Every Light Casts a Shadow

Aladdin&Judar by HaRa

               ( @riseoftheblacksun​ )

           Sasuke had nothing to apologize for.

Some might argue that fact. He had left, suddenly, without so much as a word dropped to anyone who might care enough to miss him. That was how life had always been for him, despite how many upset tears his adoptive family had shed over him leaving before. A man who was bound by nothing but his own inner demons, he found it hard to stay in the same place for long, growing tired of the same smiling faces that passed him each day in a way that almost seemed mocking. Things had changed when he met Judal, finding himself acquainted with a kindred soul that understood exactly how he felt. Things had changed when Judal had kissed him for the first time, between promises of revenge and freedom. Things had changed when he found himself kissing back, the heart he thought didn’t exist within his chest aching at the thought of anyone else doing the same with Judal. 

The problem was, Sasuke wasn’t a fan of change.

In an already fragile state of being, the slightest change tilted his world completely on end. He had grown scared although he wasn’t proud to admit it. Things like falling in love, or having an intimate relationship, were always concepts he’d thought out of his grasp. Sasuke wasn’t sure if what he felt was even love, but it sure as hell was as annoying a feeling. He wanted to get rid of it, at first. Maybe that’s why he left. Sasuke was confused, fearful, and stubborn and therefore he felt he had nothing to truly apologize for. They never defined their relationship. They never set ground rules or expected anything more than what was offered. 

Sasuke figured that a thing as flimsy as an apology wasn’t for people like him and Judal. Apologies were meaningless, usually transparent. They were a waste of breath, and a waste of patience.

Sighing, the raven haired male glanced up at the condo where Judal lived. He knew of the troubles he had been facing since Sasuke’s departure, he knew how angry the other was at him and the rest of the world. He knew and yet, despite the fact that it would be easier to leave it alone until later, he found himself pressing forward to meet with Judal, arriving unannounced in the dead of night. His flight had come in only an hour prior, and because Judal was the reason he returned, Sasuke knew he had to see him at once. If only to figure out just what this feeling inside of him was.

Effortlessly, Sasuke climbed the tree near the building, making little noise aside from an initial rustle of leaves already leaving their branches. Nimble as he was, the Uchiha had no trouble leaping from a branch to one of the balconies, scaling over to where he knew Judal’s room was. He moved without detection, movements silenced through years of practicing his stealth. Once at the window where he knew the reason for all his grief laid waiting on the other side, Sasuke sighed silently, before rapping his knuckle on the glass quietly. He stayed out of sight, knowing Judal would have to open his window to see who his visitor was, although Sasuke held onto a hope that maybe he could simply guess. 

Love. Four simple letters that Judal had once scorned. Had once treated like a sickness someone could catch; something that rotted a body from the inside out more than something that cleansed it... For nearly 18 years he had considered his heart a blackened void in place of where beating time should lie... Until Sasuke. Sasuke had changed something in him. Had awoken something he hadn’t even been sure he was capable of having. Judal didn’t consider himself a better person for having met the other, but he did consider himself a different one. After years of allowing his body to be used at mercy he had suddenly had no desire for any hands on him but the two he had come to memorize the feeling of. He had allowed himself to finally be opened, to show the sides of himself he didn’t have words for, emotions he couldn’t explain, let them be laid before before the darkened eyes of another who didn’t try to fix them; but instead gave them names, gave them meanings, gave them finally an understanding he had never had.

It had been 14 years  before he had ever even learned what it meant to be wanted, what it meant to have someone care whether you come back at the end of the day. 14 years he had spent locked in a rusting cage, wings warped from years unspread. It had been 18 years before he learned what it meant to be desired.

The first time he had kissed the other he would admit it had been almost entirely out of lust and nothing more. It had been a draw to the other boy born from a mutual understanding... It had been purely lust and animalistic instict that night that had led them down the path it did, turning a friendship into something much more... And while they had lay in dark silence; hearts pounding in sync had he realized that suddenly... He wanted to touch no one else, wanted to conquer no one else and in turn wanted only him.

No red threads had tied their souls together like the legends of the city spoke, but instead a never ending coil of barbed wire wrapped its grip tight. Their scars ran too deep into the skin for time or kind words to heal. They were broken, broken and fixed without real care. They had shared this reality, and it was a sense of this that they found solace in… Sasuke had always understood what it meant to be lost despite a sea of familiar faces…

and then he had left.

It isn’t obvious to find out who the Bewitchers are, and even they themselves may not know that they have been bewitched.

But of course, they are only rumours…

It amazed him sometimes what attitude, the slip of a money laced hand, and appearance could get him. Though it shouldn’t, his entire life had been lived below the radar, a charade of bending rules, and blatantly ignoring the ‘guidelines’ that society had dictated the rest of the population around him with.

Making his way into the crowded club, the teen had only needed to produce a mere 50$ before the door had been opened for him, cutting him through the line; a boy on the prowl walking into a den of those he considered beneath him despite his very presence leaving a trail of illegal intentions with every step he took.

He was underage, but he didn’t care. He had lived his mere 18 years thrown into a world too old for him, and he bore the consequences like badges of honour. The bar overflowing with liqour, the thumping bass in his ears, the looks he received from intoxicated passerbys, it was all familiar, and it was all like a game to him. A game of whose life he could take in his hand and slowly pick apart like a child might to the petals of a delicate flower it had gotten its grip on.

Some might call it cruel, but he called it something he’d earned. Something he deserved. His own life had been left to the fates of someone else, his destiny and future molded like clay in the hands of a stranger. Only when doing the same to another did he feel like he had any control left. In a country so preoccupied with the idea of interdestined fate, he’d found himself gripping to metaphorical scissors determined to clip every flash of red he saw, like a walking proof that destiny doesn’t exist, and that you are only the product of decisions and consequences. Even true love can be destroyed by one bad decision, and one test of fate.

Leaning against the bar, crimson eyes scanned the dark room, determined to find his object of the night. His distraction for the evening. Though his search didn’t take long before a figure approached and crimson eyes looked up at who had taken to him so quickly, saving him the hunt as the prey walked straight into the trap unabated.

It was just like Judal to want to have the last say in everything he did. An easy smile lifted his lips as Sinbad shrugged in response, allowing the raven to have his way of thought. 

“You say it as though I do not have the frequent chance to do so,” he remained bent near the other’s ears, his words a breathy whisper. “Even though you spend most of your nights in my bed, sprawled across the sheets with those locks undone.” He held the trailing tresses in his hands, teasing the ends of with his thumb and index.

Teasing the teen with suggestive words, Sinbad maneuvered the two of them towards a spot that he was quick enough to spot, a gap at the very front that was big enough for the two to slip into. 

“Ah, that was lucky.” The man was pleased with himself, leaning against the protective rails that were erected before them. “Now we’ve got the best seats in the house.”

The teen let himself be steered through the crowd, finding a chuckle building low in his chest at the words Sinbad spoke, unable to really find anything but truth. Despite that the man had given him his own room in the condo, the raven more often than not found himself either curling up in Sinbad’s bed early in the evening and never leaving, or making his way through the dark halls in the wee hours to crawl in beside him. 

Though despite the innocent nature of it, the breathy tone that Sinbad spoke low in his ear, gave his actions an entirely different connotation Judal smirked, feeling the familiar rush that he got when the two fell into the habit of... Whatever it was that they shared. The teasing, baited words and suggestions that fell between them like honey always left him wanting to push the boundary, to toe a little closer to that line, to see what he could get away with from the other. He had yet to find the limit and he was itching to see where it lay, if there even was one.

Wrapping thin fingers around the metal rail that he stood in front of, he leaned back, using his grip to support his hanging weight as he stared up at the man who stood behind him. Sinbad’s hands on either side of his frame where he leaned on the barrier made an almost protective hold and his smirk only widened.

“And yet every night I am so cold on my side~ Maybe you should try exercising that right before you brag about it old man” He taunted before pulling himself back to stand, leaning himself comfortably on the chest of the man behind him as he crossed his arms. 

Destiny was a rather peculiar thing.

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“Insolent child, is that how you greet me~?”  

He’d be lying through his teeth if he tried to say he was surprised at the act of violence. The burning sting in his cheek was all to familiar as he stared angrily down at the concrete under his bare feet. The quickly heating skin like a pull into his past, a physical reassurance that he had run as far as he could, and she’d caught up.

To the world, Gyokuen Ren could do no wrong. She was a socialite, a perfect mother, a doting wife, a savvy business woman, a devote charitable and honest person. She was the matriarch of the most successful family in their home country and she had a winning smile to prove it.

But it was a mask, a horrible, twisted mask and one she had never worn in front of Judal. He had only ever seen the real woman behind it, and it was a woman he feared as much as he loathed. 

Yet, he still grit his teeth, still squeezed  his hands at his side so tightly that his fingernails left half moon imprints in his palm as he slowly turned his head back to the face the woman, crimson eyes burning with a medley of emotions to complex for him to gasp as he stood once more before the woman who ‘raised’ him.