Chapter 22

Never did she think that she would yearning to be back in the Sakamaki mansion with Laito feeding from her thighs and Kanato screeching in her ears. Yui laid among the ruins of her bedroom and curled in the blood stained sheets that were now bunched up in front of the wardrobe in the pile of forgotten clothing. She didn't want to cry anymore and instead laid frozen among the wreck. The sour stench of blood invading her nostrils, a smell that usually didn't bother her, and was making her stomach uneasy. The world was drifting and soon the dizziness was enough to knock her out completely, sending her into a deep sleep with bits of vomit drizzling down the corner of her tender lips.

The warmth of the bubbling suds caressed the fragile girl's body in the most comforting of ways and was just enough to lull her into an even farther, more at ease form of deep sleep. When she began to come to, Yui thought at first she was drenched in sweat rather than the heat on a steaming bath and groaned at the temperature that was continuing to rise. She barely noticed the sound of the running water until it came to a sudden halt. Her eyelids immediately flew open and she turned to find the source of the noise, only dunking half of her face into the water and spewing out a mouth full before meeting eye to eye with Azusa. The could no longer keep a serious face and simply giggled out of embarrassment, quickly avoiding his eyes and sitting up straight in the bath.

After the awkwardness had passed, Yui returned to her straight face and asked, "Why are you doing this?" Her eyes laid down to the murky water, which was now beginning to drain, before Azusa touched his hand to the hot water handle and began to refill the tub with clean fluid. "You were sleeping in a puddle of your own vomit," he said coldly before adding, "and urinated in the tub..." Once his hand had left the handle, it drifted over to cup Yui's chin and he forced her to look at him. Her eyes were swimming with a deep sense of shame that he recognized from the first time he had met her, as if they were now strangers. He was supposed to be her safe place after all. The look caused him to somehow sadden and he added on in a quiet voice, "When I first saw you... there was nothing more I wanted than to tear you apart." His voice was drifting, dreamy almost, once it reached Yui's ears. She gazed at him with an open mouth and suddenly, her feelings of pain and sickness were draining out of her; she was too focused on Azusa. "My first instinct... was to drain you until there was nothing left. How much I would enjoy to see you, soiling yourself and staring at me with those fearful saucers. I would love... to see you pathetic... begging for my mercy before I devoured you whole." His eyes were drilling into her and she felt completely exposed, both bewildered and horrified by the words leaving the vampire's mouth. Her eyes were concentrated on her protruding fangs, the ultimate tool of destruction, as he described the morbid fantasy. But slowly, his mouth became softer and she was focused on his crimson lips instead of the razor knives in his mouth. "That was when I saw you as a sack of blood... something to use and twist and torture into everything that I desired, despite how painful... or how humiliating it may be." Yui watched intently each movement of his lips as he spoke and he pursed them before whispering between gritted teeth, "But now. I see that I am simply the sack of blood. And there is nothing more that I desire... than to be completely and utterly exposed, vulnerable, and defenseless to you."

Azusa slowly lifted the chin of his blonde lover and looked into her eyes lovingly, reading the shock in her expression and then stealing it away at once with a gentle kiss. His lips moved in a soft sync with hers and through a closed mouth, he still managed to make the kiss as equally passionate and loving as the first true kiss they had shared. The kiss only broke when he realized that she was struggling for a breath and he allowed it, instead resting his forehead to hers and nuzzling into her gently. His fingers were now clutching onto the edge of the tub, where Yui was still sitting in her white soaked gown, and he propped himself up to perfectly line the couple up and wrap his arms around her in a gentle embrace. Yui returned the affection, wrapping her arms weakly around the boy and ruffling her fingers through his dark hair. She smiled slightly and whispered through the deep silence, "I know what you're saying. And I love you too, Azusa."

The silence had now morphed itself into something else, rather called a 'gentle quietness', among the young lovers. Azusa was tending to Yui in her bath, who was now completely undressed and beginning to articulate just how embarrassing being found in a pool of vomit much of been, and was babbling on about how sorry she was he had to see her that way. "Enough," Azusa said. He was struggling to hold back a few chuckles, an expression that Yui rarely saw on him, and it was enough to completely calm her. "I have seen worse," he assured her as he scrubbed the dampened washcloth along her lower belly. The human girl let out a few whines of pain when he touched her bruises but quickly silenced herself when she felt the same twitching that she recognized inside of her from days before. "Azusa-kun," she said in a hushed tone. She grabbed him by the wrist and slowly railed in his hand to touch her bare stomach with his cold hand. He could too feel the soft movement against the pads of his finger tips and his face completely softened. "Do you feel it?" Yui whispered. When Azusa looked up to see her, there was a big grin across her rosy cheeks and he smiled in returned. "Yes," he said gently before pressing his mouth into hers. "Yes, I feel it."