(A/N): Completely forgot that today was an upload day for like, seven hours. It's here, now.

Leo

By the time we got back to the house, it was starting to get dark. Once there, Lisbet pulled me aside, as subtly as possible, considering that we were walking amongst a bunch of vampires equipped with super senses.

"Comment voulez-vous vous nourrir? En privé? Qui- qui veux-tu te voir?" I hesitated, taking a second to consider my options. I had to drink in front of Shari, seeing as I would be sharing the bag with her, but everyone else, I could get away with hiding from. But... I wasn't sure I wanted to. Yes, I felt embarrassed to have them witness me in such a vulnerable, uncontrolled state, but also... it seemed like, in the end, it would be counterproductive.

Jerremyah had shown me what his version of that looked like, so it wasn't like I had anything to be embarrassed about, there. Greygorry had already seen me just about at my worst- recovering from the Spharmus- not to mention the fact that he was the one that was primarily in charge of teaching me to control myself when I was at school, so I guess it didn't make sense to try to hide it from him, either.

That just left Lisbet and Herc. Herc... Herc, I wasn't worried about. Herc wouldn't judge me, I was fairly sure- if he hadn't had much of a reaction to the realisation that I had taken to hurting myself, I doubted that this would even register. Lisbet, on the other hand... Lisbet, I was worried about. Did I think that she would actually care? Probably not- and yet, it still made me nervous. I just... didn't want her to be disappointed. I mean, I was sure that if she could deal with Jerremyah, I was hardly going to be a blip on her radar, but... Jerremyah was her mate, and I... was something else. But it would be way worse to have to see the look on her face when I told her that she was the only one that couldn't be there, so I guess I didn't have a choice.

"I'm good." I told her, and she blinked, turning to face me more fully.

"...are you sure?" The others were clearly only pretending like they couldn't hear us, so I shrugged, rather than further delay things.

"Yeah. I'll deal with it." She frowned slightly, as she glanced at Jerremyah- who immediately slashed his eyes sideways, to meet hers. He looked only a little bit less concerned by that than she did, oddly enough.

"You don't have to-" I shot her a look, and she cut herself off.

"Don't worry about it. I'm not ecstatic, but I'm okay with it. It's all good." She spent a second watching me intently, like she was expecting me to change my mind, but when I didn't, the corner of her lips quirked up into a smile that I assumed was meant to be reassuring, and she nodded.

"Alright... if you say so." She looked away, but Jerremyah didn't, and when I turned my eyes to him, he arched an eyebrow at me- as if he, too, were asking me if I was sure. I maintained that eye contact, and rather deliberately grimaced, before I firmly nodded. Jerremyah seemed satisfied with this, and gave me a silent shrug, before he returned his attention to the path ahead of him.

"So... would you like- should we continue training, in the front yard, or should we get started on dinner?" Herc asked, and it was more than clear that he had been about to ask me what I would like them to do, but had decided to change his wording, to try to take that pressure off of me.

"You can get started on dinner, if you want- or you can just... hang out?" He blinked, then glanced at the others, who seemed ambivalent about this.

We all made our way to the kitchen- it made sense, since that's where we kept the blood, and not to mention, where they would need to be if they did decided to cook up some food- and without the slightest hesitation, Herc moved to the pantry, presumably to get started on dinner. Greygorry threw himself into one of the armchairs around the dining table, and immediately cracked open the book he had left there at some earlier point, before absorbing himself in it.

Lisbet moved to join Herc in planning dinner, and Jerremyah trailed behind her by a few feet before he came to a rest, leaning against the closest lower cabinet. Even though he kept his actual, physical eyes on her, I knew that he was keeping a metaphorical eye on me, at the same time- which was... oddly comforting, if I was honest. Shari dropped a hand onto my shoulder, and I turned toward her.

"I'll get the blood bag, you get the two glasses- alright?" Once I had nodded, we parted in order to fetch our respective items- when we reconvened, Shari politely took a glass from me, and with one last wary look, she popped open the blood bag.

Immediately, I had to fight to stay out of Sensory Alert, even though I had been preparing myself for this, and was doing my best not to breathe in- mostly through my nose, but I tried to limit breathing through my mouth as well. It didn't entirely assuage my urges- I couldn't ignore how my gums were itching, threatening to give way to my extending fangs, but I managed to keep them under wraps. Then, I realised that there wasn't much point to that, considering that I was about to feed- and as such, I was definitely going to slip into Sensory Alert anyway- so, I made the conscious decision to properly breathe in, and subsequently, I followed Shari into Sensory Alert. I wasn't sure whether she had done so intentionally, or she was pushed into it by her recent weakness, but in the end, I don't suppose it mattered- she was there, and so was I.

She handed me the filled glass, and took the other one instead to start filling it, much like she had mine. Once she had done so, she sealed the blood bag back up, and set it down on the end of the dining table in case we needed to top up, later.

"Cheers." She said, lisping a little, and I echoed that as we gingerly clinked our glasses together. Then, we both knocked them back- and as I drank greedily, I accidentally met Jerremyah's eyes.

He was watching me- both of us, but mostly me- with great interest, but that interest seemed to be just that, and not judgement, so it didn't bother me. If I had had the presence of mind I would have winked at him again, but I wasn't quite at that point, so I just continued drinking, even as I kept eye contact with him. As I finished the last of it, the corner of his lips quirked up- and past him, I saw Lisbet turn back to chopping up the vegetables. Clearly, she had been watching me, but had either decided that she didn't have to anymore, or she thought I had caught her- which I guess I had- and she wanted to pretend that she hadn't been keeping an eye on me as well.

When I turned my attention back to Shari, it took me a second to realise what was wrong- the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, but to begin with I couldn't tell why, and in this brief second of confusion, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jerremyah straighten. Then, it hit me- her eyes were glued to my pulse point, and even though her glass was empty, she was clearly still trying to feed- and a feeding vampire, with nothing to feed on, was never a good thing... and clearly, Shari's more animalistic side was coming to terms with the fact that technically, her drinking partner also happened to be full of blood.

I sucked in a breath through my nose, and saw Jerremyah start to react- which drew Lisbet's attention- but I didn't dare move, in case it pushed Shari to attack. I kept my eyes on hers, even as hers stayed locked on my throat, and carefully, Jerremyah and Lisbet made their way over to us- both coming around a different side of the table, so it didn't feel like they were ganging up on Shari. Lisbet came up behind me, and slowly, tentatively, snuck her hands onto my shoulders, just as Jerremyah did the same to Shari- she blinked, and weakly tried to shake his hands off, before he reluctantly tightened his grip, and tugged her backward by about a foot.

I took a step back- away from her- of my own volition, and as the distance between us grew, Shari slowly seemed to come back to herself- and then suddenly, all at once, she was there- looking almost heartbroken.

"Oh my god, Leo-" I cut her off, shaking my head.

"It's okay- it's okay, I'm fine, no harm done. Nothing happened." She looked angry at herself- I couldn't allow that. "Honestly, Shari, it's not like I've never lost control before. We've all been there-" I paused, then glanced back at Lisbet, then around to Herc and Greygorry. Greygorry looked like he had recently been about to drop the book and come to my aid, and Herc- Herc was still working toward dinner, even if he was keeping one eye on the situation. I guess he figured that we had it under control? It was a vote of confidence I wasn't entirely sure I appreciated. "Well, I assume it's an 'all of us' thing, anyway." Greygorry shrugged.

"It's a pretty ubiquitous part of the vampiric experience, I'd say." ...right. I turned my attention back to Shari, who looked a little better, but still ashamed.

"You're still thirsty, clearly-" She shook her head furiously in an attempt to deter me, but I pushed onward- though I did do my best to quell her worries. "You can drink more while I go upstairs to talk to Lisbet and Jerremyah." The, 'I will be far away from you, and they will protect me from you if need be' was silent, but I knew that she heard it loud and clear without me having to say anything, because she seemed a little less reluctant now. "Herc, you can handle dinner on your own, right?" He glanced at me over his shoulder, and lifted one of them in a somehow even more noncommittal version of a shrug.

"Sure- hope you like it hot." ...maybe not as hot as Herc did, but I'd just have to deal with that, when I came to it.

"Greygorry, if you could keep an eye on her- make sure she doesn't pop the bag or anything- that would be very helpful." Greygorry shrugged, but I saw him slot a bookmark between the pages, as if to declare his intentions- good. At least that was taken care of. I turned to Lisbet and Jerremyah.

"Should we-" Lisbet cut me off, gently.

"Are you sure you don't want any more? You can, you know- we'll wait." I scrunched my face up.

"Well, considering that I usually only have a single vial once a week, I think I'm already pushing my limits as it is." Jerremyah looked almost proud of me- proud that I knew my limits- but I did my best to ignore that, before it could drive me to distraction.

"Good. Well, I guess we should- should we go upstairs?" I shrugged, and turned slightly, to arch a brow at Jerremyah.

"Yes. And maybe while we're up there, Jerremyah can take that shower he promised me he would." He flushed slightly, even as Lisbet looked both confused, and amused.

"Look, I only scourgified myself so I didn't have to deal with being covered in blood this whole time- it wouldn't do any of us any good for me to be attracting flies." I felt my mouth curve into a grin, and while Lisbet's expression was dry, Jerremyah looked almost excited. "Got a good one?" I shrugged, but bounced slightly from foot to foot in anticipation.

"You don't want to attract flies, because you'd rather be attracting Lisbet, instead."

(A/N): Jerremyah: *is proud of Leo*

Leo: 'Jerremyah looked almost proud of me- proud that I knew my limits- but I did my best to ignore that, before it could drive me to distraction.'

Leo: 'I'd rather it WALK me to distraction.'

~I'm all out of memes, I'm so memes without you~

Translations (French):

Comment voulez-vous vous nourrir? En privé? Qui- qui veux-tu te voir? = How do you want to feed yourself? In private? Who- who do you want to see you?