Floor 1 Room 4

[dyingtohealyou]

Ahito

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[dyingtohealyou]

Wow. Worried for me again?

[It comes out flat. That playful lilt his tone usually carries is gone, replaced by weariness.

Maybe that's why he lays down again, turned away.]

If you really didn't care, you'd turn around and leave again. I'll even get the window after you're gone.

[He won't have to care about that, either.]

[shortleash]

( ... )

... I'm just here to ask how he got you. That's all.

( :/ )

[dyingtohealyou]

I don't think I should give that info to someone who breaks into my room in the middle of the night.

[shortleash]

What difference does it make?

( mika, )

[dyingtohealyou]

Why do you want to know?

[shortleash]

You're saying you'd accept me taking you by the neck but not me coming through the window.

[dyingtohealyou]

When did I say that.

[shortleash]

... Just shoot me if you're going to be like this. It's annoying.

[dyingtohealyou]

Like I said, just leave if you don't care.

Or maybe you do after all? Since you keep coming up with excuses to stay.

[shortleash]

Why do you keep bringing that up.

( Why do you care if I care!! )

[dyingtohealyou]

Because if you aren't here to care about my wellbeing then I'll have to care for myself.

By sleeping.

[shortleash]

( what the hell!! )

... Fine. Next time a ghost takes you hostage, I'm going to keep walking.

( He takes a step back up onto the windowsill. )

Leave it to a human to demand care from someone they don't care about either.

[dyingtohealyou]

...

[He will roll over to look - lock eyes of blue with red, even for just a moment.]

Is that really what you think?

[He won't stop Mika from leaving, though.]

[shortleash]

( ...

Fine. Pauses. )

... Isn't that what you said?

( is it, mika )

[dyingtohealyou]

You have a habit of saying I said things I didn't.

[shortleash]

How else am I supposed to interpret the things you say? You complain at me for coming into your room at night but not for choking you? You don't trust people or like them, you just "take an interest"?

( Ahito who also existed on a level of wealth between extreme poverty and absolute luxury... )

You're weird. I'm just trying to figure you out.

[dyingtohealyou]

[Ugh...

He's honestly way too tired to deal with Mika's emotional troubles. A part of him did kind of hope implying Mika gave a shit about him would get the emotionally constipated vampire to flee on the spot rather than face the mortification of being Seen, even if the more caring side of him, distant in his weariness, flinched at the thought of losing any progress he had (though, really - had he progressed?)

But he's still here. Infuriatingly. But... a bit sweetly, too. If you squint.]

...I took an interest in you because you're interesting. Because that's what people do when they're trying to see who they should bother getting to know - figure out if you'll even get along.

You understand the worst of humanity. And- just a little, I get what it's like to have your body changed against your will.

We had common ground. That's why I was interested.

But right now, I'm too tired to play around. [Too tired for this tsundere tug-of-war.]

If you're worried or concerned - then fine. You can stay.

But if you're just going to insist you aren't - then leave so I can sleep.

[shortleash]

( He does want to refuse - flatly and outright, and his lips purse at the confrontation. But Ahito is frank with him in a way he doesn't expect, and that catches him off guard.

... )

... The last person I knew who "took interest" in people was a freak.

( Not really an excuse, and he doesn't say it as one. His socialization's just been so completely damaged he can't really gauge if what Ahito says makes sense or not, or is normal or not, but it's clearly normal for Ahito, and in the end that's all that really matters in this brief moment.

He still isn't sure how he feels, even as Ahito confronts him to make a choice in choosing to stay or go. It's complicated, and maybe a little too complicated for him to parse - seeing the forest for the trees, so close to his heart.

He had brushed it off before, and he still doesn't understand it himself - but some part of him does fear betrayal. Hadn't he been willing so tentatively willing to trust Yuu's trust in Guren, and time and time again, Guren betrayed it - put Yuu in danger? Trust wrongly again, and someone else he knows might find their neck on the guillotine for his mistake, again, and again, and again.

And then some part of him fears himself, too. That he would be the first and finest traitor to someone's ease around him - that he would, as the ghost had taunted, take their neck in his teeth the moment they turn their back, like animal's instinct.

He fears these things with all the people he knows, but with humans most of all. Humans are more deceitful and fragile than he could ever hope to comprehend, cutting his palms as if a broken pane of glass.

...

Without coming to a verbal conclusion within his mind or without, he finally sits on the sill, as if to suggest he'll stay. However Ahito will interpret that. (He's still a little bit cowardly.) )

... Go to sleep.

( He reaches under his cloak and extracts a small pouch and chucks it carefully - it lands softly beside Ahito's head where he's lying. )

Have that when you wake up.

( The sound of the bag and the faint pulse of its energy likely gives its contents away even before Ahito has to check: it's a bag of mana stones; his payment from various jobs. He hadn't abstained from eating them for any ethical reason - he just hadn't gotten around to it yet, and this seemed a better use for them. That's all. )

[dyingtohealyou]

[The light thump of manastones is startling in the same way anything suddenly falling in front of your face. But-

He laughs a little, light. Takes them - sets them on the nightstand for now, so they don't block his view.]

...If you stick around, or come back when I'm awake again- we can talk then.

[Because he really, really is so tired.]

[shortleash]

... Fine.

( He doesn't get up though??? Is Mika just gonna stay there... Ahito can just wait and find out, clearly. )

[dyingtohealyou]

[He will in fact drift into unconsciousness while there's a vampire in the room, expression a rare look of peacefulness. Kindly save your complaints about his lack of caution for when he wakes again.

But if his sleep is uninterrupted, he will indeed wake by morning. Did Mika get bored and wander off?]

[shortleash]

( Non, and hopefully Ginger doesn't mind his absence this morning. When Ahito gets to rousing, he'll see the window is locked and closed again, and there's no Mika to be found there.

Instead, he's taken to sitting on his couch, or whatever other chair there is, so long as it gave him a decent view of the bed. He probably got bored enough to pick off a book or two from the bookshelf if there are any on it, but he's not an avid reader - more an idle one - so by the time Ahito wakes up, Mika doesn't have one in hand; he's just gazing in his direction without greeting, waiting for him to be properly awake. )

[dyingtohealyou]

[There's some books from the library and, interestingly, notebooks with a lot of handwritten notes on magic and practiced sketches of magic circles, half-baked spell concepts and notes. Someone's been working on his magic.

When he wakes and finds Mika really did stay - well, maybe if he hides his grin behind a yawn, he'll get a pass.]

Really wanted to know that bad, huh?

[He'll replace his shades, same as he does every morning, dragging himself upright to sit cross-legged on his bed.]

Alright, you earned it. What did you want to know?

[shortleash]

... Not that bad.

( Narrows his eyes slightly. Was that a grin, or just part of the yawn............... )

... How it happened. ( Do you not have perfect memory of what happened [redacted] hours ago before you went to sleep after being woken up in the middle of the night :/ ) Did he just outpace you? Or did you let your guard down?

[dyingtohealyou]

He outpaced me. I already knew something was up with central - but he got the drop on me before I could do anything.