This chapter was really hard to write...though I couldn't tell you why^^;

I sat in my car in my driveway for ten solid minutes when I finally arrived. The very idea of moving was making my back flare with pain warningly. Forcing myself to sit up straight the whole drive home had been bad enough, but my muscles had eventually gotten used to the position. Now, though, I had to move again, and I wasn't looking forward to it.

Too bad sleeping in my car would probably make it hurt worse tomorrow…

Groaning, I pushed my door open as far as it would go so it wouldn't come back, trying to close, and crash into me while I was attempting to peel myself from the vehicle. It was times like these that I wished I had a big car—an SUV or a truck. That way I could have just slipped down from the seat rather than having to pull myself up into a standing position. And as often as I got hurt…it would probably be worth the spike in weekly gas prices…

I don't know how long it took me to get out of the car, but the pain made it feel like a lifetime. It'd been a while since I'd been injured this badly. Walking to my front door wasn't so bad, but I was already dreading the stairs I'd have to climb up to my bedroom. Maybe I should just sleep on the couch? No…dammit…that would be just as bad as trying to sleep in my car…

Once the front door was open, I took a deep breath before taking that first step into the foyer. My back was screaming at me, "Stop fucking moving, you dumb fuck! Do you WANT to shatter us?!"

"Just up the stairs," I whispered to myself; that was where the bed was—where I could collapse and sleep off this terrible pain.

I paused in the foyer, the door swinging shut behind me. The house was quiet. Did that mean Obito wasn't here? Or maybe he was just asleep somewhere? No, it wasn't nearly late enough for him to be asleep. He must have left.

I breathed a sigh of relief even as my heart panged slightly.

Stepping up to the bottom of the stairs, I looked all thirteen of them over—seven straight, and six more to the left— while I tried to prepare myself for the upcoming onslaught of misery. All I could think was, "Why do I live in a house with stairs? It really isn't logical when I get beat up this often. I need an SUV and a ranch-style house…maybe somewhere out in the country where I'd have less neighbors to worry about getting caught in the cross-fire should vampires decide to attack my home. Yes…the dogs would like that…"

Speaking of the dogs, where the hell were they? They usually slept and lived outside, but it'd been awfully quiet lately. I hoped they hadn't gotten into someone's trash and gotten animal control called on them…That would be troublesome.

I allowed myself another five minutes to think about the dogs, inwardly denying the fact that I only thought so much about them because I was putting off climbing the damned stairs. But when I'd exhausted the topic in my head, there really wasn't anything left to do but start climbing.

"I'm not getting out of bed for a week after this," I promised myself as I lifted my right foot to begin my ascent.

The top of the stairs had me wheezing with pain, but I still felt accomplished. Maybe today hadn't been so shitty after all. I'd had sex, gotten my target, come home alive, and even managed to conquer the staircase. Yes, today had been good. Either that or my standards for a good day had dropped considerably when I'd all but broken my back…

I shuffled down the hall to the right to my bedroom, already taking my shirt off and deciding to bypass a shower in favor of bed—now. When I pushed the door open, however, I had to stop in my tracks and stare for a moment. There was a small figure tangled up in the sheets on my bed, cuddling a pillow, dead asleep.

"He's still here?" I breathed, my heart beating faster as elation and something resembling fear warred with each other in my head. I watched the sleeping form for a few minutes while I was still in shock, confused about what I should do. Should I wake him up, or just crawl into bed with him? And if I woke him up, what should I do then? I couldn't have sex with my back fucked-up as it was, and it would be a cold day in hell when I walked back down those stairs with my back still messed up, so we wouldn't be doing anything outside the bedroom either.

But the real question was: why the fuck was he still here?

I moved into the room as quietly as I could. I'd decided waking him up would be a bad idea. I didn't know what to say to him, so the longer he was asleep, the longer I had to come up with something.

As I got closer to him and the bed, I noticed there was something off, but I couldn't figure out what it was. I stood at the right edge of the bed and frowned down at my lover. What was it about him passed out on my bed that was making me uneasy?

He's still in the same position as he was when I left this morning, so what is it?

And then it hit me. He was in the same position, and he wasn't breathing.

All of the possibilities as to why this was were running through my head as my pulse suddenly sounded like thunder crashing in my ears. I was trying to calm myself, tell myself that there were a thousand possibilities—that he couldn't possibly be a vampire. I would have noticed, right? But when I started to think about it…He was so friendly with everyone in the club; his eyes had captured me so easily; he'd known who I was, and that I wouldn't want him telling people about us; he'd seemed especially pleased to suck at my neck; when we'd gotten to my house, he hadn't come inside the house until I'd pulled him in; and then he'd wanted to stay the night because he didn't have time to find somewhere to hide from the daytime before the sun rose.

"Shit," I whispered, taking a step back and feeling suddenly nauseous. I'd slept with a vampire.

But wait, I'd had my tongue all over his mouth, and I hadn't felt any fangs. There should have been fangs. The old ones can smile without showing fang, but that didn't mean they weren't there. And all that other stuff could have just been a coincidence…right? Oh, God, I hoped so.

There was only one way to find out for sure.

I pulled my gun out and forced my weary limbs to aim at his head as I inched closer. I pressed the gun barrel to his temple when my knees were halted by the edge of the bed. I had to bend over a little, but any pain my body was feeling was drowned out by my wild emotions running around in my head, screaming at each other in a panicked frenzy.

I reached out with my left hand to lift his arm. If it was stiff and didn't move, he was just a regular corpse, but if it was loose like a sleeping person…he was a vampire. I hesitated with my hand wrapped around his wrist. I had to take a deep breath before trying to lift his arm.

It came up easily, just like he was asleep instead of dead—except his skin was cold and seemed to suck the warmth from my hand.

I dropped his arm and pressed my gun harder into his head with both hands, breathing hard. All I could think was, "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. I slept with a vampire! Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck…" How could this possibly have happened? How could I have not noticed he was a mother-fucking vampire?! I was a vampire hunter! I'm supposed to be the expert on this kind of thing!

And what was I supposed to do now?

Should I kill him before he wakes up and tell the police he attacked me? That wouldn't work for so many different reasons no matter how much I wanted it to. He was in my house, which meant I would have had to have invited him in—why would I invite my attacker into my own home? There were no signs of struggle in the room, and he was in my bed, covered in my semen too. It wouldn't be hard for the ANBU to figure out what really happened.

Plus, just thinking about killing Obito left me feeling conflicted. My previously confusing feelings for the man were now fighting against my insatiable hate for vampires. I wanted to kill him, but…I just couldn't. So what was I supposed to do now?

Before I could decide, Obito started to stir, his eyebrows and fingers twitching.

I felt the sun set like a warm blanket being ripped off me in a cold room. The loss of the sun's safety sent a shiver down my spine, just as it did every night.

Obito groaned quietly as he awoke from his "slumber." He stretched his back and yawned before he noticed my gun still pressed against his head. He frowned slightly and opened his eyes. He tried to move to get a better look at me, but I shoved the gun harder and he froze.

There was a long silence as we both tried to figure out what to do. Obito recovered first, relaxing in the bed. "You didn't know?" he asked, closing his eyes.

I didn't want to admit it. The fact that I, the infamous vampire hunter who was supposed an expert on the undead, hadn't been able to tell the difference between a vampire and human was a pretty big blow to my reputation. Not to mention I'd had sex with him AND fallen asleep with him.

Fuck, I couldn't believe I'd let my guard down like that with a vampire. Asleep. I'd be a-fucking-sleep. I'd been completely defenseless and at his mercy. He could have done anything to me.

"I thought you knew," he said, smiling now. "But I suppose this makes more sense. It was pretty hard to believe you'd want to sleep with your enemy."

I paused before saying, "You hide it well."

His smile widened, "I don't usually bother, but I figured you'd appreciate it."

I didn't answer.

"Are you going to kill me?" he asked casually, like he didn't care.

"I haven't decided yet," I said, trying to sound just as nonchalant, but not quite managing.

He rolled over, pushing my gun away, and forcing me to move back to aim again. The satisfied smirk on his face gave away that he knew I wouldn't kill him. How could I? Besides the fact that I was conflicted, he hadn't done anything to deserve it. He and I had had plenty of eye-contact; he could have fucked with my mind if he'd wanted to, but he hadn't. Even when I was asleep and defenseless he hadn't done anything to hurt me; he hadn't even tried to bite me.

Most young vampires were afraid I'd kill them just because they were undead, but the experienced ones knew—knew I only killed when it was legal, or in self-defense.

Obito slowly stood, eyes never leaving my face, although I wasn't looking at his.

Rule number one when dealing with vampires: never look them in the eye. There were all kinds of fucked up things vampires could do to your mind if you gave them the chance. The more powerful ones could capture your mind without eye-contact, but it always made it easier for them when there was.

He moved closer, taking small, non-threatening steps towards me. I was finding a little hard to feel all that threatened when he was naked too…

I had no choice but to back up. I couldn't shoot him, and I didn't think telling him to back off was going to have any effect. Any kind of threat would be meaningless so long as he knew I wouldn't kill him.

My back hit the wall, and even though I hadn't hit it hard, I still hissed with pain as if someone had just stabbed me. I'd forgotten about my injuries until then. My adrenaline rush had masked it, shoved it into the back of my mind, but now that the adrenaline was wearing off, the pain was back in full force.

"You're hurt…" Obito said, sounding concerned. "What happened?" He stepped closer, reaching out to touch me, but I wasn't having that.

"Don't fucking touch me!" I growled—his hand inches away from my arm. My gun was pressed into his chest, but he was ignoring it.

He froze at my words, but didn't move away. "You're hurt; let me help you," he pleaded.

"You want to help me?" I asked bitterly, feeling like he was mocking me, "Then get the fuck out of my house. I never want to see your face again."

"Kakashi…what about last night?"

"Last night didn't happen. If I ever hear about it again, I will hunt you down and fill you with silver—the law be damned." I would do it too, and I think he knew it.

"I understand…so I'm just a mistake, huh?" he said forlornly, dropping his hand to his side.

"The biggest one I've ever made," I admitted, glaring coldly at his chest. It tightened visibly, and oddly enough…I winced at the thought that I'd just hurt him. A tiny part of me wanted to explain, to give excuses for why we could never be together, why no one could ever know, so he'd understand and not be hurt. But I said nothing, quelling the feeling. Things were better this way. If I hurt him, he'd stay away.

"Why are you doing this?" he whispered, sounding close to tears. His petite frame was trembling ever-so-slightly, and it confused me. Not just because I'd never seen or even heard of a vampire crying, but because I couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that he was crying because of me. "Last night…you were happy; you liked being with me; I could feel it. You aren't normally like that with people, even your lovers…I was different…"

"Yes, you're different. You're a fucking vampire," I said, trying not to think about how he knew how I acted with my other one-night-stands. There was only one way, but the thought that he'd been in my head was making part of me just a tiny bit hysterical.

"What if I wasn't?" he asked, "If I was human, would you have asked me to stay? Would you have wanted to be with me? Would you have loved me?"

My frown deepened. "I don't date," I said simply, avoiding his questions—I didn't want to think about my answers…

"Kakashi, I would never hurt you," Obito promised, reaching out to touch me again, my face this time.

I flinched away, "Get out," I barked at him testily. My arms were starting to ache from holding the gun up for so long. Just what I needed…sore arms to go with my broken back…

"But Kashi—"

"Fucking get out of my house!" I yelled, surprising even myself with the forcefulness of my voice. I didn't like that he'd given me a nickname. I liked even less that he thought we were close enough to merit one…

Obito jumped slightly at my tone, taking a step back like I'd bit him. He stood in front of me silently for a few minutes, just staring at me. Then he whispered, "As you wish," before turning, picking up his pants, and walking out of the room without looking back.

I watched his retreating form until it disappeared down the stairs, and then listened intently until I heard him close the front door behind him. Only then did I let myself relax. I lowered my gun, pointing it at the floor, and tried to force my pounding heart to slow down.

Shuffling towards my bed, I flicked the safety on my gun and rested it on the bedside table. I didn't exactly want to put the gun down—it made me feel safer holding it—but I wasn't stupid enough to sleep cuddling it to my chest like a stuffed animal. That would just be asking for a bullet in the face.

When I went to get in the bed though, I realized I hadn't changed the sheets, and they were covered in mine and Obito's cum, as well as our sweat and excess lube. I groaned. There was no way I was sleeping in the bed with dirty sheets. I was already having a hard time living with the fact that I'd slept with a fucking vampire; I didn't need evidence too.

Asking myself why life hated me so much, I ripped the damned sheets off the bed, silently battling with myself to ignore my protesting back. I tried to mentally soothe it with sweet promises of uninterrupted sleep once we were in the bed, but the pain was not so easily placated.

Putting sheets back on the bed was even worse than taking them off. I managed to do it though, but it was pretty shoddily done. Nevertheless, I didn't care as I fiddled with the zipper of my pants. I'd already decided I might as well take a shower before bed. Wouldn't want to dirty up the clean sheets that I'd just painstakingly applied to the mattress...Plus, I was hoping maybe the hot water would alleviate some of my back's throbbing. At the very least it had to relax some of the muscles.

When I was finally in bed, my body slowly relaxing into the mattress, I laid there for what seemed like hours, unable to think about anything but Obito and what had just happened. I was actually surprisingly calm. I wasn't worried about Obito trying to kill me or seek some kind of revenge for hurting him. No, what I was thinking was much worse than that.

All I could think was I was never going to see him again.

My mind didn't seem to care that he was a vampire and therefore there was no way I could feel anything for him. It also didn't care if thinking about the man was slowly driving me insane.

I knew I should just forget about him. If I never saw him again, everything would go back to normal and it would be like it really had never happened. No one would ever know; I felt confident Obito wouldn't tell anyone. I could just pretend like it was all some crazy dream I had while I was high on painkillers or something…

But the whole forgetting him thing was proving to be exceptionally difficult.