Obsession

Chapter II

The ancient vampire had watched him for the entire day, having no idea what suddenly came over him and made him so drawn to this white-haired human boy all of a sudden. He tried to find reasons for why he had followed the boy after accidentally bumping into him on the sidewalk at 6 a.m. His first conclusion was that he could smell his blood and knew it was one of his favorites, AB+, which also happened to be a very rare blood type. He'd changed his mind about this being the reason by lunchtime, when he was still watching the boy from a distance among the shadows. He'd brought his lunch, most likely packed by a parent or older sibling, because when the boy opened the bag, Kaiser could tell the look of first surprise, which meant he wasn't expecting something to be inside, and then disappointment bordering on disgust. Kaiser decided to listen in on the conversation he'd started with his twin seated beside him.

"A banana... really? Again? What'd you get?" The boy had grumbled about the fruit and peered eagerly over at his sibling's bag instead, disregarding the banana on the picnic table they were sitting at outside the school.

"Gummy bears! Wow, Foxy, mom must dislike you to give you fruit over gummies again; what'd you do this time? Kaiser watched as the sister smirked and jabbed the boy in the ribs after asking the question, much to the dismay of her brother by the sudden look that flashed across his face as he turned to avoid her gaze and begrudgingly picked the banana back up. "I didn't think she'd notice a few missing gummy packets from the pantry."

"You found the stash?! She must not have hidden it very well." The boy whipped his head back up from where he'd bowed it in shame, narrowing his eyes at his sister.

"Stash? What stash do you mean."

"Oh you know... The one mom hid from you because you always eat all the candy in the house when you find it." The sister smiled smugly as she popped a gummy bear in her mouth and glanced at the dumbfounded and insulted expression her brother was sporting, which made Kaiser snort from where he was. Leaning against a tree in the shade, Kaiser only occasionally looked over at the two from afar to lessen suspicion, using his supernatural hearing to pick up all of what they were saying even while being several feet away and out of sight.

"And you knew about this...? And you didn't think to sneak me any?" The boy almost sounded genuinely hurt if it weren't for the fact that he was fighting a smile just at how his sister giggled at his indignation. Kaiser found their dynamic fascinating and painfully familiar, something he once had nearly a millennium ago.

"No! Of course not; if I did that, you'd beg me and our brothers for the location, and then the reason mom hid them in the first place would repeat, and you'd eat the entire box again!"

"That was once."

"Once too many" The twin sister held her chin up high as she looked down at her brother with a stern yet soft and a bit teasing glance as the boy shrank under it guiltily, seeming to admit defeat as he sighed and visibly deflated.

"I'll give you the good part of the banana for one gummy...?" The boy tried to barter as an apology, glancing up from under his eyelashes to give puppy eyes to the sister, who went back to eating happily. "Sure!" She'd agreed easily, and they both smiled and continued eating together before the bell rang, signaling lunch was over.

Kaiser dipped further behind the tree when the two stood and threw their trash away, watching intently as they walked back to the schoolhouse, entirely oblivious to his existence. No, it wasn't his rare blood type that caught his attention; he knew that now. He'd even gone so far as to deduce that it wasn't even his unusual appearance that drew him near. Kaiser knew now that as soon as he'd glanced down at the boy that he'd bumped into, seen how he reacted to being confronted by a stranger, an intimidating one at that, and interacted with him in a certain way, that was what had caught his attention.