Part 1: Beginnings

No no no! This can't be happening, it can't be true! A demon, how? It's not possible! Immortal...alone...forever. Not even death for to look forward to. It's too unfair...the worst kind of living. Everyone leaving me over and over again, I'd rather die.

He's lost track of how far he's gone and how long he's been running. It's not like it matters, he has forever. He can't die of exhaustion or dehydration, his body will continue living even when he doesn't want it to.

Eventually he stumbles, foot catching on a tree root and sending him crashing to the forest floor, head ringing from the impact with a tree. He's deep into the forest now. Yuu turns onto his back to stare up at the blue sky peeking between the thick leaves of the tree, it should fill him with hope and possibility, but all he can feel is his impending despair and loneliness. He shuts his eyes and sighs, he just needs time. Then maybe he can face everyone knowing their time together is slowly counting down...

Yuu doesn't bother counting how many days and nights pass while he lays there unmoving. The hunger pangs have long since subsided into a far off dull ache and his body is weak, but still alive. He shifts for the first time in what feels like forever, the stiffness of his body evidence of how long he's been here. The moon is high and full in the sky, illuminating his surroundings, although from his position, there's nothing to see but trees anyway. He's surprised some animal hasn't tried to eat him yet. Although, maybe they can sense his inhumanity and keep far away. They're smart.

"You're still alive...I thought you were finally dead."

Yuu startles and struggles to turn his weak, resisting body towards the muffled voice, only succeeding in craning his neck awkwardly to catch a splash of gold and white not far from him in the dim light. "Who are you?" He had no idea someone else was out here with him. How did their presence escape his heightened senses? Since becoming a demon, all his senses are stronger, but he never felt anyone else out here with them.

"If you can talk, you can leave. I don't want you here."

"How long have you been here?"

"Longer than you and I was fine here alone."

Yuu pauses, straining his ears intently, but hears nothing. Maybe the fatigue has weakened him, but if he's been there longer than him, he should have heard him before now. "...You're not breathing."

"I don't breathe."

His body seizes, taken over by adrenaline and he fights frantically to push his body away, but it's useless. He can barely move any part of his body. That doesn't stop his fear though, he wants to die, but not here and not yet, never without seeing his family again and experiencing the rest of their limited time together.

Yuu's shoulders sag as he gives up, it's futile to keep trying when he's too weak to make a difference. "What are you?" He whispers into the silence.

"I'm a vampire, what else?"

Yuu chuckles self-deprecatingly, at one point he had thought vampires were the only supernatural things on the planet too. Now he wonders, can a vampire even kill him? They're both immortal, but he doesn't know the full workings of a vampire's body. At full strength he might even be a match for one.

"Why are you out here?"

"To die."

Yuu scoffs, "Yeah right. You're a vampire, what could possibly make you want to die? Your kind does all the killing."

"What do you know?" He snarls back. "You've been out here weeks and you haven't moved. You're probably out here for some stupid reason. A girl break up with you?" He mocks.

"No…"

"It doesn't matter anyway. Leave. I'm close to death anyway, I don't want to be tempted into ripping your neck open and draining you. I'd rather die of starvation."

Yuu flinches at the description, but replies anyway. "Unfortunately for you, I'm too weak to move."

The other male growls in warning and shifts farther away. "Then die already, so I no longer have to smell you."

"I don't want to die yet. Not now. Later, when everyone's gone."

Yuu hears a long suffering sigh, "I guess I'll never get peace."

"If you help me, you'll get to be alone here."

"I'm not leaving this forest until I'm dead, so I guess we'll die here together."

Yuu grunts in frustration with his situation. He stayed here to have time to himself, but for the short moment he thought he might actually die, he realized how foolish he'd been to run away from the people who cared about him the most. His time with them is limited, he should have been enjoying it instead of running away to deal with himself alone. Now, he wants to return home, but lacks the strength to do so.

No one knows he's here and according to the vampire he's been here weeks and not a single person has wandered through. He could be here for months, leaving his family to worry about him and when they do find him, they may not even recognize him with his throat ripped out, yet even that wouldn't kill him. His only hope is to convince the vampire to save him.

"Hey...what's your name?" He receives no response and calls out a few more times to the silence. He may as well be alone here.

~~~~~
It hurts so much...and this human has only made it worse. Temptation calls to him every second of every day for weeks. If he had the energy to move, he would move farther away, but he's been lying here so long, he doesn't have the will or ability to move far. Dying by starvation is taking much longer than he thought. Every day the burn in his throat remains, never dulling, always constant. He must be near the end, he has to be. He's not sure how much longer he can hold on.

Unfortunately the human seems to be resilient also, he thought the male would have died days ago from lack of food and water, but he can still talk, annoyingly enough. Mikaela pushes his face harder into the ground. No matter, if he ignores him, soon enough the human would lose the strength to speak anyway.

A few more days pass and the human goes back into whatever hibernating state he was in for all those weeks and other than the occasional sounds of nature, silence reigns around them.

It isn't until what's almost a week later that the human begins calling out to him again, he doesn't answer, but that doesn't stop the other male. He knows Mikaela is there and listening whether he wants to be or not.

"So, my name's Yuu. It's short for Yuuichirou, which is kind of long, so most people call me Yuu. I'm seventeen and I live with my adopted dad. I have a group of close friends, I've known them since I was 15, they're kind of like my second family. Although, we all have different personalities and tend to clash a lot, we care about each other. I'm sure they're all worried about me."

Mikaela begins to tune him out as Yuu describes his family. He doesn't have a family and Yuu will never see his again, so what does it matter what they're like? All he has is Krul and she's barely anything to him. She may consider herself his savior, but he knows the truth. She ruined everything. He had accepted his fate to be left for dead. No one asked her to step in and force this upon him. When he died, he wasn't leaving anything unfinished, he was at peace with the end of his short life. This he never wanted.

"Hey, you gonna tell me your name now?"

"..."

"Come on! If we're about to die here together, the least we could do is introduce ourselves. After all, if this is the end, it doesn't matter what we say. It dies with us."

Well the human, no Yuu, does have a point. Nothing he says will go past this forest. "...Mikaela."

"Mikaela? I thought you were...you sounded like…"

He rolls his eyes, somethings will always be the same. "I am a boy."

"Oh. Well hey, at least you're speaking to me again!"

"Don't make me regret it."

"I won't! Do you have family waiting for you?"

"No."

"None?"

"None that matter."

"I bet you've seen a lot of cool things in your lifetime."

"I haven't."

"You've been living hundreds of years, there has to be something."

"I've only been a vampire for a year."

"Oh. So much for getting interesting stories in my last days."

"Sorry to disappoint."

"It's fine. At least I'm not out here alone."

"What's it matter? Someone to share your fate lessens it?"

"Yeah, and no one really wants to be alone, even at the end."

"..."

"Not even you."

"Wrong."

"Nah, I'm right. But either way, I'm here. So, you don't have to lie. I'll take it to my grave."

Mikaela frowns, what a talkative human. There's nothing for him to feel afraid of, but still. When he was dying, he accepted it. He didn't hope someone would come by to talk to him in his last moments. The only thing he wished was that someone would have cared that he was gone, no human cared what happened to him. Yuu doesn't have to wish that, it sounds like he was plenty of people who care about him.

"Hey, you okay? You stopped talking."

He shuffles a few inches farther away, "I don't want to talk anymore."

"Wait! Don't move farther away! We don't have to talk, but don't leave! Mikaela? Mikaela! Ugh."

~~~~~
He's not sure what he said to upset Mikaela, but now he's back listening to the sound of his own breathing and they were making so much progress too. The first drop startles him when it lands in the center of his face. He sighs, a storm, perfect.

The drop is just the beginning and he's instantly drenched when the downpour starts, helpless to find shelter or cover himself. The most he can do is shut his eyes and turn his head slightly to keep from choking on rain. Never has he wished for an umbrella more.

Sometime during the night the rain stops just as suddenly as it began, but there's no sun or warmth to dry him, only the silver light of the moon which he's starting to hate. Yuu wonders if he can still get sick as he shivers.

It's morning when he next opens his eyes. The late morning light shines in his eyes and he can feel the stiffness of his clothes, the only damp parts beneath him. The fact that he slept so long probably means he can get sick and his body was doing its best to fight pneumonia off.

"Hey Mikaela, did you survive the storm?"

"What else would I have done?"

"I dunno, the rain could've washed you away."

Mikaela sighs, "No Yuu, I'm still here, just damp."

"Did you get sick?"

"I'm a vampire. That's not something I have to worry about anymore."

"You said you've only been a vampire a year, right?"

"Yes."

"How did you get turned?"

"..."

Yuu huffs, "The silent treatment again?"

"...I was dying."

"Oh! And then you were saved!"

"This is not saving!"

"Sorry…"

"How can you think becoming a monster could possibly equal being saved?"

"Because you're still alive."

"I'd rather be dead."

"Then you wouldn't have met me!" Yuu jokes.

"Another person ready to die."

"I was in a bad place, but I don't want to die now!"

"My feelings haven't changed."

Yuu sighs, how is he supposed to convince someone with a deathwish to help him out of the forest? Mikaela's too full of despair to have hope. He's pretty sure in a few decades he'll be in the same position, but for now he has to get back. "Are you going to tell me why you were dying?"

There's a silence where he can tell Mikaela is considering whether to answer and not outright ignoring him, so he waits.

"I had snuck out of my house one night, not to do anything rebellious, but to just get a semblance of some freedom. My parents...didn't want a child and yet they kept me anyway. They never hid how much they loathed my presence. They weren't affectionate and I was only let out of the house for school. I had a few friends when I was in elementary, but word of my parents spread around and they all kind of drifted off and I was the outcast."

"I'd hug you if I could move," Yuu tells him honestly.

"Shut up Yuu. What matters is I got careless and lost, then someone tried to grab me and I fought back. They pulled a knife and it was over at that point. I was laying there ready for it to end, happy that I'd never have to go home again when Krul appeared."

"Krul?"

"My sire. The one who decided I was going to be her progeny and turned me. So, instead of finally escaping this place, I was turned into something even more unlovable."

"Unlovable?"

"My parents didn't love me and no one loves monsters."

"I don't think you're a monster."

"What would you know? You have your two happy families back home."

Yuu hums thoughtfully, "I don't think you'd be hard to love."

"You're just saying that because you want me to help you."

"No, I'm serious," he insists. "I think it would be easy."

"You're awful."

Yuu sighs when Mikaela shuts down again and refuses to answer him, as much as Mikaela doubts him, he was serious.

Mikaela is abrupt with him, but listening to him talk reveals his true feelings. As a human, he was happier to die than go back to his unloving home. As a vampire, he could have a whole new life, but he doesn't consider it worth living if he can't be loved. That speaks volumes.

Yuu's almost positive that the one thing Mikaela would want more than death is to be loved. It's probably the one thing that could give him the will to live. If he wasn't given affection as a human or a vampire, then it makes sense for his personality to be closed off from others.

But, if he didn't care, he wouldn't mention it. Someone who wants to be loved isn't going to make loving them difficult. Whoever loves Mikaela, if they love him the right way, would likely receive his unconditional love back. Faithful, unwavering love for the first person to bond with him.

He doesn't know what Mikaela thinks about him, if anything at all, but he wouldn't mind filling that spot. After all, Mikaela's a vampire, immortal and unchanging just like him. His love would be loyal and eternal. Mikaela would love him more than anything no matter what, forever. Yuu would never have to be alone again…

~~~~~
Yuu is so easygoing, a life full of caring people would do that, Mikaela thinks bitterly. At one point, he may have wanted people to care about him or even just one person, but now he's past those types of feelings. Even if he found someone, their life would end far before his and he's not sure he could bear that kind of loss.

It doesn't matter anyway, what's done is done and stupid Yuu lying to try and convince him to help. As if he, someone who could have anyone, would choose him. Yuu is the worst type of human, the kind that uses and uses, weaving lies for their own benefit, he can see straight through Yuu's kind words and he's not so easily fooled as Yuu would believe. He ignores the slight sting he feels from Yuu's lie and wonders why neither of them are dead yet.

For days now, he's been fighting the urge to bite his hand just for a taste of blood to slake his thirst, though it wouldn't help in the long run. His own blood would do next to nothing, just prolong his suffering. His body is already proving more resilient to death than he'd initially thought. Although his senses are getting weaker, a blessing that he can barely smell Yuu with his face buried amongst the damp leaves on the forest floor.

"You need a nickname."

"What?"

"Mikaela's pretty, but it's a mouthful."

"No worse than Yuuchirou," he mutters.

"Hey! You remembered!"

"I don't have much else to do here."

Yuu laughs, "True! And I have a nickname."

"Do you really think that's what I need when I'm about to die?"

"I'll use it in the afterlife!"

"We are not going to the same place."

Yuu continues on, ignoring him, "I think 'Mika' will do!"

"..."

"What? You don't like it?"

"No."

"It'll grow on you!" Mikaela can practically feel the grin Yuu's probably wearing right now.

"Why are you acting like this is normal?"

"Crying won't do anything. I don't have much else to do here."

Mikaela frowns at having his words used against him, Yuu should be spending his energy calling for help, not giving him useless nicknames. "You could have tried screaming for help."

"Nah, I've been here forever and haven't heard a single person come by. I'd rather use my energy to talk with you, Mika!"

"..." He hates the flash of pleasure he gets from hearing Yuu refer to him by a nickname, especially one that isn't negative. The only time he's been called something other than his name is when he was being insulted. Someone calling him a nickname with no malice behind it is a new experience for him.

"Mika? Don't go back to ignoring me now." There's a gentle warmth budding in his stomach and he's less than pleased about it. Yuu's manipulative and he has no right to cause him positive feelings. It seems he severely underestimated the human, he's clever. If he's not careful, he may end up playing right into his hands.

Yuu doesn't ever shut up, so his best chance is to offend him enough to realize how pointless attempting to wiggle into his good graces is. "Why are you here?"

"Huh? What do you mean? I can't move, remember?"

"No, why did you even come here? You left your family to run into the forest and die."

"I wasn't trying to die."

"Answer the question."

Yuu is silent for a few minutes before sighing, "I found out the lives of me and my family weren't going to be the same."

"That's it?"

"That's it? They're going to die way before me!"

"Oh and then you'll be alone?"

"Yeah!"

"So because you don't get to live as long as you want with your precious family, you ran away leaving them to worry instead of enjoying the time you had with them. You really are a selfish human. I wouldn't even want to be loved by you."

He hears Yuu suck in a breath and smiles to himself, serves him right. "You're an ass."

"I never said I wasn't."

It's a few minutes later when Yuu quietly murmurs, "You haven't won."

Mikaela curls his shoulders in slightly without bothering to answer. If he succeeded in getting Yuu to shut up, he considers it a win.

~~~~~
Yuu isn't stupid, he knows exactly what Mikaela is trying to do, push him away so he stops trying to learn about him. He won't stop though, if anything it encourages him. Mikaela doesn't want them to talk anymore, so he must be making progress or else he wouldn't bother with the berating. The other boy may as well wear his heart on his sleeve. That knowledge bolsters Yuu's confidence and he grins, he may actually get out this forest sooner rather than later.

Talking with Mikaela will have to wait though… His eyelids are starting to droop again. They've been so heavy lately, it requires so much effort to keep them open. Even now, he's losing the battle to keep the sky in his sights, although everything's blurry when they are open, it's better than seeing nothing. Maybe he'll have more energy if he just rests a little…

:

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The first thing Yuu notices when he wakes is the darkness. Not the dark of night, but a pure pitch black darkness that not even the moon's light pierces. The second thing he notices is his eyes are open which makes his heart race. Yuu struggles to keep his breathing even in the wake of another lost sense. His sense of smell is long gone, a blessing in disguise because he probably smells horrible. Then his hearing had started gradually declining and now his sight is gone. He might not be able to die, but living in such a crippled state terrifies him.

"Why are you breathing like that?"

Yuu jerks violently at the sound of Mikaela's voice, he'd forgotten he wasn't alone out here. "No reason," he tries to answer nonchalantly, but the edge of panic in his voice hurts his efforts.

"...Are you okay?"

"Yeah!" Yuu laughs loudly, "I just woke up, that's all!"

"You seem-"

"Tell me about Krul!" Anything to take my mind off this!

"Why?"

"Come on! If you tell me, I won't call you by your nickname anymore, since you hate it so much!"

"..."

Ah, he forgot, Mikaela's not honest, he probably loves the nickname. "Or...I will? I won't talk about my family anymore, how's that?" Even he can hear how strained his voice is, Mikaela's enhanced hearing is likely picking up his rapid heartbeat, uneven breathing, and barely held together voice. He wouldn't be surprised if the vampire was waiting for him to die at any minute.

"...She's short. I don't think she aged past fourteen before she was turned."

He lets out a sigh of relief.

"She has bright pink hair and favors little black dresses. Despite her young appearance, she's extremely powerful and has high standards. Krul likes complete obedience."

Yuu laughs lightly, somewhat calmed by the sound of Mikaela's voice, "Why can't I see you as the completely obedient type?"

"I'm not."

"Didn't think so."

"I suppose she has more patience with me since I'm her progeny and I can get away with a lot more, but sometimes even with me her patience runs out."

"Do you give her the silent treatment too?"

"Yes and she's content to ignore me right back unlike you."

"Hey, if I ignored you back, we'd never get anywhere. You're too stubborn."

"Me? You're the one who won't stop talking!"

"I never said I wasn't," Yuu smirks.

Mikaela huffs and he laughs, it's just too easy to use his words against him. They lapse into silence briefly before the panic begins to take hold again. Without Mikaela's voice to fill the space, it feels like he's alone in the dark and he hates it. Being alone wasn't so bad when he could still see, but now it's too much to bear.

"Mikaela…"

"What?"

"Can you...come closer?"

"I don't think that's a good idea, Yuu."

"Please. Just close enough to touch." There's a pause before he hears light shuffling and a wrist is pushed against his hand. It's not much, but he'll take it. His fingers desperately scramble to grab the thin wrist in a weak grip. "Please stay."

"Where else would I go?"

"Just please stay," he begs as his voice cracks on the last word.

"Okay! I'm not going anywhere."

Yuu takes a few deep breaths and calms down, squeezing lightly at Mikaela's wrist. "I won't give up on you, you know?"

"Whatever you say."

He can hear the skepticism clear as day in the other boy's voice, not voicing his thoughts that Yuu would surely die before being able to convince him to leave the forest.

"I can't see…"

"Huh?"

He clears his throat harshly and repeats stronger, "I can't see."

"Oh...that makes sense."

"What?"

"Why you were breathing weirdly and why after all these weeks you wanted me to move closer."

"Yeah, it's terrifying to be in the dark alone...especially when you don't talk."

"I wasn't talking when you first collapsed here either."

"I could see then too. Now, I'm blind and I think my voice will go pretty soon too." His throat is becoming raspy and it's starting to hurt to talk, but he knows that if he stops talking, Mikaela will too.

"Thank god."

"Shut up, you'll miss me."

"I can definitely say I will enjoy the silence."

"You won't miss me, not even a little?"

"Nope."

"Liar. There won't be anyone else to call you 'Mika.' I know you like it."

"..."

Yuu laughs at Mikaela's silence that says it all. He really wishes he could see the other boy right now, reach out and trace his fingers along the frown he's almost certain Mikaela's wearing, read the annoyance in his eyes. He's also curious about what he looks like, he knows about his life and what he sounds like, but putting voice to appearance is still a mystery. Maybe he'll ask later. After all, he's been lying here near him for months, he should at least know what he looks like.

~~~~~
Mikaela holds his breath to make sure he doesn't involuntarily take in Yuu's scent as he turns to look at him, he can't see much of his appearance with the layer of filth covering his face and hair, all he can really recognize in his brief glance is matted black hair and long eyelashes. Yuu's eyes are shut, he supposes there's no point opening them if he can't see.

He turns his head back, burying his nose back into the ground so that he inhales nothing but the scent of dirt and forest. Why isn't he dead yet? He's a vampire yes, but even their bodies need sustenance. No blood and he should have been dead weeks ago. His free hand scratches aimlessly at the dirt while his other remains still to avoid waking Yuu. More conversation is the last thing he needs.

When Yuu asked him to move closer, he'd hesitated. His thirst was already strong, closer and he might lose control, but Yuu had begged and he'd let himself give in. The other boy doesn't seem to be doing well and if his last wish was to have someone touching him as he died, well even he could do that much. It's more than he had.

Now, the only person who ever really touches him is Krul and it's not for comfort or reassurance. It's a different sensation, someone touching him because it brings them happiness. He's not sure how he feels about it yet, instead he focuses on slowly sliding his wrist away until Yuu's fingers tighten incrementally. Guess he wasn't asleep like he'd hoped.

"Mika?" He groans aloud, of course Yuu would take that as an invitation to talk. "Don't groan at me!"

"What do you want now?"

"Why're you acting like I'm such an inconvenience?"

"Well..."

Yuu huffs, "Quit being a jerk, I'm dying. Have some respect."

"I'm respectfully not leaving you here alone. I can only do so much."

"If I could kick you, I would."

He laughs lightly, "I wonder if you really would. I'm a vampire or did you forget? I could easily chop your leg off."

"I doubt you'd do that."

"You never know."

"What do you look like?"

Mikaela blinks uncomfortably, "Average."

"No, seriously I want to know. I have this picture of you in my head. Fangs, red eyes, black hair, super pale, tall and thin, kind of creepy looking."

"I'm not Dracula."

Yuu laughs, "Then you gotta help me out!"

No one's ever said much about his looks, he's not disgusted when he looks in the mirror like his parents were every time they looked at him. He wasn't ever the butt of ugly jokes no matter how much his parents told him he was, but no one ever approached him based on his looks, not that anyone had much of a chance. At school, he was an outcast and he didn't leave the house much. He's certain his looks are probably less than average and he tells Yuu as much.

"Mika! Less than average doesn't tell me anything and you're probably lying! At least describe yourself."

"I have blonde hair."

"Blonde? That's not scary at all. Are you not Japanese? You speak it like a native? What else?"

He wrinkles his nose slightly at Yuu's onslaught of questions, "Why are you so focused on this?"

"I want to know what my future partner looks like."

Mikaela scoffs, "You're dead."

"Not yet."

"...I'll tell you if you let go of me," he replies with a small smirk.

"..."

"Guess you don't want to know that bad."

"That's not fair," Yuu responds quietly.

"Neither is life."

Yuu's fingers tighten slightly, but he doesn't press the subject. His choice is clear.

He's being an ass, he knows it. But getting attached to Yuu even briefly isn't something he wants, especially when who knows how long each of them will live. Maybe if Yuu had found him as a human, they could've been friends, but no one wanted him then and now it's too late. It really is cruel the hand he's been dealt. The only person he's had a chance of befriending in years and there's no point.

The most he can give Yuu in return for the friendship he's claimed to offer is the true reason he's out here and refuses to go back, not even to save his life.

"Yuu."

"Yeah."

"I killed a human."

"...yeah."

"Yeah? That's all you have to say?"

"What do you want me to say?"

"You should be saying I'm a monster who doesn't deserve to live!"

"That's not what you want me to say. Besides," Yuu chuckles darkly. "I'm the last person who can call anyone a monster."

"So, what, you're saying it's fine."

"I didn't say that either."

"Then what? Still want me as you partner now?"

Yuu sighs heavily, "Why'd you do it? You feel bad about it, so why?"

"I was really thirsty and I hadn't drunk anything in months. Krul was already fed up with me, so she'd stopped forcing me to drink. She had sent me on an errand and on the way back I saw a man trying to rescue a cat from a tree. The exact moment the cat scratched and drew blood, I attacked. I don't even remember doing it, the next thing I knew he was dead in my arms with a broken neck and I was full for the first time in months."

"Then what did you do?"

"I left him there and ran home. I heard the screams before I even got around the corner."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry for me, be sorry for him. He died helping a cat."

"Okay then, why don't you drink blood?"

"Because it's inhumane to drink the blood of another person to survive."

"But...you're not human."

"Thanks for the reminder," he answers flatly.

"Well, you're not! Why would you hold yourself to the same standards?"

"I might be a vampire now, that doesn't mean I have to hurt people."

"You don't even like humans, none of them ever helped you."

"I don't want to be like them either! Hurting people to make myself feel better."

"The difference is you're doing it to survive. You ate animals as a human, didn't you?"

"That's different."

"It's really not, especially if you assume animals can feel too."

"..."

"I'm right and I'd let you drink from me to survive."

"Don't say things you don't mean."

"I mean it. Mika, you were miserable as a human and now you have a second chance, you should enjoy every minute of it. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, only how you feel."

"I feel terrible about it," he mutters.

"Well don't and if you hate hurting humans so much, then you really should live. We need more people like you."

"You're so optimistic."

"I hope it rubs off on you," he teases.

"Maybe."

Yuu doesn't get what it's like to hate what you are and to have your very existence depend on taking advantage of others. Maybe most people would love the chance for eternal life, but there's nothing he wants to live for. He selfishly killed someone to feed himself in the one moment he lost control and became just like the people who never cared about him.

He lays there, letting the tears run freely from his eyes. Why couldn't Yuu have found him sooner?

:

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Mikaela tugs at his wrist lightly and Yuu's fingers fall away easily. They haven't talked in days and Yuu's heartbeat is slow and barely there. He's barely holding on and unlike the relief he expected, he feels hollow inside, a subtle feeling of emptiness from the fact that Yuu will never call him 'Mika' again or squeeze his wrist or talk to him like he's normal and most of all that he'll never find out if Yuu was being honest or lying to get what he wanted. He can't believe it, really. He hasn't even known Yuu that long and he involuntarily let himself get attached, he really underestimated him or his own want of companionship.

He hates that a part of him, bigger than he'd like, is actually considering saving Yuu. He really shouldn't though. He'd have to drink blood to save him which would prolong his death, then what about if Yuu died at the hospital anyway and he probably would anyway, then there'd be no point. But, even if he didn't make it, at least the hospital would contact his family so they'd know what happened. He's sure Yuu would want that, but should he really risk living just for Yuu's family?

He'll sleep on it, he decides.

When night comes, Yuu's still hanging on and as loathe as he is to do it, he makes his decision. Yuu better be grateful for this no matter what quality of life he's stuck with, even if he's blind and mute. It would serve him right for ruining everything.

With a deep inhale to steady himself, Mikaela flips over and leans closer to Yuu, desperately hoping he doesn't lose himself to thirst when he drinks. Yuu's neck is filthy, covered in dirt and whatever else, just like his whole body. Now that he's letting himself smell again, he realizes just how bad Yuu smells, it almost overpowers the weak scent of his blood.

He sinks his fangs gently into Yuu's neck and despite the unhealthy taste, it's revitalizing. Mikaela eagerly lets himself take a few swallow, already feeling the weak blood feeding his body and jump starting his recovery. The only thing that keeps him from fully losing himself is the thinness of Yuu's blood and how slow his circulation is, it's giving him nourishment, but he'd have to drain his whole body to get even a semblance of satisfaction from the sickly taste.

He pulls away and sits up with his newly regained strength. Yuu's blood wasn't the best right now and it won't be long before he's starving again, he'll have to be quick. He scoops Yuu up easily and his body weighs next to nothing, the clothes loose and sagging around his emaciated frame. It'd be a miracle if Yuu pulled through this. But, at least he tried to do the right thing.

It's night time, so it's not difficult to make his way to the hospital undetected. He could only imagine how bad it would look if someone caught sight of them. A vampire sneaking through the streets with a nearly dead unconscious human in his arms, both filthy and disgusting. He'd never make it to safety before he was lynched.

His arms relax as the large windows of the hospital come into view, just a little farther and he can dump Yuu and be done with it. What's the best way to go about this? He doesn't want to be seen and if he enters the hospital, they might catch him on camera. Plus if Yuu doesn't pull through, they'd hunt him down to find out what happened and attempt to bring him to justice.

Mikaela might be Krul's wayward progeny, but it would be a bloodbath if they tried to kill him. A huge mess he'd rather avoid, not to mention the bulk of lives lost would fall on him too.

He spots the paramedics on break near the ER entrance and makes up his mind. Briefly dropping Yuu to the ground to pull his hood over his face and cinch it tight, Mikaela uses the full extent of his vampire speed to dash across the lot and practically throw Yuu onto a paramedic before disappearing just as fast, only stopping once he's far enough away.

The ground rushes up to meet him as his body collapses against a bench. Yuu's blood barely sustained him, but restarted his time needed for starvation and now there's only one place left for him to go. He punches a hole through the bench in frustration, letting angry tears fall.

Guess Yuu won after all.