“How long ago did you escape?” Seth asked him.
“I’ve been with Simone for more than half a year,” he answered hazily, still lost in his thoughts.
Seth imagined he could see her, a skinny girl with brilliantly blonde hair and clawed hands. She cradled Anri’s body against her own, his blood dripping from angry slashed at his wrists. The blood dripped into an oversized silver bowl, the sound of each drop echoing vexingly in his ears. When the cuts healed over, she would cut them again with a gaudy, golden pommeled, ruby and quartz encrusted ritual dagger that sliced like fire against his skin, relentlessly renewing the pain. Seth had never hated something so much as he hated this woman and her gaudy dagger.
“I think…did she have a gaudy jeweled dagger?” he asked carefully. His hand on Anri’s knee started to gently move, caressing his leg lightly. “Golden with rubies and quartz in the handle?”
Anri cringed again, pulling back from Seth. “How? How do you know that?” he nearly snarled. He gasped, afraid of Anri’s reaction and Anri’s face fell regretfully at his outburst.
Seth pulled him back so that he was pressing against his side again. “Shh, Anri. I’m sorry. I think…I’m pretty sure I just saw your memories. Is that something that can happen cause I’m a Wren?”
“You…saw my memories? What did you see?” Anri asked skeptically.
“You chained in a room. A thin blond woman cutting your wrists so that your blood dripped into a silver bowl with a knife that looks like it came right out of a Tolkien book,” he recounted softly.
Anri shivered, hesitating before he responded. “I don’t know if that’s something you can do because you’re a Wren. Or maybe it’s because we shared blood. That’s weird, not normal that I know of. Did you see anything else?”
“No. Maybe because it was a strong memory? Anri, I…want to hurt her. Did…did you love her?” he asked. He didn’t want to know the answer, but he had to.
“I didn’t love her then, and I hate her now,” Anri replied heatedly. Relief was instant, and he shook out his remaining tension with a little jerk. “It was just easy, you know? She was a Wren and I didn’t have to hide or pretend to be something I’m not when I was around her. I mean, I guess I thought I liked her, in that way that you just get comfortable with a person. I never felt anything even close to the feelings you make me feel. Even the first time I met you, I felt more strongly in that moment for you than I did the whole time I was with her.”
The silence stretched on for a few minutes. Anri’s breathing was even and deep, and Seth wondered if he had fallen asleep.
Seth shifted, careful not to move too much and dislodge Anri’s head. Feeling the need to say something, he said, “Well, first off, I’m not a witch. So, you don’t have to worry about that. Second, Angelina sounds like a crazy bitch, so no wonder you’ve got issues.” He shifted again, uncomfortable. He already regretted pulling away from Anri but this position was bad.
Seth turned to look at Anri as he readjusted on the couch. Anri pulled his legs up, cradling them against his body, his posture vulnerable. He longed to protect Anri from his past, longed to replace those bad memories with good ones. Maybe Anri would let him, if he could convince him to let this be more.
He took Anri’s hands into his own and locked his eyes on Anri’s. “Listen, Anri. Look at me and know that I will not hurt you. Please, give me a chance. Give me a chance to prove that you can trust me.”
Anri said nothing. He stared at Seth, studying his face, his own face surprisingly neutral. He sighed, then leaned in and placed a soft, clumsy kiss on Seth’s lips. Nothing more, but he lingered there, his lips resting on Seth’s. They stayed like that for a thousand days and one second all in one.
When the moment was over, Anri leaned back so that their faces were merely millimeters apart. He wouldn’t know later who moved first, but then distance was gone and he felt Anri’s mouth on his, Anri’s tongue in his mouth. Their kiss was violent and fierce, full of unspoken need. Tension and desire coursed through the kiss, unleashed as they kissed.
Another moment passed and something shifted again, and the kiss’s tension dissipated. Their kisses became more relaxed, and he took the opportunity to wrap his hands back into Anri’s thick hair. Anri reached up, one hand wrapping behind Seth’s neck and the other one slipping over his shoulder. He shifted them both on the loveseat so that they were both laying down, side by side, without breaking the kiss.
Everything felt so right. He felt his member begin to stir to life and he broke off the kiss. Both of them were panting softly. His lips were puffy and swollen from all of the kissing and his butt was hanging off the cramped confines of the loveseat.
“Um…do you wanna move to my bed? It’s more comfortable,” he asked shyly. He blushed instantly and quickly continued, “Not for sex! We can just, you know, keep doing this? Or talk, or just sleep?”
Anri’s smile amped up his fluster even more. He had absolutely no game when it came to this man, but that in itself was refreshing.
“Sure,” Anri chuckled.
He let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding, and then without saying anything else, because what else could he say right now that wouldn’t sound stupid, he lead them both to the bed. The look in Anri’s eye as he approached his bed would have made Seth laugh if he wasn’t so goddamn nervous. Half expectant and half terrified, Anri sat down rigidly on the very edge of his bed.
The urge to push him down and kiss him silly was nearly overwhelming. He wanted to run his hands over the buttons of Anri’s now wrinkled dress shirt, wanted to tear them off and reveal that smooth, pale chest again. With willpower he had never had to use before now, he suppressed the urge. There was no way he was going to frighten his flighty vampire away now. He couldn’t let Anri be alone, couldn’t give him time to regret his decision to be with Seth.
Anri’s black vest coat was missing, probably still upstairs on the floor. He’d worry about it in the morning. His hair was messy and free, and he used it to hide behind now. “What’s wrong?” Anri asked shyly from behind his dirty blond veil.
“Nothing, nothing. I was just wondering if you wanted something more comfortable to wear than your work clothes?”
“Huh? Oh,” he said, looking down at his rumpled clothing. “Yeah, I didn’t even think about it. I don’t have anything with me. Shit,” he swore, running his hands through his hair, pulling it away from his face. It instantly fell back into his face.
“That’s okay, I can give you something to wear. I’m taller than you but if you’re just wearing it to bed it should be fine, right?” Seth said, turning his back to Anri to dig through his closet on the far side of his bed.
“Your clothes?” Anri squeaked nervously. “I, ah, yeah, sure, okay, sure.” Seth pulled out a shirt and a pair of black cotton pajama pants, turning back to Anri. “Shit, fuck, Seth, this is weird. I don’t…I usually don’t…”
“Don’t usually what?” he asked innocently, even though he had a general idea of what Anri was currently panicking over.
“I dunno, sleep with someone on a first date. I mean, sleep over! I didn’t mean…fuck…” Anri blustered with another rake of his hands through his silky hair.
Seth walked over and laid the clothes on the bed next to Anri. “This was not a date. You’ll know when I take you out on a date,” he said sweetly as he returned to the closet to pull out pajamas for himself. He also used it to hide the blush on his face after what he just said. Why was it so much more exciting and terrifying to flirt with Anri than with girls? He wasn’t used to his heart pounding like this, wasn’t use to feeling this way. It was absolutely exhilarating.
He pulled out clothes and turned to peek at Anri. Anri was in the middle of pulling the borrowed shirt over his head, his pale torso exposed. Again he was forced to push down his urges to climb across the bed and claim him, swallowing hard. Their eyes met as Anri pulled the shirt over his chest. It was big on him, just a little, and seeing Anri in his clothes brought on a wave of possessiveness.
Mine. The word popped up in his head unexpectedly. He had never wanted another person like this, never wanted to claim someone and covet anyone like he did Anri. He shook his head as Anri blushed and turned away from him, pulling his pants down quickly. He isn’t mine, not yet, he thought, but the words felt untrue. Everything in his being told him that this man was his.
“Is this a joke?” Anri asked him, pulling him from his distracting thoughts. “What’s a Vampire Weekend?”
“No!” he exclaimed too loudly. “I, no, not on purpose, I swear. I didn’t even look at what shirt I grabbed. It’s a band, I like music and I have a ton of band shirts! I like band shirts, I’m sorry!” To hide his embarrassment he pulled his own shirt off over his head.
“I dunno,” Anri remarked slowly. “Seems deliberate…”
“I didn’t! I swear it!” he defended, turning back to Anri with a shirt in hand. If Anri was going to leave over a shirt…he should have checked…
Anri smiled playfully at him and his heart calmed, and then Anri’s eyes slid down to his bare chest. “I’m just fucking with you,” he mumbled, his eyes locked on Seth’s naked torso.
Once his heart calmed down he beamed. Anri was staring at him like he was something delicious. He was practically drooling. If he was going to stare, he might as well give Anri a show, right? He turned his back to Anri again and unbuckled his belt. The feeling of the denim dragging down his legs, over his thighs and calves, seemed so much more intense with Anri’s eyes on him. Taking his time, he pulled his cotton pajama pants on, these ones had the logo for the Pacers, even though he wasn’t a big sports fan. The pants had been a gift from his sister, and they were really comfortable.
Slowly he turned back around, catching Anri’s eyes. “You like what you see?” he asked, his heart pounding a staccato beat against his sternum.
Anri gulped. Oh, hell, he was so goddamn cute Seth nearly couldn’t stand it. He actually gulped. An instant later his face bloomed crimson and he looked away, turning quickly and sitting down on the edge of the bed again.
“I know the band on your shirt,” he said instead of answering Seth’s question. “Nine Inch Nails. I know that one.”
Seth snorted laugh. “Good. If you stick around me long enough, you’ll know them all. I’ll play them all for you until you do.” Even as the words left his mouth he couldn’t believe himself. He had never stayed with anyone long enough for them…he realized that he wanted Anri to stick around. All these new feelings were refreshing.
He moved onto the bed, pulling a few pillows with him as he crawled up the bed. He propped a few up and leaned against the headboard, then patted the bed next to him. Anri turned to him, his face hidden behind his hair. He wanted to push it back, tuck it behind his ear, but Anri was too far away.
Nothing happened for a few seconds. Anri sat as if trapped in amber, completely frozen in place. “I…I do,” he whispered, turning away from Seth again.
“Huh?” Seth asked, confused as to what he meant. He did…what?
“Like…what I saw…I do…” he mumbled softly. His hands were in his lap and he wrung them together nervously.
The words stopped his heart in his chest, then impossibly drove his heart to beat even harder. He swallowed twice before he allowed himself to move. He crawled on his hands and knees to Anri and wrapped his arms around him from behind, pulling him into his embrace. Anri shivered under him, still wringing his hands in his lap.
Seth pushed his face into Anri’s hair, finding his ear. “Me too. You are so sexy, Anri, that it is taking all of my restraint not to push you down again,” he breathed into Anri’s hair.
“How can you say those things, Seth? Where do you get that confidence? You don’t even know me,” Anri complained sadly.
“I want to, Anri. I want to know you. I am attracted to you. I want you. I want to know you, everything about you,” he admitted, though it felt a little like begging.
Anri relaxed slightly, leaning back into Seth, though he continued to tremble. “I…fuck, Seth. Every rational thought in my head is screaming at me to run from you, telling me that I can’t do this again, but my body, my heart, it’s telling me to stay. That this is where I should be. I feel like…Jesus, this might sound stupid, but I feel like I’m…” Anri trailed off as his trembling increased.
“What,” he breathed insistently. “Tell me, what do you feel like with me? Right now?” He had never felt anticipation of this caliber. It felt like everything hinged on whatever Anri would say next.
“Home,” Anri rasped out, the tremble now in his voice, too.
The word opened something inside of him and he knew it was true. As impossible as the reality of it felt, the word resonated inside of him. Anri was right. It felt like he found his home. He kissed Anri’s ear, using his nose to push the hair away. “Home,” he agreed softly.
Neither of them moved, allowing themselves to soak in the moment. Anri’s trembling receded slowly, and then he turned his head, placing an awkward kiss on Seth’s lips before he pushed himself from Seth’s arms.
Seth frowned for half a second, worried that Anri was going to flee, but instead he climbed up the bed to where he had stacked a few pillows. He pulled one and buried his face into it, hiding his blush from him. Anri, in his clothes and in his bed, was perfection, and his possessiveness flared to life again.
After a few breaths Anri finally pulled his face from the pillow. “I want to know you, too. Ask me questions, I’ll answer them. What do you want to know?”
Seth climbed up the bed, grabbing a pillow and propping himself up close to, but not touching Anri. “I can ask anything?” he asked, biting his lip ring in between his teeth. Anri’s eyes locked on the motion greedily, that hungry look on his face again. Seth played with the ring between his teeth and Anri watched.
“Sure,” Anri agreed without looking away from his lip ring. He had never been as happy with his decision to get his lip pierced as he was now. Any regrets he might have had disappeared as he enjoyed Anri’s desire-filled gaze.
“Are you sure? Did you hit your head or something? Where’s the secretive, fearful Anri I know?” he teased playfully. Anri’s face fell and he immediately regretted the words.
“Yeah, I’m sorry. I’m fucked up. Please, let me make it up to you. I’ll try to answer anything you ask,” he said ruefully.
“Hmm…now that you are giving me permission, it’s hard to think of anything! What’s your favorite color?”
“Black,” Anri answered, still staring at his lip ring.
“Black?” he asked with a laugh.
“What?” Anri demanded. “I like black.”
“The vampire likes black. I guess I’m glad you didn’t say red…” he teased. He couldn’t help himself, the way Anri blushed and looked away was so arousing. “Ah…so you eat real food, too. What’s your favorite food?”
“That’s pretty vague. I like a lot of food. What’s your favorite food?”
Seth snorted. “Fine, fine. Ah…this is hard now that I’m allowed to ask!”
Anri leaned over and kissed Seth, surprising him. A second later he pulled his vampire closer, returning the kiss. It was soft and sweet and slow and he didn’t want to stop, but eventually he needed to breath. They pulled apart, both of them breathing heavily.
“You could ask me supernatural questions. I still can’t believe you didn’t know you were a Wren!” Anri offered.
“I still don’t really know what that even means, honestly. I guess I have, like, a million questions. I just don’t know which to ask first.” He thought for a minute and Anri didn’t rush him. “So, you said there are demons and fey? Fey, what does that mean? Like elves and fairies?”
“Yea, something like that. I’ve never actually seen any fey but I know they exist,” Anri answered, rolling so that he was laying on his back with his head resting on one splayed arm. He stared up at the ceiling.
“You’ve really never seen any fey?” he asked. Anri shook his head. “What about demons? Is hell real?” He couldn’t help but be intrigued. There was so much in the world he didn’t know about. How was it possible these things existed right out in the open?
Anri flinched at the question. If Seth hadn’t been watching him closely he would have missed it. He almost opened his mouth to steer the conversation away from anything that might close Anri off from him again when he finally answered.
“Um, yeah, I guess I have a few times. I don’t really care to see any demons again, honestly. They aren’t from hell, as far as I know. Just from a different…realm? Plane? I guess it’s like planescape, from Dungeons & Dragons. Do you know D&D?” Anri asked, turning to look at him. He nodded and Anri continued. “Okay, good. Well, they are from another realm of existence. They live in the same space as us, just like, over there or something. I dunno, it’s complicated and I’m not really the best person to explain it.”
“Are demons scary? Like how they are in movies and shit?” he asked hesitantly, afraid he would make Anri uncomfortable but unable to let his questions lie.
Anri shivered. “Yes, they are scary. I can’t…like deep sea fish and spiders, their bodies are just so alien that it freaks me out.”
He could sense Anri’s tension and decided to change the subject. “So, can you drink from anyone, or only just Wrens?”
“Vampires can drink from anyone.”
“Animals?”
“No, not animals. I mean, I guess I could, but I never have tried it. Our powers of persuasion don’t seem to work on the animal kingdom,” he said with mild amusement. Seth thought there might be a story involved, but Anri moved on. “Wrens…Wrens just, well they’re more convenient since they usually know what to expect with vampires. Not to mention, they taste better and they enjoy the process more. And, personally, it feels like their blood lasts longer than Norms. Your blood…”
“What about my blood?” he asked. Something inside of him stirred, something tightening in his chest.
Anri turned his gaze back to the ceiling. “Nothing, nothing. It’s probably nothing. I just think Wren’s blood makes me feel sated longer.”
“Is it weird if I want to know who you drink from? I…” Jealousy at his own question made his stomach clench.
Shifting nervously, Anri ran his hands through his hair, lifting his head off of his pillow and half sitting up. “I won’t drink from others, not if you don’t want me to. I promise I won’t. I, umm,” Anri trailed off, looking down towards the bed. “You’re my Wren. I’m yours, now, so I won’t drink from anyone without your permission.”
“I think I couldn’t stand it, Anri, if you are together like this with someone else. With another Wren…” He reached out and brushed a stray lock of hair behind Anri’s ear.
Anri flinched at his touch and his heart tightened painfully. “It’s not normally like this,” Anri tried to explain. His face bunched up in frustration.
“What do you mean, it’s not normally like this?” He had to ask, had to know. He couldn’t stop himself. “Wait…something else you said…you said that I’m your Wren? What does that mean?”
Anri turned away from him, though he didn’t turn his back on him. “You always have a million questions like a tidal wave.”
Anri’s hand was on the bed between them. Seth placed his on top and pushed his fingers between Anri’s. “That’s why I make such a good graduate student. Always asking more questions than I find answers for. So…I’m your Wren?” he pressed again, undeterred, anticipating his answer.
Those green-grey eyes turned to him, stunning him momentarily with how serious and intense they were. “Yes, if you want to be, you’d be my Wren and I’d be your Claret,” Anri explained with quiet intensity.
The moment was heavy when Anri said those words, Wren and Claret. Things felt so much more real than normal. He could almost feel a physical connection to Anri, something like a hint of what could be a cord or binding which might connect them. Seth touched the spot on his chest where it felt tight inside.
Startled, Anri pulled back a little. “What did you just do?” he asked nervously, his own hand trailing to his chest.
“I didn’t do anything,” he insisted. “When you said Claret, something…it’s like I can feel something inside. Is this a vampire/Wren thing?”
Anri shook his head nervously. “I don’t know. I…you can feel something? Like a rope or some type of binding?”
They locked eyes. Seth leaned over, pressing his hand against Anri’s heart. “From here. I feel a connection from here,” he pressed against Anri’s chest, “to here.” He put his other hand against his own chest.
Anri sucked in a heavy breath. Seth watched as he went through several emotions in a second responded “I’ve never felt anything like this before. But maybe it’s because we…”
“It’s because I’m your Wren! It feels like home, Anri. You already said it. I feel…content. This feeling,” Seth said, rolling onto his back, keeping his hand on Anri’s chest. “I feel good. Don’t you?”
He watched Anri nearly lie, then catch himself. Now that he knew what to look for, Anri had a big tell when he was going to lie. He scrunched his mouth to the left, just slightly. Anri sighed heavily. “Yes, I feel really good. Especially considering I didn’t even bleed you.”
He laughed softly, laying back down.
“Do you want to?”
Anri shook his head slightly. “Not really, which is surprising. Like you said, I feel really good.” Anri shifted, laying down. They both stared up at the ceiling. Eventually Anri’s hand moved to rest on top of Seth’s on Anri’s chest. He froze, as if trying not to startle a wild animal, worried that even a small shift would have Anri taking his hand back.
“What does Claret mean?”
“It’s French. It means blood in French. It’s a vampire who has bonded with a Wren. A Claret. Neary silent ‘t’.” Anri said it slower, enunciating the word.
Seth’s eyes grew heavy and he tried hard to fight the sudden crash of exhaustion that slammed him. He had to consciously work to keep his eyes from drooping shut. “French is so pretentious. There’s a ‘t’, right? Just pronounce the…t…right?” Seth said through a yawn. He opened his mouth to say something else but yawned again. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m so sleepy all of a sudden. It’s not even that late.”
Anri squeezed his hand. “I’m pretty tired, too. It has been an emotionally exhausting night, don’t you think?”
He pouted. “I want to keep asking you questions!” he protested tiredly, punctuating the statement with another yawn.
Anri chuckled adorably. Seth tried to take a mental snapshot of him, lying in his bed, laughing comfortably, worried it would never happen again. Somewhere in hell flying pigs were eating freshly fallen snow. “Should I get the light?” Anri asked, sitting up.
“Only if you wanna. Lay down,” he insisted.
“Can we keep the lights on?” Anri asked with a tinge of discomfort in his voice.
“I just said you could. Do whatever makes you comfortable. Can’t have my vampire running away again, not after I just caught him,” he said sleepily. His mouth kept running, saying things he probably shouldn’t be saying.
“You drove, Seth. How would I leave?” Anri asked matter of factly.
He snorted. “Call a taxi. You have a phone. You aren’t my captive.”
“Well, what if I don’t want to leave?” Anri whispered hesitantly.
He was smiling like an idiot and he didn’t even care if Anri saw. Wiggling, he shifted his body until he was nearly touching Anri. Anri’s scent seemed stronger now, but maybe it was just that he never got to be this close normally. “Then stay. I want you to stay. Stay with me, come here,” he insisted, pushing Anri so he was on his side, then pulling him close. Anri didn’t fight it and their bodies lined up perfectly, like puzzle pieces falling into place.
“You’re hard again…” Anri noted guiltily.
“It’ll go away soon,” he responded thickly. “Don’t you ever get a boner when you’re real tired?”
Anri snorted to cover his embarrassment. “Shut up, Seth. Just…shut up and go to sleep. Seriously, you used to be so innocent.”
Seth rubbed himself against Anri, noticing that his whole body seemed chilled. “You’re cold,” he complained, burying his face into Anri’s strawberry scented hair. He could smell Anri’s unique scent below the smell of his shampoo, and if he hadn’t been so tired it would have sent a pulse of lust to his core. As it was, it sent a longing through him that his tired body was too exhausted to properly acknowledge.
“Also,” he added, exhaling, “you’re confusing ignorance with innocence. I lost my innocence years ago and you had nothing to do with it.”
“I can’t help it that I’m cold! It’s my nature. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to spoon me, you know,” Anri muttered, trying to wriggle away from him.
“No, no you don’t. I want to spoon you. I like how you feel,” he murmured into Anri’s ear, tightening his grip and pressing his sleepy erection against Anri’s butt again. Anri shivered in his arms, and not because he was cold. All of this man’s responses to his teasing were just fuel on the fire.
“Go to sleep, Seth,” Anri insisted nervously.
“You go to sleep,” he responded snarkily with lethargic words.
Anri’s back shook, and it took him a moment to realize that he was laughing. “Seth, you’re funny.”
“No, you’re funny,” he replied, but the words were thick and heavy in his mouth. He didn’t want tonight to end, not yet, not ever, but body betrayed him as sleep overtook him.
Dreadfully Erotic 