Back when Code Zero was brand new with the only members being one human military man and an eccentric vampire, the human had found himself with a surprising amount of free time, compared to his previous life. There was a time of adjustment, as he ran on a completely different schedule than the pink-haired vampire known as Takeuchi. At least the change was easier due to the time he used to spend on watch duty in the army, though it had been a while since he had to spend the full graveyard shift awake.

Adjusting to his new coworker had been a bit harder, as Takeuchi proved to be a rather difficult person to work with. The man would get so absorbed into his work that practically anything could happen around him, and his focus would still stay on whatever experiment or invention he was working on. He would also forget about human limitations, asking him to test out his inventions, even though it was an invention made for vampires. Maeda quickly learned not to test his luck with accompanying Takeuchi in whatever plan he had cooked up to improve their operations unless it was absolutely necessary.

He had managed to get fairly used to him by the time he introduced him to Saionji, even got along with him quite well at that point. Saionji however didn’t seem to take to the eccentric vampire as easily. He seemed to avoid him as much as he was able, unsettled by the man and how different he was to most people that either of them had encountered before. Which was how Maeda knew Saionji would be sparse this evening. He always was, if he could help it, preferring to be outside patrolling or the like.

This early evening when Maeda came underground, music was playing, surprising him. He had worked together with the odd vampire for a while, but this was the first time he had been greeted by anything but enthusiastic babble, clinking of metal or utter silence.

He found the man sitting on the floor, books and papers spread out all over the room. His back was hunched over construction paper as he measured and drew, the tip of his tongue sticking out between razor-sharp teeth in concentration.

For once, Takeuchi looked up once Maeda called out to him, back cracking loudly as he straightened up. He seemed to have been waiting for him. “What are you doing?” Maeda asked, making the vampire beam up at the taller man in front of him, his face looking like it would start to radiate heat just like the sun he hadn’t seen in years, from the brightness of his smile.

“I’ve been thinking about our sensitivity to sound and am working on how to amplify soundwaves. It’s far from done so far, I still need to make a lot of adjustments. The goal is to have something you can attach to any gramophone, so there’s no need to buy speciality ones. It’s going to keep the cost down greatly, and will be able to be used by anyone who needs to protect themselves from vampires. It won’t kill us, but with the right tools it will stun us enough to either escape or attack. I’d like to request an increase in the budget to get additional parts to continue”

“If you want me to consider increasing your budget you need to hand in an official form.“ In fact, he was pretty sure the man had been shown where to find all the different forms and where to file everything.

“Yes yes, I will fill it out.” Takeuchi puttered around with the gramophone, turning the record over, exchanging the needle for a new one and lowering it carefully. When he turned back to his co-worker, his fingertips rested against each other as he looked up at the man in front of him. “Do you dance?”

Dance? Takeuchi’s sole focus was on Maeda as he waited for a response, eyes alight with expectation. Maeda did indeed know how to dance, but he couldn’t see why this would be relevant when the invention he was working on was meant to hurt vampires with, not to dance to.

With narrowed eyes, Maeda nodded firmly. “It has been a while, but yes.”

Takeuchi held out his hand in invitation. “May I have this dance, captain?” Maeda looked down at the vampire’s gloved hand in consideration, until he gripped Takeuchi’s hand, pulling the vampire in by the waist with the other.

“Only one,” he agreed. “I will lead.”

Takeuchi changed the position of his hands to accommodate the height of his impromptu dance partner, bouncing slightly on the soles of his shoes in enthusiasm. Maeda looked the vampire in the eye and started to move. Takeuchi swiftly backed up a step, following Maeda’s movements. Maeda would never have expected Takeuchi to know how to dance, what with how hyperfixated he was on his work, yet the man managed to surprise him. He was easy to lead, and they moved around the room without difficulty.

He didn’t recognise the song in particular, though it felt vaguely familiar, but the beat was rhythmic and reminded him of the dances he had attended while on duty abroad. A lot of soldiers spent their evenings dancing with the local women, and even he had joined in enough to consider himself quite good at it.

Before they knew it, the needle lifted off the record and they were bathed in silence. Maeda tried to hide the fact that he’d been smiling toward the end of the dance, but knew he was caught when Takeuchi picked up a different record. “Do you know any other dances?” He was clearly fishing for a yes to dance some more, and oddly, he found he didn’t mind.

“Lindy hop and charleston… and argentine tango,” he admitted, which made Takeuchi’s cheeks flush a slight shade of pink at the mention of the last one, before he turned around to pick out a record. “I don’t have anything quite as sensual as argentine tango calls for, but I imported this record from America a couple of years ago that will do great with the other two.”

Making sure to be careful with the replacement of records and needles, he put on the next song. He quickly came back to where Maeda was standing, a bounce to his step. “Soooo, how about lindy hop?” Maeda nodded as the music crackled to life. It was a fast paced song right from the start, and the quick tempo of the sound made sure they were kept on their toes, as Maeda lead Takeuchi across the floor.

They seemed to be dancing in perfect pace with each other, until a few minutes in, where the sole of Takeuchi’s dress shoe ended up on top of Maeda’s sturdy army boot in the middle of a motion.

Takeuchi fell backwards, Maeda’s own body rushing down at him. He probably could have stopped the fall had he not been as surprised as he was, what with vampires heightened reflexes, but as luck would have it, his fall was partially cushioned by the couch that had recently been brought in in anticipation of human life. Maeda managed to stop his own decent, his arms hitting the couch seat on either side of Takeuchi’s head.

They stared at each other in silence, the only sounds that of the last section of the song and the crackling of the gramophone. Takeuchi’s face was red, his mouth partially open in surprise. Maeda’s own face was heating up at the compromising position and just how close their faces were together. Their noses were almost touching from how close they were.

Maeda had the brief thought that Takeuchi’s position of only half his back on top of the couch while the rest of his body was flush against his own might be a bit uncomfortable, but it seemed like that wasn’t even on the vampire’s mind.

He’d caught the glance down at his lips, the way Takeuchi’s own glistened from biting his lower lip just before he looked back up into his captain’s eyes, realising his staring was caught.

Maeda shifted, allowing Takeuchi the space to sit on the floor, back propped up against the couch. One of Maeda’s hands cupped the back of Takeuchi’s head while the other steadied him against the couch, the scientist’s own hands coming up on either side of his face to hold his cheeks.

Without hesitation, both of them moved.

The room was silent now that the music had stopped, but they failed to notice. Their lips melded together, Takeuchi’s cold to the touch, sending a shiver down Maeda’s spine at the temperature. It was pleasant.

Takeuchi parted his lips at the prodding of a tongue, and Maeda couldn’t help but revel at the sounds the man made as he sucked his lower lip between his, sucking and biting, not enough to risk actual bloodshed, but enough to make it swell from the treatment.

With a firm grip around narrow hips, Maeda pulled Takeuchito lie with his back on the floor, lips never parting with the others. He pinned the other man to the ground with one hand still on his hip, the other gripping firmly into pink hair to pull his head back to expose his neck. He moved down the vulnerable neck, teeth marking pale skin, when-

“S-Saionji-san!”

Maeda froze in the middle of his movement at Takeuchi’s voice, lifting his head to look toward the door he himself had come through not too long ago, startled.

Clearly however, the one feeling the most taken aback by the situation was Saionji, standing in the middle of the doorway, eyes wide with shock as he looked between the vampire and human on the floor. The colour was drained from his face. “I, hm, Captain, I was- excuse me, I!”

The man seemed at a loss for words, but the two on the floor caught the flush starting to creep up his face when he turned around to leave in such a hurry he dropped the papers he was carrying.

Groaning, Maeda straightened his back, getting up to his feet. This was going to be a pain to deal with. “Go back to work. I have to talk to Saionji.”

The look on Takeuchi’s face wasn’t nearly as embarrassed as most people would have been at the compromising situation they had been caught in, but then, Maeda had quickly learned that Takeuchi was a very unconventional man, but the slightly flushed cheeks and swollen lips suited him well.

That had to be the only explanation for his lapse in judgement when he added on another sentence before leaving. “We can see about revisiting whatever that was at a later date.”

Not very romantic, but then, he had never been particularly so.

Still, it somehow made Takeuchi grin wide.

“Of course, Maeda-san!”

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