EN AU: part thirteen

[shattermelt]

Kippei had done a little more thinking, later, about Shinji's suggestion of tents for sleeping in the gardens. He was pretty sure there was a better way. He just couldn't quite remember. So he sat on one of the upstairs balconies, chin in hand, staring out at the tangled mass of overgrowth that used to be the gardens. Actually, he was pretty sure it had never looked exactly well kept, it had always been rather wild, but he knew it was a lot more wild now than it used to be. Hell, it was practically it's own forest, now. No mere fifty years, but several hundred left untended. Still, there was something...

He let his eyes roam over the wilderness, trying to picture each spot as it had been before, some with more success than others. There had been a large tree, there a fountain or a clearing or a small pond, and that particularly dense tangle on the south side he thought had used to be a hedge maze. He wasn't sure what he was looking for, was the problem. A place to sleep? How odd. He frowned to himself as he kept looking. Maybe a crypt of some sort, a cave? That would be plenty dark, but it wouldn't really be outside. He didn't think that was it.

Ah well, there were more interesting things to find. He got up, stretching lazily, and went back in to look for Shinji.

Comments

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

"You know I was," Shinji murmered, still engrossed with licking at Kippei's mouth. He knew Kippei knew just about every thought that ran through his head. It seemed to Shinji that the more time went on, the stronger their bond became. He wondered if in a few centuries maybe they would be so mentally entwined that it wouldn't be Kippei and Shinji anymore, but one person, split through two people, but that thought slightly creeped him out, because he never wanted Kippei to change, especially not to become a Shinji.

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

Kippei chuckled at him. It was kind of a creepy thought, but also in his opinion, rather irrelevant. They were two different people and they'd always be different and enjoy different things and he didn't think that would change just because they spent time in each other's heads. Seeing how much Shinji enjoyed his dancing, for example, did not make Kippei feel any more inclined to try it himself.

"You know we can always block each other somewhat if we want to," he pointed out, because no matter how bonded they were sometimes they would need space and want to do things separately and that was just the way it was. He didn't think they'd ever be able to completely block the other but they didn't really need to--it was comforting to know that at least some thread of connection was always there, even if just barely.

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

Shinji frowned darkly and held on to Kippei as if his Sire were about to run away and not come back. He understood what Kippei was saying, and it made sense. It was only sensible, really. But he feared it; feared that they might become so separated that Kippei would forget him, even for a few minutes.

"Don't block me out!"

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

Kippei laughed out loud, and pulled Shinji away from the wall to wrap him up in an enormous hug. "You can't have it both ways," he said, still chuckling as he kissed the top of Shinji's head.

"I wouldn't block you out that much. Probably not at all," he added, briefly thoughtful and then shrugging. It wasn't like he had anything to hide--hell, he didn't remember most of it anyway. "I was just saying, it's not like you have to worry about us getting too tangled up either, since if you think you're losing yourself you can always get a little space back. If you need to. Or not, if you don't." He smirked and went back to tasting as much of Shinji as he could, licking at his ear and down the side of his neck, entirely unconcerned by the whole question.

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

"I know that!" He was distracted by Kippei's hot mouth leaving wet kisses on his skin that tingled, sending wanton shivers through him, but he resisted, wrapping his hands in black hair and tugging Kippei's head back.

"I wasn't worried. Much. And I don't need to. And you don't need to. So don't."

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

"Mmmm alright," Kippei answered, humoring him with an absent smile as he took advantage of Shinji's repositioning of his head to kiss his mouth again, hard and hungry. He wasn't worried and he didn't need to and didn't see any reason why he ever would, so he wasn't really seeing what the problem was, but if it made Shinji feel better for him to say so, then fine, whatever.

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

Agreement was all Shinji needed for his nerves to settle back down and he got back to kissing Kippei because really, that was all he wanted to do anyway. Kippei was a bit weird since he never seemed to see a problem with anything really, unless of course it impacted on what Kippei wanted, then he had a problem with it, but since Kippei seemed generally content just to have Shinji, there really were very few problems that seemed to worry him. That made Shinji a little annoyed, since lots of things worried or annoyed him, but he just shrugged it off and snuck his hands under the waistline of Kippei's pants.

"Did you have any plans for tonight?" Because Shinji had an appointment he wanted to keep.

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

Kippei raised an eyebrow at him. Plans? As in, that did or did not involve Shinji? Why Shinji might think he even had plans that did not involve Shinji, he had no idea. He had plenty of plans that did involve Shinji, but he did not particularly have any set time in which they had to happen.

If Shinji had plans, they had better involve Kippei, in which case it was all good whenever and if Shinji wanted them to happen now that was even better.

"No?" he answered, shrugging.

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

"Good. Come on." Kippei was already dressed so Shinji just grabbed his hand and tugged him out of the house, heading down the driveway as he checked his small wallet of things he had been collecting. It had been relatively easy to get a credit card and open a savings account. He still had a passport after all.

"I arranged the old toy maker in town to stay open late for me."

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

Kippei blinked at him... whatever he'd been expecting, it wasn't this. Bemused, he followed Shinji down the drive, wondering just how in the hell Shinji could worry about Kippei knowing everything he was thinking when he was constantly doing things that Kippei never expected him to. Of course, half of those things weren't things he thought about beforehand, but this, obviously was.

"You did what?" he asked, confused. Toymaker? What?

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

"He makes puzzle boxes. I asked him to build me some in lots of different styles and woods and things and he said he would have them made by today and that he would keep the store open until after midnight so I could come and pick them up." Actually, he hadn't asked any questions about why Shinji couldn't come before sunset. Shinji had a feeling the toymaker's family had always been involved with vampires. Maybe he even knew Kippei, or had heard stories. That would be kind of cool.

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

"Ah," Kippei answered vaguely, still bemused, but that sounded interesting. Puzzle boxes. Weren't there a lot of those laying around already? Maybe things like that didn't last hundreds of years. Or he might be remembering wrong. Or maybe Shinji just wanted more of them, because they were pretty cool.

"I didn't know you liked them," he said instead, thinking that he would have to look around and see if he could find some old ones, if there were any yet.

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

"I used to collect music boxes...but they were always hand made and the ballerina didn't just turn around on the spot; it performed a dodgy version of whatever ballet it played. It was how I learnt to dance, so Master was always buying them for me. I wanted to make puzzle boxes with music boxes inside, so I organised it..." He hadn't actually figured out what he wanted to put in them yet. He would find all the things that were important to him around the house once he had the boxes.

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

Kippei grunted at the mention of Shinji's old master, shooting him a quick sideways look and then frowning at the ground in front of him. Music boxes? For learning how to dance. It seemed incredible that the beautiful, smooth, elegant dancing Shinji excelled at had been learned in such a haphazard fashion.

"Do you miss them?" he asked abruptly.

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

Shinji shrugged, because it wasn't an easy answer. He missed them, but it was muted. He had been without them for some time before Kippei came, Akutsu having packed them away with the rest of Shinji's things when he was sent away. Shinji hadn't been game to ask for them back.

"I can find my own music boxes now."

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

Kippei raised an eyebrow at him, surprised and a little amused. That was very true, and Shinji was damn cute when he started realising he could be his own person about things. Of course he could find them for himself, and if Kippei was slightly surprised that he was going to, it was still good. It was for damn sure that Kippei wouldn't know the first thing about finding them for him.

"Good. You should do that." Because Shinji liked them and Kippei didn't want him to miss things.

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

"I'm going to!" Shinji frowned because of course he knew he could do things, and he knew he had to sometimes, but that didn't mean he knew how to do a lot of things. Akutsu had always taken care of everything. Hell, Sanada had taught Shinji how to buy food at the good old age of eighteen! He shook off those sort of thoughts, not wanting Kippei to suddenly realise he was stupid as all hell, and focussed instead on where they were going, following the directions he had been given by memory until they turned up at an old, worn looking door. Shinji looked at Kippei curiously, though he didn't expect Kippei to remember.

"Have you been here before?"

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

Kippei gave him a puzzled look, and then eyed the door curiously for a minute before he shrugged. Maybe? It felt vaguely familiar, but that might just have been the sense that it was old, and looked much more the way the city had looked when he had known it.

"I might have," he said doubtfully, unable to remember any reason why he would have been, but he easily could have, he supposed.

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

"Toymakers are friends, not food," Shinji cautioned before pushing the door open, a smile already on his face when he caught sight of all the toys on their shelves and the series of boxes set up on the table in the middle of the room. The little man was sitting there playing with a toy solider...or working on it. Same thing in Shinji's opinion. He looked up at the entry and nodded to them both, then motioned for Shinji to take a look, which he did, grabbing the first box and staring at all the seems, wondering how the hell it opened. It was fascinating and he grinned at the man.

"I take it you like it?" He seemed amused and all Shinji could do was nod enthusiastically.

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

Kippei hung back a little, a tiny smile playing around the corners of his mouth as he watched Shinji's enthusiasm. He wasn't quite sure he understood the concept of humans as friends, but he wasn't all that hungry at the moment so it didn't matter. Humans were useful sometimes, but that didn't make them friends. Then again, he wasn't sure what did make friends--he must have had one at some point in his life, probably, but he couldn't remember them.

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

"I can show you how to open them if you like?"

Shinji shook his head immediately. No. Half the fun was learning to do it himself. Solving the puzzle himself. These would take longer than usual, he knew because he had asked for them to be extremely difficult. But he had a hell of a long time to figure it out.

"They're perfect."

The toymaker chuckled but didn't refute the claim, looking instead at the other visitor, curious.

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

Kippei looked back, mostly not curious, although he nodded politely anyway. If the man was making boxes for Shinji, then he was useful and not food and deserved at least that much acknowledgement. However, he had nothing to say to the man himself, so he simply looked back, head tilted as he waited for Shinji.

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

Shinji couldn't take his eyes off the boxes, absently passing over his credit card while he kept playing with one of them. The toymaker ran the card through the system and gave it back, carefully taking the boxes and wrapping them in newspaper for Shinji, carefully tucking the toy soldier he had been working on into one of the parcels. He knew what Shinji was, but vampires didn't frighten him overly much. He found this one rather cute actually; young and so easily fascinated. At least he knew his little soldier was going to a good, long-lasting home.

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

Kippei was interested for the first time in the proceedings when he saw Shinji hand over his card and realised, after a few long moments, that this was how Shinji was paying for things, and then he was fascinated, especially after the card was handed back. How did that work? He came up behind Shinji and captured his wrist, holding it still so he could get a better look. Shinji's name, and a lot of numbers, and the name of a bank. So it was money of a sort.

He eyed the toymaker with a slightly puzzled frown and rummaged through his head for more details, getting a fairly rough approximation of how it worked--like a line of credit at a shop you frequented, only you carried it with you and it worked at any shop you wanted. Brilliant. He wanted one. He'd have to ask Shinji about it later.

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

Shinji blinked at the way Kippei was examining the card before he realised Kippei didn't know what it was and was learning. He smiled then and carefully put it away, contemplating. Kippei wanted one, that was obvious. But how did you get a dead guy a credit card? With a lot of fraud. Still, they were in Russia. If you couldn't be a fraud here, you couldn't be one anywhere. They would have to find someone to make Kippei alive again, just so he could get a credit card and a bank account. Would come in handy actually, since Kippei owned a lot of things that were worth a lot of money.

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

Kippei was impatient now, they seemed to be done here and if this was the extent of Shinji's plans, then Kippei had a few of his own he'd like to get in tonight yet. He moved restlessly toward the door and looked questioningly at Shinji. Coming now? Can we go yet?

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

Shinji rolled his eyes at Kippei, thanked the man properly and assured him he would definately come back at some point. He doubted he would find a better toymaker. Taking Kippei's hand, holding the bag of packages in the other, Shinji waved goodbye and let them leave the shop.

"Mmm I thought you said you didn't have any plans, Mr. Impatient."

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

"I didn't have any plans that couldn't wait," Kippei corrected him. "I do have plans." He always had plans for Shinji. Although his plans at the moment were slightly more specific than sometimes. He paused, looking around.

"Ice cream on the way home?"

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

"Yes!" Shinji thought that was a bit of a stupid question. Of course he wanted ice cream on the way home. Ice cream was always a good thing. He looked around, wondering if there was an ice cream parlour nearby, and if it would even be open but he supposed it wouldn't be hard to break in.

"Do you know where we can get it from?"

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

Kippei nodded and then shook his head, looking around. "I don't know how to get there from here," he muttered absently. He'd seen a place the other day, it had said 'open late', which he assumed meant that it was open at normal times of day, such as now. Humans had such weird ideas of late. He straightened out the map in his head and pointed.

"That way, I think."

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

Shinji just nodded and headed in that direction, the weight of the parcels making him feel stupidly happy. He swung their arms between them, fingers linked, just happy to be walking around town with his Sire.

"What flavour are you going to have?"

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

"Chocolate," Kippei said firmly, because really, whoever invented ice cream was brilliant, but ice cream and chocolate together? Pure genius.

"What are you having?" he asked belately, only idly curious but Shinji had asked him so it was only fair. Besides, then he'd know what Shinji liked if he ever wanted to surprise him.

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

"Rainbow!" Because he never had been able to choose what he wanted, so Akutsu had always gotten him everything he wanted in one muddled up goop until they both decided rainbow was the best idea.

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

Kippei had no idea what that was, but he made a note of it anyway. "Right," he said, looking back and forth at a corner and finally picking what he thought was the right direction. When he saw the ice cream place up ahead he smirked, pleased with himself. "There, see?"

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

Shinji looked from the shop to Kippei and that silly smirk and rolled his eyes.

"You so had no idea which way we were going," he chided, though he damn near skipped through the door, amazed it was open and they were so coming here more often. There were tonnes of flavours and Shinji stared at them all wideeyed, amazed. He wanted all of them. Quickly reading the sign he saw that you could take tubs home and tilted his head to the side, contemplating.

"Do we have a freezer?"

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

Kippei looked at him blankly. A what? "I don't think so?" He shrugged and turned his attention to the ice cream, placing his order and Shinji's, although Shinji's took him a minute to remember. What the hell kind of flavor was a rainbow? You couldn't eat rainbows.

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

Shinji took his ice cream once the nice lady made it and licked it, a happy little moan escaping as he sidled up to Kippei, amused.

"I can too eat a rainbow. Watch." He very languidly slid his tongue up the side of the cone, wetting it with the cold creamy ice.

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

Kippei watched, his eyes widening, although he took very little notice of the 'rainbow'. Shinji's tongue on the other hand, and soft little noise he was making, those were riveting.

"Come on," he said hastily after he stood staring for a minute. "Time to go." He grabbed Shinji's hand and dragged him out the door, remembering his own cone just in time to give it a slurpy lick up the side and keep it from dripping on his hand.

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Shinji grinned. Damn straight they were going because it would take the same amount of time that it took to walk home to eat his ice cream and then he intended to lick Kippei instead. Time was important. He didn't want there to be ice cream left when they got home, or no ice cream to eat while they were walking home, so leaving now was right.

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

Kippei was amused, but mostly agreed with Shinji's assessment, althoug he thought he might not mind if there was a little ice cream left when they got home. He could think of plans for that, too.

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

"Stop thinking dirty thoughts about ice cream!" Shinji gasped, only mildly shocked really. It didn't surprise him that Kippei was thinking bad thoughts about ice cream...Kippei thought bad things about most things. But the thought of wasting ice cream was enough to make Shinji want to scream in protest.

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

Kippei chuckled, and concentrated on not wasting his own ice cream, although personally he did not feel that his thoughts about alternative uses of ice cream would be any kind of a waste.