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He didn’t particularly enjoy being such a monster.
Sure, he had always been jealous of people with sharp canines. Ghetsis actually had quite flat ones, had, mind you, and regardless of how it may or may not have effected his eating habits oh so long ago, he wanted to have sharp teeth like others, to be scary, to be different from others. To be special and noticed.
These fangs weren’t what he had in mind. Too sharp, he punctured himself more times than he bothered to count anymore– it was just embarrassing to think of it happening so often. They stuck out of his mouth in quite the unappealing fashion when it was closed, and were far too long to not take notice of. Not the type of notice he had wanted, mind you, he wanted to be noticed as being above everyone else, as he should have.
The kind of noticing that happened now were more wide-eyed stares and whispers to not get so close. Not what he wanted. Any attention was nice, but so much negative attention grated on the man’s nerves.
Well. If he could consider himself a man anymore.
But oh. Oh, if they don’t respect you. If they don’t bow in your presence, don’t throw themselves to the ground as you walk by, you make them terrified of you, and you make them fear for their lives.
He didn’t enjoy being so blatantly and obviously a monster. But Ghetsis would be lying if he said he wasn’t already a monster before it had happened.
He shambled through Narrow Street. Not that the sun was out anyhow, not in these late hours, but then the streetlights on the better maintained streets unnerved him. Of course he knew the artificial light wouldn’t hurt him, not the way he had quickly found out the sun did in a rather excruciating first day, but. Still, you can’t be touched by the sun’s rays and suddenly all light makes you double check the forecast. It was so pathetic Ghetsis could almost feel tears sting his eyes, at the same time he could almost feel a manic, harrowing laugh fill his chest.
Besides. It was Narrow Street. Destitute, dark both in light and morality. Perfect for a monster, and perfect for finding prey no one would, reasonably, miss. He reached one wall and leaned against it, catching his breath. Arceus. More pitiful by the moment. Of course, even if he was younger and healthier, he’d still be having trouble. From what he’s gathered so far, the only efficient way to have energy for, well, anything, he’d have to take it from someone else’s bloodstream. That or eat the entire frigate’s food supply and still, somehow, not feel like he had eaten. Asinine. Absolutely fucking idiotic, he’d feel awful about himself and not even have taken care of the problem at hand. Awful.
He sighed, the breath coming out gravelly on account of his irritation, and he turned his head to his left, at the dim light coming through the cafe’s window. Sonata. No one ever went there. It had quite possibly the worst location, what with the thugs and undercover cops and all sorts of bad types crawling around the street it was built on. And yet here it stayed, and here it was open, still, somehow open. Not all bad, though, he supposed. The music that made its way through the wall and filled the alleyway was soothing to the man, even if it was a little muffled.
The window was closed but not shuttered. Just one person in there. It made Ghetsis uneasy, who was ever all alone? But then he supposed he’d take what he could. At least then, he wouldn’t have to worry about being seen by more people than absolutely necessary.
The person walked from table to table, wiping down the surfaces before turning chairs upside down and placing them on top. They worked slowly, methodically, and combined with the music wafting through the walls and through the street, Ghetsis could almost completely ignore the stabbing pain of a freakish hunger, the lethargic feeling of having little energy. He’d fall asleep if he didn’t have any respect left for himself. But he did, even if just in small shreds, and he’d rather die than fall asleep outside in a filty, tapered alley that probably had loose needles just lying around near the dumpsters.
Or, well. He’d rather die again, to be accurate. He snarled at his inner thoughts to shut up, it didn’t matter. Whatever. The music stopped, and he snapped out of it, paying attention to the situation at hand.
The person walked to the door, slowly and backwards, looking at the cafe, hand pointing to different areas as though to make sure everything was clean and orderly and perfect for whoever had the first shift. Ghetsis could see them nod their head once, in a firm and assured manner, and spin around to walk out the door properly.
He avoided being hit by the door as it opened, taking a step back before quietly walking behind the person as they made their way out of the alley, biting his bottom lip to stifle any wince he could’ve possibly made with every step on his deteriorating right leg. Honestly. If you had to live forever, you’d think your body would at least heal itself. Awful. Terrible. His joints hurt.
Perhaps they hurt too much. Perhaps the unnatural hunger had gotten to him. Perhaps some part of him didn’t want to do this, and his body reacted in such a way to try to sabotage this awful event. It didn’t really matter what caused it. Maybe he had just tripped over a stray rock.
But he fell. And he fell hard, his height in no way helping as it only made the fall steeper, made his body heavier for a worse impact. Ghetsis flinched as his face made harsh contact with the asphalt. And then he just laid there. Maybe he deserved this in some twisted cosmic way. Maybe becoming a literal monster was just the first step in him getting his comeuppance. Maybe he should just lay there and starve until the sun came up and burnt him to an unrecognizable crisp, and then no one would have to deal with him anymore, including himself.
The thoughts running wild in his head were not shared, apparently. A small sound of surprise came from the person as they whirled around, wide eyed. Another “Oh!” as they stooped down, hands resting on their bent knees.
“Are you alright, sir?”
He didn’t answer. What was the point. He hardly had the energy to come up with some sort of snarky reply that would emotionally devastate this person, so why even speak at all? He grimaced at that thought, though, it was one he would’ve had two years ago. Still a wonderful ideal to live by, but with how miserable a creature he was, Ghetsis hardly thought he could live by it without feeling bittersweet about it.
He felt a hand hesitantly grab his shoulder, then begin shaking it lightly.
“Sir? Are you okay? Unova to, uh…”
He scowled. “Ghetsis.” His voice was low, but while it may have been intimidating if he was standing up, being face down in an alley just made him sound drained, and once again his face contorted as he thought of how pathetic he must have looked.
And yet the person just laid both hands on him, and with a small huff of effort, lifted him up. This wiped the upset look from his face, in lieu of surprise. By no means was Ghetsis a light man.
The person walked a few feet back to the cafe, rooting in their pocket for a moment for the keys before kicking the door open a small bit, pushing it the rest of the way with their back. They put Ghetsis down a moment, just long enough to take a chair back down, helping the man back up and guiding him to the seat. He stared at the person, eyebrow furrowing in confusion. They leaned down a bit, staring right back at him. The eye contact made him nervous. How strange.
“What do you need? I could have the kitchen back up in a few minutes, and I can get you some Lemonade in the meantime.” He took a breath, and held it. What? Why are they asking him this? What are they planning? What’s happening? Arceus, what’s happening to him, his skin hasn’t been so warm since he keeled over months ago and came back hours after the fact. Nevertheless. Ghetsis loosely gestured the best he could. Not good enough, judging by the way they tilted their head and furrowed their brows, and he sighed and let his head fall and hit the table. He heard their shoes hit the floorboards as they walked away, and came back, leaving a glass on the table.
“Please drink that. You’ll feel better, I promise!” Their way of speaking was… weird. Who dared speak to Ghetsis like that? So sweet? What kind of ulterior motives would you have to hold to speak in such a gentle tone? He lifted his head, with some difficulty he refused to acknowledge, and was pleasantly surprised to see a straw in the glass. Better than having to lift the glass and risk dropping it, he supposed. The person slid it closer to Ghetsis, and he leaned forward just a little, sipping from the colorful and overly bendy straw. They leaned on the table as they watched him, and Ghetsis opted to stare down the ice cubes in the glass. Being stared at was never a problem before. Ghetsis loved having eyes on him. But it was different now. And he felt weird, some sort of self-concious about the way he drank the sweet lemonade. As he finished it, pulling away from the straw and sitting up straight, the person smiled at Ghetsis, and immediately he regret looking back up at them.
“Are you hungry? Or do you need some water, or something?” Ghetsis’ shoulders tensed, and he stared at the tabletop. He couldn’t wrap his head around it. Why was this happening? Did this person have no idea what has been going on in Unova? Were they an old grunt of his?
He grumbled under his breath, and lifted his head back up, glaring at the person still gently smiling at him.
“What do you want from me.” He stated it, rather than asked, but he wasn’t about to backtrack his words, and decided he’d stay closed off about it. The person’s eyebrows went up a moment, and then they started laughing. Were they laughing at him? Honestly?
“Well, I want to make sure you’re okay. People don’t usually just fall and stay down. Is it a matter of sleep? Do you need somewhere to rest?” The laughter left their voice as they asked Ghetsis more questions, and his shoulders slowly relaxed and fell. He didn’t understand.
“It’s… more complicated than any of that.” He eventually decided on something vague. He didn’t feel very good about sucking the life out of this person anymore.
“Enlighten me then. We’ll see if we can figure it out.”
“I…You.” Ghetsis pointed a finger at them. They wanted to help so bad? Fine then. Prepare to scream in agony. See if he cared! See if he felt bad about it! “You tell no one about this. Or else.”
They chuckled a bit, and nodded. “Cross my heart, I won’t breath a word. Now come on, lay it on me.”
“...You’ve heard of vampires.” Arceus. It sounded so stupid saying it out loud.
“I’ve…heard, yes.” They smiled, tilting their head a bit. “Are you implying something?”
“I’m.” Ghetsis shut his eye, and buried his face in his hands. He had to come back as a fairytale creature. He had to come back in the first place. “I’m in need of blood. You… you are going to go out, and catch a-”
“Alright, get to it then.” Ghetsis paused, one hand still out, pointing at the person. They pat their neck, now outstretched. His entire body was frozen, and it was moments of him staring wide-eyed at them before he could speak again.
“...What.”
The person leaned back a bit, laughing loudly. “Well, you-” They interrupted themselves with a fit of giggling, and they waved their hands and shook their head as they eventually calmed down.
“You need blood, I have some. I don’t see what’s hard to understand.”
“...I’m going to bite you.”
“Unless you have a needle, I don’t know how else you’d get to it.”
“It’s going to hurt. I’m taking your blood.”
“Blood draws always hurt.” They shrugged, and kneeled down next to the chair Ghetsis sat in. “Only difference I see between that and this is I know exactly what I’m donating to. So accept my charity, okay? I don’t want you falling down the way you did again, it looked kinda painful.”
Ghetsis stayed silent. They were just… alright with it? They’d let him take from them? Just like that?
He tensed up as he felt the pangs of hunger strike through him again. Fine then. He’d take them up. He shifted in the chair to face them, and leaned down, and they tilted their head to give Ghetsis a better angle.
He hovered a moment, fangs just grazing their skin, before he steeled his nerves, pushing down the feeling of heat coming off his face, and sunk deep into their neck. They flinched, a small hiss leaving their mouth, and Ghetsis took his fangs out of them. He hesitated once again, before licking the blood that flowed out of the two brand new gashes. He brought one hand to their cheek, keeping them from moving, and continued to suck at the area. How he wished for the music to be playing, anything to keep his mind from thinking about what he was doing, the cafe too big and empty to feel comfortable, the only sound being him lapping up the blood and the person’s breathing. His face felt like it was burning. It hadn’t occurred to Ghetsis how weird this was before now. It was weird. He was being weird.
It was too intimate for him, and yet he hadn’t yet regained all his energy, so he kept passing his tongue over the same area, consuming fresh blood as it left the veins and dribbled down their neck.
Eventually, in what felt much too long, Ghetsis pulled away, and kept his eyes on the empty glass on the table. Physically he felt leagues better than he had for the past few days. But at what cost. They tapped on his hand, and he forced himself to look at them. They had a hand to where they’d been bit, and they looked a bit paler than before, but they had the same smile on their face and when they spoke to him, he heard the same sweet, gentle tone.
“Is that good? Do you feel okay now?” Ghetsis didn’t response verbally, nodding at them. He felt his face heat up, and even further so when the person had also taken noticed and smiled a little wider. They stood up, stumbling a bit as they did, and ruffled Ghetsis’ hair.
“Aw, it’s nothing to be nervous about. It’s something you have to do, right?” They grabbed his hand, and they walked out of the cafe. Ghetsis didn’t say anything as they walked, opting to focus on how cold the night air was on his face, relieved for it cooling him off. His companion didn’t seem to mind the silence, and eventually they stopped, and Ghetsis had both his hands being held.
“I probably can’t do it daily, but if you need blood again in, let’s say, two or three days, I think I’ll be okay by then. You know where the cafe is!” They gave him one last smile, a bright, welcoming smile, and Ghetsis was left standing in front of the apartment complex. His hands already felt freezing again, and he bitterly missed the warmth they had given him. He started walking away. Two days. Cafe Sonata.
He felt a smile make its way onto his face, his fangs likely staining his chin with a tinge of red as he let himself grin.
It’s a date then.