A Dark Kiss ((Kamukura X Komaeda))

Act 1; Hell's Beast

The thunder rolled and cracked outside the windows, the rain falling harder, clattering and rolling through the church pipes and dripping upon the marble floors.
A shock of lightning burst a tree, striking it into flames that lasted mere moments before falling to the storm.
Komaeda's hands shook but remained clasped tightly, and despite his robes getting damp from his kneeling, he did not falter.
The candles he had placed flickered from the draft, and sense of shadowed darkness growing ever stronger.
Another burst of thunder shook the entire building, and with a shot of lightning once more, the candles all went out, leaving him in the darkness.
He held his breath, afraid to look up, but then again, how could he not?
Sinister fog swept along the ground swirling around the candles in a black mist, making it difficult to breathe or see even two feet in front of his face, but beyond the fog, there was something... Something moving, something growing.
A figure rising from the ground, taking the shape of a human. It opened its eyes, shining scarlet, demonic eyes through the fog and looking right at Komaeda.
"You are..." He ushered, unable to find his words before bowing his head. "Please, take me to hell with you. You don't have to but I'll do anything for you in return. You can have my soul if you wanted."
He waited, crouched upon the church floors for the demon's response, but it never came. It was as though the world outside had frozen, the clapping of thunder and rolling storm clouds nothing but background noise.
The fog whispered across the ground as the demon moved. One footstep tapping against the floors, then another, the darkness parting to allow the demon to move with elegance.
Komaeda allowed himself to look at the dark robes as it stood before him, no longer confined to the circle he had created. The robes dragged across the floor, covering his feet.
The boy found himself raising his head, taking in the demon's appearance. His robes wrapped around his pale body, leaving only his hands and face to be seen, but his hands contained claws, and his red eyes were impossible to look into for more than a moment.
But he still wouldn't have appeared as a demon if not for the curved horns atop his head, where his midnight hair tumbled down his back and around his body as though he were a mere cloud.
The demon squinted down to the human before him, who was begging for his help, ever so slowly lowering his hand.
Without thinking, Komaeda reached out and took his gesture, and all at once, it felt like his heart had stopped.
Hands as cold as ice, they didn't even feel real, as though he had just grasped a soft blanket.
For a short moment, he couldn't breathe, like touching the demon just knocked all the air out of him at once.
"Please," He labored his words, holding the pale hand tighter, his other hand taking a handful of his dark robes. "I can't take this world anymore. I can't keep working for the Church." He scanned the demon's eyes, but they showed no emotion.
Instead, he blinked, casting his gaze away and paying no mind to the human clinging to him. His eyes locked upon the large Church doors, which Komaeda had cast shut with a wooden plank over them.
If anyone knew what he was doing here today, he would be killed in the most horrible of ways. After all, he was a speaker for the lord, and yet he had summoned the blackest souls of a demon within its very walls.
Swallowing back his fears, Komaeda followed the demon's gaze but could see nothing out of the ordinary.
What was it he was looking at, what was he so intent on?
Holding himself close to the demon, he tried to listen, tried to watch, but the only sound was the waves of the storm outside the walls, and the melodious tapping of the leaking roof upon the marble.
"What? What is it?"
To that, the demon spoke not a word. He remained as still as a statue, and then...
Something slammed against the church doors, rattling them, nearly breaking them off their hinges.
"Open up!" The call came from outside, and Komaeda could feel his blood run cold.
It couldn't be true, how could they have found him out so quickly? That was what the demon sensed?
A lantern shone over one of the window panes as someone passed by with the intention of trying to peer in, and without thinking, he allowed himself to hold the demon closer, finding it was his only chance for safety right then.
"Nagito Komaeda, you are to be tried before the town for witchcraft and satanism, open the doors while you still can and we'll make your death painless!"
"No..."
It wasn't fair, no matter what he did, Komaeda was getting turned away! No matter how much he helped everyone, no matter how good he tried to be, nobody ever cared.
And now that he was trying to make a life for himself, they wanted to kill him!
"Please!" He looked back to the demon, his eyes full of fear. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry I summoned you only to get you wrapped up in this, but I can't take it anymore. I'll do anything, this world is so full of darkness and death and hate, Hell must be better than this. Please take me before they do!"
He could feel his hands shaking, knees unsteady.
The demon pulled his eyes away from the pounding against the door to look back at Komaeda, and at that moment, their eyes made contact.
In the flash of an instant, he could see into the demon's soul, his emotions, his story, and it all melted away in a fiery blaze the moment he blinked.
Komaeda was... He was a servant of God, and he was holding a demon, looking into his very eyes, was this the ending he was always meant to have?
"The world is horrid," The demon finally spoke, turning his gaze away. "Is that what you are saying? That being alive is worse than Hell itself?"
"Yes," He allowed himself to fall into the demon's arms, burying his face in his cloak. "Yes, I can't take it. Take me away from this ugly world, take me with you, before I die by their hands. What hope is for my soul if I die a sinner? Please, while I'm still holy."
And then the Church doors seemed to shatter apart, the log they had been using to pound against it fell to the floor. But before the man could look upon the people, his world melted into the darkness.
No, no that wasn't right.
He was warm, and alive, his head rushing from sudden movement.
And yet it took a moment to find the demon had taken him, accepted his embrace, and they sat upon the ceiling support beam as the town people flooded into the Church with their torches and pitchforks.
Komaeda could feel his heart pounding so hard against his chest, he was panting just to breathe.
The demon didn't hesitate to cover his mouth with his ice-cold hands, keeping the both of them silent.
"He was here," One of the men called, gesturing to the summoning circle.
"I'm not surprised," Another hissed, "He was always a weird altar serve, who the hell goes on a rant about hope in the middle of a sermon? We should have seen this coming!"
"Who could see a demon summoning coming? Even if he was weird, he was still a man of God!"
"Screw that!" One of them slammed his foot down on a candle. "This wasn't just skipping a day of Church or drinking wine on a Sunday, he summoned a damn demon! To do that, he was never a man of God!"
"Silence," A woman stepped into the Church, raising her arm to calm the men.
Komaeda swallowed, fear overtaking him, but the demon held him so tightly, it was impossible for him to fall. Despite that, he almost wanted to cry. How could the Reverend Mother be here? How could he give himself away so quickly?
"Mother!" A few of the men bowed their heads in respect, but the priest frowned as she approached, looking to her then back to the circle.
"Mother Peko," His eyes full of shame, "I didn't think he would have really done such a thing."
Her silver hair sparkled with the rain, but she looked generally unaffected.
"Who found out about this?" She looked around before someone raised their hand,
"I did, Mother!" One of the men announced. "I went to his house to deliver a package and found this on his desk." Pulling out Komaeda's book from his pocket, he handed it over to Peko, allowing her to look through a few pages in silence before she shut it quickly.
Komaeda bit his lip, taking a quick glance to the demon, who gave no reaction.
It was stupid of him to leave his book on his desk, but he had been in such a rush, and his hands full of the candles, he didn't think someone would enter his home so soon after leaving.
"Mr. Souda," Peko clutched the book tightly. "You did well on finding this. This is full of summons and spells, not to belong in anyone but a witch's possession," She shuffled past Souda as she handed the book out to the Priest. "You know what to do with it."
With a nod from the Priest, he tucked it into his sleeve and Peko returned to looking among the townspeople.
"He was just here, everyone kindly spread out and find him. He could not have gotten far. Be wary of the demon as well, we don't know if he succeeded."
As everyone made their way out of the Church once more, Komaeda exhaled so heavily, he hadn't even realized he had been holding his breath.
"I suggest we depart as well," The demon whispered behind his ear in a warm voice, causing a shiver to run up his spine.
"Leave..." He looked back to face the demon. "You're taking me then? We're going to Hell?"
"No," With a swift moment, the demon hopped off the beam and back into the light of the windows.
It wasn't until they were safe on the ground did he release Komaeda and looked out into the stormy world. "We won't be going to Hell. We are going to stay right here, on Earth. I want to see this world,"
"No!" He wasn't thinking as he reached out to the demon in a panic, intending to grab his arm, only for the demon to turn back, clutching his hand before he could even get close. "Please, please, we can't stay here," Komaeda started, not even bothering to attempt wiggling away. "Don't you understand? I summoned a demon, they all know my name and my face, I'll be killed. And you- They'll kill you the moment they see you're a-"
"Then I'm not," Calmly releasing his hand, the demon snapped his fingers, and with that, his horns vanished, as though they had never existed in the first place.
The man couldn't believe his eyes, it had been real magic, real... Witchcraft. He could only wonder what he possibly just unleashed upon the world.
"Changing our location would be a trivial matter as well, the world is massive." He did not look at Komaeda as he spoke, his attention fully focused on the outside, but it was that one word his mind focused on above all else, the one thing Komaeda didn't understand.
'our',
"What do you mean 'our'?" He stepped closer. "I... I want to leave, I'll give you my soul for it, that's what demons want, right? You can take it, right now if you need to. I don't even know your name, why would I go anywhere with-"
"It's Kamukura," The demon interrupted once more. "That is my name, and what you can call me," Kamukura approached the window pane, tainted with photos of Angels. He made no move to touch the holy photo though.
"Alright, Kamukura," Sighing aloud, Komaeda lowered his eyes to the ground. "Look, I've been an altar server since my parents passed away when I was young. I've been working for the Church almost my whole life, training to be a monk. I've tried and I've worked but it's never enough," He didn't even realize he had begun to cry until the draft of cold air chilled the tears over his cheeks. "I'm always looked down on, the townspeople hurt me for being an orphan. I can't take it anymore. I've been robbed and... And beaten. They throw food at me, and call me trash. And... I know I am, and I still try so hard to bring them the hope they need! But I can't do it anymore, please, let me give up. This world is ugly at its core, there's no hope for me here anymore."
For a long, dulling moment, the demon kept silent, intent on staring out the window. He rolled his shoulders, crossing his arms. And then he finally spoke in a gentle, monotone voice.
"An ugly world, you say? What man of God summons a demon? It is a bold claim to rip me from Hell, beg me to throw you into the fire, and for what? A soul of a holy man? What would I do with a soul? It is useless to me. You want your request fulfilled, so I want mine."
He turned back, catching Komaeda's gaze as the two met eyes.
Kamukura's blood-red orbs shone bright, and Komaeda's soft green ones empty of the hope he had reached for for so long.
Carefully, the demon approached, and offered a black feather without a word.
It was a confusing gesture, but one Komaeda was quick to accept, but as he placed his hand on it, Kamukura's hand held atop his, not yet allowing him to take it.
"I want to see this human world, see it for what it is, and I want you to show me. If it is as ugly as you say, I will take you to Hell. But if not, I will stay here, and so will you."
And with that, he released, allowing Komaeda to hold the feather.
But he didn't get a chance to hold it long.
It seemed to melt like ice, melting into his hands, staining his skin with black.
And when it cleared, what else stayed but a mysterious tattoo? The feather had marked itself upon him, and even as he rubbed a finger over it, the marking remained strong.
"A reminder of our deal," Offering his hands, the demon allowed Komaeda to take them, and ever so softly, Kamukura etched his thumb over the mark. "Now then, we should leave, before they return."
"But..." He tried to argue, but what could he even say at such a point? He had taken the demon's deal, all he had to do was prove the world was ugly, that would be easy.
When he had nothing to say, Kamukura's arms wrapped around him in a tight embrace.
"Do not struggle, it would be a shame to drop you."
"What are you-"
There was no time to speak, not a moment to even cry out. All that registered was a black coat of wings sprouted before his very eyes and the shattering of the angel's windowpane.