sleepytimejunction | fear the old blood

fear the old blood

[Rumors travel around in Garreg Mach fast. Most of the time, they're baseless and don't really catch Ashe's attention; he's admittedly more interested in making sure he's performing well. He has a roof over his head, and he wants to keep it that way, so he keeps his nose out of trouble.

But there is one that hangs on his mind. That there's something deep in the bowls of the church, a monster, a beast. That particularly bothers him, hangs over his mind, makes him think about how beasts have been improperly revered or maimed in the past. He's seen it in all manners by now. If the church does actually have a creature they're harboring, he can't help but wonder why.

It wouldn't be the first church to keep secrets, after all.

Ashe eventually decides that having all the facts won't hurt. If he's wrong, then he'll be happy to be. If he's not, well...

That's why he has his sword strapped to his back and his gun at his hip. He has more items he's harbored since the days before Lonato officially adopted him, most of them locked away in a trunk just in case. It's night, and most everyone is back in their dorm rooms. There's security, but Ashe knows their patterns enough to keep out of sight. He's spent his life as a thief, then as a hunter, now a student; he can manage.

It takes a bit of research, but he does find a secret path that starts in Rhea's office and extends to a rather old fashioned elevator. He opts to not use it in case it causes noise, instead climbing down the chain as he makes his way.

He doesn't expect what he finds, a grand room under the monastery, deep inside, full of stone caskets.

And something else.]

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[There's a tiny gasp as Dimitri leans in, his lips touching Ashe's throat. His pulse goes a bit quicker, his heart beating faster. Everything he knows screams at him that he's putting himself at risk, but right now he chooses to see a man instead of a beast. Ashe knows Dimitri is fully capable of being a monster -- but he's a gentleman right now, lips tender against him.

It's better than anything he's ever read. It's sweet, almost warm if Dimitri had life in him. He's almost certain he's swooning, overwhelmed with the care that this vampire takes to not alarm him with teeth.

His hand reaches up, lightly combing through Dimitri's hair as he lets out a trembling sigh.]

I can hear your heart racing.

[His lips part just enough for his tongue to dart out, dragging a line up the side of Ashe's neck.]

Your scent is divine. You encompass all of my senses...

[Up, up, up he works, until his mouth finds Ashe's jawline and can follow it down with another set of softly sucking kisses, heading delicately for the corner of his mouth.]

How long have you yearned to be desired, I wonder? No longer, now. Not now that I have you.

A-ah.

[More audibly, he gasps, at the tongue trailing up his throat. How is something so simple so intimate?]

Is... is that so? Even... with how it's been changed?

[Somehow, his blood, even after Yharnam, smells good to Dimitri.

The kisses are slow and sweet, closer and closer to his mouth. Ashe's lips tremble, anticipating what is hopefully to come. If Dimitri wanted to tear out his throat, he could very easily right now with how much Ashe has exposed himself, a rabbit bearing its belly to a hungry wolf.]

Please.

Of course. It's yours.

[It's the last thing he has room to whisper before his mouth comes to press against Ashe's, his fingers at the back of Ashe's head carefully guiding him to the right angle to make it sweet and good. The desire is unmistakable, the tenderness palpable, and ultimately he only pulls away when a thought occurs to him, and he has to draw back enough to speak.]

Mind your tongue, if you go exploring. I would not have you cut yourself.

[He murmurs, and kisses Ashe again.]

[It's yours. Why is that so touching?

The kiss is properly his first. Though Dimitri's lips are chilly, they seem to warm up against Ashe's mouth just fine. He finds himself clutching against Dimitri, his hand staying to his hair and the other holding onto his shoulder.

When their lips break, he's almost heartbroken about it until Dimitri kisses him again, just as sweet as before. Ashe doesn't know what to do with himself, but he's obedient, keeping his tongue to himself despite any temptation.

He can't afford to break skin. Not right now. Would there be an ever? He doesn't know, but he finds himself hoping desperately. Ashe finds himself pressing a bit, trying to encourage the kiss.]

[Oh. How poignant to discover a hunger in Ashe that comes close to matching Dimitri's own — a similar desire to be wanted, desired, understood. It leaves him half-wondering how it could be that Ashe is so painfully starved of such things when he exists in a world full of noise and life, rather than locked away in a crypt with no company but his own loneliness. What must the world above be like, to isolate him, so?

Surely it cannot all be the blood echoes of Yharnam. There must be something more he does not yet know. Perhaps someday he will find out.

For now, though, he rumbles a chuckle against Ashe's mouth, petting the fine hairs at the nape of his neck to soothe him as they separate again.]

Sweet Ashe, I promise you, you will tire of my kisses long before I tire of yours.

[As if to punctuate his point, he catches Ashe's lower lip between both of his — careful to keep his teeth pulled back — and sucks lightly at it to make it swell and grow fuller.]

But hold on as tight as you like. Keep me, as you will. I relish it.

[A small whine escapes him when their kiss breaks again, a needy noise that he didn't think he was even capable of. He doesn't think it's possible -- how could he tire of them at all?

His lower lip plumps up under Dimitri's attention and he finds himself clinging on, as if somehow ironically this vampire was his lifeline.]

But I want--

[For a moment, he's breathless, as if somehow Dimitri took the air from him too. Ashe breathes in, letting the rest of him catch up.]

O-open your mouth. Please.

[Gradually, Dimitri goes still — not suddenly, or with astonishment, but in a far more controlled and careful sense as he lets the implications of Ashe's request settle around him.

But of course, he would refuse him nothing, so...]

Carefully.

[He soothes, in a voice that's gently reassuring. Maybe it's as much of a reminder to himself as it is an assurance to Ashe, his determination to restrain the monstrous side of him in this moment, come what may.

But he does, then, open his mouth — a sliver at first, then further, until they're parted enough that there's no hiding his fangs behind his lips any longer.]

Give me a second.

[One of his hands reaches out, touching the side of Dimitri's face for a moment, fingers stroking down as he admires him. Then, with his thumb, he presses it into Dimitri's mouth.

Vampire fangs are just as sharp as any blade, and Dimitri is no different. Just the slightest pressure, and his thumb bleeds. Pulling his hand back, he smears the blood over his lower lip like some feral lipstick.]

Come here. Kiss me again.

[He sucks in an audible breath, eye widening slowly, when it becomes apparent that Ashe's intention wasn't just to kiss him a little more deeply than before, but to touch him, dote on him, and then — and then feed him.

Well, sort of. The blood is so close to his tongue that he's abruptly wound as tight as an overtuned instrument, but Ashe so deliberately applies it to his lip that Dimitri can't do anything else but stay perfectly still, letting it happen. He doesn't dare to lick it off; he doesn't know if he's been given implicit permission to. So he doesn't; he simply keeps control of himself with an iron will, poised like a statue, watching Ashe.

But then, then, he's given a direction. Now he knows what's bidden of him: to come, and to kiss Ashe again. Good. Good.]

Am I more beautiful this way?

[Even spellbound, he still manages to tease, before drawing back in close and pressing his bloody mouth back against Ashe's.]

It definitely gives you a bit of color.

[A hint of teasing is all, but shortly after that their lips meet again. The blood smears, a familiar metallic taste that Ashe knows almost as well as Dimitri must, albeit with far less hunger. Blood was everything in Yharnam: medicine, trade, and currency. Everything for a citizen, even more for a hunter.

He shudders, finding himself not hating it, and opens his mouth to let the vampire kiss him as he pleases.]

So cruel, to grant me only a taste...

[But he's making some sort of vocalization now, a rich humming noise that faintly rumbles and seems to originate somewhere low in his chest. It's too animal to be human; it's too human to be animal. And yet somehow it's unmistakably an indication of pleasure, as the blood flavors their kiss where it smudges between them.

They're close, and yet — emboldened by Ashe's actions, Dimitri reaches out and catches hold of him by the waist, effortlessly dragging him back and in to settle him neatly in his lap. All the better to kiss him, really.]

Ah--!

[A surprised yelp, but not displeased; Ashe finds himself in Dimitri's lap, which doesn't quite make him at the vampire's height but close enough. Reaching up, he drapes his arms around Dimitri's neck, pressing up close.

He swallows and brings up his thumb, still beading a bit of blood from the prick it'd taken. Lightly, he presses it down on Dimitri's lip.]

[Even in the relatively dim light, it's easy to see the pallor fading from Dimitri's skin from this close of a distance. It gives him a bit of color, indeed — not just from the orange-red smudges still streaked across his lip, but from the healthier tone his flesh is taking on as the edge fades away from his perpetual hunger.]

My little Yharnam hunter. How well you fit in my arms.

[His tongue glides out, wrapping sensually around the pad of Ashe's thumb as he licks away his proffered treat.]

Forgive me for being so bold. It was only that I couldn't stand to be apart from you any longer.

[Bit by bit, Dimitri looks more alive. A bit more color, a bit more warmth. He wonders briefly how dangerous that might be, and not in the way he's concerned for his own well-being, but rather for Dimitri: what if Rhea comes down one day to find the vampire mysteriously less starving than usual? What then?

For now, he lets his mind go back to how Dimitri's tongue slides over his thumb, how Ashe's breath catches in his throat. He knows he's getting carried away, but he doesn't want to stop.]

It's all right. I was just startled. I... [He smiles sheepishly.] I like this.

If you would permit me just a little more...I will show you something you'll enjoy, before you take your leave of me. A pretty secret for you to keep.

[He strokes his hands up Ashe's sides, then across his chest and back down his stomach. Petting. Feeling. Exploring.]

Do you like when I touch you? May I touch you more?

A little more than all this?

[When he feels so flustered as it is? It doesn't even occur to him how that might be, how Dimitri could do more. He shivers at the hands roaming over his body, his cheeks hot as he relishes in the sensation. No one's ever touched him before, not like this.]

Yes. Yes, please. Don't stop.

A little more blood, darling hunter. A little more strength; what I wish to show you will tax me, and render me weak again. But it will delight you, I think.

[His hands move again, following the same path; this time, when they settle down at Ashe's hips, they tug at the fabric of his tunic until the hem comes loose, and slip up underneath it in search of skin.]

I know it sounds...suspect. My affection for you is not conditioned on your agreement. You are the master of what I am given. Only you.

[He leans forward, kissing him fondly as if to punctuate his point.]

[The hands on his skin makes him jump a little, but not in revulsion. The contact surprises him only, but he eases into it easily, chilly hands warming against his flesh hot with blood.

And with that, Dimitri asks for more. Ashe hesitates, but he leans into the kiss with a sigh, less abashed with the affection.]

...If you wanted to just drink all of my blood, you had a dozen of opportunities already.

How, um... how do you want it...?

Prick another finger. I will not —

[He hesitates, averting his gaze before gradually pulling it back to find Ashe's green eyes.]

I have asked so much of your trust already. Unlikely as it may seem for one of my kind...I know limits. I, whose power is virtually limitless when I am healthy and strong...I choose to limit myself, out of my affection for you.

[Affection for Ashe. They've hardly known each other that long, yet this vampire is so fond of him, and how could Ashe claim any differently? He's gone out of his way to offer what he could safely for Dimitri, brought him books, spent time with stories. Kissed him so.

So, for a moment, Ashe is quiet as he presses his forehead against Dimitri. He smiles.]

Open your mouth again. If using your fang is okay.

[He nods slowly, his expression visibly displaying relief. Obediently, he lets his lips part, drawing them faintly back until his teeth are bared just enough again.]

Only a few more drops. It need not be much.

[With less hesitancy, Ashe holds out his hand. The pad of his index finger pricks against a fang, then he lets his finger rest against Dimitri's lips.]

I trust you. However foolish you might think that is.

I will not give you cause to regret it.

[He seals his lips carefully around Ashe's finger, alternating between sucking gently to coax out more of the blood, and laving his tongue against the shallow wound to draw it into his mouth once it does. It makes him feel stronger still, and when he's had enough he draws away slowly, licking his lips in open satisfaction.]

Stand up, just for a moment. I will do it now, so you need not wonder any longer what I might be planning.

[It shouldn't please him so much to watch Dimitri suck on his finger, enjoying his blood. There have been so many beasts he'd slain for being driven by meat and blood of mortals, but Dimitri is more than a monster. He's also a man, intermixed. That resonates with Ashe, somehow.]

Stand...?

[Hesitantly, Ashe gets to his feet, looking down at Dimitri with confused curiosity in his eyes.]

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