Fantasy St. George's School for Young Hunters (closed)

[Mikotsuhime]

May sniffled and rubbed at his eyes, trying his best not to cry too much, but his face was already all wet and snotty so it probably didn’t really matter much. He had always been an ugly crier.

“If we didn’t do anything wrong, then why would you put yourself in danger like that?” He asked, rubbing at his eyes again. Despite her insistence that she was ok, he didn’t necessarily stop healing her right away, though he slowed the transfer of energy to something more akin to a trickle.

He must have known that he wouldn’t really get a straight answer out of her, though, and he leaned into Scarlet’s reassuring hand instead of pushing the issue.

“We can let the guild handle everything from here,” he said quietly, and felt all of the energy rush out of him like a tidal wave. He still felt like crying, but his tears had died down somewhat and now he just felt like going to bed.

 

[jones573]

Winona wouldn’t have heard what else Vlad thought about the matter, even if Bram hadn’t verbally interrupted.



She’d already broken their connection, snapping it in two like a twig bound for kindling.



She gave no sign that it had been intentional, or was even aware that she had done it, and continued to stare at May in bewilderment.



Blessedly, she stayed where Scarlet and Alex had placed her, and didn’t resist when Alex repositioned her to ease any strain on the wounds May had just tended to.



“No. No pretending,” she decided after a minute. “But. It can be my fault.”



“It doesn’t need to be anyone’s ‘fault’! It can just be… Bad,” Alex interjected, “A bad thing that happened that many people wish to have prevented.” He sounded like he might be paraphrasing advice from ‘Talking To Troubled Teens’, and also like he was concerned that no advice book was going to cover ‘Self Esteem For Vampires Older Than Your Mother,’ a topic that was apparently sorely needed.



“So long as we understand who is responsible for fixing it- The Guild, okay,” he continued, helping Winona stand and again trying to reinforce that there was nothing more she should- or would- do about the situation.



“Sure,” she mumbled with a quiet scoff. “Like they ‘handled’ me.”



“Everyone okay to walk? Or do we need to do shifts,” Alex asked, attempting the business-like veneer that seemed so second nature to his aunt. He glanced over at Vlad. “Uh- Also… Can we use the main door?”



Not that he was opposed to another trip through a mysteriously appearing- and disappearing- staircase, surrounded by several tons of ancient castle on all sides, held back only by castle and no principles of engineering, but… Well. Maybe he was a bit opposed.

 

[Reynarda]

“Oh for the love,” Bram groaned. “It’s no one’s fault, okay? It happened, no one’s dead, let’s move on.”

He reached up and flicked Vlad’s ear to get his attention. “You listening to your kid? I think he’s had enough of your freaky castle for one day.”

Vlad still had his head bowed so that only Bram could see his expression, but after a few seconds, he nodded. “Yes, we can use the main passages.”

Vlad sat back, took a deep breath, and helped Bram sit up.

“How do you intend to get him upstairs?” Jurriaan Leeuwen asked.

Vlad flicked his eyes to Jurriaan, ducked under Bram’s arm, and rose, dragging Bram up with him—all without breaking eye contact.

“Why are you so damn short?” Bram complained.

“I can carry you,” Vlad said.

“And how are you going to do that, you scrawny-ass vampire?”

“I can,” Vlad insisted. “I did once.”

Bram snorted. “You dragged me—not carried me.”

“I can help.” Devon ducked under Bram’s other arm. “How’s this?”

“Now my crutches are uneven,” Bram complained as the vampire and half-vampire turned and began helping him towards the door. Bram was still in a decent amount of pain, but complaining and being belligerent would assure his paranoid vampire that he was fine. “Who’s hungry?”

“Me,” Scarlet said, still facing Jurriaan and staring him down.

“You don’t count.”

Once they reached it, the door to the crypt swung open. Scarlet shooed May, Alex, and Winona into the passage ahead of Bram, Vlad, and Devon—mostly because the latter would be moving more slowly, but also because she guessed Jurriaan would be less likely to try anything on the two people supporting his son.

The door slammed shut behind them, the stones scraping and squealing as the shifted to partially cover the exit to the crypt.

Despite Bram’s cheerful chatter, Vlad could tell how heavily his companion was leaning on him, as well as hear his quiet pained grunts. A quick survey of the group slowly processing up the passageway confirmed that the others were little better. “Perhaps rest is a better plan.”

Bram grunted in pain. “What for?”

“I need rest,” Vlad said quietly.

“Liar. You’re going to hover next to me for the next week, and I’ll have to force you to eat and drug your coffee with sleeping pills.”

 

[Mikotsuhime]

May allowed himself to be shoed out of the crypt, casting Alex little glances here and there. He seemed to be trying to take control of the situation the way Maria often did; May wasn’t sure whether he was doing it because he felt he had to. He chewed on his lower lip, but decided that it was a subject best breached after they got to have a nap and relax.

“I can cook,” he piped up. “Bram, you need to rest, seriously, I like barely closed you up. And I know how to cook.” Technically, he had gotten a bit better during his stay at the townhouse, even though he still had a bit of a tendency to over cook things. Glancing at Alex and deciding that he, too, needed a break, he grabbed onto his boyfriend’s arm. “Alex can help me. Bram and Win go to bed, and get some rest.”

He sounded quite insistent for somebody who was still sniffling a little bit, and his eyes were red and puffy. But he was trying to be ok and all he needed right now was some sense of normalcy.

 

[Mikotsuhime]

May couldn't deny that it had been a rather intense two weeks, even after Jurriaan had been taken away by the guild and everything had returned to some sort of normalcy. Bram's wounds had needed time to recover, and May still didn't understand why Winona had done what she had done, but eventually it was time to leave the castle behind and return to the townhouse, and May was a little bit grateful for it, as much as he dreaded the flight back. He hoped that by going back home things would really go back to normal, though he knew that what Winona had done had damaged severely damaged some of the trust and relationships in the household and that would take a lot of time to repair.

Still, after all that time in the castle, he was excited to be able to go back to his cramped townhouse room again, where it was warmer and he didn't need twelve sweaters all the time. He had even managed to forget about the threat hanging over his own head, until the plane had landed and they were all getting out of the truck in the driveway.

There was somebody standing on the front porch, seemingly waiting, and May squinted to figure out if it was one of the neighbours before letting out a horrible noise that sounded kind of like a dying cat. The figure immediately zeroed in on their group at the sound, and he straightened up from where he had been leaning against the side of the house, drawing himself to his full height. Which wasn't really that impressive, but he was still able to tower over May, and that was enough. May found himself hiding behind Alex before he even realized what he was doing, and the stranger somehow managed to stomp elegantly down the stairs, marching over to their group with the air of royalty.

"Serpent!" He snapped, and May immediately snapped to attention from where he was cowering behind Alex. He looked very much like a small child who had been caught doing something wrong, which was strange enough because the newcomer looked to be closer in age to Alex and the twins than to May himself.

"Agni," May greeted in a strangled tone, and Agni glowered at him as though he had just insulted his mother.

"I have been waiting here for three days! Where have you been, that you did not even tell Henrietta your location?!" Agni snapped, and May cowered again, eyes darting back and forth as he tried to come up with an explanation that would appease the man who looked like he had no intention of being appeased.

"I'm sorry! There were, uh, things happening, big important things that I needed to take care of, and there was magic and a bad guy and I needed to be somewhere safe for a while so I went to Europe," He flinched at Agni's angry stare. "B-but how did you even get this address anyways! Did Henri give it to you? She gave me permission to leave! I didn't do anything wrong--"

"Silence," Agni interrupted, his voice surprisingly calm even while he looked angry enough to blow a gasket any second. "You did not have my permission to leave the island. We are returning immediately, go and gather your things."

May's eyes widened, and he made a series of aborted noises before finally settling on "What?! Why?!" and then "No, I can't go back! I have responsibilities here, and stuff! There's this thing with the vampire council and--"

"I do not care about vampires," Agni said with a huff, crossing his arms over his chest as his eyes swept over the rest of the group for the first time, with something between disinterest and mild disdain. "The serpent's seal weakened. You will come home with me this instant, and there will be a trial to determine your involvement in such a thing, and what the solution will be. Now come on, and get your things!"

 

[jones573]

Strictly speaking, spending a few weeks in an ancient castle with friends, with easy access to unique books and actual, real live dragons was the sort of vacation Alex ought to have enjoyed. In reality, it had been a bit… Tense.



He’d managed to avoid freaking out too publically though, saving most of his panic attack for a phone conversation with Maria that had gone surprisingly well- She’d agreed that his parents didn’t really need to know all the details, so long as everyone was safe now. He’d felt better, having been able to ramble off all his concerns without worrying that he was overstepping his bounds, but she hadn’t actually been able to offer much advice on what to do when your boyfriend allowed himself to be possessed by some demon-snake thing and your friend had expressly disobeyed her guardians’ wishes and tried to murder someone and was now… Regressing?



Alex wasn’t sure what was going on with Winona. Technically, she was taking care of herself quite well. Sleeping a lot, eating balanced meals, practicing basic hygiene and the various other things she tended to forget about if not reminded. In the days following the fiasco with Jurriaan, she’d even choked down a glass of blood before bed each night, though it had been with a grimace and a pointed look at Vlad.



But other than meal times, and the occasional instance when an adult requested her presence and didn’t specifically phrase it as a question, Winona mostly stayed in her room, and kept other people out.



She could read the next chapter in her current Oz book by herself, she said to turn down offers of having it read aloud to her. No thank you, they should not wait on her to play Settlers of Catan. Or Blokus. Or Spoons. She even turned down an offer of watching Alex get shooting pointers from Luka, even though Alex had been sure to emphasis how comparatively bad he was and how embarrassed he would be.



She didn’t spend all her time in her room, though- The first time Alex couldn’t find her in the first several places he thought to look, he’d been sure she’d run away. But she’d only gone outside, hiking far enough to be alone but not so far that she couldn’t still see the castle.



If he was honest, Alex was just as annoyed with her as he was concerned. If he was really honest, he was maybe a little annoyed at everyone- If recklessness was a sport, he thought he might know several members of the Olympic gold medal team. But mostly he was thankful everyone was safe and that the Guild had eventually arrived and Winona hadn’t run away and May hadn’t been repossessed and no wounds had gotten infected.



He would miss lounging next to May in front of the fireplace and reading an account on early theories on the properties and limitations of magical fire, and he was sad they hadn’t really gotten to spend much more time with the dragons, but he was glad to get back on the plane and fly back across the Atlantic.



Esme had only ever been polite, but he was beginning to feel like an intruder in someone else’s home- An intruder who had been accompanied by danger, chaos and injury to those whose home it really was.



He’d even talked a little with Winona about the concept of SkyMall on the plane, and it looked like things were all lined up for him to take online classes for spring semester. Things were looking up as they piled out of the truck, though Alex didn’t envy the jetlag the others were going to feel- Amongst those of them who hadn’t been alive for the entire human history of air travel, Alex definitely had the most experience with jumping time zones.



“Ummm,” Alex paused, obviously confused. “I think there’s been a misunderstanding- Oh, wait, this is Agni?”



May had never been very clear about who Agni was or what his role in May’s life was, but he’d come up enough that Alex knew he was probably important.



“Uh- It’s a pleasure to meet you, Agni. I’m Alex,” Alex offered, very unsure what was happening but wanting to make a good first impression. He wanted May to return with him for… A trial? Because he hadn’t gotten Agni’s ‘permission’ to leave in the first place?



That… Seemed like nonsense, and Alex straightened up a bit to shield May a bit further, his confusion battling with concern. He needn’t have been too worried- Winona may have been acting distant lately, but apparently ‘bossing May around’ was still something she very much frowned upon.



She stepped between Alex and Agni defensively, knocking Alex’s outstretched hand down with a swing of her duffle bag.



“Too bad. Vampires care about him,” she said darkly, looking down on Agni with disdain and a calculating look that Alex really hoped was not ‘probability Agni would collapse if hit repeatedly with a duffle bag’.



“You can return immediately,” she corrected Agni, not even bothering to pretend she wasn’t threatening him. “You don’t have ‘permission’ to be here.”


Winona could have a real future as a club bouncer, Alex thought absurdly, once she was old enough to go to clubs.

 

[Reynarda]

Bram didn’t dislike Vlad’s castle. He really didn’t. They’d gotten over their differences eons ago, and it had a ginormous kitchen. But he always got cabin—castle?—fever. This was only compounded as both Vlad and castle conspired to make sure he “rested”. It was maddening. He was fine. And Vlad hovered morosely next to him like he was afraid Bram would suddenly melt into smoke and waft away on the wind if he looked away.

Despite Bram’s protest, Vlad and the dragons had handled getting Jurriaan Leeuwen and his minions outside the castle’s land. Starless had suggested she and her family just eat the rest of the slayers, but Vlad had mercifully turned her offer down. Bram wasn’t sure what passed between his father and Vlad during the trip, but the small vampire had come marching back into the castle with his nose lifted in the air.

May and Alex seemed fine. May was still a bit sniffly and would give them looks out of the corner of his eye, but he seemed to be bouncing back. Alex mothered everyone and seemed a bit miffed—understandable, Bram figured.

Devon had been worried for a few days, but he changed gears when Bram mentioned his brave exploits during the entire ordeal. Devon was also drinking a concoction Bram termed “bloody protein shake”—which was essentially a protein shake but with blood instead of protein powder or eggs. Bram was very proud of this concoction. He had created it when Vlad’s careful monitoring of his half-vampire charges had noticed something was off in Devon’s aura. It was so difficult to determine how much blood the twins needed, but this seemed to work for Devon.

Bram was very worried about Winona. He wasn’t dumb—he knew she and Vlad had been mentally linked somehow. But now… Bram wasn’t sure. He worried how much of his thoughts Vlad had allowed through, and how much of Winona’s had invaded Vlad’s mind.

He had fully expected his father’s appearance to send Vlad into a negative spiral of “what if”. But this was different. Something had happened with Winona, and Vlad wasn’t telling him what. Winona wasn’t vocal on the best of times, and he figured Vlad was more accustomed to his incessant prying than Win.

It was almost as if they were doing the same thing—seeking to be alone, withdrawing into themselves. So much so, that Bram almost worried too much had passed from Vlad to Winona. But Bram knew how much he could push Vlad, and Vlad also was drawn back to interaction by his responsibilities as Dad Number Two. Vlad would pull through.

But Bram wasn’t really sure what to do with Winona. He had even made some of her… foods to draw her out, and Esme had ordered her favorite juice online. Vlad had even agreed to open up the ancient training room and allowed Bram to show Win how to make it through the castle-created obstacle course. Despite his antics making Vlad laugh—and claim he had mastered it by age ten—it didn’t seem to improve Winona’s spirits.

If Bram was really honest with himself, he was a little messed up, himself. His father had attempted to murder his entire found-family and then had nearly killed him. And what if he had died? He wasn’t really afraid for himself, but he was worried about his family. What would have happened to them? Vlad would have never recovered. In fact, Bram guessed that the only thing keeping him alive would be his responsibilities to his family. Devon and Win had already lost one parent. And where would May end up? And Alex?

Bram had been in dire straights before, but none this close to death. And by his own father.

Bram was looking forward to getting back and returning to routine. Hopefully that would bring a sense of normalcy that would ease all the tension in everyone’s shoulders.

This was of course shattered when they found someone chilling on their porch.

“The hell?” Bram said, eyeing this kid as the rest of the family instinctually formed up around May. “Have you seriously been on our front step for three days? You know the neighbors already think we’re married and in the mob.”

“I hope you did not try to enter our home,” Vlad said, his tone mild.

Bram glanced at him, mostly surprised at the lightness of his tone, but also surprised he was even speaking. “Why? Just how intensely did you booby-trap it?”

The corner of Vlad’s mouth twitched into a feline smirk.

Damn it, Vlad.

At May’s question, Bram’s attention snapped back to Agni. “Yeah, how did you get our address? We’re unlisted on purpose!”

“Maybe I should work on shrouding it.”

Bram gave Vlad a look. They were not getting into that discussion right now while this kid was threatening May. “You wanna tell me what this kid is?”

“Is it not obvious?” When this got a baleful look from Bram, Vlad clarified. “One of the spirits from May’s island. The dragon, if I’m reading his aura correctly.”

Bram frowned. “You mean like Larry?”

Vlad was glad Bram had named the Serpent spirit as Agni should have no idea who “Larry” was and therefore could not use Bram’s words to convict May. But, just to be cautious, he said, “Little ears.”

Bram frowned for a second, fairly certain he did not swear, but then he got it. When Angi started making demands and Winona turned all “you’ll have to go through me first”, Bram gestured with his own duffle bag. “Whoa, hold it there, spirit-boy. Who died and made you head-spirit-thing? Pretty sure you’re not old enough to be bossing people around.”

“What are your rules of hospitality?” Vlad asked curiously. “Perhaps you would like to discus this inside? As Bram said, we do not want to give the neighbors anything else to gossip about.”

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Agni stared at Alex’s outstretched hand as if he had offered him something stinky.

“You will not refer to me by name,” he instructed, looking down his nose at the teenaged vampire. May supposed he was lucky that Agni was more haughty than actually offended, because it could have gone much worse. But the dragon’s moods were fickle, and luckily his irritation at being left for three days on the front porch didn’t seem to extend much beyond that.

He turned an expectant look to May, who cleared his throat awkwardly, fidgeting and looking quite embarrassed.

“E-everyone, this is the little guardian of the twelfth month. He’s uh—“ he broke off when Vlad mentioned getting into the house, and Agni’s mood quickly turned offended once more.

“How dare you accuse me of such a thing! Do you take me for a common criminal?” He asked, and then his face darkened, because these people were talking as if they had heard of him before, and even though he had no idea who Larry was, he was easily able to deduce where their knowledge had come from. He turned to May with a disapproving look on his face, and May flinched.

“You told outsiders of our traditions,” Agni accused, and May winced as though he had been burned.

“There were reasons for that, I swear— Win! No!” He squeaked, because he appreciated the thought behind her actions but he could see Agni rear back at the threat, eyes widening slightly before narrowing dangerously at her.

“How /dare/ you try to intimidate—“

“Ok! Inside sounds like a good idea! Let’s go inside and talk!” May cut in, grabbing Agni by the arm and tugging him towards the door. Agni looked affronted to be dragged around like that, but didn’t actually complain, and May managed to get him inside while sending an apologetic look at the others.

Once in the entranceway, Agni did politely remove his shoes, though he gave Bram a somewhat amused look, as though he had said something particularly funny. May cleared his throat again, cheeks flushing.

“U-uh, actually Bram, Agni... I mean, the little dragon is technically the leader of the guardians. He turned eighteen last month.” He explained, while Agni looked sufficiently smug beside him.

 

[jones573]

Alex didn’t think trying to get into the house was really something to be that offended by- A criminal activity maybe, but more logical than sitting outside for three days. But he clearly had /no/ idea what was going on here, so. He was a bit surprised at Vlad’s invitation, though- But it meant Vlad was confident in their safety, he supposed, and followed the others inside, being sure to keep himself between Winona and Agni despite the former's displeasure.



She was muttering darkly under her breath, probably about how she would dare to do anything she damn well pleased, and she clearly had been more effective than just ‘trying’, if he’d reacted so strongly.



“Oh, Agni can drive, big deal,” Winona said with sarcasm, dragging out his name with particular relish after he’d scolded Alex for the infraction.



Alex sighed as he put his bags down and out of the way- He’d hoped to unpack quickly, but he wasn’t overly keen on missing any of this. “That’s voting, Win,” he corrected her. “Driving is sixteen. And the permit and license are actually the more important things there, not age.” Considering the number of times this came up in conversation, he'd hoped she might have remembered.



“Oh, the ‘tradition’ where you’re awful to him, and he pretends it fine,” Winona asked dryly, before Alex could unsubtlety suggest she go check the car and make sure everything had been brought inside. And maybe not attempt to resume her position of looming over Agni with a sour face. "Nah, figured that out on our own, actually."


It was as though Winona’s taciturn nature for the last few weeks had never happened at all- Apparently, she had quite a lot to say, to someone she felt it was appropriate to be openly hostile towards.

 

[Reynarda]

Vlad quirked an eyebrow at Angi’s reaction to being accused of attempted breaking-and-entering. He couldn’t stop from imagining the guardian banging on the door and yelling for the “Serpent” indignantly. Oh, now the neighbors across the street would start hanging that crucifix on their door again. Joy.

He quickly disarmed the house as May charged inside, Agni in tow. The wards wouldn’t hurt May, of course, but they would certainly go after Agni.

“Oh my goodness, it is good to be home,” Bram groaned as he stepped inside. He dropped his bags in the middle of the floor, earning a hum of annoyance from Vlad.

“May did no such thing,” Vlad told Agni while passing Bram’s bags to Scarlet, who ran them upstairs. “We are extremely observant. Please, take a seat on the couch."

“But I do have questions,” Bram said, flopping into the armchair closest to the door. “Why do you guard months? Like what are they going to do? Or are you the official guardian for that month only? Man, February gets off easy.”

Vlad rubbed his forehead. “Have you not heard of the zodiac? Not the same thing, but you get the general idea.”

At May’s explanation of Agni’s actual adulthood, Bram laughed. “Oh wow. Eighteen. So old. So mature.”

“This coming from the 500-year-old who thinks that mattress sledding is a good idea.”

“You’re just close-minded.”

Bram looked between Vlad and Winona who were both awfully vocal for two people who had been moping and skulking—respectively—for the past few weeks. He was worried he would have to drag them all off on some other adventure to get them out of their funks.

Agni’s appearance and subsequent hostility towards May had done just the trick. Perfect.

“Okay, more questions. How come you’re the ‘little dragon’? Who’s the ‘big dragon’? Also, you do realize that you and Vlad have the same name, right? Are you sure you’re not related?”

Vlad rolled his eyes. He could tell by Bram’s smirk what the slayer was up to. Once the rest of the townhome’s residents were gathered, he perched on the arm of Bram’s chair and addressed Agni. “Welcome to our home, Little Guardian of the Twelfth Month. This is the Drakonii-Leeuwen—”

“Leeuwen-Drakonii.”

“—family. I am Vladimir Drakonii, and this is Abraham Leeuwen. Then by order of age we have Scarlet Drakonii, May Garrison, you know, Alexander Yates-Moraes, and Winona and Devon Starling-Von Batts.” He gestured at each of them in turn, and Devon scowled when he was listed as the youngest. “We have our own rules and traditions. As we have accepted May into our home, this means our rules apply to him. Therefore, you need to lay out the charges you have against him, and we will determine how to proceed. Keep in mind that if you accuse one of us, you are accusing all of us.”

Scarlet whistled. “Dang. I haven’t heard him pull out the ‘mess with one of us, mess with all of us’ speech since the Council tried to execute me.”

Vlad smiled his Council smile. “And if all of us attending to your trial is not something you wish, I suggest you withdraw the charges.”

 

[Mikotsuhime]

While it was good that Vlad and Win were talking again, May really, really wished that the circumstances leading up to that had been different. He had expected that Agni and Winona wouldn't get along, when he had vaguely entertained the idea that they might by chance meet, but he hadn't expected that meeting to ever actually come /up/. Even when he thought he might be summoned back, he expected that Agni would send Henri in his stead. This right now was a bit of a disaster that he had not planned for, and he was panicking a little bit on the inside, though he tried not to show it.

Agni on the other hand either didn't notice his discomfort or didn't mind it, because he was busy inspecting the living room with obvious disdain. One look at the bloodstains on the couch had him wrinkling his nose in disgust at the bloodstains, but he did as instructed and sat very gingerly on the edge of the cushion. Once seated, he shot Winona a very irritated glare, arms crossing over his chest.

"You are a rude and impudent little--" He began, but May squawked to interupt him and immediately dropped his things behind the couch.

"Yes! Eighteen is voting!" He exclaimed, cutting off the decidedly unkind word that was about to come from Agni's mouth. "B-but we don't really have that sort of system, back home. I mean we do, but Agni wouldn't really take part, since he's like, a local deity."

Agni glanced back at him, still seeming particularly peevish, but at least he was no longer looking at Winona like he would like to set her on fire, so that was that. May sighed inwardly in relief.

"Before we get to business," Agni began, his mouth drawn into a thin, displeased line. "Are you not going to offer tea to your guest? I had heard from Henrietta that at least one of you was a highborn vampire, so I expected the basics of hospitality." He tapped his fingers on the armrest of the couch,, eyes going to May, who snapped to attention.

"Uh, we were kind of away for a while, I don't know if we even have any-- Ok! I'll find you some tea!" he said, watching Agni's disapproving stare get worse when he suggested that they might not even offer him anything. He quickly absconded into the kitchen, giving Alex a look that he hoped said 'please try to not let Winona antagonize him too much', though he really just looked nervous and a bit constipated.

Once he was out of the room, Agni turned to Bram and Vlad again and wrinkled his nose.

"The titles we have were given to us by humans," he explained. "They asked for our protection and awarded each of us a title and their devotion in return. Though you are outsiders, and it is none of your concern, I will answer your questions because for whatever reason the serpent seems to be fond of you, so be grateful. I am the little dragon because the former dragon has not yet passed on to the next life. In your terms you could consider him my grandfather, if you will. Once he passes I will take his place as the dragon proper. There are currently thirteen guardians total, including the former dragon, but only twelve are active and they will be the jury for the upcoming trial to decide the serpent's fate."

When Vlad said that May was a part of their family, Agni found himself scowling.

"The serpent is from our homeland, and though he is only a vessel and the serpent of the fifth month is corrupted, he was still created to house a guardian. He does not belong to a family of vampires, and he will be returning to his /real/ and /proper/ home with me regardless of your objections," he said haughtily, and luckily May was still in the kitchen preparing tea, or he would have been rambling out said objections himself. Still, Agni found himself growing a bit flustered under Vlad's politician smile, and he crossed his arms once more, looking down his nose at the vampire. "And regardless of your position in vampire society, I do not answer to you. Besides that, you misunderstand the purpose of this trial."

May returned at that point, with a cup of sleepy time tea that he had found stowed away in the back of the cupboard. It wasn't really appropriate for the situation, but he they didn't have any fine leaves, and while Agni sniffed in distaste, he still accepted it and took a sip.

"The serpent is not on trial for a wrongdoing. The trial is to decide whether his continued existence is a danger to the human race at large. We were to hold this trial in another two years regardless, but the serpent leaving the island - without my permission, nonetheless - and the seal on the true serpent weakening has simply sped up the timeline. If he is deemed to be a threat to the world, he will be executed. If it is deemed he is not a threat, he will be allowed to live - with supervision - for the next five years until--"

He was cut off by May slapping a hand over Agni's mouth, sweat beading on his brow as he looked nervously at his family. Agni made a very angry noise of dissent, but May held his hand there anyways.

"Until the next trial!" May exclaimed. "For the next five years until the next trial, and then another five years after that, and so on and so forth--Ow! You bit me!" He ripped his hand back, glaring at Agni, whose own face was somewhat flushed in anger or embarrassment.

"You put your unwashed hand over my mouth! Of course I would bite you!"

 

[jones573]

Winona wrinkled her nose when she was introduced, but did not vocalize whatever her objection was.



“/You/ are little,” Winona corrected derisively. “And also just as rude,” she said, not denying that particular charge. “You only get hospital-ity if you are a /guest/. Invited. Wanted. And you aren’t.”



“Winona I bet we still have some lemon bars in the freezer,” Alex said in a rush and she turned to look at him blandly.



“Why don’t you go fetch them,” he prompted quietly, trying to keep track of what the heck Agni was talking about. He hoped Vlad was the ‘high-born’ vampire and not himself- He was wearing sweats and a tee shirt with a pun about pi on it. “And uh, pop them in the microwave for a moment. To soften them.”



Winona was obviously not impressed by this ploy to remove her from the room and give her something to do with her mouth that she might enjoy more than threatening Agni, but Alex signed ‘please for May please’ and gave her a pleading look, and she relented too easily.



She gave Agni a fiercely pointed glare before heading to the kitchen and quietly told May, “Lemme know, and I deal with him,” as she passed him. Only after she had gone, with less resistance than Alex had expected, that he realized she was almost certainly going to return with at least a butter knife in her pocket, if not something sharper.



“Thaw some blueberries for garnishing them,” he hollered and there was an audible groan in response.



“Umm, sorry, I’m not quite tracking,” he admitted to Agni, sitting himself firmly in the middle seat of the couch so that no one else had the option of sitting next to the stranger. It seemed a good idea at the time, to prevent May from defaulting to a position next to this asshole, but now that he was sitting down he sort of wished maybe Scarlet or someone else braver than him had had that idea first.


-EDIT-

“So there's 11 guardians, one for all of the months except May,” he confirmed, deciding to approach this with a genuine attempt to understand, and hoping Agni would concede to explaining in simple terms. “But there isn't any representation for May? I mean, the month, not the person.”

Though it didn't really seem that May the person got much representation either, which was.... Unfair. Alex struggled for a moment, because he got the impression that ‘created to house a guardian’ implied May was /not/ a guardian, and that Agni would be gravely offended by suggesting that might be the case.

"So, May-the-person was, uh, intended to be the... representation for that month, but something went wrong? But isn't that like, the fault of whoever caused the corruption, and not May-the-person?"

Oh, they 'misunderstood the purpose of the trial', Agni was saying, so Alex was hopeful this might clear things up- Though he thought at the very least, it ought to clear up the fact that May had told them very little, since they clearly had no idea what Agni was talking about. Well, maybe Vlad did. But that wasn't on May.

-END EDIT-

Alex’s eyes widened as Agni carried on with his explanation in a calm manner, like it was totally no big deal to have a trial without any charges and ‘execution’ was the perfectly reasonable option-



“Oh, bullshit,” Winona chimed from the kitchen, clearly having been listening intently despite previous appearances. “His ‘xistense is a danger to like, maybe Alex at most, and he ain’t a human! You ain’t human either,” she accused, sticking her head in to glare at Agni some more. “Can’t have a trial with no wrongdoing. Then, it’s just being assholes.”

 

[Reynarda]

Vlad’s smile grew and his eyes narrowed into slits as Agni requested tea. Bram quickly rested a hand on the vampire’s knee, lest he teach Agni the exact rules of vampire hospitality. And anyway, May was stumbling off into the kitchen to get it and Winona seemed to have a good grasp of the rules.

Bram was surprised and more than a little pleased that Agni was actually answering his questions. He had entirely expected it just to irritate the kid. He smiled. “So you’re answering because May likes us? Why? Because you like May?”

Vlad chuckled at Agni’s posturing. “Local deity you may be, little guardian, but we are not under your jurisdiction. You ventured to our realm. You must abide by our rules.”

Bram wanted to laugh, but he also knew better than to set the record straight regarding Vlad’s confusing position in vampire society. Pain-in-the-ass/investigator/problem-solver just didn’t cut it, and Vlad wouldn’t appreciate Bram’s choice of words.

Scarlet and Devon sat in shocked silence. Had this dragon-kid seriously just said the trial was to determine whether May lived or died? And what was this about five years? There was a trial every five years? That didn’t make sense.

Bram was about to tell this kid exactly what he thought of the rules when Winona beat him to it. Vlad turned and gave him a look that said her choice of words were entirely his fault and he should put several dollars into the swear jar.

“I’m with Win on this one,” Bram said. “That’s total bull—er, BS. You can’t just decide whether or not someone lives or dies based on stuff out of their control! And anyway, Lar—Owch!”

Vlad had pinched Bram’s arm and was entirely unapologetic. “I am not misunderstanding the trial,” he said as his companion rubbed his arm.

“Bloody hell, Vlad,” Bram groaned, partly because Vlad pinched really hard, and partly because the vampire was still smiling, but his eyes had shifted to the cold-fiery glint he generally reserved for the Council’s particularly stupid plots. “He is only eighteen, don’t set him on fire.”

Vlad patted Bram so he would be quiet before returning his attention to Agni. “It is you who are misunderstanding. I am issuing a warning, little guardian. We are not bound by your laws and traditions. You threaten one of our own, and we will respond accordingly.”

Bram squeezed Vlad’s knee—mostly so he would stop glaring down the poor kid like that. Agni might be a guardian of the whatever month, but he doubted he had much experience with dealing with an angry vampire. “So what? We’re going to attend the trial? We do know a pretty good lawyer—which is an insult, by the way, not a complement, so don’t go telling him I said he was a good lawyer.”

Vlad seriously doubted Gabriel would be any more welcome on the island than they would be. Instead of commenting on this, he flicked his attention to May, his expression softening. “That is up to May. We can either kick the little guardian of the twelfth month out of the house and deal with the repercussions or attend the trial and deal with the result.” A little of the glint returned, however, when he said, “But of course our involvement is not up for debate. Despite what Agni says, you are a part of this family.”

 

[Mikotsuhime]

May signed in relief when Winona followed him out to the kitchen, though he was a little worried about her offer to handle things, and what /that/ would entail. He would have asked her to please try to be nice and not stab Agni, but he didn’t want to be patronizing, which would have the opposite effect, and also he didn’t have time with the dragon waiting on him.

Agni did seem annoyed by Winona’s comments, particularly calling him little. Yes, yes, he was the little guardian, but he was still an adult! And he was older than she was! But luckily Bram distracted him by asking the worst possible question he could, and Agni almost dropped his teacup.

“/Like/ him? I have respect for him, but I don’t, that is to say, it is not as though I, I mean—“ his cheeks flushed darkly and he grabbed the teacup again, downing the entire contents in one large swallow, May just stood next to him looking largely confused, but Agni managed to get his embarrassment under control enough to slam the cup down a little harder than he needed to. “That is unimportant anyways! I offered you a boon and you repay me with inappropriate questions!”

That seemed to be the end of that discussion, though May could tell that the next one was not going to go as well.

“I-it’s not really a trial, you know, it’s more like a vote! And it’s fine, really, there’s been two already and I’ve come out of both of them fine!” May exclaimed, hoping to assuage some of the worries of his family, but Agni seemed more offended by Bram and Winona’s objections.

“The serpent is a threat to civilization itself, primarily but not just that of humans. It is not as light a matter that you people make it out to be! Allowing the serpent to live to this point was already a dangerous act of compassion, but treading carelessly when it comes to its resurrection would be disastrous. You complain that our precautions are unjust, yet you know nothing of what this beast is capable of. Before the serpent’s rampage, the population of domina island neared 300,000, yet afterwards only 1000 remained. You would have us repeat such destruction on a global scale, for what? Sentiment? My duty is to protect humans. I refuse to toss that aside for the sake of a single friend.” Agni’s tone was resolute, and it was clear that he would not take their arguments into account. May sighed slightly, rubbing the back of his neck. He really had hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but...

“Look, guys, Agni is right. If the serpent’s seal does break, then... it would be better to make sure that doesn’t happen.” He mumbled, even though he had been the one to weaken the seal in the first place. A lack of forethought and a desire to martyr himself, maybe. “Besides, this isn’t, like, for sure an execution or anything, it’s just a possibility!”

Agni gave him a look that was absolutely unreadable, before sighing and settling back in his seat.

“If you wish to come to the island for the trial, you may. However there is little you can do to stop or change the proceedings. Seven of the eleven guardians have already cast their votes. Four have decided for execution and three against.”

May blinked then, going from looking resigned to genuinely curious.

“Oh? Who’s voted? I know Georgia, Nolen, Adrien and Rian were for execution, but who was against?”

Agni gave him an annoyed look, but didn’t actually admonish him for the subject change.

“As you said, the fox, the rabbit, the goat and the hyena were for execution. The eel, the tortoise and the phoenix were against. I, the raven, the tiger and the wolf have not yet cast our votes.”

May looked actually thoughtful at that, tilting his head to the side. While Agni snorted and gave Vlad a very sour look.

“You do not frighten me, vampire. I imagine I am a much more terrifying beast than you are. And you will not throw me out! Regardless if my divinity stretches here or not, this is not a matter in which I will hand over the authority to somebody who can only think with his heart!” He snapped, and May paled again.

“No, we’re not throwing you out! I’ll come back, ok, but only for the trial! I’m not staying permanently!” He said, and Agni looked like he had eaten something particularly sour, but he swallowed his argument. Despite his bravado he didn’t really want to test out Vlad’s strength on his own property so far away from the island he called home.

 

[jones573]

Winona looked suspiciously at Agni’s bright red face, and then at May’s obliviousness. Agni continued talking, and Winona thought the bright red wouldn’t be so terrible as a permanent look for him, if Vlad was feeling so inclined to burn his face off- The microwave went off. She gave everyone in the room a pointed look to indicate her displeasure with the entire situation, but disappeared from view again.



Alex could hear the microwave start again, and the banging of cabinet doors and clanking of silverware, but he was more concerned with listening to Agni and May.



“Whatever May is most comfortable with,” Alex said, already thinking of what all he needed to pack. He really didn’t like the idea of May going back to the island for this ‘vote’- with the rest of them or without- but May seemed genuinely concerned about this destruction Agni was alluding to.



Georgia, Nolen… Adrien, and… Ryan? Fox, rabbit, goat, hyena he tried to commit to memory. Was the animal thing important, or just another semi-arbitrary title the locals had given the guardians, like the months? Did the tortoise vote in May’s favor out of… Reptile solidarity? Would it be rude if he asked?

He was doing a quick sketch of the probability- They needed three of the remaining four votes to be against execution, which was only a ¼ chance, even if the odds were split 50/50. An even lesser chance if the already cast votes indicated an overall trend- But. May had easily guessed the four who’d voted for execution, so they likely always voted that way, and shouldn’t be considered among possible swing- Okay, he needed to stop. Eleven people weren’t enough to create a data set regardless.



“Can the, er, guardians who’ve already voted change their vote? Once they… Assess May and this seal-business in person?”



He really didn’t want them to burn any bridges with those who could possibly be helpful, and he was almost certain Bram and Winona- and everyone else- had also been paying attention to the names May had listed, and were currently planning on egging those individuals. Or worse.



Winona came back in, making a big drama of putting a plate of lemon bars down in front of Agni, as well as a pile of forks and smaller plates. She hadn’t done terribly- The yellow wedges didn’t look quite evenly thawed, but none of them seemed like they might be frozen solid. She’d obviously thrown the blueberries on top of the bars in between the microwave’s beeping instead of thawing them separately, as the squishy berries each sat in a puddle of blue juice that was seeping into the lemon glaze. But she’d chosen a simple white platter that looked nice enough – instead of throwing them on napkins or a plastic plate with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or something on it- so Alex was actually a bit surprised by this basic display of food presentation skills.



He was even more surprised when Winona announced, “For the guest,” with obvious exasperation and put the largest of the wedges, with the most blueberries, on a plate with a fork- But then she took off a corner of it with the fork and promptly placed the bite in her own mouth, before shoving the piece in Agni’s direction with annoyance.



Alex sighed. “Uh- Sorry, she didn’t mean that in a rude way,” he rushed to clarify before Agni took offense at Winona offering him her leftovers. “She’s- Trying to show you that it’s safe to eat.” It sounded better than ‘trying to show you she didn’t poison it’, and Winona glowered at Alex. She had reluctantly agreed to be polite, but she had been determined to do it in her own way, and if Agni had taken offense- Well, she would have loved for him to make the first move.



She signed quickly at Alex, who frowned. “I’m not asking that! And of course not, no one is staying in your room besides you.” Winona had been suspicious that Scarlet’s arrival might mean she had to share, and apparently the announcement that she was not going to be throwing Agni out the front door had reignited this concern. Because that was what was most concerning about the whole thing.


Not the fact that May's childhood had been shadowed by a vote every five years in which people decided to kill him or not, what in the hell.

 

[Reynarda]

Bram snorted at Agni’s stammering. “A word of advice, kid. Just give into the feelings of affection. They don’t go away.”

Scarlet blinked at May. “What?! They have regular trials to determine whether or not you should be executed?! That’s happened like twice to me, and both were because Vlad had blocked somebody’s evil plot. Dang, sugar crystal, you know that’s not normal, right? There’s nothing totally fine about that.”

“Hold up,” Bram interjected. “Pretty sure Mr. Dragon Guardian of the Month just called May a ‘friend’.”

Vlad hummed. “It seems like we are going, then. Any further comments?”

Devon raised his hand. “I would like to go on record as saying this sucks.”

“Noted,” Vlad said with such formality that Devon wondered if this was some sort of legal hearing or something. Quietly questioning Scarlet, he learned that it was apparently a family meeting and she was shocked no one had taught him vampire family politics in school.

Bram was considering the guardians who had not voted and what they should do about it when the freaking room turned cold. He rewound the conversation through his head and nearly cursed out loud. That kid had not accused Vlad—who prided himself in his logical decision-making and had recently just made a host of illogical and emotion-driven choices—of thinking with his heart. Bram quickly wrapped his arm in a friendly embrace around the vampire’s middle and casually pinned him to his side.

Bram glanced nervously between the eighteen-year-old deity and the vampire. Two slight, short people posturing and threatening one another would have been funny if one of them wasn’t a kid deity and the other was not an emotionally-compromised vampire. And Agni probably didn’t even know what he had said to anger Vlad, much less know that rule #17 of slaying was that you didn’t screw with an emotionally-compromised vampire.

Bram needed to dispel this right now.

Bram grinned tightly and cracked his knuckles. “Georgia, Nolan, Adrian, and Rian, huh? Vlad, remember those names. We need to know who to fight.” Vlad didn’t so much as blink, so Bram plowed on through. “Right, so we just need to find this wolf and tiger and...? Vlad. Help me out. Wolf, tiger, and?”

“Raven,” Vlad said, his voice too quiet.

“Right, and persuade them to vote against the execution. We can... what? Like canvass or something. We need a campaign slogan. What about ‘May We All Love Him’?”

Finally, Vlad rolled his eyes.

Bram grinned in triumph. “Well, we already know which way Mr. Little Guardian of the Dragon Month is voting for his friend, so, we just need two of those votes, right?”

Bram’s eyes lit up as food entered the room and he suddenly realized he hadn’t had anything to eat other than terrible airline food and the fast food they had grabbed on the way from the airport.

“You can release me,” Vlad said, having noticed the not-so-secretive glance between him and the food.

“You’re not going to set the kid on fire?”

“As mildly irritating as he is, he is a guest.”

After claiming a lemon bar, Bram gave Agni the thumbs-up. “Congrats, you’ve been upgraded to guest.” He glanced at Alex and Win and snorted. “Nah, Scarlet can sleep on the pull-out couch in the basement. We’ll renovate down there, I guess—”

“Hey! Who’s in my room?! I thought I was the first-born!”

“Yeah, well, you ran off, so you lost your dibs.” Bram glanced at Vlad. “Of course, we could always move…”

Vlad turned nearly the same look that he had given Agni on Bram.

“Oh, don’t look at me like that. You can imbue our furniture with all that magic like you’ve done for years—it’s not tied to the house.”

“That is not a topic for this meeting,” Vlad said through clenched teeth.

“I’m just saying, it’s awfully cramped, and everyone knows where we live.”

Vlad glared at Bram.

“And we could build. Make everyone’s room the way they want it.” Bram grinned. “And just think of the magic you could infuse the foundation with from the get-go. In a few years, you might be able to manipulate the layout.”

Vlad opened his mouth, then closed it, a thoughtful look crossing his face.

Smiling in satisfaction, Bram turned back to Agni. “But yeah, how’d you get here? I’m guessing you’ll need to stay the night? And who's starving? I'm kinda in the mood for pizza."

 

[Mikotsuhime]

May offered Scarlet an awkward little smile, rubbing the back of his neck again.

“I mean, it kind of is normal, for me. I understand why they do it. It’s a bit scary sometimes, but it’s all necessary anyways,” he said, while Agni eyes the lemon bars that Winona had placed in front of him suspiciously. He snorted when she decided to test it for poison, though he looked more amused than actually offended.

“You cannot actually poison me in this body anyways”, he pointed out as he took a bite of the offered desert. His eyes widened in surprise, and he made a small sound of delight. “I have never eaten something like this before. It is quite pleasant.”

When Bram continued to talk though, Agni found his face darkening once more.

“You will not speak to them,” he said with a note of finality. “The fox, rabbit, goat and hyena no longer come to this world; I can say now that they will not see you. Even if they did, they would not change their votes.”

“They’re kind of recluses,” May said with a little awkward smile. “And they don’t really like me much on principal.”

Agni looked at Bram thoughtfully for a good minute, before closing his eyes and setting his plate down.

“You have a misunderstanding,” he said coldly. “I have not stated I am voting for the serpent’s continued survival. I have yet to examine the circumstances and make my decision. This is not something that relies on personal sentiment.” He didn’t make any comment on the friend thing, but May didn’t seem at all surprised by his reaction and just nodded along.

“Pizza sounds good!” He announced, already pulling out his cell phone. “Agni, are you staying the night here? Do you have a hotel?” He asked, and Agni looked around the room with obvious distaste before sighing in defeat.

“I will stay here. I did not book any lodgings,” he admitted, and May’s smile turned a bit strained, because that definitely meant that he had been sleeping on the porch, and he hoped nobody had called the cops.

 

[jones573]

“It’s still bullshit,” Winona said authoritatively, agreeing with Scarlet regardless of how ‘normal’ May claimed this nonsense to be.



“I think we should take Agni’s advice on this- The most effective arguments are going to be the ones that aren’t about May at all and address the actual concern,” Alex reasoned. If it was just a matter of people liking May, this wouldn’t be an issue. Probably. “Win, can you grab me-“



“No,” Winona declared. She had already complied with the lemon bars nonsense after all.



“Ugh, fine,” Alex groaned, but he really didn’t have to go that far for pencil and paper, grabbing some from a side table. “We should take a multi-pronged approach,” he mused, and began outlining bullet points. Winona was not surprised.



“No,” she said again. “He’s not staying here.”



“Win, we’ve got couches, don’t be rude,” Alex chided her, not looking up from his writing. Secretly he’d been hoping Agni would insist on being given a hotel or something- There was a lot of things he wanted to ask May that might go over better without an audience.



“None of our doors lock from the outside,” Winona returned, which was true. She had investigated all of them, after she’d realized her own room could only be locked from the inside and regretfully informed Bram and Vlad of this oversight. After being told this was intentional, she had spent a week loudly announcing that she would be locking her door everytime she went to her room, until the novelty had worn off.



“We aren’t going to look him in a room! It’s not like he’s going to steal anything,” Alex protested in shock. “I mean- You’re clearly an honorable… Guardian,” Alex hedged, because Angi had seemed offended by the implication that he might have tried to break in.



So far, his list read:



-Seal on serpent is still good

-Demonstrate/Measure, how?

-can be refreshed or strengthened in any way?

-Ask M



-if seal does break

-how to contain damage better? Action plan to protect Domina

-ask M? but less outside magic is better, use Domina resources

-ways to strip unsealed serp. of destr. abilities?





- execution ≠ solved problem







That bullet point was less developed, as Alex had paused his brainstorming to scold Winona.



“Honor shmoner,” Winona retorted eloquently. “’Sides, I don’t think he gets a vote,” she reminded Bram. “He’s still ‘little dragon’- Just a title for now, ‘til the big one dies. Let’s get cheesy garlic sticks,” Winona added in the same tone, like everything she had just said was part of one train of thought.

 

[Reynarda]

Scarlet raised her hand. “Um, does anyone find Sugar Crystal finding a bunch of homicidal maniacs reasonable worrisome? Yeah, Fruit Jell-O, for sure, but not Munchkin, here.”

Bram scowled at Agni. “You underestimate me. Hey, Vlad, think you can rip open dimensions again?”

“Firstly,” Vlad said, rubbing his forehead. Everything was swiftly devolving into inane comments and discussion of food. “I could only do that because I manipulated the magic that binds us—and you were already in the other dimension. Secondly, ripping holes in dimensions is not the way to get what you want.”

Bram brightened as another thought struck him. “What if we goaded them out? Like with gifts or something? Maybe they like food? I can cook.”

When Agni informed him he had to “examine the circumstances” or whatever, Bram waved his second lemon bar at the little guardian. “What’s there to ‘examine’? May’s a person, and he didn’t ask to be the vessel or whatever. Case closed.”

“Perhaps save your persuasion for the island, there, Bram,” Scarlet said with a snicker. “Don’t want to roll out the big guns, just yet.”

“Am I wrong?”

“No,” Vlad said. “But you have to build your arguments in ways that will make sense to them. They do not know May like we do.”

“True,” Bram muttered. “Yeah, garlic sticks are good—don’t look at me like that, Vlad. Take some Benadryl. What kind of pizza? Supreme for me please.”

“Hawaiian?” Devon asked hopefully.

“Sure.”

“Blood and hearts?”

“Not a pizza topping, Scarlet.”

“Rats.”

Vlad crossed his arms over his chest. “I am certain the Little Guardian of the Twelfth Month knows proper guest etiquette. Besides, I think we have amply demonstrated my ability to know when someone is attacking someone in my own home.”

“Vlad,” Bram scolded quietly. “Don’t start.” Louder, he said, “Okay, Hawaiian and supreme. What else?”

 

[Mikotsuhime]

“Locks would not hold me,” Agni said, a dark look coming back to his face, but luckily Bram distracted him by mentioning luring the others out with food. He snorted and rolled his eyes. “They are not /actually/ animals, you cannot trap them the way you would prey in the woods. Besides, we do not need to eat. Even if, by some miracle, you managed to come to our dimension, they would not meet with you. They no longer do business with humans, outside of their representatives, and even that is slim. You would have better luck trying to win over those who have yet to cast their votes, not that I encourage this ridiculous plan of yours.”

May snuck a lemon bar off the plate, nodding along with Agni.

“They don’t really like people much, me included,” he added, and Agni nodded his own agreement.

“Whether he is a person or not or asked for it or not has no bearing on my decision. I am a guardian, and my role is to protect as many people as possible. If that calls for the elimination of one, then I will not hesitate. I am not on your side, I am on the side that preserves as many lives as possible. You would do well to remember that,” he added, as though he was not taking advantage of their hospitality to stay in their house. He took another sip from his teacup, and May awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, wishing that his friend wasn’t such an awkward weirdo.

“Honestly, I think it’ll be fine. Martina and Regis usually vote in my favour anyways, the only one who’s really a toss up is Nikola- er, the tiger. I want peperoni! Agni do you, uh, want some pizza?” May asked, mostly out of politeness, but Agni gave him a curious look.

“That is food, correct?” He asked, and May nodded his head. “Then I shall allow it.”

May nodded and called the pizza place, placing their order and asking for delivery, because he doubted anyone would want to leave Agni alone in the house with the others long enough to go pick it up.

“And I do so get a vote.” Agni said to Winona, narrowing his eyes at her as though she were a lesser being. “The elder dragon cannot manifest his avatar any longer, he cannot come to this plane. While he is not yet dead, I have taken over his responsibilities.”

 

[jones573]

Alex was expanding his notes to read ‘guardian vs. representative ????? who/which/what’ and looked up at Scarlet with a frown.



“It would be a lot easier to follow conversations with you if you used fewer nicknames,” he pointed out. “Or were with consistent with them.”



He was pretty sure both ‘Sugar Crystal’ and ‘Munchkin’ were references to May, and ‘Fruit Jell-O’ was probably Winona? Apparently neither she nor Devon were liquid or solid, but Alex didn’t know if the ‘fruit’ was only for Winona and if so, what flavor Jell-O Devon was supposed to be. He’d love to learn more about this rather unique ability, but he had other research that was more… Pressing. Hence his note-making.



“Bram, please- Don’t antagonize anyone,” he warned. “Even if they’ve already voted against him, there’s still another trial in five years again,” he pointed out. It seemed the folks who’d already cast their negative votes were pretty reliably ‘anti-May’, but there was no reason to give them further reasons to dislike him.



“Great. I’m not on your side either,” Winona told Agni pointedly through a mouthful of her own lemon bar, her bitter words somewhat muffled by large bites of yellow cake.



She cast a disdainful glance at Vlad and got up from hovering over Agni. Apparently she had threatened him enough for now, or she felt his danger was not as great as initially feared.



“Yeah, and your non-bility to know when someone in your home is a threat,” she muttered as she passed, heading for the stairs and grabbing her duffle.



“Be in my room,” she announced sullenly as she disappeared.

 

[Reynarda]

“What, too much for your brain to handle, Maté-boy?” Scarlet asked with a devilish grin.

“I’m not going to antagonize anyone,” Bram protested.

“Beating people up—be they spirit or otherwise—is usually seen as antagonistic, Buffy,” Scarlet said.

“Maybe for vampires.”

“Pretty sure that’s universal.”

“Regardless,” Bram said, with renewed determination, “that doesn’t matter because we just need to persuade this tiger, then. No problem.” He gave Agni a look. “And the dragon will have to be persuaded, I guess.”

Devon frowned. “I thought you said—“

“Yeah, well, these spirits seem to be like vampires in that they liked their egos stroked by you pleading with them to do what they had already decided to do anyway. I do it to Vlad all the time, and it works like a charm.”

“I do not need you to plead before I do the right thing,” Vlad retorted.

“That’s because I yell at you for being so cold instead of pleading.”

Vlad muttered something about just liking the communication and it having nothing to do with his ego.

As Winona passed, Vlad flicked his eyes up to meet hers but said nothing. When she climbed the stairs, he flicked his eyes to the fire that had sprung up in the fireplace when they had entered the home.

Bram watched Winona go before turning his gaze on Vlad. What had happened? He was counting Vlad’s actual looking at her and continued aknowledging of her existence as a good thing, but the elder vampire had clearly put up walls that had most certainly not been there before. What had happened? Bram would have liked to blame his father, but he knew that his father did not drive the wedge between them. Bram could easily guess what Winona had done that Vlad wasn’t forgiving her for, but what the hell had Vlad done? Bram knew first hand that Vlad could be incredibly cruel when hurt or afraid, and he just hoped it wasn’t something that could not be mended. He really should corner Vlad and force it out of him, but he didn’t want Vlad to return to sulking about the house again.

Bram sighed once May got off the phone. “Oh thank goodness. I am starving. I haven’t eaten in like two hours. Vlad, where are we going to put our guest?”

Normal hopitality ettiquitte would dictate that he put Angi in the guest room—but of course the boys now slept in the guest room. And his room was now occupied by May. And Winona was in the renovated laundry room. He wasn’t about to kick any of the jet-lagged teens out of their beds. He wouldn’t subject anyone to Bram’s snoring, either—and anyway, he wasn’t intending to leave the slayer’s side for the next century, guest or no guest.

“We have that air mattress, yes?”

“Yeah, in the attic.”

Vlad waved his hand. “That will have to do.”

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Agni watched Winona go with no small amount of satisfaction.

“She is incredibly unpleasant,” he commented, and May frowned at him.

“She’s my friend, and she has her reasons,” he said, despite the fact that Winona would probably enjoy being called unpleasant by somebody that she had already decided she disliked. Agni gave May a scrutinous look before snorting and shrugging his shoulders to dismiss the issue.

“You cannot pursuance me with food or compliments,” Agni warned Bram. “And as for the tiger, you will have your work cut out for you.”

May sighed, scratching the side of his head as he nodded.

“She’s just... hard to read sometimes,” he said, and Agni snorted.

“That promiscuous woman only cares about the wellbeing of herself and her business. She and grandfather are the only ones actually old enough to have met the sealed serpent, and yet she seems to treat this process like a game more than anything,” he chastised, not sounding overly fond of the tiger in question, and May started to make a half-hearted defence before he closed his mouth again.

He noticed the tension between Winona and Vlad, but he didn’t know how to bring it up or what he should even say about it, especially when his own problems were taking up the forefront right now.

“You would have me sleep on the floor?” Agni asked, and he had gone straight back to haughty and offended, and May quickly shook his head.

“No, no! You can have my bed, I’ll use the air mattress. Or you can go to a hotel” he added quickly, and Agni narrowed his eyes dangerously.

“Are you trying to get rid of me, serpent?” He asked, and May swallowed thickly.

“No, of course not! It was just a suggestion.”

 

[jones573]

Alex winced at the sound of Winona’s door slamming shut, but figured it ought to be expected- She didn’t like not getting her way, and pretty much any outcome that didn’t allow her to punch Agni was not the desired one, so.



“Maybe just err on the side of caution on the ‘antagonizing’ thing,” Alex hedged. “Like, if you have to ask ‘could this be consider antagonistic’, then…. Don’t do it,” he suggested hesitantly but without a lot of faith in Bram’s – or anyone’s- ability to hold back. “Ideal situation: We arrive, we present a comprehensive assessment of the state of this seal business and an action plan to either strengthen it or prevent further decay. It convinces everyone to… Continue the status quo,” he said, because he really didn’t want to voice the other option. “And could maybe encourage those who have already voted that they shouldn’t be so hasty next time.”



This was a good, reasonable plan. Obviously, the details needed filling in on the specifics, but the specifics… probably existed? This wasn’t like the time he was writing a paper of early algebraic theory and the book he’d wanted to use as his reference wasn’t owned by the school library and the teacher insisted he could only reference materials from the school library because he was supposed to be learning ‘how to research’, like he was some idiot who didn’t know how to make a bibliography- Well. Or the time he decided to get his mother a new scarf for Christmas, only to discover that the brand had discontinued her favorite color and no longer made that textile blend in that length regardless.



“I can sleep on the air mattress,” Alex volunteered quickly, because May was /not/ giving up his room for this… Person. (A-hole, Alex thought, but May claimed he was a friend, so ‘person’ it was.) “Or a couch. I’m not picky. And really- It’s not a bad suggestion. Don’t worry about the cost or anything, I’m pretty sure my mom has a room on permanent reserve at the nearest hotel, and she’s not using it right now, so,” he told Agni in May’s defense.



“Winona may have given up for now, but the chances that she’s gonna creepily watch you as you sleep are…. High,” he admitted. “Not that you would really need to be concerned or anything,” he added hastily, as Agni seemed very put-out at any suggestion that he might be vulnerable to harm, or even concerned about such trivial things. “But you know, it could be weird. And annoying. And then you wouldn’t have to put up with Bram either,” Alex added a bit more privately. “He gets kinda show-offy when he has a new audience, and there’s only so many ‘daring escapades of the decades’ any one person can really put up with, you know."

Oh god and if they had a 'guest' for breakfast, Bram would want to serve a proper meal- From their mostly empty fridge. Alex was totally willing to go get some milk and bananas and the basic essentials, but he did not want to go full-on grocery shopping tonight, especially if they were going to be leaving town again soon. Maybe Alex should just do the hotel option and go swimming before bed and get continental breakfast- But of course he wasn't going to abandon May. But May could come too, and- Alex ran that train of thought directly off the track before it could get any further.

 

[Reynarda]

Bram positively grinned. “And just how challenging is she?”

“Abraham, no.”

“Abraham, yes.”

Vlad pinched the bridge of his nose. Bram would be the death of him—death by embarrassment if nothing else. “That was a caution, not a challenge.”

Bram didn’t often find there was a difference between cautions and challanges, but he was distracted by Alex. “I am so offended that you feel the need to tell me how to be diplomatic,” he said in a faux-offended tone.

“You are about as diplomatic as a chainsaw,” Vlad pointed out. “You really should let those of us with experience in such matters handle the talking part.”

“Manipulation and diplomacy aren’t the same thing, Vlad.”

Vlad snickered. “Are you sure?”

Bram rolled his eyes.

“Your plan sounds fabulous,” Scarlet told Alex. “Just one tiny question. How are going to give a comprehensive discourse on a seal that we can’t see and know nothing about? I mean, I know I just recently joined this crazy train, but I haven’t actually seen any seals or evil snakes or whathaveyou. Maybe you all have?”

Scarlet glanced at her sire, who had his mouth firmly closed and gave no indication that he was about to admit to doing a bit of poking around.

“She makes a good point,” Devon ventured, unsure if he should ever agree with Scarlet on anything.”

“Oh my word, we are not putting you on the floor,” Bram sighed. “It might not be your weird dimensional bedroom, but it is a high-quality air mattress, and it is about two feet tall. Besides, at this point, the floor would be a step-up from our front porch.”

“I think this is what Alex meant by, ‘antagonistic’.”

“Shut-up, Scarlet.”

“Listening to ‘daring escapades of the decades’ might be bad, but you should try living them,” Vlad agreed with a wry smile. “But then being our guest entails such regaling.”

Bram, who was not nearly as hard of hearing as he often pretended to be, scowled at both vampires.