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Clearly, Legs hadn’t been expecting to be found.
Whatever. Apo found him. The town had to stay together until the castle fell. They needed everybody. They’d felt him turn, and even if they didn’t find him right away, the trail of animal corpses was obvious enough. It led them right to his secret lab, where his head is buried in the throat of the last remaining sheep.
Seeing him sends a spike into Apo’s undead body. Past her usual revulsion for blood, past anything human. Into something deeper.
As much as Apo loathes tapping into that weird sixth sense of vampires, she can’t help but notice the frayed edges of Doc’s existence.
So he was like her. He cut off the weird sire-fledgling connection, and now he was on his own.
God, okay, okay. Apo needs to help because she knows what that feels like. The way vampirism tries to convince you that you need the person who stole your life from you. Demanding you give in, and it’s all you can do to keep your head above water.
“It helped me to be around people,” Apo blurts. “When I cut myself off from Scott, it helped being around Martyn. So I’m gonna stay with you, okay?”
Legs shakes his head, blood spilling from his mouth.
Fuck, Apo needs something more solid. She reaches into her supplies and pulls out some raw meat. “Are you still hungry?”
The basic need wins out. Apo doesn’t move, so Doc has to come to them. They kneel down, staying away from the mass of gore on the stone floor, and Doc crawls through it to reach the food. He’s desperate enough that he doesn’t even snatch the meat from Apo, just cups their hands and brings the whole package closer to his face.
Apo turns their face away while Legs eats, trying to think about anything else, when there’s a sharp pain on her hand. Legs keeps feeding even as Apo startles.
“Ow, did you bite me?” Apo asks, and-
Something is wrong.
It’s like something is remodeled in her mind, and the new door slams open with so much force that it hits the adjacent wall.
The opening swallows Apo whole, and she’s-
Hungry. Her clothes are sticky and ruined. The left eye pulses in its socket. Christ, everything hurts. Pain digs into her chest, along her neck, anywhere he’d managed to get his teeth and claws into. She’d tried to fight back, but it hadn’t been enough, she’d failed and now she was out of control she’s so hungry but wait what is this why is she…
Flinching back, trying to shut the mental door, she’s surprised, uncomfortable, something’s wrong and something’s new that’s not supposed to be there. This is familiar, but it’s different, and she hates it she hates this she wants this to stop-
Oh no. Is that? Ugh, hungry. Why can she feel…
Get out get out this is supposed to work just get out please get out-!
“Legs?” Apo blinks rapidly, forcing herself into her own flesh. “Is that you?”
Legundo is in front of her, and there’s a feeling of intimate recognition, like she’s looking into her reflection. She can feel the rocks against her skin when he curls his claws into the ground. Her fledgl- friend stares, mouth agape. She has to touch her chin to make sure her own mouth is closed.
Not again. Not again!
“Si- Ow- Apo?” Legs asks stutteringly. “Oh god, did I…?” Fear and shame sit low in her empty stomach.
Concern that’s met with more shame. Apo hovers, hands nearly reaching for Legundo, but they can’t help but stay back. Hungry hurts shut up not when they can feel-
“Jesus, Legs,” Apo croaks. “You’re so fucking hungry.”
Fuck. “Apo, Apo I’m so sorry,” Legundo whispers hoarsely. Of course it’s hoarse with how god damn hungry he is! No, no, it’s…
“Look, we can focus on… this when your stomach isn’t killing me!” Apo insists, shoving a bundle of bottles into Legundo’s clawed hands. They feel the glass under their palms even after the exchange is completed. God, they fucking hate this. Guilt gnaws at them.
Legundo uncorks the bottles with trembling fingers. The shake feels twice as bad with both of them doing it. “It’s… not as bad. Since I…” Guilt. Gnaws.
“Oh my god, it was worse?” Apo puts her head in her hands, waves of desperate starvation crashing into her. “Eat. Now. Please.”
The taste hits Legs, and Apo shudders as she gets an echo of it because holy fuck it tastes good. It tastes worse than it had earlier. With animal meat, she could at least trick herself into enjoying it a little more than straight blood sometimes, but Jesus.
“Jesus Christ.” Apo nearly chokes. “Nothing’s tasted that good since I got turned.”
“That actually-” Legundo coughs, and Apo grimaces at the tickle in her throat. “That… helped.” Nothing’s helped until now.
“Good. Good,” Apo sighs. She doesn’t want to think about this, she doesn’t want to think at all because this stupid bond is here, and why the fuck was it here? How is this happening again, she didn’t turn Legs, this shouldn’t-
“Your blood,” Legundo notes hollowly. “I… Is it that neither of us had connections? We both severed them, so this one formed out of the pieces?”
“Maybe.” Apo brings their knees to their chest. Doubled fear compounds. “I don’t know. I don’t know.”
Practiced, forced steadiness. Get a grip, soldier. “Just- calm down. We both have to calm down,” Legundo insists. “Was it like this for you before?”
Ugh, she doesn’t want to think about that. Focus! “Fine! With Sausage, kind of. Not as overwhelming. But I snapped that one right after he sold me out. It felt easy. Probably because I did it before against Scott.”
It doesn’t make sense why this one isn’t working, what’s different here? Unclear, what’s changed, find the logic…
Apo forces the words out through their actual mouth. “It wasn’t like this with Scott. All I got from him was boredom. Maybe some disappointment. But he’s old as balls so he’s probably way better at controlling the thing.”
Legundo hums roughly in thought. “Owen was…” Rage rage rage hurt pain stop! “...I cut him off quickly.”
“I don’t know why we can’t just break it. We both know how to break it!” Apo groans. “We don’t want this!”
They both try, Apo can feel them both shoving their minds away from the link between them, but they’re pulled into each other regardless. She hates it, she wants out, this is hopeless, she never wanted this, she can’t do this-
Apo digs her palms into her forehead, or maybe Legundo does. Maybe they both do.
“Fuck,” Apo mumbles. “No. No. We have to do something, we can’t just sit here. They could be in trouble!”
Legundo is shaking. “Right, we… I… but I’m…” Hunger still rages, fangs sink into her lips, hurts, can’t stop the bleeding five thousand- No.
Apo shakes her head quickly, digging her nails in. “Just- Just stop, oh my god, we have to protect the town!”
In tandem, they glance at each other. A mantra hums under Apo’s flesh, one that’s not hers, but she feels it inside of her. She understands it, she knows it.
Protect as many as you can.
After a moment, Apo shudders and tries to snap the connection again. Legs meets her halfway, but it persists. Stubborn, like both of them.
“I’m sorry,” Legundo offers. “You shouldn’t be connected to me like this.”
The connection is fighting to live. And, fuck, Apo hates that they didn’t choose this, but they can’t ignore the resistance, or where it stems from.
Frayed bonds on either end of Apo’s undead, cursed status. Both by their own will, but it left a forced emptiness behind, one that they despised. And Legs is here, and Apo can’t ignore that they’re so fucking alone.
And Legs was hurt too. And he rejected this too.
It doesn’t matter when Apo looks away from Legundo. She can still feel him watching her. Pained concern digs into her bones.
On an impulse that feels like Apo’s, Legundo takes one of her hands in his own. She feels either side of the touch, and something in her unravels.
“Yeah, so…” Apo doesn’t bother hiding the tremor in her lip. There’s no point. “Maybe we could try only acknowledging the outloud stuff.”
Doubt.
Apo tries to not visibly react to the emotion from Legs and fails. She sighs. “Fine, then let’s make a promise. We don’t listen to whatever this weird bond is supposed to be and we just… change it into our own thing.”
“You’re sure about keeping it?” Legundo asks. “This seems… unsustainable.”
Sorrow curls heavily in their gut, an absolute sense of finality. Apo squeezes their entwined hands and sends a shockwave of pure spite into their chest, one so violent that Legundo flinches.
“Fuck that,” Apo spits in determination. “Fuck that. None of that shit. We’re getting out of this fucking town. I don’t care what it takes.”
Legs forces their eyes to meet. Betrayed hurt spirals. “We’re protecting the town. I know you care about these people, Apo. I know you do.”
Apo’s eyebrows lift. God. God. He knows. He does, he…
“I believe you,” Legundo states as clearly as he can.
Mutual resolve. Apo pulls Legundo up, grimacing at the amount of gore that drips off him. Not like she wanted all that gore.
“Okay. This is fine. This is so fine,” Apo huffs. “Let’s go kill Scott or something.”
The shared drive to see that task through is so potent that it shocks a rough laugh out of both of them.