Vatti plodded gracelessly down the stairs, groggy but unable to sleep. Every wooden step creaked in pain under her feet. She almost found herself asking the house if they were ok before remembering this was just a normal house, and Stephon Castle was a far cry from a normal house.
The creaking would take some getting used to. It would take a lot of reminders to remember that it wasn't the pained sounds of something sentient.
Once she wound around the narrow bend to the bottom of the stairs, she could see the light was on in the kitchen. Clyde was awake. She knew he would be, but it was a pleasant surprise to see he wasn't holed up in his cave under the house. He was still alone.
"Trouble sleeping?" Clyde asked when he heard Vatti come in. He didn't look up from the papers on the kitchen table.
Vatti moved to the fridge for a snack. "I'm trying," she whined. "I keep waking up."
Clyde nodded understandingly and flipped through a couple of pages before scribbling something down with his ornate pen. The fancy fountain pen with its embossed gold was almost comically out of place against the backdrop of a cheap kitchen with its weathered wood-paneled walls and dingy yellow linoleum. "It vill take some time to adjust, I'm sure," he replied in that thick accent Vatti usually only heard from much older vampires. Even their own father didn't sound like that, though Vatti assumed he must have at some point. She figured Clyde held onto the accent out of some stubborn spite. It seemed to annoy their father.
"Valsa's up there sleeping like a baby." Vatti groaned as she fished around the back of the fridge for a pouch. Her hand landed on the squishy red "plasma" bag. She shut the refrigerator door behind her with her foot as she turned back towards the table.
Clyde thought it was ridiculous that young vampires these days were expected to say blood instead of plasma to be polite. Now that they were living in America, Vatti wasn't sure she was allowed to talk about her diet much at all in public.
"Valsa didn't consume two energy drinks and a family-sized bag of twizzlers before bed," Clyde snarked, still not looking up.
Vatti planted herself at the round dining table across from her brother and punctured the top of her pouch with her teeth. "Irrelevant," she insisted and began to lazily suck the cold chicken blood from the cheap plastic bag.
Clyde let out a little amused scoff. He looked tired, though maybe not for the same reasons Vatti was. Vatti still had school in the morning. The USA was in a different time zone from the UWE. Adjusting was rough. Clyde had no intention of trying to. He didn't plan on going out in the sunlight more than he absolutely had to. He didn't plan on going out much at all really, or making friends, or even trying to make the most of their new home.
"You sure you don't want to change your sleep schedule with us? I know you don't like going outside cause the sun is evil and humans suck, but like-" Vatti paused and looked for her words. Fiddling with the plastic pouch in her hand. She crossed her arms over the table. "You'd see more of us at least. That's gotta count for something, right?"
"You vill see me plenty, Vattira," Clyde chided gently. "I go to bed after you leave for school and wake up when you get home."
Vatti groaned at her brother's willful refusal to get it. "That's not the point. You can't just be a hermit in the basement forever. You'll have to come out and talk to people eventually."
"I'm not being a hermit in the basement, I'm being a hermit in the kitchen."
"Booo!" Vatti chided and squirted her blood pouch at him.
Clyde winced and hurriedly covered his paperwork. Finally, looking up at her with those scruffy caterpillar eyebrows. He licked the sticky crimson off his lips and wiped the rest from his cheek with his hand. "Not a fan of my jokes?" There it was, a thinly veiled threat to unleash more horrible dad jokes on his poor, defenseless baby sister.
"I'm not a fan of you being a creepy weirdo," Vatti scolded and waved her hand about the dim kitchen. "Well, more of a creepy weirdo than normal."
Clyde sighed and looked back down at his papers. "Look, Vattira, I'm glad you like it here. I'm glad you're enjoying public school," Even though I advised against it. He didn't say it out loud, but Vatti knew he was thinking it. Vatti knew her brother, and she'd fought hard with him against homeschooling when they moved. Vatti couldn't be homeschooled. She couldn't take that kind of blow to her social life after leaving her old school behind. An expensive private school for noble families. Vatti didn't have any friends back home. The school was full of obnoxious snobs. At the very least, though, she has had people to talk to. At her new human school, it had been less than a week, and she'd already made a friend. "I'm glad you made a new friend." I'd prefer it if they weren't a human. "And I'm glad you're excited."
"There's a lot to be excited about." Vatti began sucking down her pouch, puffing up her cheeks indignantly.
"For you maybe," Clyde conceded.
Vatti had always been fascinated by overworld culture. She loved video games and movies, and TV. Especially anything with vampires written by humans. Watching all the things humans got wrong was always a riot. Clyde usually enjoyed riffing on these awful movies together, but as of late he'd not been interested. Vatti considered herself pretty close with both of her siblings, but especially Clyde. It was obvious he wasn't just displeased about the move, he made that repeatedly clear with his complaining. He wasn't handling it well in general.
Clyde sighed and clasped his hands over each other on the table. Vatti could see hints of bite scars on his wrists peeking out from under the patterned black sleeves of his robe. Clyde hadn't bothered covering them up. Vatti supposed he didn't really have a reason to if he wasn't going anywhere.
"I hate this place Vattira," Clyde stated bluntly. "I don't vant to be here. I'm just waiting for Father to forget this petty nonsense so ve can go home."
"But what about being ambassadors? Isn't that important? You're always going on and on about noblesse oblige-"
Clyde cut her off with a hand wave. "That nonsense was just an excuse to get rid of us, and you know that as vell as I do. Father just vanted us out of his hair."
"Yeah, but you could at least pretend to care. Valsa's already having a great time with it." Even if it was a bullshit job it would be something for Clyde to do, an excuse to talk to people. If he just left the house, he might even make friends and not hate this town, this country, so much. He might be able to enjoy living here if he actually gave it a chance.
"Good for her," Clyde deadpanned before returning to the paperwork the Swords office had him filling out. He was still agreeing to sponsor Vatti's new human friend for a Folk ID that would allow him to know about magic. Vatti had already let that cat out of the bag when she accidentally got them both attacked by werewolves. Clyde was still not happy that she broke the international treaty on day two of life in America, but the lady at the Swords office seemed pretty understanding. This sort of thing happens all the time. Vatti didn't want her new friend's memory wiped now that he knew. Clyde had eventually caved to her wishes like he always did.
Vatti could get her brother to do a lot of things. Almost anything, but she couldn't make him enjoy his stay here.
Vatti sucked on her pouch in silence for a bit, left with nothing but the scratch of Clyde's pen and the hum of the refrigerator.
After a while she found her voice again. "I miss Stephon," she confessed. A peace offering, a token of empathy.
Vatti felt her brother's words sting in her chest. "Yeah, I mean, makes sense, I guess-" she chuckled shyly. "That's what a good prince does, right? You love your country."
Clyde stopped for a moment and looked up. His face softened.
Vatti felt her jaw tighten and looked down at the nearly empty snack pouch in her hands. "Is it bad that I don't…" She tried to find the words. "I miss my old room. I miss Stephon, cause he's like family. I miss Dad…"
Clyde winced slightly at that last confession.
Clyde reached across the table and took Vatti's hand. He gave it a gentle squeeze. "Vattira the crown is a burden you vill never have to bear. It's alright, you're allowed to feel however you do about your country, just like anyone else."
"I don't miss it," Vatti confessed. Avoiding her brother's eyes, even though she knew they would never judge her. "I like it here," the words started tumbling out as she squeezed Clyde's hand back. "I know Valsa is just trying to make the best of things and you're just waiting to go home, but I don't want to go back too soon." Vatti looked back up at her brother and found resigned understanding in those tired green eyes.
Clyde sighed and stood up in his chair. He leaned over the table to plant a kiss on Vatti's forehead. "How about ve vatch movies together tomorrow after school, yes? Does that sound good?" Clyde offered sweetly, ruffling Vatti's hair.
Vatti nodded. "That sounds great." She couldn't make Clyde love the overworld like she did, but at least he could enjoy being here with her. That was something.
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