Admin Mawile: Aaaand the introduction is done! (๑´ㅂ`๑) I still sort of feel like I’m making a mistake by starting another fic, but ya’ll seem excited! I’m definitely having fun writing this, thus far! As established, this the beginning of a much longer Sub Au fic!

My main note for this part is that, unlike my usual, I had to give the reader a specified gender. It was tripping up the writing to try to make it completely neutral, unfortunately. Reader is female in this fic, but is otherwise left as vague as I can manage~

The intro here is pretty short (only a little under 3000 words), but I’m hoping further chapters will be better! I’ll be starting on someone’s route next, so please vote on whose I should choose, if you haven’t already. 

As always, questions and comments are very appreciated! ❤

Fic below the cut!!

The taxi drives for what feels like hours.

Little by little, you get farther and farther from civilization. Sitting in a dark car, fabric seats soft underneath you, you can’t help but feel like you’re headed somewhere terrible. It doesn’t help that you can’t see the driver.

There’s a smell of something in the air that you imagine is blood, thick and metallic, organic and somehow wrong. Your stomach churns.

You’d been sent away for reasons that you didn’t know. Your best friend’s parents had tried to ship her off to somewhere unknown, and when you saw the poor girl broken down, sobbing in terror of the unknown, you’d stepped in. Volunteering to take a younger girl’s place, who-knows-where, probably wasn’t the best idea, but you were not going to sit and watch.

The look of fear in your friend’s eyes would haunt you for years. You never would have been able to live with yourself if you hadn’t stepped in, if you’d allowed someone you loved to be sent away so easily.

So you’d forced your way into her place. Her parents had looked at you like you were crazy. You’d set your jaw and refused to back down.

The taxi had arrived the next morning, windows dark.

After a long ride, you were more nervous than ever, but steeling yourself not to show it. Wherever you were going, you could only imagine that it would hurt you to show fear.

You’ve passed forests and towns, slowly getting smaller and smaller the longer you drive. It feels like you’re heading to the middle of nowhere, and you can only imagine what’s waiting for you in the end. You think of who could be here instead, and know that it’s better that it’s you.

Finally, the taxi comes to a stop. There’s a mansion outside, one that you’ve seen slowly approaching for a while now. It’s huge, dark walls towering above you like a fortress. It’s larger than any house you’ve ever seen, sprawling out to both sides, and you swallow heavily. You can’t imagine what sort of people live in a place so ornate.

But you step out of the taxi. You gather your things. You drag your suitcase up to the front steps as the car pulls away behind you.

You’re stranded now, you think, and almost laugh.

There’s a faint smell of roses in the air, you note, mixed with something dark and unfamiliar. A cool breeze wraps around you, and you shiver. It’s beautiful here, in away that feels almost unreal.

A knock to the door yields no response, and you stand outside for a few long moments, waiting for someone to answer. You’re positive that this is where you’re supposed to be, and you wonder if whoever brought you here is simply toying with you, seeing how you’re going to react.

As if in defiance, you push the door open yourself and step inside. You’re afraid, yes, but if you’re going to meet a horrible end here, it’ll at least be in a way that you can be proud of. You’re not going to cower.

The inside of the mansion is dark, and the air itself feels thick around you. There’s rich furniture everywhere you look, and the air smells dark and musty, like no one has lived there in decades. Somehow, there’s no dust to be found, and that sends a little spike of worry through you.

Someone is definitely here.

It only takes a few moments of wandering around to find an empty sitting room. Making a split-second decision, you roll your suitcase up to one chair and plop down in it. You’ll sit there until someone shows up.

There’s no point in aimlessly searching through a mansion ten times the size of any house you’ve ever been in for any signs of life.

If someone is there, they’ll find you soon enough.

In a few minutes, the creepy atmosphere of the mansion progresses to downright intimidating. It’s quiet, eerily so, with only a few ominous creaks and odd noises to break up the emptiness. You feel like telling yourself that it’s just the house settling, and almost laugh. You’re starting to sound like this is some kind of horror movie. For all you know, it is.

You close your eyes and think of your friend, sobbing and afraid. You have a reason to be here, and you’re not going to back down.

The chair under you is softer than anything you’ve felt. It feels rich in an almost unnatural way, like nothing you’ve ever touched. What kind of people live here? What kind of people have such nice things?

When you open your eyes, it’s to someone behind you.

You know without turning around that there’s someone there. You feel suddenly, abruptly watched, and your stomach sinks hard. The person appeared so suddenly, with no sound, and you can’t imagine anything human being able to move like that. Instead of panicking, though, you take a deep breath and force yourself to be calm, to stand up and turn around.

The man behind you is tall and slender. His dark hair falls in soft waves, and glasses barely conceal sharp eyes. He’s wearing a nice suit, and his posture is so straight it would make a ruler look crooked.

He’s frowning, a stern expression etched across his handsome face.

“How odd. I had expected our guest would be younger,” he says, low voice smooth and polite, with a hint of something sharp lurking in his tone.

You stand up straight and meet his eye, refusing to show the nerves you feel. “If your ‘guest’ is who I’m thinking of, I took her place. It was a last minute change,” you say, and your voice is thankfully even.

“Ah,” the man says, looking at you with cold eyes. “I see. So you’re not who we were planning for. Would you please tell me who you are?”

You introduce yourself, stating only your name. The man replies that he is Sakamaki Reiji, the second son of the household that you’ve been sent to stay in, and you don’t miss the carefully concealed disdain in his voice.

He tells you to gather your things, that he’ll have someone lead you to your room, that this situation will be dealt with later. Your hand goes white-knuckled around the handle of your suitcase. Reiji’s eyes are brighter than they should be, sharper, and you don’t like it.

Just as you’re about to follow him, though, a hand lands on your shoulder. You suppress a startled jerk only barely, and turn around.

It’s another young man, this time with wavy, auburn hair, a wicked smile on his lips, and a hat falling forward over his eyes. He’s leaning in close to you, uncomfortably so, and his hand is tight in your shoulder.

“Hmm? So this is who’s been sent to us?” he asks, tone mocking and light. “What a pretty face… but such a cold expression. How about you smile a little bit, Bitch-chan? You’d look cuter if you did~”

Whatever uncertainty you’d had drops like a stone. He’s making fun of you, you can tell, and it’s only a vague feeling of dread that keeps you from biting back something cruel. There’s a dark aura about this boy, something you can feel in the air, and you don’t want to press at something dangerous.

Instead, you turn around, intending to follow Reiji to your room.

… and come face to face with another one of them.

This time it’s a small boy, all soft cheeks and impossibly wide eyes. He’s clutching a toy to his chest, and is dressed like a child.

You take a step back, startled, and the boy smiles like he’s a cat eyeing a bird with a broken wing. “Teddy… We have someone new to play with,” he mumbles, squeezing the bear to his chest. “We’ll have to break her properly, won’t we? Won’t that be oh-so fun?”

It’s not a good sign. The boy seems unhinged, and you don’t like the predatory gaze he’s eyeing you with. It’s downright impressive that a person so small could be so intimidating, but you don’t want to find out why.

“Shut up! The new prey is mine,” a third voice chimes in, and you spin around to see yet another of them waiting for you.

This boy has a face like the auburn-haired one, but a cocky expression and blood red hair. He grabs you by the shoulders, pulls you towards him like it’s nothing, and leans in much too close for comfort.

“Yuck, she’s old,” he whines, making a sour expression. “Smells good, though. I wonder what you’re gonna taste like,” he laughs. “I bet you’re sweeter than you look… but there’s one way to find out.” He leans in so close you can feel his breath on your neck, and you barely resist struggling.

Somehow, you feel like fighting back would be a death sentence.

“Ayato, if you must persist with such behavior, do it in privacy, please,” Reiji interrupts, and the redhead freezes in place.

You think, for a moment, that he’s going to do something to you anyway, but instead, he pulls away with a glare, scoffing angrily. One of the others snickers, sounding amused. You force down something like terror.

Despite all instincts saying otherwise, you hold still. You already have a feeling that fighting back will just get you in more trouble. You hold yourself tall, breathing even, and doing everything possible to stay calm. Whatever happens, it won’t help you in the slightest if you panic.

“Impressive,” a new voice says, and you feel a headache coming on. How many of these boys are there? “She’s staying pretty calm.”

Reiji stiffens immediately, you note, making a face like he’s eaten something rotten. The other three are still circling you, eyeing you with what’s worryingly close to predatory intent.

There’s a blonde man stretched out on a couch a short ways away. You’re positive that he wasn’t there a moment ago.

Something is starting to feel increasingly wrong.

“What?” the blonde says, letting his eyes slip shut. “This is my home too, Reiji. I can say what I want to.” His tone is bitter and slow.

“Perhaps, but you can also know when to keep your mouth shut,” Reiji replies cooly, and you can already see that there is some hatred between them, some rivalry. Reiji did mention that he was the second son.

Another couple lines are exchanged, the boys’ voices going low with barely disguised anger. The redhead gives a bitter little laugh from behind you, and the small one clutches his toy close to his chest. You’re starting to get a headache from keeping track of all of them, and in almost the exact moment you think that, a sixth voice joins the argument.

“What the hell is all the noise for?” an even younger boy snaps from across the room. His hair is dove white, and he looks strong, even though you can see a youth in his features that betrays his age.

“We’re deciding what to do with our little guest here~,” the auburn haired one says, and gives you a little shove. He’s stronger than he looks.

“Yeah, and Reiji’s being boring about it,” the redhead adds, crossing his arms in a childish motion and leering at you with sharp eyes.

“Perhaps Subaru wanted a taste,” the small one murmurs, a note of something mocking in his voice. “Perhaps he thinks he’ll win her over by being her knight in shining armor. What do you think, Teddy?

The strong boy’s fist splits the wood of the nearby staircase.

It takes considerable effort not to react outwardly. You’ve already figured out that letting anything slip is a bad idea around these boys, but that, that simply wasn’t human.

The pieces fall together quickly in your head. A massive mansion in the middle of nowhere. Six beautiful young men who look at you like they want to swallow you whole. A boy strong enough to crush solid wood like it was paper. The mysterious circumstances under which you were sent to the mansion to begin with, the utter lack of information on it all.

You weren’t among humans anymore.

Somehow, though, that eased some of your fear. Humans who could act like this were one thing. Monsters stuffed into pretty skins were another.

You would at least know what to expect from the monsters.

So you stood still, allowed the boys to keep bickering. Their vicious comments flew over your head easily now that you knew the truth, their too bright eyes on you no longer giving you the same chills.

Somehow, you had the feeling that they wouldn’t kill you. If they’d wanted to, it would have been easier to do it from the start, after all.

If they’d wanted you dead, you wouldn’t still be standing.

Your fear was fading fast, replaced with a sense of resignation and mild interest. If you were the sort of person who would volunteer to be sent somewhere like this in the first place, you could withstand what happened.

After a few moments, the arguments died down. Their eyes fixed on you one by one, a strange atmosphere filling the room.

“… she’s not afraid anymore,” Ayato, as you’d picked out that his name was, said. His pretty green eyes stared at you like you’d grown a second head. He shifted position a bit, almost defensive.

“Teddy, why isn’t she more worried? Doesn’t she know that we’re going to hurt her,” the small one, Kanato said with a low voice.

All you saw was an empty threat, a boy trying to frighten what he saw as below him. He probably would hurt you. That didn’t mean you were going to give him the satisfaction of seeing you shake before him.

There was suddenly a great imbalance in the room. Now that you were calm, now that you were looking carefully, you could see the obvious discord between the brothers. Now that you were calm, you could see all of them eyeing you with something like curiosity mixed with uncertainty.

You imagined that few people hadn’t cowered from them.

“I think it’s time our guest is shown to her room.” Reiji broke the silence, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

He went through a quick introduction of who was who, and you nodded along, already having caught onto everyone’s names. The boys were still staring, some cold unreadable feeling thick in their eyes.

You were just about to follow Reiji to where you would be staying when Laito said something, sing-song voice filled with threat.

“Bitch-chan is awfully relaxed for being stuck in a house of vampires,”

You could see in his eyes that he was expecting you to panic.

Instead, you looked him dead in the eye, smiling politely. “Ah, so that’s what you are. Thank you for telling me; I’ll know what to expect, now.” You knew better than to fight, but you weren’t going to be afraid.

For just an instant, you see a flash of something furious in Laito’s eyes. Instead of scaring you, it shows you that he can feel.

Already, you’re getting an impression of what these boys are like. They fight amongst each other, every one of them puffed up with ego. Like any teenage boys, they’re immature and selfish, but with supernatural abilities, they think that they hold some special place in the world. You can expect them to be cruel, you think, you can expect pain.

When you think of someone you love being in your place, you don’t wish for a second that you wouldn’t have chosen this path.

It’s easy to follow Reiji, easier yet to catch the way he’s glaring at you. He leads you through a series of hallways with no words, and you stand tall with every step. The mansion doesn’t scare you anymore.

Your room is pink and pretty, something clearly intended for a girl much younger than yourself. That alone makes you almost angry.

The idea of someone small and frightened being locked up here with the monsters makes you wish you could get away with punching one of them in the face. They have no right to prey on those who can’t fight back.

Instead, you put your things away, and sit down on the bed.

It’s soft beneath you, and you run your fingers over the silky blankets. Your stay here is sure to be an experience. You may never leave.

That thought doesn’t scare you nearly as much as is probably should.