Chapter Text
The pitter-patter of the rain against the glass of the window did nothing to soothe Mikaela’s nerves.
He used to like the rain. He used to like those days, at the orphanage, when the kids were restless for not being able to play outside, and they would all gather around Akane, so she could tell them a bedtime story, even though it was barely mid afternoon. He used to like the rain even back at home, way before being a Hyakuya, when the sound of it would cover up his mother’s cries and his father’s threats.
He used to like the rain, because the day Yuu arrived at the orphanage, it had been raining.
Of course, that all changed with the virus. It was to be expected that something that corrosive would not only kill humans, but other living creatures too. It was a matter of time before rivers and oceans were infected, turning the rain so acidic, standing under it just for a couple of seconds would burn your clothes and then your skin. Letting it touch your body was agony, no matter if you were human or vampire.
Mikaela used to like the rain. Now he was sure he despised it.
Because the sudden downpour had made not only him, but a certain human squad take refuge in an apartment not far away from Nagoya’s city hall. It was kind of surrealist, the fact that he was sitting around with the humans that he hated so much, waiting for Yuu to wake up.
While he thought this, his eyes moved from the window to Yuu’s unmoving form on the bed. His chest raised and fell with every breath, his eyes moving behind his eyelids, signaling his restless sleep. He had cuts and scrapes on his face, and some others more deep on his arms. One of the humans had wrapped them all in old t-shirts they had found around the apartment, but it did little for Mikaela: the smell of the blood was as strong as if he had his nose buried on Yuu’s wounds.
That was why he was sitting by the closed window, instead of sitting right next to Yuu like the humans were doing. The blond girl was asleep on a chair by the bed, while the other one sat by Yuu’s waist, her hand incredibly close to his. Mikaela had seen her take his hand a couple of times, just to immediately drop it with a blush.
He had tried so hard to not let that affect him. So hard.
But he was not doing a great job, it seemed. He had been staring at the girl — Shinoa (he still remembered the way Yuu’s voice had sounded while shouting her name, so raw and in so much pain) — so intently, he didn’t realize there was someone next to him until they spoke.
“Mikaela-san?”
All of Mikaela’s body went tense. He hadn’t heard the boy (Yoichi, his brain supplied) approach him, and that was eerie. Since becoming a vampire, he had been able to hear people breathing, people’s hearts beating, even before he had seen them. But right now, there was only one thing in his mind, and he wasn’t really paying attention to what was going on around him.
He really should, though. He was in a room full of armed enemies, after all.
Mikaela didn’t move, but he did let his eyes slip from the body on the bed to the body next to him. Now that he was paying attention, he could clearly hear the way the boy’s heart was beating so fast, and see the thin layer of sweat that covered his skin. Still, he did not appeared afraid of Mikaela. Just… nervous, to be talking to him.
“Mikaela-san?” the boy tried again “I… I found some clothes that seemed okay, and I thought… Well, I thought you might want to change into them?”
“I don’t need a change of clothes” was his immediate answer, sounding almost angry. Years ago, he would have berated himself for sounding so harsh, so impolite. But now…
Well, he just didn’t care anymore. And he cared even less if he was being harsh to the humans.
They deserved it.
But Yoichi seemed taken aback for a second, his already large, green eyes growing even bigger. The skin on Yoichi’s neck started trembling with his quickening heartbeat and, for a second, Mikaela imagined himself getting up, taking the boy in his hands and pressing his fangs over that sweet, sweet spot. He could almost feel the vibrations of the pulse in his lips, the way his jaw would hurt when he opened his mouth and let his fangs pierce the thin skin…
Mikaela saw movement on the periphery of his vision. It was the other boy, the one with pink hair. Kimizuki-kun, Yoichi had called him at some point. He had been pretending to sleep for almost an hour now, but he hadn't fooled Mikaela, not even once. His breathing was too worked up, his shoulders too tense. And if he hadn’t been keeping an eye on Mikaela, well, he definitely was now that Yoichi was next to him. Moreover, his right hand had moved towards the tilt of his weapon, not grabbing it completely, but rather keeping it close, so he wouldn’t miss a second if he ever ended up needing it.
Was Mikaela being that obvious? Had he been staring at Yoichi’s neck that long, with the hunger that he felt apparent on his features?
No, he thought. It’s something else.
“So-sorry.” Yoichi’s voice pulled Mikaela out of his thoughts again. “It’s just… Your uniform looks kind of uncomfortable and I thought you’d feel better in something else…?”
Yoichi, Mikaela was starting to realize, tended to end his phrases with a question when he felt insecure. Kazue, his baby brother at the orphanage, used to do the same.
Mikaela felt his throat close.
“Thank you” Mikaela said, and the words tasted strange on his tongue. “But I would prefer to stay on my uniform.”
Yoichi’s smile was blinding in that instant.
“Of course! I’ll just let them nearby, in case you change your mind.”
Yoichi smiled again, but didn’t wait around too see if Mikaela returned it. He went back to the couch where Kimizuki was pretending to sleep. The moment Yoichi sat though, Kimuzuki moved without opening his eyes, so he could whisper something on Yoichi’s ear.
It didn’t matter: Mikaela still heard everything.
“You okay?” Kimizuki asked.
“Yeah. You don’t have to worry, you know? Mikaela-san is just worried about Yuu-kun.”
“Yeah, I’m not buying it. You know how vampires are. You saw him trying to kidnap Yuu, back in Shinjuku.”
“They’re family, Kimizuki-kun. And Mikaela-san thinks that we’re using Yuu-kun…”
“He’s a vampire, Yoichi. And we are Yuu’s family.”
Well. Mikaela wasn’t prepared for that to hurt the way it did.
But he didn’t have the chance to think about that, or even snap at the boys for thinking Mikaela could ever stop being Yuu’s family. He didn’t have the chance, because there was a change in the way the body on the bed breathed, and Mikaela was the only one who realized.
It wasn’t until he opened his eyes and made a low sound with his throat, that the humans realized Yuu was awake.
“Yuu-san!” Shinoa, the closest to Yuu, exclaimed. Mikaela still hadn’t moved when all the humans gathered around the bed, attacking Yuu with too grabby hands and too many questions, blocking Yuu from his sight. Fury burned in Mikaela’s chest, and he was about to go and force all the humans to leave Yuu alone when he heard the weakest laugh, followed by an equally weak cough.
“Stupid Yuu, you scared us to death!” the blonde girl, Mitsuba, exclaimed “How could you do that? How could you leave us behind and run straight to the nobles? Have you not learned anything from this past months?!”
Yuu’s breath did something strange again, and then he was siting up on the bed suddenly, trying to grab on to something, which ended up being Kimizuki’s shoulder.
“The nobles… Guren! What happened to Guren? Did he make it? Did we save him?”
His voice sounded raw, as if he had been shouting non-stop those last hours, instead of sleeping. His black hair resembled a bird nest, and he looked a little pale… But his eyes were bright and sharp, and Mikaela felt his heart skip a beat before the familiar green.
He couldn’t wait to have those eyes looking at him. Still, he didn’t move closer to the bed. He just couldn’t, though he didn’t know why. Maybe it was because the humans were around the bed, making some kind of barrier between himself and Yuu. Or maybe it was the feeling in his chest that he was neither needed nor wanted here.
Which was completely stupid. Yuu didn’t even know Mikaela was there yet.
“No, Yuu-san” Shinoa said, looking down at her hands. “We weren’t able to save Lieutenant Coronel.”
Yuu’s hand, the one on Kimizuki’s shoulder, suddenly gripped the other boy’s shirt.
“I don’t… I don’t remember much. I remember taking the pill… and then I was running towards the noble, and…”
“You were possessed by your demon, Yuu-san.”
“… Haah? Ashuramaru? Why?”
Mikaela felt a shiver ran down his spine. He thought he had heard that name before, back in Sanguinem.
Why did the name of Ashuramaru seemed suddenly so important to him?
“We think it was the pills.” Mitsuba said “You took too many of them, and you collapsed. Your Black Demon used that moment to take possession of your body. Kimizuki here followed you into the City Hall and got you out before things got worse.”
Yuu looked down at his lap, letting his hair drop over his eyes. The line of his shoulders told Mikaela what the others couldn’t know without looking at his face: that Yuu was about to break down.
Mikaela took a step towards the bed.
“You should have saved Guren instead” Yuu said, without raising his head, and his voice broke at the Lieutenant Coronel’s name “Not me. I’m not… I’m not… “ Yuu swallowed dryly “It shouldn’t have been me.”
“The last order Lieutenant Coronel gave us was to live, Yuu” Kimizuki explained, putting his hand over Yuu’s own. “You know he would have killed us himself if we didn’t followed up his orders.”
That made the others smile a little, even Yuu. Mikaela had already been feeling left out, but it was the grief on all their faces, on Yuu’s face, that made him want to turn around and never come back. It made him feel like he didn’t have a right to be there, as if his mere presence only would make Yuu’s grief intensify.
It was also the first time Mikaela believed those humans. Outside the city hall, a few minutes before it had started to rain, Kimizuki had looked up at him, Yuu still unconscious in his arms, and said: “If you want him, you’ll have to kill me.” In that moment, Mikaela had thought the boy was just a soldier trying to protect his most powerful weapon. But now, looking at them, huddling close together, mourning the closest thing they all ever had to a parental figure, they looked…
They looked like a family.
Mikaela felt the foreign sensation of tears behind his closed eyelids. He wanted to shout. He wanted to cry. He wanted to jump from the window and let the rain wash away every vampiric cell on his body.
Yuu had been the only reason why Mikaela kept on living. Saving Yuu, being reunited with him, were the only things that made him swallow his next dosis of Krul’s blood.
Knowing that those things were never necessary made him feel hollow inside.
He was already turning around when he heard a gasp from the bed. He didn’t want to, but his feet acted on his own, and they stopped. Mikaela felt the eyes of everyone in the room on him.
Of everyone.
Mikaela turned around. The humans had finally parted, letting him see Yuu, and letting himself be seen. Yuu’s eyes had widened, and the tears that had threatened to spill while they were talking about Guren were finally running down his cheeks and onto his lap.
Mikaela felt his own tears prickle at the corner of his eyes.
Without a word, Yuu started to get up from the bed. The humans tried to stop him, putting their hands on him, but Yuu pushed them away without a glance. His eyes were fixed on Mikaela, and Mikaela only, and the feelings that were visible in them made the vampire feel something incredibly warm fill his chest. The things that those green, green eyes were telling him made him feel like a fool for thinking that Yuu didn’t need him anymore. Of course he needed him. Yuu needed Mikaela, the same way Mikaela needed Yuu.
He would never, ever think of leaving Yuu behind again.
Yuu was too weak to even walk to where Mikaela was standing, so of course he ended up tripping with his own feet. But he had just started falling and Mikaela was already there, taking Yuu in his arms and lowering him to the floor, until they both were on their knees on the ground. Yuu waisted no time and hugged Mikaela close to his chest, burrowing his face on Mikaela’s neck, whispering incoherent things against his skin.
Mikaela wanted to do the same. He wanted to be as close to Yuu as possible, to breathe that smell that was only Yuu’s, an incredibly familiar smell even after four years. But he was scared, too. Some part of him still remembered how he had reacted at Yoichi’s close proximity, how his whole body had wanted nothing more than Yoichi’s blood, not even caring about anything else.
Mikaela didn’t want to lose control, ever. But even less, he didn’t want to lose it with Yuu.
So he settled for letting his forehead rest on Yuu’s shoulder and letting his tears, finally, spill.
“Yuu-chan…”
For the first time in four years, Mikaela felt at home.