Title: Blood Ties

Pairing: Rin x Haru

Time Limit: 45 Minutes

Prompt: Haru as a vampire feeding on Rin (via miniscenario)

Notes: Same plot as "Blood Ties (Haru POV)" but told this time from Rin's perspective. Daily One-Shot. You do not have to have read this story from Haru's POV first, you can read them in either order. The vampire system used here is borrowed from Vampire Knight.

Rin was surely the world's biggest idiot. It wasn't news to him; he'd screwed up way more times over the course of his life than he'd care to count. Usually when he messed up and something went horribly wrong, he could escape. Swimming had always been a splendid excuse to escape life's problems for a while. But this mistake was a whole new level of stupid. This mistake was possibly about to cost Rin's dearest friend's life.

The train headed for Iwatobi couldn't move fast enough. Makoto had called Rin about an hour ago to tell him the news about Haru. Rin had immediately boarded a train to Iwatobi, desperate to reach his friend before it was too late. He would've liked to have just run all the way to Haru's house, as he knew he could, but that caused problems with the public, plus it was daytime now, and he was weak from not having fed recently enough.

A few humans on the train were watching Rin, some discreetly, others not so much. It was unavoidable; vampires tended to attract the attention of humans. Their supernatural beauty was difficult to resist, and a pureblood vampire like Rin was even harder to turn away from. If the promise of seeing Haru weren't so sweet, Rin might've considered taking one of these humans as a snack for a second longer than usual.

Thankfully, the train pulled to a stop, having reached its destination. Rin flew up from his seat, almost too fast to pass as human, and hastily made his way for a door. People parted to let him through, some from shock and others from awe. He had no time for them.

As soon as he was off the train, Rin began to run. He remembered the path to Haru's house clearly. Memories of the last time he'd been here, six months ago, appeared like flashbulbs behind his eyes. It wasn't a night Rin liked to remember. He and Haru had raced at the pool, like usual. But Rin, in his eagerness to compete against Haru, had forgotten to a) feed before he left and b) bring any blood tablets with him. Dazed with hunger (in hindsight, Rin also attributed some of that haze to the anger of losing to Haru), Rin had been unable to stop himself from sinking his fangs into Haru and feeding greedily.

It was a miracle, Rin supposed, that Haru had survived. Unfortunately, now Haru was descending into the madness of a Level E vampire, and only Rin could save him.

Rin, being a pureblood (or Level A, although they were rarely called that) vampire, had a multitude of special skills inherited from his parents that made him strongly superior to other vampires. Level B, or the noble class, sometimes had special skills too, but very few, and weaker skills than Rin's. Level C and D vampires had once been human, but were now just ordinary vampires with no special skills other than the heightened speed and senses typical to all vampires. Level E vampires were considered dangerous outcasts. Any human who was bitten by a vampire and changed into one would become a Level E unless they could drink the blood of their pureblood master before they fell into murderous insanity and died. If Rin didn't hurry up, that's what would happen to Haru.

Finally, Rin reached Haru's house. All the lights were off, making Rin's stomach clench as he wondered if he was already too late. If he was, it would be up to him to stop Haru, even though he could scarcely entertain the thought of having to kill his friend without feeling the urge to hurl.

Rin knocked on Haru's door, and was met with absolute silence. Nerves frayed beyond what could be considered remotely healthy, even by vampire standards, Rin bounced on the balls of his feet as he waited. He knocked again. There was still no response. Of course. Haru would most likely be in the bath. If he's still alive, a little voice in the back of Rin's head whispered. Shut up, he replied.

Haru always left the key under the doormat, if he locked the door, so Rin reached down and felt around for it. As soon as the cold metal was in his hands, Rin shoved it into the lock, jiggled it, and burst into the house. The sooner he found Haru, the sooner he could calm the turmoil inside him.

"Haru? You here?" Rin called. He wasn't legitimately expecting an answer, but even just hearing the exhale of breath would be enough to reassure him. There was no response, so Rin went to the bathroom, where Haru could be found almost any time someone walked into his house.

Rin's fangs grazed along his lip as he gnawed at it nervously. Haru just had to be in here somewhere. It would be impossible for Rin to move on if he knew he was responsible for his longtime friend's death.

Under normal circumstances, the thump that emanated from the kitchen would've been cause for major concern, but Rin was so relieved to hear it that he couldn't stop to wonder if the thump had resulted in injury. His feet carried him toward the source of the sound almost before his brain could process the sudden assault of information reaching his senses. Thank God for heightened smell; it was Haru.

Rin was in no way prepared for the sight that greeted him in Haru's kitchen. He paused in the doorway, wide-eyed. Haru was slumped against the kitchen cabinets, sitting on the linoleum floor and wearing an expression of such pure, unadulterated fear and pain that Rin swore his heart stopped beating for a minute. Apparently, Haru's usually stoic demeanor would crack in the face of death.

The red-haired boy found himself walking forward. The only thing he knew now was that he had to help Haru. There was too much guilt weighing him down for Haru to die now. Thank goodness he wasn't dead already.

"Rin…" Haru's voice sounded terrible, dry and scratchy and just barely able to be heard. Rin froze for a second, concern painting itself across his features.

"You have to leave," Haru warned. Leave? He looks like… I can't even imagine how much pain he's in… and he has the nerve to tell me to leave?

"What the hell, Haru?" Rin growled, stopping a short distance from Haru. "You're lying on the kitchen floor looking like death itself and you want me to leave? Like hell I will!"

What Haru did next was an image that burned itself into Rin's mind, simply because it was so unlike his friend to be violent in any way. Baring a set of glittering fangs, Haru growled, "Rin!"

For a second, Rin could do nothing. His limbs would not respond, and only his mind could move. Oh god Haru, what have I done to you? What did you ever do to deserve this? I'm so, so sorry.

"I'm so sorry Haru," Rin wailed, moving with nearly inhuman speed to kneel over Haru's lap, burying his face in his friend's shoulder. After all this, he still could not bear to let Haru see him cry.

"Rin, leave…"

Rin could sense the blood pumping through Haru's veins, fast but low in pressure. Haru hadn't eaten recently. Judging by Haru's condition, the boy was enduring his last moments of humanity. If Rin had been even ten minutes later than he was, it might've been too late to save Haru. Which was why he had to do this; it was either now or never.

"No, Haru. I'm not leaving you, I told you that. Especially not when…" Rin couldn't bring himself to complete his sentence. Why was it so hard to tell Haru the truth, that the intense and immeasurable pain he'd endured for the last six months were all because of Rin? Haru looked down, breaking eye contact with Rin.

"Especially not when this is all my fault." There, he'd said it. Rin threw his head back, exposing his neck to Haru because he knew that in such a fragile state, Haru would be unable to resist the intoxicating aroma of Rin's purebred blood. He was right; a fraction of a second later, Haru was there, fangs gliding into Rin's neck with a feeling of blissful pain.

No one had ever drank Rin's blood before. He'd drank from others plenty of times, as befit his status as a pureblood, but to willingly give someone else some of the fluid that kept him alive was an entirely different experience. Haru was probably lost in the haze of feeding, but Rin was acutely aware of every drop of blood that leaked from the open wounds in his neck, of every swipe of Haru's tongue across his skin, of every small constriction Haru's mouth made in order to greedily suck up more of Rin's blood. Briefly, he wondered if having someone drink your blood always felt this way, but the thought was soon lost in the fog of emotions that flooded Rin's mind. The experience, of allowing his best friend to drink his blood, was so startlingly foreign and yet deeply intimate that Rin almost wished he'd had the nerve to return and save Haru sooner.

Rin was smiling when Haru pulled away. The boy looked conflicted, unsure whether to relish in his sated hunger or apologize fervently to Rin. The redhead, however, was utterly distracted by a small rivulet of blood that had escaped Haru's greedy lips and tongue, and was rolling lazily down his friend's chin. Reaching out a finger, Rin swiped the red liquid and stuck it into his own mouth.

His own blood did not taste nearly as wonderful as the blood of pureblood vampires was rumored to be. Perhaps no vampire tasted good to his or herself, but Rin did not think he wanted to do that again. Unfortunately, Haru's widened blue orbs suggested that the newly-made vampire had not known about Rin's identity before this moment. It was almost humorous.

"I'm sorry, Haru. For so long, I wasn't sure how to tell you. When Makoto told me what'd happened, I worried I was too late to save you, but…" Oh, and now Rin was sobbing again. It was back to the shoulder of Haru's T-shirt, he supposed.

"It's ok. Thank you, Rin," Haru said. Rin felt the black-haired boy place a hand on the back of his head, palm soothing against his red locks. "Thank you for saving me, Rin."

That's right. I saved him. He's ok now. Haru's going to be ok for a long time now.

Getting to his feet and offering a hand to Haru, Rin said proudly, "So, how about you get up off the kitchen floor? I think you should go see your friends and let them know you're alive."

When Haru stood up, it brought the two vampires face to face. The close proximity was slightly dizzying; although maybe that was just the delicious aroma of Haru's blood wafting toward Rin's sensitive receptors.

"Rin, how long have you known you were a pureblood?"

"I left for Australia as soon as I found out. I didn't think I could handle being around you guys." It was a crappy excuse for leaving and Rin knew it, but Haru deserved perfect honesty from Rin after he'd kept the whole I bit you and almost caused you a horribly painful death by vampirism secret.

"Rin." Haru was standing at the door now, ready to go see his friends, but Rin didn't want him to leave. "Rin, will you stay?"

Their eyes met, blue and red. Rin was sure that his eyes were glowing now from hunger and the darkness of the kitchen. They still had yet to turn on a single light in the house, and feeding Haru had not alleviated any of the hunger gnawing at Rin's own belly.

"Yeah, I'll stay. Actually, you can come to Samezuka with me. It's a school for vampires. That's why I transferred there."

"Okay."

Haru was leaving now. Rin was relieved to see his friend alive; the rush of the last five minutes still did not fully seem real in the red-haired boy's mind. "Hurry back, Haru. I'm hungry."

Hungry for an extended lifetime with Haru, that was.

A/N: That's the last one-shot I'm doing with this little plot line. Hope you enjoyed!