Saru laid down on his bed, mindlessly playing a card game on his phone. It was something he liked doing when bored, but it could never hold his attention span for very long. Eventually, he closed the app, staring at his home screen and all of his apps.

Nothing felt appealing to him, leaving him to finally turn his phone off and slowly roll off the bed. He considered what he could put his mind to, needing something to occupy his time for the rest of the evening. It didn't take long before he decided to go check in on his pets in the basement.

He stepped out of his room, ready to head down the hall when he noticed Riku's door was open. He could see Riku sitting up on his bed, his back against the and his phone in his hand.

With his curiosity peaking, he stepped closer to the doorframe.

"Yeah, it's been quiet lately here too," Riku said to his phone.

"Nothing at all? Come on, there's gotta be something interesting that happened!" Sora's voice said, coming through the phone speaker.

Riku shrugged. "You'd be surprised. Life just kind of goes along normally for the most part. Just a lot of mundane things."

"Aw, that's too bad! Well! Maybe not so bad. Too many crazy things probably would be bad."

Riku laughed. "Yeah, though I could tell you the story of how we met Cloud, Zack's boyfriend."

Saru hummed softly as he continued to watch. 'So it's like nothing happened between them…'

Before he could back away, Riku turned his head, meeting Saru's gaze. "Saru? How long have you been standing there?"

"Not long," he answered.

"Anything you need?" Riku asked.

"Hi Saru!" Sora shouted from the video call.

"Nothing," Saru replied.

He was ready to turn and leave, but Riku spoke up again. "Hey, have you talked to Yata yet?"

He closed his eyes. He had a feeling it would come up eventually, but he wasn't really wanting to discuss it. "No."

"You should probably talk to him."

"I have no reason to talk to Misaki, especially if he doesn't want to talk to me," Saru huffed.

Riku sighed. "You can't just ignore him."

"By not talking to me, he's doing just that."

"Hey Saru? I talked to Yata recently. He's calmed down a lot. He just doesn't know what to say to you, but he's probably willing to talk now," Sora replied.

Letting out another soft hum, Saru moved on from the doorway, not wanting to wait and see what else had to be said. He moved down the rest of the hallway quickly, swinging the basement door open a little harder than he probably should have.

He marched down the stairs with heavy feet until he reached the bottom. Finally being the same area as his pets, he was able to relax a little. His chest lightened slightly as he went to gather the food needed to feed everything.

After all of his tasks were completed he sat down next to the birdcage that held Kotosaka.

The bird ruffled his feathers. "Saru! Saru!"

"Eh? What is it?" Saru asked his bird.

"Misaki! Misaki!"

Saru rolled his eyes. Why he had ever decided to teach Kotosaka to say that he'd never know. Scratch that… he knew exactly why he did it, but now all of it seemed pointless.

"I'm not going to talk to Misaki," he muttered.

"You should! You should talk!"

"And what would you know," Saru grumbled in annoyance. "You're just repeating things you hear."

Kotosaka moved closer to the edge of the cage. "Talk to Misaki!"

"You're not going to quit, are you?"

Kotosaka squawked, stretching his wings out. "Yes! Never going to quit! Never quit!"

Saru stood, grumbling softly, "If I call him, will you shut up?"

"Yes! Call him! Call Misaki!"

With a sigh, Saru pulled out his phone and opened the messenger app. Thumbing through his contacts, he hesitated before selecting 'Mi~Sa~Ki~'. After typing out a couple drafts of messages and deleting them, he finally settled on a message and hit send.

Saru: Are we going to talk about this or is it just over?

He waited for a few minutes, watching to see if the text bubble would come up. Nothing happened at first, causing what little hope he had to quickly dwindle. But, just as he was about to put his phone away, the phone buzzed and he saw that he had gotten a reply.

Mi~Sa~Ki~: Do you even want to talk about it?
Mi~Sa~Ki~: Like…
Mi~Sa~Ki~: Can we try to talk about it?

Saru: You're the one that stormed off when we last tried to talk about anything.

Mi~Sa~Ki~: …
Mi~Sa~Ki~: Okay fine! Yeah I stormed off like a jerk.
Mi~Sa~Ki~: I'm sorry… I just…
Mi~Sa~Ki~: Idk it was hard to take that info in

Not really knowing how to reply, Saru looked at his phone for a moment, waiting until Yata added another message.

Mi~Sa~Ki~: So… guess we start with the fact you're a vampire?

Saru: What about that?

Mi~Sa~Ki~: Well what do you think, monkey!?
Mi~Sa~Ki~: You're a vampire…
Mi~Sa~Ki~: Why didn't you say anything before?

Saru: I answered yes when you asked if i was nocturnal like a vampire.

Mi~Sa~Ki~: Wait you were serious?
Mi~Sa~Ki~: I thought you were just making a joke or something!

Saru: Why would I joke about that?

Mi~Sa~Ki~: Idk!
Mi~Sa~Ki~: Just didn't think about it…
Mi~Sa~Ki~: But guess that means you and all your brothers are vampires?

Saru: Riku is, obviously.

Mi~Sa~Ki~: And the others?
Mi~Sa~Ki~: I remember that Riku said you had 2 others?

Saru: You're more than welcome to ask them that question yourself.

Mi~Sa~Ki~: Are you… inviting me to your house?

Saru: I'd have to run that by Zack first as it's his house.

Mi~Sa~Ki~: Well okay
Mi~Sa~Ki~: I guess… let me know?

Saru: Alright. Anything else you need me to clarify?

Saru looked up from his phone and got up to go find Zack as he waited for Yata to reply. He walked back upstairs to find Zack cooking in the kitchen, working on some lavish looking food that he was most definitely going to try and serve to all of them later on in the night.

"Hey, Saru. What's up?" Zack asked, not looking away from chopping up an onion.

"Would we be allowed to invite friends over?" Saru asked.

Putting down his cutting knife, Zack turned to Saru, giving him his full attention. "Oh? A friend?" he asked cheekily.

"What? Am I not allowed to have friends?"

"Oh you can have friends! But you never asked to have a friend over before. So I'm getting the feeling I know just who you are asking about."

Saru just rolled his eyes. "You never did answer my first question."

Zack laughed. "Of course you can invite Yata over. And hey! See if Riku wants to invite Sora over too. Make it a party!"

With a sigh, Saru spoke "As long as you keep the embarrassment down." He then turned to leave to let Riku know. "Oh, and keep the shovel talk for another time please."

"Shovel talk? I wasn't doing any shovel talking!" Zack shouted from the kitchen.

Shaking his head in exasperation, Saru walked down the hall, checking his phone as he went. In that time that he had chatted with Zack, there were already a few messages from Yata, asking a few questions that seemed to be on his mind.

Mi~Sa~Ki~: Other things?
Mi~Sa~Ki~: Uh…
Mi~Sa~Ki~: I guess maybe just things about vampires?
Mi~Sa~Ki~: …
Mi~Sa~Ki~: Is it weird to ask how old a vampire is?

Saru: Some vampires would find it offensive.

Mi~Sa~Ki~: Okay, so won't ask that. Got it
Mi~Sa~Ki~: So I know already the basic stuff I've learned from school…
Mi~Sa~Ki~: But any of that not true?

Saru: You'd have to be more specific.
Saru: I don't know what you were taught in school.

Mi~Sa~Ki~: What?
Mi~Sa~Ki~: When did you last go to school?
Mi~Sa~Ki~: Nrm. Age thing shouldn't ask.
Mi~Sa~Ki~: But uh… stuff about supernaturals? All different stuff but nothing specific.
Mi~Sa~Ki~: In the vampire unit, we learned long ago they were hated badly and nowadays things are better. And stuff like weakness to things like sunlight, garlic, and other stuff.

Saru: We've literally hung out in the middle of the day, Misaki.
Saru: You'd have to ask Zack about garlic though.

Mi~Sa~Ki~: So does that mean I can come over?

Saru: Yeah. Sora too.

Mi~Sa~Ki~: Oh? I guess that would make sense for him and Riku.
Mi~Sa~Ki~: When are we going to come?

Saru: That would depend on when you and Sora are free.

Before Saru could reply, Riku popped his head out of his room. "Saru? What's up now?"

Looking up from his phone, saru answered. "Zack says we can invite Sora and Yata over."

"Oh? When do you wanna have them over?"

Saru just shrugged in response before glancing back at his phone

"Leaving it to me to plan?" Riku sighed.

"I've let Yata know about the invite. Was just messaging about plans."

"Alright, fine, I'll think of something, and have them come at the end of the week?"

"That works for me."

Riku: I'll be updating the chapters as best as I can so we can catch up to the Ao3 version. It won't be all at once, but I'll try to get it sooner than later.