Work Text:
It was his third night shift, and Guillermo was bored.
The young man hunched down in his chair, eyes fixed on his phone. He couldn't go out from behind the desk, so he was essentially caged in behind a bright blue counter.
He popped his bubble gum in irritation. Management had made it abundantly clear that Guillermo's "image" wasn't the best example for the face of their gym. However, no one else wanted to work the graveyard shift, so he passed through the interview with little issue.
The only issue now, sadly, was dealing with how boring this job could be. Most people were not interested in exercising after midnight and beyond, and it felt more empty and alone than he had pictured it would. Guillermo admitted that he was more of a morning person, but he needed the job. He could shrug it off and live like a creature of the night for a little while.
His attention was drawn away from his phone as the doors swung open and a man that Guillermo had not seen before strolled in.
He knew he didn't recognize him because he definitely would have remembered seeing a pale tower of a man with a dark mane of long, luxurious hair and the rest of his form encased in the black cocoon of a billowing cape. He was instantly reminded of his teenage years of being obsessed with vampires before he had to grow up. He smiled a little bit at the memory, but it fell as the man's eyes shot over to land on Guillermo, and he stopped. His expression looked surprised.
Oh, no, please, don't be an asshole...
"Welcome to Massive Fitness," came Guillermo's automated response, complete with an automated smile. Internally, he braced himself for some condescending once-over, or some snide joke about 'do you even know where you work?' or 'are you the Massive part of Massive Fitness'? He wasn't considered to be fit by a shallow standard, but he did actually use the gym when he wasn't on company hours. He was stronger than he looked. "Do you need any assistance tonight?"
The man's lips raised in what might have been a smile, but he snapped his mouth shut and a frown slipped over his mouth instead. "No, I... I know my way pretty well around... this place," he responded, and his accent was thick but easy on the ears. "But... thank you for the help..."
The man's eyes flicked down to peer at the blue tag pinned to Guillermo's shirt.
"Gui?" he mumbled.
“Ah," Guillermo sheepishly laughed and pointed at the three letters. "No, no, it’s… Guillermo. They just… um... Management said they didn’t have enough room on the name tag for so many letters.” (He wanted to mention how Alexander had gotten his own name tag, but that wasn’t important…)
“Guillermo,” the man rumbled, and something about his tone made the hairs on the back of Guillermo’s neck rise. It was almost as if he was tasting the name itself. His dark eyes met the younger man’s. “Yes. It flows so sweetly off the tongue.”
“Really?” That would have sounded very flirtatious if it had been directed at a beautiful woman. Had he just tried to flirt? The thought was immediately crushed down. Of course not. He was just being oddly poetic. Guillermo kept his friendly smile. “That’s… such a nice thing to say," he answered.
"Of course it was. That is why I said it," said the man.
"Ah," said Guillermo, because, honestly, how was he supposed to respond to that? "So... What's your name?" he asked.
The man straightened, puffed his chest out as if in preparation for a grand announcement. "I am Nandor. The Relentless," he stated, his voice like fire and velvet.
Guillermo nodded. "Therelentless. Is that Greek?"
Nandor paused and looked back at the younger man. "No. No, it is not."
"Oh."
A long moment of awkward and tense silence permeated the void as Nandor attempted to regain eye contact while Guillermo desperately avoided it. After a few moments, he seemed to understand that it was futile.
"I am going over to work out now," Nandor announced.
The breath that Guillermo had been holding escaped as he tried to fix on another smile, and raised his hand in a wave. "Sounds great, well, um, enjoy your workout, Mr. Therelentless."
"Please," the man reached over and caught his hand, and Guillermo froze. His hand was so cold, but his eyes were sharp and focused on the younger man's face, which started to feel too hot. "We are not strangers any longer, yes? Call me Nandor," he spoke lowly, almost a command.
Guillermo obeyed. "Okay... Nandor," he breathed.
Nandor seemed pleased and, as if he had only then realized it, looked down at their entwined fingers. He jerked his hand away as if it had been burned, and, sparing one last glance up at the red-faced receptionist, turned and made his way down the steps into the gymnasium.
-
Nandor was weird.
Guillermo knew that sounded rich, coming from someone like him, but there was no doubt that Mr. Therelentless was an odd man. Archaic, even, despite looking like he would be in his mid-forties. He acted like an old soul, with his leather-embroidered workout pants and his discussions of 'male admiration' from his time in the military and the swift, imposing way he would strut about the area like an emperor surveying his land. He had been here every night for the last two weeks since Guillermo's employment and it never seemed to get easier to deal with him.
He seemed to watch Guillermo. A lot.
Speaking of, Nandor had appeared as if from nowhere (that happened a lot, too), and Guillermo jerked up from watching a movie on his phone (Interview With a Vampire, of course) and handed the man a towel.
The man’s movements were stiff as he took the offering, but then he stepped back and bent into a sweeping bow before him.
Guillermo stared.
“Um… Are you… stretching… ?” he asked.
The man’s head tilted to glance at Guillermo before he slowly stood up. “No, I, ehm… thank you… for the towel,” he replied, and walked back into the gym.
"You're wel... come..." Guillermo had started to call out, but the man had walked away so quickly. He glanced over the counter toward where he had left before he sat back down and tried to watch his movie.
-
Guillermo was stubborn.
Thankfully, Nandor the Relentless liked stubborn.
He laid in his coffin, pondering. He would emerge victorious, he told himself. He would earn Guillermo's love.
The receptionist was destined to be his.
It had started as a quick bite to eat. He had heard through the grapes' vines (the chattiest of fruits, apparently) that virgins frequented gymnasiums to work off their sexual frustrations or to chat up potential mates. Nandor, feeling peckish, had stumbled in to peruse the wares. Not too salty, not too chalky with protein powders, lots of open skin...
But as soon as he walked in and saw the round, boyish face and that tousled head of hair and those full lips that always quirked down in a little frown that Nandor desperately wanted to kiss away, he knew he was the one.
Appetite be damned, Guillermo was a buffet for his undead heart.
Upon the third week, Nandor could see he was not getting through to the young man. Perhaps long, unwavering eye contact was no longer en vogue with the youths of today? So, he had moved to showing off his physical attributes. It was an excellent strategy, as he had caught the human eying his shirtless form as he stalked up the steps to lure his human into his sexual web of seduction, under the guise of accepting another towel. A cloth token of affection between two men.
How he longed for Guillermo. It was like an endless thirst, and he was hardly tempted to devour him. At least, he did not want to devour him in a way that ended in permanent death.
Nandor yearned for his hand, deigned to worship him like the gymnasium's customers worshiped the exercising equipment. Although, secretly, he hoped that Guillermo would help him break more of a sweat. In a sexual sense. Excessive sexual acts, if he needed to be absolutely clear. And, depending on how Guillermo reacted to his flirting, he may have needed to be so blunt. His human seemed to laugh off any sort of insinuation that Nandor gave him, as if he didn't believe him. It filled the vampire with anger. He was not to be mocked! But he would think about how, perhaps, Guillermo was playing hard-to-snatch, and the anger gave way to a delightful tingle of 'gotcha, I will try harder next time'.
His little minx. With his tight gym uniform with the misspelled name and black pants that snapped at his luscious hips and the bright and earnest smile that would run across his face as he watched some human film on his phone device. Never at Nandor, he grumbled at the thought.
Now, it was the fourth week since he had stumbled into Massive Fitness, since he had spotted his dear Guillermo and fell like a bat underneath a shrieking woman's broom, except that broom was filled with love.
He felt no closer to gaining Guillermo's trust, and the realization filled him with sorrow. That tingle returned, and he knew he needed to try harder.
Yes. Yes, that was what he needed to do.
Guillermo was a sensible man, he thought. He needed a clear description of what Nandor expected from him. And to do that, the vampire needed to use his words. He could line a river with the corpses of his fallen enemies with the amount of sensual adjectives he could use to get his feelings across. He must sway the beautiful Guillermo with words that were just as juicy and plump and captivating as he was. Nandor prided himself on his wooing prowess. He didn't have thirty-seven wives for nothing; most of them were there of their own free will. If he kept this in mind, he would remain confident in his silver tongue.
-
“You are jiggling very nicely tonight, Guillermo.”
Guillermo paused in his paperwork and looked up at Nandor’s grin. “I’m sorry, what?”
The vampire's gaze was full of hunger as he watched him from where he was bent over to retrieve some lucky documents. "You. You are always fetchingly fleshy and bouncing around, it is like an erotic dream in slow motion made of pudding," he purred and his hands flexed into claws in a grasping motion, "your hips are full and luxurious, and when you bend over, your backside sticks out like a ripe peach."
Guillermo stood up immediately and his face was flushed, Nandor noticed, as if aroused, but the glare that settled across his boyish features made him look annoyed. He stacked the papers on his desk in a stiff, irritated fashion.
"Okay, that was uncalled for. If you're gonna be like that, you can just skip the chat and go do your workouts," he grumbled.
Nandor’s smile faded. He was confused.
"What?" he said.
"I don't like it when people joke about how I look," Guillermo grunted, nearly snapping as he turned to put up more papers, but realized that it left his backside exposed to more mocking and he turned around quickly to face Nandor.
Despite the explanation, because it did not make any sense, Nandor was still perplexed. "I... don't understand." His eyes trailed down to the floor, then back to Guillermo. "Uh... Did you not like my compliments?"
At the pitying look that Nandor had flashed him, there had been a sliver of guilt. Oh. Maybe he wasn't joking. Still, it was... a lot to take in. Guillermo sighed. “Look, it’s… it’s fine,” he said, “You probably didn’t mean it like an insult, but it’s just… I’ve had a lot of comments like that before and it’s not something I appreciate, so if you could just… not say things like that…”
Nandor stiffened, his lips curling down in displeasure at the realization of others that had given him the same compliments. There were other suitors?!
He hissed at himself. Of course! How could he be so careless? Thinking he had all this time to be alone with Guillermo, to slowly romance and admire him from afar, when this succulent and voluminous beauty was always at the front of the building to grace any common mortal that slunk their way inside to have Massive Fits!
Stupid, Stupid Nandor!
"... And those experiences left me with a lot of self-esteem issues, so I would really appreciate it if you didn't say stuff like... what you said... Because... Nandor?"
Nandor flinched. Guillermo had been talking. Whoops. And he was out from behind the counter and closer to Nandor than he expected. Double whoops.
He smelled so good.
The vampire bit a hiss back and realized that Guillermo was talking again. Really, he needed to notice when someone wasn't paying attention, but Nandor would forgive him for the moment. There were more pressing matters he needed to attend to.
“I would like to make you mine,” Nandor interrupted.
Guillermo stopped. “Ex...cuse me?”
“I believe that you are the love of my life,” Nandor announced, and took a step forward. Guillermo, for some reason, took several steps back. Nandor followed. “I believe that we should be together forever.”
"What?" Guillermo said, and took more steps back. His eyes darted around nervously, like a small animal in front of a much larger and hungry animal.
Nandor paused. He seemed frightened, which was strange. Was there danger afoot? The vampire looked around for any potential threat, which he was not worried about, as he could immediately eliminate anything that attacked them. He was a strong and very cool vampire, after all. Guillermo had no need to worry.
-
Worry filled Guillermo.
He had something formulating in his brain to distract the crazed man before he felt a solid weight hit his back and he realized he was against the wall. He had been cornered, and he cursed himself for getting into such an obviously dangerous situation. What sane, totally-not-a-homicidal-maniac man that looked like that would flirt with a man like Guillermo? Too desperate for my own good, he thought bitterly as his heart raced.
-
The vampire, asserting there was no danger, turned back to the human. His brow furrowed. "What is wrong, Guillermo?"
"Oh, a lot of fucking things at the moment," Guillermo responded.
The vampire was confused. Then, it hit him. "Ah," Nandor suddenly said, a knowing twinkle in his eyes. "Are you concerned that someone might steal you away from me?"
"L-Like the police?" Guillermo stammered.
"The police won't do anything, I promise! There is no need to be scared! If any threat comes between me and you, I will simply kill them," was Nandor's comforting response.
Unfortunately, that didn't seem to help. Guillermo's eyes widened and his face seemed to drain of color. Even after the flush of all that delicious blood had slid away, he was still appealing. Such a strange, beautiful man, Nandor thought to himself. Without thinking, he reached out to attempt to pull the man closer in comfort. In spite of how easy he would be to drain, he would keep him safe--
Before he had realized it, even with his vampiric senses, the younger man had reached out, grasped his hand, twisted it in such a fashion that Nandor hissed at the pain. He felt pressure slam against his back and he was quickly on his knees, with a warm and powerful grip wrapped around his neck.
Guillermo's breath was shaky and Nandor's lungs were filled with the scent of dandruff shampoo and hot pulse of delicious lifeblood. His fangs itched.
"I don't know what you're playing at," Guillermo whispered harshly into the vampire's ear, a rough and demanding tone that was such a shift from the man's gentle and pleasant voice that it drew Nandor's full attention, "but I am not an easy target. What, you see a fat guy behind the counter and think, 'oh, awesome, this'll be no problem' and drag me away to some fucking basement to cut up and bury in the backyard because if that is what you thought then we have a problem."
Nandor certainly did have a problem. It was pressing insistently against the front of his workout pants.
His mouth parted, and he greedily tasted the air. Guillermo's arm was quivering against the vampire's throat, so warm and inviting with its vulnerable wrist that sang with his blood. Who knew his sweet little Guillermo could be so forceful? It was as if he were a wide-eyed lamb that held a wolf inside. He hummed his approval.
Wait.
"B-Basement? Cut up and bury... What the shit are you talking about?" Nandor mumbled.
It would have been easy to break out of the human's grip, but he didn't want to harm his love. He settled for peering his head back as far as it could go to try and catch Guillermo's eyes. They were so beautiful under the florescent light and they were now even more so with the fire of survival flashing behind them like lightning in the desert.
Guillermo was still wary, and did not loosen his grip. Nandor admired that. "What are you talking about?" he gritted back.
"Did I not make it obvious with my declaration of undying adoration, Guillermo?" the vampire sighed. It was a good thing that Guillermo was beautiful, because he was extremely dense.
The grip still did not loosen. "Are you fucking insane?"
"Hey!" Nandor frowned. "That's hardly something to say when someone announces they want to be with you for all of time and beyond!"
"You don't even know me!" Guillermo's voice had reached a higher pitch, and the vampire flinched as it stabbed into his ear, "You've been coming here for, what, a month?" Nandor was flattered that his human remembered. "You don't fall in love with someone that fast!"
"That's obviously a lie, because I did! With you!" Nandor's frown deepened.
The young man's grip trembled, then loosened. He let go of Nandor and stumbled backwards. He couldn't help but laugh. "What the hell..." he gasped.
The vampire slowly rose. He inched a little closer to the human, who was still chuckling. "Are you okay?" he cautiously asked.
Guillermo flung himself back up, red-faced and panting. It was a good look on him, the vampire was pleased to admit. "Oh, yeah, I'm perfect. I got this tall and handsome weirdo customer announcing his love for me and I'm probably going to lose my job because the cameras saw me put said customer in a chokehold and then I let him go and I'm talking to him like nothing happened except something did happen and I don't know where this is all going and I'm freaking out!"
Now Nandor was the one that was frightened. "That's... a lot of feelings," he responded.
After he took a minute to catch his breath, Guillermo tried to relax. He wasn't dead yet. He was (fairly) sure the police didn't need to be called. These were good signs. "I know, I know. I just... needed a moment."
The silence filled the gap between them once again before the younger man gathered up the courage to speak.
"Sorry for, um, choking you," Guillermo mumbled.
"Do not apologize, Guillermo. It was extremely arousing," Nandor beamed, and his smile widened as he saw his human's face fill once again with blood like a freshly bloomed rose. "You are a worthy adversary. I am honored to be your suitor."
Guillermo stepped back and Nandor, wisely, did not follow. "Whoa. Again, going too fast."
Nandor opened his mouth to argue, but decided not to. He nodded instead. "I... understand," he said, although he did not. "That... makes you uncomfortable?"
"Right." Guillermo's hands lowered. "So you'll... slow down with the declarations?"
"Oh, no, I still want you to be by my side for all eternity." Guillermo's eyebrow rose and the vampire huffed. "But... now I see that it may have been a little too soon for that," he admitted gruffly.
"Yeah, a little," Guillermo agreed.
Out of his element, Nandor floundered for some sort of compromise. "Maybe... We can..." he hissed at the effort, "go outside of the gym and... spend... time together?"
The young man looked lost as well. "Like... a date?" he squeaked.
"Yes! A date!" Nandor grinned. Humans still did those!
It was quiet. Guillermo looked at the floor, then at Nandor, then back to the floor. He chewed his lip and the vampire tried to not envision how soft and pliable they would be against his fangs... Tasting like life and flesh...
"As long as you don't try and kill me," Guillermo smiled.
"EXCELLENT!" Nandor boomed, his arm shooting up in a fist toward the sky in victory. After a moment, it lowered. "Now..." he jerked his head toward the gym, "I am going to go do more workouts because I have an amazingly impressive erection from when you choked me and I need to use this extra energy, so, Guillermo, I will see you later for our date," the vampire gave a thumbs-up, which was slowly mirrored by the human's shaky hand before he stumbled down the steps, his heart (and penis) full.