Love's Battlefield - Volume 10 (Part 1)
Love's Battlefield: Volume Ten - Blood, Sweat, And Tears: Part One
By Joseph Raszagal
Pacing back and forth across the recently waxed linoleum floor of his office, steadily marring it with a series of black scuff marks, Dr. Franklin Gerald Ernst rubbed at his forehead out of sheer frustration while his patient sat in anxious silence. Adam's options were nearly exhausted and he had once again adamantly refused his last remaining one. However, with depleting funds and no insurance whatsoever to take the hit for him, he was slipping down a steep and seemingly greased slope, and it didn't look like there were many ways for him to climb back to the top of it without first biting the bullet and setting his morals aside.
The brown bat knew all too well that not WANTING to do something was a poor and pitiful reason to avoid doing what NEEDED to be done, but still, he kept assuring himself that there had to be a line drawn somewhere, a moral clause or law that he couldn't break. There just had to be... right?
"Adam, why can't we come to some sort of an agreement?" Questioned the portly raccoon as he drummed his fingers against the side of his head. At the rate that he was going, the drumming would likely leave permanent indentations.
Turning his head, the young bat refused to answer.
"We've run a thousand tests now and still haven't come up with anything conclusive; at this point we're just grasping at straws." Sighed the exacerbated doctor. "We can't treat a disease that we've yet to identify, but we CAN at the very least try to keep you as healthy as possible while still investigating and testing for it. A well balanced diet, the proper vitamin and nutrient supplements, eight hours of sleep every night, and a good exercise regimen; these are all necessary, Adam, but you and I both know that there's a piece missing to this puzzle. It's quite possibly the single most important piece."
Again, Adam refused to reply.
"Blood." Stated Dr. Ernst seriously, his expression grim and unflinching. "You. Need. Blood. You know it as well as I do and it's high time that you accepted the fact. It isn't as though it's something that anyone could ever hold against you or look down on you for, Adam; it's simply a necessity of your species. Blaming you for drinking blood would be comparable to blaming a child for being young or blaming the sun for continuing to shine; it's simply preposterous."
Jumping up and out of his seat, the winged teen glares poisonous daggers at the elderly raccoon and exclaims, "I am NOT a vampire bat, I'm a fruit bat!"
"Wrong!" Shouted the old fur as he slammed his arthritic paws down upon his desk, sending an empty glass beaker tumbling to the floor whereupon it shattered into a dozen jagged pieces. In each fragment was reflected the raccoon's despondent frustration. "Adam, you're not a purebred fruit bat and you know it; you've known it for more than a year now! I've reviewed your family's medical records a hundred times, well into the black of night and the light of dawn; I shared with you everything that I learned about your family's branching heritage and there is simply no way that you can deny the truth any longer! Your biological father, your mother's first husband, was a vampire bat from eastern Europe! Adam, you ARE half vampire bat and you HAVE needs that you're not attending to! For all we know, this unknown illness of yours may well have been CAUDED by the lack of blood in your diet!"
With watery eyes, the brown bat stares at the floor, dejected, and stammers, "Th-that just can't be the answer; it can't be. In order to stay healthy I have to leech off of others? H-how the Hell is that fair? H-how am I supposed to look at myself in the mirror knowing that I'm keeping myself alive by hurting others?"
Quietly crossing the room, Dr. Ernst let out a heavy, pain-stricken sigh and placed his paws upon the trembling teen's shoulders, steadying the adolescent fur and grounding out a vast majority of his fearful shaking. Much to the doctor's surprise, Adam had been trembling hard enough to steadily slide his chair an inch or so across the floor via his vibrations alone.
"I know you're afraid, Adam; it seems just yesterday that these revelations were brought to our attention." Said the graying raccoon as he looked into the young bat's eyes, silently pleading for the stubborn boy to relent and heed his advice. "But it wasn't just yesterday. It was eleven months ago. In fact, you've been living on borrowed since before then even, since your first attack years and years ago, and the rate at which that time is expiring hasn't slowed in the slightest; frankly, I'm surprised that it hasn't run out already. I've seen you unconscious in a hospital bed too many times to count, comatose in a vegetative state for days on end. I've seen you standing on death's doorstep with your paw clasped around the brass knocker and prepared to push open the door, machines just barely keeping you alive when your body could not perform any of its necessary functions on its own." Left with a dry mouth and reddened eyes, Dr. Ernst removed a small handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed it against the black outline of his furry facial mask before somberly adding, "Adam, I might be a doctor and I might well see those kinds of things more often than I'd care to discuss, but that doesn't in any way mean that I wouldn't lose sleep over being ABLE to help you but FAILING to do so regardless. In fact, as a doctor it is my duty to ensure that you're spared from returning to that fate no matter what, so please reconsider. "
"Heh, if only it didn't feel as though you were asking me to reconsider being a murderer." Muttered Adam weakly, his sarcasm dying away into the silence. "I don't want to hurt people; I don't want to be a parasite."
Ruffling Adam's hair, Dr. Ernst sighs, "Sometimes we're forced to do things that we don't want to do, all in the name of making it to the next dawn still intact."
Those words resonated in the teenage bat's mind as he sat in the passenger's side seat of his mother's car and watched in a daze as the surroundings sped by his foggy window, blurring into a mishmash of nebulous shapes and colors in the distance. The trip back to his house seemed over in a matter of seconds and Adam shook his head in aggravation as he opened the door and stepped out onto the sidewalk, irritated by how little time he'd been given to mull over his conflicting thoughts. Not surprisingly, the very moment he touched his paw to his bedroom's rusty doorknob, the vague sound of something bolting out from under a heavy pile of blankets echoed from the other side of the old, oaken door. As soon as the hinges creaked and the wooden wall swung open, Thomas threw his arms around the mahogany bat's sides and hugged him tight, practically lifting him up off of the ground. Adam, still distraught over the difficult decision that he'd soon have to make, found comfort in the warm embrace and returned it thankfully, wrapping his arms around the Lucario and nuzzling his slender muzzle into Thomas's fuzzy, navy neck.
"Are you alright?" Questioned the azure dog quietly as they padded over to the bed and sat down together. "Don't get me wrong; I'm glad that you're happy to see me, but that wasn't exactly the response I was hoping for. It was more like the kind that someone gives you after hearing about a death in their family, when they really need to be comforted."
"Yeah, well, I guess I do." Murmured Adam softly as he stared off into the middle distance.
With a look of concern about him, Thomas hesitates for a split-second before asking, "Bad news?"
Shaking his head, Adam answers, "Kind of. It isn't exactly new news; more like something that I've been avoiding. It's complicated."
"Well, it might not be new to you, but I'm clearly out of the loop." Said Thomas in return, his smile compassionate and welcoming. "If you want to talk about it and get it off of your chest, I'm more than willing to lend my ears. You should know by now that they practically belong to you."
Nervously fiddling with his fingers, Adam holds his breath for what seems to be an eternity before replying, "That's just it, Blue... I'm sort of afraid to tell you. I don't want you getting all worked up and rushing headfirst into things that you might not even have to do."
Thomas's ears perked instantaneously, sticking straight up into the air.
"Wait a sec, are you saying that I might be able to do something to help?" Inquired the lazuli lupine with almost impossibly wide eyes. "Is that what you're saying?"
Meekly, the bat answers, "Y-yes."
"Then out with it, man, now I really wanna know!" Exclaimed Thomas immediately, the excitement in his voice apparent as his tail wagged enthusiastically behind him, sweeping back and forth across the bed like a furry, blue broom. "I'll do whatever's necessary, you know that!"
"Yes, I know that, and that's the problem!" Shouted Adam in an explosive mixture of anger and sorrow. "You've been selling your body for me; what's to keep you from hurting yourself to help me too?!"
Shocked and utterly speechless, the cobalt canine just sat there with his mouth hanging open for close to a minute and a half.
'How on Earth', muttered a voice in the back of Thomas's mind, 'did he know about that?'
"Did you honestly think that you had me fooled, that I was completely oblivious?" Asked Adam heatedly, piercing the silence as he crossed the room and stared into a distant corner. Though his eyes were focused on the cracks in the walls' paint, his sharp words were clearly directed towards his present company. "Please, Blue, I'm not a fucking idiot; you made no effort to hide the fact that you were working the poles at that club, you didn't even try to shake me when I tailed you there the first couple of times, so it only took a little more work to put the rest of the puzzle's pieces into place. You made more money in the last three months than my father did throughout the whole of last year and yet I've hardly ever seen you spend ANY of it on yourself; not a single dime. And don't think for a second that you hid your wallet very well or that I never saw it those few times you pulled it out in front of me; it's fucking LOADED. Sure, you could have been saving up for something, maybe putting it all into a college fund, but if that were in fact the case then you'd have already told me as much. After all, what would be the point in hiding something like that, hiding something ordinary and every-day? Instead, you elected to do the opposite and just kept it to yourself, a big freaking secret, as if that weren't actually more conspicuous than telling me a blatant lie." Holding his head in his paws, he leaned forward against a wall for support and shivered violently before continuing, "Maybe you haven't given all of the money that you've been gathering up to my parents just yet, but it's been obvious from that start that you've been planning to. C'mon, Blue, you know how well bats can hear; I've spent the last three years listening to you complain nonstop about how corrupt the hospitals and insurance companies are and about how much you wish that there was something more, anything really, that you could do to help me."
Flattening his ears, Thomas whimpers defensively, "That's just it, all I want to do is help."
"I know that and there's nothing wrong with wanting to help." Retorted the brown bat as tears gradually stained the soft, short fur of his cheeks. "But ask yourself this. Would you really want your best friend, someone that you've always hoped could become something more than just a friend to you, to suck dick and get fucked in the ass by total strangers in order to pay for your hospital bills? Would you really, truly make that trade, your friend becoming a literal whore for your health?"
Unable to respond with words, the cerulean canine shook his head slowly.
"I didn't think so." Stated Adam firmly, wiping his eyes with the backside of his paw and draping his wings around himself. "And do you know what? Neither would I. Neither DO I."
The silence that set in during the moments that followed was suffocating and it took everything Thomas had, all of his strength and energy, not to keel over and die right there. He wanted to help his friend more than anything in the world and he was willing to go to whatever extremes were necessary in order to do it, but he couldn't for the life of him argue with Adam's logic. It just made so much sense and he HATED it. The Lucario's stomach flipped over and churned nauseatingly at the mere thought of Adam hooking the midnight streets in his place, soliciting himself to crusty, middle-aged men and dashing down dark alleyways whenever a squad car patrolled too close. He couldn't bare it if that scenario ever unfolded and struggled to force the images tied to those thoughts out of his mind, a losing battle if there ever was one. One of the things that Thomas most loved about the young bat was his innocence, his purity, and the idea of that purity being stripped away from the winged boy in order to save his navy ass ripped, tore, and ate at his heart.
But then something popped into Thomas's mind that made all of that emotional pain evaporate in a single uplifting instant.
"I planned on having a friend of mine falsify some documents and call in a few favors to create a legitimate looking fund for hospital patients suffering from as of yet unidentified illnesses." Spoke the Lucario steadily, explaining himself with open palms and an amicable smile. "I was going to donate all of the money that I'd made to this fund anonymously and then have my aforementioned friend pull a few more strings to ensure that the bulk of the fund went to you. Done this way, neither you nor your parents would have ever known that the money paying for your treatment had been made by me through... alternative means. I'm still pretty far off from having anywhere near enough and seeing as how you won't accept it anyway, given the kinds things I've done in order to make it all, I guess that whole plan has been made moot, huh?"
Rubbing his forehead, struggling to take all of that in and process it at the same time, Adam inquires, "If you know that I won't accept your money, then why are you telling me all of this?"
"Because I now know that there's something else I can do to help you." Answered Thomas evenly.
"You do?"
"Yes, I do."
"Uhm, what can you do?"
"Honestly, I dunno; you haven't told me yet."
With wide eyes, Adam finally got the message and turned away from his cerulean friend. Struggling to piece together the right words, as though his thoughts had been a jigsaw puzzle and his house cat had suddenly jumped up onto the table and completely destroyed it, the featherless flier stammered and stuttered in circles.
"N-no, you can't!" Managed the flustered bat after a few seconds of mental regrouping. "That's almost as bad!"
"How so?" Argued Thomas in reply. "I'm not even sure as to what I might be able to do for you. Can't you at least tell me first and THEN flip the fuck out?"
"B-but~
Cutting Adam off, Thomas glares at him like a scolding parent and barks, "No, no buts! Did I not just toss a year or so's worth of prostitution out the window and agree with you that selling my tail to the highest bidder wasn't the right way to help you?! I did, dammit, and you have no idea how hard it was for me to swallow my pride and admit to that! I invested time, money, and my BODY into that plan; I'm only trashing it now because you want me to! Now, knowing that, doesn't it seem fair that you should trust me enough to tell me about this awful, atrocious, inconceivable second option? Let me be the judge, Adam, please. If it really is as unreasonable as you say it is, then I'll drop the subject like a bad habit and I won't mention it again, alright? Just, please, at least let me know what it is that you're not going to let me do; don't just forbid me from it outright and never even explain it to me at all. That just isn't fair and you know it isn't." Looking down at his own paws, Thomas clenches them in aggravation and exhales meekly, "This is going to sound hypocritical as all Hell, but I don't care. You had the right to know that what I was doing on the streets at night, well, that I was doing for you. I didn't consider that and because of my inconsideration I ignored your right to know. Don't be me, Adam; you're better than that. Please, please, tell me what I'll have... what I MIGHT have to do."
Flattening his long ears, the vampiric fruit bat 's lower lip quivered as he turned away, his cheeks flushing redder than a shiny, new apple beneath their short layer of brown fur. His mind raced with incomplete thoughts and sentences as he tried to muster forth a response, but no matter how hard he tried he just couldn't find the right words to convey his feelings. On one paw, he still stood in staunch opposition of any and every scenario that could possibly harm Thomas, regardless as to how how; that most certainly included allowing the Lucario to serve as his much needed blood donor. On the other paw, however, he had somehow ended up in Thomas's shoes this time around and couldn't find a way to combat the cobalt canine's logic. Adam gulped and licked his lips. Thomas was right, absolutely right; withholding the truth from him wasn't fair in the slightest, but the prospect of telling him still sent shivers down the winged teen's spine. Adam gulped again.
"A-as long as you promise not to overreact, I'll tell you." Said Adam at long last, visibly trembling as the fur of his arms and legs stood straight up on end.
Encircling his arms around his frightened friend, Thomas pulls him in close, ever so gently, and whispers, "I promise."
Taking in a deep breath to steady himself, the azure dog's musky scent filling his lungs along with the much needed oxygen he'd originally intended to inhale, the brown bat mutters, "My doctor thinks that by drinking blood I might be able to improve my condition enough to lessen the severity of any future attacks, and hopefully, possibly, stave them off completely."
Opening his mouth to reply, the cobalt canine found himself standing there with his mouth hanging open as what Adam said finally dawned upon him.
'Blood?' pondered the Lucario curiously.
"Wait, what?" Sputtered Thomas confusedly as he cocked his head to one side.
"My doctor recommended that I start drinking blood. Actual blood." Recapped the anxious bat.
Still oblivious, the lazuli lupine inquires, "Why the heck would he recommend that?"
Burying his face in the Lucario's chest, Adam chokes on the words as they dangle from the tip of his tongue before weakly squeaking, "Because I'm half vampire bat."
"What?!" Exclaimed Thomas in shock as he grabbed Adam by the sides and forced him to look up into his eyes. "This is the first I've ever heard of this! I thought you were a full-blooded fruit bat!"
Releasing the bat from his grip, Thomas stepped a pace or two away and took a moment to forcibly calm himself. The mixture of anger, sadness, shock, and confusion set across his face was practically strong enough to taste.
Looking away, refusing to lock eyes with his dear friend, Adam softly states, "I've known for a little over a year now."
"You mean to tell me that you're a vampire bat, that you need to drink blood in order to maintain your health and yet your doctor just recently started recommending this?!" Questioned the dog heatedly as he tromped over to the bed's nightstand and ripped the phone from its receiver. "Because if so, I'm going to sue that bastard so fast, so hard, that he'll have his license yanked out of his self-serving paws before you can even say the first two syllables of 'Malpractice'!"
"No, wait!"
"Wait? Wait?! No, there's no chance in Heaven or Hell that I'm going to wait after hearing that! This is serious, Adam, he could have killed you by withholding that kind of information; you could have died! Doesn't it occur to you that as your doctor, as the man tasked with safeguarding your fucking LIFE, that he was obligated to tell you absolutely everything, no matter how insignificant he deemed it?!"
Barely able to lift his head to combat the lupine's vehement words, Adam folds his ears back, twiddles his thumbs, and whimpers dejectedly, "H-he didn't withhold it. I actually refused to accept any blood donations; I've been refusing them for months now."
Flabbergasted, Thomas's jaw dropped completely open but no words followed the startled expression. He simply stood there, gaping in disbelief.
"Huh?" He managed, his eyes no less wide and his mouth still hanging open in shocked suspense.
"I-I... I just couldn't do it, Blue." Sputtered Adam as his eyes, tired and red from the emotional surge he'd experienced back at the hospital, began to water once more. "I-I couldn't bring myself to leech off of people that I'd never met before, random strangers who'd never know me as anything other than the withering vampire in need of their collective necks. It just wouldn't be right. I don't want to be a virus, a monster. I don't want any of that."
And then it happened. Thomas's eyes widened further still, but not with even greater shock and awe this time. No. An idea had dawned upon him and his mental gears were already spinning into action, rapidly working to expound upon this simple thought and shape it into a thorough, fully-formed plan. Being such a clever canine, the sort that had brought him considerable infamy within the halls of his school, it didn't take him very long at all.
Suddenly, the answer seemed so very clear to him.
"So, what you're saying is that you don't want to inadvertently victimize anybody that would only have that single experience with you to judge you by?" Inquired the sapphire dog as he span around on one heel to face his nocturnal mate. Along with his words, Thomas's crimson eyes sparkled with a brief flash of certainty and self-assurance, a slight glimmer that would have been all too easy to overlook had one not taken the time to look close enough.
Adam, for example, had directed his teary-eyed gaze back to the unforgiving floor and therefore missed the hint.
So, completely clueless as to the Lucario's ponderings and a tad startled by the sudden interrogation, the brown bat drags one sleeve back across his dampened face again and then answers sincerely, "N-no, no I don't."
And faster than a supersonic jet breaking the sound barrier, Thomas instantaneously replies, "Are you kidding?! Then take some of my blood! You know for a fact that I would never judge you; I couldn't even if my life depended on it!"
"Wh-what?!" Exclaimed Adam as he jumped back at the mere thought of Thomas's suggestion, the very thing that he'd been hoping to avoid. "No! It isn't that easy! You're asking me to suck your blood; your fucking BLOOD! Do you have any idea how that would make me feel?! That's worse than draining someone I've never met and would likely never meet again. I'd be leeching off of YOU! Thomas, I love you! I can't just feed off of you like some kind of parasite; I'd probably be hurting you in the process!"
Waving a paw in opposition, the azure teen retorts, "You don't know that. C'mon, why not just test it out; you know, just take a bit and see what happens. It's just a little bite, how bad can it really be?"
The fact that his actual name had just been used did give him a clue, but still, the Lucario pressed on. His narrowed gaze remained steadfast and unwavering.
"Are you even listening to yourself?!" Shouted the bat, throwing his arms up into the air out of frustration. "A LITTLE bite?! It's still a fucking bite; I'll be piercing your flesh with my fangs, Thomas! Doesn't that thought scare you even a little?!"
"No it doesn't. Should it?"
"Yes! Yes it should! It scares the Hell out of me!"
Closing his eyes and rubbing his brow, Thomas assumes a very serious tone of voice, something highly unusual for him, and sighs, "Alright then, I'll say it again, just in case the words somehow made their way around those sensitive ears of yours rather than into them. Take. Some. Of. My. Blood."
The awkward silence that followed could have been used to drizzle over pancakes, it was so thick.
"Are you sure?" Asked Adam hesitantly.
"Do I sound unsure?" Returned Thomas with a lopsided smile.
"No, you don't, and that's what's worrying me." Cringed the winged boy as he curled up into a ball on his bed. "Dammit, how can you be this willing to just up and offer me your blood? I mean, c'mon, I said it before but I guess it just didn't sink in; it's your fucking BLOOD. It's the life liquid that keeps your furry butt walking and talking. How is it that the idea of having it drained from your neck by force doesn't even faze you?"
"Because I care, numbnutz, now don't make me say this more than once. Get over here and get to suckin'." Smirked the cobalt canine wryly, his smile no less compassionate and genuine.
Lifting his head, Adam asks, "Only a little bit?"
"Only a little bit." Assured the blue and black Lucario as he sat down and pulled Adam into his lap. "If at any point you think it's gone too far, that there might really be some danger to it, we'll throw on the breaks and head back to the drawing board. We'll do this at your pace, okay?"
Shifting in the lupine's arms enough to turn and face him, Adam lays across his childhood friend, chest to chest, and quietly murmurs, "Okay."
Nervously nodding in agreement, still clearly not on the same page as his friend but about as close as he was going to get, Adam shimmied around Thomas until the Lucario's bushy tail was pinned between his legs. Very slowly, the brown bat parted the adolescent canine's azure neck fur and positioned himself closer, leaning in and opening his slender muzzle. Just as Thomas felt the soft caress of the bat's hot breath wafting against the supple flesh beneath his fur, Adam froze.
"This is probably going to hurt, Blue. In fact, it'll probably hurt a lot."
"I got bit once back in middle school by that psycho zebra girl, Stephani Witherspoon, remember? She broke skin without a set of chompers designed to do so. Now THAT fucking hurt. But this? This'll be a walk in the park, you'll see."
Emboldened by his friend's trust in him, Adam licked his lips one last time and then sank his ivory fangs in. Having expected a bit of pain, Thomas succeeded in stifling the startled yelp as it attempted to leap from his lips and transformed it into a much quieter squeak. The sharp stinging sensation permeating his pierced neck subsided quickly, perhaps too quickly, but the Lucario was left with little time to ponder that fact as an even stranger sensation sent cold chills shooting down his spine; the winged boy who's arms were encircled tightly around him had taken in his first gulp of blood. As Thomas gasped out in lieu of the odd feeling, there was a brief pause, but with no vocal complaints or requests for him to stop, Adam simply closed his eyes and continued. The soft sound of the vampiric fruit bat sucking the liquid from his veins, though no louder than their combined breathing, seemed to grow increasingly more thunderous to Thomas over time, and as that sound eventually filled his ears entirely he couldn't stop his lower lip from quivering. The odd feeling of being drained coupled with the close and very intimate proximity with whom was drinking from him SHOULD have sent Thomas's pulse hammering over the edge, into an adrenaline-fueled overdrive, but the cerulean canine couldn't help but to notice that as the seconds tick-tocked by and eventually elapsed into minutes, that if anything his heart rate was actually steadily slowing down. He knew that blood loss often lead to fatigue, but something about his sudden grogginess was different; something was amiss but he just couldn't quite put his finger on exactly what. As a numbness began to spread through him, creeping all the way down to the tip of his tail and his toes, Thomas found it difficult to stay alert and focused. Then, without the slightest warning, his vision failed him too; everything within his line of sight rapidly blurred together into one amalgamated blob of colors. In an attempt to voice his concerns, concerns that he found were beginning to escape him along with the rest of his thoughts, Thomas opened his mouth and tried to speak. When no words came out, he tried again and failed again. Closing his eyes, the azure dog assured himself that whatever was happening wouldn't hurt him, that he would be okay. As he slipped into unconsciousness, still held tight between Adam's webbed arms, he whimpered quietly.
'Maybe he was right', whispered a voice in the back of his mind just before the dark silence set in.