Thanks for the reviews, especially Little Miss Marina. I'm glad to know that you liked this, as I'm still not sure what to think of it. (It's so OOC...) Anyway, new chapter already!
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He looked up as Krad entered the room, and his master wondered if he didn't look as though he missed him a little. Satoshi was sitting on the edge of his bed, as he had been the night before. Krad smiled and came to sit beside him. Satoshi looked at his fond expression and then at his own hands, folded in his lap. Krad thought he looked rather insecure.
"Krad."
"Yes, little bluebird?"
"What you feed me…It is all human blood, right?"
Krad considered this. "Well, mostly. I know you don't like that, Satoshi, but that is what keeps you alive. I hunt some dogs, though, and deer, although they're hard to find around here."
"No cats?"
Krad tilted his head. "Cats? No."
"I like cats."
Krad laughed. "To eat? No, no, I do too. As pets, I mean. Although you can hardly call that a pet, can you? They never do what they're told." He ruffled Satoshi's hair, and his fledgling turned his face away.
"Are you hungry?" Krad asked.
"No."
"You're like a cat that way, yourself. Picky eater."
Satoshi blew air out his nostrils. "You think you're funny." Krad's smiled faded. "But really, you're just insane. And very desperate."
Krad looked over the half-profile of his child. "And have you accepted your fate, then? You're no longer desperate?"
Satoshi lowered his head. "At least I'm not crazy."
"Well." said Krad. "That kind of talk never helped anyone. And you may say you're not hungry, but I can sense your feelings, you know. You're trying not to drool."
"Leave me alone," Satoshi said listlessly, in a voice that knew that would never happen.
"Not until you're able to provide for yourself," said Krad.
Satoshi didn't answer.
"Well, anyhow." said Krad, shrugging. "Open up."
Satoshi didn't move, but the older vampire felt his aura change with the strength of the command. He rolled back his sleeve and ordered the hungry little one to feed. Satoshi turned with inhuman grace and mechanically obeyed. He watched the drops fly from Satoshi's tongue as he worked the little wound he made with his white teeth. Freed from his human inhibitions, the fledgling had a grace of movement like a little bird, quick, precise and keen.
When the sense of hunger in the child's mind abated and he was only feeding for the pure pleasure of it, Krad stopped him like usual and turned him loose. Satoshi wiped the blood off his lips with his sleeve and turned away.
"Well, that's that." Krad stood and patted him on the head. "If you want to speak to me, I'll be in the library. I know you like it there, so if you want to interrupt my studies, feel free."
He went to the door, brushing dried flecks of blood off his hands.
"Wait."
Krad paused in the doorway, one hand on the lintel.
"Why are you waiting on me like this? It's been two years and all you've done is force me to drink your blood. Do you think I'll suddenly decide I like being a vampire? Or do you just think it's funny to watch me hate myself?"
Krad half turned his head. "Maybe it's because I want you to have the chance I never had. To make peace with who you are and what you need to do. I never got to make the most important decisions."
"Maybe I never will."
"Maybe," said Krad, in a quiet voice, with lowered head. "But I can wait. And if I see you've really made your decision, then I'll let you go. If you want."
He left and closed the door behind him. Satoshi's eyes wandered to his own hands again.
"I've already made my decision," he whispered quietly, and he wished he felt as certain as he sounded.
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D
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Satoshi is much more open and vulnerable here. Again, due to lack of a bad past. (Well, until two years ago.) Also, I firmly believe that Krad loves cats. And Satoshi does too. Satoshi is very cat-like. He and Krad love hunting Mousy's.