Rated: PG-13
Pairings and warnings: secret, but I guess you know me...
Disclaimer: Some characters (C) Clamp, "When Love and
Death Embrace" (C) HIM
Club Regina: Do You Remember Love?
Part 5
by Beth
"And then he said," Hiroshi made a dramatic pause, punctuated by a wave of his glass, "it's not a bathroom, it's the teleconference room!"
Everyone laughed, except for Kamui, Seishirou and Sakura. The first of these was morosely pondering ways to get home from Ginza at three A.M. without a driver's license or money for a cab, and with at least one, if not two, dead-drunk companions - both Fuuma and Sorata looked dangerously close to sliding under the table.
Seishirou and Sakura were too busy staring into each other's eyes.
A waitress stopped by their table, collecting the impressive array of empty glasses.
"Mr Hartzwig says you two have done great tonight," she remarked. "He says one more song and that's it."
Casey raised her head from her arms and looked lazily at the other singer. "Shall you do it, Sakura-chan? End it with a bang?"
Sakura startled, then nodded and rose.
"I wonder how we'll be getting home," Kamui wondered.
"Where do you want to go?" Katsuhiro asked.
"Uh... Clamp Campus."
"You can go with me," he offered. "I've got a company car here - being chairman has its perks." He grinned disarmingly.
"Yeah, don't we know it..." Hiroshi smirked. "Like that cute secretary?"
"Hush!" Casey hissed. "Sakura's on."
The melody was simple, but strangely haunting. The lights on the stage dimmed until all that showed were mere silhouettes of the musicians.
"I'm in love," Sakura crooned, "with you..."
She swayed slightly to the one-two beat, inclining her head with each movement.
"And it's crushing my - heart..."
She tipped her head backwards, letting her hair slide freely.
"All I want - is you..."
Her face contorted in a momentary grimace of despair. At the table, Fuuma smiled even through the haze of drink.
"To take me into your arms."
Sakura stepped forward and pressed her free hand to her heart, palm inwards, closing her eyes.
"When love and death embrace..."
The last customers - still a large part left of the initial crowd - started clapping softly to the beat as she swung her hair around with the softest of motions, giving her body over to the song.
Then she placed the microphone on a stand in front of her, catching a single eye across the room.
"I love," she paused, "you."
She covered her head with her hands. "And you're crushing my - heart..."
She trailed her fingers down her face. "I need - you... please take me into your arms..."
She straightened, throwing her hair back, almost howling - "When love and death embrace!"
She ended the verse with a wordless croon, brushing her fingers in a caress on top of the microphone.
"When love and death embrace..." she mused, her voice toying with the notes. "Ooooh... When love and death embrace..."
She raised her head again, and spoke loudly and clearly. "When love and death embrace."
Silence, and then applause, followed by the racket of chairs being pulled back and tabs being called.
"And so it ends," Casey said. She laughed shrilly. "All the ghosts go back to their graves, all the dead return to rest..."
"You're not scaring anyone," Hiroshi reprimanded her. "And if that was supposed to be Vincent Price..."
"Yeah, I know, it sucked." She shrugged. "I'll walk you to the door - you might need propping up."
Every free surface in Casey's dressing room was plastered with Broadway posters. All furniture was covered with torn fragments of satin. Seishirou noted that beside the chaise-longue and the mirror, the most prominent piece was the drinks cabinet.
Casey turned her head as he walked in.
"I was wondering if you could show me the way to Sakura's dressing room," he said smoothly.
"Sure, just let me finish this." She gestured to the shot of whisky she held.
He approached her and looked more closely at the battery of bottles. "Why do you drink so much?"
She giggled. "It makes me numb. Just slightly, but every little bit helps."
"Numb to your memories?"
"Nope." She shook her head violently, red strands curling all over her face. "To the feelings... thoughts I get... when people touch me."
"Touch you?" There was a mild curiosity in Seishirou's eyes.
"Like this."
With a lightning speed her hands reached out to his temples. Her eyes closed and a single moan escaped her throat as her head arched back.
The Sakurazukamori crumbled like a puppet with its strings cut. Casey let him fall.
High heels echoed in the hall by her door. She noted the gleam of white satin on the edge of her vision.
"I've done what you asked for. He... isn't human," she began. "At least not in his mind."
"I know that."
"As you thought, the tree is a large presence in his thoughts. But it doesn't control him. The relationship is more... symbiotic."
"Oh." A soft sigh as the other person kneeled by the fallen body, a white-gloved hand reaching out to brush against golden skin.
"All this isn't the dominant note. What struck me the most-" Casey whispered, tears running down her face.
Green eyes met hers. "What?"
"Something... I've only felt once before. An obsessive, deranged, all-encompassing, twisted, unquestioning -" her breath caught in her throat- "love." She closed her eyes. "Like yours for him."
White-gloved arms moved hesitantly, cradling the head of his nemesis.
Casey shook her head. "Oh, Subaru..."
-F-A-D-E-
-T-O-
-B-L-A-C-K-
~FINIS~, if you want it to. Otherwise, one more part.
Author's Notes:
Vincent Price has narrated countless horror movies, and Michael Jackson's "Thriller".
Casey's power somewhat inspired by "The Crow" movie. Only now I realize there's also a slight similarity between her and Johnny in Kouri Arashi's "Reversal", but those weren't intentional - Casey's a character that dates back at least two years, to a fanciful essay I wrote on the Decadents, where she was the narrator.
And yes, I'm evil ^_^ That was Subaru all the time... as you should have guessed by now.
Seishirou: And so you spoil a light-hearted fic...
Beth: *blows a raspberry at Seishirou* I wasn't doing light-hearted.
Subaru: She was doing Bob Fosse meets Baz Luhrman.
Beth: ^_^V
Seishirou: Subaru-kun...
Subaru: Yes?
Seishirou: Cute dress ^_^
Subaru *blushes* Seishirou-san!
Beth: Sei-chan, behave... or I'm writing a sequel to Lady Marmalade!
Seishirou: *blanches*