#hykatsu

[angesorci]

“that’s basically a squid, right?”

Lord of Shadows Starters — Accepting.

The lab hums with quiet life, a thousand little glass vessels and copper contraptions exhaling steam and light. Shadows coil lazily along the shelves where jars of half-living things blink, twitch, or flutter in suspension, and the air smells faintly of brine, smoke, and old parchment. Gyumin stands at the center of it all, sleeves rolled, hair loose, and a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth as though he's been waiting centuries for this very moment.

The fish sits on a shallow basin carved from black stone, still dripping from whatever tank he'd plucked it out of. With a flourish of his fingers and a mutter of ancient syllables, the transformation begins. Flesh ripples like silk in water, bones melt and rethread, and within moments the creature's form wavers between familiar and alien. Fins dissolve into pliant limbs, suckers blossom along its sides, and a bulbous crown pulses wetly, as if taking its first startled breath.

It flops once, then steadies, tendrils coiling in the air with tentative curiosity. Its new eyes swivel toward Katsu, glistening and too many.

Gyumin claps his hands together as though he's just pulled off a party trick rather than bent the laws of nature sideways. "Ah! You see? A humble carp, taught to dream a new dream. That's basically a squid, right?" He mimics the other's voice with a light laugh. "Oh, but you wound me. This is no mere squid, sweetheart. Squids know what they are. This poor fellow—" The taller gestures to the creature, which makes a sound halfway between a gurgle and a sigh, "—is an exile from its own reflection. A fish rewritten, made to wander in a skin that isn't quite its own. Squid-like, yes. But not bound to the squid's dull certainties. Better! Stranger!"

He leans in, nose nearly to the glass, voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "Don't you feel it? That delicious unease, watching something caught between what it was and what it might become? That is the artistry of my craft."

The thing in the basin blinks its gills again, slowly, almost coquettishly. Gyumin chuckles. "And beside, have you ever seen a squid try to flirt? Because this one seems to rather like you."

[aufleur]

"You have no idea, do you?"

Those words slid from Katsu’s mouth with that languid mockery he wore as though it were his second skin, the smirk half-hidden in the shadows of the room and my god, did she wish she could smack it off his face.

“You have no idea, do you?”

Karina stilled, the air around her had tightened. She did not blink, did not let him see the flicker of irritation that rippled through her veins like a thin crack of glass. Instead, she let silence answer first, cool and deliberate in itself, until it pressed between them like a bite of frost against the skin.

Her gaze found his first, both unwavering and unhurried. It was the sort of look that carried weight, a quiet violence that had been honed by restraint. “I don’t need to,” she said at lash, her voice level and silken, she kind of calm that bruised more than rage. “Because men like you who boast in riddles reveal more than they think.”

She leaned back against her chair, arms crossed against her chest, shoulders relaxed though her presence was burning but. It was all but a phantom threat in the softness of her tone. “So, tell me, Katsu. Is it ignorance you’re accusing me of … or is it the mystery you’re so desperate to keep alive?”

The corner of her mouth curved, not quite into a smile, but something colder as she leaned forward, her elbow now propped on her knee while her chin rests on her palm. She stayed silent here, her gaze level with as it served enough to remind him that if she truly had *no idea* of what’s been happening in the city, she would not have remained so long.

[aufleur]

" do you have a death wish or something? "

the alley was too narrow, too slick with rain, and the courier’s allies closed in faster than jimin anticipated. shadows broke off from the dark, steel flashed under dim light. she had taken one down before the others circled, their footsteps scraping stone, their blades hungry for blood. she moved to meet them, every muscle in her body coiled and ready, but when the wet ground betrayed her, she lost her footing and a knife was angled too high for her to block.

she braced for the pain that never came.

a hand shot out from the dark, clamping her wrist and hauling her sideways into a narrow recess. the blade scraped sparks off bricks instead of flesh, the echo ringing sharp in her ears. her back slammed against the wall, breath torn from her lungs, and the grip anchoring her didn’t falter. she twisted to strike whoever dared to grab her, only to meet his gaze.

katsu.

rain headed down his jaw, dripping onto her cheek as his eyes burned into hers. his mouth curled with irritation, his voice low.

“do you have a death wish or something?”

his words cut, but she refused to flinch. her jaw clenched, fury coursing through her veins as she jerked against his hold. “if it means doing my job, then maybe i do.” she began, her tone steady and defiant even as her pulse thundered beneath his grip. “i don’t need you dragging me back like some damsel. let go.”

[obstrict]

" what the hell happened ? "

The wound bled slowly but steady at his side, the heat leaking through the torn fabric of his jacket, each pulse dragging him closer to the edge. He’d choked down more blood tablets than recommended, crushed them bitter against his teeth until his mouth was raw, but the ache in his throat had only deepened, coiling tighter, hungrier. The thirst was no longer a whisper he could ignore.

He pressed harder against the wound as though sheer will could stop the leak, but the scent was everyone. Copper clung thick in the air, tainting the night until it felt like he was drowning in it. His vision began to wane, edges blurring as he desperately tried to keep himself afloat, but it was damn near difficult, impossible even. Zero was struggling, and it took just about everything to keep himself from folding in on himself, from giving in to the ravenous beast thrashing beneath his skin.

“What the hell happened?”

Their voice snapped across the space between them, too sharp and too casual for the storm brewing in his chest. His head lifted, the line of his jaw catching the light, and for an instant, his eyes were bloodshot, feral and feverish, dangerous in a way that no bruise or cut could even come close to explaining. He felt the tremor in his hand, nails dragging shallow furrows into the brick wall behind him, anchoring himself to the stone so he wouldn’t lunge or betray the truth gnawing at his restraint. It isn’t often he gets like this, for he’d always done so well at keeping his vampiric nature at bay, suppressing every need to satiate his thirst, but tonight was different and he didn’t fucking know why.

For a moment, he hadn’t said anything. Silence pressed heavier than the question, the only sound his own unsteady breathing. Then he bared his teeth into something closer to a snarl, and spat his next response out, each one sharp and bitten clean. “None of your damn business.” His voice was rasp, raw from hunger and pain, but laced with enough venom to leave no room for doubt. His gaze pinned them hard, as if daring them to take another step. “Fuck off, Katsu.”

[obstrict]

@hykatsu:

(...) but when fate likes to prey upon his chains, katsu can expect an overwhelming amount of hurt coming his way, in knives or guns, or a quip well-aimed straight to his chest. so it turned out that after the clash and the subsequent clean up, and the settlement of the new order, katsu realized that he had still quite a lot of housekeeping to do. chiefly among them being finding out what this guy was doing, all the way out here, scoping the boundaries of his territory. “i forget about you every time you leave,” katsu says, mildly still, wiping off the thick red coating his hands on a small towel he had draped over his left shoulder. the kneeling, almost faceless man sounds off in a pathetic whine. “last week had been the same, right? you just have bad timing. maybe knock on the door next time?” once katsu wipes away enough blood from his palms to see some skin, he returns the towel to his shoulder and straightens the wrinkles from his dress-shirt (rather useless endeavor, that one; it’s white and it’s all smeared crimson on the front) as he heads for the side door. katsu beckons zero to follow him anyway, saying, “we need to talk.”

He doesn’t answer right away.

The blood hadn’t bothered him, neither the stench nor the smear of it dripping off Katsu’s fingertips, soaking deep into the towel still slung across his shoulder like some twisted badge of office. What caught his attention, instead, was the way the other had said it, calm and unhurried, as if they hadn’t just locked eyes over a carpet still wet with someone’s dying breath.

We need to talk.

Right.

Zero’s gaze lingered a beat too long on the towel, then flicked up to meet Katsu’s eyes with the kind of silence that left too much unsaid. He took a step forward, then another. Not fast or cautious, just simply inevitable.

“Didn’t think you were the type to clean up your own mess,” he uttered, gaze flickering briefly to the tinge of crimson that clung to Katsu’s knuckles. “Guess I was wrong.”

No smile, no smirk. Just merely the flat kind of observation that could either be respect or threat. His steps didn’t falter as he closed the distance, stopping only once as he was at Katsu’s side. Closer now. Near enough that if the other turned too sharply, they might brush shoulders. Zero didn’t give him the chance.

“If you’ve got something to say,” he added, voice low and dry like ash as he walked through the door that’d been motioned towards. “Say it while I’m still in the mood to listen.”

[aufleur]

❛ i don’t have time for distractions right now. ❜

The world narrowed down to breath, heat, and concrete.

Katsu’s arms were braced beside her head, the worn hem of his coat brushing against her shoulder as he leaned in close enough that she could count the flecks of ash clinging to his collar, close enough to feel the static tension radiating off his frame like a storm that had not yet broken.

He was blocking the exit. No — cornering her.

“I don’t have time for distractions s right now.”

Her jaw twitched. A sharp, soundless breath dragged through her nose. “So move,” she spat, low and icily unbothered, but her voice betrayed the tension coiled beneath it, a blade sheathed but not forgotten.

Crimson eyes lifted, meeting his without falter. Unflinching. Her back stayed against the wall, but there was no give in her spine. She stood like a pillar carved from something ancient, silent and cold. Her fingers of one hand twitch, curling slightly at her side, aching to reach for the hilt of the dagger hidden beneath her coat out of instinct.

“You bleed in five different places and we’re boxed in by men who’d sell your head for a bottle of holy water,” she spat, “But sure. Let’s make me the problem.”

She didn’t shove him, didn’t look away. Instead, she tilted her chin up just enough for her breath to ghost against his jaw in a quiet challenge, warm and sharp around the edges. “You can play maria boss later,” she murmured, her attention adverting toward the end of the alleyway for a fleeting moment before it returns to him. “Right now, we run.”

[obstrict]

@hykatsu

The corridor stank of stale smoke and slipped bourbon, that sharp, chemical tang that clung to bad choices and bodies dragged too far. The air was much tighter here, humming with fluorescent fatigue, somewhere in the veins of the casino. Not meant for players or pleasure, but for those that needed exits that didn’t come with questions.

His boots struck marble in long, measured strides. Not rushed, just precise. The briefcase bounced once against the flat of his back, full of weight that no longer mattered. The deal had fell through the moment they placed the fake bills down onto the table like he wouldn’t notice. One lie was spewed, two glances were exchanged, and a weapon shifted where it shouldn’t have been. Zero had killed one. Maybe two. The rest didn’t scatter — they followed. No finesse, just footsteps louder than the low bass of the casino floor.

They were close now.

He felt them.

He took a sharp turn around the corner, a side corridor toward the service exit, then his shoulder slammed into someone. The impact was sharp and jarring, the kind of full-bodied contact that never should have happened. It stopped him dead in his tracks. The force bit straight through him, the briefcase jolting hard against his spine, a hiss of breath caught low in his throat. He stepped back on instinct, boot dragging against the tile, already reaching for the blade beneath his coat.

Zero met his gaze, the world narrowed. A slow, silent drag of seconds passed between them. He wasn’t one of the men tailing him. He wasn’t part of the deal. He didn’t belong to the pursuit or the escape, and yet, something in the way the hallway dimmed around him said otherwise. Like the casino bent differently when he was near, like the air had chosen sides.

He didn’t wait to see which side it picked. Instead, Zero broke from the stare and moved, slipping past the man he had just bumped into with barely a brush of contact, his coat flaring behind him as he pushed down the hall. The footsteps were closing in now, louder and angrier. No more silence, no more shadows. It was motion now, his body slipping through the casino’s underbelly like a blade tearing through a soft cloth. Behind him, the air felt scored by the weight of that gaze — not stopping him, not saving him, just watching. And yet somehow, even as the voices surged and the chase narrowed in, something told him he hadn’t quite left that presence behind. Not entirely.

He couldn’t shake off one thought: Who the hell was that guy?

[kyuxngsoo]

[ sms: baby boy. ] only if you say "thank you daddy" when we're done

[sms: nini] keep dreamin’

[sms: nini] that’s not gonna happen babe

[sms: nini] u got me fucked up