Not like the other girls

No more blame I am destined to keep you sane
Gotta rescue the flame
Gotta rescue the flame in your heart

Rufus downed the drink he'd been nursing as the long guitar intro finished and the lights focused on the long narrow stage of the strip club. He gave the stage an uninterested glance for half a second before ordering another drink. The dancers at the strip club were all the same, uninteresting, strung-out-on-crack and desperate for money. Which was why he avoided coming in his medical scrubs, if they knew he was a doctor then he would never be able to enjoy a nice gin and tonic in peace.

"You look lonely," a voice said and Rufus looked to his right to see a lean man with long silver, dressed in only a pair of tight leather hot pants using the bar as a balance beam while stretched. It took Rufus a moment to realize he was gwacking as the young man lifted one leg up, easily pressing it against his chest as he raised his foot over his head, while his upper body remained straight.
"What?" the young man asked turning glowing eyes that couldn't seem to decide if they were blue or green, to Rufus in genuine curiousity.

"N-Nothing," Rufus smiled, honestly not sure why he was so shocked by the display of flexibility. The young man was a performer, such things came with the trade.
"I promise I'm not here to sex you up or steal your money," the silver haired man gave him an easy grin and he lowered his leg to only bring it back up behind his head and touch the back of his skull with one delicate and stillheto encased foot. "I just wanted some company that wouldn't try to pull me into the back room," the dancer wrinkled his nose in a delicate manner, as if the act of implied prostitution that most of the other dancers moonlighted by was below him.
"I'm Yazoo," the silver haired man, dropped his foot back to the floor and offered a petite hand to Rufus. The doctor realized then that he'd been gwacking, again, and took the other man's hand.
"Rufus Shinra."

No more blood, I will be there for you my love
I will stand by your side
The world has forsaken my girl

"So you're a doctor, how interesting," Yazoo said, listening with rapt attention to the blonde man as he recounted years of med school and interships from hell. Since the dancer's less then formal introduction, they seemed to run into each other everytime the doctor came to the strip club. And Rufus found himself coming more and more often. Yazoo had kept true to his promise, and there had been no talk of sex and not even the offer of a lap dance.
"What about you Yazoo?" Rufus asked, the dancer only shyly smiled and turned away.


I should have seen it would be this way
I should have known from the start what she's up to
When you have loved and you've lost someone
You know what it feels like to lose

In all the weeks that Rufus had been coming to the strip club, he'd never actually seen Yazoo perform. Then one night he came early and stopped dead in his tracks. The lithe man was more elegant dancer then stripper, his body moving fluidly in a manner that suggested year of practice. His fingers only skimming the pole for the briefest of moments as his body curved and arched about the stage. Then Rufus noticed his feet, not in the traditional stillheto heels but bare and moving as lightly as the rest of him did. And then it happened. The silver haired man grasped the pole, his chest heaving and he slowly raised one leg into the air above his head, toes pointed to the ceiling. Eyes closed and fluttering in concentration, he curled his toes of the foot he was balancing on until the delicate apendages rolled under his foot, supporting the entire weight of his body for several seconds on the knuckles of his toes. Body trembling with concentration and effort to hold the pose as the cat calls got louder.

Then he seemed to fall forward, his entire body giving way, but then the leg that had been above his head came down, securely catching the pole in his bent leg and he twisted now leaning backwards over the audience. A quick motion pulled himself back up, body pressed against the pole as if it were a lover, eyes still closed as he twisted around the cold metal and his body came to rest in a perfect split on the floor.

When Yazoo finally managed to escape off the stage he stopped dead as he ran into Rufus.
"Oh, Rufus!" the dancer seemed so embarassed, as if being caught in the act of stealing a cookie from the jar. His heart was raising, his muscles were sore, and he was sweaty, panting from being under the hot stage lights. Before he could find something to say to excuse himself the doctor had pulled him into a close embrace, kissing him hard.


She's fading away
Away from this world
Drifting like a feather
She's not like the other girls
She lives in the clouds
She talks to the birds
Hopeless little one
She's not like the other girls I know

Yazoo sniffed, brushing nose off as he looked in the mirror at the doctor asleep in the bed behind him and smiled slightly.
"Yazoo?" Rufus stirred and raised himself up on one elbow to look questioningly at his lover.
"Its nothing, Rufus."


No more shame, she has felt too much pain, in her life
In her mind she's repeating the words
All the love you put out will return to you

Rufus watched Yazoo perform at every chance he got. The dancer seemed to be shrinking in recent weeks. His skin had lost its luster, his eyes weren't bright anymore. As if he was slowly dying in front of Rufus. Then one night Yazoo collapsed in the middle of his performance, earning jeers and booing. Nothing Rufus said or did could comfort him.
"Come with me, let me take you out of here," he said that night as they lay in bed.
"You know I can't leave Rufus," Yazoo said, turning away from his lover.
"Why not?"
Yazoo's only reply had been tears.


She's fading away
Away from this world
Drifting like a feather
She's not like the other girls
She lives in the clouds
She talks to the birds
Hopeless little one
She's not like the other girls I know

"Yazoo," Rufus had gone straight to the dancers room one night. But he stopped dead outside the cracked door of the dancer's dressing room, the words dying on his lips as he watched Yazoo kneel on the floor, pushing his dulled silver hair aside, take a rolled up dollar bill and inhale a small trail of white powder from a tray on the floor. The owner of the club cupped Yazoo's face in his hands, raising it and wiping away the blood that came from the dancer's nose.
"That's my boy. You'll be good and do as I say, my most precious bird. I know how much you love your brothers. You're a smart bird, which is why you'll never fly away, right?"
"R-right," Yazoo whispered, trembling from the hit of cocaine.


She's fading away
Away from this world
Drifting like a feather
She's not like the other girls
She lives in the clouds
She talks to the birds
Hopeless little one
She's not like the other girls I know

"Yazoo, let me help you," Rufus said to the dancer in the privacy of the back of the club. The other man looked at him and smiled saddly.
"There is no help for me any more Rufus. No one can help me..." His nose had started bleeding again and Rufus wipped the blood away.
"We can get you clean, we can protect your brothe-" Yazoo placed a gentle hand on Rufus's lips silencing him.
"No. Its better this way, better to burn out then to fade away," he said softly. "My brothers will be safe once my contract expires."
"And when is that?" Rufus whispered, kissing those delicate fingers gently.
"Soon," Yazoo promised. "Soon."

A week later Yazoo collapsed again during his peformance. And he didn't get back up. But laid there, long limbs and silver hair sprawled like a broken swan, pale and shaking. Rufus managed to get to the stage, and gathered the dancer in his arms.
"Yazoo, don't-" he whispered softly as he wipped away the now ever present blood away from the dancer's nose.
"Too late for that," the dancer smiled leaning up to kiss the doctor. "Guess I was wrong, I'm fading after all."
Then his body went still. Life fading out of it with a final soft sigh.