Toshiya glanced at his new companion. So he was alone too? Lost his Ryutaro to the humans, were there still vampire slayings in this age of science? Toshiya himself hadn’t believed until Mana’s abduction. Waking up tied to Mana’s cold bed had been interesting indeed, Toshiya gritted his teeth at the thought.

Before long they arrived at Kaoru’s large run down house at the edge of the city. Vines clung to its ledges and the gardens were large plots of weeds but Toshiya said nothing as he followed Kaoru to the door. Unlocking the heavy front door Kaoru moved inside the pitch-black house. Toshiya warily followed but stopped at the flutter of wings inside the darkness. A white candle abruptly lit and Kaoru stood in the small entry hall with a raven on his shoulder.

"Oh." Toshiya stepped closer to admire the bird. "Is he yours?" He moved to touch it.

The raven let out an angry squawk and took a peck at Toshiya’s fingers that were quickly withdrawn.

"No, Ryutaro’s." Kaoru replied coldly, tapping the raven’s beak by way of reprimand. "Follow me."

Toshiya and the bird glared daggers at each other as Kaoru lead the way into the dark basement. Opening the first door on the left Kaoru went in and lit four candles inside the apparent guestroom. It had a large four poster bed, a bedside table, a wardrobe and a closet but the walls were bare.

"This will be your room." Kaoru announced. "If you need me I’m upstairs." And he made to leave.

"Thank you." Toshiya called after him quietly. "I’m sure the last thing you want is a house guest but I do appreciate it."

Kaoru paused but didn’t look back. "Get some sleep. I’ll take you to eat when you get up." And he quickly left, closing the door behind him.

"You know what?" Toshiya released his bunny onto the bed. "I think I want to go back…at least Mana talked to me."

*

True to his word Kaoru was waiting in his living room when Toshiya awoke. The rooms many bookshelves were full and Kaoru sat on the dusty old couch with the raven settled in his lap. The raven squawked and flew off as soon as Toshiya entered the room.

"Ready to go?" Kaoru put down his book.

"You wouldn’t happen to have any clothes I could borrow?" Toshiya unhappily tugged at his frilly shirt.

"Oh yeah. I grabbed a couple things I thought might fit you." Kaoru got to his feet and made his way to the dirty looking kitchen. A small pile of clothes sat on the table and Kaoru handed them to Toshiya. "Hurry up though, I have plans tonight."

Taking the hint Toshiya quickly changed into a pair of Kaoru’s faded jeans and an overly large T-shirt.

Kaoru took Toshiya to a smutty part of town and quickly fed the younger vampire with a pair of hookers that he knew and trusted. He paid them well and drove Toshiya home with barely three sentences passing between them. Toshiya found himself wondering if this was how he would be surviving from now on. He somehow pictured the life of a vampire would be more glamorous. He glanced again at Kaoru, he was in mourning, maybe that’s why he seemed so…grumpy.

Taking the initiative Toshiya turned down the radio. "So what are you doing tonight?"

"Die and Shinya have something planned for me." Kaoru replied, glancing at Toshiya from the corner of his eye. "I’ll give you a key when we get home, you can come and go as you like."

Toshiya frowned. Come and go? Where would he go? Who could he talk to now that he was…what he was? He only knew Kaoru and Yoshiki but Yoshiki probably didn’t want to entertain him. He was probably too busy searching for Mana. He couldn’t just invite himself along, Kaoru didn’t like him enough as it was. "Thanks." He said at last. "I think I’ll stay home tonight."

Kaoru nodded and parked the car in front of his house, leaving it running. Once again leading Toshiya inside Kaoru dug a set of keys out of the small desk by the door and tossed them to Toshiya. "I don’t know when I’ll be back." And he left Toshiya to search for a candle in the dark and empty house.

After three matches and two dive-bombs by Ryutaro’s cackling raven Toshiya got a candle lit. Cursing at the bird he lit all the candles on the main floor and basement in an attempt to banish the cold loneliness creeping into his heart. With the rooms fully lit Toshiya could now see what a terrible mess the place was.

"It looks like he hasn’t dusted in a year." Toshiya muttered, running a finger over a coffee table and wrinkling his nose at the dust. "Well, since I’m not paying any rent." He put his black rabbit up on the couch to nap, gave a stern look to the raven and went to find Kaoru’s cleaning supplies.

It took him most of the night to clean the main floor, his room and the basement bathroom. The rest of the basement was full of old boxes that Toshiya elected to leave alone, for now. Once everything was cleaned within an inch of its life Toshiya had a seat next to his bunny and sighed. At some point Ryutaro’s raven had left and Toshiya found himself regarding the stairs to the second floor warily. Kaoru wasn’t home and since the sun was coming up he probably wouldn’t be home till the sun went down again. Or so Toshiya hoped, Mana had never been to clear on that point. Toshiya only had movies to base his knowledge on and that wasn’t very helpful.

"Well I can’t leave the job unfinished can I?" Toshiya asked his rabbit before standing. Grabbing a candle Toshiya made his way upstairs to see what cleaning he could do with out being called a snoop…which he was. The door to the left was wide open so Toshiya stepped lightly inside.

"Kaoru’s room." Toshiya muttered as he lit the three candles in the room. In one corner was a pile of clothes next to the closed closet. Kaoru’s unmade, relatively plain bed sat against the wall across the room from the closet. The only other furniture was a bedside table and a desk littered with what looked like music sheets. Creeping closer Toshiya noticed the electric guitar and amp hidden just beyond the desk. Careful not to disturb the mess of paper on the desk Toshiya picked up the picture frame that had been lying face down. In it Kaoru and a dark haired man with haunting almond eyes stood beside Kaoru’s car smiling. "Must be Ryutaro. Kind of sickly looking guy…" Toshiya remarked quietly. "But Kaoru does look much better with a smile."

Movement in the corner of his eye alerted Toshiya to some presence in the mass of sheets on Kaoru’s bed. Half fearing it to be that damned raven Toshiya quickly stood and warily approached after replacing the picture frame on the desk. Ready for anything Toshiya grabbed onto the sheet and threw it back. Big brown eyes regarded Toshiya dolefully and Toshiya’s dread of the raven was quickly replaced with warmth for the large black kitten curled up in the bed’s heart. "You must be Kaoru’s." Toshiya whispered and gently rubbed the black bobcat kitten behind the ears. "I must say that I prefer you to Mana’s viper. It gave me the shivers."

Careful to tuck the kitten back in Toshiya moved back to the desk to inspect the music sheets. The top half of the pile was dark and angry ballads with lonely chords. Then abruptly the music had lyrics written in a curly dark scroll. The lyrics were amazingly poetic and Toshiya decided it must have been Ryutaro who wrote them. "He must have the sheet organized by when they were written. When Ryutaro stops writing Kaoru’s chords get harsher."

Somewhere something crashed and Toshiya started. Carefully replacing the music on the pile he stood and made his way back into the hall. Another clunk took Toshiya to the farthest door to the left of the stairs. Gently pushing open the door he peeked warily into what could only have been Ryutaro’s bedroom. The bed covers were slightly wrinkled as if someone had recently sat on its edge and various trinkets, posters and objects were strewn across the floor. Toshiya made to step inside when the raven flew out from under the desk and streaked passed Toshiya’s head screaming. Toshiya scrambled to get down the stairs while the raven made fly-by wing attacks. Down another flight of stairs Toshiya dived inside his room and kicked the door closed to end the attack. Panting Toshiya sat down on the bed and tried to slow his heart, berating himself for allowing the raven to frighten him. Fuming Toshiya climbed into bed and pulled the sheets up over his head.

*

Kaoru returned in the late afternoon and stepped quietly into a fully lit, clean house. Confused and surprised he blew out the candles in the foyer and stepped into the equally clean living room where Taro’s raven was pecking at a throw pillow.

"Did Toshiya do this?" he asked the bird, touching the now clean coffee table. The raven let out and angry trill and darted up the stairs. Wondering what was bothering the bird Kaoru moved towards the kitchen but Toshiya’s rabbit emerging warily from under the throw pillow stopped him. Suddenly realizing what the bird had been up to he scooped up the bunny, whispering apologies. Thinking Toshiya must be in bed he headed for the basement stairs and Toshiya’s room.

A single candle burned on Toshiya’s bedside table gently lighting his sleeping face, corn braids strewn around him. Kaoru moved to the edge of the bed and set down the bunny, letting it burrow under the sheets. "I haven’t been the best host, have I?" he muttered then frowned. "But I don’t need someone around to look after me like Yoshiki seems to think I do." Still frowning he blew out the candle and left the room leaving the door open.

*

"You are not welcome here."

Toshiya opened his eyes to meet Ryutaro’s angry brown ones. Ryutaro had his hand on Toshiya’s chest and Toshiya couldn’t move. His eyes searched the room but everything was warped, black and white, except for Ryutaro’s eyes.

"Do you think you can just waltz in and replace me? Kaoru doesn’t even like you! You’re a burden and that’s all you’ll ever be!"

Toshiya frantically shook his head, the only movement he could seem to manage.

"You know what you are?" Ryutaro’s lips curled into a cruel smirk as his nails began to dig into Toshiya’s chest. "You’re Mana’s bitch!"

*

Toshiya awoke and with a startled squawk the raven lifted off and flew from the room. Looking down at his chest Toshiya found blood dappled holes where the ravens’ talons had punctured the skin. Breathing heavily he looked out the open door. "Ryutaro?" he breathed.

Kaoru was seated on his couch in the living room when Toshiya stormed to the front door. "What’s wrong? What happened?" Kaoru set down his book.

"Like you care!" Toshiya snarled as he searched for his shoes, black bunny a bulge in the belly pocket of Kaoru’s old sweatshirt. "But just for you information your stupid bird attacked me!" And he pulled on his shoes.

"Where are you going?" Kaoru stood. "And what do you mean attacked?"

Toshiya let out a humorless chuckle. "Where do you think I’m going? I’m going to go find an angry mob with some sharp and pointy sticks! It’s not like I can go to my parents like this! Or my friends for that matter! ‘Mind if I hang with you guys? Bite proof guarantee!’ I don’t think so! And I’m not going to hang around here with you ignoring my existence! I am not going to feed off hookers and wear your hand-me-downs for eternity! Not to mention Ryutaro who wants me here even less than you do!" Toshiya pointed angrily at the raven that had come to land on the banister to the stairs. "So fuck you! And fuck your dream-haunting bird boy friend!" Toshiya pulled out the house keys Kaoru had given and tossed them at the raven, who barely managed to dodge, before storming out of the house and slamming the door.

"What did you do?" Kaoru yelled at the raven who cringed. "Yoshiki’s going to kill me!" He ran for the door and pulled it open. "Toshiya wait!" but the front walk was empty of everything but the suddenly pouring rain.

*

The demon crossed his arms over his chest and regarded the angel still asleep on his couch. Levin’s wing was resting on the coffee table, a towel under the remains of the other one, and a cool cloth on his forehead. Wondering what the hell he thought he was doing rescuing angels he headed for the kitchen.

Loud knocking brought him rushing back to the front door.

"C’mon Kyo! Wake up!" a female voice bellowed and the demon frantically unlocked the door and peeked out.

"Shut up Sheena! He’s sleeping!" Kyo hissed.

Sheena’s eyebrow raised. "Oh? Got a boyfriend in there? Let me see!"

"No! No!" Kyo tried to keep the door only open a crack but Sheena slipped inside any ways.

She stopped cold as soon as she spotted the sleeping figure. Turning back to Kyo she harshly whispered. "Kyo! That’s an angel!"

"I know that!"

"Where’s his other wing? Did you?

"Of course not!"

"Why do you have an angel in your living room?"

"He was getting attacked, I stopped them."

"So you brought him home?"

"Well I couldn’t leave him there! Look at him! He’s been asleep for days!"

"He’s an angel! Let them deal with it!"

"They’re the ones that pulled his wing off!"

Sheena’s jaw dropped. "You’re joking!"

Kyo shook his head. "Two of them ganged up on him."

"It must be worse up there than I thought … Angels turning on angels?"

"Who knows. If you can’t trust an angel who can you trust?"

A quiet groan silenced the pair and they turned to regard the angel who reached up to take the cloth off his head. Kyo pushed passed Sheena to assist Levin in sitting up. "Hey. How are you feeling? Need some Advil or something?"

Levin shook his head as his wing withdrew before he actually opened his eyes.

With a startled yelp Levin jumped to his feet, withdrawing from Kyo as if he’d burned him. "Demon!" he pointed at Kyo accusingly.

"Keep that thing to yourself, holy-boy!" Sheena gently slapped Levin’s finger down. "Try savior."

Levin’s eyes narrowed in concentration as he looked at Kyo. "The scream that scared them?" He bit his lip and abruptly crumpled, Sheena barely able to catch him before he hit the floor. "Why didn’t you just let them kill me?" he wailed while Sheena lay him on the couch.

"I’d done enough damage by not interfering earlier." Kyo replied, sitting on his coffee table.

"You’re supposed to be a demon!"

"They were supposed to be angels!"

"I’d rather be dead than half an angel! I’m a gimped freak!"

"Hey! You aren’t gimped! You’re just flight impaired!"

Levin just frowned.

"Hey." Sheena interrupted. "You’ve got a job to do Levin. It’s a damn good thing Kyo stopped them or it would go unfinished!"

Levin’s jaw dropped wondering how she knew who he was and of his mission.

"And maybe a demon is just what you need to help you complete that mission." And with that Sheena made her exit leaving the pair to sort out her words.