Short chapter, maybe not the most exciting, but important I feel. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: None of this is mine.

"We're really doing this? All of us?" Robin nodded, and Bertrand followed suit. "So… how does this… are you two going to be…?"
"No." Robin was pretty firm on that. "No, that's not how it works. And that… what just happened, that's not how it's gonna be usually. Right?" Bertrand shook his head, then realised that was a rather ambiguous gesture to make under the circumstances.
"Right. It's not about threesomes and orgies, Vlad." He'd thought he was clarifying, but Vlad's mouth dropped open. He supposed it was probably strange to hear your stuffy 400-year-old tutor talking about threesomes and orgies as if those were just normal, everyday words.
"Right. Of course not." The Chosen One shook his head, as if to clear it. "So… are there rules?"

Bertrand looked across at Robin, but Robin didn't want that to be how things worked. It seemed like too much pressure on him, and too little trust in Bertrand, and just plain confusing for Vlad, and frankly Robin didn't think they could pull this off if they weren't on a level playing field.
"We'll decide them together."
"Now?" Vlad seemed surprised.
"Well, no time like the present, is there?" The Chosen One had to stifle a giggle. "What?"
"You sounded just like your Dad for a minute there." Robin smacked his arm, but Bertrand had that look on his face again, the one Robin had very quickly learnt meant his brain was working at three times the speed of any normal person's.
"It's your Dad we need to worry about, Vlad." The smile slipped from Vlad's face as he recognised the truth of his tutor's words. "But we'll talk about that after we sort things out between the three of us."

An hour later, they'd all agreed that honesty was going to be really important and that they were going to need to work out some kind of schedule to make sure nobody was left out of seeing each other. Robin and Vlad were bickering lightly about the relative values of Thursdays and Tuesdays, so Bertrand left them to it for a while. He was thirsty, and he certainly didn't want to put himself in a position where losing control seemed not only possible, but likely.

When he returned, he was carrying a bottle of Barrister '75 for himself, a bottle of soy blood for Vlad, and a bottle of coke for Robin. He was determined to play nice, to make this work. He had never really imagined that he could have the Chosen One all to himself, but the idea of being with him in some capacity was just too good to resist.

He had wanted Vlad since not long after he'd met him, but he'd hardly dared to dream that he could want him back. He, Bertrand du Fortunesa, was in no way worthy of the Chosen One's attention. Then it had seemed so clear that the boy was a coiled spring, waiting to make a move, and Bertrand hadn't even minded that it was just for lack of options. Then Robin had appeared, and just like that it was over. Vlad had confirmed that Bertrand was just a stopgap, a meaningless crush to pass the time while he waited for the return of the boy he really wanted. Bertrand had accepted it with as much grace as he could muster. And now he had another chance. Yes, Bertrand was going to play nice. This was too good a situation to ruin.

If Robin was surprised to be handed a bottle of coke by Bertrand, who'd never seemed to like him, it was nothing to how he felt when Vlad, accepting a bottle of soy blood, held up a hand.
"Wait. Blood. What are the rules on blood?" Bertrand frowned.
"If you're worried about draining – oh." The frown only deepened, and Robin was beginning to get anxious.
"What am I missing? You're not gonna make me drink it, are you?" Vlad shook his head, but Bertrand was looking at Robin as if he'd just taken away his most prized possession. After a moment, he bit his lip.
"I'll just..." Then off he went, still clutching his bottle of blood, and Robin turned to Vlad for an explanation.
"If we're… if I kiss Bertrand and then kiss you… there's a tiny risk of infection from any blood he's been drinking."
"So… what, you're cutting him out?" That seemed harsh, but Vlad's grimace suggested that Bertrand might have found that preferable.
"No. He's gone to put the blood away, I think. You should probably see a doctor when you get chance, you know… because of earlier."

Robin blinked at him, then turned to see Bertrand standing in the doorway, holding a bottle of soy blood.
"Vlad, d'you mind if I-? Just until I can get hold of my own stash." Vlad shook his head, and Robin stared as Bertrand came to sit down. The tutor stared glumly at the bottle for a moment, but then his eyes flicked up to rest on Vlad and Robin could tell that he'd just decided it was worth it.
"To us, then?" He raised his coke bottle in an attempt to lift the mood, and the vampires clinked their own bottles against it. Well, they didn't so much clink against the plastic as make a kind of dull thudding sound, but they tried.
"Here's to us," Vlad agreed, "and this whole crazy thing."
"To us." Bertrand seemed more solemn than ever, but he drank the toast with the rest of them and only grimaced slightly.
"So… where do we go from here?" Vlad seemed to be looking to Robin for an answer, but it was Bertrand who finally spoke.
"Bed."