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heroescutiesTitle: Naturally Unnatural
Fandom: Axis Powers Hetalia
Genre: Supernatural/Romance
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairing: Greece/Japan
Word Count: 4,023
Summary: AU. The city has two supernatural residents that are really not as unnatural as you might think. Werewolf!Greece/Vampire!Japan
Notes: For![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rose_fortress as part of the ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
giripan Secret Santa exchange.
By Kiku’s standards, he was fairly ordinary. Painfully ordinary, perhaps. All right, so there was the small matter that he’d been bitten by a vampire in bat form when younger and now, not that he approved of such habits at all, he found that he had a certain craving at times for blood.
But really, being a vampire wasn’t as bad as people made it out to be. He didn’t avoid sunlight because it would scorch his skin or make him disintegrate, Kiku just honestly didn’t get out much. To say he was a recluse would be an understatement. In fact, day or night, he really didn’t go out unless he had groceries to buy.
And speaking of his eating habits, Kiku thought it would be terribly impolite to suck someone’s blood. He’d tried many times, facing his mirror, to practice asking, “I’m sorry for the imposition, but I’m a vampire and I’m really quite hungry, so if it wouldn’t trouble you could I perchance drink some of your blood?” But he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. Instead he got the freshest, juiciest meat from the local butcher and sucked each piece dry before tossing out the remains.
The garlic and cross issues were just matters of no one asking him about them. He didn’t like garlic, much preferring salt for flavoring on his raw meat. And as for the crosses? Well, he felt awfully bad trying to explain to those of the Christian faith that he didn’t believe the same as them and practiced Shinto instead.
Kiku felt his life, although strange, was a complete one. He wasn’t lacking much of anything he really wanted, except…well, there were those late nights and restless days when he would like someone to talk to. In fact, if asked what was bad about being a vampire, Kiku would probably cite that as the only problem.
He was, not surprisingly, terribly lonely.
---------------------------------------
Heracles was getting really tired of being kicked out of every place he lived due to property damage by a dog. First of all, he didn’t own a dog (not that it ever seemed to matter) and secondly, if he did have a pet, it would be a cat and cats never tore chunks that big out of a wall.
Granted, it would be terribly difficult to explain to his landlady that it was him that did that to the wall, because people tended to not really believe much in his kind anymore. Some reading after he first showed the signs of lycanthropy seemed to point to the fact that he’d picked the wrong plant one day and dozed with wolfsbane resting on his chest. Very pretty flower, very potent effects. But now he found that he was unable to keep an apartment intact for a full month, the moon’s cycle always managing to bring out the worst in him and therefore put the place in shambles.
As for other adverse side effects, Heracles wasn’t really fazed by much of it. Sure, it was a bummer to constantly have to move, but it didn’t bother him much. It wasn’t as if he could amass much in the way of belongings without them sooner or later ending up with teeth marks in them. And being as he was already painfully allergic to silver, it’s not like a silver bullet wouldn’t already hurt him. The extra strength was a nice bonus, and he seemed to nap through a good part of his transformations so the damage was pretty minimal considering. All in all, there was only one big problem for him with being a werewolf.
Namely, that cats were deathly afraid of him.
When he first realized that he could no longer dote on all the stray cats in the city, it practically broke his heart. The felines could sense the wolf in him and always went running. So Heracles would leave out scraps of food for them and reluctantly walk away so the cats could enjoy it in peace without his wolfish nature startling them.
He was sure there was probably some cure for it, maybe not for his werewolf state completely, but at least enough of a cure that the cats could befriend him again. So when he wasn’t moving from one apartment to the next, Heracles could usually be found in the library looking through old tomes on werewolf lore and napping amidst their dust.
It was there, if he hadn't been napping or so intent on reading something, that he might have first caught sight of the other local supernatural resident. Kiku, who was fearful that his butcher was beginning to suspect something odd about him, had ventured out to the library for the first time in what seemed like forever.
He searched the shelves until he found himself very near where Heracles was, seeking out other things he might eat to appease his unique appetite. A kindly librarian had offered to aid him and he almost tripped up, asking her where cookbooks were before realizing that he was seeking books on vampires to use as cookbooks.
He'd thanked her for the help, apologizing for troubling her, before retreating into the shelves and pretending to look at the nearest book intently. Behind him, Heracles snored into the very book that might have caught Kiku's eye, The Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves and other Monsters. It was almost silly to think that here they were, the oddest pair of residents the city could ask for, mere inches from one another without anyone batting an eye.
Kiku found some books on vampires, not thinking much of the other spacious gaps in the row that Heracles’ selections had left, then hastily grabbed up some cookbooks as to not make anyone suspicious. With a few mumbled words, he checked them out and hurried on home.
Back in the library, Heracles woke up with a start. He’d felt a strange presence and his groggy-state had just now recognized it. Glancing over his shoulder to where Kiku had just been standing, he squinted. Something or someone special had just been there; something that set his hair, some of it even bristling with more fur-like qualities, on end. It was the first and only time since he’d developed his condition that Heracles felt like he might be in danger.
There was a threat to him in this city, yet if it had just been there it had chosen not to attack him. Heracles furrowed his brow and shrugged it away. Perhaps it had been some remnant of a daydream or he was just getting hungry. But despite his attempts to shake the feeling, a bit of it lingered about him. That little voice in the back of his mind going, "Who are you?" over and over as if the source would suddenly reappear and introduce itself.
Looking at the time, Heracles decided that just to ease his nerves, he’d come to the library that time every day until he either found the source of this or convinced himself it was nothing.
And with that, he gathered up his things and left. The moon was just about in the right stage for him to be feeling a little more off than usual and the last thing he wanted to risk was being around anyone when that happened.
-----------------------------------------
If the people of the town had been looking for them, perhaps they would have noticed their two supernatural residents, being as both of them were not exactly as unnoticeable as they might try to be.
Orders for extremely rare meats and purchases of nothing but meats at the grocery weren’t exactly normal, but when there was a guy down by the subway that had a flea circus that he claimed knew how to rap, a little rare meat here and there wasn’t that un-normal.
It was only a few days after Kiku’s trip to the library when he thought that perhaps he might have blown his cover for good. He’d traveled to another butcher’s shop in hopes that he could switch up who he ordered what from and no one would be the wiser as to his vampiric ways. But as he crossed the street home, he noticed a small cat dart out in front of an oncoming car.
He rushed out in front of the car, with unnaturally quick and nimble moves, and held up a hand to try and stop the car from hitting the small animal. If he hadn’t been so shaken and concerned, he might have noticed that another quick blur had dashed out in front of the car at the same time he did.
“Come on kitty, you need to move.”
Kiku saw the cat rush off and he looked up to notice people staring, so he ran without looking back. If he had looked back he might have noticed the tall brown-haired man following him; the same man, in fact, that had helped him stop the car.
Later when the driver of the car noticed the large dent in his front hood, he wondered if perhaps a higher power was punishing him for not stopping for the cat. As for the idea that the two strangers who had run out made the dent, it never once occurred to him.
Kiku took a turn into the nearby park, still feeling as if he was being followed, and quickly scaled up a tree to sit and wait. Below him, he saw a man with wavy brown hair approach and come to a halt below the tree. A chill ran down his spine at that, suddenly feeling that he was in imminent danger.
But the stranger, whoever he was, took one look up at the moon rising in the evening sky and quickly ran off. Perhaps, too quickly to be normal human speed.
And so Kiku, shaken and now very hungry, hurried home and sunk his teeth almost immediately into the just-purchased meat he’d been carrying under his arm.
-------------------------------------
The thing about a werewolf’s sense of smell is that once it caught whiff of something, it remembered it. Even if Heracles was currently in a state in which he could barely remember himself, he remembered the smell. The smell of the stranger who smelled of blood and whose speed rivaled his own.
Had he been more man and less-wolf, perhaps Heracles would have connected the two times he’d felt the bristling hairs and realized that this man he’d met today must have been the same presence from the library. But as it was, Heracles the wolf was content to track this scent that was currently registering two things in his wolfy brain: this is my territory and I must eliminate the threat.
And so, the large wolf tracked the scent. He picked it up first in the park, right by the tree, and then followed it through the dimming lights of town.
Kiku, who was settling down for the evening, started when he heard the loud scratching against his backdoor; but it was the sudden and overwhelming feeling that he was being hunted that made him grab for his katana off its display rack.
Standing there in his bare feet with his katana drawn, he shouted out as bravely as he could. “Who’s there? I’m sorry, but I’ll have to call the police if you do not remove yourself from this private property.”
At the sound of his voice, the intruder seemed incensed, barreling full strength into the door and shaking the doorframe. Kiku held his stance. Clearly, it was as he had feared. Someone had realized him for what he was and come to kill him.
He stepped back just in time to avoid the door as it shattered in, and he held his katana aloft hoping that he could stave off the oncoming attack. But all it was to him was a blur of brown fur and snarling teeth as he was knocked backwards onto the floor.
The first thing Kiku registered once the shock wore off is that he smelled blood, strongly, and he felt himself grow weak just at the smell. He pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to shake it off, because he could sense that the intruder was still in his home. Unsteadily getting to his feet, he noticed the splatter of blood dripping from where he stood to the corner to his left.
There a pair of golden eyes met with his and he felt himself grow still. It was a large dog, no…it was too big to be a dog, with piercing golden eyes and wavy brown fur.
Wavy like…
Kiku gasped quietly. “Are you that man that followed me earlier today?”
He thought it was crazy to think it, but then again, he was a vampire, so it couldn’t be that crazy.
Something about the mention of the man softened the creature’s eyes, and Kiku swore he saw it nod. But that would be impossible, there’s no way a wolf could nod in understanding, unless it wasn’t just a wolf.
“I’m sorry for supposing this, but you do seem rather familiar and well, obviously we’re both a bit far from normal so…are you a werewolf?”
Once again, the wolf nodded.
At that, Kiku sat down the katana and quickly glanced over the animal’s body, looking for where it was injured. He saw the pool of blood around the wolf’s front paw and he trembled, using all his strength not to rush forward. It would be terribly improper of him to drink the creature’s blood when he was injured, after all.
“I’m very sorry for causing you injury, I never expected you to jump at me. If you would please show me the place where I accidentally cut you I will bandage it up. I can promise I will bring you no harm.”
It took a moment, but slowly the wolf held up one front paw where a small slash across the pad there was visible. Kiku nodded, silently wishing he didn’t feel so lightheaded, and quickly went to fetch some bandages.
-------------------------------------
Kiku had barely managed to finish the bandages before the overpowering smell of blood caused him to faint. Being as he lived alone and generally avoided any blood when it wasn’t mealtime, Kiku had never felt so overcome by his vampire nature before and in his inner battle to not harm the creature, he’d simply fainted.
He started awake when he felt the damp slobber of a wolf’s tongue lolling against his cheek.
“Oh! I’m terribly sorry, I’m not sure what came over me,” Kiku managed as he sat up to a lap full of werewolf.
The wolf, who seemed to be much friendlier now, nuzzled against his side after giving him a worried look.
“I’ll be fine, I promise, I just…probably need to eat something.”
The wolf nodded at this, moved off Kiku’s lap and sniffed the air, before wandering off in the direction of the kitchen. Before Kiku could follow, the werewolf returned with a bag of meat from the refrigerator.
“Thank you, that was really unnecessary. I could have…” but as he tried to stand, once again wobbling on his feet, Kiku realized that he really couldn’t stand up right now.
He unwrapped a juicy raw piece of meat and sunk his fangs in, color returning as much as it ever did to his pale skin. The wolf looked on eagerly as Kiku held out the drained steak and he offered it out.
“Would you like this?”
The wolf wagged its tail and Kiku felt a smile creep onto its face. Perhaps the wolf felt the same as him? That if there was another supernatural creature in the area that it really was in their best interest to stick together.
“Here you go then,” Kiku replied, tossing it to the wolf who happily gobbled it up.
Their appetites both sated, Kiku pulled out an extra futon for the animal and laid out a few blankets.
“I would appreciate it if you don’t kill me in my sleep, Mr. Werewolf.”
The wolf gave him a look.
“Sorry. It’s just, well you can never be too careful when you’re a vampire, you know?”
He walked over and gave Kiku a nuzzle and a slobbery kiss on the cheek before he walked around in circles over the futon and plopped down amidst the blankets. Kiku felt a smile tug at his lips. It would be nice to have a friend around…
--------------------------
Heracles immediately knew he wasn’t in his bed, which while commonplace on the morning after a full moon, still unnerved him terribly. Then, as his groggy eyes adjusted and his body started to register its human limbs again, Heracles froze.
In his arms was a sleeping man, no…he wasn’t just a man. This was the same presence from the library, the same man that had stopped the car, and he was…asleep in his arms.
It was always difficult to remember what went on after his werewolf nights, but this morning Heracles found that his memory was more lucid than usual. He remembered breaking down a door, he remembered this man and he remembered being offered a steak.
As to how he ended up holding the man, that was still a mystery to him. But after quickly glancing around the room, he noticed a rumpled futon to his side and surmised that he’d rolled in his sleep once he’d turned human again and sought out the nearest source of warmth, which was the other man.
He was just about to slowly back away when Kiku’s eyes opened and quickly darted over to Heracles.
“Sorry, I’ll just…”
Heracles never got to finish, because Kiku let out a small eep and quickly shielded his eyes.
“I’m so sorry, it never occurred to me that you’d need clothing in the morning and I’m terribly impolite for not leaving some out for you. I promise, I didn’t see much, I swear!”
A lazy smile crept onto Heracles’s face. He’d just met the vampire that he’d been trying to find and he already liked him.
“It’s all right,” he mumbled. “It’s not your fault.”
He pulled away and wrapped a blanket around him into a rudimentary toga. Then, because Kiku still had his hands clamped over his eyes, he sat back down and gave his arm a tug.
“I’m wearing something now, um…” He paused. “Sorry, I don’t know your name. I’m Heracles, and as you’ve probably guessed by now, I’m a werewolf.”
Kiku slowly removed his hands, his cheeks still far redder than they’d ever been before, and he gave the other man a nod. “Kiku Honda, vampire.”
Simultaneously, they both blurted out, “I’m sorry about attacking you last night.”
Heracles smiled and Kiku stifled a laugh behind his hand.
“We’re quite the pair, aren’t we?” He said, finding it oddly exciting to talk about his condition so openly.
“Yep,” Heracles replied. He noticed belatedly that the bandage that had been on his former paw was starting to come loose. “Oh, could you show me where the bandages are? I don’t want you to faint again, so I can take care of it myself.”
Kiku nodded and quickly got up to retrieve the first aid kit.
Heracles frowned. How had he known Kiku had fainted the night before? It was if somehow, he had been a little more human last night than he usually was.
“Kiku? Did you notice anything strange about me last night?”
Kiku gave him a look, then politely stated, “You mean, outside you being a werewolf, I assume?”
Heracles chuckled. “Yes. It’s just, I usually can’t control myself very well when I’m like that and do a lot of damage, but…” He looked around at the untarnished room. “It seems like something stopped me last night.”
Thinking back to the incident, Kiku pursed his lips in thought. “You did seem to calm down once I asked you if you were the man that had been following me. That’s all I know. I’m very sorry if that doesn’t help.”
Finishing off with the new bandage on his hand, Heracles glanced up and looked at the vampire. Something about that must have kept him calmer. He had read before that being reminded of one’s human self could keep the wolf more at bay, but he’d never had anyone around to do such a thing.
He was just about to comment on it when a cat padded into the room and casually curled up next to him. Heracles blinked. He’d never, ever since he’d been turned, been approached by a cat in such a friendly manner. Was it that the animal was used to living with a supernatural presence or was there something else?
Heracles sniffed the air, a new scent tickling his nose. “What’s that smell, it’s pretty strong?”
Kiku blinked, then looked across the room to where Heracles glaze had landed. There, amongst a collection of various odds and ends, was his incense burner.
“Is it bothering you? I can put it out if it is. I just never have guests so; I generally don’t worry about burning strong incense in my home.”
He began to get up, but Heracles grabbed his hand and stopped him.
“I think it’s cured me.”
Kiku blinked. “But you were a werewolf last night...”
Heracles shook his head, a smile growing by the second on his face. “No. The cat isn’t scared of me. I’ve been trying for a very long time to find out how to tell them I’m not bad.”
Kiku smiled softly at that, finding that he was growing to like this werewolf more and more by the moment. “It brings me peace, so perhaps it does so for you as well.”
They registered, moments later after just quietly enjoying the peaceful scent, that Heracles still held Kiku’s hand.
Kiku started to pull away, but Heracles wouldn’t relent. He’d found a cure and someone who could keep him saner when he was transformed all in the same morning.
“Can I move in?”
It took a few moments of Kiku’s shocked apologies and excuses (you wouldn’t want to live with me, I’m terribly boring. And what if you get bloody somehow and I hurt you? I can’t put you in that kind of danger) but Heracles didn’t care.
“I’ll take the risk then. You shouldn’t be lonely, you know,” he replied simply and Kiku found he couldn’t really argue that.
-------------------------------
It might seem odd to the residents of the city to know that a werewolf and a vampire lived right down the street from them. It would probably shock them even more to find out that the two were not only roommates, but that their relationship had grown from fondness to love rather quickly.
Sure, Kiku had to be terribly careful when Heracles kissed him for his fangs tended to draw at least a little blood. But if he tried to apologize too much, Heracles would just kiss him again and mumble a quiet “it’s okay.”
They’d acquired quite a lot of cats, mostly strays or adoptions that they’d taken in, which all didn’t seem to be fazed in the least by Heracles as long as Kiku had incense burning somewhere in the house. The incense also seemed to keep Heracles calmer during full moons, which he now mostly spent snoozing curled up with cats. And as for their eating arrangements, Kiku would suck a piece of meat dry before giving it over to Heracles who would cook it up for a very rare steak to eat.
Werewolf and vampire, forward and reserved; somehow they fit, despite their differences.
And when they had to move to another town before someone questioned how they both aged so well, they did so together. After years of loneliness and being in a world that wouldn’t understand, Kiku and Heracles found themselves in a relationship with someone who could understand and then some.
Neither of them had ever been happier and they were more than glad to live out the rest of their immortal days hand in hand.
Fandom: Axis Powers Hetalia
Genre: Supernatural/Romance
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairing: Greece/Japan
Word Count: 4,023
Summary: AU. The city has two supernatural residents that are really not as unnatural as you might think. Werewolf!Greece/Vampire!Japan
Notes: For
rose_fortress as part of the giripan Secret Santa exchange.By Kiku’s standards, he was fairly ordinary. Painfully ordinary, perhaps. All right, so there was the small matter that he’d been bitten by a vampire in bat form when younger and now, not that he approved of such habits at all, he found that he had a certain craving at times for blood.
But really, being a vampire wasn’t as bad as people made it out to be. He didn’t avoid sunlight because it would scorch his skin or make him disintegrate, Kiku just honestly didn’t get out much. To say he was a recluse would be an understatement. In fact, day or night, he really didn’t go out unless he had groceries to buy.
And speaking of his eating habits, Kiku thought it would be terribly impolite to suck someone’s blood. He’d tried many times, facing his mirror, to practice asking, “I’m sorry for the imposition, but I’m a vampire and I’m really quite hungry, so if it wouldn’t trouble you could I perchance drink some of your blood?” But he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. Instead he got the freshest, juiciest meat from the local butcher and sucked each piece dry before tossing out the remains.
The garlic and cross issues were just matters of no one asking him about them. He didn’t like garlic, much preferring salt for flavoring on his raw meat. And as for the crosses? Well, he felt awfully bad trying to explain to those of the Christian faith that he didn’t believe the same as them and practiced Shinto instead.
Kiku felt his life, although strange, was a complete one. He wasn’t lacking much of anything he really wanted, except…well, there were those late nights and restless days when he would like someone to talk to. In fact, if asked what was bad about being a vampire, Kiku would probably cite that as the only problem.
He was, not surprisingly, terribly lonely.
---------------------------------------
Heracles was getting really tired of being kicked out of every place he lived due to property damage by a dog. First of all, he didn’t own a dog (not that it ever seemed to matter) and secondly, if he did have a pet, it would be a cat and cats never tore chunks that big out of a wall.
Granted, it would be terribly difficult to explain to his landlady that it was him that did that to the wall, because people tended to not really believe much in his kind anymore. Some reading after he first showed the signs of lycanthropy seemed to point to the fact that he’d picked the wrong plant one day and dozed with wolfsbane resting on his chest. Very pretty flower, very potent effects. But now he found that he was unable to keep an apartment intact for a full month, the moon’s cycle always managing to bring out the worst in him and therefore put the place in shambles.
As for other adverse side effects, Heracles wasn’t really fazed by much of it. Sure, it was a bummer to constantly have to move, but it didn’t bother him much. It wasn’t as if he could amass much in the way of belongings without them sooner or later ending up with teeth marks in them. And being as he was already painfully allergic to silver, it’s not like a silver bullet wouldn’t already hurt him. The extra strength was a nice bonus, and he seemed to nap through a good part of his transformations so the damage was pretty minimal considering. All in all, there was only one big problem for him with being a werewolf.
Namely, that cats were deathly afraid of him.
When he first realized that he could no longer dote on all the stray cats in the city, it practically broke his heart. The felines could sense the wolf in him and always went running. So Heracles would leave out scraps of food for them and reluctantly walk away so the cats could enjoy it in peace without his wolfish nature startling them.
He was sure there was probably some cure for it, maybe not for his werewolf state completely, but at least enough of a cure that the cats could befriend him again. So when he wasn’t moving from one apartment to the next, Heracles could usually be found in the library looking through old tomes on werewolf lore and napping amidst their dust.
It was there, if he hadn't been napping or so intent on reading something, that he might have first caught sight of the other local supernatural resident. Kiku, who was fearful that his butcher was beginning to suspect something odd about him, had ventured out to the library for the first time in what seemed like forever.
He searched the shelves until he found himself very near where Heracles was, seeking out other things he might eat to appease his unique appetite. A kindly librarian had offered to aid him and he almost tripped up, asking her where cookbooks were before realizing that he was seeking books on vampires to use as cookbooks.
He'd thanked her for the help, apologizing for troubling her, before retreating into the shelves and pretending to look at the nearest book intently. Behind him, Heracles snored into the very book that might have caught Kiku's eye, The Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves and other Monsters. It was almost silly to think that here they were, the oddest pair of residents the city could ask for, mere inches from one another without anyone batting an eye.
Kiku found some books on vampires, not thinking much of the other spacious gaps in the row that Heracles’ selections had left, then hastily grabbed up some cookbooks as to not make anyone suspicious. With a few mumbled words, he checked them out and hurried on home.
Back in the library, Heracles woke up with a start. He’d felt a strange presence and his groggy-state had just now recognized it. Glancing over his shoulder to where Kiku had just been standing, he squinted. Something or someone special had just been there; something that set his hair, some of it even bristling with more fur-like qualities, on end. It was the first and only time since he’d developed his condition that Heracles felt like he might be in danger.
There was a threat to him in this city, yet if it had just been there it had chosen not to attack him. Heracles furrowed his brow and shrugged it away. Perhaps it had been some remnant of a daydream or he was just getting hungry. But despite his attempts to shake the feeling, a bit of it lingered about him. That little voice in the back of his mind going, "Who are you?" over and over as if the source would suddenly reappear and introduce itself.
Looking at the time, Heracles decided that just to ease his nerves, he’d come to the library that time every day until he either found the source of this or convinced himself it was nothing.
And with that, he gathered up his things and left. The moon was just about in the right stage for him to be feeling a little more off than usual and the last thing he wanted to risk was being around anyone when that happened.
-----------------------------------------
If the people of the town had been looking for them, perhaps they would have noticed their two supernatural residents, being as both of them were not exactly as unnoticeable as they might try to be.
Orders for extremely rare meats and purchases of nothing but meats at the grocery weren’t exactly normal, but when there was a guy down by the subway that had a flea circus that he claimed knew how to rap, a little rare meat here and there wasn’t that un-normal.
It was only a few days after Kiku’s trip to the library when he thought that perhaps he might have blown his cover for good. He’d traveled to another butcher’s shop in hopes that he could switch up who he ordered what from and no one would be the wiser as to his vampiric ways. But as he crossed the street home, he noticed a small cat dart out in front of an oncoming car.
He rushed out in front of the car, with unnaturally quick and nimble moves, and held up a hand to try and stop the car from hitting the small animal. If he hadn’t been so shaken and concerned, he might have noticed that another quick blur had dashed out in front of the car at the same time he did.
“Come on kitty, you need to move.”
Kiku saw the cat rush off and he looked up to notice people staring, so he ran without looking back. If he had looked back he might have noticed the tall brown-haired man following him; the same man, in fact, that had helped him stop the car.
Later when the driver of the car noticed the large dent in his front hood, he wondered if perhaps a higher power was punishing him for not stopping for the cat. As for the idea that the two strangers who had run out made the dent, it never once occurred to him.
Kiku took a turn into the nearby park, still feeling as if he was being followed, and quickly scaled up a tree to sit and wait. Below him, he saw a man with wavy brown hair approach and come to a halt below the tree. A chill ran down his spine at that, suddenly feeling that he was in imminent danger.
But the stranger, whoever he was, took one look up at the moon rising in the evening sky and quickly ran off. Perhaps, too quickly to be normal human speed.
And so Kiku, shaken and now very hungry, hurried home and sunk his teeth almost immediately into the just-purchased meat he’d been carrying under his arm.
-------------------------------------
The thing about a werewolf’s sense of smell is that once it caught whiff of something, it remembered it. Even if Heracles was currently in a state in which he could barely remember himself, he remembered the smell. The smell of the stranger who smelled of blood and whose speed rivaled his own.
Had he been more man and less-wolf, perhaps Heracles would have connected the two times he’d felt the bristling hairs and realized that this man he’d met today must have been the same presence from the library. But as it was, Heracles the wolf was content to track this scent that was currently registering two things in his wolfy brain: this is my territory and I must eliminate the threat.
And so, the large wolf tracked the scent. He picked it up first in the park, right by the tree, and then followed it through the dimming lights of town.
Kiku, who was settling down for the evening, started when he heard the loud scratching against his backdoor; but it was the sudden and overwhelming feeling that he was being hunted that made him grab for his katana off its display rack.
Standing there in his bare feet with his katana drawn, he shouted out as bravely as he could. “Who’s there? I’m sorry, but I’ll have to call the police if you do not remove yourself from this private property.”
At the sound of his voice, the intruder seemed incensed, barreling full strength into the door and shaking the doorframe. Kiku held his stance. Clearly, it was as he had feared. Someone had realized him for what he was and come to kill him.
He stepped back just in time to avoid the door as it shattered in, and he held his katana aloft hoping that he could stave off the oncoming attack. But all it was to him was a blur of brown fur and snarling teeth as he was knocked backwards onto the floor.
The first thing Kiku registered once the shock wore off is that he smelled blood, strongly, and he felt himself grow weak just at the smell. He pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to shake it off, because he could sense that the intruder was still in his home. Unsteadily getting to his feet, he noticed the splatter of blood dripping from where he stood to the corner to his left.
There a pair of golden eyes met with his and he felt himself grow still. It was a large dog, no…it was too big to be a dog, with piercing golden eyes and wavy brown fur.
Wavy like…
Kiku gasped quietly. “Are you that man that followed me earlier today?”
He thought it was crazy to think it, but then again, he was a vampire, so it couldn’t be that crazy.
Something about the mention of the man softened the creature’s eyes, and Kiku swore he saw it nod. But that would be impossible, there’s no way a wolf could nod in understanding, unless it wasn’t just a wolf.
“I’m sorry for supposing this, but you do seem rather familiar and well, obviously we’re both a bit far from normal so…are you a werewolf?”
Once again, the wolf nodded.
At that, Kiku sat down the katana and quickly glanced over the animal’s body, looking for where it was injured. He saw the pool of blood around the wolf’s front paw and he trembled, using all his strength not to rush forward. It would be terribly improper of him to drink the creature’s blood when he was injured, after all.
“I’m very sorry for causing you injury, I never expected you to jump at me. If you would please show me the place where I accidentally cut you I will bandage it up. I can promise I will bring you no harm.”
It took a moment, but slowly the wolf held up one front paw where a small slash across the pad there was visible. Kiku nodded, silently wishing he didn’t feel so lightheaded, and quickly went to fetch some bandages.
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Kiku had barely managed to finish the bandages before the overpowering smell of blood caused him to faint. Being as he lived alone and generally avoided any blood when it wasn’t mealtime, Kiku had never felt so overcome by his vampire nature before and in his inner battle to not harm the creature, he’d simply fainted.
He started awake when he felt the damp slobber of a wolf’s tongue lolling against his cheek.
“Oh! I’m terribly sorry, I’m not sure what came over me,” Kiku managed as he sat up to a lap full of werewolf.
The wolf, who seemed to be much friendlier now, nuzzled against his side after giving him a worried look.
“I’ll be fine, I promise, I just…probably need to eat something.”
The wolf nodded at this, moved off Kiku’s lap and sniffed the air, before wandering off in the direction of the kitchen. Before Kiku could follow, the werewolf returned with a bag of meat from the refrigerator.
“Thank you, that was really unnecessary. I could have…” but as he tried to stand, once again wobbling on his feet, Kiku realized that he really couldn’t stand up right now.
He unwrapped a juicy raw piece of meat and sunk his fangs in, color returning as much as it ever did to his pale skin. The wolf looked on eagerly as Kiku held out the drained steak and he offered it out.
“Would you like this?”
The wolf wagged its tail and Kiku felt a smile creep onto its face. Perhaps the wolf felt the same as him? That if there was another supernatural creature in the area that it really was in their best interest to stick together.
“Here you go then,” Kiku replied, tossing it to the wolf who happily gobbled it up.
Their appetites both sated, Kiku pulled out an extra futon for the animal and laid out a few blankets.
“I would appreciate it if you don’t kill me in my sleep, Mr. Werewolf.”
The wolf gave him a look.
“Sorry. It’s just, well you can never be too careful when you’re a vampire, you know?”
He walked over and gave Kiku a nuzzle and a slobbery kiss on the cheek before he walked around in circles over the futon and plopped down amidst the blankets. Kiku felt a smile tug at his lips. It would be nice to have a friend around…
--------------------------
Heracles immediately knew he wasn’t in his bed, which while commonplace on the morning after a full moon, still unnerved him terribly. Then, as his groggy eyes adjusted and his body started to register its human limbs again, Heracles froze.
In his arms was a sleeping man, no…he wasn’t just a man. This was the same presence from the library, the same man that had stopped the car, and he was…asleep in his arms.
It was always difficult to remember what went on after his werewolf nights, but this morning Heracles found that his memory was more lucid than usual. He remembered breaking down a door, he remembered this man and he remembered being offered a steak.
As to how he ended up holding the man, that was still a mystery to him. But after quickly glancing around the room, he noticed a rumpled futon to his side and surmised that he’d rolled in his sleep once he’d turned human again and sought out the nearest source of warmth, which was the other man.
He was just about to slowly back away when Kiku’s eyes opened and quickly darted over to Heracles.
“Sorry, I’ll just…”
Heracles never got to finish, because Kiku let out a small eep and quickly shielded his eyes.
“I’m so sorry, it never occurred to me that you’d need clothing in the morning and I’m terribly impolite for not leaving some out for you. I promise, I didn’t see much, I swear!”
A lazy smile crept onto Heracles’s face. He’d just met the vampire that he’d been trying to find and he already liked him.
“It’s all right,” he mumbled. “It’s not your fault.”
He pulled away and wrapped a blanket around him into a rudimentary toga. Then, because Kiku still had his hands clamped over his eyes, he sat back down and gave his arm a tug.
“I’m wearing something now, um…” He paused. “Sorry, I don’t know your name. I’m Heracles, and as you’ve probably guessed by now, I’m a werewolf.”
Kiku slowly removed his hands, his cheeks still far redder than they’d ever been before, and he gave the other man a nod. “Kiku Honda, vampire.”
Simultaneously, they both blurted out, “I’m sorry about attacking you last night.”
Heracles smiled and Kiku stifled a laugh behind his hand.
“We’re quite the pair, aren’t we?” He said, finding it oddly exciting to talk about his condition so openly.
“Yep,” Heracles replied. He noticed belatedly that the bandage that had been on his former paw was starting to come loose. “Oh, could you show me where the bandages are? I don’t want you to faint again, so I can take care of it myself.”
Kiku nodded and quickly got up to retrieve the first aid kit.
Heracles frowned. How had he known Kiku had fainted the night before? It was if somehow, he had been a little more human last night than he usually was.
“Kiku? Did you notice anything strange about me last night?”
Kiku gave him a look, then politely stated, “You mean, outside you being a werewolf, I assume?”
Heracles chuckled. “Yes. It’s just, I usually can’t control myself very well when I’m like that and do a lot of damage, but…” He looked around at the untarnished room. “It seems like something stopped me last night.”
Thinking back to the incident, Kiku pursed his lips in thought. “You did seem to calm down once I asked you if you were the man that had been following me. That’s all I know. I’m very sorry if that doesn’t help.”
Finishing off with the new bandage on his hand, Heracles glanced up and looked at the vampire. Something about that must have kept him calmer. He had read before that being reminded of one’s human self could keep the wolf more at bay, but he’d never had anyone around to do such a thing.
He was just about to comment on it when a cat padded into the room and casually curled up next to him. Heracles blinked. He’d never, ever since he’d been turned, been approached by a cat in such a friendly manner. Was it that the animal was used to living with a supernatural presence or was there something else?
Heracles sniffed the air, a new scent tickling his nose. “What’s that smell, it’s pretty strong?”
Kiku blinked, then looked across the room to where Heracles glaze had landed. There, amongst a collection of various odds and ends, was his incense burner.
“Is it bothering you? I can put it out if it is. I just never have guests so; I generally don’t worry about burning strong incense in my home.”
He began to get up, but Heracles grabbed his hand and stopped him.
“I think it’s cured me.”
Kiku blinked. “But you were a werewolf last night...”
Heracles shook his head, a smile growing by the second on his face. “No. The cat isn’t scared of me. I’ve been trying for a very long time to find out how to tell them I’m not bad.”
Kiku smiled softly at that, finding that he was growing to like this werewolf more and more by the moment. “It brings me peace, so perhaps it does so for you as well.”
They registered, moments later after just quietly enjoying the peaceful scent, that Heracles still held Kiku’s hand.
Kiku started to pull away, but Heracles wouldn’t relent. He’d found a cure and someone who could keep him saner when he was transformed all in the same morning.
“Can I move in?”
It took a few moments of Kiku’s shocked apologies and excuses (you wouldn’t want to live with me, I’m terribly boring. And what if you get bloody somehow and I hurt you? I can’t put you in that kind of danger) but Heracles didn’t care.
“I’ll take the risk then. You shouldn’t be lonely, you know,” he replied simply and Kiku found he couldn’t really argue that.
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It might seem odd to the residents of the city to know that a werewolf and a vampire lived right down the street from them. It would probably shock them even more to find out that the two were not only roommates, but that their relationship had grown from fondness to love rather quickly.
Sure, Kiku had to be terribly careful when Heracles kissed him for his fangs tended to draw at least a little blood. But if he tried to apologize too much, Heracles would just kiss him again and mumble a quiet “it’s okay.”
They’d acquired quite a lot of cats, mostly strays or adoptions that they’d taken in, which all didn’t seem to be fazed in the least by Heracles as long as Kiku had incense burning somewhere in the house. The incense also seemed to keep Heracles calmer during full moons, which he now mostly spent snoozing curled up with cats. And as for their eating arrangements, Kiku would suck a piece of meat dry before giving it over to Heracles who would cook it up for a very rare steak to eat.
Werewolf and vampire, forward and reserved; somehow they fit, despite their differences.
And when they had to move to another town before someone questioned how they both aged so well, they did so together. After years of loneliness and being in a world that wouldn’t understand, Kiku and Heracles found themselves in a relationship with someone who could understand and then some.
Neither of them had ever been happier and they were more than glad to live out the rest of their immortal days hand in hand.
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