#vhstudio

He knew he needed to eat properly soon, or there would be… Problems.

But there was just too much to do, and he was stuck in the building until nightfall… Henry pushed himself to his feet with a sigh, vainly ignoring how his teeth and head were aching from hunger. His stomach was hurting too in its demands to be filled soon. Maybe he needed to get some normal food into himself? It wouldn’t get rid of the hunger completely, but it would at least dim it down enough for him to last until the sun finally went down. Hopefully.

(How many times had he done that this week? He wasn’t really sure. His headache was being very distracting)

A sudden wave of dizziness hit him as he tried to stand and he stumbled, the world abruptly tilting under his feet. One of his feet caught on the edge of his desk, throwing the vampire completely off balance. The world slid out of focus as he hit the floor, hard. Then he smelled blood (FOOD!), and all rational thought was driven from his mind.

Finding out Henry had become a vampire had caught Joey completely off guard when his old friend had been dragged into his office by an irritated Sammy Lawrence. And after getting him back on the payroll, Joey had once again thrown himself into research, but this time vampirism was his main topic. He wanted to know everything he could to help his friend, and maybe even find a way to turn him back to normal. (If there even was a way to turn him back)

But there were some things he wasn’t very certain about. At first, he’d thought he just needed to look them up in more detail, but then he realized it would be easier to just go and ask Henry about them. He’d given himself a paper cut while gathering what he’d wanted to show his friend up, but he could dash down to the infirmary to get a bandage for it once he was done.

Joey jolted at the sound of a heavy thud coming from Henry’s (new) office near his own.

The tall man hurried to the door, wrenching it open with his free hand. He spotted Henry laying on the floor by his desk, groaning weakly. He quickly closed the distance between them, carelessly throwing the books and papers aside (and ignoring the faint sting of a new papercut on his fingers), kneeling down and lifting the vampire off the ground in his worry.

“Henry? Are you alright?!” Henry was breathing hard, a slight groan escaping him as red-eyes fluttered open. He muttered something to quietly for Joey to hear. “What was that?”

“...ry.. H-hu..” Henry’s head snapped up, clouded red-eyes burning into the blonde man’s face. Joey let out a startled yelp when Henry abruptly lurched up from the floor and roughly grabbed him, knocking the taller man onto his back with an animalistic hiss. He was dazed by the hit but thankfully the fact that he had already been kneeling on the floor had kept him from being seriously hurt. Joey instinctively raised an arm to keep Henry from closing the distance between them, wincing at the vice-like grip his friend had on his shoulders.

“He-Henry! What’s going on?! Wh-What are you-” He stared into Henry’s unfocused eyes in alarm, trying to spot something, anything, that would explain what was going on. Joey’s mind scrambled to think of what could have caused this down-right feral behavior from the Vampire.

Henry’s eyes were usually so clear and calm. But now... now his eyes looked hazy and dulled, the normally cat-like pupils blown wide in a way that implied that Henry’s mind was as unfocused as his gaze. But the brown-haired man’s weren’t locked on Joey’s face, and it took him a moment to realize where he was looking.

‘My neck… He’s focused on my neck! That must be it! The books I managed to find said that Vampires can turn Feral when they’ve been deprived of food for too long but Henry should have… When was the last time Henry ate?’

He struggled to remember when he had last seen Henry eat properly, while still keeping the vampire back. He had seen his friend snack on all kinds of normal foods while in the studio, but he had never seen or heard of Henry taking time to eat (feed?). Shit, had Henry eaten at all since coming back to the studio?

He heard Henry hiss again, straining against the arm Joey was using to keep him at bay.

“Henry. Henry calm down, I-I need you calm down,” Joey started, trying to keep his anxiety out of his voice. He didn’t know just how far gone Henry was right then, but he hoped that enough of his friend was still there that he could get to him. “You… You’re hungry, aren’t you Henry? You need to eat something, am I right?”

But his words were only met with another feral hiss. Which, as far as Joey was concerned, was enough to tell him that Henry wasn’t able to think at all in this state. So talking him out of taking a bite out of the blonde up was out of the question. The only way he was going to get Henry to back to being himself would be if he did something to sate his friend’s hunger. But since the vampire was currently pinning him to the floor, he wasn’t exactly in a position to find someone willing to let Henry bite them.

Which left him with only one option.

Joey used his free hand to tug at his tie, loosening it enough to get at the collar of his shirt to undo the buttons. A small part of him was relieved when Henry lessened his efforts to get passed Joey’s arm, his eyes still trained on Joey’s throat. He knew Henry was easily strong enough to hurt him, but the fact that he wasn’t showed that at least part of Henry’s mind was still there. He leaned his head back as much as he could in his current position, purposely exposing his neck to the hungry vampire, and slowly removed the arm keeping Henry back.

“Okay Henry, go on. Take as much as you need.” There was a moments pause, then Henry lunged, his jaws slamming shut on Joey’s neck. He couldn’t help the pained wince from the roughness of the bite but forced himself to stay still. (Moving would jostle Henry’s fangs, and that would hurt)

It was the first time he’d actually been bitten by Henry, or any vampire really, but hearing the other man swallow next to his ear and feeling the growing lightheadedness from blood loss was definitely a strange experience. But he kept himself calm with the self-reminder that Henry needed this.  He could feel the vampire’s muscles and grip slowly relaxing as he continued, which was a relief for Joey’s aching shoulders. But then the now-loose grip started shaking, and the sounds from the vampire stopped.

He felt the fangs be removed from his throat, and he watched Henry (whose eyes no longer looked distant and clouded) slowly pulled away.

Had Henry finished already? Surely he needed to drink more than that from Joey if he had gone without long enough to turn feral like that. He looked up and Henry’s face, only to see an expression of alarm and mounting shock.

“J-Joey?” Red eyes widened in horror, and Henry abruptly lurched back from him, a hand clasping over his mouth. “Oh god, d-did I...? Shit, Joey, I didn’t mean to-”

Despite his somewhat light-headed state, Joey managed to catch hold of Henry’s other arm, keeping the man from scrambling back any further. He knew his friend well enough to know what was probably going through Henry’s head, and he really didn’t want him to wallow in those thoughts for too long.

“Henry. Henry. Calm down, it’s fine. You’re fine. I’m not angry about this.” He said with a surprising amount of calm. As glad as he was that Henry seemed to finally be back in his right mind again, he didn’t want him to be panicking. Panic wasn’t much of an improvement as far as he was concerned. “I should have expected something like this to happen at some point. It’s fine.”

“How can you say that Joey? I just attacked you!” Henry asked, his tone slightly hysterical.

“Because you had gone for too long without eating and weren’t able to think clearly anymore. I know, I’ve been doing my research about your condition. And it’s fine.” Joey said firmly. And it was.

There had been plenty of warnings in the books he’d found about what would happen if a vampire went too long without eating, but he had never thought to actually check in and make sure his friend was getting everything he needed when they’d forcibly changed his schedule like they had. Honestly, he had a fair amount of blame for what lead to this happening. (There was plenty to share right them)

It was actually kind of strange, for him to be the one to try and talk sense into someone. But since it was for Henry? He was damn well going to try to get his friend to calm down.

“Since this happened, we’ll just need to put some measures up to keep it from happening again. No problems, right?” He watched Henry hesitate then slowly nod, the tenseness slowly bleeding out of him. Joey held back a smile, glad that he was getting through to Henry.

“I-I guess,” the brunette muttered, his hand finally lowering. Blue eyes narrowed slightly, spotting the still elongated fangs in Henry’s mouth. So Henry hadn’t enough to full sate himself. Well, he would have to change that.

“Good, now finish.” Henry’s head snapped to him.

“I- Excuse me?”

“Did I stutter? According to what I’ve been reading, you would have had to have been borderline starving yourself to’ve snapped like that. And I doubt that bite was enough to fix that.” Joey pointed at his own neck, his grip on the vampire’s arming remaining, giving a firm glare at Henry. “Now finish eating. We can talk more about this afterward.”

Henry gaped at him, mouthing wordlessly.

“You… You serious about this, aren’t you?”

“Completely,” Joey confirmed with a nod. Henry gave a helpless laugh.

“Alright, alright. But I’m going to be dragging you to the infirmary once I’m done.” Henry’s eyes narrowed. “And later, you’re going to get something to eat too.”

“That’s fine. Ooo~ Didn’t someone bring some fruits into the cafeteria the other day? That’s supposed to be a good thing to have after donating blood…”

True to his word, when Henry had finally finished eating, he’d carried the very light headed and slightly delirious Joey down to the infirmary to get some food in himself and some rest. And then later in the day, Joey had popped up in his office again (this time in a wheelchair being pushed by Norman) with an entire list of willing donors for Henry to prevent future incidents.

It hadn't been because he wasn't terribly interested in the interdepartmental gossip, but so he wouldn't have to deal with people he didn't like in order to find out why he suddenly had to talk to a completely different intern from the previous week just to get the songs he'd written approved by Joey. Henry did a good job of sharing anything he felt was important for the Music Director, without getting on his nerves in the process. He would also warn the musician about impending rage-storms brewing between departments so he could avoid them.

(There was a reason he knew so much about what was going on even though he rarely interacted with the rest of the studio.)

It was a habit he'd chosen to continue when Henry returned, even if it meant getting up at ungodly o'clock in the morning to do it. And with the Toons around, it did a good job of getting things ready for the day.

He stifled a yawn, pulling his long coat closer and shivering as he waited for the vampire to arrive, shuffling his feet to try and keep them warm in his loafers. (He couldn't wear his boots anymore, the soles were almost completely worn away and there were holes in them. He hadn't had any time to buy a new pair yet.)

This year's winter was absolutely miserable so far.

Nearly every day had been grey and dark, bouncing between freezing cold and unpleasantly muddy. Just the previous night had been filled with dark skies and freezing rain, covering most of the city in a layer of ice. Not only that, but the storm had switched to snow at some point in the early morning. He knew there were large patches of ice filling most of the streets, hidden under a thin layer of snow, turning them into safety hazards for anyone brave, stupid, or unwillingly braving them in those early hours.

Even more so since the salt trucks had yet to come by that morning.

“Sammy!” He looked up to see Henry trotting along the sidewalk, dressed in his own, much thicker, winter gear. (Huh, he didn't know Henry owned a fur hat. And were those combat boots he was wearing?) “I didn't think I'd be seeing you out here this morning.”

Irritated blue eyes glared into slitted, red ones.

“Of course I am. Today's a workday,” he grumbled. Henry scratched his cheek, a nervous smile on his face.

“Actually, once I got to the studio, I was going to call and tell everyone to stay home today. There's so much ice on the roads thanks to the storm last night and with the loose snow on the ground, it's just too dangerous to try and come in.” Sammy raised an eyebrow at him.

“You can do that? I thought only the Studio Director could make those kinds of choices.”

“For most businesses, you'd be right. But you need to remember Joey's bad leg and his habit of bad choices. He gave me the okay for this at the start of winter. It's one of the reasons he's been okay with coming in late this year.” Henry let out an amused chuckle. “Apparently, I'm better at making good safety decisions. Joey called me and said he couldn't even leave his house today. There's a huge ice patch right in front of his apartment building.”

Oh, now Sammy felt stupid. He'd been standing out in the cold for no reason then. The long-haired man shook his head with a sigh.

“I'll come in with you then, pick up some sheets to work on for the next show,” Sammy muttered. It would be more interesting than just sitting at home, and then he'd at least he'd get some work done that way. The vampire shot him look, glancing down at the man's loafers.

“Umm... Do you want to change to some better shoes? It's pretty slippery.” Sammy rolled his eyes. Henry's habit of 'Dad'ing his coworkers, while well-meaning, was unneeded in his opinion.

“I'll be fine, Henry. Let's just get going already, it freezing out here.” He strode off past the worried vampire. The sooner they got there the sooner they could get out of the cold. He kept having small, almost slips, but Henry had a talent for catching his arm and steadying him before he fell.

“Really, Sammy, you need to get new boots. At this rate, you're gonna slip and crack your head open.” He shook off Henry’s steadying hand, his temper shorter than usual thanks to the cold and ice. They were almost to the studio, he wouldn’t need Henry to keep him from falling anymore.

“I’ll be fine Henry, we’re almost there. And I have no plans to fall now-!” There was a loud crash from the construction site they were passing and Sammy startled in alarm at the sound, his feet sliding out from under him.

“Sammy!!”

~~

Kinda iffy about continuing this one, just because this part came out so well. I’m afraid part 2 would just come out like crap.