BURGUNDY

Yugo pulled back his white pressed shirt over his shoulders.

He felt dirty.

How many times have they done that?

It wasn’t supposed to be like this between them. They were longtime friends and colleagues. He had never seen Taiga that way before. It was probably a mix of stress and hunger that started it all. A case of extreme emergency where they had no one else around to quench their deepest thirst. 

They were not supposed to eat off each other. No. They were supposed to cover for each other while they feed off random strangers with whom they had zero attachment.

Somehow, after trying the first time, it became addicting to bite each other and taste the blood of their peers. It was forbidden and frowned upon but they couldn’t stop. 

It was bitter, at first. They even felt nauseous. 

They tried at first because they were curious. They had always been the ancients, the eldest, the most reliable ones, the ones who never let their urges become their drive. But as old as they were, they were also bored to death and that boredom played a part in trying what they’d never done before. 

After a few minutes of biting into the flesh of a kin, Yugo could taste whoever Taiga bit the previous days. It was such an eerie, bitter feeling. 

They realized why it was forbidden to drink each other only the second time they had tried. He thought that perhaps the second time, it'd be better. And he was right. Taiga was overjoyed by the feeling, he could taste a cocktail of blood.

Yet, they knew it was dangerous for their sanity and their own species. 

Even while voicing his concerns to Taiga, the latter chuckled and said, “who cares.”

Yeah, who cared?

“We aren’t being reasonable,” Yugo kept mumbling as he spotted spots of burgundy blood across his sleeve and he wished he could erase it, make it disappear. He hated the color of old blood. Their blood wasn’t red and fresh and bright, it was old and almost rotten. He wasn’t even sure why he kept coming for more.

He wished he could make their addiction disappear. “We could die.” Yugo added. “From each other’s blood.”

Taiga laughed loudly. It echoed between the four walls of their small bedroom. They were old individuals and yet they were hiding in a room like lawless monsters. 

Yugo didn’t like this laugh.

“We wished to die all this time. We have the opportunity to leave this damn world and now you’re worried?”

Yugo stayed quiet, he watched Taiga stretching his body in the bed like a sleepy cat. Why did they end up in bed? He certainly discovered a very sensual side of his oldest friend as they drank each other and yet he couldn’t find himself to care enough.

He was here for the “bonus.”

They were just licking each other’s wounds like hurt animals.

“You don’t want to die anymore?”

Yugo surprised himself by shaking his head. No, he didn’t want to anymore.

“I figured.”

“I think I prefer burgundy over any shade of red.”

“It doesn't sustain us.” Taiga warned him.

“Yeah, but it’s tasteful,” Yugo said as he approached his lips to Taiga’s shoulder, ready to have a taste of burgundy again.

Yugo bit into the pristine glowy skin, letting burgundy emerge and run along the curve of his arm.

Yugo licked the string of burgundy with delight, still condemned to the obscurity of eternity.