Aquablaze [7/??, Hiroto/Shou]
Teru led us to a cliff. It was high, so I could not see what was below us - just a seemingly never-ending mist of complete darkness. Yet when I strained my ears, I could make out the sound of something crashing onto another thing, like waves against a cluster of jagged rocks. I immediately took three large steps back, nearly bumping into Teru, who glared daggers at me.
“So,” Shou finally began, seeing my stubborn refusal to even speak to the Angel. “What now?”
He looked at him strangely, as if Shou was some kind of rainbow-coloured amoeba floating in mid-air. “Now jump.”
I felt my eyes bulge out. “Excuse me?”
He scoffed. “You heard me. Now. Jump. Off. The. Cliff.”
“Wha -” I looked at Shou hopefully; maybe this was all a joke, a joke that tested our stupidity. But all he did was look back. For a while there was only silence, then, much to my horror, he nodded his head.
“Come on, Hiroto-san, let’s jump. I can carry you if you’re too scared.”
My face must have turned every possible shade of red known to man. I began to back away, but within seconds my arms were roughly pinned to my back by none other than Teru as Shou lifted me off the ground bridal style, which seriously did nothing but add to my embarrassment, as well as the colour in my cheeks. I kicked and writhed, but it was no use - by the next nanosecond, I was successfully piggyback riding Shou again…
…And he was already off the ground. I thought I heard a “So long, sucker!” from Teru, but I couldn’t be so sure - maybe this was all a dream, maybe I was going to wake up five minutes later to Mogu’s tongue lapping at my neck…
As if on cue, we landed on something soft and fluffy, very much like Mogu. When I dared myself to look down, however, I saw that it was not Mogu, but a cloud. And an orange one at that. Normally, I would have cussed my sanity to next Monday, but I was way too shocked to really do anything but cling on tightly to Shou’s shoulders.
To add to my terror, we did not arrive on land. Instead, we arrived on an even bigger cloud. Even with Shou’s assurance (“Don’t worry, it’s even supporting a pair of gates!”), my legs wouldn’t stop shaking as I stumbled through the gates, which, by the way, were made from gold and amber, I was later told. This time I did not let go off Shou’s hand, even when I realized I was holding on pretty tightly to it.
We wandered for a while. There wasn’t much - just sunset-coloured clouds and an occasional giggle that seemed to come from nowhere in particular. The giggles were short, but sweet, and they reminded me of flowers, flowers that were pink, flowers that were white, flowers that were yellow. I cast a quick glance at Shou and smiled. His eyes sparkled like two dreamy, diamond-crusted pools.
We stopped at a throne. It was completely carved out of white jade, yet it shone brilliantly with a soft, nearly invisible shade of pink. A shorthaired boy was seated casually on it, his feathery wings a perfect match to the colour of the throne. He seemed to be oblivious to our arrival, but after a brief, silent moment of pure nothingness, another boy materialized beside him and whispered into his ear, his vivid pink hair nearly covering his eyepatch as his rose-tinted wings fluttered slowly.
“Oh.” The first boy finally said, turning his head at us. “Sorry about that, I was daydreaming.”
“It’s okay.” Shou smiled. He said nothing else. I could not blame him - I, too, was wondering why we were here, wherever this place was.
This time, it was the pink-haired boy who spoke. “Ogata Hiroto and Kohara Kazamasa, am I right?” He tilted his head to a side, his right eye fixated on us.
Shou nodded. “Yes. Anou, why -”
“You want to know why you were brought here?”
Another nod. “Yes.”
“You mean, you don’t know why you were brought here?”
“Anou, yes?”
“…Did anyone even bring you here?”
“Well, this Death Angel, Teru, did, then a cloud came over and we wandered around for a while.”
“…” The Angel said nothing. The muscle under his eye twitched quite violently, so did his eyebrows. Then his lips parted, and out came a ferocious yawp: “RENO! RYOUGA!”
But nothing happened. He tried again. Nothing happened. He was about to do it once more, but luckily for my eardrums, the shorthaired boy stopped him. “Let it go, Ko-ki,” His voice was upbeat and cheery, yet there was a hint of weariness to it, as if it had belonged to someone much, much older.
“Hey guys, sorry for disturbing you two,” His lips widened into a toothy grin. “My name’s Ivu. You may not believe me when I say this, but I’m a sovereign - a king, to be more specific, King of the Love Angels.”
My jaw dropped a little. Just a little. But he seemed to have noticed it; suddenly his grin wasn’t so toothy anymore. Still, the toothiness was back as fast as it had disappeared, and he continued speaking as if nothing had happened.
“However, just because I’m the King of all Love Angels, it doesn’t mean I can’t do as I’m told by other kings - unless if the race they’re leading doesn’t consist of Angels; we’re kind of a racist bunch, but anyways, back to topic. My great-grandfather made an alliance with the Kings of both Death and Life Angels, and lucky for me, the alliance still goes on, which basically means we get to help each other out. Now, it just so happens that the King of the Death Angels, Kamijo, needs my aid - can you believe it? An Angel of Death in need of some romance! Still, just as the alliance states, I agreed to help, and guess who I need to pair up with who?”
I shook my head, despite a tiny, nearly undetectable tugging at the back of my mind, which I ignored with ease.
He grin only widened at my response. “Multiple pairings! Hooking up your dear friends Shinji and Aki with each other was the easy part, not to mention Aoi and Ruki - you just get a bow and arrow and shoot four times, and voila! Two couples are born from two pairs of friends with benefits. We were originally going to get Aoi and Reita together, but after seeing how much of an idiotic fail of a machoman-wannabe, we decided on Ruki instead - he’s a lot meaner. Anyways, now is the hard part - namely Kai and… uh… oh, whatever his name was, as well as you, Ogata Hiroto-san, and Kohara Kazamasa-san over here.”
It took me a total ten seconds to process every thing he said. His words were jumbled together like a pack of bumble bees in a microscopic beehive. As soon as that ten seconds was over, however, I was gaping like a fish at him. Me? With Shou? No way, this was not possible. My legs turned to jelly and I stumbled as I tried to tell myself that this boy - this Ivu - this King of the Love Angels - was merely on crack and bulling us. But my mind was more stubborn than I was myself - hell, my whole body seemed to be siding with my mind. The pins-and-needles feeling was in my stomach, churning and tingling, churning and tingling, churning, churning, churning…
“Ogata-san? Ogata-san? Are you okay?”
The churning had stopped, but the tingling still lingered heavily. My head had cleared enough for me to regain my consciousness. Shou was holding me with both hands, his eyes staring fixatedly at me. I found myself caught in the centre of a spider web; I didn’t know what to do, runaway or stay. Right there, right then, a shiver slithered down my spine. His lips were so close, but I didn’t like it - I wanted to break free of his grasp and never see those lips again, never look deep into those sparkling eyes, never climb upon that back -
“Ogata Hiroto!” I cringed, immediately turning my head to meet Ko-ki. His arm was still raised, his palm tainted red from slapping me.
“Ogata Hiroto,” He tutted, and I didn’t like the fact that he didn’t address me the proper way. “There’s no use crying over spilt milk, boy. We’ve waited for this long enough, so please, just spare us any more stress and friggin’ kiss each other already.”
God. I wanted to punch the living hell out of his snickering face, but I knew it would be useless - it would result in him being totally fine while all the bones in my hand would shatter into dust.
“Well?” He broke the silence again, this time raising an eyebrow.
“Fine,” I huffed, shooting him a glare. “But not here.”
- - - - - - - -
Ivu had two more of his loveslaves, namely Reno and Ryouga, escort us (as he had so majestically put it) to some far-off magical island that sounded exactly like The Lion King II’s “Upendi” to ensure privacy for what they expected to be a “hot night of complete, total sexual ecstasy.”
Just kidding.
Well, the Reno and Ryouga part was real, but the magical island wasn’t, much to my relief. We were taken back to the cliff where Teru the Angel Bastard had ordered us to jump to our deaths, but as I stumbled a few good feet away from the edge, my muscles began to tense - a natural physical sign that told me something was wrong - either that or there was something annoyingly different, as if something had changed drastically.
“Ah, Ogata-san,” Shou tapped my shoulder, pointing. “Look over there.”
I did, craning my neck a little for a clearer view. Then, just like one would in a never ending sit-com, my jaw dropped to the ground.
There. It was once a land of complete freedom, a land of free space, a land of elbow room. Now. Not even an hour passed by since we’ve set foot on an orange cloud. Now. There was… a tree. A huge tree with apricots hanging about like monkeys lounging on a sunny weekend. What in the world.
“It’s a tree!” Shou stated the obvious, laughter escaping his lips as he dashed towards the newcomer. “Ogata-san, come over here!”
I followed straightaway. Instead of stopping by his side, however, began to climb, fingers clutching the rough, jagged texture of the trunk tightly as my toes curled to secure my weight. Quickly, but cautiously, I crawled towards a sturdy-looking branch, finally settling my bottom on it. I reached with both arms to grab the branch above me, before swinging my legs over the branch. Then I let go, and suddenly I was hanging upside down. My forehead collided with his, but for once I did not pull back; I could only hitch my breath a little and stare shamelessly at him. His eyes were extra-sparkly this evening.
He chuckled, stepping closer so that our noses met. But he pulled away as fast as he closed in, pointing to the sky. “Look, stars.”
I tried to look up, but gave up when the blood began to swirl in my head. I heard another chuckle from him, and then -
He leaned in and pecked the corner of my mouth. “You’re a cute, worrisome ball of emotions, did anyone tell you that?” But I never got a chance to answer. Soon enough, his lips were on mine, his fingers scratching lightly at my cheeks.
We must have looked just like Spiderman and Mary Jane.
“So,” Shou finally began, seeing my stubborn refusal to even speak to the Angel. “What now?”
He looked at him strangely, as if Shou was some kind of rainbow-coloured amoeba floating in mid-air. “Now jump.”
I felt my eyes bulge out. “Excuse me?”
He scoffed. “You heard me. Now. Jump. Off. The. Cliff.”
“Wha -” I looked at Shou hopefully; maybe this was all a joke, a joke that tested our stupidity. But all he did was look back. For a while there was only silence, then, much to my horror, he nodded his head.
“Come on, Hiroto-san, let’s jump. I can carry you if you’re too scared.”
My face must have turned every possible shade of red known to man. I began to back away, but within seconds my arms were roughly pinned to my back by none other than Teru as Shou lifted me off the ground bridal style, which seriously did nothing but add to my embarrassment, as well as the colour in my cheeks. I kicked and writhed, but it was no use - by the next nanosecond, I was successfully piggyback riding Shou again…
…And he was already off the ground. I thought I heard a “So long, sucker!” from Teru, but I couldn’t be so sure - maybe this was all a dream, maybe I was going to wake up five minutes later to Mogu’s tongue lapping at my neck…
As if on cue, we landed on something soft and fluffy, very much like Mogu. When I dared myself to look down, however, I saw that it was not Mogu, but a cloud. And an orange one at that. Normally, I would have cussed my sanity to next Monday, but I was way too shocked to really do anything but cling on tightly to Shou’s shoulders.
To add to my terror, we did not arrive on land. Instead, we arrived on an even bigger cloud. Even with Shou’s assurance (“Don’t worry, it’s even supporting a pair of gates!”), my legs wouldn’t stop shaking as I stumbled through the gates, which, by the way, were made from gold and amber, I was later told. This time I did not let go off Shou’s hand, even when I realized I was holding on pretty tightly to it.
We wandered for a while. There wasn’t much - just sunset-coloured clouds and an occasional giggle that seemed to come from nowhere in particular. The giggles were short, but sweet, and they reminded me of flowers, flowers that were pink, flowers that were white, flowers that were yellow. I cast a quick glance at Shou and smiled. His eyes sparkled like two dreamy, diamond-crusted pools.
We stopped at a throne. It was completely carved out of white jade, yet it shone brilliantly with a soft, nearly invisible shade of pink. A shorthaired boy was seated casually on it, his feathery wings a perfect match to the colour of the throne. He seemed to be oblivious to our arrival, but after a brief, silent moment of pure nothingness, another boy materialized beside him and whispered into his ear, his vivid pink hair nearly covering his eyepatch as his rose-tinted wings fluttered slowly.
“Oh.” The first boy finally said, turning his head at us. “Sorry about that, I was daydreaming.”
“It’s okay.” Shou smiled. He said nothing else. I could not blame him - I, too, was wondering why we were here, wherever this place was.
This time, it was the pink-haired boy who spoke. “Ogata Hiroto and Kohara Kazamasa, am I right?” He tilted his head to a side, his right eye fixated on us.
Shou nodded. “Yes. Anou, why -”
“You want to know why you were brought here?”
Another nod. “Yes.”
“You mean, you don’t know why you were brought here?”
“Anou, yes?”
“…Did anyone even bring you here?”
“Well, this Death Angel, Teru, did, then a cloud came over and we wandered around for a while.”
“…” The Angel said nothing. The muscle under his eye twitched quite violently, so did his eyebrows. Then his lips parted, and out came a ferocious yawp: “RENO! RYOUGA!”
But nothing happened. He tried again. Nothing happened. He was about to do it once more, but luckily for my eardrums, the shorthaired boy stopped him. “Let it go, Ko-ki,” His voice was upbeat and cheery, yet there was a hint of weariness to it, as if it had belonged to someone much, much older.
“Hey guys, sorry for disturbing you two,” His lips widened into a toothy grin. “My name’s Ivu. You may not believe me when I say this, but I’m a sovereign - a king, to be more specific, King of the Love Angels.”
My jaw dropped a little. Just a little. But he seemed to have noticed it; suddenly his grin wasn’t so toothy anymore. Still, the toothiness was back as fast as it had disappeared, and he continued speaking as if nothing had happened.
“However, just because I’m the King of all Love Angels, it doesn’t mean I can’t do as I’m told by other kings - unless if the race they’re leading doesn’t consist of Angels; we’re kind of a racist bunch, but anyways, back to topic. My great-grandfather made an alliance with the Kings of both Death and Life Angels, and lucky for me, the alliance still goes on, which basically means we get to help each other out. Now, it just so happens that the King of the Death Angels, Kamijo, needs my aid - can you believe it? An Angel of Death in need of some romance! Still, just as the alliance states, I agreed to help, and guess who I need to pair up with who?”
I shook my head, despite a tiny, nearly undetectable tugging at the back of my mind, which I ignored with ease.
He grin only widened at my response. “Multiple pairings! Hooking up your dear friends Shinji and Aki with each other was the easy part, not to mention Aoi and Ruki - you just get a bow and arrow and shoot four times, and voila! Two couples are born from two pairs of friends with benefits. We were originally going to get Aoi and Reita together, but after seeing how much of an idiotic fail of a machoman-wannabe, we decided on Ruki instead - he’s a lot meaner. Anyways, now is the hard part - namely Kai and… uh… oh, whatever his name was, as well as you, Ogata Hiroto-san, and Kohara Kazamasa-san over here.”
It took me a total ten seconds to process every thing he said. His words were jumbled together like a pack of bumble bees in a microscopic beehive. As soon as that ten seconds was over, however, I was gaping like a fish at him. Me? With Shou? No way, this was not possible. My legs turned to jelly and I stumbled as I tried to tell myself that this boy - this Ivu - this King of the Love Angels - was merely on crack and bulling us. But my mind was more stubborn than I was myself - hell, my whole body seemed to be siding with my mind. The pins-and-needles feeling was in my stomach, churning and tingling, churning and tingling, churning, churning, churning…
“Ogata-san? Ogata-san? Are you okay?”
The churning had stopped, but the tingling still lingered heavily. My head had cleared enough for me to regain my consciousness. Shou was holding me with both hands, his eyes staring fixatedly at me. I found myself caught in the centre of a spider web; I didn’t know what to do, runaway or stay. Right there, right then, a shiver slithered down my spine. His lips were so close, but I didn’t like it - I wanted to break free of his grasp and never see those lips again, never look deep into those sparkling eyes, never climb upon that back -
“Ogata Hiroto!” I cringed, immediately turning my head to meet Ko-ki. His arm was still raised, his palm tainted red from slapping me.
“Ogata Hiroto,” He tutted, and I didn’t like the fact that he didn’t address me the proper way. “There’s no use crying over spilt milk, boy. We’ve waited for this long enough, so please, just spare us any more stress and friggin’ kiss each other already.”
God. I wanted to punch the living hell out of his snickering face, but I knew it would be useless - it would result in him being totally fine while all the bones in my hand would shatter into dust.
“Well?” He broke the silence again, this time raising an eyebrow.
“Fine,” I huffed, shooting him a glare. “But not here.”
- - - - - - - -
Ivu had two more of his loveslaves, namely Reno and Ryouga, escort us (as he had so majestically put it) to some far-off magical island that sounded exactly like The Lion King II’s “Upendi” to ensure privacy for what they expected to be a “hot night of complete, total sexual ecstasy.”
Just kidding.
Well, the Reno and Ryouga part was real, but the magical island wasn’t, much to my relief. We were taken back to the cliff where Teru the Angel Bastard had ordered us to jump to our deaths, but as I stumbled a few good feet away from the edge, my muscles began to tense - a natural physical sign that told me something was wrong - either that or there was something annoyingly different, as if something had changed drastically.
“Ah, Ogata-san,” Shou tapped my shoulder, pointing. “Look over there.”
I did, craning my neck a little for a clearer view. Then, just like one would in a never ending sit-com, my jaw dropped to the ground.
There. It was once a land of complete freedom, a land of free space, a land of elbow room. Now. Not even an hour passed by since we’ve set foot on an orange cloud. Now. There was… a tree. A huge tree with apricots hanging about like monkeys lounging on a sunny weekend. What in the world.
“It’s a tree!” Shou stated the obvious, laughter escaping his lips as he dashed towards the newcomer. “Ogata-san, come over here!”
I followed straightaway. Instead of stopping by his side, however, began to climb, fingers clutching the rough, jagged texture of the trunk tightly as my toes curled to secure my weight. Quickly, but cautiously, I crawled towards a sturdy-looking branch, finally settling my bottom on it. I reached with both arms to grab the branch above me, before swinging my legs over the branch. Then I let go, and suddenly I was hanging upside down. My forehead collided with his, but for once I did not pull back; I could only hitch my breath a little and stare shamelessly at him. His eyes were extra-sparkly this evening.
He chuckled, stepping closer so that our noses met. But he pulled away as fast as he closed in, pointing to the sky. “Look, stars.”
I tried to look up, but gave up when the blood began to swirl in my head. I heard another chuckle from him, and then -
He leaned in and pecked the corner of my mouth. “You’re a cute, worrisome ball of emotions, did anyone tell you that?” But I never got a chance to answer. Soon enough, his lips were on mine, his fingers scratching lightly at my cheeks.
We must have looked just like Spiderman and Mary Jane.