Lurking in the Dark: Chapter 2

[matsu1nino]

Title: Lurking in the Dark
Pairing: Matsumiya
Genre: AU, Fantasy/Horror
Disclaimer: As much as I'd love to, I don't own Arashi. I only own the plot.
Summary: When all this time I've been so hollow inside I know you're still there watching me, wanting me.
Author's Note: About time I posted the next chapter of this.





Chapter 2

Standing near the door, Nino kept his eyes fixed on the stranger lying unconscious on the spare bed. The other three had arrived at least half an hour ago and since showing them his finding, he had not taken his eyes off the shifter that appeared dead to the world. Masaki had informed them that he was in fact alive but the sight of him laid out so perfectly still made Nino tense for reasons he could not properly comprehend.
“You called us here to show us someone you attacked?” Sho scoffed in disbelief when he first saw the wounded man resting in Nino’s home.
Nino blinked up at the demon. “I didn’t attack him.”
“Eh? But he’s bleeding” Ohno pointed to the bloodied leg of the shifter. Even though the bleeding had stopped, the wound was left exposed as Masaki managed to entangle himself in the bandages he’d been unrolling. Nino’s body remained tense as the fragrance of blood flooded his senses. The sooner it was cleaned up, the sooner he would be able to think clearly…he hoped.
“That doesn’t mean I attacked him. Just because I’m a vampire, you guys immediately assume I bite anything alive I come across?” He accused with a sharper edge than he normally would have used with them. Another thing to blame on the bloodlust.
“Of course not” came Masaki’s blithe reply. “Nino-chan doesn’t like to hunt.” He quickly went back to struggling against the bandages. As Ohno sauntered over to assist him, Nino noticed small amounts of water dribbling down onto the floor with every step he took.
“Oh-chan, you’re leaking again” the young lord sighed. Ohno looked down, apparently having not realized he was standing in a shallow puddle. He quickly adjusted the pendant around his neck to reabsorb the moisture he’d lost before continuing to Masaki’s aid.
As Nino shook his head hopelessly at his friend’s obliviousness of his own habits, Sho’s gaze flicked between the vampire and the unconscious stranger. “You sure you weren’t the one to hurt him?”
“Yes, I’m sure” Nino said with a hint of annoyance. “He was already like this when I found him. Probably hurt himself climbing over the fence or something. Don’t you believe me?”
Sho raised his hands in defence. “I do, I’m just trying to figure out why you brought him into your house instead of killing him. It was years before you let any of us in here and yet you bring in a stranger, and a human no less!”
Nino shook his head. “He’s not human. I mean I know he looks like one now, he changed back right before he lost consciousness, but he’s actually a shifter. He had ears and a tail.” Sho cast him a doubtful look. “I’m not lying. Masaki?”
Masaki looked up from where he was wrapping the man’s wounded leg. Seeing the desperate glint in Nino’s eyes as his friend seemed to silently beg him for support, Masaki left Ohno to finish up on the leg on his own.
“It’s dark out there, you could have imagined you saw all those things” He heard Sho say. Nino growled in frustration, “I didn’t! I know what I saw, Sho. It was amazing. He even bit me. What kind of human would bite a vampire?”
Masaki half tuned in to their arguing as he focused on the task he was expected to do. He crouched over the stranger, pulling back a moment later at the overpowering reek of rubbish and decay. From the man’s grimy clothes and dishevelled overall appearance, he really shouldn’t have been surprised by the smell. It looked as though this stranger had lived in alleyways his entire life. Forcing himself past the outer smell, Masaki leant in again to search for scents that would identify who or what this man was. There was a definite human aroma, but much like his own scent there was something else interwoven with it.
Looking back at the others, he told them as much. “Nino’s right. He has a human scent but I’m picking up other things as well.”
“So he’s like one of us maybe?” Ohno suggested.
Masaki cocked his head thoughtfully. “I don’t think so.” He dipped his head and inhaled again to double check before continuing. “Not demon or siren or vampire. Not werewolf either. But he’s definitely not human. There are multiple scents. Cat, raven…ugh snake! And bat I think. It’s weird, they’re all mixed with each other.”
“Told you he was a shifter” Nino said, looking smug now that he’d had Masaki verify his claim. Ohno seemed pretty accepting of the news and gave a small nod while Sho huffed a little.
“Okay, fine” Sho agreed with some reluctance. “I understand why you called Masa given he’s the closest thing we’ve got to a shapeshifter, but why’d you ask us to come?” He gestured to himself and Ohno.
Nino shrugged and walked over to sit by the shifter’s side. Now that his injury had been dressed properly for healing, it was somewhat easier to be near him. He was still tantalizingly tempting but Nino was determined to rise above his base desire. He took the rag from Ohno’s hands, glad the siren had soaked it for him before gently pressing it to the shifter’s face. As he scrubbed his skin free of dirt, he answered Sho, “Maybe I just wanted to show off my lucky find.” He pulled the oversized shirt over the shifter’s head and removed the rest of his clothing before continuing to drag the cloth across his body until it was clean and shimmering with the cleansing minerals of the salt water. “When it looks like this, who wouldn’t?”
The other three in the room exchanged a look of bewilderment. For all the years they’d been acquainted with Nino they’d never known him to act this way towards anyone, much less someone he had known for less than a few hours. It was confusing for all of them and honestly rather worrying.
The shifter was still unconscious but from the way his body convulsed under the cold touch of the rag and Nino’s hand when it grazed his stomach, it was clear it was only a matter of time before he roused. As Sho moved towards Nino, still questioning the vampire’s intentions, his foot accidentally collided with the pail containing the bloodied water and bandages. Nino’s pupils went large when the heavily scented water pooled around his feet, his mouth opening slightly to inhale the hypnotic aroma. In the end instinct won out. Exchanging a quick glance, Ohno and Sho rushed to grab Nino just as he lunged towards the stranger. The young lord fought against their grip, teeth snapping loudly in his desperate attempts to reach the shifter. The two of them managed to pull him through the mansion away from the spare bedroom and to the living room. They shoved the vampire down into the chair when he tried to slip past them while each of them kept a strong hand on his shoulders as a preventative measure.
Nino glared up at the both of them. “Let me go” he growled in deepened tone, mind still lost in the intoxication. “I found him, he’s mine!”
Neither Ohno nor Sho made a move to release him. They weren’t sure what had been going through their friend’s mind when he’d chosen to take in the shifter but they would not allow Nino to kill him in a moment of blood-induced madness.
“Calm your mind” Ohno told him quietly, “then we’ll let you go.”
Sho nodded. “Masaki will clean him up. It’s better to let him handle the situation while we keep you here as a precaution.”
It was the best option to have Masaki remain, they all knew, to finish tending to the stranger’s health. He was the least likely of all of them to startle or overwhelm the unsuspecting shifter when he did finally rouse. In spite of his condition, Masaki was far from fearsome. Everyone in the village knew and loved him. He had an incomparable kindness that was extended to anyone and everything, and without a full moon to irk the creature within, he was as harmless as a puppy. Certainly the shifter would see no threat in him.
Nino struggled again, muttering something indiscernible under his breath before falling limp in the chair. Sho and Ohno shared another look in the uncertainty of whether Nino’s bloodlust was receding or not.
Hissing ricocheted down the hallway they had just come from, followed by an audible clatter and a loud caterwaul. Nino took it as an opportunity to slip out of the hold of his distracted friends and streaked across the room in a frenzy. Sho glanced at Ohno who gave a knowing look before squatting down, hand outstretched and hovering only a fraction above the ground. A thin stream of water gushed out from beneath his palm and spilled across the floor to where Nino was nearing the door. It tripped the unsuspecting vampire out from under his feet. A painful crack sounded as Nino’s head hit the marbled flooring. Sho spread his large frayed wings to cross the short distance without slipping himself, suspending above where Nino was lying stunned on the drenched floor. He raised an eyebrow as the vampire blinked up at him as though trying to see through a haze, his pupils constricting to their normal size. A scowl formed on his face. Ohno retracted the water again when Sho gave the signal that Nino had returned to his usual self.
The vampire staggered to his feet. “You make it really hard to like your kind sometimes, Oh-chan” he grumbled, cringing at the salt now staining his clothes.
They waited in the living area for a while longer, with Nino occasionally complaining that he’d never get the saltwater stench out of his garment and listing the reasons why both of them now owed him a new set of eveningwear as retribution for their interference, claiming he was and always had been completely in control of himself. Neither bothered to point out how mistaken he was. After what felt like an eternity to the three of them, the door to the room opened with a soft creak that seemed to ricochet in the silence that had settled and Aiba entered with a slight hobble.
“What happened?” Nino demanded immediately. “Is he awake yet?”
Sho was first to notice the limp in Aiba’s step. “Are you okay?” he asked, throwing the impatient Nino an irritated glare as he helped Aiba shuffle over to a chair. A faint blush tinted Aiba’s cheeks as he nodded at Sho.
“I’m fine” he said, though rather unconvincingly. “Nothing to worry about now.” He turned to Nino even though he remained aware of Sho’s worried eyes scanning over him. “He’s awake.”
The words were like a trigger that sparked something in the vampire’s eyes the others had never seen. The closest resemblance they knew of was the look he got in his eyes right before feeding—a look of absolute desire. It immensely concerned the three of them. Nino shifted closer to Aiba as anticipation burned inside his chest. “Well?”
“He didn’t say much” Aiba mumbled. His gaze moved over each of his friends’ keenly waiting expressions before he sighed. “His name is Jun.”

Comments

[nekom1ya.livejournal.com]

And as always jun is injured.. on the leg.. haha idk why but i found a repeating pattern that you like to stab him or somehow hurt him on the leg first XD
Vampire nino... bite me! Gee i wouldnt mind hahahaha xP ohno's leaking and everything else tho XD so hilarious.. why is merman oh-chan who has saltwater leaking from his body so funny?
Aiba chan is probably the kindest werewolf ever haha.. and sho-chan the kindest demon :p
Cant control vampire nino for long guys unfortunately... Dont interfere if you dont wanna die ;)
Srsly tho i'll gladly be his human slave/bloodbank if he wants me to 💛.💛
And vampire nino chan is also very yasashii letting jun inside instead of killing him with that much blood stench haha
His teeth gnashing just reminds me of a puppy/dog though XD sure hes not part werewolf? XD