Characters: Laurence the first Vicar/Ludwig the Holy Blade, Choir Leader Yuria (OC)

Summary: Laurence has an untimely nosebleed and gets into trouble when he leaves the event he attends to hide it.

(Author's note: At first I had a comedic piece in mind, then I got stuck and I got tossed the idea to put in Ludwig, so now the story is a bit funny, a bit angsty and a shippy. Enjoy!)

As soon as he felt the warm and stinging sensation in his nose as well as the copper taste on his tongue, Laurence knew that he had gotten one of his (in the church) infamous nosebleeds.

While they weren't pleasant of course, usually they didn't bother him too much, he would just press a handkerchief against his nose and keep working until it had gone away.

However, at this very moment, Laurence wasn't in the safety of his office. He wasn't even at the safety of the church. In fact, he was attending a noble man's party because he had to ensure that he would keep up donations to the Healing Church.

If he would get seen with a nosebleed, that wouldn't paint a good light on the Healing Church and the blood healing, which should be able to heal any injury or sickness with ease (but had failed to heal Laurence' nosebleed problem so far).

So, as soon as Laurence had noticed the signs of his nosebleed, he had hurried to the mansion's bathroom, where he sat himself down on the toilet and pressed his handkerchief against his nose, head slightly turned downwards, hoping that the nosebleed would cease soon.

After Laurence couldn't spot any new blood stains in his handkerchief, he took a few deep breathes and got up, looking at his hands. They were smeared with blood. Of course, he had put them over his nose while he had hurried to the bathroom. Laurence approached the sink and turned on the tap, to erase any traces of blood. He should check his face too, nothing would be more embarrassing that traces of crusted blood on his face.

As soon as his hands were clean, Laurence looked into the mirror, indeed seeing that a bit of blood had crusted over his lips and chin. His nosebleed had felt pretty bad... He splashed a bit of water in his face until the crusted blood was gone and dried it with a towel. Then, he took a step back from the mirror to take another look if he had gotten all the blood off his body.

He froze when he noticed the very obvious, very bloody stain right on his holy shawl and even worse, it apparently had managed to drip on his vicar robe below.

"Fuck!", Laurence hissed. "Fuck, fuck, fuck...", he continued. Of course he had to get blood on his shawl and his robes. Which where both very white. He had to get rid of the stains immediately!

Laurence turned on the tap again and grabbed the soap, letting it foam under the running water and then used it to scrub at the stains. Unfortunately, that didn't do much. In fact, it only seemed to increase the area of them. With a frustrated sigh, Laurence stopped scrubbing, thinking.

Hadn't Florence taught him how to get blood out of clothes because of his common nosebleeds? The problem was, it appeared that Laurence hadn't listened to her, because he couldn't remember anything she might have said. Where was Florence when he needed her the most? Oh right, back at the church, preparing everything he needed for the next day.

Maybe Laurence could try and hide the stain somehow? It would have been easy if he wouldn't have gotten blood on his shawl, then he could just have used it to cover up the stain on his robes. Maybe he could just flip the shawl? As Laurence took it off and looked if his idea would work, he had to find out with disdain, that blood had seeped to the other side of the shawl and it was as bloodstained as the front.

Now what? Should Laurence make up some kind of excuse? He could tell anyone that asked that he had ran into a door. Or maybe not, then they would just laugh at him. What if he told that he had gotten the nosebleed in a fist fight? …No, that idea wasn't good either, because then he had to find someone to blame and Laurence very much preferred to be on the good side of the nobles. For once, Laurence pitied that nobody of Cainhurst was present, he easily had been able to blame them without getting his reputation drawn into the dirt.

Before Laurence could think up any kind of solution or excuse, there was a frantic knock at the door. "Heeelloo, are you maybe done soon? Others need to use the bathroom too, you know."

Great, now Laurence had to leave. If he would stay in, he would give the impression that he wasn't feeling well and that certainly wouldn't put him into a good light and he absolutely would be the source of rumours. With a sigh, Laurence opened the door.

"Finally.", the voice from before said and Laurence froze as he recognized the owner of the voice as Yuria. Oh great, he had completely forgotten that the leader of the choir had been invited to the party too. She froze as much as him, then her gaze went to his robes (for once she wasn't wearing the blindfold cap, of course she wasn't) and a grin appeared on her face.

"Looks like you had another nosebleed, Laurie.", Yuria snickered.

"Shut up, Yuria.", Laurence said, not in the mood for her teasing. "Don't tell anyone.

"What stops me from telling something as funny as the Vicar, the inventor of the Blood Ministration, the one who can heal any sickness, still not being able to get rid of his nosebleeds?", Yuria asked, a certain glee shining in her eyes.

"Well, maybe that I don't plan on moving away from this doorway if you do and then there will be a far funnier and more embarrassing rumour about the choir leader.", Laurence said, a smug smile on his face. Yuria's gaze darkened.

"Fine, I won't tell anyone. Just let me use the bathroom.", she hissed. Laurence stepped aside and before Yuria closed the door behind her, he heard her murmur: "Anyone is able to see it anyway, I don't even need to spell it out for them."

Yuria was right. There were some very obvious blood stains on Laurence' clothes and he didn't had a clue how to hide them or explain them. He couldn't tell the truth because that would people doubt the effectiveness of the Healing Blood. Should he just leave?

Laurence already had convinced the host to keep up his donation for the Healing Church. Normally, at this point, he would find the next best willing woman (sometimes it was a man) and have some fun with them, because he didn't had the desire to talk with anybody at these parties. He also had to wait for his bodyguard that would escort him back, because at night beasts could appear. The Hunter's Workshop usually took care of them, but the Healing Church still had a curfew after sundown. Often, the party guests stayed over night, but Laurence always had a strong distaste staying longer than he needed, so he usually requested that one of the Hunters was getting him, especially when he had gotten drunk. Often it was Gehrman who came for him.

As Laurence still had been deep in thought, he heard the flush of the toilet and then Yuria stepped out, looking at him. "You should come to a decision soon, Laurie.", she grinned and then went back into the main room for the party.

Again, Yuria was right. It might be a bit dangerous, but Laurence should be able to get back to the church on his own. He had trained with the threaded cane, a weapon that Gehrman had made for him and he hadn't even done that bad while sparring against Gehrman and Maria. Surely he would be able to hold his own in a fight by now.

Laurence went to the entrance of the mansion, found his threaded cane (luckily it didn't look like a weapon so that it never was confiscated), looked back and then shrugged. They didn't need him there anymore, it was better than for anyone to see his bloodstained clothes and get the wrong ideas. Laurence pressed on the button which transformed the cane into the whip, clutched the handle tightly in his left hand and then left the mansion.

The moon was up in the sky and cast a pale silvery light down on Yharnam. Normally Laurence liked to look at the moon, but the full moon made him uneasy. He always had the feeling that the beasts were more aggressive when the moon was full. He took a deep breath to calm down and started walking into the direction of the cathedral.

Luckily he wasn't that far away from the cathedral, most of the nobles lived in the centre of Yharnam, close to cathedral ward. Laurence probably only needed thirty minutes to reach it.

Still... in thirty minutes a lot could happen. Laurence considered if he should stop at the workshop instead, but Gehrman and the others surely were out patrolling the streets and Gehrman had refused to give Laurence a key to the workshop (probably because Gehrman wanted to have some peace and quiet and not be in danger of Laurence to barge in at any time of the day). So the workshop was out of the question. Maybe Laurence should stop at Oedon Chapel? Of course it was save in there, but there wasn't a soft bed to sleep in and he would get rather bored just waiting out the night there.

No, it would be fine. He would make it to the cathedral and then could change out of bhis loodstained clothes, hand them to Florence the next day and this time listen when she explained him how to get rid of blood stains out of white clothes. For now Laurence just hoped that nobody would see him, but outside of the hunters nobody should roam the city streets anyway.

Even though Laurence tried to calm himself down, he got more and more uneasy as he was walking down the streets. Every shadow, every movement, made him nervous and he often twirled around, threaded cane at the ready, only to relax when he realized that it had been no beast.

"Relax, Laurence, relax.", he murmured to himself. "You trained. You can take down a beast yourself should the need arise." Still, having trained was a different thing than a real battle. Maybe he should ask Gehrman and Maria to go along on their patrol one day, to see if he really could handle himself. For now, he just had to hope that no beast would cross his way.

After Laurence had travelled around the half of the way, he heard a snarl. Laurence' head jerked around and he took a step back when he saw it... one of the lycanthrope like beasts, hunching over, eyes glowing in the dark.

"You.. you don't scare me...", Laurence murmured, preparing his threaded cane, noticing how much his arm was jittering. Laurence asked himself how the beast had found him... after all, they were more interested in blood and therefore would often go after the hunters who were covered in blood.

Laurence' gaze went downwards to his bloodstained clothes and he groaned internally. What had he done? Like this, he was a living target for the beasts! There was no choice but to either run or fight. Laurence doubted that he would be able to outrun the beast, so he had to fight. He stroke at the same time as the beast lunged forwards.

Laurence' hit seemed to have almost no effect when it brushed against the left front leg of the beast. Laurence could see a bit of blood flying, but the beast didn't slow down or collapsed, in fact, it soon had Laurence buried under its claws. Laurence' whole body was shaking as the beast sniffed at his clothes and started to lick over the blood. It would soon have enough of licking his clothes and bite through Laurence' throat instead. He had to act quick. Laurence transformed the threaded cane back and while the beast was distracted, stabbed the blade right into its eye.

The beast howled in pain and let go of Laurence. He tried to scramble back onto his feet, his knees feeling like pudding, when the beasts paw hit him and he got hurled back to the ground, hissing when the impact send a ripple of pain through his body. When Laurence opened his eyes again, he saw the foaming mouth of the beast above him and he clenched his whole body, closing his eyes again, awaiting the bite that would end his life, sweat dropping down his forehead.

"Begone, vile beast!"

Laurence opened his eyes as he felt the pressure of the beast's weights being lifted from his body and stared at the hunter who had just saved his life. He had seen him already, sometimes in the workshop. He was tall, handsome, with straight black hair and he wielded a weapon that was so unique that not even Gehrman could recreate it.

The sword was as bright as the full moon itself and easily cut the head off the neck of the beast, hot blood pouring down on the cobblestone.

"Are you alright? Are you hurt?", the hunter came hurried to Laurence which still sat there dumbfounded, clothes uncomfortably damp and Laurence very much hoped that it was just sweat he felt in his pants. The hunter gasped as he saw just who was sitting on the floor: "Vicar?! What are you doing here?"

"I, um..., wanted to go home...", Laurence said. "Back to the cathedral..."

"On your own? With clothes like that?", the hunter gestured at Laurence' bloodied shawl and robes. What had been his name again? Something with L, that much Laurence remembered, but not the rest. Would it be awkward to ask?

"...not my smartest move, I admit...", Laurence murmured.

"Well, whatever.", the hunter said. "The important thing is, that you haven't gotten hurt. I would like to escort you back to the church before another beast sniffs out the scent of blood on your clothes."

The hunter offered a hand to Laurence, helping him up. Laurence had the feeling he turned a bit red in the face. That hunter sure was handsome and despite his situation, he could feel the attraction rising inside of him.

That's so inappropriate., Laurence thought to himself.

"In case you haven't gotten my name yet, it's Ludwig.", the hunter said and finally Laurence had a name to the face and that even without asking. Had Ludwig sensed that Laurence might have forgotten his name? Or maybe he just assumed that Laurence had trouble remembering the names of all the hunters in the workshop, especially the ones he wasn't close too.

"Thank you for saving me, Ludwig.", Laurence said. "I will make sure that you get a proper reward once I am back at the cathedral. However... are you alone? Isn't it common for hunters to hunt in pairs?"

It was one of Gehrman's rules. Every hunter should have a partner, like Maria and Gehrman always hunted together.

"Because of my weapon and fighting style, Gehrman told me that it would better if I hunt on my own.", Ludwig said. "A partner would just be in my way and be in danger of getting into the crossfire. Besides, I have Midnight."

"Midnight?", Laurence asked and Ludwig put his fingers into his mouth to whistle. A short while later, a horse came running, with silvery fur. It remembered Laurence of the colour of the moonlight.

"My horse and partner.", Ludwig said. "I prefer to hunt on horseback, a lot of the larger beast are easier to take down like this. But for now, she will be glad to take you back to the cathedral."

"I shall get up there?", Laurence asked. He had never learned how to ride a horse. He always had taken carriages when he needed to be somewhere that was farther away.

"Yes. Don't worry, I will take her reins and guide her, you don't need to know how to ride.", Ludwig said.

Laurence winced. Had Ludwig looked through him a second time or was it just a mere coincidence?

"I don't know how to get up there, though...", Laurence said, looking up at the horse. He felt very small and helpless against the giant animal.

"Allow me to help you.", Ludwig said and Laurence could feel how he was lifted in air without any effort and landed in the saddle. He turned red in the face again, being handled so easily had turned him incredibly on.

Inappropriate., Laurence thought to himself again. I am so inappropriate.

"Tell me if you need anything, if you are in pain, if you feel sick, just say one word and we'll stop right away.

Laurence nodded.

"Then let's get going.", Ludwig took the reins of the horse and they got moving, Laurence holding himself on the saddle, staring at Ludwig the whole time until they were at the cathedral.

He knew what he would be doing once he was behind the safety of his room.

(Author's note: It had just been sweat in Laurence' pants, don't worry, however I can't guarantee what will happen to them later...)