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“You're just a kid”
The words echoed in his mind as the last stone was placed to ensure he couldn't escape. No… no no no no no! Not like this! He had just had a close call and trusted them… they… they wouldn't… right? “W-what's happening…”
“You're just a kid”
He pressed himself against the wall, hoping some rock would give way and they'd be able to fade into the stone and earth. But that would be too easy. Owen stood, front and centre with a look of pure hatred in his eyes. What did he do? Did he upset the other elder vampire? Did he make some visceral reason for that to be warranted? “O-Owen… did… Did I do something wrong?”
You're just a kid…
Pyro stood behind Owen, abandoning the pickaxe that was used just previously to carve out the cavern. There was a stake in their hands, pointed down at their feet yet the presence gave away what was about to occur, “Guys… please don't… I-I'm sorry for whatever I did! I-I promise!”
“You talk too much…” Owen’s claws were ripping apart clothes and skin before Avid had so much of a second to breathe, crying out as one dragged itself over his right eye. The pain was too much as he desperately tried to sink further into the corner, to disappear and be back in his room. He was certain he'd be blinded there if he somehow survived this, blood trickling onto his hands as his arse met the ground.
However, a desperate shout and the continued scuffle of vampires filled the cavern but never touched Avid again.
“What are you doing?! We were in this together!”
“You were just going to stake me after this…”
“Pyro! Stop it!”
A cry of pain followed the roar of death. Avid clamped his mouth shut with his hands, eyes squeezed closed as he stifled terrified sobs. Was it over? He warily hazards a glance to where the two once stood, smoke and ash and blue sparks fading to reveal one vampire remaining. One eye wasn't working like it used to.
Pyro. The stake clattered to the floor in a heap of splinters and shreds of bark, ragged unneeded breaths coming from the hunched form. Pyro. He was bloody, bruised and beaten, clutching his side that almost looked as if his intestines were spewing out. The sight made Avid ill, swallowing down bile as he finally met the tired gaze of the other. Pyro. He looked horrible, yet, almost a little attractive at how the gore on his skin wasn't entirely their own in the dim light.
“Just don't do something stupid.”
They lived up to their word, the hand once grasping the stake shakily leaning his weight against the wall. The dim light wasn't helping the fact Avid’s sight refused to readapt to the darkness, “P-Pyro… are… are you ok?”
A pained grunt was all the reply Avid needed to understand Pyro’s current situation. He slowly moved, ignoring his own injury as he crawled across the bloody, uneven stone towards the man. Did he know what he was doing? No… not really… but he's experienced the violent attacks of a beast, “Do you have a torch? I… can't see well…”
“I-in my… gah… coat pocket… there's a torch and a lighter…” Pyro weakly replied, whimpering almost like a terrified dog as he moved their arm, allowing Avid to reach into their coat. He nodded, carefully moving the fabric that clung to the bloodied skin and gore of their body, grimacing at the cries coming from them.
“Sorry…” Avid could only reply, grabbing the items swiftly to avoid causing as much pain as possible. He got the torch going, managing to wedge it between gaps in the stone, “Ok…”
He hesitated to look over, everything about the situation sending him further and further into fight or flight. It's fine, Pyro saved you… Avid opened his eyes to see the damage, struggling to keep a straight face as the scene unfolded fully. A large, multi-claw gash of shredded skin and fabric was stretched across his side to the centre of his stomach, deep and constantly oozing a trickle of vampiric blood, “Shit… uh… I-I think I have blood on me…”
Avid patted down his body, smiling when his fingers graced the cool glass of a bottle and the rich scent of iron. He uncorked it, hesitantly moving closer to Pyro and lifting it to their nose, “Can you drink this?”
Pyro’s gaze fell on him, foggy, distant and cold as he tilted his head back enough for the blood to easily trickle down his throat. Avid tried to keep his hands from shaking, the light from the torch allowing him to truly see the gore Pyro bore from saving them as the blood they drank pulled and knit the skin back together, "Feeling better?”
Once the bottle was empty, Avid abandoned it on the ground as he focused on pulling away fabric from their healing body, “Yeah… you need blood… your eye will heal wrong if you don't– grh! Ah…. ow…”
Avid quickly spewed apologies when he pulled at the coat again, whining slightly at the fact they may have to cut it off his healing skin, “Sorry… I… gosh Scott’s gonna kill me over this…”
“Wha… what do you–?” Pyro’s words died on his lips when the sound of fabric being ripped apart by a pocket knife met his ears, “Avid…”
“I know… I'll take the blame for it, you did uh… save me after all,” Avid smiled, careful as he cut around the fabric that was causing Pyro pain, “And I'll get blood later…”
They remained silent again as the coat was shredded and destroyed until he was freed of the fabric, crying out a loud scream when it was pulled against the healing skin. Avid whined, pulling away the fabric and leaving it with the abandoned bottle, “Avid… I… you're lucky, yknow…”
“I've never been lucky…” Avid muttered, continuing to cut away the red shirt around the large gash so it wouldn't cause problems.
“But you are…” They urged, grunting as he tried to sit up more, “Owen… he came to me that morning we had the meeting… said he wanted you gone. I agreed to help when you did something stupid… I also knew if I disagreed, Owen would kill me too…”
“I would've killed you with him if…” Pyro paused, a ragged, pained breath as he seemed to blink back tears before the crimson stained his cheeks, “I… I kinda saw myself… in you with him.”
Avid didn't have to hear the name of the elder vampire to understand who Pyro spoke about with such viscerally pathetic rage. He didn't understand their relationship, even before becoming a vampire it seemed so… one sided. Avid had been bold with kissing him at the beacon knowing the rather homoerotic not dating but not not dating relationship, testing the limits of someone who didn't particularly like him much, “You're falling into a trap, Avid… don't ingest his poison…”
“What did he do to you?” He asked, oblivious to this newfound hatred that Pyro seemed to have for the man he called ‘Sire’ and grovelled at his feet.
“How long do we have?” The weak, spiteful chuckle was met by a wet breath, “I was so… innocent when I came here. It was my first time out of the capital, my parents had freshly disinherited me and… I had nothing left to lose. But I lost who I was… who made me me. Sire crafted me into a man made beast of his own desires… I… I became his willing servant just for the ounce of praise he barely elicited. Then you came along…”
Avid shrank under the flare of envy that sparked in Pyro’s gaze, a reminder that the blazing torch could still become a stake, “And he stopped paying attention to you…”
“Mhm… he dropped me like I was an old broken toy for the shiny new one that his favourite fledgling brought him…” Pyro spat, anger directed in several spaces as he burned his glare into the stone walls encasing them, “I don't understand what I did wrong… why he fell for you so easily… I… like all I did for him, just for him was nothing compared to a few compliments and flattery…”
He didn't dare to tell Pyro about the kiss, not with the current haze in the tight room, “I'm sorry, Pyro…”
“It's fine…” Pyro muttered, closing his eyes as the crackle of fire filled the space with a warmth Avid craved once more, “Yknow… if we were still human we'd have suffocated by now… after about 30 seconds we have the impulsive urge to breathe again, around 90 seconds we start to lose consciousness and brain cells start to die… then at four minutes permanently brain damage leads to asphyxiation and death…”
“Why do you know that?” Avid asked, a judgemental concern for his own safety overtaking as he stared at Pyro, waiting for the vampire to pretend the pain wasn't there and try to strangle him.
“I… it was self defence…” A weakness Avid could only relate to the first few times he spoke to Pyro before being turned arose from their tone, “He… he was drunk and destroyed my research… he was going to hurt me again so I pushed back… and I ran… but the police and my parents didn't believe me, recounted exactly in explicit detail what it felt like to drown… there's not much difference to suffocation…”
“Is that why you were disinherited?”
“Yeah…”
Avid frowned, finally resting his body against Pyro’s as silence overtook their conversation once more, “I… I told you why I ran here… cause I killed my best friend when she attacked me.”
Pyro hummed an acknowledgement between the hiss of pain following them trying to move once more.
“Well… I was the reason she got infected… I asked her to go out to Oakhurst before everyone else arrived… I'm the reason she got hurt and attacked me,” Avid sighed, picking at the corners of his cap as blood dried and crusted against his skin, “I wonder what she would think of me now…”
“She'd probably be glad you're still alive…” Pyro muttered, their crimson eyes reflecting the torch light in an enchanting manor as the viscera and gore of the previous tussle remained present on their grey features. Avid went to say more, to ask Pyro something or touch reach out when a sharp, desperate tug came from some weird vampire instinct, causing him to gasp aloud.
“Wha! What the– what was that?!” Avid groaned, shaking his head as it tugged again and again and again until he sent out a mental ‘stop’ to whatever it was.
“It's your sire bond, dumbass,” Pyro huffed, grunting as he placed a hand on Avid’s knee, “It's Shelby calling to you…”
“Ah… is she calling to you too?” Avid asked softly, trying to focus on sending her the message of where they were currently buried.
“No… at least… I can't feel anything…” Pyro tried to hide the hurt in his voice at the idea of no one trying to check his own safety, “Fuck… how do we explain the Owen situation…”
“Um… he tried to kill me, tried to convince you to kill me but you told him ‘F U’ and saved me? Happy ending?” Avid said with an innocent smile, trying to bring a slight comfort to the petrified look in Pyro’s eyes.
“But he… Sire liked him because he was useful and I just… got rid of use…” Pyro’s voice was uneven, their chest starting to rise and fall quickly as sharp, ragged breaths overtook his body.
“Hey! Hey no stay calm!” Avid panicked, sitting up as he took Pyro’s hands and lifted them to his lips, placing a gentle kiss on his bloodied knuckles, “I'll explain everything, ok? You focus on trying to stand up…”
He gave them a reassuring smile as he wobbly rose, thankfully having more than enough room with the low roof. Avid held out his hands as he pulled carefully on Pyro to get him to his feet again, feeling all their weight pushed against his body. Was it too soon to say Avid was flustered, feeling the heavy breaths and close proximity of them, “There… ok… I-I'm gonna try and break a way through the stone, not to go up but if we hear the others…”
Pyro once hummed in response, his gaze conflicted with everything that Avid had just done in the short span of time, “My pickaxe is lighter than Owen’s… it'll make it easier…”
Avid nodded at the advice, positioning Pyro against the wall that had enough of a lip to rest against, “Stay there while I dig… also uh… you're kinda hot when covered in blood…”
He smiled at the sputter and embarrassed look Pyro gave him as he started to dig away at the rocks overhead. Maybe Avid was too quick to judge them when he was still human. While Pyro did become a bit of a pest with the wither roses, constant torment, sneaking around, vaguely threatening presence, killing the animals— The list kinda goes on…
But Pyro didn't really try to hurt them, just to be a nuisance. And Avid did push them out of a tree unprovoked…
Once the light of day started to break through the gaps in the stone, Avid discarded the pick to claw a little more desperately until the gap was wide enough for a bat to fit through, “Haha! Yes! Do you think you can transform?”
“Absolutely not…” Pyro grumbled, desperately clawing at the clasps of his shirt when the fabric started to irritate his injuries again, “Can you help me undo the hooks? I… it hurts…”
“Yeah yeah…” Avid rushes over to him, carefully undoing each clasps until the loose fabric falls away from his chest and stomach. The healing gash was more prominent now, angry and red and bruising, a rawness that Avid could still feel the ghosting pains of on his neck, “Mmm… if we were on good terms with the Doc still, I would've suggested going there once we get out of this hole…”
“‘S fine… I just need more blood… so do you…” Pyro mumbled, claws gently grazing an ugly bruise on their ribs that looked like the blunt top of the pickaxe. There was a further look of discomfort and embarrassment at being so undressed now, their eyes never meeting Avid’s while he talked.
“You're in more pain than me, plus, I'm used to this stuff…” Avid reassured, taking off the shoulder cape to pull it around Pyro’s shoulders, hoping to give him that modesty he wanted back, “How's standing? Do you need to sit again?”
“Nah… it's getting easier,” Pyro hummed, gently touching the fabric now draped over his front with a soft smile, “This looks like it wasn't always red…”
“Yeah… Scott said it used to be white…” Avid chuckled, staying near them in case Pyro started to struggle again. There was no response, only an unreadable expression as they seemed to be studying the fabric and its splotches of where the red pooled the most. Avid enjoyed the silence, staring between the pile of dust, the shredded wood and the crackling torch. He was lucky…
“Avid! Are you here!?” A familiar feminine voice called, desperate and terrified for what may lay ahead, “Avid!!”
“Down here, Shelby! In the crypt hole!” Avid called back, moving his shout away from Pyro so as to not hurt his ears, “We need help getting out!”
“Avid!” Another voice, masculine yet filled with an air of confidence. Pyro seemed to shrink away into the wall at this voice.
“There's a gap!” Shelby gasped, her pickaxe breaking away a larger gap in the stones until her flouncy skirt and curly white hat dropped down into the hole with them, “Pyro! Oh my god what happened to you both?!”
Scott and Drift followed in quickly after Shelby, making the space a lot more claustrophobic than before, “It was Owen… he… he apparently tried to convince Pyro to help him kill me… but! But Pyro managed to take out Owen before he could hurt me more than my eye… Pyro’s more hurt than me, he needs blood!”
“I've got a few bottles,” Drift moved past Scott and Shelby, passing them out three bottles to share between them, “I'm glad you're alive… when… when we felt someone died and we couldn't find you…”
“Why did you leave your room?! I told you to stay put until I came back from turning beacons,” Scott interrupted, seemingly ignoring Pyro’s existence to focus solely on Avid. Avid wasn't that injured…
“I trusted Owen… but I'm still alive!” Avid argued back, a nervous glint in his eyes as he glanced back at Pyro who was thankfully drinking more blood, “Also you should be more concerned about Pyro! I-I managed to save a blood bottle but before this it looked like his organs were spilling out of their body!”
Pyro flinched out the corner of his eye, almost snorting the blood over their face at being fussed over, “I-I'm fine… just… sore…”
“Is that your coat?” Shelby asked softly, staring at the pile of shredded black fabric near his feet.
“Yes… it… it stuck to me and… Avid had to cut it off so it didn't damage my skin anymore…” Pyro mumbled, his hands seeming to shake more at the admission.
“It was my idea!” Avid intervened before Scott spoke, putting himself between the two, “So if you're gonna be mad, be mad at me not them…”
Scott exhaled through his nose, not happy about the situation at all, “It's fine… I never liked that coat anyways…”
“Can we please get out of this hole?” Drift interrupted, breaking away a larger gap in the roof. Avid couldn't agree more, going to Pyro’s side and letting them lean into him.
“No Avid, we can take Pyro,” Shelby smiled, taking the other side on Pyro, being careful of the still healing injuries, “Are you ok?”
“Not really… I can't transform…” Their conversation was a whisper, Avid was only able to hear from proximity as Drift took over his spot on Pyro’s left, “Is Scott mad?”
Avid pulled away from them as the two timed the perfect leap in order to lift Pyro out of the hole, leaving himself and Scott alone.
“Pyro killed Owen?” Scott asked, glaring at the pile of dust as if it said something horrible about his mother, “I underestimated him…”
“Yeah… I'm really thankful, honestly… I… I don't think they liked me enough to do that…” Avid admitted, a soft blush appearing on his cheeks from the leftover blood, “He's really sweet.”
Scott hummed as he turned to finally face Avid once more, “I'm still not happy about my coat but… well I never really liked the outfit Pyro picked themself…”
“Maybe once we're all healed up we can do a makeover and give him a new outfit?” Avid suggested, gently taking Scott’s hand as they leapt out of the hole. The smile the Elder gave was enough indicator that it was set in stone, leading the group slowly back to the castle.
Avid decided at that moment that Pyro wasn't the beast he thought they were because of his own choices, but it didn't stop them being rather attractive to him now.
Ok… maybe Avid just had a thing for people who had wanted to kill him…
—
The crackle of a gramophone filled the large bedroom, creating a sensation of casual warmth as Avid dug through Scott’s wardrobe. The elder vampire and his fledgling sat watching as Avid tried to piece together an outfit.
“Quit wiggling otherwise It'll hurt more,” Scott muttered, attending to the treatment of Pyro’s wounds as the younger laid on his bed. There was a lot of reluctance in his care, pulling bandages too tight, forcing blood down their throat too roughly. Avid wanted to intervene but with the way Scott looked, he didn't want to test his own limits with the elder vampire.
“Sorry sire…” Pyro muttered, holding back a wince as cloth was tightened against his arm. They seemed more uncomfortable than when he was alone with them. Though, it made sense for the fact Scott had them only in under garments while they found new clothes.
Now that Avid was witness to it, he understands the apprehension Pyro felt towards Scott’s presence after the whole situation, “You better be, you're still in trouble for conspiring with the plan…”
“Why? He didn't do anything but save my life?” Avid voiced, pulling out a low cut frilly shirt as a rather devious part led the decision on wanting to see more of Pyro’s chest. They're a lot stronger than he thought and any opportunity to be self indulgent, he's taking.
A beat of silence followed the question as Avid continued to search for their new clothes, placing the frilly shirt down next to the two of them, “I can kinda get why with the scheming but he didn't make good on Owen’s request…”
“Little inferno has an affinity for going behind my back,” Scott huffed, his claws ‘accidentally’ catching on their ponytail. Pyro winced but didn’t voice anything else as Avid returned to the closet for more clothes, sadly he probably couldn’t convince Pyro to show more skin than the shirt already did, “Plus he went against my own orders by pulling you out of the safety of the castle and didn’t follow me to the obelisk like I said to.”
“If he followed you though, then I would’ve been alone with Owen,” Avid pointed out, smiling to himself when he found some gingham patterned pants in a dark check, “And I a hundred percent would’ve died, I couldn’t fight back against Owen by myself!”
There was a quiet hum of agreement from the elder as he pulled the bow from Pyro’s hair, letting the white locks fall against his grey skin. Focus Avid, stop swooning. He brought over the pants to match the shirt, meeting the eyes of Scott briefly.
It was a silent conversation, a quiet argument over whether the actions and rule breaking Pyro followed was justified, “Would you rather someone break the rules or lose someone you care about?”
Scott huffed at that, pulling Pyro’s hair carefully into a braid, “You have a point… just keep this as a warning, Pyro.”
“Y-yes sire…” Pyro mumbled, keeping his head still as the braid was tied off with the black ribbon, only now noticing the low cut in the frilly shirt Avid got him.
“Great! Now, do you think these are good so far? Or do the pants look a little too… pirate-y?” Avid hummed, chewing on his nail in contemplation over the fashion choice. Scott hummed, moving away from Pyro as he started to dig through the wardrobes, “You seem like a pirate type…”
“Is that… a good thing?” Pyro asked, staring at the clothes with a small smile at the more comfortable textures instead of heavy velvets and silks.
“I think so!” Avid chimed, skipping back over to where Scott was to search for more. They all remained reasonably quiet after that, muttering a small yes or no to clothing options until they came over with a similar pirate-themed coat with the same duster cape Pyro’s old coat had, a red sash and more golden jewellery to give them that extra glamor, “What do you think?”
Their eyes flicked between the items, shoulders still tense as he shifted slightly to stand up, “I like them… do you want me to go next door to change?”
“Pyro you're already naked in boxers,” Scott pointed out, placing his items on the bed next to the rest, “If you're that uncomfortable we'll go to the opposite corner and look away.”
“I… yes please, sire…” They muttered, faking what Avid passed them with a smile. Scott led Avid away from them, much to his own disappointment, as they reached the wardrobe once more.
“Has he always been attractive when undressed?” Avid started before Scott could even register the question, keeping his voice a quiet whisper even though they were sure Pyro could hear from this distance.
“I… what?” Scott said, bafflement and confusion etched on every surface of his face. Though, both of them did catch a glance over to Pyro as he was trying to pull up their pants, almost falling but it did show off his body a little more, “I mean, yes of course but why are you suddenly attracted to them?”
“Well, he saved my life, doesn’t seem to like me that much, plotted to kill me and they look really hot covered in blood,” Avid listed, smiling at the furrow in Scott’s brows at two of the four factors listed, “And before you ask, you fell into the two categories you're looking at me like that for, Mister Goldsmith.”
Scott rolled his eyes with a scoff, pitching the bridge of his nose before glancing back as Pyro made a noise, falling onto the bed as he struggled with the new boots, “I would've thought you'd say something about his rather pathetic, kicked puppy and nerdy charm.”
“Oh I would've but I haven't seen it yet,” Avid smiled, toothy and sharp, “Maybe I'll get to see it more now!”
“Whatever keeps you out of more trouble than you seem to find yourself in,” Scott sighed, turning to help Pyro fit the clothes around himself better, “You're doing it wrong.”
“S-sorry sire… I'm uh… not really used to clothes like this,” Their conversation continued as Avid sat back to watch. His two interests, one of a centuries old vampire and the other of someone who he assumed was only a few years older than himself. Either way, it doesn't matter if both of them are now in his keen eye.
