6th Chapter of Yuki's Snow
TO SEAL OUR FATE
When Yuki woke up. He was surprised that he wasn't in the lounging chair anymore. But in the bedroom. He wiped his eyes tiredly and sat up, rose petals cascaded down his body. He was covered with rose petals and red rose petals where scattered on the bed and all throughout the room, forming a path leading to the balcony.
It has to be now, Ryuichi had said, he's got three days to convince Yuki. The vampire got up, he was smiling, his heart skipping a beat, he was so full of love he could hardly breathe. Just thinking of Shuichi makes him so jittery inside.
"Brat." He called.
He found him standing at the end of the rose path at the balcony clad in white like a bride. When Shuichi looked up there were tears in his eyes.
"Yuki, I want to be yours." He said, almost choking at the words.
Yuki smiled a little as he gathered his frail body in his arms.
"You are mine." Yuki replied, kissing the top of his head.
"Yuki, I know. Ryuichi told me." He said.
Yuki let out a gasp, and drew away. But Shuichi pulled him back in an embrace.
"I can't live without you either. You are my snow, my autumn leaves, and cold morning dew. Without you, nothing would matter. My life won't matter." Shuichi said, crying. But his voice was strong and firm.
Yuki smiled, and hugged him tighter.
"I can't bear to take your human life. Even if it means living forever with you." Yuki said.
"But I don't want to lose you to that man." Shuichi said, angrily, squeezing his lover tight.
Yuki patted his head, "There is still another way out of all of these." He said. Shuichi looked up hopefully, tears brimming his eyes.
Yuki didn't say anything and led him to the bedroom. He walked to an old oak desk and took out a stake and a wooden hammer. Shuichi's eyes were as big as saucers. Yuki quietly put these items in Shuichi's small hands.
"If you drive a stake through my heart, I would save my family's name from disgrace and Ryuichi can take you back to your former life and everything would be the same again. And life goes on."
Shuichi threw the items back at him, it clattered on the floor, "No, no, no! Life goes on you say? Have you ever thought what kind of life I would have without you?" Shuichi shrieked, heaving and panting angrily.
Yuki smiled with tears in his eyes. "You will forget me, Shuichi. You won't remember a single thing." Yuki reassured him. "Like we never met."
Shuichi ran to him, beating his small fists on the older boy's chest.
"Have you ever tried asking me for once?" Shuichi asked angrily.
"You think if you send me away everything will stop there? Or if I drive a stake at your heart no one of your kind will come and take revenge on me or my friends?" Shuichi continued.
Shuichi stopped flailing assaults on Yuki's chest and hugged him tight. "Did you also think that giving yourself to that man would stop him from finding me and making me his? I mean, what or who's stopping him now? You're under his control, so you got no power over him anymore."
Yuki thought of everything that the boy said, and knew he was right. That the only solution is for him to fulfill his birthright or a lot of people would suffer. But he kept denying it, not Shuichi, he didn't want to drink his lover's blood.
"I would give my life for you, Shui." Yuki said, gently.
"And you can have mine." Shuichi replied, looking up to his lover's face.
"I got no one before Yuki, I kept the lights on at night out of loneliness." He said, looking at him with that tired look on his face.
"I have tried to kill myself a dozen times before you swooped down to save me to cheat myself out of misery." Shuichi said, reached out and touched his lover's face.
A tear fell, "I got nothing and no one until you came along."
"You are my maple leaves, my morning air, my sunny sun and now you are my snow. What kind of life you think I would have without you in it?" He asked.
Yuki stood quietly, tears stuck in his throat, if he budged he knew it will fall down his face uncontrollably.
"It would be nothing. It would be empty." He said, tugging at the taller man's shirt, until Yuki leaned down and kissed him.
"I want to spend my lifetime with you, Yuki. " holding him close, "If its forever I want each day spent with you."
Yuki made up his mind up long before. But he still want to see how far and how long the boy is going to take this with him.
When they lay that night in bed, Shuichi discovered unknown pain and bliss he had never felt in his entire life. As his life ebbed away, a new life was born again, and he felt a different Yuki laying with him that night. A Yuki of old…a Yuki who had lived from one century to the next.
Shuichi was awakened by very loud cry, a cry filled with anguish and despair. He was about to turn to Yuki but he was not there by his side, he stood up so suddenly, he forgot he lost a lot of blood and fell off the bed with a loud thud. It took him a moment to find his strength to stand and his mind to fully awake. It registered to him that the crying was familiar, it was Yuki.
He found him in the other room, a few meters away from their room, he was cradling something in his arms, it looked some rag filled with blood, he screamed when he realized it was Ryuichi, and he was dead. He rushed to him, crying, too.
"Wh-Who did this? Who did this?" he asked, his voice almost a whisper. Yuki knew who it was. And Shuichi was frightened to see the anger in his lover's eyes.
Shuichi got out the truth from Yuki when he had calmed down and they had laid Ryuichi to rest. The man servant had died fighting to protect them, he was covered in blood because he fought someone who is far more stronger than him, they were in the world of their own, they didn't realized he died protecting them from the evil that is yet to come.
"He will pay for this. I swear on my family honor, I will avenged his death. Seguchi is gonna die." Yuki said.
Men came, and other relatives, word got out what Tohma Seguchi had done. He would surely pay for what he did. Shuichi just stayed quiet in their room, he didn't want to get in the way. But he didn't want Yuki to leave either. He feared for his life. He didn't want to lose him. When Yuki entered the room, he was still sitting on the bed waiting.
"What are you doing still up, go to bed." Yuki commanded. Shuichi cringed in fear.
"D-Don't go." He said, in a small voice.
"I must avenge Ryuichi's death." Yuki said, angrily.
"What about me, Yuki?" he asked, looking at him.
Yuki whirled around angrily, "What about you? You're alive, everyone here are here to guard you for me, all you have to do is wait here for me until I get back." Yuki said.
Shuichi looked at him, somehow, he is different. He is not the same gentle lover he had known a couple of nights ago. He had grown hard and bitter. This is man is a far cry from the Yuki who had swooped down to save him, a far stranger from the gentle soul who had made love to him night after night, every time their bodies touch.
He stood up, "I-I will leave then." He said. Yuki looked at him angrily.
"Stop being a pest and stay here!" Yuki growled angrily, throwing an ashtray at his lover, missing his face a few inches. Shuichi let out a gasped. And he ran out of the room.
Shuichi didn't come back that night. No matter where Yuki looked he couldn't find his lover. He knew he would be craving for blood real soon, and he didn't want him to kill. He was really worried. So worried that when he came face to face with Seguchi he got wounded because his mind was else where and the older vampire almost killed him because of his blunder. But his men killed the traitor and gave Ryuichi's death justice.
Now he is free. But somehow without Shuichi, his happiness is not complete, he longed for him. He longed for him at night when he lay on his bed. Wondering what he is doing now. Months passed. Yuki stopped searching. Stopped waiting. Because of his selfishness, he lost the one person whom he thought would be his eternal life and yes, forever love.
It was snowing again, he went out the patio. He got the same book he was reading back then. He looked out to the white, a tear fell from his eye. He touched it. It seems foreign to him before, and he always say his face was leaking every time he cries. Snow. My snow. He said to himself. He imagined the first snow they had, Shuichi and Ryuichi was building a snowman.
The boy was jumping up and down excitedly, that was his first death and he brought him to life. Now he is sure that the boy is dead, there were no news of unusual deaths, no bodies drained with blood so he knew that the boy didn't prey on humans as well. But he cannot live on human food, he would die. Yuki thought.
His wounds are completely healed now. There are a few servants now at the house who stayed on to keep him company but he kept to himself mostly so it seems he is still alone no matter how many people are staying with him. He was lost in thoughts. He didn't see a younger man was out in the snow, building a snowman.
"Yuki! Yuki! Yuki! It's snowing! It's snowing!" a voice cried in his head. He sounded like Shuichi.
"Brat." He whispered under his breathe, tears pouring rapidly down his face. He missed him so much that he was even hearing him now.
"Yuki! Its your snow, Yuki!" The voice persisted in his head. He uttered a pained moan and put his face between his hands and cried uncontrollably.
Footsteps grew near, he thought it was the servants. "Please I want to be alone, just go I would call you if I need you." He said, between sobs.
But whoever it was, stayed. Gently tugging at his hands away from his face, he was about to protest when he came face to face with his lover.
Yuki made a noise at the back of his throat. And Shuichi just pounced on him and kissed him roughly his frail arms wrapping around the man. Time stopped for the moment and they were one again, bodies tangled and molded together, born of familiarity. Skin touches the skin it had yearned for the months they were apart. Lips conquered and devoured each other until they are completely one and together again.
Yuki asked how he survived, and Shuichi explained that he took a job working in a hospital where he can buy blood just enough to sustain him for the months they have been apart. Yuki asked why he didn't go to him.
"I wanted you to take care of everything you wanted to be done, I don't want to get in your way. That time when Ryuichi died, you didn't need me and I was only slowing you down and causing you more problems. When I read from the papers that a business tycoon named Tohma Seguchi died of some unknown disease I gave you time to recover and need me." He said, he was crying from so much joy of seeing Yuki again, he couldn't stop kissing him.
"I need you…now. Don't ever leave me again." Yuki uttered when he found his voice again. Shuichi folded himself in his lover's arms and smiled.
"No, I got no plans of leaving this time. I already found my snow." Shuichi said, and melted into Yuki's warmth.
Owari