Block A 「Nishimura Riki」

22

Time paused for an excruciatingly long moment that it made Eiko belatedly conscious about her choice of words.

Eyes drowned in perplexity stared back at her at the absurd order, Riki's expression twisted in the presence of blasphemy.

The television had been paused and that's why there was a buzzing ringing present in the depths of her ears.

She had confirmed that the others were looking at her as well after she tentatively looked up to check if the feeling  of their gazes was simply an illusion of her mind.

"What? Why?"

"I need to confirm if I'm right about something. I'll get used to the feeling eventually," she explained, making a point in case he was worried.

"Ei..." Riki mumbled quietly.

There he went with the nickname again, Eiko felt the strength in her to hold her arm up atrophy and it dropped to her side as if it went limp.

"Feeding isn't what you think it is," he added, drawing her curiosity in.

"What do you mean by that?" Eiko questioned. If there was something she didn't know she wanted to know it immediately. It's to better grasp the situation, help her make decisions, to sate her interest.

He sighed and looked away like he was searching for confirmation from the others. It took him a while to get the courage to look at Eiko again.

Just as he did, the other three jumped into conversation as if the entire interaction was scripted. (It was really just Jake talking about anything he could possibly land his mind on obnoxiously loud while Jay and Sunghoon listened to him.)

"Consensual feeding means something different to us. It's not just about helping people out."

Though because he didn't get straight to the point it didn't aid Eiko in guiding her thoughts to what he could be implying. "So what is it about?"

"Uh...it's a dating thing. It shows the status of your relationship, something like that," Riki simply answered but he spoke nervously like his voice was forced out of its threshold.

Eiko could feel her heart jolt though she wasn't notably shocked. It made sense why he was halting the first time since she understood why. But it made Eiko feel a little flustered as she wondered if that's how Riki took it as when he fed from her.

The meaning behind it didn't bother her. She wasn't dating Riki, but now that she knew about it she was even more sure that she wanted to do this.

"Okay." She gazed at her arm again to see if the wound could sustain another bite. It would hurt since it's recent but she can handle it.

Eiko held her arm out again and saw Riki's eyes widen since he wasn't expecting it. "You can do it."

Riki hastily pushed her arm away. "Wait-What is it that you need to confirm?"

The question subsided her slight disappointment from the subtle rejection, assuming that he didn't do it because he wanted the context first.

"That they're avoiding me because of you. Your bite must've done something to make all of those vampires avoid me."

"Then isn't it better for us to see after it dies down if possible? We won't know if it's the cause if you try it out while it's already going on," Riki reasoned.

Eiko instantly nodded. That was the smarter option anyway

"It's late. Maybe we should try to go to sleep, a lot has happened today anyway," he suggested, carefully caressing the area around the puncture injuries.