BVQA: Well, it's late. But here it is, the birthday fic for mah friend TheyCallMeChicky! I really tried my best to keep the grammar mistakes down, so I'm sorry if your grammar nazi senses start to tingle. I'll go back and fix anything you want– it's your birthday! And. . . I had the plot of this whole thing worked out, then I started listening to Panic! At The Disco, so for best results listen to The Calendar while you read and. . . see if you can catch the other references in here! Happy belated birthday, and keep up the awesome!
LINE BREAK
The Calendar
"I'd rather be a cannibal, baby,
Animals like me don't talk anyway. . .
Put another X on the calendar,
Summer's on its deathbed.
There is simply nothing worse
Than knowing how it ends.
And I meant everything I said that night.
I will come back to life,
But only for you,
Only for you."
–The Calendar, Panic! At The Disco
At around five in the afternoon, Senri Shiki was rudely jostled out of sleep. It wasn't as if it was the first time that had happened– people only ever seemed to wake him up by accident– but his normally prickly mood was further accentuated by the sunlight that was streaming in through the arched library windows and stinging his eyes. Shiki groaned and rolled over, only to find himself tumbling down flat on the red velvet window seat he'd been slouching against. Where. . ? He'd been leaning against something, he was sure of it, but his mind was just a bit too hazy from sleep for him to remember what he'd been. . .
"Oh. . . did I wake you?"
Shiki blinked sleepily up from where his face was half pressed against the cushions, too tired to sit up. He made a grunting noise that could have been either confirmation or a muffled complaint, but the dark figure picked out against the sunlight just laughed quietly and plopped down on what little space Shiki was not taking up.
"Sorry," Takuma Ichijo said, not quite whispering but not quite speaking normally either. "You fell asleep, so I figured I'd better leave you alone. . . but, uh, then I finished my book and. . . apparently I just received a letter." With that, Ichijo slipped a slim envelope out of the front pocket of his shirt, which was a silky, pale green button-down rather than his uniform. The envelope itself was an odd shade of dark blue, with six darker rectangles embossed on the front.
"Whosi' frum?" Shiki managed, his diction suffering from his unwillingness to lift his head from the pillow. Takuma could decipher just enough to be able to answer, but he did hesitate several seconds before understanding lit his eyes.
"Oh! I dunno who it's from, actually, it just kind of. . . turned up. Some sort of warning about a traveler of. . . some kind, I don't know. It was kind of rambley and it didn't make much sense. Too much technical jargon."
Shiki pulled a face, scrunching up his nose in annoyance, and with more effort than should have been necessary he rolled over, resting his head against Takuma's knee. "Words," he groaned. "Make them stop. . ."
Takuma chuckled. Shiki didn't think he had the energy to roll his eyes, but he didn't want to shut out the beaming smile that Takuma was flashing down at him either, so he just squinted out the sun as best he could.
"Right. . . I forgot, most of the dorm isn't as good about being up in the daytime as I am. Do you. . . mind if we talk for a little while? Actually, if you could just listen, that would be great too. You're a great listener, Shiki."
Was everything that came out of Takuma's mouth absolute nonsense? "Mm. Whatever," Shiki mumbled noncommittally, shifting so his face was pointed away from the irritating sun. He didn't mean to say anything else– he honestly was just planning to try to get back to sleep– but the words slipped out anyway as something occurred to him. "Hey, Takuma. Everyone in the dorm calls you by your first name, but you call everybody by their last name. 'Cept Kaname, of course. . ."
"Does that bug you?" Takuma teased, but Shiki was too sleepy to smile. Instead, he took the question at face value.
"Yeah, guess so. I mean. . . you're kind of like the dorm's teddy bear, ya know? Everybody likes you, but you only. . . only seem to. . ." Shiki broke off into a giant yawn, swallowing his sentence back down and letting his fangs flash dully in the warm yellow sunlight. Takuma let out a quiet hmm and absently ran his fingers through Shiki's dark red hair.
"Geez, I never noticed that. . . I dunno, I guess I just don't like my last name all that much. Huh. . ." he trailed off, staring into the rows of leather-bound books. Just as Shiki started to doze off again, Takuma finally seemed to collect his thoughts, shifting slightly and bumping Shiki father onto his lap. "You're right. I'm gonna start calling people by their first names from now on, starting with you! That is. . . if that's okay?" Takuma's speech became gradually more uncertain until he stopped altogether, probably cowed into silence by Shiki's lack of response. The redhead slowly opened his eyes, annoyed, but not feeling much up to arguing as Takuma played with his hair. So what if it was a cat thing, it felt. . . nice. . .
"S'okay. I don't mind."
"Great! So, from now on, it's Senri, not Shiki!" Takuma lifted his hands from Shiki's hair, drawing an aggrieved groan from the aforementioned redhead, and clapped them delightedly, knees bumping against each other.
Shiki, fed up with being jostled around, growled quietly and sat up, bracing himself with both hands and leveling Takuma with his best glare.
The look did not have the desired affect. "You look like a grumpy tabby cat!" Takuma grinned, eyes lighting up like green glass.
"Sshudup. . ." Shiki growled, slinging his arms around Takuma's neck and dragging the older boy down flat. He nuzzled into Takuma's shoulder, breathing in his scent– God he smelled good– and nipping at the slick green fabric petulantly.
"Or you could be a lion!" Takuma continued, undeterred by the fact that a "lion" was currently sprawled over him. Shiki's shoulders rose up around his ears as Takuma continued needling him, evidently attempting to get a response. It was bright, he was tired, and if this sun-haired vampire did not stop bothering him–
"I'm hungry," Shiki mumbled. His voice was thick and childlike, bordering on a whine, but as usual he was too tired to bother about that. "You woke me up and I'm tired and hungry." Not to mention, Takuma's neck was right there and Shiki's blood tablets were aaall the way back in his room. Something had to be done about that. . .
Shiki leaned forwards and trailed his tongue over Takuma's throat, tracing along his pulse until his nose was buried in soft golden curls. Shiki nudged them aside and nipped at the skin behind Takuma's ear with his dull front teeth, holding back his fangs.
"Waugh! Jeez, Shiki–"
"Senri," Shiki corrected, puffs of air escaping his lips and sending warm breaths into Takuma's hair. Maybe he wouldn't bite him. Maybe–
"Senri, cut it out!" Shiki decided he didn't like the unnecessary emphasis that Takuma placed on his name. It made it sound awkward and misplaced coming out, rather than a natural part of the sentence. "Everybody in the dorm'll smell it, and–"
"Everybody is asleep right now. Like they should be. Nobody's gonna notice." And so saying, Shiki dipped between Takuma's open shirt collar and his throat, pressing into the crook of his neck. Shiki'd tasted Takuma's blood once before. It'd been sweet, addicting, and Shiki figured it was just about time for a relapse. . .
"I don't wanna be your breakfast!" Takuma griped, trying to pull Shiki away by grabbing a fistful of his rusty curls and yanking gently. Shiki tightened his grip on Takuma's shoulders. He was not giving up that easy.
"Please? I promise I won't waste any. . ."
"It's practically cannibalism, Senri! I wanted to talk more, anyways. . ."
Senri rolled his eyes, but decided to go with it. He knows I don't really talk much. . . "So we'll talk after. But I'm hungry now, and sleepy, and I'm not gonna stop being hungry and sleepy until somebody feeds me."
"Fine! Whatever!" Takuma said abruptly, exasperated, "Just promise you'll stay awake afterwards?"
Shiki allowed himself a small smile. He'd won. "Mm-kay. . . promise. . ." Takuma groaned and muttered something about how he 'knew he was going to regret this later,' but tilted his head back anyway, opening his throat up to Shiki.
There was a kind of art to biting people. Vampires couldn't all be like level Es, vicious and uncaring as to whether or not they hurt their prey, especially to those who were actually willing to be bitten. It wouldn't be polite if they were just torn into when they were the ones offering their blood in the first place. So most vampires were a lot better with the whole 'biting' thing, at least to the point that it didn't hurt as much as getting stabbed in the throat really should.
Shiki was good about it. Even with the smell of Takuma's blood overpowering his senses, he was careful about how he bit down. He sank his fangs in slowly, careful not to pull in any one direction, even if it would increase the blood flow into his mouth, and. . . oookay, yeah, that tasted good. . .
Shiki groaned, pressing in closer, barely resisting the temptation to dig his fangs in deeper. After months on nothing but the blood tablets, this was as close to heaven as he was ever going to get. Takuma's blood was rich and thick, and the taste lingered on its tongue as he swallowed.
Gulk.
Gulk.
"Urgh. . ." Takuma groaned, hearing Senri's gulps echoing in his ears. Actually, it was the only thing he could hear right now. . . his head was starting to spin from blood loss. Shiki could be quite the little glutton if he was given even an inch of wiggle room, and Takuma. . . well, he knew full well he wasn't the best at saying 'no.'
"Are you. . . done yet. . . Senri. . ?"
Shiki broke off suddenly, pulling his mouth away with a sound like a wet suction cup. Lovely. At least his eyes weren't red. Takuma could see quite clearly that Shiki had not been careful about spilling, like he'd said he'd be, and blood was running down basically his entire chin. Takuma figured his neck was at least as messy, if not more so.
"Jeez, what happened to not wasting any?" he said faintly, a little too lightheaded to really feel annoyed. Shiki, as usual, didn't seem to feel even the slightest bit of guilt. He just tightened his grip on the back of Takuma's shirt.
"Who's wasting?" he asked, and leaned back over the bite mark. Takuma's field of vision was filled entirely with a sea of red-brown waves, highlighted by the sun for what was probably the first time ever.
Shiki's hair smelled like chocolate.
Takuma jumped as, rather than sink his fangs back in again, Shiki started to lap up the blood he'd spilled. Thank God– Shiki was a fantastically messy eater and Takuma wasn't really feeling up to explaining away a blood stain on his collar. That would just set the rumor mill going again, thanks to Shiki's little stunt at his birthday party.
Not that the rumor. . . wasn't necessarily true. . .
Takuma shut his eyes. There was a word for the atmosphere permeating the library now– lazy. That was the relationship between the two vampires. It wasn't the bad kind of lazy, where neither of them really cared at all, but more of the lazy that reminded him of thick blankets of sunlight and not having to try all that hard. That was what was different with Shiki, as opposed to, say, Kaname. His friendship with Kaname was the kind where he had to try so hard, and all the time– try not to say the wrong thing, try not to intrude, try not to prod at any open wounds. . . and there were so many open wounds to watch for. No, all that trying was nothing like this. . . this lazing around, these lazy conversations and lazy smiles, lazy lazy lazy. . .
Shiki finally sat up, looking wide-eyed and very much like a happy child, and Takuma didn't think all that much before leaning forwards and licking at the blood still spread in smears around Shiki's mouth.
They kissed.
Lazy, lazy, lazy. . .
"It's said if you don't let it out,
You're gonna let it eat you away.
Put another X on the calendar,
Summer's on its deathbed.
There is simply nothing worse
Than knowing how it ends.
And I meant everything I said that night.
I will come back to life,
But only for you,
Only for you."