A Tame Vampire

It was unbearably hot. The summer sun beat down on Kyoko as she cut and bundled wheat in the open field, and a heavy bead of sweat rolled lazily down from her brow, dripping onto the linen collar of her farmer's dress. She brought a sticky hand to her face to wipe the liquid gathering on her upper lip away, and then dropped her scythe and looked up, on cue with the other extras.

She turned as part of a crowd who watched Ren's character wave goodbye to the film's protagonist and sit down. Observing the actions of her co-actors, she tried not to look at him too intently. She had taken this role in order to help her senpai out, she chanted to herself internally, not to hinder his work by messing up her insubstantial part as an extra, and certainly, absolutely, not because she might be harbouring feelings of affection for him.

She kept her face rigidly in character as her brain viciously beat back all thought of love. She didn't have the time for this. Ren Tsuruga definitely wouldn't have the time for this.

Still, her eyes wandered to his thin lips, which curved into a placid smile and parted as he brought a dark cherry to them. He put the fruit between his dazzlingly white teeth and used two slender fingers to pull away the green stalk with a roguish snap, then bit down sharply. Deep red juice spilled out from his lips and gently down his chin. Kyoko was mesmerised.

"CUT!"

She snapped her attention back to the task at hand as the extras began to chatter, and Ren sheepishly stood up. He let the cherry stone roll from his lips onto the dry country ground, and began to properly chew the remaining flesh of the fruit.

He must have noticed her eyes lingering on him, as he turned to look for her, his eyebrows raised in genuine and innocent inquisitiveness. He didn't find her, of course, as she had already whipped around in intense embarrassment at her own shameful thoughts and gotten lost in the crowd of false farmhands milling around.

He sighed, ruffled the black locks of hair that the makeup team had spent half an hour teasing into the perfect state of casual dishevelment, and walked off towards the support tents, mumbling something about feeling tired.

Kyoko couldn't deny that she was disappointed to see him go, but forced herself to focus on collecting the pieces of farm equipment that had been left lying around the set along with the other actors. Despite the heat, it wasn't all bad. She got to wear a costume, and listen to the other girls' gossip.

"Yeah, he's looking really pale"

"Are you sure it's not just the anti-shine stuff they put on his face?"

"Dead sure. The MUA says she saw him stumbling, like looking super faint and everything."

Kyoko shuffled just a little closer to the group of gaggling teens and cocked her ear to hear a little better.

Shing.

Before anyone really had the time to understand what had happened, Kyoko gasped in pain as a spinning silver arc neatly flew past her neck, slicing a long thin gash on her shoulder.

The gossiping girls clammed up and there was the mass crunching of tall dry wheat as actors rushed over to see what had happened. Kyoko tentatively placed a hand on the cut that was now oozing blood and winced a little in pain.

Loud and frenzied rustling was followed by the emergence of two very out of breath camera technicians into the clearing.

"Has anyone been hurt?" The taller one asked "The firing bolt from one of the high-speed zoom cameras' just blown off. Thing's definitely tee-totalled at this point. Must be the heat."

He scanned the group of people at eye-height and was only forced to notice Kyoko's presence crouching on the ground when his co-worker tapped him gently on the back. With a faint air of embarrassment, he apologised for her injuries and told her to go the medical tent.

She stumbled to her feet and nervously made her way, clamping a hand on her shoulder as she rushed past the various tents.

It was dark inside the medical tent, and cool. Kyoko felt herself calm a little as she stepped into the quiet shadows of the empty fabric space, the moisture pooling in her brow now trickling gently into her tousled hair and out of her senses. She gently lifted her palm from the wound and was mildly horrified to find that it throbbed and twinged as the salt from her sweaty palms mixed with the broken skin.

Keeping her bloody palm raised so as not to stain her costume, she used her remaining hand to open a few more buttons of her shirt and pull one sleeve down to fully expose the bleeding shoulder. She was aware that this exposed her white cotton bra strap, and kept looking to the small gap of light from the other side of the tent door to make sure that no one was walking by.

She had just reached up to the bottle of antiseptic on top of one of the makeshift shelves when a shuffling noise behind her caught her attention. She turned cautiously and saw the vague and hesitant form of Ren Tsuruga in the darkness. He was swaying slightly.

She wanted to call his name but before she had opened her mouth he had closed the gap between them and solidly rested his head on her shoulder. The shoulder with the gash. She twitched as it throbbed anew.

"Um, Tsuruga-san..." she began, heart racing out of her control "is something wrong?"

That was putting it lightly. If he was relying on a kouhai as lowly as her, he must have been full-on delirious.

He mumbled slightly and sank further onto her shoulder. The torn skin felt electrified as his warm lips brushed the rough edges.

"Tired."

"I thi-"

She was cut off by her own sharp inhalation of breath. Something warm and wet was trailing her shoulder. She stood in stunned silence as his tongue slowly traced her wound and licked the trails of blood that had made their way past her collarbone. Ignoring the tingly warmth that was fluttering in her stomach, she fought to rationalise the situation. Something was definitely not right.

He sucked gently on the cut, and it was at this point that Kyoko completely froze.

With a sound like the crunch of a fresh apple, his teeth cleanly tore down into her flesh and Kyoko felt her skin burn against his touch. Her head whirled with confusion, fear, and the white hot crackling of a hundred different sensations rippling across her skin. The electric impulse of pure reflex crackled through her nerves and her body reacted immediately, bucking backwards and throwing Ren off of her.

She spun to see Ren barely propping himself up on the dusty floor with an uncertain elbow. Ruby red blood dripped inelegantly from his cuspids, which reflected an unsettling pink in the dim light. He wiped some gore from his lower lip unthinkingly with the back of one of his vast hands and licked it, seemingly unaware that Kyoko was in the room at all. He frowned slightly as he took in the taste.

"Salty..."

Kyoko's shoulder was still flowing copiously. Her breath was quickening. She was beginning to panic.

He looked up languorously and saw her for what seemed, inexplicably, to be the first time. Confusion and concerned swam in his clear eyes. They looked red with the reflection of the blood.

"You should probably get that disinfected."

He collapsed unceremoniously onto the ground.

XXX

Ren woke up on an inflatable mattress in the half-darkness with Yashiro leaning menacingly over him. There was the faint taste of dry iron on his teeth and his head felt light.

"Honestly!" said Yashiro, as soon as he'd noticed Ren stirring "I leave you to your own devices for two hours and you manage to escape the crew and pass out. It's a good job Kyoko-chan found you, or else you could have been in serious trouble."

Ren sat up and Yashiro handed him a bottle of water and a few small tablets. Ren looked at them suspiciously and then swallowed, looking his manager in the eye as he did so.

"Was it really that hard to remember to take your iron supplements in the morning? Or at least tell the crew that you were anaemic?"

Ren sighed and put down the bottle.

"Listen to me, Yukihito, I don't know what to tell you. I did take them this morning," he took a small plastic case out of his pocket and shook it a bit, the pills rattling around, as evidence "and it wasn't even that bad until Kyo..."

He petered out. Until what? He could vaguely remember Kyoko searching through the medical cabinet and the feeling of salty flesh in his teeth. What had happened? He sat in silence, putting the pieces together as Yashiro scrutinised him. Then it hit him. The realisation came down like a tonne of lead. He was in trouble. Big, big trouble.

"Until?" prompted Yashiro again.

Ren only groaned. How was he meant to explain this? Yashiro would probably freak out if he plainly said that he'd gone beserk and bitten his co-worker, and it would be even worse if he found out that it was Kyoko.

"Ren, I'm beginning to be deeply concerned. Did someone threaten you?"

"No! No, it's- it's slightly more co-"

They were interrupted by the director opening the tent flap. Warm light spilled into the space, the faint red of a midsummer evening washing everything in shades of purple.

"Are you back in action then? We spent the last 3 hours using the extras for the harvest progression shots, but we need you for your sunset confrontation scene now."

Ren nodded and pushed himself onto his feet. He strolled past the production tents as Yashiro filled him in on the parts of his schedule that had been rearranged, and watched the sun ebb closer to the horizon of the low summer sky. He noticed that there were a few drops of red on his shirt collar. The costume department were going to have a real go at him after this; blood stained like hell.

They finally arrived at the filming venue on the hill. The protagonist asked him if he was feeling alright, to which he replied in the affirmative, and they began to set up the cameras. He scanned the crowd of extras and noticed Kyoko sitting out on the side, her shoulder now tightly wrapped excessively thick bandages. He began to make his way over, and their eyes briefly met as she swivelled on her seat to see who was approaching.

Ren wished they hadn't. As soon as she saw him, she hastily ended the conversation that she had been engaged in and hurried down the other side of the hill. She was definitely avoiding him.

This was really bad.

"Tsuruga-san!" called a sound assistant from behind him "We're shooting in two, could you please get in position?"

He sighed and took his place.

XXX

He couldn't find her after filming had ended. Apparently she'd gone home early along with some of the child actors.

"Looking for Kyoko-chan?" needled Yashiro with a sly smile.

Ren grimaced.

"I am, actually."

Yashiro was rather caught off guard by this straightforward reply. Ren wouldn't let his take it the wrong way, however.

"I need to thank her for helping me this afternoon."

Yashiro raised his eyebrows in sarcastic disbelief and sighed disapprovingly. He decided that Ren probably wasn't in the mood for further teasing, and allowed him to go to get his makeup removed and costume collected on his own.

He did however win a minor victory when he was driving back to Tokyo. A small pinging noise from Ren's pocket in the back seat awoke his passenger from a light slumber.

"Have a nice nap?" he asked, flicking an indicator and turning onto the motorway "You should really mute your notifications."

"I thought I had" grumbled Ren, fishing his pockets until he extracted the device.

Sneaking a quick glance in the rear-view mirror, he noticed Ren frown in concentration as he read the text he'd just received.

"Who is it?"

Ren didn't reply. He was pretty sure he knew who it was anyway.

"Don't tell me… You have your notifications set specially for Kyoko-chan?"

Ren scowled at him and he knew he'd hit bullseye. Hah.

Whilst his driver lost himself in fantasies of his and Kyoko's so far non-existent romance, Ren re-read the text. He was debating whether to be concerned or relieved.

'Dear Tsuruga-San,' it began, faultlessly formal as ever 'I would like to clear up the incident that happened this afternoon. If you can possibly spare some time for a lowly kouhai such as myself, I would greatly appreciate meeting face to face.'

He slowly typed back his reply, second-guessing every word and deliberating over whether the punctuation made him seem too formal. Eventually he decided to press send, because he saw no point in further fretting over his word choices:

'Mogami-san, I apologise if my actions have made you feel uncomfortable. I am happy to meet you tonight to discuss any misunderstandings. Would you like to come to my apartment after dinner?'

He spent a few minutes anxiously watching the countryside pass by and repeatedly checking his phone. Yashiro realised the tension of the moment and refrained from making the snide comments that came to mind.

Finally, the phone pinged once more and the screen lit up. Ren released a breath of relief.

'Thank you, I would like that very much. I will see you at 10'

"Yukihito" he called to the driver in the front seat "We'll be home by about ten, right?"

XXX

At ten p.m. on the dot, Ren's apartment doorbell buzzed and he walked anxiously over to open the front door. He invited the girl standing in the doorway to come in, and she sat at his coffee table on the opposite side from him.

There was a bump from the bandages deforming her turtleneck jumper's left shoulder, and she was tugging on one sleeve, evidently trying not to look him in the eyes. He could tell that she was nervous, maybe even scared, as she leaned as far back from him as she could.

He coughed lightly into his hands and finally brought her unwilling attention to him.

"Mogami-san, I'm afraid my memory is a little hazy. Would you mind filling me in on exactly what happened?"

Her back stiffened and she stumbled as she started to get her words out. He found it hopelessly endearing, but didn't say it.

"Well, that is, um, you see… I was in the medical tent to, you know, clean up the wound on my shoulder, and, um, well… you sort of, uh, licked the wound? And, uh, you actually bit me, like, pretty hard. And then I sort of pushed you off and you just… passed out…" she trailed off.

She hoped her beloved senpai hadn't noticed, but she was actually rather terrified of the situation that she was in. She had even taken the precaution of warning Kanae who she was going to meet in case things went badly, because even though she really wanted to trust the man in front of her, he had well-nigh assaulted her that afternoon and she was undeniably on edge. Her image of him had irreparably changed, but it was difficult for her to quite describe how.

"Mogami-san" Ren looked deathly pale as he fixed her with a serious stare from the other end of the long table "I really do hope that I haven't frightened you too much. The only way that I can really explain my actions is by slightly mitigating the blame, which I hope you won't take offence at."

She nodded but remained leaning back. Sho had tried to divert the blame as well.

"I think the most appropriate way to describe what propelled me to act in such a way is to say that I am what you would call a vampire."

There was silence. Kyoko didn't break eye contact.

"Oh."

He was surprised by the reaction. He was expecting more of a rebuttal, and said so.

"I hope you don't mind me saying this, Tsuruga-san, but that would actually explain a lot."

"Um," he was rather distressed by the implication that his day-to-day behavior was not as normal as he tried to make it seem "How so, exactly?"

"Well, you're generally rather secretive, and your diet is undeniably appalling."

"I… I suppose that's true, but I never thought that I was that inconspicuous."

"Oh, no! Not at all!" scrambled Kyoko, waving her arms in a manner that was both apologetic and defensive "You look perfectly fine, I mean, human."

Ren frowned slightly. He'd never really confronted his status as human or otherwise in a truly philosophical way, and the notion that he was anything other than human was foreign to him.

"I do like to believe that I'm still human, actually"

Kyoko leaned in. He was glad to see that her curiosity was getting the better of her, and that she seemed more comfortable in his presence.

"But you- I mean I assume you drink blood and can't eat garlic or normal food or stay in the sun or look in mirrors. Isn't that weird?"

Her large honey-orange eyes widened and glistened with concerned. It put him at ease to know that she was worried about him.

"I can eat garlic and normal food perfectly fine, thank you, and mirrors don't pose me a problem. Even the whole drinking blood thing is more symbolic than anything else."

"Um, how?"

"I never physically changed once I became a vampire. I'm not undead, I still need to eat and I could still die if you stabbed me."

"You don't have fangs, either."

"No…" He studied the way that she now shifted uncomfortably in her seat "Is there a particular reason you add that?"

"Well, the bite mark on my shoulder is, um, very noticeable. It's not just two neat pinpricks, it's fully just a human bitemark."

She pointed to the bandaged shoulder in order to demonstrate her point and winced as the motion pulled on the edges of the forming scabs. Ren flinched in alarm. How had it gotten to this stage? This had never happened before, let alone to someone who he genuinely cared about.

He started to apologise once more but she cut him off.

"Well, I wanted to ask you about that, actually. I know you said you weren't physically different from a normal human, but are you sure you don't have that thing like mosquitoes?"

He let his face slip into unadulterated confusion. What was she going on about? She saw that she hadn't really made herself clear and elaborated:

"You know how mosquitoes sort of inject the person they're biting with anesthetic? Sort of like that, because when you bit me, it wasn't even that painful, it was more…"

She caught herself and flailed her hands, mortified by where she was about to take that sentence.

"Okay, evidently not, I'll stop there."

His curiosity was piqued now. The feeling that he had the power to ignite such a powerful blush in her was wholly welcome.

"No, no, you can keep asking questions if you'd like."

Was he pushing his luck? Probably. But her flustered look was cute enough that he didn't want to stop.

"Um, I think I'll stop there actually."

He smiled and stood up.

"Shall I make some tea?"

He was only a step away from the kettle when he was stopped by a gentle tug on his jumper. As soon as he turned around, she relinquished her grip in embarrassment, but still remained standing close by his side, looking at the ground. She remembered how small she was next to him.

"Is anything the matter?"

Deep lines of worry marked her brow. She'd been meaning to ask this for a while now.

"I'm not going to… also become one, am I?"

The kettle whistled. The high pitched note screamed into the air and the stove clicked off. His face was obscured by the steam that clouded in the air as he poured two cups of tea.

"No, there's no risk of that."

He sounded so sure. An icicle neatly lodged itself in her ribcage. How many people had he done this with? It wasn't only their secret, then; she was just one of many, nothing special. She stopped herself before the ice could spread further. Her senpai surely didn't have time to be dealing with this.

"You're perfectly sure?"

He smiled as her as he handed her a mug. Perhaps he could see her concern.

"I can explain the logic behind it if it'd put you more at ease."

She yanked the teacup away from her lips. She'd forgotten to let the tea cool down, and had distractedly burnt her tongue.

"There are logical principles to these things?"

"Well, you've got to go back to basics."

She began to blow on her tea and leaned back against the kitchen counter, waiting for him to go on.

"You're familiar with the first vampire story, aren't you?"

She gave a non-commital nod.

"Dracula. Or variants thereof. Anyway, he became a vampire in exchange for eternal youth. He wasn't undead, he was simply never killed. His evilness probably had little to do with his status as quasi-immortal."

"That's why the main character was able to kill him?"

"Correct."

"So what was the exchange about?"

"Well, you and I both know vampires as beings who rely on blood, right? Through making a deal with the devil for eternal youth, he bargained away his soul, but the devil wasn't going to be able to collect that soul for a long time, never maybe, so a blood oath also came into it. The blood he consumed wasn't for base survival, but instead to maintain his pact with the devil and prevent stuff from going wrong."

Kyoko sipped some of her tea. It was finally the right temperature.

"What does that have to do with, um, our situation?" she asked, words echoing inside the mug, and then added "could I have some milk please?"

He stopped leaning on the counter opposite her and strode to the fridge, first putting his mug down.

"Well, assuming that every individual owns their own soul, it would be impossible," he said, opening the fridge door and pulling out a glass bottle of milk "for a vampire, a vessel of the devil, to go around monopolising bodies in which unwilling souls resided. Each person has their own, and can decide what they want to do with it."

He turned and closed the door behind him, walking back to her.

"That means you should be perfectly alright."

She eyed him warily as he handed her the milk.

"So you made a pact with the devil?"

It caught him off guard. The glassware tumbled gracelessly out of his hands to the floor, where it shattered, spilling glass shards and lakes of white over the grey tiles.

Kyoko quickly put down her mug and began to pick up the larger pieces, crouching on her tiptoes to avoid stepping in the liquid.

Ren reacted late, only reaching down to help her a few seconds later.

"I'm sorry, I don't -" he stumbled, rolling up his shirt sleeves "I don't know what came over me"

He was cut off by a breathy exclamation of shock from Kyoko. She had cut one of her fingers on a smaller shard.

He realised now how close they were. They were crouched on the same level, faces inches apart. He could feel the warmth of her breath on his cheeks and smell the tea lingering in it. Red blood began to drip from her hand, blossoming pink clouds in the white milk below.

His head began to throb. He felt his eyes inescapably drawn to the small stream of blood, saw red begin to saturate his senses. The smell of salt and iron became all-consuming as he fought to banish the sound of her veins pumping from his head. He was shaking, barely able to keep himself still, and yet he didn't know what he wanted.

"Mogami-san" he said with a laboured breath "I think you'd better go now"

XXX

It was late that night when the devil came to him.

He was sat at the counter with a glass of red wine and a head full of questions when he noticed it.

A bleat sounded from the darker half of the room. The white silhouette of a goat sat knowingly on his sofa, unblinking. In the darkness its watery yellow eyes seemed to glow like lanterns and its unsettling horizontal pupils fell like black windows into the abyss, fixing on him and narrowing. It didn't need to introduce itself.

"What do you want?" Ren asked, looking back at his glass of wine.

The goat opened its small mouth and revealed worn and yellowed teeth as it released a long, low bleat. It serenely conveyed its wordless message in the way that only the primordial may.

'I HAVE COME TO WARN YOU'

"Warn me? Of what?" He sipped his wine "I've been nicely complying"

'NO'

He didn't reply, only drained his glass and wondered how his own thoughts were appearing in block capitals.

'YOU GIVE ME NO FRESH BLOOD'

"I had black pudding last week"

'HUMAN BLOOD. FRESH LIFE'

"It's rather difficult, you know"

'I KNOW ALL'

Ren only sighed. He knew that continuing to speak would only bring him further malheur.

'DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY LITRES OF BLOOD THERE ARE IN ONE OF YOUR HUMANS?'

He went to find himself another bottle of Pommard.

'SHE HAS EIGHT LITRES OF LIFE IN HER.'

He stopped halfway through uncorking the new bottle.

"Wait a second. She?"

'YOU OWE ME 12 LITRES. YOU WILL HAVE THEM BY THE END OF THE YEAR'

"Answer me." He was getting anxious, speaking fast "Who do you mean? Answer me."

'IF YOU DO NOT COLLECT THEM YOURSELF THEN WE WILL'

"We? Who are you? What are you-"

'A BROKEN CONTRACT IS A BODY OVER WHICH WE HAVE DOMINION.'

He stood. He stared into the smouldering ashes of the entity's eyes and found that his body had turned to lead. He couldn't move, couldn't advance. He was trapped within his own body as the flicker of a fire slowly illuminated his living room.

Flames licked the goat's hooves and all at once it became a perfectly spherical inferno. The heat and the light burned themselves into Ren's retinas as he remained frozen in space.

'WE WANT THE GIRL. HUMAN LOVE IS FLEETING'

The ball of flame flashed and disappeared into the darkness. Ren regained sovereignty over his limbs and made his way unsteadily back to his seat. He looked into the shadows. He looked at the furniture that was untouched by fire. He looked at the bottle of ridiculously expensive wine on the counter.

With a deep sigh, he opened the bottle and poured himself a generous glass. He was going to need it.