Chapter Text
His entire life, Zanka has insisted that he wasn't starving.
It's technically true. His clan prides themselves on being creatures of restraint, vampires that only took from lesser beasts or the clean, artificial stuff that only the best doctors provided. Zanka had been reared on the former, and took the latter even now as a member of the Cleaners.
(There was one momentary slip years ago, when he was new to the Cleaners and he'd forgotten to take his blood pack for the day, resulting in him attacking and almost biting Riyo. He didn't let it happen a second time.)
The point is, Zanka's gotten by. He'd thought that his preferences for food, his restraint around living human blood had been the one thing his family, his sister, could still be proud of, even as he let their clan down in every other way.
And then the Raiders happened. The trash beast happened. Jabber fucking Wonger happened.
He tries to tell himself that their fights didn't make his cold, undead blood rush with life for the first time in his entire existence. That for the first time in his life since he slipped with Riyo , his teeth didn't itch with the urge to bite a human. He mopes in his hospital bed at HQ, sucking a blood pack dry and trying very deliberately not to recall Jabber's glee when he called him a freakin' sadist!
It only works for so long.
~~
The dam breaks during their next fight.
It was supposed to have been a routine mission. Zanka's job was to head out to clear a small mob of minor trash beasts. Nothing too serious for a Giver, but definitely overwhelming to any ordinary person. That part went fine. It was what happened after that made Zanka regret ever stepping out of HQ.
"Zanka, my man! Good to see you're still up and fighting, I was worried you'd gone and kicked the bucket without me!"
Zanka sighs heavily, activating Assistaff and turning to face the intruder. Seriously, ambushing him when he's so close to base? "Fuck off, Jabber. I don't have time for ya."
Jabber has the audacity to pout, eyes glowing bright pink as Mankira's claws spring to life on his hands. "C'mon, man, what's all that shit about? I wanted to see ya!" His words cut off in a deranged giggle, leaping for Zanka with claws outstretched.
Zanka blocks him easily, Assistaff catching the claws and sending Jabber flying way too far in the other direction. "Ya have some nerve!" he continues, rushing for where Jabber sprawls out on the dust. "Stalkin' me when I'm out on cleaner business." Reaching high, he tries to swing Assistaff again.
The hit doesn't connect; Jabber rolls out of the way just in time and makes another lunge, which Zanka blocks effortlessly. "I ain't stalking you, man! Happened to be in the area, 's all! Saw you fighting those trash beasts and just had to stop and watch!"
Zanka ignores how that comment, that tiny acknowledgment, makes his teeth itch. "Well, ya can run on home. I ain't in the mood ta indulge ya fer much longer."
Jabber giggles again, high and wild, as he tries to lunge for Zanka's face. Zanka ducks under Mankira's claws again, long metal teeth just barely missing the top of his head. Recovering as best he can, he swings Assistaff again and this time, she connects with Jabber's ribcage, winding him enough for Zanka to strike again, catching Jabber's arms and chest with her prongs and holding him to the dusty ground.
Distantly Zanka registers that Jabber is saying something, but his voice goes in one ear and out the other. His ears are ringing, heart beating fast as he registers what just happened.
Holy shit I finally caught him holy shit holy shit holy shit-
"Zanka! You still with me, man?"
Jabber wriggles in the hold Assistaff has him in, but despite his struggles, he looks like he wouldn't change where he's sitting for the world, pink eyes still glowing and grin still wide. Zanka notes almost hysterically how flushed Jabber's face is.
I'm so hungry.
Once the thought comes to him he can't stop thinking it, his breath coming in shallow gasps as he tries his best to keep Jabber pinned under Assistaff's prongs. One of his shoes stamps down on Jabber's stomach to keep him from moving, which he regrets immediately when the other man lets out a low, breathy moan, looking up at Zanka with dreamy eyes.
"Haa… shit, Z, you look like you want to eat me alive."
Zanka recoils, a scowl on his face, both at the teasing tone and how much the words make his gut flare with heat and his teeth itch worse than it feels like they ever have. "Watch yer mouth," he grumbles. "I caught ya. I won."
Jabber grins, wild and thrilled and so fucking delectable. "I see ya drooling, pretty boy. C'mon down here and have a taste of Jabber, yeah?" As if to further make his point, Mankira deactivates, the glow leaving his eyes.
A shame. He looks pretty when they're glowing. Zanka doesn't have time to linger on that thought, because his brain catches up with what Jabber said all at once, and he startles. "Excuse me?"
Jabber laughs, a loud, rasping cackle that makes Zanka's ears hurt and his gums ache all at once. "You heard me! What, you didn't know that I knew? It was so obvious, baby!"
Zanka feels dread creep up the back of his neck. No fucking way. "Know what?"
"That you're a vampire!" At Zanka's look of pure horror, he elaborates. "It was your fire, your fierceness! A bit of a bummer that y'all don't have supernatural strength or whatever, but man it's hard to care when I know I'm about to get eaten!" He looks up at Zanka almost salaciously, biting his lip with a look of pure glee. "I bet those teeth hurt like a bitch! Look, I'll give up the fight if it makes you feel better, just-" he wriggles again, and Zanka instinctively presses down with both Assistaff and his own foot.
"Stop squirmin'," Zanka grumbles, ignoring how hot all over he feels, the drool pooling in his mouth.
The itch in his fangs and gums.
It was apparently the wrong thing to say (for Zanka's sanity, anyway), because Jabber keens and tips his head back, the hollow of his throat showing from under where Assistaff has him pinned. Zanka notes distantly that he doesn't have his choker on.
"No choker today," he says lightly. "What, didn't want yer folks interupptin'?"
Jabber nods vigorously. "Wasn't about to pass up this chance, not when I've heard from everyone and their mama how good a bite's supposed to feel! Hell, the boss himself would be a moodkiller at this point!"
"I'm flattered," Zanka deadpans. His head rushes with the everything that was happening right now. Not only did Jabber know, he was fucking offering himself up!? Trying to process it just makes Zanka's head hurt.
"So, what, ya came down here ta fight me just because ya wanted ta get bit? Are ya crazy?" Another thought comes to him, and the rage of it makes him bulldoze through whatever Jabber was going to say. "Is that how I beat ya so easily, because if so then get the fuck back up because we ain't done!" He rips Assistaff out of the ground as he says it, which might have been stupid, but Jabber doesn't bother getting back up. He just rolls his eyes, having the audacity to look annoyed at Zanka's questioning.
"In order; nah, I already told you I was just in the area this specific time, only for you baby," he croons with a grin that makes Zanka consider punching him, "and nah, you just managed to catch me off guard. Can't say I wasn't thinking about it though," he goes on, his pink eyes glimmering brightly. Ignoring Zanka's indignant grumbling, he pushes himself up onto his hands, but doesn't go to stand up the rest of the way.
"So are you gonna tell me to fuck off," Jabber asks insistently, quickly wrapping his arms around Zanka's hips from where he sits on the ground, "or are you gonna let yourself eat to live instead of just survive?"
How Jabber reads him this well, Zanka will never know.
"Fucking freak," he whispers before tackling the raider.
Jabber goes down with zero resistance, cackling wildly as his hands go up to hold onto Zanka's back. Zanka is so hungry, his entire mouth feels like it's aching, so he doesn't bother thinking about how dumb it is to have Jabber's hands out of his field of vision. He faintly senses Assistaff deactivating from where she sits on the dirt, almost like she's giving them privacy. He doesn't know if he should be thankful or not.
"Fucking knew it," Jabber mutters gleefully, "knew you couldn't resist me, baby, c'mon, take a drink of me I'm beggin' ya-"
He doesn't get the chance to finish his sentence before Zanka slaps a hand over the other's mouth. "Shut the fuck up, ya fuckin' bastard," he snarls, trying his absolute best not to drool all over Jabber. The raider's eyes are wild, somehow still looking like they're glowing even as Mankira sits coolly deactivated in her ring form. "Ya tell no one, got that? Or I ain't never entertain' this again."
Jabber nods feverishly. Zanka can feel him drooling through the hand he has over his mouth, and he very carefully does not think about that mouth being somewhere else. Unable to hold back the ache in his teeth any longer, he uses the hand that's covering Jabber's mouth to tip his head back and sinks his teeth into the raider's neck.
He thinks Jabber tries to scream, but he can't hear it over the rushing in his ears. Jabber's blood tastes like metal and overripe fruit, and yet it's somehow the best thing he's ever drank in his life. Dimly, Zanka feels Jabber trying to say something through his hand, so he pulls it back, wiping it on his baggy purple jacket.
"Hurts so good," Jabber says through a long, low moan, arching up into Zanka from where they're both sprawled on the ground. Zanka realizes with dawning horror that Jabber is very much hard under his pants, he can feel it against his own leg. "Won't tell a damn soul if this is how good it feels, it'll be our little secret, baby-!"
Zanka rips his teeth out from the bite with considerable effort, ignoring Jabber's choked whine in favor of taking the time to properly lap at the wound so it starts to seal up. He's not that much of a monster. Jabber is flushed all the way down his neck and under his shirt, and it makes Zanka's hunger roar to life like he'd never bitten him.
His mouth is still full of blood. Zanka gets a very bad idea.
"Figures ya'd like this, ya fucking masochist," he mutters before tangling a hand in Jabber's dreads and kissing him fiercely, nipping at his bottom lip and swallowing Jabber's gasp of surprise. The soft skin there gives way immediately, more blood flowing into both their mouths. Jabber bites back, Zanka's own blood joining the mess.
Jabber tilts his head back and away from the kiss, breathing hard. "Freakin'- sadist-" he huffs out through a mouthful of their blood and spit, grin still wide and wild even as his lip keeps bleeding. "You're soooo good to me, Zan-Zan, promise I won't tattle, baby, long as I get s'more of that~"
Zanka's head spins. In that moment, he looks at Jabber all bloody and pathetic on the dusty ground, and the last of his resolve snaps.
Fuck the Nijikus, fuck my restraint and fuck Kyouka for makin' me feel like I didn't deserve something this good.
Zanka lunges for the other side of Jabber's neck, drinking up his blood and his babbling in equal measure. Jabber tastes unfairly good, sating the ache inside Zanka's chest and mouth for what feels like the first time ever. He knows Jabber is squirming under him, probably having the time of his life, but Zanka can't bring himself to care when the struggles cause an instinct he's never felt before to rear its head.
The kind of instinct that screams to hunt and subdue and bite.
Zanka was never all that good at suppressing his instincts.
He pulls his teeth away from Jabber's neck, once more sparing a moment to lick the site clean, more out of habit than anything, before going back to kiss Jabber feverishly. He's so fucking noisy, little whines and moans spilling from his lips even as Zanka pushes his tongue into the other's open mouth.
"Do ya ever shut the fuck up?" Zanka mutters against Jabber's lips. "So fuckin' loud and fer what?"
"Can't- hah- help it." Jabber's breath comes in short gasps, his face impressively red even through his darker skin. "This whatchu do to me, Zanka, always been like this for ya, jus' didn't get the chance to show myself off." His eyes drift over Zanka's face. "Don't think I've ever seen you blush before. 'S pretty."
Zanka feels his face grow even hotter. "It's cause I just ate. Warmer human blood, y'know? Vampire blood is a good bit cooler naturally. Not quite enough ta be fully cold-blooded, but still." Jabber opens his mouth to say something, but Zanka's brain promptly backpedals to something else Jabber said. "Wait, back up, fuck ya mean show yerself off?"
Jabber giggles, squirming more under Zanka's hold. "Ya don't like exhibitionism, baby? That's a damn shame."
Zanka splutters out a variety of protests but never finishes any, all while Jabber cackles like the madman he is. The sound is grating and irritating and it pisses Zanka off all over again.
He's no longer hungry, though. That's a first.
The realization crashes into Zanka like he's been stabbed by Mankira. He isn't hungry. Not just temporarily sated, not just to a point where he can make it to the next morning without jumping someone, Zanka just straight up isn't hungry anymore. He can feel how settled he is, feel the fullness in his body that came from just those few bites.
"Zankaaa? Hey, you in there man?"
Zanka looks at Jabber, sure that his shock is written all over his face. "I don't think I've ever been this full in my life," is all he manages to get out, watching Jabber's face fall at the realization.
"Dude. That's just sad." Jabber then seems to connect the dots about something, sitting up slightly so that Zanka is perched on his lap. "Wait, so was your clan one of those weirdo clans that insisted on not eating humans?"
Zanka laughs dully. "So my family wasn't the only one. Good ta know." He blinks. "Wait, how do ya know anything about that?"
"One of the raiders was a vampire," Jabber answers easily. "Tall chick with the blonde hair. I never got her name, but she told a couple of us about some vampire stuff. Her clan wasn't nearly as squeamish about humans as yours apparently was."
Yeah, that sounds about right. Zanka doesn't have time to linger on that development, though, because Jabber suddenly flips them over, wriggling on top of Zanka and practically nuzzling into his neck. "Hey, the fuck are ya-!"
"You're boring me with your silly questions," Jabber states bluntly, peppering kisses anywhere he can reach, his hands and Mankira's rings digging into Zanka's hips through the uniform's shirt. "'S not fair that I'm the only one with some marks on me, pretty boy. Please?"
The pet name makes something in Zanka's chest do a little flip. "Fuckin'- here," he grumbles as he tugs aside the shirt part of his uniform and points to a spot just next to his shoulder. "Ya get one," he insists, pretending that Jabber doesn't look entirely too delectable with matching bites beginning to bruise on either side of his neck, that his dopey, bloodstained grin doesn't make Zanka's chest squeeze with something he refuses to name.
The thought of anything close to what that more instinctual part of his brain is considering is, in all honesty, terrifying.
Jabber, for his part, wisely doesn't complain and instead dives in, all teeth and fierceness and a determination behind his suckling kiss that (though he'd never admit it) makes Zanka very weak in the knees. Despite his best efforts, his breath shakes as he tries to collect himself, one hand drifting back up into Jabber's dreads. His back is uncomfortably wedged up against a large boulder, but Zanka can't bring himself to care.
Not when Jabber sucks the hickey he was promised into Zanka's skin like it's the last chance he'll get.
Shit, he has to get back. Semiu will have his hide if he shows up after dark again.
"Alright, tha's enough," he mutters, but his voice is shaky, and he can't quite manage to mask the clear desire spilling through in his thick accent. "Slow yer roll, it ain't like we'll never fight again."
Jabber giggles into Zanka's neck, pressing several softer kisses into and around the dark purple mark blooming on the vampire's paler skin. "I should hope not, pretty baby. Ain't every day I get to feel something this delicious." As they stumble to their feet, Zanka adjusting his shirt as he goes, Jabber snaps his fingers like he's just remembered something.
"Oh shit, hang on, I almost forgot." Refusing to explain, he grabs Zanka's left wrist, the one with the choker, and smears it through the blood that's all over his lip. Zanka's heart promptly stutters at how unfairly pretty he looks before the reality of what he's just done settles in.
"Now you," Jabber says simply, like this shit is normal, before leaning in to kiss Zanka deeply. He gets so lost in feeling the raider's lips again that he almost doesn't register Jabber's hand rifling through one of his belt pouches, until very suddenly, Jabber bites his lip hard enough to open up his split lip and make it bleed again.
"OW, ya fuckin'-" Zanka's protests are cut off by the smooth metal of Jabber's choker, the device beeping cheerily before Jabber slots the thing around his own (very bruised) neck. "What the fuck, man!?"
"Now we can schedule this!" Jabber chirps, looking far too pleased with himself. "Boss might actually kill me if I keep running off like this, so now I can call you and make sure we won't get in trouble 'cause we've got responsibilities." He drops his voice into a much lower tone that's clearly meant to mimic Zodyl, and Zanka refuses to admit how funny that is.
"Ya could have asked me," he grumbles instead, wandering over to where Assistaff sits on the ground, demurely waiting for him. "Instead of bitin' me out of nowhere."
Jabber looks at him, clearly entirely too amused. "Would you have said yes if I did?"
…Okay, yeah, that was fair. Zanka doesn't bother responding to that, instead dusting off Assistaff (while mumbling an apology into her prongs) and walking in the direction of the base. "Well, get gone. I'll call ya when I have the time, since I've got a feeling that yer gonna have more free time than I do."
Jabber's laugh echoes behind him as he walks off. "Sure thing, baby! I ain't too mad 's long as I get what I'm promised!"
Zanka flips him off over his shoulder. Jabber just laughs louder.
~~
Several hours later, after Zanka has dealt with Semiu and her prying questions (he has a feeling she knows, but she hasn't said anything), he sits in his room, wrapping up his care of Assistaff. His body is completely on autopilot, brain processing everything that just happened.
I'm not really mad that I don't give a shit about my family's restraints anymore, but Jabber of all people!?
He sighs heavily, looking more through Assistaff than at her. "What am I gonna do?" he mutters to the dark and quiet of his room.
Assistaff doesn't necessarily respond, but Zanka can feel her teasing judgment very clearly.
"Yeah, yer right. I shouldn't take this so serious. It's a miracle I worked through that blockage at all."
Just as Zanka puts Assistaff away and rolls over to go to sleep, his choker starts trilling. Zanka frowns at the offending object; wouldn't someone just come talk to him directly if they needed something?
Oh.
Oh, this fucking guy.
Zanka picks it up, headache already coming on from his deep scowl. "Jabber, I told ya I'd call ya first-"
"Ain't about that, baby," Jabber interrupts, sounding out of breath, like he's just run a mile. "Well, it is kinda 'bout that, jus'… man I miss ya. Never thought you'd indulge me when I asked for that bite. Thought I'd get a punch for my efforts instead," he adds on with a giggle, although Zanka knows damn well he'd probably enjoy that too.
"I considered it," he says dryly, instead of saying that out loud. "Where are ya goin' with this?"
"… so how down wouldja be to talk me through i-"
"FUCK no!" Zanka squawks, face flaming. "Hang up my damn line and go take care of it yerself, asshole!"
"Oh, I plan on it, gorgeous-" The rest of whatever Jabber was going to say gets cut off by Zanka hanging up the choker, blushing brighter than he thinks he ever has. Did this guy seriously just call him in the hopes they'd, what, fuck over the choker call?
Zanka very firmly tamps that idea down. Nope, you just walked off what happened this afternoon, you are not letting it happen again.
Mind made up, Zanka very resolutely rolls over in his bed to face the wall, trying his absolute best to just sleep. Let it go away.
(He'd never admit it to anyone, he barely admits it to himself, but it very much does not go away.)