A Blood Bag

Aodh sat on the plain mattress that used to be his bed, a blood bag laid out in front of him.

His face was drawn into a less than happy expression.

He had come to the privacy of his old room so Aeker didn't find him and question why he had a blood bag with him.

It'd be too embarrassing to explain that he was trying to get used to the scent of blood so the vampire didn't have to be alone when he ate any more.

He opened the bag and grimaced as the scent of blood assaulted his nose.

The sun had just set and Aeker rolled out of bed with a soft groan, blurry eyed he glanced around the room as he got dressed, throwing on his loose fitting pajama pants, which he rarely wore to bed nowadays and a black t-shirt.

Tonight he didn't plan on doing much, every other night had been so hectic that he just wanted to relax.

He exited the room as he tied his hair up in a pony tail, trudging down the hallway as he headed towards the library, he wanted something new to read, perhaps research the trip Aodh and him were planning.

The scent of blood hit him when he crossed the room that use to belong to Aodh, that was odd, it was a rarity that you caught that smell around here.

He sniffed the air for a moment, Aodh?
What was he doing back in his old room, he pushed the door ajar slightly, not enough for anyone to notice, if he was wrong about who was inside he did not want to be interrupting people.

His brows inched together slightly as he peeked inside, what the hell was Aodh doing?

He lifted an hand to rub at his nose as it wrinkled in disgust.

Yeah, blood was still just as terrible smelling as it always had been.

But, instead of getting up and leaving like he usually would, he kept himself rooted on the bed, forcing himself to deal with the scent of blood.

The more accustomed to the scent of blood he was, the less it'd affect him. Well, that was his philosophy at least.

Aeker leaned against the door frame and watched him for a moment, he was just sitting there holding an open blood bag.

He swung the door open and cleared his throat to get the wolf's attention without startling him too much.

He stepped inside and closed the door behind him, walking over to the wolf with a rather confused look on his face.

"..Aodh..what are you doing?"
He asked with a small amount of concern in his voice, the wolf hated the smell of blood, why would he be doing this to himself.

All the blood drained from his face when he heard someone behind him clear his throat.

Shit, busted.

His white face quickly became red when Aeker spoke.

He didn't reply. He didn't even move. If he stayed absolutely still perhaps Aeker would just leave?

Yeah fucking right.

"Aodh..."

He said again, a little more concern filling his voice as he walked around to kneel in front of the man, looking at his flushed face before peering down at the blood bag.

"What are you doing with this?"

He asked, tentatively taking the bag from his hands as his brows inched together, there was no reason that a lycan would need a blood bag, least of all a lycan who could not stand the stuff.

"Nothing."

His eyes didn't raise to meet Aeker's. He kept his gaze on the mattress.

He was far too embarrassed. The only reason he had chosen this room was because he thought Aeker wouldn't come in here.

Dammit.

"Nothing at all." He stood abruptly and headed towards the door. Would he be able to make it there without the vampire stopping him?

He could not comprehend what was happening, all he knew was that his partner was keeping secrets from him.

"Aodh stop."
He got to his feet swiftly and grabbed the man's wrist before he could run off.

"Please.."
He said pleadingly as he gazed at the lycan with worried crimson eyes.

"You're keeping something from me, what's wrong?"

He bit his lips, tugging uselessly at the hand around his wrist, cheeks still flaming bright red.

The Lycan muttered something unintelligible under his breath as he lifted his free hand to tuck a lock of hair behind his ear.

God, why did he have to be caught?

He'd rather deal without this embarrassment.

Aeker sighed and let go of his wrist, bringing his hand up to stroke the man's scarlet cheeks.

"When will you realize that you don't need to be so embarrassed around me, I'm not going to judge you or poke fun at you."

Those were all things Aodh would do. He shook his head softly and sat back down on the edge of the bed, fiddling with the blood bag which he had resealed.

"If you don't want to tell me that's fine, you're worrying me though."

He admitted, looking back over at the wolf.

He leaned into the hands stroking his cheeks, eyes flicking up to meet his vampire's before dropping again.

"I'mtryingtogetusedtothescentofblood," he muttered slightly louder but no slower.

He knew that he shouldn't really have been embarrassed about it. He was getting used to the scent of blood, not writing mushy love poems to the man.

But the red in his cheeks still wouldn't die down at all.

That was more embarrassing than anything else.

Trying to...oh....

He placed the resealed blood bag back on the bedside table and stood to stroke Aodh's cheek again.

"Why would you feel the need to do that? I've been careful not to let blood be around you."

Had his attempts failed? He always washed the blood down with something else to drown out the taste if Aodh were to kiss him, then after every meal he made sure to brush his teeth.

He'd been so careful to not disgust the wolf but it seemed to not be working if he was trying to desensitize himself.

His eyes flickered up again and he leaned into the gentle touch.

"That's it, though. You're being careful. You're going out of your way to make sure I don't smell or taste it." His arms slid around the vampire's slim waist and he pulled him forwards, burying his face in his neck.

He didn't want to cause trouble for the vampire.

"If I get used to blood, you won't have to be so careful. It'll make life easier for you."

Aodh buried his face deeper in the vampire's neck, hiding his face as his cheeks flushed a little darker.

"Oh Aodh."
He wrapped his arms around the man, kissing his forehead softly.

"You don't have to put yourself through this for my sake, doing those extra things to make sure you're comfortable around me really does not bother me that much."

He held the man close, stroking the back of his hair lovingly.

"I'd rather stop drinking blood all together than have you punish yourself by forcing something you hate upon yourself.

"I want to do this."

He pursed his lips then sighed. "While we're travelling, we won't always have the time to do everything. And I really don't want to cringe away from you when we kiss just because you didn't have time to brush your teeth after you ate." Drank. Same difference.

His fingers ran through Aeker's silver hair

"I want to learn how to get used to blood." He really did. He'd go through this every day if it'd help him get used to blood.

A smile spread across the vampire's lips as he leaned down to kiss the lycan softly.

"I really do appreciate this Aodh, I just want you to be comfortable around me,
But at the same time I don't like the idea of you forcing this upon yourself.

I nearly had a heart attack when I could smell blood and your scent do closely mixed together in the hallway, I started to think the worst.

I don't understand why you didn't mention this to me in the first place."

If he could Aeker wanted to help Aodh through this, it was for his sake after all.

He returned the soft kiss, eyes sliding shut.

"Am I the kind of person to force things on myself if I dont want to do them?" he asked. If he didn't want to do something and had the choice not to do it, he wouldn't do it. End of story.

Aodh arched a brow, silver eyes sliding open. "What, did you think I had massacred someone? I may not be the epitome of controlled Lycan, but I do have some control."

He grinned toothily at the man.

Aodh blushed again, eyes flickering away. "Iwantedtosurpriseyou." That idea had quite happily kicked itself out the window, but oh well. He was sure with a little bit of thought, he'd find another way to surprise his boyfriend.

The vampire chuckled softly, brushing his lips against Aodh's.

"Definitely not, I just never thought that this would be the sort of thing that you would ever want."

Aeker smiled and shook his head.
"No I didn't think you killed someone, before I realized that it wasn't your blood for a split second I thought maybe one of our siblings found out about us."

He admitted, it had only been for a second that he had thought that, but he knew the smell of the wolf's blood well enough to shake that thought before he burst into the room.

"You have surprised me, Without a doubt."

He grinned down at the lycan, very few things could shock the vampire, this had managed to.

"If the past week hadn't happened, I wouldn't ever want it," he replied.

He wouldn't learn to do anything that made him even slightly uncomfortable for anyone; it had to be close friends and family. He didn't have any vampire's close enough learn to stand blood before last week.

Aodh sighed softly. "Maybe next time I should warn you when I have blood around then, aye?"

That thought would have made him panic; a lot. He felt a little guilty for causing the man to worry.

The Lycan stuck his tongue out childishly. "Yeah, well I wanted to surprise you with breakfast in bed or something but that plan's gone cock-eyed."

He'd have liked to see Aeker's totally surprised face when Aodh appeared at sunset with a glass of blood for him; the vampire not knowing that he didn't mind blood any more.

"Yeah, that would be a good idea, I've been having-
Never mind."

He stopped himself, replacing the slight grimace that appeared on his face with a warm smile. 

He chuckled softly.
" That sounds like a wonderful way to wake up, shame I ruined it.

Next time you are planning a surprise might I suggest doing to during the day, no way I could catch you plotting then.

Though dining together still sounds like nice experience, once you can eat with the smell of blood around I'd like to be able to have dinner together, that would be a first."

"You've been having?" He arched a brow curiously.

His mind immediately jumped to nightmares. Had the vampire been having nightmares? Or was he just jumping the gun?

"Mhmm, you'll never know what it's like to be surprised with breakfast in bed." He sighed dramatically ad turned his back on the man, pressing the back of his hand to his forehead. "All this effort I went through and you ruined it."

"...I did. I've been staring at it since lunch."

He had gone down to the kitchen to make himself lunch and spent the entire meal staring at the door to the refrigerated room.

After he had cleaned up after himself, he had grabbed a blood bag and disappeared into his room. He had spent the following hours staring at the bag trying to pluck up the courage to open it.

Nightmares...during the day...

"It would seem that some of my fears have been seeping into my dreams."

He shuddered softly, his last few days had been plagued with these dreams, ever since Aodh fixed him up from Alexis' attack.

The vampire sighed and tried to shake the images from his mind, he did not want to think about that right now.

"Since lunch?
Geez, well now that I know at least I can try and help you through this if it is really something you want to do."

He couldn't believe that he had spent all this time trying to expose himself to the smell of blood, Aodh was actually dedicated to doing this.

The Lycan sighed softly and turned around again, wrapping his arms around the vampire.

"I would say they're not real, but you seem the type to not be worried by something unless it could be real." He was pretty sure outlandish dreams that made no sense would scare the man to the point where he shuddered.

Aodh didn't pry and ask what the vampire had dreamt of. If Aeker wanted to tell him, he would.

He nodded. "It is." His eyes flickered to the bag lying on the bed. "How're you planning on helping me?"

"No, my dreams could be a very real possibility."
He murmured, holding the man tight as he nestled his head in his lover's neck.

"Your brother finds out about us and loses it.
It's during the day and I am helpless to save you from his wrath."

He sighed heavily and shut his eyes, he didn't want to be thinking about this right now.

"We could try associating the smell of blood with something good instead of what you associate it with."

He replied with a shrug.

"Ah."

Yes, that was a very real and very frightening possibility. One that had plagued his thoughts more often than he'd care to admit.

"We're being careful," he murmured after a few moments. "He hasn't found out yet." He hoped his brother didn't find out for a good long while. Not until the tow of them leave for a few years, hopefully...?

His eyes turned from the bag, to Aeker and back again. That wasn't a bad idea.

"Bring on the rainbows and fluffy kittens, then," he said, pulling away from Aeker and padding back towards the bed.