A/N: So many AUs, so little time. Anyway, here's another AU featuring vampires, but this time Ren starts out as a human and Yusei is a vampire. A bit of a request from Sister of the Pharaoh. Enjoy!

(Also, I do plan on writing the previous AU oneshot into a full fanfic sometime, I just need to think of a good name for it...which is always the hard part for me XD)

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's. That goes to the respective owner. I only own my OC(s).

Vampire AU- Living A Better Life:

(Ren's POV)

Everyone always seemed to expect me to get into vampire hunting. After all, my parents are some of the top hunters in the organization, but I never could stomach it. Every vampire I keep seeing being killed to "protect" the citizens looked...very human. Too human, in fact. It made me wonder for a long time if the hunters were even right about vampires being monsters.

Of course, I got to find out the hard way when I was walking back home after dark with another gig done (a stupid decision on my part). I heard some trash cans getting knocked over and figured it was some stray dog. Boy, was I wrong. Next thing I knew, I was being pinned against a building, being held up with one of the creature's hands as if I weighed nothing.

That thing was ugly. It had gray skin, no hair covering its head or any part of its body, sharp and yellow teeth, long claws on its hands, and tattered shorts to cover it. It somewhat reminded me of a gargoyle, except without the wings. But at the moment, I was more focused on the fact that I could be looking death in the eye since it was eyeing me like it hadn't eaten for weeks.

Before it could sink its fangs into me, however, a blur knocked the creature away from me, causing me to hit the ground and be able to breath again. I was too focused on getting air back into my lungs to look up, but I heard the figure speak with the creature.

"Starting to head into the cities, huh? You've gotten a bit too bold," the new voice taunted.

"Hsss You vampiresss alwaysss ruin our huntsss," another voice—I assumed was the creature—hissed.

"And you make the rest of us look like blood-thirsty creatures, so we're even."

I looked up in time to see the battle finish with the vampire's hand shoved through the creature's chest. That got me a bit scared. If he could do that to the creature, imagine what he could do to me. Only, the paranoia and fear were misplaced as he bent down to help me stand back up, asking. "You okay?"

"Y...Yeah, I am," I replied. My voice was a bit hoarse, probably from almost having my windpipe crushed.

He had caught the slight nervousness in my voice. "Don't worry. The only ones I kill are the blood-crazed vampires like that one."

"Th-That's a vampire?!"

"Yes."

"But...But it doesn't-"

"-look human?" I nodded. "That's due to a disease that comes about when a vampire drinks too much blood. If a vampire drains too many humans in a short period of time, they mutate into those creatures."

"So, vampires aren't supposed to drain humans of their blood?"

"No, of course not. We're supposed to only take what we need and that's it. You really think there'd be any humans if all vampires drained the blood out of them?"

"...good point..."

"My name's Yusei. And you?"

"Ren Mori."

Since then, I had regular visits from Yusei, most of them at night. Apparently, the clan he's from moves around from place to place, killing off the blood-crazed vampire creatures. They were the reason why vampires were always depicted as terrifying monsters of the night that would drain a human of their blood in a heartbeat. It made me realize that the vampire hunters that my dad worked with were hunting the wrong ones. But, of course, why should they listen to me?

"But Dad, you have to understand. The vampires-"

"-are nothing more than monsters that must be destroyed. Now unless you have vital information, I'd prefer you stay out of the way of my work, Lorenzo."

It was always like that. Any time I even mention vampires—or how uncomfortable I was with the ones they brought in to kill or practice on—my dad never bothered to even listen to me. About the only one I could even rely on was my twin sister, AJ. I told her and our friends about what I learned from Yusei, and they understood.

A few months passed and on a visit, Yusei came in beaten and bloody. He had just fought some of the blood-crazed vampires when a small group of hunters spotted him. He managed to flee from them, also giving them the slip before he got to my place, but he was injured in the process.

"Shit, Yusei! Are you gonna be okay?" I asked as he sat himself on the ground, clutching his arm.

"I'll be fine. I'll have to hold out until a bit later, or I might run into them again," he replied.

"Is there anything I can do? I can get the first aid kit or-"

"No, I'll heal, but it will take until mid-morning or even afternoon before all of these injuries heal."

"What?! But are you sure you want to risk that? If they spot you again-"

"I know, Ren. However, it's going to have to be a risk to take for now."

A heavy silence fell over us. Then a thought hit me. "Say, uh, would you be able to heal faster if you had some blood?"

"Well, yes, but it'd have to be human and-" He caught on to what I was implying. "Ren, no, I can't take blood from you!"

"And why not? As far as I can tell, I'm the only human here and it's not like I can go to a blood bank to ask for a packet of blood."

"I'm not about to risk your life just to save mine. What if your father saw those marks?"

"He literally doesn't even acknowledge that I exist, Yusei. I bet I could walk in covered in blood and he wouldn't bat an eye at me. Besides, the only ones I can trust to talk to nowadays are my sister and friends. They share my feelings of unease with the vampire slayings."

He seemed to try to think of any other reason to talk me out of it, but I was standing my ground. I didn't want him to risk his life just to keep me out of the wrath of the slayers. Eventually, Yusei sighed in defeat. "You wear long-sleeves all the time, right?"

"Yep, that's pretty much 99% of my wardrobe."

"All right. I'll take a bit of blood from your arm to hide any evidence."

"Well, I guess if anyone sees them, I'll probably lie about it. I'm sure my dad thinks I'm on drugs anyway with how I act."

I rolled up the sleeves on my left arm. Yusei brought my arm up to his mouth, fangs lengthened, and bit. I winced at the slight pain, but it didn't feel any worse than a needle prick. He took a few quick gulps and pulled away. I clamped my hand over the wounds.

"Okay, I'll go bandage this up ad get you some cleaner clothes to change into," I said, heading out of the room.

"All right..." I almost didn't hear the reply. Did I do something wrong by offering him my blood? Or worse, did I offend him by doing that? He hasn't told me too much about what offends vampires, and I'd be kicking myself if I did accidentally do that.

I helped get his wounds dressed after dealing with mine, gave him some of my clothes that were too big for me, and went to bed. By the time morning came up, he was long gone. I've gotten a bit used to it with his visits, but he usually left when I was a bit ways away from deep sleep. I brushed it off as he wanted to make sure to avoid the vampire hunters roaming the streets.

The next couple of weeks, Yusei didn't show up as usual to hang out. I got really worried that I did do something to offend him the night he came in injured. Since my only sources were him or the bullshit books written by vampire hunters, I had no clue what's actually acceptable with vampire culture. After some time, I came to the conclusion his clan may have left to hunt the blood-crazed vampires elsewhere and may not come back for a long time. While it did hurt he didn't come by to warn me, I figured may be it's due to the fact it would be the last time we'd see each other (considering the only time they'd come back would be past my lifetime).

Not too long afterward, I went with my sister and friends to motorcycle nearby the city. I needed the distraction since I've been getting into more and more fights with my dad over the whole vampire thing. AJ said it'd be good to get fresh air to help keep my mind off of things. I agreed, especially since we were going to camp out for several days too. Any time away from the city would do me good.

For the most part, the vacation went great. It felt like it had been too long since we had ever done anything fun together. Although there was a few (playful) arguments between Jazz and me, I felt a bit at ease. Plus, I got to leave some of my pals in the dirt with racing, so all was good. Well, until the end of the last day of our vacation.

We were still racing when night began falling. Out of the four of us, AJ had the training to be a vampire hunter, but since my revelation of what the real targets should be, she had been staying out of training and helping target the blood-crazed vampires. She was the first one to spot the group nearby our track and warned us. We were close to the camp. However, we couldn't let the creatures know we had a way to fight them off, or else they'd keep us away from the camp and we'd be dead.

"I'll distract them," I offered.

"Ren, no! We don't know how fast these things can be," AJ warned.

"Yeah, well, at this moment we don't have a lot of choices. Besides, I faced one of these things before, so maybe I can outsmart 'em."

"You had Yusei save you back then, though. And last I checked it's not humanly possible to jab your hand through flesh and bone easily," Jazz pointed out.

"I'll be fine. I at least have more of an advantage than I had before. I'll lure them away from the camp and give you guys time to grab AJ's weapons."

"..." AJ sighed. "Are you sure you can do this?"

"If it's to help, I think I can manage it."

"All right. Just don't get yourself killed."

"Please. Like I'd die that easily." With that, I made a turn toward the group, getting their attention and driving off.

Considering the lessons I had from Yusei, I was sure it'd be a simple matter of keeping ahead of the creatures. It worked for the most part. A couple of them even smashed into some rocks trying to get the jump on me, but I ended up turning too quick for them to dodge. I started hearing gunshots going off soon enough, indicating that AJ managed to grab her weapons. I was sure things would start looking up for us.

However, while I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings, one of the creatures jumped from the side. It pulled me off the motorcycle and down the small cliff. From the pain that shot up from my body, I was sure bones were broken. The creature jabbed its claws into my stomach, and I tasted iron.

"If you beg, I might conssssider killing you quicker," it hissed. I could feel its other hand on my shoulder, digging its claws further in. It took a lot not to show the pain I was feeling.

I spat at it. "Screw you."

"Fiiine. Ssssuit yourssself." It raised its claws to stab me again only to be knocked away.

Wha? Who? "Ren?!" I heard AJ yell. She came into view over me, eyes widening at the state I was in. "Oh God...Eric! Get me something to stop the blood!"

"Here!" he replied. I saw his jacket get thrown to her and she pressed it hard to the gaping hole on my stomach. I hissed in pain. I heard her growl in frustration a few moments later. "Shit, it's not working!"

"Well, what do we do?! Even if we call for a helicopter, it wouldn't come here in time!" Jazz replied.

"Ren!" another voice called. I almost thought I was hallucinating from the pain and blood loss. Yusei?

Their words started to get muffled as keeping conscience was getting harder and harder to do. The edges of my vision started turning black, everything getting fuzzy. Before I blacked out, I could have sworn I felt a short pain from my neck.

When I woke back up, I was lying in a bed, but it wasn't my bedroom. I tried to think about what happened when it hit me. I sat up quickly, lifting up my shirt to find that the injury that had been there was now little more than a scar along with the one on my shoulder. The first thought that came to my head was that I must have been in a coma, but I wasn't in a hospital room.

A door opened and Yusei stepped in. He was relieved to find me awake. "You're up."

"Yeah, but what in the hell happened? I remember that thing sending me off the motorcycle and stabbing me. How...How am I alive?"

"Well, it's...complicated." I tilted my head in confusion. "If I hadn't stepped in, you would be dead. I had to turn you into a half-vampire to give you a higher chance of survival." He came over, sitting in the chair next to the bed.

"Wait...a half-vampire? I thought-"

"No, the process isn't as simple as what humans make it to be. When we turn a person, our venom only turns the human into a half-vampire until they are given full vampire blood. Then they become a full vampire as well."

"Are my friends okay?"

"Yes, don't worry. They're waiting outside. I brought all of you to my clan's hideout to avoid any more attacks. You've been out for a few days."

"So...how is this going to work? If my dad finds out-"

"We're trying to figure something out. AJ mentioned that your father hardly visits your place. Plus, half-vampires can hide better among humans since their fangs aren't any bigger than normal canines and don't give off the typical vampire aura that the hunters' sensors track."

"Then I can keep it secret for a while."

"Yes. We'll just have to make sure you get enough blood substitutes to keep your strength up in case one of the blood-crazed creatures attack again." He started getting up.

"Wait. There's something else I want to ask about."

"What is it?"

"It's...about the night I offered some of my blood. Or rather, after it I guess. Did I do something to offend you?"

"It wasn't that. For the most part, the vampire clans get human blood from donors that know of vampires and help us. It's done in the same procedure of the blood donations that humans do for hospitals. Offering blood is usually reserved for, erm, 'marriage,' or rather proposal, among vampires."

It hit me once he finished the last sentence. "Oh, shit! I didn't—shit, I didn't want to force that on ya!"

"No no, it's my bad. I didn't tell you about the whole marriage among vampire clans because it never occurred to me that you'd offer your blood to help me. Since that was your intention, I was trying to find a way to explain it without freaking you out."

"Well, I mean, I wouldn't have freaked out too bad. I haven't been with anyone since my breakup with Ace. Part of the reason was 'cause of my father's position and many were only seeing that in me. An accidental proposal would have been the least of my dating problems."

"Well, I think for the time being, we'll have to focus on getting you more comfortable with vampire life first. How about that?"

"Fair enough. You said AJ and the others are here?"

"Yeah. They'll be happy to see you're okay."

"Physically, yes. Mentally? Not too sure."

AJ scolded me when we got to where my friends were, but I knew she was just happy that I was all right and not gone forever. We chose not to tell about the incident as people would question how I got out without any injury. When we got back to the city, AJ did all she could to keep our dad and I separated from each other. There's no way we could tell him at all. He'd never understand.

While the clan still stayed in the hideout further out, Yusei still came around to make sure I was adjusting well. I knew eventually I'd have to leave the city and stay with the clan, but I knew AJ and the others would be okay. We may end up further away from each other, but we'd be living how we wanted to in the end.

A/N: Soo...slightly less romance in this, but perhaps in a sequel/full fanfic there's be more. The inspiration for how the vampires in this story are turned comes from Cirque Du Freak (slightly; the vampires in the book series don't have fangs, however).

Sorry I've been a bit sporadic with updating not only this but other stories. I've mainly been doodling Ren and other OCs from stories on my DeviantArt account (and might be coming up with a short little series of comics with Ren reacting to myths about certain things). Hopefully, I'll get a more constant schedule to upload stories.

Also! I do have some on work crossovers with Ren (not just Pokémon either, I promise). There's:

-an Underworld X-over

-a Digimon X-over (not yet started/named)

-a Fossil Fighters X-over (not started)

-a Yami no Matsuei/Descendants of Darkness X-over (being re-written)

-a Supernatural oneshot X-over series (coincides with A Hunter's Life; mainly prequels to the short)

And that's about it. Let me know if there's one you'd like me to bring out first and I'll get to work on it. Other than that, see you in the next chapter/oneshot!