So, he was clearly not human.

No matter how Lucius tried to reason with himself, Ethan Hargreaves was in some way a supernatural person.

"You're..." Lucius stared at the man's deep red eyes, grimacing in an almost offended confusion. "... You're Anthony's brother?"

"I am," the probably-not-human Ethan confirmed. "Like I said just now. I'm his younger brother."

"But you, um..." Lucius' gaze shifted to his fangs. "... You don't look like him."

"No." Ethan closed his eyes with a smug, content smile. "Guess the good features were passed on to me."

Lucius had no idea what to say to this. Was Anthony something similar to that man? Not human?

Ethan opened his eyes, raising an eyebrow as he did.

"A joke." The corner of his mouth curled upwards. "I looked more like him before. Before I—"

Tom cleared his throat, and Ethan rolled his eyes before looking over at him.

"Yes, Tom, I've missed you too."

"That's not—" Tom's usual inability to talk properly returned. "I just don't think now is a good time for, well... Anything, really."

Ethan shook his head at him with narrowed eyes, seemingly used to the man's odd awkward behaviour but also not sure what to make of that sentence.

"What the Waste are you on about?" He turned back to Lucius only to have something suddenly dawn on him, and his head snapped back to look at Tom again. "They don't—?"

"No."

"Oh." Ethan sucked air through his teeth, slowly looking back at Lucius. "Like... Nothing?"

"I sure feel like I know very little at the time," Eliza said, still trying to grasp the situation from where she was standing. "Where—How did you... End up there?"

She pointed at the spot where Ethan had first appeared in a cloud of smoke, and he drummed his fingers against his thigh in thought.

"Magic trick," he then settled on, and Lucius was quick to reply.

"Fucking bullshit."

"Sure it is." Ethan shrugged, actually looking sympathetic at the two startled humans. "But I don't have a good answer. At least not one they'd be satisfied with."

He gestured towards the men by the stairs, and Lucius sighed.

"Figures."

His gaze then wandered, having noticed movements further above them and soon spotted Anthony on the balcony before the stairs. It almost looked as though he was planning on turning around again at the sight of what was going on, but upon seeing Lucius' scalding glare he hesitantly walked down to join them.

"Ethan," he then acknowledged the previously unknown man. "I didn't know you were in town."

The not-quite-human Ethan turned around, revealing a weak, fanged grin as he spotted Anthony.

"Abram's ship was passing by, so I had him drop me off." He suddenly noticed the mess that was his blood-caked hair and made a disgusted face before trying to comb through it with his hands. "I was going to stop by earlier, but..."

Anthony scanned his appearance with a tired look.

"... Derek?"

"The usual treatment."

Lucius narrowed his eyes, pretty sure he'd heard that name before. If he wasn't mistaken it was the man who'd caught him sneaking inside that ball Anthony's organisation was hosting.

"I don't suppose advising you against going there for the hundredth time will make a difference?" Anthony's lip curled, and Ethan lowered his gaze to the floor.

"Not likely," he then said with a dejected voice, and Anthony clicked his tongue in either annoyance or disappointment.

"Well you can't keep depending on us whenever this happens." Anthony gestured in Tom and Richard's direction. "I'm assuming you'll need Tom?"

Ethan still averted his gaze, suddenly very concerned about the blood stains on his sleeves.

"... Yes."

"What's worse, he's gone and fucked up by poofing himself right into Eliza's arms." Richard looked half amused and half concerned while leaning against the wall. "She doesn't know things like him exist."

"Things?" Ethan took a step closer and flipped his long, tangled hair over his shoulder. "That's rich coming from—"

"Alright, I think we need to back up," Tom interrupted, having no intention of revealing more non-human creatures in the group. "May—Maybe we could... I don't know, step aside for a bit and... Discuss things?"

"Just the four of you, I assume?" Lucius narrowed his eyes at Anthony, Tom, Richard and Ethan. They would not get away that easily. "You know, if you're planning on lying forever you really should do a better job at it."

"What do they know, anyway?" Ethan addressed the three residents of the house. "Let's start there."

"Nothing, apparently." Eliza threw her arms out, almost hitting Lucius with her umbrella. "I'm kind of losing my mind right now."

"Ah, alright, well..." Ethan smiled at his brother before walking over to Eliza. "... Let's start over then."

"Ethan," Anthony warned, but Ethan only grinned in his direction.

"Ethan Hargreaves," he then reintroduced himself to Eliza, offering to take her hand but she promptly declined the invitation. "I'm Anthony's younger brother."

He then turned his head only slightly in Anthony's direction with a smug look.

"His very undead younger brother."

"Undead?" Lucius gawked, first at Ethan and then at Anthony, who looked unusually dismayed.

"Ethan!"

"Well, what do you suggest I tell them?" Ethan held up a hand in Lucius and Eliza's direction, looking back at his brother as if he was acting ridiculous. "There really is no logical, natural explanation, is there? So why not be honest?"

"See, this one gets it, and we don't even know each other." Lucius gestured with both hands at the blood smeared man. "Please, continue."

Let's see," Ethan continued in thought while trying to remove blood from under his nails. "I don't remember much about the death part, given that I was pretty out of it at the time, but what happened after is when it gets interesting."

"I'd appreciate it if you could listen for once." Anthony's tone was sharp, and Ethan exaggerated a sigh.

"This is just me we're talking about, right? You can sneak around all you want but I'm free to talk about my life, and lack thereof."

"Your life still—" Anthony cut his sentence off with a glance in Lucius and Eliza's direction, and Ethan looked tired.

"Oh for the love of kitten paws, they deserve to know something. I can't just leave them like this." He then brightened up and gestured over his body. "Besides, I'll need to eat something soon so these little wounds can heal. So why don't I show them?"

Anthony's expression grew darker, but Ethan had already turned towards Tom with a charming grin.

"Shall we?"

Tom looked away, possibly taking Anthony's disapproval into consideration, but Ethan wouldn't give up so easily.

"Come on." He adopted a pleading voice, walking over to him and ending the process with a surprisingly impressive twirl to end up right in front of Tom with another grin. "I'll owe you a hug."

"No one wants your cold-ass hugs." Richard shoved Ethan away before he could get closer. The latter sighed before leaning in to flick Richard's nose.

"Bad." He smiled. "In this household we share."

"He's not up for sharing," Richard growled while placing himself between the two other men and Lucius started wondering if there was some kind of pack dynamic going on between Tom and Richard that he hadn't noticed before.

He wasn't allowed to compare Richard to a dog though, even though Ethan seemed to.

"It's alright." Tom placed a hand on Richard's shoulder and gently pushed him aside. "It's not like it's anything new."

"Isn't that the problem?" Richard scowled. "He's always taking it for granted."

"You know you can say no," even Anthony chimed in, only causing Tom to look uncomfortable. Too much decision-making was landing on him at the moment.

"Let's just get it over with." He rolled up his sleeve, and Ethan wrapped a deep red handkerchief around part of his lower arm. "On the terms that I can leave this whole thing afterwards."

"All good with me." Ethan's smile broadened, and then he raised Tom's wrist to his mouth, sinking his teeth into it without the slightest sound from the victim.

Lucius opened his mouth to curse, but no words could leave his mouth. Instead Eliza was the one to verbally react.

"That's horrible!" She looked more disgusted than scared, knitting her eyebrows at the scene. "And he does that a lot?"

"On me?" Tom asked, barely acknowledging the massacre on his wrist aside from a twitch in his eye. "No, but this is how he eats in general, so yes."

"He eats humans?" Lucius finally managed to speak, voice thicker than he would have expected. "Why the fuck do you even let him near you? Why do you let him eat your fucking arm? I know you're weird, Tom, but this is sick."

Tom only stared at him at first, possibly wondering whether to acknowledge the insult or not, but then he pointed at his occupied wrist.

"Blood. He eats blood."

"Human blood," Richard added, not without a glare at Ethan who looked disturbingly casual about the whole thing. "So Tom's the only one he can eat from when he comes here."

"Why?" Lucius' voice turned cold, staring at Anthony. "Why wouldn't he be able to eat Anthony's blood?"

"Or yours, for that matter?" Eliza shook her head at Richard. "Nothing about this makes sense."

"Because Ethan and I are related by blood." Anthony was glaring at Richard as well now. "And undead people can't feed off of their own family. Might be a good thing to add there, Richard."

"Why can't they eat their relatives?" Lucius' sceptical glare was still fixed on Anthony, whose eyes pointed skywards.

"I don't have all the answers to these things. It's not exactly something people know a lot about, and that goes for me as well."

"And I don't eat people, I drink their blood," Ethan reminded him as he'd apparently finished up his dinner business and was in the process of wrapping Tom's wrist tight. "It also helps me heal quicker, which is much appreciated in my current condition."

"Ugh," Eliza uttered, looking away from Ethan's now even bloodier chin, but then she suddenly remembered and turned back to Richard.

"What about you, then?" She locked eyes with him, and it seemed as though Richard couldn't look away. He'd simply frozen on the spot.

"That's..." He grimaced. "... A long story."

"Well, I'm certain I'll have a hard time sleeping tonight anyway, so might as well tell me." She folded her arms, and Richard looked over at Tom for help.

Again, something Lucius thought couldn't possibly be a good idea.

"If I may," Ethan came to everyone's rescue instead, starting with gesturing at Anthony and Lucius. "These two seem like they have some things to talk about, so perhaps we should leave the two alone."

"Well—" Anthony looked uncomfortable, but Ethan hushed him.

"And then Richard and Tom can accompany this lady here on her way home, explaining whatever they need to explain on the way."

"Good," Eliza and Lucius said in unison, to the dismay of most people in the room. It seemed as though the tables had turned. Lucius had gone in there with no desire at all to talk to Anthony, but with recent revelations he could hardly wait. On the other hand, Anthony looked much less willing to talk this time.

"In the meantime, I'll get some rest," Ethan made a theatrical bow to supposedly bid them a good night. "And get cleaned up of course. I'll be borrowing some clothes, Anthony."

Anthony only scowled at him, but then reluctantly turned his head towards Lucius with a look of resignation.

"Alright... Let's go."

Lucius nodded a goodbye to Eliza before following him. He had all the sympathy for the bewilderment behind her smile, and he hoped the awkward duo accompanying her wouldn't be too weird about the explanation.

He walked in silence as he followed Anthony to his office, deciding he'd let him speak first.

"So," Anthony began as he sat down in his chair, but didn't get further than that.

"How come you're alive?" Lucius instantly dropped the idea of letting the other man talk before him. "I saw you die."

"I'm very much here, aren't I?" Anthony's voice was too calm for Lucius' comfort, seeing how upset he was over the whole thing. "Like I've said already, I survived. I'm of course not completely recovered yet, but enough so I can go about my day."

"And like I've said, that's not how bullets in your stomach work." Lucius tried smiling as if it would calm him down. "And it's not how drowning works either."

"I don't know what to tell you." Anthony shrugged. "I'm no doctor either, but I woke up in a lot of pain, and it turned out I had survived."

"Then why didn't you tell me?" Lucius' face betrayed him and his mouth trembled as emotions washed over him. "Even the slightest mention would have been fine. Just—Just some messenger telling me you were alive would have been fine."

"I told you, I tried to find you. But you were—"

"I know!" Lucius shoved thoughts about Seth, Carner and prison away. "But I wasn't impossible to find, and even so you could have reached out as soon as Lucia appeared!"

"I was recovering from being shot." Anthony shook his head, unimpressed by the accusations. "And why does it matter? It was what, a week? Two?"

"Of course it matters, you fucking numbskull!" Lucius' hands were trembling, and he balled them to hide it. "I was miserable. I—I thought you died for fuck's sake! You—Do you think I found that funny, or something? That I just went 'oh well' and continued my life? I'm just—I... Everyone I care about keep dying, and I thought that—That I'd lost another one."

He paused to take a breath. That had not gone as he would have wanted it but it was too late now, so he continued, though a bit calmer this time.

"It's not... Your fault, of course. What happened, I mean. But everything just got so..." He gritted his teeth, squeezing his eyes together. "... So bad afterwards and then—Then you were alive after all, and I dunno... I was so relieved, but also so angry because I'd been so depressed for no reason, I guess? I don't..."

His voice died down. There were too many feelings to express, and he could never hope to give a coherent speech about all of them. In the end he sighed.

"And amidst all these feelings of relief and anger you decided to lie to me and only come forward just recently. I... I don't know how to deal with it. I—I guess I thought I mattered more than that."

Anthony opened his mouth as Lucius was done, only to close it again and blink as if he was processing things.

"You... Care about me?"

It was Lucius' turn to blink, and the idea of denying it occurred to him as if it would be the natural reply, but he knew it wasn't true and it was an odd thing to lie about.

"I—I mean, yes?" He shrugged, gesturing with a hand between them. "You don't think I'm this nice to people I don't care about, do you?"

"You did just call me a numbskull."

"A fucking numbskull, actually, yes." Lucius pointed at him. "Because you are one. Doesn't mean I don't care about you!"

Anthony frowned and looked down at his desk, eyes apparently having a hard time settling on one specific spot.

"What is going on with you, Anthony?" he whispered. "What are you?"

"I'm human," Anthony assured him, but it was far from good enough.

"Try again." Lucius shook his head. "Are... Are you the same as your brother?"

"A vampire?"

"I... I dunno? Maybe?" Lucius exaggerated a shrug. "How the fuck would I know?"

"I'm not a vampire."

Lucius threw his hands out at him.

"So tell me what you are! There clearly are other human-esque things out there, why not admit it?" His voice cracked, much to his dismay, and he lowered it in defeat. "Just... Just give me something. Just one thing, so I know not everything I've ever learned about you is a lie. So I know you at least... Care, if just a little."

A long, awkward wait began, and Anthony pressed his lips together while trying to make a decision. Just as Lucius had considered sitting down he finally looked up at him, releasing a sigh of defeat.

"I really am human," he began, and held up a hand as Lucius opened his mouth with a flash of anger in his eyes. "I just..."

He drew a breath.

"I... Can't die."

Lucius took a moment to process the sentence, quickly settling on knitting his eyebrows in confusion as Anthony made a second attempt.

"I'm immortal."