There’s an old stool in the breakroom that Knox always pulls out for his night shifts. It’s a rickety old thing, with uneven legs and stubborn clearance tags clinging to the wood. Once every few months his manager will get onto him for sitting on the clock, as if his ability to scan beer and punch in gas was somehow hindered by the sitting position. For about a week he’ll comply, but once he’s off their radar again he returns to his perch.

That’s how he is now, back stiff and ass aching as he reviewed his notes. His parents had insisted upon him majoring in business and administration, and he feels like he’s going to lose it if he looks at another supply and demand graph. As it was he’s taking an advanced economics class, and he’s doomed to be tortured with squiggly lines for the rest of his life. He’s thankful when someone walked in, pushing his three-ring binder to the side, and greeting the customer with an enthusiastic “hello”. Well as enthusiastic as one can manage at three in the morning.

He’s promptly ignored as the customer disappeared into the restroom.

Knox slumped down again when they’re out of sight, willing his brain to make sense of the messy words he’s written during lecture. The person leaves a few minutes later without so much as buying anything, and he’s left to his own devices again. It’s in moments like these that he regrets taking this job, bored out of his mind and internal clock encouraging him to sleep. The space beneath the counter looks more inviting with each passing second, and he fights the urge to at least lay his head down.

He forces himself to perk up when the door opens again, mouth automatically opening to voice his usual greeting. He stops mid-hello when he recognizes one of the two men. It’d been eleven days since the Incident (as he’d begun to call it in his head), and he hadn’t expected to see from either vampire again. They’d repaid him generously in groceries, ones that he was still working through, and there was no reason for their paths to cross again.

“Oh, hey, Knox.” August blinked, as if surprised to see him.

“Hi.” He squeaked, cursing internally because it wasn’t strange for them to be in a gas station, and he didn’t need to make it weird. The man with August, likely a vampire too, was massive, standing behind him like a bodyguard. His eyes were amber, much like Valentine’s had been, though not nearly as bright. They were much a deeper, seeming to bore right through him, void of any of the softness Valentine’s had held. Knox fought the urge to cringe away from the vampire’s scary gaze.

“You two know each other?” The vampire’s voice is smooth, and Knox takes notice of the possessive arm sliding around August’s waist, even as he leaned forward to extend his free hand. “I’m August’s boyfriend, Nash.”

“Stop being douchey.” August grumbled, pushing Nash away. The annoyed look on August’s face is clearly teasing though, tone laced with fondness as he sets Knox with an exasperated look, “Knox, this protective grandpa is one of my nestmates, Nash. Nash, this is Knox, the human who helped me the other week.”

“This is the human who was stupid enough to invite a thirsty vampire into their home?” Nash questions, expression changing to that of curiosity as he regarded him, “Do you have a death wish or something, Knox?”

“Are you sad that he helped me? I would be a pile of ash in a dingy alleyway if it weren’t for him, you know.”

“Of course not, baby,” Nash amended, kissing August’s temple and sending Knox a grin, “I am very grateful for Knox’s suicidal tendencies.”

It was clear that they were grossly in love, and suddenly Knox missed the squiggly red and blue lines of his supply and demand graphs. At least they didn’t remind him how painfully human and single he was. He tried for a small, maybe a little uncomfortable smile, but he was sure it was more a grimace than anything, “Haha, right. It’s nice to meet you Nash.”

“Likewise, little human.” Nash nodded.

“Sorry that we made you uncomfortable. We were just uh, here to get gas.” August continued before the silence stretched out for too long, telling him the amount and which pump their car was parked. Once he’s put it in the system and Nash was paying, August reached across the counter, pale hand enveloping his. It’s cold, as one could reasonably expect from a vampire, but it still sends a surprised jolt through them as their skin touched. “It was nice seeing you again, Knox.” August smiled then, eyes scrunching, and nose speckled with freckles and Knox was a weak man.

If either of the vampires detected the skip in his heartbeat when August squeezed his hand, they politely ignore it. Then they’re leaving, Nash’s arm around August’s shoulders and throwing goodbyes behind them.

Knox finds it much harder to focus on his notes for the rest of his shift, though it’s not due to sleepiness anymore.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

It’s exactly three days later that he sees one of the vampires again.

Knox had fallen asleep on his couch, his apartment dark besides the glowing screen of his television. Netflix had paused, the screen reading “Are you still watching?” in bright white letters that hurt his eyes. He sat up, wiping the drool from his mouth as he tried to remember what dimension he was in. His Principles of Marketing textbook sat open on the coffee table, the forgotten pages mocking him as he was reminded of the test he had… tomorrow? Today? He had no idea what time it was, his internal clock too messed up from working the graveyard shift and pulling all-nighters to finish projects.

The knocks on his door started up again, whoever was on the other side of the door was beginning to grow impatient.

He stood, stumbling sleepily toward his door and yanking it open without a second thought. Perhaps he shouldn’t have answered the door so carelessly, Knox wasn’t the kind of person who got a lot of visitors. He didn’t have many acquaintances, his friend pool had dwindled to a sad amount when he’d moved out of the college dorms more than a year ago, and his parents would never dream of visiting at all, let alone without notifying him first. As it was, he was now staring at Valentine’s smiling face.

“I would’ve thought you weren’t home if I couldn’t hear your cute little heartbeat. You’re quite the heavy sleeper, I apologize for having to wake you,” Valentine cheerfully informed him as he brushed past into his apartment, arms full of grocery bags, “August insisted that it would be strange if I snuck in again to deliver your groceries while you were sleeping. He said something about a Twilight, though I’m not entirely sure what he was talking about.”

Knox just watched dumbly as Valentine sat the bags on the counter. He didn’t even realize he was standing with the door wide open until someone cleared their throat behind him. He turned then, blinking up at Nash, who was standing just at the threshold with a lot more bags than Valentine had been holding. “I need you to invite me in, little human.”

“Oh- yeah of course. You can come in.” He stumbled over the words, brain still trying to catch up with what was going on.

“It’s okay, lovey, give it a century or two and you won’t have to be invited in anymore.” Valentine hummed from where he’s sorting through his fridge.

“Uhm, not that I’m ungrateful or anything, please don’t get me wrong, but what like, why are you doing this?” He asked as he shut the door. “If this is about helping August, you’ve already repaid me so-“

“Oh, don’t be silly, this isn’t about that. You’re a growing boy, Knox, you need to be eating well.”

“I’m twenty-one. I’m literally a grown man-“ He began to say, but Valentine’s sharp glare when he looked back at him shut him up.

“Just because you’re considered an adult doesn’t mean you’re grown, sweetie. Especially,” He paused to hold up a container of wilting spinach, “when you can’t even finish your vegetables. Human bodies are fragile, you know. You need to take care of yourself.”

“I don’t like spinach,” He mumbled, and Valentine tsked.

“Or any other vegetable apparently. Most of this stuff is just rotting in your fridge. Bring me your trashcan so I can throw this stuff out.”

Knox obliged immediately, if only because he was a little embarrassed to be scolded by someone about his lack of vegetable intake. Even his own parents didn’t care. Nash had set his bags down at that point and was now leaning against the counter with his arms over his chest as he stared at him. His amber eyes were no less disconcerting now as they had been the other night, and Knox wished he was brave enough to ask the vampire what his problem was. However, he valued his life somewhat, and Nash looked like he could snap him like a twig, freakish vampire strength aside.

“August mentioned that you didn’t seem all that surprised to find a vampire on the street.” Nash stated finally, after a few moments where they awkwardly stared at each other.

“Well, I was surprised to find a nocturnal creature out so close to sunrise. I wasn’t expecting to run into anything on my way home.”

“Most humans don’t know that vampires exist.”

“Ohh, I get it,” He looked between the two vampires warily. Valentine was standing now, leaning up to begin sorting and restocking his cabinets. He didn’t seem to do much to hide his vampiric mannerisms, moving with an unnatural grace as he placed things on the shelves. Knox had concluded he must be an older vampire when they had met, and the thought was only solidified the longer he was in the man’s presence. “You’re both trying to figure out if I’m a threat or not.”

“Hunters haven’t been a threat to vampires for some time, but my Nash was still concerned.” Valentine replied simply.

“It doesn’t hurt to be careful. Especially with a new nestling.”

“August should not have been out in the first place. He shouldn’t be out at all, and I’m still upset that you took him out the other night-“

“We can’t keep him cooped up in the nest all the time, Val, you know time moves differently for nestlings than for us. He’s been getting stir crazy-“

Knox cleared his throat, because clearly the two vampires had forgotten about him. Not that he necessarily wanted their attention now that he knew they were suspicious of him, but if they were going to kill him, he wanted it over with quickly. Though the presence of new groceries was promising they weren’t going to murder him yet, he still wanted to sleep. He still didn’t know what the time was, but it was still dark out, which meant he probably had at least a couple of hours before he needed to be awake.

“Look,” He said once they both fell silent, “I’m not a hunter or anything, both of my parents are supernatural creatures so I kinda grew up with everything you know?”

Nash’s eyebrows furrowed, “But you’re a human.”

“Nash!” Valentine exclaimed, elbowing the larger man, “Where are your manners? You can’t just say things like that, he could be adopted.”

“I’m not adopted,” Knox found himself saying, though he didn’t know why. These vampires probably didn’t care about his sad origin story. He yawned immediately after, his body clearly protesting him talking about his sad and unlucky genes.

Valentine cooed, “Ahh, you must be tired. I forget that humans require so much sleep. And food. It must be so exhausting maintaining your bodies. Let’s get you to bed, hm?” Maybe he should have been uncomfortable with a vampire getting so close, but he actually found himself relaxing as he steered him towards his room, hand on his lower back as he guided him forward.

“Get some rest, Knox. Nash and I will lock the door on our way out.”

Just like last time, Knox went to sleep almost as soon as he laid down.