Shadows within darkness

Thanks to Kerianya (I like Aeris/th now, too! Just took some time :)), Golden Kitsune (Ah, there will be timeskips soon enough, don´t worry XD) and Kayaz (Hope this is soon enough :)) for reviewing!

6

He fought himself free of his feverish, senseless dreams, surfacing to awareness
after a long, tiring battle. Groaning, he felt his heavy lids and his aching
body, almost wishing he could drift back into blissful oblivion once again, if
only it would have been restful at all.

“Sh…” A soft breath ghosted over his burning skin, making him turn his
heavy head towards the direction from where the sound had come from. Slowly
cracking his eyes open Yazoo was welcomed by blinding light that slowly
dissipated, and a light blur come into vision. He peered at the shadow, willing
his gaze to focus until first he could make out the contours and finally an
unfamiliar, but friendly face, framed by brown locks could be seen. Brown hazel
eyes looked down on him smiling, but also slightly concerned.

He tried to speak, wanting to ask what was going on, but instead the person
spoke up again, telling him softly to not strain himself and go back to sleep
again. A cold sensation swept over his forehead, cooling his feverish thoughts.
Feeling oddly secure, the boy cast a last look at the warm smile and slowly
drifted back into a dreamless, restfull sleep.

xxXXxx

“How is he doing?”

The low, calm voice didn´t startle her much as it suddenly filled the silent,
dimly lit room. Aeris was already used to her master suddenly showing up at the
most random times. So she just changed the wet towel on the boy´s forehead,
gently striding one of his long tresses out of the pale face.

“I think he´s out of the woods now,” she said softly and rose to her feet
to wash out one of the linen cloths. Sending a questioning look at the
mysterious man, she only sighed when he crept even further into his collar and
left it be. If he didn´t want to explain the situation to her, she had to live
with it. For now she was glad that the boy had overcome the fever that had
haunted him for two nights in a row now.

“He regained conciousness this afternoon, but went back to sleep soon after.
Maybe he will wake up again,” she informed him quietly, wringing out the cloth
and silently observing the man walking towards the bed and coming to stand next
to the boy.

Watching Yazoo´s even breathing, the tensed shoulders seemed to relax a bit.
“Did he say something?”

“No.”

Suddenly Yazoo stirred and Aeris placed the towel aside to hurry to his side,
but Vincent stopped her, saying “It is alright, he is only waking up. Could
you please leave us alone? I will call you when I need your assistance.”

Aeris obediently bowed down and taking the bowl she quietly left the room.
Leaning against the wall with his arms folded over his chest, the vampire
watched as Yazoo, groaning, came back to his senses.

Opening his eyes slowly, he reached with a frail hand for his spinning head,
although he felt a lot better than the last time he had awoken.

Sluggishly taking in the unfamiliar surroundings and the sensation of lying in
an actual bed, the boy frowned in confusion. Was he still dreaming?

His eyes finally met the cold gaze of the only other occupant of the room, and
suddenly Yazoo bolted into a sitting position, not feeling drowsy anymore. The
sudden movement was a little bit too much for his worn out body, and dizzily he
leaned back into the cushions, but not without sparing his visitor a hot heated
glare.

“W-where´re ma brothas?” he demanded to know hoarsely. “Where´m I? ”

Vincent remained quiet, observing as Yazoo rubbed his aching temple and with
narrowed eyes shot him another cold look. “An who da hell ´re ya?!”

Of course he couldn´t remember him. Vincent had erased all of his memories from
that night, but nontheless Yazoo had the weird feeling that he had met the
person before… At least he could say that he found the person kind of…
eery.

His expression suddenly turning petrified, as he snarled at the cloaked figure
with icecold eyes “I swear if ya did anythin´ta them I´ll fuckin-”´

“Kill me?” Vincent interrupted, sounding faintly amused. The boy pressed his
lips in a thin line and continued to scowl at him, but the frightening
impression wouldn´t quite take effect for he wavered to the side ever so
slightly, looking bleary and still very tired.

“Do not worry. I did not touch your precious brothers.”

“Oh yeah?! Den where da hell ´re dey?!” Yazoo lifted his chin in a
provoking manner, meanwhile gathering the sheets around his frail body for he
suddenly became very aware of his nakedness. If that guy had tried anything
funny to him…

“Your brothers…” Vincent pushed himself from the wall and came slowly
towards the bed, making the boy backing away unconciously.

“It pains me greatly to have to inform you about their recent decease.”

“Uh?” Yazoo blinked at him with big, uncomprehending eyes.

“They are dead.”

Now that he understood. Eyes growing large like saucers, the boy stared at him
with his mouth hanging open, until he finally shut it with a snap, breathing
“Ya lyin´.”

Then his face became furious, as he balled his long fingers into fists and
growled “Dun fuck with me!”

Vincent lazily blinked, wisely refraining from an answer as it was obvious that
his guest wouldn´t believe him now anyway.

After Yazoo didn´t get an answer, his childish features turned even darker as
he, agitated, wrapped the sheet around his hip and tried to leave the bed. Fuck,
his head was still swimming too much. He didn´t even make it out of the bed, as
suddenly the strange guy that had told him that his brothers were dead appeared
next to him in the blink of an eye (he hadn´t even seen him move!) and strong
fingers gripped his shoulder, holding him in place. “You are in no condition
to walk around. Stay.”

The boy threw him an angry look and snarled “Take ya bloody paws off me.”
Unfazed, Vincent held his hands where they were, despite the possibility of
receiving the silver haired humans eternal wrath, and even squeezed his fingers
a little to emphasize that this was bitter serious and if Yazoo wasn´t willing
to cooperate he would take entirely other measures, the boy would like even
less.
Seizing the other up with cold eyes, Yazoo finally relaxed and sank back onto
the mattress.

“So,where´re ma brothas?” he demanded again, as if the whole conversation
before hadn´t taken place.

Sighing quietly in a resigned manner, Vincent comtemplated if it would make any
sense to try to convince Yazoo. Withdrawing his hand, he took the pout and the
stubbornly crossed arms into consideration and eventually concluded, that he
wasn´t quite fit for this now, nor was the boy. Hence, he only closed his eyes,
declaring with his sonorous voice filling the room.

“Not now. We will continue this conversation at another time. Sleep.”

Before Yazoo could even start to protest and throw insults at him, his face went
blank, his eyes rolled back and with a tud, he fell back onto the matress.
The vampire opened his eyes, taking in the view of his softly snorring
protégé. This was much better. Yazoo´s relentless butchery of their precious
language caused him severe headaches…

Shaking his head a little, Vincent left the room and went down to the kitchen,
where Aerith was heating up some soup for their guest.
The vampire informed her that it wasn´t necessary since Yazoo wouldn´t wake up
before morning.

Aeris, knowing better than to ask her master if he´d like some instead - for he
never ate, or at least not in this house- bowed and asked in what condition the
boy was, receiving a somewhat sarcastic reply that he seemed to be very well
again.

He told her that he would take his leave for now, but planned on returning the
next evening, wishing her a good night. After a pause, he added a “Be careful.
And do not let any sharp objects come into his immediate surroundings,”
leaving her to wonder about his strange words.

After all, what could a little boy like him do anyway?

xxXXXxx

“Da hell I gonna fuckin´sleep!” Very abruptly the boy shot into a sitting
position, furiously glaring at nothing in particular, looking drowsy and absent-
mindedly rubbing at his eyes.

Startled, Aeris set the bowl of hot soup aside, and waited for him to wake up
with a gentle, patient smile on her rosy lips. Standing there with her hands
folded in front of her white apron, her brown, bow bedecked braids hanging from
either side of her shoulders, she was the perfect image of warm kindness and
purity.

“Good morning,” she said, drawing the boy´s attention to her.

Yazoo looked at the maid with his head tilted in confusion and then slowly
turning it around, scanning the room with a frown.

“Where da hell´s dat fella?” Anger was creeping back into his voice, as he
clutched the sheets in frustration.

“Do you mean Master Valentine, by any chance?” Aeris friendly offered to
help him.

“Dunno. Da creepy fella with da red sheet.”

“Oh yes, that is Master Valentine,” she smiled, amused.

Sceptically eyeing her, Yazoo finally shrugged and asked unimpressed “Where da
hell did he run off ta?”

Vexed, the boy looked around the room. Hadn´t it been pitch black outside just
a second ago? Now the chamber was cast in a warm light, coming from the pastel
flower curtain framed window and being reflected by the chalked walls.

Aeris had turned around and rearranged a flower bunch on the window sill,
informing him gently “Master Valentine left tonight after you went back to
sleep. He will visit again in the evening.”

Yazoo glowered, not liking this development at all. When had he fallen asleep
anyway?!

Though that really wasn´t of any interest now, he had to know something first.


“Where´re ma brothas?” he asked, feeling like he´d asked that particular
question for the millionth time now. Really how difficut was it to answer it?!
Eyeing her expectantly as the maid finished her task and moved around again, he
distantly wondered where the fuck he was.

“I´m afraid I don´t know anything about your brothers,” she answered with
unshakable patience, but her beautiful face showed some sympathy. “Master
Vincent only brought you here three nights ago. You were in a pretty bad shape
and have rested since then. He did not mention your brothers nor what happened
to you.”

Seeing his somewhat crestfallen, blank face, she sighed and reached for the
bowl. “Everything will work out when Master Valentine comes back tonight,
you´ll see.
How about you eat something? I´m sure you must be very hungry-”

“I ain´t want no friggin´shit,” he hissed at her, bunging the bowl out of
her hands with a frosty look. The hot soup spilled all over the pale wooden
panels and Aeris yelled in surprise.

She regained her equilibrium very fast though, as she picked up the ceramic bowl
with slightly shaking hands and set it aside. Wiping her burned fingers at her
apron she briefly smiled at him and hurried out of the room to get a cloth and
clean up the mess he´d created.

While she shuffled down the stairs, her long skirt held up between two fingers
so she wouldn´t trip, Aeris told herself that it wasn´t his fault. Given the
circumstances it was really no wonder that he was confused. He had been woken up
to an unfamiliar place after a horrible incident and nearly dying and apparently
his family was missing. Once she reached the kitchen, Aeris crouched down to
pull out a large wooden bowl and a linen cloth from under the stone sink.

She filled up some of the water she had carried from the well this morning, and
with her hands full, made her way up the stairs again. Maybe she could calm him
down enough to tell her what had happened or to make him eat at least a little
bit.He was alarmingly skinny and hadn´t eaten much the past three days, apart
from the chicken soup she had managed to instill into his feverish, unconcious
body. And he hadn´t been exactly fat to begin with.

With a gentle smile donned to her face she walked through the door, but it was
frozen to her features as she found the bed empty and the clothes she had layed
out for him gone.

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As promised a long chapter :)

Have a nice weekend everybody!