Archive of Our Own

Louis had no idea how he ended up where he was.

It was still dark and he was lying in the middle of a filthy alleyway and his throat was burning. Not the normal dry throat, yelled too much, kind of burning but it felt like his throat was actually on fire.

"Dude," a voice near him said, "You alright?" Louis quickly turned his head to the source of the sound and he saw a man with tattered, dirty clothes looking at him.

Something smelled absolutely amazing, Louis had never smelled anything like it before. The best Louis could describe it was as though he was a starving man smelling freshly baked bread. Louis swallowed and his mouth watered. He heard a low thumping and as he looked at the man, he could swear he saw the man's pulse in his throat.

Thump thump. Thump thump.

"Are you okay?"

Thump thump. Thump thump.

"Wait, is that blood on your shirt?"

Thump thump. Thump thump.

"Do you need help?" Louis stood up from where he'd been lying down and shook his head, stumbling to the side a bit as he straightened up.

"I'm fine," he said, his voice sounding rough. It kinda hurt to talk.

Thump thump.

"You're sure? You get into a fight or something? You've got blood on your shirt..." Louis looked down at himself and the man was right, there was a large blood stain running from the side of his neck down to the bottom of the shirt. Louis reached up to touch his neck and felt two small bumps under his fingers. He'd have to take a look at it when he was in front of a mirror.

"I'm sure," Louis said. Now that he thought about it, he was really thirsty. Louis walked forward towards the exit of the alleyway. He noticed that there weren't many cars or people walking by, so he should be able to get out of here without too much trouble.

He was just passing the man when he smelled it again, that heavenly smell that made his mouth water and his throat flare up. He inhaled and turned to the man.

"Do you smell that?" The man looked at Louis, confused.

Thump thump.

"Smell what?" Louis sniffed the air and stepped closer to the man, the scent getting stronger. He walked forward until he was right in front of the man's face.

Thump thump.

"It's you... that smell." The man scoffed.

"I don't know if you noticed, man, but I'm kinda homeless, I'm gonna stink." Louis shook his head.

Thump thump. Thump thump.

"No, no," he sniffed again, "You smell really good..." The man looked at him like he'd grown another head.

Thump thump. Thump thump.

"I think you must have hit your head or something, dude," the man said. The man went to walk away but Louis reached out to grab his wrist. He felt out of control, his throat was burning.

Thump thump thump thump thump.

"What the hell?"

Thump thump thump thump thump.

Louis didn't let the man say anything else because before he knew it, he had his teeth at the man's throat and he was biting down, hard. The man screamed and Louis's mouth filled with liquid so rich in flavor that Louis almost moaned out at the taste. He sucked in and kept drinking, the fire in his throat slowly being quenched. He sucked and drank until nothing more was coming out.

That's when Louis noticed what the fuck he was doing.

He detached his mouth from the man's neck and let go of his arms, the man falling limply to the ground. His eyes were open, staring blankly forward, his skin pale white.

"Oh shit," Louis mumbled, raising his arm to wipe at his mouth. He'd just drank someone's blood, he'd just killed someone. Oh god...

Louis turned on his heel and ran out of the alleyway.

----

He'd somehow made it back to the hotel he'd been staying at in record time. He had no idea how, but not even five minutes ago, he'd been on the other side of the city, and now he was in his hotel room. He pulled off his blood stained shirt and threw it away before he went into the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror.

He still looked the same, same tattoos, same tan skin, same everything. Except, Louis noticed two pale circular scars on the side of his neck that definitely hadn't been there the night before.

Louis had no fucking clue what was going on but he was freaked out and he needed to clear his head before he left the hotel room. He turned on the shower and climbed in immediately, not even slightly bothered by the cold temperature. He closed his eyes and breathed in, trying to calm down.

He stood in silence for a minute before he got flashes of the club he was at last night in his mind. Louis leaving the club through the side door leading to an alleyway, a woman walking up to him, Louis talking to her before she stepped closer, the woman biting his neck and Louis yelling out in pain before pushing the woman away. And then Louis was lying on the ground, the woman walking away from him and his blood pooling on the ground from the wound on his neck.

Louis reached up to touch the side of his neck where he remembered being bitten. The bite had healed fairly quickly, considering how much blood Louis remembered there being.

A thought occurred to him about what could be happening to him, but it couldn't be possible. But then again, he'd just sucked a person dry of their blood and had somehow ran across a city in five minutes, so Louis came to the conclusion that it was safe to assume he was a vampire.

He finished showering quickly and dried himself off before he left the bathroom to get dressed. He just wasn't expecting Harry to be sitting on the bed waiting for him.

"Fucking hell Harry," Louis said jumping at seeing Harry.

"Where were you last night? You didn't come back and we were all worried." Louis shrugged, not answering as he walked over to his bag to find some clothes. He heard Harry stand up and Harry walked closer to him. Louis looked around and noticed the shirt he'd been wearing last night was lying over the edge of the garbage bin, and Louis prayed that Harry didn't notice.

"Seriously Louis, you didn't come back, and we couldn't get a hold of you, you weren't answering your phone and when your bodyguard came back without you we thought the worst, Louis what happened?" Louis shrugged.

“Sorry about worrying you Haz, but, I don’t know,” Louis said, “I must’ve fallen asleep somewhere I guess.” Louis grimaced at how horrible the lie was and just hoped that Harry wouldn’t see through it. Harry furrowed his eyebrows.

“Did you go home with someone last night?” he asked. Louis thought for a second before nodding, figuring that was the best excuse he was gonna get.

“Yeah.” Harry huffed in annoyance.

“Well, next time at least call someone next time so we know you’re not lying somewhere in an alleyway dying.” Louis stiffened at Harry’s phrasing but Harry seemed to not notice as he started heading towards the door, “Get your stuff together, we’ll be heading out soon.” Harry left the room and Louis quickly pulled on some clothes before stuffing the blood stained shirt further into the garbage bag and tying the bag shut.

Louis quickly, supernaturally quickly, gathered up all of his things and stuffed them into his bag. Maybe being a vampire had it’s perks, like not having to wake up super early to pack up everything when it can be done in less than a minute.

Ohhh, and pranks would be a whole lot better now that he can get away from his victim quicker… Louis grimaced at his own word choice. Maybe victim wasn’t the right word for that.

Louis looked up and saw the sunlight was just beginning to shine into the room and Louis wondered if he could even go outside in the sunlight. Vampires were supposed to burn up in the sun, right?

Louis slowly inched his way towards the closest sun beam and quickly stuck his hand out and waved it quickly into the sunlight before pulling it back. He didn’t feel his skin burning, so he started quickly waving his hand back and forth through the sun beam and when he still didn’t feel his skin being fried, he put his hand in the sunlight, palm up and held it there. Well, he could go outside whenever he wanted. And hey, at least he didn’t sparkle.

He figured it’d be a good idea to join the others, so he took his bag and walked towards the door. He opened the it and his bodyguard was waiting to lead him to the buses. Louis expected to be chewed out for disappearing last night, but his bodyguard stayed silent as they made their way to the lift and down to the back entrance. They walked the short distance to the bus and Louis climbed on board.

Liam was the only one there, sitting on the sofa furthest from the door, and when he looked up from his phone and saw Louis, he frowned. And honestly, that kinda hurt but Louis understood why he was frowning. Liam was protective over all of the boys and Louis knew that Liam's frown wouldn't disappear until Louis apologized.

"Hey Lou," Liam said, turning his attention back to his phone. Louis tossed his bag on one of the seats and went to sit next to Liam. He wrapped his arms around Liam's arms (gently, because if he had super speed now, what's to say he didn't have super strength) and buried his face in Liam's shoulder, doing his best to ignore the faint thump thump of Liam's heartbeat and how absolutely mouthwatering Liam smelled. If the homeless man smelled so appetizing, then Liam's smell was almost irresistible. He smelled like a prime steak being cooked and Louis hadn't eaten in a month. If only Louis could just get one little taste- no. Louis was ignoring the smell.

"I'm sorry I worried you boys," Louis said, "I didn't- I didn't mean to forget to tell someone where I was going." Louis'd almost said something along the lines of I'm sorry, I didn't really want to be out as late as I was, but that would have raised questions that Louis wasn't willing to answer at the moment.

Liam hesitated before shifting so that his arms were free from Louis's embrace and he was wrapping his arms around Louis.

"Just don't do that again, okay? You scared the shit out of us when your bodyguard came back without you and said he'd lost you. And then we couldn't get a hold of you... we thought something had happened to you." Louis felt so guilty about lying to Liam and Harry about what'd really happened, they never kept secrets in the band, but he had to keep this one.

"I'm sorry," Louis repeated.

"You're forgiven, you should probably apologize to Harry and Niall too though, especially Harry, he was probably the most worried out of the three of us." Louis almost smiled at the thought that Harry was so worried, and then he felt guilty for having caused the lad so much worry.

"I already talked to Harry," Louis said, letting go of Liam and backing away slightly, because the smell was doing things to him and he didn't exactly trust himself not try for that one little taste.

Once Harry and Niall boarded the bus (Louis apologized to Niall and Niall smacked his arm in response, telling him he was an idiot and to answer his bloody phone next time) they headed out and onto the road.

----

Louis tried to eat something when they were thirty minutes out. He grabbed a bag of crisps and stuffed one in his mouth and had to force himself to swallow it down since the boys were nearby. It tasted awful and Louis had a hard time not spitting it out as he chewed. Louis had eaten from the same bag the last time they were on the bus and they hadn’t gone stale, so the only possible reason could be his newfound vampirism. Louis internally mourned at the thought that he’d never get to eat his favorite foods and enjoy them again.

Louis spent the rest of the time on the bus looking up things about vampires. He half wished that someone, preferably an actual vampire, had written a reliable vampire guide. Maybe Louis could publish one under a pen name, "What To Expect When You Become The Undead"... He wasn't sure how much of what he found online he could trust as fact, considering he didn't burn in sunlight like most myths said he should, but he just needed to know when he'd need to feed next. He'd have to be precise with his feeding schedule and he'd have to be far away from anyone he cared about when he fed. He didn't want anyone finding out what he'd become and he really didn't want to hurt or kill anyone else if he could help it. He thought of ways he could get blood without biting anyone and he immediately thought of a blood bank, but he had no idea how he could get any blood from one.

From what he read, Louis could estimate that he had about three days before he snapped and went on a literal murder spree. In that time, he'd have to figure out how to get the blood he needed.

He closed his laptop after his research when he heard footsteps coming closer. His curtain was closed but he could smell them and oh shit, they smelled even better than Liam had. It was like, Louis's favorite version of his favorite food mixed with something so tantalizingly sweet, Louis was having a hard time not springing out of his bunk and attaching himself to the person's neck. Louis's mouth watered and he grabbed his pillow and bit into it, muffling the smell the best he could and keeping his mouth busy.

The person stopped in front of a nearby bunk and Louis's curtain ruffled and Louis got a stronger whiff of the person and Louis ripped at the pillow, biting down again as soon as he'd ripped a mouthful of the fabric. He heard rustling coming from the bunk beneath his- Harry's bunk- and he figured that it could only be Harry smelling like that.

Louis cursed mentally as he ripped his pillow more. It just had to be Harry smelling like that. Louis was attracted to Harry, he'd even go as far to say he was in love with Harry at this point, and if Harry smelled this good to him, he'd have a really hard time not biting Harry's neck.

And hurting Harry was the absolute last thing he wanted to do.

Harry started walking out of the bunk area and once he was gone, Louis let go of his pillow. He looked down at it and saw that he'd ended up shredding it in his bloodlust and he flipped it over to hide the damage before opening up his laptop again. He opened up a search engine and typed in something that could hopefully answer his question about why Harry smelled so good. Just, something told Louis that the way Harry smelled to him wasn't a normal vampire thing. For a while, the only thing he found to answer his question was on a Twilight fan site, about a 'singer' where the human's blood sung to the vampire but something told Louis that that wasn't what this was. He scrolled through pages and pages of search results until he came across another site.

He didn't really know what made him click on it, the description wasn't anything that he was looking for but as he read over the website's contents he quickly realized that this had to have been written by an actual vampire. So far, the facts were right from what Louis could tell, no burning in sunlight, super speed, even some descriptions of scents that were too accurate to have been made up.

He was right in thinking he'd only have three days to feed, and he had super strength too. He read more before coming across the paragraph he needed.

When a vampire meets their human mate, the human's blood smells so incredible that the vampire has to have a strong willpower to keep from feeding from them. This is because the vampire's instincts are telling them to turn their human mate into a vampire, so that the human's mortality doesn't get in the way of the two being together. When turning the human however, the vampire must take extreme care not to go too far. Their mate's blood will taste so good that they might not be able to stop from drinking them dry. This would prove fatal to both of them, since a vampire would not be able to live with the knowledge that they killed their mate.

Louis had to read the paragraph a couple times before what it was saying sunk in.

Harry was Louis's mate. Like, soulmate, mate. And Louis’s instincts were telling him to turn him into a vampire…

Louis shut his laptop and shoved it towards the other side of the bunk before he turned onto his stomach and groaned into his pillow.

----

It was night by the time they’d gotten to the next city. The other boys were tired but Louis was wide awake, nearly bouncing off the walls of the bus and driving the other boys nuts. They were probably relieved that they could escape to their own hotel rooms and get away from him for the night.

Louis hadn’t really slept in about thirty six hours, he didn’t exactly count the time he’d been passed out from blood loss as sleeping, and Louis assumed that since he was a vampire now that he just didn’t need sleep. It was a little too soon to tell, but Louis was kinda hoping that he didn’t need sleep anymore, it’d definitely make the touring easier on him without needing sleep.

The thought that he might not need sleep anymore brought up other questions in Louis’s mind. Could he get hurt? Was he immortal? Could he be killed? Louis wasn’t exactly willing to test his mortality, but he assumed that since the bite that turned him was pretty much gone at this point, he either couldn’t be hurt, or if he could be he’d heal quickly. But the thought that he could be immortal, that caused some problems.

He didn't want anyone to know what he was, but his choices if he really was immortal were to tell his loved ones or fake his own death. He couldn't put his family and friends through believing he was dead, so his only option was to tell them.

He got up to his room just as that thought occurred to him and he nearly threw his bag across the room. He didn’t want to think about that at the moment. He had some time before it was really necessary to tell anyone about his… condition.

Louis wasn’t exactly sure what his reasons were for what he decided to do that night. Maybe he wanted to do more research on vampires, maybe he just wanted to watch what he did for the irony of a vampire watching it. But once he settled himself into the room, he opened his laptop, pulled up amazon, and ordered digital copies of vampire episodes of Supernatural, and the five Twilight movies. He considered ordering the entire Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, but he knew he definitely wouldn’t be able to get through all seven seasons in one night.

That’s really all he did that night, once he finished with the vampire episodes of Supernatural, (when he saw how many teeth the vampires on the show had, Louis stuck a finger in his mouth and ran it across his teeth as if checking to see if he had that many teeth, maybe he’d be able to tell what his vampiric teeth looked like when he next fed…) he started on the first Twilight movie and spent the rest of the night mocking all the characters, except Charlie… Charlie was the only sane character in the whole franchise.

He was almost finished with the first Breaking Dawn movie (he was cringing the whole time, the movie was just so ridiculous) when he noticed that it was six in the morning and he decided get ready for the day. He took a shower and changed and by the time he was finished it was only quarter past six. He grabbed his cell phone and his room key and left the room and as he was closing the door, he decided to get the others up as well.

He headed towards Liam’s room first. He started knocking on the door, not letting up for about half a minute until Liam opened the door, looking a little tired and confused.

“Louis?” Liam mumbled, rubbing at his eyes, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Louis said, smiling, “Just thought we could all have an early morning.” Liam raised his eyebrows. Clearly he thought Louis had lost his mind but Louis didn’t really care.

“Okay,” Liam said hesitantly, “How are you expecting to get the other two up?” Louis shrugged.

“You got one of their keys?” Louis asked. They always exchanged their extra key with each other, because unfortunately losing their hotel key was a fairly common occurrence in this band. Louis had completely forgotten that he had Liam's key this time around, but knocking on Liam's door was definitely the best way to wake him up. Liam stepped back into the room and Louis followed him in before the door could shut all the way and Liam handed him a key that’d been placed next to the television.

“That’s for Niall’s room,” Liam said, “I’m pretty sure Niall has Harry’s key.” Louis mockingly saluted Liam as he backed out of the room and he headed for Niall’s room. He unlocked the door and slipped in, closing the door quietly behind him. The room’s almost pitch black and Louis tiptoed his way across the room before leaning down next to Niall’s head and Louis took a deep breath before…

“NIALL WAKE UP!”

Niall jumped awake and looked over in Louis’s direction before turning on the lamp on the bedside table and realizing it was Louis who just yelled.

“Louis- you arse.”

“C’mon Niall,” Louis said, stepping up onto the bed, walking over to the unoccupied side, and sitting down next to Niall, “Get up, I wanna hang out with the three of you before we have to go anywhere.” Niall grumbled but started getting out of bed, so Louis took that as an ‘okay’, “Hey, do you have Harry’s key?” Niall stretched before looking over to the bedside table and handed Louis a key. Louis stood up on the bed again and ruffled Niall’s hair as he walked towards the other side of the bed and leaped down. Louis left the room and headed towards Harry’s room.

He unlocked the door to Harry’s room and was immediately hit with his scent. His scent was so strong that Louis had to stand in the doorway for a bit to make sure he’d be alright to wake Harry up without biting him. He stepped inside and let the door close behind him as he walked towards the bed. Louis had been able to smell Niall and Liam in their rooms, but Harry’s scent was almost overwhelming and Louis kept having to remind himself that he couldn’t bite Harry, he couldn’t bite, drink from, or turn Harry. He couldn’t.

Louis made his way to the side of the bed Harry was sleeping on and Louis gently shook Harry’s shoulder.

“Haz, wake up.” Harry stirred a bit and it took a few tries for Louis to wake him up. Harry blinked awake and when he looked up at Louis, Harry smiled tiredly.

“Hey Lou,” Harry mumbled, “What time s’it?” Louis glanced over at the clock.

“Almost six thirty.” Louis watched as Harry’s face scrunched up in confusion and Louis couldn’t help thinking about how cute he looked doing that.

“We don’t have to be anywhere, do we?” Harry asked, turning onto his back and sitting up.

“No,” Louis said, “Just wanted to wake you all up so we could hang out before we really did have to be anywhere.” Harry rubbed at his eyes and nodded. Louis had to hold his breath, Harry’s scent was everywhere.

“M’kay,” Harry said, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed, “I’ll be ready in a bit.” Louis smiled and headed towards the door. He made his way to Niall’s room and just walked in to hand back Harry’s key and then went to Liam’s room and knocked until Liam opened the door and took Niall’s key back.

Louis headed down to the lobby and towards the breakfast area and found a table for the four of them to sit at. It took maybe a half an hour for Liam, Niall, and Harry to join him, and a couple more minutes for them to get food and sit at the table with him, Liam and Niall on the opposite side of the table, Harry next to Louis. Louis held his breath as much as he could because Harry’s smell… god, Louis just wanted to take a bite...

“Aren’t you gonna get something to eat?” Niall asked as he took a large bite out of a piece of toast.

“Already ate,” Louis lied. He wasn’t all too keen on forcing himself to eat food in front of the boys again. They boys chatted for a bit while Liam, Niall, and Harry ate and eventually Liam brought out his phone and started scrolling through twitter. Louis, Harry, and Niall kept talking until Liam spoke up.

“Christ,” Liam muttered, “Hey Lou, remember that club you went to the other day?”

“Which one?” Louis asked.

“When you didn’t come back until seven in the morning.”

“Yeah, I remember.”

“Well, someone was murdered in the alleyway next to the club.” Liam gave Louis his phone and Louis read the article Liam had pulled up and he immediately knew it was the guy he’d killed when he woke up. Louis pursed his lips and stared at the phone screen for a moment before handing it back to Liam and making an excuse to head up to his room before leaving the table and heading towards the stairs. He ran up the stairs two at a time until he got to their floor and headed straight to his room, unlocking the door and slipping inside.

Louis went right to the bed and sat down in the middle, leaned over and rested his chin on his hands and his elbows on his knees. He needed to figure out how he could feed without needing killing someone in every city. If he does that, someone’s bound to notice and then, well, Louis’s not prepared to even think about what that would mean for him.

Louis remembered what the vampires in Twilight had done to feed and he thought that maybe that could work for him. He could feed from animals and not have to feed from humans at all. He reached over for his laptop, which was still sitting on the bed and he opened it. When Louis’d been looking up information on vampires he bookmarked the website that’d been the most accurate and pulled up that website and read through it again, just to see if it mentioned anything about being able to feed on animals. There was nothing on it, but Louis was still going to try anyways. He’d have to sneak away that night after the concert, he’d just have to make sure that none of the boys found out…

There was a knock on the door and Louis glanced up before he closed his laptop and moved to open the door. He smelled him before he opened the door.

“Lou,” Harry started when Louis opened the door. Harry walked into the room past Louis and sat on the bed, “Are you okay?” Louis nodded.

“Yeah,” Louis said, “Why?”

“Well, you kinda left really quickly after Liam brought up the article,” Harry said. Louis leaned against the wall and looked down at his feet, shoving his hands into his pockets, “Does it have to do with the murder?” Louis bit his lip and kept his head down, what does Harry know…? “Were you in the alleyway by the club?” Louis closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Shit…

“Louis, it’s fine to feel weird about it, if you’re thinking if you’d gone into the alleyway at a different time if that could’ve been you in the alleyway, but it’s not. You’re fine.” Louis let out a breath. Okay, Harry didn’t know anything about what had actually happened.

“Yeah,” Louis said, “Yeah, that’s what I was bothered about.” Louis looked up and saw that Harry was giving him a soft smile and he stood up from the bed, walking closer to Louis until he was close enough to wrap Louis up into a hug and Louis knows that if Harry does hug him, he’ll end up biting Harry. His smell is just so…

Harry was just about to wrap his arms around Louis and pull him into a hug when Louis put his hands on Harry’s chest and gently pushed him away.

“Let’s hang out with Liam and Niall, yeah?” A look of hurt flashed across Harry’s face and Louis immediately felt bad about pushing Harry away, but he couldn’t bring himself to regret it. His first priority was keeping the boys safe from him. Harry nodded though, and they headed out of Louis’s room and back down to the lobby.

----

The four boys hung out in Louis’s room until they had to leave for the venue. Louis got through sound check and the concert without seriously injuring anyone. He was coming up with plans to go hunting after the concert and he'd have to make sure no one knew what he was doing.

Once the concert was finished and the boys had made their way to their hotel rooms, Louis waited for the boys to fall asleep, their heartbeats slowing even minutely as they relaxed. Louis grabbed a jumper and stuffed his hotel key and phone into his pockets and quietly opened the door and gently shut it. He made his way to the lift without anyone from their team interrupting him and when he got to the ground floor, he made his way to the back entrance and slipped outside. There weren’t any fans around, so Louis started running, not holding himself back. He’d looked up where the nearest wooded area was and the search had told him that it’d take about an hour to drive there from the hotel and it only took Louis ten minutes to run there.

Louis inhaled and couldn’t smell anything all that appetizing, so he relied on his hearing to tell him where to hunt. It didn’t take all that long to find an animal to drink from.

When Louis found the deer, he immediately attacked, jumping on it from behind, taking it’s head in his hands and snapping its neck. The deer crumpled to the ground and Louis bit into it’s flesh.

The deer’s blood didn’t taste right. It tasted like blood but it left a bitter aftertaste behind. Louis forced himself to keep drinking though, he figured that an animal’s blood probably wouldn’t taste as good as a human’s would. If drinking from animals meant that Louis wouldn’t kill any other humans, the bitter aftertaste was worth it.

When he’d drunk the deer dry and stood up, he noticed that the front of his jumper had drops of blood on it. He pulled off his jumper and looked around before swinging his jumper up into the trees and repeated the process until the jumper didn’t fall back down. No one would find it up there…

Louis ran back to the hotel and slipped back in through the back entrance, taking the steps this time as he found taking the stairs faster than the lift. He quickly walked down the hallway to his room and unlocked the door. He was just about to slip back into his room when he heard another door open.

“Louis?”

Louis cursed mentally and turned around to see a tired Harry standing in the doorway of his hotel room.

“What’re you doing?” Harry asked, reaching up to rub at his eyes. Louis thought for a second before speaking.

“Couldn’t get to sleep,” Louis said, “Walked around for a bit and now I’m tired, so I’m just gonna go to bed now.” Louis quickly slipped into the room before Harry could say anything else and closed the door.

Louis set his phone and key down on the TV stand and headed over to the bed and grabbed his laptop. He pulled up YouTube and got lost in whatever videos he could find to pass the time.

Around four in the morning Louis started feeling off. Louis closed his eyes and took a deep breath in, trying to settle his stomach. Half an hour later though, Louis was running to the bathroom, dropping to his knees in front of the toilet and vomiting up the deer blood.

Clearly the ‘vegan vampire’ lifestyle wasn’t going to work out.

Once he was done and he’d flushed the blood down the toilet, Louis leaned back against the bathroom wall, groaned, and hit the back of his head against the wall. He was going to have to figure out a different way to feed now, if animal blood made him sick like this.

He spent the next half hour researching blood banks and where hospitals got shipments of blood from blood banks. He’d have to somehow sneak inside and steal blood bags. It was his only other option.

He decided to let the boys sleep in today, since Harry had stayed up late after he caught Louis sneaking back in, figuring they’d need all the sleep they could get. He spent the time waiting for everyone to wake up watching TV until he heard a knock on the door.

Louis glanced at the clock and saw that it was already nine in the morning before he got up and headed towards the door. He opened it to see Harry standing there.

Harry smiled when he saw Louis and Louis had to hold his breath. His throat was burning, Harry’s scent setting it off. Fuck, he was so thirsty…

“Lou, you wanna hang out before we head to the venue?” Harry asked, leaning against the doorway. Louis breathed in to answer Harry and his throat flared up. Harry was absolutely mouthwatering…

“I can’t Haz,” Louis said, “I’m not feeling all that well right now and I kinda just wanna sleep until we have to leave.” Harry frowned and furrowed his eyebrows before reaching up to feel Louis’s forehead. Louis followed Harry’s hand with his eyes and he swore, he could see Harry’s pulse at his wrist.

Thump thump. Thump thump.

Louis stepped back a bit and Harry let his hand fall to his side.

“I’ll be fine,” Louis said, “I’m just gonna sleep a bit more…”

Thump thump. Thump thump.

Louis had to get Harry away from him now.

He closed the door and he saw a hurt look flash across Harry’s face just as the door was closing.

It’s for Harry’s own good. Louis thought as he made his way back to the bed.

----

By the end of the concert, Louis had actually started running away from Harry. He just, he couldn’t get close to Harry right now without his throat flaring up and every instinct telling him to bite, bite, bite, feed, turn. While the boys waited for the fans to clear out of the venue, Louis sat next to Liam and chatted with him. Louis could almost feel Harry staring at him. When they headed out to the car that’d take them back to the hotel. Louis sat farthest away from Harry and he did everything he could to ignore the hurt look on Harry’s face. Louis was just trying to focus on what he had to do to get the blood bags, maybe then he could be near Harry without wanting to rip his throat out.

They made their way up to their rooms, after being told to pack their things up since they were leaving for the next city in the morning. Louis took the stairs while the other three took the lift. Louis was just sliding his key into the lock when the lift doors opened and he heard hurried footsteps coming towards him.

“Louis,” Harry said. Louis opened the door to his hotel room and slipped inside, trying to shut the door, but Harry grabbed the door and stepped inside the room himself, unknowingly shutting himself in a small space with a monster who’s almost on the verge of killing him.

“Harry, get out.” Louis said, trying to put as much force behind his words as he could. Maybe Harry’d leave him alone then.

“Not until you tell me what’s going on,” Harry said, “You’ve been avoiding me and I just want to know what I did to deserve this.”

“You didn’t do anything.”

“Then why?!” Harry yelled, sounding angry and hurt and Louis winced at the tone of his voice, “Did I do something to hurt you? Did I piss you off somehow? Because if I did, Louis, I’m sorry, just please tell me what I can do to fix this!”

“You didn’t do anything,” Louis repeated, “I- I don’t know.”

“There’s gotta be something,” Harry said, sounding less angry, more pleading, “Please Louis.” Louis was quiet for a bit before he spoke.

“I don’t know,” he repeated, “I just, I can’t explain what’s going on right now Harry, because I’m still trying to figure it all out myself. But, I’ll explain it to you, to all of the boys as soon as I know what’s going on.” Harry didn’t respond to what Louis had said and for a moment, Louis thought that Harry had accepted that answer. That maybe, Harry would be okay with it and just give Louis the space he needed until he was ready to talk.

Instead, Harry turned around and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

----

Louis didn’t even wait for the boys to be asleep this time. His throat was burning almost constantly now and he knew that if he didn’t feed soon, he’d probably end up stalking over to Harry’s room and biting him. He followed the same path he’d taken the night before to leave the hotel. Into the lift, down to the ground floor, out the back door.

Louis ran to the nearest hospital and ended up behind the building, standing at the back entrance. He had no idea what to do now that he was at the hospital, no plan, no idea where they stored blood bags, not to mention it was a bloody hospital, there were probably injured people all throughout the building which meant there was blood everywhere, he couldn’t just sniff out the bags. He hadn't thought that far ahead.

Louis heard footsteps coming up from his right side and he turned to see a security guard walking towards him.

“Hey, what’re you doing back here?” Louis just kept thinking how thirsty he was and how much he wanted to feed, his throat was on fire and his mouth watered just at the thought of draining his guy of blood.

“Stay back,” Louis said, stumbling back a little himself. The guard paused and Louis could see him look Louis over. For about a minute, they just stood where they were, the guard staring at Louis until something must’ve clicked in the guard’s mind.

“Are you thirsty?” Louis blinked and was caught off guard by the question.

“What?” The guard opened his mouth and his canines grew into sharp fangs before receding. Louis stared for a bit before nodding. The guard come closer and stopped just in front of Louis.

“You’re looking for blood right?” the guard asked. Louis nodded, “Stay here, I’ll be right back.” The guard walked through the back entrance to the hospital and left Louis alone.

Louis stayed where he was, curious as to what the guard was doing. It wasn’t too long before the door opened again and the guard walked out with an unmarked, opaque bag. The guard walked over to Louis, handed the bag over, and when Louis looked inside he saw at least seven blood bags.

“Here,” the guard reached into his pocket, took out a card, and handed it to Louis, “Call this number when you need more. Vampires have set up this system where we can get bags of blood whenever we need them if we aren’t willing to feed from the source directly. Whoever’s in charge at the place you’re closest to will set you up with a month’s worth of blood, no matter what city you’re in. When you get back to wherever you're going, refrigerate the blood, it keeps it fresh.” Louis nodded.

“Thank you,” he said, just relieved that he didn’t have to worry about this anymore. The guard nodded and Louis clutched the top of the bag tight in his hand before running off towards the hotel.

----

Louis snuck up to his room and stuck the key in the lock before he heard the heartbeats. He cursed, knowing what he was about to face when he opened the door. He swallowed once before swinging the door open and stepping inside before turning around and being met by his bandmates.

They must’ve been in the room for a while, because Harry’s scent had saturated the air, almost completely masking Liam and Niall’s. Louis’s throat burned in response and he held his breath.

As soon as Louis opened the door, the three of them looked up from what they were doing and Harry stood up from the chair he’d been sitting in.

“Where were you?” Harry asked. Louis swallowed and shifted his weight from one foot to the other, swinging the bag with his blood behind him.

“I was just out,” Louis said.

“And ‘out’ would be…?” Liam asked. Louis paused and bit at his lip.

“I can’t explain that yet.” Niall shifted in his spot on the bed.

“We don’t keep secrets from each other Louis,” Niall reminded him, “And if it’s bad, we can help you with whatever it is.” Louis frowned.

“I know,” he said, “It’s just- I’m still trying to figure it out myself before I tell you guys what’s happening.”

“It’s not drugs, is it?” Liam asked. Louis snorted before shaking his head.

“No,” he said.

“Are you sick?” Louis had to hold back another snort.

“No.” Not in the way you think, “I swear, I’ll tell you what’s going on as soon as I know the full story myself, okay?” Liam and Niall nodded their heads, seeming to accept that answer, but Harry didn’t and it was clear from the look on his face that he was still upset.

“You’ve been acting weird, Louis,” Harry said, “You’ve snuck out the past two nights, you’ve been avoiding me for the past day. Why can’t you tell us what you do know now?” Harry had stepped closer to Louis and Louis backed away, his back pressed against the wall, the bag now hung by his side. Harry kept coming closer.

“Harry, don’t,” Louis warned. Harry’s scent was everywhere, it was filling his nostrils and his mind was screaming bite him, bite him, turn him, feed.

“What happened to you?” Harry asked, coming even closer, ignoring Louis’s warning, “What on earth happened to you that you can’t tell us?” He was so close now… Louis could see his pulse in his neck and the thump thump of his heartbeat was beating in his ears.

Bite, bite, bite.

Thump thump. Thump thump.

Turn him, he’s all yours.

Thump thump. Thump thump.

“Harry, back away,” Louis said, his voice weak, his self restraint faltering. He lifted the bag, reached into it, and wrapped his fingers around one of the blood bags. Harry was so close now.

“What’s wrong?” Harry takes just one step closer and Louis breaks.

He feels his fangs elongate in his mouth and before he can jump at Harry, he brings the blood bag he’d been holding up to his mouth and bites into it, the blood flooding his mouth and the burning in his throat relieved.

He’s vaguely aware that the other three are staring at him and Harry’s backed off, so Louis drops the bag with the other blood bags and makes his way to the bathroom, stepping inside and shutting the door and locking it before he lets himself get lost in the taste of the blood. He nearly inhaled the blood in the blood bag, the taste of it almost overwhelming after having gone only two days without it.

It didn’t take long to drain the bag and once he was done with it, Louis’s fangs retracted and he dropped the bag into the trash bin.

And then everything that just happened hit him.

He’d just drank blood in front of the boys, he left the rest of the blood out there for them to find. Oh god.

He still heard their heartbeats outside. They were still in the room.

One of them knocked on the door and Louis ignored them. The door handle turned and there was more knocking and Louis just stayed where he was.

“Louis?” It was Liam, “Louis? We have to talk about this, it can’t wait.” Louis stayed silent. Liam tried talking to him a few more times before he gave up. Louis heard the door open and three heartbeats got just quiet enough for Louis to know they’d left the room. Louis stumbled towards the bathroom door and unlocked it. He stepped out into the bedroom and looked around.

The boys had definitely looked in the bag Louis had dropped, since it’d been moved from in front of the doorway to the bed. Louis walked over, grabbed the bag, and moved to the mini fridge and arranged the blood bags in the fridge before closing it. Harry’s scent was still everywhere and Louis briefly thought that it might be an issue before pushing the thought away.

Louis moved over to the bed and fell down onto it face first before he let himself truly freak out about what he’d just done.

----

Louis only let himself freak out for so long. There was nothing he could do to change what had happened, so he wasn’t going to focus on that. He was going to give the boys their space to process what they’d seen him do, let them come to him to work it out.

He packed his things up and drank another blood bag before turning on the TV to wait until his guard came to bring him to the bus.

The knock came at seven in the morning and Louis checked through the peephole to make sure it wasn’t one of the boys before opening the door and following his guard outside. Niall was the only one on when Louis boarded and he ignored Niall’s attempt to talk to him as he stocked the fridge with the rest of his blood before going back to the bunks and shutting himself in his. He opened his laptop and pulled up YouTube, pulling up videos and blocking out the boys as the bus started moving.

----

An hour into the bus ride, Louis smelled Harry coming near him and watched Harry’s shadow stop in front of his bunk.

“Harry, go away,” Louis said, not really in the mood to talk about anything, but apparently Harry wasn’t having that. The curtain of the bunk was pulled back and Harry tugged off Louis’s headphones. Louis turned to glare at Harry and was just about to yell at him when Harry grabbed under Louis’s arms and pulled him out of the bunk.

Louis, being who he is, kicked and screamed all the way, as Harry pulled him out to the living area, where Liam and Niall were waiting.

“Let me go Harry, or I swear to god-!”

“You’ll what?” Harry asked, “Bite me?” Louis glared at Harry as Harry set him down on one of the sofas. Louis made himself more comfortable in his spot as Harry moved to sit next to Liam and Niall on the sofa opposite Louis.

There was a moment of silence as the four of them stared at each other.

“We looked in the bag you were carrying last night,” Liam said, “There were, blood bags?” Louis frowned and nodded, crossing his arms, “I think we have a right to know now Louis, what the hell’s going on?” Louis sighed.

“Remember that night when I went to the club and I lost my guard and I didn’t come back until morning?” The three nodded, “Well, I didn’t stay the night with someone like I told Harry. I was attacked.” Liam’s eyes widened and Niall leaned forward and Harry stiffened, “This woman- she came up to me and I told her I wasn’t interested and she said she wasn’t looking for that and she just- surged forward and bit my neck. I was able to push her away and she left me there in the alleyway next to the club, bleeding out on the concrete.” Louis sighed again, “Next thing I know, I’m awake and there’s this homeless man asking me if I’m okay.” Liam gasped at hearing that.

“So, the murder I brought up-” Louis nodded.

“Yeah,” Louis said, looking down at his hands as he picked at one of his nails, “That was my doing.” Louis felt his face crumple a bit and his eyes watered and he shook his head, “I didn’t mean to, I was just- fuck, I was thirsty and my throat was burning and I couldn’t control myself. I didn’t even know what I was doing until I’d drained him.” There was another moment where nobody spoke.

“So…” Niall started, shifting in his spot, “You’re a…”

“Vampire,” Louis said, “I snuck out the past couple nights to try and feed so that I wouldn’t end up hurting anyone when it got really bad. My first attempt ended up with me getting sick from it.” Louis grimaced at the memory of the deer blood, “And last night I was able to get some blood bags from the hospital. Apparently I can get blood bags in any city now, according to the vamp guard I met there.”

“Why’ve you only been avoiding me then?” Harry asked, sounding hurt again. Louis looked up at Harry.

“I’m sorry Harry,” Louis apologized, “It’s just, for some reason, your blood, christ, it smells better than anything I’ve ever smelled before. I can’t really explain it all but, it’s apparently some weird vampire thing, I don’t know.” Louis looked down again, “I’m really sorry Harry, I didn’t mean to hurt you I just, I didn’t want to end up biting you if I lost control.”

“Louis.”

Louis looked up at Harry to see he was smiling softly at him, “It’s okay. Now that I know why. You were just trying to protect me.” Louis smiled at him.

“I won’t have to keep avoiding you now though,” Louis said, “The blood bags will be enough to keep me from losing control.”

The boys talk for a bit more, about how Louis being a vampire would change things, but the boys assured Louis that him being vampire didn’t change how any of them would act around him for feel towards him. It was a relief to Louis that they didn’t think any differently of him.

----

Louis was unpacking a few things in his new hotel room when there was a knock on the door. He opened the door and Harry stepped inside. He walked over to the bed and Louis joined him.

“Um, I just wanted to ask you something,” Harry said. Louis nodded.

“Go ahead,” Louis said, “Ask away.” Harry nodded.

“I was just kinda curious why you were fighting so hard to keep from biting me.” And… that’s not at all what Louis was expecting.

“Umm…” Louis started.

“I’d let you drink from me,” Harry said, “I wouldn’t mind.” Louis quickly recovered after hearing that.

“I can’t control myself right now Harry,” Louis said, “I could hurt you, shit, I could kill you. I can get the blood I need without endangering your life.” Harry nods.

“Why does my blood smell so good to you then?” Louis let out a chuckle.

“This is gonna sound weird,” Louis warned. Harry turned where he was sitting so he was facing Louis and he smiled.

“Try me.”

“When I was turned, I spent a lot of time researching what I was,” Louis said, “And, I found this website that seemed like it was actually written by a real vampire. It had its facts right, so I took what it said for truth. Then, you walked by and I smelled your blood and I had to shred my pillow to keep from lunging at you.” Harry smiled at that, “And I read on the website that if a person’s blood smelled like that, if their blood was so irresistible and your head was screaming at you to bite them, that that human was actually…” Louis trailed off and bit his lip. Harry cocked his head to the side.

“That I’m what?” Harry encouraged. Louis looked up at him and smiled shyly.

“That you’re my mate,” Louis said. Harry nodded once, then furrowed his eyebrows.

“Like, romantic partner, mate?" Harry asked. Louis nodded.

"And the reason my instincts keep telling me to bite you is because I'm supposed to turn you, and this is the websites phrasing, not mine, so we can spend the rest of eternity together." Louis probably shouldn't have told Harry that last part, based on Harry's reaction. His eyes were wide and he was just staring at Louis.

Great, I've scared Harry off, Louis thought. Louis went to say something when Harry rushed forward and kissed Louis. Louis kissed Harry back immediately.

Louis could hear Harry's heartbeat loud and clear drumming in his ears and Harry's scent was so strong, Louis's head was screaming, turn him, turn him, turn him. Louis pushed those thoughts away.

Harry moved and crawled forward until he was on Louis's lap and Harry grabbed the sides of Louis's face and tangled his fingers in his hair. Louis moved his hands to Harry's hips and dug his fingers into Harry's skin. Harry gasped and moved his hands from Louis's face to wrap his arms around Louis's neck. Louis knew this would lead to something more if they didn't stop, and Louis wasn't really sure if he could control himself for much longer, what with the constant mantra of turn him in his head.

Louis broke the kiss and Harry leaned back a bit, eyes closed and his lips curling into a smile. Harry opened his eyes to look at Louis and bit his bottom lip and god, Louis just wanted to kiss him more.

"I've wanted to do that for so long," Harry said before leaning forward to peck at Louis's lips again. Louis smiled as Harry pulled back.

"Funny thing," Louis said, "So have I." Harry let out a laugh and Louis felt Harry's fingers running through some of the hair at the back of his neck.

"Why didn't we do this sooner?" Harry asked, "We could've been doing this a long time ago." Louis shrugged and leaned forward to peck at Harry's lips.

"I don't know," Louis said, pulling back, "But I think we've got some catching up to do." Harry nodded.

"I agree," Harry said, "And we technically have all of eternity to do that." Louis frowned and looked down. His hands were still at Harry's hips and Louis rubbed his thumbs against the skin there. He didn't know if he could turn Harry. He could kill him, if he wasn't careful, and he wasn't sure if he really wanted Harry to have to deal with being a vampire, even if it meant being together for eternity.

Harry seemed to know what Louis was thinking and he slid his hands so that he was cupping Louis's cheeks in his hands and he made Louis look at him.

"We don't have to now," Harry said, "I know that I want to now, and I know that you're not ready yet. We'll wait a couple years, until I'm the same age as you."

"Technically I'll still be two years older," Louis teased and Harry rolled his eyes.

"You'll be twenty three forever," Harry said, "And when I turn twenty three, we'll discuss it again. It'll give both of us time to think about it, yeah?" Louis nodded and Harry smiled at him, "Good, now, just to make it official, we're together now? Boyfriends?" Louis smiled and nodded again, "Good." And Harry leaned forward to kiss Louis again.