The Cobalt Sun

((This is a sequel to The Crimson Moon! Make sure you read that story first!))

Seven placed her head in her hands as she set her elbows on the table in front of her. She’d been in the closed dim room for hours already, and the man in front of her showed no signs of relenting any time soon as he continued to bark at her irritably.

“This is an outrage!” The older gentleman reiterated for what felt like the hundredth time that day. It had been six months since a rogue group of religious zealot humans had broken the very precarious treaty that humanity held with vampires, and in response, vampires had given humanity an ultimatum; submit to the new heavily restrictive treaty that demanded mandatory blood donations and also kept vampires from attacking humans, or be drawn into a bloody agonizing war that was certain to end in humanity’s defeat.

At first, the human leaders had actually tried to resist the change, but after only a couple of leaders had been casually killed, the others soon changed their minds, eagerly signing their names in order to save their own lives, despite the backlash from the other humans they were in charge of.

The man before Seven was arguing that his family and especially his young daughter deserved to be exempt from the blood drives, even though the treaty was incredibly clear: No exceptions for any reason unless the person in question was already employed as a blood servant. All humans aged 18 to 60 had to visit the blood drives. The drives were every other month in order to make sure humans had a chance to recuperate between them, but still many people tried to find their way out of it, even going so far as to try to forge documents that exempted them, or trying to hide when the day came. Anyone caught doing so was quickly dealt with, but it never stopped people from trying.

“My daughter has gotten incredibly ill every time we’ve gone to one of these vile events!” The man barked, “She’s anemic! She can’t keep doing this or she’ll die! Is that what you want?! Your subjects to die!?”

Seven took a deep breath before she looked up at the man with a tired look in her eyes, “Sir, look–”

“Don’t call me sir. My name is David.”

Seven had to fight the urge to roll her eyes. “I don’t care that your daughter is anemic. The treaty is very clear. No exceptions. And you’re not ‘our subjects’; we only watch over the vampires who live in the territory. If you have an issue, take it up with your elected officials because they’re the ones who handle issues on the human side of things. It’s not our problem.”

The man stood from his seat as he slammed his hands against the table between them, “Not your problem?? You’re a human too! Have you no empathy? It’s disgusting how you’ve turned your back on your fellow man, and furthermore–!” A low growl behind Seven made the man abruptly stop, and as he looked up behind her he could clearly see the shine from the pair of predatory eyes that looked back at him. Lord Damien had been leaning against the door for their entire conversation, and though he hadn’t yet interjected, he was not going to stand idly by while this man insulted his chosen ambassador.

Seven pinched the bridge of her nose with her hand as she squinted her eyes shut in frustration, “Sir, sit down–”

“I already told you–”

Seven jumped from the table and tapped it impatiently with her fingers, “Sit. Down.” She snapped irritably, and a shuffling sound from behind her quickly had the man obeying her orders as he could feel the vampire lord getting more and more agitated on her behalf. “Sir, empathy or lack of has nothing to do with this. Even if I wanted to help you, and don’t get me wrong, I don’t, I cannot grant you an exemption. There are no exceptions, and especially not for something as trivial as anemia. The blood drives have been active for months, and there hasn’t been a single death reported from them in any humans at all, let alone due to anemia. If your daughter is really struggling so badly, get her some iron supplements, make sure she eats beforehand, and stop wasting my time.” Seven sat back down at the table as she leaned back in the chair with her arms crossed, “Now, if that’s all you wanted, I think we’re done here.”

Damien started to step away from the door to open it but the man immediately panicked and began to sputter, “W-wait, ok, I know that anemia is not enough, but what about other diseases?? Contagious ones, ones in her blood!”

Seven did her best to bite back a groan of impatience as a subtle sigh slipped out of her, “Sir, human diseases aren’t communicable to vampires–”

“Yes, but what about the humans who are taking the blood?” The man snapped back smugly, “By making them collect contaminated blood, you’re putting them at risk, are you not?”

Seven blinked at him; after hours of arguing, he’d actually finally made a decent point, though she doubted he’d done it intentionally. “Alright, that’s a fair point.” Seven said with a shrug, “Tell me, does your daughter have a bloodborne disease? Or any of the rest of your family?” The man shuffled uneasily, and Seven didn’t even need Damien to tell her that he was clearly about to lie through his teeth to her.

“Well… My wife’s grandfather had Hepatitis. Both she and my daughter could have it.” The man refused to make eye contact with her and Seven couldn’t help the annoyed look that came over her face. Even if the man had been telling the truth, Hepatitis spread from mother to child, so if his grandfather had it, unless he’d been randomly sharing needles with his daughter, there was no way his wife or daughter had it. He either didn’t know that, or he was hoping that Seven didn’t know that, but either way the blatant lying was frustrating at best, and infuriating at worst.

“Alright.” Seven said shortly before sitting up straighter in the chair and pulling a piece of paper out of a stack to her left. The man immediately perked up and tried to peer across the table at her as she scribbled something onto the official looking document. “Normally I would have your family get themselves tested, but since there’s a blood donation coming up in less than a week, we don’t really have much time to get this settled, now do we?” The man looked pleased with himself as he watched Seven write, but she didn’t even look up at him until she was done. “Here,” She said as she handed the paper across to him.

As the man read across the paper that she’d just filled out and signed, his face quickly went from pleased to confused to angry, “What is this??” He demanded before setting the paper back down on the table.

Seven didn’t even try to hide her look of satisfaction, “You were worried about the nurses taking the blood from your family, right? Hepatitis is a very serious disease after all. This,” Seven reached across the table and tapped on the page, “Is an official transfer for your whole family. Normally these take a long time to get approved, but given the circumstances, I’m gonna force it through with my signature. Starting next week and for every blood drive after that, your entire family will need to go to the next city over to get your blood taken. You won’t have to worry about the nurses, because the city next to ours employs only vampires in their facilities, so they cannot catch anything your family might be carrying.”

The man’s face immediately began to turn red with rage as he re-read over the paper, but Seven just ignored him as she stood from the table gestured to the door behind her, “Now, just to make sure you don’t have any trouble with your family’s new arrangements, I’ll be following up with the vampires in that city to make sure you actually show up. I’m sure your family will be very happy to know that only vampires will take their blood from now on.” The man looked like he was going to try to say something but as Damien fixed him in his icy glare and opened the door, the man was completely silent as he stood from the table and walked out, his entire body tense with fury as the door clicked closed behind him.

“That took forever…” Seven groaned as she slid back into her chair and laid her head and chest onto the table. She glanced up at the clock on the wall; Ten o’clock. They’d been there for more than twelve hours already, since six that morning in fact, settling various issues that humans from the cities that Damien resided over had.

Damien stepped up behind her and began to rub her shoulders with his hands with a sympathetic frown, “Do you want me to deal with the next one? It should be the last.”

Seven was silent as she stretched out slightly at Damien’s touch but after only a few seconds she sat more upright and gently pushed him away. “No… It’s fine. It’s just one more, I might as well finish strong. I gotta say though,” She said almost scoldingly, “You said this job was mostly a title.” She leaned down on her arm and fixed him in a slightly grumpy glare.

Damien shrugged a bit before sitting down next to her in the few minutes they had before the next person came in. “It’s not my fault humans are so…” He struggled for a moment, not wanting to say anything too scathing, since after all, Seven was a human too.

“Pathetic?” Seven offered as she leaned on the table, getting a small chuckle from Damien as he sat back in his chair.

“Well yes, but I didn’t want to say it. I knew having you by my side would help relations, but I didn’t think the human leaders would be so spineless as to practically refuse to meet with me without you being present.”

Seven just sighed as she set her chin in her hand, “Yep, and it’s slowly shifted from me being present, to me just doing the meetings… Plus, hey, they’re not outright refusing, they just kinda… lock up and become useless in your presence. I’m kinda surprised that last guy was getting so fired up, most people can’t hardly speak straight with you in the room.”

Damien opened his mouth to reply, but before he could answer, a quick knock at the door made them both look up. He glanced back at her and she just sat up straighter in her chair before waving at the door with her hand, “Alright, send them in.” She said flatly before rubbing her face with her hands to try and wake herself up.

As soon as Damien opened the door, two extremely bubbly women practically jumped into the room and quickly sat across from Seven eagerly. As soon as she looked at them she could tell two things right away; one, these women were twins, and two, they were far too excited for her to deal with in her current state. Just looking at how energetic they both were was already making her annoyed.

“Hi hi! I’m Lara!!” One of the women chirped, and before Seven could even answer, the other one began to speak as well, “And I’m Lena!! We’re so SO excited to finally be able to meet with you! We’ve had to reschedule this so many times!”

Seven felt like she’d been practically knocked over with how loud and shrill both of these women were, but she did her best to keep her composure and handle the situation professionally. “Hello to you both as well.” She said somewhat stiffly, still trying to get the ringing in her ears to stop, “I’m glad that you’re excited. I know it’s late, so let’s just cut right to the chase.” She glanced down at the schedule in front of her, quickly skimming over the notes of the final meeting before looking up at the twins in front of her, “So, you two said you have some new bylaws that you wanted to have put in place? In your words ‘a new order that will mutually benefit vampires and humans’, I believe? I assume you already have the drafts pulled up for them, yes?”

The two women looked at each other excitedly before one of them pulled out a stack of papers several inches thick and slapped them on the table in front of Seven. Try as she might, she couldn’t keep her face completely passive as she mentally groaned at the idea of having to read through this massive stack of boring legislature.

“So, we were thinking,” One of the women started before the other one quickly began to speak for her, “That you could sign these into law tonight, and then maybe,” Again, they swapped who was speaking, and already Seven was started to get a headache from them constantly going back and forth, “We could get them put in place by the end of the week, before next week’s blood drive! We think that would be,” She looked at her twin cheerfully as the other one finished the sentence, “A great decision!”

Seven practically had to bite her tongue as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, “OK you two are clearly very excited and it seems that you may have even rehearsed this–”

“Rehearsed?” One of the women asked before the other one began to talk, “We don’t rehearse anything! This is just how twins talk when they’re as in sync as we are!” They both actually stopped and took a moment to hug each other and Seven had to resist the urge to grimace at their annoying display of affection.

“Regardless,” Seven said as she cleared her throat, “Please stop. For now, just stay quiet please while I read through these, then we can talk about what, if any, of the laws may be actually signed in. But I can tell you right now, I can’t sign anything in fast enough to have it in place before next week’s blood drive.”

Both women immediately faltered before one of them spoke up, “Wait… You’re going to read through all of those tonight? We were just going to tell you what they say!” The other twin perked up, “Yeah, we’d hate to waste your time or anything–”

Seven immediately waved her hand at them both without even looking up at them as she pulled the stack of papers close to herself, “Absolutely not. I would never sign anything without reading it first. Now please, you’re distracting me–”

One of the women reached across the table and gently set her hand on the stack of papers, “Really, it’s no trouble at all for us to just tell you–”

Before the other woman could start up with her interjection, Seven cut them both off and clapped her hand against the table in annoyance, “Look, stop talking to me. Sit down, and be quiet.” Both of the women looked taken aback, but Seven ignored them as she glanced down at the papers.

Seven flicked a couple pages forward when suddenly a piece of a line of text caught her eye and it quickly became obvious that the women were trying to cheat the system, and that’s why they’d been so insistent on Seven not actually reading through this contract they wanted her to sign. “What is this?” She huffed impatiently to the women as she picked up the packet of papers and leaned back in her chair, “Rights to be exempted from the blood drives, permission to live in the estate without going through the appropriate channels… A vehicle provided on our dime?? You two can’t be serious right? This is almost laughably, childishly ridiculous.”

The women suddenly looked offended and one of them quickly spoke up in a haughty tone, “Hey, you skipped over the other parts though! We have lots of services we can provide that more than make up for whatever it would cost to house us.” The other woman nodded along before setting her hands on the table in a frustrated manner, “Yeah, and it’s only fair that if we’re going to be doing so much work for you guys, that we not have to donate blood! It would just make us weak and unable to do our jobs!”

Seven just blinked at them both in disbelief, her lack of sleep and food making her incredibly short tempered as she tried to figure out if these two were actually being serious. After a few seconds of silence she held the papers up to her side with her eyes narrowed, “Damien.” She said flatly and before anyone could blink the entire packet of papers went up in flames. Both women gasped in offense but Seven ignored them as she wiped her now ash-covered hands against her shirt and stood from the table, “Is this why you rescheduled so many times? Trying to get the last appointment of the day in the hopes that I’d be tired or distracted and wouldn’t actually read through that nonsense?”

Both women glanced at each other anxiously, “N-no, that’s silly,” The other one spoke up with a nervous smile, “Y-yeah, why would we–”

Seven held her hands up to them, “Enough. Get out. We have nothing more to discuss here.” Both women looked like they wanted to argue, but they clearly thought better of it as they stood without complaint and left the room. After watching them leave, Seven turned and leaned against the table with her arms crossed, “I swear, the audacity of some people…” She muttered under her breath as she shook her head.

“Humans are always trying to pull tricks on anyone they think will fall for it.” Damien said simply as he stepped up to her. He took her hand in his and flipped it so that her wrist was facing upwards, “I didn’t burn you, did I?” He asked softly as he looked her hand over.

“Of course not.” Seven said simply, “I knew you wouldn’t.” She let out a low sigh as she slumped back against the table, her eyes heavily lidded as exhaustion and hunger settled heavily over her like a fog, “Man, I’m so tired. But more than that, I am starving. This day feels like it took forever.”

“Hmm…” Damien hummed as he pulled her hand up to his lips, “You know, I’m actually hungry too…” He said with a purr as he placed a kiss on the inside of Seven’s palm.

“Lord Damien.” Seven said sharply with a hint of playful disapproval, “Vampires aren’t allowed to attack humans anymore. You’re not about to break one of the laws of the treaty, are you?”

Again, Damien hummed under his breath as his eyes trailed up her arm and to the black obsidian feather tied around her neck, “How about this,” He said simply as he leaned down to nestle against her, “You tell me when I’m done if you feel attacked or not.” He whispered, his voice brushing lightly against her skin, “And we’ll go from there.”

Before Seven could reply, a voice from above made her immediately freeze and Damien quickly stepped back from her to look into the rafters for the source, “Man, I’m actually hungry too…” The voice called out sadly, “Can we all go out and get some food? Those meetings took forever…”

Seven immediately recognized the voice and she followed Damien’s gaze upwards with an irritated expression. Sprawled out on one of the rafters, laying back without a care in the world, was a vampire that she knew well. “Taru… what on earth are you doing in here?? How did you even get in here?”

Damien was much less interested in Taru’s answers, and much more frustrated that the other vampire had been spying on them. “I’ve already warned you once about eavesdropping on me, Taru…” Damien said darkly as he glared up at him.

Taru scoffed as he held some kind of cord up to them both, swinging it casually in his hand as he looked down at them, “Hey, I wasn’t eavesdropping. I was doing my job.” He quickly sat up and hopped down from the roof, crouching as he hit the ground to not hurt his legs before standing and holding the damaged electronic out to Damien. “You told me and Hami to keep Seven safe right? Well, I’d say identifying people trying to spy on you guys is part of that. Found this mic rigged up in the rafters and figured you’d probably want it snipped out, no?”

Damien still looked annoyed, but the fact that Taru was even still standing was a good sign. He reached out and took the broken device, rolling it around in his hands as he looked down at the frayed wires.

“Who would bother to spy on this?” Seven asked with skepticism as she watched Damien turn the mic over in his hands, “Humans are allowed to bring in whoever they want, they’re even allowed to record the meeting. Plus they’re boring. It’s not like anything important is ever discussed, it’s usually just petty squabbles.”

Damien huffed to himself as he looked down at the mic, “They’re probably just trying to see if they could. Test it on something simple before trying to bug a more serious area.” He looked up at Taru, his face somewhat troubled, “I disapprove of your methods… But I commend you for your actions. Thank you.”

Seven had to stop herself from giggling as she saw the difficulty Damien had with telling Taru thank you, but thankfully the little vampire took it in stride. “Hey, happy to help. If it’s electronics, I’m your guy. You want me to periodically check the rooms from now on? See if anyone tries anything again?”

Damien set his hand on his chin for a moment before giving him a nod, “Yes, please do actually. And let me know right away if you find anything else.”

As Damien put the destroyed mic in his pocket, Seven’s stomach suddenly growled causing him and Taru both to look down at her with amusement as she wrapped her arms around herself. “Ok, seriously, can we please get something to eat? I’ve been dealing with stupid people all day and I didn’t even get a lunch break.”

As Taru snickered under his breath, Damien set his hand on Seven’s back and gently pushed her towards him. “You two go, I have some things I need to get done.” Seven gave him a look of disappointment, but he just rubbed her back encouragingly before removing his hand, “Don’t worry,” He said softly, “I won’t be gone long.”

Before she could reply, Damien vanished and Seven looked up at Taru with a reproachful shake of her head, “You really are playing with fire, you know. What were you thinking sneaking around up there?”

“Hey, I really wasn’t sneaking around, alright? I came looking for you to ask you something, and when I came into this room, my wireless headphones started to go nuts so clearly something was interfering with them. I took a little look around and found the mic strung up in the rafters. By the time I had disconnected it, you and Lord Damien had brought the first human in so I decided to wait til you were done to announce myself and… well…”

Seven raised an eyebrow at him, “And?”

Taru sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, “Annnd honestly your meetings are super boring so I dozed off… Then by the time I woke up again I was already in so deep, well… I figured it was just better to wait til you were done. But I didn’t think it would take so damn long.”

Seven just laughed and shook her head at him as they walked out of the building and into the dimly lit streets. “Yeah, well, it certainly wasn’t much fun for me either. These meetings are never exciting, but they aren’t normally this mind-numbingly awful either. And they don’t usually run so long either…” She rubbed her stomach as it grumbled hungrily, “God, I hope somewhere is still open for us to get some food…”

Taru looked around the city streets as he pulled his hand up to his chin, “Hmm… That building over there looks like a restaurant, and it’s very brightly lit so they’re probably still open. Let’s check it out.” Seven gave him a brief nod as she followed silently, so hungry and tired that she’d even be up for just getting food from a gas station at this point.

Once they got up to the building, it was clear that it was in fact a small eatery, and it was definitely still open as they could clearly see people inside eating as they approached. Taru leaned up and opened the door for her, squinting slightly at the bright overhead lights as they stood under the well-lit signs, “Well, if their food is half as good as their lights are bright, then this place is going to be a slam dunk I think.” He said with amusement as they walked inside.

As they entered, the smell inside hit them like a truck, and Seven felt like she was going to collapse from hunger as her mouth started watering. A cheerful looking chubby man behind the bar looked up at them as they entered, “Hey! Welcome to– Oh my… Is that the ambassador I spy??” The man called out gleefully and suddenly Seven felt nervous as every eye in the building turned to look at her and Taru.

“U-um, h-hello…” Seven said weakly as she walked with Taru up to the bar and gave the man a polite nod. She set her hands on the counter but was suddenly startled as the man reached across and grabbed her hands in his, shaking them merrily.

“My, oh my!” The man boomed, “Who would’ve thought we’d get a celebrity like you here in my tiny little shop! What can I get for you this evening? Whatever you want is on the house!” The man looked over at Taru brightly, “Ooh, is this your chaperone for the evening? What a handsome lad he is. You can have whatever you want too of course!”

Taru immediately puffed up at the praise but Seven just looked tired as she pulled her hands out of the man’s tight grip, “I-I’m no celebrity sir. Please. I’m just a very tired, hungry person who wants to get a quiet bite to eat then go home.”

The old man patted her hands knowingly and gave her a little nod, “You poor little thing. I can only imagine the stress you’re put under, trying to keep the peace between ruffians and scoundrels.” Seven wasn’t sure which was which, but she was just grateful that the man wasn’t shouting anymore. “What can I make you on this fine evening, ambassador?”

Seven immediately recoiled, her face twisting in distaste at the title, “Please, just call me Seven…” She said softly, pulling her hands away and down to her side. “And I honestly am so hungry I don’t even care what I eat right now… Whatever cooks the fastest please.”

The man nodded and looked over at Taru, “And for you lad?”

Taru shrugged and sat on one of the spinning stools at the bar, “Just give me the same thing as her so we can get out of here faster if you don’t mind.”

Again the man nodded and without another word, turned away from them towards the big grill behind him. Seven pulled herself up onto a stool next to Taru and practically melted down onto the bar, her eyelids heavy as she laid against the cool marble. She’d barely even begun to relax when a woman’s voice behind her immediately pulled her from her calm state; “Are you really the human ambassador for Lord Damien?”

Seven sat up and turned around halfway to see two human women standing behind her, one had her hands crossed over her chest and the other was leaning slightly with her hand on her hip. “Um…” Seven stammered as she glanced back and forth between them, “Yes..?”

The girl who spoke earlier rolled her eyes slightly, “Why did that sound like a question? Are you or aren’t you?”

Growing slightly annoyed, Seven turned her seat around all the way to look at them fully, “Yes, I’m Lord Damien’s ambassador. But right now I’m just someone trying to get some food to eat and go home.”

Seven started to turn back around but the woman spoke up again, “So you’re close to Lord Damien right?”

Seven had to bite her tongue to keep from barking at the woman but after she managed to let out a low breath, she again looked up at the snippy woman with barely concealed irritation, “We work together.” Seven said shortly, wondering if these two would just get to the point so she could go back to ignoring them.

Taru snickered slightly beside her but didn’t bother to turn around, “Work together? Is that what you two were doing?” He asked teasingly as Seven shot him an icy glare.

The woman didn’t pay Taru any attention at all as she continued to look at Seven, “If you’re close to Lord Damien, could you put a good word in for us? We’ve been trying to move onto his estate, but our applications keep getting rejected. I’ve heard it’s really hard to get approved to live there.”

Seven gave the woman a confused blink, “... Why would I do that?” She asked bluntly, “I don’t even know you two.”

The woman looked down at Seven with a look of disgust, “Why?? Because I just asked you to, what the fuck? You think you’re better than us or something?”

Before Seven could answer, Taru finally spun his chair around and held one arm out in front of Seven protectively and the other out to the woman, “Alright, that’s enough. You’re being really rude, and we’re just–”

“Oh shut it, bloodsucker.” The woman snapped, knocking Taru’s hand away from her with disdain. For a second, Taru bristled, but the woman just leered down at him, “You can’t attack us. It goes against the treaty, so how about you just sit down and keep quiet? The better species is trying to have a conversation here.”

A couple of eyes around the building flickered up at the woman as every vampire in the room suddenly took offense at her rude comment, and it didn’t go unnoticed by Seven. “Hey,” She said sternly, hopping down from the barstool and fixing the woman in an icy glare, “There’s no reason for you to be so hostile. If you don’t like vampires anyway, why are you trying so hard to get onto the estate?”

The woman glared at Seven as she leaned forward, “Are you kidding? Lower cost of living, surrounded by creatures that have to leave you alone, the ability to potentially get hired on as a blood servant and live a life of comfort for the rest of your life? Who wouldn’t want to live on one of the lord’s estates?” She jabbed a finger at Seven’s chest impatiently, “Now are you going to help us out or not? Isn’t that your job as an ambassador? To keep the humans in your lord’s district happy?”

As soon as she touched Seven, Taru growled aggressively and tried to step between them, but Seven just held her arm on his chest and kept him back from the pushy woman. “Don’t bother Taru.” She spat as she narrowed her eyes at the woman, “People like this, they aren’t worth getting worked up over. Let’s just go.”

Seven wrapped her fingers around Taru’s wrist and pulled him away towards the door as the woman called after her, “Hey! We’re not done here! Are you listening to me?? I said we’re not–!” Thankfully for Seven, the woman was loud, but not brave enough to actually follow her out onto the street, and as the front door swung closed behind her and Taru, it quickly drowned out the woman’s irate voice.

“You alright?” Taru asked her softly as they started to walk away from the cafe. He’d been frustrated, but he was used to seeing humans act like assholes. He could only imagine how she was feeling about it, however, as he doubted she was used to having such rudeness actually directed at her. “You should’ve let me chew them out. You know as well as I do that I’m allowed to use force if it’s in defense of you.”

Seven gave a halfhearted shrug, “It’s not worth the trouble, Taru.” She said dimly as she sighed and looked down at the ground, “Let’s just go home, I’ll be a lot happier when we get back to the estate–” Her words cut off abruptly as suddenly there was a man standing before them, and before Seven even looked up at him she knew that by the speed at which he appeared, he was definitely a vampire. “Can I help you?” She said cautiously, wondering what he wanted with them. Beside her, Taru took on a defensive posture as he slowly stepped in front of her.

The man held out a paper bag to her with a sympathetic look on his face, “You guys didn’t even stay long enough to get your food…” He said softly as Taru reached up and took the bag from him, “Humans like those two… They aren’t worth getting upset over. There’s a lot of discrimination for vampires who decide to live in the human city, but I can’t understand why some humans choose to take their hatred out on you as well.”

Taru handed the bag to her after taking it from the vampire, and Seven gave him a grateful smile as she looked up at him, “Thanks… I’m sorry you guys have to put up with that. I’m sure it’s frustrating.” The man said nothing but gave her a polite nod before disappearing, presumably back to his meal that he had left in the diner.

Seven let out a low sigh before gesturing with her hand towards a couple of nearby benches and tables, “C’mon Taru, let’s at least eat before our food gets cold.” He quietly followed her over to the tables and as they sat down, Seven tore the side of the bag and began to curiously look inside, wondering what the guy had even made for them.

“Ooo.” Taru hummed appreciatively as he unwrapped one of the items, “This looks like one killer burger. Bacon, cheddar, oh man this is the works.” Once Seven had all the food doled out between them they each had a large double bacon cheeseburger, an order of cheesy fries, and a pack of onion rings to split.

“I just know that eating all this greasy food on an empty stomach is gonna make me sick,” Seven started to say as she held the burger up to her face and took a bite, “But I don’t even care.” She mumbled through the food, practically melting as the delicious flavors mixed together. Once she swallowed her first bite, she just shook her head with a deep low sigh, “Man I never thought I’d be so sick of dealing with humans… At least today is Friday. Can’t wait to enjoy two days of sleeping in and not having to mess with anymore whiny fucking people.”

Taru suddenly paused his eating to look up at her with concern, “Umm… Seven? You totally didn’t forget about the big banquet for the lords and the human leaders tomorrow, did you..?” He asked her slowly, watching as her face immediately dropped in despair showing that she definitely had forgotten all about it.

“That’s not really tomorrow is it?? Please tell me you’re messing with me.” Seven was practically pleading with him, but Taru could only look up at her sadly, his silence speaking volumes. “F-u-ck me…” She groaned as she set her burger down on the wrapper and held her face in her hands, “I completely forgot about that… Fuck! I didn’t even get an outfit together, do you think it’s gonna need formal attire? Oh god what if it does? I don’t have anything for that, fuck! What am I–”

“Seven, for fuck’s sake calm down.” Taru said sharply, hoping to pull her out of her panicked thoughts as he tapped her on her forehead. “It’s not until tomorrow night, so you have plenty of time.”

“Taru, one day is not exactly ‘plenty of time’ when it comes to these kinds of things.” She said grumpily, picking at her fries with a disgruntled frown as she mentally scolded herself for forgetting such a big event.

“Relax,” Taru said calmly as he popped an onion ring in his mouth, “I’ll be there to help you. I’d say Hami would help you too, but he and Bernard are still gone setting up the hall, and I have no idea when they’re supposed to be done.”

Seven rolled her eyes slightly as she finished off her fries, “Oh boy, are you gonna let me borrow one of your dresses Taru?”

“Nah,” He said casually as he picked at his food, “I don’t have any in your color sadly, except the one I plan on wearing of course.”

Seven snickered under her breath as she started to crinkle up the food wrappers and put them back into the torn bag, “You’re such an asshole, you know that?” She asked with an amused grin.

He gave her a smirk as he folded his own wrappers up and stood from the bench, “I know. But that’s why you love me, right? Now come on, let’s get home. You look like you’re about to pass out.” Seven mumbled under her breath but didn’t protest as she stood from the bench as well and followed him back towards the estate.

“Hey Taru?” She muttered sleepily as they walked.

“What’s up?” He said casually, not looking up from his phone.

“Will you carry me to the car?”

Taru clicked his phone screen off as he looked up at her, a somewhat amused lopsided grin on his face as he watched her with one brow raised, “Wow, you must really be tired.” He said with surprise, but when Seven didn’t even give him a response, he just set one arm on her shoulder and quickly put his other arm under her legs to pick her up. “Anything else I can get for you, ambassador?”

Seven wrinkled her nose as she laid her head against his chest sleepily, “Yeah, don’t ever call me that again.” She muttered under her breath, her eyes slipping further and further closed with every step he took, “Gonna sign a fuckin’ law that outlaws that, that would be nice.” She mumbled almost incoherently as she started to doze off.

“Heh, whatever you say Seven.” Taru murmured in amusement, but she didn’t even hear his response before she slipped off to sleep.