Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or any of its associated characters!
Summary: Sasuke is tired. Sasuke is hungry. Sasuke is...well, hunting, now. Vampire AU, SNS, will be explicit. Two years later...it's done! New chapter will be up every day until the fic is finished!
OLD NOTES (2019/08/29): Okay! We're trying something kind of different this month! This story both stands alone as a oneshot and will serve as the first chapter for a story that isn't finished yet. I'm still working on it, but I don't want to rush it for you guys. So here's a little taste for what's to come? It was inspired by a piece of art by noranb - I have it linked on ao3 if you want to see it!
Those of you that follow me on tumblr may have seen this fic already, since I posted it to help cheer up a lovely anon, but since it kind of stands alone, I thought I'd post it as this month's fic for you guys too. That way I can keep focusing on this one; to give you a sense of where it's at, I'm in the midst of reworking of it, but at the moment, we're at 17k words so far. More updates will be on tumblr - plus all my other links are there too!)
That all out of the way, let's get into some vampire AU goodness! I hope you like it :)
NEW NOTES (2021/12/28): Hello it is midnight two years later and I am HERE and I am READY! Thank you all so much for being so patient and amazing. I cannot tell you how nice it's been to be able to really dive in and make sure this fic was good and ready before I posted it. I really, really hope it will be worth the wait! I'm updating this chapter now, and chapter 2 will be up tomorrow. We'll be doing a chapter a day again! 39 chapters in total, and 137k+ words :)
But I've kept you waiting long enough! Two years from initially posting this chapter as a one shot - here's the full story of Bite Me!
Bite Me
Chapter 1: Vampire!
Sasuke was tired.
Not because of the night classes—no, he was pretty well-suited to those. He'd been nocturnal for as long as he could remember. And what they were doing wasn't particularly challenging—just some poses, and Sasuke was acquainted well enough with the human body. It was nice to look at, Sasuke thought, and he liked to spend the time to learn all the different shapes that people could be. He liked to spend the time to look at them. There wasn't much that made him feel motivated, nowadays, and it was hard enough for him to live on the schedule he'd come to have as it was. This was the first hobby he'd managed to have since...well, it was the only one he had now.
So—no, Sasuke wasn't tired from class.
He sighed again, forcing himself to move on for once. He'd spent thirty of the last forty minutes drawing and redrawing the model's neck, over and over again. He already had a tendency to do that, and he was trying to learn not to. Everyone else had managed a full...
"Alright, that's it for today!"
Crap.
Sasuke sighed, and packed his things into his small, well-worn bag. He'd quit his job last week—or, well, they'd politely asked him to get the hell out of there once his I.D. had finally fallen through. He'd very much appreciated the dim lights of the bar, especially alongside the added bonus of questionably functional drunks, but Sasuke had been starting to think the constant alcohol was getting to him. It tasted worse from them. Easier to get, though, and he didn't have to hurt anyone too badly to get it, but he tended to feel worse, and need...more.
He hadn't liked that.
Of course, now, he didn't have that option as accessible. It was still there. He could still do it—still prowl the streets to look for easy targets and stifle the part of his mind that hated every second of it. It was a last resort, though, which is why he was so…
Tired.
Tired and hungry and a little bit dizzy, and staring at a naked man's neck for the past three hours really hadn't helped. Go figure.
He put his hood up and slipped through the door, keeping an eye on the ways everyone went—groups of three, four, five, six—one person there? No, a couple. Shit.
Sasuke leaned against the wall and pulled out his phone—which he'd naively continued to pay for, with the little money that he had, with the no one he had to call—pretending to scroll his way through some screen or another. There were still a few students left in the class, so with just a bit of luck—
A body breezed past him, tucking two earbuds in. Good sign. A casual jacket hung off his shoulders, left unzipped—no necklaces to watch out for, either. Sasuke watched as the man walked a few more lazy steps, staring down at his phone as if picking a song, before promptly turning down the alleyway Sasuke had had his eye on for weeks.
Alright, then. The blonde it was.
Sasuke pushed himself off the wall and imitated his own slow, distracted walk. He turned his phone screen off as he continued to stare down at it, letting his eyes get used to the night again (it took longer when he was tired, when he was like this, and he only had about another two minutes before the two of them would be back in the public eye again) and sped up his pace. He had almost mastered getting to them before they could—
"Wh—hey, the fuck are you—"
Shit. Sasuke was sloppy and stupid and the man wrenched his shoulder from Sasuke's grip as soon as he'd felt the heat of his skin at his lips—Sasuke grabbed at him but only caught his jacket—the man spun around with a punch that Sasuke would have dodged if not for the jacket wrenching him in—
His nose would have bled, if he'd had enough blood left. His vision blurred and sent him spinning, he was already dizzy and desperate and too far in to—
The man pinned Sasuke to the wall with his forearm, blurry keys in his other blurry hand. And one key that folded out into a knife? For god's sake. Of all the—
"Picked the wrong person to…what the hell?"
The man flinched back. Whether it was Sasuke's eyes or his fangs that did the trick, he didn't know. At least he hadn't stabbed him, though.
Still—
"The hell's wrong with your eyes?" the man asked, eyes wide, brow furrowed, knife in his hand.
"Probably the same thing that's wrong with your brain, moron," Sasuke snapped, sliding down the wall. He'd barely had the fight in him for that, and now his nose fucking hurt on top of it all. He felt slow and exhausted and fuck this—
"Wh—you—I'm the moron?! I just kicked your ass!"
"And you're sticking around to find out what happens next?" Sasuke spat, pulling his hood back up. "Get out of here."
Sasuke closed his eyes.
"I'm not going to turn my back so you can get another go, you know. I'm not stupid."
"Great," Sasuke said, tucking his head between his legs. "Stay here forever then."
The pain pulsed between Sasuke's eyes—in time with his consciousness, waving in and out. He'd been spacing out. Losing his vision. Slow to stand and slower to move. His head felt heavy and his arms felt heavier...he...
"Are you...okay?"
Sasuke looked up, incredulous.
"Are you serious?"
"Well I'm not gonna let you die here—I'll—there's a hospital near here—"
"I don't need a hospital," Sasuke snapped, "either kill me or leave."
There was a pause.
Sasuke closed his eyes again.
"What were you going to do to me?"
Oh, for god's sake.
"What do you think, genius?" Sasuke asked, keeping his eyes closed. Maybe if he just fell asleep…
"You—come on. There's no way."
"You're right," Sasuke said. "There's no way. So you should leave before the unhinged lunatic wakes up again."
"...Is the unhinged lunatic going to wake up again if I leave?"
Sasuke opened his eyes only to glare.
"Your eyes are back to normal," said the blonde, knife still in his hand.
"And yet your brain remains firmly rooted in insanity. Leave me alone."
"I'm serious," the blonde said, stepping forwards—and Sasuke flinched back, hitting his head to the wall, as the knife moved closer, "I—oh, shit, no, I'm not gonna—I mean I—"
The man's mouth opened and closed, as if trying to decide whether to appease Sasuke's delicate sensibilities, or continue to defend himself from an obvious threat.
"You know I attacked you, right?"
The blonde continued to watch him.
"You don't look too happy about it."
Sasuke rolled his eyes.
"Yes," he drawled. "It ended rather differently than intended."
The man's head inclined to the side, as if he was scanning Sasuke for something—
"I would have expected you to run," he said, "after I—y'know—pulled a knife on you and all that."
Sasuke didn't reply.
"You can't run, can you?"
Sasuke didn't reply.
"Can you even stand?"
"Are you getting off on this?" Sasuke snapped, the wave of anger making him feel even more light-headed than before. "Leave."
The man crouched in front of him. Sasuke flinched back.
"Hey," he said, reaching out an empty hand. "Make your eyes do the thing again."
Sasuke stared at him. The man's wrist came closer. And he could hear the blood humming under his skin, feel the heat of it, he—
"You don't know what you're doing," he said quickly, desperately—
"Hey," said the guy, "they do glow. Cool."
"You're insane," Sasuke breathed.
"I've still got a knife and I'm not gonna let you die. I save your life and you won't turn me into one, yeah?"
"I have no idea how to even do—are you—" Sasuke stared at him, "are you serious?"
The man waved his wrist in front of his face—Sasuke snatched it out of the air before he even had another thought.
"Ooh, fangs too—wh—o-oh..."
Finally. Finally. Sasuke nearly collapsed with relief—he fell forwards, clutching the wrist to his mouth, groaning into the warmth—god, he'd been so—
"Okay—that's—that's enough. That's—"
Sasuke let out a small half-strangled noise as the wrist pulled itself away. As the man pulled his wrist away, fuck, it was like he lost it in moments like this—
"That's—I mean, uh, was that enough…?"
The haze in Sasuke's mind slowly, slowly cleared.
"I…" he said, staring up into the blue eyes he hadn't even noticed before—and the marks, on his cheeks, oh— "oh. You're the one who's always in class."
The blonde pulled back.
"Wh—yeah, 'cause my dad ownsthe place—that's the thanks I get for saving your life?"
The man waved his wrist in the air and stared Sasuke down expectantly.
The corner of Sasuke's lip twitched.
"...Thanks," he said finally.
"That's better. Weird though," he said, bringing his hand back to him, "it didn't hurt at all. I barely felt anything."
Sasuke let out a breath, feeling the weight in his body slowly, slowly draining out of him. He hadn't felt that bad since he'd...woken up.
"That's the general idea," he said quietly. At least, he thought it was. He hadn't gotten very good yet; not enough to pick the arteries from the veins, but he was...usually...better at minimizing his impact. "You should go."
"Hm?"
"You're going to be light-headed for a while. Go make it home."
"Oh—well—yeah, I've donated blood before, I know that. Are you gonna be—?"
Sasuke snorted and shoved himself off the filthy (and wet, ugh, he hadn't noticed it had been wet) floor.
"I'm fine," he said, giving the blonde a challenging look. In debt or not, Sasuke was dangerous. Surely the man knew that.
"Hey—can I see your teeth again?"
What the hell—
"You have the self-preservation of an opossum in the middle of a road."
The man laughed and moved closer.
"Yeah, I'm a real dumbass—my friends tell me all the time. Open your mouth—lemmie see."
He moved closer, and—
"Oi—you—" Sasuke said, flinching back, "get your hands out of my mouth—"
"Ooh, they are kinda sharper, aren't they? Not as much as when you bit me, but—"
"They will be in a second if you don't stop shoving your fingers at them—"
That did the trick, and Sasuke stared him down with a significantly sharper gaze. Just because he was satiated didn't mean he was full, and this idiot was waving himself in front of him like a—
"Oh," the man said, staring at him as if realizing something, "you're scared you're actually going to hurt me."
Well.
"Wave a steak in front of a rabid dog and see how it ends for you."
The man's head tilted to the side, watching him with eyes that seemed too serious for that smile—
"You don't seem too rabid to me."
"I just," Sasuke started, speaking slowly as if explaining something to a small child, "drank your blood. As food. With my fangs. I attacked you about two minutes prior to—"
"And you let me win. You could've bit me anywhere—I only punched you once and you backed off."
"I wasn't thinking straight."
"Yeah, you were," the man said, "you were making sure you didn't hurt me. You didn't want to do it unless you knew I'd survive."
Sasuke glared at him. Fine. Fine, yes, he was completely terrified that one day he'd lose himself, and he'd spent more than a few hours in a night making sure every person he knocked down could get back up again—
"Fine," Sasuke said, clenching his teeth together. "You're right. Are you going to let me go now?"
"What am I, holding you hostage? You can go any time."
"You had a knife."
"Still do, actually," the man said, flicking it into his hand only to fold it away, "so don't try anything, vampire."
Sasuke rolled his eyes.
"Hey," said the blonde, "wanna help me find the headphones you so rudely ripped out of my ears?"
He stuck the keychain into his pocket and shot Sasuke a wide, innocent grin. Sasuke sighed, but let his eyes flicker to life again, just for a moment—
"They're over there." Sasuke nodded at them.
"Aw, fuck that's cool," the man said, trotting over to unabashedly grab at the disgusting floor. "What else can you do? You got like—super speed or something? Do you age? Wh—I feel like we would've noticed if you had no reflection in class—"
"That's only a thing if the mirror is laced with silver, idiot."
The man's mouth made a small 'o' shape. Sasuke's lips twitched again.
"And, uh, if it is?"
"I don't know," Sasuke said. "I've never found one where I know that's the case."
"Huh," he said, "don't you guys have like—a coven or some shit to teach you this stuff?"
Sasuke's good mood faltered. (He hadn't known he was in one.)
"None of your business. I'm leaving."
Sasuke turned on his heel, walking back the way he'd come. He'd be fine for at least a few days, now—and he really needed to find a new job before he was kicked back to the life he'd finally broken free of—
"See you next week, vampire!"
Sasuke flipped him off.
And he'd have to find a new hobby.
A/N: And we're off :) I'm so, so happy to finally be here. I hope you all are too!
See you...tomorrow!
- Kinomi