Author's Note: I fretted over this chapter for longer than I'd admit, but here it is! (Happy Early Christmas!)

The Changeover

Harry woke to the comforting smell of a warm broth. Someone was spooning it into his mouth, mindful that it wasn't too warm as to scald him. He swallowed automatically, eyes fluttering open to see Lucius watching him, another spoonful in hand.

"That's it," Lucius said encouragingly, when Harry opened his mouth obediently rather than trying to sit up or ask questions. "Just a few more, that's right."

Once Lucius had finished with the small bowl, he set it aside on the floor, and gathered Harry into his lap, like he was a child again. The vampire took care to massage Harry's stiff limbs, making Harry wonder how long he must have been asleep. Lucius was warm with blood, and his cheeks had the flush of a fresh kill.

Still, Harry knew his current state of weakness could mean one thing for certain:

"You didn't use your blood to revive me?"

"Not yet. You were too close. I need you to hold on a little longer for me, my love."

"You didn't drink from me, either."

He wasn't sure that the words pouring out were entirely distinct, so thick did his tongue feel in his mouth, but Lucius stroked his cheek reassuringly all the same.

"I will soon. And when I do, Harry, I'm going to drain you."

And some part of him knew that by all rights, he should be terrified by such a promise - but all he could manage was relief. Soon. Maybe it was the weeks that he was just made to wait, to wish for death. Maybe it was the knowledge that his death only meant an eternal life - with Lucius.

"But there is something we won't be able to do for some time."

"What's that?" From what Lucius had already mentioned, he was barely alive as it was. What could possibly be keeping him now?

"Watch a sunrise together. When you change, you will be too sensitive to the light. I want you to enjoy this one more time."

"And you? Won't the sun harm you?"

Lucius gave a half-smile at Harry's his concern. "I'll live."

With that, he helped Harry to stand, supporting him almost entirely. He kept an arm around the thin waist as he reached to open the shutters, letting in the cool dawn.

"I'm not afraid," Harry said suddenly, as his eyes roved over the blue blanket of fading darkness.

He felt Lucius' lips at his temple. "I know," and he could hear a hints pride, relief, anticipation. "I couldn't do this if you hesitant in the slightest."

The color began to smear at the very edges of the horizon, spilling into the sky slowly, and Harry licked his lips, he could so nearly taste the last light of day he would see. Their bodies molded against each other, Lucius warm against his back, Harry cocked his head to the side invitingly. He felt the man sigh before he kissed the exposed neck.

"I want you to remember this, Harry," he mumbled against the soft skin.

The boy opened his eyes again, not realizing he had even shut them. "Right." Not that he couldn't appreciate the wash of light, like a heavenly sigh in the morning, but he felt a shiver of impatience, knowing he had mere minutes left before the end.

He burrowed himself more firmly against Lucius, adamant to do as Lucius asked. He knew this was something the man himself must have regretted in his first years, if he made it a point to have Harry watch the sun rising now. One of many. What else would he miss, he wondered? He felt he had everything he needed in that room just then. He smiled at the thought, resting his hand over Lucius', only to draw it away again in shock.

"Your skin!" He froze, staring at his blistering skin in horror.

"It's alright," he soothed Harry, drawing his hand from the sun's gentle light nonetheless. "Watch."

He wasn't sure if he meant to watch the sun again, or to see how, as Lucius finally bit into his neck, his angry red skin mended and smoothed over. His whole body seemed to relax into that long-awaited kiss, and he absently obeyed, eyes glazed over watching the morning but focused almost wholly on the sensation of Lucius drinking from him. They were connected by his blood now, a more intimate bond than anything Harry knew; it was his blood which even now healed Lucius, his blood that was filling the vampire, making him shudder and squeeze his arms around Harry. Even his weakened body remembered how to react to the feel of Lucius' bite, but he refused to let his mind stray.

Instead, one of his hands found its way into Lucius' hair, holding the man to him as if fearing he would stop. But even as the sun seemed to recede from Harry's gaze and his legs couldn't hold him, Lucius continued.

The last errant thought was whether Lucius would taste like Harry when it was his turn, and then all was dark.

Lucius eventually ended up on the floor, Harry still in his arms. He could acutely feel when the boy's heart was moments from stopping entirely. He stopped himself - though not without a small moan of disappointment. It had been so long since he drank from his beloved, much too long, and he had all but forgotten how absolutely addictive the taste of his young blood was. But he didn't have time to savor the flavor still dancing on his tongue.

He bit at the flesh of his wrist, deeply enough that his blood would pour steadily. He opened Harry's mouth, rubbing Harry's throat to have him swallow the mouthfuls of blood.

"Come, now," he whispered. He knew he stopped before he reached the point of too late, he was so careful, but he wouldn't be the first to have failed to change a beloved one.

If this doesn't work - if Harry's eyes didn't open -

The silence broke with a heartfelt moan, and Harry grabbed Lucius' wrist tightly, sealing lips around the now-closing wound.

Lucius almost laughed - his emerald eyes hadn't actually even opened yet, but there he was, dragging himself from the brink of death.

The boy gave a needy, high-pitched whine after he licked the skin clean, and Lucius grabbed raven-black hair, cutting open his tongue before twining it with Harry's. He knew, from a time-dulled memory, that Harry would very likely not even recognize who it was holding him, nor care how the blood was being delivered, only that it didn't stop. He recognized this was self-indulgence, but how he wanted. He felt Harry's chest moving in heavy breaths against him, trying to kiss and to drink, an affirmation of his life and confirmation of his rebirth.

He reached up to pierce his own neck with a barely-sharp nail even as the boy sucked at his tongue, leading Harry to the fresh would quickly enough that he didn't have time to protest the break in blood flow. Lucius resettled their limbs so Harry was settled astride his lap, leaning over Lucius now and piercing his flesh anew himself - the man gasped at the thought that the teeth grew so quickly. The flesh beneath Lucius' hands still felt humanly soft, but the strength in Harry's bite and in his grasp was undeniably preternatural.

By the time Lucius felt himself weak with blood, he knew the sun would have lit the sky on fire. He had been careful to seal the shutters again, not knowing how quickly Harry's eyes would become sensitive to the light. It shouldn't be long until Harry succumbed to the strength of the sun, he thought, feeling his body weakening from the loss of so much blood. Even so, he turned his head to offer the unmarked skin on the other side of his neck.

"That's it, darling," he whispered. He knew he wouldn't die if Harry utterly drained him, but he couldn't be too weak to take care of his new fledging, either.

Then his minx lover began to move against him even as he stopped drinking, settling into shallow nips and minute thrusts against his hips. Hips surging, he gripped Harry's rear, moaning in sync at the friction.

"Please," the young vampire whispered, fingers scrabbling fruitlessly at Lucius' clothes. "I need -"

The blond stood suddenly, shoving Harry against the shutters, and the boy arched his back as if he couldn't get enough contact between their bodies, an almost automatic response at the desperation in the boy's voice. A small, diminishing part of Lucius' mind wondered why Harry showed no signs of discomfort at the feel the sun at his back through the thin wooden shield.

"I will have you," Lucius promised against his throat - a familiar in curve and taste, yet lacking in that once familiar pulse.

So entwined had Lucius' hunger and Harry's lust become that he wasn't sure which he wanted to sate more. Harry seemed to be having the same difficulty choosing, offering his neck while trying to move his hips against Lucius. Lucius knew better, knew that he should stop Harry; get him a taste of human blood before he grew too accustomed to the taste of the dead.

But, by God, he had waited so long for this.

He threw Harry to the floor, and in this new body, Harry didn't even balk at the treatment, solely focused on hurriedly shoving his trousers down. Lucius turned him onto his hands and knees, raising him enough to attack Harry's pucker, though even this wasn't the same as before - the boy's musk already began to fade into something a little less real, unnatural, like a scent his body only wore. Lucius bit at the flesh of Harry's buttock, using the mouthful of blood the slick his way into the body, stiffening his tongue and prodding.

He went through the task of stretching Harry as carefully as he could bear; one finger slid in easily enough thanks to his saliva and the boy's own blood. He didn't give Harry time to be started at the new sensation of being penetration, unerringly stroking against the sweet, secret spot. One turned to two, then to three, and Lucius only stopped when Harry eagerly rocked back and forth on his digits.

And then Lucius was in him, making Harry cry out.

He breathed heavily, the smells of Harry alive and undead both filling him, distracting him as he tried not to pour into the tight channel before they had even really begun. He closed his eyes, acutely aware of his lover's blood in him, of his blood in Harry, of the points of connection between them. Never again did he have to deny himself when it came to Harry, because he was and forever would be immortal, unbreakable, and more powerful than anything else walking the Earth.

He broke from his reverie when he felt the slide of tongue on this inside of his wrist.

"Oh," he sighed, still lapping hesitatingly at the skin, "I can still taste you."

"Don't you dare," he heard himself growl through the overwhelming haze of pleasure. "You can drink after I've finished with you."

Harry shuddered and writhed, pressing downs against Lucius' pelvis and up to his wrist. He didn't stop mouthing at the skin there, though he was mindful not to use any teeth. With choked out, "Good," Lucius set a slow pace, intent equally not to push Harry too far forward and to strike at his pleasure spot with every thrust.

Together, their lust rose to the sweet crest, and Lucius watched Harry's mouth drop open, those pointed teeth piercing into Lucius, and the blond couldn't stop himself from biting into the flesh of Harry's neck and spilling into the tight channel. He noticed peripherally Harry twitching as he finished without a hand on his cock.

He slid out with a gasp, pressing wide Harry's thighs to stare at the place they were just joined.

"No more," Harry whined when Lucius pressed his fingers into the mess. "God, you're insatiable."

Hypnotized by the first sight of his own seed dripping from his lover, Lucius just murmured an inaudible agreement before smearing the liquid into Harry's skin.

"What -?" The younger quivered and seemed to visible try to tamper his arousal. But Lucius knew well how over active his body would be in these moments after his rebirth. Even without a stimulus, his body would be hungering - only luckily for him, the hunger came in a shape is was extremely willing to satisfy.

Except... his mind returned again to the point of curiosity he had briefly noted before. He hesitated in his explorations to search Harry's face. His lover stared back at him, green eyes flickering from Lucius' face to his hands. There was arousal and awareness, but no weariness, no weakness.

"How?" he whispered as if to himself. "How do you not feel the sun even now?"

Surprised brows rose, and now Harry looked to the shuttered windows and if trying to see through the cracks to the supposedly debilitating light beyond. "Well... isn't that why?" he tried feebly, though they both knew that even Lucius sensed the heat and saw hints of the light between the cracks.

"You should be unconscious by now." Lucius finally drew his hands away from Harry's groin, wiping his hands on his own trousers perfunctorily before reaching to the soft, young face, turning it from side to side as if he would find his answers somewhere in the smooth skin.

"Well, I would be if someone didn't attack me." Flagrant apathy, but Lucius couldn't blame him; the transformation had to be taking a mental toll on Harry, or it would soon. The last thing the boy would want to worry about would be his insensitivity to the one thing they were weak against.

Quickly, willingly, the mood shifted from curious and wary to teasing. Whatever the reason, they both lacked the will to study this further - after all, they did have forever.

"Attacked? As if you were completely against my actions." Even as he scoffed, Lucius carefully lifted Harry from the ground and onto the sparse bedding, as if he were a child again needed to be tended to. Could it have really been only a matter of moments before when the flesh was warmer and more giving to his hold? The elder vampire distractedly stroked at the bare arm before remembering himself, shaking his head and turning to retrieve their clothes.

"If I had known how that would be..."

Back turned to the breathless, sated speaker, Lucius smirked down at the clothes in his hand. "Yes?"

"I think I would have fought much more for you to have taken me."

"Well, now we have plenty of time for you to experiment, hm?"

The smile Harry gave him was blinding.

"Forever."