[Y/n] tossed and turned a fair amount when she began to awaken. The smell in the room was unfamiliar — slightly musty and almost metallic; not her own room, not the basement— where had she last been? She squeezed her eyes and pushed the sleep from the corners, sitting up. When her eyes adjusted to her surroundings, she remembered where she had been, which only brought more confusion as she processed why she was... here.

"Hey [Y/n]!" Aytsa grinned from his workbench. [Y/n] blinked a couple of times as she stared around the room, speechless.

"Why am I here?" she asked. "Where's Laion?"

"Why do you want to be with Laion?" Aytsa responded carefully, a smile still on his face, though his words were slow for a reason that [Y/n] couldn't pin. She didn't understand this boy. At least with Laion she knew he'd be calm and relatively caring, and with Draka she knew he'd be slightly irascible and self-deprecating; with Mitzu she could expect anger and with Seishin she could expect disrespect and indifference. Kori... supposedly she could expect to be thoroughly disturbed by the end of her visit, but Aytsa? Who even was he? What was he thinking?

"I- I don't, I just..." she looked over at the lava lamp on his bedside table. Vampires had lava lamps? Maybe he'd made it himself? He was scientific and creative, after all. She distractedly watched the small blobs of whatever the hell they put inside lava lamps rise to the top and then gracefully swirl back down, occasionally clumping with other blobs and changing paths. She didn't really want to talk. This was the most fun she'd had since Nyais passed — just watching a lava lamp. She wondered how long her situation would remain the same for. She was supposed to live forever... would she live here forever? Or maybe one day she'd break to the point of being unrecognisable, and the boys would have no need for a damaged shell of who she was. Maybe she'd be discarded of like the humans who came with her to this damned place. Or maybe...

[Y/n] was jolted from her thoughts by Aytsa, who pulled her shoulders back from the lava lamp a little, holding her at a slight distance. With all her gazing, [Y/n] hadn't realised how close her face had gotten to the glass exterior of the lamp.

"It's called a lava lamp for a reason, silly," Aytsa laughed softly, "I haven't worked out how to make the glass not transfer so much heat, so if you touch that it's gonna leave a nasty burn." [Y/n] looked back up at him and nodded. "Aww, I know I keep saying it but you really are like a cat. It's adorable," he gushed, pulling [Y/n] a little closer to him as he perched himself behind her.

"Stop..." [Y/n] tailed off quietly. Aytsa raised a brow.

"Stop what?" he asked.

"Please let me go," she rephrased, hoping that would get the message across better. Aytsa let out a light laugh, removing his hands from her shoulders. Just as [Y/n] was about to breathe out a sigh of relief, he instead wrapped them around her waist and rested his head on her right shoulder.

"No can do~" he sang, the happy tone never once leaving his voice.

"Aytsa," [Y/n] muttered more firmly this time, "does it look like I'm joking to you?" At first [Y/n] assumed her words had caught him off guard as he removed his head from her shoulder and his grip on her loosened, but the series of giggles that followed his actions made her rethink her prior analysis. The boy then stood up, still laughing, and walked over to his workbench. He didn't stop. He could if he wanted to, but seeing [Y/n]'s expression begin to grow uncertain in the small mirror he'd been making made the boy all the happier.

Then, silence. He turned around, all traces of a smile gone.

"First you'd rather spend your time with Laion, then you try to boss me about..." he tailed off, shaking his head. "It makes me kinda sad, [Y/n]."

"I don't care if you're sad," [Y/n] spat, "you took me to that place... I never would've gone through all that shit if you'd just let me spend some time on my own! You say you didn't want me to go there, but I don't believe you... you planned that, didn't you?! I don't know what was going through your head when you did it but that was wrong! That man is insane, and you're just as bad."

"Just as bad?"

The mirror that has been in Aytsa's hand dropped to the floor and shattered, its shards splaying across the room, little bits of light bouncing off of them and shining onto the walls and ceiling. He picked a few up, staring at them for a while. "You think I'm just as bad as him?" [Y/n] didn't respond this time - his face was completely unreadable. "[Y/n], would you like to know what that man does to me? I can assure you, he does things that I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy. If you were to stay there, then no doubt he'd feel compelled to do the same sort of things to you..." he tailed off, looking down. "You really think I'd subject you to that?"

A long hesitation followed his words, before [Y/n] finally gave her answer to the question that may or may not have been rhetorical; a slow, unsure nod.

"Well [Y/n]," Aytsa hummed, his tone now brightening a little, "I'd be glad to inform you..."

"That you're 100% correct."

* * *

"So what did you talk to him about?" Seishin questioned the fellow blonde who sat morosely on a sofa in the living room. Laion turned his head to look at Seishin, clearly ponderous for a while, before turning his gaze away and deciding against saying anything. Seishin huffed and sat himself on the sofa beside Laion. "What's up?"

"Don't act as if you care," Laion laughed dully, turning to face Seishin again.

"It concerns [Y/n] so it concerns me," Seishin responded, leaning back on the sofa and staring up at the ceiling. "Did he do anything? You're holding your arm inelegantly." Laion rolled his eyes, deciding to ignore Seishin, which wasn't received well by the boy. Seishin harshly grabbed Laion's arm - Laion let out a yelp of agony in response, but his obvious discomfort went unnoticed. Seishin rolled up Laion's sleeve and stared at the place where his bone had quite clearly snapped in half. It was trying to heal itself, but this injury would definitely take a few days at least.

"You're supposed to be good at medicine. Why don't you have this in a cast?" Seishin questioned, letting go of Laion's arm and standing up. Laion shrugged. "I presume Aytsa's with [Y/n] now?" Laion gave him a small nod and that was all Seishin needed. His blue eyes clouded and he stalked wordlessly from the living room, down the corridor. At first his intentions were to storm into Aytsa's room and stop him doing whatever he was doing, however - as he got to the end of the main corridor to where it splits off - he paused. He watched Aytsa's door for a little while, but instead turned to go to his own room. Or at least that had been his intention.

"You like my door? We can switch if you want," Aytsa grinned, standing directly in front of Seishin. Where he'd come from (or been hiding) was anyone's guess.

"Is [Y/n] in there?" Seishin responded, trying to hide any emotion from his face so Aytsa wouldn't be led to believe that he'd been startled. Aytsa raised a brow.

"What difference does it make to you if she is?" he questioned. "Look, I know you like her and all, but she really doesn't like you. So maybe you should just... I don't know, stop? Please?" Aytsa smiled.

"I doubt she's all that fond of you, either," Seishin deadpanned, beginning to walk in the direction of his room again. He placed his hand on the door handle, but found his entire body wrenched a little distance away from it. He snapped his gaze back to Aytsa, who remained smiling as he held onto Seishin's wrist.

"You have no competition with me," Seishin groaned, "if you want to fight for the title of creepiest vampire then go bother Kori. I assure you, I'm not out to steal your glory." Aytsa didn't let go, though his expression changed very subtly; he was still smiling but his eyebrows furrowed a little.

"You find Kori creepy?" he asked. Seishin shrugged. "Aww, that's cute. You better become an elite quick, then. I don't think you'll like the real world all that much," he giggled, finally letting Seishin go. Great, first Rayne tries to give him a reality check and now Rayne's clone? How irritating.

"And what do you know of the real world that I don't?" Seishin deadpanned to the boy who was walking away with a satisfied bounce to his step.

"Acid burns," Aytsa smiled back.

* * *

"Back again, Tara?" a young man with a name badge reading "Samuel" tilted his head to the girl who'd entered the building. The door slowly began to shut again (which both parties were thankful for - it was cold as hell outside and pissing it down). Tara shrugged off her sodden denim jacket and scrunched up her nose at the reek of body odour that shrouded the place. She hated the gym, but she needed to be fit to join the police force. Her wet gym clothes clung to her figure and the few men in the lobby eyed her, nudging one another in the sides and quietly challenging one another to ask for her number.

"Hey Sam," Tara smiled, though it was forced, "beautiful evening," she remarked sarcastically as she turned to stare out of the wall of glass - on the other side was a grim, grey street (now darkening as it had just turned 10pm) with cars passing through, their tires tearing through puddles and bringing up tidal waves which ambushed unsuspecting passersby. Though Tara certainly wasn't one to get off on schadenfreude, she couldn't help but giggle at the purple-faced old man who happened to stand beside a puddle at the wrong time - a bus passed him and brought the tsunami upon him. No doubt he'd be reeking of oil, dirt and bus fumes all day. She noted the suit and tie and could only hope that he was coming from a meeting, not going to one.

She and Samuel exchanged one last glance, giving one another a polite nod, though Tara soon walked past him and through to the gym section of the building. There was a pool next to it. She usually found it fascinating to watch the swimmers go up and down the lanes as she worked out, but today she was more curious than fascinated. Only one swimmer was in the pool today — it was the wrong time for the masses, anyway; she'd come at 10pm and the place closes at 10:30. Still, the man who went up and down those lanes felt oddly familiar. And then it clicked.

She'd never seen Damien at the pool before — hell, she didn't even know that he could swim. She pushed open the door and gave him a grin and a wave, though it was clear that he was focusing on his lengths too much to notice her. So instead she resorted to her other approach.

"Hey weeb!" she called, waving her arm up and down. The boy startled and floundered for a second, though quickly caught himself and turned to face her mid-length, treading water expertly. "Since when were you a merman?"

"Tara? I didn't know you worked out," Damien said - even from the distance Tara could see that he was flustered. She didn't know why — he was an excellent swimmer. "I come here every night... [Y/n] and I used to race each other," he laughed, now propping himself up on the rope that separated his lane from the next.

"No way!" Tara smiled, feigning excitement, though she felt pretty empty about the whole thing, "how come you guys never told me?"

"Because I'm an embarrassing friend?" he joked, shaking his head. [Y/n] often joked about him being weird or strange, but they were still very close friends. Still, she'd never seen him as any more than that, though Damien had seen her as more than just a friend for quite some time. That fact put some distance between them near the end of their friendship. But now that she was gone, Damien just wished that he could've kept his feelings to himself. At least then his last memories of her wouldn't be sourness or anger regarding being ignored.

"You're not that bad," Tara laughed, shrugging her shoulders.

"Whatever you say, Tony," Damien shrugged with a grin. Tony was a nickname he and [Y/n] had come up with for Tara regarding her tomboyishness. The fact that she went to the gym at 10pm only further enforced that. Despite the fact that Tara wasn't at all amused by the nickname, she laughed anyway, if only to spare Damien's feelings. Looking back to the gym, she gave him a small wave.

"Whelp, I'm gonna miss my chance to work out if I hang around any longer, so I'll be seeing you," she smiled. Damien sighed and shrugged.

"Yeah, see you later," Damien returned. As the glass door shut, both individuals allowed their expressions to go dull, just as their lives had when [Y/n] had left them.