A/N: I know better... I really shouldn't post this before the entire story is done, because I'm terrible at guaranteeing updates, but I finished it and I'm just so excited to share. This will be a MikaYuu-flavored fic detailing some of their lives in the vampire city.
"Shit, these livestock clothes really don't do anything," Yuuichiro Hyakuya stated, emerging from the slight warmth of the bloodletting hall and into the chilly streets of the underground vampire city. He shifted his weight restlessly, trying to find a patch of stone that was not quite so cold. The thin slippers on his feet did nothing to keep them warm. "I'm freezing!"
"It's not that bad, Yuu-chan," mumbled his companion, Mikaela Hyakuya, who was trying to tug up the wide collar of his uniform in vain.
"Of course it is," exclaimed Yuu, holding up the pouch of nutrient replacement drink and sloshing it around. "It sounds like there's ice in there."
"I suppose it's not great either." Mika gave up on his collar and shuffled across the cold cobbles until he could sit on the low retaining wall of the bridge. Yuu came to join him, dropping the pouch on the wall next to him in disgust. The boys lapsed into silence, watching their breath curl away on the chilly air, and steam rise faintly from a building or two in the distance.
It had been two years since they were brought to the vampire's city after the end of the world. It had been winter when they first arrived, and although no snow ever fell into the deep caverns, they could always tell when it came again by the bitter cold that swept through the streets. The first year hadn't been too bad. There weren't many survivors brought down at first, and so they were valuable livestock; they couldn't be allowed to freeze. There was enough fuel to go around and to heat the small homes shared by anywhere up to a dozen children each. It was still cold venturing out into the city – the vampires were unaffected by change in temperature and didn't bother heating the cavern – but they all got by alright.
The second winter there was less fuel than the first, but it had been mild. There were barely any truly freezing days to mark the change of seasons.
However, this year, the cold had arrived sudden and bitter, and there were so many livestock now contained within the city that fuel was distributed sparingly. There was only enough to cook on their small stove and not much more.
Yuu crossed one ankle over his knee and started trying to rub some warmth back into his exposed shin. Mika eyed him anxiously. He wasn't sure if Yuu was badly affected by the cold, or if he was just complaining, a favorite pass-time of his. Some of the younger children from their little family certainly were badly affected. They refused to venture out of the sleeping loft unless someone made them come down, since the floors were so cold and what little heat there was rose. Mika did notice that Yuu was shivering slightly, so he probably wasn't just complaining for the sake of complaining.
However, he also was never one to let the opportunity slide.
"Well if you're really that cold," Mika started, intentionally letting his face form a mischievous expression. After years together, Mika knew that particular look usually made Yuu nervous; he thought Yuu looked particularly amusing when nervous.
True to form, Yuu's green eyes widened just a bit, and he asked, "Mika, what are you up to?"
Mika scooted himself quickly across the wall instead or replying, and latched onto Yuu, wrapping his arms and legs securely about the other boy, octopus-like.
"Gah, Mika, we're going to fall off!"
Sure enough the two boys teetered for a moment with the force of Mika's lunge forward, but they regained their balance. Mika came up laughing and Yuu scowling, but in a way Mika knew meant his friend was about to break into a smile and trying to avoid doing just that.
Finally, his balance regained enough to do more than clutch the wall for dear life, Yuu pushed in vain on Mika's shoulder. When this failed, he started trying to slide out from the other boy's limbs instead. "You idiot," he scolded, "You could have killed us both."
Mika shrugged, "It was worth it to see your face." But he released his grip on the other boy. Yuu just continued to scowl. "Come on, let's go home, it might be a bit warmer there." Mika jumped off the wall and extended a hand.
Yuu sighed and stood without assistance, but he did follow Mika into the dark maze of alleys. It was still well before livestock curfew, so there was plenty of light to see by as they trudged, still weary from the day's bloodletting session, down the thin cobbled streets.
"Do you think any of these are warm?" Yuu commented hopefully, putting a hand up to one of the many pipes that trailed across the walls of every building. He immediately sighed in disappointment.
Mika shook his head in vague response, and mentally vowed to keep a closer watch on Yuu. If he was trying to find warmth anywhere, Mika would have to be careful that the other boy didn't catch a cold. Medicine was just as scarce as fuel for livestock, so getting sick certainly wouldn't be good.
He was brought back from his thoughts as Yuu started talking excitedly about something. He gathered that he was supposed to be looking somewhere. Glancing up, Mika saw that they were in a small square, ringed with the blank faces of buildings and shallow-sloped roofs. A miserable trickle of cloudy water flowed from a tiny fountain in the middle. They had walked through this same square innumerable times on the way home. He didn't understand what was suddenly worth noticing.
Yuu scowled again; Mika figured it was because he wasn't giving him undivided attention. "What am I supposed to be seeing?"
"Don't you see that?" Yuu pointed to a roof just down one of the tiny side streets. It looked like every other roof in this part of town, except there was a pipe on the roof emitting "Steam! I think that's one of the laundry buildings, so they must use warm water and it's making all that steam. If we find a way to sneak in there, we could sit in one of the tubs and have a warm bath."
Mika looked skeptically at his friend. Yuu had obviously gotten wrapped up in his plan and had a dreamy expression on his face as he contemplated warm water.
"Yuu, you're an idiot."
"Am not."
"Do you really think no one in that place would notice two boys sitting in their laundry tubs? But maybe," Mika continued, eyes scanning the surrounding houses, "we could get up on the roof I think."
Yuu's eyes followed where Mika pointed to a rickety-looking ladder leaning against one of the neighboring homes. It only took him a minute to put two and two together, and dashed toward the ladder and scampered up as soon as he did. Mika followed slower, wondering if he would be able to catch the other boy if he fell from the slippery roof tiles.
Yuu did not slip, and by the time Mika stuck his head over the edge of the roof, he had already climbed over to the laundry house and was laying on his back, arms and legs spread as far as they would go. "Mika, come join me," he sighed. "This is great."
Mika picked his way across the roof and sat down on Yuu's left. He could feel the heat from the laundry infusing the tiles beneath him with delicious warmth. He spread his hands on the roof, and sighing in contentment as his fingers weren't cold for the first time in days.
Mika looked down at his companion, at the way his hair spread around his head in a splash of black against the gray tile. Yuu had his eyes closed and looked for all intents and purposes like he was going to take a nap.
It seemed like they might be there for a while, and so Mika turned his gaze out toward the city, and was surprised by the view. It seemed as if he could see the entire cavern from their perch. It had an ethereal sort of beauty, he mused, once they were above the narrow streets packed with their crumbling houses, and the vague dampness that never seemed to leave the stone. Buildings rose in dizzyingly tall terraces, sweeping up to the grand quarters occupied by the most important vampires, near the top. All of it was sufficed with an eerie green light, and where there was steam rising from factories or other laundry houses such as their own, the edges blurred into haze.
Mika wanted to share the way he saw their world with Yuu, but he knew the other boy wouldn't be interested in such romantic depictions of a place he saw as no more than a prison. He glanced back down at him; Yuu had certainly fallen asleep and Mika watched the slow rise and fall of his chest for a while.
Eventually, they would have to climb down from the roof, before the other children worried, back into the damp and the cold and the clinking, rusting pipes. But for now, Mika would let his sleeping family member lie, and in the meantime study the look of contentment on his face, and the strange warmth he felt growing in his own heart.