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“Touch me,” Ei whispered, pulling Yae’s hand closer to her collarbone. “With your beautiful hands. Touch me.”
“These hands are not beautiful,” Yae said, flicking her eyes to the left, a slight grin tugging at her lips. “There is blood hidden within them.”
“There is blood within every set of hands, Miko. I believe it’s called circulation.”
Yae laughed and ran her hand across Ei’s chest. Then her fingers traveled towards her neck, grazing over the bite-marks which were now beginning to fade.
In the heated depths of a darkened, moonless night, Yae first bit Ei with a hasty mouth and felt ecstasy. It made her heart race, the taste of blood from a woman so stained yet so untouchable at the same time. She had pulled away and left two perfectly symmetrical dark red marks.
Now, the vibrant color they once were had calmed, leaving little more than a small pair of dots akin to needle-pokes.
Ei made no sudden movements as Yae’s cool hands brushed across her skin, as they pressed themselves to her chest. When Yae reached her arms, she began to dig her nails ever so gently into the supple skin there and drag them downwards. She was careful to leave no more than a tickling sensation, but the calm, stilled manner of Ei’s body beneath her made Yae’s nails feel more like claws. There was power in the touch. Power, and an undying promise of loyalty.
“If I asked something of you, would you do it?” Ei said suddenly, breaking the silence between them.
Yae paused, removing her hands from the other’s body and adjusting to lay on her side. “Of course, you know I would.”
Her answer pained Ei. Perhaps once, the blind devotion in Yae’s voice would have pleased her. Now, it gives her a bitter feeling and she fights the urge to anger from it.
“You say yes so easily,” she commented. Ei brought a hand up to stroke Yae’s hair, running her fingers through to the end of a long strand and twisting it at the end. “What if I want you to do something that you don’t want to do?”
Yae paused, seemingly sensing Ei’s apprehension. The underlying tone in her voice that suggested this question was important to her, and she should answer wisely.
“I suppose I would say no. Does this please you?”
“Yes,” Ei replied, sighing thoughtfully. “Yes, it does. I don’t want your love for me to outweigh your own caution, even if it upsets me. Can you promise me that? Can you promise me that you will always tell me when I’m hurting you?”
Yae looks into her eyes for a moment before a small smirk appears on her face. “Where exactly is this leading?”
“Promise, Miko. I’m not playing around, this time.” The edge in her voice was both begging and firm.
“Alright, I promise.”
The two women looked at each other for a moment longer. Then Ei sat up on the mattress. Then she grabbed the hem of her top and lifted it over her head, all the while without smiling. She looked nervous, in fact, sitting on her knees, naked from the waist up.
“Could we…try something different, tonight?” Ei asked, her stern voice suddenly shy.
“That’s just what I was thinking. What did you have in mind?” Yae asked, letting her eyes trail across the expanse of Ei’s torso.
“I want you to take your clothes off, all of them,” Ei began.
“Mhm.”
“And lie with me in bed.”
“Yes?”
“Then I want you to kiss me, and nothing more.”
“Nothing more?”
“No, nothing. Well, you may touch me as you please, but not in a way that would indicate anything sexual.”
“Is this not a sexual act?”
“I’d like to think of it differently. Sex is something that, physically, you can share with anyone. Intimacy, however, has no movements and no bodies.”
“Oh, I had no idea you were such a romantic, Ei. You make my heart squirm in my chest,” Yae said teasingly. But she meant it, she really did. She was simply better at expressing her words through jokes and writing than she was at saying them aloud.
Ei made a scoffing noise that sounded oddly close to the word ‘hush.’ She stood from the bed and pulled her skirt down. Next, her underwear. At last, she was fully bare, reflecting the raw image of all humans at the start of their life. Clothes are not built into the body, after all.
“Am I going to be the only one naked tonight, or will you show some courage and follow through?” Ei asked haughtily, clearly not fully confident in what she was doing. Her gaze remained steady, though, those blazing purple eyes never failing to slice through the air between them and meet Yae’s gaze with her own.
“Fine, fine! As you wish. A moment, please, for the lady?”
Within a minute, Yae had rid herself of all cloth atop her body and was lying next to her lover on the bed, just as Ei had requested.
“Is this just how you pictured it?” she asked, voice hushed and grinning.
“Almost.” Ei placed her hands on Yae’s cheeks and leaned in to bring their lips together. As she did, she felt two things: 1) Yae’s smooth hands running across her back, and 2) the small prick of her fangs peeking out from under her top lip and unknowingly rubbing across Ei’s tongue as they kissed.
“Now, is it how you pictured?” Yae said, pulling back for a brief moment to watch Ei’s cheeks darken as she ran her nails gently across her side.
“I was hoping for something less filthy.”
“Filthy?” Yae questioned. She knew what Ei meant by the word. Not dirty, but improper. Scandalous, if you will, something to hide, then giggle about later. It was exactly the type of sex they usually had. “How should I change it?”
“Kiss me softly, like it’s what you’ve been written to do. Kiss me like you could walk away at any time. Kiss me like you love me for everything beyond my body, which is fake, and your vampiric nature, which was not always as it is today. Then, touch me as if we are nothing more than two human creatures walking through this mortal life the way every other animal does: in a frame that is only visible through a physical lens.”
Yae looked taken aback by the request, but she was never one to enjoy being caught off guard and her face quickly returned to its prior (curious) state. “That’s quite a tall order. How on earth am I supposed to know what that means?”
“You’re a writer, you can figure it out.”
“I curse that we both desire precision so often. It’s like I need a step-by-step manual on how to conduct what you’ve just told me.”
Ei said nothing but gave her a daring look, barely raising an eyebrow. Yae sighed, realizing that she would not be getting a straight answer out of Ei and was being forced to compromise. “Fine,” she muttered.
Yae leaned back in for another kiss, gentler this time, and Ei gladly accepted. As the night progressed, their actions did not. They lay together for quite some time, holding each other close and kissing as though their mouths held secrets that could only be shared through touch.
Occasionally, Yae would feel Ei’s thigh brush up between hers or the press of their chests together would become too warm not to notice. When this happened, a greater desire would stir in her core and a small part of her would worry that, if she made any more sudden movements, she would scare off the woman in her arms and everything they had done to get to this point would be spoiled.
Yae had always been rather dramatic, though, and she knew that by doing what Ei had originally intended for them, she was not sacrificing her own pleasure, but breaking down the barriers between them. There was no room for judgment in the arms of the woman she loved.
After a while, Ei pulled back, panting slightly. “I can feel you growing flush against me, you know.”
Yae laughed, both embarrassed and amused by Ei’s bluntness.
“We don’t have to continue this if it’s too much,” Ei said.
Yae wanted to wipe the shame from her face. “No, no. I’m not sure why, but sometimes simple acts of tenderness are more difficult than rough sex.”
The two women laughed at that, limbs still tangled together carelessly across the bed.
“You would know, wouldn’t you?” Ei mocked lightly.
Yae rolled her eyes and turned away, pretending to pout about it. “That’s it. You’ve ruined it. Count me out of this, I’m going back to draining the blood from stray animals.”
Ei cupped her face and turned it back towards her. “When my neck is right here, so tantalizing? I thought you had higher tastes, Miko.”
“Exactly why I’m turning to the animals!”
The two only bickered for a moment longer, none of it intended to truly hurt, before they grew quiet once more.
“Would you really let me? Bite your neck again? I thought it was painful,” Yae spoke, hesitant.
There weren’t many subjects that she liked to tip-toe around, but the qualities that linked her to being a vampire would always cause a stutter in her thoughts. She hated that every other part of her identity was erased the moment someone would utter the word ‘vampire.’ It was almost laughable, how quickly their expressions would turn, and suddenly Yae could see the way their brains began to filter everything that went from their heads to their mouths very carefully.
“It was, at first. But I…forgive me, you know I hate admitting personal things, but I believe it made us closer. Your teeth inside me,” Ei said, already dragging her hair off her neck.
“If you’re completely sure of it.”
“Tonight, I am.”
Yae nodded and leaned forward. She sank her teeth into her neck and relished in the small twitches Ei’s body gave as she began to drink.
When Yae drank blood, the first thing she sought was the heartbeat. She knew she had found it when she could not only hear but feel the heart beating within her. That was when she realized the closeness Ei had mentioned—Yae had failed to recognize it sooner as she had learned to tune out any warmth she might feel at feeding from the body of another.
The feeling of her teeth sinking into Ei’s neck was almost akin to that of her fingers sinking into Ei’s—
“That’s enough.” Ei’s voice rang out from above, drawing Yae out of her drowsy trance and cutting off the heartbeat that sang in her ears.
Yae pulled back, feeling the majority of her two sharp teeth retract to a safer length. “Was it too much? Do you feel faint?”
“No, it was perfect. I assure you, you were nothing but careful.”
“Well, that’s reassuring to hear.”
A frown flickered across Ei’s face and Yae went to revise her statement.
“That sounded sarcastic, didn’t it?”
“I’ve come to assume that sarcasm is your natural tone of voice,” Ei replied, almost smugly.
Yae rolled her eyes and lifted herself to a sitting position, wrapping her arms around Ei’s shoulder and helping her up as well.
“Do you remember the first time I bit you?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest and sliding her legs under the sheets.
“You ask that as if it was years ago. Yes, of course I remember. How could I forget? You were the most beautiful person I had ever seen.”
“That’s high praise coming from a goddess.”
“I thought I told you not to call me that. But back to your original point, yes, I remember it quite well.”
“Then surely you remember how the sky had hidden itself that night.”
“There was no moon, you mean. Yes, I remember that, also.”
“And now, look out our window! The moon is so full, it looks ready to burst. Can you see the rabbit?”
Ei huffed, “I can see the ‘rabbit,’ yes, but not your point.”
“I’m simply pointing it out, that’s all. Perhaps it’s a sign,” Yae said, shrugging.
“From whom? God? I certainly didn’t send out any sign.”
“Humble as always,” Yae joked. “Can’t you enjoy the poetry of it all?”
“I cannot believe that earlier I was begging for your hands on my body, and now we are bickering about the moon.”
Yae smiled. “Alright, alright. I’ll drop the subject. Though it would make for the perfect opening to a book, I’ll say.” She muttered that last part rather quietly, no doubt already thinking of the next tale she could publish.
Ei noticed a slight ticklish sensation, something dripping down her neck. She swiped her fingers over the fresh bite marks in her skin and found blood on them, a deep, glimmering red. “Open up, this is your last taste before bed,” she said to Yae, placing the fingers in front of her mouth.
Yae eagerly licked her fingers clean in one swipe before quickly getting up to close the curtains. When she hopped back into bed, Ei had already buried herself beneath the sheets and made a soft noise when Yae draped her arm across her waist.
Yae kissed the spot on Ei’s neck where she had bitten her and no further words were exchanged.