Chapter Text
"When was the last time you ate?"
The words were familiar, both on Nico’s lips and to his ears. So familiar, in fact, that Hazel had gotten them dish towels with the phrase printed on them. Between the forgetfulness that came with ADHD and the next-to-nothing appetite that came with medication, it was a miracle if both Nico and Will remembered to eat three square meals before the sun set.
Will sucked in a breath. "Three… maybe four hours ago? Work had pizza."
"No, I mean ate ate," Nico clarified, having just watched his partner bump into every piece of furniture they owned. That kind of clumsiness only came when vampire senses were dulled by hunger.
"Oh." Will scratched his head. "Hmm."
"If you can't tell me off the top of your head, it's been too long," Nico noted.
"You're probably right." Will opened the fridge. "Fuck." He opened the freezer. " Fuck ."
"Are you out?"
"Looks like it." Will's forehead thunk ed against the fridge door. "And I've got Monday off, too, so I won't get my hands on anything until Tuesday at the earliest." He groaned, then looked over at Nico. "Speaking of Tuesday, your eight weeks are up. Want to come with?"
"They won't take me." A smile curled at the edge of Nico's mouth.
"What do you mean? Of course we'll take you." Will's eyebrows knit together in confusion. "You've been taking your iron supplements, I've watched you do it."
Nico laughed. Of course Will would think anemia was their biggest problem. "They won't take me, and it's your fault. Question twenty-one, remember?"
Will's eyes widened, and a faint blush dusted the tops of his cheeks. Nico was certain that, if he were well-fed, Will's face would be bright red. "Oh. Oh, no ." He buried his face in his hands. "I'm a terrible person," he mumbled. "Taking a universal donor off the market."
"You're not the one with homophobic policies," Nico pointed out. "Besides, this solves your problem."
"How? This feels like more problems."
"I can't donate, but I'm a universal donor. You need blood." Nico stood.
Will shook his head, backing away. "Nico, we've been over this."
"You don't have a reason to say no to me anymore." Excitement built in Nico’s chest, but he pushed it down. The last thing he needed was for Will to know just how much he wanted this. That was a conversation for another time. "I'm the right type and it's been eight weeks since I've donated. Last time you chickened out because it was too intimate, but that excuse won't work now, considering—"
"Yeah, nope, I got that," Will interrupted before Nico could bring up exactly why he wasn't eligible to donate anymore. "Still not happening."
"Coward." Nico grinned. This wasn't the first time Will had turned him down, but he'd had actual excuses before.
"It's not safe!"
Nico scoffed. "If that were true, there wouldn't be hundreds of vampire families feeding from live donors. Yours included."
Will sucked in a breath that sounded an awful lot more like a hiss. "Damn you."
Practically nobody knew it, because he tried his very hardest to keep it under wraps, but Will hailed from one of the oldest vampire families in the world. Nico had, after a particularly frustrating back-and-forth, threatened to just get one of Will's cousins to bite him if Will wouldn't, which did absolutely nothing to help his chances. The threat had been empty, because the only cousin within a hundred-mile radius was Octavian, and Nico figured he'd rather stay unbitten and unsatisfied forever than let Octavian's fangs anywhere near his skin.
"Even if it is safe in theory," Will put in, saving Nico from the thought of physical contact with Octavian, "that doesn't mean it'll be safe for us. I don't know how to bite someone effectively, I could kill you."
Three months earlier, that would have been the end of things, but Nico wasn't ready to give up.
"Well, we both know the jugular is a no-go, but there are a ton of other arteries that aren't as big," Nico explained. "The subclavian artery is your best bet, because it has the lowest risk of damaging any surrounding muscle since it's relatively close to the surface." He decided against mentioning that the brachial artery would be just as effective, because dammit , if he was going to finally convince Will to bite him, it would not be on his arm. "Plus, vampire saliva contains a coagulant, so you can make sure I won't bleed out."
"You've... clearly done your research on this."
Nico held up a three-finger salute. "Boy Scout motto: Always be prepared."
"I know for a fact you were never a Boy Scout."
Nico dropped two fingers of his salute. "Point is, I know what I'm getting into. You have no more reasons to say no to me."
Will sighed, then went silent for a long time, hands folded in front of his face. Nico knew it was the closest he'd ever get to praying, because his voice caught at the mere mention of God, like his body rejected the word. Still, standing in their kitchen with his head bowed, he looked every bit like a man praying to a higher power.
But there wasn't a higher power, at least not one who would take pity on Will, because Will wasn't a man. He was a vampire, and he was smart enough to know that waiting until Tuesday for the off chance that he'd be able to find and steal a bag of blood that matched his type was far too risky.
"Okay," he relented, and Nico's internal celebration was dampened by the fear and resignation in Will's voice.
Nico took Will’s hands, prying them away from his face. "Hey," he said softly. "You know I wouldn't ask you if I wasn't completely sure about this."
"Oh, I know you're sure." Will laughed quietly. "You're clearly missing that sense of self-preservation that comes with human brains. I'm the one dragging my feet."
"Why?"
Will sighed. "I'm not sure. I'm scared, I think."
"Scared of what?"
"Of hurting you. And..." Will winced. "I'm scared of losing control. I don’t know if I'll be able to stop myself."
That was a factor Nico hadn’t considered. "I trust you."
"I know. You're insane." Will reached above the fridge and pulled a box about the length of his forearm down. "Which is why I trust you to keep yourself safe."
He held the box out to Nico, who gingerly opened it to find a stick, just under a foot long and pointed at one end, glittering with something more than iron or steel.
"Is this...?"
"Silvered stake," Will answered quietly, and Nico could hear his lisp start to come through as his fangs made their entrance.
Nico's eyes widened. Aside from skin cancer or plain old age, a stake through the heart was the only surefire way to kill a vampire, and silvered blades had the best chance of cutting through the vampire's skin, which would otherwise be protected by their own advanced healing. Out of an abundance of caution, Nico had switched to titanium jewelry, and here Will was with a silvered fucking stake next to his Cheerios!
"Why the fuck do you have that?" Nico recoiled.
"Boy Scout motto, right?" Will tried for a smile. "If you start getting lightheaded, or… or if it seems like I'm not letting go, I want your word that you'll use this."
"I'm not killing you."
"I'm not asking you to. You wouldn't be able to reach my heart, anyway. But if you get me in the leg or the stomach, it'll stop me before I hurt you."
"I don't want—"
"That's my condition," Will interrupted. "If something goes wrong, I will get better. You won't ." He held the box out to Nico. "Promise me you'll keep yourself safe."
Gingerly, Nico reached out and took the stake. It was colder and heavier than he'd expected, carrying the weight of being the one thing that could end his boyfriend’s life then and there. "I will."
"Okay." Will let out a breath, like a weight had been taken off of his shoulders. "Let's do this."
Truly, Nico should have expected that the preparation for the bite would be as sterile and compliant-with-Red-Cross-policy and thoroughly unsexy as possible. At least Nico had convinced Will to take his shirt off, too, under the guise of not wanting to wash blood out of it later if things got messy.
"Are you ready?"
I've been ready , Nico wanted to say, but his gaze was locked on Will’s fangs, now fully extended. Had they always looked that sharp? Had he always had a second set on the bottom? The stake was ice in his hand, and for the first time, he understood why Will was so worried about safety. Fangs like those weren't meant to keep a victim alive.
"I'm ready," he answered.
"Okay." Will stepped in close. "Just relax," he murmured, his voice low in Nico’s ear, almost lulling him to sleep. "It’s not gonna hurt."
The first time he’d said those words, eye contact was the only way to make sure Nico would be affected by the persuasive tone he used for work, but that was before they’d started dating, before they’d moved in together, before all it took was a whisper to convince Nico of practically anything Will said.
One hand clasped Nico's shoulder. The other came up to cup his face, tilting his head away, exposing his neck and shoulder. Nico could feel the warmth of Will’s breath on his skin and thought he might go insane if he had to wait any longer.
He was spared insanity— was he?— by the feeling of Will’s mouth on his collarbone, skin giving way to teeth that were designed for this, to puncture and tear and bleed until there was nothing left. A shiver ran through his body, and Will’s hand on his shoulder dropped to encircle his waist, pinning Nico's arm to his side and effectively keeping him upright as his legs outright refused to do the job.
Right when Nico thought he might get used to the feeling of being bitten, warm lips locked on his skin and Will began to draw blood, his fingers curling in, digging into Nico's face and side as he drank, taking anything Nico would give him.
With fangs buried deep in his shoulder, Nico would have given Will everything . The stake hung forgotten in his hand, the one Will had pinned— he couldn't have used it if he wanted to, and he really didn't want to.
With his heartbeat pounding in his ears, Nico knew he was losing blood much quicker than he had the first time Will had taken it from him, back when he was just a cute stranger in a middle school gymnasium a million worlds away. It felt like barely any time had passed, but the chill spreading from his fingers told him he was going to be in trouble if he didn't do something soon.
The stake was out of the question. No matter what Nico had promised, he wasn't willing to mar Will’s unbroken skin with a weapon like that. Instead he reached up with his free hand and, hoping that vampire instincts wouldn't tear his throat out, grabbed a fistful of Will’s hair and pulled .
Will’s head snapped back, both of them gasping as his fangs left Nico's shoulder. Averting his eyes, Will grabbed the gauze he'd set on the table and pressed it to the bite, very clearly avoiding looking at the mark he'd left. All Nico could do was stare. Pain radiated out from the bite, to his shoulder, his arm, his chest, but he didn't care. Will’s eyes were wild, his lips stained with blood— Nico's blood. It covered his teeth, trickled down his chin as he tried to steady his shaky breaths. Will's eyes closed as he licked his lips, almost as if he were savoring the taste and oh, no, Nico was done for. That image was going to haunt his dreams for years , keeping him up at night, he just knew it.
"Are you... Are you okay?" Will kept his eyes on the ceiling, still holding the gauze to Nico's shoulder.
"I'd love a juice box right about now, but otherwise I'm fine."
The corner of Will's mouth twitched. "I think that can be arranged." He took a breath, like he was steeling his nerves, and finally turned to meet Nico's gaze. "But first, let's get you patched up. You said there's a coagulant in my... saliva?"
"Yep. You're like a reverse mosquito."
Will smiled for real, and Nico was once again a little surprised to find that the blood on his face did nothing to cool the butterflies that smile caused. "I've been called worse."
He lifted the gauze and his eyes went wide. Without a mirror, Nico couldn't see what he was looking at, but for a split second, Will looked horrified. Then the easy demeanor that came with years of working as a Red Cross nurse slid back into place, and Nico was left wondering just how bad a vampire bite mark could look. "C'mere, let's see if this works."
He pressed his lips to Nico's collarbone— four small, slow kisses that left Nico's head spinning. Before he could get the new gauze and bandage, Nico stopped his hand.
"I want to see."
"No, you don't," Will warned.
"As a matter of fact, I do." Nico slipped out under his arm and headed for their bathroom, barging through the door to take a look in the mirror.
"Oh, shit..."
Everything he thought he'd known about vampire bites from Hollywood was a complete and total lie. Instead of two neat puncture marks, the imprint of a full set of teeth was visible where Will had bitten down. Four had broken the skin, but the force required to get to his artery meant Nico now carried a bite mark that looked more like a zombie's than a fictional vampire's. The skin around the bite was bruised, some of it already a deep purple. I vant to suck your blood came with a lot more suction than Nico had expected. The coagulant was doing its work, though— even without gauze, the four puncture wounds were bleeding so slowly it was almost imperceptible.
"I'm sorry—" Will began.
"You need to stop apologizing like this was your idea," Nico interrupted. " I wanted this, and I got what I wanted. It was hot."
Will laughed. "I will never understand you."
"Come on, don't act like you didn't like it." Nico looked his boyfriend in the eye. "Be honest."
Will's face turned the color of a cherry tomato, and Nico felt a good deal of satisfaction knowing that he was the reason Will could blush at all. "No comment."
"Oh, you'll be making comments." Nico took his hand, walking back towards the kitchen. "After I get my juice box."