It didn't show. The stress bleeding Arisis's energy away, making his soul coil in his body, it settled around him like an invisible layer of drying lacquer over his heart, constricting and protecting deceptively. A thin, crackled lacquer bridge from problems that must be solved to some other place was hardly strong enough to hold for long.
David watched him enter the rooms they shared. Really, they were Arisis's rooms, and everyone on board the Koneko seemed much happier to have the vampire in the most secure rooms. For a moment their eyes meet, violet and green, and the weight of thin lacquer defenses grew heavier on Arisis's shoulders.
A smile lazed it's way over David's lips, as he leaned his back against the wall. He wore the cream-colored leather pants he'd worn when they'd escaped St. Elise, a thin silk shirt that noting would ever get the blood stains out of, and Arisis's collar, tilverite, unbreakable, even by the vampire. Caramel curls lay around his shoulders though, making him look almost angelic, in a tarnished and hopeless kind of way. He hooked one foot around the stool and let his eyes roam over his Master in a very suggestive way, lingering on his face, on the strands of red hair clinging to his cheek, the wrinkles in his dress pants. Wickedly, David shifted the chain that bound him to the wall, letting the links clink against the counter, drape over his leg. He didn't even bother to lower his eyes while he did it, instead he wet his lip, drawing his tongue along his thin upper lip. "Negotiations going well, Arisis?"
The thin layer of protective distance ignited around Arisis, burning so that even his hair stood on end, just a bit. He stood there for a moment, trying to force his slave into submission, into silence with his narrowed eyes and draw in expression, willing his slave to shut up and leave him alone.
As if on cue, music leaked into the room, rough fast music, deep and complicated, blood music. It had been a gift, this music, from Arisis to David, not long after the vampire had recovered from their escape. Arisis didn't like the music. It settled into his gut, pulsing like some primitive hunt and chase. "That's feeding music. Do you really think you're getting some tonight?"
The smile now was broader, as he ran his tongue over a tiny little fang. "Well, one of us ought to."
"I might go fuck Omi. He offered."
That took the smile off, wrinkled David's nose as if he'd been offered a pretty pink cupcake with little kitty in a bow on top. "Sure. If that's what rocks you. Try not to break him though. He said he'd play chess with me tomorrow."
"Who said you could have a visitor?" Arisis said, with more anger than he really felt over it. He didn't care if his friends played chess with is pet.
David lifted his chin, tilting his head, wanting what was coming, feeling passion rise before Arisis's hand connected. Open handed, the human couldn't hurt him, but the slap burned, stung across his cheek and knocked him from the stool. He caught himself with his hands against the counter, then found his face pressed down to the tile surface. "Don't move, slave," Arisis's voice held that edge, his Master's edge and it brought what remained of David's humanity up in him. It was rare for a connection to give that back to a vampire, to give him his small and vulnerable self back to him. Face to the counter, he trembled under Arisis's fingers as they gripped his neck. "You are mine! And I will say who visits you, who plays with you, who fucks you, who feeds you!"
"Yes, Master," David whispered, his voice thick, adoring, trusting, full of his own need, begging for what he needed and couldn't express in any kind of coherent wording. He wanted to call Arisis master again, wanted to adore him, but he knew Arisis needed to burn away his anger first, so he pressed up against Arisis's control, moving his body so he brushed against Arisis, his taller body both defying Arisis and seducing him. They both knew that if David really fought back, his undead strength would bend Arisis in half, so this half defiance was more of an offer, an offer of submission and acceptance.
Time hung slow and thick between them then, as Arisis's rage threatened to roar out of control. It was like a forest fire, sometimes, some seeds only opened in the fire.