Chapter 45

By then time the Sakamaki mansion was out of view, Yui was limping and had slowed down a great deal. She was exhausted, her arms heavy from holding the struggling infant. Without thinking, she had simply grabbed onto Ruki's hand and ran as far as her legs would take her. "Ah!" She gasped, clutching onto her belly with her free hand, and sunk down to her knees. She pulled Noah from her chest, who had left a small pool of blood on her pink sweater, and handed him over without thinking. All she could concentrate on was the searing pain striking across her stomach. "What is it," Ruki said as he sunk to his knees. Noah's crying had come to an end and he was now falling asleep in Ruki's comforting grip. He moved Yui's hand out of the way, which was covered in blood, and slowly lifted her shirt just enough to reveal the slash across her abdomen. He stiffened and stood up straight, grabbing Yui by her upper arm and dragging her forward. The girl shrieked in pain and pleaded for him to stop, which only happened when she wriggled from his grip and fell to the ground with a hard smack. The ground was chilly against her cut and it felt wet. "Your idiocy never fails to amaze me," Ruki sighed. He stared down at her with cold eyes until they connected. It was foreign to him to feel such a way, but for the first time, he felt genuine pity for the girl. Dirt was smeared across her pale cheeks and she coughed violently, attempting to catch her breath and still clutching at her belly. It was like a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach that slowly crawled up his neck, strangling him into silence from the inside. All he could think to do was kneel down beside her and rest a hand on her back. "We need to get going," he said in a softer voice. Yui finally managed to lift her head enough to face Ruki, who she suddenly felt a warmness from. Maybe it was the compassion swimming in his sad eyes, or the way he was holding Noah ever so perfectly in the hook of his arm. But when he leaned in closer to her, she didn't fight it.

Their lips met in a soft embrace, a touch much more gentle than expected from a vampire to give, and the mist of his breath was swallowed by the sweet kiss. He had withdrawn his fangs behind his lips, which he used to kiss her even deeper. He could feel her wanting to breathe against him but he only leaned in closer and deepened their touch. Yui's mind was in a quiet haze and she noticed that her ears were ringing, her only focus in this moment was the boy touching her with the softest touch he knew how. It was different, filled with comfort. The trance had finally snapped by the sound of soft coos coming from Noah, who was being held between both of their chests and acting like a barrier. And even out of the trance, in this moment, the possible reality of Ruki being his father didn't seem so bad.

Without a word exchanged, Ruki had pulled away and slowly lifted Yui to her feet. He slung her arm around his shoulders and supported her the best he could with one arm slipped around her waist, the other clutching the baby in a protective stance. "Come now," Ruki whispered, "do the best you can." And she did, following his lead without a question and allowing him to guide her. "We will stay here." Ruki had finally broken the silence as the pair approached a civilian road and a sign that read that there was an inn available, only a mile down the road. Yui looked at him but said nothing. She didn't need to ask for him to answer her question. "It won't be safe to go back tonight. His pride may be damaged but it isn't completely gone."

It wasn't until Ruki had paid the inn manager and purchased their room for the night that feelings of unshakable sickness began to creep into Yui's head. She told herself that it was an attempt to calm her, Ruki would never had been able to carry her home on his own with Noah on his hip and he couldn't leave her behind without Azusa throwing a fit. But she damn well knew that wasn't the case, merely an excuse to ease the guilt. Deep down, she knew. "Is she alright?" The manager asked with concern shaking in her throat. She nodded toward the specks of blood that Noah had left behind on her shirt. They hadn't thought of that, even after Ruki had wrapped his sweatshirt around her hips to cover the blood seeping from her belly. "Oh, that!-" Yui exclaimed, preparing herself for a lie. Ruki held up a hand and instead leaned onto the counter, looking eye to eye with the manager and flashing a surprisingly charming smile. "Nothing to worry about, ma'am," he said, "We hike here often but after my dear wife gave birth to our son, she hasn't been used to working her footing on the rocks." He nodded toward Yui and said, "A little fall and a scrape on the chin, nothing a band aid can't fix." He was lying through his teeth and apparently successfully, because the manager smiled back dumbly and handed him the key to their room.

"Take off your shirt." Yui gazed at Ruki wide eyed as he tucked Noah on the queen bed between two long pillows, securing him as he slept soundly on top of the scratchy bed covers. "W-what?" Yui stuttered, "please d-don't do anything-" but before she could finish, Ruki was in front of her and lifting her shirt over his head on his own. She felt it was best to give in to his every command, willfully lifting her arms up to allow him to undress her with ease as tears filled in her eyes. But instead of grabbing onto her, he simply took her by the hand and guided her to the small bathroom. It wasn't until he had sat her on the side of the tub that she began to figure out what was going on. "I won't force you," Ruki said in his usual serious fashion, "but it would be much easier if you undressed fully." Yui nodded her head slowly and adjusted herself ever so slightly to allow Ruki to slide off her shorts. For the first time in a long time, she was with Ruki and didn't feel afraid. He had drawn the water in the tub to the perfect temperature and helped her down into tub, pausing every time she sucked a sharp breath through her teeth in response to the pain and working at her own pace. "I'm okay," Yui repeated in a whisper over and over. "I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay" until her mid section was completely submerged into the water.

Ruki washed her wounds without a word, occasionally squeeze out the (now darkened) washcloth into the sink on his side and then dabbing it back ever so gently onto the slash. Perhaps during the window fall, she wasn't sure, Yui's cut had fully torn back open and had only now stopped bleeding steadily. It was stained with crusted blood as well as fresh. As Ruki tended to her, she couldn't help but think back to the times before that this had happened. He had warned her time and time again that this would continue, that Azusa's lustful hunger for pain would never cease, but she hadn't listened. So here they were, in a cheap inn with a newborn sleeping in the bed and his mother torn open in the restroom. The water had turned a murky rust color and was no longer the perfect temperature. Yui thought to herself that she was probably the only person to ever feel dirty while washing in a bathtub. The all too familiar feeling of tears rushing to her eyes that began again but this time, she wasn't sure why. All she knew is that now it was Ruki drying her tears rather than her beloved Azusa, and maybe it was better that way.

"Ruki-kun," she whispered. Her body had began to shiver and she wasn't sure now if it was the chilled water or the guilt plaguing her thoughts. "What is it," Ruki asked, there was an annoyed tinge to his voice. It seemed that no matter how much he scrubbed, the wound wouldn't be clean and finally he had given up for now and pulled the drain on the tub. He had scooped her up carefully in one of the complimentary towels and held her to his chest for a moment. Yui whispered even quieter, "Am I stupid?" Tears were pushing onto her ducts and finally a single drop trailed down the apple of her cheek. "Do you really think so, Ruki-kun?" He didn't answer, and she hid her face in his chest, now crying. "I try really hard to do the best thing." She continued to cry even as Ruki carried her to the main room and laid her down beside the pillow barrier that was holding Noah. She held her hand over her mouth to hush the cries, for the baby's sake, and gazed up at Ruki with red, tear swollen eyes. He looked back at her with his deep blue ones, and it only made her cry harder; a cry not even her hands could muffle. It wasn't Ruki himself but rather what was staring back at her, which were identical to the eyes of her son.

She fell into a dead sleep that she wouldn't awake from until late in the afternoon, where the starts of the moonlight shined through the window and framed her splotchy cheeks. A small panic washed over her until she saw Ruki sitting in the chair on the opposite side of the room, watching (but probably not really) the tv that had no sound. Noah was in cradled comfortably in the vampire's arms. It wasn't until Yui had raised from the bed that she noticed that not only was Ruki holding the baby. He was feeding him. But this baby wasn't interested in his mother's bud, but rather what coursed through her veins. For now, Ruki's blood would suffice. He had punctured a small bite into his wrist and was now allowing the small one to suckle on his skin hungrily. Yui began to feel light hearted, but a small part of her was thankful to Ruki for taking care of him as attentively that he did. She approached them slowly and when she was close, Ruki finally looked up at her with content eyes. To his surprise, the girl was smiling. Tears rolled down her cheeks and she whispered, "Ruki. Thank you."