Page One
Dae walked slowly through the crowd of people on the sidewalk, watching his feet as he marched along. The rain pasted his short purple hair to his head, stained his leather vest and matching fingerless gloves. "Dae, I think we should date other people." Dae's hands balled into fists inside the pockets of his jeans as his boots shuffled through the puddles on the street. "But, I love you, I could never be happy with anyone but you." Dae's ice blue eyes stared just a head of him in a fierce gaze. The rain fell off his vest and ran small rivers down his bare chest and arms. "Dae, I've met someone. He's so great, so neo-goth." "I'm not goth enough for you?" "Your more punk-rock compaired to this guy." "So who is he? I want to meet him." "I don't know his name, I just met him on the street. Oh, he was so dreamy..." Dae shut his eyes tight against the conversation running through his head like rerun, again and again. "Oh, he was so dreamy... I just met him on the street... You couldn't compair to this guy." Dae ground his teeth in anguish, coming to a stop on the rain washed sidewalk. Dumped, dumped for a perfect stranger. "Where did you say you met him?" "Oh, by that wierd art gallery, I think he works there..." I'll find you, you bastard, and I'll make you pay. I'll show her who's better, I'll win her affection back. Dae looked up around him, he wasn't far now. Just a few more blocks. Dae's hand slid over the switchblade in his pocket. His friends teased him over it, called him old fashioned, said the knife was outdated. Dae had always loved it, he'd taught himself some neat tricks with it. That's what had first attracted her, his skill with the cool little knife. She had said he looked very agile, flipping it this way and twirling it that. She had been his first love, and he had thought they would be together forever. But this perfect stranger had stolen her away, and she didn't even know his name. He was there, he pushed the glass door open and was surprised to find it locked. This was supposed to be a public art gallery or something, wasn't it. He knocked on the glass, tried to peer through the darkness. A light clicked on and there was a man standing there with dark brown hair. This wasn't him, the man who had stolen his beloved had light hair, and wore dark, gothic clothes.
"Can I help you?" this man said.
"I wanted to see the masks. Are you open?" Dae acted cool, collected, which surprised him. He'd never hurt a human being in his life, yet here he was, planning this man's death and he was acting as though it were as casual as making a grocery list.
"We just closed actually..."
"Please? I heard so much about them, I was really looking forward to seeing them for myself." Dae's boyish good looks won the stranger over.
"Oh, alright, just this once, ok? My name is Tenku, I'm the care-taker," this man said as he unlocked the door. He escourted Dae into a lobby filled with strange, demonic masks.
"These are incredible, did you collect them yourself?" Dae moved to examin one closer. They were impressive.
Tenku laughed. "Aw, hell no, I wouldn't know where in the world to find these, and besides, do I look like I could afford to buy them? Naw, I just keep the place and masks clean."
"Then who does own them?" Dae glanced to Tenku, hoped he wasn't sounding to anxious. He needed to find that guy.
Tenku was oblivious. "My friend, Tsunami Shijo," he replied with an ignorant smile.
"Is he in?"
"Uh, yeah, but, why you wanna talk to him?"
Dae flashed Tenku a charming smile. "These masks are fascinating, I want to hear how he collected them, what kind of history they have."
"Well, if you insist, follow me." Dae followed Tenku up several flights of stairs and soon found himself in a dark, large room. Someone was sitting in a chair across the room, but it was facing the window, looking out over the city, with it's back to Dae. Dae approached it, but stopped half way, startled by a voice coming from the occupant of the chair, shattering the previous silence.
"Can I help you?"
It was a quiet sort of voice, but one that held such power you could have heard it over a train.
"I, um, the masks, I was interested in the masks." Dae felt his nerve slipping. He slipped his right hand into his pocket and caressed the steely cold of the switchblade.
"Yes, they are strange, aren't they?" Still the occupant of the chair stared out the window.
"I was wondering, how you came across them? Where did you find them?" Dae took a few quiet steps nearer.
"Here. There. They were collected across the vast face of the earth."
"You have so many, how did you find them all?"
Finally, the stranger turned his chair to face Dae. "My resources are confidential." It was a gentle statement, not a warning to back off. Dae felt his eyes widening, and his jaw falling slack. Tsunami was as tragically beautiful as any of his masks. His skin was beautifully pale, like a dove, outmatched only by his pale, pale lavender hair. His lips were blood red, and his eyes were dark but relaxing. Dae had certainly found his man. Dae shook himself out of his awe. "Confidential, huh?"
Tsunami appraised Dae with his eyes. "Is that the real reason you are here, to talk of masks?"
Dae swallowed, it was now or never. He withdrew his switchblade and flipped it open. He ran at Tsunami, jumping for him, knife posed to strike him directly in the heart. Dae did not understand what happened next, Tsunami was there in the chair one moment, the next he was not. It so surprised Dae that he crashed right into the chair, knocking it over with the force of his hit. Dae shook his head and sat up on the back of the chair, groaning in confusion and slight pain where his shoulder had felt the impact of the chair hitting the solid ground. He began to stand when he was thrown against the window behind him. It rippled with the force of his impact but remained firm. Tsunami had a hand to Dae's throat, the other held the wrist with the switchbalde against the window. With his other hand, Dae grabbed Tsunami's wrist as the taller man lifted him to eye level against the glass to keep from choking. Tsunami's expression had not changed, though, it looked more sad than peaceful from such a close distance.
"Who sent you?" he asked as calmly as he had asked all his previous questions.
Dae choked out, his windpipe semi-crushed by Tsunami's strenght, "What are you talking about?"
Tsunami's lips pulled downward in the slightest of frowns. "Don't play with me, boy, now tell me who sent you to attack me."
"No one," Dae replied around a cough.
"Your lying."
"No! I swear, I came on my own."
Tsunami's delicate pale eyebrows pinched in confusion. "Why?"
"Cuz I wanna kill you." Dae placed a foot on Tsunami's chest and kicked him away. Unfortunitly, he had forgotten he was pressed against glass. The force of Dae's kick against that unmoving body was just enough to shatter the window behind him, and Tsunami released him to grab his own chest. Dae screamed as he fell, cried out even louder as his hand caught the broken glass laid ledge. Blood poured in little rivers down Daes arms from his palms, but he daren't let go. He looked over his shoulder to the ground far, far below. Then looked back up at the sound of crunching glass. Tsunami stood over him, looking down at him with an unreadable expression.
"What reason do you have to kill me? You obviously do not know me, or you wouldn't have attacked me."
It looked like checkmate for Dae, so he answered. "Because you stole my girlfriend."
One of those delicate eyebrows raised in question. "I assure you, I don't know what your talking about."
"She saw you on the street, she doesn't even know who you are, and she dumped me for you." Dae tried to pull himself up, and cried out as the glass bit into his palms more.
"That is not my problem."
"I don't care!" Dae cried back, tears blurring his vision. "I have to get her back, I have to! I love her!" Dae closed his eyes and tears and blood fell over his face. A moment passed, and Dae's eyes snapped open as he felt something take a hold on his wrists. Tsunami had knelt down and grabbed him. He's going to toss me over the side, oh god, he's going to kill me for trying to kill him! But such a thing never happened. Tsunami stood, holding Dae's wrists and lifted him up until his boots rested safely on the ledge again. Tsunami then released Dae. Dae fell to his knees, eyeing his palms. They were still embed with broken pieces of glass, but the pain in his hands was nothing compaired to the ache in the left cavity of Dae's chest. He sobbed, his vision again blurred by tears. He was vaguely away of Tsunami standing by his side.
"Trying to kill me won't bring your girlfriend back."
"She doesn't even know your name, when she see's how brave and noble I am, she'll love me again."
"Noble?" There was surprise in Tsunami's voice. A moment later, he knelt by Dae, and touched his leather gloved fingers to Dae's chin. He tilted Dae's face to look at him. "She doesn't sound like much of a girlfriend if she dumped you for a perfect stranger."
Dae's chin trembled as more tears escaped his eyes.
"Are you sure it's her love you want, and not your own pride?"
"Of course I'm sure. What have I to be proud of? I just want her love again, I just want to be loved." Dae jerked his head away from Tsunami's hand squinted his eyes, face down, trying to control his crying. It seemed an eternity passed until Tsunami placed his hands under Dae's arms and lifted him to his feet. He placed one hand on Dae's shoulder and escourted him to a farily large bathroom while Dae cradled his wounded hands. Tsunami sat Dae on the edge of a large bathtub and grabbed a towel, knelt in front of Dae. Tsunami was very focussed on his work as he wiped up the blood on Dae's hands, careful not to injure the palms farther. He then very carefully removed every shard of glass from Dae's palm, but soon, the excess blood made the wound difficult to see again. Dae watched in awe as Tsunami extended his tongue and slowly, delicately, licked the blood from the jagged cuts in Dae's hands. Dae flinched as Tsunami's tongue discovered a small shard of glass which hadn't been seen because of it's size. Tsunami closed his teeth on the small shard and gently pulled it from Dae hand with a slight tearing sound. He couldn't believe this was happening, this guy, who he'd just try to kill, was helping him. Not only that, he was being so gentle with Dae, careful not to cause him more pain. After all the glass hand been removed, Tsunami stood and retrieved a bottle of salve and a roll of gauze from a cabnet. He again cleaned the wounds with the blood soaked towle, then removed both his and Dae's leather gloves and applied the salve himself.
"This will keep infection out," Tsunami said simply. He didn't even sound mad at Dae, his voice hadn't changed in the slightest the entire time Dae had been here. Tsunami wrapped Dae's hands in gaze and stood.
"When the blood soaks through the bandages, change them. Keep these," Tsunami tucked the salve and role of gauze in Dae's pocket.
Dae looked up at him, confused. "But, I just... you just... why are you... ?"
Dae thought Tsunami almost smiled, a beautiful thing. "To show you what 'noble' really is. You can find your way out." Tsunami turned and left Dae there. Dae stood shortly there after and left the room, but Tsunami was no where to be seen. He didn't even come across Tenku as he left the building. Once outside, Dae looked up to the window he had shattered, had falled out of. "To show you what 'noble' really is." Dae run the fingers of one hand across the bandages of the other. He would make this up to Tsunami.
