When Kita wakes the next morning, he feels like absolute hell.

He basically goes into a coma, not waking up until it's after noon. The light that leaks through his curtains feels almost blinding when he opens his eyes, and so he rolls away from it. In doing this, he falls off the bed.

He groans in pain on impact, rolling onto his back. He realizes that he's still wearing the same jacket he did yesterday. Also, one of the sleeves is soaked with blood. It's mostly dry and slightly hardened in some places, but it's still there. This is what reminds him of the events yesterday.

That's right. The vampire.

Kita takes off the coat hastily, thankful that he at least has more energy today. He immediately looks down at his wrist, where the wound was. His whole arm is covered in primarily dried blood.

Kita rubs at it, but it doesn't do much, so he walks to his bathroom. He turns on the sink and starts scrubbing at his arm, and it doesn't take him long to find the wound... still bleeding.

Wait, what?

Shouldn't it at least have scabbed over or something? It's been almost a full twelve hours since the incident. Kita leans forward, examining the skin closer. He finds nothing to help his confusion. It's just... bleeding.

Kita glances up in the mirror, not sure if he even wants to see his appearance. He looks tired and pale, and his hair is a train wreck. There is blood on various areas of his body. Aside from that, he looks normal.

Kita's tired, so despite everything still feeling wrong—he was half expecting (hoping) it would all be better in the morning—he decides to just move on with his day.

Kita shakes his head, taking a shower and changing his clothes, wrapping his wrist in bandages and covering it with a long sleeved shirt. He then walks downstairs, and finds his mother in the kitchen. She appears to be in the process of baking something, but upon laying eyes on him, switches direction.

"There you are! I'll get started on your eggs."

It's the afternoon. Kita never sleeps in this late. Still, his mother is fully aware that when he wakes up, he wants eggs. Right now he's not craving them like he usually does, but that's probably just the stress of last night still taking its toll on him.

"Thanks, Mom."

Kita goes and takes a seat at the table. He finds that his father is gone, likely getting the pub ready to open. They better be staffed for tonight, because Kita is not working today. He is far too exhausted, both mentally and physically.

Liz starts on his scrambled eggs, the same thing he's had every morning for years. He just waits patiently, trying not to think about last night. Honestly, he probably should. He should at least talk to someone about it. Normally he would, especially since he basically tells Alexis everything. However, something is telling him that's not a good idea.

It takes Liz about five minutes to make him his breakfast, and then she's setting it in front of him. Normally she's always busy, running around and doing chores, favors for the restaurant, etcetera. She always has something to do. This is why Kita is surprised when she takes a seat across from him. Wow, she's taking a break for once?

"So," she says conversationally. "I heard some... noises, last night."

Oh yeah, Kita forgot about that. When he and Alexis came in and had to navigate their way to Kita's room, they were not quiet at all. They literally couldn't be.

"Sorry," Kita tells her, not elaborating. He has no idea what excuses he could possibly make right now. At least, he can't think of any that wouldn't concern her. He really doesn't want anybody worried about him right now. He doesn't want anyone to know, and he has no idea why.

"Alright, well," the woman continues, expression looking a bit uncomfortable. Kita has no clue why. That is, until she speaks again. "I don't care what the two of you... get up to, I would just prefer not to hear it."

Oh.

Oh.

Kita starts to understand what she's getting at. Kita was in a lot of pain last night, and he's sure he was making the sounds to go with it. Alexis was also making noises of strain while trying to navigate the house due to also carrying Kita. It's not like Kita is heavy, especially for Alexis, but the extra weight sure didn't make anything easier.

So, Kita couldn't blame her if she mistook the noises, as well as the racket of the navigation itself, for them doing... other activities.

"Oh, uh, that's not— we weren't—" Kita says, face flushing. His stammering is not helping his case, despite the fact he's telling the truth. Then again, it's not like he can tell her what was actually happening. "He was just taking me to my room because I was, um, tired. Nothing like that."

The lady hums, studying him. She has a strange, knowing look on her face. Kita has no idea why, has no clue what she could possibly know. She's wrong! Why would she jump to that conclusion, anyway? Kita and Alexis are friends.

"We're friends, mom," Kita says, stressing the word friends. "He's my best friend. We don't do... that."

Liz slowly nods, eyes unmoving from her son. She still doesn't appear to believe him, and he's completely clueless as to why. There is no way she genuinely thinks he and Alexis were doing those things in the middle of the living room, where anyone could walk in and see. There's no way she thinks they'd do that, period. She knows their relationship isn't like that, she has to be messing with him.

"Are you sure there's nothing going on?" She asks, a frown on her face. This is not helping Kita's confusion. Seriously, what on earth could possibly give her the idea that Kita and Alexis' relationship was beyond platonic?

"Yes. Why?"

"I don't know, he just kind of..." she trails off, looking at the wall. Her eyes flick back to Kita, and she clears her throat. "Never mind. I'm going to go help them prep. Let me know if you'll be here tonight."

This conversation feels really weird. Kita watches her stand up, and he decides to just move on. He decides that it's probably best to give her as much notice as possible that he's not going to be working the bar tonight. His arm fucking hurts. "I won't."

The woman nods, running a hand through his hair. She gives him a kiss on the forehead and sends some parting words, before heading towards the door that leads down to the pub. Kita just watches her leave, a frown on his face.

Then he remembers the eggs, and decides to move on. He grabs his fork and scoops some up, before bringing it to his mouth and taking a bite.

He then promptly spits it out.

Kita coughs, grabbing his glass of water and chugging it. Thankfully that doesn't taste absolutely horrible, but it also doesn't seem to help. If anything, when he's done drinking the entire thing, he only feels more dehydrated.

Those eggs tasted disgusting. They didn't even taste like eggs. Did his mom change the ingredients or something? What ingredients could she have possibly switched up, though? They're eggs. She's made it the exact same way for years. That would make absolutely no sense.

Kita is getting hit with that feeling again. The same one he had this morning, and the same one he had last night. Everything just feels so strange, but he has no idea what it is. He thinks he should probably look into it. Yeah, probably. He should try and figure out what's going on.

Kita decides to pretend like nothing's happened, instead. He gathers up the partially chewed eggs in a napkin and throws them out, before deciding to attempt to eat again. This time, since he's expecting it, he's able to keep a few bites down before he can't take it anymore and gives up.

Kita sighs, grabbing his plate and walking over to the trash can. He scrapes it all in the trash, then puts some napkins over it in hopes that his mom won't notice. He's still hungry afterwards, which makes his lack of appetite for one of his favorite foods even stranger. He decides not to dwell on it.

Kita makes his way back up the stairs, preparing to go back to his room and read or something. However, as he's ascending, he gets a sharp pain in his stomach. He can't help but double over, wincing and trying to stabilize himself on the wall. He's able to do so, and he's even able to push himself to make it to the top of the stairs. However, he's in a lot of pain the whole time. Once he's finally upstairs, the pain only increases, and then he's basically running to the nearest bathroom, which happens to be his own.

When Kita kneels in front of the toilet, he practically falls there. He's immediately puking his stomach out until it's just bile. Until he's practically dry heaving, only then does it stop. He doesn't even just throw up eggs, he throws up the things he ate yesterday too. He pukes until there is literally nothing left in his system.

After that, he's exhausted. He flushes the toilet, then falls over. He leans all his weight against the wall, hardly able to breathe as he attempts to recover from whatever the hell that was. It takes a few minutes for him to be functional again, but even then, he's just confused.

Did his mom's eggs actually just make him sick? He can't remember a single time, ever, throughout his entire life, that anything his mom made for him resulted in illness. There has got to be something else going on. He has no idea what it could be, but still. He's certain that something's off.

"Kita!"

Kita jumps, realizing he left the door open. Thankfully there's nobody there, but he can hear his father's voice at the bottom of the stairs.

"Yeah?!" Kita calls back. The man answers him immediately.

"You have a visitor!"

Kita didn't even hear the door open, or any knocking or anything. He grabs onto the sink and pulls himself up so he's standing, looking at himself in the mirror to make sure he doesn't look how he feels. Unfortunately, he does.

His eyes are watery. He has bile and spit around his mouth, dripping down his chin. He's all sweaty, shirt sticking to him in several places, and he's cold. He has no clue why he's cold.

Kita washes his face, doing his best to make himself look presentable for whoever is here to see him. Probably a messenger, retrieving him on behalf of Alexis. Right before Kita is about to exit the bathroom, however, he notices something.

His bandages are completely soaked in blood.

Okay, Kita, don't freak out. This entire thing is really fucking weird, but maybe it's just in his head. Kita wraps it in new bandages, but, again, before he leaves, he notices something in his reflection.

Kita frowns, pausing as he stares at himself. His eyes are naturally a rusty, red-brown color. However, right now, he swears that there is absolutely no brown. He leans forward, examining his red eyes, before blinking. Just like that, he's met with the sight of his normal eyes. Brown, just like his mom's

Kita may be losing it.

"Kita?"

Kita jumps, turning to look into his bedroom. His surprise only increases tenfold when he lays eyes on Alexis, standing in the doorway, actually not wearing his armor for once. He looks concerned, and a little unsure.

"Good morning," Kita says. Alexis only appears more confused.

"It's 2 PM."

Oh. Kita was not paying attention to the time at all. How has so much time gone by? Last he checked, it was a little after noon. How long was he throwing up? How long was he eating? How long did he sit there, freaking out?

"Oh," Kita says, frowning. Alexis looks concerned, just like last night. Kita really does not like all this attention on his well being.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Alexis asks him, taking a few tentative steps into the room. Kita stays where he is, in the bathroom yet still within Alexis' view frame.

"Yeah," Kita responds simply, breaking eye contact to look at the floor. He's shocked that Alexis is here right now. It was crazy enough that he came in here last night, and now he's back the next day? Kita can't believe it. It's so strange. The greatness that is Alexis Sinclair looks so out of place in such a rundown, cramped building.

"Well," Alexis continues, still walking towards Kita, who refuses to exit the bathroom. "I found a lot of blood. Everywhere."

Kita should really tell him. However, something about that doesn't sit right with him. It's strange, wanting to keep something a secret from his best friend. He can't remember the last time that happened. He's always been so honest, but for some reason, he wants absolutely nobody to know about the wound he suffered from the vampire last night.

Kita should at least tell his mom, make some sort of attempt to get medical attention, perhaps. However, for some reason, he'd rather just suffer.

"Probably 'cause you killed someone."

Alexis gives him a strange look. "I killed a vampire."

Yeah, vampires don't count as people to him. Kita forgets about that sometimes. It's never really bothered him before, how much Alexis hates monsters. In this moment, though... he feels the strangest urge to defend them. They have families, they breathe and talk and love and die just like us.

Kita is in a bad mood now, and the irritation leaks into his tone when he talks again. "Why did you come here?"

Alexis frowns at him, likely not used to Kita being so upset for no apparent reason. Sorry, but he feels like he's malfunctioning, and it's getting to him. He doesn't have a lot of patience right now.

"Well," Alexis says, "I came to check on you."

"I'm fine."

"I see that," Alexis replies, tone reassuring, though he doesn't appear to actually believe it. He most likely only said it to appease Kita, who narrows his eyes. Alexis is now right in front of him. "My mother is holding a dinner tonight. I also came to request your attendance."

Oh. Of all things Alexis could've said, Kita was not expecting that. Empress Eve doesn't really hold events like that very often anymore, and Kita wonders if there's some sort of special occasion. He can't fathom what could possibly be going on, though. Alexis sure hasn't mentioned anything to him.

"Why?" Kita asks in confusion. Alexis doesn't seem surprised at his questioning.

"I don't know. I think it's another one of her attempts at finding me a wife, which is why I want you there."

Okay, that makes more sense, though not by much. Kita is unsure how exactly his presence would help the situation at all, but Alexis has never really made sense on that front. He's always just wanted Kita to be around, whether it was appropriate for the situation or not. Especially when it came to social events, he's always wanted Kita there. Not only that, but he wants Kita close by. Kita has to stick by his side just about wherever they go, Alexis makes sure of it.

Kita sees no point in saying no, despite how weak he feels. He's already not working tonight, and clearly this matters to Alexis. Despite the fact he wants nothing more than to curl up in a ball and pass out for days, he won't miss it.

"Okay."