Chapter Text
Of Rats and Vampires
Ratigan had never met a raven before. Enzo had told him all about Damon and the other agent’s flying familiar, and while the bond he had with Enzo allowed him to somewhat understand the words, he couldn’t really comprehend much about any concepts that he hadn’t yet experienced himself. He’d never met Agent Damon yet either, because the last time Enzo and his best friend had met in person, it had been back during his predecessor’s reign. A whole lifetime ago, in rat years. This Ratigan had only ever deployed from Enzo’s pockets, not a real, live bird. He’d had a bit of glider training, for those times that he needed to leap down from large walls, but he’d never flown.
That turned out to be a mute point when, upon arrival, Enzo was informed that the raven that was supposed to be his new teammate had recently perished. Therefore, Ratigan was never to meet the legendary raven that had once served with the rat that came before him, and all missions that required flight were still to be fullfilled by drones. Ratigan watched with amusement as the clunky object zipped around after the vampires finally agreed on who would pilot it with the controller. Magical pest wards were so annoying! Ratigan hated invisible boundaries. Either way, perhaps someday he would fly, but at the moment, he couldn’t really miss what he’d never tried.
So for now, he’d been perfectly thrilled to explore the giant mansion solo, where aside from Enzo, the other nice vampire agent lived with his not so nice vampire brother. Ratigan been warned to avoid the brother, but after discovering so many amazing passageways through the walls, he’d quickly learned how to easily get in and out of the unpleasant vampire’s room, unnoticed. Still, he waited until the animal blood drinker was gone before sneaking in to leave his morning turds in the vampires slippers. Then, he joyfully nibbled holes into the curtains so that tiny beams of light would surely peep through and awaken the vampire the moment that the sun rose every morning.
Mission accomplished, Ratigan avoided that attic room from then on out, expecting that his scent would dissipate before too long, and he made sure that he returned to Enzo’s pocket before the bad vampire returned home. If he didn’t want to be spotted, he wouldn’t be. Ratigan was very, very good at avoiding detection, even by other vampires, as per his training that had begun when he was a young five month old ratling. He’d been chosen partly for his smaller stature. Even when he’d stopped growing at the seven month mark, which was earlier than some of the larger male rats that kept growing until they were a month or two older, Enzo had been please by both his dexterity performances and his size. His first mission had been just after three months of training, and three months later on his first birthday, he still had a flawless record.
Every time they completed an operation, they’d celebrate by watching ‘The Great Mouse Detective’, although Ratigan enjoyed the bonus snacks much more than the movie itself. After all, his namesake was the bad guy in the movie, but he was a hero, Enzo told him so. Later that night he got to prove it once he managed to enter the witches office and leave behind a few secret agent cams. This time he avoided leaving any traces that he’d been there. As much fun as it was to leave behind decoy turds in misleading locations, too often that led to a full room cleaning by the suspect, and they didn’t want the surveillance tech being swept away. Not that he could have left the turds behind even if he’d wanted to this time, because Enzo was using their bond to control him during the majority of the hidden cam setup. Still, he got praised once he returned successfully to his vampire’s pocket.
Once again, the vampires discussed getting a new raven to assist Ratigan with spying. Apparently a rodent just couldn’t provide them with enough overhead intel. They didn’t end up going out right away to get Ratigan a winged partner though, and instead they ended up snuggling and grooming each other while reading through a book that made Enzo mad and his vampire mate sad. Ratigan kept watch over them from a corner. Even though they were unhappy about something, they certainly seemed to have a very comforting presence for each other. Ratigan was happy for Enzo, because despite his own bond with the vampire, a rat just wasn’t big enough to groom such a large being, at least not in the same way that Ratigan often enjoyed seeking company with the wild female rats that were more suited to groom him properly during his own down time. He could also sense that Enzo was far more content cuddling with this vampire than his usual human female bedmates that came and went, barely staying long enough to provide much companionship and only minimal grooming, if any. Damon and Enzo gave each other much more petting time, and in Ratigan’s opinion, that was a good thing.
At least it was until Agent Damon threw the book and the normally nice vampire suddenly became rather explosive. Being around upset vampires that were going to spar was not a good place for a rat. So, Ratigan wisely made himself scarce, and snuck off to leave a turd in the brother vampire’s book bag, before heading out to find his own mate for the day. If Enzo needed Ratigan, he’d call to him through their bond and control him if necessary anyway.
Over the next few weeks, things settled into a bit of a routine while the agents spied and Ratigan had plenty of free time to explore inside and outside the mansion, aside from the occasional mission to leave behind surveillance tech. The vampires groomed each other more and more while watching and listening to their intel, and Ratigan wandered around until he located a nearby wild female rat that he decided to sire a litter of pinkies with. He still checked in on Enzo frequently though, and then brought plenty of excess treats from his vampire out to his own wild mate. In turn, she rewarded him with her excellent grooming skills that was significantly better at scratching his itches than the affectionate but too large stubby vampire fingers. Meanwhile, Enzo and Damon frequently went off on a few of their own boring mission dates with human women that a rat wasn’t welcome on, so Ratigan had tons of free time alone to spend just being a rat.
He also kept himself entertained with his own secret mission to chew new holes in every new set of curtains that the mean vampire installed in his attic. Ratigan always squeaked in merriment every time he carefully knocked the stinky moth balls off the window sill down onto the rat traps below that he set off each visit, too. Even if that meant that Enzo panicked and rinsed him off after getting a sniff of the trace amount of toxin that got on his rat’s fur. After getting scolded about the danger the first time, Ratigan realized that he should avoid visiting his wild friends right after those missions, at least until his vampire got him clean. He didn’t want his favorite mate’s newborn pinkies to get sick. Still, it was too much fun to stop, so he kept going back whenever the brother was away. He only stopped doing it after the one time that very, very scary female vampire showed up for a few days and nearly caught him as he fled.
Thankfully she got staked by Enzo’s mate pretty quickly into her brief visit, and the brother still was clueless, but it had definitely been a bit too close of a call and the young rat had learned his lesson. Also, right after that happened, Agent Damon’s brother set off the secret bedroom door trap and nearly got melted as Ratigan watched from a dark corner. From then on, that vampire was extra hostile to everyone, and Enzo ordered Ratigan to stay clear of Stefan and his room, anyway.
Very soon after that, the vampire agents made a discovery that led to them deciding that it was finally time to add a new raven to the team. So, the very next day, Ratigan and Corvid met for the very first time, and that was the beginning of a truly epic partnership.