Small feet pattered through quiet halls. It was early in the morning, so early that only a few servants were awake to begin the day. Normally this child would be asleep too but today was a special day and he awoke with the first light. With his bare feet, he ran to a wooden door and knocked, waited for three seconds, then pushed it open. He closed the door behind him and went right to the large bed.

"It's morning!", he exclaimed, hopping on the sleeping figure.

He had heard the boy coming down the hall, knock, enter, and anticipated his attack. Still, he allowed his son to jump on top of him and pretended to be awakened. He was too young to have his skills evaluated just yet. He sat up slowly and patted the top of the child's head.

"Good morning. It's not yet time."

"But it's morning! He said he's coming back today", the child protested.

"You're right. However the expected arrival time is this afternoon, when you wake up from your nap."

The boy pouted. He was already awake. He couldn't wait that long. His father pulled him to lie down in the bed. The sun was still rising. That man wouldn't be back for hours. His son looked petulant and sleepy at the same time. He was just about to close his eyes when there was a tapping at the window. The child's eyes popped wide open and he got up, familiar with the sound.

He reached the window and opened it with practiced ease, letting in the bat who had arrived.

Inuzuka had felt really confident about choosing to go with Haruto, thinking that they would be setting off immediately to go and conquer the foreign country. So he was a little let down when that wasn't the plan.

"Now that we have a base of operations, it is time to come up with something that will take down the current royal family absolutely", L-elf had explained.

"Base of operations...this place?", Haruto questioned.

"In this village, you vampires are safe. And no one knows that I am here. It is the best location."

"So what do we do first?", Saki asked.

"First and foremost, I must know what abilities you have." Vampire lore was all over the place. L-elf had to separate the myths from reality and use whatever they had to launch the attack on Dorssia. They went around explaining their abilities. Inuzuka was able to walk in the sun. He was also able to pass the ability to another vampire but only temporarily. So far, the longest duration was one hour.

Akira could see from other people's views. Her limit was that she had to see them to get a lock but once she did, their eyes were hers no matter how far they went. Saki was super fast. In all this time, no one had taken an exact measure but on her slowest day she could keep pace with the quickest rabbit. Yamada had super strength, which was put to use when making the sturdy buildings of their small town.

Then L-elf looked to Haruto, expecting something of him but he shook his head apologetically. Unlike the others, he had no special powers. It was ironic, considering it was his own father that did this to them.

"Are you saying you never found out what your power is?", Saki frowned in disbelief.

"It's understandable", Inuzuka defended. "He must've not met another vampire in all this time, or killed one."

Haruto looked back and forth between them. "What are you guys talking about?"

"We went back to your father's lab to learn more about ourselves", Inuzuka explained. "We found some notes that talked about how he did it and what he meant for your power to be. But we can't know for sure until you kill another vampire."

"What is it?" Haruto was almost afraid to ask if it involved death but he had to know.

"Apparently back then, your dad had met with a really old vampire. Probably the head vampire. That guy has the power to bestow special abilities on others like us. He did some stuff and was able to give you the opposite power."

"Meaning?"

"Whereas the vampire king gives to those he creates, you can take from whom you kill", Saki clarified.

"I thought we voted against callin' him that. Is he really that great?", Yamada complained.

"Regardless of the validity of his royalty, if what you say is true, we cannot confirm it until Tokishima kills another vampire", L-elf said. "And we can't afford to make plans around an unverified ability."

It went without saying that for the moment, there was no way to test Haruto's power. In fact, it might never come to pass. Instead, they had to work with what the others had. They would return to Dorssia and load up on supplies there. The main priority was weapons for L-elf. He was more than capable in hand-to hand combat but a gun was quicker and cleaner.

They would leave the next night, to rest up and get the most out of traveling. Now that they were a group, instead of two, bandits might think twice about approaching them. L-elf was never truly fearful of them. But rumors about bandits being done away with by the hands of one man might reach the wrong ears. L-elf sat on his bed, an oil lamp giving the room a dim glow.

Just like the rest of the council building, there were no windows. There was a knock on the door and L-elf answered it, not surprised to see Haruto waiting.

"Come for another feeding?"

"No, no. I told you, I don't need to drink that often." Although he did enjoy it, he admitted to himself, trying not to lick his lips. "I wanted to talk to you about something."

Michael let him enter and closed the door. Both of them sat on opposite ends of the bed. Haruto tried to figure out where to start. This had been on his mind for some time but he wasn't sure how to bring it up. He took a breath and decided to just dive in.

"That girl you were with. You cared about her this much? To take on a whole country with just a few people?"

"I love her", L-elf replied so boldly is surprised Haruto.

He was taken aback both by the confidence and the present tense. Even though she was gone, his feelings were still there. Haruto could understand that. It hadn't been very long ago. He moved closer to L-elf.

"Can you tell me about her?"

L-elf looked him over in suspicion, as if it was a trick, but in the end, began to describe the woman Haruto had only known for a short period. He talked about her they first met, he tried holding her captive but she quickly diffused the situation, earning his respect and love him the moment. Haruto laughed at the thought of L-elf believing in love at first sight.

But it was true. From the moment, she owned his heart and he only fell deeper as time went on. He talked about how her cousin disapproved of their friendship at first but in time L-elf made friends of him too. Then he said more about the princess, Lieselotte. He spoke of her kindness and curiosity and trust in L-elf. Haruto listened, watching the cold young man warm up.

He wasn't an animated talker but there was more movement in him. He smiled more. His gaze was gentle. Haruto moved until he and L-elf sat against the headboard, shoulder to shoulder. His companion either didn't notice or didn't care. Haruto could watch L-elf like this all day, just listen to him talk about anything that interested him. Haruto froze but L-elf was too engrossed in a story about a picnic to notice the vampire having an epiphany.

'I think...I think I might love L-elf.'