Moonlight Flower

Shinigami Yumi


presents


Moonlight Flower

Summary: In his fight with a certain silver-haired vampire, Leon chose to save his enemy from fading away. The two become unlikely friends, and Joachim takes Leon as his Host. The years pass as Leon continues to hunt the night with Joachim's aid while searching for Mathias. Meanwhile, Joachim finds himself wanting far more than he already has. JoachimLeon and MathiasLeon. Possible MathiasLeonJoachim later. Implied WalterJoachim. Yes, it's YAOI. You have been warned.

A/N: Sorry this update is late again. I've had a lot on my plate lately, and this chapter was really hard to write (the problem is that the next chapter is even harder x__x). Even now that I'm posting it, I still feel like it could somehow be better, that I'm simply not seeing a way to improve it, which certainly says something about the limits of my present ability as a writer. Still, I now leave that to you, the readers, to judge. Please tell me what you think, no matter what that is. I'm sure it'll help when I'm writing the next chapter. ♥ Also, I will readily admit that I haven't a clue how exactly sailors talked way back when, so I just really just tried my best, but anyone who'd like to help me with it should definitely comment and tell me what to change! Thank you so much in advance for reading and reviewing!

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Chapter 7: Indecent Obsession

“I truly am the biggest fool of us all, am I not?”

Not knowing what to say, Joachim remained silent where he sat by Leon’s side in their windowless cabin in the lower deck of the ship. They had fled the castle through a side exit without even bidding their hostess goodbye and quickly made for the port to board the first ship home. It wasn’t until they had set sail that Leon showed the first signs of “illness” and told him everything that had transpired during his brief encounter with Mathias. It was their worst nightmare come true: Leon had been tainted and would soon be Mathias’ Childe. Joachim wanted to be angry; he wanted to hurt Leon for his foolish compassion, but the rage wouldn’t come. In any case, Leon was already beating himself up about it where he lay ailing on his bunk in soft light of a single white candle. His Host made another soft grunt of discomfort, and he reached out to tenderly pet threads of gold silk, offering what little comfort he could provide in their circumstances.

Finally, he said, “When we are far enough south that there are again daylight hours, you should go sit out in the sun. It will slow the taking of the curse.”

Leon nodded, then asked, “What did he mean when he said I would surely return to him?”

Joachim sighed, turning away to avoid the other’s gaze. “Instinct, a Childe’s natural wish to be by his Sire’s side. Moreover, he can will you to his side through the mental bond between Childe and Sire.”

There was a long moment of silence as the blond took this in. At length, Leon spoke again. “I apologize, Joachim… You must…be terribly upset with me…”

At that, he whirled around to throw his arms around his hunter and lie atop him. “Yes… Yes, I am! I want to hurt you so badly…” he whispered brokenly. “But I cannot bring myself to… Why do you have to be so kind to everyone?!”

“I truly am sorry…”

He tightened his embrace. “I will not let you go to him. I cannot change the fact that he is your Sire, but I can weaken his hold on you, safeguard your mind from his venomous influence…”

A warm hand began to stroke his back comfortingly as the other shook his head. “It is alright… When we return, I… I will bid Helena and Gabriel farewell, then watch my final sunrise…”

He tensed. Even knowing that Leon would surely choose this path didn’t make hearing the actual words any easier. “Are… Are you just going to give up?” he asked desperately.

The human sighed. “What is there to give up on, Joachim? I cannot live like this…” The other’s mellow tenor began to take on a tone of mounting manic terror. “I cannot live by drinking the blood of others, Joachim! Even now, I can feel it…my blood beginning to run cold, my heartbeat slowing from its usual rhythm. God have mercy on my soul, Joachim, I am turning into a monster!!”

“So that really is what you think of me!” Joachim riposted accusingly, lifting his head to look squarely into blue eyes in challenge.

Leon’s sorrowful expression transformed into one of shocked horror, and then became penitent, all in a flash. “No! No, that is not what I meant…” he denied contritely.

“Then what do you mean?”

“I…” he faltered, and at once, Joachim regretted his harshness.

“How can you claim that I am no monster and yet think of yourself as one when you are so much the better person?” he asked, more gently now.

The blond didn’t answer, but when he leaned forward to rest his head on that warm chest once more, strong arms wrapped around him lovingly. It was true; Leon’s heartbeat was slower than he remembered, and his body temperature had fallen slightly.

“Human, vampire or anything else, you can never be a monster, Leon. If you are a monster, then what am I? Worse, surely, and destined for eternal damnation…”

“Do not say that,” his beloved chided softly.

“It is but the truth, Leon…”

“If that is so, then the Heavenly Father will have to make a whole new level of Hell just for Mathias,” the hunter joked weakly with a derisive chuckle.

“For all you know, He already has. I reckon the devil himself will come to escort him someday,” he returned with a small smile he barely felt.

Leon made an unintelligible sound of assent, but said nothing more, and Joachim held onto him more tightly as the waves rocked the boat as gently as a mother rocks her child’s cradle. Leon… he pleaded silently. Go not where I cannot follow…

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Leon Belmont sat on the upper deck of the ship in the waning daylight with his legs dangling over the edge and his arms crossed on the railing, inhaling deeply of the sea spray. The sound of the waves crashing against the side of the ship calmed his troubled heart despite his grim circumstances. The sun was already beginning to affect him; it hurt his eyes, gave him a headache and made him uncomfortable, causing him to break out in cold sweat. Joachim had told him to stop when it began to hurt his skin, and he feared that that day was close by, feared that he would not even make it back to see his wife and son again.

“Hey, lad, you’re looking mighty pale there. Sure you’re alright?” A gruff, drawling voice interrupted his reverie.

He turned to look up at its owner with a weak smile, wincing a little as a ray of sunlight caught his eye. The burly sailor’s coppery red hair was tousled by the wind, and jade green eyes looked at him with concern out of a tanned and weathered face. Leon rose unsteadily to his feet; the seaman was slightly shorter than him with a potbelly that spoke of one too many nights spent in harbour taverns stretching his well-worn and slightly grimy white shirt taut.

“Yes, sir, I am fine… Just a little seasick, is all.” Looking pale, huh… A clear sign that this body is dying, surely… Heh…

“Shouldn’t you go lie in bed then?”

“The fresh air helps… Too stuffy down there.”

“Well… Good to know it’s not something…yer know…contagious,” the seafarer said with a sheepish laugh, scratching his head awkwardly. “Me and the lads were getting kinda worried. Bad to be sick out here at sea.”

The sea breeze picked up then, and Leon had to brush a few stray blond strands out of his eyes. “I understand,” he replied with a tired smile.

“Say, don’t see your friend around much,” the other remarked casually.

“Oh, he’s asleep. The endless night disrupted his schedule, and I probably keep him up with worrying that I would retch all over the cabin,” he explained, embarrassed.

The sailor laughed at that. “Poor lad, that one, must be exhausted.”

Leon merely smiled in silent agreement, feeling guilty. He’d uttered more lies in this single conversation than he had in all of the previous month. God, help and forgive me… How can I possibly live this accursed existence of sin and duplicity? Save my soul, Father, and forsake me not though I fall inevitably into darkness, he prayed silently.

“Well, you’d best be taking care of yourself,” the older man said, coming over to give him a friendly clap on the shoulder. “I must be getting back to my post ere the captain sees me gone.”

In their proximity, Leon caught a distinctly metallic scent, mingled with the stench of dried sweat and cheap brandy, and felt suddenly thirsty; his throat was parched. He gasped, recognizing the Thirst for what it was, and staggered backwards hurriedly in horror. The very thought made him sick to the stomach, and he felt hot bile rising in his throat as nausea overcame him. Quickly leaning over the railing, he half-choked as he emptied the contents of his stomach into the sea below. He tasted blood amidst the remains of the dinner of biscuits, dried meat and sour oranges that Joachim had painstakingly made him eat for his own good, and was aghast to find that he liked it.

“Hey, you sure you’re not ill? Seasickness won’t have you throwing up blood, yer know.”

Leon coughed several times before clearing his throat, and his voice was hoarse when he spoke. “If you recall, my friend and I… We were in a bit of a hurry when we came on board..?”

The seaman nodded warily.

“I got into a fight shortly before we left, and although the wounds have closed, I wager I still have some internal bleeding going on.”

Suspicions temporarily assuaged, green eyes grew concerned again. “Well, you be careful then. Don’t be dying on us here. These waters are treacherous enough without us having dead men on board.”

Leon nodded, silently scoffing at the irony; if the ocean wasn’t complaining about undead men on its waves, he doubted a few cadavers would bring the voyage any misfortune. Catching sight of the water skin hanging from the other’s belt, he said, “Hey, before you go, mind if I had some of that water?” The man tossed the water skin to him, and he just barely caught it. He rinsed his mouth with the first gulp, spitting it out overboard, before taking a few sips, making sure the opening never touched his lips. “Thanks,” he muttered as he replaced the cover and tossed the container back to the sailor.

The other caught it easily as the last rays of the sun dipped below the horizon and nodded his acknowledgement before walking away, leaving Leon gazing out at the stars reflected on the endless expanse of water alone, wallowing in his self-disgust as the clouds moved to reveal the crescent moon shining brightly in its silver glory in the darkening sky. Such was how Joachim found him when the silver-haired vampire came up to seek him out. Seeing that they were alone, he wrapped his arms around Leon’s waist lovingly in greeting, pressing a tender kiss to a cooling temple, and was surprised when the blond immediately turned around to return the embrace and bury his face in his shoulder. He rubbed the former knight’s back comfortingly, growing anxious when he felt moisture on his clothes.

“Leon..?”

It was a long time before the baron answered, ensconced as he was in his silent grief. “I… A man, one of the sailors, came by earlier to ask if I was alright.” The hunter took a deep breath before continuing in a hushed anguished cry, “When he came closer, I could smell his blood, Joachim!” He looked up, his tear-stained face the picture of urgent terror. “And I… And I wanted to… Oh God…” He buried his face in Joachim’s shoulder once more. “What am I to do, Joachim? At this rate, I should let the sun purify me into ashes out here. I cannot see Helena and Gabriel like this; I am a danger to them,” he murmured forlornly.

Not knowing how to respond to the other’s despondent words, Joachim said instead, “Then you should be able to smell mine with how close we are.”

There was a pause before Leon spoke with a bit of wonder. “Oh, is that what it is?” He inhaled deeply. “You smell wonderful, Joachim, more so than usual.”

He smiled, feeling flattered by his beloved’s appreciation of his scent. “Well, the blood of other members of our species generally tastes the best to the Nosferatu,” he reasoned quietly. “It also affords us the greatest nourishment and…ah…” The words were lost in a gasp as sharp fangs sank into his throat, and he tightened his hold on the blond as passion rose swiftly in his body. “Leon…” he moaned breathlessly, closing his eyes as he grew completely erect. “Oh…”

Abruptly, Leon pulled away sharply, flabbergasted and horrified upon realizing what he had been doing. “Oh God… Joachim, I did not…” His hand flew to cover his mouth in abject dismay, eyes wide with dread. “What have I… What am I… Oh God…” He took one step backwards after another slowly, sickened by what he had done, and turned to flee, but Joachim darted forward to catch him in his arms again desperately.

“No…” he pleaded in a whisper. “Do not run from me, Leon. Please…”

“Joachim, I— You shouldn’t come so close… It makes me thirsty…”

“It is alright…”

“No! I have no wish to do something so terrible and inhuman!” the former Crusader cried, breaking free from the embrace and backing away swiftly.

Without the other’s body to hold onto for support, Joachim fell to the wooden floor of the deck, his knees weak with desire. “No, please… Don’t leave… Do not leave me alone.”

His dearest friend’s plaintive supplication tore at Leon’s heart, and he found himself returning to the vampire’s side almost unconsciously. “I’m not… I am not leaving you; you know that,” he murmured reassuringly. “I just…”

Strong arms wrapped around his legs to cling to him, and his eyes widened as his companion nuzzled his crotch wantonly. “Touch me, Leon… Please…” Joachim implored softly.

The heat of desire creeping into his loins felt comfortingly human, and he found himself reluctant to forego the illusory consolation. It struck him then how beautiful Joachim looked bathed in the moonlight, pale white skin almost aglow and silver hair almost iridescent, a sight he’d never been of the mind to appreciate before, and he gave in to temptation, falling to his knees to pull the other close. He would give his companion this final happiness before his death at the next sunrise.

“Take what little warmth is left in this body, Joachim,” he whispered. “Comfort me one last time.” Many kisses were shared with fervour before he remembered where they were. “We should go inside,” he breathed, rising and helping his lover to his feet.

He led them back to their cabin, not bothering to find themselves a source of light, and Joachim pressed him into the door to close it behind them, beside himself with lust as he set about removing Leon’s clothes, trailing kisses downwards in exploration of each new bit of exposed flesh. Leon worked on the other’s garments with equal urgency, and he pulled the vampire into a searing kiss the instant all their clothing lay in a heap of textile on the wooden floor, pressing their bare bodies together with frantic need. Somehow, they made it to one of the bunks in the tiny cabin and fell onto the thin mattress together, moving against each other in frenzied desperation, hands rough and hurried in their explorations as they moaned and gasped in the throes of shared passion.


Joachim reached down into the chest beside the bed to fumble for something, the bottle of oil he’d taken from Elune Lucienda’s castle. It was not that he’d planned to do this, but the problem with hope was that, for him at least, it ran almost eternal, and he was glad for that bit of foresight now as he poured some of it out onto his hand. Using his telekinesis to cork the phial and return it to the chest, he drew himself up to kneel with his knees apart and tugged Leon up with him gently into the same position to kiss him. His head touched the low ceiling of the tiny cabin, but he paid it no heed as he reached between them to wrap his oily hand around Leon’s erection, spreading the oil all over in a generous coating as his lover whimpered with every stroke.


He was pleasantly surprised when Leon’s hand found his own painfully erect member and began to touch him experimentally, unable to help the moans that fell from his lips. Moving forward slightly so their hands and shafts were together, he guided the blond’s hand, pressing against each other while stroking to create more of that delicious friction. Leon gasped at this newfound pleasure as they synchronized their movements into a quick rhythm and wrapped his free arm around him as their lips met again.

“Your…breathing…” Leon panted the words when they broke apart. “It never changes…”

Joachim smiled although he knew the other couldn’t see him in the cabin’s complete darkness. “Because I have no need to breathe,” he explained, finding a nipple to tease with his free hand.

His hunter made a soft sound of pleasure. “Then why do you?”

“I love how you smell,” he murmured, leaning forward to nibble on an earlobe.

“Ah… Joachim, I—” A sharp cry of ecstasy truncated the sentence as Leon came in his hand, covering him with warm semen before leaning forward to rest against him.

He smelled blood, a sure sign of his Host’s ebbing humanity, and hoped that Leon wouldn’t notice. The baron’s body temperature had fallen again, and the fangs and Thirst had already formed. He wound an arm around his lover, pressing a pointed ear to lukewarm flesh to hear a pulse that had slowed even further. It wouldn’t be long now; they were running out of time. The thought filled him with urgency. Would it be tomorrow or the day after? He couldn’t rightly tell, but he knew he was already losing his beloved, and he was afraid.

“Leon…”

The other wrapped both arms around him in a loving embrace. “What is it?”

“I…” he began, glad for the absence of light. “Don’t… Go not where I cannot follow.”

There was a long pause before cooling hands reached up to cup his cheeks gently. “Are you crying?”

He didn’t, couldn’t, answer, but of course Leon could tell, so the words didn’t really matter.

“Please…do not ask this of me,” Leon pleaded softly, pained. “I cannot… I cannot exist this way.”

With his clean hand, he covered a hand on his cheek and squeezed lightly. “I don’t want to be alone anymore,” he whispered, a choked sob escaping his chest.

“Joachim…” His lover trailed off uncertainly, at a loss for how to respond, as they embraced tightly once more.

He shook his head. “I know… I am terribly selfish to be saying such things, am I not?”

Leon didn’t answer, but his silence was consent enough.

“It is alright… Forget I said anything…”

The blond pulled back slightly to press their lips together once more, and he plundered his partner’s mouth fervently, desperate to taste everything before it was gone. Reaching around with his oiled hand to prepare himself, Joachim hesitated momentarily, almost embarrassed at how he knew he would react to even his own touch there. Bracing himself, he stroked his entrance to cover it in the oil and trembled from the pleasure of the sensation, moaning deeply into the kiss. Leon ended it for air, and he leaned forward onto the former knight for support, feeling himself leak onto a warm thigh.

“Joachim, what are you..?” Leon groped blindly for a moment before finding his arm and following it down.

“Ah, Leon, wait…” he gasped out just an instant too late as callused fingertips found a puckered cleft, and the cry of pleasure that escaped him might have alerted the entire ship to their activities had he not thought to muffle it against his hunter’s surprisingly soft skin.

“Oh… Did I..?”

“No, do it again.” He slicked his lover’s fingers with oil. “Please.”

He moaned, entire body quaking from the intense pleasure of the sensation, as Leon complied. All the times he’d imagined how it would feel to have his Host’s fingers there instead of his own could hardly measure up to the reality. It was almost too much; Leon’s thigh was probably wet with precum by now, and he nuzzled his lover’s chest, locating a pert nub in sparse blond curls to tease with teeth and tongue. Leon made a sound of approval, and he found the other’s semi-rigid length, relishing the way it stiffened and engorged under his ministrations. Whether out of curiosity or instinct, the fingers caressing him began to move in a circular motion, tracing the outline of his entrance until the anticipation was unbearable.

“Oh… Please… Inside,” he whispered hoarsely.

After a moment’s wavering, the blond pressed a single digit in obediently, and Joachim was unusually glad for his biological inability to achieve orgasm independently in that instant, so extreme was the gratification that shook him that he would have been completely spent if he came right then, and he wanted so much more. Then, Leon moved the digit uncertainly in curious exploration, eliciting a wanton moan as his hips bucked and his back arched in response. Observing his reaction, his lover pressed a little harder into the place he had just unknowingly touched, and his lips parted in a silent cry as he threw his head back in that moment of unbridled passion, rutting against his hunter’s groin unconsciously as Leon continued to rub that spot inside him. He was ashamed at the memory of reacting not very differently every time Walter had touched him in the same place before no matter how bad relations between them had deteriorated, but he could hardly help how intensely arousing he found the stimulation.

“Take me, Leon,” he begged with desperate abandon. “I want you inside me.”

“How..?” the other began, confused.

Without waiting for the rest of the question, he moved, pulling Leon’s finger out of him before pushing the baron back so he lay flat on the bunk. Then he positioned himself, guiding his lover’s erection to his opening, and sheathed the rigid length in one quick motion that filled him with the sweet pain of unity. From Leon's cry of pleasure, he knew that his Host felt it as well. He had waited for this moment for far too long to wait any longer, so he started moving, lifting off to impale himself on the spear of passion again and again. Lost in an ecstasy beyond even his most fervent cries, his screams were silent as he rode his beloved with unmatched ardour, glad for how long he could make it last for himself. He felt Leon draw himself up to hug him with one arm as a wet mouth sucked hard on his left nipple and a hand wrapped around his leaking member to match his rhythm in milking it mercilessly, and he clung onto his beloved urgently, constricting the muscles of his passage to grip Leon more tightly in hopes of giving more pleasure. He was rewarded by a throaty moan as the blond turned his attention to the other nub. This was as close to heaven as he would ever get, surely, and despite his wish that it last eternally, he knew Leon would not last much longer.

“Leon…” he murmured, reaching down to touch his hunter’s entrance as he lay back on the thin mattress, pulling Leon down to lie atop him. “Do you know…how it feels for me?”

Leon shook his head against his chest, too breathless to speak, as he wrapped his legs around that lean waist.

“I would like to show you,” he said, pressing in, careful not to cut sensitive flesh with his sharp nail.

He felt Leon wince in pain for a moment before he found his lover’s sweet spot and began to massage it with varying pressure. Leon cried out sharply at the sensation, member twitching inside him, and began to reflexively thrust back and forth in response, taking him zealously without even realizing it, and he cried out immodestly, no longer of the mind to care if the rest of the world knew that Leon was making this sinful love to him. His own length twitched in Leon’s warm hand, and he felt his own hips move involuntarily as his wet tip was thumbed roughly. It was too much; even he needed release desperately now, and when Leon’s body shuddered with climax again, he did not hesitate to sink his fangs into the blond’s throat and tremble as orgasm took him. In that instant where everything became nothing and nothing was everything in one, he pressed their minds together to enmesh in each other, forming the mental bond most Hosts formed with their Masters in the earliest days of their pact and relationship. Satisfied that they would always be a part of each other till the end, Joachim lay perfectly still as Leon collapsed atop him, all the strength gone from their completely spent and sated bodies.

I know why this is a sin… It feels so good that all decent thought, all thought in fact, is blown from your mind.

In spite of himself, Joachim laughed at his lover’s thoughts. I love you, Leon, he told him mentally, letting the other feel his affection as he wrapped tired arms around him.

The blond stirred, and he felt surprise in his mind.

Yes, we are communicating through thought.

Leon did not question this, settling back in his arms instead. For a long time, nothing was said, and even Leon’s thoughts were aimless. And then, suddenly, Leon’s thoughts drifted to the events of the past days again and all the painful feelings that came with it. Anger, bitterness, betrayal, disappointment, grief and self-revulsion rushed at him through their bond, and Joachim found himself crying the tears that Leon had never let fall as he was swept away in their flow. Guilt assailed him then for his own selfish fears. He’d never even considered how Leon must feel about having been turned into the creature he hated most by the man he’d once considered his best friend, unable to even see his own son properly one last time. All he had said and done in the aftermath was make his beloved feel worse by piling his own emotional baggage onto Leon’s already heavy heart.

“Truly, Leon, I am sorry,” he whispered, feeling utterly miserable in that instant.

What..?

I just realized how terribly selfish I have been all this time. Forgive me, Leon.

“Why are you in tears again?”

“Why are you not?” he riposted quietly.

It took Leon a long moment of confusion to realize that he had sensed his thoughts. “Oh…” I have long since tired of it; I think ten years is enough time to spend wallowing in misery for anyone.

Joachim scoffed softly in self-deprecation. I have no right to claim that I love you, do I? Everything that I have done… In all these ten years, I have forced you to be strong for us both, never giving much thought to your feelings. Every seemingly selfless thing I have done, I only did to keep you by my side. I do not deserve your love, and yet, desperately, I cling on to it, finding all means possible to keep you with me. Even now, I cannot be certain that I am not trying to guilt-trip you into staying by telling you all this… I am a terrible person, am I not?

“Joachim, what are you saying?”

He shook his head. “It is alright. Pay me no mind. I am making us both miserable.”

“Joachim… Surely you do not think…” Leon’s rich tenor trailed off, but his thoughts continued. If you have never seen me grieving in the last ten years, Joachim, it is because I really was happy whenever we were together. It has nothing to do with trying to be strong or anything that noble. I am not ashamed to cry before you because you know my reasons, and I know it would not lessen me in your eyes, so why would you think that you have forced me to do anything? If everything you have done has been to keep me with you, then you have certainly thought much about my feelings. How else would you succeed? Rightly you say that you are making us both miserable and for no reason at all!

He reached up to pet soft blond hair tenderly. Your kindness chafes me with the knowledge that I will soon be bereft of it.

Leon buried his face in the crook of his neck. I am sorry.

You have no cause to be apologizing to me.

Were it not for my trusting folly, we could have spent a lifetime together.

Just hearing that wish in your heart for someone like me is happiness enough…and it is really not your fault that he has lost all honour.

Not merely honour, Joachim, he has lost his mind! Leon shuddered in horror. Mathias has gone mad, completely! Oh God, the things he said! To think he has even construed his love for his dearest Elisabetha to possibly have been because she reminded him of me! How terrible, when he surely once loved her with all his heart!

Having that bastard’s voice in your head would do that to you.

Huh?

Walter. He has had ten years to poison your old friend’s thoughts with his mind games. I daresay it would be a miracle were he not driven insane by now.

Is he not dead?

If you recall, your former friend used the Crimson Stone to imprison his soul as a source of power. To use it as a power source, one must have a connection to the Stone and thus the soul trapped within it.

So you are saying that Mathias’ madness may be his fault? Joachim sensed Leon’s sudden hope.

He sighed. I am only saying it is a likely possibility. Who knows the mind of a madman?

Leon seemed somewhat disappointed at this, and Joachim felt a little jealousy creeping into his heart at how much the blond still cared for his former best friend despite everything that monster had done to him.

A madman I no longer have the power to stop… I never wanted to burden my descendants with this fate, but it appears that I am now deprived of a choice.

In truth, Joachim could think of an alternative way to possibly defeat Mathias, but it was a despicable path, and he was loathe to even suggest that Leon walk it. Besides, it was not a definite win, although considering the false vampire’s sexual interest in Leon, he would wager that it had a fairly high probability of success. Yet, even now, he could not be certain he was not just giving Leon hope to keep his beloved by his side for a life of sexual gratification. The very idea filled him with self-disgust; he felt sickeningly selfish, and it almost nauseated him to think that Walter may have been right about him all those years ago.

Fingers carded gently through his hair, interrupting his reverie of self-abhorrence. What are you thinking of?

He hesitated. A way to defeat him, he admitted at last.

Is there? Leon asked, interest piqued.

Perhaps, he answered reluctantly. It was something he hated himself for even thinking of, let alone proposing, but neither did he want to lie to his hunter.

Let us hear it then.

I…I am loathe to speak of something so despicable.

After what he has done, I doubt he is deserving of honourable treatment.

No, it is a terrible thing for you to do.

Leon grew hesitant now. What is it?

Joachim sighed again. Become an incubus and use his lust for you as a weapon against him, he confessed finally. Weaken him by draining his energy in order to destroy him.

Thankfully, Leon seemed disturbed by the thought. Then, suddenly, to Joachim’s horror, he sensed the blond seriously considering the idea. “Let me think about it,” Leon murmured.

“No!” he cried, a little more sharply than he’d intended. “I…” I would sooner lose you to the sunrise, surely…

“Hush,” the former Crusader whispered. “It’s a terrible idea, I know. Just…let me think about it. I have perhaps a day yet.”

Joachim opened his mouth to protest but, knowing the implications of his beloved’s deliberation, could not find the resolve to stop the other. He simply held on to the blond more tightly and closed his eyes against the self-loathing stirring in his heart. Walter was right. He was little more than a selfish child. He should be trying to persuade Leon against this terrible idea he should never even have thought up, but no, he was letting the part of himself that wanted Leon by his side always win his mental argument. It was truly despicable. He…couldn’t do this; he had to try, even if it hurt. Fighting down the pain of impending loss, he tried again.

“Leon…”

He sighed. His hunter had drifted to sleep while he had been wallowing in his self-hatred, exhausted both from the events of the previous days and their newly completed activities. He couldn’t possibly allow Leon to do this. It was an angel he loved, and even if it meant giving up what they had, he could not make his angel fall. Not for his sake; he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself. Promising himself he would try when they awoke despite his heart’s protests, Joachim closed his eyes and allowed himself to follow his lover into the temporary pleasant oblivion of slumber.

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A/N: Review? Please? ♥? *3*