Chapter Text
The only thing that saved Youichiro from a wooden stake to the heart was the wolfish reflexes that he retained for a few days after each full moon. He didn't really think about how it might not go over well, kicking open the door to Yuki's sanctuary during the daytime, until the stake had slid most of the way through his hand, leaving a number of splinters behind, and the tip of the sharpened bit of wood pressed against his chest.
"What are you doing?" Yuki hissed once he realized who was standing in the doorway. Of course no light had crept in, Yuki was still safe, but the reaction was instinctive. Youichiro couldn't really blame him. "I might have killed you, you know."
"Sorry." Youichiro grumbled, stepping into Yuki's room and kicking the door shut behind him so the vampire would stop hissing between every word. "No, wait." He follows through, dropping the stake and holding his hand close to his eyes so he could start pulling the slivers of wood out of his palm. "I'm not sorry at all. Yuki."
"What?" Yuki growled, and Youichiro could tell by the rustling sounds in the pitch dark room that Yuki had rolled over and pulled his blankets over his head again. He's not completely comatose during the daytime, obviously, but certainly sleepy and he had some trouble with coherency.
Well, it sucked to be him. Youichiro wasn't about to wait until sunset for answers. "Why is there a human passed out on our couch?"
The silence was more than enough of an answer for Youichiro, at first anyway, but by the time his hand was relatively free of splinters and he started licking the blood away (not for the first time was he thankful that his blood drew absolutely none of Yuki's attention) he was ready for a better explanation than heavy silence.
"He's not dead." Youichiro prompted, a bit more gently than his earlier accusation. "But he's got a bandage on his neck..."
"Well, I couldn't exactly leave it without a bandage."
Youichiro sighed and crossed the room to perch on the end of Yuki's bed. Yuki hissed again, but Youichiro had stopped being scared of that sound a few years back. It was only a fair warning, after all, and irrelevant to those of wolf stock.
"You've never brought a human home before," He said carefully. "I understand you have to feed, and for the most part, you know, I don't mind. I just let it go. But this..."
"What business is it of yours?" But Yuki was engaged in the conversation now, Youichiro could tell because he could hear Yuki's blankets shifting as the vampire sat up.
He might still have the wolf's senses, but all that meant in this kind of darkness was that he could sense, with help of his ears and nose and all, a faint outline of the half-dressed vampire. Yuki could most surely see him in minute detail. It wasn't really fair, but Youichiro tried not to let him bother him. It never had before, anyway.
"Are you gonna... Are you gonna make him a vampire?" Youichiro asked after a moment of consideration. And his senses were attuned enough that he caught the helpless shrug that was Yuki's most honest answer.
"I never wanted to before, you know. But he's... he's special."
"What's so special about him?" Youichiro asked skeptically. Their visitor, if he could call him that, had looked pretty typical to Youichiro. Pale and unconscious and bandaged. Normal. Human. And, as such, vulnerable.
"It's hard to explain." There was a lot unspoken in Yuki's words, and Youichiro scowled to himself.
"I guess it's a vampire thing, huh." Youichiro growled.
Yuki sighed, and the sound was so weary that Youichiro couldn't help but feel sorry for him, even if he was still mad at him.
"What am I supposed to do, then?" Youichiro asked. "What if he wakes up and wants to leave?"
"Then let him leave." Yuki whined. "He's not compelled. I don't do that. I just couldn't let him go home when he was bleeding."
Youichiro sighed and stood up, crossing to the door.
"Oh, and Youichiro." Yuki called after him just as his hand reached the door knob.
"What?"
"You ever come into my room uninvited again, I won't miss with that stake."
Wolves were pretty resilient, even in human form off the full moon. But still, a spike of wood through his heart would be pretty close to fatal.
Still, Yuki hadn't missed the first time. Youichiro had simply been able to catch it.
"Sure, Yuki." He might as well let Yuki keep his illusions of strength and accuracy in tact. "Sorry. Won't let it happen again."
His only answer was a waning grumble. The vampire was already unconscious again, his body's physical limitations overwhelming his conscious mind. Youichiro slipped out the door, closed it carefully behind himself, and gave his head a shake. He wasn't sure he'd ever understand vampires.
"I'm sorry."
The voice was unfamiliar, low but with a certain feline purr. Youichiro turned in an instinctive low stance, and his feral snarl caused the stranger to take a step back, hands raised defensively. "Are you a friend of Yamada-san?"
The human was awake.