Doe's POV:

"So not only did you wake up everyone on your floor at two in the morning but also managed to shatter the full jar of flour in the process just because you guys wanted a late night snack, "I asked with an entertained smile, giving Xander a chance to take a bite from his sandwich.

I'd been asking him questions about his earlier years ever since this morning, hearing multiple tales about the disaster children he and Nico were.

Each one that, I'll admit, I found immensely entertaining.

From the music and the tricks they'd play on their poor staff, to the family traditions.

Especially the mother who, more often than not, would join in on the harmless trouble they would make.

It caused a strange feeling of longing to spread through me. Like I was missing something that I never had the opportunity of having in this life.

Even so, it didn't stop me from asking and pushing for more.

He looked like he was enjoying talking about it as well.

"Oh hell no," He defended, "Nico was definitely the culprit with the flour jar, but put the blame on me since I was the one who ended up covered in it!"

I bit down on the inside of my lip to stifle my laugh at the volume in his self-justification.

Which didn't matter, the park we were sitting in had been cleared away once the people realized that Xander was a vampire.

It wasn't a large amount of space, just a few snow-covered hedges and benches surrounding the fountain that we were seated on.

The fountain that was just barely operational due to the weather.

"Okay okay," I eased, tossing my trash from lunch into the trashcan a few feet away, "I'll believe you then."

He let out a little huff as he took another bite, showing the number of times he's had to defend himself with that certain instance.

Knowing him, he probably brought it up after the fact, just to try to insist on his innocence.

"Alright, let's take a break from me for a sec, I wanna know about you," He insisted.

I brushed off the few remaining crumbs from my lap before turning my entire body towards him.

Setting my feet near his thigh, I leaned forward towards my bent knees, brows furrowing at his request.

"My life? You've been there for the most eventful parts of it," I stated casually.

I don't know what more he'd want to hear about.

"I know, but what about before that? There's over sixteen years of your life that I know nothing about."

"You wanna know about my time in 'pet training' ?" I clarified drearily, adding air quotes with my fingers.

I just wanted to make sure that hearing this information was how he wanted to spend his time.

"I'm curious," he admitted, "Unless you don't want to talk about it." He finished warily like the thought had only then occurred to him.

I brushed it off with a wave of my hand.

"It's not that, it's just boring and repetitive."

I wasn't trying to sway him, but either way, my words didn't.

He just looked at me with eager eyes, nibbling on the last bits of his lunch.

So, drawing in a breath, I tried to recall as much as I could.

"I grew up by the sides of all the girls that got showed the same day that I did, The Mistress grouped us up at age six based on when we'd be sold."

My brows pinched together as I recalled this.

I rarely if ever thought back on this, but now that I was, there was so much that felt strange.

How I grew up with these girls, spent a decade alongside them, yet I can't remember interacting with any of them.

It's not even that we weren't allowed to, we just didn't.

I carried on.

"From then on, our days were the same schedule save for the bi-monthly checkups. Wake up at seven, gather together with the girls born in the same year as us for breakfast, split up again for a lesson, lunch, another lesson, dinner, and then a little downtime for showers and whatnot before the lights went out at ten."

Thinking back on it, I have no idea how I went through that every single day without doubling over in boredom.

Though I couldn't remember ever feeling like that in the moment.

Back then I had nothing to compare it to. It was the world I grew up in and thus I never expected anything more.

I thought it was normal...

We were brought up with the thought shoved into our heads of what our life purposes were, with absolutely no chance to decide anything different.

To be the best of the best to the vampire we'd end up serving.

I remember back to the day I got purchased... That was the main thing on my mind.

And it nearly made me sick to think about now.

I guess it never occurred to me how much I've changed since then. How much I've been allowed to change.

"Every day?" he questioned, his face telling me he found it as ridiculous as I do now.

"Every. Day." I enunciated each word separately, adding more dramatics to it than was needed, but whatever.

"Geez," He blew out, following my actions from before, and tossing away his trash.

He nearly missed.

"What were the lessons about?" He asked, setting a hand by my legs and leaning on it.

I had to think for a moment, trying to go back as far as I could.

"They were all vocal since the mistress had a mandate that her employees weren't allowed to touch us. It changed as we got older. The first couple years were mostly about behavior and etiquette," even the lessons were repetitive, only further solidifying that we had it melded into our brains by the time they were done, "It then ranged from teaching us about vampires, how your guy's bloodthirst and biology usually works and such."

To think, all this preparation, and I still wasn't ready for the vampire whose bloodthirst I had to deal with.

"Once we hit puberty they the lessons went into more details. They gave us rundowns about the bloodmoon and made sure we knew multiple ways to please our Masters."

They were preparing us to die, and we didn't even care... We just found it normal.

Since, as long as we fulfilled our purposes correctly, then we could die without regret.

"Etiquette on top of pleasing your masters? Isn't that basically just the same thing?"

My mouth gaped, unsure if I should find his dense reaction hilarious or embarrassing on his part.

"You're joking, right?" I had to clarify for myself real quick.

He blinked at me, confused.

"No?"

Oh my god... He never knew...?

That fact presenting itself actually made me want to laugh more than anything.

"You do know why my petshop is so sought after and considered to be one of the best, right?" I questioned, trying my best to keep my laughter subdued.

Which only made his confusion grow.

"I mean... I'd only heard that the pets there were the best."

"But you never knew why they were considered the best?"

Silence.

"You never wondered why most of the patrons were male vampires?"

Apparently, that's what it took because realization and horror quickly took over his features.

"Oh my god..." His eyes were wide now that he finally had his answer and could piece everything together, "Oh my god!"

"There it is."

His back straightened, shoulders turning towards me.

"That's a thing?! How was I supposed to know that?" He asked in a new panic.

"You thought they dressed us in lingerie because it was trendy!?"

In the moment, I too just thought it was for show.

To show off our flawless skin, or so that the vampires knew 'the full extent' of what they were getting.

Because that's what they told us to believe.

Things started clicking together as I grew more critical thinking skills, and thus realizations started hitting me later on.

As horrifying as some of them were.

Humans were a safe option for vampires when it came to sex due to the fact that we couldn't reproduce.

So with the relatively high sex drive that vampires get after they do it for the first time, pets like the ones I grew up with end up being a very hot commodity for those who can't get themselves a partner.

"I didn't know any better! I thought that was the norm!" he defended, growing just a bit quiet with his next words, "That's so fucked up."

I just nodded, enjoying the show he was now giving me.

I remember during the first couple of months, I was waiting for the day he requested that from me.

It was in my mind that it would be something expected of me.

But the conversation never arose, nor did anything even close, so eventually, the concern left me entirely.

I guess now knowing that not only did the thought never occur to him, but he didn't even realize what my shop's specialty was just... ironic in a sense.

I knew that he'd never had a pet before since he didn't need one back in his territory.

His knowledge of this sort of thing wasn't the best, so I guess I shouldn't bully him too much about it

I think he even took Layla there too.

Since she was an heir and barely left the castle, to begin with, I doubt she knew either.

Yikes.

"Is that why Nico was so mad at me that day?! Is that why he kept asking me why out of all the shops, I chose that one?!"

My laugh couldn't contain itself any longer at his new realization.

I do indeed remember Nico being anything but happy to be there with him.

"Probably," my voice still bubbled with laughter, "Sorry you had to find out like this."

His torso fell forward, supporting himself with his elbows on his thighs as he drew his hands down his face in frustration.

"I'll just add that to the list of things I need to clear up," he groaned, continuing to rub his face.

"Awe, come on now, it could be a lot worse."

I could have never figured out how bizarre my upbringing was and just ended up as mindless as I was back then.

Though the cost that it took in order for me to get this far...

"Wait," Xander shot up straight, his eyes still wide as he looked at me, but the prior panic was gone, "Did you just laugh?"

Now it was my turn to be stunned.

He really switched it up that quickly over that?

"I-" I didn't know how to respond to that.

His eyes lit up only a second later, "You did! You totally did! It was a real no-sarcasm-behind-it laugh!"

He was looking at me like I had just given him the best news of his life.

Which caused me to lean back a bit as my cheeks felt warm, unsure as to why that look was pulling that kind of reaction out of me.

"Okay? It's not like I've never laughed before." I reasoned.

"You haven't," he spoke, almost hushed, "Not like that at least, not like you actually meant it."

My cheeks puffed out at his explanation, not being able to come up with an instance that would prove him wrong.

"You don't have to be weird about it!" I chastised, lowering my hand toward the pool of the fountain.

My plan was to only act like I was going to splash him, just to get some sort of reaction out of it.

But apparently, my depth perception lied to me because before I could even register the ice-cold water on my hand, I'd Already drawn it out, sending the water flying in his direction.

I gasped as soon as I realized, too late do to anything except watch.

He managed to only turn away enough so the water hit his ear and drench that side of his hair. Aswell as splatter it across the sleeve of his coat.

My hands slapped over my mouth, one being much colder and wetter than the other.

"I'm sorry," I burst, "I wasn't trying to actually-"

I stopped as soon as Xander slowly turned to face me again and saw the new liveliness in his eyes.

And the playfulness of his smile.

"Oh, you've done it now," he threatened in a low tone, his hand now inching down the other side of the fountain, down to the snow piled there.

"No!" I yelped, scrambling to get onto my feet and running for one of the benches.

A ball of snow flew right past me as I jumped behind it for safety.

I felt another laugh growing in my throat but refused to let it out.

Out of spite.

Maybe he can hear it again after I've won.

So instead, I carefully peeked over the side of the bench, seeing that Xander was now standing beside the fountain, another snowball in his hand ready to be tossed.

Using the hand that was already cold, I scooped enough snow together to make my own

My aim wasn't great, I'll admit, but that didn't mean I wasn't gonna at least try.

With that, I drew my hand back and lifted myself to see him again.

Only to have one just barely graze my ear the second I popped my head back up.

I only saw his still-giddy expression before firing right at it.

He ducked without a second of hesitation, balling up another one that I had to duck behind the bench again to avoid.

Hiding behind here wasn't going to get me anywhere. I had to get closer.

I had to somehow catch him off guard.

Which, realistically was impossible to do to a vampire, but right now that was half the fun of it.

"Come out come oooout," He sang, only making the determination running through my blood run faster.

"You're gonna regret thaaaat," I sang back, repeating the tune he did, as I piled together the most efficient snowball that I could.

Digging my feet into the snow below me, I readied myself to pounce.

And after three more crunching footsteps of his approach, I did.

Kicking off, I shot myself out of hiding, savoring his look of surprise as I darted out into the open.

I came to a skidding halt once I had him where I wanted him

Only to have my feet slip out from under me on the ice found I had run directly onto.

My snowball slipped out of my hand as I tried to get my feet back under me, only causing me to slip backwards even harder.

I braced myself for the fall, being able to feel it for a split second before it got cut short by a large hand grabbing my forearm.

A familiar, non-threatening hand if my lack of any immediate panic told me anything, and instead my willingness to grab his as well for stability.

"I've got you," he spoke within a relieved exhale, waiting for my feet to find enough traction before effortlessly pulling me all the way back up.

He let go the second that I was.

Well... That was embarrassing.

"I...uh... timeout?"

He nodded with a quiet snicker.

"Time out." He agreed, taking a step back.

Which instantly caused him to slip on the ice the same way I had just done.

I shot forward to grab his hand in an attempt to return the favor, but the harsh realization that I don't contain vampire strength nor the human strength needed to pull this off caused me to only succeed in joining him in his fall.

We both landed with a grunt, Xander flat on his back, and me directly onto his chest.

He groaned but didn't make a move to get back up, just laid there in acceptance of what had just happened.

"You okay?" his voice was tight.

That had to have hurt a little.

I didn't try to stop the soft giggle at the absolute mess we were as I crossed my arms on his chest and pushed myself up,

"Yeah, I'm okay, you?"

No answer, he just lifted a hand in a thumbs up.

Liar.

"Don't you have wings or something that stops that from happening?" I probed, shifting my weight to my knees on either side of him so he didn't have to deal with all of it.

He lifted his head from the snow just a little to look at me better.

"I don't think slipping on ice and falling on my ass counts as life-threatening, but that definitely would have been more graceful."

"I see," I simply replied, using one hand to reach toward the snow by his head, and pinch a small bit of it between my fingers

He didn't retaliate as I hung my hand above his face.

"Time in," I whispered.

He accepted his defeat rather quickly, eyes and nose scrunching as I released the snow to gently flutter down onto his face.

Small white flecks now dusted his skin and hair, a few of them clinging onto his eyelashes as that green gaze opened to meet mine.

That light in his eyes seemed to shine brighter this time around, and that curl in his lips looked more real.

I leaned down towards him with a smirk, savoring the words as they left my mouth.

"I win."