Happy Halloween folks! Hope you enjoy this chapter.
Summary: He was still her Momiji.
TRIGGER-WARNING: MENTIONS OF BLOOD. PLEASE DO NOT PROCEED FURTHER IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE TO THIS SUBJECT.
"What are you doing here?"
She hid her flinch at the harsh tone of his voice. She knew he did not mean to be, that his tone conveyed more than his displeasure with her presence in his room but was more targeted towards himself, but she will not let that deter her. Not when he needed her.
Everyone had told her not to go, that she was mental for even having that thought – that she was in danger by merely being in the same room as him. But her anger had won over her fear – her anger at his relatives who had tried to keep her away from him when he had obviously needed her.
"Why didn't you tell me? Why did you stay away from me?" She asked, hurt evident in her voice. Momiji turned to look at her, nostrils flaring as her scent permeated his room, but his expression was both amused and shocked.
"I mean, aside for the obvious reason that I don't want to lose control and make you my next meal, Tohru?" he asked, still amused but mildly glaring at her. Right there and then she decided that such an expression does not suit him.
When she didn't answer and merely gave him a stern, hurt look, he sighed, raising a hand and running it frustratedly through his hair.
"Well… I'm not exactly safe to be around. I don't want to hurt you."
"You won't hurt me." She said, matter-of-factly as she took a step forward.
"If you know what's good for you you're not gonna take one more step." His eyes were on her feet, and she shivered at the way his eyes had zeroed in on her movement.
She should have noticed it already. Momiji held himself differently. His arms were wrapped around his legs as if he was relaxing, but she was slow to realize that his posture is actually too tense to convey that he was relaxing. He was wearing a gray sleeveless tee and shorts so she could see the way his muscles contorted, tight, as if he was trying to keep a hold on his body.
With a jolt, she realized that he is restraining himself.
And instead of being scared, she felt nothing of the sort. She merely felt sad, sad to see that her favorite person was going through this. He did not deserve this. Any of this.
"Are you hungry?"
The blond looked at her, incredulous. She knew he must be thinking that she had lost her sanity there for a bit.
"More like I'm thirsty." He had probably decided to humor her, she could see a ghost of his old, playful smile form across his lips. "And I haven't been eating, so it's all the more reason you should leave now before I pounce on you."
She held her ground. She didn't want him to suffer. If he was going to go through this hell she would do it with him.
Tohru didn't honestly know why she was so willing to put herself in danger by just being in close proximity with him. His relatives had told her blatantly that he was… nothing short of a monster but all she could see was the blond boy who had laughed with her, cried with her, comforted her. She wouldn't leave him.
Momiji is still Momiji. He was still her Momiji, in spite of what he had become. No force of nature, passage of time, or laws of the universe is ever going to change that.
"Drink my blood."
He looked at her as if she had grown two heads.
"Drink it." She repeated, stepping forward, but he snarled at her, leaping to a standing position so fast she nearly gave herself a whiplash following his movement. She froze, not out of fear, but more out of surprise at the fangs that he had shown her accidentally when he had snarled at her.
"Tohru." He hissed in warning at her as she took another step forward and he held out an arm – as another warning to her, more likely. "Don't."
"You need blood, and I'm going to give it you." She stepped again and he moved backwards, another flash of fangs at her direction. He is obviously displeased at what she was doing.
"I know you can be a dunce, Honda Tohru, but I never thought of you as crazy." He snapped, still trying to avoid her advance by walking backwards. "Please. If you cared about yourself, leave while I can still reason with myself."
"The only thing I care about is you, Momiji. Let me help you."
He had gotten pissed with that. "You are trying to help a vampire, of all things! Just leave before I – "
She had already collided with him in a hug, and she wrapped her arms tight around him before he could even finish what he was trying to say. "Don't. Don't push me away, Momiji, please. Please." She pleaded, not being able to stop the tears falling.
He was struggling against her hold and she had felt his hands on her arms, probably to push her off, but he stopped when he felt the tears soaking the front of his shirt. His hands loosened, and she was thankful that he at least did not continue resisting her embrace.
His hands felt so large against her arms. When had that happened? Somehow, somewhere, the boy she knew had grown and she seemed to have missed that in spite of him being there with her at what seemed to be the most important moments of her life.
"It must have been so hard." That knowledge was enough to make her cry. "You must have felt terrible."
He seemed to have given up, now allowing her to hold him, wrapping his arms around her waist. "Not so much as having to hide myself from you. I don't want to hurt you… and I don't want you to… be scared of me. I have become a monster but I… I don't want you to think of me as one. I can't stand the thought of you looking at me any differently."
She looked up at him, fresh tears once more falling from her eyes. "I won't look at you that way, Momiji. You're still just Momiji to me. You're still just as important to me." She paused, swallowing her nerves. "I still love you just as much."
That's right. She loves him. What a realization to have in this situation.
He closed his eyes, as if wanting to soak in the words she had said. She could feel him trembling against her and he groaned.
"W-What's wrong?" She asked, worried that he was in pain, but he shook his head.
"Tohru. You…" He inhaled, closing his eyes once more and exhaling a shaky breath out, before focusing his gaze at her. His pupils were dilated and he struggled not to hold her too tightly against him, she could feel his fingers tightening and loosening against her waist. "You were just standing by the door earlier so I could ignore it, but you're in my arms now and…" another groan tore past his lips. "You smell so… good."
Her scent… her blood. It must have been driving him wild. Literally and figuratively. Instead of being frightened, she only just felt… flattered at the thought that he liked how she smelled, even if that meant as a meal to him.
God. She is losing it.
He was looking at her, gauging her reaction. A puzzled expression settled across his features before the ghost of another playful smile stretched his lips. "You liked that I told you that you smell good."
"How did you even – " she stopped, realizing that she was close to really sounding insane this time. "That's not the issue here. You need to drink. You said you were thirsty."
"Tohru I am not going to – "
"I'm telling you to." She cut him off. "Now that I know what's going on with you I'm going to take care of you."
"By volunteering as my permanent blood source?" He was still trying to refuse her and he was trying to remove her arms around him again. "Tohru the moment I drink your blood I'll continue to look for it."
"I. don't. care." She emphasized each word, reaching up to the back of his head to push him down while simultaneously loosening her collar and exposing her throat. She could see the way his eyes zeroed in on the smooth skin she had exposed, and his breathing got heavier. "Let me do this for you, Momiji, please."
"I have never seen a human beg for a vampire to drink from her. Not in the movies at least." She could see that his resistance was crumbling, that he was close to giving in. He looked irritated and frustrated at the same time. Probably more at himself. "This is all new to me, and from what research I was able to do… Tohru, the first human I would drink from would make them mine."
She tried to digest this information, and she was still looking at him in the eyes as she did so.
"You will be mine forever, and are you sure you'll be able to live with that?" he asked, topaz eyes pained as they gazed at her.
There was no hesitation in her. She knew her response before he had even finished the question.
"Yes. I'd rather it be you. I love you, Momiji." She stood on her tiptoes, still offering her throat – herself to him. "Drink. Be with me."
He responded to her command by lowering his head to her. He stopped halfway and his mouth opened –
"I love you."
And upon finding no resistance, he sank his fangs to her neck, feeling her flinch and relax in their embrace as he drank from her for the first time.
