literature

Headlights

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     Beneath the body of scrap metal that might have once been a vehicle, Farrah picked and plucked at wires, her feet sticking out and crossed at the ankles as if this position were for lounging and not for working. She had a way of making everything look so effortless. If she had just a pinky finger on each hand, Kai was certain she could still make even the tundra of life into a warm breeze. He could hear her low humming as it buzzed against the metal. Against the cement walls-tumbling and cascading over the shelves like waterfalls cast in cream. And of course, rolling across his skin. It lathered goosebumps roughly across him, and before he knew it his pulse had doubled until the tiny bottle strung on his chest began to dance along with his swaying head. He swept a heavily scarred palm around it and scrunched.

     "This is nice," he started, leaning back on his palms and digging his bare fingers into the concrete. It cast a shiver down his spine. "For once, you aren't using your voice to insult me. I might even go as far as to say it's...mellifluous.Vae taught me that one. Ever considered street performing?"

     Farrah snorted and slit her melody at the throat. "For two years of my life. And for the record, I wouldn't have to insult you all the time if you used your head."

     "Last time I did that, you told me I was gonna give myself a concussion. I believe your exact words were-" Kai straightened and heightened his voice to a pitch that made even his own nerves cringe-"great, you're trying to give yourself more brain damage."

     "Oh please. Though your comments are infuriating, you are not nearly that stupid. you know I didn't mean literally. And by the way-" she clacked something on the metal innards- "my voice is so low it almost trumps yours, dimwit, so if you were trying to imitate yourself, maybe it's you who oughta consider street performing."

     Kai cracked a lopsided smile. "I bet you did mean it. If I can't think, then I can't say anything clever. But the thing is- I'd actually get worse. You think it's bad now? With brain damage, I could probably convince somebody that powder made from seeds was the new height of fashion. Don't forget the pollen eyeshadow, now available in 30 different colors!"

     There was a sharp clash. He instinctively flinched, then watched as one of Farrah's tools skittered out from the cave between the floor and the car like a spooked rodent. It easily would have clanged against his toes if the Bluff program and years of boarding hadn't improved his reflexes. He swept his legs out of danger and let out a cheery snort. Seconds later, it banged against the ziggurat of shelves behind, and bullied a few wayward nuts to the ground below. His lips twitched.
"Missed me."

     "That was a warning."

     "Do I at least get a kiss for it?"

     "Excuse me?"

     "You know. Missed me, missed me, now you gotta kiss me."

     "In your dreams, lover boy." But the tic in her voice sounded more jittery than Kai expected she wanted to admit.

     "Am I really that scary?"

     Farrah released a groan. He watched as she shuffled out from under the car, snaking the gloves from her hands, her new boots gleaming in the dim floodlights above. She indignantly folded her arms against her chest and smudged her shoulders against the vehicle, her gloves flopping with a puff of dust to the ground beside her and her braid weaving across her shoulder as she cast her playful glare on him. "You're the one who should be scared, my dear."

     "Why?" At his own challenge, his deep blue eyes sparkled unnaturally. The last testament of the truth he lost, he felt that electricity simmer like sand becoming glass on the edges of his brows. If only the waves wouldn't wash it away so quickly. "Do you use poison apple flavored Chapstick?"

     "If I did, I'd have used it on you by now. It's because, dearest-" she put harsh emphasis on the word, but expertly tiptoed around derision- "you'll never be able to live up to it."

     "Okay, fair enough. I haven't had much practice. Unless you count that time clubbing, and technically, I didn't even start that, and I'm pretty sure she was smashed. Felt bad for her. I think she could've kissed a hippo and wouldn't have known any different."

     Farrah hmphed and used the side of the car to heave herself up to her feet. She landed lithely beside the hunk of metal, as if her legs were made not of flesh and bone, but merely air. Her hand slapped it twice before it paused; fingers aimlessly wandered to the perfect braid and began unthreading the neat stitches of sleek hair from it. "I have to admit, Gun is a hard man to live up to. This mechanical business is way beyond my experience."

     Kai froze.
A harsh stone ground down throat, and he barely managed to swallow without choking.
     Gun.
     Gunnar.
     The man who had caused him so much hurt, only to turn around and accept him, validate him, teach him- and ultimately, save him from a death that's virulent memory still lurked in the shadows of his mind. Kai shook his head to clear the fog muddling his breath. "It's cool. Whatever you can do is better than what we've got now. Besides- nobody is Gun." His eyes flickered to the rusting door, where his skateboard dusted the wall and left a shadow that revealed the subtlest cracks of light in its deck. "No one will ever be Gun."

     There was a long swill of silence. Kai consumed it slowly, as if chewing on the thoughts too long or too hard would suffocate what little memories of laughter he had left with the pain he felt in the present. The same tainted notions infected him with pathogens now as they always did. Creeping down his veins, slugs he couldn't see, sticking to his cells and spreading rumors, consuming them.
But before they could become viral, Farrah piped up again.

     "Clunker needs new brakes, unless we're keen on death by wall."

     "Yeah? What about headlights? Unless we want to crash into innocent pedestrians on our way to the wall, but I don't think that'll look too good for our uh...special reputation. Maybe we could offer free test drives to the military?"

     Farrah cast her eyes around the rims of her lids and leaned against the grimy hood. "There's echolocation installments to prevent that. And anyway, it doesn't need headlights. This is going to be your escort- complete with me, after all."

     Kai's brows rumpled. He batted his bottle between two pads of his fingers. "Okay...I'm pretty rad on wheels, but I'm not that good."

     "You shouldn't doubt yourself."

     "I try not to," he shrugged, picking at a neon yellow string on his hoodie, "But if I can't see...we're talking splat." He clapped his hands together. "And maybe boom. I don't think roadkill really goes with my style."

     "It doesn't need headlights," she repeated firmly.

     "Why?"

     Farrah ambled over to him. Steadily, and with her gait as taught as the braid she always began with, but lessening its strong countenance and becoming as loose as the strands she always fed out of the sleek auburn tumbling from her head the closer she became. As she lowered herself to the ground beside him, Kai's heart slipped out of it's already erratic rhythm and pattered harder against his ribs. He tightened the grip on the bottle as his blood grew warm with a tingling buzz- one that threatened to swallow his face. Her forearm just barely brushed his.

     "I'll be doing the driving, thank you," she said, flicking something off her shoulder.

     Kai raised an eyebrow. "Well, I never thought I'd die like this."
Farrah dug her elbow into his arm and scowled.  

     "I mean, Kai, that I already have my headlights."

     "Wait- your Virtus includes invisibility? Oh, man. Cause that would explain why that day in the dining hall-"

     "No, you moron. Though I can think of some...interesting uses for something like that." She perked a flirtatious eyebrow at him and folded her chin into her hand, propping an elbow on the bare skin poking out of the hole in her jeans. "I mean that I have you. You are my headlights, dear."

     Kai blinked.
     You are my headlights.
     Holy crap, she was hanging out with him wayyy too much.
     And yet, his face flushed with a rush of heat. Out of what, he couldn't pinpoint exactly, but his chest was suddenly the car, pressing weight he couldn't withstand against his weak frame until he felt his bones bending. He swiveled his head to the ground and tucked his fingers into the slots of his knuckles. Swallowed. "I appreciate the confidence Deft, but I'm not that bright."

     Once.
     But not anymore.

     "Oh, really?" Her supple lips whirled upwards. "You're glowing. "

     Kai jolted, his arms unconsciously coming around his form, and his gaze frantically swiping across his body for signs of the accusation. "Crazy, I am not!"

     "My mistake- you're glowing pink. I wonder what the other cars will think of that?" She teased.

     When Kai lifted his eyes to meet hers, he felt the tension in his shoulders dissipate into the stiff air, clogged with grease and oil from her mess of parts. There was something in that hue of brown. Something familiar, but at the same time, brand new. He found himself connecting it to the look he used to see in a set of fierce amber eyes. Those had burned, and hers burned too-with faith that scorched his soul not in a way that hurt, but that ignited. Encouraged. Because this faith wasn't placed in just anything.
It was standing on him.

     "You hate pink," he said after a moment. "Shoot. I just realized that means you also probably hate my favorite hoodie."

     "I guess you better learn how to glow a different color, then."

     Kai glanced down at his hands as if he expected to see the faint light there. He didn't. But at the fringes of crackles on his ribs, at the sudden heat of his skin- he knew he really must've been. "Okay- fine, I confess that I'm glowing, but it's totally not pink."

     "I'm not blind, Kai."

     "It's a very light shade of red. Amaranth, maybe a bit vermilion- if we're being technical."

     "Oh, we're not." Farrah snorted and tapped her cheek with a freshly calloused finger. "Why do you glow, anyway?"

     "I dunno, why are you a klepto?"

     "Not the same thing."

     Kai huffed, letting his legs spread in front of him and folding his hands behind his head as he sank to the cool floor. He scanned the cracks in the ceiling, and it struck him how temporary and fragile everything really was. "I used to glow a lot brighter. At least it isn't as obnoxious now. Sure is a lot less embarrassing. And it doesn't happen a lot anymore- really only happens when I'm uh...around certain people. Like you. Well, really only you, but we're not being technical."

     Farrah was beside him. Close beside him. Her fingers were next to his ear, and then they were toying with the dirty blonde hair swishing by it.

     "Why's that?"

     "You're really gonna make me spell it out?"

     "Please do, dearest."

     Kai chewed his cheek, his fist resting against the worn fabric of his hoodie, vibrant pink and turquoise even in this light. "Fine. Just remember you ordered this pizza- if it's got too much cheese, I don't wanna hear you complaining." He rushed a breath through his chest. "You're beautiful, you move your hips so well it should be a crime, and you're totally my natural high. As long as Virtual Anemia doesn't come with dopamine overdoses or something, I think I like you. If it does, there's a hospital right down the road, and it would really make my night if you would please not beat me up now."

     Farrah laughed. It was a rough sound, curdled around the edges and pushing its way abruptly out of her throat. And yet, it was beautiful to him. She scooted closer until her temple was pressed against his, and their hair mingled so well it almost could've belonged to a single head.

     "Now, was that so hard?" She slipped her hand into Kai's seamlessly. His body shivered when her darker skin tightened around the deep scar tissue draping every one of his fingers in a cloak of night. "I think I like you too. Maybe even something beyond that."

     "So, you mean like like, right?"

     "Do I have to spell it out for you?"

     Kai sighed in relief. "Great! Now that that's out of the way-" a quirk spread on his lips, and it pushed the dimple on his left cheek into a sharp crescent moon. "-what are your feelings on marriage? Small wedding? How many kids? I was thinking like 2, because we'll be pretty busy and all. No pets, because they scare the living daylights outta me-except for goldfish, because who doesn't like bubbles-"

     "Kai." Farrah squeezed his hand, staring dully at him. "Chill the hell out."

     "Right." His face fleshed into a full grin, and he found his grip had tightened on her skin and simultaneously loosened on his tiny bottle. It was almost strange- clinging to something with every inch of his soul and having it for once cling back. "Just so we're good, I was kidding."

     "You better have been," she mused. She shifted, and her other hand crept to his jawline, turning his head towards her.

     Kai's heart was beating so fast he could barely even register what she said next.

     "And just so we're good, I-" she tapped his chest and wove her fingers into his hood- "-was not."

     And with those simple words, her lips connected with his, and his world was raining the sweetest burn of ashes.

     Kai only opened his eyes once- and it had been accidentally on purpose, because he really was out of practice and did not want to bang into her teeth. But he happened to catch a glimpse of his fingers- the damaged and ripped flesh coating them- as they reached to cradle her cheek.

     And they were glowing.
Heyyyyy! More Bluff! :D

I wrote this months ago, but just now went back to it and fixed up some of the dialogue to fit Kai and Farrah's characters more. I'm still not content with how Farrah speaks, but I'm getting there.

I really like writing these two. Usually I'm not the banter type, so I added something else I love in couples- fluffies and physical ailments- to attract me to them. Fun fact: Farrah is a little older than Kai.

I hope you enjoy it! Any questions, feel free to ask; I know there are some things in here that won't make too much sense. 



All characters belong to :iconthedoorwithin:


I have really got to come up with a uniform setup for all my descriptions and fix them. Argh

© 2016 - 2024 TheDoorWithin
Comments6
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lykosonette's avatar
Aiiiyeee I love their interactions, they're so cute and Kai would make a wonderful glowstick, ahaha :P 

(It seems like Kai and Gunner have some... not so pretty history? There are so many questions I have about everything and I want to know all of it D: )

~Chensonette