Work Text:
He wakes up with a fuzzy memory and a bleeding head wound. Which isn’t at all surprising considering that he’s surrounded by building rubble on all sides including above. It takes Mika a moment to realize he’s even awake at all since it’s nearly pitch black. When he finally moves, he really wishes he hadn’t.
Ignoring the aches and pains plaguing his body, he fumbles at his belt for his sword. The sheathe is there, but the blade isn’t. Mika can feel panic rising in his chest as he runs his fingers along the ground next to him, feeling for the cold metal that would serve as a semi-decent light source in wherever-the-fuck he is.
There’s a noise, and a gruff voice nearby says, “Chill for a second. Let me hand you your sword.”
Holy shit, who the hell else is in there with him? He doesn’t recognize the voice and his disorientation is making this experience all the more anxiety inducing. Suddenly, there’s a warm hand on his shoulder and he hears dirt stirring underneath him. Familiar metal presses into his palm and his instinctually grips what turns out to be his sword.
“Thanks,” Mika manages, inhaling dust from the rubble around them. It takes him a moment to activate his curse, throwing green light across the dark space.
Then he sees the vampire and remembers everything.
“Mika, you stupid fuck!” Kimizuki shouts as he runs a vampire through with one of his dual blades. The vampire in question had Mika pinned against a rusting vehicle and probably would have drawn blood if Kimizuki hadn’t interfered. Mika rolls to the side, catching his breath with his feet firmly planted on the ground.
“Thanks,” he pants. He’s glad Kimizuki has a horde of vampire motherfuckers to take his anger out on because the guy looks pissed beyond belief. The downside to this is how large this horde is - the higher ups had said no more than ten low-ranking leeches would be in this area. This is supposed to be a recon mission, in and out to check on the detail guarding this outpost. From what Guren had said, it wasn’t even supposed to be an outpost. More of a lax boundary or something.
Fucking Guren.
Kimizuki’s back is pressed against his as he blocks an attack from one of the guards. “I can’t believe you almost let a guard get you,” Kimizuki hisses at him.
“Now is really not the time,” Mika points out through gritted teeth, lunging to the side to avoid a swipe from a particularly beastly vampire. “Does Shinoa have a plan?”
“How should I know?” spits Kimizuki. “I haven’t even seen her since this shit started.”
Okay, well, plan one: find Shinoa, Mika thinks. Until then he’ll just have to keep himself from dying horribly.
One of Yoichi’s arrows flies past his shoulder and collides with a vampire who was about to take a chunk out of Kimizuki. At least their sniper isn’t in the middle of this. Mika really doesn’t have time to be worrying about one more person. And where the fuck is Narumi’s squad? They were within the same square mile, how had they not heard this ruckus by now? Shinoa squad could really use some help. Mika has no idea how many vampires there are but it has to be more than two dozen. Which, no matter how good they are, is going to get overwhelming if they don’t start laying fatal blows left and right.
With a growl of irritation, he plows into another battle, metal clanging with metal as his sword swings and misses a limb. God, he hopes Mistuba and Shinoa are fine.
He finds he doesn’t have time to worry about that because as soon as he’s finished off the vampire in front of him, the one he turns to fight next bolts off of the battlefield and into an abandoned crumbling building.
“Oh, shit,” Mika says right before following him, ignoring whatever it is that Kimizuki yells after him. His boots are already echoing on cracked tile as he jumps through the open window the vampire disappeared through when he notices Kimizuki is saying something at all. Okay, so probably not his best idea, but there’s something different about the vampire from earlier. From their observations, it seems like the one escaping is in charge - he’d issued an order before the battle began and his clothes are more regal than the other vampires. It’s possible, though not likely, that he’s a noble. And Mika could really do with killing a noble right now. And if he isn’t a noble, Mika will probably be killing the most powerful vampire at the godforsaken outpost.
A flash of white vanishes behind the wall as the vampire leaves the room with speed Mika has rarely seen before - this one is pretty fast. Mika narrows his eyes. He’s faster.
He spins around the corner, slipping on rocks and moss and barely managing to keep his balance as he spots the vampire down the hallway. This was probably an office building back before the world ended; the walls are just the right depressingly gross shade of white for that to be the best explanation.
Mika gains his footing and takes off, sword in his hand. It can’t be good for him to inhale all of this dust and grime (and who knows what’s growing in the walls after so many years) but it would be worse for him to let this vampire go, so he ignores the mess he’s kicking up into the air and follows behind the dark-haired vampire as quickly as possible.
He hears a curse from ahead and turns to see the vampire stuck in the lobby. The entrance of the building is collapsed. All rooms are sealed off with rubble or lay behind Mika. The elevator has been useless for years. The vampire is effectively trapped.
Mika skids to a halt, sword raised at the vampire, who’s turned to him with a look of extreme annoyance on his face.
“Don’t think you’ll be getting away, leech,” Mika says as bitingly as he can. “I know you’re the one in charge here.”
“You really don’t understand anything,” the vampire spits in reply, red eyes full of poison. If Mika didn’t know better, he’d say the boy in front of him is about his age. “Look, this building is unstable and-”
“And what?” Mika asks. “I should let you go? I came here understanding that I might die. But I won’t and you’re not getting out of here that easily.”
Mika tightens his grip on the hilt of his sword. He can hear Asuramaru purring in the back of his mind, challenging him to end this before it even starts. So he charges.
He isn’t sure what happens next, but a combination of things lead to his sword striking the ground and setting off a chain reaction. He really should have noticed just how weak the floor is - she should have caught the vampire before he jumped out of the way. Instead of the familiar sensation of his sword rendering flesh, he feels the ground go out below his feet, crumbling away. There’s a hand on his wrist, a warm body pressed against his. Then it’s dark.
It’s so dark.
Mika pushes himself backward in a frenzy, his head and arms throbbing with the effort of staying upright. The vampire, the dark-haired one he had confronted early, doesn’t do much in response. He’s on the opposite side of the small space, one knee bent upright. He doesn’t look particularly interested in what’s going on.
“You motherfucker,” Mika breathes.
“Human gratitude never ceases to amaze me,” the vampire says. “I saved your ass, you know. Breaking your fall like that probably would’ve killed a human being.”
“Bullshit,” Mika snaps, his sword in front of him. The glow casts ominous light across the vampire’s face. Mika can see blood streaking his cheek and dust layered in his hair. The vampire looks so much more muted in the darkness. His white clothes are, needless to say, a mess.
“Whatever. I’ve had plenty of time to kill you,” his unwanted companion says. “You’ve been out for almost ten minutes.”
Mika reels in the information before realizing that he shouldn’t trust a single word that leaves this parasite’s mouth.
The silence between them is long and tense. Mika has to admit, the vampire is probably in much better condition than he is. The blood on his cheek doesn’t seem to belong to him and he doesn’t appear to be outwardly suffering - not that Mika would expect a vampire to show that kind of weakness in front of him. Mika on the other hand can feel a thin stream of blood running down the side of his face. He reaches his hand up to touch his temple and winces. The gash stings. It must be about three inches long, though he can’t tell how deep it is. Head wounds always bleed so much.
“Are you going to do something about that?” the vampire asks. Mika draws his hand away, looking over at the vampire venomously. “You have to put pressure on it if you want to stop the bleeding.”
“What do you care?” Mika shoots back.
“Well, right now you smell like an especially delicious steak dinner. And it’s kind of making me sick.”
Mika raises his sword defensively, glaring across the small space. “So just bite me, then,” he says.
“As much as I’d love to, I don’t actually have any intention of hurting you.” Mika can’t tell whether that first bit was sarcasm. Probably not. “Here,” the vampire says, reaching his hands up to his neck to undo the white cape around his shoulders. He tosses it to Mika, who jumps at the action and stares for several long, silent seconds at the other boy. Then, one hand still on his sword, he gathers up the fabric in his fist and presses it to his head. It stings like hell.
The vampire shifts positions, resting his chin in his palm as he props his elbow up on his leg. He keeps his eyes on Mika. Mika does the same with him, his arm aching from the effort of keeping his sword raised. His entire body aches and he’s probably broken a rib. He’s familiar with that particular pain at this point; familiar enough to identify it without physically checking.
“You can put your sword down,” the vampire says. “Unless you attack me first, I’m staying right here until we’re out of here. I assume your friends will try to dig you out at some point.”
Mika ignores his suggestion and stays silent. He doesn’t know what to make of the situation but he knows he doesn’t trust whoever is sitting across from him. So he keeps his sword close and his attention locked on his enemy, no matter how weird he’s acting.
“What about your vampires?” Mika asks. He tries to sound as hostile as possible but i just comes across as curious.
“Those idiots? They’ll come for me eventually. After a week or two,” the vampire says. “I’m not the most popular guy around.”
“Probably because you abandon them during battles,” Mika mutters coldly.
“Well, wouldn’t you?”
Mika is surprised enough to lower his sword, the tip resting against a block of smashed concrete beside him. The vampire must be able to tell how shocked he is.
“Never mind,” the vampire says. “I’m not spilling my life story to some bitchy human that stuck me in a hole.”
Mika glares. “Fuck you, too.”
Mika can feel his stomach starting to growl. He doesn’t know how long it’s been at this point, but it must be over the hour mark. The vampire hasn’t moved once since adjusting his position and Mika’s arm gave out almost ten minutes ago. His sword is next to him, curse still activated in order to illuminate the small space he’s in. His head aches.
“Hungry?” the vampire asks as Mika’s stomach growls louder.
“Screw off,” Mika snaps.
The vampire shifts and Mika grabs at his sword, staring him down. His companion narrows his eyes at him before slowly reaching his hand into his pocket. Whatever he pulls out, Mika can’t see it.
What the vampire says next is the last thing Mika expected to hear. “All I’ve got it trail mix.”
A wrapper crinkles in the darkness and the vampire finally holds up what’s in his hand. It’s a travel-sized bag of - who would have thought - trail mix. The colorful packaging is obviously from before the apocalypse.
“Want it?” the vampire asks. Mika wants to say no, he really does. But he’s feeling so dizzy and the last time he ate was almost seven hours ago. So he nods.
The vampire throws him the bag. He can’t believe it but Mika sees actual m&ms in there. Holy shit.
He tears the packaging open with his teeth and spills the mix into his mouth. Peanuts have never tasted better before.
After swallowing a few mouthfuls, he looks back at the vampire, who seems almost amused by the sight of him eating.
“Why do you have this with you?” Mika asks.
“I like to have treats for the kids.”
Mika freezes. “You mean the kids you capture and treat like cattle?” he hisses, his fist closing around the trail mix bag.
“I don’t capture them. If you have a problem with it, take it up with the Progenitors,” the vampire states. He doesn’t seem particularly angry about the accusation.
“You still drink their blood,” Mika argues angrily. Vampires like him are the reason he lost his family. Vampires like him are the reason he was stuck underground for years, forced to provide blood and follow every direction he was given.
“And if I don’t some other leech will anyway,” the vampire replies. “Don’t talk about things you don’t understand.”
“Oh, I understand very well ,” Mika spits, throwing the open bag back at the vampire. “Keep your cattle feed.”
The vampire sighs.
Mika opens his eyes to find he’s still stuck in the rubble of the building. He doesn’t remember passing out again and has no idea how long he’s been out for. There’s a tightness across his forehead. He reaches up to feel a strip of fabric wrapped around his cut.
“I couldn’t do much with it,” the vampire’s voice makes him jump. “I used the water from your canteen to clean the area of blood but you’ll probably need stitches.” He laughs. “Human bodies are really inconvenient sometimes.”
Mika just stares, his hand frozen against his head. He sits up, realizing that the remains of the cape have been used to prop his skull up off the ground. This is really starting to weird him out.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Mika demands. “Are you… What are you?”
The vampire looks at him quizzically. “I’m a vampire,” he says.
“Obviously,” Mika snaps. “But what are you doing?”
“You’ll have to be more specific.”
Mika jabs a finger in his direction, his face a mask of confused anger. He doesn’t like being out of the loop. He doesn’t like this situation at all. “You’re my enemy,” he hisses. “I would’ve killed you a long time ago if I were in any condition to do so.”
“Rude,” the vampire says. That’s the only response Mika gets. “Hungry?” The vampire holds out the bag of trail mix from before. Mika ignores him.
“So what were you even doing out here?”
Mika jumps with a start as the silence is once again broken by his increasingly irritating roommate. The vampire is now lying on his back, staring at the ceiling with illuminated eyes. Those red irises glow like a cat’s eyes in the dark. Mika wonders how good his night vision is.
“What do you mean?” Mika asks warily.
“Well, it’s not like this outpost is especially important. The only reason we’re here is to get me out of the queen’s hair,” the vampire says. “The idiots under my command are some of the worst soldiers you’ll ever encounter, but at least it got me out of the city.”
“It was the mission we were assigned,” Mika states plainly. He doesn’t know how much he wants to reveal to this guy.
“Pretty shitty mission.”
“Shut the fuck up.”
From the side, Mika can see the vampire smirk. “What’s your name?” he asks. This throws him off. Then again, everything this vampire has said so far has thrown him off.
“None of your business.”
“Huh? Well, okay,” the vampire says. “I’m Yuu.”
“The answer to a question I never asked.”
The silence that follows is long. Mika keeps his gaze fixed on the vampire ( on Yuu , he thinks unwillingly) and watches as his breath slows and his eyes close. He doesn’t know if vampires can sleep but that’s what it looks like his companion is doing.
Mika slides himself across the tiny space the the vampire, who has his arms propped up under his head. There’s still a smudge of dried blood right below his eye.
It’s actually unnerving how human this thing looks with his eyes closed and his ears covered. If Mika didn’t know any better, he’d assume this kid was a normal high school student. The peaceful look of his face is infuriatingly unnerving.
He had been planning to run the bastard through at the first opportunity. But now that the chance has finally come, Mika can’t look away from the boy in front of him. He looks just like a kid. He looks just like a human.
Mika angrily stabs his sword into the ground, holding his knees to his chest and hiding his face in frustration. Where the fuck are Shinoa and the others? They can’t be dead. But he hasn’t heard anything from above in a long time. The battle must be over now. It has to be.
He hates himself for thinking that maybe they’ve been killed. That’s the only explanation at this point.
I’m sure I could get you out of here, Asuramaru assures him. His voice is a breeze through Mika’s mind, gone before he can even be sure it was there at all.
“Shut the fuck up,” Mika mutters, keeping his head to his knees.
Mika jumps again (his nerves are going to be fried by the end of this little adventure) as the vampire shifts in his sleep, turning so that his back is to Mika. Which is baffling because a vampire has never done such a thing around him. Falling asleep in front of an enemy… This one is either very stupid or very confident. It’s unfortunate Mika can’t seem to build up the motivation to kill the bastard.
Weak, Asuramaru supplies. Mika wishes he could flip off a voice.
Halfheartedly, he begins to pick at the trail mix again, this time savoring the individual flavors. Except for the raisins, but he’s hungry enough to eat those anyway. It still sickens him to think that a little kid would have been the one eating this, probably after getting their blood stolen. But what’s weird about it is that the vampire, Yuu or whatever, was carrying this around in the first place. The vampires in the city had never carried snacks around for the kids. They hardly acknowledged them unless it was to rough them up.
He’s over-analyzing this. This parasite probably just wanted to make sure his favorite snacks didn’t pass out one too many times. Mika knows from experience what regular blood donations can do to someone if you’re not careful.
He stares at the vampire. The green light suits him. Until now, Mika’s considered green his favorite color. He doesn’t know how to feel about it anymore.
The vampire is only asleep for a short time before he wakes, which shouldn’t be all that surprising. Mika hadn’t known they could sleep in the first place - though logically, any creature with a long-term memory and living tissue would need sleep. The properties of their diet might take care of many things, but Mika had no idea how far that went.
Mika stays where he is despite the vampire’s now-conscious state. If he was going to be killed, it would have happened a long time ago.
To his surprise, the vampire sits up and scoots backwards until his back is pressed to the wall behind him. There’s barely three feet between them.
“Could you… maybe back up?” the vampire asks, sounding awfully strained for someone who just woke up. “I can smell your blood and…”
Mika turns his head away, fixing his gaze straight ahead as his chin leans on his knees.
“Who cares?” he mutters. “Doesn’t seem like anyone is coming, anyway.”
“It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours,” the vampire says. “Can you please-”
“They’re probably dead,” Mika interrupts. “So what does it matter if you kill me now? Maybe one of us will live if you do.”
“Don’t talk like that!” the vampire exclaims. It’s a shock, one that makes Mika freeze. “They’re your friends, aren’t they? Don’t you believe in them?”
Mika sighs. “That’s unrealistic,” he says. “Against that many vampires...”
“Like I said, my guys are idiots,” the vampire replies. He hasn’t moved from his spot against the wall and besides a slight tension in his shoulders he hasn’t physically reacted to what Mika is saying. “No doubt they got sent out here because the queen knew I’d get them killed at some point.”
“That’s fucked up,” Mika says.
“Well, we aren’t talking about me. We’re talking about you.”
“No, you were talking about me,” Mika snaps. He draws his knees closer to his chest, feeling a pang there that he can’t identify the origins of.
“Sure, whatever. I’m still not gonna drink you,” he says. “When your friends dig you out, they’ll turn me into a goddamn kebob if they find me with your body.”
“ If they dig me out,” Mika says.
“I bet you’re fun at parties.”
Mika lunges, smashing the vampire’s head back up against the debris behind him. He hisses, red eyes shut tight against the sudden pain. Mika can feel his own shaking hands gripping the cloth at the vampire’s throat, inches from strangling him. He can feel skin, cool to the touch, against his knuckles. Worst of all, he can feel his own ragged breath, ferocious and pathetic all at once.
“You have no idea,” Mika spits. “You have no idea what it’s like to keep losing people and knowing that it’s your fault that they’re gone. If I hadn’t chased after you -” Mika cuts himself off, his shoulders losing their strength. The vampire is staring at him with those disgustingly enchanting eyes. He wants to rip them right out of his skull.
“If I hadn’t chased after you,” he repeats, “maybe they wouldn’t be dead.”
His vision is a haze. He doesn’t think he’s crying but he can’t see straight. It’s like the world has caved in all over again. Until he said it, Mika hadn’t realized it. But it is his fault. They’re all probably dead and it’s his fault because he wanted to kill a noble even though this jackass probably isn’t even a noble in the first place and he left them because he always leaves people.
There’s weight on his shoulder. There’s warmth against his face, short bursts of breath tickling his nose and stirring his hair. There are fingers draped over his skin and his clothes and it feels almost comforting in the strangest of ways.
“You don’t know that,” the vampire says. His voice is firm and quiet. It reminds Mika of Guren in his kinder moments. There’s even something about the resolve in his eyes that reminds Mika of Guren.
His heart palpitates.
Wait, what the fuck?
His hands are limp against the vampire’s chest (broad, warm, still). He wants nothing more than to gather up the strength to choke the bastard to the ground and watch the light fade from his devil’s eyes as he dies. But he can’t. And he hates himself for it.
“They’ll find you,” the vampire assures. And again, there’s that resolve that throws Mika through so many loops he doesn’t know if he ends up right side up or upside down. “They’re your friends.”
Then, he smiles.
Mika doesn’t know what to do with that.
“But I’m serious, you should probably move away from me,” the vampire warns in a completely new tone of voice, letting his hand fall away. “I have pretty good control for a newborn, but you still smell like dinner to me.”
Mika sits back on his heels, unsure of what to do now that he’s completely lost his mind and been comforted by a vampire of all people. He turns and crawls back to his corner, where the white mess that used to be a cape lays in the dirt. There he sits, feeling the cool touch of the earth beneath him and the less-cool gaze of the vampire.
“Mika,” he says hoarsely.
“What?”
He clears his throat quietly. “Mika. That’s my name,” he repeats.
Yuu smiles, and he wants to be sick.
There’s a sound, like a beast breaking through the plates of the earth. Concrete falling against itself and dirt cascading down the side of a wall of debris.
Wait. There’s a sound.
Mika stands up on his knees, which is as high as he can go in the small space he currently occupies. As it is, his unruly blonde hair brushes the makeshift ceiling above him. Yuu must have heard it too because his head has whipped around to stare at a spot above him. There’s the distinct but muffled accompaniment of voices as well, some higher and some lower. Mika can’t identify them, but he’s hopeful all the same.
Yuu looks at him. “Say something,” he prompts in a hiss like it should be obvious.
Mika breaths in deeply before letting out the loudest “Hello?” he possibly can. Yuu does not seem impressed. The noises stop.
Mika looks at Yuu again, then back to the ceiling, cupping his hands around his mouth. “I’m down here!”
Nothing.
“Shinoa? Yoichi? Guys?” he shouts. There’s desperation in his voice now.
There’s a muffled response that he can’t hear but it’s enough to get his heart pounding again. Mika all but attacks the wall, his fingers scraping against the concrete and being about as effective as a bug against glass. All he really manages to do before Yuu hauls him backwards is scrape up his fingers.
“Don’t!” Yuu tells him, arms gripping his waist tightly to keep him from getting at the mass of debris trapping them. “You’ll probably just make it collapse. Let them try from the outside.”
Mika lets himself be held back. He doesn’t like it, but Yuu is right. He’ll just have to wait. Yuu doesn’t let him go, though. There’s something oddly comforting about having arms wrapped around him like this. Mika wouldn’t admit that, though.
“-ika!”
Mika perks up at the sound, listening as rubble from above shifts.
“Mika!”
He can’t hold himself back from replying now. Yuu doesn’t bother holding him back as he crawls back to the side of the little cavern where the noises are all coming from. “I’m down here!” he yells right up against the debris. “I’m alive!”
There’s more noise. There’s no chance to register that he should probably move before he’s yanked out of the way of the falling debris. Yuu shoves Mika beneath him, face to the ground, as rocks cascade down onto the spot Mika has just vacated. It takes him a moment to blink the dust out of his eyes.
He sits up, feeling Yuu’s weight pull itself off of him as more rubble shifts, like someone is walking over it. A large portion of their ceiling now fills the space before them.
There’s light above them. Mika almost panics as it’s cut off, then comes back weaker. Then he realizes that only happened because Shinoa Hiiragi is looking up at him from over ten feet above.
“Mika!” she calls down to him. He crawls into the light, his hands and knees bracing against worn concrete and broken wood. Her face relaxes as soon as he comes into view.
“Are you okay?” she asks him. Her voice echoes off the debris between them. There’s actually quite a long tunnel between the two of them, almost six feet of space that doesn’t look as carefully cleared as the rest of it. “Mistuba got impatient and- well, that doesn’t matter. Are you hurt, Mika?”
“I’m fine!” he calls back. “Look, there’s someone down here with me, just-”
“Can you make it?” she interrupts.
Mika looks at the space between them. He can probably climb up through that.
“It’s pretty unstable,” Yuu says. “You should be careful.”
Mika barely spares a second for thought before making his first move up towards the light, where his squad waits for him. Mitsuba has appeared beside Shinoa at the edge of the tunnel they’ve made, and he can hear Yoichi talking calmly in the background. Probably trying to get Kimizuki to relax.
Rubble shifts behind him as Yuu climbs up after him. The chunks of debris cut into his uniform but this is all he can do to keep from scrambling up towards the light like a bat out of hell. That metaphor would probably be more ironic if he used it for Yuu though likely less accurate.
There’s fresh air just out of his reach and he can feel the light on his skin. Six feet left. Five feet. Four. Three.
And Mika is out, his knees connecting with solid ground. He breathes in air unladen with dust and feels cool tile beneath his hands.
Yoichi is on him first, quickly followed by the rest of his squad. Yoichi’s hands find the gash on his forehead, the cuts on his knees, and Mika knows exactly what expression the other boy is wearing.
“It’s not bleeding,” Yoichi tells Shinoa, having unwrapped the makeshift bandage from Mika’s head. “We should disinfect it as soon as possible.”
“Mika?” Mitsuba asks him. She’s knelt down next to him. She helps him sit up, a hand on his back and chest. There’s a cut on her cheek, not deep and not fresh. But he’s too happy to see that she is alive to worry about small cuts now.
“I’m fine,” he says. “It’s just nice to breath in fresh air.”
“You’re so stupid, ” Kimizuki tells him, brushing dirt off of his shoulders. “You’ve ruined your uniform, you fucking idiot.”
Mika turns his head to look up at the taller boy, grinning sheepishly.
“Where’s your sword?” Shinoa asks him.
There’s panic rising in Mika’s chest as he remembers Asuramaru’s blade, which he last saw back in the pit, upright in the ground.
“I’ve got it,” Yuu says from behind him. Mika turns to see Yuu, sitting cross-legged at the base of the hole, pick up the sword from the ground and turn it, hilt facing away. He scoots closer and takes the offered blade.
“Thank you,” he says begrudgingly.
“Mika!” Mitsuba snaps at him as Kimizuki growls and dives between the two, putting himself between Mika and Yuu. “Get away from him!”
He hears the distinct sound of Shinoa and Mitsuba summoning their weapons, placing themselves at his shoulders and glaring down at the vampire before them. Yoichi seems at a loss for what to do.
“It’s fine,” Mika says tiredly. “If he wanted to kill me, he had a few hours to do so without any interference. Besides,” he adds, looking at the battle-weary group around him, “you all look exhausted.”
Yuu waves a hand casually. “I don’t intend to start anything. I’m not a big fan of killing humans.”
“Likely,” Kimizuki bites back. Mika can feel how tense the boy is, his back pressed against Mika’s chest as he acts as some sort of human shield for his squadmate.
“It’s true,” Yuu says. “Your friend there came after me while I was making my escape. I’ve been looking for a chance to get the hell away from Sanguinem for a long time. Thanks to you, they’ll probably think I’m dead now.”
“Want to make that a reality?” Mitsuba asks in a growl, raising Tenjiryū. The hostility that radiates off of her is even more intense than it usually is.
“Don’t bother,” Mika repeats. “He’s not going to hurt anyone. Let’s just… go home.”
“But-”
Shinoa twirls his scythe and lets it vanish back down into its smaller form. “It doesn’t seem worth it,” she decides. “We’ll be letting him go.”
“What?” Mitsuba demands, turning her anger on Shinoa. “He’s a vampire! ”
“And yet we’re still alive,” she says. “Mika is right. We barely have an ounce of energy between the four of us. Let’s just get our poor little puppy here back to someone who can fix him up.”
Yuu is looking up at her from his place on the ground, hands in his lap. He looks like a kid sitting like that. “If that’s your final decision then,” he says, standing and stretching. His back bends and pops. “I’ll be off. Probably won’t see you around, but it was nice to meet you, Mika.”
The vampire is off in a blink of an eye. Shit. He’s really fast.
Mitsuba remains on guard as Kimizuki relaxes back into Mika, his head placed on his chest. Mika sighs and leans his head down, looking at Kimizuki. His friend has his eyes closed.
“You all look terrible,” Mika says weakly.
“Cute,” Mitsuba replies. “Come on, we’ll get you back to Narumi’s squad. They can help carry your sorry ass back to a doctor.”
Mika doesn’t have a single problem with that.
“And how’s the kid doing?”
Guren is standing at the entrance to his medical room, which is actually just a curtained-off area of the emergency room. He has a bed though. That’s nice.
“Hurts like a bitch,” Mika replies as the doctor fumbles with her needle. Having something sharp so close to his eye is unnerving to say the least.
“Shinoa informed me you were stuck in a hole for a majority of the battle,” Guren says. “I’m pretty sure we’ve talked about running off before.”
Mika glares at Guren. “He could have been a noble. He was fast enough to be,” Mika retorts, wincing as the needle slides through his skin. Of course he wouldn’t get any anesthetic. That had to be illegal.
Guren considers him for a moment. “You got lucky,” he says. “And next time you get trapped with a vampire, I expect you to kill it.”
“Sure,” Mika says. “I’m certain I’d win even with a concussion.”
“Don’t talk back, kid,” Guren tells him. “You’re not cute enough to get away with that.”
Mika glares.
“Sometimes I think you’re too softhearted for all of this military business,” Guren says. “Get some rest. Stay with someone for a few days. And yes,” Guren adds, seeing the grimace on Mika’s face, “that is an order.”
Mika pulls a face as Guren turns to leave and yelps as the doctor prods his face again.
“Stay still,” the doctor orders, her hands freezing momentarily as she waits for Mika to stop being a little shit.
Mika obliges.
God, he’s exhausted.