They were escaping; [Y/n] and her horse - or, at least, a horse. [Y/n] didn't recognise the animal. She had no idea what they were escaping from, but their pace increased bit by bit and her chest thudded desperately. Then, she heard it. The ring of a bullet. Once, twice, three times... again and again and again until the sixth strike. Each bullet had embedded itself into [Y/n]'s mount; the horse let out an excruciated wail and fell to the floor. She knelt beside it, trying to stop the bleeding, paying little attention to the red liquid that began to stain her clothes also. The horse's eyes rolled back and soon after she felt a pressure on her face, something covering her eyes-

[Y/n] shot awake, her breathing uneven and hasty. 'The hell?' she thought to herself, blinking a couple of times. Her forehead felt damp and heavy. It took her a moment to notice the cold, wet flannel that had fallen on her lap when she'd awoken. Her eyes widened and she looked up. Laion stood beside the bed, his expression concerned.

"You sounded scared and you were sweating. I thought you might have a fever so I... I gave you that," he explained shyly, pointing to the flannel. [Y/n] forced a small smile - she was still nervous after the bizarre nightmare.

"Oh, Laion, thank you so much. You didn't have to," she said gently. He looked away bashfully.

"How do you feel now...?" he asked, still not meeting her gaze.

"Much better," [Y/n] reassured, picking up the flannel and swinging her legs over the side of the metal bed. She'd grown totally used to the lack of comfort - it no longer bothered her. Slowly and steadily the [h/c] haired girl got up, pushing back her bedhead locks and stretching her arms. 'What a weird dream,' she thought with a sigh. It wasn't dissimilar to the nightmare she'd had on her first day at the house.

She held the flannel in front of her for a moment, smiling gently. Then, looking over at the wall clock, she realised it was 1pm - the kids still hadn't been fed. "Oh goodness, I'm so sorry!" she said quickly, looking from Laion to the door. She pulled herself out of bed, grabbed some clothes from the small metal bar that had been placed in the room when Nyais had gotten her clothing, quickly dressed herself in her small en-suite bathroom and rushed out to the kitchen. When she got in, however, she noticed the key she'd absentmindedly left on the table the day before was missing.

'Crap... they're tall enough to reach their food now,' she thought morbidly, walking over to the container. She went to pull on the handle of the container but nothing happened. It was locked. 'Ahh, great. They've hidden the key, haven't they?' she exhaled mentally, looking back at the table where the key had previously been placed. To her surprise, it was back. Next to the table stood Mitzu, pushing the key back into the place it used to be. [Y/n] frowned.

"Did you steal the key, Mitzu?" she asked softly yet demandingly. The silver haired boy immediately, and rather aggressively, shook his head, retracting his arm and staring up at [Y/n]. She raised an eyebrow in scepticism.

"Aytsa took it!" Mitzu said defensively, "I wanted to give it back."

"Aytsa?" [Y/n] echoed, letting out a sigh. "I'll have to have a word with him later," she added. Mitzu seemed to smile at this. Clearly [Y/n]'s children skills were... nonexistent, but she was trying. She picked up the key and unlocked the metal box, pulling it open and revealing the blood packs inside. She passed one to Mitzu; he took it with a very smug grin, presumably glad he'd gotten Aytsa in trouble. From what [Y/n] could see, the two were like fire and ice. They didn't get along at all. Though she wondered whether Mitzu got along with anyone...

[Y/n] checked under the blood packs for her daily note.

'I'll be over later. You should eat breakfast. It's important for your metabolism. - Nyais.'

'Breakfast?' [Y/n] thought with a sigh. She didn't have time for breakfast. Of course, that was just an excuse; she had plenty of time. Her only priority was the children, and she could easily eat whilst watching over them, but the girl tended to overcomplicate everything she did. She took the rest of the blood packs and walked off to the boys' room, pushing the door open with her foot. Seishin was sat on his bed reading a book (as per usual), Kori was sat on the floor pondering over something, Aytsa was sulking in the corner of the room and Laion and Draka were playing some sort of game, giggling away. Everyone ceased their actions when [Y/n] appeared, however, turning their attentions to the blood packs.

[Y/n] didn't fail to notice the sudden predatory gaze the children held. It was the first time she'd properly seen it. It was so easy to forget that she was handing them the very thing that coursed through her own body - so easy to forget that, if they wanted to, they could devour her instead. It seemed they picked up on her flash of fear as well due to the fact that a couple of them - namely Laion and Seishin - averted their eyes from the blood packs in an attempt to calm down their senses.

[Y/n] passed a blood pack to each of them in turn. Aytsa practically snatched his from her, which resulted in the female glaring at him. He shrunk away from her slightly hostile look as she proceeded to hand out the boys' food. The room was totally silent. Seishin dipped his head in thanks, clearly not wanting to be the one to break it. The only "thank you" came from Draka - the others either took it or gave their thanks in a silent manner. [Y/n], suddenly feeling a little faint, took her leave soon after the children began to feed themselves.

She walked back into her room and sat down on her bed, a long, heavy sigh escaping her. Almost immediately did she notice the exit door unlock and begin to creak open. In it stood Nyais. [Y/n] could just about see behind him - a dark corridor with brown walls. Nyais soon noticed where her gaze lie, however, and he quickly shut the door. He stepped into the room with an expression colder than his usual one.

"You didn't eat," he observed dully, now standing directly in front of the smaller female. She smiled softly and tilted her head to one side a little.

"I needed to feed the children. I'm okay without breakfast anyways, so don't worry about me!" she smiled softly.

"You've been skipping too many meals," Nyais continued, ignoring what she said, his expression unreadable. "If you continue to skip meals your blood pressure will get too low."

"Oh, it's okay, my blood pressure is usually low-"

"Listen to me, [Y/n]," Nyais snapped in a tone that caused [Y/n] to take a small step back. Something wasn't right with him. "Vampires struggle to keep themselves from biting humans in the first place. You're alright with the kids for now seeing as they've never extracted blood directly from flesh," he looked away, "but the lower your blood pressure gets the harder it is for me to keep a respectable distance from you," he sighed, his hand reaching out towards [Y/n]'s shoulder. She took a small step back causing his attempt to fall short. He let out a sigh once more and pulled his arm back.

"I'm- um- sorry for making your job harder than it has to be," [Y/n] said quietly, "I'll make myself dinner tonight, okay...?" she asked gently.

"And lunch," he nodded his head, looking at her door. "The boys can't bite you yet. Their fangs aren't developed enough," he added quickly, "so don't worry. If worst comes to worst they'll stare at you when you feed them but it seems to me like hurting you is the last thing any of them would want to do. For now, at least."

"O-okay... thank you Nyais," [Y/n] said softly. There was that look again - his eyes flooded with some sort of emotion but only briefly. A small smile then grew on his face as he dipped his head.

"You're a good person, [Y/n]," Nyais said softly, "keep yourself safe." And, just like that, he left.

[Y/n] couldn't help but feel something off about his words. She figured he was only trying to be friendly but she felt unsettled and uneasy. It felt strange to her - she was usually so relaxed around Nyais. This sudden feeling of discomfort was a shock to her. She began to wonder if there was something to Nyais that he was hiding. Something under the surface.

Regardless, [Y/n] knew to push these thoughts away. This was her life now, and it wasn't necessarily a bad one. She had food, company... her job was literally just bringing sachets of blood to some rapidly ageing kids every morning. Of course, she also had to 'raise' them but that was all about being nice and expecting niceness in return. It was an easy life and her only real worry was the fact that her company consisted of a bunch of bloodthirsty vampires.

Okay, maybe that is something to worry about but no one had touched her thus far, had they? She was six days in and her blood was as untouched as an unopened soda bottle.

She made her way towards the living room, intending to sit down and read for a while. She needed some time to mull over the past few days. She would make lunch later.

* * *

Stretching her arms out in front of her, [Y/n] let out a long yawn. She looked up at the wall clock: 6:53pm. She'd completely forgotten lunch, but she knew she ought to make herself dinner as Nyais had instructed. She stood up and looked around the room at the boys who were all doing their own thing. "Anyone wanna help me make dinner?"

"Why?" Seishin responded immediately. "We don't even eat your food."

"Well... that's true but you can still help make food, even if it's not for yourself," she shrugged, "it can be fun!" she smiled.

"Cooking is considered a chore for humans, is it not?" Seishin hummed. 'This kid is literally sassing me,' [Y/n] thought with a huff. "I'll take that as a yes. In other words, you want child labour to help you lighten the load. You're lazy."

"That is so not what I was getting at," [Y/n] snapped indignantly, "you need to stop reading those books, go read something more your age," she huffed, her arms crossing over her chest. He turned up his chin and faced the other way, before reading the 'grown-up book' once more. "Well," [Y/n] began, looking at the other children, "does anyone else want to help me cook?" she asked. The kids looked between themselves. Mitzu immediately stood up and walked over to [Y/n] with a bright smile. Laion looked from Aytsa (who had walked over to Seishin) before walking shyly over to [Y/n].

"I'll help," Laion offered. Seishin raised a brow at this but said nothing, returning to his book. [Y/n] grinned at this and turned her gaze to Mitzu, who nodded as though saying 'me too'. The [h/c] haired female then looked up at the other children to see if anyone else was interested. Kori was watching her from the back of the room but made no move to approach and offer his assistance. Draka was now playing with some toys that Nyais had brought over two days ago. Aytsa was trying to read over Seishin's shoulder - the blonde boy kept turning the book out of Aytsa's view.

[Y/n] concluded that Laion and Mitzu were the only ones who wanted to help so she led them off into the kitchen. The two boys followed close behind her. She stepped inside and looked around, wondering whether Nyais had put any cookbooks in the room. As she expected, there was no such thing. She'd have to go by memory.

"Alright, the three of us are gonna have to make something totally improvised!" [Y/n] giggled triumphantly yet clearly slightly nervously. 'This is gonna go terribly,' she thought to herself.

"Why don't you drink blood?" Mitzu asked, his head tilting. [Y/n] smiled slightly nervously before walking over to the fridge and opening it.

"Well... I'm a human, aren't I?" she said softly. "I drink water and eat food to get my nutrition. You get your nutrition from the nutrition we provide ourselves," she chuckled softly.

"So... you're our food? Are we supposed to eat you?" Mitzu continued. [Y/n]'s eyes widened as she immediately shook her head.

"No no no, definitely not," she said softly though noticeably hastily. "We're friends, aren't we? You're not supposed to eat your friends," [Y/n] chuckled, "because if you eat your friends they disappear and can't be your friends anymore." The boys looked at one another with sad expressions, both concluding that they definitely weren't going to eat [Y/n]. She pulled some mince out of the fridge along with an onion (why the onion was in the fridge was anyone's guess, but clearly vampires didn't have the slightest understanding of food), some salt (same applied for the salt as did with the onion,) plus some other ingredients that would contribute towards a spaghetti bolognese.

"So what do we do?" Laion asked, eyeing the mince with a look of confusion as [Y/n] raided the cupboard, finally finding a bottle of red wine (Shiraz, if you're wondering) which she would put into the bolognese.

"Uh, play a game," [Y/n] concluded with a small giggle and a shrug. "This meal is gonna be a disaster anyways so why not?" she laughed. "Okay, you guys have to tell me what to do and what order to do it in. I'll give you some help along the way," she grinned.

"What's that?" Laion asked, pointing to the mince.

"Minced beef," [Y/n] explained, "it needs to be cooked for a certain amount of time to be safe to eat," she smiled.

"Actually, no it doesn't," a voice came from the doorway. Leaning against the doorframe was a certain blonde haired, green eyed bookworm. "Beef only needs a moment to cook, according to this. If you seal it you can eat it blue, if you cook it for a little while you can eat it rare and so on. There are different ways of eating it," he hummed. "The only reason they cook bolognese the length they do is so the onions can cook and the wine can properly infuse."

"Alright smart-ass," [Y/n] huffed, "I thought you didn't want to help?"

"I don't. You were just being idiotic; I needed to educate you." 'Educate me?' [Y/n] thought annoyedly, 'educate me?! He's literally six days old!'

"I thought you said you wanted us to be friends?" [Y/n] frowned. He nodded, his brows furrowing. "Well being rude isn't something you're supposed to do with friends." He paused for a moment and opened his mouth to object, but [Y/n] continued speaking before he could interject. "When you're friends with someone you're supposed to be nice to them and make sure you both enjoy yourselves. Teaching someone something is good but you can always do it in a nice way instead of a condescending one."

"And you don't eat friends," Laion added with a proud smile, looking up at [Y/n] as though asking 'are you proud?' She gave him a grin and a nod, patting his shoulder gently.

"Condescending?" Seishin echoed, ignoring Laion, clearly not having come across the word before. [Y/n]'s expression softened a little.

"It's an adjective. If someone is condescending they talk down on others like they're lesser beings or such," [Y/n] explained, "which, to you, I may be. But if we're friends we need to treat one another like equals, don't we?"

"Well, I suppose," Seishin hummed. He then pulled something from behind his back. "Your game could make you sick... I suggest you use this." It was a cookbook and he'd opened it on the page that displayed spaghetti bolognese. [Y/n] smiled brightly at this, ruffling the boy's hair before giving him a hug.

"Thank you Seishin," she beamed, before letting go of the now slightly rigid boy and having a look at the cookbook, humming to herself in thought. "You sure you don't want to help us?"

"Yep. You... uh... have fun," he said, a small and very obviously forced smile on his face. He then disappeared through the door, walking back off to the living room supposedly. [Y/n] smiled at his words and shrugged.

"Oh well, suit yourself," she hummed before looking back down at Mitzu and Laion. "Right, now we have a cookbook we can do this properly," she smiled. She placed the cookbook down (open) and picked up two onions. "I'll teach you two how to dice an onion. It's really easy but you have to be careful not to cut yourselves, alright?" she explained, walking over to a drawer and pulling out a couple of small kitchen knives. The two boys nodded, their eyes swimming with interest and awe as [Y/n] began to take them through the motions of safely chopping an onion.