The True Mate

The True Mate

Co-written by Kohana as Minori and Tangent Rain as Tristan

Chapter one:

His fingers gripped the railing. He hated boats. Really hated boats and yet that was the only way to travel... when you were afflicted as he was. What was it that Victoria had told him? Something about the devil... and water... he didn't really remember, but he was glad when the ship pulled into the Okinawa port.

With soft gauze wrapped around his neck he walked down the plank quickly - ready to feel solid ground again, ready to be off the sea, ready to... feed. 'Why Japan?' He thought. 'Why a country where I know nothing? Oh, that's right... because if I can't communicate with it - I'll feel better killing it. How crude.' But in the end Victoria had been right about everything. Shakily, he moved through the streets, his shaggy dirty blonde hair standing out among the elegant black mops of the denizens of Okinawa.

'I need to find some shelter,' he realized, as his small pocket watch, now on far eastern time, showed him that the rising sun would soon grace the land that was named for it. 'Where the hell am I gonna go? What the hell am I gonna do?' He really needed a crash course in Japanese, or Nihongo, as he learned enroute.

There was building with red lanterns. People were going in and out. Sanctuary, maybe. It was open all night - therefore it was his kind of place. Shaking the sea mist from his loose fitting button down shirt and dress jacket, he straightened his short tie, adjusted his glasses (which he didn't need, but wore out of... nostalgia) and entered the small establishment, to find that it wasn't really that small.

Minori gazed into the long mirror one final time as he smoothed his kimono. This one was his favorite, snow white as the base color, a plum-colored forest of lotus flowers completed with a deep scarlet obi. He’d never really cared for what he wore, all was the finest of silken threads; each piece beautiful and soft to his skin. But this kimono, this one he’d known was his as soon as Okaa san had taken it down from storage. He’d also more than paid for it.

That was the promise here, if you could pay for it, Okaa san let you have it. Of course she let you have the time to earn it, she wasn’t cruel.

Hmm, he thought taking in his long noir hair. Should he leave it down to lure in the next customer or tie it back to show more of his alabaster face? He’d tie it back with a red ribbon.

Taking a deep breath, Minori slid the door to his privet room open and made his way down the hall to the main stair case.

'I wish Victoria were still alive,' he thought gazing at the delicate forms. It didn't really matter that he couldn't understand them, he still felt... empathy. 'I'm horrible at this... Victoria was such a loving monster.'

He sighed and slowly came to the realization that this was not a place for weary travelers seeking sleep or food. It was a place where foreigners and locals with shitty home lives, came to feast their more baser of appetites. A year ago, he would have dreaded to walk into a place like this. A year ago, he would have turned on his heel and fled. But on this particular night, he thanked the Shinto Kami, (or whatever it was he'd heard that man gibbering about on the boat over here), for his good luck. It would be much easier to take a victim from a place where close physical contact was nothing out of the ordinary.

'Remember... the devil.' He told himself. It was sort of Victoria's mantra. If she could pin ill fortune or their awkward predicament on 'the devil' she would. And Tristan used that logic now, as he glanced at the staircase and saw something that made him breathe differently. Every super sharpened sense in his body picked up on the heart beat of the elegant creature descending the stairs. Male or female, Tristan didn't know. But he had to bite his lip to keep from drooling.

'No tact... I have no tact at all.' He scolded himself, then reached into his pockets for the pounds notes he'd managed to 'permanently borrow' from the last man that Victoria had slaughtered for their benefit. 'I hope this place takes European money,’ he thought and took several steps toward the dark haired eye feast. 'So beautiful... I want it... that's the one...' he decided, already excited and eagerly waiting for it to come to him.

Much was the same as Minori had left it a mere hour ago. As usual for this time of night or rather morning, the crowd of customers was thinning. Either those seeking company had made their claims for entertainment and left or were still here, hidden behind the shoji screens and sliding doors. Those paying the highest prices were in the privet chambers of his fellows, tasting the pleasures of flesh.

Either way, Minori cared little, he had one more slot to fill before his morning bath, his supper, and at last slumber tucked away beneath his blankets. Hopefully Yuki would still be playing her Biwa and lull him to sleep from down the hall.

As his gliding steps drew near the base of stairs, he sensed someone watching him. While that wasn’t unknown or an uncommon occurrence, he was paid to be looked at, this time it was different. The gaze of this unknown person was intense, almost begging to be noticed.

His dark eyes casually scanned the milling and mingling crow, falling upon a creature he’d never seen before. Worn for wear and tired, this… young man appeared; his blonde hair mussed and slightly unkempt. His clothes spoke volumes of a foreign air as did his curiously beautiful face, features not Asian.

But it was the man’s eyes which held him and drew him down the final steps. They reminded Minori of the fresh cherries in the spring and summer months, so ripe for the picking, so sweet.

Minori wet his lips and approached the European, bowing low and speaking the only other language he knew in hopes of making this guest more comfortable. “Good morning sir.”

'Oh no... it speaks English.' Tristan's brow furrowed and he willed himself to select someone else, someone who would cry out for him to stop - but he wouldn't understand and so he would keep going. But this... sensual creature would say stop and he would hear it and hurt. That was his curse, and Victoria had taken great lengths to try and numb him to this pain, but nothing seemed to stick.

"Good morning... " he wasn't sure what to call something so beautiful, "Japanese Flower." He decided. 'Turn around, walk away now... you're going to die in my arms you silly thing.' But he couldn't bring himself to say these words out loud. Reaching a hand forward he touched the perfectly pale skin of the Japanese hand. "Do I pay now... or after?" He asked, knowing full well that if he had to pay after - there would be no payment.

He almost hesitated as he rose from his bow, that voice… the man’s deep tone sent shivers down Minori’s spine unlike any he’d felt before. He felt himself blush as he was addressed in such a reference. He’d heard all manner of things but nothing so sweet or so touchingly simple. Usually when men were trying to catch his attention, they were grandiose with their words.

Minori felt the touch upon his hand almost before he saw the man move and afforded him a smile. His touch was light, a little cold. Minori turned his hand so he may slip his thin fingers around the man’s, meeting those beautiful eyes again. They were calling him closer, whispering something much like a song and it was lovely.

“I suppose it would depend upon the entertainment you’re seeking.” He took a step closer, catching a hint of the sea upon him. “But you seem weary, come, I’ll take you where you may rest.”

The heart in his chest, though very very drained and very very tired, began to beat steadily faster as he followed the suave and pale man up the stairs.

'No... don't think of him as a man... it will make his sweet demise much worse.' Those warm fingers around his hand distracted him momentarily from his painful hunger, but when they reached the top of the landing, his whole body seemed to ache with need. How long had it been since he'd performed charitable murder? Two weeks perhaps... Victoria was alive then... he'd sort of lost track of time, in the days and weeks that immediately followed her destruction, wandering about like a lost child, which wasn't too far from the truth.

Pushing his grief aside, he stared at the Japanese Flower before him. "You're so warm." He said out loud, though it was more to reassure himself that there indeed was blood within that amazingly white body, rather than to flirt with the man.

'He's not a man. He's your meal. You're playing with your food again... stop it.' They walked for a short distance down a floral hallway, until they reached a small room with interwoven bamboo decorations and a luxurious and refreshing fountain, lightly trickling water down over rocks and a small zigzagged aesthetic bridge. This was where the flower intended him to rest. This was where the flower was going to die.

Turning to the young creature, he put his hand to his cheek. He felt so many things and all at once, mostly he felt warmth, but he also felt the young man's emotions. "Do I intrigue you?" He asked and smiled slightly.

For a moment Minori was helpless in a way that he couldn’t move only close his eyes and turn his face into this stranger’s hand. His skin felt so cold but stirred emotions within him he’d been trained not to feel, emotions he wasn’t sure of as he’d not really been given the opportunity to truly feel them. It was startling in a way it was so curious and almost entirely new. Deep, pulling attraction and the stranger’s hand was the tether.

“Mm,” he let out unconsciously as he opened his eyes. What was it about this man that was so tantalizing? He wasn’t sure even as he looked into those exceptional cherry-colored eyes. They still spoke to him but it was something more, something he couldn’t quite touch.

Smiling, Minori backed away. “Please, take a seat. I will get you something to drink.” With that he left casually, pausing to look over his shoulder and cast his peculiar customer a reassuring smile. Then he passed through a side door to the kitchens. First thing on his agenda this morning was to warm the blonde up.

'Something to drink...’ Tristan thought, relishing those words. As the flower left the room, he felt utterly disgusted with himself. That delicate being was being drawn to him like the proverbial moth to the flame and it was all because he was holding him in thrall.

'That's not fair of me. I should release it. But his skin is so warm. His body is so nice when it's close to me. And he really enjoys my eyes. I'll give him a better view, since it’ll be one of the last things he sees.'

Casually, he walked over to a small table. He took off his dress jacket and laid it neatly beside the table, then loosened his tie enough the cool dew filled air could slip down his front. Setting his glasses on top of the jacket, he shook his head quickly to clear it of weakness, and to toss some of his hair back from his eyes. He knew they must be quite the sight to see, as his body was enflamed and his eyes were little tattle-tales of his every arousal.

Lastly he took off his shoes and set them down beside his jacket as well. Reaching a hand up to his neck, he felt the gauze and wondered if his wound had bled recently. He didn't want to scare to the flower when it returned, so reached into his pocket and pulled out some new gauze from a small roll and redressed his neck. When he looked at the old gauze he was glad he'd done so, for it was quite filthy from ship smoke, but also bore two noticeable red spots. It seemed that he'd been leaking for quite some time.

Shoving the soiled gauze under his jacket he knelt down before the table, waiting for his flower. 'I'll kill him gently.'

Minori ignored the annoyed banter of Ayaka, the only kitchen hand left on duty. She always hated to be the last one up for these early morning customers. When she was finished with a sharp order not to spill a drop, an empty threat, Minori lifted the tray he’d prepared and left the kitchen.

Once inside the room of his customer, he slid the door shut for privacy and made his way toward the small table where the man already sat waiting. He smiled and gently set the tray down with ease then sat himself, smoothly tucking his kimono under his legs. Then he poured a cup of the warmed rice wine and placed it before the stranger.

“Where are you from?” he asked softly, keeping his eyes upon his hands as he poured himself a cup. Minori had never been off the shores of Nippon, let alone Okinawa and was rather curious of the outside world, or the cultures. He cared little for politics or some current events.

"I'm from the United Kingdom." He said and lifted the strange warm liquid to his mouth. He liked that it was warm; it stirred him greatly when it passed his lips. Enjoying the taste, but finding no nourishment, he set the cup down and held the soft flavor in his mouth. Finally he swallowed, as he did so he undid the thrall that had kept the little Japanese Flower so captivated. 'Let's see if still finds me so interesting. I'm sure he won't give me a second look.'

"It's an Island off of Europe. My home town is a small place called Newquey on the very tip of Cornwall. It's a city on the shore... so in a way, it's very similar to this beautiful city." He lifted his cup and tasted the warmth all over again, but truthfully, he wanted to taste the lovely man before him.

'Patience... remember the devil.' He told himself. 'You don't want to hurt him... not this one. He deserves a pleasant death, like slipping underneath the water of a sweet bath, never to return.' Even as he thought this, he damned his empathy.

Setting the small cup down on the table, he found himself leaning forward, his hands now on the smooth surface. Shifting his body, he crawled forward, like a curious cat led by the scent of tuna. 'I want him now.' He understood, and crossed the length of the small (marble? was it? he didn't really know and he didn't really care) table top.

Softly, with a hint of aggression, he pressed his face against the smooth flesh of the flower's cheek. He was insanely curious about the man, considering he was about to murder him. Another one of his weakness... curiosity.

"What’s your name?" He asked, his breath becoming shallow and his mouth aching, as two slender teeth began their descent.

England; Minori thought with a hint of a smile. He’d always wanted to meet someone from England, at least personally and actually get the opportunity to speak with him.

Suddenly he felt… almost vacated in some unexplainable way, as if something or someone had promptly let him go. It was saddening and he missed the feel, wondered when it had begun in the first place.

However, as he shook his head to clear it and focus upon this beautiful strange man before, he listened to his words of his homeland and smiled. He bet it was far different from Okinawa in the respect that it was a western land and things there weren’t as they were here.

He watched as the man leaned forward and began to crawl across the table, becoming entranced by his lithe frame and the way it moved. He was stunning like a ninja or even a geisha.

Minori’s breath caught in his throat as the stranger’s surprisingly cold face touched his cheek. Why was the man so cold? Why did he have this unexplainable desire to warm him?

Shivering, he closed his eyes, lifting a hand to the man’s head, tangling his slender fingers in his hair, “Minori…” he paused to lean closer. “It means beautiful harbor,” he breathed.

Those words, his own language, sounded so different when caressed by the soft Japanese voice. "Minori... that's very beautiful." He said, letting his breath enter the flower's ear... no... Minori's ear. It was too late now for him to think of this creature in a dehumanized sense. The man before him was Minori, his beautiful harbor.

As his teeth extended, he felt positively overwhelmed with blood lust. Even when he was brand new, cradled in Victoria's arms, shaking and fearful and wanting nothing more than the red elixir of life, he hadn't been this completely entranced.

'Speak to me, fair skin; let me know your most sweet spot. Let me enter you and steal your life.' He pleaded silently with Minori's neck. Everything about this felt different. Possibly because, it was the first time he'd ever sought out a victim on his own. Usually Victoria helped him, guided him. And also, upon the insertion of his fangs into Minori's soft and swanlike neck, this would be his first solo kill.

Realizing this, he knew he'd been far too dependant on Victoria... to the point that he felt almost helpless, letting his lips now gently investigate the man's jaw line. 'I shouldn't have let her continue to kill for me... it's made me weak now... but... I never thought she'd be gone... I never thought I'd have to seduce someone into death, without her there with me...'

A great wash of sadness overwhelmed him suddenly and he did something then, that he hadn't done since his first feeding; he began to cry. "Minori... have you ever lost someone? Someone important?" He asked and let his forehead come to rest on the man's shoulder.

Controlling himself enough to refrain from full out sobbing, he felt the strange warm wetness cover his cheeks. 'I think I am the only one of my kind that can cry. I am the only one so terribly damaged.' With that thought came more tears and gradually his arms wrapped around Minori's thin body. With his face so close now, to the vein of life, and his emotions so exposed, he actually trembled.

Minori was caught and held captive by the stranger’s voice; it was simply enchanting and he wanted to hear more. He felt lips caress his jaw and whispered a moan, easing ever closer.

However, the mood within the small room changed dramatically, and was enough for Minori to open his eyes, brows furrowed. Something was wrong and then the man rested his forehead upon his shoulder beginning to weep as words filled with deep longing and terrible lonely sadness were spoken. Then he felt the stranger slip his arms around him. He was… trembling?

Minori wet his lips slipping his free arm about the man to offer what comfort he could, though he suspected it would never soothe and ease him as much as they both wanted. And he did want to ease this man, it was a powerful desire and he no longer cared why. All he knew was it was there and he wasn’t going to question it’s existence, not at a time like this.

“Yes,” he replied softly, “My mother, my birth mother. She was all I had before this place.” And this was something he didn’t tell many. Most here didn’t speak of their lives before arrival. It was best to forget Okaa-san said and she tried to make everyone in her care happy. But some things a person never could forget; some things they didn’t want too.

When his tears began, his fangs had receded. It was the strangest feeling in the world to have them suck back into his gums without first taking their fill, but it was probably for the best, as the sudden humanly desire to kiss Minori overcame him.

With a show of aggressive passion, he lifted his face and pressed his open lips onto the creature who somehow understood him. "Minori..." he said withdrawing his tongue for just an instance. "What if you could leave this place? What if you never had to service a client again?" It seemed absurd for him to ask the young man such hope-inspiring questions, when his intention was to suck every red drop from his body and so free him in gentle death.

His hand instinctively roamed over the boys shoulders. 'What a strange manner of dress.' He decided as he worked suddenly to remove it - reaching around the young man and tugging at the silky fabric until it loosened.

Slipping his hands inside the robe he found the man's nipples and rubbed them with his thumbs. Nipples, he had learned from past feedings, were a good place to bite for the thrill of feeling a victim's back arch. Minori would look adorable with just such an arch. But that would have to wait. His tongue and teeth were otherwise engaged in tasting the precious little mouth, the soft and trained lips.

Once again Minori’s breath caught in his throat this time from a kiss more passionate than he’d ever tasted. He whimpered as the stranger broke away to speak to him. He’d never been asked such questions and honestly he’d never really thought of it, daydreamed of far away places of course, but he’d never actually entertained the notion of leaving. He had no where else to go, no other home, no one who would show him the world.

“It would be wonderful,” he replied, feeling his obi being untied. He remained still, letting this man’s cold fingers touch him. Once again he had to wonder of their temperature as the man’s thumbs caressed his nipples. He shivered, arching into them with a moan.

Something turned off... or turned on. Something inside Tristan changed in that instant. 'It would be... wonderful... ' The man's words echoed in his mind until they overlapped themselves changing into something not unlike an archaic chant.

Instantly his fangs descended - but they hurt more than usual, in fact they burned, and drove him almost mad. Roughly he pressed the Japanese man against the floor, straddling him completely, and before he could stop himself, he sank his sharp teeth into the boy’s neck.

'Why... why do I have to kill him...' he thought sadly, and set the teeth even deeper, until he tasted so much blood that tiny rivulets of the precious substance leaked from the corners of his over zealous mouth.

Using his hands to pin Minori against the ground, he gave into the horrid desire and swallowed a satisfying mouthful of blood. 'He's so sweet, I wish I could just taste him every now and then... and that I didn't have to kill him.'

Ravenously he swallowed another generous helping, strongly gripping Minori's wrists to keep him from struggling too much. It crossed his mind to say a number of romantic things to this special victim but it was far too late for chit-chat and in a matter of minutes, he would be completely sated, all the blood that the devil siphoned from him as payment for immortality, would be replaced, and his heart would beat quick, and his cheeks would be red and he would live comfortably... comfortably and still alone. 'I don't want to be alone!'

Suddenly the burning in his mouth intensified and he felt a nauseating sensation. Instead of liquid moving from Minori into Tristan, there was something going quite the opposite direction. It was coming from his fangs he knew. Like a snake injects it's venom through the thin piercing hollows of its fangs, so too was he injecting something into the young man, who's warm skin was getting colder by the minute.

'What's happening?’ Nothing like this had ever occurred at any other feeding. But, almost paralyzed by the burn and feel of his own body being drained kept him hovering over the soft body.

Minori let the stranger push him to the floor, let him straddle his body. It was a common thing to him, to be touched and pressed against the floor, the mats, the walls, tables… but it was different with this man, it felt different.

He allowed the man to press upon him further, allowed his wrists to be held captive where and felt his lips upon his flesh once more. Tilting his head a little, he closed his eyes. An unexpected stab of pain pierced neck and he gasped, tensing a moment but soon relaxed as it wasn’t so bad. In fact the pain seemed to lesson a little and he felt a stirring in his loins.

This had never happened before, he’d never been aroused by being bitten, always shied away from it. Perhaps it was this man, he was irresistible and he felt weak.

Just as soon as he tried to lift his hips a little, just enough to try and entice the man to take an interest in his growing erection and have mercy upon it, he felt a searing burn where the man’s teeth were. Confused and a little frightened, he tried to move his hands. He couldn’t and the searing quickly became scalding, scorching… He couldn’t breathe!

Minori’s body jerked and jerked again, painfully, uncontrollably. The pain, it was spreading, becoming agony. A soft tortured cry left his lips as his body ripped control from his mind and will and took on a pattern of shaking, twitching, and jolting.

'Stop it! You're hurting him!' He commanded his jaw, but he couldn't draw his lips away. Somehow he knew, he had to see this to the very end.

'Am I killing him? Is this how I'll kill all my victims from now on... is this how it is when you kill... alone?' The burn lessened finally and he quickly pulled back from the twitching body, which had been so calm and lovely and eager to please only moments before.

'What do I do?' He wondered. Part of him wanted to bolt for it - just run and run and hopefully catch the boat and say 'Sayonara' to this damned country that served only to intensify his grief. And another part wanted to somehow put Minori out of his obvious misery. Ultimately that part won out and he carefully approached the young man, who was still shaking. There was something very familiar about the situation.

Still confused as to why this had happened -- he had actually only managed to feed very little, and even if he had fed heartily, blood loss never resulted in such a dramatic display -- he wrapped his arms around the young man and held him close, to his breast which beat louder now, urged to do so by Minori's sweet and refreshing blood.

'I could break his neck. It's so fragile. That would end it quickly,’ he decided and cupped his hands around the beautiful and agonized face. "I'm so sorry, Minori," he said and leaned down for one last kiss. It was then, that the body in his arms stopped twitching.

Lifting his head in confusion, he gazed upon the dark eyes. The pupils were enormous... like a night animal woken from a deep sleep.