Once back at the apartment building they all went their separate ways, returning to their own rooms. Sanji was inside his apartment for all of one minute- wondering how he would finish his homework that night- when a knock came at his door. He knew who it was immediately.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Sanji hadn’t even taken his shoes off, but all the same he went and opened the door. Sure enough, it was Rey. She did not wait to be invited inside, simply walked right in and left Sanji no choice other than to get out of her way. She said, “We’re going to have to talk here, Niya is a little… tied up upstairs.”

Sanji wasn’t sure he liked the tone of her voice at that last bit. “Okay…”

She gave him a cold grin, “Want to go up and see?”

“No,” Sanji replied quickly. **

Rey chuckled and said, “Well, I’m here to talk to you about these gangs you’re involved with.”

“I’m not involved with any gangs,” Sanji argued. “We just had a couple of run-ins.”

Rey stepped forward, only a few inches from Sanji. She was a tad bit shorter than him, but he definitely felt a whole lot smaller in her gaze. She lifted a finger and pressed it into the swollen bit around his black eye. Sanji cried out in pain, and Rey pushed a little bit harder and asked, “Is this just a little run-in?”

“Did you really have to poke it to prove your point?” Sanji asked as he nursed the throbbing area.

“No, of course not,” Rey replied, and then reached up to give it another hard jab. Sanji cried out and she continued to talk, “But anyway, that is more than a little conflict, and besides… I want to… help you.”

He wasn’t sure he liked the idea of getting her help, especially not in the monotone, emotionless way she said the word help. He was afraid to ask, “What do you mean by help?”

“Well, I guess your benefits will be a bit of a side gain, I’m mainly just interested in breaking into the gang scene around here.”

“What?”

“It’s not difficult to understand, Sanji, they make money doing who knows what- selling drugs, stealing things, and such. And I want some of that money, especially if it harms them in the process. I like the idea of seeing these big tuff people struggle, I want to see them suffer and cry out, I want to see the fear in their eyes and-” By end her voice had grown fast an excited, but she stopped herself, and took a deep breath, “I think we both gain by taking down the gangs.”

Sanji was more than a little terrified at her outburst, especially since she stood so close, so he thought it easiest to just nod and say, “Ok.”

“Good,” she said, and Sanji noticed she was breathing heavily. That realization came only a moment before she stepped forward and wrapped her arms over his shoulders. She whispered, “So tell me, Sanji, what did these gang members do to harm you? I want to hear all about how you were attacked.”

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“Um,” unsure of how to read her mood Sanji said, “They just jumped me at lunch, I went up onto the roof alone and they were there waiting for me.”

“Oh? Then what?” She leaned in closer, her hands cupping the back of Sanji’s head, her fingers taking hold of his hair. This was something Sanji might expect from Niya, not Rey, but with their living arrangement… it’s no surprise they would both be… deviants.

“Um, they sat down at the table next to me and threatened me.”

“But you didn’t talk, right?”

“Right…”

“So they hurt you then, right?” There was a flush to her normally pale face, and she even slightly bit her lip.

“Yes,” Sanji said, for some reason feeling dirty about it, “I’m going… to get some water.

He did his best to duck away from Rey and made his way over to the sink. When he did finally fill a cup and look back to her there was fury in her eyes. Sanji held up the cup, “Um, do you want some?”

She took a deep breath, “I shouldn’t have lost control of myself there. You have some strange sort of allure, Sanji.”

“Um,” Sanji hadn’t the faintest clue what she meant, he had never been great with girls, “So is that a no to water…?”

She cast a dismissive hand and said, “But back to the matter at hand, tell me what you know about these gangs.”

So Sanji explained, Zach and Rett were in charge of the gang at Sanji’s own school, while Nyklas was in charge over at Central Road. He didn’t know much beyond that, but when he finished talking Rey simply nodded and said, “Excellent. Now, try to keep a low profile for a few days, don’t go anywhere alone, and give me your phone number.”

“Uh?” Sanji was taken aback, but she already had her phone out and ready to type so he told her it.

“Good, now I should probably go deal with Niya,” Rey put her phone away, turned, and left Sanji’s apartment without another word. He tried no to ponder on what ‘deal with’ could entail.

What he wanted to do was take a nice long shower that would last the remainder of the night so as to try to recover from the rough day, but he had homework to do. So, Sanji got a bag of ice for his eye and sat down at his desk.

The remainder of the night went by at a crawl and his homework definitely was not done to the quality in which it should have been, but sleep seemed to be a higher priority.

In the morning Sanji cuddled up against the warm figure in his bed, a groggy smile across his face as he pressed closer into the form. His hand lazily drifted along the other body in his bed, crossing a shoulder, a neck, a mess of hair, and then settling on a singular, fake, pointed ear. Sanji’s eyes bolted open and he cried out, “What the!” **

“Get out of here!” Sanji shooed Niya out of his bed, the cat girl giggling all the while. He was too tired the previous night to remember to lock the window.

“Just making sure you got up on time,” the girl replied as she moved toward the window, “See you down stairs.”

She tilted her head, winked, and then turned to climb out- giving one last wave of her tail in the process. Sanji rolled out of bed a moment later, his body throbbing in pain from the previous day’s beating.

He was going to have to go to school again, to face Zach and Rett again… even if he was never alone surely they would find a way to get to him, right? But he couldn’t miss, he would fall too far behind- he was a good student, but not a genius by any standards so diligence was the only thing keeping him afloat.

He pulled himself together and made for the door, and was greeted by Eva just as the day before, but Rose was not with her. Sanji was going to ask but was cut off by Eva, “What were you doing this morning?”

He was surprised at the accusation in her voice. “I-”

“You’re my servant, you even still have my tooth marks on you, that means that you have to listen to me! And as my servant you certainly can’t go… messing about with the girl from upstairs, do you understand?”

Her pale hands were clenched into fists, and Sanji had to stammer out, “She broke in!”

Eva frowned at that, but something in his tone must have abated her as she simply pouted, “Fine. Now let’s go. Everyone else is waiting down stairs.”

The vampire girl held up her arm- the sleeves of her black dress sagging- and Sanji laced his own elbow to lock with hers. They began to walk like that, although Sanji had to stoop to keep at equal height with Eva. It did not help that she refused to let go even on the stairs.

Once down on the sidewalk Rey and Niya both had blank expressions on their faces when they saw Eva and Sanji, whereas Rose was standing on one foot and hopping back and forth. Upon being asked to explain she said, “I’m training my agility stat, it’s something I’ve been neglecting.”

“Of course,” Sanji replied and their group started off toward school.

As they walked Sanji wondered at just how quickly this routine had become normalized- for years prior he had walked to and from school in isolation. Yet all of a sudden he was arm and arm with a girl that had a vampire problem and walking along with three other particularly… unique… girls- one of which had snuck into his bed in the morning.

“Bye Sanji!” They all called when at the crossroads leading to their school.

He waved them goodbye and hurried the rest of the way to school, being very cautious of his surroundings. Yet all the caution in the world couldn’t do him anything when Zach and Rett both stood waiting outside of the front and only doors to get into school.