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Azusa asks for Yui’s permission when he wants to drink her blood, which is more than she can say for any other vampire that she’s ever met. If she says no, he just gives a little nod, turns around, and ambles away.
He doesn’t seem prone to feeding from other humans outside of her the way that Kou does. On more than one occasion she’s walked in on the latter brazenly drinking from a classmate’s neck in the girl’s bathroom at school. He made eye contact and winked before Yui backed away. She doubts that Azusa can compete with his elder brother’s allure in terms of hunting prey (ugh… she’s been around vampires too much, to think of other people in those terms). Not that he seems to make much of an effort. More likely he's picking at scabs and staring at the floor as his classmates give him a wide berth.
One night she stumbles upon him draining the blood from a rabbit that had made the mistake of entering Yuma’s garden. If Yuma himself had found it, Yui has no doubt that he would've eaten it whole in three bites or less. She'd seen him do it before. As it is, Azusa cradles the trembling, thrashing animal to his face as he bites into it. The rabbit's ragged scream chills her.
"Azusa!" Yui cries out, echoing the rabbit's distress.
"Oh." Azusa lifts his head, a smudge of blood on his chin. "Good evening."
His slow, slurring speech doesn't match the rabbit's desperate struggles nor Yui's racing heart.
"Please let it go,” she says, hands bunched in the fabric at her throat. “Please."
Azusa wraps his arms around the rabbit more thoroughly as if she's going to take it away from him. As if she even could. Yui feels a kinship with the creature as it appears to go into shock, utterly limp in Azusa's arms. Helpless to the appetites of a hungry predator, and a supernatural one at that. She can imagine exactly how the rabbit was caught: one moment nibbling on a tender head of lettuce, the next swept up in the grasp of a vampire that hadn't been there before.
To Azusa's credit, he at least has the grace to look guilty, mouth drooping and foggy eyes sliding to one side.
"Sorry, Eve... sorry, bunny. I'm thirsty. Haven't fed since..." He trails off.
Yui's stomach twists. Her fault. This is her fault. She can't remember the last time that she let Azusa feed on her, either. It had seemed rational to take him up on his willingness to let her be, but now she realizes he must be starving. It's not in his nature to go out and hunt. How had he gotten by before the Mukamis took her? His brothers must have provided prey for him. Kou's denizens of fans come to mind, though she struggles to imagine how he would manage to justify to the girls lusting after him why they should get anywhere near his strange brother.
“Please, take mine instead." She swallows and forces a shaky smile. "I don't mind."
Azusa's eyes light up and snap back to her. "Eve's blood..?"
"Yes.”
Without hesitation, he sets the rabbit down. It stays utterly still for a moment, then is off like a shot. Yui sighs in relief even as Azusa sidles up to her.
“I’ll… make it… good.” He salivates and his throat bobs as he swallows.
She shudders. “Please don’t worry about that.”
By “good” he means “painful.” He’s such a sweet, docile creature, but his ideas of love and affection are as twisted as any of the others.
“Why not..? Eve is… precious…” He snuggles against her neck and gives it a preparatory lick.
“I, ah—I would prefer it if you were gentle.”
He pulls away, foggy eyes blinking once, twice. “Oh… o… kay…”
He sounds confused, but he obeys her wishes. The bite breaks shallow twin holes into her neck and his sucking comes out more like an impassioned kiss. Yui still feels the effects of his appetite, though, sagging against him, weak and cold. His skeletal, frigid body feels particularly hot after he’s had his fill.
Azusa moans softly. “Are you going to… punish me? For biting? I know… you don’t like it.”
“What?”
“Please, do it… hurt me. I prefer knives, but… I’d love it if you…” He takes a shuddering breath. “Hit me… as well.”
He looks so blissed-out that she kisses him instead. She's had so many of those stolen from her recently; just that morning Ruki had forced his mouth on hers in a crash of teeth. But Azusa has been patient with her to the point of going hungry and she can't, won't, hurt him in return. He blinks, slowly, and licks his lips.
“That… felt good,” he whispers, then looks away, a blush coloring his death-white skin. “Please, Miss Eve… can I have another?”
She stands on her toes and kisses his forehead, too. Azusa sighs happily.
He lifts his arms as if unsure what to do with them. Yui, catching on, snuggles into his embrace. The bandages on his arms rasp against her back.
“Can I tell you… something?”
Yui nods against his chest. No matter how long it’s been since she first encountered vampires, she never gets used to their lack of a heartbeat. Azusa strokes her back with one hand, fingers hooked as if he’s fighting with the urge to scratch her.
“When I was… small… and human… I got hit here… a lot.” He reaches up to cup the back of her head.
“Oh, Azusa,” Yui whispers, grasping his wrist.
His hand slides forward to cup her cheek.
”I… loved it. But… it makes talking, thinking… more…” He trails off.
Yui leans into his hand. “I understand.”
“Do you?” He sounds so tired.
“I think so.”
“I’m sorry that I… I’m… I try to, but I—” Azusa shakes his head as he trips over his words. “Miss Eve, I don’t… I’m not sure I can… become Adam, but…”
“It’s okay,” she assures, even though she most certainly doesn’t understand that particular line of thought from the Mukamis.
He gifts her a knife that night. She doesn't really want it, but he doesn't leave much room to refuse. As she grasps the cool handle, Yui dares to think that she can trust him. At least as much as she can trust any vampire, anyway.
She’s out with the Mukamis getting groceries of all things when Azusa’s loyalty is tested. The whole experience is a testament to how much more they trust her not to try to run than the Sakamakis ever did. All four brothers split up the moment they enter the store, and Yui gets nothing more than a warning glare from Ruki to indicate she’s expected to stay put. She wonders tiredly how far she would make it before they caught her.
She doesn’t get further than the produce section before she gets caught by someone else instead.
“Whatcha doin', little bitch?”
A slimy, cool tongue licks a stripe up her cheek.
“Laito!” She drops the apple she’d been examining and whips around.
Laito Sakamaki grins at her, dimpling his pale cheeks. Instinctually, she clutches at her cross.
Laito puts his hands on his hips and cocks them to one side. “Awww, you recognized me. That’s really endearing, you know?”
Yui glances around. At this time of night, just before closing, there’s hardly a soul in the store.
“I was on my way to go find some prey downtown when—wouldn’t you know it—I smell a delectable, familiar aroma.” He inhales deeply, then exhales with a giggle. “Those guys really ought to keep a tighter leash on you. Then again, they’re just a bunch of worthless mutts, themselves, aren’t they? Not a stud among them. But that’s okay now that I’m here, mm?”
“Are you going to—?”
“Take you back? I wish, but no. That’s not really my call, baby.”
Yui knows better than to trust his word. Laito is a capricious creature, moods mercurial, prone to employing doublespeak only he could hope to understand.
“Ah,” Laito says, looking over her shoulder. “Here comes one now.”
Yui turns around and sees Azusa limping towards them. Had he hurt one of his legs recently? It must have been bad for his vampiric healing not to have taken care of it.
“Eve..? Are you… okay?”
Maybe he can help, somehow. Yui feels guilty for doubting.
“Azusa, this man is—”
“We were just discussing how little bitch adores having two vampires drink her blood at once,” Laito interrupts smoothly, throwing his arm around her shoulder. “Or more, if she’s feeling spicy.”
He digs his nails into her upper arm, warning her not to object. Yui bites her lip.
It’s Laito’s usual routine, trying to goad another vampire into participating in drinking blood alongside him for his own pleasure. Yui swallows, feeling a cold sweat rising. Azusa might just be gullible enough to fall for his act.
“Spicy…” He looks interested, but there’s a quirk to his glazed expression.
“Azusa, please—“ Yui pleads.
“Hush, now,” Laito says, tightening his grip.
Azusa is quiet for a moment, then says, “Will you be… gentle..? She… likes that.”
Laito laughs, shaking Yui with the force of the convulsions in his narrow chest.
“My, my, little bitch, you’ve really domesticated this one, haven’t you?” To Azusa, he says, “I’m a gentleman, of course. I love nothing more than making ladies feel good.”
Azusa appears unsure, gaze sliding back and forth between Laito and Yui. She shakes her head tightly.
“Spoilsport,” Laito hisses at her, playful expression darkening.
He truly digs his nails in then. Yui cries out.
“Stop that,” Azusa snaps with force she didn’t know he possessed.
Evidently Laito didn’t, either, because he stops, face showing his surprise for a precious moment before it’s back to his mask.
“Oh? What’s this? Would you say you looove this girl?” Laito sing-songs.
Azusa's glassy eyes blink once, twice. “Of… course…”
“Azusa," Yui protests, flattered and embarrassed both at once; surely he can't mean that.
“Eve… Yui… of course I love her," he reaffirms.
“Love’s next to meaningless to me," Laito says, belying how he had brought it up in the first place. "Right now, I just want a taste of the little bitch."
Azusa shakes his head hard. “No. You’ve… hurt her… enough.”
“Oh?” Laito’s voice drops to a deep, uncharacteristic growl. “Maybe I should hurt someone else.”
Azusa exhales a wheezing sound that might be a laugh. The threat is worthless. If not for Yui’s presence, she has no doubt he would beg Laito to make good on his words.
Yui glances between them. Azusa’s hands clench into trembling fists, the blank stoicism in his face bleeding away to be replaced with open hostility. His eyes keep slipping to where Laito holds her. Laito, meanwhile, bares his teeth, marring his aristocratic features with his snarl. They can and will murder each other in the produce aisle, she just knows it.
With a series of sharp motions she didn’t think herself possible of executing, she tears away from Laito, puts herself between him and Azusa, and pulls out the knife Azusa gifted her. She'd kept it strapped to her belt from the moment he gave it to her, disguised with a loose sweater's hem. Laito’s mouth snaps shut and he lifts his chin, startled.
“This knife is the kind that will kill vampires,” Yui lies. “So… so you’d better back off.”
The threat is feeble in the face of a vampire, but it's all she has.
Laito’s eyes narrow a fraction. Then they squint nearly-shut as he smiles.
He knows. He has to.
“Little bitch,” he croons. “How flattering.”
Yui swallows. Cold sweat rises on her skin. Doubtless both of them can smell it.
“But… mmh… I don’t feel like dying today." He pushes the point of the blade away. "You want to play with knives, call me. This guy’ll be selfish with them, I can tell.”
Behind her, Azusa makes that strange wheeze again. Yui flinches when she feels a hand brush her shoulder, only to realize it's him, placating.
Laito sighs and rocks back on his heels. "You sure I can’t have some blood? Not even a few drops for dear, sweet Laito?"
Yui shakes her head, not trusting herself to speak.
“No fun. But you know what this means, little bitch—" Laito sneers. “I’m gonna be even hungrier for that luscious blood of yours next time.”
He reaches for her. She flinches, but he only pokes her on the tip of her nose. Laito laughs and turns away, uncaring about leaving himself vulnerable to attack.
Yui becomes dimly aware of Azusa cuddling up to her, hugging her from behind. He takes hold of the arm she's still holding the knife up with and lowers it to her side. He smells like blood and disinfectant. It's reassuring in its familiarity if not the sensations it causes.
"It's okay..." He nuzzles her neck. "Your heart... it's beating... so... fast..."
She hopes it doesn't tempt him to bite her. If it does, he keeps a tight rein on the desire, settling for nuzzling her neck. He runs his fingers up and down where she hasn't let go of the knife's handle.
“Eve… that knife… it isn’t…”
“I know." Impossibly, Yui feels herself calming in Azusa's grasp. "But he was going to hurt you, I just know it, so I was going to say whatever I had to to get him to leave.”
“I’m… used to it.”
He doesn’t add what she knows he’s thinking, which is that he likes it.
Yui smiles sadly at him. “You shouldn’t have to be.”
Yuma's booming voice makes her jump. “You gave her a goddamn knife? You trying to get us stabbed?”
She turns in Azusa's loose grasp to see the other Mukami brothers, groceries in hand. It's so... normal. Domestic, even.
“Little masokitty would never—" Kou drawls, then second-guesses himself. "Well, she'd probably stab you. But she wouldn't do it to me, right? Right?"
"She protected you?" Ruki asks, skeptical.
"Of course..." Azusa murmurs.
"Of course," Yui says, putting her free hand over his.