Author's notes: Standard disclaimers apply: Zetsuai/Bronze and all the characters therein are the property of Minami Ozaki, Margaret Comics and Shueishia (I think... I've forgotten all the companies). No insult, injury to third parties etc is intended by the publication of this story; I'm just a fan having fun. This story was written some time ago and is not representative of the things I write now. Guess I just ndded to get this kind of thing out of my system...
Hmm, maybe I've been reading a bit more Poppy Z. Brite than can be good for an English Lit. student, so this fic comes complete with Poppy Z. Brite-style title (I can't believe she hasn't used this one!). There's just something weirdly compelling about the idea of extreme violence in Low Rent settings, or even bloody expensive ones… or is bloody the wrong word to use where Brite is concerned? Maybe that's why her books sell… and hell, the idea of Koji as a Brite-style predatory psycho is just too damn cool to pass up. After all it doesn't need too much imagination, really. One thing's for sure, the Gods of Shibuya sure are gonna get me for this one… I'd better get my smite-proof underwear out.
The bar was claustrophobic, cramped and far too hot but it didn't matter. It wasn't the kind of place where people really cared about the décor, or lack of same. The walls were painted black, only brightened up by the various posters in gaudy shades that had been pinned to them, the furniture was modern, all steel tubes and black faux-leather, and incredibly uncomfortable to sit on for any length of time. It was subterranean, so no windows. It was that sort of bar, and it was incredibly popular with certain members of the city's youth, for reasons that no one else really understood. Most people - meaning most respectable people - would have crossed the road to avoid it, but it nonetheless had a certain allure.
Katsumi liked it because there was no chance of meeting anyone who knew his father there. They wouldn't have been seen anywhere near this place and a couple of years ago, a couple of months ago even, Katsumi wouldn't have either. He'd been fairly well behaved for most of his life compared to a lot of the kids he knew from school, but he had recently graduated and he was bored. He was on a fairly good course at a fairly good college, but nonetheless he still had very little to do in the evenings, and as a result he was experimenting with rebellion in a way that a lot of middle-class kids did. Seeing exactly how much he could get away with before his father went nuts and either kicked him out or grounded him for the foreseeable future.
Leaning against the wall at one edge of the room, he absentmindedly twisted a strand of blonde hair around one finger. Dyeing his hair had caused a storm, as he'd expected. Madoka had liked it - she'd thought it suited him and she was totally right - but his father had not been happy. He'd been all for forcing him to dye it back, but when it came down to it how could he force him to do anything anymore?
Still, that had been nothing compared to the row when they'd found out he'd got his ears pierced…
Oh well, what did it matter what his father thought? He was going to move out in a couple of months anyway. There was no way he was going to stay home for much longer. Technically there was no need for him to leave home, but on the other hand he couldn't stand to live with his father for much longer. They were driving one another nuts. His father would have probably killed him if he'd found out that Katsumi was making a habit of hanging round in gay bars, which was why he didn't particularly want him to find out.
Katsumi sighed - he was fed up. He'd arranged to meet a friend of his called Hisaya, but it didn't look like he was going to show. He probably had his reasons (girlfriend troubles most likely - Hisaya's girlfriend had to be one of the most stupid people Katsumi had ever met and he didn't know why the guy bothered with her), but Katsumi still thought he'd yell at him about it tomorrow. He didn't like being alone in here - he was still sufficiently new to this kind of lifestyle to find the atmosphere in the bar mildly unnerving, and besides it was the sort of place that he'd always been warned to stay out of. He'd heard horror stories of the kinds of things that could happen in these kinds of bars and, although he didn't really know if he believed them or not, the worry was still there.
***
Standing a few feet away at the bar, Koji Nanjo was equally bored. He was not alone - he'd come with Izumi, as ever, but Izumi was still in a foul mood because of what Koji had done at that party two days ago. Despite the fact that he had entered with Koji and was standing next to him, he was currently allowing a drunken young man to flirt with him. This was one of the ways in which Izumi would take revenge on Koji when he thought he had misbehaved. This kind of "punishment" tended to anger Koji and make him prone to misbehave again.
With an eye out for potential conquests, Koji scanned the bar. He wasn't looking for anything in particular except a pretty face, and there seemed to be plenty to choose from, as long as you weren't overly concerned about random body piercings or hair dyed in odd colours. He wanted to make Izumi feel jealous for making him feel jealous - Izumi would tire of this particular game long before he did.
He had no idea why he'd noticed the boy in the corner - he certainly wasn't the type of person he normally tried to pick up casually behind Izumi's back, but nonetheless he at least had a certain novelty value. He didn't look totally comfortable with the atmosphere and was trying very hard to make sure he wasn't noticed. In a room full of people who all seemed to be trying to make themselves as noticeable as possible, reticence was one sure way to get attention. He had no way of knowing if this was a feature of the boy's character or simply caused by uncertainty, but there was only one real way to find out.
Ignoring Izumi's dirty look, Koji drained his drink and walked purposefully over to where the boy was standing. People got out of the way for him. Koji was that sot of person - tall, well dressed and physically very impressive, with long, almost white-blonde hair, pale skin and eyes that gave nothing of his character away. His potential conquest hadn't noticed Koji; he was looking the other way, across the room, toward the door. Maybe waiting for someone, maybe considering leaving. Koji didn't know which and he didn't really care. If this kid was like all the others he'd met in here, he'd be a total pushover. They all were.
***
"I said, do you want a drink?"
It took Katsumi a further fifteen seconds to work out that the tall blonde with the killer dress sense was trying to talk to him. He hadn't wanted to attract attention, but he couldn't say he minded attention that looked as good as this. Nonetheless, he couldn't help but feel that this man's approach wasn't exactly novel.
For all his flippancy he knew this was just caution. Katsumi had picked up enough about letting people buy you drinks from what his father had said over and over to Madoka. Don't let anyone give you a drink, he'd said, that you haven't seen prepared. Madoka had laughed about it later. It was quite ridiculous how little attention his father actually paid to his children's social lives. Madoka only really went out with her best friend from school and didn't yet have a boyfriend - although she was working very hard on attracting the attentions one of the boys in her class. Katsumi was the one who needed warning, considering the kind of places he went for fun, but because he was the oldest and a boy he didn't get it.
***
"Who the hell was that blonde slut you were chatting up earlier?" Izumi asked Koji angrily. The pair were sat together in their living room, but before Izumi's angry comment they had not spoken. Izumi had been fuming, and Koji had been unable to talk to him.
Izumi frowned - he didn't like it when Koji mentioned other peoples' looks. He hadn't thought Koji's latest conquest was anything special, and besides, he thought dyed hair was totally cheap. If truth were told he was a little jealous, but he was damned if he was going to admit it. True, this Shibuya had dyed his hair, but it had looked good. He knew that if he'd ever tried to dye his hair blonde it would have looked a total mess. He wasn't even going to start on the boy's clothing, which somehow didn't look all that bad on him but… well, he was hardly going to win any awards for his dress sense, unless they were for something like 'most conceptual use of accessories'. Izumi didn't think he was anything special in terms of his looks, though, and he hated it when Koji tried to flatter him; it smacked of desperation.
To the infatuated Koji, though, Izumi looked perfect. True, Koji liked playing around with pretty strangers of either sex, but he didn't put his heart into these casual encounters. As he never tired of reminding Izumi, he loved him and only him. Izumi tended to assume a glazed expression and stare into the middle distance when Koji started talking like this. It bored him and he didn't think he was that attractive despite Koji's repeated assurances that he was.
"I take it you want to meet him again". Izumi finally said.
***
"Where were you last night?"
Madoka knew from experience - she had spent most of yesterday evening listening to her father lamenting the lack of control he appeared to have over his wayward son. She didn't mind it, the fact that Katsumi was in the middle of a 'difficult' patch meant that she was far less likely to get her own indiscretions picked up on. Her being an hour late back from her best friend's paled into insignificance next to Katsumi's failure to arrive back home at all when it didn't suit him. Mother kept saying hopeful things about it just being a phase and that he'd grow out of it, but Madoka secretly hoped he wouldn't. Or at least, not for a while yet.
"Let him." Katsumi replied sleepily, closing his eyes.
Part 2