Hidden In Plain Sight (MxM)✔

Chapter 2 - Making a Friend

Waking up, the first thing Luke noticed was warmth. The next thing he noticed was the softness of the quilts around him. Then, as he rolled over, he noticed a surprising lack of clothes.

Luke's eyes flew open and found himself in a four poster bed with hanging white curtains and a fireplace on the far end of the room. The walls had ornately decorated wallpaper with images of golden vines and dancing deer.

Sitting up, Luke let the blue satin quilts fall from his chest and he heard a rustling to his right. There he spotted a tall, stoic woman watching over him in silver armor. She had a deep, blood red cape wrapped around one shoulder, with a raven embroidered on her chest piece. Her long red hair was braided back out of her face.

"Good Evening." She greeted him with a bow. "My master has been waiting for you to awaken."

Luke blinked, then snatched the quilts back up to cover himself. "Where are my clothes?" He asked, too startled to remember that he wasn't supposed to speak.

"They've been...Washed." She pointed to a dresser at the foot of the bed where his ratty clothes had been neatly folded. 

When the woman didn't hit him, Luke figured that this Vampire may not mind his voice as much as Frederick did, so he dared to continue. "Okay, thank you, and um... Where am I?"

"You are in Archduke Nicholas Abbot's mansion. He has instructed me to guard you. I will go notify him that you are now awake, so please wait here."

The knight gave another curt bow, then left through a pair of thick, wooden double doors.

As soon as she was out of sight, Luke went into panic mode.

He quickly hopped out of the bed and grabbed his clothes, not wanting to converse with an Archduke in the nude. Then he mulled over his options.

Checking the windows, he found that they were just glass panels that didn't open, so climbing out through there wasn't an option. He could try to sneak out through the hallway, but that was where the woman had gone so he'd probably run into her, and even if he did manage to escape, there was the small matter of returning home. 

To trick his Master, Luke had stuffed a bunch of clothes under his blankets so it'd look like he was still there, sleeping. Though it was a bit unconvincing since he had very few articles of cloths, so the decoy was a bit on the small side. If his Master bothered to check on him, he'd probably catch on immediately. 

His best chance was to act normal and ask to go home.

The human noticed two high back chairs by the fireplace and opted to sit in one while he waited. Soon enough, he heard the double doors open again and turned to find that same tall, handsome man from earlier. He had changed clothes, but just like his earlier outfit, he was wearing a shirt with puffy white sleeves and a silver cotton vest.

Nicholas glanced at the bed with a frown, then searched the room until he spotted Luke by the fire place. The human had little time to react before the Vampire flit next to him, taking a seat in the other chair.

"I'm sorry for the strange circumstances. When you fainted, I wasn't sure where you lived or who to contact, so I thought bringing you home would be the best option until you woke up."

Luke nodded uncertainly. "Thank you, but you really didn't have to."

Secretly he was more than joyous that the Vampire hadn't considered taking him to a hospital. The doctors there would surely have noticed some differences between Luke and their usual blood starved patients.

"Nonsense. It was the least I could do after you helped me." Nicholas flashed a dazzling smile, revealing sharpened, but retracted fangs. Fangs that Luke knew would extend when hungry.