Vamps

Dracula, Ice Cream, and Constellations

Regulus Arcturus Black hated the smell of blood.

It was so sharp smelling, hurt his brain honestly, and when it rubbed against his skin, agh it made him want to vomit. It was entirely irrational, everyone had been telling him that his entire life, "Regulus Black", the one who faints at the sight of blood, how bloody ironic."

As a child it hadn't bothered him nearly as much, nothing more than nausea that circulated in his stomach over scraped hands and bloody noses. He'd simply look away, shut his eyes so tightly that purple spots appeared, and wait for it to be gone.

It had been effective enough, especially when the blood wasn't coming from himself, and looking away solved the problem entirely.

But as he'd grown older, it had only worsened. Nausea turned into dizziness that turned into being out cold on the concrete, anxiety turned into quickened breaths and hands clenched in dark curly hair.

On the rare occasions he'd shared this with people they had simply laughed at him, his parents almost worse. The one time he'd discussed it with Walburga and Orion Black they had looked at him with disappointment in their eyes, second in strength only to one other instance.

That instance Regulus had been too young to actually recall it, but he'd been feeling the after effects of it since he was nine months old.

He felt it now as the nurse capped off the IV, tapping his arm to signal that he was done. Regulus opened one eye to ensure that there was no drippage, there often was dark red stains left on his collarbones or cheeks, but today they were blessedly clean.

The nurse (she'd introduced herself as Nurse Margo) gave him a polite smile as she organized her materials and placed them into a large bag labeled "bio materials and hazards."

"How're you feeling now love?" Her voice was soft and low, instantly comforting in a way that Regulus desperately needed right now.

He raised one shaky hand in a so-so gesture.

"Alright I guess, no worse than usual."

She laughed quietly.

"Well that's always good to hear, will we be seeing you again on Thursday then?"

Regulus nodded, "Saturday as well."

"Excellent, well then as long as you aren't experiencing any kind of adverse reaction within the next five minutes we can get you out of here and back to whatever else you young men are getting up to these days." she said with a wink.

Regulus decided he liked Nurse Margo. He was incredibly aware of the routine by now, so he waited his five minutes quietly, scrolling through instagram stories of his brother, laughing and arms thrown around a shorter boy with brown hair who looked notably alarmed to be hugged, another of the same boy laying upside down on a bed making some stupid face that rubbed Regulus the wrong way for reasons he couldn't quite decipher.

He got up and out of the chair when the timer went off, rising slowly to account for the usual little bit of dizziness from the new blood, and once he'd clocked that he was in fact fine, he made his way down the linoleum lined hallway. They'd redone the walls recently, there'd been some minor protests in some city about the use of religious imagery when it came to their kind so now the walls were white with children's drawings pinned to them haphazardly. In theory it was quite cute, but the colors were a lot.

The automatic doors swung open at the push of the button, and Regulus instinctively pulled his hood up to cover his face, the only bit of skin not actively covered in at least one layer of fabric.

He'd experienced the burning of the sun only once in his life, and it wasn't an experience that he longed to repeat any time soon.

He readjusted it a few times as he walked towards the black honda civic that waited in the pull through area.