Chapter Text
rubbing his eyes with an oversized sweater sleeve, narancia ghirga shuffled through the small, cozy kitchen of buccellati's house, stopping only for a moment to take a final sip of water to wash down his pills. it was a quarter til 3 am, but narancia's internal clock was so out of whack after the battle-filled escapade he and the rest of the gang had returned from just a few weeks earlier that going to bed at 3 had become his new normal. he set down the now empty water cup and yawned, about to finish the trek to his bedroom when he felt a warm breath on the back of his neck. his half-awake brain wasn't given a chance to comprehend what was happening before two small, sharp objects dug into narancia's neck.
he yelped and whipped around on instinct, stretched out his arm, and began to call out for his stand. "aerosm- w-wait..." he blinked once, twice to make sure the face staring back at him was the one he thought it was. two piercing, sky blue eyes on a pale face framed with three curls of golden hair; it was giorno, team buccellati's second newest recruit and the current underboss of passione. he too blinked when he saw narancia, and his eyes widened in some kind of realization. narancia continued his somewhat squeaky-voiced protests. "giogio, what the hell?! did you just bite me?!"
giorno took a step back, let his mouth hang open a bit, revealing two fangs gleaming in the dim light of the moon shining through the kitchen windows. he lifted his right hand to grip his left arm, the fabric of his t-shirt creasing in his fist. "i-i'm sorry, narancia, i swear there's an explanation..." he gritted his teeth, showing off the fangs again. narancia stared for a moment in a mix of awe, confusion, and fear before responding with a tired sigh.
"y'know what? try me. i've probably been through weirder stuff." he hopped onto an open spot on the counter, let his legs hang down just above the floor as he kicked them back and forth nervously.
giorno started slowly, his voice shakier than narancia had ever heard it, though he took into account that giorno was never up this late and he probably wasn't in the right headspace. narancia couldn't really judge; his mind was all kinds of messed up after what everyone had been through the month before.
"so, er... i've always inherited traits from my father. i got my stand from him, and the blonde hair, too." he let go of his sleeve to point to his hair, which had become messier throughout the night, before letting his hand fall to his side again. "and, um, according to someone i met the day before i joined passione, my father also had some, uh, different powers. he was, um..." giorno's voice trailed off as he tried to figure out how to phrase his next point without sounding too outlandish. narancia raised an eyebrow.
"he was...?"
"my father was a vampire. i-i know it sounds bizarre, but-"
"nah, not really," narancia interrupted, shrugging. "giorno, i've seen you turn bullets into body parts. you think i'm gonna be blown away when you say your dad was a vampire?"
giorno paused, then gave a nervous laugh. "i suppose you're right. but, yes, my father was a vampire. and, like the stand ability, i think i’m starting to inherit his, um... is the term 'vampirism?'"
"don't ask me. i dunno what words mean," narancia said as he leaned back, letting himself put the pieces of giorno's tangent together. after a few seconds, he shot up, nearly falling off the counter. "hold up-" he shouted, flailing his arms until they made contact with the edge of the counter and he could get a good grip. "you're saying you're a vampire?!"
giorno raised a hand to hide his smile at narancia's wild movements. "yes, that is exactly what i'm saying," he answered when he could manage a straight face again.
narancia stared incredulously for a second. "oh. uh. damn." his mind was racing with a mix of emotions he couldn't figure out, but few words actually made their way out of his mouth, slipping out like drops of water from a dried-up faucet. "so, do you need to, like, suck blood to survive or whatever?"
giorno hesitated for a moment. “i’m... not exactly sure,” he answered, unease clear in his voice. “when i snuck up behind you earlier, it was like some sort of… instinct overtook me. i wasn’t exactly sure what i was doing.”
narancia nodded, suddenly realizing just how heavy his eyelids felt. i’m too tired for this… he thought to himself, but nonetheless he decided that a gang member suddenly turning into a vampire was more important than sleep. “let’s take this to my room. i’m exhausted,” he mumbled as he hopped off the counter, raising his index finger to cut off any protest when he saw giorno open his mouth to speak out of the corner of his eye.
the walk up the stairs and through the hallway was silent, the two teens being careful to avoid waking up any of their companions. narancia had taken giorno’s hand to steady himself; he was half awake and could barely stand up, so it was only logical to hold on to giorno, but nonetheless narancia could feel his face heating up at the contact. this is normal, he tried to reassure himself. he’s just stoppin’ me from fallin’ over. despite his efforts, the heat creeping up narancia’s face didn’t diminish.
when the pair reached the room, narancia let go of giorno’s hand and immediately flopped onto the bed. he turned around to face giorno and gestured to the taller boy to come sit down. giorno complied.
“so, you’re sayin’ that when you saw me earlier, some type of urge or somethin’ told you to try and bite me, right?” he asked, surprisingly nonchalant about the whole situation. as far as the two boys knew, though, everything that was happening had nothing to do with an enemy stand, so it couldn’t be any worse than the struggles they had already experienced.
giorno nodded in response. “like i said, it was some sort of instinct. something in the back of my head that almost… took over.”
narancia noted this and sighed, coming to a decision. “well, we don’t want that happening around the rest of the gang, so, just to make sure you don’t end up biting anyone else…” narancia reached a shaking hand up to brush at the small bite wound on his neck. he pushed aside some of his black hair to expose the area a bit more.
giorno’s eyes widened a bit, and he felt the primal urge from before sneaking up on him again. “y-you don’t mean-”
“do it,” narancia ordered, his voice trembling yet firm. “bite me. don’t, like, drink enough to kill me or anything, but… you can take enough of my blood to keep yourself satisfied for now.” he twirled a lock of jet-black hair absentmindedly with his free hand. “just to keep everyone else safe,” he muttered, just loud enough so giorno could hear it.
the vampire in question hesitated for a moment, but he couldn’t back down from the offer when narancia’s expression was so confident. he has a plan, giorno realized. …i might as well go with it. he closed his eyes, inhaled deeply, and let his instincts take over.
the next thing narancia felt was a hand clutching his shoulder as he was pulled toward his companion. another hand was placed over his chest and narancia noted the familiar sensation of breathing against his neck. everything was so sudden, his mind could hardly keep up. two fangs pierced his skin again, and he let a shaky noise escape from his lips as the pain set in. “c-careful, giogio… i don’t want you injuring me, got it?”
the only response the smaller boy received was the sudden feeling of lips pressing softly against his neck as a trickle of blood dripped from his wound. narancia’s mind went fuzzy, and he wondered if something in his brain had short-circuited, because he could barely comprehend what was happening anymore. he was only vaguely aware of the hand gripping his shoulder and the figure looming behind him; he felt like he might pass out.
but as abruptly as the sensation had started, the feeling of giorno’s lips upon narancia’s neck was taken away. with one swift flick of his tongue, the vampire behind narancia licked the final drops of blood from the bite wound, eliciting a whimper from the smaller boy. giorno snapped back into his senses.
“ah- narancia, are you alright?” the blonde boy’s tone held a hint of panic, but most of the fear was washed away when narancia nodded.
“y-yeah, i-it’s just… your t-tongue…” narancia was trembling slightly, his mind racing with a thousand thoughts per second.
giorno’s face went red. “o-oh… sorry. like i said, i-it was just… instinct.” his voice trailed off and he looked down, slightly ashamed. moments when giorno lost control of his actions were few and far between, but the exhaustion and confusion clouding his mind made him more vulnerable to his impulses.
he hated being vulnerable.
narancia sat up, stretched his arms out a bit, tried to shake off the rush of emotions brought on by the night’s events. “it’s late,” he remarked, “we should probably sleep.” he turned to giorno, gazing with half-lidded violet eyes. “wanna crash here for tonight? i might be able to find an extra mattress in the closet, but the bed should be big enough for two people.”
giorno considered his options. “it’s too late to be rummaging around in the closet. i don’t want to wake anyone up.” he looked back at narancia, let a small smile play on his lips. “i’ll sleep with you tonight.”