A/N
Ha, gotcha! Turns out Jay isn't a merman... So that eliminates that option.
What is he, then, if anything at all? 🤔
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
Her eyes slowly opened, yet she was met with darkness once again.
At first, she had thought that maybe she had fallen asleep with her face towards the ground; but the surface touching her nose was anything but dirty.
Then, she thought she may had been dreaming. A gentle squeeze around her body proved otherwise.
Wait, what?
She pulled away just slightly, realising her current position at last.
The strange surface was made of fabric (white, to be exact). The squeeze around her had been a pair of arms restraining her to the ground. And finally, her soft blanket had turned out to be a large, blue jacket.
She tilted her head up slightly, the sleeping face in front of her mere centimetres away.
Trying not to squirm, she buried her head back down into his chest, trying to clear her mind.
That was until...
"You're kidding me," she glared at her rumbling stomach. Even if Edna's cream biscuits combined with Ed's lemonade had been more than delicious, her stomach was anything but full.
And worse thing was, she knew the reason.
She looked back up again, staring at his neck hungrily. Yet, she couldn't bring herself to do it.
"How does Kai do it so easily?" she told herself, pouting.
To be fair, her brother did have an onslaught of women behind his back, especially in his earlier days, but ever since he switched to animal blood packs, he refused to share his secret.
On second thought, his long-distance girlfriend might have been the reason of the switch.
Of course, Nya didn't have time to even think about that. She was in the middle of the woods with no animals or humans around.
Well, there was one human.
Leaving her no other option, she sighed.
"Jay." She poked his face repeatedly until she could get a response. "Jay, wake up."
Slowly, the young man opened his eyes; but upon seeing just how close they were, he jumped back with a yelp.
"Nya, I'm so, so sorry! I should have warned you about that."
"About what?"
He looked down, embarrassed. "About me hugging you, I guess..."
Before she could blush herself, he let out a yawn, rubbing his eyes as he ever-so-slowly descended back to the ground.
"What was it?" he said.
It was her turn to look away. "I'm hungry," she mumbled, though her words almost sounded like a pout.
"Oh." He blinked. "Well, I guess I could find a few wild berries around here. Though I don't know how to tell apart the poisonous ones..."
She coughed discreetly. "No, I..." She coughed louder. "I meant the other way."
Luckily for her, it didn't take long for him to catch on.
"Oh."
"You don't have to do it."
"I mean, is it like the movies?"
She raised an eyebrow.
"Like, Dr Saunders always said that your fangs work like straws, and that you suck up the blood of humans with it."
"That's... not true."
"Oh, well, how do you do it then?"
She helped him adjust on the ground, ignoring the cold breeze as she scooted away from his warmth.
"We usually just... open up a hole with our fangs and... suck, I guess," she said. "That's how my dad used to do it, at least."
"Oh, is he a vegan vampire now? Saunders has talked about those too."
Despite the topic only bringing bitterness to her heart, she couldn't help but laugh at his unaware joke.
"They're both dead," she said rather calmly. "Burned by the villagers in our hometown."
"Stiix?"
"Ignacia."
His eyes widened. "I know about that place!"
Before he could continue, she came closer, her finger landing on his lips. "First, I want you to tell me that you're okay with me doing this," she gestured at his neck.
He nodded.
She looked at him in the eyes. "Continue."
"Yeah, Ignacia is a really beautiful place. It's like really small but my parents have made a few deals there once before. It's totally worth a—"
He cursed rather loudly, not letting the pain distract him from his thoughts. It had taken him long enough to realise that her eagerness to hear his blabber had been nothing but a mere facade to get him to relax.
Just as the pain came, however, it faded away.
Nya shrunk back with a loud hiss, her palm rubbing her fangs as she looked at him with a glare.
He looked nervous, rubbing the thankfully blood-free bite marks on the side of his neck. "What?"
"What the heck have you been drinking?" she said, rubbing her aching fangs. "It's so... cold. It's like biting into ice cream!"
Granted, she hadn't directly drank blood from a person in years, but the sweet, warm taste had all but remained in his own blood.
"I... who knows? Maybe I just have a weird blood type," he said quickly.
"Ugh, great," she hugged her knees, pouting.
"Someone's grumpy when they're hungry," Jay mumbled to himself, but her glare was enough to quiet him down.
"Whatever, I'll find something to eat in Stiix tomorrow."
He stayed silent for a bit, but when he spoke, his tone was more than alarming.
"About Stiix..."
He was looking at her. He almost seemed... afraid?
"Yeah?"
"We're going to be home by tomorrow night, right?"
"Jay, we're rescuing a kidnapped demon child. In what world does that have a time limit?"
"Well, I just... I need to leave by then."
She turned to face him. "What do you mean by leave?"
"I mean... leave," he chuckled nervously, fiddling with his hands. "I mean, I could try to find a way back... And you don't have to come if you don't... want... to..."
Her annoyed expression was more than enough to get her message across, yet she still decided to speak.
"And why do you need to leave now, exactly?"
"I..." He looked at the ground. "I have work."
"Work?" she said. "Since when does the guy who take five days off a month care about work?"
He couldn't help but be annoyed himself, crossing his arms. "Probably the same guy who didn't report you to these men."
Her face softened. "I thought we had agreed that we'd be doing this together.
"Well, you also told me multiple times that I could choose to stop whenever I wanted to."
"Yeah, back in the city, not two steps away from saving Lloyd!"
"I have my reasons, okay?" he said defensively. "Just... I have my reasons."
"Then why won't you tell me?" she said, almost... disappointed? "Look, if it has to do with this whole monster thing, just say it. I... I get it."
"No, no, not at all!" he tried to correct himself. "I mean, the raw steak was a bit weird, but I don't have a problem with that."
She sighed.
"I mean, I can stay here until tomorrow night. Maybe afternoon. Or noon if I want to find good transport..."
As he kept pondering to himself, she started walking away.
"Wait, where are you going?"
She turned around briefly, looking sadder than angry. "If you want to leave, leave. It's your choice," she said. "I just thought we were at least... friends."
"But we are friends!"
She pushed him away lightly. "Friends don't let work get in the way of saving someone from a kidnapping."
"Nya, you've got plenty of strong monster friends to help you out. I'm basically useless in this whole thing," he tried to joke.
"Well, what if I wanted you?" She sighed and turned around. "Not like it matters now. Thanks for the ice cream."
He wanted to go with her. He wanted to follow her so, so bad.
And yet, he couldn't reveal himself. He couldn't tell her the truth, as much as he wanted to.
So, he continued walking the opposite direction, his head tilted down in shame and his footsteps heavy.
He rubbed the bite mark on his neck, and yet... nothing. No blood, no bruise... Just two small, gentle holes carved on the side of his neck.
She really was trying her best not to hurt him. But of course, he had to throw everything away. Again.
Chills ran down his spine, though he could tell it wasn't from the cold.
Something was watching him.
Someone was watching him.
He turned around.
Nothing.
"This one's quite the catch, Captain," he heard a deep, possibly female voice call out.
He turned around.
That time, he was knocked out cold.
And as his vision blurred, he called out Nya's name to no avail.
All he could do was focus on the orange dust in front of him, slowly closing his eyes.