WHERE: Dashrix's estate, Sato's residential attachment
WHEN: 16 FEB 1943, early morning WHO: Naoki Sato and Thirteen
[10:03] Naoki Sato had opted not to sleep in his bedroom. He'd come back as the dawn crested the horizon and thrown himself into the stream to wash, coming away with whatever bites the piranha had managed before he tore them away from his flesh. He was still bleeding from it likely, when he collapsed onto the grass of the yard encircled by his house proper, pale eyes staring up at the lightening sky. He'd left his clothing behind... and his violin. He'd have to fix that at some point but that point was certainly not now.
[10:08] Thirteen (aimee.frakture) had spent last night in her tower room but Naoki's emotional disquiet drew her as it always would. Rather than the tight fitted corsets and lace, Thirteen had on a floor length silk dress as the tightly laced corsets were starting to get just a little uncomfortable and as a rule, discomfort beyond the tight lacing wasn't something she enjoyed. Her bare feet were quiet but not supernaturally so and the silk rustling of her skirts was a soft whisper as she made her way through the entry to find Naoki nude and prone in the grass. "Naoki," Thirteen said softly, picking up the fabric of her skirt to lift it above her ankles so she could step down onto the pavers. "Your thoughts are... disordered." Her head tipped forward before she scrunched her nose as she saw the hallmarks of Luke's magic in his aether. "Oh, Naoki."
[10:16] Naoki Sato sat up suddenly when she approached. He'd smelled her before he heard the footsteps, the scent of her carrying on the air. Flickers of the night ran through his mind in a chaotic jumble, half-visible flashes before he tried to hide them away from her thoughts, as it to save her from the sight. He turned away from her, shaking his head. Taking a breath, he pushed himself to his feet. "He won't be bothering you again. Not... until the child is born. Before then I'll have to think of something to offer that might make his promise to stay away more permanent." He stepped away towards the bathroom, hoping to find something there that might... cover him. There was shame in being exposed, in having the growing stiffness of his cock visible after that ordeal. All he really managed was a towel, which he looped around his hips.
[10:21] Thirteen (aimee.frakture) just let out a soft little sigh as Naoki turned away. "You're ashamed," Thirteen said softly. "Naoki, you don't need to hide from me. I cannot be disappointed in you. You're my *maker*. His magic is clinging to you, still. He worked something on you, didn't he?" She stepped towards him, extending one pale hand, palm up towards him but not closing the distance. Her posture was patient, as if she'd stand there forever. "You made a trade? For me?" The worry in her voice thickened. Thirteen did not trust Luke's deals and well she shouldn't.
[10:28] Naoki Sato emerged from the bathroom and regarded her and that outstretched hand quietly. "You could learn to be, I'm sure. Your feelings are not restricted." He took tentative steps toward her, pausing when he was just close enough to reach an arm's length out to put his hand in hers. His fingers twitched as they touched, his eyes on the pale skin so similar to what he'd torn apart hours prior. "I made an offer. He accepted. I'm sure the Professor will be angry or disappointed... but I believe he'll leave you alone." He paused and sighed. "You have more to worry about from me. I think."
[10:34] Thirteen (aimee.frakture) wrapped her fingers around his, the pulse fluttering in her pale wrist a calm, steady beat below that white skin. "The Professor may be. He will also be worried. I am only worried about you." Those blue eyes, so like the ones he'd watched the life flee from in the graveyard were steady on his face, searching for answers - for understanding. "I am not afraid of what you can do to me, Naoki. I accept the violence that is part and parcel with your nature. I know that there is a threat to this vessel implicit in your nature." She took a step forward, closing the distance between them until she was tipping her head to look up the slight distance between their heights. "I can accept anything but your absence. That is the only outcome I fear."
[10:48] Naoki Sato stiffened as she approached him. He did not back away from her bit the caution on his face was clear, written in his eyes and in the way he bit the inside of his cheek. "I am," he said after taking another calming breath. "Afraid. I've seen what I can do to you. What I would do... to you." His hand rose and stroked fingertips through her hair. They touched her jaw, quivering there before he pulled them away. "It's more beautiful than you could imagine. And I'd do it again... and again. Will do it, probably. So long as he can find... bodies to possess, that look like you." Naoki shut his eyes, reliving some of the more visceral moments. He didn't focus on keeping her from those memories this time... even as they tented the front of that towel and left his mouth watering.
[11:07] Thirteen (aimee.frakture) went still under his touch. It could easily have looked like fear, except the pulse in her throat was steady and she turned her cheek towards the light touch, following his hand slightly when it pulled away. "Alright," Thirteen said simply. Accepting this as she did so much. This time, she lifted her hands to his face, tracing the dark vein along his jaw with a butterfly light touch. "My life - my death - they are yours, Naoki. You are my maker, my love, and my purpose. My existence began with you, it is only fitting that it end with you as well when the time comes. Though... I think you will miss this particular form. You have grown fond of it - as have I - so before you destroy this vessel, you should learn to remake it - or make another into it." Her hand fluttered down, then, lifting from his face to touch lightly the very slight curve of her belly - that secret that she had not yet shared outside of the two men to whom Thirteen owed her entire allegiance to.
[11:24] Naoki Sato lifted his hands to her own, taking her fingers, her palms and curling his own around them. The moment of tenderness was brief... longing in the dead boy's eyes to simply lean into that touch and enjoy the closeness for what it was.... but instead his grip tightened and he pulled them away from his face. "No. I refuse," he murmured, bringing her hands together to set them both on her abdomen. His eyes dropped to it and the life hidden behind it. "I refuse to claim your death or the end of this existence." He paced away from her, feet pressing into the grass. "How can I keep you safe when you so willingly offer yourself to me?" He flexed his hand, blood coursing over his skin to form claws on each of his fingers. The first swipe only cuts grass but the second scores deep into the wood of the nearest post. "He knows, too. He knows how willingly you'd let me take you. And he'll - keep. Pushing." Each halting word is marked with another rough swipe, blood lashing out at the ground, at the wood, catharsis for frustrations that have built despite - perhaps because of - his recent feast.
[11:55] Thirteen (aimee.frakture) tipped her head to the side, listening to his distress and her brow furrowed. She tipped her head to the other side then, gaze sliding away while he vented his frustrations, thoughts swirling behind her blue eyes. "I cannot be other than what I am... any more than you can but command me, Naoki. Tell me where the line to stop you should be and I can speak up for you when you are lost to yourself and your urges." She followed on quiet feet until her fingers traced up the line of his spine following each knob and curve. "If you truly need it of me, I would give you all that I am but you don't want that, so tell me where I should stop you. The control is yours still. I cannot push you back out of a sense of self preservation but I can stop you out of a desire to preserve your desires above all things else. That includes your desire for my existence to continue. You are right, I do have the ability to rationalize, to think, and to act when it is needed."
[12:00] Naoki Sato whirled around as she touched him, the clawed hand grasping at her throat. He drew her close, pressing the softness of her body against his own, taut and tense as it was. His eyes lowered to her lips, the blood coating his hand twitching clawed points against her skin, just shy of breaking it. He relaxed slowly, letting the red constructs liquefy and slide back down his arm, sliding through the skin to join the flow into his veins. His hand remained around her neck, adjusting to cup the back of it instead. "...I want you to stop me before I do anything the Professor or I can't fix," he said clearly. His other hand rose then too, both of them framing he face, fingers curled around the base of her skull. "...even if that means hurting me. Do you understand?"
[12:08] Thirteen (aimee.frakture) went utterly still, the pulse in her throat fluttering with the spike of adrenaline tinged with arousal. Her eyes half lidded, the pupils dilating to dark pools as her gaze followed his, utterly entranced. "Yes," Thirteen said simply. "I am to stop you before you do damage that can not be mended to this vessel regardless of what the damage to you might be. It is preferable to hurt you than to lose my vessel. I have gained better control of the aether flow now. For a time, I can pull the aether around me back even if it isn't mine." Her fingertips touched his skin, her hands on his wrists and for just a moment, the runes on her skin - instead of flickering with that pure light went dark on her skin, like the shadows the Professor controlled and for just a moment, Naoki felt a chill as her body pulled aether from him instead of letting it flow outward. It was not... entirely unlike a shadow of what the Fortune Vendor felt like, though a thin candlelight instead of a roaring inferno. Her lips curved in a shy smile, "Are you pleased? I know you worry when I am alone."
[12:13] Naoki Sato saw the dilation of pupils and heard the breathiness to her reply. He could tell she was aroused at the idea... of the feeling of his hand around her throat and that did absolutely horrific things to his self control. Without breaking her grip on him he kissed her, lips pressing fervently, hungrily against her own, pulling back only when the need to bite and taste became unmanageable. "Yes," he answered in kind. "Keep going. Make me let go," he demanded, his hands shifting their grip again to ring around her neck. Slowly, he began to squeeze... fingers carefully pinching in on her carotid arteries rather than seeking to put pressure on her windpipe. The jolt of sheer desire that ran through him at having his hands there, choking her could not have been hidden if he'd tried.
[12:18] Thirteen (aimee.frakture) sucked in a breath before Naoki's hand pressed down. She didn't hesitate, her hands still on his wrists and the dark flicker on her skin went so black that even the light around her dimmed. The grass below her feet wilted as the low level of Aether that served as their life was consumed. The chill of her touch became downright uncomfortable. More so, was the fact that her powers slid up his arms, stealing his ability to regenerate first and dulling his emotions. Instead of a fount of life, Thirteen became a drain to him, pulling on his energy until he either let go or was unable to keep his hands closed - or she passed out from the pressure on her throat.
[12:21] Naoki Sato let go, stumbling backward with his hands hanging limply at his sides, his posture hunched from the sheer... exhaustion of being so drained. He sat himself on the grass, focusing on what seemed like the monumental effort of breathing... but however dulled the feeling was, he felt... relieved. "...good," he murmured. There was the ghost of a smile as he looked up at her. Were he not recovering from having his Aether sapped, she'd likely have been able to pick up on the fact that he felt proud.
[12:25] Thirteen (aimee.frakture) let out a little breath, her shoulders sagging with the effort that sustaining that sort of draw took for her. "I am still learning," she admitted. "I will work harder though." Thirteen stepped forward, the stolen aether flickering along her skin, almost visible to the naked eye. She stepped forward and draped herself over his shoulders from behind, pressing a kiss to the crown of his head and with that pushing the stolen aether back into him though it didn't feel like his anymore. Once she'd claimed it, it had become her own and it was the usual warm flow that Naoki was used to rather than feeling like his stolen energy. "It is harder to do than the reverse but I thought it would be good to know, especially with the Professor's father having taken up residence in town.... and the child? How far shall I go to protect our child, Naoki?"
[12:35] Naoki Sato relaxed into her touch, sighing as he felt the energy warm him, easing the ache and emptiness. She could feel it, likely... the sense that even after her restoration something was missing, big chunks of the Jikininki missing when his mind ran over certain memories like potholes. "If I ... visit any damage on you that would harm the child.... stop me, regardless of whether or not it is reparable," he answered quietly. Our child. Those words had settled on him and seeped into his chest in a way he wasn't quite prepared for.
[12:43] Thirteen (aimee.frakture) stroked her hands over him, curving them over his skin as she absently traced over the lines of flesh and bone and the dark veins that traced over his skin. "Yes, Naoki," she said simply, quietly confident that she would manage regardless of their respective abilities, because he had given the command. She was silent for a long moment, and Naoki could feel the soothing warmth of her power as well as the light touch of her thoughts probing him lightly as she took stock of the injuries. "Your mind has been tampered with. Shall I untangle it?" Thirteen asked quietly as she began to tease apart the places Luke had touched and taken from the rest of what she knew so well. Naoki might notice the light touch and occasional slight draw from his aether as she teased off the lingering magical signature that was Luke and transformed it through the crucible of her own body into raw aether once more to feed back into him.
[12:53] Naoki Sato sounded for a moment like he was about to protest. His lips parted but remained that way, no sound issuing from them beyond another sigh as he leaned against her, the gentle touches and curative warmth of her abilities helping to ease the ache of what had been taken. She found the memories, black and white and hollow. Once she began to restore them properly she felt him gasp. Naoki's hands shot to hers, grabbing at them tightly without letting go. The return of so much weight to those moments was jarring.
[12:59] Thirteen (aimee.frakture) made a soothing noise in her throat, letting Naoki grab her hands to anchor in as tightly as he needed. Unfortunately, there wasn't much Thirteen could do to gentle the restoration as Naoki experienced each memory in fresh and vivid detail despite her deft touch. She couldn't restore them like Luke had taken them, building up the layers one by one. She could only find the holes and replace them whole. Naoki might sense ghost fragments in those memories of Thirteen's own feelings and impressions as she'd carried the impressions of them like valued treasures in her times wrapped in and around his thoughts. "It's alright... It's alright. I'm here. This much, at least, I can mend." When the last memory snapped into place like a dislocated bone shoved back into socket, Thirteen leaned in to ghost another kiss along his skin. "Though not without pain, I'm afraid."
[13:08] Naoki Sato shook, trembling as each memory was fitted back into place, wholly restored with the remnant touch of Thirteen's own impressions added to them. Once it was all back he turned and flung his arms around her, outright tackling her into the grass, his own chest heaving as he held her tightly to himself, his face tucked in against her neck, the warmth of his breath as he panted moving against her rune-marked skin. He didn't seem keep on moving from that position, curled up next to and half on top of her and for once not attempting to bite or claw at her flesh.
[13:12] Thirteen (aimee.frakture) let out a startled noise, more of a little gasp of breath before her arms slid around him in return until they were as tangled physically as they were mentally. /I have you/ It was less words and more impression and feeling, the steadfast certainty that could sometimes scare him so much in her willingness to be subsumed for once working as an anchor in the storm. Her chin rested against his temple, her pulse steady and calm. Her body was a little softer in some places, the curve of her breasts fuller but the touch was familiar regardless. She hummed softly, wordlessly, a little snatch of tune that he'd played for her so long ago when she was without form or voice. "I have you," she told him simply. "And I will not let him take you away."