Chapter Text
Jude was tired. He had a rather great idea to catch the vampire who had been terrorizing his town for years now; if he could play the part of a servant to him Jude could get close enough to succeed the kill.
It had been an excellent idea, almost immediately the vampire took him in. Jude had shown up to the vampire's door step in the rain hoping for pity, batting his purple eyelashes and hoping to convince him.
It had worked perfectly, the vampire who Jude had learned was called Sharpness, had let him into his home.
It was almost too easy, Jude just had to keep the charade going for a bit longer, just had to keep being pathetic around Sharpness for sympathy.
Jude had pretty quickly found he was useless and cleaning and cooking, in a desperate plea to not end up a blood sack for the vampire he had proposed entertainment.
It was tiring though, the vampire never slept and almost enjoyed seeing Jude fail and mess up tricks from sleep deprivation. Sharpness was insufferable and insatiable.
Regardless of his earlier complaining this was one of the few times Jude wasn't stuck by Sharpness entertaining the count.
He was laying on his back on a relatively nice bed, Jude could say a lot about the vampire but cruel to his staff wasn't one.
The bed was soft with more blankets and pillows then Jude knew what to do with, he had a bathroom attached to the room and a massive book shelf across from the bed. Jude didn't read, he could but barely, just enough to read bounty posters.
Jude had been given plenty of outfits by Sharpness as well, stupid rich fuck.
The most shocking part about the clothes was that they were purple, Jude preferred the colour but it was clear Sharpness had a signature colour that was most definitely not purple. The vampire almost exclusively wore red and had the entire manor decorated accordingly.
Judes purple stood out almost aggressively.
His outfits were pretty normal jester attire, puffy sleeves and pants with a corset around his waist and the purple puffy collar other jesters also wore.
Jude was not a jester though, he refused to refer to himself as one. He was a vampire hunter doing whatever he had to do for the town.
He could risk his dignity for the job, Jude could wear the silly frilly collar and suffer alone. He rolled over onto his side, he had long since removed the jester attire to comfortably lay down in just a plain purple shirt and black boxers a size too big.
Jude had some weapons on him, he had a silver knife and a gun with silver bullets hidden under his pillow at all times. He just needed a good time to use it on Sharpness, he just needed to gain his trust more.
He ran his hand through his hair once, it was slightly greasy from work. Jude had put the effort in to keep himself groomed but still he didn't want to every day.
He didn't know what he was waiting for anymore, Jude rarely got a second of work so he supposed he was just waiting for Sharpness to want his presence again.
Sharp was almost clingy from what Jude had seen so honestly he would be shocked if he got more than 10 more minutes alone.
The vampire had a key to Judes room and the full right to barge in whenever he wanted, by courtesy of technically owning Jude, that was a weird thought.
He left that train of thought where it was, Jude was here on his own accord. He was waiting for the right time to kill Sharpness, that's it.
Speaking of the vampire, Jude should probably get the jester get up on before he wants him to entertain.
Stupid fucking vampire.
Jude finally sat up, bones crunching from just the hour or so of laying down and resting. It had become harder to tell time during his stay, the vampire had no clocks and Jude was constantly spacing out.
He took his time putting the costume on, any servant would knock and Sharpness himself rarely got Jude to entertain him directly.
Slowly Jude unfortunately finished putting it on, the corset was just a tad too tight but made his figure look better. He could suffer for the look, hopefully it’ll help lower Sharpness’s guard.
Jude never thought he would be bored in this place, he expected to be fighting for his life and living paranoid not this, not waiting for Sharpness to find him worthwhile again.
As nice of a thought it would be to think that Sharpness was finally being nice and letting him properly rest he knew the vampire too well now, as he mentioned before Sharpness liked him tired.
He thought briefly of grabbing the knife under his pillow, tucking it under one of the many frills on the costume. Jude wasn't certain Sharpness trusted him enough yet though, so he decided against it.
Jude yawned into his hand, he hadn't slept in what felt like days and likely wouldn't until he passed out, it only took one time of him passing out from exhaustion for Sharpness to decide it was ‘cute’ and make it permanent.
He did a once over on his outfit to make sure everything was right, it was, the costumes hadn't been hard to figure out.
Jude wondered how long he’d been there, distantly he realized he really had no clue, the mix of sleep deprivation and general anxiety had made it so hard to keep track of.
He stretched his arms out in front of his body, who knew what Sharpness would want, telling jokes, dancing, juggling or some random card trick.
If Jude could read he would research more but honestly he had no clue what he was supposed to really do, he based everything off of what kept Sharpness happy.
He tipped backwards, resting his head on the side of the bed with a groan.
Jude had no idea what he was doing with his life.
He was supposed to be a well respected vampire/bounty hunter known for his traps, and here he was reducing himself to nothing but a clown for his prey.
Jude wanted to cry but it would show when he left the room, he wasn't a pretty crier and Jude didn't want to risk it.
Speaking of his face, Jude forgot to do makeup.
He practically leapt to his feet to get to the bathroom. Jude didn't want to be left to his thoughts about his life choices.
He slowly put the makeup on, taking care to make each stroke precise.
Jude had his face painted white, purple stars on his cheeks with one star having a swirl on the inside and the other being outlined in a deeper purple, his lips were purple and lined, he also had purple eyeshadow on and the traditional spike of purple around both eyes.
Jude looked like a freak, if he saw himself now like a year ago he would have gone for the hills before he could explain why.
He stared at himself in the mirror, Jude barely recognized himself anymore.
Before coming to Sharpness’s manor and taking the job Jude could barely afford food and had been malnourished in every way, now he was significantly less boney and looked healthy.
Jude just stared, he was different.
He still wanted to kill the vampire though, that's it.
A knock on the door finally startles him out of the trance, Jude walks over to it, opening it to a servant he never bothered to learn the name of.
They bow at him and he bows back, it was a strange thing Jude thought but manners were manners.
“Count Sharpness requests your presence”
Jude nodded in reply, he preferred not to talk much to anyone really. He wasn't great at keeping stuff to himself and tended to crack under any pressure.
He grabbed his bag, another purple thing with stars and spirals that matched his outfit and had all the props he would hopefully need.
The servant led him down the winding hallways of red carpet and deep brown wood, it was a truly beautiful place if he ignored the vampire.
They neared a set of wooden doors that Jude faintly recognized as being Sharpness’s bedroom, he had only been here once or twice and never for long.
The servant knocked once before leaving, almost bolting down the hallway leaving Jude looking stupid in front of Sharpness’s doors.
Jude felt silly, dressed up in a way that complemented but didn't match the walls and vibe of the place waiting orders from someone who could kill him in seconds.
The door opened finally, Sharpness was there in a white button up with frills around the wrist and a few buttons open along the top along with black slacks.
He looked fine in Judes opinion, he didn't get the hype of hot vampires and people being head over heels for them.
“My liege”
Jude bowed his head in greeting, hoping for an easy assignment.
Sharpness grinned slightly at Judes greeting, much too sharp canines poking out. Jude shivered.
“Come, entertain me bunny”
Sharpness turned, leading Jude into his bedroom. Jude had to keep himself from rolling his eyes and refusing, he hated how Sharpness acted like Jude owed it to him to be able to entertain him.
“Yes my liege”
The words tasted bitter on this tongue but he kept his tone pleasant, as much as he hated the vampire he didn't want to risk his own life by giving away his distaste.
Jude waited briefly to see if Sharpness wanted anything special or just wanted something to watch whilst doing whatever it was he needed to do.
After a few seconds of Sharpness moving around and Jude doing nothing he pulled out his cards, it was a rather nice deck of cards, they were gold with intricate black and red designs.
The best part of the cards was how every single card was the Queen of hearts.
He shuffled them in the fancy way he had practiced time and time again, attempting to perfect.
“Pick a card my liege, any card will do”
Jude watched Sharpness pause in rifling through various vests to grab a random card, he read it before handing it back to Jude.
He grinned before shuffling again, doing it as fancy as he could.
Sharpness had gone back to what he was doing before but now he had picked a vest out, it was a rather nice red one with some black detailing. Jude didn't care though, Sharpness was a cruel monster and nothing more.
Jude slipped a card into his sleeve while shuffling, Sharpnesss wasn't fully watching anyway but it wasn't worth breaking the magic, he didn't know what the consequences were for messing up that badly but he wasn't eager to find out.
He moved to be in front of Sharpness, cutting him off from seeing if any belts look nice.
“Is this your card?”
Jude did some wrist flick to make the card ‘appear’ from behind Sharpness’s ear.
“Why I suppose it is, Bunny”
He ignored the pet name again, just grinning at his own success.
Sharpness’s hand found Judes hair and ruffled it slightly before returning to his search for clothes. Jude all but froze in place at it.
Sharpness had never touched him, not once since he got there.
Jude recovered as fast as he could, pink flushed his cheeks slightly but he put the cards away and reached for balls to juggle.
The balls were black and red, matching everything else around him. They were just three simple balls, Jude could juggle.
He had learned when he was younger, just simple hand eye coordination work for the fun of it. Jude never thought it would come in handy but here he was.
While Jude juggled Sharpness started finishing up, reaching for a glass of some red liquid that had been left on his nightstand.
Jude tried hard not to think about what was in the cup Sharpness was drinking, the vampire just watched Jude with an unreadable expression.
He kept juggling, maybe this was another test to see how good Jude was under pressure.
Hopefully that wasn't it, Jude could feel himself struggling to keep up with the stress of Sharpness watching him and not letting him see if it's good or bad.
Sharpness chugged the red liquid and Jude couldn't help but gag, it was subtle but still offensive enough Jude worried for his life.
All he was met with was a toothy grin from Sharpness, some of the mystery red liquid on his teeth.
“Dont worry bunny, its wine”
The relief that crossed Judes face must have been obvious from the look Sharpness got on his face.
“I only drink fresh blood anyway, you don't get that in a glass.
Judes neck hairs were standing up and his juggling had slowed down to barely a juggle.
“I- I see my liege”
Sharpness laughed. Laughed at Judes reasonable fear.
Jude could feel his face paling at the general fear returning, he thought he was braver than this.
“Keep juggling, Judelow”
Sharpness’s voice dropped lower and Jude felt like he could crawl out of his own skin.
“Of course my liege”
He picked up the pace, focusing on how fast the balls could move instead of the fact that the vampire didn't like blood from something not freshly killed.
A few minutes passed, Sharpness had his face in his hand watching Jude juggle. Sharpness had moved to sit on his bed while Jude moved to face Sharpness.
“Well, I thank you bunny but I must be off, I have an event to attend too”
Jude almost cried in happiness, not only did he get out of this situation but he would likely be able to sleep finally.
He bowed to Sharpness and put the balls away.
“Of course my liege”
Sharpness grinned like Jude was a kitten who was trying to walk, like he was something cute to be observed. It made him mad to say the least.
Sharpness walked past him on the way to the door, pausing to kiss Judes cheek softly before leaving.
“Sleep well tonight Bunny”
What the fuck.