Like they had planned, Shuichi and Itachi left their nights shelter with the sun barely up. It was even warmer than the day before, the air hot and humid. There might be a thunderstorm later on so they would need to be on alert. The reapers might decide to leave their hidey-holes with the sun gone and enough rain.
They didn't talk much over breakfast and Shuichi didn't tried stirring up a conversation while they were walking. He was still jumpy, not being sure of the humans' reaction to their previous talk about reapers. As a vampire he had learned really fast that humans would blame him to have caused something, even with clear evidence against it and them knowing it to be not true. But Itachi gave no indications that he might be cross. In fact, he was thinking of asking about some friends and acquaintances they had lost during reaper attacks. Those people might be still alive and living in Shuichi's city. He wouldn't mind having a talk with them, if just to see if transmuting into vampires had changed their personality.
"Say, about those blood pills, are they good enough to completely replace real blood?"
Shuichi shook his head.
"They are still not perfect. The hemoglobin is slightly different and thus harder to be absorbed for our bodies than the real thing, and the algae produce a byproduct which is making some people ill if too much is consumed. Sadly we don't have the technique to produce better hemoglobin or clean it properly from any byproducts."
Of course it wasn't easy to build up a proper research in this situation.
"Do you have any other approaches on the problem?"
If the vampires had some medicine or the like to keep them alive they wouldn't need to hunt humans. This had been thought of even before the Reaper Outbreak but the people in charge didn't get enough money nor the allowance by the government to help the vampires. At that time the society didn't want to integrate vampires as a minority into their live. They were outlawed.
"We are trying something with stem cell research but haven't come far yet."
"Perhaps we could help you out if you gave us a summary of your findings so far."
Sasori would be delighted to the challenge, he was constantly complaining about not being able to do something useful, besides shooting at reapers and solving logistic problems. And it would give them a measure about the vampire's sources in research. They might make use of it.
Inwardly, Itachi shook his head in wonder. They were hardly together for five days and he already thought about making alliances instead of finding the vampires den and think of a plan to get rid of them all at once. He needed to let his head get checked when he got back, if he would ever get back. Perhaps he was getting soft, may it be because of the constant strain on his body and mind from the fighting or Shuichi's doing. He didn't know about the vampires abilities yet. It might be a mind manipulating skill.
"I think we can manage something of the like. I would be glad to get some aid in this case. Feeding my people is becoming hard."
It would help a lot if they could stop with the assaults on the humans. You can't make an alliance with a city while continuing to assault their people. The need for blood was a major obstacle.
"It sounds like you have an awful lot of vampires to look after."
Itachi's voice faked innocence. He really would like to get a grasp on the rough number of vampires under Shuichi's guidance. It would help to decree how dangerous they might become in the near future. Even if his father already ruled them as to dangerous to ignore anymore and to be left alone, whatever their number, Itachi liked to get a grasp of his enemy's size before running head long into an attack. In fact, his father had become quite hasty with his decisions the last months.
"Enough to make your father faint in shock and you to reconsider leaving me alive, not that it would help you if I'm dead. So I won't be telling you yet."
That was what Itachi had feared. Even if Shuichi's voice held a playful tone he knew it to be the truth, and since he could hardly do anything about it now he wouldn't think about it anymore. It would give him headaches again and he was tired of them. He could always think of a plan later on, if one was needed.
Near midday the came across one of the many streams in this area near a small village and decided to take a rest on a sturdy bridge crossing it. They could cook a decent meal with the food they found the day before. Itachi readied a fire pit while Shuichi searched for more firewood. They could cook enough for the evening while they were at it.
As Shuichi came back he not only carried enough wood in a string but also some towels as well as shampoo and shower gel. He must have gotten those from one of the houses nearby.
"You're taking a bath?"
The stream was big and deep enough to even swim in it for a short distance.
"My hair is greasy and I reek of sweat, I badly need a good wash. And you too, by the way."
Well, they were both dirty after traveling for days and their two shifts of clothes could need a wash too. Before they hadn't had the time or chance to do so.
After setting up their meal to cook, Itachi joined Shuichi on the riverbank. Already the vampire was shirtless and started removing his pants. Itachi caught himself staring. As he took care of Shuichi's wound, which was now hidden by a water proof patch, he had gotten a glimpse of his tattoos. On his right shoulder blade there was a black, stalking wolf with blue eyes together with the Kanji for 'spirit'. On the left shoulder blade sat its mirror twin, a demon wolf with wings, red eyes and fangs bared with the kanji for 'demon'. The rest of his back was occupied by a big, four legged and blue dragon, its wings partly outstretched, head in between the two wolves and tail winding itself around Shuichi's lower back and hip. Its kanji read 'strength'. A wild looking, rearing black horse on his left calf had the kanji for 'freedom'.
By now Shuichi was naked and jumped into the river, diving under water and coming up again with a yelp. The water was cold. He turned around to regard the human still on the riverbank. Now Itachi could better see the snake wound around his upper right arm with the kanji for 'wisdom'. Shuichi seemed to have a liking for kanjis, and for tattoos.
"Are you going to stand there gawping all day or are you coming in? You wanted to be clean, didn't you?"
He hadn't been gawping or ogling, well, perhaps a little. Pulling of the rest of his clothes he slowly descended into the river. It really was cold. Meanwhile Shuichi had grabbed the shampoo and shower gel and started scrubbing himself, rinsing his hair in the water. Itachi copied him.
"Your tattoos look good."
Shuichi was occupied washing his clothes but peeked at the human from under his bangs.
"Thanks."
Well, that felt awkward.
"How old are you? You never told."
Not much better. Why should it interest him? And why had he asked now of all times?
"I'm 21."
So he actually was as old as his brother.
"You have a girlfriend or boyfriend?"
He blinked. Shuichi stared up at him red faced before occupying himself with his clothes again. Itachi had honestly spoken his thoughts out loud. Was he drunk or something the like?
"Noooo, as of right now…not really. Well, there's hardly any time for this."
"Ah."
There wasn't anything more he could add. Itachi grabbed his clothes scrubbing them vigorously to keep himself from saying anymore weird things in this situation. If Uchihas could blush he would have been bright red by now.
Apparently Shuichi could blush, as Itachi noticed, he also noticed that he wasn't corrected on asking about a boyfriend. So Shuichi might as well be gay, or bi.
Which of course shouldn't be of interest for him in the least.
Luckily Shuichi decided to safe him and break the awkward silence.
"You know this isn't a good idea. I mean a vampire and a human, both male at that. Your father will have a heart attack, one part of my fans would be trying to kill you and vice versa while the other will have a major nosebleed, the reapers would surely be killed by the vibrant love of such a romantic Romeo and Juliet love story; wait that's a good thing; it would start an all-out war raging over the whole world; though we already have that; my reputation would so go down the drain and I'm out of arguments against it."
Itachi hid a grin. Leave it to Shuichi ranting like an idiot just to lighten the mood. So far it worked out very well.
"You have a reputation?"
Shuichi's eyes lit up suddenly.
"I do. I'm the ultimate big brother to all the orphans we gave shelter. No idea how I managed to have enough time for them. They would be after you like peasants after weeds, little twerps, and children can be cruel. No wonder I wasn't able to keep myself a lover for longer than two weeks."
"I pity them for not being able to keep you longer."
Splendid. Itachi wanted to slap himself. He wasn't here to flirt. Shuichi gave him the longest of stares.
"Well thank you. I'm taking that as a compliment. I think the rice should be done any moment now."
Together they climbed out of water, slinging towels around their bodies and hanging their clothes over the bridges rail to dry in the sun. They ate in odd silence sitting on the meadow above the stream.
Itachi couldn't keep himself from occasionally mustering Shuichi's body. He was slim but well-toned, though he should gain some more weight. He had some scars, probably from the constant fights with reapers and humans. Itachi had an assortment of his own. Meanwhile he caught Shuichi deep in though, glancing at him now and then, but otherwise not noticing Itachi's staring. He seemed to be debating with himself.
Soon enough they left, putting out the fire and storing the leftover food without any more embarrassing situations. The clothes weren't completely dry yet but they couldn't wait any longer and the day was warm.
It took them longer than expected to reach the next destination. Apparently an earthquake or strong rain had triggered a massive landslide lately. The road was blocked and they had to skip around the area because the "rubble" didn't look safe to climb over.
When they managed to reach the little town it was already evening; the sun would be down in less than an hour. Finding their supposed hideout on the outskirts of said town an even bigger problem did arise. The building before them was an old school with an adjoining gym hall, of which only the foundation walls were left standing. The yellow cross mark the door of a changing room , whose ceiling was broken in leaving them with no protection for the night.
"Well, that is a problem." Itachi looked at Shuichi. "Your vampire powers wouldn't be of any help here, would they?"
He didn't know about Shuichi's powers, since he had never seen nor asked about them.
Shuichi just shook his head.
"Then, is there another hideout within reach? Or a possibility to go there faster like a car or bike?"
Again the vampire shook his head.
"I fear we have to search for another shelter, and fast. I might already have an idea."
Itachi followed Shuichi as he moved towards the school building. The sun was just standing right to fill some of the schools corridors with light. After some minutes searching they stopped in front of the janitors' closet. It was a small room stuffed with shelves filled to the brim; the door opened to the inside and was sturdy metal. Itachi checked the lock. It worked. To be safe they would shove some of the heavier shelves' in front of it.
"Not very big but it should do for the night."
Itachi nodded. Together they threw out some of the lighter shelves to make more room and build a small barrier outside the door. This would make it harder for the reapers to even reach the door, but not by much. After moving inside and closing the door they stuffed the slit beneath it with some dirty towels, heaved a heavy shelve before it and jammed a second shelve between it and the wall.
Safe for the night they sat down to eat in the light of Shuichi's small lamp. It was a very small room, even with most of the shelves gone. They would have to sleep right next to each other and since they had only found one ragged, but big, old blanket they would have to share it. Even if the day had been warm the nights already tended to become quite cold. No one of them wanted to freeze tonight.
Both used their spare clothes as makeshift pillows and laid down on their jackets with the ragged, weird smelling blanket over them. They fell asleep back to back.
