(A/N): We're back with Lisbet, Jerremyah, Jo, Danniel, and Greygorry.

Trigger Warnings: Allusion/reference to child abuse (Lisbet assumes, by the way he phrases something, that Cipicia 'punished' Leo for something he really shouldn't have been punished for), as well as straight up mentioning Cipicia throwing Leo out at the very end of the chapter.

Lisbet

Jerremyah had scented the side of Leo's face subtly, and Leo had chuffed happily- for the second time in as many minutes. Then, immediately following that, Leo scented him back, rubbing his entire face against Jerremyah's throat and neck the way a kit might... Exactly the way a kit might, actually. It was painful to look at in the same way the sun was painful to look at: Bright, and beautiful, and absolutely vital to our quality of life. Jerremyah was, of course, completely knocked off his feet by this... figuratively and literally, considering he started purring loudly in response, and then his knees buckled. "I've got you, I've got you," I told him- told both of them- as I kept Jerremyah from dropping by tightening my arms around his trunk. "It's okay, it's good; take your time." I couldn't keep my eyes on them any longer, and when I glanced around at the others I saw twin expressions of shock from Jo and Danniel and an incredibly fond yet somewhat exasperated look from Grey.

Upon seeing me looking, Grey's face softened further as if trying to wordlessly offer his support; Danniel softened similarly after a second, but I had a feeling that this time it had less to do with my attention than it had for Grey. Jo, on the other hand, almost seemed like witnessing this was making her angry, for some reason. I shot her a warning look, and she glared at me surprisingly weakly- probably because she was still both shocked and confused. Danniel waved a hand to catch my attention, then pointed to his mouth with an inquisitive angling of his head- asking if it was okay for him to talk. After a second of consideration, I angled my head back at him, giving him the permission he sought... mostly because I was curious where he was going with this.

"So, like, you guys were never really all that clear on certain things," He said, and to start, it didn't feel like he was planning on going anywhere with this- which was such a Danniel way of doing things. "What is vampire venom, actually?" Grey's brow furrowed and I tried to figure out whether Danniel was genuinely clueless or just faking it. Judging by the boyish wink he threw my way, I assumed he was, in fact, faking it- or at least, pretending to be more casually curious than he normally would be. Thankfully, Grey took it upon himself to handle this for me, since I was already indisposed.

"Venom is venom," He said somewhat stiffly. "But if you're asking about how venom is made, then basically... when a vampire drinks blood, as you know, only some of it is actually 'swallowed'- as in, only some blood makes it down the throat, directly via the mouth. Other than that... vampires instinctively draw blood into their fangs, and almost all of that blood then makes its way to the stomach via the throat. The rest of that blood is stored in the venom glands and converted into venom, itself- which is why, after feeding, a vampire's venom might appear somewhat pink." Danniel and Jo stared at him as though they were disturbed- hm, maybe we hadn't explained this to them before now.

I heard a noise from below me and when I dragged my eyes back to them, I saw Leo's big blues peering up at me from where his face was buried in Jerremyah's throat. "...glands?" I don't think he had it in him to be anywhere near as disgruntled as he wanted to be, and I gave him my most fond- and amused- smile.

"Yes; just behind your fangs- they're fairly subtle, but they can be felt by hand... Before they found other, more sophisticated means, Hunters used to test whether someone was a vampire by having a bit of a poke around." Grey nodded.

"You press on a venom gland, and obviously, venom is excreted- which means that a fang has to extend, in order to do so. Of course, being Hunters, they'd then remove said fangs. Violently."

There was silence for a second- well, quiet; there was no talking, just a kind of wet grunting behind me, before there was a louder wet mumble. "Nng! 'ook, nn's 'ere!" Leo snorted into Jerremyah's neck and when I turned my head to see what he was looking at, I saw Danniel with half his hand in his mouth, gesticulating excitedly with the other. Around his spit wet fingers I saw an extended fang, clearly oozing venom to wet said fingers further, despite the fact that he wasn't in Sensory Alert.

"Danniel, get your hand out of your mouth," Jo snapped. "It's gross." She looked deeply curious, though, and she turned to Grey. "Are you going to tell us our claws are blood, too, next?" He shrugged tightly.

"Are your fangs blood?" Hesitantly, Jo shook her head- as though maybe she thought this was a trick question. "No; neither are your claws. They are an interesting piece of kit, though, since fingers aren't typically built to contain the extra length of your claws like gums contain teeth. Although, that's something that might interest you, Leo." Leo and I both blinked heavily, surprised by the turn this had taken. "Do you remember which baby teeth you lost first?" An odd question, and one I didn't particularly like, considering that I feared I knew where he was going with this.

Leo was quick to respond, but didn't give the answer I think either Grey nor I expected. "Two front; lower." Grey's brows drew together as though he was utterly bewildered by this. "Ran where I shouldn't, tripped; low table. Knocked 'em right out... bit of a bloody mess." I had the feeling he didn't mean the literal kind of bloody- although I didn't doubt that was also true- but I couldn't scold him for flouting my language mandate since I was only working on a gut feeling... and because he was still rubbing his cheek against the underside of Jerremyah's jaw, right where his beard tapered off into smooth skin. "Told mother I tripped up the stairs." By the way he only said so much, I had the awful feeling he had been punished for this.

Grey took a second to recover, but when he did, he shook his head. "I meant- naturally. What were the first teeth you lost naturally?" Leo thought about this question for a bit longer, as though this was harder to remember.

"My canines- the uppers. Left one first, then two months later, the right one. Why?" Usually, I suspected he would have been capable of deducing such a thing easily, but either he was too distracted or too out of sorts at the moment, because he seemed to need it spelled out.

"Half-vampires, by design, lose their canine teeth first- to make way for their new fangs." Leo blinked and then slowly, some of the color started draining from his face. "They- and by they, I mean you- are born with nonfunctional venom glands, and the claws don't come in until later, but the fangs come in as soon as the baby teeth they replace are gone... which typically means, around the age of-"

Leo cut Grey off, burying his face further into Jerremyah's throat with a weak nod. "Six. Yeah, I know... I was still growing them in when my mother threw me out."

(A/N): I wrote chapters 708 and 709 this week.

Now, there is typically a predictable order in which children lose teeth, which goes as follows: Central Incisors (front teeth, bottom and then top) at 6-7 years old. Lateral incisors at 7-8 years old. First molars at 9-11 years old. The canine teeth typically aren't lost until they're around 9-12 years old. The last to fall out are the second molars, at 10-12 years old. So while it was normal for Leo to lose his bottom front teeth first (albeit unnaturally, in his case), it is not normal (by human standards) for him to have lost his maxillary cuspids (upper canines) next. This is, however, as Greygorry says, the norm for half-vampires. This is not the last we will hear about Leo's baby teeth.

In news of my original stories, I split one character into four (more are likely to follow), another character into three, and a third character into two, in order to be able to use all (most) of the different plot ideas I had in my head that contradicted each other/couldn't happen to the same character... which means I now need to find names for six new characters, which is my favorite- and least favorite- part of writing.