A couple days passed, but Draluc never brought up the subject again. Ronaldo sat at his desk with his laptop open, apparently writing the next section of his manuscript. Sneaking glances at the other man sitting on the couch, he could see him humming along to the battle tune of a game the vampire was currently playing on his Vintendo Switch.
Ronaldo would have been annoyed, but this was the healthiest he’d seen Draluc in the past week. He no longer looked as gaunt, though the man was always ridiculously skinny. The bloodwine that Draus had given him seemed to have done the trick, the vampire was insufferable as usual.
There was a knock at the door. It was still late afternoon, too early for the vampires to be roaming outside and causing problems. The curtains were drawn in the main office where they were sitting.
“Go get the door.” Ronaldo said, as he pretended to type another word.
“I’m in the middle of a level! I can’t save.” Draluc spat back.
Ronaldo tsked at the man, and went to open the door with his best customer service face.
He opened the door to reveal a man at least a few inches taller than Ronaldo, which was surprising considering that the hunter was already taller than the average. He looked up and saw a face that wouldn’t be misplaced on a cologne or fancy menswear ad.
The man wore an alarmingly nervous but polite smile. Ronaldo remembered that this was probably a job, and remembered his manners.
“Hello, can I help you?”
“Hi, this is Ronaldo’s Vampire Hunter Agency, correct?” the mystery man spoke, with a pleasingly deep voice.
Ronaldo nodded. Damn, this guy is probably some sort of famous foreign actor right? What the hell is he doing here?
“Is Draluc here?”
Ronaldo’s brain fizzled out, all processes stopped working. “Uh…what?”
“Draluc, your vampire partner, is he here?” The other man repeated again, politely.
Ronaldo’s brain couldn’t find any words to say to the man, but he opened the door wider, letting him in.
The mystery visitor took the cue, and walked in. Draluc heard different footsteps walk in, and saved his game quickly. It was probably another person with a request, so he would at least pretend to help. Setting down the game console, he finally looked up to see a buff man taller than Ronaldo, probably close to his 30s, walk into the room. He had curly brown hair and hazel eyes that looked oddly familiar.
A second passed, before Draluc exclaimed, “Mihai?! What are you doing here?”
Ronaldo heard an unfamiliar accent slip out of Draluc, one that he had never heard before. Normally, the man spoke perfectly standard Japanese. But it seemed like he had instantly switched back to his mother tongue after a quick exclamation.
Mihai smiled, speaking more confidently in his native language.
Ronaldo felt annoyed at being left out of the conversation, but closed the door and went to sit back at his desk. Whatever the case, this visitor was clearly just a friend of Draluc’s and not an actual customer. John waddled in from the other room, clearly curious at the commotion, before he spotted the visitor in question.
John quickly ran up to the visitor, circling around him and “Nu”ing excitedly. Mihai picked him up joyously, cuddling the cute creature.
[John! Sweet precious John! I’ve missed you so much buddy!]
“Nu nu nu!” John responded.
image credit - Kur0wa @ twitter
[Mihai, really, what are you actually doing here?] Draluc asked.
[I heard about your condition from Draus, so I came here as quickly as I could! Geez Draluc, why haven’t you been feeding?] Mihai glanced around the room, noting his surroundings, before studying Draluc’s partner sitting at the desk. He smirked.
[Trouble in paradise?] he said, pointing to the hunter. Ronaldo didn’t know what the two were saying, but he definitely noticed this stupidly handsome bastard pointing at him and smirking.
[Can you not! Do that! Maybe!] Draluc screamed, covering his face. Why did everyone already know about this already?!
Ronaldo glared at the intruder, annoyed and curious about what was going on. Mihai took pity on the poor man and started speaking in Japanese.
“Sorry, I haven’t introduced myself yet! My name is Mihai, I am a friend of Draluc’s.” The man said in charmingly accented Japanese.
“Oh…Okay? Nice to meet you.” Ronaldo managed to blurt out, manners having rebooted and started running on autopilot.
“I’m here to be Draluc’s donor!”
“WHAT!” screeched Draluc.
The vampire’s face, against all laws of physics, turned bright red. Ronaldo didn’t even know that Draluc had enough blood in his body to blush.
In the span of 5 minutes that the mystery intruder was here, Ronaldo had already seen two things that he’d never seen Draluc do before. And somehow, he felt an unexplainable annoyance at the cause being this new guy’s sudden entrance into their lives.
+++
After Draluc had managed to calm down, he scurried off to the kitchen to make their guest tea. Mihai sat down on the couch, petting a comfortable John in his lap.
Ronaldo closed the laptop with a thump, leveling an unimpressed glare at the guy. “I heard about the donor thing from Draluc.”
“Yes?” Mihai said.
“How does that all work? Did you get a blood draw before coming here?” Ronaldo asked.
“Normally, yes, I would just send some blood packets after getting them drawn for donation. They can be refrigerated and saved for quite a while.” Mihai returned a mischievous look. “But since he’s not feeling so well, I decided to come here in the flesh so that he can take it raw!”
Ronaldo tightened his fist, trying to hold in his surprise at what he just heard.
Mihai saw the other man frown deeply, unaware at just how displeased he looked. He decided to tease the issue further. It’s not like he was lying anyways. He put on an innocent facade before continuing.
“Yes, Draluc needs to drink from someone directly. Draus contacted me since we’re childhood friends, and I just so happened to be in the area.”
Ronaldo crossed his arms, frowning further. “How could you be childhood friends? He’s more than 200 years old, and you’re human.”
Mihai grinned.
“I met him when I was 17! My family has been donors to his family for generations, and one of my relatives is married to a distant cousin of his. I saw him at the wedding, and we had a fun time dancing and just hit it off”
Ronaldo’s face blanched.
“At the very least, he’s my childhood friend. I think I started donating to him not long after that actually.”
Mihai observed that Ronaldo was clutching the side of his jacket sleeve, effectively pouting. He had never met someone whose buttons were so easy to press, he could see why Draluc was so intrigued by this hunter.
Draluc walked in humming, carrying a tray of tea and cookies. He set down the tray elegantly, before handing Mihai a cup.
“Two sugars and a splash of milk, just how you like it, right?” Draluc asked. Mihai beamed and took the cup graciously.
“Thanks!”
Draluc then brought over a cup to Ronaldo.
“Gorilla-kun, why do you look so constipated?”
Ronaldo was about to have a stroke.
End Notes:
OH MY GOD LOOK AT THAT AMAZING FANART!!! Kur0 from the vampdies discord made it for me during a server-wide secret santa, and I’m literally in awe of how perfect it is. Thank you so much ;_;
Go follow them on twitter! https://twitter.com/Kur0wa