Into the Darkness [Private w/ Aasim, Kuro]

A black shadow whisked past in the bustling yet unassuming background of the village. A pair of amber-reddish eyes gleamed from the shadows as the small black cat cast its gaze across the numerous people wandering the small town. It was nightfall, past 8 pm already, and so the town's lights had lit up. But that didn't stop the masses of people talking and walking around while they window-shopped. But plus, it was Winter. The cat shook out his fur in order to fluff it up more and keep him cold. Ugh, cold weather. He sneezed. It always made his nose runny and his pelt itchy. At least it didn't affect him as much in a human form..

Kuro had to admit, it was a pretty nice village. There was the town square in the center, with a gleaming fountain. Children splashed on its edges and threw coins in. Maybe Kuro could go sneak out some of those coins. But other than the fountain, there were rows of shops that lined the side, bright neon signs flashing open constantly as they lured in customers with a smile that seemed all too fake for Kuro. Or maybe he was just so pessimistic that he viewed everyone as fake. But then again, that would be hypocritical, because his own smile sometimes creeped people out. That shit-eating grin, they would say. But what could Kuro say? It was his nature. Maybe he should apply for a job to become the Cheshire cat. He'd make a great Cheshire cat. Floating heads were his forte.

There wasn't any particular reason as to why Kuro came to this town; it was actually nearer to his home than he expected, and since he wanted to stretch his legs a little, he thought why not? and had come here instead. There were plenty of humans he could mooch food off of; years of practice had molded his puppy dog eyes--kitty cat eyes?--into powerful tools, and who didn't like an adorable little cat with a snarky grin? Cat haters, that was who. Screw those cat haters. Kuro could fuck 'em up in a second.

Of course, this town seemed light-hearted and comfortable, but it surely wasn't without its dark alleys. All villages had them, probably. Kuro had already lost count of how many times he had passed by a alley, or maybe he was just lost was just wandering around in circles. Pfff, nah. Kuro didn't get lost.

A sudden sound alerted Kuro's attention, his head raising up as ears twitched atop his head. What was that? It sounded... like a cry of pain? There it was again! In confusion--and curiosity--Kuro bounded towards the noise.

Aasim was wandering the the seemingly endlessness of the large winding snowy woods. The tree and bush branches were bare, and all of the plants on the ground have gone to sleep for the year. The white powder had gently coated everything from the grass to the ferns in the area into a nice cold blanket. It was calming and peaceful, but something had drawn the kitsune boy away from his usual location. There were sounds, loud sounds. The sounds of laughter, songs of joy, and people having a great time. Aasim had not heard these kinds of things in ages, for he kept himself secluded in the forest for so long. His curiousity this one time had dragged him out.

He entered the small bright village noticing people dancing in the streets, children playing, and some people who look like they had way too many drinks. It was a lovely thing though, these sights reminded him of the old times, the times in which he wasn't alone, he wasn't sad.

The fox wanted to join the happiness of the others, so without thinking, at all, he ran out into the street.He made sure that he was wearing his cloak to cover his tail and ears, if they weren't moving too much. He laughed and cheered as he looked through the windows of small local shops, and exchanged short but happy greetings with random strangers. Socializing like this was something that he enjoyed, something that was pleasant and lovely.

Since he was so happy though, his tail peeked out and wagged vigorously , not in a mean way, but in an excited way. A child that had been playing a game with a few other just couldn't help but notice it. Creeping up behind them, they had yanked his tail to confirm that is was real, and while doing so had frightened Aasim. He ran off as fast as he could, knowing that he had to get out of sight of the people in the village. Whilst he ran, he bumped into a random stranger, they were dressed oddly, but her didn't really care much. "Sorry!" He exchanged quickly before running again, but he was yanked back by his ear. The small fox let out a loud uncanny yowl. He was thrown do into a dark Alley, here some stranger and his friends had come to beat him up, for no reason! He yelped once again hoping to receive help.

Kuro rounded the corner, eyes slanted curiously, and oh holy shit was this some sort of pre-rape scene!? For a few seconds, he wasn't sure whether to move; the kid with the ears and fox--a kitsune, apparently--seemed young. He only had one tail, and he had the appearance of a 10 year old. Kuro couldn't help but feel guilty and sympathy, but he didn't want to deal in business like this...

Oh god, why was he even pondering this? Of course he should help! Kitsune or not, he was still a child, and children shouldn't be tortured like this.

He darted forward, fluildly shifting out of his black cat form into a tall, messy-haired human male. "The cat police is here!" he yelled cheekily with a shit-faced grin, sending a swift punch to the nearest attacker and successfully knocking him out. The second one whirled around, wielding a metal pipe, to which Kuro would dodge smoothly. He kicked the man into a dumpster, and dispatched of the few other attackers swiftly.

He took a knee next to the kitsune boy, looking down him in slight concern and worry. "Hey, you ok kid? Can you stand?" His eyes zeroed in on a symbol resting on one of the men's arms, and his eyes widened.

Oh, shit. It was them.

He hauled the kitsune up and set him onto Kuro's back. "Actually, answer me later. We gotta get outta here." And with that said, Kuro took off for the cover of the dark forest.


(yay kinda crappy but meh)

Aasim's reactions completely broke for a seemingly long period of time. He just laid still in the alley as he was getting attacked from all angles, tuning out the sounds of those around him, swaying in and out of reality and his thoughts. While he was laying around being helpless, he spotted a cat. Unexpectedly they yelled loudly to get the attention of those who were hurting him.

"Why is he helping me? It doesn't make any sense, why would this cat do something that doesn't benefit him? Maybe when he finishes he'll kill me too, or sell me off. I think my fur could catch a pretty price..."

Returned back to reality, his eyes darted around the alley. All he saw was the ones who were previously attaching him on the ground, eaten by darkness, and the cat seemed to be talking to him. This was defiantly out of the usual, but all the kitsune could do at this point was to just go with it. He reached out his hand to try to grab the cat's, maybe he could escape...

"Yeah, I'm-", he uttered before being viciously placed onto the strange male's back. The only thing that Aasim could think about right now is how he even got into this mess. The boy wanted to remain silent, but decided to act like a normal child so he could possibly manipulative his way out of the situation, like how he did with some other girl near his master's grave.

"What do you think you're doing?!? We don't know each other, is this even okay? Are you okay? I don't know much about socializing, but I do NOT think is a part of it!" He shouted as he was being carried off into the darkness of the forest.

Kuro's thoughts were in turmoil right now. How were they back? Kuro had deliberately made sure that that whole group had been wiped out, ages and ages ago. Don't tell him that someone actually escaped? Did he make a mistake? His calculations must have gone wrong somewhere, or else that group never would have come back.... Those memories slowly began to pour back into his head, memories that he had tried so hard to shove into the back of his mind.

Those were some of the darker days of Kuro's past, but it had been decades ago. But that symbol was most definitely the same. He would never forget its color, its design, its shape.

He gritted his teeth, momentarily forgetting about the child slung over his back. Zoning out the kid's loud cries, he dug his way deeper into the forest, swiftly glancing left and right to make sure nobody had followed him. Not at the moment, at least. After a few more minutes fo steady running, he realized there was actually some sort of weight on his back, and slowed down to take a breather.

He slid the kitsune child off his back and onto the ground, where he ran a hair through is already messy hair and sighed deeply. What a bunch of bullshit this all was. "Can't believe this shit," he muttered to himself underneath his breath. Fingers agitatedly combed through his bedhair in an effort to keep it down, something that always came up with nervousness.

His dark red eyes dropped down to the small child, unnaturally slitted as they stared down, like a pretador ready to pounce on its prey. "Hey, kid. Why were you out there alone? It's dangerous at night."

The cold wind blew in Aasim's face, seemingly vigorously while the strange male carried him on his back through that dark and wining woods. His loud screams and whines were ignored. His ears and short curly hair was being pushed backwards making his ears cold. Something like this definitely was NOT a situation he wanted to be in. To make things even worse, this guy started to bring up conversation!

"Great, GREAT! This is all just great. I leave the forest for 5 minutes and horrible things happen! I get chased by demons, I get beaten up by some scum-bags, and now I am being kidnapped by some weird cat police dude! This is literally the worst day ever! Ug, I should have listened to master when she said to never leave her side... I left her now and all of this is happening, only if now she would call my name... Please..." The kitsune monologue in his head. Ignoring all of his negative thoughts, he had to muster the words to answer the man's questions.

"Me? Alone? I only left the forest to go see the pretty lights and celebration. If that wasn't the case, I would be right by master's side. I wish that she could have come too though..." He said trying to sound sincere, but his intentions were much different then those he started. In fact, Aasim was going to originally con some people, or perform "magic" in the streets, but he passed the idea aside since he wasn't in the mood, but instead all of this happened.

Kuro's hand dropped to his side, clenching into a pair of balled fists. His fingernails dug into his palm as he gritted his teeth, staring at the village's distant lights. Damn. This was such a pain. Now, Kuro sourly regretted ever leaving the comforts of his home to wander around. Maybe he could have just stayed ignorant about this whole thing.

No.

Not like that would work. Either Kuro would have found out eventually, or they would have found Kuro first. But now that his beating heart had finally calmed down, he took this time to take in the small kitsune child. He was short, Kuro was at least a foot or more taller than him. His white ears and tail stuck out in plain sight as the curly white hair was flattened by the wind's force push.

Master? What was he, a servant? A slave? His clothes seemed a bit outdated compared to what people wore nowadays, but maybe it was just fashion Kuro didn't know? But Kuro had spent at least 2,000 years learning how to tell lies and truths apart.

While it wasn't very obvious, the kid was lying. He had other intentions, but it wasn't like Kuro really cared what they were.

"Right," he replied dryly. "Where's your master then?"

The other male came to a sudden stop, dropping the young fox off of his back. He unconsciously was adjusting his clothing back into proper place, while looking around at his surroundings. While he was looking though, he noticed that the cat was clenching his fist, awfully hard is well. In fact, it even looked as if he was going to make his hand bleed with how hard he was squeezing his palm, but that did not matter right now. Right now, Aasim had to escape, and sticking around with some random village boy who just so happened to decide to waste his time saving him, was NOT the priority.

Aasim took a few steps from he was originally standing and put his face in his hands. His head began hurting, and he did not care for it the slightest bit at all. The small kitsune boy looked back at the black cat, deciding that doing things to distract him from his own deep thought would be bad, so instead the fox took some snow from the ground and put it on his head.

"Alright, so I will just stand here for a little while with this random guy, then he'll probably try to play the hero role or do something really stupid, such as suggesting me to stay here alone and wait. That will give me an opening to return back home, so then I don't have to deal with any more of this dumb outsider nonsense! Yeah, that sounds like a good plan, but now I just have to..." He thought as he was interrupted by the other male, who had appeared to have snapped out of his thought.

Aasim looked at him as if he had asked him to club a baby seal in front of its mother. The question just echoed through his mind, like a verse of hate on repeat. Now wasn't the time to be breaking over such a question, the answer was simple, it was easy, it was clean. The fox just had to grow up and get over it, but at the same time, it was still hard for the young boy to comprehend the thought of death. he for sure knew that it existed, and was well aware that it was common, but it still hurt. Everything just seemed to hurt.

Taking in a deep sigh he looked over at the cat. "My..my master....She's dead, but I just live at her gravestone now. Even in her death, I do not leave her side. It is my sworn duty to protect her. Now that I think about it, I should have never left..." Letting out another sigh he looked away once again and at the world's falling snow, so gentle, so soft.

bump

Kuro glanced down at his palm as he felt the familiar (unfortunately) feeling of blood between his fingertips. The blood ran down the length of his palm, dripping into the grass below and splattering the green with splotches of red. He stared idly at the blood on his palm, before snapping back to reality and quickly wiping it away.

Dark red eyes fixated onto the kitsune boy again, pondering the younger male's statement. A master. A dead master. Memories flashed through Kuro's brain like the reruns of a bad TV show, and he grimaced.

This was bad. This was very bad.

Those memories were hidden for a reason. Kuro didn't want to see them ever again. Kuro felt so stupid; how did one word even trigger these? Maybe he hadn't hidden them as deeply as he thought. But he hadn't been affected by them in so long, why now? Of all times, it had to be now. Kuro felt the desperate urge to unleash his anger on this forest, but he was so close to the village that it would only affect him and possibly the Kitsune negatively.

Fire. Screams. Blood. Absolute terror. The happy but passive face of his first owner...

He muttered something under his breath again, leaning against the tree. His hair cast shadows over his face, obscuring his eyes from the moonlight up ahead. No, Kuro. Focus on the now. Not the past. It's over now, forget it. The snow continued to fall around them. Light, gentle, soft. Just like *insert Kuro's master's name here*'s hands. Kuro's heart throbbed in pain, remembering the tear-streaked face of *insert Kuro's master's name here* as he held Kuro close to him.

It felt so real, yet so very distant.

He knew that his expressions must have been visible on his face, and so he quickly switched his expressions. But now, this got him thinking. Why was it that this particular kitsune triggered these memories? This hadn't happened before. Maybe, just maybe, this kitsune reminded him of himself, when he had lost his own owner? Kuro had refused to leave his owner's side for quite some time, until a new person had taken him in.

"Your master? Lonelyyyy, I'm so lonelyyyy, I have nobodyyy, for my owwn.." he sang lightly, trying to alleviate the tension that hung as thick as fog around them. "Anyway, we should be safe for now," he murmured. "They might be back soon, so we should get moving. How far away is your master's grave from here?"

Aasim shot at Kuro a slightly disgusted look. His words felt like mockery, a slap in the face. Try to keep his cool and ignore what the devious cat said, he closed his eyes and let out a sigh. "My Master's gave, eh? It would probably be a 30-minute long walk from here, or at least I assume. I don't recognize this area that much, for I believe I have never been here. " He stopped his string of complaint as he perked up his ears and looked back towards a direction near the village. He could hear a loud stomping noise, many of them coming in the direction of the fox and the boy. He turned towards Kuro giving him a questioning look and spoke in a voice of slight concern "Besides, are you sure on your statement about being safe? I can hear the loud stomping of feet coming our way. Did you not hear it for yourself? [/i]

The Child lifted his feet from the ground, floating off of it a tiny bit, and yanked at Kuro's sleeve. "They must've followed the tracks left in the snow, I can float and leave none behind, is there anything you can do? We need to leave unless you fancy meeting whoever those people are again." The kitsune boy remarked before looking around himself from all directions, paranoid of how long it will take for the group to arrive. The wind could have been carrying the sound with it making them seem closer than they are, or maybe the cold chills he felt was the fear of the thought of what would happen to the two of them if they got caught. Aasim knew though that he needed to stay calm, and that panicking would not help the situation at all. He sighed once again, and looked at Kuro sternly, waiting for an answer.

(Pardon me for the short post)