Captured Hearts

Chapter Twenty-seven: The Acquainted

Fon smiled at his younger cousin, licking his lips as the other's blood dripped from his palm onto the dirt. "Good, good," he praised, "Now, take some water from the canal, and pour it over the dirt. This will help carry the blood down where the roots can absorb it. Or, even better..."

The Chinese vampire cupped his hands, and scooped up water from the canal, before pouring it over the vampire's wounded palm. Hibari winced as the water carried even more of his blood into the dirt, and glanced back at his cousin, muttering, "That hurts..."

"Sorry, Hibarin," Fon laughed quietly. "I'm just trying to help."

To repay an old favor, Hibari was trying to learn the most effective way of making a bloody rose. And since Fon was trained in both martial and craft arts, Hibari had decided to seek out his help. Meanwhile, Basil was being taught courage by Skull. "Now, let's say I'm a sexy, manly vampire who wants to take Hibarin away from you! What do you do?" Skull challenged. Basil lunged at him.

"I wilt kill thee," he hissed, his fangs brushing against the other's throat. Skull shuddered, then backed off, the tips of Basil's fangs not penetrating him as he did so.

"That's right," he praised. "See, this stupid place has dulled up your natural instincts. You need to protect your mate with everything you have. Go straight for the jugular, and tear their throat from their body." Basil nodded shakily, his fists clenching as he imagined Mukuro taking Hibari away from him. He feared that above anything else in the world. He loved Hibari more than everything, and he would give whatever neccessary to be with him. He would shed his own blood and the blood of others to protect his mate, and he was proud to think that Mukuro couldn't say the same. "Now tell me, Basil," Skull said, sitting beneath the tree. Basil joined him, and Skull continued, "What does it feel like to experience true love?"

"It's almost like selling your soul away," the young vampire said. "Except... it's so much better. Especially when it's mutual."

Suddenly, the two vampires heard a cry of "Hibarin!" from the rose garden, and they both turned to see that Hibari had passed out, Fon leaning over him, clearly worried. Basil scrambled to his feet and ran over to them, then lifted his mate into a sitting position.

"My Lord! Art thou all right?" he said, tilting the other's head towards him.

"A fainted vampire indicates a lack of blood," Fon said. "I must've allowed him to spill too much... Don't worry, sir Basil, you are fragile. I'll handle this."

Fon bit his own wrist, and, wincing, sucked his own blood into his mouth, before kissing his cousin, successfully transferring the blood into his mouth. He did this several times, Basil watching with worry, until Hibari's eyes slowly opened. "Thanks," he grunted to Fon, before suddenly realizing something and covering his mouth. "Hey... Fon... do you have a true love?"

The Chinese vampire arched a brow, then chuckled, blushing lightly. "Yes, but not in this particular enclosure... Why do you ask?"

Suddenly, Basil understood Hibari's concern. "Oh, no," he gasped, covering his mouth. Hibari placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Er, nothing," Hibari said, placing his other hand on his cousin's head. "It's all right, I was just wondering."

Fon shrugged, then said, "Maybe we should stop practicing the bloody rose for now..."

"Vampires! Time to hunt!" called a tamer from down the tunnel. Hibari got up to his feet, rubbed his sore throat, then started to lead the new vampires out into the hunting enclosure. As they stepped into the small hunting grounds, however, Fon and Skull were both evidently disappointed.

"Something wrong?" Hibari asked his cousin. Fon sighed.

"Well... Back in Italy, we could roam free to hunt... And we only hunted at night. We'd be out in a forest, catching real prey. Granted, there would be a limit to how far we could go, but still..."

"Fon!"

The Chinese vampire looked up as a werewolf sprang out from behind the shadows, and smiled to see one of the Italy creatures. "Why, hello, Colonello," he greeted, walking over to the werewolf. Colonello chuckled, his ears flicking as he nuzzled into Fon's shoulder.

"You have a really good scent, dammit," he laughed, and Fon joined in, gently rubbing the werewolf's back. Hibari watched, and easily saw that Fon's 'true love' was Colonello.

"Colonello, get back to your enclosure!" Dino called from the observation area. Colonello paused, then grinned at Fon.

"Hey, I'll catch you later, dammit."

As Colonello left, Fon glanced over at the open bars, confused, then walked up to them. "What...?"

"Oh, is this one of the Italy newcomers?" asked a woman to Dino, who nodded.

"Yes. This is Fon, I believe," the tamer said, holding out his hand. "Welcome to our Science Center."

Fon blinked, then, being quite familiar with human customs, took Dino's hand, and shook it, sighing, "This is much different from Italy, sir. What are you doing, exactly?"

"Well," Dino started, withdrawing his hand. "It's a rare sight to witness a vampire hunting, so many people visit to observe them. I'll close the observation area in... uh... like, an hour or so."

"What?" Hibari snarled, coming up the gate. "That only leaves us a half-hour to hunt privately! What gives?"

"Well, since we've got so many new guys here, it's getting really expensive to feed all of you...," Dino said. Hibari hissed, and grabbed the tamer's collar, yanking him up to the bars of the cage.

"Yeah, because fish and grass are really expensive," he snarled. "Dino, if I didn't have the knowledge that you weren't in charge, my fangs would clip your throat and kill you."

With that, Hibari shoved the tamer back, and strutted back to his mate, still angry with Dino. Fon sighed, shrugging, and followed suit, going to tell Skull the news.

Meanwhile...

"All right, boys, here's the new enclosure," Mukuro said, opening a gate in the werewolf cage. Colonello, Rasiel, Mammon, Bel and Hayato all began to file through the tunnel, but Mukuro stopped Mammon as the indigo-haired werewolf began to leave. "Uh, Mammon... I wanted to apologize for everything... Hibarin told me to give you this."

Mammon accepted the cloak that was handed to him, then shyly sniffed it to prove his suspiscions. It was indeed the cloak that had been taken from him when he was captured. "Oh, thank you," he said to the hunter, "thank you so much. I forgive you."

Mukuro shrugged, and chuckled. "Well, I can't turn down a request from Hibarin."

Mammon nodded, putting on his cloak, then, his tail wagging with joy, he went down the tunnel once more. Mukuro smiled as he left, then headed out to feed the merpeople. As he walked up, he saw Fuuta and Bluebell talking together, and he chuckled, calling out Fran. To his suprise, the teal-haired merman didn't seem to be in the tank at the moment.

Actually, Fran was in the werewolf enclosure. The new cage was formed like a cave, with seperate rock beds for each of the werewolves, and blankets for each of those beds. Each of the werewolves had already made claims, and the canal of water in enclosure had just been discovered. Rasiel and Fran were talking in the corner, and on the opposite side of the cave, Bel was trying to talk to Mammon, but he was obviously disturbed to see his twin brother talking to the merman who had a crush on him.

"Jill," Fran whispered, "this isn't good enough; I think we need to kick it up a notch, if you know what I mean."

"I hear you, Fran," Rasiel replied, carefully picking Fran up out of the water. As Fran's tail split into human legs, the werewolf leaned down and kissed him, and Fran, seeing Bel more than he saw Rasiel, moaned and sat upright. Meanwhile, Rasiel closed his eyes and envisioned Lal Mirch as he took in the merman's soft, wet lips. The two enjoyed the moment, until Rasiel suddenly saw a different face in his mind, a face that he never would've expected to emerge from his subconcious. The face of Mammon.

The two parted for a moment, and Jill held up Fran's chin, his ears forward as he heard the quiet panting. "All that water sure does wonders to your skin... it's so smooth..."

"It's about time someone noticed," Fran said with a small smirk. "You're ears are softer than they look, too, Jill..."

"Naturally... it's because I'm royal," Rasiel laughed, his hands running up and down the merman's smooth backside. "C'mon, I think it's working," he said in a quieter voice. Fran nodded, and they kissed again, and, on the other side of the enclosure, Bel snorted and dragged his mate into a kiss as well.

Meanwhile, Colonello and Hayato were acquainting themselves with each other. They'd already aquired each other's scent by sniffing each other's necks, where the scent was most pure, and by doing so, they were already on the path to friendship. "So you're sweet on that vampire, right?" Hayato said. "Fon?"

"Heh. Just a little. What about you, Hayato? The rest of the werewolves seem to be taken, dammit," Colonello replied.

"Well... I'm not positive about the relationship status quite yet, but I'm particularly close to one of the centaurs. His name's Takeshi," Hayato replied.

"Ooh, a centaur, eh?" Colonello laughed. "Like that big ol' horse body, do ya, dammit?"

"Wha- no!" the silverette complained. "I like the personality, not the... well..."

"Haha! It's okay, Hayato," the army werewolf said. "Mark me, there isn't a creature around who hasn't had a single fantasy about a centaur. They're tough, lean, and they can be pretty graceful, too, dammit."

Hayato blushed, then shrugged it off, and changed the subject.

Already, he was enjoying the new company.

-End Chapter

Well, I think that'll be just about it for now... I should work on some of the other fanfics for a while. XD

Since it seems to be a popular idea, I'll work on getting in that jealous Xanxus, as well as the RebornxLambo soon.

Please Review!