A World of Reflections

Hair as black as night and eyes as blue as the ocean. If you stared into his eyes too long, you’d feel as if you were drowning in his sorrow with him. If you were to talk to anyone who was a fan of Hopeless Beauty, that’s exactly how they’d describe Aoi Rei. He was a shy individual who had pale, creamy skin that seemed to hold no imperfections. Aoi was indeed a man, but his features often caused others to mistake him for a woman. His lips were a pale pink and plump, like those of a beautiful woman’s. He was slim, “a woman’s figure” he had been told countless times over, and it only added to his feminine charms. His smile was warm, if not for the sadness in his eyes, you’d believe he was perfectly happy. However, those beautiful blue eyes of his hides a darkness that many have only heard about in passing. Many wouldn’t know it upon first meeting him, but Aoi Rei is a vampire, not just any vampire though. Aoi is a vampire king. He wasn’t always such a blessed individual though.

Hailing from a high born family, he had been bullied since he entered high school. You see, Aoi was always different than the other boys. Since a rather young age, Aoi had found himself attracted to other boys as well as girls. He was confused, and this was never made any better by the constant taunting, teasing and beat downs he would receive in school. His parents didn’t know anything about it, but of course, they wouldn’t care anyway. Aoi was chosen for something that would make them even more of a noble and high born family. Aoi had been chosen to become a vampire prince by the vampire king. He didn’t want to become a vampire prince. He didn’t want to become a vampire at all, but no matter how many times he protested it, his parents would hear nothing of it and would send him to his room.

As the days drew closer to when he was to become a vampire, he grew more and more depressed, spiraling downward. The bullying, the confusion of his sexual attractions, being raped by his fellow classmates, the overall lack of understanding and communication from his parents. It was a weight that was crushing him, making him feel like he was drowning. All of this caused him seemingly endless torment until one day, he had finally had enough. He climbed the steps of his school to the rooftop and walked over to the banister that was meant to prevent students from falling over the edge. He didn’t care. Aoi climbed over the banister and closed his eyes. Without a second though, he leaned forward until he felt the air rushing past his face, fluttering his clothes and hair. He felt the pain of the impact and then, nothing. No more pain, no more sadness. Or so he thought. Hours later, he awoke on the concrete where he had jumped. It was dark now, midnight in fact. His head pounded with the pain of his impact, his limbs were stiff, but otherwise unbroken. He was so confused. It was like someone had healed him. Through the pounding in his head, he was able to think a little, and vaguely remembered a voice. Such a soft, gentle voice. It had spoken to him and told him to “please live for me.” Who, or what could that have been that he had heard? Had it been some sort of suicidal delusion, or had he truly heard someone’s voice?

After his failed attempt to end his own life, he grew more determined to live. Something, or someone wanted him to keep living. He felt so driven, and so he would keep on living like that beautiful, but sad voice had asked him to do. He spent the rest of his time studying, avoiding the boys and girls that could get him away from his goal. Time passed and he became the vampire prince he had been chosen to be. He met his vampire “brother” who he was to share the rest of his eternal life with. The man whom he now knew as Neikan was similar to him in looks, only Neikan appeared to be much more masculine in facial features and build. Neikan’s hair was naturally black, but was kept short, barely falling past his shoulders. The older vampire’s eyes were an eerie white and he was much colder in personality. Aoi had come to learn quickly that his new brother thrived on pain- loved it in fact. Neikan would often entice others to his bed only to antagonize them into striking him. Time and again Aoi had witnessed his brother walk out of his room covered in healing cuts and bruises. While the marks never lasted long, they were still visible when they had just been inflicted. It didn’t disturb Aoi though. If anything, it made him feel a little more at ease with his new brother. Aoi was similar in taste when it came to guilty pleasures in the bedroom.

As time went on, Aoi came to learn more and more about his new family. He learned things that, perhaps, he had been better off never knowing. His new father was a cruel king. He allowed slavery, no matter the race or gender and even killed those who disobeyed his laws, even if the crime wasn’t really that severe at all. All of this knowledge angered Aoi. He wanted nothing more than to end his father’s terrible reign. He became defiant, and would often leave home with his brother and be gone for days on end. This enraged their father and would often cause them to suffer dire consequences. Aoi didn’t care at all. If anything, these consequences did nothing but fuel his hate and anger towards his father. His brother and Aoi’s defiance grew to the point that they stopped coming back to the castle. They instead rented a upscale apartment in the rich part of Tokyo. Here they began to kindle a love of music. Aoi was already naturally talented at singing, it just seemed natural that they begin to put it to use. Neikan, who already had skills on playing the guitar, gathered some of his friend and they began to play in underground clubs. Thus was born Hopeless Beauty.

Aoi and Neikan’s lives had become increasingly hectic. They had gained a lot of fame among the underground music scene, and were constantly trying to shirk their duties as vampire princes. They just wanted to have fun and avoid the darkness of their father’s rule. This ever growing desire to avoid their fates brought them to the club called The House of Cards. This is where their fates finally began to take a turn for the better. While they were partying, the brother’s eye was caught by two lovely, fragile looking twins. One seemed nervous, as if he were ready to bolt at any sign of danger, while the other seemed less ready to flee. Regardless, both twins seemed to be rather timid and flighty. Even seeing this, the brothers approached them and introduced themselves. Aoi, as always, was polite, but silent. Neikan on the other hand, being a strong opinionated individual spoke up and began a seemingly one-sided conversation with the two.

Eri, the older of the two, wanted to pull away and leave, but his timid twin, Kira surprised him and wished to stay in order to get to know the vampire princes. The twins were pure bloods who had never seen anything like the two brothers. Not in all of their lives had they ever heard of humans being turned into vampires for the sole purpose of taking up a specific role in the vampire world, but then again, they weren’t very familiar with all things dark in the vampire world either. The twins had been sheltered a lot, protected from a world that they would likely be swallowed whole in otherwise. Even though Aoi was new to the vampire world, he knew that twins in their world were rare. He knew that normally, most set of twins were pitted against one another, forced to fight their other half to the death. This fact alone made Kira and Eri a rarity among vampires, but even more of a rarity was the fact that Kira was a crusnik. He couldn’t drink any human blood or he’d die. All of these facts drew the brothers in even more.

The two sets of brothers continued their conversation in a VIP room where Kira and Eri had been allowed to feed from Aoi and Neikan. The twins were something that Aoi and Neikan wanted to get close to. They desired a relationship with the twins. More so Aoi than Neikan. Neikan was a sexual deviant. All he wanted out of most relationships was sex. It was something Neikan, unfortunately, couldn’t do without. Neikan is a sufferer of Hypersexuality. While normally it wasn’t fatal, Neikan’s body thrived on more than the sex. It was the energy generated by the sex. It was an energy source that he couldn’t get from drinking blood.

After talking and telling the twins some more about themselves, the princes invited the twins to one of their underground concerts. The twins agreed and the four parted ways until the date of the concert.

The brothers had decided to have an off performance, meaning that it wasn’t particularly in their schedule, but none the less the word got out rather fast. They performed, and after, Neikan met up with a vampire in which he was immediately smitten with. This was the first time that Neikan wasn’t interested in just sex. He was genuinely interested in the one he learned was named Malikhe. Malikhe had, as Neikan learned, had a rough past. He didn’t care. He wanted to have a relationship with the fragile little vampire anyway. Neikan was more than willing to protect him and keep him safe. No matter the cost, he swore to Malikhe that he would protect him and do everything in his power to keep the fragile, almost broken little vampire by Neikan’s side.

Aoi was relieved to see that Neikan had such an interest in anyone. He had learned rather quickly that all of Neikan’s “partners” were all male. He had been curious, and inquired as to why this was. He learned rather quickly that Neikan had been brutally tortured and gang raped by a group of women. It had served to detour Neikan from liking women ever since. The white eyed vampire was so terrified of women that if they so much as touched him he grew violently ill. So to see Neikan able to be interested in anyone, male or not, was a great relief to Aoi who had taken years to recover from his own rape.

In a gesture to prove his feelings, Neikan invited Malikhe to the very same concert that they had invited the twins to attend. While it was true that Neikan was fascinated with the twins, more so Kira than Eri, it was also true that he didn’t have the time to work around their barriers, nor did he have the patience. As such, he would much rather enjoy the feeling of being head over heels in love with the fragile vampire he had just met.

Aoi and Neikan had been anticipating the concert for a week, excited and happy that they would be able to perform for people they had personally invited to the concert itself. Worried though, that the concert might be too much for their guests. They were very concerned that the twins would feel overwhelmed and uncomfortable with the large crowds of people. They were also very concerned that they wouldn’t like their music. Even so, the brothers knew that there was no way to get over this nervousness. They had no choice but to face the task ahead of them.

When Kira and Eri arrived, they were immediately shuffled backstage where Aoi and Neikan were waiting for them. Eri was worried. The concert which should be fun, was fraught with worry from Eri because his brother had been made to fear the very thing he needed to survive. Kira feared taking blood from others, feared his fangs hurting them, and once again, Kira had neglected to feed. In his anticipation and nervousness for the concert all week, Kira had neglected to eat anything. Even Daire their guardian, had been asking if Kira was alright and if he had fed. Eri was worried because Kira was extremely pale. Aoi and Neikan noticed as well. Aoi and Neikan had exchanged knowing looks. Kira was the child who was refusing to drink his 'Milk'. In that moment, Aoi resolved himself to make certain that Kira fed after the concert was over. Eri hoped that Aoi would be able to be able to reach Kira and make him feed.

Malihke was the next to arrive and came in looking at the four in the backstage area the one he came to see his brother and two others as well as their band mates. They learned that Malikhe was also having problems feeding, and so the brothers resolved to help both Kira and Malikhe. It was something they knew had to be done. They couldn’t even dream of letting the two fragile vampires continue to starve themselves. It was something that they needed in order to keep living, something that the princes wanted to see their new found loves doing. They wanted their lovers to continue to live so that they could all be happy together. In an attempt to try and get Kira and Malikhe to understand the importance of feeding, Aoi told them the story of the winter before they met the twins. Aoi revealed that Neikan too had a hard time feeding. Neikan’s refusal to feed properly had nearly cost him his life. If Aoi hadn’t found him in time, Neikan would have died.

The concert began shortly after, and when it was nearing the end, Neikan called Malikhe to come up on stage and join him so that he could proudly show off his newfound boyfriend. Neikan greatly enjoyed showing him off, proving to as many people as possible that he was in fact taken so as to prevent any more fans from asking if he had a partner of any sort. In the meantime, Aoi lead Kira off to a private room backstage while Neikan worked with Malihke. Aoi was deeply concerned about Kira, knowing that he would refuse to go anywhere as long as he thought he’d be asked to feed in public, in front of prying eyes. And so, Aoi opted for a more private setting in which he was able to get up close and personal with the timid little vampire.

Aoi had fallen in love with the small, fragile vampire. He knew the moment he had him alone that he needed to portray these feelings. And so, he pinned the smaller vampire and kissed him before letting him go and getting up, letting him move freely after that. In order to do this though, Aoi had to remove the facemask that he wore to cover the lower half of his face, thus letting Kira see all of his face. This was a trust that Aoi had given to very few others. In the end it was what caused Kira to lose control and 'Kiss' Aoi on the neck drinking in his blood, to which Aoi was thankful.

Aoi’s relationship had grown immensely. The twins had come to live with them eventually, having decided that they no longer wanted to be apart. Kira and Eri still chose to remain employed under their legal guardian though, and would go in to work regularly. Aoi was perfectly fine with that so long as they weren’t in any danger. He wanted to keep the twins as happy as possible. He loved them after all. However, with all good things, bad things must follow. Their lives became a turmoil of ups and downs. Aoi and Neikan finally killed their vampiric father and took over his throne. This caused, at first, a sea of backlashes from the vampire world. Many wanted Aoi and Neikan dead for breaking the old vampire chain of command and for changing many ancient vampire laws and codes. The ones who wished the brothers dead even went so far as to kidnap Kira and Eri and try to harm them.

This kept up for quite some time, causing a rift between Aoi and the rest of his little family. The problems never seemed to end and it left Aoi feeling like he had when he was a human teenager. He felt like the weight of all of his new responsibilities and problems would crush him. It smothered him and left him gasping for air. He felt like he was helpless. That was when he remembered the voice he had heard and only then did he realize how familiar it sounded. It was then that he realized that the voice he had heard was Kira’s. It was something he couldn’t begin to understand, not at first anyway.