Chapter Text
Being a light sleeper in a tiny apartment filled to the brim with cats was never fun. Atsushi rarely slept for any longer than a handful of hours at a time, with her busy work schedule. It was also constantly interrupted by her least favorite son, Babycat, deciding to curbstomp her face into her own pillow every few hours. It was annoying, but she had grown used to rolling over and ignoring him. Six cats meant living with tiny creatures who randomly caught the zoomies, and Atsushi accepted her role as their personal parkour course with grace. She had no one to blame but herself.
They typically didn’t break things, though. So when a glass shattered, somewhere in the apartment- Atsushi shot upright immediately from the couch. She took one quick scan of her surroundings, still barely conscious. It was daytime; Atsushi could see the sun peeking through from around the edges of her blackout curtains. It was dark in the living room otherwise, the only light otherwise only came from the kitchen, above the stove. The only sign of distress came from Lil Bit, who was skittering out to the main living area- away from the hallway, where the bedroom was.
Daiki. Holy shit- Daiki. He probably was trying to get up. Maybe he had fallen, or hurt himself.
She stood quickly, padding down the hall bare-foot to check on him. The door was ajar, and when she tapped on it to push it open a little further- the situation wasn’t nearly half as bad as she had pictured in her mind.
Daiki was sitting on the center of the bed with his legs crossed. He looked startled, his jaw dropped open, still dangling a little feather string toy in his uninjured arm mid-air. There was shattered glass on the floor- a little angel figurine that Atsushi had thrifted years ago for only a dollar, nothing special- and Little Miss was trying to hide herself behind a laundry basket, guiltily. Daiki looked like he had been caught when Atsushi came in, and dropped the cat toy immediately, hiding his hand in his lap.
Atsushi sighed with relief. They were just playing- Little Miss probably just landed on her dresser while trying to catch the feather. She had a skill for acrobatics, and loved launching herself into things when she got too excited.
“Good morning.” Daiki spoke first, far more cheery than he had been a few hours prior. Based on the crooked grin growing on his face, he probably felt a little bit better after some rest. He still sounded raspy from sleep, combined with the damage to his throat from yelling and being sick all night.
“Morning.” Atsushi sighed tiredly, leaning against the doorframe as she wiped sleep from her eyes.
“…your cat broke something.” Daiki added on, innocently. Atsushi couldn’t help but smile at the way he shifted the blame.
“Yeah, she does that.” Atsushi nodded, before stepping into the room a bit further. She kneeled down to start picking up the mess. She was careful, as she picked up glass shards with her bare hand, placing broken pieces in her opposite palm. When she looked up, Daiki was leaning off the edge of the bed to watch her.
“You uh..” Atsushi paused, nervously. “You sleep okay?”
“Mhm.” Daiki only hummed in response, watching as Atsushi cleaned up the mess.
“That’s good. You look a lot better.”
“Thanks, I guess. It still hurts, though.” Daiki grumbled a little, reaching over to hold his own arm in its sling.
“Ah, gimme a minute. I’ll get you some more medicine.”
Leaning forward to check under the bed, Atsushi rested her palm flat onto the ground. A sharp pain in the base of her wrist made her hiss, sitting back up quickly to check her hand. It was a moderately small shard stuck in the meat of her palm, a superficial little cut. Ow. She clicked her tongue in irritation, looking between the cut in her hand, while her other palm was too full of other little pieces of glass to really do anything about it.
“Shit, that hurt. I gotta grab a broom.” Atsushi was careful when she stood up, relying on the strength in her legs alone. She wanted to clean it up as soon as possible, to keep Daiki or any of the cats from hurting themselves on the floor. “Don’t get up, let me clean this up first. Watch Little Miss.”
“Little Miss?” Daiki asked, before the aforementioned cat jumped back up onto the mattress with a little ‘mrrrp!’ sound.
“Yeah, that’s the culprit.” Atsushi snorted a weak laugh. “She’s stupid, so just keep an eye on her. I’ll be right back.”
With that, Atsushi left the room to throw away the glass and grab a broom. She was careful to toss the glass in a paper bag and secure it in several layers of plastic bags, so the sharp shards to avoid it potentially hurting any garbage men or wildlife after it was tossed out. It was a habit she picked up while bartending and serving tables- broken bottles and ceramic plates were common in the industry. God forbid a possum dug in the dumpster and hurt itself trying to find a meal. The apartments she stayed in had a bit of a rat and raccoon problem as well, but Atsushi thought they were cute, as long as they stayed outside. After that process was done, she grabbed her broom and dust pan, before heading back into the room.
Little Miss had found her way into Daiki’s lap, flopped over with her belly exposed. Daiki had his free hand held up against his chest, and it looked as though Little Miss was trying to catch him, her paws held up with anticipation. When Atsushi came back in, Daiki looked up at her, his brows furrowed.
“She scratched me!” He sounded shocked, and a little offended.
“Yeah, she’s just trying to play with you.” Atsushi shrugged as she started sweeping, making sure there was nothing left on the floor. “I never taught her how to be nice, she’s kinda spoiled. My fault.”
Daiki didn’t seem very happy with this answer. He kept out of Little Misses reach, his lips curled into a small frown. Atsushi held the dust pan in her hand when she was done, and stood upright to double check the floor one final time. It should be okay- but Daiki should have something on his feet, if he started walking around.
“I think I got all of it, but I’m gonna give you some slippers.” Atsushi was speaking mostly to herself, but Daiki nodded anyway. She pointed at her shoe rack, filled with all different sorts of options. House shoes, heels, boots, sneakers, slippers. All thrifted, but well loved. Unfortunately, Atsushi had a bit of a bad habit of splurging on clothing, and shoes were something she kept far too many of. Worldly possessions, but they were cheap, and made her happy.
“Pick whatever you want, I’m gonna try to figure out breakfast.”
“‘Kay.” Daiki nodded, lazily, preoccupied by his own thoughts.
With that, Atsushi decided to just start her daily process. It couldn’t really be considered a morning routine, or a routine at all. The times she woke up were widely varied, and she often had no real time to actually do anything for herself. She lived off of food from work and black coffee, with her busy on-the-go schedule, so she never kept groceries in her fridge. She often did her hair before bed, throwing it in rollers once a week to keep her curls tight. Her make-up was always done while she was riding the bus to work- her face reflected by a tiny compact mirror, instead of her vanity dresser she kept in her bedroom.
She still had a pack of coffee grounds in her cabinet, though- along with some nearly expired oatmeal packets. Her fridge was filled with leftover boxes from work that needed to be tossed, and she didn’t have any sugar, but hopefully, black coffee was acceptable to Daiki. She brewed a full pot in her own apartment for the first time in months, and tossed out garbage from her fridge out of pure embarrassment. She had a guest, and she didn’t want to risk anyone actually seeing the pig sty she really lived in.
Her apartment was cute- all fairy lights and decorative pillows, plush blankets and blackout pink curtains. It was more of a safe space for her pets, filled to the brim with pink cat towers with toys scattered all over the floor. It wasn’t the cleanest space ever, Atsushi didn’t have enough time in her day to organize everything. However- when she checked her schedule, scrawled out on the whiteboard on her fridge, she saw that she had the entire day off. The coffee shop was her only shift for the day. She didn’t have to bartend on Sundays, they were closed. The client she had seen the night before had covered almost her full rent, and her checks would be hitting in two days.
She had time to clean up, for once, and Atsushi was going to take the chance. She boiled water to make some oatmeal, since she didn’t have any milk. Wiped down her countertops from clutter, picked up the first aid kit. She left out the pill bottle for whenever he decided to come out. The coffee tasted awful, but she sipped at it anyways, grimacing at the taste. Burnt and stale.
It was fine. It wasn’t like she was picky about it.
When Daiki came out, he was wearing Atsushi’s fuzzy pink slippers. He was still in the same dress pants from the night before, and it contrasted with the silk button-up pajama top that Atsushi had dressed him in. He looked ragged, still dirty, with his hair sticking up in every direction. It was easy to tell just from looking at him that he needed a shower, and he shuffled out awkwardly, with how big the slippers were on his feet.
Right. Atsushi should probably show him where the shower was.
“I made some oatmeal, if you're hungry.” She offered it politely, holding out a small bowl to him. When he didn’t take it, only stared at her like she was crazy- which, rude, but whatever- she set it down onto the table, for him to make his own choices.
“…can I get one of those pills again?” Daiki asked quietly, as he shifted on his feet. Atsushi gave him a pointed look, narrowing her eyes a bit.
“You really should eat with it, but yeah.”
“I don’t remember asking for that.”
The rude tone made Atsushi scoff, slack jawed. It was dangerous to take strong pain medicine on an empty stomach. Pills like that could make someone sick- and Daiki was a small guy. He was petite, and scrawny in a way that genuinely scared the shit out of Atsushi. He ignored her advice though, simply holding out an open palm. Expecting.
She smacked the other half of the pill from the night before into Daiki’s palm, and he smiled, a snark in his voice when he spoke again. “Thank you.”
“Be careful with those.” Atsushi muttered, with a defeated sigh. “And go shower. The bathroom is on the left down the hall, I’ll get you some clothes or something.”
“Kay.”
【 ★彡 】
Ikeda Daiki. That was his name. He was a strange guy, and he was the same age as Atsushi. That was a little shocking for her to find out, because he was tiny. Short and frail, with a youthful voice. There were a lot of interesting things about them that Atsushi had learned in the first week of him staying in her apartment.
For one, Daiki was an artist. During his second day staying at home while Atsushi went to work, he had found her old sketchbook, and had taken the dry erase markers and pens from the kitchen to draw. When she finally came home to find that he had filled up several pages with sketches of the cats, her heart melted. She dug through her closet to find her old supplies from school, pulling out her box of markers and pencils to give to him. Proper tools, something to actually do with his time.
After only a week, almost a quarter of the book was filled with different artwork. Remakes of classic pieces that she could find in museums, copied from memory with paint markers and resized to fit the tiny canvas. A million tiny cats in motion, action shots to study their anatomy. There was even one of Atsushi herself, her side profile. When he did it, Atsushi had just been sitting on the couch next to him, playing on her phone. He stopped when she had finally looked up, huffing that she had ruined it by moving. It was almost completely finished, the light of her phone screen illuminating the front of her face, a sparkle on her nose where her nostril piercing was.
It was flattering, and Atsushi had stammered with embarrassment when he showed her. She had never felt so beautiful before.
“I can’t believe that’s supposed to be me.. that’s so pretty. Thank you, Daiki.”
“Whatever. It’d be better if you move so much.”
Another fact about Daiki was that he was rude. A total asshole, just for the sake of it. It didn’t matter how nicely Atsushi spoke, if Daiki felt a certain way- he was going to express it. He was inconsiderate, messy, argumentative, and sarcastic. Atsushi would get off of work to find the apartment was a wreck, with water all over the bathroom floor, or clothes strewn around everywhere. He didn’t clean up after himself, didn’t work, and her bed sheets smelled like boy. Reeking, sweating, sickly boy smell. There was no other way to describe the scent.
Daiki had some kind moments, though. He functioned through a strange cycle of moods and wellness. Atsushi caught on quickly that when he was at his kindest- he also felt the worst. His health wasn’t improving. As a matter of fact, he was rapidly declining, slowly losing his ability to move around as much. Within a week, he had gone from sarcastic and angry, lounging around the kitchen and living room- to miserable and silent, trapped in the bed and too weak to move. It didn’t take long for him to stop turning down the meals that Atsushi brought home with an irritated denial of being hungry.
That wasn’t to say that Daiki was eating those meals, though. He still refused to eat. Instead of being an asshole about it, all he did was decline politely. No, thank you. When Atsushi would try to insist, he would only take a few bites- only to be sick and throw up, within the hour. He couldn’t keep food down, and Atsushi was scared shitless.
Daiki was going to die in Atsushi’s apartment. She was certain of it- but every time she tried to drag him out, bring him to the hospital? Daiki thrashed, kicked and screamed so loudly, that Atsushi would have to stop, to keep her neighbors from calling the police. It was as if he saved all of his strength for those moments, and he was more than capable of grabbing Atsushi’s fingers and bending them backwards to make her let go of him. That fucking hurt, by the way. Atsushi wasn’t Daiki’s biggest fan for the whole day, after he pulled that one.
It had been a week. Begging, crying, screaming at each other, Atsushi desperately tried get Daiki to come with her to get help. Every time, Daiki refused, insistent that he was fine, that he would be okay.
Atsushi was tired. So incredibly tired of yelling, and pleading, and getting shit thrown at her. Throwing things back. Everything was spiraling, to the point where she couldn’t hold herself together anymore.
Daiki was dying. There was nothing she could do.
Atsushi couldn’t even look away from it, because he was determined to die in her own fucking bed. Making her watch every agonizing second of it, with bated breath.
It was one of those quiet days- but the past two had been quiet as well. Daiki couldn’t really get the energy to speak, and when he did, he was almost sweet. Inquiring. Curious. Atsushi sat on the bed next to him, while he asked her about what her day was like. How was her shift? Boring. Who were her coworkers? No one important. Had anyone said anything nice to her, that day?
“No, not really.” Atsushi responded with a tired laugh, to that last question.
The room was silent, for a moment. Atsushi looked down to make sure Daiki wasn’t asleep, only to find that the boy was staring at her through lidded eyes. When Atsushi made eye contact, Daiki just smiled, a weak, forced thing. As if it hurt him to move his face.
“…I think your hair is really pretty.” Daiki mumbled nonsensically.
“What?” Atsushi blinked in confusion. Where did that even come from?
“That’s your nice thing for the day. Your hair is… pretty.” Daiki repeated softly, and Atsushi could see his chest rise and fall, a struggle for him to breathe.
It broke her. Killed something inside of her, popped a string in her heart that held back the last shred of her dignity. She couldn’t help it, when her voice crackled with a strange laugh. When tears stung harshly in her eyes, a burning in her throat. Nauseated, agonized, exhausted.
The next sound that wretched out of her body was a sob. She was hyper aware of Daiki sitting up next to her, leaning in to see what was happening- but it only made her feel worse. He had so little energy left, and he was using it to compliment her, and check on her. How selfish could Atsushi possibly be, to make him comfort her while he was on his own deathbed?
“Atsushi?” His voice was soft, overflowing with concern. “Hey. What’s wrong?”
“Please,” Her voice was deep in her chest, desperation lacing through, forced out of her violently. “Please, please stop doing this,”
Daiki only moved closer, despite her begging. She couldn’t see him, her eyes were shut tight, but Atsushi could feel the weight of him moving on the mattress, the blankets shifting around her. He was in front of her, now, and she jolted when she felt a fragile arm around her. A hug, with only one arm, shallow breathing against her face.
“I’m sorry.” His voice was a whisper, mournful. She shuddered as her voice crackled with a wail, leaning forward against him. Atsushi buried his face into the fabric of his shirt, immediately soiling it with her tears, marking him with snot.
Daiki had cried to her a million times, at this point. Sobbed into the pillows, or into her little bedside trash can, while Atsushi rubbed his back to soothe him. Atsushi could feel him trying to do the same, running his hand along her shoulderblade, burying his own face into her bare neck, her sweater hanging off her shoulder.
“Please. Hospital.” Atsushi whimpered, dropping her hands to fist them in Daiki’s shirt, begging.
“I can’t go there. I’ll die.” Daiki said it so plainly, as if he wasn’t short of breath just sitting up. No matter how much Atsushi begged to know more- he would never tell her. How would dying there, with people who could actually help, be any different from dying here? In her bed?
“I-I- Daiki, you’re already dying. Y-You can’t even eat ah-anything,”
She sounded pathetic. Atsushi couldn’t breath, gasping for air between sobs as Daiki pet her. He shushed her as he rocked their bodies side to side, pressing his nose hard against Atsushi’s shoulder.
“Please. I just.. I-I need you to eat, anything.”
At that, Daiki tensed up. He stopped moving, his hand going completely still against Atsushi’s back. His face didn’t move from her collar, though- holding his breath.
“I… I can eat?”
“Please. Please eat.”
Atsushi would get him a full steak dinner, if it meant he would try to keep it down. She was desperate. She’d spend all her money on fucking lobster or whatever the fuck he wanted, if it meant would try one more time. If it could heal him. Keep him from continuing to rot away in her bed.
Deep down, she knew it wasn’t realistic- there was nothing that she could do to fix him. But her brain wasn’t making sense anymore. Everything in her heart told her that she could fix it, heal him, make him strong again. Piece him back together, bring life back into his eyes.
So when Daiki nodded against her shoulder, she let out a shaking breath. Shuddered violently, when Daiki raised his head up slightly, expecting him to pull away, to tell her what to do. Give her anything.
A blunt, searing pain in the crevice of her neck shocked all conscious thought out of her brain. She froze, tensing up as a terrifyingly cold feeling rushed over her body. Her heart pounded in her ears, and she felt something tear, the feeling of flesh ripping, a popping sound.
Atsushi moved too slow. When she shoved her arm out against Daiki’s chest to push him away, he simply bared down on her harder. She didn’t know what was happening. It felt as though Daiki was trying to rip her fucking jugular out of the base of her neck with his own teeth- and when he pushed back against her attempted to save herself, she simply went limp. Lax against him, leaning her head against his as she gasped for air.
The room was spinning beneath her body. Everything was shaking, her eyes twitched when she could no longer find a focal point to stare at. She couldn’t even leave, couldn’t escape the pain, couldn’t grasp reality enough to process what was going on.
To live in the woods. A babbling brooke. Sharp teeth, big claws. Ripping viscera from throats. Surviving off of the blood of her fellow man, the ones who dared to draw too close.
She would recognize the irony of her fantasy, combined with the situation she was in- if she wasn’t blacking out.
【 ★彡 】
“-shi! Atsushi, wake up, c’mon!”
Everything was cold. The ground beneath her was hard, and it burned against the skin of her back. There was static- no. No, not static, it was water.
A babbling brooke. Running water from a stream.
It sounded more like static, but in the dark of her mind, she could pretend. She focused on it, letting it lull her back into the dark. It was so cold. Why was it so cold?
Hard pressure on her throat. The sound metal clinking. Freezing cold fucking water over the top of her head, making her gasp and jolt, her eyes shooting open to find a too bright room, and Daiki, crouched over her. A few inches from her face, covered in blood- her own blood, her mind supplied- down his neck, smeared across his chin. Staining her satin top that he was wearing.
“Mh…my..” Atsushi couldn’t speak. Her shirt, her favorite comfortable sleep shirt. Ruined.
“Keep your eyes open!” Daiki nearly yelled, shaking her roughly by her shoulder. She hadn’t even realized that she had closed them again, and she blinked, trying to focus her eyes. “I need the- the thingy!”
The thingy? Atsushi didn’t know what he meant by that. She furrowed her brows, confused- and Daiki groaned.
“The box! The box, with the bandages!” He sounded frantic, and it clicked into place slowly for Atsushi.
Oh. First aid kit.
“Ki..tchen, the.. first, cabinet?” That was where she always put it. It burned to speak. Daiki simply grabbed her arm, lifting it to her throat. There was something soft there, and Atsushi appreciated the warmth against her fingers when Daiki pressed her palm against it hard.
“Atsushi. Look at me.” He was staring at her, wide-eyed and frightened. Okay. Atsushi could listen. “Hold this, tight. Don’t let go.”
She nodded, but it hurt to do so. Daiki hissed in response, quickly grabbing her head to keep her from moving it anymore.
“Don’t do that! You’ll bleed worse, hold still!” Daiki stood up, still holding her hand to her wound. When he let go, slowly, she didn’t ease up. It felt important that she pushed down as hard as he could against her neck, because… well. Daiki had told her to.
He left quickly, and that was when Atsushi realized she was in the bathroom. She was on the floor against the cabinet, and she could hear the shower running next to her. It didn’t take Daiki long to return, scattering supplies onto the ground as he dropped the first aid kit in his attempt to move fast.
“Shit!”
Somewhere, there was humor in this situation. Atsushi could almost find it, through her blurry vision and pain. A boy had just taken a chunk out of her neck. The same boy who she spent an entire week working her hardest to nurse back to health. There she was, stuck on her floor, shivering as she tried to staunch her own wound. While Daiki fumbled around with medical tape and gauze, Atsushi watched him panic. Watched how his eyes got all wide when he reached down to her, pulled the towel away.
The blood soaked cloth was placed between Daiki’s own teeth, as if it were a bite guard. Atsushi grimaced in disgust.
“Ew.”
“Schut uhph.” Daiki spoke through the towel, muffled by fabric. He took gauze, pressing it down onto the wound. Wrapped the fabric around her neck, trying to secure it in place with medical tape. Daiki was an even worse medical aid than Atsushi was, which was honestly impressive- because Atsushi was pretty terrible. It wasn’t really like he could help it though, with only one functional arm. She faded in and out of consciousness as Daiki moved her body around. She only opened her eyes again when Daiki sputtered, looking up at him to see him drop the towel from his mouth.
“…okay. Okay!” Daiki was speaking to himself, attempting to reassure his own fears as he ran his fingers over the bandages. His hand was gentle, as he carefully unfolded creases. It was agonizing, the way he tugged at the gauze, tightening it around Atsushi’s wound, around her throat with each little tug. It wasn’t necessarily choking her, but it was uncomfortable.
“Am I gonna die?” Atsushi’s mouth felt dry and cracked, as she focused on getting air into her lungs.
“No. Don’t be dramatic.” Daiki tsked at her, holding her up by the back of her head. “You were just bleeding for a while, but it stopped.”
“How long?”
Daiki blinked once. Stared at her, his bloodied lips curled up to bare his teeth. He looked confused by the question, his tongue poked out as he licked the red staining from his snaggled canines. It took him a minute to reply, but Atsushi didn’t have the energy to repeat herself. She just assumed that it was going to be one of Daiki’s many secrets, from now on. Until he clacked his teeth together, and hissed through them.
“Something is seriously wrong with you.” He sounded annoyed, as he finally sat down on the floor across from her. Daiki rested against the wall, stretching his legs out to box Atsushi in against the cabinet. One of his legs rested against her ankles, her knees turned sideways, most of her weight on her hips. She fought the urge to lay down completely on the bathroom tiles, as her senses came back to her slowly.
“Huh?”
“I said something is wrong with you. That’s really what you wanna ask right now?” Daiki scoffed, reaching up to start wiping his own chin. The blood was drying, flaking off, darkening in a disgusting way. “You probably bled too much, if you’re too dumb to come up with a better question than that.”
Well. Daiki was certainly feeling better. Which, when she focused really hard- that made absolutely no sense. He was hardly able to hold himself upright for a full two, maybe three days. Atsushi hadn’t heard a snarky comment from the boy for a while. His illness and injury had both left him docile, doe-eyed and sad as he rotted away.
Even when he did move, he had put his entire weight against Atsushi for her support. Leaned against her shoulder, tucked his face into the little spot between her shoulder and neck.
Then he had bitten her. She could still feel it, a burning pain in her neck, searing her nerves. Atsushi winced when her head lolled to the side involuntarily, the bandages digging into the wound. It took effort to force herself upright again, and Daiki simply watched her as she swayed.
How funny was that? He bit her. Tore the skin from her neck with his own teeth. It was like something from a cheesy horror flick. But something was wrong with her, according to the twisted and cruel little monster that had eviscerated her.
It couldn’t be helped, when her voice crackled with a laugh. It forced its way out of her chest like a bubble, stinging her lungs. It was quiet, but it shook her entire body, making her twitch.
“Ssssomething, is wrong,” She paused to force air into her lungs, leaning her head back to stare at the light on the ceiling. “With me?”
She didn’t bother even looking at him, when he spoke again. “Jesus. You’ve got issues.”
Atsushi curled her knees up tight to her chest, pulling her foot out from under Daiki’s leg. Moving was painful, but she needed to support herself better. She wanted to go to sleep, but she had this unsettling thought, in the back of her mind- how deep was the wound? Would her head fall off, if she leaned too far to one side? The light was so bright above her, a pleasant yellow hue that reminded her of sunlight, without any of the warmth.
It looked like a halo, with the way the light bent in her vision. There was an angel with her. With them both. It was probably safe- but still, she needed to make sure.
“Can you catch me?” Atsushi asked, licking her lips from the water that had been poured over her head earlier for some moisture. When she looked away from the angel in her ceiling, Daiki looked like a little red and black dot, through her eyes. His face morphed strangely, inhuman. Incomprehensible. He started to fall- or, she did, but she didn’t feel it. “If my head falls off?”
Daiki did catch her, cussing under his breath as he laid her against the tile. His hand lowered her head to the floor with her body, holding it firmly in place on her shoulders. She felt something being laid over her body, offering her only a little warmth. The blood soaked towel. Daiki’s arm pillowed her face from the cold floor, his chest pressed close to the front of her own.
Atsushi tangled the lower half of her legs with Daiki’s to leech his body heat, on instinct. She closed her eyes, drifting back to sleep as the angel rocked the room like a cradle for them.
【 ★彡 】
The wound wasn’t nearly as deep as Atsushi had thought it would be. When she checked beneath her bandages the next day- it was just deep tooth imprints, and only one bad area that looked even a little concerning. The spot where Daiki’s snaggled canine tooth was, clearly pressed into her neck as a deep gash. The bruise against her skin highlighted a perfect dental impression, Atsushi could almost count the teeth in Daiki’s mouth without even actually checking him at all.
It was a clean bite. Much cleaner than the scar on her wrist, where Pretty Girl had caught Atsushi and tried to shake her, pulling the flesh from her body. The scar on her neck wouldn’t be nearly as noticeable. Daiki had been surprisingly gentle, despite the circumstances.
After that, things got a little better. Daiki was lively again, back to his usual routine of cruel teasing and prodding at Atsushi like she was a psychology experiment, instead of a human woman. She didn’t care. He was talking again, and it made no sense.
The best part? He didn’t dismiss her questions, anymore. They sat on the couch, and while he was begrudged to do so- he answered her. It was the least he could do, at this point.
“…why did you do that?” That was the first thing she needed to know, now that her mind had stopped swimming with delusion and blood loss.
“You told me I could eat.” Daiki had the sketchbook back in his lap, pointedly not looking at her. Lil Bit was curled up underneath the blanket that they were sharing, and Atsushi could feel her weight against her leg.
“You eat people?” Atsushi didn’t flinch when she asked, because she had lived.
They were curled up under the same blanket, her feet wedged between Daiki’s body and the back of the couch- and he was a cannibal, or something adjacent to a cannibal. But she had survived the encounter. He had dragged her with one arm to the bathroom, patched up her wound for her. Held her while she slept on the floor, until she was well enough to move to the couch.
She was safe. Daiki didn’t kill her.
“No.” Daiki clicked his tongue, looking up at her through his eyebrows as he scowled. “I don’t eat people, that’s a stupid question.”
“You bit me.”
“For blood. I drink blood, I don’t eat people.”
“That’s a pedantic difference.” Atsushi scoffed tiredly.
“What the fuck does ‘pedantic’ mean? Use real words.” Daiki snipped back quickly, cocking his head to the side with sass.
“Like, what’s the difference between ‘drinking’ and ‘eating’ here? You still bit me.”
“It’s a big one. If I was eating you, it’d be a lot worse.” Daiki shrugged as he looked back down, avoiding eye contact as he continued tracing a pencil over the paper in front of him.
Atsushi blinked slowly. Sure, yeah, there was a difference. He was right. But-
“Okay, fine. You drink blood.” She acquiesced with a sigh, feeling a little insane at the moment at the absolute absurdity of it all. “Tell me more about that, then.”
Daiki didn’t look up again, but she could feel the couch shift as he tensed up. “What do you want to know?”
“Uh, I don’t know. Maybe fucking why, first of all?” Atsushi scoffed with irritation, sarcasm bleeding through her tone.
“I don’t know. I just do. Always have.” Daiki didn’t sound phased by it, but it was easy to tell he was measuring his words. Holding something back behind his teeth, trying not to clench his jaw.
“You have to know something, Daiki. I-I- you bit me, and I need to know why.” She tried to speak calmly, pressing him for anything he could give her. She needed to understand. If he was going to stay in her home, and get all cozy with her cats- she needed to know why he bites. Why he was suddenly better, how he had gone from wasting away for a week, back to sitting up and talking again.
Daiki put his pencil down against the book with an audible smack of his palm. He looked up again, his snaggled canine poking out from between his lips as they curled into a grimace.
“I don’t know why, I just know I need it.” Daiki spoke through clenched teeth, before he closed his eyes tightly. “It’s a disease. M-My.. someone, who knew more than me, told me once. He called it.. chronic pore-fia, or something. I don’t know any more than that.”
The way he said the word sounded wrong, without Atsushi even knowing what it was. She shook her head in disbelief, only to immediately regret it when she was reminded of the searing pain in her neck. She winced at the feeling as it rushed down her arm, immediately pressing her body into the cushions of the couch to keep herself from whining about it.
“Stop moving!” Daiki hissed at her immediately. “You’re going to rip it back open, if you keep doing that!”
“Sorry.” Atsushi felt like a hit dog as she forced her body to relax again. She unclenched her jaw,which relieved some of the tension in her neck. It felt like a knot being released, as she willed her body to melt into the couch.
“…don’t say sorry to me like that, it’s dumb.” Daiki huffed with something akin to remorse. “Look, the only thing I can compare my condition to, is in those stupid fantasy books. It’s not something I can explain.”
Atsushi furrowed her brows as she thought about it. Fantasy books. About people who drank blood. Vampirism. It should’ve clicked sooner- but vampires weren’t real, and her mind wasn’t all there still. She couldn’t help but breathe out a short laugh, completely unamused. He was lying. There wasn’t a chance he was serious, so how could she treat it like anything other than a joke?
She wracked her brain for a moment, trying to remember the words to the movie she had watched repeatedly as a teenager-
You're impossibly fast, and strong. That didn’t apply to Daiki at all, but the next line almost did. She spoke aloud, dramatically. “Your skin is pale white, and ice cold,”
Daiki looked confused by her words, but it was too funny to not lean into the bit further. Even if he wasn’t pale white, more of a sickly olive-tone to his skin, he was certainly cold. He’d catch on, eventually. Atsushi was certain of it, it was an iconic scene, everyone had seen the movie. She couldn’t remember all of it, so she skipped ahead a little into the parts of the monologue she could recollect.
“You never eat or drink anything. You don’t go out in the sunlight.” Atsushi continued, pressing her hand to her chest as she made herself gasp, forcing down dry laughter. “How old are you?”
“I’m 20. We already talked about this.” Daiki frowned. It didn’t stop her. She adjusted the next line to the correct age,
“How long have you been 20?”
Daiki didn’t miss a beat when he responded, but he certainly missed her intentions. “Uh, like maybe over half a year now? Why?”
It was Atsushi’s turn to be confused. How was he not getting it? Was he genuinely clueless?
“…have you never watched Twilight?” She asked curiously, immediately distracted from the real issue at hand. Atsushi needed to know the answer to this now, actually, with a bit more urgency than the whole biting thing.
“What the fuck is Twilight?”
Her jaw dropped in shock. What kind of psychopath has never seen the hit movie Twilight? It was unthinkable. That was peak cinema, from a bygone era of dark romance.
“Oh my god. You’re saying you’re a vampire, but you’ve never seen this movie?” She couldn’t help it. She lifted her hand- the arm that didn’t irritate her wound- flexing her fingers. “Find me the remote. We need to watch it.”
“…you want to watch a fucking movie right now?” Daiki was doing too much talking, and not enough finding the remote. Atsushi groaned as she shifted her foot to nudge him in his ribs.
“I’m being so serious! You have to see it.” Atsushi rushed him, and he took the hint to get up and start digging into the couch cushions. Daiki muttered under his breath incomprehensibly as he searched- but his annoyance didn’t stop him from smacking the remote into Atsushi’s open palm.
They could talk all that they wanted during the movie. Atsushi had a lot of questions- but not a lot of evidence to navigate the situation. Maybe using Twilight as a reference point would help them narrow down some solutions to this strange delusion of Daiki’s psyche. It was silly- but honestly? Atsushi needed that, right now.
Maybe Daiki would benefit from a little comic relief as well, after everything they had been through that day.