Heero was already pouring his customer, a man in an interesting arrangement of clothes, a scotch when they came down. Kinau recognised him immediately.
"Doctor J!!" he squealed, bouncing over.
The old man smiled, setting down his drink just in time to catch the ball of excited hair and leather.
"Kinau, how are you?"
His voice was scratchy from use as many older people's are but pleasant. Kinau saw past the kind face, though. This was the man who had trained Heero-kun and had taught him as well.
" I'd like to off a certain vamp right now but I'm alright, I suppose."
Heero looked up at the mention of said vampire.
"Oh? Do tell."
Duo slid up to the bar as he began his tale. Kinau told them all that had occurred nonchalantly. By the time he was through, Heero was coldly scanning the crowd for Rai and Duo was livid.
"Don't worry about him, Duo. He wouldn't risk losing the Lady's good graces." Kinau said, attempting and failing to calm him.
"Don't worry?! Kinau, he wants to make you a bloodsucker like him!!"
He shuddered. Kinau knew very well how both Heero and Duo felt about vampires. Duo especially. He also knew that one of Rai's servants was listening in and would report everything said back to their master. He had only ever met Rai and his vamps before so he wasn't sure how to feel about all vampires in general. Surely, not all of them could suck as much as Rai (no pun intended). The Doctor looked thoughtful. He'd just come to forward Duo's assignment for next week and already, his beloved had that wicked gleam in his eyes. Shinigami was coming to play.
"From Professor G. Be good, Kinau. Heero. Duo. Send my regards to the other three."
He left, mumbling about how he'd never expected to train a sixth Gundam Pilot.
Kinau checked his watch. Still awhile till closing. A long while.
The next couple of hours were uneventful. Kinau and Heero traded jobs for awhile. He secretly thought it was just because Heero wanted to catch Rai by surprise. He flirted and played with the regulars who he knew and once, Duo had to come and rescue him from an overzealous customer. It wasn't until eleven that something…odd happened. He had received a man's order, just as usual, and started taking it to him.
The man was sitting away from the throng of the crowd. A typical loner in the shadows. He was attempting to ignore anything that moved. He had the blackest eyes Kinau had ever seen and obsidian hair that fell around his face. His black cloak and stealthy Notice-Me-Not Charms signified him as a wizard. The most unusual thing about him was the familiarity. Kinau knew him. Knew his name, where he worked, had even loathed him at one time. It sent a thrill of fear down his spine. Had they found him? It was only one man but there could be others. No. No! He was being paranoid. He was just here for the negotiations. That was all. Yeah. Right.
" Gozaimasu! Your food."
"Thank you."
The dark man did a double take, no doubt thinking he was a girl, but he stared at him in a rather unsettling manner. He suddenly shook his head as if to clear it.
"Are you unwell, sir?"
" Um…no. Could you help me with something?"
Kinau cocked his head to the side but nodded.
" Of course. Would like to finish eating first?"
He looked at the food wistfully but shook his head.
" I got it more out of habit than hunger."
His smile revealed two fangs. Kinau bowed and bid him follow.
Through the storage room, they opened the 'Employees Only' door and headed down a staircase. The backrooms housed Temptation's live-in employees. Most of them, actually. It was a very pleasant place despite being underground. The starkness of the white rooms was prevented from being unbearable by the fact that it was very obviously lived in. Personal effects were on beds, floors, shelves, and walls but it was just saved from looking dirty. No one would ever say that the Lady didn't treat her employees well. Kinau, looking at all of the cozy beds, realized just how tired he was. The rroms were all along one major hallway. At the end of the hallway was a dark colored door leading to the Lady's rooms.
She must have been meeting with the other vampires just them because when he wearily walked inside, he immediately felt Rai's hungry eyes.
"Severus, it's so good to see you again. Kinau, thank you for bringing him. You look exhausted. Come and lie down."
He offered her a grateful smile. Her quarters were in red and black. Very oriental but, then again, they lived in Japan. Kinau took the invitation, curling up on the couch. Despite Rai's heated stare, he found darkness sucking at him and soon he was asleep.
The Lady watched the vampire gaze at her student lustily. Rai looked at her like she was teasing him. Like a child who's Christmas present is just out of reach. In a way she was. It was a power play and he knew it. She was showing him that Kinau was hers and hers alone. She tugged a blanket over the sleeping form. It was partially for Kinau's sake and partially to distract Rai's eyes from roaming all over her employee's body.
"Severus, I see you've met my Darkness. We were just discussing the terms of our alliance."
Rai looked irritated.
"I want him. Not any of your other…workers. I want your Darkness or nothing at all."
"Still pouting that he wont succumb?"
Severus smirked. An obvious feeling of animosity shimmered and crackled in the air between them.
"Still fucking a Veela?"
They left the argument at that when the Lady raised her hand for silence. She leaned back broodingly, looking at Kinau. She couldn't just give Kinau to Rai without giving him some way to escape the vampire's clutches.
"Rai, I will accept your offer on one condition."
Rai's eyes filled with excitement.
"Tell me."
She met his gaze with a steely one of her own.
"You will have to earn him. Kinau must be wooed or obtained by some other means besides using vampiric wiles. He must be willing."
Rai thought about it for a moment but finally nodded.
"I accept your terms. However, I don't want your Elite trying to shoot, stab or otherwise maim me when I approach him. I also need to have at least one night with him every week in order to 'woo' him."
The Lady agreed.
"So, my Lady, who have you chosen as your heir? Everyone thinks it will be Quatre." Severus asked.
Rai snorted but held his peace. She smiled beautifully.
"Kinau will be my heir."
The Potion's Master couldn't keep the look of shock off of his face and Rai's jaw dropped.
"D-does he know yet?"
"No. No he doesn't."
Rai couldn't contain himself.
"Is this wise? He is only fifteen."
Her attention turned to one of her favorite pictures. One of her and Kinau. The two men sat back and let the information sink in. The sleeping teen shifted, snuggling closer. They all looked at him. The boy sleeping soundly across from them was set to inherit everything The Lady owned. Her estates. Her knowledge. Her Magic. Incredible. Rai's eyes narrowed. Kinau was going to get all of the Lady's wealth and said Lady had given him permission to court her heir. Things were looking up.
OoO
Heero knocked on the Lady's door. Quatre had told him that Kinau had fallen asleep and his koi wasn't in the back rooms so he had to be with the Lady.
"Come in, Heero."
He opened the door, stoic and silent as usual, stepping over the threshold. Kinau was laying with his head in the Lady's lap and sleeping. Her nimble fingers lightly played with his hair. He knew how soft the obsidian tresses really felt. He'd run his hands through them himself many times. Seeing her do it made him ache to feel his lovers in his arms and in his bed. They were two sides of the same coin. Duo, the warm cheerful one and Kinau, the cold forlorn child. Kinau was often happy, just like Duo, but swirling beneath was a storm of emotion. Hurt, anger, sadness,disgust,envy. And beneath even that was the bottomless pit of rage that he lived for. He could see it in the way that Kinau killed and the way that he cried.
He was stuck in the middle. Neither one, nor the other. Rai, the blood sucking bastard, sat smugly in front of the Lady with the rest of his clan around him.
"Hello Heero."
"My Lady."
"Leaving?"
"Yes. It's that time."
"Very well. I shall see you tommorrow."
He nodded, walking over to take Kinau from her. The small boy stirred, wrapping his arms around Heero's neck. As the assassin turned to leave, he noticed the heated look Rai was giving Kinau. Their eyes met, filling with challenge. They left.
Heero carrie dhis lover back up to the main floor and thought. Had the Lady finally sold Kinau to the vampire? The teen whispered his name in his sleep, turning things low in his body. Duo met him at the entrance.
"He conk out?" the other pilot asked, shuddering slightly in the cool wind.
"Yeah."
They walked home in companionable silence. The three got home in just ten minutes. Duo turned the lights on and let Heero take care of Kinau. When he came into the room, the teen was curled up on the bed and Heero was plopped down unceremoniously.
He grinned wickedly and crawled slowly up the serious man's body. Duo pushed a strand of hair from the soldier's face. He kissed his beloved deeply, Heero's hand creeping to the back of his head to deepen it. Heat gathered between them as Duo lightly submitted. A groan broke them apart.Kinau was awake and watching them with longing in his emerald eyes. They both went to him immediately, touching and kissing every inch of skin they could access. Within a few short moments, Kinau was gasping beneath their attentions.
"Yesss…" He hissed with a snake-like rasp as his clothes were removed.
Heero and Duo, far too used to his brief displays of abnormalcy, continued.
"Mmm…Kinau."
Heero's eyes were full of desire and wanting. Duo's touch was like flames consuming his flesh. That night, Kinau slept in a warm, safe place, nestled between the two people he loved more than existance itself, ignorant of the danger soon ahead.
OoO
Kinau thought he was going to scream in frustration. Rai had stared at him non-stop all night with a strange, undesipherable expression on his face. He had bartending duties tonight but the only people coming were the Lady's guests. He was wiping off a glass when the Lady came to him.
"Gozaimasu, my Lady."
"Good evening, Kinau."
Duo was sitting on the barstool beside him sipping a Spritzer.
"Kinau, I will be frank with you. I have accepted Rai's offer on some extended terms."
The reaction was immediate. Duo choked on his drink, accidentally inhaling it. Kinau stopped breathing, the glass slipping from his hands to shatter into a million tiny shards at his feet. He thought his heart stopped for a moment. It took another moment of the Lady shaking him to get him to start breathing again.
"What are the conditions?" He asked, shaking uncontrollably.
She sighed heavily.
"He has to woo you to him. He cannot take you by force. That would be breaking the rules of our contract in which he would have to give up any right he may or may not have at that time."
Duo exhaled a breath he had been holding.
"Then no worries! Cause Kinau would never willing go over to him, right pal?"
Kinau nodded hesitantly, sure that there was a catch.
"But you must date him and the other Gundam pilots are not allowed to interfere or harm him in any way."
Both Kinau and Duo's jaws dropped.
"What?!?!?!"
A long quiet followed afterwards. Duo glared at everything and everyone. Heero had come down and heard the news from Duo. He was silently livid. Kinau didn't think the week could get any worse. Oh, how wrong he was. He escaped away to Tom for the half-hour befor ethey got busy. The moment he saw him, he realized that it may very well be the last time he saw this handsome man and he broke down. His tears fell from a floodgate of sorrow.
Tom held him close, rocking him and whispered things he didn't understand but felt better after them anyways. His english was definitely less than perfect.
"Love, what makes you cry so much? You sound as if your heart has been broken."
"The vampire who locked me in that room awhile ago… I have to date him so my Lady can have his alliance." He cried.
Tom shook his head but froze, his mouth almost agape. In his distress, one of Kinau's glamours had failed. On his forehead was a lighting bolt shaped scar. He quickly composed himself before Kinau could notice.
Kinau was Harry Potter. He'd been hiding in Japan with the one person who could have successfully masked his presence from the world. And now he was one of her Elite. An assassin. Amazing. Absolutely fucking amazing. Potter was a genius. Shit. What was he going to do? The child destined to kill him was crying in his lap and about to be traded to a vampire. Potter was his. Kinau was HIS. No one, not even Rai could take him away.
Kinau sniffled lightly.
"What am I going to do…?" He whispered, snuggling closer to seek comfort.
Tom kissed his head suddenly feeling an upsurge of possession and affection for the child. He'd belonged to him from the moment of his birth. He'd watched over Kinau all of his life (granted, he was trying to kill him but never the less…). Surely that counted for something. Kinau had come to him for comfort. To be reassured. He needed him. A piece of his soul was lodged in the boy. That created the tender link they had through the cursed scar. Now that he concentrated, Tom could feel it. How had he not noticed before? He began, swiftly and gently, reinforcing the bond between them and strengthening it. Kinau didn't even notice.
"Kinau, do you trust me?" He asked, switching to the parseltongue they both knew instinctually.
Kinau was so shocked, he stopped crying, momentarily forgetting about Rai.
"Yes. I trust you Tom…"
The older man nodded, leaning down towards the wide emerald eyes. He kissed him chastely but that touch was all the seemingly living bond power needed. It slammed into them both, rocking them. Kinau could see into Tom's memories, his knowledge. He saw everything. Even the bond. It appeared to him as a silver thread that sparked and slithered between their minds. He saw a young Tom in dirty clothes speaking to a snake for the first time. He watched him finally retaliate against the bullies in his orphanage. His first day at Hogwarts. He was pulled from his mind quickly but less discomfortingly.
He panted on the floor where they had landed and looked up at the man who was gasping for air above him.
"I'm sorry…I didn't expect it to be that…violent."
Kinau had the urge to touch him, to feel that silky hair but resisted.
"What happened?"
"I reawakened an old bond between us. It was already there, I merely reinforced it."
"Why…?"
Tom stood shakily, helping him to his feet.
"To keep you safe. You'll see it's effects soon enough, don't worry. It will help, I promise."
Kinau nodded, accepting the information. He felt…Different. Stronger. He could feel Tom like a pulse in his brain. A warm, comforting pulse. He would always have a piece of the man he'd come to depend on with him. It made him feel better to know that.
"You spoke parseltongue."
"Yes."
"Cool. I've never met anyone else who could."
"That's because only we can speak it. It's a language that's deader than Latin. We are the only two people alive who can speak parsle."
His eyes were even bigger. Kinau snuggled back into his lap, his sadness overcoming him once again. Tom sighed, holding him close.
Quatre opened the door quietly.
"Kinau? Oh…koi."
He came over to them and knelt where Kinau could see him.
"Kinau, do you trust this man? You spend an awful lot of time with him."
He seemed taken aback slightly.
"Yes. He's my friend…"
"Do you care about him?"
"Hai! Of course!"
The blonde sighed.
"Duo is in an uproar. He swears up and down that Rai will never have you."
Silence.
"It's time for you to come back down now, koibito. The dinnertime rush will start soon."
"Alright."
Quatre stood and , giving them both a smile, left. Tom held him still, allowing him time to regain his composure.
"I have to go…"
"That's alright but be safe."
Kinau gave him a questioning look, making him laugh. Tom kissed him first on the nose and next on his fingertips. It was an oddly intimate gesture. One that had Kinau blushing. He quietlt said goodbye and left to follow his friend.