“My homework load is insane for a first year master’s,” Abel muttered, looking up from his laptop.

“How much do you have?” I asked and rubbed my eye.

He looked back down at his laptop and quickly scanned a page. “Like… Four essays. All four needs to be between ten and twenty-thousand words. Like what is up with that?”

“Obviously, they did it to make you suffer.”

He snorted and rubbed both of his eyes. “I’m already exhausted and I’ve only finished one so far.”

“Wanna take a break?” I asked and stretched my arms above my head.

“Yeah, that’d be nice. Wanna go to mine?”

We had been studying in the library. It was nice and quiet, and the chairs were quite comfy. Not to mention, the free Wi-Fi was a definite bonus. But I hadn’t been at Abel’s yet and I really wanted to see how he lived, so I immediately agreed.

 ***

Abel’s home was really nice. As in, ‘it looked like it came out of a catalogue’ nice. It was a remodelled factory building that now had four flats in it, so big industrial windows, exposed brick walls, metal sliding doors and the best addition: hardwood floors. The kitchen and living room, was in one big spacious room with metal beams all over the ceiling.

The furniture fit so well, too. He had this plank dinner table, paired with wooden chairs covered in sheep’s furs. Exposed giant light bulbs hung above the table. I wanted to marry this place.

“So uhm, I’m hungry,” Abel said and got a little fidgety with his shirt.

“I could eat.” I shrugged a shoulder.

“No, I… Gotta feed. I can go into another room or something if it freaks you out, but I kind of need to pour it into a cup and heat it in the microwave.”

I had absolutely no idea what the hell he was talking about, and it was apparently written all over my face because he continued.

“Blood, Gael. I need blood.”

He walked over to the stainless-steel fridge and opened it, showing me the inside. There was a whole shelf filled with blood bags. Other than that, there was a sixpack of beers, some fizzy drinks and what looked to be chocolate snacks.

“I get them from donors. Like it’s an underground thing happening. Real established.” He took out a bag and showed it to me. O positive.

“Alright. Get some… Blood. Food?” I glanced up at him.

“Food is good.” He smiled that really cute smile and went to a drawer, getting a scissor and opening the bag. He poured the blood into a mug with puppies on it. Puppies in a basket.

He popped the puppy mug in the microwave and then turned to me.

“You don’t have to drink it in another room, by the way,” I said before he could say something. “It’s your place. And a couple of weeks ago I woke up with my head stuck in half a deer. So, this is mild to me.”

“Half a deer?” Abel asked and snorted, turning back to the now beeping microwave. He brought the mug out and took a careful sip.

“Yeah, I guess the wolf has upgraded to bigger animals now when we’re out here. Apparently, it’s also easier on my stomach because I didn’t actually puke.”

He cringed a little.

“Too gory?” I asked and felt like an idiot.

“Nah, I mean, I’m literally drinking a good ol’ cup of a blood here.” He laughed a little and went to the dinner table. I sat down with him, on the opposite side. I liked how the fur made my back all warm. It was nice.

“How often do you need to drink it?”

“At least twice a day. Otherwise, I get drowsy and grumpy. Hangry, basically.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle a little. The image of a hangry vampire seemed really endearing.

“So, mornings and nights?”

“Yep, yep, yep,” he said and nodded. Kind of cute how he’d repeat a word three times and then nod along with every word.

“Have people actually been creeped out by it?”

“Uh yeah. Used to date a guy who couldn’t see even a drop of blood without fainting. Obviously, it didn’t work out.”

“Yikes,” I said and grimaced. “Well, I’m not afraid of blood.”

He smiled again. Honestly, I’d bottle those smiles because they were as cute as his puppy mug. And that was a really weird thing to think about. I really had to get out of my own head and just be present in the moment.

“So, what do you wanna do? We could watch telly or something.”

“I thought we were supposed to study,” I said and snorted.

“Honestly, I also get drowsy after drinking blood and kind of need like… An hour. Or two. Just to relax and digest.”

“You actually go into a food coma?” I tried to not laugh but it was hard.

“Hey, I might be a supernatural creature that survives by drinking blood and could technically live forever, but food comas are a universal experience.”

I couldn’t stop laughing and I tried really hard. Abel was laughing too.

“Alright, let’s watch some telly,” I said, trying to stop laughing but was massively unsuccessful. It wasn’t even that funny but I think my sanity had left me so I could hang out with this ridiculously gorgeous guy alone. Without any sanity. Fun!

***

So, it was pretty fun. We didn’t get a whole lot of studying done, but we watched some pretty crappy reality tv that was like a contest but also some sort of dating programme at the same time? Neither of us got what the rules were, but we were definitely rooting for some of the contestants for random reasons. One woman had a really soothing voice. One guy kept saying “totally” so we couldn’t not root for him.

“You know, we’d totally win a show like this. Like, we’d go in with a solid plan and then be all like, surprise bitches, we’ve been teaming up this entire time.”

I laughed. “Notice how there’s either no gay men or just like… One? And what’s he supposed to do there surrounded by a bunch of straight people? If he’s lucky, there’s those weird straight women who’re obsessed with the gay friend trope. Then they could become a team. Usually, they cast types for this show. Like the nice guy, the total bitch who’ll eventually say ‘I didn’t come here to make friends’, so they need to cast someone who’d specifically go after teaming up with him. Maybe someone super driven.” I cringed a little as the contestants started doing body tequila on each other for some contest.

“Competitive people always win this, don’t they.” Abel rolled his eyes a little. “Imagine if someone went in and was actually kind and not a backstabber.”

“You’d lose this competition. Because you’d be too kind and not play the game.”

He glanced at me and smile. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“It was definitely meant as one.”

“Can you imagine us on that show though? Me slinking off to have some blood and you turning in the middle of a tiki-party.”

“At least it’d be way more interesting. There should be a whole show just with supernaturals.”

“Invite a banshee to karaoke night and the show would be very short,” he chuckled.

“What actually happens when a banshee screams?” I asked.

Abel turned the telly down a bit. “Well, they can scream whenever they want, but they’re forced to when someone’s about to die. When they scream, it’s like… It’s like someone crawls into your ears and repeatedly stabs your eardrums. I don’t know if you’ve had an ear infection, but before your eardrum bursts from the pus building up behind it, it’s a debilitating pain. There’s very little you can do besides laying down and try to not focus on that pain. Fred had it a couple of years ago and she said the pain was similar to when Creek would scream when they were kids.”

I cringed a little. “Okay, I haven’t had an ear infection but that sounds really terrible.”

“It’s great for self-defence. Or as an offence.” He shrugged a little, looking back at the telly.

“Offence against who?”

He turned his head back toward me. “Well… Not all supernaturals are nice. This is like a safe haven where we mix with each other, but it’s not like that everywhere. Like, there’s some sort of peace clause surrounding this place that ages back about two-hundred years. But occasionally someone wants to challenge that so their own kind can be on top.”

I clenched my jaw and looked down at my hands. “How often does that happen?”

“Every couple decade or so. It doesn’t happen that often, but it happens. Hasn’t happened while I’ve been here but Fred and Creek can tell you some stories of how they weren’t allowed out after dark because the vampires were after the banshees, or the witches were after the vampires. Honestly, it’s tiring.”

“Have wolves ever been involved?”

He nodded hesitantly. “Why do you think there’s no wolves here, Gael? They were either killed or run out a long time ago.”

I started chewing on my lip. “Will that happen to me?”

“Nah, you’re under the peace treaty. But I’d probably not wear a shirt saying: ‘I’m a werewolf’ printed on it.”

“Well, there goes half my wardrobe,” I muttered under my breath.

Abel snorted. “You’re funny. Has anyone ever told you that?”

“Oh please, I’m like ninety percent bad jokes.”

He snorted at that.