HikaGo fic

[sakon76]

Next to last piece. Actually, the last piece but there's an epilogue. Thanks to racerxmachina who let me bounce ideas off of her this weekend, luidaeg, who did the same online, and aishuu, whose excellent story "Brightly Burning" had the best description ever of Hikaru's eyes when he gets cold and angry in his play. I couldn't best it, so I borrowed it.


He had no way to move, to struggle, to fight. Fangs bit deep into his neck, paralyzing Akira, and the sour cold in the pit of his stomach drowned out the feelings of pleasure he could feel distantly battering at his mind. This was nothing, /nothing/ like Shindou's gentle feedings. Akira tasted bile in his mouth and wanted to swallow it down, but even that was denied to him.

It was never like this with Shindou. Why couldn't he fight?!

Then he was knocked down, the fangs ripping out of his skin, blood hot, a familiar voice shouting, words that made no sense, and Akira's stomach of bile and coffee emptied itself out onto the ground of the alley. He coughed, choking on the burning liquid. Words started to make more sense, and he levered himself up, looking.

"You fucking bastard prick! What the hell were you doing to him? No one messes with my friends!" The words were accompanied by the sound of flesh hitting flesh and breath being forced from lungs. Watching Shindou fight put Akira in mind of a wildcat--all tawny and muscles and blow after blow, kick after kick, and never giving up. It was obvious the other vampire had neither Shindou's strength nor his fury.

"Shindou." Akira got to his feet. "Shindou, stop." Shindou didn't hear him.

Akira staggered a few feet closer, growing more disturbed by the violence his best friend and eternal rival was spending on his attacker. If he wasn't stopped, he wondered vaugely, /would/ Shindou stop? Akira couldn't let that happen. Shindou would never be able to live with himself. /He/ wouldn't be able to live with himself.

Catching Shindou's drawn-back fist in his own hand seemed like plucking a butterfly out of frozen air. It caught Shindou's attention, certainly; he looked at Akira. "Shindou," said Akira quietly, and with weight, "stop."

Shindou looked in his eyes for a minute, then nodded and wordlessly released Akira's attacker, who crumpled to the ground. Then his gaze caught on Akira's neck. "Touya, you're bleeding!"

*

The cement wall was cold and unforgiving against Hikaru's back, a perfect contrast to Touya, in front of him, warm and yielding, almost boneless.
"Would you have stopped?" Touya asked, the muscles of his elegant neck vibrating under Hikaru's lips with the question. "If I hadn't stopped you, that is."

Hikaru looked up at the unconscious form a little closer to the mouth of the alleyway than the two of them. "I don't know," he answered. "I still feel like beating the shit out of him for what he did to you and what he did to me."

Touya went still in Hikaru's arms. "He's the one?"

"Yeah." Hikaru went back to lapping up the blood. It was coming slower now as Touya's body and whatever anagelsics there were in vampire saliva finally started working.

Touya laughed shakily. "Then I think I'd want to get in a few hits of my own." His head dropped back against Hikaru's shoulder.

Touya was strong. This attack would hake him, but not break him. Hikaru knew this, could see it laid out like black and white stones on a board. Some food, some sleep, and some time, and Touya would be fine. It was probably a good thing that Hikaru'd been the one attacked first, though. Not that he thought he'd managed it with any particular style or grace, but he suspected that turning into a vampire would've been far worse for Touya than for him.

"You've stopped bleeding," Hikaru observed. Touya's blood normally tasted like wine and roses and breathtaking gameplay straight from the heart, but this time it had tasted thin and sour, cold. It had tasted like Touya's fear, and Hikaru hadn't liked the taste of it at all.

"That's good," said Touya, but he made no effort to move. Hikaru dropped his head forward, chin resting on Touya's shoulder. Touya's sweater was ruined. Touya's lips were right next to his ear.

"Shindou?" Touya murmured.

"Mmm?"

"Thank you."

Hikaru took a breath, held it, let it go. "You're welcome."

*

Around the time Akira felt able to face stading and moving again, his and Shindou's attacker started showing signs of regaining consciousness. Akira and Shindou exchanged glances with one another, and without needing to say a word, flanked the fallen vampire.

"If you're awake," Akira said evenly, "we'd both rather like a word with you."

The man coughed, rolled over onto his back, and flung an arm over his eyes. "Too damn bright," he moaned. Akira was puzzled for a second. The alley was actually fairly dim--right. Vampire.

"Why the hell did you attack my friend?" Shindou demanded, voice tight. "Why did you attack me?"

The man (thin, Akira noted--almost too thin) lifted his arm, revealing reddish-brown curls and dark eyes, and looked at Shindou. "Oh, you," he said.

"Whaddaya mean, 'oh, you'?" Shindou demanded.

The man levered himseld up, feeling gingerly at his face and wincing. "Didn't think I'd see you again," he commented. "Most don't survive the change. You washed up nicely, though." He licked at a cut. "You smell like sunlight. Guess you got off easy, huh? Lucky."

"You fucking prick," Shindou said lowly. Akira could see him trembling, his fists clenched, knew how close Shindou was to resorting to violence again.

"Why did you attack us?" Akira asked, drawing Shindou's attention away from the other vampire. "Why did you change him?"

"You ever been so hungry, kid, that your stomach would gnaw its way out through your spine just to get to eat one blessed grain of rice? If you could eat rice, that is. So hungry that you can't hear words anymore and all people sound like the droning of bees?" His hands had dropped to his lap and he stared meditatively toward the far end of the alley. "If you get hungry enough," he said lowly, "you no longer have control. Of anything."

"Bullshit," Shindou retorted. He always got cruder when agitated. "You could try asking, y'know."

The vampire snorted. "What human," and he said the word with a sneer, "is going to let one of our kind drink their blood?"

"I do," Akira said quietly. The vampire's head whipped up to stare at him. "And kindly don't imply that my friend isn't human," Akira added, with a touch of his game glare creeping into his gaze.

"You're... willing?"

Akira shrugged. "He's my friend," he said, as if that should be all the answer he needed to give. And really, it was.

Shindou dropped down on one knee, face to face with the other vampire. Akira started, seeing Shindou's eyes gone to the lambent cats' green he had only ever witnessed once before. "If I ever see or hear of you attacking people again," Shindou promised, voice low, "I will hunt you down and beat you unconscious /again/, then throw you out in the sunlight and stay to make sure you not only writhe, you /die/. Got it?"

There was something in Shindou's raw presence and force of personality at that moment that felt very familiar to Akira. It was like the Shindou he faced across the Go board in true battle--but even that Shindou seemed a shadow of this one. /The Hand of--/

"Don't piss me off," Shindou warned the pale vampire. "I've got a god on my side." He stood, dusting off his jeans, and looked at Akira. The scary cats' eyes color was abruptly gone. "We have trains to catch, don't we, Touya?" Akira nodded. Shindou handed him his satchel, then shrugged on his own backpack. "I'll walk you," Shindou said. "Don't want any more lunatics going after your throat."

As they left the alley, Akira looked back at the stunned vampire still sitting there, shook his head in resignation, and walked on.

Shindou never looked back.

"You know a god?" Akira asked half a block later.

Shindou huffed and stuck his hands in his pockets. "Yeah," he admitted. "I'm not sure he'd be happy with what I did back there." A speculative look crossed his face. "Then again, maybe he would. Never sure with him."

"What's he the god of?" Akira asked.

Shindou's smile was small and sweet. "Go," he answered softly, and there was no trace of mockery or teasing in his voice. "One of them, anyway. I'll tell you about him--"

"--Someday," Akira finished for him, and smiled back at his friend. "I'm willing to wait for it."

"You, willing to wait for me?" Shindou laughed. "That's a first."

And talking of Go, they walked forward together to their destination. For now, Akira thought, it was only the train station. But as the train station was only a stop on a longer journey, so too were moments and obstacles only stops on a greater path. And together, surely, someday....