Happy 25th of December everyone! (It’s actually Boxing Day here, but my timezone is pretty far ahead). I hope you’re all having a wonderful day no matter what you’re celebrating (or not celebrating). This is the last short fic of my 100 follower celebration, and fittingly, it’s Spicyhoney. I still have a few requests that came in later, which I will definitely be coming back to at some point.

For now though, thank you to everyone for supporting me throughout this little event! Every reply, comment, and tag means so much to me, and it makes me so happy every time I hear someone is enjoying my writing.

Thank you for sending this one in anon! It ended up turning into another self-indulgent vampire AU, so it could be considered a prequel to this. I really hope you enjoy it!

Minor warning for brief description of violence.

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“ouch, edgelord! mind going easy
on the ropes? i thought we were friends.”

Edge turned to give Stretch a
cold stare. “We’re not friends.
You’re the farthest thing from a friend I could imagine.” Edge injected as much
venom into his words as he could, yet somehow, it wasn’t enough to wipe the
humour from Stretch’s face.

The vampire shrugged, flashing
Edge a sharp-toothed grin. “could’ve fooled me. although i guess you tying me
up with silver laced rope and hauling me to a creepy motel in the middle of the
night is a little too kinky for a friendship. i’m more like your…” Stretch
smirked, leaning in slightly, “paramour.”

“Ugh.” Disgusted, Edge dragged
Stretch towards the dim light of the building. “Come on.” He truly wished he’d
chosen a less snarky vampire to take as his hostage in the middle of the night—honestly,
he’d take murderous over impudent any day.

As they reached the entrance to
the motel, Edge slipped a small silver knife out of his pocket, pressing it
against Stretch’s ribs. The vampire released a sharp hiss, but otherwise, his
grin remained plastered across his face. “maybe we should save this kind of
behaviour for the bedroom?” he murmured, eye-lights flashing.

Edge held his breath for a
moment, biting back the snappish response. Instead, he lowered his voice,
ensuring the threat was apparent. “If you try to escape, or give any indication
to anyone we encounter that you are my hostage—this goes directly in your
chest, am I understood?”

Stretch held his gaze for a
moment, his wily smile sending chills down Edge’s spine. Finally though, he nodded.
“understood.” Edge breathed a small, internal sigh of relief, though part of
him still feared resistance on Stretch’s part. One of the things that
constantly threw him off about the vampire, was his apparent lack of fear when
it came to threats, and Edge was neither subtle nor reserved when he threw them
around.

“Good,” he said, stiffly. “Don’t
leave my side.”

Stretch smirked, lifting his
bound wrists with a raised brow bone. “can’t.”

Edge glanced away, sighing.
“Right. Follow me, then… and keep your hands hidden.” He pushed open the door,
and they approached the front desk where a tired looking night clerk was
slumped over in their chair. “Good evening,” Edge greeted. “We—”

“room for two,” Stretch
interrupted, leaning against the countertop. The clerk glanced between them
dubiously, and then—to Edge’s utter shock—Stretch pressed closer to him,
resting his head on Edge’s shoulder. “please?” His tone was almost sickly
sweet, but Edge was too stunned to move, going completely rigid.

The clerk however, merely
shrugged, seeming only half awake as they pulled open a drawer with various
sets of keys. “Room number seventy,” they said, barely stifling a yawn.
“Check-out is at ten.”

“oh, we’ll be staying until tomorrow
evening,” Stretch said, that saccharine smile still colouring his features.
“we’re more than happy to pay for the extra night, right love?” He nudged Edge,
cocking a brow bone.

Edge barely managed to rouse
himself into giving a stiff nod. “Right,” he muttered. He still felt thoroughly
shaken, the knife in his hand trembling slightly where it grazed the fabric of
Stretch’s hoodie. He could almost sense the proximity of the vampire’s teeth to
his neck, and had to suppress a shudder.

Edge withheld his anger until
they reached the empty corridor beyond the lobby, where he forcefully slammed
Stretch against one of the walls. Stretch gasped sharply as Edge nudged the tip
of the knife against his cervical vertebrae, not caring that he drew a thin
trickle of marrow. “What the hell was that?”
Edge growled, malice dripping from his voice.

For once, Stretch seemed taken
off guard, which immensely satisfied Edge. “just making it more believable—” he
choked against the harsh press of the blade. “geez, asshole, calm down. you
think they would’ve given two shady guys a room in the middle of the night
unless they thought we were fucking? thought i was doing you a favour.”

“A favour?” Edge spat, incredulous. “You booked us in for an extra day! We
need to leave in the morning. I won’t be sticking around long enough for you
to fucking murder me!”

“stars, edge.” Stretch’s tone was
more exasperated than afraid, which only fuelled Edge’s outrage. “we can’t
leave in the morning. sunlight doesn’t exactly agree with me, remember?”

Edge blinked for a moment, realising
Stretch was right. Still, he felt hesitant removing the knife, and remained
rigid as he yanked Stretch forward by his hoodie. “Never do that again. You’re not the one in charge here, and I am not your friend.” Finally releasing him,
Edge narrowed his eye sockets, allowing the magic to flash in warning. “Know
your place, vampire. Or next time, I’ll give you more than just a little scrape
on the neck.”

Stretch looked like he was trying
not to smile, which did nothing to help Edge dispel his rage. “heh. necks
time?” Stretch muttered, amusement glinting in his eyes. Edge growled, gripping
him roughly by the shirt and repositioning the knife against his chest. “okay,
okay—shit, i’m sorry, i’ll shut up,” Stretch said quickly, lifting his bound
hands in surrender.

“Make sure that you do,” Edge
muttered, giving him a shove in the direction of their room. “Now hurry up, my
patience has already run out.” Stretch almost looked as if he wanted to
comment, but quickly seemed to think better of it.

When they reached room number
seventy, Edge kept the knife out, but lowered it as he slipped the key into the
lock. As soon as they entered the room, he felt his soul drop.

“ah, there seems to be only one
bed,” Stretch remarked casually, striding past him.

Edge sighed heavily, closing and
locking the door behind himself. “Well, of course there is. You made it seem
like we were… lovers.”

Edge tried very hard to ignore
the small smirk Stretch was giving him, instead pulling off his jacket and draping
it over the worn armchair in the corner of the room. He did his best not to
think about what the faded stains might be—they were on most of the linen in
the room. “well, guess i’m sleeping on the floor then,” Stretch said,
shrugging.

Edge turned, narrowing his eye
sockets. “No you’re not. Not a chance.”

Stretch tilted his head slightly
in question. “change of heart?”

Edge resisted the urge to give
another roll of his eye-lights, scowling. “If you think I’m stupid enough to
let you out of my sight, then—”

“oh, i see.” Stretch grinned,
winking.

Edge shook his head, pinching his
nasal ridge a little too hard, a small jolt of pain going through his skull. He
could already feel the oncoming headache. “We’ll both sleep on the floor.”

“well, that’s awfully illogical,”
Stretch scoffed, crossing his arms. “we may as well sleep outside and save
ourselves a few bucks.” Edge was very tempted to remark that it wasn’t their money, but figured he’d just be
opening himself up to another tirade of teasing.

He was beginning to lose the
energy for this argument, so releasing an exasperated sigh, he half spat,
“Fine. We’ll share the damn bed.” Stretch grinned, opening his mouth to speak,
but Edge cut him off. “But if you make another joke pertaining to our… affiliation with one another in the
bedroom, I will slice your throat in your sleep.” Stretch immediately snapped
his mouth shut, but his smirk didn’t fade. Figuring it was the best he could
hope for, Edge sighed wearily, pulling off his shoes and placing his small silver
blade on the nightstand beside the bed.

Not ten minutes later, he and
Stretch were lying side-by-side, the greatest possible distance between them
(although Edge couldn’t ignore the way Stretch kept shuffling closer to the
centre of the bed). Frowning at him for a moment, Edge reached over, undoing
the bonds on his hands. Stretch glanced at him, sitting up, and Edge instantly
went for the knife, holding it steadily before him in warning. Stretch rolled
his eyes, slumping back onto the bed. “relax, edgelord, i’m not going
anywhere.”

Edge swallowed, realising he’d
probably overreacted. Still, he didn’t let go of the knife until he’d safely
secured one of Stretch’s wrists to the headboard of the double bed. Stretch’s
teeth were gritted, and at first Edge thought he might be in pain, but then he gave
a groan of frustration. “stars—i can’t believe you banned bedroom jokes, you
asshole.” He looked at Edge, seeming genuinely distraught by the fact. “i mean
you literally just tied me to the
bed.”

Edge turned over, mumbling a
cursory, “Goodnight,” before closing his eyes, and trying his best to find
sleep. He soon found that he could hear Stretch’s breathing through the still
silence, but rather than unsettling him, he found it oddly… calming. It almost
allowed him to believe that Stretch was mortal, not some undead creature who
had probably killed more people than Edge had met. Disregarding the thought, he
tried to relax, knowing he’d need to get at least some sleep before the
morning, or there was no chance he’d be able to handle Stretch for an entire
day.

Just as he’d begun to drift off,
he felt Stretch shifting beside him, turning over and rustling the covers.
Growling under his breath, Edge muttered, “Do you mind? Some of us enjoy
sleeping in peace.”

Stretch sighed, grumbling
slightly. “sorry, edgy. sleeping at night doesn’t really agree with me. my
magic’s a bit… restless. this feels kinda weird.”

“Weird?” Edge almost laughed, the
situation a little too bizarre for him. “That doesn’t begin to describe it. I’m
literally sleeping with my enemy.”

Edge could hear Stretch chuckling
softly, the sound smooth, and oddly… nice. “thought we weren’t allowed to make
those kinds of jokes? they back in?”

Sighing, Edge turned over,
shaking his head. “Goodnight, Stretch.”

Stretch was silent again, for
which Edge was grateful. Preferably, he’d like to pretend the vampire wasn’t
there at all. The mere idea that he was in bed with him chilled Edge’s soul a
little—but it stirred something else as well. Something Edge was very
vehemently trying to ignore.

“hey, edge?”

“What?” Edge growled, exasperated.

“thanks for not killing me.”

This took Edge off guard. He
almost pointed out that capturing Stretch was far worse, given the things he
could do with him, but in truth, he wasn’t entirely sure why he hadn’t killed him. He’d never been one
to spare Stretch’s kind—he had no interest in rewards, knowing full well that
there were no honest buyers when it came to vampires.

So that begged the question—why
had he shown Stretch mercy? Edge had been hunting him for a while now—perhaps
more out of spite than anything. And Stretch was a difficult monster to find…
Edge almost wondered if he’d wanted to
be found this time. Still, he should have seized the opportunity. Done away
with him immediately, and spared the world from another creature of the night.

But… something had stopped him.
It hadn’t felt right. As if he’d been missing something. Or as if he might have
regretted going through with it. It made him feel uncomfortable, uncertain.
Sparing Stretch went against his whole life’s purpose, yet he’d done it anyway.
And somehow, it hadn’t felt wrong.

Edge stiffened, dismissing the
train of thought. Instead, he closed his eyes once again, the sound of
Stretch’s shallow breaths breaking the almost dead silence of the night. Sighing
deeply, Edge conceded, murmuring a quiet, “You’re welcome,” before allowing
himself to drift off, feeling comfortable despite being mere inches away from
the monster he was struggling to convince himself he still hated.