"Miss Violet, are you here?" Palette called out as he opened the door of the medical clinic. As usual, he shivered at the slight drop in temperature; his starry eye lights roving over the sterile room for any signs of the woman or her assistants.
"Back here," the woman in question yelled from somewhere in the building. Walking down one of the aisles between the work desks and the curtained rooms, he turned the corner to find a door ajar to his right. Entering the room, he found Violet hunched over a cooler with a clipboard. Without any prompting, she said, "I'm assuming you're here to resupply?"
"Yeah, I also wanted to ask how your prototype was coming along," the servant asked, knowing it would make things much easier if her project succeeded, "I remember you were really excited about being able to store blood as pills instead of having to use bags."
"I've been having some issues making a capsule that can preserve the blood without dissolving the coating, but able to be broken down inside the body," the woman groused, pulling a stack of blood packs from the cooler before closing it. After checking over the types and dates on each one and marking them off on her clipboard, she handed them over to Palette, "Once I solve that problem, the rest should fall into place. Is this everything you need?"
Palette's sockets crinkled a bit as he placed the packs into his bag, "Actually... I also wanted to check if I was clear to donate again. I take from your stock so often, it feels wrong not to give back at least a little."
"Hmm... I don't think it's been eight weeks, but let me check," Violet pursed her lips, striding out of the room and over to her desk where a filing cabinet sat. Flicking through the files, she murmured, "Roller... Roller... ah, here it is." Opening the manila folder and scanning one of the papers, she stated, "You have about two weeks before you're allowed to donate again. If I took blood from you now, I'd be putting it right back in you within the week."
Palette grimaced at the reminder of his first month as Goth's servant; he had gone overboard with donating and passed out in the middle of the street while doing his errands. He wasn't sure if the look of absolute panic on Goth's tear-streaked face when he first woke up or the week of fussing that ensued afterward was worse. Needless to say, he had gotten a stern lecture on self-care from Goth and another from Reaper about maintaining appearance for his master.
Reluctantly, the skeleton nodded his skull in agreement with the doctor's assessment.
The woman huffed at his discontent, leaning back to sit on her desk as she crossed her arms, "Speaking honestly, you and your master are part of the reason I'm not regularly throwing out expired blood. Since most vampires nowadays are a result of turning, they aren't restricted to a blood only diet as natural-born vampires are. Yet there's still a surplus of donors due to the health benefits associated with giving blood. While I need to keep a large supply on hand in case of an emergency, I usually have an excess that no one would need outside of vendors pulling for food prep. Your weekly visits allow me to rotate our stock regularly, so I wouldn't fret too much over not being able to contribute.
"If anything, I wish more vampires would take a leaf from your master's book. I can't count the number of patients I get in the week because someone pushed their servant to work after feeding; it would certainly save me a significant amount of trouble. I'm hoping once I perfect the blood pills, it'll sway more vampires over to that method of consuming blood."
The information allowed Palette to regain his cheer as relief washed over him, "Thanks, good to know I'm still helping even if I'm not donating." Glancing at the clock, he slipped his bag back into place, "I need to head out so I can get these packs stored before meeting up with Goth. I'll see you next week."
"I'll be expecting you," Violet turned away with a wave of dismissal as Palette dashed out the door and down the street. After a quick trip back to the house to store the blood packs away in the cooler and a greeting to the servant he worked with earlier to straighten up the house, he was out the door once more.
On his way to the academy, a couple walking in the same direction ahead of him were having a conversation. Palette didn't see the harm in listening since they were conversing at a normal volume.
"Guess what happened yesterday?" the blonde human-like vampire asked.
"What?" the brunette human-like vampire prompted.
The first vampire did a little hop as she exclaimed, "Ray asked to form a blood bond with me!"
"Seriously?" the second one gasped, "Oh, that's so romantic! You said yes, right?"
"Of course I said yes! We agreed to have the ceremony performed tomorrow," the blonde confirmed, "I know exactly what I'm goi-"
Palette didn't get to hear more of the conversation as they turned a corner, but it left him with something to think about. He had never heard of a blood bond and had no idea what it was; the best he could guess is that it was something vampires did that was considered a romantic gesture.
Maybe a blood bond is what they call marriage between vampires?
At that moment, Goth popped into his thoughts. Recalling that he was supposed to be meeting with the small vampire, Palette pushed the conversation from his mind and increased his pace toward the academy.
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Word Count: 970