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"Your mouth will do this time, Zero," Kaname magnanimously permitted as he stretched both arms across the rim of the tub languorously and pillowed his against a folded towel, closing his eyes in a picture of perfect repose.

Except for his cock, of course, that was bobbing jeeringly below the surface.

"Under the fucking water?" Zero snarled, because of course that's what Kaname wanted, impossible bastard. For fuck's sake, that sort of recovery time was inhuman. Zero was starting to feel inadequate and he loathed that twist of anxious uncertainty.

Kaname only smirked.

Reluctantly – the hot water and peace was good for pain – Zero hitched his way exhaustedly across the tub, grumbling all the way, kneeling just before Kaname's feet with water up to his neck.

How was he supposed to breathe?

That vexing smirk was still plastered across Kaname's face – so Zero knew complaining was right out. The bastard would only laugh. He took a few quick breaths to fully oxygenate his blood, then took a normal one and dove down.

Unwilling to open his eyes underwater, Zero had to go by touch. If he flailed about a bit before finding one silky thigh, well, the bastard deserved the bruising. He followed the thigh up to the dick that was becoming far too familiar for Zero's peace of mind.

Next time he was charging double. No, wait, triple.

"Do I have to remind you to hold your breath, Zero?" Kaname mused when Zero came up spluttering for air, wide eyed and panting.

"Fuck you," Zero squeaked, his mind still stuck on next time. Why had he thought that? Why? Why did he do this to himself? Now the words next time, next time, next time were stuck on a revolving loop in his mind, voiced in a loud, booming baritone.

It was just not his night.

Naturally, he then realised he'd squeaked like a ten year old girl confronted with a giant spider, and dove back under the water before Kaname could laugh at him.

Licking was easier than sucking under water. Kaname was trembling, but Zero doubted it was from pleasure. The water didn't even have the decency to muffle the chuckling. Bastard. Zero could lick without swallowing half the tub, so he did. He started at the base, thankful that the tub was wide enough that he could get a good angle to mouth Kaname's balls without straining his neck.

He sucked them, rolled them around, pulling gently at the delicate skin as he massaged the orbs between his tongue and the smooth palate of his mouth.

He had to come up for air twice before he moved on to the base of the purebloods cock. He licked in long firm strokes, tasting only water; he licked around the whole pole like a cat before he switched to long vertical stripes of his tongue, going strong enough to give Kaname the raspier bit at the back and broad strokes up and down and up and down and – air.

It was not quick.

Bad enough that Zero had considerable proof of the vampire's stamina, but the intermittent blow job made it hard to get a good rhythm going and Kaname was not easy vampire to satisfy in the first place. His head was spinning from a lack of oxygen after the first ten minutes.

A hand tangled itself in his hair. Zero sucked hard, nipping slightly with his fangs just in case Kaname got any ideas about drowning him.

Kaname's hand tightened into a fist and Zero remembered too late that the pureblood got off on Zero threatening him. The organ in his mouth hardened impossibly further, and it rammed down his throat before he could protest. Zero had no choice but to swallow around it and conserve his oxygen.

Fucking. Pureblood.

He didn't dare choke on the pervasive fullness. He could only let it deep inside his mouth, down into the tightness of his throat, trusting to the coiling muscles therein to give Kaname a good squeeze as Zero focused on staying alive until Kaname pulled out.

Air had never tasted so sweet than when he breached the surface and his chest heaved like the bellows of a forge.

"Oi." He growled at Kaname's smirk. "Knock it off."

Kaname was unrepentant. "You were taking too long."

"Too long?" Zero howled in outrage. "I need to breathe you cock sucking bastard."

"Have we not moved past the sexual slurs," Kaname sighed disapprovingly, "Think them through a little more, Zero, please, this is just painful to listen to."

Zero scowled. It was damned unfortunate that all his good curses could be turned back onto him with the raising of an eyebrow. Fuck his profession sideways anyway.

He dove back down and went to work; the sooner he got the bastard off the sooner he could leave. After all this, it had bloody well better be morning out there.

His jaw throbbed. He might very well be the first person to sprain their jaw via blowjob – and it would all be Kaname's fault.

It was a fucking relief when Zero tasted semen on his tongue. He actually groaned with it – his knees were killing him- the vibrations ensuring he had the other vampire's claws in his hair half a second later. He knew what that meant, and swallowed without a fuss.

It wasn't submission – it was free protein.

Yeah, he didn't believe himself either - but he didn't want to drown, and fuck knew that if he'd spat it out, Kaname would have known. Then they wouldn't be going anywhere until Zero had licked his seed out of the tub, or until Kaname was ready for take fucking two followed by take three just to ensure the lesson stuck.

"Not bad," Kaname mused, still lying back, the bastard hadn't even bothered with much thrusting this time, letting Zero do all the work, "A bit sloppy but passable enough."

The sheer indulgence of oxygen had Zero too high to care, but he did manage to give the pureblood a two-fingered salute.

Before he could get another order, Zero was back to his side of the tub, sighing in pleasure. The water was still gloriously hot – even if it was currently stinging in every single open wound he possessed. There was hot water where no hot water ought to venture, but Zero couldn't do anything about it until he healed up again and in the mean time, it was peaceful enough.

"Drink?"

It took a herculean effort for Zero to open his eyes, and once he had, he regretted it. There was a pitcher of something colourful and fruity, full of ice and dripping with condensation – and it hadn't been there twenty minutes ago.

"Exhibition is extra too," Zero rasped.

For fucks sake, that made three times and he hadn't noticed a thing.

Maybe the hunters had had the right idea; he was a fucking disgrace to the creed.

No, no, and no; he wasn't thinking about that.

"Sure, why the fuck not. Please tell me your chamberlain or who-the-fuck-ever is a really old lady with cataracts in both eyes and as deaf as a post."

"Young," Kaname commiserated mockingly, "female, with excellent eyesight and memory, and taste for that matter," he added with a pointed look at Zero's naked form.

Zero took his glass of icy fruit goodness and sunk beneath the water in shame.

He sipped at his drink, because it was free, and found rather uncharitably that it went a long way to soothe his throat – which had been thoroughly fucked raw – and that after another half an hour of lounging in the ever-hot tub, he was confident his legs might actually agree to take his weight sometime this century.

That's when he decided to get out.

"Where are you going?"

"So now you want to chat?" Zero sneered; it had been a wonderful half hour of silence. He took a self-defensive glance south. Kaname wasn't hard or even half hard; he couldn't possibly want more.

"Not right now, no," Kaname said, replying only to the thoughts that must have been visible on his face as Zero refused to live in a world where Kuran fucking Kaname could read his mind.

He took one of the sinfully soft towels and sighed as his knees fell into line, permitting him to hobble towards the door.

"I'll have Mara escort you to your room," Kaname told his back.

Zero stopped, tilting his head to the ceiling and giving it a thorough fuck you. Then he glanced at the window, and retracted every unpleasant thought he'd ever had about the divine.

"No need," Zero spun around and beamed cheerfully at the pureblood. The look of alarm on Kaname's face was so worth it.

"Look at that sky." he made an effusive gesture to the window. "What a beautiful morning eh? Morning. Time for all good little vampires to be in bed. I'll just be off, no, don't get up," he said retreating to the door on legs that were positively eager now, "I'll find my own way out. Really lovely seeing you once more, not, let's never do it again."

Zero leaped backwards through the bathroom door, doing a jaunty shuffle to the pile of his clothes. Even the sight of the neat pile of freshly washed, dried and ironed clothes sitting pretty on the same antique chair he'd failed to ruin couldn't deter his mood. They were done and it was pizza tonight.

"Zero," Kaname chided from the other doorway, already fully dressed and dry.

Fuck but Kuran could move fast.

"You can barely walk." He sounded smug about that too, fucker. "Sleep here, have breakfast with me tonight too. Give yourself time to heal in comfort and safety."

"I'm good." Zero shrugged on his shirt and hopped about on one foot as he tugged his jeans on, donning the cloth like armour.

"Zero, I know I used you hard, let me take care of you now to make up for it."

"You paid me. We're even."

Kaname's face twisted with displeasure. It sent something skittering inside Zero's mind. His instincts flared. There was something very wrong here. He cast his senses out, hunting.

One pureblood, right fucking there, a dozen B's downstairs, and twenty seven C's scattered about. Said pureblood radiated power like flames emitted heat. He was strong. Zero blinked. Kuran was really strong, he hadn't been around many purebloods, sure, but if he could trust his memory, Kuran would have eclipsed Shizuka easily.

Wait a sec, that wasn't a natural aura – there were tendrils of power spreading from him like an aura of a millions threads – and

"What are you trying to do?"

- and, they were reaching for him.

Zero took a step back, focused, and took another three. And a half.

Kaname narrowed his eyes. The threads stopped moving.

"Zero, come on, at least sleep for a few hours. It's very late."

"Early," Zero snapped defensively. "The night is over, we're done, you said so yourself."

Kuran was still blocking the doorway, Zero kept one eye on him and the other on the window. He felt trapped and hated it.

Sure, they were at least three stories high, but needs must. He was a vampire; a broken leg was manageable. The guards would be another problem, but he'd worry about that afterwards.

"Actually," Kuran examined his fingernails with mocking casualness. "I believe my exacts words were until I'm done with you."

Zero examined his memory – and cursed, loudly, creatively, and repetitively.

"Fascinating," Kaname drawled, "But we did have an agreement. Are you going back on your word?"

Zero wasn't stupid. He didn't have to know what Kaname wanted from him to know it was bad. Kaname wouldn't have resorted to trickery otherwise. It was time to be extraordinarily blunt.

"I do not consent to further sex with you, leech. Or anything else."

Kaname gave him a look that dared to be offended.

"Do you think I'm going to rape you?"

"And here I was thinking it wasn't rape if you're a pureblood," Zero sneered, not bothering to conceal his dislike even as he stuffed the pile of cash into pocket, wishing he dared risk the limited movement to conceal half of it in his shoes.

"I thought it was just theft against Shizuka, and she's dead, as you should remember."

"Oh I do."

"No need to sound so fucking happy," Zero snapped, eyeing the doorway behind the pureblood again.

"She was delicious," Kaname continued breathlessly, "And her power certainly came in useful. All that was hers is mine now."

"Oh fuck you," Zero snapped. To the victor goes the spoils – how very vampiric – and as Zero had oh so helpfully reminded Kuran, Zero was considered property in their world. His world. Not Zero's.

"Admittedly I was a trifle busy after Shizuka passed, I did not have the time to see to my… responsibilities as I should have."

"You were going to say inheritance there, weren't you?"

"-And once I'd turned my attention to the matter, you had vanished." Kaname continued, ignoring Zero's interruption entirely, "But I've found you, Zero," Kaname crooned, walking forwards, "and you don't have to worry any more. I'll look after you." He lifted a hand, as if to caress Zero's cheek, but Zero leaned backwards avoiding it with a sharp glare.

"I don't need 'looking after'" Zero made finger quotes, "I do not, in fact, belong to you, Kuran. "

"Technically –"

"-I belong to myself."

"Would it really –"

"It's a thing we humans do."

"You're a –

"-Rights, autonomy, freedom-"

There was no warning. One second Zero was as tense as a bowstring in the middle of the room – the next, he was held flat against the wall, Kaname's forearm across his throat, and a thigh between his legs.

"I," Kaname said pleasantly. "Do not like being interrupted."

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A/N - and the plot continues to invade. Opinion? Plot v smut?