[Hey guys! Welcome to a new fic! In this AU, everyone (except for Hat Kid :3c) is a monster in a human city. Snatcher'a Vampire, Grooves is a Zombie, Conductor's a WereOwl, CC is a Witch, and Mu is a WereWolf.]

Snatcher had to feed eventually. He couldn't hide all day in the attic and let his need for blood go unchecked. But the people in the house he had planned to feed on….he had stupidly grown close to them. He saw them as family now. He couldn't feed on family. But he couldn't hide in the attic all day, either. They'd grow suspicious.

When the noise downstairs started to kick up, signifying they were awake. Sighing, and mentally bracing himself, he went downstairs.

Immediately he felt a heartbeat nearby. Spinning around, he saw Grooves walk by. "Morning darling."

Snatcher could feel the other man's slow heartbeat, and hear the blood rushing in his veins. "...likewise." He let the man walk by, wincing as his stomach loudly growled at him. He dug his sharp talons into his arms to control himself. He couldn't just bite him here, in the house!

But he was so hungry.

Steeling his nerves once again, he made his way to the dining room. He saw Conductor sitting at the table. Snatcher could smell the booze in his blood and it made him sick. "Laddie ye look terrible."

"So do you, old man." he snapped, making his way to the coffee pot. It'd do nothing for the agonizing emptiness in his organs, but it kept him awake.

"Morning sweetie!" Cookie sang from the kitchen. Her blood smelled like sugar and had to bite his tongue. "Want some breakfast?"

"Not today, miss. I'm busy working on a project upstairs." Working on finding a meal, that was.

"Morning Snatcher!" the little voice made him jump. Out of all the people in the house, Snatcher was most attached to the Cookie's little niece, Hat Kid.

Her blood was still young, and very tantalizing. But he promised himself he would never, ever bite a child.

Hat Kid hugged his leg, as he was much taller than her. He ruffled her hair. "Hey, kiddo. What are you doing today? School?"

"It's Sunday!"

"Eh, you can still go! You'll just be by yourself." he sipped his coffee. It tasted disgusting; all food did. But he had the ability to mask his distaste.

"Snatcher, I need you to watch her today! Everyone else is busy today!" Cookie's voice rang from the kitchen.

He sighed. "...sure."

Snatcher watched Hat Kid play in the garden from the kitchen window. He moved his laptop from the attic to the kitchen table in order to watch the girl more carefully. If something happened to Hat Kid when he was on duty, he'd wish he got staked through the heart.

There was a loud crash outside, and she started crying. She burst in, sobbing and holding her wrist.

With a concerned tone, he beckoned her closer. "C'mere, what's wrong?"

Sobbing, Hat Kid showed him her hand. Covered in cuts, with a large gash in her palm. Her hand was bleeding profusely. "I-I-I was playing with a piece of wood, but I fell on the pointy bit!" she whimpered.

Snatcher went still.

Every bone in his undead body was telling him to bite down and feed. Right now, no questions asked. Drain all of her blood and devour her heart.

Slowly, hands shaking, he extended a clawed hand towards hers. "Let me see it."

But he couldn't feed on her. He wouldn't. He was in control here, not his dumb vampiric instincts.

Inspecting the hand closer, he desperately tried to push past the voice screaming in his head to drain her and think of what to do. "We...should...pull out the splinters first," he replied in a soft voice.

Nodding, she sat in a chair as he rushed to get the proper supplies to deal with this. When he returned with bandages and a tweezer, he asked for her hand again. With utmost concentration, he started pulling out bloody splinters from her hand.

She whimpered, and Snatcher paused. "You're doing great. You're fine. I just need to bandage it." placing the tweezers on the table, he started to wrap her hand.

"Snatcher?"

"Hm?"

"...why are you drooling?"

His hands were shaking again. "Don't worry about it. Let's fix your hand." he wrapped her hand as best as he could. "There! Good as new! Now let me get you some ice cream-"

As he stood up to retrieve a treat for her, she said something that made him stop dead. "Snatcher...are you a vampire?"

Thinking quickly, he replied, "Don't be dumb. Vampires don't exist." walking to the freezer, he opened it and peered inside. "Ugh. Conductor ate all of the vanilla from the Neapolitan again. I hope you like strawberry and chocolate-"

"You have fangs!" she shouted. "You have fangs, you don't like going outside, you sleep most of the day!"

"I told you I had a bad dentist as a kid." he slid the tub of ice cream across the table and handed her a spoon. "You've been reading too many scary stories kid-"

"You hardly eat! You dislike garlic! You don't have any mirrors in the attic, YOU WERE DROOLING AT MY BLOOD!" she shrieked.

"Kid, stop screaming. All of those have perfectly good explanations. I'm allergic to garlic, I have a terrible track record with accidentally breaking mirrors, and I'm just hungry." he replied to all of this as calmly as he could, but he could feel himself sweating.

She didn't seem convinced. Sighing, he walked over to her. "Besides, what kind of monster would even think about eating you?" he booped her on the nose. Before he could speak again, his midsection let out a loud growl. Sucking the air through his teeth from the pain, he winced and sat down in the closest chair.

With a determined look, Hat Kid popped open the ice cream lid. "Here. Eat it."

He groaned. Having human food on an empty stomach was a bad idea, to say the least. Best case scenario, he vomits. Worst case scenario, his instincts act up. "Kid I'm not going to-"

"If you don't have a bite I'll think you're a vampire forever," she said, no hint of sarcasm in her voice. She was serious. She got a big scoop of ice cream, handing the spoon to him.

He grimaced. This wasn't going to end well. Snatcher started to eat the ice cream but immediately started gagging. His starved body was rejecting the ice cream, so he ran to the kitchen garbage and vomited inside it.

Heavily panting, he shuddered as he stood back up. He was so hungry. He just had to give in.

"I KNEW IT! You're a...vampire...and I'm alone with you…" terror crept into her voice as she sank down into the chair. He could see tears in her eyes. "...please don't drink my blood like a juice box…"

"I...could never drink your blood." pushing the hair out of his face, he sat across her from the kitchen table. His body was trembling, and his nails were digging deep into his arms as he crossed them. "Cookie, Grooves, Conductor, you...I could never drink their blood. You're...all too important to me."

Comforted slightly, Hat Kid sat up a little straighter. "Even Conductor? I thought you hated him."

He waved a hand dismissively. "No, I don't hate him. Besides I'm sure that the booze in his blood would kill me." he grinned, trying to lighten the mood. But it didn't last long. "B-But I need some blood in me soon. If I keep going without...well...I won't be in control anymore."

She thought for a moment, before rolling up her sleeve. "Do you want some-"

"Roll your sleeve back down before I see your veins," he demanded, looking away. "It's bad enough I can hear your heartbeat and smell you."

"You can hear my heartbeat?! That's so cool! What's it like?"

Snatcher paused, thinking. "Well, when it's just a couple of people, it's not that bad. A low thudding in the back of my head. When it's a crowd, it gets unbearable. Just a constant thudding in my head and the smell of everyone's blood is enough to drive me-"

"Does it drive you batty?" she giggled, a smug grin on her face.

"...Do you wanna get bit?" he snapped. When she recoiled in fear, he said in a soothing tone, "Hey, hey I'm not going to bite you. I'm sorry."

"It's OK. But we need to get you some blood before you snap." she thought hard, tilting back her hat. "I have an idea!"

"Let's hear it. I'll take anything at this point." he sighed, leaning back in his chair.

"So there are these really, really big guys by the docks. And whenever I walk home from school, they always threaten to beat me up!" She gave a sly smile. "I bet they have lots of blood!"

"I'm listening…"

"So I get one's attention, lure him down an alley and tada! Wait, you don't kill, right?" that might put a small wrinkle in her plan.

Snatcher shook his head. "Kid if I start lurking around, murdering every time I got hungry, I'd be found out in a-"

"Heartbeat?!"

"OK, you need to stop. With the puns. Right now." he growled.

"I can't promise that." she sang, hopping down from the chair. "C'mon. Let's go get lunch."

Hat Kid stuck her tongue out at the large Mafia Man chasing her. "C'mon buttmunch! Can't catch a little girl?" she taunted.

"Mafia make little girl eat those words!" the large man shouted, hot on her heels.

Giggling maliciously, she ran down a dark alley. Hiding behind a couple of boxes like Snatcher instructed, she waited.

The Mafia Goon ran down the alley, pausing to catch his breath. "Where little brat go? Come out and fight Mafia!"

"So…" a voice hissed from the shadows. "You want to fight a little girl? Pitiable."

"Who said that? Mafia demand they show self to Mafia!" the burly man spun around, trying to see who was insulting him.

"Why not pick on someone your own size, punk?" out of the shadows, a clawed hand gripped the Mafia Man's shoulder.

Before he could react, Snatcher's fangs sunk into the man's neck. The Mafia man was about to cry out, but the starving vampire used his other hand to cover his mouth.

Hat Kid watched in disturbing fascination as her friend drank the poor man's blood. The Russian man's struggling became slower, and slower as Snatcher continued to consume his blood.

After ten minutes, Snatcher finally stopped. The large man had passed out a while ago, and the vampire gently set him back down on the cold, alley floor. Panting and shaking, he tried to wipe the leftover blood smeared on his face from his feeding. He didn't like to think of himself as messy, but he was hungry.

"...are you done?" came a quiet squeak from the corner of the alley.

"Yeah, I'm done. C'mere," he said breathlessly. He was still panting loudly. "Wow! I missed that! He sure struggled."

She slowly approached the Mafia Goon lying silent on the ground. "Is he dead?" she whispered, looking at the awful puncture wounds her friend made. "Is he going to turn into a vampire?"

"No, and no. I only drank two and a half liter from him. He'll be fine." Snatcher pulled out his phone, dialing 911.

"He won't turn, either?"

"I can't make vampires - hold on...Yes, hello? We found this man in this alley. He got into a knife fight, I think. He's bleeding, and he's lost a lot of blood! Come quick! Dock 17." after giving the directions, he hung up the phone. "Alright, we better get out of here before the ambulance comes and starts asking questions.

"We're just going to leave him here?"

"Hey! This was your idea kid! He's not going to die. And besides, now that I'm full of blood, I won't snap and murder everyone in this town." he picked her up and started quickly walking back home, avoiding the sun.

"...are you going to tell the others?" she asked quietly, resting her head on his chest. He didn't have a heartbeat.

"Err...let's just keep this between us, OK? Adults tend to overreact. Remember when you failed that math test?"

"I'm not quite sure if those two are comparable. But I understand. Just...promise me you won't kill anyone, or hurt us."

"...of course, kiddo."