Title: Relative Blood
Author: dem bones
Genres: Comedy/Hurt/Comfort
Pairing: OMC/OMC
Summary: Nikolai discovers his mother passed down a curse after she died and goes to the library to research a cure meeting Dimitri along the way. Can Dimitri help Nikolai find a cure?
Warnings: Very subtle slash.
Disclaimer: I do not own HP.
A/N: Written for Aqua Cahill for Hugs and Happiness challenge. The OC/Swap competition with character: Nikolai Vladimir with prompts: romance/drama and truth.
The shocking thing about life is that it often throws us curveballs when we least expect it. Nikolai Vladimir has dealt with rumours about his questionable relatives, the speculation that he was related to the famed Vampire Dracula, teased under the belief he was anything less than a wizard but the one thing he wasn't prepared for was the death of his mother.
Elizabeth Tőkés, a witch of a young age had told Nikolai on her death bed of a curse that had passed down from her family. Apparently her distant biological relatives were created by Dracula himself when vampires at the time couldn't drink blood from their human victims. Back then the only way for vampires to drink human blood was from human corpses. Humans with shorter life spans were created to fulfill this need.
All this time he had thought he had inherited all the good traits, he always liked his long brown hair and always loved the occasional spook whenever someone mistook him for a vampire. It was easy to do with his long protruding canines and red eyes but the revelation that his life span might be shortened because of his mother's curse?
At this revelation Nikolai wasn't just upset he was furious. How could his mother get in the way of his dream to rule the world?
In desperate need to come up with a cure for the curse, he went to a library to do some research. With genes working against him he had to find a way to fight the curse.
Dimitri Konstantinov, who happened to be Nikolai's best friend seemed to have similar intentions as he happened to drop by the library as well.
The thing is Dimitri had gone for a walk to keep his mind off of Nikolai who often dragged him from his own home to simply pester him and it was messing with his mind. He thought going to the library might keep his mind off of him.
Upon spotting Nikolai in the library it became apparent to him that the fate was messing with his mind.
"What are you doing here, Imbecile?" Dimitri asked.
Nikolai sighed, slumping against the open books scattered across the table.
"That stupid woman. I hate her."
"Who?"
Nikolai said nothing.
"It's your mother isn't it?"
Red eyes looked up at Dimitri. Nikolai's eyes watering as if...
"Don't you dare."
"What?" Nikolai snapped.
"Don't you dare...cry. If you so much as shed a tear I will pummel you."
Nikolai tensed.
"Cry? Are you implying that I'm a sissy?"
Dimitri's eyes widened, looking taken aback by the sound of Nikolai's grumbling voice.
"I heard about your mother and I thought..."
"I think I'll cope, Dimitri." Nikolai added smugly.
Dimitri slapped him across the face.
"Idiot."
"Ouch, that hurt. My cheeks will start to become oversensitive if you keep that up. That's only one slap, and I still have another one to look forward to."
At the sound of a scuffle the librarian approached them.
"Is there a problem, gentlemen?"
"None at all." Nikolai said.
The librarian wasn't paying him any mind however her eyes lingering on Dimitri.
Nikolai was baffled by her scrutiny of his best friend. He'd always thought of Dimitri as the person he could count on to remain single simply so he could brag about the new girl of the week, the lucky sap whose heart was stolen by him, the heart throb.
He turned to glance at Dimitri wondering what she found so attractive about him: short black hair, dark grey eyes and a pale complexion. Nikolai couldn't see anything that made Dimitri attractive.
Eyes that scrutinised him however seemed to only irritate Dimitri. Instead of focusing on the swooning female in front of him however he aimed his glare at Nikolai further hinting at the fact that he didn't approve of their staring.
"Excuse me don't you have somewhere you have to be? Someone's in the checkout line." Nikolai suggested to the woman who upon realising where she was, blushed before leaving their company.
Dimitri felt eyes on him coming from the left and found himself even more irritated at the scrutiny at the realisation that Nikolai was trying to goad him for a reaction.
"What?" He snapped.
The red eyes harshly gazed at him as if his glance had enough power to turn him into stone. It was unnerving.
"I don't see what she sees in you."
"Jealous that I'm the one dragging in the women this time."
"Nah, from the looks of it she's too old for me but if you like the cougars who am I to stop you."
Dimitri slapped him again.
"Should I continue along this train of thought?" Nikolai teased. "It seems to elicit a reaction."
"What are you doing in the library anyway?"
"I'm looking for a method to reverse my family curse. If I don't find a cure then my ambitions of world domination mean nothing. I do want my children to live a long and prosperous life after all."
Dimitri scoffed. It seemed Nikolai was praddling on about his dreams of world domination...again.
"You don't believe me do you?" He said. "What if I told you that the people who cursed my mother happened to be vampires."
"You're not referring to the desperate act of self-preservation that vampires used in the 1400s to shorten human life spans are you?"
"Yes."
Dimitri huffed.
"Perhaps then I'd finally get some peace."
"How can you be so cold? I thought we were friends." Nikolai said, feeling a bit hurt by Dimitri's statement. From the time that they met at that party, he had been trying to get the boy to warm up to him and he had thought they were doing so well. Could it be that during that time Nikolai had grown attached to Dimitri instead. The thought of never seeing him again was heart-wrenching.
"I said no such thing." Dimitri snapped.
"But you implied it." Nikolai replied with more confidence than he actually felt.
Dimitri scoffed before digging in the books and helping Nikolai with his research.
Digging through a good amount of books before the library closed, Nikolai had given up hope.
"There is nothing in these books. It's hopeless. When I get to heaven, Mum you better watch out. If you thought a shortened life span was torture think again."
Dimitri ignored his best friend's antics and decided to skim through one last book for the sake of stopping Nikolai's dramatic antics.
"Ah here it is."
"What? What is it?"
"The shortened life span of the humans cursed by the vampires was negated by Vlad the Impaler in 1455, who having experimented with mystical creatures' genetics found that vampire blood mixed with human blood provided lengthier lifespans to those humans created by vampires earlier in the century."
Dimitri looked over Nikolai, his lips contorting with a smile.
"Close enough."
"Very funny, Dimitri."
"Oh, I think it's very funny. Your father happens to be related to Dracula and that man happens to be a very famous vampire you know. Bram Stoker, happened to interview him in 1895 writing his story with a few twists and turns.
"Isn't Bram Stoker, the same man who was killed by Dracula."
"Yes." Nikolai replied irritably.
"That would explain his numerous strokes."
An irritable sigh came from Nikolai's direction as he glared at Dimitri.
"You owe me."
"For what?"
"Who said my life was meaningless? You didn't even give a crap that I'd be dead."
"Because I knew you wouldn't be, idiot."
"I think someone needs a kiss."
Dimitri's face contorted in incredulous disgust.
"Ew, get away from me."
He pushed at Nikolai whose lips were drawing closer to his own. It was futile.
Dimitri pushed at his hands, slipping through Nikolai's arms and proceeded outside the library not waiting for him to catch up.
Nikolai sighed. With his mother's death, he had been very upset and it was fickle trying to hide it but still he exerted the extra effort. Dimitri much to his shock and dismay had seen through it and even if he was unaware, he had also helped Nikolai cope through it.
'Thanks Dimitri.' He thought as he left the closed library looking at Dimitri as he walked away.