Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Last night comes back in hectic flashes.

It’s cold, the snow beating against his car as he drove through the horribly declining weather. His breath came out in puffs, the heater broken for another winter. There’s a bright light in front of him, his foot on the breaks.

The ice causes him to go spinning.

Then Techno’s bleeding, head having shacked into the side of his window as his car rolled and crashed into the tree line. The snow is getting in as the car that caused him to crash sped off, refusing the responsibility of a murder charge. The darkness came in waves giving him no time to actually think of anything but the words “I’m dying. I’m dying and I'm alone.”

Except he wasn’t alone, was he? Because next thing Techno knows is that he’s waking up in a hospital, bandages wrapped around his head as a nurse asks him his name and age. As if that’s something he’d ever forget.

“Techno.” He answers, squinting at the young woman from the discomfort of the hospital bed.

The nurse hums, writing something down on her clipboard. “Your full name, please. And your birthday.” She asks, looking up as she clicks her pen a few times.

“Techno Billiam Blade. I’m nineteen years old, my birthday is June the first.” He replies. His head’s pounding, pain ebbing from behind his eyes as his throat feels like he’s been screaming for hours on end. The bright white lights in the room were only making things worse.

The nurse goes through some more questions and tests, making sure he’s all here before diving deeper into why the hell he was in the hospital to begin with. “You seem to be physically okay.” The nurse says as she sets her clipboard on the wall. “Nothing but surface level wounds.”

“What happened to me?” Techno asks as she goes to fiddle with the IV currently stabbing him in his inner elbow. 

“Car accident.” She says simply. “The EMTs were sure you’d be dead from seeing how much blood was in your car. You're a walking miracle.” She smiles, though Techno doesn’t share the same excitement.

He remembers a bit of it. Pierces to a puzzle he was currently standing in. He remembers the crash, the feeling of dread, of dying. But then there’s nothing else. “I don’t remember anyone coming for me.” He says as he shifts in his bed, ignoring the quick reprimand the nurse was already giving him for moving. He was uncomfortable sitting here like a baked potato, the least she could do was let him get comfortable.

“You were unconscious when help arrived.” The nurse says as she goes to the side of his bed, clicking a button to have the back of it moving upwards.

“…Thanks.” Techno says as he leans back. This position was much better. “When can I be discharged?” He questions. Even if he feels like he’s been run over by a car—

Wait, he was. He can use that literally now. Even as he was hit by a car, Techno knows staying hooked up in a hospital wouldn’t do him much good. Especially because he hadn’t broken anything. He’s honestly more worried about his car. It was a hand-me-down from his father, one that’s sure to be in worse shape then he was. 

“Hopefully in a few days or so. We want to be able to monitor you to make sure there’s nothing we’ve missed. Plus we still need to contact your sire about the accident. They weren’t placed as your emergency contact so we’ve had to wait for you to wake up to give us their phone number.” The nurse explains as she rounds the bed, moving towards the door. “I’ll call the doctor so she knows you’ve woken up—“

“Wait!” Techno calls. The nurse pauses in the doorway, looking over at him. “I think you got me mixed up with another patient.” He starts, an awkward smile on his face. He doesn’t want to be embarrassing her, but that whole sentence was something out of the worlds ‘most confusing things to be told when you wake up in the hospital’ book if he's ever read one. “I’m not a vampire.”

Truth be told it wasn’t the first time he’s been mistaken for a vampire. Pale skin, strikingly bright blue eyes, sharp facial features. Even if the last thing was more a stereotype than a reason to label someone as inhuman. Being in college didn’t help either, with him spending most of his time indoors at lectures or studying in his dorm room. The dark circles underneath his eyes Ural confirmed it to people.

But a nurse? It takes one look at his medical files to see that he was human. “I know I come across as one, but really, I’m not who you're thinking of.” He says. It was an honest mistake, but really, she was a medical professional. She should know this. Unless she was a strident in training? But if that was the case where was her supervisor?

The nurse blinks owlishly at him, then at his arm. Which was wrapped tightly with the same bandages that were around his head. Then she smiles shakily. “Well I know your medical profile hasn’t been updated since your turn sir, but don’t worry! We get accidental turns all the time. There’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“I don’t think you're listening.” Techno says slowly, sitting more up in his bed. Even if his sore limbs ache and scream at him to stop moving. “I was never turned. I’m a human.” He explains through an anxious look. “…Why would you think I was one?” 

The nurse's shaky smile drops as her eyes widen slightly. “Because you have a set of healed bite marks on your arm.” She explains, pointing at the bandaged appendage. “And your blood tests came back as inhuman.” She says. She looks at him as if she hopes that’ll jog something in his head. As if Techno had forgotten he was a vampire this whole time. That this wasn’t some new thing he’s learning about right now, after having gotten hit by a car. 

His heart monitor spikes as Techno throws the blankets off of him, nails digging into the bandages around his arm. The nurse rushes forward to stop him but he’s fast, tearing the things off of him to reveal a set of two scars. Both of which were vampire bites, completely healed over.

“What the fuck!?” Techno yells, scrambling away from the nurse. “What, the, fuck!?”

Turns out Techno’s only alive because someone turned him against his will. Great. Fantastic. Definitely something he wanted on his 2025 bucket list.

“You're physically as healthy as one can be after a car accident as bad as yours.” Dr Kine starts, her calm words and soft voice soothing a part of him he didn’t know needed to be soothed. Her fangs were harming any trust he had in that part of his mind.

They had to transfer him after they all realized what had happened. That Techno wasn’t a vampire before the car crash and had magically became one afterwards. Not magically, forced. Someone forced him into being a vampire. “My aching limbs beg to differ.” Techno huffs, leg bouncing as he stares at the other.

Rosa Kine wasn’t any normal doctor. She specialized in medical turnings and abandoned fledglings. Vampires who either never wanted to be inhuman or got screwed over by someone they trusted. Neither of which applies to him, but he guesses his case was close enough to need her in his case.

“I’m sure.” She says, looking at him as if he was some wild untamed animal in need of human - or inhuman - intervention. He feels like one, that’s for sure. Was it because of the accident or because of what he was now? Was there even a difference? The room they were in acted like a cage, even if the chair he was on was soft and the colours in the room welcoming.

It was a small room in the hospital for ‘cases like his’ that needed a more softer environment to talk about. The walls were sound proof, probably to block out the cry’s of people who didn’t want to be a vampire from reaching the outside.

“I wanted to ask if you know what happened.” Dr Kine asks, breaking his train of thought.

“I was bitten and turned into a vampire.” Techno deadpans, looking at her with an unexpressed look in his eyes.

She nods. “There’s a bit more to it than that, but yes. The EMTs saw blood on your licenses and noted that you didn’t have a DNB symbol on it. We think whoever bit you checked for a DNB before turning you. Do you know what a DNB is?” She says, to which he nods.

A DNB acted in the same way as a DNR. It meant ‘do not bite’ instead of ‘do not resuscitate’. Two completely different things that if you think about it, acted in the same way. Vampires have been around for a long time. At first they were feared, burned at the stake, but then they slowly started to become a part of society. Being another cog in the machine, a tool for the government. In many ways, they were just like humans.

So when vampires started biting people on their deathbed to save their lives, laws needed to be made surrounding the consent of it all. It stems from good intentions but for a lot of people it was something they never wanted. So DNB was created. If in an accident or medical emergency where someone was very likely to die, it was legal for a vampire to turn you to save your life. However if you have a DNB listed on any of your IDs, then it would be illegal. Most if not all turnings happen in hospitals nowadays. But some still happen in public because people want to save lives.

Techno had DNB listed on every single one of his ID’s. On every single one but on his driver's licenses. “I have a DNB.” Techno says, trying not to have bile rise up his throat. To have something so set in stone ignored like that…

”I know.” Kine replies, sounding apologetic. “Your turning was an accident. I’m guessing the vampire that turned you was in too much panic to check another ID before biting you.” She explains.

It makes sense. Techno was most likely knocking on death's door when the vampire who turned him showed up. “Then why aren’t they here? Isn’t it mandatory for the vampire who turned someone as a life saving measure to be present?” There’s more to a vampire turning than just biting someone and saving their life. There’s a reason why it’s the literal last case scenario, even after cpr has failed.

The venom vampires have could just as easily kill you, if not faster, then the thing they are trying to save you from. If the turn was deemed premature, then the vampire would have legal consequences. If the person had a DNB like Techno did then it would be followed up by a long prison sentence if the vampire is found guilty of actively ignoring it.

“A lot of vampires are scared to accompany the people they turn due to all the restrictions on biting. Like in your case with a DNB, whoever turned you would be getting charged with an illegal turn. It isn’t uncommon for the vampire to show up later on, if the person they saved survived the turning.” Kine explains slowly. Giving emphasis on the showing back up thing.

He ignores that part. “What happens now?” He questions, something more than just anxiety turning in his stomach. He swallows it down. The idea of puking his empty stomach out was starting to become a when and not a what if.

Dr Kine gets out a book with the title ‘welcome to fledgling hood’ and places it down in front of him. “You’ll be put into a home for adult fledglings. Where a foster vamp will look after you for the next couple of years until you fully mature. I had already called the agency, they have someone lined up to take you in.”

Take him in? “I’m nineteen.” Techno says, leaning forward in his chair. “I rent a room at a college dormitory. I have a job. What do you mean I have to go to a home like this is some kind of child protective services crap?” He seethes, eyes wide. This wasn’t right. All of this was just some joke. She’ll laugh and say he can go home, back to his dorm, to study English and to do completely nothing with his degree.

He’ll get to eat instant noodles while sleep deprived over textbooks on famous poets. Take a shower every few days because his roommates always steal the hot water on Monday, which means they’ll have none until Thursday, to which Techno will have to fight to have a warm shower before his third roommate takes it instead. He’ll laugh, because his sense of humour is so broken he’d find this joke actually funny.

It wasn’t funny though, not right now, right now it was laughably unfunny. Dr Kine also doesn’t seem to be joking. “I know you feel like this is taking your urgency as an adult away but I promise you this is the best thing for you as of right now. You’ll get a sire that’s been trained and vetted, that will understand what you're going through. You’ll still get to go to college, if you want to, you’ll just have a guardian as well.” She says, as if any of that really mattered to him.

He doesn’t care if this ‘sire’ was trained to take care of people like him. Techno doesn’t want someone he doesn’t even know to take care of him. He wasn’t a child! “I’m an adult.” He says, grasping at straws. “You can’t legally do this. I’m perfectly fine taking care of myself.”

“Legally?” Dr Kine says, her eyes telling him more than her voice. Telling him that no matter how hard he fights he doesn’t have choice in the matter. That he’s just as stuck as he was a few years ago. “Legally Techno, you're now registered as a minor. And with your parents having given up parental rights when you turned eighteen you are also now a ward of the state.”

How does she know that? That his parents gave up their rights? It didn’t matter to her, he was still an adult! “I can drink and drive! I can gamble, I can smoke, I can rent out R rated movies. I don’t need a babysitter.” Techno argues. He stands, glaring at the women. “And you can’t make me do anything I don’t want to do.”

Dr Rosa Kine frowns as she sighs. “I’m sorry Techno, but as of now you're a vampiric minor. In the eyes of the law, you can’t do anything but comply. You don’t have a choice.” She explains slowly. At least she actually looks apologetic.

“I’m not living with a blood sucker.” Techno spits the curse like it burns his throat, eyes narrowed on the women for a reaction. He wasn’t usually like this. He wasn’t some vampire hater out shouting insults at people. But his head was pounding, his gums hurt, his limbs were sore and his rights as a human being were being stripped from him. A second at a time.

Rosa doesn’t seem to react much at all to his mouthing off. “You’ll be picked up by the agency to collect your belongings from your dorm tomorrow afternoon. In a few days you’ll be driven to your new foster home.” She says simply before standing up. Even with Techno being taller, he shrinks under her piercing gaze. “I’ll be involved in monitoring your changes. I hope to be a friend to you at the end of this, not an enemy.”

With that she leaves, leaving the door open. Standing in the doorway were two men, large and muscular, able to throw Techno around like a rag doll if they wanted to. He glares at them.

In the end, he doesn’t go willingly.

“Were so fucked!” Tommy yells, slapping his head against the wheel of his car. His heart was racing, the stench of human blood causing him to salivate. It was a useless response. The human the blood belongs to was probably held up in some hospital somewhere dying. The pull in his chest insists that he wasn’t dead, at least not yet.

Ranboo’s taking deep and controlled breaths beside him, hand on his chest as he stares down at the blood covering both of them. “He didn’t have a DNB, right? I checked, he didn’t have a DNB on his drivers licence—“

“Who the fuck cares about a DNB!? We bit someone!“ Tommy screams, cutting Ranboo off. He hits his head against the wheel once more before lifting his eyes to stare at the other. “We’re so stupid! Why did we do that!? It would have been safer to keep on driving!” Tommy yells, hands so tight on the wheel his knuckles were turning white.

The bloke was pale, paler than Ranboo himself. Blood staining literally everything in the car. There was more blood on their clothes then the guy probably had in his own body. It would have been easy to leave him there in the wreckage to die. But nooo, Tommy had to be a big hero and stop the car. Ranboo had to be a hero and check for a DNB. They had to be a hero and bite the random car accident guy.

“He was dying.” Ranboo voices between his deep breaths. “He was going to die if we didn’t bite him. He wasn’t even moving anymore.” He adds, looking over at him with wide fearful eyes. “Do you think he’s okay?”

Tommy doesn’t answer right away, staring up at Ranboo. Did he even want the guy to be okay? It was an impulsive decision the two made, biting a random person. One that came with a lot of legal trouble if they were wrong about how bad of a condition the guy was in. Even ignoring the law, Tommy bit someone. Possibly turning them into a vampire, a fledgling.

The pull in his chest grows stronger. “He’s alive.” Tommy whispers, moving his hand slowly to touch his own chest. Ranboo clutches his own harder, seeming to feel the same pull. The human, no, fledgling, was alive.

“He’s all alone.” Ranboo whispers back, sliding down in the passenger seat. “He’ll think we abandoned him.”

“We could.” Tommy says, watching Ranboo’s face.

Ranboo scrunches up his nose, turning to stare at Tommy like he’s killed his cat. “We’re not abandoning him if he lives.” Ranboo states, eyes turning to slits. 

Tommy raises his hands, shifting in his seat away from the other. “It was just a suggestion.” He shrugs, looking out the window into the night. They were parked off into the tree line near the wreckage. Watching as the ambulance drove off with the human, now possibly vampire, inside. He takes a calming breath of his own. “What do we do now? We’re already going to be in utter shit for not staying at the scene.”

There was already one law broken tonight. If things went south, there would be more. “He goes to the local college. He was wearing a SMP hoodie.” Ranboo says, pulling out his phone. “His name is Techno Blade, I saw it on his drivers license.”

“Why would you read his license?” Tommy asks, looking over at his friend's phone. He gets an unimpressed look for that. “…Right, to check for a DNB.” He answers his own question.

Ranboo clicks on the school site, scrolling until he reaches the dorm page. “How much do you wanna bet he lives on campus?” He says, showing Tommy the photo of the college dorms.

“So what? We’re just going to go up to him and go, oh I person we’ve never met! We turned you because we were pretty sure you were going to die! That makes us responsible for you! Wanna come back to our manor and live with us?” Tommy rambles, throwing his arms up. “That’s also ignoring the fact they’d probably call the fledgling care services for him. Third thing, what if the turning went badly? What if he’s all messed up? Bones in the wrong place and shit?”

It wasn’t uncommon for turns to go badly. Especially when the person getting bitten was injured beforehand. They could heal wrong. It’s a rapid process, easy to mess up. More so with the fact he and Ranboo did it so suddenly after coming back from the bar…

“Oh for fucks sake! I was drinking! I turned someone under the influence! I’m going to fucking jail for sure.” Tommy groans.

“We can think about all that later!” Ranboo tries to soothe, shutting his phone off. Tommy can practically smell the alcoholic blood on Ranboo’s tongue. They were in so much trouble. “We did the right thing. We just need to explain ourselves to them, they’ll understand.” Ranboo says, ever to be a positive thinker.

“Ranboo.” Tommy states, looking his friend in the eyes. “Don’t lie to yourself. Were completely fucked.” He says, truth dripping from his tongue.

Ranboo takes a second, then goes back to hyperventilating. “We’re so fucked!”

Chapter Text

“Are you ready to collect your things?” Rosa asks as she stands in the hospital doorway. Techno doesn’t bother looking her way as he stands. She doesn’t deserve his manners. Rosa tsks her tongue, frowning slightly. “you know this would go easier if you at least try and look happy.” She says, gesturing to the hallway.

“It would go easier if you let me leave.” Techno scoffs, walking out of the hospital room. Hopefully to never be back, if he had any choice in the matter. The past couple days were confusing and overall a terrible experience. No one’s been treating him like a human being, or at least an adult. He found out pretty quickly that he was in the vampire ward of the hospital. Meaning that everywhere he looked people didn’t see him as ‘Techno’, they just saw him as the ‘abandoned fledgling’.

It was disgusting. He was nineteen, living on his own, and now that’s been ripped away from him. All because he’s turned into something that craves blood. Though thankfully that part hasn’t started yet. No matter how many times the doctor suggests Techno try a cup of donor blood. He ignores the pang of sorrow that attacks his heart at the idea of donor blood. Like it was unclean and poisonous to his taste buds, even though he hasn’t tasted it yet.

“Would you leave a ten year old child on his own?” Rosa replies simply, like the two situations were connected at all. They weren’t.

Walking down the hall and through the building, Techno’s taken to the hospital parking lot in the underground. Rosa leads him to a car, another person leaning against the door with a cigarette in his hands. Techno looks over at the no smoking sign then at the man with blood red eyes. “Harold’s going to help me keep an eye on you as we go to collect your belongings from the dorms.” Rosa says, catching his eye.

“You got a babysitter.” Techno deadpans, eyebrow twitching. 

“Is this him?” Harold asks, flicking his smoke down onto the ground and stepping on it. He doesn’t seem very excited to go on this meaningless adventure.

“Yep!” Rosa grins, flashing her sharp teeth. At the sight of them Techno slides his tongue over his own caines. They were as human as they were before. Was he even a vampire? What was the criteria? Because he’s starting to think this was just some BS made to haunt him. 

Climbing into the backseat of the car and buckling himself in, Techno leans against the cold glass of the window. Rosa gets in the driver's seat, Harold getting in beside her. The car roars to life and Techno sighs. He’ll need to tell his roommates what’s happened. Rosa had taken away his phone as punishment for not letting her go through it. Because children shouldn’t have privacy, or something stupid like that.

She’s starting to sound a lot like his parents if he thinks about it. He has to wonder if they know each other by how bad of caretakers the three were. The car drives out of the underground and he looks out the window, wanting the warm afternoon sun to bath over him. To soothe some deep part of him who felt trapped here. Caged. Like he had two years ago. The sun was always a backbone to his childhood.

Any time his father would go on a rampage through the house throwing things and punching holes in the walls, the sun was there. A glint through the window, reminding him there was something else just outside. Waiting for him. Any time his mother would take his things away or kick him out of the house, the sun would be there. It would warm him. Even as it left the sky, leaving him cold on the porch, he’d remember it’d be back the next day. And that was enough to keep him from going crazy

He waits for the heat, the warmth, the love. What he gets was a flash of white blinding light, the sun burning his senses as he recoils. A hiss falls from his throat, catlike, as he covers his eyes with his arms. Pain erupts in his head, pounding and demanding of the shade. “Fuck!” Techno curses, eyes watering.

“You poor thing.” Rosa tuts, looking over through the rearview mirror. “Let your eyes adjust, Techno. You're much more sensitive to light now that you're a fledgling.” She says as she gets into the road.

“Could have warned me.” Techno grimaces, rubbing his eyes with his palms.

“You wouldn’t have listened. Better to learn from your failures.” Rosa replies, smiling at him. “It’s just one of the many reasons why you need to be taken care of now.” He ignores the urge to try and unlock the car door to throw himself out. It was probably child locked anyway.

It takes a half an hour to get to his campus, all the while he’s nursing a forming headache. Rosa rolls up to the curb beside the dorms. The moment he hears the doors unlock he’s throwing the door open and getting out. Before Techno can even take a step towards his dorm, Harold's beside him, eyes trained on him and freezing him in place. “Don’t think about running off now, fledgling.” Harold states. It doesn’t sound like a suggestion. More so a warning. 

Techno squares his shoulders, breathing out harshly through his nose. “I’m going to my dorm.” He states, pointing to the building a little ways away.

Harold huffs as Rosa joins in standing beside him. “Be quick with it. Your fosters are waiting at your new home to meet you.” She says, waving him off. They probably already knew there was only one door to the dorms. Freaks.

Ignoring the ugly feeling in his stomach, Techno walks towards the dorm. He takes a second to actually wonder if he could outrun them. Definitely Rosa, with her wearing high heels that would break any human women’s ankles. Probably not Harold though. He looks seconds away from fighting a bear. Sighing Techno walks up to the door, hand reaching out to get inside.

“Excuse me?” A voice calls from the left of him. Techno pauses, turning to look at the guy beside him. There were two, a blonde and a brunette. The brunette was fidgety, eyes running him up and down before he clears his throat. “Are you Techno Blade?” He asks after a bit.

He narrows his eyes, letting his hand fall from the door. “Yes?” He answers. Were they school advisers or something? He’s sure the hospital had contacted the college already about him missing classes due to the accident.

“Great.” The blonde speaks up, voice lacking that anxious twinge. “Because we were the ones that bit you.” He says bluntly, pointing to the guy beside him with his thumb.

Heh?

“Heh?” Techno voices, eyes widening. Bit him? Like a vampire type of bite, bit? Like with teeth and venom?

“Tommy!” The brunette yells, turning to the other. “That’s not what we practiced before coming here.” He huffs, looking over at Techno with apologetic eyes.

“What you wanted me to say sounded like a soap opera.” The guy, Tommy, states as he crosses his arms. “I’m not going to sugar coat things for the guy. We turned him, end of story.”

“Wait, wait.” Techno holds up his hands, staring at the two. “You're serious?” He asks, because he has to. He has to because for the last couple of days nothing felt truly real. What if this was just his imagination in a way to escape the fact he hates Rosa and Hector? He feels like his brain would do that.

The two look at him like he’s just killed their cat. “We are.” The brunette answers, shuffling from foot to foot. Nerves, maybe. “My name is Ranboo. We came to see if you’d want to talk? Maybe? But I mean if you don’t ever want to see us again that’s totally fine—“ Ranboo is cut off by Rosa calling his name, loud and dripping with urgency.

The three of them jolt and Techno turns towards his handler. Because that’s what she was. His handler. Something in his chest stings and he can’t help but feel the other two tense beside him. Rosa and Hector were starting to walk over. He could practically feel his freedom slipping away with each step.

Turning back towards Ranboo and Tommy, Techno decides to make a very stupid but necessary decision. “Get me out of here.” He pleads, looking into the two vampire's eyes. “I don’t want to go with the FCS.”

Ranboo’s eyes widen and Tommy flashes his fangs in a grin. “Going to have to run to our car.” Tommy says, gesturing to behind them.

“I don’t care.” Techno replies. “Just get me away from them.” Before Techno could even ready himself to start running, Tommy grabs his arm and starts pulling him along.

“Techno!” Rosa screams from behind them, much closer than he would like. Ignoring the women, Techno runs alongside Tommy and Ranboo, the former looking way too pleased with these turn of events. 

“We should still talk!” Ranboo yells as they run around the dorm, pushing past college students going to and from classes.

“After!” Techno agrees, heart hammering in his chest. “Once we lose her!”

“Who’s the bitch anyways?” Tommy asks, sparing him a quick glance, his eyes widening. Before Techno could reply Tommy is pulling him harshly to the right. Tripping over his two feet he just about misses Harold barreling past them. Ranboo yelps as he looks over at where Harold skids to a stop in front of them.

When Harold looks up his eyes are a dark blood red. “Jeez!” Ranboo yells, looking over at Tommy. “He’s fast.”

“You think!?” Tommy huffs, tugging him back onto his two feet.

“Whoever you two are, give back the fledgling.” Harold hisses, flashing his fangs.

Something deep within his subconscious shifts then, like the very idea of Harold looking at him was a curse upon his whole family. Honestly if it was everyone but Techno, he’d have no problem. But he’s looking at him with those eyes, not his sad excuse of a set of parents. Techno reels back, bumping into Tommy as he tries to scramble away.

Predator and prey. Sadly Techno doesn’t think he makes much of a predator in this situation.

“I’m not giving him over to some fucker like you! He shouldn’t even be in the sunlight like this, he’s barely a week old!” Tommy yells back, pushing Techno behind him like a sack of potatoes. Ranboo rounds behind him, clasping his hands with his just in time for Techno to hear the sound of heels across the sidewalk. 

“You must be the absent sire…s. Two?” Rosa says, flashing a sickening fake smile on her face. “Well this is highly uncommon.”

“We’re just trying to bring Techno back to where he can fledge healthily.” Ranboo says, sounding calmer than Tommy. Though the stiff shoulders Techno can spit tells of a different story. “We never meant to lose track of him.”

“Liars—“ Harold is cut off by Rosa raising her hand, a look in her eyes that has a shiver running down Techno’s spine. 

“Come now Harold, let’s hear these two gentlemen out. Obviously they have a reason for not only leaving a turned at an accident scene, abandoning him for days and trying to take him back by force.” Rosa says, sounding way too guilty for his liking.

“None of your business lady.” Tommy spits, growling. “we’re his sires, end of story. No need to go all FCS on us.”

“Technically you're not, at least legally. There’s no sire signature on Techno’s vampire records, which means he’s a ward of the state.” Rosa explains as she inches closer. She reaches over towards him, eyes soft. “Come now Techno, stop with this tantrum. Your new sires are waiting and we still need to get your things—“

“I’m his sire.” Ranboo cuts her off. Looking over at the teenager Techno’s met once again with red eyes. Except this time they don’t bring out the urge to run. If anything it makes him want to get closer to the other.

Shaking the thought out of his head, he frowns. “I’m not a child to be played like a pawn at some divorce meeting!” He tries to say. Rosa doesn’t look at all like she believes him.

“Techno wants to come with us. If he didn’t, well, I’d gladly let you take him in. But he doesn’t want to go with you.” Ranboo says, hand tightening around his own. “He wants to come with us.”

“Which is honestly the best thing. Fledglings need their fathers and all that.” Tommy speaks up, eyes still narrowed on Harold. “Who else can take care of him other than his own bitten family?”

“Myself?” Techno tries, looking over at the bloned. Tommy turns slightly, then shrugs.

“How about this?” Rosa clasps her hands together, looking the three over with a calculated gaze. “I give you ten seconds to run. If Harold catches you, obviously you're not fit to care for Techno. You know, with being half baked vampires and all.”

Tommy turns to face her, fangs bared - probably ready to snap back - when Ranboo nods. “Deal.” He says.

“Ten seconds isn’t enough time to get to your guy’s car.” Techno voices. It isn’t enough time to do anything! If this was his only hope of autonomy then he’s completely doomed. 

No one answers him as Rosa raises her hand and puts up the first finger. “One, two…”

Techno doesn’t even get his legs moving before the ground beneath him is taken away as he’s tossed over Ranboo’s shoulder. “Hold tight!” Ranboo yells as he starts running. He can’t do much else as Tommy and Ranboo bolt away.

He watches as Rosa gets to zero, both her and Harold running after him. They make up the distance quickly and Techno’s about to lose all hope. That is until Tommy throws open a car door hidden off to the side. You’d never have seen it from where they were ten seconds ago. Rosa must have thought they parked in the college parking lot, which was a fifteen minute walk from here.

Ranboo sets him onto unsteady legs as he ushers him into the car. Techno can’t even get into a sitting position before Tommy’s starting the car, Ranboo joining him in the back as they speed out. Tommy rolls down the window as they speed past, giving Rosa the middle finger.

Techno wished he had his phone so he could take a picture.

“Thanks.” Techno breaths, leaning back in his seat.

“No problem.” Ranboo says from beside him. He’s taking deep breaths, sweat dripping from his face. “You’re heavier than I thought you would be.”

“Thanks?” Techno replies as he goes about clicking in his seatbelt. He’s already gotten into one car wreck this week, no reason to make it two. “I knew Rosa was…weird, but not that crazy.” Techno grimaces, looking out the window. He wonders how long it’ll take for them to start following by car.

“Fledglings bring out the crazy in people.” Tommy says from the front seat, eyes on the road. “Not many of them around. Most people don’t make it through the fledging.”

“I did.” Techno replies, looking over at the bloned.

“Not yet.” Ranboo speaks up, clicking in his own seatbelt. “You made it past the turn, but not the fledging. Think of it like growing pains.” He explains quickly, hands playing with the hem of his sleeves. Growing pains? Fledging? There’s more!? 

“Don’t worry about it. Now that you're with us it’ll go smoothly.” Tommy waves him off.

“I’m not staying.” Techno is quick to say, hand moving towards the door handle.

“Of course not!” Ranboo replies, chucking awkwardly. “Just for a bit, though? Until your fledging is over. And after we talk?” He asks, body pointed towards him.

That…sounds fair. “Just until we talk.” Techno agrees, setting his hand in his lap. There’s scarily not that much information on vampires on the internet. Most of it was nonsense, the rest was made up mythologies for romantic fantasies. So whatever this ‘fledging’ was, Techno was very much unprepared for it.

“I’m taking us back to our apartment.” Tommy speaks up after a few minutes. Seems like he’s lost Rosa and Harold, as Techno can’t spot her car.

“…Alright.” Techno says, setting his head on the window glass. The sun pierces his eyes, his headache slowly forming into a migraine. “Whatever gets me further from them.” He lets his eyes flutter closed, which was probably a very stupid thing to do. But he couldn’t help it, not when his brain started to feel like it’s beginning to melt.

He doesn’t see Ranboo giving Tommy a worried look. Nor does he see Tommy’s neutral expression turn that exact same type of worry.

Techno falls asleep a little after he rests his head against the window. Leaving the car in an awkward silence. Tommy keeps his eyes on the road, refusing to look at what’s going on in the back seat. Ranboo’s taken to refusing to look at the front seats, eyes stuck on the fledgling currently snoring in their car.

“He looks so…human.” Ranboo whispers after thirty minutes of driving.

Tommy hums, grip tightening on the wheel. They had a few places they could rest at, one of which was an old apartment building that’s said to be taken down in the coming year. Tommy didn’t like the idea of taking his fledgling - Techno, the victim in this situation - to that infection rust bucket of a building but he didn’t really have any other choice.

The closest place they had was far too close. The bitch and her attack dog could easily track them down there, this was the next best option. ”We should call Phil—“

“No.” Tommy slams on the breaks at a red light, his nails digging into the wheel now. “Don’t even, Ranboo.” He warns. They don’t need Phil getting involved in this. Not that broody fucker. 

“We can’t do this on our own.” Ranboo barrels on, pleading.

“You heard him, Techno doesn’t want to stick around. After he fully fledges he’ll be on his way.” Tommy hisses, watching the red light. “And then we can go on with our lives.”

“You and I both know it isn’t as easy as that.” Ranboo huffs, crossing his arms over his chest. “Techno needs us if he isn’t going to FCS. He’ll need a sire to feed him, to tame his instincts, to teach him to be a vampire.”

“There’s google.” Tommy shrugs. Why won’t this light change!?

“If you don’t want to do this I’m not going to force you. I would never. But I’m not going to abandon my child.” Ranboo states, voice firm and laced with venom. “I’m doing this with or without you.”

The light turns green. Tommy doesn’t press in the gas. The car behind them presses its horn. “…You're in no position to take care of a fledgling on your own. He’ll probably die during the fledging process anyways. Vampires turned during near death experiences don’t make it long.” Tommy says, finally turning around.

Ranboo looks like he’s about to cry. His eyes are red, lip quivering. He feels like someone’s stabbed a wooden stake through his chest. The longer he looks at the other, the more he feels the stake turning. “My sire abandoned me because ‘I would never survive’. You know what I did? I survived.” Ranboo spits, voice cracking.

Tommy had to flex his hands so as to not punch the nearest window. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“If he dies he’s going to die surrounded by someone who gives a crap. If I was you I’d figure out real quick if you're going to be there or not.” Ranboo hisses, turning to look back at Techno. Who’s sleeping soundly, unaware of the fight that just took place.

The person behind them lays on the horn. Tommy grits his teeth as he turns back around, pressing on the gas.

Chapter Text

Techno’s shaken by the car stuttering to a stop, eyes peeling open not to reveal the sun, but the shadows of an underground parking lot. He shifts in his seat, rubbing at the corners of his eyes. 

“We’re here.” Tommy voices from the front seat. Oh yeah, Techno ran away from Rosa and buddied up with the people who practically turned his life upside down for…

Too many years to come. Far too many years. You know what, he’s not going to think about that. Immortality. Doesn’t seem like the right time to have a mental breakdown. Techno unbuckles himself as Ranboo and Tommy do too. He gets out of the car on slightly less stable legs. Shutting the car door behind himself Techno squeezes his eyes shut, the migraine now pulsing through his head rattling him as he steadies himself.

“You okay?” Ranboo asks as he rounds the car, reaching towards him.

Techno side steps the other, opening his eyes to stare at the underground parking lot. “It’s been a long day.” He says instead of answering.

“Let’s get settled then.” Tommy states, pointing off to the elevator. “We live on the top floor. Come on.” Tommy walks over towards the elevator and presses the button. He makes sure to stick relatively close to the two vampires, closer then he would normally be given the circumstances.

Techno wasn’t an asshole when it comes to vampires. They deserve the right to live like any other person. That didn’t mean he wasn’t aware of the differences in them. A vampire could live forever if not killed by an outside force or a contracted illness, humans had an expiration date. Vampires, woman or man, could pin you to a wall and force their fangs into you. The regular person couldn’t and wouldn’t do that.

So he tried to keep a distance from vampires if he saw one out in public. It was rare, as not many vampires actually lived in the city, but he did see at least one a week. His history teacher back in grade ten was a vampire. A nice man, if a bit over the top when it came with inconsistencies in their textbooks.

The elevator doors slide open and they step in. Techno hyper aware of his stance between the two and the very limited space. The flickering light of the creaking elevator wasn’t doing him any favours. Ranboo presses the top floor, thirteen, and Techno has to force himself not to roll his straining eyes. Once to the top floor Techno follows the two out, Tommy fishing out the keys from his pocket to unlock the apartment.

It wasn’t much to look at. Stepping into the front hall Techno wonders if he’ll get sick from even breathing in here. The air was stale, clearly the rooms have not been vented for a long time. The obnoxiously designed wallpaper on the walls was chipping, water stains in the ceiling. The shoe rack was empty, a simple white wired thing that’s seen better days. Dust lined almost everything, even the light switch.

“It looks like the eighty’s threw up in here.“ Techno comments as he kicks off his shoes. The walls were beginning to tilt and he wasn’t fully sure if that was all in his head or the wallpaper was actually trying to escape the apartment.

“Sixties, actually.” Ranboo says, placing his shoes on the shoe rack. “When did we buy this place again? Nineteen sixty five?” Ranboo asks, looking over at Tommy.

“I think so? Haven’t really lived here long term since two thousand and eight.” Tommy shrugs, looking around. He makes a face, finger wiping dust off the shoe rack. “Fuck, this place is gross. I literally dusted last night.”

“Hold on.” Techno raises his hands, spinning on his heels as he looks at the two with wide eyes. “You two are what? Sixty years old!? I thought you guys were at most nineteen or something!” Techno states, taking a step back to look closely at the two. They look like your average nineteen year old. Going to college, minimum wage job, sharing an apartment with a roommate that never does the dishes. They couldn’t have bought this place back in nineteen sixty!

Tommy crosses his arms over his chest, smiling over at him like this was some funny inside joke he wasn’t getting. “Vampires, remember? Immortal until killed?”

“You look like teenagers.” Techno says, pointing at the two.

“Amazing skin care routine.” Tommy shrugs. He walks out of the conversation then, passing him and going deeper into the apartment. Techno stands there, mind stalling.

“Vampires don’t age like humans do.” Ranboo speaks up after a few seconds. “We look the same as he did when we were turned.” He explains shortly, gesturing down the hall. “Though a skin care routine doesn’t not help.” He chuckles, walking past him deeper into the apartment.

Techno has to shake off the sickening feeling in the back of his throat at the thought. Being nineteen forever wasn’t something he ever wanted. He doesn’t have a choice now. None of this was a choice. It was ripped away from him like he didn’t even matter—

“Not now.” He breaths, shaking his hands out. “Mental breakdowns for later.” He reminds himself, turning to follow Ranboo inside. The rest of the apartment looks as you’d think. Very different era wallpaper with dust along the counters. The kitchen Is connected to the living room, a small table separating the two spaces. The couch is facing a box tv that looks like It had died over a decade ago.

Another pulsing migraine hits and Techno has to stop in his steps, baring the pain as it rips through his skull. His stomach turns and he locks his jaw. He was not going to throw up all over the living room floor. Nope. He’ll keep that a hypothetical, thank you. It takes a few seconds before the pain subsides, leaving him a dizzying mess.

“Alright, I think you should sit down.” Ranboo says, looking at him with a worded expression on his face. “All that time in the sun might be getting to you.”

Techno doesn’t reply as he’s helped to the couch, Ranboo pushing him down onto it with little fanfare. “Sorry I…” Techno pitters off, another migraine starting in the back of his head. Something had to be drilling a hole back there. At this point he wouldn’t be surprised if there was a gaping wound in his skull. 

He feels two sets of eyes on him as he curls in on himself, holding his head in his hands. “Everything hurts.” Techno slurs, fingers gripping at his hair. Maybe puking wasn’t just a hypothetical anymore. It was starting to sound like a very real danger. “I feel-feel nauseous.” He coughs out, moving one arm down to wrap around his stomach.

“Oh dear.” Ranboo says, looking around the small apartment.

“Don’t you fucking dare throw up on my floor.” Tommy curses, though he’s looking around wildly too. “Ranboo get him a—“

“Got it!” Ranboo cuts his friend off, running over to Techno with a bucket in hand. The second Ranboo places it in front of his face Techno’s puking his guts out into the bucket. Synthetic blood coming out of his throat in a burning wave. The smell alone could cause a mass bile uproar.

Thankfully neither sire follows in his footsteps. “You're okay. Let it out.” Ranboo soothes awkwardly, too focused on holding the bucket to do much else.

Tommy tsks, scrunching his nose up. He walks over and grabs his hair, pulling it out of his face. “That is so gross.” Tommy huffs.

It takes a minute before Techno’s done throwing up, a few more to stop dry heaving into the smelly and now full bucket. After which he falls to the side, laying sideways on the couch. Ranboo makes a gross face as he quickly goes to toss the contents of the bucket out. 

“Are you uh…feeling better?” Tommy asks, hovering.

Techno looks up at him with narrowing eyes. “I feel like I got hit by a car. Oh wait, I did.” He snipes. The taste in his mouth was dreadful.

“I’m just trying to help.” Tommy scoffs, letting go of his hair as he takes a few steps away. He crosses his arms over his chest, staring daggers at him. Though the look softens ever so slightly after a few seconds. “Do you need anything?” The question catches Techno off guard.

It sounded so genuine. He feels something prick at his chest. A want, maybe? An extended hand. “Water.” Techno replies slowly, eyes growing heavy. Exhaustion was starting to take over, deep in his bones. Smothering any resolve to get out of here until they were just embers. Tommy hums as he turns and walks over to the sink, grabbing a cup from the cupboard before filling it up with tap water.

Techno’s sipping on it, still laying down - choking be damned - when Ranboo walks back in. They both hover as he drinks the water, silent. After he finishes he sets it down on the floor. “So you're my sires.” He states. The two flinch at the word. “Someone had to bring it up.” Techno shrugs, rolling onto his back. His head was spinning in circles.

“You didn’t have a DNB.” Ranboo says. Techno chooses not to correct him. He doesn’t know why. It wouldn’t change anything either way. 

“We saw your car in a ditch by the tree line when we were driving past. Got out to see if you were still alive. You were, barely. I bit you but then you didn’t stir. You looked like you were already dead by the time Ranboo sank his fangs in.” Tommy explains, waving his hand around the air.

“It took two venom doses for you to even start breathing properly.” Ranboo adds, looking down at the ground. “We had been drinking before we drove up. We uh-we left because if they found out we weren’t fully sober…”

“You’d go to jail.” Techno ends off with. It makes sense. A couple of guys go out to get drinks, find him half dead, tries to help but then realizes they practically screwed themselves over. He can hardly find it in himself to be mad about that.

“We wouldn’t have left you otherwise.” Ranboo is quick to say, looking up at him with pleading eyes. As if whatever Techno thought about the whole situation mattered. “You're our fledgling.” The last word has Techno doing a double take.

Again like always, it made sense. It was starting to actually piss him off how much he feels like he’s not allowed to be mad at this situation. How understanding he feels. “Unless you wanna go back to the FCS assholes, we’re your best bet.” Tommy states.

His head hurts too much to have this conversation right now. “I-Fuck, do you guys have any Tylenol? I’d literally down a bottle of morphine if I had any right now.” Techno hisses, closing his eyes.

“We do.” Ranboo is quick to say, darting out of the room.

Tommy bites his lip. “It’s probably the vampiric changes.” He says, sounding unsure of himself. Helpful.

“Here.” Ranboo says as he walks back into the room, handing Techno two extra strength Tylenols. Techno dry swallows then, ignoring the look Tommy gives him. “You can move to my room if you want to rest. I kind of made a nest there last night…just in case.”

In case of what, he already knows. “Okay.” Techno breaths, pushing himself up into a sitting position. He goes to stand, his knees buckling underneath him before he could even fully stand up. Two sets of hands are on him before he hits the ground, pulling him back to the couch.

“And your legs aren't working, great.” Tommy frowns, rolling his eyes. “Just great!”

“It’s not his fault.” Ranboo snaps back, looking seconds away from pulling out his own hair. “And stop yelling. We don’t want another noise complaint.”

“Noise complaint!? We are literally running from the law and you’re worried about noise complaints?” Tommy argues, gesturing wildly at Techno. “The evidence is sitting on our couch and you're worried about our landlord?”

“The ‘evidence’ has a splitting migraine!” Techno shouts, cursing himself for even raiding his own voice as his headache only grows worse. 

“Sorry.” Both Tommy and Ranboo say at the same time, looking at him.

“I can just sleep on the couch, it’s fine.” Tommy huffs, pushing the two’s hands off of him. ”Just be quiet. Please.” 

“Of course.” Ranboo nods, taking a step back. “I’ll get a blanket and a pillow for you.” He says, pointing to the hall closet. The second Techno gets his hands on the bedding and lays back down on the couch, covering his head with the blanket as he turns his back to the other two in the room. Techno passes out within minutes.

”He’s asleep.” Ranboo sighs. Techno is curled up on the couch, head pushed into the pillow he gave the other. He looks more like a caterpillar in its cocoon than an actual person.

“He needs it. Turning into a vampire takes a lot out of you.” Tommy says, looking over from where they are sitting at the dining table. The only thing really free from dust. He tried to clean up last night but between trying to set up a suitable place for a fledgling to fledge, and freaking out over being a sire, Ranboo didn’t get very much time to actually clean up.

Not that Tommy was helping much. “I still think we should call Phil.” Ranboo whispers. He isn’t scared of Tommy, not in the way a bunny is scared of a bear. He knows the other too much to be truly afraid. But after his outburst in the car Ranboo didn’t really want to hear about all the reasons Techno won’t wake it.

Still, they weren’t nearly as qualified to do this on their own as one would think. And if Tommy wants to leave being a sire behind then Ranboo would definitely be set up for failure. They need Phil’s help. He doesn’t care if Tommy likes that fact or not. “He’s going to die if we don’t do everything perfectly, Tommy. And I know you're trying to act nonchalant about it but you were the first one to bite him. I had to stop you from doing it until I checked for a DNB. You saved him first, not me. You can’t really think I believe you don’t care—“

“I do care!” Tommy hisses through clenched teeth, eyes glaring. “I’m not some heartless guy who bites someone and runs away! But Techno has options, Ranboo, options he deserves to choose for himself.” Tommy growls, leaning forward in his elbows.

Techno stirs on the couch, eyebrows furrowed. Ranboo takes a deep breath before even uttering a sound. “And we’ll give him options. Us or FCS. But before we can even do that he needs to be healthy.” And alive, Ranboo doesn’t say. He doesn’t want to think about Techno not making it. Even if his symptoms are starting to get concerning…

“If we call Phil he won’t have a choice. It’ll be us or him. I promised myself I’d never take away a future fledglings freewill again, Boo. Calling Phil goes back on that promise.” Tommy stares, staring daggers at him. Ranboo sighs, running his hand through his hair. He gets it, he really does. But what other choice do they have? 

“Even if we call Phil, he may die anyway.” Tommy says, seeming to read his mind. “At least this way Techno has the choice to do what he wants after he fledges.”

“I don’t want him to not choose me.” Ranboo whispers, curling in on himself. “I-I can be good to him. I can care for him…”

If they call Phil, Ranboo doesn’t need to be the bad guy and force Techno to stay. He’ll never do it, not ever. Not after being friends with Tommy for so long. Not after he’s learned that choices when it comes to this really do matter in the end. But if he doesn’t do it, if he’s not the bad guy, then would he really be the one to blame?

“You're going to be a great sire, Ranboo. But you can’t start off by calling Phil. I’ll help, okay? I’m not going anywhere. We can do this on our own.” Tommy says, whispering his words like they were a secret. 

“How?” Wasn’t that the real question in all of this? How do they do this? There’s no manual like there is for humans for raiding a vampire child. Vampire children were far different than human ones. The most glaring fact being that most of the time they weren’t minors at all. They were adults. Adults with venom pumping through their veins, slowly turning them into something they never wanted to be.

“He’ll be craving blood soon, if he isn’t already. Puking up all that human food is probably going to drive him over the edge of hunger when he wakes up.” Tommy points out, looking over at him.

Ranboo follows his gaze. Techno was still shifting, moving around with a painful expression on his face. “I’ll feed him.” Ranboo states.

“He’s not going to know what to do.” Tommy says, tapping his finger on the table. “He doesn’t have his fangs yet. So in the next couple days if we feed him enough he’ll lose the ones in his mouth to make room for them.”

Ranboo still remembers that time in his life. When the winter cold bit at his skin, threatening to freeze him. The only thing worse than the freezing cold was the burning in his gums as his fangs ripped their way out of his mouth. No one made sure there was room, that he had lost his human canines. So his fangs not only needed to come out of his gums but also push out his still stuck human teeth. He chewed on ice and rocks to try and get them loose. To break them. 

“We have to explain things to him soon too. Before he gets too far lost in fledging to understand. I don’t want him to be scared when he starts changing.” Ranboo brings up as he stands. He walks over to the kitchen cabinets and opens one of them up. He grabs out a box of lavender tea for himself and lemon tea for Tommy.

“I’ll talk to him. I know more about fledging than you do.” Tommy huffs, leaning back in his chair.

“Comes with having a big family.” Ranboo smiles as he starts up the kettle. “How’s your younger siblings doing anyways? Any word?” He asks as he turns, leaning on the counter behind him.

“Last I heard Chayanne was going to get another red badge for his culinary and Tallulah was touring.” Tommy says, eyes drifting close as he rests his head against the back of the seat. “Phil’s gone MIA. I hope it stays that way.” He sighs.

“Your fathers a good man.” Ranboo mutters, watching Tommy’s face.

Tommy hums. “Not a good dad, though. Not like you're going to be.”

“You're going to be a good dad too.” Ranboo says. The kettle starts screaming and he quickly takes it off before grabbing two mugs.

Tommy snorts, shaking his head. “Nah. Tried that once. You know how that turned out.” Ranboo bites his lip, refusing to say anything to that. Not when he does know how it all turned out.

Chapter Text

Techno wakes up to the smell of lavender and lemons. It takes far too long for him to even realize he was awake in the first place. Eyes shut as his breathing comes out laboured, like he’s been fighting in his sleep. When he finally realizes he was in the realm of the conscious, he doesn’t move for quite a while.

He lays there without much thought. His head was a dull thud compared to the jack hammering of before. Shuffling is heard around him, Ranboo and Tommy walking around the space. He catches snippets of conversations. Mostly about what to stalk the fridge with? He thinks? He’s not sure, as his consciousness fades in and out of his grasp.

When he finally truly wakes up with enough energy to shove the blankets off of himself, it’s night. He’s also met with a wide eyed Tommy, who’s standing by the balcony. Fresh midnight air pouring in from the outside. “You're awake.” Tommy states, turning to continue looking out the door. “Feeling any better?”

“A little.” Techno shrugs as he sits up. He still didn’t feel a hundred percent normal. “Where’s the other one?” He asks, looking around the room.

“Ranboo’s out buying food.” Tommy replies simply.

Techno hums as he stands, legs strong underneath his weight. At least he won’t go toppling over like he did before. Walking over to the balcony door, Techno looks out into the world before them. It doesn’t look right. Something was off. The shadows that would normally play around benches and corners gave way, leaving him able to see the shadows of the shadows.

He blinks a couple times, even rubs at them, but nothing changes. The two of them stay like that for a while. Looking out into the night like it had something to give them, to say to them. Whatever it was was lost on him. Tommy though, he seems to understand it perfectly. It feels like hours before Tommy chooses to say something. “Why are you so okay with all of this?” He asks, voice quiet.

“What do you mean?” Techno questions, looking over at the bloned.

Tommy shrugs, eyes stuck on the shadows of the shadows. “Most people would freak out when they find out they almost died and then got turned into a vampire.” He turns, eyes a strikingly electric blue. “But not you. You just seem to accept it. Accept us.”

“‘It’s harder to fight than it is to give in’.” Techno quotes, turning to look back out off the balcony. He steps out to lean his elbows on the rails. A chill breeze rolls in, flicking his hair into his face slightly. Tommy perches himself beside him. “I learned from a young age to just not…care.” He shrugs.

Tommy nods, silent for a second. Just a second though. “If you had to care, would you?”

Isn’t that a brilliant thought. Caring about something. “You two made a decision for me I never consented to.” Techno starts, voice even. “I’m going to be a vampire for the rest of my now immortal life. I’m going to do things I never thought I’d have to. I’m going to be a different person by the end of this. I envy my old self, myself from a week ago when the only thing I needed to worry about was my midterms.” He takes a shaky breath in.

“Now I’m being told my autonomy doesn’t matter. I am merely a product of my accident.” Techno turns, eyes connecting with Tommy’s. “If I cared enough I’d punch the both of you until I made you feel what it means to be mortal again. But I digress, I simply don’t care enough.” He ends off.

Tommy stares at him, unchanging. “So you would have liked to die, then?” Tommy questions him. Emotionless. Was that just a mask or did Tommy really not care as much as he did?

“I would have liked to have been asked.” Techno shrugs as he turns. He heads back inside and sits on the couch. Tommy doesn’t come back in until they both hear Ranboo reentering the apartment.

He sets a bunch of grocery bags on the counter along with a sealed white paper bag. “Tommy, come help me.” Ranboo says, opening up the fridge as he begins to fill it.

Tommy rolls his eyes as he walks over, grabbing at the other grocery bag on the table. “You can’t just order me around,” he huffs, though he does start to do what’s asked of him.

Techno focuses his attention on the white bag on the counter. It looks like a pharmacy bag, though there was no logo or name attached to it. It was just a plain white paper bag. Interest takes the best of him as he stands, walking over to the bag.

Vampires don't ever get sick unless it was something big. Something deadly. A simple cold couldn’t happen with the way they are. Was it more Tylenol? He opens it without much thought. If they can upturn his life well, Techno feels like it’s only right he gets the right to snoop somewhat.

Two sealed blood bags sit in the bag. Techno closes it and pushes it across the table. He feels two sets of eyes on him. His mouth feels dry. “We should talk about what’s going to happen, now that you're awake.” Ranboo speaks up, clearing his throat as he returns to packing the fridge.

Tommy grabs the bag of blood and walks around the kitchen table, shoving Ranboo out of the way to put it in the crisper. “I don’t really know how to start.” Ranboo sighs, looking over towards Tommy.

Tommy looks between Ranboo and him, then back to his task. “How much about vampires and fledging do you know?” He asks, the question directed at Techno.

“Not much.” Techno shrugs. It’s not like it’s taught in school. The only thing he really knows is that there’s more older vampires than there are with younger ones and that they can’t enter a house without permission. “You need to be invited in to enter someone else’s house.” Techno says, thinking off the top of his head. “You can’t just live off of blood alone. It’s like…water. Just another thing you need to live.”

“That’s it?” Tommy scoffs, staring at him as if Techno was the stupidest man to ever live.

He crosses his arms over his chest, scowling at the bloned. “It’s not like I hang around vampires for fun, you know. And the internet is filled with lies about you guys, so it’s not like I could google anything that would actually be true.”

“That's alright, everyone starts somewhere.” Ranboo cuts in, voice hesitant. ”There’s a little more to that first thing you said, Techno. Like how fledglings can come and go from their sires house as they please. But once you become an adult you have to be invited in.” Ranboo explains. “It’s why you weren’t stopped when you walked in.”

Techno freezes, eyes slowly moving towards the hallway leading to the front door. Stopped? He would have been stopped? “Heh?” But he doesn’t have fangs, or drinks blood or has red eyes. He’s still human, isn’t he? Just a little bit?

“It’s also why we're not worried about the FCs. They can bang on the door all they want, they are not getting in even if they do find us.” Ranboo adds, smirking at the thought.

“Public areas don’t count. They have to be privately owned.” Tommy says. He puts the last thing away and then hops onto the kitchen counter to sit.

“Wait.” Techno holds his hands up, thinking back to the dorms. “So if I went back to my dorm…Rosa and Hector couldn’t follow?” Or would they? Does a college dorm count as the college's public property or privately owned?

Ranboo shakes his head no. “They wouldn’t be able to enter without your or your roommates permission. However I bet they wouldn’t tell you that.” Of course they wouldn’t.

“Moving on, because we’re kind of running out of time.” Tommy starts, shutting down the ‘is it public property or private’ conversation. “Fledging is the process of turning into a full vampire. Not an adult. People get those mixed up a lot. Right now your body is starting to change from the venom in your bloodstream. Like a virus you don’t get the symptoms until later. When your body realizes something isn’t normal. It’s why it’s almost been a week and you haven’t felt any differently.” 

“A virus, great.” Techno huffs sarcastically. “Awesome.”

Ranboo turns to face him. “It’s not that bad—“

“Ranboo’s totally lying to you. It’s a fucking pain in the ass.” Tommy cuts the other off. Ranboo bares his fangs at the other, Tommy not doing so much as flinch. “Your body is literally changing into something immortal. Your white blood cells are going fucking crazy trying to stop a losing battle. It’s either they win and you die, the venom wins and you die, or the venom wins and you live. You have less than a one out of three chance of surviving the next week.” Wait. What?

“I’m going to die.” Techno states, hands moving up to grip at his shirt. “You did this to me and I’m going to die anyway!?” The universe is fucked up. This is fucked up. 

“You're not supposed to scare him!” Ranboo yells, slapping Tommy’s arm. He then turns to face him, eyes wide. “It’s not as bad as it sounds. Really. It also depends on the sires venom and how it reacts. It’s not actually a one in three chance.” He says, reaching out.

Techno side steps him, eyes narrowing on Tommy. “Is he telling the truth?” He asks.

Tommy looks at him, then looks up at the ceiling. “Both me and Ranboo have good genes. But you were very hurt when we got to you. It balances out.” He waves his hand, like they weren’t talking about Techno’s life. Like they weren’t talking about him dying. “I’m saying this not to scare you. Only to let you know that if you have anyone you want to talk to, you have a chance too. Friends, siblings, parents?” Tommy’s voice wavers at the end, forcing the word out like it was a cockroach.

“How thoughtful.” Techno scoffs, running his hand through his hair. “I don’t-there isn’t anyone I’d want to call.” He adds. Being an only child comes with some benefits he guesses. Don’t need to call anyone about potentially dying in the next few days. Friends were a distant thing. He never really had any past middle school. Maybe calling his parents would actually be a good thing. They were still his parents after all. No matter the mud they’ve crawled through in the past.

Or maybe this could be his last ‘fuck you’ to them. Disappearing. Would they mourn him?

“Next thing.” Tommy barrels on, ignoring the look Ranboo’s shooting at him. “It’s going to hurt. The first thing that’s going to happen is your canines are going to fall out. Make room for fangs. Your senses are going to grow, your ears are going to sharpen. Your mind will try and forget the process. Tricking you into thinking that it’s not as bad as it is. My suggestion? Don’t fight it.”

“So what? I’m just not going to remember anything?” Techno asks. He takes one of the chairs, falling into his. The headache was starting to make him question if this was normal or not. Was this the start? Was a headache his only warning that he’s going to die?

“You’ll remember. You're just not going to think it was ‘that bad’ when it’s over. I think it’s our way of trying to not feel guilty for doing it to other people.” Tommy shrugs. “You’ll be out of it for the most part. Going off of instincts. Me and Ranboo will have to help you with normal things like eating, bathing, clothing, going to the bathroom. That sort of thing.”

“You have to be joking.” Techno says, slightly pleading. There was no way that was going to happen to him. He feels fine. Well, as fine as he could be. Not like he needs any help going to the bathroom. “I don’t need help doing any of that. I don’t need you two doing that. Your not-I’m not…”

These were complete strangers. Strangers that look so casual saying all of this. Techno’s starting to think these two were just a couple of creeps. Why would you do this to somebody? Willingly!?

“It’ll only be for a little bit. A week at most.” Ranboo speaks up. “Then you’ll be able to do all of that on your own. You’ll be a full vampire by then.”

“You can leave after that.” Tommy adds, leaning back so his head was resting on one of the cupboards. “Run and never see us again if that’s what you want. But until then, who would you rather see you at your most vulnerable? The people willing to leave you alone or FCS? Who thinks you're their infant they can take pictures of in a bubble bath?”

A shiver runs down Techno’s back at the thought. He doesn’t say anything, doesn’t know what to start with. He’s gone from freaking out over the chance of dying to thinking that maybe that it’ll be the only thing to save what’s left of his dignity. Ranboo and Tommy let him breathe in this silence.

After a few minutes Techno stands. “Where’s your bathroom?” He asks, refusing to look at the two.

“Down that hall on the left.” Ranboo points out.

Techno nods as he walks out of the room. The second he finds the bathroom he’s locking the door behind himself. Putting his back against the door, Techno slides down to the floor. He raises his shirt sleeve, eyes stuck on the set of bite marks on his arm. He digs his nails in, head thudding back on the door. His breaths come out uneven as he sits there. There goes his autonomy once again.

“Fuck!” Techno screams, kicking his leg out. It hits the sink cupboard. His nails dig into his arm harder as he sets his eyes on the things atop the sink. Breathing heavily he stands. Peeling his hand away from his own arm he grabs a toothbrush holder and tosses it across the bathroom. It shatters upon hitting the wall.

He rips down the shower curtains, flings half empty shampoo bottles and soaps around the room, almost breaking the shower head off the wall. He tugs, it doesn’t budge. He turns his attention to something else. He faces himself, his mirror reflection staring back at him with wide angry eyes. Pink hair tangled around his shoulders and dark eye bags were underneath his eyes.

Tear tracks ran down his cheeks, shiny and illuminated by the bathroom lights. Techno raises his fist and slams it into the mirror screaming. It shatters, glass piecing his skin as he slams his fist into it again and again and again and again and again— 

He doesn’t stop until his knuckles are red and his voice is raw. 

Knees giving out Techno stumbles to the ground, back against the bathtub As he lets himself slowly sink to the floor. Glass is covering the floor around him. “I didn’t want this.” He whispers, voice cracking. “I would have…”

Picked death? Would he have? Or is that just something he wants to tell himself? To blame this on someone else? To blame them? There wasn’t anyone to blame in this situation, not really. The only thing he could have done was take the longer route back to the dorms, or stay back a little later than he already had.

He doesn’t know how long he stays laying on the bathroom floor. All he knows is that he falls asleep sometime during it. He stays that way for a long time, he thinks. Laying there with his hands bleeding and mind running through thoughts no human should be thinking. Techno wakes to a pillow underneath his head and his hand in someone else’s, stinging.

Techno groans, trying to tug his hand away. “I’m almost done.” Ranboo says, voice quiet. They were in a bed, covers thrown over his lower body. The blinds were closed, little sunbeams shining in through the cracks.

“Where…” Techno pitters off, clearing his throat. It throbs, burning and sore.

“My room.” Ranboo answers as he wraps his hand in white bandages. “You fell asleep in the bathroom after…after you broke our mirror.” Ranboo says as he lets his arm go. He doesn’t leave, perched on the side of the bed. “We didn’t know if you still needed space so we let you stay there for a while. But then you weren’t answering us, so I got the spare key. You were sleeping.”

“Should have left me there.” Techno huffs as he brings his hand closer to himself. Pain erupts from them any time he moves his fingers. 

“Isn’t really a clean place to rest your head.” Ranboo replies, looking at his hands. “I had to pick a lot of glass out with tweezers. You uh, didn’t really stop until the mirror was gone.”

“Sorry.” Techno says, not knowing what else to say.

“Don’t be.” Ranboo sighs, leaning back on the headrest. “I guess you have a DNB?”

Techno looks up at him. “How did you—“

“People without a DNB don’t really try to tear a shower head out of the wall, even after the whole fledging talk.” Ranboo shrugs. He holds his hands together in his lap, thumbs rubbing each other. “I’m sorry.” Ranboo says, voice barely above a whisper. Techno doesn’t say anything else, instead rolling onto his head. Every inch of himself protests the movement. “We’ll try to be accommodating and respectful.” Ranboo says after a few seconds of silence.

Ranboo stands from the bed, turning to leave. Techno doesn’t stop him as Ranboo closes the door softly behind himself.

There goes not caring about this.

Chapter Text

Shoving cereal into his mouth, Techno wonders when this awkward silence will break. It’s been a full day since his outburst in the bathroom. Since then Ranboo’s tried to talk to him. Mostly normal things like what he’s in college for, his favourite food. Questions that’ll make actually spending the next week with them less abnormal. Helps them be able to pretend that any of them wants to be in this situation.

Techno could pretend this was done out of the blue sleepover with some new friends. Tommy doesn’t seem to share the same idea about ignoring the obvious as Ranboo does. He doesn’t talk to him much, ignoring him like he wasn’t even there. When Tommy does talk to him it’s always about vampire stuff. Like he’s allergic to having a conversation about anything else. And when neither of the two bring up a topic of conversation, it’s silent. 

The cereal is starting to get soggy as he swirls his spoon in circles. He’s used to the ever present headache now, doesn’t even ask for tylenol. But his throat is dry and teeth are sore. It’s been hard to eat anything since last night. Even now, the crunch of the cereal aggravates something in him. No matter how much water he drinks he’s still thirsty. It’s like dying of dehydration with a million clean water bottles around you.

“Not hungry?” Ranboo asks, finishing up his own bowl of cereal.

“Nah.” Techno shakes his head, scooting the bowl away from him. His stomach pains with hunger, demanding that he fill it. Doesn’t help that every bite he takes feels like someone was drilling holes in his gums.

“You need to eat something.” Tommy says, pointing at him with his spoon. “You need the energy.”

“For what?” Techno snorts, looking away. They said so themselves, he has a higher chance of dying then making it through the week. Why bother trying to keep himself full when it’d end up being a waste?

“You're not that stupid.” Tommy hisses, shoving the bowl back towards him. “Eat—“

“I’m going to the bathroom.” Techno cuts him off, standing. Tommy‘s eye twitches. He turns and leaves down the hall before either of them realizes they could probably force feed him if they wanted too. He enters the bathroom, wincing at the scene in front of him. Ranboo and Tommy cleaned up pretty good, he gave them that. Doesn’t help that the mirror was no longer there, along with the shower curtain.

He really should pay for the damage he caused. He hopes that the mirror wasn’t a hundred year old artifact only found in the arctic or something. That would most definitely put him into even more debt then he already was. 

Techno uses the bathroom, finding himself at the sink afterwards. His eyes narrowed on the under the sea hand soap battle. It didn’t really fit with the whole old aesthetic the two have going on. Before he can dry his hands off, a sharp pain in his jaw has him freezing in place. He grimaces, reaching up towards his face. 

“Oww.” Techno whinces. Talking causes another jolt of pain in his mouth as he bares his teeth. Which is the worst thing to do, as the pain spreads out to the top of his mouth. His tongue touches one of his teeth and something moves, falling out onto his tongue. Leaning over the sink he spits whatever it was out. He expects a jagged piece of cereal that had somehow gotten stuck between his teeth.

Not the whole tooth.

The taste of iron fills his mouth as something else clatters into the porcelain sink bowl. Techno’s met with another tooth. A bloody tooth. He runs his tongue over his teeth, finding two new gabs in the places they fell out of. It was an adult tooth, a tooth that wasn’t ever ment to fall out. And yet there they were in the sink. A stark red against white. He reaches upwards, finger fretting over the two new gaps in his mouth. They were from the top row. His canines. 

He doesn’t even have time to think as his vision starts to swim, moving like water. Gripping onto the sides of the sink Techno closes his eyes, blood freely dribbling out of his mouth and into the bowl. 

A pounding knock comes from the door. “Are you okay in there?” Tommy’s voice comes out, loud and booming. Or maybe he was talking normally. He doesn’t really know, everything feels off around him. Even the lights above his head were starting to get a little too bright. 

“It fell out.” Techno calls back, breathing turning a bit heavy.

“What?” Tommy says. He hears the door open, Tommy’s head popping in. Techno cracks an eye open. Tommy looks from him then down at the sink bowl, mouth making a small ‘o’ at the realization of what he was talking about. “Does it hurt?” Tommy asks, returning his attention back to him.

“No it just-it fell out.” Maybe he should be panicking slightly, or at least pissed that he’s now missing two front teeth. But something’s glazing over his mind making it very hard to actually feel anything about it. 

Techno just felt off. 

Tommy walks into the bathroom and grabs his face, forcing Techno to look at the other. Tommy stares for a second. Then something seems to click. “You're going out of it.” Tommy states, letting him go. “Your eyes are dilated.” 

Before Techno could ask what that had to do with his now missing canines, his hand is grabbed and he’s led out of the bathroom. Tommy leads him back to Ranboo’s room before practaly hoisting him into the center of it. Techno falls into the coved, face pushed into the pillows. “Wa-what?” Techno mumbles, looking over at where Tommy was exiting the room. “Where are you-you going?”

“Just getting Ranboo. You’ll be wanting to drink soon and be near a…affectionate sire.” Tommy explains quickly before leaving the room. He’d be lying if he said he understood any of that. 

Shifting in the bed of blankets Techno finds himself buried, hiding from the world as it continues to bleed out around him. Something is wrong, he knows this, but he can’t seem to grasp it. Like by time his mind tries to think about why this is happening it escapes him. Water flowing down a river, cold and rocky. He bumps into the shores, not able to find a foothold as it continues to carry him away.

The door opens and Techno peaks open his eyes. When did he close them? “I’m here.” Ranboo says, sliding over to the edge of the bed. He reaches out and Techno doesn’t have the thought to move away. He sets his hand on Techno’s cheek, rubbing softly with his thumb. “You poor thing.” He sighs, turning to Tommy who’s standing by the door. “How many teeth did he lose?”

Teeth? Techno lost his teeth? Running his tongue over his teeth he finds two top ones missing. Oh right, he had. “The top two.” Tommy replies, leaning against the door. His eyes feel like cold sharp rocks in the river he’s floating down. Cutting up his hands and feet as he’s taken away. “He’s dropping pretty fast though. I thought it’d take a little while longer.”

“Is that bad?” Ranboo asks, moving to sit on the edge of the bed. Techno eyes the other warily.

Tommy doesn’t say anything for a while and Techno’s eyes slip closed. He shifts again, pushing his face into the mattress. Where’s his pillow? He reaches upwards a bit, finding it on top of his head. He guesses he moved it up there when he was trying to get comfortable.

“—need to monitor him.” Tommy’s voice comes back to him. Distant. “Make sure he’s eating regularly.” He adds.

Techno stomach growls then and he huffs. Not now, stomach. He’s trying to sleep. Sleep sounds way better than eating. He hears a trill sound and his muscles relax, body sinking further into the mattress. “Are you hungry Techno?” Ranboo asks, hand moving the hair away from his face.

He opens his mouth to say no, that he was indeed not hungry. Because he’s a liar. But instead of any coherent words a whine slips out, needy and demanding. His vocal cords becoming traitors. Ranboo huffs a laugh as he pushes the pillow off his head. Which was rude, but the way. Very rude.

“How do I feed him?” Ranboo voices, manhandling Techno out from underneath the blankets and pillows. His head rolls onto the other's chest, body sandwiched between Ranboo’s leg as his back rests against the other.

“The wrist is fine for fledglings as young as Techno.” Tommy replies, still not having moved from the doorway. “Just make sure he doesn’t choke.”

“Alright.” Ranboo hums, lifting his wrist to his mouth. He bites down, fangs sinking into his own wrist. Ranboo winces at the self-inflicted wound, red dripping down his arm. Ranboo lowers his arm in front of Techno then slowly, like he was a scared animal, he presses the bleeding wrist to Techno’s lips.

The smell reaches into Techno’s brain and for a moment everything was normal. As normal as one could be laying on another person with his wrist being offered to him. Then he feels the river in his head turn to rapids, the water turning crimson as the rocks on the shore turn into daggers. He goes underwater, unable to swim up for breath.

He bites Ranboo’s bleeding wrist and drinks.

The river doesn’t calm down until moonlight is hitting his face. Techno blinks, gaze shaky as he slowly pushes himself upwards. His tongue sits heavy in his mouth.

Everything is warm. His head, arms, legs. No, that’s big right. It wasn’t just warm, it’s boiling. A whine rips its way out of his throat as he kicks at the blankets around him. They fall off the bed, the pillow making a thump sound on the way down.

Shadows dance across the room, moonlight chasing them. The curtains were open, a chill breeze floating in. It sizzles away the second it touches his skin. 

Where is he? Why were his limbs so stiff and achy? Why couldn’t he focus on anything in the room? It both feels too empty and too occupied. 

There’s a metallic taste in his mouth…

Techno’s stomach jumps and he scrambles to the edge of the bed. Red chunks paint the floor as he hacks up his guts. Or maybe those were his guts. Intestines and kidneys falling out of him in meaty ropes. The floor didn’t exist anymore. Shadows having swallowed them up whole. The redness falls and disappears. Techno stares as he feels himself tipping over the edge. 

The door whips open as he spits out the last of it. “Crap.” He hears someone curse. They walk across the abyss, pulling him away from the edge. How could they do that?

A cloth is pressed to his mouth as they begin wiping off the liver from his lips. “—anything down? This is the third time.” He hears the person say, sounding worried.

Why are they worried? Obviously his organs aren’t important if he’s still alive. A hand is pressed to his forehead. “He’s burning up.” They say.

“I’ll get the thermometer.” A new person says, leaving the room. How were they even here in the first place? Techno only saw one person walk in.

Techno blinks and he’s back in the middle of the bed, a thermometer under his tongue. It beeps and is pulled out. “Thirty eight.” A voice speaks up, hollow and wiggly.

“Fuck.” Another voice sighs. Then he hears something smash against the wall. “Fuck!”

A hand is placed on his upper arm, “Tommy—“ 

“He should be cold, Ranboo. Cold!” The person yells.

It’s too much. Too much noise, too much touch, too much heat. The crimson river returns, cutting through the shadows. It slides up the wall, across the ceiling, until everything is painted red.

He doesn’t like it. Hot bubbling tears run down his face as he feels his limbs burn. Lava flows underneath his skin, filling every inch of him with pain. His throat hurts.

He screams anyways, hands gripping his hair as he thrashes in the bed. Lava pools in his veins, melting him. His skull cracks open, brain spilling out onto the sheets.

The voices around him rise but it only makes everything worse. He kicks out, foot hooting something solid. This is worse than the car crash. He’d go through that again, a hundred times even, if it meant this pain would go away. 

He must be dying.

The shadows float across his vision as he continues to thrash and scream. Vocals raw as his nails dig into his scalp. The pain only leaves an hour and a half later.

Sleep comes quickly after that. It doesn’t stay for long. He shifts, resting on something. It’s breathing. It’s sort of nice.

“Mhmm.” Techno murmurs, head lulling to the side. There’s eyes staring at him. 

“Hi.” The thing greets, voice choked up and wet. Like they’ve been crying.

Techno pokes at it, finger squishing against its cheek. He giggles. They turn to coughs, then his stomach jumps again and he’s hacking up a lung. Another piece of him was gone then. At least it goes into a bucket, the thing with him holding it up.

When he’s done he’s flopping onto the breathing thing once more. They cradle him. Warm but not burning, not like him. He’s practically the sun. He looks up, eyes looking at eyes. A tear lands on his cheek. Not his own. The thing is crying.

He shuts his eyes. The things breath hitches, shaking him slightly. “Stay awake.” It says hastily. “Please.” So polite. 

Techno hums, eyes looking around the room instead. The window is shut, curtains drawn. Sunlight tries to break in from the cracks. “I like the sun.” Techno mumbles, reaching out. He can’t touch it from here. Bummer.

“You’ll see it again, when you're better.” The thing says, running his hand through Techno’s hair. 

“No.” Techno shakes his head. His arms fall to his lap as he stares. “Mmm dying. No sun…for me.” He whispers. 

The thing stiffens, arms tightening around him. Then it moves from behind him, arms going to support his back and underneath his knees. He feels himself be lifted up. It feels like he’s flying. Techno holds onto the thing as it takes him out of the room. 

“Ranboo? What the hell are you doing?! He should be resting!” A voice yells from somewhere in the new room.

“He wants to see the sun. Techno can’t see it from the bedroom window.” The thing says as it brings him out onto the balcony. Footsteps follow.

There’s no shadows here. The warmth doesn’t burn. Techno looks up at the sun, squinting. A smile spreads across his face. “Sun…” He mumbles, reaching out.

“Call Phil.” The thing states, voice firm.

There’s a long pause. “Okay.” The voice says, pulling out a phone. Techno closes his eyes as he feels the sun's rays dance across his face.

And then his jaw cracks, skull fracturing as he feels something start to rip through his gums.

It’s agony.

“Shhh it’s alright! It's alright!” Ranboo tries to soothe Techno as he screams, hands clutching his mouth. He’s thrashing around again, blood spilling down his nose.

“That’s enough for sightseeing.” Tommy scowls, helping Ranboo get Techno back inside before the guy hurts himself more. They set Techno on the couch before Ranboo could drop him.

Ranboo grabs Techno’s wrists and pulls them away from his face. Techno gags, spitting out two more teeth. “What’s happening?” Ranboo frets, struggling to have Techno not accidentally hurt himself.

“His fangs are coming in.” Tommy states, horrified. It shouldn’t be this painful, right? A small discomfort. Both Chayanne and Tallulah were fine with this part. A little teary eyed, but after sucking on an ice cube they were fine!

“Call your dad!” Ranboo shouts, looking over his shoulder.

“Right.” Tommy frowns, looking down at his phone. He types in Phil’s number and presses call.

It rings a few times before going through. “Hey mate—“

“My fledgling is dying and I don’t know what to do.” Tommy cuts the other off. No doubt Phil could hear the others’ screaming through the phone.

There’s a pause. “Start from the top.” Phil says, a familiar protectiveness filling his voice. A shiver runs down Tommy’s spine as he glances over at Techno and Ranboo.

He promised himself he wouldn’t do this. Calling Phil was a life sentence and he knew it. Techno wouldn’t be able to live the life he wanted for himself. But if he didn’t do this he wouldn’t be living a life at all…

“Me and Ranboo found them in a car crash.” Tommy exhales, shoulders slumping. Techno’s crying now, voice broken as fangs start to pierce through his upper gums. Ranboo’s crying too. They both look like they’ve gone through hell.

“We both bit them. They started fledging three days ago.” Tommy continues, hand starting to shake. “Their temp was above forty last time I checked. They won’t keep anything down and in constant pain.”

Phil doesn’t reply right away. The silence stabs into him, cold. Another fang pushes through Techno’s gums. “Start an ice bath. Lower their temperature as gradually as you can.“ Phil starts. He hears rustling from the other end of the phone. “Keep them hydrated, a few sips at a time. After they can keep water down, feed them a little blood. Where are you?” Phil finishes.

“Thanks, Phil.” Tommy states, finger hovering over the end call button. 

“Tommy.” Phil says, voice kind. “Where are you?”

“I’ll send a Christmas postcard.” Tommy huffs as he hangs up the phone. He flips it and takes out the SIM card before shutting the phone off. He looks up, catching Ranboo’s gaze. “I’ll start an ice bath for him.” He says, setting the phone on the living room table.

He’ll call Phil again when Techno’s temp is down. He just can’t risk Phil being on the phone long enough to track his location. Tommy’s already made that mistake before.

He turns, leaving his screaming fledgling in the living room.

Chapter Text

Getting Techno into the bath was much harder than Ranboo first thought it would be. His fangs piercing through his mouth didn’t help either. Little needle like things that in any other contexts would have been adorable. But right now they were embedded into his hand. If it was for food, Ranboo would gladly bear the pain of fatherhood.

But they were only there to inflict pain, and inflicting pain they did as Techno locked his jaw. With no meat or fat on Ranboo’s hand to take at least some of the pain, he’s left frantically trying to get Techno to let go.

“Tommy help!” He yells, trying to unlock Techno’s mouth from his hand. Techno only clenches his jaw even more, tears running down his face. As if to say if I’m hurting, so are you. 

“What do you want me to do!?” Tommy yells back, trying to pull Techno off of him from behind. They were in the bathroom and that’s as far as they got. The temperature of the bath was steadily getting warmer the longer they waited. Ranboo was about ready to just throw the both of them into it if it would get Techno to feel a little relief at this point.

“Just-just help me get him in. I can-crap this hurts.” Ranboo hisses, blood dripping down his hand and onto his shirt.

“Alright.” Tommy scrunches his nose, moving so his hands were underneath Techno’s armpits. “On the count of three.” Nodding along, Ranboo positions his other hand underneath one of Techno’s knees. “One…two…three!” 

They both lift Techno off the tiled floor and dump him into the freezing water. Ranboo gets halfway dragged in, having to let go of Techno’s leg to grab the side of the tub to not fully fall into the cold water. Techno’s pupils dilate and he screams, mouth snapping open as he tries to scramble out of the tub. Tommy quickly moves to hold him down. 

Ranboo isn’t fast enough to move out of the crossfire as Techno kicks, foot landing right in his face. Ranboo is kicked right into the tub’s faucet, head banging against the wall as he falls face forward into the water. If Techno wasn’t so young, he’s sure that kick would have broken his nose. 

Pushing himself up he coughs up some ice water. “You good?” Tommy asks, struggling to keep Techno from downing either of them.

He makes a thumbs up, shaking water out of his ear. “How is he this strong?” Ranboo splutters. He always thought fledglings were weak! Every vampire he’s ever met who’s talked about them made fledglings sound like porcelain. And for a while that was true. Even now they are struggling to keep Techno alive. But he was in no way weak.

“They typically are...” Tommy huffs.

He fully pushes himself out of the water, scooting over to help keep Techno from escaping the tub. Techno doesn’t take too kindly to the reinforcements as he growls at him. Growls! Like a dog! “But?” He prods, knowing there’s more to this Tommy isn’t saying.

Tommy looks away for a second, then sighs. He turns back to face him, a scowl on his face. Ranboo knows that scowl. “I don’t know much about the beginning of vampires.” He starts. Techno tries to headbutt him, Tommy moving out of the way just in time. “But I know there’s…true bloodlines. The strongest among us. The ones who can thrall and shift into bats.”

“Aren't they all gone now though? Wiped out?” Ranboo voices. He holds Techno’s legs down in the water. Getting a hiss for his efforts. He’s heard plenty of the ‘true vampires’ over the years. Vampires who hold powers more than just living forever, regeneration and heightened senses and strength. Vampires who can twist your mind with a single glance and who can fly.

On the rare occasion a myth floats around for a decade or two about vampires who can control the blood of the deceased. It’s all just myths. Vampires don’t have those types of powers. There’s true bloodlines of course, there’s one for every species. The originator. The start. But vampires are so old, there’s no one so old alive today. Humans would have hunted them down a long time ago. 

Tommy doesn’t look like he’s on the same page, looking away once again. “Tommy?” Ranboo says, leaning forward. “What is it?”

“Phil is…old. Really old.” Tommy voices.

“I know.” Ranboo agrees, narrowing his eyes. Tommy jokes about it all the time. “What does that have to do with Techno—“

“He’s related to one of the first vampires. Like, closely related.” Tommy cuts him off. “Like the tenth generation type of related.”  He says slowly.

What. “You're joking.” Ranboo replies, shaking his head. “Tommy, you can’t really be serious.” Can he? He looks like he is. Maybe Phil lied to him, a joke he let get out of hand? It wouldn’t be the first time Phil’s lied to either of them. “That would make you the eleventh generation from the original vampire, Toms.” He adds.

“I know.” Tommy sighs, looking down at Techno. He’s stopped struggling now, watching them with half lidded eyes. Must have tired himself out.

“Phil can…fly. He has these huge fucking bat wings, man, if you can imagine. He can choose when to have them, when to not.  Never got any fancy abilities. Phil always said it’s because I’m so removed from the first vampire. But I’m stronger than others. You know this. The biggest man I am, right? I always say that.” Tommy explains.

“And you didn’t think to tell me this!?” He shouts, heart rate speeding up. How many decades have they known each other? How many!? And not once had he’s heard about this! “My child is literally the twelfth generation of vampires and you didn’t think to maybe mention this!?”

“It wasn’t important!” Tommy snaps back. “I’m just a little stronger than others! That would mean Techno would be completely normal! A normal vampire!” He yells.

“You don’t know that!” Ranboo shouts. That’s it, he’s done. Done with all this fucked up situation. First Tommy turns someone with him, then doesn’t even want to take responsibility at first, refuses to call for help until the last moment and now this? Life is a joke right now. Where’s the camera? He had to be getting pranked or something.

“You just didn’t want me to contact Phil.” Ranboo seethes. “You hid this from me because you knew I would call him.”

“Phil can’t help with this more so than any other vampire sire!” Tommy says. “Techno was weak at the start. You and I both know he has a slim chance of survival—“

“This isn’t about that!” Ranboo cuts him off. “This is about your hatred for Phil! You would rather Techno die then face the fact he’s still your sire! He what? Cared for you? Loved you? Gave you everything? You two had a little argument and what? You're now done with him?”

Ranboo would give everything to have a sire like Phil. A person that belongs to him on a level no human parent could understand. Phil chose Tommy, kept him safe, healthy and loved. Ranboo’s sire threw him out the second he realized he was defective. Techno deserves a sire like Phil. Someone who wouldn’t abandon him.

“Shut the fuck up, Ranboo.” Tommy seethes, nose scrunching. “You don’t know anything about me and Phil. He’s fucking possessive, man.“ 

“I know enough to understand that he wouldn’t hide something like this from his siring partner. What if Techno dies because of something that could have been prevented? That would be on you, not me.” Ranboo ends off, breathing in heavily.mTommy slaps him across the face before standing up and storming out of the bathroom.

Ranboo sits there, face stinging, willing himself now to follow. Not to make this worse. The front door slams shut. 

A whine pulls his attention back to the situation at hand. “I’m sorry you had to hear that.” Ranboo sighs. Techno’s drifted closer towards the water, like he’s trying to hide underneath the ripples. His nose was almost underneath the water. He’s shivering, eyes going from the open door to him.

“Let’s get you out now.” Ranboo states as he stands. Grabbing a towel Ranboo goes about helping Techno out of his soaked clothes. They couldn’t take them off beforehand, with how much he was fighting. Once Techno’s old clothes were off and he’s done drying the man off, Ranboo wraps the towel around his shoulders and picks him up.

Ranboo sets Techno down on his bed. “I’ll get you one of my baggy sweaters and joggers.” He says as Techno buries himself underneath the covers. Not a care in the world. He’ll have to check his temperature too, see if it went down any. 

He goes about looking for clothes big enough for Techno to fit in. Techno was shorter than he was, but he had some muscle Ranboo didn’t. Which would make anything that fit him tight on the other. After finding what he could he helps Techno into them. Mindful of trying to keep the others' decency.

After which he settles on the edge of the bed, Techno curling in on himself. He waits for the steady breathing of sleep to fill the air before he removes himself from the room. He needs to wash the laundry, make lunch for him and Tommy…

Tommy doesn’t come back until the next day. Ranboo hears him enter the apartment, quiet on his footsteps. He pays the other no mind as he continues to hold onto the thermometer Techno’s currently trying to bite in half. It beeps and he takes it out before checking the number. “Hmmm.” He hums, eyeing it. It wasn’t great but it wasn’t as bad as before either. The ice baths were helping at least.

“Sire…” Techno mumbles, looking over at the door. 

Ranboo follows his gaze, eyes landing on Tommy in the doorway. “Hey.” He speaks up, looking over at them.

It’s been too long. The fight within him had turned to cinders hours after Tommy left. “His temperature went down a bit.” Ranboo states as he sets the thermometer on the bedside table. “I’ve been able to get a little blood in him. Not as much as I would like…but some.” He adds.

Tommy shuffles from foot to foot, biting the inside of his cheek. “I called Phil.” He speaks up. Ranboo straightens up. “He says Techno might be difficult because of how he was turned. Along with the fact he has two sires.” He says as he steps inside the room. “I couldn’t get much more after that without risking him tracking my phone.”

“Thank you.” Ranboo says, turning back to Techno. He’s looking at Tommy like he wants to throw a chair at him but also drag him into the nest. “Techno’s still completely out of his mind but his instincts are starting to show themselves. He called me ’sire’ a few hours after you left.”

“He did?” Tommy smiles, looking at their fledgling.

“Tommy I’m-I’m sorry for the way I acted. Not that I was wrong, just…how I handled it.” Ranboo speaks up after a bit of silence.

Tommy waves him off, settling himself on the edge of the bed. “We can talk about that later.”

“Are you sure?” He asks.

Tommy hums, reaching out to move Techno’s hair out from his face. Techno leans into the touch slightly. “I was thinking once this is all over we move somewhere else. Somewhere we haven’t been before.”

“We’ve been everywhere.” Ranboo smiles. Living for as long as they have, there’s not a place on Earth they’ve never been.

“A road trip then.” Tommy rolls his eyes. “You, me and…Techno. If he’s up for travelling the world.”

“You know what, why not? I think it would be fun.” Ranboo says. “I always wanted to see the Grand Canyon again.”

“Great.” Tommy claps his hands together as he stands. Techno frowns, chasing the touch. Ranboo trills, drawing the fledgling's attention towards himself. Techno shuffles over, setting his face on his knee. He bites, chewing on his pants. “He looks hungry.” Tommy notes.

“Not yet.” Ranboo shoos Techno’s fangs away. He bites his finger for the effort. He holds back a wince as he looks back over to Tommy. “Fed him an hour ago. I don’t want to upset his stomach, not with the progress we’ve made.”

“I’ll make dinner for us then.” Tommy says as he heads towards the door. Ranboo nods as Tommy leaves, shutting the door behind himself. Techno finishes his biting as he rolls onto his side, shutting his eyes. Ranboo could coo at the sight if he wasn’t certain that would cause Techno to kick him off the bed.

He’s feeding Techno on the couch flipping through things on his phone when a news clipping pops up. A lady standing in the center of the screen, a sadness to her that if Ranboo didn’t know better he would have felt bad for the women.

“Tommy, I think we have a problem.” He calls, pausing the video. Tommy walks over from where he’s washing the dishes, peering down at the phone. Ranboo press plays and watches as the lady from FCS starts to talk.

“—fledgling in question is only two to three weeks old, pink dyed hair, about 6’ in height. Physically he looks nineteen. He’s accompanied by two adult vampires, both looking around nineteen as well. Both around 6’, one with blonde hair, the other brunette. Don’t let their faces fool you, they kidnapped this fledgling without any warning. Who knows what they're doing to him, or if he’s even survived the fledging process at this point. If you have any information on these criminals—“

“Oh fuck off lady!” Tommy shouts, grabbing the phone from him. He stares down at the video, now showing a picture of Techno. He looks a little young there, probably taken before he left high school. “He’s ours, you liar!”

Techno looks up from where he’s biting Ranboo’s wrist, whining. “Quiet down, you're going to scare Techno into throwing up.” Ranboo shushes.

Tommy huffs, clenching his phone even harder. Ranboo really hopes the screen doesn’t break. “We’re fucking wanted criminals now, Boo. Look at this shit. “Highly dangerous and deranged individuals” She’s calling us serial fledgling kidnapers!” Tommy shoves the phone in his face. 

A new picture was on the screen. It was CTV footage from when they ran into Techno at his college. Of course it cut out the part where Techno was asking for help. Only showing when Ranboo threw Techno over his shoulder and they started running.

“Every vampire in this country is going to be hunting us down. Fledgling kidnapping is a killable offence to a lot of people.” Tommy grimaces. “If someone took Techno away from us like that…”

“He’s not going anywhere.” Ranboo states, then clears his throat. “Unless he wants to. It’s his choice, not ours, not FCS.”

“Right.” Tommy nods, looking unsure of himself. Ranboo doesn’t ask about it. Not when he knows exactly why. “What do we do then? Techno’s too young for anyone to listen to. Even if they did, the turning wasn’t exactly legal.”

“…Run?” Ranboo suggests, shrugging. “What’s a decade or so on the run if it means Techno stays with us?”

“And if he doesn’t want to?” Tommy asks, sitting down on the couch. Techno let’s Ranboo’s wrist go, blood smeared all over his face. He grabs a napkin as he wipes it off.

“We’ll set him up with something. A fake identity, a fake passport. I know you know the people who’ll do it. For a price, of course. But they’ll do it for him.” Ranboo says. Before vampires were widely accepted it was normal to move from town to town. Stay there for ten years or so, move on when people around you started aging and you just didn’t. It wasn’t new to either of them.

“He’ll need a new bank account too.” Tommy speaks up, leaning back on the couch with a thoughtful look in his eyes. “We can drop him off at the airport. FCS doesn’t have jurisdiction in other countries. The case couldn’t follow him.” 

“We couldn’t follow him.” Ranboo adds softly. Tommy doesn’t say anything to that. Techno doesn’t even seem to understand what they're talking about. “No one would be there to care for him, to teach him things…”

“He’d be free though. Like every other nineteen year old human.” Tommy says.

“He would.” Ranboo agrees.

Techno mumbles something he can’t understand, shifting so he’s laying across their legs. Spread out like he owned the very couch they sat on.

Quietly, barely a sound at all, Tommy whispers. “I don’t want him to go.”

A little louder than that but still barely anything at all, Ranboo whispers back. “Me either.”

Chapter Text

Techno wakes and for the first time he doesn’t feel like he’s been drugged. Exhausted with a bone crushing soreness in every limb? Yes, but not drugged out of his mind. That sounds like a major improvement from the last couple of…days? Weeks? It could have been months and he doesn’t think he would know the difference.

Pushing up from the nest Techno looks around the room. Sunlight peaks through the closed curtains. Everything that wasn’t the bed had nail marks on them, like a wild animal was let loose in here. Looking down at his hands he finds pieces of wood shavings underneath his fingernails.

…Sudenly he feels like being on the wild animals side.

Throwing the blankets off of him Techno goes to stand, only to pause. “These aren’t my clothes.” He states, voice scratchy and horse. He clears his throat, rubbing his neck. You know what, he’ll question that later. First, water.

Techno stands, wobbling slightly on his feet before he slowly makes it to the door. He opens it, the sound of voices filling his ears. Walking down the hall the voices get clearer and he quickly recognizes them as something good. He doesn’t know what about them were inherently good, but they were.

Following the voices Techno steps out into the living room, eyes landing on two people in the connected kitchen. Tommy and Ranboo. You know what, the voices were the ugliest things he’s ever heard.

Tommy notices him first. “Techno!” Tommy says, picking up a glass to dry. “Fledgling, you shouldn’t be walking around. Do you want to fucking trip or something?” The sire hisses.

Ranboo turns from his washes. He quickly drys his soapy hands. “He’s probably just hungry.” Ranboo says as he takes a step closer. “Come on Techno, I’ll feed you on the couch—“

“I actually just wanted some water.” Techno cuts the other off, scrunching his nose. 

The glass in Tommy’s hand drops and shatters all over the floor. “Your awake!?” He yells.

“How are you feeling? Are you okay? Do you want to sit down? How much do you remember?” Ranboo begins to ramble as he walks closer, hands hovering over him as he stares with wide worried eyes.

Techno leans away, looking off to the side. “I…” He filters off, bitting the inside of his cheek. He wants to say that he doesn’t remember anything. That the pain clouded his mind and made everything a fog he couldn’t look into. But that would be lying, because Tommy was right, he remembers everything. He remembers Ranboo coaxing him to drink from his arm. Tommy charting down when and how much blood he was drinking.

Ranboo carting his fingers through his hair, untangling the knots that kept forming as he rolled around in the nest. He remembers being carried to the bathroom, water running over his back. Of having to sit on the edge of the bathtub with Ranboo brushing his hair. Tommy tossing his clothes in the wash. He remembers the embarrassment, the humiliation, of needing help doing basic things.

The pain wasn’t even the worst part, no, he could take the pain. Maybe that’s just because his brain is pretending that it wasn’t that bad. That he could truly go through it again if it meant he could change the way he felt about everything. About them…

“It’s fuzzy.” Techno settles on, shrugging. “Sorry for uh…kicking you in the face? I think?” He remembers being cold in the bathroom, water drenching his clothes. He remembers feeling exsposed and so he kicked. He thinks his foot landed on Ranboo.

Ranboo shakes his head as Tommy laughs from behind him. “It’s okay!” Ranboo waves off. Then he reals back a bit. “Water! You said you wanted water. I’ll go get you a glass.” He says as he turns and heads to the fridge.

“I can get it myself.” Techno says. He doesn’t move from his spot. Tommy rolls his eyes as he gets a cloth to pick up the glass from the floor. Ranboo returns and passes him a cup of water. “Thanks.” He nods, taking a sip. The water’s cold, soothing his raw throat. It feels like forever since he’s drunk water.

“How long was I out for?” Techno asks after he downs the glass. They said it’d only be a few days. So what day is it now? The weekend? Monday?

Ranboo and Tommy spare a glance at each other. Tommy tosses the glass in the trash can. “Two weeks.” He states.

If Techno really hated cleaning up broken glass, his would have fallen to the floor right then and there. “You said it would only be a few days.” He states.

“Well, you kept trying to die. So it took longer.” Tommy replies bluntly.

“But you're okay now! Out of the woods.” Ranboo grins shakily.

He runs his hands through his hair and sighs. “Okay.” Setting the glass down, Techno thinks over his next words. For some reason he struggles to find the right ones. Any time his mind drifts to ‘this is it, goodbye forever’ his heart clenches painfully. 

It doesn’t make sense. Two weeks ago he wanted nothing to do with the two. If anything he kind of wanted to punch them in the face for doing this to him. Now his mind couldn’t even fathom the idea. Like some part of him tethered itself to the two of them while he was out of it. Love is a dangerous emotion and wickedly, Techno finds his own growing in a way that he doesn’t want it to. 

Ranboo and Tommy made him feel something he’s never felt before while he was out of it. He accepted the fact his love for his parents was only because he was their son. His mind forcing him to love them as a way of reminding him they were his blood. So why does he feel loved like a child should be by them? Like this was something he was missing for all these years? Like he’s never loved someone so deeply before?

Ranboo was attentive, always there, always talking. Whispering into the crown of his head all the things he could have, he just needed to ask for them. That'll be all right in the end because he was theirs. That Techno was special, loved and didn’t need to go back to the life he had if he didn’t want to.

Tommy was realistic, loud in the way he said the pain would pass. Trustworthy in the way he was always right. Forcing him to eat because he knew Techno was hungry and he was just trying to be difficult.

One night he remembers Tommy laying beside him, whispering that Techno could leave after this. That he didn’t need to stay. That he’ll console Ranboo, that he didn’t need to feel guilty about wanting a different life.

Ranboo gave him emotional stability while Tommy gave him a choice in what future he wanted. It was a recipe for a disaster on Techno’s part. For most of his life he never had a choice. It was always his parents' way or the highway. No inbetween. It’s what made waking up and feeling like himself again so painful.

Because for the second time in his life Techno felt loved by parental figures. And he’d have to leave them. The first time didn’t end well and they were his blood. What makes this any different?

Ranboo clears his throat. “Tommy and I were thinking. Maybe you can come with us? Kind of like a road trip. Going back to your old life isn’t really an option anymore with FCS and all…” He speaks up.

Techno stares, hand clenching around his glass. Go with them? Where? Why? He wasn’t their responsibility anymore. They didn’t need to keep him around anymore. “Why?” Techno asks, looking between the two. “You did your job. You don’t need to keep me around.” He says.

Please say something that won’t break him. That’ll make saying he’s easier. Because for as much as Techno wants to leave, he also wants to stay.

“We don’t need to do anything. If you want to go, then go.” Tommy says as he crosses his arms over his chest. “We just thought we’d offer.” Just thought we’d offer?

Techno takes a sharp breath in. He gets it now. It’s just another obligation to them. Keep him from running their names through the mud. If FCS finds him they could easily tie him back to these two. They were saving their own butts by keeping an eye on him.

They didn’t actually care.

“I’ll be out of your hair by tomorrow.” Techno states as he sets the glass on the table. His heart shatters with the words but he pushes it down. Just like his real parents then. The second he’s self sufficient he’s out the house. At least his actual parents had the decency to not try and sugar-coat things with a sense of ‘choice’. 

Ranboo frowns, eyes turning red. “Wait, Techno—“

“You’ll need to catch a plane.” Tommy cuts the other off, turning to face the sink. He can’t see the other's face anymore. “FCS is looking for you.”

“Thanks for the heads up.” Techno huffs as he turns around. He practically stomps down the hallway and retreats back to the comfort of his nest— no, bed. Ranboo’s bed. It was never his to begin with.

The car ride to the bus stop is quiet. Tommy’s driving with Ranboo beside him. Ranboo had tried to put on the radio a while ago but Tommy immediately shut it off. Turns out in the two weeks of Techno being ‘kidnapped’ FCS froze his bank account and passport information. Not like he had much money saved up anyways but still, it’s annoying.

Tommy has a guy he knows to make up an ID good enough to get him into another country. So that fixes the whole passport problem. It’ll take a few days but that’s too long to be stuck with the two of them for. Even if Ranboo kept saying that Techno could stay with them in the meantime. He just…couldn’t.

Not when he knows they're only being polite because it was the right thing to do. Just like how turning him was the ‘right thing to do’. Techno’s just been one giant charity case to them, hasn't he? What? Has eternity been so boring that they needed to involve themselves with other people's business now? Well it stops now, because Techno doesn’t want to spend one more day being looked down on by these two.

“Do you think I gave you enough cash for the bus? Are busses expensive?” Ranboo breaks the silence as he digs through his wallet. “I should go to the bank tomorrow and take out some more cash. Tommy, we should turn around and—“

“He has enough for the night.” Tommy cuts the other off. Ranboo clamps his mouth shut, looking over at him.

Techno shrugs his shoulders. “I’ll be alright.” He says. Not like it’ll matter in a few days to them anyway.

“You don’t have a phone though. What if you need to call us?” Ranboo says.

“I won’t.” Techno replies, turning to look out the window.

“He’s an adult, Ranboo. Techno doesn’t need us.” Tommy says as he turns into a switching lane. They were getting close to the bus shuttles now. Street lamps line the walkways, trying to kill off the darkness. It doesn’t do that good of a job. Which is exactly what Techno needs to not get spotted by any Good Samaritan who’s seen his news report. 

Ranboo looks between them, then nods once. “Right.” He says. He sounds a little choked up.

The rest of the drive is silent. Too soon Tommy is pulling into the parking lot beside the bus shuttles, parking a ways away from the sidewalk. Techno unbuckles and grabs his bag from beside him, throwing it over his shoulder. Tommy unlocks the car doors and he climbs out.

The cold breeze ruffles his hair as he takes a few steps away from the car. He takes a deep breath in, closing his eyes. The sound of two car doors closing has him turning around. Tommy’s leaning on the hood with Ranboo rounding from the other side. Before Techno could say anything Ranboo’s wrapping his arms around him.

Techno doesn’t move away. “You have to buy sunscreen, okay? You're very sensitive to the sun now. And look for a blood bank the second you can. They take cash up front if you pretend you're homeless.” Ranboo states.

“Don’t let anyone know you're a fledgling either.” Tommy jumps in. “Move around as much as you can until the end of the week. Then you can use that fake name I gave you to buy yourself a ticket out of here.”

“Can't wait to get out of here.” Techno scoffs.

Ranboo steps away. “You can always change your mind.” He whispers.

Tommy hears it nonetheless. “Leave the guy alone. He made his choices.” Tommy huffs. He doesn’t like them, his choices. But it wasn’t really a choice in the end, was it? Not when he’s the only one who seems to care. Pathetic, how quickly his heart clings into something that's always been fake. He knew this was going to happen. He wanted this to happen from the second they met. To leave. Run away.

Tommy turns to him, eyes narrowing. “Just don’t come crawling back when you fucking run into trouble.” He snaps.

Ranboo hisses at the words. “Tommy—“

“Why would I? After the headache you’ve caused me.” Techno snaps back, stepping away from the two.

Tommy rolls his eyes. “Go have a normal life then. Come on Boo, we need to start moving before FCS actually gets good at their job.” He pats the car's hood. Ranboo’s frown deepens.

“Goodbye, Techno.” Ranboo says, moving away. He sounds resigned, defeated. He chooses to ignore the part of him that wants to yell at him to not give up on him. To fight for him. Just a little bit.

“Bye.” He says back instead. He doesn’t mean it. Doesn’t want this. Why does it hurt so much that they're letting him go? 

Techno watches as the two get back into the car, the engines starting up the second Tommy shoves his keys in. He watches as Ranboo looks out the window, tears running down his face as he smiles, waving goodbye through the window as Tommy starts to pull out of the parking lot.

Tommy doesn’t look back. He doesn’t expect him to, but it hurts. Somewhere deep in his chest, like Tommy shot a nail right through his skull. How easy Tommy could turn the corner he doesn’t know. He wonders if Tommy ever wanted him.

“Alright.” Techno huffs, fixing his bag on his back as he turns. He’ll need to buy a bus ticket, figure out where he wants to sleep for the night. Ranboo gave him way too much money so he could probably rent out a pretty cheap motel wherever he ends up. It wouldn’t feel the same though. Not truly. Sleeping alone in some dingy motel, wishing to be a part of something more.

Family wasn’t the right word. It’s too weak. Family is what he called his parents and him. A family. There was no love there. A coven. That’s the word he thinks Ranboo had used before. It didn’t matter, he’ll never have that. Not with them. 

He starts making his way towards the building. He gets halfway across the parking lot because the sound of wheels screeching across concrete has him side stepping. A car swerving right in front of him. He’s blinded by the high beams, forcing his hand over his eyes as he lets out a hiss. Doors slam open, footsteps rushing towards him. Hands grip his shirt collar at the same time he thinks ‘am I really about to get kidnapped and or robbed after one minute of being on my own?’

“I can’t fucking do it!” Tommy’s voice booms in front of him. Techno squints his eyes open, bright red eyes staring wide at him. “You were actually going to fucking leave! Just walk in there!” Tommy yells as he shakes him, hands tightening even more.

“Tommy!” Ranboo calls, opening the car door as he steps out. He looks as confused as Techno feels. “What are you doing!?”

“I’m taking our fledgling back with us!” Tommy growls, shaking Techno again. “You really-your so annoying! Getting to me like this! I almost left! I made it around the corner!” Tommy yells. People were looking their way now, bystanders gathering. 

“Why did you stop?” Techno asks, slapping the guy's hands off of him. He takes a step back, hands turning into fists at his sides.

Ranboo fully makes it out of the car then, standing beside Tommy. His own hands are on Tommy’s shoulders trying to drag the blonde back to the car. “I’m sorry, you can go Techno. I don’t know why he’s acting like this—“

“I’m acting like this because I care!” Tommy screams, shoving Ranboo to the side. The action causes Ranboo’s hands to dislodge and he stumbles back, tripping over himself as he falls over. “I tried not to. I tried! But you have to be so annoying!” Tommy points at him. His eyes were wet, glistening in the moonlight like diamonds.

Techno wonders if they would cut him if he tried to wipe the tears out of the blonde's eyes. “You're the one who said to leave!” Techno yells back, heart starting to race. What was with him!? One second ago he was swearing at him to leave them and never come back. Now he’s like this!? It wasn’t fair. 

“You acted like you didn’t care about me!” Techno screams, voice breaking. He shoves Tommy in the chest, the guy stumbling back with a shocked expression on his face. Like he didn’t expect Techno to match his volume. “You said I can go have a ‘normal life’! You-you never fought for me! You gave up! Like everyone else you gave up on me! You said I had a choice but I didn’t really, did I!? Because you already thought I’d want nothing to do with you two!”

“You don’t.” Tommy states, baring his fangs. Ranboo scrambles to stand, trying to get between them. 

“You're cruel, you know that?” Techno seethes, nails digging into the palm of his hands. “You say that you care, but then the second you have the go ahead, you try to get rid of me. Just say that you never cared enough to actually keep me.” His voice breaks again and he sniffles, eyes welling up with his own unshed tears. 

Tommy hisses, moving around Ranboo like he was nothing but a blockade. “I cared—“

“I don’t want to be alone again. But you left.” Techno breaths, taking a shaky breath in. Both Ranboo and Tommy flinch at that. “You left me alone.” His voice cracks, tears streaming down his face. He doesn’t bother to wipe them away.

“You said you wanted your own life…” Ranboo says quietly. He fully turns to him, hand reaching out. Techno doesn’t dodge it, letting Ranboo plant his hand on his cheek. “That you wanted to be independent.”

“I thought that’s what I wanted too.” Techno whispers, looking at the two of them.

“Fuck!” Tommy screams, kicking a dent into a nearby trash can. He then picks it up and throws it until it hits a light post. Tommy turns to them and takes a deep breath in through his nose and out through his mouth. “Get in the car.” Tommy orders as he wipes at his own eyes.

Techno doesn’t argue as he shuffles forward. Ranboo takes his backpack off of him as Tommy gets into the driver's seat, slamming the car door shut the second he gets in. The second Techno buckles himself in Tommy’s pulling out of the parking lot.

“I care about you, Techno.” Tommy says a couple of hours into the drive, the sun coming up over the horizon. He doesn’t even know where they're going. Definitely not back to the apartment.  “Don’t you ever dare think otherwise.”

“Okay.” Techno nods, resting his head on Ranboo’s shoulder. “I won’t.” He closes his eyes. He wonders silently in the back of his head if this was a good idea. If they were meant to be in this car, driving off to nowhere.

A louder, newer part of his mind hisses that this is how things were always meant to be.

Chapter Text

“Drop it!” Tommy shouts as he stands at the entrance to the alleyway. His eyes glow red in the darkness, fangs out and baring. But so is Techno’s. It’s just that his is embedded in the body of a sewer rat. Techno bites the rat harder, blood filling up his mouth as he shuffles deeper into the alley. 

Tommy groans loudly, checking behind him for a second before refocusing his attention into him. “Ranboo’s going to kill me if he finds out I let you eat that! What about ’you can only have mine or Ranboo’s blood’ don’t you understand!?” He yells.

Techno hisses through his filled mouth. He swallows the blood in his mouth before spitting the rat back out into the ground. “I like rats better.” Techno huffs. A squeak has him snapping his head towards another, just as disgusting, rat.

Tommy runs over before he could push off the floor, grabbing him by his midsection. “No! No more rat blood! It’s fucking disgusting!” Tommy says as he begins to drag him towards the exit.

Techno digs his heels into the ground below him. “I’m still thirsty!” He hisses, elbowing Tommy in the side. He doesn’t budge. 

“I am literally full of blood, man! I can feed you back at the motel.” Tommy huffs.

Techno growls but doesn’t get much more word in before he’s being dragged out of the alleyway. The only people nearby to spy on the scuffle being drunks and weed smoking teenagers. Techno Is harshly shoved into the passenger side of Tommy’s car before the door slams in his face.

He sinks into his seat, Tommy getting in beside him. “Clean your mouth.” Tommy says as he starts the car. Techno sighs as he opens up the front car compartment and pulls out a rag, wiping his face.

They were just getting takeout when Techno smelled the scent of blood in the air. Everything else went by quickly, with him darting from Tommy’s side and attacking the already injured rat. A cat probably got to it before he did. If anything he’s putting it out of its misery.

A loud car horn snaps Techno out of his thoughts and he jolts. He covers his ears with his hands, scowling out the window at the car beside them. A headache starts to pierce through his skull. Sounds were too loud, smells too potent and his anxiety started creeping in like a dark mist.

Tommy stops the car at a red light. He twists in the seat, grabbing something from the back. Before Techno can question what he’s doing, around canceling headphones are roughly being shoved into his face. “Put these on.” Tommy says before returning his attention back to the road. Techno swipes the headphones from Tommy’s hands and shoves them over his ears.

He’s learned a few things about becoming a vampire and that noises and smells were now his worst enemy. Sound canceling headphones were now his best friend. Sighing Techno leans back into his seat and closes his eyes. His stomach growls but he ignores it. The taste of rat still persistent In his mouth.

Half way through the drive Techno lowers the window, feeling the chill midnight breeze on his face. He leans out the window, eyes scanning the things people who spend most of their time out during the day wouldn’t ever notice. Stuff he didn’t notice before he was made to be part of the night.

Which was that a lot of people seem to like to go to bars and fall over themselves while trying to get home. “I have a question.” Techno voices, staring at a man who face plants into a poll as they drive past.

“What is it?” Tommy says, turning down a different street. Techno watches the man trip over a piece of litter before they get out of sight.

“How do you get into bars and stuff if you look like a teenager?” Techno asks. It’s been bothering him since he learned to bury this whole ‘vampire fledgling’ thing in the deepest parts of his emotional cage, to never see again. Because if he ignores it, it’s not actually there.

Tommy laughs, looking over at him for a split second. “If your trying to get alcohol—“

“Nah. I don’t touch the stuff.” Techno shakes his head. “Doesn’t taste as good as people make it out to be.” He adds. No matter how many chasers he adds, vodka will always burn his throat.

“When have you drunk alcohol!?” Tommy yells. Which, oww, his ears.

Techno rolls his eyes. “Have you ever heard of college parties?” He replies. And having parents who didn’t really believe in the whole waiting until your twenty one thing also helped the sixteen year old him get his hands on some drinks. Either way it’s still gross. “Are you going to answer my questions or continue to loudly shame me?”

Tommy huffs. “There’s vampire only bars most people go to. But honestly? If you flash your fangs at anyone working at a vampire friendly bar, they tend to not ask your age. Most people feel uncomfortable when I tell them I’m most likely older than their great grandma.” He explains. 

Which kinda makes sense. “How do they get past fledglings who are actually their age?” He asks then. Could he walk into any bar and ask for a beer and just be given it?

“Vampires can tell if you're a fledgling or not, for humans…Let’s just say that they can’t really tell the difference.” Tommy replies, shrugging his shoulders. After a few seconds of silence Tommy squints his eyes at him. “If you have any ideas of sneaking off to a bar you better get that out of your head. I do not want to deal with you drunk.”

“Who’s going to stop me?” Techno smiles, turning to look at the other. “For all you know I could be a hundred years old.” He chuckles. Tommy flips him off.

“Get your head out of the window before someone recognizes you from the news.” Tommy states as he grabs his arm, pulling him out of the window. Techno huffs, sliding down in his seat. The belt ends up around his neck with how far he’s slouching. 

When they get back to the motel and park, Tommy shuts the car off and unbuckles his seat. Techno does the same, lowering his headphones. He opens the car door, only to get shoved right back into his seat. The door is shut in his face and Ranboo leans in through the window. “Hector and Rosa are back at the motel looking for us. They have a warrant.” Ranboo rushes out, eyes wide.

Tommy curses underneath his breath as he unlocks the back of the car. “Hurry up and get in.” He says as he restarts the car.

Ranboo gets in the back and locks the door. “Drive.” He orders, leaning in between them. Tommy’s speeding out of the parking lot a second later.

Then he hears Ranboo sniffing the air. “Did you give Techno rat blood!?” Ranboo asks, looking at the bloody rag in his hands. 

Techno snorts. “He did—“

“I did not!” Tommy cuts him off, slapping his arm.

“How did they find us?” Techno cuts in, peering out the window. He watches as two very familiar vampires quickly descend the stairs of the motel, running towards a black suv. ”…I think they saw Ranboo getting in our car.” He adds.

“Maybe someone saw you chasing rats down alleyways.” Tommy scowls, pressing harder on the gas.

“Someone could have called in from the bus shuttle and they tracked us here. They knew exactly what motel we were staying at.” Ranboo says as he tugs Techno back into the car. Techno sticks out his middle finger out the window. “Techno!” Ranboo gasps.

“Tommy’s a bad influence on me.” He shrugs, bringing his hand back inside. That and he really dislikes Hector and Rosa.

“I’m not even going to deny that.” Tommy says, swiveling the car into a side street. Techno almost faceplants into the glove compartment with the whiplash.

Ranboo looks out through the back car window. “They're gaining on us.” He says, worried.

“Maybe it’s because Tommy drives a car that’s the same age as him.” Techno states, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I have you know we rode horses when I was human!” Tommy yells.

Techno looks over at him with a deadpan look on his face. “You're not helping your argument here.” He states.

“Shut up man!” Tommy runs a red light. There goes another thing for their growing criminal record. The suv doesn’t run the light but not because they didn’t try. Another car got in the way, blocking them from following.

Tommy stops the car beside some seafood restaurant and unbuckles himself. “Tommy?” Ranboo questions.

“We’re going on foot, come on.” Tommy says as he shoves open his door. Techno and Ranboo follow suit as Tommy leads them down some alleyway. It’s blocked by a brick wall and before Techno could ask how they were getting over, he’s being thrown over Tommy’s shoulder.

He’s starting to feel like a bag of luggage with these two. Tommy uses a nearby garage can and jumps the wall, Ranboo following quickly behind. He doesn’t put him down once they get to the other side, instead running through alleys with him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

For Techno’s own dignity, he wants to say that the rat blood didn’t start coming back up until the fourth time they quickly turned a corner. He covers his mouth with his hand, the other gripping onto Tommy’s shirt. Eyes widening he looks at Ranboo with pleading eyes.

“Techno’s going to puke.” Ranboo huffs, looking behind them.

“Are we still being followed?” Tommy asks, huffing and puffing as they slow down to a jog. Ranboo opens his mouth to reply but it’s too late. Techno would like to say that he completely missed Tommy, but he didn’t. He would also like to say that he completely blames Tommy for letting him drink rat blood to begin with. 

“Are you fucking kidding me!?” Tommy shouts as Techno hurls. Ranboo takes a step back from the splash zone. He goes to put him down, only for the sound of running footsteps to be heard a few feet away.

“They're still on us!” Ranboo hisses, pushing them forward.

Tommy growls underneath his breath as he starts running again. “Remind me to never have another fledgling.” He gags. Ranboo just smiles awkwardly at Techno, trying his best to not look as disgusted as the other. It wasn’t working, with Techno seeing through his facade. He looks utterly disgusted with him. 

They do end up losing Rosa and Hector after an hour. They get another motel, only for the night though. They can’t stop for long. Only long enough for Tommy to shower, change into new clothes and for Ranboo to buy some gravol at the drugstore nearby.

They're out of town the next morning.