Pyre (Frerard, Rikey, Ryden, Petekey)

3: Ray - The Living Breathing Body Pillow

Ray cracked his eyes open warily; years of running had made him extremely cautious about awakenings, because there was always the chance that the hunters had found him, or that they were looking for him, and any movement would give away his position. Not even a year of actually having people to watch his back had broken the old habits, and Ray honestly wasn't sure if they would ever fade away completely.

Racking his brain, Ray tried to remember where the hell he was this time; each night ended in a different location, another hiding place that would hopefully remain hidden until he could move again - run again. He was always running it seemed, and it was a struggle to ascertain what day this was, much less where he was. At least he was inside though, and he was safe, and so was Mikey, who happened to be sprawled across his chest at the moment, still slumbering peacefully.

It would be a cold day in Hell when Mikey awoke before Ray; in the year he had spent with him, it hadn't happened once, and Ray found it oddly adorable. It may have been caused by Mikey's constant night time disruptions to care for his brother, or by the fact that even though he was hundreds of years old, Mikey still acted like a teenager half of the time, but whatever the case, it was endearing, at least, in Ray's eyes it was.

Ray loved having the opportunity to watch Mikey's chest gently rise and fall, the innocent expression on his face was wiped clean of all the cares and worries he carried during his waking hours, and Ray wished that he could erase them permanently with some magic 'make everything better' tool, but that was ridiculous, and Ray obviously needed to get some more sleep, because he wasn't thinking straight yet.

But after keeping his eyes closed for a few minutes, and achieving absolutely nothing in the fall-back-asleep department, Ray returned to his favorite pastime of creepily staring at his comatose mate like a fucking stalker, but he could do that, because Mikey was his now, and he would never get tired of looking at his stupidly beautiful face.

Briefly, he debated if he should get up and scrounge through the house he now remembered them crashing in for some form of breakfast, because contrary to popular belief - vampires did eat actual food. Blood sustained them, but they still needed to ingest carbs and nutrients through normal means, and Ray had no idea why humans thought that they survived on blood alone besides the fact that they were all fucking idiots, but seriously, some of the ideas they came up with were so witless, Ray almost felt sorry for them and their lack of brain cells.

He threw that idea away though, deciding instead to enjoy a few more minutes of solitude with Mikey. It was still early yet, and they had almost reached their destination, so they wouldn't have to head out at the crack of dusk this time; his aching feet were definitely grateful for that. Mikey had been dead set on reaching Jersey by morning, so he had pushed them at a much quicker pace than Ray was used to maintaining, and with his boots beginning to fall apart, the journey had been less than pleasant.

Gazing down at his lover, Ray reminisced on how dismal his life had been before he had found his mate. Even though they weren't the happiest of memories to drag to the surface, they illustrated the contrast between who he had been and who he was now, and in turn, made him even more grateful for the unhappy circumstances that had thrown the two strangers together.

Before the purge, Ray had lived like all young vampires at the time - safe and cocooned within the vampire society, protected from the outside world filled with wary humans and hatred he knew nothing about. His parents had been wonderful people, and Ray wanted for nothing, because his life with them was perfect and filled with love. The couple had tried for ages to conceive a child, so Ray was a blessing to them, and they never let him forget it.

Because yes - vampires were born, not created or made when a human was bitten, once again emphasizing humanity's utter stupidity and ability to turn myths into fact without ever bothering to try to discover the truth. Vampires did have a much harder time reproducing than humans though, and with their basically unlimited life span, that was probably genetically intended, or else vampires would have overtaken the world, which in Ray's opinion, wouldn't be such a bad thing, because humans were cruel, and stupid, and hateful, and it was thanks to them that vampires were now an endangered race.