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It’s been years since Mika has felt like this. Vampires aren’t effected by temperature— they’re cold all the time— but right now? He’s pleasantly warm. He can hear his heart racing in his ears. The heart that shouldn’t beat anymore. He looks into the dark screen of the phone as it reflects his face back at him.
He opens his mouth as wide as can and attempts to expose his fangs. Nothing.
He moves his hair to take a look at his ears, rounded instead of the points he’s gotten used to seeing over the last four years.
He draws his attention to his eyes, while the screen doesn’t reveal the color, he can see the difference. No longer do cat-like ovals stare back at him, but human circles.
Mika is almost scared to look away— to find an actual mirror to confirm the color of his eyes— He simply stares at himself in the blackness of the phone.
He has no idea how long he sits there, kneeling on the floor of an unfamiliar bedroom with a stranger’s phone held in his shaky hands. Honestly, he had no idea that smartphones like these worked anymore. He thought that after the apocalypse, when all the power plants went dead, smartphones soon followed. Even the best of the best could last four whole years and it’s not like they’re a useful enough tool to bother wasting gas on charging.
Mika startles when the phone suddenly lights up and screams an annoying tune. He nearly drops the thing when the name “Yuu-Chan” appears on screen. It has a cute little red heart next to the name. There’s a picture on screen too. It looks like his Yuu. Green eyes, black hair and that stupid smile. But it can’t be, no way. His Yuu never looks so carefree! And why in the world would a strange phone have his picture and name on it?
It has to be a trick. Or-
The screen goes dark again. He waited too long to answer and it went off.
Mika barely has time to process that information before the phone starts ringing again. He supposes that this “Yuu-Chan” isn’t gonna stop calling until he gets an answer…maybe it is his Yuu…
He answers the call this time and pulls the phone to his ear— his normal, human ear. He’s immediately greeted with a loud scream of “Mika” that causes him to pull the phone further away from his ear.
“Yuu-Chan! Don’t scream in my ear!” Mika groans out. The voice on the other side doesn’t seem to get the message, that or they don’t care.
“Mika, where are we? Where are you? Are you okay? Why does everything seem…normal? Like before the plague happened?” Yep, that’s definitely his Yuu-Chan. Mika signs and then realizes that he can hear cars driving by and people talking outside the window. Yuu keeps yapping as Mika stands up and shambles over to the window. The blond tunes out his friend and opens the curtain.
He’s blasted with the light from the sun but he can’t bring himself to care. There’s people outside. A lot of people too, humans. No vampires attacking them, no horsemen either. They aren’t dressed in JIDA uniforms or even JIDA’S school uniforms. They’re all wearing impractical outfits. The kinda stuff that normally people would never go outside in anymore.
Suits, dresses, various school uniforms, plenty have their necks exposed. The buildings look intact, none overgrown and dilapidated but not new like they were build after society’s collapse either. The amount of cars going by is nothing like they normally see anymore. These people are using gas like it’s not a rarity. Street lights are on, people are on smartphones, streets are well-kept, and there’s no debris in sight. It looks like how the world did before everything went to shit.
He can barely breathe, his voice is small as he asks his friend.
“Yuu? Where are we?”
Mika sits on the bed. He’s got his still shaking hand holding the phone to his ear. He’s calmer now. He’s actually listening to Yuu. “Well we’re definitely not in the past, that’s pretty evident from our ages alone,” Yuu pauses, probably thinking. “You’re human and I don’t have Ashuramaru anymore. If we were to get attacked we would probably be screwed…”
Mika takes a deep breath and tries to calm himself down some more. Yuu’s right, as strange as it is, Mika is not used to this body at all. If they were targeted…Mika couldn’t protect him.
“Hey, Mika…everything is gonna be okay. I promise!” Mika can practically hear him smiling though the phone. “I guess there’s a upside to this, I can eat human food again.” Mika manages a small smile. He wont have to leach off of Yuu-Chan anymore.
There’s a long pause before Yuu says anything. “Oh…right. No more blood drinking…yay” Mika expression shifts to confusion. Is Yuu upset? Does he like-
Mika refuses to finish that ridiculous thought.
“Listen, I think we have school soon. You should get ready, I’ll come get you and we can figure things out from there. I’ll text the team, see if they’re here with us!” With that Yuu hangs up without even saying bye.
Mika has the feeling that this is gonna be a long day.
Yuu:
So u guys got brought here too right
Read by Shinoa, Yoichi, Mitsuba, and Mika at 7:26 AM
Yuu:
You guys remember??? Moon demon company???
Read by Shinoa, Mitsuba, and Yoichi at 7:31 AM
Yoichi:
Yuu? I thought u said you’d stop smoking before school…
Read by Yuu, Mistuba and Shinoa at 7:32 AM
Shinoa:
Ah yes moon demon company! How could I forget!!!!
read by Yoichi, Yuu, Mitsuba, and Mika at 7:34 AM
Yuu:
Thank god I thought you’d call me crazy lol
Read by Mika, Shinoa, Mitsuba and Yoichi at 7:34 AM
Shinoa:
Why would I
Read by Mika, Yuu, Mitsuba and Yoichi at 7:35 AM
Shinoa:
Moon demon company fighting the demons that threaten the moon obviously!
Read by Yuu, Yoichi, Mika, Shiho and Mitsuba at 7:35 AM
Shiho:
Stop spamming im trying to drive
Read by Yoichi, Mitsuba, Yuu and Shinoa at 7:35 AM
Mitsuba:
Don’t text and drive idiot
Read by Yuu, Shiho, Yoichi and Shinoa at 7:36 AM
Shiho:
i wouldn’t have too if they would STOP SPAMMING UGH
Read by Mitsuba, Yuu, Mika, Shinoa and Yoichi at 7:37 AM
Shiho:
And yuu stop smoking before school, this is why you have shit grades
Read by Mika, Yuu, Mitsuba, Yoichi and Shinoa at 7:37 AM
Mitsuba:
Yeah im not dealing with Yuu’s shit this early
Read by Shinoa, Yuu, Mika and Yoichi at 7:37 AM
Yuu:
IM NOT
Read by Shinoa, Mika and Yoichi at 7:37 AM
Yoichi:
Did u not sleep last night or something???
Read by Yuu, Shinoa and Mika at 7:38 AM
Yuu:
ask Mika, its all true!!
Read by Shinoa, Mika and Yoichi at 7:38 AM
Mika:
Ur insane
Read by Yuu, Yoichi and Shinoa at 7:39
Mika finally exits his bedroom after getting dressed and messing with Yuu. Unfamiliar with the layout of the house, he wanders around a bit until he finds the kitchen. Mika is wholly unprepared to find Queen Krul seemingly cooking breakfast and Lacus Welt siting at the table looking his phone.
Despite her having her back to Mika, he can tell that she looks older— more mature. Taller, with her long pick hair pulled partly into a bun. A different outfit too. Instead of her usual dress she’s dressed in a white blouse, a gray pencil skirt, and has on tights. Shes currently donning a pink, frilly apron.
Mika feels like his brain is going to explode seeing his sire doing something so mundane.
“Mika-Chan, I was about to yell for you. What took you so long?” Lacus jumps up from his seat and walks over to Mika. He attempts to throw his arms around the younger boy but Mika dodgers and stumbles back into the wall. Apparently, this was the wrong response as it drew the attention of both vampires- no, humans.
“Mikaela? Is everything okay?” Queen Krul abandons the food she was working and looks at him with concern. Her eyes are blue and her face is that of a beautiful, middle aged woman. His queen no longer looks like a 10 year old and it throws him for a loop. Suddenly she’s in front of him with the back of her hand placed gently on his forehead.
He barely notices Lacus walking over to the stove, eyes watching him. “I’m fine Krul” Mika pulls her hand down, and tries to act normal. This seems to only worry her more.
“Did you just call be by my name? You don’t feel like you have a fever, but you’re acting weird,” she cups her face with her hands. Even though shes taller now, she’s still not as tall as him and has to reach to do touch his face. “I’m not sure if you should go to school today, you’re not acting like yourself.” She tucks a strand of hair behind his ear.
Now his brain is definitely gonna explode. He didn’t think Krul was capable of being this nice and gentle. She ruffles his hair. “How about you eat something, Hon? You look hungry.” Krul smiles at him. “Uh, ok.”
“It should be done in a minute,” Lacus grabs his hand and leads him to the table. He sits in the chair next to Lacus. He has green eyes here. Mika thinks it suits him. Lacus has his face resting on his hand as he scrolls through something on his phone.
Lacus is dressed in ripped black jeans, a purple flannel, what seemed like a band shirt, and a lot of chains and necklaces. Mika can see where he has some piercing holes and he has one of those spiky fitted necklaces on. Mika thinks he looks cool as a human.
“You’re staring,” Lacus’ eyes flick over to him. “Are you mad at me, Mi-Chan?” He’s frowning. Mika notices some makeup on his face. Mika thinks he looks really cool as a human. The blond is knocked out of his awe-induced stupor when Krul places a plate of curry in front of him.
The curry smells good. It’s not warm like blood, but hot. There’s steam flowing out of it. Mika puts his face closer to the plate, feeling the warmth. Suddenly he realizes that the his constant hunger can finally be satiated. The fire in throat can be put out.
He picks up his spoon, eyes set on the food. Krul’s staring at him as he digs in. Mika nearly swallow down a hole bite before he remembers how to chew, biting his tongue in the process, he stuffs his face.
Mika allows his hair to fall into his face as he eats. Covering his expression to hopefully seem as normal as possible. He’s distantly aware of how insane he must appear, eating like this when he most likely just ate last night, but he can’t bring himself to care right now.
For the first time in four years, the burn is gone. Not just less all-encompassing, not turned down, it’s completely gone.
It takes Mika no less than 20 minutes to convince Krul and Lacus to let him go to school. Even then Lacus demands to drive Mika. Apparently in this weird world Mika’s name is “Mikaela Tepes” and Krul has been adoptive mother for some time now. Lacus is something of an other brother to him he guesses.
“So,” Lacus starts. “Were you up late last night? You look tired.” He glances at Mika for a second before he returns his eyes to the road. Honestly Mika is glad Lacus was so insentient on taking him. It’s not like Mika knows what school he goes to.
“Just didn’t sleep great last night.” Technically not a lie, Mika hasn’t ‘slept well’ in four years.
Lacus gives him a funny look. “Were you up late thinkin’ bout Yu?”
“No, I just told you— I didn’t sleep great.” Mika quickly shuts the former vampire down. He gets enough of this crap from Shinoa, he doesn’t need it from Lacus too.
“You know, you can talk to me about anything.” Lacus pulls up to what Mika assumes is his school. “If something’s bothering you— if someone is bothering you, you can tell me.” There’s a hand placed on his head.
With a sign Mika pulls Lacus’ hand off him. Yeah, he’s Lacus alright. Worried over him for no good reason. “I’m fine, Lacus. See ya’.” He hears a chuckle as he exits the car.
“Bye-bye, Mi-Chan! I love you!” Lacus screams after him. Mikaela feels his face heat up. He’s just as annoying here as he is back home.
In the car Mika had looked though his phone for some hints as to his school schedule. Mika had luckily found the codes and numbers of his locker and gym locker in his notes app. A terrible way to store sensitive information but it’s definitely good for him.
He’s still looking though his phone as he walks through the school on autopilot. Relying on instinct and muscle memory to get him to his locker. He struggles for a bit to open it, even with the combination. Yuu Stomps towards him.
“Why didn’t you back me up? Now our friends think I’ve lost it.” Mika stares at his best friend for a minute. Mika looks away and starts riffing though his messy locker. “Mika!” Yuu wines out.
“I didn’t think you were this stupid Yuu-Chan,” Mika lets out a long sigh and turns his attention back to the raven-haired boy. “If I said anything, they’d just think that we’re pulling some crazy prank on them.” He closes his locker and then leans against it.
“But…”
“If they don’t know, they don’t know. Nothing we can do about it.” Mika fusses with his hair. It’s messed up because of that idiot. Yuu’s face shift into a more neutral expression. “Anyway, I hope you had better luck getting here than I did. I live with Guren, and he had any interest in driving me.”
Mika deflates at the mention of the man, he’ll never trust him.
“He said “No way am I gonna drive you just because, you randomly forgot the way!”” Yuu does a laughably bad impression of the older man. “Whatever Yuu-Chan. If you need to know, a vampire friend of mine drove me.”
“Huh? I never knew you had made friends with any vampires…I thought you hated them…”
“Obviously he’s human here. His name is Lacus, and I do hate him! He’s super annoying and loud! And he’s always worrying about me not eating!” Mika huffs out.
“He worries about you? I like him already!”