Author's note: I realize that Subaru would be significantly older than the age I've given him if he were to enter the current True Blood world (he's already 25 when X/1999 begins, after all), but something dies in me when I think of him growing old. Forgive a fan's affection if you will, readers.
T E N D E R B E A S T S
1. ヘイヘイ答えて、誰かいませんか？ ~ SPYAIR, サムライハート
It was like Tokyo in midsummer. Worse, in fact. A cloying, heavy heat that permeated walls and laughed at electric fans, the kind that his grandmother's sprawling residence stubbornly favoured over the blessed chill of air conditioning.
Tokyo was a million miles away. Far away, underwater, reduced to rubble and wire, neon static overload flooding the corneas of thousands all night – everything and nothing. For he was here and Tokyo, along with every sharpened memory it held, was not.
Was it cruel fate that had named this swampy, overheated outstation Bon Temps or merely some historical figure's wry sense of irony? Subaru wondered, idly toying with the fabric of his left glove. It made no sense to don gloves in such humidity, but old habits die hard, and for all his still-youthful face and years belied, Subaru was fast becoming a creature of habit.
Ofuda. Gloves. Stare.
He had holed himself up, for the time being, in the cheapest motel in town, the kind frequented by humans, vampires and their lovers, also human and vampire alike, interchangeable and disposable every night. A roulette wheel of twisting, interlocking bodies given over to the night, the void, oblivion.
Subaru was never one for gambling.
After The Loss and the Saving Of The World, the latter of which was only relevant and known to those who had actually fought for it, Subaru had spent years he hadn't bothered counting living from job to job, taking every request that came, not for need of money (The Loss had seen to that in characteristically lavish fashion) but for need of mental occupation to stop himself doing the sensible thing and taking a gun to his head. It had taken a mere two days after the phone call to pack a minimal suitcase, notify all those legally concerned of his temporary absence and leave Japan. There had been the initial backlash of concern and stunted contact beforehand. The Kishu girl had sent a New Year's greeting card, elegantly written in minimal prose, a surprising arrival after her sudden departure from Tokyo. Aoki-san had sent a flood of well-meaning invitations to dinner, lunch, et cetera. Subaru had thanked him in his usual monotone and sent his regards to his wife and daughter in refusal. Monou Fuuma could not look him in the face on the rare, unlooked-for occasion that they crossed paths downtown. Subaru cared little.
An international matter, his first, excluding a brief exorcism at the American Embassy in Chiyoda-ku, but that at least had given him cause to exercise his English. Obaasan had been exceptionally thorough in his and Hokuto's education. Languages were crucial, and while he now struggled (albeit half-heartedly) to conjure forth once-routine responses in Hangul, English had settled in his brain and was there to stay. Fortunate, given that for the immediate future he would be speaking little else.
Hokuto had taken to Hangul as she had taken to every single Technicolor drama Korea put forth. He had recorded them, burnt copies of the most recent series he had thought she would appreciate, labeled all correctly and ranked them in order of those she would want to devour first, before reminding himself for the seven hundred and seventy-seventh time that she was still dead.
Vampires. Witches. Werewolves. An almost-genocide. A televised murder. A 2000 year old immortal lunatic on the loose. America certainly did do everything bigger.
He had introduced himself to the Mississippi King the previous night. Etiquette, and the fact that he would need some inside contact for information on the matter demanded it. A pale man with a stern, aristocratic face (Subaru knew breeding when he saw it), a courtly slant to his Southern drawl and an half-hidden look in his eyes that Subaru knew for the same one he had worn all through his teens and beyond. I have lost something that cannot be replaced, it said. There were armed guards throughout the impressive plantation house. One look at William Compton told Subaru the vampire was more lethal than his entire troop of would-be bodyguards could ever prove.
"You'll be staying in Bon Temps a while, Mr. Sumeragi?"
"Until my business is completed"
The King rose from behind his desk, moving to lean against its front.
"I must tell you that Bon Temps, its humans and vampires alike have had enough of newcomers in town. We do not mix well with the weres and they likewise with us. There is half-truce of sorts between some individuals, but largely we stand at odds. As for the humans, well", an elegant half-shrug, "they've seen enough, I fear".
Subaru reflected with a similar lifting of shoulders.
"I did not come here expecting friends, your Highness"
"Bill", the vampire intoned with the barest ghost of a smile.
"Subaru"
"How old are you, Subaru?" A casual slump to sit on the edge of the desk, hands clasped, legs relaxed.
"Twenty eight" An almost lie. He would be 29 in a few hours, but an onmyouji's age was not something to be thrown about in idle conversation.
"Ah", the vampire's countenance was crossed with something Subaru belatedly recognized as wistfulness and twitched in response, "you don't look it"
"So I've been told"
A silence dropped from ceiling to plush carpet. Bill eyed the young man with one good eye and one – unnerving – with a serious look. This slender human with gloved hands and a face as pretty as a porcelain doll's for all its emotionless passivity was very powerful, every intuitive vampiric trait in his body told him as much. The scent of his blood alone would kickstart brainwaves in any vampire's head, no matter how long dead to the world. Heady, exhilarating, generations-old and decades-honed power pulsed, no – roared silently through that deceptive frame. He was also wounded, Bill reflected, but that was the dead human in him talking. He wondered how long it would be before Sookie took him in. She was always one to show kindness to lone strays. But Sookie was no longer his, and time, as Bill had had nearly two centuries to learn, was an ineffective healer.
"Merlotte's is a good place to start. The owner is one of the two-natured and will probably spare you a moment if you don't start a riot. I would offer you rooms here, there are more than enough", a wry grin opened the vampire's mouth, "if I thought you would take them. Then again, I can control myself but Jessica" something like paternal affection flickered in the stony gaze, "my progeny, may find the scent of your blood too much of a temptation"
"Thank you for the advice" Subaru turned to leave with a customary nod.
"Mr. Sumeragi?"
Subaru looked over his shoulder, his hand on the doorknob.
"Welcome to Mississippi"
There were worse ways to pass an oppressive summer evening in a strange place, Subaru paused. The vampire- Bill's company was not repellent. He had been a pleasant, if reserved host. Dinner, (for Bill as expected took nothing but sipped quietly from a glass dark with what Subaru hoped was True Blood) had been a pleasant surprise. Evidently the King saw fit to keep a competent human chef in his house for non-fanged guests. The redhead vampire with wide eyes and a hungry mouth had started like an awkward teenager coming through the door as he made his way out – the aforementioned Jessica, no doubt – but had surprised him with a muffled 'hello' before heading up the stairs. Subaru thought he heard strains of that genre they called country from her earphones.
Sam Merlotte, on the other hand, was suspicious and on guard from the moment he knew Subaru had stepped inside the husky interior of the eponymous bar. Another redhead, older, still flaunting herself in a too-small uniform theatrically stifled an "Oh Lordy may", clutched her menu to her chest on seeing him before scuttling towards the steam billowing racket that screamed kitchen.
Subaru took the only empty booth after a crew of plaid shirted shoulders eyeballed him grimly from the bar stools.
"Stare back, Subaru"
Uncomfortable, nervous, verging on twitchy, Subaru clasped and unclasped gloved hands. He wished for the hundredth time that morning that Hokuto would make clothes less – noticeable. Subaru sought refuge in anything – the maps above the doors, the swaying handgrips, the carriage floor. Today's creation would have been ineffectual had his sister drawn the line at a tailored shirt and trousers. But the trousers would be military, high-waisted to cinch his already waspish midriff and the accompanying jacket would be lacking any buttons or zips, forest green suede short in the back but at the front waterfalling asymmetrically from exposed collar bone to thigh, sleeves ruched tight around his arms but halting short of his pale wrists and Kami-sama help me but if the three high school girls, two suited women with cellphones and hungover salarymen don't stop staring at me like that I will run screaming off this train oh help me what if they take a photo?
"Stare back" A proprietary hand slipped round Subaru's waist, so warm and firm he practically jumped out of Hokuto's creation. Long fingers splayed teasingly one by one over a sharp hipbone.
"I guarantee they will stop if you do"
"…Seishirou-san"
Subaru could only manage a whisper. The older man's imposing frame pressed lightly against his back, a sharp jawline threatened to nuzzle at his temple and – Kami-sama forgive me I don't know what I feel – that voice, dark and amused resonated to the pit of his belly like how he imagined warm sake would imbibed quickly in one gulp.
"Your beauty mesmerizes them, Subaru. As it does me"
Subaru lifted unseeing pupils.
The women's eyes widened and they along with the students hid flushed faces in flickering hands. The men coughed awkwardly and turned away. Subaru noticed in a daze that he was arching his neck to murmuring lips, felt scarlet colour his cheeks, sweat prick his covered palms. Oh what is this, this hot something, I - We are on the rush hour train.
"Seishirou-san…we-"
"Welcome to Merlotte's, can I take your order?"
Subaru removed his clenched fist from enclosing palm and spread his fingers out over the freshly wiped table. The waitress was petite, blonde-haired and…chirpy. Then Subaru felt the wave of magic threaded around her ponytailed head like a flower garland and tipping her fingers like a golden manicure.
"Just water, thank you. But I would like to speak to your manager, if possible"
Clear eyes blinked in surprise before their owner collected herself.
"Sam? He's in the back doing accounts right now; I don't think he'll be too pleased to be interrupted. But-" here she fixed him with a peculiar, knowing stare. Only for a millisecond, but Subaru felt the gentle tapping on his mental defences and lifted his mismatched gaze to hers, catching her name badge on the way up. Sookie. Like Suki? Hokuto laughed in his head. A perfect name for a cute girl, ne?
I wouldn't mind the intrusion if you asked first.
Sookie gasped, nearly dropping her notepad in the process. Whipping her head round to check she hadn't attracted undue attention, she leant forward slightly, her head at a confidential angle.
"I'm sorry - If I'd known, I – well. I'm sorry", she repeated. "Are you also-"
Subaru lifted a hand to stop her.
"No, I'm not one of-", and stopped to find the right English, "Fairy blood as you might call it, but I can feel you trying to get into my head"
"Well, I am sorry. Most folks can't tell when I listen in and when I saw you I wasn't sure if you were a vamp or a werewolf, or something else I don't know we have in this town that's out of a fairytale or Greek myth or something. I just wanted to check"
Subaru nodded in acceptance of her apology.
"In that case I…" Subaru glanced at the menu. It had been a while since he'd last eaten, last night's dinner the only meal he'd had in two days, and it was America, so…he frowned at the memory of his grandmother lecturing him on the evils of eating meat before a job. He hadn't contacted her in months. For her part, she seemed to have given up on him too. Having a grandson who exorcises the dead is one thing. A grandson who also kills people and more supernatural beings for a living was apparently quite another.
" - will have the water, with the best burger you have, please"
The girl beamed, her ponytail practically bouncing as she wrote his order briskly on the small notepad.
"Coming right up"
Subaru ran through his mental checklist. Find place to stay. Introduce self to Vampire King. Introduce self to local (non-human) sheriff. Glean most recent information on Russell Edgington. Restore balance in recently magic-swamped, disarrayed Bon Temps, possibly assist in truce between local supernatural population if necessary. Find out who freed Russell Edgington. Dispatch those responsible along with said Russell Edgington. In case of death, my entire estate to go to -
Subaru frowned again. He'd skipped an item. As a smiling Sookie brought him a mouthwateringly hot burger decorated with requisite salad and fries, Subaru wondered if Sheriff Northman would appreciate another kind of lawman presiding on his turf. He opened his mouth and took a bite.