The frost was starting to form as Fuji walked back up to the castle hours later, his breath rising in streams of white. He didn't mind the cold at all, unless it gave him an excuse to cuddle up to Taka-san.

The thought of Taka-san made him feel all happy and warm inside. He wished he could have stayed the night, but with everything that had happened he felt it would be best if he stayed at the castle.

He could hear lots of movement and noise coming from the forest. He knew there were wolves and the occasional bear that lived in it, but they were sensible enough to not come near the town. As he got closer to the castle the noises turned into voices. Curiosity sparked in him and he sped up. He didn't quite have the stamina to speed run up to the castle and, quite frankly, he enjoyed the anticipation as he walked quickly along the road.

Inside the castle, Echizen was sat on the stairs hugging Karupin and looking very worried. Next to him was Tezuka, looking as if he wanted to say something, but couldn't decide what.

Fuji suddenly remembered what he had in his pocket. He dug into it (thankful that it hadn't fallen out earlier when he'd stripped) and pulled out the cat collar, complete with jewellery.

"I found this on my way to town," Fuji said, watching with amusement as Echizen's face lit up and he practically ran over to take the collar out of Fuji's hands.

"I should call off the search party," Tezuka said, starting towards the door.

"I'll do it," Fuji volunteered, "you'll probably want to show Echizen the safe," he added and then left before Tezuka could protest.

Tezuka watching him go, bemused, but quickly pulled himself together. Fuji was right, Echizen would probably want to store the jewels in the safe down in the vaults.

He turned to Echizen, who was looking at him expectantly.

"There's a safe?" he prompted.

"Yes."

Echizen put down Karupin, who came over to weave through Tezuka's legs. "Lead the way then."

The safe was down in the bowels of the vaults. It was actually a large room, separated from the rest of the world by a thick wooden door, blackened and hardened with age with a metal safe door behind it.

Tezuka put the code into the lock and opened the door, leading Echizen into the room, the walls of which were lined with draws of various sizes. In the middle of the room was a large table where he left Echizen whilst he went to find an empty draw.

"You have a diamond and a necklace?" he checked.

"Yeah," Echizen replied. He was taking them off the collar, struggling with the necklace, which had twisted itself into a large knot.

"Do you need any help?" Tezuka asked.

"I've got it," Echizen assured him.

Whilst Echizen fiddled with the chain, Tezuka went through the door behind him into another large room where objects that were too big to fit into draws were kept. It was also where the packaging was kept.

"There!" He heard Echizen celebrate as he obviously succeeded in untangling the necklace. He snatched up a couple of cases and went back into the main room.

The necklace was very simple, just a silver chain with a deep blue, tear dropped shaped sapphire pendant. The diamond was as big as a satsuma and spread rainbows across the desk. He wondered where Echizen had got them from and why they were attached to his cat's collar.

He handed the two boxes over to Echizen, a lined one for the diamond and a necklace box. Echizen put his valuables into the boxes and then put them into the empty draw Tezuka had brought over.

Tezuka put the draw back into the wall, locked it and then gave the key to Echizen. "This room is fireproof, flood proof and almost impossible to enter without permission," Tezuka said, "they will be safe in here."

Echizen nodded, taking the key from Tezuka and putting it in his pocket.
Curiosity got the better of Tezuka, "did you smuggle those out?" he asked, "please don't feel the need to answer."

"It's fine," Echizen shrugged, "I smuggled them out. The diamond is from the centre of the crown, I swapped it for a replica. I figured since I'm the true ruler I should have it."

Tezuka's eyes widened at how flippantly Echizen was talking about it.

"The necklace is a family heirloom, I'm supposed to give it to the person I marry," Echizen continued, "it's a family tradition."

"Did you steal that as well?"

"I inherited it," Echizen told him, a small smirk on his face, "although I inherited it a lot faster than the government would have liked. They sold the rest of my mother's jewellery, so I was lucky to keep that one. I was going to sell them when I got to Taranis and run away before I had to marry Princess Whatsit."

"Oh," was all Tezuka could say. Honestly he hadn't expected any of that. "But don't you need to marry her to save your country?"

"Fuck them," Echizen said darkly, "I couldn't care less about them."

"Oh," Tezuka repeated. He wanted to ask why, but judging by Ryoma's thunderous expression, whatever had happened was still very raw and he didn't want to cause him anymore pain. He was about to apologise for his thoughtlessness, but Echizen continued talking.

"They threw parties in the street when my parents died," Echizen's voice as now as cold as ice and as deadly as an avalanche. "they died and my 'people' celebrated. At their funeral they were cheering, they were happy that my parents were dead. And then, the government stole everything from me."

"I'm sorry that I brought it up. You are welcome to stay here for as long as you wish," Tezuka said.

Ryoma nodded, glaring at the ground. Tezuka waited for him to say something, he was quite happy to be patient and give Echizen all the time he needed. "Have you told anyone I'm here?"

"Only Atobe," Tezuka said and then corrected himself, "King Atobe. We decided it was best to keep it quiet that you were here until we could judge the current political climate and find out who tried to assassinate you. Of course, if you wanted to leave, we would not stand in your way."

"I've tried to think of who tried to kill me, but there are so many possibilities."

"If they ever come back, we'll stop them," Tezuka assured him. He paused. He'd meant to say this a lot earlier, but things had got in the way and now seemed like as good a time as ever. "Echizen, I apologise for everything I have done to you. There is no excuse for me biting you and making you my mate without your consent. You are welcome to stay here as long as you need, but do not feel obliged to stay."

"But if I leave here we'll both die, right?" Echizen asked, "that's what Fuji told me," he added at Tezuka's look of confusion.

"He lied," Tezuka said, "I will be having a word with him later."

There was a moment of silence and then Echizen asked, "why did you make me your mate?"

"You almost died," Tezuka replied, the image of Echizen limp and cold in his arms, soaked to the skin and covered in blood flashed into his mind. "It was the only way to save you."

"That makes sense," Echizen said. He sighed deeply. "I guess I've got bigger things to worry about right now. I'm not happy about it, but I'll forgive you."

"Thank you," Tezuka said, "If there is anything you need, don't hesitate to ask."

"Bed would be good," Echizen replied.

The next day Echizen was rudely awoken by Kikumaru bursting into his room.
"Get up, Shorty!" He said, shaking him, "we need to buy you clothes."

No one, in Ryoma's opinion, should be allowed to be that loud in the mornings. Especially not in his ear. The fact that it was almost midday was not something that changed his opinion.

"Shorty!," Kikumaru whined.

"No."

A pair of arms made their way under the covers and pulled Ryoma out with ease. Ryoma glared at Kikumaru who was carrying him easily.

"Put me down!" Ryoma ordered.

"Okay," Kikumaru said brightly and dropped him on the floor. "You can borrow some of my clothes till you have some of your own," he said brightly.

Ryoma glared at him again, but took the clothes. Kikumaru left the room to allow him to change in privacy. The clothes he'd given to Ryoma fit pretty well, but we're much brighter than anything he would ever wear. He vaguely wondered if Kikumaru had been a parrot in a previous life.

Downstairs he found Kikumaru and Fuji waiting for him in the entrance hall.

"We'll get something to eat in town," Fuji said when Ryoma joined them. Ryoma nodded, he was feeling very hungry, but didn't feel like arguing. Besides, he doubted anything vampires could cook up would be better than bought food made by humans.

"Vampires eat human food?" He asked as they set off.

"We can," Fuji replied, "it's not very nutritious for us though."

Their first stop in town was a cafe where Ryoma made sure to order the most expensive things on the menu as revenge for forcing him out of bed. The owner of the cafe seemed to know the two vampires and the three of them chatted whilst Ryoma ate.

"Where would you like to go first?" Fuji asked when the owner left to attend to another customer.

Ryoma opened his mouth, but Kikumaru jumped in. "There's these really cute jackets with bat wings on in the market!" He said enthusiastically, "they'd really suit Shorty."

"No!" Ryoma protested, "I'm not wearing something with bat wings on!"

"We'll go and have a look at them," Fuji said and Ryoma glared at him.

"You know I don't have any money, right?" Ryoma said, "it all got taken from me."

"It's fine," Fuji waved him off, "Tezuka's paying. You're our guest, so don't worry about it."

"Is there anywhere where we can get most of the clothes from?" Ryoma asked, "I hate shopping."

They went to a department store first and Ryoma allowed himself to be dragged all over by the two vampires, gathering up clothes and then trying them on. If it had been up to him, they'd have just bought the clothes without trying them on, but Fuji insisted they did. He was sure that he didn't need this excessive amount of clothes, but at least he didn't have to carry them all back up to the castle thanks to the vampires' super strength.

When they got back, all Ryoma wanted was a long, hot bath.

"Shorty! Where are you going?" Kikumaru called as Ryoma walked away.

"Bath," Ryoma replied.

"But aren't you going to show Tezuka your new clothes?"

"Why? He'll see them all eventually," Ryoma shrugged. He didn't see why Tezuka would care about such things.

Kikumaru was about to say something, but Fuji cut in, "have a nice bath, Echizen."

"Che."

He got lost trying to find the bathroom, he'd never been good finding his way through twisting corridors and this castle was made of them.

He made his way through the corridors, trying to work out where he was by the paintings on the wall. He knew that his bathroom was next to his room, it was just a case of finding his room.

Somehow, he found himself in the attics and in what was the servants quarters. They were no longer used, but hadn't been changed since the servants moved out. It was quite creepy walking down lines of rooms all furnished as if they were just waiting for their occupants to return. He had no idea if the castle still had servants, he hadn't seen any but someone had to come in and clean the place. He imagined Tezuka cleaning the house and giggled to himself.

He saw a staircase at the end of the corridor and jogged over to it. It was narrow and uncarpeted and the wooden stairs creaked over his weight as he made his way down them. At the bottom he was met with a closed door. He grabbed the handle and twisted it.

The door was locked.

Ryoma swore under his breath and rattled the doorknob as though that would suddenly unlock the door. He looked around to see if there was a key anywhere. There wasn't.

With a sigh, Ryoma leant his back against the door. All he wanted was a bath, he didn't want to have to retrace his steps and find the staircase he'd gone up in the first place.

He remembered back when he was five and he'd gone wandering around the house of a family friend and had become lost. He'd spent hours trying to find his way back to his family, eventually sitting down in a corner of a room and bawling his eyes out thinking that no one was coming for him and he'd be lost forever. And then, a warm pair of arms had picked him up and hugged him close, comforting him. He'd clung to his mother for the rest of the day, not letting her out of his sight until he fell asleep that night.

Back in the future, Ryoma's chest tightened, he missed his mother. And his father. He just wanted everything to go back to the way it had been. Ryoma wasn't one to dwell in the past or to dream about what-ifs, but right now he just wanted to hug his mother again.

The lock clicked and the door swung open. Ryoma toppled backwards and was caught before he hit the floor.

He looked upwards and saw his saviour was Tezuka.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"I'm fine," Ryoma muttered, getting to his feet. "I was just looking around."

Tezuka didn't look too convinced, "I heard you rattling the door."

"Because it was locked."

"We keep it locked."

"Obviously," Ryoma said, looking around the corridor, his heart fluttering with joy when he saw a painting he recognised. His room was just up the corridor!

Tezuka shut and locked the door, putting the key on top of the door frame.

"See you," Ryoma said, turning and leaving. In his room he found Karupin sitting amongst all the clothes that'd been bought that day.

"Did you have a good day?" Ryoma asked, stroking the cat who meowed happily. Ryoma took that as a yes and went to search the draws for a towel.

"You don't want to come with me," Ryoma said as Karupin wound his way through his legs.

He left Karupin in the room and went into the bathroom. It was a large echoey room, completely tiled and with a marble floor. The bath was on the far side of the room, with a shower hanging over it.

Ryoma went to the cupboards on the other side of the room and rifled through the collection of bath salts to find one he liked. He picked out a citrusy one and went to the bath.

Nothing happened when he turned the tap, but then the pipes around him started clanking and rumbling. The tap coughed a couple of times and then a stream of water spurted out. It warmed up quickly and soon Ryoma had a nice hot bath.

He quickly stripped, leaving his clothes all over the floor and sunk into the hot water. He let out a contented sigh as all his muscles relaxed and all the stresses and strains of the day were washed away.

What are you going to do, Echizen Ryoma? He thought.

He watched the steam rise off the bath, his mind empty.

Someone wanted him dead. Well, he supposed a lot of people wanted him dead, but one had actually hired assassins.

He didn't want to go back to his own kingdom. If he did he'd only end up being shipped off to he married again.

He halfheartedly started to wash his arms. He didn't have any special skills or work experience. It would be very hard for him to find a place to settle down and get a job somewhere with his face plastered all over the media -probably impossible. It felt like everything was unknown and he was just flailing around in the dark. And somewhere in the dark there was someone with a sharp knife.

He wondered if, in vampire society, he was technically married to Tezuka. The word 'mate' pretty much implied that it was. It wasn't that he hated Tezuka, it was just hard to talk to him and he had no idea what was expected of him. At least Tezuka was happy to let him do his own thing and didn't seem to expect anything of him.

Staying in the castle wouldn't be too bad. All the vampires seemed friendly and it wasn't like he had anywhere else he wanted to go.

He should probably find out more about vampires. There was a library somewhere in the castle, he'd been there yesterday. Surely they'd have a book about vampires. He'd go there tomorrow and find it.

With his mind made up, he sunk under the water and put all thoughts of his future out of his head.