Jonathan Sims: Bloodsucking Parasite of the 1860s

by ArcSilverfishTheBugWriter

Summary:

Jon and Martin end up back in the 1860s after they take down the Fears. Something is... different about Jon.

Notes:

• Inspired by Undead Company by TheToadKing

Chapter 1: Waking Up In a Grave

Summary:

Jon wakes up being buried by Martin after ending the apocalypse, apparently not dead.

Notes:

Trigger Warnings
Blood, death, time period typical homophobia, homophobe gets Messily Devoured, vampires

Also fluff but before the messy devouring

Jon woke up spitting in disgust as a sobbing Martin poured the first shovelful of dirt over his head.

“Yech!" He struggled to sit up and realized that he could not - he was completely buried other than his head.

Martin for his part was properly stunned and just stood there, staring blankly for a moment before regaining his senses and diving to Jon's side.

“Jon?!?!" He gasped desperately, hoping that his eyes and ears weren't deceiving him.

Jon continued to gag and splutter as he had no way to sit up or remove the dirt from his face. Martin began to quickly brush aside the dirt from Jon's face and uncover him.

“I.. I am So so sorry, I swore… I could have sworn you were DEAD!” Martin's tearful apologies were cut off with a frantic kiss as Jon finally found himself able to sit up and wrapped his arms around his Martin, pulling him into the open grave.

“Oh - kiss kiss - Martin - kiss kiss - I am so glad that you're okay!” Martin wondered for a minute if he had in fact died and gone to a good afterlife until he realized he was struggling to breathe as he collapsed under the rain of kisses, falling on his back in the dirt.

"Jon! - gasp - I need air!”

Jon chuckled softly as he pulled himself up, laying one last kiss on Martin's forehead. Martin stared up at him with wide eyes and a steadily growing smile, watching Jon’s eyes twinkle with utter joy in the moonlight.

“How… how are you even alive?” His gaze trailed to Jon’s chest where his shirt was still soaked in blood.

“I… I don’t know?” Jon began unbuttoning his shirt to assess the damage and there was, in fact, a wound there. And it was still trickling blood. Yet… here he was, alive.

“Does… does it hurt?”

Jon gave a wry chuckle. “Yes, Martin. It Hurts.” He let out a cough and winced. “Probably not as much as it Should, considering, but… it definitely doesn’t feel Good.”

“Maybe you’re in shock?”

“Maybe… can you call an ambulance?”

Martin stared at Jon. “Ah… you… you haven’t noticed yet have you?”

“Noticed what?”

“Jon… look around us.”

Jon finally took his eyes off Martin for the first time since coming to and noticed trees. Steadying himself on Martin’s shoulder, he stood up and saw… Millbank Prison?
He couldn’t reach the Eye here but he could only assume it was. And it was… in use? That was new.
He turned to Martin, confused. “Martin… did we go back in time?”

“I can only assume.”

“Ah.” He sat back down, facing Martin. “So… what exactly do we do Now?”

Martin gave a short laugh. “I was Going to bury you and then… take the knife and join you after. But now…? I have no idea.”

Jon let out a soft gasp of pain and enveloped Martin in a hug. “Oh, sweet, sweet Martin. Please don’t say that!”

Martin sniffled softly. “Jon… I couldn’t go on without you. Where you go… I go. And it looked like… you had gone into the next phase of existence.”

Jon stifled a sob and hugged Martin tightly, letting go only slightly to cover the top of his head in kisses. Martin relaxed in his grip, going peacefully limp and falling gently backwards, pulling Jon with him. Jon snuggled in, acting for all the world like he was trying to burrow into Martin’s sweater. And Martin reasoned he might be - the man was icy cold.

“Jon! Your hands are freezing, are you okay?”

Jon pondered for a moment. “I feel a bit chilly, perhaps, but not to a bad degree?”

Martin pulled off his sweater and slid it down over Jon’s head, watching as Jon wriggled his arms through the sleeves with a somewhat embarrassed but also pleased expression on his face.

“Are you going to be cold though?”

Martin chuckled softly. “No, I’ll be fine.” When Jon failed to lose the faint look of concern he solidified his words with a kiss. Jon gasped in pleased surprise as it was his turn to be pushed backwards into the soil while Martin kissed him desperately. His right hand did excited little taps on the ground while his left ran itself through Martin’s hair to which Martin let out little happy murmurs.

“HEY! JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?”

Martin sat up at the sudden furious voice, looking around in concern. “Maybe… maybe we shouldn’t be making out in a Grave of all places?” he whispered to Jon in embarrassed amusement. He stood up, putting his hands in the air non-threateningly. “Don’t worry, we’re not dead, we’re just… yah…” he trailed off as he saw the clothes the man was wearing and was reminded of the century which he was in.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

Jon pulled himself to his feet, looking at the newcomer. “He tried to bury me… turned out I wasn’t dead. But we can leave your graveyard, apologies.”

The man raised a gun, pointing it at the two of them. “You. You are DISGUSTING!” Jon looked down at his blood-covered shirt and had to agree, yet that was a bit rude, wasn’t it? He opened his mouth to respond in kind when Martin turned to him with clear concern in his eyes.

“Jon… we’re presumably in the eighteen hundreds, right?”

“Um… I think? … oh… OH F!”

“Committing such VILE ACTS and on HALLOWED GROUND no less!”

Jon tried to diffuse the situation. “We’re sorry, we can leave -”

“No! You are NEVER leaving here!”

Martin stepped in front of Jon protectively. “Leave him ALONE!” The man pointed his gun squarely at Martin.

“You want to go first? Okay, it makes no difference to me.” He removed the safety.

Martin didn’t know what happened next, only that one moment Jon was right behind him, slightly shaking with what he presumed was fear, and the next he was leaping through the air and sinking fangs into the man’s throat as he cried out weakly in fear and pain. Martin could only watch in shocked horror as Jon began making slurping sounds with evident pleasure and the man spasmed and struggled to get away, dropping his gun with a soft clatter to the ground. Jon dragged him to the ground as well, something clearly for convenience as the man was a good foot taller than Jon himself and he had been struggling to keep his grip.

“Jon! What are you DOING?”

Jon glanced up to meet his gaze with an obvious eye-roll and Martin realized that his question was a rather rhetorical one. After all, it was pretty clear what Jon was doing. “Nevermind, keep… feeding, I guess?”

Jon gave a muffled “thank you” and continued his feast. Martin looked anywhere but at the struggling man and the love of his life rather messily devouring the life out of him and mused about how much more that poor sweater of his could take.

Chapter 2: An Impression

Summary:

Darla is impressed by the new vampire voraciously eating his meal. Angelus wants to eat the human with him and Drusilla is rather in a world of her own.

Notes:

Trigger Warnings
Blood, major character life in danger

Darla cackled as she watched Jon devour his prey with reckless abandon. “I remember when I felt the hunger like that, when I was still New. He’d better be careful or he’s going to get more on his face than in his mouth.”

“That other one with him though… is he human?” Darla turned in response to Drusilla's question and took a closer look at Martin.

“Hmm… it appears he might be.” She let out of a soft chuckle, “I wonder if he’s Next.”

“Do you think we can take him? I mean, it looks like he’s already got himself a meal and I’m rather famished.”

Darla let out a soft chuckle and chided, “Angelus, let’s give the man a chance. He’s clearly fresh and needs the practice.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes. Besides, I’m quite enjoying the show. You might have your meticulously planned out missions of suffering and destruction but you haven’t been this… enthusiastic… about the actual kill in many many years. To be honest, I rather miss it.”
Ah, look, it appears he’s done.

…

Jon wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and looked up to see the top of Martin’s head as he pointedly stared at his feet. Ah. This was going to be… awkward.

“Um… Martin?” I’m… I’m done.

“Ah… g-good. Was… was… was it a Nice Meal?”

“Um… it was Okay. Kind of… coppery? But I guess that’s blood for you…”

“I… I s-suppose.”

“You can look up now.”

“Is the blood-covered corpse still there?”

“Um…” Jon awkwardly half-dragged, half-kicked the corpse into the grave Martin had dug for him and kicked some dirt on top of it. “Taken care of.”

Martin cautiously lifted his eyes and was relieved to not see any blood on the ground - Jon was at least Somewhat meticulous he reckoned. It made sense - the man was quite prone to using napkins during his more ‘normal’ human meals. The ones that didn’t involve sucking the life-blood out of someone’s neck… Martin felt nauseous at the thought and retched softly.

“Martin?” Jon’s concerned voice cut through the thoughts in his head and he felt as Jon gently enveloped him in a hug. “I… I truly am sorry… I had no idea that would happen.” Martin tried not to think about the blood Jon was most likely getting all over his undershirt and instead focused on the soft hair on the once warm body gently pressing up against his chest.

“Are you a vampire?” He felt Jon stiffen for a second before letting out a long sigh.

“I can only assume? But not… not like the vampires from our world. I suspect this is a whole new sort of creature entirely.” Martin noticed how Jon’s shoulders slumped as he thought this through and it occurred to him that as stressful as this was for him, it was probably even worse for the man who had spent so long drowning in shame because he believed himself a monster… only to become a literal bloodsucking fiend.

“It’s okay, we’ll get through this. Where you go, I go.” Jon sniffled at the words and raised tear-filled eyes to Martin’s. Gone was the fervor of bloodthirsty hunger and back were the eyes that were oh so familiar. As were the pain and self-loathing within. It broke Martin’s heart. “Jon, I mean it. We’re going to get through this, it’s going to be okay.” Jon only sniffled in response and turned his eyes to look at the ground before letting himself fall to his knees, wracked with choking sobs.

…

“Well… that’s… certainly not what I expected.” Darla was a tad bit peeved by the turn of events. She wanted to see a fresh vampire full of ferocious blood-lust turn on and take another victim. But instead he was just… sobbing hysterically at said potential victim’s feet.

“No… so can we please Eat him now?”

Darla let out a sigh. “I suppose, Angelus.” Angelus took off for the pair.

…

Jon looked up quickly as he sensed someone coming towards them and, grabbing Martin’s hand, pulled himself shakily to his feet. “Who goes there?”

Angelus was somewhat surprised by this - since when did a vampire consort with humans? Was this in fact another vampire? But as he drew closer he could hear the pounding in Martin’s chest and felt his own hunger grow. “I’m just here for the human - you’ve already had one, I want this one.”

Martin drew in a sharp breath at this. “Jon… is this another… another vampire?” Angelus chuckled softly at the panic evident in his voice and slowly began circling the pair. He loved drawing this part out - terror made the blood taste that much sweeter. Jon eyed him warily, baring pointy fangs and letting out a warning snarl.

“He’s mine.”

Angelus had not expected this - not that it mattered, he could easily take on this tiny man - but… it definitely did increase the likelihood of injury if he had to take his meal from another vampire. And he wasn’t quite sure it was worth it. He glanced back to see if Darla or Drusilla were coming to help and saw they were both just watching him from where they’d all been standing before, Drusilla seemingly humming something to herself as she swayed back and forth to a song in her head. Darla gave him a small reassuring nod and he turned back to his quarry.

“I Said he’s Mine.”

Angelus felt a strange foreboding at this… he didn’t know Why but he felt it might be a bad idea to take this one. There were, after all, so many other humans that didn’t have vampires apparently looking after them. And it was already almost sunrise - no, he wouldn’t chance it. He turned away and swiftly returned to Darla and Drusilla, ignoring their questioning glances as he strode past them towards the town’s center.

…

Jon let out a hesitant sigh of relief as Angelus left, not fully believing himself and Martin safe until the three vampires that had apparently all been watching them were out of sight. At that point he allowed himself to once again fall to his knees as he tried to steady… he didn’t even know what, he didn’t appear to have a heartbeat?… Maybe his nerves? Regardless, his head was swimming and he willingly allowed himself to be lifted in Martin’s arms and carried off in the opposite direction.

Chapter 3: Shelter

Summary:

Jon and Martin go in search of shelter to keep Jon safe from the coming sun

Notes:

Trigger Warnings
Main character life in peril, blood and injury, period typical homophobia but he gets BITTEN

Martin felt Jon start to cringe as the sun began to barely peek over the horizon and realized with startled horror that if he wasn’t careful he’d likely be carrying a pile of ash before too long. He quickly headed for a dark alley that would be shaded throughout the day and gently sat Jon down.

“I’ll be back soon, okay? I’m just going out to find you something to protect you from the sun.” Jon weakly nodded and Martin noticed with concern that he didn’t seem to be doing well. “Are you feeling sick?” Jon responded by retching and Martin finally noticed the garlic hanging down from the windows above. Ah. He gently scooped Jon up again and continued heading for what he assumed would be the right place - the tailor’s. He tucked Jon as safely behind him as he could and the two waited for the shop to open.

…

By the time the door opened, Jon was openly weeping in clear pain and starting to smell somewhat like a bonfire and he dove through the doorway like his unlife depended on it - which, Martin reckoned, it did. Fortunately the tailor wasn’t paying any attention and Martin went to see what he could buy with the change in his pockets. Apparently a decent amount. He bought them each a simple outfit from some pre-made options and commissioned the tailor to make him and Jon each a cloak, Jon's covering to the point where it went all the way around one and a half times with fastening options both in the front and on the side, a hood that went down to his chest, and a bottom that dragged the ground like a bridal train. Jon’s was urgent, he said, and he would pay extra to get it finished within the day. The tailor seemed a tad bit perplexed at the strange request but was more than willing to meet it when greeted with the wealth that Martin awkwardly put on the counter, asking if it was enough. By the end of the day, the tailor’s family had worked together to make Jon’s cloak and Martin said he’d come back later on for his own, no rush. He gently fastened Jon into his cloak, holding back a chuckle at how it made him look even tinier.

Jon seemed in better spirits as they exited the tailor’s and he suddenly realized just how anxious he had been all day.

“Are you feeling all right?”

“Ah, just… spent the entire day trying not to burst into flames. Even in that shop the sun still came in through the windows and it was rather… difficult… to manage.”

Martin made a sympathetic sound and reached for Jon’s hand before remembering the time they were in and brought it back with a disappointed sound.

“Just wait until full dark when there aren’t that many people around.”

Martin almost asked him what he meant by that - after all, it had only been the one person the night before and that had been seemingly more than enough of a danger - before remembering Jon’s new feeding habits. It had been about twenty four hours since he’d eaten as he had declined the meals Martin had purchased for himself during the day and he assumed he was probably hungry again.

“Ah. Okay.” He decided he’d discuss this later in a private room, not the open street, and lead the way to an inn that he spotted.

…

Jon let out a sigh of relief as Martin finished pulling the curtains closed in their room and removed his cloak, sitting on the bed. “So… where can we shower?” Martin raised an eyebrow and waited for Jon to once again remember the time period they were in. For a former Avatar of the Beholding he was rather forgetful. “Ah… nevermind.” He headed to the wash basin in the corner of the room and began to scrub off the blood with great effort. Martin allowed himself one disgusted gag before heading over and grabbing a second cloth and helping him.

An hour later, both he and Jon were… reasonably clean, at least by the current standards. Not covered in blood at least though Martin desperately hoped Jon would soon learn to eat cleaner because he didn’t fancy the idea of helping him scrub off blood with a wet cloth every day for the rest of his life. The rest of his life…

“Jon… do you think you’re immortal now?” Jon started at this - clearly he hadn’t yet considered it.

“I… I have no idea. I kind of hope… not?”

Martin of course didn’t like the idea of Jon dying but didn’t like to imagine Jon all alone at the end of the universe either. He supposed if he’d ever given it much thought at all he’d assumed they’d live out some length of human life and then eventually pass away and go into whatever afterlife there was together. But now… now he wasn’t sure how things would go. No matter, he thought bitterly - with the way things were back in these days they’d just as likely die of plague or be burned at the stake as make it to the end of the year. Could vampires even die of plague? Well, if he survived the plague unharmed he’d probably just be burned as a witch and, as he seemed to recall, fire killed vampires. So dead regardless.

“Martin?” The familiar amused smirk that greeted him as he turned made him realize he’d been lost in thought. “Are you going to just stand there staring at the wall all night?”

Martin bit back a retort about how no, he wanted to Sleep, the fairly typical thing to do. But he knew Jon was already sensitive about his new state of being so he bit his tongue. Jon was stuck operating by night, Martin would go with him. Where you go, I go. And he intended to follow that to the letter though he’d never have guessed it would lead here.

…

Martin followed behind Jon cautiously until they reached a relatively deserted street at which point Jon made a show of taking his hand and kissing him fiercely. Martin had to admit he loved it - Jon had never been much of one for PDA, preferring instead the peaceful quiet of a private nature trail or bedroom, and that had always left Martin feeling kind of like he was missing something. He wouldn’t complain, of course - Jon was his own person and had his own comfort boundaries and he would never press them - but this… this was Nice. He melted into Jon’s kiss, giving a start as he felt Jon’s fingers gently brushing against his bare stomach.

“C-cold!” He let out a small whimper and Jon turned to meet his gaze with the saddest puppy dog eyes he had ever seen. “Aw… it’s… it’s okay… I just wasn’t expecting it. Maybe… maybe you’ll be warmer once you’ve fed? I don’t remember you being quite so cold when I carried you last night."

Jon gave a small hopeless shrug and Martin was reminded once again of how pitiful he’d been before all the Avatar and Vampire business. And quite honestly after but… at least now he had some bite to him. He stifled a rueful chuckle as he reflected on the unintentional pun and pulled Jon into a kiss - no, Jonathan Sims was Not going to feel like an unlovable monster on Martin Blackwood’s watch. He kissed him again, more passionately, and continued until he felt Jon melt in his arms. Good. Just as long as he knew how loved he was.

A cough from behind him drove him from his thoughts and he turned to see a man looking at them with an expression of faint disgust. Martin felt rather uncomfortable and strangely obtrusive, like he was a maggot that someone was watching crawl on the open vastness of a large potato, and couldn’t help his gaze drifting to his feet as the man started to berate the two of them for their ‘sins’. He felt Jon tense beside him and remembered the other reason why he might want to keep his eyes on his feet. He tried not to pay attention as he heard Jon’s fangs emerging and the person’s homophobic attacks turn to prayers for deliverance and shrieks of mortal terror.

He kept his gaze on his feet as he felt Jon leave his side and heard him tackle the man to the ground with a ferocity he would never have guessed he had within him. He resisted the urge to cover his ears against the man’s terrified agonized screams for a few seconds as he didn’t wish to hurt Jon’s feelings but eventually gave in - it was just too much. It's why he was so startled when, far sooner than he expected, he felt a soft cold hand on his shoulder and jumped with a start before focusing on Jon's eyes staring at him with gentle affection.

“I didn't kill this one - I gave it some thought earlier, back on what I knew from before with the Beholding? I can easily take about 500 mLs of blood and leave them conscious but too weak to attack. And that just happens to be enough to satiate me for a bit." He turned back to the man who was whimpering and cowering on the ground with a hand over the side of his neck.

“You think He hates us? He Loves Us.” With this he passionately kissed Martin, making sure to keep going until Martin was nearly gasping for breath. “It’s people like you that He clearly doesn’t love so much. I mean, look at you. Vampire food, bleeding pitifully in an alley. Maybe stop being such a hateful F.”

The man let out a soft whimper and shook in fear as Jon took Martin’s hand and led him back the way they had come. Martin needed some rest and Jon intended to make sure he got some. And now that he was satiated food-wise, he needed some Martin snuggles for his soul.

Chapter 4: Stumbling Through Life

Summary:

Unbeknownst to Jon and Martin, Robert Smirke was Jon's latest victim. The two live in blissful ignorance of this fact and begin their lives in an inn, managing Jon's new state of being.

Meanwhile Darla, Angel, and Drusilla are living lives of luxury in a different inn, taking rooms from their victims

Notes:

Trigger Warnings
Blood, vampires, panic, mentions of period typical homophobia (and the homophobes suffer)

Robert Smirke stumbled through the alley, holding onto his bitten neck with one hand and using the other to steady himself. “Help!” he called out, desperate for someone to hear him. He was Robert Smirke, GD it, not some common person who could just bleed to death in some alley in the dark! Fortunately for him, however, Jon had remembered correctly and he made it back home perfectly fine, if a bit weak and traumatized. Also fortunately for him, it appeared vampires had a sort of antiseptic quality to their saliva so his wound wouldn’t even get infected. It was Meant so vampires in times of few humans available could continue to feed on the same humans repeatedly (as well as for vampires and humans who found that sort of thing fun) though these days this benefit was seldom used as vampires lived in a time of plenty and generally just drained their juice-boxes to their fills and dropped the leftovers in the streets.

…

Jon was blissfully unaware that the man he had just so cheerily bitten and told off was Robert Smirke, the cause of all his misery over the past several years. It was probably better this way for Martin’s sake - it was unlikely Jon could have controlled himself had he known and Martin would have had to scrub yet more blood out of his clothes. As it was, Jon was very fastidious and not a drop was wasted. And he was satisfied - it seemed he could maintain his meticulous eating habits even as a bloodsucking creature of the night. He brushed and rinsed with water, making sure his fangs looked clean. He would have to get some charcoal or something later - he wasn’t exactly sure what one used for toothpaste in the eighteen sixties but he was relieved they at least had toothbrushes. Or, as Martin now lovingly called Jon’s toothbrush, fangbrushes.

Martin let out a happy sound as Jon climbed into bed next to him, snuggling in. Martin was right - Jon was far warmer when he was freshly fed and they were both quite comfortable as they drifted off to sleep. Jon slowly got cooler through the night but that was all right as Martin’s body heat filled the space beneath the comforter and they thus managed to avoid the discomfort that is waking up in the middle of the night covered in an overheated-sweat.

…

Jon yawned and stretched, barely stopping himself from his habit of opening the curtains. That, he mused, would not end well. He might need to ask Martin to get some securing ties in case he tried to open them half-asleep one day and turned himself to ash. Martin rolled over, his eyes closed, and let out a soft moan. Jon smirked as he recognized the call for more snuggles and tucked himself back under the blanket next to Martin and burrowed backwards, sliding into his spot as little spoon. Martin gave a happy murmur and surrounded him with soft warm arms, sighing in relief at the pleasant coolness that was Jon and Jon closed his eyes in relaxed peace.

When he woke up again he didn’t know what time it was but he did know that there was a moth-eaten hole in one of the curtains. He knew this because he woke up with a shriek as the tip of his shoulder woke him with intense burning pain. Martin immediately covered him completely with the comforter and left him trying to soothe himself as he ran to find the offending hole. When he returned he was panting and concerned, carefully climbing under the comforter and reaching tentative fingers to Jon’s injured shoulder. He helped Jon shrug off his nightgown, examining how bad the damage was.

“It’s not too bad - just a little burn. It’s like you touched a hot stove.” Jon was relieved - that he had done before and it might not even scar. Martin went off to get cool water and a cloth and Jon nestled himself as comfortably as he could in the blankets, leaving his shoulder easily accessible, and Martin came back to see what he could do. Jon winced slightly but he had to admit it did help and he felt himself drifting off back to sleep as Martin gently ruffled his hair, after both had realized at the same time that Jon wouldn’t make the cloth warm with body heat so it would stay cold indefinitely without needing to be replaced.

…

Darla meanwhile was relaxing in a rather fancy inn on the other side of town, revelling in the fresh blood of the wealthy family she, Angelus, and Drusilla had eaten for the night. One didn’t have to pay for room and board, after all, if they found an already purchased room and ate its occupants. This inn actually did have a shared bathroom with clean warm water and she planned to make some use of that with Angel and Drusilla when there wouldn’t be others around… or maybe even if there were. She didn’t mind a little exhibition and honestly she could use another bite to eat anyway.

“Darla, do you think there’s anything left?” Darla turned an amused gaze to Angelus - the man was always hungry. It’s part of why she loved him - finally, a companion who matched her own hunger.

“Angelus, I’m pretty sure we drained them pretty dry. But don’t worry - there are plenty of other occupants in the inn as well as plenty of other inns in the area.”

“Ah… I shall have to look into that. Did any of them look particularly… innocent?”

“There was a family, with small children… such little hands, such little feet… so tender and Scrumptuous.”

“Drusilla… why don’t you go fetch us some? Children do seem to trust you and I could go for something tender.”

“Of course, I shall bring the children…the sweet, sweet children” she walked through the door, swaying slightly and humming a rather ominous tune in a minor key.

“Do you want to have a little fun while we wait?”

“Ah, Angelus. I was hoping you’d ask!”

…

Martin nodded approvingly as Jon finished up with his sixteenth victim - this one hadn’t screamed nearly as much and after a couple short shrieks as the fangs went in had merely stared at Martin in abject terror as Jon had his fill before laying them gently in the grass beside the cobblestones with a soft, “thank you.” This person hadn’t been nearly as problematic as the last ones, only sparing them a withering look before moving on, so Jon had been far more gentle. Martin had to agree that they were doing a good deed - he already felt safer walking the town’s streets holding Jon’s hand as many now shuttered their blinds or hurried away without uttering a word whenever they saw them. Or, as it turned out, whenever they saw any gay couple. Apparently without much electricity to speak of, hunting only in the dark, and no photographic evidence, there were only circulating rumors about “The gay couple on the lookout for homophobes to eat where one bites you and the other watches.” Martin personally got a kick out of being the “One Who Watches” for once and they both appreciated how, as long as they only went out at night, any gay couple could utilize the safety that Jon and Martin provided because they could just as easily be the bloodthirsty vampires and nobody was willing to chance it. It helped that Jon always wore his cloak until biting, and by that point they were already looking the other way, so nobody actually knew what he looked like.

“You’re getting better at this.”

“Why, thank you Martin. A little over two weeks in and I feel I’m actually starting to get the hang of this whole vampire business.”

“It’s a relief - I guess I’m just used to the twenty-first century with all its cameras and internet but we’ve been really getting away with everything with basically no repercussions.

“It is convenient - the Eye must have been far hungrier back in these days with fewer ways to feed.”

“You still think about the Eye?”

“Of course… I’m sure it’s still out there, Watching, somewhere, even if I’m not attached to it currently.”

“That’s not… good, probably?”

“No, probably not… though I admit, part of me does miss it.”

“Ah… do you want to talk about it?”

 

Jon let out a soft chuckle. “Maybe later - for now, I’m in need of some Martin snuggles.”

“And those I can easily provide!” Martin pulled Jon into a kiss as they prepared to enter the inn and go to bed for the night. Life was going well.

Chapter 5: Vampire Slayers

Summary:

Victoria is the vampire slayer and as such is assigned to slay Jon and, assuming he is also a vampire, Martin.

Meanwhile Martin has his own idea of vampire slayage when it comes to Jon.

Notes:

Trigger Warnings
Mention of homophobia, inferred sexual content (no actual sex), kissing, snuggling, some inferred biting

The Jon and Martin half of this chapter is supposed to be adorable but if you're not into that sort of thing feel free to just skip it! The slayer part is entirely separate.

Victoria rolled her eyes as she stumbled out of bed, making her way to the wash basin in the corner. Her watcher had been onto her lately for sleeping in and here she had done it once again. She was twenty eight, plenty old enough to be able to sleep in as long as she wanted as well as make her own decisions about many other things but of course the watchers council had to give all that power to some old guys. Because that's how it was always done. Of course. At least she knew she could take them if she ever really needed to.

And now there was a new vampire terror afoot, apparently a couple who was basically catch and releasing humans in arguably the most ethical form of vampirism possible as it resulted in absolutely no death. “Vegetarian vampirism," she muttered ruefully to herself then thought better of it. "Parasitic vampirism.” They were like leeches, biting, taking what they needed, then leaving. Even vegetarians killed plants. All in all, not too bad considering the alternative and honestly she couldn't think of a better solution to vampirism so all power to them, really. But her watcher had other ideas. Her watcher who was not a fan of how these two particular men were going about things and making a name for themselves, a fact that she was almost entirely sure had something to do with his own homophobia. She herself knew she would never come out to him and often wondered just how long she could keep her girlfriend a secret before the watchers council found out and had yet another rule put in place, this one explicitly forbidding relationships.

But regardless, they were her mission now. She wasn’t even completely sure both were vampires but it wouldn’t make sense for a human and a vampire to be together as vampires didn’t have souls so… she supposed they must be. It did confuse her why a soul-less being would be sparing victims like this but it wasn’t really that important. Maybe she could ask him before she staked him. It really depended on how easy he was to subdue.

…

Upon Martin’s teasing beckoning, Jon kissed him desperately, leaving no room for questioning his motives and Martin teasingly pulled away, mocking him. “Wow, looks like Somebody is hungry for more than just blood today.” Jon gave a teasing whimper and Martin laughed, pulling him in. “Don’t worry - I’ve got you.” Then before he knew what was happening, Jon was being kissed so much and from so many directions he didn’t even know which way was up. And it TICKLED! He tried to crawl away but was laughing so hard he couldn’t get up the strength to push himself up and instead just succumbed to the affection. Martin noticed this and stopped, giving Jon a few seconds to escape if he wanted to, and upon seeing his teasing wink he continued and Jon let out happy little squeaks that filled Martin’s soul with joy.

Martin then leaned in and started kissing him gently and Jon just felt himself melt into the bed, a gentle calmness filling him as he realized he didn’t even have to breathe anymore so he could really just go on like this forever as long as Martin could. He closed his eyes and relaxed, taking in all that was Martin, not for the first time relishing his stronger vampire senses but for the first time realizing how much better they made… this. The softness of his skin, the feathery lightness and smell of his hair. Even in the eighteen sixties without nice shampoos, it was still heavenly and Jon felt himself let out a breath he didn’t even know he took - habit, he supposed. Martin noticed and smirked at him, stopping long enough for Jon to open his eyes in askance.

“Aw, am I such a good kisser I brought you back to life?”

Jon eyed him mischievously and bared sharp pointy fangs. “Care to bet?”

“They look like perfectly ordinary teeth to Me,” he teased, poking one with a finger.

“Careful - I bite!” Jon teasingly lunged forward, sending Martin backwards into the blankets, staring up at him with wide eyes. “Oh… sorry, I… “

Martin chuckled softly and pulled Jon in. “You know, I’ve been feeling a lot like I did with Oliver Banks lately.”

“Hmm?”

“Jealous.”

Jon paused thoughtfully, trying to figure out who Martin could even be jealous of in a time period where they literally only knew each other - he knew he had a jealous streak but even for him this seemed a tad excessive - and felt himself being pulled forward into Martin.

“Careful!” he teasingly admonished. “You probably don’t want to try that when my fangs are out.” But the Very amused smirk that crossed Martin’s face made it fairly obvious that no, that was not in fact an accident, and he allowed himself to be pulled forward.

Martin was… so so very soft, absolute perfection. So warm, so caring, so gentle, so… everything he loved about Martin was amplified tenfold and he felt the world spinning and fading to black.

He woke up to see a somewhat concerned Martin looking over at him, lying next to him in the bed and noticed that he was cozily covered in the comforter with Martin’s hands gently holding both of his own. “Are you okay? You passed out.”

Jon let out an embarrassed soft chuckle. “You… you’re so…”

Martin audibly smirked, raising an eyebrow, “What, Jon? Spit it out.” When Jon failed to respond, he withdrew one of his hands from Jon’s and gently brushed the hair out of Jon’s face, leaning in for a gentle kiss. Jon melted again, closing his eyes as once again all that was Martin overwhelmed his senses.

“You’re… so… delicious,” he finally breathed, opening his eyes slowly after with some level of concern about what Martin would think of That answer. But the beaming smile that faced him only proved his fears unfounded

Chapter 6: New Lodgings

Summary:

Jon and Martin need new lodgings after they run out of money. Their options for work are somewhat limited due to their lack of many of the era's skills

Notes:

Trigger warnings
Period typical homophobia, vampire hypnosis

Mostly fluff and messing with Smirke

Martin looked at Jon ruefully as he dug through his now empty pockets. “Looks like we’re out of cash.”

“Ah.” Jon gave a thoughtful look. “So… what do you suppose we do now?”

“We’re going to need to find work if we want to keep shelter.”

“What sort of work does one even Do in the eighteen sixties? Ah.”

…

Robert Smirke was surprised to see the somewhat familiar looking couple of men as his servant led them to him. Were these, perhaps, the vampire and his boyfriend from a couple weeks back? No, that wouldn’t… that wouldn’t make sense. Everyone knew vampires couldn’t travel by day and it was mid-morning. Even so he was dubious.

“Greetings, Robert Smirke.” Jon’s voice was tinged with slight amusement and embarrassment as he gazed upon the man from the other day. Martin had been none-too thrilled when he’d made the connection earlier

“You bit ROBERT SMIRKE???? And then ADMONISHED HIM FOR HOMOPHOBIA?!?”

But Jon had found the entire thing Extremely amusing and thought they Might as Well. After all, Smirke was a rather rich figure and would be likely on the lookout for servants. A job that they could actually both do without any of the general skills specific to the time period - as Jon pointed out, neither of them were any good at farming, blacksmithing, carpentry, tailoring, or the like. Martin thought he could manage at a bakery but Jon was no good at cooking and anyway needed something he could do at night or at least safely far from the sun. So being servants in a large household seemed the most prudent decision.

Yet… it seemed rather risky, actually standing there in his drawing room, looking at the man whose fang-mark scar was still rather visible on his neck as he stared at them somewhat dubiously. “Do… do I know you?”

“No, sir. I don’t believe we’ve met.”

“Hmm…” He gazed shrewdly at Jon and Martin’s faces in turn. He couldn’t be sure - it was dark and he had lost rather a lot of blood, but they Did look familiar.

“You have never met us before.” Jon’s voice was tinged with a strange undertone and Martin glanced at him with some shock as Smirke’s eyes went slightly unfocused and he nodded slowly.

“No… I suppose that I have never met you before. Pardon me. You just looked… familiar.”

“Like…?”

“Like those vampires terrorizing the town. Those sinners.” He spat the last word out with some venom and Martin felt Jon tense beside him. Uh oh.

“Oh, you mean the couple who’s been going around biting people with perfectly reasonable opinions on how men should behave?” He smirked bitterly and pulled his shirt collar down slightly, revealing his own fang-marks. “Trust me, I am none too thrilled with the apparent… resemblance we seem to have. But no, we are just two bachelors looking for work while we save up to be able to support our future families.”

Smirke visibly relaxed at this. Okay so they weren’t that couple. And he could use some more servants - he’d recently lost a few as they fled the town in fear of the new vampire-scourge.

“Okay. You can move into the servant’s quarters in the back of the house. I only have the one room available but I’m sure you’re used to making due with similar accommodations in this line of work.”

“Of course, thank you ever so much.” Martin graciously tipped his head and followed Smirke to his new home, leading a still slightly tense Jon.

…

“It's actually quite nice, considering." Martin was pleasantly surprised - the room, though small, had its own wash basin and the servant's quarters had its own actual bathtub which, while they would have to share with a few others, was still a huge improvement from the complete lack of one at the inn. And the blankets on the single bed were very soft, something he was personally a fan of as Jon was quite fond of soft blankets and one aspect of this time period was the clothes weren't exactly Comfortable. And if Jon was tempted to wear less and just surround himself in blankets when he didn't have to be out and about, well, Martin wasn't going to stop him. He might be tempted to get in some extra snuggles, however, and Jon was more than willing to oblige.

Jon gave a little twirl about the room and turned to him with a beaming smile - “Look, no windows!" And Martin realized this really was perfect.

…

The job was somewhat less so. As the two newest servants, they were at the bottom of the pecking order so the other three initially treated them not always super kindly. It quickly became clear however that Martin was the most skilled at making tea and cooking in general and Jon was the best at finding the cobwebs in the darkest rooms and corners as so they were soon settled into their new roles with little issue. The other servants were admittedly rather impressed with Jon's abilities, claiming that it almost seemed he could see in the dark as they themselves were never able to all find the cobwebs with such speed and thoroughness. It appeared they would no longer have to worry about Smirke coming down on them for ‘lack of proper attention to detail’ and for that they were extremely grateful. And with the absence of the former cook it had fallen on the other three to take turns making Smirke’s meals which had, in the best of times, gone rather badly. Having an actual skilled cook in the house was a lifesaver.

Smirke was, well, Smirke. A typical condescending rich British man of his era. Which meant Martin had to calm Jon down to stop him from quite literally taking him down right then and there on an almost daily basis. Vampire blood-rages were clearly no joke…other than the fact that Martin had admit that Jon was simply Adorable when he started to shake and his eyes got all wide and… he had to admit that he had on occasion also had to stop himself from taking Jon right then and there in an entirely different way. Something Jon had reacted with Great amusement to when Martin had eventually somewhat embarrassedly told him after a not small amount of teasing prodding. No, things were pretty good, he reflected as he looked over to the peacefully sleeping form of his beloved and gently kissed his exposed shoulder. Jon gave a little sleepy smile and Martin snuggled in next to him with a sigh of relaxed satisfaction.

Chapter 7: Nighttime Meeting

Summary:

Jon and Martin are having a nice time smooching in the middle of the street to lure unsuspecting homophobic prey when Victoria the Vampire Slayer finds them. She shoots Jon and begins an evening of chaos when it turns out that they are not the only ones around.

Notes:

Trigger Warnings
Major character life in danger, blood and injury, pain and suffering, possible death, despair, self-hatred, guilt, possible suicidal ideation

Jon and Martin were having a frankly wonderful time. The moon was full, casting quite a lovely spread of light over the two of them as they passionately kissed in the middle of the street. What had begun around a month previously as an attempt to lure out prey for Jon had become a game of seeing how much they could outdo their previous night’s selves. And it was going well - Martin was having the time of his life and Jon had gained a Lot of confidence and was clearly very much into being on the other side of the Beholding for once. Jon made happy squeaky sounds as Martin held him close and kissed him what would have been senseless had he needed to breathe. As it was, it was simply very exhilarating and he allowed himself to fall into a peaceful state of just enjoying all that was Martin.

Victoria saw the two in the middle of the street and paused a second to load her cross-bow before silently starting forward. She’d thought this would be harder but it appeared they weren’t paying Any attention to their surroundings. Oh well, maybe she’d get an early night after all. She aimed the crossbow and fired.

Simultaneously, Martin decided that he wasn’t having an easy enough time smooching his boyfriend and he hoisted him up so that they were face to face. Jon smirked at Martin, appreciating his new higher position, for a split second before letting out a sharp cry of pain and collapsing against Martin’s shoulder. Martin was horrified to see a cross-bow bolt sticking out of Jon’s lower back and lifted his gaze to see someone loading another.

“Sorry, but I’m not missing a second time. I just didn’t expect you to pick him up like that.” Victoria did feel a little bad - Martin looked so scared and she still wasn’t entirely sure he wasn’t human. But she had to take out the vampire so she aimed again.

Darla had been watching Jon and Martin’s antics in the middle of the street with great amusement as she wasn’t feeling like hunting tonight and was waiting for them to bring on the prey. She had to admit, she was somewhat impressed by their strategic method of obtaining food. She didn’t expect a slayer however and was rather… peeved… at having her show messed up like this.

“Angelus, can you help me put a stop to this?” Angelus knew though he didn’t particularly care about the other vampire he daren’t refuse or else face Darla’s wrath - or rather, likely face far less of her for a while. She had been around for two hundred years or so and could Really hold a grudge. And it just wasn’t worth it. So he allowed himself one exasperated sigh before starting forward towards the slayer, closely followed by Darla. He had heard that slayer blood was especially delicious - perhaps he’d eat well tonight.

Martin was meanwhile desperately trying to convince Victoria not to shoot as he held a barely-conscious, moaning Jon in his arms. “Please, please don’t hurt him! He doesn’t kill people, well, not since he figured out how not to!” Victoria was trying not to focus on the terrified man in front of her who was begging desperately for her to spare his lover, but instead on the fact that his lover was a VAMPIRE, but it was a difficult task especially with how Martin kept moving around once it occurred to him that the only way she could actually kill Jon was with a shot through the heart. And he just Kept Begging. It was heartbreaking, really. It was also distracting enough that she didn’t see Angelus and Darla until she was on the ground with two sets of fangs buried in either side of her neck.

Martin let out a horrified shriek and just Ran, Jon groaning half-consciously in his arms.

“What… what’s going on?” Jon’s murmur dragged Martin back from his mindless panicked flight.

“You… you were attacked. And… a couple other vampires attacked her.”

Jon winced, struggling to grasp the situation and adjust himself in Martin’s arms. “So… a human is back there, being killed and eaten?”

“I… I s’pose so.”

Jon let out a long sigh. “We should go back and try to help.”

“Jon, she tried to Kill you!”

“Yes, and I deeply regret killing that man the first night we arrived here and I can’t help but feel that if she dies her death is at least Partially my fault. I’m not having another body on my conscience.”

Martin couldn’t argue with this - there simply wasn’t time - so he instead let out an exasperated sigh and started back towards where they’d been attacked.

Victoria clawed desperately at the cobblestones, struggling to reach her crossbow, as the vampires drained her. Yet it was to no avail and as she faded out of consciousness she couldn’t help but feel this was some sort of message from the universe about what she had been doing right beforehand. Maybe killing the only non-killing vampire wasn’t ethical after all. It didn’t matter now regardless - he’d escaped and she was dying.

Martin was shocked when Jon shakily leapt from his arms, bounding towards the three on the ground. He was clearly not doing Well but was fueled with a desperation that carried him forward until he was facing them.

“Let her go.” His voice was shaky yet strong enough to be somewhat intimidating and Darla found herself once again impressed by this rather strange vampire. However…

“She’s dead. You can have her if you want though I suppose… might as well get a taste of delicious slayer blood while you can before the next shows up.”

Angelus was a bit irritated at Darla’s sharing without even Asking him - this was both of their dinner, after all - but also knew this meant that they could go on another hunt tonight and he’d just wetted his appetite for bloodlust and was only too eager to find another victim. So he relinquished the slayer, nodded politely to Jon, and walked off with Darla, hand in hand, in search of someone else to eat. He hoped it would be children. He loved eating children.

Martin made his way over once the vampires were gone and saw Jon kneeling at the side of the deceased slayer with tears welling up in the corners of his eyes.

“I… I caused this. If I had been paying more attention…”

“Jon. She caused this. She Attacked you, unprovoked!”

“I… I just can’t take it…. All the blood…” Jon slumped to the ground next to the corpse and Martin got the distinct impression that he wasn’t just referring to this one person. Sunrise was coming in a couple hours and he didn’t particularly want to test how far this despair of Jon’s would go and he might as well Try anyway. He knelt down and began CPR. Jon watched him from his place on the ground, tears slowly running from the corners of his eyes and down the sides of his face.

Victoria woke with a choked gasp, staring right into the face of… the man whose boyfriend she had tried to kill. A boyfriend who was lying on the ground some feet away, staring at the two of them, seemingly crying. None of this made any sense. She faded in and out of consciousness as Martin lifted her up and began to carry her towards the town center while Jon struggled to his feet and limped alongside him, holding his injury, calling out for a doctor.

Chapter 8: Recovery

Summary:

Victoria wakes up in the hospital. Martin cares for an injured Jon.

Notes:

Trigger Warnings
Blood and injury, feeding, drugging in order to feed

Mostly hurt/comfort and fluff

Victoria came to in a hospital bed, alone. She wasn’t even sure she hadn’t imagined the previous night until she noticed the note by her bedside.

“Good luck. Please don’t try to kill Jon again - he’s the one who made us come back for you. Don’t make me regret listening to him.
-MKB”

She wasn’t entirely sure what to take from this other than the fact that she seemingly hadn’t imagined the night before and maybe she needed to re-think her world-view of vampires. But that was a problem for later - for now she needed her rest.

…

Martin finished helping Jon clean himself and ease into a robe and underwear before guiding him back to their room to sleep. Fortunately it was far too early for anyone else to be awake so they were undisturbed but it was slow-going - clearly Jon’s panicked run last night had been merely a product of adrenaline as he was now barely managing to make it to bed even with Martin supporting him. He offered to carry him but Jon pointed out that if someone saw them that might get them asked too many questions. So he just let Jon lean on him heavily instead, letting out a massive sigh of relief when they finally made it to the bedroom whereupon he closed the door and gently lifted Jon up and carried him to bed. The relief was clearly visible on his face as he helped him lie down, tucked him in up to his waist, and gently slid off the robe to get a better look at his injury. It wasn’t bleeding a lot - more of a trickle that had since eased up - but it still looked rather painful and Martin rifled in his pockets for the medical supplies he had managed to secure earlier. They weren’t nearly the quality he was used to but he could make it work. Jon whimpered and tensed slightly as Martin bandaged him up but soon relaxed under Martin’s gentle shushing sounds and kisses.

“It’s going to be okay,” he whispered as he crawled into bed next to Jon, gently draping the blanket over the both of them and kissing Jon’s forehead. “You’re safe now.”

Jon woke up the next morning to not be healing as fast as he had as an Avatar of the Beholding but also not as injured as he would have been as a human. He couldn’t really see the injury, considering the location and the fact that he could no longer make use of mirrors, but Martin reassured him that it was actually healing quite nicely.

“However, I’m telling Smirke that you’re too injured to work today. You get some rest.” Jon tried to protest but the simple act of sitting up to do so hurt too much so he allowed himself to be tucked in snugly and closed his eyes as Martin left the room. He really was exhausted. It also didn’t help that he hadn’t eaten the night previously and he felt positively woozy even just lying there. Eventually he faded into a sort of half-sleep, half-somewhat hallucinatory state until he came to greedily slurping what must have been the most delicious blood he had ever tasted.

“Easy! Easy!” He felt strong hands push him back into the pillows and saw Martin’s somewhat amused, somewhat concerned face staring down at him. He felt a tinge of regret as he saw that Martin’s arm was bleeding.

“Martin… I’m so sorry… I… I didn’t mean to…”

Martin smiled at him gently with relief evident in his voice. “Jon. You were… not doing well. You didn’t do anything - you couldn’t - I’m the one who fed you because you looked like you were dying. Like really dying. And now that you’re not, we can go out and get you some other food.” And upon further consideration, Martin’s injury was rather obviously not caused by fang-marks but was instead a small cut likely made with a knife. Jon instinctively kissed it clean and Martin bandaged it up with a light chuckle. “All better. Do you feel up to going hunting?”

Jon didn’t feel great, per say, but with Martin there to help him he was able to stumble out into the house. But hunting… out there, where he’d have to pounce on someone… he didn’t see that happening. And he let out a sad sigh as he pondered how to even tell Martin that - it’s not like he could just bring him back prey - until he noticed Martin’s smirk, a smirk he knew well from whenever Martin had a secret that he was just Dying to tell Jon.

“I… I Might have arranged a meal for you.”

“How?”

“I Might have Drugged the Tea.” And with that, he gently led Jon down the hall to Robert Smirke’s bedroom whereupon he withdrew a small dagger from his sleeve and bent over the prone form.

“Um… Martin, please tell me that’s not the same one you used on yourself.”

“Oh, no. I keep my dagger separate. Don’t want to risk blood-borne pathogens.”

Jon breathed a sigh of relief and then one of hunger as the smell of blood wafted up to his nostrils and leaned down to gently slurp up his meal. It was not nearly as good as Martin’s, he realized, but still decently satiating. When he had taken his fill Martin gently wiped the cut clean with a damp cloth and stuck the sides together with what appeared to be glue. As it was on the nape of his neck there was little chance this would get discovered and he would likely just assume he’d accidentally scratched himself in his sleep. After all, it was a very thin dagger.

Fortunately the pair was able to get back to the bedroom before it became clear that maybe drugging the tea with that particular herb wasn’t the best idea as Jon started swaying and had to be helped into bed, whereupon he fell into a deep sleep within a couple minutes. Martin wasn’t too bothered, however, as Jon really did need the rest.

Chapter 9: Jon Rights a Long-Past Wrong

Summary:

Sahjhan is having a bad day and decides that anybody in his way can just deal with his attitude. Unfortunately for Jon and Martin, his path takes him right through the street where they are smooching and Jon gets sent back in time. Martin is Not having it.

Notes:

Trigger Warnings
Major character life in danger, child vampire life in danger, blood, death, dead infant (from canon vampire attack in Angel)
The beginning and ending of this chapter are just... pure chaos that is meant to be hilarious. The middle part is far more serious

The more notes are just an explanation of why I wrote this chapter but they give spoilers

Sahjhan was having a bad day. He'd woken up on the wrong side of the bed and woe to whoever crossed his path. In this case that was Jon, making out with his beloved Martin, and they were hogging the middle of the street. Incorporeal as he was he didn't Actually need them to move but it was still frustrating. Sahjhan irritatedly strode forward but they didn't seem to notice so he opened up a portal, sending poor Jon straight back into the 18th century. Whoops. Like he even cared.

Jon was Very confused to find himself suddenly flat on his rear in the dirt and totally alone. After some minutes of contemplation he stood up and started walking in a random direction, assuming correctly he had time traveled again and needed to find a place to lie low to gather his bearings and avoid the sun in a few hours. His cloak would keep him alive, sure, but it was a rather unpleasant experience and there was always the risk of burns whenever a slight breeze hit. This was… frustrating. Thankfully, however, he eventually found a house with the door ajar and let himself in. He was horrified to find two very clearly dead corpses of a mother and infant and a little girl sitting in the corner quietly playing with a doll. He made his way over to her, gently kneeling to her level, and realized she lacked a heartbeat.

“What happened?” She simply stared at him for a few seconds and turned back to her doll. He was about to say something else - ask if she was okay, perhaps, as it seemed unlikely she had been the perpetrator of this carnage and the fang marks on her neck were quite fresh - when he heard the sound of rushed hoofbeats outside and reckoned he should hide. He quickly did so, running for a room he could only assume was the little girl's bedroom, and hiding in the corner.

When he noticed the sheer number of crosses around the room he reckoned he had made the correct decision as it appeared that this man was something of a vampire hunter. It made him uneasy, of course, being a vampire and all but he'd just have to wait it out. He heard as the man presumably found his deceased wife and infant and began to cry and felt he was invading a very personal moment. If it had been Martin… if it had been Martin he wouldn't have cared who heard him crying he decided and began to tidy up the room a bit to try to make the next while at least a Little better for the grieving family. He couldn't make a casserole but he could dust. He also just needed to keep his mind off the sobs and sad singing coming from the other room because he desperately wanted to say some words of comfort but knew it would likely end with a stake through his chest and he wished to avoid that.

Hours passed and eventually the sun rose, forcing Jon to cover himself completely in his cloak and he huddled in the corner of the room, awaiting a discovery that was surely imminent. He wished he'd thought this through better but it was too late now - maybe if it came to it he could escape through the window. He ensured his fingers were all completely covered and began to silently fiddle with the window, making sure it would be easy to simply fling open at a moment’s notice.

Then he heard approaching hoofbeats and tucked himself safely back into the shadows ot the room. He watched as someone approached the porch and went into the living room to have a quiet conversation with the man - Holtz, it appeared was his name. This was followed by sudden movement and sounds of struggle. The little girl was begging her father not to… hurt her? Jon stiffened at this and made up his mind to intervene, risk of staking or not, when he heard the door open once again and saw her clinging desperately to the front door, desperately trying not to go out… into the sun. Had her father not realized…? But that didn’t make any sense, there was no reason to force her into the sun unless he Knew. Was he Trying to kill her?!?! But her struggles were to no avail as her father flung her out, screaming, into the sunlight. Jon didn't think - he just dove through the window, his cloak billowing around him as he quickly enveloped the screaming terrified child in the safe darkness. After ensuring that she was okay, he turned to the man filled with a burning rage.

“WHAT THE H?!?!”

Holtz’ expression of determined bitterness turned to utter confusion. “Who… who are YOU?”

“Apparently the man who just saved your daughter! Why would you throw her out into the sun like that? Do you not realize that she’s a vampire? That will KILL HER!”

“She’s already dead!” Jon glanced down at the child huddled at his feet under the cloak. She looked rather lively to him with tears streaming down her face and shaking with silent sobs as she clung to his legs in desperate panic.

“Undead, technically, but…”

“She is gone and a demon took her place! And WHO ARE YOU and WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?!? Let me see your face.”

“Um, sorry, I can’t.”

Holtz came to the realization he probably should have come to a while earlier but he was grieving and not thinking clearly. “Are you a vampire as well?” His voice was deathly soft and carried with it the promise of certain death. Jon said nothing and Holtz said something to the other person with him and the two went into the house. For a second Jon was hopeful that they were just leaving, though confused as to Why, until they both came back out with crossbows. Ah.

…

Sahjhan was regretting his decision to send Jon back in time. It turned out that Martin Blackwood was not somebody you wanted to anger, especially if you happened to be incorporeal and thus unable to actually push him away or fight back against the constant stream of verbal attacks.

“YOU BRING HIM BACK! YOU BRING HIM BACK RIGHT NOW!”

If Sahjhan hadn’t already had a headache he knew he would have by now with the high-pitched tirade assaulting his ears. He tried to walk away but Martin wouldn’t give him an inch, ensuring that he perfectly matched each step of Sahjhan’s which resulted in a very unpleasant echoing sensation in his head as they were about the same height.

“YOU BRING HIM BACK! BRING JON BACK! BRING HIM BACK! NOW!”

Sahjhan wanted to cry - he hadn’t wanted to cry in over a century but this was brutal. But he couldn’t, being incorporeal and all. So instead he just put his head in his hands. Bad idea - it let Martin see he was getting to him.

“BRING HIM BACK! BRING HIM BACK! BRING HIM BACK! BRING HIM BACK! BRING HIM BACK!”

Did the man just not need to breathe…? “Okay, okay! You win! I’ll… I’ll get your boyfriend. Happy?!?”

“I’ll be Happy when you Bring Him Back.” He pronounced each word more high-pitched than the last and Sahjhan reckoned that he hadn’t faced such a formidable adversary in over a century. And he’d thought he’d been done with that - but he’d never expected to anger someone’s very Very passionate boyfriend. There were worse things than being stabbed or turned incorporeal he decided and quickly opened a portal. Martin could see Jon standing on the other side, surrounded by his cloak, facing down two men with cross-bows, and he quickly yanked him through the portal to safety before Sahjhan closed it.

He was surprised to see not only Jon but also a sobbing little girl come back through the dimensional portal but in all honesty this was Jonathan Sims so… he supposed he had to expect the unexpected. Sahjhan quickly dusted his hands and fled, hoping that the return of his boyfriend would distract Martin long enough for him to escape. Fortunately for him it did.

Notes:

I had to write this. That scene in Angel where Holtz throws his daughter out into the sun while she begs for mercy... I just can't. It doesn't help that she calls him the same thing as I call my own father and it just Breaks me every time. No other scene gets me like that. And it occurred to me today that I'm writing a fanfic with Angel and time travel so... I could rectify this! Woo! Go Jon!

Chapter 10: Parenting Struggles

Summary:

Raising a feral soulless vampire child with your human boyfriend is difficult. It's even worse being the human boyfriend.

Notes:

Trigger Warnings
Blood and injury, major character life in danger

Jon reasonably reckoned that they couldn’t very well keep on living at Smirke’s with a small vampire child so the next morning Martin informed Smirke that he’d recently come to hear of his sister’s death and was now the legal guardian of his niece, Sarah.

“Unfortunately I’m going to have to move out to raise her. My friend, Jon, is going to come with me, but I would appreciate keeping my job here if possible.”

Smirke accepted this - after all, it’s not like death was a rare occurrence and what could you do? However, he was still somewhat concerned about potential risk to himself. “It wasn’t something contagious, was it?”

“No, it was a vampire attack.”

“Ah. Well, I am sorry for your loss and good luck.”

“Thank you.”

Upon securing a small rather poorly insulated house, Jon took on the job of stay at home dad and realized that raising a feral soulless vampire child wasn’t as easy as he’d thought it’d be. Not that he’d given it any thought at all but if he had he wouldn’t have assumed it’d be this difficult.

“No, you cannot kill the people you eat. You have to just bite them and take a little.”

“But I want the KILL!”

“I know but you’re going to have to make due with just the bite.” Frankly it was exhausting and Jon almost regretted saving her but it’s not like he could have just left a small child to turn to ashes right in front of him.

…

“Ah ah ah, what did I say about eating your father?’

“Not to do it." Jon had never seen such a pronounced eye roll and was honestly impressed.

“Exactly.”

Martin eyed Sarah dubiously and scooched just a little farther away from her on the bench. Unfortunately it was slightly too far and he just ended up falling off with a loud, “Oof!” Jon rolled his own eyes as he grabbed a now-leaping Sarah’s shirt collar, at this point used to her feral pounces, and prepared himself to reprimand her Yet Again for trying to Eat Martin.
Again, parenting was exhausting.

…

Jon knew it probably wasn’t the Best idea to go through old books and people’s personal statements but he needed to find a way to restore Sarah’s soul because this was unsustainable. Poor Martin was constantly adding new bandages to himself and at some point people were going to start asking questions. Plus he was looking a tad bit pale lately and seeing as he’d already started off pretty pale… Jon knew it was just a waiting game before he woke up next to a cold corpse. And that could Not happen. So he took Sarah to the local library during the day with the instructions not to Kill any of the other patrons but only to take a little blood, and read through books and statements to the background noise of panicked screaming and feeding. He occasionally got up to ensure that she had not, in fact, actually killed anyone and was relatively pleased with his parenting as she did appear to be listening. As it turned out she was just too little to need enough blood to actually kill a person or even render them unconscious so as long as she didn’t go for any major arteries her victims would eventually end up fine. Traumatized with a lifelong fear of libraries and books, perhaps. But alive. And that would have to do.

After a few weeks of this, he didn’t even notice when he started having an easier time finding books that matched the searches in his mind or that when he told Sarah to Not Bite that person, they are already not doing well, for the umpteenth millionth time it was with a staticky undertone and she actually started listening. He did however notice when one night he was awoken from his slumber by harsh choking and gagging sounds and saw Sarah with her fangs buried in Martin’s throat.

“STOP!” His command, layered with static, reverberated through the room and Sarah obediently removed her fangs from Martin’s neck and Jon carefully examined him to see how badly he was injured. Fortunately it wasn’t that bad - Sarah was but little and most of the choking and gagging was a result of her putting her hands over his throat to hold him still. So Jon kissed it clean and bandaged it with a by-now practiced ease. Martin was eyeing him with a clear expression of “WTH?” and it occurred to Jon that he had compelled Sarah, hadn’t he?

“Um… I think I might have some explaining to do.”

“Yes. I think you Might.”

…

Fortunately, with the Beholding on his side Jon made short work of asking the Eye exactly what sort of spell he would need to restore a vampire’s soul and what an orb of Thesula even was. Within the week, Sarah was ensouled and Martin was finally able to start healing from his multiple bite wounds without having multiple new ones added in the meantime. Sarah of course had some guilt to work through but who better to help with this than Jonathan Sims?

Just Kidding! Martin thought that would actually be a rather Terrible idea and would likely result in the two just spiraling into even more guilt and despair and instead took it upon himself to handle the subject of guilt with the both of them.

Chapter 11: Beholding the Time Capsule

Summary:

Sarah wakes Jon up, crying about how she misses her family. Jon uses the Ceaseless Watcher to try to find their graves so she can get some closure and realizes that her father is still alive, preserved in a time capsule with Sahjhan.

Notes:

Trigger Warnings
Mention of Holtz trying to murder his daughter in the past by throwing her into the sun, mention of feeding on people as vampires

Jon woke up to hear Sarah crying one night and made his way over to her. “What’s wrong?”

“I miss my family.”

Jon didn’t know what to say to that - they were all surely long dead by now. But he figured he could take her to their gravestones for at least some amount of closure. So he asked the Ceaseless Watcher and… wait… “Your father… he’s not… dead?”

….

Sahjhan was none too thrilled to see Jon and Martin again, this time with a small child tagging alongside.

“What do you want?” He asked, nervously eyeing Martin.

“You have a Holtz in some sort of time suspension. Well we’d like to see him.”

“Wait, what?”

“This is his daughter. She would like to see him.”

“Well, you can’t just waltz in here and ask to see someone frozen in a time capsule.”

“Actually I happen to Know that I can.”

Sahjhan stammered. “I… I Need him though. For a prophecy.”

Jon rolled his eyes. Prophecies. Wow. Yet more mess to contend with. “What prophecy?”

“Why would I tell you?”

“Well, it depends. How far in the future is this prophecy?”

“Around 2003 ish.”

“Well I’m originally from 2018 so I might be able to answer your questions.”

Sahjhan pondered this. A time traveler who might be able to help with his problems… it was worth a try anyway. “Okay. So the vampires, Angelus and Darla, they’re going to have a son. Connor. Who is prophesied to kill me in 2003. I want Holtz to kill Angelus before that happens.”

Jon pondered and thought back to his previous Ceaseless Watcher knowledge. “Do you know where?”

“Los Angelus, CA, USA.”

Jon thought for a minute, sifting through old memories. “I don’t have details on you, specifically, which only seems to point to the possibility that you are in fact dead by 2018. But… there is a Connor… and yes, he does recall killing an entity named Sahjhan back in 2003.”

Sahjhan cursed. “Seriously? My plan doesn’t even Work?”

“I rather got the impression that you brought about your own demise by orchestrating the very situation that got Connor to kill you in the first place.”

“Ah.”

“So… it would probably actually be in your best interest to release Holtz back in this timeline so he can’t cause all that to happen.”

“Fair enough I suppose. But you’re going to have to break the rocks - I am rather incorporeal.”

“How?”

“You figure it out.”

Jon rolled his eyes and asked the Ceaseless Watcher, afterwards shooting a beam of light from his eyes and shattering the stone to pieces. Sahjhan briefly congratulated himself on his prudent decision to listen to this apparently Very powerful being. Holtz fell forward onto his face.

When he came to, Holtz was surprised to see not only the man who had put him in time stasis but also… his daughter, Sarah. He was temporarily torn between hugging and staking her when he recognized the voice of the unknown man standing beside her.

“Hello, Holtz. Your daughter misses you. I trust you won’t try to Kill her again? She has a soul now - I made sure of that myself. Though if you want proof, look at Martin, human, and not eaten.”

“Hi, I’m Martin and, no, your daughter doesn’t kill people anymore.”

Holtz had no idea what to make of this. But he Desperately missed his Sarah and prayed that this was not some messed up vampire trick. Martin, ever successful in reading people, noticed his dubiousness and got down on his knees and gently lifted Holtz’ hand to his chest. “See? Heartbeat. I am a human, not a vampire.”

Holtz had to agree - Martin was clearly very much human. Why he was hanging around vampires was a strange question though… but then he thought back to what Jon had said. “What do you mean, she has a soul now?”

“I restored it. Through magic. Because she kept trying to eat Martin.”

Holtz wasn’t exactly sure How to feel about this. Also, what was the deal with this Martin? Who were these men? But as he slowly got to his feet he saw Martin put a hand on Jon’s back in much the same way he himself had with his dearly departed Caroline when he felt that the two of them were being threatened and he got the distinct impression that these men were… together. And that they were… scared of him. Which honestly pleased him. Good. They Should be scared. But… one of them had, seemingly, saved his daughter… from him… wait…

“Is she still a vampire?”

“Well, I can’t undo that. But she doesn’t kill people to feed. Currently she just feeds a little from people but it doesn’t have to be people. She is herself, she just needs to drink blood to survive.”

Holtz wasn’t exactly Thrilled but this was definitely worlds better than the one he had walked into all those years ago when he stepped into his home to find his entire family murdered. “What… what year is this?”

“I’m not sure but we think sometime in the 1860s.” Well then. About a century after the life he knew but not Too far in the future he supposed. He turned his gaze over to Sarah who was hiding behind Jon, looking at him nervously. He couldn’t blame her - the last time he had seen her he’d thrown her to her death in the sunlight. Staring into her large, scared eyes he couldn’t believe he could have ever done such a thing. But… that wasn’t his daughter, right? But was this? According to these men, she was… but honestly what was the worst that could happen? She could eat him. His life wasn’t exactly worth living without his family anyway. So, he reckoned, why the H not and decided to go for it.

…

Jon and Martin would continue to be important parts of Sarah’s life and Jon would keep training her in vampire skills but everyone was relieved that she could be reunited with her father. Jon and Martin were also pleased to be able to move back into Smirke’s servants’ quarters as it was honestly far safer from the sun and of much better quality than the place they had been staying. Martin hadn’t said anything so as not to worry Jon but with winter rapidly approaching he’d actually been rather concerned how he was supposed to make it through the next few months without any real heat sources. Jon and Sarah, as vampires, hadn’t really had to worry about such things but Martin had been getting dangerously cold at night. All in all, things worked out far better than any of them had expected and Martin was very happy to snuggle with his Jon in a warm bedroom once again.

Chapter 12: Martin Finds a Friend... With Lots of Other Friends

Summary:

Much to Jon's dismay, Martin brings home a stray dog.
That wasn't exactly a Good idea for something to do in the 1860s which were rampant with disease and a lack of modern medical care.

Notes:

Trigger Warnings
Major character life in danger, lack of sleep, lack of personal care, stress, illness, spiders

Jon was none too pleased when Martin came in one night with a stray dog. Martin was also none too pleased when it turned out that said dog had fleas.

“Why do they keep only biting me?”

“Probably because I’m a vampire, Martin.”

“Well it doesn’t seem Fair though, does it?”

“Seems fair to Me - I’m not the one who brought in the stray.” And he turned away in bed, trying to ignore the now persistent aroma of ‘dog.’ Yuck. It turned his stomach and he stifled a gag for Martin’s sake.

Fortunately for Jon and rather to Martin’s dismay, the dog soon ran away. It wasn’t exactly a fan of living in a single room. Unfortunately, it soon became evident that Martin had also brought something Else into the house when he developed a high fever, chills, and muscle aches. Jon asked the Ceaseless Watcher for advice.

“It’s typhus… flea-borne.”

“Ah. Darn.”

Jon did his best to care for his poor sick Martin but though armed with all the knowledge in the world it only became clearer that there’s a reason so many people died in the nineteenth century from disease. And Martin was… not doing well. Jon hit the library in desperation but all he found were useless books with severely outdated medical ‘knowledge’ which was mostly utter garbage. That and so so very many cobwebs and… spiders. Ugh. Jon Hated spiders. But he didn’t have time for those thoughts right now - right now he had to save his Martin who was rather rapidly running out of time. So he kept flipping through books and once again started his previous bad habits of not really eating or sleeping. If he occasionally drank a little from the odd library patron who also happened to pass out at their desk from staying up too late that was his business. It’s not like they ever even noticed.

But he wasn’t having any luck and one night he returned home with his shoulders slumped in absolute defeat. “Oh Martin… I can’t find anything.”

Martin simply groaned. His head was killing him. Jon Knew this wasn’t exactly literal but… close enough. He climbed into bed next to Martin, snuggling against him, concerned at the heat radiating off of him. Martin shivered as Jon removed the comforter and his robe and covered him as much as he could with his own icy form. It was most unpleasant but at least it was Jon. Jon made sure Martin didn’t see the single tear that made its way from the corner of his eye. He was losing him and he Knew it. He barely even cared when he felt the spider bite his arm and merely accepted it as part of his life falling apart. But it gave him an idea.

Martin came to to find an extremely sleep-deprived Jon dumping a bucket of spiders all over him and fervently praying. He didn’t even know Jon to be the praying type but there he was, calling on the Fears for deliverance. From there it was just a lot of pain as hundreds of spiders bit him All Over and he wondered briefly if he had in fact died and gone to some sort of bad afterlife. But this hurt way too much for him to be dead, right? Not if it was a bad afterlife. But had he really done anything That evil? Maybe. Either way there was not really time for such thoughts between all the biting and screaming.

Jon watched Martin writhing on the bed and screaming hysterically about spiders with pained hope in his eyes. “Please, Please work,” he beseeched the Fears with tears streaming down his face. When Martin took a last desperate gasping breath and went still he was briefly deeply concerned that he’d had the wrong idea until Martin let out a sudden shuddery gasp and sat up, staring at him.

“Jon… what’s… what’s going on?”

“You’re part of the Web now, Martin. You’re an Avatar.”

And he was. Martin spent the next few hours admiring his new fangs in the mirror - an ability that Jon was rather jealous of - and testing out his new ability to make webbing. He also relocated each and every one of the spiders back to the library where Jon had found them in a rather pied-piper esque fashion, something for which Jon was Extremely grateful. He was somehow even more pleased when he woke up to Martin’s fangs gently pressed into his neck and the sound of mischievous giggles.

Chapter 13: A Quiet Evening

Summary:

Victoria is out hunting for vampires and comes across Jon teaching Sarah about proper bite technique. She manages to follow Jon, Martin, and Sarah as Jon and Martin drop her off at home with Holtz and then Jon and Martin all the way to their home - completely unnoticed.
Clearly they need to be told to pay more attention to their surroundings as this sort of obliviousness could get them both killed.

Notes:

Trigger Warnings
Blood and injury when vampires take their prey, Jon gets a tad bit triggered when he realizes he's been stalked again as it reminds him of what happened with the Web in the original timeline

Mostly fluff

Victoria heard the sound of screaming and hurried over, stake at the ready, only to see a familiar vampire carefully instructing a much younger vampire on proper… bite technique?

“Remember, Sarah. You need to make sure to bite right there… good. And like this.” Jon mimed biting. “It causes the least damage to the victim.” The victim whimpered pitifully as Sarah took her fill and afterwards handed him off to Martin who gently sewed up the wound with webbing and laid him carefully on the ground. Jon then kneeled before him and asked, quite kindly, what had just happened. There was a strange static in the air and Victoria was surprised to see the victim begin recounting the recent experience. Jon seemed rather pleased and somehow… Satiated? After the victim was quite done, he gave a polite “thank you,” before standing up and starting off with the other two.

“Well, it looks like we’ll have you back in time tonight. It’s barely even two AM.” Jon seemed pleased - he didn’t much like angering Holtz and he understood his concerns. After all, sending out one’s six year old with a couple of monsters every night is not something fathers tend to Want to do. But she had to learn how to be an effective vampire and anyway it was rather convenient these days with Martin’s Web abilities to sew up their victims’ wounds. Another step to the “most ethical way to vampire” method. All in all, things were going rather well.

He and Martin dropped off an excited Sarah with her father, watching her begin to talk his ears off with her exploits of the previous few hours, and started off hand in hand in search of Jon's meal. Victoria followed behind, silent and unnoticed, as Jon and Martin began very obviously and theatrically making out in the middle of the road. She felt a tad bit uncomfortable watching - this seemed… private? But she soon saw the reasoning behind their actions as a rather incensed man marched right up to them and tapped Martin on the shoulder.

“Just What do you think you're doing?" Martin gave Jon one last passionate kiss and gently lowered him to the ground.

“Kissing my boyfriend."

“That is Wrong, you know that He disapproves!" Jon nodded politely with a faint smile on his lips as he sized up the man and pounced with a practiced ease, not even giving him a second to cry out as his fangs pieced the side of his neck. Within thirty seconds it was over and Jon was wiping his mouth with the back of hand while Martin carefully sewed up the now shaking man's neck and laid him carefully upon the ground.

“Thank you." Jon took Martin's hand and the two walked off. Victoria shook her head faintly in disbelief and continued after the oblivious couple. They were frankly quite lucky that Vampire Slayer was a one person job and that she wasn't interested in taking them out.

…

By the time they got to Smirke’s house they still hadn’t noticed Victoria and she deemed it prudent to announce herself to give these two a bit of a warning about being more observant should any other vampire hunters come into the area.

“Um, hello you two?”

Jon turned around with a startled expression that was admittedly quite comical, especially with the way his mouth was slightly open showing his fangs but in the absolute least threatening expression ever.

“Don’t stake him!” Martin placed himself between Jon and Victoria with his hands on his hips in as threatening a pose as he could muster. Then Jon suddenly seemed to remember that he was, in fact, a vampire and hissed threateningly, baring his fangs. There also rose a faint sound of static in the general area and his eyes glowed a faint green.

“I’m not here to hurt you!” she chuckled. “I’m just here to Warn you that I’ve been following you for the past two hours and you haven’t seemed to notice me once. I’m not the only person to hunt vampires out here. So you might want to work on your observational skills if you don’t want to end up, you know, Dead.”

The embarrassed expressions on both Jon’s and Martin’s faces were precious, as was the awkward little tappy thing that Martin did with his feet.

“Well… maybe we were… we were just Sneakily watching you… right Jon? You noticed her, right?”

“Um… no. I had no clue we were being followed.” He was seemingly Very interested in his shoes and kept his gaze firmly trained on them, going so far as to turn his head to face them, but even in the dark it was still pretty clear that he was furiously blushing. Victoria thought this was the most entertaining vampire encounter she’d ever had and relished the thought of telling her girlfriend, Lucy, about it when she went home for the night.

Jon suddenly looked up and somewhat archly muttered, “so we’re now the funny story from work today are we?” Victoria stared at him in some confusion - had she said something out loud?

“Oh, he can read your thoughts.” Martin unintentionally fulfilled his role as the ever-helpful soul that he was, much to Jon’s chagrin.

“What if she was lying and planned on killing us? Now we’ve lost our edge.”

“If I were planning on killing you you’d have been dead an hour ago.”

“See, Jon?”

Jon let out a nervous sigh and allowed Martin to pull him into a hug. This whole “being stalked for an hour against his knowledge” thing had clearly shaken him.

“I’m truly not here to kill you, I promise. You saved my life and don’t seem to be doing anything beyond what you need to in order to survive.”

Jon still appeared somewhat dubious but having Martin’s arms around him seemed to help his confidence a bit. “Apologies… I’ve just… I’ve been followed, manipulated, and watched before and it… it didn’t end well.” Martin gave a reassuring sound and kissed the top of Jon’s head, upon which Jon smiled and gently pushed it up into Martin’s chin, much like a cat. Victoria decided not to press - she would let him say more or not on his own time.

“Here.” She pressed an envelope into Martin’s surprised hand. “It’s my address, in case you ever need to see me. I seem to know yours already?” At this she pointedly gestured towards Smirke’s house and Martin gave a rueful grin.

“Yep, you’ve found us. We live in the servant’s quarters. We have no window though so you won’t be able to visit from the outside.”

Victoria thought this was rather prudent, considering. “Well, I’ll see you later. Have a nice rest of your night. I’m off to bed.”

Martin gave a slight chuckle at this. “As are we.” Victoria was somewhat surprised to hear that they were keeping daytime hours but reckoned it made sense with their occupation. Plus Jon’s cloak did look like it would provide decent protection from the sun - she had never seen such a cloak before and had to chuckle slightly at, again, how obvious these two were.

Chapter 14: Christmas

Summary:

Jon and Martin celebrate their first Christmas together as a couple. They also see some friends they've made along the way for a Christmas dinner

Notes:

Trigger Warnings
Mention of throwing up, blood, vampire feeding, vampire/spider person cuddling with fangs, alcohol

This chapter is very fluffy

Martin was very excited to celebrate his first Christmas as a couple with Jon and could barely get himself to sleep the Christmas Eve after they returned from Jon’s nightly meal. Jon was sleeping soundly next to him with the peaceful relaxation typical of a freshly fed vampire but Martin couldn’t get his thoughts to calm down so he simply stared at the ceiling, listening to the silence of Jon’s not-breathing, and feeling his body steadily cool down from his meal as the hours passed. One thing he was grateful for was Jon's proclivity for tossing and turning in his sleep as with him no longer breathing it would otherwise be impossible to even tell that Jon was alive. Or undead as the case may be. But Jon was a very restless sleeper so there was no doubt in Martin's mind that his beloved was very much still with him. Sometimes uncomfortably so - he tended to sporadically kick a little in dreams that Martin suspected were about pouncing on prey but he'd never asked Jon as he knew if that actually was the case he would likely only get embarrassed.

Eventually however, he did get to sleep for a few hours before waking up again and deciding that if he was going to be up he might as well make the time worth his while. So he got to work on an idea he'd been toying with for a while and hoped it would go well.

When Jon woke up with a sleepy yawn the next morning, he was greeted by a widely grinning Martin with a festive webbing-sewn bow around his neck. At first somewhat confused and thinking Martin just wanted to dress in festive cheer, he soon realized what Martin intended as he began gently kissing him and pulling him forward meaningfully. Jon had a very delicious Christmas breakfast, only heightened in its joy by Martin's gasps of, “It tickles, oh G, it tickles!" And greatly amused laughter. Apparently fang piercing didn't actually cause pain to Avatars of the Web but instead tickled rather a lot. It was really great fun and after Jon was finished, he too got to experience the joy of fangs. Martin was right - it tickled. It was quite lovely.

When they prepared to leave their room to set up the Christmas feast for Smirke and his guests, Martin gently grabbed Jon's wrist with a soft chuckle as he reached for the door. “I know you can't see yourself but you shouldn't go out Just yet." And from there he brought out the most lovely scarf that Jon had ever seen, a beautiful shade of pale grey with intricately woven designs of eyes. Martin gently wrapped it around Jon's neck and tied it in the front with a flourish, kissing him as he did so. “Perfect!"

Jon was going to ask where he got it from before he realized why the shade of grey seemed so familiar. “Did you make this out of webbing? It's beautiful!"

Martin looked extremely proud. “Yep, I did! And it's even the non-sticky kind so you can actually make use of it.” Jon stood up on his tip toes and kissed Martin, gently pushing him into the door, and burrowing until his chest. Martin made an exceedingly happy sound and wrapped his arms around him.

"You'll get your present later - it's actually not so much a physical item as something I figured out from the Ceaseless Watcher and I'll have to show you when we get off work later today.” Jon punctuated his words with another tip-toe kiss and gently stepped back so Martin could open the door.

…

The Smirke house was busy, with several guests sitting around drinking various beverages, chatting, and needing to be waited upon. Jon, uncomfortable around crowds, busied himself in the empty rooms clearing cobwebs, putting away coats, sweeping, and dusting while Martin ran drinks to and fro before getting himself set up on making Christmas brunch. Jon at this point assumed the role of Martin’s assistant, fetching him ingredients and dishes and setting the tables during pauses. The other servants continued fetching the guests drinks and generally tidying up the common areas.

When brunch was ready Jon poured water while Martin did the actual serving - the smell of human food that close to his face made him feel a tad bit nauseous these days and he preferred to avoid it if possible. He felt grateful that as servants they weren’t expected to eat with everyone else because that would have led to some rather uncomfortable questions. Instead he just happily poured the water then retreated with Martin to clean the kitchen while Martin and the other servants ate. The other servants had originally questioned Jon’s lack of appetite but Martin just said something vague about food sensitivities and they were more than willing to accept this when it turned out that Jon would take care of much of the cleaning while they all ate. He was more than happy to do this - he could stand to watch Martin eat because it was Martin but watching other people… it made him sick to his stomach. No, he much preferred to stay by himself in a separate room scrubbing dishes. Martin always rinsed them ahead of time for him so he could avoid the awful food-smell. It was rather peaceful.

…

When they finally finished washing the evening’s dishes and were off for the evening, Martin and Jon went out hand-in-hand to enjoy their own Christmas. Nobody dared disturb them, of course, and if they did… well Jon could use a snack. But they made it to Holtz’ house in good time and were greeted by Victoria and Lucy at the door.

Holtz seemed pleased to see them. “I assumed you might want some blood, Jon?” He proferred a cup and Jon took it with a polite thanks. He wasn’t a fan of cow’s blood but it was still sustenance. He was greeted by a cheerful Sarah who led him over to the ‘Vampire-Table’ on the far side of the room. Nice, they had their own table where they wouldn’t have to smell human food. Clearly Holtz had learned some things about vampires in the past month. Sarah cheerily informed Jon that he had - after Sarah had completely wrecked an evening’s dinner and outfit by uncontrollably retching all over the dinner table. After that she got her own table, far far away from any potentially nauseating smells. Jon chuckled - she was doing so well compared to the sad, scared little girl he had met only a little over two months ago. Her animated chatter was even distracting from the unpleasant taste of cow’s blood and he had a fairly pleasant time before Martin eventually came over to join him upon finishing his own meal, announcing his presence with a gentle hair-ruffle and a kiss to the top of his head. Jon made a happy little sound and wriggled slightly to show his appreciation and Martin scooched in next to him for a cuddle.

After dinner, everyone sat around the fire happily chatting about the year. Holtz was doing well in this new time - he’d started working on becoming a cattle rancher since, after all, it was a convenient way to get food for his daughter when she couldn’t get out to hunt. Sarah was enjoying her new life as well, even making friends her own age in the town. She could only visit them after dark or if they came to her place but Holtz claimed it was because being a cattle rancher was an all-day job. Victoria and Lucy had moved in together as ‘roommates’ and the two couples shared a bitter laugh about the standards of the time. However, things were going decently well with the town’s new fear of being openly homophobic - a fear that, Jon confirmed with obvious relish, was definitely getting stronger with each new victim that he took. Eventually he’d likely have to find new hunting grounds in neighboring towns but it was the eighteen sixties so there was no shortage of delicious homophobes upon which to feed. Holtz for his part was rather indifferent to who one chose to love or have relations with - he had stopped believing in a deity who cared about such things a long time ago. After all, if vampires were able to eat innocents then who cared about who was in someone’s arms at night? No it was clearly some human creation just to provide justification for hate. And quite frankly he was relieved that he felt that way as he listened to Jon and Martin’s tales of exploits because he didn’t exactly fancy the idea of having Jon’s ravenous fangs embedded in his neck, no matter how gently he bit or how neatly Martin sewed him back after.

…

On the way home, Jon gently took Martin’s hand and led him along a path until he came to a large clearing in which there were many sleeping cows. Fluffy cows. Martin was overjoyed and Jon had to gently remind him not to cry tears of joy since it was rather cold and he wouldn’t be able to warm him up. But they walked around the clearing with Martin squeeing and cooing at the cows and Jon happily holding his hand until Martin decided that it was time to go home - after all they still needed to drink some Christmas wine.

It turned out Jon’s Christmas ‘wine’ was actually the blood of one of Smirke’s very drunk passed out friends. Martin didn’t even have to drug them - they just got blackout drunk all by themselves during the evening’s festivities. Martin watched him slurp with a satisfied grin upon his face as he drank from the small bottle set aside with his name on it. Both went to bed pleasantly tipsy and had a nice fang-filled cuddle before falling into a very cozy sleep.

Notes:

Okay so I might have written the "human food" smell issues for vampires to be the way I feel about the smell of alcohol. LOL

I cannot Stand the smell it makes me feel so so sick when people have wine or beer next to me just... Ughhhh no. So this is mostly just wishful thinking that people would understand such things

Chapter 15: A Second Slayer

Summary:

A second slayer has been assigned to taking out Jon, Martin, and Sarah.

Notes:

Trigger Warnings
Time period typical homophobia, major character lives soon to be in danger, stress

Victoria was woken up from her sleep by a banging on the door. Who could it be at this hour? A vampire? Oh, maybe it was Jon and Martin…? She opened the door and saw… a complete stranger.

“Hello. I’m the new vampire slayer. I’ve heard that you are one as well?”

…

Victoria eyed the new slayer, a girl who looked to be about sixteen. Sheesh, she’d forgotten how young they were when they were called. It really was quite horrible. Lucy brought her a blanket and a cup of tea and the three sat around to discuss… matters. Specifically, that this new slayer was sent here to take out the local vampire scourge. Who sounded remarkably like Jon, Martin, and Sarah. That was rather unfortunate. She tried to explain that there were some vampires with souls and that those vampires shouldn’t be staked but her words were unheeded. Instead, the girl - who still had yet to even give her name - stalked out of the room in a fury, shouting that her watcher had Warned her about nonsense like This - pointedly gesturing towards Lucy - turning the other slayer’s head soft. She had just hoped it had been untrue. However -

“It appears that he was right about everything and just as you have failed our deity by taking up such relations with another woman, you have also failed in your duties as a slayer.” And with that she was out the door with a slam.

…

Victoria made her way through the snowdrifts to warn Holtz first - she rightfully figured he’d be easier to get to and would be unlikely able to protect himself and his daughter from a vampire slayer. Gasping, she trudged up the steps and banged on the door.

Holtz opened it with a startled sound. “What’s going on? Is everything okay?”

“Can I come in? It’s not safe out here.”

Holtz gestured for her to come inside, peering out into the morning sun with concern, and carefully closed and locked the door. “What is it?”

“There’s a new vampire slayer. And she knows about Sarah and wants to kill her.”

Holtz looked quite shaken at this and called for Sarah as if just the mere mention of her potential death could have resulted in such. But when little footsteps pitter patted into the room and Sarah came running up to her father and climbed up into his lap, his worries at least temporarily appeared assuaged.

“Does she know where we live?”

“I have no idea. I just know she’s after Sarah, Jon, and Martin so I’m warning you all.”

“Thank you… I’ll need to find a way to protect her…” He looked very concerned and Sarah simply looked confused.

“What’s going on?”

Holtz breathed out a long sigh and gently ran his fingers through her hair. “Nothing for you to worry about, just stay safe inside okay?” But Holtz began that day to work on building a second cabin next to his own with Victoria’s help. She and Lucy were going to move in next door to keep an eye on Sarah with him. It was, after all, an improvement from where they were currently living anyway so it worked out.

…

Lucy meanwhile headed out to Jon and Martin’s. She knocked on the door to Smirke’s house and was greeted by one of the other servants. “I’m here to see Jon and Martin?”

“Ah, I’ll lead you to the servants’ door.” Lucy was led down a side path to a small door in the back corner of the house which was opened for her. From within came a shriek of pain and she saw Martin hurriedly stamping out the edge of Jon’s cloak.

“You two really need to stop doing things you don’t want people to see in the corridors. Or at least stop shrieking so obviously upon being caught.” But this was said with an amused smirk and clearly was meant in jest as she walked past them shaking her head gently at the couple.

“She thinks we’re just really bad at being secret about our relationship and I guess that we make out in the halls or something all the time? And that Jon is so scared at being found out that he shrieks every time someone opens a door and he doesn’t notice… she’s unaware that he’s a… well…”

Lucy chuckled. “I get it.”

“And it’s easier to let her keep thinking that - I mean, she’s not entirely wrong, but we don’t do that in the halls. Mostly because Jon would Probably burst into flames at some point.”

Jon felt his face redden at the implications in this statement and quickly shushed Martin. “Lucy, to what do we owe the pleasure of your presence?”

Lucy pretended not to understand what Martin had been getting at and instead simply responded to Jon. “It’s unfortunately not a pleasure-visit - there’s a new slayer. And she’s after you, Martin, and Sarah.”

“Did something happen to Victoria?” Jon was deeply concerned.

“Oh, no. She’s fine. Just apparently when she temporarily died I suppose another slayer got called. And she showed up this morning, out for blood.”

“Ah.” Jon looked rather displeased at this. “I suppose we’ll need to be careful then.”

“Please do - I mean, we don’t know each other well yet but Victoria is quite fond of you both and I also would rather not hear of your staking.”

Chapter 16: Allergies

Summary:

It is now April and garlic flowers are blooming in the UK. That is unfortunate for poor local vampires who will suffer allergies and even worse for vampires who also happen to be Avatars of the Beholding (because allergies impact the eyes).

Notes:

Trigger Warnings
Major character sick from allergies, not doing well, biting, major character life in danger, threats, kidnapping, vampire drugging

Mostly hurt/comfort

Martin woke up to the sound of hacking coughing coming from next to him and saw that Jon was having a rather bad time. This didn't make sense - vampires didn't get sick, right? And yet here he was, all sniffly and miserable, tears streaming down from very red eyes. Martin got up and walked over to where he kept his handkerchiefs and brought one to the semi-conscious Jon who took it gratefully.

“Are you okay?" He asked dubiously. This had better not be some deadly vampire disease or something. They had just gotten through the end of winter and he had been looking forward to a pleasant spring free of disease.

A faint sound of static filled the room. “It's… allergies?”

Martin laughed incredulously. Wow apparently vampires could get allergies…

“To blooming garlic flowers."

Ah okay that made sense then. Poor Jon. But darn if his allergies didn't get much worse over the next several days. Martin found himself not for the first time wishing for modern medicine, in this case antihistamines, as he helped Jon to and from the bathroom and the victims he was drugging for him at night. It helped that he wasn’t really concerned about the medication he used to drug his meals transferring to Jon - he needed help sleeping anyway and it just saved him the step of trying to convince Jon to actually take medication, which in his experience wasn’t always an easy task - but at some point people were going to catch on. There just weren’t that many of them and he couldn’t feed from the same people multiple times or it would become rather obvious that something was amiss.

Martin went to tell Sarah about Jon’s state and inform her that it would likely be a while until Jon was well enough to go out hunting with her again - and possibly offer some get well wishes were she in the same state that he was - but when Holtz invited him in, all he saw was a slightly sniffly Sarah who looked pretty much fine. So it seemed it was just Jon then. Hmm.

He returned home to Jon groaning so loudly he could hear it from the hall and cautiously opened the door to see an absolutely drenched and miserable Jon who was somehow soaked in sweat… he didn’t even know that was possible for vampires. He quickly got a cool damp washcloth and began wiping him down, horrified at how extremely hot he was. Jon groaned softly and it became clear that he wasn’t entirely conscious. Martin went out, grabbed a towel, soaked it, and brought it back to the bedroom, lying the semi-conscious Jon on it on the floor. He whimpered softly and Martin wished for a second that he too had the power of the Beholding to check Jon’s temperature but realized in the same moment that he didn’t actually know what temperatures were good or bad for vampires anyway so it would be useless. He had a thought, however, and leaned down, gently biting Jon’s neck and holding on for a few seconds.

Within thirty minutes his temperature was back to a more reasonable low - he had been right in assuming that spider-person venom, while deadly for humans, could actually help an overheated vampire as it killed the cells responsible for the immune response that resulted in the overheating. Jon appeared much more relaxed and he stopped groaning, simply sniffling and coughing a bit, and Martin dragged a pillow down to the floor to lie down next to him. Throughout the night he kept it up - checking Jon’s temperature whenever he started groaning and biting him whenever he got too hot. By morning Jon was covered in a good many fangmarks but was at least conscious and coherent again.

“What do you think’s going on? Sarah isn’t nearly as badly off as you are.”

A faint static filled the room. “Ah.” Jon let out an unamused snort of laughter. “It’s the Beholding… allergies impact the Eyes so Avatars of the Beholding are especially susceptible to them.”

Martin let out an incredulous laugh. “So basically it’s your two inhuman qualities - both of which are Extremely rare - combined that are leading to this misery?”

“Exactly.”

“Wow you really Do have the worst luck, Jonathan Sims.”

“Don’t I Know it.”

They both laughed at that.

…
Eventually Jon decided to try hunting outside again due to the risk of being found out but it was a risky affair - he seemingly had the strength he had back as a human which meant that he went several days without being able to bring down any prey. Martin kept him from full starvation through small offerings of blood whenever he started to fade too much but the two of them were getting progressively weaker by the day and Martin started to become deeply concerned.

So it was a pleasant surprise when they came upon a middle aged man just sitting by himself alone in the park at night who, when Jon slowly shuffled up to him and, with effort, managed to sink his fangs into his neck, didn't struggle at all. Normally this would have been a huge red flag for the two of them but Jon was starving and Martin was extremely anemic from feeding Jon so the two just felt relieved. Jon felt a lot better after actually having a decent meal and thanked the man profusely before, as was the norm these days, miserably blowing his sore nose into his handkerchief. Martin gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder and set to work on sewing up the man's neck. He was startled to hear a soft thud behind him and saw Jon lying on the ground looking dazed. Instantly, the man he was working on leapt to his feet and before Martin knew what was happening he had Jon in a headlock with a stake resting against his chest pointed directly at his heart. The fact that Jon didn't even struggle, just looked over at Martin with a dazed expression that didn't even look particularly scared, made it rather obvious that he had been drugged. So this wasn't just a conveniently easy meal. Well darn.

“No sudden moves or I'll stake your lover." Ah. So he knew of them. Figures. Martin lifted his hands in the air in a show of peace and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. This was… obnoxious. But he was honestly too tired to really care all that much himself so when another person came out of the bushes and tied his arms behind his back and started leading him somewhere, after making sure Jon seemed to be okay he just went with it. He only hoped that there would be a bed at the end and that he and Jon could share it.

Martin was pleased to learn that there was, in fact, a bed and that he and Jon were to share it. It was just in a locked cell in a basement. Once he was shoved inside and his hands were untied, the man deposited a semi-conscious Jon into his arms and quickly locked the door. Martin looked down into Jon’s rather out-of-it expression and decided he should probably tuck him into said bed and once he did so Jon was completely out within thirty seconds. He himself was also exhausted so he snuggled into Jon and closed his eyes.

Chapter 17: Prisoners

Summary:

Jon and Martin are prisoners of a scientist who wants to create the elixir of life and has determined that he needs samples from a vampire from which to do so. Martin learns Jon is actually quite terrified of such things even though from a logical perspective they cannot actually really hurt him as a vampire.

Notes:

Trigger Warnings
Medical stuff with the stabby stabs, hurt/comfort, emotional hurt/comfort, being kept prisoner, forced drugging

He awoke the next morning to the delicious smell of biscuits and for a few seconds forgot where he was. Then he opened his eyes and saw the bars of the cell and sighed. Fortunately he also saw Jon snuggled up to him and that took away some of the sting of being held prisoner. He turned to the sudden sound of approaching footsteps and saw also that there were, in fact, biscuits and a mug of milk. As well a mug of… that had to be blood. Yuck. However it seemed Jon could smell it as he suddenly sat up with a hungry expression.

“I’ve brought your breakfasts.” Martin dubiously eyed the person holding the tray of food - how did they know this wasn’t drugged? But he was Incredibly hungry so he stepped forward to the slot in the door to receive the tray.

“... Thank you?” He wasn’t entirely sure of the response one was supposed to give to their captor upon being fed but he reckoned being rude would not be the best plan. And anyway the biscuits smelled really good and Jon was still famished. So he carried the tray back to the bed where Jon eagerly took the mug of blood and started gulping it down greedily. He made a disgusted face after the first gulp however, and Martin was immediately concerned that there was something wrong with it.

It appeared their captor noticed both of their expressions as well as he responded, sounding somewhat bored, “It’s not human - it’s a mix of blood from the butcher’s. So it’ll keep you satiated but it won’t taste very good.”

Ah. That was okay. Well… Jon’s disgusted expression and his sudden change to hesitant, clearly forced sipping instead of gulping made him feel bad for him but at least it wasn’t poisoned. And at least he could finally eat something. That was still an improvement from the past couple weeks and…well… he wasn’t truly sure which was worse but he was pleased to see Jon looking stronger than he had in a while.

He noticed suddenly that Jon was looking at him with a somewhat quizzical expression and had just opened his mouth to ask him what it was about when Jon instead asked their captor, “Is this blood cooked?”

“No… we didn’t want to mess up the nutritional content for you.”

“Ah. Well, could you… would you mind cooking a bit for Martin here? He’s rather… he could use some more iron.”

“Um, sure.”

Martin shot Jon a look of disgust as the man walked away but had to agree that he was probably right. That didn’t mean he actually Liked the idea of drinking blood like a vampire but he wasn’t going to hurt Jon’s feelings by bringing that up. And he knew Jon was just looking out for him, something that was a somewhat welcome change after the past couple weeks of caring for a very weak Jon. Something that he reckoned wasn’t quite over as Jon suddenly sniffled and sneezed into his handkerchief. But at least he could reliably eat now which took a lot of stress off Martin.

…

Jon was none too thrilled when the man who’d drugged him earlier came down into the basement brandishing a cross and he backed up against the farthest wall of the cell, hissing faintly and baring his fangs. It was truly adorable, Martin thought, yet he didn’t like the idea of someone threatening his precious Jon so he got to his feet and planted himself in the doorway.

“What are you doing? You’d Better not be about to hurt Jon.”

The man sighed and turned to Jon. “Biting me won’t do you any good - I’ve been consuming vervain - the herb you got a taste of last night - and I just wanted to ensure that you wouldn’t try anything in the case that you didn’t believe me. But I’m not here to attack you.”

Jon eyed him dubiously but stopped hissing and instead sat down against the back wall, clearly exhausted from the simple effort that the walking, standing, and hissing had been. His attempt at an intimidating expression was ruined, however, when he started sniffling again and had to blow his nose and everyone in the room could tell Exactly what he thought about That and how raw his poor nose was by the distinctly very un-intimidating whimpering. Martin walked over to him and held him reassuringly and the man opened the door to the cell and entered, reaching into his pocket.

“What do you want?”

“I’m a scientist. I brought your lover here for research purposes. You’re here to ensure his good behavior.” Ah that… that made some sense. And also meant that this man probably had no idea that he was an Avatar of the Web. That could be useful. He determined henceforth to act as pitiful and humanlike as Avatar-ly possible.

“Please, let us go.” He threw in an extra whimper for good measure. He was feeling pretty pleased with himself until he saw Jon’s actually scared expression and felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. “Jon?”

Jon shrank back against the wall of the cell and Martin moved himself as best as he could to get between him and this supposed scientist. “That won’t do you any good, you know. Just let me do my research and I won’t hurt him too much.” Martin was confused. What was even going on…? Ah.

“Jon, you know you can’t get sick now - you’re a vampire. So it’s not really going to hurt you.” He gently tried to reassure him but it seemed that wasn’t what Jon was afraid of. So he was fine with being bitten but not… okay. The man reached out for Jon, trying to pull him forward and he only bared his fangs and squeezed himself further behind Martin.

“Can you please just let him go? He’s terrified.”

“I need a vampire for my experiments and to create the Elixir of Life.”

Oh. There it was. He forgot people were really into that back in the eighteen hundreds. “Look, he can probably just turn you if you want?”

“No, that’s not what I want. I want to find a way to remain human but live forever. And the secret is likely in vampires.”

Jon didn’t like the sound of that and whimpered, hiding himself further behind Martin. It was frankly starting to get uncomfortable with Jon’s bony knees digging into his back but he wouldn’t let this man use Jon for his vile purposes like that. “Like what, you want to replace your organs with his????”

“Um… no? Nothing that invasive, eck.” He shuddered with a sound of disgust. “I’m not Evil and I’m not going to permanently harm him in any way. No, I’m just going to take a few samples and need him around so I can continue to collect them as needed. And might test a few other things as well but again, nothing that will permanently harm him.

Martin eyed him dubiously. Jon was shaking behind him and his knees were Really starting to hurt his back. He adjusted slightly to relieve some of the ache and the man lunged for a now somewhat exposed Jon who cried out in sudden fear. Martin punched the man in the face, sending him sprawling to the floor. “Don’t you DARE touch my BOYFRIEND!”

The man smiled bitterly up at him from the floor. “Ah, so you want to play it that way then?” Martin didn’t know what he meant but assumed that no, in fact he Didn’t want to ‘play it that way.’ Yet it seemed that was the way things were going. Jon bared his fangs and snarled and Martin again found himself enamored with his precious Archivist. Aw. Unfortunately he didn’t notice the second man through the other side of the cell who roughly reached through and dragged Jon over to the side by his arm, quickly jabbing him with some sort of green liquid. Jon let out a squeak and, after a couple seconds of failed struggling, simply allowed himself to slump to the floor of the cell. Martin ran panic-stricken to his side, noting that he was wearing much the same dazed expression as the night before.

“It’s just vervain, he’ll be fine. I reckoned it made more sense to keep him calm though seeing as clearly keeping the both of you fully conscious wasn’t going very well. Now, you’re going to let me do what I need to without any trouble or I will have to get Much Harsher.”

 

Jon’s eyes turned to him, dazed but still slightly aware, and he could see the slightest bit of fear breaking through the fog. “Please… please just don’t take him out of here… let me stay with him?”

“If you don’t cause any trouble, I don’t see why not. But if you cause any - and I mean Any - I will take him to my normal laboratory.”

Martin nodded slowly and watched as the man lifted Jon to the bed and laid him out on it. Martin felt positively helpless gazing upon his prone form and slowly stood up, making his way towards the pair with his hands up in surrender. “I just want to lie down next to him, is that okay?” The scientist let out a grunt of indifference and Martin cuddled in next to Jon’s side, gently ruffling his hair as he stared dazedly at the ceiling. He tried not to think too hard about the pained squeak that came a few seconds later, or about the frankly awful devices that passed for medical equipment back in the nineteenth century, and simply whispered soothing shushing sounds to his faintly shaking lover and held and kissed his free arm.

After a few minutes it was finally over and the man released Jon, who for his part simply continued staring at the ceiling with a somewhat pained and nauseous expression on his face. Martin noticed he also looked unusually pale and grew a bit concerned. “Are… are you sure he’s going to be okay?”

“He’ll be fine though it might take a bit - I normally wouldn’t have taken so much but I was trying to spare him the stress in the future.” Jon gave a weak cough and Martin gently brushed the hair out of his face. He looked positively Dreadful. He gently pressed his wrist against Jon’s fangs but only received the faintest of head-shakes. Even in his current state he still remembered how badly off Martin had been as of late and wasn’t willing to make it worse.

“Could… could you bring him some more blood? And a straw?”

Within a few minutes, he had returned with a fresh mug of blood with a stalk of rye grass inside. Ah yes, the straws of the nineteenth century. Martin gently propped Jon up into a somewhat closer to sitting position and put the end of the grass in his mouth. “Drink, Jon.” It was slow-going but eventually Martin noticed the level of liquid in the cup slowly going down and Jon regaining some of his color and losing the nauseous look. Thank goodness.

…

Jon came to with a little stretch and was mildly surprised to open his eyes to find himself looking up at the faintly amused smile of Martin.

“So. No Beholding?"

Jon rolled his eyes and sat up with some effort. “I haven't been able to do much with the Beholding since these allergies started. I can ask the occasional question or make static sounds to seem threatening but… that takes a bit out of me and is currently the limit of my abilities.”

Ah. So maybe Martin wouldn't be able to make fun of him for such an oversight after all. That ruined his plans for the next ten minutes. Oh well. “How are you feeling?" This question was asked with quite a bit more sincerity than the last and Jon gave it some thought.

“Tired, a fair bit… off, sniffly, and honestly rather annoyed. I mean, I'd rather assumed my days of being kidnapped were over once I became a full Avatar.” Martin had to agree on that last one - this had been wholly unexpected.

“Well, you have been unwell."

“I Suppose." The faintly rueful note to Jon's reply made Martin smile and he gently kissed Jon's forehead. “So…” he hesitated before asking this next question as he was a bit concerned about stressing Jon out again but he thought it would be better to have an idea for future reference. “Um… how much did he Take, exactly?”

Jon’s face took on a faintly pained expression and the familiar sound of static filled the room. Martin was surprised to see Jon give a faint bitter chuckle. "About five hundred milliliters… about how much I normally take from my victims. Maybe it isn't as harmless as I thought." Martin had never thought the whole feeding on people and leaving them traumatized for life thing was harmless but he supposed it was better if Jon thought of it that way. After all, he couldn't eat if he was too busy drowning in guilt all the time and Martin did not want to worry about That.

"Eh, it's okay. You've been making the town a lot safer for the local gay community.” Jon had to agree with that and, with a faint shrug of acceptance, turned over to face Martin.

"Lie down and snuggle me. Please?” Martin was more than happy to oblige.
…

Martin was brought to a state of half-wakefulness by a quiet rustling followed by a soft whimper from Jon and he enveloped him in a comforting hug and nuzzled him for a second before opening his eyes in confusion at Jon's unexpected struggling against it and realizing that they were, in fact, not alone. He let out a muffled curse as he saw the last bit of a by now familiar green liquid disappear into a by now unhappily squeaking Jon who he was inadvertently pinning down.

“Oh Jon I am So sorry - I didn't know!" He turned in a fury to the man now staring down at the two of them with a somewhat amused expression on his face.

“Well that was convenient, thank you."

“That was Not my Intent!" Martin knew he didn't sound very threatening, angrily spluttering as he was, but he had to at least Try. The scientist simply chuckled softly and Martin was reduced to simply rolling his eyes before turning back to a decidedly much calmer Jon than a minute previously. If he couldn't threaten this man at least he could comfort his boyfriend. So he gently kissed Jon's forehead and snuggled in next to him, resuming the comforting nuzzling from earlier. It helped - Martin felt Jon relax and there was no pained squeak this time, only the slightest twitch before once again sinking into Martin's affections.

Martin breathed a sigh of relief when the scientist finally stood up, his cruel mosquito-esque task complete, but was confused when instead of leaving he rolled Jon over onto his side, facing Martin, and hiked up the back of his shirt. Martin wasn't exactly sure what this was all about but he reckoned it wasn't Good so he eyed the man suspiciously while Jon stared at Martin with a dazed confusion. He glanced down at him reassuringly only to see his eyes suddenly grow wide, followed by a weak full-body spasm. Horrified, Martin looked up to see the scientist painstakingly removing something Else from Jon and before he had a chance to act he was quickly informed through gritted teeth

“If you move him while I'm doing this you could actually cause him permanent damage - he's safely incapacitated right now, just leave him be.” Martin didn't particularly want to chance this so instead he settled for glaring threateningly at the man who was tormenting Jon and holding Jon's hand reassuringly. When it was finally over he felt Jon relax and quickly moved to cover him with his body before the scientist could try anything else. A reaction that earned him a soft chuckle but it seemed that the man was done and he quickly and quietly left the cell, locking the door behind him. Jon whimpered softly from beneath him and Martin quickly pulled back to examine him for any injuries. Just a couple tiny holes and there was nothing he could do about that. So he wrapped Jon up snugly in the blanket and held him close. Nobody would be able to touch him now without Martin first knowing about it. He bared his own fangs threateningly against the blanket, preparing himself for potential biting.

He knew he'd have to be clever about this - there were at least two of them and seeing as they had the ability to quickly and easily incapacitate Jon as well as quite easily stake him, he needed a way to ensure that they could not reach him when he attacked. The cell wasn't all that large and had bars on three of the four sides but he figured that the absolute middle of the back wall was likely far enough from all of them to be relatively safe from any reaching arms. That would have to do.

Chapter 18: Jon Somehow Gets Even More Adorable and Martin is Impressed

Summary:

Jon wakes up and he and Martin try to make escape plans. Jon learns an interesting invocation from the Ceaseless Watcher

Notes:

Fluffy so much fluff lol

Some hurt/comfort but it's funny

When Jon eventually woke up he found himself enveloped in a soft blanket and an even softer Martin hug. This was a welcome change from the last time he woke up and he gratefully snuggled in further, earning him some happy murmurs from a half-asleep Martin.

An hour later when they were both fully awake, they set to discussing what they were to do now.

“Are you okay?”

“A bit sore but otherwise I think I’m fine… though I am Rather interested in getting out of this place. I hate it here.”

“Shocker.”

“I know, you think I’d love it here being kept prisoner for some mad scientist’s scheme to make the elixir of life. I still can’t Believe that’s what he’s trying to use me for. It’s just…” Jon let out a long sigh.

“Well, it is the nineteenth century.”

“Yep, I suppose it is.”

“Still better than being used for a ritual to bring about the apocalypse though, right?” Martin eyed Jon with an amused smirk and earned himself a pouncing bite.

“I can still eat you, you know.”

“I seem to recall you rather enjoy it.”

Jon sat up with an amused huff. “I Meant completely. I could drain all your blood and leave you a shriveled little Martin-husk.”

Martin eyed him dubiously. “You are just too tiny. No way. You could hold maybe 100 mL of blood Tops in that stomach of yours.”

Jon laughed incredulously for a second before pausing, struck by a sudden thought. “Tiny… hmm…” he shuffled over to the bars of the cell and stuck his arm though.

“We are both way too big to fit, Jon. Even you.”

Jon looked at him thoughtfully for a second then raised a question to the Ceaseless Watcher. Static filled the room and Jon began an invocation
“Goddess Hecate, grant me the wings that lore deems I should have,
In the actualization of my truest aspects.”
Martin watched in surprise as a swirling pattern of light surrounded Jon and suddenly he was gone, just a pile of clothes lying on the ground. He panicked for a moment before noticing a slight movement from within the pile. Cautiously he walked over and lifted the edge of Jon's cloak to jump back in shock as he was greeted by a teeny tiny little bat, specifically an Eastern pipistrelle. Not that they were native here but Martin lacked any knowledge of bats and all he could tell was this one was very small, very adorable, and had the cutest little itty bitty fangs he had Ever seen.

“Oh-My-Goodness-You-Are-So-Cute!!!!!!!" Martin gently reached out a hand to the now small and fuzzy Jon who carefully climbed upon it. “Your truest aspects indeed - Tiny and Adorable!" Jon made what Martin could only assume was an annoyed bat expression but it only made him look even cuter and Martin just laughed at him and petted his little head with the tip of his finger. Jon liked this and nuzzled against Martin's finger, leaving Martin crying out with excited squees.

Jon spent the next several minutes trying to learn how to fly while Martin kept a cautious eye on him and ran around beneath him with a pillow just in case. This turned out to be a good thing as flying was not as easy as it looked - first you had to remember to flap. Whoops. That earned him a thump into the pillow. Turning in mid-air was also difficult - Martin’s pillow barely managed to catch him from the side before he splattered himself against the wall. As it was he was rather winded and dizzy after this and spent the next several minutes being comforted with head pats by a concerned Martin. Eventually however he got the general hang of it and managed to navigate himself through the bars of the cell and up to the lock where he flapped in place for a few moments, pondering what to even do. Then he opened his mouth and… okay so Bat Beholding was rather high pitched and painful OW! Martin sank to his knees and covered his ears as Jon echolocated… and the lock clicked open. Well that was convenient. Martin stepped outside the cell and Jon pointedly flew back to flap in place above his pile of clothes. Ah, yes. Martin picked them up and Jon hung upside down from the hood of his cloak like an upside down king on this throne which Martin supposed maybe he was.

He hesitantly made his way quietly up the stairs whereupon he found another locked door that Jon made short work of. Martin cringed in pain and reminded himself he was holding Jon and dropping him to cover his ears would be a bad idea. But the pain was forgotten as the door swung gently open and they were in the kitchen of a house. Martin quickly and quietly made his way to the front door and started to open it, only to pause at a sharp squeak of warning. Martin gently draped and fastened Jon's cloak over his own shoulders (and was grateful that it had the two separate clasps as the intended one would most definitely not have fit him) and held it open so Jon could fly inside and perch upside down from one of the folds of cloth. Then he carefully closed up the cloak to ensure not a ray of sun would get inside and stepped out into the morning.

Notes:

Pipistrelles are my favorite bats. They are adorable. That is all.
Also I used to pet their little heads as a toddler since my parents used to do bat research. There are photos. I don't really remember this but I do retain a fondness for the little fuzzies.

Chapter 19: Going Batty

Summary:

Jon is an adorable pipistrelle. Martin is loving this. He takes Jon back to Holtz' for safe keeping and tasty bugs to hunt.

Notes:

Fluffy fluff about Bat!Jon

Martin couldn’t help but smile at the little tickling sensations coming from inside the cloak as Jon adjusted in his half-sleep, getting all comfy. Teeny little feet made their way along the inside folds of the cloak, finding a nice spot nestled right against Martin’s chest where it was pleasantly warm and soft. Jon let out a happy little squeak as he shook himself slightly and settled in, burrowing his nose slightly into Martin’s chest, and Martin had to stop himself from letting out a squeak of his own in absolute adoration as there were other people about and he needed to remain not super obvious. But it was Difficult. Especially when he felt Jon’s little wings rustle as he started dreaming, presumably about bugs. As a Web Avatar, Martin knew about That. Aw, delicious bugs… he craved a nice juicy bug or twenty. And he figured he knew a pretty good place to get them as well and he started off towards Holtz’ house.

Holtz was somewhat surprised to see only Martin but it was broad daylight after all and he assumed Jon was just staying home, seeing as Martin didn’t look absolutely devastated as he certainly would if the new slayer had taken his boyfriend from him. He was far more surprised when Martin accepted his invitation into the house and, upon closing the door, opened the cloak he was wearing to reveal a half-asleep bat who was rather perturbed at having his sleep interrupted. Jon let out an irritated squeak and nuzzled into Martin’s chest in a Very clear message of “close that cloak back up and let me SLEEP!” He also wasn’t exactly a fan of being stared at as it was Rather uncomfortable and Holtz was most definitely staring. But unfortunately for him when Sarah heard that something cute and fuzzy was in the main room she came bounding out of her room to see exactly what this cute fuzzy thing was. Jon rolled his tiny little bat eyes as Sarah started to pet him with one finger as Martin taught her but he had to admit it actually felt quite nice. So he accepted the pets and closed his eyes, determined to simply rest while getting pampered which was still lovely even if it wasn’t exactly sleep.

Upon nightfall, Jon opened his eyes and stretched, flapping his wings… and immediately fell straight down onto his head from the place where the cloak had been hung. Fortunately Martin was prepared for Jon to be his normal messy self so he had the cloak hanging right above his other clothes and a pillow so it was a rather soft landing. More irritated than anything, he used his little thumbs and feet to crawl out of the soft cavern and peeked out at the room. It was silent and he was alone… this hurt his feelings. Jon let out a massive SQUEAK. Martin sat up with a start from the bed in the room and Jon realized he was not, in fact, alone. He just hadn’t been able to see him over the footboard because he was now only about two inches tall. Ah… yes. It might make sense to return to human form now that he was safely inside and night had fallen since there was no longer any risk of being spotted and he didn’t have to worry about a breeze moving his cloak and getting him burned.

But a fluttering shape in the corner of his eye drew his attention and he was immediately caught in the hypnotizing spell of a Moth. Ooh… he could feel himself salivating at the delicious Moth and simply Knew with all the knowledge of the Ceaseless Watcher that he absolutely HAD to eat that thing. So he made his way to the edge of the pile and flapped, propelling himself into the air and towards the glorious delicious morsel… and smacked Right into the window.

“Jon, are you okay?!?!” Martin hurriedly went over to the window where he had also laid some pillows on the floor but had unfortunately opened the curtains once night had fallen. Jon stared up at him, dazed, his head spinning and all he could think about was how much his head hurt and how much he Desperately wanted that Moth. Martin gently picked him up and examined his wings with great care, making sure everything was in order. Jon let out a reassuring squeak and nuzzled his finger, gently burying his fangs into it and making Martin cry out in adoration. Which reminded Jon of other things that he enjoyed just as much as Delicious Moths and he once again tried to figure out how to become human-shaped again. Huh. He asked the Ceaseless Watcher… but the invocation had to be spoken in some human language. Any human language would do. But unfortunately as a bat he didn’t possess the ability to speak any human languages. That was… unfortunate.

Martin noticed his sad squeak. “Jon, is everything okay?”

“Squeak!”

“Um… I don’t know what you’re Saying Jon.” Martin was rather bemused - this was adorable but also didn’t Jon realize he was just squeaking?

“SQUEAK… squeak… squeeaak…” Jon gave up with a huff of exasperation. This was going nowhere. Martin just eyed him quizzically, one eyebrow raised so high Jon was surprised it wasn’t going up into his hair. It reminded him of a caterpillar.
Caterpillar.
Baby Moth.
Food.
Moth.
He Must Eat Moth.
He turned his head to the window and stared at the delicious Moths flying out there. Moths that he could not get to. He began to squeak in frustration.

“SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK!”

Martin might not have known exactly What Jon was saying but he got the tone - Jon was Big Angy. Aw. “What do you want Jon? Do you want to go outside?”

Jon nodded as vigorously as a bat could and Martin walked out of the room to the front door. “I’m heading out with Jon to catch some bugs!” Holtz nodded and Martin opened the door, upon which Jon shot out of his hand and soared through the air in search of Moth. It wasn’t Graceful flying, per say, but after several minutes of fruitless chasing he eventually caught one and was greatly satisfied. Upon securing his prey, he flew back towards Martin and realized that he actually had No idea how to land. Martin appeared to realize this as he grabbed the bottom of his shirt and pulled it out like a trampoline and Jon let himself fall onto it as gently as possible, whereupon he used his little thumbs to claw his way up it to his favorite spot in front of Martin’s chest.

“Do -” Martin barely got the first word out before Jon let go in shock at the volume of the voice emanating from Martin’s chest and he had to quickly catch him before he hit the ground. He tried again, this time his voice a tad bit shaky from the recent stress. “Do you want to return to your human-shaped form? I miss snuggles and would like to go to bed soon if that’s okay with you.”

Ah. Jon once again remembered his problem. The problem that he was stuck as a bat. But how was he supposed to get the point across to Martin? He tried to look as pitifully sad as possible - maybe that would work? But he only succeeded in looking even more adorable, somehow, and Jon realized that maybe his echolocation was painful for Martin as Martin’s high-pitched squeals were Definitely painful for him. He wished he still had hands with which to cover his ears but instead had to resort to trying to bury his ears in Martin’s hand which, for obvious reasons, did not work. And again only made him look Even Cuter. The squealing continued, louder and higher pitched than before. Jon wanted to Die.

“SQUEAK! SQUEAK! SQUEAK! SQUEAK!” Martin heard the Fury of Jon and stopped his squeals of adoration.

“Am… am I hurting your ears?”

Jon nodded as vigorously as it was possible for a bat to do.

“Ah. I’m sorry.”

Jon gently nibbled his finger in appreciation. Martin stifled a squeal of adoration and Jon nibbled his finger in appreciation again. Then, upon Martin once again having to stifle a squeal of adoration, realized this probably wasn’t helping so he didn’t do it again. But then Martin looked sad. So Jon nibbled his finger. And Martin squealed. Jon grimaced in pain and Martin stopped apologetically.

“Is there a reason you’re still a bat?” Jon nodded.

“Are you… are you stuck as a bat?” Jon nodded.

“Ah… that’s unfortunate.” Jon nodded.

“Do you want me to… try to help you?” Jon nodded.

“What seems to be the problem?

“Squeak squeak squeaky squeak!” Jon rolled his eyes. Foolish Martin.

Martin let out a snort of amusement. “So… stick to yes or no questions then?” Jon nodded.

Chapter 20: Owl

Summary:

Jon and Martin finish writing down the incantation to turn Jon back human and Jon goes out for a last celebratory flight to chase delicious Moths. Unfortunately he isn't paying attention to his surroundings

Meanwhile the scientist works on creating the elixir of life from what he took from Jon

Notes:

Trigger Warnings
This one gets somewhat gruesome
Blood, blood and injury, major character life in peril, medical, broken bones

Through asking a seemingly endless list of questions, Martin had finally figured out that Jon was unable to turn back human due to a simple lack of human vocal cords with which to speak the incantation. Unfortunately, Martin lacked the knowledge of the Ceaseless Watcher with which to get the spell. So they were at a stand still. Until Jon had a thought and flapped his way over to Holtz’ bookshelf upon which there was one book. Martin was confused for a moment then let out a little laugh. “I should make us a little board with which to talk, shouldn’t I? Like the Ouija board of our time.” Jon nodded and Martin went out to find some charcoal and paper.

…

The scientist was a little disappointed to find that Martin and Jon had escaped but not surprised. These were not the first prisoners he’d captured and subsequently had escape and they probably wouldn’t be the last. Oh well. He’d make due with what he’d already collected from Jon and if he needed more he could always capture another vampire. Jon and Martin were convenient, sure, because they didn’t kill people but there was no shortage of vampires in this town. And who knows, maybe he’d run into them again. He turned to his books and began to mix and boil.

…

Jon and Martin were too exhausted to start immediately so after Martin having a quick meal of human food and Jon ridding the Holtz family pantry of delicious Moths the two took a nap. A nap that resulted in them waking up the next day around 5 PM. Whoops. Around thirty minutes later Martin finished his version of the board - which looked remarkably like a QWERTY keyboard of the 21st century complete with a space bar - and Jon began the extremely slow process of crawling to each letter, having Martin read it out to verify, and confirming each letter with nods. After three hours they were close to done, finally. But Jon was getting so bored and he could see the delicious bugs outside. Martin could see he was distracted and reassured him that he wouldn’t complete the spell until after Jon had another nice bug hunt. Satisfied, Jon continued with the task of painstakingly spelling out the incantation letter by letter.

…

The scientist stirred the various pots of liquid vigorously, reading incantations and recipes alike, and began to document.
Attempt number 538 to create the Elixir of Life.
Vampire: Pretty normal vampire, rather small. Name: Jon
Extractions: Blood, CSF
Vampire status: Escaped
Attempt with these particular samples: First attempt
Details: Mixed extractions with holy water to remove the ‘vampire’ part of the liquids of eternal life. Added in some vervain, mushed with mortar and pestle, for good measure. Added five drops of my own human blood to set the spell to myself. Brought outside under full moon and chanted various eternal life rites from several religious texts from around twenty different affiliations for five hours.
Ingestion: Drank by mouth in its entirety, about 100 mL.
Taste: Disgusting but this was expected
Initial feelings: Nauseous
Feelings five minutes later: Still nauseous
Feelings one hour later: I’ve been throwing up off and on the entire past hour but I feel less nauseous now
Feelings three hours later: Relatively normal. Somewhat more relaxed than average.
Feelings five hours later: Surprisingly good.
Feelings seven hours later: Really…. Really surprisingly good.
Feelings ten hours later: Oh my… I think… I think I’ve DONE IT!
EUREKA!

…

Finally Jon and Martin were done with writing the incantation. Jon flapped his wings in excited anticipation and Martin happily scooped him up in his hands and walked outside. He’d barely opened the door when Jon shot into the air, flapping his wings with reckless ecstatic joy, zooming after delicious Moths. It was because of his unfortunately at the moment rather one-track mind that he missed the sound of swooping wings coming towards him and didn’t hear Martin’s panicked cry of, “JON! LOOK OUT! OWL!”

He did however notice when sharp claws pierced his right wing and plucked him, squeaking, from the air.

“JON! NO!!!!!!” Martin was in hysterics, trying to jump up to catch the hungry bird but not managing. The owl flew to a nearby branch in the yard’s tree and began the process of trying to prepare its meal. Jon squeaked out in pain and terror.

“Martin, what is going on?” Holtz was deeply concerned, holding a crossbow, expecting to see a Vampire Slayer.

“An owl… it got JON!”

Holtz swore and ran back into the house where he grabbed a broom and ran to and began viciously beating at the tree below the owl, not quite able to reach but trying to scare it. The owl was definitely irritated and distracted and temporarily paused its attempts to prepare its dinner. Martin ran to get the spell, temporarily tripping over his own feet in the doorway and cursing at his own clumsiness. He grabbed it however, and began reading as he ran, chanting out the words as best as he could through terrified sobs while Jon kept squeaking as the owl flew to a higher branch outside of Holtz’ reach and resumed trying to rip him into bite sized pieces. Upon Martin’s reading the final word there was a flash of spiraling light that resulted in the owl’s horrified screech as its prey suddenly turned human and sent the branch they were both on crashing to the ground. It flew away in a panic as Martin ran to the very broken form groaning on the ground and quickly yanked off his cloak and carefully bundled Jon up in it, hefting him up into his arms.

“Oh G, oh G, there is so much blood! And your hand and arm… oh G!” Martin began sobbing even more hysterically as he started hurriedly back to Holtz’ house. Jon just kept groaning and whimpering.

“Hi… what seems to be the matter?” Martin looked behind him to see the scientist and just could Not deal with this right now.

"You will Not take Jon again to torture him -”

"I'm not here to torture him - I actually came here to thank him. The elixir of immortality worked!
… Wait what's that sound… that isn't HIM in your arms is it? Oh G.”

Martin broke down in fresh sobs.

"Hey, hey, easy. It's okay, I'm skilled in vampire medicine. Here, let's just get him inside and I'll take a look.”

Martin was dubious but the genuine concern in the man's eyes and the desperation of Jon's agonized cries made him decide to go for it. So he led the scientist into the room he and Jon had been staying in while Sarah watched on with a gasp of horror as the two went in with their crying patient.

“Lay him down, we need to see the extent of the damage." He started fussing with the cloak and Martin hesitantly grabbed his hand.

“Um, he was… he was a bat. He's not… really…”

"Ah, okay. That honestly makes this easier but I'll give you a minute to secure his privacy.”

Martin gave a grateful nod as the scientist politely turned around while Martin got Jon presentable for company by unwrapping the cloak and instead draping it over him where it could be easily moved as needed. Throughout this, Jon simply kept crying out in pain and Martin felt his heart breaking.

"Ready?”

"Yes.”

The scientist turned around and gently moved the cloak off Jon's shoulders, pulling it down to his waist, and Jon sharply cried out in pain as his arm was jostled.

“That looks really bad. Do you mind if I…?” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a familiar looking green vial. For once however, Martin was grateful.

“Yes, please.”

Jon let out the smallest whimper then after about thirty seconds began to visibly relax, sinking back into the bed, his eyes going unfocused and eventually closing.

“Is there a reason he’s completely unconscious this time? He’s not… he’s not dying is he?”

“Oh, I always set out prepared on the offchance of running into a large vampire up to around three times his size. When I had you in the lab I had things calibrated to him, just enough to subdue him but not enough to keep him out for too long. Mostly just because I rather hate having to drug my… subjects… against their wills and I try to keep it as mild as possible. But I assumed in this case it’d probably be better to put him out completely so I just gave him the whole thing. But he’ll be completely fine, he’ll just sleep for maybe a day or so. Which, seeing as he's indoors and safe from the sun, won't cause any issues.” Martin was greatly relieved and set about the task of fetching requested items for the scientist as he began his work.

After a few hours, Jon's arm had been cleaned and set and Martin had sewn it back up, along with all his other various injuries, while the scientist checked him out for other injuries that Martin wouldn’t be able to simply sew up with webbing. Fortunately he had his Beholding Avatar healing abilities so was already looking a lot better than when Martin had first brought him in but Martin was deeply grateful that he was unconscious as he still wasn’t healing instantaneously and his right hand and arm in particular looked rather… painful. After Martin finished up the webbing-cast, the scientist left the room so Martin could finish cleaning Jon up and get him tucked into bed. Within the hour Jon was finally ready and, after cleaning himself, he climbed into bed on Jon’s left and snuggled up against him.

Notes:

Okay maybe I watched too much Secret of Nimh as a little kid and owls were the villains to all the small and fuzzy. But also... it's realistic.

Chapter 21: Recovery

Summary:

Jon is healing from his injuries

Notes:

Trigger Warnings
Injuries, mention of 1860s medicine laudanum which was apparently unregulated back then. It isn't an issue in this story though, some fang cuddles

Mostly hurt/comfort and some fluff

When Martin woke up with a yawn and a stretch the next morning, he was relieved to see that Jon already looked worlds better than the previous day. Most of his injuries had healed into scars by now and other than his seemingly still-broken right arm and hand he looked almost good as new. Martin gave him a gentle kiss and Jon continued his slumber not in the slightest bit disturbed.

“Wow you really are out, aren’t you?” Jon of course gave no response because yes, he was. Martin let out a soft chuckle and tucked Jon in as comfortably as he could and fluffed his pillow before leaving the room and closing the door. He knew with how long he’d already been sleeping and how much it would take out of him to have healed so much, he’d better be ready with some food when Jon woke up so he asked Sarah to keep an ear out while he went to the outhouse on the offchance that he woke up while he was gone. He did not - Martin returned to find Jon in exactly the same position as last time. He’d have been worried about his livelihood if not for the simple fact that with the return of his humanoid vampire form had also come the return of his allergies so his silence was randomly punctuated with the odd sniffle or cough.

By the time Jon finally came to, Martin had fallen back asleep next to him and was snoring quite peacefully. Jon was rather disoriented - the last thing he remembered was flying after a moth, followed by sharp intense pain and terror, then… waking up here, humanoid again, in bed, with a broken and bandaged arm and hand, snuggled up next to Martin. He wasn’t going to question it however - The owl had been even more terrifying than Daisy and he was greatly relieved to be free of its sharp cruel claws. He just relaxed against the pillows and tried to ignore his throbbing arm, wishing that there were some decent painkillers in the eighteen sixties. And maybe there were, he wasn’t exactly strong enough to call upon the Beholding right now. Except he was apparently strong enough to accidentally create enough of a pained static to wake Martin as suddenly he was sitting up.

“Jon! You’re awake! Can I get you anything? Food? Are you hungry?”

Jon let out a faint chuckle and winced at the pain in his arm. Martin noticed. “Jon, are you in pain? Are you okay?”

“My arm and hand hurt… from the looks of it I imagine I broke them?”

“You did… the owl… it… yah.” Martin looked uncomfortable. “It was Awful… do you not remember?”

“Vaguely? I mostly just remember flashes of pain and terror.”

Martin made a sympathetic sound, kissed Jon’s forehead, and went out to see if there was anything he could get for him. He soon returned with a mug of blood with a rye stalk in it and put it in Jon’s non-broken hand. “Drink. I’m going out in search of some pain killers.”

Jon was rather relieved to hear That and also to smell the tantalizing aroma of blood, even if it was cow and not human. He hungrily began slurping through the rye stalk as Martin left and closed the door softly behind him.

He was, however, concerned at the absolute CACKLE that Martin came back home with.

“You would not Believe what you can just buy at the chemists these days! I think, I think you’re going to be Just Fine.” Jon eyed Martin dubiously as he pulled a small bottle out of his pocket and handed it over. Then he rolled his eyes as he could not open it one handed and Martin chuckled, opened it, and poured some into a fresh glass of blood. “Drink up!”

Jon continued to eye him dubiously. “What is that, Martin?”

“Laudanum.”

“That’s…”

“You’re a vampire, I don’t Think you can get addicted?”

“I’m not sure I like this plan.”

“You’ll probably be finished healing within a week with your Avatar powers anyway.”

“Ah, good point.” Jon took the mug from Martin and placed his rye stalk in it, slurping with an expression of faint disgust. “This is really Quite bitter.”

“I’m sorry. That’s why I mixed it with blood - to try to mask the taste.”

“Be better if it were human.” Jon flashed Martin a faint wicked smile at this last one. Martin returned one in kind and stepped closer to the bed, undoing the top button on his shirt with Implications. Jon had a sudden thought though and his smile vanished.

“I probably… shouldn’t bite you Right after drinking this.”

“Ah… good point. I’ll get you some water to rinse your mouth out with.”

“You think that will work?”

“I mean… Probably?”

They both reckoned it was probably good enough and Martin went to get Jon a glass of water and helped him into some pants and over to the sink where he rinsed. Then he gently led him by his left arm back to the bedroom with a smile on his lips that Jon matched perfectly. Martin carefully closed the door and helped Jon back into bed, ensuring that he was comfortably settled before showing his fangs with a yawn. Jon bared his own fangs with a grin and Martin snuggled up to him so he wouldn’t have to risk hurting his arm when he went for his snack.

After a while, both were very satisfied and cozily snuggled up under the comforter, taking turns sleepily kissing the others’ new fang-marks.

Chapter 22: Siege

Summary:

The slayer attacks, putting the group under siege.

Notes:

Trigger Warnings
Major character lives in danger, violence, fighting, blood and injury, threats, fear, stress

Jon woke up to a shrill shriek coming from outside. He had just snuggled into bed next to Martin not thirty minutes prior and was thus rather loopy as he half stumbled, half dove for the window. However he was brought to wakefulness by the icy spear of dread he felt when he saw the stake-wielding teenager advancing on a terrified Sarah. Calling upon the Beholding, he confirmed his suspicion that this was the slayer and quickly ran out of the room and out the front door.

“SARAH!” Jon took it upon himself to fill the role of a killdeer protecting its chicks though curated specifically towards a vampire slayer. The slayer turned briefly to face him and Jon bared his fangs threateningly and snarled as ferociously as he could. This was quite successful as the slayer immediately changed tactics and started heading after the more obvious threat.

“STOP!” The air filled with static as he uttered the command and the slayer paused briefly. Then she continued forward. Ah. So she was as strong as an Avatar. Great. He called upon the Beholding… yep. She was. Of the Hunt. As apparently were all Slayers. It figured. He never did have much luck with Hunt Avatars who decided to make it their mission to kill him. He hoped Martin was up by now - they’d all been certainly making enough racket outside. And without his Beholding and against a Vampire Slayer… he wasn’t exactly liking his chances. He wasn’t, for example, really willing to kill, which is the main way a vampire escaped a slayer. And he definitely wasn’t going to kill a sixteen year old. The girl was half his age. He shook his head in disbelief for a second before realizing that he should Probably run. The slayer dove for him and he leapt out of the way with a grace that quite surprised him and he realized perhaps he hadn’t been using all his vampire skills to their fullest. But there would be time to explore that later when he escaped this… if he escaped. It wasn’t exactly looking Good as she advanced on him as she was clearly in much better shape than he was.

He was relieved, however, to see Holtz in the background pulling Sarah safely back into the house and locking the door, then running after the slayer and Jon with a crossbow in hand.

“Stop!” Holtz called out. “Leave him alone! He’s not soulless!”

The slayer gave a fierce humorless laugh. “He still drinks human blood. He must be SLAIN.” With this last, she hurled a stake at Jon and he barely managed to duck out of the way by simply allowing himself to go completely limp. As it was, he fell hard on his right arm which, while healed as much as it likely ever would be from the owl attack, was definitely not like it used to be. He spent a couple moments whimpering in pain before with effort pulling himself back into a sitting position… to find a second stake pressed against his heart. Gulp.

“P-please, d-don’t kill me!” Jon couldn’t help the tremor in his voice as he faced presumably certain death. He was, as such, deeply relieved when he saw his would-be killer fall suddenly to the side after a punch to the face by a furious Martin.

“You Leave Him Alone!” Martin bared his fangs and snarled. The slayer’s first thought was vampire but… no, he was something else. Something else with… eight eyes… glowing red eyes… sheesh. This was terrifying. She backed away slowly, wondering why her watcher hadn’t warned her about This kind of monster. Martin advanced towards her threateningly, fangs dripping venom, until she took off running. Then he swiftly scooped up Jon and hurried back for the house where a worried Holtz quickly ushered the two inside and locked the door.

The next morning they found out Victoria and Lucy had been out cold during the battle the night before due to their water mysteriously being drugged. So this had been planned out. And she was Clever. And now that it was day she had all the advantage. Jon and Sarah were carefully secured in an inner room and completely wrapped in Jon’s cloak in his case and blankets in hers. Jon stood watch over Sarah and Martin stood watch over him. Holtz, Victoria, and Lucy guarded the door and now boarded-up windows with cross-bows. However this wouldn’t be sustainable - people had to sleep at some point.

Everyone was incredibly on edge so there was a general panic when around noon there was a sudden knock at the door and it was only through Jon’s Beholding revealing it was in fact not the slayer but the scientist and his companion that it was dispelled. Holtz cautiously opened the door and the pair made their way inside. Holtz quickly closed and locked it behind them.

“What are you doing here?”

“We’re here to help.”

“... Why?”

“We owe Jon our eternal lives and heard that he was in danger. Therefore, we have come to help.”

Jon stared at them in incredulity. “It… it actually Worked???” He called upon the Beholding and let out a surprised sigh. “I… I suppose, in a way? You can still die, you know, by being killed. But you’ll never age another day. So you’re as immortal as I am.”

“Good enough for me - I didn’t particularly like the idea of not having an option for exit should the world go full apocalypse.” Jon and Martin gave each other a Look at this and decided not to mention what would happen in 2018. After all, who knows if it still would, anyway. Neither of them was too sure what this whole time travel thing would do to that.

“Well, great. You can join us in shifts.” Holtz took immediate stock of the situation and set them up in groups - Jon and Martin, Victoria and Lucy, the scientist and his companion, and Holtz. Two groups would stay awake at all times. Sarah would sleep whenever she was tired - she was, after all, only six.

“Works for us - we can take the next one if any of you are tired.” It was decided that Jon, Martin, and Holtz would take first sleep as they’d all been up since the night before and were deeply exhausted. “Though I did have to ask - how did you manage the whole bat thing?”

“What?”

“The bat thing - Martin said you turned into a bat. That’s not something I know of vampires doing.”

Jon chuckled. “Ah, I used a spell.”

“Can you still use that? It could be useful.”

Jon sighed. “Unfortunately I can’t turn back human on my own so it’s a bit risky.”

“Ah.”

Jon had a thought and decided to verify with the Ceaseless Watcher. Aha! “Martin, I think we could actually make a charm… can you design a size-changing bracelet sort of deal with your webbing?” Martin supposed he could and within fifteen minutes, Martin was tying on Jon’s new anklet complete with bat and human transforming abilities.

“Give it a try!” Jon gave a nervous smile and concentrated… a swirl of lights surrounded him and suddenly he was gone, just a pile of clothes on the floor. Martin gently removed the top layer of cloak and revealed a tiny struggling bat, much to everyone’s instant adoration and squees. Jon gave a little bat glare and Martin scooped him up and petted his tiny little head. “Jon doesn’t really like it when people squee at him.” Queue the innocent whistles.

“Twasn’t me!”

Jon just Looked at everyone in turn.

“Okay now try turning back!” Jon leapt down from Martin’s hand and fluttered gently to the pile of clothes and Martin draped the cloak back over him. A swirl of lights surrounded him and then there was Jon, kneeling covered in his cloak in the middle of the floor. He awkwardly pulled it closer around him.

“I suppose it works!”

…

With Jon’s new and improved bat transforming abilities, he and Martin permanently took on the night-shift as Jon could be useful there as a lookout. He also Knew that in his humanoid vampire form, he could actually land quite safely from a height of about twelve stories so as long as he didn’t go above that height there was no risk in transforming between his forms, even in midair. It did however hurt a bit to fly as his right wing was still injured so he and Martin worked on some bat physical-therapy, stretching his wing to see if they could help that at all. Sarah watched because it was really adorable and Jon didn’t suppose he minded a child watching. Sarah also gave him tasty bug treats when he made progress which ingratiated her to him. Nobody else was allowed to watch though - he was, after all, self-conscious. So this was done in the privacy of Jon and Martin’s room. Soon Jon was fluttering around quite successfully with some stiffness but not so much pain anymore. Progress. Martin scooped him up and petted his little head. Jon lovingly nibbled his fingertip with his little fangs.

“I think we’re going to stop for the day and Jon and I are going to get some rest.” Sarah cheerfully left the room and Martin closed the door. Jon turned back humanoid and Martin scooped him up in his arms and carried him to bed while he chuckled. Once Jon was safely on the bed, Martin dug in the pile of clothes and threw some over. “Here you go.”

“Thank you.”

“I couldn’t just leave you sitting on the cold floor, could I?”

“I suppose not.”

Within a few minutes, the two were snuggled up and Jon was rather peacefully sleeping in Martin’s arms. Martin was nervously watching the boarded up window, every sound from outside scaring him that it could be the slayer come to attack. To assuage his worries he eventually just grabbed a second comforter from the closet and covered Jon in it completely. There. Now if something happened he would be fine. Martin tucked the edges around Jon as snugly as he could to ensure that even while tossing and turning he’d still be covered and only then allowed himself to fall asleep as well.

…

This turned out to be a good decision as the pair were woken up to the sound of someone kicking in the window, shattering the glass and sending the wooden boards on it across the room. Martin found himself also grateful for the thick comforter as it shielded the both of them from the broken glass and, after brushing it off, he scooped up the blanket-cocoon that was Jon and fled from the suddenly sunlit room, doing his best to barricade the door behind him by leaning on it from the other side. Jon for his part was Very confused and struggled slightly in Martin’s arms but fortunately was very well-contained so he failed to actually get any sun on him.

“RUN! SHE’S IN THE HOUSE!” Martin screamed out as he held the door closed, watching a frantic Holtz throw his cloak over Sarah. Reasonable, thought Martin. It swallowed the six year old. “Jon, battify!” Jon was confused but he still followed Martin’s directive and suddenly Martin was holding a comforter with a tiny bat inside. Jon carefully climbed his way out and fluttered to the corner of the room, just in time for the door to splinter, sending Martin to the floor with a loud thud and oof.

“Where ARE THEY?” Jon had a moment to muse that he finally had a name for this terrifying soul - Molly - and he scanned the room for Sarah. Fortunately Holtz had managed to get her into his bedroom and now that they had Molly in the living room they were somewhat safe. That is, unless they couldn’t break through the window boards in which case… in which case they were most definitely trapped. Jon could hear them tearing at the boards frantically and watched as Victoria, Lucy, and the scientist and his companion stood guard at the bedroom door. He then watched as, one by one, they all… collapsed. Wait… what?

Molly cackled. “Didn’t think I’d drug all your food, huh?” Jon noticed at this point that Martin was stirring slightly and groaning under the broken door and considered himself lucky that Martin had apparently not eaten lunch with the others as he’d been too busy snuggling with his precious Archivist. He was, however, not exactly conscious either and would therefore not be very helpful for a while. He was on his own. He also noticed the sound of crying from a terrified Sarah, now the only one conscious in Holtz’ room, and at the complete mercy of anyone who broke in. Jon spied a tiny knot hole in the wall between the living room and Holtz’ room and carefully squeezed himself through, fluttering gently down to the bed on the other side.

“Squeak.” Sarah turned around at the soft sound and was relieved to find she wasn’t in fact alone. Molly was banging on the door in the process of trying to break it down and Jon quickly crawled under the comforter on Holtz’ bed, transforming back to humanoid form. “Quick, cover yourself in your cloak, we’re making a break for it.” With that, Jon ran for the window and began ripping off the boards as well as he could whilst wearing a comforter. This was… inconvenient. Ah. He briefly stepped into Holtz’ wardrobe and threw on some robe sort of thing. Sleeves. That was more like it. He soon had the windows only covered by the curtains, letting in a few beams of sunlight between them.

“Do I hear you in there, Jon?” Molly seemed somewhat surprised but it was no matter - she’d have the two soon anyway. Jon eyed the available blankets in the room and came to the concerning conclusion that there was no way for them both to get out of there alive, not with the sun still out. So he made a quick decision and flung a heavy basin through the window, smashing a large hole, winked at Sarah, and transformed into his bat form, whereupon he flew up to above the doorframe. Which turned out to be just in time to see Molly barge into the room, immediately zeroing in on the broken window and heading to it. “Ah, so he decided to make a run for it and leave you behind, did he? What a cowardly vampire. Looks like his plan failed though - there’s nobody out there. Guess he turned to ASH!” She advanced towards the terrified child with a stake in hand, failing to notice the tiny ball of fur hurtling through the air and doing what he’d heard people were so deathly afraid of yet basically never actually happened - getting in her hair. As she started frantically bashing at her head he also realized Why this never happened. Because… OW?!?!

“SQUEAK! SQUEAK! SQUEAK!” Jon suddenly found himself grabbed roughly by an angry hand, staring directly into a glaring Molly’s eyes.

“Why is there a BAT in here?”

Sarah remained silent, her lips trembling as she tried not to cry.

“Squeak.” Jon let out a squeak, trying to appear as perfectly normal as possible. Yes, he was just an ordinary bat, definitely not a vampire currently in bat form. Unfortunately for him, Molly hated bats and he found himself being hurled towards the floor at alarming speed. He opened his wings in a panic and barely managed to avoid becoming flattened, instead landing rather painfully on his face. Ouch.

“SQUEAK!” Jon was grumpy. It was high time for some fangs to meet some slayer flesh. He turned to see Molly wrenching a terrified Sarah towards the window and dove for her ankle.

“AAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Molly dropped Sarah who quickly crawled to the far side of the room. Jon held on, pointy teeth embedded her ankle, as she shook it vigorously. He was getting rather dizzy… ugh… and there he was, airborne. Unfortunately he was far too dazed to actually open his wings this time and instead crashed right into the wall and crumpled to the ground. Molly was Furious.

“You VISCIOUS ANIMAL!”

Jon simply looked up at her dazedly from his position on the floor. He wasn’t exactly With it right now and assumed he was quite likely concussed. Sarah looked at him in a panic and he desperately wanted to tell her to just RUN but he couldn’t. He could only squeak.

“Squeak!” He tried to point a thumb towards the open door and thankfully Sarah got the message, fleeing for her life. Molly reached for her but missed, instead tripping over the robe lying haphazardly on the floor and landing on her face. Jon could hear more groaning from the living room and could only hope that Martin was conscious by now - things were not exactly looking Good for team vampire. Molly got to her feet and, with one last glare at Jon, marched out into the living room after Sarah. From his position, Jon could see as she advanced towards her but was unable to do anything about it

“SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” The screech that came from Jon combined with all the static of the Ceaseless Watcher shattered all the glass in the home, making both Sarah and Molly cry out in fear and pain, and brought Martin to full-consciousness with a painful start. After shaking his head faintly, he got his bearings and stumbled across the room towards the two.

“Let. Her. Go!” Molly turned to look at him, once again wary of the glowing red eyes and fangs but this time he didn’t look as threatening, not after having been passed out on the floor and moaning pitifully for the better part of fifteen minutes.

“Back off. I’m here for the vampire. You can go if you Want.”

“... Vampire?”

“Oh yes, your lover decided to make a run for it and turned to dust.”

Martin let out a choked sob. “NO! He… he Wouldn’t…!”

“Oh, but he DID. Go see the hole in the bedroom window if you want. He dove out and didn’t make it.”

Martin couldn’t let that thought sink in, no, he… he couldn’t. He had to save this innocent child. But without Jon… he didn’t really have much regard for his own life anymore. So he leapt forward, baring fangs and pouncing on a startled Molly. Sarah backed away in fear, fleeing for her bedroom and locking the door. Martin and Molly began tumbling about on the floor, both trying to overpower the other and failing, Martin sobbing hysterically and Molly yelling in fury. Eventually Martin’s tear-stained vision failed him and Molly got the upper hand, getting a hold of his head and smashing it viciously against the ground with a harsh cracking sound. Martin went still.

Jon had been trying to right himself this entire time without success but this attack on his precious Martin… it gave him the strength of absolute fury. He summoned all his energy and once again entered his human form, weakly crawling on all fours to the living room, throwing the comforter over himself on his way. Molly was confused to see the comforter seemingly moving on its own across the floor and backed up in fear against the wall. What was With this house?!? Then she stalked forward, pouncing on the comforter… and Jon became Bat!Jon again, leaving Molly to hit the floor with a hard flood while Jon remained as still as possible, praying she wouldn’t notice where he was in the middle of the blanket. He slowly chewed his way out and made his escape unnoticed, crawling over to where Martin lay motionless on the floor and making his way between his shirt and chest, staring out at Molly with bared fangs.

From here he could tell that Martin was fortunately still alive though his heartbeat was rather sporadic and that concerned Jon immensely. Molly got up, looking around the room in evident confusion.

“What… what is Going On Here?!?” She started advancing towards Martin, stake raised. Jon muttered a faint squeak of apology and bit Martin as hard as he could. Martin sat up with a yelp, surprising Molly into dropping her stake and falling backwards after slipping on the comforter. Martin had No clue what was going on, only that Something had bitten him and there was someone trying to kill him. Then he recognized the feel of the tiny furry form hanging onto the inside of his sweater and felt a massive wave of relief - Jon was alive. And presumably was the thing that had bitten him. That was actually pretty funny. It also meant he could hurt him if he wanted to. Aw. So cute. Once again Martin had a reason to keep fighting. He pushed himself to his feet with effort as Molly stared at him in shock.

“I… I broke your skull… how are you… how are you even Alive, let alone Conscious?!”

Martin let out a chuckle, partly because he liked having the upper hand for once and partly because this reminded him of another power that he had. Before Molly knew what had hit her she was completely enshrouded in webbing, neatly wrapped up like a delicious bug. Martin didn’t eat her, however.

Chapter 23: Eternity

Summary:

Jon is healing from the attack. Things aren't as peaceful as they seem.
Jon comes to the horrifying realization that he's going to live forever and Martin, as a human, isn't.

Notes:

Trigger Warnings
Blood and injury, major character lives in peril, fear, panic, biting, broken bones, forced drugging

Hurt/comfort

Martin kept watch over the immobilized Molly while waiting for the others to awaken, Jon temporarily hanging from his sweater by his feet, too drained to change back to human form. Martin lifted him to his shoulder and gently nudged him towards his neck.

“Go ahead, Jon. You need your strength and I could use a cuddle from your humanoid form anyway.”

Jon hesitated for a second before sinking his tiny fangs in and Martin chuckled - once again, it only tickled. It didn’t take much to fill him in bat form and soon enough he was rather stuffed and let himself gently fall into Martin’s outstretched hands. Martin sat him gently on the floor and Jon transformed back into human form, whereupon Martin wrapped the comforter around him.

…

By the time the others woke up, Jon was back in bed with Martin sitting next to him, staring daggers at a deeply annoyed Molly. Sarah was also in bed after Martin had finally convinced her to open the door to her room in order to accept a mug of blood. The poor girl was terrified but greatly relieved when Martin informed her that yes, Jon was alive. He was just currently sleeping as it had become evident soon after transforming back into human form and being utterly unable to form coherent sentences or walk in a straight line that he really Had hurt his head crashing into the wall and was in great need of rest. Fortunately he had Avatar healing abilities so Martin wasn’t as concerned as he might have been, instead only insistent that Jon get some sleep. While at first he had tried to refuse, he was unable to resist as Martin carried him to bed and tucked him in with a grim expression on his face and had sunk into a deep sleep within a minute or so. The Martin snuggles had helped with that as well.

Holtz immediately hurried to his daughter’s side but was relieved to find her peacefully sleeping. He set to work on sweeping up the broken glass that positively littered the floor, raising an eyebrow at Martin who only shrugged in response. They would have to wait for Jon to wake up and become coherent again to get an answer to that one. All Martin knew is that everything had been in the process of shattering as he woke up.

The scientist went to check on Jon at Martin’s insistence and was greeted by sleepily bared fangs and a snarl. Martin ruffled Jon’s hair and gently rebuked him for being rude, kissing his forehead to soften the words. Jon was however still a bit grumpy and Martin snuggled up to him making soft shushing sounds as the scientist looked him over. Jon did not much like being looked over.

“Snarrrlll”

“Jon, hush.” Martin kissed him and sat him up, leaning a rather grouchy Jon up against his chest. “This good? He’s a tad bit cranky.”

Jon let out a soft sound of indignation. He was NOT ‘a tad bit cranky’ and anyway, he was Right Here!

“Yep, thank you.”

In a few minutes he was done and Jon was allowed to go back to sleep, much to everyone’s relief. The scientist however suggested first feeding him - he was rather weak and was probably incredibly hangry, especially after what he’d been through - and it occurred to Martin that Jon hadn’t eaten anything other than that sip from Martin in over twenty four hours and hadn’t had a statement in about a week. Ah. He went off to grab a mug of blood and rye stalk and brought it in. Jon hungrily slurped and it was gone in record time.

“Do… do you want some more?”

Jon nodded fervently, his eyes regaining some of their usual sparkle. Martin brought in another mug which Jon quickly polished off as well. Then he visibly relaxed and fell back against the pillows with a soft thud, his eyes closing. Martin chuckled.

“Aw, you really are tired, aren’t you?” He received no response. Huh, the man was out. He tucked him gently and walked out into the living room…. “Wait… where is the slayer?”

…

When Jon came to, he found himself chained to a wall facing Sarah who was apparently in the same situation. This was… unpleasant. She had clearly been up for a while as her face was red and streaked with tears. He tried to smile reassuringly as he asked the Ceaseless Watcher what was going on. Ah. He and Sarah were trapped in a roofless room that the sun would be coming into in under an hour and their loved ones were… on the other side of a pane of glass. He turned his head as much as he could and saw an absolutely miserable looking Martin next to presumably Holtz but it was hard to tell at his current angle.

“Are you seriously making them Watch?” Jon was incredulous.

“I thought it was better than just killing you in your sleep. I wanted you to ALL experience it. You’ve all been a huge thorn in my side these past several months and I want it OVER.”

Jon sighed. “You could end it by just… letting us go?”

“Yah, no.”

“And where are the others?”

“Oh, they’re sufficiently drugged.”

“Ah.” He was a bit frustrated - you’d think they’d stop eating from that house at some point seeing as this Kept Happening but he supposed they didn’t really have any other options. “At least let the kid go.”

“Sorry, Jon. I’m taking you both out.”

Sarah began openly sobbing. Jon had to think of something… oh, right. Within moments, Jon had vanished and in his place was a tiny bat struggling to get out of a pile of clothes on the ground. Molly stared in disbelief as said tiny bat launched itself at her face, snarling and clawing the best it could. It was at this point she made the connection between the earlier bat and the missing vampire and lashed out with an open palm, sending Jon careening into the stone wall with a crunch. Martin, who had been cheering him on, was suddenly sent into panicked sobs as he saw the crumpled form on the ground remain motionless. Sarah let out a sob and collapsed in hysterics… which was rather fortunate as the chains were made for someone far larger than her and she slipped right through. For a second she just sat there in shock then made a quick break for it, quickly crawling through a small crack in the wall and running to the two tied up outside.

Molly meanwhile advanced towards the motionless form on the ground - she was going to Make Sure he was dead this time. Jon opened his eyes to find himself lying on his stomach, looking at the hard rock beneath him, and to hear Martin absolutely SCREAMING

“JON! LOOK OUT!!!”

He felt more than saw the shadow of a boot coming towards him and, thinking quickly, decided that it would Probably hurt less in human form. So Molly found herself stomping hard on a human shoulder instead of a tiny bat and fell backwards with a shriek. Jon cried out weakly in pain but didn’t exactly know what to do at this point and didn’t even think he was currently capable of movement so he just continued lying there and hoping something would come to him.

He heard (and unfortunately felt) the glass wall shatter behind him and Martin and Holtz came charging through, pouncing on Molly as a pair. Then everything went black.

…

When Jon came to he was once again in bed and it was apparently three days later. Ah. It turned out that being forcefully flung into a stone wall wasn’t exactly Good for a fragile little bat body and he’d been basically internally mush when Martin took him home. Thank goodness for Avatar healing - his bones seemed whole again by this point and in fact there were no remaining casts to speak of though apparently according to a rather sniffly Martin, there had been. Fortunately he’d been rather peacefully sleeping dosed with a rather potent solution of vervain herb and had been aware of absolutely none of it. He felt a bit hungry though was surprised to not feel any worse - apparently Martin had been putting small spoonfuls of blood in his mouth and then gently tapping his fangs with a finger until he swallowed on reflex. It was a slow process but it kept him satiated. He’d also given his statements on his recent encounters with the Hunt in the hope that would help him heal faster. And it had.

“Ah… so you’ll be in my dreams now.”

“As I Should be. Maybe I won’t have to be so jealous anymore.”

“You know it doesn’t work like that, right…? Nevermind.”

Martin gave a faint half chuckle, half sob and kissed Jon’s forehead. “I was… I was so worried that I was going to lose you. You… you weren’t really… um… doing well when I brought you home. Honestly… honestly at first we were just trying to…” Martin broke down sobbing. “We were just trying to keep you comfortable.”

Jon didn’t really know how to respond to this so he gently placed a hand on one of Martin’s. “Martin… it’s okay. I’m here now.”

“But you almost weren’t. I… I can’t do it without you, Jon.” Martin laid down next to Jon, sobbing, holding him close. Jon was somewhat overwhelmed by the heaving sobs and frantic heartbeat pressing against him - it was a lot all at once after basically being in nothingness for several days.

And suddenly Jon was reminded of the fact that Martin was human. And that one day… one day, as a vampire, he Would have to do it alone. And he buried his face in Martin’s chest with a sob.

…

Martin kept Jon on a light dose of vervain for the next week, seeing as he was still healing and it didn’t have the same risk of addiction as other potential medicines of the time. Fortunately now that he was conscious he just ground it up in the blood he gave him which was far less stressful for the two of them than other potential methods. Martin offered to eat it himself but Jon wasn’t feeling well enough to actually bite after his crash - Martin had the scientist look at his fangs and it seemed he actually had chipped one but Martin didn’t know of any vampire dentists so wasn’t really sure how to work with this. Unfortunately Avatar healing powers didn’t extend to healing chipped fangs. It had sealed itself off - he wouldn't get it infected or anything - but biting was painful for at least the time being. Martin was a bit saddened by this but Jon asked the Ceaseless Watcher and it seemed that would eventually pass. So they’d just bide their time until then.

No, the biggest issue is Jon had been rather down since coming to and Martin couldn’t figure out why. He’d already asked if it was because Jon was in pain and, although he was, he said that wasn’t the issue.

“Jon… you really can talk to me.”

Jon let out a sigh. “I’m… I’m fine, Martin.”

“Jon, you’re clearly Not fine. Please, just tell me.”

Jon hesitated. “I… I just… I hadn’t really thought on it much before but it occurred to me that… well that I’m a vampire and you’re a human…”

“And…? It’s not exactly like I’m human, not really, I’m a spider-person.”

“I meant specifically the fact that… you’ll live and die and I’ll be left alone at that point. I mean I can always just stake myself or walk out into the sun but…”

“Jon, NO! Please tell me you won’t do that!”

“Martin, I can’t do it without you either.”

Martin pondered for a few seconds how anyone could possibly need him, Martin Blackwood, in their lives. It didn’t make any sense.

“I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to read your mind, I promise. It was just so Loud. Martin, you are more special than you could ever imagine and I need you. Remember, you were my reason during the literal apocalypse.”

Martin sniffled and looked up to meet Jon’s also tear-filled eyes. “Jon…”

Jon broke down, sobbing. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to do it without you, Martin. I can’t stop Thinking about it, how here in sixty years I’ll still look the same as today and you’ll… you’ll be old and almost dead or just plain dead and… I… I just Can’t!”

“I… I could join you. If you wanted.”

Jon paused, sniffling. “What do you mean? You… you want to become a vampire?”

Martin gave a snort of laughter. “Oh, goodness no. It’s hard enough keeping one of us fed on blood. But…” he gestured towards the door to the rest of the house, “our friends somehow managed to make an elixir of life that makes you live forever but you can still die. Basically… like you.”

Jon wiped his eyes with the corner of the blanket. “You… you would do that?”

“Jon, for you, I would do anything.”

…

Jon asked the Beholding and as it turned out, most of the process that the scientist went through in making the elixir of life was entirely inconsequential. All that mattered was the initial ingredients - Jon’s vampireness and Beholding combined made him into an apparently useful source of eternal life and Martin could easily access those with his fangs.

So Martin set up the bed as cozy as he could and made a blanket nest for Jon.

“Are… are you sure? I’m assuming this won’t feel exactly Good.”

“No, probably not… but I’m sure. It’ll be worth it.”

“Do you want to… um… sleep through it?”

“Martin, I want to be there with you. If I remember correctly, this isn’t going to be an easy process for you either in the hours after and I’d like to be able to comfort you.”

Martin gave a bitter chuckle. “I’ve been trying Not to think about that, actually.”

“Fair enough.” Jon kissed Martin’s forehead lightly. “Whenever you’re ready.” And with that Martin gently helped him remove his shirt and lie down on his stomach in the blankets and gently pushed his hair to the side.

“If you’re quite sure.”

“I’m sure. I love you, Martin.”

“I love you too, Jon.” And with that he gently kissed Jon’s neck once and sank his fangs in.

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of Jonathan Sims: Bloodsucking Parasite