Chapter Text
Rudolph Sackville-Bagg may have had an airpod in his ear, but the only music he was listening to was Tony Thompson’s gentle heartbeat through the soft fabric of his red hoodie. Tony laid belly down on the carpet, studying a textbook, and Rudolph used his best friend’s back as a pillow. He blinked slowly, surveying the organized chaos of Tony Thompson’s bedroom – so safe, so happy, and so relaxed that he could almost fall asleep, though it was only nine o’clock in the evening.
“Did you know vampire bats bite their victims while they’re sleeping?” Tony asked.
“Hmm?”
“Yeah, they usually don’t even know they’ve been bitten. Isn’t that so cool?”
Rudolph reluctantly sat up, and Tony followed suit, bouncing and holding up the textbook to show Rudolph a photo of a fuzzy bat biting the neck of a sleeping cow.
“They’re not really victims then, are they?” Rudolph challenged, nudging Tony with his shoulder. “If they don’t even know they’ve been bitten.”
“Whatever.” Tony rolled his eyes and flipped through the textbook. Rudolph loved how excited Tony got about random facts. His eyes lit up every time he learned something new about an animal, culture, history, or legend, and they sparkled even more when Tony got to teach someone else what he’d learned. He wanted other people to share in the joy he got from learning, and Rudolph loved him for it. As a friend, of course. A friend he certainly did not have a giant crush on. A crush that might be responsible for the fact that Rudolph appeared to be aging while the rest of his clan did not. No, no, it was just . . . an unusually intense friendship, that’s all.
Rudolph watched Tony’s delicate fingers tap down the page until he found the sentence he was searching for.
“The vampire bat has a heat sensor on the end of its nose that points to where warm blood is flowing.” Tony looked over his shoulder and booped Rudolph’s nose. “Do you have one of those?”
“Does my nose look like that to you?” Rudolph jutted his chin toward the close-up photo of a vampire bat with a flat, pig-like nose. Tony giggled adorably.
“I guess not.”
Rudolph may not have had a heat sensor on his nose, but he could smell warm blood from a mile away, and Tony Thompson’s was the sweetest blood he’d smelled in three hundred and sixteen years. Tony really had no idea what a saint Rudolph was for not biting him for four whole years of friendship. Sure, three years of that friendship may have been long-distance before Tony and his family moved to Germany last year, but still.
Oh, he’d thought about biting him. He always felt guilty afterward, but it was impossible not to fantasize about how good Tony’s neck would smell up close, how his pulse would feel under his lips, how easy it would be to sink his fangs into Tony’s soft skin, and—
Rudolph shook his head. Now was not the time to dream about the sweet taste of Tony’s blood. Not with Tony sitting so close that when he leaned against the bedframe, their upper arms pressed against each other. Rudolph stiffened slightly, but neither boy moved,
“You okay?” Tony asked.
“I’m fine. I was just thinking about . . . Um . . .” Rudolph searched for something to say other than “how much I want to bite you.” Something Tony would find interesting . . .” I was thinking about how some vampires bite humans while they’re sleeping too. Just like vampire bats.”
“Really?” Tony turned to face him, sky-blue eyes wide as dinner plates. “But wouldn’t it hurt? Wouldn’t they scream?”
Rudolph shook his head and held in a chuckle. He knew nothing excited Tony more than obscure vampire facts. Rudolph always kept a few in his pocket to use any time he needed a radiant Tony Thompson smile to warm his undead heart.
“Vampire saliva’s an anesthetic.”
“WHAT?” Tony shrieked. “You’re lying!” He shoved him, and Rudolph almost fell over.
“I’m not!” He laughed. “You try eating a meal that’s screaming for help. Anesthetic saliva is evolutionarily adaptive.”
Tony shoved him again, and this time Rudolph did fall over on the carpet.
“Do vampire bats have anesthetic saliva too?” Tony didn’t wait for an answer, flipping through the pages of his textbook at lightning speed. “Ow! Fuck.”
The sweet smell of Tony’s blood now had a focal point on the tip of his pointer finger, and the venom in Rudolph’s fangs pulsed. He drew a deep breath to calm down.
“Are you okay, Tony?”
“Yeah, yeah.” Tony shook his wrist and a drop of delicious, dark red blood flecked onto the textbook. “Papercut. They’re the worst.”
A mischievous grin spread across Tony’s face. It was a grin Rudolph knew well. It meant that whatever Tony was about to say was sure to bring an icy blush to Rudolph’s cheeks.
“Hey, Rudolph.”
“Yes?”
“Lick it better?” Tony pointed his injured finger right at Rudolph’s mouth.
“W-what?” Rudolph sputtered, struggling to think straight with that intoxicating smell close enough to taste.
“It’ll make it stop hurting, right?” Tony drew circles in the air in front of Rudolph’s nose, and Rudolph’s nose followed the scent like a dog after a treat. “I’m just kidd—”
Rudolph seized Tony’s wrist with both hands and licked the tip of his finger.
The smell of Tony’s blood was nothing compared to the taste. Just one drop of Tony Thompson’s blood tasted like a day in the sun, and it took everything in Rudolph to release his best friend’s hand instead of sucking every ounce of his blood through the tip of his finger.
“Sorry. Was that weird? I apologize.” Rudolph went from pure bliss to sick to his stomach in an instant. Perhaps Tony would finally see how dangerous Rudolph’s thirst for blood really was. Maybe he’d run away and never come back.
“Wooow . . .” Tony gaped at his finger. “It stopped hurting just like that.”
Rudolph exhaled. Tony didn’t seem freaked out after all. In fact, he looked delighted. Rudolph loved when Tony looked at him like that. Full of awe, just like . . . when Rudolph saw his favorite romantic era painting, The Lady of Shalott, in person for the first time. When Tony looked at him that way, it made him feel like he could be proud of who he was, instead of ashamed like his father.
“You really do have magic spit!” Tony laughed, and Rudolph couldn’t help but laugh with him.