Chapter 8 : The Story
(Takanori's pov)
Uruha dragged me back to Miyavi's guest room and sat me down on the bed. He held me as I squeezed his body and cried on his shoulder.
"I can't lose him Uru."
"I know." He patted my back. "You need to sleep. You'll get sick if you don't."
"But what if…if something happens?"
"Then I'll wake you. "
I shook my head and he pushed me down onto the bed. He leaned down and planted a kiss on my cheek, but I grabbed his head and forced my tongue into his mouth. He rubbed my cheeks as he kissed back, but he pulled away.
"Sleep."
I sighed, but closed my eyes and surprisingly I fell asleep within a few seconds.
I opened my eyes and found myself alone. I jumped to my feet and rushed out to the living to see that Akira was gone. Nobody was around, so I headed down to Miyavi's lab, and when I got to the door, I heard a scream. I opened the door and my friend laying on a bed, pale, blood leaking out of his mouth and his eyes were blood shot. Aoi was holding his hand, kissing it and whispering. I walked to the table and Akira smiled up at me.
"Hey…" His voice was raspy.
"Hey."I smiled and blinked to hold back my tears.
"I…guess…I'll meet them…huh?"
I looked at Miyavi and he looked down. "We don't think he'll live, but for a few more hours."
"I was about to come and wake you up." Uruha mumbled standing by the door. I didn't even notice that he was there.
"You…you think…I'll see them…again?" Aki asked.
I smiled and sat next to him. "Yes."
"Who?" Aoi asked.
"His parents."
Akira smiled. "Do…you think…I'll know who…" He squeezed Aoi's hand and yelled as pain shot through his body. After it was over, he breathed for a moment. "You think…I'll re…"
"Aki?" I whimpered
Miyavi checked him and sighed. "He passed out."
"What happened to his parents?" Aoi asked.
I smiled. "When he was six or seven, people broke into his house one night and when he walked into the living room, he saw them shoot both his parents in the head. He hid so they never found him and he stayed there for two days before someone discovered the bodies. He went into foster care. Those people starved and beat him for most of his life."
"So that explains the scars on his body."
"I tried to help, but it was already too late when I meet him."
"What do you mean?" Uruha asked.
"What happened to him?" Aoi asked.
I sighed."I got transferred to a new school and on my second day, I saw the entire cafeteria throwing food and milk on him. I was shocked, he just stood there taking it, but I grabbed his hand dragged the him to the bathroom. As I was cleaning him up, I saw his arms covered in bruises. He yanked his arms away and ran away from me. Then I realized that he was in my class. I tried talking to him, but he avoided me. Then one night I went out to the store and he literally ran into me. He was beaten to a pulp and he was in a daze, so I took him home and had my mom help him. That's when we realized he has been abused because he had old injuries too. After that, he started opening up to me and started hanging out with me. The more he hung out with me, the more they beat him because he would hide from them that way. I was his way out. I taught him to stand up for himself and he did. One night, my family was eating and someone started banging on the door. When my mom answered it, she screamed and when we ran in, we saw Akira passed out on the floor, bleeding. We got him to the hospital and when he woke up, he told us that he got tired of being beaten. He killed them that night and ran to us for help. It was considered self defense so he didn't get in trouble. My parents adopted him and he was shy at first, but he opened up. He started defending himself, he became protective of me, he became happy."
I looked up and saw Aoi rubbing Akira's cheek. Everyone was looking down, upset at his story.
"It's ok you guys. Akira never wanted people to feel bad for him about his past. He would always get on to me about it, he just wanted to be normal."
Aoi smiled as he leaned down and kissed Aki's lips.
"Reminds me of mother." Uruha spoke up.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"My mother was the only one to survive the experiments."
"Experiments?"
"Oh, boy." Aoi mumbled. "Ok, Uruha, Tora and I are results of our father's experiments. At first, we weren't considered noble vampires because of the way we were born. The three of us and Kyo have the same father, but different mothers. Kyo was born from the last noble female. Our father found a young woman, changed her, and impregnated her. She died giving birth to me, then my father bit me to make sure I would live. As I grew up, everyone treated me differently, except my father. He cared for me, and when I bit into my first human, everyone was surprised that she changed into a vampire. My father was extremely happy. So the elders considered me a noble and gave my father permission to have more experiments. As he did, Kyo looked after me, since he was my older brother, he had to. Next was Tora and he was different than me. Father first impregnated the woman, then bit her stomach and when he was born, father bit him. His mother died and he also became a noble. With Uruha it was a bit different. He impregnated her and waited until she was almost at her due date before he bit her. The thing was, she didn't change and she didn't die when he was born. That's not all, a girl was born after that. They were twins and the woman ran away with them. Our father searched for them, in fear that they would die from the lack of blood. He sent me and Tora to help find them. We did. We found them, starved of blood, beaten. She had feared them and tried to kill them. I let them feed off my blood and Tora carried the three of us back to our home."
"I almost died." Uruha continued. "My sister did. My mother beat us because we were different. She was scared of us and everyday was hell for us. I tried to protect my sister, but it all ended the same. Us holding each other praying for the pain to end. We never scarred, so other people couldn't see what was happening. I was so happy when I was with my father and brothers. Even though everyone considered us experiments, our father saw us as his children and nothing else. He cared for us. He loved us. Kyo hated us because we weren't born from noble women and he did what he could to put us down. He never would have thought that Aoi would protect us from him. Aoi has always protected us."
Aoi was blushing from the statement.
"What about you guys?" I asked Miyavi and Kai.
"Eh?" Kai raised an eyebrow.
"Well, we're all talking about our pasts, what about you two?"
"No thanks." Miyavi said.
Kai giggled. "He had a good family. Caring, died of old age. Same here. I had a good family, nothing happened other than me getting bit. So how about you. You told us about Akira, how about your past."
"Ok, it was a normal family. We had our ups and downs. We had our fights, but we've gotten better. When I moved out, Akira followed and I opened my café. So it's been pretty normal."
We got silent, Uruha walked over to me and petted my back. He gave me a sad smile and I was about to smile back, but then Akira started coughing up more blood. He started gasping for air, Aoi and I held his hands, he smiled up at us.
"M-make…i-it…stop…Aoi…ple—ugh!"
Aoi looked at me and bit his lip. I let go and Uruha wrapped his arms around me as Aoi lifted Akira's body. I watched as his bit into my friend's neck. Akira hugged him and he eventually stopped shaking, so Aoi pulled off and laid him down. Aki smiled, squeezing his stomach, and gasping for air.
"Thank…you…"
Aoi smiled.
Hours passed, Akira's shouts lowered and got less. I finally walked over and saw him breathing slow, his eyes struggling to stay open. I rubbed his cheek.
"We should let him sleep." Miyavi said. Uruha wrapped his arm around my shoulder and dragged me back up to the living room. Miyavi and Kai followed us up and sat down with us. We just sat there in silence, Uruha held me, Miyavi watched outside the window, and Kai kept messing with his hands. The silence broke when someone started knocking on the door, so Miyavi walked over and answered it.
"Hey." Tora mumbled stepping in.
"Did you get him?" Uruha asked.
"No, he got away. I was able to gather some info that I think you all should hear. Where's Aoi?"
I sighed. "Downstairs with Akira."
"Oh, how is he?"
"We don't know." Kai mumbled. "We don't think he'll live, but for another hour or two."
"Shut Up!" I shouted. "He'll live! He'll… he will. He has to." I started crying on Uru's shoulder.
The room got silent other than my sobs, Tora sat next to me and rubbed my back to try and calm me down. I couldn't cry anymore. I was so tired now, but I didn't want to sleep, not yet anyways. A hand was rubbing my head as another was on my back and my eyes felt so heavy. I struggled to keep them open, but without even realizing it, I fell asleep.
"Miyavi! Kai!" Aoi's yelling woke me up and I saw Kai run to the door where Aoi was standing. I jumped to my feet and followed them down to the lab doors, but Uruha grabbed me so I couldn't go in.
"Let go of me!"
"Not until we find out what happened." He said harshly.
I struggled, but he's too strong, so I stopped and stared at the door, waiting for anything to happen. After a few minutes, Miyavi opened the door and smiled at me. At that moment Uruha let go so I could run in and see my friend. Akira was sleeping peacefully, his face was relaxed as if he wasn't in anymore pain. Kai patted my back with a smile.
"He lived, but…" Miyavi started.
"But what?" I asked.
He walked over and raised Akira's upper lip to show me the fangs that had grown there. "He's a vampire now."
"Who cares?" I shouted. "He's alive!"
Aoi sighed and smiled. "But now he has to suffer with eternal life."
"As long as your with him, he won't suffer." I said.
He smiled again. "He's lucky to have a friend like you."
"And he's lucky to have a lover like you."
"We're lucky to have the both of you." Uruha said giving me a hug from behind.
