Should Have Walked Away | Aarmau Vampire AU

𝔱 𝔴 𝔢 𝔫 𝔱 𝔶 - 𝔣 𝔬 𝔲 𝔯

"Aphmau."

I jumped awake to find Travis kneeling over me. His hand was on my shoulder and he was shaking me awake.

"Hey, there she is," he commented quietly. There was a small, genuine smile to match his obvious concern. "I was doing my rounds and you always let us know if you're here or not, so I just came in to check if everything was okay."

Nodding groggily, I shoved down my embarrassment with a yawn. The white-haired Casanova noticed I was still wearing clothes from yesterday and his concern grew.

"Are you sure starting with four classes a week is the smartest thing? No offense, but you seem exhausted."

"No, no," I denied, brushing the hair from my face and running my hand through a few knots. "I'm fine I just stayed up late, that's all—" I yawned again.

Travis plopped his backside down where he'd been hovering and watched as my fingers got caught in my hair. "Do you enjoy the classes?"

I rubbed sleep quickly from my eyes and grabbed a brush from my side table. "I do. It's the first job I've had in years, and it's nice to be seen as something other than just a vampire."

"You've had a job before?"

"I've had a few, but they were always temporary just so I could make money and get supplies. They also weren't enjoyable like this one, because I've worked in corn fields or moving heavy things—"

"Vampire strength."

"Exactly." For a moment I struggled with my hair and he held a laugh back behind his smirk. I brushed through the knot while I kept talking, "But I actually enjoy exercise and kids, so I'm actually having fun."

"I can tell," he pointed to my face and I felt the smile on my lips.

Travis wasn't over for long after that and we didn't talk about much.

It was another sunny day and I wore my usual long-sleeved attire as I made my way out of the city.

The hole in the wall — that Aaron said was from a storm a few months ago — still wasn't patched. However, there were now wooden planks nailed into the stone cement so nobody could leave or get in.

I'm guessing that was my doing — after all, I'm a vampire who got into the city unnoticed and undetected until Aaron saw me under the tree. Plus, with that first hybrid that showed up during the festival, he supposedly entered that way and I watched him leave as well.

Falcon Claw was still lending most of their building supplies to Scaleswind so they didn't have enough stone brick or cement to repair the six-foot-tall, three-foot-wide hole.

It's been a while since I'd been out in the forests, and I found that the deeper I got toward the west, the more luxuriant the plants were.

There was also a number of lakes and ponds I've never seen. One, in particular, caught my eye and the explorer in me wished I could just dive in.

The lake I stopped before was connected with three others and a long river went south toward Bright Port's ocean-side estate. I suppose these were widely known based on the long docks and rope swings.

"Aphmau~Senpai!"

I turned my head to find a familiar face jogging to catch up with my pace. A few minutes prior to now I was walking fast, but I'd slowed down at the chain of lakes.

"KC?"

The pastel-dressed meif'wa stopped a few feet away from me and I reached to hand her my small canister of water. She said a small note of gratitude and drank until her throat wasn't dry.