An hour or so after he left Naomi's, Arran was lying flat on his back on the floor next to his sofa, staring up at the high ceiling above between long, slow blinks. He had been trying to block out everything by listening to music but now he just felt exhausted and was drifting in and out of a very uncomfortable sleep.

Just as he dozed off for the third or fourth time, he was brought back to reality by a loud thumping on his external door.

"Arran!" Came a muffled shout from outside.

Confused and half convinced that he was still asleep, Arran pulled himself up from where he lay and met eyes with James through the glass. He stumbled over to the door, one leg slightly numb from lying on the floor, and unlocked it.

"Hey, what's up?" Was all he could think to say to James.

"What's up? You've not responded to any of my texts or picked up the phone so given the state you left in yesterday I kinda just came over to make sure you're still alive."

"Well I'm still alive," replied Arran, "so there's that."

The two friends stared at each other for a long time, James seemed to be waiting for Arran to say something but he had no idea what to say. Being completely clueless was turning into a worrying trend in Arran's life.

"Arran don't be a dick, let me in."

Unable to think of a reason not to, Arran stood aside and let James into his room and closed the door. He didn't even get to turn to face his friend before James started to question him.

"So what the hell happened last night?"

"A friend of mine was in trouble."

"Yeah I got that, seemed like it was pretty serious."

"It's all fine, I sorted it."

"Arran I'm not being funny but what place do you have sorting out other people's serious trouble?" James was being uncharacteristically earnest, he looked genuinely concerned. "I can understand that you've got a complicated family life and whatever but at the end of the day mate, you're just 18. You shouldn't have to drop your life and rush off drunk driving just because you're a Redfern."

"Being a Redfern means more than you think it does," snapped Arran.

He wasn't really angry with James, just frustrated that he didn't have any suitable answers. Now more than ever he would have given anything to be human.

"How can it possibly? You've been an adult for all of four months, you shouldn't be this involved with something that's dangerous."

"I can't not be involved, this is part of who I am."

"Just because you think that, doesn't make it true!" James cried with an exasperated voice that set Arran even more on edge.

To James, the worst situation he could imagine was still something that Arran could opt out of. But there was no cure for vampirism, Arran had a potential eternity of associating with violence and danger ahead of him.

"I just don't understand how it's humanly possible for you to-"

"Because I'm a vampire, James!" Shouted Arran before he could stop himself.

In the past 24 hours, he had feared for Cynthia's life, seen his mother murder someone and found out that his girlfriend was seriously, chronically ill and he just couldn't take it anymore. None of this was humanly possible, none of it was human at all.

"I'm an honest-to-god, blood drinking, mind reading, immortal, fucking vampire."

Arran felt his muscles tremble slightly as he tried to stand still. He could feel the seconds passing as he stood wondering what to do. He was exhausted and unfocused, he could probably only reliable erase half a minute of James' memory, maybe even less. But he made no move toward his human friend.

James cleared his throat and said, "why do I get the feeling that you're not joking?"

"Because I'm not," Arran crossed past James and sat down on the step up to his sleeping area. If James panicked and ran Arran would have to chase him but what he'd do next he had no idea so at this point he could do nothing but put faith in his friend. "You've seen my mother, she clearly doesn't look 42."

"Well, how old is she?"

"120...years older than 42."

"So your mother is a 162?"

"Yes," replied Arran while trying to get a glimpse into James' mind. All he could get were flashes of confusion. "I don't know why I said it like that, I was just trying to soften the blow."

"Of course," said James, "because 120 is so much more reasonable than 162."

The attempt at a joke was a promising start, at the very least he wasn't screaming. In the best case scenario he would ask whatever questions he had and then just remove himself from Arran's tumultuous life. That's what he was hoping Naomi would do so at least now the two would have each other to talk to about it.

"Are you okay?" Asked Arran.

"I don't really know yet mate," James shook his head, looking dazed. "Can I have a beer or something?"

Alcohol sounded like a fantastic idea. The two went through to the kitchen and Arran opened up the fridge to be confronted with a large amount of bagged blood that hadn't been there that morning. He slammed the door shut again before James could see it, as calmly as things were going, a fridge full of blood probably wasn't going to help.

"What's wrong?" Asked James.

"There may be -and please know that it's consensually drawn from people who get paid for it- but there may be a shit-tonne of blood in the fridge." He probably shouldn't have said 'shit-tonne' but there was a surprising amount in there. Presumably, because he didn't have a fresh supply anymore and possibly Lex was staying for a few days so there would be another vampire in need of plasma at Rose House.

"Can I see?"

"Do you think that's a good idea?"

"Not at all but the curiosity is killing me."

Arran opened the fridge to reveal the neatly stacked bags of dark red-brown liquid. Even to Arran it was an off-putting sight.

"Well," said James, slowly, "the good thing is there is also beer."

Arran retrieved two beers and opened them as James sat at the bar. They both drank in silence for a minute, Arran was in equal parts trying to let James process things but also at a loss for where to start.

Eventually, James broke the silence.

"So when you need to drink blood," he began, making Arran's shoulders tense, "is it more like being hungry or thirsty?"

A laugh escaped Arran before he could help it. Of all the questions James could have asked he wasn't expecting that.

"I'm just struggling to imagine wanting to actually drink blood instead of you know...order a pizza."

"I do eat food, James, you've seen me eat food."

"So it's different then! Or is it like being thirsty?"

Needing blood was a sensation that Arran had known his whole life. Thinking about he, he supposed he had always likened it to thirst because it was drinking but it didn't feel the same.

"Somewhere in between, more hunger I guess but it's more like a craving." Arran found himself frustrated for the first time that there was no word. "But it's worse than a craving."

"Hmmm," hummed James into his beer. "How about voracity?"

"Pardon?"

"Voracious, it's related to both sustenance and eagerness or need. So it'd be more than a craving."

Arran took a moment to take a swig from his beer, this wasn't going how he expected.

"So do I vorace for blood?"

"If we're completely reclaiming it to mean like hunger for blood we'd have to make it verb and figure out how it conjugates. Leave it with me, I'll have a think."

"I can't believe that we're actually talking about the linguistics of this."

"I just found out one of my best friends is undead, let me cling to something that I know."

"I'm not undead, I've never been human and I've never died."

"So does that mean you have like, vampire grandparents who also look young?"

The idea of vampire grandparents had never occurred to Arran, none of his older siblings had ever shown any interest in having children of their own. For some reason the image of Celyn white-haired and knitting baby clothes shot across his mind, it didn't seem to fit.

"No there aren't any second generation vampires, my mother was human just like the vast majority of vampires. So technically she is undead."

"How did she die?"

"The usual way," replied Arran, before he realised that that would mean nothing to James. "Her ex drained her of most of her blood and then fed her some of his while she was dying, which is kind of...traditional I suppose. But dying in pretty much anyway with enough vampire blood in you will do it."

"Wow, so you have to die before it like takes over?"

"Yeah, as far as I'm aware it's like a disease in the bone marrow so your immune system has to be completely out for it to get in there and start doing anything. If you take enough blood for it to overwhelm your system I think you can do the whole thing while alive but I'm not sure if that's ever been done."

"I just can't believe your mother has actually died."

"I know, sometimes I can't either," said Arran who didn't often bring up the topic with her. "In this house, too."

"What? Where?"

"The dining room, I think. Isaac, that's mum's ex, had this really bad disease which was kind of killing of his vampirism and him in the process so he was trying to get my uncle Lex to cure him. Mum was married to Lex's brother and I think she provoked Isaac so he drained her and his half-cured illness made her a...Redfern. Something new."

"And that's her ex-boyfriend?"

"Fiance, they were sort of together for a century. He can get really inside her head."

It was becoming clear that he had a lot to explain. Arran walked back over to the fridge and retrieved a few more beers and after a moment's thought headed to the wine cooler embedded in the bar.

"Some vampires have powers or gifts," he said as he crouched down to look through the wine, searching for something relatively cheap. "Isaac's is mind control which is a common one in our family, but he can literally make my mother do almost anything when she's around him."

He settled on a non-vintage viognier that he hoped Celyn had no plans for. He hadn't seen his mother since their conversation the night before and so didn't want to risk making her angry.

"That's terrible," said James as Arran opened him another beer and poured himself a large glass of wine.

"She doesn't have to put up with him much now, my dad's a lawyer and he won her some kind of case against unlawful entrapment back before I was born."

"That's nuts."

"Yep, she's lived a long and horrible life. But because she was the first of her kind I guess our government had to do something to keep an eye on her and so they just let Isaac do whatever he wanted."

James took a long drink and stared into the middle distance. Arran was grateful for the respite, he'd never appreciated just how much there was to explain to an outsider. He actually found himself wanting one of the council's forcibly cheerful leaflets.

"So there's vampires, and then your family who are a different kind of vampires."

"Yes, then half-vampires which are born from human women."

"So you can pass it on genetically with humans?"

"Yes but it's not like lycanthropy-"

"Wait, so there's werewolves too?"

Arran looked at his glass of wine, glad that he had found more alcohol. This was going to be a long conversation. 

James doesn't care about vampires, he just cares about words. Ok maybe he cares about vampires but let him distract himself, ok? He's having a weird afternoon...<3