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“Your friends wanted us to meet them out by the water soon, right?”
Yuu glances to Mika, where he is lounging, still and calm, on a simple and tattered couch by the far wall of the little sea-side shack they share together.
“Yeah,” he confirms, watching as Mika gives a quiet nod in response and nothing more.
Sighing, he sets his sword on top of his luggage and shoves it by the door before he can’t take the short silence any longer and turns to the vampire with his arms crossed.
“Why... Why do you still say my friends?” Yuu asks, trying not to sound too demanding but not being able to stop himself.
He’s sick of Mika wording it like that, like they care about only Yuu or something. Does the whole four months they survived together mean nothing to Mika? Sometimes Yuu thinks that the vampire just likes to isolate himself from people for the hell of it, and not even intentionally. He just manages to. Nothing like how he was when they first met in the orphanage, all smiles and punches and assertions of family and friendship. No. Now it seems almost the opposite, never letting anyone get too close, never letting any one else too far in. The only exception being Yuu.
Mika looks up at him now, slowly, almost exhaustedly, and offers a faint smile that’s not even close to reaching his eyes. “Well, they are your friends, Yuu-chan...” he says slowly, as if explaining something to a child, and his tone pisses Yuu off so much he can’t stand it, because he knows he’s just playing dumb.
He marches right up to the other before he can stop to think about it and glares down at him. Mika just meets his gaze head-on, steadfast and determined against his temper, as he’s always been. If Yuu didn’t know any better, he’d think that, somehow, they were born to be perfect complements of each other, like two sides of a single coin.
“Would you stop saying that?” Yuu demands, arms still crossed. “They’re just as much your friends as they are mine. We’re all family now.”
Mika blinks his big crimson eyes when Yuu says the familiar line, turning his head and looking away silently.
“We’re all family!” Yuu tells him again, waiting for a confirmation, but of course he never gets one.
He sighs once again as Mika idly runs his red eyes over the room and gives a slight nod that’s more for show than anything else.
“Mika...” he sighs out, torn between being annoyed and being concerned.
It’s not like Yuu is a stranger to being the lone wolf. He knows exactly how it is to carry that burden, that wariness of trusting others and finally making friends, but he also knows just how to lift that terrible burden and how amazing it feels to finally have it gone.
He wants Mika to know that feeling so badly. He wants to make Mika feel like he made Yuu feel when they shook hands for the first time in the orphanage. When they hugged for the first time. When they cried together for the first time. When they were forced apart and then reunited all over again. The pure happiness and comfort that they both feel now from forming such a deep and unbreakable bond in the first place. He wants to make Mika feel that all over again if he can.
At the end of the day, he really just wants to make Mika happy.
Yuu realizes that he must have been standing there in front of the other stupidly while thinking over their predicament, because his attention is pulled back to reality when Mika awkwardly clears his throat. Yuu shifts on his feet and is about to say something to cement that he didn’t just space out out of nowhere thinking about his friend, but Mika looks up at him rather bashfully and reaches a pale hand out to grasp his wrist.
“Um, Yuu-chan... Before we leave, I was going to mention. I think I’m getting. Kind of...”
He doesn’t need to finish his stuttered sentence. The way his eyes are peering into Yuu’s, pleading and almost ashamed, is all Yuu needs to see to know what he means.
“Oh. Yeah, sure,” Yuu says back easily, settling down on the couch beside Mika.
Each time they do this, Yuu tries his hardest to make it as casual as possible, in an effort to convince Mika that he meant exactly what he said about drinking his blood being not that big of a deal. If it would help Mika survive, Yuu would do literally anything for him.
Mika never seems to understand that, however, or at least accept it.
‘Nicest guy in existence doesn’t even know how to accept when something nice is done for him instead...’ Yuu thinks to himself, fondly irritated.
He feels Mika let go of his wrist and scoot closer to him eagerly until their thighs are touching, and he pulls down the collar of his shirt a little for better access.
After several times of doing this, he finally managed to convince Mika that this was his preferred way of giving blood. The vampire had first insisted on using his wrist, or even that Yuu cut himself somewhere and that he lick the drops of blood from his skin, but Yuu wanted Mika to feel comfortable with his new way of survival. Sure, a bite to the neck hurt like hell for a few seconds compared to what a cut or a bite to the wrist would feel like, but at least he was closest to Mika in this way. He liked how close together they had to get to make the neck method work, and he knew that Mika appreciated the proximity as well.
No matter how many times it’s been, that doesn’t stop either of them from blushing like nervous children when they near each other, however, not quite sure on where to put their hands or where to look, but as soon as Mika’s fangs pierce soft skin and the slight pain subsides, they both fall into an embrace easily enough.
Yuu’s hand finds Mika’s soft head of hair as he closes his eyes and focuses on the sharp pulse under his skin, the tingling pull of Mika sucking blood straight from his veins, and the faint, dizzy pleasure that comes along with it.
Mika sighs through his nose against his neck, warm breath puffing out onto his skin, and shifts in Yuu’s arms to get a little more comfortable.
It’s over almost as soon as it starts, it seems. When he’s finished, Mika gently eases his fangs out of Yuu’s flesh so as not to bruise him too badly, then loops his arms around Yuu’s shoulders to lean heavily on him, letting the refreshed feeling wash over his body.
“Sorry...” he whispers, yet another tradition of feeding time, always sounding guilty and ashamed, like he’s taken something precious from the other that he can never give back.
Yuu wants to scream in his face that he would happily give Mika his very life if he asked for it, but he doesn’t. He leans back into the couch, with Mika still clinging to him and half-sitting on his lap, and just scoffs. “Don’t tell me you’re sorry you have to survive, stupid. Because that’s a stupid thing to say. Don’t say dumb shit like that. Stupid Mika.”
“You know exactly what I meant, Yuu-chan. Jeez...” Mika mutters out from his resting spot on the other’s shoulder, sounding more than done of dealing with Yuu’s bullshit.
Yuu smiles and stifles a laugh. He reaches up to his neck to pull Mika’s arms from around him so he can lean back and look at his face. The vampire’s eyes are narrowed, indeed looking pretty fed up with him, but he can spot that little shine in them, that little glimmer of mirth he knows so well. As exhausted as he sounds, Mika is having just as much fun as he is right now.
That knowledge makes Yuu feel like his heart is swelling in his chest.
“Don’t ever apologize to me again, though,” Yuu finds himself uttering seriously, suddenly taken with emotion. His hands grip Mika’s upper arms and force the surprised red eyes to meet his own. “I’m serious. I would do anything for you, Mika. So don’t you dare apologize.”
The astonishment on Mika’s face slowly turns into a fond smile at the words, and his gaze softens. He rests a hand on Yuu’s cheek, like Yuu is so prone to doing to him all the time, and nods firmly. “If you insist,” he teases, his genuine smile so bright that Yuu wishes he could capture it and carry it around with him to look at any time he wants.
They linger for a few more moments, smiling and lost in each other’s eyes, before Mika lurches forward and curls his arms around Yuu’s shoulders again like he can’t bear to be apart from him any longer.
Yuu doesn’t mind. He smooths his hands up and down Mika’s back over his thick white sweater, knowing they might not get another private moment like this for a long time, seeing as how they’re packing up and moving out today.
“Yuu-chan...” Mika breathes out against his cheek, and Yuu tries to calm the flutter that rises in his insides at how blissful Mika sounds. “My dream came true... We really did run away together.”
Yuu would like to think that the following warmth that pools in his cheeks is somehow from the recent blood loss and not from Mika’s overly-affectionate words. “Yeah... But we’re not nearly far away enough yet from the vampires, or from the Demon Army.” Mika hums thoughtfully in agreement before Yuu continues. “And we didn’t run away together with just the two of us, either. Like how you wanted.”
His fingers play with some long blond curls at the base of Mika’s neck as the vampire in his arms ponders quietly. “Well,” he says after a moment, “your friends really aren’t that bad. I mean, I don’t mind them too much.”
“Your friends, too, Mika,” Yuu mutters.
Mika sighs softly before he speaks. “I know... Friends of yours are friends of mine. But they will never really be our family, Yuu-chan. You know that, too.”
Yuu pauses in his fiddling with Mika’s hair, ready to speak up and disagree, but Mika cuts him off. “They don’t know what we’ve been through together. They never stayed up with me late at night and plotted how to escape from the vampires. They never held me and cried with me while I was dying in their arms.”
Yuu’s eyes widen as he listens to Mika, gradually tightening his hold on him. “They never dedicated their entire life to getting revenge, just for my sake,” Mika continues in a wavering voice, “And they never forced themselves to accept my loss of humanity, just so that I could go on living with them, surviving with them. I know you want us to get along, Yuu-chan, and we probably will, because they seem like very nice people. But I want- No, I need you to know... that you will always be the most important person in my life. Always. For as long as I live. Which as far as we know could be for eternity.”
Yuu’s hands slide over Mika’s shoulders as he leans back slowly, at a loss of words. “Mika...”
Deep down, he knows that Mika is right. He loves the friends he made in the Demon Army, and he always will, but no one, no one, could ever even get close to comparing to Mika. They’ve just been through so much together, and Yuu just cares for him so deeply. No one will ever mean as much as Mika means to him.
He’s only a little surprised to realize that Mika is crying against his shirt, teardrops soaking into the material and making it cling to his skin. He gently peels Mika’s face away from its spot buried in his shoulder and stares into his glassy red eyes, while Mika stares right back and just lets the warm tears roll down his cheeks, not making a move to wipe them away or to avert his gaze.
Yuu feels a prick at his own tear ducts from the sight, but he blinks away the moisture before it even has a chance to gather. He will be strong for Mika right now, if that’s what Mika needs him to be.
“Hey, there,” he murmurs playfully, reaching out to swipe a tear from the vampire’s cheek as it rolls down, leaving a wet path in its wake. “You really did turn into the crybaby while I wasn’t looking.”
That gets a smile out of the crying boy at least, which is all Yuu wanted to do anyway. “Well, I had to learn how to fill your role while you were away,” Mika quips back, and Yuu leans forward to kiss a tear from his smiling face while he’s talking, figuring he’d be too preoccupied to notice. When he leans back, though, there is a rosy tint to his pale cheeks, so maybe he wasn’t as preoccupied as Yuu thought.
“We have to get ready to leave soon, Mika,” Yuu reminds him, subtly trying to divert attention away from his affectionate gesture.
He continues to wipe at Mika’s moist cheeks, trying to erase any sign of him crying. He knows that if Mika went out looking like he had just been crying, everyone would just intrude and make a big fuss about it. Yuu doesn’t want to tell the others about the private moments they share together, the private talks they have. He selfishly wants those to remain just between the two of them.
Mika looks a little disappointed at his words, not wanting to leave at all yet, and moves back in to embrace Yuu again, but Yuu shifts as the other leans in and reaches up to hold his face, pressing their foreheads together. Mika’s hands soon find their way to Yuu’s cheeks as well, cradling them just as gently.
Neither of them close their eyes, because, even after all the time spent together, they still can’t seem to get enough of each other.
“I don’t want to leave,” Mika murmurs, his breath warm on Yuu’s lips.
Yuu tries to focus on his half-lidded red eyes, which is a little hard being as close to each other as they are. “I know. But we have to. We have to get Guren back. We have to make this right.”
Mika nods, his hair ruffling Yuu’s when he does so, but sighs a little.
Yuu knows he’s been through so much, and he can imagine that the vampire is just plain sick of fighting at this point. He is a little himself, if he’s being honest. But everyone knows that this is the right thing to do. And if there was ever anyone who sacrificed something to do the right thing, spent his entire childhood doing so, it was Mika.
“I’m proud of you, you know,” Yuu mentions, getting Mika’s attention. “Of who you’ve become. Who you’ve grown into. I love the person you are.”
They both end up blushing at the words, but Mika scoots a little closer when he answers, angling his head so that their noses are touching. “But I’m a...” He hesitates, knowing that if he says “monster”, Yuu will go on a rant about how he is exactly the opposite, so he settles on something else. “...Thank you. You’re too nice to me, Yuu-chan. You’ll spoil me.”
“Yeah, well, it’s about damn time...”
Mika laughs into his face, which makes the other grin back, before the blond pulls away and captures one of Yuu’s hands in his own. “Alright then,” he smiles down at Yuu when he stands up. “Let’s not keep your- ...our friends waiting.”
Yuu’s face immediately lights up at the word, and he laughs and pulls Mika right back down onto his lap to hug him in excitement.
“Mika!” he cheers, snuggling the other and nuzzling his face while giggling happily.
The vampire fights back for a bit with a blush on his cheeks, protesting half-heartedly, before just going limp in Yuu’s arms and quietly, rather embarrassingly, accepting his fate.
“You’re the best, Mika!” Yuu praises him, cupping his face yet again, as Mika pouts and tries to look away.
“You’re the best,” Yuu repeats, but this time, he is serious, not laughing at all, just smiling softly, thoughtfully, and gazing deeply into Mika’s eyes.
Mika manages to meet his gaze, almost drowning in the pure emotion he sees in their bright green depths, and smiles lightly, thinking words he can’t bring himself to say yet, words that describe exactly how much Yuu means to him, just how closely he holds Yuu to the core of his heart.
Hell, he’s not even sure if his exact feelings could be put into words at all, and so he reaches forward and does the only thing he can think of to express them.
His fingers glide over Yuu’s cheeks, lingering on the soft skin under his hands, before he leans forward and presses his lips against the other’s for a single, short second. Then he leans back away.
Yuu’s not as surprised as Mika thought he would be, doesn’t freak out nearly enough, and that only serves to send Mika’s heart even more into thundering mess because that means that Yuu’s been wanting to do something similar for just as long as Mika has.
Mika panics for a moment before he can help himself, trying to push away from Yuu and stand back up in a hurry, but Yuu pulls him into a firm embrace, keeping him grounded.
“Thank you, Mika...” Yuu whispers, all of his emotions riding on the tones of his voice, and Mika is half tempted to ask ‘for what?’, but he doesn’t.
He just hugs Yuu back tight, pressing their bodies as close together as physically possible without somehow melting together into a single form and sharing a soul, knowing exactly what Yuu is thanking him for.
For everything.