AN: Oh well, for whatever it's worth, here we go...
The disclaimer still stands.
Many thanks to YenGirl for proof-reading yet another chapter for me. And many thanks to wonderful Sagakure for advertising my stories in her blog, which is a great honor for the humble author, since SGK's blog is like the ultimate source of VK goodness. And of course - forever and always - thanks to everyone who read, favourited, alerted and especially - reviewed. I love you all!
"I don't want to look back at this… look back too closely… but it is not even that. I just… forgot…"
Well, there goes the hope for a magic cure from the pureblood's past …
Zero tries to remember the time of his own baby teeth shedding (after all he doesn't have the millennia to transcend for it, no...), but all that comes to his mind is how he lost an incisor to an especially hard apple… (Crack! And there it was – out of his mouth and stuck in the greenish-white fruit)… He also remembers a time when a stubborn tooth… funny enough, but it could've been a fang too… or a premolar?.. kept in place longer than its neighbors, and had to be removed so that the other teeth could grow straight… but he only mostly remembers Ichiru, telling him a long string of creepy teeth-related stories, while they waited with their father before the dentist's office.
Now Ichiru... (a year has passed and still Zero feels a stab of excruciating sorrow and just as excruciating guilt at a simple thought of his dead brother)… Ichiru then... he was a frequent visitor to the dentist's. Almost all of his baby teeth had to be pulled out forcibly, his "general condition" (or so the doctors said) too weak for even his permanent teeth to be able to push out the temporaries... And Ichiru's flushed, agitated face as he revelled in the moment of knowing something that Zero didn't stands bright and clear before the hunter's mental eyes.
However, what Zero doesn't remember – is being in pain. Sure thing, the doctor used a spray freezer on his gum before pulling, but hey, that's different, he was like – taking that tooth out by force… Even Ichiru only ever complained about the tooth getting 'shifty', when it was time for it to fall out, though Zero knows that in fact the 'shifting' fascinated his brother endlessly, so that he would constantly touch the shifty tooth with his tongue to see how far it would go… No, Zero doesn't remember it being painful at all.
Of course, the vampire fangs are different. The very unusual sensitivity that they have speaks of all kinds of extra-nerves attached, and where there are nerves – there can be pain… and still it is hard for him to reconcile the natural process with the duration and severity of Kaname's suffering.
"What does the book say?" he asks, rubbing his cheek against the dark-brown curls of the pureblood's lowered head to get his attention. "How long should it take?"
"'The exfoliation process that may be accompanied by a mild pain may last up to three days'..."
Hmph! Mild pain, my ass! Zero guesses that all the doctors, never mind vampire or human are taught understatement as part of their professional training… So… hasn't Kaname said that he had the ache for three days as well?.. But there is something vaguely evasive about the way that the pureblood quoted from that book just now, without adding even a word of comment... and no, come to that, it wasn't how he formulated it earlier, not exactly…
"Since when did you say you have felt this ache?" Zero asks on a sudden suspicion, and a heavy sigh that he hears shows that for once his instincts were right on target.
"Since the day you were leaving," Kaname admits unwillingly, "but it wasn't quite a pain then!.. Just, like, a pressure… and it seemed to not detract fully after I drank from you... but that's all!.. It was just bothersome, not painful, that's why I haven't told," he hastens to explain, "I… I didn't want to spoil our last day together, and it seemed nothing but a minor discomfort…"
At times the hunter just wants to kill Kaname, so that next time he knows better than to do such stupid, stupid considerate things... And even though Zero knows exactly that the greater part of the anger he feels now is fueled by his own guilt – for not having noticed anything by himself (as well he should have!), the exasperation still finds a way right into his tone. "Damn, what an idiot! You should have told me... never mind what!"
Inevitably - as it always happens between the two of them (and even more so now – when Kaname has very much had enough with pain and waiting, and being without sleep) - the pureblood's anger flares to match the hunter's and he leans away from Zero (though still not quite out of his embrace), the brown eyes flashing accusingly, "And never mind – what, Zero? What would've you done, had I told? Abandoned your assignment because your vampire lover had an itchy fang?"
"No, damn, probably not, but I might've thought harder about some way to call you from where there were no phones!"
"But that's exactly why I kept silent!" Kaname raises his voice another pitch, and Zero worries that if they keep it up, and both do not calm down, like real soon, the mirror on the bathroom wall may go the way of that cup earlier. "I didn't want you…"
Whatever he 'didn't want' is interrupted by a series of short dry coughs (no wonder, he's talked so long, and his throat must be parched from keeping the mouth slightly opened because of the aching fang…), and Kaname falls back onto Zero's shoulder, the nails digging sharply in, where he clutches onto the hunter's ribcage and back... and still wheezes stubbornly despite it being a sure way to provoke another fit, "Didn't want you get killed because you were distracted during a hunt…"
Isn't it curious, how Zero's anger dissipates in an instant, leaving in its place a somewhat frantic concern, when the slender shoulders that he embraces tense in a futile attempt to fight down a cough, and then shake convulsively, and a long crack runs slowly down the mirror (like a tear drop sliding... well, almost...) as Kaname coughs again, and again, and hisses with pain.
"Wait here…" Zero stands up, disentangling the pureblood from himself gently, "wait… I'll bring you some water… such coughs... they don't go away by themselves…"
"Nothing…" Cough. "Nothing's wrong… with my legs…" Kaname objects... but his pose belies his words, one hand clutching at the counter of the sink now, even if the grip that almost crumbles the marble is more a distraction than support... and Zero pays him no heed...
When he returns – a glass of warm water in hand (pouring, and heating, and mixing it so that the temperature is just right, and still making it back in barely a minute...), Kaname has almost succeeded in fighting the coughs, but is still bent over the sink, breathing heavily... and when he turns half-way to the hunter to take the glass, the latter can spy his wet, tear-spiked eyelashes, no doubt wiped hastily just prior to Zero's return.
"Does it hurt much?" It is one dumb question, something more told to express his genuine worry, than really demanding an answer... yet Kaname answers it anyway, though his voice is unsteady and he sips on the water every few words, holding the rim awkwardly to one side.
"It… throbs… constantly… tock, tock, tock… without stop... and then it shoots… when I touch it accidentally, like when I coughed… that's why… I stopped eating…"
The very simplicity of these words squeezes Zero's heart and pushes his brain into an overdrive for something that can be done to help now.
"Human painkillers?" he asks hopefully, "Have you tried them?"
He gets a definitive answer, when he opens the corner cabinet and sees a mess of half empty bottles and torn blisters instead of neat order inside, Kaname's voice coming as an echo to his own deductions, "Oh yes, I have… only it seems… my body considers them as poison and deals accordingly… either making me puke them right back... or dissolving them almost instantly… just when it seems that they do start helping… and… puking hurts…"
Yet Zero can see that he has taken a lot of them nevertheless, no doubt anxious even for that elusive, momentary respite…
Oh, well… nothing to it… that is… he feels like crap for not being here… but now he is… and if there is no other way to ease his pain... then he is dragging Kaname to the clinic, by force if necessary…
Still, a little persuasion first might be helpful, right?
"Kaname," he says gently, coming to stand before the pureblood, who is half-sitting on the counter now, his hand covering his face in that infinitely familiar, uniquely 'Kaname' gesture… (Kaname's 'hand-mask', used to hide any passing weakness behind...) "You do understand, that though the reasons for your state may be natural, the state itself is by no way normal?.. Your fang… According to the book it should've been out in three days at most… Now it's a whole week since the day I left and as you said – it has started… Nor do I believe it should be as painful as that…"
"Don't worry, Zero… I am a pureblood, remember?.. I will be o'key…" Kaname sounds tired but calm, and a slender hand lifts to trace soothing circles on the hunter's temple… (and yet the 'mask' is still in place, still covering whatever indeed his feelings right now, and Zero strongly suspects that the words are meant as self-suggestion at least as much as the way of calming him). "Countless purebloods has gone through it before…"
"Bullshit…" Ow crap!.. he wishes he could believe the 'natural' explanation as he did at first... but his logic objects, and now he's set to give the voice to these objections, speaking them even as they come to his mind. "Countless purebloods… but what if they needed help?.. What if they had help?.. And don't forget that they were feeding on real blood – vampire and human, and didn't have to live off chemical substitutes through most their youth…"
"But I drink blood… Your blood, Zero…"
"Yeah?.. And for how long?.. A year?.. A little more than six months, if we speak of doing it regularly?.. And how about all those years before that?.. Look… what if the tablets lack something important?.. What if there is a deficiency in them that has gone unnoticed so far?"
"There is no deficiency… The Night Class…" but there is a strained note in Kaname's voice and that means that he has noticed himself that his argument doesn't hold.
"The Night Class are nobles… The only pureblood who was testing them were you… And someone has explained to me not an hour ago that nobles and purebloods are almost two different species… It could be that whatever was lacking, was not as important for them as it was for you…"
Zero knows he is driving himself into a frenzy... right so, he does... but the more he speaks, the more logical it all sounds to him, and – damn the stupid pureblood! – why hasn't he sought some medical attention before, right after he found out that his tooth is not coming out as described in that book? Gods, but any sane person would long have done so! Why has he chosen to suffer and wait for Zero to come and spell it out for him?!
"My brother," he says… and notices how Kaname has tensed visibly and the fingers still touching onto his temple tremble momentarily, and then - hold still… Right, it is the first time he has voluntary mentioned Ichiru in Kaname's presence, and now the pureblood must know that Zero is deadly serious in what he wants to convey. "Ichiru's body was too weak to push the teeth out by itself, so he had to have them pulled - one by one. Or else the new ones could've grown warped or irregular… You wouldn't want your permanent fang to grow crooked?"
Now it is the hand that covers the face that shakes slightly, and Kaname's voice is unsteady and holds a note of warning, "Zero… you are not helping…"
And the hunter feels guilty, because he is scaring the poor sod, and doing it deliberately… but - hell! – he hasn't even voiced his worst fear yet… one of those damned creepy stories of Ichiru's that he remembers from all the way back – something about the pus from an inflamed tooth going straight to the brain, causing a brain fever and – bang!..
'No,' he reasons with himself, 'it won't happen… Kaname is a pureblood after all… he can heal from anything…' But the fact is – he isn't healing, and his cheek looks inflamed, and why (why?!) hasn't he gone straight to the clinic, instead of going crazy with pain for the damned three days?!
"Let me look at it," he asks, no, pleads urgently. "Look, I promise, I won't do anything… I won't hurt you… We both know something is wrong, so I just need to see what it is… I will be extremely careful, o'key?.. You trust me?"
The hand that covered the face moves away finally and Kaname gives one short, reluctant nod - giving in, though Zero sees that he'd gladly avoided it if he could.
Still he turns, pliant and obedient, towards the light, when Zero asks him so, and opens his mouth, and doesn't flinch, when Zero tells him that he will have to turn his lip up, because the swollen cheek effectively blocks this side from opening, nor when the hunter actually does it - as gently as possible, revealing the aching fang right up to the gum.
Ow crap… Zero keeps his face straight, but it's an effort.
The first thing he notices is that the fang is extended to full length, as it would be for a bite, its tip going down into the fold of the lower lip, and as he turns that down as well, he feels relieved but also surprised that Kaname has not pricked his lip on its razor sharp point.
There would be nothing unusual in that – Kaname's fangs were always on the long side (another detail setting the purebloods apart from the rest of vampire hierarchy) – if not for his other three fangs being fully subtracted right now, their tips barely reaching beyond the even line of incisors. And this really makes that fang to stand out – quite literally – almost as a foreign object buried in the angry and swollen red of surrounding gum.
Briefly Zero wonders if this is indeed what that fang is now – something that should've been out already, but is still there (as a piece of bone, as the glass splinters that had to be taken out of Kaname's feet that time when he had broken the window in a temper tantrum) - not foreign enough for the healing reaction to kick in, but not belonging either – and hence causing the whole inflammation and stuff…
Kaname's eyes close, as if he doesn't want to see whatever Zero has found inside his mouth reflected in the hunter's gaze ever so clearly, but his body is almost trembling with tension, and Zero knows… he knows all too well that what he is doing is downright foolhardy… not to mention – cruel, and even - a betrayal of Kaname's trust… but his finger stretches – out of its own volition – to test if the fang is shifty (as its somewhat odd angle seems to suggest)…
Next thing he feels is a force that is hurling him backwards violently, to land in a rain of broken tile and cement onto the floor… And he thinks, 'Oh well… looks like this wall has sustained some damage…' and, 'Wish he uses something else next time he wants to demolish his bathroom, lest it becomes a habit…" And then the dear and frightened face floats into the line of his blurry and slightly double vision, and someone is calling his name…