āLooks like you might make me remember some things I've tried to forget.ā
The twin sharp pricks of her fangs on his neck nearly caused him to flinchānot from pain, because pain was trivial at best and it hadnāt really even hurtābut from the sheer unfamiliarity of it. None of the members of his family had ever been close enough to him to request or imperious enough to demand something like this from him, and heād not have offered any of them. Sachiko, he would have trusted enough, but they were about as interested in such n exchange as they were in the dust at their feet, which was to say not at all.
The sensation may have been unfamiliar, but he could still sense her restraint, and the feeling that accompanied this was, most strangely, pride. As though he were happy that she was rising above this hunger whilst refusing to deny that it existed. It was a delicate balancing act, and he supposed it must be even more so for her, who was not quite of his world, at least no wholly.
He relaxed the remaining tension in his muscles as it became evident that this gesture was actually not going to backfire on him, only for it to take a most unexpected turn. Diluted by the rain or not, his sense of smell was still more than adequate to the task of detecting her blood, and he spared a glance down as she pulled back, noting the double wounds on her lower lip. An accident, perhaps? That had been known to happen on occasion whenā
At first, he didnāt understand why she was pulling him down to her, but the metallic, slightly sweet taste of that life-essence was sufficient to motivate his understanding. Tentatively, he swiped across her lip with his tongue, and understood something heād only suspected before. A most unusual smell, and the flavor no less different. It was far from unpleasant, but he refrained from anything more than that, allowing her to put the distance back between them that most people kept from him. Onlyā¦ it wasnāt quite that, was it? She was still standing closer than most people dared. He found he didnāt really mind, as long as it was her.
He may not have looked it, standing with his eyes focused somewhere over her left shoulder, fingers subconsciously tracing the spot where the wound had been, now healed over to marble-like skin again, but he was listening intently to what she said, perhaps hoping that it would provide him some clue as to how exactly this had happened. He knew, in one wayānecessity had demanded and he had answered. But the fact that heād ever found himself in such a position in the first placeā¦ wasnāt it he who had so adamantly insisted that he not interact overmuch with any of the people here? Yet from day one, the firecracker of a prefect had been the exception to his little rule, hadnāt she? Heād not thought about it too closely, but heād sought her company when he needed to be elsewhere than alone, and perhaps that was where it had started.
He sighed. There was probably little helping it now. One thing he knew about himself was that as soon as he was even a little bit attached to or fond of someone, he didnāt break those bonds. āFujiwara,ā He said, and for once his voice lacked its usual acidity and contained instead a weariness, as though some great weight bore him down. āI havenāt had friends in a long time. Iāll probably get it wrongā¦ a lot. But if you donāt mind bearing with meā¦ I think you might be important to me, too.ā He shook his head faintly, though at himself, not her. When had she become his friend? Did he even know how to be one of those anymore?
The sensation may have been unfamiliar, but he could still sense her restraint, and the feeling that accompanied this was, most strangely, pride. As though he were happy that she was rising above this hunger whilst refusing to deny that it existed. It was a delicate balancing act, and he supposed it must be even more so for her, who was not quite of his world, at least no wholly.
He relaxed the remaining tension in his muscles as it became evident that this gesture was actually not going to backfire on him, only for it to take a most unexpected turn. Diluted by the rain or not, his sense of smell was still more than adequate to the task of detecting her blood, and he spared a glance down as she pulled back, noting the double wounds on her lower lip. An accident, perhaps? That had been known to happen on occasion whenā
At first, he didnāt understand why she was pulling him down to her, but the metallic, slightly sweet taste of that life-essence was sufficient to motivate his understanding. Tentatively, he swiped across her lip with his tongue, and understood something heād only suspected before. A most unusual smell, and the flavor no less different. It was far from unpleasant, but he refrained from anything more than that, allowing her to put the distance back between them that most people kept from him. Onlyā¦ it wasnāt quite that, was it? She was still standing closer than most people dared. He found he didnāt really mind, as long as it was her.
He may not have looked it, standing with his eyes focused somewhere over her left shoulder, fingers subconsciously tracing the spot where the wound had been, now healed over to marble-like skin again, but he was listening intently to what she said, perhaps hoping that it would provide him some clue as to how exactly this had happened. He knew, in one wayānecessity had demanded and he had answered. But the fact that heād ever found himself in such a position in the first placeā¦ wasnāt it he who had so adamantly insisted that he not interact overmuch with any of the people here? Yet from day one, the firecracker of a prefect had been the exception to his little rule, hadnāt she? Heād not thought about it too closely, but heād sought her company when he needed to be elsewhere than alone, and perhaps that was where it had started.
He sighed. There was probably little helping it now. One thing he knew about himself was that as soon as he was even a little bit attached to or fond of someone, he didnāt break those bonds. āFujiwara,ā He said, and for once his voice lacked its usual acidity and contained instead a weariness, as though some great weight bore him down. āI havenāt had friends in a long time. Iāll probably get it wrongā¦ a lot. But if you donāt mind bearing with meā¦ I think you might be important to me, too.ā He shook his head faintly, though at himself, not her. When had she become his friend? Did he even know how to be one of those anymore?