Fic: Fang and Eyes and Blood - Oh My!, 02/03, Panik/TH, David/Timo/Linke, NC17/18

[beren_writes]

Title: Fang and Eyes and Blood - Oh My! (02/03)
Author: Beren
Fandom: Panik/Tokio Hotel RPS (more Panik than TH)
Pairing: David/Timo/Linke, (mentions Tom/Bill/Georg/Gustav)
Rating: NC17/18
Warnings: vampires, (mentions of TH twincest)
Summary: Linke's not feeling well and it turns out not to be the flu.
Chapters: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Chapter 2 Fangs Look Good On You

Timo had expected David to come to bed eventually and when his other half hadn't shown up, he went looking. He knew how David could get, well how all of them could get when it came to music, but David especially, so he expected to find David leaning over his guitar humming to himself. He didn't really expect to find David sprawled in the chair, looking just a little debauched.

He was so focused on David that it wasn't until he stepped right into the room that he noticed Linke at all. Linke was sitting there with his head in his hands almost totally still. Timo knew something had happened straight away, but he had no idea what.

"Linke?" he said, since Linke actually appeared to be awake.

Linke didn't move, so he walked over and touched his friend on the shoulder. That finally got a response, but when Linke looked up at him, it was with wide, scared eyes and he barely recognised their bassist.

"Linke, what's going on?" he asked, hoping that Linke would snap out of it, but all Linke did was stare at him and begin to shake.

Something was very wrong, that much he knew and Linke didn't seem to be able to tell him what it was. Going for his only other option he left Linke and went to David.

"David," he reached out and shook his boyfriend's arm.

David groaned quietly, but did not wake up. When David's head fell to one side, Timo saw the little trails of blood on David's neck and he reached out instantly. David moved as soon as he touched the spot, moaning and moving into the touch; it almost felt sexual and that made him very confused. There was blood on David's neck; Linke was completely out of it and he had no idea what was going on.

"David," he tried again, but all David did was stir, not wake.

He had no choice but to go back to Linke. He knelt down and looked directly into Linke's face.

"What happened?" he asked, trying to make Linke respond.

"I..." was all Linke seemed able to say and it was very clear that Linke was in deep shock about something.

Timo wasn't sure what to do; if David had come down with what Linke had had that might go some way to explaining Linke's reaction, but he didn't think Linke would have reacted that badly. Linke was probably one of the most level headed of them all.

"Linke, please," Timo tried again, "tell me what happened."

"Timo?" David's voice was quiet and confused, but it made him turn and look and he found David trying to sit up.

He left Linke's side and went to David, catching his boyfriend just before David pitched forward out of the chair.

"Davii," Timo said, holding David by the shoulders, "are you okay?"

David blinked at him a couple of times and then finally seemed to see him properly.

"Yeah," David said, shaking his head a little, "just a bit groggy."

"What happened?" Timo asked, relieved that David seemed to be alright, but still very confused and worried about Linke.

"Linke," David began to say and then stopped, frowning, "I ... umm..."

That was all Timo needed.

"Don't you start that as well," he said, knowing that he needed answers, "that's all Linke can say. David, think; what happened?"

David seemed secure in the chair now, so Timo let go as he realised that he was probably holding on a bit hard. Without the support, David swayed a bit, but recovered quickly.

"Something to do with Linke," David said, looking over at where Linke was sitting.

As Timo watched David's hand came up, rubbing where the blood marks were on David's neck.

"Oh god," David said, making him worry even more, "he bit me; Linke bit me."

That was not what Timo had expected to hear at all and he grabbed David's hand away from David's neck to see if there was a wound he had miraculously overlooked.

"There's nothing there," he said, not understanding.

David was pale as a ghost and staring at Linke and the last thing Timo needed was two of them in that state.

"David," he said, all but shaking his boyfriend, "you're not making any sense."

"Linke," David said, almost as if he didn't believe it himself, "had fangs and luminous eyes and he bit me."

This was beginning to sound like a bad horror movie. Linke appeared to be on another planet and David was hallucinating; it couldn't really get much worse.

"That doesn't sound real, David," he said carefully: how did you deal with someone who had to have a fever?

At that David's features hardened and Timo saw more of the person he expected to see.

"I am not delirious or delusional," David said very firmly and stood up, making him move backwards; "I know what happened and it makes a freaky kind of sense."

Timo didn't think it made sense at all.

"He was pale and weak for days and then we had to rush him to hospital with anaemia," David said, stepping past him and walking towards Linke. "The only thing that brought him back was blood."

Timo stood up and followed David.

"Are you listening to yourself?" he asked; he couldn't really believe they were having this conversation.

"I know how it sounds," David said, appearing very much rational, which was unsettling, "but believe me, I saw it."

David crouched down in front of Linke and as Timo watched, reached out and lifted Linke's chin so the pair were face to face. Linke tried to flinch away, but David wouldn't let their bassist get away and held on. The expression on Linke's face was frankly terrified and then Timo saw something he had never thought he would see; Linke's eyes changed colour. Linke's eyes lightened and then all but glowed before fading again as Linke tried to move back and David wouldn't let him.

"Oh my god," Timo said, totally unable to believe his eyes, "David, get away from him."

David just gave him a glare over one shoulder.

"David," Timo tried again, feeling more that a little need to protect David, "he bit you, his eyes glowed, he's a ..."

He couldn't say it; his brain flashed up the word he wanted, but he just couldn't say it.

"I know," David said without turning back, "I remember, very clearly, but apart from needing to change my underwear I'm fine. You might have noticed Linke isn't."

Timo had noticed that, but he was acting more on instinct than thought and his instincts were screaming danger.

"Linke," David said in a gentle, but firm voice, "you need to snap out of it. Everything's okay and we're going to help you."

Linke just looked at David, unblinking, shaking silently. As he began to calm down, Timo started to realise that seeing Linke in such a condition was somewhat more scary than what had caused him to react in the first place. Linke very rarely freaked out and to see his friend almost catatonic was unsettling to say the least. When Linke finally blinked it was actually a relief.

"I bit you," Linke said in little more than a whisper, still very much out of it, "I'm ... I'm ..."

"I know what you did," David said calmly and carefully, "I understand, but I'm okay; no harm done."

"How do you know?" Timo was calming down, but he didn't really like the way David was accepting this as if there was no danger.

Linke wasn't normal anymore, what if he had set David on the same path.

"Look," David said, glancing at him over his shoulder again, "Linke was ill for over a week before we had to take him to hospital, I think we can safely say if he doesn't keep biting me I'll be fine. I'm not about to keel over from acute anaemia and I think there's probably more to it or we'd have a world full of vampires."

Timo cringed; David had actually said it. When someone said it out loud it sounded so stupid that his rational brain just couldn't accept it.

"He fed me his blood," Linke said in a very absent tone.

Timo looked back at his friend and Linke had a far away expression on his face as if he was remembering something that wasn't easy to recall.

"Said I could live or die."

This was getting crazier by the minute.

"And you chose to live," David seemed less inclined to freak out, "which is good, so don't wimp out on us now. You're usually the one who laughs at the rest of us freaking out, so turn your brain back on and start laughing at Timo; he seems to think you're going to eat us at any moment."

Timo would have protested, but that was rather what his instincts had been trying to tell him and it made Linke frown, which was a good sign. Frowning meant thinking, which meant Linke was at least starting to come out of shock.

"I'm sorry," Linke said, looking distressed, "I couldn't stop."

"No permanent damage," David told their friend, "just warm me if you feel the urge again and we'll figure out a way round it."

David then turned to look at him again and Timo found Linke looking up at him too.

"I think we might all need a stiff drink," David said and Timo knew when to do as he was asked and not argue.

David's voice might have been calm and David might have been having an incredible calming effect on Linke, but Timo knew David very well and he could see the worry under the surface. David coped with worry by burying himself in something else or organising things and this was clearly an organising moment. Timo knew there was a bottle of whiskey somewhere; someone had brought it for a party and no one had ever drunk it and now seemed like a good time. He moved quickly to find it and glasses and then, as an after thought, grabbed a couple of blankets from the airing cupboard. He presented the blankets to David, who looked at him with one eyebrow raised.

"You two have been down here completely still for at least a couple of hours," Timo pointed out, "you need warming up."

It wasn't overly cold in the house, but it wasn't warm either and Timo remembered somewhere about keeping people warm if they were in shock. He wasn't sure if that was mental of physical shock, but he was doing his best. As David dealt with the blankets, he poured them each a stiff measure of whiskey. By the time he went to hand them out, both Linke and David were dutifully wrapped in their blankets; in fact Linke looked at if he might be trying to hide in his, but Linke did take the offered glass. Timo couldn’t help noticing that there was still a distinct tremor to Linke's hands.

"Okay," Timo said, after taking a swig of his whiskey and grimacing, since he wasn't overly fond of the stuff, "we need to figure out what's happened. This 'he' you were talking about, Linke, is he still around?"

Linke looked a little surprised at such a direct question and hunched down in his blanket, but he did seem to be thinking about it.

"I don't know," was the unsure reply, "I don’t even know who 'he' is, I just got this flash when David said about something more. I didn't know ... until ..."

"It's okay," David said before Linke could work himself up into a mess again, "we'll figure it out."

Timo wasn't as sure everything was okay, but he was willing to mostly play along.

"Do you feel like you're going to need to bite anyone again any time soon?" he asked, deciding that they couldn't ere on the side of caution for everything.

Linke actually looked kind of relieved at the question.

"I don't think so," Linke replied with a shake of his head; "I was really hungry when I came downstairs and looking back it didn't feel normal. I don't feel like that any more."

"If you start feeling like that again you tell someone straight away," Timo said firmly, on that point he wanted to be very sure.

Linke just nodded in silent agreement.

"This is just so out there," David said, sitting down on the coffee table. "Do you remember anything about who did this to you at all, Linke?"

For a few moments Linke frowned and then shook his head.

"Nothing clear," Linke replied, finally beginning to sound more like the Linke Timo knew so well, "I think he was in my room the night before you found me unconscious."

"So he can get into the house?" Timo really didn't like the sound of that, especially when Linke nodded. "Shit, what if he goes after someone else as well?"

"He hasn't been back," Linke said with perfect certainty and seemed to surprise himself as much as he surprised Timo.

This was too strange.

"How do you know that?" David asked.

All Linke seemed able to do was give a helpless shrug. It appeared they were all as much in the dark as each other.

"Why did you pick David?" Timo found himself asking and realised that maybe he was a little jealous.

Linke looked blank again.

"I think he was just there," Linke said, looking very guilty. "I came downstairs because I couldn't sleep and I sat here for a while and then I just did it."

"Nice to know you have taste at least," David commented with a smile, but it was a little too hard an attempt to make light of the situation.

Timo was actually quite glad that David was somewhat freaked out by this; at least that was a normal reaction.

"Hell, this is crazy," he said; it was just too bizarre a situation not to.

"Crazy, but really happening," David said in partial agreement.

"Can I wake up now please?" Linke said quietly and sounded completely serious.

It was difficult to accept from his angle, Timo had no idea what it had to be like from Linke's.

"At least we know why the doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with you," Timo decided to try and see the up side, at least for a few moments.

"Now we just have to figure out what the reality is," David pointed out, "because you're not like any vampire I've read about, not quite."

Linke didn't seem to know whether to be pleased about that or not and Timo couldn't help but feel the same. What did you do when you'd just discovered you were a vampire? He could see a long night of talking ahead of them.

====

Linke opened one eye and shut it again pretty quickly as bright sunlight tried to burn out his retina.

"What exactly are you three doing sleeping down here?" Jan asked and Linke realised what had woken him.

He buried his head in his blanket and wondered if they'd just let him go back to sleep.

"I was writing, then Linke came down and we got to talking," David said and he carefully peered out of his little cocoon as he realised his friend was leaving out the significant details. "Timo came looking for me and then suddenly it was almost dawn and I don't remember when we fell asleep."

It wasn't unusual for them to pull all-nighters when they were in creative mode, so he wasn't overly surprised when Jan just accepted the explanation and wandered through to the kitchen. Timo and David were kind of wound round each other on the sofa and looked quite comfortable, so he was quite surprised when Timo stood up and walked over to the window, half closing the blinds and taking the light level in the room down. He would have said thank you straight away, but then he realised that it meant he couldn't hide anymore. Very slowly he emerged; he wasn't sure what his friends would be thinking.

"Thanks," he said, since he felt he had to, even though he was rather conflicted.

They had talked for hours, but there was so much they didn't know and about all they had managed to decide was that they had to find out more. Linke knew nothing about how he had ended up in this mess and about the only thing he was sure of was that he had to make sure no one else ended in it with him.

He had a vague memory of a man offering him the choice to live or die and he remembered the blood in his mouth, but his mind shied away from the next bit. In his soul he knew that was the part that had made him what he was, he had no doubt about that; it was as if a primeval part of him just recognised the moment. However, he was still terrified that he could hurt one of the others if he lost control again.

"I have to tell them," he said, and he wasn't sure if he was really speaking to David and Timo or more to himself.

"Who?" David asked, uncurling from the sofa.

"The guys," Linke said, having made the decision in his head at least; "they need to know in case I ... in case I flip out again."

He wasn't sure what good it would do for the others to know what was going on if he did decide to stalk one of them, but it had to be better than not knowing at all. The previous night he had seemed to just ensnare David before either of them could do anything about it and that worried him.

"This is big," David said, looking at him with a worried frown, "not just a, by the way I'm dying my hair pink, kind of conversation, not even a by the way I think I'm gay kind of thing, which having had that conversation I know is hard; this is kind of world view changing. Are you sure?"

Linke thought about that carefully; it was rather a huge issue. This would open his friends' eyes to something they had had no clue existed and it had already turned his world on its head.

"Yeah," he said eventually. "If we manage to figure this thing out they're going to need to know anyway. We live in each other's pockets, no way someone won't notice something."

"Like sunglasses in the house," Timo pointed out.

"And," Linke ploughed on, acknowledging Timo's point with a nod, "if they know, at least if they see me acting weird they'll know to run like hell."

Neither Timo nor David looked comfortable with the idea, but Timo at least did appear to appreciate his reasoning.

"When?" Timo asked.

"After breakfast," Linke replied; he was not one for hanging around once he had made a decision; "at least then everyone will be awake."

Timo nodded and David was still frowning, but eventually nodded as well: it was decided.

====

They should have all been heading down to the studio straight after the morning meal, if grabbing a bowl of cereal, some sort of beverage and then standing around in the kitchen eating it could be called a meal, but Linke prepared to catch everyone before they dived out the door. He had been upstairs, showered and changed and he hated to admit it, but he felt better than he had done since the whole debacle had begun. His sunglasses were now firmly on his nose, but no one even blinked at that, since they had been there most of the time since he snuck out of the hospital. He wished he had more to hide behind.

"Um, guys," he said, standing in the kitchen doorway as everyone went through the last stages of having breakfast and waking up, "we need to talk."

"You're not feeling ill again are you?" Jan asked, looking worried.

Linke shook his head.

"No, I'm fine," he said, "mostly," he added quietly, "I just need to tell you all something. Something David and Timo found out last night."

His other three friends looked worried and he did not try and allay there fears, after all, his condition was worrying. Instead he turned and walked towards the living room and hoped the others were following him.

"Is this bad?" he heard Franky ask either David or Timo.

"Not exactly bad," he heard David reply, "just problematic."

By then everyone was filing into the room, so there were no more questions.

"Okay," Juri said as everyone sat down, "what is it you need to say?"

Sitting there, looking at all the faces of his friends Linke opened his mouth and then stopped. No matter how he worded it in his head it made him sound completely mental. Normally that didn't worry him; he just said what he thought, but with this it was kind of important that the others took him seriously.

"I'm ..." he almost said it straight out, but he just couldn't do it; he could only just say it in his head.

Jan, Franky and Juri looked at him in anticipation while David and Timo just waited. He glanced at his friends for help; how was he supposed to say this?

"You're ... what?" Juri prompted when he didn't say anything.

He opened his mouth to say it and failed again.

"Gay?" Jan suggested helpfully.

"Um, no," Linke said with a frown, "at least I don't think so ... um ... I'm not sure ... but that's not what I wanted to talk about."

He was a bit confused on that issue after what he had been thinking about David and he hadn't had time to sort that out yet. The idea of a tall buxom blonde still did things for him, so he was pretty sure he wasn't gay, but as to what he actually was, the jury was still out.

"Dying?" Franky put in.

"How is that problematic and not bad?" Juri asked, clearly having heard the conversation with David as well.

"I was just hoping he could tell us if we're getting warmer," Franky protested in his own defence. "I don't see you helping."

The conversation was kind of getting away from him, but Linke still couldn't say it.

"Thinking of having a sex change?" Juri obviously wasn't much better than Franky with ideas it seemed.

"No," he said, trying desperately to make himself tell the truth.

He really didn't want to hear any more possible ideas; they were almost more worrying than the truth.

"He's a vampire," Timo said it for him, clearly as fed up as he was.

That brought the whole room to a halt and he looked to his friend in thanks. It was clear he had a mental block to deal with, but that was the least of his worries. Juri, Jan and Franky looked at him as if still waiting.

"Okay," Juri said eventually, "is this some kind of bizarre joke, because I don't get it?"

"Me neither," Jan admitted and appeared confused.

"Why are we really here?" Franky was ignoring it as well, it seemed.

"That is why you're here," Linke said, doing his best to sound completely sincere.

"Then the next question is what were you three drinking or smoking last night?" Juri said, clearly not enjoying the situation at all.

Linke just about managed to sit on the urge to say 'blood'.

"It's the truth," David decided to step in; "I know because Linke bit me last night."

"That's why you need to know," Linke added, hoping that they sounded serious enough to make the others stop and listen.

The fact that he still felt as guilty as hell had to be showing, he was sure.

"Linke I could put down to still being ill, but you two?" Franky seemed to be having as much trouble as Juri. "This isn't very funny and we should be in the studio, we have a lot to do today."

That was usually David's line and another thing for Linke to feel guilty about; they were behind schedule because of him. He wasn't sure what he was thinking or what he was doing, but his main motivation was proof, what he didn't expect was to come to rest with the whole room upside down. He was so shocked that it took everything falling out of his pockets and his glasses falling off his nose to realise he was crouched on the ceiling.

"Holy shit," Franky was all but up and over the back of the chair he'd been sitting in.

"Fuck," was Jan's take on the matter and Juri was sitting there with his mouth open.

"Wow," David said as Linke did his best to mentally right the room in his upside-down vision, "when did you figure out you could do that?"

"Um," he said, because he really wasn't sure he knew quite what he had done, "just now. I think I'm stuck."

It was the oddest feeling; it wasn't like he was holding on to the ceiling, he was simply on it.

"You can't be stuck," David pointed out, regardless of the fact that the rest of the room was staring at them; "you're on the ceiling. Just do the reverse of whatever you did to get up there."

"I don't know what I did to get up here," Linke had to admit; he'd just done it.

He was going to have to learn to think hard before he acted.

"How hard can it be?" David asked, standing underneath him. "It looked like you jumped up there, so jump down."

"And land on my head?" Linke didn't like the sound of that.

"You twisted on the way up," David pointed out, "so twist on the way down."

"I don't remember how I twisted to get up here," Linke pointed out and could feel all the blood rushing to his head.

"You're on the fucking ceiling," it seemed that Juri had had enough time to process what was going on and was now standing up, "and you're ... you're..."

The fact that Juri looked afraid as well as shocked cut straight to Linke's heart and he realised that not only was the room bright, it was painfully bright and his teeth were longer than they should have been. He was not only on the ceiling, he was vamped out as well. He forced away his vampire traits as hard as he could and instantly found out why that was a bad idea as he gracelessly fell off the ceiling. Luckily David was not quite directly underneath him and Linke landed on the carpet with a thud.

"Ow," was about the only breathless thing he could manage to say as all the air burst from his lungs.

"Are you okay?" Timo was now leaning over him along with David.

He appeared to have lost a second or two.

"I'll let you know when I can breathe again," he said, hoping that that would be soon.

Both Timo and David reached down at the same time to help him up and he was very glad of the assistance. It was only when he was on his feet again that he realised they were now in two groups; him, David and Timo on one side of the room and Jan, Juri and Franky on the other, all stood up and all grouped together. The atmosphere was very tense.

"I'm going to sit down," he decided as most of his body chose to remind him he had just fallen off the ceiling and to ache.

It was fading, but his back definitely hated him for falling from such a height. He also figured that sitting down he would be less threatening.

"Will you three just relax," surprisingly it was Timo who came to his rescue; "he's still Linke, he just happens to be a vampire."

"David said Linke bit him," Jan pointed out, seemingly more confused than afraid.

"I did," Linke admitted, since that was the point of the conversation.

"And then I found him down here so shocked he couldn't speak," Timo jumped to his rescue again. "The bite hasn't done David any harm and Linke didn't mean to do it, so get over it."

The other three did not look convinced.

"How the hell did this happen?" Franky asked, making a brave effort to appear calm.

"I don't remember," Linke said, since it was mostly the truth; "the first I knew about what was really going on was when David started to look appetising."

He didn't mention that it wasn't just his appetite for food that seemed to have been pricked.

"How can this be real?" Jan sat down on the sofa with a thump.

"I don't know," Linke said; he was still as shell-shocked as everyone else; "it just is."

He finally saw some sympathy in Jan's face, but Franky still looked confused and Juri definitely didn't look happy about anything.

"So what do we do?" Franky asked.

"We go on as normal," David said, finally coming back into the conversation, "and we try and figure out what is going on with Linke at the same time. We're all in the dark about this, but the truth has to be out there somewhere, so we look for it."

"But if I start acting strange you run like hell," Linke felt the need to add his own comment; he didn't want to add anyone else to the casualty list.

"And what if you decide to stalk us in our beds?" Juri asked and Linke felt himself flinch.

"Juri!" David admonished, but Linke couldn't help thinking Juri had a point.

He stood up; this was stupid, he never should have tried to explain and there was only one way out of this.

"I'll leave," he said; the others would be able to find someone to fill in on bass.

He couldn't do this to his friends, Juri was right; it was dangerous. He didn’t know where he would go, since he couldn't put his family at risk either, but he would figure something out.

"Sit down!" David yelled and Linke sat down before his brain had time to register the command; significantly so did everyone else in the room.

For Franky this meant sitting on the floor, since he had moved away from his chair.

"Everyone listening? Good," David said in a very dangerous tone. "This is what we are going to do: we are going to the studio where we will lay down the new track. For today we are going to forget that vampires exist. Then we are going to go on from there and we are going to find out what the hell this means for Linke and we are going to stick together. No one leaves, are we clear?"

"But," Juri made the mistake of starting to object and David was in their drummer's face in a moment.

"I was the one he bit," David said pointedly, "I am the one that should be objecting if there was anything to object about. It had no lasting effects and to tell you the truth it was quite mind-blowing so we are not kicking Linke out when he needs us. He is the victim here and we are his friends; that is all there is to it. Any questions?"

No one said a word and David swept out of the room like a natural disaster leaving them all behind, in his wake.

"Right," Timo said eventually, "I don't know about anyone else, but David scares me more than Linke ever could, fangs or no fangs, so I'm going to the studio. Everyone coming?"

Linke stood up and just nodded; he and Timo were very much on the same page. Franky and Jan fell into line as well and eventually Juri stood up as well. It wasn't a comfortable group who left the living room, but it was a group.

====

Linke heard the doorbell and just remained curled up in his chair staring at the TV; he was in no mood for visitors. Jan kept looking at him like he might pounce on him every time they were in the same room, Juri was avoiding him completely, Franky was trying far too hard to act normal, Timo was keeping between him and David while trying to seem like he wasn't keeping between him and David, and David seemed to be the only one not on edge. It was beginning to wear at his nerves and he would have holed up in his room, but at the moment he really wasn't sure that was a good idea. If he did suddenly start acting strangely he didn't want to find himself creeping up on someone, so he had parked himself in the most public place in the house.

He felt downright weird, like bits of his brain were turned on now that hadn’t been before, but so far there had been no recurrence of the hunger. He really didn't know what he was going to do when there was, because he had no doubt it would happen again. He could just imagine Timo defending David's honour with a mallet and stake if he picked the same target again.

"Hel..." he heard Franky answer the door and suddenly stop speaking.

This could just have meant that a delivery had just been thrust into his hands, but Linke found himself listening more closely anyway. A funny feeling was beginning to creep up his spine. He could hear a voice from outside, but he couldn't make out what they were saying with the TV blaring away. That didn't stop something about the voice sounding kind of familiar.

The feeling was growing.

"Um, yeah, sure, come in," Franky said and then Linke was out of his seat like a shot.

He didn't realise how fast he was moving until he was in the hallway, when it occurred to him, no one should be able to move across a room in under a couple of seconds. By then it was too late and he was already standing staring at the two new comers who had just come through the front door. There probably wasn't a person in Germany who didn't know the identical faces looking at him, but no matter how familiar the Kaulitz twins might have appeared, there was one thing he knew without a shadow of a doubt.

"You're like me," he said, absolutely and totally confused as well as just a bit defensive.

He was as territorial as the next guy, but not like this; part of him was insisting that it would be a really good idea to throw their two guests right back out of the house.

The twins looked at each other and then at Franky who appeared suddenly nervous.

"Guess we're a little late then," Bill said, pulling off his sunglasses; "you must be wondering what the hell's going on."

Linke was so confused he didn't know what to say.

"Look," Tom entered the conversation, "we mean no harm to you or your conclave, we acknowledge your territory and only wish to help."

They should have been just words, but something inside Linke stopped snarling and left him blinking and completely at a loss. He was very glad when he felt the rest of the household forming up behind him, he even felt Juri come down the stairs, without the need to look behind him. He seemed very aware of the others now.

"Linke, you okay?" David asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah," he said, but he wasn't really, he just didn't want to cause an issue.

"I don't mean to be rude," Timo stepped in, "but what's going on here?"

"Does everyone know?" Bill asked, looking at Linke again.

He nodded; since it seemed to be appropriate to tell the truth. The twins looked at each other again and he couldn't help wondering if they were actually having a conversation.

"We're vampires," Bill said bluntly, "like Linke. News of him being turned reached the community and since he appears to have been abandoned by his maker they asked us to step in. Someone seemed to think that because we're in the same line of work we were the best candidates to help."

"Aren't you supposed to be on tour at the moment?" Franky asked what could have been a rather irrelevant question, but it was the most normal think Linke had heard all conversation and made him feel a little better.

It was typical that Franky would know where Tokio Hotel was supposed to be.

"When the head vampire in Germany rings you up and says jump, you ask how high," Tom replied with a rueful smile.

The word vampire reverberated through Linke like a curse every time it was said; he still hadn't actually said it himself. A little part of his brain was in denial and simply wouldn't let him, but the fact that there were two people in front of him who seemed to know what was going on was a life line that he grabbed for.

"You can explain what's happening to me?" he asked, realising that he was probably showing the cracks he had been desperately trying to plaster over with bravado for the last day.

"Yes," Bill said with a nod, "can we come in?"

Linke looked to the others, just in case they objected, but they actually appeared kind of relieved as well. He nodded and everyone started to head into to the living room.

"So how long have you two been vampires?" Franky seemed to be over his initial nervousness and hence had begun talking.

"Fully fledged, less than six months," Tom explained, seemingly perfectly happily, "but mum's a full blood, so we came out of the womb partially turned anyway. We only decided we wanted to take the final step after Bill's throat surgery; that was too close not to take advantage of the whole invulnerability thing."

Everyone somehow found a place to sit, leaving two spaces on the sofa for their quests.

"Invulnerability?" Linke asked, since he was intrigued.

"Vampires don't age and we heal very fast," Bill provided the answer, sitting down demurely in the space left for him. "The only injuries that can do permanent tend to be fatal; removal of the head and cutting out the heart."

Linke winced; that sounded nasty.

"So are some of the legends true?" David asked from where he was almost sitting in Timo's lap.

"Mostly not," Bill continued to explain, "but there are seeds of truth."

"But a stake through the heart would work?" Jan seemed to realise what he had asked just after he asked it.

Luckily it seemed to amuse their guests.

"Would have to be a really big stake," Tom said with a laugh

Jan looked terribly embarrassed and appeared to be trying to hide behind Juri for a while.

"What I don't get is why me," Linke finally brought up what had been bothering him for some time, "and how did 'the community' find out about me?"

Both of the twins appeared sympathetic and Linke hoped they really meant it. He was so far out of his comfort zone in this that he was going to fall apart unless someone helped him.

"Not everyone can become a vampire," Tom took up the explanation this time, "you could call it a genetic imperative. In fact humans who can become vampires are quite rare, one in about half a million unless one of your parents happens to be a vampire. People who can are called potentials and they're very easy to spot for a full blood. You were spotted quite a long time ago and the community keeps an eye on potentials. No one should have approached you, not without permission, but when you ended up in hospital with the obvious symptoms the word made it back to the community. They assumed your maker was just waiting for the right time to come back and explain things to you and when they realised that wasn't going to happen they sent us."

"But why would someone do that?" he asked; it just didn't seem to make any sense.

"That is a question we don't have the answer to," Bill said quite openly, "but the community are trying to find out. If there is anything you can tell us about your maker that might help, we can pass it on."

Linke tried to remember, but all he got were fuzzy images that made no sense. He shook his head.

"It's all hazy," he had to admit.

"That's the effect of the bite on potentials," Tom said as if unsurprised; "it messes with the memory, our mum turned us and we don't remember it either."

That made Linke blush as the one thing he did remember was the sexual aspect of being bitten and he wondered how families got over that.

"It's against the law to bite a potential without their express permission," Bill added and seemed to have noticed his embarrassment, but was politely ignoring it, "because from the first bite the turning process begins. That's what causes all the symptoms."

Linke made a face; unfortunately he remembered all of those very well.

"Those are very clear in my memory," he said with distaste.

"Yeah, they're a bitch," Tom agreed with a sympathetic smile.

"They weren't that bad," Bill said with a shrug.

Tom rolled his eyes.

"That's because you went to sleep the first time mum bit you and woke up maybe twice during the whole process," Tom said and they had clearly had this conversation before, "so please be sympathetic to those of us who actually lived through the whole thing."

"So a bite doesn't affect a normal person then?" Timo interrupted the impending twin argument and Linke tried to not look too guilty, since he knew exactly what had prompted that question.

Both Bill and Tom were looking at him anyway.

"I take it everyone found out because you bit someone?" Bill asked in a rather careful tone.

"Yeah, me," David said, coming to his rescue by sounding as if he didn't care in the slightest.

The ground opening up and swallowing him seemed like a great idea to Linke though as everyone looked at him. He felt like saying: "So yeah I nearly ate one of my best friends, what of it?", but didn't.

"And I kind of got stuck on the ceiling," anything was better than dwelling on biting David.

That made Tom grin.

"It's tricky isn't it," Tom said, clearly amused; "We've been able to do the gravity defying things since we were small. Bill got stuck upside-down for two hours once when we were five."

Bill gave his brother a punch in the arm for that.

"What happened to the never mentioning that ever again?" Bill asked in a very pointed tone, but Tom just continued grinning. "Back to the original point," Bill salvaged the moment: "as long as you don't take too much too often it doesn't hurt anyone. You will need to find a minimum of two donors though; you'll need to feed at least twice a week."

That made his stomach fall like a stone; he had been very much hoping that there would be another way around that.

"So stealing blood from the red cross isn't an option then?" David asked as Linke did his very best not to panic.

"Blurg!" Bill said with a rather over exaggerated expression. "In a pinch a transfusion is okay, but drinking it is honestly disgusting. Think of it as the difference between eating something fresh and eating it mouldy and decaying."

That did sound disgusting, however, that didn't stop Linke from desperately trying to think of another way to deal with the problem.

"There are places you can go," Tom said and from the way Tom said it, it almost sounded like Tom was talking about a brothel, "but we can talk about that later."

Linke was very pleased about that; it sounded so personal.

It was all so incredible: not only were vampires real, but it turned out there was a community of them; two of the most famous teenagers in Germany belonged to said community; and there was a head vampire out there running the show. Linke had so many questions that he didn't know what to ask first.

"How does all this exist under everyone's noses?" he finally asked and hoped desperately he would get a sensible answer.

====

They had been talking for hours and Bill and Tom had seemed more than willing to answer everyone's questions as well as his, which made Linke feel a hell of a lot better. It seemed to relax the rest of the band quite a lot as well. Things were not back to the easy normality they had been, but they were on their way.

He had volunteered to refill glasses and drinks for what was the third round now and it gave him time to think. The topic of conversation had moved on from vampires to music, which was a relief, but he wanted to get things straight in his head before he began to relax.

The vampire community seemed mostly to be a monarchy based system, with there being a head vampire in each region. In Germany the head vampire was a man named Michael Bolt and as far as the public was concerned he was head of a philanthropic organisation involved in the arts and helping worthy causes wherever it found them. Mostly vampires didn't take much notice of their leadership unless they wanted to ask to turn a potential or were in trouble for doing something bad like killing someone. It was all strangely logical, even if Linke still couldn't bring himself to say the word vampire out loud.

He was just pulling the vodka out of the cupboard when he felt another presence very close to him. He turned to find that Bill had left the main group and walked over to him.

"Hi," he said, pretty sure that Bill was not just there to see if there was more ice.

"Hey," Bill said with a smile, "mind if we talk for a little bit. Tom can keep your friends entertained."

Tom did seem to be having a very animated conversation with the others about something.

"Okay," Linke agreed with a nod, "but we can't be too long or Franky might die of vodka deprivation."

Bill's smile broadened at that.

"I'm sure he'll cope," Bill replied in a stage whisper, "but just in case, we'll be quick."

That made Linke laugh, even though he was a little worried about the whole private chat part.

"This might sound a bit personal," Bill said quietly, "but, when you bit David, what was it like?"

Linke felt his face beginning to heat up; he hadn't really expected that to be the topic of conversation.

"Yeah," Bill said, clearly seeing his discomfort, "that's what I thought. You're sending out signals like a neon sign to those of us who can see them. For the record, when a bite is like that it means there is mutual attraction, quite a lot of it. We can make a bite like that if we want to, but it takes practice and effort. You're going to have to talk to David about it. Tom pouted for days when he realised he was attracted to Georg and when they finally got around to it the whole damn bus was shaking with their enthusiasm."

That brought Linke's thoughts to a grinding halt; this simply could not be happening.

"David's not a free agent," he said, trying to keep all emotion out of his voice.

Bill looked sympathetic about that.

"I noticed that too," Bill admitted in little more than a whisper; "you don't have to be a vampire to see Timo's signals."

That made Linke wonder how much his attack on David had affected his two friends, because usually they weren't that obvious. Everyone with eyes could see that David and Timo were close, but the lovers part was usually kept well under wraps. A rock band where the rapper and the lead guitarist were sleeping together would have a few problems in the heavier markets.

"Then you know I can't do anything about that," he said, not that he had really come to terms with the whole thing anyway, "and I'm not gay."

It sounded like an after thought even to him and Bill smiled, just a little.

"We're driven," Bill told him, putting a supportive hand on his shoulder, "it's how we are; be it blood or sex, we usually want one or the other. Whether you believe it or not, you are attracted to David, a lot, and you probably have been for a while; this just brought it out."

Linke would have protested, but he wasn't quite sure it wasn't true.

"You and he need to figure something out, even if it's just that he lets you feed from him every now and then," Bill explained, as if it wasn't the most impossible thing in the world.

"Timo would kill me," he said simply and tried to put the mental image of Timo attempting to hack his head off with a carving knife from his mind.

"Then talk to Timo as well," Bill suggested, "Tom, Georg, Gustav and me get on okay as a four; three can't be that difficult."

Linke almost choked on his own tongue at that revelation and he couldn't help looking across the room to where Tom and Franky seemed to be in a competition to see who could talk fastest and longest. Maybe his brain would just explode and save him from the whole situation.

"You're a four?" he finally managed to ask as that blessing was denied him.

Bill did give a little grin then.

"Uh-huh," Bill replied, seemingly amused by his reaction, "like I said, we're driven. There are some things you can't fight, especially when you're with people 24/7. One of the reasons Tom and I weren't really sure about taking the final plunge was because we knew it might mean we ended up too close for some people's comfort, little did we know we'd be dragging Georg and Gustav along for the ride. Tom was powerfully attracted to Georg, as I was to Gustav and neither of us could keep our hands off each other, so we ended up a four. David's face was a picture when he found me and Gustav lip locked behind one of the tour buses."

That did make Linke smile a little; he could imagine the shock, but he sobered quickly as he remembered why they were talking about this.

"Maybe it would be easier if I just left," he said as his thoughts turned somewhat melancholy; "David and Timo have been together for years; I can't jeopardise that."

Bill didn't appear to think that was a great idea, but there was no outright objection either. David would no doubt object, but it didn't seem to be a course of action Linke could just discount either.

"You could try," Bill agreed reluctantly, "but you might find it a little difficult just at the moment."

That didn't sound good either.

"Why?" Linke asked even though he was not one hundred percent sure he wanted to know.

"Your conclave," Bill said quietly, "and you territory."

"Explain," was all Linke replied, since he didn't really know what Bill meant.

Bill sighed and took a thoughtful breath.

"I'm sorry," Bill said and sounded like he genuinely meant it, "this must be incredibly difficult to take in. Potentials are supposed to be given all the information before they're turned so they can make an informed decision about taking the final step."

That didn't explain anything so he waited.

"A conclave probably means exactly what you think it means; it is the group of people around a vampire that they consider like family," Bill started to make things clearer for him. "It can be a conscious decision or an unconscious one. From your reaction when we came in, the rest of the band has become your conclave. You have adjusted to see them as yours, and before you say anything, I don't mean you think you own them, but you were ready to protect them when Tom and I arrived. You were also giving off a very clear 'mine' signal when it came to this house."

"You're making it sound like I pee'd all around it," Linke said, trying to get his head round this new concept.

"Only metaphorically," Bill said and gave him another small smile. "You're very new at this vampire thing and if your maker hadn't abandoned you, you probably wouldn't have adapted so completely yet. Tom and I have been living with some vampire instincts for our whole lives and we still had trouble when we were first turned."

Linke was following what Bill was saying, but he wasn't sure quite what it meant.

"But why does this mean I might have trouble leaving?" he asked, glancing over at the others without really meaning to.

"Your vampire side is going to fight any attempt to leave your conclave behind," Bill told him. "When we first went back on tour and left Mum behind, I sleepwalked off the bus when we were parked up and got nearly a mile down the road before anyone caught me. We had to have a security guy on guard outside the bus to stop me wandering off whenever we were parked for two weeks before I adjusted."

"You don't sleep naked then?" Linke found himself saying even though they were still having a serious conversation.

That made Bill laugh and Linke was glad that his sense of humour seemed to be intact, if somewhat muted.

"So you think if I leave now I'll only try and get back here all the time?" he asked, sobering again.

"Most likely," Bill replied with a nod, "especially since you don't have a twin brother to focus on as well."

"But what if I go home," he thought of another solution; "won't they become my conclave?"

Bill gave a little shrug.

"You're likely to be very confused," Bill told him. "You haven't had enough time to get used to everything yet, so adding a new layer probably isn't the best idea."

It was all so complicated; Linke wasn't sure what he should do. He didn’t want to leave the band, in fact that was the last thing he wanted to do, but he might cause a whole heap of trouble if he stayed.

"Sleep on it," Bill advised, petting him on the shoulder; "things always look clearer with time."

At least that Linke could agree with. He wasn't going to turn into a slathering monster out for his friends' blood, that was one good thing, so he had a little time. He nodded; there wasn't anything else he could so and Bill handed him a piece of paper.

"My phone number," Bill said with a grin; "in case you suddenly need to talk about something."

Linke grinned back at that; he knew people who would kill for what he had in his hand.

====

Linke sat on the back step looking out into the dark. If he let it, the night was almost as dark as usual, but his instincts urged him not to, so he was staring out on a world that lacked colour, but had incredible definition. It was quite an experience, like watching the world through an infra red camera.

"Hey," he turned when David spoke and tapped him on the shoulder.

David looked kind of surprised and he realised he must look different somehow and so he let the new vision fade.

"Your eyes glitter when you do that," David said, sitting down beside him.

"Night vision," Linke replied and went back to staring into the darkness, although he didn't use his abilities to see more this time.

They sat in silence for a little while, but Linke was pretty sure David had sought him out deliberately.

"Who'd have thought, Bill and Tom Kaulitz in our living room?" David eventually made an opening gambit.

"Who'd have thought Bill and Tom Kaulitz; vampires?" Linke countered with a small smile and he found he could actually say the word okay now.

"Yeah, well there is that too," David said and Linke could hear the smile in his friend's voice.

He turned though, because he wasn't really in the mood for small talk.

"Anything in particular you wanted to know?" he asked, being direct since it was the easiest way.

David didn't look guilty, but then David didn't feel guilt over necessary things.

"You spent a long time talking to Bill," David observed, looking into the night, "and you were even quieter when you came back. Is there something wrong?"

That was the 64,000 dollar question. For a moment Linke considered lying, but it wasn't something he liked or was good at so he sighed and decided against it.

"I might have to leave," he said after a few moments.

"What?" David asked instantly. " I thought we settled this already. Why? For how long?"

"I don't know," Linke replied, "a long time, maybe for good. I don't want to, but I might have to."

"But why?" David asked again. "Bill and Tom seem to be doing fine with the fame and their condition, why can't you?"

"Bill and Tom are in a foursome with their bassist and their drummer," Linke decided to be blunt; "do you get the idea?"

That shut David up for at least a few seconds.

"Oh," David said eventually, "who?"

Linke found himself laughing; it was such a ridiculous conversation.

"Davii," he said, using the petname on a whim, "a vampire bite doesn't usually do what it did to both of us. Normally a vampire has to work really hard to make it that good; I didn't have to do anything but bite you."

Then he stood up, because he didn't want to know where this conversation might go. He was not about to do anything to wreck someone else's life and he stalked indoors and up to his room before David could say anything else.

====

Timo watched Linke move quickly through the house to the stairs and then he saw David wander back in looking shell shocked. He immediately stopped what he was doing and went over to find out what was worrying David.

"Everything okay?" he asked and tried to sound casual.

"No," David replied, not really looking at him, but David did not elucidate.

Timo found himself following David up the stairs and into David's room, where he shut the door behind them.

"Want to share?" he asked when it became clear David was lost in thought and was unlikely to talk unless prompted.

"Linke says he might have to leave," David said, sitting down on the bed and looking up at him.

That was a bit of a shock; Timo had thought that with the Kaulitz twins' input everything was being sorted out, not made more complicated.

"But I thought we'd settled that," he said, sitting down next to David.

"That's what I said too," David replied with a pensive little frown, "but it's more complicated than that."

There was clearly something on David's mind.

"Then why might he have to leave?" Timo wanted to understand what it was.

"Because of me," David replied, but made the situation no clearer to Timo whatsoever.

That simply didn't seem to make any sense, at least not in any way Timo could fathom it.

"What about you?" he asked.

David's frown deepened.

"You know I told you the bite was kind of sexual?" David asked after a few moments.

Timo nodded; he did indeed remember that because he had had to sit on some very nasty urges when he had heard it. He didn't do jealously that well.

"I thought it was always like that," David continued, "just a vampire thing; turns out it's not. I'm reading between the lines, but I think Linke was implying he had to be really attracted to me for it to be so intense. I'm sure he doesn't want to mess up you and me and so he thinks he might have to leave. I don't know what Bill told him when they were talking, but I don't think this is something he can just ignore."

"Linke wants you in a sexual way," Timo did his very best not to react to that information.

"Yeah," David said, too deep in thought to notice where the conversation was taking him.

He could cope with fans professing their undying love; strangers were easy to deal with, but Linke had suddenly popped up in his head as a threat.

"We have to figure something out," David said, speaking aloud his thoughts in a way Timo was more than used to; "we can't just let him go."

Timo felt sort of cold inside.

"There has to be some way to work this out," David continued and looked at him with that earnest open expression no one in the world could ignore.

For a moment Timo didn't know what to think.

"So much has happened to him," David said, seemingly waxing lyrical about Linke, "we can't just let him abandon everything because of this. We've been through too much as a group to allow this to break us apart."

Timo could tell Linke was becoming a cause to David and he couldn't help fearing that.

"Are you saying you want to be with him instead of me?" he asked as all his insecurities jumped up and bit him.

He couldn't help the fact that part of him still couldn't believe that someone as kind and talented as David wanted him, even after all these years. David stared at him and he prepared for the worst.

"You're an idiot," David said and clipped him round the ear. "Yes, Timo, after five years of blissful monogamy I want to throw that all away and shack up with Linke. Of course not! I'm not that much of a crusader, but there has to be something we can do. If it came down to there being only one solution then that would be it, because I definitely wouldn't be going there without you, but I can't believe that there is only one way out of this. We just have to find out what it is."

Timo felt like a complete moron and ducked his head down until David grabbed him and kissed him firmly on the cheek.

"I love you," David said and smiled against the side of his face, "insecurities and all."

At that he felt himself blushing; he always seemed to be able to make a spectacular twit out of himself.

"According to Linke, Bill and Tom are in a foursome with Georg and Gustav," David said, pulling back a little, "can you imagine how much work that takes. Two egos in the same relationship is difficult enough, four must be a nightmare."

"They probably all just follow Bill around like lost puppies," Timo said, reengaging his sensible brain now that he had been an insecure idiot. "I thought he might end up taking Franky home that way tonight."

David grinned at that; there was going to be much mileage in taking the piss out of Franky now that Franky had properly met Bill Kaulitz. Timo doubted Franky would shut up about it for weeks, which would be ammunition enough.

"Yeah," David agreed; "we really need to get him that hoodie now and a poster for his wall."

That would be evil, but a hell of a lot of fun: Timo liked the sound of it.

"Sleep now, master plans tomorrow," David decided after a moment, "and one of those master plans will be what to do about Linke. There has to be something that will work."

Timo wasn't sure there was, but then he didn't know enough about vampires to be certain. He made a mental note to call either Tom or Bill; he had a feeling they were going to need advice.

End of Part 2
On to Part 3
Look what pseudoblu drew. Franky in a Bill hoodie - isn't it completely adorable :).