Kingdom Hearts fic: Homecoming

[mistressofmuses]

Summary: The mansion had been vacant for years. Decades, actually, waiting for it to be plausible for Riku to show up as a “lost heir” ready to claim it.
Riku was young as far as the clan was concerned, which meant he by default was given the short straw of returning to the island. Secretly, he’d been relieved; no other vampires to play nice with at his borders, and no need to worry about defending his territory.
At least not from other vampires. There was something in the shadows, some presence that had at least some intelligence behind it. He shrugged it off for now. It would bother him or it wouldn’t.
Now was the time to reacquaint himself with the island after decades away.

Day 14 of AU-gust: Vampire AU
I had quite a bit of fun with this one. :) I haven't written a vampire story in a *long* time, so it was fun to think about one again.

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A return to the family home. What a joke.

The mansion had been vacant for years. Decades, actually, waiting for it to be plausible for Riku to show up as a “lost heir” ready to claim it.

This wasn’t a popular location; islands could be dangerous for vampires. Not because of any “inability to cross moving water" nonsense, but because islands had relatively small, stable populations. When everyone knew everyone, it was easier to be noticed. Or to have your hunting and feeding patterns noticed.

Riku was young as far as the clan was concerned, which meant he by default was given the short straw of returning to the island. Secretly, he’d been relieved; no other vampires to play nice with at his borders, and no need to worry about defending his territory.

At least not from other vampires. There was something in the shadows, some presence that had at least some intelligence behind it. He shrugged it off for now. It would bother him or it wouldn’t.

Now was the time to reacquaint himself with the island after decades away.

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The night life of the island was less of a draw than the sun and sand of the daylight hours. The touch of sun wouldn’t be immediately fatal to Riku, but even the strongest sunscreen would only prevent a burn for a short time, so it was easier to stay nocturnal.

He scoped out a few of his most likely food sources: butcher shops and blood banks. He spun some tale about persistent anemia—believable enough, with his pallor—to a butcher who agreed to sell him blood regularly, for the vague “recipes” Riku insisted would help his condition. There was one blood donation clinic. Not so easy to convince them to part with any of their product, but knowing where it was could be helpful in an emergency. Any mammalian blood would sustain him, but human did tend to be the best.

It was a bit too risky in such a small area to try and find a willing live donor. Some of the larger cities had active club scenes where you could find the type who’d treat a round of non-lethal bloodletting like a weird kink or roleplaying scenario. In some places you could even find the type who believed in vampires, and could be convinced to be repeat donors. Always risky, but easy when it worked out.

Unlikely to have such luck here. And he’d never been fond of unwilling donors, unless the human in question had done something monstrous enough to deserve it. One of the reasons he was grateful for the island territory; his desire not to leave behind too many drained corpses could be explained away to any of his clanmates who raised an eyebrow. Leaving a body count would put him at risk for detection. Really, it was self-preservation not to go hunting.

A few tourists could probably go missing without causing too much unwanted interest, but even that would be tempting fate.

At least one avenue of sustenance secured, Riku set himself up in one of the bars that catered more to local traffic than to tourists, and just watched for a while. He needed to find a way to insinuate himself into life here so that he became a non-entity. The kind of background presence that seemed to belong, but not require active inclusion.

Most of the people were easy to categorize. Working adults, who came to the bar after work to socialize and have a couple drinks. A few who maybe relied on it a bit too much, but none that were belligerent at this point in the night. A few younger adults, probably students, mostly split into friend groups.

This would do nicely. He could have a drink or two a few times a week, make some minor small talk, until he was a familiar enough sight that he clearly belonged, without needing to belong to any particular group.

“Hi there, I haven’t seen you here before.”

Riku suppressed his instinct to jump, but it was a near save. A startled vampire tended to do more than just jump, and some poor bar patron didn’t deserve a claw through his jugular. Though no one should have been able to sneak up on him.

Riku schooled his expression into something close to bland friendliness and turned toward the voice.

There were two people standing there, though it was obviously the man who’d spoken. The man had a friendly, open face. Blue eyes, and messily spiked brown hair. He was smiling. The woman at his shoulder had red hair, and darker indigo eyes. She also looked pleasant and kind.

There was no way two people should have snuck up on him, even if the bar had been twice as loud as it was. Riku took a surreptitious inhale, but nothing in their scents said anything other than perfectly ordinary human.

“I’m new in the area,” he answered before the pause grew awkward. “Inherited a place from family.”

“Well, welcome,” the woman said. “My name’s Kairi.”

“I’m Sora,” the man said.

“Riku,” he answered. “Sorry it took me a second, you just startled me. I didn’t hear you.”

“Probably noise from the bar,” Sora said. “Didn’t mean to surprise you. Can we buy you a drink to try and make a better first impression?”

“Sure.” Riku smiled, and stood. No reason to turn down a friendly overture, to help solidify his reputation as someone non-threatening.

He followed them to the bar, and now their footsteps were perfectly ordinary, easily audible above the background noise.

They sat with simple mixed drinks (vodka cranberries for Sora and Kairi, vodka tonic for Riku, who didn’t want anyone associating him with drinking something red), and made small talk. Riku was adept at turning it away from himself. He managed to plead ignorance over anything too specific (saying he had never even met the relative who’d owned the house, found out about the inheritance via a lawyer who sought him out) and then just asked questions of Sora and Kairi.

They’d both been born and raised on the island, and ran some type of business together, though he wasn’t sure what. They recommended some additional places around town for a newcomer to check out: cafes, restaurants, bakeries. He promised to check them out, even though most didn’t have much to offer him. Still, nice to have some local input.

Somehow, he found they’d actually managed to spend the whole night talking, when the bartender gave the last call warning.

“I guess that’s probably a sign I need to head home,” Riku said. “Probably shouldn’t stay out all night on my first night in a new city.”

Sora and Kairi offered to walk him home, though he declined. He certainly wasn’t in any danger.

They agreed, and waved goodbye, heading the opposite direction down the sidewalk.

Riku also had no desire to hunt, and intended to go straight home. So it was actually a bit of an annoyance when he felt a pull from an alleyway.

With a sigh, he turned toward whatever it was. He recognized the feel; it was whatever thing was held in potential in the shadows. Seemed like maybe it was deciding to bother him sooner than he’d thought.

He stepped into the alley. A pair of almost perfectly circular, pupil-less lamplight gold eyes stared at him from the darkest part toward the back. He felt it press on his mind, the same way it had pulled at him on the street. This time, it pressed ideas into his head, though it didn’t truly have words. Still, it made enough of an impression.

You. Blood-drinker. We/I heart-eater. Do not need blood. You do not need heart. You drink blood, make-weak prey, no kill. We/I take weak-prey, eat heart. No more body. Help each other?

Whatever this shadow-thing was wanted to make a deal with him. If he drank the blood of a human, it would be easier for this shadow creature to take the human’s heart, and in return it would ensure there was no body left to put Riku at risk.

Many vampires would probably find that a tempting offer, but Riku’s disinterest in hunting human prey was not solely due to the fear of getting caught. He thought of genuinely kind people like he’d just spent the evening with; the idea of anything hunting them, or harming them, or killing them without even leaving a body behind was horrifying.

“Not interested.” He spoke aloud, not sure if he could push his answer into its mind the way it had to his.

Bad choice.

The thing lunged forward, several fragments of solidified shadow separating and trying to converge on him. He felt his teeth bare in an instinctive defensive expression. As the thing attacked, he tensed his hand and swept his claws through the creature. The shadow parted, but dissolved away, pieces melding back into the creature’s body.

See again, it pushed through, then seemed to melt into the ground, leaving only ordinary shadows behind.

Apparently the island wasn’t going to be boring after all.