Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Life was about as average as it could be for Ryan Haywood. He had a steady job at Achievement Technology working as an IT consultant. People called him when they had computer problems and he could calmly fix them. He was friends with his boss and coworkers. He would game and hang out with them on weekends. Overall, he had a very stable and normal life.

The end of the work week had come and Ryan was finishing up his last call. “Alright, your computer should be all set,” he said to his customer into his headset. “Remember, just call Achievement Technology if you need any more help.” He paused to let the customer finish. “Thank you again,” he finished and hung up the call.

“Wow Ryan, you really are one of the best at this,” Michael said as he, Jack and Geoff walked over to Ryan’s cubical.

“Thanks,” Ryan replied. Ryan’s phone buzzed with a text. He checked it and it was from one of his friends from Xbox.

“Hey, Anthem just came out and I was wondering if you’d like to try it with me,” the text from the friend read.

“Get a text from your boyfriend?” Geoff teased.

Ryan blushed. “Rismonger is not my boyfriend. I don’t think a relationship would work out, anyway,” Ryan said.

“What’s he asking?” Jack asked.

“The game Anthem just came out and he wants to play it with me.”

“Well, tell him you can’t because you’re being the designated driver for your coworkers at the bar, tonight,” Michael said.

“Wait, what?”

“Yeah, Jeremy, Jack, and I are going to Off Topic tonight and we need you to be the designated driver?”

“What, no! Is Geoff too busy to be the designated driver or something?!”

“Listen dude, I’m new to this whole ‘sobriety’ thing, and I don’t want to be tempted by booze,” Geoff replied.

Ryan looked over at Jack with pleading eyes. “Jack,” he whined.

“I fully support my boyfriend’s new sobriety and if he doesn’t want to tempt himself, then I agree with that,” Jack replied.

“And my wife is dealing with new employees at her weird pest control job that she won’t let me learn about, so I need a stress release. Can you help me stay safe while drinking so she doesn’t flip out anymore than these new guys have already made her?” Michael asked.

Ryan sighed in defeat. “Fine, though I still don’t know anything about whatever pest control company she says she works for.”

“I think they only do pest control for the rich and elite or something.”

“Dude, what if her pest control job is actually being an assassin,” Jeremy called from the cubical next to Ryan’s.

“That’d be pretty badass.”

“Whatever,” Ryan grumbled.

“Sweet, we’ll see you at the bar around 8:00 PM,” Michael said as he and Jack went back to their cubicles and Geoff went back to his office.

Ryan gave another sigh and began to text the Rismonger back. “I can’t game tonight because my coworkers are forcing me to be their designated driver for their weekly bar trip.”

“: ( ” the Rismonger replied.

Ryan sadly put his phone back in his pocket and cleaned his desk for the weekend.

8:00 PM came rather quickly. Ryan didn’t know what he was supposed to wear to a bar since he hadn’t been in years, so he ended up going in looking like a middle-aged dad.

Ryan got to the Off Topic bar around. 8:15. “You’re late!” Jeremy was already slurring his words. Jack and Michael, sharing the table, looked far better.

“I’m sorry, I was trying not to look like a middle-aged dad,” Ryan argued back as he walked to the table.

“Ryan, you always look like a middle-aged dad,” Jack said.

Ryan rolled his eyes and looked at the darts that were on the table. “You guys look like you were playing something,” he said.

“That’s because we were,” Michael replied with a smirk.

“I’m good at darts. Can I play?”

“No! you’re stupid and sober. This is a drinkers only zone!” Jeremy exclaimed.

“Oh, come on! You made me miss playing Anthem and you won’t let me have any fun, here.”

“I mean, you do have an unfair advantage because you’re sober,” Jack argued.

Ryan huffed. “Fine. I’ll just go get a Diet Coke and go sulk at the bar,” he said as he stomped off.

“HAVE FUN!” Michael called out after him.

He climbed into his seat at the bar and frowned. “What can I get you?” the bartender asked.

“Diet Coke,” he grumbled.

“Are you sure you don’t want anything stronger than that, luv?” a smooth British voice asked.

Ryan began to turn to face the voice. “I’m the designated driver for my coworkers so…” he trailed off as he looked at whom had spoken to. He saw a skinny man sitting next to him wearing tight clothes, with messy hair and a large nose. Ryan felt his gaze drawn to the man’s eyes and saw that they were emerald green. The eyes had a mesmerizing shine to them, and Ryan couldn’t look away. “Actually, I suppose I could have a drink,” he said like he was in a trance.

“What will you have?” the bartender asked.

“Uh…”

“He’ll have Irish whiskey,” the man answered for him. The bartender nodded and got to work.

“You know, I normally don’t drink,” Ryan told the man.

“Why not?”

“I don’t particularly like alcohol.”

“That’s a shame. Wouldn’t it be fun if you could just let go, relax, and enjoy the night?” the man asked.

“I’m not a fan of the morning after…”

“That sounds like tomorrow’s problem.”

“I suppose…”

“Just live while you still can.”

“…Fine…”

The bartender slid Ryan his drink. He took a sip and winced at the taste. The man looked Ryan in the eyes again. “Oh come on, luv, it can’t taste that bad,” he said.

“… I suppose not.”

Then the man held out his hand. “Gavin Free. Charmed, I’m sure,” he said to introduce himself.

Ryan looked at Gavin’s hand. He thought about it for a minute, then shook it. “Ryan Haywood.”

“Lovely,” Gavin said with a smirk.

“Hey Ryan?” Michael said as he walked over to him from the group table. Ryan picked up his drink to have another sip. Michael noticed and his jaw dropped. “Wait, you’re drinking!? But you hate booze! And you’re our designated driver! What are you doing?!”

Ryan waved him off. “Boi, I told him that he needed to relax and convinced him to drink,” Gavin replied to Michael.

“You’re trying to hook up with him!?”

“Maybe I am,” Gavin replied with a wink.

“But Ryan, don’t you have your crush on that guy from Xbox Live?” Michael asked Ryan.

“That’s probably never going to amount to anything, so why not just enjoy the night. Besides, one hook-up isn’t going to mean anything,” Ryan replied.

“Daw Ryebread, don’t say that,” Gavin whined.

“Just be careful. I only may see my boi, Gavin, here at the bar, but when he hooks up with the people he picks up here, they tend to go missing,” Michael said, ignoring Gavin.

“Hey, that’s purely a coincidence!”

“I’ll be fine, Michael,” Ryan replied.

“Okay, stay safe alright?” Michael asked. Ryan nodded. Michael turned back to his table. “Guys, looks like we’re gonna have to call Geoff to pick us up because Ryan chose tonight to let loose,” he said as he walked back.

“Now, where were we?” Gavin said to Ryan with a devious smirk.

As the night continued Ryan and Gavin continued to drink and chat. Or at least Ryan drank while Gavin continued to chat and flirt with him. The drunker Ryan got, the more eager Gavin was to make his move. “Hey… hey, Gavin,” Ryan slurred.

“What is it, luv,” Gavin replied.

“I’m not in the best mindset to make decisions… but I really want to kiss you and stuff.

Gavin gave a sly smile and leaned towards Ryan’s ear. “I’d like to do a little more that just kiss,” he whispered, licking his lips.

Ryan leaned away and his eyebrows furrowed. He immediately pulled Gavin towards him and shoved his tongue in Gavin’s mouth. His tongue explored Gavin’s mouth and Gavin blinked in surprise; looks like getting what he wanted was going to be easier than he thought.

The kiss broke and Gavin grinned. “Eager. I like it,” he said.

“I can’t wait to fuck you through the wall,” Ryan growled.

Gavin smirked, “Well, let’s go then, luv.”

The two of them stood up and went back into making out. “Hey, take it outside!” the bartender scolded them.

“Yah, yah, I know the drill.” Gavin replied. He grabbed Ryan by the collar and dragged him out to the alleyway beside the bar.

When they got outside to the alleyway, Gavin pushed Ryan against the wall with more strength than Ryan anticipated. “Are we gonna do it in the…” Ryan began to ask before Gavin cut him off by shoving his tongue into Ryan’s mouth. Ryan was too drunk to question it and shoved his tongue back into Gavin’s mouth with the same amount of eagerness.

Ryan began grabbing onto Gavin’s ass, groping it. Gavin broke the kiss and began kissing up Ryan’s neck. Ryan moaned as Gavin kissed up his neck. Gavin nipped at Ryan’s neck and Ryan smirked. “Kinky, I like…” Ryan was cut off when Gavin bit down harder.

Gavin’s eyes turned red. He sunk his teeth deeper into Ryan’s neck, unsheathing his fangs, he began to drink his meal for the night. Ryan’s eyes drooped as he was drained of his blood and he fell unconscious.

“STOP, VAMPIRE!” a voice yelled. Gavin paused and looked up to see two dark-haired men pointing guns at him.

Gavin unlatched his fangs from Ryan’s neck. “What, ‘The Rose’ sent you two knobheads to do her dirty work, again?” he asked.

“We’re not ‘knobheads,’ we’re ‘The Pasta’ and ‘The Sauce,’” the paler of two said.

“I don’t bloody care what you think your names are!” Gavin exclaimed.

The tanner of the two, ‘The Sauce’, aimed his gun and shot at Gavin. Gavin dropped Ryan’s body as the bullet headed towards him. The bullet that was aimed at him grazed his arm and blood spurted out. As Ryan fell to the ground, some of Gavin’s blood splattered across Ryan’s face. Gavin saw his blood fall into Ryan’s mouth and his eyes widened in horror.

Gavin looked at ‘The Pasta’ and ‘The Sauce’ and growled. He charged the two of them. ‘The Sauce’ tried to shoot at him again, but Gavin dodged and then kicked the gun out of The Sauce’s hand. ‘The Pasta’ grabbed at Gavin but Gavin gripped his arm and twisted, dislocating his shoulder. ‘The Sauce’ then went to tackle him, but Gavin took hold of both his and ‘The Pasta’s head. He slammed the two heads together, knocking them out.

Gavin smirked at the unconscious bodies, then looked back up and saw the other unconscious body lying in the alleyway. “Bollocks, bollocks, bollocks,” he said to himself as he ran over to Ryan’s body. his body was beginning to grow pale and the neck wound had stopped bleeding. Gavin slung Ryan’s body over his shoulder and began to run back to his apartment.

Gavin had just wanted a meal; he had not expected it to be interrupted. Ryan would have just died from poisoning since vampire fangs poison humans, but Gavin gotten shot and his blood ended up in Ryan’s mouth. If a human is bitten by a vampire then consumes vampire blood, then the human will turn into a vampire. Gavin had never intended to turn anyone into a vampire, but now this was something he had to deal with. He didn’t know the best way to handle this, but he was going to try to minimize the damage.

Chapter Text

Before Ryan had sworn off drinking in college, he had known that he would fall into dreamless slumbers after passing out. This time was different. After he had passed out, he dreamt about the man he had been hooking up with. He was an attractive man with a body that Ryan would have loved to ruin. In the dream, he and the man had been making out. Suddenly, the man shoved him against the wall with more strength than Ryan thought he would have. The man’s eyes turned red and he opened his mouth, revealing fangs. The man started to rush towards him when he awoke and shot up in bed, gasping for air.

After a few moments, Ryan began to notice a few things. First, he was not familiar with the room. The room was dark, but light enough that he could still see all of the room clearly. There was a TV, a dresser, a nightstand, two doors on the side wall, and one on the wall across from him. He blinked a few times; no lights were on, and there were no windows. Why was he able to see the room so clearly?

Ryan assumed that the man he had been hooking up with had taken him back to his place after he had passed out. But, then why didn’t he have a hangover after passing out drunk? This didn’t make a lot of sense to Ryan considering the fact that he had drank more alcohol than he had drank in years. He was sure he wasn’t drunk anymore but he didn’t know how long ago he had passed out. He got up and walked over to the light switch on the wall. He flipped the lights on and winced at how bright they were.

It took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the light. He felt his pockets to see if he still had his wallet and phone on him, but his pockets were empty. He scanned the room and spotted his wallet on the nightstand. He quickly grabbed it and checked to make sure all of his stuff was still in his wallet -- nothing seemed to be missing. He looked around the room again. Now where was his phone? He checked all over the room, opening drawers but not any of the doors,, but could not find it. He knew he had to leave the room to try and find it.

Suddenly, he noticed how hungry he was. It was a ravenous feeling, like some beast was hollowing out the inside of his stomach with blunt claws. He quickly rushed out of the room to look his phone; he would try to get something to eat after he left. He snuck down the hall, trying to be as quiet as possible. He got to the living room of the apartment and saw Gavin sitting on the couch watching TV. He could maybe make a run for it, but his hunger was starting to overwhelm him. He snuck into the kitchen and checked the pantry for food, the pantry was empty. Next, he checked the fridge for food, but that was empty as well. Ryan was puzzled as to why there was no food in the apartment.

“Ryan?” the man asked, coming up behind Ryan.

Ryan yelped and jumped in surprise. “Shit! ”

“You’re awake and up a lot faster than I thought you be. And you probably could have snuck past me had I not heard the refrigerator door open...”

Ryan facepalmed and sighed. “Gavin, right?” he asked the man. The man nodded in confirmation. “Okay. Why don’t you have any food here?”

“Well, it doesn’t taste as good if it’s not fresh,” Gavin replied.

Ryan raised an eyebrow. “Don’t see why food freshness and having it taste better is more important than having it in your home, but okay. Also, why didn’t you call a cab to take me home since I’m assuming that we didn’t hook up. And did you take my phone?”

Gavin sighed. “I took your phone and didn’t take you home because it wouldn’t be safe for you out there and your friends aren’t safe around you yet. You’re too dangerous, right now.”

“Me? Dangerous? What the hell are you talking about?!” Ryan exclaimed in confusion.

“Ryan…”

“I’m a pacifist and gore makes me ill! I don’t think I could be purposely violent or dangerous, even if I tried to be! But you wouldn’t care about that would you, since you already kidnapped me?!”

Gavin gulped, he wasn’t sure how to approach this. “It’s more complicated than that!” Ryan groaned in response. If he wanted Ryan to understand the situation and why he took him home with him, he had to explain everything from the beginning. “What exactly do you remember from our ‘hook up’?” he asked.

“I’m not sure. It’s all jumbled and foggy. Did I hurt someone?”

“No… but I did…” Gavin said. “What exactly can you remember about the events that took place when we were snogging?”

Ryan thought about it for a moment. “Well… you shoved me against the wall in the alleyway because you’re way stronger than you look. We made out, then you started kissing me up my neck. Then it all goes fuzzy.”

Gavin looked away shyly. He took a deep breath, sighed, and turned back to face Ryan. “Well when I was kissing up your neck,” he started. “I found your pulse and bit down, because I’m a vampire. I was drinking your blood, Ryan…”

Ryan’s eyebrows shot up; this man actually thought he was a vampire?! That had to be made up. “What?! Why the fuck would you start drinking my blood?!” he exclaimed.

Gavin shrugged. “Man’s gotta eat.”

“But how the hell would human blood feed you?! You had me fooled, I really thought you were normal!”

“Well, I just told you that I’m a vampire, so I’m not exactly normal from a human perspective. But, that’s not what this was about. I didn’t finish my story,” Gavin explained, trying to remain calm. “I was interrupted by a couple of mediocre vampire hunters who work for this one good hunter…”

“Vampire hunters? Okay this sounds like complete bullshit.”

Gavin rolled his eyes. “And they shot me with a silver bullet. I dropped you as the bullet was coming at me. It gazed me and some of my blood splattered in your mouth as you fell…”

“Okay, that’s disgusting. You drank my blood and then I apparently drank yours? That’s absolutely nauseating.” Ryan shivered, hugged his arms across his chest, and gagged in disgust.

“WILL YOU BLOODY STOP INTERRUPTING ME?!” Gavin screeched. Ryan’s eyebrows furrowed, he wasn’t sure how much more of this nonsense he could take. “And when human blood tainted with vampire venom mixes with vampire blood, it turns the human blood into vampire blood. Having vampire blood means that you ARE a vampire too, now.”

This couldn’t be possible; vampires weren’t real. This was all so incredibly stupid. “Okay, since you don’t want to tell me what actually happened after we started hooking up, I’d like my phone back so I can go back to my apartment.”

“I already told you that you’re too dangerous as a freshly turned vampire. You’ve never hunted for prey before, you wouldn’t bloody know what you’re doing?!”

“VAMPIRES AREN’T REAL!” Ryan shouted.

Gavin’s eyebrows furrowed. “YES, THEY ARE. I’M ONE AND YOU’RE ONE TOO, NOW!”

“NO, I’M NOT!”

“YOU COULD CHECK THE MIRROR IN THE BATHROOM AND SEE THAT MY FANG MARKS ARE SCARRED ON YOUR NECK!”

“GREAT, NOW I HAVE A PERMANENT REMINDER THAT YOU’RE FUCKING CRAZY!”

“CAN WE STOP YELLING?!” Gavin screamed. Ryan shut his mouth; he still thought everything Gavin had said was complete bullshit. “You said that you were hungry, earlier, right?” he asked. Ryan nodded. “Then, let’s take you hunting,” he said as he started to walk toward the front door of the apartment.

“We don’t need to go hunting for food. I already know where good restaurants and grocery stores are,” Ryan replied.

“That’s not what I meant.”

Ryan rolled his eyes. Gavin still apparently had his phone hidden somewhere. He supposed that if he humored him, then maybe he could get his phone back and warn others that he was crazy. Ryan begrudgingly followed Gavin out the door.

“Where are you taking me, then?” he asked Gavin as they walked down to the street.

“The homeless shelter,” Gavin replied.

“I don’t understand how helping at the homeless shelter will get me any food.”

“Well, after being attacked by vampire hunters at Off Topic, I’m not sure that’s a safe option for hunting, yet.”

“I still don’t understand how helping the homeless is a safer food option than shitty bar food.”

“Well, that’s because…” Gavin was cut off when a mugger grabbed him and pulled him into an alleyway.

“Gavin!” Ryan yelled. He may think that he’s crazy, but he’s still doesn’t think that Gavin deserved to be mugged. He ran into the alleyway after him.

“Give me all of your money,” the mugger said, threatening Gavin with a knife.

Gavin smirked, he knew this wasn’t going to end well for the mugger. Gavin opened his mouth to work his charm, when Ryan ran into the alleyway.

“Gavin, I’m…” he paused when he caught scent of one of the most delicious things he had ever smelt. He had smelled other delicious smells while following Gavin on the way to the homeless shelter, but this one really caught his attention. As he continued to smell the smell, the world went fuzzy for him. His eyes turned red and he licked his lips. He ran directly at the mugger.

The mugger pointed his knife away from Gavin and at Ryan. “I’ll shank you too, motherfuck-” the mugger was cut off when Ryan grabbed his arm and squeezed it.

As he squeezed, the bones shattered under his grip. The mugger screamed. Ryan held his free hand to the mugger’s mouth and the other one to make him let go of Gavin, breaking the mugger’s hand in the process. Ryan used both hands to snap the mugger’s neck, killing him. Ryan’s fang’s unsheathed and he bit down on the mugger’s neck to drain his blood.

Gavin stared in slack-jawed awe as Ryan happily drank his first meal as a vampire.

As Ryan began to finish his meal, Ryan’s eyes faded back to their original sapphire blue color. Ryan finished his meal and it hit him all at once that his teeth were lodged in another man’s neck. He dislodged his fangs and yelped, backing away from the corpse. He reached up with quivering hands and felt his face. Fangs coming out of his mouth prodded against his hesitant fingertips, and he yelped again. His fangs sheathed themselves and he started shaking.

Gavin walked back over to Ryan and tapped his shoulder. Ryan jumped at the touch. “Believe that you’re a vampire, now?” he asked.

“I…I… just killed a man…” Ryan stuttered.

“To be fair, he tried to mug me.”

“That still doesn’t make killing someone okay!”

“That’s a part of vampirism, Ryan. You have to kill people if you want to survive,” Gavin explained.

“No!” Ryan exclaimed.

“No?”

“I… I don’t want to kill people!”

“You have to, though.”

“No, I don’t!”

“Oh really? And how do you propose keeping yourself fed without having to drain someone’s blood?” Gavin asked, annoyed.

Ryan thought about it for a moment, his eyes roving around the alleyway and his breath still coming in gasps. “Blood bags,” he suggested.

Gavin rolled his eyes. “Oh, come on!”

“People willingly donate their blood. I drink some of that and I can eat without having to kill anyone. It’s perfect!”

“But fresh blood tastes way better,” Gavin said.

“I don’t give a damn how it tastes! I will not hurt people. Not like this again. So please, let me be a blood thirsty monster without having to harm people!” Ryan argued.

Gavin groaned. Christ alive, new vampires get too attached to their morals from when they were human. He had never turned someone before, so he didn't know if all newborn vampires were like this or if this newborn just happened to be difficult. He sighed and pulled out his own phone to texted someone. “There, I texted my human thrall. You’ll get your blood bags. Might be a good tool to help you learn self-control as well.”

“When can I have my phone back?” Ryan asked somberly as he looked at the phone in Gavin’s hand.

“You can have it back once we work on that self-control,” Gavin said.

Ryan swallowed hard, the aftertaste of blood cloying sweetly at the back of his throat. What had he gotten into?

Chapter Text

Ryan’s instincts were going haywire; he had just killed a man. Sure, the man was by no means innocent, having tried to mug Gavin, but that was no excuse. He didn’t know what he should do now. Gavin looked over at Ryan, who was still shaking, and sighed. “Can we go to the homeless shelter, now? I still need to feed,” he said, annoyed.

“How can you just want me to run away?! I’m a murderer!!” Ryan exclaimed.

“Oh, quiet down. You’re being a drama queen.”

Gavin seemed to play it off as though Ryan’s remorse was wrong, that he shouldn’t have felt bad for killing that man for sustenance. Ryan found Gavin’s reaction, that what he had done was normal, to be unnerving. He was a monster, now, whether he liked it or not. Didn’t mean he had to like it. He just wanted to go home.

Gavin still needed to go hunting after Ryan had his episode. Ryan was reluctant to follow him, but he was too scared of himself to try and run off. Gavin took him to the homeless shelter like they had originally planned. Gavin fed off of a homeless man, saying the man probably wouldn’t be missed. Ryan thought that was horrible, but he didn’t say anything. He wasn’t in the mood to speak with Gavin after he had forced him into hunting before he was ready.

They got back to Gavin’s apartment around 3 in the morning. “What do you think we should do now?” Gavin asked Ryan. Ryan outright ignored him and marched back to the room he had originally woken up in. “Ryan!” Gavin called out after him.

Gavin heard the door slam shut and he pinched his eyebrows in aggravation. Gavin walked to the bedroom and tried to turn the knob. It was locked. He rolled his eyes and twisted the doorknob so hard it broke the lock. He pushed on the door, but it still wouldn’t budge.

“I DON’T KNOW HOW YOU’RE KEEPING THIS DOOR SHUT, BUT YOU NEED TO OPEN UP!!” Gavin yelled.

Ryan was sitting directly behind the door to try and block it. It seemed he was stronger than Gavin. That was good to know. “LEAVE ME ALONE!” he yelled back.

“Be rational! I don’t have the strength that you have but I should probably talk you through this!”

“It’s a little late for talking me through all this, don’t you think?!”

“Ryan, please…”

“Just go away! I can’t deal with this right now!”

Gavin looked at the door and felt a pang of remorse; he started to realize how wrong his approach for dealing with a freshly turned vampire was. He should have learned more about Ryan before he dropped him into hunting like he did. He hadn’t explained what being a vampire meant to him, though even if he had, Ryan probably wouldn’t have believed him. This may have been what was needed to show Ryan that he truly was a vampire now, but he wished he had been able to show him in a way that wasn’t so traumatizing.

He realized how messed up the situation was. He had turned a very peaceful man into a killer who wasn’t so keen on killing. He had messed up, big time. Even if he hadn’t meant to turn Ryan, he had to deal with the consequences now. The karma for all the wrong he had committed after he became a vampire was finally catching up with him. Maybe helping Ryan with his transition into being a vampire was how he could make things right, metaphorically speaking.

Gavin sighed and walked away from the door. Maybe it would be for the best if he left Ryan alone, so he could think about what he did wrong.

Ryan heard Gavin walk away from the door. He got up and flopped onto the bed. The whole situation was a lot for him to take in. Vampires were actually real and he was one of them, now. On his first night as a vampire, he had killed a man and drank his blood; he was a monster. He never wanted to harm a fellow human being, but he couldn’t even be considered human anymore? The whole thing was completely horrifying. He had figured out a way to survive without killing anyone, but would it be enough?

Ryan sat up and grabbed a pillow. He squeezed it tight and smothered his face with it as he began to feel tears of frustration welling up. He didn’t want to deal with this, anymore. This would have to be tomorrow’s problem. He just wished that he could contact his friends and let them know that he was okay. He spent the rest of the night trying to remind himself of happier times, like meeting his coworkers at Achievement Technology and Rismonger over Xbox Live, to distract himself from the crime he had committed.

Ryan spent the rest of the night trying to think happy thoughts before he fell asleep in the morning. He woke up the following night to the sound of banging on his door.

“Ryan, I’m sorry,” Gavin started. Ryan raised an eyebrow; was Gavin trying to manipulate him into opening the door, or was he actually sorry? “I’ve never interacted with a newborn vampire before, and I don’t exactly remember what it was like when back I was a newborn vampire. Dragging you into your first hunt without any clear knowledge of what we were going to be doing was very wrong. I’m very sorry,” he finished.

Ryan sat up in bed; something in Gavin’s voice sounded sincere. Ryan rubbed his eyes and let out a defeated sigh; if he wanted to learn about being a vampire, he had at least to be civil with him. “You broke the lock yesterday. Remember?” he called.

Gavin nodded and opened the door. “I’ve been handling the whole ‘turning you into a vampire’ thing wrong,” he said, brushing the hair out of his face.

“You could say that again,” Ryan replied as he rolled his eyes.

“We’ll do it differently, next time, when you get hungry.”

At the mention of hunger, the beast began to claw at Ryan’s stomach again. “Please tell me that doing things differently doesn’t involve going hunting again,” he said.

“My thrall is bringing over blood bags, soon.”

“Good,” Ryan replied with a scowl. “In the meantime, you can explain vampirism to me.”

“What do you want to know?”

“Start from the beginning.”

“Well, vampires have been around for thousands of years. I’m not sure of the exact beginning of vampirism, but I think it was in ancient Egypt. I believe someone pissed off an ancient witch or something,” Gavin explained.

“So, witches exist, too?”

“I’m not sure because I’ve never met one.”

“What does it mean to be a vampire?” Ryan asked, next.

“Well, we drink blood for sustenance, for one thing.”

“Besides that.”

“We don’t have a heartbeat, anymore, and we don’t actually need to breathe. We are immortal unless we get burned. We get burned by fire, silver, and sunlight. So, we have to be creatures of the night. We have retractable fangs for when we are feeding. Vampire fangs are venomous; our venom slows down a person's heartbeat until it stops completely." Ryan opened his mouth to ask how the venom turned him into a vampire, but Gavin was still explaining vampirism. "And there are two types of hunters; the Brutes, like you, and the Charmers, like me,” he finished

Ryan raised an eyebrow. “What’s the difference?”

“Should be obvious. Brutes are stronger, faster, and more direct when hunting. Charmers manipulate their prey into doing their will; making the prey fall for them.”

Ryan sighed. “I guess that’s why I had no idea that you were hunting me in the first place.”

“While I admit that I found you attractive and alluring, I needed to eat for the night. I still do find you attractive and alluring, if I’m being honest.”

Ryan shook his head; he didn’t want to think about Gavin being attracted to him. “Fine,” he said. “But what about you, then? What was it like when you first turned into a vampire?”

Gavin pressed his lips together; that was a bit of a sensitive subject for him. But he had taken everything from Ryan; he at least deserved to know the truth. And if that particular truth was what he wanted, he would give it to him. “It was 1815. I found myself getting very close with another man. The other man turned out to be a vampire and he asked me to join him forever. I agreed and he turned me into a vampire. After I turned, I left him behind because I didn’t want him to control me.

“I’ve been running around the world, trying to experience everything I could, ever since. I didn’t care if what I did was wrong because I was immortal and thought I could do whatever I wanted. I think accidentally turning you into a vampire was a painful slap to the face to tell me that I need to take responsibility for my actions,” he finished.

“So, I was an accident, then?” Ryan asked to confirm his suspicions.

“I mean, yes, but I am going to help you through being a vampire,” Gavin reassured him.

Ryan sighed. “Honestly, turning me into a vampire accidentally is a little less devious than purposely turning me into one without my consent.”

Gavin nodded. “Is there anything else you want to know?”

“Well,” Ryan paused as he heard the sound of the front door unlocking. As the door opened, the smell of manure started wafting in. Gavin clearly smelt that, too, as he doubled over, gagging.

“Gavin?” the voice of who had walked in called; Gavin’s thrall had arrived. “I brought the blood bags for the new vampire you made!”

Ryan’s eye’s lit up at the sound of the voice; he knew who that voice belonged to. He quickly hopped out of bed and dashed to the front door.

“RYAN, NO!” Gavin called out after him. He couldn’t let Ryan drain his thrall, so he ran to the front door after him.

When Gavin got to front door. He saw that Ryan was squeezing his thrall. The thrall looked like he was starting to suffocate. Gavin was ready to go remove his thrall from Ryan’s grasp. “Ryan, I can’t breathe,” the thrall wheezed. Gavin started to go towards them to save his thrall when Ryan quickly let go of the thrall on his own.

“I’m sorry, Geoff. It’s just that, I really missed you!” he said to the thrall.

“Yeah, that’s one hell of a grip you got there. Also, you feel chilly. Are you okay?” Geoff said.

Ryan rubbed the back of his head, sheepishly. “Yeah, sorry about all of that. It’s all kind of new for me.”

Geoff’s eye’s widened in realization and he turned to face Gavin. “Wait, did you really turn one of my best employees into a vampire?!” he asked in annoyance.

Gavin tilted his head in confusion. “Wait, you two know each other?” he asked.

“Obviously! Now, answer the damn question!”

Gavin blinked, trying to wrap his mind around the fact that his thrall already knew the vampire he created. He shook his head to focus back on what Geoff had asked. “I mean, it was on accident. I seduced him so I could drink, on Friday. The whole thing got interrupted by ‘The Pasta’ and ‘The Sauce.’ They shot me as I dropped him and some of my blood got in his mouth. And you know blood tainted with venom mixed with vampire blood…” he explained.

Ryan raised an eyebrow; so that answered the question about turning into a vampire that he had meant to ask, earlier. Geoff facepalmed at Gavin's explanation. “Oh, my fucking god…” Geoff trailed off.

“And after a hunting incident last night, I understand that I have to change my tactics for teaching him how to be a vampire,” Gavin continued.

“You seriously tried to make the most nonviolent person turn into a cold-hearted killer?!”

“You both do realize that I’m standing right here, right?” Ryan asked. Geoff and Gavin looked at him. Ryan sighed. “Look, this unbelievable thing happened. We can’t change it, so I just have to learn how to cope with it. It’s why you brought blood bags. Speaking of which…” he finished saying as his hunger grew.

Geoff nodded and pulled a blood bag out of the cooler that he brought. Ryan's eyes turned red as he waited eagerly, licking his lips. “Ryan, wait,” Gavin commanded. Ryan stuck his tongue back in his mouth and waited patiently. Geoff slowly handed the bag to Ryan who took it with vigor. He bit into the bag and quickly drained it. The taste was not as good as the fresh blood from last night, but less people were harmed in getting the blood so Ryan was okay with the taste.

Ryan held the empty bag when he was finished. “I’m still hungry and I could still drink some more,” he said.

“No, Ryan. You need to work on controlling yourself,” Gavin stated, firmly.

“Honestly, that’s fair,” he replied as his eyes changed back to their original blue color.

Geoff nervously gulped at the site of Ryan's new vampire tendencies, then sighed. “So, this is why you didn’t call out sick yesterday or today,” he said to Ryan.

“Wait, is it Tuesday?”

“Yeah,” Gavin answered for Geoff. “The process of turning into a vampire can take from 2-9 days. Yours only took 3 days, which was why I was surprised that you were already awake, yesterday.”

“Wow…”

“So, did you have any other questions about being a vampire?” Gavin asked Ryan to change the subject.

“I should be going now,” Geoff said.

“Actually, I have some questions for you, Geoff,” Ryan replied.

Geoff stopped short. “Wait, what could I tell you?”

“How did you become Gavin’s thrall?” he asked.

“My great-grandfather broke a promise to Gavin and now my family has to pay for it, forever,” Geoff explained.

“His great-grandfather offered to deliver women to me to feed off of. He stopped doing that so I found a way to lay a curse on his family ensuring that they never broke promises to me again,” Gavin clarified.

Ryan nodded. “Okay, that’s disturbing.”

“My great-grandfather was probably a dickhead,” Geoff replied.

“Does Jack know about all this?” he asked, next.

“No, vampirism is supposed to be a secret. I mean, obviously some people know about it, but most people don’t think vampires are real.”

“One last question, how come you smell like manure?”

Gavin gagged. “Okay you smell it too,” Gavin said.

Geoff rolled his eyes. “I have a rune tattooed on my back that makes me smell like shit to vampire.”

“Why would you want that?” Ryan asked.

“I know you’re still a bit hungry, but how much do you want to drain me for my blood?”

“Well, the smell is off-putting so it makes me less hungry. Plus, you’re my friend so…”

“Exactly.”

“Geoff, don’t you have work, tomorrow?” Gavin asked in an attempt to prompt Geoff to leave.

“Shit, you’re right,” Geoff said. Then he turned to Ryan. “Ryan, I’ll let everyone know you’re alright and we can talk about the future of your employment some other time.”

“Am I fired?” Ryan asked.

“Not necessarily. That’s why we’ll talk about it later. I’m gonna go. I’ll see you around.”

Ryan waved goodbye to him and Geoff returned the wave as he left the apartment.

“How do you feel, now?” Gavin asked.

“Still a bit hungry, honestly. But I’m really happy I got to see at least one of my friends again,” Ryan replied with a smile.

“That’s excellent!”

Suddenly, Ryan and Gavin heard the faint buzzing of a phone going off. “Is that your phone?” Ryan asked.

“Probably just a solicitor. Now come one, sit on the couch with me,” Gavin replied as he dragged Ryan to the couch. They sat on it and Gavin’s head nuzzled into Ryan’s pudgy stomach. Ryan blinked but decided that this type of affection was probably just one of Gavin’s ways of apologizing. He let Gavin rest on him.

While Ryan was happy that he was able to get in contact with one of his friends, it seemed like others were trying to get in contact with him. The phone, which turned out to be Ryan’s that Gavin had hidden, continued to buzz until it went to voicemail. The phone call was coming from California. Ryan’s friend from Xbox Live, Rismonger, hadn’t seen Ryan online in a few days. He and Ryan normally kept in contact via text message so that they could game together, but Ryan mysteriously dropping off the face of the earth worried him.

Rismonger sighed when his call went to voicemail. He was too worried about Ryan to focus on his other job.

“Jon!” a man called to Rismonger as he entered his office.

Rismonger jumped in surprise. He quickly calmed down and turned to face the man. “What is it, Max?”

“Working on editing those pictures from that photoshoot you took of Turney?” Max asked.

“I was… but I was just calling my friend from Xbox Live to make sure he was okay,” Jon replied.

“We all know that you have a crush on whoever this Xbox Live friend is.” Jon looked away; he didn’t want to think about everyone knowing about his crush. “But I actually wanted to tell you about a rumor I heard from the vampire hunters about your ex-boyfriend.”

Jon gasped. News from vampire hunters about his ex could not have been good. “Did they…?”

“No, they didn’t kill him,” Max said. Jon sighed in relief. “The rumor actually is that he turned someone new into a vampire.”

Jon’s eyebrows furrowed. “Why would you want to tell me that?”

“I thought it would be something you’d be interested in investigating.”

Jon thought about it for a moment. It would be very painful if his ex-boyfriend had turned someone into a vampire so he could date him, just like he had done for his ex. He was curious to know if that was truly the case. Maybe this could distract him from worrying about his crush. He sighed. “I’ll go investigate it after I’m done editing the photos from Meg’s photoshoot,” he said.

Max nodded and left the room. Jon sighed and got back to editing his photos. He wasn’t sure he wanted the rumor to be true.

Chapter Text

A month had passed since Ryan was turned into a vampire. Once the messy “coming to terms with being a vampire” stage was over, Ryan had been a quick learner. He already had more self-control than Gavin had anticipated, and he didn’t rebel against his lessons. This had made the process of learning how to be a vampire a lot safer.

As Gavin learned more about Ryan, he found Ryan even more alluring then he had found him before. Sure, he didn’t understand why he was so against going out and actually hunting for food, but maybe Ryan’s preference for blood bags would be a better way to minimize damage. There was something very attractive about Ryan’s desire to do no harm. It was a desire that Gavin hadn’t felt in over a century. He knew that Ryan was probably resented him a little for taking his life away, but he still wished he could truly express his affections. His manipulation from his Charming hunting method didn’t work on other vampires, so he had to be true.

Ryan was confused about where his emotions lay. Sure, he was physically attracted to Gavin and was very grateful that Gavin had changed his methods for helping him adapt to vampirism, but he wasn’t sure if he was being manipulated. Gavin had changed his methods for him, he hoped that meant Gavin wasn’t manipulating him, but he still wasn’t completely sure.

But now, even on top of his conflicting feelings towards Gavin, he couldn’t ignore his crush on his friend, Rismonger, from Xbox Live. He had always been a bit to nervous to admit his feelings towards Jon, but now that he was a vampire, he knew that chance was completely gone. Jon could never love a monster like him. But Gavin was there for him. If Gavin wasn’t trying to manipulate him, if his affections were true, then Gavin could love him in the way he needed to be loved at this point.

It was finally evening and Gavin and Ryan had woken up for the night. Ryan walked into the living room of Gavin’s apartment to find Gavin starting to sit up on the couch. “What, did you spend the night on the couch in anticipation for whatever you were planning to do with me today?” Ryan joked as Gavin yawned.

Gavin blinked a few times before he fully registered that Ryan was in the room with him. He turned to face him. “I’m not sure what else I need to teach you at this point. And I can’t believe you haven’t noticed, but I’ve actually have been sleeping here every night since I turned you. This flat only has one bedroom,” he replied.

Ryan blinked in surprise. “Wait, you’ve been letting me sleep in your bedroom while you’ve had to deal with sleeping on the couch?”

“Well, yeah. I didn’t think you’d want to share a bed with me after I turned you into a vampire …”

“Huh… that’s very considerate of you… but it can’t have been safe for you to be sleeping in your living room all this time,” Ryan said.

“Nonsense, it’s fine. I had the windows blocked out when I first moved in, so it’s not like I’m going to fry out here during the day.”

Ryan nodded. “So, you said you didn’t have anything else to teach me?” he asked.

“You’ve done very well. Once I got to know you and adapted my teaching methods to accommodate your needs, you learned how to safely be a vampire rather quickly. Your necessities cause a lot less harm than what I was originally taught, and I have to say, I’m impressed,” Gavin admitted.

“Oh, thank you.”

Ryan paused.

“Okay, so do we not have anything planned for the day, then?” Ryan asked for clarification.

“Nope, it can be a lazy, do-nothing day. I mean, I still have to go out hunting…”

“Or you could take one of the blood bags,” Ryan interrupted.

“Those are gross.”

“No, they aren’t.”

“I’m not fighting with you over this,” Gavin said. Ryan rolled his eyes. “But like I was saying, you don’t have to do anything.”

“Okay,” Ryan replied with a smile. “So, can I have my phone back?” he asked.

Gavin looked up at Ryan, startled. “What, no! Why?!”

Ryan sighed. “Because If I’m in enough control of myself, then I want to call Geoff and tell him I’m ready to come back into work.”

Gavin’s eyebrows furrowed. “Why the bloody toss would you even want your job back?! You’re a vampire now, you don’t need to work!”

“Well, I’m pretty sure I still have my own apartment and I need to be able to pay rent on it. And if I’m in control of myself, then I can be independent. I could steal my own blood bags, I could talk to some of my friends again. I could have something that was close to my life before I was turned into a vampire!”

Gavin gulped, he didn’t want Ryan to leave him. “I don’t think you should do that,” he said.

“So, you don’t think I’m ready yet, then.”

“I… I didn’t say that. You not being able to do stuff on your own isn’t what I’m saying.”

“Oh, is it because you don’t want the consequence of your greatest mistake you get out of your control?!” Ryan angrily asked.

“What?!”

“Admit it. You never wanted to make a new vampire! You didn’t want the responsibility! I’m the greatest mistake you’ve ever made, your biggest regret of all time!”

Gavin jumped up from the couch. “I don’t regret turning you!”

Ryan tilted his head in confusion. “…What?” he asked, trying to figure how Gavin couldn’t regret turning him.

“I don’t regret turning you,” he repeated.

“Oh really,” Ryan replied, sarcastically

Gavin sighed. “Yeah, turning you into a vampire was an accident. But I think it was the slap in the face to needed to get me to finally grow the hell up and take responsibility for my actions. It doesn’t hurt that I’m rather fond of you as a person, as well.”

Ryan blinked and nodded. “Thank you. I appreciate how you’ve helped me out through all of this. But I’ve had to blindly trust you throughout this whole thing. Don’t you think you should trust me too, for once?”

“It’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s just that I’m scared.”

“Scared? Scared of what? You wouldn’t be scared if you just trusted me.”

“I do trust you! I’m just scared of losing you. I don’t want you to leave because I want to protect you!”

“You don’t need to protect me, Gavin. That’s why I want you to trust me, trust that I can do this on my own.”

Gavin sighed, again. It was time for him to face feelings that he hadn’t felt for anyone in a very long time. “Ryan,” he started. “You’re very strong, both physically and mentally, and adaptive. You’ve progressed so far in such a short amount of time. It’s astounding, really. It makes me feel things, emotions I haven’t felt in a century-and-a-half. That’s why I don’t want you to go. I want you to stay here with me, so we can be happy together.”

Ryan tilted his head to the side; was Gavin admitting what he thought he was admitting or was he just being manipulated, again? He hesitated. The idea of such was… tempting. But he had to be sure. “What are you trying to say?”

Gavin looked Ryan in the eyes. “…Can I kiss you?”

Ryan took that as a confirmation for Gavin’s true feelings and strode across the room to press his lips against Gavin’s. Gavin blinked in surprise, then shut his eyes to just enjoy the moment. Ryan’s lips led Gavin’s in a dance to a slow romantic song. It was a kiss of two people finally willing to admit their feelings to one another. Ryan still had his feelings for another man, but in this moment, those were irrelevant. He loved Gavin and he was willing to admit that to himself.

The kiss broke and Gavin stared at Ryan in shock. “You know, once you were willing to change for me, I started to think you might feel something for me. But I wasn’t sure if your feelings were true. I started to feel something for you, too, you asking if you could kiss me confirmed that you really did have feelings for me.”

“Ryan, I do think I’ve fallen in love with you. You can have me if I can have you.”

Ryan smiled. “You know, I think love is the type of comfort I’ve needed for this, the whole time.”

“Well then, I promise I’ll be the comfort you need.”

“Thank you.”

Gavin and Ryan smiled lovingly at each other. “So, I was thinking…” Gavin started to say.

“Yeah?”

“Maybe, we could finally complete that hook up we started on the night I turned you,” he suggested with a smirk.

Ryan nodded. “Wait before we do that, I have a quick question.”

“Yes?”

“Are you clean?”

Gavin snorted. “Vampires can’t get sexually transmitted diseases or infections.”

Ryan blinked, then grinned. He surged forward and shoved his tongue in Gavin’s mouth. He noted that the canines of vampire teeth were sharper than human canines, but understood that they were retractable to be more effective during hunting. Gavin shoved his tongue in Ryan’s mouth with the same amount of eagerness. He started groping Ryan’s ass as he began to push Ryan towards his bedroom

Once they made it too the bedroom, Ryan became more dominant. They made their way over to the bed and Ryan pushed Gavin down onto it. “You’ve been in control for most of the time, here,” Ryan said in a gravelly voice. He paused to hop onto the bed and climb on top of Gavin. “But this time, it’s my turn to be in control.”

Gavin nodded eagerly. Ryan kissed Gavin again, hard, as he took control of providing both himself and Gavin with sexual pleasure. And for the first time since turning Ryan, Gavin spent the night in his own bed.

The next night, Ryan and Gavin were woken up by someone knocking on Gavin’s front door. Gavin groaned and rolled over. Someone knocked on the door again. “Maybe they want something,” Ryan said groggily.

“I know that you’re home, Gavin,” whoever was knocking on the door shouted. The voice sounded vaguely familiar to both Ryan and Gavin.

“Better go figure out who that is. I think I’m gonna get a shower,” Ryan said as he rolled out of bed. Gavin admired Ryan’s very naked body as he walked to the bathroom.

“GAVIN!!!!” the voice from out front yelled and the pounding on his front door grew louder.

Gavin groaned and slid out of bed. He grabbed the first shirt he could find and, which happened to be Ryan’s only shirt, from the floor, pulled on his boxers, and walked to the front door. He yawned and opened the front door… and blinked. No… it couldn’t be... It had been over a century since he had seen or heard from his ex-boyfriend, and he was not about to deal with him now.

“NOPE!” he yelled as he moved to slam the door in Jon’s face. Jon forced his arm in the way so that the door would not shut.

“I’m just here to talk, you big baby,” Jon said.

Gavin’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah, well vampires can’t enter a place unless their invited in,” he growled.

Jon pushed Gavin aside and entered the apartment anyway. “You and I both know that’s bullshit.”

Gavin's jaw dropped; he could not believe that his ex decided to reappear right after he had slept with his new lover. He shook his head and scowled at Jon. “What the hell do you want?! Did you finally come to grovel for my love back?!” he accused him.

Jon sighed; he didn’t want to think about his old feelings for Gavin. He was supposed to be past that by now. “No. I’ve finally moved on,” he answered.

“Then why are you even here?!”

“I heard a rumor, a few weeks ago, about you turning some into a vampire. And now that work for my job is done for the moment, I wanted to see if the rumors were true.”

Gavin scowled. “Whether I turned someone into a vampire or not is none of your damn business!”

Suddenly, both Gavin and Jon heard the shower turn on in the other room. “Who’s that?” Jon asked in an accusatory tone.

Gavin sighed. “Fine. Maybe I did turn someone into a vampire.”

“What made you decide to do that?” Jon asked incredulously, not sure if he actually wanted to hear the answer.

“It’s none of you damn business!”

“So, you’re too immature to answer simple questions?”

Gavin growled. He did not appreciate Jon’s tone. “He’s my new lover and this has no effect on your life whatsoever, so you can just leave!” he shouted.

Jon scowled in anger. “So, this is how you replace me. By doing the same thing I did to you.”

“Maybe I have replaced you. Maybe this new man is better than you ever were!”

“Turning someone into a vampire affects the whole vampire community, so I think I deserve to know the details!” Jon growled.

The sound of the shower turned off. “Oh sod off! Turning me into a vampire like you only affected yourself!”

“Tell me about this replacement mystery man, goddammit!”

“Shut the hell up!”

“Oh, you insufferable little…”

“Hey Gavin, did you take my shirt?” Ryan called out, interrupting Jon. Jon’s words choked off. Did he recognize that voice? “I don’t have any others here since I haven’t been able to go back to my apartment and get new clothes,” he said as he walked into the living room to see who Gavin was talking to.

“R… Ry… Ryan?!” Jon stuttered in shock.

Ryan looked up and realized that Rismonger, whom he recognized from his from his voice chats over Xbox Live, was standing right in front of him, with Gavin. “Jon? Wha… HOW?!” he couldn’t believe that his best friend from Xbox Live was actually standing right in front of him.

Jon couldn’t believe it. Out of all the people that his ex could have turned into a vampire to replace him, he had to choose his current crush. Ryan was the man that he had fallen for after decades of trying to get over his ex. Jon couldn’t accept that said ex had taken him away from him.

Jon faced Gavin, grit his teeth, and loudly growled in anger. He swung his fist and punched Gavin square in the jaw.

Chapter Text

Ryan had thought he could handle a lot. He thought he had ended up handling becoming a vampire and coming to terms with it fairly well. But seeing the man he had had a crush on getting into a fist fight with the man he had just had sex with was a bit much for him. He didn’t know how Rismonger had found him or how he had the strength to actually fight Gavin. None of this made sense.

Gavin had no idea why Jon had punched him. But he wasn’t going to let him get away with that. He leapt up and socked Jon in the nose right back. Jon grabbed Gavin by the collar, pulled him close, and smashed his forehead against Gavin’s face. Gavin kicked Jon in the knee to try, and when Jon staggered and let go, he tackled him to the ground. The two continued to wrestle and hit each other on the floor.

Ryan had had enough of the unnecessary violence. He reached down and yanked Jon and Gavin apart. He pulled them up by the necks of their shirts and held them apart like naughty cats. “I don’t know why you two are fighting. I definitely don’t know how you were able to find me, Jon, nor how you’re strong enough to fight Gavin…” Ryan started.

“I DON’T BLOODY KNOW WHY HE PUNCHED ME ALL OF A SUDDEN!” Gavin yelled. Jon pouted and his eyebrows furrowed in response.

“But someone needs to explain this whole thing to me,” Ryan finished.

“I already told you I have no idea why he came at me,” Gavin replied with a huff.

Jon growled. “I SPEND A CENTURY AND A HALF GETTING OVER YOU, GAVIN. AND ONCE I FINALLY MOVE ON, YOU RIP THEM AWAY FROM ME!!!!” Jon screeched.

Both Ryan and Gavin blinked in surprise. Gavin tilted his head in confusion. “Wait, how the bloody toss do you already know Ryan?” he asked Jon.

“Actually, Jon and I have been friends over Xbox Live for years,” Ryan answered for him. Jon looked away and frowned. “And I have a question for you, Jon,” Ryan said. Jon looked back at Ryan. “How were you able to fight Gavin without getting hurt? Gavin happens to be a bit stronger than the average human, so how are you okay?”

Jon scoffed. “Who the hell do you think turned him into a vampire back in 1815?” Jon asked.

Ryan’s eyes widened in shock. He supposed that it made sense that Jon was also a vampire, but it was still a bit hard to believe. Gavin rolled his eyes at Ryan’s confusion. “The bastard’s like 200 years older than me,” Gavin explained.

“179 years older,” Jon corrected him.

“Do you really think I care?!”

“Wait, is this because other vampires have a long-distance connection or something? Or was turning Gavin an accident?” Ryan asked.

Gavin sighed. Truth had always been what Ryan had needed, so if he really cared for him in the way he thought he did, he was going to be honest. “I said that I had gotten close with another man when I turned into a vampire,” he started to explain.

“Right, and I’m assuming that man was Jon.”

“Oh, we had gotten more than close,” Jon snapped.

“We were… in a bit of a… romantic relationship….” Gavin admitted. Ryan’s eyebrows rose again. Well, this made figuring out where his romantic feelings laid a bit more complicated. “But I left him because I didn’t want him to control me in my new immortality.”

Ryan blinked in surprise; the fact that vampires were immortal was something that Gavin had originally left out. “We can’t die?” he asked.

“Well, I mean, we can get burned to death by either fire or sunlight. And being shot in the heart by a silver bullet doesn’t do us much good either…” Gavin explained.

Jon was fixated on Gavin’s explanation for why he had broken up with him and he grit his teeth in anger, “Gavin, you know I wouldn’t have controlled you! We could have spent our immortality at peace together!” Jon exclaimed.

“Maybe I’m enjoying a peaceful immortality without you and your emotional problems!”

“There weren’t any emotional problems until you fucking left me!”

“I knew you were too attached. It’s a problem with turning people into vampires!”

“Like how you’re attached to me, now?” Ryan asked Gavin.

Gavin blinked. “What?”

“You fell for me after you turned me. And now you don’t want me to contact any of my friends from before you turned me because you don’t want me to leave you,” Ryan pointed out.

Gavin’s jaw dropped. He had become exactly what he had run away from when he left Jon. He hadn’t done anything right. “Bollocks… Ryan, I didn’t even realize…” he trailed off.

Jon rolled his eyes. “Of course, you didn’t,” he said, sarcastically.

“Gavin, I’m not mad and I’m not going to run away from you,” Ryan said. “I just wanted to point out the hypocrisy in what you said. You’re doing everything you didn’t want Jon to do.”

Gavin looked away and sighed in defeat. He sadly turned back to look at Ryan. “You’re absolutely right. Ryan, I’m so sorry…”

“It’s okay. Like I said, I’m not mad at you.”

“You shouldn’t have your freedom restricted, it’s not fair to you,” Gavin said. Then he looked over at Jon and glared at him.

“What are you glaring at me for?! I’m not the one who restricted anyone else’s freedom!” Jon snarled.

Gavin growled at Jon and Jon returned the growl. “Hey, hey,” Ryan said, snapping his fingers. Gavin and Jon looked back at Ryan. “Gavin, maybe you can work on not restricting my freedom by letting me have my phone back so I can contact my friends,” he suggested.

Gavin sighed in defeat, again. “You’re right. I’ll go get your phone,” he said as he begrudgingly left the room.

“At least he’s able to admit defeat, now,” Jon said with a smirk.

Ryan ignored Jon’s snarky comment and pulled him into a deep hug. “I missed you so much,” he whispered into Jon’s hair.

Jon smiled and noted Ryan’s immense strength. “That’s quite a grip you got there,” he wheezed.

Ryan released him from the hug and awkwardly rubbed the back of his head. “Yeah… sorry about that. Apparently, I’m a Brute hunter and that gives me super strength...” he sheepishly trailed off.

Jon snickered. “It’s okay. Brute hunters might be stronger, but Charmer hunters, like myself, are a bit more graceful.”

“Ah, so you’re a Charmer, too. Good to know,” Ryan replied with a smile. “It’s so good to finally meet you in person. I didn’t think it would be safe for me to meet you, anymore, since I was turned into a vampire. But, since you’re a vampire, too…”

“Ryan, it’s okay,” Jon said. Then he paused and grabbed Ryan’s hands. “It’s okay,” he repeated as he smiled, sweetly.

“I’m so happy to see you, you wouldn’t believe!”

“I think I might believe. And I think now that I’m meeting you in person, I can finally say…” Jon started .

“I GOT YOUR PHONE RYE! KEPT IT CHARGED AND…” Gavin shouted as he walked back into the room, interrupting Jon. He paused and frowned when he saw that Jon was holding Ryan’s hands. His lip quivered sadly as he saw the site. He shook his head and started growling in anger.

“Thanks. Toss it here,” Ryan said, pulling Gavin out of his growling. He tossed the phone to Ryan and went back to glaring at Jon. Jon scowled at him in return.

“Let’s see what all my friends are up to,” Ryan said to himself as he checked his phone.

Gavin and Jon continued to glare at each other while Ryan was reading his phone. He noticed a text from Michael that he has just gotten, fifteen minutes before he had gotten his phone back. “Yo, Ryan. You done being whatever you’re being and wanna meet up with everyone at Off Topic, again? Everyone misses you,” the text read.

“Hey, all my friends are going back to the bar. I think I wanna go meet up with them,” Ryan announced to everyone.

“Hey, can I meet your other friends?” Jon asked.

“Sure, just don’t eat them.”

“Deal.”

Gavin gulped; it seemed like he had to let Ryan see his friends, again. It was the fair thing to do, whether he liked it or not. “Fine…”

“Awesome!” Ryan cheered. “But you two need to behave.”

“Can do,” Jon replied.

“Fine,” Gavin repeated with a huff.

“Perfect. Gavin, put on some real clothes and give me my shirt back. Then we can go,” Ryan said.

“Wait, is it really a good idea for us to go back to the place where you were turned into a vampire?”

“I’m sure it will be fine.”

Gavin sighed and nodded. He went back to his room and got dressed while Ryan quickly went to drink a blood bag as a precaution. Gavin came back out and gave Ryan his shirt back. Then, they left to go to the bar. When the three of them got there, all of Ryan’s friends from work, including Geoff, were there.

“Ryan!” Michael and Jeremy cheered and ran over to Ryan to give him a big hug.

“Hey, I missed you guys,” Ryan said as he hugged the two of them back.

“Wow Ryan, have you always been that strong?” Michael asked, noticing Ryan’s tight grip.

“I... uh…” Ryan stuttered, he had to come up with some way to play it off without calling attention to his new strength. “Maybe you’ve just never noticed before…”

Michael nodded. “Maybe you’re right. It’s been a while since I’ve arm wrestled you, so…”

“Dude, you two should arm wrestle!” Jeremy said.

Ryan pursed his lips as he rubbed his shoulder. “Yeah… I’m not really feeling like arm wrestling, right now…”

“I think it would be fun to watch since you ditched us for working the night shift.”

“I’m not sure it would be fun…”

“Aw, come on, luv. I bet it would be funny,” Gavin replied with a smirk.

“Gavin, behave,” Ryan said, sternly.

“I actually agree, that would be funny,” Jon said.

“Jon, no.”

“Jon?” Jack asked.

Jon walked up to Jack and held out his hand to him. “Jon Risinger, Charmed, I’m sure,” he introduced himself.

Jack looked Jon in the eyes and noticed that they were the same mesmerizing color as blue topaz. “You have… really pretty blue eyes…” Jack said as though he was in a trance.

“Thank you.”

Ryan and Geoff noticed that Jack was lost in a trance. Geoff pulled Jack away to snap him out of it and Ryan pulled Jon away. “I thought I said behave,” Ryan chastised Jon quietly.

“Hey, I might be 412 years old, but people getting lost in a Charmer’s eyes isn’t always the most controllable thing,” Jon whispered fiercely back.

“Hey, what the hell was that?!” Geoff said, marching up the Jon.

“A friendly introduction. By the way my name is J-”

“Cut the shit, I already know you’re a vampire.”

“Oh…” Jon said. He narrowed his eyes, his muscles tensing as though preparing to flee or fight.

Geoff rolled his eyes. “Relax, I’m not a vampire hunter. I already know that Ryan and Gavin are vampires, too. I’m actually Gavin’s thrall by an inherited curse,” he told him.

Jon groaned at the mention of Gavin’s name. “I’m gonna go see if I can find something to eat,” he said as he walked away towards the back-alley door.

“How do you know that guy?” Geoff asked Ryan.

“He’s my friend, Rismonger, from Xbox Live,” Ryan began to explain.

“Ah,”

“And he coincidentally is the vampire who turned Gavin into one back in 1815.”

“Oh…”

“Yeah, that makes things really…”

“Hey Ryan,” Michael said, appearing suddenly.

“Yes?”

“So, I’m glad Gavin didn’t actually kill you or anything.”

“TECHNICALLY HE DID!” Jon yelled from across the bar.

“JON, SHUT UP!!!” Ryan yelled back. Geoff rolled his eyes and walked back over to his boyfriend to let Ryan and Michael talk.

“Who’s that?” Michael asked.

“That’s my friend Rismonger from Xbox Live, but apparently he and Gavin are ex-boyfriends…”

“You have a crush on him, right?”

“I… uh…”

“Because that would be really complicated if you slept with Gavin.”

“Well… you see…”

Michael blinked in realization. “Oh…Wow… you’re love life is a fucking mess.”

Ryan sighed. “I have no idea what Gavin and I are nor what Jon and I are, but apparently Gavin and Jon had a bad breakup years ago. I’m not sure what my feelings are, but I’m already more caught up in it all than I should be.”

“I am so sorry, dude.”

Ryan glanced over to the bar and saw Gavin and Jon glaring daggers at each other. He heaved another defeated sigh; he had no idea how to fix this.

Outside the bar, two men, ‘The Pasta’ and ‘The Sauce,’ looked in to see the activities of the vampires. “Looks like Jon Risinger is in town for some reason,” ‘The Pasta’ said.

“But it looks like he and his boyfriend are having a fight,” ‘The Sauce’ pointed out.

“True, and it also looks like the guy that Gavin Free was drinking from was also turned into a vampire.”

“Does that make things more complicated?”

“Hopefully not. Emotionally distressed vampires make for easier targets.”

“You’re right!”

“Come on. Let’s go tell ‘The Rose.’ She’ll be happy to know that Jon Risinger has shown up again,” ‘The Pasta’ said, motioning for ‘The Sauce’ to follow behind him. ‘The Sauce’ nodded and the two of them went to go tell their boss that the vampire she’d been hunting for years was back in town.

Chapter Text

‘The Pasta’ and ‘The Sauce’ were admittedly not the best vampire hunters. The hunter in charge of them, “The Rose,” had tried to teach them how to be effective. She had originally sent them out to try and kill the lover of her main target, though they failed on numerous occasions. She figured it would be easier to tell her disciples to just capture the vampire’s lover, yet they still would end up coming back battered and bruised. ‘The Pasta’ and ‘The Sauce’ were still determined to try and capture the vampire, anyway. ‘The Rose’ decided that she wouldn’t step in until this game of cat and mouse between this vampire and her disciples had gone on for too long, or they were finally killed trying to capture him.

‘The Rose’ sat in her office at her home, which happened to be the hunter’s base of operation, sharpening her silver knife, when ‘The Pasta’ and ‘The Sauce’ barged in. “Rose, Rose,” ‘The Sauce’ said repeatedly.

‘The Rose’ looked up from her knife. “How the hell did you get in my house?” she asked.

“You gave us a key so we could get in to report finding or progress in capturing Gavin Free,” ‘The Pasta’ reminded her.

‘The Rose’ facepalmed. “I’m assuming you didn’t capture Gavin because you didn’t bring him in here with you,” she said.

“No, we didn’t, but we have some news to report.”

“This better be important.”

“Well, we have good news and bad news.”

“Do I even want to know whatever you think the bad news is?” she asked.

“Well, the bad news is that…” ‘The Sauce’ started, then trailed off.

‘The Pasta’ rolled his eyes. “The bad news is that the victim that Gavin was draining during our last confrontation with him has turned into a vampire,” he said.

“And we have absolutely no idea how that happened!” ‘The Sauce’ said to defend himself.

“Oh really? Do you think the fact that some of Gavin’s blood got into the victim’s mouth after you shot him might have something to do with it?”

“I…”

‘The Rose’ loudly groaned. “Great, now Gavin is building an army to defend himself against us. That makes things so much more complicated,” she said.

“Look, how about we tell her the thing she you said she’s actually be very interested in.”

‘The Pasta’ nodded. “The good news that we think you’ll be happy to hear about is that we believe Jon Risinger is in town,” he explained.

‘The Rose’s’ eyes widened. “I’m sorry, could you repeat that?”

“Well, we saw a man with Gavin and the new vampire with wavy shoulder-length dark that matched the description of Jon Risinger that you gave us, so we believe he’s in town,” ‘The Sauce’ explained.

‘The Rose’ gave a wide smile. “This is perfect! We can kill all three of them!” she cheered.

“Quick question, though. I know we hunt all vampires, but why do you have a grudge against Jon Risinger in particular? And why is killing Gavin Free important to get to him?”

‘The Rose’ rolled her eyes. “I’m pretty sure I already explained that to the two of you.”

“No,” ‘The Pasta’ replied. “You explained it to me when you first brought me on, but you didn’t explain it to Alfredo because you recruited him after me.”

“If we’re talking about vampire business, we’re sticking to code names,” she scolded.

“Aw Lindsay, come on,” ‘The Sauce’ whined.

‘The Rose’ sighed. “Fine, Alfredo. Trevor, explain why I’m after Jon Risinger.”

“Aren’t you trying to kill him to avenge a past relative?” Trevor asked.

Lindsay nodded. “Jon Risinger killed my great-great-great-great-great grandmother for sustenance without a care in the world, and I’m going to avenge her so that the Tuggey name will finally know peace. Killing Jon’s lover, Gavin Free, would mentally cripple him and make him easier to hunt and kill,” she explained.

“Wait, but I thought your last name was Jones,” Alfredo said in confusion.

“Tuggey is my maiden name. And it’s still my family despite the fact that I changed my last name.”

“Yeah, Fredo,” Trevor said as he elbowed Alfredo in the side.

“Hey, you can’t blame for being a little confused since technically she has another family now,” Alfredo defended himself.

“You have a point. Speaking of which, your husband hangs out at the Off Topic bar and seems to have befriended Gavin Free. Are you sure your husband would appreciate you killing one of his friends?” Trevor asked.

“He can make new friends,” Lindsay argued. “What’s important here is killing Jon Risinger’s lover to make him easier to hunt and kill.”

“How are you not worried that Gavin Free won’t kill your husband?”

“I tricked him into tattooing an ancient sigil on his arm that makes vampires nose blind to him; no vampire will have any desire to hunt someone that doesn’t have an appetizing aroma to them.”

Alfredo hesitated, lost in thought. “You said that the plan to get to killing Jon was to kill Gavin because he was his lover, right?” he asked for clarification.

“That is correct.”

“I’m not actually sure they’re lovers, anymore,” he said sheepishly.

Lindsay’s eyebrows furrowed. “What makes you say that?”

“When we were spying on him with Jon Risinger, earlier, it looked like the two of them where giving each other scowls and death glares.”

“I believe we heard faint growling noises, as well,” Trevor added.

Lindsay sighed. “I guess we know that killing him wouldn’t be an effective way to ruin him.”

“But we did observe that it seemed as though he and the new vampire had a deep connection of sorts.”

“Hm… maybe we could use this to our advantage…” she mused.

“It also seemed as though Gavin was rather fond of this new vampire. Maybe killing this new guy would weaken both vampires and make both of them easier to hunt,” Alfredo suggested.

“That sounds excellent,” Lindsay said as she leaned forward on her desk. “Now we just need to play the waiting game.”

“Should we continue to spy on them?” Trevor asked.

“Yes. Look for an opening so we can find a time to attack and capture them. They will all be permanently dead soon, and the world will have a few less vampires to deal with,” she said with a grin. Trevor and Alfredo nodded and left the office.

Lindsay pulled out her phone to send a text to check on her husband. “Hey Michael,” she texted.

“Hey Lindsay,” he texted back.

“How’s the bar tonight?”

Michael had been having a conversation with Ryan about his love life. He thought that Ryan’s love life sounded like a gay middle school drama; he was so happy that he was married in a stable relationship. He noticed that Gavin had been giving Ryan googly eyes whenever he wasn’t glaring at Jon.

“A bit weird. Gavin and Ryan finally came back to the bar after a month away, but Ryan also brought his friend from Xbox Live, with them. The friend coincidentally happens to be Gavin’s ex-boyfriend.” He texted his wife back.

“Ooh. : ( .”

Michael sighed. He turn to Gavin and noticed that he was starring at the back door that Jon had just existed out of. Michael couldn't quite read Gavin's expression; it looked like a mixture of anger and sadness. “Hey Gav?” he said to snap Gavin out of his trance.

Gavin broke out of his trance of staring at the door. “Yes?”

“You’ve been in a mood tonight, because of your ex,” he pointed out.

Gavin groaned. “Don’t remind me.”

“Maybe some Lads guy time would be a good way to get your mind off your relationship troubles,” Jeremy suggested.

“That does sound like fun. However…” Gavin trailed off as he stared back at Ryan.

Ryan looked back at him. “Don’t worry about anything, Gavin. You’ve been helping me out for a month and deserve a break. Take some you time,” he said.

Gavin sighed in defeat. “Fine. Let’s have us some fun then, shall we?” he said to Michael and Jeremy.

The three of them got up to go. Michael paused when he felt another buzz from his phone. “Are you guys doing anything special besides dealing with your friend’s emotional issues?” Lindsay texted him.

“Jeremy and I are taking Gavin out for a ‘Lads’ night,” he replied.

“Stay safe.”

“Don’t worry about me : ) .”

“ <3 ”

“Love you too,” he finished texting her.

“Who are you texting?” Jeremy asked.

“Just the wife, letting her know we’re doing a ‘Lads’ night,” Michael replied.

“Come on, Lads, let’s go,” Gavin said with a smile. The three of them left the bar.

Geoff and Jack slid over to join Ryan. “So, you were saying that Gavin and your internet friend knew each other in the past?” Geoff asked Ryan, returning to their previous conversation.

“Ooh, Gavin knows your internet friends?” Jack asked.

Ryan sighed. “Knew each other? Try, they’re ex-boyfriends,” he said.

“Wow, that sounds like it’s gonna be a mess.”

“And given the way I’ve seen the two of them act around you, you seem like you’re already part of it,” Geoff said.

“Don’t remind me,” Ryan said with a groan.

“You gonna come up with a plan to figure this out?”

“Well…”

“Back,” Jon called out, walking back into the main area of the bar.

“How were you able to find ‘food’ so fast?” Ryan cringed as he asked.

“You never know who you’ll…” Jon paused when he noticed that Ryan and Geoff had raised their fingers to their lips, signaling him to stay silent. “… find who’s willing to give you a bar snack,” he finished to try not to sound suspicious. He walked back over to join Ryan, Geoff, and Jack back at the table. “What were you guys talking about?” he asked.

“Well…” Jack started to say.

“Nothing of importance,” Ryan quickly cut him off.

Jon looked around the room. “I don’t see Gavin anywhere,” he commented.

“He and the other Lads went off to have a guy’s night,” Geoff explained.

“Excellent,” Jon replied with a devious smirk.

“And I’m about ready to go home.”

“Geoff, come on. It’s only 1:30 in the morning,” Jack complained.

“The only reason I came to the bar tonight was because I had a hunch that Ryan and Gavin were going to show up. I was right, so now I don’t feel like being here anymore.”

Jack sighed. “Fine.”

“I’m actually more than ready to go back to my own apartment,” Ryan said.

“Have you not been to your apartment in a while or something?”

“Long story.”

“Oh…kay…”

“I can just hang at the bar or go looking for a hotel for the night or something,” Jon said.

“Nonsense! You can come back to my apartment,” Ryan replied.

“That’s awfully forward of you,” Jon joked.

“I wasn’t implying anything. We’ll see how the night goes.”

“Now hold on a minute,” Geoff said. He pulled Ryan close to him. “Are you sure you really want to do that when you’re having your fanged love triangle problem?” he whispered to him.

Ryan leaned up and towards Geoff’s ear. “Well, I don’t feel like I should make my friend go away,” he whispered back.

“Secrets, secrets are no fun, unless you share with everyone,” Jack teased.

“We were just quietly discussing the issue we were talking about earlier,” Geoff explained.

“Ah, okay.”

“And I think I’m ready to head out.”

“So are we,” Ryan said as he stood up.

Geoff stood up next. “Will we see you again soon?”

Ryan snorted. “I think you already know the answer to that,” he replied and Geoff nodded.

“We’ll see you soon,” Jack said as he got up.

“It was nice meeting you,” Jon said as he finally stood up to go.

“Bye,” Jack said with a wave.

Ryan and Jon waved back. As the two of them left, Jon grabbed Ryan’s hand to hold. Geoff saw that and sighed. “Ryan’s love life is a fucking mess,” he commented, and Jack nodded in agreement.

About a half-an-hour later, Ryan arrived back at his apartment with Jon. He let go of Jon’s hand and ran to dive face-first onto his couch. “Oh my God, I missed my apartment so much,” he said into the couch cushions.

“Sounds like you weren’t getting any real free time,” Jon said.

Ryan sat back up on the couch. “I wasn’t. Gavin has spent the last month teaching me about how to control myself as a vampire.”

Jon snorted. “What could Gavin possibly know about self-control?”

“Well, at first Gavin just expected me to act like any other vampire would and be gung-ho about going out and hunting for human blood. But, I’m someone who’s not a fan of gore or violence. So, when I went hunting and ended up shattering a man’s forearm and snapping his neck while in a hunting trance, I freaked out because that’s something I never would have been okay with doing. Gavin changed his methods to better accommodate my needs after that,” Ryan explained.

Jon raised an eyebrow. “Never expected him to take the mature route with this.”

“I’m very thankful he did.”

“But it seemed like he was still trying to control you before I showed up. Which is ironic because he broke up with me to prevent me from doing that to him.”

“I know. You guys were fighting about that earlier. But I think it’s different now. I think accidentally turning me into a vampire was what it took for him to get his shit together.”

Jon raised his other eyebrow; so, turning Ryan into a vampire hadn’t been to intentionally replace him. He shook his head and focused back on Ryan. “You know, I was reckless and carefree like Gavin once,” he admitted.

“Really?”

“Yeah. It took falling in love with Gavin for me to turn my existence around.”

“Huh, would not have expected you to be reckless and stupid,” Ryan replied.

Jon sat down on the couch next to Ryan. “Now, I’ve got to ask. How to you feel about Gavin since he stole your life from you?”

Ryan thought about how much Gavin had changed his methodology for him, but the fact that he processed manipulation abilities weighed down in his mind. He was rather fond of Gavin now, but he was still afraid of being manipulated. “It’s… complicated. I know I’ve developed feelings for him…” He paused and grabbed Jon’s hands. “But I also know I’ve felt something for you, too, for a while.”

“I…” Jon started to say. “I’ve been trying for a century and a half to get over my feelings for Gavin. Then, I met you. You’re so smart and quirky in your own cynical way. It was alluring. I thought that you were helping me finally move on. I believe I fell for you,” he admitted. Ryan looked away to think about what Jon had just admitted. “I’m sorry. I know I just ruined everything, but you’re just so wonderful that I…” he was cut off by Ryan pressing his lips to his. Jon blinked in surprise then closed them so he could enjoy the kiss.

The kiss ended and Ryan smiled. “I think I already realized you had a thing for me when you said why you punched Gavin earlier. And I had a bit of a crush on you before all of this, so finally being here with you makes me so incredibly happy,” Ryan said.

That was all Jon needed to hear before he slammed his lips back on Ryan’s, shoving his tongue in Ryan’s mouth as well. Ryan stuck his tongue in Jon’s mouth to explore it. Jon climbed into Ryan’s lap to be even closer to him. Ryan’s hands moved to Jon’s hips and Jon rocked his hips closer into Ryan. Ryan pushed Jon down onto the couch to take control. Jon began playing with the hem of Ryan’s shirt, trying to pull it up when Ryan broke the kiss.

“Are you trying to do what I think you’re trying to do?” Ryan asked in a gravelly voice.

“I believe I am, even though your bedroom would probably be an easier place to do it in,” Jon replied.

“You’re right,” Ryan said as he rolled off of Jon and helped him up. “But there’s one thing I want to discuss with you, first.”

“Is this about sexually transmitted diseases? Because you know…”

“No, no, Gavin already told me that vampires are immune to STDs/STIs because I kinda… had sex with him…” he trailed off.

Jon snorted. “So have I,” he replied with a laugh.

Ryan blinked; it made sense that Jon had slept with Gavin in the past. He immediately shoved his tongue back in Jon’s mouth and led him to his bedroom.

Chapter Text

For their Lads guy time, Michael and Jeremy took Gavin out clubbing. Normally they would invite both their wives out to dance with them, but it was a Lads night after all. They thought that going to a night club would distract Gavin from having to think about his crush’s feelings for his ex-boyfriend. They also thought it would be a good idea to get him away from the older ‘Gents’ who might not approve of his actions.

Gavin enjoyed the opportunity to hunt for younger blood. He “charmed” a man in his early twenties within the first forty-five minutes and was out back having his meal for the night soon after. Michael would have questioned what happened to the guy that Gavin “hooked-up” with, but he was too drunk to care at that point.

The Lads finished up their partying around 3:30am and Gavin made it back to his apartment around 4am. “Ryan,” he called out as he entered the apartment. There was no response. He called out for Ryan, again, but there was still no answer. He scrambled around the apartment, looking for him, but there was no one else there.

Gavin growled in frustration and pulled out his phone. . After a few moments, Geoff picked up. “Hello…” he answered, half-asleep.

“Do you know what happened to Ryan!?”

“Calm down, dude… I think he went back to his apartment with Rismonger or something…”

He growled in anger and immediately hung up on Geoff. He had programmed Ryan’s number into his phone back when Ryan was initially turning into a vampire and still passed out, using Ryan’s fingerprint to unlock it. He called Ryan and after a few minutes it went to voicemail. Why wouldn’t he pick up?

Turns out that Ryan wasn’t able to reach his phone at the moment, because it was in his pants pocket on the floor. Ryan was still in bed with Jon following their passionate night together, both feeling fairly worn-out from it. “Hey, maybe I should have answered that,” he said to Jon.

“Might not have been that important,” Jon argued.

“Maybe not, but I I haven’t had my phone for a month.” The phone started ringing again. “I’m starting to think I should probably get that.”

“You seem to be very popular. I’m starting to see why Gavin hid your phone from you.”

Ryan rolled his eyes. “I know it seems that way right now, but I’m not actually that popular. Could be a doctor calling for an appointment reminder or something, though I don’t know why they’d call at…” Ryan paused what he was saying and looked at the clock on his nightstand. “…four-in-the-morning.”

The phone buzzed again, signaling that there was a voicemail waiting for him. “If the doctor called and left a voicemail, you can call them back later and let them know you don’t need them anymore because vampires are immune to all bacterial and viral infections,” Jon said drowsily.

“I’m gonna go check,” Ryan said as he slid out of bed.

“Plus, broken vampire bones heal within a day as long as they are properly set,” Jon continued as if Ryan hadn’t gotten up.

Ryan rolled his eyes and smirked. He picked up his pants off of the floor and pulled his phone out. When he saw that Gavin had called, he tilted is head and wondered how he got Gavin’s number. “Apparently, Gavin called,” he told Jon.

“Oh, then you could ignore it.”

Ryan scoffed in response. He opened up the phone anyway so he could listen to the voicemail. “Ryan, where the bloody toss are you?! Are you in trouble? Because I can come to the rescue! I don’t want to have to be worried about you for any longer, so please call back!” the voicemail said.

Ryan let out an exasperated sigh and called Gavin back. Gavin picked up almost immediately. “Oh, thank Christ!”

“You don’t have to worry about me, Gav, I’m okay. Also, how did you get my number. And how did I get your number?”

“Those newfangled fingerprint locks on phone are so convenient to use when the person’s passed out.”

Ryan’s eyebrows furrowed and he pinched them. “Ryan, babe, what’s wrong? Come back to bed,” Jon called out from bed.

Gavin heard Jon’s voice through the phone. “Where the bloody toss are you?” Gavin asked, anger invading his voice.

Ryan gulped, he wasn’t sure he wanted to deal with this right now. “I… uh… my apartment…” he stuttered.

“And are you with Jon?”

“I… uh… I…”

“You need to get the fuck back to my flat… immediately!” Gavin said, struggling not to scream at Ryan. He hung up to wait for Ryan’s return.

Ryan sighed in dismay. “He wants me to go back to his apartment,” he told Jon.

Jon sat up in bed. “Why?” he asked.

“Gavin’s worried.”

“Is he though?” Jon narrowed his eyes. “Or is he still trying to control you?”

“It’s… more complicated than that.”

“Guess we’ll see,” Jon groaned, and rolled out of bed. He and Ryan then proceeded to get dressed again, Ryan putting on a fresh new outfit, and left the apartment. They made it back to Gavin’s apartment around 5:30 in the morning. Gavin was waiting for them in a very foul mood.

“I can’t bloody believe you, Ryan!” Gavin scolded.

Ryan gulped. “I, uh…” he stuttered.

“You slept with my ex-boyfriend!”

“I… I never actually said that…” he said in nervous denial.

Jon scoffed. “You don’t have to hide it from him, Ryan. You can tell him that we fucked and that it was much better with me,” he taunted.

Gavin grit his teeth. “I thought it meant something when we shagged!” he yelled at Ryan.

“It… it did mean something, Gavin. I promise you that it did,” Ryan insisted, but he couldn’t keep the tremor out of his voice.

“You really don’t need to lie to him to make him feel better,” Jon said.

“Why I ought to…” Gavin said as he walked over to Jon and slapped him in the face. Jon glared, and after just a moment, returned the slap.

Ryan gulped; he didn’t want this to be a repeat of the fight they had last night. He quickly stepped in and pushed the two of them apart. “ENOUGH!!” he yelled. Gavin and Jon glowered at each other. “We are not going to do this again! Understand?!”

“Then just admit that you’re in love with me and only shagged him because you wanted to get your rocks off!” Gavin exclaimed.

“Are you fucking kidding me?! He’s been in love with me for years! The only reason he slept with you was because you were convenient!” Jon snapped.

“HOW ABOUT YOU BOTH SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!” Ryan screeched. Both Gavin and Jon shut their mouths. Ryan took a deep breath. First, he looked at Jon. “Look, you’re right. I have been in love with you for years, Jon. Finally getting to meet you has been incredible.” The he turned his head towards Gavin. “And Gavin, you may have made me what I am now on accident, but you have helped me out so much, learning to cope with the change. I like to think we’ve grown rather close because of it.”

Gavin tilted his head. “What are you trying to say?”

“I’m trying to say that I have romantic feelings for both of you,” Ryan admitted. “Those feelings are riddled with doubt, fear, and confusion, but I know that those feelings are real.”

“That… doesn’t make any sense,” Jon said.

“To put it simply, I have crushes on both you and Gavin.”

“No, I agree. That doesn’t make any sense at all,” Gavin said.

“WHAT ABOUT ME HAVING CRUSHES ON BOTH OF YOU DOESN’T MAKE SENSE!?” Ryan yelled in frustration.

“I helped you out during your transformation into a vampire, worked to accommodate your needs. You should be more in love me more than in love with him.”

“Gavin, it’s not that…”

“He’s known me for so long and he told me that he’s liked me for a long time. Obviously, it would make sense for him to be more in love with me,” Jon argued.

“Jon I…”

“Oh, sod off! You’re just a pretentious prick if you think knowing someone for longer gives you an advantage!” Gavin argued back.

“And you’re just an immature brat if you think that you can just get someone without trying!” Jon spat.

“Why you no good…” Gavin started to say. Ryan appreciated that the fighting was not turning back into a physical fight, but he had just had to stop listening to Gavin and Jon’s bickering. There was only so much of this that he could take. He had just confessed his love for both of these idiots and they continued to fight over him. He didn’t want this; he didn’t think he could choose between the two of them. On top of that, he wasn’t sure he wanted to be where the fight was, anymore.

“ENOUGH!!!!!!” Ryan shouted in hopes that the two of them would stop. “I can barely hear myself think with you two fighting like this.”

“You need us to be silent while you decide which one of us you love more?” Jon asked.

Ryan scowled. “Which one of you I love more?! NO!!! You can’t just make me pick which one of you I love more! I love both of you equally!”

“Well, it’s looks like you’re gonna have to,” Gavin said.

Ryan grit his teeth. “You know what?! FUCK THIS! I’m leaving until the two of you work yourselves out!!” he yelled as he marched out of the apartment, slamming the door shut behind him.

Ryan heard the two of them fighting from outside and let out a deep sigh. He wasn’t ready to deal with the fight between his two crushes. Why did his two crushes have to ex-boyfriends? That made everything so much more difficult. He sighed and looked up at the sky. The night sky was becoming lighter, signaling that it would be dawn soon. Ryan knew that Gavin told him that vampires couldn’t handle sunlight, but he’d be damned if he went back inside Gavin’s apartment in the middle of the fight. He considered other options for places he could go for the day. His own apartment was across town, so he wasn’t sure he’d make it there before sunrise. He’d never been to Jeremy’s place before, and he knew Michael lived with his mysterious wife in the suburbs, so those weren’t options either.

Then, he thought of Geoff and Jack’s apartment. He knew that they only lived a few blocks away from Gavin and at least Geoff would understand his vampire issue of needing to get out of the sun. He could deal with their questioning of his emotional issues, later. He ran to their apartment and broke a window to climb in; he was less concerned about morals and more worried about getting out of the sun.

The sun was starting to rise for the day. Ryan needed to find a place in the apartment to stay out of the sun. The blinds were opened wide in the entrance to the apartment, so Ryan knew he had to find a more secure place to avoid the sun in. He opened the first door in the entryway hall and discovered that it was a coat closet. “Perfect,” he thought. He got into the closet and pushed the door shut. He sat down behind the door and sighed. “This is so messed up,” he said to himself. “Why can’t anything be easy?”

Ryan let out a loud yawn, he was too tired for this. After a few minutes, his eyes began to droop shut. He was about to fall asleep against the closet door when the door was suddenly pulled open. He felt burning against the back of his neck, so he slapped his hand over it. When his hand started to burn, he turned around to try and close the door, again. When he turned, he saw Geoff holding a baseball bat, ready to strike, and Jack looking very concerned.

More rays of sunlight hit him and he yelped in pain. “SHUT THE DOOR! SHUT THE FUCKING DOOR!!!!!!!!” he yelled.

Geoff was quick to shut the closet door again. “Was that Ryan?!” Jack asked Geoff. He quickly nodded his head to answer. “Why are you just letting him hide in the closet?”

Geoff sighed. “I never thought I’d say this, but it’d be better for him to stay in the closet,” he said to Jack.

Ryan heard what Geoff said and scowled. “Joke’s not appreciated,” Ryan called out. Geoff shrugged in indifference.

“Okay, fine. I don’t understand why you broke into our apartment just to hide in a closet, but whatever,” Jack said.

“I didn’t want to have to resort to this…”

“What did you do that made you need to break into our apartment?” Geoff asked.

“I… I did something that I didn’t think through and I wasn’t prepared for the fallout. It led to me having to confess my true feelings to Jon and Gavin. Now, the two of them are fighting again and I just couldn’t handle being in the middle of that anymore. Your apartment was the closest place I could think of to hide.”

“Oh… do you want to talk about it?” Jack asked.

Ryan let out another loud yawn. “Can it wait until tonight?”

“That’s fine, but if you’re tired wouldn’t you rather sleep in a bed?”

“… No thanks, I’m good.”

“There are so many jokes I could make right now,” Geoff started to say. He was cut off by Ryan’s growling. “But now isn’t the best time for them.”

“I just want you to know that I could absolutely beat you senseless.”

“I know you could, Rye.” Then he turned towards Jack. “Let’s just leave him alone. He’ll explain his situation to us when he’s ready.” Jack nodded and let Geoff lead him away.

Ryan started to sigh and it turned into a yawn. He was more than ready to sleep, even if it wouldn’t be a comfortable rest. He eventually was overcome with exhaustion and passed out in the closet. The rest of the day passed and he spent it curled up in a ball in the closet. He was miserable, but he was also at a loss for what he should do about his problems.

The following night, Geoff opened up the closet door and Ryan tumbled out. Ryan yelped in surprise as he fell over. “You’re a mess,” Geoff said.

“Hey, you try spending all day in a coat closet, stewing in your problems,” Ryan argued back.

“No thanks, I’m good.” Ryan growled. “Calm down, dude. We’ll help you figure out whatever your issue is.”

“Did you find Ryan?” Jack asked from the other room.

“Yeah, I’ll bring him into the living room,” Geoff replied. He helped Ryan off of the floor. “Easy, buddy.”

Ryan stretched and cracked his back. “That had to be the most uncomfortable sleep of my life,” he said.

He and Geoff walked to the living room and joined Jack. “Okay, so why did you feel the need to hide in our closet all day?” Jack asked as Geoff and Ryan sat down on the couch.

Ryan sighed. “It’s a long story…”

“Well, we have time,” Geoff said.

“Well… you guys already know that Gavin and Jon are ex-boyfriends, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, did you know that Gavin and I hooked up?”

“I mean, I think I heard you mention that to Michael.”

“Yeah, and now you guys are ‘friends with benefits,’ right?” Jack asked.

Ryan rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe? It got complicated with Jon showed up…”

“So, you need help with Jon’s presence making you confused? Because I don’t involve myself with that kind of business,” Geoff said.

“Not exactly. I brought their fight back to the forefront when I hooked up with Jon last night…” Ryan explained. Geoff and Jack gasped. “And I’ve had feelings for Jon for years. But now I’ve also grown feelings for Gavin, as of late. I have crushes on both of them and I ended up admitting that to them. Now they want me to choose who I love, more. But I can’t just do that!”

“God… you sound like a middle-school girl…”

“Thanks, Geoff. Your wisdom keeps me going,” Ryan sarcastically replied.

“Well, this is a little too complicated for me to help you out with.”

“I kinda figured that you wouldn’t have any ideas.”

“So, you have a crush on both Jon and Gavin?” Jack asked for clarification.

Ryan sighed. “…Yeah… God I feel like a confused teenager, again…”

“And you said that the two of them are exes?”

“Yep…”

“Do you know why they broke up?”

“Something about Gavin not wanting Jon to control his freedom. And that’s ironic because that’s exactly what he was doing to me… but that’s a whole other can of worms that doesn’t need to be opened.”

“Do you think it’s possible that Gavin could possibly still have some feelings for Jon?”

“It’s unlikely. Though it would make my life a whole lot easier if he did. But it sounds crazy saying it out loud…”

“Ryan, look at how your life’s been going for the past month and a half and tell me that crazy is out of the question,” Geoff said.

“… You have a point…”

“Anyway, what I was getting at was that maybe you could try dating them at the same time,” Jack suggested.

“I don’t want to cheat on anyone, though.”

“I’m not saying you’d have to cheat on them with each other. If it turns out that Gavin repressed his feelings for Jon, you’d just have to find a way to bring them back. Then you could enter a polyamorous relationship.”

“Polyamorous?” Ryan asked because he wasn’t familiar with the term.

“Being in love and intimate with more than one person. All three of you would date each other at once.”

Ryan pondered the idea of polyamory. It perfectly described how he was feeling, but he didn’t know if it would be possible. Then, he remembered that he had just been turned into a vampire. He couldn’t necessarily rule anything as impossible, anymore. He sighed. “It would be nice if it was that easy,” he said.

“Well, maybe the first step towards turning this into a polyamorous thing would be to get Gavin and Jon to spot fighting,” Geoff said.

Ryan blinked. “You know, that’s actually a good idea, Geoff.” Suddenly, Ryan’s beast of hunger made itself known with a low rumble. Ryan silently cursed to himself. “I think I need to go back to Gavin’s apartment to start working on that.”

Geoff heard Ryan’s stomach rumbling and he stood up. “You must be hungry, Rye. I got some leftover tomato soup in the fridge I can heat up for you and stick it in a to-go thermos for you.” Ryan opened his mouth to reply, but Geoff shot him a wink. He swallowed and nodded. Geoff went off to go get Ryan’s meal.

“You know, I don’t remember having tomato soup,” Jack said.

“I don’t know what to tell you about that since you two have your own domestic life,” Ryan replied.

Geoff got back and handed Ryan the thermos. “Don’t drink it until you’ve left,” he said.

“That’s fine.”

“Now, go. Go get your men.”

Ryan nodded and walked to the front door. He waved goodbye to Geoff and Jack and left the apartment. He opened the thermos and took a long swig of the soup, which turned out to be blood. He figured that maybe he needed to drink more blood before he could think of any new ideas to get Gavin and Jon to stop fighting.

He finished his thermos by the time he got back to Gavin’s apartment. He sighed; he wasn’t sure if he was ready to jump back into the fight, but it seemed like he had to whether he wanted to or not. He opened the door to the apartment and saw that it was a mess. Clearly the fighting had turn physical after he had left.

He walked into the living room and saw Jon’s hands around Gavin’s throat. “YOU SAY YOU DIDN’T WANT ME TO CONTROL YOU! BUT YOU REALLY JUST DIDN’T WANT TO SAY THAT YOU FELL OUT OF LOVE WITH ME!!!!!!” Jon screeched.

Ryan got ready to go and pull the two of them apart when Gavin opened his mouth. “I NEVER STOPPED LOVING YOU!!!!!!!!” he yelled.

This made Jon loosen his grip on Gavin’s throat. “…What?” he quietly asked.

“I NEVER STOPPED LOVING YOU! I WAS TERRIFIED, ALRIGHT! WE WERE GAY VAMPIRES IN 1815; WE WOULD HAVE BEEN KILLED ON THE SPOT IF WE HAD BEEN DISCOVERED!!!!!!”

Chapter Text

Ryan and Jon were equally confused because of what Gavin had admitted. Ryan was confused because he had thought Gavin would have come to terms with his sexuality by now and would be over past homophobia in the world. Jon was confused and saddened by the fact that Gavin had been so afraid of being himself that he ran away; sad that he had run for years when there wasn’t much reason to run anymore if you were smart about your vampirism.

Gavin slammed his hands over his mouth; he couldn’t believe he had admitted the real truth to Jon. He had spent so long building walls to protect himself, but they were suddenly crashing down. It was true, he did love Jon, but he was too afraid of the consequences of his love. He had been so committed to moving on to try and get rid of the guilt of leaving. He had started to think that he had moved on, but maybe he hadn’t really gotten over Jon.

Ryan slowly made his way to lean against the wall; he knew it wasn’t his place to interrupt this confrontation.

Jon led go of Gavin’s neck and slowly lowered his hands. Jon’s lip quivered; he wasn’t quite sure he had heard Gavin correctly. “What are you trying to say?” he asked.

“I…” Gavin started to say, but paused hoping that Jon would interrupt him so he wouldn’t have to explain himself.

“What is happening, here?” Ryan mouthed to himself. Out of all the impossible things to have happened to him lately, he still refused to believe that his problem of Jon and Gavin’s fight could possibly be solved without his intervention.

Gavin remained quiet, hoping for Jon’s interruption. Jon remained silent, as well. Gavin let out an exasperated sigh; he didn’t want to explain himself, but it looked like he had no choice in the matter. “Homosexuality was illegal in England at the time. Some people had their suspicions about me being gay, but I had to hid it as best as I could. Men were being arrested for being gay and I didn’t want to join them…”

“You wouldn’t have had to run,” Jon finally interrupted.

“Of course, I would have had to run,” Gavin argued. “People had their suspicions of my homosexuality, but they couldn’t prove anything. Then you came along…”

“I…”

“You came along with your charms and your attractive nature and I fell head over heels in love with you. It would have been to much easier if you had just killed me for sustenance, but no, you just HAD to fall in love with me, too!”

“Gavin, I don’t see what’s wrong with two people who were in love with each other, being together.”

“WE WERE GAY, JON!” Gavin screamed.

Jon sighed. “That may be true, but if we had stuck together, we could have protected each other.”

“I know that’s what you bloody think, but your solution for being able to protect me was to turn me into a vampire with you!”

“I asked your permission first!”

“I know! I know…” Gavin trailed off. “But do you realize what else was being hunted besides homosexuals in England, at the time?!”

Ryan could see the confusion in Jon’s eyes. He wasn’t sure if either of them had fully understood the consequences of their actions at the time.

“Vampires,” Gavin continued to explain. “Fear of vampires had arisen in America at the time and some of that fear had made its way over to England.”

“Whoever was hunting for vampires in England was probably crazy,” Jon replied.

“Doesn’t matter if they were crazy or not. If I had been hunted for being a vampire, I know that the fact that I was gay would have been revealed, as well. Then I would have been brutally murdered, without a doubt.”

“Gavin,” Jon started to say.

“I was in love with you, but I was scared of you; vampirism terrified me. It scared me so much that I wasn’t thinking and agreed to let you turn me into one. I didn’t want to be a gay, blood-sucking monster, but now I am one. So, I ran away from it all. But you just had to come back into my life when I started to build something new! Reminding me of all the goodness that I ran away from. Now I'm not only a gay blood-sucking monster, but I'm also a bloody idiot!”

“Gavin, no. you’re not a monster! And you are smart...” Jon tried to argue.

“But I am a monster and an idiot, though. I’ve killed thousands of people over the years just so I could keep on living and I never thought about the repercussions. And sure, immortality is pretty swell, but at what cost? I became an idiot monster, whether I liked it or not…”

“Gavin… I am so sorry. I could have protected you and helped you out with your transition into becoming a vampire if we had stuck together…”

“But it wasn’t what I wanted. I didn’t want to get trapped into something I didn’t want…” Gavin interrupted as tears began to well up in his eyes.

“It’s why I let you run off in the first place,” Jon interrupted, back. “I loved you, but I couldn’t make you stay. But whether it was intentional or not, it seems like I managed to trap you into something that you didn’t want anyway…”

Ryan thought the confessions seemed to be coming to an end and sighed. “If you love something, let it go,” he said. Gavin and Jon turned to the wall that Ryan was leaning against. “Heard that in a song, once.”

“How… how long have you been standing there?!” Jon demanded.

“Oh, I just got here. But please, continue what you guys were doing. It makes my life a whole lot easier.”

Jon gulped; he wasn’t sure where else to go from there, with Ryan observing. Gavin had other ideas of what to do next. Tears started running down his face as he grabbed onto Jon and pulled him into a deep hug. “I am… SO sorry! I was a bloody fool!” he cried.

At the sound of Gavin’s apology, tears started to drip down Jon’s face. “I’m sorry, too. I shouldn’t have pressured you into a life you didn’t want. I should have been more patient with you and just accepted your love, the way it was…” Jon trailed off as his ramblings turned into sobs. Gavin sobbed right along with him.

Ryan gave a small smile, he knew that he shouldn’t be smiling at his crushes, who were grossly sobbing, but he was very happy that they were getting over their century-old fight. He blinked, maybe it was about time that he stopped believing that things could be impossible, because it seemed like literally anything could be possible.

“Jon, I love you so much,” Gavin confessed.

“And I love you too,” Jon confessed, in return. “So, what does this mean?”

“I was thinking, maybe if you’re not too mad about me running away, we could get back together and pick back up where we left off.”

Jon responded by smothering Gavin with a deep kiss. Gavin closed his eyes in pure bliss. Their lips moved slowly with passion and many years more experience. It had been a long time since they had had their initial passion, but they had time to build it back to where it had originally been.

While their kiss was a wonderful resolution to their fight, Ryan looked away, knowing it wasn’t his place to watch. He let out a deep sigh; while he was very happy that Jon and Gavin had gotten back together, he didn’t know what this meant for him. He had had romantic feelings for both of them, but since they had gotten back together, he didn’t know where his place would be. He didn’t know if either of them actually had feelings for him, or if he was just a distraction for each of them from each other.

After a few minutes, Gavin and Jon pulled apart. Jon looked at Gavin with a smile, then turned to face Ryan. “Are you okay with all of this?” he asked.

Ryan nodded. “I am; I’m genuinely happy for you,” he replied. “I just don’t know if I have a place in this at all,” he murmured to himself.

Jon heard Ryan’s murmuring and smirked. “Well, you actually do have a place in this.”

Ryan’s eyebrows shot up. “Wait, how did you…”

“Enhanced vampire hearing,” he quickly explained. “And while I’ve always loved Gavin and am happy that we finally our heard out of our asses and got back together, I always kinda felt like our relationship was missing something,” he said as he looked over at Gavin.

Gavin looked at him and nodded like he understood some unspoken things. “I couldn’t agree more, luv,” Gavin added with a smirk.

Ryan raised an eyebrow; he had a feeling of what they were implying, but he couldn’t be so sure. “What are you trying to say?” he asked.

Gavin strode over to Ryan with renewed confidence and kissed him on the cheek. Jon quickly followed suit and walked over to Ryan to kiss him on the cheek, as well. Ryan didn’t know if he could be blushing as a vampire, but he knew he would be if he could.

“We’d like you to join us,” Gavin said, confirming Ryan’s suspicions.

“If you’d have us after all the shit, we’ve,” Jon started to say.

“YES!!!” Ryan quickly interrupted. “Yes, I would love to date both of you. I’d want nothing more,” he finished saying with a smile. Gavin and Jon let out sighs of relief. “I mean, the fact that I said admitted that last night and you guys drove me away didn’t deter me.”

“We’re really sorry about that,” Gavin apologized.

“It’s okay, Gav. I honestly thought I was gonna have to come back here and find a way to resolve your fight, myself.”

“I’m glad you didn’t have to because that shouldn’t have been your responsibility,” Jon said.

“Wait, I have a question,” Gavin said.

“Yes?” Ryan replied.

“So, you agreed to date both Jon and I, does this mean all three of us are dating?”

Jon rolled his eyes. “Yes Gavin, it means all three of us are dating,” he said.

“No, I mean how is that going to work? Like, do we each take turns with Ryan then take turns with each other?”

“That could be a part of it. All three of us could go on dates, as well,” Ryan explained.

“Oh.”

“You know, it’s funny. Jack suggested polyamory as a possible solution to the issue of me having crushes on both of you, but I didn’t believe that would work because I thought you hated Jon.”

“I didn’t, I acted like a right twat because I was scared of the consequences of running away from him. I loved him, but I was too committed to the stupid act I was trying to play.”

Jon scoffed. “I am much more forgiving than you give me credit for,” he joked.

“I know you are, luv,” Gavin said. Jon smiled in return.

“I’ll admit that I may have considered attempting to pursue a polyamorous relationship with the two of you if I could have at least figured out how to stop the fighting. I got extremely lucky that the problem solved itself. I’m starting to think I should stop believing that the impossible is impossible,” Ryan said. Jon and Gavin nodded in agreement.

“You really should, luv.”

“So, now that that mess is taken care of, what would you guys like to do now?” Jon asked.

“Well first, we could kiss,” Ryan suggested. Gavin and Jon started leaning their faces towards Ryan’s and Ryan met them in the middle. The three of them shared a gentle three-way kiss.

“Anything else you want to do?”

“I wouldn’t be opposed to consummating the relationship,” Gavin suggested. “I know it’s been 100 years since we shagged, Jon, but I’d like to figure out how a three-way would work between us.”

Ryan suddenly let out a long yawn, reminding him of how he had not had a good sleep, that day. “Actually, could we do that another night? I spent the day sleeping in Geoff and Jack’s closet and it was one of the worst sleeps I have ever had.”

“There’s a joke in there somewhere.”

Ryan rolled his eyes. “Geoff said the same thing. But right now, I think I’d just like to go to bed so maybe I could snuggle with my new boyfriends.”

“Daw, but Rye-bread…” Gavin started to argue in favor of sex.

“Gavin, he’s been through enough. Let’s let him sleep,” Jon argued.

Gavin yawned. “Fine, we fought all day so I’d say I’m pretty knackered, as well,” he replied in defeat.

Jon yawned, as well. “Let’s get to bed.”

Ryan gave a sleepy smile. The three of them walked to Gavin’s bedroom. Ryan rushed towards the bed and flopped face first onto it. Jon and Gavin climbed in bed on either side of Ryan to curl into his sides. Ryan rolled over to give them access to him. The both nuzzled up to him and Ryan wrapped his arms around them. They were about to doze off when Ryan’s phone went off.

“Want me to get that, dear?” Jon asked.

“If you could get it out of my pocket and put it on the nightstand,” Ryan replied.

Jon pulled the phone out of Ryan’s pocket and saw that he had gotten a text. “You got a text from Geoff. Asking if you’re alright,” he read.

“Tell him that the fight between you and Gavin was resolved, then put the phone down.”

Jon nodded and grabbed Ryan’s hand to unlock the phone. He sent the message and locked the phone again.

“Can we go to bed?” Gavin asked.

“Yeah, we can,” Ryan replied sleepily.

The three of them dozed off and were not awoken when Ryan’s phone received another text. Geoff had texted Ryan to let him know that Michael was introducing everyone to his wife.

Chapter Text

For the first time since his whole transformation into a vampire situation had started, Ryan finally felt at peace. He had come to terms with being a vampire relatively quickly, but the added complexity of the love triangle had made things difficult. The love triangle had unexplainably resolved itself and he had been invited to join the relationship between Gavin and Jon. Now, they could all finally rest easy.

The trio had had a very stressful past couple of days so they had slept soundly for the rest of the night and the following day. Gavin and Jon had slept nuzzled into Ryan’s sides, and Ryan was content knowing he could latch onto both of them with no further issues. Their exhaustion had caught up to them and they were happy they could all sleep together.

The following night, the three of them were awoken by the sound of Ryan’s phone going off. Jon was the first one to hear it. “Ryan?” he said softly. Ryan woke up at the sound of Jon’s voice but didn’t open his eyes. He made an unintelligible noise in reply. “I think someone is calling you.”

The phone stopped ringing, signaling that Ryan missed the call. He unwrapped his arm from around Gavin and made grabby hands at the phone. Gavin awoke when Ryan moved his arm away from him. “Ryebread?” Gavin drowsily asked.

“Someone called me,” Ryan mumbled. Jon grabbed the phone and handed it to Ryan. Ryan checked his missed calls and he woke up more when he realized that he had missed a call from Geoff. He shifted to sit up and dialed Geoff back.

“Who called?”

“Geoff. Probably wants to check on everything. I’m gonna let him know that everything is all fixed and had a happy ending.”

“Oh, you know you don’t have to do that right now. I rather like using you as a pillow and wouldn’t mind going back to snuggling,” Gavin said.

Ryan rolled his eyes. “Maybe later,” he replied. Gavin pouted.

“Hello?” Geoff said when he picked up the phone.

“Hey, you called and I figured you’d want to check in,” Ryan replied.

“Yeah, you said that the fight between Gavin and Jon got resolved. What did you have to do?”

“Nothing, actually. I got back here when an important truth was revealed, and the two of them apologized and decided to get back together.”

“That’s great, but where would you fall into that, if at all?”

“Turns out that Jack’s polyamorous solution is what’s gonna happen, because they invited me to join,” he explained.

“That’s great! I’m gonna tell everyone here at the bar, okay?” Geoff asked.

“That’s fine.”

“We’re right here, you know, so you don’t need to repeat what happened yesterday. Unless, of course, that’s your way of accepting what went down, in which case I’m okay with that,” Jon said.

Ryan pulled the phone away from his face. “No, Geoff called and I was explaining what happened to him.”

“That’s Gavin’s thrall, right?”

“Yeah,” Gavin answered.

Ryan snorted and pulled the phone back to his ear to hear the end of Geoff shouting that Gavin, Jon, and he had all started dating to the bar. “What’s everyone’s reaction like?” he asked.

“They’re all happy for you,” Geoff replied.

“That’s nice. Anything drama-free happen while we were having our drama last night?”

“I texted you last night that Michael brought his mysterious wife and introduced her to us.”

“I haven’t checked my texts past you asking if I was alright. What’s she like?”

“Lindsay seems chaotic when she’s enjoying herself, but deathly serious when she’s asking questions. She asked about you and Gavin and about the other vampire in your boyfriend trio,”

“Jon is the third person,” Ryan interrupted.

“Yeah, him. She seemed fairly interested in him for some reason. But I said that you guys were dealing with some shit and to leave it alone. She wasn’t happy when I said that, but it wasn’t any of her business.”

“Thank you. I’m sorry that we missed last night, but you know how it was.”

“No big deal. Maybe the three of you guys could come to the bar tonight and introduce yourselves as a couple. Or trio, or something. I’m not sure what the romantic relationship turn would be for a three-way relationship.”

Ryan smiled. “I think that’s a great idea.”

“Awesome.”

“We’ll see you soon,” Ryan said, and hung up.

“What was that all about?’ Gavin asked.

“Geoff told everyone that we’re all dating and he thinks it would be a good idea if we went to the bar as a throuple or whatever a three-way relationship is called.”

“That sound’s nice. It’d be nice to reintroduce myself to your friends on better terms,” Jon replied.

“Excellent.”

“If I agree to do this, does that mean I can snuggle with you again later?” Gavin asked.

“Ryan rolled his eyes,” Yes Gavin, we can snuggle together again later.”

“And do thing more risqué than snuggle?” Gavin asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

Jon snorted. “You are such a dork with that eyebrow wiggle,” he teased.

“Yes, we can do more risqué things, as well,” Ryan answered.

“Top.”

“Come on, let’s all get dressed so we can go.”

Jon nodded and rolled out of bed so Ryan could get up, as well. They both looked over at Gavin, who had not gotten up yet. Gavin looked at his boyfriends and sighed. He rolled out of bed and plopped on the floor with a groan. “So, are we just gonna go then?” he asked.

“I think we should each have a blood bag to quell our hunger. I don’t really want you two to run off to hunt when we are getting together with friends,” Ryan requested.

“Fair enough,” Jon replied.

“No thanks,” Gavin said. “Those still taste like rubbish.”

“They still really don’t,” Ryan argued.

Gavin opened his mouth to argue back, but was interrupted by Jon. “Honey, I love you, but I think it’s a good idea. Let’s not cause murderous conflict, tonight,” he said.

Gavin groaned. “Fine!”

Ryan nodded and smiled. “Perfect. Let’s go get our meals, then we can head out,” he said.

The three of them walked to the kitchen and grabbed blood bags out of the refrigerator. Ryan drank his like he normally would, Jon frowned at the taste of his blood bag but knew that it wasn’t that awful, and Gavin grimaced and reluctantly drank his blood bag. Once they were done, the cleaned up and headed out to the bar to meet up with their friends.

Once the three of them were just outside of the bar, Ryan stopped. Gavin and Jon paused and looked at Ryan with concern. “Ryan, are you okay?” Gavin asked.

Ryan sighed. “I am, but I’m just a bit nervous because they all had to witness this whole mess,” Ryan replied.

“I thought you said they were glad to hear that it was all over?” Jon asked.

“Well, I did…”

“Then it shouldn’t be a big deal,” Gavin replied.

“I may not know these people very well, but they seem like they look out for you,” Jon added.

“You guys are right,” Ryan admitted, looking a bit embarrassed about his paranoia.

“Daw, you’re all cute when you’re flustered,” Gavin teased.

“I know I can’t blush anymore, but I’m pretty sure I would be if I still could…”

“It’s okay, we love you anyway,” Jon replied sweetly.

“Alright then, let’s go in…” Gavin started to say.

“FREEZE, VAMPIRE SCUM!!!!!!” a familiar voice yelled from behind them.

Ryan, Gavin, and Jon turned around and saw two men dressed up in extensive hunting gear and pointed guns at them.

Ryan froze in sudden panic, Jon raised an eyebrow, and Gavin loudly groaned. “Oh great, you wankers just HAD to show up!” he complained.

“So, you remember us, huh?” the paler of the men accused.

“You know them?” Jon asked.

Gavin rolled his eyes. “They’re ‘The Pasta’ and ‘The Sauce,’ two rubbish vampire hunters who shot me while I was feeding off of Ryan and ended up causing Ryan to turn into a vampire,” he explained. Ryan started shaking. These people was the real reason he had been turned..

“Oh… Well thanks for turning Ryan here into a vampire. Made my existence a whole lot easier.”

“And now we’re here to capture you!” the tanner of the two yelled.

Jon smirked. “Good luck with that,” he said as shifted his stance, preparing to attack.

“Jon, they work for ‘The Rose’,” Gavin informed Jon.

Jon froze. “What?!”

As if on cue, a woman walked up to the hunters and placed her hands on their shoulders. “Hello, Risinger,” she greeted him with a scowl.
Jon gulped. He really wasn’t in the mood to confront the hunter who had always been so determined to kill him until she dropped off the face of the earth five years, prior. “Rose… it’s been a while…” he said.

“I do have a life outside of this, you know!” she growled.

“I did not know that, actually.

“And now I’ve got you right where I want you!”

“Yeah… can we NOT do this tonight? Ryan, Gavin, and I have been going through a lot in the past few days and…” Jon pleaded.

The Rose responded by running at Jon with a silver knife. Jon jumped out of the way, but The Rose tried to come at him, again. Gavin rushed to defend Jon from The Rose, but he was cut off when The Sauce grabbed him and yanked him away. The Pasta lunged for Ryan and grabbed his arms to tie him up, and Ryan stood there and did nothing, still in shock about how these hunters apparently had something to do with his transformation into a vampire.

He looked over at The Rose while he was being tied up; there was something familiar about her, but he wasn’t sure where he’d recognize her from. Gavin had lost his fight with The Sauce and The Rose had been able to subdue a very confused Jon. All three of them were tied up and thrown into the back of a van.

“Why didn’t you try to fight back?” Gavin whispered to Ryan while they were driving to a new location. Ryan remained silent, still quivering in confusion and fear.

“Gavin, leave him alone. He’s never dealt with vampire hunters before,” Jon whispered to Gavin.

“I… I think I recognize her from somewhere. I just can’t remember where,” Ryan whispered to Jon and Gavin.

“Quiet, back there!!!” The Rose shouted from the driver’s seat.

They drive up to a home in the suburbs of the city and the hunters unloaded the vampires from the van. “Okay, I know I’ve been here before, but I can’t for the life of me remember when,” Ryan thought aloud.

“Shut up!” The Pasta said as he punched Ryan in the jaw. Jon and Gavin gasped at the sight. The Sauce and The Rose ignored their gasps and shoved them inside with The Pasta dragging Ryan behind him.

They brought them into a torture room and tied them to chairs. “Why are you doing this?!” Gavin cried out. The Sauce slapped him in response.

“I’ll tell you why,” The Rose said as she strode over to Gavin. “Your ex-boyfriend, there, killed my great-great-great-great-great grandmother, 250 years ago!”

“Actually, we just got back together and added Ry,” Jon started to correct her.

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!” she screamed as she backfisted him. “I am shit of your shit and you need to pay for the pain you caused the Tuggey name!”

Ryan tilted his head; he was pretty sure he heard that name somewhere before.

“Listen Rose,” Jon started. “If I’m being honest here, I don’t actually remember doing that.”

“YOU’RE DENYING KILLING MY RELATIVE?!?!”

“I didn’t say I was denying it, I just said that I don’t remember doing it. It’s absolutely plausible that I did kill her; I was kind of a reckless shithead back then. Then, I fell in love and I learned to take responsibility for my actions.”

“Daw, Jon,” Gavin cooed. Ryan couldn’t help but smile at Gavin’s reaction.

“Yeah well, I’ll make you responsible for killing your lover!!!!” she yelled as she grabbed her knife and began stalking towards Gavin. He gulped, afraid that he was going to permanently die in front of his boyfriends. Jon’s jaw dropped and his eyes widened in fear; he didn’t want to watch his boyfriend be killed right in front of him right after he had just gotten back together with him.

Ryan’s eye’s widened in horror . “Don’t! You! DARE lay a finger on my boyfriend!!!” he growled. The hunters turned to look at him. Ryan’s eyes flashed red. Mustering all the strength he could, he ripped through the ropes that had him tied up. The hunters jumped in shock. He lunged at The Rose to get her away from Gavin. The Sauce made a grab at Ryan to hold him back, but Ryan grappled him and pulled him into him. He growled in The Sauce’s face and started to pull one of the arms he was holding. He felt the joint pop, and The Sauce screamed in pain.

Before Ryan could detach the arm from the body, a shot rang out. Ryan yelped as he felt a burning ache blooming on his arm. He grit his teeth and grasped his arm, feeling blood leaking out from the wound, between his fingers. He lifted his hand and saw that he confirmed that he had a gunshot wound on his arm. He dropped to his knees and sank to the floor.

“RYAN!” Gavin and Jon cried out in anguish.

“So, the new guy is a brute hunter?” The Rose asked. Ryan looked over at her and saw that she was holding a smoking gun. “And he said that Gavin was his boyfriend. I’d ask what that’s about, but I’m not sure I care enough.” Suddenly, there was the sound of the garage door opening. The Rose pinched her eyebrows. “Great, now I have to make this quick before the husband discovers this.”

“Lindsay, I can’t feel my arm!!!!” The Sauce cried out. The Pasta ran over to help him

“SHUT UP!”

“Lindsay?” a familiar voice called out.

Ryan blinked; now he knew that he knew that voice. He realized why this woman felt so familiar to him, how he had seen her before.

The Rose groaned. “Great! Just fucking great!” she went over to Ryan and leaned over him. “Silver burns, doesn’t it?” she taunted him. Ryan winced in pain. She pulled her knife back out. “Now, I originally wanted to kill Gavin to torture Jon, first. But, since you seem to hold significance to Jon AND Gavin, you get the privilege of dying, first.” She said as she drew back and prepared to strike.

“NO!!!!!!!!” Jon and Gavin screamed.

Suddenly, the door was slammed open. “Lindsay, what’s going…” Michael started to ask. Everyone looked up and saw Lindsay’s husband standing in the doorway. Michael looked at the sight in the torture room with confusion. The confusion quickly turned into anger. “What?! The?! FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?!?!?!?!”

Chapter Text

Michael had come home early from the bar, that night. Geoff had gotten off the phone with Ryan, and said that he, Gavin, and Jon had entered a polyamorous relationship. They had said that were gonna come meet up with everyone, but they never showed up, Michael came home disappointed that they hadn’t made it to the bar, but was more concerned when he arrived at home and heard a gunshot going off in his wife’s office. He rushed in to see what was going on and if she was hurt but was shocked to find that his wife was the one holding the gun. She was also holding a knife and was hovering over a bleeding Ryan while Gavin and Jon were tied to chairs. One of her employees was crying in pain while the other one was helping him.

“What?! The?! FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?!?!?!?!” he demanded.

Lindsay jumped and dropped her silver knife. Ryan rolled out of the way of the falling knife and groaned in pain as he did so. Lindsay felt Ryan move out of the way and growled. “DON’T YOU DARE THINK I’M LETTING YOU GO!” she yelled as she turned back to look down at him. Ryan let out a painful groan in response.

“NO, YOU’RE NOT GOING TO KILL RYAN!” Michael yelled back, rushing towards them. He pushed his wife out of the way and knelt down. “Ryan, I’m so sorry. This is not the way I wanted you to meet Lindsay,” he said. Ryan groaned again as Michael helped him sit up, but he gave Michael a small smile.

“He’s a monster, Michael. All three of them are,” Lindsay tried to explain. ‘The Sauce’ moaned in pain off to the side. “Will you shut up?!” she yelled at him.

“I can’t feel my arm!” ‘The Sauce’ whined.

“I’ll take care of you, Alfredo,” ‘The Pasta’ replied, adjusting Alfredo’s position. Lindsay groaned in response; the plan to finally murder the pesky vampires wasn’t working at all.

“Michael, my boi!” Gavin called out.

Michael started to go to him to untie him, but Lindsay held him back. “What are you doing?! I just told you that these were monsters! I’m trying to protect you, here!” she yelled at him.

“Rose, you’re not trying to protect anyone, at this point. You’re just trying to avenge an ancestor, and it’s not that I’m not sorry about what I did. I AM sorry about what I did,” Jon said.

Michael looked at him and raised and eyebrow. “What are you even…” he started to ask.

Lindsay rushed over to Jon and bashed him in the jaw with her gun. “SHUT UP!” she yelled at him.

Michael quickly grabbed the gun away from Lindsay. “No! No more guns! Just explain to me what the hell this shit show here is supposed to be!” he exclaimed. Lindsay grumbled in response. Michael facepalmed. “Okay, you say that my friends here are monsters. How the fuck are they monsters!?” he demanded.

Lindsay sighed. “Look, these guys are vampires,” she said.

Michael rolled his eyes. “Lindsay, vampires aren’t real.”

Ryan snorted and Michael looked over at him. “Yeah, I thought the same thing, when I first heard about it,” he said.

Michael looked at Ryan and raised an eyebrow. “I thought you of all people would agree with me that vampires are fake.”

“I would have agreed with you in the past. But then things got… complicated…” he trailed off.

“What the hell do you mean by that?! What is ‘complicated’ supposed to mean?!” Michael asked, making air quotations when he said “complicated” for emphasis.

“Well… you see…” Ryan paused and took a deep breath. “When Gavin initially seduced me, he was actually hunting me.”

“So, you are a killer then, Gavin,” Michael interrupted. Gavin looked away in embarrassment.

“Technically yes, but there is still more to it than that. He was drinking my blood when one of those two bozos…” he paused as pointed at ‘The Pasta’ and ‘The Sauce.’ “…shot him. He dropped me and some of his blood from the gunshot wound somehow got into my mouth and there’s some weird chemical reaction when vampire blood is mixed with human blood that’s been tainted with vampire venom, and it accidentally turned me into a vampire, too,” he finished.

“Okay, that sounds like the biggest load of bullshit ever!”

“Trust me, I know. Sometimes I still have a hard time believing it, myself.”

“Well, if you think it sounds like bullshit, then why the fuck do you believe it now?!”

Ryan thought about the exact moment that he started to believe that vampires were real and he shuddered at the thought; he didn’t like to think about his first meal as a vampire. He looked away from Michael in embarrassment. “Look, there was a thing that happened. A thing that I did when I was completely out of my right mind and it made me believe in vampires,” he said. Then he shuddered. “But I really don’t like to think about it, so we’re not gonna talk about it.”

“Okay, I think you’re taking that ‘Mad King’ thing too seriously, now. This vampire thing is just fucking crazy.”

“Murdering someone in real life is nothing like murdering someone in a video game,” Ryan said as he shuddered again.

“Do I want to know?”

“No.”

“I won’t confirm nor deny if Ryan had to kill someone to have his first meal as a vampire…” Gavin started.

“I THOUGHT I SAID THAT WE’RE NOT GONNA TALK ABOUT IT!” Ryan snapped.

“Sorry…” he murmured while giving Ryan an apologetic look. Then he looked back over at Michael. “But the fact that we’re vampires is true, ” Gavin said. “Look.” Gavin held Michael’s gaze. His emerald green eyes turned red, and Michael’s eyes widened. Gavin opened his mouth, his fangs unsheathed themselves, and he hissed.

Michael jumped in fear and Lindsay held him back and pulled out her knife. “Gavin, I don’t know why you’ve practiced pulling those out while you’re not hunting, but I think I’m too old for that shit,” Jon said.

Gavin shrugged and his eyes and teeth went back to normal. “Eh, some freaks are into that around Halloween.”

“Oh my god, you do dress up as a vampire, every year, for Halloween,” Michael said, stunned. Lindsay rolled her eyes; Halloween made her job a lot more difficult for this very reason.

“You flaunt your vampirism during Halloween?!” Jon asked.

“Yeah, it’s not like anyone would think it’s real. And you’re 179 years older than me, you must know how to do show your fangs off, too,” Gavin replied.

“I mean,” Jon started. He paused and his blue eyes flashed red and his fangs unsheathed. Michael jumped in shock again, and Lindsay growled at him. Jon let his eyes and teeth go back to normal to get Lindsay to calm down.

Then Michael looked at Ryan on the floor. “What, you gonna show me that, too?” he asked him.

Ryan shook his head. “I may have been a theater major in college, but I don’t know how to unsheathe my fangs when I’m not hunting yet,” he said. “Though, I do have the vampire bite scars on my neck, if you want to look at that.” He tilted his head to show his neck. Michael’s eyebrows furrowed as he stared.

“Ooh, I could teach you how to voluntarily show off your fangs, Rye,” Gavin offered.

“Do NOT show him how to do that!” Lindsay shouted.

“We’re not going to show off our fangs again. Besides, we don’t need to hunt tonight – we had blood bags,” Ryan explained. Gavin and Jon nodded in agreement.

“Well that’s… comforting… I think…” Michael replied, unsure if that was really any better.

“You’d be safe anyway, Michael,” Gavin reassured him.

“Because you like me?”

“Well, there’s that. But also, you don’t smell like anything.”

Michael snorted. “Well, I guess that’s a good thing.”

“I don’t smell him either, which is weird,” Jon added.

“How is it weird that I don’t smell like anything?”

“Majority of humans have some sort of aroma to them. Some are stronger and more appetizing than others, but you don’t smell like anything.”

“I got him to get a tattoo of a sigil that makes it so vampires can’t smell him,” Lindsay blurted out.

Michael’s eyebrows shot up and he turned to face Lindsay. “Wait, when?!”

Lindsay’s eyes widened when she remembered that she wasn’t planning on ever telling him that she got him to do that. “I… uh… remember that cool design I got you to get a tattoo off…?” she nervously asked.

“ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!”

“I swear I only made you do that because I wanted to protect you! I didn’t know if Gavin or some other vampire crossing through town would try to hunt you, so I want to prevent that from happening. I never wanted you to find out about the existence of vampires – that’s why I didn’t tell you what it really was!”

“If it’s any consolation, I wouldn’t hunt you even if I could smell you because you’re my boi and I like you too much,” Gavin said.

“You’re my coworker and friend, not food,” Ryan said, next.

“Any friend of theirs is safe from me,” Jon added.

Michael pinched his eyebrows and sat down on the floor. “You okay?” Ryan asked.

Michael sighed. “My life just got so much more complicated from all the magical nonsense,” he complained.

“You’re absolutely right. None of it makes sense. But unfortunately, this is the world we apparently live in and we have to accept it whether we like it or not.”

“He doesn’t have to accept anything he doesn’t want to!” Lindsay argued.

“Lindsay, I love you, but my coworker, my best friend, and their boyfriend just showed me evidence that they are vampires. It’s kinda hard NOT to accept any of this.”

“Fine,” she grumbled. Then she looked over at Jon. “But he still needs to die!” she said, pointing at him. Gavin and Ryan gasped in horror.

Jon rolled his eyes. “Really, are we still doing this? Even with your husband watching? Do you really want him to see you murder someone?” he asked.

Lindsay scowled. “You killed my great-great-great-great-great grandmother for sustenance! You deserve to die for killing her!!!” she shouted.

“OH MY GOD, I AM SORRY I KILLED YOUR RELATIVE SO I COULD EAT! I DIDN’T KNOW ANY BETTER AT THE TIME!”

“DOESN’T CHANGE ANYTHING!!”

“HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO APOLOGIZE TO GET YOU TO FORGIVE ME?!”

“YOUR APOLOGIZES DON’T MEAN SHIT!”

“CAN WE STOP THE BLOODY SHOUTING MATCH?!” Gavin yelled. Then he sighed. “God, this argument is actually making me want to die!”

“Gavin, no,” Jon replied with dismay.

“But wait, why do you think killing Jon…” Michael started to ask, pausing to look over at Jon to make sure he got his name right.

“Yeah, that is my name,” Jon confirmed.

“Killing Jon, “Michael continued, “is going to make a difference at this point? He’s clearly sorry for what he did. And I think that drama he went through with Gavin and Ryan was punishment enough. So why does he need to die at this point?” he finished asking.

Lindsay rolled her eyes. “Do you really think I care about his relationship drama?! He needs to die so that the Tuggey family name can finally know peace,” she explained.

Michael raised an eyebrow. “But your last name is ‘Jones’ now,” he pointed out.

“What?”

“You took my last name when we got married.”

“So?!”

“I’m not saying it that isn’t important to connect with the family that you came from, but you’re a ‘Jones’ now. You have a new family, now; a new family that seems safe from these guys.”

“Do you really expect me to believe that?!”

“Well, we kinda did already say that we’re friends with Michael and that we weren’t going to kill him,” Gavin said. Jon and Ryan nodded in agreement.

Lindsay opened her mouth to argue back, but Ryan spoke before she could get a word out. “And despite everything I may have heard about vampires before I became one, we are still capable of having platonic friends. Michael was a friend of mine before I turned and I’ve seen the way he and Gavin interact, constantly goofing off and such,” he explained.

“And like I said before, any friend of theirs is safe from me,” Jon said.

Lindsay scowled and folded her arms. “You are all still dangerous vampires, so I’m going to need more than that,” she replied.

“Lindsay, they don’t need…” Michael started to say.

“We could give up hunting,” Ryan interrupted to suggest. “I mean, I hate real world violence, so I already get my meals from blood bags.”

“If the blood bag method would get you to finally stop this, I would do it,” Jon said, next.

“I’d even switch to drinking blood bags, even if they aren’t nearly as good as the real thing,” Gavin said to complete the compromise. Jon scowled and kicked Gavin’s chair causing him to yelp in surprise. “Hey, what the bloody toss was that for?!”

“Now is not the time for you to vocalize your disinterest in blood bags.”

“Fine. Did I say I dislike blood bags? I mean I absolutely love them!” Gavin said with fake enthusiasm. Ryan facepalmed in response.

“Now do you believe them when they say they are done being harmful?” Michael asked.

“I can’t get what I want here, can I?” Lindsay asked.

“You don’t need what you think you want just to feel better,” Jon said.

Lindsay unfolded her arms and sighed in defeat. “Fine, you are free to…” she started to say but was interrupted by Alfredo’s painful moan.

“I still can’t feel my arm,” he whined.

“I think he has nerve damage,” ‘The Pasta’ said.

Ryan looked over at the hunters with embarrassment. “I’m really sorry about that. I don’t know what came over me…” he said sheepishly.

“You did it to protect me, luv,” Gavin replied.

“Still doesn’t make it okay…”

“You were saying that these guys could go right?” Michael asked. Lindsay gave a curt nod to answer. “So, let’s untie them so they can leave.”

“Fine,” Lindsay grumbled.

Michael walked over and helped Ryan up. Ryan whined as he stood up. “You okay?” he asked.

“I’ll be fine. Got shot in the arm with a silver bullet and it burns,” he explained.

“Little blood would make you feel better,” Gavin said.

“Then I’ll have another blood bag when I get home.”

“So, how come you guys haven’t broken through your restraints?” Michael asked Gavin and Jon.

“Unlike Ryan, the two of us don’t have the same physical strength that he got and we’re not strong enough to rip through the ropes,” Jon answered.

Michael nodded. He and Ryan went over and untied Gavin and Jon. Once they were untied, they stood up and joined Ryan.

Lindsay sighed. “Now please, get the fuck out of my house!” she exclaimed.

“Lindsay, you don’t have to rush them out,” Michael replied.

“Nah, I believe this is the last place we want to be at this point. We’d be delighted to get out of your hair,” Gavin said.

The three of them started to walk to the door. Jon paused as he remembered something and turned to face Lindsay. “By the way,” he started. Gavin and Ryan froze in fear of whatever Jon was about to say setting Lindsay off. “I know a witch down in LA who’s specialty is transformation magic. Some of that transformation magic includes healing spells and I could probably send her your way to have her heal your employee,” he offered.

“Huh, that’s actually pretty thoughtful of you,” Lindsay said.

“I can’t take all of the wrong that I did in the past back, but I can try to make things better now.”

“We are all capable of doing some good despite our condition; we don’t have to cause harm,” Ryan added.

“You know, I think I’ll take you up on that,” she replied.

“I think we’re gonna go now,” he said. He watched Michael put his head in his hands and sigh. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“My whole world view has been shattered,” Michael replied.

“You could talk to Geoff about it,” Gavin suggested.

“Geoff? Wait, who else knows about vampires?”

“Only Geoff should know because he is my thrall, unless he told his boyfriend.”

"What the hell is a 'thrall'?"

“It’s an old word that basically means slave,” Jon explained.

“Geoff’s great grandfather made a promise to me and then broke it, so now I own the family as debt payment,” Gavin clarified.

Michael looked at Jon and Ryan for an explanation. “Yeah, we don’t get it either,” Ryan replied.

Lindsay groaned. “Can you three please just get out?!” she exclaimed.

“We’re going,” Jon said, leading Gavin and Ryan out.

“I’ll be in contact with Geoff about rescheduling a meet-up at the bar,” Ryan called out behind him as they left.

The three of them made their way out of the house and sighed in relief as they were finally outside. Gavin looked up at the sky and saw that it was starting to get light out. “It’s almost dawn,” he pointed out.

“Guess we need to get home, then,” Ryan said.

Jon sighed. “Guess I should call Turney tomorrow to ask her about healing that one hunter. Also, should probably let her know that I’m probably moving to Austin to live with my boyfriends…” he trailed off.

“Is that the witch that you know? Because I didn’t know that witches were still a thing.” Gavin said.

“You know, none of that really matters right now. All that matters is getting home, having a blood bag to ease the pain in my arm, and snuggling with my beautiful boyfriends like I promised to do earlier,” Ryan said with a smile on his face.

“Daw, Rye-bread,” Gavin cooed.

“I love you guys,” Ryan said as he pulled Gavin and Jon into a gentle kiss.

“Now, let’s go home,” Jon said. And the three vampire boyfriends went home for the night for a well-deserved rest. All of their issues were finally over