The initial piercing of the skin made Natsumi flinch, but she didn't utter a sound. She closed her eyes and just waited for it to be over. At least, that's what she thought she would do. Inexplicably, she began to feel the most bizarre sensation, as if her stress was flowing out of her with her blood. Her muscles, initially tense with apprehension, began to loosen. It felt like a heavy burden had been removed from her. She listened silently, secretly in awe of what was happening . . . and then she heard it - the sound of him sucking gently, but steadily. His face was uncharacteristically serene in appearance, and he took such care not to bite too deeply or suck to hard lest he hurt her.
It was difficult to refrain from indulgence when her blood suited him perfectly. The texture, flavor, smell . . . everything he had ever wanted but had never realized until now. The adrenaline in her blood had been drained almost completely when all of the sudden another wave of stress reached his hungry mouth. He opened his eyes in surprise - he had never experienced a second coming of stress before. Ren sucked once more to drain her of whatever stress he could, but realized he needed to stop. Natsumi's face revealed a panicked expression, and he wouldn't ruin the chance to 'get to know her,' or whatever that meant. Slowly and carefully, he removed his fangs from her wrist, ran his tongue over the bite marks, and then proceeded to lick his lips - he refused to let even a single drop escape him.
"Well . . . what did you think?" He asked curiously.
"It didn't hurt as much as I thought it would . . ." She admitted. "I'm shocked, really."
"Hmph. I know how to treat a lady~" He jeered.
"Of course you do."
Ren watched as Natsumi tried to compose herself, but began to feel unsure of how to proceed. He could smell the stress rebuilding inside her, and it frustrated him.
"Really Natsumi?"
"What?"
He narrowed his eyes and turned to look away from her.
"I can't believe your blood is reeking of stress seconds after I've drained you of it. You're literally a stress factory."
She seemed insulted by his comment and sighed.
"Do I stress you out?" He inquired. "Because, if that's the case, a relationship between us would be nothing short of perfectly mutual."
"Oh please, again with the 'mutualism' garbage? It isn't mutual if you're the one making me stressed so that you can drain me of it later. That's very parasitic."
"Ouch." He jibed.
The two stood in silence, looking at each other awkwardly. Then, he decided to speak again.
"Still, it is very strange . . ." He continued.
"Could you be more specific?" She retorted. "Nothing about this is normal, at least not to me."
"Well, normally once I've drained a woman of her stress there are very noticeable differences, positive differences, may I add, in her demeanor, and well . . . " His golden eyes scanned briefly before he added, " . . . you look exhausted."
Natsumi rubbed her temples at the newfound headache she was getting.
"So what you're saying is your stress sucking didn't work on me . . .?"
"It would seem that way."
She could sense that he was annoyed, but not with her. His negative attitude was directed at himself. Somehow, Ren's ability hadn't worked, and it left him feeling deeply dissatisfied with himself. How many women had he fed on? Hundreds? Thousands? What was so different about Natsumi? Her father was a hunter, but that shouldn't have meant anything . . .
"Sorry to disappoint you." She mumbled through the pain gnawing at her head.
"It's nothing you've done." He assuaged. "I just feel . . . inept, subpar."
"Well, that's stupid."
Ren cocked his head slightly.
"Maybe there's something weird with me. Regardless, it doesn't matter."
She looked up at him, fatigue adorning her usually prideful self.
He walked over to her and lightly tucked a few strands of her sepia hair behind her ears, revealing those striking hazel eyes he had come to hope would glance in his direction alone. This somewhat tender nature, so unlike him, startled both of them, and she faintly brushed his hand away from her. Ren's looked away, as if insulted, and decided to change the subject.
"So, when you said I can 'get to know you,' what did you have in mind?"
"Well, for starters, why not just take me out to lunch and chat?"
" . . . I can't eat regular food."
Natsumi rubbed her temples in frustration.
"Well, I can. And I think you owe me a meal considering I just gave you a personal blood donation."
"Fine." He stated. "You know . . . your blood was the most delectable meal I've ever-"
"Don't."
Ren blinked and watched as her face tinged a faint red. He smirked, feeling like he had made a personal victory.
"All right, I'll stop."
"Good."
" . . . but it really is a compliment~"
"Ren . . ."
"What does your diet consist of if you don't mind me asking?"
Natsumi suddenly began to feel lightheaded and stumbled into a chair at the kitchen table. Ren realized that he had taken a bit more of her blood than he had meant to and shot her a brief apologetic expression.
"Sorry."
"It's fine . . . can we go out some other time?"
"Sure . . . so do I just invite myself over or-?"
"No." She replied rather abruptly, at which he seemed a bit taken aback. "I mean, call me first . . . as a courtesy."
"Cool." Ren felt uneasy about coming back to see her. Normally, he would have a one-night fling and be done with said woman, but it would be different with Natsumi. For the first time in his life, he would be investing time and energy into a single person, which had always seemed pointless to him. Still, as he gazed at her tired self in the chair he couldn't help feeling guilty for what he had done. She had told him to bite her, so it actually was consensual, so why did her now calm, exhausted demeanor trouble him so?
"Are you going to be okay?" He wondered. "I mean, usually whoever I bite just falls asleep . . . after we've had sex."
"And . . .?"
"Your fatigue troubles me."
His words surprised her, and she smiled to herself.
"I'm fine." She said faintly. He stared at her in disbelief. "I probably just need sleep."
"And food." He said flatly. "What do you want? I'll get you something."
"I have food here." She tried. "I can make something."
"Well, you've made me feel guilty." He grumbled. "So just tell me what you want and I'll get it."
"Really?" Natsumi asked. "Wow, a little blood and you're all gentlemanly."
He scoffed at the statement. "I'm always a gentleman."
She snorted in derision at his assertion. "Right. Well, I like this Ren much better than the other one."
He raised his eyebrow.
"In fact, I wouldn't mind getting to know this Ren more." She paused. "He seems nice."
A crooked smile claimed Ren Maaka's face as he stood in the doorway.
"So, what's it going to be?" He inquired. "All I know about your food preferences is that you like beans, but I doubt bringing you a can of beans is acceptable."
Natsumi stifled a chuckle, but Ren heard it. He had actually made her laugh? What was happening?
"Vegetable stir fry would be great." She said finally. "Let me just get my purse and-"
However, when she proceeded to retrieve some payment for the food, she noticed that Ren had already left, the door standing ajar letting in the breeze of the coming nightfall.
The streets lamps had just begun to glisten as dusk quickly approached. A few bats flitted about the trees. Ren felt like he was wandering aimlessly. Sure, he knew of the restaurants around that served stir fry (practically all of them) - they were meeting places for his next meal, or victim (as Natsumi would have seen it). Oddly enough, he found himself unable to commit to one restaurant in particular.
"Which one makes the best vegetable stir fry?" He wondered. "I guess I should ask some people, seeing how all of their food tastes revolting to me." One by one, Ren peeked his head in, but each time the aroma of food revolted him.
"This is ridiculous." He hissed. "I'll just have my dopey sister make it. She does know what tastes good to humans after all . . ."
As he walked through the door of his house, he was greeted by his parents.
"Ren, dear, you've been gone for quite a while." Calera said.
"Yes, you had your sisters worried." Henry added.
"My apologies Mother, Father." He replied in a slightly submissive tone. While he was indeed a curt fellow most of the time, Ren had always held his parents in high esteem.
From the staircase, he heard the faint voice of Anju.
"Big brother is home now, big sister."
In an instant, Karin peeked out from behind Anju, teary-eyed.
"REN! Where the heck where you?!" She asked. "Because I'm the only one who can go out during the daytime without getting burned, Mama was going to send me out to look for you!"
"That would be pointless." Ren mocked. "You'd get lost, for sure, like you always do."
"Well, I would have taken Usui-kun with me . . . "
"Kenta Usui . . . " her father piped up. "You would have not taken him with you!"
"You'd rather me go alone?" Karin whined. "I would be a lot safer with him!"
"Your virginity wouldn't." Ren spat, at which Karin grew furious.
"OH, LIKE YOU'RE ONE TO TALK?!"
"As your older brother, yes, I am." He said as he towered over her with a malicious grin. "Do you have a problem with that, runt?"
All of the sudden, fury that she had been restraining unleashed itself, and Karin began wailing on her brother. She started kicking him in the shins, and proceeded to punch him as close to his face as she could reach. Ren practically lifted her up by the collar of her shirt, and with menacing slits asked, "Are we about done with our temper tantrum?"
She wasn't, by far, finished unleashing her anger, but upon noticing his arm wrapped up, she stopped.
"What happened?" Karin asked.
Ren looked down at his arm, having already forgotten about the incident, and dismissed it promptly.
"I was being careless . . ." Then he remembered the reason he had come back. "You know, since I AM your older brother . . . you technically should respect me."
"There's nothing respectable about you!" She argued.
"Karin!" Her mother spoke up finally. "Enough."
With a pout, she quieted down.
"I have a request for you, little sister . . . " He said with a smile.
"What is it?" Karin asked. "It's not something weird or gross is it?"
"You'll see . . ." He replied as he pushed her toward the kitchen. Once they were in the inside, Karin looked around puzzled.
"You want me to make you something . . . ? But Ren, you don't like human food."
He narrowed his eyes and looked away from her, but didn't say anything. Finally, she was able to put two and two together and . . .
"You want me to make food for someone else?"
Ren nodded. "Vegetable stir fry." He paused. "Can you do it?"
"Of course I can!" She said as if offended. "That's really easy to make."
Just as she was grabbing out a frying pan she stopped.
"Hold on a second!" Karin looked over at Ren suspiciously. "Why are you giving food to someone?"
Her brother said nothing in response, and she began to think of a possible reason. Any logical explanation eluded her and she sighed heavily. There was only one thing, as ludicrous as it would seem, that she could think of . . .
"Ren . . . do you, by chance, like someone?"
Despite the fact that he hadn't utter a single sound in response, his eyes winced slightly and he turned away from her.
"Oh my gosh, really?" She couldn't believe it. Her brother, the biggest womanizer in the world . . . developed favoritism for one of the women he had met? "What's she like? Is she nice? What's her name? Does she know that you're . . . well, a vampire?"
Ren's irritation grew immeasurably and he could no longer remain silent.
"I ask you to make me a simple dish, and suddenly I'm under a microscope." He spat. "You have some nerve."
"I'm just . . . amazed! Excited! Horrified for that girl! I'm feeling a whole bunch of things, really!" She paused to catch her breath. "I honestly never thought this day would ever come! None of us did! We thought you would just be a sleaze ball forever!"
At this, Ren gave his sister one of the biggest torment's he could - he grinded his now tightly clenched fists into the sides of her head, delivering the most painful noogie he could. Karin began to wail in pain as she tried to escape.
"Wahhh, Ren stop‼‼" She shrieked.
"Then drop the reporter charade and make me the damn food!"
"Fine, fine! Ouch‼" She finally said. "But I absolutely have to meet her! Anyone who puts up with you is either really stupid, or way too nice for you!"
"Well, she's definitely not stupid . . ." He thought to himself. "But too nice? That doesn't sound right either, though she's not really mean or anything." Looking down at his still neatly wrapped arm, he smiled to himself. "Well, maybe nice is about right."
As Karin retrieved a variety of vegetables from the fridge, Anju crept into the kitchen and sat herself at the table. When Karin looked up from the produce drawer with the peppers, broccoli, carrots, and mushrooms and noticed her little sister she smiled.
"Anju! Would you like to help me make a delicious vegetable stir fry?" She said in a singsong voice. "It's for a special someone that Ren won't tell me about!"
She ran her fingers through her silvery hair and blinked. She then turned to her brother.
"You have a girlfriend, big brother?" She asked. "I thought you didn't want to be with just one woman . . . "
"That's what I thought too!" Karin piped up as she began to prepare the vegetables.
"No." He stated flatly. "Just a . . ." The word was out of his grasp. Truth be told, he didn't know what his relationship with Natsumi was considered. They knew so little about each other. Maybe acquaintances? But he felt as if he knew her on a slightly deeper level than that, when in reality, he didn't. "How strange." He thought to himself.
"Just another whore you decided to feed for a change?" The obscure voice of Anju's puppet Boogie-kun blurted out.
Ren glared at the possessed toy. Oh, how he would love to rip it's head off and burn it! But he knew that Anju liked the demented thing and didn't want to take away whatever odd sort of company he provided her with.
"Call me when you're done." He sighed as he left the kitchen. "I'll be in my room."
"Fine." Karin muttered. "Loser of a brother."
"I would love to help you, big sister." Anju finally said after setting her puppet onto a chair. "What can I do?"
Karin smiled warmly and hugged her little sister tightly. Out of her two siblings, Anju had always taken an interest in her "un-vampire affairs," as the rest of the family called the activities that seemed odd or irrelevant to them, such as cooking, eating the prepared food, using the bathroom . . . there had been a time where Anju had taken a bubble bath with her as a child. Anju had loved the tiny rubber duck and had played with it almost the entire time. Karin smiled as she remembered it fondly. Getting back to the present, she demonstrated how to chop the vegetables and let Anju take over. They talked and talked about an array of things, and of course her relationship with Kenta Usui came up. She giggled in embarrassment and blushed as she talked about the latest outing they had spent together, at which Anju felt a warmth of happiness spread inside of her.
The food had been prepared and packaged very nicely, as was to be expected. Karin enjoyed preparing meals for others, especially for her boyfriend, Kenta Usui. She loved seeing people enjoy her food in general, but seeing his eyes light upon opening the lid to her boxed lunches made her feel lightheaded and fuzzy inside. She finished tying the bow on top of the box and smiled at the finished product.
"All done!" She exclaimed in triumph.
"It looks wonderful, big sister." Anju agreed. "Thanks for letting me help."
Suddenly, Anju found herself being smothered in her sister's embrace. She smiled.
"You're such a sweetie!" Karin said. "Never grow up."
Anju blinked.
"Well, I guess we should find our sleazy brother." Karin grumbled as she proceeded upstairs, her little trailing behind her with Boogie-kun in her arms.
Chapter 5 - hooray! :D Ooooo, so much is changing with these two! I'm getting attached to them myself!
Look forward to chapter 6 and please let me know what you think! :)