Nighttime Visitor

Zomg, first chapter with no lemons! XD Short, I know, but I'm being lazy...
Thanks to all of you who've reviewed so far; I'm so glad so many like this story, 'cuz I really do, too...Anyway, I'll stop blabbering now ^^
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I endured the tongue-lashing I received from the police officers, only half-listening. The rest of my mind was wrestling with the sudden knowledge that this perfection, this stunning beauty, would only last another decade or so before it began to age. Despite what I told him, that fact wrenched at my heart. I wouldn’t ever leave him, but I knew it would be agony, seeing him shift from young and beautiful to old and gross in the blink of an eye.

Stop it, Yoko. He will get old, yes, but he’s young now. Don’t focus on tomorrow; focus on him as he is right now, at this second… I dragged my attention back to the room, sighing as the lecture continued. I wish I would tell him it was just plant pollen…I’m not cooking up drugs in my basement or anything… Containing my irritation, I nodded when necessary.

Finally, finally, he finished, and Suichi and I left to visit his mother. Once we were out in the cool night breeze, I pulled him to me and kissed him, savoring his sweet, innocent taste, trying to capture every little detail about his lips, capture the tastes and file it away so I could call it up in the future. But Suichi pulled away from me, blushing. I met his eyes, a little hurt.

“Yoko…it’s late and I told you a lot of people don’t like same-sex relationships,” he whispered. “Can-can we try and be a little more discreet about this in public?”

This was something else that confused me. It was such an alien idea, that people who preferred their own gender to the other were considered outcasts. Humans are the experts when it comes to finding ridiculous reasons to discriminate… I kissed his head. “Why?” I growled. “Are you ashamed of it?”

“No!” he cried, his eyes widening. “I just—well, it can be dangerous at night and I just don’t want any trouble…”

I smirked. “If anyone tries to give us any trouble, I’ll set them straight, don’t worry.” Refusing to listen to his ridiculous concerns any longer, I took his hand in mine, lacing my fingers through his, once again trying to memorize every ridge and bump on his hand, how soft and smooth it was, while simultaneously trying to banish the thought of how those delicate fingers would feel running down my chest. Suichi looked up at me again, slightly exasperated and a little apprehensive, but he trusted me. We began walking towards the hospital.

“My kind don’t share your ridiculous prejudices, Suichi,” I explained. “All of us are born with the capacity to lust after or fall in love with either sex. Depending on how we’re raised and where we live, some of us may develop a preference for one gender. My best friend is generally more attracted to males, for example. Many of us will go for either just as frequently, like myself, although I tend to have more specific tastes when it comes to males. It’s no one’s business but your own and not something necessarily under an individual’s control.”

Suichi smiled. “Yes, but you see humans are stupid and bigoted and selfish, and we tend to have an automatic distrust of anything that isn’t exactly like ourselves.” He paused. “Which is why I suppose the fact that you weren’t human scared me a little.”

I squeezed his hand. “There are literally thousands of species of us,” he said. “Things would get rather sticky if we mistrusted only our own species. Some of us do,” I said as an afterthought, thinking of the ice maidens on their floating mountain and the wolf demons, who rarely strayed from their enormous walled city, “but they keep themselves isolated from the rest of us for that very reason. And they generally have a reason to mistrust the general population, anyway.” I could tell he was infuriating Suichi with his evasiveness about what I actually was, and it was adorable to watch him try and conceal it. Yet another expression to file away for later years.

“Whatever you all are, you clearly all have more common sense and foresight than humans d—“ Suichi stopped as I shoved him away, my hand reaching out to catch the rock moments before it would have collided with Suichi’s head. It was a large one, too. Bastards could have given him a concussion!

“Why don’t you stop slinking around in the shadows like the rats you are and show yourselves?” I asked calmly, hiding my anger. Shadows emerged from other shadows, taking shape as they approached. I did a swift count. There were a good dozen or so, all male, all young, and all sneering.

“It’s dangerous to wander around these parts this late,” one taunted. “Especailly for fags.”

Suichi tensed besides me, moving closer to my side. I didn’t know what the term meant, but I could guess it had something to do with our relationship. They had started to fan out, trying to surround us and cut off our escape, not unlike a wolf pack. My eyes found what they were looking for: a dark alleyway that ended with a brick wall. I tugged gently on Suichi’s hand, still facing the gang’s leader, and met his eye without turning my head. I twitched my head ever so slightly, and one green eye darted quickly in the direction. I felt it when he found the alley. He nodded just as slightly as I had. He understood.

The moment the leader opened his mouth to taunt us again, we moved. I swept Suichi off the ground and had him against the brick wall before the boys had even realized I was gone. I turned to face them, shielding Suichi with my body as their footsteps grew closer.

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It seemed forever until the first of them appeared in the alley entrance. I stared at Yoko’s back. If I focused hard enough, I could just see the outline of his tail. I concentrated, trying to see through the illusion to the reality that lay below. I gasped suddenly as that reality suddenly materialized. Yoko growled a curse and then the cat ears were gone. He turned to glare at me.

“Stop that!” He hissed. “You’re going to get me in trouble!”

Clearly the gang had seen the sudden appearance too, because they had slowed and were now advancing cautiously. Their leader stepped forward, haughtiness in his eyes as he faced Yoko, who did not move.

“Clever move, faggot,” he drawled. I winced at the word but Yoko did not so much as bat an eyelid. “But now, we’ve got you cornered.” His sneering eyes found mine. I met them steadily, trying to mirror Yoko’s calm. But I knew my lip was trembling. “Aww, are you afraid?” The boy taunted. “Hiding behind your big strong faggy friend…?”

“Enough.” Yoko’s voice made my hair stand on end. Soft and incredibly dangerous, it also made blood rush to my groin for some reason. “If you want a fight, you’ll get one, but not from him,” Yoko said.
I had to fight back a shiver. I must ask him to speak to me like that when we next have sex, I mused.
One of the gang members launched himself at Yoko with a snarl, and I caught a glint of steel in his hand before Yoko knocked the knife aside, sending it to the concrete with a clatter. The boy followed soon after, and I hadn’t seen my lover move. But from the way his jaw was swelling up it looked as if Yoko had broken it. They rushed him then, and I heard the chink of blades being drawn and the clatter soon after as they fell to the pavement. They dropped around Yoko like flies, unable to get any hits in; he was too fast, his senses too sharp.

Most of the time I couldn’t even track his movements, but occasionally I saw Yoko’s heel crushing a scrotum, or a vicious right hook connecting with an unprotected gut. His dodges were even faster than his attacks, if that were possible, and the only time I saw him dodge was when he preformed a spectacular backflip to dodge a knife blade, arching over the heads of those behind him to land clear of the mess, where he waited patiently for them to rush him again. After a very short time indeed their number had fallen to five; the other seven were moaning on the ground, trying and failing to get back on their feet, or, in the case of two, unconscious. The five survivors rushed Yoko again and again, and Yoko leapt, struck, and sprang away again, always out of reach. As he fought, I eased my cell phone from my pocket and pressed the speed dial for 9-1-1. A second after the phone had returned to my pocket, I felt cold, sharp metal against my throat, my arms wrenched behind my back and held there.

“Hey!” A voice called out from behind me. Yoko froze, and a fist pounded into his stomach. He didn’t flinch, although I heard a tiny breath of air escape from his lungs. Yoko turned. The leader’s knife pressed harder against my throat. I held back my whimper of fear. “Move and I’ll slit your little bitch’s throat.”
In less time than it took for me to blink Yoko vanished from before my eyes and I felt the knife blade pulled free. I could see it now; it short, sturdy thing made from thick steel. Yoko’s fingers gripped the blade, away from the edge, towards the tip. The gang leader was paralyzed with terror; I could feel him trembling as Yoko spoke.

But he didn’t speak; he hissed. I had not known such a vast amount of fury could be conveyed solely through the voice. “You dare,” he breathed. My eyes widened as he accentuated his words by snapping off the very tip of the thick knife like it was a toothpick, “lay your disgusting,”--another piece snapped off—“foul”—another—“hands on Suichi?” Half the knife lay in shards at my feet. “And you dare—“another clatter as more steel fell away—“threaten him”—I heard a whimper of terror as the knife was reduced to a half an inch of jagged steel protruding from the sleek black handle—“with your grimy knife, just to get a rise out of seeing me defeated!?” With a snap the last of the steel crumbled away in Yoko’s hands. “Let me tell you something,” Yoko hissed. “There is no way in hell you could ever even hope to beat me, whether there be twelve or twelve hundred of you.”

With a scream of terror the boy yanked himself away and he and his four buddies made for the alley entrance, only to be met by the police cars. I breathed a sigh of relief and tried to turn to Yoko, but was stopped as he yanked me to him and held me in a crushing embrace.

----

“Oh no, not you two again,” I heard a familiar voice moan. I looked up from Suichi’s hair to meet the eyes of the same three police officers from earlier. I scowled, hearing Suichi giggle. “Just what exactly happened here?”

“We were attacked,” I said, feeling my calm returning. I held up the rock I’d caught earlier, seeing Suichi’s eyes widen. “They were throwing these at us and then they came forward and forced us to retreat to this stinking alley.”

“That’s a lie!” One of the gang members spat. “You ran down here yourselves; we had nothing to do with it!!”
I fixed an eye on the boy. “Had I not, you would have had us surrounded. Suichi is not a fighter; I needed some way to defend him. Perhaps you did not physically chase us back here, but it was the only place I could go.” I let the smile creep across my face. “And you were all stupid enough to follow me,” I said. “Had you not entered the ally you’re friends would have escaped with all their bones still intact. As it was, you could only come at me three at a time.” My smile faded. “Let this be a lesson, then. Foolish children with no discipline nor skill should not chase down prey that is much cleverer, and much stronger than they could ever hope to be.”

Two of the officers took the five relatively uninjured boys in the patrol cars as a police ambulance pulled up for the others. The third remained, looking guilty.

“Look, I feel really bad about barging in on you like that earlier. Can I make it up to you by giving you boys a lift anywhere?”

Suichi shook his head. “Thank you, but no. We’d prefer to walk and it’s not too far now.”

The officer looked doubtful for a moment before shrugging and leaving us in peace. I took Suichi’s hand again. He looked up at me. “Now do you believe I can handle any further trouble?” I whispered. Suichi nodded, but he still looked doubtful. Knowing what he was thinking, I added, “It’s worth dealing with any hot-headed brats who raise a fuss to be allowed to love you openly.”

Suichi blushed, smiling, and we walked the rest of the distance to the hospital in silence.