Hi!

I think I should apologize for turning it darker yet, but we're inside their heads now.

Attraction

Ri roamed the tattoo studio aimlessly, her espresso eyes shifting from one glass plate to another, that had various incarnate designs of ink. Her fingers rubbed against her throat as she stopped in front of a particular one, done in detailed black ink. Shadows falling into place creating the picture, held her attention.

"That one," she said finally, pointing at the tattoo. "I want it here." She added, pulling her hair to a side to reveal the base of her neck.

The tattoo artist nodded, not much invested in her choice, he picked up the plate and went inside to prepare the stencil, giving her a nodded assent. Ri knew the place like the back of her hand. It was not the first time she got ink on her skin. People wore tattoos for variety of reasons, for some it was a fashion, for some a souvenir, for some another adventure. She wore them like scars; those that she flaunted to the world; the reminders of the pain she had been through, proof of what she survived. She went to the chair and sat back, leaning her head against the support and closing her eyes with a sigh.

She wanted to have flames on her skin. Fire had always been a part of her life, she wanted them etched on her body. Ri had been six when her mother passed. She had been in that crash, along with her mother and sister. She had been the sole survivor. Since then, flames had been a part of her nightmares, one of her deepest fears. Glimpses of flames licking at her feet, the heat inside the car, the smoke suffocating her were still very much a vivid part of her memory. She heard the sound of the machine starting and felt the first stinging of the needle against her skin. She simply took a large gulp of air and kept her eyes closed. It was only a distant pain, nothing even close to what she had been through.

"I still wonder," Raagav said once. "Why the god chose to leave you behind?"

"Trust me uncle," she had told him bitterly. "I wonder the same."

"Perhaps this is what he wanted. Suffer, suffer more. Not an instant death." She thought to herself.

**

He went there looking for an old friend. Someone who could help him with the digging he had set out to do. No matter what distractions found him, Omkara did not forget his purpose. He had to find out why that woman was after his family. But as it seemed, unearthing the secrets of her past had not been easy. There was this one man however who could dig up dead if he was asked to.

They called him Thanatos, and those who knew him well never doubted the reason behind the name.

He entered the shadowy studio, the bell ringing to signal his entry going unheard in the rush of old memories that filled his mind. He had been here as a teen, a young boy trying to escape his fears in the embrace of much darker things. Those days were bitter, hazy but painless, or so it had seemed then. Omkara never knew when he had stepped over that edge of chaos into the abyss of destruction beneath. He had felt alive when he had been falling, down, down and down. Still that craving was a part of his blood, those intoxicated hallucinations a part of his nightmares, but he was no longer that person.

He had expected recall all those dark ages as he entered this place, what he did not predict was that he would meet himself; only through a different lens.

He watched her collapsing on the chair, sighing as she closed her eyes. Her hair pilled up on her head in a mess, and her eyes were puffy. As usual she was not dressed to impress anyone. There was nothing eye catching in the baggie purple t - shirt or the faded shorts she was wearing. But even in them, her persona was magnetic. The pull he felt towards her was still the same.

Instead of walking away towards his purpose, he stopped in his tracks, watching as the needle tainted her unblemished skin. The pain he knew it brought did not reflect itself on her face, instead there was a frighteningly familiar sense of relief on her features. As if the pain burned the pain away, the pain made her feel alive. He knew exactly the taste of that feeling, and the end of that path...he knew too well.

A lone tear escaped her eye. It was not born of pain, but from a past he wanted to unearth. Till that moment he had been viewing her as a spoiled child, a girl who had everything she wanted and yet wanted more. But at that moment, he saw her as himself, all those years ago.

Then it come. A maniac need, that burned through his heart and creeped around his soul. He wanted to protect her. He needed to protect her. He needed her. And it kept him rooted there, watching as the ink spread itself across the raw skin of her neck.

In that fraction of a moment, before she opened her eyes and their gazes met; in that thoughtless silence he realized exactly what had been so tempting about her. She was he himself, and who could have understood her better than him?

**

A strange wave of static passed down her spine. It was a feeling of being watched. Her eyes snapped open. For a moment a beam of light reflected by the needle blinded her, in the next, her gaze found a dark one focused on her.

Those eyes; she could have drown in them and forgotten everything else. They still had that curious expression, like she was some great mystery that seemed to fascinate him. But in the next moment her trance was broken. This was Omkara, standing in front of her, his hands carefully folded against his chest.

Ri did not say anything, she only bit harder on the inside of her cheek, letting her eyes gloss over and her tongue taste the metallic - ness of blood. What the hell was he doing there? She had been avoiding him since that night, when he walked in on her playing the drum set. She had been under the impression that he had accompanied Jai to whatever stupid party he was going to attend. That misconception had led her to this; facing the stranger who had seen her unmasked. Ri would not have minded baring her skin to him, she most certainly would not have minded what the saint thought about her character. But she could not take the fact that he had her wounds bared to him. The man who was prejudiced against her had seen her at her most vulnerable state. It made her feel pathetic, to think he might pity her. Ri never took anyone's pity, not at any price.

The sound of vibrations stopped, she did not notice immediately as her eyes were focused on his.

"Ma'am," the tattoo artist called her. "It's done."

She got up, refusing to look away. To his credit his gaze did not waver either. The skin of her neck burned as she moved, Ri walked up to him, gazing into those bottomless dark eyes, trying to judge exactly how deep she was getting into.

"What are you doing here?" No greeting, no small talk, she asked him briskly. The implied question hang over them. Are you following me?

"Business," his tone was curt and it did not have a trace of the politeness it usually boasted of.

Ri dug her hands into her pockets, a sarcastic smile twitching her lips.

"What business could a great artist have in a tattoo parlor?"

His eyes travelled over her face, silently judging her. She kept her gaze focused on his eyes, watching the way they absorbed light, like a pair of tiny black holes, too dark that no light on earth could lit them up and wondered for a brief moment what dark things he might have witnessed, that made his eyes so utterly black?

"O?" A new voice disturbed them, making Ri jump. The owner of the tattoo studio had walked out and his eyes were focused on Omkara, a brilliant smile lighting up his features. "Oh man, it's been ages!" The two men clasped their arms, meeting for a brief hug. Ri stepped back, her eyes catching a hint of ink over the flexing muscles of Omkara's forearm.

Her eyes narrowed in confusion, taking in the profile of the man before her in a new light. She had categorized him as a saint, a goody two shoes from infancy. But she always sensed that dark aura he carried. Her thoughts paused as she questioned herself, what had he been before? Had he always been a saint, or was there a devil lurking in there somewhere?

**

Feedback is more than welcome, please do share your thoughts with me.

I'm really sorry if it had been disappointing.

Thanks for reading!

Love,

Sakura