. Or what didn't know about him...
If Kid had the gem, had Pandora, the thief had just been upgraded from 'Minor Annoyance' to 'Major Target'.
Shit.
And in his usual fashion, Kid was doing his best to ensure that Hakuba was not around for the fallout. Although Hakuba was pretty sure that neither Kid or Kuroba knew that he was coming -back-.
One of these days, he was going to have to have a serious discussion with the other boy about this martyr complex of his. It did no one any good and royally ticked Hakuba off.
In the mean time, he had tonight and tomorrow to set about his own protections and then he was gone for a week. Hopefully that would be enough time for Kid to do what he needed to do and allow things to cool off a bit.
If not, well, they'd deal with that then.
-fin-
The story just decided to take a really angsty and funky turn. Sorry about that.
• • •
Shades of Grey: Blue
by Icka! M. Chif
• • •
Things have turned a deeper shade of blue
And images that might be real
May be illusion
-Cowboy Bebop: Blue
Something was off tonight.
Hakuba wasn't quite sure what it was. Everything had gone according to plan, the shouting and shooting had been at a minimum, but there was just... something in the air.
And Kid was late.
It wasn't as if there was any schedule that they were keeping, in fact the lack of schedule was something that was supposed to work in their favour, but Kid usually showed up within a certain amount of time. It was starting to make him worry.
He was still trying to figure out what exactly was making his stomach queasy when he stepped out on to the library balcony with a cup of camomile tea to try to clear his head with a bit of warm spring air. School was over, they had graduated. With honours even. He should be feeling liberated. The day after tomorrow he was off to London for a week, then back to Japan for university. He was looking forward to telling Kid. And Kuroba. He'd just gotten the acceptance notification yesterday, after some mix up with some of Father's mail.
Although Mum was trying to encourage him to take a year off to travel abroad, see more of the world while he was still young. It was slightly tempting, but he was looking forward to the opposite, living in one location for a few years, especially with friends close by. Not trotting back and forth across the globe.
Now that was an unusual feeling, settling down. Odd, but good. Warmed his heart, as the saying went.
A flash of white drew his attention to the tree beside the balcony and he relaxed slightly, even as the worry shifted. Something must have happened after Kid had escaped the police for him to be hiding in the tree instead of coming inside. "Everything alright?" He questioned, moving closer to the tree. The kaitou wasn't lounging either, always a bad sign. It might have -looked- casual to a distant observer, but he could see the tense muscles and the tiny vibrations in the lithe frame.
"No." Kid answered truthfully. Another bad sign, no eye contact. Kid was resolutely staring ahead at the stars. Worry cranked up to mild panic.
"Anything I can help with?"
"No." Now the thief turned to look at him and the hairs went up on the back of Hakuba's neck. This was the Kid... this was the Kid shut down and without emotion. "It's over."
"What?" Over?
Kid wordlessly passed him a small clear stone, about the size of an eye, cut into many facets. It was one of the smaller stones from the necklace that had been tonight's heist, framing a large pigeon's blood ruby half the size of his fist. Hakuba noticed that the thief's usually pristine white gloves were torn, what looked like bits of dried blood around the ragged edges. Swallowing thickly, he took the jewel and did as the Kid had instructed about a year ago, held the jewel up to the moonlight to see if it would glow red.
And cry tears of immortality.
It glowed blue and leaked something that made his fingers burn, blisters forming immediately. He hissed in pain, dropping the stone into his tea, where it caused the liquid to roll, almost like it was boiling. He watched the reaction with not a small amount of trepidation, although it didn't appear to be interested in burning through the glass of the cup.
"It glows red when introduced to blood." Kid said mildly, the voice distant and cold. "I cut my hand removing it from the setting. It healed the cuts."
But not without a price. Nothing ever came without a price.
"The Necklace was rumoured to be cursed." He said thickly, cradling his blistered hand. Although it was supposed to have been the ruby that caused it, the colour of blood. "Something about cults and the undead."
"Yeah." Kid was looking away again. "Feed it enough blood on a consistent basis and I'm sure it'll save you from death. Although I don't know if you can count that as alive."
Immortality in exchange for lives. In exchange for your soul, stripped of humanity. How many people would you have to devastate to extend a single lifespan? He shivered. And he'd thought vampires and zombies were just stilly superstitions. "I thought you were going to destroy it."
"Smash it to bits." Kid agreed in the same frozen tone, a bit of disinterest creeping in. "I've been trying. It broke my hammer. And a sledgehammer. Dropping it from heights don't do anything to it. Neither did running it over with a train. I'm afraid to see what it would do to the ocean."
No wonder Kid was late. He'd been busy.
"W-"
Kid cut him off, rolling over his comment with chilling impersonality. "The Kid's job is done. He's gone. Go back to your England, Detective. It's over."
It wasn't done, his mind wanted to rail. The men in black were still out there, hunting for him. Toichi's killer was still on the loose. There were still things to do. In the end, all he could do was swallow and stare at the flat shadowed eyes and try not to hurt.
Then between one eye blink and the next, the thief was gone, the stone missing out of his teacup as well. He shuddered, gripping his arm with the uninjured hand. Something wasn't just off tonight. Something was -wrong-.
Priorities. Take care of his hand. Beaker for the Tea to analyse later. Call up Kuroba and scream loudly that he was out of his ever nutting mind.
Destinations in mind, he picked up the cup and staggered into the house, his mind churning in frantic little hamster wheels. The motions of cleaning up the blisters on his fingertips helped calm his mind and sooth his nerves a bit.
There were test tubes in his computer desk, he pulled some out and poured the remains of the tea into two of the tubes, sealing them tight. The tea in them was no longer the usual yellow-golden colour of dried camomile, but more of a greenish tinge now, with an odd almost pearly sheen to it. One of the tubes he tucked back into his desk, among other less interesting samples, the other onto his bed to be taken care of once he woke his brain up.
Which brought him to Kuroba.
As his conversation with Kudo and Hattori had so bluntly pointed out, he had become the kaitou's most obvious weakness. The only person to really get close to the thief. Most of it due to the fact that he was bloody possessive of the kaitou, something that had been illustrated throughout the past year and a half that went both ways. He guarded Kid's back to the best of his ability and Kid guarded his, although his protection was a bit of the odd sort.
Usually by deflecting attention, allowing Hakuba to work in the shadows. Although Kid was firm in his insistence that Hakuba keep his fingers out of certain things, mostly dealing with the darker variants of grey. Usually for his own safety. What he didn't know he couldn't implicate. Or what didn't know about him...
If Kid had the gem, had Pandora, the thief had just been upgraded from 'Minor Annoyance' to 'Major Target'.
Shit.
And in his usual fashion, Kid was doing his best to ensure that Hakuba was not around for the fallout. Although Hakuba was pretty sure that neither Kid or Kuroba knew that he was coming -back-.
One of these days, he was going to have to have a serious discussion with the other boy about this martyr complex of his. It did no one any good and royally ticked Hakuba off.
In the mean time, he had tonight and tomorrow to set about his own protections and then he was gone for a week. Hopefully that would be enough time for Kid to do what he needed to do and allow things to cool off a bit.
If not, well, they'd deal with that then.
-fin-
