Disclaimer: writing is mine, characters are not. I make no profit from fanworks.

Series: Blood+

Pairings: Karman_+_Irene, Moses_x_Karman

Setting: after episode 29

Rating: PG-13 for "bad" language, suggestive themes

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BITE ME!

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The night was cool and still.

The same could not be said of Moses' good friend. Karman had been increasingly irritable. Which is a bit like saying a cactus was increasingly prickly.

There was no question as to why. Of all the Schiff, he took Irene's death the hardest. They all had their way of dealing with it, mostly by quietly reflecting and paying their respects. Karman's way was a royal freakout. He'd become so intolerable over the past few evenings that the others knew it best to keep their distance. Only Moses stayed by his side.

"DO YOU HAVE ANY MORE BRIGHT IDEAS ?!" Karman paced while wildly gesturing in the isolated wooded area. The two of them were alone, a few miles from the city. They'd come here to bathe. It wasn't like the old days as lab-rats where their showers, like all other activities, where scheduled. Now they mostly relied on streams, rives, and ponds like this one where they could find them. They'd kept the tradition of the girls going separately and trying their best no to look at eachother. Their spear and scythe leaned against the same old oak tree from which their black hooded cloaks hung on low branches.

Karman had only got halfway undressed before he'd launched into a tirade. One boot he'd tossed into the water as an exclamation mark to it. "All of your talk about HOPE is NOTHING. It's NOTHING, Moses. The real question is which one of us is NEXT- to either fall by the Thorn or be slaughtered by someone else?"

"I don't know. I hope none of us will…"

"STOP SAYING THAT WORD! WHAT DID I JUST SAY?"

Moses sighed. There was no arguing with him. Not that he wanted to argue. The sad truth was… he was jealous. It was awful. When he saw the intense way Karman had stared at the suffering Irene, the way he tried to protect her, avenge her, spun out of control at her unfortunate demise… he was jealous. He didn't know where the feeling had come from, but in those moments, somewhere inside, he'd wanted his friend to look at him in that way. He wanted to matter that much to someone. Add to that the fact that Moses had never looked at a girl that way… the boys however… even now he couldn't help but appreciate how his friend looked without a shirt. This left him feeling horribly guilty. Which was why he was here. He wanted to take whatever punishment Karman dished out. He felt he deserved it.

"HEY, I HAVE A PLAN! SINCE WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE ANYWAY, HOW ABOUT WE KILL AS MANY OF THOSE BASTARDS AS WE CAN! GO DOWN IN A BLAZE OF GLORY!"

"…No…"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN NO ?!" Karman turned to glare at him, olive green eyes fiery behind his rust-color framed glasses.

"I don't want to do that. I don't want to fight anymore." Moses, who had been sitting on the grassy ground in nothing more than the pants of their old marching uniforms that they wore under their cloaks the whole time, lowered his head. His silky black hair covered more of his face than it usually did.

That was the last straw for Karman, who literally pounced on him, seething with anger. "That's not how you used to think. When we escaped…"

"That's not getting us anywhere anymore…"

He was prepared for Karman hitting him. He didn't expect what he actually did. Karman bared his teeth and bit him. Square in the chest. Moses cried out I shock more than anything else. Their creators often compared them to dogs and right now Karman was acting like a poorly socialized cornered one. He'd bitten and held, a low growl coming from his throat. His hands had begun to turn the monstrous grayish-green, crimson claws digging into Moses' shoulders.

Moses wasn't mad. He pitied him. Karman needed to take it out on someone. Moses didn't mind if it was him. He reached out to pet his short honey-brown hair. It seemed to soothe the savage beast within.

Karman pulled out his fangs and eyed his handiwork. Red liquid pooled on pale skin from the circular holes that were quickly closing up. Moses had been stabbed though the middle multiple times during skirmishes and healed instantaneously due to their unique biology. Karman hadn't inflicted permanent damage; it wasn't possible to. Still there was a tinge of remorse. He bent down to lap it up even though they found the taste of their own kind to be sour (only human blood was appetizing). He withdrew his claws as well, raking them across the dirt as he tended to those wounds with his tongue.

Moses moaned, but not in anguish. The sight of his own blood on Karman's lips didn't disturb him (as it should). He lifted himself up far enough to lick it off.

They had seen humans exchanging affections in public before, but hadn't understood what it was. They hadn't grown up with the fairytales or families that most children do. They were taught only what they need to know- hygiene and health, conversation so that they could respond to orders and questioning, literacy so that they could read signs and instructions, self-defense, various battle techniques, and to navigate using only their heightened senses and the stars (as the end result of the programs was meant to send them out on missions). Romance was a foreign concept. As far as they could tell, humans pressed their mouths together as a strange way of feeding off eachother.

Karman didn't know how to judge the way the other teen was gazing at him either. He seemed like he wanted something. "Are you hungry?" He offered up his wrist.

Moses wasn't hungry and that wasn't what he wanted, but he didn't refuse it. He did it with finesse, delicately wrapping his fingers around the back of the hand (which had returned to normal) bringing it close. Slowly he sunk his teeth in, careful not to drink too much. Satisfaction came from having an excuse to touch.

The two boys continued this way, each bite becoming more shallow. They explored eachother's upper body, nipping here and there. Until finally they weren't biting at all, only pressing the flat side of their canines against skin, surrounded by a tender kiss.

Having his comrade writhe beneath him was giving Karman strange feelings. He moved away, confusion clear on his face. "What… what are we doing?"

"Don't be scared." Moses reached for him.

"I'M NOT SCARED!"

But the bespectacled youth was. Under all of the anger was constant, gnawing fear. No one but Moses seemingly understood this. Watching Irene put her trust in the human named Kai, only to have the jagged marks of the disease known as the Thorn creep across her, crystallizing and shattering her into pieces… having cradled her, there to witness her convulsions and hear her final scream … had seriously messed with Karman's head. The worst part was seeing the rare smile on his face beforehand when it had appeared for a brief moment that the cure of Saya's blood might work… when the Thorn receded, only to have it come back seconds later with fatal speed. Moses had been sitting with them and the tragedy had emotionally scarred him as well.

He wished he knew what direction to take… how to give the remaining group of Schiff the better lives he'd assured they'd have after fleeing Khirbet. Karman especially… he'd seen there was a possibility that he could be content… if the hope given was REAL and not another false lead.

"I want to see you smile again," Moses admitted meekly.

"Huh?"

"I want you to be happy. Even if it's with someone else."

"What do you mean? Someone ELSE? Do you have the Thorn?" Karman's eyes widened.

"No."

"Are you going somewhere? Are you leaving us?"

"No."

"Don't leave me too," Karman's voice cracked.

"I won't," Moses promised, "I'll always be here for you."

Karman approached him, but didn't so much tackle him this time as collapsed in his arms. "I don't feel well. I'm tired," he complained.

"You're upset, is all. It's been a stressful week," Moses went back to petting his hair. It had a calming effect.

"Nmm." Karman clung to him and shut his eyes. The Schiff didn't sleep as human do. They were unfamiliar with comfy beds and did not dream. They did need to rest from time to time, curling up on any hard surface and giving their minds over to an inky blackness. They usually did this during the day (as going out in the sun was dangerous) covered by their cloaks in the shadowy corners of abandoned buildings. Yet they would stop to recuperate at night if things had gone particularly bad.

"I'll help you in any way I can," Moses vowed. "There are some things I can't do, but I'll try my best." He would have told Karman he loved him right then and there if he'd only known the words. Instead he nuzzled against him, deciding to take a nap as well.

They stayed that way for approximately and hour, enjoying the simple warmth of a friendly embrace, before getting up and taking their bath. They kept the old rules of not staring at the other strip or slip into the water, but once they were waist-deep they felt it was OK to face eachother.

"We should do this again sometime…" Karman, without his glasses, suggested. "Spend time together… just the two of us, that is."

"I'd like that," Moses nodded, but soon frowned.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

Moses kicked at something at the silty bottom of the pond. "I think I found your boot."

[THE END]