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Aya had never really considered drinking blood from a live human, let alone if they were conscious. She typically got the blood that she needed to live from local vendors, as risky as it was. She sighed as she fiddled with her hair, boredom of being stuck in a maths lesson evident on her face. None of her friends sat near her excluding Mitsuki; and she'd been avoiding the girl for the past couple of days for a reason she wasn't ready to think about in detail.
For the last week, Aya had been avoiding Mitsuki as if she would die talking to her - Thinking over it, the dark-haired girl hadn't done anything to her, but with each second she spent near Mitsuki that dreadful, unignorable hunger washed over her again, taking over her. She took a shaky breath, packing her things messily into her bag as the bell rang.
Icy winds swept through the hallways of the school, a stark reminder of the winter months that were to come. Mitsuki hugged her coat around her tighter, making it a point to get her things from her locker noticeably slower than before, in hopes Aya would show up eventually. Her heart sunk as minutes passed, and she had no choice but to give up and walk home by herself, the coldness of the afternoon almost swallowing her whole. It hadn't been long since the girls had last spent time together, but Aya's recent closed-off nature was becoming more noticeable, and Mitsuki almost felt hopeless on what to do.
She spent the larger part of her walk home listening to their shared playlist, the breath in her throat hoarse as she tried to forget who'd added half of the songs. She didn't know if she'd upset her best friend, and she almost didn't want to, but there was a pit in her stomach that grew every time she even thought of the soft hands that she'd been yearning to hold for days on end, or the pink eyes that barely looked at her anymore. Mitsuki came to a sudden halt, and with trembling hands, she pulled her phone out of her bag, frantically opening her and Aya's text messages. She rushhed over to a nearby bench, not caring if her trousers became damp from the melting ice.
The wind picked up, and Mitsuki let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding as she stared at her phone, the last message being sent being from almost a week ago. With a sigh, she shoved her phone into her pocket, begrudgingly dragging herself the rest of the way home.
By the time she'd made it to the record store, it was dark, and the sky was gently painted with clouds which almost perfectly complimented the stars they shared the night with. Mitsuki held her breath as she fumbled with her keys to open the door. Joe wasn't home; She'd be alone, but something in her was screaming, telling her she wasn't going to be.
It'd been a while since Aya had walked down the road leading to the record store, and her stomach ached with hunger as she approached her best friend's house. The cold nipped at her body, and suddenly she was starting to regret stalking Mitsuki back to her house. A frown made its way across her face as she approached the door. Would Mitsuki even want her there? A sigh escaped her mouth, her anxiety evident. In a moment of boldness, she gently opened the still-unlocked door, gingerly pacing through the store in a heartbeat.
The store was almost ghostly, the silence a song to the distance that had grown between the two. Pink eyes glazed over their surroundings, taking notice of work she'd left from the last time she stayed over. It was neatened, put in a pile with a note messily made from a scrap piece of music score over it: You left these last time you came, so I kept them for you! Hope you don't mind :-)
Almost like clockwork, a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth - She had a tendency to forget things at the dark-haired girl's house when she stayed over, and it was almost like a warm hug that Mitsuki had thought to do something like that, even if it was small.
Mitsuki sat in her room, her heart tight in her chest. It was getting late, and her eyelids were growing heavy, but she couldn't stop the feeling that something was very wrong. She stood up, speeding to her bedroom door. Joe would've told her if he was going home - There was absolutely no logical explanation for the noises she'd just heard downstairs. After a couple of seconds, she slowly reached for her phone out of her pocket, going to text the one person she prayed it was inside her house.
Her breath fell short in her throat, her body tensing with each shuffle she heard. She took a weak breath, shooting Aya a quick message, but not large enough that the girl might think she was actually panicking about the situation - because she wasn't, not at all, she convinced herself.
Can you come over? It's important
Please? I know we haven't spoken in a while, and it's probably my fault but I need you here
Shit. Mitsuki's heart sunk - Why did she send that? It would've been completely fine if she'd just left it at the first message; There was no way in hell Aya was even gonna read it, especially not after 5 days of ignoring her best friend. Tears stung at Mitsuki's eyes, worsening the state of panic she was already in -- at this point, she wasn't sure if she wanted Aya to come over and see her in that state, but the damage had already been done.
Aya's heart dropped as she felt the vibration of a notification against the walls of her bag. She was sure Mitsuki would have heard the shuffling from before, but it felt like the walls of the record store were closing in on her either way. She hastily made her way up the stairs, desperately trying to ignore the ridiculous amount of noise she was making.
---
Outside of Mitsuki's bedroom door, she could almost feel herself collapsing from the inside. All the feelings of guilt and regret she'd pushed away for days crashed on top of her, but there was something else there, something of urgency, of hunger, that she didn't think she could ignore any longer.
"Mitsuki?" Aya breathed, gently opening the girl's door. The sound of her first name on Aya's lips hung in the air, cutting through the silence of the room for what felt like hours to Mitsuki. The dark-haired girl coughed awkwardly, not making a single move and praying Aya didn't notice how much of a wreck she was.
"Mitsuki, I'm- I didn't mean to leave you for so long," Aya stammered, the words catching in her throat as she tried to explain herself.
"I didn't want to hurt you,"
The words fell out of her mouth before she could stop them, and she very quickly looked anywhere but her best friend's face, afraid that she might see the grey eyes she hadn't seen for so long staring back at her with disgust. But instead, she felt a warm hand on her shoulder.
"What do you- What do you mean?" The darker-haired girl smiled sheepishly, and her eyes traced over Aya's features. She was beautiful. Mitsuki almost wanted to hold Aya in her arms, to kiss her and tell her how much she truly meant, but she was almost intimidated by her - By the way she carried herself around, her general confidence--
Mitsuki's train of thought was broken with a sharp pain in her neck and the warmth of two arms wrapping themselves around her body. For a second, time almost seemed to freeze, and the darker-haired girl could feel nothing but the warmth of Aya's breath on her skin and the throbbing pulse of a bite - a shockingly, almost worryingly deep bite.
"Aya? What- What are you doing?!" her strained words filled the air, and Aya lifted her head to stare at Mitsuki, her eyes almost a haunting red. Her hands didn't move from where they were, in fact they did quite the opposite, weaving their way under the darker-haired girls school shirt, taking in the warmth that met them there.
"Oh, shit," Aya's voice was low and hoarse, laced with hunger. Rain began to softly fall onto the shut window, harshly contrasting the palpable tension from inside the room. "I'm sorry," she breathed, her breath lingering on the soft skin of Mitsuki's neck, "I didn't know how to tell you." Aya looked away, her face painted a rosy pink. In her own defense, Mitsuki's blood was almost intoxicating. But guilt washed over her, and she sighed, pulling her shirt over her palm to clean the excess blood off of the darker-haired girl's neck, not caring to find anything else.
The words hung in the air for a while, and Mitsuki's heart was racing - she slowly put her arms around Aya's waist, pulling her closer to her.
"No, it's- It's fine, really. That was honestly kinda hot--" the darker-haired girl murmered, trying to ignore the fact she could feel almost everything - she could feel Aya's legs against hers, she could feel the stabbing pain of the wound on her neck, and it felt like her brain was melting. Her eyes locked onto Aya's, and she could feel the heat in her neck rising as the seconds passed.
Aya's grip on Mitsuki tightened, and she ran her free hand through the girl's hair. "God, you have no idea how much I needed that- needed you" she smiled weakly, placing a soft kiss on the wound she almost couldn't believe she'd just inflicted - it ran a thrill of pride through her that she almost couldn't explain. She'd gotten what she wanted, but she almost needed more, and it made her feel sick.
"Mitsuki," she whined, her voice barely a whisper among the sounds of the rain, "Can I- Can I do it again? Please."