Shindou sat on the couch, one hand over his mouth, one leg crossed over the other, staring intently at his—would lover be an appropriate word at this point?—who was sitting on the opposite end. Kirino was contently flipping through the hundred pages of manuscript laying around him, sporting a large white bandage on the side of his neck. Shindou wasn't ashamed to say he was the reason for it being there.

It had been an accident, however. Admittedly, he might have gotten a little too invested making love to the other that he ended up leaving a pretty little bite mark on that pretty little neck. Kirino was not amused. In fact, he ranted and lamented about it the entire time Shindou applied the bandage while also wiping his tears away. He made sure Kirino never got a look at the new blemish else he would begin to question the two small holes left behind. Next, he would joke about Shindou being a vampire, recalling how he'd always admired the other's "cute little fangs" and how they would sometimes hit him when they kissed, and be too busy to notice Shindou's reaction to him being exactly right. It wouldn't have been much of a reaction though; Kirino would have only seen that same stoic expression Shindou spent years perfecting, though had trouble maintaining, as he thought about the accuracy of his statement. Kirino was quite sharp, however. Once he saw how his friend would stubbornly avoid eye-contact after his peculiar statement, the realization would go off in his head like a big bang bell. Shindou would practically see memories of their time together flashing through those captivating blue eyes as he pieced everything together.

Unfortunately, that's where Shindou's hypothetical scenario ends. He always finds himself unable to imagine how exactly his best friend would react after finding out his "secret". His mind would always flicker to the worst case scenario, the one he found too painful to contemplate. Instead, hopeful thoughts would arise. He would remember how Kirino has always been a caring and understanding person and, after an unavoidable initial outburst, would simply talk through the situation with him. Shindou wondered if he would be wearing that wonderful, gentle smile that put his inert heart at ease, or giving that cold gaze that achieved the exact opposite.

He didn't even want to think about how Kirino would react to being told he's turning. It wasn't even meant to happen this way. Shindou had always planned to reveal everything to him when the time was right, answer all of Kirino's reasonable questions, and then bite him. He usually followed the elaborate scripts he planned out in his head; what the fuck happened?

To get an idea of how his friend would react, he would think back to when he was in the exact same situation. There were some things he would never forget, such as how the incredibly bright moonlight illuminated and emphasized Tsurugi's smirk and made Shindou want to kill him even more, however after factoring in some newfound information he decided against it. Though the nagging pain in his neck combined with the unbelievable amount of hatred he had for his old friend at that point made it really difficult to think rationally. Fortunately, the dark haired striker was able to put aside his shitty attitude for a few moments and help Shindou through his emotional breakdown however he could. When the brunette lifted his head from his own knees to look at him, Tsurugi was seated beside him, glancing somewhere off into the depths of the dark building, not saying a word. Shindou did notice the other's cold hand was gently wrapped around his own.

He then began remembering the days where he would foolishly pretend that nothing has changed, but the simplest things brought him crashing back down to reality. Like how he watched his skin get paler every day till he was no different from Tsurugi. Or when he no longer enjoyed, or even began hating his once favorite foods. Or the day he noticed he no longer had a pulse. There were no doubt benefits to this transformation as well, which Tsurugi made efforts to remind him of. However, Shindou was completely unable to fathom how anything could be good about becoming a vampire. Eventually, he was able to drag himself back to his usual routine, though he felt about as dead on the inside as he literally was on the outside.

I was a wreck until I met him. He admitted to himself. He was still in the same pose, still staring at Kirino who was now cutely nibbling on bread while looking at the unreasonably large TV screen in front of him. Pages of his manuscript were scattered everywhere, forgotten.

No, Kirino would not react at all similar to the way the brunette had. Shindou could always tell. His pink haired friend was stronger than he was, he could handle the situation infinitely better than he himself had done. There wasn't any doubt about it. That was one of the things he loved about Kirino, along with the way he just seemed to have a calming aura around him, but also how upbeat and carefree he could be. And also the little things, like how warm his hands were—how warm he was. When they met, the first thing he noticed was how he had subconsciously began to open up to his new acquaintance, really expressing himself like he used to instead of holding everything inside. The second thing was how, for some reason, Kirino could not stop blushing. He found himself looking forward to their next meeting. It had been a while since he looked forward to anything. Shindou might have been smiling, but his hand covered it.

"What are you thinking about?" Shindou finally snapped out of his thoughts when he heard his partner's gentle voice. He saw Kirino sitting close to him, his knees brought up to his chest, wearing his usual smile. He often asked this question since it was quite common for Shindou to get lost in his own thoughts. Usually Shindou would respond with some variation of the sentence "how much I love you." because that really would be the answer. Somehow his thoughts always went back to him.

This time instead of responding, he simply ran his fingers over the bandage decorating his lover's neck. The words "I'm sorry." were lingering on his lips but they never came out. Kirino understood regardless.

"Don't worry about it," he said calmly. Shindou would describe his voice as a gentle breeze. "I don't even feel it anymore." As if to emphasize his point, he reached up to the bandage and snatched it off. Yet, instead of revealing a bite mark, the skin underneath looked just as pure and soft as when Shindou first saw it. No one would ever guess there had been an injury there.

Kirino noticed the solemn look in the other's eyes. "It's fine," he waved his hand before looking down at his knees, blushing. "To be honest, I actually kind of liked it."

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