Ronaldo was really trying to keep it together. He really was. The hunter thought that maybe this initial visit by Draluc’s stupid and annoying friend wouldn’t last long, and he could get back to working on his precious manuscript.
To the hunter’s chagrin, the other man had declared that it was rude to do the blood donation with Ronaldo present, and suggested that they “do it” in his hotel room later, when it was properly dark outside. Ronaldo almost threw his tea cup at the man for the insinuation, but Draluc liked these cups. So instead, he cleaned up the tea and snacks, taking Mihai’s cup before he was done and depositing the dirty dishes in the sink.
Ronaldo started washing the dishes angrily, but gently, blasting through the teawares as well some plates and cups from breakfast that had been left. Normally Draluc would do them, but he needed an outlet right now.
Draluc walked into the living area and heard the commotion from the kitchen. He could hear the clanking of dishes being rapidly cleaned and placed on the drying rack. Ronaldo was in one of his rare stressed-out moods, and tended to do the chores sometimes to take his mind off things. The vampire had witnessed this behavior before, but usually it was when there was a manuscript deadline looming. But Ronaldo still had a month before his next deadline, so Draluc was at a loss for the cause. He watched his roommate’s behavior, puzzled.
Mihai followed Draluc’s gaze to the hunter, and smiled.
[I wonder what’s got him all worked up?] He said.
[No idea] Draluc replied.
The vampire brought out a tv and a console from the closet, and started setting it up. John helped, handing Draluc the cables. Mihai browsed through Draluc’s game collection; it would still be some time before Draluc could safely venture outside, so they both had the same idea to pass the time with some couch co-op gaming.
John rummaged through one of their storage bins, and brought out four controllers. Draluc smiled at his familiar, and then faced his roommate.
“Ronaldo-kun, wanna play Vario Kart with us?” Draluc said casually.
Mihai waved behind him. “The more the merrier! We could play in teams of two to make it more fun.”
Ronaldo finished the dishes and then turned around. The other two men were sitting on the living room couch, with the TV propped up on a makeshift table. When Ronaldo and Draluc shared the couch with John, normally John sat in the middle with the other two on either side. However this time, Draluc was sitting in the middle with Mihai on one side and John on the other.
Ronaldo wasn’t one to entertain guests in his home, and understandably, none of his furniture was meant for the purpose either. The couch wasn’t big enough for 3 adult men, and he wasn’t about to make John move from his comfortable position in order to try and squeeze 3 people together.
The hunter scoffed, “I still have work to do, go ahead without me” and walked out of their living area, back to his desk to mope at his laptop.
John “nuu”-ed softly, disappointed at not being able to play together.
Draluc petted the armadillo on the head and scratched his belly. “Don’t mind that grumpy gorilla, we’ll play again later!”
With that, the three of them started their Vario Kart tournament while Ronaldo contemplated his life choices.
Why didn’t I get a bigger couch…
NO! The issue is that stupid handsome-faced bastard making himself at home in MY HOUSE! Who the hell does he think he is!?
+++
A couple hours passed uneventfully. In their tournament, Mihai ended up dead last against Draluc and John, which was the expected outcome anyways. Going up against Draluc in a gaming competition was like challenging a famous olympic swimmer to a casual swim. Even if they were going easy on him, he was still handily in last place, even against the NPC competitors.
Mihai sighed. “What’s the fun in playing if I’m not even a good opponent?” He set down the controller.
Draluc laughed. “Oh don’t be a sore loser. You were never going to be a match anyways. And I totally went easy on you this time.”
Mihai glared at his friend with a you definitely didn’t go easy on me look before checking the time.
“It’s probably late enough for us to go, we should get you fed at least a little bit tonight.”
Draluc glanced at the door leading into the main office area, where Ronaldo was sitting, and sighed.
“Yeah, let’s go.”
Draluc got up to tidy the controllers, but remembered how upset John looked about Ronaldo not playing.
“John? Do you think you think you could try asking Ronaldo to play games with you once Mihai and I leave? He’s probably not making much progress on that manuscript anyways, and he needs the break.”
John looked up at his master and nodded, pointing at himself as if to say “Leave it to me!”
Draluc went to don his cape (hanging over the sofa) and grabbed his phone and keys. He probably wouldn’t need much more than that, considering this wouldn’t take very long. He nodded to MIhai, and then made his way out to the office space.
Mihai followed behind, debating what to say next to the poor hunter; another quip about the feeding was sure to cause more chaos.
When he stepped through the doorway, he found that Draluc had already beat him to it.
“Oi, Ronaldo!” Draluc said.
“Tch, what is it?” Ronaldo replied, typing furiously. He had been browsing the internet, procrastinating on his work by reading articles recommended to him about sappy marriage proposals until he heard the other men shuffle around, getting ready to leave. He had quickly opened a blank document and paged-down a few times, hoping that Draluc wouldn’t notice the absolute nothing on the page.
Ronaldo finally stopped typing and looked up at his partner.
“I’m going to go…” The severity of what he was about to say finally dawned on Draluc, considering he had kept his hunger a secret for so long. But he continued anyway. “I’m going to go…feed with Mihai, I’ll be back after a bit.”
Prideful as he was, there were some things he was having a hard time keeping concealed recently, like his feelings for Ronaldo. Openly admitting what was usually a private matter for vampires was making him more embarrassed by the second, so he turned around quickly and walked out through the main door before Ronaldo could see the growing flush on his face.
Mihai flashed a knowing smile at Ronaldo. “Don’t worry, I’ll have him back soon.”
Ronaldo was left, staring at the door as it closed behind the gaunt vampire and his model-like childhood friend.
+++
Ronaldo sighed, before slamming his head on the desk in front of him, narrowly missing his laptop. John heard the loud thump, and ran out to find Ronaldo in distress.
John jumped onto the desk. “Nu! Nununu Nu!”
“Oh, John, sorry for scaring you.” Ronaldo started rubbing his forehead to ease the pain from his frustration.
“Nu nu nu…” John spoke comfortingly. The armadillo climbed into Ronaldo’s arms, and then patted the side of his head.
“I know buddy, I don’t know why either.” Ronaldo petted the armadillo back. “I just feel so stupid, there’s something about Mihai that just ticks me off! ”
“Nu.” John said. Internally John was thinking Maybe you need to think about why that is!
“But you and me, we both saw how Draluc was a week ago. He needs this. There’s no real reason to argue against it.”
John crossed his arms. “Nu nu nu!”
“But why does it have to be from a guy like that! ”
John sent Ronaldo the best withering stare he could muster, before jumping out of his arms. The hunter nearly teared up, before seeing John run into the next room and come back with a controller.
“Nununu Nu!”
“You want to play games with me?” Ronaldo asked
John nodded. The hunter sniffled a bit, wiping away dust from his eyes. Clearly he wasn’t crying because he thought John might have started to hate him.
“Alright, you pick the game!”
I just wanted to say, thank you thank you thank you SO MUCH if you’ve left a comment or kudos! I feel kind of overwhelmed responding to comments bc I don’t know what to say, but I just want to let you know that I’ve probably read them at least 5 times. In fact, I come back to them every time I write for this story, it gives me that much hope and motivation that I’ve gotta continue!
I’ve outlined the rest of the story, but Ronaldo really dragged this chapter into a different direction and turned it into something way different from what I’ve planned lol. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed it so far! Next chapter will be Draluc and Mihai at the hotel room :3c