"What the fuck are you doing?"

Louis looked disgusted as the younger boy a few feet ahead of him tried to teeth on a local homeless man. Sure, he knew the kid was new, just not a dipshit.

"...I'm eating." Harry states like it's the most obvious thing in the world, one hand on his cocky little hip as he rolled his eyes.

"This isn't the 16th century, Harold. We feed when the job is already done for us."

Harry sighs loudly and tosses the half-dead man to the side. Louis watches pathetically as the homeless man lands in a mountain of garbage. The agreed not to actively kill people for their blood, they wait until their meal is already dead and then drain them. Harry fucked up twice already in a night. First, trying to kill the man that's already alive. Two, trying to feed from a homeless man. There's no shame in being homeless but in Louis' (let's be honest—rather long) experience, homeless blood tastes like absolute shit.

"No! Don't just throw him away now. You've nearly drained him to death anyway," Louis grumbles. Kids these days.

Harry looks at him in disbelief. "My food literally just touched a pile of rubbish. Do you really expect me to eat this shit?"

Louis slows his step before turning and smirking at Harry.

"At least it's organic."

He could hear the boy audibly scoff before trailing behind him, knowing Louis was his only hope of getting a decent meal in before light hours.

"Are we just... leaving him there," Harry questions. Louis turns around, not quite sure what the younger boy wants anymore.

"Well, if you're not going to drink his blood and I'm, sure as hell, not drinking his blood then yes. We're just going to leave him there. He's high off his ass, so it's not like anyone's going to believe him. You already cost me half the fucking night. Keep up, newbie," Louis scolds. Louis can hear the heavy footsteps of Harry trailing behind him.

"I'm sorry that not all of us can be ancient," Harry pouts. Louis turns on his heels. Harry stops in his tracks, shocked by Louis' sudden change in demeanor. Louis'll admit, he's not the youngest vampire to exist, but he's certainly not the oldest.

Before either of them knew what was happening, Louis was quickly picking up his pace towards harry until he was pressed against an alley wall in front of him, the only noise heard from a distant car and the obnoxious noise of a dying streetlight that was two seconds from blowing a fuse. The warm light comforted Harry despite how intimidated he was, but the way the bulb kept going out left just enough time in between for Louis' cold tone to cut through his internal warmth.

"Listen. I didn't fucking ask to be assigned to you. If it wasn't for me –"

Louis took this moment to come in close, right into the crook of Harry's neck and seethe-

"- you wouldn't be alive right now to run that pathetic little mouth of yours. Maybe, some of us have actual lives to get to and don't let our entire life revolve around some little twink Liam found on the side of the goddamn road, drinking blood from a fucking doe."

Harry rolled his eyes and moved to push past louis for a second before he was roughly being pushed back into a wall and having his hands pinned beside each side of his neck.

"If you could just listen like the bitch you are and show some fucking respect, maybe we can get through the night and I'll take you home. Is that fucking understood?"

The streetlight went out.

Harry let out a short breath and muttered "shit". Louis couldn't tell if he was in disbelief or turned on by his tone.

Louis rolls his eyes after deciding the latter was the answer. He continues to walk down the alley until he comes upon a metal door. Louis knocks on the door twice just as the sun starts to peek over the horizon. Louis used to find comfort in sunrises and when he first transitioned almost killed himself just to get a peek of the sun. Now, he finds it sad and depressing, a reminder of the life he had to leave behind.

"This way," Louis says. His tone is softer after his sudden outburst. The door swings open and reveals Liam standing in the doorway. Louis pushes past Liam and hurries to his usual spot. The window's huge and overlooks a large part of the city.

"What the hell happened to him," Liam questions.

"He's being a stupid bitch is what happened. I need to sleep for another hundred years before I have to deal with his punk ass another night. You're the one that adopted him, so you're the one cleaning up after his messes," Louis answers.

"Louis, he's- he's not a dog." Liam reminds him.

"No wonder he can't hunt properly"

"Hey."

"you're not allowed to get offended if you weren't supposed to hear that." Louis snaps at Harry.

Liam rubs his temples in frustration.

"Harry, there's some spare blood bags in the basement freezer. I'll be right with you."

Harry walks down the stairs, still eyeing Louis on the way.

Louis rolls his eyes and hops on top of the kitchen island before dramatically falling back. Liam looks at him in amusement. It was only night one and it was clear the two had a certain fond for each other. At least, the younger one seemed to carry that view.

"It can't be that bad," Liam says. Louis watches as Liam opens the fridge and grabs an emergency blood bag from the fridge. He checks the blood type and passes the A positive to Louis before taking the B for himself.

"He tries to kill a homeless man and after I told him not to, decided to just leave him there. Then, snapped at me and got surprised that I snapped right back. The bitch called me old," Louis growls. Louis takes a sip from the bag and rolls his eyes. Liam's about to respond, but he's interrupted by Harry's voice.

"I called you old, because you are old," Harry says. Louis rolls his eyes. Harry takes two blood bags, two, at once and stabs them with straws. He takes sips from both as he joins Liam and Louis at the table.

"You weren't invited. The grown-ups are talking, Darling," Louis teases.

"You cared enough to give me a pet name, how sweet." Harry smirks

"Can you please not patronize each other at the dinner table and take your sexual tension elsewhere?"

Harry looks mildly offended as Louis stares confused as a blush spreads across his face.

"We're- we're not flirting, Liam."

"Hate to break it to you, Lou, but I never said you were. You came to that conclusion yourself." Liam winked before taking the remainder of the bag into his room.

It got weirdly quiet for a second before Louis coughed.

Harry sheepishly broke the ice. "So...where do I sleep?"

"We have tons of floor space and tarps," Louis snaps. He finishes his bag and then heads off to his own room.

He's spent centuries—literally—making his room a safe place. The bed sits in the middle of the room at an angle with a duvet royalty would've died for (and probably did). Louis pulls the curtains down after taking a final look out one of the two large windows in his room. The room becomes cloaked in darkness and Louis finally feels at peace.

Louis lays in his bed and is nearly about to drift off to sleep when he hears his door creak open. He prays that whatever dared open his door, closes it and leaves him the hell alone. It's been too long a night for Louis to spend any more time awake.

"You said the floor and your room has floors. Also, it's the darkest room in the house," Harry says.

Louis has never been one to groan for more than 3 seconds, yet here he was. An attractive younger male staying in his room wouldn't be such a problem, if only the thing wasn't such a fucking pest. He was too tired to argue, so he quickly gave in.

"Congrats, I'm upgrading you to ottoman. There's a spare blanket in the closet. If you so much as breath too loud, you're staying with Liam. And he snores." Louis warned.

"Oh boy, an ottoman." Harry rolls his eyes, but nevertheless finds his way into the closet. "Is the blanket in one of these drawers or—"

"Don't fucking touch that. Ever."

Louis quickly sat up to look at him, right before he could pull the handle. There was a lot of leather in there, and not much he could explain in a PG manner. So what, maybe he has a kinky side. It's too late to go to hell, obviously, he's had time to dabble away from vanilla life.

Harry was quiet for a minute. "Okay, now I have to see what's in that drawer."

"Touch that handle and you're dead."

"I'm already dead," Harry points out.

Harry reaches towards the top shelf where a quilt was delicately folded. He laid across his makeshift bed, trying to find a comfortable position. He shifted for a while before finally deciding to ask louis for some assistance. If he was awake, that is.

"Hey Louis?"

"What."

Harry shook for a split second. He didn't actually expect him to be awake, okay? How the fuck was he supposed to ask permission to have half of the bed for the night when Louis could properly deny consent?

"Could... Could I borrow a pillow?"

He didn't have the balls. Well, he did, he just didn't want them to be handed back to them on a silver platter. Quite literally, perhaps.

"You have your blanket," Louis murmurs.

Harry huffs loudly and tries to adjust himself again on the floor, but nothing's comfortable. He tosses and turns for a few minutes trying to find a spot that won't make his back cry in the morning when he's interrupted by a loud groan.

"If you're going to make a big deal out of it like a child then just come in the bed," Louis snaps. Harry sits up and glances over at Louis. He hasn't moved at all in the bed. Harry takes the opportunity before Louis takes it back and quickly abandons his blanket.

Harry crawls into the large bed next to Louis and scoots in close so he doesn't dangle off the edge.

"I'm a cuddler," Harry warns.

"I'm a biter."

Fair enough.

He manages to keep his distance for a while until he feels the soft side of a hand on his shoulder. Harry turns towards Louis and sees that he's moved in his sleep. Harry can almost believe that Louis has a soft side watching the boy half way between the dream world and their own.

"Maybe one day you'll see the drawer," Louis mumbles. It's the last thing Harry hears before he allows himself to drift to sleep to the sound of morning traffic and Louis' even breathing.

~_~_~

Hey guys! This is a collab one shot with my best friend Erik. He doesn't have a wattpad, but he does have an A03. I'd tell you his A03, but he doesn't want any of his friends to know, so I can't tell you. Anyway, if you see this on Ao3 then don't worry, it's probably Erik lmao Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed! ~B