A Bloodborne Tragedy

Chapter 11

The next morning, Daniel took Sho back to his house and helped him clean it out. While they cleaned, Daniel had told him more about his own life, how he got to where he was. He told him about his many adventures and the people he'd seen or ran from. He told him the stories of his many scars. Anything he could think of, Sho listened. "You're the only person I've stopped traveling for." Daniel said while they were taking a break. Daniel met hundreds of people in his travels, but very few stayed long enough to know him, aside from the law. And still, none of them were like Sho. None of them compelled him to stay with them like Sho did. He hadn't lingered in one place this long since he was living with the cowboy couple. Even when he did find someone, they still traveled together, pickpocketed together, killed together. Sho was different. He had a life, a job. More than Daniel had for sure. But now they had each other, and they each got what they wanted. Daniel got a friend, and Sho got Daniel.

It took a few days, but now they were closer than ever and the house was finally cleaned. They sat outside, Daniel leaned against the wall, lighting his cigarette, and Sho sitting on a new chair Daniel had gotten his hands on. He insisted on helping Sho, no matter how ashamed he was of the state of his home and how it got that way. Daniel had seen his worst and felt he had an obligation to look after him now, even if Sho didn't see it how he did. Now that the house was back in a livable state, all Sho needed was furniture. Daniel took a drag from the cigarette, offering it to Sho afterward. He spent nearly all his money from the bank robbery a few months before, his partner having most of it before he was shot. Daniel couldn't stop, could barely look back to see him fall to the ground. And when he left after the fight, if he didn't get much money from pickpocketing, he used the little bit he had saved. Which meant he would have to leave again soon.

"Hey, Sho." Daniel asked, looking forward to the setting sun. "How often do you have to... y'know. Eat?" Sho had made it very clear he hated having to take another person's life, and since Daniel had revolved his life around it for so long, he was desensitized to it, for the most part. And he knew where to go to find people better off dead than anything else. Sho followed where Daniel looked, before looking back at him. "Not very often. I can go a few months without eating, but not much more than that." Daniel nodded his head. Before meeting Sho, he hadn't cared much to learn about folklore and other stories he believed were only myths. But now he was interested in learning about vampires for Sho. "What happens if you wait longer than that?" He took another drag, stubbing out the ash and pocketing the rest. "I grow weak, fatigued. I starve the same way you would." He looked distant, his brows furrowed slightly in thought. He knew it from his own experience, edging on death, Daniel concluded. He'd seen that look before, remembrance. Had it himself even recounting his own stories.

Daniel had known it like him. "I didn't think I could live without you." He spoke quietly after a beat. Daniel looked down at him, pursed his lips in a distasteful look. "Well you did. I know you live differently than me, but..." He bit his Bottom lip, trying to find the right words. "I don't know what I was like before, to have you loving me, even after a century." He paused, shaking his head and looking down at his boots. Absentmindedly, he crossed his legs, rubbing the heel of his shoe into the toe of the other. He had to get used to the whole reincarnation thing. It was new, unheard of, and, in some distant part of him, unsettling. Was he still the same person, the same soul, after 100 years dead? That was between Sho and God, two who knew him before, not him. "But I— me, right now. I wouldn't want you to wither away because of me."

There was a long silence between them as the sun dropped below the horizon and the dark set in. Daniel, for once, was torn. He didn't want to leave again this time, but he needed money. He wanted to stay with Sho, live with him. Stay somewhere the law hadn't followed him to. And Sho had the space for him, a bedroom he rarely used. But he couldn't just freeload off of Sho. He was an outlaw, not an idiot. Even though he stole from people constantly, he didn't want to do that to Sho. "I got to leave again. Not tonight, maybe tomorrow. Soon, is what I mean." He picked at the button on his shirt cuff, frowning, but trying to keep ignorant of the way Sho's expression dropped into a solemn shock. But before Sho could ask why, his mouth opening like a fish out of water, he spoke again. "I could bring you back something. A wagon full of furniture, maybe." He joked with a lopsided smile. Sho just looked up at him. He said he'd stay, why was he having to leave again? "I need money. I don't wanna get locked up, or worse, so I'm gonna find honest work. Bounty hunting, I hear, is good." Daniel answered the unspoken worry Sho displayed by his expression.

"I have money. why don't you stay?" Sho quietly pleaded when it was clear Daniel had nothing more to say. "It's not safe. With him still out there..." He trailed off into his thoughts."I couldn't do that to you Sho..." he spoke in the gentle voice he would use if he were calming a frightened horse."I don't wanna leech off you." But he was still lost in his thoughts. "You saw him already! He's close. What if he sees you again?" But Sho's worry was brushed off by Daniel who tried to reassure him with a smile and a shake of his head. He threw his hand out toward the road leading out of the town. "He was way out into the state. Near the cities, civilization. The other side where the people linger. This is rural country right here. Far, far, away from him." It was a good few days of a ride to get to the other side of the state, meaning if he did somehow catch wind of Daniel again, Daniel would be gone before he caught up. "I'll be alright." He continued messing with different parts of his clothing, his collar, his bandana, to keep his hands busy.

Sho bit his lip, nodding. Now with Daniel knowing and agreeing more with Sho, Sho himself was also more lenient with his worrying. "Well, stay safe. You... Run. Run if you see him." Daniel had already known what he was warning him, having said it many times before. Daniel could understand it, his worries. Sho had admitted it himself, he was in love. He pat Sho's shoulder, his hand lingering there a moment. "I'm gonna head inside. Care to join me?" he cocked his head to the side. Sho was still wary, but it was subtle in the grin he had, standing up and joining Daniel on the walk inside. Crickets chirped in the distance and the sound of drunkards laughing from the saloon down the road joined together in the ambience of the night. And although there was very little furniture in the house now, that didn't stop them from sitting together in comfortable silence, Daniel drawing on his bedroll (which Sho insisted should be in the bedroom) and Sho sitting next to him until Daniel fell asleep.

——————————-
Owner 1: I posted this first thing in the morning, due to the fact I was supposed to do it last night but I fell asleep so I'm sorry if there's anything wrong with this chapter. Also, when I made Sho, I didn't know that vampires were supposed to eat 6 people per night bro. I made him based off my own traumas when he was made (I only knew that in original stories of vampires, their skin would shine in the sun)