Ari woke to a sleeping Sai beside him. Sai's arm draped around him, hitching Ari's shirt up which Ari did not mind. Ari took Sai's hand in his looking at it for a moment before pressing a soft kiss in between his knuckles. When Sai did not stir, Ari looked at him. Sai's curls were as wild and untamed as ever. With his hair sprawled every which way, Ari could not help but think he was gazing at a beautiful painting drawn with such meticulous care and love.

It was true Ari was hopelessly in love with a man that seemed to have no intention of reciprocating those feelings, but Ari could not help but love him anyway. With him, he could forget even if it were for a few moments. He could forget everything. That kind of feeling was one that could only be felt with him, Ari was sure. Ari stared at his lips, wanting to kiss him, but he thought better of it. Instead, Ari rose from the bed. He stopped the moment he smelled the scent of mint wafting from the bed. He smelled the sheets and immediately thought of Cyrus. Had he been there? And with him? Intimately. Ari furrowed his brows and looked to Sai again.

Sai stirred from his sleep and gave Ari a fleeting glance. He combed his fingers through his hair before yawning. As he rose from the bed, Ari stopped him with some words.

"Cyrus was here."

"Was he?"

"He was in your bed. You...and him are... "

"We are compatible, my blood and his, but that is all."

Ari shook his head in disbelief he had not noticed this until now.

"Is this where Cyrus would disappear off to?"

"Are you jealous?" Sai asked with a smile tugging on his lips.

"No, what reason would there be for that..." Ari came closer to his side of the bed and pressed a knee in between his legs, "when the very thought of that makes me fill with want?" Ari said as he whispered in his ear. As he backed away, Sai's face became an assortment of reds and pinks.

Ari was not lying when he said that. Cyrus and him together... The very thought made his groin stiffen. Was it such an outlandish thought to have to make Sai have an expression as that? Ari lingered at his lips and covered them with his not long after. Sai tasted of morning, but Ari did not mind. Ari's fingers tangled inside of Sai's hair when Ari ran his hand through it.

Sai's back pressed against the bed as Ari deepened the kiss. Surprisingly, Sai did not push Ari away. Sai kissed him back, but only lightly and not as passionately as Ari would have liked. No matter what he did, Sai would not see him the way as he saw him, it seemed. Still, Ari would try. Ari wanted Sai as his and would have him no matter how long it took.

The smell of mint came from Sai's neck. Ari backed away and looked on at Sai. He wondered if they truly had done what he thought they did, even with Sai's revulsion of it.

"Cyrus and I did... do things, but you do not mind?"

Ari blinked a couple of times trying to beat away the image. He only had sex but once in his life with one person. The thought of two people made his face hot, but Ari hid his desire well with a small smile.

"All that matters is if you are well. I had missed you and the thought of you with Cyrus... it does not bother me at all. But... Auovin and Cyrus... Where are they?"

"I do not know," Sai stated matter-of-factly.

"Tell me."

"Ari... "

"I said I would not abandon him in this and I will not."

"Ari, what he is doing, do you know? Do you fully understand it?"

Ari nibbled on his lip and shook his head.

"What he wants is no better than what Ylanan wants."

Ari opened his mouth to say something in response but no words came out. He knew very well Auovin was doing something he morally disagreed with. Yet, Ari disregarded it time and time again hoping he could alleviate some of the pain that was clouding Auovin's better judgment. Ari did not expect to change him, but he was hoping to influence Auovin in changing some of his ways himself.

"... You sent me away from him purposely... "

"You were better off there than with him. Ari, he is-- "

"Then what was the talk of guilt and remorse of your act of abandoning him? You said you would not do it again. You told me. Are you such a liar now?"

Sai gave Ari a light push that sent Ari staggering backward.

"Do not speak to me so recklessly, young one. I would mind my tongue if I were you."

"You speak of Auovin as this terrible thing filled with secrets and misgivings, but I cannot find the difference in you. You are the same. Filled with secrets and white lies of your own."

Instead of feeling the sting of a hand, Ari felt Sai's hand on his wrist. Sai dragged him out the room and down the stairs. Ra looked at the two of them before they left out the door. When they were outside, Sai threw Ari out onto the ground.

"Auovin is pitiful. He is a pitiful thing full of pain, but no more than that. If you want to go to him then go find him on your own."

Ari stayed on the ground and looked at it with narrowed eyes.

"Why do you look so badly at him when all I see is love in your gazes at him?"

"Because I know what he is. And I know what he has become, unlike you."

Ari snuffed.

"Do you want to know why he was looked at as a god?"

The question piqued Ari's interest, but he did not budge from the ground. He was growing angry with Sai, treating him in the same way as the Khaeo when he said things they did not agree with.

"It was because he could take their pain away as if it never existed."

Ari looked at him that time.

"But taking human blood weakens many of us, so he had no choice but to seek out the other ones for theirs back then. Back then... I was no good. I was not enough for him. But then again, nothing ever was and nothing ever will be."

"And his fall? How did it happen... ?" Sai's head lulled forward before he sighed. "Was it when they discovered that they could bleed as Ylanan said?"

"Bleed..." Sai smiled. "Ylanan is a cryptic man. Do not ever take his words for face value. There is only ever half the truth there in his words."

"So then tell me," Ari said, rising on his knees. A thick fog surrounded them, but Ari could smell the decaying corpses of both demons and humans. The smell of iron rotted in the air. There was no way Ari could ignore it.

"Figuratively speaking, yes. It did happen once the humans found out how very human we could be. And it began with a beautiful blue stone set in a necklace meant to be given as tribute and worship to the gods. Ylanan was a lover of beautiful things, you see."

Ari thought on the blue light emanating from the coffin and then to the stone Alia tried to shove down his throat. He shuddered at the memory of it all.

"And what was he known for... Ylanan?" Ari said, growing curious.

"Wisdom."

"Harun?"

"Hope. He gave them hope... but even he in the end..." Sai furrowed his brows and looked away from Ari. "What is the point of wanting to know all of this?"

"So I can understand him. I must because no one else will."

"He does not need understanding," Sai growled. He was getting upset, Ari realized. Truly, Sai was worried for him. However, he was no boy. He could make his own decisions whether they were right or wrong. Freir and Rein were enough father figures to him. Ari did not need another one.

"Like Freir, you do not want me with him, but who I choose to be with is my choice and my choice alone."

Sai pursed his lips and nodded.

"Some lessons must be learned the hard way, I suppose. But I grow curious what you will do when you see the man you have fallen in love with as a monster and terrible thing. What will you do then?"

Ari could not help the smirk tugging at his lips. "Are you jealous?"

"What?"

"You are jealous, are you not? That was why you were so quick to put me out at the mention of him."

Sai rolled his eyes and scoffed.

"Nonsense."

"I cannot say I will give him up for you, but I promise I will love you equally. Although I understand every word you are speaking to me, I cannot just give up on him. You understand this feeling and why I cannot... "

Ari held his eyes, waiting on his response. When one did not come Ari took one of his hands in his and tugged him down into a hug. Sai instantly pulled away from him as Ra stood outside the door.

"Finding him... just follow the stench of death. It will be easy enough. "

Ari turned Sai's head back to face him. Sai was worried about Auovin and Ari knew he cared a great deal about him as much as he did not want to show it.

"I do not want to leave you on a bad note... so I will stay for now."

Sai smiled then. "If only for my knowledge and my face."

"No... much more than that. Much more."

Ari licked his lips fighting the itching need to cover those pretty lips of his with his own. Sai was right in his words. Ari was strongly attracted to him. But in more ways than one which Sai just could not wrap his pretty head around. Ari did not want to leave one lover for another, though, so he would have to balance himself in between for now.

"But I would like to hear it from your lips rather my mind. I want to know if you want me here. If you want me to stay."

Sai only stared at him.

Ari knew he would never say those words. He knew very well which he used to his advantage.

"But I must know this is what you want as well. I will not keep guessing and playing this game of yours."

Sai turned his head looking back at Ra before turning his attention back to Ari. Ari saw the apprehension in his eyes. Or was he just seeing what he wanted to see?

"You can kiss me if you would like. I would not mind it in replacement of those words," Ari said, smiling. Despite Sai acting as if he only kissed him because Ari kissed him first, Ari knew it was a lie. A lie Ari did not mind entertaining up until now.

"You are like this because of my blood... "

"I am like this because of you. I like you. All of you. Even if you seem to think there is nothing to like about you but your face... Everything about you is attractive... Sai."

Even Sai's name on his tongue was like something sweet and tantalizing. Sai could do nothing but stare and it would cause Ari to fill with so much unsated desire he did not know what to do with. Ari wanted to kiss him again, but Ra was there and...

"And I would not choose some other over you. I could not possibly," Ari added.

"You see what you want to see and that is what makes you just as naive as any human."

Ari furrowed his brows.

"That is how you are able to see us all in this pretty light, but we are not pretty things. None of us are... and when you finally realize this, I am afraid some greater piece of you will be lost and I do not want that. I like you as you are now, and I do not want that to change."

Sai bent down near his ear and whispered, "Auovin will swallow you whole until nothing of who you once were is left. That is what he wants and what he always wanted."

"Why?"

Sai rose and looked down at Ari with assessing eyes.

"We are blood demons, Ari. There really does not have to be a reason. We taint things and make it as our own."

"Sai-- "

"And that is why I want Raoul to leave me before he too succumbs to what power we have over humans... and over one another."

Ari only could stare, not wanting to fully believe in his words. He was so self-loathing, that was why.

"You are itching to kiss me, I can see it in your eyes. It is because of my blood flowing through you right now. It has heightened whatever latent desire you had for me. If I give you more, you will do as I say and even more... You will become mine and wholly mine because it is my blood that flows through you now."

"That is... " Ari thought of the many times he had taken Auovin's blood.

"Because you are so young and so new... you cannot filter it out so quickly as we can."

"That... "

"So is it really love you feel with him or what power he has over you?"

"... It is love... I am sure. Auovin may be many things, but he is one who cherishes things deeply and when those things hurt him, he feels it deeply. He may be so used to relieving others of their pain, he does not know what to do with his own, but drown it in intimacy and loveless things."

Sai did not respond.

"What power you may speak of... I do not care. I am already at your whim and mercy with or without your blood because I... Is that not what love is? Being at someone's mercy? Placing your life and love in another's hands hoping, believing, that they would cherish it and keep it safe? Is that not why we are such emotional feeling things?" Ari grabbed Sai's hand. "I had already been at your mercy since the moment I realized I have fallen in love with you. What you do with it... What you do with me... Is your decision."

"... What words you speak... " Sai mumbled before turning over their hands and kissing Ari's. Ari could not be satified with that. He grabbed the opening of Sai's shirt and tugged him down until his lips were on his. What matter was it if Sai did not kiss him first?

Ari could practically taste Cyrus on his lips which made him press for more until Sai pulled away from him. Sai covered his lips as a sure blush etched across his face.

"You are nothing but bold now..." Sai's words were barely audible but Ari heard them, nonetheless.

Ari wanted to know why Cyrus had been there and where they both had gone off to, and Ari did not mind killing two birds with one stone. He knew better now than to go to Ylanan for answers. Sai would tell him everything and, somehow, Ari knew exactly what ways to make it so.