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Licht jumped, startled when he saw Kuro fly past him and slam into the brick wall of the alleyway that they were fighting in. A moment later, Mahiru was flung backward as well, their chain making it impossible for them to be separated very far from one another. Licht flinched slightly in sympathetic pain for his newfound friends, much too caught up in their issues to realize that he had quite a few of his own.
He was wrenched out of his own little fantasy by an agonized cry of, “NO!” and a rough shove to his shoulder. He stumbled to forward a step before losing his balance and tumbling to the ground. He hissed at the sting of asphalt digging through and tearing the skin of his palms and knees as he tried to instinctively protect the rest of him from the painful impact. Not allowing himself a moment to gather his wits, he rolled over and tensed to shoot to his feet and kick the lights out of his attacker.
The view that he came to was enough to knock the breath out of him. Hyde was standing over him, his back hunched over, and his face screwed up in pain. A large silver broadsword was jutting out of his chest with scarlet dripping from the tip of the blade to the asphalt, starting a small puddle.
“H-Hyde,” Licht stuttered stupidly, unsure if he was imagining the almost suffocating pressure that was bearing down on his chest, or if it was real. Part of him was praying that he was just hallucinating about his Servamp, but when Hyde took a staggering step toward him, he knew that it was anything but a hallucination.
“No,” Licht said, scrambling to his feet. He caught Hyde before he could tip over and face-plant the ground, lowing him gently. There wasn’t much that he could do about the sword sticking out of the vampire’s chest at that moment; Hyde was immortal, and it wouldn’t kill him, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t about to murder that pink-haired freak anyway.
He looked up and saw Belkia cackling madly as he pulled his large white and pink top hat from his head and reached inside of it. Licht scowled as he let out a maddened war-cry and pushed himself to his feet before springing at the subclass. He thought that he heard Hyde protesting, but he wasn’t entirely sure due to the roaring anger that was pulsing in his ears.
“Demonic scum!” Licht cried as he rushed toward him. “I’ll kill you!”
After that, everything was a complete blur. He was fairly sure that he’d kicked Belkia more times than he wanted to count, and would have happily have snuffed out both his and Higan’s lives, but Mahiru stopped him before he could. Licht almost pushed the bossy eve off and finished the job he had set out for himself, but when Mahiru mentioned Hyde’s name, he froze. His Servamp was injured, and Licht knew that he needed to take care of that first and foremost. The rest of this could wait until afterward. He remembered all too well what happened the last time he had thoughtlessly left Hyde unattended when he was injured. He would be damned before they had a call that close ever again.
“I’ll kill them later,” Licht snapped, casting the tangled heap of subclasses a withering look before he turned around and rushed to Hyde. The blond-and-brown toned Servamp was still laying on the asphalt where Licht had placed him. Kuro was kneeling over him, muttering something to his brother. After a moment, he gestured to the sword and Hyde nodded curtly.
“Angel-chan,” Hyde said, his voice quiet and coming out in grunts of exertion, as if making noise was hurting him more than anything else.
“Shut up, Shit-Rat,” Licht snapped, letting anger coat his voice instead of the concern that was actually raging through his head. He could barely see straight as he imagined over and over again how much agony his Servamp was going through all because he hadn’t been aware enough of his surroundings to pay attention.
“S-Sleepy—”
“He’s right, brother,” Kuro cut him off. “Listen to your eve. You’re going to cause yourself even more pain this way.” Kuro turned to look at Licht with his brow furrowed together, as though he was dreading the thought of the effort that he was about to have to put in. “Lawless doesn’t want you to see this. It’s going to hurt him and there’s going to be a lot of blood.”
“I don’t care about that,” Licht snapped, angry at the stupid demon for even insinuating that he was supposed to leave.
“He doesn’t want you to see him like this,” Kuro shot back, sounding more aggravated than anything else. “I know that you care at least a little about him. Just allow him this.”
“Come on, Licht,” Mahiru said as he placed a hand on his shoulder. Licht reluctantly took a step back with the eve of Sloth. If this was actually what his Shit-Rat wanted, who was he to tell him no?
Mahiru seemed to sense the tension that Licht was feeling. “We’ll just step out of the alleyway. Call us if you need anything.”
“We will,” Kuro said, not looking away from his brother. “Just go away now so I can fix it.”
Licht allowed himself a brief moment to marvel at the transformation of Kuro as Mahiru led him out of the alley and into the busy street. They stood on the sidewalk right by the mouth of the alleyway so that they would be able to rush back in if they were needed. He remembered how lazy the Servamp of Sloth used to be. It wasn’t as though he was suddenly more active, because he wasn’t, but it was as though he was more willing to stand up and take action when it was needed. Licht felt respect burn in his chest for the vampire. He was suddenly certain that Hyde was in capable hands, and was able to relax.
“He’s going to be okay,” Mahiru told him after a moment of silence. “It looked pretty bad, but I know that he’ll be fine.”
“I know that he’s going to be okay,” Licht said as he leaned against the brick wall that was behind him. “I just don’t know why he would do it. I mean…I’m just an eve to him. He kills them all the time and at least this way he wouldn’t have to worry about having to do it himself. It makes no sense.”
“For a musical genius, you’re an idiot,” Mahiru informed Licht quietly. Licht wanted to feel offended by the remark, but he couldn’t find it in himself to. He just turned and looked at Mahiru with a raised eyebrow as he waited on an explanation.
Mahiru turned and looked at him as well with a small smile on his face. Before he could further comment on the meaning of it, Kuro called their names out. There was no emotion to his voice, making it very hard to determine if there was something wrong or not. Both he and Mahiru turned and walked back into the alleyway. Hyde was still laying on the pavement, and blood was still trickling from his wounds, but there was no knife in his chest. Kuro was standing over him, his stance was hunched slightly, as though he was prepared to pounce at anything that tried to attack him or his brother.
“Hey, Angel-chan,” Hyde said weakly. “You didn’t get hurt, did you?”
“No,” Licht said as he walked over and knelt next to Hyde. “I’m fine, stupid hedgehog. You’re the one that had a sword through your chest a few minutes ago.”
Hyde actually smiled at that and said, “I’m fine now, Licht-chan,”
“What?” Licht said, actually feeling anger toward his Servamp. He was insane! “How can you say that you’re okay? You’re not okay, Hyde! There’s nothing that’s okay about any of this!”
“It’s okay because you’re unhurt.” Hyde said. He actually grinned at this, as though he actually thought that it was okay.
Licht wanted to yell and shout at him about being such an idiot, but he bit his tongue. He might have been eccentric, but he knew that there was a time and a place for everything. This was not the time nor the place for any of that. He would have to wait. He sighed and instead said, “Are you well enough to turn into a hedgehog? It’ll be easier to carry you and less painful for you if you do.”
Hyde was silent for a moment, just looking up at Licht as though he was contemplating something. A moment later, he nodded his head slowly. He had a painful smile on his face, showing off red tinged teeth that hinted at a mouth bleed. Licht fought back a grimace at the sight, knowing that there was no point in showing any emotions for it. What was done was done, and Licht could fuss at Hyde after he was feeling better.
A moment later, Hyde was a blond and brown hedgehog, laying on his back on the pavement. Licht slowly reached over and carefully lifted the animal up and settles Hyde in the crook of his elbow, still face up. He fought back the urge to rub his stomach, knowing that it would most likely hurt Hyde more than comfort him. “Come on,” Licht muttered to the hedgehog. “Let’s get you home.”
The next couple of days were horrible for Licht. Hyde was exhausted for lack of a better word. It wasn’t as though he was doing it for attention. He had tried his best to get up and do things for himself, but it was as though he wasn’t strong enough to so much as walk. Considering how energetic Hyde was normally, Licht knew that it had to be killing him. That didn’t stop the Servamp from trying his best to be cheerful about the entire situation.
Licht was changing the bandage of the wound over Hyde’s chest. Thankfully it was starting to heal, but for some reason it wasn’t closing up fast enough for his liking. Hyde should have been able to heal quickly. Licht wasn’t injured at all, and their healing ability was supposed to be directly related to the health of their eve. What’s wrong with him?
Licht voiced the question as he finished putting medical tape on the bandage and looked at Hyde demandingly. “There’s nothing wrong with me,” Licht informed him. “Why aren’t you healing?”
Hyde sighed and muttered, “That sword that Belkia was about to impale you with was a special one. A gift from Tsubaki himself. You remember the blade that Lust’s eve was telling us about one of his other subclasses having? It was one that could terminate a servamp’s power. This one was similar. I’m going to end up healing slowly and naturally like a mortal. I’m sorry that it’s going to be such a pain, Angel-chan.”
“What…what the hell are you doing apologizing to me?” Licht snapped suddenly feeling a flare of anger bursting through him. How dare Hyde try and take all of the blame on to himself? He was truly greed incarnate. “This is my fault, and you’re not going to take that away from me!”
“It doesn’t matter,” Hyde said. Licht figured that he would be shrugging if he was able to. “It happened and now you’re the one stuck taking care of me. I’m supposed to protect you. That’s my job, and I didn’t do it. That’s why we’re here right now.”
“Shut up, stupid hedgehog!” Licht said. He hated how calm Hyde sounded. It was making him angrier than anything else. Hyde was never this calm, and it was probably because he didn’t have the energy to seriously argue with him.
Hyde looked at Licht with a pained smile and said, “At least you’re taking care of me. I enjoy being the center of your attention. I am the Servamp of greed, after all.” He reached over and grabbed Licht’s hand, intertwining their fingers. Licht wanted to snatch his hand away, and snap at his vampire about being so damn stupid, but he couldn’t bring himself to. He had been wracked with guilt since Hyde had been injured, and to have him act so nonchalantly about it—as though he wasn’t forgiving Licht because there was nothing for him to forgive—was throwing him off and he didn’t really know how to react. If it had been the other way around, Licht would have been cursing Hyde for everything that he was worth every time that he had to see his face, because it would have reminded him of the stupidity of the reason for him being injured.
Hyde wasn’t treating him like that and Licht almost felt…cheated out of the treatment that he knew that he was supposed to be receiving. “Hyde—”
“I’m not mad,” Hyde cut him off before he could say anything else. “Please just take that and run with it. I love arguing with you, Angel-chan, but I can’t right now. Can we please just fight about it later?”
“I…yeah,” Licht finally conceded. Who was he to argue with Hyde? The hedgehog had saved his life, and he would happily comply with his wishes, whatever it was that he wanted. “Is there anything that you want?”
Hyde was silent for a moment, as though he was contemplating if he should voice whatever it was that was on his mind. He must have opted to after a moment of deliberation, because he sighed and said, “I’m hungry…really hungry.”
“Okay,” Licht said, already reaching down for his cellphone. He would order some room service and have them bring Hyde whatever he—Licht paused halfway to his pocket when he realized exactly what Hyde was saying. “Alright,” he said after a moment. He pulled his hoodie over his head and sat it one the floor by his feet.
Hyde tried to push himself up, but Licht could tell that the strain was too much. He wrapped his arms around his Servamp’s shoulders and helped pull him up. Hyde grunted appreciatively and buried his face in Licht’s neck. He tensed, waiting for the impact of his teeth, but it didn’t happen exactly like that. He heard Hyde inhale sharply through his nose and then exhale slowly, as if he were savoring something sacred. Licht shivered at the feeling of Hyde’s warm breath gliding down his neck.
Licht felt himself calm slightly until he felt lips graze against the nape of his neck. He tensed up as an even stronger shiver went down his spine followed by a wave of unexpected heat that rolled through him, starting in his chest and radiating out all the way to the tips of his toes. He felt Hyde’s lips there again, and this time Licht was sure that it wasn’t an accident. He closed his eyes, willing himself to remain silent, even though he wanted nothing more than to make a sound, any sound that would urge Hyde further on.
“I don’t think you understand exactly what it is that you do to me…my angel,” Hyde murmured. Then Licht felt the familiar pain of Hyde’s fangs slipping past his skin. He let out an involuntary hiss but other than that, didn’t respond. He felt Hyde’s fingers tangle themselves into his hair, clearly trusting Licht to hold him upright as he drank.
Licht closed his eyes at the feeling. Once he was past the sharp pain that he felt at the beginning, the sensation was quite pleasurable. Licht felt his hold on Hyde tighten slightly as he subconsciously pulled him closer, but he forced himself to loosen his grip a moment later, still conscious of his vampire’s injuries.
Hyde pulled away much to quickly for Licht’s liking. He hadn’t even started to feel faint from blood loss. Licht still held him close, not lowering him down just yet. “You don’t have to stop,” Licht said. “You can drink more.”
“No,” Hyde said. “I’m fine. That was enough.”
Licht lowered Hyde back down to the mattress and looked at him. “I don’t think you know what you do to me, Shit-Rat,” Licht muttered, stealing Hyde’s words from a few minutes before. Hell, Licht wasn’t entirely sure what his Servamp did to him. That didn’t stop him from leaning down and sealing their lips together for a moment. The kiss was chaste and so tender that it was hard to imagine him sharing something so sweet with a creature that he constantly fought with. He lingered close to Hyde, waiting for the vampire to reject him, to call him crazy or laugh cruelly. Hyde did none of those things.
He gave Licht a small smile and breathed out a small, joyful laugh. “I’ve been wanting that for a while, Angel-chan.”
“I think I have too,” Licht admitted as he slowly straightened up. “Do you want anything else?”
“Can you just lay here with me?” Hyde asked him quietly. “I really want that.”
Licht complied after a moment of deliberation. He didn’t mind so much; Hyde was surprisingly warm as he curled into Licht’s chest, making the eve feel true contentment for the first time in a while. He closed his eyes, realizing that he felt exhausted himself. He went to sleep, feeling the ghost of a grudging smile starting to twitch on the corners of his lips. He would think more on what had happened between them later. For now, they both needed to rest.