Gray Lines

Chapter 5

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That night, Kei went out without Sho for a change. Sho had protested, wanting to come along, but Kei had been adamant, and in the end, Sho stayed home and sulked (as far as Kei knew, that is).

The night was clear, and a cool summer breeze tickled pleasantly through Kei's hair and thin white sweater as he walked through the park. There were not many people around, for most of the children were at home asleep, and the working adults were too tired to stay out very late. Kei wandered aimlessly through the park, not following the pebble paths, but instead choosing his own path.

He noticed that there was a young woman working on a large mural in the center of the park. It was odd seeing the usually empty area suddenly filled with a large wall on which there would soon be a painting of some sort, and Kei stared at the progress the woman had gotten through so far. It was not the best of work he had ever seen—after all, he had lived through several decades and had seen the products of greatly talented artists—but it was well done, and Kei smiled, nodding politely to the woman when she noticed his gaze. The woman stared back at him for several seconds before returning to her painting, and then Kei walked slowly away, smiling to himself.

It was nice to know that amongst the multitude of violence and hatred in the world, there were still those people who would take the time to put more beauty into the world for others to see. Kei hoped that this woman would continue to use her painting to erase the destruction from the world. He would do his part by ceasing to take mortal lives each night. He knew he could live for a while without blood to sustain him, and he would stretch that time as long as he could.

When he had enough of the night, Kei returned to the apartment to find it dark and empty. He wondered for a moment if he should leave again and see if he could find Sho, but he thought better of it, feeling that it would be smarter to allow Sho to be on his own for a change. He would never grow up otherwise. Kei had often pondered what the gray line that lead Sho on his path through life was like, if it would separate from Kei's non-existent one, or stay tangled with him forever, as Sho seemed intent on doing. Kei usually tried not to think about what he himself wanted. He would not admit it even to himself, but he was afraid of what his true wishes were.

Not bothering to turn any of the lights on, Kei sat heavily down in one of the wide chairs Sho usually occupied, leaning his elbows on his knees and weaving his fingers into his hair. Life never used to be this complicated with Sho, but something had changed, gone wrong. Kei wished that he could figure out what that problem was before something else fell apart.

He leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes, feeling drained—which was probably the very best word to describe him, since that is exactly what he was, both physically and mentally. He had fallen into a troubled and uncomfortable sleep within moments.

It seemed that mere minutes later he was being shaken roughly awake, and he opened his eyes to see wide, dark brown eyes directly in front of his own. Disoriented, he frowned and mumbled something unintelligible.

"Kei! Wake up, you idiot!"

So it was Sho. But why did he have brown eyes? He never took his blue contacts out these days unless they were hurting him or had been in too long…

Kei's confused thoughts were interrupted as he was pulled unkindly to his feet and practically dragged across the floor. Something was wrong—

"Sho, what're you…?" He didn't finished his sentence, for right then a slash of vivid, brilliant light seemed to pour through all of the large windows at once. He was sure that to Sho's eyes it was nothing more than a weak illumination of the apartment from the very early dawn, but to Kei's vampiric sight, it was as if staring directly into the sun. He made an odd sound in his throat and struggled against Sho to block as much light from his eyes as possible.

"Yes, I know—I'm working on it!" Sho snapped, clearly irritated at Kei's inability to walk properly on his own, not to mention the panic Kei could hear in his voice.

It seemed to take ages, though it was perhaps no more than ten seconds, but finally they made it to Kei's room and Sho slammed the door behind them before depositing Kei on the bed and double-checking that the curtains in the room were shut.

The danger now over, Kei's mind shut off once more, and he did not see Sho until that evening.

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Sho was decked out in his usual outfit that he loved to wear when they went on heists when Kei stepped into the kitchen to pour himself a glass of water to trick his aching thirst away. Kei, on the other hand, had been lazy and simply threw on a pair of loose black cotton pajama pants, his red tank top that proclaimed "Safe Sex Forever" across the front (Sho had gotten a kick out of it when Kei had bought the shirt: he pointed out that it was the perfect shirt for Kei, since vampires can't even have sex, and therefore Kei certainly was "safe" forever), and a jacket that hung off of his shoulders.

Several guns were scattered on the counter.

"Do you know something I don't?" Kei smiled slightly as he sipped his water. It wasn't working.

"Toshi's got everything set," Sho replied, standing up and sliding one of the guns over to him.

Kei simply nodded and poured out the last half of his glass of water, no longer interested in it.

On the way to the warehouse, Sho outlined the entire plan to him, explaining what signals they were supposed to wait for before going in, and where the cash was supposed to be.

"It should be relatively easy, because Toshi put more drugs in the pizza this time," Sho added. "We'll be able to just walk by and take the cash from right under their noses."

While Toshi was delivering the drugged pizzas, Kei and Sho slipped quietly up the stairwell from the floor-level garage. Sho led the way, gun held before him. When they reached the first door, Sho carefully pushed it open and stepped out before briefly glancing back at Kei.

The coast is clear, Kei could almost hear him thinking.

Kei stuck his head out of the door and saw Sho aiming his gun at an unconscious boy who was probably around Sho's age. The boy had a partially empty box of pizza on his lap. Kei glanced around, his jacket hanging precariously on his shoulders. He heard a phone begin ringing in a nearby room. Turning back, he watched as Sho waved his gun in front of the boy's eyes and then tapped his cheek with the barrel of the gun. He looked away again; the phone continued to ring.

"Toshi did okay after all…" Sho glanced over at Kei and raised his eyebrows.

Kei made a soft sound of agreement, but before he could say anything, they were both startled by a loud clattering noise. Kei snapped his head toward the noise, and Sho aimed his gun at a man who fell out of the doorway. Without them doing anything, the man toppled over, unconscious.

Kei frowned and glanced at Sho as Sho did the same. The phone was still ringing, and it was beginning to bother Kei. It felt like some sort of warning.

"What's going on?" Sho asked, looking to Kei for the answers as always.

Kei sighed and shrugged. "No idea."

Suddenly Kei heard gunshots, and they both looked up, listening.

"Idiot's blown our cover," Sho grumbled, clearly annoyed. He walked forward into the dark stairway, and Kei followed without a word.

The gunshots continued, getting closer. Kei and Sho entered the second level of the parking garage. Kei spotted a young man shooting up the stairs as he backed down the other stairs. He checked to make sure Sho had seen, but Sho was already a step ahead: as the man sensed their presence and whirled around, Sho kicked the gun out of the man's hand.

Within a split second, Kei and Sho were back to back with their guns trained on the man—Kei using his right, Sho using his left hand—and the man had pulled out an additional two guns and had them aimed at both Kei and Sho, less than a foot away from their faces.

Several tense seconds passed, with no one in the triangle wanting to make the move that would end everything, and then almost at the same moment they all slowly backed up several steps. Kei's eyes flicked briefly past the shoulders of the man to see that the gang members were not nearly as asleep as previously thought: they had surrounded the three men. With nothing else to do, Kei, Sho and the other man shifted their guns slightly and began shooting at the gang members until their bullets ran out and the enemies seemed to have all fallen.

The three closed in again, dropping the empty magazines and reloading.

"Who are you?" Sho demanded.

The man was not about to give in so easily. "My question too," he retorted.

Kei almost rolled his eyes when Sho instantly said, "It's none of your business." Sho paused, listening.

Kei could hear more men coming to attack.

"What's going on?" Sho asked for the second time that night.

"More of 'em than I thought…" The man seemed just as confused and thrown off as Kei felt.

Kei's eyes shifted to glance at Sho, and he saw Sho's eyes widen.

"A lot more…"

"Join forces?" The man suggested suddenly.

"Not much of a choice."

They all swung around and began shooting.

Within moments, Kei had been separated from Sho. There were so many of the enemy—

Kei's gun was shot out of his hand, and then he glanced around and just barely dodged a bullet sent for his head. He began to back up, and dodged another bullet. He ducked under the next, and in the same moment grabbed a dead man from the floor, using his gun to kill the man who was shooting at him.

Feeling tired and on the verge of boredom, Kei continued to move around with the corpse of the man, almost as if he were dancing. He had a faint thought of déjà vu—hadn't some vampire done the same thing in an old American novel he had once read?—and then he spotted another enemy, shooting him without even thinking. He danced back, shot another, and then another on the stairs. He turned and shot two more. He smiled slightly, knowing that he was once again without bullets, so he tossed the corpse at a man that was running at him. Though the impact could not have possibly killed the man, he must have been stunned, for he did not move to retaliate.

Kei kissed his fingers and lifted them in farewell. He felt quite odd this evening. It was as if nothing was affecting him. He felt playful, almost. His mind was not in the fight at all.

He wandered through the building, avoiding the men who were armed and conscious. When he reached the next level, he came upon Sho in the midst of a fight with a man with a sword. Content that Sho could handle it, Kei leaned heavily against a pillar and lit a cigarette. He stared forward, not really seeing anything. The sounds of Sho and the other man fighting went unnoticed by Kei until Sho fell over and scrambled over to him.

"What's wrong?" Sho asked, breathless. "Help me."

Kei turned and wordlessly placed his cigarette in Sho's mouth. Sho took a puff and sighed, trying to relax. He was about to take another when Kei spotted the man Sho had knocked out getting up and preparing to attack again.

"Here he comes," Kei warned casually, and Sho jerked back as the man took a swipe at him. Kei sighed. Sho had stolen the cigarette away from him.

There was a crash as Sho dodged ungracefully, falling over, and a window shattered instead of his head.

Kei lit a new cigarette, still leaning on the pillar with his back to Sho's struggling fight. Suddenly sensing another's presence, he glanced up and straightened as he saw a man aiming at him from three feet away. He slowly backed up, spitting out the cigarette but kept his hands in his pockets. It was strange how apathetic he felt this evening. It was as if he was not even there.

Suddenly he fell flat on his back, ignoring the sting of the cement underneath him. The man, thinking Kei had weakened, stepped over him and aimed at his head. As he began to shoot, Kei moved his head side to side faster than humanly possible, dodging each and every bullet. The man's eyes widened in shock, and he glanced at his gun before beginning to shoot faster. Kei continued to move his head out of the way, his eyes following the paths of the bullets as they left the gun.

The man grew frustrated, and he reached down to try to press the gun directly against Kei's head, but Kei shoved him up with both hands. The man went flying up toward the ceiling. Kei stood up and put another cigarette in his mouth. He leaned against a different pillar and tried to light the cigarette, but the lighter wouldn't work. Irritated, he dropped the lighter, sighed, and then spat out the cigarette. He walked away, and he heard a dull thud as the man fell to the ground.

Sho had disappeared.

A trickle of worry edged itself into his mind; Kei had the extra magazines of ammunition, and if Sho ran out, he would be relatively helpless against the gunfire. He moved toward a door from which he could hear more shooting, and almost instantly he found Sho again. He was shooting with both guns at once. Then, just as Kei had predicted, Sho ran out of bullets.

"Sho!" Kei shouted as Sho's eyes widened in horror.

Sho released the empty magazines, and Kei tossed two of the extra ones to him, using his superior strength to give them enough force to click in place and reload the gun. Sho spun around and fell to his knees, shooting.

"Whoo! Good job!" Kei called out in his thickly accented English, smiling in approval.

The shooting continued for quite some time, and Kei once again lost track of Sho as the teen ran out of the building to follow the man they had met earlier.

"Kei!"

He turned to see Toshi crouched behind a desk, and he walked over and crouched down next to him.

"Where's Sho?" Toshi asked, glancing around for any other gang members.

"He's gone," Kei replied, not really paying attention. He took Toshi's gun, reloaded it, and shot the last three men who were still in the room with them.

"Gone? Gone where?"

Kei stood up. "No idea. He went after some guy we met earlier…he was Taiwanese, had a white shirt; did you see him?"

Toshi nodded. "Yeah. We almost killed each other when he was hiding behind this desk too, but he thought I was just a pizza delivery boy who got caught up in this, so he left me alone."

Kei smiled slightly. "What, your phone ring again?"

Toshi laughed, and the two left the building together to find Sho.

To Be Continued….

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A/N: I sort of…forgot about this story until this afternoon, during a conversation about MoonChild with a friend, sorry. This is one of my back-up chapters (aka written a while ago) to make up for the huge gap in updating.

Reviews are appreciated!