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[Logically, it's rather silly. Vander was non-powered human while Kirk had special abilities that made him rather capable of protecting himself from many physical threats.

But despite having that thought, Kirk welcomes the kiss]

I know. You don't have to. I'm still okay.

[Well, as okay as anyone suffering from vampirism]

[It was silly, but that was the point too. He was invested in their friendship and that meant that all the protections that he extended everyone else went to Kirk as well. He protected in his own way, including keeping Kirk's hunger at bay.

If he was ever called upon to help, he would show up without question. He rested his forearms on Kirk's shoulders in a friendly gesture.]

I know I don't have to, Kirk. I want to. You can call on me for anything, okay? I'll be here for you.

[Kirk takes one of Vander's hands and kisses the back of it with just the barest hint of fang included]

I'll... try.

[No guarantees though. There's a beat as he continues to hold Vander's hand. He suppose he might as well get it over with]

I've mentioned before that I grew up in a small town. Most of the jobs available were manual labor. A lot of people's ideas for a fun time involved sports, church social events, hunting for fun, or whatever crap bored teenagers with a car can think of. So for a bookish and quiet introvert like myself, it was difficult to fit in with anyone. Even my parents were never sure what to do about me. Even now I feel like my father never liked me because I was more interested in the sciences than something more tangible like football or fixing cars.

[He continued to rest his chin on the top of Kirk's head, not wishing for his hand back especially after the hint of fang. Perhaps a warning that Kirk wanted to bite his wrist? No, not at all. His fingers curled to hold Kirk's hand in return when the conversation overturned to the reason he had been invited in the first place.

He listened intently, not entirely being able to relate. Yet, as a father, he actually could. He had the same issue with Powder, though she was dramatically younger by the time Vander left her life. Her interests did not match the other children as much and required special efforts on his part.]

That must have been lonely as a child and maybe even as a teen? Did you have any friends back then?

[Kirk continues to hold Vander's hand as a way to reassure himself and to keep going before he changed his mind again]

Not really. Heh. Though later in my teens, I did have my first girlfriend. It didn't work out but Francie and I stayed friends until we graduated high school. We had different interests and lost touch. Years later and after I transformed, I very briefly came back to my hometown. We talked until her husband decided to pick back up his old hobby of bullying me.

[And Kirk never visited Ellis again after that]

After I graduated high school, I moved out to Gotham. I went from a small town I had nothing in common with to one of the largest cities in the country that could offer me much more opportunities. I was smart enough to attend Gotham University on full scholarship and won plenty of financial aid.

[Vander's other arm moved off of Kirk's shoulder so he could wrap it around the other man's front in an act of support in the form of a one-armed hug. He nodded his chin against Kirk's head, considering the words and appreciating that the other man was trusting him with this information.]

Did you take issue with the husband taking up old habits?

[Ah yes, he had heard Kirk mention Gotham and it was not the first mention either. Jason Todd also mentioned Gotham, but it was different from Kirk's. Still, he imagined there were certain similarities in the make up of the city.]

Full scholarship, really? That's a massive opportunity.

I threw him through a diner window when he tried.

[The way Kirk plainly responds and in his usual monotone strongly suggests he still doesn't regret that]

Moving to Gotham opened up a lot of possibilities for me. It was a fresh start. Suddenly, I wasn't the town freak anymore because there were plenty of others who wanted to explore what the sciences can do.

Edited 2025-07-02 04:28 (UTC)

Good, I'm glad that you did.

[Vander had thrown more than his fair share of people through windows and doors. That was the kind of neighborhood he had grown up in where keeping the peace often required stern action when people wouldn't back down.]

And you had other students with similar goals as you did. Suddenly you had people who didn't require sports to be popular.

Precisely. I was still far from being the life of a party but I didn't stick out as much anymore. Plenty of us wanted to intensively study, research, and experiment for our scientific interests.

[Kirk just very slightly tightens his grip on Vander]

It's where I met Will and Tina.

That must have been very freeing to be around similar academics for the first time. Maybe not a social butterfly, but it must have felt like the future was open to you.

[He wondered if that was Viktor had felt like being pulled up from the undercity. He wouldn't be the first either, but mostly they worked across the bridge on and came back to the undercity and did not live in the golden city of progress.

He couldn't even imagine it honestly.]

Your future friends. [He could guess this was where the story was going based on the grip.]

[Kirk nods]

I met Will first. Brilliant and was charismatic in a way that made it easy for anyone to like him. Another thing that was unlike me was he specialized in machines and engineering. He became my best friend.

[After Will betrayed him, Kirk wonders if Will ever saw him the same way. Or was it a lie the entire time the men knew each other]

Tina came later. I first knew her Will’s girlfriend. Also brilliant and charismatic. She was also always so kind and strong-headed.

[And should’ve been saved if Kirk had paid better attention]

The three of us became close.

[Vander nodded his head again to impress on Kirk that he was following along, drinking in the provided details about Will first then Tina. He wondered what Kirk's definition of charismatic was, and he then wondered if he and these two fell close enough that Kirk saw some aspects of them in him.

Likely not if this went sour and Kirk was flushed and sweet with him.]

Sounds like you three were thick as thieves.

We were.

[Kirk goes quiet as grief begins to rise up in him again. He let goes of Vander’s hand, gets up, and then walks over to a drawer sitting in a dark corner of his lab. He then opens it, pulls out a photo, and offers it to Vander]

From my university days with them.

[He was empathetic enough to feel the grief from Kirk, and he released the other man without a fight as Kirk rose and moved away from the computer terminal. He trailed behind at a respectable distance in case Kirk needed more direct support for this difficult conversation.

He reached out and took the photo. He ran his thumb over the one that was clearly Kirk, noting the other two. He experienced a difficult pang of pain as he was reminded of a similar photo from his past.]

Quite the handsome group you three made. I can see what you mean about the charisma. [He glanced up from the photo.] You've aged well. Still handsome.

[Kirk softly huffs. Kirk is still attracted to charismatic extroverts]

Probably has less to do with good genes and more to do with the vampirism.

[Kirk almost feels like he was an entirely different man back then, both physically and mentally. So much of him changed, even down to his eyes and hair color]

Edited 2025-07-02 18:15 (UTC)

You know what, I would have hit on you back then just as much as I do now. So, you're still a winner.

[Would Kirk consider that winning? Who knew! Vander thought that his attentions were warranted regardless.

He offered the photo back after a few more seconds of examining it.]

I assume you were friends with them for your entire education and perhaps beyond some time?

[Kirk takes back his photo and carefully puts it away. A corner of his lip twitches when Vander flatters him. He’s sure he would’ve been flustered by him back then. Not that he was much smoother now]

Yes. Around the last year of my education, I started getting sick. My diagnosis was terminal lymphoma. Blood cancer. I was dying. At the time, I was already studying vampire bats and how their venom could treat blood conditions. Suddenly, my research had a new sense of urgency.

[As Kirk put away the photo carefully, Vander considered if Aurora could provide him the one that he had from his youth. It had once been in the safe in his office, yet another point of shame for his own actions. Still, it was probably the only image of his dead dear friend.]

I expect you had particular timelines that were accelerated. Did your friends help you in this research, or did they have projects of their own?

At first they knew I was sick but I didn't tell them that it was terminal. Thought I could take care of it myself. Then I passed out in front of them and had to be hospitalized. That's when they found out. After that, Will agreed to help me.

[Kirk begins to tense up again]

My bat venom formula kept breaking down too fast to eradicate the cancer. Will's specialty was nanotechnology. He developed machines so small that they were invisible to the naked eye. My serum could be the brick. His nanites could be the mortar.

[Vander could only listen at this point in the story because he was not science minded except where Powder had lectured him about some mechanical switch she wanted to try or Claggor shyly asking about certain types of plants that topside had.

However, by this point, he liked to think he knew Kirk well enough to read the other man. They were clearly arriving at the hardest parts of the story if the way that Kirk was tense all over. He could see the potential lines of betrayal, but he had no solid guesses which way it would go just yet.]

[Kirk finds himself avoiding eye contact again. Even now, there are still parts of the story that are painful to recollect and uncomfortably ambiguous]

Normally, a project this ambitious and drastic requires years of work. Years of trial and error. Time that I didn't have. We significantly condensed the timeline. Tina was worried and thought it could be too dangerous working like this. Will... didn't really protest and worked alongside me.

[Was Will thinking about betraying him by then?]

Our new serum seemed ready. But at the last moment, I started to have doubts. I was intimidated by the moment of truth.

[Kirk tries to take a breath before resuming]

Will saw how shaky my hand became as I held the syringe. The needle hovering over my skin. He took it out of my hand and injected it into my vein. For a long time, I had no doubts that Will was trying to help me in that moment.

Edited 2025-07-03 02:54 (UTC)

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