Choice of Music: Guide You Home (I Would Die For You) - Rebecca Knuebel and Gabriel Mann, Sunset - Mi

Chapter 12 - Words

The demon had returned. Kia ran as fast as her little legs could carry her in an attempt to get away. She didn't want to meet the same fate as her mother and sister. The large black creature ran after her, it's bloodsoaked claws reaching for her.

Feeling someone touch her, her eyes snapped open. Hazel eyes met golden ones, and Vice had an expression of surprise on his face. "It's about time."

Groaning, Kia tried to sit up only to be pushed back down by Vice. "You're sick. Stay down," he told her. His hand felt cool against her feverish skin, resting on the side of her neck. "Now don't move, Pucky McSicky."

"Don't call me that," she tried to threaten him and failed. Her head hurt and she was uncomfortably warm. Her stomach growled, and she remembered her little adventure in the bathroom the night before. She had rid herself of everything in her stomach, and Vice had carried her to her room. While he moved Hana from Kia's bed and placed the young child on an air matress she had fallen asleep.

"I'm going to get K," he said, standing up. Kia noticed he still hadn't changed from his human form or clothes yet. "If you so much as try to sit up, I will tie you to the bed." The Douji left her room silently, shutting the door behind him.

Lying back onto the pillows, she pulled the sheets up to her chin and attempted to relax her body. The darkness of the room made her tired, and the uncomfortable heat overwhelming her made it even worse. Kicking off the sheets, she wanted to go and open a window to let in some cool air. Screw Vice and his threat. She forced herself to sit up and immediately regretted it. The slightest motion made her sick to her stomach. If she even wanted to hurl, the only thing that would happen is she'd dry heave.

She heard the door creak open, and she watched as both K and Vice walk in. Vice immediately walked up to her and forced her back down. "Stay," he commanded. There was a hint of annoyance in his tone of voice. "I'm not joking."

K sat himself at the edge of her bed, holding a thermometer and pills. "Her temperature is at least 100. You don't need that," Vice growled at the man when he tried to put it in Kia's mouth.

"How'd you tell?" Kia asked Vice. He ignored her question and walked out of the room. K watched silently, raising an eyebrow at his manner. Kia looked at him and asked, "Did I do something wrong?"

"No sweetie," K said. "He's been acting like that all morning." He felt her forehead, and pulled away Placing the thermometer in her mouth, he inspected the bottle. It was a syrupy kind of medicine, the stuff Kia hated most besides the chew shit that tasted like chalk. "He's right," he mumbled when he read the little piece of glass.

He poured two tablespoons of the little red liquid and handed it to Kia. "Drink up." Kia down the fluid as fast as she could, not wanting to actually taste the vile stuff. Handing back the cup, she made a disgusted face. K chuckled. "Now go to sleep. I'll be checking in once in a while."

She watched as he left her room, leaving her in silence. Vice's been like that all morning? Closing her eyes, she let herself drift off to sleep.

Vice leaned against the counter, having overheard their conversation. Kia was actually worried that she made him mad? He grunted at the idea. There wasn't any reason why she should have been worried. K was panicked when Vice told him what happened. Minus the him and Kia moments.

He almost thought that he was the reason she had gotten sick, what he did. He didn't see what was so bad about what he did. The girl sould have been grateful, considering that he could have just as easily been an ass.

She still pushed him away, though. It unnerved him, and he didn't like it. Vice wouldn't admit it to anyone, and was even hesitant to admit it to himself, but he kind of liked how she felt against him. When she lay her head on his shoulder, the way he held her to him.

He liked it. And to his surprise and somewhat horror, he wanted more of it. It was nothing like the bloodlust he held when he killed people, slaughtering hundreds and hundreds of people for his own entertainment. He wondered if she knew, how much his hands were stained in the blood of innocent people. Would she still treat him as she did now, or would it be different?

Vice didn't dare think what would happen if he told her that. There was a bubbling emotion that came to him when he thought of how she could, how she would, react. There was nothing positive coming from it, he knew that much.

Yanking the door of the fridge open, he looked for something Kia could eat. K was out getting some stuff to make for her later, but she hadn't eaten since the night before, and it was almost evening now. And then she had emptied her stomach several times previously, so there was a chance that she was probably starving at this point.

She was sick, so anything spicy was definately out of the question. Firm food wouldn't sit well with her stomach, and the only thing they had left was a small cup of blueberry flavored yogurt. Grabbing that and a clean spoon from the dishdrain, he walked to Kia's room. Hana had tousled the covers on her bed to a point that she looked like a bundle of blankets, and Kia had kicked her sheets from her bed again.

Kia was sleeping, her hair fanned out all over the pillow. Her chest gave a slight rise with every breath she took, a light sleep. Vice touched her shoulder gently, whispering her name. Her shoulder flinched at his touch, and she stirred slightly. "Wake up, Kia," he spoke, fingers gently running down the side of her face. Eyes fluttered open gently, glazed hazel eyes looking at him.

"Vice?" her voice came off almost as a whisper.

"Sit up, I have something for you," he said, setting the yogurt and spoon on the bedstand. He helped her sit up, propping her up against the headboard. "You need to eat as well as sleep." Handing her the snack, he watched her eat quietly. Her movements were slow and somewhat shaky, her body still dazed with sleep. She ate about half the cup and handed it back to Vice.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't finish," she said, her voice full of exhaustion. Placing it back on the bedstand, he touched her face. She was still warm, and Vice got an idea.

As Kia was laying back down to go to sleep again, Vice pulled off his hoodie and shirt, leaving himself in a wife beater. When Kia noticed this, her face turned red. "What in the hell do you think you're doing?" she asked.

"Just shut up and lay down," Vice told her, crawling under the sheets with her. Her arm touched his, and she sighed. "You're really cool."

Vice felt her snuggle in closer to him, her hands resting on his chest. "Thanks for the compliment," he said, smirking.

"That isn't what I meant." Kia said, dozing off again. The Douji felt her body relax in his arms, and she fell into a deeper sleep than before. Vice pulled her closer to him, propping himself on one elbow. He watched her sleep, his fingers gently tracing the side of her face. He moved her hair behind her ear, observing her face.

She wasn't like him. He was cold and cruel, she was kind and gentle. She couldn't be like him, or vice versa. Maybe that was why he was so drawn to her, like a moth to a flame. That's why the evil douji came to her. He knew why.

Kia carried a special aura around her. One that was warm and loving. One that was accepting, who appreciated them for what they were. Greed, glutton, lust, envy, wrath, sloth; all of them. They came to her for that aura, for that acception. Maybe she didn't know, and the other Douji didn't know it, but Vice knew.

Maybe that's why he was drawn to her.

That's why he followed her that night.

That's why he protected her.

That warmth. That kindness. The gentleness. He wanted it, to soak it up. He wanted her, but she couldn't truly accept him unless she knew. She had to know. She had every right to know.

Gently releasing him from his arms, he pulled up the sheets to her chin. She gave a small sigh, wrapping her arms around the pillow. Hands on each side of her head, Vice leaned down and kissed Kia's cheek, and he uttered words he never thought he could say to another living thing. Words so unknown and unmeaningful to him, to one who meant so much to him.

"I love you, Kia."

Please review. Apologies for OOC-ness, yaddah yaddah yaddah.