Chapter Text
It started when Bruce returned from his journey among human society, claiming no one ever discovered his true nature.
Thomas had scoffed. “Blending in with humans? Please. How hard can that be?”
Bruce only shrugged.
“Pretending to be a reclusive noble is easy. Pretending to pass as an ordinary villager is something else entirely.”
Now, Thomas adjusted the collar of his stolen coat. It scratched like hell.
His usually immaculate face was smudged with ash.
He had been "traveling" as a human for precisely ten days. And he hated every second of it.
His coat had lost three buttons.
One boot was missing.
He wasn’t entirely sure when the chicken feather had become part of his outfit.
So far, he'd already—
Been chased out of a tavern for not blinking for twenty minutes.
Been accused of being a demon after casually reciting the entire village ledger from memory.
Accidentally made a small child cry by smiling.
And now, he was running.
Again.
From behind him came the roar of a dozen angry villagers, pitchforks and torches in hand.
“He talks to shadows!”
“He knows when the cows will die!”
“HE DOESN’T EAT GARLIC!”
Thomas ducked behind a cabbage cart and growled, “These people wouldn’t know logic if it bit them in the face.”
On the edge of the coastal village, a commotion gradually approached in the night.
Bruce stepped out of his cabin and saw a group of torch-bearing villagers aggressively chasing a man across the sand dunes.
Roars, flames, and the clattering of wooden stakes grew closer. And Thomas looked as though he had lost a war against agricultural equipment.
“….” Bruce stepped back and closed the door, beginning packing away the clutter scattered across the table—rolled sketches, measuring calipers, gears salvaged from abandoned mills, and several pages filled with calculations only he could read.
“Bruce!”
The next moment, Thomas bursted into the door, covered in ropes, mud, and, somehow, a broken rake.
“How did they figure out I'm not human?”
Bruce raised an eyebrow. “Were you sniffing raw meat at the market again?”
“I just smiled at the beef liver! I didn’t even touch it this time!” Thomas huffed.
“At least wait until no one's looking. ” Bruce crammed the tools into the backpack. “There has to be a better storage solution than this.” He muttered.
Thomas dusted his hair. “I hate humans.”
“Five villages disagree.” Bruce watched the cracked door. “They hate you more.”
“That's statistically insignificant.” Thomas pulled away the rake.
“It's every village you've entered.” Bruce pointed at the angry crowd.
“...That's still a small sample size.”
“You didn’t even make it for two weeks.” Bruce sighed. “How do you expect to last a whole month?”
“They're irrational.”
“Humans tend to find accuracy offensive. ” Bruce walked through the door. “And they are terrible at night vision. Maybe I can draw them away.”
The villagers began closing in, voices rising with angry recognition.
“Wait! The other one! He burned down my uncle’s church ten years ago!”
“The cold-faced one! He once stole my wife’s heart!”
“I know you! You cursed our fishing boats!”
“...That’s oddly specific.” Bruce shut the door.
Thomas looked at him. “You said you managed to blend in?”
Bruce held up his hands. “Not when I first started, no.”
Thomas scowled. “If you’re going to burn churches, at least change your face!”
“I didn’t burn it! I just told them there would be a lightning storm!”
Soon the cabin was on the verge of collapse.
“There goes my workshop. Again.”
“I will put fireproof next time.” Thomas watched a torch flying to them. “So. What's next?”
Bruce glanced skyward. “Leave. Go somewhere else. They’ll forget in ten–maybe twenty years.”
“That’s how you blend in?” Thomas took off his muddy coat and shifted to a bat.
“That’s how I avoid trouble.” Bruce followed and launched into the sky. “Teenagers, to them, should age and grow fast. You can’t just stay the same and not raise suspicion.”
Thomas snorted. “So you admit you couldn't”
“No. I said when I look like an adult, pretending would be easier.”
“Sure?” Thomas smirked with his fang bare. “Let's see how long you can pretend then.”