(no subject)
Title: After Dark
Rating: 18
Genre: Supernatural Horror
Band: Mejibray
Pairing: Koichi x MiA
Summary: The sun protects us, a shining beacon that has kept the darkness at bay. Evil fears it, for the light is their weakness and they shun it. Even the sun can't protect me now, nothing can. Except perhaps for the man I know only as 'Koichi'.
Author's Note: New chapters every Monday and Friday. (I may post early due to having no access to a computer on the posting day).
Previous Chapters:
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
New Chapter:
Chapter Eleven
“Play something for me,” Koichi requested as we sat on the bed together, naked after our recent activity. The moment he had chance to be with me alone, I had been on the bed in his passionate embrace. Had he missed me so much? Or was it just the way I had been so scantly dressed all night.
“What do you want me to play?” I asked, as I fetched my guitar.
“I don't know, whatever you like,” Koichi answered. I returned to him and began to play one of my favourite songs, filling the room with the sound of my guitar. “What did you and Zero talk about?” he whispered. I glanced at the door, is someone outside or is he being paranoid?
“Nothing,” I began, sensing his anger before I'd finished uttering the word.
“Then what did you do?” Koichi demanded.
“Well, we did talk,” I replied carefully, “He told me that Yuuki asked him to find you someone? That I was the man he found?”
“He was,” Koichi said, his smile fading, “Damn it, Yuuki knows too! No way his human would keep quiet.”
“I don't think Yuuki is a threat,” I answered carefully. “Surely he would have said something earlier?”
“He's always playing games,” Koichi muttered.
“Was it really Zero that I talked to online?” I asked. Apparently I hadn't even been flirting with Koichi before I had met him, it was embarrassing really.
“Does that upset you,” Koichi asked. “Before I met you, you were a pretty face. Nothing more.”
“I noticed straight away,” I admitted, “At least that you were entirely different in person than online. I never suspected that it was someone else, but it makes so much sense now I think about it. No it doesn't upset me, not now I know you.”
“What else did you talk about?” Koichi asked.
“What it was like for him, before,” I explained. One by one Koichi evaluates every topic Zero and I spoke about, looking for what, I don't know. That we had been too friendly perhaps? I say nothing about Zero's offer to save me of course, but as we had talked so much about so many things Koichi suspects nothing missing from my report. Finally satisfied he kissed me on the forehead, provided me with some comfortable clothes, and left me in my room alone.
I'm just about to get in bed when my room door opened again. Tsuzuku's presence made me relieved that I bothered to slip into the boxer shorts to sleep. I'd been right in thinking that I would never know who might come visiting.
“I brought you some water,” Tsuzuku explained as he placed the bottle on the table. Meto lurked in the doorway, guarding him as he had been ordered by the king.
“Thank you,” I answered. The water will be warm by the time I drink it, but better than cupping water out of the tap with my hands.
“Your curtains are open,” he suddenly warned, heading towards the balcony to fix the small gap I had left.
“Koichi allows me 10cm,” I reassured him. His actions are so innocent that I never thought that something might be wrong. He pauses by the window, glancing between me and Meto.
“The girl I bit to prove my loyalty, she didn't make it,” he informed me, “I want you to understand.”
“She was one of your friends,” I began, so desperately sorry for him. The pain he must be going through, I could hardly imagine. I couldn't finish my thoughts though, as the curtains he had been holding were torn from the rails. The early morning sunlight fills the room and Tsuzuku steps through the glass doors shattering the glass as he does so.
Meto's cursing filled the room as I rush over and pulled the burning vampire back into the room. As I do so, a shard of glass ripped into my arm and I joined Meto's cursing thanks to the pain. Quickly I threw the bed sheets over Tsuzuku, doing my best to keep the suicidal vampire out of the sun.
I looked for help, but Meto is lurking in the shadows, unable to enter the room without risk to himself. Yuuki appeared beside him, presumably from Zero's room, only half dressed. Like this he's downright hot, opposed to seductive, but I don't have time to admire his half naked torso.
“Zero, can you come and help please?” Yuuki called. Moments later Zero is in the room, doing his best to block out the sun. He does enough that Meto is able to drag Tsuzuku away and it's then that I notice the shard of glass buried deep in my arm. I'd been bleeding the whole time, and hardly noticed.
It's Yuuki who grabs a towel from the bathroom, but it's Zero who helps me wrap the wound. He's finished with the curtains at least, a poor job as Tsuzuku had managed to damage the rail as well as the hooks that held the curtain in place.
“Don't worry MiA, there's a medic downstairs,” Yuuki reassured me gently, concern written all over his face. Seeing him like this finally convinced me that I have never been in any danger around him. He plays his games, as Koichi plays his, but neither vampire wished humans harm.
“If you need help, Yuuki can provide it,” the medic, a former nurse named Ichiro, whispered to me as he exams my arm. I realised he thought I had done this to myself.
“Actually it was a vampire who tried to kill himself,” Yuuki informed him. “MiA saved him.”
“The former rebel leader?” Ichiro guessed, Yuuki nods but steels his face into apathy. I glanced up and see Koichi in the doorway, someone must have told him what had happened.
“If anyone dared taste him,” he began angrily.
“Unless they've licked the carpet, nobody has,” Yuuki promised him. “He's your responsibility now. I should check Zero is safely in his rooms.”
“This will hurt a little,” Ichiro warned me, nervously glancing at Koichi before pulling the glass out of the wound. I hissed in pain and he flinches, as if scared Koichi might punish him for my pain. The way Koichi was angrily watching, I don't blame him.
“I'm OK, really it's not as bad as it looks,” I lied.
“Actually you've lost quite a bit of blood,” Ichiro warned, “Do you feel dizzy at all, or weak? I can always use clone blood if needed, we have plenty.”
“That's why scientists invented it, for blood transfusions?” I guessed. “To save lives.”
“Ironic really,” Ichiro agreed.
“The Meji clan never wanted this,” Koichi muttered angrily. Ichiro ignored his anger this time, stitching up the wound as best as he could and giving me some mild painkillers.
“Make sure to let Koichi know if you feel ill in the next few days,” Ichiro warned, “You may need antibiotics, but you should otherwise be fine.”
“Burn everything with his blood on it,” Koichi interrupted. “You have access to the incinerator?”
“Yes,” Ichiro said growing pale at the thought. “I had to use it last night. I tried, but I couldn't save her.” Is he talking about the girl who died? From his evident guilt I'm sure that he must be. “Your highness, I have no right to give you orders, but if possible can you give MiA a few days to recover? Even a week perhaps? He did lose a lot of blood and his body will need energy to heal the wound.”
“In this rare instance, I will do as told,” Koichi answered, much to my surprise.
Instead of my room, he takes me to his luxury suite on the top floor. It's been decorated for him, or at very least looks like his apartment to a certain degree. We entered into a large living space, with a door off to each side.
“That's Meto's room,” Koichi explained as he points to one of the doors, “The other is mine. You can sleep here for now, while they mend the damage to your room.”
“I'm still in my boxer's,” I realised suddenly, blushing as I think of everyone who had seen me like this. What must Ichiro have been thinking when I walked in?
“I have no issue with you taking them off,” Koichi said, his casual attitude returning back to anger when he heared voices in Meto's room. He was in the room before I realised what's happening, but I reached the room in time to see Koichi slap Tsuzuku across the face, so hard it's a wonder it didn't snap his neck.
“How dare you?!” Koichi screamed, “What were you thinking? Putting MiA's life in danger like that? MiA begged for your life, Meto vouched for you, and you try to throw it all away?”
“Koichi please,” Meto said in a calming voice, “He's adjusting. Let me have some time with him. OK? MiA looks well enough to me.”
“He was hurt,” Koichi answered. “I won't allow such an insult.”
“Do as you will with me,” Tsuzuku begged. “Just end it all.”
“I'll break you neck,” Koichi snarled. He moved to do just that, but Meto's stepped in-between them.
“I'll remove him from your sight,” Meto bargained, “You promised MiA he would live. Honestly right now that would be the worst torture for him. The guy wants to die, why let him?”
“Lock him away,” Koichi agreed, “And leave him to rot.”
“Don't give that order, please,” Meto begged, “Let me visit him. I can heal him, turn him into a lieutenant loyal only to us. What do you say?”
“Yuuki has Hiyuu and Satoshi,” I added, knowing jealousy of what his brother had was one of the driving forces behind a lot of Koichi's decisions.
“Very well, do as you think best,” Koichi relented. Wordlessly Tsuzuku allowed Meto to escort him out of the room and I was escorted into Koichi's bed. I don't know how I slept after all the excitement, perhaps I was weaker than I had thought.
When I returned to my rooms, the curtains had been fixed and the glass in the balcony door replaced with a wooden panel. The carpet had been cleaned and the bedding replaced, almost like nothing happened at all. After Koichi finished helping me shave and shower he informed me that the balcony door will now be unlocked. I haven't done anything to deserve this surprise treat, but I thank him regardless. Is this guilt that I was hurt under his care?
I didn't get to step onto the balcony until the morning, spending the night downstairs in the bar area with Koichi, Yuuki and Zero. Without the king, things were more relaxed, and I was even allowed a drink. It was like being on a double date, almost.
Outside I breathed in the fresh air, lingering there for a couple of minutes before going to bed. I returned in the late afternoon, sleepily sitting on the chair as I sipped from the water bottle that had been left in my room and read one of the books Koichi had left me on the first night here.
“Oh!” came an excited voice from the next balcony over, “You're allowed outside too?”
“Rito!” I exclaimed, dropping the book as I hurry to the edge of the balcony closest to him. “I almost forgot your room was next door.”
“Zero,” he corrected, “Please don't use that name. Rito is a boy from a different time.”
“Do you think we're allowed to talk to each other?” I asked, Zero merely shrugged.
“I won't be punished, will you?” he asked.
“I have no idea,” I admitted. “I'll try and find out when he next visited me.”
“Please do,” Zero begged, “As much as Yuuki visits me, it'll be so nice to talk to another human every day! He let's me spend time with some of the other humans, of course, but very few of them are interested in talking to me at all. The medic, Ichiro, is the only one I could consider being a friend with.”
“Why won't they talk to you?” I asked. I should go back inside, but like Zero I'm desperate for some form of normalcy.
“Most of them are suffering,” Zero explained carefully, “You've seen how the men are treated. They hate me for living in luxury, for loving Yuuki, for not cursing vampire kind. The women aren't so bad, but it's the same thing. Jealousy, anger, hate. We have privilege here, and a strange kind of power. Even the king's humans aren't treated the way I am. Ichiro came close, as the only trained medical professional he's important, and therefore off limits to all, but he still lives like them.”
“I'd help them, if I could,” I muttered. Only how can I? Any attempts to help the other humans, would surely cost me dearly.
“Don't even try,” Zero warned, “It's not worth it. I'm going inside, so Koichi doesn't catch you talking to me. Do what you can to be granted this privilege. It may prove important.”
Rating: 18
Genre: Supernatural Horror
Band: Mejibray
Pairing: Koichi x MiA
Summary: The sun protects us, a shining beacon that has kept the darkness at bay. Evil fears it, for the light is their weakness and they shun it. Even the sun can't protect me now, nothing can. Except perhaps for the man I know only as 'Koichi'.
Author's Note: New chapters every Monday and Friday. (I may post early due to having no access to a computer on the posting day).
Previous Chapters:
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
New Chapter:
Chapter Eleven
“Play something for me,” Koichi requested as we sat on the bed together, naked after our recent activity. The moment he had chance to be with me alone, I had been on the bed in his passionate embrace. Had he missed me so much? Or was it just the way I had been so scantly dressed all night.
“What do you want me to play?” I asked, as I fetched my guitar.
“I don't know, whatever you like,” Koichi answered. I returned to him and began to play one of my favourite songs, filling the room with the sound of my guitar. “What did you and Zero talk about?” he whispered. I glanced at the door, is someone outside or is he being paranoid?
“Nothing,” I began, sensing his anger before I'd finished uttering the word.
“Then what did you do?” Koichi demanded.
“Well, we did talk,” I replied carefully, “He told me that Yuuki asked him to find you someone? That I was the man he found?”
“He was,” Koichi said, his smile fading, “Damn it, Yuuki knows too! No way his human would keep quiet.”
“I don't think Yuuki is a threat,” I answered carefully. “Surely he would have said something earlier?”
“He's always playing games,” Koichi muttered.
“Was it really Zero that I talked to online?” I asked. Apparently I hadn't even been flirting with Koichi before I had met him, it was embarrassing really.
“Does that upset you,” Koichi asked. “Before I met you, you were a pretty face. Nothing more.”
“I noticed straight away,” I admitted, “At least that you were entirely different in person than online. I never suspected that it was someone else, but it makes so much sense now I think about it. No it doesn't upset me, not now I know you.”
“What else did you talk about?” Koichi asked.
“What it was like for him, before,” I explained. One by one Koichi evaluates every topic Zero and I spoke about, looking for what, I don't know. That we had been too friendly perhaps? I say nothing about Zero's offer to save me of course, but as we had talked so much about so many things Koichi suspects nothing missing from my report. Finally satisfied he kissed me on the forehead, provided me with some comfortable clothes, and left me in my room alone.
I'm just about to get in bed when my room door opened again. Tsuzuku's presence made me relieved that I bothered to slip into the boxer shorts to sleep. I'd been right in thinking that I would never know who might come visiting.
“I brought you some water,” Tsuzuku explained as he placed the bottle on the table. Meto lurked in the doorway, guarding him as he had been ordered by the king.
“Thank you,” I answered. The water will be warm by the time I drink it, but better than cupping water out of the tap with my hands.
“Your curtains are open,” he suddenly warned, heading towards the balcony to fix the small gap I had left.
“Koichi allows me 10cm,” I reassured him. His actions are so innocent that I never thought that something might be wrong. He pauses by the window, glancing between me and Meto.
“The girl I bit to prove my loyalty, she didn't make it,” he informed me, “I want you to understand.”
“She was one of your friends,” I began, so desperately sorry for him. The pain he must be going through, I could hardly imagine. I couldn't finish my thoughts though, as the curtains he had been holding were torn from the rails. The early morning sunlight fills the room and Tsuzuku steps through the glass doors shattering the glass as he does so.
Meto's cursing filled the room as I rush over and pulled the burning vampire back into the room. As I do so, a shard of glass ripped into my arm and I joined Meto's cursing thanks to the pain. Quickly I threw the bed sheets over Tsuzuku, doing my best to keep the suicidal vampire out of the sun.
I looked for help, but Meto is lurking in the shadows, unable to enter the room without risk to himself. Yuuki appeared beside him, presumably from Zero's room, only half dressed. Like this he's downright hot, opposed to seductive, but I don't have time to admire his half naked torso.
“Zero, can you come and help please?” Yuuki called. Moments later Zero is in the room, doing his best to block out the sun. He does enough that Meto is able to drag Tsuzuku away and it's then that I notice the shard of glass buried deep in my arm. I'd been bleeding the whole time, and hardly noticed.
It's Yuuki who grabs a towel from the bathroom, but it's Zero who helps me wrap the wound. He's finished with the curtains at least, a poor job as Tsuzuku had managed to damage the rail as well as the hooks that held the curtain in place.
“Don't worry MiA, there's a medic downstairs,” Yuuki reassured me gently, concern written all over his face. Seeing him like this finally convinced me that I have never been in any danger around him. He plays his games, as Koichi plays his, but neither vampire wished humans harm.
“If you need help, Yuuki can provide it,” the medic, a former nurse named Ichiro, whispered to me as he exams my arm. I realised he thought I had done this to myself.
“Actually it was a vampire who tried to kill himself,” Yuuki informed him. “MiA saved him.”
“The former rebel leader?” Ichiro guessed, Yuuki nods but steels his face into apathy. I glanced up and see Koichi in the doorway, someone must have told him what had happened.
“If anyone dared taste him,” he began angrily.
“Unless they've licked the carpet, nobody has,” Yuuki promised him. “He's your responsibility now. I should check Zero is safely in his rooms.”
“This will hurt a little,” Ichiro warned me, nervously glancing at Koichi before pulling the glass out of the wound. I hissed in pain and he flinches, as if scared Koichi might punish him for my pain. The way Koichi was angrily watching, I don't blame him.
“I'm OK, really it's not as bad as it looks,” I lied.
“Actually you've lost quite a bit of blood,” Ichiro warned, “Do you feel dizzy at all, or weak? I can always use clone blood if needed, we have plenty.”
“That's why scientists invented it, for blood transfusions?” I guessed. “To save lives.”
“Ironic really,” Ichiro agreed.
“The Meji clan never wanted this,” Koichi muttered angrily. Ichiro ignored his anger this time, stitching up the wound as best as he could and giving me some mild painkillers.
“Make sure to let Koichi know if you feel ill in the next few days,” Ichiro warned, “You may need antibiotics, but you should otherwise be fine.”
“Burn everything with his blood on it,” Koichi interrupted. “You have access to the incinerator?”
“Yes,” Ichiro said growing pale at the thought. “I had to use it last night. I tried, but I couldn't save her.” Is he talking about the girl who died? From his evident guilt I'm sure that he must be. “Your highness, I have no right to give you orders, but if possible can you give MiA a few days to recover? Even a week perhaps? He did lose a lot of blood and his body will need energy to heal the wound.”
“In this rare instance, I will do as told,” Koichi answered, much to my surprise.
Instead of my room, he takes me to his luxury suite on the top floor. It's been decorated for him, or at very least looks like his apartment to a certain degree. We entered into a large living space, with a door off to each side.
“That's Meto's room,” Koichi explained as he points to one of the doors, “The other is mine. You can sleep here for now, while they mend the damage to your room.”
“I'm still in my boxer's,” I realised suddenly, blushing as I think of everyone who had seen me like this. What must Ichiro have been thinking when I walked in?
“I have no issue with you taking them off,” Koichi said, his casual attitude returning back to anger when he heared voices in Meto's room. He was in the room before I realised what's happening, but I reached the room in time to see Koichi slap Tsuzuku across the face, so hard it's a wonder it didn't snap his neck.
“How dare you?!” Koichi screamed, “What were you thinking? Putting MiA's life in danger like that? MiA begged for your life, Meto vouched for you, and you try to throw it all away?”
“Koichi please,” Meto said in a calming voice, “He's adjusting. Let me have some time with him. OK? MiA looks well enough to me.”
“He was hurt,” Koichi answered. “I won't allow such an insult.”
“Do as you will with me,” Tsuzuku begged. “Just end it all.”
“I'll break you neck,” Koichi snarled. He moved to do just that, but Meto's stepped in-between them.
“I'll remove him from your sight,” Meto bargained, “You promised MiA he would live. Honestly right now that would be the worst torture for him. The guy wants to die, why let him?”
“Lock him away,” Koichi agreed, “And leave him to rot.”
“Don't give that order, please,” Meto begged, “Let me visit him. I can heal him, turn him into a lieutenant loyal only to us. What do you say?”
“Yuuki has Hiyuu and Satoshi,” I added, knowing jealousy of what his brother had was one of the driving forces behind a lot of Koichi's decisions.
“Very well, do as you think best,” Koichi relented. Wordlessly Tsuzuku allowed Meto to escort him out of the room and I was escorted into Koichi's bed. I don't know how I slept after all the excitement, perhaps I was weaker than I had thought.
When I returned to my rooms, the curtains had been fixed and the glass in the balcony door replaced with a wooden panel. The carpet had been cleaned and the bedding replaced, almost like nothing happened at all. After Koichi finished helping me shave and shower he informed me that the balcony door will now be unlocked. I haven't done anything to deserve this surprise treat, but I thank him regardless. Is this guilt that I was hurt under his care?
I didn't get to step onto the balcony until the morning, spending the night downstairs in the bar area with Koichi, Yuuki and Zero. Without the king, things were more relaxed, and I was even allowed a drink. It was like being on a double date, almost.
Outside I breathed in the fresh air, lingering there for a couple of minutes before going to bed. I returned in the late afternoon, sleepily sitting on the chair as I sipped from the water bottle that had been left in my room and read one of the books Koichi had left me on the first night here.
“Oh!” came an excited voice from the next balcony over, “You're allowed outside too?”
“Rito!” I exclaimed, dropping the book as I hurry to the edge of the balcony closest to him. “I almost forgot your room was next door.”
“Zero,” he corrected, “Please don't use that name. Rito is a boy from a different time.”
“Do you think we're allowed to talk to each other?” I asked, Zero merely shrugged.
“I won't be punished, will you?” he asked.
“I have no idea,” I admitted. “I'll try and find out when he next visited me.”
“Please do,” Zero begged, “As much as Yuuki visits me, it'll be so nice to talk to another human every day! He let's me spend time with some of the other humans, of course, but very few of them are interested in talking to me at all. The medic, Ichiro, is the only one I could consider being a friend with.”
“Why won't they talk to you?” I asked. I should go back inside, but like Zero I'm desperate for some form of normalcy.
“Most of them are suffering,” Zero explained carefully, “You've seen how the men are treated. They hate me for living in luxury, for loving Yuuki, for not cursing vampire kind. The women aren't so bad, but it's the same thing. Jealousy, anger, hate. We have privilege here, and a strange kind of power. Even the king's humans aren't treated the way I am. Ichiro came close, as the only trained medical professional he's important, and therefore off limits to all, but he still lives like them.”
“I'd help them, if I could,” I muttered. Only how can I? Any attempts to help the other humans, would surely cost me dearly.
“Don't even try,” Zero warned, “It's not worth it. I'm going inside, so Koichi doesn't catch you talking to me. Do what you can to be granted this privilege. It may prove important.”