nopain8                                         
by seat 10.1.2000


     Ryu felt his stomach contract with tension as he watched the closing
vampire. "What.....what happened to J?" Ryu asked in genuine worry.

     Sugi smiled in mild wonder. "If you are so worried about him, why did
you send him to meddle with my plan in the first place??" He caught Ryu's
nape with one hand and brought his face to him. "Before worrying about the
others, perhaps you should consider your own immediate trouble first?" Sugi
whispered softly as he grasped Ryu's wrist with just a little exertion.

     Ryu grimaced in pain. He clenched his teeth hard to stop himself from
groaning.

    "How? No clever excuses to defend yourself? If you can't come up with
one then you deserve a good lesson so that you will remember never to stick
your little nose into my business ever again." Sugi teased with a wicked
smile.

  Ino's faint sobbing voice came at that time. "Ryu.....open the
door.....Ryu....."

     Ryu managed to gasp a desperate breath as Sugi loosened his grip
slightly in distraction. Prompted by impulse, Ryu flung his free arm around
Sugi's neck, pulled himself up and kissed the vampire. Succeeded in gaining
back the vampire's attention, Ryu looked at the beautiful eyes of amber,
and
murmured, "Why should I need an excuse for what I've done? Isn't it obvious
enough to you why I took such risks to prevent you from running away with
Ino?"

     Sugi's face softened in amusement. "Ah but what 'obvious' reason would
that be?"

     Ryu bit his lip and said, "Do you ever get tired of teasing people??"
as he lapped at Sugi's mouth with his inviting tongue. Amidst Sugi's
chuckles, Ryu felt the cold grip on his wrist tightened and a firm embrace
came, locking his body still and crushing it deliciously. The kiss that
fell
upon him was with life-threatening pressure and intensity that he both
feared and hungered. Invasion to his mouth made his head swim, his body
burn. Going further in the tongue play, Ryu ventured to trace the vampire's
fangs, poking the tip curiously. Suddenly he felt sharp pain, followed by
thick wetness on his tongue. Ticklish numbness shot through his veins and
pricked his heart as the vampire drew tiny streams of blood from the cut.

     "Ah.....shame on me......" Sugi finally drew back with a sigh. "My
lover is being detained next door and crying, and I am blood-kissing a
student priest." Shaking his head in self-mockery, Sugi tipped up Ryu's
confused face and squeezed his chin playfully, "How dare you little devil
make me feel so guilty." Sugi planted a last kiss on Ryu's cheek, and then
headed towards Ino's sobbing sound.

     Head cleared as the strong arms abandoned him and left him cold, Ryu
stumbled forward and hugged the vampire from behind, face burying into the
long red hair. "Where do you go? What will you do? Why.....why does it have
to be Ino??"

     Sugi endured the questions but did not feel obliged to answer. "Don't
be a fool, Ryu. You are too clever to even bother to ask such things. Go
back to your Father J and your God. For your own good, forget it all."
Though he knew better than anyone in the world that such obsession would
not
be so easily forgotten.

     Shaking his head to deny reasons, Ryu moved to put himself between the
vampire and the door, as a futile attempt to block the way. In a forlorn
tone, he said, "I know why you are so obsessed with Ino. He refused you
once
in the past and hurt your pride. For centuries you could not forgive him
for
such humiliation. Now you are here to drug him with your tales and sweet
talks, make him falling head over heels in love with you, only to get
even."

     Fear stung him as he saw the vampire's face darkened ominously, but
bitterness overcame him. "As you know you have won beautifully. Ino lost
himself entirely to your probably the very first moment he met you.
Ah......poor Ino, what will become of him when his dear love gets tired of
him and all magic vanishes? A used toy abandoned to a lifetime of
misery.....ah no, an eternity of misery which was supposed to be love and
oh
so much love forever......" Cold fingers closed on his throat suddenly and
he body yanked backward like a puppet knocking to the door with a dull
thud.
Pain bit into the marrow of his bones, his joints threatened to dislocate.
He wrestled with unbearable sickness as his internals refused to subside.

     "You are one amazing creature." Sugi flashed a deadly smile. "So
powerless and yet so fearless. Blame me not, Ryu, blame on your own smart
tongue." He sank his teeth to the neck, tore the skin open and let the
blood
flow into his mouth.

     A dreadful sense of finality came to Ryu. Panic struck him fiercely as
he realized this is not what he wanted, not in this form. The very fact
that
he himself invited such consequence was suddenly beyond him to imagine and
accept. Regret and vague anger sickened him as his saw his life leaving him
in full speed.

     He tried to struggle, but the dead embrace allowed no resistance. In
cold terror, he lowered his eyes to find the vampire's face, and was once
again shocked and fascinated by the wonder of his beauty. What would he not
give up in order to have him all to his own? And he was going to die, for
nothing. "Ah no,......not for nothing, " Ryu thought dreamily, "I have his
kiss and his love all to myself at this very moment......until I die."

     A barely audible voice sounded from behind, which pierced through
Ryu's
wandering mind like a sharp knife. "Ryu.....what is happening out there?
Who.....who is there?" It was Ino from the other side of the door. The bang
on the door when Ryu's body fell on it, had alerted him.

     Ryu blinked once, and twice. Sudden realization came to him like a
lightning, he drew in air painfully and gave out a scream. "Sugi!!! Don't
kill me!!! Ino help me!!!!!"

     Sugi frowned, and sucked ferociously, rendering Ryu's heart to stop
dangerously for a brief second.

     "Sugi?? You are there?? What are you doing to Ryu??" Ino pounded on
the
door in a panic.

     Sugi lifted his head and gave out a sigh in resignation. Staring at
Ryu's shagged body as he barely managed to regain his heartbeat, Sugi said
coldly, "Be grateful, Ryu. Since my dear Ino is not ready to witness
cruelty
yet, your life is spared." Sugi dropped Ryu's body and laid his hand on the
doorknob.

     "Wait.....Sugi......" Ryu held on to Sugi's leg in a fluster.

     Sugi ignored him. He traced the shape of the lock in his mind and
imagined it opening. With a click the simple mechanism gave way to vampiric
power. He pushed the door open.

     Suddenly blinding light beamed from all directions and struck directly
on him. His first blood cell exploded before he realized it was the same
deadly light that comes from the sun. Arms flung up to cover his face, Sugi
leaped backward to the far side of the corridor for shelter of the shade.
But safety lasted only briefly, bluish light from the ceiling above flooded
the corridor. Sugi gave out an agonized cry as his blood set afire, and his
skin burned and cracked open.

     Ino's gasp of shock was followed by Ryu's soft sigh as he got up to
his
feet slowly. "J set up this trap up to protect Ino before he went to see
you. The UV ray torches are all over the house and the door opening
triggered them to turn on automatically." Ryu looked at the vampire in pain
and shrugged slightly, "And I was trying to warn you....."

     "Sugi??!!!" Ino covered his mouth in terror.

     "Ino!! Come to me at once!!" Sugi shouted urgently. "Hurry!! I can't
stay here any longer!!!"

     Ino gasped and started towards Sugi.

     "No you can't go!!" Ryu's stopping hands came. "He has killed Father J
and he was trying to kill me!!"

     Ino hesitated in confusion. Ryu seized the moment to shove Ino back to
the room and slammed the door shut, he locked it at once with the key
hidden
in his pocket. Feeling Sugi's intense gaze on him, Ryu shuddered slightly.
"Please leave, Sugi......before it's too late......"

     In a rage, Sugi decided to push his limit and take the risk. "Sure I
will leave. But not until you're dead and with Ino in my arms!!"

     Ryu jumped in fright as he saw Sugi brave the light and dart towards
him.
A sudden loud crack of gunfire sounded the moment before Ryu took the blow
of Sugi's body knocking him down.

     "Ryu are you alright??!!" The familiar hoarse voice of J was the last
thing that Ryu heard before he lost consciousness.

***************************************************

     Sugi concentrated with his preternatural power and tried one last time
to open the heavy metal lock of the cage that confined him, and failed. He
sighed in frustration and pounded his fist on the bars that trembled
violently, but would not yield to bend.

     When he regained his senses, he found himself captured in a cage like
a
beast, in the attic of the priest's house. J had caught him off guard and
shot him at the back when he attacked Ryu. While normally it would take no
more than a few minutes for him to recover his strength, the artificial
sunlight had weakened him considerably, and as a result the hit to his
heart
had paralysed him and knocked him unconscious for a longer period of time,
which caused this state of dilemma now. He had searched with his mind for
the priest and Ino in the house, but he found himself alone.

     Light of the moon coming through slanted windows in the ceiling washed
the room in silver, and the slope of the shade told him the night was no
longer young.

     "So I am left here alone to wait for my own death??" Sugi mused. A
presence entering the house soon answered his question with a negative.
Ascending footsteps stopped behind the door, which opened after a long
pause. J's slender figure came into view.

     "Let me guess. You have locked up my poor Ino in some hideaway,
haven't
you?" Sugi asked in contempt.

     J sat down on a chair facing Sugi. "Ino is safe with Father......with
someone I can trust."

     "And I am going to search him out," Sugi gave a wry smile, "if you
don't send me to Hell once and for all."

     J looked at Sugi for a long moment. "Are you not afraid of dying?"

     Sugi burst out laughing. "Oh my little J......if I say I am afraid,
will you let me go?"

     J shook his head. "You are a threat to human."

     "Of course." Sugi laughed again.

     Silence fell then. J stared without blinking at the moonlight that
kissed the wooden floor, whilst Sugi looked at J's motionless form and
waited.

     "Is what you said about my parents......" Finally the question came,
but it trailed off unfinished.

     "I do not lie, J." Sugi sighed softly. "Not because I am decent, but
because an eternal life entangled with lies will drive the strongest mind
insane."

     "So the truth is like you said, my father killed my mother, as well as
himself?"

     Sugi stayed silent.

     J laughed bitterly. "Of course, why should you lie about such thing
anyway? For a creature which takes human life for food, what can be more
insignificant than two dead from a love affair with the sole purpose of
amusement?" J chuckled. "And what can be more foolish to devote one's whole
life on a revenge that has no meaning and no significance from the very
beginning?"

     Sugi felt profound sadness in J's words, rather than sarcasm.

     "My parents were fools. And so am I." J murmured blankly. His life
flashed back in his mind in a blink. All the pain he suffered at the loss
of
his family, the religious belief he thought would save him from misery and
give him hope, the only one purpose of his life which he devoted all his
heart and all his soul to, suddenly seemed to be nothing but a pathetic
joke, a laughable mistake. Years of striving and enduring, have made him
believe that he had gone far on his destined path towards his goal, and
when
he thought his journey had come to a near end, that he would regain his
peace of mind, he realized at the end that he had been wandering in a big
circle, heading right back to where he started, and in the exactly same
state as when he was a child, hopelessly lost, angry, and heart-broken.

     "Where do I go now......?" J asked himself, as he felt a familar dull
ache eating him slowly from within, and this time he found no volition to
fight back. Tears filled his eyes and tumbled down his cheeks soundlessly.

     Sugi was shocked at the sight of J's suffering. Guilt that he had
never
felt in his long years of killing, now struck him so powerfully that he
thought he would cry. The past tragedy of J's parents was his mistake. He
was fond of J's father, whose total obsession and devotion towards him had
flattered him and made him happy, and for that Sugi had chosen to ignore
the
weak nature of his temporary lover, and failed to foresee the grim
consequence. He had not wished J's father to die, but his vanity had caused
it notwithstanding.

     Sugi closed his eyes, and the little face of the boy who glared at him
with such hatred and abhorrence, appeared vividly. The boy had been the
same
one who once called him an angel, and said with his innocent voice that he
was beautiful. Now he had become the murderer of this boy's parents. How
much he wished he could explain what really happened, that he didn't kill
them, and he didn't deserve J's hatred. But it was clear that the little
heart was not able to accept his own father's madness. The truth was too
cruel for a boy of eight to face. At that critical moment, J needed someone
to blame, to hate. He needed a purpose of life based on this hatred in
order
to go on living, and to keep himself from going insane.

     "No......it was vanity again......" Sugi mused. Perhaps it was a whim
of vanity that prompted him to fool an abandoned child into chasing himself
as a life-long purpose. He had desired J's attention, even though it was in
the form of revenge. "Ah......" Sugi gave out a sigh of surprise. Suddenly
he understood why he was attracted to J's father the moment he laid eyes on
him. The soft gentle smile of doom-fated lover was a exact copy of the
little boy he met by the lake......

     Sugi looked up at the priest, who had grown up so beautiful and
strong,
yet in the vampire's eyes still the same innocent boy, vulnerable and
helpless. Sugi felt such love for J, love so strong that he burned in
desire
to take the heart-wrenching form into his arms at once and never let go.
And
it was pain for him to see the priest so bereft of the usual vigour. Regret
started to torture him as he realized what further fatal damage he had made
by telling J the truth of his parent's death. It was nothing more than
petty
anger. He was annoyed by J's obstruction to his persuading of Ino, and his
patience ran out at the priest's righteous speeches. A thoughtless impulse
to teach J a lesson, had caused so much suffering for him. Sugi felt
crushing guilt, responsibility to make amends. If offering of his cursed
immortal life could compensate his wrong doings, if it could ease J's pain,
and allow him start a new life, at this moment Sugi would not hesitate.

     Both the priest and the vampire were lost in a whirlpool of dark
thoughts and emotions. Time seemed to have frozen in silence and utter
stillness, only the shadow crawling slowly on the floor hinted the passing
of the night.

     Then there was the complete darkness, before the ultimate crack of
dawn.

     The fact that his immortal life would come to an end soon, seemed
totally unreal to Sugi. Through the window above, Sugi watched the palette
in the sky, growing from deep blue, violet, to crimson. Eyes hurting in a
burning pain, his mind unfocussed and his body taken over by fatigue, he
knew his time had come. He yearned and yearned and yearned to see Ino.

     Finally Sugi turned to J who had not moved a finger for the past
hours,
and broke the nightlong silence. "J.......whatever I have done that caused
damages to your life, my life is all that I could offer as the solace for
your pain. I die now. I hope at last we are even."

     J's shoulder twitched. His swollen eyes raised to meet Sugi's, but did
not speak. For a long time he stared fixedly at Sugi, his face rigid in
thoughtfulness.

     When the first light slipped into the attic room, J stood up and
walked
over to the cage. Snatching the keys that he hanged over his neck, J opened
the heavy lock with both hands.

     Despite of the throbbing pain caused by dawn, Sugi watched the
priest's
action wide-eyedly in disbelief.

     J stepped back with a gun ready in his hand for defence. "Leave here
now. Go and face the rising sun. Survive or perish, it depends on your fate
now."

     Sugi brought himself up and came out of his confinement. In amazement
he stared at the priest. "I don't understand......"

     "Sugi, I have been hunting you all my life." J whispered softly. "But
when I have finally got you, I realized the ironic fact that I have been
hunting you for the wrong reason. I will let you go now, just like you
spared mine once before. From this moment onwards, let our past be bygone,
our personal hatred be no more. Let us be at last even. You the vampire, I
the vampire hunter." Despite of his determined words, his voice was not of
someone who determined to live, but to die.

     Sugi felt his heart torn into pieces at the sight of the priest.
Without a word, he left the room.

     Alone in the room, J felt all his strength vanished. His gun dropped
from his loose fingers, his body crumpled to the floor. He buried his face
in his hands. Suddenly a tightness embraced him from behind. Startled, he
snapped open his eyes and found himself bound in the circle of strong arms.
Cold lips closed on his left ear and Sugi's whisper came, "Let there be no
pain for you anymore......"

     Sugi sank his teeth and cut deeply into J's neck, and began to drink.

     J felt his blood rushed through his veins towards Sugi, his heart
contracted and expanded so rapidly that he thought it would burst like a
balloon any second. Sickness rose in his stomach as if it was being tossed
up and down. Dizziness and a vague sense of erotic pleasure had denied him
effortlessly any attempts of struggle. J yielded himself completely to what
he knew to be his pre-ordained fate, his inevitable death. He closed his
eyes, felt his heart slowing down, and waited for the moment of the
stopping
of his heart.

     However, Sugi drew back before what it seemed to be his point of
death,
and whispered to him. "I wish I could do it with more tenderness, but there
is no time. Now drink from me, my little boy." Sugi tore open his wrist
with
his fangs, blood gushed out from the cut and he pressed it hard to J's
mouth. In confusion, J did not swallow.

     "Ah......but I won't let it happen again." Sugi grasped J's throat and
forced it open for the blood to flow in. He had suffered too much because
his past lover once refused his blood centuries ago, and he had sworn that
he would not make the same mistake again.

     J choked with the blood but Sugi would not relent. The vampire flesh
healed quickly and dammed the flow, but Sugi tore it open again and again.
When Sugi re-entered the attic room, he had shut the curtain to block the
sunlight for the time being, but he knew he had risked it too far and both
him and J were in immediate life-threatening danger.

     Once he judged that the transformation of J's body had started
together
with a spasm of shaking, Sugi held up the fragile body in his arms, tore
down the large curtain and wrapped themselves in it for protection. Sugi
took a deep breath to fight down nausea, jumped out through the window and
made his escape from the glaring sun.

***************************************************

     Ryu opened his eyes and saw an unfamiliar ceiling. He tried to sit up
on the bed but his joints were in such pain that all he could do was moan.

     "Ryu, how are you feeling?"

     Ryu turned his head and saw Ino sitting in a chair beside him, and he
noticed another person standing by the window under the warm daylight of
the
winter. The stranger was in priest's gown, his long hair in blonde was tied
back in a pony tail. While his face showed no expression, the eyes that
looked down at Ryu were kind and warm.

     "This is Father Imai," Ino explained, "J said that he used to be under
Father Imai's care and instruction in the Evangelist church that they both
belonged."

     "Ah......Father Imai," Ryu said, "I have heard so much about you from
J. He always tells me how thankful he is to your care and teaching, and
what
a great vampire hunter you are."

     Imai gave a faint smile. "I am not a vampire hunter anymore, I quitted
long time ago......."

     "Ah yes......J always says what a shame that is." Ryu turned to Ino
and
asked, "Where is J?"

     "I don't know......" Ino shook his head. "Last night, after the gun
shot......J let me out of the room and told me that I must immediately
leave
the house and go to the shelter of his previous mentor whom he trusts. And
you were unconscious at that time......Sug.....Sugi was no where to be
seen.......so J and I carried you by car to Father Imai's place. J left
right afterwards saying that he had important things to deal with, and I
must stay here until he returns."

     Ryu tried to recall the last scene before he fainted. He was sure that
Sugi had been shot by J. "You didn't go back to J's house to have a look?"
Ryu asked.

     Ino shook his head. He knew Sugi would not be there anymore.

     "What happened to Sugi last night.......?" Ino asked hesitantly.

     "I don't know......I lost conscious, remember?" Ryu sighed. "You said
you didn't see Sugi when you came out from the room?"

     "Yes......I had asked J again and again, he only said that Sugi was
still alive but would not tell me where he was."

     "So either Sugi had escaped or......" Ryu knew about the cage designed
for vampires in the attic room. But even if J didn't kill Sugi himself, the
vampire would not have survived the day if he was really captured there.

     "Or what?" Ino asked worriedly.

     Ryu didn't answered.

     After a short silence, Ino asked in a small voice,
"Ryu.......why......why did you do those things......I thought we were
friends......" He looked at Ryu with sorrowful eyes.

     Ryu felt a sting of guilt. He wanted to give some excuses, but his
usual wit was lost. He gave a deep sigh as he prayed for J's return.

***************************************************

     J woke with an unbearable thirst in complete darkness. He moved and
found himself in a firm embrace of someone lying underneath him.

     "Ah......finally you are awake......" Sugi's voice came. He pushed up
the lid of the coffin they were both lying in, candlelight flooded in as he
sat up and cradled J's slim shoulders in his arms. He smiled at the
confused
priest, "This is my home, and yours too from now onwards."

     J looked up and saw a fully furnished room with no windows, only a few
candle stands hung on the wall. Suddenly something disturbed him. The
vision
he viewed with his eyes seemed not to be of the real world. What he saw was
indeed a room. But the colours danced as if they were alive, the shapes of
all things in the surrounding were so vivid to him, that he could see every
single detail all at once without even focussing his eyes. He could hear
the
candle melting in drops, and smell the worn papers of the old books that
filled the ceiling-high bookshelves. He looked back to Sugi who was smiling
at him. The vampire's face was no longer preternatural and fearfully
magical, but a piece of art of beauty that he could appreciate in fine
details and grasp a understanding of its nature.

     Cold terror dawned on him as he spoke with trembling lips. "What have
you done to me......?"

     Sugi whispered, "I took away the life that pained you, and gave you a
brand new one."

     "Oh my God......" J shuddered. "You have turned me into a
vampire......?"

     "J........" Sugi tightened his hug and kissed J's cheek softly.

     Suddenly J shoved away Sugi and threw himself out of the coffin. He
walked straight to a stand with a few candles, jerked it down and stabbed
the fire into his own face.

     "J!!!!!!!!" Sugi flew to him and thrust the candles away. J leaped to
the opposite wall and repeated the same suicidal action.

     "Stop it!!!!!" Sugi wrapped his arms around J trying to hold him down.

     But J had gained vampiric strength now and would not be tamed so
easily. He struggled fiercely and broke free.

     "Stop this madness, J!!!!!" Sugi hurled himself into J's back,
pressing
him against the wall. By accident they landed on a big mirror hung on the
wall, which cracked under the impact and a broken piece flew and slit open
the skin on J's face. J looked into the mirror at the reflection of
himself,
and gasped in absolute horror as the cut on his face healed itself in front
of his own eyes. J screamed.

     "J!!!!!!!" Stunned by J's violent reaction, Sugi could do nothing
apart
from holding J still in the clasp of his arms and wishing him to calm down.
But J seemed to have lost his mind. He threw himself to the wall, knocking
down the bookshelves, toppling over the table, despite Sugi's effort to
stop
him.

     J screamed over and over in agony. "Why did you do this to me??!!!! I
would rather die than living as a monster!!!! Let me die!!!!!!!!!!!" He
broke free from Sugi's grip and tried to hurl himself into the candle fire
again.

     In frustration, Sugi jumped to J's back and pressed him down to the
floor. Not allowing any resistance, Sugi pulled back J's arms and locked
them in a tight grip. For a long time J screamed and cursed in a rage. Then
after a spasm of tremor that coursed through his body, J gave up his
struggle and broke into tears.

     A tightness in Sugi's throat rose at the sight of J's torment. "I
could
not leave you behind......knowing that you would waste your life clinging
onto your pain and suffering......."

     "You are a liar......" J cried. "You are playing with my life.......I
have been nothing but a fool for you to play with all these years......and
you want my misery to go on forever......"

     "No, J, I love you." Sugi declared in angst, and at that, J began to
scream all over again.

***************************************************

     After seeing to it that Ryu and Ino were finally at rest in their own
rooms, Imai walked back to his room just after the clock clicked past
midnight. J had not returned today and the two boys were restless in their
worries. Imai had gone to J's house in the afternoon but as he expected,
the
house was deserted. And he did not tell the boys about the gun that he
found
on the floor of the attic room and the remains of the torn window curtains.
Brooding on what else he could do to help, Imai opened his room door and
was
about to switch on the light. He stopped when he felt the familiar presence
in the gloom of the room.

     "You came......" Imai whispered.

     The figure, in long black coat, was sitting on the chair, and he spoke
in a richly deep voice. "You have visitors today."

     Imai walked over to the figure, reached out his hand and gently took
off the sunglasses that hid the large eyes of jet-black. His name was
Atsushi, a vampire of an age of more than 500 years. A loner whose
existence
was not known to his own kind in the city.

     "Do you remember my old student J? He came last night and left the
boys
here." Imai said.

     "Ah, that bold, hot-blooded student of yours, who was always roaming
around the streets at night chasing after those poor young vampires?"

     Imai smiled, "Yes.......this time his long-time target Sugi is
involved....."

     Atsushi mused. He knew about J and Sugi. J had gone independent in
vampire hunting when Atsushi met Imai 15 years ago. And not a soul in the
world knew except Atsushi that it was in fact him who made Sugi into a
vampire 2 centuries ago. For the 2 years since Sugi moved to this city, and
J followed without delay, he had not said a word to Imai about his relation
to the vampire whom his previous student was hunting, because he was
reluctant to get involved with any vampires, not even his own fledgling.

     Imai ran his fingers through the short black hair that went wildly
tousled with waves, and brushed away the long front fringes covering the
vampire's face.

     "You haven't fed......." Imai said softly as he saw the beautiful face
in pale white.

     "Weren't you sulking every time I came here with my face brushed with
someone else's blood in my veins??" Atsushi teased with a wry smile. He
grasped Imai's hand and pulled him close. Their lips overlapped and sought
hard and long for each other in passion.

     Imai yielded himself into the broad chest and let the strong arms
enfold him entirely. It almost made him sad to realize how deeply and
hopelessly he was in love with Atsushi. 15 years ago he thought he was
incapable of loving the vampire more than he did, for he had already given
up everything, his pride and his belief and his mission as a vampire
hunter.
It seemed so silly to admit to himself that it was love at the first sight.
And ironically he was a young and devoted killer of the night creatures,
and
the first taste of love was to his own enemy. Knowing too well he could
never escape from the fate of being the victim of darkness, and of love, he
surrendered his entire soul and heart to Atsushi and thought it was all
that
he could give. But to his astonishment and dismay, he only loved Atsushi
more and more every passing moment.

     The kiss that held stubbornly onto his lips told Imai that he was
truly
being loved. But he knew better than to fool himself that he was the only
one. A beauty that could not possibly be far from God, was not something he
could contain. He didn't know how many lovers Atsushi had, and didn't see
the point of knowing. Only when the vampire was with him, that he felt he
was truly living. There were times when the vampire did not come for
months,
and the loneliness and fear for being abandoned would drive him mad and
make
him wish to die. But the vampire had always come back, and Imai would never
ask him where he went, or say a word about his own feeling, only to love
the
vampire while he could, before the time of separation came again.

     Atsushi had offered to give him an immortal life, but without
hesitation he refused. Having a lover who seemed so close and yet so far
away, was not something his heart could bear forever. If he was not the
only
one Atsushi hoped to have as a companion for eternity, then let this love
die with him when his cursed life came to an end.

     Imai pushed away Atsushi and walked to stand by the window.

     "How come this sadness of yours only gets deeper and deeper every time
I see you?" Atsushi sighed slightly. "Are you not going to answer me this
time as well?"

     Imai looked out of the window and lost himself in thoughts. Then the
window curtain closed by itself and the room was thrown into pitch dark.
Imai felt the strongly-built body towering behind his back, in a distance
so
close that he could feel the vampire's breath. His heartbeat quickened in
anticipation, but the embrace he yearned for didn't come. For a long moment
he was tortured by erotic tension in the air, and at last he gave in to his
own desire and turned around to confront the vampire.

     Atsushi gave a wide sensuous smile and gathered Imai's body to
himself.

     When they had sunk into the comfort of the bed, Atsushi sighed as he
wondered if it was in fact this profound sadness of Imai that he was truly
attracted to. And then he decided that it was not time to think, and he
engaged both of them in a deep long kiss.


* * * * * *

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