Chapter Text
Giorno had still had black hair the last time he had felt normal hunger. Hunger had been a friend of his for fifteen years of his life; ebbing and flowing with the whims of his parents and the fruits of his quick fingers. Only recently had it become less of a concern, what with him entering his new school and living in the dorms. Yet, the busyness of his mind made him forget to take advantage of that as much as he should, and so it continued to be an occasional companion.
Hunger was a beast he never thought he'd miss, but you never know the true value in something until it's gone, and often, replaced with something worse. Far, far worse. Giorno wished that he could experience hunger again, it was much better than the alternative.
The day he'd woken up with long blond hair, a strange, invisible companion, and superpowers, had been a weird one. In the end he'd call it a good day, one of his best days actually, if incredibly confusing. He had discovered the day after, however, that there were some substantial downsides to his miraculous transformation.
He'd been busy experimenting with his new abilities, with Gold Experience, and had ended up missing breakfast. This was fine, it wasn't an uncommon occurance; he was liable to get caught up in his own head sometimes. He'd just be hungry until lunch. It really wasn't that big of a deal.
In his first class of the day, he had expected the consequences of missing breakfast to come for him- the gnawing in his gut attempting to demand attention, and perhaps a dehydration headache if he was unlucky. He had not expected... The Red.
It started as a sort of smell- a tantalizing pheromone that slowly spread through the air, making his mouth water. He looked around, searching for the source of the aroma, wondering what it could possibly be, but he found nothing. Absolutely nothing was out of the ordinary- and no one else seemed to be reacting to it. He realized that no one else could smell it the way he could. He frowned, breathing deeply, absorbing more of the smell. Another strange, unique thing about him that had occurred within the last few days. Great.
The smell itself was completely unfamiliar to him, something brand new. He tried to find something to compare it to, and came up blank… no, not quite blank. It smelled Red. He didn’t know something could smell like a color, but this one did… and he wanted it. The more he smelled it the more it seemed to sink into his skin, wrapping around his bones and concentrating in his chest. He wanted it- the source of the smell, the Red, whatever it was he wanted it.
He did his absolute best to ignore this strange new impulse. Classes changed, and he rubbed absently at his chest as he walked to his next one- the smell having remained just as strong, if not gotten stronger, as he’d walked through the halls. Of all the changes he had experienced recently, this one was turning out to be by far the most uncomfortable. This strange desire, which only grew stronger as the day went on… it was disturbing. He wasn’t even sure what it was that he wanted, just that he did.
Soon after that, he began noticing the sound. The enticing, sourceless smell was already enough, but this sound? It seemed to compound the unwelcome effect several fold. It was quiet at first, a simple repeating rhythm, easy enough to ignore, or pass off as something else. It got louder, though, and the rhythm got stronger, multiplying and overlapping itself. In his normal mind, Giorno would have considered it incredibly annoying, but at that moment it just added to the wanting in his chest, and despite his best efforts his ears strained to hear more of it. No one else seemed to hear this, either. Once again, it was just him.
It was overwhelming- the smell, the sound; it was clouding his senses and making it impossible to focus on anything else, on anything except the incredible, inexplicable desire. He wanted… something. He wanted it so bad that it was hard to think. He didn’t even know what it was! He had no idea what the smell was, where the sound was coming from, and it was really starting to get under his skin that he didn’t. What was it? The Red smell, the Red sound. Was he just going crazy? It sure felt like it.
It was in the hallway between his last class of the morning and the cafeteria that it dawned on him exactly what was happening. He smelled, he heard, and now he saw. Some kid passed too close to him in the hallway- a girl who had forgone her blazer, and was wearing her sleeves rolled up, allowing Giorno an incidental glance at the skin of her arms. On a normal day, this would have been less than noteworthy. This was not a normal day.
Without his consent, his vision immediately zeroed in on her veins. She was very pale, so they stood out like vines on her skin; blue, and Red. He wanted it. He wanted what ran just beneath that flimsy surface, he wanted the Red she possessed. He wanted-
He wanted blood.
The revelation shocked him into a standstill, pouring over him like a bucket of ice water- temporarily blocking out the offending (amazing-) smell and sound. Then, the girl was gone, having passed by him without a second thought. She had no idea what she had just catalyzed.
The girl and her horribly tantalizing veins were gone, but the smell and the sound wasn't- both of them crashed back into him like a sledgehammer; clogging his nose and ears like the worst head cold of all time. The intensity hadn’t changed, exactly, but it was worse now, so much worse because now he had realized what their origin was. He was smelling the people. The students and teachers around him were the source of the aroma that he craved so badly, and just the same it was their hearts that were causing the sound. A thousand heartbeats pulled at his ears, begging to him, pulling him in…
He needed out. He needed away. His feet were moving before he could really think about it, which was good because he couldn’t think. He barely noticed the odd looks he was given as he basically sprinted through the hall, dodging people and their thunderous heartbeats. He kept his eyes straight ahead- he couldn’t afford to actually look at anyone.
He found himself in the bathroom. A classic refuge, but at least it seemed to help, somewhat. There were less people in here, by a significant margin, and the walls helped insulate from both the smell and sound. It was better. It was better. He was okay, for now.
He immediately zeroed in on one of the sinks, turning on the faucet as soon as he could. The white noise from the water further drowned out the beating from outside. He took a deep breath, doing his best to ignore the remnants of the alluring smell in the air. Slowly but surely, his own heart slowed its butterfly beat.
Blood. He was craving blood- human blood. The smell and sound might have been muffled but the desire hadn’t. It was in his chest, his bones. It begged him to go back out into the crowd, into the Red, and claim what he wanted- what he needed. He needed it.
He felt sick. Nausea climbed up his throat and he felt dizzy from the conflicting signals. He put a hand over his mouth, and just breathed- wait… what? That wasn’t right, what the…
He opened his eyes- he wasn’t sure when he had closed them but he had. He looked into the mirror above the sink. His eyes were a bright aqua color; blue-green like the sea. His hair was a brilliant golden blonde, long and soft. A girl in one of his classes the day before had offered him a hair tie to deal with it, so now it was pulled back in a messy ponytail. He hadn’t gotten around to learning how to style it just yet, but he would. It was so different from the matte black hair and gray eyes he’d had just days before, but he was slowly getting used to this visage.
Now, however, there was something new. Newer, at least. He pulled his hand away from his mouth, and his breath hitched at what he saw. Fangs. Two- no, four, sharp white points extended from his gums, much further than he knew they were supposed to. His canines, on both the top and the bottom, had been completely replaced by the intense spikes- long and obvious; though the ones on the bottom less so, as a very slight comfort.
Blood cravings and fangs… What was he, a vampire? That couldn’t be right, right? He’d been walking past windows all day- and the sun had never once been offensive in any way. Several students wore crosses, and he hadn’t noticed anything wrong there either, and at that very moment he was staring at his reflection, in a mirror. He only had the two symptoms, but those two symptoms were… undeniable.
What in the world was happening to him???
He took another deep breath- noting the air flowing through his lungs, and the beating in his own chest, which was still just a bit too quick for comfort- tangible evidence of his panic. He added another point against the vampire theory- he was clearly still alive.
Yes, he was still alive, which meant he had a life to live. There was no possible way for him to just live in the bathroom forever, and people still went in and out of the bathroom, even if the foot traffic was lessened. It had helped in the short term but it hadn’t fixed the problem, at all. Giorno would have to go out into the school, and just… pretend like this wasn’t happening. He could pretend to not be a maybe-vampire, right? He still had to go to class, and eat lunch; he hadn’t eaten breakfast after all-
He wasn’t hungry, he realized. His chest was tight with bloodthirst but his stomach had not made a single complaint. There was no empty gnawing, growling, or pain at all, despite the many hours he had gone without food, at this point. That was, uh, weird. This whole day was weird though, in a visceral, uncomfortable way the past few weird days hadn’t been.
He should probably eat something. He… hoped he could eat something. With how intense the desire for human blood was, he wondered if his traitorous body would accept anything else. He desperately hoped it would. He had to find out. He turned off the faucet, and faced the door.
He braced himself, and pushed his way back into the hallway. It was intense. He had already forgotten how bad it was. The noise was a beautiful cacophony, and the aroma was sweet and already clouding his mind. He just had to ignore it. Ignore it. He shouldered his way through the crowd, shoving down that ball of horrible desire knotted in his chest.
He went through the motions, until he finally had a simple cafeteria tray in front of him. He grimaced- on a good day the cafeteria fare was mediocre; good enough, but that afternoon it was distinctly unappetizing. It wasn't the best sign, but he pushed through.
The first bite tasted like sand. He almost stopped trying right there- the much more delicious smell appealing to his senses. Blood. He needed blood, not this. Giorno remembered he was supposed to be ignoring it though, and so despite the awful taste, he took a second, and a third sandy bite. He didn't get used to it, really, but he shoved it down; if only to spite the screaming desire roiling in his chest.
Then, just as suddenly as it had begun, it began fading. The bell rang for his next class, and somehow, he found himself walking through the halls without issue. The incessant beating sound quieted away, and an hour later that sweet scent stopped clogging his nose entirely. By the end of the day, it was as if nothing had happened at all.
That evening he stood in his dorm room, completely bewildered. He felt… normal. There were no pounding heartbeats in his ears, no sweet scent of human beings in his nose, and no ball of bloodthirst in his chest. He felt completely normal. In fact, even the fangs that had replaced his teeth seemed to have inexplicably vanished. Looking in the mirror in his room, he looked normal. His new normal, at least.
What the heck.
“Okay,” Giorno said aloud to himself, steepling his fingers in the air. He summoned Gold Experience, who simply sat on the bed next to him. It helped to feel like someone was listening to him. “I have to figure out what happened today,” he began pacing his dorm.
“The symptoms started in the morning- not first thing, but not late either- just after class began, I think,” he recalled. “I am obviously the only person affected, which means this is probably related to… this,” he gestured vaguely at Gold Experience, who cocked his head slightly, expressing Giorno’s own confusion. “The sound started becoming noticeable a bit later… after the smell had already gotten bad, and then both strengthened steadily together until they just sort of… stopped,” he sighed, flicking his ponytail over his shoulder. He needed to do something about that.
“It’s gone now but it’s probably going to come back…” he muttered, Gold Experience’s shiny purple eyes following him as he wore a track into the wood floor. “There must have been a catalyst… I’m pretty sure… it started going away after I ate,” he grimaced, remembering the horrible lunch he’d endured. “And it started… after I didn’t eat breakfast,” he groaned, putting a hand to his head. “I wasn’t just hungry, please tell me that wasn’t just because I was hungry.”
Scientific method… I can test this,” he hummed, frowning. All three meals were provided to students who lived in the dorms- at express times. There was an available window that allowed students to come and go within reason. Giorno usually went to dinner early, not long after the window opened. If he waited until later… he’d be hungry, by then. At least, he should be.
He sighed, Gold Experience glittering away as he let himself fall onto the bed in its place. He pulled out his wallet, a small thing that he’d lifted from a tourist years ago. He flipped it open, and stared at the photo kept safely inside. The man clearly labelled “DIO Brando” stared back at him, his expression frozen in time. When Giorno had gained Gold Experience, his hair had mysteriously changed to match this man’s- his father’s.
“Is this your fault?” He asked the photo, uselessly. It’s not like it could answer. “What, were you a vampire, or something?” He huffed, flipping the wallet closed and slipping it back into his pocket. For all he knew, that was true. He’d never met the man, obviously. Maybe he had been a vampire- and Giorno was half, or something. It would possibly explain the whole not burning in the sunlight thing. He frowned. That was too plausible.
Before he could think about anything else too hard, he got up, and strode out the door. In order for his little experiment to work he’d need to be around people in order to notice if/when the strange bloodthirst started again. Therefore, he’d decided to hang out in the courtyard until dinner. Plenty of students, boarding or otherwise, constantly haunted the place.
The evening wasn’t unenjoyable. Giorno enjoyed people-watching, and the courtyard was perfect for it. Him appearing here wasn’t completely out of the ordinary, either, he usually just didn’t have quite the concrete motive that he did just then. Several students came up to greet him and exchange pleasantries, which he could admit he appreciated. He didn’t have ‘friends’ exactly, but it was nice to not be disliked or ignored.
He kept an eye on the clock. Even if he hadn’t been, he could tell when the dinner window opened. Students started filing away, slowly but surely. Giorno would have been among them, in other circumstances. He stayed put.
Ah. There it was. Around twenty minutes after dinner had started, that Red smell once again presented itself to his nose. Sweet and enticing, he couldn’t help but take a deep breath once he noticed it. It wasn’t very strong just yet, after all. The knot of desire slowly started tying in his chest… but it wasn’t distracting yet. Well… he’d consider that hypothesis proved.
He sighed, digging his hands into his hair. He should be hungry for food right now- the cafeteria often had fresh focaccia available for dinner, and, if he was lucky, chocolate pudding cups. That’s what he should be wanting right now, not… not human blood. He thought back to the photo again. ‘If you really were a vampire, and this is your fault, I’m never forgiving you for this.’
He didn’t want to let it progress any further than it had. The smell of people was still just a nice aroma more than anything. Now that he knew how, he was desperate to nip it in the bud. He didn’t quite run to dinner, but he did get there significantly faster than he usually would have.
It was to his great relief that dinner tasted normal. The awful sandy taste from lunch was nowhere to be found, and so even if he hadn’t been craving it exactly, he was at least able to enjoy his food, even if it wasn’t… human blood. Ugh. The very idea of that still made him feel sick- especially now that he’d once again loosened the bloodthirst.
The long blond hair and sea colored eyes were cool. The life-giving superpowers and their humanoid manifestation were cool. Vampiric instincts? Not cool. Very much not cool.
He resolved to make sure to make it to breakfast in the morning.