Saeki paused at the bottom of the fire escape outside Atsushi's window the next evening. He could hear Ryou breathing, and someone else, too. Two other people. He knew one of them was Atsushi. He didn't know the other. Well, he would find out. He climbed soundlessly, slid the window open, and stepped inside.
Oh.
"Hello, Syuusuke. You're waiting for me."
"Kojirou," Fuji said. He sat on the foot of Ryou's bed, obviously expecting Saeki to show up. Atsushi sat on the futon he'd slept on the night before. "I am. You're very good at sneaking around."
"Side effect of what I am," Saeki said lightly, and then grew serious. "You're in the way."
"I'm in the way?" Fuji sounded way too innocent.
"Yes." Saeki concealed his impatience with an effort. "You want me to leave him alone."
"You're killing him," Fuji said with that infuriating certainty that had always driven Saeki crazy.
Ryou stirred, burrowing further under his blanket, and Saeki froze. He liked the idea that Ryou thought it was a dream, and Ryou would think that as long as Saeki could stand to have him out of reach during the day. "I'm not having this conversation here." He strode to the desk, found a blank piece of paper - Atsushi's desk was so organized, probably due to going to a private boarding school - and wrote an address down. "Meet me here in two hours." He handed the paper to Fuji. "Come alone."
He'd seen An. The girl was deadly with that Katana of hers, and he didn't want that anywhere near him. Even being in the same apartment with her made him nervous.
Fuji looked down at the address, and Saeki took that chance to get out, slipping out the open window and jumping to the ground. He waited there in the shadows until he heard the window slide closed.
He wanted so desperately to go back to Ryou, for just a little relief. Just a little.
But when he got back up the fire escape, certain Fuji had gone already, the moonlight glinted off the blade An held across her lap. He snarled soundlessly and jumped back down again, racing to be at the abandoned warehouse - so cliché - at the time he'd specified.
He got there early. Not surprisingly, Fuji had beat him there. His old friend stood in the middle of the floor, unarmed, waiting.
Unarmed he might look, but Saeki knew better than to underestimate Fuji Syuusuke. Too many other people had done that and paid for it. He knew Fuji too well to fall for it.
Enough of this. He stepped out of the shadows, purposefully making noise so that Fuji would see him. "You always were prompt."
"Why are you haunting Ryou?"
Saeki closed his eyes, trying to keep from going after his friend right then. "It's so lonely. You don't understand," he said, opening his eyes again. The longing he felt came out in his voice. "I don't want to be alone. I can't. It's this... ache."
"Why Ryou?"
"He's my friend. I'm closer to him than I ever was with you, Fuji." Saeki wrung his hands, something he'd picked up recently. "I... He's who I want as a companion. He'll make it less lonely."
"What if he doesn't want you?" Fuji asked, and Saeki snarled soundlessly. Fuji opened his eyes in surprise and his smile slipped. Saeki barely noticed. "What happened to the one that made you?"
"I don't know. Gone, killed... I don't know. He lured me in, and then disappeared. But this loneliness... It's unbearable. I can't... I can't stand it anymore." He narrowed his eyes, trying to guess what Fuji thought behind his recovered enigmatic smile. Still the same, ever the same. "You can't keep me from him. Not even with your little female samurai."
Fuji mulled that over. Saeki knew he'd given some things away, but chances were Fuji already knew most of it. Fuji started to say something, but then paused, rethinking it. "Does it have to Ryou?"
Saeki laughed. "Would you prefer it was Atsushi? But he wouldn't work. No one else would work. It has to be Ryou." The longing reappeared in his voice.
"Have you looked for the vampire that made you?"
"Yes." Saeki grew impatient. "He's not anywhere. I don't have a... a link of some kind to him."
Fuji opened his eyes a crack. "Was it anyone I knew?"
"No. Do not get in my way, Syuusuke. You will regret it. Let me have him."
"Atsushi won't let you have him without a fight," Fuji said.
"I'll take care of Atsushi. I know better than to kill him," he added when Fuji opened his mouth. "I don't want Ryou to hate me because I killed his twin." Saeki smiled, one of his less friendly smiles left over from his life. "I don't want to see you around, Fuji," he said, and left the way he'd come in. He watched his old friend go to his car, and then leaned back. He could wait. Besides, Ryou had smelled odd. They'd given him a transfusion. The thought made him smile. He'd last a bit longer.