ALIZARIN

Hokuto’s inebriated brain made him ask Taiga to turn him out of the blue, without an introduction, without a plan. In despair, Hokuto had lured Taiga inside one of the offices of the Blue Moon bar who was in an equal state. 

“Turn me.” Hokuto’s hands were tight on Taiga’s shoulders and he looked at him with pleading eyes. He tried not to sound as desperate as he actually was. “Please.”

“You’re pathetic, Hokuto,” was the only thing Taiga could come up with.

Hokuto’s brows furrowed, making a face that clearly showed that he didn’t like to be called pathetic. He already knew he was, and he didn’t want to hear that from Taiga. He kept making him feel like he was a fool.

“Maybe I am.” Hokuto admitted as he paused mid-sentence, trying to swallow back anger, hatred and irritation in his guts. “But at least, I have something to live for. Do you?” 

Taiga’s gaze fell on the cold marble floor. As time passed by, he wasn’t sure what made him still stand on his feet. The purpose of his existence. The ultimate goal in life.

Because he was old. He saw it all. 

He didn’t even find anything exciting anymore. 

Especially when he grew attached to humans who always died before him –  it was the inevitable cycle of life, why was he even surprised? Yet, it was an eternity of painful moments that made him understand the monstrosity of his existence.

He wondered if he should give up on life, and that was what drove him to drink Burgundy blood and pursue Scarlet’s lover.

Hokuto smiled. He had a feeling that he touched a raw nerve in Taiga’s head.

“See. You’re just a lost little monster.” Hokuto teased. 

If there was something worth living for Taiga, it was his pure hatred for Hokuto. He hated the way he was so desperate for something so hideous. 

“Don’t you want to become me?”

“Yeah, but I’m not like you. I have purpose. ” Hokuto repeated and Taiga was starting to wonder what was the meaning of this purpose that kept him alive.

That was half curiosity, half hatred, a little bit of play that made him grab Hokuto by the throat, tightening angry fingers around Hokuto’s throat. Taiga could feel the cartilage of his Adam’s apple vibrate against the palm of his hand when Hokuto let out a laugh.

Taiga didn’t understand that guy who was laughing at his own pain.

Taiga had that feeling that Hokuto was just a masochist living for the pain and the pleasure and Taiga wondered why he hadn’t gone that far to feel life. But he was a monster who didn’t feel any life anymore. 

It was just death, blood and desire.

“Turn me,” Hokuto begged Taiga once again, his hands gripping on his arms.

But Taiga would not turn him.

He never turned anyone.

He knew that Hokuto would forever be linked to him if he did.

He witnessed Jesse turning mad looking for his master – the Cherry Red man who turned him – that same master who ran away from Jesse into the crevices of Taiga’s bed and Taiga didn’t have the heart to tell Jesse that his beloved was sometimes in his arms. 

Taiga would never make anyone feel this way. Even if he was a so-called monster.

Hokuto didn’t need to feel the same longing pain which was eating Jesse from the inside. Being a monster wasn’t fun. Jesse had unleashed his frustration on Hokuto but Taiga wouldn’t do that to him.

He had had done enough to humans. 

Since when Taiga became so mellow? He himself didn’t know. He became a weak monster because he wished he had this ephemeral lively existence that Hokuto was ready to throw away.

He knew that when he got his blood tasted once, Hokuto would never forget this feeling.

“But I can make you forget.” The same way he did with you. Taiga didn’t say it because Jesse’s name was taboo. Hokuto would get angry at the mere mention of his name, as if no one was worthy of mentioning it.

But Taiga wanted to tease him and slowly destroy him in ways only humans could be destroyed. 

“How?” Hokuto asked, very interested in the proposal. They looked at each other and that was rare for a human to hold his gaze so fiercely that it made Taiga smile.

“A flick of my fingers to make you forget it all.” Taiga paused. “Or you could taste me. It’s an addiction, after all. But I’ll never turn you.”

Taiga didn’t even let Fuma turn, why would he make Hokuto turn into something he wished to escape from?

Hokuto felt anger spread to the tips of his fingers.

“Why not?”

Even if Taiga explained, Hokuto would never understand. He had to live it to understand but it’d be too late.

Taiga didn’t care about him enough to take the time to explain the veritable life of a monster. He didn’t want Hokuto to know about their secrets. It had been well kept for millenarians, why would he suddenly unveil himself to that human?

Hokuto had only one person in his mind right now, but it made Taiga smile. He had his ways.

He knew he could break Hokuto.

It’d become a game.

A game that distracted them from their mutual pains. 

Hokuto needed to become him and Taiga wanted to be him. 

Hokuto sought the eternal monster while Taiga looked for the fickleness of humanity. He craved humanity.

Taiga let Hokuto free himself from his grip around his throat.

It left a bright red mark. It was Alizarin red and Taiga suddenly wished he could be marked like that but his skin would turn purple instead of red. And all of his life, Taiga had been chasing red wherever it was. It was a constant hunt. Taiga was tired of it.

Perhaps it was time to let it go.

Hokuto was right. Nothing could tie him down, root him in the earth. The Earth. This one where everyone and everything lived and was pulsing blood and energy… except him. 

Hokuto was smiling under him, squirming, twisting his body so Taiga could feel Hokuto’s rising wood under his ass.

It wasn’t even morning. 

Taiga hated daylights. It reminded him of how lively, how colorful life could be and he wasn’t living it that way.

His world was made of black Onyx and of Alizarin red. 

The only lights that turned on were those in Hokuto’s eyes, begging for him. Hokuto was looking for something inside Taiga and he knew that he wouldn’t let him go until he’d get it and Taiga was too stubborn to give it to him.

Hokuto brought the tips of his fingers to his lips, lapping at them before pushing them past his lips. 

Taiga watched Hokuto sink his human canines into his own flesh to draw the thinnest thread of blood.

Hokuto, too, knew how to excite Taiga’s instincts.

Taiga pinned Hokuto’s chest on the floor to make him stop from whatever he was doing. Their eyes locked for a few seconds which felt like minutes and hours. Taiga knew how weak he could be when he was being offered something so delicious .

Especially knowing that Hokuto’s deep desires were full of Crimson-colored sins.

That was strange, but it tingled Taiga’s curiosity who immediately bent over to catch Hokuto’s drop of blood with the tip of his tongue.

“Couldn’t let it go to waste, could I?”

Hokuto rose, his elbows deeply anchored in the cold floor. They forgot about how they were still in the office of the Blue Moon bar.

He wasn’t aware people like Taiga could even get drunk.

Maybe it was his drunkenness that made him crash his cold lips on Hokuto’s.

And Hokuto welcomed him.