A/N: Enjoy <3

Without sex, blood, and his trusty guard to bother, Julien was left again to his own boring devices. He wondered if picking up a hobby like his siblings was too late. Valentino was a successful painter, Virion a wine connoisseur, and Laurent was a voracious reader and academic before he took on more duties. While being an asshole wasn’t a hobby, even Solomon had his own interests and quirks.

The only hobbies Julien did enjoy were flirting with an unavailable guard and engaging in sexual acts that would’ve got him sent to a mental hospital if it had been a few centuries ago. Without that, Julien wasn’t sure what else there was to him. Was he really a boring prince underneath it all? He groaned into a pillow at the thought.

He forced himself up from the disheveled sheets and headed toward the fridge of blood bags. He ripped open the top and took a long swig before remembering the previous day. Looking down to see that it was a blood bag from the Capillary, Julien scowled and nearly emptied the contents of it on the floor. He didn’t, but the temptation was still there, so he begrudgingly downed the rest of the horrid B+ blood and stepped out of the room. Maybe walking broodily through the estate could be his new hobby. 

Rowan would scold him for leaving his room without a guard present, but Julien couldn’t bother to care. He needed a break from his room and from what he discovered about his guard last night. Surely, the topic of fire would’ve come up after two decades of knowing him, yet the betrayal of Rowan not trusting him with that information stung more than any cane or riding crop he owned. 

Julien’s servant, Maggie, would’ve been knocked to the ground if Julien hadn’t stopped to crush the empty blood bag in his hand. She made a squeamish sound before bowing lowly, holding a folder above her head. “My apologies, your highness. I was told to deliver this to you as early as possible.”

Julien blinked before slowly picking it up and glancing it over. “Maggie, what is this?”

Her voice shook. “It’s from a man named Anton Bartholomew.”

Julien guessed it from the initials on the folder, but it still didn’t ease his frustrations from earlier. “Lovely,” he managed to say, attempting to sound as pleased as possible so as not to give the poor girl a heart attack. “Thank you, Maggie.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Any word from my father?”

“No, sir. He is meeting with your siblings.” She sucked in a breath. “Just a rumor, sir. I do not know for what.”

Julien gave her a questionably comforting pat on her shoulder. She flinched from his touch, but he tried not to feel offended. “Thanks. I’ll be on a stroll in case anyone asks.”

Maggie bowed lower as Julien walked down the hall with the report in hand. He couldn’t remember the last time he was excited to look over a stack of papers. Maybe this could be his new hobby, he wondered: stopping shady blood donor places. At least then, it would be a good cause and maybe his father and siblings would stop treating him like an immature vampire. 

Julien turned down a corner, nearly dropping the report as he ran into someone. He resisted the urge to snap at the servant when the shoes and garb were clearly not from a servant. He gulped when he met his second oldest brother, Laurent’s eyes. They looked sunken in, darker and more tired than he remembered. 

“Laurent.”

“Julien.” His tone was as cold as his personality, or what Julien was used to. “Apologies.”

“You’re here.”

“Business trip.” Laurent always spoke bluntly, straight to the point. “If you’ll excuse me—”

“Actually,” Julien said, the report in hand getting heavier. If there were incriminating evidence in the report, Julien would likely miss it, but Laurent wouldn’t. He was the one obsessed with reading. “Would you have the time to look at this? Father asked me to look into this but I’d like someone who—”

“I’m sorry, but I’m extremely busy,” Laurent lamented, glancing at the report. “Between father’s demands, Mikhail and Solomon driving me up the walls, I don’t have the time.”

“Mikhail?”

Laurent shook his head. “It’s nothing to concern yourself with. I…have it under control. But I’m sorry, I don’t have time for this. Truly. I must go.”

“But—”

Laurent gave him an apologetic glance before turning on his heel and walking past Julien. 

While sincere, hurt coursed through Julien’s veins. Logically, he knew Laurent wouldn’t have the time to discuss anything with him; he was lucky Laurent even had the time to apologize. But, it felt everyone was more and more dismissive of him lately. Laurent hadn’t even heard him out.

“Whatever,” Julien grumbled under his breath. 

There were others he could ask, even the vampire staff who dealt with reports all day under Ivan’s thumb. Maybe even some human servant would find the material interesting enough to analyze for him—he could even feed from them after; two birds with one stone. 

Or he’d manage on his own; it couldn’t be that hard. He would’ve rather indulged in a good sex and feed session to compensate for last night. 

But, it appeared his luck wasn’t waning, as he spotted a familiar set of tawny-colored hair. The twins. Three siblings visiting, it seemed unlikely. He strolled behind them, pretending to run into them like he did with Laurent. Sadly, their guards gave his presence away before he could, giving Julien a curious glance as the twins turned around. 

“Oh, you’re here too.” He didn’t mean to sound so amused, but Julien hardly had his siblings here to visit. And when Maggie had mentioned it earlier, he assumed she meant just Laurent. 

They must’ve been on a business trip too. At least Julien knew they’d be more willing to talk, or Lexi would. Alex would follow because he took it upon himself to be Lexi’s protector. It was cute when they were younger, but now he just seemed overbearing and excessively attached to whatever Lexi’s interests were. 

“Could we chat, possibly?” Julien clutched the folder to his chest. He hardly asked for help or attention like this. He knew Lexi would be open to it, but Alex was a tough crowd.

Alex glanced him over cooly. “Chat?”

“Brother to twins?” He suggested. “About business stuff.”

Alex looked ready to protest, but Lexi dragged him behind her, pulling him to sit with her on the couch in the library. Their guards waited by the door. Lexi had a soft spot for Rowan, who had saved her all those years ago, which subsequently meant Julien too. 

Once inside, Alex huffed. “No guard?”

“No guard.” Before the twins could question it, he added, “He’s resting. I didn’t scare him off.”

Yet, the word echoed in Julien’s mind. 

Lexi pursed her lips. “Won’t he worry where you’ve gone off to?”

“Most likely. But it’s not like I’m leaving the estate. That’s not what I wanted to talk about, though.”

Alex raised a brow. “And that would be?”

“The Capillary.” Julien set the report on the table. “I’ve been told to check them out and see why the humans are fussing over them. And while it seemed like a normal riot, I think there’s more to it. You two run a territory. Reports aren’t my thing, but surely there’s something here, right? You’d know what to look for.”

Alex glanced at it. “If it has to do with their finances, yes. It would all be here. What are you thinking?”

Julien rambled his concerns about what the humans shouted, the imbalance of where the blood trail goes. Even as far as how the decor differed for the human portions of the building.

Alex picked it up first, flipping through a few sheets before settling on one with a bunch of numbers and graphs. 

“It’s odd, right?” Julien prompted. “Rowan and I noticed how Anton talked in riddles, evading questions, and the humans there seemed miserable. I don’t think they’re being compensated fairly. It doesn’t sit right with me.”

The frown on Alex’s face was not relieving. “It looks like a normal report. Sales are increasing, donors are increasing, and everything checks out. I don’t see anything abnormal.”

Julien’s heart sank. “Normal? That can’t be.”

Alex handed the papers to Lexi, who reads through a few of the pages, circling back to the same one Alex fixated on. 

“Lex,” Julien interrupted. “There’s something going on, right?”

“Julien.” He hated that tone, toeing the line of condescending. “It seems fine. We’ve had concerns about our blood banks but this report looks normal. Even better than our own.”

“No.” Julien refused to believe it. He’d take up learning economics before believing his hunch was wrong. He pulled the paper into his hand, and while he didn’t know exactly how to read the numbers, he couldn’t find anything outrageous like a lump sum taken out or a dramatic increase in revenue. No, he’d spend all night reading these if he had to; there had to be something. 

“Julien, what else is on your mind?” Lexi leveled, pulling the sheet from his hands and laying it flat on the table. She and Lucy always had a knack for seeing through people. “Aside from this business?”

While Julien could’ve lied and said it was the report and the lack of damning evidence, he knew Lexi meant something else. Something deeper. 

Alex glanced between them, and while Julien would’ve loved nothing more to tell him to fuck off, his input might have some use. Even if he didn’t believe their interpretation of the report. “My guard,” he said, directing his attention to Lexi, who had an obvious soft spot for Rowan. He could trust her judgment when it came to Rowan. “It just feels like he’s guarded, no pun intended. Like he’s hiding things from me, refuses to tell me things about himself.”

“Hiding things?” Alex was interested now. “You know I never trusted him—”

Lexi whacked him in the side with the back of her hand. 

“I mean it,” he said, rubbing his stomach. “For all we know, he could be the spy father’s looking for.”

Julien raised a hand as if to slap him. “He wouldn’t do that.”

“You don’t know that,” Alex argued. 

Julien scoffed. “He wouldn’t.”

Alex dropped it but didn’t hide his disdain. 

“I’m serious,” Julien said. “Rowan has no reason to, especially not after all this time. Besides, Rowan’s guarded because he likely had to be growing up. He didn’t grow up rich and pompous like the rest of us.”

“So defensive,” Alex mumbled.

“Do you not remember that he’s the reason your sister is alive? I know you hate him, but you at least owe him that,” spilled from Julien’s mouth before he could think. Sure, maybe he did sound defensive, but he was tired of people dismissing him, humans and vampires treating Rowan like some freak show, and most importantly, tired of Rowan’s broody mood and incompetence to treat himself with some respect concerning boundaries. “He was on the run and fending for his life and instead opted to help some spoiled rich vampire. He could’ve easily looked away and let Lexi die.”

When Alex didn’t respond and Lexi eyed Julien curiously, he snapped, “What?”

“You care about him,” she deduced. “You like him.”

“I—” Julien wanted to deny it vehemently and tell her she was crazy, but Lexi’s knowing eyes pierced through him. He settled with, “It’s not like it would go anywhere. You know how he is; besides, he takes his job way too seriously.”

It was the copout response he was used to saying, a bitter truth that Julien hated to his core. 

“I get it,” Julien continued, not even caring that now two more of his siblings knew of his affections. “You think I’m an idiotic, immature vampire that can’t keep it in his pants and has fallen for the worst possible thing in this estate, let alone contribute anything to this fucking family. No need to remind me how much of a disappointment I am.”

“That is not what I was going to say.” Lexi’s eyes darkened. 

“I can sense it,” he said, gathering the report and shoving it into the folder. “Forget it; I don’t know why I bothered talking to you both.”

“Julien,” she hissed, reaching for Julien’s hand, but he pulled it away. She approached him with a hand on his shoulder as he stood and headed out the door. “Julien.”

He shrugged it off. “It’s whatever. The report doesn’t lie, and I should accept that my suspicions were clearly wrong.” He doesn’t know why he was snappy with her, let alone why he was so worried about the report being normal, but the frustration festered in his chest. Maybe he was addicted to sex like everyone believed and experiencing withdrawals.

“That’s not what I wanted to say. I was going to say,” she said softer, likely to prevent Alex from overhearing. “That I’m rooting for you. About Rowan.”

Julien scoffed. “Like I said, not happening.”

“You want him to trust you and share things with you,” she stated instead of asking. “To tell you things about his life.”

“Well, yes.” Julien frowned. “I trust him. I’d hope he’d do the same—even though it’ll go nowhere.”

She sighed, squeezing his shoulder.“Be there for him. Listen to his needs and empathize. He’ll open up when he feels safe with you. You need to be patient.”

Julien groaned, rolling his eyes dramatically. “I don’t think I’ve got a patient bone in my body, Lex. Seriously, I’ll be Mikhail’s age by the time he opens up.”

She laughed, glancing back at Alex. “At least you don’t have an overprotective twin bearing down any potential love interest’s necks.”

Julien laughed, patting her shoulder to console her this time. “I guess that’s fair. He’s still pulling that shit?”

“It’s embarrassing.”

“I’m getting second-hand embarrassment for you already.”