gray skies

     It almost felt a shame considering how radiant the blond man was.

     “Mm. Thank you.” Taking the gathered book and papers from him, he didn’t dare look up at him a second time. His dislike for the overwhelming authority and superiority the military held was too difficult for him to get past immediately.

As the other took hold of the papers, the blond couldn’t help but notice the semi-sweet scent of his pheromones, marking him as a Delta. Well, that wasn’t something that he experienced every day. If their attractive appearance wasn’t enough, the saccharine smell of flowers filled the air, and Dino’s train of thought derailed for a moment before their questions to registered in his mind.

“Ah– I do teach English, yes.” He answered, although the second question left the professor confused, that was until he remembered that he’d decided to wear his metal tags today. Maybe he just shouldn’t have worn them, he mused. Especially with how displeased the other seemed now that he’d seen them. 

     “... Ah. You did all the lectures. I was in your class last semester, not that I paid attention much...” The last half of his sentence trailed off quietly; his old instructor didn’t need to know that much.

     Though he still didn’t feel completely comfortable.

     Pathetic. He found himself thinking these thoughts after every long school day, and it was difficult bringing himself out of it. What he needed was to go home and relax, throw his assignments in his desk and forget about them completely– maybe watch a movie with Pome and his older sibling. The sun had already set, but there had to be time left for something fun.

      He hadn’t noticed his strength failing in his arms until his text book slipped out and crashed against the pavement, barely touched note sheets spilling against the dark pavement.

     “Damn.” Picking them up felt like too much of a pain. 

Being the good samaritan that he was, Dino picked up his pace, making his way to the poor soul and grabbing the papers before they flew out into the wild. On his knees, the blond bent forward to grab the final paper, a couple of metal dog tags escaping from underneath his shirt.

“I got them.” He grinned, tidying up the bunch of loose papers before standing up. Being face to face with the student (?), Dino couldn’t say anything bad, honestly, but he didn’t think about it too much. He was a professor, after all!

     It almost felt a shame considering how radiant the blond man was.

     “Mm. Thank you.” Taking the gathered book and papers from him, he didn’t dare look up at him a second time. His dislike for the overwhelming authority and superiority the military held was too difficult for him to get past immediately.

It stings, your eyes burn and water at the corners, orange irises focused on the sword off to the side; just barely out of your reach. Your pride keeps you from showing too much of any emotion, even in this situation; but when you finally realize he’s not going to budge even the slightest to allow you any sort of lenience, your eyes slide up and to the side, meeting with a much colder gaze than you yourself could even manage.

Not to mention he looked more than a little proud of himself. He was enjoying this. Not a surprise, you’d seen that one coming.

The knee digging into your chest was going to leave quite the bruise, you were sure, given it only dug in more and more the further he moved. But the cold fingers loosening their grip around your throat makes you gasp a bit greedily for air, the rush it gives you making your head spin almost nauseatingly. 

“Don’t think you have much,” a struggled inhale, “ p.. place to be talking about ‘too much pride’.” That took some effort, and a grunt was swallowed back shortly after when your left hand was yanked upwards, from its place stretched out for your katana– to his mouth.

And if you were honest, the bite didn’t hurt too much compared to the things you’ve experienced before. You could be a little grateful for that.

It did feel weird, though, uncomfortable– he was already trying to strangle the life out of you, and now here he was taking the another thing working to keeping you alive. Metaphorically. Your fingers flex in his grasp when he pulls away from your wrist, orange eyes strained but still focused intently on him– maybe with some effort. 

     When he imagined what Eve's blood would be like, this was exactly what he pictured. However, this wasn't the Eve meant to bring about Adam- she was still with the Sakamaki's. This blood was something of its own caliber, and he wondered quite quizzically over what exactly this meant about Dirk.

     "You..." Eyelids parted to gaze into the orange hues of the prey. His eyes were steady, less full of emotion than he had hoped they'd be, as if constantly even and calm; that alone felt like a challenge, a call to change that boring expression into one more worth looking at.

     "Your blood isn't like human blood." Icy fingers unclenched themselves further to trail against the veins running up and down his neck. He wanted to taste everything he had to offer in those lifelines, everywhere, but he knew he had to be careful with how much he drank. "Why is that?"

     Dirk's arm was slammed against the floorboards a second time, the vampire's hand trapping his wrist to keep it there. This may be the only the time he's thankful for the height difference of only a few inches, as he shifted only a tad to reach that taunting blue line beneath his pale skin.

But the split second between his recoil and the fluid movement of his body wasn’t enough time to give you the adrenaline to move out of the way. You hadn’t even been able to process it, your rain couldn’t quite work fast enough to help you avoid the cold fingers that wrapped themselves around your throat. The weight of his body forces you backwards and your feet lose their balance, your back meeting with the floor in a highly unfavorable position– for you.

Not to mention your sunglasses, more or less, fly off your goddamn face with the force your head meets the floor with. 

There’s not much you can do but essentially suffer with the squeezing pressure against your throat and then your chest when his knee presses against it, an orange eye squeezing shut as you struggle, obviously, to breathe. 

He probably gets off on this, you wouldn’t be surprised.

     Those insufferable sunglasses were even knocked off his face. His eyes didn't hold any particular emotion, but when he struggles, there's pain. His sword was knocked just centimeters from his reach, and the more he stretched for it, the more the vampire's laughter grew. There was nothing he liked better than winning.

     "What's the matter? Can't reach?" More pressure was applied to the other's chest the further into it he leaned. "You have too much pride. If you hadn't resisted me in the first place, you might've spared yourself the humility." Dirk could likely feel the lightheadedness that came right before the loss of consciousness by now. Fingers loosened just enough to allow him some oxygen as he moved to straddle him against the floor; there remained the possibility of him striking back, should he somehow stretch far enough to reach that sword. Though it wasn't likely, he didn't want to waste anymore time doing something he didn't enjoy.

     Unleashing one hand from his throat to grip Dirk's left instead, he forced it upwards towards his lips, fingers threading through the back to keep his palm exposed. Fangs revealed themselves for but a second before they plunged deep into the flesh of his wrist.

     The taste was indescribable; never had he tried blood so surprisingly enticing. He expected the dry taste of any normal human's blood, and instead got mouthfuls of something so fulfilling  he wondered if he could even stop himself. He sucked as the blood flowed, stopping to catch his breath every little while. If blood from this area was so satisfying, how much difference would there be if he had taken from his neck instead?

                《 ❖ ⋮ ❛ Valentine’s day didn’t exist in his world either, but he had heard about it from Ritsu. It was the day lovers exchanged sweets to express their affection for each other; a day dedicated to the strange emotion called love “Eh, so it gives couples a chance to be lovey dovey nya.” Noticing the small blush blossoming on his face, he couldn’t help but snicker. This was the perfect opportunity to tease hm. “Nyehehehe! Did you get embarrassed from just talking about Valentine’s day? Thinking about how you’re gonna get me something are you?”

     And as if already offset by the embarrassment, the revealing of a single eye threw him off even further. He knew how big his eyes had grown, and he detested it; he felt himself freeze at the unexpected eye contact, and he nearly lost the pocky again.

     He couldn’t take any more of this. Eyes squinting shut, Ritsu sped through the rest of the treat to collide with Hans’ lips, his head tipping just slightly at the last nibble to avoid any damage.

     The kiss had some force behind it, mostly due to the flustered anger, but it could also be said that all of his accusations were true and he felt mushy and gross. He pulled away gently, feeling the heat rise further as his actions hit him. He felt it a bother to have to deal with the intense amount of emotion that Hans brought out of him, even if they were nothing but positive; he wanted to make a fuss, pout, whine about it to the very guy that made him feel that way.

* oh.

* you noted the surprise and confusion that appeared on the other’s face when you laughed, and a sudden overwhelming insecurity overcame you– silencing your giggles in a mere moment, your expression shifting to one that indicated that you were momentarily unsure– but that also disappeared in a moment as the other introduced himself, once again replaced by a warm expression.

* you smiled at him, nodding your head. yams, huh? he seemed nice. at his apology, you merely shook your head. he had scared you a bit, but you had already been scared when you stepped through the door of the ruins– even with your determination burning deep in your chest.

* nodding at his question, you looked behind you at the gate– noting that it was in fact more evident that someone had cut their way back through rather than simply built the spaces too large, at least you saw it now that he mentioned it.

* his brother, huh? you wondered over it for a moment before a question popped up in your mind, and you tilted your head to the side– struggling for a moment as you decided on how exactly to ask the other what you wanted to know. you somehow doubted that yams understood asl, and you didn’t have any paper with you… then you got an idea, your face brightening.

* crouching down your small fingers dipped into the snow next to the path, writing out your question in clear, neat letters.

‘your brother? what is he like?’

* making sure that yams saw what you had written, you wiped the small amount of residue from your finger, blowing on your hands before you moved forwards– towards the gate. looking at him expectantly, you crossed the small bridge and paused at the opposite side and looked back towards him– clearly waiting for him to catch up.

     You watched them progress through the gate, then upon their turning to check on you, you began your gradual walk across the boards.

“well, right now, i’m actually supposed to be watching for humans. but... i don’t really care about catching anybody. my bro, though, he’s all about human-hunting. he’s pretty smart, so he comes up with all these ways to catch humans. you don’t have to worry though, he’s not really dangerous.”

     You loved that the most about your brother, you think; he’s passionate about everything he tries for, unlike you, who just goes along with where life takes you most days. Your eyes slid closed as you reminisced over some good memories between you two.

“yeah. i bet if you met him, he’d be ecstatic. he’s always going on about how he’s gonna find a human one day, and people will finally take him seriously. he tries hard, that gokudera.”

     Your shoes began to crunch through the snow again as you and your new pal head on your way to Snowdin. There’s still a bit of traveling before you mean the main area, but it’s a pretty walk, if you like snow.

         ❝ ryuu !! asahi-san !! ❞

          the rowdy ricochet of his voice carries despite the high-decibel bustle of the crowd scattered in asymmetrical bunches. it was just like him to get too excited over something ( much akin to a child ) and head off in another direction; whether it had been as simple as cute girl or even a cute ( princess ), well, he wouldn’t say. lacking his companions, he searched all around the area, grin still splayed across his face, mouse ears slipping off his head with his erratic movements.

          ❝ ryuu !! asahi-san !! heeeey !! ❞

          rather than spotting them, he spotted another figure in a straight line of sight.

          a c-cute … a cute girl … !!

          and though the thought made him bashful, noya still managed to forget his task once more and went toward her with this stupidly shy look until, he got closer and they’d noticed him already, and, uh –

     He watched the expression melt off instantaneously, and then--

Being referred to as ‘livestock’ isn’t something you figured you’d have to deal with. His ego really did rival yours. It was worse, actually. 

You’d allow yourself that much.

He’s really not giving you a break, you note, when he’s suddenly right in front of you again. Not that you hadn’t expected the immediate rush to disarm you– but that was the good thing about training yourself to be ambidextrous. Your grip on the sword loosens so you can switch hands, the hilt grasped tight in the fingers of your right hand. 

It allows you enough slack to grab his forearm with your left hand as it nears you, too. “You’re still underestimating me,” you comment again, placidly calm, your grip tightening on his arm. 

     "Nnrgh--!" His face turned away, he felt a crack in his jaw as it opened, and the pain swept in. He stumbled about a step backwards, shoulders tensing as he waited for the wound to settle and his head to clear.

     The anger swelled with the stinging of his cheek. He moved his jaw, feeling the pain again, and it burned through his eyes. There was no more playing. No more defacing of his value. The fingers of his right hand flexed, and in the next moment, he lunged. They curled around that neck that kept his bothersome life going, showing no mercy as he shoved him towards the hardwood floor with the best of his strength. He showed no sign of letting up as the other hand joined the first, squeezing relentlessly against his airway.

* deep inhale, and cold air filled your lungs.

* long exhale, and thick vapour raised from your lips to occupy the space in front of you.

* had the footsteps stopped? you couldn’t hear them anymore.

* you did this several times before you heard an eerie voice speak up from behind you, and jumped in surprise. no sound escaped your lips– not that it ever had as far as you can remember– but your mouth opened instinctively, as if giving a silent yelp of shock.

* swallowing hard, you turned, hand clenching tightly at the bottom of your shirt before raising slowly– you were clearly hesitating.

* however, you did take the figures hand– and as you did, a loud sound much like that of a fart erupted from your clasped hands. and now that you heard it, you also noticed what felt like rubber material against your palm.

* …

* you were still for a long moment, simply looking down at the hand clasped in your own in momentary shock before you smiled– then quiet gasping sounds left your mouth, the only sound your laughter had ever made.

* it was funny, even if it was an age old trick. but the fact that the figure in front of you had done it reassured you just slightly that maybe– just maybe– this monster wasn’t bad. not like that flower that had attacked you when you fell into the ruins, at least.

     The laugh was a bit of a surprise; humans knew how to speak, didn't they? Was this one a mute? Seemed like it. You found it pretty endearing the way they did their own thing in the best way they could. When they pointed towards you with their head cocked to the right, you knew exactly what they were asking.

"my name's yams. yams the skeleton. i look pretty fleshy for a skeleton, huh? haha! i'm not sure why that is."

     You scratched the back of your head. You certainly had a skeleton beyond all that skin, so you would think that could make you a skeleton, plus the fact that you can't really die. Monsters were monsters, no matter how much flesh they got.

"sorry if i scared you. it's not very often a human shows up around here. i guess you wanna get to the other side of the bridge, right?"

     You glanced up at the wooden pathway then, guarded a little too well by large wooden beams on either side-- with a gaping hole through its center, allowing easy passage through the... gate.

"my brother gokudera built that, but he built it so well that he couldn't get back to the other side, so he had to cut a hole big enough to go back through. it's supposed to keep humans like you out, but there's no way it could do that now. you're free to cross it."

* the sound of the heavy door clicking shut behind you left you with a sense of lost that you couldn’t quite explain, but the memory of strong arms embracing you filled you with a burning feeling– something that made you feel like you could do anything you set your mind to.

* but at the same time it still left you with a cold weight in your chest, despite how much you tried to ignore it. it raised a lump in your throat, one that you quickly swallowed down to the best of your ability– taking a moment to look around your surroundings instead.

* snow could be seen in every direction, and the cold air caused vapours to raise front your mouth with every exhale. the thought of how there was possibly snow underground occurred to you, but you shrugged it off. it wasn’t that important.

* so you began walking, snow crunching under your feet with ever step you took as your eyes surveyed the area around you; focusing on the dark shadows the trees on either side of the small trail that you had stepped onto once leaving the warmth of the ruins.

* you shivered, stepping over a large branch that had fallen into the middle of the path; turning your head every which way as you felt eyes on your back.

* or maybe you were just being paranoid, it was hard to tell. but it was understandable, if you were. mo- toriel had explained to a point that beyond the door was dangerous, especially for a human.

* CRACK!

* your head snapped to the side as you froze for a moment, clenching your toy knife in your hand. you didn’t see anything, and your panicked breathing calmed after a long moment as nothing other than the peaceful– perhaps a bit eerie– silence of the small woods met your ears.

* it took you a moment, but you advanced– stopping just in front of a large wooden gate, even though from where you stood you could already tell that the bars were far too large to stop anything.

     It was time.

     As the human approached the bridge, you made your move. Footsteps crunched through the snow with distinct pauses in between, like a large beast closing in on its prey. You could almost see them shaking, you're pretty sure, as you stop your shoes mere steps from their back. You open your grinning mouth to speak as eerily as you could pull off.

＂Ｈ ｕ ｍ ａ ｎ．    Ｄ ｏ ｎ ＇ ｔ  ｙ ｏ ｕ  ｋ ｎ ｏ ｗ  ｈ ｏ ｗ  ｔ ｏ  ｇ ｒ ｅ ｅ ｔ  ａ  ｎ ｅ ｗ  ｆ ｒ ｉ ｅ ｎ ｄ ？    Ｔ ｕ ｒ ｎ  ａ ｒ ｏ ｕ ｎ ｄ  ａ ｎ ｄ  ｓ ｈ ａ ｋ ｅ  ｍ ｙ  ｈ ａ ｎ ｄ ．＂

                 《 ❖ ⋮ ❛ The elongated silence followed by his question prompted him to believe the other fell asleep. It wouldn’t really be a surprise to discover he had dozed off since he was notoriously well-known for his strange sleeping quirk. Oh, so he was awake. What a surprise. “So it’s a game? Aren’t they too old to be playing games nya?” Pressing his sharp nail against his head, he gently scratched his scalp in confusion. Maybe it was a game made specifically for adults. “You dedicated a whole day to a game? Nyahaha, you guys never fail to amaze me!” 

     Slowly he leaned his palm against the bench in the small space between them, moving close enough to take the other end of the pocky between his teeth. A small munch brought them a little bit closer, red hues attempting to pierce through those long, wild bangs that obstructed Hans' eyes from view. He couldn't decide if it was better or worse not being able to keep eye contact with him as he took another small nibble, being sure not to drop the pocky from his lips.

@sinpylae

     "..... Pocky game." He muttered, before interrupting himself with a big yawn. "It's Pocky day, y'know?" With his eyes still barely open, he felt around for the plastic bag full of treats they'd bought a little earlier. "They're eating it. You both hold the pocky in your mouth and nibble it until you get to the middle. The first person to break away, loses."

     He pulls a cardboard box from the bag, peeling away the tab and breaking the plastic to pull out a stick of chocolate pocky. He holds it out, chocolate end first, to Hans' lips.