AN: I don't own the characters, just the story.

This is a piece written for the KakaSasu Arist Exchange on YG and the CopyCock community on LJ.

It was written for flow_ez for the prompt: I want a story with vampires. Preferably, I want Kakashi to be the vampire. Setting, I want it to be in the Feudal Japan time period, where Sasuke is a young, injured high ranking samurai (17/18 years of age) who has gotten separated from his cavalry after a battle and on his journey back to his infantry, he meets Kakashi.

This was written around the end of October, but November was taken up completely with the novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo. (Yes, I won. You can find the story on my DA account because it's original fiction.) I've been busy and generally lazy since then, so that's why it's taken me so long to post this.

Please go easy on me. This was hard for me to write. I've done vampires before, but never in the setting of fanfiction, it's not easy. That, coupled with the hours and hours of research I did on Feudal Japan and samurai meant I was a little out of my league. I'm rather happy with the way the story came out, though I had to admit it was much better in my head. lol

Thanks in advance for those of you that read this and a bigger thank you to those that take the time to comment. Your comments help keep me writing... even if I am being lazy and not posting here... or writing original fiction instead of fanfiction. ;)

Sasuke woke in a dimly lit room. He wasn't sure what had awakened him, but now that he was awake, he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep again. The pallet he lay on wasn't the bed he was familiar with. The pain in his side was a steady, throbbing agony, and a fire seemed to burn in his entire body, though it was centered in that agony. Trying to sit up only brought him fresh waves of pain and seemed to stoke that fire inside of him. Turning his head, Sasuke peered about the room, trying to figure out where he was by what little he could see. When his gaze traveled over the candle that burned in the corner, pain spiked through his head. He squeezed his eyes closed and quickly looked away from the candle. After a few moments he tried again, this time seeing his armour lying by the wall to his right. It was then that he remembered the battle he'd been in. He'd made a careless mistake and taken a serious wound in his side. When the fevers came, he'd somehow managed to lose his way. His last clear memory was of taking a road that he thought would be a shorter route to get him back home.

Lifting his head, Sasuke looked at his armour again, and not seeing his weapons lying beside his armour, he felt a flare of panic. Sitting up in spite of the tearing agony in his side, Sasuke began to scramble from the pallet on which he lay. It was then that he noticed his weapons lay on the floor next to him, within easy reach. Reaching out he took first one blade, then the other, making sure they were indeed his weapons and that they were not in any way damaged. At last satisfied that all was well with his weapons, Sasuke allowed himself to collapse back onto the pallet as waves of gray began to swim through his vision. Darkness slowly claimed him, and Sasuke slipped into it gratefully, eager for freedom from the pain that ate at his side.

Sasuke awoke several times, but never for long. The fire that burned in him made him dizzy and confused. When he opened his eyes, sometimes he found a young woman kneeling over him, bathing his burning face with a cool, wet cloth. Other times he would open his eyes to find an older man with silver hair and one penetrating black eye peering intently down at him from the foot of the bed. There was something about that man that made Sasuke uneasy, but he was never quite able to place what it was about the man that made him that made him feel that way before the darkness claimed him again. His waking moments became fewer and fewer, but somehow started to run together in his mind in a confused jumble of surreal images. When he at last woke completely, without the confusion that had plagued him for so long, it was the silver haired man that stood nearby, watching him.

Pushing himself weakly to a sitting position, Sasuke reached for his blades, letting his hand rest on them as he tried to get a good look at the man in the dimly lit room. "Who are you and where am I?"

"You're welcome," said the man quietly, a trace of amusement in his voice.

"What?" Sasuke grunted, growing irritated.

The man walked closer to the pallet on which Sasuke sat, his one black eye catching the candlelight. Sasuke took a closer look at the man now that he'd moved far enough into the dim light to be seen. He was a relatively tall man with spiky silver hair. The hair made Sasuke think that the man was much older when he first saw him, but now in the dim light of the candle he could see the man wasn't much older than he was, perhaps thirty at the oldest. He had only one eye, the other was covered by a scrap of cloth tied over it as an eye patch. Sasuke could just see a scar trailing out from under that patch, a hint of past violence that took his left eye. Taking in his muscular build, Sasuke determined that the man must be a samurai, or once was, which would explain how he'd lost the eye perhaps. The cut of his clothing also led Sasuke to believe the man had been a samurai. The quality of the fabrics hinted that he had been a samurai of considerable rank. Frowning, Sasuke began to wonder why he didn't know the man.

"I said, you're welcome," the man said quietly, drawing Sasuke from his contemplations.

"I haven't thanked you for anything."

"I'm aware of that," the man said blandly.

Sasuke grunted and looked away from him. "You took care of me while I was ill, I take it."

"I and my servant, yes."

"Then I do thank you, whoever you are."

"I am Kakashi. My family name was Hatake."

"Well, thank you Kakashi Hatake, I am--"

"I know who you are, Sasuke Uchiha," the older man interrupted deftly. "You are the nephew of the current Shogun, Madara Uchiha. You are one of his top samurai below only his son, Itachi Uchiha."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, looking suspiciously at the man. "How do you know me? I don't know you."

"I have my ways," he stated simply.

Grunting in irritation again, Sasuke closed his fingers around the handle of his wakizashi. "Why did you say that your family name was Hatake?"

"Because I haven't had a family in a long time."

"Just because your family dies doesn't mean you give up your family name. Don't you have any pride in your family?"

The silver-haired man only smiled at Sasuke, clearly not intending to answer his question. Irritated to the point of near anger, Sasuke clutched the handle of his wakizashi tighter. He started to ask another question when the man turned suddenly and looked at the shuttered window. Without looking back at Sasuke, he said, "I must retire now. I will see you tomorrow evening."

Before Sasuke had a chance to even form a reply, the man was out the door Sasuke hadn't noticed before, leaving him alone in the room. Surprised by this abrupt exit and not at all happy about it, Sasuke let go of his blade and lay back down on the pallet. After a few moments he rolled onto his side and pushed the sheet that lay over him down to his waist, twisting around to look at the wound in his side. He was surprised to find that it had healed considerably, leaving him to wonder just how long he'd been lying in this room. Rolling onto his back once more, Sasuke laced his fingers together behind his head and stared up at the dark ceiling, trying to remember if he'd ever heard his uncle mention the Hatake family. Sleep stole over him as he thought, and strange dreams of the silver-haired man haunted his rest.

~*~*~

Time passed and Sasuke healed slowly. He spent every evening with his host and rescuer, though he didn't manage to find out much about the older man. Try as he might, he could never get much information about his past. When he didn't avoid answering Sasuke's questions, Kakashi would tell him outright that he didn't care to answer the question, leaving no room for Sasuke to continue his questioning. By the time Sasuke began to grow curious about why the older man came to him at night, he was already feeling the first stirrings of attraction, so it never occurred to him to ask because he didn't mind. He enjoyed the time he had with his host and didn't think about it.

The young woman that had sat with him, cooling his fevered brow as his body fought the evil that had invaded his flesh when he took the wakizashi wound, came to him each day. She brought Sasuke his morning and afternoon meals, though Kakashi always brought his evening meals. At first Sasuke said nothing to the girl, not wanting to be misunderstood without the older man there as their chaperon, but curiosity finally makes him speak one afternoon when she brings him his meal.

"May I ask your name so that I can thank you properly for all you do for me?"

The girl looked up into his eyes and smiled faintly before bowing at the waist. "I am called Rin, Master Uchiha. You don't need to thank me, I am quite happy to take care of you for Master Kakashi."

Sasuke grunted at the girl, then turned his attention to the food she'd brought him. He played with the food for a moment, then looked at the girl again. "You don't have to call me that. My uncle and my cousin are Master Uchiha. I'm just Sasuke. Thank you though."

The girls smiled at him and bowed at the waist once more before she climbed to her feet and left the room. After that Sasuke found it easier to talk to the girl each time she brought him a meal. He found out that she was twenty-six years old and that she was orphaned. When Sasuke asked her how she'd come to work for Kakashi, the girl had smiled at him as she informed him that she didn't work for Kakashi, but that he had raised her since she was orphaned as a baby. Figuring that Kakashi couldn't be any more than thirty years old, Sasuke couldn't understand how the man could have raised a girl that was only a few years younger than he was. When Sasuke asked her about it, the color drained from her face and she ran from the room. When Kakashi arrived that evening, he was frowning and Sasuke felt himself growing nervous, though he wasn't sure why.

"I figured the time would come when you'd ask the right question, though I admit I had hoped you wouldn't. Poor Rin is scared that she's done the wrong thing telling you what she did, but I can't blame the girl for what I've kept hidden."

Sasuke peered at Kakashi suspiciously in the dim light. "What do you mean? What have you kept hidden? And how can you have raised her since she was a baby if you're only thirty yourself?"

"I never said I was thirty," Kakashi said blandly.

Sasuke flushed at this, embarrassed and annoyed because the older man was right. He'd never told him his age. Sasuke had just guessed that the man was only thirty. "Well, you don't look to be much older than thirty, so I just assumed you were."

Kakashi nodded and studied Sasuke in silence for several minutes before he replied. "I look thirty because I was thirty when I died."

Sasuke grunted in surprise and frowned at the man. "You're not a ghost; I've touched you several times since I've been here. You're solid. You can't be dead."

"Oh, I can be, and I most certainly am. I've been dead for near to fifty years now."

Sasuke frowned harder and stood up, pacing across the small room to stand before the man, looking up into his one black eye. "What are you talking about? I don't like being teased," he snapped.

"I'm not teasing you, Sasuke. I was thirty years old, but still a young fool. I went somewhere I had no business going and I was lured into the embrace of someone that I should not have allowed near me. I knew he was dangerous: I could tell just by looking at him, but I didn't care. As I said, I was young and therefore quite reckless. The man fascinated me, and that dangerous air about him just added to my fascination. He stirred me behind my loin cloth the way no one else ever had, so I let him take me, and take me he did, making me into what he was."

Sasuke swallowed as he listened to the story, realizing that Kakashi could be talking about him as he told his story. "What was he?"

"A vampire, Sasuke. I am a vampire."

Sasuke took a step back even as denial welled up inside of him. "No, I don't believe that. You're no beast. You've not harmed me since I've been here, and from what I can see, Rin bears no marks from having been attacked in the past."

Kakashi tilted his head back slightly, his one black eye glittering dangerously. "That's because I am not a beast, and I have not attacked her. Why should I? I get what I need from livestock."

Sasuke's hand groped for his weapons at his side automatically when that dangerous light shone in Kakashi's eye. When his hand bumped against his empty hip, he let it drop to his side. "I've heard of vampires. They're terrible beasts that hunt humans, ripping their throats out with teeth sharper than any dog's, drinking down all of their blood."

Kakashi draws his face up in distaste. "And you believed those stories?"

"Why wouldn't I?

"Don't they seem just a little foolish to you? Think about it Sasuke, if I were to run around hunting and murdering humans, and in such an obvious fashion, I'd be hunted constantly. Eventually, some lucky samurai would kill me and have my heart for his trophy. I haven't survived all this time just to be killed again."

Sasuke considered this, then nodded, frowning. "Yes, you have a point. I never thought about it like that before. To best honest, I never believed that vampires existed, so I didn't have any need to really think about the stories."

Kakashi smiled, the slightest upturn of the corners of his mouth. "Now you believe that vampires are real? Just like that, you take me word?"

Sasuke began pacing the room, agitated and not knowing why. "Well, yes, I suppose I do. I can't think of any good reason for you to lie to me. And the way Rin reacted... it was too real."

"So that's it? You accept so easily?"

"Well, what choice have I really got? I've got no reason to distrust your word."

"You could ask for proof."

Sasuke stopped his pacing and stared across the room at the older man. "Proof. That would imply that I distrust you or just don't believe you. Your word is enough for me."

Kakashi shook his head, almost looking sad, but Sasuke couldn't tell in the dim light with the distance of most of the room separating them. "You're a foolish young boy, much as I was fifty years ago."

Sasuke glared at the older man, anger flaring in him. "I'm no fool! You've given me no reason to distrust you."

"And what reason have I given you to trust me, Sasuke?"

"You've taken care of me. Or, had Rin take care of me. My wound, which could very well have ended my life, is nearly healed thanks to your help."

"You think that is reason enough to trust me so completely? What if I was only healing you so that I might keep you around for your blood for a longer time?"

Sasuke smiled, a cold, menacing thing. "I have nothing to worry about. Should you try to attack me, I'd have your heart before you had a chance to strike."

"Oh?" Kakashi asked quietly.

Before Sasuke could draw breath to reply, to continue his boast, there was a blur and the older man was gone. When he spoke again from just behind Sasuke, the younger man jumped and started to spin to face him, but Kakashi's hands grasped his arms in a tight grip, keeping him still. "I don't think you could kill me in your present state. You aren't quick enough. Fully healed, perhaps, but not now."

"Let go of me," Sasuke growled through clenched teeth.

"And if I do? Then what?"

"Just let me go!"

When Kakashi stepped up behind Sasuke, pressing himself to the younger man's back, Sasuke stiffened, letting a startled gasp escape his lips. When Kakashi's hands loosened, and dropped away from his arms, Sasuke stood, his mind reeling, unable to move away from the older man. "Do you truly wish for me to let you go, young samurai?"

"No," Sasuke whispered before he had a moment to really think about the question.

"Are you the same foolish young man I was?" Kakashi continued quietly. "Do you find yourself drawn to me because of my dangerous air? Do you find yourself stirred behind your loincloth?"

Sasuke closed his eyes, feeling Kakashi's breath brushing against his ear as he spoke. Swallowing hard, Sasuke nodded. "Yes."

"And do you wish to be taken by me? Do you wish to feel me sliding into your body as I pull your life from your young throat?"

A shiver rippled down Sasuke's back in reaction to the strong mental images these questions stirred. "Yes," he nearly hisses.

"Would you wish it even if you knew I would cast you off after only one night of passion, leaving you to your new life after death?"

"Yes. One night is worth losing everything. I'd give it all just to know your touch for one night."

Sasuke felt a breeze at his back moments before he realized he could no longer feel Kakashi pressed against the back of him. Whipping around, Sasuke just caught sight of Kakashi as the older man slipped out the door, casting Sasuke one last longing, yet pitying look as the door closed. "Be careful what you say to a vampire, Sasuke. Truly think about what you want, because once I take your life, it cannot be given again."

~*~*~

Kakashi didn't return after that. Sasuke thought nothing of it at first, but then a week passed, and a second week passed, and still Kakashi didn't come back to see him. When Sasuke asked Rin about Kakashi, the girl would remain silent, leaving as quickly as she could. Sasuke grew frustrated and angry at first, then did his best to put the older man and his reaction to him from his mind. He practiced with both of his blades as his wound healed, keeping himself limber and in top fighting condition. When his wound had healed completely, even training wasn't enough to distract Sasuke from thoughts of Kakashi and the fact that even after weeks to think about it, he was still willing to give up everything he had to be with Kakashi, even if it was only once. He knew there was no honor in the death the older man was offering him, but it just didn't seem to matter to Sasuke, and this bothered him. He couldn't believe that he was so willing to sacrifice his honor for the heat in his loins. Finally Sasuke understands what he was truly willing to sacrifice himself for, and it wasn't something as simple as feeling Kakashi's touch.

"Rin," Sasuke said quietly one afternoon when the girl came to gather his dishes after lunch. "Would you please tell Kakashi that I wish to speak with him? There is something I think he should know."

Rin lifted the basket that held the dishes and rose to her feet, bowing politely to Sasuke, then departing the room quickly. Sasuke dropped down onto the pallet that was his bed, lying back with his hands laced behind his head and staring up at the ceiling through the dim light. Sasuke wasn't surprised when Kakashi didn't show that evening or the next. He never spoke to Rin of his desire to see Kakashi after that, trusting that the girl had indeed delivered his message as asked. In fact, he spoke to the girl rarely and she seemed relieved. Sasuke didn't begin to grow frustrated again from Kakashi's lack of response to his request until a few more weeks had passed. There were times he'd wake late at night, thinking he could see, hear, feel Kakashi standing in the dark corner watching him sleep, and this only added to his frustration.

When Sasuke finally decided it was time to give up hope of ever seeing the older man again and began to make plans to return home to his duties, Kakashi finally arrived. Looking up when the door to his room opened one evening, Sasuke felt his heart jump in his breast then begin to thump rapidly. Trying not to give away just how excited he was to see the older man, Sasuke turned his back and paced to the other side of the room, hands clasped behind his back. "I'm going home, Kakashi. Back to my family. Back to my duties."

"I knew you were."

Annoyed at this reply, Sasuke spun around and lifted a hand to point an accusing finger at Kakashi. "Why did you ignore my request?"

"Because I knew it wouldn't be wise for me to come to you until you'd decided to return to your life."

"Why? And how could you know I'd made the decision?"

"I knew you'd made the decision because a tension that had always been held inside of you even when you slept had finally slipped away, leaving you to sleep peacefully at night."

Sasuke frowned, dropping his arm to his side. "How would you know how I'm sleeping? You haven't..." Sasuke trailed off and frowned. "I wasn't dreaming, was I? You really have been coming to me at night while I'm sleeping."

Kakashi nodded, but his face remained a blank mask, giving away nothing that he was thinking or feeling. "I have been. Just before I retire at dawn, I've been coming to see you."

"Why didn't you come when I was awake?"

"I told you, I knew it wouldn't be wise to come to you before now."

"You never told me why either," Sasuke snapped, then gasped when Kakashi was suddenly standing in front of him. "Why were you avoiding me?" Sasuke nearly whispers.

"I had to," Kakashi says simply, voice a quiet, intimate murmur.

"Why?"

"Because I've never had a desire this strong in me since I died. The desire that rides me now is even stronger than my desire for blood."

"What desire?" Sasuke whispered, black eyes going wide as he stared up into Kakashi's pale face.

"The desire to touch you, to taste you, to feel you, to take you."

Each word triggered a corresponding feeling inside of Sasuke, so that as the older man whispered to him he felt as if he were being touched, tasted, felt and finally taken. Sasuke's already wide eyes grew wider as his mouth fell slightly open and he began to pant softly in reaction. Sasuke lifts a hand, reaching out for Kakashi, but finds the other man instantly on the other side of the room, facing him in the dim light from a distance once more. Dropping the hand back to his side and balling it into a fist, Sasuke frowned.

"Why do you treat me like this?"

"Like what?"

"Like I am some lesser creature, something that should be resisted because it's not worthy of your attention."

"Do you truly feel that way, Sasuke?"

Sasuke started to snap a simple 'yes' then stopped himself and actually thought about his reply. After a few moments, still frowning, he nodded at the older man. "I think I was starting to feel that when you stopped coming to see me, but I ignored it. Tonight, I can't ignore it. I feel as if you view me as unworthy of your attention."

"You are anything but."

"Then why are you treating me like this so suddenly?"

"Because you are a samurai, nephew of the Shogun."

Sasuke frowned, feeling irritation growing inside of him. "What has that got to do with you refusing to touch me, to give me what I already told you I want."

"Because you have more to lose than most men. You have more to regret. You're not some foolish boy, full of himself and without much of a future as I was when I allowed myself to be seduced by the danger of a vampire."

"You think that's all there is to my desire?"

"No, I don't. That is another reason I resist."

Sasuke frowned, catching something in the tone of Kakashi's voice. "Then what is the real reason, the one thing that holds you back?"

Kakashi's face registered surprise for only a moment, but Sasuke caught it nonetheless. "You are so much smarter than I could have ever imagined. I shouldn't be surprised though, raised by the Shogun."

"Tell me, Kakashi," Sasuke said simply.

"If I take you into my bed, into my embrace, it can only be once, then you will be lost to me."

Sasuke could tell there was still something Kakashi wasn't saying, but he could also sense that the man was building to it. "Why only once? Why not again and again? You think I won't wish to be with you again once I've died?"

Kakashi gave a slight nod, a bitter smile curling the corners of his mouth upward. "Yes. There is something in the death and the pain of the change that changes who the man was into who the man becomes. You'll hate me for what I have done to you, and I wouldn't blame you. You'll wish to be as far from me as you can get yourself and will spend the rest of your existence despising mine. I couldn't bear that."

"Why?" Sasuke asked quietly, thinking he knew the answer, knowing it was the real answer he'd been seeking.

"Because I have fallen in love with you Sasuke Uchiha."

Sasuke remained silent, though he was certain that everyone in the world could hear the thudding of his heart as it began to race once again. Without replying, Sasuke walked silently across the room, stopping in front of Kakashi, looking up at the older man. His heart and mind both raced and he came to a decision he thought he'd already made. He realized in that moment that he hadn't, not really. Not until he heard Kakashi's confession and saw the pain in his one black eye.

"Then take me."

Kakashi shook his head firmly. "No, I won't. At least if I send you back to your life you may live and die with honor, not hating me, and I won't have to live with my regret and the ache of only being allowed to know the joys of your body once."

"Who says it will be like that? How do you know it will be like that?"

"Because it's what happened to me, Sasuke."

"You loved the man that changed you, and he you?"

Kakashi laughed, a short sharp bark that was so bitter it nearly choked Sasuke. "He loved no one but himself. I was infatuated, but I don't know that I loved him. I may have. But, knowing how I love you now, I don't think I truly did."

"This will be different though."

"How can you know that, Sasuke?"

Sasuke smiled slowly, stepping in until his body was almost pressed to the front of Kakashi's. "Because I am in love with you as well," he whispers.

Kakashi's one eye went round with surprise, then filled with joy before finally sliding into sadness and going blank as he hid behind his mask once more. "That is all the more reason to not take that risk."

"It is every reason to take that risk," Sasuke insisted. "I know that my love for you is strong enough to overcome anything. I believe your love for me is strong enough as well."

"How can you be so certain?"

"Because I feel what is in my heart, and when you're not hiding it from me, I can see what's in yours. I have no doubt that we are both strong enough."

"Sasuke," Kakashi begins, then fell silent helplessly, desire clear on his face.

"Touch me. Taste me. Feel me. Take me, Kakashi Hatake."

"Sasuke," the older man groaned as he reached out and pulled Sasuke into his arms. When their lips met, Sasuke could feel the hard press of Kakashi's fangs. Rather than frighten him, it relaxed him and he leaned him, pressing himself to the front of Kakashi's body, offering himself, ready to begin his new life. A life eternally by this man's side.