He'd long since gotten a taste of Fai's blood in his mouth, but there were worse problems that he was having to deal with. Breathing and counting was more annoying than one would have thought, and it took a bit more concentration than Kurogane really wanted to give. Every blasted second he had to count on the break was treated as a curse word in his mind.

"You mean I have to keep doing this?" he hissed on one of the five second counts. He hadn't stopped himself just yet, but the only reason behind that was because the blond hadn't told him he could. Now it sounded like he would be stuck doing this until the magician started breathing on his own. Not something he wanted to do.