Yeah I know this isn't Bloodline, sorry about that. Or you're welcome?

This was destined to be a quick 1000 word thing I could submit to Kokoroklongly's 2021 Halloween FanZine. I'm still doing that, but it'll be a much smaller passage taken from somewhere within this, because my chaos brain took the wheel and turned my little idea into a 7000 word monster. It actually worked out nicely to split that into two smaller chunks, so here's part one. Part two will be up later today.

I don't know exactly how far I'm going to take this as a story but I have a few other future chapters in mind. I've always wanted to write a study of Mika and Arra throughout the decades so I'm excited to finally be doing this. While their dynamic was tragically underdeveloped in SLC, it gave me a lot of lines to read between so I've extrapolated my own theories and headcanons to base this around. It'll be my own interpretation of their characters, while still remaining as true to canon as possible.

I'm very used to writing Mika at this point but I'm still trying to get a handle on Arra. If she seems a little erratic in this chapter, that's intentional. Because this is so early on, life and sense of self is a little all over the place at this point compared to how we know her later in the series. And of course my version of Mika will be the same one that appears in the Dirty Chai AU - my sassy, sarcastic, moody, genius. If you've just dropped in to check this story out and aren't familiar with my other stuff, I recommend a precursory google image search for "Luke Evans Black Leather Jacket" bc that's what Mika looks like in every universe I write. And if it helps, I picture Arra as Jaimie Alexander in her OG Thor era.

Chapter 1: gods, it's brutal out here

Arra Sails was born with big dreams. For as long as she could remember, she wanted the whole world and she wanted it yesterday.

Humanity wasn't enough, so she ran.

As Evanna's apprentice, she felt like a kid with her face pressed against the window of a candy store, so hungry but never allowed inside. Serving Evanna wasn't enough, so when a vampire named Ivan Dalgaard offered her an apprenticeship, she ran.

And then she became a vampire. She was finally in the damn candy store and it smelled so damn good. But even now after five years, all she ever got to do was smell the candy. Because the more her mouth watered, the tighter her mentor held onto her hand while chuckling, "No, honey. That's not for you."

Ivan Dalgaard was a passable Vampire General. And surely he must've had some semblance of ambition back in his day, otherwise he wouldn't have survived the trials required to become a General. At the start he welcomed Arra with open arms. Nurtured her, encouraged her, accepted her. And Arra, who'd never known anything resembling a father figure, bonded with him immediately. When Ivan took her under his wing, she thought it was the first stepping stone to the life of adventure and glory she'd always dreamed of.

Weeks turned into months turned into years. And Arra's heart slowly sank as she realized whatever fire used to burn within Ivan had long since died to a faintly glowing ember - and that was being generous. He protected her well enough, but he had no interest in living harshly or honing his combat skills. Or worse, passing those skills onto Arra. She fought tooth and nail to reignite his warriors' spirit, but was lucky to persuade him to spar with her for even an hour here and there. By the time their fifth year together rolled into the sixth, Arra had grown so restless it physically ached sometimes.

Ivan had a lot of vampire friends, and every time they crossed paths with one it was the same song and dance. Arra would get excited at the prospect of making a new connection within the clan. She longed for a chance to test herself, impress someone, maybe even learn something new. And it was always the same flavour of disappointment. Ivan's friends would chuckle bemusedly at her, as though she was a charming but unconventional pet. Or they'd skip straight to saying something gross.

By this point Arra had heard every sexist, chauvinistic, derogatory remark that existed at the time. Ivan would shrug it off and tell his friends, "You're just jealous because you have no one to rub your feet after battle!" To which Arra would come back with, "What battle? Only thing I've seen you battle was a toothless old human when he kicked you out of his tavern!". Then Ivan would chortle at her cheekiness, then smile expectantly at her until she got up to tend the fire or fetch food.

She didn't want to part ways with Ivan - for all his faults, he felt like family. And for all her determination, she knew she wasn't truly ready to make it on her own. But this endless limbo was exhausting.

Surely there had to be more for her than this.

Please, gods. Let there be more than this.

Arra's final night as Ivan's apprentice started as all of them did. She had no reason to anticipate the sharp corner her life was about to take.

She returned to their campsite with a string of rabbits she'd killed. She'd clean and cook them too, because Ivan never lifted a finger once they'd made camp. There was another vampire sitting by the fire with him. Arra barely spared either of them a glance. She hadn't been expecting company, but it was normal for Ivan not to tell her in advance if he was planning to rendezvous with someone.

The newcomer was a young man who looked to be in his mid-twenties, well below the typical age range of Ivan's friends. In fact, he looked much closer to Arra's age. But his confident posture and powerful frame suggested he was a seasoned vampire nonetheless. He blended into the night, dressed in black from head to toe. His smooth jet-black hair was just long enough to obscure his eyes a little - until he casually pushed it back off his face with a battle-scarred hand.

Ivan was doing all the talking when Arra arrived, rambling on and on about the enormous wildcat he'd killed last year. The visitor was nodding politely as Ivan chatted, every now and then smiling in a way that looked more patronizing than amused.

"Ah, Miss Sails! Took you long enough!" Ivan blustered as she approached with the rabbits. Then he frowned. "You only caught two?"

"I was lucky to catch two!" Arra huffed back, instantly losing her patience. It was freezing, and she was exhausted. "I told you wildlife would be scarce in this area and we should keep moving south, but gods forbid you walked a single step further, you lazy old bat!"

Arra heard a snort of laughter to her left, and she glanced disparagingly at the source of the sound. The visitor clearly found her amusing, and she wondered what sort of unappealing pickup line he'd inevitably try to use on her later. Because it wasn't if, it was when. Human or vampire, men were predictable.

"Don't worry about me. I'm just passing through, and I ate earlier." Said the unfamiliar man. He spoke in a calm, easy cadence.

"Arra, this is General Ver Leth. The Princes sent him to do a wellness check on me, apparently." Said Ivan gruffly, making no effort to help Arra as she went to hang the rabbits on a tree branch. The fire was burning low and she'd need her hands free to tend it.

"I'll get it. You have your hands full." Said the man known as General Ver Leth. He got up to grab a few small branches from the pile Arra had assembled before heading out to hunt. He carefully added them to the fire before sitting back down, the reignited flames illuminating his steely grey eyes and unassumingly curious expression as he glanced up at his fellow General. "And you can't exactly blame the Princes for wondering, Ivan. It's not like you to skip council."

The word 'council' set Arra's pulse racing unexpectedly. She hadn't been blooded long enough to attend council in the legendary Vampire Mountain. But gods, she wanted to. It was the light at the end of the tunnel of limbo she was currently trudging through.

"When did he skip council?" Arra demanded.

"Six months ago?" General Ver Leth supplied, meeting Arra's sharp inquiry with a dubious look as though she said something completely ignorant. Then he looked to Ivan for clarification. Ivan didn't respond, and pressed his lips together in a way that suggested he wasn't planning to.

Arra felt goosebumps rise at the back of her neck as her internal alarms began to sound.

"Council was six months ago?" Arra shot back as she stared shrewdly back and forth between the two men.

"That's what I said." General Ver Leth replied. "So neither of you knew it was a council year?" He glanced back and forth between them, eyes narrowing. Arra felt her heart drop into her stomach.

"I had no idea." She murmured truthfully, the words stinging her throat. Ever since she'd been blooded, all she wanted was to test herself at the Festival of the Undead. Realizing she'd missed her very first chance was a bitter pill to swallow.

"I already told you, Mika. I didn't realize Council was coming up so soon!" Ivan groaned, rubbing his temples. "The years all blend together. You know how it is."

Mika Ver Leth's brow furrowed curiously as he watched them.

"Alright, let's pretend it's perfectly normal to forget Council." Said Mika. He rearranged his face into the same thin, patronizing smile he'd worn while Ivan was rambling about the wildcat. "Ivan, you know you're not in trouble, right? If you got injured and couldn't make the journey, just say so. No need to be embarrassed. The Princes wanted to make sure you hadn't been captured or something. That's the only reason I'm here."

Arra could barely hear Mika over her own heartbeat, louder and harder til it felt liable to pound itself out of her chest completely. Because suddenly she felt as trapped as she was with Evanna, forever doomed to be a spectator as the world spun away without her.

"How could you just forget it was a Council year?!" Arra choked out, turning to face Ivan head-on as he grimaced. "I've asked you so many times how much longer I had to wait! And you just kept telling me, be patient, Miss Sails! Just a couple more years now!"

"It's been a busy decade, Arra. We'll talk about this later." Ivan blustered. And suddenly he was all too eager to busy himself with stoking the campfire while his eyes darted everywhere but Arra.

"Later? Like the twelve years I have to wait for another chance to prove myself at the Festival of the Undead?!" Arra fired back, every nerve alight with anger.

"You don't have the experience or skills to hold your own! I did you a favour. Now let's move on from this, shall we? Those rabbits aren't going to cook themselves." Ivan countered, sounding more flustered by the minute. His desperation was only amplified by the piss-poor job he was doing of attempting to feign calm.

"You can shove the rabbits up your ass! You used to tell me stories of how much you loved Council! The first week we spent together, promised me we'd go to the next one! You knew how much this meant to me!" Arra pressed. She wasn't letting him off the hook for this.

"You'll have plenty of chances before your time is up. When you've lived as long as I have, time passes differently. Now calm down and quit embarrassing me in front of General Ver Leth." Said Ivan. He was shifting uncomfortably as he glanced back and forth between Mika and Arra, unable to meet either of their eyes.

"Please. Don't stop on my account." Mika deadpanned. He was now nibbling on a handful of blueberries he'd pulled out of his pocket while casually observing the shouting match as though it was a sporting event.

Calm down and quit embarrassing me. The words ignited a firestorm in the deepest part of her soul that made her want to burn this whole forest down. How dare he demand serenity from her at this moment? What gave him the right to imply her fury was inconveniencing him?

"I'M embarrassing YOU?!" Arra roared in Ivan's face, abandoning the last of her self-restraint. She turned to face Mika and scoffed, "That behemoth of a wildcat Ivan was telling you about? The thing was at least a hundred years old and dying of starvation when he hunted it. He doesn't need my help to embarrass him. He doesn't even know what year it is."

Mika visibly stifled a laugh, but Arra didn't have a chance to feel smug. That was the moment the true realization hit her like a bag of rocks before the words were out of her mouth. Ivan was a lot of things, but he wasn't that ignorant. She rotated on the spot to face her mentor, wanting nothing more than to drive her small fist through his face.

"You didn't forget it was a Council year. You skipped it on purpose. You're embarrassed of me, aren't you?" As quickly as her voice had risen to a shout, it shrank back to a whisper as her throat began to close. Tears burned behind her eyes but she'd die before she'd let them flow.

Even as she blurted out that accusation, Arra prayed she was wrong. That Ivan really was just a well-intentioned old man who'd lost track of time. That it was an honest mistake and he really did want her to succeed. But the increasing panic in his eyes didn't bode well.

"Arra, you don't understand-"

"Tell me I'm wrong, Ivan. I dare you. Look me in the eye and tell me it was a mistake." Arra pressed, taking a step closer and registering grim satisfaction when he leaned nervously away from her. But the way he sighed in defeat confirmed what Arra didn't want to believe.

"You caught me! Are you happy now? It wasn't a mistake. I chose to skip council." Ivan choked hopelessly at last, tripping over the words as his face went from sickly grey to shameful red as he struggled but ultimately failed to meet Arra's incinerating gaze.

For once, words failed her and it was all she could to remind herself to breathe. The silence between them was so intense that the crackle of the campfire was suddenly deafening. It was Mika who finally broke it, once it became clear that neither mentor nor apprentice had anything left to say.

"Wow. This has been… something. I'll be on my way. General Dalgaard, I'll inform the Princes you're still functional. See you at next Council if your apprentice doesn't punt you off a cliff before then. Good luck to you both." Said Mika casually as he stood up. But neither Arra nor Ivan spared him a second glance, and Mika lingered a moment longer as though curious to see if Arra would deck Ivan right then and there.

"I'm not delusional. I know I'm not the best thing that's ever happened to you. But am I such an embarrassment that you'd rather miss Council altogether than be seen there with me? And lie about it?" Arra rasped, hating the way her voice cracked as self-doubt began to drown her righteous anger.

"Arra, you're making me sound like a terrible man!" Ivan protested. "You don't know the clan like I do! You're very talented. But female apprentices aren't exactly commonplace. I knew I was taking a gamble when I blooded you, but I did see your potential. I'd never lie about that! I just hoped you'd have… settled down by now."

"Settle down?! I joined the clan because I wanted to test myself! To earn respect! What kind of vampire did you think I was planning on being?" Several moments of ringing silence followed those words, and Arra exhaled a soft, bitter laugh. As if anything about this was funny. "I thought you were just getting soft in your old age. But the truth is you only ever wanted me to look pretty, standing behind you with my head down. The only potential you saw in me was to be a trophy."

"Call it what you want! I can't handle you, Arra! I'm at my wits end! All you care about is chasing glory! You're reckless, belligerent, and impulsive! You want the truth? Now you have it!" Ivan exploded, finally sounding as angry as Arra felt. "I tried. But I'm exhausted from trying to manage you, because you are impossible!"

Arra felt a sickening wave of disappointment threaten to swallow her. There it was. She wasn't as naive as Ivan clearly thought she was - many a night she'd lay awake wondering if he was simply trying to tolerate her in the hopes she'd get bored and leave him. But maybe she was more naive than she herself had even realized - because every single time, she brushed it off and told herself that just couldn't be possible.

She blinked back tears and steeled herself, preparing to double down and retaliate with words she knew would cut Ivan to the bone. She didn't know what the words would be, but they'd find themselves on their way out. They always did. But her train of thought was derailed before it even left the station, because Mika Ver Leth apparently couldn't mind his own business.

"Okay, clearly this isn't working for either of you." Mika ventured, glancing warily from Arra to Ivan and back again. "Thank you for being honest, Ivan. You could've been a little more direct, but we got there in the end. As a casual observer, I strongly suggest you find a different mentor for Arra. This is going nowhere very quickly-"

"Nobody asked for your opinion. And I'm not going nowhere. I'm going to make something of myself. And I'll do it with or without a mentor." Arra cut Mika off venomously.

"I was referring to the current arrangement, not you personally." Mika sighed, meeting her indignation with only a withering gaze, as if she was being deliberately dense. Then he looked back at Ivan. "There's been plenty of young, energetic vampires rising through the ranks these last few decades. I can put you in contact with a few of my friends - they'd be a lot younger than the company you'd typically keep. Perhaps one of them would be interested in taking on an apprentice."

"You know as well as I do it'll always be a man's world!" Ivan whined. "What makes you think any of them will be willing to train a woman?"

"And you know an honourable vampire doesn't discriminate on the same grounds that humans do." Mika countered firmly. "If Arra can keep up with her peers, she'll succeed. And you finally can sit back and grow fat and lazy. That's what you want, isn't it?" He arched a dark eyebrow at Ivan, who blushed for a moment. Then Ivan's round, fleshy face lit up like a lightbulb.

"Brilliant idea, Mika! They weren't exaggerating when they said you're the rising star of your generation. I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner! You can take Arra under your wing and train her yourself!"

Mika and Arra both rounded on Ivan simultaneously, glaring twin daggers at the older man.

"I didn't mean me!" Mika spat vehemently.

"You can't just give me away like an animal!" Arra snapped, ignoring Mika. As much as she resented Ivan after the events of the night, her fury burned even hotter at his sudden enthusiasm to get rid of her. Did their five years together truly mean that little? Sure, they clashed. They also shared laughter, care, and adventure - just not as much adventure as Arra wanted. But for better or worse, they were all each other had.

And Ivan still couldn't even look at her.

"Why not you?" Ivan groaned, staring back at Mika with an almost pleading look in his eyes. "You're young and ambitious! Look at all you've accomplished in a short time! Gods know you have plenty of energy to keep Arra in line!"

"If you think I'm going to let anyone keep me in line you can both go to hell." Arra interjected, glaring at the men on either side of her.

"Don't worry, Sails. The last thing I want is an apprentice." Mika snorted derisively, rolling his eyes. "And trust me, I don't discriminate by gender. I've turned down three offers this year alone. It'd slow me down. I don't have time to babysit."

"Come on, Mika. Think about it. You said it yourself - you're chasing glory. Everyone knows you have your eyes on an investiture. If you took a chance on a woman and actually managed to turn her into something worthwhile, it would make you that much more impressive to the Princes!" Ivan pressed, starting to look a little manic.

Something in Mika's face shifted, but it was clear he wasn't one to wear his emotions on his sleeve. When Arra felt her heart shatter, she didn't hide it nearly as well.

If you actually managed to turn her into something worthwhile. Because that's all she was. Something. A commodity, a pawn, a liability. She wasn't someone.

"Is that the kind of power games the Generals played back in your day? I assure you, in the unlikely event I ever take on an apprentice, it'll be for the right reasons." Mika countered. His mannerisms were spotlessly diplomatic but his eyes betrayed genuine disgust.

By seniority, Ivan outranked Mika by a mile. But the older General still seemed to deflate and fold inwards under his much younger colleague's eviscerating glare.

"No, no. I misspoke. I apologize for overstepping. Clearly you have more on your plate than I realized." Said Ivan, still blushing as he tried to rein himself in. "Thank you for checking in on me, General Ver Leth. I apologize for our behaviour. You've given both Arra and myself a lot to think about. Now the sun is rising, and there's an abandoned barn down that hill Are you making camp with us, or are you going to carry on and roast?"

Part 2 coming very soon! Please leave a comment if you're into this. It's always hard to gauge reader interest in a fandom this small.
Cheers!