Title: Blood Ties

Pairing: Rin x Haru

Time Limit: 45 Minutes

Prompt: Haru as a vampire feeding on Rin (prompt from miniscenario)

Notes: I borrowed the vampire system in this fic from Vampire Knight. Hopefully I've explained this well enough. Daily One-Shot, making up for missed days. Enjoy!

Level E: A human who had been bitten and turned into a vampire, but was afflicted by a terrible hunger that could never be fully satisfied, and eventually drove its victim to the point of death. Very few dared to try and fight the awful hunger of becoming a Level E, and even fewer could hold it off long enough to save themselves. The only way for a Level E to escape death was to drink the blood of the pureblood vampire who bit them.

It was unfortunate that Haruka Nanase had no idea who'd bitten him. And he didn't have very much time left before the hunger consumed him.

Sure, he'd tried everything to satiate the unquenchable thirst for blood that gnawed at his insides day and night. It was a kind of pain and torture beyond anything he'd ever experienced. When drinking blood suddenly became more important than water, Haru knew his chances of surviving this were practically nonexistent.

The time Haru stopped coming to swim practice and didn't seem at all interested in water was when his friends had started to notice that something was amiss with their aquaphilic friend. And they couldn't entirely hide the fear in their eyes when the package of blood tablets spilled out of Haru's backpack. Even though Makoto had kindly offered to let Haru drink from him, Haru had turned his friend down. Haru didn't know how much self-control he had anymore, and he didn't want to hurt his friends. That was why he was locked inside his house, all alone.

If there was one bright spot to this slow, painful death, it was that Haru could still have his beloved mackerel. The only difference was that now he ate it raw, and got it from a special source that didn't drain the fish of its blood. Mackerel no longer satisfied Haru's stomach as much as it once had, but the black haired boy took delight in every little detail that remained the same, because there were so few of them.

Currently, Haru was sitting on the floor of his kitchen, head leaned back against the cabinets as he fought off waves of hunger and dizziness. The urge to give in to these terrible instincts was strong; it would be so easy to slip into the madness that would precede Haru's death. Sometimes he wondered if it would be better to get his death over with. He was helping no one by staying alive.

Then there was a knock on Haru's front door, a knock that changed that line of thinking.

Unfortunately, Haru did not trust himself to open the door. His fangs prodded at his lips, reminding him of that absolutely insatiable hunger. No, he definitely was not going to answer the door. Haru did not want to be responsible for any deaths. If whoever was at his door was really determined to see him, they could come right in; the key was under the doormat. Or they could persistently knock on the door again, as they had just done.

They knocked again. Haru's advanced hearing allowed him to hear the soft exhales of breath and shuffling as the person bent down, took the key, and inserted it into the lock. It twisted, was removed, and the door opened, spilling a familiar red-haired boy into Haru's house.

"Haru? You here?" Rin Matsuoka called, immediately making a beeline for the bathroom. At least he knew where he should've started looking for Haru. It was odd that such a thought could gratify Haru at a time like this. Because honestly, the fact that Rin Matsuoka was inside his house and looking for him at the moment Haru felt closer to descending into the madness that was Level E than ever before was absolutely terrifying him. He suddenly wished it had been a door-to-door salesman or someone like that at his door; the hunger was a burning, raging creature independent of Haru's will at this point, and Haru would rather kill a stranger than his childhood friend.

Haru tried to call out and tell Rin to leave, but a silent moan escaped the second he opened his mouth, betraying the gnawing feeling in his stomach. He tried to stand, but his legs slid shakily on the linoleum floor, sending him crashing down again with an audible thud. Rin's footsteps turned toward the kitchen. Shit.

Rin appeared in the doorway of the kitchen, his red eyes widening when he saw Haru slumped against the cabinets like a rag doll. He began to walk toward Haru, clearly wanting to help his friend in some way. Go. You have to leave.

"Rin…" Haru croaked. His voice sounded awful, like his vocal cords had been rubbed on sandpaper then dipped in vinegar. Rin's expression slanted into one of concern. Haru tried to warn him, "You have to leave."

"What the hell, Haru?" Rin growled, stopping about three feet away from the boy. The scent of Rin, of his blood, was singing in Haru's ears, playing his senses like a complicated and beautiful melody. Rin looked pissed off. "You're lying on the kitchen floor looking like death itself and you want me to leave? Like hell I will!"

"Rin!" Haru somehow managed a ferocious growl. His fangs were bared in a snarl, something so foreign to both Haru and Rin that both boys were caught equally off-guard for a moment. Did I just growl at him?

Rin stared at Haru's fangs, eyes widened. Haru braced himself for the aghast expression of fear he expected to follow, the one that would likely shatter one of his last ties to his humanity. But Rin didn't look afraid. In fact, the expression that floated to the red-haired swimmer's face was unreadable to Haru, but it could've been pity, or guilt.

"I'm so sorry, Haru," Rin wailed, rushing forward. Tears streamed down Rin's face, and they began to wet Haru's T-shirt as Rin embraced Haru and pressed his face into Haru's neck. Haru stiffened, but not from Rin's close proximity; well, a little bit from Rin's close proximity. The scent of Rin absolutely overwhelmed Haru's senses now. It took every bit of his little remaining self-control not to sink his fangs into the flesh of Rin's neck and drink his childhood friend dry, and that self-control was dwindling rapidly. Anyone other than Rin, or perhaps Makoto, would've been dead by now.

"Rin…" Haru choked out. His breath came in fast, shallow pants now. "Leave…"

"No, Haru. I'm not leaving you, I told you that. Especially not when…" Rin stopped, pulled back, and met Haru's gaze. Rin's eyes, usually such a vibrant red color, were dampened by sadness and tears now. Their light was duller than usual. Haru looked away, his limbs shaking. Any second now, Haru was certain he would kill Rin.

"Especially not when this is my fault." Haru looked at Rin in alarm, startled by his friend's words, only to gasp in horror as Rin threw his head back, exposing his neck to Haru's fangs. No, no, no! Haru's mind screamed, but the hunger, which at first had been a pile of smoldering coals in his stomach, had spread like liquid fire throughout his body, leaving every inch of him desperate for Rin's blood, had taken over completely. Against his will, Haru lunged forward, and sank his fangs deeply into Rin's neck.

It was a strangely intimate thing, to drink the blood of his longtime friend and rival. But Haru had never tasted anything so sweet or wonderful in his entire life. He would never be able to have mackerel again. But his mind would not let him forget that the delicacy that now sang through his veins came at the cost of his dear friend's life.

Haru drank for almost a full minute before his fangs retracted, his hunger satisfied. Rin had to look back at Haru and smile softly at him before Haru realized that it wasn't supposed to be possible for his hunger to feel satisfied. This was supposed to be the moment where his last thread of humanity snapped as he held Rin's dead body and fully became a Level E vampire. Instead, Rin was smiling at him.

What Rin did next surprised Haru even more. A bit of blood had dribbled out of Haru's mouth, running down his chin. Rin swiped a finger across Haru's skin, sweeping up the blood before inserting the finger into his own mouth, drinking his own blood. It was when Rin released the finger from his mouth that Haru noticed the set of fangs visible in Rin's mouth too; he'd always thought there was something inhuman about those wickedly sharp teeth. Now he knew.

"I'm sorry, Haru. For so long, I wasn't sure how to tell you. When Makoto told me what'd happened, I worried I was too late to save you, but…" Rin began to cry again, burying his face in Haru's shoulder once more. This time, while Haru could smell the sweet (too sweet to be human, he realized now) scent of Rin's blood, his hunger had died away, and he was not tempted to take a share of it. At least, not overwhelmingly tempted.

"It's ok. Thank you, Rin," Haru replied, awkwardly placing a hand on the back of Rin's head. It was such a strange thought that he had now; he was not going to die. "Thank you for saving me, Rin."

After a few minutes of sniffling, Rin pulled back and got to his feet. He then extended a hand to help Haru up as well.

"So, how about you get up off the kitchen floor? I think you should go see your friends and let them know you're alive," Rin said. Haru accepted Rin's hand and stood up as well. The two vampires stood face to face now, just an inch or two away from one another. Haru nodded; his friends would be glad to know he was alive.

Haru just had one more question for Rin. "Rin… How long have you known that you were a pureblood?"

Rin sighed. "I left for Australia as soon as I found out. I didn't think I could handle being around you guys."

Now Haru stood with one hand on the doorknob. Memories spun through his head of the past six months, since he'd first been bitten. The memory of actually being bitten was fuzzy now; something about a hospital and no swimming for a week.

"Rin," Haru said, pressing the doorknob down. Fresh, cool evening air spilled in, rushing across Haru's skin. "Rin, will you stay?"

Rin had been staring at the kitchen tiles, lost in thought. His gaze cut sharply upwards now, meeting Haru's. Surprise danced across his features. Haru could see now, and wondered why he hadn't been able to see before, the little details that gave Rin away as a vampire. Sharp teeth, stunning good looks, vibrant eyes that glowed in the dim light of the kitchen… They weren't kidding when they said vampires were deathly beautiful.

"Yeah," Rin decided. "Yeah, I'll stay. Actually, you can come to Samezuka with me. It's a school for vampires. That's why I transferred there."

Haru wanted to be surprised by this, but it kind of made sense. "Okay."

He was just stepping out into the night air, his step refreshed by a new kind of purpose, when Rin's voice made him stop. "Hurry back, Haru. I'm hungry." This made Haru walk faster to Makoto's. He was eager to be alive again, to not feel like he might eat his best friend, and to get back to Rin. Because in saving the boy's life, Rin had also gained control of Haru. It meant that Haru would be alive for a lot longer. There would be no death tonight.