AN: Well, this a slightly shorter chapter – mostly because the next part is supposed to be longish, and knowing myself – that means it will be downright LONG. But at least I hope that this chapter will be more to the liking of those who wait for more Kaname and/or Yagari in this fic. And we are really getting to the point where at least something would be explained and – after that – almost to the point where other characters would eventually join in. So – bear with me, please (and review).

The answers to the reviews are next in my list of things to do – so I think you can safely check the forum thread in around half an hour.

And – I'm getting thoroughly tired of putting disclaimer into each and every chapter – so – once and for all: I do not own VK nor any of its characters nor am I likely to own them in future – I am just using them for my own and your entertainment gaining nothing but satisfaction in the process.

Some people had nightmares that actually had plots… or so he heard… A set of frightening scenes would unfold in their sleeping brain repeating some horrible event in their past or fleshing out the fears they held for the future…

It was never so for him…

His worst nightmare was a sensation… a state…

Immobility…

…and he wondered if the reason was simply that he had lived for too long and his brain didn't bother to sort through the memories of millennia…

…which was rather beside the point right now… though he wished he had some pictures filling the void in which he hung – unable to move… something… anything… to give him an anchor to hang to… anything but this blinding terror that held him in unrelenting thrall…

Immobile… trapped… bespelled… bodiless… dead... captured… locked…

In these dreams he never knew what it was that was holding him – only on some occasions he felt other presences near… hands touching, groping… ropes cutting his flesh… the awful sound of his own body sucking in an alien blood… all those were the echoes of something that had happened to him… but even then – they appeared but for a fleeting second in what felt an eternity of total helplessness and despair… even then – he couldn't be sure they were a part of this dream or if the reasoning part of his mind just supplied them in its endless search for an anchor…

Immobility… he was fighting for any movement… but he was too weak…

He knew that the reasoning would fail him soon – reducing him to blind and mindless fury beating at the inner walls of his skull – then to equally mindless pleas (Whom was he pleading to? He was all alone here…) to be let free, to be released, to please, please be let free…

Immobility… and every time you were immobile something was stolen of you… something important, something irretrievable, something vital – stolen for good…

His dignity… His family… His love… His hope… His life… Even his death…

He thrashed wildly…

…inside his mind, cause he couldn't move and that was the whole point of it – immobility…

…as he tried to remember whether he still had anything that could be stolen now… but it was no use – he was too far gone into the realm of despair to think clearly… and anyway – he wasn't so foolish – on too many occasions he had already thought that there was nothing else he could possibly loose… and proven wrong… and he feared that if he remembered something he would somehow nudge the fates to take it away as well…

No no no no please, not again… let me free… please, please… let me free…

And then – suddenly – he was free! He could move!

And his body moved of its own volition – curling onto the side, his face pressing tightly into the small female hand brushing through his sweat-drenched hair as he breathed out…

"Yuuki! Yuukiyuukiyuukiyuukiyuuki…"

…her name nothing but a pitiful keening sound on his lips…

…as he felt himself failing… falling… finally slipping into a dreamless sleep…

For the umpteenth time Touga found himself grateful for the steady and levelheaded girl the fates have chosen to accompany him through this ordeal. And if he could delude himself previously that somehow or other he would've been able to do it all without her help – he knew better now. Give him a gun and set him against a thousand of vampires – he wouldn't be scared as much – but all this "caring" business…

He felt himself shaking in the aftermath of the sheer terror of trying and failing to wake the boy from the nightmare he was gripped by – the pureblood's distress so obvious, his head rolling on the pillow, his eyes half-open and unseeing, rivulets of sweat running down his face to mingle with rivulets of silent tears upon his cheeks… but the most frightening thing in this picture the hunter had woken up to find beside himself was how the vampire's body kept completely immobile throughout all this - taught as a string but unmoving – in fact it seemed that he hadn't moved at all in his sleep, not even disturbing the blanket that the hunter had wrapped him into with his own hands…

God! A fool!.. But how could I know?..

More important was though that even then – he didn't guess…

He tried to wake the boy up – speaking with him, touching him lightly at first and then plain shaking him – but it only seemed to increase the vampire's distress… and he was really on his wits end when a calm voice suggested softly from over his shoulder:

"Do you think he might be more at ease outside of this blanket? It just seems so uncomfortable to be wrapped like that…"

And indeed – as he gently freed the pureblood out of the constricting fabric, rolling him to his side in the process so that not to expose his nudity and keep the warmth inside – the boy started gradually to calm down, and the hunter gratefully allowed the girl to sooth him further – petting his hair and speaking to him in her soft melodious voice.

Well, if she knew how to deal with it – so much the better… he had enough – and he needed a smoke badly... Picking a fresh change of clothes out of his pack he stumbled to the bathroom to change, when a single word came as a muffled sob from the vampire's lips: "Yuuki!" and the hunter cursed under his breath – that girl! At times – unreasonable as it seemed – Touga felt like she was singularly responsible for this whole mess… it was unfair, he knew, as well as he knew that Yuuki was – basically – a good and kind person… it just seemed that whatever she touched turned to pure havoc… "Especially," he thought shaking his head ruefully, "the lives of some teenaged boys…"

Having changed he came out of the bathroom to find the vampire asleep with his head resting half on the pillow, half on the girl's thigh, her hand still brushing through the black curls in slow soothing motion.

"It is alright, he's sleeping now," she smiled tenderly at the peacefully slumbering pureblood, but when she looked up at Yagari, her gaze reflected concern. "He's feverish, you know? I didn't know that a vampire could catch a cold…"

Ah, how he ached to tell her that "no, they couldn't, not the higher level ones" but he could see the truth of her words by the slightly labored breathing and heightened color of the pureblood. Besides – it all figured… now that the memory he was chasing after for all this time had come unbidden while he was dressing… now that he finally acknowledged the situation that had been staring him in the face from the very beginning if he hadn't hidden from the obvious behind the "need to perform the more immediate tasks first", if he hadn't shut the information that his senses supplied to the farthest corner of his subconscious…

…because he still didn't know what to do with the implications, that's why… and – oh how he wished that Cross was here to deal with them instead of himself… but he couldn't very well leave to fetch him, and he couldn't send the girl alone in the gathering dusk… and he needed that smoke more badly than ever…

…only you cannot get it yet, because there is still a thing you need to do…

"I guess all we can do is give him more blood," he said with tired resignation, "I have some human medicine in my pack, but I'm not sure how it would act with a vampire"

…one more thing that Cross would probably know…

"You can draw some from me, but I'd appreciate if you used a syringe".

"I can certainly use a syringe," the girl gently transferred Kaname's head to the pillow and stood up. "But I won't be using it on you. Yagari-sensei," she interrupted firmly as he opened his mouth to object, "it's barely three hours since you gave him two full cups of your blood. You may feel refreshed right now after you've slept a little, but it's too large an amount and too little time has passed for it to be restored. You go have your smoke…" she giggled at the surprised expression on his face despite the serious matters they were discussing… "In case you have not noticed, sensei, you've been playing with that pack in your hand since you came out of the bathroom… so, you go have a smoke, and I'll take care of everything myself here… and when you return we are both having some tea and something to eat too."

It felt wrong to allow her to do it… and not even offer his help… (what help?..) but the truth was he felt lightheaded even thinking of sparing some more blood… so he guessed he could allow it – just this once… and, God, did he say he was grateful she was here?.. well, he is saying it right now… and he – he really needed to smoke… and to think…