Work Text:
Sanan couldn’t understand why Chizuru had given him her blood. He had just made the medicine from her father’s recipe. It was right there. He had been writhing on the floor, his face contorted in agony, and Chizuru had cut herself with her own sword. The taste of her blood had been the greatest pleasure Sanan could imagine. But it had been so unnecessary.
Did she not trust him? But that seemed unimaginable, she had proven her trust in him over and over. Did she not trust her father? Sanan supposed that would make more sense, since her father had in no way been honest with her. Still, there was no reason to suppose that this particular recipe was anything but what it appeared to be, a simple way to temper bloodlust without resorting to blood. And Chizuru had given her blood in any case.
Tasting blood from Chizuru was nothing like drinking blood from a corpse. That was simple feeding, no more than relief of hunger. Had Chizuru imagined that this was all it would be? But it wasn’t. Sanan still felt the taste of her blood on his lips and the sweet flow of her blood in his body. She had given this blood willingly, for no necessary reason, while he gasped and writhed. Medicine would be impossible for him now, it had nothing near the power of her blood. And drinking blood from a corpse would be nothing but a disgrace. She had taken from him his one chance at autonomy, instead allowing him at his most helpless moment to accept a gift from her that he could never live without and would always crave. And he didn’t know why.
When a scientist does not know, a scientist seeks answers. Chizuru was like him in this. Had she wanted to know what the full depravity of bloodlust was like? Had she sought her answers on his body? Well, it was time for him to find some answers of his own. And she owed him something, for what she had taken from him. Perhaps a little of her innocence would suffice.
“There is an experiment I would like to try with you,” Sanan asked, the next time Chizuru was in his laboratory. She was a willing enough participant in his experiments, so she nodded and gave some words of assent. Little did she know. “This one involves you more personally,” he explained. “After you gave me your blood I was left with some important questions about how your body works. I will need to check your reflexes and responses.”
“Yes, of course,” Chizuru said, as willing as ever. Did Sanan detect a tiny bit of apprehension in her voice? Or was it excitement? Did she perhaps know what was going to happen? He led her to the futon where he slept when he needed short naps while working.
“This is what I will need from you,” he said. “I intend to touch you in certain ways. It is very important that if a way in which I touch you is uncomfortable or painful or in any way not to your liking that you tell me to stop. If you do I will stop immediately. This is essential for the experiment to work. Do you understand?” Chizuru murmured assent. Now it was definitely apprehension in her voice, but not unwillingness.
“And please do not speak for any other reason,” Sanan said. This was his experiment and he intended to perform it without interruption. “I need to maintain concentration at all times. If you speak I will stop immediately. Do you understand?” She almost opened her mouth, and then nodded. Sanan couldn’t help but smile. Chizuru was so lovely, and she looked at him with such submission. Sanan bent over and placed his mouth on the side of her arm.
It took a moment for Sanan to focus, overwhelmed by the memory of her blood pouring into him, piercing him, turning him into something he had never been, while he lay helpless beneath her, his world reduced to a small cut on the same few inches his mouth now touched. The cut was now healed but his lips could feel the blood pulsing in her arm. He wanted to weep, to throw himself down and at her mercy, but that wasn’t what he was here for and there was an experiment he needed to perform. Slowly he tried to reconstruct the motions his mouth had made when he drank from her. Some suction with his lips, a slight stroking of his tongue. He licked, slowly and deliberately, until he heard a soft gasp.
Sanan looked up at Chizuru. Her pupils were dilated, slightly, and her mouth was open. Sanan had never kept company with a woman, Shimabara had always seemed somehow beneath him, but he had read enough about female sexual arousal to know its signs. It was a hypothesis that Sanan had not quite allowed himself to admit he was considering. Had she opened her veins and gifted herself to him to slake not his yearning but her own? Could she have been so selfish? Chizuru was not a selfish person, yet the hypothesis was certainly worth investigating further. He bent his head and continued the experiment, licking long, slow strokes up her arm.
“Remember,” Sanan said, “If I do anything that makes you in the slightest bit uncomfortable, please speak. But otherwise please do not. And now I will need you to close your eyes.” He wanted her helpless, as helpless as he was consumed by bloodlust on the floor. Her eyes fluttered shut and Sanan pressed her down until she lay on her back. There was a catch in her breath and she relaxed into his arms. Was this what sexual pleasure looked like? he wondered. He was unfamiliar with it, but it was strangely beautiful. He moved his mouth to her collarbone and licked softly around her neck, and was rewarded with a twitch and another soft moan.
As Sanan touched and licked and stroked he followed the movements of Chizuru’s body. She writhed, lost to herself, her eyes firmly shut. Was this what he had looked like, collapsed in bloodlust? Or consumed by the bliss of Chizuru’s taste? She had seen him at his most vulnerable and yet here she was, giving herself over to his touch. It was unfathomable, and yet allowed for only one possible explanation. It was time for the next phase of the experiment.
“I am about to continue,” he whispered to her, drawing her attention to his voice. “Please let me know if anything discomforts you.” He slowly and carefully pushed aside her clothing to uncover the left side of her chest. Her eyes fluttered open and he paused, waiting as she fixed her eyes first on his face and then on his hands as they hovered over her chest. He set his hands down on her and pushed her bandages up, exposing her breast to his gaze. Her lips parted and he waited for a word but there was none, only gasps and deep breaths. He licked his lips, so as to leave her in no doubt as to what was to come. Then he placed his hand over her eyes and waited until he felt her lashes flutter shut under his palm.
Her breast was soft, so soft, but her nipple hardened into a peak as soon as he tongued it. He took it between his teeth, then rolled it on his tongue, taking his cue from the volume of Chizuru’s sighs and the way she pressed her chest to his mouth. If she was taken by pleasure before, now she was consumed by it. Sanan realized, for the first time, that he was not the only one with hungers that shamed him. Chizuru’s hunger ran just as deep, and she only knew how to express it through submission. He resolved then to make his body a gift to her, to let her take everything she needs from it. It’s no less than she did for him.
He realized then that the experiment would have no natural end. He could unclothe her, could slide himself inside her, and she would respond with nothing more than moans of willing pleasure. He wasn’t quite ready for that, but he could scarcely leave her unsatisfied. He slid one hand between her legs, finding them already parted. He cupped her through her clothes, and then chose a spot to press down. It wasn’t quite right, he could tell, so he moved quickly to another one, and then another, until Chizuru cried out. There. One hand rubbed at what he hoped was her clit while he sucked and kissed her breast. Chizuru was stunning in her pleasure, gasping and helpless, mindlessly chasing sensation. He felt her linger there, needy and desperate, until at last her body and his hand and mouth connected in the way she needed and she shuddered through her whole body and collapsed breathless in his arms.
He had taken so much from her, stripped her of the innocence of imagining that she did not know exactly what she wanted, or how willing he was to give it to her. He placed his erection against her thigh for her to feel through all the layers of clothing and know that it was available to her, should she choose to claim it. He held her as she found her breath. The entire time Chizuru had not spoken. But Sanan had also not spoken while drinking his fill of Chizuru’s blood.
He placed one finger over her lips. There was one more task to accomplish. He replaced her bandage and her clothes, covering her nakedness. Then he lay down beside her, wrapping one leg and one arm around her, drawing her close. She turned to face him, intertwining her limbs with his. It felt good to be this close, to feel her breath and the rapid beat of her heart. “There is something I want to tell you,” he said, his finger remaining on her lips. He can only say it here, only when he’s seen her this vulnerable, and only if she doesn’t speak first. “When you gave me your blood, it was a kind of pleasure I had never experienced, could never even have imagined. You took from me a kind of innocence I didn't know I had." His voice ached from speaking, but he wanted her to understand, and maybe now she could. "I don’t think I know how to feel pleasure like that.”
“I don’t know either,” Chizuru said, after a pause, when his finger withdrew. “But I think I learned a little more tonight. Maybe we can teach each other.”
“Maybe,” Sanan said. In that moment everything felt possible. Chizuru was precious beyond words and her courage might be everything he needed. “Next move’s yours.”
“That’s right,” Chizuru said, accepting her responsibility. Sanan couldn’t imagine what she would do but he expected it would shatter him. He couldn’t help but look forward to it.
Chizuru curled up against him, her face pressed to his chest. It was time to let her rest. The experiment was over. His new life was about to begin.