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Sometimes, Mahiru honestly forgot how dangerous Kuro could be.
It was a pretty easy mistake to make considering how much effort Kuro put into being a docile little kitty so he never had to do anything productive, but still, a mistake was a mistake.
It had started with Kuro acting odd for the better part of a week. Nothing of note had happened to trigger it, but he had suddenly seemed restless, even as he lazed. He also seemed to be in a bad mood, it was subtle but his sarcasm had certainly held a more cutting note to it as of late. He was also suddenly less prone to hanging around Mahiru as closely as he usually did, at least in human form, and whenever he left the room he needlessly touched and brushed against furniture that could easily be avoided like he was discreetly trying to start a fight with it.
Naturally, Mahiru noticed Kuro avoiding him more than anything else, but he had left it alone for a few days, assuming Kuro was just having a bit of a bad spell like everyone did from time to time. But after a day at Misono’s where Kuro had spent the entire visit looking grumpy and tense before growling at the kids and bodily dragging Mahiru out of the mansion with a snarl of ‘can’t deal with this’, Mahiru figured it was time to start asking questions.
He’d waited until they were home and Kuro had settled in his chosen spot to play games before bringing it up. It let Kuro’s agitation levels ease and gave Mahiru time to send an apology text to Misono for Kuro’s behavior and their abrupt departure. But then he’d cut right to the chase and that was how he’d ended up in his current predicament.
“So uh, how exactly does this answer my question?” Mahiru asked, patting himself on the back for sounding a hell of a lot more composed than he actually felt. All he’d done was ask Kuro what was bothering him. He’d expected Kuro’s initial response to either be a vague non-answer or an outright deflection.
He hadn’t expected one of the tails of Kuro’s coat to lash out like a whip of solidified shadow, wrap around his arm and drag him down onto the rug with a painful yank. And he really hadn’t expected a near wild eyed Kuro to pin him there by bodily caging him in.
“...Kuro?”
“Shut up.”
Mahiru stilled at the rarely heard assertiveness in Kuro’s voice, the cold tingle that followed reminding him of the few times Kuro had honestly scared him. But he wasn’t scared or intimidated by Kuro right now, not exactly. He was… he didn’t know what. He just knew he was pinned by Kuro’s stare as much as he was by his body and he couldn’t stop his own body from shivering a little if he tried.
“I’m not going to bite you.” Kuro then said out of the blue, despite the fact he looked tense and his voice was practically a snarl. “Just... shut up and stay still for a bit.”
“...Okay?” Mahiru spoke, more a croak than a word as curiosity warred with caution over how he should be reacting to this. He’d honestly not even considered the possibility of Kuro biting him due to the vampire's usual unwillingness to drink his blood outside of life or death circumstances. But if Kuro was trying to put him at ease, even in his agitated state, Mahiru was willing to lay still for a bit to see where this was going.
Then Kuro went for his neck, causing him to tense reflexively and the seemingly random promise of not biting suddenly made a hell of a lot more sense.
Despite the near aggressive lunge however, Kuro stayed true to his word and didn’t bite. Instead, he honestly just seemed to be sniffing and nuzzling him, alternating between rubbing their cheeks together and nosing Mahiru’s jaw or throat. The affectionate gesture was completely at odds with how pissed off Kuro looked about it each time he caught a glimpse of his face.
“K-Kuro?!” He eventually spluttered, hands clenching in surprise as a small hint of tongue suddenly trailed his jawline and the fur of Kuro’s hood tickled his nose, almost getting into his mouth as he protested. At least he was meant to be protesting. Unfortunately, he was pretty sure he’d just sounded confused and the crack in his voice was just plain mortifying.
“Said shut up.” Kuro growled against his neck, supported by the forearm resting flat beside Mahiru’s head. His other hand was tightly gripping Mahiru’s shirt near the waist.
But the breath brushing his skin had a shaky note to it, telling Mahiru that even in a wild eyed and aggressive state, Kuro was nervous and being careful to restrain himself. The realisation almost made Mahiru smile, but the situation was still too weird for him to fully let the expression settle on his face and he squeaked against his will when the tongue brushed the shell of his ear.
Kuro did this sort of thing as a cat sometimes, rubbing his head on Mahiru’s neck when he was perched on his shoulder with a very rare sandpaper tongued lick thrown in. It was cute and a little bit ticklish then but he assumed that was all it was. Cat behaviour. Kitten Kuro just spreading his scent like all cats did to their homes and owners. But having it happen when Kuro was in human form was...
Actually, no... why would it be any different now?
The form was different, but this was still just Kuro behaving like a cat, right?
Is this what had been making Kuro act oddly? Some weird instinct to scent mark his eve and the apartment? It was the most straightforward conclusion to come to, but he and Kuro had been living together for months and, abnormal amounts of skinship aside, nothing even remotely like this had come up before.
The tension seeping out of him now he had a solid theory, Mahiru stared at the ceiling thoughtfully while Kuro got to work on nuzzling the other side of his neck. He tried to think on other possible causes to, unfortunately, his servamp hovering over him and being so openly… affectionate was not something he could dismiss as casually as he’d like to and his thoughts were completely derailed when Kuro went from looming over him to bodily laying on him, making him grunt.
Cat Kuro shamelessly seeking attention was one thing, human Kuro doing it was another entirely. Just...not in a bad way. Mahiru could admit to being rather startled but he couldn’t really think of any complaints that stemmed from him genuinely wanting Kuro to stop. Any he had really just came from how embarrassed he was because if Kuro kept doing those little licks near his ear while he was on top of him like this there would be some very teenaged responses from his lower half and his face was red enough thank you very much.
“So… scent marking.” He eventually said but not without awkwardness, making Kuro groan something into his neck that sounded like ‘why can’t he shut up?’. “This why you’ve been acting weird lately?”
Kuro took a moment sigh but then he raised his head to give Mahiru an annoyed look. He still looked agitated but it was a more standard kind now, an irritated lion rather than a bloodthirsty one. “Why can’t you let something happen without questioning it? It’s so damn annoying.”
“Because I’m pinned to the floor after you’ve pretty much avoided me for a week and it hurt my feelings.” He stated flatly.
“Explaining is too troublesome.”
“I just let you lick me so explain it anyway!”
Mahiru yelped as he found himself being hauled up into a sitting position by the front of his shirt, his shoulders being pressed up against the sofa while his legs were shifted to rest over Kuro’s thighs. Somehow, despite the decrease in points of contact, the new position seemed a hell of a lot more intimate and it was made worse by Kuro’s hands wiggling under his shirt.
“...You didn’t smell like me.” He eventually admitted, showing his own first hints of embarrassment.
“Well it was never a problem before, why is it now?” Mahiru responded, his expression contorted into a slight wince because Kuros hands, while gentle, were absolutely freezing.
“I didn’t notice before.” Kuro scowled before lowering his face back to Mahiru’s neck. “Just… since the fight with Tsubaki… since you went in my head. I notice now.”
“And instead of fixing it sooner you avoided me because…”
“Because it’s so troublesome I could die.”
“...Right.” Mahiru felt disappointed in himself for expecting a genuine answer. “Well, is this helping at least?” Kuro wasn’t practically snarling at him anymore so it seemed to be.
“Maybe. Just do me a favour and go back to shutting up for a bit.”
“Asshole.”
Then the tongue was back and Mahiru tilted his head in a surprisingly automatic gesture. There would be some deep reflection on why he was so ok with all of this later, possibly while hiding his head under a pillow, but for now Kuro was the priority. And he stuck to that thought even as slowly warming hands slid up his back and Kuro’s nuzzling changed to him openly mouthing his throat.
They’d never done anything remotely like this together and Mahiru himself had never done anything remotely like this, period, and yet it somehow it just felt like natural progression. Like it was something they were meant to be doing. Mahiru certainly had none of the alarm bells going off that he probably should have considering a super powered vampire was making out with his neck. Not even while knowing his rapid pulse was likely highlighting his veins and arteries like a advertisement for blood drinkers.
It was like common sense was calmly pointing out that he should probably put a stop to this because of reasons, but at the same time was telling him that if he wanted to sit and moan as one of Kuro’s hands started palming at his non existent chest then that was cool to.
Really, he couldn’t even tell if this was him spoiling his cat or just his own selfishness. But was it really so terrible to enjoy being the center of Kuro’s attention for once?
A soft sound escaped him as he slid himself forward to properly sit in Kuro’s lap, the hand still at his back encouraging the movement. Mahiru was pretty sure they’d trailed off merely scent marking a while back and were moving on to a more physical type of marking but cared so very little that his hands were pulling back Kuro’s hood to thread through his hair, gripping it with a choked gasp as Kuro’s mouth homed in on the spot just below his ear again.
“No… no way in hell this is just scent marking now.” He groaned, finding the sounds of wet suction somehow more embarrassing than the act causing them.
“This won't be washed away when you bathe later.”
“No, it’ll just make me wear scarves and turtlenecks in the middle of summer instead.” Did he even own any turtlenecks? He was more a hoodie and jacket guy than a sweater wearer… Ah screw it, at least it was summer break. “J-Just try and keep any glaringly bright marks below the… the- mmmm...” Shit, what was he trying to say again? His body slumped deeper into Kuro’s hold, that damn spot near his ear being so thoroughly attacked that his brain and all thought processes it was trying to carry out were turning to gooey mush.
Kuro detached his mouth after a particularly breathy noise and shiver from Mahiru to lean back and look at his eve, apparently finding something he liked in the incredibly flushed face and slightly unfocused gaze because instead of averting his eyes or mumbling about things that were a pain he just kept on staring, making Mahiru squirm. The look was 100% predatory but a more controlled variant as his hand stopped teasing Mahiru’s chest to caress the area he’d marked, his pupils visibly dilating as pressing his thumb to the kiss bruised area caused Mahiru to moan.
“All done?” Mahiru asked quietly, feeling as disappointed with the idea as his pants were tight when Kuro’s surprisingly talented mouth didn’t return to his neck.
“Do you want me to be done?” Kuro asked, dumping all the responsibility of decision making directly on Mahiru’s shoulders. Kuro didn’t look like he wanted to be done, his eyes were still too sharp, more lion than kitty and the hold on Mahiru hadn’t loosened in the slightest but the words gave Mahiru some semblance of control. This entire situation had started with Kuro somewhat forcefully requesting in his own way that Mahiru just indulge him for a bit. Now he was giving Mahiru full say on whether it continued or not.
Really, who was the master in this contract again?
Still, fully aware he was a little breathless, a lot red faced and rather turned on but refusing to verbally admit to any of the three, Mahiru slipped his fingers through Kuro’s hair in a stroking motion and wiggled closer, his breath hitching as his pelvis intentionally pressed against Kuro and something hard pressed back at him in turn. Well… at least they were on the same page on that. Kuro’s responding shiver and slight growl to the contact gave Mahiru a bit of a confidence boost to. Enough to say what he wanted rather than standing up and running to make dinner as an excuse to hide like he was also considering doing.
“I think…” Or maybe not ‘say’ exactly because actions were much simpler than words in a situation like this. So instead of vocalising and no doubt falling over his words, he leaned forward to brush his lips against his vampires, a shy brush at first that turned into a slightly more solid press of his mouth before he backed off, their foreheads resting together. “Something like that…. Maybe?”
Kisses had nothing to do with any sort of territorial marking issues Kuro had but that need had apparently been sated for now. Unfortunately, Mahiru didn’t want them to be done just yet and his mouth had been feeling left out and jealous of his neck for a while now.
He’d indulged Kuro to get this far, maybe Kuro could indulge him a little to?
His nerves made themselves increasingly known in his stomach the longer Kuro took to respond, blood red eyes still firmly fixed on Mahiru’s face though there was a notable increase of glances aimed at his mouth. Whether Kuro was honestly thinking things through or just waiting it out to see if his eve did anything else was anyone's guess but Mahiru was close to using their position to headbutt him out of nerve fueled annoyance by the time Kuro’s hands slipped down to his hips to encourage the slow, lazy press of their lower halves.
“K-Kuro?”
“Kissing is fine if a bit more touching is fine.” Kuro eventually said, a rare offer of genuine compromise from him that likely only came into existence because either action let him stay right where he was and paw at his flustered, thoroughly scent marked eve.
Mahiru found himself nodding, swallowing thickly as he mimicked Kuro’s earlier actions and affectionately nosed his vampire’s cheek, a motion that had Kuro turning his head to chase Mahiru’s lips with his own and glaring a little when he missed.
“Both are fine.” He said with a bit of a smile, feeling like things were settling into Kuro acting out of natural desire and not an instinctive, borderline aggressive need born of the contract and his reawakened lion power. Then Kuro’s mouth was on his and the thought killing power it had shown on his neck seemed to become even more potent once the man had his tongue slipping past Mahiru's lips.
The kiss was as slow and lazy as the gentle motion of their hips but Mahiru’s brain was gone all the same. Completely and utterly gone.
Dinner would be a late and simple affair tonight, of that there was no doubt. But if Mahiru knew that fixing Kuro’s bad mood would have been as pleasant and bond strengthening as this he honestly would have confronted him on the matter days ago.