Vanitas × Noé

Gloves

Noé felt very special because of how much Vanitas trusted him. True, Vanitas had threatened to kill him if he ever even thought about tasting his blood but their relationship was still a work in progress. When they first met, Noé would not have cared in the slightest if Vanitas was comfortable with him. In fact, he would likely have been disturbed. Now, he was rather fond of the manic human.

Noé had noticed they were growing closer. It was in the little things. Vanitas allowing them to touch more, their arguments growing less frequent, more coordination as they fought side by side, even sleeping in the same room was a step up from where they started. Yet, Noé hadn't realised just how far they had progressed until the day Vanitas took his gloves off in front of Noé when they were alone in their room.

Even alone Vanitas preferred to wear them but sometimes they did have to come off. But they always came off in private. It's true that Noé had seen him gloveless before, but that was at a distance and Vanitas had done so impulsively. It was calculated when Vanitas did so in their room. He was in a stable state of mind, not riled up like at the bal masque.

Noé's eyes had immediately been drawn over when Vanitas took his first glove off, flinging it onto his bed. He had been surprised, but it was his unmarked hand so Noé didn't react much. Then Vanitas took the other off. The blue mark of the vampire Vanitas stood starkly against Vanitas's pale skin and Noé continued to stare at it in morbid fascination as Vanitas moved.

"What are you staring at?" Vanitas had hissed and the spell on Noé was broken. His eyes snapped up to meet Vanitas's, the same colour as the mark etched into his skin.

"I'm just surprised to see you're okay with taking those off."

Vanitas had immediately scowled and put his gloves back on, covering the marked hand first. He hadn't removed them again in front of Noé until about a month later. This time Noé didn't comment or stare... at least not so hard that Vanitas would immediately yell at him. The mark fascinated him. It looked as though Vanitas's skin were glass and had been hit by a projectile that, while unable to shatter the surface, had left a lasting impact.

Noé had to remind himself that the 'point of impact' was likely where Vanitas sank his fangs into the human and that Vanitas was indeed not made of glass. He should hope so anyway, with how much he threw the human around. Sometimes, as he glanced at the mark, Noé would wonder about what kind of person vampire Vanitas was. They were powerful, that much was obvious, but why did they do the things they did? How did their book come to be? Why mark Vanitas? He almost wanted to meet them, though Noé would never mention this.

Other times, Noé wondered what his mark of possession would look like. He hadn't marked anyone before but was curious. Would it be brutal like the vampire of the blue moon's? Or elegant like Jeanne's? Sometimes, guiltily, he would wonder what his mark would look like on Vanitas's skin in particular. Where it would be? How it would contrast his skin? He wondered and wondered knowing it would get him nowhere.

Vanitas had a past that he was very protective of. Noé would never get a bite because he was an Archiviste. Sometimes he wondered how Vanitas knew what the name meant. Even before he looked into Amelia's memories the man had reacted strangely to the name, Archiviste.

Noé had often wished to be a normal vampire throughout his life. Teacher praised him for being an Archiviste but at the same time everyone else was cautious with him. He had learned early on that people didn't like him gazing at their memories. It was invasive, even more so now that he had control of his abilities.

Though it upset him that he was born in such a way, Noé accepted it. He understood why people were uncomfortable with him. He understood that Vanitas was a private person. And he was okay with it. Vanitas showed him a remarkable degree of trust and only continued to show him more. He was amazed with the progression of their relationship.

Even if he would never bite Vanitas he was glad that the human could show him his marks without fear anymore. Noé himself found the blue moon's mark oddly beautiful but he knew Vanitas didn't feel the same way. That was okay. While Noé thought the mark itself was incredible the story behind it was likely traumatic. He understood that it may stop being quite so beautiful if he learned its origin. That was okay too.

Over the course of the months he had been with Vanitas his perspective on a lot of things had changed. The world itself was much more complicated than he had ever imagined and it was inhabited by such a wide variety of people. It was nothing like where he grew up.

His perspective on Vanitas had perhaps changed the most from his time in Paris out of everything. Noé suspected it would only continue to change. Vanitas had started as a means to an end, someone he had to interact with simply because he possessed the book. Then he had become interesting in and of himself. Then he became an ally. Then a friend. And maybe in the future he could become something more once again...