Rei scrunched up his nose in disgust as he entered the part of the forest he had agree to meet Nagisa on. Apparently he had gone hunting again, if the smell of rotten flesh was anything to go by.
"Nagisa-kun," he said aloud, knowing that Nagisa would know he was here, due to his enormous hearing range. And true to this, he arrived in little more than thirty seconds.
"Ah, you finally came, Rei-chan; I found some squirrels and wild cats that you might want," he grabbed the demon's hand, ready to bolt, but he felt Rei's hand pushing him to stay in his place. He could almost hear Nagisa's thoughts coming to a stop, too. He turned around, frown questioning, "Rei-chan?"
Rei adjusted his glasses, even if he didn't need them to see, it was part of his human costume. "While you met with Camile, did you encounter the subjugate that tried to off Rin-chan-san?"
Nagisa's eyes widened for a second, before going back to their subdued state. "Yeah," he admitted, his hand falling to his side. Rei sighed, and grabbed the young vampire by his shoulders.
"Have you told him yet?" Nagisa shook his head.
"He's still recovering from going there, I don't want to burden him yet with that. I'm pretty sure he's paranoid enough as it is," he seemed like he wanted to cry, something Rei hadn't seen since a couple of years ago. "He'll start distrusting me if it turns out I know who tried to kill him and didn't tell him when I knew. I need time to break it to him."
Rei nodded, taking a deep breath. "I think that the best strategy with Rin-san is to be honest. He seems to trust you implicitly because you have been nothing but honest to him—even on the things people should not be honest on." He smiled at the vampire, trying to be, if not reassuring, assertive.
He didn't want his friend to feel lachesism like he did when he was turned. Jumping in the middle of crowded roads, opening the window at daytime, or that one time he tried to verify whether a wooden stake really kills vampires. If it hadn't been for that person, Nagisa would have succeeded.
Rei was very much amazed with Nagisa. Even when the latter was only a human, he had been an extraordinary one at that; always willing to show him why humans were worth not killing, why humans were beautiful—not only aesthetically wise. And when he had been turned, Rei had been amazed at how powerful he had been, because apparently age played no factor in him. The powers only vampires who had been turned when they were in their late twenties, or of those at least two centuries old had, Nagisa had them after being turned at seventeen.
He'd probably not admit it to anyone, but he had grown fond of humans, and he was glad that Nagisa had been able to found a solution by giving him animal souls, for he'd hate to take that from creatures that could exude so much beauty.
"You said something about wild cats?" he said once the silence had become uncomfortable.
Nagisa grinned, and pulled him towards the woods. "Your favorite, right?"
