Title: The Most Frightening Thing
Author: joudama
Fandom: Tokyo Babylon
Rating: R, but worksafe
Word count: 1,108
Summary: Because the most frightening things of all are human beings.
A/N: I so love writing headspace. Also, the quotes from Tokyo Babylon are from the first book, crappy translations mine (I haven't read the English version, so). This is after TB yet before X. Written for kinkfest on insanejournal.
Prompt: Seishiro/Subaru - bondage - "like a dream to me, you are not what you seem..."
--
Ima mo, mukashi mo, ichiban kowai no wa ningen desu kara.
Because both long ago and now, the most frightening things of all are human beings.
--
Subaru knew why he came. He knew, of course, that it was a fool's errand, that the quest would not end so easily here, where it had begun.
In this Ueno Park, under this tree, the tree which was at full bloom when all the others were at half-bloom, or bloomed not at all. He wondered how it was that no one else seemed to notice; how no one had ever called attention to this one tree that bloomed year-round.
But if it was this tree, he thought, staring at it, it was quite possible that no one saw; that it was wrapped in an illusion. And it would have no need to cloak itself--or to be cloaked--from him, he thought, his hands tightening into tight fists.
He could feel it all the time, now, no matter where in Tokyo he was--the reek of it, and the cries of the rage of so many who rested so uneasily beneath its roots.
Once upon a time he had tried to release them. Once upon a time he had been young and innocent.
Once upon a time, he had had a sister.
But once upon a time was only for fairy tales, and that was one thing that life was not.
He wished so very much to destroy this thing, this sickly beautiful tree, blooming in death, and yet he knew that he would never be able to. If he thought for a moment trying would bring Seishirou...but no, he knew better. The tree would protect himself, but more than that, there had to be a balance. He was an onmyouji; he knew better than most that there must be yin to yang; dark for light.
It was, however, a slap in the face that the yin had to be so very beautiful.
He raised a hand without intending to, to catch a sakura petal as it fell.
And when it landed in his hand, he was enveloped; within the swirling sakura of an illusion before he could think to bring up his wards. He turned, and before his mind could really register, the tree itself moved, branches like vines snaking out faster than thought, enveloping him and pulling him to the trunk, catching his wrists and pulling them over his head, bark rasping the skin raw as the tree trapped him. And once he was secured, bound wrists and ankles, the tree still moved, fine branches wrapping delicately around his neck, petals like fingertips brushing his skin, voices of the damned whispering around him.
And in front of him now, the dark to the light, and it was still a slap that the yin was so beautiful.
"It's been a long time," Seishirou said softly, and smiled.
--
Sore demo boku wa kono Toukyou ga daisuki desu ga ne.
But you know, even so...I love it, Tokyo.
--
"Still chasing after me, determined to avenge your sister? Or maybe to join her?"
"Let me go," Subaru snarled, pulling against the tree holding him obscenely close.
Seishirou watched him thrashing against the tree, that same darkly cold smile on his face, one that made something in Subaru go cold at the same time as something flared, and Seishirou smiled more.
"Or is it something else?" he said, his voice musing as he came forward, standing so close to Subaru that he wanted to pull back, but he had no where to go.
"Do you remember, Subaru-kun," Seishirou said, and his face was so much like the Seishirou he remembered, but also so fundamentally different. One hand reached out, running a finger down his cheek, and Subaru's flesh burned where it touched, the feeling left behind tight and sharp, making Subaru's breath catch with rage and so much more, things he couldn't and wouldn't put a name to. "I asked you once, in Tokyo Tower."
The smile was a parody, and Subaru wanted to spit in his face. But he couldn't manage it; his mouth had gone too dry for him to even speak, let alone spit. And now Seishirou's face was so close, closer than it had ever been, and all that there was in the world were those mismatched eyes, one white and unseeing and the other seeing too much, too piercing, knowing far too much. And then they were gone when he shut his eyes and next came the whisper in his ear, Seishirou's cheek against his, Seishirou's hair brushing his forehead, and his words hot and low. "Am I sexy?"
It should have been laughable. It should have been disgusting. It should have been so many things other than what it was.
Seishirou's body was pressed hard against him and his tongue was hot, scorching and scouring his flesh as it traced a pentacle on the back of each of Subaru's trapped hands. He tried but was unable to pull away, held tight by the tree worming like fingertips across his flesh and sickened--no, not sickened, but he wished, wished so very much, that that was what it was he felt--and helplessly humiliated.
"Until next time and the end of the world," Seishirou said in his ear, and then there was nothing, no touch, no heat, not even the feel of bark rasping against his skin, and the lack was so sharp and sudden that he fell to his knees, hands planted flat against the ground as Subaru shook.
His breathing was hard, too hard, and he trembled, eyes shut, trying to adjust once again to the reality outside of the illusion. He gave up trying to hold himself up and sank to the ground, rolling onto his back with his eyes closed, his wrists and neck bruised and bleeding from a multitude of innumerably small scrapes and abrasions, his entire body thrumming, torturous and mutinous.
And the sakura petals fell around him, on him, every touch of the petals and the wind a caress, and he swore once more that he would become stronger, more like what he loathed, so that one day, he could kill him.
Because one day, one day, he would, and he would be free.
Or he would die and join those in hatred under the sakura forever, and Seishirou would never escape him again.
--
Sono chikyuu de tatta hitotsu horobi e no michi wo "tanoshinde" ayunde iru machi dakara desu yo.
Because it is the only city in the world that enjoys walking down the road to ruin.
--