Ari started towards Auovin, but Sai pressed him back behind him. It did not register with Ari then how Auovin would take to Sai and Sai would take to him. And how he looked took Ari aback for some seconds. Why was he like that and in so much blood?

"Why do you look like that?" Sai said.

Auovin continued to wipe the blood from off his face as he walked closer.

"Why? Well, if you would have cleaned up here--" Auovin made a quick gesture of motioning all around him. "--Then I would not have had to."

Auovin cut his eyes from Sai to him, causing Ari to only stare, unsure of what to do next. He did not want Sai and Auovin to get into a confrontation because of him. Though Auovin did not express it with his voice, Ari could tell that he was angry just by the emotion seen in his eyes. With him or with Sai, Ari could not tell.

"Clean yourself up then. You look rather frightful, like a true beast," Sai said with some dislike sifting through his voice. "This young one should not have to see you as you truly are. A beast from the sands."

Auovin scoffed before shaking his head and growing closer to them. It made Ari sink his nails deep into the thin shirt Sai was wearing. Soon he stood in front of him and pressed a wary hand against Auovin's chest, stopping him for a moment.

"He is a friend. He has helped me... so do not hurt him," Ari said softly, hoping Auovin would take what he was saying into some consideration.

Auovin only lifted his chin up with a finger dripping blood. He looked at him with those same eyes that looked as if he wanted to devour him time and time again. Ari steadied himself when Auovin bent down as if to kiss him. Instead, he sniffed his neck and backed away once satisfied.

"He did not harm you?" Auovin asked, looking at him as if he was going to bite him if he lied.

Like all the times before this, all he did was worry and care for him. It mattered not what he looked like and so much as what he did to find him, Ari thought, trying to reason with himself. He was not a terrible person even though he had done terrible things. He was not.

Ari gave him a small smile before shaking his head no. He looked back at sigh and motioned for him to go back in. It would be best to keep them separate for now until both their moods had settled and grown use to one another.

"Are you sure?" Auovin asked again, pressing for more.

"He took care of me was all." Ari intertwined his fingers with his. He did not care much for the blood coating them. After all the years spent at the Khaeo, the sight of so much of it did not bother him in the slightest. He just wondered what he had done and if he had done it for the right reasons was all.

Ari looked around searching for Cyrus. When he could not be found, he set his eyes back on the pair of honeyed ones staring at him. It made him feel so small and young, his gaze did. There was the feel of ages and power wafting from there the more he looked on. Truly, he wondered then just how old he was and where he had come from.

"Where is--" Ari stopped himself before he said his name. He had not given him it, so he would not say it. He tucked in his bottom lip and shook his head. "Nevermind. Let us speak inside. You must be tired. As tired as your need for a bath."

That caused Auovin to laugh and tighten his hold on his. He followed him inside without argument which was strange. Ari soon came to learn the reason as to why. Cyrus had a blade to Raoul's neck. Sai rose from the floor covered in broken glass and vases. There were many cuts along his arms and lower torso that made Ari drop Auovin's hand and go towards him. However, Auovin grabbed his wrist and yanked him back like a rag doll.

"They are friends!" Ari said with furrowed brows. "You cannot harm them."

"I cannot what now?" Auovin said, looking at him with meaning. "I can do whatever I so please. If I so wish it, it is done. It matters not what feelings of yours are set between."

"You are angry with me," Ari whispered.

"No one told you to go anywhere." His eyes narrowed down on him as if he was something small and insignificant.

"Then be angry with me. Let them go."

Auovin cracked his neck before throwing up a hand. Cyrus gave a nod and moved away from Raoul causing Ari to rush over to him. Sai was walking over towards them, but Ari pressed two hands onto his chest, trying to stop him. Truly, he did not want them to fight. It would end in the death of one of them and he did not wish it for either of them.

"It was a misunderstanding was all. Please stop this. If you do not want blood, then let this sit still. Forgive him this one time. He lacks manners and respect for others feelings, I know this." Sai looked at him and closed his eyes in agreement. He walked over to Ra instead, checking his wounds and if he was still conscious.

"I heard rumors of you taking in a human child," Auovin said stepping on the glass. It cracked and shattered more under his feet. "Have you sunk so low now? Do you truly think the humans will accept you as you are if you do not drink blood and do not associate yourself with your own kind?" Auovin kicked some fallen plants out of his way. "It will not happen. It will not ever happen."

"Auovin, leave him be. If this is what he wants, then let it be. So what if he wants something different from you. We are not all the same and you should not chastise him for it."

Auovin licked his lips and stepped closer to Ari, causing him to take wary steps away from him. His heart fell into his stomach just as his back bumped against a chair. The way he looked at him and moved made him realize he truly was something far from human. Auovin made no attempt at hiding it either. No, rather he embraced it fully. Something Ari was consciously wary of. He did not want to become like that. He was not human, but he was no beast either.

When he felt his back hit the table, Auovin's hand coated in blood, grabbed his chin and pushed it back, revealing all of his neck to him. However, he did not bite him as he thought he would.

"You should be more worried about yourself," Auovin growled in his ear. The point of his fangs was felt on his earlobe. It pricked his skin, causing blood to surface. He did not have to see it to know it.

"Why are you so angry with me? Cy-- He told me to leave," Ari mumbled, coaxing down the pleasure that bite gave him. Why was his body betraying him at such a time like this?

"I sent for you," Auovin said with glaring eyes.

"Sent for me..."

"At the encampment that you were at. I sent for you then and you ran away."

Ari blinked a couple times. He did not want the surprise to register on his face, but he would have never thought Auovin would be able to do such a thing with those demons.

"Those demons... "

"What did you think they were doing?" Auovin turned his head to look at him directly. "No matter where you run or how far you run, I will always find you. Blood does not lie."

Ari pushed away from him, but Auovin wrapped an arm around his waist and drew him even closer than before. Auovin's breath kissed his lips and it took all of him not to shudder. How could he become this way when he looked the way he did and said the words he said? He was not a good person nor would he ever be. Still, the pressing need to kiss his lips lingered.

"Leave the young one be, Auovin."

As soon as Auovin loosened his hold on him, Ari found his blinding lust dissipating.

"You are in my home, so you must adhere to my rules and do as I say." Auovin unwrapped his arm from around him and approached Sai.

"You are as priggish as you always have been. Centuries of wear and tear had not changed you." As icy as those words were the way they came from his lips, they sounded like sweet-nothings which made Ari eye him more keenly.

What was their relationship to one another? Sai knew his name and the way they spoke to each other made Ari believe they were once close. Once close enough to share in one another's blood and touch. Could they have been lovers? It was not their words that made him think that way. No, it was their demeanor.

Ari looked at the way Sai gazed at Auovin. Auovin's eyes had fallen away from his and onto Cyrus who just looked away, incurious. The bond between Auovin and Cyrus was shaking and crumbling into pieces. Ari had known that for some time now. There was still love and loyalty between them, but... the way he looked at Sai compared to the way he looked at Cyrus and him, for the matter, was different. So much different which made his mind fester with needless thoughts.

As the thoughts swam through his mind, Ari grew angry and irate, but more so hurt than anything else. He truly did like Sai as much as he was not allowing himself to admit to it, and the thought of Auovin being the reason for why he could not kiss him or share in emotion as did lovers sent bile to his throat. Auovin was someone who he lusted after, but he did not encompass those same feelings he was growing for Sai. There was still feelings there, however. Cautious ones, curious ones he dared not to venture forward with. But even still that was not the reason for the tears populating his eyes. Why could no one love him and only him?

He felt so terribly dumb and used. Auovin would never grow to ever love him in the way he wanted to be loved in. Ari was certain of it. Freir had been right in his words. 'You will learn soon enough. Your feelings will only grow bigger and stronger from here and the stronger they grow the more it will hurt.' It stung how true they were. Now he was left with an aching heart and bitter feelings growing in the pits of his stomach.

The atmosphere was a mix of tension, lust, and apprehension which made his nose hurt and his head grow stuffy. As soon as Ari saw Cyrus bump passed Auovin and out the front door, Ari had half the mind to follow him. An arm shot out, keeping him put. Ari snatched it back and moved away from him.

"You think I am dumb because I am naive to some things, but I am not. I see things for what they are. I see you for what you are and I will not be dragged on and be manipulated by you any longer."

"Ari--"

"You do not love me. You do not, and you never will."

Auovin looked at him with little emotion playing in his eyes. Ari wanted him to deny it, if not with words, then with his body. All Auovin did was stare as he walked through the door. He had no intention on ever going back there. He did not. His eyes stung badly causing him to rub one eye before rubbing at the other.

It mattered not if he was no longer there to show him the way. He would find the answers himself and he would decide for himself what he would do in all of this chaos. He would find his own way through it.

Ari tried to pull himself together and wipe his tears away. As his vision cleared, Ari saw Cyrus on the adjacent side of the building. He only stared at him like a cat eyeing its prey. Soon he walked closer to him. He noticed the way Cyrus stared him was a gaze meant for pity which he did not want. He pitied him and not the other way around.

"I told you to go back for a reason and do you see my reasoning now?" Cyrus said.

"Why do you stay with a person such as him?"

Ra came out the building and stopped to look at them with wide eyes.

"It is okay. He is a friend," Ari said, trying to nestle down his growing fear. The blade to his neck left a surface wound, but it was not too deep. Ra settled down and grew close to him after a couple of seconds trusting in his words as Ari thought he would.

Cyrus' eyes met with Ra's before going back to his.

"Because I love him."

"But he does not only love you."

"If he is not what you want then why bother with him?" Cyrus said, eyeing him. When words failed him, Cyrus pressed a warm hand on his cheek. "It is because you like him and love does not blossom in just a matter of weeks."

"He is in love with someone else. Does that not bother you?"

Cyrus pursed his lips and smiled. "Do you not like me as well as him?"

Ari opened his mouth to refute it but a dark blush spilled across his cheeks instead.

"You seem to have taken to that other one in there as well."

"... I do," Ari mumbled, growing unbearably self-conscious now.

"So why is it that he must love only you? If you are looking for that kind of love then you will not find it here. You are wasting your time."

Ari did not know what to make of his words. He was right about one thing, though. He did like him and Sai as well as Auovin. But that was only a part of a larger issue.

"All you are right now is a thing of jealousy. Green with envy."

"Perhaps, I am, but I do not want to go back there. I do not."

"Then let me take you somewhere. You and your... little friend. Auovin is not in the best of moods with you, anyway. It would be better if some distance is kept between you."

"Where?"

"Just somewhere."

Ari looked back at the house with a heavy heart.

"Somewhere where you will find some answers to many of your questions."