A/N: well if I posted it as one gigantic oneshot nobody would ever review, y'know what I'm sayin'?

Also:

To lady-of-destruction-aria and Heliotropium:

-mutters incomprehensibly and fixes it-

--m--

True To Form

--m--

Three days later, out on patrol, he commented on it to Ernest. "So I did this… thing… and Lucian hasn't said a word to me for days. I think he hates me."

Ernest raised an eyebrow. "Is he normally that chatty? I never noticed."

Aaron tried not to grin, and failed, but shook his head anyway. "He'll usually say stuff like 'pass the cereal' or 'hey, that one over there' or 'stop blocking the doorway, stupid' but he hasn't said anything."

"That is a bit of a problem." Ernest tapped his chin. "How about you try asking him what's wrong?"

"Tried that already."

"Huh… hogging the cereal?"

"Ursula recommended it. Didn't work."

"Well, I don't want to recommend this, but… how about doing something particularly risky? Especially concerning vampires. You're strong enough now to deal with them if it does get too bad, so it might work."

Aaron sighed tiredly.

--m--

If it had been anyone else, they would have snapped already. Lesser men would have run off crying to apologize, but Lucian refused to. He didn't want to apologize. He hated apologizing, especially for something that wasn't totally his fault.

The main problem was that he couldn't for the life of him figure out what to say to Aaron.

--m--

"So, kiddies," smirked Ursula, "these are the remains of a collapsed section of the Hunting Mansion. Our intel says there's a vampire holed up in the rubble that know something about Dumas, which might lead us to him."

"Be careful, willya?" said Kay, who had come to get them to the correct area because he was familiar with the Mansion.

"Careful, right," repeated Aaron, not paying attention, before wandering distractedly towards the would-be informant's hideout. Lucian nodded at Kay before following him.

They searched manually for a few minutes before Aaron head a lone footstep and a near-silent curse. He sidled quietly towards where the sound had come from, and heard the vampire slip away with a soft shushing sound back in the direction it had come from. Down a hall he followed it, genuinely curious and, having plenty of experience in deliberately ignoring safety precautions, promptly did so and pursued the vampire.

Down another hall, into a large ballroom and through another door it went before stopping. Aaron fingered the handle of his Knight, but let it go when he heard the thing hiss angrily at him.

"Hello?" he called, trying to see into the shadows at the edges of the room. "You there?"

The hissing stopped and became a chuckle. "Why should I tell you where I am?" the voice said, sliding around the perimeter of the room, letting the door close softly.

"I'm not going to hurt you, I just want to ask a question."

It stopped moving. "A question?"

"About Dumas, he who was Earl and became Duke after Ratatosk vacated the position."

It laughed outright. "Information like that can be…" it stopped, presumably to lick its lips- "…pricey."

"I'm prepared to pay." Aaron tugged at his scarf, exposing the pale skin of his neck. "You may take as much as you like provided I can still walk away afterwards."

Now, his logic may seem faulty, but it went thus: if he could get the information, that would benefit Lucian, and if Lucian decided to play the hero and 'save' him, at least he would be sure Lucian didn't want him dead.

In the unlikely event that neither occurred and the vampire took too much, he could deal with it himself and there would be one less vampire in the world, which happened to be his job anyway.

And if he died of blood loss or another cause, at least it would have been for Lucian's benefit.

Thus he believed it justified.

He wasn't planning on dying, though.

Oh well.

He'd manage.

Back outside his head, the vampire was deliberating his offer. He sat cross-legged in the middle of the room, Knight in hand in case his target decided to make an even bolder move.

Aaron waited.

Finally the vampire made a little decisive grunt and stepped cautiously into the moonlit part of the room. He had sharp red eyes and dark gray hair, and wore only a breastplate of Casket Armor, which didn't fit him at all and had apparently been fished out from a battleground, as it seemed well-worn, but still in good condition. He moved with sliding steps, barely lifting his feet from the ground as if he was planning on jumping somewhere in a hurry. He glared in a show of bravado towards Aaron but it was obvious he was still scared.

"May... may I know your name?" inquired Aaron softly.

"It's customary to give your name before asking someone else's."

Aaron blushed, and introduced himself.

"…Marn," responded the vampire at length.

The brunette nodded once and said nothing, not moving. He watched the vampire with a benevolent sort of stare, studying his face. Marn paused. "How do I know I can trust you?"

"I'm giving you the blood first, aren't I? I should be asking that question."

He let out a harsh laugh. "You have a point there, human."

Aaron frowned, but said nothing about it. Marn crouched near him, closing his eyes, and moaned blissfully. "Fuck, your blood smells good." Then he placed one hand near the base of Aaron's neck, supporting his head, and the other around his waist, and bit.

It wasn't a bad feeling, actually. In fact it felt good, and Aaron shivered, thinking back to that man in New Culiacan he had talked to when they first got through the gate who had been ranting and raving about how it felt to be bitten by a vampire. He wondered if this was what he had been talking about.

The vampire Marn, meanwhile, was in heaven. This kid was strong, and he had a lot of adrenaline right now. What was he so worried about? Mentally, he shrugged. His blood tasted good and that was all he really needed to know right then.

He could feel the kid (Aaron, wasn't it?) shivering. Was it really that scary? Was he that scary? …. Nah, he wasn't a very scary person, even for a vampire. Vaguely, he remembered being a human once, but it was boring so he had forgotten most of it.

"Hey," muttered Aaron. "That's plenty, I'm about to fall asleep."

Marn jumped, and pulled out, lapped up the last of the blood, and sat back, giving a quick half-bow of thanks.

Aaron cleared his throat. "The info?"

The vampire nodded. "What'd you wanna know? Dumas, right?" At the human's nod, he continued. "I heard somethin' interesting about him the other day… I heard he's got a… I think they called it a terrennial, right? Yeah. One of those."

"Anything else?"

"Well…" Marn scratched his chin. "Not quite so sure if this is up to date, seein' as I heard 'bout it a long time ago, but I heard tell that with the two towers in his castle stronghold have to be reached at the same time." He shrugged. "No idea what that means, but that's what I hear about it."

Thoughtfully, the gunslinger stood up, thanked the vampire shortly, and ran out.

It had been a little over half an hour.

--m--

He found Lucian waiting near the entrance, and when he emerged, his head snapped up and he fixed Aaron with a baleful stare.

The younger grinned nervously, waving his hands around. "No, no, I found the vampire. Got some good info, too." He left a pause for Lucian to say something, but he didn't.

With a sigh, he turned and left the Mansion, trudging off in the direction of the Guild hideout, Lucian following like a puppy behind him.

--m--

Well I can honestly say I (at least mostly) like this scene better than the first vampirism scene (not Vampirism, vampirism, as in displaying vampiric traits).

-coughs into fist- Yeah.

Hope you like it!

Review, please!

Love,

The Head Baka