Chapter 39

Sickly looking and disturbed, Azusa slowly withdrew from the quick exchange and locked himself up within the bedroom. His face had turned the palest of white and by the time his eyes finally met Yui's, hers were as large as saucers and full of concern. The sleepiness had immediately drained out of her by the sight of him and she quickly rose up from the bed, rushing over to the now crying infant and taking him from his father's grip to comfort him; something Azusa suddenly wasn't capable of doing. It was as if he were stuck in a trance. "Azusa-kun?" She chirped. The girl was bouncing their baby in her arms softly, queueing into her new found motherly instincts, to calm him and soon the crying had subsided. The dark haired vampire's only response was to lift his hand and place it on the hand of his baby, stroking his fingers gently down his porcelain skin and remained dwelling in the deadly silence. Yui remained quiet for as long as she saw fit, allowing her lover to rack up whatever was going on in his mind from the comfort of her arms. Between their embrace laid Noah who's eyes rolled back from mother to father with a naive look on his face. The blonde laid one hand sturdily on the baby's back and held onto Azusa with the other. Azusa returned her hug after a while and finally buried his face down into her shoulder. She could feel him inhaling her through his mouth, his breath now shaking. She laid her head against his and nuzzled him lovingly, whispering, "It's okay, Azusa-kun. We will be okay."

No further words were exchanged on the subject. Yui sat beside Azusa on the bed, with Noah in the middle, with her nose buried in a book that she couldn't be less interested in. She had found the books on the lower stack on her bedside table when she had first 'moved in' and seeked comfort in them, despite not being able to relate or even understand more of the older literature. She tried not to think about the look of disturbance she had seen on Azusa's face. It was difficult to shake him so whatever Yuma had said outside the door before she had fully awoken must have been heavy. She wondered if it was about what Ruki had said in the kitchen. Perhaps Yuma had overheard, but it was no secret that it had been on everyone's minds anyway. Her thoughts were quickly interrupted when Noah began to stir and squirm restlessly. He shook his tiny fists in the air and flashed the tips of his new found fangs, letting out a sweet cry and reaching out for his parents. Before Yui could react, Azusa had already snatched him up and caressed him in a protective grip from beside the bed. "I... will feed him. Please, Yui... stay here." Feeding. The sight of it had surged shivers up her spine and even the thought of it caused the trembles to start again. But when she caught the eye of Azusa, who was smiling both weakly but reassuringly back her way, her mind was suddenly at ease. "Thank you," she said quietly before returning to her reading.

Five minutes slowly leaked into ten minutes and then twenty. Finally by thirty five minutes, a sense of worry had washed over Yui that her silent agreement with Azusa to stay put had been lost at sea. She crept slowly out of their bedroom and looked both ways, the feeling of fear and needing to hide returning, before sulking down the long hallways and making her way towards the kitchen. Before she had reached it, she heard the voices of the boys coming from one of the sitting rooms. Their voices were hushed and they spoke in a low, serious tone. It was mostly Yuma and Kou who had been exchanging words, but then she heard Azusa speaking. That was enough for her to walk into the room. All of them turned to look at her with wide eyes, as if they had been caught in some sort of act, but quickly shook off the expressions of guilt. "M Neko-Chan!" Kou chimed, skipping up to her with a false sense of cheer and slapping her unintentionally hard on the back. "Glad to see you up and breathing!" He joked. Yui flinched at his touch and simply nodded, for all of her focus was on Azusa, who was holding a snoozing Noah in his arms. "What's going on?" The mother said sternly. She could feel the sense of shame among the boys when she spoke to them in such a way. It was as if they viewed her as an equal in this moment. "I know something is going on so just tell me," she urged. The expression in her eyes drained from seriousness to desperateness. They scanned among each of the brothers and finally fell onto Ruki's, the only one who would look back at her. "Our father is coming," he said coldly, "he would like to meet the new addition."

"What does this mean? Yui said urgently. She watched in awe as Azusa darted from one side of the room to the other, both pacing and tossing random articles of clothing onto the bed. It wasn't until he started folding them that Yui raised her voice, "What are you doing? Tell me what's going on, please Azusa!" She earned herself a random coo from Noah, who was out of sight from the bottom of his crib, but nothing more besides the continuous cycle of throwing things carelessly onto the bed and then shoving them into a duffle bag. "Do you plan on going somewhere? You're not just leaving us here, are you?" Her heart was beating so fast that it felt like it was going to burst from her chest cavity. Azusa himself could hear it even from across the room and finally he couldn't ignore that sickening pulse any longer. "Leaving... you? That's what you think, you... think that I'd leave... without you?" He swiftly moved from the packing and towards Yui in a fast stride before catching her by both upper arms, squeezing them tightly as he jerked her body closer into his. He loosened his grip before crushing his lips onto hers in a passionate embrace, kissing her hungrily and drawing blood from her lip to inhale. When he broke the kiss, both vampires were breathing heavily. "Never... would I do such a thing," he huffed slowly, "We need to go... Now."

With a baby with one arm and his lover gripped tightly in his other hand, Azusa darted down the stairs and dragged his family along with him. When they reached the front door, Yui finally snatched her arm back from his hold and yelled, "No!" Crazed, Azusa spun around to face her as she grabbed the baby from his arms and quickly held him to her chest. Noah opened his mouth to cry but instead clasped his lips onto the blouse of his mother, suckling it for comfort during the heated dispute. Azusa attempted to retaliate and reach for her hand again but she shook it away, her brows narrowed and eyes angry. "I'm not running away from this," she said sternly, "He's your father. I thought you adored him; all of you spoke of the man as if he were a God! Do you really think he's willing to hurt his own grandson?" After a last attempt to snatch her by the wrist, Azusa sighed and drew back into himself; his eyes glow switching from urgency to despair. "It isn't Noah... that I'm worried for..." He shoved his hair out of his face and placed his hand there instead, shielding their gaze from connecting as if he were hiding away from her. "I have seen... him do horrible things. To people even like I... people who didn't... belong to him." His fingers were actually trembling against his own skin and he only looked at Yui from between the cracks of them. She was staring back at him in a gentle awe. "And you," He finally said, "You are no use to him anymore. You've done... your job, in his eyes."