Chapter Text
The mornings were always harsh on Mikasa, the bright wash of sunlight filtered through her room stinging her eyes through her eyelids.
She hissed and pulled the blanket over her head, forcing herself to fit human sleeping patterns was often a burden. She couldn’t fall asleep until three or four am and waking up at nine in the morning for classes was challenging.
She sat up slowly letting her eyes adjust and felt a pang of hunger deep in her core. She cursed aloud, being the only vampire on a human college campus was hard enough but she had forgotten to pick up more blood from the hospital last week and now she was left hungry with three classes a head of her.
She gauged her hunger level as low, she could probably get through the day with minimal damage. She had two tests so she couldn’t really skip without an excuse and she doubted her professors would take ‘I ran out of blood and couldn’t go to class hungry’ as a legitimate one.
It wasn’t that being hungry was dangerous for other people, even if she went a long time without eating, lost control, and bit someone it’s not like they would die and they probably wouldn’t even remember it since her non-lethal venom only made humans a little out of it. Her stomach could barely handle a liter of blood and an adult human would be perfectly fine after losing that much.
Not eating was dangerous for her own body. She became hyperactive, moody, pale, and focusing was impossible which wasn’t good for a college student with papers to write and tests to study for. Her more vampiric side came out too which included elongated canines and crimson hued eyes.
Mikasa willed herself to shower and get ready, the effects of hunger already setting in. She couldn’t make it to the hospital in time and her first class was one that had a test, she would have to suffer through it.
A knock on the door signaled it was time for class. She opened it and her adoptive brother gave her a sleepy nod, but quickly narrowed his perceptive eyes at her.
“When’s the last time you ate?” he whispered accusingly. She looked away from him and cringed internally. Eren and his parents were the only three people in the world that knew about her and it was his father that set her up with unusable blood from the hospital.
“About three weeks…” she admitted. His eyes bulged from his head and he sighed loudly.
“You’re pushing your luck, we’re going to the hospital tonight!” He hissed low for her to hear.
“I know but I was busy with a paper and it slipped my mind.” She tried to reason but it sounded like a lame excuse to her too.
He threw up his hands in exasperation.
“What if you pass out somewhere, fangs out, eyes red, and someone finds you like that? Or what if an AB negative person happens by?” he reprimanded in a harsh whisper.
She felt a stab of hunger with the mention of AB negative blood, it was the rarest blood type and it was the most delicious. She had only met one person in her life with that blood type and even on a full stomach it made her mouth water and her fangs ache.
“I’ll be fine for one day.” She stressed. Eren looked around the hallway of her dorm and after noticing no one was around stepped closer to her.
“Do you need…” he asked suggestively. She immediately knew what he was offering and gave him a disapproving look, she did not drink from her family. It was a rule she had set long ago.
“I’ll be okay Eren, come on we’re going to be late.” She rushed past him and he followed behind nervously.
They walked across the campus in broad daylight, those myths about vampires burning or sparkling were so dumb. It was her eyes that held a sensitivity to light, her pupils were prone to dilating since they were built for hunting in the dark but a good pair of sunglasses fixed that issue quickly.
They walked into class expecting for it to have started already but to their surprise their professor hadn’t shown up yet.
“What’s going on?” Eren asked Armin who sat behind him.
“Apparently Professor Shardis had a bad car accident. He’s unable to teach for the rest of the term and so a new guy is supposed to be here today.” Armin informed Eren and Mikasa.
Mikasa pursed her lips, she could only guess that the test was cancelled for the day and if she had known that then she could’ve went and got blood before the rest of her classes today.
She contemplated getting up and leaving but at that time a man walked into the room, he was short but looked much older than the average university student so she could only guess it was the replacement professor.
“As you all know by now Shardis is half dead, dumbass drove home drunk two days ago and is now in a coma. I’m Dr. Ackerman and I’ll be taking over all his classes and his labs too. You were supposed to take a test today but I’m postponing that til next week since I have no clue what the fuck is going on.” He introduced himself crudely.
Mikasa thought he was attractive for an older guy until he opened his mouth, his harsh words of such a kind professor grated on her nerves.
“I’m also tired as hell and taking over 7 classes and 2 research labs is hard to do in just two days so were going to spend today going over what you last learned and if you have any questions about anything now is the time to ask.” He continued.
He walked past the row of desks she was currently sitting in to set his bag on the desk and get out a stack of papers.
She was bending over to get her notes out too when she took a normal breath in.
The smell assaulted every cell in her body and she had to grab the seat in order to hold onto her sanity.
Of fucking course, she went her entire life only meeting one person who was AB negative and on today of all days she had to get a new professor who had it and on top of that his natural scent paired well with the scent of his blood. It was deep and almost earthy, making her canines protrude immediately. She kept her mouth clamped shut to hide them.
Her hunger skyrocketed from low to severe almost instantly, her throat feeling so dry she couldn’t swallow and she had to fight her natural predatory instincts to try and attempt sitting like a normal human who didn’t feel an all-consuming need to attack their professor.
He was talking now but whatever he was saying was unheard, her attention completely focused on the sound of his blood pumping through his body. When she wasn’t hungry her senses weren’t that much better than the average human but hunger brought out the acute hearing and sense of smell. Even her tongue could practically feel the hot liquid ghosting down her throat.
She felt a nudge on her arm and Eren gave her a quizzical look.
She tried to express her pain in her eyes and Eren notioned for her to write it in her notebook.
She wrote ‘AB-‘ and lifted it for him to see.
His eyes went wide and his telltale nervous habits appeared, his leg began to fidget and he looked around the room with unfocused eyes, thinking.
He beckoned for the notebook and when Dr. Ackerman looked away she quickly did so, Eren scribbled something down and passed it back with little secrecy. He was panicking.
‘fake feinting, ill take you to the hospital.’ He wrote underneath what she wrote before.
She looked around nervously, she needed to get out before she did something stupid. Mikasa never lost control of herself, even in her hungriest state she could push through and keep her cool but this smell was nothing like she had ever encountered before, she was only just a little hungry walking into this class and all of a sudden she felt starved.
She felt embarrassed and angry, how can this one man ruin everything she’s worked for.
No she couldn’t blame him, it wasn’t his fault he smelled…amazing. She had to clamp down on her tongue to suppress a moan when she inhaled, it was pure torture. She was almost in physical pain and decided she couldn’t last the entire 40 minutes left of class because it had only been three minutes since she smelled him and it was already this bad.
Mikasa looked at Eren and nodded, indicating his plan was the best thing for today.
She faced the front again and noticed Dr. Ackerman’s eyes on her, she let her eyes droop and took one last sweet breath in before she fell out of her desk keeping her body loose as she hit the ground.
The class around her gasped and she heard them getting up and murmuring.
“Alright, alright calm down.” She heard the professor warn.
Eren’s hands were on her and gathering her stuff.
“Mikasa, can you hear me? Did you take your iron pills this morning?” he lied, Mikasa was actually impressed he came up with a good lie, she was pale enough to pass for an anemic.
She let her eyes flutter and weakly moved, Eren faked helping her up and Dr. Ackerman waved them into the hallway.
“Is she okay?” he asked with real worry.
Eren spoke for her.
“She’s just anemic and must’ve forgot her medicine today, I’ll take her to the clinic on campus if that’s okay.” He asked.
The professor muttered an approval and they slowly made their way into the hallway until they were around the corner and then Mikasa ran until she was outside the building, gasping for air to clean his scent from her lungs.
Eren finally caught up with her outside.
“Hospital, now.” He grabbed her hand and marched toward his dorm parking lot.
She continued to breathe deeply and followed Eren quietly.
“I told you, Mikasa! I knew this would happen.” He scolded her while they walked.
“You never know who’ll encounter, you can’t let your hunger get out of check even for a minute.” He continued to yell at her.
“It was weird that you two have the same last name though.” He commented still sounding angry. She nodded but shrugged, there was no way they could be related. Being a vampire was genic, much like being a human. Pop culture liked to portray it as a disease which one could become infected with but that simply wasn’t true.
She followed along silently, knowing that his anger was out of worry. She could handle herself but even if she was full this scent would’ve done the same damage.
She paused in realization.
“Mikasa?” Eren asked when she stopped moving.
“I have to drop this class.” She whispered almost horrified. Even if she went to his class after drinking a whole liter of fresh blood she would probably still crave his.
“The drop date has already passed you can’t! You’ll fail, is it that bad?” he whispered to her, aware of the other students passing by.
She placed a hand over her mouth, feeling sick. This was the first time her nature interfered with her life.
“It is that bad Eren, all I could focus on was his scent, and think about ways to get him alone. I can’t be near him it’s too tempting, I’ll mess up everything I’ve worked for.” She confessed.
Eren gave her an empathetic look.
“Failing one class would be better than risking my entire college career and possibly our safety.” She determined.
“Let’s wait until after you eat, maybe it’ll be bearable enough to continue the rest of that class.” He suggested.
She nodded her head and walked silently the rest of the way to his car. It felt like a brick was sitting on her chest, if she couldn’t handle being in the same room with him then she was in trouble. Dr. Shardis was a professor who taught a lot of biology classes, now with that man taking over them and as someone who’s major is biology then avoiding him for the rest of her two years left as an undergrad would be very difficult.
The hospital wasn’t very busy at this time and getting a hold of Eren’s dad wasn’t difficult.
“You shouldn’t push yourself too hard, Mikasa.” He warned in a similar fashion as his son did earlier.
He brought in a liter of barely expired blood to his office and nuked it in a mug before handing it to Mikasa. She drank it down greedily and welcomed the satisfied fullness, making the craving for that man’s blood all but disappear but she did however reluctantly notice that the flavor of the expired B negative was almost gross in comparison to the memory of Dr. Ackerman’s scent.
“I know, I’m sorry.” She apologized quietly. Dr. Jaeger smiled and patted her knee.
“No one could’ve guessed that a man with such a rare blood type would show up on a day when you happened to be a little hungry.” He consoled.
She didn’t feel any better about it but now that she was full maybe she could face that class again, it wouldn’t be easy but as long as she was completely full maybe she could be near him without feeling out of control.
“Thank you” she stated and her adoptive father went back to work after his pager went off.
She put two bags of A positive blood in her backpack and with that she and Eren headed back to campus. She had two more classes to attend, one of which had a test.
As she sat down in her second class of the day, she pulled out the note book from her backpack, the expired blood safely in her mini fridge back in her dorm. She was lucky Dr. Jaeger could afford a single student apartment for her, that way no human students could happen onto her blood storage.
She could go a little over two weeks comfortably without eating if she had a big meal prior but she kept two bags with her this time because she needed to be absolutely engorged if she was going to be around his blood again.
As she was zipping up her bag she noticed the note book she kept for her Microbiology class, the one Dr. Ackerman was now teaching, was missing. She sighed exhaustedly, knowing it must still be in that class room.
She breathed in through her nose, the scents of the people around her barely aroused any feelings. It was similar to the way she imagined people who weren’t hungry being around food. Yea, she could drink their blood but she was full and it seemed pointless.
This was one area where she wished popular vampire movies and books were true to reality. If she could drink animal blood in place of human blood she would but sadly it didn’t work that way. Drinking animal blood was the same as eating human food, it provided little nutrient value and made her sick to her stomach.
Eating human food for appearances was the worst, so she couldn’t even imagine drinking animal blood.
She got through her classes with minimal effort, and as soon as she handed in the test during her last class of the day she sprinted back to the science building to try and hunt down her notebook.
The room her class was held in was currently empty to her delight but after searching for almost 5 minutes she concluded that the notebook wasn’t in there.
Damn, she cursed internally. The only logical place it could be is with someone who picked it up, in the trash, or worse with Dr. Ackerman. She didn’t want to think about it right now and just go back to her dorm to study but as she was leaving she heard someone call out.
“Oi, girl.” She heard from behind her. She assumed it was directed towards someone else but the voice was familiar and her stomach flipped when she pinpointed the owner.
Dr. Ackerman.
She turned slowly, her mouth watering in anticipation. She clasped a hand over her mouth, mortified that she had this reaction since she had just drank a whole liter of blood not five hours ago. She shouldn’t even be thinking of being hungry.
She looked up and he was right there, standing not even a foot in front of her which meant it was much too close. She backed up involuntarily and then cringed at her reaction. She probably looked like some weirdo to him right now.
She lowered her hand and hoped to god her teeth stayed in place, she could usually control her canine teeth but earlier they came out in full force against her own will.
“Sorry, you startled me.” She stated with a shaky breath, his scent wasn’t in her nose yet but she knew a small gust of wind could change that.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, she noted the way he spoke was more accusing than worried.
“Fine, now. Thanks.” She replied in a clipped tone. He raised an eyebrow at her and she studied his face. She hadn’t had time when she first saw him, she was much too fixated on his smell to really look at his face.
He was shorter than her, he looked younger than he probably was. He had a PhD which meant he had to be in his 30’s at least. His hair was black, shaved in an undercut with a part to the side. His was very angular and sharp with high cheek bones and yet it still held a youthful look.
But his eyes were the real point of interest, they were a steel bluish grey tone and held all of the negative emotions he could ever feel in them. The scowl that was there on his face looked as if it was a permanent feature. Her eyes sank downward and that’s when she saw his neck.
It was thick, and she realized that so was the rest of his body. He must have worked out a lot or something because even in his slacks and white button up shirt she could see the clear outline of definition.
The first thought that crossed her mind was being glad he was healthy which meant he could withstand more blood loss.
She snapped her eyes back up to him feeling ashamed for thinking of his blood first and noticed that he was staring her down just as hard, it was a strange interaction.
“Since you’re feeling better you won’t mind coming to my office, it’s just down this hallway.” He suggested. She knew she shouldn’t refuse, she was just another student to him. She needed to act normal.
“Sure.” She agreed. They walked toward the interior of the building and she felt the air conditioner pushing air away from her, which is why she hadn’t smelled him yet.
They walked only a short distance and she tried to stay close enough to not seem weird but far enough not to smell him.
His office wasn’t huge and she felt fear rocket through her veins at the thought of being closed in a small space, alone. His scent would surely reach her nose in this room.
She walked past him and held her breath as she entered the room, he shut the door and sat in his chair.
She looked on the desk and noticed her note book, so he did have it. She was a little relived but she was curious as to why she had to come to his office and sit down just to retrieve her notebook.
Mikasa was running out of breath to hold and figured it was now or never. She would have to breathe around him eventually. She let the air out slowly as to not attract his attention and braced herself mentally as she took a tentative breath in.
The scent hit her hard again, this time because of the concentrated amount. She should’ve known that his office of all places would be drenched in his scent. The only thing holding her to her seat was the fact that she had a full stomach, if she was hungry like earlier then she might have really lost control in this situation.
But that didn’t stop the craving that clawed at her throat, she longed just to taste the rich liquid on her tongue.
“I wanted to talk to you about this.” He held out the notebook opened to a certain page, she moved her arm mechanically willing herself to act normal and reign in her desires.
She looked down at the notebook and what she saw made the almost uncontrollable craving die down.
The note she and Eren wrote just before she faked passing out.
‘AB-‘
‘fake feinting, ill take you to the hospital.’
Was written just in the corner of the page he had opened. She barely kept her terror in check, if anyone suspected anything it could mean disaster for her and her family, even though they were human.
She took a deep breath and cursed herself, a fresh wave of intense need assaulting her insides as she breathed in the intoxicating aroma of Dr. Ackerman. Her teeth were on the verge of betraying her wish for them to stay in her gums.
He cocked his head to the side a scowl ever present, waiting for an answer from the girl who he didn’t know was locked in an internal struggle.
She wanted to run, her craving starting to get the better of her and a potential slip up of her true nature to a human right in front of her in her own hand writing. She was scared and angry. Her life was just normal and fine until this asshole had to show up and ruin everything, she didn’t care if it was ridiculous to blame him for his own blood type.
“Well since you’re not going to say anything, I’ll say it for you, Miss Mikasa. I do not care if you have to leave during class but please don’t make a huge scene, you have the highest score in this class anyways so it’s not like I would really give a shit.” He explained in a dull voice.
She felt like laughing, she really thought that he knew she was a vampire from just seeing AB- wrote out in a biology notebook.
“Normally I would have to report this incident but I’m willing to let it slide, on one condition.” He continued. Fear resurfaced but this time it was fear for her grades.
“What is it?” she spoke quietly. He gave no emotions away, his face remaining passive.
“If you join my new research team, I’ll call it even. It’s only a few short weeks and you still need to do research before you graduate so it seems like you get the better end of the deal.” He finished. If this was anyone else offering this deal she would be elated but staying close to him was dangerous and for her torturous.
“What if I refuse.” She asked seriously but he gave a scoff as if he thought she was joking.
“I’m not that bad, it’s on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights at 8pm well after the time classes let out in room 104B, which is now my lab.” He ignored her attempt at a refusal and she didn’t know what else to say as her inner desire was begging for more chances to be near him
She got up and grabbed her bag, shoving the note book back into it.
“Fine.” She agreed, she needed to leave. She was reaching her limit and her fangs didn’t want to stay put for much longer. She could always figure something else out in the long run.
“Don’t you want to know what we’re going to be studying?” he asked, he seemed just a little bit smug now.
“What?” she asked tentatively.
“Permeability in human red blood cells.” He stated coolly.
She nodded and mumbled a goodbye but as soon as she was out the room she ran all the way back to her dorm, not caring about the looks people were giving.
Mikasa was terrified, she locked the door behind her and sank to the floor. She was pissed off and scared. She hated him, it was unreasonable but it was there and she couldn’t make it go away.
She let her canine teeth extend completely, her gums aching from forcing them at bay. Her mouth watered, saliva spilling onto her chin embarrassingly. She wasn’t even hungry, all she felt was a greedy desire to taste.
She hated this side of her, she wished so many times to be human. One man with one stupid blood type could ruin everything she built, her life hung precariously on her ability to keep her vampiric nature in check.
Her head tilted back against the door, she breathed in the air of her dorm room. It cleansed the damn scent of that asshole out of her nose but she noticed she actually was able to control herself in his tiny office so she could deal with the open classroom and if there were other students in the lab then they might help drown out or at least dull his scent.
She couldn’t let him win, she had to get through this obstacle in her life. If she could just resist him and act like a normal human around him then she could deal with whatever else life could throw at her.
The only thing that could go wrong was the fact they were dealing with human blood cells, even though she was certain no one’s blood could tempt her like Dr. Ackerman’s could it didn’t stop her rising anxiety.
She got up from the floor and tossed her book bag on the couch, she was much too stressed over the new challenges that had appeared to worry about school work right now. She had to find a way to desensitize herself from the scent of his blood, if she could just control herself enough to focus on something besides him then she would be fine.
A knock on her door broke her from her troublesome thoughts, she nervously hovered over the doorknob before cracking the door open.
“Jeeze, you going to let me in?” Erens voice sounded from the other side, she let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding and opened the door wider for him to enter.
“Sorry, just nervous.” She admitted, he nodded his head in understanding.
“I don’t mean to bother you but my dorm hall is kind of crazy right now and I needed some peace to start on this paper.” He stated.
She narrowed her eyes at him.
“You mean the paper that’s due on Monday?” she asked accusingly. He gave her a guilty smile opening his laptop as he got comfortable on her couch. She rolled her eyes and walked over to the kitchen area of the small student apartment to put on some coffee.
“Do you mind if Armin comes over in a bit? He’s in a room next to some frat boys so studying is hard for him too.” He mentioned.
“Yea that’s fine.” She knew the drill, the weekends usually meant having Eren and Armin over until late at night. She opened what Eren nicknamed ‘the human fridge’ to make some snacks for her friends.
She kept all her blood in a mini fridge in her bedroom that stayed under a lock and key, it was labeled ‘biology experiments’ so no one would be curious what was in there. This fridge held normal human foods that anyone was welcome to.
“This milk is about to expire.” She mused aloud, she debated internally whether she should tell Eren about what happened earlier or about the research offer. He would worry about it and probably start to panic.
She decided to tell him about the experiment at least but not about Dr. Ackerman confronting her on the fake passing out.
“I saw Dr. Ackerman again after class.” She stated not looking directly at Eren.
“What?!” his attention was caught and he looked up from his computer at Mikasa.
“He offered me a position on his student research team, I accepted.” She confessed.
“Are you sure that’s going to be okay? Can you be around him that much?” he asked loudly. She set the milk on the counter deciding on making cupcakes since she had just enough left.
“I was able to control myself when I met with him just a little while ago, I should be fine as long as I eat before I go near him.” She half lied. She was able to control herself from acting on her desires but she couldn’t control her thoughts, her ability to focus on anything but his smell was in need of serious training.
“Just please be careful, I don’t want you to push yourself too hard Mikasa. It’s okay to have limits.” He insisted. She forced a smile and nodded.
“I know.” She simply stated, getting out the eggs and oil for the cupcake mix. She continued to bake as Eren focused on his paper. The silence was pleasant, she enjoyed her time with her family they all made an effort to make her feel normal.
A little while later as she was putting the cupcakes in the oven another knock on the door signaled Armin’s arrival.
“Hi.” She greeted simply as he walked inside.
“Hey.” he returned the greeting. He took of his shoes and went to go sit by Eren on the couch. Armin was her friend too but like all humans who weren’t her family, they often kept a distance from her. She wondered if they subconsciously knew she was different from them.
Armin stayed for the next three hours helping Eren more than doing his own school work. She finished the cupcakes and then made sandwiches for the boys.
She liked this time with Eren and Armin but keeping up appearances became tiring after a while so she was happiest when it was just her and her adoptive brother.
Armin said his goodbyes and headed back to his dorm. Mikasa gathered up the dishes from the food they just ate and placed them in the sink, she would wash them tomorrow.
“Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” Eren asked, suddenly standing next to her.
She gave him a tired smile.
“Yea, it’s just a lot to handle in one day.” She answered honestly.
He wrapped his arms around her and leaned his head against her shoulder affectionately, he was her best friend and she couldn’t do any of this without him.
“Just take it one day at a time, and don’t be too hard on yourself.” He cautioned. She tilted her head to rest against his. Eren was with her so she could do it, she could live a normal life and deal with Dr. Ackerman head on.
With Eren by her side she could do anything