author's + note
Changed the titled to 'papercut'. Listen to the Linkin Park song, papercut. ^^ No reason, other then that. But I just love this fic', dunno why.paper + cut
"Hey 'Temi, I think I'm gonna' head out, okay?" The tall form shrugged on a olive green jacket, though it wasn't much cold that night. Navy strands of hair fell lightly in his face, bright emerald eyes cheerfully content. The dimmed lights of the nightclub he stood in casted little light to let him see, but he was used to it. The rust-colored shirt he wore had the usual long sleeves--it would be the day when Kaori wore a short-sleeved shirt--and the faded jeans were something fashionable; Kaori had a decent taste in clothes, when he seemed to care."Alright then. Thanks for helping out, Kao'," came the answering voice from a man of middle-height, the startling thing about him being the blue hair and red-contacts in his eyes. You got used to it, after a while. The owner of the small nightclub, he seemed quite settled in cleaning off the bar by himself after hours.
"Don't mention it," the teen said offhandedly, and with a wave, exited the club onto the dark streets of Doi. Hands moving into the pockets of the jacket, Kao' headed home.
The night had gone well for him--the show he and the others from the band had performed went down nicely, and the crowd had been good. He had not hesitated to help Artemis clean up the nightclub at the end of the night, and he felt unusually refreshed from doing the trivial tasks in life.
A simple sound broke him out of his thoughts, and at first he couldn't quite place it. Soft, hesitant, and faint--peering through the dark of night, the light glow of a street lamp lighting up a bench under it, was a frail form huddled up in a small ball. Kaori, unlike most inhabitants of Doi, could not find it in him to turn around and ignore the... the crying figure. Padding up behind the figure cautiously, he recognized the frame and sound of the form--distinctly feminine. The sweats that hung from what seemed to be a delicate body hid most of her shape, but the female didn't seem to care. Tilting his head, Kaori opted for not touching the young woman--that might scare her. "...Miss?"
The female's head whipped around, brown eyes wide. "Who are you?" she asked, stifling her tears for just a moment, hand trying to rub away mascara that had run down her face. Crying? Her? Never.
Kaori pitied her--a move he never should have made. His smile was comforting. "I play in a band down at the 'Genki--" he gestured to the building not far away, "--Yourself?"
She watched him warily--you couldn't trust people in Doi. "...Shayla." All she had been willing to give was her name.
Walking around the bench, Kaori kept his stance casual--being tall, he knew he often posed as threatening. "What happened?" he pressed gently.
"What happened? What do you mean, what happened?" she repeated with an air of indifference. "Nothing happened."
Kaori couldn't help the light laugh. "Sure nothing happened." Watching her, he continued. "So...?"
"So what?"
"My, you're secretive."
"My, you're nosey," came the woman's snap back.
Kao' blinked at her, then couldn't help the grin--then the laugh. "Look... Shayla. What's the harm?"
Brown eyes watched him, then glanced away. She didn't watch him, and her voice was spoken in a low mumble. "My boyfriend... left me out here."
"Here? At night?" Kaori repeated, incredulous. What moron would just leave someone like her out here at night? Kaori could not explain it, but the anger he felt was not necessarily his own.
"Yeah."
"How long have you been here?" he asked.
"An hour, I suppose."
"What? Why?" he asked her, tilting his head to the side.
"I... that's none of your concern."
Kaori studied her posture, her actions. "...You're afraid, aren't you."
She looked up to him, indignant. "I am not! What ever gave you--"
"You're curled up in a ball--you're crying--and you're sitting on the only bench that's under a street lamp. That's reason enough to conclude that you're scared."
Shayla was silent, brown hair that was angled towards her face falling to the side as she turned her head away. In Doi, you could show no weakness--that was how you got killed. It was something anyone knew who lived in Doi, especially those of the... 'lower sort'. It was a fight for survival, and as Darwin so accurately stated, 'survival of the fittest'. Shayla knew... so Shayla stayed silent.
Holding out his hand, Kaori said quite simply, "I'll walk you home."
"W-What?" Shayla stared at his hand.
"I'll walk you home. Safety in numbers, no?" Kaori told her, grinning lightly.
Shayla didn't know what it was about him... maybe it was the fact that he hadn't tried to hurt her, hadn't gotten offended when she had snapped--she didn't know, but she took his hand, pulling herself upwards.
The moment Shayla touched him, Kaori didn't remember a thing.
Pulling the young woman to her feet, he couldn't help the small smirk that spread across his features. "Shall we, then?"
Shayla glanced to him oddly and then began walking towards her apartment block--she guessed that having someone come with her wasn't too bad. Much better then having a pity party on the bench. The man followed off to the side, those deep emerald eyes of his searching for danger. It was then that she brought up her question. "You never told me your name..."
The figure looked to her, thinking much more rapidly then the average person. "Toshi. Toshi Yukio," he told her. His father's last name? Yukio. Toshi was the name Sri had said he would have picked for him, had he been able to.
Shayla studied him carefully--why did it feel like he had changed?
"This is mine. Would you like to come in for a sec' and dry off or something?" Shayla glanced to Toshi, the coat that he been wearing draped over her shoulders, soaked. The same thing went for Toshi in general. It had begun raining in their walk back, and Toshi had so graciously given her his coat. The rain had washed the gel from his hair, and navy strands stuck up at all angles, albeit a bit damply. As soon as the shirt Toshi had been wearing got wet, it had clung to his sculpted upper body--it was then that Shayla decided that Toshi was going nowhere but her apartment.
"I suppose so. I'm soaked." Watching as Shayla unlocked the door, Toshi followed her in.
"Stay in the living room for a sec--I gotta clean up. I'm a mess." Padding off into a room that Toshi guessed was the bathroom, Shayla made a gesture to the couches. "Make yourself at home." Really.
Toshi glanced to the couch, and then with a shrug he kicked off his shoes--they were a muddy mess. He did have /some/ respect for other people. Flopping onto the couch, he stretched lightly, fingers flexing with the action. It was good to be here--and hopefully he'd get something out of it--more then just scaring the shit out of dear Kao'.
It didn't take Shayla long to return from her trip to the bathroom, her feet clad in only white socks, her brown hair having been run through with a comb. The ruined makeup that had been on her face had since then been washed off, and the sweats she had been wearing had disappeared; the v-neck tank top and black pants hugged every curve of her more then just enticing form, a towel draped across her shoulders. Walking behind the couch Toshi had decided to sit on, she held out the aforementioned towel from her neck. "Here."
Toshi turned his head to her, and raised a slender brow.
She cleaned up nice.
Real nice.
Someone like Kao' would have choked, possibly even blushed at Shayla's form and the amount of cleavage shown by her low neckline.
Toshi was not Kao'.
He saw opportunity.
"Sure." Taking the towel from her delicate hands, his eyes never left hers. Shayla smirked lightly--he was hers. She sauntered around the couch, stride almost... suggestive. Toshi, at that point, wouldn't put it past her. She sat lightly on the coffee table, hands moving to her knees, putting her weight there. "I do believe a 'thanks' is in order," she said.
"Oh?" Toshi played dumb--and she knew it as well.
"Mm-hm. I was wondering if you had any ideas."
Toshi smirked--desire and lust were hard emotions to ignore. She knew it, too--she was the one causing the feelings. "I might."
Getting up, Shayla found a new seat--on Toshi's lap. "Was this one of your ideas?"
Damn--she moved fast. One thing was for sure--Toshi wasn't complaining any. "Damn straight it was." No more of this 'talking' bullshit--Toshi had different ideas--as did Shayla.
Toshi flipped their positions--the Yukio wanted--no, needed--control in every aspect of his life--this included. He had never seen an opportune moment to take the upper hand between himself and Kao'--not until he had seen Shayla. The poor kid was 17--he needed to get laid, goddamnit.
Toshi's legs straddled her waist, taking his weight on his knees, and then his hands as well when he reclined her down onto the couch in a horizontal position. "This is better, no?" he asked with a smirk.
That smirk was to die for. "Much." They both knew what they wanted, and they weren't fooling around. Really.
Toshi's lips claimed her own almost roughly, carnal passion and lust worked throughout it. What it lacked in care, or love, it made up in fervid want. Toshi? One-night fling? You couldn't put it past him.
Shayla had no qualms with the treatment, returning and deepening the kiss herself. For Toshi, that meant, very simply, to go on ahead. His hands ran down the length of her upper body, hands stopping at her waist, fingers entwining in the material of her shirt. Shayla's hands were trailing across Toshi's taunt muscles, unable to help herself. Wherever he got this kind of build, she wouldn't know--but wasn't about to ask.
One hand removed itself from the clingy material of Shayla's shirt and began toying with its spaghetti strap, hooking a finger in it he pulled it down off her shoulder. His kisses traveled down to her neck, and then her collarbone--good gods, this woman was practically perfect.
Toshi loved every second of the attention his muscles were getting.
Emerald eyes blinked open groggily, a pleasant tingle mingling in their murky depths. Staring at the ceiling but not really focused on anything, his mind slowly kicking back into gear. He was tucked under the red blanket on a bed that was not his own in nothing but the wraps around his forearms--but his mind did not yet register that fact. A small smirk had been plastered on his face--but why was not something that his mind would answer, either.
It was as if someone had suddenly turned a light switch on as green eyes went wide.
Where the fuck was he?
As he tried to sit up, he found a weight on his arm--when he saw that it was the woman he had offered to walk home, he blanched.
Oh no. Gods, no.
What scared Kao' most was simply the fact that he had not remembered a single thing.
Sliding out carefully from under the woman, he rapidly found his own clothes strewn about the floor. His face still pale, his body was clammy with panic as he dressed, hands running through ruffled hair. His hands shook as he tugged his shirt on over his head--backwards, though unknowingly--and he quietly exited the room.
He had no idea where he was.
He had no idea what he had done.
And he had no idea with whom.
He stumbled into his shoes and his coat, and tripping over his own two feet to get out the door, he barely made it to the street, where dawn was fast approaching. He was dressed half-assed, but he couldn't care to notice as he headed towards the only place he knew was real--his mother and uncle's apartment. He couldn't, however, shake the feeling that someone was laughing at him.
That someone in the back of his mind.