Whispering Winds [AkaKuro]

Restless Pursuit

Once again, like the day before, and the day before that, did Tetsuya wake with a throbbing heart – but unlike the previous occasions, the throbbing was different. Seijuurou’s face, so delicate and well-constructed, so beautiful, was still pictured within the young boy’s mind and his fingers yearned to touch that face, to feel the silky skin of the demon – had Seijuurou indeed cursed him, or simply made the poor boy a pawn of his amusement. Whichever deemed truer was not of Kuroko Tetsuya’s concern, his whole body urged him to get up, to go and find Seijuurou, to plead for Seijuurou, to get on his knees and beg with his life, although what for, the poor boy had no idea.

Was it Seijuurou’s schemes – or was it truly Tetsuya’s desire…

Scurrying, losing his balance on multiple occasions and twisting his body uncomfortably, Tetsuya moved about, confused by his surroundings, upset and feeling lost. Where was the door? Where was the exit? Would Seijuurou wait for him? What was driving his mind completely insane?

He found the outside world after searching desperately and he shivered. The sunny weather from the day before was nowhere to be seen and instead, dismal clouds loomed over the town and the mountains, threatening to throw down the worst of the worst down upon them, were anyone to provoke the gods.

Tetsuya’s phantom presence was overlooked once more and without difficulty, the boy slipped and slid through dark alleyways, past shops and through the market that, despite the threatening storm, continued nonetheless. Feeling compelled to bring something, Tetsuya snuck what he believed to be fresh bread under his shirt before hurrying along in his own quiet manner, simply running out of town.

Maybe it was his last time ever setting foot in there, he did not know. All the poor boy knew a certain, was that he no longer trusted anyone – not his parents and not what he had believed to be his best friends. No… Tetsuya was alone. A lost soul, an overlooked boy and a forgotten shadow. The boy felt compelled to change that.

The dirt path stung underneath the boy’s sore feet as he hurried along, keeping his head bowed low as if in shame when in fact, he felt nervous as his legs carried him closer and closer to that haunted forest - Seijuurou’s domain, his territory, a place where he could do with Tetsuya as he pleased… A place where Tetsuya really was just a toy.

It was that irrational fear, the fear of not being able to be himself and that, despite having nothing to lose, finding himself trembling with fright to his very bone, was what eventually drove poor Tetsuya to stop, right in front of the gaping hollow, dark, ominous and altogether terrible. He wasn't ready… It was too soon. If he were to go in, he would never be able to go back, not like he had when he was a child. In a meticulous fashion, the boy weighed his options – and he concluded that his fear of the unknown was greater than the desire to be with that demon. That the idea of not being himself scared him more than what Seijuurou might do to him. He’d spent fifteen years of his life wishing he’d be noticed more – but he was afraid of the one creature that did acknowledge him.

And because of that foolish dreading fear, Kuroko Tetsuya halted at the very edge of the forest and in a quivering fashion, he pulled out the stolen bread he had earlier hidden under his shirt, looking at it hungrily. He wished to eat it but the poor boy knew he would be gravely insulting any divinity if he ate an offering right in front the shrine or place of worship. Therefore, instead of devouring it which he would have loved to do so much, he kneeled with it, in front of the forest, not knowing how he was supposed to leave the bread there, it was a meek offering, Tetsuya was aware of that, but he had to do something. The boy momentarily paused to question if Seijuurou was watching, amused to see a measly human on their knees before him. The boy shuddered at the thought, but he had to remember that despite being beautiful of stance, Seijuurou had to carry some sort of twisted personality to make him obsessively evil after all. A demon was a demon. A monster was a monster. And, coherent from what Seijuurou had done to him, Tetsuya had to stop denying that Seijuurou was evil…