Prompt: Vampire

Turning Point

He woke up drowsy and confused, lying on a pile of trash next to a dumpster.

His head ached, his muscles were sore and his throat felt like liquid acid had been poured down it. He blinked through blood dripping down his forehead, wiping it away with a shaky hand when it seeped into the creases of his bleary blur orbs.

It was dark out, but he felt like it was closer to sunrise than the dead of night.

Fuck…

Hinata was probably worried sick.

He never stayed out this late, and if him staying out to the wee hours of the morning was enough to upset her, then him dragging his carcass back to their apartment all banged up was sure to give his sweet girlfriend a heart attack. Considering his last physical confrontation had landed him in the hospital and he'd promised his sobbing girlfriend it wouldn't happen again, he knew he was going to be in for it when he got home, Hinata hated seeing him hurt and he hated seeing her upset. This wasn't the first time he'd gotten into a fight at the bar, but it had been more than a year since he'd thrown hands under the influence of alcohol.

He was hoping she'd give him credit for that and wouldn't be too disappointed in him.

He sighed, then coughed, wincing against the stinging in his ribs.

Who was he kidding, he already knew he'd break her little heart.

Again…

He knew she wouldn't rake him over the coals but he really wished she would. It'd be better that having to look at her sad face, knowing he was the cause of it.

And for what?

Some smart mouthed asshole and his small posse of weirdos?

This…

This had to stop.

He was nearing his thirties, and as much as he denied it, he had to face the fact that his drinking wasn't just a continuation of his younger, wild years.

He had a problem.

No more brushing off his girlfriend's concern, or rolling his eyes at the alcoholism pamphlets she brought him.

It was time to grow the hell up.

He needed to get sober and stay that way.

This was his wake up call, his turning point to change the trajectory of his life for better and he wasn't going to ignore it.

Hinata had stood by him through thick and thin, she was everything to him and he had to start acting like it.

If he wasn't careful, she'd reach her breaking point, someday she'd say "enough is enough" and walk out of his life for good and he'd shrivel up and die if she ever left him.

Resolved, he rose from his bed of garbage, grimacing as pain shot up his spine.

He was definitely getting to old for this shit…

Not that he considered himself anywhere near the term, he'd cross that bridge when he touched sixty, it was that his body had accumulated more wear and tear than it could be expected to bounce back from over the years he'd spent abusing it.

He stumbled, reaching out to the dumpster to steady himself, palpitating his tender ribs as set off for the nearest subway station.

Nothing felt broken, just bruised to all hell and back.

At least he wouldn't be lying in a hospital bed when he told her what happened this time.

xxxxxx

"I'm sorry."

Those words were like a mantra at this point, a chant stuck on repeat in his mouth.

Her beautiful eyes were red rimmed, soft cheeks streaked with tears, her little upturned nose he loved to pelt with gentle kisses bright cherry.

She'd been crying all night, terrified he'd been killed while he laid blissfully unaware in the gutter.

Close to midnight she'd rung his cell and got no response, sent texts and still nothing; by three in the morning, she'd called his cellphone nearly thirty times and received nothing but his cheesy voicemail. Mr. Big mouth had either taken his phone or he'd lost in the heat of the violent confrontation out back, either way, he hadn't been able to answer her desperate calls, nor call her and tell her that he was alright.

That he was on his way home rather than the morgue she feared.

She called every hospital in a fifty mile radius, then dialed bars he'd frequented in the past asking if they'd seen him and when that turned up nothing, she'd grabbed her rainy day savings jar and taken a cab around the city to look for him.

To say he felt like shit was like saying the surface of the moon was kinda warm. Not a single bruise or ache on his body hurt worse than his heart did.

He'd really let her down.

Lower than sea level let down and he hated himself for it.

"I know," she murmured back, her soothing voice shaky and horse.

She dabbed at the cut above his brow with an antiseptic cotton ball, wincing sympathetically even though he hadn't flinched.

After wrapping him in her arms and sobbing her eyes out that he was alive, she'd sat him on the toilet to tend to his wounds. He refused a trip to the hospital despite his ribcage looking like a bruised banana, and though he knew she wanted to insist, she also knew how he was. He'd lived a rough life, he'd gone through worse than this more times than he could count, if something wasn't broken and he could breathe fairly well, he wasn't going.

End of discussion.

He hated doctors, he hated hospitals.

Too many of his most precious people went in and never walked out.

It bothered him though, that his paranoia was keeping him from doing something that would ease her mind when he'd been wracking his brain since he stumbled home for a way to do exactly that, but…

There was one thing, he knew, that she'd wanted for years.

One thing he could do for her and himself to put both their minds at ease.

"I'm gonna quit drinking," he told her.

She froze, staring at him with wide, hopeful eyes, sniffling as her damp lilac depths grew cloudy with emotion.

"No more alcohol, no more bars, I'm quitting," he vowed, "I'm gonna get sober and I'm gonna stay that way, 'ttebayo."

He cupped her face in his hands, her navy blue locks sliding across his bruised knuckles.

"I promise, and I mean it, this is the last time," he told her, his voice as firm as his eyes, "I'm done with this, I'm done making you worry, I'm done making you cry, no more, baby, I promise you. I'm done."

Her second round of tears hurt as much as the first, but he was determined not to have a third.

xxxxxx

He felt like shit the next day.

He was tired…no, exhausted.

Felt like every ounce of strength had been sapped from his body overnight. Raising his head from his pillow was a chore, getting up was near impossible; his tiny little girlfriend had nearly gotten herself flattened trying to help him to the bathroom. It was the possibility of hurting her that kept him upright and moving on the meager amount of energy he had left in his shaky form to get back to bed.

He'd gone through some terrible hangovers in his lifetime, but this one took the cake.

Never been this bad.

His head was killing him, leading him to believe he might be mildly concuss from the fight.

He hadn't eaten nor drank in nearly twenty-four hours, everything she tried to give him made him sick, even water.

His stomach was tied in the tightest, most complicated knots known to man, and it burned. He hadn't told her, he knew she'd be worried, but there was something burning in his gut.

Felt like goddamn hellfire!

xxxxxx

His senses were going wild.

He could hear everything, smell everything, hear everything…

Like the pitter patter of a pounding heartbeat beneath his ear, nestled between the breasts he lay snuggled into.

It stoked that burn in his gut, that ache for something he couldn't put name to.

He reached up, feverishly scratching at two bumps in the cradle of his neck, and yet no matter how much he scratch, it still itched.

"No, baby, no, don't do that," Hinata chided, pulling his hand away, "you're bleeding."

A light came on, a hiss left his throat as he pulled the sheet up and over his head. It didn't occur to him that the sound he made was…abnormal.

Animalistic…

Coherent thought was kinda hard at the moment.

He was running on instinct, following some new, innate intuition that forced his body to react while his mind scrambled to keep up.

Maybe he was still drunk.

"N-Naruto-kun?"

"Turn the light out."

His voice sounded…funny.

Guttural and raspy, a few octaves lower than normal.

"Honey, what's going on?"

"I'm fine, sweetheart," he replied beneath the heavy blankets, scratching his neck again, "the light, Hina. Can you turn it out, baby? It's hurting my eyes, dattebayo."

Several seconds passed before he heard a click, and the room once more descended into darkness.

"Thanks," he sighed, pulling back the cover.

She stood silhouetted by moonlight peeking through their blinds, and even in the heavy shadows, he could make out her worried face.

"M-maybe you should go to the hospital," she pleaded softly, stopping his scratching hand again, "you don't seem well, Naruto-kun. I'm worried."

"I'll be fine, you know hangovers can be kinda rough," he told them both, he flopped a hand to her, "I just need to rest."

Though reluctant to take his word at face value, Hinata slid back into bed, wrapping her arms around his blond head, pressing him to that soothing beat in her chest.

His eyes drooped as she stroked his back.

He was comfortable and warm in her embrace…

…but the sound of her heart was making his gums ache a bit.

xxxxxx

Naruto awoke dazed…

…confused.

He yanked his arm, feeling something cold and hard around his wrist…

…and chained to the bed.

What the fuck?

He looked around, brows crinkled, brain cloudy.

It was dark, however, he could see just fine.

He felt a bit weak but somehow…healthier than he'd ever felt in his life.

He swept the room again, slower, taking in the oddities around him, each one further complicating the puzzle picture he was trying to piece together.

What he saw only baffled him more.

Their bedside lamp was shattered and swept into a far corner, and a Tupperware container of what looked like blood sat in it's place.

Their bedroom window was completely covered in dark curtains he didn't recognize, the sides taped down.

A scattering of open books littered the floor, each one some rendition on vampire lore.

What the fuck was going on?

It hit him in an instant, scene after scene funneling through his mind's eye fast enough to give his skull whiplash.

He remembered bits and pieces…

Disturbing flashes of his girlfriend's terrified face…

….splatters of blood on her pale skin.

He swallowed sickly, heart pounding fiercely.

…the agonizing hunger his belly slowly being satiated as he drained her of her precious life fluid.

It was that image that was clearest, that horrific reality that stood out…

…that and the sensation of his itty bitty girlfriend knee him in the balls the way he taught her, full force, no holds barred, before grabbing their weighty, antic bedside lamp and smashing it over his head…

After that, there was only darkness…

The door opened as panic set in.

Hinata jolted to a stop, taking in his disheveled appearance with guarded eyes. She looked weary and a touch frightened, but what really made him sick was the marks on her neck…

The fucking fingerprints he knew belonged to him.

These weren't the passion marks he usually left on her pale skin, these were as angry and violent as the healing puncture wounds on her throat.

"Is it you? Naruto-kun, are you finally you?" she sobbed.

Her tearful question snapped him from his trance.

His chains clinked nosily as he sat up fully.

"I don't know what the hell that means!" he shouted, "Hinata, what the fuck is going on?! What the hell-"

"It worked!" she breathed, dropping her books and climbing onto the bed.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, weeping quietly as she stroked her fingers through his blond locks. He was so goddamn confused, but pressed himself closer to her soft form, his body so hardwired to provide comfort to this woman that held his heart, even in the midst of whatever the fuck this was. The way she had him chained, he had just enough give to enfold her in his arms.

He glanced to the side, at the piles of cinder blocks keeping the chains in place.

"Hina, baby," he coaxed as she quieted some time later, "what the fuck is going on?"

"You were hungry," she said, wiping her eyes with the back of her hands, peering at him with wet eyes, "you were just trying to find food, that's why…"

She trailed off, touching her throat.

His lungs seized, head spinning as he took in her words, her bruises, that memory slamming into his head again.

"What…what are you saying?" he questioned, though he knew.

Deep down he knew…

"I looked up everything I could find on vampires and-"

"Vampires! Hinata, what the fuck-"

"It's true!" her tender voice reaching the Hinata equivalent of a shout, before dropping down to a firm, frighteningly truthful whisper, "you're…a vampire, Naruto-kun…you must have been turned that night, at the bar…"

He was already shaking his head before she finished.

Either she was drunk as fuck or he was.

"I can prove it…" she turned, reaching into their bedside table and retrieved his pocket knife, flipping it open as she murmured, "it's almost your feeding time anyway."

He stared at her, jerking his tethers as she ran the blade across her finger.

"Hinata! What the hell are you doing? Don't-"

The scent hit him like a ton of bricks.

Coppery and savory, like all his favorite foods rolled into one.

His gums throbbed, and as she stuck her wounded finger in his mouth, his fangs descended. Dazed, enraptured, he sucked hot fluid from the tear in her flesh, groaning deep in his throat as hunger roared to the forefront. He followed as she started to pull his tasty morsel away, lurching towards her, fangs beared when he couldn't get it back.

Hunger ravaged his insides, burning like acid.

Gnawing his insides something fierce.

He could hear her heartbeat pounding in his ears, his piercing eyes tracing the smooth stretch of skin he knew her jugular vein rested, mouth salivating.

"It's true…Naruto-kun," she insisted, snapping him from his dark contemplation, "you're a vampire…"

He sucked in a harsh breath.

"Holy fuck! Holy fuck!" he shouted, his voice an inhuman rumble across his vocal cords, "you have to get out of here! You have to get away from me! I don't want to hurt you again! Please-"

She leaned in his space, scooting closer, horrifying him to no end.

He could see his abuse littering her neck, and it destroyed him deep inside, worsened by the hunger urging him to repeat history.

"We just have to keep you fed," she murmured, "as long as you're fed you'll still be you, you'll be able to maintain control."

She reached out to him.

He recoiled, "no, don't get close to me! I can't co-"

"It's alright, Naruto-kun, I won't leave you, we'll deal with this together. I'll be by your side no matter what, alcoholism…" she cupped his cheeks, staring into his bright crimson eyes, unafraid, "vampirism, I don't care. I love you, with all my heart and soul, I love you. I'll never leave you, no matter what."

Throat tight, fighting the urge to get his greedy hands on her delicious veins, he whispered, "I don't wanna hurt you…"

"You won't…come," she whispered, tugging his head to her throat, "come here, baby. It's alright…"

It wasn't alright.

If he hurt her again…if he killed her… he'd never survive it.

He'd never be right in his soul.

His mind resisted…

…his starving body listed forward.

"No…Hinata…please…"

She pressed his lips to her neck, coaxing him to drink, and weak, cretin that he was, he sank his fangs deep into her flesh, groaning as though in the midst of climax as hot fluid coated his tongue.

"It's alright," she told him quietly, threading her fingers through his hair as he fed, "we'll get through this together."

He pulled away long before he wanted to, frightened to death he wouldn't be able to stop himself, that he'd drink and drink and drink until there was nothing left.

She wiped her blood from his lips and pink tears from his cheeks.

"I'm sorry," he whispered horsely.

This was his fault.

If he hadn't gone to that goddamn bar, if he hadn't gotten into that goddamn fight with that fucking monster, if he had just gotten his life on track years ago, none of this would have happened!

She smiled, a breathtaking, comforting curl of his lips that gave him hope and turned his heart inside out with an emotion far too deep to be described as love.

"It's okay, Naruto-kun," she murmured, "everything will be alright, I promise."

He held onto her small hand for dear life, drawing strength and hope from her tiny hand.

xxxxxx

I was in two minds about how to write this, but I'm satisfied, lol. Hope you all enjoyed!

The fair is almost over! I'm so gonna miss it!

Laters!

Sessakag~