Part 2

Peaceful sleep

Mahiru switched on the light in the apartment and closed the door after Kuro had entered. The servamp maneuvered his way through the small hallway…no easy task while carrying a sleeping girl in his arms. When they entered the living room, Mahiru's first idea was to lay the girl on the couch, but he quickly discarded the plan upon remembering that it was rather uncomfortable to sleep in. He scratched his chin in a thoughtful manner and then said aloud: "We could roll out one of the futons?"

"She can sleep in my bed. I don't need it," Kuro counteracted, shifting the girl in his arms. She made some soft noises and instinctively strengthened her grip on his jacket, after which she just continued her peaceful slumber.

"You can't sleep while in cat-form, Kuro."

"I can sleep in any form."

Mahiru wanted to hit himself in the head, feeling a little irritated at Kuro playing dumb. He knew damn well that that wasn't what he meant. Mahiru was well aware that the servamp of sloth, the very epitome of laziness and sleep, wouldn't make a point of sleeping while being in cat-form. He had done it many times before, hiding in the weirdest spots of the house; curled up into a little ball of fur.
The teen had noticed that, from time to time, the vampire seemed to prefer his animal form to take a nap in. That's why he had left the cat basket where he had put it down the very first day…the day he found kitty Kuro. After discovering that his cat was…well…not quite the pet he seemed to be, he had planned to put it away, but after noticing Kuro's habit, he had decided against doing so. He didn't want him to sleep on the floor. Because that just didn't sit right with the Eve. Kuro wasn't human, but he wasn't an animal either. He should not have to sleep on the floor…hell…he shouldn't even be sleeping in a basket.

"I know but…," he started.

"Don't worry about me," Kuro mumbled, his eyes shifting from Mahiru to the girl.

Worry about her instead was what his glance seemed to say. Mahiru stared at her for a moment and then nodded in silent defeat. His partner was right…they had to think of the girl now. She was their top priority.

The two of them walked over to Kuro's room, which was situated at the end of the hall, opposite of Mahiru's own room. The teen didn't often enter the place because of Kuro's crazy ability to create a health-hazardous environment in less than a day. From time to time, he would do an effort and clean up the entire room; every nook and cranny. But since Kuro's mere presence was enough to turn it into a mess again, the results of his work never lasted long. He always had to restrain himself from cleaning it up again the day after, telling himself that he was not Kuro's housekeeper and that the vampire should learn to do it himself. It had cost him a lot of self-control, but he had learned to ignore it.

Well, that is…he had managed to ignore it up until the moment he set foot in the room once more. He felt a stinging sensation in his chest and for a moment he was quite sure he was going to die of a heart-attack.

"When did you last clean up this place?!" he practically yelled. He knew Kuro was too lazy to clean up, but really…he had thought – no he had hoped- that even someone like him would eventually see the benefits of a clean room.

"Too much of a pain," Kuro replied in his usual bored voice.

The place was dark and a complete mess…typical of Kuro to just ignore all the litter and rubbish lying around. "That lazy vampire", Mahiru thought, sighing mentally. "He'll never learn." Perhaps the teen should give it one more try…vacuuming would do a lot already…but that was a problem he would deal with later on. There were more important things to tend to now. He walked over to Kuro's bed and was about to pull back the covers when a sudden thought hit him.

"Wait, what about her clothes?" he asked, before Kuro got the chance to lay the girl down.

"Aah, that's troublesome," the vampire said, obviously disturbed by the unspoken idea. The girl's clothes were dripping with blood…she couldn't possibly sleep like that. But that would mean…

"Jeez…we can't strip her of her clothes, can we? That would be awkward." The teen scratched the back of his neck and then said: "But we can't leave it like that either…" Kuro sighed and then nodded into the direction of his closet. "There's a towel and some clean clothes in there. She can use those for now?"

"Sounds like a good plan," Mahiru said, a bit surprised that Kuro came up with something useful. He grabbed the things they needed and spread the towel over the bed, so that the servamp could finally lay the girl down.

"Now what?" the latter asked.

"Yes, well, this is going to be really awkward."

"Can't deal."

*Time skip

A few awkward minutes and a lot of hidden blushes later, the boys had managed to strip the girl of her ruined clothes (the upper layer of course) and put her into clean ones without waking her up. Mahiru had washed of some of the blood of her arms and legs and had only just finished tucking her in like a little child. The girl stirred in her sleep, grabbed the pillow that lay next to her and moved to lie on her side; continuing her peaceful sleep. Kuro watched her for a moment and then said to Mahiru: "I'm going to take a shower. Can't deal with all the blood."

The Eve nodded understandingly. Kuro looked as if he had just slaughtered someone. The blue of his jacket was beyond recognizable, stained by large dark red spots, accompanied by the horrible smell of iron. The rest of his clothes weren't better off…he looked absolutely terrible.

"Put your clothes in the laundry. I'll try to clean them later on. Take some of mine in the meanwhile…since you have no spare clothes left."

"Yeah, thanks, mom," Kuro muttered as he sauntered out of the room.

"Don't call me that!"

"Whatever."

Mahiru took one last glance at the girl, who was now snoring softly, and then left to go sit in the living room. He could use a shower himself…the blood on his hands had dried and become sticky. His shirt was ruined beyond repair and his trousers were smeared with blood. To put it simple…his clothes –and Mahiru himself – had seen better days.

He vowed his hands together, not willing to look at the red that stained them, and left his thoughts to drift back to the girl, sleeping only a few meters away. What had happened to her? Had she been attacked by a vampire? The way in which she was attacked certainly pointed in the direction of one…a very vicious one on top of that. Really, what else could have caused such an ugly wound? It had to be a vampire, right? Perhaps one of Tsubaki's subclass?

He pondered the question for a while, but since he knew too little about Tsubaki's subclass, he gave up on it fairly quickly. His thoughts drifted back to a question that was perhaps the most important of them all. Who was she to Kuro? She had recognized him, which meant that they had to have met before. Did she mean something to him? Because he had seemed quite contrary to the idea of changing her. Mahiru really had to coax him into doing it…and he was happy that the servamp had listened to him. The girl would not have deserved to die…not in a way like that…not like an animal on the streets.

He didn't understand Kuro's initial reaction, but since the vampire had seemed to accept the girl's fate, Mahiru didn't have the heart to bring up the whole ordeal. Perhaps they had a past together…perhaps there was a good reason as to why he didn't want to change her…why he had wanted her to die instead.

There had to be…because he couldn't believe that Kuro was that heartless.

He didn't want to believe it.

To Mahiru the girl was an enigma. He did not knew the slightest thing about her…not even something as simple as a name.

A frightening thought entered his mind. What if he had acted recklessly?

His thoughts were interrupted by Kuro coming out of the bathroom. His blue hair had been dried with a towel, causing it to stick up to all sides. He pulled at the black shirt Mahiru had lend him and then said in a lazy tone: "Just realized that you're a freaking midget. Barely fit in your clothes."

"I'm not a midget! Buy some more spare clothes if you have a problem with mine!"

"Nah, too troublesome. This will do," Kuro yawned, as he turned into his cat-form and jumped onto the couch, taking the spot next to the Eve.

"Yeah, well. I think I'm going to take a shower as well."

Kuro was already dozing off, mumbling a short "yeah, yeah" before going completely quiet. Mahiru shook his head in slight disbelief and then quickly made his way towards the bathroom. He couldn't wait to get rid of all the blood.

*Time skip

When Mahiru put his head down on his pillow he realized that he was more tired than he had initially thought. The incident with the girl had worn him out, both physically and mentally, and the fact that he had not slept well the previous day – the encounter with the greed pair had kept him awake at night – didn't help much. He threw a sideway glance at Kuro, who was laying in his wooden basket next to Mahiru's bed, snoring softly. As he watched the servamp sleep, it suddenly hit Mahiru that he had to care for the girl after all…he gave up his own comfort for her. Mahiru smiled at the thought, closed his heavy-lidded eyes and sunk away in a deep and peaceful slumber.

When Kuro was sure that his Eve was asleep, he jumped out of the basket, landing quietly on the floor. He padded to the door, which Mahiru always kept ajar and crept towards the room on the opposite side of the hall. He put his weight against the door, pushing it open without as much as a noise. Inside, the girl was still sleeping peacefully, her breathing even and steady. Kuro turned into his human form, bent over her and carefully pulled back the collar of her shirt, revealing smooth pale skin. The wound had fully recovered; no traces to be seen of the traumatic bleeding that had happened only a few hours earlier. She was doing fine.

Kuro felt relieved…there was no other word to describe the sensation that ran through his body. It felt as if a huge weight – which had controlled every thought and feeling he had experienced in the last few hours - had been lifted of his shoulders. He could finally breath without having to worry about her.

He glanced over his shoulder and looked at the door for a moment, briefly considering to leave, before changing his mind. He turned back into a cat, sought out a warm spot next to the girl and curled up into a little ball of fur.

*Time skip

When Mahiru woke up the next morning he was surprised to find that Kuro was no longer in his basket. The servamp never woke up before Mahiru did. Never. The teen always had to drag him out of his bed, yelling and scolding, while Kuro put up a faint protest in response.

This was a very unusual thing for Kuro to do and it set off something alarming inside of Mahiru. As an Eve, he instantly felt vulnerable when his servamp wasn't by his side. There was a certain restlessness inside of his heart; a deep desire to find out where he was.

Mahiru climbed out of bed and walked towards the living room, excepting to find the vampire sitting in front of the television with a cup of ramen. His expectations, however, weren't met for Kuro was nowhere to be seen. The living room was shrouded in a deafening silence, which only caused the semi-nervous feeling Mahiru was experiencing to grow stronger.

Where did he go?

He…wait.

Mahiru turned towards the hall as another thought crossed his mind. Did he perhaps go to check on the girl? The Eve ran to the end of the hall and opened the door to Kuro's room, peeping inside. The place was still dark due to the curtains being closed, but Mahiru could clearly see the small figure of kitty Kuro lying against the back of the girl, curled up and sleeping soundly. The eerie feeling Mahiru had felt faded away upon the sight of him and a small smile appeared on his lips. He closed the door again and returned to his room; feeling relieved and happy at the same time.

Kuro definitely cared about the girl. That he knew for sure now…

Notes from the author

And that's the end of chapter two! I would love to hear your thoughts on it. Also, if there are any questions, then shoot…I'll be happy to answer them (except when they deal with the storyline, because I'm not going to spoil anything sorry). Okay, maybe one tiny little spoiler…the girl is going to wake up in the next chapter (surprise surprise) so we should get some interaction then.
About the length of the chapters…I know that they are not that long, but I noticed that I tend to write more regularly if the chapters are shorter (keeps me motivated, I guess).
I would also like to thank all of you for the reviews and for faving/following this story. I greatly appreciate all the feedback I receive.

Well, that's it for today. Until next time.