She had no idea how long she'd been standing outside Kori's door. She could see her terrified expression in the gold nameplate, warped by the engraved name that bent the metal slightly. It was completely silent in Kori's room; [Y/n] could only assume he was waiting for her, which unsettled the female even more.

Hesitantly, she placed her hand on the cold door handle and pushed the door open. Kori sat in the corner of the room. There were no lights on inside- the only thing that allowed her to see him was the light from the hallway, though even that was slightly dim.

"Be a dear and close the door, would you?" he hummed, picking up a candle from beside his bed. [Y/n] hesitated, clearly not wanting to. Kori turned his gaze back to her with a warning look which caused the [h/c] haired girl to push the door shut. The room was pitch black. It stayed like that for a moment, and [Y/n] could've sworn she felt a breeze rush behind her.

Click.

A lighter clicked open, faintly illuminating the corner of the room where Kori sat, though [Y/n] could only just make out the outline of his figure. He held it in front of him for a little bit. Standing up, he made his way over to [Y/n].

"Hold out your hands," he instructed. [Y/n] hesitated. "Hold out your hands or I'll burn you," he muttered. [Y/n] held out her hands in response to the threat and felt the cool waxy texture of a candle. The little flame in front of her lowered and the candle lit up - she could now properly see Kori. His pale blue eyes stared down into hers, an emotion in them that [Y/n] couldn't decipher.

"W-where should I put it?" [Y/n] stuttered, looking around.

"Keep holding it," Kori responded simply. His tone was very dull and cold. He sounded angry. [Y/n] nodded at the injunction, before taking a small step back from the male who still held the lighter in front of him as though it was going to magically answer all his questions about life and existence.

"You took a long time to get here after Laion left," he hummed, finally flicking the lighter shut. [Y/n] nodded succinctly. "And then you spent ages at my door," he added, sounding a little confused. She nodded again. "It seems to me like you'd rather be anywhere but here," he laughed dryly.

"I'm sure there are worse places to be," [Y/n] whispered. Unlike with Laion, [Y/n] knew that she couldn't be rude to Kori. The last time she'd been 'insolent' things hadn't gone so well for her.

"That's neither a reassurance or an insult," he chuckled, walking over to his writing desk and sitting on the chair, "so I assume you want to insult me but can't bring yourself to."

"I'm sorry," [Y/n] said quietly, staying where she was. Kori hummed at her words curiously, clearly trying to decipher her meaning. Why apologise at such a statement? Well, the obvious conclusion was that she was apologising because he'd been right about her wanting to insult him. Though she could've just stayed quiet to indicate such a thing, so perhaps she was trying to show him that she was scared of him. A frown touched his lips at this thought.

"You don't need to fear me," he sighed, before beckoning her over. [Y/n] hesitated once again, though did as his gesticulation had ordered and walked over to him. She then felt a pain in her right hand and looked down— some of the wax from the candle had dripped onto her skin. It quickly went solid and the pain went away, though another drip on her other hand brought said discomfort back. Kori noticed how she stared at the candle with concern. Though he enjoyed the sight, he figured he wouldn't get anywhere by terrifying her. "If it's too painful you can put it in one of those holders," he sighed, pointing over to his bedside table.

"N-no, it's okay, sorry," [Y/n] responded, keeping ahold of the candle and trying to ignore the wax. Kori furrowed his brow. Was she trying to score points with him? Well, it'd worked, but he didn't like the fact that she'd refused his kindness to satisfy him. Ah, what did he want? He probably would've been irked if she'd taken him up on the offer, too. He sighed, standing up and taking the candle from her, before placing it in one of the holders. She seemed surprised.

"You wanted to put it down," Kori hummed, raising a brow, "why didn't you?"

"I... I thought you'd be mad if I actually did," [Y/n] responded.

"You're acting," Kori realised, laughing, "just a moment ago you were arguing with Laion and now you're a doormat with me. You're acting," he repeated with a smile, allowing himself to flop back on his bed, "you don't need to do that, butterfly." She winced at the nickname.

"But if I get mad at you you'll hurt me again," [Y/n] bravely responded, causing Kori to ponder for a moment. Had he driven her to act differently around him? Perhaps. Oops. But, he liked this side of her, so he wouldn't regret his decisions.

"I might," he admitted, beckoning her over, "though I do understand that you had a life before coming here, [Y/n]. Demanding complete and utter obedience is impossible," he hummed, "so I'm not going to hurt you for every slip up."

"Thank you," she responded quietly.

"Just the more serious ones," he put in with a grin. She looked away from him. "I assume you act differently with every one of us," he changed the subject back, "I've read about behaviour like that in a book somewhere..." he tailed 0ff. "From what I can tell, you praise Aytsa (to an extent), you're relatively brave with Laion and say how you feel more, you're entirely submissive with me and Seishin and you are quiet and reserved with Mitzu. Though I'm not sure about Draka, yet."

"You've been listening in?" [Y/n] asked quietly. Kori nodded.

"It's hard not to," he laughed.

"Have you not been working?" she asked. He pointed over to a pile of documents on his desk.

"Working from home," he explained, before letting out a yawn. "Lay down with me," he mumbled, his hand reaching for [Y/n]'s. Once he got ahold of it, he pulled her onto the bed with him, hugging her close to his chest. "You still smell of him, you know," Kori frowned.

"Who...?"

"Nyais," he drawled. [Y/n] clearly stiffened at the mention of him, biting her lip to keep back any words she'd regret. Kori noticed this and smirked at her reaction. "You're getting better at this, though I'm curious... what was it you wanted to say?"

"C-can I get up?" she asked, changing the subject. She didn't like being in Kori's arms. It made her think back to their previous... altercation.

"When you tell me what you wanted to say," Kori responded.

"You won't let me up if I tell you," [Y/n] responded quietly, which made Kori laugh. He didn't intend to let her get up anyway.

"Go on," he pressed.

"I'm sorry," [Y/n] responded.

"For wha—" Kori paused as [Y/n] brought her knee up in an attempt to wind him and get out of his grasp. He let go of her for a split second, mainly out of surprise as she'd been behaving so well before. She ran to the door, pulling on it. It was locked. When had he locked it? Though of course, there had been a period of darkness when she went in, and she knew Kori could move silently. This was especially apparent when he got up and blew out the candle in the room, plunging them into darkness again.

"Why did you do that, [Y/n]?" Kori sighed, his voice coming from near his desk. She backed up, though her back quickly collided with his chest, which made no sense, yet a lot of sense at the same time. That in itself made no sense.

"You know, vampires can see in the dark," he laughed, before his arms wrapped around her and held her to him.

"I'm sorry—" [Y/n] said quickly, "i-it was impulse, I swear, I'm sorry," she apologised, her head hanging. She was shaking. Kori laughed at this.

A hand suddenly snapped over her mouth and caused her eyes to widen. Then, a terrible pain in her arm. Like bubbling, boiling water, though her skin was the liquid.

She glanced to the side, her vision swaying from the agony, to see the lighter pressed against her skin. Blood and flesh and all the rest, it made her feel sick. She wanted to scream but she couldn't make a sound. She wanted to run but her knees were buckling and the only thing that kept her upright was Kori's vice-like hold.

Then, the lighter flicked shut and Kori let her go, watching her fall to the ground with a groan of agony and a soft, yet clearly painful, thud. She curled up into a ball on the floor, pulling her injured arm close to her and cradling it. Kori glared down again her.

"It was impulse, I swear," he muttered her words back at her mockingly, before walking over to his writing desk and sitting down, though swivelling the black leather chair to face her. It didn't take long for him to realise something strange was happening, however.

Both of them couldn't help but stare at her injury in disbelief as it began to heal in front of them. Even vampires didn't heal that fast. It had to have something to do with the elixir, [Y/n] realised.

"You never cease to amaze me, little butterfly," Kori laughed, a slightly high pitched quality to it that hadn't been there before, "even looking like that." She glared up at him in response to his words. "Ah, there you are. I was wondering where that angry streak had gone," he chuckled.

In no time at all, the wound on her arm was almost gone (with the exception of a scar), and so was the pain. She sat up.

"See, that wasn't so bad, was it?"

"You did that with full intention of me being in agony for days," [Y/n] returned, which caused Kori to shrug. She was about to say something else before a unforeseen wave of exhaustion crashed over her. Not now. She didn't want to be any more vulnerable in front of him.

"That healing ability must've taken it out of you," Kori laughed, walking over t0 her and extending his hand for her to take. She stared at it coldly, obviously not going to take it after what he just did. He sighed and grabbed her arm, pulling her to her feet. "Come on, get some sleep," he hummed, pulling her over to his bed again. He pushed her shoulders so she sat down, before walking over t0 his writing desk and seating himself. He turned the chair back around and picked up a feather quill. How old fashioned, [Y/n] thought.

"I'm not tired" she responded. Tiredly.

"Yes you are," Kori returned, unable to hold back a small laugh. "Look, I'm sorry about burning you, but you kneed me in the gut so we're even."

"Kneeing you in the gut didn't leave a scar," [Y/n] muttered in response, staring irritatedly at the white scar on her arm. Kori shrugged.

"Whatever. Go to sleep."

* * *

"Rayne, what are you up to?" a familiar voice sounded behind the raven haired doctor. He turned to meet the gaze of none other than the king himself, Olli. He was dressed in very casual attire for his status — a plain red shirt and black tailored trousers, with black polished boots and a golden wristwatch. No fancy crown, no fur or velvet cape. Clothes very similar to those an elite might wear on a day off. Though, that was usually Olli's sense of fashion.

Fashion. A concept that Rayne couldn't, and likely wouldn't, understand. He'd tried to do some psychological experiments on humans to understand why fashion was such an important thing to so many; the only conclusion he'd managed to derive was something to do with people getting so worked up on how others perceive them.

No wonder Rayne didn't understand fashion. He didn't care how people perceived him. Well, to an extent.

"Good day to you, Your Highness," Rayne smiled. Olli raised an eyebrow - he received such a title from almost everyone in the kingdom, however Rayne was one of the few who usually just referred to him as 'Olli', so he wasn't quite certain as to where the formalities came from. Well, actually he was pretty certain; Rayne's usual mockery.

"What's that?" Olli questioned, glancing down to the silver liquid that Rayne clutched tightly in his right hand.

"Oh, just some stuff that may or may not work to heal injuries. I'm gonna try it on someone in the dungeons seeing as my human died earlier," Rayne groaned. "Any chance I can have another sometime soon?" he asked with a grin. Olli sighed.

"Speak to Kaist about it, but the hunters are pretty sick of wasting food on your sadistic impulses."

"Well I'm sure you'd rather me do this to humans instead of vampires," Rayne hummed, "I have to learn somehow." Olli shook his head, before turning and walking away.

"Good luck, Rayne," he hummed, raising a hand to wave behind him, though not turning around.

"Yeah you too— wait, good luck?" Rayne questioned. Olli didn't respond, getting ever further away, before turning a corner and disappearing from sight. Rayne narrowed his eyes.

"How much do you know?" he muttered under his breath, before shaking his thoughts away and proceeding to heard towards his patient.

yooo~~ ya girl wrote 2 chapters in one day ayyyyy- yes quarantine is killing me. and yes i am heartbroken that i've gotta wait till JULY for re zero season 2 iwhciwhciwgiqgcjqgc but killing eve is starting next week huehuehue hope y'all are staying safe! stay indoors and feed yo oldies :) hugs for everyone!! 🤗