「Encantamiento Inútil」6; Fear City
Title: Encantamiento Inútil
Author: 148km
Fandom: alice nine.
Pairing: Tora/Shou, one-sided Tora/Hiroto, Yoshinori/Nao (8D!!!)
Rating: R
Genre: AU
Warnings: Vampires, RPS, male/male, violence, language, failure to secure a beta reader
Chapter: 6 [ archive ]
Summary: When they came back up, it was to the sharp, metallic smell of blood.
Daylight.
And yet Yoshinori was still there.
The sun had only been rising for about an hour, and he did realize that an ambush was entirely possible during this time, as well as with dusk, but he was too old to be changing his sleeping habits now!
"Pooh Bear! Wakey-wakey, Pooh Bear!"
"Mmm... Wha?" Nao rolled over on the couch, which Tora had only recently discovered folded out into a bed. He blinked at Yoshinori and rubbed his eyes, not quite remembering where he was or why he was there.
"Really, you humans are just so cute when you're half-asleep," Yoshinori purred, climbing over Nao to occupy the space he'd just created. "But it's daytime. Time for you to be awake and me to be asleep!"
"Don't you have a coffin to crawl into?!" Nao cried, trying to yank the blanket away from him.
"You don't want to sleep with me, Pooh Bear?" Yoshinori teased, eyes already closed.
"You're such a pedo!" Nao said with a grimace, reluctantly abandoning his warm spot and getting out of bed altogether. Yoshinori snorted. "What am I supposed to do?"
"Just be awake," the vampire murmured patiently. "Either Tora-chu or I will be up in the evening. If something happens before then--"
"If something happens?"
"Say, if someone were to break in and start snapping necks, it might be a good idea to wake me up. But it shouldn't come to that. You humans have a pretty good sense for telling when we're around--you just don't really know what the feeling means. If you feel particularly uneasy, just wake me up and I'll soothe you, Pooh Bear~"
"I feel uneasy right now," Nao retorted, retreating to the kitchen to help himself to the leftovers of Yoshinori's cooking spree. He wondered why Yoshinori hadn't tried to wake Tora or Shou, unless they were already up and occupied... Nao cringed.
He hoped Shou was awake. He needed someone normal to talk to.
```
"Tell me what's bothering you," Shou urged softly, pressing himself against Tora's back. He couldn't help Tora with anything if he was so content to hide within himself. Shou closed his eyes, lashes brushing against the other man's bare skin. "Please, Tora-shi..."
"It's Hiroto."
Shou blinked, unnerved. He remembered the look Hiroto had given him that time at the diner, and it chilled him to know that the vampire wanted him dead. And what Tora had mentioned earlier, about "last time" ... Shou put his hands on Tora's shoulders gingerly, ready to withdraw them if the other man recoiled. But the precaution was unnecessary, Tora's reaction being so hard to gauge.
"Will you tell me about it?" he asked gently.
No answer.
Shou took a deep breath, steeling himself for the next question. "Did you love him?"
Tora looked up at the unremarkable ceiling, still reluctant to answer. It was nice there, in private, with Shou touching him, in silence--couldn't they just stay that way? Why bring up such bitter memories? But he couldn't ignore the pleading in Shou's voice, in his hands, in the way his heartbeat thudded in Tora's ears. "I did."
"Do you still?"
Tora turned his head to peer at the blond. He couldn't help but smirk; "Why, are you jealous?" He waited for Shou to pout--as he inevitably would--before answering, "No. We... ended badly."
Shou couldn't honestly say he was sorry, but rubbed Tora's shoulders in sympathy, anyway. He tried his previous question again, a little more forcefully, this time nuzzling up to the other man's shoulder. "Will you tell me?"
Tora sighed. He was beginning to suspect that Shou had quickly learned all the secrets of his body, or at least his psychology. He could not resist this helpless little kitten and his mewling for affection.
He had a feeling Shou knew it, too.
"It was a long time ago," Tora began. "I think sometime in the nineteenth century? Around the time of the Restoration. It kind of explains why Hiroto is so aggressive. He grew up during a rough time. I was... At that time, the coven was really small, since the younger fledglings kept feeding off of humans with cholera--you can smell it on people, too, I don't get how they could be so stupid." He shook his head. "Anyway, it was usually just Saga and me, and he left me to my own devices, more often than not."
"So in your spare time, you picked up guys?"
"I made a lot of Last Moments very enjoyable for a lot of people," Tora corrected.
"And so he was one of those...?" Shou didn't have to say who.
"Not really... His case is different from yours in every aspect." He could tell that this pleased Shou immensely. "I was still pretty young, by our standards. Well, not that young. Mostly immature. That's probably why he and I got along so well, at first." Tora shrugged. "We were both young and impulsive, but I was just as freakishly protective as I am now."
"Hm." Shou smiled faintly; was that supposed to be a joke?
"There was an older fledgling than me, didn't like that I was messing around with humans. She and Hiroto didn't get along so well, either. And she hated that Saga would do anything I asked. Hiroto spent too much time among our coven as a human--it gave him a complex. And it was pretty stupid of me to let him do that, too, even though our coven was small. She tried to kill him, once, and I panicked and asked Saga to change him.
"That's what finally drove her over the edge, I think. She hated him, and she hated me. So she tried to sabotage Hiroto by stealing his kills and refusing him rest--killing him. So I killed her in a more direct way. And Hiroto has never forgiven me for it."
"But... you saved him, didn't you?" Shou asked, puzzled.
"Maybe he didn't need saving."
They were silent for a while. Shou was unsure of how to comfort Tora, but Tora knew exactly what he needed. He turned and buried himself in the blond's abdomen; it was his turn to be the kitten. Shou understood immediately--he was good at this. He put his arms around Tora and enclosed him, becoming his world.
"I love you," Shou reminded him, finger-combing his fine, black hair. "Go to sleep, Tora-shi. I promise, I'll be here when you wake up."
That sounded reasonable to Tora, who was already drifting. The heady perfume of human skin was lulling him, and Shou's promise was tantalizing. He wanted this, and exactly this, right now, forever.
"Thank you." While he slept, at least, he could pretend that forever was attainable.
```
Nao's unease was apparent to anyone who watched him--it just so happened that no one was watching him. Yoshinori was asleep, Shou was apparently watching Tora sleep, and Nao feared his boredom would be terminal. He was listless and very much in need of some coffee.
Yoshinori had made him afraid; it seemed to be the vampire's forte. That he was essentially alone in the apartment was terrifying. Nao wanted nothing more than to curl up under the covers and hide until the nightmare passed.
At the moment, the nightmare was under the covers.
Nao was not like Shou; he was not so trusting, and the creatures that the blond was so close to still sort of gave him the creeps.
That was why, although he was feeling more than a little uneasy, he wouldn't dare wake Yoshinori.
It was around noon, and the muted light coming in from behind the thick curtains suggested that the midday sun was baking with August heat. But inside the apartment, there was a chill in the air, and it wasn't just from the air conditioning. Nao, seated at the counter, shrugged into his sweater and looked determinedly at the marble surface--he was too afraid to look around, afraid of what he knew he wouldn't see but was there. It took a tremendous effort to keep his heartbeat and breathing at a normal rate, but he couldn't help his goose bumps.
The silence was becoming unbearable; couldn't Yoshinori be considerate and snore, or something? That way, Nao would at least know that he was breathing... Anything to break that smothering noiselessness.
About to choke on his increasing feeling of panic, Nao finally opened his mouth. "Yoshinori--"
```
Tora was very confused when he woke up and could not find Shou. The human was not on the bed, nor did he seem to be in the room. For a moment, Tora started to panic, before he remembered vaguely that Shou had woken him up for some reason, that he was going to... Where had he gone?
I feel gross, Tora-shi, I'm gonna go take a bath.
Tora rose with some difficulty and sat on the edge of the bed, waiting for the borrowed blood to stop succumbing to the will of gravity and flow back into his brain. Yes, that seemed right... It had been a while since the human had had a proper bath, and Tora figured he could probably stand to bathe, too. The blond probably wouldn't mind the intrusion, either.
Secure in his assumption, Tora headed for the bathroom. Almost instantly, the smell of hot water and delicately perfumed soaps overpowered the lingering human scent, drawing him like a siren to the bathroom door. Pressing himself against the barrier, he could hear Shou splashing in the tub.
"Shou," he entreated, voice husky. "Is there room in there for me?" He heard a frightened splash as the blond snapped to attention in the tub.
"Of course, Tora-shi," he replied somewhat timidly. Smirking in satisfaction, Tora turned the knob--unlocked--and let himself in. Shou was watching him, doe-eyed, from the safety of the water, but looked away when he began to disrobe.
"Why so shy?" Tora remarked, amused.
"I-isn't it rude to stare?"
"Tell you what. You have my special permission to be as impolite as you like, so long as I can get in that tub with you."
"Deal."
The tub, though spacious, was only built for one. Tora compensated for the lack of space by submerging himself over the human's outstretched legs, catlike in his approach, as his name suggested.
"The water will overflow if you move too much," Shou warned.
"Don't worry," he murmured, bringing his head to rest on the blond's collarbone. "I'm just here to take a bath." They sank beneath the surface of the water slowly, naturally as seals, Tora pressing his lips to the human's shoulder under the pretense of wetting his hair.
When they came back up, it was to the sharp, metallic smell of blood.
"What is it?" Shou asked, unable to smell it, but easily reading Tora's agitation.
Nao.
```
"Next time, Pooh Bear," Yoshinori said, resigned, "Wake me sooner."
The human, properly chastised, could not meet Yoshinori's eyes--his attention was fixed on the disemboweled corpse on the kitchen floor. He wasn't quite sure what had just happened, only that they were both spattered in blood, and the stifling tension he'd felt in the air before was gone.
"What happened?" At some point--Nao wasn't sure--Tora had come in, still dripping bath water, Shou trailing him like a shadow.
"Hiroppon sent a diplomat?" Yoshinori guessed.
"How very diplomatic of you," Tora remarked, eyeing the body.
Yoshinori gave a dramatic Western-style bow. "Such diplomacy is only awarded to those who would attempt to dispatch my Pooh Bear."
Dispatch? "Nao-san, are you okay!?"
"I-I..." It was hard to make his voice start working again. He gave up on trying and nodded. He was physically okay, he supposed. Now where was that paper bag from the night before...
"Looking for this?" Yoshinori asked softly, aware that he was treading on thin ice in Nao's esteem. He offered the slightly rumpled paper bag, forgetting that his sleeve was smeared with the would-be attacker's blood.
Yoshinori caught him when he fainted. "Poor Pooh Bear," he muttered, hauling the unconscious human to the fold-out couch. "He's been through a lot this morning, better let him rest."
"B-but why attack Nao-san?" Shou asked, making a decided effort not to look at the 'diplomat.'
"Bath water," Tora replied, somewhat baffled.
"What?"
"She wouldn't have caught your scent, Sweetcakes," Yoshinori said softly, placing Nao on the makeshift bed and gingerly patting away a fine sheen of sweat on the unconscious human's cheeks. "It's hard to track a scent through water, and it's even harder with perfumed soap."
Shou couldn't help feeling just then that the whole thing was his fault.
```
Nao came to in the same bed he'd gone to sleep in the night before, and he has having trouble remembering whether he'd left it in the first place. There was one clue as to the passage of time, and that was the dozing vampire at the foot of the fold-out couch. He stirred when Nao did, disturbed by the movement of the mattress springs.
"'You alright, Pooh Bear?" Yoshinori asked, rubbing his eyes. Sometime between the time that Nao had fainted and now, he had exchanged his blood-spattered clothes for some of Tora's. Still having trouble finding the proper words for anything, Nao could only nod.
"I wanted to thank you," he said finally, voice barely above a whisper.
"You're welcome," Yoshinori said with a small smile, propping himself up with his elbows. "But really, any of our kind should know better than to try and steal a human from me."
"O-oh." Nao was embarrassed. After his initial mistrust of the vampire, his gratitude felt out of place, his sudden admiration blown out of proportion. Although he was still grateful to be alive, that Yoshinori had protected him for territorial reasons was somewhat... disheartening.
"Don't worry, Pooh Bear. You're Shou-kun's friend and I like you, so I'll watch out for you until this is all over."
"Thanks," he replied slowly. His internal clock told him it was early afternoon, and Yoshinori confirmed his suspicions by announcing that it was just after three o'clock. That at least explained why he looked so tired. "Oh, do you want to sleep here?"
Nao started to get up, but Yoshinori shook his head. "You stay. You've had a rough time, Pooh Bear. I'll be okay here." Suddenly, as if receiving a revelation, he added, "That is, unless you're inviting me to stay with you."
"T-that would make me more comfortable. I mean, if you were comfortable, and all," Nao babbled, relieved he didn't have to think of a way to ask for just that.
"How sweet of you, Pooh Bear," Yoshinori remarked, taking Nao's babbling as flirtation--which Nao wasn't entirely sure it wasn't. That the vampire was attractive certainly didn't help clear Nao's thoughts.
It's innocent, Nao reminded himself as Yoshinori climbed onto the mattress beside him. I'm just afraid and he's going to protect me. By sleeping next to me in bed, oh god, this is not innocent at all!
"Are you uncomfortable, Pooh Bear? Not to sound creepy, or anything, but I can hear your heartbeat. Oh, it just spiked again! Sorry."
"No, uh! It's just, I... Uh... just ignore it." Nao turned onto his side, keeping his back to the vampire. His entire body was tensed, waiting for the touch that never came--that he knew he shouldn't expect, but wanted, anyway. It's because there's a warm body beside you, calm down, he told himself, but the thought inspired another regarding whether Yoshinori's body was actually warm, or cold like most vampire lore seemed to dictate. Shou would know, he could ask him.
Or he could find out for himself...
He waited for Yoshinori's breathing to slow to the steady rhythm of sleep, and, pretending to be asleep himself, gently worked himself backward until his back pressed against the vampire's torso. Warm.
Nao was only mildly surprised when Yoshinori--presumably asleep--shifted and ended up with an arm around his waist. Nao thought maybe he understood how Shou could trust Tora so deeply.
```
"Where is she?"
"Somehow I doubt she'll be coming back."
"Why?"
"Because the stupid bitch went to Tora's apartment," Hiroto spat. "If that old geezer with them didn't kill her, Tora sure as hell did."
"What, why did she even go, then?"
Hiroto didn't answer. She had been stupid to go alone, when she herself had suggested that their strength against the older fledgling was in their number. Hiroto was having trouble figuring it out, himself, and left the younger fledgling to confer with the main group.
"You know precisely why she went," Saga said casually from the plush sofa, inspecting his fingernails. "Don't pretend you don't recognize that same quality that you--"
"What quality!" Hiroto snapped, regarding the coven leader with his usual hostility.
Saga shrugged it off, because they both knew what he meant. The young fledgling that had gone to her death that afternoon had the same reckless nature as Hiroto, the same inclination for sacrificing one's entire self for someone else. Saga thought that maybe she was luckier, because Hiroto's failure was centuries in its unfolding--centuries of hurt.
"Assuming it was Tora that killed her, there is nothing I will do in this matter," he continued smoothly. "But it's come to my attention that he's with an old friend of his, hm? But if it wasn't Tora that killed her, then that's a different story." Saga's eyes hardened. "If it was Yoshinori that killed my fledgling, that's a declaration of war."
Now that piqued Hiroto's interest. He had never fully understood the politics of his kind, nor had he ever cared before. But if he could use it to further his purpose, then he would.
"If that were the case, what exactly would you do...?"
Saga looked at Hiroto placidly. "Kill him, of course." The coven leader sighed and leaned back into the couch. "There's the question of what to do with Tora, though. And his human."
"Let me deal with them," Hiroto offered, a little too readily. Saga immediately dismissed the request with a shake of his head.
"Tora will have to await my judgement," Saga decided. "And I'll decide whether he gets to keep his human, or not. If not..." He watched Hiroto solemnly, wondering if it would be unjust to turn the human straight over to the fledgling. "The human is up for grabs."
And that was good enough for Hiroto.
```
When a very angry Tora came looking for him at dusk, Hiroto was waiting for him.
"Fancy seeing you here," the younger fledgling remarked coolly, exhaling cigarette smoke. He was standing on an apartment building's fire escape, balancing on the rungs as only one of their kind could. "Have some trouble today?"
"Bite me." Tora was in no mood to be cordial. "Sending someone after my human in the middle of the day? That's low."
"All's fair in love and war," Hiroto reminded him with a shrug. This had started out as a war, anyway. "But for what it's worth, I didn't send her. 'Dumb bitch went on her own."
"Don't think that absolves you," Tora growled, glaring up at the younger fledgling. "If you want to be Saga's favorite, that's fine with me. I could care less. But if that's what you're after, leave Shou alone."
Hiroto almost dropped his cigarette in surprise. Of course no one had said it to his face--he would've denied it.
Because until that moment, Hiroto hadn't realized that he wasn't competing with Tora for Saga's attention--he was competing with the human for Tora's attention. If Hiroto had been one for eating human food, he would've vomited.
"Saga's not happy with you," Hiroto continued shakily once he'd found his voice. "We all know she's dead, and we all know you have some outsider with you, and Saga--"
Suddenly, Tora was in front of him on the balcony to the fire escape, eyes burning amber in the twilight. Hiroto almost fell off the ladder, torn between a desire to break Tora's face and an equally intense urge to kiss him. "I-I didn't touch your human," he continued, "But you shouldn't be with him, anyway. The only one that believes that bullshit about him being your Feeder is Saga."
"Why," Tora said sharply; it wasn't a question. "Because we know how fabulously that turns out? He isn't you. Or is that the problem?"
Hiroto glared up at the older fledgling, bristling at the implication. "Are you saying I'm jealous? Of that piece of--" The tension in Tora's shoulders and neck silenced him. "Of course not. What's there to be jealous of?"
"Then you have no reason to--"
"It's wrong!" Hiroto growled. "Don't do to that human what you did to me."
Without warning, Tora shoved the younger fledging off the fire escape. Only dumb luck and the sturdiness of the vampiric skeleton kept Hiroto from another embarrassing mishap.
"Don't insult me like that," Tora hissed, perfectly audible despite the new distance. "You really weren't listening to me, were you? He's not you. This human is staying human." The older fledgling turned on the platform, ready to return to said human. "Call it off, Hiroto. The past notwithstanding, I will kill you."
Hiroto smirked. "I'm counting on it, asshole."
```
Notes
• First thing's first, sugaraddictmeru is the best. Secondly, yossynao. You know you need it! o_o; Honestly, Yoshinori/Nao is vital for my continued existence on this earth.
• lol kitten analogy was a bad one. I just don't have the heart to replace it, or even take it out. -u-;
• "Fear City" by Elliott Smith is the theme for this chapter. It's a Hiroto-type song, this time! Because I can do everything your man does except for better...! |D And I'm sorry I took so ridiculously long with this chapter. Just that, soon after I finished chapter five, I started working full time, and then school just started last week, so I've been pretty busy and found it really hard to write until pretty recently. But it turned out pretty long, didn't it...! Admittedly, I'd like to advance the plot more, but I needed some development for Nao and Hiroto first.☆
Author: 148km
Fandom: alice nine.
Pairing: Tora/Shou, one-sided Tora/Hiroto, Yoshinori/Nao (8D!!!)
Rating: R
Genre: AU
Warnings: Vampires, RPS, male/male, violence, language, failure to secure a beta reader
Chapter: 6 [ archive ]
Summary: When they came back up, it was to the sharp, metallic smell of blood.
Daylight.
And yet Yoshinori was still there.
The sun had only been rising for about an hour, and he did realize that an ambush was entirely possible during this time, as well as with dusk, but he was too old to be changing his sleeping habits now!
"Pooh Bear! Wakey-wakey, Pooh Bear!"
"Mmm... Wha?" Nao rolled over on the couch, which Tora had only recently discovered folded out into a bed. He blinked at Yoshinori and rubbed his eyes, not quite remembering where he was or why he was there.
"Really, you humans are just so cute when you're half-asleep," Yoshinori purred, climbing over Nao to occupy the space he'd just created. "But it's daytime. Time for you to be awake and me to be asleep!"
"Don't you have a coffin to crawl into?!" Nao cried, trying to yank the blanket away from him.
"You don't want to sleep with me, Pooh Bear?" Yoshinori teased, eyes already closed.
"You're such a pedo!" Nao said with a grimace, reluctantly abandoning his warm spot and getting out of bed altogether. Yoshinori snorted. "What am I supposed to do?"
"Just be awake," the vampire murmured patiently. "Either Tora-chu or I will be up in the evening. If something happens before then--"
"If something happens?"
"Say, if someone were to break in and start snapping necks, it might be a good idea to wake me up. But it shouldn't come to that. You humans have a pretty good sense for telling when we're around--you just don't really know what the feeling means. If you feel particularly uneasy, just wake me up and I'll soothe you, Pooh Bear~"
"I feel uneasy right now," Nao retorted, retreating to the kitchen to help himself to the leftovers of Yoshinori's cooking spree. He wondered why Yoshinori hadn't tried to wake Tora or Shou, unless they were already up and occupied... Nao cringed.
He hoped Shou was awake. He needed someone normal to talk to.
```
"Tell me what's bothering you," Shou urged softly, pressing himself against Tora's back. He couldn't help Tora with anything if he was so content to hide within himself. Shou closed his eyes, lashes brushing against the other man's bare skin. "Please, Tora-shi..."
"It's Hiroto."
Shou blinked, unnerved. He remembered the look Hiroto had given him that time at the diner, and it chilled him to know that the vampire wanted him dead. And what Tora had mentioned earlier, about "last time" ... Shou put his hands on Tora's shoulders gingerly, ready to withdraw them if the other man recoiled. But the precaution was unnecessary, Tora's reaction being so hard to gauge.
"Will you tell me about it?" he asked gently.
No answer.
Shou took a deep breath, steeling himself for the next question. "Did you love him?"
Tora looked up at the unremarkable ceiling, still reluctant to answer. It was nice there, in private, with Shou touching him, in silence--couldn't they just stay that way? Why bring up such bitter memories? But he couldn't ignore the pleading in Shou's voice, in his hands, in the way his heartbeat thudded in Tora's ears. "I did."
"Do you still?"
Tora turned his head to peer at the blond. He couldn't help but smirk; "Why, are you jealous?" He waited for Shou to pout--as he inevitably would--before answering, "No. We... ended badly."
Shou couldn't honestly say he was sorry, but rubbed Tora's shoulders in sympathy, anyway. He tried his previous question again, a little more forcefully, this time nuzzling up to the other man's shoulder. "Will you tell me?"
Tora sighed. He was beginning to suspect that Shou had quickly learned all the secrets of his body, or at least his psychology. He could not resist this helpless little kitten and his mewling for affection.
He had a feeling Shou knew it, too.
"It was a long time ago," Tora began. "I think sometime in the nineteenth century? Around the time of the Restoration. It kind of explains why Hiroto is so aggressive. He grew up during a rough time. I was... At that time, the coven was really small, since the younger fledglings kept feeding off of humans with cholera--you can smell it on people, too, I don't get how they could be so stupid." He shook his head. "Anyway, it was usually just Saga and me, and he left me to my own devices, more often than not."
"So in your spare time, you picked up guys?"
"I made a lot of Last Moments very enjoyable for a lot of people," Tora corrected.
"And so he was one of those...?" Shou didn't have to say who.
"Not really... His case is different from yours in every aspect." He could tell that this pleased Shou immensely. "I was still pretty young, by our standards. Well, not that young. Mostly immature. That's probably why he and I got along so well, at first." Tora shrugged. "We were both young and impulsive, but I was just as freakishly protective as I am now."
"Hm." Shou smiled faintly; was that supposed to be a joke?
"There was an older fledgling than me, didn't like that I was messing around with humans. She and Hiroto didn't get along so well, either. And she hated that Saga would do anything I asked. Hiroto spent too much time among our coven as a human--it gave him a complex. And it was pretty stupid of me to let him do that, too, even though our coven was small. She tried to kill him, once, and I panicked and asked Saga to change him.
"That's what finally drove her over the edge, I think. She hated him, and she hated me. So she tried to sabotage Hiroto by stealing his kills and refusing him rest--killing him. So I killed her in a more direct way. And Hiroto has never forgiven me for it."
"But... you saved him, didn't you?" Shou asked, puzzled.
"Maybe he didn't need saving."
They were silent for a while. Shou was unsure of how to comfort Tora, but Tora knew exactly what he needed. He turned and buried himself in the blond's abdomen; it was his turn to be the kitten. Shou understood immediately--he was good at this. He put his arms around Tora and enclosed him, becoming his world.
"I love you," Shou reminded him, finger-combing his fine, black hair. "Go to sleep, Tora-shi. I promise, I'll be here when you wake up."
That sounded reasonable to Tora, who was already drifting. The heady perfume of human skin was lulling him, and Shou's promise was tantalizing. He wanted this, and exactly this, right now, forever.
"Thank you." While he slept, at least, he could pretend that forever was attainable.
```
Nao's unease was apparent to anyone who watched him--it just so happened that no one was watching him. Yoshinori was asleep, Shou was apparently watching Tora sleep, and Nao feared his boredom would be terminal. He was listless and very much in need of some coffee.
Yoshinori had made him afraid; it seemed to be the vampire's forte. That he was essentially alone in the apartment was terrifying. Nao wanted nothing more than to curl up under the covers and hide until the nightmare passed.
At the moment, the nightmare was under the covers.
Nao was not like Shou; he was not so trusting, and the creatures that the blond was so close to still sort of gave him the creeps.
That was why, although he was feeling more than a little uneasy, he wouldn't dare wake Yoshinori.
It was around noon, and the muted light coming in from behind the thick curtains suggested that the midday sun was baking with August heat. But inside the apartment, there was a chill in the air, and it wasn't just from the air conditioning. Nao, seated at the counter, shrugged into his sweater and looked determinedly at the marble surface--he was too afraid to look around, afraid of what he knew he wouldn't see but was there. It took a tremendous effort to keep his heartbeat and breathing at a normal rate, but he couldn't help his goose bumps.
The silence was becoming unbearable; couldn't Yoshinori be considerate and snore, or something? That way, Nao would at least know that he was breathing... Anything to break that smothering noiselessness.
About to choke on his increasing feeling of panic, Nao finally opened his mouth. "Yoshinori--"
```
Tora was very confused when he woke up and could not find Shou. The human was not on the bed, nor did he seem to be in the room. For a moment, Tora started to panic, before he remembered vaguely that Shou had woken him up for some reason, that he was going to... Where had he gone?
I feel gross, Tora-shi, I'm gonna go take a bath.
Tora rose with some difficulty and sat on the edge of the bed, waiting for the borrowed blood to stop succumbing to the will of gravity and flow back into his brain. Yes, that seemed right... It had been a while since the human had had a proper bath, and Tora figured he could probably stand to bathe, too. The blond probably wouldn't mind the intrusion, either.
Secure in his assumption, Tora headed for the bathroom. Almost instantly, the smell of hot water and delicately perfumed soaps overpowered the lingering human scent, drawing him like a siren to the bathroom door. Pressing himself against the barrier, he could hear Shou splashing in the tub.
"Shou," he entreated, voice husky. "Is there room in there for me?" He heard a frightened splash as the blond snapped to attention in the tub.
"Of course, Tora-shi," he replied somewhat timidly. Smirking in satisfaction, Tora turned the knob--unlocked--and let himself in. Shou was watching him, doe-eyed, from the safety of the water, but looked away when he began to disrobe.
"Why so shy?" Tora remarked, amused.
"I-isn't it rude to stare?"
"Tell you what. You have my special permission to be as impolite as you like, so long as I can get in that tub with you."
"Deal."
The tub, though spacious, was only built for one. Tora compensated for the lack of space by submerging himself over the human's outstretched legs, catlike in his approach, as his name suggested.
"The water will overflow if you move too much," Shou warned.
"Don't worry," he murmured, bringing his head to rest on the blond's collarbone. "I'm just here to take a bath." They sank beneath the surface of the water slowly, naturally as seals, Tora pressing his lips to the human's shoulder under the pretense of wetting his hair.
When they came back up, it was to the sharp, metallic smell of blood.
"What is it?" Shou asked, unable to smell it, but easily reading Tora's agitation.
Nao.
```
"Next time, Pooh Bear," Yoshinori said, resigned, "Wake me sooner."
The human, properly chastised, could not meet Yoshinori's eyes--his attention was fixed on the disemboweled corpse on the kitchen floor. He wasn't quite sure what had just happened, only that they were both spattered in blood, and the stifling tension he'd felt in the air before was gone.
"What happened?" At some point--Nao wasn't sure--Tora had come in, still dripping bath water, Shou trailing him like a shadow.
"Hiroppon sent a diplomat?" Yoshinori guessed.
"How very diplomatic of you," Tora remarked, eyeing the body.
Yoshinori gave a dramatic Western-style bow. "Such diplomacy is only awarded to those who would attempt to dispatch my Pooh Bear."
Dispatch? "Nao-san, are you okay!?"
"I-I..." It was hard to make his voice start working again. He gave up on trying and nodded. He was physically okay, he supposed. Now where was that paper bag from the night before...
"Looking for this?" Yoshinori asked softly, aware that he was treading on thin ice in Nao's esteem. He offered the slightly rumpled paper bag, forgetting that his sleeve was smeared with the would-be attacker's blood.
Yoshinori caught him when he fainted. "Poor Pooh Bear," he muttered, hauling the unconscious human to the fold-out couch. "He's been through a lot this morning, better let him rest."
"B-but why attack Nao-san?" Shou asked, making a decided effort not to look at the 'diplomat.'
"Bath water," Tora replied, somewhat baffled.
"What?"
"She wouldn't have caught your scent, Sweetcakes," Yoshinori said softly, placing Nao on the makeshift bed and gingerly patting away a fine sheen of sweat on the unconscious human's cheeks. "It's hard to track a scent through water, and it's even harder with perfumed soap."
Shou couldn't help feeling just then that the whole thing was his fault.
```
Nao came to in the same bed he'd gone to sleep in the night before, and he has having trouble remembering whether he'd left it in the first place. There was one clue as to the passage of time, and that was the dozing vampire at the foot of the fold-out couch. He stirred when Nao did, disturbed by the movement of the mattress springs.
"'You alright, Pooh Bear?" Yoshinori asked, rubbing his eyes. Sometime between the time that Nao had fainted and now, he had exchanged his blood-spattered clothes for some of Tora's. Still having trouble finding the proper words for anything, Nao could only nod.
"I wanted to thank you," he said finally, voice barely above a whisper.
"You're welcome," Yoshinori said with a small smile, propping himself up with his elbows. "But really, any of our kind should know better than to try and steal a human from me."
"O-oh." Nao was embarrassed. After his initial mistrust of the vampire, his gratitude felt out of place, his sudden admiration blown out of proportion. Although he was still grateful to be alive, that Yoshinori had protected him for territorial reasons was somewhat... disheartening.
"Don't worry, Pooh Bear. You're Shou-kun's friend and I like you, so I'll watch out for you until this is all over."
"Thanks," he replied slowly. His internal clock told him it was early afternoon, and Yoshinori confirmed his suspicions by announcing that it was just after three o'clock. That at least explained why he looked so tired. "Oh, do you want to sleep here?"
Nao started to get up, but Yoshinori shook his head. "You stay. You've had a rough time, Pooh Bear. I'll be okay here." Suddenly, as if receiving a revelation, he added, "That is, unless you're inviting me to stay with you."
"T-that would make me more comfortable. I mean, if you were comfortable, and all," Nao babbled, relieved he didn't have to think of a way to ask for just that.
"How sweet of you, Pooh Bear," Yoshinori remarked, taking Nao's babbling as flirtation--which Nao wasn't entirely sure it wasn't. That the vampire was attractive certainly didn't help clear Nao's thoughts.
It's innocent, Nao reminded himself as Yoshinori climbed onto the mattress beside him. I'm just afraid and he's going to protect me. By sleeping next to me in bed, oh god, this is not innocent at all!
"Are you uncomfortable, Pooh Bear? Not to sound creepy, or anything, but I can hear your heartbeat. Oh, it just spiked again! Sorry."
"No, uh! It's just, I... Uh... just ignore it." Nao turned onto his side, keeping his back to the vampire. His entire body was tensed, waiting for the touch that never came--that he knew he shouldn't expect, but wanted, anyway. It's because there's a warm body beside you, calm down, he told himself, but the thought inspired another regarding whether Yoshinori's body was actually warm, or cold like most vampire lore seemed to dictate. Shou would know, he could ask him.
Or he could find out for himself...
He waited for Yoshinori's breathing to slow to the steady rhythm of sleep, and, pretending to be asleep himself, gently worked himself backward until his back pressed against the vampire's torso. Warm.
Nao was only mildly surprised when Yoshinori--presumably asleep--shifted and ended up with an arm around his waist. Nao thought maybe he understood how Shou could trust Tora so deeply.
```
"Where is she?"
"Somehow I doubt she'll be coming back."
"Why?"
"Because the stupid bitch went to Tora's apartment," Hiroto spat. "If that old geezer with them didn't kill her, Tora sure as hell did."
"What, why did she even go, then?"
Hiroto didn't answer. She had been stupid to go alone, when she herself had suggested that their strength against the older fledgling was in their number. Hiroto was having trouble figuring it out, himself, and left the younger fledgling to confer with the main group.
"You know precisely why she went," Saga said casually from the plush sofa, inspecting his fingernails. "Don't pretend you don't recognize that same quality that you--"
"What quality!" Hiroto snapped, regarding the coven leader with his usual hostility.
Saga shrugged it off, because they both knew what he meant. The young fledgling that had gone to her death that afternoon had the same reckless nature as Hiroto, the same inclination for sacrificing one's entire self for someone else. Saga thought that maybe she was luckier, because Hiroto's failure was centuries in its unfolding--centuries of hurt.
"Assuming it was Tora that killed her, there is nothing I will do in this matter," he continued smoothly. "But it's come to my attention that he's with an old friend of his, hm? But if it wasn't Tora that killed her, then that's a different story." Saga's eyes hardened. "If it was Yoshinori that killed my fledgling, that's a declaration of war."
Now that piqued Hiroto's interest. He had never fully understood the politics of his kind, nor had he ever cared before. But if he could use it to further his purpose, then he would.
"If that were the case, what exactly would you do...?"
Saga looked at Hiroto placidly. "Kill him, of course." The coven leader sighed and leaned back into the couch. "There's the question of what to do with Tora, though. And his human."
"Let me deal with them," Hiroto offered, a little too readily. Saga immediately dismissed the request with a shake of his head.
"Tora will have to await my judgement," Saga decided. "And I'll decide whether he gets to keep his human, or not. If not..." He watched Hiroto solemnly, wondering if it would be unjust to turn the human straight over to the fledgling. "The human is up for grabs."
And that was good enough for Hiroto.
```
When a very angry Tora came looking for him at dusk, Hiroto was waiting for him.
"Fancy seeing you here," the younger fledgling remarked coolly, exhaling cigarette smoke. He was standing on an apartment building's fire escape, balancing on the rungs as only one of their kind could. "Have some trouble today?"
"Bite me." Tora was in no mood to be cordial. "Sending someone after my human in the middle of the day? That's low."
"All's fair in love and war," Hiroto reminded him with a shrug. This had started out as a war, anyway. "But for what it's worth, I didn't send her. 'Dumb bitch went on her own."
"Don't think that absolves you," Tora growled, glaring up at the younger fledgling. "If you want to be Saga's favorite, that's fine with me. I could care less. But if that's what you're after, leave Shou alone."
Hiroto almost dropped his cigarette in surprise. Of course no one had said it to his face--he would've denied it.
Because until that moment, Hiroto hadn't realized that he wasn't competing with Tora for Saga's attention--he was competing with the human for Tora's attention. If Hiroto had been one for eating human food, he would've vomited.
"Saga's not happy with you," Hiroto continued shakily once he'd found his voice. "We all know she's dead, and we all know you have some outsider with you, and Saga--"
Suddenly, Tora was in front of him on the balcony to the fire escape, eyes burning amber in the twilight. Hiroto almost fell off the ladder, torn between a desire to break Tora's face and an equally intense urge to kiss him. "I-I didn't touch your human," he continued, "But you shouldn't be with him, anyway. The only one that believes that bullshit about him being your Feeder is Saga."
"Why," Tora said sharply; it wasn't a question. "Because we know how fabulously that turns out? He isn't you. Or is that the problem?"
Hiroto glared up at the older fledgling, bristling at the implication. "Are you saying I'm jealous? Of that piece of--" The tension in Tora's shoulders and neck silenced him. "Of course not. What's there to be jealous of?"
"Then you have no reason to--"
"It's wrong!" Hiroto growled. "Don't do to that human what you did to me."
Without warning, Tora shoved the younger fledging off the fire escape. Only dumb luck and the sturdiness of the vampiric skeleton kept Hiroto from another embarrassing mishap.
"Don't insult me like that," Tora hissed, perfectly audible despite the new distance. "You really weren't listening to me, were you? He's not you. This human is staying human." The older fledgling turned on the platform, ready to return to said human. "Call it off, Hiroto. The past notwithstanding, I will kill you."
Hiroto smirked. "I'm counting on it, asshole."
```
Notes
• First thing's first, sugaraddictmeru is the best. Secondly, yossynao. You know you need it! o_o; Honestly, Yoshinori/Nao is vital for my continued existence on this earth.
• lol kitten analogy was a bad one. I just don't have the heart to replace it, or even take it out. -u-;
• "Fear City" by Elliott Smith is the theme for this chapter. It's a Hiroto-type song, this time! Because I can do everything your man does except for better...! |D And I'm sorry I took so ridiculously long with this chapter. Just that, soon after I finished chapter five, I started working full time, and then school just started last week, so I've been pretty busy and found it really hard to write until pretty recently. But it turned out pretty long, didn't it...! Admittedly, I'd like to advance the plot more, but I needed some development for Nao and Hiroto first.☆