Title: The Dark Side Of My Shadow
Author: AoiTsukikage
Rating: PG-13 for now, will increase
Characters/Pairing:Eventual Law/Sanji, other pairings mentioned
Chapter: 4/?
Word Count: 3545
Summary: Sanji hadn't planned on getting bitten that night. Law hadn't planned on taking a vampire home with him. Now there's no going back. AU, Vampire!Sanji, eventual Law/Sanji.
Spoilers: For recent chapters.

Chapter Four

"Can I see your fangs?"

"You know, I expected a more mature response from you," Sanji does bare his teeth obligingly, though, at least until Luffy tries to touch one of them and he bats the boy's hand away although Luffy? Yeah, Luffy he expected this from.

"Well, um, I…" Usopp shrugs and scratches his head. "I've always been…interested in vampires, but I never thought I'd get a chance to see one without it trying to kill me."

"Keep pushing your luck," Sanji mutters, even though he's not serious. Truth be told, Usopp's handling this better than he'd thought, and he'd known all along that Luffy would just find it cool. "Seriously, it's not that big a deal."

"But you're, like, undead now, right?" Usopp asks, fingers lightly touching Sanji's arm and he shivers at the lack of warmth there.

"I'm cold, yeah, but I don't know if I'm still…my heart's still beating," he decides on, even though it's not like he's cut himself to see if he still bleeds red, but from what he's learned the transformation had barely begun when he'd gotten away from the woman, so chances are he's one of the more human half-vamps around. Marco and Cavendish seem human enough, maybe, but Bartolomeo is definitely a little farther along…or else he tries really hard to make it seem like he is.

"I'm just glad you're okay," Usopp admits, and Sanji clasps his hand over the younger man's and nods. He and Usopp had always gotten on well, even though they're pretty different, and he values Usopp's friendship a lot.

"Me, too! If you weren't, I'd have nobody to cook for me!" Luffy wraps him up in a hug and Sanji claps him on the back, knowing that Luffy's pretty good at masking his true feelings by talking about food, but he knows the younger man's got a good heart below all his silliness. "You look really tired, though," Luffy says, pulling back enough to look at him, and the change in his attitude catches Sanji off-guard. Yeah, Luffy and Ace aren't blood-related, but there are time they act eerily similar and this outright concern is something he's much more used to Ace doing. .

"He's right. You look like you're gonna pass out," Usopp puts in and Sanji shakes his head, trying to clear it. Yes, he's tired, but he thinks it's understandable given everything that's happened to him in the past few days. And truth be told, he hasn't slept that well since the night he'd spent with Law. And that still rankles a little, not because it was uncomfortable to sleep curled up with another guy, but precisely because it wasn't. He keeps telling himself that it didn't matter, because he'd been so damn cold anybody with actual body heat would have done, but since then he'd been piling his bed with as many blankets as he could and putting a heater in his bedroom and still can't sleep because he's shivering so badly.

"Nah, I'm fine," he says instead, giving them both a smile and standing up. "And I need to go grab some fruit from the market," he decides, because it'll give him a chance to get away from their scrutiny for a bit. Hell, if Luffy can see it, it's got to be pretty noticeable.

He leaves the restaurant and takes off down the street, feeling no threat in broad daylight, but the rather large dog that darts into an alley a few feet in front of him catches his eye since strays really didn't linger in this area of town.

Still, it's just a dog, he thinks as he wanders down the street. Nothing to be concerned about. .

000

In the end, it's his own fault. He's heading home from the corner store a couple of nights later, figuring a few minutes alone out on the streets won't be a problem, when suddenly he finds himself held off the ground by a hand with claws instead of normal nails, a snarling half-animal face blocking his vision.

The vampire in him comes to the surface instantly and he can feel it trying to take over, his teeth lengthening as he snarls at his attacker, and he hears the creature laugh in response.

"Got 'im."

Sanji clutches at the arm holding him up, unable to do anything but feebly tug. His airway's being constricted to the point where his vision's starting to go fuzzy and he tries to kick out. His legs are quickly pinned, however, by the man bodily holding him to the wall, and he chokes out something with the last of his breath before the hand is suddenly released.

"Lan' sakes, you mangy mutt, you can't just go about choking people!"

Sanji coughs a little, straightening up and blinking to see two men in front of him. The one who'd first grabbed him looks more human now, although there's still something animalistic about his smirk and the hunched way he's standing. The other is fully human, and from the look on his face rather unimpressed with his comrade.

"We're supposed to kill 'em, though! I had him right where I wanted 'im!" the first man growls and the second sighs, glancing over at Sanji and narrowing his rather wide eyes.

"Don't run, lad. We've got some business to attend to and if you run, I'm not going to save your hide again," he says, and Sanji believes him, so he stays put. "Let me deal with him for now. He's obviously not a full vamp or he wouldn't look so terrified."

"But Lucci…"

"I'll handle Rob," the man promises, scratching idly at the tip of his rather ridiculous nose (Sanji had thought Usopp had a weird nose, but this guy would have to win in that department). "You go off and play fetch."

"Yer just jealous because you've got such a damn lame power…"

"I'm ignoring you now," the man turns away and Sanji hears the first growl again before he shifts in a way that's reminiscent of Marco, a gray wolf bounding down the street and out of sight. "Now. You are a half-breed, yes?"

Sanji nods, feeling his teeth slide back into his mouth and down to normal size since he doesn't feel threatened anymore. He's still confused, but if this man had wanted to kill him he'd be dead by now. "How did you…?"

"Body heat, kid," the man lifts up a contraption with flashing lights on it and grins. "You've heard about ghost hunters and the like, yeah? Well, this here device is an Infrared detector. If something's giving off heat, it's gonna show. You're just a blooming great cold spot, which clues us in right quick that you're not normal," he drawls, and Sanji realizes that it's a very effective way to find half-breeds, at least.

"So you…you're Hunters?" he flattens himself against the wall and the man nods.

"Aye, that we are. I'm not usually in the business of slaughtering innocents, though, and you seem human enough. 'Cept for that thing," he points at Sanji's shadow, which is currently roiling in the way it only does when he's frightened or unsure. "Kaku, by the way," he holds out a hand and Sanji shakes it hesitantly. "Don't worry, lad, I'm not gonna double-cross you. You don't have to look so scared."

"Sanji. And I'm sorry," Sanji reaches up to his throat and sighs, still a little shaken up. "It's just that I've heard your bunch isn't nice to half-breeds as a general rule."

"We're not a hive-mind, much as I think our boss would like us to be," the man shrugs. "Some of us are more ruthless than others, sure, but if you haven't done anything wrong, I don't think it's right to kill you."

"I think I'm glad you found me before anybody else, then," Sanji's starting to relax, lighting up a cigarette to hide how his hands are trembling, and Kaku blinks slowly at him before he turns smartly on his heel.

"I should go. It wouldn't do to be seen fraternizing with you out here in the open, but I meant what I said about not wanting you to be needlessly killed," he promises, and Sanji thinks he shouldn't trust this man so easily but there's something surprisingly earnest about him. "I'll no doubt see you 'round," he takes a step back and Sanji pauses, thinking back to what the wolf-man had said before leaving.

"Hey. What's your…you're a hybrid?" he asks, and Kaku grins. "What kind of animal…"

"Maybe one day I'll show you. I'll try to contact you when I'm off-duty and see if we can't figure out a way to get the rest of my team offa your tail," he waves before running off, springing up onto the rooftops in a way that has Sanji checking to see that he's not part kangaroo, but he's not transforming so apparently this is normal.

He sighs and leans back again, trying to steady his hand when he lifts the cigarette to his mouth. The weariness in his limbs is getting heavier and he can barely keep his eyes open, like something's sapping all the strength from his body. It's disconcerting, but there are more important things to worry about than a momentary weakness and he decides to take a detour to Law's to get his advice. After all, if Kaku's a hybrid, that means Law would know him, so it seems like the best way to find out if he's really trustworthy.

000

"Really now," Law strokes his chin thoughtfully, eyes half-narrowed. He's fairly sure Kaku's not lying, all things considered, since he was about the most…normal of the CP9 members he'd examined. There was still an almost childlike naivety about him the rest of his team had lost, and having somebody deeper inside than Law as an ally would only benefit them all in the long run.

"He's a hybrid, so I thought…" Sanji shrugs, eyelids drooping as he slumps over Law's table. "Fuck, almost getting choked takes a lot out of you," he chuckles, and there's something in the way that he looks right now that's worrying Law. Exhaustion is one thing, but there's a sunken-ness to Sanji's eyes and an almost waxy pallor to his skin that's far too reminiscent of an actual vampire.

"How long have you been feeling tired?" he asks instead, and Sanji glances up at him and blinks.

"It's nothing. I get run pretty ragged at the restaurant plus the stress of this whole…" he waves his hand idly. "Why? Is something wrong?"

Law frowns, unsure how to word this because truth be told it's only a hypothesis in his mind. Yes, Sanji had told him that not all half-breeds needed blood on a regular basis, but everything he's showing right now is akin to what Law's seen in people suffering from anemia. It doesn't exactly help that he's not equipped to deal with it at the present time, either, since it's not like he keeps tubes of blood on-hand.

"Hey, I just need to sleep for a while and then…" Sanji stops suddenly, sucking in a breath of air, and Law looks up to find that the man's shadow has apparently taken on a life of its own, creeping across the floor toward Law's normal one. The instant the creeping smear of black touches his, he feels like he's been doused in ice-water, breath quickening and unable to even more as it wraps around his shadow on the floor, spiraling up the legs of the chair he's seated on. "Oh fuck. No. Don't do that, what're you…"

The shadow ignores Sanji completely, and a second later the blond stops and shudders. When he looks up again his eyes are black, a glint of red from deep within them, and he snarls as his teeth elongate. Law can feel Kikoku humming, reacting to the presence of the dark creature, but he'd stupidly left the sword in his bedroom and now he's utterly helpless.

It's all he can to do yelp when Sanji leaps across the table, knocking the chair he's on over and sending them both to the floor, and Sanji's shadow is creeping over him now, leaving cold trails wherever it touches. He tries to push himself away somehow but Sanji grabs his wrists, pinning him to the floor, and leans down so his teeth are scraping along the side of Law's neck.

It's horrible, not only knowing that he's going to die like this, but being unable to even defend himself. He closes his eyes and waits for the inevitable end, for the blood to drain from his body, but suddenly the cold feeling is gone and when he dares to look up Sanji's eyes are normal again. He looks as terrified as Law feels, arms shaking, and when Law tries to sit up there's a brief moment of hesitation before he slumps onto the other man's body, shivering madly.

"Law…Law, what…" he gasps out before going limp, eyes glassy and half-closed and his body like ice, and Law doesn't know what it means because vampires can't die, exactly, but maybe half-vamps can and that alone spurs him into action. He lifts up the blond as if he weighs nothing, and he's certainly far lighter than any human his size would be, and counts on the adrenaline rush he's currently feeling to help him find a way through this.

000

"What's…"

"Drink it," Law's tone implies he's not taking 'no' for an answer and Sanji's still barely half-awake, so he opens his mouth and takes in the liquid. It's thin and slightly salty but he doesn't find it unpleasant, and he licks his lips afterward, feeling an unusual warmth spread through him. "Hmm, what's…"

"What do you remember?" Law asks softly, and Sanji blinks at him before thinking about it.

"We were in your kitchen, and…" he pauses, glancing around because this looks like a medical lab and is certainly not Law's kitchen, but he figures an explanation will come in due time. "Oh, fuck. I attacked you, didn't I?" his memory on that is a little hazy, but he remembers feeling this surge of power inside of him, like a caged animal trying to break free, and it was as if he was a prisoner in his own body for a time. He'd eventually wrenched control back from the vampire side of himself somehow, but the effort had apparently caused him to black out because he didn't remember anything after that. He can still feel the vampire, this darker presence in his mind, but it's barely a tickle at the back of his consciousness so whatever had caused it to erupt is gone now.

"You did," Law's busy cleaning up some of the vials he'd flung aside in his hurry to find what Sanji realizes now is blood, and while that should gross him out he's feeling a lot better now so he can't even be too disgusted by it. "Regardless, I'm unharmed, and I think you'll be sated for a while…"

Sanji's about to reply, to ask for more clarification, when he hears a low chuckle and a shape takes off from one of the high shelves, cooing loudly. When it lands, Sanji can see that it's a rather oversized pigeon (wearing a tie, of all things), and the look on Law's face tells Sanji all he needs to know that, for whatever reason, the pigeon means trouble. Sanji's never seen Law look scared before, not even from the dim memory he had of pinning him against the kitchen floor, but he certainly looks it now.

"Well, well, well, Doctor Trafalgar. Bringing in strays now, are we?"

The voice makes Sanji shiver, curling around him like poisoned silk, and his breath catches when he turns to the side. The speaker, as it turns out, is a rather handsome leopard with distinct marking around its eyes, but Sanji knows instantly it's a hybrid.

"You do realize how many rules you're breaking," the cat continues, tail swishing lazily, but there's something tense about its whole body, a coiled spring waiting to release, and Sanji knows one wrong move on his part could mean the end. "Your lovely interns could come in tomorrow to find your shredded body lying on the ground, you know. A rather unfortunate accident, I'd tell them, even though I'd be well within my rights," he speaks the entire thing without any change in the tone of his voice, as casual as if he were discussing the weather and not ripping a man to pieces, and that alone tells Sanji this is not a man to be messed with.

"I don't have time for this right now, Lucci," Law sounds murderous and Sanji wonders just what kind of history these two have, but the cat shrugs in a very human-like way and morphs, although the man left in its place is no less intimidating.

"So I see. It's a rather good thing I've already been told this one's not to be harmed, isn't it?" Lucci settles himself back against an examination table, feline grace still evident in every line of his body despite his human form, but the knowing smirk never leaves his lips. The pigeon comes to settle on his shoulder, cooing softly.

"You've been…" Law looks confused, brow furrowed, and Lucci sighs.

"Yes. My partner. I do owe him a favor and this is the one he's called in, and while I might not understand it, far be it from me to try and decipher that boy's whims. It may prove advantageous to us in the long run regardless," he murmurs, and Sanji's wracking his brain trying to figure out why somebody would save him. Lucci's name sounds vaguely familiar, like he's heard it recently, and it comes to him with a jolt that the two mean earlier that evening had mentioned him, so that means…

"It's a damn good thing Mr. Blackleg here ran into him earlier," Law figures it out at the same time and Lucci lets out a vaguely amused chuckle, but even that sounds seems dark coming from his mouth. "Still, you're not one to go against the wishes of your superiors. What's the catch?"

"You're too smart for your own good, you know that?" Lucci stands up and crosses his arms, jerking his head toward a side room. "Come. I need to be sure nobody's watching," he slinks off toward the room, feet making no sound even on the tiled floor, and Law follows after a moment and a quick glance back to Sanji, who gets a rather strong feeling that he's not invited for this.

"Cripes, lad, I had no idea you'd be causing us trouble that quickly."

Sanji looks up in surprise, body still a little too weak for him to jump up the way he wants to, but the speaker in question is perched on top of one of the high shelves of medical equipment and he backflips off of it, landing without so much as a wobble on the ground and tipping his baseball cap toward Sanji cordially. "I, um, guess I owe you a pretty big thank-you…"

"Nah, don't worry about it. Rob's a little…abrupt, maybe, but he's still not the type to hurt innocents, half-breeds or not. We've cultivated a reputation, all right, and it's not unfounded, but that doesn't mean we're monsters," he laughs and Sanji's trying desperately to figure out how somebody with as cheery a disposition as Kaku seems prone to can work with somebody as dark as Lucci. "They'll be talking for a while, I wager, but Rob gave me his word he's not gonna touch you," he says this as if it's supposed to reassure Sanji, but he hardly knows Lucci well enough for it to make any impact.

"What's going on?" he asks instead, hoping for some answers, and Kaku scratches idly at his ridiculous nose and shrugs.

"I've got an inkling, but best wait for them to hash it out," he suggests, which doesn't leave Sanji a whole lot of choice. He pulls out a cigarette and lights it, knowing he probably shouldn't but not giving a damn at the moment.

"So…" he blows out some smoke. "A leopard and a wolf. Pretty appropriate for you so-called Hunters."

"That they are," Kaku agrees, tone utterly neutral. "And no, I'm still not telling you what my hybrid form is," he adds in the exact same voice, Sanji huffing a little irritation because, of course, that's exactly what he wanted to ask. "However, I'm open to anything else you want to ask about your current state," he offers, and Sanji thinks that getting advice from a guy who kills people like him for a living is kind of fucked up, but then, he's getting used to his life turning out a little strange.

"Okay," he sighs and looks down at his hands, reaching up to remove the cigarette from his mouth and blow some more smoke before he says anything more. He frowns then, the cigarette loosely gripped between two fingers as he holds it off to the side and asks, "Why me?"

Notes:

1. If you've read any of my other fics, you'll know that I love CP9 and so I had to find a way to insert them into the story somehow and it ended up being rather easy.

2. I don't have much more to say this time around, but thank you to everybody that's been reading this and I hope you're still enjoying it!