1. Chapter 1 (1/2)

guess who's trying something a little different? *waves* it's me. anyway, influences on this range from starrrz, werepuppy and redrachxo to... i don't know, it's 4am again. anyway this is part one of i don't even know. some of it is written. some is not. should be a ride (albeit a short-ish one. in theory.)

disclaimer: not mine, never mine.

vlad stirred, calling out in his sleep, and bertrand pushed the door open to check on him."robin, i didn't mean to, i need to undo it, please be okay… robin, robin!" he closed the door again; he was having some kind of nightmare, that much was clear. "i miss you," came the mumbled confession from the sleeping vampire behind the door, and bertrand knew there was something he had to do.

it had taken very little effort to worm the information he needed out of ingrid, and less to fly to stokely. vlad would notice his absence, of course, but that couldn't be helped. he'd managed to find his way to the sixth-form before dawn, and was waiting for

anagh's form tutor when she arrived. it took no time at all to convince the woman to send the boy to garside for a very important art workshop at the end of the week, and then bertrand was free to lurk in a shady corner until darkness fell and he could return to his own school. he didn't notice the dark haired boy sitting outside the classroom, plugged in to silent earphones.

on friday, bertrand woke vlad a little earlier than the boy usually liked to wake, and warned him that he'd already been called in sick for the day."why?" bertrand treated him to his most enigmatic – and therefore terrifying – smile."i've got you a present." the reaction was not quite what he'd hoped for."oh, great. is this one going to try and kill me?" vlad must have noticed his tutor's expression. "no offence, bertrand. your track record's not great."

robin trudged up the driveway, shifting his bag higher onto his shoulder as it slipped. his train had been late, that was the story he was going to stick to. he hadn't overslept and missed it, no, it had definitely been delayed. he glanced at the piece of paper he'd jotted all the details down on. report to the side door – well, he'd heard weirder requests, especially from arty types. and he really wanted to spend some time just drawing. if he happened to get the chance to draw someone, or something, particularly inspiring, that would be a bonus, of course.

he knocked on the side door and was greeted by a somehow familiar face, and certainly not the one he'd been expecting to see. it took him a few moments to place it."renfield! no way, is that you?"

"you've got to be kidding." vlad could hear the boy at the door as well as bertrand could, though, and he didn't need bertrand to contradict his statement. "you

ought robin here? why?""you were calling for him in your sleep again the other night, while i was on guard duty. nobody else knows, don't worry.""that's not the point, bertrand! last night i dreamt about the teenage mutant ninja turtles, are you going to

ing them here too?""you and this robin clearly have some unresolved issues to work out. i am simply trying to help you do that so you can be the most efficient grand high vampire you can be." vlad narrowed his eyes at his tutor and he realised he wasn't going to persuade him that easily. "i can get rid of him-""no." the bare longing in his student's voice surprised him, but vlad got himself under control quickly. "he's not a snack, bertrand. if you so much as-""i was just going to send him back to stokely." vlad relaxed slightly."he's come all this way. i might as well see him."

bertrand was glad he'd reached that conclusion, because it was at that moment that renfield ushered robin into the throne room. the tutor simply stepped backwards, into the darkest shadows, and retreated outside the door.call me if you need me.

robin barely noticed the tall man melting into the shadows, too busy gazing around him in wonder."wow, this place looks just like the castle inside… oh yeah." he took three steps forward and gave vlad a shove which, since he wasn't expecting it, sent him stumbling backwards a few steps. "what the hell, man? you could have at least called or written or something.""i'm really sorry, robin.""yeah, well, you should be. i was a kid, i thought something horrible had happened to you. i had nightmares for months, not that i can remember much about them." vlad frowned, but robin wasn't going to dwell on the past. "this is so cool! it still looks like a horror film set."

vlad smiled slightly at that, but he still looked like he was trying to make his mind up about something incredibly important."you haven't changed a bit, have you?" he bit his lip. "robin, can you keep a secret?"he nodded, vlad stared intently into his eyes, and then everything slipped out of focus.

bertrand paced the corridor outside, wondering if he'd done the right thing. what if vlad couldn't cope with seeing his old friend? after all, he was hardly the least sensitive of vampires. and what if the

eather attacked him? he could be furious at being abandoned; bertrand could understand that, the hurt that betrayal always left behind.

"robin, can you keep a secret?" he heard, and then there was a long silence. the unfamiliar voice of the

eather was the next thing to reach his ears."you git. what the hell did you do that for?" there was the slight thud of a fist hitting an arm, an answering thud, and then, just as bertrand was about to burst into the room and intervene, "this is fogging awesome. return of the dream team, yeah? you need my help for something, right? are you finally gonna bite me?"

bertrand relaxed and left them to it. the

eather, it seemed, was no threat.

robin couldn't quite believe he was really hanging out with vlad again. and vlad was a proper vampire now, with fangs and all, though he refused to show robin."they're not cool, robin, they're just fangs." that was a matter of opinion, but his old friend refused to be budged.

now he was on the phone to robin's mum."no, we've got loads of room. he can stay as long as he wants, summer holidays start next week – really? well, then, however long he wants to, really, it'd be great to have time to catch up. lovely to talk to you too, mrs

anagh. i'd love to, if i'm ever in stokely. bye!" his friend hung up the phone while he was still marvelling at how much vlad still sounded like that fourteen year-old he'd gone to school with. and now he was a real vampire. this was so cool.

bertrand had hardly seen vlad outside of meals and training, and both of those events saw him glued to his old friend's side. they'd been mucking about around the school all weekend, and it seemed that they'd fallen right back into their old friendship where they'd left off. erin's nose was a bit out of joint; she'd been complaining non-stop to ingrid about how she never saw her boyfriend any more. they seemed to forget bertrand was still in the room during these conversations, and he just had to block it out and keep reading, or retreat to his room.

when monday morning came, then, it was a surprise to see vlad heading to school alone. robin didn't emerge from the room he'd been crashing in – in a coffin, for reasons bertrand didn't really care to examine closely – until half past ten, when bertrand looked up from his book to find the boy blinking sleepily at him. trust a teenage boy to find his way to the kitchen in times of doubt.

"where is everyone?" he raised an eye