Work Text:
The Shibuya Laboratories make up a large and intimidating institution. The hallways are spotless, clinical. Even though there is little to see in them, spare a few paintings on the walls and some scattered greenery, Mikaela drinks it all in eagerly as he goes. It is the most useful thing he can think to do to calm the rapid beating of his heart.
He walks slowly, following in the footsteps of a guide who volunteered for the job when he arrived. He is apparently a scientist, though he looks a bit young for one. This comes from Mika, who himself appears to be permanently seventeen. Still, he has been assured time and time again throughout the application process that the people available here are some of the best in their field. He is not sure whether or not that actually makes him feel any better.
As they walk, their footsteps prove the most overpowering sound, though he can hear just as clearly the way his own breathing is starting to speed up. He can also hear the gentle beat of the scientist's heart, the subtle flow of blood in his veins. It is almost distracting, but he has fed recently enough that not even that can help him now. It feels a bit sour, given that it would have been a substantial problem just a few days ago.
"Nervous?" His guide - Kim, something - slows down a little bit to smile at him. Mikaela looks him in the eyes for only a moment.
"What gave me away?" he asks, because he sees no point in lying. He is nervous, and he feels he has a right to be. He is the one that is about to offer himself up for unknown experimentation.
"Most people are," the scientist responds. Mikaela should not be as surprised as he is that a scientist who specialises in vampirism would refer to them as people as casually as he just did, but it still strikes a chord with him.
Mikaela has been referred to as a lot of things, but a person is rarely one of them.
"If it eases your worry any," the scientist continues, "we're currently heading to meet with your research partner - essentially the guy you'll be working with the most."
Mikaela has to smile slightly at that. He almost makes it sound as though they are going to do the research together, when in fact Mikaela is entering this laboratory as a voluntary guinea pig. It is comforting that they go to such lengths to make him feel included. It almost works to alleviate the feeling that he is there filling the role of a frog about to be dissected. Almost.
The scientist slows further once they reach a cluster of doors near the corner of the hallway. He stops by the second door, a plain brown with a little whiteboard on it that reads "Dr. Amane" in lazily scrawled letters. Mikaela has time to glance around, noting a few other names and handwriting styles which intrigue him. It adds a surprising amount of flair to the minimalist environment.
Before he does anything else, the guide looks at him and opens his mouth. He looks to be weighing his words.
"Word of warning," he says, and Mikaela instantly feels apprehensive again. "Amane is a little... eccentric. Don't let his appearance scare you off. He is a brilliant scientist."
That last sentence looks almost painful to say, as his guide averts his eyes. Mikaela bites the inside of his lip. It is a nervous habit of his which took time to perfect without tearing up the flesh of his lip.
"In what way?" he asks. His guide considers it for a moment.
"Let's just say he can get intense," he says. "I'll let first impressions speak for themselves."
The scientist knocks on the door, brisk and firm. After just a second there is a shout from inside, a somewhat strained "Come in!". Mikaela's guide offers him a smile that looks almost like a condolence, and opens the door for them to enter.
Inside the door is a wide room, brightly lit and filled with scattered papers and items which Mikaela would associate with a high school biology classroom. It is a mess, which surprises Mikaela. He was expecting something a little more organised, to match the rest of the facility he has seen so far.
A young man in a lab coat is flitting from shelf to shelf. He looks even younger than Mikaela's guide, with dark hair and green eyes. He is picking up and rearranging sharp implements with careful hands. It takes him a moment to look their way.
"Kimizuki," he says, smiling sheepishly. "Hi."
"Yuu." Mikaela's guide (right, that was his name) says. "I brought your new client."
Dr. Amane's eyes flit to Mikaela, and he just about lights up.
"Oh," he says, visibly delighted. "Right. Yes. Hello."
He walks up to Mikaela and reaches out to shake his hand. Mikaela accepts with a small smile.
"Just in time for testing," he says, delighted. "If you'd move over here..."
He puts a hand on Mikaela's shoulder and gently guides him to where a low set counter is lined up with a wall. On it is an array of sharp and intimidating instruments. They will not be able to breach Mikaela's skin, but it does not instil any further sense of safety in him. Still, Mikaela accepts his fate and sits down on the counter where Amane points.
It may be rushed and intimidating, but he was expecting this sort of thing to happen. You do not sign up as a guinea pig without being willing to take some risks.
As he waits, the doctor goes about fiddling with a pair of rubber gloves, flashing Mikaela a polite smile.
"Now, onto examining you." He pulls on his gloves until they snap against his skin. He walks up to Mikaela and holds up his hands.
"Now, can you open your mouth please?" He smiles, encouraging. Mikaela does open his mouth, but the plan is to ask what exactly is happening.
He does not have the time for that, as Dr. Amane then takes the opportunity to pry both his pointer fingers into Mikaela's mouth. He puts his thumbs on Mikaela's jaw and guides it further open with a gentle but firm grip. He inspects Mikaela's teeth with eager focus.
"My, my," he says, impressed. "That is one sexy set of fangs you've got there. Nice and sharp."
Mikaela blinks. He feels incredibly awkward.
"Uh," he says, because he does not have the room to formulate anything else. Behind Amane, Kimizuki puts a hand over his mouth. He looks amused.
"Now, then." Amane lets go and removs the gloves, disposing of them in a nearby trashcan. Mikaela looks at Kimizuku, and his eyes ask all sorts of questions.
Amane does not seem to notice. His hands go back to Mikaela' s jaw, only to move on to his neck, and then into his hair. Mikaela almost shivers as gentle fingers trace around his ears. Amane brushes his hair out of the way.
"Fully formed," he mumbles to himself. Then he is gone again in a flash.
This is probably the part where Mikaela should say something, but he is drawing a blank. The whole situation has taken an increasingly odd turn.
"There we go." Amane appears again with some more instruments in his hands. He puts them down next to Mikaela on the counter.
"Yuu," Kimizuki says behind him. "Manners."
He says it the same way an amused parent would say it to a child. Mikaela watches in amazement as a slight blush blooms on Dr. Amane's cheeks.
"Oh," he mumbles. He looks between Kimizuki and Mikaela as though awakened from a trance, surprised and somewhat embarrassed.
"I'm very sorry," he says. "I get a little too into things sometimes. I'm Yuichiro Amane, and I'm very grateful that you're here."
His whole demeanour shifts with the admission. His smile is gentle and approachable, and not a little bit attractive. The intensity in his eyes is all but gone.
Mikaela smiles. "Mikaela Shindo, and I guess I'm happy to help."
It feels a lot better to say that than to think about the way he thought of this lab from he beginning. He feels a lot safer in the span of just a few seconds. It does wonders for his racing heartbeat.
"So, Mr Shindo," Yuichiro says as he flicks on a bright light and shines it in Mikaela's eyes. He talks more slowly now, more controlled. He visibly makes an effort to keep to a pace that will not intimidate, both in manner and speech.
"Tell me about yourself. Can you give me an estimate of how much of your diet is made up of blood versus common food?"
Mikaela thinks about it for a long moment. The light travels from one eye to the other, making him lean back subconsciously.
"I don't eat much anymore," he says, feeling kind of ashamed. "It's mostly blood, and mostly from banks."
"Alright," Amane replies, as casually as a comment on the weather. He takes a moment to scribble on his pad.
"Do you think you will be needing any accommodations during your stay? Any preference for common food, any social issues? Disabilities we should be observing?"
"Uh, no, nothing like that."
"Any smoking? Drinking? Drugs we should be aware of?"
He shakes his head. Dr. Amane makes a face and puts a hand on his jaw again.
"Try to remain still," he says. Mikaela just about freezes up.
"I'm going to need to take some blood to check that everything is as it should be." He puts down the light and disappears behind a shelf. He continues talking as he does so.
"Now, do you have any questions I can help you with?"
Mikaela looks around the messy lab. It is already turning out to be vastly different than what he was expecting. The questions he has are mounting, but he does not know how to phrase them in order to not come off as offensive.
"What's it like staying here?" he asks, because he is honestly curious. He did not look over the information very much upon his signing up. Mostly because he was starving in the street and did not see very many other options. This seemed the most sparing one, and that was back when he expected a small cage and inhumane treatment.
"We have some great facilities here," Yuichiro replies from behind the shelf. "You will be staying in the dorms. You get a room to yourself and access to the common area. You can come and go as you please, but we're going to need you here during work hours. You get the nights off for obvious reasons."
Yuichiro appears again with a set of needles and a suture. He lays them out on the counter next to Mikaela and arranges them neatly. One of the needles looks odd, blackened and with a strange glowing vein in it.
Mikaela tilts his head.
"Is that cursed?" he asks, and he should be worried but he is mostly fascinated. He has only ever seen cursed weaponry. This is something new to him.
"It's a weak curse," Yuichiro reassures as he replaces his discarded gloves with fresh ones. "Regular needles won't be able to break your skin, so we use them as an aid. It's just a little nip, it won't hurt you."
He readies the suture and picks up the cursed needle. At his gesture, Mikaela offers his arm. The needle tears through his skin and he flinches, but Yuichiro mumbles another gentle reassurance. Quickly, the cursed needle is replaced with the regular one, and Mikaela watches his own blood slowly pool up in the tube.
It is almost fascinating how little his own blood interests him, considering how much he craves the human equivalent.
"You will get one blood bag a day during your stay here," Yuchiro continues. "The facility is sustained on blood from the healthy scientists, and we do regular screenings to make sure you only get good quality. When we run low, we rely on donations, with the same high standards."
"You donate your own blood?" Mikaela asks. Yuichiro smiles slightly.
"It's the least we can do, considering what you guys are offering." He pulls out he needle and covers up the wound with a gloved thumb. It closes again in an instant.
"I think we're done here for now," he says as he puts away the blood and scribbles some more. Distractedly, he says, "I can't tell you for sure without the blood test results, but to me you look like the standard turned vampire. You should do great."
"Um, thank you?" Mikaela says, amused. He is unused to his condition being treated so casually. Yuichiro chuckles.
"You're free to go with Kimizuki now. He'll show you to your dorm. If you have any questions about your stay, your dorm caretaker lives in the same hall. If you have any questions for me, you'll be getting my number in your pamphlet."
Mikaela starts to get up and walk away, when Yuichiro stops him again.
"Oh, and Mikaela?"
"Yes?"
Yuichiro turns around and stares at him with a newfound intensity. Mikaela is surprised, both at the sudden turn and the fact that it is starting to make his cheeks warm.
"Thank you for joining us here," Yuiciro says, and it means so much more than a courtesy. "I promise I'll do my best to make your stay worth it. We will find a way to cure you. Somehow."
Mikaela draws in a breath, wholly uncertain what to say. His eyes flit from Yuichiro to the shelves behind him.
"I... Thank you." He nods. Yuichiro grins, suddenly back to his light demeanour.
"Of course. Now, I'll see you tomorrow for your first summon."
"Right." Mikaela turns and walks out the door. He follows Kimizuki down the hall.
As he walks, he has to bite his lip to contain the smile. This was not what he was expecting. Not at all.