They left, leaving Ryoma fuming alone in the library. So, all the effort he'd put into his job was now wasted. He felt really bad that he'd put Kawamura through the pain of putting up with him being useless and not then had the benefit of him having learnt what to do. He guessed he'd have to somehow get in contact with him and apologise. It annoyed him that he was being told what to do like a child, but couldn't disagree because what Atobe and Tezuka had said was true.

He wasn't safe in the town, assassins could easily be anywhere and there would be no one to defend him unless he employed Momo or someone as a bodyguard. He hated having a bodyguard back in his old life and he knew he would hate it now, even if it was Momo. Even if he did have a bodyguard, someone could easily recognise him and follow him till he wasn't guarded any more and then strike. He'd have to give up his job- at least it meant he could dye his hair back to normal.

He got up and went back to his room, he still didn't feel very well and he'd rather sit around in bed than around the library. As he walked he thought about all the people who wanted him dead, but got nowhere. He could think of a lot of people who he knew hated him, but whether they would pay for him to die was another thing. He doubted they would- if only because their careers would be over if they were found out.

He spent the next couple of days locked in his room, fuming, only coming out when he got hungry. He knew he was acting like a spoilt child, but didn't care, he had nothing else to do after all.

On the third day, Tezuka came to see if he was okay.

"I'm going away for a week or so," he told Ryoma, who was playing with the fire, bored out of his mind.

"Right, have fun," Ryoma replied, not looking at him, "I'm sure I'll survive."
"I was wondering if you'd come with me."

Ryoma looked up at him, "where are you going?"

"Into the mountains," Tezuka replied, "I have to check on the eagles before winter sets in."

That sounded like fun, Ryoma supposed.

"What would we be doing?"

"A lot of walking and eagle spotting," Tezuka said, "There's a small cabin in the mountains that we'll be staying in."

That didn't sounds too bad, at least they wouldn't be camping.

"I know the mountains very well, you won't be in any danger," Tezuka promised.

"Okay, I'll come," Ryoma said. Eagles were cool, he supposed, and it would get him out of the castle. "When are we leaving?"

"Tomorrow morning. I was hoping to leave by seven."

Ryoma nodded, "I'm not good at getting up."

Tezuka gave him a soft smile, "I'll make sure you're awake."

Fuji and Momoshiro were sent down into town with Ryoma's measurements to buy him hiking equipment that afternoon. Ryoma meanwhile, started packing. He wanted to take Karupin along with him, but doubted he'd be allowed. If he escaped and ran away they'd never find him. Plus he'd be very well looked after here in the castle. He'd no doubt come back to find Karupin had doubled his body weight through being spoilt.

When Fuji and Momo got back, Ryoma was immediately forced to try on the jumpers, trousers, boots and coats they'd brought back with them.

"You look very cute," Fuji said, laughing as he pushed a knitted hat onto Ryoma's head and Ryoma tried to bat him away.

"I'm not," Ryoma muttered.

Once Fuji grew bored of forcing clothes onto Ryoma, he was left in peace to pack his new clothes. He had to admit, Fuji and Momo had done a good job with their shopping. It all fit well and suited him. He assumed it was down to Fuji and that Momo had basically been there just to carry the bags.

He set an alarm for six the next morning, but ended up sleeping through it and was woken by Tezuka shaking him gently awake.

"It's quarter past six," he said gently, "you should get up."

Ryoma groaned and pushed himself out of bed. He really didn't want to be awake right now.

He quickly dressed and pulled his suitcase down to the entrance hall. Kikumaru was waiting for him and forced breakfast on him.

"It takes hours to drive up to the cabin," He told him and Ryoma was silently glad, at least he'd be able to sleep through the journey.

Waiting in the kitchen was a much less nice surprise. Oishi was there with a bag full of medical equipment.

"Tezuka will need some of your blood to drink on the trip," he explained, looking nervous, "and you don't want to be bitten again, right?"

"No," Ryoma agreed.

"We don't need much," Oishi held up a small sample bottle, "it'll take seconds."

"Fine," Ryoma said. It would be better than Tezuka biting him again.

He sat down and Oishi carefully disinfected the inside of his elbow and put a tourniquet around his upper arm. Ryoma shut his eyes as Oishi prepared the needle. He didn't want to watch.

"This will hurt a bit," Oishi said and then stuck the needle in. It was no worse than a scratch and was indeed over in seconds.

"Okay," Oishi said, pulling out the needle, "press down on here," he said, putting some a cotton pad over the spot where the needle had gone in. Ryoma did what he was told as Oishi sorted out the blood and needle.

He finished his breakfast and went to help Tezuka pack their things into the old 4x4 that was waiting for them in front of the castle.

"I've given you some blood," Ryoma said as he pushed his suitcase in and started to pass the bags of food to Tezuka.

"Thank you," Tezuka said.

The rest of the vampires and Inui gathered around to see them off.

"Have fun, shorty!" Kikumaru said, hugging him, "say hello to the eagles for me."

Ryoma wondered how he was going to do that, but nodded. Then, he and Tezuka got into the 4x4 and drove off.

The car was pretty old and noisy, but Ryoma soon fell asleep, his head lolling on his shoulder. He woke a few hours later when they were driving along a narrow road, mountains towering over them on either side.

"How much further have we got left?" He asked, breaking the warm silence around them.

"At least another hour," Tezuka replied.

Ryoma hummed in acknowledgement and went to staring out the window at the mountains around them.

Rather suddenly, Tezuka pulled over to the side of the road.

"There are normally some eagles around here," he said, picking up some binoculars and getting out the car. Ryoma followed and was hit by the cold air as he left the warm interior of the car. He started to search the sky, not sure what he was looking for beyond a bird. On the other side of the car, Tezuka was doing the same thing, but with a trained eye.

"I can't see anything," Ryoma said after a few minutes.

"They must not be out today," Tezuka said, "we should get going."

Ryoma was very happy to get back into the warm car, he kept his eyes on the sky for the rest of the journey, just in case he could spot an eagle.

"Are the eagles special?" Ryoma asked.

"They're the national animal of our country, They're very endangered, so I look after the two nesting pairs we have living in these mountains."

"So there's only four here?"

"There are also some juveniles, they stay in their parents territory till they are fully grown. We used to have another pair until they were shot a couple of months ago."

"Oh," Ryoma said, "did you find the poachers?"

"In the end," Tezuka said grimly, "they're in jail now."

"Good."

The road started to rise up the side of the valley, twisting and turning until they were up in one of the high valleys, a small glacier glittered in the sun at the end of it. Ryoma spotted a small hut on the side of a mountain, the road twisted towards it and Ryoma assumed that was where they were going to be staying.
He was right and they pulled up outside the cabin. It was pretty modern and very well maintained, clad with wood and with small, triple glazed windows. They unloaded the car and quickly turned on the heating inside the cabin, which was very cold inside.

"We keep it unlocked so that hikers can use it if they get stuck in the mountains," Tezuka explained as they restocked the kitchen, which was full of canned food, "the fire is always made with a match stuck out of the matchbox so that people can light the fire if they have frostbite."

Ryoma nodded, "can I light the fire?"

"Of course."

He'd never lit a fire before. It was such a weird thing to realise, he was sure lots of people had never lit a fire before. He was surprised that Tezuka left him alone to do it without any supervision. It took him many tries to get the match lit and was elated when he managed it. Soon, the fire was crackling away in the grate and Ryoma stood back to admire his handy work.

"I've unpacked," Tezuka said, poking his head around the door. "Your room is on the left."

"Thanks," Ryoma said, sitting down on the sofa opposite the fire.

"It's a good fire," Tezuka said, coming to sit next to him. "It'll be getting dark outside soon."

"I suppose it will," Ryoma replied, slightly off put by the small talk. He wasn't very good at it and neither, it seemed, was Tezuka. "Will we see any eagles tomorrow?"

"That depends on the eagles, I've sometimes had to wait weeks to see them."

"Oh."

"Patience is the key."

"Do they have names?"

"Who?"

"The eagles."

"I believe Fuji and Kikumaru have named them," Tezuka replied, "I don't remember their names though,"

Ryoma didn't believe him, but didn't push it. Knowing Fuji and Kikumaru, they'd given the eagles rather embarrassing names. He looked at the wall where there was a photograph of one of the eagles, soaring towards them. It was white with black bars over the back of its wings and tail. The photo didn't show much of the belly of the eagle, but Ryoma could just about make out a black collar marking around its neck.

"That's the female of the pair that nests nearest the cabin," Tezuka said, seeing where Ryoma was looking, "we will hopefully see her at least once on this trip."

Ryoma nodded, he couldn't tell scale from the photo, but he was sure that she was a very big eagle.

"Females are bigger than males," Tezuka continued, "They have a very beautiful mating dance."

"Will we see that?"

"No, they only perform it in the spring. They mate for life, so it's a way of reforming their bond," Tezuka said and then they fell into silence, staring into the flicking fire.

"Is there a bath here?" Ryoma asked after a while, he was feeling stiff after sitting in the car for hours on end.

"Upstairs at the end of the corridor," Tezuka told him, "the towels are in the cupboard next to your room."

"Thanks," Ryoma said, getting up and making his way upstairs.

The bath wasn't very big, but neither was Ryoma. He couldn't lie in it properly like he could back at the castle though, something which annoyed him. One advantage of his height was that he could easily submerge most of himself in baths. There weren't any bath salts or bubble bath, just some soap and 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner.

"Don't use too much water," Tezuka said through the door and Ryoma sighed, he wasn't going to have a nice relaxing bath after all.

He half filled the bath and then sat miserably in the water. At least it was hot and the room wasn't draughty.

Normally, he could take hours in the bath, but he didn't feel in the mood, so he washed and was out in fifteen minutes.

Downstairs, Tezuka was sat in front of the fire, reading.

"What are we having for dinner?" Ryoma asked.

"Whatever you want to make," Tezuka replied, looking up from his book at him.

"Me?"

"You're the one who will be eating it."

Ryoma blinked in confusion, then realised what Tezuka was talking about. He was a vampire, of course he wasn't going to eat human food. He looked towards the kitchen doubtfully, he'd never cooked anything for himself. He didn't even know where to start!

"I've never cooked before," he admitted quietly.

"I haven't for a very long time," Tezuka said, "but there are some recipe books, we can work it out together."

Luckily, amongst the recipe books was one dedicated to very simple cooking.

"I've found one," Ryoma said, returning to the kitchen with it, "what should we make?"

They opened it on the unit and flicked through the pages, dismissing anything that looked too complicated or had something that they didn't have in the cupboards. The problem with being halfway up a mountain was that you couldn't just pop down the shops for something you needed for dinner.

"How about that?" Ryoma said, pointing at a recipe for pasta with some vegetables.

"That looks easy enough," Tezuka said, "do you want some help with it?"

If Tezuka thought it was easy, then Ryoma shouldn't be able to mess it up. "I'll be fine," he said.

"Call me if you need anything," Tezuka said and then left Ryoma to his own devices.

Ryoma looked intently at the recipe. First, he needed to cut up the vegetables. He'd seen enough chopped veg in his life to know what it should look like, so that shouldn't be too hard. He then had to cook pasta. The recipe just said 'cook the pasta', which was very helpful indeed to someone who had no idea how pasta was cooked. He picked up the book and flicked through it, hoping that somewhere it would explain how to cook pasta.

It didn't.

So, he went to search through the cupboards for the pasta. He had to pull a chair over to search the top cupboards, which was where he found the pasta shells.

On the back of the packaging it explained perfectly how to cook it.

He then went to get the vegetables and started to chop them up. His efforts were nowhere near as neat and perfect as in the picture, but they were, at least, chopped. It took him a while to find the saucepans and get the cooker working, but soon he had the pasta water heating up and the vegetables starting to cook.

"A watched pot never boils," Tezuka said as he came in to check on Ryoma, seeing him staring intently at the water for the pasta. "it also boils quicker if you put the lid on."

Ryoma nodded and put the lid on the pan, then checked on the vegetables.

"Shit," he hissed as he looked in. He hadn't stirred it enough and the vegetables had become burnt on the bottom.

"They'll be fine," Tezuka said, "just keep stirring them."

In the end, the pasta was cooked a long time before the vegetables were and Ryoma ended up giving up and having slightly raw vegetables. He ate it alone in the kitchen, not wanting Tezuka to see the failure that was his first attempt of cooking and then washed up, so that all evidence was hidden.

"Did you have a nice meal?" Tezuka asked when Ryoma came back and sat next to him.

"It was nice," Ryoma lied, "have you eaten today?"

"I had a sip of blood whilst you were in the bath," Tezuka replied, "I didn't think you'd want to see me drinking it."

Ryoma shrugged, he didn't think it would bother him at all. He'd never been squeamish about blood. Although watching Tezuka drink his own blood would probably be a bit too much.

He yawned and stretched, he quite wanted to go to bed now. Tezuka was just reading, so he wouldn't miss him, but he felt he should stay up for a little longer. This trip would be a good time to get to know Tezuka after all. But he wasn't good at small talk and it didn't seem like Tezuka was either. He wanted to ask him questions, but when he came to open his mouth he had no idea what to say and thinking how stupid he would look if he barraged Tezuka with questions. He didn't want to annoy him.

Ryoma sighed and flopped back on the sofa, wondering what to do.

"There are plenty of books if you would like to read," Tezuka said.

Ryoma got to his feet and went to the bookcase, picking a book out at random and going back to sit in front of the fire.

He managed to read for an hour before the journey and early get up caught up with him and he decided it was time to go to bed.

"I'm off to bed," he informed Tezuka.

"Good night," Tezuka said, looking at him disapprovingly as he marked his spot in his book by turning over the corner of his page. Ryoma put the book on the side table and then went upstairs to his room.

The room was a lot colder that downstairs and Ryoma quickly got changed into his pyjamas and climbed into bed. Hopefully, tomorrow would be a nice day and they could do some walking or something. After being stuck in the castle for days, he really wanted to get out and do something.