Kaname looked up at the thousands of stars, not feeling small in the least beneath the weight of their celestial gaze

Kaname looked up at the thousands of stars, not feeling small in the least beneath the weight of their celestial gaze. The Thar Desert was not kind on summer days, and their human servants had become very weary, walking alongside elephants with shrine-like tents perched on top, heavy drapes concealing the worldly vampires inside. Superstitious by nature, the local folk mainly stayed away from the abnormally beautiful foreign men. Much to Aurèle's chagrin.

As the little pureblood looked up from under mosquito netting, his father, Aurèle, and a few young women who had fallen under their spell drank to their heart's content the ultra-strong liqueur Haruka had brought all the way from Europe. The dominantly British travelling agencies and economy provided many loopholes and exceptions to contraband when it came to wealthy, English-speaking travellers. Kaname was less than impressed by the local maidens, and immediately drew away from their brash Braj dialects. Going on a century old, Kaname already spoke fluent Hindi, and knew many other languages including English, Japanese, of course, German, Latin and most of the languages derived from it, Ukrainian, Croatian, Dutch, Welsh-one that was particularly difficult, Romanian, and Polski, which was fun to swear in because Mother hadn't yet learned it.

"What is Britain like?! It must be wonderful-especially with young men like you running around!" The girls giggled. They had to be no older than eighteen, Kaname reasoned as he kept as much of a distance as possible. But he smirked at their use of words. 'Young' was an overused joke in the vampire world, and one that Haruka and Aurèle never seemed to tire of.

"Oh, well," Haruka began drunkenly, having consumed at least three bottles of the hardest in his stash with only Aurèle to assist him. Their eyes sparkled with the same words, and they turned to the girls with the same tongues and

"It's absolutely fascinating!" And how they laughed. Both men fell over giggling, leaning into each other and wiping tears from their eyes as they urged the girls to drink as much as they pleased. It wasn't always easier to drink from a drunk, and the blood was thin and tasteless, but it was liquid and the desert yielded next to nothing.

"I do believe we're completely pissed, my darlings." Haruka stated airily, almost tipping a jug of alcohol as he rolled over to look at them. They giggled and eyed him suggestively, the brunette returning the look as he grabbed the hand of the girl in the green purdah and lightly kissed it. Aurèle did the same to the girl in the orange, and ended up toppling over her as he took off her clothes. The two women laughed in all sense of the word 'silliness', and wrapped their arms around the men atop them.

Unwilling to step outside and into the dusty Hell his father seemed to love, Kaname resolved simply not look while the women gasped as fangs entered their bodies. The vampires sucked them dry and left their wide-eyed, bared bodies to their trusted, imported servants. The underlings wordlessly removed the still warm bodies and took them out into the desert to be buried in a marked grave. Haruka, in all of his ageless, Godless pride, still believed in those stories he'd been told as a child, and still believed that all beings deserved a peaceful passage into Paradise. But what was paradise to a vampire? Over the years, Kaname had taken his father's superstitions to be the compassion for humankind his parents shared. In all of the years he'd seen of humans, he still didn't quite understand his parents' feelings for them, but figured that one day, he'd meet one that made it all make sense. Aurèle was an obvious exception, being an ex-human and, to be honest, not incredibly humane, himself.

When he thought it had grown quiet enough that the two men had fallen asleep, Kaname turned around and stepped over the urns of mysterious liquids-both local and imported-and tried to manoeuvre his way to his bed. A gasp in the darkness stopped his little feet from moving. Father?

"Aurèle," Whispered the darkness to the little pureblood, and Kaname watched from behind a mound of pillows and their day-drapes as Haruka quivered beneath the body of the darker-haired male. They had removed their shirts when the maidens had been there, but now their trousers were gone as well. The air held the heavy scents of sweat and the blood that surely curdled in their stomachs as it floated in the alcohol.

Now, Kaname had learned long ago in a visit to the French Court that all sorts of relationships could happen between those in the aristocracy and… those of more scandalous beginnings. He had even witnessed a few rendezvous in palace halls and masquerades where chuckling couples thought they were alone. But he had seen it. And he had also known of the relationship between his father and Aurèle. He had just… never put two and two together. Or, in this case, Tab A into Slot B. It was a rather rewarding experience, but naturally revolted him as he saw his proud, strong father whither under the touch of a Level D. Not only that, but it was Brother. He had long since stopped using the more intimate title when thinking of the man, having learned his real name at just a young age. But Haruka sighed sharply and murmured many things at once under his stuttering breath, in a jargon of languages Kaname knew and some he did not.

"Aurèle, please." Whispered the oldest, shuddering as Aurèle gathered himself and pressed the weight of his sex between the crying man's legs. Crying, yes. Kaname smelled the saltiness of tears pearling on his father's cheeks. Haruka gripped Aurèle's back roughly, drawing from him the thinned but wondrous blood both he and his son had fed from at one time or another. Acacia, in a glorious bloom. Like the flower in the desert gardens in the African mansion. Something stirred inside Kaname's small belly as he remembered Aurèle's sombre face and the desolate, lonely look he reserved for the blossoms his human friends lovingly tended to.

He grunted and Kaname heard the soft slap, slap, slap of flesh against flesh as the man plunged deeper into his father at a relaxed lovers' pace. Haruka's nails ground the skin on his back and drew more blood. Kaname thought to go over and lap from a few of the cuts when both men fell asleep, though he knew, even drunk, his father would be far too protective a light-sleeper to miss the sobering experience of his son drinking from his lover.

Haruka's breaths came in slurred chants, in tune to the slaps and surges Aurèle set against him. He writhed beneath, cut, and bruised the man, knees clamping relentlessly to constantly gyrating hips. The wet sounds became quicker, and Aurèle dove for Haruka's neck, neither nipping nor drinking as he adorned the glowing paleness of the reserved throat with dozens of light kisses. Tender and delicate, even when drunk, Kaname mused bitterly.

"I'm not, I can't-" Breathed Aurèle as his pace quickened to a harsh rhythm that set even the younger Kuran's veins afire as he tried desperately to prolong the final ecstasy.

"Please, Aurèle, please; more." Haruka whined lustily. Aurèle then shuddered with a last groan and ejaculated inside of his male lover. Haruka pulled the man down so oilless black hair sprawled on his sweat-sheathed chest. His knees tightened their grip as the ex human tugged his sopping erection, bringing him to a quick but sating climax. They both gasped for air, each holding the other as if they would drift away if they were to let go. Haruka twined the thick black spirals of hair round his fingers, suffocating beneath the sweet weight of his lover. He tilted his head back, slumped on a pile of pillows with stars as witness to his passion. And, incidentally, a vampiric six year-old. Although he wasn't yet sober enough to care-and wouldn't be for several more hours-Haruka was well-aware of his son's presence and audience to their rather dirty show.

But Aurèle's breathing was slow and rhythmical on his chest, sweat quickly evaporating in the desert night. Haruka, in the mean time, reflected on his callous treatment of the local fare, and thought to force his personal attendants never to tell his wife of the misadventure. He trusted them fine; fine enough to also conceal entire cellars of alcohol beneath Juuri's feet and all around the world. He truly loved cellars, irony of the cool darkness aside.

Kaname watched his father as he relaxed into the afterglow. His eyes were closed, but the boy knew he was awake. His next actions proved that fact.

"Kaname, please come here." Unabashed at the nakedness of both him and his lover as he called to his son, Haruka surveyed impishly as his voyeur of a son exited from a nearby hill of fabric. The boy walked haltingly to his father, who had turned up his head with tired eyes to urge his child come closer.

"You already knew, didn't you?" Haruka asked, getting right to the point. Kaname answered him without elaboration,

"Yes, Father." Haruka smiled wryly, a sting of pride coming with his son's observant nature.

"And you know not to tell anyone who doesn't know?"

"Yes, Father." Haruka looked down at where his son's eyes were cast; Aurèle's sleeping face. His smile grew soft and nostalgic, and he brushed aside a lock of deep inky hair as gently as if the man were made of ice.

"…Don't tell him you know, either." Haruka stated dreamily, staring at the peaceful, spent figure draped across his bare body.

"Yes, Father." Simply stating his obedient agreement throughout the entire conversation, Kaname's eyes never left Aurèle's strange, tired face. It looked pale in the moon and starlight, but was a deep contrast when splayed across the milky white of Kaname's own father's skin. It was whiter than his own, even if Haruka had taken dares during the trip to step out into the unyielding, eternal glare of the Indian sun. But when Kaname did look over at his father, he saw the most wondrous thing: peace. A thing that had almost never blessed the constantly moving man's face. He saw the look his mother got when she thought she was alone and rubbed the tiny curve on her belly. He saw the exhaustion of endless life and the faded turmoil etched superficially into glowing skin. His father looked like he belonged in the books next to all of the great gods and goddesses of the universe; like a holy lady holding the head of a human male in her lap, watching him sleep with the eyes of both a young mother and a protective lover. His father was heavenly, and Aurèle was his earthly tether.

"You know his name, right?" Haruka asked in a quiet, smooth voice. It was unlike the rough gasps and sated groans he had given earlier.

"Yes." Haruka grew silent, stroking black hair automatically as Aurèle seemed to curl onto him, hooking their legs together and resting with a childlike appearance that struck Kaname as very odd, considering his age.

"… Don't tell him that, either."

"Yes, Father." And with that, Haruka shooed him back to his cot and drew a thin sheet over his and his lover's bodies, snuggling under it with the black hair of a sleeping panther winding with his own rugged brown lion's mane.

Their natural clocks were tweaked by the travel schedule, and Kaname found it almost exciting to be like a human and be awake and alert during the day. They found no shortage of food, unlike the many other travellers that often starved and grew thirsty under watch of the sun. But even the thick drapes layered in white to keep away the heat could not stop the air of the day from sneaking through the seams. To Kaname, it was all terribly electrifying, and a moving switch from his nightlife habits. To Haruka, it was a bitter reminder of what he had removed from this sweltering but wonderful world. And for Aurèle, well, it was certainly something he had missed, but he had more than enough to sate him for years to come, now, didn't he?