Okay peeps, chapter two. I take my own spin on vampyrism, and trust me, I did my research for this! Although... I DO have a thing for the sexy western vamps... So, our story becomes very Interview With the Vampire here, sadly. If you don't like talky-talky, please move to a different fanfiction, because clearly this is not for you.
Warnings: fail!Japanese
Disclaimer: I think it's be best if I didn't own Hetalia... you know, for mankind's sake.
Chapter 2: Chinese Rose
Alfred didn't attack Kiku like Kiku expected. He didn't even make himself at home. Alfred simply walked around the tiny, neat apartment, observing his surroundings. Kiku simply watched, silently mesmerized by Alfred's smooth steps and the perfect movements he took. One second he'd be at her coffee table, the next he was in her kitchen. She's only heard his kind could move so fast. Before today, she wasn't sure his kind existed at all.
"Would you like something to… eat?" she asked, like the perfect hostess she was.
"Food does not satisfy me," Alfred explained, string at a picture of Kiku and Yanmei from five years ago. "Your half-sister… she's five years older than you, yes?"
"Yanmei is thirty, ne," Kiku clarified, nodding.
"You talk about her in your sleep, you know."
Kiku blushed. "You've never been in this building before. How would you know?" Though it was true. Kiku faced homesickness at times and often wished she were with her family.
"My kind has been able to fly since before the first generation," Alfred answered.
"You've been stalking me." It was a statement, not a question. "You were waiting to be invited so you could manipulate me, use me, and kill me."
"Though I am very patient, I assure you, Kiku, I would have killed you by now if I wanted to."
"Then, why me?"
"I told you I'd give you a choice. I'm going to tell you the story of how five clans and five generations came to be. It is not a happy story, nor is it a sad one. It's what is."
If Kiku tried to run, he'd stop her. If she stayed and listened, she was only delaying what was inevitable. Was it all true? Or was it just crap?
Kiku sighed. If she was going to die, she might as well listen to a story beforehand.
"Sit down," she said, pointing to the futon she used for guests, "and tell me everything."
Alfred preferred to stand, though Kiku felt this story would be quite long. Kiku, however, sat on the futon, tired from standing.
He didn't hesitate to start. "Yao Wang, or Wang Yao in eastern culture, was turned by Dracula himself four thousand years ago."
"Dracula was real?" Kiku asked in disbelief.
"He is where my kind originates," said Alfred. "He was killed before I was turned, so I never had the chance to meet him. Everything I know about him is from Yao.
"Yao was an educated man from ancient China. His family died in a devastating fire; he had nothing left afterward. He told me he'd longed for death like a rose longs for water. It was a necessary need he felt he had to fulfill to be put out of his misery.
"Me, I don't feed on the suicidal. They're lost causes, and giving them eternal life is a waste of power. But, fortunately for Yao, Dracula was traveling in China, for reasons I do not know. He promised Yao death, and death he received.
"Now, when a human is turned, the human soul dies; it is replaced with something eternal. Human death through transformation is a painful, almost unbearable process. The mind feels every twisted, horrifying clench of pain that kills all that is ephemeral within. For minutes on end the victim is in blood-curdling hell, seeming to be doomed for eternity until the eyes set in.
"The eyes of a vampyre. They draw their victims in; they manipulate the weak-minded. Yao's eyes turned to liquid gold the day he died. When I was first turned, I was sure even I, a new vampyre, could be manipulated and twisted by them. A vampyre is always beautiful, all because of those eyes.
"Yao realized that death had come to him once he reopened his new, beautiful eyes. Dracula kept to his promise, though not in the way Yao had intended. Eternally damned with no seeming end, Yao fled from Dracula to Europe, posing as a traveling merchant.
"For centuries, Yao looked for a sign, an answer, someone who knew of his kind besides the devil himself. He fed on the dying corpses of useless bodies and never once called it living.
"And then, a savior. A sign.
"He was in Gaul, modern France, when it happened. When she happened. Françoise Bonnefoy was young and beautiful without trying. Her long, golden hair and piercing cobalt eyes were unlike anything Yao had ever seen. He was used to Asian concubines and Persian queens, but Françoise's western beauty truly captivated him. Yao called it love, but it was, I believe, mistaken for what Yao truly felt: lust.
"Wary of his beautiful eastern looks, Yao courted Françoise in 843, when she was in her early twenties. Françoise was entranced and enchanted by Yao's liquid golden eyes and silky, long, inky hair he kept tied at his neck. Unaware of what he was, Françoise agreed to meet him at night in a secluded building. Once there, unable to handle being lonely, Yao turned Françoise into a vampyre.
"Françoise told me she'd never regretted meeting Yao that fateful night, even if their so-called 'romance' wasn't meant to be."
"It wasn't?" Kiku finally piped up, entranced by Alfred's smooth, sexy voice. The colorful tale he'd painted for her hypnotized her, drawing her in from his first words.
"It wasn't," Alfred repeated solemnly, shaking his head. "They were together for almost fifty years before Dracula came back into Yao's life."
"What happened then?" Kiku stood, suddenly in the mood for tea.
"Dracula introduced Yao to Ivan Braginski."
"Sounds Russian." Kiku walked to the tiny kitchen and retrieved a teakettle to fill with water.
"He is." Alfred followed Kiku slowly. "After Yao for Europe, Dracula traveled to kill and transform humans into his kind. None are known other than Yao; a man from Denmark; Elizaveta Hédérváry, a Hungarian woman turned in 895; and Ivan in 862. They are the first generation after Dracula, the vampyres that started the clans."
As soon as Kiku's kettle was full, Alfred turned off the water and turned the stove on before Kiku's hand could flick out to the faucet handle.
She had to get used to his speed. "A-arigatou," she stammered, placing the kettle over the fire. When she turned around, Alfred was standing way too close to her, almost brushing against her.
"Ahem." She looked down and blushed. "Tell me about Ivan."
"Ivan is extremely tall and large," Alfred explained. "Platinum hair, beautiful, amethyst eyes, sexy Roman nose… he was intimidating and incredibly handsome. Meeting him was as amazing as meeting Yao, because it made me realize that I was a part of this world. Like them, I was also beautiful. I could have any woman I wanted. And all the prettiest, the most beautiful women I've ever encountered… I killed them all."
"Why?" Kiku's heart was beating loudly in her ears like a large drum. Th-thump, th-thump, th-thump.
"Because.." Alfred's lips ghosted over Kiku's, just a whisper away. "They weren't you." He pulled away swiftly, suddenly at the other end of the kitchen in the blink of an eye.
Kiku let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. He was just flirting with her. It wasn't like he'd never said that to another giddy girl.
"Would I call Ivan a monster?" Alfred continued before Kiku could rat him out on his lame one-liner. "Even if he turned his own sister, started an entirely new clan, and stole Yao from right under Françoise's nose? Never. One look into his gorgeous violet eyes and I just knew he had a reason for his choices."
"Did you love him?"
"I did want to," Alfred admitted. "But he only had eyes for Yao.
"I said Ivan was turned in 862. That year, his sister was born, a plain, funny girl named Katyusha. There was a twenty-one year age difference between them. Ivan loved Katyusha very much, to the point where he believed they could start their own vampyre army together. Naturally, Dracula approved.
"For her entire life, Katyusha learned of vampyric culture from Ivan. She was fascinated by her brother's regal beauty, and also longed for eternal life. On her twentieth birthday, Ivan finally agreed to turn her.
"There are no rules about creating vampyres. Me, I've never turned anyone… yet." His beautiful, blue eyes met Kiku's. "But all the vapyres under Dracula turned only the most special humans. They turned humans they deemed worthy of eternal life and eternal love."
"Love?" asked Kiku, never looking away from Alfred, even as the kettle began to whistle.
Alfred shrugged. "Sure. All the fourth and fifth generation from each vampyric clan is bonded. Antonio and Chiara, Toris and Feliks, Monika and Feliciano, and Bianca and Tino. I'm the only fourth generation vampyre who hasn't picked a bondmate yet."
Kiku turned and blushed, taking the kettle off the stove and puring herself a hot cup of tea. She took the steaming cup and walked back to the futon, where she sat again. Alfred moved from the kitchen back to the living room just as Kiku was about to sit. She had to get used to that super speed. It was freaking her out.
"What's a bonding?" Kami, she sounded so stupid for asking all of these questions.
Alfred folded his arms. "I was getting to that," he said. "The year after Katyusha was turned, she, Ivan, and Dracula found Yao and Françoise, somewhere in Britain, I believe. It was 883, barely a time when history was recorded. But it was a year when history was made for the vasmpyres. It was the year when the bond was invented.
"You could say the bond was like marriage. You could say it was closer to sex. In truth, it is both. It is sacred and almost unbreakable."
"Almost? So it can be broken?"
"Only once has that ever happened. Elizaveta Hédérváry, a first generation vampyre, broke her bond with Roderich Edelstein when she saw that he was clearly in love with another in the 13th century. Roderich and Elizaveta were together for around three hundred years, but I guess even the most sacred of bonds can be broken.
"When Ivan first met Yao, he knew they were meant for each other. Love, vampyric love, happens in an instant. Vampyres, you'll be surprised to know, are drawn to love. We want it, we crave it, because it's the closest thing we have to happiness.
"Yao, though he was romantically involved with Françoise, immediately left her to be with Ivan. He felt that… pull, the all-knowing feeling that Ivan was the one for him. I've heard there's nothing stronger than the bond, even after it's broken, not even after what we can do with our supernatural abilities.
"The bond isn't only sacred, it's also extremely intimate. Only the vampyres bonded may witness the actual bonding, and the vampyric blood must be mixed at the source—directly from the vampyre itself. As soon as the blood is fused, the vampyres simply recite, 'I devote myself to you for eternity,' and they are bonded. There is no other possible love in the world. Sure after being bonded a vampyre may still turn humans, but they have chosen their bondmates for eternity."
"Sounds simple for such a sacred ceremony," Kiku commented, sipping at her tea. "If you were never bonded, how do you know all of this?"
"Yao is my creator's creator's creator. Like a young, extremely good-looking great-grandfather. He and Ivan invented the bonding, creating all the rules simply by using their bonding as reference. Of course, I'm pretty sure not all bondings have to end with making love… yeah, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure Bianca's and Tino's bonding didn't end that way. Or was it Toris' and Feliks'? Maybe both…?"
"Ahem." Kiku cleared her throat loudly. "Alfred… you're rambling."
"Right." Alfred removed his glasses and cleaned them with his suit jacket before placing them back over his eyes. "Your heart is beating almost twice its normal rate, Kiku. Is talking about the bond embarrassing for you?"
"By all means, continue." He had super hearing, too? Was he a vampire, or was he Superman? "The way you tell your kind's history is quite fascinating. Everything about you is fascinating, Alfred."
If vampires could only bond with other vampires, then was Kiku technically unqualified for something so sacred? Or would Alfred turn her before they bonded? Would they even be bonded? Or maybe, after all this, he'd just kill her?
Great. Two days to her twenty-sixth birthday and she was going to die.
Unless… iie, did he really plan that far ahead?
"Alfred, she started, "how long will you tell me your history?"
Alfred smirked. "Clever, clever girl, Kiku. You know, technically, your body is seven years older than mine starting two days from now."
"You were turned when you were only nineteen?" How could he be so debonair? Just how long had he been a vampire?
"Blame my creator for that," said Alfred. "I didn't have a choice.
"But back to you. Yes, Kiku, I'm giving you until your twenty-sixth birthday to decide your fate. Either way, you only have two days left to be a human. You have two more sunrises and two more chances to fully enjoy natural light, my kind's ultimate weakness."
Kiku almost dropped her almost-empty teacup. She only had two more days to be a human. "Wh-what if I choose your life?"
"Then you must bond to me," Alfred explained. "I will only let you live eternally if you make the sacred vow. Either choice you make, Kiku Honda, I am going to kill you."
"But… why would you bond to me?" Kiku shrieked in disbelief. "I'm not beautiful, Alfred. I'm just a plain girl from Japan."
"Kiku, I haven't been following you for two years just for fun sport. I watched you because you were so unlike everyone else. I've had almost four hundred years of eternal life, and I have never met anyone like you. I'll admit, you're very plain on the outside, but Kiku, you're much more than that within. You have spunk, and life, and when I see you smiling when you're on the phone with Yanmei, I just know you deserve afar better life. An eternal one. With me."
Kiku's eyes widened. No one had ever said anything like that to her before. And the look in his beautiful eyes was so pure that Kiku knew it was true. He was in love with her. However, Kiku barely knew him. She couldn't just bond to someone she just met, if what Alfred said about sacred vows and intimate relationships was actually true.
"Alfred.." Kiku met his gaze. "Are you in love with me? Answer me truthfully."
Alfred sighed, then crossed and uncrossed his arms. "You don't know true love until you've experienced it, Kiku. You're young. Me, I'm over four hundred years old and I've never felt this way about anyone until now. Not with Yao, or Ivan, or Arthur, my creator. How I've longed to turn you, or kiss you, or simply just touch you these past two years… but I observed instead. I had to make sure you were real, like you, me.
"But I'm afraid, Kiku. I'm afraid that even just the slightest touch will drive me over the edge. Your blood… you're type A positive, not even my favorite. But I felt that if I were to accidentally brush against you, I might consume you whole. You're more desirable to me than any crowned jewel or any beautiful girl, Kiku, know that."
Kiku was speechless. Alfred was telling the truth, there was no doubt about that. But he'd been observing her for two years, knew practically everything about her. She on the other hand, was just meeting him for the first time. No way could she ever fall in love so fast.
But she only had two days to decide. Two days to fall in love… or die.
"… If you love me," she finally said, "won't you let me go?"
"You mean, if you choose to remain human, would I let you live because I love you" Alfred clarified. He shook his head somberly. "No. If you choose to remain human, then you are giving me full permission to consume you whole, Kiku. It's in my nature. You already know too much about my kind, and we vampyres are very secretive about our lifestyles. No one can know we exist, Kiku. The only way you can live is if you become one of us."
Great. So not only was he trusting her with classified information of his kind's history, but he already made up his mind to kill her. What kind of love was that?
Kiku sipped the last of her tea and stood. The top of her head met Alfred's chin. Either she was really short or he was really tall. Kiku sure hoped it was the latter.
"Alfred," she whispered, her hands shaking around the teacup. "Kiss me if you love me so much. "
What was she saying? He'd turn her tonight if he caved.
Hesitantly, Alfred licked his lips and began to lean down. This was it. Kiku's decision making would be much easier after this.
When Alfred's lips were a mere whisper away, Kiku suddenly felt nothing. She opened her eyes, surprised to find herself in an empty room.
"Hello?" she called. "Alfred?"
"Please, don't think that I'm a spineless worm," Alfred's thoughts were in Kiku's head. "I can't handle it… right now. I'll be back tomorrow night."
Japanese Translations (correct me if I'm wrong):
Arigatou-thank you
Kami-God
Iie-no
Reviews for Maggie? How is my story so far? /shame