APH: Free, Like An Eagle

He had this sort of innocence that just danced around him.  His wide, chocolate eyes were blank, his perfectly unblemished, porcelain skin always at an unreadable expression.  There was nothing dark or sinister about the man, nothing that he showed, simply a mystery to.  Something he was hiding from the world, something he didn't want to show.  Secretive, but innocent.  His expressionless eyes always looked so innocent.

Walking down the cobble stone streets, his heels clicked with every step, his dark cape billowing around him.  He would've completely blended into the shadows, be it not for his radiating paleness, be it not for his slender fingers peeking out from the long sleeves of his coat, whipping against the shadows as he click-clicked abnormally fast.  In a hurry to get somewhere, or absolutely nowhere at all.

When he entered the bar, no heads turned in his direction, or to the windows which rain conveniently began pelting upon, just as the man walked indoors.  He removed his cape, hanging it up, revealing his outfit still perpetually dark, with a turtle neck colored, long sleeve shirt, and black slacks.  His dark hair clashed perfectly with his outfit, bringing out his neon pale skin as he slid into a seemingly empty booth, his fingers lacing together.

"Konnbannha..." the man spoke in barely a whisper his foreign word, something that went seemingly unheard from the loud chorus from the bar counter.  

He stared off at the shadowed part of the booth across the table, a place where the light from the small flame didn't even dare to touch.  He just stared, as though waiting.  Waiting for the darkness to form a being and speak back in his strange tongue.  For a few moments, nothing happened, but the man continued to wait patiently, his expression always the same and unreadable.  He stared, his long lashes never blinking over his chocolate eyes, as though blinking was just a passing fad that he wanted nothing to do with.  As though he was such a being that didn't cause for blinking, for breathing, for eating, or for sleeping; as though he just was.

"Hello."

The short greeting erupted from the darkness, so soft that even if you blinked you would've missed it.  Soft spoken from a voice that seemed like it wasn't used to such a way of speech, as though he didn't know how to be quiet, speak softly.  He was practicing the art of being quiet, as though someone would actually overhear their so secretive conversation in the loud bar.

"You wished to meet me here of all places." The man spoke in a thick, Asian accent, his expression staying collected.  "You say that I am well aware of why we are here, ne?"

"Yeah..."

"You're wrong."

The Asian man didn't speak in a matter-of-face tone, just bluntly.  The flame to the candle in the center of the table, flicking beneath his chin and having the unearthly feel about him grow even more cautious.  He continued to stare into the shadow of the other side of the booth, as the men at the counter continued to yell and chatter on, loudly and slurred, but obviously in German tongue.  He waited for the other man, a man with a curious accent, to go on speaking, but it was a while before he spoke, leaving the Asian man to sit in silence, looking seemingly alone to anyone that would glance over at him.  But he knew that he wasn't alone, he knew that he wasn't talking to himself.  No, he knew all about the man just beyond the shadow.

"Ha, wrong..." The other man finally replied, a sort of dark chuckle escaping his invisible lips, through the veil of black that he hid himself behind.  "You know why we're here.  You know damn well why it had to be here, Kiku."

The Asian man looked almost hurt for a moment, but just a moment, his normal facial expression masking over once more.

"I'm afraid that I must stick by my argument.  You are wrong, Mr. Jones."

"Lies."

If you looked closely enough, it would've been obvious that the Asian man tensed up beneath his dark, fitting turtle neck sweater.  But if you weren't paying close attention, it would've went unnoticed.  Unnoticed to the bar go-ers, the bartender, and almost to the man, Kiku, himself.  But not to Mr. Jones.

"You know.  Say it."

"..."

"Say it." The voice from behind the shadows grew a bit louder.

Without hesitation, Kiku spoke.

"This was where you lost...him."

"No," the smirk was evident in the other man's voice.  "This was where he lost me."

The table was once again drowned in silence by the two involved in the conversation.  The normally so stoic Asian man looked uncomfortable, staring into the darkness as though he could make out the face of his companion.  A face that he knew all too well, and could etch out so clearly in his mind.  Blond hair with bangs, short, but long enough to trail down his neck just a bit.  Bright blue eyes rimmed behind lenses, but the brightest shade of blue Kiku ever saw.  And his mouth, something that he was known to always wear in a lopsided smile, would be pulled into a defiant smirk, with those beautiful, bright blue eyes narrowed.

Anger, rage, defiance...  Despite keeping his poker face, Kiku was almost terrified inside.  But he remained quiet.  Waiting for Mr. Jones to start up and speak once more, not having anything to say for himself.  For how was he really to respond to such a statement, such a statement that was undyingly true if thought on for two long.  Mr. Jones didn't lose anyone, it was the other man who lost Mr. Jones...

"And here," The voice broke out from the shadows, a sort of rustling heard if ears keen enough to hear so.  "Here is where he will lose me for good."

He gave a sort of chuckle, having Kiku simply stare, only a twitch in his features giving away that he knew what Mr. Jones meant, and he knew it very well.  He wanted to be free, free for good from the man who lost him.  Freedom was what he sought, eternal freedom, but to be a slave in such another way... And he wanted Kiku to help make that happen.  He was well aware that he was needed to make this happen.

"You'll do it?"

The question came out more light-hearted than the rest of his previous statements.  A question, almost innocent-like, as if expectant to drip like venom from the lips of the Asian man.  But it didn't.  It came from the man from behind the shadows.  A man, who when he leaned forward, showing his tired face, was shown to not be a man at all, but a boy.  A boy with longing in his bright blue eyes, the brightest shade of blue to ever grace the face of the earth, and with pouty lips that wanted to upturn into his normal grin.

He reached a shaking hand out across the table, letting it rest over top of the Asian's folded hands, having him look like a ghost in comparison to the man once hidden in the shadows.  Kiku looked up at him, a sigh escaping his lips as his chocolate eyes closed, his head leaning forward.

"Alfred, you know I can't."

"Dammit, Kiku, look at me!" He gripped tighter to the Asian man's hands.  "Look at what he's done to me.  I want to be free...  You of all people know what it feels like to want to be free.  Like a bird... Like a soaring eagle.  Free to roam and do as I please.  Free to be with--"

"Iie."

His response was short, and he pulled his hands away, standing from his seat and shaking his head.  It was as though the scene parallel to them played on it's own without the pair existing.  As Alfred stood, Kiku turned away from him, and the Germans at the bar continued to laugh and yell and drink their alcohol as though they hadn't a care in the world.  Unlike the pair that seemed to have everything in the world wrong with them.

Strong hands grabbed the small Asian, who was terribly small compared to Alfred even despite his heels, and turned him to face him.  His piercing blue eyes stared into those chocolate orbs, having them widen even more innocent-like, as though he was being asked something horrible of him.  

But he was asking for freedom.  And freedom wasn't something that was bad, something that bad things could come from.  He would be doing his companion a favour.  Ridding him of the evil man that controlled him so.  Letting him roam and fly to his heart's content.  "Like an eagle," he whispered.  "Like an eagle..."  So who was Kiku really to deny this man his one wish?  Something he wanted to help with, longed to help with, for he loathed the man controlling Alfred far more than Alfred did himself.  He wanted him free, he wanted him to be able to roam and fly like an eagle, he wanted to help....

"Here...?" he asked softly, a solemn expression taking over, his disliking of the matter evident in the dropping of his features.

The blond smiled.  "Here."

As the bar go-ers continued to laugh and chatter merrily, all worries being chugged away with the rest of the contents of their glasses, they ignored the sight that went on just behind their backs.  Alfred's eyes closed, having him lean forward towards Kiku, eyes closed and head tilted slightly.  The Asian stared for a moment, hesitant as ever, with worry taking over those wide, chocolate eyes.  He took a deep breath, resting his pale, pale hands on the shoulders of the taller man, still neon clashing against his burgundy, button-up shirt, pale lips gracing the flesh to his neck gingerly, lingering as he muttered softly.

"Here...?" he asked again, questionable.

Alfred chuckled, not darkly this time, but pure.  "Yes, Kiku, right here."

Without prolonging the inevitable any longer, sharp, pure white fangs bit into the flesh of the taller man, breaking through enough to draw plenty of blood, having Alfred whine in a mix of pain and pleasure.  His face contorted slightly as the Asian sucked the blood from the punctured marks he made in his neck, slowly draining his mortal life from him, slowing freeing him from the burdens he bore because of the man who controlled him so.  And as he allowed Kiku to do this, to take his own soul, he had no idea that by doing this he was asking Kiku's soul to be spilt and taken as well.  Whatever shred of humanity the Asian had left in him, vanished the moment his teeth sunk into the neck of the man who begged him so to be born again as what he was.  

As vampyre.

Teeth released the tormented neck, having Alfred stumble back and fall dizzy into the booth.  His vision was blurred, more so than without his glasses on, he looked up to Kiku, head lolling to the side.  With blood-stained lips, Kiku watched him, contemplating on whether or not he would condemn this man's soul to the life he led, or to kill him now and leave him innocent, for the hope for himself was now long gone...

Fangs ripped open a vein in his own wrist, he leaned forward, panting slightly, holding his pale arm, beaded with pure red blood, out to the dying man before him.

"Drink," he urged softly.  "Drink, if you wish to be free."

Free, but damned to an eternal life.  A life you will grow to hate and want to get rid of.  A life of loneliness and darkness.  The seduction of the afterlife is tempting, but only so until it is achieved..

Alfred did as he was told, drinking until he was forced away.  And just like that, he was dead.

Glasses were removed from a pale face.  Bright blue eyes were brighter and more accentuated than beforehand.  The blood that stained his lips began to dry and cake, until his tongue flicked out to wash it away.  Kiku stared down at him, the man he condemned to live a life like his, the man he freed from the life he lived.  He grinned up at him, standing from the booth, being able to look at him perfectly, without any help from the lenses he previously wore.  His vision was perfect, his hearing acute, his sense of smell magnified...  Everything seemed like a whole new world to him.  A brighter, better, free world, where he could roam and fly as far as he wanted.  Free, like an eagle.

An uproar from the bar had the pair acknowledged the scene they chose to ignore, noting on how unobservant those of the mortal breed truly were.  The drunkards never to know the scene that happened behind them.  Never to know that right in that very bar, the night they were all there, drinking and gaily existing, a man died.  That a vampyre was in their midst.  That life was defied behind their hunched over backs, and they would never, ever know...

"The sun rises soon..." Kiku murmured, looking out the glass window to the door.  "To think, I am sure you won't even remember the last sunrise you ever saw... For the night, my coffin can be yours as well...  But we need to hurry."

He turned back to look up at the man, his chocolate eyes wide, but no longer gripping with the innocence they once held.  Now tired, weary, old, Kiku's eyes showed the story of his long life, showing the tale of his first kill, his fist conversion, the thing to break his once innocent soul.  Alfred smiled at him, small and genuine, placing a pale, but not nearly as pale as Kiku's, hand to the smaller man's cheek, smiling and brushing his thumb against the porcelain surface.

"You saved me." he whispered, as they stood in the doorway to the pub, the soft drizzle of the calmed rain hardly a factor to the weather at this point.  "I owe you my life."

"I took your life."

With that, lips pressed softly against the other's set, taking the smaller man off-guard, having him no time to fumble in an attempt to return the gesture, or even push him away.

"Well," Alfred, took a small hand between his own, opening the door and pulling the Asian out into the rain, still dumbstruck but what just happened.  "The rest of my afterlife, belongs to you, Kiku Honda."