#I feel like there’s this notion that wide/soft/flat features are not considered elegant and I’m here to ROMANTICIZE IT

[pinayelf]

Giving my ocs wide/bulbous noses and flat profiles bc I feel like those features are not appreciated enough

[artyartpile]

Being Alive Sucks 

08. Respite

Lineart and base colours done by @aurantia-ignis. 

_ _ _ _ _ _ 

Caves, Gladion thought with a wince, were obviously nowhere as comfortable as a bed.

Still, they were a better choice than being caught out in the open, in the sunlight, where Moon would be vulnerable and it'd be far too easy to be surrounded. At least it offered some security. Their campfire was angled towards the entrance, where a large rock in front of it provided an adequate shield for the sunlight from leaking through- a fact that the vampire he was travelling with greatly appreciated. This deep in the forest, they'd be able to hear any attackers before they appeared, and the narrow entrance also meant that Gladion could mount a sufficient defense against potential intruders while Moon slept.

But despite their arduous trek through the night, Moon was, unsurprisingly, not exhausted at all.

"Vampiric stamina," she said when he groused about how she looked the peak of health. She grinned, her fangs showing. "Winded, Gladion?"

He grunted in response, trying not to bristle under her gaze. The fire between them shone an eerie light into her gray eyes, sharp and cold. It was the one feature that always betrayed her- despite her dainty frame and elegant clothes, there was no disguising the predatory look in her eyes. 

Gladion didn't very much appreciate being prey. Not from his mother, and not from Moon. But if he had to choose one or the other, well... at least Moon wasn't out to kill him. Yet. And of course, there were other... benefits.

He flushed at the thought, but the circumstances- and the hard ground underneath him- quickly snapped him back to the present. Moon was still watching him, and with a telling smirk, she winked at him. With a huff, he glanced away, back to the barely visible cave entrance.

It was probably past midnight, maybe sometime into the early morning. After travelling for most of the night, avoiding the tell-tale signs of the assassins dotting the main road and opting for the harder journey through the forest, exhaustion was creeping up onto his muscles and limbs. Gladion was used to exertion, but continuous nights of this game of cat and mouse was starting to wear on his mind, as well as his body.

Then Moon shifted, poking at the fire. She'd been unusually docile all night, considering. No wanton advances, no horribly ill-timed dark jokes. Sure, the smile on her face never wavered, but still-

"Are you hungry?" 

Her eyes shot up to him, and he caught faint surprise on her face before it quickly morphed back to her usual smirk. "Coming on to me? In this cave?" She tutted, shaking her head. "Have you no shame?" 

"No, I'm- I'm not-" Gladion drew in a deep breath, scowled at the vampire that was both his bedmate and his potential-killer. "It's been a hard journey. I had dinner. You haven't. Not in days."

"And you're offering your blood out of the kindness of your heart?" 

Gladion's cheeks and neck were burning now. Not just from the memory of her mouth and fangs on his skin, but also at the patronizing smile she wore. Moon was no human, wasn't capable of empathy or kindness, but she was the only reason why he was alive, so-

He unbuttoned his shirt, tugged the collar to reveal his neck. "Here," he said. "You should feed."

There was no telling what went on behind Moon's too-still smile. Still, there was a slight pause before she tilted her head. "You don't even want me to sleep with you?"

"I need you at full strength tomorrow night," he answered. "And after the difficult terrain tonight, it wouldn't be right for me to expect you-"

She laughed at him. A sharp, ringing laughter that echoed throughout the cave. Clutching at her sides, Moon doubled over, any semblance of poise gone. 

And when she finally wheezed out the last chuckle, her silver eyes flicked back to him. "Ever the gentleman, aren't you, Gladion?"

Gladion scowled, tugging his collar back. "I'm just offering you food. If you're not hungry-"

She moved quicker than his eye could follow. Within a breath, her hand was on top of his, her face just a few inches away. Gladion froze, all too aware of the coy smile she was wearing, the deathly chill of her touch despite the warm fire not a few feet away. The predator's look in her eyes.

The heavy thumping of his heart and the anticipation in his veins.

"What's food without a little fun, hm?" Her voice slid across the stone floor, cold and soft and full of a tantalizing promise.

"This isn't exactly the time to have fun," he muttered. "Or, the best place."

"Ever the gentleman." She smirked. Then, without a second's hesitation, she kissed his neck. Softly, teasingly. Her tongue, wet and cold, sliding across the half-healed punctures where she fed from him last. He gasped, tensing. But instead of the quick pain of her bite, her hands slid down the parting of his shirt, onto the skin of his chest. Fingers spread wide deliberately as they teasingly made their way down his torso, nails glancing across his skin.

"Moon-" He was trembling now, his voice strangled as she pulled herself onto his lap. 

She lifted her head. But instead of her coy smirk, there was a gentle smile, one that warmed the chill of her eyes. 

"Gladion," she said softly, his name on her tongue sending shivers down his spine. "A deal's a deal, and if you're a gentleman, you'd honor it. At least, let me have a little fun, hm? To ease the tension of the... day. And as a reward, for protecting you. I'm sure you'd enjoy it, too."

He narrowed his eyes. Swallowed. "There could be assassins right outside, waiting to kill us." 

Moon laughed- the suggestion that human assassins could sneak up on her was ludicrous, but that she would dismiss it so easily set a tight knot in his stomach.  

Still, before Gladion could retort, Moon stilled him with a cold fingertip on his lips. Traced it down his jaw, along his throat. Watched him with eyes full of predatory intent. 

"Then at least we'd die in the throes of pleasure."

He didn't answer, but when she kissed him again, he responded by parting his lips and pulling her close. She wrapped her legs around him and, with urgency, pushed him down to the cold, hard floor. The aches and pains of his muscles faded away as he gave in to her, let her touch stir the fire within him. 

If nothing else, he had to admit- it was fun. It always was, with Moon. It was the only time when she resembled anything but the vampiric creature she so usually was, when she was warm in his arms, when her cries and desire mingled with his and he almost forgot she was a monster. 

At least until she bit into him, and the sharp pain sent him over the edge in ecstasy. 

She fed on him as he came down from his high. Through the dizzy fog, he was vaguely aware of her naked weight on his lap and the sounds of feeding just above his collarbone. Of the gray eyes, framed by dark hair, flicking over to him with some measure of warmth even as his blood dripped down her lips.

"That wasn't so bad, hm?" 

He managed a nod, and her soft chuckle rippled through his skin. A faint brush of her lips against his, the metallic taste of blood against his tongue... and then she was gone. The strange weight and unnaturally cool body disappeared, a disorienting feeling. Gladion blinked. Faint sunbeams streamed through the crack of the cave, and with a start, he realized that it must be dawn.

"You should sleep, too," Moon murmured. She stalked some distance away, before settling down on a flat part of earth. 

"So that I won't stake you?"

"You need me," Moon smirked, crossing her arms to cradle her head. "You won't stake me till then. Besides, you enjoy my company. But no- you should rest, Gladion. Nobody will attack us here."

"You don't know that-" he began, but with a roll of her eyes, she turned away from him. 

"Ever the gentleman."

Gladion stilled. It wasn't until she said nothing more that he realized she had already fallen fast asleep. And with a strange pang, he knew their conversation was at its end. 

Quietly, he pulled on his shirt and pants, made a mental note to take a bath at a nearby river before the night fell again. Considered whether he should take Moon's advice to rest, or to keep watch over the vampire that sometimes felt more enemy than friend.

She slept soundly by the dying embers of the fire. Despite her nakedness, she seemed unperturbed by the morning chill- yet another side-effect of vampirism, Gladion supposed. It still unnerved him to see a woman so casual with her body around him, and as much as he wanted to remind himself that Moon was a vampire, a monster, someone who was preying on him, sometimes... he wondered.

Towering over her, it was so easy to imagine how quickly he could rid the world of her. While it was true that he desired her power, it was also true that she was a monster, and during the day, when she was vulnerable, he could easily kill her.

But the look on her face wasn't arrogant or coy- just at peace. The smile she wore was... uncharacteristically gentle. Part of him wanted to tuck her hair behind her ears, just like he would Lillie's, when she was much younger. In the faint light from the embers, there was a warm hue to her skin. Perhaps almost like how she would have looked, if she was alive.

His throat tightened at the thought. And, unbidden, his hands moved. 

Quietly, Gladion picked up his coat and her petticoats, and tucked them gently around her form. Hesitated, before brushing a finger across her cheek and tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

She shifted at his touch, leaned into him. But she didn't wake. 

Something twisted in his heart, and as he backed away, Gladion couldn't shake the notion that he'd intruded into something vulnerable and soft. Something Moon would probably not have wished for him to see.

He was her prey. She was a monster. Something he'd made a deal with in order to keep his family safe. Something he knew would kill him without hesitation, and would, once his use to her was at an end. It was something he'd come to terms with already. 

But in the early dawn, in that brief moment when she was asleep, she looked... human. 

And as he sat down on the stone floor, settled in for a long wait as the sunbeams warmed the cave... Gladion imagined he would have liked to know that Moon a lot more.