Animus Noctis - Spirit Of The Night

+++

1742 - Great Britain

+++

"Young lord, how often do I have to tell you that you're not allowed outside alone at this hour."

Well she didn't have to tell him, because he was well aware. Aware of all the stupid overprotective rules his father had established over the years. The cause? None at all.

Their city was lively, but not dangerous. There was barely any crime at all and while Taiga's family was indeed of high status it wasn't like people disliked them or would give them any reason to worry for their safety.

Yet Taiga had always felt trapped, not just in his own way too spacious house, but also in the city itself. If he wasn't out with his family he always had someone from the house being at his side. Not even once had he been wandering around alone, at least that is what the maids and guards thought and told his parents.

Exactly one of those unknown moments had been discovered this time as he had tried to sneak out the house when everyone was asleep. Only at nighttime he could somehow experience some freedom.

Luckily he had always been prepared getting caught so he came up with a well thought through story of insomnia and sleepwalking which made the maid of the house worry for him enough to not scold him any further.

As his plans had been discovered that night he made the maid believe he had gone back to bed, but he could at least sneak out to his balcony as it wasn’t really a place away from their house.

Of course even at such a simple place his parents had always worried for him as well, because he could fall. When he had been a child he could still understand those worries, but with the years the rules got more and more ridiculous and now that he was about to become a young adult he felt like a prisoner in his own house, which actually turned him into a disobedient son, but of course without the knowledge of his father.

When Taiga stepped out on the balcony it was already right before dawn and he sat on the stone wall from which it was a good five meter fall to the ground floor. It would usually be enough to just stand on the balcony and there was absolutely no reason for him to sit down on the stone wall instead, but that was the disobedience he'd come to find a liking of even if no one was there to actually see it.

In the distance the fog over the valley slowly cleared away as the first sunbeams made it over the high mountains around the valley.

Their city was actually the last big one before the valley turned into a mountain chain so high that even though it was spring already the highest peaks were still white.

So often had he wondered what was beyond those mountains, but never had he gotten the chance to see for himself.

If they went somewhere then it was the other direction to the even bigger cities, his father always busy with work and Taiga not even in the mood to explore the cities, because after all it was always the same.

It was a few days later when his father announced that he would head out for a business trip and left the choice to Taiga if he wanted to join. Trying to find a polite excuse he refused, because he didn’t want to cause his father any trouble on the journey and luckily his father seemed more than happy about his wise choice as he had lied about wanting to focus on studying.

His mother was joining the trip so he ended up being alone at the house for the first time in a while. Of course there were still a few maids and guards around, but Taiga was used to sneaking away from them.

“Are you sure you don’t want to try and eat something?” The maid tried again, but Taiga shook his head with a played painful expression.

He had made up a story about having a fever and a stomach ache to make the maids believe he would be in his room for the rest of the day. “It would be great if you could head to the city to get some medicine, but please let me rest for the day. I will come downstairs and pick them up later.”

Of course the maid nodded understanding and closed the door on which Taiga smiled and jumped out of bed, fully dressed already, because he didn’t want to waste any time.

He climbed down from his balcony as he knew his way down without falling, at least now and he made his way to the stables, watching out that no one would be around before he saddled his horse and rushed up a mountain path close to the house with his black mare before anyone could spot him.

“That was easier than expected,” Taiga said smiling to himself as he kept cantering up the path leading away from the city. Luckily it was still early enough so that no people crossed his way as a lot of them worked in the woods. Just through their work Taiga had spotted this path in the first place, but of course he had never been allowed on it.

At his usual short night escapes he had never dared to make his way up the mountain, after all even with a lamp he wouldn’t have been able to see enough and there wouldn’t have been anything to see from the top of the mountain in the middle of the night.

This time though he had gotten a pretty awesome opportunity so finally see what was behind their mountain range even though it was pretty cold in the morning, but at least it was sunny and for now Taiga could ignore the clouds coming in from the north as he would be long down the mountain again before they could reach the city.

He had made it more than half way up the mountain already when the path in front of him seemed to get more narrow with every passing minute until his mare didn’t seem comfortable to keep going as she kept spooking each time the plants around them kept brushing her legs.

“Seems like your part of the trip ends here,” Taiga said as he got off and decided to leave his horse behind and let her grass until he would come back to pick her up. He only wanted to take a look anyway and even if he walked he was sure he’d be back in less than two hours. It didn’t seem like the workers would usually follow the path this deep into the mountains in the first place.

The hike got more difficult towards the top and none of his clothes and especially not his shoes were actually made for an adventure like this. High black boots and uncomfortable cotton pants with a white shirt which was definitely going to be a different color on his way back had been a bad choice of clothes, but most of his other clothes were even more uncomfortable and too expensive to actually risk an outburst from his father if he got dirt on them.

Towards the peak of the mountain the trees slowly got less, but instead a lot of rocks blocked the path and he needed to actually start climbing if he wanted to somehow make it out of the forest and up to the open peak.

After a few more minutes of cursing and bruises on his hands, which he had to find excuses for later he had finally made it to the peak.

For someone who had the freedom to come up here as often as they wanted to, it was maybe a normal view, but for Taiga it was fascinating. On one side he could see their city, still covered with a light morning fog. On the other side of the valley the huge white peaks didn’t seem that high anymore now that he was up high as well, but the dark clouds behind them seemed to rush over to the valley even faster now.

When he turned to the other side all he could see was mountains. One after the other, one bigger than the first one! It wasn’t like he would be thrilled about walking along a mountain range for days, sleeping in the dirt and most likely feeling cold all the time, but it was still a magnificent view!

Not wanting to leave right away, Taiga sat down on one of the big rocks and just enjoyed the view. The closer he looked the more he was able to spot. There were paths through the thick forest leading away from the city, but they had obviously not been used in years, as it was hard to even spot them. Then his look wandered off to a smaller mountain in between, it was somehow hard to spot with all the white peaks around. A dark fir forest grew over that mountain while the other mountains had a lot of different types of trees, some of them now also showing flowers and bright green leaves.

Then Taiga spotted something even weirder about that mountain, there was a building on it! Only a part the roof was visible between the dark trees and Taiga couldn’t spot any path leading to it. While he had said he wouldn’t be up for a hiking trip this was a complete different matter. Something made him focus on that hidden building as if it wasn’t supposed to be found. He would need to get down from this peak and climb up to that small mountain again and while it didn’t seem too much of a steep hike there was also no direct path so he would need to make it through the thick forest, which could cost him a lot of time.

For a moment he turned towards the city, but it was still so silent down there, still too early in the morning to see more than a few carriages on the streets.

“Guess the only thing that could happen is me getting soaked on the way back,” Taiga said with another look up to the sky before he tried to find the easiest way down.

On his way off the mountain he still had a small path he could follow, but as expected it lead towards the opposite direction on the bottom, away from the dark forest.

Maybe it was the missing sunlight on this side of the mountain, but suddenly Taiga felt a lot colder.

Not knowing where the easiest way up would be, he just went straight up, hoping he could make it to the peak without any big obstacles. To his luck there seemed to be nothing, but a few old trees lying in his way. Some of them looking like they had been cut down by men to make the mountain more accessible, but that had been definitely years ago.

There was something that he noticed after stopping to take a break for a moment. On his way up to the first mountain with his horse he had spotted a few deer and even on the peak he had heard and seen some birds, yet on this mountain it was silent, way too silent. Not knowing why a shiver went through his body and he had to laugh at himself when he realized the goosebumps on his arms, maybe he should have actually worn a jacket with the low morning temperatures.

The peak of the mountain came into sight sooner than he had expected and then he also finally spotted the house. “Well that's what I call taste,” Taiga said, but the irony was obvious.

The building in front of him seemed as if it had been there for at least one century, maybe even longer. It didn’t look too damaged, but it also didn’t look inviting, at all. It was made out of black stones which was pretty unusual, at least if compared to all the cities Taiga had been in.

Carefully Taiga moved around the house, it was bigger than he had expected it to be. It had a pretty high roof, which was also black and the walls were high enough for two floors and around the corner was a small staircase up to a wooden double door.

The windows weren’t broken to his surprise, but a lot of weed was growing over them and they were so high up that Taiga wasn’t able to look inside anyway.

Taiga walked up the stairs as if he had been actually invited to this place before he knocked with one of the black heavy iron rings. The sound echoing through the building sounded as if it had a pretty high ceiling inside, but the house remained silent.

“Idiot,” Taiga said to himself with a chuckle. “Did you really expect someone to live here?”

No of course he hadn’t, which made him squeal even louder when something inside the house was heard. A sound like something had been tossed to the ground and Taiga jumped down the stairs. Then the house fell silent again.

The next thing to happen had him growl in annoyance, when the first rain drops hit him. “Really now?” After he complained the rain started to get even heavier in the matter of minutes until Taiga had to make a decision. Go home in the heavy rain or just try if the door of the building was actually open so he could see if the rain stopped after a while again.

With the sky getting even darker and lighting and thunder joining the heavy rain Taiga had enough and he hurried back up the stairs and pulled on the heavy wooden doors which moved with an obnoxious squeaking noise, almost sounding like someone screaming.

Taiga left the door open as he was faced with a pitch black entrance hall. While the building didn’t seem to have taken any damage from the outside it was different for the inside. But it wasn’t time itself which had brought destruction to the interior. Chairs had been ripped apart, vases and mirrors smashed to the ground. Maybe there had been thieves in here over the years, after all Taiga had definitely not been the first person to dare his way to this abandoned house.

He knew he should just wait at the door for the rain to stop yet he walked further into the entrance hall the same way he had been somehow dragged to this building in the first place he felt like he wanted to explore it more.

A heavy thunder made him jolt and he made a step back towards the door. Maybe the weather was a bad omen? Shouldn’t he have come to this place? But on the other hand the weather was at fault for him having to seek shelter.

After the thunder everything fell silent again until Taiga had the weird feeling of hearing something. The heavy rain made it hard to actually hear anything in particular and he wasn’t even sure if it was his imagination.

With the next lightning he had a better view of the room and he spotted a double staircase to a second floor and right before the room fell dark again he spotted something else, or more...like someone else?

It had been too short to be sure, he had only seen some shape that could have been some furniture or something else standing around the top of the staircase, which could easily been mistaken with a human, because of its size.

Always forgetting that thunder would follow after lightning, Taiga jolted again and made a step to the back on which he stepped on a few broken parts of the smashed mirror.

Then once more it was only the rain, or not? Again he felt like he was hearing something, but maybe he was mistaken, maybe it wasn’t actually a sound he was searching for? It was more of a feeling, something that let the hairs of his neck stand up since a few minutes ago and made his legs feel heavy. Something like a presence.

While he couldn’t see anything at all in the pitch black room he wanted to back off, to make it closer to the door, yet he felt how his legs seemed to get even heavier.

He had never been at such a place before so maybe it was natural to feel scared, especially with the weather adding an extra scare factor, but something told him that he wasn’t actually supposed to be THIS scared of an empty old building.

Just when he somehow managed to make another step backwards another lightning stroke. This time he didn’t even need to look around, this time he was left screaming when someone was standing so close to him that he could have actually touched him. But all he wanted to do was run as whoever that was, whatever that was didn’t actually look friendly. Cold, silver shining eyes had been staring at him from under a black hood and the moment the thunder hit and the room fell dark Taiga screamed again and turned, aiming for the door on shaking legs.

He slipped and fell hands first into the pieces of the mirror. A cut hand was the least he would whine about now though and all he wanted to was leave. It felt like it took him an eternity to make it to the door. His body feeling heavy, almost paralyzed as he finally got to the door. On unsteady feet he dashed out into the rain, completely forgetting about the staircase and stumbling down until he fell to his knees on the grass in front of the house.

Again he could hear it, like a voice from within. He knew that whatever was living inside that house was watching him and he didn’t dare to even turn around before he started running down the mountain through the thick forest.

This hadn’t been the adventure he had been seeking and now he would never be able to unsee. But to unsee what? What had he just seen? How could he not just say this was a human who played a pretty bad prank on him?

Whatever was living in that building was not human. So Taiga could only hope that it wouldn’t hunt him down, because he was sure he wouldn’t make it out alive!

Feeling as if choking on a silent scream, Taiga sat up with a gasp, needing a moment to realize that he was in his room. A look to the big window showed that it was night time and he could clearly hear the sound of the continuing heavy rain.

A dream? First Taiga wanted to laugh it off, of course it must have been a dream, but that laugh died in his throat when he looked down at his hands.

Cut open and bleeding, already having turned half of his bedsheets into a mess. A look down his clothes made his breaths turn more and more erratic as he realized he was indeed in the clothes from his dream, which didn’t seem as if it had been one after all.

Without knowing what else to do he jumped up and got out of his clothes. He had even worn his boots in bed. He must have been in such a state of panic that he had just dashed back right to his room after-, right…

Remembering what he had seen another shiver went through his body and he hurried to light a lamp in his room and close the curtains, before he hurried to bandage his hand and rip the sheets of his bed to hide them in case some of the maids would come in.

Feeling way too shaken and confused about the situation Taiga got into clean clothes and made sure to hide his bruises and cuts as good as he could while walking through the house. Luckily everything seemed normal and one of the maids just handed him the medicine she got for him and asked if he was feeling better.

Another relief came when he found his mare sound and safe in the stable as he could barely remember how he had made it back in the first place.

When he got out of the stable he looked up to the mountain range, but he immediately felt like he shouldn’t look. Like he could draw that thing towards the city. Had he woken up something that should have been left alone in that building?

When he felt the same weird presence as before he almost ran back into the house, but he knew that he was alone this time. It wasn’t the same as in that house, but it felt like he could still feel its presence and it made him fear that it might also work the other way around. What if he could actually track him down?

There was no way he would be able to get any sleep and in a long time he didn’t feel like having one of his secret night walks through the city. Suddenly the night had become something extremely frightening to him.

***

It was the next evening when he realized that he hadn’t gone outside even at daytime, suddenly he felt as if he had fallen ill. Unfortunately not with a normal cold, more something heavy mentally that he had to deal with from now on, but what was he supposed to do? Going to that place ever again was out of question, not even together with his father he would go there.

Defeated by his own fear Taiga made sure that the lamp on the nightstand was lit when he was going to bed. The curtains were still shut from the evening before.

Maybe he should at least tell his father about what had happened? But would he believe him and how much scolding would he get? He took a closer look at the cut on his hand, but luckily it didn’t seem too bad, but he still needed to find an excuse for it when his parents returned the next week.

For what felt like hours he tried to think of a stupid excuse for his wound, while it was actually only a distraction from his mind drifting off to those silver shining eyes. After a lot of turning around he had finally managed to fall asleep.

But it seemed like in his sleep he was even more vulnerable, getting hunted down by the recent events. After getting chased through the whole city and seeing silver eyes everywhere Taiga woke up with a gasp.

When he had calmed down a bit he realized that he was feeling pretty cold, which was the fault of him tossing his sheets to the ground through his nightmare. Then another realization hit him when he couldn’t actually see the sheets on the ground, because the light was out!

He had made sure it was filled up so it shouldn’t be out. The only reason his oil lamp would usually turn off was when he opened the door to the balcony. That thought had him freeze in his movements right before he tried to get his sheets from the ground.

He looked over to the window and the curtains were closed, almost! There was a small gap open, which let a bit of the moonlight inside of the room. But here was the problem! He was sure that he had closed them completely and the window should be shut as well.

First Taiga thought if it was time to panic, but then he laughed it off, of course a maid had taken a look at him as he had been in bed way earlier than usual. So she had checked if the window was closed and turned the lamp off.

“I’m such a scaredy cat, seriously,” Taiga said to himself as he sat up to fetch the sheet from the ground. He sat up again ready to go back to sleep when he was sure he had mistaken waking up with just ending up in another nightmare.

There could be no silver eyes looking at him in his room if it wasn’t another nightmare, right? Taiga blinked a few times more, ready to wake up, yet nothing happened. Five seconds, ten seconds and then the figure in the dark moved, just slightly and yet it left Taiga screaming, throwing his sheets towards the dark figure before he jumped off his bed towards the other side. “No, no, no. This can’t be real, wake up! WAKE UP!” He was already clawing his fingers into his skin, but unfortunately the pain just proved that this was real.

He wanted to reach out for the lamp on his nightstand, but when he found enough courage to move again he found the silver eyes staring at him from the side of the bed, making him scream again and curl up on the ground. “GET AWAY FROM ME!”

For what felt like minutes Taiga remained on the ground, his breathing pace making him feel dizzy. After another moment in which he tried to get the shaking of his body under control he finally dared to look up to find no one standing next to the bed. Was it a dream after all? Carefully he turned towards the bed and this time he didn’t even have the energy to scream anymore when he spotted the figure next to the balcony door. What did he want? Why was he here? How did he even know where to find him?

“What do you want from me?” Taiga whimpered as he fell down on the ground resting with his back against the bed and hiding his face on his knees.

“Nothing in particular.”

The reply left him speechless, not because of what he had said, but because he had said something in the first place.

“Wait, what?” Taiga finally let out and sat up on his knees, turning carefully around to the figure standing next to the window. “You have no reason to be here?”

“Not really, but you woke me up so I was bored.”

Now Taiga was more than confused, but luckily the other one’s not existing intentions made him finally calm down a bit, but he remained cautious.

“How did you know where to find me and how did you get in here?”

“I got in through the balcony door and well your blood showed me everything about you.”

This conversation went towards a really awkward direction, but if they only kept talking then he had nothing to fear, right? “How can my blood tell you where I live? Did you follow me down the mountain?”

“I don’t need to follow you. I can track you everywhere now. Your scent is easy to track now that I know it.”

“Okay wait. I have no clue what you’re talking about.” Taiga honestly said before he finally dared to reach out for his lamp.

“I’d like to ask you to not turn that on,” the other one suddenly said and there was something in his voice that made Taiga refrain from turning the light on.

“I don’t feel comfortable in the dark,” Taiga replied on which the other one pulled the curtains open so that at least the moonlight would brighten the room up a bit.

Taiga wasn’t sure what he had expected, but it wasn’t a black haired boy his age, looking back at him with a calm expression. The only thing that made a shiver ran down his spine were the silver eyes.

“Who are you?”

“Hokuto,” the other one replied.

“Ehm, okay…” Taiga said. “And what are you?”

“I guess the same as you? Taiga, right?”

“How do you know my name?” Taiga asked now finally daring to stand up, but he could feel how his legs felt pretty heavy.

“I told you, with your blood I know everything about you. Where you live, your name, well everything.”

“Then I unfortunately have to tell you that you’re not the same as me, because I can’t do that,” Taiga said before he pointed at the other one’s face. “And I don’t have those eyes.”

“But if we are not the same what am I and what are you?”

“Well I am a human,” Taiga said, but couldn’t actually think of a reply for Hokuto. “You are, well different?”

As if he couldn’t tell the difference Hokuto looked down his own body and it could almost be called cute how he seemed so confused.

“Hokuto was it, right?” Taiga asked carefully and the other one nodded. “Hokuto, you said I woke you up, is that house your living place?”

“Yes I think so at least. I don't actually remember much.”

“What do you mean with you don’t remember? You know your name, right?”

Hokuto nodded, but he didn’t seem to have more to tell.

“So you lost your memory?”

“Partly maybe? There are things I remember and things I don’t, but since I woke up I feel indeed weird.”

“How many days have you’ve been sleeping?” Taiga asked as he crawled back on his bed, but didn’t dare to get closer to the other one.

“What date do we have?”

“Today it’s the 14th of the third month.”

“Which year?”

Was he serious? But Taiga just shook his head before he replied. “It’s 1742.”

Hokuto seemed to be lost in his thoughts for a moment  before he nodded. “Well then I have been asleep for 9245 days.”

This time Taiga just remained silent with his jaw dropping. “Excuse me, what?”

“You asked how many days I was asleep, right?”

“But, you- this…” Taiga needed a moment to even calculate before he dared to stand up this time, the closest he had dared to stand to Hokuto. “That is over twenty five years. That's like your entire life judging by your age? How can that be possible?”

“It’s easy, you lay down and you sleep I guess?”

This conversation was turning so ridiculous that by now Taiga was almost sure that someone was playing a prank on him.

“Okay, so let’s just keep going with other questions then,” Taiga said, massaging his temples, because he was getting a huge headache.

“Maybe next time,” Hokuto said as he took a look out of the window. “I’ve to leave now, but it was entertaining to talk to you. If you don’t mind I will come again and answer your questions next time?”

There was not a single good reason why Taiga was nodding, but Hokuto seemed pretty happy about it as he flashed him a smile before he opened the balcony door and vanished into the dark night without another word.

Minutes passed tormenting slow while Taiga tried to make any sense out of the situation and when he realized that it was slowly getting bright outside he gave up on going to bed again. There was no way he would be able to sleep anyway.

***

The next evening Taiga stood on his balcony until the last light of the day was finally vanishing behind the mountains. He still wasn’t sure what had actually happened over the past two days and how he was supposed to think about it.

“Hokuto,” he whispered the name of the other one, but did he want him to come back? Would he be able to actually look at him without getting scared of those silver eyes? What if he made him angry and things would get dangerous? Not that the other one gave him any reason to be scared of him in the first place, except maybe breaking into his room in the middle of the night.

Not knowing if he should even bother closing the door or the curtains Taiga kept staring outside with a lost expression before a knock on his door had him jolt.

“Young lord do you need anything?”

“No thank you, for tonight you can leave.”

Maybe he shouldn’t have said that, but it wasn’t like one of the maids wasn’t downstairs overnight time anyway. But what was he saying? Was he that afraid?

Not knowing what else to do he sat on his bed waiting, but even after hours Hokuto didn’t come, even though Taiga had left the door open, because Hokuto had proven that locked doors won’t stop him anyway. Then he realized that it had been maybe his mistake that Hokuto wouldn’t come as he realized that he had left on the lamp for the entire time.

In a hurry he turned the lamp off, leaving him with only the light from outside, but unfortunately the moon wasn’t out and it was way darker than the night before.

It was when he felt like light was disturbing him that he realized that he had fallen asleep and it had become morning without Hokuto showing up or had he been there, but didn’t wake Taiga up?

The weirdest part was that he felt kind of disappointed about it? And to make it all worse Hokuto didn’t show up for the next three days either. At that point Taiga’s disappointment had changed into anger.

He had been so angry that he had actually taken his horse up the mountain once more to get to Hokuto’s house, because why would he still be afraid of going?

And it was also his last chance of going before his father would come back the next day, so he could at least ask Hokuto why he wasn’t actually coming back, while he had said he would.

The weather made it even easier to make it to Hokuto’s house, but to his surprise it was as pitch black inside as before. The windows were so overgrown with plants that they didn’t let any sunlight inside, so Taiga left the door open again as he walked in. But then he stopped in the middle of the entrance hall.

After everything that had happened he had forgotten about the chaos inside the house and suddenly he felt a bit insecure. Shouldn’t he have come? Maybe Hokuto didn’t want anyone to see this in the first place? After all Taiga knew nothing about the other one, so this was maybe a really bad idea. When he realized that he walked into a stranger’s house without asking he stepped back, not that he had bothered the first time, neither had Hokuto bothered at his place.

“Hokuto? Are you home?”

No reply, the same as the first time he had come here, but Hokuto had been home then as well, right? He had said he was asleep, so maybe he had to be louder?

Once more he dared to get inside the house a bit further and he called out for Hokuto a few more times, but again no reply.

"I shouldn't do this," Taiga said to himself, yet he made his first steps up the stairs. A long corridor awaited him and the same as the entrance hall there was destruction all over the place. Furniture in several rooms had been turned upside down, doors were half hanging from the doorframes. Carefully Taiga looked inside the first room to his left, but he could barely see anything as the room had no window at all.

"How is anyone able to live here?" Taiga asked as he looked through the room, but couldn't find candles or lambs. Thinking about it he hadn't seen any candle holders in any part of the house yet.

With a weird feeling Taiga stepped back inside the corridor and looked through a few more rooms, but to his surprise they were all similar, except for one which was on the right end of the corridor and it was a huge library. There was another huge window in this room as in the entrance hall, but again plants had taken almost all chances of the light making it through, yet at least a bit light was making it in as it was a sunny day.

Taiga randomly looked through the big room, the shelves so high that he couldn't reach the highest one without a ladder. A big red armchair was standing next to a table where he found a book pile and one book that lay open. He lifted it up and turned it around to look at the cover.

"Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World," Taiga read the cover. A book he had actually read himself when he was younger. But there seemed to be way older books in here as well. Books he had never seen in their town's library and that one was of course a lot bigger. Curiously he picked another book up and started reading on a random page.

Absentmindedly he walked through the room while reading until a sudden shiver made him remember where he was in the first place and he shook his head at himself before he closed the book and looked up.

With a yelp he stumbled back, falling over to the back and cursing on the way he had hit the back of his head on a shelf.

"Why did you fall?"

"Why did I fall? Come on, it's not every day that silver eyes randomly stare back at me from the dark," Taiga complained as he got back up, but then he halted. What was he doing? This was Hokuto's place. Furthermore he didn't even know the other one that well yet, what if he already angered him?

Taiga turned back to Hokuto who hadn't moved away from the dark corridor, before he bowed. "I'm sorry for intruding on your house without asking. I'll leave if you want me to."

"I don't mind," Hokuto said neutral. "I like that book. I read a lot after you woke me up."

That statement made Taiga remember his original purpose of coming here and he hurried to put the book back on the table, yet Hokuto still didn't follow him so Taiga walked back to the door.

"Why didn't you come back?" Taiga asked, trying not to sound offended.

"I didn't want to bother you that soon," Hokuto replied to his surprise.

"Soon? It's been days."

"I thought about waiting a few months."

Now he had left Taiga dumbfounded. Was the boy for real? Had he some trouble with time management, because he also had said a ridiculous number for the days he had been asleep.

"Okay… But my father is coming back tomorrow and you can't come when he is there."

"Why not?"

"Because- well, strangers are not allowed in our house."

"But I'm no stranger anymore, you know my name," Hokuto said, this time flashing a small smile and somehow Taiga couldn't take his eyes off him until Hokuto tilted his head with a questioning look.

"My father is really overprotective. A name won't do it and to be honest I doubt he'll be okay with you coming at night so you would need to come at daytime and introduce yourself."

"Oh, that's a shame," Hokuto said and suddenly walked away from the room, Taiga first looking after him in confusion before he walked after him.

"Are you busy at daytime?"

"I sleep at daytime," Hokuto replied. "You woke me up again."

"Sorry," Taiga replied. Of course he should have thought of that, not that it made sense to him why he slept at daytime and especially in such a destroyed house.

Hokuto entered a room at the end of the corridor on the left. It was the same as the others and had nothing more than a bed, a wooden desk and chair in it. When Hokuto sat down on the bed, Taiga suddenly felt kind of awkward.

"Well, I guess I should be going."

"Sure," Hokuto said as if he didn't mind at all, but that reaction had Taiga stop once more.

"So that's it?"

"What?" Hokuto asked as he was about to just lie down again, but waited on Taiga's words.

"You came to my place without any further information and now we're not going to meet again?"

"You're welcome here if your father doesn't want me to come, but I'd prefer if you come at dusk."

First Taiga wanted to complain, but what other solution could he offer?

"I can't promise that I can come. My household is really strict," Taiga replied, but Hokuto didn't seem bothered by that.

"Come when you can make it. And if I'm welcome when your father is not home I can come and visit as well."

Taiga nodded slowly while Hokuto lay on the bed, telling him with that move that their conversation was obviously over.

"Then I'm looking forward to our next conversation, I guess…" Taiga whispered more to himself as he stepped out of the room, but there was no door left to close and with slow steps he moved down the corridor. Just after he had closed the double doors of the entrance he released a long breath as if he had held it the entire time.

"What the hell was this conversation?" He asked himself and tilted his head. After he had been so afraid of Hokuto at first he was not completely confused by him. Maybe his eyes were just something genetic and because he didn't seem to have any kind of job he just liked to sleep during daytime? But there was so much more to this, so many questions. Yet Taiga shook his head and started walking. He didn't want to give himself a headache with all the unsolved mysteries around Hokuto. Maybe if they finally had a real talk, things would finally make more sense.

But for now all of that had to wait and he needed to make sure his father wouldn't find out about it.

"So you fell of your horse I've heard?"

His father's question fell on deaf ears for a moment until Taiga's mother let out an unpleased sound and Taiga's eyes immediately shot up from the dinner plate.

"Yes-, well, she spooked and I unfortunately hit some branches with my hands when I tried to land safely," Taiga explained after he had told the maids the same lie about his hands.

"Maybe we should get you a new horse-"

"No," Taiga interrupted his mother immediately. His horse was fearless and would usually never spook even at the loudest sounds. But then he wondered if she would spook if Hokuto was appearing in front of her.

"You're spacing out again," his father voiced out next and he gave his son a scanning look while the maids cleaned the dinner table. "Did anything happen?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary. Except for my fall of course."

"Okay. Then let's move to another topic. Taiga, we need to talk to you about something important."

That already didn't sound like a conversation he wanted to have and the kind of proud yet sheepish smile his mother showed, already told him what topic it would be.

"On our last trip we met some really impressive families. A lot of them are involved in international trading and politics," his father explained in excitement and Taiga tried his best to fake some excitement as well.

"We are going to meet some of them again next month at the ball at the major’s house," his mother added.

"And you want me to go there," Taiga concluded, both his parents exchanging a small smile. With a sigh Taiga fell back against the backrest. "And let me guess at least one of the families has a daughter my age."

"Always a step ahead, aren't you," his mother said, kind of proud. "They are beautiful, both of them.”

"I think the daughter of the trading family will be of your liking," his father added with an approving nod. "She's quite adventures for a girl and -"

"I want to introduce you to someone."

Taiga's words hung in the room for a while until he realized what he had said.

"Oh, who is she?"

Of course his mother would immediately guess that he was talking about a girl, but that wasn't even the point. Why had he said that in the first place? There was no way his parents wouldn't declare him crazy and Hokuto as some kind of weirdo if he actually introduced him to his parents. Furthermore they had barely met two times, well three if he counted the time he ran away screaming from Hokuto.

"It's-, …not a she."

And again he said something stupid. Why couldn't he just lie? He just did great in lying a few minutes ago.

"Oh? So you made a new friend? Is he from our city?"

Taiga relaxed a bit on his father's calm words and luckily his mother also didn't seem to see it necessary to get back to the marriage topic immediately.

"More or less. He lives close by, but not directly in the city. That's why he can't come by all the time," Taiga explained.

"Then I hope he can visit soon, we'd be pleased to meet him. After all, it's great news that you made a new friend," his father said.

A friend, right. Was Hokuto a friend? He wasn't even an acquaintance yet as Taiga knew nothing but his name so far.

"I can't wait to introduce him to you," Taiga said and wondered why his improvised lie made him smile.

***

"Young lord, I'm sorry to interrupt your studies, but the library is closing for today."

Taiga looked up from the book he was intensely reading for who knew how long. But one look out of the window showed him that it had been too long. Night had already fallen over the city and he was sure that the librarian had already extended the opening hours for him as he had missed to leave on time.

"Thank you for the reminder, I'll make sure to leave immediately," Taiga replied before he closed the book and wanted to put it back into the shelf.

"If you want to take it home with you then please feel free to do so," the elderly man told him, but Taiga shook his head.

"I like reading here. I'll come back for it."

It wasn't a lie, yet the only reason he had already been reading in the city's library for three days straight was to stay away from his parents' continuing marriage talks. He had of course agreed to join the ball, what else was he supposed to answer anyway?

Yet he had made them believe that for educational purposes he wanted to study more about trading and politics before it. And of course his parents had been more than happy about his idea. In the end he had ended up reading other books. The one he had found today was about the adventures of a man called Robinson Crusoe and Taiga felt kind of jealous while he of course didn't want to be thrown into the same dangerous adventure of survival, the freedom he could feel from the story made him feel even more like a prisoner in his own family.

At nighttime it was getting colder so Taiga threw his long coat over his white blouse. He hated most of his clothes. All of them were uncomfortable and showing off their noblemen status. So he usually tried to keep it at simple white clothes, black boots and the darkest coat he had when he walked around the city. Without any delay he walked up towards the long main street from where their house was already visible on the small hill before the mountain range.

When he looked around he could see families preparing their houses for the night. Mother's lighting candles, men closing the heavy wooden windows. It all looked so simple, no maids, no high class interior or fancy entrance halls. The simple things always made Taiga jealous, yet he knew that everyone would laugh at him if he voiced those thoughts out, so he never did.

There was a tavern on his way as well and he could hear people cheering and shouting from far away already and he dared to take a peek inside the lively place.

"Hey handsome, want to come in?" He was greeted at the entrance by a lady who was dressed in a way, which would make his mother freak on the spot that was for sure.

"Maybe some other time," Taiga politely declined, yet the woman took him by the arm and pulled him a bit more inside the tavern.

"Oh come on, just one drink. Or are we still too young for drinks?" The woman asked teasingly and while Taiga wasn’t that young and also had his good share of drinks at some of his father’s meetings and balls, he was a bit hesitant as it was already late and his mother would definitely scold him if he came home drunk, yet exactly that though made him change his mind and follow inside. He was tired of playing by everyone’s rules.

"Wait here, the first drink goes on the house," the woman said with a wink and vanished to the counter.

"Hey young noblemen, how about you pay a round for all of us?" A man on another table shouted, but he didn't sound offensive or threatening, just quite drunk.

"How about I do so if you win a challenge against me?" Taiga offered and the excitement about daring to talk to a stranger in the first place made him fear that he'd go against all rules his father had ever put up. But recently he had somehow started rebelling without realizing what the trigger was.

"Interesting. Then what is the challenge?" The man asked and sat down at Taiga's table when the woman brought Taiga his first drink.

"A drinking game," Taiga challenged. "And a rhythm game at the same time."

"So the loser pays for all the drinks we used for the game?" The man asked.

"And a full round for everyone present," Taiga added, making the room cheer.

"I'm in," the man said with a big laugh and Taiga gave him a challenging smile.

"Then let's see if you have any rhythm."

***

The man had actually done quite a good job at the game, but Taiga had won in the end and didn't need to spend any money. Three things had happened though. First he had ended up drunk and now he cursed himself for that, because he wasn't sure if he could hide it when he made it home. Second, it had become extremely late and he would definitely get scolded and third he had gotten so excited in his own game that he had ended up shattering a glass and cutting his hand, again…

Nevertheless he carried a light smile as he left the busy part of the city behind him. His parents would be so disappointed in him and somehow he suddenly wanted them to see him this way. Their oh so perfect son, not being that perfect anymore.

For a moment Taiga stopped as he looked ahead towards his house, the lights still on in some rooms. What would happen if he just didn't go back home? Just the thought of it and the actual thrill he felt through his own idea made him land a tiny bit back in reality and he shook his head.

"Others would give everything to have your status and yet you behave like this," Taiga scolded himself before he looked up into the night sky and took a deep breath, closing his eyes.

When he felt ready to finally make it home he lowered his head again, yet when he opened his eyes, the view to his house was blocked. Right in front of him and he wondered why he hadn't jumped and squealed this time? All he did was blink a few times before he formed a playful smile and threw his arms around Hokuto who had once more appeared way too suddenly.

"There you are," Taiga chirped. Hokuto didn't reply, but he also didn't complain when the other one hugged him. Yet he still looked a bit confused when the other one pulled back with his playful behavior.

"What are you doing here so late?" Taiga asked as if he had just met an old friend in town after a while and forgot that Hokuto usually seemed to wander around at night.

"I came to look for you," Hokuto said and first Taiga felt extremely grateful, but then Hokuto looked down at his hand.

"Wait, is this again about my blood? Come on, as if you could have known that I cut my hand."

"I didn't know," Hokuto let out. "At least not where you got hurt."

Taiga snorted on Hokuto's words, but he was still happy to see the other one.

"But today your blood smells a bit off," Hokuto explained and tilted his head. "As seem you."

This time Taiga burst out laughing and threw his arm around Hokuto's shoulder as he wanted to walk back with him towards the tavern, because why not, right?

"Oh come on as if you've never been drunk? Let's hang out now that you're here."

First Hokuto didn't seem to mind, but when they walked closed to the still lively part of the city, Taiga suddenly stopped.

"You know what, never mind. Come with me," Taiga said and took the other one by the wrist, pulling him away from the main street.

His carefree state had almost made him do something extremely dumb. First of all Hokuto didn't like light so the bright shops and taverns weren't a place he'd appreciate. The main problem was still Hokuto's eyes. Taiga had become used to them, but how would the people of his city react? He didn't want to find out.

"Let's hang out here," Taiga said as he released Hokuto and showed him the river flowing at the side of their city. There were no lights around here, but with the moonlight they could still see enough. Taiga sat down on the grass next to the river and that was when he realized how dizzy he actually felt. With a sigh he dropped to the back and closed his eyes for a moment. When he almost fell asleep he fought himself back up. Now Hokuto was sitting next to him, looking ahead at the river with an absentminded look.

"Sorry for dragging you along," Taiga finally said, but Hokuto didn't seem to mind. But that was also the problem. He didn't seem to mind anything or enjoy anything in the first place.

"Why are you living up there all alone?" Taiga asked and now he was thankful for being drunk, because he knew that he'd usually never ask so straight forward.

"It's a place where I feel safe," Hokuto replied.

"So it's your home?"

"I guess so?"

Taiga fell silent for a moment and tried to remember everything he had been told. "You said you slept for a long time. You don't know if your house is really your home. Hokuto, could it be that you lost your memory in some happening at that house?"

It made sense, didn't it? The house had been turned upside down and no one else was there while Hokuto seemed extremely confused about himself.

"Could be."

"Don't you want to find out?"

"How?" Hokuto asked and turned to the other one and for once Taiga saw a tiny bit of emotion as if Hokuto had actually hoped for someone to help him find out.

Taiga thought about it for a moment and then he formed a bright smile. "I've an idea. Meet me here tomorrow evening at the same time?"

"Sure," Hokuto let out casually and now Taiga suddenly felt like he had found a really good reason to keep up his noblemen behavior in front of his parents as good as possible.

***

Taiga had waited a bit longer before going home. He had tried to be as sober as possible and luckily the lie he had come up with had been perfectly working out. He had pretended that he had been in the library for so long that he had fallen asleep and accidentally thrown the gas lamp off the table when he woke up and realized that his parents would worry for him.

Instead of scolding him, they were proud of the energy he was putting in and as the highest noblemen in town his father was allowed to get access to all buildings at all hours. So for the next evening Taiga had gotten the keys for the library so that the librarian wouldn't need to stay with him and that was exactly what he wanted.

"This one is way bigger than the one at my place," Hokuto said as Taiga had brought him towards their huge city library, but he had of course made sure to turn off the main lights. He only had one small gas lamp as Hokuto was okay with that. "But how can this place help us?"

"Follow me," Taiga said and made it through some of the long shelf rows towards the back of the room. Then he stopped in front of a shelf where a lot of older books and also rolls were placed.

"This section is about the history of this area. So I thought maybe we can find out something about the past happenings here?"

"Worth a try I guess?" Hokuto said.

"Can you read in the dark?" Taiga asked as he put the gas lamp on the side of the table, a bit away from Hokuto.

"You can't?" Hokuto asked and the confusion on his face made Taiga smile.

"I prefer my small light, but feel free to read wherever you want."

Taiga took out a few books from the shelf and went back to the table. To his surprise Hokuto also took a few and sat on the opposite side of the table.

It was the first time Taiga could get a closer look at the other one. Black wavy hair, pale skin, strong cheekbones. The silver eyes didn't seem that threatening to him in the light anymore. The boy himself didn't seem at all threatening since their second encounter and Taiga hoped that they could actually find out what had happened, because he really wanted to know more about Hokuto.

***

All of Taiga's efforts had been good for nothing the next evening though when his father had invited guests without telling him and so he hadn't been allowed to leave for the library and it would be suspicious if he begged too much, because he was officially just studying on his own.

He tried his best to not keep looking at the huge wooden clock in their living room, but the noise the pendulum made didn't help him calm down.

Hours after he had been supposed to meet with Hokuto he finally was able to retreat to his room after their guests had left. In panic he walked up and down the room. What if Hokuto was angry? What if he wasn't going to come anymore?

For a moment he thought about getting out of the window to make it over to the library, but it was already hours too late, would Hokuto really still be waiting? Yet Taiga didn't know how else he could contact him.

"Contacting him, right…" Taiga let out, realizing that there was indeed a chance to call Hokuto over. Now that the house had fallen silent he could risk it. He ran for his desk and got the paper knife out before he opened the door to the blacony. First he put the blade on his hand, but then he looked down at the still fresh bandage and realized that his hands had taken too much damage already and he got tired of explaining why. So he moved up his shirt and didn't hesitate to open a cut on the side of his hip.

For minutes he kept staring into the night, waiting for any kind of movement. Yet he couldn't spot anything.

"Would have been too easy," Taiga let out in disappointment.

"What would have been?"

This time Taiga jolted on the voice and when he swirled around Hokuto was standing right behind him with a calm expression. Taiga punched the other one on the chest, making Hokuto tilt his head in confusion.

"Dude, can you stop this?"

"Stopping what?"

"Sneaking up on me."

"But I wasn't," Hokuto replied and Taiga flicked his tongue, yet he needed to watch out that they weren't too loud.

"Whatsoever, let's get inside."

Hokuto followed and Taiga left the curtains open so that he didn't have to lid a lamp and when he sat on his bed, Hokuto remained at the door, but Taiga pointed at the bed.

"Won't you sit down?"

On the question, Hokuto did sit down, but Taiga felt like the boy behaved more like a nobleman than he did himself.

"Come on, relax," Taiga said and hit the other one on the shoulder, pointing at his legs as he was sitting way too stiff.

Hokuto got the hint and crawled more on the bed, sitting cross legged.

"Are you angry?" Taiga finally dared to ask.

"Why would I?"

"Because I didn't come."

"I knew you were busy at home," Hokuto replied and it didn't seem at all like he was angry.

As so often when Hokuto said something Taiga couldn't make sense of he just shook it off and nodded, but he didn't want the same to happen again.

"So, you came tonight because you smelled my blood, right?" Taiga asked, still wondering about that, but who was he to question someone with silver eyes. Hokuto only nodded and that made Taiga come up with an idea.

"We still have lots of books to go through so the next time I'll go to the library I'll let you know with my blood, okay?"

"Sure, that works for me," Hokuto said and wanted to get up.

"You don't have to leave. It's still not getting bright outside."

Taiga was almost laughing at his own words. He had adapted to the boy's behavior so easily.

"But don't you need to sleep?"

It was the one moment in which Taiga thought that Hokuto was way too cute for his scary appearance when he realized that he was missing the point.

"I can stay up a bit longer if you don't need to leave?"

"I can stay until the morning," Hokuto let out and Taiga moved closer in excitement.

"Oh wait, my dad bought me new books, shall we look through them? They are no history books, but as I know my father they might be similar to the ones you were reading at your place."

Hokuto nodded while Taiga got the bag with the unopened books his father had gotten as presents for him. Not that his father had handpicked them. All he did was asking at the bookstore in one of the huge cities he traveled to, to pack some recommendations for his son.

Just the excitement about being able to spend some time with Hokuto even with his parents present gave Taiga that excited feeling again. Breaking the rules had become his most dangerous hobby and he could only hope that it won't backfire.

***

Taiga woke up through a knock on his door and a maid entered seconds later. First Taiga just rolled around in his bed, obviously not getting enough sleep, but when his hand landed on a pile of books his eyes widened and he shot up.

"Everything okay young lord?" The maid asked as she opened the curtains and bright daylight filled the room. First Taiga looked around the room, but as expected Hokuto wasn't there anymore. At some point Taiga had fallen asleep so the other one must have left.

"Everything is alright," Taiga said and the maid left again after telling him to get ready for breakfast as his parents were waiting for him.

Taiga grabbed a few of the books which had fallen off the bed and while putting them back on the shelf he had to smile at some of them.

Hokuto had started reading some of them in random order on random pages and he kept asking Taiga about the storylines. He had done the same about their history books in the library and Taiga wondered if they would be able to do something about Hokuto's lost memory.

When Taiga wanted to get ready he spotted a book that had most likely ended up under the bed when they had gone through the books to decide what to read. Taiga looked at the title, but it was a word he had never seen before. Randomly he opened a page and started reading.

Another knock on his door made him snap out of it and he realized that he had ended up reading for several minutes as he had found a book that weirdly resembled reality more than it should, after all this was fiction, right?

For now Taiga put it back on the shelf and hurried to get dressed, but he would definitely get back to that book in the evening.

Two days past without Taiga being able to make it to the library, but when he was finally able to go he hurried to the river and while he had opened a cut on his skin without hesitation before he halted this time. Until now he had made fun out of Hokuto saying he could tell when he was hurt, because there was no way, right? But now he was clenching the book in his other hand. He had ended up reading it not just once, but twice over the last few days and now he felt like he was the one going crazy.

Nevertheless he finally cut the skin on his upper arm. This time he waited quite a while and sat at the riverbank until once more Hokuto just appeared out of nowhere, but this time he had made sure to approach from the front and make himself noticeable from afar.

"You're getting better at this," Taiga joked and Hokuto returned a sheepish smile. It was still rare to see emotions on Hokuto's face so each time he showed him even the faintest smile, Taiga felt more than happy.

"A new book?" Hokuto asked as he pointed at the book Taiga was holding.

First Taiga wasn't sure if he should talk about the book, but then again why had he brought it then? Was he actually afraid of this fiction being true?

With a deep breath Taiga lifted the book up and showed it to Hokuto.

"It might sound weird, but I feel like some parts of this book resemble your situation so I thought we might see if other parts also apply to you?"

Hokuto took the book from him and put his fingers on the title. "The Vampyre?"

Taiga nodded with a confident look as he wanted to clarify that this book was really just fiction.

"What's a Vampyre?" Hokuto asked and looked for the author, but it said it was written anonymously so they had no one to go to and actually ask about the book.

"That's what we're going to find out, come on," Taiga said and urged him to head to the library where they sat down with the book. Taiga had marked the pages he wanted to talk about with Hokuto and so they started reading.

"So it mentions people similar to humans, but they only walk around at night and they move around like shadows and it also says something about beast looking eyes."

"Do I look like a beast?" Hokuto asked and Taiga immediately felt bad for saying it, but it was part of the book after all.

"I just thought it's similar, not all of it is the same. I think your eyes are unusual, but they also have something stunning."

This time Hokuto's look brightened up again and Taiga felt all warm through the excited look he got from the other one.

"It says something about fangs though, do I have fangs?" Hokuto asked and the way he opened his mouth to let Taiga look at his teeth, made Taiga slightly chuckle.

"Well, you have small fangs? Not sure if they mean those?" Taiga said and Hokuto just shrugged his shoulders while he kept reading, but then he slowed down and Taiga remained silent and started twiddling his fingers as he knew which part Hokuto was reading.

"What do you think?" Taiga asked as Hokuto put the book down with a hard to interpret look.

"Would this be human?" Hokuto asked, but Taiga didn't want to reply so he dropped to the back of his chair with a chair and slowly shook his head.

"No it wouldn't. Especially because it says that they kill through it."

"Good that it's fiction then," Hokuto said and kept skipping to the next marked page while Taiga kept staring back at the other one.

Had he just shook off Taiga's biggest worry? But why had he asked about it then? The use of the fangs was something Taiga had panicked about especially after he had read the part where they get closer to their 'pray' through the smell of blood.

Taiga wanted to shake it off and just see it as the fiction it was, but for now he wanted to at least keep checking the rest of the book, which sounded even more ridiculous to him, but at least not that dangerous.

"So I brought some things for that part of the book," Taiga said and put a small metal bottle and a necklace with a cross on the table.

Hokuto raised an eyebrow at that and Taiga was so close to bursting out laughing. "You didn't bring a wooden stake to see if I die if you pierce me with it, did you?"

When Taiga pulled his bag closer to actually have a look he finally burst out laughing this time on Hokuto's scandalized expression.

"No I didn't bring one so calm down," Taiga said while he tried to calm down his laughter, but had to brush away some tears.

Taiga was sure that eventually this night would just become a ridiculous memory for both of them, but he still felt kind of relieved that Hokuto had reacted that calmly about the book.

***

"You're in such a good mood, are you looking forward to the ball that much?" Taiga's mother asked when Taiga skipped down the stairs the next morning when they were leaving for the ball.

Taiga just nodded and made her believe that he was indeed looking forward to that ridiculous ball and enjoyed wearing those embarrassing clothes, which made him look like a dressed up doll.

While his parents just enjoyed his good mood, Taiga kept grinning to himself in silence as he remembered the fun evening with Hokuto. In the end they had both kept laughing at all the things Taiga had brought with him and Hokuto had even let him try out some just for fun.

Eventually Taiga had to tell him that he wouldn't be there for a good week, but he had promised to let him know when he was back in town and Hokuto seemed extremely excited about it.

"You said you wanted to go to the bookstore, right?" His father asked when they were in the carriage for quite a while already and Taiga nodded.

"I still have some book left to read, but there are some special ones I want to look for."

"He's studying so hard," his mother said proudly to her husband, yet Taiga only smiled, not telling them that the books he was looking for were definitely not what they would approve of.

Nevertheless he found himself in the fictional corner of the bookstore when he was finally allowed to roam the streets of the city by himself as his parents were busy with official business anyway.

Unfortunately Taiga had only found two books, which seemed similar to the one he had read with Hokuto and their city's library didn't even have such books in the first place. After a moment he wondered if Hokuto's library didn't have any books about his past or his kind. Because their city library hadn't given them any answers about what might have happened twenty five years ago. Which was also a bit fishy, because there were records dating back hundreds of years yet the past twenty to fifty years weren't showing anything extraordinary at all.

"Any specific book you're looking for?" The elderly man who was the bookstore owner asked as Taiga kept looking at the shelves in a loss.

"Not exactly," Taiga said and didn't want to ask too obviously. "I recently got a book called The Vampyre as a present and wondered if there were similar ones."

Like this he hoped he wouldn't sound too desperate and the man nodded with a knowing smile as he walked towards another shelf and pulled one more book for him after he had seen which ones he was already holding on to.

"This one might be of your liking then," the owner said and Taiga took the book. "The man-wolf?"

Well Hokuto was obviously not a wolf, but he could still see if there were any similarities in this story.

Eventually he ended up buying books about supernatural topics and a handful of political books to make his father believe that he went only to get those.

The ball got in his way of reading though and he tried to pretend to have fun, but at some point he got more than tired of all the new faces and all the introductions of people's daughters.

"Father, can I ask you something?" Taiga finally tried his luck when the evening had calmed down and his father had another champagne glass in his hand.

"Of course, what is it?"

"I recently stumbled over a few history books in the library while studying and I wondered if we have some books about the recent history of our city. I couldn't find much and even the librarian said there was not much literature about those years.

His father just nodded for a moment and Taiga wondered if the timing for the question had been bad after all.

"It's not like anything interesting happened in the times of your grandfather so I guess they didn’t have much to write down?"

Such a harmless reply, right? And for now Taiga only nodded, because he didn't want to be too obvious, but he remembered that his grandfather died at a young age when his father had been barely an adult and if he remembered correctly then that was around the time Hokuto said he had fallen asleep. So now he had to do even more research, but he already knew where to start.

***

"So no library today?" Hokuto asked when Taiga had almost jumped at him after they had finally made it back home and Taiga hurried to the river. Without even questioning Hokuto's ability by now he had opened a cut on his skin and waited. Of course the other one showed up, something Taiga was sure of by now.

He had immediately started pulling him away from the city this time and kept talking about the books he had gotten.

"I just wanted to test something from the book," Taiga said and finally stopped at an open field close to the mountains.

"Okay so what now?" Hokuto asked, but Taiga looked up at the clouds for a moment before he finally let out a satisfied sound.

"Here we go, just a few more seconds."

Hokuto looked up to find the full moon breaking through the clouds and he kept looking at it for a moment longer until he realized that Taiga kept staring at him.

"What?"

"Any change? Do you feel anything while looking at it?"

Hokuto looked back at the moon and then nodded to Taiga's obvious surprise.

"It's bright so it annoys my eyes," Hokuto replied completely serious and after another moment Taiga burst out laughing.

"You're unbelievable, but like this one more of my books didn't really show any connection, only your eyes seemed similar to the story in the first place. But now I feel like I've run out of things to try."

"How about we read through my library next?" Hokuto offered. "You just have to bring your own lamp."

The way Hokuto even remembered such small things made Taiga smile at him once more.

"My parents will be away over the weekend so I can sneak out in the evening and make it up to your place."

The way up to Hokuto's place wasn't easy, but Taiga was looking forward to going back as they definitely had more privacy at his place.

"Also my father told me that we don't have many recent records of the time when you said you fell asleep," Taiga remembered.

"I guess that's another mystery we have to solve then," Hokuto said shrugging his shoulders, but somehow his look showed that he wasn't taking it as neutral as he wanted Taiga to believe.

Without any hesitation Taiga stepped closer and took the other one's hand in his and gave it a light squeeze.

"I really hope we can figure out what exactly happened, but…"

"But what?" Hokuto asked when Taiga didn't continue and looked away with a troubled expression.

"What if it's something so bad that you don't even want to remember and that's why you forgot it in the first place?"

The chances of that were high after all. His house was a mess, no path leading up to his house in the first place so no one had even bothered with that place for who knew how many years and what if…what if his father was lying to him? It was something he had thought about a lot recently.

"Then I guess I will regret it at that point, but I don't feel like just going back to sleep."

Hokuto's words made Taiga squeeze his hand even more this time. "Please don't go back to sleep. And even if what we find out is something horrible, please don't just leave, okay?"

Of course Hokuto nodded, because why would he leave Taiga's side through whatever happened in his past? It wasn’t something Taiga was at fault for.

***

With outstretched arms Taiga let out a loud yawn, making Hokuto look up from one of his books.

"Maybe you should leave for tonight? Someone will definitely realize that you sneaked out if you're not back by sunrise."

Hokuto had a good point, yet Taiga shook his head. It was still in the middle of the night after all. But he had to remember that the path back was difficult and would take him a few hours.

"Your books are complicated to read, that's all," Taiga said as he closed another book. This library had books he had never seen before, even the letters were different and it took him some time to read.

"But you're having fascinating books, yet a lot of them don't have any author name," Taiga added as he got up and used the ladder to get up to the higher shelves. "It's like all knowledge of humanity is on these shelves."

"More like knowledge about humanity," Hokuto whispered and Taiga leant back as he couldn't hear him well, but at the same time the wooden step he was standing in broke as it had been brittle from all the years it hadn't been used. With a gasp Taiga tried to reach out for the front of the ladder, but couldn't get a grip on it in time so he prepared for a really painful landing on the wooden floor. Yet after he had closed his eyes and waited for the impact, his fall was abruptly stopped and that way faster and smoother than he had thought. When he dared to open his eyes again he came eye to eye with Hokuto who had caught him.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes- I'm fine…how…" Taiga looked over to the armchair in which Hokuto had been sitting like a second ago and it was on the other side of the room.

"How what?" Hokuto asked, but Taiga slowly shook his head.

"Never mind, thank you."

By now he shouldn't even be confused by weird happenings around the boy, but after another moment he hawked awkwardly, making Hokuto look at him questioningly.

"Would you mind letting me down?"

"Right," Hokuto let out, for the first time a slightly embarrassed look on his face.

Taiga turned away with the same expression, but his feet still felt a bit unstable after his sudden fall. In front of him one book had dropped out of the shelf and while Hokuto walked back to his armchair and pretended as if nothing had happened, Taiga picked up the black book. The book didn't seem as old as a lot of the others and the letters looked more like the ones he was used to.

"Do you mind if I bring back some books to my place?"

Hokuto didn't mind as they couldn't meet at his place all the time, because Taiga wouldn't be able to sneak out nonstop.

Yet Taiga wished he could find an excuse to stay with Hokuto for more than just a few hours once in a while.

***

"So I saw that you talked a lot to the young lady of Clifford."

Taiga just nodded on his mother's words, because he had indeed tried to be as polite as possible at the ball a week ago, but of course his parents would misinterpret that politeness as interest. Yet for now he just left it at that.

"Are you planning on going to the library today?" His father asked as he put down his fork, but Taiga shook his head.

"I'll take a break for a few days. I want to be a bit more outside, around town, maybe also exploring a bit around the area by horse."

Taiga waited for his parents to decline that request, but to his surprise they didn't. Yet Taiga was sure that if he really said he wanted to explore that one or two of their guards would be with him.

"It's definitely a good decision to also be more around the people for once in a while."

"I actually also talked to some on my way back from the library recently," Taiga said, taking the chance he saw.

"You mean when you sneaked back inside drunk?"

His mother's words made him blush a bit as his mother had of course realized and while he had thought he had done a good job in lying that night, he had gotten a big round of scolding from his mother the next day.

"That one time as well, yes," Taiga said in a low voice, but then turned to his father.

"I heard stories about our city. Yet I couldn't find anything about it in our library so I thought they just made them up?"

Taiga tried to sound excited, but he chose every word carefully and finally he saw some change on his father's face.

"And what kind of stories were they?"

"Kind of mysterious ones," Taiga explained, knowing that all his words were lies, but he wanted to see his father's reaction without bringing Hokuto into danger. "Something about creatures of the night with silver eyes and something about human blood."

Taiga tried to keep his voice as carefree as possible, as if he was telling an exciting fairytale. He waited a moment and both his parents had fallen quiet and Taiga didn't miss the way his mother looked up at his father.

"I read similar things in some fictional books recently, so I guess some of the town's men just got carried away with their fantasy, but if people like that really existed then that would be scary, right?"

"They are no people."

Taiga wanted to laugh his own words off yet his father's reply took him off guard and he stared back at him dumbfounded.

"What do you mean?" Taiga asked as his father remained silent, but then his mother put her glass down a bit too forcefully, making his father snap out of whatever kind of serious mood he had fallen into. With a laugh he turned to Taiga.

"I mean they are talking about characters in a book, right? People like to take those stories and make them their own. But they are not described as normal people in the books, are they? I read some myself, interesting fairytales for sure."

Taiga laughed it off with his father, but now he was sure that not just his father but the entire city was hiding something.

***

After spending the nights at the library, then having the travel and the ball and eventually spending the night at Hokuto's place, Taiga had been too exhausted to stay up to read, yet on the second day he finally sat down on the balcony when the sun was slowly vanishing behind the trees of the highest mountain range.

This book had nothing supernatural at first glance, but the history parts of it sounded so different from their library books. As if they had been written from another perspective.

Greed made them desire what they couldn't have and our gift wasn't one to share with them. Centuries of war hadn't changed them and instead of finding a way to live alongside each other they kept trying to reach for a superiority that wouldn't be gained to such an ignorant race.

Taiga read the book with the same excitement as he did with the recent ones, yet he was confused about a lot of the content. This was supposed to be a history book, right? Events he knew were written down in it and names of cities and people were familiar to him, but on the other hand a lot sounded like fiction again.

As if hunting animals they tried to find the right weapons, yet human weapons wouldn't be effective on a superior race like ours, no matter how much they wanted to believe in their religion and fairytales.

Once more Taiga shook his head. Whoever wrote this book was either exaggerating in a weird way or there was really finally something that gave him a lead to Hokuto's identity. He kept flipping through the pages, trying to find the time around twenty to thirty years ago.

This hadn't been a war, nor a battle. It had been a massacre without any kind of reason. Never even once had we engaged with them if not threatened first, yet they came to slay us all. With fire, swords and poison they used brutal force to try and take their place as kings of this world. Yet we will never vanish and they will find their doom when the time is right. Humanity will pay with their blood for their sins.

With wide eyes Taiga kept looking at the next page as there was a list of noblemen written down. Those who had launched the attacks, who had lead a cowardly massacre out of fear over several cities and one name caught his attention as it was none other than the one of his grandfather.

***

Not even exactly knowing why, Taiga didn't go to Hokuto's place or asked him to come over for several days after he had finished the book. They had been looking for answers, right? They were right here in front of him and even from Hokuto's house library. With all the books it wasn't that weird that Hokuto hadn't read the book yet as he also had lost his memories obviously, but there had been something in that book which could actually help with exactly that problem, yet Taiga suddenly felt as if he was at fault for Hokuto's state.

"Young lord, do you need anything else?" The maid asked when Taiga was sitting alone at the desk in his room, staring down at the book in front of him. It didn't look like a suspicious book so he didn't hide it as long as it wasn't his parents coming in, but they were luckily out for business the entire day already.

"Thank you, but everything is taken care of," Taiga said and the maid excused herself. That was the moment Taiga finally stepped out of his room and went up to the third floor of their house. A place he usually never went to as his grandparents' quarters had been up there. But of course there were more rooms and his father had always told him that they were storage and guest rooms so he wasn't supposed to play around on the third floor as a kid and as he had never met his grandparents he never felt the urge to go up there. The few times he did, he remembered that the doors were always locked and his father had scolded him for going up there.

Another skill Taiga had picked up from all the books was lock picking so this time he was prepared for closed doors.

The bedroom of his late grandparents looked as expected, the furniture hung up with white blankets and nothing suspicious caught Taiga's eye.

The next room seemed indeed like a guest room so Taiga locked that one once more and went on to the third and last room.

A meeting room, with a big table and a good dozen chairs around it. Taiga slowly went around it and looked at the shelves.

Maps of the city and mountains around. Locations marked with crosses while Taiga had never seen more than thick forest at those places. Even other cities more than a few days ride away were marked. But then his look fell on one red cross and he realized in shock that it was Hokuto's house.

"What nonsense made you do this," Taiga whispered as he looked through even more of the papers and a lot of them reminded him of what he had read in Hokuto’s book, yet he also stumbled over things he had read in fictional books.

Times when the sun would rise and set, papers from the church and drawings of crosses.

When Taiga stepped next to another shelf the wood underneath his feet made a dangerous noise and he stepped back, fearing to break through the flooring. When he looked closer he realized that the wood had been cut in several parts and he hurried to take a paper knife from the table and try to loosen the wood. He wasn't surprised when it actually came off and revealed a box underneath.

A little bit hesitant, Taiga took it out and put the dusty brown box on the table. When he tried to open it he pulled back with a hiss as he cut himself on a sharp part of the metal buckles.

The pain was forgotten though when he opened the box and realized what was in it.

"This is ridiculous," Taiga said under his breath as he took out a hammer with a golden cross on it and next to it was a wooden stake. Taiga had read about them of course, yet it had all been fictional and he had laughed about it with Hokuto. So why were all these things in this box? A gun with silver bullets, holy water from the church, a cross, a mirror and so many other ridiculous things.

"What madness made you create such a box?" Taiga asked himself.

"One you luckily never have to experience thanks to them."

Taiga dropped the hammer on the sound of his father's voice. He had taken too much time, not thinking he would be back so soon. But now he could at least directly ask.

"You knew about this?" Taiga asked calmly, not even apologizing for sneaking into the room.

"I was around your age when my father started holding meetings here. But I've seen what they fought against. They were the brave men of that time to protect us. So that your generation could live in calmer and safer times."

"You said there was nothing worth writing a history book about so why was this never noted down?"

"Because no one would believe it anyway," his father said honestly. "Yet I wonder. Son, is there a reason behind you suddenly wanting to know so much about the past?"

Taiga bit his lip on that question as he couldn't possibly tell him, especially after he had had no time to talk to Hokuto about all of this.

His father let out a sigh on his son's silence and slowly nodded. "I fear if you can't be honest with me I need to make sure that you're not having other secrets."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"From now on I'll put a guard at your side and you're not allowed outside the house alone anymore."

"You can't do that," Taiga replied, raising his voice a bit too much.

"Then tell me why you decided to come up here and I'll take care of it."

Take care of it. The realization of what his father was saying made Taiga realize that he could never be honest with him. They had their secrets and he had his, but one side was misunderstanding something and he wasn't sure which one it was. In anger he closed his fists and was reminded of the cut on his finger. That also made him look up once more, but he looked past his father into the corridor.

"So I guess we will need to have a talk later," his father said, not realizing yet that silver shining eyes were watching them from the corridor.

"Are you two upstairs?" His mother was heard from the stairs, but the next moment everything escalated as Hokuto had no place to vanish to and she spotted his eyes looking down at her. She started screaming and his father swirled around, seeing Hokuto lingering in the dark.

"Taiga, get away," his father shouted and shoved him to the back, but the next moment he reached inside the box. Mirrors, crosses or holy water were no problem, Taiga knew that, but when his father drew the pistol out of the box Taiga panicked and reacted before he could even think about it.

"Don't! He won't do you any harm," Taiga shouted as he had ran to the door, yet his father had obviously not thought that he would protect the creature they were facing and with wide eyes his father looked at his son who he had just shot in his panic.

Taiga also looked back at him in shock, the pain somewhere in his body, yet his body was in too much shock to locate the wound. When he stumbled back he felt Hokuto's hands around his upper body.

"Release him!" His father shouted, but Taiga feared even more for Hokuto's life than his own.

"Get away," Taiga whispered, but Hokuto's grip tightened on him.

What happened after that would remain a mystery to Taiga as he could only pray that he wouldn’t die and only fall unconscious for now.

When Taiga woke up he was in immense pain and when he opened his eyes and saw nothing but darkness he panicked and tried to sit up, but with a painful gasp he fell back. His hands looked for the source of pain and then he found it on his right ribs.

There was something on it, maybe a bandage, but it didn't seem like a doctor's work. After his eyes had finally adjusted to the darkness he realized that this was Hokuto's room.

"Hokuto? Are you there?" Taiga asked as he remembered what had happened and he looked for the silver eyes and finally he spotted them in a dark corner.

"You’re safe…" Taiga let out and dropped back on the bed, yet Hokuto didn't speak or approach him. "Why are you standing there?"

"I can't get closer right now."

Why did his voice sound darker than usual? He almost sounded as if he was in pain himself.

"Did my father attack you?" Taiga asked, but didn't try to get up as he knew that his wound would cause him even more pain. Hokuto's behavior also made him realize that he shouldn't get close to the other one. He wasn't even inside the room. He was standing in the corridor, so he wanted to give himself a way to back off and while Taiga wanted to ignore the reason for that he knew he couldn't any longer.

"I'm too fast for him to shoot me," Hokuto replied.

"Did you attack him?" He didn't want to ask, yet he needed to know.

"I had an escape route and your parents didn't stop me."

That was all he needed to know. Yet there was so much more they needed to talk about now.

"You still don't remember anything?" Taiga asked, but this time Hokuto didn't reply immediately.

"I know what you know," he finally let out. Right, once more Hokuto had found him bleeding and this time Taiga was sure that this was also the reason why he was keeping his distance.

"Is it the amount or is it because you can only stay patient for a certain amount of time?"

"Both," Hokuto honestly replied as he had already figured out his own identity through what Taiga had discovered in his parents’ house and the book. So even without all his memories he knew how dangerous he was to the other one right now.

"Are you afraid?"

That question hadn't even crossed Taiga's mind so he thought about it for a moment.

"I don't know," he eventually let out. "But you brought me here and I'm still alive so I guess for now I don't have to worry?"

"Do you want to go back home?"

"No." This time Taiga immediately replied and tried to sit up a bit to look at the other one as he knew that Hokuto could see him clearly even in the dark. "If I go back then I won't be able to see you again. We should also relocate!"

"Because of the map?" Hokuto said as he was aware that they knew the location of this house and it was the closest location on the map so maybe they would already be on their way. "I don't fear their ridiculous pitchforks, stakes or holy water."

"So you want to kill them if they come for me?"

"Shall I hand you back to them instead? Didn't you just say you don't want to go back?"

The situation was indeed more complicated than that, but Taiga wasn't in a state to come up with a detailed plan. The bullet might still be stuck in his body as every movement caused him a lot of pain and the bandages wouldn't stop the bleeding like that so eventually Hokuto would need to leave alone if he wanted to survive and if Taiga didn't want him to kill people from his city.

"Why did you bring me with you in the first place? Don't you hate me?"

Taiga's question made Hokuto step a bit closer to the door and he could see how the other one shook his head.

"Sins of the past or not the sins of the next generation. You never gave me a reason to hate you."

Hokuto's words brought a smile to Taiga's face, but when he realized that he could see Hokuto more clearly by now he panicked.

"Is it morning already?"

"It's dawn," Hokuto explained.

"That's bad. They will be here in no time. They did this last time as well, right? They came at day time. We need to leave."

"How am I supposed to leave?"

Taiga didn't reply, instead he finally sat up and gritted his teeth while he tried to pull the bandage closer around his body. With a hiss he got up from the bed and made it over to the door where Hokuto backed off.

"Sunlight is your weakness, I've read about it, you know it as well. But it won't kill you. I don't want you to kill anyone, but I also don't want to see you get harmed so let's get out. It will be painful for both of us, but there should be a place somewhere beyond the mountains where we can hide."

"I might know a place," Hokuto said. "It's like a faint memory so I can't promise that I will find the place, but I can try."

Taiga smiled once more at his words, but Hokuto gave him a questioning look.

"We might die out there if they catch up, why do you look so happy?"

"Because you give it a try. You don't stay even though you could easily kill them. You are listening to my request even though you don't need to."

Hokuto didn't say anything on that as he wasn't capable of having such emotional human talks. Yet he hurried to another room and threw a huge black cloak over his head.

"You need to walk on your own. In the daytime I can't carry you and I can't get close to you right now."

"It's alright, I will manage," Taiga promised, even though he wasn't sure if he could even walk for a mile without fainting, but he had to try. Hokuto was risking everything for him so he had to give it his best effort to rescue Hokuto as well.

***

As expected Taiga didn't last long and he broke down at some point, but he knew he had to get up himself even with the bandages already completely red and he could see how much Hokuto struggled to stay away.

The sun was hidden under heavy clouds, which made it easier for him, yet all his senses seemed to tell him even more to attack Taiga now that he was weakened himself and Taiga was the easiest prey.

"They will catch up," Hokuto said and looked up to the small mountain they had just left behind. “They brought the dogs. They will smell your blood."

"Then go on without me," Taiga finally said even though he didn't want to. "No matter how much I don't want to become the prisoner of my own family and never be allowed to see you again, I don't want you to suffer under them."

"For that it's too late now," Hokuto let out and now Taiga could also clearly hear the barking of the dogs.

With a groan he got up again, pressing his hand desperately against the side of his body and kept moving. Meter for meter he tried to keep going, but he knew that they weren't fast enough and then Hokuto stopped, making Taiga catch up to him, but he watched out to not walk right up to him.

"Why is there a river here?" Taiga asked as they arrived at a cliff with a fast flowing river several meters beneath them.

"As I said my memory is blurry and if it was night I would just jump over it."

A day ago Taiga would have laughed at him for saying that he could jump over such a wide river, yet he just nodded this time.

"Unfortunately night is way too far away for us now."

"Then fighting it is," Hokuto said and turned back, the dogs running past the hills now and soon torches got visible as well.

Taiga's father and a good dozen men from the city were with him. Swords, pistols and forks in their hands.

"You can still get away, can't you?" Taiga asked and looked down at the river.

"Maybe, but in the daytime I can't even say if I could survive a fall in this river."

"TAIGA, GET AWAY FROM HIM!" His father shouted from far away already, but to Taiga's surprise Hokuto immediately stepped in front of him. His silver shining eyes didn't lose any of their strong color even at daytime and some of the men slowed down on spotting him.

"You will die here," his father shouted at Hokuto and drew his pistol once more.

"You really want to risk that once more?" Hokuto asked and stepped a bit to the side so that Taiga was visible and his father looked worried as he saw Taiga's blood stained clothes, but it had been his own fault and he lowered the pistol as he couldn't be sure for now if he could aim right.

"Let's just get rid of him. He's just a boy," one of the men shouted and he and two others dashed to the front, but the next moment Hokuto made a step to the front and for the first time Taiga saw a different side of him as his hood slipped to the back and Hokuto revealed his fangs, his real fangs. With an animal like sound he hissed at the men who immediately stopped, one of them even falling to the back out of sheer panic.

"Truly a monster," Taiga's father spit at Hokuto, but the boy didn't attack him.

"As much as I've read, you were the monsters," Taiga interfered. "You killed his kind. Your own father killed them and you want to do the same now?"

"You don't know what you're talking about son. His kind doesn’t share bonds. They are like wild animals. Hunting in packs and killing our kind just because they feel superior."

"Lies," Hokuto hissed at him. "We don't kill if we don't have to. We only do what we need to do to survive."

"Feeding on human blood, doesn't sound quite human to me," another man shouted and threw his torch right at Hokuto, who lifted his arm to block it with his cloak, but unfortunately it caught on fire and he needed to throw it to the ground.

The others might have not noticed it, but Taiga could see how much Hokuto struggled in the daylight.

"If I go back with you, are you going to leave him alone?" Taiga asked.

"Why wouldn't you want to come with us? He kidnapped you. Because of him you're close to death," his father said.

"Hokuto isn't a monster. I want you to leave him alone."

"Hokuto?" His father said as he had finally realized that his son was well aware of the creature in front of him. "How long have you been aware of this monster?"

"Stop calling him that," Taiga yelled, but the next moment he folded to the front.

"You'll die if you stay with him," his father reminded him.

"I don't need a life with all your rules anyway," Taiga let out. For the first time speaking his mind, because he might not get another chance to. So even if his body slowly forced him down he didn't want to just give up like this. "If going back means that you'll just keep hunting Hokuto behind my back and won't allow me to see him again, then I will never go back with you. I don't need your money or the prestige of all those families you want me to marry into."

It was actually Hokuto's face that changed first and he gave Taiga a kind of proud look.

"I didn't know you could sound this fierce too," Hokuto said and somehow Taiga felt like blushing.

"So you'll give up your life for him?" One of the men asked, but then Hokuto laughed.

"Who said I'd let him die?"

Those words gave Taiga another strong push to get through his pain and he gave the other one an intense stare.

"Do you trust me?" Hokuto asked.

There was no hesitation in Taiga's eyes on that question so Hokuto turned back to the humans with a look Taiga had never seen. For the first time he indeed didn't look human.

"You want to fight us during the day?" One of the men asked and pulled his sword out, pointing it at Hokuto.

"Even without my full strength I'll be stronger than you," Hokuto threatened them and a few of them stepped back, but two of them jumped to the front. Yet Hokuto hadn't lied, he jumped at them without having trouble to fight them off. Yet Taiga could see that he was holding back for his sake. He didn't kill any of them. All he did was throw them around, ripping their weapons out of their hands and throwing them into the river.

Releasing the dogs at him hadn’t helped either, because he could easily scare them away with another hiss.

Yet a moment later the sunlight broke through the clouds and Hokuto started having trouble with his speed.

Taiga wished he could help, but he was barely able to keep standing and then he realized that his father had used Hokuto's distraction to make it over to him.

"He can't follow us with the sun out so we need to leave now."

His father reached out for his wrist, trying to make him follow him back towards the forest, but Taiga pulled his arm back.

"As if you would just leave him alone like this. Do you really think I would leave with him while the others try to kill him?"

"Taiga, you don't understand, he's-"

"He's not like us, yes. But did you or my grandfather ever consider trying to live alongside them?"

Taiga's words showed that they hadn't of course, because his father looked almost scandalized by that thought.

"So do you prefer to get killed by him or die while running away from him?"

"If the only other option is you killing him then yes," Taiga shouted at his father even though he found that scenario ridiculous. He dashed away from his father next, using his last strength to throw himself in front of Hokuto who had trouble fighting back with the sun fully out.

"Young Lord, please step aside. He's not worth your protection," one of the men said, but Taiga shook his head.

"That is something I'll decide myself so if you don't want me dead instead, you should leave."

But of course they wouldn't and soon Taiga stumbled to the back unable to keep standing. Hokuto caught him and of course Taiga's father gave him another hateful glare on that move.

"I can protect you, but I need you to fully trust me," Hokuto whispered.

"I told you before that I trust you," Taiga said and as if he already knew what Hokuto was asking for he let his head drop on the other one's shoulder, revealing his neck.

"Don't you dare!" Taiga's father shouted and got ready to attack once more with the others, but they were too slow and Hokuto once more hissed at them with his fangs out, but this time he buried them into Taiga's neck.

At first it only felt like needles piercing through Taigas skin, but after a few seconds he reached up for Hokuto's arms and clenched his fists into them as the skin on his neck felt like catching fire and he soon couldn't withstand the pain anymore and he sank to his knees, letting out a shuddering breath. Hokuto hadn't gone down with him and looked at the others in front of him instead.

"Last chance for you to retreat," Hokuto hissed in a low voice, but as the men didn't move he walked past Taiga, yet the boy reached out for Hokuto's arm with a weak touch.

"You promised to not kill them," Taiga reminded him and while he couldn't see the same carefree attitude from before in Hokuto's eyes anymore he felt like he could still believe in the boy's sanity as he nodded and squeezed Taiga's hand once.

"I promise you that no one will die today," Hokuto said and finally attacked.

Taiga tried to follow the fight and he was sure that Hokuto had the upper hand this time. Luckily it also seemed like he didn't aim to kill anyone. As he was outnumbered and the blood wouldn't restore his full power he started biting the others at some point, draining them more than Taiga so that they would fall unconscious.

When Hokuto went for Taiga's father the other men finally were frightened enough to run away, but Hokuto kept his promise and jumped back towards Taiga without anyone in a horrible condition.

"Let's go."

"More people will chase after you. No place on this world is safe for you," Taiga's father hissed as Hokuto had left him in a similar state as Taiga so he was conscious yet not able to get up again.

Hokuto lifted Taiga up from the ground and gave the man an indifferent look.

"This world belonged to us way sooner than to you. Don't act like you're the kings of this world," Hokuto warned him before he took a tighter grip on Taiga and while the boy didn't really clearly recognize his surroundings anymore he gasped when Hokuto jumped from the cliff down towards the river.

***

The next time Taiga woke up something felt horribly wrong. There was no way that he should feel in any way okay, yet he felt fine. Even better than fine. No pain of his wound, no headache or other uncomfortable feeling. When he sat up he immediately put his hand on his wound, which wasn't there anymore.

"What the hell…" Taiga whispered to himself and finally looked around the unfamiliar place. His room had windows, but it was dark outside. The walls were out of grey stone, candle holders on the walls and a heavy wooden door at the other side of the room. Even the bed looked more elegant than in his own house, yet also way older and pretty dusty.

Right, on that thought Taiga got up and put his own worries to the back for now. He hurried out of the room and he was greeted by a long corridor with expensive looking paintings on the wall. This was indeed no normal house, this was a castle, Taiga was sure of it. He had never heard of any remaining intact castle of the previous century so he wondered how far Hokuto had ran off with him.

There were several staircases, but Taiga remained on the same floor for now while he tried to find his way through the dark corridors until he found a huge double door leading into an even bigger hall.

While he usually got shivers when seeing those silver eyes in the dark, he felt extremely relieved to see them this time and he hurried through the open doors towards the big room where Hokuto was sitting on a huge wooden chair at the end of the hall without any windows.

"Are you okay?" Taiga asked and for a moment Hokuto did nothing but look back at him with a thoughtful expression. Taiga could see it, there was something dark in his eyes this time, but not as before when he was wounded.

"Shouldn't I ask you that?" Hokuto asked and Taiga bit his lip, moving his hand up to his neck.

"I feel fine, which is because of you, right? Am I-,"

"Even if I bite you there will be no change," Hokuto explained as he saw Taiga's troubled expression. "It's even the opposite. To not kill you by draining your blood, my bite can actually help you recover faster, that's why you also don't have to worry for your father. He is going to be fine."

That was a double relief for Taiga, but he still felt like there was something else going on he hadn't caught up to yet.

"Thank you for that even though it put you at risk," Taiga said. "Are you really okay?"

Hokuto leant to the front and put his elbows on his legs, resting his chin on the back of his hand with an intense stare towards Taiga.

"Do you remember what I told you the first time we met?"

There was so much they had talked about at their first few meetings that Taiga wasn't sure exactly which part he talked about so he shook his head.

"I know everything about a person through their blood. Even their oldest memories."

Taiga remembered that part and then it clicked and he gasped, stepping back without even wanting to. "My father's blood. He was a child when my grandfather hunted your kind down," Taiga caught up. "So, you saw what they did?"

Hokuto let out a low chuckle on that, an attitude he hadn’t shown yet.

When he got up and approached Taiga, the boy didn't dare to step back this time even when Hokuto came way too close and put one hand on Taiga's face, stroking a strand of hair behind his ear.

"Even better," Hokuto said as he leant to the front, whispering next to Taiga's ear. "Thanks to those memories I regained part of my own."

That was what they had aimed for, yet Taiga couldn't feel happy or relieved. Something about those memories was scaring him, Hokuto was scaring him. When Hokuto moved again he put one hand up around Taiga's neck as he lowered his lips towards the side of his neck and Taiga froze.

"Something is still missing, I can feel it. But for now the parts that are clear, won’t be to your liking. Your kind tried to kill us so often. You never even once tried to understand us."

"Didn't I try to understand you?" Taiga asked in a low voice, closing his eyes with a shuddering breath when Hokuto's hand closed a bit tighter around his neck.

"You did, but do you still want to know more? Are you not regretting helping me?"

"I don't regret it," Taiga let out immediately on which Hokuto moved a bit back to look at the boy's face with an amused expression.

"Then do you want to stay with me?" Hokuto asked and when Taiga wanted to reply he pulled him a bit closer once more, cutting his breath off for a moment with his grip. "Think carefully about your reply. I'll ask you once, but I won't let you go if you decide to stay."

Even though there was something way more dangerous than ever before about Hokuto, Taiga actually got angry at the boy's words and he reached out for Hokuto's collar and pulled him to the front.

It wasn't surprising that Hokuto actually let himself get pulled and loosened the grip on Taiga's neck when their lips met for a rough first kiss.

Hokuto immediately demanded the lead and closed his hand a bit more to make Taiga surrender to his movements, yet Taiga didn't mind. As long as his decision was understood like that he would surrender as often as needed.

"That was a quick decision," Hokuto said against the other one's lips, leaving Taiga slightly out of breath.

"Why would I leave after everything I've done to help you? What kind of life would await me if I go back now?"

Hokuto formed a lopsided smile on that before he took Taiga's bottom lip between his teeth and Taiga closed his eyes on that move before he dared his hands on the other one's chest. Hokuto finally released the other one's neck on that move and pulled him into a greedy kiss with his hand in the other one's hair.

"You're so human," Hokuto said as he moved his lips up to the other one's ears. "I can feel so much excitement, yet also fear."

"Do I have to fear you?" Taiga asked back and slowly Hokuto moved one hand around the boy's chin when he stepped back to look at him with his now dark shining eyes. The smile he formed made a shiver run through Taiga's body, but as Hokuto had said, it wasn't only fear. He had decided to stay and he wanted to make clear that he'd never betray the other one.

"Always," Hokuto finally replied and this time he showed his fangs. Provoking Taiga and feeling more of his fear was making Hokuto even more excited. To his surprise though, Taiga tilted his head, revealing his neck while he moved his arms loosely around the other one's upper body.

"Then show me how scary you can be," Taiga whispered next to the other one's ear before he bit down on the other one's neck, which made Hokuto chuckle before he dared his fangs on Taiga's skin.

"I'll show you real fear," Hokuto said in a low voice that sounded so unfamiliar to Taiga, but then all his thoughts were swallowed by the pain of Hokuto's fangs burying in his flesh once more.

Once more Taiga woke up alone in the same room as before, yet this time sunlight was piercing through the windows. He didn’t remember what exactly had happened the night before, but he didn’t feel in any way restless about his decision. Slowly he moved his hand up to his neck, but once more there was nothing on his skin. Yet there were also so many questions left he wanted to ask Hokuto. He needed to know what had happened between his people and his grandfather. He wanted to know about his memories even before that and also if…if Taiga asked for it if he could indeed turn him or if that part was also just a made up story from all those fictional books.

Knowing that Hokuto was definitely asleep somewhere in this huge castle, Taiga decided to get up and take a look around. The first place he went to was the cupboard at the corner of the room and while he hadn’t expected clothes to be in it, he was pleased to actually find clean clothes. His clothes were ripped, covered with dry blood and he wanted to get out of them. So even though the clothes in the cupboard seemed a bit old of course and didn’t have the nicest smell on them, he decided to change into them. He only took the pants and a loose shirt out of it as he didn’t want to wear the same ridiculous restricting clothes he had been forced to wear his entire life, so he ignored the expensive looking shirts and jackets inside before he finally made it out to the corridor once more.

He knew the way to the main hall already so he decided to move to the other side and randomly open doors, but he tried to be as silent as possible as he didn’t want to wake Hokuto in case he stumbled over his room. Weirdly though all rooms had windows so Taiga wondered where Hokuto was hiding during the day time.

After he had found a library, a few guest rooms and a room full of expensive looking dresses and suits he decided to make his way to the main hall once more, but even though he could see a bit more during the day there was no sunlight coming in, yet Hokuto wasn’t in this place either.

“Where are you hiding,” Taiga wondered and he was sure that Hokuto hadn’t just left him here after what he had said the day before. So he kept searching the castle. When he finally made it down to the ground floor he found a kitchen, but unfortunately no eatable food as the castle was most likely deserted for centuries already. Yet he realized that he didn’t feel that hungry. Maybe that was also something like a side effect from Hokuto’s bite, but sooner or later he would need to get food, which finally made him step outside.

Bright sunlight and a small breeze awaited him outside. When he looked straight ahead his eyes turned wide as he realized where this castle was located. Built on rocks, standing tall like a tower the castle was surrounded by water, the mainland visible yet far away.

“Well at least they won’t find us here easily,” Taiga said, trying to see the good in it, but now he really wondered how he was supposed to stay alive here, if that was what Hokuto aimed for in the first place?

Back inside the castle Taiga realized that there was another corridor and when he followed it for quite a while a circular staircase towards a lower level was visible at the end. Luckily there was a torch at the wall, which he was able to light, because the staircase seemed pitch black so he wouldn’t be able to make his way down without it.

When he stepped into the corridor at the end of the staircase his body started shivering because of the cold. There was no light reaching here and no warmth filled the place. When he moved the torch around he finally realized what kind of place this was and the next shiver wasn’t because of the cold.

Metal bars on the side of the corridor showed that these were the dungeons of the castle and Taiga didn’t even want to look more closely as he had already spotted what he didn’t want to see in the corner of his eyes. People have been left to die here before and their bones still remained. Ready to leave this place again Taiga wanted to turn around, but then he heard something from the back of the corridor. He could just leave, right? Why would he need to confirm anything? But weirdly he didn’t feel scared about going. Instead he felt kind of guilty so he put the torch around the corner on the staircase so that he could at least find the way back up, but then he took another deep breath and walked off into the pitch black corridor.

With his eyes unable to guide him, he felt like his hearing was catching even the smallest noise. After a few more meters when he couldn’t see even the hand in front of his face anymore he stopped as he suddenly wondered if he shouldn’t have come after all?

While he thought he would definitely realize every movement in the dark he was disabused the next second when he had not even any time to react when he was thrown to the back. The only reason he didn’t panic was the fact that he had clearly seen the silver shimmer in the dark.

“You really enjoy waking me up, don’t you?”

Taiga had landed on his back, but to his surprise his head hadn’t collided with the stone ground as Hokuto had his hand on the back of his head and was hovering over him, yet all Taiga could see were his eyes.

“I- I was wondering why you chose such a horrible place,” Taiga finally brought out, making Hokuto chuckle and release the boy as he stood up. Taiga hurried to stand up as well, but all he could follow was the silver shine or he wouldn’t know where to look.

“For me this is not a horrible place. You want me to join you in the sunlight instead?” Hokuto asked challenging.

“If there was no light would you mind joining me?” The words escaped Taiga before he had even been able to think about it. Hokuto stepped so close that Taiga would usually feel his breath, but then he remembered that he wasn’t breathing in the first place.

“Do you want me to join you?” Hokuto asked back and Taiga took a shuddering breath before he slowly nodded. He wasn’t feeling scared, but the way Hokuto didn’t know what personal space was, made it difficult for Taiga to concentrate. “Then I can join you tonight.”

A promise Taiga was looking forward to, yet he didn’t want to leave it at that and he carefully searched for Hokuto’s clothes and put his hand on the other one’s chest. To his surprise his body was never feeling cold, no matter in what environment he was in. Another part that all those books had gotten wrong.

“You should get back up, you will freeze to death down here,” Hokuto reminded him as Taiga’s body was indeed feeling way too cold. Not that it was much warmer in the castle. Winter had arrived early and they were out at sea so the wind made it even colder.

“Then warm me up later when you come, because you left me in a pretty cold place,” Taiga let out as he needed to scold Hokuto later for some more things as he had chosen a really difficult hiding place for Taiga, but that could wait. Now he was looking forward to actually finding a way for Hokuto to not have to stay at such a horrible place just to hide from the sun.

***

Taiga’s room had turned into a battlefield of blankets and dust for the rest of the day and while he was sure that he would need to go down the cliffs to be able to take a bath, it was just way too cold to consider it, so eventually he had fallen asleep in the chaos he had created, unable to stay awake for longer.

A light touch on his hair woke him up later and he stretched his body a bit before he hid his face on the pillow before he realized that his face was itching to all the dust he hadn’t taken off the night before. Reluctantly he turned on his back and opened his eyes, not surprised to find Hokuto sitting next to him in the dark room.

“Is it still night time?” Taiga asked, but Hokuto shook his head.

“It’s early morning. But the fact that you can’t tell the time shows that you have done a good job with the windows,” Hokuto praised him.

The huge windows had all been covered by every kind of blanket and curtain Taiga had found in other rooms, so that even with the sun out, the room would remain dark, but still not too dark for him to see. It was the perfect mix for him to be able to see Hokuto and for the other one to not get disturbed by sunlight.

“Were you here the entire night?” Taiga asked, a bit guilty.

“Actually not, I got something for you, but you can still sleep a bit longer if you want?” Hokuto replied. Taiga moved a bit to the side on those words and cleaned his bed a bit from the dusk.

“Just if you stay with me for a while,” Taiga said with a teasing smile and to his surprise Hokuto crawled on the bed and lay down right in front of him, so close that Taiga wanted to give him more space, but he had reached the end of the bed.

“In that case you have to wake me up when you want to see what I got for you, because even in a dark room I will easily fall asleep at daytime,” Hokuto explained and the way he snuggled against Taiga’s body and got comfortable in the bed, Taiga dared for the first time to stretch his hand out and put a kiss on the other one’s hair.

“I will make sure that you get enough sleep as well, but I am really happy that you can now do it in a way more comfortable place,” Taiga said and pulled the other one closer. His body warmth still felt unnatural to him as he had always imagined his body to be cold, yet he also easily fell asleep once more in the other one’s arms.

***

Maybe Taiga should have woken up Hokuto, but seeing him sleep this peacefully made him slowly get up from the bed without disturbing the other one. He wasn’t sure if he could even move around without Hokuto realizing, but if he faked his sleep and didn’t scold Taiga for not waking him up he would give Hokuto more hours of sleep as it was maybe barely noon when he stepped out to one of the balconies, overlooking the ocean.

Hokuto would be able to move through parts of the castle at daytime thanks to the heavy walls, but there were also parts with huge windows like the corridor he was in now next to the balcony. When he kept walking he realized how he suddenly felt extremely lightheaded and that was when he remembered that after all the work he had done the day before with the curtains and blankets he still hadn’t gotten any food or water so far.

Slowly he put his hand up to his neck with an absentminded look. There were still so many unanswered questions and problems lying ahead, but somehow Taiga didn’t want to have any complicated discussions now, even though he knew they were more than necessary.

When Taiga moved past the kitchen on the lower floor he tilted his head after he was already a few steps away and then made a few steps back.

“What…,” he let out in disbelief when he found wooden boxes full of food and even barrels with water. “When did he get all these?”

“Last night,” Hokuto said suddenly next to him, making Taiga jump out of surprise.

“Did I wake you up again?” Taiga asked guilty.

“Don’t worry about it too much, it’s not like I need to sleep as long as humans, usually I only need to sleep more when I get exhausted.”

Which had been the case after Taiga had made him walk under the sun, but now he indeed didn’t look exhausted.

“But- don’t you also need to, ehm…” Taiga didn’t want to voice it out, just the thought of it made his heart race. Something Hokuto immediately realized as he stepped closer to the other one and tilted his head to put his lips closer to the other one’s neck, resulting in Taiga tensing.

“If I need your blood?” Hokuto asked and when Taiga could feel Hokuto’s fangs on his skin he actually found the courage to pull back. When Hokuto gave him a teasing smile the next moment his fangs were gone once more. “I don’t necessarily need to, no.”

“So you only need blood when you’re exhausted?” Taiga asked straight forward as he finally wanted some answers.

“I slept for quite a while and didn’t immediately attack you even though you hurt yourself in my place, doesn’t that answer your question?”

Thinking about that time and also their encounters after that, Hokuto had never attacked him even if he had been bleeding.

“For us time works differently. The night your father accidently shot you was the first time I actually felt like losing control, but that wasn’t because of your wound, but because it was the first time I felt like I needed to fight so I was on such high alert that my body wanted your blood.”

“That’s why you didn’t come close to me at that time,” Taiga concluded and somehow it made him feel relieved and he walked over to the food and grabbed some bread from one of the boxes. “I guess you didn’t pay for those?”

The teasing smile Taiga showed while waving the bread towards Hokuto’s direction made the other one roll his eyes. “Let’s say there are some expensive things in this castle I left in exchange. It’s not like I can wake them up at night and ask them to pack food for me.”

“I can go myself the next time,” Taiga said, but just the thought of having to go back to the mainland by himself, not knowing if his father was actually still trying to find him scared him.

“Or you come with me on my next night trip, how does that sound?” Hokuto asked and took an apple, throwing it towards Taiga who caught it at the last second. “And if you feel tired of making trips to the mainland I can still help out with that human habit.”

Once more Taiga’s hand moved a bit up to his neck, but he didn’t feel too concerned about it now that he knew that Hokuto wouldn’t actually suddenly turn against him without any reason, but that also made him realize that there was more to talk about.

“About your-”

“Eat for now, okay? I will wait in the library, but I can feel in your heartbeat that you need this more than you think right now,” Hokuto said before he left Taiga alone for now and vanished into the dark corridor.

After a moment alone Taiga dared to light a lamp and sat down to finally eat and drink. He used the time to also get his thoughts straight. He didn’t want to ask impolite questions, but he also couldn’t just stay here with Hokuto without being sure what exactly they would face together from now on. After all, he had left his entire life behind to run away with him, yet he needed to know how the situation was for Hokuto.

***

The library was bigger than the one of Hokuto's former place yet not as big as their city's library. But the wooden shelves had beautiful detailed engravings and the entire room smelled of old books. But the first thing Taiga realized was that there were two huge windows at one wall and while it was already evening there was still the last light of the day piercing through it.

After looking around for a bit he saw that there was another corridor in the back and the light slowly faded towards the smaller second room at the end of it as it had no window. Taiga's eyes needed a moment to get used to the dark, but then he spotted Hokuto on an armchair where he had fallen asleep once more.

Slowly he walked up to him and took the book that was dangerously hanging half of his thigh, from his hand and put it on the table next to him.

"My presence here makes it more difficult for you to rest," Taiga said as he sat down on the small footstool in front of the armchair.

"If I'd care I would have sent you away already," Hokuto let out without even opening his eyes. "It's just a comfortable place to rest. You should try it."

First Taiga didn't move, but then Hokuto cracked one eye open and moved a bit to the side. Taiga chuckled on that move as the armchair wasn't exactly made for two people yet he took the invitation and tried to find a comfortable position next to Hokuto. The other one immediately put his arms around him and pulled him closer so that he would stop moving around.

"Nice isn't it?" Hokuto asked as he rested his chin on the other one's hair and used Taiga almost as a pillow the way he put his arms and legs around him.

"Since when are you all this cuddly?" Taiga asked, but he didn't complain, because he liked it.

"Am I supposed to be different?" Hokuto asked and suddenly moved his head up a bit towards Taiga's neck. "You know I can also behave completely differently if you want to."

The way Hokuto touched his neck with his lips made Taiga shiver, but this time he didn't mind as he could feel Hokuto's playful behavior behind that statement.

"I prefer you cuddly," Taiga said and placed a kiss on Hokuto's head before he started playing with his strands of hair.

Even though they remained silent for a while it didn't feel weird to Taiga and when he realized that Hokuto had fallen back asleep he reached over him to get the book he had picked up before.

The hardcover showed the title the monk written by Matthew Lewis and Taiga randomly started reading. Lost in the book Taiga almost missed the squeeze he got around his hips.

"Your heart rate has gone up and your face is all flushed, why is that?" Hokuto asked so innocently when he woke up, as if he hadn't felt the same while reading this extremely catchy yet disturbing book about a man whose fantasies and actions were everything but harmless.

Taiga cleared his throat before he closed the book and gave Hokuto some space to sit up, but he didn't bother getting out of the chair.

"Do you not feel the emotions of the characters when you read a book?" Taiga asked, but Hokuto didn't seem to have an easy reply to that. Maybe he couldn't understand their human emotions that easily even if he read about them.

"I unfortunately couldn't bring the book from your library," Taiga let out a bit gloomy. "I fear my father already burned it. Maybe he also burned your place down."

"I don't care," Hokuto let out way too carefree, but Taiga couldn't find any lie in his expression. "That place wasn't mine from the start."

On that topic Taiga felt nervous, but he knew he couldn't just stay here with Hokuto and ignore everything that was happening around them.

"How much do you remember?"

"My life goes back way too far to remember everything in the first place. There are parts that seem missing, like a certain presence in my life was erased from my memory, but I remember what humans have done to my kind."

Hokuto's voice turned darker and with it his mood, but he shouldn't run away from it either so Taiga shifted a bit to sit more upright. "My grandfather, he was part of it, right?"

"Yes, he hunting my kind with people of your city and then started roaming the land to disturb our peaceful existence and cause uproar, making even more humans join his ridiculous and pointless chase."

"But, aren't you stronger than humans?" Taiga asked carefully.

"You've seen it yourself. If they attack at day time we have a disadvantage. Fire is also a deadly weapon against us and after a decade of hide and seek with the humans a lot of us had enough. If they wanted to see us as monsters then we would show them how real monsters looked like."

When Hokuto didn't continue, Taiga gave his words a long thought until it clicked. "That house you were in and also this place. Both belonged to humans before. It wasn't the humans who had destroyed it, but you."

"Indeed. The reason I somehow remembered this place faintly is because we once gathered here. I wasn’t alone at that house either, I know that, but something is still missing in my memory. But your city was full of those people trying to hunt my kind down. They didn't even once try to talk to us or understand us, so we didn't either."

There was so much Taiga wanted to ask, but he could feel how Hokuto had tensed. His hate towards humans was obviously really strong, which made him wonder how he could accept Taiga next to him.

"But why have you been asleep for so long?" Taiga asked.

"You're trying to talk around the topic you want to know about," Hokuto said as he finally got up from the chair, but Taiga didn't dare to follow him. Hokuto made a few steps towards another table and leant with his legs against it. "Yes it was me who killed your grandfather."

Of course Taiga had that question in the back of his mind and he wasn't shocked about it either, but he still looked away on Hokuto's piercing look.

"I remember your grandfather clearly. Usually my kind doesn’t move in packs, but I know that at that time I barely managed to fight. Something felt weird at that time.  We killed a lot of them in the first night, but while we thought we could hide at that house over the day they found us and all I remember are a lot of torches, shouting and fire. I got badly hurt in that fight too, but I didn't let any of them escape on that day. Why I slept for that long and why my memory is so blurry now I don’t know myself."

Taiga only nodded at first, but Hokuto didn't seem angry or hurt and the lack of emotion made it difficult for Taiga to react.

"Was he your friend?"

"I don’t know,” Hokuto replied honestly. “A lot of us fought in groups at that time to kill those humans who tried to murder our kind. But I can’t remember who I was with and if he survived that day or not.”

Hokuto’s look showed a bit of sadness on the way he couldn’t remember what seemed to be an important part of his memory, but Taiga hoped that with more time he could regain those missing parts as well.

"Now that you remember, what do you- I mean-... I'm not-"

"Why I let a human live and even invite him to stay with me? Furthermore a member of one of the families who started all of this?"

The direct way of voicing it out made Taiga look to the ground in discomfort as he started clawing his own skin around the wrists.

"Do you doubt my intentions?" Hokuto asked directly, making Taiga immediately look back up at him.

"I- I don't know. Because we never actually talked about your intentions. You also never really clarified what- I mean who you really are."

"Aren't I a vampire?" Hokuto asked back with a slightly teasing expression. "At least that's what your books call me, right? In all those books we have read together I've never found any creature or monster as you like calling us that had more similarities than the one you call vampire."

"Yet a lot about them is false," Taiga voiced out a bit sheepish after he remembered how they had actually tried out all those stupid methods from the books to identify vampires.

"And some are true," Hokuto reminded him while licking his lips.

Taiga nodded slowly, but when Hokuto walked away from the table towards the corridor he finally got up as well.

"Do you mind if I find out for myself what else is false and what might be something no one has discovered until now?" Taiga asked in a rush, making Hokuto halt and turn back to him with an amused expression.

"If that is going to be your intention of staying then I won't stop you," Hokuto replied seriously.

"Then what was your attention when you rescued me and brought me here?"

Hokuto walked back to Taiga and put his hand up to the other one's cheek with a playful expression before he leant towards his ear. "You might have to find that out by yourself."

Of course Hokuto used the moment to brush his lips over Taiga's neck once more, but Taiga was done feeling restless or scared. So when Hokuto wanted to pull back he grabbed Hokuto by the collar and pulled him into a greedy kiss.

The other one reacted with a faint smile, but let Taiga lead the kiss and enjoyed it how Taiga's hands were slightly shaking when he moved them up to the other one's hair, while Hokuto pushed him a bit too roughly into the next shelf, making Taiga gasp. The perfect opportunity for Hokuto to deepen the kiss and get into control.

Taiga's legs started feeling weak after a moment and his hands started to move down to Hokuto's chest, then to the seam of his shirt.

He wanted to say something, but Hokuto wouldn't let him and then he decided that words were overrated and that they could tell each other their needs way easier in this way.

This time Taiga was the one to push and he made Hokuto stumble back to the armchair. It was definitely not the best place, but better than nothing.

Hokuto had his hands under the other one’s shirt while Taiga was busy with Hokuto's pants. There was not a single sign of hesitation in either of their movements and while that was definitely normal for Hokuto, Taiga was surprising himself with his determined movements.

After a small struggle of getting clothes out of the way Taiga didn't hesitate to close his hand around Hokuto’s erection. Once more Taiga wanted to say something, maybe even tease the other one, but something about Hokuto's intense look stopped him and he bit his lip while he shifted a bit making it possible for Hokuto to pull his pants down completely and pull him on his legs before he pulled him down for another greedy and passionate kiss.

Hokuto's hands moved from Taiga's back to his hips and while Taiga was sure that their pace wasn't a good idea he was too aroused himself to delay anything and as he didn’t know for how long he could keep this confidence he wanted to hurry. Just a few moments of hesitation could make him feel embarrassed and still pull away.

He let out a muffled whine and hid his face on Hokuto's neck when he lowered himself on Hokuto, but the other one was a master in distracting him. His lips were on his neck, then his hands were distracting him with his own erection, but it was still difficult for Taiga to relax.

When Hokuto suddenly bit him, but didn't use his fangs, the wave of pleasure filling Taiga's body almost made him come way too soon and he was finally able to thrust his hips against Hokuto who didn't need to be active that much himself, but he still kept his hands and lips all over the other one's body, which made it so hard for Taiga to delay the reaction of his excitement as he wanted to enjoy this as much as possible.

While he tried to keep himself from talking, he couldn't hide his moans, but the way Hokuto buried his fingers in his hips and thrusted up himself this time it was obvious that there was no need to hide any sounds.

While Taiga already felt out of breath, Hokuto seemed still as relaxed as always and his body heat made Taiga feel even more aroused and he gave Hokuto one last passionate kiss to signal him that he was way too close.

Instead of letting Taiga come this easily, Hokuto moved his lips away from the kiss and put his lips back on his neck. His hand reached out for Taiga's erection once more while he thrusted in deeper than Taiga was feeling comfortable with and then Taiga could feel the other one’s fangs on his skin once more.

The moment he could feel the warm pain of them burying in his neck everything got too much for him and he came with a way too high pitched moan, which made him blush and finally let that hold back embarrassment take over as he put his arms around Hokuto's shoulders and hid his face at the other one's neck.

He could feel Hokuto's body shaking a bit as well as he had pulled back his fangs, but it was difficult to say if he had come as well or if he even enjoyed it as much as Taiga, but for now he didn't want to ask and the way Hokuto closed his arms protectively around Taiga made him smile and close his eyes. Maybe he didn't need more explanations, maybe not knowing everything and just finding out about the other one by exploring their limits was something Taiga was totally okay with for the rest of his life. As long as his human life lasted at least.

Days turned into weeks and finally Taiga had enough of sitting around in this castle all the time. Not that he didn't enjoy Hokuto's company, but it was difficult for both of them to find time together as Taiga of course tried to stay awake at night, but at some point his body would just demand a normal day night rhythm again and for Hokuto it was even more complicated as he wouldn't be at full strength even if the windows were hung up.

So for once they actually left the castle together with the small boat and made it to the mainland at nightfall.

Instead of the harbor, Hokuto secured the boat at a rock around a forest area and he helped Taiga alongside the steep cliff walls until they reached the harbor.

"We get supplies and leave," Hokuto said as he started walking straight to the main road. This time they were early enough to actually buy things at open stores and not have Hokuto sneak around and leave random payment at people's closed stores, but of course Hokuto had to keep his hood low over his eyes and he let Taiga do most of the talking.

"Why are you in such a hurry? I know the light of the stores annoys you, but how about we walk around the harbor area a bit later where there is not much light?"

Hokuto just nodded for now and they hurried to get the supplies for Taiga before the shops closed. Soon the harbor area fell silent and Taiga walked through the streets with a calm smile.

"You miss them," Hokuto said, startling Taiga as he didn't understand at first. "Humans, you miss being around them. I bet you miss your family too."

For a moment Taiga didn't reply, but he also didn't feel bad about the question. "Being around humans, yes I think I miss it a bit. But all these noble families not that much, because I hated being around them," Taiga replied honestly. "My family…"

For a moment Taiga was lost in his thoughts as he slowed down, but then he shook his head. "I'm grateful that you let my father go on that day and I really wish them well, but I never felt like I belonged in that kind of family in the first place so no I don't really miss them."

Hokuto looked at him quite doubting, but Taiga wasn't telling a lie to make the other one feel calmer.

"Fine, then I guess we should have some more trips to town from now on."

First Taiga just stopped, but then he saw Hokuto's torn expression and Taiga walked closer to him, giving him a sudden hug.

"What was that for?" Hokuto asked a bit startled, making Taiga smile.

"A thank you for going out of your way for me. I know that being around all these humans isn't easy for you, yet you offered to make more trips just so I can be around them from time to time."

Hokuto didn't reply as they kept walking around the wooden docks at the harbor for a while.

"Let's sit down?" Taiga asked as they had a lot of supplies to carry around and they put them all down and Taiga lay on his back and looked up at the clear night sky.

"Is there anything you're afraid of?"

"What do you mean?" Hokuto asked on the sudden question as he had sat down and looked ahead at the ocean.

"I mean you're different to humans, yet also kind of similar. I just wonder if there is anything you ever felt afraid of."

Hokuto thought about it for a moment, but it was obvious that he couldn't think about anything.

"Are you afraid of anything?" Hokuto asked back.

"I'm afraid of bugs," Taiga said before he had to laugh at his own statement. "Well I think there are different kinds of fears, so this one is an embarrassing one."

"Then what other kinds of fears are there?" Hokuto asked curiously as he turned to face the other one and finally Taiga sat back up and looked ahead.

"The kind that will give you nightmares and will haunt you if it gets the best of you. Something that might not be reality yet, but could easily become one."

Hokuto waited patiently for Taiga to continue as he obviously wanted to know more.

"I feared to be trapped in my life as a noble man. I didn't enjoy any of those political meetings or stupid balls. Yet I knew that my family wanted me to marry and become exactly like one of those people and it scared me. I felt like I wouldn't be able to deal with that life, a life that wasn't meant for me, but was forced onto me. The fear of not being able to live like that."

"But what other choice would you have had?" Hokuto asked.

"Only one," Taiga said, now his eyes wandering down to the water with a dark expression. "Put an end to that life."

"But don't humans fear death?" Hokuto asked, not even judging Taiga for his thoughts.

"Most do, I think. I also do fear death, but I feared a life I didn't want way more so in the end one fear will overshadow the other one."

"What about your life now?"

Taiga looked up at the other one on that question, but then he formed a smile and reached out for Hokuto's face with a soft touch on his cheek. "This is no life I fear, the only thing I fear now is that it could get taken away from me again."

"I won't let anyone take you away," Hokuto growled as if it had been a threat.

"And no one will," Taiga soothed him before he leaned in for a passionate kiss.

Hokuto was about to put his hand into the other one's hair when he suddenly backed off and looked over Taiga's shoulder with a dangerous glare.

Taiga immediately followed his look, but he couldn't see anyone.

"What is it?" Taiga asked alarmed, but Hokuto kept staring ahead, making Taiga shiver as he didn't understand what was going on.

"Let's leave," Hokuto finally let out and dragged Taiga up.

"Hokuto, what the hell is going on?" Taiga asked again, but Hokuto only threw some of the supplies in his arms and dragged him along the docks.

Then finally Taiga could see them. Guard, carrying lamps on their night watch. Still too far away to be of any danger to them, but Hokuto had obviously felt them approaching already.

"What do they want?" Taiga whispered towards Hokuto as they made it towards the rocks at the harbor.

"They are just patrolling the area. I've seen them before, but I think they got suspicious lately, I see them way more often now," Hokuto finally explained.

"But when we were around town no one looked at us in a suspicious way," Taiga realized.

"That's because I usually go at midnight so they don't really think I'd be here earlier, but we might have to look for another harbor for supplies soon," Hokuto explained and it wasn't like Taiga minded as he didn't want to cause trouble to Hokuto in any way.

***

Weeks had turned into months, but Taiga didn't keep track of time that much. He had a lot of free time on his hands, but he had found a liking in cooking as the castle had a huge kitchen and they regularly went to get supplies and fire food as the castle was also too cold for Taiga at night. The books in the library could also keep him busy for a lifetime and he spent a lot of time reading together with Hokuto, but usually all the books landed on the ground eventually. Especially this time when Hokuto handed him a book to read out loud, it had been impossible for Taiga to keep a straight face at some point as Dangerous Liaisons was a book about everything but normal and harmless topics. It had been the only time Taiga had lost his patience first and of course Hokuto had enjoyed it to the fullest.

"You totally knew what this book was about," Taiga teased as he placed another kiss on Hokuto's chest and the other one licked his lips as he had barely calmed down again. As so often they hadn't even moved out of the library and had ended up on the carpet eventually, but now they were cuddling on the armchair.

"Maybe?" Hokuto teased and closed his eyes as he put his head to the back.

"You should rest. The sun has definitely risen by now," Taiga said.

"You should rest some as well then. I kept you awake all night."

"I will sleep in a bit, but I need to get something in my stomach first. I'll come back in a bit, okay?" Taiga asked and got up in a sitting position, but Hokuto pulled him back a bit with his elbow around the other one's neck and engaged their lips in a slightly copper tasting kiss as Hokuto had bitten him as so often, but Taiga didn't even mind anymore. It had something arousing after all and he wasn't in any kind harmed by it, maybe just slightly dizzy and definitely hungry after it, but his food needed to be taken from the kitchen and not from the other one’s neck unfortunately.

"You should rest in your own bed for a while," Hokuto said, knowing that the armchair wasn't the most comfortable sleeping choice if both of them used it.

"Oh, are you trying to get rid of me?" Taiga teased, but finally got up to get dressed.

"The opposite. I want you to rest well so I can occupy you even more later," Hokuto teased back.

"Then I guess you need to choose a new book for tonight or I won't get into the right mood," Taiga said and gave the other one a wink before he left Hokuto for his daytime rest.

While making some food in the kitchen Taiga hummed a random melody when he needed to smile at himself. After months with the same routine he thought he would get tired of it at some point, but he had never felt more at home.

"I wish we could live like this forever," Taiga whispered to himself, but then his mood dropped as he realized that for him there would be no forever while Hokuto would need to live without him at some point.

"I guess I just added another fear to my list," Taiga laughed at himself as he had seen death lightly until now while he didn't want to waste any of his precious years with Hokuto now.

Lost in his thoughts Taiga felt like he had heard something, but usually all he heard was the sound of the waves on the rocks or the wind going through the halls of the castle. But it had been a really calm morning when he had walked through the castle so now Taiga got curious and walked towards the balcony. As expected there were no high waves, the sun was out and the wind was only a light breeze, but when he looked down to the rocks on west side of the castle his eyes grew wide as he realized that the boat he was seeing wasn't their own.

In panic Taiga ran back into the castle, but on his way down to the library he could hear voices from the lowest floor and instead of making his way to the back of the castle he decided to dash down to the next floor as he didn't want Hokuto to wake up. Who knew how Hokuto would react to a sudden intrusion.

On the bottom of the next staircase Taiga hid at the wall and carefully looked towards the entrance hall of the castle.

"Woah this is so awesome!" A boy yelled super excited and kept running forth and back, touching everything in his reach.

"Shin, stop it. We are not even supposed to be here. It's forbidden," another boy warned him.

"Don't be poor sports Kochi. You could have stayed behind," a third boy interfered.

"Juri, you know that if I hadn't come with you trouble makers then you would get yourself into even more problems than we already got in by coming here!"

All of the boys seemed from one of the harbor towns, simple clothes in beige with no coats or high boots that showed that they were most likely fishers or harbor workers.

"You already lost the biggest trouble maker so I think you're not that useful after all," Shin joked on which Kochi sighed and rubbed his temples.

Taiga was relieved to see that they didn't look dangerous, but that didn't mean they wouldn't change their behavior if they encountered Hokuto.

Taiga had remained almost completely hidden at the stair case yet the last place he thought someone else would show up was directly behind him and that someone had clapped him on the back without any warning, making Taiga squeal and almost fall down the steps of the staircase before he stopped in the middle of the hallway. The three boys all gave him a confused look until the fourth one started laughing way too loud at the staircase. Taiga immediately wanted to tell him to shut up, but luckily Kochi already took care of that.

"Jesse, for god's sake. We told you to stay quiet."

"For what reason? To not wake the ghosts?" Jesse laughed, but tried to not be too loud this time.

"You woke up one," Shin said as he pointed at Taiga. "Look at his clothes. They totally look like from the last century."

He wasn't wrong as Taiga used the clothes he had found in the castle and had only gotten a new pair of normal clothes for when they were going to town.

For a moment a weird silence fell between all of them until Juri took a small stone from the ground and threw it against Taiga's chest. In confusion Taiga looked back at them all, but then Juri shrugged his shoulders. "No ghost."

Kochi approached him and gave him a harsh slap on the back of his head. "Idiot of course he is no ghost."

"So then who are you and why do you look so fancy?"

Jesse asked as he walked up to Taiga and pulled on the wide double layered collar of his white shirt.

"I'm Taiga."

What else was he supposed to reply? But they all seemed to be satisfied for now and especially relieved that he wasn't indeed a ghost, not that they would run into something even more frightening if Taiga didn't stop them.

"What are you all doing here?" Taiga asked, trying to get the topic away from himself.

"Ghost hunting," Shin let out and crossed his arms to his chest.

"Well not quite," Kochi interfered. "We just wanted to see the ruins of the castle of the last century. We know it's officially not allowed for boats to come close as the docks have been ripped off."

"Where is your boat?" Jesse asked randomly.

"On the backside," Taiga replied as it wasn't a lie.

"So you also came to explore?" Juri asked.

Taiga didn't know what to reply, but then Jesse hit him on the shoulder. "Then let's all explore the castle together! The weather hasn't been this great in months, but who knows how long it will last."

Right, usually the bad weather and high waves would keep everyone away, yet of course some curious fisher boys had to make it their task to go on an adventure to the castle.

"Let's not waste time," Shin said and wanted to go after Jesse who was already back on the stairs.

"Wait!" Taiga stopped them, making Kochi raise an eyebrow at him.

"Did you by any chance already explore alone and found something interesting you don't want to share?" Jesse asked and while Taiga wasn't even sure with what kind of lie he should come up Shin suddenly dashed passed him followed by a cheering and yelling Jesse.

"Well now he's definitely awake," Taiga mumbled to himself.

"What was that?" Juri asked, but Taiga immediately shook his head.

"Nothing. Let's go then I think?" Taiga said, trying to play his worries down.

Kochi and Juri gave him a questioning look, but didn't say anything else.

"Woah, it's a throne!" Jesse yelled as they had run up towards the main hall.

"Not as big as I thought," Juri said and looked at the high walls and decorations instead.

Kochi suddenly slapped Taiga on the shoulder, making the boy jolt more than he normally would, but he was distracted and kept looking down the corridors and tried to hear any noise, not that Hokuto would be easily spotted if he didn't want to be seen.

"Are you afraid of ghosts or why do you keep looking around so panicked?"

"You were here all by yourself before, you shouldn't be of the scared type," Jesse joked.

"Guys, there is food!" Shin yelled from the corridor. Taiga hadn't even realized that he had run out of the hall once more.

"Food?" Kochi asked with a raised eyebrow as they all made it to the kitchen.

"This is fresh," Juri said as he touched some of it.

"That reminds me that in one of the villages they said that sometimes food was vanishing from their stores at night, but instead there were jewelry and other expensive belongings left in its spot," Kochi remembered and then he looked back at Taiga who had fallen silent on the discovery of the kitchen.

"Taiga, could it be that you didn't come here today, but live here?"

On Kochi's question Jesse and Shin started yelling around how awesome of a living place this was.

"Are you all by yourself here?" Juri asked as they took Taiga's embarrassed look as a yes.

"The reason I live here is complicated," Taiga finally let out and once more his look fell into the corridor where the light didn't reach anymore at the staircase to the third floor.

"Are you really alone?" Kochi asked this time more serious and also a bit alarmed.

What was he supposed to reply to that? But unfortunately his panic to reply got interpreted in a wrong way by the others and Juri suddenly drew a fisher knife as he went out to the corridor.

"No! I'm not being kept here," Taiga immediately yelled after the other one, but Kochi gave him a skeptical look.

"If you're afraid that we can't stand a chance we can also run?" Kochi suggested. While Shin and Jesse have already gone into attack mode and followed Juri towards the stairs of the third floor.

With a sigh Taiga put his hands into his hair, not knowing what to say. But then he dashed after the three, knowing that he was the only one who could prevent the worst outcome.

"Damn, it's dark up here. Why are all the windows hung up?" Shin asked as they kept walking along the third floor corridor.

"Wait," Taiga yelled after them, Kochi following him, but then stopped at an open door.

"Why is even the bedroom hung up? Is that person forcing you to live in the dark?"

"No one is forcing me to do anything. You misunderstood the situation," Taiga finally explained. " But there is someone with you, right?" Juri asked, not putting the knife back yet.

"Why are you not explaining the situation if you feel like we're misunderstanding?" Kochi asked a bit impatient.

"As I said, it's all a bit complicated. I don't know how to explain it."

A gasp from Jesse made them turn towards the two boys who had, of course, gone further into the corridor.

"What is it?" Juri asked and raised the knife.

Both boys didn't reply at first as they kept looking towards the dark end of the corridor, but the next second the others also saw it. Silver eyes.

Shin started screaming first and dashed back, followed by Jesse. Both boys ran behind Juri who was holding the knife out, but Taiga hurried to step in front of him.

"Please let me explain," Taiga said, holding his hands out towards them so they wouldn't try to attack Hokuto.

"What is that?" Shin asked in a shaking voice.

"He's not a thing," Taiga sharply replied, realizing how angry he got at people for judging without even knowing anything, yet Taiga had been the same at the beginning.

"Taiga, come back here," Kochi said, trying to keep his distance, but also slightly panicking about what he was seeing. "We can just leave this place. Come with us."

"You think you can outrun me?"

Now Hokuto had brought a full new level of panic upon them, especially because he had hissed the words more than usual.

While even Juri started pushing the others to the back now, Taiga rolled his eyes and turned towards Hokuto, approaching the other one with big steps.

"Is he crazy?" Jesse asked in panic, but didn't dare to follow of course.

What no one had seen coming was Taiga hitting the other one lightly on the head with a scolding look.

"I'm trying to make them like you, not fear you. Aren't you having too much fun here?"

Everyone was left dumbfounded as Hokuto started laughing, which already made Taiga finally relax a bit. He was risking a lot too with his behavior, because if Hokuto really felt threatened by the boys then he could easily get angry at Taiga as well for taking their side. But luckily Hokuto seemed to have already realized that they were in the castle and had decided to turn it into a game.

Taiga dragged the other one a bit more into the corridor so that the others could finally see him clearer. But of course the silver eyes made them all back away.

"This is Hokuto. I'm living here with him. As you can see it's not easy to have people around us without them panicking or attacking, that's why we live here."

"So, you're not something like a ghost or whatsoever hunting this place?" Jesse asked, Hokuto showing a teasing smile on that question.

"What if I was?"

"Then I'd say that's really cool," Shin replied instead. Now their teasing attitude finally came back, but Taiga could see how Juri and Kochi were still skeptical, yet Juri had finally put the knife away.

"But you're not human, are you?" Kochi finally let out and on that question Taiga and Hokuto exchanged a knowing look. What would happen if they told them the truth? And could they even keep living here now that they had found out about them living here? At least Shin and Jesse didn't seem like people who could keep secrets. But Taiga wouldn't even consider hurting them to keep their secret that was out of question. They couldn't keep them here, but they also had to fear that they felt threatened by Hokuto and then the same disaster as at Taiga's city would take place.

"I'm what you humans would call a vampire."

"Hokuto," Taiga scolded the other one immediately, but Hokuto looked calm about his decision to tell them.

"A vampire? What's that?" Shin asked, not having heard of that word, not that Taiga had known until he had read about them and a lot of what humans described about them was also false.

"Creatures that can't walk in the light and drink human blood," Kochi let out in a low voice, now looking a lot paler than before.

"Almost right," Hokuto said and then his look fell on Juri. "If you don't attack, I won't either."

That warning made Juri pull back from trying to get his knife back out after Kochi’s words had made him panic.

"This is a disaster," Taiga whined on which Hokuto put his arm around his shoulder and gave him a kiss on the hair.

"I'd say it's a good opportunity for you to make some friends."

"If you stopped pretending to want to eat them alive then they would make awesome friends I'm sure of that," Taiga scolded the other one, hitting him on the chest.

"Hey I just told them who I am and that I won't do anything to them," Hokuto replied playfully.

"We're still here by the way," Jesse interfered as the other two had entered their own private kind of conversation.

"Sorry, it's just all a bit much right now," Taiga explained. "If you want us to explain more then we will totally do so, but please believe me when I say that we both want to be here, okay?"

Finally Kochi nodded, even though he still seemed more than scared about Hokuto as he was the only one who had at least heard about vampires before.

"Can we go back to the hall, I feel creeped out up here in the dark," Shin said.

"I can go down with you and explain everything," Taiga offered.

"So it's true? He can't go into the light?" Juri asked.

"I can go if I have to, but as you don't feel comfortable in the dark, I also don't favor the light."

This time Taiga was thankful that Hokuto wasn't that honest, because if the boys knew that the light would weaken him then they might rip the covers off the windows if they felt threatened.

"So are you up for a talk?" Taiga asked and the four boys exchanged a few worried looks until Kochi nodded.

"Fine, let's hear your story."

“Any questions?” Taiga closed his talk he had with the boys in a big common room he had never really used as it had too many windows for Hokuto to use it at day time and he had never really planned on having people come to this place, so the room was also quite dusty.

“Just one,” Shintaro said as he leant with his elbows on the table after he had listened to Taiga with such a fascination like the other one was telling a fairytale. “How the hell are you still alive?”

Taiga had to smile a bit on the boy’s question, not that he had gone too much into details. He had explained the past of Hokuto’s people and the massacre the humans of his city had brought upon them, but details about his grandfather being involved or his father trying to hunt them down were something he wasn’t sure if he could share with them that easily yet. So they knew that he had run from his family as they wouldn’t understand why he wanted to protect Hokuto and of course he had given the boys some warnings about Hokuto usually not being aggressive, but that they should be careful how they behaved around him. Once more though he had kept his weaknesses a secret for now.

“That’s a pretty rough start for you two,” Juri let out as he leant back in the old wooden chair, which made a squeaking noise on the weight being pushed against it for the first time in a century.

“But do you think you can just stay here? We found you so easily and some people at different harbors are talking more and more about the night visits,” Kochi added.

“I guess if we get too suspicious we just have to keep moving. We only came here, because it was a place Hokuto remembered.”

“But do you want to spend your entire life hiding like this?” Jesse asked. “I mean I wouldn’t be able to live like this.”

“Of course you wouldn’t be able to, we would hear you complain about how boring it is out here in like two hours and that all the way from the mainland,” Shintaro teased.

“Well, I have a library that can keep me busy for a lifetime,” Taiga joked.

“For your lifetime,” Kochi said, but he had said it more to himself yet Taiga had of course heard him.

“Can I ask something as well?” Juri asked a bit more serious and Taiga nodded. “If you don’t want to go into details please just say so, I was just wondering, because after what you said about you and Hokuto spending so much time together and even running away together. Are you two, you know…?”

Taiga immediately caught up to his thought, but wasn’t sure what to reply as he sank a bit awkwardly back into his chair.

“Well I guess that reaction explains enough,” Kochi said and got up, while Jesse and Shintaro hadn’t even caught up to what exactly Juri had tried to ask. “We should head back before the weather changes.”

That announcement had the others whine a bit, but he was of course right.

“You’re welcome to visit again if you want to.”

That offer hadn’t come from Taiga and it had surprised them all when Hokuto had been the one to offer it and he actually dared to step into the room as some clouds had hidden the sunlight, a sign that had Kochi made them hurry to leave before heavy winds could come up.

Jesse and Shintaro immediately cheered on that offer while Taiga wasn’t even sure what to say. He wasn’t against it, but it was also hard to tell if Hokuto really meant what he said.

“You can also come visit us if you want?” Juri offered to their surprise as he also got up, Taiga moving over to Hokuto, checking if he was really okay with walking around at daytime after not getting much rest.

“We could help you get supplies too. Then the people at the harbors won’t be that suspicious anymore,” Jesse offered.

“That would actually be amazing,” Taiga let out as he feared that people could really become too suspicious about them soon.

“Just one warning,” Hokuto added when the boys already got ready to leave and they all looked a bit more serious on the way Hokuto stepped in front of Taiga. “If you betray my trust I can assure you that it will be the last thing you will ever do.”

The warning was clear, but the boys only nodded as they hadn’t offered anything lightly after encountering Hokuto and getting back to their town alive thanks to Taiga. After all, Taiga hadn’t made it a secret that Hokuto had been betrayed by humans before and that he would if necessary kill even if it was against Taiga’s wishes.

It was Kochi who stepped to the front with a serious expression next. “We only met and I know that you won’t easily trust humans, but after I have heard your story I can promise you that I would never harm any of you and that not because of the threat you could be to me and the people around me, but because I think you deserve a chance to become happy like anyone else.”

***

“Do you believe them?”

“Would I have offered them to come back if I didn’t?” Hokuto asked when the boys had left right before the weather seemed to really turn into a small storm outside.

“I feel like you offered so that I wouldn’t go and meet them on the mainland especially at daytime,” Taiga teased as he sat down on his bed after he had urged Hokuto to sleep some more as the day was stressful enough for both of them and when Hokuto suddenly almost threw himself on top of Taiga and pulled him into his embrace with no escape, Taiga chuckled on his clingy behavior. “Look, I’m right.”

“Never said you weren’t,” Hokuto let out as he rested his chin on the other one’s hair while he refused to let go, but Taiga enjoyed the clingy behavior and he pulled himself against Hokuto’s chest. It still felt so weird that Hokuto’s body felt this warm against his even though he couldn’t find a heartbeat even with his ear against the other one’s chest. Something that had freaked him out the moment he had realized it the first time, while it had been something completely natural for Hokuto. But Taiga hadn’t asked more about it, because his questions about a vampire’s physical features would turn endless if he ever started asking and he was sure that Hokuto didn’t really have any logical explanations for his own body.

“So are we going to meet them on the mainland for supplies next week?” Taiga asked after Kochi had offered to bring some supplies to a place off the harbor. But when Taiga didn’t get a reply he pushed himself a bit to the back and the loose grip around his body showed him that Hokuto had indeed fallen asleep.

“The all so mighty vampire got too stressed out by some human boys,” Taiga teased as he snuggled back against the other one’s chest as he could understand that Hokuto had been on high alert the entire day since the boys had arrived. No matter how calm he tried to seem it had all only be a facade. He didn’t necessarily trust the boys, but he wanted to help Taiga get back into contact with humans and if that meant taking the risk of letting those boys get closer then he would gladly take it, but that also meant that Taiga had to take more care of him or he would be too weak to actually protect him in case some real danger would really approach them.

***

“You didn’t even stay ten minutes,” Shintaro complained.

“Be happy that Hokuto even bothered saying thank you,” Taiga laughed as he took another box of bread from Shintaro and put it on the counter of the kitchen.

They had met with the boys near the harbor a week after their first encounter, but Hokuto had been too restless to actually stay for long, so a week later when the weather had been good enough for the boys do dare their way out once more, they had come to visit them with more supplies this time.

“Is he this grumpy with you as well?” Jesse asked as he bit into an apple that he had actually brought for Taiga, but after paddling all the way out with quite some waves he had become hungry as well.

“Not really,” Taiga said as he knew a completely different side of Hokuto.

“So he is asleep now, right?” Juri asked as he rolled a barrel with fresh water into the room. “Isn’t it quite difficult for you to even get a good rhythm to spend time with each other?”

“Well I try to stay awake as long as possible and he tries to wake up early so usually we have the evening hours up until late at night, but I can’t deny that it took some time to get used to it.”

“Did he ever tell you if there were others?” Kochi asked as he put the last supplies on the table and leant back at it with a thoughtful expression.

Taiga thought about it for a moment, but while he had of course heard more details about Hokuto’s past and also knew that some vampires had been killed in the massacre that had happened, they hadn’t talked much about others.

“He said that they usually only come together when there is a threat,” Taiga explained.

“So I guess him getting into trouble with some humans is still not seen as a threat for them,” Juri said. “But who knows if they’d even easily know if someone was in trouble?”

Again a question Taiga couldn’t find an answer to and he felt like he didn’t know as much about Hokuto as he wanted to.

“How about you come with us the next time we visit?” Jesse suddenly asked, Shintaro immediately getting excited about the idea. “I mean just to explore for a day or two and then Hokuto can pick you up or we can bring you back?”

“Just if you feel like it of course,” Kochi added, but it was clear that he wanted to say if Hokuto felt like it. Taiga wasn’t that bothered about Hokuto being overprotective as he had rescued Taiga from certain death, but would he allow a trip to the mainland without being able to be around at daytime?

“I’ll talk about it with Hokuto,” Taiga promised.

“By the way, can we look a bit more around the castle? Last time we were kind of shaken after meeting Hokuto and we didn’t really see much,” Shintaro reminded him and Taiga wouldn’t stop them.

“Just don’t enter my room, okay? Hokuto won’t be as forgiving as me if he gets woken up. So if you’re on his floor, make sure to be quiet.”

Jesse and Shintaro immediately nodded and dashed out of the room, Kochi excusing himself as he had a bad feeling about leaving them alone so he followed them for now.

“Are you not going to explore with them?” Taiga asked as he turned to Juri who helped put away the food for now.

“Maybe later,” the boy said and Taiga helped with the remaining supplies.

“Thank you so much for bringing all this heavy stuff up here. We really appreciate it.”

“You do, I’m sure of it,” Juri said a bit coldly. “It’s not like Hokuto needs any of the food.”

“But he was the one to bring the first food without me even asking,” Taiga said with a nostalgic smile.

“But do you really think he will keep caring for your human needs?”

Taiga had not seen the question as offensive, yet he could see that Juri seemed more concerned than the others about Taiga’s situation.

“He has been in this world for so long, I don’t think he will easily get bored of me as for him my human lifetime is just a blink of an eye,” Taiga said as he sat half on the table, facing Juri.

“But is that really a life you want? Away from other humans, always on the run? I feel like you are sacrificing way more than him here.”

“Let me think about that if I ever feel like living with him is a sacrifice in any way,” Taiga let out with a soft smile and finally Juri’s expression also turned a bit more relaxed.

“I guess it wasn’t my place to judge in the first place, sorry about that.”

“Don’t worry, I can understand that everything is a bit confusing and strange to you. But I am really happy that you decided to protect our secret and still came back to visit while you could have just ignored us.”

A loud noise interrupted them before Juri could reply, but it hadn’t been from inside the castle and Taiga walked out to the corridor first as he had of course recognized the sound of thunder. Juri followed him towards the next balcony and they weren’t surprised when rain greeted them as they stepped outside.

“Well here we are back to our bad weather changes,” Juri said as he looked down to the water and the waves were already getting higher through the wind the storm had brought. “We should immediately leave or we won’t make it back today.”

“Don’t you think with your small boat you should wait until the weather calms down? The castle is huge and has many rooms you can stay overnight if you want?”

Juri seemed to give it a thought and when a bright lighting came down right over the water before the mainland he sighed. “I guess if we don’t want to risk our lives on the way back we should indeed wait.”

“Perfect, let’s find you some quarters for tonight. But I fear you have to clean the rooms a bit, they might be quite dusty.”

They boys didn't mind cleaning and especially Shintaro and Jesse had been excited to stay longer at the castle.

“Look at these clothes,” Jesse laughed as he put a way too old looking blue tailcoat over his shoulders as he looked through the old closet of the room he had chosen for the night while Shintaro had helped him clean the room after they had been done with his.

“We should bring Taiga some clothes the next time, I feel sorry for him wearing all these old clothes,” Shintaro said on the sight of the old wardrobe. “I wonder if Hokuto would also like some new clothes? Do vampires change clothes?”

“I guess so?” Jesse said shrugging his shoulders after he put the clothes back and walked up to get a lamp from the nightstand to turn it on as it had turned dark outside, not just through the rain clouds.

“Let’s see how the others are doing?” Jesse suggested and they left the room to make it to Juri and Kochi who had chosen two rooms on the other side of the corridor as they were sure that the two boys wouldn’t sleep much and keep running forth and back between their rooms.

“Wow that I call a library,” Shintaro said as he stopped at an open door which he hadn't paid much attention to yet on this floor and he stepped into the room with the high ceiling. By now even the window wasn’t really offering them any light and only the lamp Jesse was carrying showed them how tall the shelves in the room were.

Jesse went up to one shelf and read some of the covers. “Macbeth? I can’t even read this one, is this French? How old is this library?”

“I doubt it’s just the fact that some books are old, but more the fact that you’ve never even once actually read a book in your life that you don’t know any of them,” Shintaro laughed as he kept moving and found another corridor and waved Jesse over as he couldn’t see anything without the lamb.

“Oh wow, it’s like a secret reading room,” Shintaro said as he moved over to the armchair and sat down like a nobleman, holding one of the books which had been tossed on the floor next to it. While Shintaro was amused by what he had found, Jesse felt slightly uncomfortable at the sight of some piles of books on the table and around the armchair.

“I feel like we shouldn’t be in here somehow,” Jesse let out.

“Taiga said to stay away from his bedroom, right? This is definitely not it,” Shintaro interfered, but while Jesse turned towards the corridor with a fast movement as if he had seen something, but wasn’t sure the next moment anymore as he couldn’t really see much more than what the light surrounded, Shintaro kept skimming through one of the books.

“They seem to keep the interesting books back here. I wonder if this is Taiga’s taste or actually Hokuto’s?”

“Want to find out?”

Shintaro looked up at Jesse first, but the boy had turned back to Shintaro on those words as they hadn’t come from him and then Shintaro screamed, almost jumping into Jesse’s arms as he felt the presence right behind the armchair without even having to turn around. Jesse had only started screaming, because of Shintaro’s reaction, but now he had to watch out to not let the lamp drop.

“What the hell are you doing?” Kochi yelled from behind Taiga who had run towards the library first as he had already guessed from where the voices were coming.

“We were just exploring,” Shintaro said while he was clinging to Jesse as if his life was depending on it. “But then he showed up out of nowhere.”

With a shaking hand Shintaro pointed towards the dark corner, silver eyes shining from the dark and both boys still seemed too shocked to actually move.

“You might need some more time to get used to Hokuto’s way of having fun,” Taiga said as he stepped behind the armchair and instead of him pulling Hokuto out of the dark, the boy had actually pulled him towards the corner, leaving him out of sight to everyone for a moment.

Jesse wanted to lift the light more towards the corner, but Kochi immediately put his hand on his with a warning look. They had decided on not waking Hokuto up while preparing for their stay so they could be grateful that the boy had such sharp senses and had obviously known exactly who was in the castle when he had woken up, so he had made another game out of it.

When he finally stepped a bit towards the light with an amused expression, Taiga gave him a scolding look, but the way his cheeks were also a bit flushed Kochi realized that Hokuto didn’t need much privacy and didn’t mind if they knew more about the way they were living together.

“You should apologize,” Kochi told the two boys, but to his surprise they both pouted.

“Shouldn’t he apologize for always scaring us?” Shintaro asked back, but when he pointed at Hokuto this time, the boy walked up to him with fast steps, resulting with Shintaro squealing and almost jumping into Jesse’s arms once more.

“If I ever make you cry then I will apologize,” Hokuto teased, but Taiga hit him on the arm on that comment and pulled him back.

“You want them to fear you that much?” Taiga scolded him before his look turned a bit softer. “We didn’t want to wake you up. The weather turned too bad for them to head back today, do you mind if they stay for the night?”

Hokuto seemed to think about it for a moment before he turned towards Taiga and caressed the boy’s cheek. “As long as they can deal with our nighttime activities.”

Taiga rolled his eyes on the way Hokuto enjoyed making the others feel uncomfortable and this time even Jesse and Shintaro got the hint.

“We’ll not disturb you at all. It’s late after all we should head back to our rooms,” Shintaro said in a hurry and started pushing Jesse towards the corridor. “Let’s see where Juri is and make sure he’s also not disturbing them.”

“As if he’d be that oblivious about it,” Kochi said with another sigh. “Please excuse them. They are just getting too carried away sometimes.”

“Don’t worry, I am happy that they are not getting angry at Hokuto,” Taiga replied.

“Don’t make me the bad guy here,” Hokuto interfered as he put his arm around the other one’s shoulder and this time Kochi also stepped back as he realized how much Hokuto kept putting his hands on Taiga.

“We’ll make sure to leave as early as possible tomorrow if the weather has calmed down by then. We won’t wake you up if you’re still asleep at that time.”

“You better don’t,” Hokuto replied in a playful way and Taiga gave Kochi another apologizing smile on the way Hokuto enjoyed this way too much and when Kochi finally left the library Taiga had no time to even scold Hokuto, as the boy turned him around and gave him a rushed kiss.

“Did you sleep so well that you have too much energy now or did you not sleep well enough?” Taiga asked when he was released again, but he didn’t get an immediate reply when Hokuto moved his lips down to the other one’s neck instead and Taiga shivered a bit when he could already feel Hokuto’s fangs out on his skin.

“Let’s say I feel more energetic through some extra company,” Hokuto whispered before he buried his fangs in the other one’s skin without any warning. The sudden action had taken Taiga by such a surprise that he had gasped and clenched his hands into the other one’s shirt.

Maybe energetic wasn’t the right word, threatened was definitely the better choice and Taiga couldn’t even judge him. Hokuto had definitely realized that the boys were in the castle and still he had given them some space until the evening hours, but with them staying in the castle, no matter if threat to them or not, he was on such high alert that he intuitively felt like he needed even more strength to stay alerted so his thirst resulted from that.

While Taiga had often fainted at first after the pain had been too much for him he had slowly gotten used to being bitten and while he needed to support himself a bit on Hokuto’s shoulders when the other one pulled back there was still not much exhaustion taking over his body as before.

“Calmer now?” Taiga asked as he of course understood the boy’s action the best and the way Hokuto lifted Taiga up and actually carried him over to their room instead of using the armchair like so often, showed that he had adjusted to Taiga’s human needs a lot. Something Juri was still quite worried about, but Taiga enjoyed watching Hokuto change and adjust his behavior, not that he would judge him if he couldn’t do it sometimes and didn’t understand some of Taiga’s needs.

One of those needs was a rest after a long day, especially after Hokuto had bitten him, but he would never complain when he got Hokuto’s full attention and he enjoyed the way Hokuto touched him so much softer now, almost like he feared he could break him just through his touch.

“I will never be calm when I have to share you,” Hokuto finally replied to the previous question, making Taiga smile as he didn’t really have to share him, just maybe some hours a day if the boys came by more often and definitely not in the way he feared.

“Do you want to go with them?” Hokuto asked as he was obviously still too tense to let his guard down completely for the night, but Taiga enjoyed the intense looks he was getting and the light touches on his body. It wasn’t like they would only enjoy rough body contact all the time.

“You were awake after all,” Taiga scolded the other one as he pulled Hokuto down on the sheets so that he would lie down next to him. Taiga wasn’t too exhausted so he wouldn’t immediately need to sleep, but he wasn’t awake enough to have complicated talks either.

“Would you be okay with it?”

“It will be tough to be out at daytime, but I can handle it,” Hokuto replied, but that was the reply Taiga had already seen coming and he put his hand to the other one’s face.

“Don’t you think I can handle one or two days in their town on my own?”

“Oh so you already want to get away from me?” The teasing was obvious in Hokuto’s voice, but Taiga could also see the worry. Hokuto would never trust humans, maybe he would not even trust Taiga fully no matter how long they stayed together, but at some point Taiga would need to speak up for himself and make sure that Hokuto wouldn’t go as far as exhaust himself to a dangerous degree at daytime just to look out for him.

“How about we start with a nighttime visit first, but no running off after a few minutes, okay? We will stay until sunrise,” Taiga declared without giving Hokuto a choice, but the boy seemed to agree as he finally ran out of patience and moved closer to pull the other one into another greedy kiss.

“Fine, if you say so.”

Taiga chuckled on the way Hokuto agreed while he would obviously love to decline and Taiga hoped he could make the others feel more relaxed around Hokuto like this as well. After all, Hokuto needed to take a step towards humans as well if he wanted them to actually accept his kind instead of fearing them like in the past.

"He's here, right?" Shintaro asked and kept turning around like Hokuto would show up right behind him any second.

"Relax," Taiga laughed as he met up with everyone at sunset near their town. "He said he'll be around, but that doesn't mean you'll easily spot him. He knows that he looks suspicious so he didn't want to ruin the night."

"Yet he still plays babysitter," Kochi said as he started walking towards the town. "Do you really think he'll let you go alone at some point?"

"If he thinks he can trust people in this town, maybe?"

"Then we definitely have to show you around the right areas," Jesse chirped in excitement.

"But we're allowed to enter buildings even if he can't follow, right?" Juri asked and Taiga nodded.

"Let's say I have my own way of warning him in case something really doesn't go as planned.

Juri gave him a skeptical look on that, but only kept walking for now.

They decided for a normal tavern for now. Nothing special, yet also nothing dangerous about it. They also made sure to choose a table a bit away from too many people as the boys of course had more questions for Taiga about Hokuto.

"They don't really seem suspicious around here," Taiga said as he realized that the atmosphere was quite relaxed and no one seemed to be alarmed by an unknown face.

"Our town doesn't have a big harbor and while the city is only half a day trip away usually people don't pick up all the worries and rumors from the big harbor," Kochi explained. "But I heard that there are some people asking around in another town not far from the harbor city."

"Asking around?" Taiga asked as he took the drink Shintaro handed to him after he and Jesse had picked some drinks for them from the bar counter.

"I don't know any details, but they seem to be asking about weird happenings and new people around who behave different."

"That's a bad sign," Taiga let out in worry.

"Taiga, I know that you didn't want to go into details at our first encounter, but would you mind letting us know a bit more about what is going on?" Juri dared to ask and Taiga slowly nodded as it was definitely a good idea to have the boys as their eyes and ears around town.

"Well, I told you that my family was afraid of Hokuto when they realized that he wasn't human and that they threatened to kill him so we ran away," Taiga started, everyone nodding as they remembered that part of the story. "As you might have guessed there is a bit more to it."

For a moment Taiga tried to figure out how much he should tell them, but there were just some parts he wasn't quite comfortable telling yet.

"My family knew of the existence of vampires," Taiga finally said. "My grandfather already knew about them so my parents were extremely protective about letting me wander around the city or even leave the city alone. Not that with all the political meetings and balls I had much time to myself in the first place."

"You're a nobleman," Juri let out knowingly, making Jesse and Shintaro get excited and wanting to ask more questions about that part, but Kochi told them to keep their questions for later.

"Our escape wasn't as harmless as I made it sound," Taiga added. "If it hadn't been for Hokuto I would have died on that day."

There was a moment in which Juri wanted to say something, but seemed to decide against it.

"I know what you think and you're not completely wrong. Without Hokuto I wouldn't have ended up in that situation, but I hated my life. The path that had been decided for me. I'm grateful for our encounter."

"But your family wants you back," Kochi let out. "They might be the ones asking around."

To their surprise Taiga shook his head on that guess. "They might indeed be looking for me and Hokuto, but there is no way my family is the one leading the search. They know how to use their money and authority, but they would also never do something that could make them look suspicious to the people around them. Most likely they told everyone around them that I'm away studying abroad, while they paid a search team to find me."

"Do you really don't want to go back?" Shintaro asked and Taiga shook his head with a faint smile.

"I know for some people it must sound ridiculous that I threw away such a life, but it's my decision after all."

For a moment everyone nodded in silence before Kochi turned away to grab something he had put down on the floor in a bag. "By the way, we got you something."

Taiga tilted his head when the other boys gave him an excited look and then he took the paper bags from Kochi. "This one is for you. The other one for Hokuto."

Still not knowing what to expect Taiga took his bags and pulled out what was on top. "Clothes?"

"We thought you both might want some new ones? Hokuto looks like he never even once changed clothes in his life and you're always running around in the dusty clothes from that place," Juri explained.

"I didn't bring anything to give you in return," Taiga said, but Kochi shook his head and pushed both bags more towards Taiga when he was about to hand them back.

"They're presents. Take them."

"We won't accept a return," Jesse laughed.

"How about you try them on?" Shintaro asked and while Taiga still felt a bit reluctant he took the bag on everyone's nagging and went to change.

His clothes were indeed dusty and also smelling of old fabric, but he had at least found something simple enough to not drag all the attention on himself when visiting the harbor area with Hokuto.

For Hokuto it was different. He indeed wore the same clothes, but he wasn't sweating or smelling of anything in particular so for him changing clothes was only a matter of if they were ripped or not. But his clothes looked indeed quite old and worn off, so Taiga was happy about the boys also thinking of Hokuto.

"Look at you," Shintaro joked with a whistle when Taiga made it back to the table. The clothes were nothing special. Beige simple trousers, a white shirt and a black cardigan, but he was extremely grateful for the clothes.

"Are you really -"

"Yes, Taiga. It's a present." Juri said, sounding a bit more threatening than Kochi about it.

"Thank you," Taiga finally let out. "I'll give the clothes to Hokuto later. He'll love them."

"That's definitely not going to be his reaction, but we don't really need him to jump at us in gratefulness," Kochi laughed.

For some time they kept talking about the town and the simple life the boys had as fishermen and each time Taiga explained something about his life as a nobleman, Jesse and Shintaro got sparkling eyes, making Taiga smile.

"Do you want to go anywhere else? In the evening most shops will be already closed, but we can tell you the locations and -"

In the middle of their calm conversation there were some gasps and whispers heard at the entrance and Taiga immediately jumped up when he saw that Hokuto had dared his way inside even with the light being annoying to him inside the tavern.

"Even with a hood all over his head he looks suspicious," Jesse realized as people were looking at him no matter if they could see his eyes or not.

"Why are you-"

"Is there a backdoor?" Hokuto asked Juri after interrupting Taiga and immediately grabbing his arm, alarming all of them.

"The corridor behind the bar counter leads to a backdoor," Juri let out and before anyone could discuss anything, Hokuto had already started dragging Taiga with him. The others following in a hurry. Kochi grabbed the bags with the remaining clothes, but he waited at the corridor for a moment and then there were a handful of people entering the tavern.

Right away they scanned the place and went over to the barkeeper. Instead of asking something, one of them put down a drawing and with wide eyes Kochi finally turned and dashed away before he could be seen.

"What's going on?" Juri finally demanded an explanation after Hokuto had dragged Taiga away from the houses, towards the shadows of the woods.

"You're in trouble," Kochi yelled from the back after catching up to them. "There were some guys entering after you left and they had a drawing. Taiga, it was a drawing of you. They are looking for you!"

Taiga looked up at Hokuto in worry, while he was also grateful that Hokuto had realized that they were approaching before things could have escalated.

"Let's get away for now and think about what to do later," Juri urged them.

Finally Taiga had found a place where he was feeling safe and at home and while he wouldn't mind moving somewhere else, just the thought of having to run for the rest of his life made him wonder for how long they could keep running before they would actually catch them.

***

“Do you think it was really a safe choice to come back here?” Taiga asked after Hokuto helped him out of the boat, which had by now a dangerous amount of water in it.

“The weather seems to get colder and the wind stronger, I doubt they will dare to make their way over here even if they get any hints,” Hokuto explained.

“But that also means Juri and the others can’t warn us in case they indeed somehow try to come. Their boats in that town are not big enough to cross in bad weather, but my family has definitely paid those men well, they can easily ask someone from the city harbor to get them over here with a bigger ship.”

“Then I will make sure to kill them right here at the cliffs if they dare,” Hokuto growled as they hurried inside as a sudden rain poured down on them.

“Let’s just get away the moment the weather gets a bit better. We can definitely get away on land as well. Maybe Juri and the others can get horses for us and-”

For months Taiga hadn’t felt threatened by Hokuto, yet the way the other one suddenly turned back to him in the entrance hall of the castle and stopped so close in front of him that Taiga had to lean back, made him worry a bit.

“I don’t have to run away from humans,” Hokuto hissed.

“So you prefer killing them?” Taiga asked back as Hokuto had indeed just said those words himself.

“I spared your father, now look how he thanked us,” Hokuto said while Taiga got slightly angry, not that it was only Hokuto’s fault. The situation itself was just too messed up.

“Then what do you want me to do? Choose them or you?”

“Might be your only option eventually,” Hokuto let out coldly on which Taiga made a step back with a stern expression.

“Life is not just black or white,” Taiga said, slowly raising his voice as the rain outside got louder. “You were the one who judged the humans for slaughtering your kind without giving you a chance, yet all you talk about is killing people when they cause you an inconvenience. You don’t want to run, because it makes you feel weak.”

Hokuto let out an annoyed snort on that, making Taiga step forward again. “Am I wrong? You ask me to choose, then let me ask you to choose as well. Run away with me or lose me for good while getting chased all on your own to eventually either kill your chasers or get killed by them.”

“As if they could kill me,” Hokuto hissed under his breath, but this time Taiga reached out for the other one’s collar and pulled him closer.

“Stop acting like this. They already killed your kind. You’ve seen it with your own eyes, haven’t you? Your arrogance has no foundation! You want me to put my life into your hands? You’re not immortal, you can be killed. So what will I do if I lose you in my short lifetime? Who protects me then?”

“I bet your parents will take you back with open arms, no matter what,” Hokuto replied, only getting slightly effected by Taiga’s words as his memories still didn’t clear up and the mention of one of his kind getting killed without him remembering the event clearly, gave him a headache.

“How are they supposed to do that if you kill them?” Taiga hissed back and pushed the other one back this time. “Make up your mind for god’s sake! Why can’t you just accept that you have weaknesses as well and that I can help you. Your existence doesn’t have to be all about killing or getting killed. If you put some trust into me and the other boys then we can find a solution that is not just black and white.”

“What can mere humans do?”

This time Taiga had enough and before he could even think about what he was doing he lunged out and slapped Hokuto. To his surprise the other one hadn’t moved even though he was sure that he could have avoided it.

With tears of rage Taiga stared back at the other one. “So what, mere humans are not good enough for you? So why did you rescue me? Why did you let Juri and the others come closer? What am I to you? A freaking toy?”

Hokuto clenched his fists on Taiga’s accusations, but when he didn’t reply Taiga shoved him to the back. “ANSWER ME!”

Once more Hokuto remained silent, but Taiga had enough. Hokuto had done so much for him, yet his arrogant behavior remained a huge wall between them as Taiga wanted to understand him while Hokuto just kept blocking every single attempt of him getting to know him better.

“What are you so afraid of?” Taiga yelled as he wanted to shove the other one once more to the back, but to his surprise Hokuto grabbed his arms on those words and pulled Taiga closer with a hiss as he showed his fangs for a moment.

“I am not afraid,” Hokuto roared at him and this time it was Taiga who had been left speechless. Never had Hokuto reacted this outraged against him and as if Hokuto hadn’t realized himself what he had done he immediately stepped back and while Taiga wanted to stretch out his hand towards him as he realized that they had both taken it too far, Hokuto suddenly stepped back and disappeared in the dark of the corridor.

With a sigh Taiga sank to his knees and when all the tension fell from his body a few silent tears ran down his cheeks before he started shivering as the time before dawn was the coldest, especially with the wind having become stronger.

“What do you want me to do?” Taiga asked into the empty hall. “What do you want to do?”

Two questions that had to be answered by Hokuto, yet Taiga had to reply to those questions on his side as well. But he couldn’t give clear answers yet either.

***

The next day had passed almost completely without Taiga getting out of bed. He hadn’t dared to look for Hokuto and eventually all the happenings had forced him to sleep in the early morning hours and when he had finally woken up once more the daylight was already fading into the evening hours, not that it was bright outside in the first place. A heavy storm gave them the time they needed to think as even the big ships would make it to their cliffs without trouble in this weather.

With slow steps Taiga moved through the castle, forcing himself to eat something before he stood outside on one of the balconies until the last daylight had faded and when rain took over the weather once more he forced himself to go back inside, but he had still not calmed down, neither found any answers to his own questions. Could they really run for the rest of their lives? Would he even be able to stand the stress with his human body?

“All I am is a burden, no matter on what side,” Taiga whispered as he walked alongside the corridor and then he stopped. Finally his thoughts cleared up a bit. A thought that somehow hadn’t crossed his mind yet, at least not recently and definitely not in such a serious way. But wouldn’t this be the answer for both of them?

At first he thought after a few seconds it would sound ridiculous, but it didn’t and he was also not afraid of his own thoughts. But there was one problem as he didn’t know if what he was thinking about was even possible as he hadn’t even spoken with Hokuto about this topic in detail.

With a determined look Taiga started walking towards the library, but to his surprise he didn’t find Hokuto there. After looking at through most rooms he got a bit restless, but then he realized that their fight the evening before had left Hokuto with only one place to go and Taiga hurried down the stairs all the way to the dungeons and he took the torch with him to a certain part of the corridor as he already guessed that Hokuto had withdrawn himself to the very back of it, but he immediately realized that something had changed. Some of the bars of the cells were bent, others even broken and some parts of the stone wall had obviously fallen victim to Hokuto’s rage. But the fact that Hokuto had retreated to let his anger out here showed Taiga that he was indeed troubled by their situation, a sign that he wouldn’t just easily go and murder everyone coming for them as long as Taiga was against it.

“Can I come closer?” Taiga asked from the corridor and for a moment there was just silence, but then Taiga could hear the faint sound of steps and then in the dark silver shining eyes, which didn’t look as threatening as the night before.

“Have you found an answer?” Hokuto asked from a distance, his voice weirdly unfamiliar.

“Have you?” Taiga asked instead, but this time he didn’t get angry when there was no reply as Hokuto had stepped enough out into the light of the torch for Taiga to realize that the other one seemed to have indeed found an answer and what was even more important, they most likely found the same answer.

“You worried so much about it the first time I bit you,” Hokuto said and just that statement made it clear that they had indeed found the same answer.

“So it is possible?” Taiga asked with his voice only a whisper as if he didn’t want to hear the answer, but he didn’t need to listen as Hokuto only nodded, making a shiver run down Taiga’s spine.

“But I have to warn you. This won’t be as easy as you might imagine,” Hokuto replied. “We know of the possibility because it is something like our instinct. All I can tell you is that this won’t be painless and definitely not without the risk of losing your life in the process without gaining a new one.”

“My life will be lost anyway,” Taiga let out a bit more confident this time.

Slowly Hokuto walked up to him and put his hand on the other one’s cheek. “I won’t lie this is something I have thought of since the day you decided to be with me over everyone else in the world.”

Taiga moved his hand over the other one’s hand on those words and dared to step closer, this time without any fear towards the other one. Even the fear about what they were trying to do wasn’t as big as he thought it would. The excitement was definitely taking the upper hand.

“Yet you decided against it until now,” Taiga said, provoking something else with his statement and this time Hokuto was calm enough to be honest. Slowly he pulled Taiga closer for a passionate kiss and while he moved his fangs over the other one’s neck after it, he pulled back this time with a slightly troubled expression.

“Turning you might give me an eternity with you, but if I fail then I won’t even get your human lifetime together with you. The one thing I am afraid of is losing you.”

He had finally said it. All the arrogance and the wish to get rid of everyone threatening their happiness was only because Hokuto had finally understood what fear meant and for now he was only carrying one, the fear of losing Taiga.

***

"We're not doing it here?" Taiga asked as Hokuto urged him to pack food and clothes together for himself.

"Trust me this place is not at all suited for what we're going to do," Hokuto said as he pulled out his black cloak as the sun was about to rise, but they had to use the small opening the weather was giving them.

"Wait here for a moment," Taiga said as he put his bag down on the kitchen table and ran upstairs once more.

Hokuto had nothing to pack so he just put more food into Taiga's bag as he waited for him, but then the other one came back with a bright smile as he held out a paper bag to him.

"What is that?" Hokuto asked skeptically as he took the bag.

"Clothes. It's a present from the boys."

Sure Hokuto had definitely realized Taiga's new clothes he had already been wearing the other night, but they had been too busy fighting to even talk about it until now.

"I don't need new clothes," Hokuto said and wanted to put the bag on the table, but Taiga snatched it away. "Look at them for now, okay? They chose really well I think."

For Taiga the boy's had chosen simple daily clothes so that he wouldn't stand out, but Taiga had smiled at the choice they had made for Hokuto.

"Look," Taiga said with an excited smile when he held the clothes out towards Hokuto. They resembled Hokuto’s old clothes a lot. All black and simple. They had even bought him a new cloak.

"You can't tell me that they didn't make a good choice? The cloak might not be as heavy and protective as yours, but it will also not draw that much attention to you don't you think?"

Hokuto rolled his eyes, but still took the clothes from the other one to quickly change as his clothes were indeed already quite worn out and ripped from all the fighting he had done not just recently.

"Just leave it here," Taiga said when Hokuto still took his old cloak, but then he threw the new cloak over Taiga's shoulders.

"You forget that you'll soon need one of these too."

First Taiga looked a bit embarrassed about not even thinking about it, but he knew that Hokuto was going to be there for him no matter what their new eternal life together would look like.

Hokuto wanted to pull back, but Taiga didn't let him as he squeezed the other one's hand that was still on his cloak before he stretched out his arms and pulled himself into Hokuto's embrace.

"Thank you," Taiga whispered against the other one's chest and once more he had to chuckle at himself as he realized that soon his own chest would be as silent as the other ones.

"Don't thank me too early, we've a lot to challenge from here," Hokuto reminded him.

"Then thank you for everything until here," Taiga said instead and this time Hokuto put one hand around the other one as well and placed a kiss on his hair.

"Thank you for waking me up."

It was the first time Hokuto had actually voiced out any thank you to him, but Taiga had way more to be grateful for than the other one.

Their encounter had been a coincidence, yet they wanted to believe that their path from here was their fate.

"Any news?" Jesse asked when Juri and Kochi made it back to their town after they had decided to follow the men from before around as they had made their way to the big harbor city after all.

"As expected, they seem to try and get over to the castle to check on it," Juri said.

"But if Taiga and Hokuto just abandon it for a few days then they can move back in after the men are gone, right?" Shintaro asked.

"It won't be that simple," Kochi said. "Rumors will keep getting even worse now that they are asking around. Even in our town they would end up being suspicious eventually."

"But what are we supposed to do then?" Jesse asked.

"You can do what you've always done."

The voice from behind them had them all turn at once as the sun had already risen as Kochi and Juri had made it back overnight from the city.

"Thank god you're okay," Shintaro yelled and hugged Taiga as the boy approached them first.

"No one made it to the castle yet," Taiga explained. "But even if they did, they won't find anyone."

"You're leaving," Juri said and it wasn't even a question as he had seen the bag on Taiga's back immediately.

"So we're supposed to just let you go and pretend like nothing has ever happened in this boring town?" Shintaro asked, a bit pouting.

"It's definitely the safest for you," Taiga explained before he looked at Hokuto who was standing a bit at the back in the shadow of one of the houses.

"Do you like the clothes?" Kochi asked as he realized that Hokuto was wearing the clothes they had gotten him.

"They are alright," Hokuto let out.

"He loves the clothes, thank you," Taiga replied instead, making Hokuto roll his eyes and the others laugh.

"What will you do from now on?" Juri asked.

"We've come up with some ideas where to go and what to do. We need to make sure that they will stop chasing us."

"And how are you going to do that?" Juri asked this time looking up at Hokuto.

"We'll think about it on the way," Taiga replied instead.

"Let us get you some more provisions, okay?" Kochi offered and Taiga gratefully accepted. They even let Jesse and Shintaro offer their horses as they needed to be fast and on foot Taiga wouldn't get away fast enough.

"Taiga, can I talk to you for a second?" Juri asked when Hokuto helped Kochi with getting provisions for Taiga before too many people of the town would open their shops and get suspicious about them.

"Sure, what is it?"

"You already have a plan, don't you?"

Taiga could of course lie as he had already done, but he knew that Juri would remain suspicious.

"We don't want to worry everyone. We won't drag you any further into this, but we can also not keep running away forever."

Juri obviously wanted to keep asking, but he shook his head instead. "Fine, it's not my business. You have to decide what you want to do, but there is one thing I wanted to tell you about before you leave."

Taiga patiently waited, but this time Juri looked a bit troubled.

"When you invited us over before I found the dungeons," Juri explained.

"I don't like that place either. It's horrible to see how they left people down there to die."

"That's exactly what I wanted to talk to you about," Juri said in a low voice as if he feared to be overhead.

"There was not a single war between humans since that castle had been built. I looked it up in our library to be sure, but that castle didn't get abandoned through a human war so those left in those dungeons are not war prisoners."

Taiga needed a moment to get what Juri wanted to say and then his look turned a bit more gloomy. "The time when Hokuto had fought with the people of my city was when the same organization had ordered attacks all over the country. They tried to extinct his kind. So the people of the castle were involved in it as well."

"Or Hokuto's kind just needed a place to retreat to and the humans were in their way?" Juri asked back, but this time Taiga shook his head.

"So you're saying that Hokuto remembered this place because it was something like their hideout before the attacks even started?"

"Wouldn't it make sense? After all, Hokuto fought somewhere else and not here, right? What if his kind actually led their own attack?"

"You're making wild assumptions," Taiga let out a bit angry this time.

"Am I? Who else other than Hokuto knows about the truth? Can you be sure that he's telling the truth?"

No of course he couldn't be sure, but there were quite some points speaking against what Juri was saying, yet the sound of Jesse and Shintaro bringing their horses down the street made them fall silent for a moment.

"I wish you both only the best, but I'm also worried that you might also end up in your doom if you don't watch out," Juri said honestly and this time Taiga calmed down again.

"Thank you for your worries, I really appreciate them. I promise you that I'll make sure to clarify everything with Hokuto before I make a final decision."

Juri seemed pleased to hear that, but of course eventually it was Taiga's decision what he wanted to believe.

"Come back here at any time if you need help, okay?" Kochi said as the boys got ready to depart as it got more and more crowded on the streets so that they moved already down to the forest path.

"We will, thank you," Taiga said before Jesse and Shintaro threw themselves into a goodbye hug, almost taking Taiga off his feet.

"Take care," Jesse said with a sad expression as they had barely spent a few weeks knowing each other.

"We'll make sure to always keep your secret safe," Shintaro added.

"We appreciate that a lot. You don't even know us that well and helped us so much," Taiga said as he put on the black cloak that had been a present for Hokuto, but the boy still preferred his old cloak in the sunlight.

"Don't get too used to hiding from the sun or you'll end up like Hokuto," Kochi joked as he also gave the other one a farewell hug, yet the chuckle Taiga let out made Juri look at him with a knowing look.

Hokuto was already on his horse, trying to avoid having to act all emotional.

"We're always here for you. Both of you, no matter the circumstances," Juri said in a low voice when he went to hug Taiga and the boy was happy about how Juri still remained this open to helping them even though he didn't completely trust Hokuto yet.

"We'll try to come back when everything is sorted out," Taiga promised as he got on his horse.

"You better do or we will come and find you," Jesse teased and they all kept waving until the boys were almost out of sight.

"Do you really want to come back?" Hokuto asked.

"I guess I need to think about that after we have taken care of our plan. Who knows how I'll be thinking about humans eventually," Taiga said with a last look over his shoulder. Even Hokuto couldn't tell him if his emotions would change if he got turned, but Taiga was willing to take the risk. All Hokuto was able to tell him was that his kind was called the eternal ones, while Taiga would be a turned one, but how the differences between them would turn out not even Hokuto could tell.

"And you're really sure that you want to face your family later?"

That was the part most important to Taiga so he nodded with a confident look. "For them seeing their oh so amazing son being turned into what they fear this much will be their breaking point."

"But what if they don't just stop trying to get you back, but start hunting us both down?" Hokuto asked, but this time Taiga wouldn't let his emotions get into the way of his decision and he looked up at the other one with a determined expression.

"Then they have to pray that at that time I'll still be in control of my human senses or I'll do everything necessary to protect our happiness, even if it will cost their lives."

***

"Are you sure that we should let go of them?" Taiga asked when Hokuto told him to leave the horses near a village after they had been around small villages in the mountains for three days.

"Everyone around said that the next big city is over two days' ride away, so they won't easily find us and we will most likely need several days."

"Will it be that bad?" Taiga asked as he took off the bridle from his horse and let it walk over to a nearby grass field.

"I won't need long, but I fear that you might and we should be as far away from humans as possible."

"So am I going to hunt animals at first?" Taiga asked in amusement as he took his bag and followed Hokuto towards the nearest mountain. There was no visible path, but that was exactly what they needed.

"I'd love to tell you that it was possible, but you won't even be interested in them. On the other hand you might also not need any blood immediately, remember how long I was able to survive without it?"

"But you doubt that I'll be able to stay patient and reasonable enough to control myself," Taiga guessed.

"I have that feeling about things going to become way more difficult than we want them to be,” Hokuto said and once more he seemed lost in memories he couldn’t completely recall. “But the only thing I can promise you is that I'll be there with you no matter what's going to happen." Hokuto stretched his hand out towards the other one as he had started climbing up a steep rock surface to get even more off any possible trail.

"That's all I need to know," Taiga replied with a smile when he took the other one's hand. For the rest of the way they didn't talk much especially because Taiga needed all the air to get his lunges filled as the mountain was steep and Hokuto wanted to retreat to a part where no one could easily find them.

Luckily they found an overhang where they could find shelter from the sun, which was now finally setting.

"We'll rest for the night and tomorrow evening we can do it if you're ready for it? The night will be definitely better for it as I need to be strong enough to hold you back if you do something stupid."

Taiga had to chuckle on the way Hokuto made it sound like Taiga suddenly behaving like a wild animal and maybe even trying to go for Hokuto in his new found uncontrolled rage stage, was just another normal happening in his life.

"Sorry to make you travel for so many days while you let me rest at nighttime and I can't do the same for you at daytime," Taiga apologized as he sat down next to Hokuto on the stone ground, but Hokuto hurried to put one leg on the other side and pull Taiga between his legs. Taiga immediately felt the warmth from the other one against his back and he moved his hands to the other one's arms when Hokuto pulled him closer.

"Soon we'll have the same rhythm so this is a small sacrifice to me," Hokuto whispered next to the other one's ear.

"If you turn me then you can't satisfy your thirst on me anymore, right?"

Hokuto chuckled on the other one's words as he had of course said them the moment had put his lips on the younger one's neck.

"Well let's say the few times I really need human blood I'll definitely need to go for someone else as will you, but that doesn't mean I will stop biting you."

"Because you bit me for your own entertainment this entire time in the first place," Taiga said knowingly as he knew very well that Hokuto didn't need that much blood. He satisfied way more than just his thirst by biting him and in a weird way Taiga was looking forward to being able to pay Hokuto back.

***

“Are you sure it was a wise decision to not sleep?” Hokuto asked when the sun slowly rose behind the mountains and he pulled his hood lower into his face.

“Will it be easier if I am well rested?” Taiga teased as he sat down next to Hokuto after he had eventually refused sleeping and instead of remaining at the place they had chosen for the night, Taiga had made Hokuto move up towards an even higher point of the mountain and they only retreated towards the last rocks which could give them shelter from the sun now that it was dawn.

“I wish I could tell you,” Hokuto honestly said.

“Well we don’t need to find out,” Taiga said as he lay down on his back and rested his head on the other one’s legs. “We can rest now. You should definitely rest over the day, right? You might get in trouble with me tonight.”

“So that’s why you kept going through the night so that you can rest with me?” Hokuto said kind of judging, yet he leant back against the stone wall and put one hand on the other one’s hair with a thoughtful expression.

“Maybe I am also a bit nervous and tried to get myself tired enough to be forced to sleep?” Taiga replied and he wasn’t lying as he had indeed started feeling a bit restless about it as this was no easy decision after all.

“So are you not gonna ask?”

“About what?” Taiga asked curiously.

“How it works.”

Taiga thought about it for a moment, but then he shook his head and pulled Hokuto’s hand in front of his face to play with his fingers. “As I am still human I know that I will just freak myself out the more I know, so no. I trust you.”

“Do you?”

Taiga halted in his movements on that question, but he wasn’t sure what to reply.

“Do you think I’ve never lied to you?”

“You knew that Juri was skeptical about you, right?” Taiga asked back as it was obvious.

“I don’t mind anyone not trusting me, but I wonder if you want to entrust me with your life if you can’t trust me?”

“Who said I don’t?” Taiga let out a bit restless this time as he pulled the other one’s hand closer to his chest. “I won’t deny that there are questions I want to be answered, but what will it help if I ask you now? I can’t tell if you lie or not and I decided to trust you. If I find my trust betrayed later then I am at least strong enough to kick your ass for it.”

In a rare sight Hokuto chuckled at the other one’s pouting attitude, but his words had also calmed him down a bit. Carefully he put his flat hand on Taiga’s chest with a serious look.

“You entrust me with taking away this one human life to give you an eternal one. I will take any kind of punishment you see fit if the result is not what you wanted it to be.”

“Then make sure to not just take my life, because then I can be certain that you lied to me,” Taiga replied as he put his hand over Hokuto’s, but he wasn’t afraid of Hokuto’s betrayal. Even if he still knew little about Hokuto’s kind he had nothing to lose and the upcoming night would either gift him an eternal life or with eternal darkness and he was willing to put everything into this one chance.

***

"Don't ask again, I'm sure, okay?" Taiga said warningly as the sun had set and Hokuto didn't seem sure if he should trust Taiga's confidence, but Taiga also knew that Hokuto was worried about his own part in it. "Even if something unexpected happens you'll be able to solve it."

"As long as you let me," Hokuto let out, but Taiga took the other one's face in his hands with a determined look.

"Just don't go easy on me if I turn on you for whatever reason, okay?"

"I guess I should ask you to not go too hard on me instead," Hokuto teased, but then he also moved his hands up and pulled Taiga into a restless kiss.

"Let's not waste time," Taiga whispered against the other one's lips as he moved a bit more to the front to put his arms around Hokuto's shoulders.

"Not a single second is wasted on you," Hokuto replied, making Taiga chuckled before he slightly tensed when Hokuto moved his lips to his neck and let his fangs touch his exposed skin.

"Don't let yourself pull back no matter what," Hokuto finally said before he sank his fangs into the other one's neck.

At first nothing felt out of the ordinary for Taiga until Hokuto didn't pull back when he would usually do. The pain slowly grew, but so did Taiga's dizziness and at some point Hokuto had to let Taiga sink to his knees, but Taiga wasn't backing off. Instead he clawed his hands into Hokuto's shoulder blades.

Then the pain became slowly unbearable and Taiga started breathing erratically as he felt an unknown pain in his chest.

It took barely seconds for his body to crumble under the unexpected amount of pain. But once more he succeeded in not pulling back, instead he pulled himself closer to Hokuto with a first gasp escaping him until it slowly turned to groans and ended up in screams he wasn't able to suppress anymore. All he wished for was to faint, but somehow his body wouldn't allow him to, no matter how weak he already felt.

When he finally made a move to actually push Hokuto away this time, the other one firmly closed his arms around him and buried his fangs even deeper.

Taiga's body suddenly started feeling kind of unknown and with it his mindset changed. The pain was still there, getting worse instead of better yet his mind told him to fight so while his body couldn't even produce any kind of strength he still tried to get Hokuto away from him, but even trying to claw the other one's face wouldn't show any effect on Hokuto. The other one had obviously seen his reaction coming and prepared to keep him down no matter what.

Eventually Hokuto had to throw Taiga to the back to be able to keep him under control if he didn't want to be disturbed. Taiga knew that if he wanted to get turned he needed to leave his human life behind, but dying of blood loss was something he hadn't imagined this painful and he could only guess about Hokuto's bite doing way more than just robbing him of his blood.

What felt like several minutes of suffering made Taiga hope that he would eventually faint after all, but what surprised him was when Hokuto suddenly shoved him harshly to the side and jumped away.

Taiga felt too weak to get up and unfortunately the pain wasn't gone. He looked up at the other one and realized that this was the part Hokuto had feared the most. For the change to work he had to release Taiga before he could drain his blood completely, but it was obviously more than difficult for him to let go right before actually killing him.

Hokuto looked almost apologizing when he looked down at the other one, but now he couldn't help anymore and he stepped back even more, right before Taiga had to close his eyes when another wave of pain hit even now that Hokuto had backed off and this time he let out another scream, reaching out for his heart and then he felt it. His heart was stopping. The rhythm was way too slow and faint for the way he felt as he thought his heart would be racing.

But he had no energy to ask Hokuto if this was part of the progress and for the first time he was afraid of what was going to happen. He clenched his fist even more into his shirt, but he couldn't move his body much anymore. He started folding together, his body turning numb and while he wanted to let out another scream, his body didn't allow him to take another breath and then his eyes flung open again with a last desperate look towards Hokuto. Slowly even his eyesight gave up on him and his entire body fell immobile with empty eyes staring back at Hokuto when his heart took its final beat.

What Taiga experienced next was an endless nightmare he couldn’t escape from. He couldn’t tell if all the pain was in his mind or if his body was really burning up while he couldn’t even move. As if trapped in eternal darkness with no feeling of time, Taiga's existence crumbled and he wanted to scream and reach out to stop himself from falling apart, but there was nothing he could do. Nothing of what he had imagined to happen became the reality he had to suffer right now. Instead of a cold or numb feeling he was burning up. Instead of losing his human bound emotions he felt like every single emotion he could feel was crushing him at the same time.

Taiga wanted to run, to escape this horrible place, but then he remembered what Hokuto had told him. Don’t pull away! Something that wasn’t only meant for the first part of the transition and with his last willpower Taiga let himself suffer the full force of the pain that tried to crush him and then everything fell silent.

Inside of him silence had taken over. No heartbeat, no breathing movement, no blood flow. But his surroundings had turned annoyingly loud. Noises all around him even in the middle of the forest and as if reality had finally taken over him again he flung his eyes open with a gasp.  

The first thing immediately different was the night surrounding him. What had been a dark place for his human eyes was now as bright as daylight, which would make real daylight a way too intense impact on his eyes. Something he wasn’t looking forward to.

Instead of getting up, Taiga slowly moved his hand to his chest as he turned on his back. The night was cold yet his body was as warm as he remembered Hokuto’s body temperature.

That thought made him look around, but he didn’t even need to check with his eyes. His hearing and sense of smell told him that Hokuto wasn’t around.

Another thing he could easily tell was how much time he had until sunrise. Yet there was something else about that fact which made him realize that the endless nightmare he had lived through had indeed been kind of endless.

This wasn’t the same night Hokuto had bitten him. Days had passed, Taiga could tell it on the barely set sun and the smell of the air. The weather had changed from the moment when he had taken his last breath.

Finally Taiga decided to get up and he found his black cloak next to him on the ground while Hokuto had obviously taken his own when he left. Somehow Taiga didn’t feel alarmed or worried over the fact that the other one wasn’t around, but what surprised him even more was the fact that he hadn’t lost his human emotions in a way that he thought he would. He felt calmer, maybe even kind of indifferent, but not in a way that he felt like he couldn’t feel anything anymore. Thinking about it he had seen Hokuto being emotional as well. In positive and negative ways, so his own character hadn’t changed that much.

Carefully Taiga moved over to the edge of the stone formation that had sheltered him from the sun over the past days and he was impressed how far he could see without even having to try to make his eyes focus.

When he could hear the animals close by moving through the forest he realized that he was indeed not interested in them at all. That thought made him move one hand up to his mouth, yet for now his teeth showed nothing out of the usual. But while he could feel that something was indeed different he couldn’t just control his fangs the way he thought he could.

Finally daring to move a bit more he decided to get off the mountain as he had already realized what Hokuto was up to now that he wasn’t around, so there was no need for Taiga to stay behind. That was at least how he thought about it, one of his first arrogant thoughts. Something that had indeed changed, yet he didn’t feel bothered by it. They had talked it through after all, so now Hokuto had to take care of those changes and in a weird way Taiga was looking forward to it as he automatically made his way towards the nearest town. Now all the talk about Hokuto being able to recognize his blood over such a distance with only one cut wasn’t in any way sounding ridiculous to him anymore. The excitement he felt about being able to pick up such detailed smells made it hard for him to even think straight. Another dangerous change, which was definitely going to cause some trouble soon, but Taiga wasn’t strong enough yet to go against all those new found instinct driven behaviors.

A walk that took him over two days as a human had barely taken him half of the night as he had made it to the first visible paths of the forest where horses and carriages were regularly passing.

Right at the bridge where the forest ended and the farmland of the town started Taiga stopped on a familiar sight ahead of him. The silver shine in the dark made him feel even more excited as he stepped on the bridge, the other one waiting for him at the other side.

“Are you here to pick me up or here to stop me?” Taiga asked, his own voice feeling unfamiliar to himself. A certain calmness yet also something threatening lying in his voice.

“Do you think I would be able to stop you?” Hokuto asked back and while the other one hadn’t changed there was something that seemed different to Taiga, but not in a bad way. He could tell the other one’s mood way better than in his human days. Small movements on his face, the way he was shifting his weight, everything about him told him now if he was playing with the fire or not.

“What if I told you that I think I can control myself?” Taiga asked back.

“Then I would tell you to look at yourself,” Hokuto replied and made a movement down to the water.

It was again that annoying confidence taking over when Taiga chuckled on that statement and moved over to the side of the bridge to look at his reflection. But whatever he had hoped to see wasn’t what he was facing and he almost jumped back from his own reflection.

How could he feel this confident, this superior, even thinking he could stand up against Hokuto while he hadn’t even realized his own situation?

Carefully Taiga lifted his arms once more, but this time he pulled his sleeves up and his reflection hadn’t lied to him. There was so much he didn’t understand, so much that still didn’t make sense.

“The red eyes look good on you,” Hokuto finally let out, not seeming concerned about the color difference of their eyes. “I like that shine in them.”

Somehow Taiga had automatically thought he would share the same eyes as Hokuto, but there was just so much they both hadn’t known about or memories Hokuto couldn’t completely recall, but at least nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary for him, while Taiga didn’t share that feeling.

“But why am I like this?” Taiga asked, almost disgusted by his own body as he lifted his arms up even higher and dared to look at his reflection once more. What he saw was a gruesome sight of a human body at its worst. Skin hanging from bones with what was once muscle tissue around it. Except for his dangerous shining eyes, Taiga looked like a person close to death. “Why am I feeling this strong when I look like I have just died?”

“Because you did,” Hokuto reminded him. “Your strength is your instinct forcing you to get back what you have lost to regain even more of your strength.”

“My blood,” Taiga realized and it made sense after all. He had been drained almost completely of his blood, his heart had indeed stopped and he was literally just a dead body walking around.

“So I will need to feed way more than you to keep my strength,” Taiga realized and that was going to be a weakness only turned vampires would know. If he was denied blood for too long then his eternal life would be indeed in danger. His new found instincts made him already feel that danger.

“That is why I am not here to stop you, at least not until you’re not able to stop yourself anymore.”

Taiga understood his own situation yet he let out a joyless chuckle on which Hokuto gave him a questioning look.

“I must be such a disappointment to you.”

All that confidence Taiga had felt before had vanished and he could feel his human emotions were taking over his excitement as he felt like he was going to be an even bigger burden than when he was still human.

This time Hokuto didn’t look as calm as before when he walked up to the other one and Taiga didn’t even move. Just a few hours ago he had been excited about challenging Hokuto in several ways, yet he felt useless now.

Hokuto stopped in front of the other one and put his hand to his face. A movement Taiga wanted to avoid, but before he could make a step back the other one had taken a tight grip around his chin to make him look up.

“After having received eternal life I’ve to say you’re the most impatient vampire I’ve ever seen. We’re not some kind of gods and no matter how high and mighty you have felt at first this is the truth you’ve to accept. But how about you give yourself a chance before you judge your entire being on the weakest day you will ever have? Didn’t you say you have nothing left in your human life? Then it’s your time to fight for your new life now.”

"So poetic," Taiga teased, but he had indeed needed to be reminded of the reason why he had chosen this path. Yet when Hokuto wanted to step closer, Taiga pushed him away for the first time. "Can we postpone this just for a moment?"

Hokuto understood why the other one was hesitating and Hokuto released him and stepped aside.

"Go ahead then, but let me tell you that no matter what, you'll always be beautiful to me."

A word Taiga would never use for himself right now, but he was grateful for Hokuto understanding that he wanted to find his full strength for now. The thought about doing so was getting him excited, but he also knew that as a turned vampire it would get extremely difficult for him to not kill anyone.

"I'll be around, don't worry," Hokuto said as he followed Taiga down towards town. "Remember to choose carefully."

A reminder that made Taiga wonder if he was possessing all of Hokuto's abilities or if there were indeed differences. As it was in the middle of the night the town was almost completely silent and the smell of the blood of those being noise around the taverns was something Taiga wasn't enjoying so he looked for a more fitting person. His need for blood made him move a bit too obvious through town, but Hokuto wasn't stopping him.

A sudden change in the air had him freeze on the spot and when he looked back at Hokuto he could see how the other one was also affected by the strong smell of blood. With fast and swift steps Taiga moved closer to the place the fresh blood smell was coming from and while it was a gruesome scene in front of him, it was just perfect.

A murder, as simple as that. He could still hear the steps from the person who had committed the crime. Yet he walked up to the victim instead. A young man, still breathing yet obviously not in a state to survive this attack. The man was barely conscious yet he looked up at Taiga when he crouched down in front of him. The red eyes seemed to frighten him, but he wasn't as panicked as Taiga thought he would. His slow heartbeat was a sign of his life slowly leaving him and then the man even smiled.

"Are you death?"

"Kind of?" Taiga said with a calm voice. Even when Taiga reached out for the other one's neck and pulled him a bit to the front, the other one didn't try to get away.

"Take me with you," the man said and Taiga almost felt sorry about the trust this simple human put into him, but he could at least spare him a slow painful death, something that would make his first hunt easier for him as well.

The moment Taiga moved closer he could finally feel his fangs for the first time. The excitement taking over his body was too much for him to handle and he bit down on the other one's neck with way more force than needed. To his surprise though the other one put his arms to the front, almost hugging Taiga as if his pain was already worse than the new pain Taiga was causing him and just a few seconds later Taiga could feel how the body in his arms fell immobile and the sound of his heart stopped. But there was more to it. An ability Taiga hadn't been sure of if he possessed it, but like his own memories there were pictures flashing in his mind. The life of the man was repeating itself in his head. That had been Hokuto's warning as he had also thought that he'd possess the same ability.

Choosing a human with a harmless life was definitely a wise choice at first as those memories would be remembered by him for eternity and while the attacker would have definitely also been a good first choice Taiga didn't want to burden himself with his memories.

"A lucky first find," Hokuto said from the back, but Taiga hadn't backed off yet. "Being allowed to kill on your first hunt is easier, but remember to let him heal."

Something else Taiga seemed to possess. After biting someone the bite marks would disappear and with it also most of their memories of the happening if wished for by the vampire. Yet they couldn't bring a human back to life even if they wanted to and Taiga wouldn't be able to turn someone into a vampire. Yet he could easily drain a human of his entire blood, which would then leave him in a state way too obvious for human eyes. His bite mark wouldn't heal and his body would fall dry and rotten. Close to the state Taiga had been in right after being turned.

"Taiga!" Hokuto hissed behind him, but the taste of his first fresh blood and the way his body was turning stronger than ever before made it almost impossible for Taiga to think straight. "Don't force me to interfere."

There it was, a challenge! Something that made Taiga's body fill with excitement and when he still didn't retreat after a moment he could hear Hokuto approaching from the back.

What Hokuto had not seen coming was Taiga being able to withdraw his fangs by himself, but then he swirled around and jumped up. With a speed he didn't even know his body could move with, he grabbed Hokuto by the collar and shoved him into the stone wall of the next house, immediately showing his fangs and hissing at the other one. Hokuto reacted the same way and grabbed Taiga's arms, giving him a warning growl before he also showed his fangs when the other one wasn't backing off.

"So are you still confident that you could win against me?" Taiga asked, but didn't release the other one.

Hokuto gave the other one an entertained look as he knew that Taiga wasn't aiming to pick a real fight with him. "I never said I was."

This time Taiga didn't pull back when Hokuto moved one hand up to his face and caressed the now smooth skin right under his eye.

"Look how gorgeous you are at your strongest," Hokuto let out while Taiga's eyes showed an even darker red shine than before.

Finally getting too excited, Taiga pulled the other one a bit away from the wall into a rough kiss. The taste of blood mixing into the kiss made it even more intense for them and soon they fought over the lead, but Taiga made clear that he wouldn't back down when he shoved Hokuto roughly back into the wall with a low growl from down his throat.

“Demanding, aren’t you?” Hokuto said, but he wasn’t complaining about Taiga’s new found strength.

“I will demand one more thing,” Taiga let out impatiently as he moved to the front once more, but this time he moved his lips down to Hokuto’s neck and while the other one actually tensed a bit on that move and let out another low growl, he didn’t pull away. That was the reply Taiga needed as he dared his fangs out on Hokuto’s skin. What he wanted from Hokuto wasn’t as simple as just satisfying his thirst and when he finally let his fangs sink into the other one’s skin he wasn’t even sure if what he tried was going to work, after all Hokuto wasn’t a human with only a short lifespan of memories and he immediately realized that different to him, there was indeed no blood left in Hokuto’s body at all.

To Taiga’s surprise though even under these circumstances there were memories filling his mind. This was the one moment in which Hokuto could not hide anything from him anymore and if he had ever lied to him then he would know it now. The way all the memories found their way into his head was different to the one of a human as the amount of memories was way bigger, but Hokuto’s memories were also cloudy at some points. But Taiga wanted to know them all. He wanted to be sure that he had made the right choice.

When Taiga finally pulled back he had to actually push himself a bit away from Hokuto and he put his hand up to his head with a hiss. Now he knew that he could still feel pain, but the headache was definitely worth it.

“Found anything interesting?” Hokuto asked with a calm expression as he knew of course what Taiga had aimed for and seconds later the bite marks on his neck were already gone.

“A lot actually,” Taiga said with a serious expression as he walked up to Hokuto once more and put his hand on the other one’s cheek with a light touch. “But luckily nothing I wouldn’t have wanted to know.”

Hokuto gave him a soft smile on that reply before they shared a more passionate kiss this time and Taiga was obviously not capable of feeling much shame anymore as he got ready to undress Hokuto right in the backstreet where he had just left a corpse on the wall right next to them, but while Hokuto would usually never complain about that kind of rushed behavior he still put one hand to the other one’s chest.

“You need to be patient just a bit longer.”

“Why is that?” Taiga asked as he didn’t even move back an inch from the other one’s face, trapping his body against the wall.

“Can’t you feel it?”

First Taiga tilted his head in confusion, a movement that made Hokuto chuckle and put his hand on the other one’s hair to put a kiss on his forehead. “You’re definitely the cutest vampire I know.”

“Well you’re the only other vampire I know so you are perfect in any way to me,” Taiga replied kind of teasingly, but then he looked up towards the mountains. That was what Hokuto had meant and he could feel how dawn was approaching.

“We should look for a better place to stay for the day. I can’t even tell you how you will react to the direct sunlight as I kept you out of it over the past days, but you weren’t in any state to move in the first place.”

“Do you feel afraid of the sunlight?” Taiga asked and that question made the other one tense a bit.

“Not really. As it weakens us we are sensitive to the sun setting and rising, but it’s not really like I fear walking in the sunlight.”

“Then we finally found something we don’t have in common,” Taiga let out honestly as he gave Hokuto a worried look and the other one immediately took his hand and dragged him away from the town.

While Hokuto had to even learn what fear was in the first place he could tell that Taiga wasn’t lightly using that word to describe the way he felt about daylight and luckily they had found shelter right at dawn.

Just simple stone ruins, strong enough to hide them from the sunlight and with enough parts of the building left to not expose them to the light over the entire day, yet the building wasn’t that far away from the town so Hokuto got ready to stay on guard over the day if necessary.

In silence they looked up at the sky turning from red to blue and while Taiga had just gotten to his full strength he could feel the difference to the night. Especially his eyes felt extremely annoyed even by the indirect light, but they hadn’t had enough time to find a darker place to hide. Hokuto reached out for the other one’s cloak and pulled Taiga’s hood a bit deeper in his face. “Don’t challenge yourself too much. If you get too exhausted then getting to your full strength might not even last for another night before you need more blood.”

Taiga didn’t feel angry about the other one’s worry and he gratefully accepted the way Hokuto had exchanged his heavy cloak with the light one the boys had presented Hokuto with.

“Rest for now and we will see later in the day if we can figure out how much you are affected by the sun, okay?”

Taiga felt a bit sorry that once more Hokuto had to actually stand guard even though he possessed the same strength and sharp senses now, but while daytime might just be something Taiga had to get used to once more he couldn’t deny that he felt like he couldn’t stay awake the entire day and he accepted that no matter how strong he was now that taking rests would remain a part of his life.

After Hokuto hadn’t heard anyone around them in the forest for hours he dared to sit down next to Taiga and the other one was calm enough to offer to stay awake for Hokuto to be able to rest a bit as well.

“This is a disastrous first day,” Taiga laughed a bit at their situation as they were supposed to be strong and scary creatures of the night, yet everything felt weirdly human-like to him in the daytime. Hokuto had fallen asleep on his shoulder and Taiga kept caressing his hand until he lifted his gaze up to a spot close to him. The afternoon sun was forcing its way through some small holes, but it wouldn’t reach him if he didn’t move from the corner. What annoyed him though was the fact that Hokuto could still walk outside with the sun out and he just felt too afraid to even try.

“What is the worst that could happen?” Taiga whispered to himself. If he wanted to know then he had to dare to move his hand towards the sunlight. Something his mind completely refused to do and that fact made him feel so much rage inside. How could he be so strong at night now and weaker than a human at daytime? His fear of remaining a burden to Hokuto even now made him finally move, but when he tried to stretch his arm out towards the small spot of light Hokuto grabbed his arm.

“Never act against your instincts,” Hokuto warned him as he sat up.

“But don’t you want to know?” Taiga asked and Hokuto was obviously also questioning Taiga’s fear of the sun.

“Fine, but don’t try anything without me,” Hokuto said and got up, pulling Taiga up with him and they walked up to a spot where the sun was reaching through the broken roof of the ruins.

“Do you think it could actually hurt me?” Taiga asked a bit worried as he kept his cloak on and pulled the hood protectively into his face for now.

“Only one way to find out, if you want to dare it,” Hokuto said and stepped into the sunlight first and held his hand out towards Taiga. There was something about Hokuto’s confidence that made Taiga feel safe. There was no way he would offer to try it out if he feared for Taiga to actually getting burned alive. A bit hesitantly Taiga finally dared to stretch his hand out into the light and he grabbed the other one’s hand so that he wouldn’t pull away.

“Nothing,” Taiga let out with a sigh of relief as his fear was obviously not about getting physically hurt by the light.

“Then let’s see what your fear is about,” Hokuto said as he removed his own cloak and while the sunlight bothered him a lot he waited for Taiga to do the same and join him. This time Hokuto stretched both his hands out to Taiga and the boy took them with a tight grip before he dared to completely step into the sun this time.

“Oh wow,” Hokuto let out seconds later while Taiga didn’t even know what he meant until he lifted one hand up to Taiga’s face. “Your eyes are back to brown.”

“How is that possible?” Taiga asked in confusion and he stepped back into the shadows once more, but Hokuto shook his head.

“I think you need to wait until night for them to change back. But I think there is more to it. Follow me,” Hokuto said and took the other one out to the forest.

“What am I supposed to do?” Taiga asked when Hokuto let go of him and stepped a bit away.

“For now, try to catch me.”

“What?”

Hokuto didn’t explain more as he dashed away from Taiga and of course Taiga wanted to chase after him and at first it seemed possible, but not even minutes later his body gave up on him and he found himself down on the forest ground. If his heart would still be beating then he would need to take some serious deep breaths now, but of course that wasn’t possible.

“As I thought,” Hokuto said as he walked back to the other one.

“What did you think, because I don’t get what is going on,” Taiga said, getting a bit panicked about his own situation.

“As you are a turned vampire your strength works differently. While you might even be stronger than me at night, you are more or less turning back to human over daytime, with the extra part that you will have even less strength as when you were still human especially when the sun is out, that is why you fear it so much. Your instincts tell you to stay hidden during the daytime so no one can see your weakness.”

“This is a disaster,” Taiga whined as he dropped flat on his back.

“Well you can be out in the sun without actually burning to death so I call that a win. Remember that some of the books we read together actually had that possibility?”

“I guess that is the only positive thing about it.”

“Think about it this way. You can walk amongst humans without them realizing that you’re different. All you have to watch out for is that you are not getting into fights and that you don’t exhaust yourself too much, because I doubt your fangs will come out no matter how exhausted you are and if you can’t get blood the next night if you get too exhausted then you will be in the same trouble you were in when you got turned.”

Something Taiga never wanted to happen again. That state was horrible in a lot of ways, but maybe he could indeed somehow adapt to the positive parts of this new found ability or more like the missing ability of his transition.

“At least now we can also keep moving over the day if we are both not feeling too exhausted,” Taiga said as he got up.

“Is there any hurry to keep moving?”

There was no immediate hurry, but Hokuto knew where Taiga wanted to go. Their entire plan of turning Taiga was the base of what was going to come next.

“Thinking about it, there might be some positive sides to this human form,” Taiga let out as he put one hand to his eyes.

“I don’t like that look,” Hokuto said as he could see that Taiga was up to something that wasn’t part of their plan.

“I know you’ll have my back no matter what, so I can risk playing around a bit, right?” Taiga asked a bit challenging and while Hokuto didn’t like the idea because he didn’t want to put Taiga in danger, he couldn’t deny that the way Taiga wanted to face his parents one last time in the cruelest way possible made him feel excited as well. After all they wouldn’t hurt them, all they wanted was them to finally give up on looking for them and if they saw their own son turned then they would hopefully stop hunting them. That was at least their theoretical part, but if they turned against them and wanted them both dead eventually then Taiga wouldn’t hold back this time, not even against his own family. Both of their sides had paid with blood before so if they wanted history to repeat itself then they were prepared for it.

***

A few days passed with them hiding around the mountains finally also finding a more suited shelter. Similar to Hokuto's previous place it was an abandoned place from the last century and luckily far enough from any town for them to finally dare and take some more rest at daytime.

Taiga had tried out how far his abilities got lost over daytime and how much he could exhaust himself without going into a hunting mode at night. Hokuto kept being fascinated by the way Taiga didn't just change his appearance over daytime, but also behaved a lot closer to his human mind set. Something he wanted to take advantage of in his own way and so when the day was slowly turning towards the evening he forced himself to wake up to look at Taiga who was still deeply asleep. Even if Taiga could walk around in daylight it would indeed exhaust him even more than Hokuto no matter how much energy he used so his plan on actually facing his parents in his human state at first made it extremely risky for him to be discovered.

Carefully Hokuto reached out for Taiga's face, teasing the area around his eyes for a moment until Taiga let out a sleepy noise and opened his eyes.

The way his eyes had turned back to brown even without him being out in the sun made Hokuto feel even more excited. If he was at his strongest right after feeding then he could keep his strength over the day as long as he didn't move around outside. With that discovery came also the problem of hunting as Taiga could only keep calm for one night in case he moved around outside. So he would only have two days with his family before he would definitely get discovered.

Another problem was that Taiga wasn't easily stopped from satisfying his thirst when he was in an exhausted state.

"The sun is still out," Taiga said in a sleepy voice, scolding Hokuto for waking him up too early, but that was exactly what Hokuto had aimed for.

When Taiga wanted to cuddle back into the way too old sheets of the old bed Hokuto suddenly sat up and with a swift movement he sat on top of Taiga.

The other one was still too tired to even react much to that move and all he did was rubbing his eyes as he turned on his back, facing Hokuto with a curious expression. "So are you telling me what this is about?"

Instead of directly replying, Hokuto moved closer to put an innocent first kiss on the other one's lips before he moved one hand to Taiga's neck with his lips moving close to his ear.

"I really enjoy us fighting over the lead at night, but I also enjoyed it when you surrendered to me before."

Hokuto didn't even wait for Taiga to reply anything and his hands moved a bit more demanding this time. With both of them shirtless he could immediately explore Taiga's torso while he bit the other one on the neck without using his fangs.

Taiga had let out a small gasp on the sudden attack and his hands had intuitively reached out for Hokuto's exposed chest, but he wasn't pushing him away.

"So you're taking full advantage of me once more, I see," Taiga said entertained as he let Hokuto have his fun, because while he couldn't deny that he enjoyed the way he could overpower Hokuto in various situations at night, he weirdly enjoyed his own inferior state at daytime.

"You can try and stop me," Hokuto teased, but there was no way Taiga could, yet he would give Hokuto the satisfaction of trying.

"You know that we need to go hunting after this, right?"

"A small sacrifice," Hokuto let out impatiently as his hands had already moved to Taiga's pants and this time Taiga finally forced himself to wake up a bit more to get himself more involved into the situation.

But the moment Taiga wanted to move his upper body just a bit, Hokuto was already trying to push him back into the sheets.

"Aren't you enjoying this a bit too much?" Taiga asked, but got his reply when Hokuto backed off just enough for Taiga to be able to look into the now even darker shining silver eyes.

"I feel like I won't be the only one who will need a hunt after this," Taiga let out and the way Hokuto didn't even bother much with words anymore showed him that he was right.

The sheets landed on the ground next when Hokuto seemed go get angry at everything that got into his way and Taiga helped out with getting rid of their clothes before Hokuto could get the idea of ripping them to pieces.

"Not so fast," Taiga said a bit more warningly when Hokuto seemed to have completely lost his patience and let out a dangerous growl when Taiga pulled his legs back before Hokuto could pull him down towards him.

"If you don't want to get hurt then maybe you shouldn't play with my patience too much," Hokuto warned him, but Taiga sat up and pushed the other one a bit to the back.

"I'm not that inferior you know that and who cares if I get hurt, we'll hunt later, right?"

Now Hokuto's excitement level had reached a whole different level, because this was something challenging for him as well. He had always been careful with Taiga, yet they had battles over the lead now, which was something Hokuto enjoyed to the fullest. But this time it was something in the middle. Taiga couldn't go full out and Hokuto should hold back if he wanted to make it a fair fight. The question was just if he could?

"Just enjoy it and if I'm not entertaining enough you can still just turn things around."

Hokuto agreed to those conditions as he let Taiga push him down into the sheets this time and it felt weird how soft Taiga's touch felt compared to night time. Just for a moment Taiga played with the other one. Teasing his skin with his teeth, knowing that his fangs wouldn't show in the daytime. But when he kept the other one waiting there was a dangerous sound from Hokuto once more when Taiga pulled back a bit. With a chuckle he placed a kiss on the other one's forehead before he sat down on the other one's hips and moved his hands down towards Hokuto's stomach.

There was a silent question hanging in the air and Taiga wasn't sure if Hokuto was patient enough for it, but to his surprise the other one reached out for his hips as he didn't make a move to stop him.

"I'll get my round no matter how much you exhaust yourself," Hokuto warned and Taiga could deal with that condition. For now he only had to be active for this one round and suddenly he felt kind of nervous as he had only been the topping one for a few nights now that he felt confident enough at night to actually challenge Hokuto for the lead. But in his human like state he had to ask for permission and it made him feel a bit insecure.

"If you take too long then you'll unnecessarily exhaust yourself," Hokuto reminded him and pushed Taiga a bit more towards his legs so that he could move them away from beneath the other one and around Taiga's back.

“Weird isn’t it,” Taiga said, making Hokuto tilt his head. “You woke me up to play around with me and now you’re the one surrendering.”

On that comment Hokuto pulled Taiga down on the hair with a rough movement and Taiga completely lost balance when Hokuto pulled him into a way too impatient kiss. “Don’t forget that I can change that at any second,” Hokuto reminded him, but now Taiga also finally changed into battle mode and he put his elbow on Hokuto’s collarbone instead of the bed while he pushed himself a bit up and reached down towards Hokuto’s member at the same time. Of course the other one pretended like he wouldn’t be affected at all, but Taiga knew that Hokuto would lose his patience easier the rough way than the patient way so Taiga pushed himself up even more, only resting his hand right under Hokuto’s throat for a moment before he moved all his weight down to his hips and he enjoyed the way Hokuto tensed when Taiga gave him the payback he deserved as he entered him just a bit too rough. There was a dangerous thin line between getting Hokuto excited and getting him annoyed so while Taiga would love to keep the pace slow to just enjoy looking at the other one for a bit longer he knew better and he shifted his weight more to the front once more when he dared to thrust deeper and as expected Hokuto pulled himself up a bit to reach out for Taiga’s neck. But instead of pulling him into a kiss he bit the other one on his chin line, obviously trying to keep his fangs away from the other one’s skin for now as Taiga would react too intensely on the bite now even if Hokuto wouldn’t get any blood from him anymore.

Nevertheless Hokuto seemed to enjoy himself quite a lot with Taiga trying to keep his balance while the other one made it more than complicated for him to even move in his own rhythm.

“If you want to do the work so much yourself then how about you help out?” Taiga said next to the other one’s ear and first bit on his earlobe before he dared his tongue out and moved his lips slowly down over the other one’s cheek, biting his skin once more before he rested right in front of Hokuto’s lips. There was a short moment of tension between them before Hokuto lost his patience and grabbed the other one around the hips and turned them around in one swift movement, but Taiga enjoyed the view from the sheets even more, especially when Hokuto was the one now who decided the pace and made it easier for Taiga to move. Taiga’s hands immediately moved greedily from Hokuto’s chest down to his hips when the other one didn’t lean down to him as he enjoyed it to look at Taiga’s expression when he was coming and he made sure to put his entire weight onto his hips when he kept moving and while Taiga wanted to put his hands on Hokuto the other one took his hands away and pushed them down to the sheets when he leaned down just a bit more.

“Not that fast. I can wait. Let me enjoy the view first.”

Taiga let out a low chuckle on the other one’s way of enjoying himself way too much, but it wasn’t like he could turn the situation around and he was too close to even think about it too much so he took another deep breath that didn’t actually needed any air when he closed his eyes for a moment and arched his back when he tried to match Hokuto’s rhythm as the other one had slowed down.

“Let me see your eyes.”

A request Taiga would never deny the other one and while he found it quite difficult to keep his eyes open while his body started shaking under the wish of finding release, Hokuto’s intense look back at him was enough to make him force his eyes to stay open. Once more Hokuto moved a bit more demanding on top of him, but this time their rhythms matched perfectly and with a small whine Taiga’s eyes felt a bit teary when he denied them the wish of shutting. His hands immediately formed into fists when Hokuto grabbed his arms with an even tighter grip and then Taiga lost the fight against his body and he arched his back with another whine that turned into a high pitched moan when he closed his eyes this time as he threw his head to the back.

Once more he felt the weird need to take some deep breaths, yet his lungs wouldn’t move with his lips when they parted after he had calmed down, but left his eyes shut just a bit longer.

Hokuto moved to the front as he released Taiga’s hands and brushed his lips over the boy’s eyes before he put a soft kiss on his shut eyelid.

“Still so vulnerable,” Hokuto teased, but this time Taiga opened his eyes with a more determined look and Hokuto formed an excited smile on the dark red eyes suddenly shining back at him. “I guess you exhausted yourself quite a lot.”

“Your own fault if you keep me this busy until sunset,” Taiga teased and while Hokuto obviously wanted to give Taiga the hunt he needed, Taiga put his arms around the other one and pulled him into another greedy kiss.

“Who said I would let you go this easily? Aren’t you forgetting something here?”

Hokuto’s excitement had reached another level as he knew the danger lying in denying Taiga his hunt for longer, but he wouldn’t let go of his round as long as Taiga was up for it as well, but this time Taiga was moving more demanding as well, making it difficult for Hokuto to even see this as his round as Taiga turned them around and moved his lips so demanding down to the other one’s neck that Hokuto could feel the other one’s fangs on his skin.

It was only a split second, but when Taiga actually tried to bite the other one, Hokuto had shoved the other one back, Taiga colliding with the wooden headboard of the bed before Hokuto hissed at him, just inches away from his face and Taiga showed his fangs as well, both of them freezing in that position for a moment until Hokuto let out a growl from deep down in his throat when he moved even closer and brushed his lips over Taiga’s cheek down to his neck and while the other one also let out a growl on that move he didn’t show his fangs again, a sign of surrender, something that made Hokuto’s mind go blank in an instant and he sank his fangs into Taiga’s flesh while he also shoved the other one more into the headboard, Taiga guiding him into the position they both desired and Hokuto thrusted so impatiently that he couldn’t even last as long as they both wished for. Hokuto withdrew his fangs at the last moment and grabbed a fistful of Taiga’s hair and once more Taiga dared his fangs out when he was completely trapped by Hokuto’s bodyweight.

Hokuto took the dangerous invitation and the way he cut his own tongue on the next kiss made him thrust even more desperate and his low moan was swallowed in their kiss.

“You like playing with the fire,” Hokuto let out against the other one’s lips as he pulled back with a dangerous stare back at the other one.

“And you don’t?” Taiga teased back as Hokuto knew that Taiga could indeed overpower him now that the night had given Taiga the advantage, but he was also thirsty so he could become a real threat to Hokuto, yet the other one found that dangerous challenge way too exciting to not take the chance.

“We might not get an eternity with each other if we are treating each other this roughly all the time,” Hokuto replied with a low chuckle and Taiga couldn’t even deny that, but this time it had been Hokuto’s choice in the first place. A hunt would make them both calm down again, but now that Hokuto also needed to hunt it was an even more dangerous task as he needed to control himself and watch out for Taiga at the same time.

Finally Taiga understood how time had always worked differently for Hokuto as they hadn’t even moved on after over a month. Just enjoying their time together would take Taiga through the next few years, but especially at daytime his human mindset was still bothering him. He knew that people were still out there looking for his past self and he just wanted to put his mind to rest that he had nothing left to care for in this human world so they finally decided to make their move.

“You want to make this really tragic, don’t you?” Hokuto asked as they moved down to the town where they had appeared the most over the past few weeks to drag all the attention on this place.

“Don’t you think it would be suspicious if I suddenly just showed up at their doorsteps?” Taiga asked as he handed Hokuto his black cloak as he didn’t want to be too suspicious towards the wrong direction.

“You’re taking a high risk here. They will need at least two days to bring you back and that if they have a carriage. If they want you to ride back by yourself over daytime-”

“Then I will use them to feed on at night. They won’t even remember and I have thought this through, okay?”

Taiga tried to sooth the other one, but Hokuto had already realized that Taiga’s vampire mind set was liking games a bit too much, so Taiga would struggle over daytime, while fully enjoying his risky plan at night.

They had rested over most of the day, but Taiga had heard rumors the day before that people were looking for him around the next town so he was positive that they would be around by now and he needed them to recognize him before night time. If they realized that he had been turned then he needed to feed on them no matter what so that he could take that memory back, but as he knew his father he was sure that those people had enough money on them to get Taiga back to his family in the most luxurious carriage in the country so Taiga was willing to take the risk.

When Taiga wanted to casually step on the forest path down to the town, Hokuto pulled him a bit too roughly back on his arm and before Taiga could complain the other one had reached out for his face and gave him one last passionate kiss.

“Just remember that I will be around the entire time. I won’t leave your side and I will hear you no matter from where you call for help.”

“Let’s hope that they won’t give me a reason to make you interfere, because if they do then they might not get out alive,” Taiga replied as he put his forehead against the other ones. No matter if turned or not, if possible he didn’t want to hurt his own family, all he wanted was to make a clean cut for them. But if he had to make a choice between them and Hokuto then the answer was more than clear.

“Try to stay out of the direct sun for as long as possible,” Hokuto reminded him once more and Taiga nodded as he reached out for Hokuto’s hood and pulled it up over the other one’s head before he placed a kiss on the other one’s forehead.

“I will show you an entertaining show,” Taiga let out confidently as he finally dared to walk away. This was the first time he would be on his own with no help to stay calm. If he failed to keep his own instincts under control then he had to deal with the consequences, but luckily it was a bright day even with only the afternoon sun, so his human side forced him to lay low. He walked alongside the shadow side of the street, trying to not face the sunlight too much.

Even in the daytime he didn’t lose all of his new found senses and he could hear people around him clearly, smell them as well, something he had to watch out for a lot if he didn’t want to get distracted by the smell of blood.

Luckily Taiga hadn’t mistaken and he heard people talking about some strangers walking around town and the sooner they got to Taiga the better so he moved even more obviously over the main street to the one tavern where he could hear a lot of whispers and chattering from.

Just before he could try and enter it in the most obvious and totally not intentional way he felt someone approaching from a side alley and while he realized that these were not the people he was looking for he didn’t resist when someone grabbed him by the arm and pulled him away from the main street and then another person stepped behind him and threw a coat over him, pushing him towards another back alley.

“Dude, have you lost all of your common sense?”

A familiar voice and Taiga smiled when Kochi looked back around the corner, hoping that no one had seen them.

“You’re really acting weird that is for sure,” Juri was heard next to him. “Where is Hokuto? What are you doing here in the daytime?”

There was a short moment in which Taiga wasn’t sure what to say. But his human side felt extremely relieved to actually see the boys.

“What are you doing here?” Taiga asked instead.

“We were having your backs. Do you know how hard it was to not get discovered by them for such a long time?” Kochi explained.

“You followed them the entire time?” Taiga asked as he hadn’t expected them to even care for what they would be doing from now on.

“Jesse and Shin didn’t stop worrying for you after a week so we decided to follow them around,” Juri explained as he stepped back. “But they kept getting leads so we didn’t feel like turning back was a good decision just yet and luckily we didn’t, because you let your guard down too early.”

When Taiga let out a chuckle, both boys looked at him with a confused look, but then Taiga shook his head before he took a slight bow. “Thank you for your worries. We really appreciate them.”

“Then where the hell is Hokuto?” Juri asked again.

“He’s close by, don’t worry. The weather makes it easier for me to walk around instead though,” Taiga lied. When he wanted to come up with another lie about why he was in town this obvious in the daytime, Kochi waved at someone around the corner.

“You’re too obvious as well. Could you stop looking around like you were some kind of criminals?” Kochi said scolding as Jesse and Shin came into sight.

“I feel more like a cool spy to be honest,” Jesse laughed.

“But why are we obvious as well? You two are usually not that-”

“TAIGA!” Jesse yelled next to Shintaro the next second and jumped right at the boy with a tight hug.

“Happy to see you too,” Taiga laughed and hugged the other one back before Jesse got shoved away by Shintaro who also gave him a way too tight hug right away.

“What are you doing here all alone?”

“Could you all stop pretending as if I can’t take care of myself?” Taiga said a bit of scolding this time.

“Well, usually I would say you’d be totally fine if you wouldn’t have half a dozen full grown men with swords on horses following you around the country.”

“I guess then I’m in trouble now,” Taiga let out in a serious voice as he looked straight ahead over Juri’s shoulder and the boy gave him a confused look before Kochi gasped and took a step back, making Juri turn around with a curse.

“Well, well. You made it way easier for us than we thought,” one of the men said as they had shown up in the back alley and to their back was a dead end.

“As if we are at fault that you found him,” Jesse yelled, but then Shintaro patted his shoulder.

“You yelled his name loud enough to be heard out of town, so I guess he’s right?”

That thought made Jesse feel a bit embarrassed, but then he rolled up his sleeves. “Fine, then we will just fight a way out for him now.”

“Guys, I don’t want you to get hurt,” Taiga interfered, putting on his best show now that the situation had indeed become more messed up than he had planned for and if the boys would end up in danger then he would definitely need to make some changes to his original plan.

“As if we’d let them take you,” Juri said and drew out the knife he had carried with him on their first encounter as well.

“I doubt any of you is the boy we were warned about, but let me warn you, we won’t hold back if you get in our way.”

“No one said we would care,” Kochi said and to their surprise he was the first one to move as he crouched down to throw some dust up right into the first man’s eyes. Shin and Jesse reacted immediately as they tackled him so that he stumbled on the two men behind him before they could draw their swords.

“Let’s go,” Juri shouted and pulled Taiga out of the back alley towards the opposite direction where three more men tried to catch them. Kochi had jumped at one of them right away, but this time he got pushed back and kicked down by one of them and while Jesse tried to help him the other men were now drawing their swords.

“Juri, we can’t just leave!” Taiga yelled as he wanted to head back.

“Trust them. They are swift, they know how to survive,” Juri shouted as he kept dragging Taiga along towards another bigger street. “Is Hokuto at one of the forest paths?”

When Juri wanted to try to get to the forest, Taiga finally made the other one stop and that so roughly that Juri would have completely fallen on his back if Taiga wouldn’t have put his hand on the other one’s back.

“You-” Juri started, his look showing the same confusion than before in the alley, but there was no time for explanations when two of the men dashed after them and this time Juri pushed Taiga away and took a run up at them, jumping with a kick at one of them even though the man had his sword drawn. Juri attacked with his knife, but his reach wasn't long enough.

The other one went right for Taiga and while that was the plan, Taiga didn’t’ want to be too obvious so he tried to run away for now, to also bring a bit of distance between them and the boys. He took an obvious route back to the other main street and as expected he got tackled from the side when two of the other men had already awaited him at the corner.

“Let him go,” Shintaro was heard from the back as he chased after them, but that was also when Taiga had to calm himself down for a moment. Shintaro was bleeding. He had a cut on his arm and then Taiga could smell even more blood. Some of them had cuts or got hurt otherwise, but for Taiga it was now even more difficult to go through with his plan. Even if his fangs wouldn’t show, his body would react to the smell and he had already exhausted himself a lot through the sudden chance.

Taiga got dragged back to his feet by one of the men while everyone kept trying to get the upper hand around them and then there was a movement Taiga hadn’t seen coming.

“Enough,” one of the men shouted in anger as he pulled out a pistol and pointed it right at Juri who had kicked down one of the men again after losing his knife.

“JURI!” Kochi shouted as he realized what was going to happen, but he wouldn’t be able to reach him in time, neither would Taiga if he wanted to keep pretending that nothing had changed, but intuitively Taiga broke free from the man, still not too obviously to make them suspicious, but while he could have saved them both he knew that if he did then his cover would be blown for good so he had to sacrifice a bit of both their safety.

“Are you out of your mind, you shot the young lord,” one of the men roared and took the pistol from the man as he had hit Taiga and also Juri on the way, but Taiga had calculated every move. He had thrown himself in front of Juri so that the bullet would hit his arm first before it would get slightly redirected and get stuck in Juri’s shoulder. He made them both fall to the ground and this time Juri gave him an angry glare and by now Taiga was sure that Juri had figured it all out.

Before Taiga could say anything a few of the men gasped and then they all followed their looks down the street where the shadows were taking over the town now as the sun was about to set. Down the street Hokuto was approaching, taking off his hood and staring back at them with his silver shining eyes, making the men panic and once more the pistol was lifted, but even after the shot there was no sign of impact as Hokuto had swiftly dodged the bullet.

When Taiga wanted to jump up, Juri held him down on the arm. “What are you two up to?”

“Just play along,” Taiga whispered. Juri tightened his grip on Taiga’s arm and at first Taiga didn’t understand what his weird look was about until he realized that Juri was squeezing his arm right at the place where he had just been shot, but there was no blood leaving the wound and Taiga hadn’t even reacted to the other one’s tight grip. Another sign that Juri had caught up, which didn’t mean that he approved of what was going on.

The next second Taiga was violently pulled away from Juri and a knife was put to his neck while Juri was kept down on the ground with another man pointing a sword at him.

“Don’t come closer,” the man holding on to Taiga shouted and to their surprise Hokuto indeed stopped.

“As if they could win against him,” Jesse whispered towards Shintaro, but Kochi looked over to Juri with a knowing look. He might not have caught up like Juri, but he could definitely read the situation as well.

“If you go after us we’ll kill them both,” the man shouted.

“Both?” Shintaro asked in confusion, but then they pulled Juri to his feet.

“Hey, that’s not fair.”

“Better if you have more than one reason to stay put,” the man with the gun said as he slowly stepped back, but kept his eyes on Hokuto.

“Can’t you stop them?” Shintaro shouted at Hokuto, but the boy didn’t move. He wasn’t there to stop them. He was supposed to help them take Taiga, but them taking Juri as well hadn’t been part of their plan, yet Taiga had to deal with that part for now.

While the men kept retreating, obviously indeed having a carriage somewhere to keep Taiga put on their way back, the other boys didn’t know how to react.

“Let them go,” Hokuto said as he stopped close to them.

“How can you say that?” Jesse asked in panic as he kept looking forth and back between them until the men had pulled the boys off to another street.

“I won’t let them get away,” Shintaro said as he wanted to dash after them, but with a swift movement Hokuto was in front of him.

“I said let them leave.”

“We don’t have to listen to you, just because you don’t care for Taiga anymore,” Jesse took Shintaro’s side, but when they tried to pass again, Hokuto hissed at them, showing his fangs threatening towards them. Both boys jumped back, but Kochi stepped in between them.

“You have a plan, right?” Kochi asked and tried to act calmer than he was feeling, because Hokuto threatening them was something he also didn’t feel quite comfortable about.

“Taiga wanted to be taken,” Hokuto explained as he retreated a bit so that the boys could relax.

“Why would he want that? His parents will lock him up,” Kochi said.

“They can try,” Hokuto said with a confident look and slowly Kochi’s look changed.

“You…did you?”

“Did he what?” Shintaro asked, not getting what this was about, but Hokuto’s confident look made it obvious that Kochi was guessing right and for now he knew that they should let the others leave, but the situation had drastically changed and now Taiga wasn’t the one in the biggest danger.

***

Luck was on Taiga’s side when they had taken Juri and not one of the other boys, because Juri perfectly played along while he could have of course also tried to break free once more.

Eventually they had let the men tie their hands to the back and force them onto the carriage. Another positive outcome was that the men followed the carriage on horse and didn’t stay in it together with them, because the sun had finally set after Taiga had entered the carriage and now he was leaning to the front with his eyes shut, trying to remain calm and for the first minutes Juri didn’t say anything.

The men weren’t able to see them from the outside as they had closed the curtains, because they of course didn’t want anyone to see that they were forcing them to come with them.

Time passed tormenting slow for Taiga and he folded even more to the front as he tried to stop himself from focusing on the smell of blood in the carriage.

“You don’t have to hide the truth from me,” Juri finally let out as he couldn’t take the way Taiga suffered in silence.

With those words Taiga sat up straight and slowly opened his eyes, facing the other one. Juri tried to not react too scared, but Taiga’s eyes were something he had obviously not seen coming.

“He really turned you,” Juri said in a low voice as if he feared Taiga could attack him if he spoke up more.

“On my wish, yes,” Taiga let out and with the next move he broke free from the ropes holding his hands on his back. He held his hands out towards the front, but didn’t move as he could tell that Juri wasn’t as calm as he pretended to be. Nevertheless he turned around and let Taiga free him from the ropes for now as well.

“How did you realize?” Taiga asked, mostly already knowing where he had messed up.

“You realized that the men had found us before any of us could hear or see them,” Juri said as he rubbed his wrists before he put one hand up to his shoulder with a hiss. “Then you pulled me back from trying to reach the forest with a strength I knew you shouldn’t possess. The moment I was sure of it was when you took the bullet.”

“But I didn’t take it well enough,” Taiga said as he looked at Juri’s shoulder.

“On purpose I suppose,” Juri replied as he pulled his hand back, the palm of his hand now covered in blood.

“My plan wasn’t to have you with me though,” Taiga said as he sat back and turned his head towards the curtain with one hand up at his mouth and that was when Juri put his hand back up to his wound.

“We messed up your plan, I’m sorry for that,” Juri said, but Taiga didn’t miss the sudden change in his voice.

“I won’t suddenly freak and kill you, don’t worry,” Taiga soothed the other one with a lie as that outcome could easily happen. “But I can’t deny that this situation is more than difficult for me. As a turned vampire my thirst works differently from Hokuto.”

There was a moment of silence in which Juri was obviously lost in his thoughts before he took another nervous breath. “Would it help you if you satisfied your thirst?”

The passive offer had Taiga turn towards the other one once more, Juri’s look still telling him how much he feared his eyes, but just the way he tried to still be the friend he had been to him just a few months ago, Taiga wished the boys wouldn’t have been this close to them in the first place. Then they wouldn’t have come to help them out without them even knowing.

“As much as I appreciate that offer, the moment I taste blood I am not that much in control. Without Hokuto at my side I can’t promise what could happen.”

“But if you break out of the carriage to feed on the men then they will know your secret,” Juri said.

“I can make them forget,” Taiga explained, but even Juri realized that it was a big risk. They didn’t know if people were close by and Taiga would need to get them all and that without killing them, because even if they forgot the moment itself, a dead body wouldn’t be that easily explained.

“How long can you last without it?” Juri asked, not wanting to use the word blood as it somehow gave him a weird feeling.

“Different from Hokuto, I turn extremely weak during the daytime, almost back to human and if I use any of my abilities then I will need to feed after it. The longest I was able to control myself in a weak stage was two days.”

“How long will it take to get to your city?”

“Two days if they keep going over the night,” Taiga replied, a bit absentminded as he closed his eyes and leaned back.

“What are you planning to do when you arrive there?”

This time Taiga didn’t immediately reply, but after Juri also remained silent he looked up at the ceiling of the carriage. “I won’t kill them if that is what worries you. At least not as long as they don’t give me a reason to do so. My human side wants to make a cut, yet my stronger side wants to see them suffer on the discovery.”

“You are so alike now,” Juri said, this time a bit of teasing audible in his voice when he showed a brief smile. “I can’t really judge you. After everything you two have gone through I can understand that just running away won’t satisfy you, but I am also happy to see that you can also still show mercy.”

“Hopefully,” Taiga said as he fell back against the backrest once more with closed eyes, but then Juri shifted and moved over to his bench, making Taiga give him a warning side glance.

“If they won’t force you out of the carriage too much over the day then you should be fine until we arrive, but let’s be honest. Your parents will immediately know that something is wrong with you if you arrive in the state you are in now. Especially because I think you can’t hide your eyes at night, right?”

“They turn quite dark if I am at my strongest,” Taiga explained. The color would change enough for his parents to not be suspicious if they weren’t in a well lid room.

“Even more reason to be at your strongest when we arrive.”

“You’re putting your life on the line here,” Taiga reminded the boy.

“Aren’t you too?” Juri replied and Taiga gave him an annoyed look, but Juri didn’t back off.

“I am not offering this lightly. If you fail then who says that they will let me live? What if Hokuto and the others won’t make it there in time?”

“So you want to be killed by me instead?” Taiga said as he tried to shift away a bit as Juri was way too close for his patience level.

“Did you lose your confidence now that Hokuto is not there to have your back?” Juri asked, not in a teasing way, but more of a challenging way. “He always had your back when you were still human. Do you still need him that much now that you are like him? Is he that much stronger than you?”

Somehow Juri’s words made Taiga snap and he had grabbed Juri by the collar and shoved him back on the bench before the boy could react. With his fangs out he hissed at the boy. “I am the stronger one now.”

“Then why do you behave like the inferior one?” Juri’s voice was shaking now, his heartbeat racing and the fresh blood dripping from his shoulder making Taiga feel even more restless. “Are you so afraid of your own strength? Did Hokuto give you any reason to be afraid of it?”

A question Juri definitely wanted a reply to as he had doubted the other one from the start and he knew that Taiga had gotten all the answers he had wished for. This time Taiga backed off just a bit as he tried to calm down once more.

“Hokuto never even once betrayed my trust,” Taiga let out a bit calmer this time, but his voice was still dangerously close to a growl.

“Then why do you act like you would betray my trust?” Juri asked, his heartbeat showing Taiga that the boy was more than relieved to hear his reply about Hokuto and his kind not being the ones running around massacring humans or imprisoning them to die in vain.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Taiga let out in the most honest way he could, making Juri form a shaking smile.

“Look, you can still think the same as in your human days. I know that I can trust you and not only me, but also Hokuto will need you at full strength over the next few days if you want to get your eternity together afterwards. So if you don’t take my offer then I will make sure to cut my shoulder open even wider until you can’t hold back,” Juri threatened and with a sigh Taiga sat back for a moment.

“Don’t you offer this easily to me ever again,” Taiga warned the other one and Juri sat up with a confident nod.

“Only if you are in need of it again. While I am kind of interested in meeting your family, I am also sure that they might have some surprises up their sleeves not even you know about yet.”

“Oh trust me, this won’t be a nice welcome back, that is for sure,” Taiga said with a small chuckle before his look turned serious again. “I will only ask once more. Are you really sure about this?”

Juri nodded with a confident look and while his heartbeat gave his nervousness away, Taiga knew that the boy wanted to help in the only way possible right now. “As long as this is not something Hokuto will suddenly turn jealous about and hunt me down?”

That worry had Taiga laugh out loud and that reaction had Juri calm down a bit as well as he could recognized more of Taiga’s old personality between all the new unfamiliar parts.

“You can rest assured that you will be completely safe,” Taiga said as they both nodded at each other once more and with another shaking breath Juri finally sat closer once more.

“Just remember that the boys will kick your ass if you can’t control yourself,” Juri tried to joke, but when Taiga reached out for his neck, Juri’s body was tensing up. While it was difficult for Taiga as well to take this step he knew that Juri would never offer this halfhearted so he didn’t want to refuse as this could help out their plan a lot.

When he dared his fangs out on the other one’s skin, Juri took another shaky breath, but with all the people around the carriage he knew that he needed to stay silent so when Taiga bit down on his neck Juri bit his own lip, clawing his hands into Taiga’s sleeves.

After a moment Juri couldn’t suppress a few gasps, but he was able to keep calm. Yet it was Taiga who needed to succeed as well and when his fangs buried deeper into the other one’s flesh when his mind told him to let go, he realized that his instincts were a difficult opponent for his logic.

Juri started shaking when Taiga used more force and when the boy tried to push the other one away, Taiga automatically tried to pull him closer, using so much force on his bite that Juri let out a small muffled scream on his shoulder.

“Taiga, stop…” Juri whispered next to him, but Taiga felt like he couldn’t hear him clearly anymore. Juri’s body fell a bit to the front after a moment. A movement Taiga knew a lot from himself when Hokuto had bitten him, that was also why he knew that he had to let go and that now! At first his hands wanted to pull Juri back when the boy moved once more, but then Taiga froze when Juri had reached out for his hands and forcefully pulled them down to squeeze them.

“You can do it. Let go,” Juri said with what seemed to be a tremendous effort as his slow heartbeat told Taiga that he was about to faint. That was also the moment Taiga ripped himself out of his instinct driven state and the hiss he let out was towards himself. When Juri squeezed his hands once more Taiga finally calmed down enough to look up at the other one. Juri had turned a bit paler, his eyes only half open and his grip on his hands slowly turning weaker.

“Look, as you said. You are stronger now,” Juri teased before he collapsed unconscious into Taiga’s arms.

“It doesn’t matter though if I am stronger than others,” Taiga let out with an apologizing look as he moved his arms around Juri. “I need to be stronger than myself.”

As Taiga had hoped, the men kept the boys locked up in the carriage for the entire way back, most likely too afraid to get followed by Hokuto or have Taiga run away if they let him out.

To them everything that had happened inside the carriage remained a secret, but Taiga felt quite sorry for the way Juri had tried so hard to adapt to the situation even though he had been more than shaken after waking up.

“Wait,” Juri said as Taiga wanted to make sure to tie their hands once more before they arrived at their city, but then Juri suddenly ripped off a bit from the bottom part of his shirt and ripped it in half. But then he halted and gave Taiga an unsure look.

“I know what you’re thinking and you’re right, but I appreciate your concern,” Taiga said. “I will be fine. We were in the dark two days straight so I am still at full strength and the smell of blood won’t throw me off now.”

Juri slowly nodded as he kicked the bench so that a bit of the wood broke off, but then he hesitated and Taiga took the wood from him. “Let me do it. Look away.”

Juri did as he was told and looked to the side when Taiga ripped the fabric of Juri’s shirt around his shoulder a bit more. The skin was completely healed now after Taiga had bitten him, but that was the problem. The men would realize so Taiga didn’t hesitate to stab the wood into Juri’s skin to make it look like the shot wound from before. Juri jolted and automatically pulled back.

“Damn, you’ve really lost your sense for mercy,” Juri said scolding yet also a bit teasing.

“Be happy that it’s daytime or I would have stabbed right through your shoulder with this,” Taiga replied as he took one of the fabric pieces from the boy and wanted to bandage the wound, but Juri stopped him.

“Your wound will be the most obvious one,” Juri reminded him and put the fabric on his skin to absorb a bit of his blood before he put it around Taiga’s arm.

“If my mother wants to take a look at it she won’t find anything though,” Taiga reminded him as his wounds wouldn’t just not bleed, but easily vanish if he was at full strength.

“Then just cut your skin a bit if that really happens. It will at least look like a fresh wound that has just stopped bleeding,” Juri reminded him before he let Taiga bandage his shoulder this time.

When Taiga pulled back and suddenly looked towards the window when they moved around a corner, Juri gave him a questioning look.

“We’re not going to my house,” Taiga said, not that he was that confused by it.

“They are skeptical after all,” Juri realized.

“You have to be prepared as well,” Taiga said and it made Juri feel a bit nauseous all of a sudden. “I’ve not told you the entire truth back then.”

“I guessed so,” Juri replied.

“My family doesn’t just know about Hokuto’s kind, my grandfather was one of those who attacked them and he paid with his life for it. Hokuto killed him.”

The last information was something Juri hadn’t seen coming, but he could also not judge the other one, because what Taiga had told him about what he had seen in Hokuto’s memory made Juri take their side over the human side.

What Juri feared had been an act of Hokuto’s kind in the castle, had been a gruesome act of the humans themselves. The more they got to know about them the more they feared that they were living amongst them, so the noble class had started something like a witch hunt, imprisoning everyone they suspected to be a vampire and most of them died a horrible slow death in their own kind’s hands. It was Hokuto and some of the other vampires who actually put an end to the murders and while that had meant to kill those noblemen, the harbor city and its citizens were saved through that act. Yet they were of course still way more afraid of Hokuto’s kind than of their own.

“Anything you want me to watch out for?”

Juri’s words made Taiga smile at the other one with a grateful nod. “You did so much already while you and the others shouldn’t even be involved in this mess. If possible I will try to make them let you go immediately. Just let me do the talking and play along.”

Juri slowly nodded and it was obvious how nervous he was, but leaving Taiga on his own also felt wrong to him. Suddenly the carriage stopped and Taiga’s look darkened.

“Can you sense who is around?” Juri asked and Taiga nodded, but while they both had somehow put the ropes back around their hands and pretended like nothing had happened, Juri had to watch out to not look too surprised about the way Taiga changed his entire expression the moment the carriage door got opened.

As if he had suddenly completely turned back to human he had put on a perfect played insecure expression, something that felt so fake to Juri, but would seem real to his parents.

Juri looked up to the mountains when they were taken out of the carriage and the sun was still high enough for Taiga to not be discovered easily for now, but that also meant that he had to stand right in the sun the moment they stepped out onto the street.

“Why are we stopping here and not at my parents’ place?” Taiga asked, but the men didn’t reply and pushed both boys towards the factory-like building. It had obviously not been used in quite some time. A lot of windows were broken, the machines inside rusty and useless.

“Let me go, I have nothing to do with this,” Juri tried his luck as they pushed them through the tall building towards some dusty backroom with more useless machines in it.

“We’re not the ones who will make that call,” one of the men said as he pushed Juri towards a machine on the right while Taiga ended up opposite of him and when Juri saw how they lifted some chains up from the ground he tried to pull away from their grip.

“You kept us locked up for two days. You can’t just keep us here like animals,” Juri complained while Taiga seemed way too calm for the situation, but most likely he didn’t feel too concerned about what was going on.

“Well we were told to make sure that you are indeed no animals, so if you behave for a few days then you can go,” the man holding on to him said before he took a tight grip on Juri’s wrists so that the boy couldn’t struggle when two wide metal handcuffs were closed around his wrists on his back.

“Did my parents order this?” Taiga finally spoke up, but didn’t resist when they chained him down to the metal machine behind him with his hands on his back and the chain barely long enough for him to stand up straight.

“You can ask them yourself later,” the man said as he stepped back from Taiga with a nod towards the others to retreat.

Taiga was relieved to hear that his parents were at least not abandoning him for good or his plan would end up way too boring with him only breaking free and facing his parents straight on.

“Hey, are you not even giving us any water or food?” Juri yelled after them as the men didn’t even stay to guard them. Not that there was any escape from the building at least not for Juri, because Taiga could definitely reach the high windows and disappear into the night if he wanted to.

“If you are what the lord fears then you won’t need any of those.”

“You shot us both before. Do you really think we would have tagged along if we were what you fear this much? Haven’t you seen what they look like?” Taiga’s words made the men exchange a kind of fearful look as they remembered Hokuto approaching. “Let me give you one piece of advice. Better let my parents know immediately that I am back or all your lives might be lost by sunset.”

Taiga was skilled in making them fear Hokuto catching up to them while they hadn’t realized that they should fear Taiga even more. For now the men left them and for a few minutes Taiga listened to their footsteps.

“Two left, four are guarding the building,” Taiga finally said as he sat down on the floor, followed by Juri who sat down with a sigh and tried to pull on the chains just for the rusty metal parts they was attached to, to make an eerie sound.

“So what now?”

“We wait,” Taiga said and leant to the back.

“At least they will believe me that I am human, because by tomorrow I will definitely be dead if they don’t give me any water,” Juri joked. “And your acting is fantastic by the way. If I didn’t know that you have changed I would totally not see through your act.”

“Then let’s hope that my family thinks the same way,” Taiga let out more serious this time as he looked up at one of the high windows from which daylight was still piercing inside the building, but if his family would come after nightfall then things would turn out a bit more complicated.

Luckily they didn’t have to wait long and Taiga warned Juri about his parents approaching the building so that Juri could get prepared as well. The first thing they could hear were fast steps through the building, the sound of heels so it came to no surprise when Taiga’s mother was the first one to enter the back room and her look of was pure worry. Juri felt honestly sorry for her, because no matter what their past was with Hokuto’s kind, she was just a worried mother, happy to see her son safe. At least that’s how it looked to her.

“Don’t get close to him yet,” Taiga’s father was heard next when the woman wanted to immediately approach Taiga who had perfectly switched back into his acting as he had jumped up on the sight of his mother, giving her such an apologizing look that Juri was almost angry at him for playing his own family this way, but he had made a decision and he would move on from his human life no matter what.

Taiga made a step back when his father moved into the middle of the room, but with the chains he couldn’t move much in the first place. Then his father looked at Juri while the boy hadn’t bothered standing up.

“And who are you?”

“Wow, your son is right in front of you and you don’t even ask him if he is okay,” Juri replied instead.

“You don’t seem to know who you are talking to,” the man said, but his arrogant behavior made Juri laugh.

“A nobleman who is so afraid of ruining his reputation that he lies about the whereabouts of his son while not even looking for him by himself and then is too afraid to actually welcome him back like a freaking decent human being.”

Juri felt like he had said a bit too much, but he hadn’t blown Taiga’s cover and the man’s attitude made him slowly understand why Taiga had given up his high class life for the freedom he had with Hokuto.

“So then do you want to tell me who he is?” The man addressed Taiga, ignoring Juri’s outburst completely.

“He and some other boys helped me out,” Taiga lied, his voice sounding as if he had been scared for his life over the past months and his mother teared up at her son's played fear.

“If I heard correctly they didn’t behave like they wanted my men to take you back here,” his father replied, but Juri didn’t react when he looked over to him as he knew better than to interrupt Taiga’s fake story.

“I didn’t have much time to explain and we were getting chased, so the boys were on high alert,” Taiga explained while looking forth and back between his parents and Juri.

“Chased?” There was not really worry in his father’s voice more of a satisfaction as he already guessed what was going to come next.

“He turned against me,” Taiga let out in a low voice, his look so broken that Juri could see the real fear in his eyes. The fear about something like this being an unthinkable happening, but just thinking about it made him fear his own thoughts, but of course for his parents it looked completely different. “I knew I couldn’t get away by myself, but he moved too obviously so the boys from one of the nearby towns realized something, but he forced me to come with him before they could get to me. That day was the first time I had been able to actually get away in the daytime and it was only thanks to the boys that he didn’t catch up to me before your men found us.”

It fascinated Juri how Taiga didn’t say Hokuto’s name as he was fully aware that such an attachment would immediately make his father be skeptical, yet the man looked more than pleased by the situation.

“And do you have anything else to say?”

Once more Juri had to take a deep breath to not yell at the man’s arrogance, but Taiga was putting so much effort in his plan that he wouldn’t let it go to waste and he had to watch in silence how Taiga slowly bowed towards his father.

“I am sorry that I didn’t trust you. I was foolish to believe that his kind would even care for my life. I caused you so much trouble and I swear I will do whatever possible to make up for it.”

His father slowly nodded on his son’s words as he made a step back with his hands on his back and a pleased expression.

“Then let us get over with this fast so that I can apologize to both of you for the rough welcome,” the man said before he waved at two men waiting at the door frame towards the front room with something in their hands Taiga remembered perfectly and just for a split second when his father was taking the wooden box and his mother gave the man a scolding look for going this far, Juri could see how Taiga’s look turned to amused yet also quite dangerous.

As if nothing happened Taiga looked down at the wooden box with wide eyes when his father turned back to him.

“Is this really necessary?” Taiga’s mother asked. “Look at him. Our boy has gone through so much. He is all pale and thin. Does he look like a monster to you?”

Taiga’s state over the day was indeed making him look like he had gone through some tough times, but of course his father knew enough about Hokuto’s kind to be extra careful, yet what he was planning on doing was pure nonsense, yet Taiga let him go on with it so that he could keep playing as well.

Juri had no clue what was going on when the man put the box on the ground and first pulled out a small silver bottle and when he walked up to Juri first and emptied a bit of the water from it over his head, Juri cursed at him. “What the hell was that for? You try to starve us to death for several days and then you mock us with emptying water over us?”

“This is holy water from the church, it will hurt their kind,” the man who had brought the box explained and now Juri understood what was going on and he looked with wide eyes at Taiga as his father emptied some water over him as well, but luckily nothing happened.

“Great, then we are good to go, right?” Juri said as he finally stood up and ripped on the chains.

“Almost,” Taiga’s father said as he grabbed a knife out of silver from the box as he was luckily not going to try every single possible object on them. But the one he had chosen made Juri panic, but of course not for himself.

Juri held still when the man grabbed his arm and pulled up his sleeve to cut him on the arm. With a hiss Juri pulled back, but the other one seemed satisfied with the thin line of blood on his skin. Yet there was a huge problem lying ahead when he approached Taiga with the knife and while Juri tried to somehow think about any possible way to stop him, he realized that Taiga was way too calm. So in the end he could only watch and wait for their plan to fail. But what he hadn’t seen coming was the same line of blood forming on Taiga’s forearm after his father had cut him.

“My apologies, boys. I hope you understand that we had to be sure,” Taiga’s father said before he ordered the other two men to free them from their chains. Juri’s look was on Taiga though and he didn’t miss the way Taiga immediately pulled his sleeve down once more when his mother finally walked over to him and pulled him into a hug, apologizing for their rough greeting and urged him to move back with them towards the house.

“So, will you tell me your name now?”

Juri had missed that Taiga’s father had approached him and he gave the older one a skeptical look. “Juri.”

“Thank you Juri for looking out for my son. I deeply apologize for everything that happened over the past days and I would like to offer you whatever you desire as compensation for your troubles.”

Juri couldn’t hide a sarcastic chuckle on the man’s behavior, but what else had he expected. When Taiga’s mother told Taiga that they could take a nice walk back to their house as the sun was still out, Juri faced the man with a determined look.

“Then I wish to stay with Taiga for a few days longer at your house.”

“What?” Taiga asked, for the first time his surprise obviously not played.

“You haven’t been with him over the past months. I have seen him at his worst and trust me when I tell you that he is trying pretty hard to not show you how tough things were for him,” Juri lied, totally adding to Taiga’s improvised story. The way Taiga’s mother immediately grabbed her son’s hand to squeeze it gently made it clear that she completely believed his words.

“If my son is okay with that request?” The man asked and the question hung in the air for a moment until Taiga looked at Juri before he slowly nodded. Juri knew that he would get a round of scolding later, but right now Taiga should also have realized that his plan would be even more complicated if Juri wasn’t with him.

The way back to their house was calm, but what seemed like a nice family walk to everyone else felt like a walk through hell for Taiga and luckily his mother had her small sun umbrella half over him as he had hooked her elbow with his and never before had he been this grateful over some shade.

“If you are too exhausted then we can still take the carriage,” his father said as they had hurried down to this place with their carriage in the first place.

“It’s quite nice to be out in the sun again, so I would prefer walking.”

Such a smart lie to make them feel even more sorry for him yet it also made Taiga’s calmness reach a dangerous level towards the time they had reached their house and the sun was about to set.

“May we offer you both a bath?” One of the maids asked as Juri followed right behind Taiga, but couldn’t get him away from his parents that easily of course.

“Maybe tomorrow?” Taiga replied instead. “I am so sorry to make an egoistic request right after our reunion, but I would like to rest for the remaining day. I promise I will explain more tomorrow.”

“Of course sweetheart. The maids made your room so you can immediately rest.”

“We prepared a room for you on the same floor,” the maid addressed Juri and wanted to show him to his room, but then Taiga walked up to the boy and grabbed him by the arm, turning towards his father with another of his fascinating played suffering expressions.

“Would it be possible if he stays with me? Just for now?”

Once more Taiga’s mother was close to tears as she couldn’t even imagine what horrible things her son must have faced while being out there with what was a monster in their eyes. So of course even his father nodded on that request, both not even judging Taiga for his childish behavior.

The maid brought the boys up to the second floor after Taiga’s parents had promised to let them rest until the next day, but Juri had seen the change in Taiga’s behavior the moment they walked up the stairs and the maid took a small lamb with her as the sun had now finally set and the house had turned dark except for the main rooms, which were lid.

“You can give the lamp to me,” Juri said before the maid could enter the room after Taiga had kept walking in front of both of them on purpose. “I bet you know the young lord in a different kind of state, but if possible can I ask you to not disturb him until tomorrow? I will make sure that he will get dressed and meet with his parents tomorrow morning,” Juri explained in such a charming way that the young lady immediately nodded and gave Juri another sweet smile before she went back downstairs.

Juri hurried to close the door and immediately turned off the light from the lamp so that Taiga’s room fell completely dark, yet Juri could spot Taiga as the boy was standing next to the window, his red eyes dangerously shining back at him.

“Do you enjoy testing my patience or why didn’t you choose to leave when you had the chance?”

Juri crossed his arms to his chest on that reaction with a snort. “Right, so that you can try to feed on the maids in secret? I bet Hokuto is also already close by, but your parents are on high alert, we both know that. They have people patrolling around the house so there is no way you can sneak out or he can sneak in. And while I am really impressed about how you fooled everyone, you acted extremely reckless. How the hell would you last another day if I left?”

Juri’s scolding made Taiga walk up to him with threatening steps, but that impatient reaction made Juri’s point even clearer.

“I warned you to never offer yourself to me this easily ever again,” Taiga warned him once more.

“Right, because I love it to cut myself open and let you freak at the smell of fresh blood,” Juri hissed back at him, but made the other one back off the moment he lifted his forearm, the blood now dry on his skin, yet still fresh and Taiga showed his fangs, giving Juri a dangerous growl.

“Look, you are not in control. Do you really prefer killing a maid you don’t feel that emotional connection to instead of having me scold you for losing control so that you snap out of it?”

“Just because I didn’t kill you the first time, doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen this time,” Taiga warned the other one, but his patience had reached its limits and he couldn’t deny that he needed more blood to make it through the next day.

“And once more I am willing to take the risk. You put yourself into an even more vulnerable state when you let yourself bleed earlier, am I right?”

Of course he was right, it was obvious and while it had been only a small cut, nothing that even bothered Juri much, for Taiga it meant using the small amount of blood left in his body. The small remaining part that turned him into a vampire instead of ending his life for good. So while it was just a tiny bit of blood for a human, it was something Taiga actually needed in his own blood system as his instinct warned him even more about losing that blood than about being out in the sun.

“I guess as a turned vampire you are still quite depending on others,” Juri continued. “How lucky for you that you have me and some other stupid humans who like playing with danger.”

The way Juri said it with a smile made Taiga finally relax a bit and he slowly shook his head, but also formed a faint smile. “You’re all getting yourself killed if you hang around us for too long.”

“For that you have to stay alive for now, so let’s say it’s an even exchange? We support you in any way possible, but for that you have to keep us safe and I am sure that you will be able to stay in control this time as well.”

“You humans are so naive,” Taiga teased the other one as he stepped closer once more, but Juri didn’t look scared. This time his heartbeat was calmer as well and that was what gave Taiga the courage to actually believe in his own strength that he could indeed stop himself in time.

“And your kind will forever be too arrogant,” Juri replied with a challenging look. “And yet the all so high and mighty creature of the night still has weaknesses.”

A weakness Taiga couldn’t deny, but he was in a weird way happy about still being able to feel fear, something even Hokuto was able to experience. If he wouldn’t fear to accidentally kill Juri in his weakened state, the other one would most likely not even be here anymore to challenge him a second time.

The next day Taiga once more perfectly faked being his family's perfect son finally having understood that he needed to fight against Hokuto's kind, but everything would break to pieces for his family the next evening.

Taiga decided that it was already satisfying enough for him to see his parents relieved over something they didn't understand in the first place and feeding on Juri for even more days was out of question. The rage Taiga was feeling over the way his parents now openly badmouthed Hokuto's kind made it even more complicated for him to stay calm.

"I will send the men out tomorrow to scan the area. He didn't try to stop you on your last encounter if I heard correctly so I hope he won't show up again," Taiga's father said as they had lunch together, Taiga telling them one exciting fake story after the other.

"But isn't he supposed to be stronger than your men even in the daytime?" Taiga's mother asked and the question made Juri tense and look at Taiga.

"If he is at full strength then yes, but we made sure to make him move over the day as well so that he finally slowed down when we had reached the town you found us at. We had split up and had gone even as far as to use my blood to lay fake trails for him. I think eventually he felt that a simple human wasn't worth his effort."

"Just to kill one human they would indeed go as far as exhaust themselves to such a degree," his father said disgustedly, yet Taiga had to hide a smile as the other one would soon witness something even more disturbing than his fear of getting killed by Hokuto.

"I would like to show Juri our city," Taiga let out after they were getting up. "Together with the guards of course."

The obedience Taiga spoke with made his father give him a proud smile before he let them leave towards the city.

"The way you speak makes me want to throw up," Juri said honestly as they finally arrived on the busy main road with the guards taking enough distance for them to be able to speak freely.

Some people had already greeted Taiga and asked him how his studies abroad have been. Taiga told the lies his parents had made up for him in the most humble way and while it was all part of the plan, Juri couldn't from rolling his eyes.

"Is he around?" Juri asked when no one was close by.

"He is. The others as well, but they are not as close."

"Idiots, they can't stay out of anything, can they?"

"Hey, you followed the men for weeks to see if we were safe and you offered your blood to me twice now, don't you think it's a bit much to judge them?"

Taiga's words had Juri accept that he was indeed overreacting. After all, he was still in the worst position of all of them. Not that he hadn't offered once more to be put in that position and of course Taiga wanted to refuse at first, but his plan would bring even more terror towards his parents so he had accepted eventually.

"But how will he know what to do if you don't talk to him first?" Juri asked as he turned around towards the guards for a moment.

"Let's say we understand each other quite well even without words and while everyone around thinks everything is like usual I have spotted Hokuto already twice since we're on this street."

"What?" Juri let out a bit too loud, but stopped himself from looking around. Even with the sun out Hokuto could still move completely undetectable if he wanted to.

Taiga looked up when a heavy rain cloud covered the sun and then he smiled at Juri. "Get ready. Things are going to get interesting now."

Still a bit skeptical about Taiga’s plan, Juri kept walking as if everything was alright, but the moment they had walked towards another smaller street without any people walking close to them, Juri saw the movement in the shadows. Once more Taiga reacted as expected from him and when he spotted Hokuto standing obviously for everyone to see at the side of a building with his black cloak on and his hood hiding his silver eyes. With a swift movement Taiga shoved Juri to the back and turned towards the guards.

The two men had also spotted Hokuto and were already running towards their direction, but of course Hokuto was faster and stronger especially as the weather had hidden the sun.

Juri took the impact as Hokuto tried to get to Taiga and of course Juri tried to get in between them, just for show. Hokuto held back, but Juri landed on the ground with a hard impact nevertheless.

"Let go of the young lord immediately," one of the men shouted as he pointed his sword at Hokuto, while the other man drew a pistol.

"You want to take your chances?" Hokuto hissed at them as he had one hand around Taiga's neck while he kept a tight hold on Taiga's arm with the other one. With Taiga standing in front of him the men had no chance of attacking, especially with Hokuto showing his fangs right next to the other one's neck.

"What do you want?" Juri asked as the guards didn't seem of much use to keep the conversation going as Hokuto of course didn't just aim to drag Taiga away like this.

"Justice," Hokuto let out dramatically. "For my kind and what has been done to them. If his life is worth more to his family than their own then they have until sunset tomorrow to find me."

"Wait," one of the men shouted as Hokuto dragged Taiga away from the main street, but Juri stopped them from following.

"Let's report to Taiga's parents. There is no meaning in chasing them. He might just kill Taiga," Juri let out in worry and urged the men to retreat.

"He didn't even tell us where we're supposed to look for him," one of them said.

"Think about it. He said he wants justice. Then there is only one place he could be," Juri explained without even knowing himself where that place was, but Taiga's parents would know.

***

"You want justice. That was so dramatic," Taiga laughed as they moved up the mountain towards Hokuto's old place.

"Would you have had a better idea?" Hokuto asked, but Taiga only laughed and shook his head.

"You were perfect," Taiga said and turned towards the other one who suddenly stopped. "What is it?"

Instead of replying, Hokuto finally pulled the other one towards him for an impatient kiss in which Taiga lost himself almost too much. But the forest path wasn't safe enough for them to take it further not that they would mind, but they had to delay their desire to reunite in private for just a bit longer.

"Let me guess, the boys are at your place?" Taiga asked playfully when Hokuto denied Taiga to keep walking for just a bit longer, his lips exploring the other one's neck as if he feared Taiga had changed over just these few days.

"I wouldn't even care if they saw us," Hokuto let out as he bit the other one on the neck without his fangs, pushing Taiga against a tree on that move and the boy chuckled on Hokuto's greedy behavior, but he couldn't blame him. If it was night time he'd totally behave the same.

"Let's not give them even more haunting memories," Taiga replied, but his smile faded a bit on those words and this time Hokuto pulled back to put his hand with a lighter touch on the other one's face as he gave him one last kiss, this time more passionate and longing.

"Juri stayed with you, because he wanted to help you, right?" Hokuto said knowingly as he stepped back and took Taiga's hand, entwining their fingers before they kept going as if nothing had happened.

"I warned him about what could happen, but he wouldn't listen."

"But he's fine. So you did well," Hokuto reminded him.

"Yet Juri will never be able to see our kind without a bit of fear," Taiga said with a sad expression, because no matter how much Juri had told Taiga that he was fine with it, Taiga could always feel the fear in Juri's heartbeat.

"I like how you said our kind," Hokuto said with a smile and squeezed the other one's hand. "Juri and the boys are the first humans I've encountered who are standing on the side of our kind instead of their own.

When Hokuto received a hit from Taiga's elbow he looked at the other one with a raised eyebrow.

"Then I wasn't on your side?" Taiga teased, making Hokuto laugh.

"You were different from the start," Hokuto reminded him.

"They're back!" Jesse was heard shouting from the almost not visible fork of the path only Taiga had walked over for the past years.

Kochi and Shintaro were soon next to the boy and they waved at them, yet Taiga could immediately see the worry in their eyes as Juri wasn't with them.

"Juri is fine. He took on the part to get my parents informed," Taiga said before letting the boys speak.

"That's a relief," Kochi said as they all walked back towards the house.

"Taiga, are you really, you know…?" Shin asked after Hokuto had of course told them that he had turned Taiga.

Taiga gave them all a knowing smile before he nodded.

"You don't seem different at all. Why do you seem this exhausted walking up a mountain if you're like Hokuto now?" Jesse asked.

"That's because we're similar, but not the same," Taiga explained. "As a turned vampire I almost turn back completely human over the day. Hokuto is an eternal one so he does not carry a human side like me."

"But he is stronger than me at night time."

"Stronger than you?" Shintaro yelled in surprise at Hokuto's words.

"Which also means that we should maybe get inside even if the sun is not directly out right now," Kochi said as he made everyone hurry inside.

"Feels nostalgic," Taiga said as he stepped inside the building.

"Is this where you met?" Jesse asked.

"More or less, yes. I woke Hokuto up by entering his house without asking," Taiga remembered.

"You already had a thing for dark adventures before meeting him," Kochi said amused.

"Trust me Hokuto scared the shit out of me the first time I saw him," Taiga remembered.

"And the second time. You cried that time, remember?" On Hokuto's teasing Taiga hit him against the arm.

"Almost. But how did you think I'd react with you standing in my room in the middle of the night?"

"You broke into his room at your second encounter?" Jesse asked with a teasing smile.

"Love at second sight," Shintaro teased.

They all had to laugh a bit on the chaotic way their ways had crossed. But then Hokuto and Taiga both looked back towards the entrance door, which they hadn't even closed as they wanted to be sure that no one sneaked up on them. Not that they could with both their senses being this sharp. Even weakened over daytime Taiga could still smell them down the mountain, with their horses, torches and weapons.

"They're coming to kill you," Taiga said with a serious expression, making the boys exchange a worried look.

"They tried before, but this time I will make sure that they won't take anyone from my side," Hokuto said with a determined expression towards Taiga. Even without his entire memories he still felt that this time he would make sure to protect the person next to him without fail.

“Definitely not with me at your side,” Taiga added and when he turned from the now dark entrance hall towards Hokuto, the boys in the back gasped. For the first time they saw Taiga’s red eyes.

“They will wait until tomorrow,” Hokuto announced as he looked up towards the now rapidly darkening sky.

“More fun for me,” Taiga said with a determined look.

Taiga had to smile on the way Kochi made Jesse and Shin leave the building to patrol the area around the house. Of course both boys had complained, because Taiga and Hokuto could easily sense if someone was getting close and they wouldn’t sleep at night in the first place, but Kochi had sensed the tension between them after their not quite private reunion and while everything would definitely become even more chaotic the next morning their kind wasn’t that bothered with it. Only at night Taiga was able to put all his human worries aside and while he still slightly felt sorry for leaving Juri in a dangerous spot, there was nothing that would stop him from satisfying himself this night and he didn’t need blood for that.

They were still in the corridor, looking at the closed entrance door after the boys had finally stopped complaining and lit some torches to patrol. Taiga wanted to turn towards Hokuto, but the other one was already right behind him when he turned. Taiga was sure that Hokuto was too impatient to even change locations, but Hokuto’s next move made Taiga laugh. Hokuto grabbed him by the hips and threw him over his shoulder, carrying him towards his room.

“What a service,” Taiga said in amusement as he kept grinning at the other one’s impatience.

“Took them long enough to get the hint,” Hokuto growled.

“And here I thought you wouldn’t mind if they saw us?” Taiga teased before Hokuto threw him on the bed with a bit too much force, not that Taiga would complain. He immediately stretched out his arms to pull the other one closer as Hokuto was already on the bed the next second. Hokuto didn’t bother replying as he was busy with some impatient kisses and ripping of clothes, making Taiga chuckle in the kiss once more.

“Be happy that these clothes are not the ones the boys gave to me or you would get scolded,” Taiga said as he pushed Hokuto a bit to the back. “Which means we need to get you out of yours more carefully.”

Hokuto rolled his eyes on that, but hurried to get out of his clothes trying to not damage them so that Kochi and the others wouldn’t yell at him later.

“Seriously even at night you sometimes still act quite human,” Hokuto replied as he pinned the other one to the bed.

“You prefer me acting differently?” Taiga asked playfully and he could read the excitement about that offer in the other one’s eyes. Hokuto’s grip on Taiga’s arms tightened immediately, because Taiga was ready to turn the situation around. At first Taiga just kept playing around, but Hokuto let him break free. With a tight grip on the other one’s hair he pulled Hokuto into a greedy kiss and just when Hokuto let his guard down a bit too much, Taiga took his chance and tried to turn them around. A move that Hokuto stood up against as good as he could, but eventually he had to give in. Yet after Taiga had pinned the other one down this time, Hokuto hissed at him with his fangs showing. Taiga remained calm this time though and only gave the other one a triumphing smile. A sign that he was well aware of his own strength.

Slowly Taiga leaned to the front, Hokuto still showing his fangs, but Taiga still dared to lean closer to his ear. “I will play nice tonight, just for you.”

Hokuto let out a dangerous growl on that, but Taiga didn’t feel the slightest impressed by it. With his next move he took Hokuto’s erection in his hand and gave Hokuto no time to withdraw his fangs when he gave him another way too impatient kiss. Hokuto clawed his hands into the other one’s back with a hip thrust against his hand, telling Taiga that he was as so often teasing him for too long.

When Taiga changed positions and indeed played nice as he lowered himself on Hokuto instead of taking the lead for the night, Hokuto’s eyes shone with excitement and he didn’t even let Taiga lower himself completely before he grabbed his hips and pulled him down with one rough movement. Taiga didn’t scold him, yet his eyes had turned dangerously dark on that move.

“Careful there or I might change my mind,” Taiga hissed as he let his hand travel up from Hokuto’s chest towards his neck.

“You might want to keep that murderous attitude for tomorrow?” Hokuto replied with his own hand over Taiga’s, but he didn’t stop the other one as he closed his hand around his neck.

“I thought we didn’t want to kill anyone tomorrow?”

“What a shame that you can’t kill me to get this wish out of your system,” Hokuto countered, but once more Taiga’s look showed a dangerous confidence as he leant forward and bit the other one on the chin line before he tightened his grip around his neck.

“Are you sure of that?”

The way Hokuto tightened his grip on Taiga’s hand showed that he was indeed not sure of that, because who knew if a turned vampire could kill his creator? Luckily they wouldn’t be the first to find out and with a chuckle Taiga pulled back, moving his hand up to Hokuto’s lips instead. “You gave me an eternity, but without you I wouldn’t even want it.”

“Aren’t you sweet,” Hokuto teased as he gave the other one an impatient thrust, signaling him that they were wasting too much time on talking.

“Maybe I am just merciful?” Taiga laughed as he finally moved with Hokuto’s rhythm before the other one would try to pick another fight after all.

“Then come on, have some mercy with me,” Hokuto demanded as he tried to pull Taiga down for another kiss, but Taiga knew that he wanted more so when Hokuto sat up, Taiga didn’t resist and let the other one turn them around. Finally more in the position Hokuto had hoped for he thrusted even deeper, his fangs out on Taiga’s skin now.

“You said that I act too human sometimes, but you also still act like I was one,” Taiga said on the touch of the fangs, as biting him right before their climax was something that Hokuto had done for the extra excitement of tasting Taiga’s blood. Something that wouldn’t satisfy him now anymore, yet he still did it.

“Well I guess we’ll be forever quite some weird vampires then,” Hokuto whispered against the other one’s skin and Taiga clawed his hands into the other one’s back the same moment Hokuto bit down on his neck.

For them it wasn’t about belonging to one kind or the other, they belonged to each other and that was all that mattered.

As expected the humans hadn’t moved before the first sunlight. A smart move as they couldn’t be sure if Hokuto would just ambush them in the woods at night, but this outcome had them arrive in the late afternoon hours after having to make their way up the mountain and with the season being the one with the shortest sunlight hours, this was perfect for Taiga’s plan.

The boys had to hide inside the house as they would only end up in the way and Taiga immediately spotted Juri close to the guards, but he seemed unharmed so for now his parents seemed to have believed his story.

It wasn’t to his surprise that his mother hadn’t come with them, but while he would have partly enjoyed seeing both his parents' reactions, his human part felt relieved as it was mostly his father who was leading this war against their kind, taking after his grandfather.

Now Taiga’s ripped clothes actually came in handy as it made it look like he had tried to fight off Hokuto and of course his father gave Hokuto a death glare on arrival.

“You took your time,” Hokuto said as he looked towards all the people that had arrived. Some of them had faced him on his first escape with Taiga, some were the guards who had hunted them, but those who he saw for the first time all seemed taken aback when his silver shining eyes stared back at them from under his hood.

The sun was completely out under a blue sky, but luckily it was close to vanishing behind the high mountains, but they needed to watch out nevertheless as Taiga’s father had brought enough people to make it more than difficult for Hokuto to face them under these conditions and Taiga wouldn’t be able to help him before sunset.

“What are your conditions for letting my son go?” The man asked and Hokuto started laughing at that.

“Who said I would let him go?” Hokuto asked and put his arm around Taiga’s shoulder. He had tied Taiga’s hands on his back, just to make the situation a bit more dramatic for everyone.

“You seem to overestimate your abilities. If you dare hurting him then we will immediately kill you.”

Once more Hokuto laughed at those words, but then he grabbed Taiga by the neck and hissed at the men in front of him with his fangs close to Taiga’s neck. Some of the men had brought pistols, others swords and torches. But instead of using any of them, they all made steps back and gave Taiga’s father a concerned look.

“You mere humans wouldn’t even get close enough to hurt me before I rip out his throat.”

“Then why didn’t you kill him already?” Taiga’s father said, way too calm for the situation. To the others it definitely seemed like he was good in keeping his composure even in such a situation, for Taiga it was different. His father didn’t care as much for Taiga’s life as he wanted to make everyone believe. A fact he had known about way before meeting Hokuto. For his father status was everything so if Taiga was not behaving in a way that would please his father then there had always been consequences and with him choosing Hokuto over his family, his father had not welcomed him back without the thought that maybe one day he had to sacrifice him if he wanted to kill Hokuto and that was his main goal after all. He was driven by the rage Taiga’s grandfather had planted into his mind.

“I took away your father, now you have to watch how I also take away your son,” Hokuto said in a cold voice. Everyone seemed even more enraged through those words, but Taiga didn’t even mind. His grandfather had brought this on himself with the way he had treated their kind as monsters and now his father would learn his own lesson as well.

Hokuto clicked his tongue on the lack of reaction and he grabbed Taiga by the hair and pulled his head back before he pushed his hood away to show his eyes and fangs more clearly this time. “You sure don’t seem to care enough, what a shame. I hoped this would be a bit more entertaining.”

When Hokuto tried to bite Taiga for real this time there was finally shouting, but it was actually Juri who had shouted right before Taiga’s father had also attempted to stop Hokuto, not that he had done it for Taiga’s sake, but he knew of course that everyone would be skeptical about his intentions if he sacrificed his own son this easily just to kill Hokuto.

“Oh, someone to the rescue?” Hokuto laughed while he still didn’t back off as some of the men had lifted their pistols towards him so he made sure to keep Taiga in front of him.

“I- I can’t rescue him,” Juri let out as everyone looked at him after he had shouted the loudest for Hokuto to stop. He had done so, because he knew that Taiga wanted the plan to work differently so he had just played along, but Taiga’s father was the one who was indeed acting the most out of plan and while Taiga had already told him that this could happen, it made Juri extremely angry how he was about to easily sacrifice his own son. “But if we promise to not hunt you down anymore, would you let him go?”

“Oh, such an innocent question. What do you think? Would that be a possible exchange?”

Hokuto looked at Taiga’s father and of course the man nodded. “If you spare his life then we will retreat as well and as long as you don’t give us any reason to hunt you we will make sure to leave you alone.”

Hokuto let out a chuckle on that, but didn’t let out the doubts he had about the man’s words, because he could tell the lie behind it. They would never leave him alone. They wanted his entire kind gone from this earth no matter what.

“Do you think he will stay true to his words?” Hokuto asked Taiga this time. Taiga looked at his father with a panicked look before he nodded.

Hokuto looked up at the sky as the sun finally vanished behind the mountains, leaving them only with the fainting daylight. Then he moved behind Taiga and to everyone’s obvious surprise he untied his hands, Taiga giving him a doubting look when he stepped back.

“I’d say we have a deal then,” Hokuto said, but when Taiga wanted to make a step away from him, Hokuto grabbed his arm. On that move a few of the men lifted their weapons once more.

“Look, exactly because of that I can’t just let you go over there. I want someone in exchange.”

Now the men all argued as this hadn’t been part of their deal, but Hokuto’s move would be too obvious if he just let Taiga go.

“I will go,” Juri announced and stepped a bit to the front.

“No, Juri, you-”

Hokuto hissed at Taiga when he wanted to stop the boy and Taiga played scared by that reaction as he immediately fell silent. “Why would you ruin this? Look at him, so brave. Now you can’t take that back, boy!”

Hokuto pointed at him and as he wasn’t one of the people of the city no one really stopped him and even when Juri gave Taiga’s father a worried look, the man didn’t give him any kind of soothing reaction. Juri felt like punching the man, but of course he needed to play along until the end.

When Juri stepped next to Taiga, Hokuto grabbed him a bit too roughly at the hair and pulled him towards him. “What an amazing friend, right? He tried to get you away from me and now he has to sacrifice himself to actually get you to safety. What a tragedy.”

Taiga gave Hokuto a hateful glare over the shoulder, but was shoved to the front the next second, Hokuto hiding behind Juri this time and retreating a bit towards his house.

Taiga kept looking at them until he was next to his father, the man immediately putting his hand around his shoulder.

“Are you alright?”

Taiga only nodded, knowing that the question was only for show. And then his father showed his true colors as he lifted his hand, making everyone raise their weapons.

“Father, you can’t attack him. You will hit Juri and you promised that you will leave him alone.”

“Didn’t he promise you a lot as well? And he didn’t keep any of those promises, right? I can’t let him get away again.”

Taiga was pulled back by the guards as most of the men walked to the front and Juri gave them all a scared look.

“You can’t be serious?” Juri yelled at them.

“Trust me he would kill you in a gruesome way, so we will spare you a horrible end like this,” one of the men explained as he lifted his pistol right towards Juri as Hokuto was hiding behind him.

“So you are really desperate to get rid of me, I see,” Hokuto let out behind Juri.

“It’s time for your kind to get extinct,” Taiga’s father hissed.

“Well if that is what you want to do, then you will have to kill more than one person today,” Hokuto said as he pushed Juri to the side and the boy immediately stepped back towards the house, trying to hide as much as possible as he knew what was about to happen.

“Did you bring backup? Seems like you are not as high and mighty as you want to make us believe,” one of the guards laughed at him, but Hokuto only showed a mocking smile before he looked up into the clear sky, the first stars getting visible.

“Backup, sure, if you want to call it that. But I need to tell you that he’s not on my side right now,” Hokuto let out entertained, making everyone stare at each other in confusion.

Some of the men turned around, looking at the forest, scared of an ambush.

“You are looking too far,” Hokuto added with a laugh.

This time Taiga’s father also finally turned around and the only person still standing behind them was Taiga. The boy had looked to the ground and had his eyes closed now that everyone was facing him, but he enjoyed how everyone’s heartbeats showed him the fear he wanted to feel.

Finally feeling satisfied by everyone’s confusion and fear, Taiga lifted his head and opened his eyes. He immediately got the reaction he had been longing for. Some people screamed, others lifted their weapons towards him and then there was his father’s reaction. The simple neutral stare, the disappointment.

“Oh look at this. You don’t even feel the slightest sad or even angry at Hokuto,” Taiga mocked his father. “All I can feel is disappointment. Your son is not the perfect young lord he was supposed to be, what a shame, right?”

“But- But the young lord was just as usual before?” One of the men stuttered in disbelief and flinched when Taiga faced him.

“You don’t seem to know enough about our kind,” Taiga laughed.

“Our kind? You already lowered yourself this much in one night?”

His father’s words had Taiga face him once more with an outraged look as he showed his fangs and hissed at him, making the guards point their pistols at him, but his father lifted his hand to make them stop.

“You can be happy that this is in fact not my first night or all of you would be dead by now,” Taiga said as he pointed at the men who seemed to slightly panic as they were now trapped between them. His father though turned to look at Juri with a knowing look. “So this was all a set up from the very beginning.”

“Your own fault that you didn’t just leave them alone,” Juri said and the next moment the doors of the house opened, making the men panic even more.

“So now everything is in the open, no need to hide anymore,” Shintaro said as he stepped out with the other two boys. Juri hurried towards them and Kochi handed him his knife, which he had picked up from their previous fight.

“Good to see you safe,” Kochi said.

“Luckily. Seriously I feared they’d just shoot me,” Juri said judging.

“Are you now brainwashing humans into helping you?” One of the guards asked Hokuto, who immediately laughed.

“As if we’d need their help.”

“Hey, we helped quite a lot,” Jesse complained.

“You can go ahead and fight instead of us then if you want to?” Hokuto challenged, but of course none of them moved, even though they had at least equipped themselves with weapons in case they needed to fight.

“So what will it be?” Taiga asked. “You said you want our kind extinct. Here is your chance to start.”

“So you would kill me if I attacked?”

His father’s question had Taiga chuckle in disbelief, but what else had he expected. To rescue his own life his father would do whatever necessary.

“A weird discussion, right? You want to kill my kind, yet I doubt that you will spare me just because I am or should I say was your son? Because you wouldn’t use that word for someone like me anymore.” Taiga enjoyed spitting the words at his father. Especially because he could feel that they were all true. His father’s determination was obvious and it made the cut Taiga wanted so badly even easier.

“But believe it or not, I didn’t bring you here today to kill you,” Taiga added. That was the first time his father’s reaction seemed more human. More confused. “I wasn’t of your kind anymore the moment I returned, yet I kept some human attachment. That is exactly what will spare your lives today. We will not return to this city and as we are not the monsters my grandfather wanted you all to believe, you won’t hear any stories of cruel murders where we go. You will most likely not even know where we went.”

With Taiga getting stronger he was sure that he and Hokuto could hide their presence no matter where they would be going from now on, so all that was left was for the humans to be grateful that their lives were spared this time.

“You better take his offer,” Shintaro shouted from the back. “You might not get a second chance.”

“So what will it be?” Taiga asked as he faced everyone with an excited look as they all kept staring at his red shining eyes as if they were all trapped in a nightmare.

“All you wanted to do was to mock me,” his father finally let out and Taiga couldn’t even deny it.

“Remember what you said earlier? About Hokuto? He never lied to me, nor did he ever break any promises. Different from you he actually listened to me and treasured my opinion while you would have easily sacrificed me earlier if it hadn’t been for Juri.”

That realization had a whisper go through the group, but his father kept his neutral expression.

“If he talks about brainwashing now again then I will seriously beat them all up,” Jesse let out annoyed, but the tension between both groups was still too much to even make a single move without actually provoking a fight.

“Fine,” his father let out to everyone’s surprise. Not that Taiga was that surprised. His father wanted their kind dead, but not over his own life that was for sure. He would most likely still try to hunt them later, but for once he knew that his plan had failed. “We will retreat. But I warn you, if you ever dare to come back to this city then we will get rid of you. Both of you.”

Taiga only showed a mocking smile on that reaction as he actually enjoyed that determination.

“Then let me remind you that if you go against your word that I will not be this merciful next time. By the way, you might want to tell mother a lie about what happened tonight.”

Once more there was a bit more reaction visible on the man’s face and he had obviously gotten the passive threat, because while Taiga indeed didn’t want to kill his family, he would not let anyone live if they ever dared to hunt them again.

His father gave him another annoyed look, similar to the ones he had received so often when he had disappointed his father and Taiga took a last mocking action as he bowed to his father.

“My apologies for being a disappointment,” Taiga mocked before he moved his arm to give them a signal to move and everyone waited for Taiga’s father to make the first step.

The man gave another look towards the boys and then towards Hokuto. The boy gave him a mocking look as well and also took a small bow of satisfaction. “May our paths never cross again.”

With a snort the man turned back to Taiga with a last judging look, but there was nothing he could say anymore. Everything had been said and now they had to show which of the two kinds possessed more arrogance.

The guards immediately followed Taiga’s father and the rest of the men kept turning around with their torches raised and weapons lifted as they of course didn’t trust them at all.

They had just retreated for a few meters when Taiga looked at Hokuto with a satisfied smile and made his first few steps towards him.

It was actually Juri who was still on the highest alert yet he didn’t understand how he had seen the drama unfolding in front of them first without Hokuto and Taiga even reacting.

Taiga’s father had suddenly turned around, grabbed one of the pistols of the guards and stepped back with it pointed right at Taiga.

“WATCH OUT!” Juri shouted, making the boys jolt as they hadn’t seen the movement.

The shock was written over everyone’s faces when Taiga’s father pulled the trigger without any hesitation and Taiga hadn’t moved out of the way. All he had done was turn towards his father and then the bullet hit him right in the chest.

There was a moment of absolute silence when Taiga lifted his hand to his chest with wide eyes and then turned to look at Hokuto. The boy had frozen to the spot as well and only moved when Taiga suddenly stretched his arm out towards him. Hokuto dashed over to him, wanting to catch him as he sank to his knees, but then there was a second shot and this time Hokuto stumbled to the front as he had taken the second shot towards his chest.

“No, no… how did this happen?” Kochi shouted, but Juri stopped him when he tried to run over towards them.

Taiga dropped to the back, still trying to reach Hokuto’s hand and the other one stretched out his arm as much as he could, but then he crumbled to the front, barely reaching Taiga’s fingertips.

Even all of the men looked more than taken aback by what had just happened and the boys stared in horror not knowing what to do.

“You brought this tragic ending on yourself,” Taiga’s father said so coldly that Juri wanted to take his knife and throw it right into the other one’s skull. But there was one thing stopping him from doing so and when Jesse and Shintaro were about to lose it and wanted to attack the others, Juri pulled them violently back towards him.

“Let them go. What will it help if we die here today too?”

“How can you say that?” Shintaro yelled at the other one, but the men didn’t seem to feel threatened by them in the first place as Taiga’s father lowered the pistol before he turned away as if nothing had happened.

“We’re leaving. Let that be a warning to their kind.”

A few minutes passed in silence in which Jesse and Shintaro cried for their two friends until they couldn’t see the torches anymore and the night around them had fallen silent.

“Juri, what-” Kochi wanted an explanation as he hadn’t thought that Juri would stay this calm and keep them from fighting. But Juri ignored them as he went down the few steps from the door and walked up to Hokuto and Taiga with fast steps.

What happened next had everyone stare in disbelief as Juri put his hands on his hips and kicked Taiga’s leg.

“You assholes scared the shit out of us. You made them cry! Go apologize!”

“What is he-” Shintaro started between his sobs, but then he fell silent when he could hear a chuckle, first from Hokuto and then from Taiga. Both of them opened their eyes with an apologizing expression towards Juri before they faced each other and started laughing even louder.

“Yeah, really funny. Be happy that I realized that it was fishy that you both didn’t realize that he was aiming for you and that you didn’t dodge.”

“I can’t believe this,” Kochi said as he put his hands into his hair with a relieved sigh.

“What? You played this?” Jesse finally caught up as the two boys sat up completely unhurt.

“Well, we wanted them to leave us alone so this wasn’t planned, but it was the best way to make them believe that we are dead,” Taiga explained.

“And they will still believe that their silver bullets can kill us, while they only cause minor damage,” Hokuto added.

“You two are UNBELIEVABLE,” Shintaro roared as he approached them together with Jesse with threatening steps, but then they threw their arms around the two boys, this time crying out of relief.

“Sorry, we know we scared you,” Taiga apologized and then Hokuto hissed when Juri hit him on the head.

“You better apologize too,” Juri said threateningly, making Taiga laugh and then Kochi stepped next to Juri with his arms crossed to his chest. Hokuto sighed when he realized that everyone was looking at him.

“Fine, I am sorry.”

Jesse squealed on hearing that and threw his arms completely around him. “Look, even you can show some kind of emotions.”

“I can show you pain if you don’t back off,” Hokuto threatened, but he wasn’t really taken seriously by the boys anymore as Shintaro also just threw one arm around him and ruffled through his hair.

“What are you planning to do now?” Juri asked Taiga who stood up and kept laughing at the boys attacking Hokuto.

“I know we have to decide that as soon as possible, but for now I think we should get out of here before they get the idea that they should come back to burn our bodies.”

“Won’t they get suspicious though if they come back and don’t find your bodies?” Kochi asked.

“They believe a lot of myths so we could just burn some wood and hope they will believe that dead vampires burn to ashes in the sun?” Juri suggested.

“I like that idea. You should become our personal consultant in case we get into trouble with humans again,” Taiga teased.

“You will need consultants for the rest of eternity as reckless as you are,” Juri said before he told the boys to finally leave Hokuto alone and help get some wood together.

Taiga stretched his arm out towards Hokuto and the boy took it and let himself get dragged up, but before Taiga could say anything Hokuto had put his hand on the other one’s face and gave him a passionate kiss. Way softer than Taiga was used to and he gave the other one a bright smile when he backed off.

“Oh so romantic tonight,” Taiga teased.

“Let’s say I just got to see how it would be to lose you and I don’t really want that scenario to ever become reality.”

“Then we will have an eternity with each other in the afterlife if we are meant to die together one day,” Taiga tried to make it sound more positive.

“You really think our kind would be as lucky as getting a happy ever after in heaven?” Hokuto teased and Taiga shook his head before he gave the other one another brief kiss and put his forehead against Hokuto’s.

“If we can’t find heaven, I will walk through hell with you.”

***

 “But why?” Shintaro asked pouting, Jesse also forming a sad expression next to him when Hokuto and Taiga announced that they were leaving and they weren’t just talking about moving to the next best town.

“Think for yourself,” Kochi said as he threw another piece of wood into the small fire they had made now that they were taking a rest. They had left Taiga’s city in the middle of the night, making sure to leave no traces, but at some point the boys needed to rest. “It’s not only Taiga’s family which could maybe start hunting them down once more if they realized that they are not dead.”

“But you can easily fight everyone off,” Jesse argued, but the two boys who sat a bit away from the fire just smiled at each other. Hokuto had his arm around Taiga’s shoulder, Hokuto leaning against a tree.

“Would that be a life you would want for yourself?” Hokuto asked back and at first Jesse wanted to argue once more, but then he fell silent and drew with a stick on the dust in front of him.

“I know it’s sudden and I wish we could go back with you to your town for a bit,” Taiga added. “But I fear that my father might really send out people to check around once more so for now we want to keep going. We might be able to come back at some point, but for now it will definitely be better for us to keep moving.”

“Just make sure to not wait too long to come back. Remember that we only have one human life,” Juri reminded them.

“I will remind him of that,” Taiga teased and hit Hokuto on the leg.

“Why me?”

“Maybe because you were the one who wanted to make me wait for months for your next visit, because you couldn’t understand human time management?” Taiga teased, making Hokuto smile on that memory.

“It’s so weird that no matter how often you will visit us you won’t change,” Kochi said thoughtfully.

“You could join us?” Taiga suggested and all boys exchanged some hesitant looks before Juri shook his head first.

“I fully understand why you decided to join Hokuto, but I am satisfied with my one life,” Juri announced honestly. “Of course there are things I won’t get to experience, lifestyles I am jealous of and a future I would love to see, but meeting you two was already quite an adventure for this one lifetime.”

Hokuto and Taiga gave him an understanding look as for them their story could have also easily ended differently and while they would have an eternity together they also had to make sure to protect it. There were many people out there who could try to steal it away from them.

“I agree,” Shintaro spoke up next. “I wished I could talk about your story with other people to let them know how interesting our lives were for a while.”

“We can sell it as a book,” Jesse laughed.

“You two can’t even properly write,” Kochi scolded them.

“Then you can write it,” Shintaro replied, making Kochi throw some leaves at him.

“If you come up with weird ideas, at least write them yourself. You can start studying and then you will have enough knowledge to actually really write a book if you want to.”

“I guess then we have a goal for our lifetimes as well,” Jesse teased and looked at Shintaro.

“We have a lot of time to think about that, but I definitely want to travel at some point. Our town is great, but except for the castle there is not much to explore.”

“Then we can hopefully give you some travel ideas when we come back to visit,” Hokuto said before he stood up, followed by Taiga.

“You literally saved our lives several times on our journey even though we have only known each other for a few months,” Taiga said gratefully.

“I would be totally grateful for this talk in the daytime, but I have to say your eyes still freak me out,” Jesse said honestly, but Taiga only laughed on that.

“But this kind of reaction shows us that you’re still the same,” Kochi added with a smile.

“And for his bad moods he has me,” Hokuto teased.

“You really have to leave this abruptly?” Juri asked as he also stood up and approached Taiga.

“We need to make sure to get a bit further away before dawn or I will be in trouble,” Taiga explained.

Shintaro and Jesse also got up and of course they were already getting emotional again, but to their surprise it was Juri who moved first and pulled Taiga into a hug.

“It was an adventure meeting you that is for sure, but I am also sorry for the doubts I had at first. I wish you all the best.”

Taiga smiled at the other one’s words and finally hugged him back. “You had all right to have doubts, but I am grateful that you decided to actually talk it through with us and not judge right from the start.”

Something so many other humans hadn’t done and it had brought a lot of destruction between both of their kinds.

Jesse and Shintaro jumped at Taiga next, complaining how they left like this after they had just found out about Taiga being a vampire now as well.

“It’s not a farewell after all, calm down,” Taiga laughed. “I promise that we will definitely come back and visit. You can throw all your questions at me then, okay?”

The boys seemed satisfied with that reply, but they still kept nagging Taiga about the way he had changed.

Hokuto watched them with a calm expression until Juri walked up to him.

“I don’t want to hear an apology. I don’t really care for them,” Hokuto said before the other one said anything and Juri had to smile.

“You can always tell what humans feel so maybe a silent apology is enough?” Juri asked and stretched his hand out towards the other one and Hokuto nodded with a faint smile when he reached out for Juri’s hand, but then Juri was pushed to the front and Hokuto reached out for his shoulders.

“Come on, don’t behave this distant,” Jesse yelled as he threw his arms around both of them, leaving Hokuto and Juri in a pretty uncomfortable squeezed state in the middle.

Shintaro of course immediately joined the chaos and Taiga laughed at them from the side with Kochi who could only shake his head at his friends.

“Are you going to look for other members of your kind?” Kochi asked, but Taiga shook his head.

“I found it weird as well when Hokuto said that they would usually never meet except if it was for a fight, but now I can understand that mindset better. Those like Hokuto are eternal beings, not immortal in a way that they couldn’t get killed, yet they don’t need to look for someone to be with no matter how many centuries pass.”

“Yet he chose to be with you,” Kochi added with a knowing look. “I feel like they only need to find the right person and that is exactly why it is possible for them to turn humans into their own kind.”

“Quite a romantic theory,” Juri said as he had somehow gotten himself out of that weird group hug and left the other two bombarding Hokuto with questions now.

“I find that theory pretty fitting for us,” Taiga said with a calm smile towards Hokuto who kept running away from the boys. “While we won’t look for others on purpose I would actually love to see if your theory applies to others as well.”

“If you ever find an answer, definitely let us know,” Juri said as he patted Taiga on the shoulder. “You are always welcome in our town no matter how much time passes.”

Taiga was grateful for the open invitation and while they needed to find their own path from now on, Taiga needed to adapt to the fact that he will now outlive everyone he will meet in this eternal life. On one hand it was sad, because a lot of farewells were going to be part of his life now, but that also meant that he could see the world and its people change and evolve. For now he wanted to explore not just the entire world with Hokuto, but also treasure every single moment in it with him as their eternal life was only given as long as they watched out for each other and maybe one day there would be a world in which their lives wouldn’t be as easily protected as in this one.

+++

2023 – Tokyo

+++

“It has changed quite a lot,” Taiga said as he looked out of the train approaching Tokyo from the airport. In the distance they could spot the Skytree and the Tokyo skyline.

“The last time we have been here was quite some time back after all,” Hokuto said, as he leaned back in his seat with his eyes closed, the train almost empty as they had arrived on one of the last flights.

“It was a few years after the war,” Taiga remembered.

“Which one?” Hokuto teased. When Taiga sat down next to him Hokuto opened his eyes and looked at him. Even though it was night time they were both looking at each other’s brown eyes. Another really helpful modern invention, colored contact lenses.

“One of too many,” Taiga said a bit more serious. They had seen the world at its worst, but of course they had also experienced a few of its good sides as well.

“Did he contact you?” Hokuto asked and Taiga took out his phone, checking his messages. When he chuckled and held the phone out to Hokuto, the latter took a look at the chat that had more emoticons than words in it. Hokuto rolled his eyes, but also showed a faint smile.

“He’s such a brat. Why did his grandfather even tell him about us?” Hokuto asked, but of course he knew the reason. There had been a few people on their journey who they had been almost as close to as with Juri and the boys back in the days, but of course they had to decide wisely who to trust with their secrets, especially in this modern time. The world had turned extremely dangerous for them. Modern technology made it difficult for them to even hunt without getting noticed. And while Hokuto was more than disgusted by the idea Taiga had come up with quite some years ago, he had of course not declined when Taiga had started getting blood directly from people who sold it on the black market. As it was still not as suspicious as actually hunting people down, not that they had completely stopped doing so. Especially Taiga couldn’t make it long without blood even after all these centuries. In the worst case he could go for two weeks if he wasn’t wounded or out in the sun, while Hokuto could still go for months without it if he needed to.

“He can’t do much himself anymore after all and telling Taiko means that he trusts him enough, not that he told him exactly who we are yet.”

“If I find even a single word about us somewhere online I will totally rip him to pieces nevertheless,” Hokuto growled.

“Let’s first hear what all this is about, okay?” Taiga reminded the other one as there was a reason that Taiko, the grandson of one of their friends, had contacted them. His grandfather was already of high age where he couldn’t walk around by himself much anymore, but he had been a really close friend to them in his younger days and Taiko had suddenly told him about some recent news. People kept disappearing around some areas in Tokyo, mostly Shinjuku and Shibuya. They had also discovered corpses of two young women, both violently killed. All the hints had Taiko’s grandfather tell the boy about Taiga and Hokuto, but so far he hadn’t completely spilled all their secrets. Taiko thought they were familiar with such kind of murders.

“Has this never happened before?” Taiga asked after he had texted Taiko back that they were close to the station where he wanted to pick them up. Taiga had seen a lot of Hokuto’s memories when he had been turned, but even now a lot of Hokuto’s memory still remained foggy.

“At least not in a way that a lot of us got to know about it,” Hokuto said. “Now with all those social media it’s easier to spot when someone goes overboard.”

“You think it’s someone like me, right?” Taiga dared to ask and Hokuto’s look showed that he was right.

“Eternal ones can be pretty annoying as well. I just don’t think that someone would create such a mess if it was preventable. We don’t really enjoy playing around in that way.”

“But what if your kind also changed over all these centuries?” Taiga asked. “I mean don’t you think at some point their emotions could also change?”

“Maybe, but I hope it’s not the case. If we face an eternal one then us two might not be able to do anything about the situation.”

They had been called to find out who is responsible for all the happenings, but if it was indeed a vampire, no matter which kind, they couldn’t just easily do something about it. If the other one had put his mind on killing people this openly then they had to eventually get rid of him if they didn’t want to get their own secret discovered.

“We just need to be careful, because I doubt that we will be the only ones in Tokyo right now,” Hokuto said knowingly. “I also don’t want you to run off without me, especially in the daytime, am I clear?”

When Hokuto gave such a serious warning then Taiga knew better than to laugh about it. After all he was indeed as vulnerable as a human over the day and something they had learned over all these centuries was that not all eternal vampires accepted Taiga’s kind as one of their own.    

When they got off at their station the announcement of the last train was already heard and they walked out the gates with almost no people left on the streets.

"It's him," Hokuto said as he pointed at a boy who was on his phone and did some weird movements, most likely filming a TikTok and Hokuto was already annoyed by him. As a member of the same family they could tell who he was by the smell of his blood.

"Give him a chance. It's not like he's behaving weird for this era. We're the ones who are a bit behind," Taiga teased as he walked up to the boy who didn't even realize at first that they were stopping in front of him.

"Taiko?" Taiga asked after a moment, making the boy almost drop his phone. With a curse he somehow caught his phone before he looked up at the boys.

"Ehm, yes?"

"We're here to meet up with you. Taiga and Hokuto?"

Taiko stared back at them in pure confusion before he started laughing. "Damn, you got me with this one. My grandfather should have told me that his friends are also sending their grandsons. I was expecting people the age of my grandfather."

The boys exchanged a knowing look on his reaction, but just left him to his confusion for now.

"Come on, let's head home. The house has a lot of spare rooms so you can totally choose two big ones."

"One room will be enough," Hokuto said and Taiko looked a bit confused for a moment before Taiga showed him a teasing smile and looked at Hokuto next, making the boy gasp.

"Oh sure, yeah, no problem. Sorry."

"No need to apologize," Taiga said and let the boy lead the way. For the rest of the way they didn't talk much about serious topics, Taiko mostly telling them where they could find convenient stores, supermarkets and hot springs around the area.

"This is it," Taiko announced as they arrived at a big traditional Japanese house with high walls and a traditional entrance gate.

"He really took good care of it," Hokuto said towards Taiga.

"What?" Taiko asked, but Hokuto shook his head.

"Nevermind."

Inside the house the interior had of course changed, but they had to smile at the way it was still looking the same as the last time they had been here. At that time the house had belonged to only Taiko's grandfather as he had lost his family in the war. Later he had married and still kept his property for the next generations.

"We should be as quiet as possible. It's late so you should talk to him tomorrow," Taiko said as he got out of his shoes and looked down the corridor.

"He's awake," Hokuto said, Taiga giving him a hit on the arm as he was a bit too obvious.

Taiko wanted to ask how he knew that, but then he heard the sliding door of his grandfather's room.

"Did you pick them up?" The man asked and they both stepped inside the corridor with a smile towards the old man. They could immediately feel how happy the man was about seeing them and while it was a sad picture to them as the man was now already in the last years of his human life, his heartbeat giving away how exhausted he was, for them it had become a routine to see their friends become older so they didn't look at him in that way.

"Boys, good to see you again."

"I didn't know you visited before? Did you come with your parents or grandparents?" Taiko asked.

"Something like that yeah," Taiga replied.

"Taiko would you be so nice and make me some tea, I would like to talk to the boys," the man said as he walked up to another room and pointed at it for them to enter.

Taiko excused himself towards the kitchen and the boys entered the common room where a kotatsu awaited them in the middle of the room. It was summer now so they didn't need it, but they didn't really need the comfort of warmth in the first place.

The man was walking with a walking stick and Taiga hurried to help him sit down.

"I'm so sorry to cause you all the trouble to come over here," the man said. "How have you been?"

"Not really busy, so don't worry about calling us," Hokuto said as he sat down opposite of him while Taiga sat down to Hokuto's left.

"Do you think it could be related to your kind?" The man asked straight forward.

"If we're lucky then no, but chances are high," Hokuto explained.

"We will go and do some research over the next days," Taiga said.

"The colored contacts look so weird on you two. Especially on you Hokuto," the man suddenly teased, making the boys exchange a smile.

"There are so many new things in this era that help us a lot," Taiga explained.

"While others can also hurt you. Please be careful when you do your research. The police are on high alert too."

"We will. No worries. Would you mind if Taiko shows us around a bit tomorrow? It will be helpful to have someone with us who knows some places."

"Sure, he'll be thrilled to do so."

"Do you want us to keep the rest a secret?" Hokuto asked and the man's look darkened a bit on that question.

"He's a good boy. But he had a troublesome childhood. My daughter tries really hard to raise him, but she is a single mother and he is pretty hard to control."

"That's why he is staying with you at the moment," Hokuto concluded.

"Teenagers are complicated after all," Taiga said while he could feel that it had definitely been the best decision for the boy’s mother to raise him without his father. Taiko obviously had some identity crisis through not meeting his father and getting dropped off at his grandfather's house, but having a parent who didn’t really care about him wouldn’t help either, Taiga knew that the best.

"I leave the decision to you how much you want to tell him. You can read people way better than I can," the man said and the boys only nodded as they could hear Taiko approaching from the kitchen. His first impression wasn't bad at all. He had made tea for them all, of course not knowing that the boys would have some trouble drinking it and he was thrilled about hearing that he could show them around his favorite areas the next day.

But they also had to watch out not to let the boy get too close as the situation was way too dangerous for him to be close to them in case they stumbled over one of their own kind.

***

"Are you going in those clothes?" Taiko asked when they all met at the door the next morning.

Taiga and Hokuto exchanged a look, but couldn't see anything wrong with their clothes. They usually dressed as casually as possible. Hokuto was almost always in black, while Taiga wore beige trousers and a white t-shirt.

"Come with me," the boy said and led them to his room where he went to his wardrobe for a moment before he threw a shirt at Hokuto. Your style is not too bad, but a bit boring. Try that shirt instead.

Hokuto gave Taiga a warning look when the boy was about to laugh and he bit his lip, but then he had to catch two things at once the next moment. "You should change completely. Boys like you are getting picked on at the places we will visit. You look like a nerd."

This time Hokuto was the one who burst out laughing and Taiga could only roll his eyes.

"Maybe you want to try my hairdresser as well while you're here? You definitely need some color in your hair."

They had never bothered much with their hair as it wasn't growing as fast and they never bothered much with styles anyway.

"Maybe, let's see how we feel about it later," Taiga said as they changed clothes and he had to say that he liked the shirt Taiko had picked for Hokuto. Instead of the monotone black it had some white stripes and an interesting cut as well. It made Hokuto look even thinner than he already was, but it fitted him quite well.

His own clothes were something he'd usually never choose himself. The dark jeans with some holes around his knees was a bit too tight and fancy for his liking, while the top was okay as it was a button up shirt, but with some words and colors all over it in white and a bit red.

"Amazing, now you look ready for the streets," Taiko announced as he was satisfied with his styling as he himself also looked quite fashionable with a wide light blue jeans and an oversized gray sweater that was definitely a bit too warm for the weather. He was also wearing a golden earring in his right earlobe.

"Don't ask if we want to get ear piercings, the answer is no," Hokuto said when the boy touched his ear and then laughed.

"Too fancy for you I see. Then let's go. I hope you're losing up a bit around the clubs, because you're acting more the age of my grandfather than mine."

"You don't say," Hokuto whispered as the boy had already left the room. Taiga the only one hearing the words and giving Hokuto a teasing smile.

***

The first half of the day was rather harmless, especially because it was daytime they didn't have to watch out too much for any interference, because if whoever caused all these murders and vanishing was of Taiga's kind then he wouldn't be able to move in the daytime.

Taiko had shown them Shibuya first and luckily they were spending more time inside than outside, because both of them wouldn't stand the sun and the incredible heat for too long. The cold was their friend, but they were heating themselves up already there was no need for the weather to burn them this harshly.

The game centers were still something both could handle, but Hokuto almost lost it when Taiko brought them to karaoke and tried to make them sing. Taiga had successfully convinced Taiko that Hokuto couldn't sing so that he would stop bothering him. Eventually the only thing that had been a bit complicated was the way Taiko wanted them to eat at his favorite place. They were able to eat the food, but they wouldn't be able to digest it so in secret they had to get it all out at the toilets. One of the few weak points of their kind.

"I actually would have loved to hear you sing at karaoke," Taiga said as they walked through the now lit up neon lights of the Shibuya district.

"You sang beautifully enough for both of us," Hokuto teased back.

"Jealous?" Taiga teased before Taiko walked back towards them after talking to one of the security staff of the club they wanted to head to.

"We can go in," Taiko said, but Taiga put his hand on the other one's shoulder.

"Thanks, but you should head home."

Taiko let out an annoyed sound and slapped Taiga's hand away.

"Oh right, because my grandfather left the investigation to you. How many years older than I are you? Maybe five? If even? I don't know what kind of business your family had with mine in the past, but this is a part of the city where I know a lot of people and I don't want them dead next, so don't even try to babysit me."

"Fine, then let's go," Hokuto said and started walking to the boy's obvious surprise.

"He's easily persuaded, isn't he?" Taiko asked, but Taiga shook his head and clapped the boy on the shoulder.

"No, he just hates wasting time arguing and it's his way of saying that he doesn't care if you die."

Taiko kept looking after them dumbfounded for a moment before he pouted and stomped his foot. "You'll be grateful eventually that I tagged along," he hissed while following them inside the club.

This club was the one connected to the murders, but there were other places where people had been before they had vanished. For now they could only investigate at one club at a time.

"It stinks in here," Hokuto immediately let out. The music was annoying to their ears and the smell wasn't just what a human would easily recognize. They could smell beneath the alcohol and sweat.

“If you need me you can find me at the bar,” Taiko excused himself and they watched how the boy lifted his hand towards another boy who was behind the bar and nodded towards him with a bright smile. Even over the music they could hear their conversation as they could shut out any noise to concentrate on specific sounds. The blonde boy behind the counter was called Konpi and he was obviously a friend of Taiko.

“So are we joining the bar counter or what do we actually do?” Taiga asked and Hokuto could tell the difference to the rest of the day and to Taiga’s obvious surprise, Hokuto pulled him towards the crowd of people dancing.

“As if you’d be satisfied with just sitting, the sun has long set,” Hokuto said with a knowing smile as he put his hands on Taiga’s hips and pulled himself closer to the other one.

“Oh I see,” Taiga teased back as he was indeed feeling more restless now. He was also exhausted from being out the entire day, but sitting down would indeed make him snap sooner or later. “So, no singing, but dancing is okay for you?”

“It serves the purpose for now, but we have to stop talking,” Hokuto said as he wanted to concentrate on conversations around them and Taiga couldn’t actually argue and they didn’t need words as much anyway. But they had to watch out to not be too obvious, because while their contact lenses helped a lot, their fangs wouldn’t easily be seen as Halloween props in the middle of summer and the way Hokuto pulled the other one’s hips against his own made Taiga put his arms around Hokuto’s shoulders while he hid his face a bit on the other one’s collarbone for a moment.

“Almost three hundred years and you still cannot control yourself with me,” Hokuto laughed and got pinched on the back of his shoulder blade for that comment, but Taiga got a grip fast and looked up at the other one with a challenging look.

“Then shall we see how much you can control yourself?” Taiga asked while Hokuto had only moved along the rhythm until now with his hands still on Taiga’s hips, but the moment Taiga moved his own hands to the other one’s face and gave him a rushed kiss, Hokuto immediately moved his hands more around Taiga’s body, the danger of this kiss only visible to them.

“What do you mean Rinne hasn’t shown up for three days straight? Tell me that earlier!”

With a growl Hokuto pulled back from the kiss as it had given them the perfect silent moment to actually listen, but the one voice that had stood out was actually Taiko’s as he had talked to Konpi who had just told him that a fellow friend of theirs who was usually also working with Konpi hadn’t shown up this week and wouldn’t answer his phone.

“I don’t know where he lives and you know that going to the police will only cause trouble,” Konpi said while he cleaned some glasses, but when he looked back up at Taiko he gasped and stepped back. Taiko raised an eyebrow at that reaction, but then he turned around and flinched when Taiga and Hokuto were standing right behind him.

“Dudes, you were on the other side of the room just a second ago and well quite busy, how-”

“Maybe you already had too many drinks? Your realization of time doesn’t seem to work anymore,” Taiga laughed it off as he sat next to Taiko.

“Or did you have something else?” Hokuto asked and looked up at Konpi who gave him an annoyed look.

“What a shame that you will only get what is on the menu,” Konpi replied.

“But I guess Rinne is getting things at another place?” Taiga asked.

“How did you? Come on guys there is no way you heard that,” Taiko complained and Konpi clicked his tongue.

“Taiko, who are they anyway?”

“Friends of my grandfather or more like the grandsons of his friends. I don’t even know myself. You explain,” Taiko said as he waved at the boys who were now sitting on his left and right.

“We got told that people were vanishing around the area and that there were some gruesome murders,” Taiga explained.

“So what? You want to tell me that you are something like private investigators or let me guess you are some wannabe youtubers who think this is all a game?”

“Fair enough that you are skeptical,” Taiga replied. “But we are taking this extremely serious and if your friend is not picking up his phone then maybe you should be a bit more worried in this situation?”

“Rinne sometimes has his phases,” Taiko said in a low voice.

“Taiko-”

“It’s okay,” Taiko cut his friend. “They are weird, I know, but I somehow, I don’t know, I trust them. I feel like my grandfather would have never asked them to come if he didn’t trust them with this.”

“So you think he is fine?” Hokuto asked.

“Fine is not the right word. He had some tough time with his relatives he was living with.”

“Was?” Taiga asked, already seeing on both the boys’ gloomy looks that they worried for their friend in another way.

“He doesn’t know his father and his mother died of an overdose. The only relative he had was his mother’s older brother, but let’s say he was even worse and eventually Rinne had enough and he ran away. So even though he is an adult now and can officially work and live on his own, it’s just not that easy for him.”

“And yet none of you know where he lives?” Taiga asked.

“His complicated past made him shut out people a lot. Just getting him to talk about his past took us several months,” Konpi explained.

“So that is why you don’t want any police involved,” Hokuto concluded and of course he understood their reason, but the situation was dangerous at the moment.

“We could try and-” Hokuto and Taiga both immediately turned around on their chairs and stared towards the crowd, making Taiko stop talking and look at them in confusion. “What?”

“We’ll be back in a moment,” Taiga said as he clapped the boy on the shoulder and jumped up, vanishing immediately with Hokuto in the crowded area of the dancefloor.

They didn’t need to say anything, both of them had sensed him. An eternal one! But while they could sense each other it wasn’t that easy to spot the right person between all the humans in the room. Especially for Taiga it was difficult to tell the difference if the other one wouldn’t show himself pretty obvious to him. Not to forget that they had found out over the years that in the daytime Taiga lost his ability to sense other vampires around him easily.

“Do you think he ran?” Taiga asked as they couldn’t spot anyone suspicious.

“I feel like he wants to challenge us,” Hokuto said as he scanned the room once more. “But I doubt that he is the one who murdered the two girls.”

“But you think he is the one responsible for the people who are vanishing?” Taiga asked and Hokuto nodded.

“I have a theory and I hope it’s not what we are facing, but if I am right, then we are in a way bigger mess than we thought.”

Sirens on the street outside had them focus on the outside of the club. Sounds the others couldn’t even hear over the music and then they decided that they needed to check around a bit faster.

“Hey, what was that? Where did you go?” Taiko asked as they walked back to the counter.

“Maybe they just couldn’t wait until you make it back home?” Konpi teased with a knowing look.

“If you think I need a toilet for that then you are greatly mistaken,” Hokuto shot back and that comeback had Konpi shut up.

“Taiko, we will leave first, okay? Make sure to stay on high alert,” Taiga excused themselves and while Taiko shouted after them as they just left without any further explanation they had to hurry.

Without Taiko they could move faster, use the back alley and the shadows of the city to make it a few blocks down to another area, but this one wasn’t full of loud music, it was more fashionable around here. The host club district.

The police had already arrived and a lot of people curiously stood around the yellow tape that was put around the entrance of a back alley next to one of the clubs.

“Another murder,” Taiga said.

“But don’t you think something is strange?”

“No blood,” Taiga realized and without even knowing how his body could still show such a reaction he actually shivered. He was afraid. “The one who got killed was a turned one.”

Hokuto didn’t dare to reply to that, but it was obvious and that also meant that what he had feared the most had come true.

“Is this eternal one turning people for fun and then killing them when they behave too obvious?” Taiga asked after he had tried to calm down again.

“I fear there is way more to it,” Hokuto said with a worried look towards Taiga. “Don’t you think there would have been way more murders if all the vanished people had been turned and that eternal one let them hunt without guidance?”

What Hokuto wanted to say made Taiga’s eyes widen. A possibility they hadn’t even considered until now as everything had worked out for them. “He keeps trying to turn people, but he only succeeded a few times, if even.”

“Exactly. Especially because he doesn’t seem to share any bond with the people he chooses. He is reckless with the transition and maybe he can’t control himself enough to get them through the transition or we were just really lucky that yours worked.”

“But that means if we want this to stop we have to kill an eternal one?” Taiga asked and the fear in his eyes was something Hokuto didn’t want to see, but the one time they had actually met another eternal one hadn’t been such a pleasant memory for either of them.

The existence of vampires like Taiga was something unacceptable for some of them and that one encounter had only ended with them getting out alive, because it had been night time and Taiga was stronger than the other one, but the next days had been torture for Taiga’s human mindset as he felt more than afraid of getting hunted down by his own kind.

Luckily they had never met the same eternal one after that, but the one they were up against this time wouldn’t even see Taiga as their own kind as he obviously just liked playing around with human lives.

“There is one more thing that bothers me,” Hokuto let out, making Taiga give him a questioning look and he already knew that he wouldn’t like what the other one would say next.

“I don’t think the eternal one who created them is actually the one who is killing them.”

“He came back about an hour ago. He is really angry at you two,” Taiko’s grandfather said as the boys had made it back to their house.

“It’ll be dangerous for him if he tags along too much,” Hokuto said as he sat down at the table in the common room.

“So did you find any hints?” The man asked and the look the boys exchanged made him sigh. “It’s one of you, right?”

“More than one I fear,” Hokuto replied. “One eternal one for sure, but a turned one had been killed today and while I think he is the one who turned him, I doubt he killed him.”

“Which means there is another eternal one around?” The man asked, obviously worried.

“Or another turned one. We need to find out more about that and we have to be fast. I doubt that things just ended with the death of this turned one. There will be more people vanishing and more deaths ahead if we don’t act fast,” Taiga added and to his surprise the man patted his shoulder from the side.

“I know that this is difficult for you. If you feel like it is too dangerous then please say so. I didn’t ask you for help to force you to take care of it. You have your own lives to take care of.”

“Always so considerate,” Taiga said with a small bow towards the other one. “But whoever is behind this is taking his games way too far. He will eventually expose us like this as well, so we need to take care of the problem.”

“We will head out tomorrow night as it is now obvious that they won’t strike at daytime,” Hokuto said and Taiga nodded with a confident look. They had to be careful, but also hurry if they didn’t want anyone else to die.

***

The next night they headed out at sun set, Taiko not talking to them for almost the entire day, but eventually the only thing he told them was to keep his clothes for now as he didn’t want them to embarrass him with their old clothes.

This time the boys made their way to Shinjuku as they somehow felt like Shibuya was in too much chaos after the death the day before for an eternal one to easily find another victim and while Tokyo was huge and he could go everywhere he wanted to find someone, they guessed that he didn’t necessarily wanted to stay in the dark for the entire time. He was hoping to be found that was why he had shown up in the club before as well.

The entire night passed without any new hints or happenings, but they couldn’t be too obvious either so they had to give up and try another night. On their way down to the station Taiga sighed. “We need to do something about him following us.”

“He really thinks we didn’t notice,” Hokuto said, having realized since the first minute they had left the house that Taiko had followed them. Yet all he had witnessed was them going from one club to the other.

“But I wonder why he is so suspicious of us? We pissed him off by just vanishing and not explaining much, but I feel like he wouldn’t be the type to easily bother to follow around?”

“Want to find out?” Hokuto challenged and made a sudden turn to the left, Taiga rolling his eyes yet following him.

A few seconds later Taiko appeared at the corner, carefully looking around it, but then he cursed and started running as he couldn’t spot the two boys.

“Who the hell are you two?” Taiko whispered to himself as he stopped as he didn’t know where to go, because the alley was a straight way ahead without any doors and the boys were nowhere to be seen.

“You wouldn’t believe us even if we told you.”

Hokuto’s voice right over his shoulder made Taiko turn with wide eyes while falling to the back at the same moment, landing with a curse on the ground.

“Are you out of your mind?” Taiko yelled at them as he immediately shot back to his feet.

“Hey, you were the one following us around the entire night,” Hokuto countered, Taiko falling silent as he realized that he had been seen the entire time.

“By the way, why did you follow us?” Taiga asked.

Taiko stayed silent for a moment until Hokuto crossed his arms in front of his chest with an annoyed look. The boy rolled his eyes before he took out his phone and showed a voice recording file to them. “I hid my phone in the room, because I felt like my grandfather wouldn’t talk honestly when I am with you. But now I feel like you played me. You knew I hid it, right?”

“How come you think that?” Taiga asked a bit amused.

“Eternal ones, turned ones? You make no sense. You talk like you read too many fantasy books.”

“Maybe we have indeed,” Hokuto said with a smile towards Taiga who couldn’t hide a chuckle as they had indeed read way too many books over the years, but the new ones about their kind amused them quite a lot.

“Then are you satisfied with what you have found tonight?” Hokuto asked and the boy pouted when he put his phone back into his pocket.

“You are unbelievable,” Taiko yelled at them and pushed Hokuto out of the way as he dashed out of the alley.

“He wouldn’t believe us anyway,” Taiga said with a sad expression as he knew that Taiko wasn’t a bad person.

“Let’s get-” Taiga stopped abruptly as they both swirled around. At the end of the alley silver eyes stared right at them. In silence they looked at each other, calculating what to do. But they didn’t have much time to think as the other one suddenly turned and started running.

“I go after him. Go after Taiko,” Hokuto shouted as he had already dashed to the front. The fact that the other one wasn’t even trying to hide his identity showed that he wanted to be found so Hokuto was determined to not let him go and as long as he was chasing him, he knew that Taiga would be alright if he only had to look after Taiko.

Taiga had turned on the spot, dashing down the almost empty main street and while he couldn’t see Taiko, he could sense that the boy was close by. But then the realized something about his sensing ability and he looked up into the sky, which was slowly turning blue.

“Oh no,” Taiga hissed as he sped up and took a turn on the next traffic light towards a smaller alley and luck was on his side when he could spot Taiko walking down that street as he had obviously hoped that the boys wouldn’t find him here.

“Taiko, wait!”

“Leave me alone,” Taiko shouted as he was still pissed at them for not taking his questions seriously. But when he turned towards Taiga there was suddenly someone walking into the alley from another smaller side alley and he stopped right between them.

“Hey, get lost. You are kind of in the way,” Taiko yelled at the person he couldn’t clearly see in the dark alley, but then the person turned to face Taiko and the boy gasped and took a step back.

“He’s not alone…” Taiga realized in horror as the other one turned to face him and again silver eyes were staring back at him.

“What the hell is that?” Taiko whispered and then the person turned towards Taiko once more and Taiga reacted immediately when the other one tried to dash towards the boy.

“TAIKO, RUN!”

The boy immediately did as he was told and dashed away, but Taiga couldn’t even keep up with the eternal one and when he had to give up on running at the next alley he realized that the sun had risen.

“Out of options?” The voice right behind him didn’t even confuse him as he knew that he couldn’t easily sense people around him in the daytime, but he was relieved that the other one had only chased after Taiko as a distraction, but now Taiga had to face him alone.

Not giving up this easily he swirled around and pulled out a knife that he always carried with him for exactly a rare case like this. He wouldn’t be able to kill the other one, but maybe he could play for time. His idea ended in an instant when the other one grabbed his wrist and slammed him head first into the next stone wall with his other hand closing around his neck.

“Nice try,” the man in front of him said. Now that a bit of daylight was piercing through the alleys, the other one’s features were visible for everyone who would stumble upon them. Except for the silver eyes nothing was suspicious about him though. He was a bit smaller than Taiga, had blonde dyed hair and two ear piercings on the left ear. Taiga could also see some tattoos around his neck area.

There was a movement behind the man, but way too slow and obvious to be of any danger and the man just kicked to the back. Taiko fell to the back with a gasp after being hit pretty harshly into the stomach and he let the bottle drop, which he had just picked up to try and attack the other one.

“How cute, little human to the rescue?”

“What nonsense are you talking about?” Taiko hissed at the other one as he got back up and picked the bottle up once more and smashed a part of it on the wall next to him before he held out the sharp part towards the other one. “Better let him go or I won’t hold back.”

“Taiko, get away,” Taiga hissed at the other one, but he was pushed back into the wall immediately.

“You are wasting my time. This wasn’t part of the plan.”

“What plan?” Taiko asked, but the next second the person in front of him forced Taiga to let go of the knife and pushed Taiga to the front, holding the knife to his throat.

“Woah, calm down. Fine, I will let it drop,” Taiko said as he let the bottle drop and lifted up his hands.

“Isn’t he cute? I guess he doesn’t really know who you are?” The man asked Taiga, but of course he couldn’t start a discussion about that now. If he was alone he could risk getting cut, but with Taiko around he didn’t want to risk getting the boy too much involved. A simple knife wouldn’t kill him, even at daytime.

“Now that you are here already you can tag along,” the man said as he made a head movement to the side and Taiko gave Taiga a scared look, but then he started walking in front of them.

The man led the way to a back door just a few dozen meters away and Taiko stepped into the dark storage-like room. When the man stepped inside the room he pushed Taiga towards the other boy as he closed the door behind him. Taiko caught Taiga and asked if he was alright, but Taiga only nodded as there was nothing right with the mess they had ended up in.

“What the hell are you?” Taiko hissed at the other one who leant casually against the doorframe.

“Ueda.”

“What?”

“My name you idiot.”

“I didn’t ask who you are, but what you are,” Taiko yelled back at the other one, but Taiga put his hand on his shoulder and pushed him a bit back.

“Don’t provoke him. Just stay calm and everything will turn out alright.”

“How can you be this calm? Look at that freak!” Taiko yelled at the older one.

“Oh, look how he calls us,” Ueda laughed at the boy’s reaction.

“Us?” Taiko asked and looked at Taiga with a confused look, but then they could hear steps outside in the alley.

“Sorry, playtime is over for now,” Ueda said and with a swift movement he was right in front of the boys, leaving Taiko gasping in shock, but then he was pushed so harshly to the back that he collided with the wall and the moment the door was ripped open Ueda grabbed Taiga by the neck and pulled one of his arms harshly to the back, to an extent that it could easily break.

What happened next had Taiko in a state of shock and confusion as first another man with silver eyes jumped into the room, followed by Hokuto. But then the man turned and suddenly hissed at Hokuto with his fangs, Hokuto immediately doing the same.

“Kame, you are late,” Ueda scolded the other one who casually straightened his back and stepped back from Hokuto. On that reaction Hokuto realized what was going on and he also retreated a bit, but had his eyes fixed on Taiga.

“You set us up,” Hokuto growled at them.

“Well, let’s say we wanted to be sure that we can talk with you before you jump to conclusions,” Kame said as he walked up to Ueda and looked at Taiga with a playful expression. “And in the daytime we have one big advantage after all.”

When Kame put his hand on Taiga’s face, Hokuto hissed at him once more, but on that reaction Ueda pulled Taiga to the back and showed his fangs right next to the other one’s neck. “If you are not up for talking I can rip him to pieces right here.”

“Then talk fast or I might just do the same with you later,” Hokuto warned them and just for a brief moment he looked over to Taiko, but the boy had fallen completely silent. The shock about what was going on was obviously too big to even consider moving or talking. For now that was the safest outcome for him.

“Just to make this clear, we are not the ones who are turning humans,” Kame explained as he walked away from Taiga with his hands on his back. “But…we do not approve of what is going on.”

The look towards Taiga made Hokuto tense and realize something else. “So you killed the turned one yesterday.”

“Indeed,” Kame said. “We have been after him since he had started killing people for fun and as no one was guiding him he was a nuisance to our kind.”

“Then why are you not going for the eternal one who tries to turn so many humans against their will?” Taiga asked, finally finding his voice again as he realized that they might not be as screwed as they thought if they could come to a conclusion.

“We tried,” Ueda said. “We came here a few days before you, but he is good at hiding, but also in provoking us.”

“He showed himself to you,” Hokuto concluded.

“Same as with you I guess,” Kame replied. “Killing one of our own isn’t something we would ever consider lightly, but if he doesn’t stop turning people without any purpose then we have to make a harsh decision this time.”

“But you seem to have had a good reason to turn this one,” Ueda teased as he moved his face right next to Taiga’s, making the boy give him a death glare.

“I am with him so you have no reason to attack him,” Hokuto said, but they had tried the same reasoning with the eternal one they had met before to no avail.

“Oh we won’t kill him,” Kame said as he walked up towards Hokuto with a more threatening look this time. “But only if you are cooperating or we need to clean up more than just one mess.”

“How dare you try to put yourself over another eternal one,” Hokuto hissed at the other one, but he didn’t dare to actually start a fight.

“See, this is exactly why we chose to talk to you in the daytime. It’s easier to have a calm conversation.”

“Totally calm,” Taiga whispered to himself as he still felt like the useless bait in between them and the next second Ueda had to grab his arm tighter when Taiga’s legs were about to suddenly give up.

“Oh, someone exhausted himself too much? Guess we should get over this fast.”

“Then what do you want us to do?” Hokuto finally asked.

“Help us find the eternal one while keeping his turned ones away from other humans. As simple as that. We had trouble being at all locations with just the two of us, but with your help we have better chances.”

“Taiga is the strongest of us at night,” Hokuto started, but Kame lifted his hand.

“We won’t keep him here. Don’t worry. We know that as well,” Kame said as he turned towards Taiga. “You seem like a well guided one so we will let you go after everything is settled.”

“As long as you don’t dare to come after us for revenge,” Ueda said seriously, as he closed his hand a bit tighter around Taiga’s neck and Kame’s amused look towards Ueda didn’t get by unnoticed. Wasn’t he taking the other one seriously? Whatever their connection was, there was no way Taiga wanted to have a detailed explanation now.

“We are here for the same reason and as soon as everything is solved we will be gone,” Taiga replied and then all eyes were on Hokuto.

With an angry hiss Hokuto kicked the ground once, but then he finally nodded. “Fine, as we were already looking for him in the first place and you don’t really leave us any other choice, we will help you.”

“Look how easy that was,” Ueda said as he moved his face a bit back, stopping with his lips right next to Taiga’s earlobe. “How nice it is to have a boyfriend to the rescue, right?”

With those words Ueda pushed Taiga to the front and Hokuto immediately stepped more to the front to catch the other one, who felt more than exhausted through the sudden daylight chase and all the stress his daytime mindset couldn’t handle this easily.

“And what do we do with him?” Ueda asked as he made a movement with his head towards Taiko. The boy looked up at the two men with wide eyes on that question, tears of pure terror in his eyes when Kame made a step towards him.

“We will take responsibility for him,” Taiga said before Kame could reach out for him.

“You turned ones are really so human,” Kame laughed, but stepped back. “Do as you please, but if he gets in the way or spills anything then we will go after him the next time.”

The warning was clear and the safest would indeed be to just erase Taiko’s memories, but for now the boy could actually help them if he could gather himself enough.

“Taiko, let’s go,” Taiga said, but the boy wasn’t even listening. He was still looking at the two silver eyed men in front of him as if he had met his worst nightmare.

“TAIKO,” Taiga yelled this time as he wanted to leave as fast as possible and this time the boy jolted and got up on shaking legs. Hokuto grabbed him by the jacket and pushed him out of the door first.

“Remember that as long as you are on our side, we will be as well,” Kame reminded them as they left. Their main goal was keeping their kind a secret to the world, so getting the other eternal one to stop his games was way more important than any grudge they might hold against turned ones, not that Taiga felt like they would have just killed him if they had stumbled over them at another occasion.

***

“Grandpa! GRANDPA!” Taiko shouted through the entire house while barely even having opened the door.

“Boy, for god’s sake. Do you know how early-” the man started as he opened his room door at the end of the corridor, but then he saw how Hokuto stepped inside the house, caring Taiga, while Taiko had just tried and keep it together until they were home with several panic attacks on the way back, but he knew that Hokuto would yell at him if he freaked out in such a critical moment, but now he was home and for the first time he showed a different side to the arrogant one he had tried to hold up for so long and when his grandfather slowly moved towards them, the boy threw himself into the man’s arms.

“Are you okay?” The man asked obviously worried for his grandson, but except for a few small bruises he was fine at least physically, so he slowly nodded.

“I- I am sorry. I sneaked around, I just wanted to know what you were hiding from me, but- but I don’t even know what just happened.”

“That’s okay, calm down,” the man said as he squeezed the boy once before he looked up at Hokuto.

“Will he be okay?” The man asked and Hokuto nodded and looked down at Taiga who had held on until they had been in the first train home, but he had fallen asleep in the train and Hokuto had carried him home.

“Things got a bit too chaotic for him in the morning hours. Nothing to worry about.”

“Nothing to worry about?” Taiko asked as he pulled away from the hug and looked at Hokuto with wide eyes. “Those guys threatened to kill him. How can you be this calm? You might be able to fight them, but he is obviously not. You are risking his life here.”

“Taiko,” his grandfather scolded the boy and pulled him back on his shoulder. “Don’t judge where you only know parts of the story.”

“You knew about this the entire time, right? About them?” Taiko asked and pointed at the boys, but then his anger fell a bit when he saw his grandfather smile at him.

“Yes, I did. They are my dear friends and I trust them more than I trusted anyone in my life. So if you could just give them a day of rest and then we can explain the details to you?”

Taiko looked forth and back between them until his look fell on Taiga with a kind of apologizing expression.

“Fine, but I need to make sure that Konpi and Rinne are safe,” Taiko said next and his grandfather nodded.

“Come up with an excuse why they shouldn’t go to work tonight. Make them stay at home, then they should be fine,” Hokuto explained and then he just left towards the stairs.

Taiko was still so confused, afraid and outraged all at the same time that he didn’t even know what to do. He felt too scared to actually go back towards the clubs to talk to Konpi directly, but his hands were shaking when he tried to pull out his phone and to his surprise his grandfather took the phone from him.

“Let’s sit down for now, okay? The day has just begun, they will be fine, don’t worry.”

Taiko slowly nodded and when he sat down in the common room with an empty stare towards the wall when his grandfather was getting some tea, the first tears finally overflew. His entire body was shaking, his tears not stopping while he could barely control his sobs. He always tried to keep a strong front, but this time he couldn’t deny that he had been scared to death and he was still not understanding what had even happened. But for now he couldn’t keep his fears to himself anymore and he didn’t care that he was crumbling. He realized that he had to crumble once to be able to get back up, because he also had people out there he wanted to protect and for that he had to become stronger as well.

“I can’t wait any longer, they said until night time, right?” Taiko said as he walked up and down the common room while his grandfather was way too calm, drinking a cup of tea at the table.

“Give them a few more minutes, I bet they will be up any moment.”

“Neither Konpi nor Rinne is replying to my messages and why the hell do they need to rest this much? It’s not like anyone dies just because they didn’t sleep for a night. I sometimes don't sleep for entire weekends.”

“You are not like us, that’s the difference.”

On Hokuto’s words, Taiko turned around with a threatening look towards the open door, but then he stumbled to the back, landing on the ground after hitting the side of the table.

“You’re the same as them,” Taiko said in shock as Hokuto hadn’t put in his contacts as he knew that it was time to tell Taiko the truth.

“Of course he is. You said you’ve seen their fangs, right?” His grandfather said calmly, Taiko crawling over to him with a scared expression.

“Why the hell do you know so much about them? What is going on? Why is Taiga with such a-”

“Be careful about how you call us without even knowing anything about us,” Hokuto immediately interfered. “You also got something quite wrong about Taiga here.”

Taiko wanted to complain that Taiga had ended up in the same position than him earlier, but when the boy turned around the corner and stopped next to Hokuto, Taiko let out another curse and pointed at him.

“Why the hell do you suddenly look creepier than him?”

His reaction wasn’t only because of Taiga’s sudden red eyes as the sun had just set, but the day had exhausted him and he hadn’t gotten blood since they had arrived in Tokyo, so he looked extremely pale and fragile to them.

“If you calmed down we can explain,” Hokuto said, but Taiko looked at his grandfather instead.

“Let them explain, okay? They are here to help. I wouldn’t have asked them for help if they were bad people,” the old man said with a smile and put his hand on the boy’s shoulder, signaling Taiga and Hokuto to sit down, but of course they took their distance, sitting closer to the door.

They didn’t have much time so they only explained what the boy needed to know and he looked almost as pale as Taiga after their explanation.

“You are vampires…” Taiko said in disbelief after their explanation. “And you knew the entire time?”

Of course his grandfather nodded, but he had told him several times now that no matter what they were, they were his friends from a young age.

“By the way if we find anything about us on your oh so awesome social media I will go after you myself, is that clear?” Hokuto threatened and Taiko gave him a concerned look, but then nodded.

“I know this is a lot to take in and I am sorry that you got involved into our mess, but as the eternal one knows that not just us, but also others are looking for him, I think it’s the safest if we get your friends out of that area for now,” Taiga explained.

“You think he will go for them?” Taiko asked in panic, once more looking at his phone, but there was still no message.

“He might already have,” Hokuto said honestly as he was also concerned about the lag of reply from his friends, especially because one of them hadn’t replied a few days before already.

“We should head out and make sure to drag them away from work if they don’t reply,” Taiga said and wanted to get up, but Hokuto pulled him back down.

“You know that you have to wait a bit longer.”

“Waiting for what?” Taiko asked, but then they heard the sound of the doorbell.

“Taiko, would you do me the favor and open the door? It should be a delivery, please immediately bring it to us.”

Taiko just nodded and he got up on still slightly shaking legs, squeezing himself a bit too awkwardly through the side of the door, as far as possible away from them.

At the door he took the small parcel that was handed to him, but before he moved back to the common room he got angry and put the parcel down. They had told him the truth, but now it felt like they kept secrets again so the ripped the parcel open and took the bag that was in it out.

“What is this?” Taiko asked as it was something like a black plastic bag and he could feel that something like water was inside of it.

“If I tell you then you will let it drop and I can’t let that happen. Hand it to me,” Hokuto was heard from the corridor and while Taiko felt caught, he didn’t apologize and handed the bag to Hokuto instead.

“There, now you have it. So what is it?”

“Blood, what else would it be? Think for yourself a bit,” Hokuto said before he randomly moved back to the common room, leaving Taiko in another state of shock. This mess was too big for him to comprehend and he felt how his hands slightly shook after he realized that he had just accepted a parcel containing human blood.

He was ripped out of his thoughts when his phone vibrated the next moment and he saw a message from Rinne. He immediately tried to call the other one, but he wouldn’t pick up. The message he wrote also didn’t get seen and he panicked, running back to the common room. 

But just before he turned to the open door he stopped as he realized that the timing was maybe the worst and he cleared his throat in the corridor.

“I got a message from Rinne, I feel like something is not right,” Taiko said from the side of the sliding door and then Hokuto looked around the corner.

“You can come in. We are not that inconsiderate, you know? Taiga is in the bathroom.”

It sounded so weird to him to see actual vampires trying to consider the humans around them, but on the other hand this behavior was the only reason why Taiko hadn’t completely freaked out yet.

“What did your friend write?” His grandfather asked.

He said that he had received a message from Konpi to meet him before their shift, but the place he had told him made Rinne suspicious, but of course he is going. He feels sorry for skipping work and not replying to us, so he thinks Konpi might be angry at him and wants to yell at him before work. I tried to call him and texted him to not go, but he hadn’t seen the message yet.”

“Then we should hurry,” Taiga was heard from the other side of the corridor next and Taiko blinked at him in confusion.

“If I didn’t know better now I would say you are the master of make up,” Taiko said as Taiga looked completely healthy now, he had even put on his contact lenses as they still had to get all the way towards Shibuya again.

“Look, you can already make jokes. You will get used to this in no time,” Taiga teased him as he got ready while Hokuto also put his contacts in and got up.

“Just don’t get in our way, okay? If we tell you to do something you will do it, is that clear?” Hokuto asked a bit threateningly and Taiko nodded before he hurried to get ready as well.

“Be careful,” the older man at the table said. “I wish I could help you as well.”

“You helped us a lot before,” Taiga said with a smile. “And you even helped us a lot this time too, even if it is more of a backup help.”

Taiga waved the empty black plastic bag with a smile as he was grateful that the man had thought about the possibility that they could need blood after running into trouble and as he knew them for such a long time already he also knew exactly where to get supplies from.

***

“Your friend should be a bit more suspicious with everything that is going on recently,” Hokuto said as they headed away from the Shibuya station area towards some company buildings where Rinne had told Taiko about that one warehouse Konpi wanted to meet him at.

“I was wondering, do you think it could be a trap? That Konpi didn’t even write him anything and he just wanted us to come over here?” Taiko asked and his worries were valid. After not being at work for days, not answering the phone, it was indeed a possibility that this was a trap.

“Good that you have backup today, no matter what is going on here,” Taiga said as he gave Hokuto a knowing side glance, which Taiko didn’t miss.

“You think he is really involved in this? The eternal one you are looking for?” Taiko asked as they stopped close to the warehouse and they could already feel everyone’s presence, but there was something that made Hokuto halt.

“He is, but only passively,” Hokuto said. “He doesn’t seem to be as close as someone else.”

“Someone else? Be a bit clearer,” Taiko complained.

“There is a turned one around,” Taiga said as he scanned the dark entrance area towards an underground parking lot in front of them.

“Then what are we waiting for, we have to hurry,” Taiko complained, but once more he felt like he wasn’t getting something as both boys gave him a worried look. “What?”

“Well, I feel like it’s better to confirm first, let’s go,” Hokuto said without any further explanation. “And you stay silent. Don’t talk no matter what you see, okay?”

Taiko nodded on Hokuto’s warning and tagged along into the dark corridor of the parking lot until they arrived at the underground area. The only lights came from some small red lights that were kept on overnight, but at the moment no cars were parked in this area.

Taiko couldn’t spot anyone or hear anything, but the others seemed on high alert as they kept moving towards a slope that would bring them to the next level of the parking area.

Just before they reached the last parking lots Taiga shoved Taiko to the side, the boy immediately giving him a questioning look, but Taiga put his finger to his own lips, signaling him to stay silent. Hokuto followed them as they hid behind a wall from where they could somehow spot the slope and then they could hear it. Someone was running and when Taiko was able to hear it as well he looked around the corner curiously and Taiga grabbed his shoulder before he could try and dash out when he saw Rinne running into the parking lot.

The boy seemed unharmed, but he was breathing heavily and he was obviously in a state of panic. In his hurry he stumbled and somehow stopped his fall with his hands, hissing on the scratches the sudden movement caused on his skin.

But then there were footsteps again, slower and calmer, but enough to make Rinne turn around and crawl to the back.

“Come on Konpi, this is not even funny anymore,” Rinne shouted towards the person who wasn’t yet in sight.

“Konpi?” Taiko whispered, unable to keep silent and then he could see his friend walk around the corner. His clothes were like always. As if he had just been on his way to work or done with his shift, but then Taiko gasped. “What- how? No…”

The shock about the red eyes he was seeing was big enough to make Taiko stop moving for a moment. But there was something else. Konpi was looking a lot worse than Taiga had just a few hours ago. His skin was hanging from his body like there was nothing left but bones. Something Hokuto had briefly explained to him before, but why was he seeing one of his friends in this state now? He couldn’t comprehend what was happening anymore. Just two days ago he had met his friend at the club, how had he not realized that he was in danger?

“Come on, Konpi. This was a good joke, but could you snap out of it now?” Rinne asked in a shaking voice, obviously knowing that this was more than just a joke, but what else was he supposed to say?

With the next move Konpi hissed at the other one, revealing his fangs on which Rinne tried to get up again and run once more, but his fear was too big. He barely made a few steps before his legs gave up on him once more and this time Taiko dashed out of their hiding place, leaving Hokuto and Taiga look at each other as they could have stopped him, but there was no way that Konpi hadn’t realized about their presence by now anyway.

“Rinne, get up!” Taiko shouted and dragged the other one to his feet.

“Taiko? What is going on, what is wrong with him? Please tell me that you’re playing a really bad prank on me?”

“Unfortunately not,” Hokuto said as he and Taiga stepped in front of them.

“Who are they?” Rinne asked while Taiko pulled him more to the back.

“They are on our side, so don’t worry, okay?” But even though Taiko said those words he was still in shock himself.

“Don’t get in my way,” Konpi said in a low voice, eyeing the two who were blocking his way.

“Guess this is your first hunt?” Hokuto guessed on the boy’s appearance.

“How can he be already turned if only two days have passed?” Taiga asked Hokuto, but the other one didn’t know either.

“I feel like that eternal one is using all these humans to try things out, making a game out of if they will live or die.”

“What are they talking about?” Rinne asked. “What happened to him?”

“Something he definitely didn’t want for himself,” Taiga let out as he turned to the boys. “I promise that we will try our best to make him snap out of it, but in the worst case we might not be able to rescue him.”

“You can’t be serious,” Taiko yelled this time. “He is just like you. You should be able to help him, right?”

“He is not like me, that is the problem,” Taiga said as he looked back at Konpi. There was something different in the way he had been turned and the lag of guidance through his turning made him even more dangerous.

“Anyway, just stay back for now,” Hokuto said as he started walking towards Konpi, the boy immediately showing his fangs once more, but so did Hokuto this time.

Rinne suddenly pulled on Taiko’s arm on seeing Hokuto’s fangs, but his friend tried to sooth him. “I promise we are safe, okay? I know this is all a bit much right now, I have been there.”

Rinne only looked back at his friend in a loss of words, because he still felt like he was either pranked or stuck in a nightmare.

“Oh how cute, you think an eternal one can stop me?” Konpi laughed, but then Taiga stepped closer as well.

“Maybe not all by himself, but you are at your weakest right now, while we are not.”

Konpi looked at Taiga with hateful glare. “Don’t compare us. I am even stronger than you.”

“He sounds a lot like you on your first day,” Hokuto laughed, making Taiga roll his eyes.

When Taiga looked back at Hokuto to reply something, Konpi used that split second to dash to the front and he succeeded in tackling Taiga to the ground, but while he tried to get his fangs into Taiga’s neck to rip him apart, Taiga hissed back at him with his fangs out now as well. The next second Hokuto shoved the boy off Taiga and jumped on him.

All they did for a while was pushing and pulling between them, the boy so outraged that they couldn’t make him hold still.

“I fear if we don’t get him some blood then we won’t be able to make him calm down,” Hokuto said after he had thrown Konpi into a stone pillar, jumping back towards Taiga who got back up on his feet after having been thrown to the ground once more.

“He would never be able to let anyone live and we have no time to get blood from anywhere else.”

“We should be able to stop him if he is calm enough after hunting the first time,” Hokuto debated.

“And what if his mindset is really different to mine? Then he will even overpower me afterwards.”

On those words Konpi jumped back at Taiga, aiming for him over Hokuto as he knew that he was the stronger opponent and he wanted to get rid of him. This time Taiga had enough and he wrestled the boy down, sitting on top of him and burying his own fangs into his neck this time, making Konpi try to claw his face.

“What are you doing?” Taiko yelled from the back, not sure if they were trying to help his friend or kill him.

“We’re trying to find a way to calm him down, but as long as you don’t know a blood bank right around the corner, I fear this will be difficult,” Hokuto said before he had to catch Taiga who got kicked away by Konpi who was now even more furious than before.

“There is something different about him,” Taiga said and Hokuto tilted his head. “There is no blood left in his body.”

“That explains why he is even more furious than you were. Not that I thought this was actually possible,” Hokuto said. For him it had been a natural instinct to pull back before Taiga would lose his entire blood.

“I guess it’s because this eternal one doesn’t care about them that he just tries and sees what works. I feel like he lost his senses through also losing his blood,” Taiga explained. “Do you think we could keep him busy until sunrise and see if he turns back?”

The reply to that came immediately as Konpi suddenly dashed towards the other side, aiming for Rinne and Taiko.

Taiko shoved Rinne to the side and got dragged down to the floor by Konpi, but before the other one could do any damage, Taiga had grabbed Konpi and dragged him away.

“Is he seriously trying to kill us?” Rinne asked when Hokuto stopped between the boys.

“He might not want to kill you anymore if he regains control of his senses, but unfortunately for that he will need blood and he will most likely rip anyone apart to get exactly that right now.”

“But you could stop him, right?” Taiko asked, Hokuto giving him a side glance while also having his eyes on Taiga who was trying his best to keep Konpi down.

“Are you actually trying to offer yourself?” Hokuto asked, making Rinne look at Taiko with wide eyes.

“Won’t you end up like him?”

“He won’t,” Hokuto said. “But he might end up dead if things go out of hand and we can’t promise that they won’t.”

“If there is even the slightest chance of rescuing Konpi then I will take it,” Taiko said confidently.

“Rescue him?” Hokuto asked and shook his head. “Don’t get this wrong. He is a turned one now, there is nothing to undo this.”

“But so is Taiga and you two could help him to live in this world,” Taiko said with a begging look.

“Only if you two will take full responsibility for what he is doing when we are not here anymore,” Hokuto offered as he wouldn’t babysit a turned one for eternity. They could teach him the basics, but that was it.

“I will take full responsibility,” Taiko said without any hesitation.

“And you?” Hokuto asked and Rinne looked back and forth between Hokuto and Konpi who was trying to break free from Taiga with all his might.

“I- I don’t even know what is going on, but if there is even the slightest chance of having Konpi back to normal then I am also taking the responsibility for him.”

“Back to normal, right,” Hokuto said, but then turned towards Taiga. “Let’s try?”

“Fine with me, but remember that you two decided this by yourselves,” Taiga said as he released Konpi. The boy immediately pushed Taiga to the back and before he could attack Hokuto, Taiko blocked his way.

There was a moment where Konpi actually stopped, while Taiko’s heart was beating up to his throat and when Konpi hissed at him, his confidence left him for a moment and he stumbled to the back, but of course Konpi had already reached out for him. Taiko’s body jolted on the other one’s fangs burying in his neck and he clenched his hands in the other one’s jacket while he sank to his knees, Konpi following the movement.

Rinne seemed to get a breakdown on what he was seeing in front of his eyes, but he didn't interfere. Hokuto and Taiga on the other hand had stepped closer to Konpi, making sure that he wouldn't just rip out Taiko's throat.

"Get ready. He'll go berserk the moment we try to get him away," Hokuto warned as they looked at Taiko who was now trying to push the other one away, breathing heavily, but trying really hard to not to scream out.

As expected Konpi wouldn't let go by himself and the moment Taiko lost consciousness Taiga grabbed Konpi while Hokuto pulled the boy away from him. At first Konpi clawed his hands so violently into the boy's skin that Hokuto couldn't get them apart, but then his anger took the upper hand and he turned away, aiming for Taiga instead.

"Take care of him," Hokuto said as he put Taiko in front of Rinne.

"Will he be alright?" Rinne asked as his friend remained unconscious.

"As long as your friend here snaps out of it."

And exactly that snapping out wasn't happening yet as Taiga had ended up under Konpi, the boy violently slashing his face while he had his fangs out and this time Konpi got the upper hand and he buried his fangs into Taiga's skin.

Hokuto interfered before the boy could actually really try and rip Taiga apart, an outcome that was indeed possible between their kind.

"Snap out of it, you should remember your human past now, so stop behaving like this," Hokuto said as he grabbed the boy by the back of his jacket and tossed him half through the parking lot. Konpi hissed at him when he got up, but Hokuto pointed at the two boys.

"Remember them?"

Konpi looked at Rinne who was looking back at him with such a mix of emotions that it was unclear how he wasn't getting a full breakdown yet. Then Konpi's look fell on Taiko, the boy slightly moving now.

"You haven't done anything bad yet, if you get a grip now, we can help you," Taiga added as he stepped next to Hokuto.

Konpi's red eyes remained the same, but his body had changed back to its strong form after his first hunt. And finally his look also changed as he didn't attack this time.

"Taiko…" Konpi let out in a low voice, making Rinne look up at him with wide eyes.

"Rinne…what, what did I do?"

While regaining his memories, Konpi stumbled back and put his hands up into his hair, then down on his face and body. "I- I turned into a monster."

"No, Konpi. You're not a monster," Taiko spoke next as he finally opened his eyes and Rinne helped his friend to sit up. "A monster would have killed us, but we're fine and so are you. Please hear them out?"

At the side glance towards Hokuto and Taiga, Konpi also looked at them, but he wasn't that calm yet and he growled at them and stepped back.

"Your kind did this to me," Konpi said as he looked at Hokuto, not needing to see his eyes to know that he was an eternal one.

"One of my kind, yes. But we're trying to find him and make him stop this stupid game of his," Hokuto explained.

"A game? Is this how this looks to you?" Konpi yelled at him, but then Taiga stepped to the front.

"We do not treat this as a game and I promise you that we'll do everything possible to help you. Your friends are here for you too."

Konpi looked back at the two boys, but to Taiga's obvious surprise he walked up to Taiga instead.

"I want them to leave."

"What? But Konpi-"

"You heard him, let's go," Hokuto said and helped Taiko up, making the boy look in confusion forth and back between them. "Don't be so impatient. Give him some time."

Hokuto and Taiga knew why Konpi requested them to leave and for now it seemed safe to leave Taiga alone with him so Hokuto hurried to bring the two boys outside.

"You don't want to hurt them, I know how you feel," Taiga said when they were left alone and Konpi left out a sigh and moved his hands through his hair once more and started walking up and down the parking lot.

"Do you want me to explain things first or is there something you want to say first?" Taiga asked patiently as he could only imagine how messed up the situation must be for Konpi as he hadn't asked for this to happen and he most likely didn't even remember exactly what happened.

"I was on my way home from my shift. I got a message from Rinne and I stopped in one of the back alleys to reply to him, but that's it. I didn't hear or see anyone. I faintly remember some pain on my neck, but nothing else. I must have written Rinne after I- well, was turned, but I don't remember how I was turned or what I did until you showed up. If you hadn't been here then I would have killed Rinne, maybe also Taiko."

The realization of that had Konpi stop and put his face into his hands for a moment.

"But you didn't. With our kind there are a lot of what if questions, but what is important is that they are safe and I promise you that even though you think right now that you'll never be able to control yourself around humans, you will eventually. We can help you find a start and your friends wouldn't still be with you, waiting for you, if they didn't want to support you as well."

Konpi laughed at himself for a moment before he looked at Taiga. "Two days ago our biggest worry was if Rinne could show up to work five days in a row and now we've to keep a secret about me being a freaking vampire. This would make an amazing book."

"But only if you get all the details right, because a lot of people tried and usually everything they write is hilarious," Taiga said with a smile.

"I guess then I have to learn a lot about myself as well now or people will start running after me with garlic and crosses."

Taiga laughed at that thought, because he had been at that point before as well. Himself being the one trying exactly that with Hokuto.

"So do you want to come with us for now?" Taiga asked and Konpi slowly nodded.

"I doubt being alone will be easy for me right now."

"And it might also be dangerous for you and those around you," Taiga said as he knew that Ueda and Kame would kill Konpi if the boy lost control even once, not to forget that they still didn't know what the eternal one creating all the turned ones was thinking. They had to try harder to find him or more people would end up like Konpi or worse.

“Here you go,” Taiko’s grandfather said with a smile as he put two cups and a teapot on the table. “I bet you have a lot to talk about, but you two need to remember to sleep, okay?”

Taiko nodded while Rinne looked at the cup in front of him as if this entire situation was still something like a huge joke. He had been so focused on not thinking about everything too much that he had just let Taiko push him the entire way to the station, then into the train and eventually into the common room of his house, but Taiga and Hokuto had brought Konpi along as well and he could just not look up at his friend. In the train he had pulled his hood down enough for people not to spot his red eyes, but there was so much that was still too chaotic to just sit down and have a freaking tea.

“This is without question the weirdest situation of my life,” Taiko said as he took the teapot and actually poured himself a cup of tea to Rinne’s obvious dismay. “But I weirdly don’t feel tired.”

“You’re maybe just too freaked out, like me,” Rinne said in a low voice as if he thought the others wouldn’t be able to hear him.

“Konpi bit you, so by now you should feel better than before. When we drain people of blood we can actually help them heal afterwards,” Taiga explained.

“And even erase their memories if necessary,” Hokuto added.

“The situation is even new for us. We never had to face so much trouble at once,” Taiga said as he lay down on his back in the middle of the room. While Hokuto was sitting closer to Konpi. The boy had retreated towards the corner, not feeling safe close to his friends yet and Rinne obviously felt the same.

“You knew and you didn’t tell us,” Rinne suddenly let out and Taiko tilted his head at him. “You knew that there was something dangerous out there and you didn’t even warn us.”

“Dude, I had no clue until the day I actually wrote you two to stay away from work and that murders were going on was something you knew already,” Taiko complained. “And it’s not like I know where you live so I couldn’t have actually knocked on your door.”

“Oh so now this is my fault?” Rinne barked back and Taiko got ready to yell.

“You two are pretty egoistic, aren’t you?” Hokuto interfered, making them both turn to him with an annoyed look, but then they halted as they spotted Konpi in the corner, who had lowered his head, staring to the ground with a guilty expression.

“Right…” Taiko admitted. “It’s not like we were the ones who got the worst outcome here.”

“Could have been us though. I could have easily died today,” Rinne reminded them and while he didn’t want to say that it was Konpi’s fault, there was no one else to actually let out his anger at right now.

“You both agreed to help your friend out from now on, remember that?” Taiga said as he moved up on his elbows.

“And how are we supposed to actually do that? I am not a walking meal,” Rinne snapped once more and this time Hokuto had enough and actually showed his fangs towards the other one, making Rinne retreat from the table to the back of the room.

“Don’t play with my patience here boy. You are pretty ungrateful after Taiko helped Konpi back to his senses. What have you done so far except for bashing your friend for something he wasn’t at fault for? It could have been you instead. Would you want to be talked about like that?”

No of course not, but Rinne was still talking more out of fear than reason. While Taiko had some time to adjust to the situation, it had been different for Rinne.

“Let’s start with the basics,” Taiga said as he fully sat up this time, creating a safe space between Hokuto and Rinne just to be sure. “Konpi, you will have to test a few things together with me tomorrow morning, okay? We need to figure out if your abilities are different from mine.”

“I don’t get it, why should you be the same? You said yourself that you were different from him, which I still don’t understand,” Rinne said.

“Hokuto is an eternal vampire while Taiga is a turned vampire, so he is closer to Konpi, but they were turned in a different way so they don’t know how much they are alike,” Taiko explained.

“For only one day of knowledge you seem well informed,” Rinne replied judging.

“Your friend here had his good share of bad luck on his first day of knowing our secret. If you think meeting Konpi in this state had you fear for your life then try Taiko’s day and face two eternal ones at the same time with even us not able to actually get the situation under control,” Hokuto growled at the other one and this time Rinne’s look actually softened a bit as he looked at Taiko who seemed to feel a bit lost in his thoughts on the mention of Ueda and Kame.

“Are they the ones who turned me?” Konpi finally spoke.

“No, they are also looking for the one who keeps trying to turn more people, but they would not show you any mercy if they found you out on a hunt alone. They are not fond of our type,” Taiga explained with an uneasy feeling.

“At least not if you’re not well guided. First thing tomorrow we will get you contacts, because your eyes are what we definitely have to hide,” Hokuto kept going.

“So you have the same eyes?” Konpi asked as he of course didn’t know anything about his own kind as he didn’t even remember how he had gotten attacked.

Hokuto and Taiga took their contacts out to show him their eyes and Konpi showed a relieved expression especially on Taiga’s eye color.

“But we have to keep looking for the eternal one tomorrow as well,” Taiko said, making Rinne let out a scandalized sound.

“Looking for him? I am not going to look for a freaking monster that could turn me into one as well.”

“I- I am not a monster,” Konpi let out in such a low voice that the boys almost missed it and while Rinne was stuck between trying to stay calm and see the situation as realistic as he could, everything that had happened was just eating him up too much to just pretend that things would be fine like this.

To their surprise Konpi crawled a bit to the front and sat down on his knees, looking at Taiko and then Rinne. His friend was still taken aback by his eyes, but he was already sitting with his back against the wall and Konpi wasn’t trying to get closer. Slowly Konpi put his hands to the ground and lowered his head, having Taiko almost jump up to stop him and even Rinne’s eyes widened on the move.

“I am sorry for all the pain I have caused you. I didn’t wish this for myself nor for you and I can totally understand if you want me out of your lives now. I will not judge you if you leave, but I would like to ask you to give me a chance and figure this out for myself? I feel horrible for the time I can’t clearly remember when I was indeed not more than a bloodthirsty monster, but while I can’t deny that I feel different than before, I want to give myself the chance to figure this new life out, even if it has to be on my own.”

They all fell silent for a moment until Rinne was the one to stand up and Konpi kept his head down, thinking that his friend would just leave now and make sure to never get involved with them ever again and that would be okay for him. All he wanted was a chance to find a way to live with this new identity.

Taiko looked in silence when Rinne walked through the room, but stopped in front of Konpi before he also sat down on his knees and closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath.

“I’m sorry,” Rinne finally let out and Konpi slowly lifted his head to look at the other one. “I’m sorry for everything I said. I can’t deny that I feel scared of you even now, but I don’t want you to hate me and I don’t want to lose you as a friend. I promise I will try my best as well to help you with whatever difficulties you have to face from now on, but I can’t promise that I won’t be an asshole from time to time.”

Taiko chuckled on hearing that as Rinne could indeed be quite hurtful with his choice of words and that not just when he was afraid. Tonight had triggered him to a degree that no one could even judge him for his harsh words, but hearing him apologize made clear how much he wanted to actually help and try to get his own emotions under control.

“Awesome, then we are all set,” Taiko said as he crawled over to them and hit both of them on the shoulders. “And now let’s leave the oh so scary monsters to themselves for the night. I have a spare futon for you.”

Even Konpi had to smile on the way Taiko always somehow found the right way to turn hurtful words into funny ones and Rinne was grateful for Taiko’s offer to let him stay here as he wasn’t feeling in the right state of mind to walk back home in the dark on his own for the time being.

“And we go out for a while,” Taiga said and clapped Konpi on the back. “You need to learn fast. But don’t worry if you want to stay out of our search then you don’t have to join.”

Konpi shook his head with a grateful look. “I know that I might not be that helpful right now, but I want to help you. I don’t want others to go through the same and with two more eternals out there who could easily kill me if I don’t watch out, I want to make Tokyo a safer place for all of us as soon as possible.”

Hokuto and Taiga both nodded on the boy’s confidence and they were sure that they would definitely need the boy’s strength as whoever they were up against knew how to play his game under his own rules perfectly.

***

“Please tell me that I am going crazy and that everything was just a nightmare after all?” Rinne asked after they had all stayed at Taiko’s place for the night, but of course the other boys had been out for most of the night so they had rested until the afternoon before they met up with Taiko and Rinne to actually plan what to do from now on.

“You didn’t really listen to any explanation, did you?” Taiko asked, but he couldn’t even judge his friend, because both of them had been quite shaken through the happenings of the previous night, not to forget that Konpi was most likely the most shaken one. Yet he looked like every other day, maybe only a bit paler than usual.

“I change back over the day like Taiga, but I feel extremely tired and the weather doesn’t help,” Konpi explained as he looked up at the blue sky and the sun burning down on them.

“But you said you want to help going after that eternal one, right? How are you going to do that if you feel this bad over the day?” Rinne asked.

“We are not going to do anything risky until nightfall and then we are all at our strongest,” Taiga explained.

“The other one too unfortunately,” Taiko said before he put his hands into his pockets with a sigh. “But whatever. Shall we go? I don’t want anyone else to get killed in this mess so the sooner we find him the better.”

Everyone agreed on that and they made their way to Shinjuku this time, knowing that the eternal one was making it a game between Shibuya and Shinjuku.

Finding a place to get out of the sun wasn’t hard even before nightfall and they went to a club that opened early and for now they just tried to see if the other one would come to provoke them again or see where Konpi had ended up at.

“Can you also sense others now?” Rinne asked as he sat at the bar with Konpi, while Hokuto and Taiga were moving through the club and Taiko was ordering them drinks.

“I can. Even with our contacts in, I can immediately tell who is an eternal and turned one, but if they are not right in front of me then I can only tell that they are close. Like with Hokuto and Taiga, I know they are in here, but like you can’t tell exactly where.”

“That’s actually quite cool,” Rinne said with a smile. The first smile he had shown Konpi after the previous night and Konpi tried to form a smile as well, but it didn’t really last long.

A drink was held right under his face before Konpi could sink too much into his guilt and he looked up at Taiko.

“Don’t look so gloomy. We will figure this out, okay? Look, even Rinne finally calmed down.”

“I wouldn’t say calm just yet,” Rinne said as he took the drink from Taiko. “But I at least remember that Konpi can’t drink this.”

When Rinne took a sip from the drink, Taiko looked a bit embarrassed about forgetting and this time Konpi actually finally chuckled.

“I guess we all need to get used to this,” Konpi let out with a smile.

“And we’ll totally be here to do so,” Rinne promised now that he was at least in a state of mind where he could think more logically than the night before. “And you can even keep your job as it is a night time job anyway.”

“Right, I didn’t even think about that,” Taiko said and snapped his fingers. “It will be even easier for you to work night shifts.”

“At least one positive outcome,” Konpi replied, but then he looked up. The boys followed his look, but they couldn’t tell who he was looking at.

“Are you sensing anyone?” Taiko asked a bit worried.

“Hokuto and Taiga seem chill though?” Rinne said as he spotted them walking towards some VIP area in the back.

“The sun must have set by now so maybe Konpi’s senses just sharpened? Are you okay?” Taiko asked and waved his hand in front of the other one’s face, making Konpi blink a few times before he nodded.

“Yes, sorry. I guess I will need some time to get used to my own night time self.”

“Then let’s make ourselves a bit more useful? No need for us to just sit around here, right?” Taiko said and Rinne stood up, hitting Konpi on the shoulder.

“I think let’s have some fun is a bit too much to say, but just sitting here this gloomy won’t help, right? We can also definitely cover more territory tonight with more people?”

“You mean we should split up?” Taiko asked a bit worried.

“At night Taiga and I are pretty strong on our own, we can overpower eternal ones,” Konpi explained after the boys had told him about most of the important parts the night before.

“The same overconfidence.”

On Hokuto’s voice between Rinne and Taiko, both boys jumped to the side.

“Holy shit, how the hell did you make it over here without us noticing?” Rinne complained.

“You will get used to it,” Taiga teased. “But are you serious about what you just said? Do you really want to risk and split up?”

“I feel confident enough to go alone,” Konpi said.

“See, he’s as annoying as you at first,” Hokuto said, making Taiga hit him on the shoulder.

“It’s not like he is wrong. He can definitely handle one eternal one by himself.”

“But Ueda and Kame are out looking for him as well, if they run into Konpi by himself then he will be in huge trouble.”

“Then let’s make two teams?” Konpi suggested. “One of you can go with me and the other one can go with the others?”

“Not a fan of that plan,” Hokuto said skeptical.

“If you are with him then Ueda and Kame won’t attack him and they know me already so they won’t go after me either.”

“So you suggest that I let you hunt after him alone?” Hokuto asked.

“He has us,” Taiko said a bit pouting, pointing at Rinne.

“Dead weight, great,” Hokuto said, rolling his eyes.

“We will stay in Shinjuku for the night, okay? Let’s map out a route so we always know where everyone is and lets have Rinne go with you and Taiko with me, then both boys can message each other in case something goes wrong.”

Taiga’s idea wasn’t bad and they indeed needed to cover more territory so eventually Hokuto nodded and Taiga showed him a quick smile before he stepped closer and gave him a short kiss on the forehead.

“I promise you we will be careful.”

They moved out with a plan of where to look for the night and as expected the night remained calm until the early morning hours.

“Is he too afraid now that you are three?” Taiko asked after he had written Rinne a message that they were done at the last club.

“I don’t think he is afraid at all. He definitely has a plan and we just don’t really know what it is,” Taiga said as he kept walking down the main street near the club that had been the furthest away from the station. “But we have to go back now so that we will get out of here before dawn or Hokuto will freak out.”

“He really worries for you over the day,” Taiko said with a teasing smile.

“Oh not just then,” Taiga replied with a laugh. “But I gave him a lot to worry about before he turned me so I can understand his overprotectiveness.”

“I bet you have been through quite a lot until now,” Taiko said and then he fell silent, but still glanced over at Taiga for a moment.

“You can ask,” Taiga finally said with a knowing look. “I won’t be able to tell you everything in a short time, but if you have anything you want to ask, just go ahead.”

They hadn’t told Taiko much about their private life when he had discovered their secret. All he needed to know were the important parts after all. Yet it was obvious that the boy wanted to know more.

“Where were you born?” Taiko finally dared to ask.

“I was living in a city called Penrith in the northern part of Great Britain,” Taiga explained. “I was born in 1721.”

First Taiko only nodded, but then he stopped and looked at Taiga with wide eyes. “You were born when?”

 Taiga laughed at the boy’s shocked expression, but what else had he expected.

“It’s not like I get older anymore, remember?”

“Right, then how old are you? Like when you got turned?” Taiko asked as he slowly started walking again.

“I was 21. It was supposed to be the year of my marriage as my family was of the nobility and wanted me to get married as soon as possible.”

“I guess they were shocked when they found out that their plans were good for nothing,” Taiko said, but then his look changed. “Did they find out?”

There was a passive question behind this one and Taiga nodded with a calming smile. “They were aware of Hokuto’s kind and a lot of stuff happened that will take another talk to get into details, but I got them to leave us alone. I never met them again as they weren’t really supportive of the choice I made.”

“Sounds kind of sad though,” Taiko said. “Not that my parents are people I want to see that often.”

Taiga could understand the boy’s anger against his parents, but he was happy that Taiko’s grandfather was such a fantastic person.

The next moment Taiko’s phone showed a message and he wrote Rinne back.

“They are also heading back. They said we should hurry as there is only one hour left.”

Taiga clicked his tongue on Hokuto’s worry, but then he stopped, looking back at the empty street. They were maybe twenty minutes away from Hokuto’s location if they moved with the boys’ pace.

“Are we going?” Taiko asked and waited for Taiga to catch up to him as the boy had kept walking for a few meters, not realizing that Taiga had stopped. But Taiga had tensed and now he looked towards a side alley, then to another one. Were his senses playing tricks on him?

“Taiga?” Taiko asked a bit alarmed now.

“Taiko, do exactly what I tell you now, am I clear?”

“What-”

“Am I clear?” Taiga hissed at the other one with a dangerous look and Taiko immediately nodded, clenching his phone. “Send Rinne our location and tell them to get Hokuto and Konpi over here, immediately.”

There was not much time so they had to keep it short and Taiko immediately did how he was told, but he started panicking and it felt like he took double of the time he would usually need to type and of course Rinne immediately called him on the message, but Taiga shook his head, signaling him to not take it.

“When I tell you to run, you will run towards the station. Do not turn around, do not stop, no matter what you hear or see. If you do, then you will be dead before you even know what happened.”

Taiko’s heart was now beating up to his throat, panic all over his face and Taiga put his hand on the boy’s shoulder while he looked around once more. For Taiko there was nothing out of the normal, but Taiga could sense more, way more than he had expected to sense and then they could see the figure stepped out of the dark behind a street lamp and Taiko gasped on the silver eyes shining back at them. What Taiko had definitely not seen coming were two more people stepping out of the side alleys to their right and left.

“Oh no, not again,” Taiko whispered at the two pairs of red eyes shining back at them. Two young boys, maybe a bit older than him.

There was no time to decide what to do as they both hissed and showed their fangs before they dashed towards them, but something about the situation wasn’t making sense to Taiga, yet he had to react for now as he had no time to ask questions.

“Run,” Taiga finally yelled and pushed Taiko away. The boy immediately did as he was told, even though his legs felt like they were about to give in after the first few meters. Luckily the boy had taken Taiga’s words serious and he kept running without turning around, which also meant that he didn’t realize that Taiga hadn’t followed him. Now he had to stop both of the turned ones though or they would easily get after Taiko and kill him or would they?

They both actually aimed for Taiga and the moment the first one jumped at him it was obvious that they had indeed already been on their first hunt, so why were they attacking him? What was different to Konpi? But then Taiga gasped as he realized that they had maybe made a huge miscalculation, something they couldn’t have known, because it was something they didn’t even know about. For now it was just a theory, but Taiga couldn’t waste time on it as suddenly the eternal one had joined the fight and Taiga barely escaped the two turned ones before they could corner him and try to hold him down.

“So you finally found me,” the boy in front of him said in amusement. The boy was of small build and had red hair, but he wasn’t hiding his silver eyes. Even though he was an eternal one like Hokuto, he looked younger.

“You showed yourself,” Taiga replied, having his eyes on the other two boys. “Why are you turning so many humans against their will, what are you up to?”

“Do I need to justify my actions as the superior race?”

Taiga lifted an eyebrow on the boy’s behavior, but he should have seen such arrogance coming.

“We unfortunately don’t have much time for explanations, but I promise to let you know more later. For now I will have to ask you to come with us.”

“Why would I do that?” Taiga asked as he stepped back when the other two approached.

“Because you don’t want the others to die, don’t you?”

There it was. The miscalculation and Taiga immediately stopped.

“You are fast in catching up, makes it easier for me.”

“How are you-”

“No time to explain,” The eternal one repeated himself, but Taiga was sure that this wasn’t an empty threat. The two boys in front of him were proof of that. Like puppets they were following the boy’s orders and that meant Konpi would do the same if told and with Rinne close to him it would be difficult for Hokuto to protect him and also himself as Konpi could overpower him.

Taiga could actually already feel Hokuto and Konpi closing in to them, but he didn’t dare to move when the eternal one stopped right in front of him.

“Isn’t it weird how even our race can feel helpless in some situations?”

Taiga wanted to go for the boy’s throat so badly and if he was alone then he would do it, knowing he could win, but with Konpi as his backup plan and the other boys right next to him it was just too risky.

“Yabana, Katsuki, let’s go,” the boy said and waved his hand, making the two boys step right next to Taiga.

“Let me warn you just one more time. If you stop or try to slow us down I will immediately have one of your human friends get killed.”

It was indeed unbelievable how helpless Taiga was in this situation. What was he supposed to do? There was still too much time until sunrise and the boys pushed him to start moving and if he only stopped once then the eternal one would definitely not spare Rinne or even Taiko if the boy had reached them already. So all he could do for now was to hope that whatever he was up to, didn’t include getting rid of Taiga, because he could have done so on the spot.

Splitting up had brought trouble after all, but like this they had at least Hokuto still out there who could maybe find Ueda and Kame for help if they even considered helping.

Hokuto and Konpi had dashed ahead the moment they had seen the message on Rinne’s phone, but then Taiko came into their sight, they boy half falling as he felt safe enough to stop, but couldn’t support his legs anymore after running for his life.

“Where is Taiga? What happened?” Hokuto yelled when the boy took a few deep breaths when he sat on his knees and pointed to the back.

“The eternal one showed up, but he wasn’t alone. Two turned ones were there and they all attacked at once.”

Hokuto didn’t need to hear more and he started running again, leaving Konpi in confusion about what to do, but then Rinne caught up to them.

“Stay here for now, okay?” Konpi said and dashed after Hokuto, Rinne nodding at him before he crouched down next to Taiko.

Konpi caught up to Hokuto the moment he arrived at the spot Rinne’s phone had shown before, but there was no one there.

“Did they take him?” Konpi asked in worry as he couldn’t feel any presence close by.

“Why would they?” Hokuto snapped, running down the street a bit more until he let out a curse and stopped. He had absolutely no idea where to look for Taiga.

“Maybe because we were two, he thought Taiga was the easier one to go for?”

“Why take him and not kill him if they were three? He didn’t keep you around either,” Hokuto said as he kept walking up and down the street trying to calm down enough to think straight and then he stopped. “Wait.”

“What is it?” Konpi asked, but then Hokuto turned towards the boy with a murderous glare and approached him with big steps, taking him by the collar.

Without any warning Hokuto showed his fangs and attacked the boy and as a natural reaction Konpi shoved the other one to the back, showing his fangs as well, but instead of attacking he took a few steps back.

“Nevermind, you don’t seem to be aware of it,” Hokuto said as if he hadn’t done anything and Konpi blinked at him in confusion.

“Aware of what?”

“This eternal one is doing something different from the turning I have done with Taiga, but to make it work he had to try out a lot as it seems that is why so many people vanished. They didn’t make it. But those who did, have been turned in less than a day, but they are not moving on their free will.”

“But I remember everything and I am not following any orders if that is what you think,” Konpi said a bit scared of Hokuto going against him.

“That is how it seems, but he could actually order you around if he wanted to. That is how he had two turned ones with him to attack Taiga. That is most likely why they didn’t fight and Taiga just left with them. He might have threatened to use you to attack us.”

“What, so he can control me?” Konpi asked with even more panic reaching his eyes.

“It’s just a theory so far, but it would make sense. If he can then it makes sense why he let you go back to your friends. He knew we were with you and out of some still unknown reason he planned this.”

“Was that why I felt something when night arrived at the club?” Konpi asked and Hokuto raised an eyebrow as he hadn’t been there at that time.

“I thought it was the same for Taiga, just feeling when it became night, but I felt like I could sense something, pretty strongly.”

“That could be it,” Hokuto said with a nod. “But that also means he might not be able to control you over the day.”

“This is so freaking messed up,” Konpi sighed and put his hands to his hair. “Why am I a puppet to an Eternal one and Taiga isn’t?”

“Your blood,” Hokuto said as he remembered the first turned one who had been killed by Ueda and Kame. “For me it was natural to leave Taiga with a bit of his remaining blood to be able to arise again, but he is taking it all away from you. That is how he controls you.”

“Can it be undone?” Konpi asked in worry, but Hokuto couldn’t give him any answer.

“I didn’t even know that this was possible. It’s nothing that sits in our instinct, nothing we would usually try out, so this eternal one is up to something bigger than just turning a handful of people for fun.”

“Is that why he took Taiga?”

“Most likely,” Hokuto said as he slowly realized that they were in a way bigger mess than he first thought. They had to stop the other one before it was too late for Taiga, because Hokuto wasn’t sure if he could actually undo what the eternal one was about to do to him.

***

“I wish I could offer you a better treatment, but I think you know that I have to be careful,” the boy said as they arrived at some old warehouse building somewhere between Shibuya and Shinjuku.

The boy’s words made sense the moment Yabana pushed him towards a stone wall where two chains were attached to it and Taiga rolled his eyes, but once more he couldn’t actually just fight his way out without risking the others’ safety.

So eventually he didn’t resist when Katsuki got the chains and put them around Taiga’s wrists, luckily they were long enough for him to stand. What confused Taiga was when the boy let the other two leave without any other comment, but then Taiga felt the change. The warehouse had holes in the ceiling with shattered windows, but the night sky was still dark.

“So are you going to enlighten me about what is going on?” Taiga finally asked.

“How rude of me,” the boy said and walked back towards Taiga with his hands on his back, knowing that Taiga would be of no danger to him right now. “So you want me to give you a detailed summary or just the rough version?”

“How about you tell me your name for now?” Taiga said, not really feeling that threatened by him yet, even though he knew that things could get out of hand at any moment.

“Mh, such an innocent and calm question, but fine if you want to do some small talk. My name is Reia.”

“Am I getting an introduction as well?”

“You don’t know us, yet you decided to attack us?” Taiga asked in slight confusion.

“Well, I knew that a turned one who hadn’t been turned by me was around and I also know that some of my own kind are out there to get me.”

“And you don’t really seem to mind,” Taiga said at the boy’s calm expression.

“So I am not getting your name?” Reia asked again, totally ignoring the way Taiga tried to get more details.

“Taiga.”

“Nice to meet you, Taiga,” Reia said neutrally as he walked towards an old thrown over metal shelf and sat on it. “I am really happy that you made your way to Tokyo to find me. I was actually hoping for someone like you to show up.”

“And that would be why?”

“Can’t you guess?”

Taiga remained silent for a moment, but he could see that Reia really liked treating this as a game so if he wanted information he needed to play along.

“You are turning humans for fun, to experiment with your own ability of creating turned ones. You don’t care if they die or not, so I guess you wanted to find a turned one who belonged with another eternal one to see the difference.”

“Good start, but a way too innocent ending,” Reia laughed and clapped his hands. “Let me tell you that this is not something I’ve only been starting recently. But until now I took places that weren’t that obvious and I usually took care of my ‘products’ eventually.”

“Products?” Taiga said with some disgust in his tone.

Once more Reia stood up and walked up right towards Taiga with a calm smile. “You don’t really think you are of any worth to my kind, except for serving us, do you?”

That arrogant statement made something click and Taiga was so angry that he actually wanted to hiss at the other one, but then he realized that he couldn’t and when he looked up he saw how the sky slowly turned brighter.

“You’re experimenting with the turned ones to create slaves,” Taiga finally understood and Reia snapped his fingers right in front of his face, making Taiga pull on his chains, but right now he wouldn’t be able to do anything at all.

“There you go! It took quite some time to make it possible for myself to leave enough of them alive to even start experimenting and a lot of them are still failures and if they get out of control then I have to get rid of them, but now the other eternal ones are nicely taking care of that.”

“You do realize that they will kill you if necessary. No matter if you are the same kind or not.”

“They can try, but they have to go through some of my turned ones to reach me.”

“Except for the daytime, right?” Taiga said and it seemed to surprise Reia that he had caught up to that. “That’s why you sent them away. Only at night you can take control of them and over the day they will most likely not even remember what they did as long as you control them.”

“Right,” Reia said as he walked back towards the open space of the warehouse, looking up at the sky. “That is also why I need you to wait here for a while longer.”

First Taiga didn’t understand, but then he gasped, realizing that he was in quite a big mess no matter if Reia’s plan would eventually work out or not, because chances were high that he had never tried something like this before.

“You are trying to get me under your control?”

Reia turned towards him with an excited smile about the way Taiga caught up. “Wouldn’t it be interesting to see if it worked? You are the first turned one I can try that with so I don’t want to take any risks. Just behave and wait here for me for a while? I think with the current weather two days and nights should be long enough.”

Taiga remained speechless while Reia walked over to the huge rusty metal door before he turned with another smile. “Feel free to try and get away, but I will send my turned ones over nighttime to keep an eye on you and well over the day I doubt you will be able to break free anyway with those harmless brown eyes of yours.”

Taiga couldn’t even reply anything when Reia left without another word. In panic he looked around, walking as far as he could with the chains, searching for something he could use to free himself, but there was absolutely nothing in his reach.

For a while he just stood there, unable to even think about what to do next. He didn’t know if Hokuto had realized about Konpi or not or if Reia was going to aim for him or other humans to turn over the next days. This place was pretty far off from the area they had been looking for Reia before, so chances were low that Hokuto could easily find him here.

After endless thoughts of what to do there was another horrible realization hitting Taiga when he saw the sun rising over the buildings around the warehouse and the sun shone down right through the shattered windows on the spot he was chained to.

“Two days,” Taiga repeated and he wasn’t even sure if he could last two days if he was in pure sunlight the entire day and with no chance of getting blood. He had no idea what Reia had planned for him, maybe Reia himself didn’t even know how he thought he could bring Taiga under his control, but weakening him first was definitely a smart move. So now he had to play for time, no matter what.

***

“I still don’t get what we are doing here?” Taiko asked after they had obediently followed all of Hokuto’s orders, because if he couldn’t find Taiga then they definitely wouldn’t be able to either. But now they had made it back to Taiko’s neighborhood, but instead of going straight back to his house, Hokuto had told them to wait as he was the only one going before he came back with a bag and told them to follow him. The place they arrived at was a construction site, but Taiko knew that this place had been on hold for ages with the construction company suddenly going bankrupt.

“We’re here for me,” Konpi finally let out.

“Can someone finally talk a bit more straightforward, because I am freaking tired,” Taiko complained and then they all turned towards Hokuto when they heard a rattling sound from the bag when he put it down and opened it.

“Is it time to freak out yet?” Rinne asked on the sight of the chains Hokuto had pulled out.

“Where the hell did you get those from?” Taiko asked.

“Guess,” Hokuto said neutral, making Taiko gasp.

“I can’t believe what stuff my grandfather has lying around.”

“Isn’t the bigger question why we need it?” Rinne added and when Konpi stepped closer to Hokuto it was Taiko who got angry and pulled Konpi back by the arm.

“Whatever this is about, you’re not going to chain him up. Aren’t you the ones always complaining that humans call you monsters or animals? Then why the hell would you do something like this to one of your own?”

Konpi was grateful for his friend’s worries, but then he put his hand on the other one’s arm with a brief smile.

“I don’t want to hurt you so this is more than necessary.”

“But you are supposed to be fine, right?” Rinne asked, turning to Hokuto.

“In general, yes. But the eternal one seems to be able to control the ones he turned, which is most likely why Taiga didn’t fight them. He knew that Konpi could turn against us.”

“But this is only a theory, right?” Taiko interfered.

“I don’t want to risk it,” Konpi said determinedly. “I would love to search for him and fight, but if I could really turn against you on the way, then I will cause more trouble than actually help, so this is for the best.”

“We will stay with you then,” Rinne immediately said.

“Definitely for the better. You would be in my way anyway,” Hokuto said as he pulled Konpi back around and the boy willingly put his hands to the front so that Hokuto could close the chains.

“This is ridiculous,” Taiko complained, walking away and pulling his hair. “I can’t believe we have to go through so much shit since we met you.”

Usually it took a lot for Hokuto to get angry, but he was exhausted and it was daytime, not to forget that Taiga was missing so after he had put the chains around a metal pole he stood up, taking Taiko by the collar.

“Without us all of you would most likely be dead by now or part of that eternal’s followership. Be happy that your grandfather cares enough for you to ask us for help. I can also just untie Konpi and kill him the moment he turns against me or let him kill you first if you prefer that?”

Taiko pouted on Hokuto’s harsh words, but there was nothing he could reply and Hokuto shoved him to the back before he reached out for the bag on the ground and threw it at Rinne.

“There is blood in the bag for three nights. The sun won’t reach this place so make sure Konpi sleeps over the day and gets blood at night, like that he won’t try to break free as long as he won’t get controlled. If he gets controlled, get the hell out of here.”

Rinne had immediately put the bag to the ground when Hokuto had said that there was blood in it, but at the last words he looked at Konpi in worry.

Hokuto turned without another word, but then Taiko walked after him when he left the construction site.

“What is it? I am not going to let you follow,” Hokuto said.

“Are you really going to keep looking at daytime?”

“There is no time to lose and I am not as affected as a turned one and the eternal one won’t have any turned ones with him right now.”

Taiko couldn’t argue as he didn’t even know much about their kind yet, but he just felt more than useless in this situation. “I hope you can find him fast.”

It felt kind of weird to say something this harmless, almost even dumb to his own ears, but what else was he supposed to say?

“I will, because an eternity without Taiga is not what I desire,” Hokuto said before he kept walking, not giving Taiko the time to reply.

***

The first day was already hell for Taiga as the sun was on him almost the entire day until the late afternoon hours and while he had tried to not move to keep his strength for the night, he didn’t feel like there was much strength left to use.

“As expected you are already quite used to your weak self at daytime,” Reia said as he approached him at nightfall. This time Yabana and Katsuki were with him once more.

“But that is exactly why I need to wait a bit longer.”

“Why don’t you try your luck in the daytime?” Taiga asked back as he was the most weakened when the sun was out, but Reia shook his head and pointed at the boys behind him.

“These two here sleep the entire day, unable to even remember that they were controlled, so my best chance is to try my luck at night. I fear if I try over the day I will just kill you and that would be a waste.”

“Because you would need to wait a few more hundred years if you want to find someone like me again,” Taiga concluded as his kind was indeed more than rare. Until this chaos with Reia had started he had never met another turned one like himself.

“Exactly, but I actually found a way to speed things up as you are too used to this already and I am not patient enough to wait for a week.”

Taiga was still sitting with his back against the wall when Reia lifted his hand and made the other two walk towards Taiga and even with the chains, Taiga immediately jumped up and hissed at them now that he had at least the strength of the night on his side, not that he was at full strength.

“That’s the spirit,” Reia said and without a warning he let the others attack Taiga. There was no way he could defend himself long while being chained down, but he tried his luck with kicking them away and to his surprise none of them actually tried to bite him, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t try to and he actually got his fangs into Katsuki’s neck when the boy had come to close and their fangs were strong enough to rip even their muscles out so Taiga pulled quite a big wound on the boy’s neck and shoulder part, making him stumbled back.

“I guess I can keep you busy like this for a while,” Reia said as he sat back and let the other two go on. Even if they got hurt, Reia would just let them hunt later. But for Taiga it was different, if he got hurt over the night now as well then the next day would be indeed hell for him.

***

Hokuto had tried to stay as calm as possible over the day as he hoped that whatever was going on wasn’t going to immediately threaten Taiga’s life or the eternal one would have tried to immediately kill him, but after he had found absolutely no leads while searching every possible area around the district he could cover in one day he headed somewhere else after the sun had set as he could feel another presence around Kabukicho in Shinjuku so he entered one of the host clubs on the lower level, knowing exactly who he was looking for.

“You got quite comfortable, didn’t you? Are you even trying to help?” Hokuto said without a greeting as he stepped in front of the table where Ueda and Kame were sitting with an entertained look towards him as they had of course realized that he was approaching. This time they were wearing contact lenses as well.

“Aren’t you supposed to do the searching?” Ueda asked as he sat back and crossed his legs.

“Different from you, we did and we found him or more like them,” Hokuto bit back with an annoyed expression and on Kame’s interested expression he could tell that they hadn’t been close the night before or they would have sensed something.

“Turned ones?”

Hokuto nodded on Kame’s question, but then Kame looked down the corridor. “I feel like something didn’t go right though?”

“You don’t say?” Hokuto replied with his annoyance level reaching a dangerous point. “There were two turned ones with him and he was able to control them and we had one of his turned ones with us so he threatened to attack and Taiga followed him willingly.”

“He was after your turned one?” Ueda asked with a raised eyebrow, now looking at Kame with a look that made Hokuto almost explode.

“You know more than you told us, don’t you?”

“We’ve seen something similar happening before,” Kame finally spilled. “You could say two eternal ones fought over a turned one and so one tried to steal him by bringing him under his control.”

“Did he succeed?” Hokuto asked, but the silence that followed had him even more restless.

“A lot of us don’t even accept turned ones and it’s not like he gets more than one chance to try so if this eternal one is up to something similar then we have to get him soon.”

“But he can turn as many people as he wants to, why would he even want an already turned one?” Hokuto asked.

“He is more experienced. I feel like this eternal one isn’t just turning and killing for fun. He is up to something bigger.”

“Like what?”

“Like taking the spot of the superior race,” Kame replied as he leant back on the black leather couch. “He is trying to create an army, maybe fed up with the way humanity has evolved until now.”

“So Taiga would make a perfect commander for that army,” Ueda added.

“And if he doesn’t succeed then he won’t even care and keep turning humans instead until he might get another chance,” Hokuto realized.

“But I feel like he won’t be reckless. He might have used all those humans to see what ways work for the controlling part so that he can try it on an already turned one with a high success rate,” Kame said thoughtfully.

“If he denies Taiga to hunt then he won’t even last a week and if he is trying to weaken Taiga then maybe tomorrow everything will be already too late,” Hokuto realized in horror and he was ready to just turn around and dash out again.

“You said you had one of his turned ones with you, right?” Ueda asked and Hokuto nodded.

“I chained him down for now as two of his human friends are with him and he doesn’t want to hurt them so he agreed on staying behind.”

“One eternal one and two turned ones, plus your friend and if he succeeds then Taiga. We’d be totally outnumbered like that,” Kame concluded.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Ueda said with a kind of excited expression.

“Then enlighten me, because I don’t and we are wasting time,” Hokuto lost his calm.

“I can try to drag Konpi out of his control,” Kame said, making Hokuto look at him dumbfounded.

“But only if he is willing to try of course, this is a progress I wouldn’t be able to easily force on him, but if the eternal one thinks he can’t actually make use out of him at the moment he won’t try to control him so that could be our opening to get him on our side.”

“How theoretical is this method?” Hokuto asked.

“Completely theoretical,” Ueda replied instead, but got up and walked into the corridor with his hands in his pockets “But don’t you think giving it a shot would be better than letting everyone get controlled or killed?”

“As if you wouldn’t just kill Konpi the moment your plan doesn’t work out,” Hokuto hissed at the other one, Ueda’s look darkening on his words.

“Then how about we promise you that we won’t kill him? It’s not like I have to unchain him for what I will try and he will also not just die in the process so if my method fails then the only outcome would be him still being under the other one’s control.”

“That is also theoretical, right?” Hokuto said knowingly as there was no way that Kame had just randomly heard about a way like this without it being extremely dangerous even for their kind.

“Boy, we are your best shot for now. Take it or leave,” Ueda replied and for a moment Hokuto clenched his fists before he sighed in annoyance.

“Fine, go ahead, but good luck convincing the boys that you are there to help. Your first impression on Taiko wasn’t that great.”

“You have more important things to worry about, don’t you?” Kame said as he got up as well, reminding Hokuto that he needed to find Taiga tonight or it might be too late.

When the sun came out the next morning Taiga already felt like fainting at the first daylight, but Reia crouched down next to him with an entertained look after he had sent Katsuki and Yabana away.

The boys had given him a tough night, but Taiga hadn't hold back either so that Reia had to actually make the boys retreat at some point or Taiga would have ripped them apart even while chained down.

"You're really tough. That's exactly why I want this to work out."

"So I can clean up your mess?" Taiga shot back while he leant back at the wall, his body so weak by now that his skin was turning almost gray instead of the usual pale color and he found himself in a similar state than on the night when he had gotten turned.

"If I can bring you on my side then there won't be much to clean up anymore. My turned ones have a pretty stable survival rate by now so I could create as many as I need."

"Need for what? Do you want to create an army for world domination?"

Reia laughed on that comment and reached out for Taiga's hair that was all dusty after the boys had thrown him to the ground several times, but eventually they had indeed not caused any big wounds. The exhaustion remained the same though.

"We could easily lead this world even without you turned ones, but I prefer your kind over those useless humans."

"So no domination, but extinction, I see," Taiga replied and moved his head to the other side to make Reia stop touching it and the boy pulled back with an entertained smile.

"I won't let humans extinct us that is for sure," Reia said as he got up. "For now let's start with the small steps though. Tonight will hopefully be promising."

Taiga remained silent while Reia retreated, obviously wanting to rest before he tried his move on Taiga the next night. Now it was time to panic, because what if Hokuto wasn't going to find him in time? How the hell was he going to find him? This place was in an area he wouldn't think of easily to look at either, yet it wasn't too far away. Right…not too far away!

"You better realize this soon or this might be more of a suicide move than a rescue move," Taiga said as he waited just a bit longer to be sure that Reia wasn't around anymore.

Then he looked for a sharp stone on the ground and opened a cut on his wrist. Since his last encounter with his father he hadn't made himself bleed anymore and this was also why the other two hadn't hurt him too badly. They knew that his blood could be recognized by Hokuto even over long distances. Reia wouldn't be able to tell even if he was closer than Hokuto, because he doesn't know Taiga's blood yet. For humans it was different, they had more blood and more taste and smell to it, while the small amount Taiga had left in his body was what kept him going over the daytime. Konpi and the other boys on the other hand had no blood left at all anymore, yet that also meant they needed to hunt every single night, but Taiga was willing to take the risk if he could help Hokuto find his location. After all not even Hokuto was able to tell him what could happen if he indeed lost all the remaining blood.

If Reia got to him before Hokuto then everything would be over. There was no way Taiga would be able to even lift a finger in the evening anymore now that he made himself bleed and he needed to use almost all his blood to make sure that the smell was strong enough.

***

 “Are you alright?” Taiko asked when he held out a bottle with green tea which he had just gotten from the vending machine around the corner, towards Rinne.

“Not really,” the boy said and took the bottle, but didn’t dare to drink anything yet. The previous night had been tough on his stomach as he hadn’t been able to stay around Konpi when Taiko had given him one of the bags with the blood. Taiko hadn’t actually looked either, but he had been able to stay a bit calmer. “I just feel super useless, you know? I want to help him, yet everything seems to be too much for me. I want to laugh at myself.”

“Well, you had to be strong for yourself for your entire life, but maybe that’s exactly why it is so hard for you to do so now.”

“What exactly do you mean?” Rinne asked when Taiko sat down next to him on the stone stairs in front of the construction site as they didn’t want to wake up Konpi as he needed as much rest over the day as he could get.

“Think about it. Everything you have gone through in your life was something you had to stand up for yourself, stay strong and fight your way out of it alone. But with Konpi it’s different. You know him, so you know that he can do this even if he was forced to do it by himself and you know that I am here as well, so you are actually allowing yourself to let all those emotions you’d usually bottle up get the best of you and that is not because you are weak, but because you trust us.”

“Oh aren’t they cute.”

The voice behind them made them both jump up, Taiko missing the last step on the stairs on his sudden turn, but luckily Rinne caught his arm before he could get hurt. When they both looked up towards the entrance of the construction site where the sun wasn’t reaching in at all, they only saw two pairs of silver eyes until Taiko gasped and stepped back even more.

“I guess we scared you quite a lot on our first meeting,” Ueda said as he stepped a bit more towards the stairs, followed by Kame who looked towards the back of the building.

“If you are here to harm Konpi, I will find a way to kill you,” Taiko immediately threatened, making Rinne tense next to him as he realized who they were.

“Here we come to help and that is how you thank us,” Ueda complained with a playful expression.

“You weren’t doing much helping until now or Taiga wouldn’t be in such a mess right now,” Taiko shot back on which Kame stepped down a few steps towards them even though the sun was reaching him there.

“You know for a defenseless human you have quite a big mouth, but as you seem to actually protect one of our kind, we will be nice and ignore it this time.”

“The first time you actually acknowledged a turned one as your kind,” Taiko replied and Ueda chuckled in the back.

“Look how he tries to categories our kind. It’s not like we just run around and kill random turned ones,” Ueda said when Kame gave him a warning side glance.

“Do you want our help or not? Hokuto can try his luck alone as well, but to bring all this chaos to an end I would prefer us to get the upper hand,” Kame explained, making Taiko look at Rinne with a doubting look.

“If Konpi is okay with it?” Rinne asked, not sure what else to reply. “But how can you even help him?”

“Let that be my problem,” Kame replied, making it clear that he wasn’t in the mood to share secrets.

“We were so nice to talk to you first instead of just sneaking in, isn’t that enough for you to trust us for now? We could have gone to Konpi directly,” Ueda added.

“Fine, but if Konpi doesn’t want to try whatever you are up to, then you will leave,” Taiko warned.

“If he is not up for getting out of someone’s control then I fear eventually he has to go down with him,” Kame added and of course the boys were aware of that as well so they nodded at each other once more before they let Kame and Ueda follow towards Konpi.

***

Hokuto’s level of restlessness had reached its peak around the afternoon hours as he had been around the backstreets of Shinjuku for hours, being way too obvious and suspicious so that eventually someone had called the police on him, obviously fearing he could be the murderer they were all looking for. So eventually he had to lay low and make his way through the backstreets towards Shibuya, but he made sure to take an even bigger detour towards Shibuya to not get any more unwanted attention.

He stopped on top of a rooftop to scan the area, not that he thought he could spot anything. There was no way they wouldn’t lay low and maybe they were in some underground facility then Hokuto would need to stumble across the right street to even be able to feel their presence.

“I’m so useless,” Hokuto hissed at himself. The only fear he had ever had was losing Taiga, yet after Taiga had been turned he had hoped that fear would never bother him again and yet he found exactly that fear coming back to the surface.

It took a lot to make Hokuto feel restless and he closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath he’d usually not need, but that was exactly the movement that made him flung his eyes back open. There was not a single second he wasted as between all those billion people on the entire earth he would still recognize the scent of his blood and he jumped down from the rooftop and started running. The smell was faint, yet he knew exactly from which direction it came from. While Konpi and the other boys had no blood left from the start, it was again something Hokuto feared for Taiga as their instincts would totally make them protect that last bit of blood so Hokuto was afraid of what could happen if he lost all his blood.

Just a few minutes of running, so close to where he had already tried to look for Taiga. But as much as he wanted to hurry he slowed down a block away from the building and scanned his surroundings. Night hadn't arrived yet so he knew that only the eternal one could be around, but he was on his own so a one on one fight could be indeed dangerous.

After a careful approach he dared to sneak into the warehouse, but the direction he wanted to head to was blocked by a heavy metal door. It wasn't his worry that he couldn't open it, because he could just rip it to pieces, but if he made too much noise then he'd draw too much attention. His impatience got the upper hand though and he pulled on the door, which was luckily not locked.

He immediately tried to see if the eternal one was around, but all his attempts to be cautious went out of the window the moment he spotted Taiga. The boy was leaning with his back at a stone wall, the sun now finally setting from the spot that it had obviously reached for hours and the chains around his wrists made it impossible for him to get out of that spot.

Hokuto succeeded in not shouting out for the other one, but if this was a trap then it would be too late anyway.

He immediately dashed over to the other one who had his eyes closed and looked close to the day he had been turned. His face had lost all its color with his body being as thin as of a dying human. When Hokuto tried to rip the metal chains out of the wall, Taiga finally opened his eyes. The lag of reaction of seeing Hokuto made it clear how much he had struggled over those few days to even stay alive.

"I'll get you out of here. Just give me a second," Hokuto said as calm as he could. He wasn't at his strongest either as all the stress of running into Ueda and Kame, then fighting Konpi and dashing after Taiga had gotten to him as well by now, but he had been too restless to think about himself. A disadvantage that could cost him a lot and he realized that the moment he could hear steps and he let go of the chains and turned around. A few more strong pulls and they would definitely detach from the wall.

"You've such bad timing," Reia said as he looked at Hokuto in annoyance. "I've prepared him so well and now you are getting in my way."

Instead of a reply Hokuto showed his fangs, his anger taking over as he immediately dashed at the boy, but of course Reia stood his ground and didn't dodge Hokuto's attack. Instead he countered, both of them now pushing and pulling trying to keep the other one's fangs away from their bodies.

"You're a waste of time," Hokuto roared at him as he finally managed to kick the other one away, but of course Reia wouldn't let him just turn around and approach Taiga. At least the sun had finally set so Taiga could get a bit of strength back. Taiga looked back at Hokuto with a worried expression, but he wasn't even able to push himself up from the wall anymore.

"If you get out of my way then his life is at least not in danger," Reia said mockingly, making Hokuto immediately attack him again, but the boy was swift and strong enough to stand a chance against Hokuto now that he wasn't at his strongest.

"I won't let you play around with our own kind like they are just some toys."

"Oh and you didn't turn him to play around with him?" Reia countered, but Hokuto didn't react to his provoking attitude. Instead he tried to chase Reia towards the opposite side of the room where he grabbed some old rusty metal parts from a broken machine and started throwing them at the boy.

Reia had to dodge quite a lot, Hokuto's anger fueling his strength and he actually hit Reia with a heavy metal part, giving him the small opening he needed. On the way of dashing towards the boy, Hokuto picked up a metal wire from the ground and right at the moment when Reia was trying to get back up, Hokuto threw himself on the boy, closing the metal wire around the boy's throat. Reia tried to get his hands on the wire while also hissing at Hokuto and furiously trying to twist away.

But Hokuto had the upper hand and dropped to the back, pulling Reia half on top as he put all his strength into pulling on the wire. If he pulled hard enough he could behead Reia, one of a few ways of easily killing their kind, not that the boy would just stop struggling and he would definitely prefer losing his fingers while trying to loosen the wire around his neck.

Their struggle went on for quite some time, both more or less stuck in their position, but Hokuto refused to let go. The moment he'd let go of that wire he knew that he wouldn't have enough strength left to try again.

Reia let out a furious scream after another moment of twisting and kicking the air, but he also knew that if he tried to attack Hokuto instead of keeping a hold on the wire then he'd be dead in an Instant.

Unfortunately the situation turned against Hokuto when they remained stuck in their position for too long and he could hear the fast steps of two people approaching. Just a few seconds later two pairs of hands were on him, trying to pull him away from Reia.

Hokuto hissed at Yabana and Katsuki, but there was no way he could keep a grip on Reia and still fight them at the same time so he finally let go of the wire and kicked Reia away so that he had enough time to attack the other two. As he was able to actually get the upper hand and push them both to the back he knew that Reia had also been too busy keeping them around since he had gotten Taiga so that they weren't at full strength either. A positive outcome for him, but now he was alone against three and Reia was pissed enough to launch himself at Hokuto, trying to directly go for his throat.

Katsuki was right next to him the next second and there was too much going on to stop Reia from burying his fangs into his neck while Hokuto tried to free his arms from Katsuki.

With a hiss, Hokuto fell back to the ground after Reia had pulled back so hard that he had created quite a deep wound on Hokuto's neck.

Before Hokuto could even try to get up, Yabana tried to claw his face and they could easily try to actually rip his body to pieces with Katsuki already violently pulling on one of his arms.

"So much for your rescue move," Reia laughed at him while he remained on top of Hokuto and closed his hand around Hokuto's neck, slamming him back into the ground on Hokuto's attempt to get up. "But don't worry I won't let him die. And I wished I could let you see how obedient he will become, but you're too dangerous to let you live for longer."

With those words Reia closed his hand so violently around Hokuto's neck that he could rip out his throat with one heavy pull, exactly what he was planning to do.

Luckily there was another interference they all hadn't seen coming as they had been too focused on their fight. Reia cursed when someone landed on his back and Hokuto felt more than relieved on the sight of Konpi burying his fangs into Reia's neck while Kame and Ueda showed up next, chasing Katsuki and Yabana away from Hokuto so that he could finally get a grip on Reia's arms and make sure that he could get the upper hand once more.

"You worthless being," Reia shouted at Konpi as he was obviously really not able to get him back under his control, but asking Kame about what he had done to achieve that had to wait for later.

Konpi didn't react to the other one's shouting, but Reia kicked himself away from Hokuto to crush Konpi into the ground, but Konpi was at his strongest so it was more than difficult for Reia to make the other one let go.

Hokuto got up and looked for the others, but Kame and Ueda had made sure to chase the other two boys away from their fight and while he wanted to dash over to Taiga, he knew that he should help Konpi with Reia first and then a familiar smell of blood hit him and he looked over his shoulder with a scolding expression towards the two boys who totally failed at sneaking around.

"Make yourself useful and watch out for Taiga if you're already here," Hokuto yelled as he kicked a rock towards the machine behind which Rinne and Taiko tried to hide. Now they jumped out of their hiding place with an apologizing expression before Taiko nodded and pushed Rinne towards Taiga.

Hokuto turned to Konpi just in time to jump at Reia as the boy had wrestled the other one to the ground and tried to rip Konpi's face to pieces.

"Damn, he looks worse than Konpi did," Rinne said as they approached Taiga who had collapsed to the side.

"Then you know what that means," Taiko said as he stopped Rinne from getting closer.

"But he's on our side, right? Do you think he would attack us?"

"In his state, definitely," Taiko said and looked back at the others fighting. "But we need him at full strength, so I need your help."

"I don't like the sound of that," Rinne said skeptical. But Taiko didn't hesitate to look for a sharp metal piece and then he turned to Rinne.

"You have to stop him if he can't stop himself. Remember they can't just easily be killed so you can attack him if you have to. If he let's go of me once then he'll be able to clear his head."

Rinne looked at him dumbfounded when Taiko cut his own neck slightly with the metal piece before he handed it to Rinne. "On what experience are you stating those things? Dude, we have no clue if this works."

"No we don't, but I won't let him die here after everything they have helped us with," Taiko said and crouched down in front of Taiga, putting his hand on the other one's shoulder.

"Come on, you need to wake up if you want to regain your strength."

Taiko kept shaking Taiga until he clicked his tongue and put his hand to his neck where a small bloodstream was flowing down to his collarbone. Then he moved his bloodstained hand right to Taiga's face. A move that showed an immediate and quite violent reaction as Taiga's body jolted and he flung his eyes open. As expected he didn't even recognize Taiko and immediately grabbed the boy by the arms, pulling himself up.

Taiko helped him up, knowing that the faster they got the painful part over with, the sooner they could help the others.

Taiga didn't even hesitate to show his fangs and Rinne stepped back with a gasp when Taiga bit Taiko so roughly that the boy let out a small scream on the pain.

Hokuto had seen from the corner of his eye what was going on and he was more than grateful for the boys’ help as Reia had turned furious, commanding his turned ones to fight until they died no matter how wounded they already were and even Ueda seemed to feel a tiny bit sorry about the way he had to keep throwing them around like broken dolls.

"How the hell am I supposed to know when he needs to let go?" Rinne finally said in panic, but then he saw how Taiko's body fell slightly to the back, Taiga keeping him in place, his fangs still deeply buried in the other one's flesh. Rinne raised the metal piece in his hand and stepped to the front, but on that move Taiga looked up and Rinne immediately retreated, unable to even dare to interfere.

"I told you this was a bad idea," Rinne let out in a shaking voice, looking at Taiko who had fallen immobile. But Rinne wouldn't let his friend die so he took a deep breath and shouted while he jumped to the front, burying the sharp metal in Taiga's shoulder. To his surprise Taiga didn't attack him. He didn't even react and Rinne started panicking. Once more he pulled the metal back and aimed for Taiga's back, again no reaction.

"For god's sake, snap out of it!" He yelled and pushed Taiga this time, shaking him on his shoulders, even if he risked getting attacked next.

Finally Taiga showed a reaction and he jolted, turning towards Rinne and with bloody fangs he hissed at the boy, making Rinne gasp and fall to the back. Luckily while crawling back he made it out of Taiga's reach as he was still chained down. His goal had been to make him let go of Taiko and he had succeeded, but now Taiga needed to snap out of it by himself.

Feeling safe, Rinne stopped a bit away from where Taiga could reach, but then Taiga got up and pulled so harshly on the chains that they actually ripped out of the wall after Hokuto had loosened them and with his strength back he broke the part around his wrist and tossed them to the ground.

"Why are you all so scary at your weakest and your strongest?" Rinne complained and crawled back, but he knew he wouldn't be fast enough. Luckily the next moment someone stepped in front of him and Taiga would attack everyone right now.

But when he showed his fangs and hissed, he got a harsh reaction from Kame who had stepped in. The eternal one shoved Taiga to the back, making him collide with the wall before he grabbed him by the neck and showed his fangs as well. Once more Taiga also wanted to attack, but then something changed. His eyes seemed to clear and Kame immediately knew that he could step back.

"Took you long enough," Kame complained before he moved back to Ueda who had his hands full with Yabana and Katsuki. Taiga looked after him in a state of confusion. Even though it hadn’t been Hokuto and Taiga was definitely stronger than Kame, he had somehow felt like without an eternal one he wouldn’t have easily snapped out of it. Did Kame knew or why had he made that move? Rescuing some humans was definitely not his first priority.

"Taiga?" Rinne asked a bit scared and flinched when the other one looked down at him, but then he seemed to remember what had happened and he searched for Taiko, immediately crouching down next to the boy.

"Hey, Taiko. Come on, I'm not letting you make me responsible for your death."

"What a nice way of putting it," Taiko whispered, making Rinne crawl back to them with a relieved expression.

"Would you look after him for now? I'll apologize later for all the chaos," Taiga asked of Rinne before he got up to join the fight.

"Getting himself into this mess to help us and Konpi and now he thinks he has to apologize," Taiko laughed, but still couldn't get up as Taiga had drained him of a dangerous amount of blood, so for now he’d need some time to recover.

"Why do you even keep fighting? You're outnumbered," Konpi yelled at Reia, but the boy laughed at that.

"Outnumbered? By your worthless kind?"

Hokuto's eye twitched on the way Reia kept talking about the turned ones he had created so lightly himself, but then he straightened his back and stepped back, making Reia raise an eyebrow at him.

"Giving up?"

"Just enjoying how the ones you call useless will beat the shit out of you," Hokuto replied and on those words Reia looked over his shoulder where Taiga had stepped behind him.

"All this effort was for nothing. I guess I need to look for someone else. You two are too annoying to keep you alive.

Konpi and Taiga exchanged a brief look before they both cracked a smile and started laughing.

"Your arrogance brought you into this situation, now you've to deal with the consequences," Taiga said as he stepped closer. Reia still seemed confident that he'd be able to win against two turned ones so Taiga looked at Konpi, as they would teach him a lesson.

Hokuto actually dared to retreat to help out Ueda and Kame as the two boys were still in a furious state no matter how hurt they already were.

"So you really want to rip your creator to pieces?" Reia challenged Konpi, but the boy seemed to have changed. His confidence wasn't just the typical arrogance after being turned.

"Just by using that word you're proving that you're not going to listen to any offers to solve this calmly.”

Reia bursted out laughing on that statement, shaking his head in amusement. "You're not seeing the bigger picture yet. You want to get rid of an eternal one to protect humans. How pathetic can you be?"

"We're protecting ourselves," Taiga replied. "Because of you, our kind might get into trouble especially in this modern time."

"Trouble?" Reia asked back. "You're talking like we're the inferior race here. Let them know. Let them come. I'm done living an eternity in the shadows."

Slowly they understood why Reia had started turning humans. But as much as they shared small parts of his mind set, there was no way they'd accept the way he was trying to solve things.

"The overconfidence," Taiko said as he finally felt at least well enough to sit up. "As if your kind had enough people to stand against humanity."

"But that's the difference to you," Reia said with a lopsided smile. "We can make our own people."

Reia had shown that he was indeed capable of turning and controlling humans so if they let him continue like this then he could indeed become a threat to humanity.

Before their fight could start once more there was the sound of sirens, a lot of sirens.

"I guess we were a bit too noisy," Ueda said as he realized that they were heading directly to their warehouse.

Taiga immediately jumped to the front as he realized that Reia tried to retreat. Reia hissed at him as he stepped back even more, Konpi closing in from the side.

"Let him go for now."

All eyes were on Kame on those words, but they couldn't actually complain as they couldn't keep fighting if a lot of police showed up. Reia would just start killing them and their mess would be even bigger.

"Oh how merciful of you," Reia laughed at them and called back Yabana and Katsuki who were in desperate need of a hunt by now.

"Don't get this wrong. We'll totally kill you at our next encounter so decide carefully what you're going to do with those two," Ueda said as he pointed at the two boys.

Hokuto felt a bit sorry for not being able to take the two boys out of Reia's control. But however Kame had done it with Konpi, it was obviously not as easily done in the middle of a fight.

"And here I hope we'll meet again," Reia mocked them, resting his eyes on Taiga. "But that's obviously not a mutual feeling. Maybe if the century changes you might want to reconsider getting on my side. The world started changing."

Konpi clenched his fists when Reia retreated, but Taiga put his hand on the boy's shoulder. "I know this is difficult, but we need to get away for now as well."

Konpi got the hint and put his focus on his friends, immediately helping Taiko up so that they could start moving as the sirens were already right around the corner.

Hokuto walked up to Taiga and grabbed the boy by the arm, Taiga giving him a questioning look.

"I'm fine, don't worry," Taiga said on the scanning look. Hokuto didn't seem satisfied with that simple reply, but for now he urged everyone to leave.

“And now what?” Rinne asked as they had retreated towards Shibuya into an empty building Ueda and Kame had used over daytime for a while now. It had been a host club before so there were at least some places to sit, but while Taiko still felt too exhausted to even stand on his own, Rinne was in full panic mode. “Do we have to repeat this now over and over until we somehow get him?”

“We won’t go after him.”

Kame’s calm words had Rinne stare back at him with wide eyes, questioning the man’s sanity for a moment.

“If he doesn’t cause trouble,” Ueda added.

“You can’t be serious? Why would he suddenly stop turning people?”

“He won’t,” Hokuto said straight forward as he sat on one of the black leather couches and crossed his legs while Taiga stood next to the couch instead. “But he will definitely leave the country and lay low for a while.”

“So you will just let him kill other innocent people then?” Rinne asked in anger, but then Konpi stepped next to him after he had helped Taiko to lie down on one of the couches and the boy had one arm over his face, not even wanting to bother joining such a headache causing conversation for now.

“You can’t really ask them to search the entire world for him. Our kind is good at hiding if we want to,” Konpi said knowingly as he of course understood the other one's decision.

“By the way, are you sure that you are fine?” Rinne asked his friend now that they finally had a minute to actually talk. Kame and Ueda had made Taiko and Rinne wait outside after Konpi had agreed to Kame’s help of getting him out of Reia’s control. Rinne’s worry made Hokuto and Taiga exchange a knowing look as they had already guessed that his method had definitely not been painless even for one of their kind, but Konpi showed a smile and nodded, not wanting his friend to worry about something they couldn’t do anything about in the first place.

“I’m fine, don’t worry and from now on you have me here in the city to look out for weird happenings, but when Hokuto said he’d lay low for a while I doubt he means a few weeks or months.”

Rinne turned back to Hokuto with a questioning look and the boy nodded. “For us time works differently. I bet Reia had tried over centuries to turn humans in a way that he could control them, but because he just stopped when it got too obvious not many got to know about it.”

“But now that modern technology is making our lives more difficult as well, it could be that he won’t show up for a good few decades,” Taiga added.

“And who says that there won’t be others like him?” Rinne asked, still unable to calm down, but then Taiko let out an annoyed groan.

“Then let them come. Seriously, Rinne! Are we supposed to worry for the rest of our lives now?”

Taiko only moved his head to look up at the other one with a scolding expression. “Konpi is with us. What better protection can you ask for? If you don’t feel safe enough, go ahead and ask one of them to turn you.”

“Oh wow, he seems really fed up with all the complaining,” Ueda laughed. “But don’t even think about it.”

Ueda’s warning made Rinne pout, but he didn’t seem like he had considered this option in the first place.

“You should never consider getting turned without a pretty good reason,” Kame said and gave Taiga a side glance. “This time we helped, because it was in our interest as well.”

Kame turned around with his hands in his pockets and walked up a few steps towards a bar where Ueda had been standing, closer to the corridor towards the exit. There he turned around once more.

“Make sure that you won’t end up standing against our interests or we might meet as enemies the next time,” Kame warned them all.

Konpi didn’t say anything and just remained next to his friends while Hokuto got up from the couch and approached them, but stopped at the stairs.

“As long as your first priority is to keep our own kind safe we will never meet on opposite sides,” Hokuto said with a stern look towards both of them.

“Looking forward to our next meeting then,” Ueda said with an amused smile and a side glance towards Taiga as he waited for Kame to follow him. Kame gave Hokuto a brief smile before he nodded.

“Then make sure to take good care of both of you, so that you can get that eternity you are looking for.”

The eternal ones left like this and after a few more moments, Rinne let out a long sigh and sat down next to Taiko on the couch.

“I will need more than one lifetime to get used to this.”

Konpi laughed on hearing that as he sat down on the other side of Rinne and gave him a supporting clap on his back. “What a shame that I can’t offer you one, but maybe it’s for the best if you don’t know how much trouble is coming in the next centuries.”

“It will be weird seeing you not age from now on,” Taiko said with closed eyes as he still felt tired.

Hokuto walked back to Taiga, ignoring the boys and he grabbed him by the elbow, making Taiga give him a questioning look. When Taiga followed him towards the stairs, Hokuto stopped briefly next to the boys.

“It’s almost daytime, so better stay here for now. Take a rest for now, you should be back to full strength after a while.”

“Aren’t you coming with us?” Taiko asked a bit worried now as he pushed himself up on his elbows.

“We will come back to your house later, don’t worry,” Taiga assured him as he knew that Hokuto wasn’t aiming to just vanish like this.

“Okay, then everything is clear,” Hokuto said as he pushed Taiga towards the exit without another comment towards the boys and Taiga had to smile a bit as this part of Hokuto’s attitude had never changed no matter how long they had been together already.

Out on the street Hokuto started looking up, towards the neon lid boards, but then Taiga took his hand and pulled him towards the opposite side.

“I know a good place,” Taiga said with an entertained smile, Hokuto not even questioning Taiga’s words.

“You got already quite familiar with this place,” Hokuto teased when Taiga guided the way towards another neon light street as if he knew his ways around Shibuya all along.

“Let’s say you weren’t the only one who was thinking about getting some more private time at some point.”

And they would get exactly that private time when Taiga stopped at the next corner, at a building with the name Night sky hotel on it.

“Mh, after all these years I feel like you’re still thinking quite human sometimes,” Hokuto said on the pictures of the way too fancy rooms they could choose from. As the hotel name said all the rooms had a night sky theme and the lights in the rooms would resemble the night sky even if they decided to use the huge bathtub.

“One of us has to think a bit more human, because you usually don’t care for the location and I need to remind you that we are not living in the 18th century anymore. So a proper location is definitely a must now,” Taiga teased back as he pulled Hokuto towards the entrance.

“Sometimes I miss a lot of other older eras, that is for sure,” Hokuto laughed. “But I can’t deny that we have way more comfort nowadays.”

That comfort showed itself to them right away when they entered the room Taiga had chosen and of course it had the biggest bathtub of the entire hotel. Another thing they didn't necessarily need for their daily life as they didn't sweat or smell like humans, but a modern time bath wasn't something even Hokuto would say no to.

"I seriously feel like you're the one who had this all planned out already," Hokuto said as he locked the door and Taiga tilted his head with an amused expression as he turned back to Hokuto in front of the bed.

"Let's say you're not the only one who wants some distraction from all the chaos."

There was a slight worry left in Taiga's eyes, the small human part that made him worry for the boys and the minimal chance of Reia trying to get after them even with police on high alert all over Shinjuku and Shibuya for the entire night already.

When Hokuto finally walked up to him, Taiga snapped out of his thoughts when Hokuto put his hand around the back of Taiga's neck and pulled him into a greedy kiss.

Taiga's reaction came immediately with his hands moving right under Hokuto's shirt while he deepened the kiss in an almost desperate way. A reaction Hokuto had hoped for, because while he was sure that Taiga was fine physically after Taiko had helped out with that, something they definitely had to thank him for later, they could indeed take mental damage as well. Taiga had been pretty freaked out on their first encounter with an eternal one who had tried to get rid of him, so this encounter could easily shake him once more. But his movements ensured Hokuto that he was okay, at least enough to actually enjoy the rest of the night as well.

Taiga let out a small squeal when Hokuto suddenly grabbed him by the hips and threw him on the bed. Instead of immediately following he went over to the bathroom and Taiga could hear the sound of the bathtub filling up.

"Mh, already planning the next round?" Taiga asked when Hokuto threw his own shirt on the ground before he crawled back on the bed and replied with another kiss first after which he moved his lips down to the other one's neck.

"The night is short. I will only have one challenging round so I thought the next one should be a bit more relaxing for you."

"How thoughtful of you," Taiga teased as he could of course also feel that dawn was approaching. So when Hokuto got a bit impatient as he tried to get their clothes out of the way, Taiga made sure to help as they had just bought new simple clothes from a convenience store on the way to the host club, because their clothes had been completely ripped.

Taiga made a move to turn them around after he had put his arms around Hokuto's shoulders, but Hokuto was too impatient for those games and he growled at the other one, his fangs dangerously showing. Usually Taiga would enjoy the challenge, but for once he was indeed feeling a bit too unstable to actually put up a fight and Hokuto immediately realized the lag of reaction and he calmed himself down and placed a kiss on the other one's forehead.

"Rare for you to go at my pace," Taiga let out in a sweet voice before he moved his hands down to Hokuto's face to caress his cheeks and pull him down for a softer kiss this time.

"With some idiots like Reia out there, I have to make sure that our reputation isn't completely destroyed," Hokuto replied, making Taiga chuckle. Hokuto was still impatient, but compared to when he had met him the change was obvious, even if Taiga was the only one who got to experience his soft side.

"The only eternal one I need is right with me anyway. I don't care if we have to fight the rest of them," Taiga let out confidently as he put his forehead against Hokuto's.

"Let's hope that day will never come, because they won't like that I'd choose you over them at any time."

***

It was noon time when they finally made their way back. Hokuto had to check for messages on his phone, which he still hated using. But Taiga didn't have his phone anymore as it had gotten lost at one point in all the chaos. Taiko had messaged them that they were heading back to his house and everything had luckily stayed calm over the night.

When they opened the door, Taiko's grandfather was already waiting for them in the common room.

"The boys are exhausted, they are all upstairs sleeping."

"Like this Konpi gets at least some daytime rest," Taiga said as he sat down with Hokuto at the table. The man in front of them suddenly moved a bit away from the table and then put his hands to the ground and bowed.

"If I had known how much trouble I would cause you, I would have not involved you in this situation."

"If you hadn't then a lot more people would be dead or turned now. Most likely Taiko as well, so you did the right thing," Taiga said as he moved to push the man back up on his shoulders. "We were willing to take the risk, so if something ever happens again then definitely let us know, okay?"

"Now they have Konpi, I bet they are in good hands," Hokuto added before he put a paper bag on the table. "These are for Taiko. Not sure if he'll like them, but the clothes he lent us got completely ripped so we wanted to replace them."

"He'll be really grateful for the thought," the man said and took the bag. "But you're not planning on leaving without telling them, are you?"

"Too late for that I think," Taiga said as he looked up. Taiko's grandfather would still not be able to hear them, but they could tell that Taiko was awake. For a moment it remained silent, the boy obviously not wanting to wake up the others, but then even his grandfather looked up as they could hear sudden cursing and Taiko obviously half falling out of his bed when he tried to get downstairs as fast as possible.

He cursed once more at the steps before he dashed around the corner at the common room. Rinne was already shouting after him as he and Konpi had of course woken up through the ruckus.

"You're back!" Taiko said, but that was obviously not what he was so stressed about as he was holding his phone in his hand with a troubled expression.

"Dude, don't scare us like this. What's going on?" Rinne asked when he and Konpi entered the common room.

Instead of replying, Taiko went to get the remote control of the tv and everyone turned towards the urgent news program that seemed to be on every station.

"Seriously now?" Rinne asked when they listened to the news reporter as he talked about a video that had been going viral on the internet.

All of them stared in silence at the video that was playing. They could see themselves, fighting against Reia and his turned ones. The picture wasn't clear as the camera had been most likely been a normal phone camera used with a zoom function, but the quality was good enough to hear their hisses and growls, which sounded too animal like to be just made by a human and their eyes and fangs were of course also kind of visible.

"Humans don't seem to treasure their lives nowadays," Hokuto said as this person had been close to the fight, even if he used his zoom to get closer shots.

"You didn't notice?" Taiko asked after he had seen the video going wild on his sns when he had checked his phone.

"We were seriously fighting for our lives, you think we'd notice?" Konpi asked a bit scolding this time as they weren't able to always concentrate on everything at the same time.

"Seems like the video ends before we show up," Rinne said kind of glad as he didn't want to be in that video, not that it was easy to tell all their faces.

"Kame and Ueda will be furious about this," Taiga said when he turned back to Hokuto, but the other one shrugged his shoulders. "You and the boys are not in it. Konpi, Reia and I are the most visible, but there is nothing we can do about it."

"Wait, so that's it?" Taiko asked in disbelief.

"What are we supposed to do?" Hokuto asked back, leaving Taiko unable to reply.

"Won't they think this is a prank or some kind of filming anyway?" Taiko's grandfather asked and Taiko looked through the comments.

"Some indeed say it's fake, just seeking attention and so on, but others seem really excited, wanting to look for such encounters too now."

"Some even say they think the murders were fake to promote this video?" Rinne said as he checked his phone.

"I guess we'll have to see how the police will react to this, but I think it's the safest if all of you stay away from that area," Taiga said and Konpi shrugged his shoulders.

"I need to figure out a lot of things from now on so changing work to another area might definitely help as well."

"But not without us," Rinne immediately said and Taiko nodded.

"Guess it's time for a new beginning for us as well," Taiko said.

"But only if you also finally get yourself a job," Konpi scolded him, making Taiko pout and his grandfather laugh.

"You boys should definitely think about where to work and live from now on, because you should make sure to stick together no matter what."

"Are you kicking me out?" Taiko asked scandalized, making the others laugh.

"We could make our own share house?"

The fact that those words came from Rinne made his friends turned to him with a wide smile.

"If you're up for that then we're too that is for sure," Taiko chirped and shoved the boy a bit to the side with his shoulder.

"Look how easily they can forget about threats," Hokuto whispered towards Taiga as the boys had suddenly started going all hyper about where to move and work.

"For their short lifetime having such a mindset it definitely the healthiest," Taiga said with a smile.

"I feel like our encounter with Reia is just the beginning of a tough time for our kind, but they will hopefully not even realize that," Hokuto added.

Looking at the boys made them remember how many human lives they had seen coming and going until now. Hokuto of course way more than Taiga. Yet they didn't feel sad when they thought about having to say goodbye to more new friends in this era. For Konpi it would definitely be a harder challenge as his friends would be the first generation he'd see left behind and Taiga remembered those days himself a lot. But they'd be there for him when that time was coming and until then they'd continue to protect their own kind and the humans who deserved a calm lifetime without being dragged into their eternal chaos.

+++

2179 - Western district of the independent territories (former united states)

+++

The era of social media had caused what was believed to be fairytales and myths to slowly come to the surface and more and more humans started to believe in the existence of supernatural beings. Eventually the governments had to take action as the first videos of possible vampires had grown to be way more threatening to the human race than thought at first. While a lot of people just brushed them off as fake, CG and pranks, a lot of people started hunting down those who were visible in more and more videos. But with that they also endangered their own people. One human not trusting the other one anymore. A slight resemble with someone in one of the videos made humans act violently against them as they didn't believe them even if they said they had nothing to do with those happenings.

Hokuto and Taiga saw history repeating itself on a bigger scale this time as humans had started hunting and killing their own people before out of sheer panic about who could be not of their kind.

It had indeed all started slowly, the generation of the first viral videos not alive anymore to see how their world was changing, but a few dozen years ago the government had started something like a civilian scanning, finally agreeing that they weren't hunting fake news, but real beings. With that scanning system a lot of trouble arose and whole countries started civil wars as they didn't agree on all the checks and scanning the government wanted to force on them.

Eventually a big revolution took place in which turned ones had shown themselves openly to the humans for the very first time. Eternal ones had stayed out of all the uproar, yet a lot of humans had surprisingly taken the side of the turned vampires, cutting entire regions off to protect themselves and their new found allies against the murderous intentions of the governments as they had been planning on eliminating every vampire they could get their hands on.

After those who started the revolution built their own independent territories as even some military and government members had joined them eventually, the remaining officials started holding open executions of vampires they had captured. It was a gruesome way of showing their supremacy.

Social Media had evolved into holographic screenings, which could be accessed almost all over the world over public places or connected bracelets or other electronic items. Through that all the news was accessible all over the world.

Now the world was at a turning point where the eternal ones had to decide how they wanted to react to what was going on as they had laid low even when one of their own had been captured for the very first time and gruesomely been executed and that without any good reason. They weren't fighting back. They weren't even part of the first revolution as humans had started it by themselves.

But now it was time to come together and finally fight back or they would indeed face extinction if humanity kept turning against them.

Taiga and Hokuto had stayed hidden, the independent territories giving them a perfect hiding place without having to fear to get attacked if they got discovered as everyone in this area was on their side.

Their technology had leveled up to an extreme that a simple scanning could now show if they were humans or not, but in this territory they wouldn't use it of course as it was exactly that superior control system they were fighting against. A normal checkup could of course easily show the missing blood and heartbeat, but those scanning systems were all over the cities and cameras with sensors at almost every corner.

"Do you think it's really a good idea to just walk in there?" Taiga asked when they both made their way through the neon lit streets. After all their territory wasn’t in any kind a simple town of refugees. They were as powerful and advanced as the government cities.

"They want us to help, right? They said it out loud a lot now. Like recruiting soldiers they are almost begging us so why would they attack us?" Hokuto asked as he kept moving towards the city hall they used for their political meetings. "Not to forget that Konpi is with them, right?"

They hadn't seen Konpi for a long time after they had only checked up on him after he had been left completely alone after the generation he had lived his human lifetime with had disappeared. They weren't surprised though that he had been one of the first turned vampires to offer his help to the humans who wanted to support them. There were not many turned ones in the first place, at least not as much as they knew. Reia had also not shown up again until now, so he was also obviously trying to see where their current situation could lead to.

"May I ask your business?" A man in front of the main gate asked, but he didn't even hold a gun. These territories had been built on trust and only the borders were heavily protected.

Hokuto nodded at Taiga and instead of explaining, they just put some special eye drops into their eyes. A new type of contact lenses they didn't have to take out anymore. They could make it clear or colored through a special liquid.

The man wasn't that surprised about Taiga's eyes, yet he looked thrilled and somehow kind of respectful towards Hokuto as he was the first eternal one who was showing himself openly in front of the humans.

"Please follow me inside. I'll be pleased to introduce you to the council."

Both of them nodded and followed inside the huge building. From the outside it looked like a fancy stone building, almost nostalgic for them as it resembled the 18th century style, but hidden underneath the stone was a heavy metal structure, strong enough to withstand air raids. This kind of structure was the norm for most official buildings in this era even though attacks from above were rare as most countries had a very advanced air defense system.

The man talked through an interphone at the door, explaining who had arrived and the doors immediately opened and they were guided towards an underground floor where a long corridor with glass walls showed a big meeting room on the lower floor. Big holographic screens were on the walls and an area scan of the enemy's territories was placed holographically in the middle of the big round table everyone was sitting at.

The first one who jumped up as he saw them approaching was Konpi and he waited for them at the staircase.

The guard from before excused himself at the top of the staircase, the boys walking into the room by themselves.

"From every possible person who could have shown up I certainly didn't expect you," Konpi said with a wide smile and Taiga actually walked up to him, the boy happily accepting his hug as they still showed some human attachments after all.

"Careful, or he'll just leave again," Taiga laughed as he turned to Hokuto who had crossed his arms in front of his chest on Konpi's words.

"Looking at your circumstances you can use every help you can get," Hokuto said and looked towards the council. Mostly humans, around a dozen. But two more people had stood up and walked up to them. Both turned ones.

"We're more than grateful for you joining us," one of the boys said with a light bow.

"Don't judge too fast. I didn't say I'll join this easily. For now I'm just here to observe," Hokuto replied.

"How about you give us some information about your council for now?" Taiga interfered, not wanting Hokuto to start a fight as he hadn't liked the idea of coming here in the first place.

"Sure, please join us. Let me introduce everyone," Konpi said and the humans all stood up when Hokuto approached the table. A sign of respect and while it was definitely a positive reaction, Hokuto rolled his eyes as he didn't want to be seen as something like a savior for humans.

"Our turned ones are Minato and Kage," Konpi explained and pointed at the two boys from before.

"Do you mind if I ask about why you got turned?" Taiga asked as he liked knowing a bit of their backstory to be able to judge the situation better.

Minato stepped a bit to the front first and nodded. "I was with an eternal one for around one human lifetime, but you could say he wasn't satisfied with the way I turned out."

Something that gave Taiga a slight sting as he remembered how Hokuto had also not known how Taiga would actually be as their kind, but he had been lucky that Hokuto wasn't such a light-minded character.

"So eventually I went on my own path and years later I felt something extremely horrible," Minato said and touched his chest. "I can't explain it well, but I'm sure that he is not with us anymore."

Taiga gave Hokuto a side glance on that as he hadn't known that the turned ones could feel when their creator was dying. But just the thought of the pain Taiga could experience if Hokuto was ever taken away from him, scared him a bit. What confused him though was the way Hokuto had suddenly looked a bit absentminded, his own hand moving to his chest, but then he looked back at the two boys.

"What era was that?" Hokuto asked.

"I got turned in the 17th century."

He was older than Taiga then and most likely the eternal one had fallen victim to the people who had formed vampire hunting organizations at that time like Taiga's grandfather.

Minato looked at Kage who nodded next. "I was turned in the late 20th century. But I don't even remember the eternal who did it. I was on military duty in the middle east and on a night attack everything went out of hand when we realized the silver eyes between us. A lot of people died that day. When I woke up again there were two more of my comrades alive, but I wasn't in control of my senses and I killed them in my need of blood and hid around the war areas for a good century, feeding on wounded soldiers."

Another quite rough backstory, which made Taiga realize how lucky he actually was and he formed a comforting smile and thanked the boys for their honest replies.

Konpi went on with introducing the human members of the council. Most of them were military or former government members.

"And this is Nikaido, he holds a lot of contacts in the enemy's territories. He often goes there himself. He's something like our spy," Konpi introduced the man who had looked quite scary at first, but then flashed them an unbelievably innocent and bright smile.

"I really hope our council shows enough strength for you to consider joining our fight."

The entire world was so divided that it would be more than difficult to even consider bringing all the enemies against their kind down, but for now they'd try with the country they were in as one of the biggest hunting of their kind was taking place exactly here and it was this government which had openly executed an eternal one. That had been the point for Hokuto to finally take action and he was sure that he wouldn't be the only one.

"Do you want to stay with us? We have quarters for all members," Konpi explained.

"No," Hokuto immediately refused. "Whatever you have to tell us you can tell us here."

"That works for us," Nikaido said without getting angry at Hokuto's attitude. After all the turned ones had explained a lot about the eternal ones in case they'd eventually join them, so they knew how to handle Hokuto's behavior.

For now they only discussed basic problems and what to do from now on, but at one point Hokuto had enough.

"Unnecessary talking and planning that's what this is. You said you're going over there tomorrow again, right?" Hokuto asked and Nikaido nodded after he got interrupted.

"Then we'll just join you. End of this discussion. See you tomorrow then."

"Wait, what?" Kage asked as Hokuto already got up. "They can scan us easily. How are you supposed to stay hidden?"

"We actually have a solution for that," Taiga said as he got up, agreeing with Hokuto as they weren't here to delay everything the human way.

"You can trick the scanner?" Konpi asked as he hadn't heard about something like that until now.

"Your council is not the only place where people try to find ways to help us," Taiga explained. "We'll meet you tomorrow evening and explain more then."

No one actually dared to stop them or question them, but it was obvious that they were all quite confused by Hokuto's confidence.

***

"What?" Hokuto asked when they walked back towards their place and Taiga chuckled.

"I'm impressed how calm you actually stayed," Taiga said, but the teasing was obvious.

"I'm not good with all this human emotional talk, this was hell."

"That's why I said you did great," Taiga repeated and gave the other one a small push with his shoulder. "Now we just have to make sure that his invention really works or we'll be screwed tomorrow."

"He's been so confident with all the stuff he made so I'm positive that this one will work too, the eye drops worked as well."

"Since when are you putting your trust that easily into a human?" Taiga asked with a raised eyebrow, resulting in Hokuto rolling his eyes.

"He's just good at what he's doing, that's all."

"If you say so," Taiga replied with a chuckle, not that he could deny that.

A few minutes later they arrived at a building with no windows and a security gate. A face scanner granted them access and they were more than grateful to this certain human for actually helping them hide for a long time already.

The building was divided between some private rooms and something more chaotic. A big room they shouldn't enter without announcing that they were coming or even their lives could be in danger if the other one was testing some new invention.

Taiga knocked on the glass door and the other one waved at them to come in after he had been completely absorbed in the fabric in front of him.

"Hey Noel, how is it going?" Taiga greeted him and the boy jumped up and took the fabric in front of him in his hands.

"Actually amazing. This will be my best invention so far."

"Good, because we need two of them by tomorrow evening," Hokuto said, making the other one blink at him in confusion.

"Did you just say tomorrow evening? It's already night time on this day. So less than 24 hours?"

"Oh so we finally found something you can't do?" Hokuto asked and the provocation made an excited shine show in the other one's eyes.

"Challenge accepted," the boy said before he went back to his table and started getting the same materials together.

"Sorry for the hurry," Taiga apologized and wanted to leave the boy to his work, but then Noel pointed at him.

"I need one of you to stay so we can test the first one or I don't know what to fix on the second one."

"Sure, what do I do with it?" Taiga asked and took the fabric in front of him.

"Just wear it like a shirt, because that is actually what it is, but make sure to not have another shirt under it."

Taiga nodded and took his jacket off and when he wanted to take his shirt off, Hokuto's hands were suddenly on the seam, helping him and Taiga turned towards him with a teasing smile.

"Remember that you're not allowed to rip this off no matter what," Taiga warned the other one as he was already scanning Taiga's body, obviously not minding at all that Noel was in the room, but the boy was used to it by now anyway.

"Then make sure to leave it here after we leave the room or I can't promise anything," Hokuto warned and helped Taiga into the sleeveless shirt. It was plain black, but heavier than a normal shirt and Taiga touched the part around his chest and stomach, realizing that some microchip parts were inside the shirt.

"The material inside of it is no metal so they can't track or scan it even if you'd get into a check. They would need to completely body search you to even realize that something is wrong with it," Noel said before he walked up to Taiga and moved his hands to the side of the lower seam. There is a sensor in here, if you press it for three seconds it will activate, the same as the other way around. It's charged by heat so it's totally easy for you guys to keep it fully charged the entire time."

Noel pressed the sensor and Taiga immediately put his hand to his chest. Hokuto could see and hear the change and he also stretched his hand out to touch Taiga's chest.

"Wow, that's a movement I haven't felt from you in a long time," Hokuto said as he could feel the fake movement of a beating heart.

"Isn't it amazing?" Noel asked. "All scanners will see it as a real beating heart. You just have to watch out that you don't damage it in a fight. It's pretty tough material, but if someone shoots or cuts through it then it's done for."

"Well, for now we're not trying to go into a head on fight," Taiga said as he felt weird sensing a fake heartbeat all over his body. It was extremely distracting and they definitely needed to get used to it as well.

"So you're going into their territory?" Noel asked a bit worried. The boy’s family had been on their side already from his parent's generation, that was how they had known him, but unfortunately his mother had passed away early from cancer and his father had been killed in one of too many wars. All these years later and humanity still hadn't found answers to a few eternal problems.

"The council has someone who goes there more often so with him I think we can risk it and we need to know what we're up against," Taiga explained as he got out of the shirt and put it back on the table.

When he wanted to grab his own shirt, Hokuto took it and also the jacket from the table. "No need for unnecessary clothes," Hokuto said, making Taiga smile at his impatient look. After all this time Hokuto hadn't changed. If he was stressed for too long amongst humans their nights would always turn out the same, not that Taiga minded. Not even all these years later.

***

Taiga got woken up by Hokuto snuggling himself even more against Taiga’s body and the boy moved his head just to place a kiss on the other one’s hair.

“You already want to get ready?” Taiga asked, sensing that the sun hadn’t set yet. But their room would give them a perfect rest space as Noel’s mother had designed this room especially for them and they were still grateful for it until this day. So much actually that they wished they could carry it around with them. The walls were out of soundproof material, to a degree that even for them the room was almost completely silent. It also had no windows as it was located underground. A perfect location for them to not sense the sun too much while resting over daytime.

“I don’t want to get ready at all. Can’t we just stay here?”

Taiga couldn’t even argue with Hokuto’s wish of just hiding for the rest of eternity and see if the human kind would just destroy themselves eventually, but with new technology their life hadn’t been that easy anymore so if they wanted a calm life back, then for once they had to get up and fight for it.

With an annoyed groan Hokuto sank back into the covers when Taiga tried to move the bedsheet away from him. The childish behavior made Taiga chuckle before he gave up for now as they still had time in the first place so he threw the sheets back over both their heads and searched for the other one’s face, Hokuto immediately finding Taiga’s face with his own hands and pulling the other one into a playful kiss. Too harmless to disturb their peaceful daytime, but also not without a deeper meaning.

“You’re worried,” Taiga let out as Hokuto let his forehead drop against the other one’s chest. It was weird to see an eternal one worrying for something in the first place, but just in front of Taiga, Hokuto would actually dare to show his weaknesses.

“I don’t want to lose you. Until today that is still my only fear and with us taking such a big risk, I feel like I want to pull out again just to keep you safe.”

The words made Taiga feel grateful, but he also didn’t want them to keep watching from the sidelines, because someone had to make the first step and now they still had a chance to win against the corrupted world governments as a lot of people were more than skeptical about their way, even if they were living in their territories as they also feared their kind as they didn’t know them well enough.

“I promise you that no matter what will happen in their territories I will make sure that we will come back here together,” Taiga said with a light touch on the other one’s cheek even though he knew that he couldn’t promise any outcome for now, but they had to tell each other some comforting lies for now or they wouldn’t be calm enough to go through with their dangerous first step into this revolution.

***

"I hope you didn't lie to us, because right now our scanners can totally tell who you are," Nika said as he waited at a last checkpoint before the border for them to arrive.

"So impatient," Hokuto let out and his hand moved to the back of his clothes for a moment. "Then scan away."

Hokuto spread out his arms, but for Nika nothing had changed, yet when he moved up his scanner, which was working from his wristband he gasped.

"A heartbeat?"

"And a heat control so that we're not visible for the heat sensors either," Taiga said as he switched on his special device.

"You've a quite talented person on your side," Nika said with an approving nod. "But let me guess if we get into a fight then they might break?"

"That could definitely happen, but let's hope that for this first visit we can lay low," Taiga said before he looked towards the security wall. "Are we just going through?"

"Officially it wouldn't be forbidden to use the security gate, but they definitely have spies on the other side so to not be too suspicious we're going through an underground system.

Nika lead the way towards a staircase hidden in one of the security towers and with a flashlight connected to his vest they started moving, not that the boys needed the light.

"You don't really look like a soldier, why are you doing the spying part for the council?" Hokuto asked as straightforward as always.

Nika looked back at Hokuto with a small smile before he replied. "I'm not a soldier, that's right. But that is exactly why I will blend in with the civilians way better. I don't have any suspicious soldier tactics or habits.

"That's actually quite a smart move," Taiga said. "But can you fight in a worst case scenario?"

This time Nika's smile grew even wider and he nodded. "Trust me you don't have to worry for me if we're up against their soldiers."

"As if I'd care in the first place," Hokuto said, immediately getting hit by Taiga for that comment.

Nika didn't seem to mind Hokuto's attitude though.

"Konpi told us about you two. About the time when he got turned. We're really grateful for your help and we will support you wherever we can."

The way the council put them in charge over themselves was definitely of Hokuto's liking, but it made it easier for him to not snap at any humans for trying to order him around. If they tried then Hokuto would definitely leave.

"When we get out just tag along for now. There is a hideout I'm using in their territories. We can go there first and then keep planning."

They all agreed on that plan and it was definitely the best option as their walk had indeed taken way longer than they had thought and they arrived in the middle of the night, which made Nika wait for the early morning hours before they left the tunnel as it would be suspicious to walk in the middle of the night.

The sun was about to rise when they sneaked through the streets and they tried to be as unsuspicious as possible and still check their surroundings.

Their scanner system was installed over the entire city. At every big street or crossing the scanners were installed. A lifestyle even a lot of humans refused as the scanners would also check their social behavior and could be used against them in court. Depending on the area some of them were recording voices as well so they walked in silence between the few people out this early.

In between there were also some soldiers and they tried their best to avoid them. Weapons had become dangerous even to them especially because they were aiming to catch their type in these territories. Instead of simple bullets there were weapons that were in a way old fashioned yet effective. Like a wire shooter, which caught fire the moment it got shot on a target.

But luck wasn't with them when right around a corner two soldiers were walking right towards them and then they of course stopped Nika. It was a simple routine check, something they had been told about.

But instead of them carrying IDs they would get scanned and refusing would of course cause trouble and they seemed to not find anything suspicious about Nika as their scanner turned green. Now the second soldier walked up to Taiga and he was told to remain still for a scan.

If Noel's invention didn't work then they had to get ready to fight their way back to the tunnel, but luckily the scanner once more turned green. Hokuto did his best to not look too pissed about the situation, because they could still arrest humans as well after all.

"That was a rough greeting," Taiga said after they had entered the hideout and Nika told them to relax for now.

"But your friend's invention is really impressive, they didn't suspect a thing. By the way, do you want to risk looking around during the daytime?"

“We will definitely not be that suspicious that way,” Taiga said and Hokuto agreed.

“It’s risky, but with all those guards patrolling I feel like even at night this would be more than a mess if we had to fight.”

There was a moment of silence in which Taiga gave Hokuto a teasing look and Nika looked a bit confused when Hokuto suddenly seemed annoyed.

“I didn’t say I won’t be able to handle them,” Hokuto said before Taiga even replied anything.

“I am just happy that for once you’re a bit concerned,” Taiga teased. “By the way, is there a room here where we can rest over the day?”

Nika pointed to a staircase to an underground level of the building. The door was of heavy metal and alarm locked so no one could easily try and break in and the building itself wasn’t suspicious in the first place. “There is one room downstairs. It will definitely be enough for you to rest as it has no windows. I need to contact the council so I will stay here, let me know when you’re ready to leave. We can still wait a few hours.”

Taiga nodded gratefully while Nika walked over to a desk with some devices on it from where he obviously always did his spying work from. Hokuto followed downstairs without any comment and they indeed liked the dark room with the spacious bed in it, but different from usual Hokuto didn’t make any attempt to ignore Nika’s presence upstairs and use the bed for his favorite activity. But the lag of interest was something Taiga had noticed and for him it was the same, something that had worried him the moment they had been in the tunnel, but in front of Nika he didn’t want to say anything.

“You felt the change, right?” Hokuto said and Taiga nodded.

“Since we entered their territory. This is not just about their scanners,” Taiga said as he sat down on the bed turning off Noel’s device as the scanners couldn’t reach them inside the building, but there was something else and that something was reaching them even here.

“What do you think it is?” Taiga asked.

“Ultrasound waves maybe? Most of the humans here won’t even realize the change, but for us it’s going to be tough if we really get into a battle.”

“They are weakening themselves through this,” Taiga said a bit more annoyed this time. “How did they even come up with something like this?”

“Can’t you answer that question yourself?” Hokuto asked with a dark expression and of course Taiga could. All those they had executed had been used for tests on their weapons and devices that was for sure.

“Do you think they already captured more?” Taiga asked, now his worry taking over as the sun had already risen and his human side gave him a headache.

“Hopefully we will find that out later, but right now I am not even sure if remaining here for longer than a day would be a good idea.”

“Hearing that from you makes me worry even more,” Taiga said as Hokuto finally sat down as well. They had both made sure to be at full strength when leaving as they couldn’t take any blood with them, but even Hokuto seemed affected by whatever unknown system they used. Something Nika and the others wouldn’t be able to know of as Konpi and the other turned ones hadn’t been able to join the humans in this territory so far. While it might also affect humans it would only give them a light headache or a tired feeling. Nothing they would easily worry about.

“I will still be fine even over the day, but if it’s too much for you, then you have to immediately tell me, is that clear? We can’t risk getting caught here,” Hokuto said dead serious and Taiga nodded. With a careful touch Hokuto put his hand to Taiga’s hair and pulled him closer, putting a soft kiss on the other one’s hair. Taiga chuckled at the other one’s rare patient behavior, but he enjoyed this side of Hokuto a lot as well, but he wished it would be through other circumstances.

The weather in the afternoon was cloudy and cold, which made it easier for them to move around, but not as easy as they had hoped. Even Nika had realized that something was off when they had finally come upstairs again as their rest hadn’t been as helpful as they had hoped, but for now they still kept their condition a secret as they didn’t want Nika to start panicking. As long as nothing was going to happen they would still have enough energy to just make it back and then Noel would need to start the research of his life as they needed to know what they were using to even weaken their kind through what seemed to be a nationwide ultrasound wave related device.

“This is the place where they executed them,” Nika said in a low voice after he had explained about some government-related buildings and places on their way, still trying to be as unsuspicious as possible.

The place they were at was an open place for thousands of people to gather and watch announcements or the recent gruesome execution of their kind, but now the place was empty, only a few people passing by as no announcements were being made, but this place made Taiga feel even more restless and that not only because of what had happened here before and when he made a step forward Hokuto took him by the elbow.

“Way too risky.”

“What do you mean?” Nika asked as he didn’t understand what they were talking about.

“Let’s at least locate the center?” Taiga asked and while Hokuto wasn’t fond of the idea at all he let go of the other one, but turned to Nika next.

“We will need to leave right after this,” Hokuto said and somehow Nika was pretty good in reading Hokuto’s mood as he nodded instead of asking more questions.

They kept moving, but not directly to the huge government building in front of them, but more around it.

“Is there anything that caught your attention?” Nika finally dared to ask as they walked down two more streets on the left to an area that seemed not of any importance.

“They only use those buildings for their presentations, it’s fake,” Hokuto said. “Their main location is somewhere else, most likely underground.”

They kept their voices down as much as possible as they couldn’t tell if there were more scanners than the ones they could see so they needed to be on high alert.

“But how do you know?” Nika dared to ask, yet the look Hokuto and Taiga exchanged showed him that they were obviously not willing to tell him yet.

“We will explain everything later,” Taiga said with an apologizing look when he turned back to keep walking down the narrow street they had entered with normal civilian houses, but then Hokuto had to jump forward as the worst outcome had suddenly occurred and Taiga had lost balance and fallen to the back without any warning.

“I told you to let me know if it’s getting too much,” Hokuto hissed at the other one as he had of course also felt how they kept approaching the source of the device’s waves, but for Taiga it was even worse as he was weaker over the day.

“What is going on?” Nika asked alarmed as he looked around, making sure that no cameras or soldiers were around.

“For now just remember this place okay?” Hokuto said and put Taiga’s arm around his shoulder, but the other one suddenly stopped him when Hokuto wanted to turn back.

“Wait, do you feel this?”

First Hokuto didn’t understand what he meant, but that was because he had been too focused on Taiga. With a curse he realized what Taiga meant, but there was no way they could keep going.

“Could you please let me know what is going on? There might be soldiers around if this is a place they are involved with,” Nika warned them.

“They have some ultrasound system you humans wouldn’t even easily recognize. You might feel like having a headache or just a bad day, but whatever it is weakens us,” Hokuto finally explained. “We wanted to see where it is coming from so we know the location for the next time, but we just realized that others are close.”

“Others? Of your kind?” Nika asked, but he couldn’t see any special buildings or doors around the normal street. Maybe already too normal. It looked really clean, there were no families or children, no patrols.

“They are definitely having something like an entrance around this area. But we are in no condition to fight our way in,” Taiga said.

“Finally something we agree on,” Hokuto said as he pulled Taiga to a small side alley and made him sit down.

“Give me a second,” Nika said as he pulled out a device from which he could show several holographic screens and he also put on some special glasses which seemed to connect to the database of the territory. “Would you mind telling me if anyone approaches?”

Hokuto nodded as he got up and concentrated on their surroundings as they didn’t need even more trouble. Minutes passed in which Nika searched for something Hokuto couldn’t focus on as he kept an eye on Taiga and also his surroundings while he also felt more and more weakened by the way too close ultrasound device.

“Got it,” Nika said as he closed all screens except for one and pulled it big enough for both boys to see. It was the security camera footage of something government related as a lot of soldiers were visible. “This is a camera closer than 200 hundred meters to us. I made sure to block everything except the closest ones and I finally narrowed it down to this one. If something is underneath here then this is it.”

“Is there only that one camera?” Taiga asked as he looked at the screen, but couldn’t see more than some patrolling soldiers and some heavy metal doors and a long corridor.

“Let me check,” Nika said and kept looking.

“We got incoming,” Hokuto said as he could hear footsteps from the distance, closing in towards their location.

“Here, this is the only other one,” Nika said and switched cameras.

“We need to leave, now,” Hokuto said as he wanted to pull Taiga up.

“Wait, look,” Taiga said and Hokuto moved to look at the camera screen.

“Fucking idiot. How the hell did he end up there? Biggest asshole of our kind and yet he gets caught that easily,” Hokuto complained and still pulled Taiga up and told Nika to tell them the way back to the tunnel as they were running out of time and Nika immediately did as he was told, but he screenshot the camera screen for later just for the council to see what they had found.

“Who are they?” Nika asked as he had seen them as well. It had been more than clear that one was an eternal one and two were turned ones, captured and imprisoned by the government, most likely the next ones to be executed.

“Two of them have just been unlucky, but one of them is going to be even more of a pain in the ass now that we have to rescue exactly that ass,” Hokuto hissed.

No matter their past, the pride of their kind, especially of the eternal ones would make them come to their own kinds’ rescue as they didn’t see themselves as enemies if not directly threatened, especially not over the humans who were now trying to put themselves over their kind, something Hokuto would not let happen, so rescuing Reia was definitely something he was looking forward to as the boy would totally rip all the humans around him to pieces the moment he got the chance.

***

Their sudden escape had worked without getting discovered, but unfortunately the damage they had taken was already too big to recover easily even after leaving the area with the ultrasound waves and Hokuto tried his best to not show that he was also affected, but when he failed to keep supporting Taiga, Nika finally took action. He contacted the council for immediate back up at their destination and reached out for Taiga to get him on his back.

“Sorry for the trouble,” Taiga apologized, but didn’t have the pride of an eternal one while Hokuto would definitely not accept any help no matter how affected he was. Luckily Nika sensed that too and let the eternal one walk by himself.

By the time they finally made it back to their territory it was early morning of the next day and while the night time had helped them a bit at least, they would need more rest and definitely blood to get back to full strength.

“What happened?” Konpi asked when he immediately realized that they were in a pretty bad condition even though Taiga was walking by himself over the last night hours as he got at least some energy back.

Minato and Kage had also arrived at the tunnel as Nika couldn’t give them a detailed report as they needed to be careful about their signals being caught by their enemies, so all he had been able to send them was an encoded emergency message.

“We need to figure that out ourselves,” Hokuto said as he seemed relieved as well to be away from the other territory. “They seem to use something like ultrasound waves. Humans would usually not realize it, all that would happen is them feeling a bit sick or weak maybe.”

“Is that how they caught the others?” Minato asked and Taiga nodded.

“Most likely and they got even more. Actually quite some familiar faces.”

When Taiga looked over to Konpi the other two gave him a questioning look, but Konpi was already guessing what was coming as Nika showed them the holographic screenshot he had taken.

“An eternal one and two turned ones. They might have even more than just those waves to capture our kind if they can catch so many at once,” Kage said thoughtfully.

“This one is different though, I bet he went there by himself, thinking he can just murder everyone in his way,” Konpi said.

“You know him?” Nika asked as he hadn’t heard much about the turned ones’ backstories as he found it unnecessary to ask them about their private past.

“The eternal one is Reia. He is the one who turned me,” Konpi explained, leaving Nika speechless for a moment. Minato and Kage only nodded as they all shared their own rough pasts with some eternal ones. “Are we going to try and get him out?”

“You want to get him out?” Nika asked in confusion.

“Even if he didn’t want to, Hokuto would go alone if needed,” Taiga said knowingly.

“Eternal ones are proud beings after all. Some of them treat us like trash, others like their own, but with their own kind they would never let humans hurt them if they can help them and I don’t mind that. I am not going to pout about my past, so if we can find a way to get into their territory and help, then count me in.”

Konpi’s words had Hokuto step to the front and for a moment Konpi looked quite human once more as he still showed a lot of respect to eternal ones and when Hokuto hit him against the chest the boy gave him a questioning look.

“You seem to have finally matured a bit,” Hokuto said before he turned away and took Taiga by the arm before he turned to Nika. “We will have our researcher look into the ultrasound waves. If you get any information about them immediately let us know. The sooner we can try and enter their territory again the better.”

Nika nodded and let them leave for now as there was no need for them to follow back to the council’s headquarters.

“Do you want us to join you or shall we stay behind?” Minato asked and Konpi was lost in his thoughts for a moment before he flashed a kind of confident smile.

“Let me decide that in a few days. Let them rest for now and research, I bet it will take a few days and I will see if I can get some backup in that time.”

“Backup?” Nika asked, but Konpi’s smile only grew wider. He had not just been sitting around at meetings for the last hundred years after all. Even as a turned one he had made sure to get himself some good connections.

***

“You look like shit,” Noel greeted them at their place.

“And here I liked you until now,” Hokuto replied coldly, but when Noel held out two bags with blood, already prepared for their arrival, Hokuto rolled his eyes at the other one’s grin.

“Fine, I still like you.”

Taiga chuckled when Hokuto snatched away the bag and headed straight towards their room.

“Thank you, Noel. By the way do you think it would be possible to make a few more scanner shirts and also do some research for us?”

“Say no more, two new shirts are already done and let me know about the research later, I bet it can wait until night time?”

Taiga nodded with a grateful expression as Noel was more than good at reading the atmosphere. Taiga left him to his work for now and followed Hokuto. For them a real hunt would have been definitely better, but in these territories they couldn’t easily hunt as they didn’t want people to fear them. There were people who actually offered to give their blood even directly over a bite, but it just felt so weird to them that they had never even once thought about that option. So for now the bags had to be enough. Not that Noel hadn’t offered until now, but Taiga had refused to bite any of his friends since his chaotic times with Juri and the boys.

When Taiga entered their room, Hokuto was sitting on the bed with the bag still lying next to him and Taiga put his one down as well before he sat down next to the other one. It was rare to see any kind of troubled expression on his face, but Taiga was grateful that the other one at least opened up in front of him while keeping all his emotions locked away from everyone else.

“I never thought I’d be tired of my eternal life at a certain point,” Hokuto said and Taiga remained silent, only looking at him. “It never felt long or boring. With you at my side, time seems to go by even faster, but this era is the worst so far.”

“Until now humans had never been such a big threat to our kind, I can understand that it’s difficult for you to stay patient,” Taiga said and put his hand on the other ones with a comforting squeeze. “But I am more than impressed by the way you kept your cool for all these years already and even decided to fight alongside some humans who are on our side.”

“On our side,” Hokuto said with a disbelieving chuckle. “They are on the side of the turned ones as they still have enough human features left to emotionally connect to them. If it was only us eternal ones they wouldn’t even have considered helping us.”

Taiga wanted to argue about that, but there was actually nothing he could say against the other one’s words as he feared that they were true. The respect they showed Hokuto was founded on the simple human emotion of fear. The turned ones had taught the humans about how to handle eternal ones and what could happen if they became their enemies, so instead of actually wanting to rescue them, they wanted to keep them on their own side to stay safe.

“But you prefer their thinking over that of the government,” Taiga said, not even forming a question, because while they had openly started a war against their kind it wasn’t that easy anymore with modern technology to just hunt those humans down and get them out of their way to live in peace again. There were too many humans thinking that way and too many weapons that could actually end their lives.

“If a life in the shadows is still not giving us any safety then I will put it all on the line to get us our eternity back,” Hokuto said with a determined look. Something Taiga was happy and scared about at the same time. While Hokuto could indeed just lay back for the next centuries and see if humans would eventually destroy themselves if he was able to stay hidden, he decided to fight for his eternity with Taiga in a world where Taiga wouldn’t be forced to live that way. But that also meant that they were facing their doom together in case they couldn't win this war, not that Hokuto would ever admit that until defeat was going to be upon him.

“And on the way you can enjoy Reia’s pouting about getting rescued,” Taiga teased as he already knew that the boy wouldn’t be pleased about their help, but they could also end up in a lot of trouble themselves as they hadn’t even come up with a good plan of how to get them out. Yet with Hokuto getting fed up with the entire situation it was just a matter of time until they needed to make a move or he would just go by himself and that was something Taiga wouldn’t let happen.

***

“Finally some real help,” Hokuto said when they met with the council the next evening and after an entire night and day of rest they were back to full strength. So luckily it didn’t seem like their ultrasound waves would create permanent damage.

They looked down at two unfamiliar faces when they walked down the same glass corridor as before and another pair of silver eyes looked up at them, next to him a pair of unknown red eyes.

“Seems like you made some friends over the years,” Taiga said as they stepped down into the room where only their kind and Nika were present for now. Nika was in the back busy with his holographic screens.

“I had plenty of time to explore after all and we met by coincidence,” Konpi said as he looked at the two next to him. One of them didn’t seem to be pleased to be dragged into this in the first place, but weirdly it was the red eyed boy seeming like he was more of an eternal one character. The eternal one next to him had a calmer attitude, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t freak if talked to in the wrong way.

“I’ve heard rumors about one of us finally joining the fight and when Konpi told me that there might be another execution coming up I didn’t want to sit back anymore either,” the eternal one said with a calm smile. “But excuse me where are my manners, let me introduce ourselves. My name is Nakajima Kento and this is Kikuchi Fuma.”

The red eyed boy only nodded, not even trying to look in any way friendly. There was a moment of tension between Hokuto and Kento, but then Hokuto looked at Taiga with a softer look. “I guess we should also let some old connections help out.”

Taiga nodded on hearing that as he had hoped that Hokuto would get excited about fighting together with other eternal ones after they hadn’t come together in such numbers since Taiga’s grandfather’s generation had started a hunt against their kind.

“You’ve been in these territories until now?” Taiga asked and actually addressed Fuma who seemed annoyed by the fact that he had to reply.

“As you can see these two have never met until now, so obviously we haven’t been in the same territories in the past for who knows how many centuries.”

“Excuse his temper,” Kento said and Taiga could see that there was something about the look he gave Fuma that made him believe that there was more to Fuma’s temper than just a normal human characteristic that was left. “Fuma is with me since the 15th century. We’ve always stayed in the united colonies, never leaving the continent as this place gave us a lot of opportunity to stay hidden over all this time.”

With the former united states being divided into the independent territories and the government territory, there was a lot of room for them to hide even in this era. If they really didn’t want to get caught by any government they could still leave the big cities behind them or retreat to countries where the governments weren’t hunting them down. Of course border crossing wasn’t that easy for them anymore, but they could understand that the boys had remained in this area for this long.

“When have you come to the independent territories?” Kento asked.

“About half a century ago,” Taiga replied. “We weren’t sure at first if we could trust the humans around here, but then we got information about some turned ones joining them and we found some amazing human connection network as well, so eventually we took the risk and stayed before we could get stuck in any dangerous territory.”

“Stuck like the eternal one whose ass we have to rescue now,” Fuma said and this time Hokuto’s body tension changed, Kento luckily immediately stepping towards Fuma.

“Would you mind asking Nika for updates? I will be with you in a moment.”

Fuma only gave the other one a side glance before he looked up at Hokuto once more as he had realized the other one’s anger.

“Let me check with him too,” Taiga offered and with that Fuma finally turned and walked off with him.

“You mind if we talk for a moment?” Kento asked and Hokuto went back to the stairs without another comment as he already knew that Kento was hiding something. They went up to another level of the building where no other people were present at the moment.

“So are you going to make excuses for Fuma now?” Hokuto said knowingly as Kento was obviously more than aware of the danger lying in Fuma’s behavior.

“I wish I could, but the responsibility for his behavior lies completely with me,” Kento said in an apologizing manner.

“For an eternal one you’re quite on the soft side, but well you wanted to talk then go ahead,” Hokuto said and leaned back at the wall with one foot on it and his arms crossed to his chest.

“A lot happened back when I met Fuma and it changed both of us, not necessarily for the better,” Kento started. “I was like most of our kind, not that fond of humans and Fuma was noisy and arrogant, a good target to play around with. That was how I thought about him at that time. I had planned on just erasing his memories eventually and carry on, but when he discovered my identity and wasn’t in any way scared or aggressive I changed my mind. But that was until he asked me to turn him.”

Hokuto’s look darkened a bit on hearing his story as he had found himself in a similar situation with Taiga, yet he could already tell that their story didn’t go as smooth as theirs.

“I refused, several times actually, as I felt like I wouldn’t be able to turn him and I enjoyed being with him as the human he was. I was-”

“Afraid,” Hokuto said knowingly and for a moment Kento was startled as he didn’t think Hokuto would understand him, yet Hokuto had also understood fear for the first time after meeting Taiga.

“I didn’t want to lose him by failing to turn him. I feared he could change, maybe even turn against me or leave me. So I kept refusing. Fuma was furious at some point and I considered taking away his memories to keep him away from me.”

That was a strength Hokuto wouldn’t have been able to come up with if at some point he would have needed to push Taiga away. It was unthinkable.

“But after we clashed over the topic once more, me overreacting as much as him in my anger about not being able to overcome my fear, he suddenly vanished. It was in the middle of the day when I could smell his blood and I rushed to find him. He had jumped off a cliff…”

While Hokuto had already seen a bad ending coming, he hadn’t thought that Fuma would go that far.

“I panicked as I wanted to rescue him, but the only way possible was to turn him as it had been a miracle that he had still been alive in the first place. But it was daytime and I wasn’t in the right state of mind to turn him. I succeeded, but since then Fuma’s personality had drastically changed.”

“And you give yourself the fault, because you think if you had turned him before then things would have been different,” Hokuto concluded. “And you might be right, but who knows. Maybe he would have still turned out different from what you thought. There is another turned one here who was left behind by an eternal one, because he didn’t like the way he turned out, so I would say you did what you could and actually staying with him after that instead of abandoning him was more than enough to make up for it.”

Kento looked at the other one in a loss of words as he hadn’t thought another eternal one would face his story with such calmness.

“You thought I’d laugh at you? Judge you? If I had never turned Taiga then trust me I would do exactly that, but then I would also most likely sit next to Reia now and wait for my execution, because that is where our arrogance will lead us in this damn annoying era.”

Kento seemed more than relieved to not get judged by another eternal one for his choices, but of course there were others who would definitely not forgive Fuma’s attitude that easily no matter the circumstances.

“For now I think Fuma’s straightforward behavior could actually help us so I will overlook it for the time being,” Hokuto said. “But be careful, because I think we will soon get even more of our kind involved in this and then it’s your job to keep Fuma safe.”

That was definitely something Kento would keep in mind as he wanted others to help them out, but he also wanted to stay away from eternal ones as much as possible.

“That’s a pretty dumb plan,” Hokuto said without outrights after they had discussed over two days what to do and as they were running out of time as at any moment the government could announce another execution. Hokuto and Taiga had introduced Noel to the council as he was their only chance to do something about the ultrasound waves and Nika appreciated his help a lot.

The remaining council members were pleased to meet Kento and Fuma as well, but their hopes were a bit too high. As the eternal ones weren’t some kind of super soldiers who could just rip the government to pieces. After all turned ones were naturally even stronger than them with the disadvantage of the day time.

“Do you have a better one?” Fuma asked even though the main idea hadn’t even come from him, but luckily Hokuto stayed to his word and remained calm even with the boy’s extremely annoying attitude.

“I unfortunately have to agree that this idea is definitely not promising,” Konpi entered the conversation after the council had debated night and day about what to do, but they did not have enough time.

“I wish I could be of more help,” Noel said as the problem lay with him not knowing the source of the sound waves, so he would need to go to their territories first to analyze, which they were planning to do, but it would take time and be pretty obvious so their plan was to cause an uproar, a kind of distraction, in case the soldiers would realize something. So they had a distraction team and a rescue team, then the backup team, but in case they really needed the distraction team it meant that they were on their own, unable to get help from the others, because they would be busy getting Reia and the others out while Noel and the backup team would try their best to somehow help them fight through the soundwaves.

“Why do you even care that much about rescuing him? If you feel so unsafe with the plan just don’t do it. Let Noel analyze until there is a safe way to attack them. Why sacrifice yourself for a traitor like him?”

This time it was actually Kento who lost his calm with Fuma first and he swirled around towards him, hissing at him with his fangs out and while Fuma’s attitude was indeed a bit much, this time he stepped back. He didn’t challenge the other one and even looked a bit apologizing.

It was difficult for Taiga to analyze the situation as he had heard about their past from Hokuto, but it was night time now so he wondered why Fuma wouldn’t challenge Kento back as Taiga would usually lose his calm easier at night as well. But for now they had bigger problems to deal with and Kento made Fuma stand back for now as he focused back on the holographic map of the city area with the underground dungeons.

“I’m up for this plan, if enough of you are as well then I would say we should go tonight or we might be too late and who knows if they have even more locations like this one,” Kento said.

“I’m in,” Minato said without hesitation and Kage nodded as well. Konpi seemed a bit more hesitant, but eventually also agreed. Nika would help get them all to the other territories and assist Noel with his research.

“Count us in as well, I guess?” Taiga asked as Hokuto didn’t say anything, but the fact that he hadn’t left the meeting told him that he would agree even if the plan was risky.

“Fine, then how do we decide the teams?” Hokuto asked with an annoyed look.

Everyone looked around a bit lost on that question as it wasn’t that easy of a decision after all. None of them would easily just offer to play the distraction role as it was the most risky one.

“Give me a moment,” Noel said as he left to a side desk and snatched a few things here and there until he came back with a black cup and pencils in it. “Here.”

“What is that for?” Kage asked with a raised eyebrow.

“It’s a drawing decision. There are two eternal ones and five turned ones and obviously Nika and I will be in the back up team to clear the area, so we only need one of you to stay with us in case. Then we have four for the rescue team and two for the distraction. I put in four yellow tip pencils, two blue ones and one red one.”

“So simple,” Minato laughed.

“Primitive,” Fuma growled and for the first time Hokuto actually chuckled in agreement on Fuma’s words as he would have used the same ones.

“Well, this works for me if everyone else is okay with it? But if you prefer to stay with each other then you can also draw one for both of you?” Konpi asked, looking at Kento and Hokuto, but it was Fuma who snorted on that and drew the first one, making it obvious that he didn’t care. A move that made Taiga look at Kento and it weird to see them this apart, yet together. An insecure eternal one and an arrogant turned one, yet they still stayed at each other’s sides.

“Blue,” Fuma said and didn’t even care about the fact that he would be in the distraction team like this.

Kento gave the other one a warning look as he of course knew the boy the best and Fuma didn’t look like someone who would act careful in such situations. Kento went on to draw next, but unfortunately he drew yellow, so they would be in different teams.

“This is getting interesting,” Minato said with a chuckle as he stood up and drew next, but then pouted when he drew red as that meant he had to do the most boring part.

“More luck next time,” Kage teased next to him and drew yellow.

“Don’t treat this too much as a game, we’re still putting our lives on the line here,” Konpi warned them as he drew next, another yellow. Noel turned to Hokuto and Taiga as this left one blue and one yellow, so no chance for them to be on the same team.

Taiga wanted to reach out for one of the pencils, but Hokuto was faster and picked the one Taiga had aimed for.

“Now I wonder if they can actually stay put long enough to not cause a distraction if not needed,” Minato whispered towards Kage after Hokuto had pulled the second blue one, putting him on the same team as Fuma.

“Well if he fucks up, I won’t rescue him that is for sure,” Hokuto let out coldly as he put the pencil back as it was clear that Taiga was on the yellow team.

“Same here,” Fuma shot back.

“At least you share the same spirit, awesome,” Konpi let out before he urged everyone to get ready. There was no need to keep talking about the details as there were none. They couldn’t get tracking devices or transmitters with them if they didn’t want to get discovered. Fuma and Hokuto would need to cause a distraction for the yellow team to make it inside the guarded area, but there the tricky part would start for Noel and Nika. They were the only ones who could somehow hack into systems around the area, but Noel needed to come up with an on spot solution for the ultrasound waves. So for now they would take their chances as they were tired of sitting back, doing absolutely nothing while humanity tried to put themselves above them.

***

"This is still a pretty dumb idea," Hokuto complained next to Taiga as they got ready inside the end of the tunnel, which was a bit more spacious and showed a normal house façade to the outside so they didn’t easily guess that a tunnel network was connected to it. This wasn't going to be a long mission with a lot of hiding and planning. Hokuto and Fuma would dash out without their scanner shirts activated and get all the attention on them. They then had to find the right place and timing to activate their scanner shirts and vanish from their radars and also somehow get back to their territory. Nika had told them the location of three possible ways out, but the question was if they could fight their way towards them. If they got caught then the entire mission would be good for nothing. But the same applied for Taiga's team. They definitely had a lot of weapons on hand down at the place where they kept Reia. So all teams had to watch out.

"Just make sure to fight with the soldiers and not with Fuma," Taiga teased and instead of replying, Hokuto put his hand up around the boy's chin and pulled him into a greedy kiss.

"I'm making no promises here, only the one that I'll get angry if you mess up."

Taiga smiled against the other one's lips as Hokuto hadn't backed off yet and Taiga leaned in for another kiss, having to actually push Hokuto away if they wanted to keep it at kissing and most of the others were already looking away a bit awkwardly, just Kento got caught giving them a kind of jealous look as Fuma didn't seem to even care that they got separated.

"Okay, everyone knows their parts. Let's hope this goes as planned," Nika said as he got ready to let Hokuto and Fuma leave first.

"What plan?" Minato teased as they had no exact details except of somehow surviving and getting back out.

"Give me a few minutes before you go for your distraction move," Noel reminded them. "I already have an idea how to deactivate the waves, but I need to get out to the streets for it."

They all nodded and then their mission started.

***

"Even if they think we're humans they won't just let us enter, right? This is no area anyone except the soldiers should even know about," Kage asked, Konpi giving him a slightly judging look.

"Did you even listen to the plan at all?"

He hadn't. Not at all. He wasn't known for his patience so he just tagged along and hoped he would get to fight a bit.

"Just leave it to Taiga," Kento added and stopped at a small alley before they could get close to the scanner in the next street.

"I hope their timing will match," Konpi said, a bit worried.

"We'll somehow make it work," Taiga said as he was the only one to walk away from the group. As it was night time he actually had to put some acting up or he wouldn't be able to behave human enough to fool them.

With a last fake breath, which he needed to use now, he dashed around the corner. With panic all over his face he stumbled towards the two soldiers who were guarding the metal door of a one story building, without the soldiers no one would even suspect something beneath the building.

"Thanks God! You need to help us!" Taiga shouted and approached the soldiers, but then they lifted their guns towards him and Taiga raised his hands in defense.

"Please, there is one of their kind in our territory," Taiga said as he pointed to the back.

"As if. They'd be immediately discovered by our scanners," one of the soldiers let out.

"I hoped so too, but I saw their eyes. Red and silver. There will be fatalities if you don't report them," Taiga tried his luck again.

The soldiers exchanged a look before their transmitters gave them the same information Taiga had just given them. Taiga could hear them of course, but he tried his best to still play confused and panicked.

"I can show you the place if you don't believe me," Taiga said and made a step to the back.

"No need for that,” one of the soldiers said before he turned on his transmitter.

"Get someone out here, we'll head into their direction immediately. They're close."

Taiga almost showed a smile on the soldier's words. But then the second one approached Taiga and put the one weapon that could actually be dangerous to Taiga aside. But Taiga was prepared for what was going to happen. All he had to watch out for was the weapon the other one used.

"Shall I wait here?" Taiga asked completely innocently when the soldier stopped next to him.

"Oh you will for sure," the man said before he pulled out a normal handgun and pulled the trigger the moment he had lifted it up to Taiga's head.

Taiga fell to the side, lying immobile on the ground and that was enough for both soldiers to leave. Luckily they had been in such a hurry that they hadn't even found the lag of blood suspicious and after a few seconds Taiga turned on his back with a curse.

"First bullet to the head?" Konpi asked as he and the others had made it over to him as he was half lying in an alley not visible to the scanner and they needed to match the timing the soldiers would get out of the door.

"Trust me you don't want to try it out. I bet I'll have a headache for a week," Taiga teased, but then they could hear the security lock of the metal door and Kento dashed towards it first. Taking the soldiers completely off guard and with Noel able to at least suppress the ultrasound waves enough for them to be able to fight, the soldiers couldn't even get their weapons up before Kage also dashed at them.

They both took the chance to get some blood from the men as they could need any possible strength.

"Let's move," Kento said and entered the corridor carefully as they didn't know what kind of traps or security systems lay ahead except for the area Nika had been able to scan.

There was an elevator down, but also a staircase and they destroyed the camera at the entrance before they decided for the staircase, but made sure that the elevator would move as well as a distraction.

It took quite a while to get to the lowest level as there were no other doors in between and they were sure that the area was the right one.

"Don't," Kento warned when Kage wanted to rip the door in front of them open. They all went to the side and nodded when Kento pushed the door open, but jumped back right away. A good move as there were of course soldiers down here and they had already expected them. A fire blast went through the open door, but they could also fight the human way so Taiga took out one of the gas bombs he had gotten from Nika and threw them into the room.

When the first soldier dared his way out towards the staircase, Kage immediately jumped at him, but made sure to get away from the open door and tackled him down to the side. The man luckily had no time to fire any of his weapons at him, but he had a knife out and the scanner vest Noel invented could easily be damaged by it, not that they had planned on a silent retreat.

Konpi and Taiga dared their way into the smoke filled room, still able to see the humans around them with their sharp vision.

Taiga also immediately spotted the cells in which Reia and the others were luckily still in. Another fire blast went through the room and Taiga ducked down when one of the fire nets was blindly fired through the room. Next Konpi attacked the soldier who had fired it and ripped the weapon out of his hands.

There were three more soldiers inside the room and Kento went straight for two of them, one of them having one of the most dangerous weapons they had created on him. It was a poisoned weapon. A simple gun, but they could smell the dangerous substance inside of it. The bullets would dissolve inside their bodies and attack their flesh. Even for them it would be difficult to heal from that attack at least on the spot.

Taiga wanted to help Kento with the second soldier, but Kage was faster and then Taiga had lost sight of the last soldier who seemed to be quite skilled in fighting their kind as he suddenly appeared behind Taiga. First there was another fire net almost hitting him as the man had been pretty close to him and when Taiga got ready to attack the other one he had to actually jump back as the soldier started attacking him with a knife and simple punches with his free hand. The man was taller than him and even if his attack wouldn't be deadly it didn't mean that he couldn't do damage that would keep Taiga from moving around and attacking. The ultrasound waves were still the strongest down here as the signal Noel put against it wasn't strong enough to completely reach this area.

Taiga was forced to back away until he reached the wall and while he was sure that he would be able to block the other one's attack he was proven wrong the moment he stopped the other one's wrist before he could try and bring the knife down. The other one immediately used his free hand to lunge out for Taiga. A simple move of distraction, but enough to get his wrist free and sink the long knife into Taiga's shoulder. That move wasn't that bad either, but then Taiga realized that the man was indeed knowing exactly what he was doing as he couldn't easily keep moving as the knife was now blocking his entire shoulder and arm movements.

With the next move the soldier moved to get another weapon out, luckily Taiga avoiding getting shot as it had been another of their poisoned guns.

Taiga had jumped to the side, but the other one wouldn't just easily back off. He grabbed the knife still stuck in Taiga's body to shove him back into the wall and Taiga showed his fangs, hissing at the other one, but the soldier just gave him an arrogant look.

"Don't think you're superior," the soldier said before he tried to shoot Taiga ones more, Taiga only moving his head to the side this time before he went into the offensive and tried to tackle the other one down, but by now he had indeed lost too much of his energy to keep fighting back much.

In the back he could see how Kento was fighting off the last standing two soldiers while Konpi and Kage were busy with the locks of the cells. Of course they weren't easily damaged or opened otherwise Reia would have ripped them apart already.

"Iwamoto, what is going on down there!" A voice was heard on the soldier's transmitter next, but of course Iwamoto wouldn't be able to answer as he was busy with Taiga.

"I didn't expect your kind to actually care for each other," Iwamoto mocked as he could see the room a bit clearer now that the smoke was finally clearing up. "You really thought it would be this easy?"

Taiga didn't engage into the other one's try to buy time as he was aware of backup being on their way by now, but luckily Kento had found a way to open the cells without them getting hit by the security system, which included more fire weapons.

It was the first time Taiga saw Reia in such a weak state. With the ultrasound waves around for the entire time, Reia and the other two boys were barely able to even walk, so the others helped them out of their cells.

"Taiga, let's move!" Konpi shouted over to him as Iwamoto was the last soldier in their way.

"Taiga is it?" Iwamoto asked as if it was of any importance. "Let me guess you're a turned one?"

He hadn't shown the other one his eyes yet, but he was impressed that the human had guessed right.

Taiga only let out a dangerous growl when Iwamoto lifted his gun once more, but this time Kento hissed at him and got ready to attack as well if necessary and Iwamoto showed an entertained smile as he put his hands up and stepped aside.

"Better to know when to give up, right?"

There was something about the other one's look that made Taiga want to rip the man to pieces to be sure he wouldn't come up with any other ideas to stop them, but they were running out of time so all he did was ripping the knife out of his shoulder and throwing it at the other one's chest.

Iwamoto looked a bit surprised on the sudden rough attack, but while he sank to the ground and put one hand to the knife he didn't look in any kind scared even though the attack could have easily killed him if it hadn't been for the bulletproof vest under his clothes, which Taiga had easily damaged with the force he could still come up with to throw the knife.

"Let's move," Taiga said and urged the others to leave. They hadn't been fast enough to avoid backup, but to their surprise Reia shoved himself away from Kento and attacked one of the soldiers head on, his need for blood stronger than his exhaustion.

After they had made it back out to the street, they left some soldiers wounded for Katsuki and Yabana to also regain some strength.

"We've to hurry," Konpi said as he could hear soldiers all around them with siren noises over the city, telling people to get off the streets.

There was no time to meet up with the others so they headed to another tunnel Nika had told them about, but unfortunately the area was already blocked.

"Great, what now?" Kage asked Konpi who wasn't quite sure where to run to.

"You planned this through really well," Reia let out in annoyance.

"Quiet on the substitute bench. If you get on my nerves I'll make sure to leave you behind," Konpi barked back and it obviously surprised Reia that one of his own turned ones spoke up like this against him, but he didn't look angry. It was even somehow a fascinating look he gave the other one.

"Let's try and reach the original tunnel. We'll take longer, but that area should be the clearest right now. I'll give you some distraction," Taiga offered and Kage agreed to also distract them.

"It's not part of the plan for us to get separated," Konpi wanted to argue.

"Do you have any better idea?" Kento asked in a hurry as he already told Yabana and Katsuki the direction they needed to leave to.

"This plan wasn't that good from the start. Let's just try what we can for now," Taiga said and finally everyone nodded and they split up.

All they needed to do was to clear the way and then somehow make it back. An easy task if they were at full strength, but they had been weakened already and the moment the others made it back to the tunnel Noel would need to leave with them and from that moment on the waves would get stronger again.

The distraction itself worked without problems, but at some point Taiga didn't know where Kage had ended up. The soldiers kept pushing him away from the area he needed to aim for and soon he found himself pushed to an open area from where he couldn't easily hide again.

"You got three, but I guess we got one in exchange?" Iwamoto asked as he approached with more soldiers from the back. He looked still a bit in pain, but not enough to stop him from fighting.

Instead of engaging in the conversation, Taiga tried to run for the buildings, but some of the soldiers used some of their fire weapons. Too slow to actually hit Taiga, but they were oil weapons and they set the ground in front of him on fire, forcing him back.

"You're not really talkative, are you?" Iwamoto asked, but when he came closer Taiga hissed at him with his fangs out. "I'd just play around with you until the sun is out, but that would take a bit too long and we still need to catch a few others of your kind."

Which meant they hadn't gotten Fuma and Hokuto until now. At least one good outcome and now that they were busy with Taiga, they had a better chance of getting away.

"Let's see how fast you are," Iwamoto said and lifted his arm. Dozens of weapons were now aimed at him and all he could try was to find the weakest section of soldiers to try and break out from there. He took his chances and dashed ahead. Gunshots, fire and nets all getting shot around him and unfortunately this time he was outnumbered. One of the fire nets hit his leg and he was forced down to get it off before it could actually cause bigger damage, but that moment was enough for a bullet to hit him in the back of his shoulder blade. If it had been a normal bullet no harm would be done, but Taiga could feel the poison on it already starting to attack his body from the inside.

He was back on his feet in less than a few seconds, but Iwamoto was already in front of him, kicking him to the back and aiming at him with his gun once more. Taiga tried to avoid the bullet, but his body had slowed down, even more than it should have through one bullet. A realization that had the positive outcome that the others had made it back to the main tunnel and had obviously made the others leave. Their plan had that one rule after all. If they got separated then they were on their own.

"Usually you'll stop running on the third one," Iwamoto said as he lifted the gun again. Proof that he had tortured his kind a lot until now to see how well their weapons worked on them.

Just before he pulled the trigger a third time, with Taiga was still down on one knee after the second bullet had hit him on the side of his hips, there was uproar amongst the soldiers and then some of them shot their weapons in the opposite direction.

Seconds later some of them got thrown towards Taiga's area and then a really pissed looking Fuma stepped into the middle.

"Oh another turned one," Iwamoto guessed right once more. But different to usual, Fuma also seemed a bit disoriented through the ultrasound waves, but he also seemed pissed enough to still attack all around him.

Taiga tried to help him and get up, but it had become almost impossible for his body to move and at the last second he avoided the third bullet from Iwamoto, but the soldier just threw the gun away, which seemed obviously empty by now and he attacked Taiga head on with his knife once more.

Fuma was busy with not getting hit by any weapons, but even with two of them they were still outnumbered. Especially because all their backup seemed to have made their way to this place.

"You know that your limbs won't grow back?" Iwamoto asked with such excitement that Taiga punched the other one in the face for that comment as it showed that he had tried that one out on their prisoners as well.

"Oh so fierce," Iwamoto laughed, but easily got the upper hand and kicked Taiga to the ground. They were now fighting over the knife as Taiga was sure that Iwamoto wasn't aiming to kill him, but a lost leg or arm would satisfy the other one a lot.

A curse from Fuma made Taiga look over to him for a split second and the boy was struggling with getting out of his jacket after it had caught fire.

"You won't get away," Iwamoto laughed at Taiga as it got harder for both of them to even fight the soldiers off at all. "You're not as superior as you think."

"And you're going to die here today for what you've done."

A voice from one of the side alley. The only empty spot after Fuma had fought his way through that area already and their backup wasn't endless after all.

With a murderous glare Hokuto stepped towards the open area, but Iwamoto didn't back off. Instead he showed an excited smile obviously realizing that Hokuto was an eternal one and without a warning he pulled his hand free from Taiga's grip and sank the knife down on Taiga. The boy couldn't easily avoid the attack anymore and the knife hit his neck, hitting down on the ground. A move that wouldn't bother him much as he wouldn't bleed if he didn't want to and he didn't need to breath, but the moment Iwamoto tried to slice the knife to the side Taiga had to put all his strength up to stop him or he would indeed lose his head. Hokuto reacted at the same time and dashed to the front and to their surprise something hit Iwamoto at the side of his head before Hokuto reached him.

Fuma had grabbed one of the guns of the soldiers and had thrown it at him.

"Awesome aim," Hokuto shouted over to him and tackled Iwamoto off Taiga as the soldier was a bit disoriented from the hard impact of the gun.

Hokuto was outraged enough to get the upper hand and he shoved his fangs into Iwamoto's neck, ripping some of his flesh with him when he backed off. Iwamoto stayed down with one hand trying to stop the bleeding and while Hokuto wanted nothing more but to kill him on the spot he knew that they needed to get away. Their strength had reached its limits and they wouldn't be able to take them all on.

"Everyone move!" Kage shouted from one of the closest rooftops and threw the remaining smoke bombs into the middle of the soldiers.

Hokuto gave Iwamoto another death glare, hoping that the other one would just bleed to death, but Iwamoto's look didn't show any fear.

Fuma shoved the last soldiers out of the way before he vanished into the smoke and Hokuto hurried to help Taiga up. The boy's body felt heavier than it should though and Hokuto had problems lifting him up.

"I can't move," Taiga said as he realized that he couldn't even support himself on Hokuto's shoulder.

"The poison is at fault for that. Noel will find something for that," Hokuto let out neutral while he struggled a lot to make it in time before the smoke could vanish again, but then Fuma showed up next to him and helped him with Taiga.

"Let's hurry. We should be able to make it to one of the emergency tunnels now that they are all busy around this area," Kage said and guided the way.

"Hey, stay awake," Fuma told Taiga as the other one seemed to feel even heavier now, but Taiga didn't respond anymore. "Great. Let's put him on my back."

Hokuto didn't have the energy to argue and Fuma seemed to be still the one with the most physical strength left so he helped puttingTaiga on the other one's back and stabilized him from the side. Just for a brief moment Hokuto kept looking at Taiga's face. Seeing him in such a weak state, made him remember Taiga's human days and it scared him. It scared him so much that he clenched his fists and showed his fangs in anger.

Fuma gave him a side glance, but didn't say anything. For now their priority was to make it back to their territory. All of them.

"There is no way they made it. We shouldn't have left," Noel said as he kept running up and down in front of the tunnel as none of the remaining four members came through it even after an hour of waiting.

"Give them a bit more time. They know the codes for all the buildings and tunnels so who knows, maybe they will soon show up at another one," Nika tried to calm the other one down while he was checking his holographic screens for any activity at the exits of their tunnels.

"Your plan was a mess from the start," Reia complained, but that was more than the wrong thing to say as Konpi immediately shoved him to the back and hissed with his fangs out.

"Be happy that Hokuto agreed to get you out. I would have enjoyed watching your execution," Konpi shot at him and to his surprise Reia didn't have any arrogant comment in return. Neither had Katsuki or Yabana, which made Minato look at them in confusion.

"Are you two not even allowed to talk or are you unable to when he controls you?"

The question had both boys exchange a look before they looked at Reia who rolled his eyes.

"They're not under my control right now."

"What? Why the hell are you so calm then?" Konpi asked.

"After we got captured, Reia wasn't able anymore to control us through the ultrasound waves so we finally got to know what was going on," Yabana explained.

"So you left them clueless for such a long time?" Kento asked as he had of course heard of their story.

"We somehow knew partly what was happening, but most of our human daytime we kept being asleep," Katsuki explained.

"Then feel free to judge him. We won't interfere if you decide to kill him," Konpi let out coldly.

"We won't do that," Yabana said to their surprise and even Reia looked a bit startled. "At least not just out of the reason that he turned us and controlled us until now. But we'll definitely judge what he's going to do from now on."

Reia snorted on hearing that and gave the two turned ones a weird look. "Suit yourself, but don't think I need you around. I don't care if you leave."

Even though he said it with a neutral expression, the boys exchanged a knowing look.

"He's happy about them staying," Minato whispered towards Noel who could only nod as his focus wasn't on them right now.

"Whatever you decide then," Konpi said, but he didn't seem to trust Reia's behavior. In his opinion eternal ones like him would never change for the better.

"We've got movement," Nika announced, taking their focus off Reia for now. Someone is in the tunnel on the south. If we hurry then we should be there before they make it to the exit?"

"Let's go then. Is it all of them?" Noel asked, but Nika couldn't say how many as he didn't have a camera in the tunnel out of security reasons. Having anything too obvious in their territory could turn out dangerous for them eventually.

"We'll head back with them," Minato announced and pointed at Reia and the others. "Everyone is weakened and we need to report to the council."

"And don't even think about vanishing in between. I'll find you no matter where you run to!"

"You sound scarier than me back in the days," Reia said on Konpi's words and then raised his arms with a shrug of his shoulders. "Just saying. Don't give me that pouting look."

Konpi was close to exploding on Reia's carefree attitude, but luckily Yabana and Katsuki urged Reia to keep moving and Minato kept Konpi on distance when they left.

"Do you think they are all okay?" Noel asked Kento who still remained the calmest out of all of them.

"I wish I could tell, but their weapons are strong and they had to fight without your soundwave blocking system."

Noel had cursed himself over the entire time for not being able to find a better system, but Nika had forbidden him to leave it at the other territory. If they found it then they were in trouble so they needed to leave the others without it.

They waited another two hours at the exit until Noel gasped and looked up. "It's almost sunrise. That's bad. If they're wounded then they won't easily heal."

"Let's hope that things worked out without too much trouble then," Nika said.

"They're almost here," Kento said as he could feel the other ones’ presences. "They're definitely not in the best condition, but it's all of them."

There was obvious relief on his face on realizing that and Noel wondered how the other one could stay that calm even with Fuma on the other team. If it was Hokuto then there was no way he would react that calm if Taiga was still missing.

A few minutes later they could finally hear them, but things hadn't turned out as well as they had hoped.

"Please tell me that the others were with you, but left first?" Kage asked when he looked at the others after making it out of the tunnel first.

"Yes, everyone else is here, don't worry," Nika said as he helped Kage sit down on the grass in front of the tunnel. They had all taken in damage from the fight and the ultrasound waves, for now they needed a rest. But Taiga needed more than that and when Fuma came into sight, caring the other one on his back, Noel gasped and ran up to them.

"Oh no, he got shot, didn't he? With one of those poison bullets?" Noel kept examining Taiga while Fuma kept walking, but when he tried to help putting Taiga down on the grass he let out a gasp and fell back when he had stabilized Taiga's head, but then noticed the huge flesh wound on the other one's neck. With the poison in his body his wounds wouldn't easily heal.

"If you have to throw up, do it somewhere else," Hokuto said warningly as he sat down next to Taiga. Unable to play down how exhausted he was himself.

Then he looked up at Fuma who was still standing and their eyes met after they had stayed silent in the tunnel.

"Thank you."

It was rare for Hokuto to say something that straight forward, but without Fuma, Hokuto wouldn't have even made it in time to help Taiga as they had also been forced to split up at some point. Fuma didn't have to help Taiga or offer to carry him back, so Hokuto owed him a lot.

Fuma didn't say anything, but nodded and stepped back. Kento approached him, but Fuma only gave him a side glance before he sat down on the grass a few meters away, not talking to Kento at all.

"I'll call for them to pick us up," Nika said as he hurried to contact the council for medical support and a transport back. They luckily had something like an antidote for the poison as it was deadly for humans as well and while Taiga wouldn't just simply die of it, he wouldn't be able to wake up without receiving the antidote.

"I'll watch over him. You need to rest," Noel said and while Hokuto fought extremely hard to keep sitting next to Taiga, he knew that the other one was right. So eventually he lay down next to Taiga, but kept a tight grip on the other one's hand. The fear he still felt about not receiving any kind of pressure from Taiga's hand in return made him feel the most helpless he had ever felt in his eternal life. For the very first time he realized that he wouldn't be able to handle it if he lost Taiga.

***

There was no pain left when Taiga woke up, but he remembered everything that had happened and he never wanted to feel that pain again. As if his body was dissolving from the inside he had felt how the poison had taken over and while he was still conscious until a certain time he just couldn't move, not even reply to Hokuto's words. It had felt worse than his weakest days as a human.

To his surprise he wasn't in his room, but at a place he hadn't seen until now, but the voices and sounds he could hear around him showed him that he didn't have to worry.

The room was small and simple, most likely something like a guest room at the council if members stayed longer or they had emergencies like this one. Next to the bed Taiga saw a change of clothes. His own clothes and slowly he sat up, touching his neck that had luckily completely healed by now, but something felt off and he stood up to look at the small wall mirror. It wasn't really shocking to see the skin around his neck with some black lines as he had already thought that the poison would have some aftereffects. So even though he was healed, all the wounds from that day would remain on his skin as a reminder that humans had gotten enough new weapons to eventually get rid of their kind if they didn't watch out.

Taiga hurried and changed into new clothes before he stepped out to one of the corridors of the council.

He could feel that most of the others were around, but not all of them and he decided to head down to the council room. On his way at one corridor there was one person he didn't think he would encounter this easily and Reia looked back at him with a neutral expression after he had just turned around the corner towards Taiga's direction.

"You can sell that as a tattoo," Reia said, pointing at the black lines on Taiga's neck.

"Better than losing my head for good," Taiga replied and touched his neck once more. A sign that he still felt a bit shaken without even wanting to. Never had a human been so close to taking his life.

"I guess there are now more dangerous enemies out there than me," Reia said and put his hands into his pockets, looking to the ground. A move that had Taiga tilt his head. Reia had always enjoyed looking directly at people. Being arrogant with them and laughing at them when they tried to fight him.

"You've changed," Taiga said. So straightforward that Reia looked up at him as if he had discovered his darkest secret. "I know you'll deny it and I can't tell if it happened before you got captured or after. But like this I can say that I'm happy we went through all this trouble to get you all out."

"Do you expect a thank you now?" Reia asked, but his look was softer. More playful and Taiga shook his head with a smile himself.

"That would be too much even for you, but maybe we can count on your help from now on?"

"To get those arrogant bastards down from their high and mighty attitude?" Reia asked as he stepped right next to Taiga and slightly turned his head to look at him with a lopsided smile. "Always."

***

Taiga had woken up in the middle of the night, the perfect time for him to wake up as he was at his strongest to recover. With Reia being in the council building he was sure that Konpi, Kage or Minato were around as well to watch him and they soon needed another meeting, because right now they had actively declared war so they had to come up with a way bigger and more structured plan as fast as possible or their own territories might burn down to ashes with all the humans who were supporting them and maybe also with most of their own kind.

Taiga cracked a small smile when he only found one single person in the council room. Hokuto. He was intensely staring at the holographic map of the enemy’s territories until Taiga opened the door and walked down the steps to the table.

“I would say I am proud of you for trying to figure out a new plan, but something tells me that you just stared at it for distraction?” Taiga teased.

Hokuto had of course heard him, but at first he seemed reluctant to turn around. He stood up and waited until Taiga was standing right behind him before he finally turned around and his look immediately fell on Taiga’s neck. He wasn’t surprised, as he had seen the wound closing and the black marks remained on Taiga’s skin so he had had low hopes at that time already that they would vanish. With a careful touch he lifted his hand to the other one’s neck, tracing a few of the black lines until he reached the other one’s chin where the last line stopped.

Taiga had expected the other one to be way more impatient, yet he was more than surprised by the other one’s gentle reaction as he slowly pulled him into a passionate and slow kiss, which Taiga immediately melted into. All that fierce energy Hokuto always showed when he was stressed out was tamer than usual and while Taiga enjoyed the slow pace as well he was a bit worried and cupped the other one’s face to place a soft kiss on Hokuto’s forehead. Hokuto leant back at the table behind him and closed his arms around Taiga’s back, pulling him closer to lower his forehead against Taiga’s chest.

For a moment they remained silent, Taiga resting his chin on the other one’s head with his hands caressing the other one’s hair.

“Losing you will forever be my only fear,” Hokuto let out honestly. A fear they both shared and a possibility they never wanted to become reality. Yet that reality seemed to be closer than ever before in their eternal lives.

“I’m sorry I made you worry,” Taiga let out calmly before he placed another kiss on the other one’s hair and when he looked up to the glass corridor he could see Kento looking down at them from the end of it, but he obviously didn’t want to interfere and he retreated after he realized his bad timing, but Taiga didn’t miss the kind of jealous look in his silver eyes.

“Let’s create a happy ending for all of us. We all have to overcome our fears to win this war.”

***

“Oh look who is out without their leash,” Minato teased when he and Kage spotted Yabana and Katsuki in the city during the daytime. There was a district with a roof for a good kilometer, most of their supply shops were all inside that area and even with these chaotic times humans still had restaurants and shops, because they refused to live in fear. Something Minato had always envied the humans for a bit, as they weren’t the main focus of the enemy’s territory, yet they had decided by themselves to stand on their side without even knowing their kind that well.

“It’s not like he couldn’t order us back at any time,” Yabana said, not really taking offense in Minato’s words.

“But he isn’t controlling you right now, right?” Kage asked as the first two days had passed without any change in Reia’s behavior. He had agreed on staying at the council building with the two boys, while Hokuto and Taiga had left with Noel for now to look into new gear and only come back at night time to come up with a new plan with everyone as the enemy territory wouldn’t just sit back after they had dared to invade and even successfully retreat.

“He is not and I doubt he will ever do again,” Katsuki said as he took an apple from the stand of the small shop in front of him. The council members were known to the people, so they bowed to them in respect even when they didn’t have their red eyes. But the older woman in the shop smiled at them, grateful for their protection.

Katsuki couldn’t smile back though as he felt like their kind was bringing more trouble towards them than actually helping them. They shouldn’t be part of this war. There shouldn’t be a war in the first place.

“Humans have so much trouble to take care of. Resources running out, climate change, diseases and life in general, yet they made it their extra burden to fight against us while we only minded our own business,” Katsuki said as he bought the apple from the woman even though he wouldn’t be able to eat it.

They all started walking together until they reached a small park on the side where the roof ended and Katsuki crouched down next to three kids who were playing in the sand. He drew out a knife and started cutting the apple in three pieces. The kids running up to him in excitement, all of them getting one part of it. With bright smiles they thanked him and ran back to some other kids, sharing their parts with them, as fruits and other fresh food was extremely expensive nowadays.

“You’re such a pure soul for our kind,” Kage said with a smile.

“I have always been and I wish I could always be, but of course I know that I’ve changed and at first it made me furious when I was finally out of Reia’s control. I helped at an orphanage and always volunteered around the city. I couldn’t believe that I had been taken out of my life like this. I didn’t even get the chance to say goodbye to anyone.”

Yabana’s look darkened on the other one’s words as it had been similar for him. He even had had a family, them definitely searching for him until the very end without him even realizing that he had disappeared from their lives. Now he couldn’t even tell if he would ever be able to still find their graves or if he still had any family left after all these generations.

“And yet you are staying with him,” Minato said with a slightly gloomy expression.

“I understand that Konpi is still furious at him. He only remembers him from the time he got turned and we all caused Taiga and the others a lot of trouble at that time, but even though it’s hard to believe, Reia changed after that,” Yabana explained while they kept walking down the street.

“Reia had planned on just hiding somewhere until things had calmed down. His rage against Hokuto for ruining his plan was fueling his anger for dozens of years. But then a century later he wanted to start creating more turned ones to get his revenge and create his army to attack the humans. Over all these years he had only kept us at his side like his servants, never really talked to us or let us do anything else but hunt,” Katsuki added with a kind of nostalgic look. “But when it actually came down to him trying to turn someone, he couldn’t.”

“What do you mean? Can eternal ones lose that kind of ability?” Kage asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Not in that sense,” Yabana said, shaking his head. “He just couldn’t bring himself to do it. That was the very first time something changed about Reia. He never really said anything, but since that moment he slowly started calming down.”

“But he still ended up attacking the enemy?” Minato asked, as they had been sure until now that Reia had walked straight into their territories to pick a fight.

“Actually,” Katsuki started, looking a bit reluctant to speak.

“Are you not supposed to talk about it?” Kage asked.

“We’re not sure if he wants anyone to know. He has a high pride after all,” Yabana said, but showed a faint smile.

“We promise to not spill any beans,” Minato said as he really wanted to know the rest of the story now.

“Fine, if he gets to know about this, we will let him get angry at you two for spreading the story,” Katsuki laughed. “We were hiding in the untouched regions, free of both territories, but of course there were not many people left there, only soldiers on patrols sometimes, so we needed to use them to hunt. Unfortunately the enemy territory realized pretty soon that something was going on and they planned an attack, taking us by surprise when we thought we could get an easy hunt with only a handful of soldiers.”

“Reia hadn’t been with us. He could have just watched and let them kill us or take us away,” Yabana added.

“But he came to help you,” Minato said, not really believing his own words, but the two boys nodded.

“That was the only reason why he got caught. The ambush was too big even for him to stand a chance on his own. But that one move of his made us not go for his throat when he lost the ability to control us in the cells. If it happened just a few years earlier, who knows if we would have killed him out of anger,” Katsuki said.

“That’s indeed something I bet Reia doesn’t want anyone to know about,” Kage said a bit worried now that he got this information and had to watch out to not spill it to anyone if he didn’t want to deal with Reia’s anger.

“But knowing this side of him, gives me hope that he will not betray us in this war,” Minato said with a small smile as looked around at the shops once more. “He might still not be fond of humans, but he will have enough reason to fight for his own kind this time.”

***

“You better have a really good reason for waking us up before the meeting,” Hokuto growled after Noel had suddenly woken them up, not even waiting for a reply when he knocked on the door just to dash into the room right after. Luckily for him they had indeed only rested over the day. Still Noel looked a bit embarrassed after he hadn’t even considered what he could interrupt, as Taiga was lying half on top of Hokuto, only one eye open, looking at Noel a bit annoyed about the lag of sleep he would now get as he was still resting through the aftereffects of the poison.

“Yeah, sorry. I should have maybe waited, but you need to watch what is going on in the news,” Noel said before he left the room once more, waiting for them to get dressed and follow him.

In Noel’s lab a holographic screen was usually showing news about their own territory only and just in case of any emergency they would show news about the enemy territory as well. What was on this time though had been obviously sent to them by the enemy.

“How old fashioned,” Hokuto said as he looked at the message on the screen while the video in the background showed the fight Hokuto, Kage, Taiga, and Fuma had with the soldiers.

“Old Fashioned or not. People might turn against you,” Noel said in panic as the message told them to hand over Hokuto and the others as they would otherwise declare war and attack their independent territories. They even promised a huge amount of money to those who would hand them over.

“Now they should have clarified if dead or alive,” Taiga laughed it off while stretching out his arms, feeling way better than the day before, but the black lines on his neck still remained.

“This is no joke,” Noel yelled at them. “For once please take this serious?”

Hokuto gave the boy a warning side glance on his reaction and Noel tried to calm down as he of course knew that Hokuto was definitely more than serious about the situation after he could have lost Taiga before.

“This message could be of our advantage though,” Taiga said with a thoughtful expression.

“How is that?” Noel asked with a raised eyebrow.

“They definitely didn’t just send this out on this continent as their territories are all working together. “If the right people see this then we might get backup before they can attack.”

“Do you think they would actually start a direct attack on the independent territories?” Noel asked, now even more panic visible in his eyes.

“Guess they are pissed enough through our move to actually go for it,” Hokuto nodded, but then the holographic screen changed to an incoming call from Nika and Noel took it.

“Did you see the news?” Nika asked a bit impatiently and all three nodded.

“Do you think it would be better for them to stay here for now?” Noel asked, but to his surprise Nika shook his head.

“Come to the council. Trust me you might be surprised by us humans once more,” Nika said with a smile and Hokuto gave Taiga a raised eyebrow on that statement, but Taiga also only shrugged his shoulders.

“Let’s go then, I’d say? We’re a bit early, the sun is still up, but we need to head out anyway.”

The first step outside of Noel’s place already showed them what Nika was talking about and while Taiga showed a grateful smile, Hokuto shook his head.

“So naive,” Hokuto whispered as he started moving, the people around this area who by now knew who they were, all out on the street, keeping the way open in case that anyone would actually dare to attack them.

“Naive maybe, but humans have their pride as well,” Taiga said with a knowing look towards Hokuto. “Their loyalty can be as strong as the pride of an eternal one.”

Hokuto actually had to chuckle at that comment before he nodded. “If their loyalty is that strong then they will beat the shit out of our enemy.”

Konpi looked down from the roof of the council building towards the big main street in front of it where hundreds of people had now gathered in front of the gate to clear the way for those who would attend the evening meeting of the council.

Seeing them involved in this upcoming war was something he felt responsible for as he had hoped when they started this council even before the territories got divided in a civil uproar, that humans would calm down again if he showed them that his kind wasn’t going to attack them or start a war against them. Yet greed and wish for power was taking over too much to avoid this confrontation for longer. This wasn’t about the safety of the humans, not even about money, it was all about strength and control. They only wanted to show that they could take down a kind that was naturally overpowering the human race and for that goal they would even sacrifice their own people.

“They’re definitely more loyal than our kind could ever become.”

Konpi didn’t turn around on those words, but he clenched his fists when Reia walked up to the edge of the room, standing a few meters away from him, looking down at more and more people gathering. “They will fight with you, no matter if that means their death or not.”

“Fight with us or are you going to cowardly run away,” Konpi hissed, still not looking at the other one.

“A war against humans is something I have dreamed of for a long time,” Reia said in a calm manner, with his hands behind his back and a faint smile on his lips. “I expected this to be more in our favor, but I will take what I can get.”

“If you just fight to murder some humans to show how superior you are, then you are the same as them.”

This time Reia looked at Konpi and the other one only looked back at him because he wanted to see his expression. He wanted to see that arrogance so that he could keep hating him, but it wasn’t there.

“I can’t deny that once that would have been indeed my only intention and I am not suddenly going to not have that intention, but rest assured that I won’t easily abandon the battlefield just because I killed enough humans.”

They way he still tried to sound all this high and mighty to not actually say straightforward what he actually meant, made Konpi growl in the back of his throat, but the other one didn’t seem to feel challenged. Not that Konpi couldn’t read between the lines, but trusting Reia was the last thing he would ever do.

“You lived an extraordinarily busy life until now,” Reia suddenly said, making Konpi lose a bit of the rage inside of him as he gave the other one a confused look. “I bet Hokuto and Taiga looked out for you here and there, but going through your human lifetime and then transitioning over into a new area without anyone directly by your side must be tough. But you stood your ground. You even risked everything by showing yourself to the humans. A lot of turned ones are definitely still out there looking for exactly a safe harbor like your council.”

A compliment. Something Konpi couldn’t even process so he just remained silent and looked back ahead at the gates. Was he supposed to get angry and yell at him for making fun out of him? For trying to somehow atone for his own sins by making it sound like he had done something good by turning Konpi? But none of those emotions found their way into Konpi’s mind. On the other hand he also couldn’t feel grateful. Reia’s words were true, but it wasn’t clear what intentions the eternal one had in actually bringing the topic up as for Konpi there was no chance in their eternity that Reia would ever feel guilty for what he had done so far, or would he?

***

"That felt super awkward," Noel said as they entered the council building. People were still all over the streets, protecting their way, not that it looked like many would even dare to attack or challenge them in the first place.

"I guess from now on we'll just stay here. We need to make a move soon anyway or at least be prepared for them to move first," Taiga said as they walked down the glass corridor towards the meeting room. They were still early so not all council members were present yet. Minato and the other turned ones were still resting after being out in the streets in the morning hours, only Konpi, Reia and Kento were sitting with Nika in the council room.

"Wow, they can sit in the same room and not kill each other," Hokuto teased on the sight of Reia and Konpi, while Taiga actually looked at Kento and then ahead towards the corridor that would lead towards the rooms they were using when staying.

"I'll follow you in a bit, okay?" Taiga said and touched Hokuto's elbow with a gentle squeeze and the other one understood and just nodded before he joined the others together with Noel.

There was something like a common room area on the next floor and Taiga found the one he was looking for on one of the couches. Fuma had his eyes closed and was lying with his feet on the armchair, but if he really needed to rest he would have definitely chosen a locked room instead.

Taiga sat down in one of the armchairs close to the couch and immediately Fuma opened one eye to look at him.

"Had a fight with your boyfriend or why are you on your own?"

Taiga chuckled on that greeting and shook his head. "It's not like we can't be separated for a while."

"Yeah, but better don't, you seem to run into trouble a lot when he's not around."

Taiga couldn't even argue about that and with a smile he remembered his human days when causing Hokuto daily worries was his main reason for existence in the first place.

"Your neck doesn't look like it will heal completely?" Fuma asked, but still didn't bother sitting up.

With a slow movement Taiga put his hand to his neck and he could feel the black lines on his skin. "I guess they will remain."

"Well, definitely better than losing your head. Once dead even our kind can't come back to life."

"Yet even humans can't become our kind when they die before the transition," Taiga said and waited for the other one's reaction.

Finally Fuma sat up, his annoyed sigh showing Taiga that he didn't like talking about the topic.

"What I did in my human days is my problem, not yours. It's not like I regret getting turned."

"Right, you wanted to be turned in the first place," Taiga said after he had heard their story. "But yet you don't seem grateful for having been turned in the end."

This time Fuma let out more of a growl and the next time he looked up his eyes had changed to red. A sign that the sun had finally set.

"You've heard everything already. Why do you keep asking?"

"Maybe because I've only heard Kento's version and I feel like there is another version?"

There was something about Fuma's look that told Taiga that he was right, but the other one was more than reluctant to talk and he got up and approached Taiga.

"Whatever you think you know, just keep it to yourself."

"Fine if you think lying to Kento will help you, but trust me when I tell you that for him this eternity can't get even worse no matter what happened back then."

This time Fuma remained silent, but he clenched his fists. The struggle was obvious and while Taiga had only guessed he was glad that he was right. Maybe Fuma could finally find the courage to talk to Kento about the past the other one didn’t know about yet. The reason for him being this distant towards the other one even after all these centuries.

***

"They will definitely launch an attack the moment they realize that they couldn't turn our people against us," Nika said after their meeting had lasted the entire night.

"But what if they are waiting for backup from other countries? It's not like they have that many soldiers. The civilians won't fight for them even if they decide to stay with them." Kage was right as the other territory offered more security and jobs, but that didn't mean they would all agree on going to war.

"Then let's prepare what we discussed tonight and we should be ready at least," Konpi concluded and everyone nodded. All they could do for now was to get all their weapons, trucks and soldiers together as well and with their civilians ready to protect their kind, they concluded that it would be a good idea to ask around if anyone wanted to volunteer to fight.

"Then everyone is dismissed," Konpi said and most people excused themselves, leaving the typical members at the meeting table.

"You're staying, right?" Nika asked and Noel nodded.

"We don't want the people to actually run around all night and day worrying so we're all going to stay.

"It's soon going to be sunrise. Better we all try and get as much rest as possible," Minato said and got up, but then there was a call from one of the guards outside and he took it, looking up at everyone with a surprised yet excited expression.

"What is it?" Yabana asked about the other one's reaction.

"You'll see in a moment. This is going to be interesting," Minato said and pointed at the glass corridor.

Soon they could all feel the presence of those approaching and Taiga and Hokuto exchanged a knowing look. The news broadcast had indeed backfired for the enemy while their own side got stronger now.

The guard brought three people inside the corridor and their eyes met immediately.

"Familiar faces?" Nika asked when Taiga formed a smile.

"Unfortunately," Reia said as he sat back in his chair and waited for another upcoming round of scolding now that Ueda and Kame had arrived.

"One unknown face though," Konpi said and the others also didn't seem to recognize the third eternal one. Copper colored hair, a bit wavy, but only a bit longer in the front. He was a bit taller than the other two, but of the same build as Kame.

The guard let them inside the room and left with a bow.

"You look good for the mess they created over there," Kame said as Taiga was the closest to him, but of course his look fell in the black lines.

"Thanks for the worry. We definitely need to stay away from their poisoned weapons," Taiga said with a small bow. "You brought new company with you?"

"Just a coincidence though," Ueda said and stepped aside, pointing at the third eternal one.

"This is Fujigaya, we met him centuries ago, but we headed to your location at the same time after the news broadcast."

"I only arrived in these territories a few weeks ago. It will definitely be difficult for others to join us if they're not on this continent right now," Fujigaya said and looked into the round.

"And you idiot are at fault for another uproar," Ueda said as he walked over to Reia and kicked the boy's chair, receiving a growl in return.

"Creating chaos is what I do best after all," he replied with an arrogant smile, but Ueda let him off.

"So any plans so far?" Kame asked into the round.

"Fight and survive," Fuma said casually, making the eternal ones look at him and then at Kento who immediately bowed towards them.

"Interesting," Kame said with a smile before he turned to Hokuto. "You know that they'll definitely aim for the daytime."

"That's exactly why you had perfect timing in arriving. At least we eternal ones can fight and hold them off long enough until nightfall."

"I won't just sit back," Fuma complained, but this time most of the other turned ones agreed. They wanted to fight even if it had to be in the human way. Their enemies were human as well after all.

"Details can follow when that time comes," Kame said and kept asking for updates while Fujigaya went over to the holographic screen on the table and looked at the map.

"Do you want some explanation of the territories?" Nika asked, but then he fell silent when he received a scanning look from the other one.

"Sure, the last time I came to this continent it was still the United States of America. So catching up on the situation is definitely better."

Nika nodded on the other one's reaction and started explaining locations and territories for the upcoming war.

They all needed to be prepared as well as possible for what was going to happen or they wouldn't just get out with some injuries this time.

***

Two days of silence, then chaos broke loose at sunrise.

“They are seriously attacking head on?” Minato asked when Nika had set up a full set of holographic screens in their meeting room as he would be in charge of their communication over the entire battle.

There were of course parts between the territories where they could easily cross the borders as they didn’t aim to keep humans in or out. Only the scanner systems and laws of the other territories were not valid in their independent territories. But the government soldiers had attacked right at the council border, instead of trying to sneak in from somewhere else.

“Our soldiers were already at the border since yesterday, so they are already slowing them down, but they seem to have gone into all or nothing mode,” Nika explained, showing all possible security cameras he could somehow find around the area while Noel helped him connecting with the transmitters of the soldiers to get updated. Some of their council members would stay behind with them to coordinate the back up of civilians who had volunteered to fight behind the front line and the remaining council members would lead that group if necessary.

“Then we should head out now too,” Konpi said and gave everyone their transmitters. Ueda and Kame got one, Kento and Hokuto one as a team and Reia was going to go with Fujigaya as he was still the most neutral member among the eternal ones.

“You can’t fight,” Kento said when Konpi was the only turned one who got himself a transmitter and got ready. On Kento’s words the boy lifted up two guns and put them into his belt. “I can still fight the human way and coordinate at the border. Don’t even try to stop me.”

“So fierce,” Reia said in amusement as he was the only one who didn’t oppose Konpi’s idea at all.

“Then we can go too,” Kage complained, but Konpi immediately shook his head.

“We don’t know what their backup is. If they just run over us at the border then we will need you as our backup tonight.”

“If they don’t retreat by then,” Taiga said thoughtfully as that was definitely also a possible outcome in case they couldn’t easily overrun them as they were obviously planning right now.

“But then we will chase them, won’t we?” Yabana asked, but everyone looked a bit skeptical.

“Let’s decide if it comes that far. We need to see how our strength against them holds up for now,” Konpi said.

“And how many of us are still alive by that time,” Reia said with one of his carefree smiles, making Taisuke raise an eyebrow at him.

“Then let’s go or there won’t be any soldiers left on our side,” Kame made them hurry and left first with Konpi, Reia and Taisuke. When Kento also just got up and got ready to leave, Taiga looked at Fuma and to his surprise the boy didn’t ignore him, nevertheless he rolled his eyes, but then went up the stairs to the corridor and Kento looked more than surprised when Fuma called out for him.

“You talked to him, didn’t you?” Hokuto asked as he approached the other one and reached out for his hands.

“Maybe I am the one who can still understand him the most?”

“Well, I never refused to turn you though,” Hokuto pouted, making Taiga laugh.

“No you indeed didn’t. Yet we had our fair share of fights and problems on the way, don’t you think?”

“Wouldn’t have been fun without them,” Hokuto teased before he stepped closer to put one of his hands up to the other one’s cheek to pull him into a gentle kiss. “I’d actually enjoy going back to a few of our old habits.”

“Like what? Sitting in a library the entire night, reading dirty books?” Taiga laughed, but that was actually something he would totally like repeating not that library were a thing anymore in this digital age.

“We have still an eternity to repeat all our little dirty secrets,” Hokuto whispered against the other one’s lips, making Taiga’s lips curl up before he pulled Hokuto in another short kiss as they had to leave in a hurry after all.

“Then make sure that you’re kicking some ass out there and that you bring everyone back for their eternities.”

“Sure, now let me be the babysitter,” Hokuto complained before he put one last kiss on Taiga’s forehead before he hurried after the others. When he entered the corridor, Fuma went back towards the room, but gave Hokuto a nod on the way while Kento waited for Hokuto at the end of the corridor, both of them looking down towards the room once more before they headed off into battle.

“Still feels like we’re so damn useless even after getting turned,” Fuma said as he sat down and put his feet on the table with an annoyed sigh.

“You can still get your fight at night, just be patient,” Taiga encouraged him. “I bet Kento will be more than thrilled about you joining the battle?”

Fuma only gave Taiga a side glance on those words before he leaned back and closed his eyes. After all they needed to rest if they wanted to be of any use at night. They would be stronger than the eternal ones at that time and they would definitely need their help after fighting in the daytime. Luckily it was a rainy day so the sunlight wouldn’t bother them too much.

“Go sleep or make yourself useful,” Noel told them from his seat as he tried to coordinate from their base as good as possible, but he was pretty busy with all the unknown equipment of the council and Nika couldn’t explain everything while also being busy.

“Let us help for now, we can rest later,” Minato said and Kage agreed as they were members of the council. For now the others could rest and then they could take turns later.

Taiga looked up at one of Nika’s screens where he could see that the others had just departed with a truck from the council building. Something about this sudden battle made Taiga feel restless, but for now he had to put his worries aside and find some rest.

Konpi stayed behind at the front line for now as chaos had of course broken loose already when they arrived, but the others dashed right into the fight. As their enemies were mere humans and they couldn't waste time especially in the daytime they all had weapons on them this time as well and they were faster in using them than their enemies. Which didn't mean that they didn't have to watch out, especially now that they knew how dangerous their poisoned weapons were, not that they had many of them as the resources to create them seemed limited.

Reia dashed through the middle of a good dozen soldiers, in both of his hands bloodstained knives when he stopped with a satisfied expression.

Right next to him a movement was stopped by a rifle of one of the dead soldiers getting kicked up in the air. Taisuke had seen the inflamed net getting fired towards Reia and had successfully kicked the rifle at it to stop it.

"You might want to watch out more," Taisuke scolded the other one.

"For that we're in teams, right?" Reia laughed and lifted his knives. "Just tag along."

Taisuke rolled his eyes when Reia dashed right into the next chaos, totally ignoring how open he was to attacks like that, but like this Taisuke could at least concentrate on the enemies around while Reia took care of everyone at arm's length.

Close to them Hokuto and Kento showed better teamwork and had their backs towards each other while attacking from long distance with every weapon they could grab from the soldiers. As dangerous as they were for themselves, humans would also die if they got tangled in their burning nets or hit by poisoned bullets. The remaining human weapons they had brought wouldn't even bother them so they could easily take a few bullets while fighting.

The first one who actually missed to get out of the way fast enough was Ueda and the only positive outcome of the sudden rain that had only stopped when they had arrived was the wet ground so Ueda threw himself down to roll out the flames on his body.

"This is disgusting," Ueda complained when he got up covered in mud, making Kame laugh.

"Your own fault. You're strong, but you'll just never be fast."

"What a shame that I don’t have your speed, right?" Ueda teased, making Kame show exactly that speed when he dashed to the front before the soldiers could fire any other weapons.

“It’s not like I can give anyone those abilities,” Kame teased while fighting.

Ueda caught Hokuto looking at him for a brief moment as he was close to him, but they immediately had to concentrate back on their fights. There were more soldiers gathered this time than at their last surprise attack and their own soldiers weren't that high in number in the first place.

Konpi was busy in the back to coordinate and try to stop those who tried to sneak away from the main battle into their territory.

"Make sure that you let no one get away," Konpi shouted after a handful of soldiers who tried to stop some of the enemies from dashing away from them.

Back at the council the others kept an eye on the security cameras, but Taiga still felt like something was off. He had rested for a bit, but he wasn't able to just sleep through the day. The Frontline battle didn't seem to get out of hand for the time being, but that didn't mean that it would easily be over.

"Maybe they had something planned, but because the sun is not out they couldn't go through with it?" Katsuki asked as he was also suspicious about the battle being a bit too calm.

"Everything seems too planned," Yabana nodded as he looked at the cameras at the Frontline.

"But they're not really that strong," Noel said, but Taiga shook his head.

"That's the point. It feels like they're trying to buy time. Something like a distraction."

"Could they have backup coming in?" Katsuki asked Nika who was on his screens of other regions around the territory to make sure that exactly that couldn't happen.

"To be honest I can't say for sure, but a huge backup I'd totally spot. There are citizens around as well of course, but most people went inside on the sound of the sirens so a big suspicious movement would definitely get spotted by my cameras."

"They won't be that dumb, after all they should be aware that we're watching everything around the area," Fuma said while lying over three chairs instead of resting in his room like Kage and Minato had finally done after taking care of everything at first.

Fuma's words had Taiga turn to the screens once more and there was indeed nothing suspicious, at least not now.

"Nika, can you go back on your cameras to yesterday?" Taiga asked and the other one raised an eyebrow at him, but then Noel gasped and looked at him with the same worry Taiga was suddenly feeling.

"Sure, but what do you want to look at?" Nika asked.

"For now go to the Frontline and just go through the footage on fast forward. My eyes can spot everything so I'll tell you when to stop."

Nika did as he was told and Taiga kept his eyes fixed on the screen. They went through several hours in just minutes and then Taiga tensed.

"Contact Konpi, call them back!" Taiga said out of nowhere. The others not even knowing what he was talking about as he was the only one who had watched everything, but he had no time to explain. Every second could be their last one.

Nika immediately contacted Konpi, but the other one needed a moment to reply.

"What is it? We're kind of busy," Konpi shouted through the transmitter.

"Konpi, get everyone back and I mean everyone!" Taiga interrupted him.

"What- but,"

"Now! Get them away from the border. Let them come to you, but do not stay in that area! They tricked us!"

Konpi luckily didn't need to hear more and he immediately gave the signal to retreat. They could still fight them inside their own territory, but he trusted Taiga's words.

"What are they doing?" Noel asked as he saw on one of the screens how the enemy suddenly retreated to their own territory.

"Get out of there," Taiga hissed as he saw how Reia tried to chase them, ignoring the signal to retreat. The others also seemed hesitant to move, but a lot of their soldiers were also still in the middle of the battlefield and just when Taiga spotted Hokuto who was shouting at the others to retreat there was not just one, but several huge explosions all over the border area. A bright flash of light, followed by several fire bursts, setting the entire area into one huge fireball for the next seconds. It had turned out so big that even soldiers from the enemy had been caught up in it.

"They planted those yesterday," Fuma realized as he also finally jumped up on seeing the explosion.

"One by one, one person as unsuspicious as the next one. It took them several hours, but we didn't suspect a thing," Taiga said way to calmly, but the smoke hadn't lifted yet so it was too soon to freak out. They didn't know the outcome of the explosion yet.

But even Fuma seemed worried, watching the screen. Yet they were interrupted by another explosion, this one unfortunately not on any screens, but at their own council building.

"Damn it. They pulled the same shit here and we fell for it," Nika said and immediately put a signal through the entire building as a warning for possible intrusion.

"Let's check the building. They might have all hidden close by since yesterday to make it in here on the explosion," Katsuki said and ran off with Yabana.

"Be careful. It's daytime, you can't fight for long," Noel warned them, but Fuma just took a gun from the table and walked up to the stairs.

"Oh I can, don't worry."

"Check the building, let us know if you see any suspicious activity," Taiga said, but Nika shook his head.

"They planted those bombs knowingly at our security systems. The camera systems are down inside the building."

The next second the alarm also faded and left the building in a dangerous kind of silence.

"Fine, then let's do this the human way," Taiga said and also grabbed one of the guns as they had no choice than to actually fight straight on now.

"Keep your focus on the Frontline," Taiga said and Noel nodded. Taiga wanted to take a look at the screen again, but he knew that he would get distracted so he put his worries to the back of his head to make sure that he was concentrated enough to face the enemy's backup.

Back at the Frontline chaos had broken loose when the smoke finally faded. Their enemy had lost some people through the sudden explosion as well, but the remaining soldiers immediately stormed the battlefield once more, showing that this had all been indeed a setup from their side. A stupid miscalculation on the council’s side for not spending the border area on their side more attention the day before and looking out for possible spies, no matter how unsuspicious the people had looked.

Hokuto was still up as he had been at the side of all the explosions, yet he had still gotten some heavy burn marks on one side of his body as he had tried to shield himself. Luckily they would still heal as long as their bodies wouldn’t completely catch fire. Kento had ended up the same, luckily not too wounded to fight, but before they could even decide what to do the soldiers had already reached Reia and Taisuke who had been in the center of the explosion. Reia was down on his knees, his body heavily burned, his clothes only a burned mess hanging loose on the red skin. Taisuke had been fast enough to actually somehow shield himself with fallen soldiers around him. A gruesome method, but it had helped him to avoid the worst damage, but he didn’t seem in a good enough condition to fight and while Kame and Ueda also tried to get back up, they had also taken too much damage to actually be of much help.

The first shot fell in the few seconds in which Hokuto wasn’t sure if he could make it in time and that was when he realized that it had been too late already.

Some soldier had shot Reia right in the head, but the bullet was obviously poisoned, throwing Reia to the back. Taisuke hissed at the soldiers and avoided getting shot himself, but he wasn’t fast enough when two nets got shot at him and he stumbled to the back, trying to avoid getting even more burned, but the soldiers were already trying to burn him alive. No matter how bad their chances were, Hokuto immediately decided to dash into an attack, Kento following his movement, but then there were other people dashing past them and a hand on his shoulder pushed him back.

“Stay back, leave the rest to us.”

While Hokuto would have never thought that he could feel in any kind grateful to humans, the way Konpi dashed to the front with the remaining soldiers made him feel exactly that for the first time. Even Konpi put himself in great danger by joining the battle, but the other humans had no reason to protect them, that was how he had always seen them until now. Humans who feared them so they tried to be on their side, not more, not less. Yet he watched them fight for them, getting between Reia and the enemy, pushing Taisuke out of the line of fire and helping him to extinguish the flames.

“We can still push them back,” Kento said as he realized that their soldiers were enraged enough to push the enemy back even after losing more soldiers on their side through the sudden attack.

Hokuto nodded and looked over to Kame and Ueda first, both finally back on their feet and ready to attack as well, even if they were hurt and slowed down, they could still be of help especially because it looked like the enemy was running out of heavy weapons and that was to their advantage. Launching missiles at their area would also cause heavy damage, but it wouldn’t easily kill their kind and that was exactly what the government wanted. So the direct confrontation was definitely to their advantage even with this ambush.

Konpi had jumped right at the soldier who was trying to shoot Reia once more and the shot missed and Konpi was fast enough to shoot the soldier before he could try to attack him this time. There were too many people around though to relax yet and while he tried to make use of his weapons, his body just couldn’t stand the fight. Even that one short dash up to the Frontline had been already too much and he stumbled to the back on a fire blast towards his direction and the next second another soldier picked up the gun from before and as he checked it one last bullet seemed to be in it and he immediately lifted it towards Konpi and pulled the trigger. Konpi’s body wasn’t able to move fast enough to avoid the bullet, but suddenly someone was in front of him, taking the bullet to the chest.

“If you’re not able to fight, then get back,” Reia said, but wasn’t able to fight himself obviously as he had barely been able to even jump up for this one move before he fell back to his knees, but this time more soldiers from their side were luckily covering them.

“You need to get out of here,” Konpi said and grabbed Reia by the arm, but the other one shook him off. When he turned to look at Konpi, the other one pulled back a bit. Reia’s left eye had been hit by the first bullet, while half of his face was also heavily burned. The second shot wound was visible on his chest, where his clothes had half burned off, most of it partly burned into his skin.

“Don’t bother. I won’t be able to move in a few minutes anyway,” Reia said and tried to get up and get back into the fight. A move that had Konpi furious and he stepped in front of Reia and punched him straight into the face. Yet both their bodies were already too heavy to keep standing so he dropped to the ground, sitting on top of Reia as the boy had lost balance on the sudden punch.

“Are you so proud that you can’t accept your own mistakes?” Konpi yelled at him. “Do you seriously need to commit suicide just because you finally admit that you’ve done wrong in your life? Let me tell you that in this eternity you will do a lot of shit, maybe you have already done more that you don’t remember, but what’s the point in just giving up?”

“What’s the point in staying?” Reia asked straightforward, not even trying to find excuses, because Konpi was right.

“You want to leave them on their own now after all?” Konpi shouted back. “You took their lives, their free will and now you think letting them go will make them happy?”

“Would it make you happy?” Reia asked back as Konpi was part of this story as well after all and for a moment Konpi froze in his movements.

“Go and save the others. They will at least thank you.”

There was so much Konpi could reply to this, yet he couldn’t bring any of it out. Until now he had been convinced that eternal ones wouldn’t be able to feel guilty or any other kind of strong negative human emotions, yet Reia was proving him wrong.

“Get off me if you are just going to be useless weight,” Reia said and tried to push the other one off him, but on that move Konpi shoved the other one back to the ground and stood up on shaking legs.

Before Reia could continue his tries to make Konpi leave him alone, the other one stretched out his arm towards him and this time Reia was the one who was left speechless.

“If you really want to end it here then I won’t stop you, but let me make it clear that you’re not doing anyone a favor with it. I will still be pissed at you, the others will be disappointed in you and all you will prove to yourself is that you are good at running away. So this is your final chance.”

Reia hesitated, but while he looked more than annoyed by the situation he let himself get dragged up. To Konpi’s surprise though Reia shoved him to the side and took the gun from Konpi’s belt to shoot a soldier who was trying to use one of his fire blast weapons on them.

“Let me guess you want to tell me now that the only reason you took my hand was because of him?” Konpi teased and Reia gave him a lopsided smile as he handed the gun back.

“Of course, why else would I?”

***

There weren’t many soldiers in the council building, but that had obviously been the plan from the start. They had aimed to attack in the daytime, knowing that the turned ones would hide here to wait until the evening so they wanted to take their shot getting rid of them before that. A smart move, especially because it seemed like they had chosen their most skilled soldiers to intrude the council.

Taiga jumped back after Fuma was heard cursing in the common room area, shots falling and glass breaking. Taiga hid at the stairs and only looked around the corner for a brief moment to see what was going on. There was only one soldier present, but also only Fuma in the room. The boy had lost his gun, but hadn’t any obvious injuries yet, except a few cuts after having been kicked right into the big mirror that had been hung up on the wall.

“If you tried to sneak up on me then let me tell you that you failed.”

A familiar voice and the words were obviously not for Fuma, but Taiga still took his chances and lifted his gun, turning around to aim for Iwamoto, but then he was actually the one who got shot first. Just a normal bullet, from another corridor. Another soldier had waited for him, but during the day Taiga couldn’t sense them that easily. But luckily the second soldier was suddenly forced to focus on his back as another shot fell somewhere behind him. Most likely Yabana and the others fighting their way through the building.

“Go help them,” Iwamoto said casually as he didn’t seem to see Taiga as a danger while Fuma could also still attack him even without his gun, which Iwamoto was holding on to now.

“Try your luck if you want to,” Iwamoto said invitingly as Taiga was still holding on to his gun. “But I fear if you miss then you might need to add some of these unpleasant black lines to your body.”

At daytime Taiga couldn’t tell if Iwamoto had some poisoned bullets in one of his guns or not, but he needed to take the risk. He hadn’t shot Fuma with one of them for now, so maybe he was bluffing.

Taking his chances, Taiga lifted his gun, but Iwamoto was fast enough to do the same as Taiga’s speed wasn’t that much of a difference to his this time and he shot Taiga’s hand precisely so that Taiga dropped the gun. Fuma had jumped up at the same time and aimed for Iwamoto who kicked to the back to stop the other one.

“No match over the day as expected,” Iwamoto laughed as he easily got the upper hand and finally got a hold on Taiga’s gun as well. On top of that Iwamoto was still hurt himself from their last fight, yet there wasn’t even a struggle between them, showing exactly how much of a disadvantage the daytime was and Taiga cursed himself in silence.

The next shots to be heard came from the council room, Taiga getting worried as none of them was left down there to help, not that they were of any more help than all the other humans around.

“Let’s test some of our new weapons, shall we?” Iwamoto asked with an excited look towards Taiga when Iwamoto reached into one of his vest pockets and pulled out a small round device. It didn’t seem in any way dangerous and that was exactly why Fuma took another run up at the other one, while he wasn’t even really able to run with his stamina also running more than low.

Iwamoto was still looking at Taiga, but he threw the round plate towards the back after pushing a button in the middle. First Taiga feared that it was something as simple as a grenade, because those could of course cause them some damage as well on this distance, but Iwamoto was still too close for such a risky move.

The device suddenly lid up in front of Fuma, so bright and intense that the other one stopped and jumped back. There was no immediate harm done, but then Taiga could feel the change.

“Mh, either you’re good at hiding your reactions or this one isn’t working,” Iwamoto said, a bit disappointed at the lack of reaction, but he was right, they were just hiding their reactions. This wasn’t just a simple light to confuse them, this was a strong UV wave light. The room was now weakening them the same as if they were standing in bright sunlight.

Taiga attempted to make a step back towards the stairs, but that was when Iwamoto gave him a lopsided smile, realizing that the light worked after all. The soldier took his chances and tried to shoot him when he dashed towards the stairs and he hit, but only normal bullets so Taiga kept running, hoping that Iwamoto would go after him and give Fuma the chance to get rid of that light and luckily his plan had worked out.

But unfortunately Taiga’s body had already given up on him more than he thought and his dash down the stairs cost him his balance and he fell down the last few stairs, sliding into the glass corridor with a hiss as he couldn’t get up fast enough to avoid Iwamoto catching up to him.

“Where do you want to run to? Do you think there is anyone left who can help you?”

On Iwamoto’s words Taiga looked down to the council room. They had indeed failed with their planning this time and the enemy had easily taken over their own backup place.

Noel didn’t seem hurt, but they had obviously tried to fight the soldiers off and two of the council members had been killed and Nika had been shot into the shoulder, both of them now sitting on the ground close to the council table, one soldier pointing a rifle at them, while another one was cutting of the communication between them and the Frontline. A move that could have a positive outcome for them if the others were still alive, because the holographic screens had all been turned off so Taiga couldn’t check on the others and he couldn’t ask Nika and Noel if they had any updates. The two in question looked up towards the corridor in worry, but they couldn’t help him.

More shots and shouting was heard from the next floor, but as Fuma was not getting into sight, Taiga hoped that he had dashed towards the others to help them. But they were outnumbered and for several more hours overpowered.

“This time I should make sure that you won’t keep your head,” Iwamoto said as he pulled out his knife from his belt and approached Taiga who started crawling backwards. There was nowhere to run for Taiga and he was sure that this time they had indeed found their match. An era in which humans had not just the numbers, but also the weapons and support on their side to actually get rid of quite a number of their kind.

When Iwamoto reached out for Taiga and sat on top of him, the other one not even able to fight him of enough to try and get the knife there was uproar from the council room as Noel had suddenly jumped up, shouting out for Taiga, but the soldier in front of him hit the rifle against his head, telling him that he will just kill him if he wouldn’t stay down.

“Look at that sweet support. We don’t really want to kill too many of our own, especially because those two seem to be the ones who helped you make it through our territories without getting discovered. We definitely need their help in finding more of your kind.”

“You behave like primitive hunters, only chasing for the glory for having killed your prey,” Taiga hissed at the other one, but on those words Iwamoto brought the knife down to Taiga’s throat, already leaving a deep cut as he didn’t hesitate to push it into the other one’s flesh.

“And you blood suckers are so primitive that you never evolved away from needing human blood to survive. Look at yourself, you are like a helpless child without your eternal ones. They create and keep you like their pets.”

“At least we don’t run around and kill without any kind of reason. This war was started by your kind and if you put down your weapons it would end in an instant.”

Iwamoto laughed at those words, shaking his head. “Right, because you’re so noble. But your words won’t have any listeners.”

“He already got some,” someone was heard at the end of the corridor and to their surprise the ones who entered weren’t soldiers from either side. They were the citizens of the independent territories and on their arrival Nika smiled. He had made sure to activate the outside speakers right in time before the soldiers had taken over the council room and with their focus on the Frontline and the monitors, they hadn’t realized that everything inside the building was now easily been heard outside for good a few hundreds of meters, making the citizens on backup make their way inside the already damaged building and now they stood in front of Iwamoto with all their weapons risen. Some had guns, others only kitchen knives or simple shovels, but they were ready to fight with whatever they could find.

“You better step back now boy,” one elder man said as he stepped to the front, ready to defend Taiga and his kind.

“Interesting,” Iwamoto said with another lopsided smile as he sat back a bit, but then he looked down at Taiga once more and his determination was clear. If he was going down then he would at least take him with him.

Taiga tried to reach out for the other one’s arm, but Iwamoto was already pushing it down with all his might, cutting deep into his neck, but the shots started falling. But the shooting started behind them, with the civilians too slow to raise their weapons.

Iwamoto’s movements weakened on the first shots and Taiga was finally able to push the knife away before he could indeed lose his head this time. Behind them Fuma was walking up to them with a gun raised, shooting until it was empty. Then he turned towards the council room with a second gun and Nika had already jumped up, attacking the man with the rifle as he had tried to aim for Fuma.

Iwamoto had fallen immobile in a sitting position on top of Taiga, his look still not as shocked as it should be on the several bullets that had hit his back and even though it was already over he tried once more to lift the knife, but then shots fell from the front, hitting him in the chest and he finally fell to the back, the civilians finally gaining enough courage to storm the council building.

Noel shouted at them to be careful on the second floor as they didn’t know how Minato and the other ones were doing and how many soldiers were inside the building. They had taken back control of the council room in no time and one older man and one young woman helped Taiga up into a sitting position, the woman putting her scarf around Taiga’s neck without any hesitation or disgust visible on her face.

“Oh my god Taiga, are you okay?” Noel shouted when he ran down the corridor and hugged the other one after he fell to his knees. “We need to stabilize your neck. Why is everyone going for your neck for god’s sake. Do they know how much time it takes me to fix it, especially when it’s not night time?”

Taiga had to smile at the other one’s pouting and he gave him a grateful nod. “Thanks Noel, but for now this will do,” Taiga said and helped pull the scarf more around his neck as he didn’t need to breathe so he could use it for stabilization.

“How is it going at the Frontline?” Taiga asked and Noel told him to follow him to the council room where Nika refused getting his shoulder treated as he tried to get the screens back up.

“Fuma, how are the others?” Taiga asked while Fuma had given up on playing tough and was now half lying on one of the chairs with his upper body on the meeting table.

“They did great. So great that they shouted at me to help you and you definitely needed the help more.”

“That’s for sure,” Taiga said with a grateful bow towards the other one, because without Fuma this would have definitely been his last fight.

A few minutes later Minato and Kage came down the stairs. Both of them seemed as exhausted as Taiga was, Minato having a burned left side and Kage had obviously been hit in the leg by a poisoned bullet as the other one had to stabilize him and help him to a chair.

“Dude, humans are fascinating,” Minato said excitedly as he also crashed on the ground next to Kage with a long sigh. “They fearlessly stormed the upper floor and took the soldiers by such a surprise that they were run over by them in no time.”

“What about Yabana and Katsuki?” Noel asked.

“Not sure, we were in our room when a sudden explosion ripped the entire wall away,” Minato said, pointing at his arm. “The entire room was on fire, Kage trying to attack the soldiers that had shown up out of nowhere.”

“Yabana had some trouble with the light before as well when I made it to their corridor,” Fuma said. “But Katsuki was able to destroy it and told me that they were fine, so I only took out some soldiers to get weapons. I bet they are fine,” Fuma said and he was proven right when the two boys also finally showed up at the stairs.

Katsuki had gotten a few deep cuts around his shoulders and neck, someone obviously trying to take his head as well, Yabana seemed the most exhausted one, but also the one with the least obvious wounds.

“Okay then everyone sit down. I will treat you in order, so just sit still for now,” Noel said and started with Kage, because the poison was the most dangerous for them. The burns would heal at night.

“We’re back up,” Nika announced and Taiga immediately looked up to the screens, trying to catch up to what was going on. They had unfortunately no playback so they didn’t know what had happened in the meanwhile, but Taiga was surprised to see that whatever had happened had them get the upper hand even though it had been the enemy trying to get rid of them.

Fuma was up next to Taiga as he also tried to spot the others on the screens, but there was too much going on, too many people were fighting to spot anyone.

“That explosion didn’t get them, right?” Noel asked in worry, but no one could answer that question.

“As if that idiot would ever die before me,” Fuma hissed under his breath, but the worry in his eyes was obvious.

“Can’t you check with them?” Noel asked and Nika was already trying to connect to their transmitters, but their system had been damaged too much to get any signal. The cameras were the only last connection they had.

“If they can last long enough then we can push them back,” Minato said, knowing that with their help at night they should definitely be able to get the upper hand.

“Leave the backup to us for now,” one of the civilians said as he appeared back at the stairs with some others. “We made sure that enough people are still in the building to protect you in case any other soldiers try to start another attack, but there are enough people still outside who want to fight.”

“Your help is more than appreciated,” Taiga said gratefully and the man nodded, leaving in a hurry with some of the others.

“Who would have thought that we will have a war between humans, where one half wants to protect us and the other half wants to kill us,” Kage laughed.

“Right, I thought if we ever have a war then it’s them versus us, like it had always been until now,” Katsuki added with a nod.

“Or us versus us, them versus them, we are good at that too,” Yabana added with a chuckle as their mess with Reia had proven that point and humans were good at war in the first place.

“Nika, what are you doing?” Noel asked when the other one equipped himself with weapons.

“There is no need for me to stay here anymore. Without any devices working I will be more useful at the Frontline. Those people can use some guidance no matter how fearless they are.”

Taiga and Fuma gave Nika a nod, but they were also worried as they didn’t even know who was still alive at the frontline and all they could do was staying back like cowards for a few more hours.

“Start moving half an hour before sunset. You should be at the frontline in about an hour. I prepared blood for you. You will have enough energy through it to heal until you make it to the Frontline,” Nika told them and they all nodded.

“Don’t die out there. Konpi will scold us,” Minato said as he had stood up and grabbed Nika by the arm right before he left.

“I’m definitely planning on coming back,” Nika said confidently before he made his way down the corridor.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Noel said and kept pacing up and down the room.

“We all do,” Taiga replied honestly. “But for now we can only try and gather our strength to end this battle tonight.”

The frontline was a mess, but for now they were able to stop the others from pushing forward, but that stopped the moment their enemy changed their tactics.

“Are they for real?” Kento asked with a shocked expression towards the sky when they actually launched heavier weapons from the back, hitting the back of their attack and with it some of the closest buildings as well.

“I guess they don’t care for the human sacrifices now that they made clear that they are on our side until the very end,” Hokuto said while they stayed back from the main attack. They needed some time to heal and they didn’t hold back getting their blood from the enemy after they had cowardly tried to blow them all up.

“Quite an old fashioned kind of war,” Kame said as he shook his head at the way both sides were now loading heavier weapons, trying to at least stop any backup from arriving.

“No matter how advanced humanity becomes, this will always be reality for them,” Ueda said before he stretched his arms and started moving. “And I’d say it’s time we put them back into that reality.”

Hokuto looked up into the sky, the sun now almost behind the last buildings. Before they could all dash back to the front there were more people arriving on their side and they stayed back to watch them dash to the frontline without any hesitation.

“Wow, they seem really pissed,” Ueda said with a raised eyebrow.

“They have all the right to be.”

On Nika's voice they all turned around with a worried expression.

“Why the hell are you here? And why are you shot? You didn’t even fight yet,” Taisuke asked.

“They launched a surprise attack on the council building the moment they blew you up over here.”

“That’s why Konpi couldn’t connect to you anymore,” Kame said as he had realized that the other one was kind of stressed out, but didn’t want to let the others know, because they had to focus.

“Is everyone alright?” Kento asked.

“More or less. We had a tough time, but eventually the civilians stormed the building and got the situation under control. The others need to heal for now, but we luckily had enough blood stored for them so they should be able to help out later.”

Everyone only nodded on the news as they should have seen such a cowardly move coming in the first place.

More explosions at the frontline made them all finally concentrate back at the battle as the enemy was now trying with their last resources to get rid of everyone in their way, no matter if human or not. Their oh so glorious goal of freeing humanity from the threat of their dangerous kind was definitely good for nothing by now.

“Then let’s make sure they don’t have to clean up too much after us,” Kame said with a lopsided smile as he started moving.

Hokuto looked back towards the lines of trucks, forming a barricade to keep the enemy from sneaking away. Konpi and Reia had taken charge of that area as Konpi was in no way capable of any frontline fighting anymore and Reia needed the most time of them all to get back to full strength.

“Then let’s show them what happens when you challenge our kind,” Hokuto said with a growl before they all dashed back into the battle.

***

“Are they even still fighting,” Reia complained as he had his hands full stopping people from getting past their trucks and then some missiles even hit their area and at the last second he pulled Konpi from the back of one of the trucks before it got blown up.

“Don’t even try,” Reia complained when Konpi tried to reach out for a gun on the back of another truck, but could barely walk over to it by himself. “Just sit still for once.”

Reia couldn’t wait for a reply as more soldiers tried to get away between all the smoke and he dashed at them, but a few meters away from them he was thrown back by grenades they had thrown into the smoke, knowing someone would definitely try to stop them.

“What an annoying battle,” Reia hissed and got up, pulling out some metal pieces from his upper body and face, but most of his body hadn’t healed yet even after attacking some soldiers to get their blood. His body had reached its limits in matters of fast regeneration.

To his surprise the soldiers hadn’t sneaked away, but were suddenly surrounding him, trying to get him. Konpi had given him an antidote for the poisoned bullets, but his body was still slowed down by them and one soldier jumped at him, stabbing a knife right through his chest.

To the man's surprise Reia kicked him off with such force that he landed a few meters away on the muddy ground. Reia showed his fangs, making the others stay back for a second, but of course they lifted their guns. No matter how harmless they were against them, getting shot all the time didn't make it easier for Reia's body. But this time someone dashed in front of him, attacking the three remaining soldiers so fiercely and fast that they were dead before even realizing what had happened.

"So scary at night," Reia teased when the arrival of night had given Konpi the strength to finally interfere.

Konpi turned towards him with dark red shining eyes after he had made sure to satisfy his thirst on one of the soldiers to get back to full strength.

"You're welcome," Konpi said as he walked up to Reia and stretched out his hand. "Now we're quit."

Reia let out a snort on that, but still took the other one's hand to let himself get dragged up.

"Then show how useful you can be at night," Reia challenged.

"I fear there won't be much left for me to do," Konpi replied while looking towards the Frontline.

The others had gotten back more strength through the night as well, but they had taken in a lot of direct damage with the enemy attacking way harsher than before, their bodies still not healed from the explosion and soon they found themselves all separated between too many soldiers.

Hokuto was down on one leg, his flesh so badly cut by a wire weapon that he had almost lost his leg and he now hissed back at the soldiers who had luckily no direct fire or poisoned weapons left to fight with, but they could still use other weapons. With the metal wire they had used earlier they tried to bring him down this time to attack his neck and Hokuto bit the first one so harshly on the neck that he ripped half of his throat out in his desperate attempt to get them away from him. But as gruesome as his actions were, the other soldiers wouldn't let off him that easily and he found himself pulled back with the wire around his neck. He kicked the air, trying to reach out for one of them, but they were both staying too far away, both with one of the wire ends in their hands, pulling hard enough to make it impossible for Hokuto to pull the wire loose.

The wire started cutting through his skin, his hands not able to take enough pressure off it as more soldiers joined them and overpowered Hokuto's attempt of pulling the wire back.

Just when his hands were about to slip off the wire, which would end up with a fatal impact on his neck, Taiga jumped at the soldiers on one end of the wire, immediately getting the pressure of it so that Hokuto was thrown off balance to the back and with that the soldiers on the other side lost balance as well.

Before they could try and pull on the wire once more, Yabana had jumped at them while Kage and the others had already dashed up towards the others to assist.

"You love coming at the last second," Hokuto scolded the other one who gave him a lopsided smile on hearing that.

"Nice choice of words," Taiga teased and helped get the wire away from Hokuto's neck and as he still had the scarf around his neck, he gave it to Hokuto to stabilize his neck this time as his wound was almost healed once more.

But Hokuto of course saw the fresh wound and put a hand to the clear cut on his throat.

"Iwamoto really didn't like our kind," Taiga said on the touch. "But he eventually had to pay with his life for his arrogant actions."

Hokuto didn't care for that unimportant human life and he pulled himself up and Taiga already reached out for the other one's face for the impatient kiss that followed.

"I'll kill them all if they threaten our eternity."

"Leave that to the others," Taiga said against the other one's lips before he forced himself to pull back as they were still in the middle of a battle after all. Luckily though night had turned the tables for them and they were fiercely running over their enemy now, finally pushing them back from their borders. Some soldiers also seemed to have lost their will to fight against them now that the higher ups had started ordering to kill even the humans in their way to get to their goal.

Close to them Kento had gotten some space as well after some soldiers had given up on the sudden backup and took off instead of keeping up their fight.

Kento closed his eyes for a moment as he had been not too badly wounded at the explosion, but had been hit by one poisoned bullet later and his right side felt extremely heavy by now as he hadn't gotten the chance to get an antidote.

When he turned around, trying to find any of their own soldiers who could have an antidote on them, there was another familiar face.

Fuma was making his way over to him and Kento could see that he definitely had a tough time back at the council as his clothes were full of holes, some burn marks on his skin and even with his red eyes he still looked like he needed more time to rest.

The way he approached Kento was in no way calm and the other one only stood still, waiting for Fuma to get another outburst, but when the other one reached him it came different. For the first time since Kento had turned him, Fuma reached out for his face and pulled him into a kiss.

Kento tensed at first, not sure why Fuma was suddenly showing this reaction, but soon he dared to relax and give into the kiss.

Even when Fuma pulled back he stayed close, putting his forehead against the other one's making Kento patiently wait for him to say something. Luckily they had a moment to themselves with the main fight being more centered now, but they still had to watch out.

"I did something horrible on my last day as a human," Fuma let out. Centuries later he was finally ready to talk and Kento wouldn't interrupt him. Every day he had hoped that there was something else behind the other one's mood and finally the truth was about to be out in the open.

"I didn't try to kill myself on that day," Fuma whispered. Like a lie he wanted to tell to protect himself, but it hadn't been a lie. The truth was even more painful. "I felt so rejected by you that in my human arrogance I decided to make you hate me instead so that you wouldn't show any interest in humans again if you had no intention of giving them an eternity with you."

Kento knew where the story was going, but he knew that Fuma had to say it himself. Get it off his chest.

"I told people about you. Like a pouting child I gave away your secrets. I wanted them to chase you away. Show you what I've done so you'd hate me."

But his plan hadn't worked out as he had hoped. People had accused him of the wildest things as the time he had been living in were all about burning witches and hunting the outcast. Eventually people had turned against him instead of believing his words.

"My stories of an eternal being made them believe I've already been turned no matter what I told them. They believed I was a monster."

A monster that needed to be killed and while Fuma had tried to get away they had caught him and thrown him off the cliff instead of burning him or shooting him. An outcome that had been positive for him eventually.

"I couldn't face you after you turned me. I didn't deserve to be with you anymore. I feared that if I ever told you the truth you’d leave me behind."

Now everything was out in the open and Fuma looked to the ground as he stepped back, his fists tightly clenched.

All those outbursts and the pushing away wasn't an act to make Kento regret that he hadn't turned him, it had been a self-punishment for Fuma for acting this ridiculous and almost destroying both of their lives.

Slowly Kento lifted one hand to Fuma's face and the other one looked up with his red eyes, not shining as much as they should usually do. Still some human emotions left in them.

Kento smiled at him. Finally he could smile at the other one without fearing for Fuma turning his back on him.

"I made you wait too long. I have to carry this burden as much as you do, but we'll still have an eternity together so don't you think that we can let the past rest finally? We will have a lot of new mistakes to make, a lot to forgive as well, but I'm more than willing to repeat that circle all over again if it's with you by my side."

Instead of replying, Fuma pulled the other one into a hug, closing his arms so tightly as if he feared that Kento could still just leave him behind for what he had done. But now they were at least able to finally talk things through. Centuries in a silent battle had finally ended for both of them.

***

"Seems like they got this under control," Taisuke said to himself as their soldiers attacked even more harshly as their enemies started running. For now they just needed to win this battle. Everything else could be talked about later, because something about the cruelty of humans killing other humans always had something positive as an outcome eventually and most likely both territories would finally be able to talk and not fight things out.

"What a shame that so many people had to die for this ridiculous reason," Taisuke said as he left the remaining fight to the humans, those who had started all this without their kind even wanting to be involved. But after a few steps he saw a familiar face, but not fighting or walking away, he was down on the ground. He had been wounded already after arriving at the Frontline, but now the smell of his blood was even fresher and somehow Taisuke liked the smell. It felt like after all these centuries he found someone who seemed more interesting than most humans he had encountered, not that they had talked much yet, they had barely met.

"Having problems down there?" Taisuke asked as he stepped next to Nika, who had ended up in an explosion in the middle of their fight and a painfully visible metal part was stuck in his abdomen.

"Seeing you this calm means that we're winning I guess?" Nika asked back so calmly that Taisuke raised an eyebrow at him. The other one should have noticed by now that there was no way for him to survive. One wrong move and he could die as the metal piece wasn't just causing a small flesh wound. It was so big that it had hit half through his body, definitely having hit his spine and only because it was still stuck there, Nika was still alive.

"We are, but you're not on the winning side right now," Taisuke reminded him, but Nika only nodded with a shaking smile.

"That's fine. The council has enough members and thanks to Taiga and Hokuto we also have Noel's support now. He's a smart boy."

"Giving up this easily?" Taisuke asked, but then he lifted his head at Kame and Ueda who also retreated from the frontline as they were sure things were under control.

Kame looked down at Nika with a neutral expression, but then Ueda put his hand on his shoulder with a soft expression. A look not seen often on his face.

When Kame looked back at Taisuke he didn't say anything, neither did he give any supporting signs, but the fact that he just left, told Taisuke that they wouldn't judge him if he did an egoistic move now in the middle of this battlefield of hundreds of people who already lost or were about to lose their lives.

"What if I don't want to give up this easily?" Nika asked back a question that had Taisuke focus back on the other one with a smile.

"Then I have an offer for you."

***

Escalation between two territories

It was big in the headlines worldwide as the independent territories had made sure to let the entire world know what had happened. They needed to not just read about it, but hear and see it. The way their own race was easily sacrificing one another for a stupid hunt of a kind they never even took their time talking to like the independent territories did.

"The world will change once again," Noel said as he looked at the holographic screen in the council room.

"Hopefully for the better. I want some quiet centuries," Minato added with a chuckle.

Most of them had made it back to the council building after their soldiers kept patrolling the borders for an entire day already and when night arrived once more their territory fell completely silent with both sides being exhausted.

"Hopefully they will finally listen now," Kage added with a sigh as he sat at the council table.

"Still no sign of Nika and Taisuke?" Noel asked, but the two boys shook their heads.

They were the only ones who hadn't been with them after the fight, but Ueda and Kame had told them not to worry. Yet Noel worried even more through not exactly getting told what was going on.

"Our lovebirds are finally up too," Kage said as Hokuto and Taiga were joining them after they had all rested over the day. Their wounds now finally almost all healed.

"Tell that to Fuma and Kento," Hokuto let out annoyed as he also sat down, but stopped Taiga from doing so as well and pulled him on his lap just to tease Kage and he didn't even hesitate to pull Taiga even closer in a way that made Kage look away with a small cough.

"At least their tension is easier to handle than Konpi and Reia," Minato reminded them. While Ueda and Kame hadn't stayed with them over the day, Konpi and Reia should have stayed somewhere else, but the fact that they didn't and tried so hard to ignore each other as much as possible, made everyone want to hit them.

Soon all of them gathered for their next meeting though as they couldn't just sit back this easily now. Konpi immediately talked more to the council members than to anyone else, while Reia had withdrawn himself to Yabana and Katsuki, both of them feeling like he was trying to hide between them.

"No we haven't seen them, stop asking," Kame said when Noel immediately went over to them when they entered the room.

"Let's keep this as short as possible. I have had enough of all these meetings," Fuma said and this time Kento actually smiled at the other one's behavior, because his reasons for being impatient had changed. A fact that Taiga had realized as well and Hokuto gave him a squeeze on his hips with a small smile as they knew that for them this entire battle had had a positive outcome.

"We hope that there will be a meeting between our territories and we will of course be part of it," Konpi said and pointed at Minato and Kage. "But we wondered if any eternal one would like to join that meeting as we feel like it would be easier to finally get back to peace between the territories if they were present as well."

"That's a bit much to ask," Kame let out right away, but no one was blaming him, because not even Taiga would want to be at such a meeting after all the slaughtering they have done.

"No problem, I just wanted to at least ask."

"We will go," Fuma was heard and to their surprise Kento nodded.

"Seriously?" Minato asked in excitement.

"I feel like I've not done much to help our kind out in any of our wars until now even though they have all been smaller than this one. So I think it's time that I do my part."

"I'm so looking forward to how they will react to an eternal one entering that meeting," Kage said in excitement.

"What about you?" Konpi asked and everyone turned to look at Reia. The boy had kept the black lines on his face and body the same way as Taiga with the one difference that one of his eyes had turned black as well.

"No," Reia replied straight forward and for a moment Konpi looked like he'd get angry, but then Reia continued.

"Which doesn't mean that I won't gladly be backup in case they won't listen and they need another kick in the ass."

Yabana and Katsuki exchanged a smile on that and told them that they'd also gladly join that backup.

This time Konpi’s look softened a bit as he was more than okay with that reply.

“Then let’s wait one or two more days and see their reaction?” Minato asked and everyone agreed. The sooner they would come to at least something like a truce, the sooner they could all get back to their own lives. Even though they had all gathered because it had been needed, didn’t mean that they enjoyed being all at one place and in the center of attention.

“You think they will take a full week?” Taiga asked when he and Hokuto had decided to leave the council building before sunrise and Noel had read the atmosphere, staying behind with Konpi and the others.

“Maybe. If Taisuke wants to do this right then he should take his time.”

“I don’t really know any of them that well, but that was a quick decision,” Taiga said with a soft smile.

“Maybe it was just the right timing. Like you breaking into my house,” Hokuto said with a nostalgic smile as they made it back inside their house. It felt weird to finally be back at a quiet place after days of chaos and Hokuto wanted to take full advantage of it so he made sure that the door was locked, but when he wanted to turn around, Taiga was still right behind him. It was rare that Taiga was the one losing his patience first, but Hokuto didn’t complain as he was pushed back into the door a bit too roughly with Taiga clenching his fists into the other one’s collar and engaging their lips into an impatient kiss.

There was a small struggle starting between them as Hokuto got impatient and wanted to get them down to their room, but Taiga held against it, not really aiming to easily change locations. On that move though Hokuto lost his calm and reached out for Taiga’s shirt and just ripped it in half on the spot, resulting with Taiga backing off just inches to hiss at the other one, his fangs still showing as the morning hours hadn’t arrived yet.

Hokuto reacted even more fierce than Taiga and showed his fangs as well, pulling harshly on Taiga’s hair to be able to reach his neck and while he usually stayed calm enough until the end, he just couldn’t this time and harshly bit Taiga on the neck, the other one letting out a mix of a growl and a moan on Hokuto’s impatient move. They were both more than on edge through all the happenings of the last days and Taiga pulled Hokuto’s head back on his hair as well just to shove him back against the door with another growl as he dared his fangs on Hokuto’s skin as well, the other one pulling Taiga even closer on his ripped shirt, allowing him what he would usually refuse. Taiga enjoyed the way Hokuto shivered under the touch of Taiga’s fangs on his skin and when he sank them into the other one’s neck he felt more than satisfied by the growl Hokuto let out deep down in his throat.

“I don’t want anyone to ever touch you again,” Hokuto let out as he let his fingertips run over the black lines on Taiga’s neck.

“Then let’s ignore the world for some time,” Taiga offered.

“A century would be good,” Hokuto replied, making the other one chuckle against his lips before he took Hokuto’s hand from his neck up to his own cheek and gave the other one a calm look when his eyes slowly turned from red back to brown.

“We will get enough centuries to recover from the chaos humans keep bringing upon us. We just have to take a look here and there to make sure that they’re not destroying the planet in the meanwhile or we won’t have anywhere to go.”

“Let’s give them a few more decades, then we could maybe consider Mars.”

This time Taiga laughed out pretty loud before Hokuto’s touch on his cheek changed to a soft caressing movement and Taiga gave him a calm smile in return.

“One eternity might not be enough,” Hokuto said and while it sounded way too cheesy for him, Taiga only nodded and let Hokuto lead a slow and passionate kiss. This is all they both needed for the rest of their eternity after all, just the two of them.

***

 “What? Like- how? No wait, I know how, but…”

“Noel, breathe,” Minato told him when the boy seemed so confused and startled after Taisuke and Nika had suddenly shown up out of the blue a few nights later. Their timing was perfect though as a meeting between the two territories had finally been scheduled as other territories from other countries had urged their enemy to put down their weapons to not slaughter their own people without even trying to make peace. A big first step for the entire world to finally calm down and move on. But Nika hadn’t returned the way he had been before and Noel couldn’t comprehend why he saw Nika with red eyes.

“You seem to have done a great job,” Reia said as he looked at Nika who didn’t seem to have lost much of his human behavior and wasn’t in any way controlled or changed through Taisuke turning him.

“Just don’t provoke him, he’s strong,” Taisuke warned them all and Nika gave him a kind of apologizing look.

“Tough first night I guess,” Taiga said with a big smile as he welcomed them both back.

“But what do we do now?” Noel asked.

“Now you have one more turned one in your council and another eternal one ready to join the meeting,” Nika announced.

“Wow, you’re really going to deal with those idiots eye to eye?” Reia asked and just the way he had addressed Taisuke made Nika growl at the other one and Reia lifted his arms. “Fine, no reason to get angry at me.”

“The more the better to convince them that we’re not going to attack them if they don’t,” Konpi said. “But that also means tonight is farewell for some of us.”

He looked up at Kame and Ueda and then towards Taiga and Hokuto.

“You can still always contact us,” Taiga said with a smile.

“And you are always welcome back at my place,” Noel said after he had finally calmed down a bit. “I will keep your room and some blood, just in case.”

“Make sure to get fresh one from time to time,” Hokuto teased and actually went over to Noel to ruffle through his hair as the boy seemed ready to cry.

“You are one of the few humans I really like. The only ones I liked more than you have been gone for centuries already so make sure to take care of yourself so that we can meet again.”

Getting such emotional words from Hokuto was rare and Noel flung his arms around the other one, Hokuto not that fond of the hug, but he wasn’t going to push him away.

“I am gonna miss you,” Noel said with a small sob before he also went to hug Taiga and received a tight hug in return.

“We won’t be out of the world for now, don’t worry. We will closely watch how everything is going to develop from now on and we will be there if your council or any other country needs our help.”

“Let’s first see though if there are others helping first, I don’t want to play world savior,” Hokuto reminded him.

“Hopefully we won’t have so many reasons left for our paths to cross,” Kame said as he looked into the round. “You turned ones have a long way to go from here. Make sure to stay together or I might have to consider you my enemy one day.”

“Why is he always so scary?” Kage whispered towards Yabana who was sitting next to him.

“Well, with us he had a tough time, but that wasn’t really our fault.”

Reia kicked the other one’s chair on hearing that, but he didn’t look angry, after all they were right. Eternal ones could also cause a ton of trouble for their own kind.

Taiga didn’t miss the look Hokuto and Ueda exchanged and he wondered if there had been anything going on at the Frontline.

“Take good care of each other,” Ueda said towards them and gave Taiga a clap on the shoulder. “Your eternal life has a lot of challenges ahead, especially with those red eyes. You all need a bit more time to finally get accepted by Kame. Make sure to not disappoint him.”

Taiga could only nod as he didn’t quite get what the other one meant, especially when he gave the other turned ones the same look, a kind of nostalgic smile on his face now.

The two eternal ones left first and Taiga walked up to Konpi next. “You did a great job over the years. You will do even better with the council from now on and with all the support you got now I am sure you can find a peaceful solution to this war.”

“No pressure,” Konpi replied half sighing and half laughing.

“For the pressure you can use that idiot over there,” Hokuto said and pointed at Reia who gave him a death glare. “Let the chaos be his problem and you just sit back and do the talking.”

“And if he gets out of line then I will kick his ass,” Fuma announced after they had made clear that they wouldn’t stay with the council after the meetings with the Government territories were done, the same as Taisuke and Nika. But for now they would make sure to stay around, a few months or years weren’t much time for them anyway.

“Don’t make us come back to beat sense into you,” Hokuto warned Reia directly this time and the other one showed him a challenging smile.

“Next time let’s have a fair one on one under eternal ones then,” Reia challenged and Hokuto showed an excited look in return.

“Fine with me.”

They all needed to find their paths from here and while they would definitely meet again over the next years with this war not being over this easily and the rest of the world still in the same divided situation they wouldn’t find calm times easily, but they had made it through centuries of wars and chaos, they could definitely do it again and still find their own peace in between until maybe one day even their eternity would come to an end.

2742 - Freelands (former Europe)

The grass under their feet had been untouched for centuries, the place they were heading to not used by humans anymore. Yet Taiga was carrying flowers with him, such an old fashioned way to pay his respects, but he still liked it that way. Recently he had gotten more emotional about his human past.

Centuries had past once more, wars had been fought, peace had been made and humanity had made progress in unbelievable ways, yet that also had them finally turn towards their own planet. A move back to the roots as they had called it. The human population had exploded and then it had once more declined. Diseases and natural disasters claimed an unbelievable amount of lives.

Yet humanity had learned from their mistakes and the world had changed back to a healthy balance of human civilization and their much needed flora and fauna. Which also meant that Hokuto and Taiga weren’t supposed to be at this place as humans were strictly prohibited from entering certain parts of some countries to give their planet time to recover. But strictly speaking they weren’t humans, so that rule didn’t apply to them.

“I thought you’d keep this place for last,” Hokuto said as he followed Taiga towards the coastline. A beautiful huge copper colored beech stood at the cliff from where a strong breeze was coming towards them.

“The sea has never really calmed down here,” Taiga said with a smile towards the water where the waves weren’t that high this time.

“They would have totally taken the chance and come visit us with this good weather,” Hokuto said with a smile while Taiga put the flowers down under the beech. 1000 years later there was no sign left of the villages and towns around, so there were also no graves to visit anymore. For Taiga it had been a weirdly emotional year, but Hokuto had tagged along when Taiga had asked him to travel back to the places at which they had had friends over this past millennium. The world had changed drastically so there weren’t any original places left for them to visit, but just being there and leaving flowers was something that made Taiga feel at ease. He suddenly felt the urge to say goodbye once more.

“I can barely remember their faces,” Taiga said in a low voice when he stood up and looked across the sea towards what had once been the castle they had stayed at.

“That is normal,” Hokuto said as he put his arm around the other one and gave him a kiss on the hair. “Millennia are not easily remembered in detail.”

Hokuto’s memories had never fully recovered, but he had found his own peace with it and Taiga had never asked him about the details, but seeing him this calm while Taiga felt such an inner uproar made him believe that deep down Hokuto knew something. Even if there were no direct memories involved there was a strong emotion in Hokuto’s eyes.

“Then why am I so afraid of forgetting everything?” Taiga asked a bit worried, but while it was daytime and he would always react more human at that time, something didn’t feel right.

“Come on, let’s have a look?” Hokuto offered and took the other one’s hand, pointing at the castle ruins.

Taiga welt weirdly anxious to actually step back into the castle, but at the same time it was the one place that made him feel most at home as well. The stone walls were still standing, only the top floor already a bit crumbled. Humans had tried hard to keep the castle intact over the 20th and 21st century, so it had been renovated a few times for sightseeing purposes and the original form hadn’t changed.

In silence they walked through the halls, the now empty throne room, the throne only a pile of rotten wood now. The same as the beds and the shelves as the wood hadn’t lasted this long.

“I wonder what they had thought when they renovated this place the first time?” Taiga asked with a nostalgic smile.

“That an introvert had come here to read books for the rest of his life in a dark room?” Hokuto teased as they stopped at their bedroom for a moment. The sheets and clothes were all gone, the bed and furniture all only piles on the ground.

Taiga tightened his grip on the other one’s hand a bit more when they reached the library. They had kept the books in the castle, but the shelves hadn’t been able to stand this long and most of them had crumbled under the weight of the books, leaving some dusty remaining paper all over the floor, so thin that it could barely be called paper anymore. No ink, not a single word was left on the pages.

Hokuto reached out for one of the books, but the paperback ripped and the papers all landed one by one on the floor.

“Such a shame. I liked books,” Hokuto let out as they didn’t produce books in their original paper form anymore. Taiga suddenly let go of the other one’s hand and started walking past some of the crumbled shelves, Hokuto curiously following him.

When he saw what Taiga was looking at he showed a nostalgic smile. “Metal lasts a long time after all,” he said on the sight of the armchair they had often spent the night in together. The cushions and covers were gone, but the frame was still standing.

 Hokuto walked up next to Taiga on the other one’s silence and he wasn’t surprised to see the other one crying, yet Taiga seemed extremely confused about his own reaction and he proceeded to wipe away his tears, but Hokuto grabbed his arms.

“Don’t be afraid,” Hokuto said and the other one looked up at him with a mix of way too many human emotions suddenly crushing him. “What you experience right now is normal.”

Taiga needed a moment to even understand what Hokuto was talking about and then he calmed down a bit. “You talked about something back then, didn’t you? You and Ueda.”

Hokuto showed a guilty smile on that as he for once had indeed kept a secret, but not out of fear, but because he wanted Taiga to live this millennium without having to think about anything else than their eternity together. “Let’s say I partly figured things out myself. There were hints and feelings, even if not real memories. He just helped me putting the pieces together.”

Hokuto lifted one hand to wipe away Taiga’s remaining tears and he gave him a soft smile, so innocent that it reminded Taiga of the first day when he had met Hokuto and the other one hadn’t even been able to remember that he was an eternal one.

“You will be okay,” Hokuto said and while Taiga felt everything but okay, his human fears were eating him up more and more with each passing day, he knew that he could believe Hokuto. Never even once had the other one lied to him, so keeping this one secret to himself definitely had a reason Taiga would soon understand.

With a careful touch Taiga reached out for the other one’s chest, memories of their first encounter flooding his mind. Like he was about to forget his entire life he felt like his memories tried to light up in him once more.

“Stay with me until night time,” Taiga whispered and while this wasn’t going to be the best place for them to do anything at all, Hokuto nodded and pulled the other one in a slow and passionate kiss. There was nothing impatient in his movements and he let Taiga decide the pace. The other one’s movements felt so innocent and hesitant when he reached out for Hokuto’s clothes, but the eternal one only gave him a knowing look. This was the way Hokuto had gotten to know Taiga after all. Human. He couldn’t deny that he enjoyed the other one's emotional state and while he had taken advantage of him several times over the daytime, both of them enjoying it like a game, it was all different this time. More intimate.

Taiga surrendered to the other one, mostly because Hokuto was able to make it more comfortable for both of them in this pile of books, but Taiga didn’t seem to care the slightest about their surroundings.

Their touches and kisses seemed to burn them even though their bodies were used to it by now and Taiga kept a tight grip around Hokuto’s shoulders, trying to hold on to his memories of how he felt the other one for the first time. The moment Hokuto dared his fangs out on Taiga’s skin, he took a sharp breath, his entire body shaking by now, but he wasn’t afraid anymore. He could feel that something was about to change and his body wanted to give him the chance to live this day to the fullest until sunset.

“Don’t ever leave my side,” Taiga whispered next to the other one’s ear, pleasure filling his body and Hokuto took a tight grip around the other one’s body as he moved his head back to brush his lips over the other ones, but didn’t dare to get closer as his fangs were still out.

“Never. You belong to me for the rest of our eternity and that one has just began,” Hokuto whispered before Taiga gave him an innocent kiss on the lips before he arched his back and stretched his neck to the side, giving Hokuto the permission to take full advantage of him one last time and the other one would never deny that one sinful game of theirs. One last time Hokuto would get to experience the shivers and the pleasure only Taiga’s human mindset could show and he sank his fangs into the other one’s neck. Taiga closed his arms tightly around the other one, his body tensing for a moment before it loosened up once more as he felt how Hokuto’s bite changed. One more time Taiga’s body shivered under the intense feeling of his blood getting taken away from him. The last tiny bit of blood he had left.

“A new eternity,” Taiga whispered with a faint smile before he collapsed into the other one’s arms and Hokuto leaned back at one of the broken shelves, pulling Taiga into his arms, placing another kiss on his hair.

“That is all we will ever need.”

***

Night and day passed as calmly as never before. Hokuto felt like he could sleep with the other one in his arms for another millennium if needed, but after three days Taiga finally moved when the sun was slowly rising at the horizon. Even the waves had calmed down as if they didn’t want to disturb Taiga’s awakening.

“Good morning,” Hokuto said in a calm voice when Taiga seemed a bit disorientated for a moment especially because he had woken up at sunrise. But when he looked up at Hokuto, he could see something in Hokuto’s eyes he had never seen before. There was wild excitement in the other one’s eyes. And something had changed inside of Taiga as well and he slowly sat up, touching his own chest. He couldn’t quite tell yet what it was, but something was missing. He could tell that his body was empty of blood, but he wasn’t feeling weak through it. He was feeling different though.

“Let’s get up?” Hokuto asked and the other one only nodded, letting Hokuto help him up.

“How long was I asleep?”

“Three days,” Hokuto said calmly, his eyes still intensely staring back at Taiga.

When they made it out towards a last standing balcony, Taiga looked at the sunrise, realizing more and more that he had drastically changed. The sun didn’t feel scary to him anymore, his thirst felt like it could take months or years until he would feel the need to hunt again and his emotions, they weren’t taking over. Daytime left him as neutral as the night and that was when he finally looked at Hokuto with a knowing look. The other one gave him an excited smile on his silent question and he walked away just a bit to get a broken piece of a wall mirror and he held it right in front of the other one.

Somehow Taiga had expected it, but it still felt so unreal, so impossible. Silver eyes, shining back at him from the mirror.

“But, how?” Taiga finally let out. As he put his hands on his own face he realized something else and he pulled his hands down to his face where he could now feel his fangs. Even in bright sunlight he could show his fangs and this time Hokuto chuckled.

“Your human side was feeling the change, that is why you were so emotional this year. But you’re still as cute as always,” Hokuto said as he walked up to the other one and gave him a short kiss on the forehead.

“Ueda…?” Taiga asked and Hokuto nodded.

“Is the same as you. Kame doesn’t hate turned ones, but as he knew that after a millennium they would actually become eternal ones he wanted to keep it a secret. A good move actually as some of our kind like Reia could do a lot of harm if they knew about it too early.”

“He will get furious when the boys become eternal,” Taiga said with a light smile. “That means Fuma and Minato should be eternal ones by now too?”

“If Kento remained with Fuma then he should be fine,” Hokuto said, a slight shadow passing his face. Taiga slowly walked up to him and put his hand on the other one’s face.

“Your memories,” Taiga said and the change on the other one’s face showed him that he was right.

“As much as we call ourselves eternal, who knows who of us is indeed eternal,” Hokuto teased, as he had been indeed a turned one as well. In the battle against Taiga’s grandfather Hokuto had still been a turned one and he had lost the eternal one at his side. When it was his time to turn eternal after a millennium, which was just a few years later, his emotional human side had guided him back to the place where he had lost his creator. But he had to go through the change alone and without the eternal one taking his last blood a turned one would lose his memory in the progress of his blood slowly drying out.

“So Kage and Minato will lose their memories too?” Taiga asked. 

“Maybe? Who knows if this was just something that happened to me? But we can check up on Minato later and see?”

They hadn’t met over centuries as the world had calmed down, but Taiga immediately nodded. Even as an eternal one he wanted to check up on them.

“Reia’s turned ones might be interesting to visit,” Hokuto said with a smile. “They had no blood left from the start, so maybe they won’t turn?”

That was indeed a possibility, but Taiga didn’t let himself feel restless over those thoughts. He didn’t feel the need to anymore. His human days were over for good.

“Maybe our kind doesn’t really live forever. We are too old to remember our beginning, but who knows in a few millennia you might get asked the same question by someone else, not knowing an answer to it?” Hokuto asked.

That thought made Taiga chuckle as it sounded ridiculous, yet he had realized how he had indeed already forgotten places, names and faces. But now it didn’t seem scary to him anymore. Even with his fading memory he felt like deep down he would forever remember them all in one way or the other.

“Just please don’t turn anyone, okay?” Hokuto asked, making Taiga laugh this time.

“Not as long as I have you,” Taiga promised as he put his arms around Hokuto’s shoulders and gave the other one an intense look. Now the other one’s eyes seemed so different to him as they shared the same now.

“What do you want from me?” Taiga asked playfully and just for a moment Hokuto was confused until his smile grew bigger as he remembered their second encounter as well and he stepped closer, touching Taiga’s lips playfully to remind him to get his fangs back in first and Taiga chuckled on his own still unknown new eternal body.

“Nothing in particular,” Hokuto replied as he pulled the other one into their first eternal kiss.