#mikoreiweek2015

Mikoto only grunted and did’t say anything. Izumo sat beside him and looked intently into his friends face trying to make him feel awkward so that he would talk to him.

“We’ll meet.”

“But you won’t give him anything?”

Mikoto turned to him and with a dismissive look told him it was none of his business. It was indeed none of Izumo’s business but he was still troubled at the fact that Mikoto didn’t even care about giving Reishi anything. That afternoon he called Seri and asked about Reishi’s plansfor the evening. Seri was puzzled and told him that the King wansn’t planning on going anywhere. It was his birthday but there were a lot of work to be done. Izumo sighed, both of their kings were complete idiots. They don’t even try to spend time with each other.

“Why are you so worried about the kings? They can handle themselves.“

“But they’re going out with each other now. It isn’t normal that they would still spend time separately like this. Mikoto still sleeps all day and Reishi is the same as ever. They hardly meet.”

‘What are you talking about? Your King visits the Captain almost everyday.

“Huh?”

Izumo couldn’t believe what he just heard so he tried keeping a close eye on Mikoto that day and followed him. He was thankful that his friend was a knucklehead so it was easy tailing him. He saw Reishi waiting for his friend on a nearby bench wearing casual clothes. it was 7 pm in the evening. Mikoto was walking towards him and sat beside his boyfriend. They didn’t talk, they just sat there beside each other without speaking and Izumo felt weird. But after awhile. He saw Mikoto took something out of his pocket, it was a cigarette - blue sparks. He gave one stick to Reishi. reishi took it put it in his mouth. after that the red king lit it up for him.

Izumo came closer so that he could hear their conversation. But not too close for them to notice.

“Suoh. So why did you call me here for? I’m busy you know.”

“Yeah.”

“Is that the only thing you’re going to tell me?”

“Happy birthday Munakata.”

Reishi was surprised. Truth be told he forgot that it was his birthday today. The blue king fell silent for a second and then chuckled. He took it and thanked Mikoto. 

“I didn’t know you had a thoughtful nerve on you Suoh.”

Mikoto just stared at him. After awhile Reishi looked over to him.They held each other’s gaze. The atmosphere between them made Izumo feel weird. 

“Do you want to kiss?” Reishi asked Mikoto in a matter of fact way. Mikoto without notice just grabbed his chin, took away his cigarette and kissed him on the mouth. Reishi closed his eyes and responded to his boyfriend’s kiss. Mikoto pulled him closer and deepened the kiss.  After that he withdraw from Reishi, his eyes full of desire. A look that Izumo never saw in him ever. 

“Munakata I want to fuck.”

Without waiting for Reishi to reply Mikoto grabbed Reishi by the hand and took him to an alley, pinned him on the wall and just started kissing him. Reishi didn’t struggle, he welcomed Mikoto’s advances and the red king’s aggressive and desperate efforts to undress him.

Izumo was still following them but when he saw them both doing the thing. He bailed out and just went home. That morning, when he went up to Mikoto’s room to check on him, he saw Reishi wearing nothing both Mikoto’s shirt and the latter still laying on bed naked and asleep. reishi was having trouble walking and there were red marks all over his body. Izumo swallowed a lump on his throat and apologised for intruding. But the truth is, Reishi’s legs and bedroom eyes were distracting him. He couldn’t help but find the blue king sexy as hell. He heard Mikoto grunt and Reishi’s eyes immediately left the blond’s and went to his lover. Mikoto pulled him and rolled over to stop him from going. Izumo sighed. He was probably wrong about the both of them because by the looks of it they were so in love with each other.  

There were really not many people at the train. In a particular cable car where they were there was only the both of them so Mikoto had the liberty to look at his nemesis as much as he liked. The guy looked so innocent and harmless. Looking at his calm face and the way his chest heaved was a refreshing sight. This was the first time he really looked at him and he realised that Reishi didn’t look bad. Truth be told, the guy had a pretty face. The blue had long thick matted lashes which fringed from his eyelids in a way that Mikoto wanted to kiss them.

He couldn’t take his eyes off of Reishi and he felt weird because of that. Moreover, Mikoto didn’t like the fact that there was a weird sensation in his chest. He swallowed a lump in his throat and averted his eyes and tried distracting himself from the rise and fall of Reishi’s chest and the faint sound he was making. This was his lame attempt to keep himself calm. The train rattled and because of that,  Munakata fell on his shoulder. The guy was not leaning against him. That made him flinch a bit. The guy must be really tired to be like this when they’re alone together. It was puzzling how he did not mind the fact that the red king could could attack him at any moment. 

Mikoto was not comfortable with the fact that Reishi was leaning on his shoulder so he was conflicted whether to wake the guy up or not. But despite the feeling of awkwardness in his chest he had this strong urge to touch the other. In order to dispel these thoughts, he tried waking the guy. He called his name but the guy still didn’t wake up. 

Mikoto wanted to stroke his face, but he was afraid of skin contact. He’s afraid that if he started, he won’t be able to stop, He sighed and clicked his tongue. Yet despite his effort of distracting himself  he couldn’t stop himself from looking over his shoulder and stare at Reishi’s sleeping face. Especially, he couldn’t stop staring at Reishi’s plum of a mouth which he wanted to take a bite on. He clenched his hand into a fist and was gripped by a strong urge to kiss the man. His body moved on its own and his thoughts were jumbled, all he cared about was that he wanted to feel the latter’s lips on his.

Reishi woke up out of sorts. When the blue raised his eyes and turned to Mikoto’s direction to tell him he was sorry, the red king placed his hands on the crook of the latter’s thigh without notice and pulled Reishi to him. The red king leaned in and placed a kiss on Reishi’s mouth. A kiss that was not as coarse as his demeanour. Reishi’s eyes widened. The sensation of Mikoto’s mouth on him was like a burn on his skin. Reishi felt his skin crawl. The blue king was in panic.  Mikoto didn’t seem to notice the other stiffen when he stroked him in the arm. The red king licked the blue’s lips and withdrew. They stared at each other for awhile, and slowly, Mikoto’s eyes widened when he realized what he just did.

  The silence always overwhelmed him, and the thought of meeting some stranger always tired him out, but so far, the feeling of exhaustion has escaped him. He just stares beyond the river and observes the minute changes in the environment. His eyelids flutter as a butterfly lands on his forehead. He craned his neck slowly and raises his eyes to try seeing the butterfly. He couldn’t see it clearly so he tried shaking his head to make the little creature go away. But it didn’t, so Mikoto just leaned back on a tree and closed his eyes. The butterfly fluttered its wings slowly, its small legs were tickling him. As time went by, Mikoto found himself feeling sleepy and just like that he fell asleep. The moment Mikoto drifted into sleep, the butterfly flew away.

 A solemn and wintry sound woke Mikoto up. When he opened his eyes, he was surprised that it was already sunset. The tune didn’t stop and he was relieved because he thought at first that he was dreaming. It was the first time he heard someone play a bamboo flute. The sound was eerie, solemn and full of sadness. MIkoto felt weird that the tune was familiar. He’s heard of this tune before, but he can’t seem to remember where. Mikoto stood up and decided to go home. But when he was about to walk away he heard his own voice. 

“Munakata…”

He turned around and saw himself at the bank of the river with someone. He couldn’t see the man’s face, but the man had dark hair and lean body. This Munakata guy stopped playing and said something to his other self that he couldn’t hear properly. Mikoto went towards the two curious about what was happening. He saw himself looking intently into the other, his movements as coarse as it ever were and his eyes had the same languid drop in them. He saw himself reach out to the other to brush his cheek. 

“You know you don’t need to suffer like this.”

“And you don’t have to interfere.”

The other shoot him a look and averted his eyes  immediately after as if he was afraid of looking at him. Mikoto was puzzled at what was happening and turned his back this time to really go home. 

“I love you.”

Mikoto stopped on his tracks when he heard himself say those three words. The leaves cracked underneath his feet and his eyes widened. He waited for the other person to reply. But he didn’t. He heard himself sigh and rise. And when he saw his other self leave he couldn’t help but be curious at the other person. He was playing his flute again, and this time the tune was sadder and lonelier. He changed his mind, he walked towards the person and observed him. What was puzzling was he seemed not to notice him. But when Mikoto tried speaking to check whether he wasn’t like a ghost wandering, surprisingly the person looked into his direction  but his gaze went past Mikoto and his stare was so innocent and child like that it felt like it was the fist time he made that expression. Mikoto at that moment wanted to stroke his cheek just like what his other self did. When he tried to do it, the moment was disrupted by the thundering voice that made the other flinch. At that, the other left, his gaze steady and firm. When Mikoto tried running after him, in a split second he was brought to the present. He opened his eyes and it was still morning. He was still at that place where he fell asleep. 

After that incident he always dreams about it as if he was part of the dream, as if he was an observer of something he couldn’t completely understand. And he felt weird to be having those so called flashes. He wonders why he was there and why could he see himself with that man. The dreams have been bugging him much more than he could make himself believe.

“Mikoto… we’re going to burn. Get off of me.”

“I don’t care I…”

This time, Mikoto didn’t know what was happening, he only knew that this time, he could see through the eyes of his other self. And even though the bungalow was burning, he was pinning down the other person. This was the first time that he really saw the other and the first time he looked intently into his eyes. His hair flowed from his scalp, his bangs revealing violet irises and sharp eyes. He couldn’t help not think how beautiful he was.

“Just a kiss Munakata.. just a kiss.”

When their mouths found each other, Mikoto felt weird at the sensation that he was feeling. He felt like the desire of his other self was not healthy, even scary. But he didn’t mind it, he wanted to feel this person’s mouth in his.

When Mikoto woke up, he was in bed alone and got a hard on. He couldn’t believe he was sexual frustrated just because of feeling that person’s kiss. The thought of him kept on haunting him everyday, every hour and the flashes of the past always comes back to him. The more he thinks about him, the more he wants to see him, if he ever in this lifetime he would exist with him. By now he realize why he always comes back to that place.

Mikoto wishes to see him in the flesh, and to gaze at his clear violet eyes that had such a hold in him. He wanted to feel him, to touch him and to just be with him. It was the usual, a year has passed and he found himself waking up early again and harvesting spider lilies that this time he grew himself. He went to that place again, like usual. When he was walking towards the place, he could hear a faint sound of a flute playing. He didn’t mind it at first but when he was already near the bank, he saw someone.  Unlike any other times he’s visited this place, this time there was someone who was there before him. He listened to him play and when the sound stopped he snapped out of his daze and turned his gaze to the person who was now looking at his direction. 

Suoh. He responds in a whisper. Afraid that the trembling in his voice would be made apparent.

They pause. Yet their voices echo, reverberate at the empty theater. And all the memories start reeling in. From the last embrace, the flattering of his eyelids, his evanescent warmth to his capture until the day when he surrendered to the Blue King offering his wrist to be shackled by his nemesis. The succession of pictures wound and rewound until it stopped on the scene where he was bound to him in which the clinking of the chain was a chime to his ears, a knell of a bell even, but he tries to think of serenity. He tries to think of peace. He wanted to think of nothing else and look at nothing else but the blue king. He desired to bathe in Reishi’s presence. This was surrender. This was submission. This was the red king saying: “I want to be with you”.

Mikoto’s demeanour was taunting, and it left the blue confused at the red king’s excited behaviour, that all he could do was look straight at him, his face ineffable. They both know what this means. They both had an idea of what will become of this. Reishi shifts and adjusts his glasses that was perched on the bridge of his nose. He pretends not to notice Mikoto’s advances, he pretends not to feel anything at all. He remains silent as the gazes of both of their clansmen were focused on the them.

The tension between them was apparent, even when all they do was just stand there gazing at each other. There was electricity in the way they held each other’s gaze. Lightning ran through their veins and circulated through thundered hearts.  There was a storm brewing.

Mikoto is captured. He voluntarily submits to him. He is detained. This is his last attempt to be close to him. Now that everything was crashing down.  He says he wants to be monitored 24/7 but it was just a lousy excuse, a failed attempt to tell him he loved him. This was a frustration of those three words, the closest thing to it that he could ever muster.

The other responds: “I can’t” sympathetically, genuinely disappointed. Why don’t their feelings ever meet? The red king only stares at him and then falls back on his bed. He moves against the sheets and turns his back on his nemesis, not wanting to show how utterly dejected he was at Reishi’s rejection.

Reishi looks at his figure, and takes a step forward. He stops himself before he could touch him and turned on his heels to go before he does something he would regret in the future. The rustling of his clothes was deafening, and the sound of his footsteps was a time bomb to Mikoto’s ears.

Don’t go. He wanted to say. But what came out of his lips was only a gust of lonely wind.

I want to stay. The other thinks as he furrows his eyebrows before he takes another step. Who would’ve thought it was this hard to leave? He forces his legs to move and starts walking, his heels cluttered against the floor, somber and eerie. He stops feeling too conscious of himself and realises the fact that this was probably going to be the last time they will have this kind of intimacy. Just before the entrance of Mikoto’s prison cell, he stops and looks over his shoulder to take one last glimpse of the Red King.

Mikoto’s back was to him, his shoulders rose and fell. He looked like a tamed animal then. Reishi mumbles something and then goes out. His footsteps faded and Mikoto couldn’t help but drown in them before the silence swallow it. He plunged himself in the remnants of the sound of his voice, the sound of the soles of his feet as they struck the cemented ground. Even the buzzing sound of his distorted cell was somber and cold. Mikoto turns on his bed, desperate to see the blue king off. But it was too late. He was no longer there.