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"evening , dear" Sanemi greeted as he stepped into the garden of the camellia mansion , his husband seem to wonder off to the garden for the second night this week .
Giyuu just hummed when he felt his husband presence before Sanemi even said anything and gracefully turn to face him.
Sanemi drew his hand forward taking Giyuu's in his palm as he leaned and pressed a gentle kiss on his knuckles.
Giyuu placed a hand on Sanemi hair before leaning for a chaste kiss on Sanemi's eyelid .
"what are you doing up , 'dear' " Giyuu humored him .
Sanemi hummed before answering "stalking my _I_don't_believe_in_sleep_ lovely husband"
Giyuu imitate offense with a soft "I don't need sleep"
"mmhm , alright, Sir.Vampire , but I want to , and you have to indulge , it's in your vows"
Giyuu chuckled softly as he laid a soft kiss on Sanemis lips as they slowly walked back to the entrance of their estate "needy human"
Sanemi gave a dramatic very offended 'augh' before he retorted with " I can't sleep without my baby angel in my arms , besides I count as a vampire at this point"
"no , dear , you remember , you can't turn into vampire because of your mercherri blood" Giyuu said gently , mocking gentlness that was so hard to ignore rolling off his tounge.
Sanemi shrugged his husband mockery off with "whatever , witchcraft is more interesting"
"you want to be a witch now?" Giyuu tilted his head looking at his husband lovingly.
"nah , I just read too much about it for my liking" Sanemi answered as Giyuu kissed his hand.
"mh you're thirsty?" Sanemi asked looking down at Giyuu who's lips lingered in his palm and didn't make a sound except his soft hum.
"is that why you've been awake?" Sanemi approached the topic more gently as the gates closed behinde them. Giyuu didn't need blood , it's civiled down ages ago , no hunting animals nor humans for blood by the vampries , if severed cases it would be donated blood , but that's whatever , Sanemi was human , and a husband , and he'll agree to anything that his beautiful spouse point at , and the blood thing wasn't an exception in his book.
but Giyuu had this quirk off _if his husband welcomed_ once a week , Mercherri blood was fetal to some kind of species such as werwolves and -recently found- sirens , and some Clans of the vampire region , but Giyuu was raised in an environment that all its members bodies were accustomed to poison since they drank a well studied out potions of it on the regular , he was a toxiologist himself, so even if his bloodline was like the rest ,that couldn't handle Mercherri blood , wich wasn't true most of their members actually can without training their body too , it wouldn't be a problem .
"I apologize for my greed" Giyuu whispered against his husband palm as his eyelid casted downward .
"it's alright , my dear , I like your restrain for the -once a week- rule thing , but baby we both know my body endured more blood lost at a time than your 'barely 300ml' " Sanemi said softly , mock and humour lacing throughout his words
"I think it's become a luxury more than a functional necessity for me" Giyuu murmured as he looked at Sanemi . both still standing where they stopped at the begging of this conversion .
"you know I can stop you if I want, and I think you have self restrain enough , why are you afraid then, my love" Sanemi asked as he took his husband hand and guided them both to the inside of their estate .
"it's seems odd , I've never experienced this long term thirst for blood in all of my time knowing you" Giyuu replies softly .
Sanemi hummed in thought he excluded the thought of it being that this accured because they stayed with eachother without that much of a distance even at various events they went to , because they spent a longer while with eachother before .
"Could it be its smell , Is it provoking you , I remember reading about this , but vaguely" Sanemi let out his last thought aloud.
Giyuu hummed as he leaned more into his husband shoulder "May it be , but I think I made my peace with its scent long time ago"
Sanemi gave a soft chuckle kissing Giyuu's hair murmuring "So you're just greedy" .
"yes, will you indulge me?" Giyuu repeated his own words against him , smartass.
"Always" Sanemi replied as he kissed Giyuu's lips before he sat down on the velvety couch in thier living room.
Giyuu knelt infront of Sanemi , who was confused abit , becuase Giyuu tend to feed from his neck ,sitting in his lap all snug and cozy .
"Are you after the femoral artery now" Sanemi joked as Giyuu looked up with the faint smile of his .
"Radial" Giyuu corrected as he took Sanemi palm in his , lifting it to cup his face as he laid a kiss on Sanemi palm as he gently lifted the already loose sleeves of Sanemi clothing.
Sanemi hummed in answer as he visualized the setting before he pulled his hand away from a stilled Giyuu before he leaned down to lift his husband off the ground and sit down again only this time with his beautiful spouse in his arm , as Giyuu settled briefly on his lap.
he pulled his sleeve up in a quick motion then offered it to Giyuu , who leaned into it gratefully as his blue eyes shimmeres before they closed and his pretty fangs became much more noticeable as he grazed down on Sanemis wrist.
it stung in the beginning but the feeling is settling , his fingers laced through Giyuus hair in soft strokes as much as he could possibly , without moving his actual wrist so it won't bother Giyuu .
The sting felt momental before it faded to the familiar rhythm of Giyuu , Sanemi relaxed against the couch behinde him as Giyuu was apparent to be enjoying himself .
"don't you look very cute , My angel" Sanemi teased in abit of mockery tone,that Giyuu responded by only humming in refusal as he continued to withdraw blood into his mouth.
"oh we're not brushing that off.
so content , you could be mistaken for a pacified baby"
Sanemi continued ,placing a 'sorry for inconvenience' kiss to Giyuu's hair, as Giyuu sighed in defeat and pulled back , he was actually well beyond not_hungry at that point , but having more was abit more ideal .but Sanemi was talking nonsense,again.
"you really do , darling... the way you're holding onto my wrist right now," he began, amusement already tugging at the corners of his voice, "it's like watching a baby with its pacifier."
Giyuu paused mid‑sip.
He didn't stop feeding, he was too polite, too composed , and maybe a tad bit too greedy. But his shoulders definitely stiffened ever so slightly.
Sanemi felt the faintest vibration against his skin, the muted growl that wasn't quite a growl. It was the vampire equivalent of a highly offended huff.
Sanemi grinned.
"Should I start rocking you?" he asked, leaning forward to whisper dramatically near Giyuu's ear. "Maybe hum you a lullaby? 'Rock‑a‑bye, bloodsucker'-"
Giyuu's fangs gently pressed deeper-not painful, but pointed.
A warning.
"Ah," Sanemi chuckled, "so you can bite harder. Good to know." His thumb traced Giyuu's temple affectionately. "Just checking your settings, sweetheart."
Giyuu slowly pulled back-not fully letting go, but pausing long enough to lift his head and look up at him. His eyes were soft, luminous, and half lidded, the blue shimmering like cold light underwater.
"You are incorrigible," Giyuu whispered, voice warm despite the faint pout forming at the edges.
"And you," Sanemi tapped his husband's chin, "are adorable when you're pretending to be terrifying while using my hand as a bottle." He cooed deliberately.
Giyuu's lips thinned.
Sanemi was enjoying himself far too much.
"If I remove my wrist," Sanemi continued, "will you whine? Do you want a nap after?"
Giyuu, dignified, ancient, regal Giyuu, who had survived centuries, wars, shifting empires, the rise and fall of entire paranormal clans-closed his eyes to avoid visibly reacting.
Sanemi snorted.
That was a reaction.
Giyuu gently reached up, placing a cool hand over Sanemi's mouth to silence whatever further nonsense was about to spill out. Sanemi kissed the palm instead.
And then, because he had absolutely no self-control where teasing his vampire was concerned, he murmured against Giyuu's hand, "Do all babies glare like that?"
Giyuu leaned up, brushed their lips together in a soft reprimand, and whispered, "If I were still drinking from your radial artery, I would have bitten you for that."
"Well," Sanemi smirked, "good thing you're on the wrist. Safer for both of us."
Giyuu resumed feeding, though his touch was noticeably gentler-if that were even possible. His fangs scraped lightly along Sanemi's skin, drawing almost nothing, taking only what he needed.
Sanemi watched him with the kind of fondness that couldn't be hidden even if he tried.
He'd told Giyuu countless times that his blood loss threshold was practically nonexistent ,he had bled far more on battlefields, and during training in the para military, But Giyuu never treated this lightly.
Never took more than the bare minimum. Never let himself slip into the instinctual hunger that vampires of his region were infamous for.
Sanemi's free hand slid over Giyuu's back, feeling the quiet, steady rise and fall of a body that breathed only out of habit.
"You know," Sanemi said thoughtfully, "if you ever decide to switch careers, you'd make an excellent infant. You've already mastered the part where you cling and sip."
Without lifting his mouth, Giyuu reached up and pinched Sanemi's thigh.
Sanemi dramaticly let a soft gasp with an "ow" sound
"that's how you treat your husband ,Vampires have such a wild infant breed"
Giyuu sighed against Sanemi's wrist , gently pulling away.
"Are you comparing my centuries of restraint and discipline to an infant comfort habit ?" Giyuu beamusedly replied.
"Yes" Sanemi simply said , dead on point .
"And you ought to be the most precious one of them all" Sanemi said his gentle grip of Giyuu's waist beccame more noticeable into a hug for Giyuu , who hugged Sanemi's arm around him and kissed Sanemi wrist , where the punctures marks were displayed beautifully , two clean dots that were still thumbing blood , Giyuu kissed the marks again , this time giving it a kitten lick in the end , to seal its wound , for Giyuu's saliva has healing benefits to it , part of it because of his vampire region , and part because of his profession ,and his family habits of taming their body to poison.
"dear , I'm two and a half centuries older than you , and I'm not being precisely exact" Giyuu replied in his usual soft tone for Sanemi , as Sanemi acoffed .
"uh huh , that's different between the two ralems" Sanemi encountered.
"My caln lives in the same realm as yours" Giyuu sighed
"yeah in time loops" Sanemi countered .
Sanemi cupped the side of his face.
"Better?" he asked softly.
"Yes." Giyuu's voice was a velvety murmur. "Thank you."
"Anytime, sweetheart." Sanemi leaned down, brushing their foreheads together. "I'd rather you tell me, you know. Instead of wandering off to the garden for two nights pretending you're just admiring flowers."
Giyuu blinked slowly, guilt passing over his expression. and he somehow looked smaller "I did not want to inconvenience you." Whispered
Sanemi heart is too little to bare this cuteness, tooth rotting sweetness . "my love , you could never , and I mean it , don't ever feel the need to hide anything from me again , I'm here for you , to please , accompany , and to adore you , feeding you is a treat for me , btw , you hardly want anything , let me have this then , please" Sanemi spoke soundly , and carefully around his words , they had this discussion more times than Sanemi like to have , and Giyuu still need reminding that he belond and it's okay for him to have wants and needs , it hurt Sanemi to see his baby struggling so much , but he'll do whatever to make sure , that his beloved Giyuu , finally realize that he belong.
"okay" Giyuu said softly before snuggling closer to his husband hold.
For a long while, they stayed like that-Giyuu sitting sideways on Sanemi's lap, their fingers intertwined, the soft ticking of the antique clock filling the quiet space around them.
"You're warmer tonight," Giyuu murmured absentmindedly as he traced Sanemi's pulse point.
"You're always cold," Sanemi countered. "So that balances out."
"I am not cold," Giyuu protested, offended.
"Darling, you're a corpse with good skincare." Sanemi retorted before he could think much of it , terrified , and it showed on his expression.
Giyuu stared at him.
"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that," Giyuu finally muttered.
Sanemi nodded in agreement with a quick horrified "yes please".
Sanemi took about three seconds regainning his composer and back to his strike of teasing his husband .
He kissed Giyuu's cheek. "Now come here, pacifier boy-let's get you properly seated before you tumble off my lap."
Giyuu groaned softly at the nickname but let Sanemi pull him closer, tuck him against his chest, and settle him securely across his thighs.
"If you keep calling me that," Giyuu warned, "I will bite harder next time."
Sanemi placed a hand over his heart and gasped with mock horror. "My! A threat! And here I thought you were a gentleman."
Giyuu's nose brushed against his jaw. "I am."
"Mmh," Sanemi smirked, fingers carding gently through black hair. "Then be gentle with your pacifier privileges, sweetheart."
Giyuu covered Sanemi's mouth again.
Sanemi kissed his palm.
And Giyuu-ancient, graceful, dignified Giyuu-hid his face in Sanemi's neck to silently sulk.
Sanemi pretended he didn't notice.
And held him a little tighter.
_____________
Sanemi was planning to make a show of carrying his darling beautiful royalty treated husband , bridal style to their room , mostly to flex his muscles and kiss Giyuu all the way up the stairs , but sadly in the same second he got up Giyuu somehow manged to tackle him back down to their previous position , Sanemi was confused as to why , but then he got his answer when Giyuu very delicately slid an arm under Sanemi's thighs and the other bracing his back .
"yeah okay big guy we get it you're strong wow" Sanemi groaned .
"love , you are not walking after losing that much blood" Giyuu said in his soft mild voice.
"it wasn't even that much stop preventing me from flexing on my husband " Sanemi whined as he repositioned his arms that were hugging Giyuu's neck .
"you don't like me paying you back?" Giyuu teased with a kiss to Sanemi's eyelid .
"I'm kidding ,I fucking love it"
_____________
They made it to the bedroom ,with Giyuu unhurried pace , Sanemi pretending he wasn't perfectly content to be carried, both of them talking about nothing in the soft way that meant everything.
Giyuu set him down at the edge of the bed with the same care he gave to rare things, which Sanemi had learned, over years of marriage, was simply how Giyuu handled everything he decided mattered.
"I'm not fragile," Sanemi said.
"I know." Giyuu straightened the blanket with two precise movements. "I'm aware of exactly how much blood you can lose before it becomes a clinical concern. I have your entire physiology memorized."
"Then stop handling me like antique china."
"Antique china doesn't have marechi blood." Giyuu sat beside him, composed even in bed at two in the morning. "It's different."
Sanemi lay back against the pillows. Watched his husband in the low light of their room — the dark hair loose now, the blue eyes quiet and settled in the particular way they went after feeding, like something had been put to rest.
He looked, as he always looked in private moments, less like a two hundred year old vampire aristocrat and more like something that simply belonged here. In this room. Beside him.
"Come here," Sanemi said.
Giyuu shifted without ceremony, settling beside him, one hand finding Sanemi's as a matter of course.
Quiet.
Sanemi cradled him closer, a hand under and around his snatched waist .
Giyuu shifted, his fingers curling faintly against Sanemi's bicep.
he was abit curious , his mind still hung on Sanemi's teasing from earlier.
"love?" he murmured, eyes cast downward. "What is... Rockabye Baby?"
Sanemi almost choked on air.
"What?"
Giyuu cleared his throat with the delicate elegance of someone unused to embarrassment but suddenly experiencing it. "Earlier. You referenced a lullaby. I realized I... did not recognize it."
Sanemi blinked, processing.
Then he laughed.
He didn't mean to. It just broke out of him, sudden and bright.
Giyuu looked affronted.
"It is not funny" he muttered, lips pursed.
"Oh, no, no-" Sanemi placed his smuggness aside and immediately cupped Giyuu's cheeks, pulling him closer. "I swear I'm not laughing at you. It's just-darling, you've lived nearly three centuries and you don't know 'Rockabye Baby'?"
Giyuu's brows drew inward ever so slightly. "I know many lullabies. I have heard countless melodies. I have hummed several to calm panicked children in clinics. But that one..." He tilted his head. "The one you referenced... the words did not sound familiar."
"My love," Sanemi murmured, pressing a kiss to his forehead. "It's like... the most basic, overused lullaby humans have. Every parent knows it. Every nursery. Every-"
"Sing it," Giyuu interrupted gently.
Sanemi stopped.
Giyuu's eyes were soft, crystalline, almost fragile in their curiosity.
"You want me to sing it?" Sanemi whispered lovingly.
"You are my husband," Giyuu said simply. "I want to know what you know."
Sanemi felt his heart tilt sideways. so very giddy.
This man , his man ,this ancient, dignified creature of elegance and moonlight, had asked for something so human and small.
And Sanemi, who had the emotional stability of someone stitched together by only good luck when it came to Giyuu, was suddenly not okay.
He inhaled deeply. "Alright, sweetheart. But don't laugh at me. I'm a scientist, not a bard."
Giyuu's lips curved faintly. "I would never laugh at you."
"You did when I tried opera."
"That was different," Giyuu deadpanned. "You attempted to imitate a soprano."
"I was enthusiastic!"
"You nearly summoned a spirit."
Sanemi groaned. "Shut it. You want the lullaby or not?"
Giyuu nodded once, sincerely.
Sanemi sighed, placed a hand over Giyuu's hair , gently combing through it, and began.
The Lullaby
His voice was soft-not perfect, but warm, the kind that lingers at the edge of lamplight.
"Rockabye baby, on the treetop..."
Giyuu listened with profound stillness, the kind that came not from the supernatural but from reverence.
"When the wind blows, the cradle will rock..."
Giyuu's eyes softened further.
"When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall..."
Giyuu blinked slowly.
"And down will come baby, cradle and all."
A long silence.A very long silence.
before Giyuu Giyuu stared at him blankly.
Sanemi stared back.
"Darling?" Sanemi questioned in a soft murmur tilting his head , to check on his very still husband .
"Yes?" Giyuu whispered.
"Are you alright? You look like your soul left your body. Again."
Giyuu blinked once. Twice.
Then, in the gentlest voice possible-
"They sang this to children?"
Sanemi burst out laughing again.
Giyuu looked horrified.
"The child falls? They allowed this?"
"It's symbolic!" Sanemi wheezed.
"Of... infant mortality?" Giyuu said, completely serious.
Sanemi froze for a moment trying to think of a smartass comeback but couldn't .
"...okay, yes, maybe historically-"
"Sanemi." Giyuu's voice grew increasingly disturbed. "The baby plummets from a great height."
"Well, that's- I mean-"
"Humans are terrifying."
"You're a vampire."
"And still," Giyuu protested, gesturing elegantly, "I would never sing to a child about them falling from a tree. That is barbaric."
Sanemi wiped tears from his eyes. "Oh, sweetheart... It's harmless. It's just old folklore. No one thinks about the words. It's just for soothing."
Giyuu looked unconvinced. Deeply unconvinced.
"I will not sing that to my child," he declared.
"We don't have a child."
"If we ever do."
Sanemi's throat tightened unexpectedly. He cleared it. "Right. Of course. You would prefer something gentler."
Giyuu nodded firmly.
"Like?" Sanemi teased, leaning in.
"Something," Giyuu said solemnly, "that does not involve infants plummeting from trees."
Sanemi snorted.
"Okay, okay. What lullabies do you know?" he asked, curling a leg beneath himself.
Giyuu thought for a moment. "Most of the melodies I recall come from centuries ago. Old human villages. My mother's voice. My aunts'. And many I heard in medical halls when I worked as an apothecary, long before I formally became a toxicologist." His eyes lowered. "I learned to hum to soothe frightened children-I suppose I accumulated quite a repertoire."
"Sing me one," Sanemi requested softly.
Giyuu hesitated.
"I do not sing," he murmured.
"You hum yourself to sleep , now sing."
Giyuu stared at him, wounded. "You promised not to mention that."
"I lied. Sing, my love."
Giyuu sighed with the weight of six centuries."They're not traditionally sung to adults," Giyuu said trying to oppose to Sanemi's very detriment want.
"I know."
"Or to humans."
"I know that too." Sanemi said .
"They're" a breath, trying to find his phrasing "they're very old. Some predate written language. They were orally like most folklore, only a few centuries back did they got written in books when civilization between the realms happened."
He paused. "My mother sang them to me. Her mother sang them to her."
Sanemi didn't say anything. Just waited, the way he'd learned to wait with Giyuu ,without pressure, without filling the space, just staying.
"They're not like human lullabies," Giyuu continued, quieter now. "Human lullabies are mostly about sleep. About rest. About the night being safe." Something moved through his voice, careful and considered. "Vampire lullabies are not about sleep. I think it's because it's not a nessisity . So they're about other things. The permanence of the night. The patience of old things. And" he stopped briefly , mostly touched about what's in his mind and the symbolic meaning of vampiric folklore lullabies.
"about mortals. About the ones we love who are warm and temporary. There are many about that."
Sanemi understood why Giyuu is taking a slower pace talking, "About mortals," Sanemi said softly.
"About learning to love something that moves faster than you do." Giyuu's hand had stilled on Sanemi's arm. "About watching. About being the thing that stays when everything else changes."
The room was very quiet."Sing me one of those," Sanemi said.
Giyuu was still for a long moment. Then he shifted slowly, deliberately, until he was propped slightly above Sanemi.
looking down at him the way he sometimes looked when he thought Sanemi wasn't fully paying attention. But Sanemi was always paying attention.
In the low light, Giyuu's eyes were the deep blue of something very old and very deep, and he looked at his husband with the most loving expression.
in the dark, only when there was no one else.
Then he began.
It was low. Lower than speaking, lower than murmuring, something that existed in the register of old stones and deep water.
The syllables weren't Japanese or Russian or any language Sanemi could place.
something older, rounder, with consonants that seemed to come from further back in the throat, vowels that held longer than they should.
It didn't sound like a lullaby at first.
It sounded like a recitation. Like something being remembered. Like the words themselves were heavier than ordinary words, carrying the specific weight of things said over centuries in darkened rooms beside warm sleeping bodies.
But then Sanemi heard it underneath the strangeness of the language, the shape of it. The repetition. The way certain syllables came back like a tide.
it felt like the moon and the tide .
The way Giyuu's voice, always so carefully measured, let something go here, let it move through him rather than directing it.
He didn't understand a word.
He felt every single one.
Giyuu sang .if it was singing, if that word was wide enough for perhaps two minutes. Perhaps longer. Time felt different under it, slightly elastic, the way time felt when you were very warm and very still and something beautiful was happening nearby.
When he stopped, the silence felt full rather than empty.
Sanemi realized he'd closed his eyes at some point. He opened them. Found Giyuu still watching him, something open in his expression, the unguarded version of his face that existed only here.
"What did that one mean," Sanemi said. His voice came out quieter than he intended.
Giyuu considered. "Approximately" he paused, translating privately, finding words for things that resisted them.
"you will sleep and I will be the dark around you. You will dream and I will be the thing that keeps the dreams inside you.
You are brief and I am long, and I have chosen brief, and I would choose it again, and again, and every time there is a choosing I will choose warm."
Sanemi stared at him.
"Warm," he repeated.
"The word doesn't translate precisely. It means" Giyuu tilted his head, " it's about mortals. Human. But in the old tongue those were the same word. Warm." Something very quiet moved through his expression. "They considered it the most precise description."
Sanemi reached up. Put his hand against Giyuu's face, thumb at his cheekbone, the way he did when something had gotten past his defenses and he wasn't going to pretend otherwise.
"Who wrote it," he asked.
"I don't know. Someone who loved a human very much." A pause. "Someone who found that brief and bright were not opposites."
Sanemi pulled him down.
But he shifted toward Sanemi, took both his hands, and in a voice barely above a whisper, began a lullaby older than every stone in the mansion.
It was haunting.
Gentle.
Wistful.
Something that felt like moonlight filtering through glass.
Sanemi stilled.
Giyuu tilted his head. "Was it unpleasant?"
"Unpleasant?" Sanemi echoed, voice cracking. "My heart is in shambles."
Giyuu blinked. "Is that... good?"
"You sound like the last surviving angel in a cathedral," Sanemi said , his voice weighing with love and admiration that it ached "A ghostly choir boy who watched empires burn. A-"
Giyuu placed a finger over his lips. "You are exaggerating."
"Not enough," Sanemi insisted. kissing Giyuu's finger
Giyuu looked away, his cheeks faintly colored-an old reflex his body still mimicked even without flowing blood.
"Do I truly sound-"
"Giyuu, you could lull an adult lion with that voice," Sanemi said emphatically. "I'm shocked I'm still conscious."
Giyuu seemed more confused the more the praise continued.
Which made Sanemi grin.
"Actually," Sanemi said thoughtfully, "you know what? You should hum that when you're hungry. That way I'll fall asleep and you can drink in peace."
Giyuu looked appalled. "Sanemi. I am a vampire, not a hypnotic tea blend."
Sanemi laughed again, warm and full.
the room was now dim , Giyuu's doing since he wanted Sanemi to sleep soundly , he was gently moving his fingers along Sanemi's spine in a gentle manner , to ease him to sleep more .
"I also choose warm , everytime" Giyuu whispered to a sound asleep Sanemi .
"I love you , across every life time , in every time line , in any space and universe , my beloved" Giyuu gently breathed to Sanemi's temple , kissing him tenderly.
"good night, mon cher".