Heya. Not sure if anyone's still reading, but if you are, here, you can haz new chapter. As usual, adult situations and all that. Amarissia and the Choir wish a happy, happy Christmas to those of you that celebrate it.
Urm, also, there's this kink I always kinda wanted to try…
WITH THE DEAD
Chapter 7
When Zack had been mortal, Angeal had both praised and cursed the boy's almost unnatural perceptiveness. It made the teenager an excellent judge of character and quick to make decisions, useful skills for a SOLDIER, but it also made him difficult to surprise with rewards, and nearly impossible to hide things from, even things Zack was better off not knowing. Becoming a vampire heightened all one's skills, so basically, if Angeal and Genesis had tried to pretend Dagan was no threat and could be forgotten, the newborn would've seen through that at once.
As it was, Zack knew from the moment he awoke that his parents needed to have a serious conversation with him, one they weren't looking forward to. To everyone's relief, oddly enough, Zack was noticeably shaky that evening and didn't hide it well, so the doting parents delayed the inevitable by tending to him. Preternatural gifts or no, Genesis decided he didn't trust Zack in this condition to use the stairs, and insisted on carrying him up and down whenever the boy wanted to move to a different floor.
Angeal showed Zack a collection of photos he hadn't been able to show him before, some taken while in flight, some of other vampires, including ones they'd seen at the party ("Though we're not really supposed to allow photos of ourselves to be taken," Angeal admitted), and best of all, quite a few of Genesis naked in various poses.
"I want copies!"
Angeal chuckled. "Pup, even my having these could get me in trouble. I won't risk that with you."
"Can you, like, hang them up or something, then, so I can see them all the time?"
Another chuckle. "No, but tell you what, you have permission to look at my photos whenever you want."
"Can you teach me how to do photography?"
Angeal was pleased by the request; Genesis had never wanted to learn and pronounced cameras boring. "Sure, Pup. After all, you have lots of time to get good at it."
"Can I take pictures of you? Like the ones of Genesis?"
Angeal leaned forward, caught the soft pink lips with his own more experienced mouth, a mostly chaste kiss with a swipe of tongue. "We'll see, baby Puppy. I don't have much patience for posing. But maybe you'd like to pose for me?"
That sounded fun, and like something that would lead to sex, so Zack nodded eagerly. Angeal stopped his sorting to hold and look at one photograph, and his faint smile was sad. Always one for obeying his instincts, Zack crawled into Angeal's lap, settled back against his chest as a sculpted chin nuzzled his spikes, and looked at the picture.
Sephiroth was at the center, and strangely, he was wearing a very slight smile, in spite of or maybe because Genesis was next to him, running fingers through his silver hair and clearly happy to be doing so, as the only person on Gaia allowed to. Neither subject seemed aware that the moment was being captured on film.
"You miss Seph too, huh?"
"Very much," Angeal sighed. "He was a kid when we met and seemed so alone. Gen became a kind of surrogate mother to him, and we were the only ones strong enough to spar with him while he was getting really good with his sword. He'd usually wipe the floor with us, but I think it was invaluable to him, having partners he couldn't hurt. And…friends."
"I heard Lieutenant McClaren say that Sephiroth was more human because of you and Gen. I only ever saw him smile around you guys."
Angeal tried to hide another sigh by pressing his face into Zack's tousled hair. The boy turned, protectively wrapped his arms around the wide torso and squeezed, and he was squeezed back, but carefully, always carefully.
"Couldn't you just tell Seph about being vampires? I mean, if anyone can keep a secret…"
"We did consider it, but aside from pets, the Council forbids telling humans about us. If he had known and the Council found out, their Enforcers, a sort of vampire police, would've been sent after him."
Zack looked worried. "Like…to kill him?"
"They could try to. I don't know for sure who would win, and that kept Gen and I from ever telling him. On top of that, many from our world wanted to recruit Seph, even if he were unwilling. Him knowing would have been an excuse to force it on him."
Zack shivered in the cool embrace. "That's horrible. Although…it would be kinda cool if Seph were like us so we can stay in touch with him."
Angeal rubbed his chin over Zack's hair and hummed. "Yes, but…you probably sensed this, but Seph was never the happiest person around. I wouldn't tie him to this life for all eternity, or let anyone else."
Through their blood bond, Zack sensed Angeal's memories of Sephiroth, even as a child, rarely smiling, treated like a possession by the man who had raised him, only finding peace in battles he never lost. Angeal felt tears leave Zack's eyes even before the boy did, and folded him in an encompassing hug to soothe him with battle-worn hands.
"Baby Puppy, don't worry about Sephiroth. He was getting better by the time we left, perhaps in small part because of the confidence we helped him to gain. He even has a crush on a boy in the army, and Genesis tricked the two of them into being alone together enough times, I think, that they're probably together now. Love fills in so many gaps in people and time, Puppy. How much harder did you work as a SOLDIER because you wanted to make me proud?"
"A lot," the boy sniffled, but he followed it with a laugh. "Seph's gonna make the most awkward boyfriend ever. Can you imagine anniversaries? He'll never send the right kind of flowers."
"We'll try our best to keep up with his life, Pup."
"Angeal…"
"Baby?"
"You said to be really honest with you about how I feel."
Good boy. Tell me.
I'm…scared.
Of? Angeal immediately scolded himself. He knew perfectly well, why force the poor kid to say it?
Zack's mind brushed Angeal's, the elder allowed it as far in as it wanted to go. I know you want to tell me not to be, but you can't. And I think Gen's been hiding in the bath all night because he's scared too and doesn't want me to see him worried.
Angeal gently tilted the boy's face up and kissed him, slowly, comforting the newborn and giving himself time to prepare for what he had to say. Zack let himself be distracted for now, accepting the probing tongue and then gasping and groaning as the mouth worked its way downward to move all over his neck, as he was laid down, his shirt pushed up, and fingers and lips worked on his nipples. The elder was relieved to feel Zack's thoughts go fuzzy from pleasure, especially when the boy came suddenly, only to immediately harden again.
Encouragingly, Angeal slid a hand into Zack's underwear and massaged slowly. Maybe he'll go to sleep if… Angeal kept the thought private, kept stroking through the second orgasm, and the third. By the time the fifth had ended, Zack was drifting off, limbs sliding bonelessly off of Angeal. Though Genesis was better at it, Angeal probed a bit into his dreams, and panicked slightly to see dream-Zack cowering from a figure his fear had made much larger. Moments later, the boy woke in panic and dove into the broad body that had expected him. Angeal's arms enclosed him tightly and his heart broke to feel the crying boy shake.
"It's okay, it's okay," the elder soothed, holding Zack as tightly to him as he could without hurting. "It was just a dream, I've got you, you're safe."
I'm not…he said…rights, what did he mean about rights?
Don't worry about that right now. Damn it, Angeal thought privately, what would Genesis do?
Tell me what he meant!
Angeal shifted Zack, arm curled under his bottom to support him, and drew Zack's face toward his own neck. The scent of the blood he was used to being sustained by dazed Zack with need for a moment, but he fought the impulse to bite and drink.
Angeal.
It's time for you to eat and you'll feel better.
I won't unless you –
Digging hard with his blunt fingernail, Angeal cut open the skin where his neck met his shoulder. Being more forceful with Zack than he had been since their work at ShinRa, the elder forced the boy's face close enough to smell it, and Zack's struggles decreased until he was almost limp, and Angeal was able to guide his mouth to the bleeding cut. Zack sank his teeth in and drank slowly, his thoughts shifting into the calm pleasure he always felt while feeding. It helped that with the blood, Angeal always poured a steady stream of love into Zack while he fed.
The slender body relaxed in his hold, and Angeal was able to massage the remaining tension out of it, always returning to the pert curve of Zack's behind, massaging this place where Zack had always liked to be touched; even with mouthfuls of blood, he groaned softly when the muscular cheeks were squeezed. Zack's body expectedly seized up in orgasm, and Angeal murmured, "Good, good boy…my good baby," as Zack came down. The boy's head nodded away from the neck wound that was already healing, and he put his soft lips to Angeal's ear and whispered, wondering what the reaction would be, "Daddy."
He got a reaction, the best he could've imagined. Angeal emitted an unscary, entirely possessive growl, and turned them around so Zack was laying beneath him. With preternatural speed he slipped Zack's shorts and T-shirt off, buried his cool face into the neck Zack bared for him, and gently sank his teeth into the flesh.
Zack immediately came again, shivering as his human self once did in the cold, and after a few swallows Angeal was slinking downward to lick up every drop of the lukewarm semen. It tasted to him almost as good as Zack's blood, and Zack's blood…he had never tasted anything good enough to even compare it to. The parents had thought this might change when Zack was transformed, but it had not. The boy even smelled the same, sweet in an almost floral way, but uniquely Zack.
Angeal saved just enough semen to slick two fingers, and Zack anticipated (and longed for) this, lifting his hips up in a way that was wonderfully sinful coming from such an innocent-looking boy. He was relaxed and took them easily, waiting only moments before gasping, "More, in, now, please."
"Anything my baby wants."
"Want you…" Pushing aside his drowsiness, Zack's bright cerulean eyes locked on Angeal's, and he smiled in a secretive way. "…Daddy."
The word and the sight of so much unclothed beauty before him wiped Angeal's mind of all reason and memory. Nothing mattered but being inside and giving pleasure to this body. He made himself enter slowly, always did, because he was of an impressive size and the boy (my boy my baby all MINE) was slender and tight inside. Zack worked with him as he usually did, relaxing to let the length in, contracting around it each time it struck home, always aiming for and usually hitting the prostate.
Also as per usual, Zack ejaculated every couple of minutes, which distracted him, but Gaia, did Angeal love the sight of the boy's eyes rolling back, the way his head lolled as if he were dreaming. Most of all, he loved that he was able to give Zack such ecstatic joy over and over again, especially now.
Zack had come five times and was just about drained by the time Angeal was nearly spent himself. He smiled as ropes of fluid filled him inside and spilled out, as Angeal held his hips up as though wanting to keep as much as possible inside. Zack blinked tiredly as he was cleaned up and redressed, as the soiled comforter beneath him was pulled out and tossed into the nearest laundry basket, as Angeal leaned over him and stroked the baby-soft skin of his face.
Zack closed his eyes, and head turned to one side into the hand cupping his cheek. Just when Angeal sensed him slipping into dreams and was about to breathe a sigh of relief, Zack flinched, and Angeal pushed into his thoughts, and his heart sank to see a familiar and much-hated figure.
Zack awoke with a whimper loud enough that Angeal, while enfolding the boy tightly, had to mentally assure Genesis he was all right. The younger sire sighed as he rocked the now-tense body. Forcing Zack to sleep was only delaying a problem that had to be dealt with, making the boy spend more time in fear than he needed to. Resigned to talking, Angeal wished this was a problem he could just solve for Zack forever, and not a situation of real danger for the boy.
"Baby Puppy…"
Zack trembled, but made his voice strong. "Tell me what he meant about rights."
All right, Gaia. You can be so cruel at times, even Gen admits that.
"Pup, you know how when a couple gets divorced, a court decides how much time each of them get with their children?"
"Uh-huh."
"It's like that, to a lesser extent. The Council is old-fashioned, they believe every head of a clan has a right to spend time with every child of the clan, especially very close descendants. In the past, a clan head was held responsible for every member, and expected to teach each newborn the fundamentals of our life. Over time, this has been relaxed to what…"
"You can say his name."
"…to what…Dagan was talking about. Basically, a newborn would spend a certain amount of time each year with a grand-sire or the clan head to be instructed and educated. The Council makes decisions about whether to allow it, for how long, and…how intimate the contact between the elder vampire and the child can be. Puppy…"
"Don't tell me not to be scared. Please. I know you're scared, I can feel it, and Gen is blocking me." Zack's voice broke on the last two words, and it seemed like he had been weeping only a second or two before a very damp Genesis, clad only in a silk robe, was behind him and hugging him as tightly as Angeal.
"Cub, I'm sorry, it was cowardly of me to be away from you at a time like this. I just didn't want you feeling my anger toward that bastard."
"Please don't block me anymore. I feel empty when you do."
Red-tinged tears were running down Genesis's cheeks, being absorbed by Zack's T-shirt. "I'm an open book from now on, cub, okay? I'm so sorry."
Zack turned so he could face both his parents, swiping at his own tears and trying to smile. "I'm okay. Really, I'm okay."
Well, I'm not, Genesis sent privately to Angeal, and the newborn pouted.
"Hey, you said open book."
Genesis blinked slowly a few times. "How did you do that?"
"Do what?"
"I sent that directly to Angeal. You shouldn't have been able to hear it."
Angeal nodded to Genesis's concerned expression. "Zack, Gen and I are going to work on keeping our private conversations private, but you're going to have to help us. When you sense a thought going above your head, don't reach for it, okay?"
"I'll try." They all chuckled at that briefly, it was a very Zack thing to say. "But you shouldn't keep things from me."
"It's a perk of parenthood, Puppy." Angeal tucked the boy's head under his chin and carded fingers through his silky black hair. "Gen."
"I know," the redhead sighed, gracefully standing up. "Just let me get some clothes on."
Angeal?
As you guessed, I think, Puppy, we need to talk. Zack's shiver prompted Angeal to hold him closer, as though he had warmth to offer the smaller body. I won't tell you not to be scared. But keep in mind that Gen and I are going to keep you safe to the very best of our abilities. Whatever it takes –
Don't let yourselves get hurt, though. That would hurt me. Okay?
Angeal was spared answering that by Genesis's hastily-clothed figure returning to settle less-than-gracefully on the bed and move so that Zack was as surrounded as possible by the sight and sense of his parents. Thus cocooned, Zack's anxiety level palpably decreased, to their relief, but his eternally-youthful face looked deceptively adult for a moment when he spoke.
"So…you guys got a plan?"
"My first instinct was run and hide," Genesis said, running his fingers up and down Zack's arm. "Go off the grid, settle somewhere the Council wouldn't expect us to be and therefore wouldn't find us. Trouble is, if we did that, we'd have not only Dagan and the Council looking for us, but a lot of either cruel or well-meaning vampires set on helping their leaders and a jilted head of an ancient family. And when they did find us…well…the Council grants itself the ability to terminate parental rights of a newborn. If they took you from us, we wouldn't be able to fight their power and influence. And I'm sure you can guess who they'd give you to."
Zack's body jerked in answer. Genesis sighed and pressed a long kiss into the silky black spikes.
"Then we thought of finally giving Dagan the death he deserves, deserves more than ever for touching you. The problem there is that he's strong, older than us, with powerful friends and many resources, so there's no guarantee we'd succeed, and I'm sure he's, if anything, strengthening whatever his personal security measures are. But if we do manage to destroy him, similar problem. Dagan probably has offspring older than us who would take his place as clan head, and you would likely be given to that person, someone we don't know who could be nearly as bad as his sire. The Council would not let perpetrators of patricide keep a newborn."
Zack nodded. "So we're fucked."
"Language, Zackary." But Angeal said it with a sad smile. "We've thought of one thing we can do. It's not much and it's no solution, but…"
"C'mon, spill."
"Gen and I weren't sure how much we should talk to you about this, if at all, Puppy, but you may as well know, I suppose, that you're turning out to be an exceptionally strong vampire."
Zack looked surprised. "Strong? I can't control my stupid body and all I do is cry."
"Don't use the word 'stupid' when you're describing yourself." Now Zack smiled; Angeal was using his old teacher-voice. "The unstable mood is an unavoidable part of vampiric childhood, so is being constantly aroused. But physically you're not nearly as weak as you should be. Part of that, I'm sure, is the mako you got as a mortal and the excellent shape you were in, but you also have a facility and strength of your mental abilities that's honestly astonishing. It's just known that newborns can't read thoughts their parent is hiding, or collect up a memory in their head and give it to someone else the way you did when we asked you what Dagan did."
It wasn't Zack's way to puff up when praised or react much at all, but Angeal and Genesis were surprised to see their child look, if anything, glummer.
"So…I'm a freak?"
"And thank Gaia, I can't stand normies."
Angeal frowned briefly at Genesis. "Don't use that word either. All this means is that you're special, which we already knew. We just didn't know quite how much."
Sighing, Zack got back onto Angeal's lap to press his forehead to a broad shoulder and try to process this. Angeal seemed to understand and said nothing for now, just firmly rubbed Zack's back from nape to tailbone with one hand, and carded the fingers of the other through the fine hair that, since transformation, no longer tangled no matter what Zack got up to. Thinking of that led the sire to think of Sephiroth's famously-perfect hair. Sephiroth was special too, and alone because of it. Was Zack thinking of their old friend, distant with most people, isolated, alone?
"You're not alone in this, baby Puppy," Angeal said with soft determination. "The three of us are tied together forever and I'm not letting anyone break us."
"I love you guys," the boy whispered, and subtly wiped his eyes on the elder's collar. "So, what's the grand plan?"
"For one, we keep up your training," Genesis said. "A lot of a newborn's physical weakness can't be helped, but we think if you continue the same type of exercise you did as a SOLDIER, you can overcome some of it. Like we said, the mako and having been in good shape gives you a good base to build on."
"And this is so…I can, like…fight back, right?"
Genesis looked down at his lap, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Zack looked at his folded, well-manicured hands, and tried not to cry himself as the fair skin became dotted with red-tinged tears. The boy wanted to grab Genesis in a big hug and reassure him for as long as he needed, but perceptive Zack knew Genesis was trying to be strong for him. When the eldest vampire of them looked back up, his cornflower-blue eyes were sad, but also determined. He didn't speak right away, though, and Zack's keen perception prompted him again.
"You don't have to answer that," the boy whispered. Genesis shut his eyes again, but only for a second.
"There's something else," Angeal said from where he sat behind Zack, comforting hands framing the boy's waist. "If you're made to spend time with Dagan, we obviously will not be allowed to be with you."
Zack had expected this, but also had held onto a tiny hope… "He said he wanted us to all get along, though. Be a family again, he said."
"Yes, but he will…" Hold it together, Angeal Hewley, you hold it together. Gen's barely holding on, one of us has to hold it together. "He will want time alone with you, Puppy. He'll likely make up something about needing one-on-one time without us interfering first, and being able to find out from you whether we're fit parents or not. He's very good at playing the clan head who takes his duty to his heirs very seriously."
Zack shrugged; though out of place, it might have been to help him nonchalantly say, "And I'm guessing he doesn't want me alone to play chess or something."
Gen, you can go back in the bathroom if –
I will not hide while my baby's in pain again.
Angeal deftly turned Zack around to face him so the boy missed Genesis's tears starting up again. Genesis would be quiet. He had always been a gifted actor.
"Puppy, I…"
"Don't say you're sorry, you didn't do anything. It's fine, I can handle it."
The center of Angeal's chest felt shattered to see Zack dismiss as unimportant the very real threat of rape he was facing. "Puppy, there's a good chance Dagan will not touch you inappropriately during the first visit. He's more likely to wait until he thinks he's got you confused enough to let him without a fight. One of our other concerns is that you don't feed as most vampires, including Dagan, do."
"Oh, right. When…if I'm with him for a while, I'll have to hunt, I guess."
"Yes, and that's one of the things Gen and I decided. We don't intend to change the way you eat, but in order for you to be prepared, I am going to have to teach you how to hunt. It's not a bad thing to know, anyway, in case of various emergencies – "
Zack knew what he meant, and spoke quickly. "Nothing's gonna happen to you guys. I know it won't."
If he turns out to be precognitive too, 'Gealy, we're really fucked.
Angeal acknowledged Genesis with the mental equivalent of a sigh or a shush, and continued to focus on Zack. "We'll try to make sure nothing does, but as I said, it's not a bad thing to know. The Council will even probably look favorably on me teaching you."
"Just you? Gen's not gonna help?"
Genesis slid his fingers into Zack's hair, massaged the scalp with his artist's hand. "If I know what 'Geal is thinking, which I usually do, the plan will likely not work if your mommy is there hovering over you. But I think you can make 'daddy' a component of the game, hmm, 'Gealy?"
"I don't get it."
Angeal framed the angelic, pale face with his cool fingers. "I'll explain, don't worry. Some of it may scare you a little, but remember I'll be right there with you the whole time."
Zack moved forward to rub his forehead against Angeal's shoulder. "I've never been scared when you're with me."
Angeal responded by folding the boy in a somehow-warm hug. Genesis joined them from behind Zack, and though Zack obeyed and didn't reach for the thoughts moving above him, they were all three thinking the same thing – that they wanted to stay just as they were now for as long as Gaia allowed them to live.
To be continued.
