The Card Stage (BL/MLM)

ch. 1 - Odd meetings

—Bang!

A door on the first floor was slammed shut. A young man on a higher floor paused before continuing to get dressed.

He was in a small, clean room. There were multiple coat racks, six if you counted, with clothing of different colors and sizes. Each coat rack was a different color, neatly in a row, each near a small shelf.

Despite being a small room, it was open. The room had a small coffee table in the middle. The table had different patterns evenly spaced around its rim, each with its own spot.

The man was putting on his cape as he recounted everything he needed, though his thoughts were cut short as the room door burst open. A girl with short, dull-mint-colored hair threw down a small sack of items as she sat on a red chair harshly. She was covered in dirt and blood as she laid her head on the table, closing her round purple eyes.

"Pick your head up. You'll dirty the table." The girl picked her head up just enough to glare at the boy. He frowned slightly, "It's my seat, Saki. Go dirty your own spot."

"God!! Can you just let it go this one time?" Saki quickly sat up straight and stared at him. The man hummed as he put on a small rose ornament; it stood out against his white hair. He smiled softly, and she clicked her tongue. "Don't look at me like that when you know you're not thinking anything nice."

"And why should I let it go?" The man paused as he looked Saki up and down with his black eyes. "Also, this is not your first time doing this."

As Saki was about to answer, a muffled voice yelled for her to come down. Saki harshly stood up, her hand slapping the table as she huffed.

"You should be nicer to me, Akatsuki. I'm your only friend, after all!" She stomped out of the room, and Akatsuki just stared as she walked out.

I wonder why she's so irritated?

He then shrugged and picked Sakis' sack up before placing it on a deep purple shelf with the name "Nightshade" in yellow cursive below some painted flowers. He kneeled and picked a wet cloth from her shelf before standing up to clean the mess on the table.

As he finished, he saw a female sitting on a light blue chair with purple and pink gradients. She was drinking some tea calmly with her eyes closed. She noticed his gaze and she opened her bright, orange-red eyes to look at him. Akatsuki set down the cloth and sat on his seat.

"Yaku..you've been learning quite quickly, the fastest I've ever seen anyone learn, But you are careless." She sighed, reaching under the table and bringing a fan out. The fan was beautiful. It had black outlines, while the front was a dull red with roses. The back of it was black with some gold patterns on it.

She put the fan in Yakus' hands and smiled. "I want you to be careful with yourself, do what you need to survive. Survive; when you're strong enough, you can protect others."

"Of course, that's what I think about every mission." Akatsuki smiled and held the fan.

He suddenly had a strange thought, that she was giving him advice before sending him off with a gift. He ignored that thought. "Thank you, Mother, it's beautiful."

Just as he said his thanks, his vision started to blur. He wondered if it was tears obscuring his vision, but he didn't feel any liquid. He then thought of the cloth and wondered if he grabbed the wrong kind; but he had organized it all himself, so that couldn't be it. His body felt shaky and weak before falling straight onto his side and passing out.

"Ugh! Where the hell are we?!" Akatsuki heard a high-pitched, nasally female voice. She seemed irritated by the sound of it, but Akatsuki didn't care about that; all he cared about was shutting her up.