Nightshift 36: Kitchen
[From here.]Getting slammed into a sturdy door had been enough to knock his thoughts about. Adding in the subsequent fall, however, caused Ken to literally see stars. He may have leaped a little too magnificently that time
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Assuming a son of a noble family, a family that supported peace like most of them did, had never been so badly injured would be wrong. That wasn’t to say it happened very often, because to be so seriously wounded typically meant the opponent was of a near equal calibre, and B classes were nearing the pinnacle of the triangle themselves. Aidou knew what the feeling of suffocating on one’s own blood was like, though it didn’t have the right of being a common experience.
Losing his head? No. Losing something else…
As soon as the vampire passed into the next room, he did a poor job of sweeping his gaze around for other possible threats. Because once he let out a small cough, another one followed, and then it was hard to stop with the taste of blood filling his mouth and a flagging lung. He retreated further into a corner, away from the others, and spat more blood onto the floor to join the trail he was making.
And there was that cold, a different kind to the element he ruled over, the kind that quietly overtook one in a grey, gentle embrace. An equally dangerous kind, too.
The kitchen was useless for what he needed at that moment, but Aidou grabbed a dish towel, balled it, and put an excruciating amount of pressure on the hole in his chest. Pain was less important than the reason behind why he couldn’t breathe.
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He wasn't healing, and he'd never noticed how useful it had been for the Kyuubi to take care of his wounds until now. Had he been back in Konoha, the sting of the burns would probably already be a memory, and not a constant reminder with every move he made.
"I'm...okay," Naruto said, breathing a little heavily, in answer to Sasuke. "Just a few burns."
They wouldn't be enough to stop him, at least not yet. Sure, there was pain, but he'd felt worse before, and his curiosity and eagerness to know the Institute better were pushing him forward.
He looked aside, about to ask Aidou how he was doing when he noticed he'd retreated further, away from them. He frowned, glancing at Sasuke before realising the other boy couldn't see what was going on.
"Aidou's a bit further off...I think he's worse off than we are."
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Sasuke tested the side that had been hit hardest by the fire -- his left, tenderness around his ribs and arm that was going to become annoying quickly. Nothing that would impede progress significantly, though.
"Naruto, take your shirt off," Sasuke snapped, short and precise orders habitual by now. If there was one type of injury he knew how to deal with, it was burns. "Clean your wounds. Cold water. Soak your shirt and put it back on." As an afterthought he yanked his own over his head as well, tossing it towards the source of Naruto's voice. "Soak mine too."
Definitely not the best alternative to bandages, but it was their only one. Assuming Naruto would busy himself with that, Sasuke advanced on Aidou, moving deliberately enough that the vampire would definitely notice that he was coming.
Did vampires go dizzy from blood loss too? Probably. "Aidou," he snapped in an undertone. "Sounds like a punctured lung. What do you need to take care of it?"
If Sasuke had to guess, blood loss was probably one of the easier things to treat where Aidou was concerned, if Kyon was anything to go by. Still, it couldn't hurt to ask the source itself, in case there was some vampire trick available.
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His throat was becoming so dry. Like sandpaper.
The moment Naruto said his name, Aidou’s gaze swivelled to him in the dark, even as the sole source of movement was the erratic rise and fall of his chest. Then he slowly looked to Sasuke when the boy began to approach him. Whether or not he was sitting, the vampire’s head was still beginning to spin, his thoughts beginning to blur. Just a little. He wouldn’t let it get any worse.
Normally he might just have mimicked Sasuke and snapped back at him, but not then. “Yes,” he confirmed simply. His tone was low and dark, muffled. “Which is why nothing can be done here.” Nothing medical, anyway. And that was why he said: “So don’t get too close.”
He couldn’t put it any other way. A vampire, a critical injury, and potential sources of fresh blood would always be a situation. The idea of attacking either of them was a less troublesome than it would have been at any other time.
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"Oh, okay -- " He caught Sasuke's shirt easily, turning toward the closest sink to soak Sasuke's shirt, wringing it so it wasn't wet enough to leave a trail of water or of sounds of drops falling to the ground. He put it aside near the sink before taking off his own shirt and repeating the same thing, putting it back on with a little difficulty -- it was cold, and he hissed as the cloth hit the burns of his back and side, wincing. He glanced quickly at the other two before splashing a handful of cold water on his face, attempting to clear his mind.
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Whatever the case, it wasn't the time to be concerned with Naruto if he was actually doing as told.
Aidou's answer half-confirmed Sasuke's suspicions as to the nature of the necessary help, much like the fact that the vampire hadn't made some snippy comment back confirmed that Aidou was probably in no condition to continue.
"I'm not hurt much," he said. It wasn't too much of a lie. Sasuke was more than accustomed enough to this type of injury to be able to manage through it. "But it'll do us no good if you can't continue."
And then, very pointedly, Sasuke held his wrist out. So it was desperate and perhaps a little dangerous; he was sick of being held back from finding out anything new and he was determined to get somewhere tonight. Besides, even if Aidou managed to walk, that bubbly sort of breathing that came with liquid in the lungs was hardly going to contribute to subtle movement. (It wasn't like Sasuke cared much otherwise.)
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Celes might have expected to incapacitate a normal person for the rest of the night, but Aidou had made a decision on what he was going to do for the time he was free to move as he wanted, and he would follow it through, ragged hole in his chest or not. There was something to be said about his mental perseverance as well as his physical endurance.
Still. The matter came down to time. The noble turned his head to cough, the hitch never leaving his breath. Alone, his lung and chest cavity needed more time to heal before he catch a fair breath, before his collapsing lung could do more than flop uselessly. How much time was the question.
And no matter how quick, it wouldn’t take the edge off the growing, feverous need to feed.
When the vampire looked back, his irises were tinted faintly with crimson.
Reaching out, his fingertips hovered a hair’s breadth from the human’s hand for a moment, then two, and then he accepted that the offer had been made, however foolishly, and that made it simple to take Sasuke’s wrist with cool, hard fingers, and yank the boy into his grasp. The wrist wouldn’t do. He needed something else. The other one was nightblind and distracted, and that was a boon. Perhaps there’d be no interruptions. Interruptions wouldn’t end well.
The smell of burnt flesh hadn’t abated, but underneath that there was--
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The ray of light trailed on the ground until it found the two pair of feet, and he moved it higher before his heart skipped a beat and he turned the light off right away.
For a brief instant he thought maybe he was going crazy, that the burns had somehow affected his brain (as illogical as that train of thought was; he wasn't one to go for logic), because there were so many things he didn't comprehend about what he'd seen.
Aidou latched onto Sasuke's neck, as if it was entirely natural. It might have been a trick of the light.
He turn his flashlight on again, wondering if maybe Aidou was attacking Sasuke and he should knock him out, or maybe just shove him away for good measure.
He brought the light on the two again and jumped, because no, his eyes hadn't lied to him. They widened, and he turned the flashlight off quickly again.
Naruto had no idea what to do; stand there and...wait for them to be done? Yell at Aidou to leave Sasuke alone? Ask what the hell they were doing?
Either way, they had probably noticed he was aware of them now, so he took slow but noisy steps forward, as if to warn them that he was coming and that maybe they should just -- stop.
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If he hadn't been blind, he'd have attacked out of sheer surprise.
As it was, he managed a startled, half-stifled swear, and then there were fangs piercing the tender skin of his neck and he stiffened. His free hand shot up to protect a vulnerable area and he forcibly overrode the instinctive reaction, letting his arm drop back down.
The shock aside, though, Sasuke knew what it was like to lose blood, between being a shinobi and 'donating' to Kyon the other night. Hopefully there wasn't much difference here, hopefully Aidou could control himself to stop without Sasuke having to intervene, and hopefully Naruto would stay occupied long enough to --
But of course things never really worked out the way Sasuke hoped. Naruto's footsteps were clear behind him and approaching.
Moron probably wanted an explanation that Sasuke was frankly a little too preoccupied to give. Voice tense, Sasuke snarled through gritted teeth, "Stay where you are and don't interfere."
He'd explain later if he had to, but right now he was busy. Being bitten. By a vampire. Again. Well, hell. At least Aidou was going to owe him for this.
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His entire body blazed with sharp, hot pain, but he didn’t pause in his drinking, only narrowed his eyes until they were slits in order to mask their eerie glow. The first sweep of the flashlight hadn’t gone unnoticed. The second time was just an added aggravation, and the vampire felt a surge of displeasure rise in him at the stupid look on Naruto’s face. Aidou felt no guilt, and certainly no patience--this was his business, and it wasn’t to be disturbed. It was a wordless, animalistic sense of possessiveness.
Sasuke’s bare shoulder shadowed the small trickle of blood clinging to the boy’s collarbone from view; lowering his chin, the vampire turned his face further into Sasuke’s neck, hiding the rest. And as though to further the point, he moved his arm so that it draped over the back of Sasuke’s neck, avoiding the burns. The other balanced Sasuke in place at his side.
To think the noble was smearing his own blood on that alabaster skin.
He continued surreptitiously watching the unwanted audience, not yet ready to give his position up. Just a little more before he had to. Just a little more.
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The fact that Sasuke had told him to stay where he was crossed out the option that he was against this and that Aidou was somehow harming him. His hand clenched tightly around the flash light and he turned it on again, sweeping over them once more but avoiding to look.
Despite that he couldn't help but notice the way Aidou was looking at him, and he turned his head away, eyes narrowed.
"What the hell are you two even doing?" He hissed, more angry than surprised now.
What was surprising him at the moment was the fact that he was angry. If Sasuke told him not to interfere it meant he didn't want him to stop, or would do so himself (which he hadn't yet), and Aidou seemed to enjoy it, wrapping his arm around the back of Sasuke's neck in a way Naruto definitely didn't like. He wasn't sure why, but he didn't, and his anger seemed a little more aimed at Aidou than at Sasuke, which confused him further.
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To be fair to Naruto (however much he didn't want to be), Sasuke had to admit that this probably looked at least a little weird -- and felt more than a little weird. The last time anyone had bitten his neck was Orochimaru. The memory of that was evident in how stiffly he held himself.
It definitely didn't help that Aidou apparently felt the need to make it very clear that they were much closer than Sasuke strictly liked: the arm around his shoulders made Sasuke tense up even more, and the hand that braced him at his side was nearly pushed away. But the vampire was bleeding into his own lungs, something that was usually fatal for a human, at least, so Sasuke allowed it, forcibly keeping his hands from balling into fists.
It did help that he was starting to feel a little more lightheaded than was ideal. It wasn't anything he couldn't handle yet, though, so he didn't push Aidou away. If the vampire understood the point of this he wouldn't stop until he'd gotten enough to be able to function effectively for the rest of the night.
As for Naruto -- "Just," Sasuke gritted out, and was almost surprised by how strained his own voice sounded. With conscious effort he reined in his tone and managed more blankness: "Shut up, you moron."
The last thing he needed now was Naruto's obnoxious habit of interfering with things that didn't concern him.
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(What he'd taken already just wasn't enough.)
Consciously, for Aidou, at least, it wasn't a matter of 'Aidou and Sasuke', per say. It came down to a vampire and the person who was currently wearing his fang marks. Young, strong, healthy, all confirmed for Aidou by the taste of the boy's blood. Not his usual preference--too tense, too defiant, too resentful, too desperate--but strong-willed enough to not have made a single move to stop Aidou.
Then he released the mock embrace, wiping away the evidence from Sasuke's neck in one quick, feather-light movement, and tried to settle those more than human instincts. Not to say they hadn't picked up on certain unspoken emotions.
While he returned to a lax position on the ground, his gaze returned to Naruto. "What does it matter?" he said aloud, with a voice more steady, if not clearer. "Don't ask after personal affairs that don't concern you." For all Aidou cared, Naruto could nose around Sasuke's business all he wanted, but not when that business involved Aidou. Even if he wasn't trying to conceal his vampiric heritage for his personal benefit in Landel's, some acts were just naturally private.
The vampire didn't like being started at in those moments.
But in the end, it came down to concealing the truth of the matter for very simple reasons--Aidou didn't want Naruto to know he was a vampire--and so all that mattered was making sure that fact was kept secret. Reaching to his left, he grabbed the nearest towel, and returned to putting pressure on his chest, discarding the one that was nearly soaked through. He closed his eyes for a few moments before casting a look at the other two. He had warned Sasuke about keeping that information to himself; he had to expect Sasuke would, or else they wouldn't remain on friendly terms, debt or not.
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He couldn't quite shove away the anger, however, and kept his eyes narrowed.
"It does concern me," he said, sounding a little bitter. It did in more than one way -- Sasuke was his best friend, and he was part of their party for the night. Their goal had been the basement, so he didn't understand what the stop had been for. Naruto didn't want to think of the only thing that came into his mind. It seemed impossible for it to be true, and yet...it would almost make sense. They were both bastards, and it seemed they got along decently.
Not liking where his mind was going, Naruto shook the thoughts off for now.
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Hopefully Sasuke's (temporary, even if he had to manage it by sheer force of will) lack of stability meant that Aidou had managed enough. As much confidence as Sasuke had in his own ability to forcibly draw out strength, the fact remained that he was also wounded and blood loss wasn't the ideal treatment for that.
And hopefully Naruto hadn't noticed the moment of weakness. Sasuke was aware that Aidou would be rather displeased at the idea of sharing what he was with Naruto, and he wasn't particularly interested in dealing the fallout of explaining things to the Konoha-nin at the moment.
Actually he was more immediately interested in finding something to brace himself against. Ignoring both Aidou's short injunction and Naruto's sulky reply, Sasuke turned towards where he'd heard the sound of running water and walked over. Steps were heavier than he remembered they should be and he was briefly reminded of what it had been like after giving blood to Kyon.
This was worse. But still, nothing that he couldn't handle.
He groped out for the sink more obviously blindly than he liked; the water when he managed to turn it on tasted old and rust-flecked. But he'd tasted water nearly as bad in some of the more rarely-visited Sound bases, and right now the key was hydration, so he braced himself over the edge of the counter and directed a steady stream from the faucet to his mouth.
... damn it, it was probably a bad idea to clean wounds with this. Not like they had a wide array of options.
"It doesn't concern you," he managed once he'd swallowed enough musty water to be semi-satisfied. Standing up again, still leaning surreptitiously against the counter, he held out an imperious hand. Moving right along: "Give me my shirt."
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But because he had no desire to keep speaking on the matter beyond fuelling Naruto's imagination, he looked back down at his shirt and the skin underneath, both mangled, unable to help running the backs of his bloody fingers over his lips, as though in thought.
There wasn't as much blood as when he'd killed that... doppelganger. Too much for his liking, all the same. His scent was everywhere.
And now so was Sasuke's, to a lesser degree. He'd drank from the boy, and now he was all too aware of where one blood scent ended and the other began. It was also somewhat compulsory to track Sasuke's progress because of that. Aidou was hurt and in pain, and he'd let the human go when he still had so much blood left to give...
If you didn't want him to live, anyway.
Until his body had healed, and every rise and fall of his chest wasn't a small torture, Aidou knew the thought wouldn't be as unattractive as logic would normally allow. Sasuke wouldn't have been able to safely give enough unless he was twice as large, and oh, Aidou had known that before he'd bitten, and yet there was a part of him that wished that he wouldn't prioritize others' health at the same time he prioritized his own--he would heal more with more blood. Sasuke's or Naruto's, it didn't matter. And the hunger was only going to grow, not abate.
The noble looked back down. He also knew that part of him was the smallest of all. He had no intention of letting Landel's push him into a corner and stain his dignity further.
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