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Chapter Text

A hand held his.

It wasn't warm or soft, but it was something. A guide through the labyrinth halls of a castle not really built for children.

The hand was his father's, a tall, proud man made of charcoal hair and white features carefully sculpted atop rich velvets and thick leathers. He had been told his dad was a war man from a battle long since fought, and it had been hard to believe, when he had been so gently held.

They stopped by his room and he was lifted like a feather into his bed. He was plonked down gently by the war man Infront of him.

"I'm not tired!" He had protested. His father smiled at him but it wasn't convincing.

"Are you tired?" His dad let out a horse laugh, but he was being serious! He was only put to bed when he or his dad was tired. It was a bit pointless otherwise, neither actually got tired.

He had really inherited quite a bit from his dad, they were both never, tired nor hungry nor thirsty. They both got bored quickly and they both liked talking to people, although he didn't talk to people who weren't his dad very often, his dad said it was safer to know fewer people.

Two hands cradled his face, ever so hopefully. His father was still smiling but red tears began to stain his marble face.

"I'm very tired my boy, but don't worry."

"...you can sleep in my bed!"

His dad chuckled softly and stopped looking at him, but he still held his face.

"You are really going to be something special." He carded white hair out of his face and smiled brighter.

"Just remember to stay away from people like me ok?"

Worry pricked his throat as the thought crossed his mind.

"Does that mean I have to stay away from you?"

"... If you can manage."

They hands guided him to lie down and left quickly to close the curtains. His dad turned to him at the door, looking him over for the last time. He had smiled again looking at him but that didn't stop him closing the door and leaving.

The darkness engulfed him for a long time before the door opened again. He expected his father but instead Raju Jugei Shizuyoshi had found him with some story about his dad asking him to take him somewhere safer.

He didn't want to go but he didn't really have a choice. Change would come wether he wanted it or not.

Chapter Text

His name was Zapp Renfro. Or that was the name he told everyone, his actual name went with his dad, lost in a dark dingy castle no one would every live in again.
Zapp Renfro was a fine name though, it stopped dumb vampire hunters from performing dumb sealings.

"He doesn't look like a blood breed."

"Klaus, blood breeds can look pretty damn human when they want."

Klaus seemed to consider this, yet he didn't look all too convinced when a visible conclusion was reached. His features puttering into confusion, big crushing hands adjusting his perfectly in place glasses.

"It just doesn't make sense, they're usually smarter than to give their names."

He felt a little offended at that, he wasn't stupid.

"Hey! I didn't give you my real name!"

The other guy, the one with the scar, gave him a look.

"Why do you have a fake name?"

Well he could make scary faces too.

"Why would I tell you."

Klaus drew a tired sigh and looked down at the scar man, who seemed entirely ready to kill Zapp at any given moment.

"You act like a teenager."

A raspberry was blown and quickly Klaus held down firm on scar man's shoulders, gently making sure he didn't commit murder in the middle of the ruins of this big ass park .

Zapp stayed seated on the grass, leaning against the ice wall encircling him and drew up his knees. He hadn't entirely intend to run into people as soon as he had moved through the rift. His main plan was to get back to his dad's castle, he didn't know if it was to find out what happened or maybe to have a quiet place to never wake up again, but it was a solid plan.

Ice man inhaled a sharp, measured breath and gave a steady look to Zapp.

"Ok, since you've only hurt my ego, how about we start over." The man approached the ice wall and kneeled down to meet Zapp's eyes.

"My name is Steven A. Starphace, I'm a monster hunter and I'm trying to help out with the rift."

Steven gave him a tired smile. He looked towards Klaus who's eyes moved from silently monitoring Zapp to gently observing ice man.

"I'm Klaus von Reinherz. I'm helping too."

Zapp laughed a little.

"That's a stupid ass name."

Instead of rising to the bate, both men just silently waited for him to speak more cordially. The silence lasted longer than maybe either wanted, he saw Klaus start thinking again, analysing maybe. They looked about ready to leave, which didn't sit well with Zapp.

"My name is Zapp Renfro."

Steven nodded at that. His lips moved in imitation of speech before sound made any attempts at existence.

"Are you a blood breed?"

He was about to answer, but he hesitated.

"I don't know."

He was told he was, and he remembered his dad with sharp teeth and red tears, but his mom was human. Only he needed to know that however.

Steven nodded again, this time a bit more strained. He stood up and looked towards his partner who looked just as conflicted. They definitely pitied him, giving him small half glances as they talked silently.

Zapp knew they couldn't kill him, he trained for years knowing almost nothing could kill him, and the things that could didn't even try to follow him here, frankly, they didn't know he existed.

There was a crunch of ice and the strong frozen walls shattered. The thought that they had decided to actually try fighting crossed his mind. It vanished abruptly when he was pulled away before the shattered ice could even touch him. He thudded unceremoniously on the grass floor between Klaus and Steven. He still felt a pain, but it was searing like a hot iron. Not a concussion.
Klaus let him go and apologized quietly.

"I forgot I was wearing my ring."

He was about to protest and start complaining about the sharp pain on his hand when realization hit him harder than any broken ice.
He blinked down at the reddening burn interrupting his tanned skin. The monster hunter had just saved him.

"Jeez Klaus you should have thought that through more carefully." Steven gently adjusted Zapp's hand so he could look at the burn resting on his wrist.

"Hmm, I'm afraid it'll definitely scar, it's not deep but silver scars even at a hair's touch."

"Oh." What else could he say, that's fine! You only burnt me for the rest of my life!

He looked between the two monster hunters for a second. He was confused, totally and utterly. They didn't kill him, they didn't even try to, and all harm they caused was accidental and minimal. Wow, these people were weird.

Klaus cleared his throat softly, and looked down at Zapp.

"We should sit down so we can patch that up."

"Yeah but, uh..." The two men looked at eachother and then at him. Steven squinted down at the burn.

"Don't worry we know how to treat it, we've seen worse-"

"No! It's not that! Isn't this enough proof that I'm a blood breed!"

He tried to find some ground to stand on by again looking at Klaus, then at Steven but neither seemed to have the reaction he expected. Klaus placed a gentle (non silver bearing) hand on his shoulder.

"Well, yes, but if you were a problem you would have attacked us already."

Oh. That sounded a bit simplistic, but he wasn't wrong. Zapp looked at his burn, already trying to heal over. Steven was still holding his hand but he had reached into a pocket and taken out a small, crumpled bandage.

He gingerly placed it on the burn and patted it down gently for good measure. Smiling all the while. Once he had let go his hand went to rest right under his chin and he made a pensive face.

"Now I'm assuming you have no where to stay."

He had a ratty old castle with no one but the wolves for company but he didn't know if that counted or how to get there so he shook his head bitterly.

"You could stay with me," Klaus proposed, "Just until we find you your own place."

Steven coughed sarcastically.

"Stay with us you mean, we live together." He happily added.

Klaus gave a curt nod and looked away very sheepish.

"Stay with us, yes."

Steven chuckled lightly at his partner's dismay, and Zapp gave them both a disgruntled look. These were the men who saved him? This was gonna be a long day.

Chapter Text

Zapp carries Leo underarm as he kicks open the doors to the office. He makes his march to Steven's desk and barely manages to avoid dropping the little mop beside him.

"Steven can you give us something to do, Leo's going crazy!"

"I'm not! I know what I saw!"

He does, in fact, know what he saw. The only problem? What he saw was a crimson red aura spreading like blooden wings behind Zapp, and as much as he may maybe have a point, he doesn't need to know that.

"I think Zapp's been bitten by a vamp-"
He punches Leo on the head but it is in vain.

He has just then to notice that all around him are the rest of the Libra regulars, who can definitely understand what 'vamp' is short for.

He gives Steven a quick look which is met by one twice as worried but thrice as concealed.

"Leo, blood breeds aren't exactly like vampires." He explains calmly.

"Someone can't just be 'biten' and turned into one.
I'm sure whatever you saw has a more concrete explanation."

Great all that did was encourage the incredulous look in the little bugger's face. He shot another panicked expression at Steven.

Steven did a quick movement with his eyes and gestures for him to drop Leo, which he took with all unceremonious meaning.

Leo dusted himself off bitterly and again looked towards Zapp, who did his best not to show any signs of fear.

Almost as if on que, Klaus came to rest a hand gently on Leo's shoulder, Chains loomed behind them both like a shadow. The butler dusted the shelves to his right.
He almost ran behind Steven.

"Perhaps, Leo's concerns should be heard, he did discover a king of dispare."

Or Klaus was saying Zapp maybe you should let them stake you.

Leo nodded his head and, before Zapp could say anything, opened his eyes.

Whenever Leo looked at him with his weird little eyes, he felt like screaming. He felt like the world was converging on one point in the universe fixated entirely inside himself.
Someone who he had never known, will never know, looked at him with pity, saw something worth dispering over in the deepest reaches of his soul.

If you asked him, Leo only saw what was right infront of him, the eyes themselves saw the context.

Unluckily for him, that just ment that right know Leo wasn't seeing a dhampir who's dad walked out basically condemning him to human life, he was just seeing a vampire.

"I knew it, he's a blood breed."

His heart hitched, he almost didn't feel Steven moving Infront of him.

"Are... You sure, this could be dangerous if you're not."

Or in other words Zapp's gonna need to book it to the window if we can't convince you a) your wrong or b) that everything we've said about blood breeds so far, we lied! We had proof that they could turn out alright and we ignored it! Why? Makes life more interest obviously.

"I'm sure, how can I not be?" Leo's arms fell to his side with a fighting position. Something in the room shifted under his feet, ready to swallow him whole.

Now is where the panic should have come in, like an old friend, ready to set him running.
But every arm that embraced him did it with hesitation, it took effort from Klaus and Steven to keep him here. Past the wishes of Abrams, despite the concerns of K.K.
And Leo had showed up less than a year ago, now ready to render that effort moot.

Something about that didn't sit with him good, so he looked up.

"Because I'm not one of them stupid!" He stepped forward, using his height to tower over Leo, a month ago the twerp would have folded.

Klaus tried to reach out. "He's not saying that."

"What is he saying! That I'm a double agent!" Another step, he watches Chain almost snarl beside him.

"Zapp." Swirls of ice follow his feet and snag, they spike in warning at Chain. Like that would stop her.

"Steven are you even hearing him!" After everything this is what gets me thrown goes unsaid.

Steven gazes down at Zapp, then at Leo, then up to the ceiling. His rhythmic breathing gives a predictable pattern to the action of the room. Klaus's grip on Leo loosens and he nods to the butler for tea.

He almost feels the ice melt.

Steven's eyes finally turn back on him. They give him a you have to tell them look, surprisingly mirrored (all be it more kindly) in Klaus's own face.

Oh woops! There's the panic!

"Why don't we sit on the couch to discuss this." Klaus suggests hopefully.

"What's there to discuss." For once he agrees with Chain but they're all quickly ushered towards the seating arrangement in the middle of the office (Zapp is awkwardly lifted from his icy shakles) before any more questions can be asked.

Libra's most married both clearly fail to make this feel less life threatening than it is when they stand awkwardly beside him like two kids giving a presentation.

A horrible image crosses his mind. He remembers this being how they stood when they told Abrams. He regrettably knows what to expect.
Option b).

Leo gives Klaus a bewildered look and Chains shoots Steven the same, then they unfortunately start talking.

"You've both been here at Libra for quite a while now," Steven nods down at them,
"And so has Zapp." His life feels very less threatened at least, replaced by an unmatchable want for option a), glimmering innocently to his left.

He puts his hands in his pocket defiantly, lasting about as long as you'd think it would before an elbow shoves into is rib to fix his posture.

Klaus clears his throat, that's his que. He looks back at Leo and Chains, sitting stiffly on the couch. Chains' fight has turned into a smug attitude and Leo is still bewildered.

He blinks.

It's weird, he thinks, it almost felt like when Leo came out. Strangely low stakes, everyone had been so tense until the news was announced.
Looking at it all here, it felt like a cosmic joke on him, haha as if they'd do the same for you.

He saw Klaus try to fix his posture from the side, try and support him by standing the same.

They would still stand there, beside him, even if he couldn't be a Libra agent anymore.

His eyes went back over to his coworkers on the couch. He took a deep breath in and hoped he could trust his bosses.

"I'm a half blood breed, my dad was a full on blood sucker and my mom was human."

Chains was the first to move. Almost instantly she rose up to attack but Steven stopped her by standing in-between them.

"Steven did you know about this."

He looked at Klaus.

"We did, and we would have told you if it posed any danger to us."

"If? Steven even half a blood breed is still a blood breed."

Leo walked to stand beside her.

"You could have at least told me, I thought we were being taken over!"

Klaus and Steven sheepishly shared a look, Zapp didn't know if he should laugh or step back. He decided his best option was to stay put, judging from how Chains didn't quite seem ready to let go of her fight or flight.

"Listen, we didn't tell because it was a matter of security for Zapp, just look at the way you are now."

It was Chains and Leo's turn to look sheepish.

"I also don't like people knowing."

"Why's that?" Leo questioned.

The dhampir just shrugged, "Isn't that big in my life."

"What about your dad? You mentioned he was a blood breed."

"Oh he left when I was little, I literally remember absolutely jackshit about him."

"And your mother?"

"Never even in the picture."

Chains' posture relaxed. She examined him carefully, a weird mix of confusion and bewildered disappointed coloured her face.

"Wow you actually told monster hunters your name."

"Um, actually, I'll have you know Zapp's not my really name she-bitch!"

Klaus lowered his head to meet them at eye level.
"He's telling the truth he doesn't know his really name."

A sentence that immediately made her go into an unrivalled state of absolute laughter.

"That's not funny!"

"Yes it is! Don't vampires instinctively know their names? Wait, can you even actually be sealed? Or will have of you become human putty?"

Leo looked between them "I could tell you your true name, I think I know it."

"Not now Leo!" He yelled, ready to pounce onto Chains and then promptly running after her once she disappeared and reappeared beside the doors.

He faintly heared Steven tell Leo took keep it to himself for safety before he left the office.

He took about 2 seconds to appreciate he was still alive before he resumed his chase for the werewolf.

Chapter Text

Zapp flicked his lighter absent mindedly as he gazed towards the smoggy clouds of Helsalem's lot.
He breathed in the cold air and felt it wash on his skin.

His smoke was suddenly interrupted by the door to the building's roof opening and closing.

He was prepared to put away his ciger before he saw it was Zed walking up to him. He snorted and put his tobacco back to his mouth, leaning gently agenst the railing so as to put some distance between the two.

Zed walked over somewhat nervously and put both his finned hands on the railings. For a moment, the two just stood, him tapping a orderly rhythm into the railing.
When the drumming stopped, Zapp opened an eye to peak and see what had happened.

His fishy compatriate was still there, looking contemplatively into the middle distance. Just as he closed his eyes and settled back into the railing, Zed decided to fill the silence.

"I know you are the son of Dracula because your father held me in a tank so he could have someone to talk to and he talked about you."

Whatever soothing atmosphere Zapp had cultivated all but fled like a flock of disturbed pigeons. He had to hold his ciger when he started coughing smoke.

"You know what because of what and he what?!?"

All he got for his troubles was a blank stare.

"I figured you'd want to know and..."

Wow, Zed actually looked a bit ashamed in himself for nearly suffocating Zapp.

"I thought it could... Smooth some ground between the two of us."

He intertwined his fingers the best he could to demonstrate his point.

"So you knew I was a blood breed."

Zed scratched the back of his head uncomfortablely.

"Yeah, at first I thought you were going to be like the other ones, the more monstrous kind, or that you had died,"

He took a measured breath,

"Your father had believed that.
But one day I had brought you up to our master and he told me you were trained like me, to become a monster hunter."

Zapp could only look straight ahead at the city lights. It all felt too perfectly full circle, he guessed he should have assumed as much would happen with someone like the master floughting around.

"He mentioned me."

"A little, I don't think he ever finished mourning you."

And wasn't that pretty, in this big, big world there was someone who cherished him enough to miss him. He waited to let the sentiment sink in, putting his hand to his head and letting it fall.

He looked at his old lighter (a gift from Klaus to "help with the technic"), rubbing slowly at the vial of little red liquid.

"He must have been quite the shithead."

Zed looked at him in shock.

"What, he abandoned me then kept you in a tank so you'd have to listen to him regret his actions."

He made the lighter give a hiss and spark a velvet flame.

"I'm starting to be happy he left."

Zed gave him a disturbed glance.

"What if he put me in a tank."

He got a suprised bark of laughter in response but Zed quickly hid the slip up quickly, he was very well disciplined.

"I don't think he would, he'd always explain about how wonderful you were because you were "unshackled" from the "base desires" of other blood breeds."

Zed leaned in ever so slightly.

"He definitely would have preferred you around."

Zapp thought about that, momentarily bobbing his ciger in the air. He took it out to tap the smoke and waved it half heartedly at his company.

"Shouldn't've left then."

He gets a slightly disbelieving nod in response.

"Yeah, guess he shouldn't have."

Zapp replaced the cigar in his mouth, puffing out gentle clouds.

When he through his first chair at Klaus and broke his first window to spite Steven, he wanted desperately to just go back to his father. He was mad then, that his friends couldn't understand what he was going through and that he couldn't go back to the one person that did.

Klaus had sat him down after his fourth broken lamp and tried to get him to talk about his feelings. It had gone predictably well but he had promised at the end he wouldn't break anything in the house. It was a flimsy compromise.

But Steven was so happy with him the first time he settled an argument without breaking anything, he had taken him out to get ice cream. All the complaining about not being a kid didn't stop Zapp from finishing three scoops in ten minutes.

Later, he would tell Leo of the stomach ache and the painfully cold teeth and how he'd only really eaten it because someone else was paying.

But he still remembers Steven, sitting at the corner of his bed, and lecturing him endlessly about eating slowly untill he fell asleep.
He remembers when the next morning, Klaus woke him up with bacon because they thought he should eat more meats untill he got better.

He'll always remember dozing off while the two men read and discussed scientific books about blood breeds they'd had to sneakily "barrow" from Abrams before he knew.

Zapp remembers another time when Leo and Chains, both too scared to even touch him anymore, tried to take him out drinking. When he told them there was hardly anything in any of their price ranges that could get him hammered right now, they took it as a challenge.

The night had ended with a favour exchange from one of Chains' work friends to get her a bottle of the one thing strong enough to actually get a dhampir of his variety drunk.

He finished the star spiralled liquid almost immediately but he still kept the bottle on a shelf in the offices.

Now a days, when he tries to understand why his father left, he thinks of how the people in his life hold him close and try to understand, even when they can't or even when they're scared.

When he was with his father, he had an empty stone castle, but the city is bustling and he can't help but believe it's with freaks like him.

He slaps the railing with both hands and give the man next to him a wide tooth grin, showing off his sharp canines.

"You've only been here, what? 2 hours?"

"3 and a half."

"Totally, so how about we get some drinks, we can get Leo to pay."

"Drinks?"

"Sure, we can celebrate your arrival and me not being the only half human anymore."

Zed gazes back in barely contained shock.

"I've barely sorted myself out."

"Klaus' rich he'll probably build you an aquarium or something."

He starts to tug him by the arm to the exit on the roof.

"Let's go get hammered before Steven starts asking you questions."

Yeah, he decides as he tugs a helpless fish man away from the sky line, this is a pretty nice full circle moment.