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Yuu can’t find Mika.
He’d left on his own an hour ago to find firewood. Hadn’t returned.
It was dark.
“Fuck,” Yuu hisses. He stumbles through the woods blindly, the only light available to him the beam of a dying flashlight Kimizuki had found. “Shit. Fuck. MIKA!”
He should’ve noticed. He should’ve gone looking for Mika earlier.
Where was he?
He trips over– something. Goes sprawling to the ground. The air rushes out of his lungs as he hits the dirt and he fists his hand in the cloth that covers the ground, trying to–
The cloth?
Oh.
Oh, god.
“Mika,” Yuu gasps. He scrambles off of him, grabs Mika’s shoulders. Mika’s– Mika’s so still. The forest around them smells of ash.
He twists the flashlight beam so it’s pointed at Mika. In its dim light, Mika looks pale– even more so than he usually does. Washed out. Ghostlike.
“Mika,” Yuu tries, again.
No response.
It– it doesn’t make sense. There’s no injuries on Mika. No blood on his clothes. He’s unharmed, as far as Yuu can tell.
So why is he so still?
He presses his ear to Mika’s chest, searching for a heartbeat, and finds nothing. For a moment, he forgets. Forgets that Mika’s not human. Forgets Mika doesn’t have a heartbeat to begin with, and when he hears only silence inside Mika’s chest, his blood turns to ice.
Then he remembers.
“Blood,” he gasps, out loud but mostly to himself. “Mika– Mika, when’s the last time you drank?”
Silence.
“Fuck.” Yuu’s hands scrabble uselessly at the buttons of his collar. He pops them free, tugs his shirt down so his neck’s exposed. Lifts Mika’s lifeless body into his arms and presses his face against the side of his neck. “Mika. Come on. Wake up.”
Mika doesn’t so much as stir.
“Mika. Mika.” He hates how helpless he sounds. He feels like he should be doing– something. He can’t think of anything other than sitting here, cradling Mika in his arms and calling his name like he’s just sleeping in a little late.
Mika’s head lolls to the side and falls off Yuu’s shoulder.
“Please,” he whispers.
His grip tightens in the fabric of Mika’s cape. Mika’s going– he’s dying. Or going to, if he doesn’t get anything to drink. But he’s unconscious, and Yuu can’t–
“Dammit, Mikaela,” he mutters. He eases Mika onto the ground, lays him down like he’s porcelain. “I’m not letting you die. Not here. Fucking–”
He shakes his head. Stops his train of thought. Draws his sword.
Mika has to get blood in his mouth somehow. Maybe he’ll notice it and swallow it. At the very least it might get him to wake up. Yuu’ll try anything, even if it means draining himself dry.
He slices his arm open.
He doesn’t even notice the pain, honestly. Asuramaru will just patch him up later. It’s fine. He opens Mika’s mouth– gently– and presses the cut flush up against his lips.
He pinches his arm. Lets blood drip into Mika’s mouth.
Nothing.
“Mika,” Yuu sobs. “Please, Mika, just– respond to me, Mika, come on–”
He’s been talking this whole time and hasn’t said anything. Hasn’t thought either, really. His head’s a mess. His thoughts are whirling. He’s alone in the forest with Mika’s body in front of him and he can’t do fucking anything.
He doesn’t know what he’ll do if this doesn’t work.
“What is it you need, Mika?” he begs. “More blood? I’ll– I’ll give you any of it! I’ll give you all of it, if that’s what you need!”
The trees swallow his bargain whole.
He takes Asuramaru to his arm again. Bigger cut. Deeper. More blood. If he’s bleeding more, more of it will get into Mika’s mouth. That’s the hope. That’s the plan.
He tips Mika’s head back so the blood flows into his mouth. Mika’s face is stained with red– Yuu’s not exactly precise when it comes to his cuts. Or his arm placement. Blood drips down Yuu’s arm and onto Mika’s face and Mika still doesn’t fucking move.
Yuu’s vision blurs. He can’t tell if it’s from blood loss or tears.
“Wake up.”
Mika doesn’t.
Yuu’s heart rate spikes. He claws at Mika’s cape, heaving Mika into his arms, holding his face in both hands. He doesn’t know what to do. He’s never– he’s never–
He’s never felt this useless before.
“Mika,” he gasps. Panic claws its way up his throat and bursts out of his mouth in a strangled sob. Mika’s draped like a doll in his arms, perfectly still and cold like he’s been lying dead in the forest for weeks. “Mika. Mika, don’t leave me. Please, Mika, I don’t want–”
I don’t want to be alone.
His arm bleeds freely onto Mika’s cape. Yuu bundles the fabric up in his hands, tries shoving it into Mika’s mouth. Maybe if he wrings it out, Mika will taste it? Maybe Mika will wake up? Maybe Mika will–
His hands come away from Mika’s face covered in ash, and he panics.
“No. No, no, Mika– Mika, you can’t do this to me, Mika–”
He forces his arm to Mika’s lips, into his mouth; forces Mika to bite down by pressing on the crown of his head. Collapses to Mika’s chest, hand fisted in the collar of his shirt and arm trapped between Mika’s teeth, feeling like he’s suffocating.
“Nnn…”
Yuu’s eyes snap open.
The teeth in his arm tighten, and all of a sudden his world flips; he’s slammed against the forest floor so hard the breath leaves his lungs in a gasp. The flashlight gets knocked away, leaving him in the dark. There’s a hand on his neck keeping him down and one gripping his hand tight enough to make his bones creak and knife-sharp teeth in his wrist draining him dry.
Yuu lets his eyes slip closed. Lets a sob of relief escape him.
“Mika,” he wheezes.
As suddenly as they’d come, the teeth leave his arm. The hand on his neck shakes.
“Yuu…?”
And then there’s hands all over him. Hands on his skin, hands in his hair, hands pressed against his wrist. A sob. It’s too dark to see, but Yuu would know that touch anywhere.
“Mika,” he slurs.
“Yuu. Oh, god, what– you’re bleeding, Yuu, there’s so much blood, did I– did I do this?”
“Mika,” he repeats. He lifts his uninjured arm to where he thinks Mika’s face would be and cradles it. “...no. You didn’t hurt me. I was… trying. To help you.”
He can barely make out the glint of Mika’s eyes in the dark. He latches onto the sight like a lifeline. Mika’s not dead.
“To…” Mika blinks. “Help me?”
“I found you unconscious in the forest,” Yuu rasps. “Unresponsive. Trying to… make you drink blood.”
Mika’s grip on his body tightens.
“You’ve lost so much blood,” he breathes.
“You weren’t getting enough.” Yuu blinks at him blearily. “‘S fine… I’ll heal.”
Mika buries his face in Yuu’s neck. “I’m sorry,” he breathes. “Yuu, I–”
“Don’t apologize.” He forces his eyes back open. “I would’ve done more. To save you.”
“Not if it means you get hurt.”
“Even then.” His eyes drift closed again. He’s so damn tired all of a sudden. “Love you… Mika.”
Mika’s hands grip his shoulders. “Don’t do this to yourself. Not for me.”
“What, you want me to just leave you?” Yuu shakes his head, even though Mika probably can’t see him. “Never. I would have rather bled out next to you than gone on alone.”
“Don’t say that,” Mika snaps. “Don’t. Promise me. Promise me you’ll stay alive.”
“Then you’ve got to stay alive, too,” Yuu says. “For me. For us.”
“For… us?”
“I meant what I said.” Asuramaru’s healing has already started to kick in. Yuu shifts and Mika’s grip tightens like he’s afraid he’ll slip away. “We’re gonna survive together, Mika. I mean it.”
Mika bundles him into his arms and says nothing.
It’s not a no. Yuu’ll take it.