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Humans are social creatures. It’s in their nature to gravitate towards each other, to fulfill that desperate need for company.
And even though Rui wasn't human anymore, it still rang true for him. He yearned for that connection, for the closeness that pervaded everything they did. Despite knowing that it was impossible for him. Because he didn’t belong anymore.
Still, the longing never subsided, no matter how hard he tried to fill the void. He surrounded himself with others, danced around them, always a hair’s width away from everyone. He was a trespasser, a ticking bomb just waiting for a single slip, a single thoughtless touch. They still tormented him, their terrified eyes boring into him as their grip grew slack and his heart hammered in ecstasy, high on life.
It was a lonely existence amongst them, to witness the simple skinship he could never share. Not when the consequences of his failures still coursed through his veins, his curse an eternal attendant. A life sentenced to everlasting solitude.
Until he met Edward. Selfish asshole Edward.
The other was insufferable, slothful and always acting like whatever’s going on doesn’t concern him, like it’s a boring game he already watched the ending of too many times.
It was infuriating, and Rui would love nothing more than to prove him wrong, to wipe that tired smile off his face and see him face the consequences of his detached condescension.
But he needed him, and Edward knew it. Proved it with every lazy outstretched hand and whine against his back.
Rui could never forget the terror of their first meeting, the way the other stripped away his gloves and pressed Rui’s hand against his face. Porcelain skin shriveled underneath his fingers, and the dull thud of Edward’s skull meeting the ground, his body following suit far too late, still haunted his nightmares. Blackish blood coated his fingers before getting whisked away by nothing. And he was alone once again. Another murder on his hands.
Rui doesn’t remember how long it took, doesn’t even know how, eyes too lost in an endless spiral, until he heard a yawn. An uninterested sound, and Edward was back in front of him, eyes sluggishly blinking and skin the same dead shade.
“That’s new.” And with this, the vampire lay back down and went to sleep, as if nothing happened.
Rui must have stood at his bedside for the entire night, watching the shallow rise and fall of his chest.
Since then, they slowly found a rhythm. A quiet song and dance, a push and pull. Rui would avoid the other as long as he could until his clothes clawed against his skin and the voices screamed against the demands of the reaper. Until a single touch seemed worth the loss.
He hated it, but still sought out Edward like a parched man in a desert, craving the frigid touch of his skin, no pulse to be found, before it fell away. The short second of connection before it crumbled in his hands. He longed for the tired complaints afterward that proved that Edward was just as alive as he was before his touch, a constant no matter how much his curse tried to change it. A creature above his bane, something he couldn’t hurt even if he attempted to.
And Edward smiled at him with that knowing glint in his eyes, a thirst to satisfy his own goal in this little game of theirs. He’d drape himself over Rui’s shoulder, his breath tingling against his ear, whispering false promises with fangs scratching against his throat.
And Rui melted into it—even though it made his blood curdle—hated the way he knew he would someday lose. Because there was nothing else he could rely on.
Sometimes he wondered what kept Edward anchored here. Trapped in an institute that only pretends to have their interest at heart on the best of days. An endless cycle of monotone nights shrouded in seclusion, cut off from the rest of the student body, a cage disguised as a home.
Some days a traitorous voice in his head hoped Edward stayed for him, determined him interesting enough in his eternal death. On others, Rui despised even the notion of that thought, convinced himself to stop their dance before he lost the last remnants of humanity burrowed in his flesh, before he became completely dependent on the vampire.
But every time he found himself in front of the same door, knocking once again.