#tiny roman

The house was larger than anything Roman had ever seen. It made his throat run dry. He had no clue where he was, what was happening, or why. He had just been at home a few moments earlier. Why was he here?

He looked around. Everything was so… big. He could only imagine what sort of beast must live in it

He was grateful that it appeared to be nighttime. The night was illuminated with strangely bright lights, ones that hurt his eyes. Perhaps they were magic. He looked away. The house seemed to be too smooth to be made of stone, but it looked sturdy enough. He didn’t want to see the thing that lived there

Something that gargantuan could probably kill him without noticing. Back home, he had had several people trying to kill him for what he was.

This was not home. He had no idea how people would react to him.

He looked warily at the lights, and the moon that was getting slowly lower in the sky.

He looked back up at the giant house. He would need to take shelter before sunrise, but he had no one to invite him inside, nor was this his home. He would probably burn to death in the sunlight.

He got closer to the house, hoping to delay his death by getting closer to shelter even slightly, only for part of the wall to open.

The door seemed cleverly disguised, even with his strong senses, and was barely perceptible.

A him-sized person was beckoning him closer, saying something in a language entirely unfamiliar to him, but seemed to be some kind of invitation inside, going by the fact that the invisible barrier disappeared. He let a small smile grace his lips

He got inside quickly, and said a quick word of thanks to the stranger as they closed the wall.

The stranger looked back at him with visible confusion. Roman wondered if they knew his language at all.

This place was strange. Like something out of an absurd play, or perhaps a children’s book.

They led him through tunnels in what had to be the walls of the house, and into a small room-type thing that reminded Roman almost of a cave. There were strange lanterns strung up in it, ones that had no fire in them. He looked at them strangely, were they magic? They weren’t as bright as the other lights that were outside, but they were bright enough.

He looked away from them, and back towards the stranger.

The stranger was staring at him, or really his fangs, and he braced for a scream or attack. That was how it always went when someone realised that he was a vampire.

After a few tense moments, nothing happened. They looked away and started sorting something in a corner.

Looking around a little bit more, it occurred to him that this was their home. He turned around to watch them

They were messing with scraps of spare fabric that were organised into the shape of a nest. Perhaps they were makeshift blankets.

They extended the nest and Roman realised that they were expecting him, wanting him, to stay with them. He didn’t know if they knew how dangerous outside was to him, but they seemed to know that being outside was bad.

He wondered if it had anything to do with the giants that he imagined must be around. His new ally (?) kept looking back at him.

They spoke after they finished making the nest big enough, using very unfamiliar words, and speaking faster than Roman could even piece together what was a word or what was a string of them

Roman stared blankly. They paused in what had to be consideration, before gesturing to themself and saying a single word. Roman deduced that it was probably their name.

He parroted it back questioningly, pointing to them. They nodded. Virgil. Nice name.

He gestured to himself and said his own name, which they repeated. He smiled.

The rest of the time before the sun rose, Virgil would give him the name for anything he would point at. Virgil was nice. It was only a matter of time before a shrill beeping sound made its way from the more open, giant part of the house.

Virgil put their finger to their lips to gesture for him to be quiet, and he immediately did so. Virgil beckoned him towards a peephole in the wall. He watched as a giant slowly made their way into what might’ve been a kitchen.

Roman watched it for a while. Something like that could crush him with one hand. Could kill him with no garlic, or wooden stakes, or even sunlight required. He shuddered, watching as it made food. He went away from the peephole.

The sunlight was coming in from the window, and, while it did not reach the wall, it made Roman nervous. Well, that and the whole giant that was eating something by the light.

Virgil’s face was full of many emotions as they also watched the giant. The giant left a while later, leaving the house all together. Roman sat down, and looked up at his new friend/ally

“What was that?” He asked, using a very similar string of words as he did when asking for a word

The answer was short, but Roman found the answer something he wouldn’t forget. The other words he had learned today would be forgotten, he’d need to refresh his memory on them, but this? He would remember this.

Human. The way Virgil had said it, with such an extreme tone, that Roman was sure that it would echo in his mind for years to come.

He nodded, repeating the word to himself. He yawned, and absentmindedly turned into a bat. Every time he slept anywhere that was open, he always turned into a bat. It helped him sleep, and it helped prevent people noticing him.

It was the kind of thing he’d never think to do before he was turned. He flew to a shadowy corner of the tunnel, and settled down, wings wrapped around himself. He could feel Virgil’s eyes on him, but he could hear no movement from them. They just left him be, doing whatever they were doing. Even his bat form was tiny here.

When he woke up, closer to sundown, Virgil offered him some food. He shook his head. Food was not something he needed, except for blood.

He had eaten before… arriving here, anyway. He wouldn’t need to for a few days. Was this whole thing some kind of divine punishment for his sins?

He hugged his knees. The giant was moving around outside the tunnel, seemingly completely unaware of him and Virgil’s presence. Good.

It was strange. If not for the size, it would look very similar to a normal person, but it was so large. Roman thought about the amount of blood that it would have. He could probably feast on it without it noticing, whilst it was sleeping. As the human left the kitchen, Roman tried to refresh his memory of words, with Virgil’s help.

After a while, Virgil started to take him through the tunnels. Roman was shown a lot of the house. It was like a twisted version of a normal house, but with more strange things like the weird lights. He frowned.

He didn’t like this.

The giant was still completely unaware of his existence. Roman was capable of making his body just the slightest bit lighter, to avoid heavy footsteps. It was crucial in hunting, and it would be even more crucial to avoid being detected by a giant.

The giant was lying in a bed, not yet sleeping, but staring at a glowing rectangle. Strange. Virgil kept practising his words with him when they got back to Virgil’s home-part-of-the-tunnels. Roman had a hard time with it.

He hugged his knees. He wanted to go home.

Virgil left a little while later, into the kitchen. Roman watched them do things that he had never seen anyone do before. Super risky climbing moves, carrying things that looked heavier than Virgil themself, etc. He wondered if this is what they did every time they needed food.

They made almost no noise throughout the whole thing. Had he not had enhanced senses, he probably would be unable to notice anything amiss, even from this close. They were certainly practised at their actions, picking up even the slightest noise from the human’s bedroom, if the way they constantly froze and looked up, obviously listening for more signs that the giant would awaken

Roman watched them for a while.

Routines carried on like this for the next week. Roman was getting hungry. Virgil had shown him every tunnel entrance and exit and where exactly they led. Taking blood from the giant would be easy, hypothetically.

Virgil didn’t know he was doing this. How would he even explain, he only knew a handful of words in their strange language. They tried to stay near him often times, like they were trying to keep him safe.

He liked to quietly ramble to himself when the human wasn’t nearby. Virgil sometimes just sat next to him and listened to him, even though they evidently couldn’t understand what he was saying. He knew a few more words in their language than he did before, but not enough to hold a proper conversation

Or any conversation at all, really. Virgil was nice regardless. When he was in bat form, he did notice that Virgil looked at him a lot. He couldn’t figure out why

He watched the human sleep for a few minutes, making sure that it was sleeping deeply, before diving down in bat form towards its exposed arm. He did a quick enchantment to make sure it would stay numb whilst he was feasting. He bit down, and the blood started pooling into his mouth. It was more than he could ever get from anything or anyone else.

Once he was sufficiently fed, he turned back into a bat, and hovered a little. On the giant, the wound was tiny, it likely wouldn’t notice anything amiss. He flew back to the walls. Virgil was waiting for him, evidently having watched his meal.

Their face was painted with concern, instead of the usual shock and horror that came with watching him feed. They looked out at the giant, and back at Roman, before dragging him away to their (now shared) living quarters

Roman didn’t understand the lecture he was given, but understood a few words, like ‘dangerous’, a word that Virgil often used to deter Roman from going to retrieve food and supplies with him. Roman found that he really wanted to do it more after Virgil discouraged him.

The lecture lasted a while, before they noticed Roman’s non-comprehending stare. They sighed, rubbing their head like they had headache.

—

Virgil had somehow managed to make friends with a weird borrower-sized vampire. They didn’t know English, and they seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

He had invited them inside without a second thought when he saw through a crack in the wall that they were outside. Of course, at first he had assumed them to be a borrower too, until they got to the more illuminated area of his living space, and he saw them more clearly.

They looked exactly like a stereotypical vampire, Victorian era clothing (or at least something close to it), and sharp pointed teeth

They flinched when they noticed him looking at their teeth, and Virgil looked away, forcing his anxiety down. They hadn’t attacked yet, despite being invited into his home, so they probably wouldn’t attack at all. No need to be hostile and potentially make them attack.

He extended his nest for them, and found them watching him with the type of wide eyes of someone who was entirely full of curiosity. He finished extending the nest, and looked at them

“This good, or do you, like, need to sleep in a coffin or something?”

They stared blankly, clearly not having caught a single thing he said. Oh, right… they had used a different language when they first entered the house, did they understand English?

He slowly pointed to himself and slowly stated his name, deciding that that would be easier than trying to hold an actual conversation.

They repeated the name, and then proceeded to mirror the gesture and give their own name. Roman. Cool.

They followed him around as he checked his supply stock, and pointed at things and asked what they were. Virgil always gave the name, even when they’d already asked for that name.

It was a while later that the human’s alarm clock pierced the small comfort he had offered to his new friend.

He gestured for them to be quiet, hearing the unmistakable sound of a human dragging itself out of bed. He and Roman watched the human walk around the kitchen, and Roman stepped away from the tiny hole and shuddered. Had they never seen a human before?

He didn’t know how they got here. They were strange.

They were very curious, and Virgil could admit that they brought a nice change from worrying about everything on his own. They liked to sit down and ramble about goodness knows what. Only when the human was out of the house or asleep, though.

They slept in bat form, tucked securely into a dark corner. Virgil would be lying if he said that he didn’t find their bat form at least a tiny bit adorable. That was probably weird, though

When he got back from borrowing, about a week later, and they weren’t in their usual position watching him, he started running towards the human’s bedroom.

He had noticed the way they’d slowly grown more pale throughout the week, and the way they’d looked at the human when it walked through the kitchen, at its veins. He had figured that this was a possibility, especially after he’d made the mistake of showing them every exit

Like he’d predicted, they were sinking their teeth into the human’s arm, and drinking

They flew back to the wall, with the tiniest bit of blood still staining their teeth. Virgil quickly checked that the human was still asleep, before closing the entrance and dragging Roman back to the bedroom

Once they were stood in relative safety, he sighed

“What were you thinking ?! If it sees you, you will die! It’s dangerous to get that close to a human, especially to bite one! And not to mention-” the lecture lasted a few minutes, before he noticed their wide-eyed, mildly confused stare.

Oh, right, they didn’t know English. He brought his hand up to his face and groaned

He knew they needed blood. He knew the human was the best source for this. He also knew how screwed they’d both be if they had been caught.

He just put away his recently borrowed supplies, and attempted to focus on the positive. They hadn’t been caught. The bite was small enough that it was unlikely that the human would notice

Roman once again followed him around until close to sunrise, when they went to their corner to sleep. Virgil quietly crept towards the human’s room and watched to see if it noticed anything strange.

The alarm went off as normal. Virgil didn’t think about how Roman would have half woken up from the sound and would be at least partially upset that Virgil was not there. The human groaned, slamming its hand down on the alarm clock and pulling itself out of bed. Virgil watched as it looked at its arm with a strange expression, before just going back to whatever it was doing before

Virgil breathed a sigh of relief. While the side effects of the bite seemed somewhat noticeable, the human would not spend any more time than it needed to dwell on it.

After a few more days, or rather, nights, Roman could say a few more words, and more words stuck in their head. They still practised words a lot, though now they pointed at the things and said the name rather than ask for the word

Virgil hoped that soon they’d be able to know enough English to tell him what was actually going on, why they were here, etc.

For now, he was happy that they knew enough to vaguely understand him.

He watched the human leave the house. College, apparently, was what it went to. He had heard about such things before, it was something important apparently, it was all parents talked about to their children.

It was enough to keep the human occupied for several hours most days, even when it wasn’t out of the house. Great for borrowing from. It had a lot of food in its house, most of which being non-perishables, seeing as it didn’t often have time to buy extra food.

It was perfect for a borrower like himself.

Roman was friendly, but they were a bit louder than most borrowers. It made Virgil paranoid, though they often quietened their voice when they knew that the human was sleeping, which was most of the time when they were awake.

They liked to talk. Words that Virgil couldn’t understand or piece together. They played with their hair a lot, running hands through it with their words, like they didn’t even think about it. Their hair was quite long, and a nice shade of dark reddish brown.

Virgil wondered if the myths were true, and vampires really couldn’t see their own reflection. He felt kinda bad, if that was the case. They had a very nice face.

He sat next to them for a few hours, thinking about what could happen if the human would find them. Roman would probably be trapped in something like a jar or something, and then they’d get hurt (or worse) in the sunlight.

If Virgil got caught, Roman would potentially be safe. Virgil could not be killed by sunlight, and would have the potential to escape. Therefore, it was too dangerous to let Roman borrow with him.

Roman still tried to follow him sometimes. They pouted if he said it was dangerous, but they stayed in the walls.

They were gonna need more blood soon. Virgil reluctantly admitted that the human was the best source of that if he didn’t want it all taken from him, but the human was so much bigger than both of them. The human was dangerous.

He didn’t want them to get hurt. But, they would need the blood. One night, at the time he knew for certain that the human would be deep asleep, he grabbed Roman’s hand and led them towards the human’s bedroom.

They followed with a tilted head. Virgil listened to the sound of the human’s breathing, making sure it was definitely still asleep. He slowly opened the entrance and gestured towards the human. Roman slowly took a step forward, and once Virgil didn’t stop him, he swooped down as a tiny bat, and bit into the arm, humanoid once more.

Virgil found it fascinating to look at. The way colour slowly came back to their face, the way they became much more alive-looking whilst the blood entered their body.

They flew back to him pretty much immediately, obviously scared that he would be mad again. He just grabbed their hand again and took them back to the ‘room’ they both lived in. They were smiling.

Virgil made sure that they were okay, and then he started gathering supplies for his own food.

Routines kept on like this for months.

Roman still wasn’t exactly fluent, but they knew the basics.

Unfortunately, the human seemed to have noticed that about once a week, its arm felt numb and had two little spots. It had put up cameras in its bedroom, which luckily didn’t pick up on anything, considering that Roman couldn’t be seen on footage or in mirrors, and Virgil never went actually into the room, but would absolutely cause some kind of trouble

—

Roman liked it there. For once, he could feed without killing anything or anyone. He had a friend! He had tunnels to explore!

The human was scary, of course, but Virgil always made sure that he was safe at feeding time. He sometimes watched it through the little holes in the walls when it was awake when he was. Sometimes it stayed awake during nighttime, meaning he and Virgil had to be careful and quiet.

Some days, it stayed out of the house until late at night, leaving Roman hungry. Like that night.

“Hungry,” he complained dramatically to Virgil, drawing out the word and flopping down onto the nest with a sigh

Virgil nudged him with a foot, and replied

“Sorry, nothing I can do about that. Unless, you want my blood, of course, but I don’t think I’d like that very much,” they joked, sitting down next to him

“Not your blood,” he agreed, lifting his head to reveal a small smile.

When the human came back, a few hours later, there was another human with it. Roman thought about the amount of blood they would have together, and felt all the more hungrier.

Virgil was watching the humans with the kind of nervous tension that they had if they had just dropped something whilst the human was in the kitchen.

Roman quietly walked closer, wanting to watch the humans too. At this rate, neither of the giants would sleep before the sun rose. He could probably wait another day, but it would mean that he’d take a more noticeable amount of blood from it.

He fidgeted nervously, hands running through his hair.

He looked to Virgil, who looked probably more panicked than him. Roman paused in thought

Virgil liked his bat form, he had found out, it calmed them down, and (though he would never admit so) it also helped Roman calm down to be held. He got panicked more than he let on; he missed his mansion, he missed his home, he missed knowing what was going on, he missed being able to talk fluently, he missed a lot.

But, Virgil was a constant presence, a constant friend that barely left his side, helped him stay happy, healthy even. They were the one good thing about this place, and they were great. If Roman had to pick between his mansion or Virgil’s friendship, he’d probably choose Virgil.

He turned into a bat and flew onto Virgil’s shoulder. It would be nice to see them relax a little, and he also needed the distraction.

Virgil looked towards him with a smile that Roman almost missed. They gently brought him into their arms, in a way that they had done a few times before, if the human had gotten too close to finding something out or if Virgil had only just managed to return to the walls when it entered the kitchen

Roman wrapped his wings around himself and settled in the hold. He had never been held like this before he met Virgil. People never trusted him, despite his attempts to be noble, to be a hero. Before he was turned, he was well liked, but what was he now? A monster.

Virgil had never judged him, as far as he knew. They were strange, but Roman had never been as glad of anything in his life/afterlife. He trusted that they’d wake him the second that it was safe to feed, and he started to fall asleep

Virgil’s hold was secure, a sense of warmth that surrounded his cold, and he was peaceful here. It wasn’t too long before Virgil gently jostled him awake.

“They’re both asleep now,” was said in a low whisper. Roman turned back to his normal form and stood up

Virgil led Roman, not to the human’s bedroom, but to the room where it watched ‘tv’ (a strange contraption that seemed to show plays and performances in strange ways)

Both of the humans were curled up on couches, instead of beds, and Roman looked between the two, and back at Virgil. Virgil was waiting for him to go forward and feed. He looked out of the window, he had about half an hour before sunrise.

He’d be okay to feed, if he was quick. He flew up as a bat, and towards his usual human. Its arm was uncovered, and he quickly sunk his teeth in after doing the enchantment.

The arm twitched beneath him. He froze. A small mutter that he couldn’t quite figure out the words of came from the direction of the human’s mouth. Roman looked up hesitantly. Giant brown eyes were staring back at him.

Roman’s own eyes quickly averted, towards the table in the corner in which the tunnel entrance where Virgil would be was. He couldn’t see them from here.

A hand wrapped around him, and he shouted, panicking and forgetting the words in the strange language, and using his native one

“Get away! Get away!” He screamed, feeling as though he had just been cornered by vampire hunters. He knew this was so much worse.

The other human woke up, saying something. Roman couldn’t figure out what it was; Virgil always spoke slowly to help him figure out what was being said. These humans did not extend the same courtesy to him. He hadn’t even nearly finished feeding before it woke up

He was weaker than he could’ve been. If he didn’t escape soon, that would be the least of his worries, he thought to himself, looking at the slowly lightening sky out of the window. He struggled in the hold, feeling himself be set down. No sooner than he had managed to look around, a large drinking glass was placed down over the top of him, cutting him off from the outside world.

His brain felt like it was running in circles. The humans were still talking, but through the muffling that the glass did, their fast talking, and Roman’s mile-a-minute thoughts, he couldn’t understand anything. He pushed against the glass, but it didn’t budge. Out of sheer desperation, he turned into a bat and flew around, trying to find any weak spots. Nothing. He turned back

The humans were talking.

Roman watched the window with nervousness he had almost never felt before. Usually, vampire hunters were easy to escape. He never usually had to worry about the painful disintegration that came with sunlight. He realised that he was on top of the table. The entrance to the tunnels would be almost directly below him

Virgil would be almost directly below him. Was Virgil gonna help him? What if they also got captured? Roman didn’t want to think about that

He sat down on the wooden table and sulked (though, he decided that this sulking, unlike most sulking he tended to do, was actually 100% warranted)

Cold tears fell down his already cold face. What was he doing ? He was going to turn into dust in less than an hour, he was captured, he was never going home. Either of his homes; the walls or his mansion.

The humans were talking to each other, Roman tried to listen. They spoke fast; he could only catch a handful of words. Things like ‘food’, and ‘vampire’ (a word that Virgil sometimes used in reference to him)

He sighed. None of this would matter soon. He knew this would happen eventually, he knew that something or someone would get the upper hand on him and he’d die. He just hadn’t wanted it to be here, to be close to his only friend while he disintegrated

The sunrise would be soon. He had to come to terms with it.

He shoved his face into his hands and sobbed. And then, noise from in front of the table, just out of sight. A voice- Virgil’s voice- speaking fast and loud. To the humans. Roman tried to listen but found that he couldn’t

Was Virgil saving him? The thought made something in his chest flutter, almost made his non-beating heart jolt back into rhythm. He chose to believe that it was anxiety, that he was scared for his friend’s safety (which, he was) and absolutely no other feelings were involved.

—

Logan had known that something had been biting him whilst he slept. Like clockwork, every Wednesday night, something was biting him, leaving his arm slightly numb and two tiny dots in his arm.

He had tried to put up cameras, but they didn’t pick anything up. There seemingly was nothing to pick up. It was entirely infuriating. Especially since it was always the same night of the week. No matter what. If he fell asleep during the day on a Wednesday, during his breaks, no bites.

It was a mystery, and Logan hated not knowing things. He had tried staying late at the library on a Wednesday night, and going to sleep late, but whatever was biting him was smart, and still bit him whilst he was sleeping.

His friends had joked that it was a tiny vampire, but Logan had rolled his eyes at that. Now… Now, he was considering it.

He had decided with his friend Patton to sleep late in a different room than usual, with Patton, to see if the whatever was biting him would follow him.

He was almost asleep by the time he felt two small pinpricks on his arm. He tried to make his arm stay still as to not scare away whatever the thing was and peeked his eyes open.

Without his glasses it was hard to see, but it looked humanoid. He muttered something to himself and reached out to grab it, and found that it shouted something in a language he had never heard before. Curious…

Patton woke up at the sound of the shout, and Logan grabbed his glasses as Patton did the same

“What’s going on?” Patton asked

Logan looked up for a split second “I found the source of the bites,” he said, looking down at his new find again

The closer he looked at it, the more the vampire comparisons looked more accurate. It was wearing a strange version of what one would expect of a vampire, in mostly golds and reds, though rather dirtied. It had long, dark red hair, about down to where their shoulder blades would be, and if Logan really looked, he could see two tiny fangs under its tiny top lip

It was clearly trying to get out of his grip, so he slowly brought it towards the table and, grabbing an empty glass on the way, placed it down with the glass on top of it. It pushed at the glass, but upon it not budging, it turned into a bat.

Contrary to the panic it seemed to be displaying, not once did Logan notice any breathing difficulties. Nor, any breathing at all.

Patton came closer, looking at the little thing

“It’s actually a tiny vampire?” He asked in bewilderment, before continuing “So, it was biting you for food? I feel bad trapping it, or- them? Like this, they were just trying to eat,”

Logan agreed with that sentiment, but didn’t want to risk them getting away before he got some answers. He and Patton talked in hushed voices about theories and things they needed answered for a while, finding that the vampire had sat with their back to them and head in hands.

He thought on the whole problem. This had been going on for months. Where had the tiny vampire been living this entire time? In his house? But where?

Logan was interrupted from his thoughts by a sudden shout from beneath the table that he was crouched at.

He looked down, finding another tiny person, this one looking slightly more alive, clearly breathing and, while they didn’t have much colour on their pale skin, it was certainly more than the vampire had. They were holding a pin like a sword, pointed up shakily at him and Patton

“Let- let them go! Please, they can’t answer any questions you ask, and they’ll die if they stay here once the sun rises, just let them go! Please..” they seemed desperate. They seemed terrified.

Their clothes were dirtied, clumsily stitched together, and clearly were once some kind of scrap fabric that they had found somewhere. A clear difference between them and the vampire, whose clothes seemed impeccably perfectly stitched with high quality fabrics, even when it was dirty.

Patton had started working to calm down the tiny person, and Logan looked up at the vampire again. They had clearly recognised the sound of the tiny person’s voice, going by the way they were trying to see them

Logan thought about the strange language that the vampire had spoken, then thought about how the tiny person had said that they wouldn’t be able to answer questions. Could they not speak English? Or were they perhaps just not fluent?

He tuned back into the conversation around him. The tiny person was shouting

“Stop- stop telling me to calm down ! I won’t be calm until you let them go! Please, just let them go, it’s almost sunrise,”

Logan looked out of the window. They were right, the sky was slowly lightening up.

Vampires died in sunlight, according to most myths. It made sense that they were so desperate. He looked down at the vampire, thinking.

He looked to the tiny person

“Okay, I’m going to let them out now, so if you’d just stop shouting, please,” he said, keeping his voice level to avoid any further stress on them

Their head snapped towards him, watching him like a hawk as he reached out to the glass. He lifted it up.

The vampire inside turned into a bat and speedily flew to their (friend?). They held onto each other as they reunited.

Both of their impromptu guests backed away under the table and disappeared. Logan looked under the table about a minute later and found no trace of them.

He and Patton looked at each other

“That was real, right? I’m not just imagining the two tiny people that just disappeared under there?” Patton asked, with a hint of uncertainty in his voice

Logan nodded without saying a word. Logan had a hard time believing it himself. He sighed. There was no proof of this encounter. There was nothing to indicate that it ever even happened. Nothing but his and Patton’s word. While his friends would be somewhat likely to believe them (with Patton’s lack of deceitful nature, and Logan’s completely serious demeanour) the rest of the world wouldn’t be so trusting

Then he asked himself the question: did he want to tell people? Both of the tiny people seemed downright terrified of him, what would they think if suddenly a lot of people were looking for them?

He went back to the couch and sat down. This whole day was strange, to say the least

—

Virgil paced back and forth in the walls. That was undoubtedly the most stressful, stupid, and dangerous thing he had ever done. He didn’t know what to do now.

Roman was out of the humans’ grasps, but now the humans knew that both of them existed, and it wouldn’t take long for them to figure out that they were in the walls. There were only so many places to disappear to when disappearing under a table

Roman was tracking his movements from where they were hugging their knees, sitting on the nest. Virgil was trying to think of something that could solve this entire problem.

He was supposed to move houses if he was seen, but Roman hadn’t fed properly, based on the sunken eyes, the gaunt cheeks, and the pale face. They’d move slowly. There was no guarantee that they’d find a suitable home before tomorrow’s sunrise if they started that night.

Roman obviously couldn’t drink this human’s blood again, and they couldn’t drink Virgil’s; that would kill him, and they couldn’t move house. So, what could they do? His mind was drawing blanks, and he groaned.

This was a nightmare of a situation. He sat down next to Roman, who rested their head on his shoulder. He turned his face toward them.

They’d been uncharacteristically quiet since they got away

“You still hungry?” He asked, already knowing the answer.

Roman responded with a short nod

“Any ideas on how to fix that?” He asked, once again knowing the answer

A shake of their head confirmed his thoughts.

“Well this sucks, huh?” He mused, an element of ironic humour in his voice.

Roman buried their face in his shoulder, and Virgil wrapped his arm around them. He didn’t blame them for not speaking. They had been captured by humans, they were less than an hour away from death until Virgil had somehow managed to reason with the humans to let them go.

A thought invaded his mind before he had the awareness to stop it. What if he was to… strike a deal with one of the humans? To give blood to Roman and Virgil could offer some small information every week. It was a crazy idea, but it was the only idea even semi-accomplishable.

He looked at Roman. His idea would be useless if he didn’t get Roman’s consent first. No use getting a deal with a human if Roman didn’t want it. Roman looked like they were about to fall asleep, he could wait.

They turned into a bat and fell asleep, still close to Virgil. Virgil waited a few minutes before slowly moving closer to the tiny hole in the wall. The humans seemed to have not moved much since they escaped. When Roman woke up, a few hours later, Virgil proposed his idea.

Roman was quick to agree, obviously incredibly hungry. They waited for the sun to set and went through the tunnels until they found where the human was

Virgil climbed up some nail stairs, so he’d have the advantage of being on a shelf, and therefore being less easily grabbable. Roman flew up in bat form, which Virgil insisted was cheating, but ignored just this once.

Virgil took several deep breaths before opening the wall. The human was on the other end of the room, and had not yet seen him.

Virgil motioned for Roman to stay behind the doorway for now, and walked further out on the shelf. He steeled himself and took another few deep breaths

No matter what he did, he would never be ready for this. This was the kind of thing that got people killed. He closed his eyes and shouted across the room to get the human’s attention.

A quick jolt from the other end of the room, and suddenly he had giant eyes on him. He tried to conceal the resulting flinch, and proposed his deal to his human.

It looked at him, with a contemplative expression

“What would happen if I were to say no?”

Virgil’s face fell

“If you were to say no, then my friend would die,” he said, trying to avoid emotions leaking into his voice

“Okay, then, bring your friend here, they can drink my blood. And in return, I get a question, yes?”

Virgil nodded ( this was a stupid thing to do, what was he doing- ) and he brought Roman forward

The human got its one question (what are you both?), and Roman got their blood.

Virgil and Roman set off to somewhere new the next night, not willing to stay near a human that knew what they were.

In the new walls, they both started setting up.

They were safe

—