“What is a human doing in my nest?”

The words were followed by the door being thrown open, hitting the wall with a bang that sounded particularly loud to Knox’s sensitive ears. It made his head throb harder, and he was this close to throwing a tantrum. He wanted to nap, but he just kept getting interrupted. For creatures of the night, vampires were awfully loud and it was beginning to annoy him. As much as he wanted to ignore the new presence in the room, he forced his eyes to open once more, if only because his survival instincts demanded it of him.

Valentine looked downright murderous.

His eyes were already startling in a normal setting, but right now they seemed ablaze with anger, so bright they were nearly glowing in the otherwise poorly lit room, fangs dropped and lips curled into a snarl. He waved his hand and the door shut seemingly on its own, and Knox knew he was downright fucked.

He looked every bit the predator he was supposed to be, stalking forward with an inhuman grace that left him frozen in his spot. Even if he were thinking clearly enough to maybe sit up, move away, do something, he wasn’t sure he would’ve been able to. He was the prey in this situation, a vampire’s natural prey. Fight, flight, or freeze, apparently his body would choose the most cowardly option every time.

Valentine took another step forward, and Knox wasn’t sure how his heart hadn’t given out yet.

Then, he faltered, confusion marring the murderous intent.

“Knox?”

It was like a cord snapped and he was able to move again. Knox scrambled to sit up, resolutely ignoring how nauseous he felt at moving so suddenly, because maybe Valentine wouldn’t eat him if he recognized him as the slightly pathetic human he’d been pity feeding the past couple weeks. “H-hi.” He squeaked said out loud.

“What are you doing here?” He asked, now more confused than angry, fangs receding so that he could frown properly at him, “Are you wearing my sweater?”

“Oh,” He looked down at the soft material, “You can have it back. Are these your pants too? Here.” He began to take the sweater off, but Valentine stopped him, suddenly in front of him as his cold hands gently but firmly gripped his wrists before he could pull it over his head. He tugged the sweater back down so that it effectively covered his stomach again.

“No, no that’s okay. Why don’t you just tell me how you got in my nest?”

“Oh, you know. I was just taking a walk… and stumbled in?” He mumbled, which sounded dumb to his own ears.

Valentine pursed his lips, leaning forward more. The vampire was practically crowded into his space, which made him shrink back against the pillows, “Are you trying to suggest that you got past my wards, Knox? I’m aware we don’t know each other well, but I don’t like liars, especially bad ones. So, let’s try again, hm?”

“It was raining today and I don’t have an umbrella so I was super soggy during my classes and when I was on my way home from class uhm- someone grabbed me? Well, not someone, it was August, but he was sorta rough and I hit my head kinda hard and passed out? And then I woke up here and I thought Callum was going to eat me but then August showed up and I was supposed to work tonight but they said I can’t and rent is due next week and I really can’t afford to call out. And I’m so tired and I want to sleep but you’re being scary,” He didn’t even realize he was crying until he was sniffling, so he brought his hands up to wipe his tears away. “’m sorry, I don’t know why I’m crying.”

“Oh, no, sweetie it’s okay.” Gone was the terrifying vampire who’d been threatening him, replaced with a version of Valentine that Knox was much more familiar with. His expression softened, shushing him gently as he stepped back, giving him some room. “I was being mean, wasn’t I? I’m sorry for scaring you, I promise that you’re safe.”

“You’re switching up on me really fast.” Not that he was complaining, he definitely didn’t want to be on Valentine’s bad side, especially after seeing how frightening he could get, but he felt like he was getting whiplash from the sudden change in mood.

“I apologize, I just needed to make sure your truly weren’t a threat. I’m very protective of my nest.” Valentine explained, “August once referred to me as a “mama bear” though I’m unfamiliar with the term, but he knows a lot of recent human language that I’m not up to date with. Truly though, I didn’t mean to make you cry, little one.”

“It’s fine. I’ve just… had a long day.” He mumbled.

“You said you hit your head?”

“Yeah, Callum said I probably have a concussion. Can I leave, by the way? Like you could blind fold me or something, so I don’t know the location of your nest and then dump me at my apartment. I really do have to work.”

“Nonsense, you’re absolutely not leaving until you’ve fully recovered. Can’t humans die from concussions? No, it’s best if we look over you.” Valentine said and he opened his mouth to protest but quickly closed it when Valentine sent him a stern look, “Don’t worry about work, or your classes for that matter. Later, when you’re a little more rested, you can tell me your class schedule and I’ll get in contact with your school. For now, you’re going to get some sleep, okay?”

“I’m not tired.”

“You just cried because you’re exhausted, sweetie.” Valentine moved forward to tuck him into the bed, motioning for him to lie back and then covering him up with the thick duvet. He brushed his scraggly hair away from his forehead, then gave him a small smile, “Just sleep, you’ll feel better when you wake up.”

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

Knox had done some reading on vampires. Not anything extensive, as he didn’t have a lot of access to supernatural texts. His parents’ heritage didn’t get him very far with those he wasn’t familiar (not to mention a human claiming to have fae parents wasn’t exactly reliable, especially when he didn’t have said parents around to back up those claims, and the last thing he wanted was to get them involved with his shit storm of a life) so he was forced to work with unreliable resources. The internet was riddled with shotty information, human fascination with things they didn’t even believe in leaving lots of text that was entirely made up. Factual information on vampires was even more difficult to find, especially with the media being obsessed with them during the 2000’s, so he wasn’t even sure if what he read was even remotely correct.

From what he understood, though, was that vampires socialized in groups, called nests, with one appointed leader. This head vampire was known as the Matriarch or Patriarch depending on their preference, and they were also usually the strongest. Valentine had made it clear during their talk that he was the head vampire for the nest, though that was kind of hard to believe with Nash staring him down when he woke up. He looked so inhuman as he stood next to the bed, unmoving as he hovered over him, eyes fixed on his form.

He was really getting tired of being frightened.

“Seriously,” He grumbled despite his racing heart, “What’s up with you guys and being creepy? Were you watching me sleep? That’s like, max creep behavior.”

“Valentine was concerned you’d spontaneously die in your sleep.” Nash said in his impossibly deep voice, “He’s busy dealing with Callum and August though, so I got put in charge of watching you drool on our pillows.”

“What? That doesn’t make any sense…” His mouth was dry and throat scratchy, “Can I have some water?”

“Sure. You hungry too? I made some food for you to eat, come on, kid.” Nash turned then, clearly expecting him to follow.

Knox rushed to get up. He was still kind of nauseous but it was nowhere near as bad as it had been earlier, and his headache had mellowed to a dull ache. He stumbled after the vampire, unable to take in his surroundings as he tried to keep with Nash. Why was he walking so fast?

It didn’t take long until they were in an immaculately pristine kitchen. It looked like something ripped out of a Better Homes and Gardens magazine. The only difference is that there was no natural lighting, the windows were covered with dark black out curtains. The lack of sun was made up for with lots of soft lighting though which gave the entire place a cozy nighttime vibe. There was a covered soup pot on the stove.

“Have a seat.” Nash gestured toward the island to sit at one of the stools. Knox did as told, watching as the vampire got two glasses down from one of the cabinets. He poured filtered water into one, and Sprite into the other, before placing them in front of him, “Do you like soup?”

“Yeah?”

Nash shrugged, “We asked August what injured humans usually ate, and he said chicken noodle soup so that’s what I made. I’ll get you a bowl.”

“Thanks,” he said once a steaming bowl was set in front of him. It looked good, better than the canned kind at least, even had had chunks of carrots and celery swimming in the broth.

Nash leaned against the counter with his arms crossed over his chest, watching him as he ate. It was kind of unsettling, like the vampire was judging him as he slurped down the noodles, but it tasted even better than it looked. After a few bites he tried for making conversation. “This tastes really good. Do you cook often?”

“I was a chef for a while.” Nash said in way of explanation, “I don’t get to cook a lot now, obviously. How are you feeling?”

“Better now. Better than yesterday, at least. I really thought I was going to die like, three separate times. Which is a lot for one day.”

“You seem to run into a lot of trouble.”

He shrugged, looking down at his soup again, “I’ve always been kind of unlucky.”

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

“I’m really, really sorry, Knox,” August sobbed. His blood red eyes were watery with tears, which was a strange phenomenon in and of itself. It wouldn’t make sense for him to cry in general, let alone for them to be clear. With blood being his primary source of nutrients, they should probably be a light red color at the very least, but he probably shouldn’t be thinking about that right now. Especially not when he’d just been sitting on the couch, flipping through the channels on their TV (they had actual cable, which felt like a rich old person thing in general), left to his own devices when Nash had ruffled his hair, told him to behave and promptly left the room. He’d been by himself for a little bit until August had stumbled into the room, babbling about needing to apologize and falling to his knees at his feet. His hands were now clasped between the vampire’s cold ones, and he was giving him the saddest puppy eyes he’d ever seen. “I shouldn’t have grabbed you like that, and I definitely should have been more careful about how I was handling you. I’m so sorry.”

“Uhh, it’s fine dude. It happens.”

Except that usually didn’t just happen, and he was sort of upset about having to miss work, but August looked so dejected that he didn’t have the heart to give him shit for it.

“I shouldn’t have even been out of the nest.” He sniffled, “I’ll do whatever you ask of me. It’s the least I can after you saved me. I’ll never stop owing you for that; so far I’ve only repaid you by nearly killing you twice.”

“Twice?”

“I was about five seconds from ripping your throat out the first time we met.”

“Oh.”

“You do smell really nice, you know?” August let out a watery laugh at the horrified expression on his face, “That probably isn’t a compliment for you, huh? I’m not going to suck you dry, I promise. Maybe only a little if you’re into that.”

“August Hawthorne! I heard that!” Valentine’s voice yelled from somewhere in the nest, and August smiled sheepishly.