I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to keep the writing pace up, but I'll do my best! ^^/ Warnings for BL, so please don't continue on if you don't like! The Vor's touch starts to take hold of Hakuren. DO NOT MISS THIS CHAPTER.

WISHES OF THE NIGHT
By Shikushikun
Part 4

"Byuu?"

Hakuren stirred awake slowly and felt a weight on his chest. Long lashes fluttered open with a groan. He had tossed and turned in his bed all night, plagued by disturbing dreams. When he tried to remember them, there was nothing except shadows. There were no shadows now, but by the strength of the light across the curtains, he had slept in a little later than usual. But they still had some work to do today.

"Buruu..." That was Mikage again, sitting on him and scratching a long ear with a back claw.

And then a strange sensation hit Hakuren. Things suddenly felt a little distant like he was underwater. He blinked at the baby dragon, who perked up as he stirred. Smacking his dry mouth, he worked up enough saliva to start talking properly.

"What time is it?" Hakuren asked, though didn't expect an answer from Mikage. He looked across to his friend's bed, but it was already neatly folded and missing it's usual inhabitant. "Did Teito leave already?"

"Oh, you're up!" Teito answered as he entered their room with perfect timing. "There's still some breakfast left, but you're going to miss it if you keep sleeping."

Hakuren stared at his friend as if he didn't understand the words. "...I'm hungry," he realized. Not only that, but thirsty.

"Then get on your stuff and let's go! I heard that something happened last night and one of the Vor victims got out of the ward. Everyone's looking for him before his infection gets worse."

The blond tossed aside his sheets (and Mikage, incidentally, who pyaa'd) and headed immediately to his trunk for his robes. "Why didn't you wake me earlier?!" his tone was annoyed.

The brunette raised and eyebrow. "You were tired. Did you sleep okay last night?"

"Yes!" he almost snapped, not wanting to admit he did not.

"Just asking! Don't freak out." When Hakuren looked, he saw the annoyed expression he was expecting. His cheeks colored a little and he looked away after a tense pause.

"Sorry." The tone was stilted. "I'll get ready, you go ahead search with the others first."

"Hey, I haven't eaten yet either, stupid. I was waiting for you!"

"...You were?"

"Yeah, so hurry it up." Teito closed the door and waited outside as Hakuren brushed up.

When he stepped out of his night clothes with bare chest and legs, he spotted something odd in the small mirror against the wall. Coming closer... he gasped.

It was a mark against his neck. A black circle with a familiar-looking design from his studies that clung to his skin like a scar for all to see. He backed away.

"Buruu..." Mikage again. He'd been shut in, too. The small dragon-eyes stared at Hakuren, at THAT, with ears at attention.

There was a surge of anger. "...Don't let Teito know," Hakuren hissed. The dragon gave a loud squeak and backed away - and Hakuren briefly felt hurt by the reaction. What he didn't know was that his eyes had taken on a strange red look, and his face had twisted into a evil expression. As the dragon ran to the door to scratch frantically at, Hakuren tugged on his robes and adjusted his collars HIGH as Teito opened the door again to fetch Mikage.

Not long after, they had breakfast. It was a torrid and unsatisfying affair. The water did little to quench his thirst, and the food had no affect on his hunger. His mind was frantically going over the events of the previous day, the encounter with the Vor, chasing, the abrupt waking... Was that when it happened? How could he had let himself be infected? It was the mark of a Kor, a VOR. He was infected, completely.

After he had inhaled his food in worry and twitchily made small talk with his friend and partner, while the dragon sat ever-vigilantly by Teito, he abruptly got up and stalked away.

"--Hakuren. Hakuren!" Teito was quick to follow. "Why the rush?"

"We..." He gulped. "We have to find that Vor, of course. As soon as possible."

"Frau had some of the others look too, remember? We'll find it, don't worry..."

He just shook his head, the feeling of denseness in the air strong again, like he was pushing against something... but the pressure came from INSIDE him. Not out.

"Or are you thinking about what Frau said yesterday?" Teito asked. Hakuren looked up with a start. Had he been discovered...? His friend continued, "He's right, we should have taken care of that woman first before running off. But he knows we were doing what we could to protect everyone... and nothing else happened, so it worked out for the best."

Teito. Oh Teito, he wanted to say. For guy so experienced with the darker things in life, he still had an innocent lining in the towering cumulus cloud of his soul. That hopeful thing that he knew even Frau wanted to help preserve. He reached out and snatched Teito's hand and pulled them both to a stop in the corridor.

Swallowing thickly, he opened his mouth to tell him about the mark. "Teito. I..."

But a choking feeling stopped him.

Why

couldn't

he

say

it?

There was a cold tightening in his throat, with the feeling of intense fear and paranoia. If Teito knew... he would reject him. Shun him for having been so weak, to let a Vor infect him. Instead of looking at him with the unsuspecting eyes of a friend, they would widen, the pupils dilate at the emotionally stunning confession before blinking. It would be a moment, but Teito would think less of him, and Hakuren couldn't have that.

His grip lingered for a long time as his sentence trailed incomplete, and Teito gave no hint that the gesture had grown awkward or unwanted.

"You...?" he prompted.

SCREAM!

There was a feeling of deja vu as the shape of a young man ran out into the hall they stood in, and then darted away without another glance to the inner nest of halls.

Nuns surrounded another nun, poised to fight, while a friend held her shaking form.

"Did he hurt you?" Teito asked.

"Just a scratch," she said, still shaking. It was only a scratch on her wrist, and a droplet of blood blossomed and smeared on the cuff of her habit. Hakuren took a huge step back - because suddenly he could SMELL it. The blood. The warmth and life there. Life was what he craved and... wished for...

"E-everyone, please stay together. Teito, I'm going to..." He couldn't finish, and flailed helplessly down the direction of the Vor.

"Let's go!" Of course he was going to insist on coming. So they took off together.

The chase was a mirror of their hunt from last night, but the main difference would be they KNEW the layout of the church. Whoever this Vor was likely did NOT. Some of the halls went in circles, with several halls of gorgeous architecture connecting them together. Stairs going every which way and some people might get easily lost if they did not know the place. And there were people here who cried out when the Vor was spotted and could direct them. All this time, however, Hakuren became hungrier and thirstier the more energy he exerted.

They finally paused in a staircase, breaths heaving. They were not sure which floor to go, whether one up or one down. Hakruen slumped against the large glass window covered in gold etchings. The sun was too bright, and he felt like he could sleep some more despite this being a very important event.

He sat.

In the far recesses of his mind, Hakuren knew he was in trouble the moment Teito knelt down with a face full of concern. "Is something wrong? You seem a little out of it..."

He watched Teito's mouth move without listening to the words. A soft, rosy pair of lips. Acting purely on instinct, he leaned forward and kissed Teito.

It lasted only a second before the boy stumbled backwards and landed on his ass, his face flushed as Hakuren felt. "W-what was that for?!"

Hakuren slowly licked his lips. Teito's eyes widened. Dilated. Blinked. It was too late to turn back now. He crawled forward and grabbed the front of Teito's robes in his fist and tugged them together again.

Mouths met, and it was sweet, at least at first. Teito's noises were muffled and incomprehensible, and Hakuren's strength was more than it usually was. His other hand reached up to stroke the boy's face and fingers slid down to pull at his collar. That neck was warm. It was smooth and begged to be pierced. But, Teito wasn't just taking this sitting down. He had his own arms free and pushed at Hakuren's face, fingers poking unromantically at his cheeks and eyes, a thumb hooking right under his left nostril and making this all VERY uncomfortable! He had to break the kiss.

"STOP THAT!" he snarled. I mean, really snarled. Eyes red and the canines of his teeth had lengthened, causing the normally docile blond to look demonic indeed.

"Hakuren?!" And then knowledge dawned. It was a Vor.

"PYAAAA!" Damn it, Mikage. The dragon pounced between Teito and Hakuren and blew flames at the blond. They were small bursts, but the proximity made it alarming and threatened to leave some third-degree burns if he didn't back off immediately. Which, he did. He let go of his friend and blocked with an arm, scrambling back as a wave of nausea overtook him.

He had attacked Teito! His best friend! Not only that... he kissed him, and for all intense and purpose wanted to BITE him. Infect him.

The three of them stared at each other in silence that seemed to stretch forever.

"...Hakuren?" The voice had an edge of terror that the elder only rarely heard, but most commonly in the dead of night in the midst of a terrible dream or nightmarish memory.

Hakuren shook. He had a Vor in him. He had scared Teito. He was a monster.

With that, Hakuren flew off down the stairs. He picked a floor at random and ran and turned corridors like he had done when chasing the Vor. But this time it wasn't he who did the chasing, no, he was being chased. Perhaps hunted like a beast, or so he imagined. He couldn't let Teito catch him, couldn't let him expose his shame, no it was far better to get away and to hide instead of seeing those eyes again like he did only a moment ago - eyes that were shocked and feeling betrayed. Jade chips that somehow splintered into his heart. He wanted to escape! He had to get out, or melt away.

In the chaos of his heart, he didn't see the figure until it had tackled Hakuren into a wall.

"Teito...?" he asked when he came to his senses. His voice was tight, panicked. His wrists were held to the sides of him, a considerable feat considering his current endowed strength.

"No," came the dusky, calm voice. The owner of that voice was a young man not much older than him, with a scuff of midnight hair. His eyes were red.

"It's you..." he said. The Vor-infected victim on the loose. The young man leaned in with a smirk, cheek against forehead in an oddly intimate manner.

"I think I'll take you," Davi said as he licked his lips, "even though you're a vampire."

End of Part 4

Notes:
Uwaaah ^^# *blush* If that part was wrong I don't want to be right. (But I'm so super sorry, Hakuren!!) I love Burupya/Mikage a lot, don't you? I wish I owned a baby dragon… Oops, don't take that seriously Kor! Everything happened so fast, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to have the story get very long, so I guess there was a lot of stuff in this chapter! Reviews are much appreciated, thank you~!

AND BEFORE I FORGET… this story is 100% dedicated to Debit-kun~! Yaaaaaah!!! ;D