This chapter is dedicated to @BarbWire1 because of that one funny
comment that made my day

Night came slower than death anticipated, the hours felt like they went on for days. Death sat on the edge of his tower watching the tunnel. Geno had left not too long ago and death was waiting to make sure he wouldn't come back.

Death stretched and jumped back into the room when he saw the two guards back at the tunnel. work was still needed to be done in this time of the day, and it would mostly take all morning.

"Alright," death said as he looked through some files, most of which have been already sorted into a small file cabinet. Those were the ones he was done with, the five foot stack on the other side of the room is what he had left to do.
"It's gonna be a long day."

Night still hasn't hit when death was near finished with his files. He felt dazed and tired as he placed the last file away. Death groaned and stretched, his bones felt sore and tired.

His eye sockets drooped and his movements became slow. He laid his head down on the desk, just resting for a few seconds. But then his vision got darker and darker, and he fell asleep.

•••••••••••

The fire crackled as another piece of wood was added to the flame. A group of vampires circled around the fire in the woods. The bright moon shined through the thick fog, casting a white light above the vampires.

Even though the moons light shined through the fog, death still couldn't see it. A wing was wrapped around his waist, giving him warmth. He sat on a log with someone beside him, looking deep into the fire.

"Mom," death said and slightly tugged her sleeve, the tall skeleton vampire threw her red hood back and looked down at her son. Her eyes shined alongside the moons light, while her young and beautiful features glowed in the dark.

"Yes deathly?" She said with a smile, her voice was a smooth as honey and could calm the loudest of souls. Death slightly nudged away her wing and looked up into the foggy sky.

"When will we be able to go up there?" Death asked and pointed to the tall cliff, death's mothers smile faded as she looked at the cliff.

"Deathly," she said sadly, "you're old enough to know why we can't go."

"And I'm old enough to go on my own," death said, frustration starting to hit him, he kept his voice at a quiet level, "I'm tired of always hiding, always having to play it safe. I just want to leave and live up there, where the fog doesn't block the stars I've never even seen!"

Deaths mother sighed, and gave a small smile her dark green eyes looked at him softly as she brought him into a hug.

"One day I promise you'll live up there," Deaths's mother said, she kissed his forehead, "I'm not going to lie, it could be years, maybe I'll even be gone by the time you get to see the stars."

Death hugged her tighter, "But if you're gone by the time that happens, what's the point of even looking at the stars if you're not gonna be there looking at them with me."

Deaths mother pulled away from the hug and placed a hand on each of deaths shoulders, "you know I'll always be there with you, even if the time comes and you won't see me anymore. I'll still be there, besides I'm sure you have someone else you would love to look at the stars with."

Death raised an ' eyebrow ' as his mother looked behind him and pointed.
Death turned to see what she was pointing at and gave a smile.

"August...."

○○○○○○○○

Death woke up to someone shaking his shoulders, he looked to see Dr. Kim shaking him lightly.

"Mmggh?" Death gave Dr. Kim a tired look, it was still daytime probably and other hour till it becomes dark.

"Leader, are you fully awake?" Dr. Kim asked, he had dark circles under his eyes and one of his wings held onto a stack of papers.

"Is..that more work?" Death yawned and rubbed his eye. Dr. Kim nodded, giving death a small look of pity.

"Sorry that you have to stay up so late to work on these, leader." Dr. Kim yawned, death waved and took the papers from his wing.

"It's alright, what's with you?" Death asked, "you look like you've been hit by a tree."

Dr. Kim gave a small laugh and stretched, "well I did run into a tree in the way here so that's a thing."

Death covered his mouth to hold In a laugh, Dr. Kim noticed that and gave death a small friendly glare.

Dr. Kim coughed and resumed talking, "anyway, I also came here to tell you about a theory I have about the pink goo we found and the X."

"Let's hear it," death said casually and started to get to work on the papers. Dr. Kim sighed and started rubbing his hands together.

"What if it's those X's with that power?"  Dr. Kim said, death looked up from his papers to Dr. Kim.

"We already tested one of those X's they have no mag-" death said.

"Just hear me out," Dr. Kim said reassuringly, "I'm not saying it has to be the X but maybe something linked to it. Think about it, the X has no magic just tricks, but the pink goo that got into yours and geno's shoulder came from it."

Death looked to his papers, silently hoping Dr. Kim wouldn't ask about geno.
"So," death said, "what are you trying to say?"

"I think someone created the X," Dr. Kim said,  "someone who has some sort of a link to determination or actually has determination. But it still doesn't explain the new color of magic."

Death sighed and put the pen down, he looked to Dr. Kim and gave him a smile.
"You should really get to bed Kim," Death said, "You've been losing a lot of sleep, please, go get some rest."

Dr. Kim looked to the ground before nodding, "Alright, but what about you?"

"I'll be fine," death said holding in a yawn, "I'm used to staying up late so it's no problem."

Dr. Kim nodded but didn't believe him, he was too tired to argue tho and made his way down the stairs.

Death started to sort the papers out like how he had done with the other ones. He would have given anything to go back to sleep but work kept piling at his desk.

"Geno I swear to god if I finally get the chance to leave you owe me." Death grumbled as he sorted through papers, now that he's thought about it, he'd rather switch places with geno right now. If he was being honest this entire place was driving him insane.
"How long has it been since I've actually gotten a few feet away from the tunnel?" Death said, he didn't even remember going out of the tunnels sight.

♢♤♢♤♢♤♢♤♢♤

Hours passed and death was finally finished with the paper work. He didn't even get the chance to look outside when he was doing it. Death stood up, getting dizzy and almost tripping as he took a step forward. Death made his way to the open window, the air blew through his hood making his shiver.

Death slightly groaned as he saw some vampires already awake and roaming around. Death looked over to the orphanage, very slightly he could see some of the children playing with a ball. Gerson was already outside watching them play as he sat on a chair.

But geno wasn't there.

Death shrugged, he knew geno was going to leave sooner or later but he expected the kids to seem a bit more upset that he's gone. Death waved it off and decided to do his normal routine since he couldn't go to sleep and started to walk down the stairs.

He passed a few monsters in the castle, then passed a few vampires in the village, even talked with one or two, and got closer to the orphanage. He could see that the kids were hitting a small brown ball to each other.

As death got closer he saw the kids hit the ball four times before one of them caught it and threw it gently at another kid. They all giggled and ran over to the leader when they spotted him.

"Hiya," they giggled, death smiled a waved, "do you want to play with us?"

Death shook his head and smiled, "sorry, hun, I'm a bit tired right now, I Don't think i can play that game, heh."

The kids nodded understanding and left to go play again.
"What is that game called anyway?" Death asked himself, "I don't think i remember a game like that."

"It's called four," geno said behind him.

Death turned and gasped in surprise when he saw geno sitting next to a tree holding a book. Geno gave a small smile and stood up and walked over to death.

Death rushed over to him and whispered, "I thought you left?"

Geno nodded and pointed to a small path away from the orphanage, death got what he ment and started walking away from the orphanage to the dirt path.

Deaths soul was beating fast, he really didn't expect to see geno ever again. So him appearing out of nowhere scared him.

Once they were out of ears reach geno turned to death and explained, "to them I never left, but I did. I actually made my way out of the foggy forest."

"But if you were already home why did you come back?" Death asked slightly pissed at the fact geno came back to this instead of going back to his family.

"Let me finish talking so I can tell you," geno said and crossed his arms looking at death, "as I was saying, when I made my way out of the forest, everyone from the scouts were gone. The place where we had our camp was completely destroyed"

"What happened?" Death asked and listed closely, geno shrugged and looked disturbed.

"I really don't know, but when I started to walk on the trail and hour later I find them," geno shivered and took a deep breath, "they were all gathered around this sort of wooden Platform and on it was Sule and a few other scout leaders."

Death raised an ' eyebrow ' and started to get a bad feeling of what geno was going to say next.

"They started chanting V&Mkw Two over and over again until the scout leaders started to talk," geno said and hugged himself, "they started talking about how the camp was destroyed and how a vampire caused it. They started getting hysterical, they said that they wanted to start another war! They think it's you guys that are starting to kidnap monsters. Now in a few days they're going to send army's with millions and millions of soldiers to go looking for vampires so they can start another war! - "

"Geno! Hey!" Death said and gripped geno's shoulders, geno didn't even know he was hyperventilating until he heard deaths voice. He started to calm down trying to get his breathing back to normal. He felt deaths hands shaking on his shoulders that he gripped tightly.

After a few moments death let go of his shoulders and did his best to keep his voice normal, "are y-you sure that they said they were going to start another war if they found out where we are?" Death said as calmly as he could get.

Geno nodded and took a shaky breath, death looked down at his hands. They were slightly shaking, his mind was in too much of a shock to think correctly.

Once he got his thoughts together he looked to geno, "thank you,"

Geno flinched not expecting death to speak, "thank you...? For what?"

"For coming back and telling me," death said, he gave geno a smile and patted his shoulder, "You've earned my trust."

Geno looked at him for a few moments before looking away, "thanks? I guess?" Geno laughed and continued walking the dirt path with death.

Death smiled and slightly pushed geno with his shoulder playfully, geno raised an eyebrow and pushed death back with his shoulder and bit more forcefully.
Death slightly stumbled and looked at geno with a determined look. He quickly pushed geno and walked away fast. Geno immediately fell to the ground but got back up and be began to run towards death.

Once he got close to him geno used his body to push death into the ground hard.
"Ha!" Geno laughed as death landed on the ground.

"Oh its on!" Death said as he got up, geno slightly screamed and started running with death right behind him. Death caught up withing seconds and pushed geno to the ground but tripped over geno's leg that he put out.

Geno laughed and tried to get up but death quickly grabbed onto his leg making geno slip and fall face first into the ground. Death snorted as geno pulled his face from the dirt.

Geno caught him off guard when he tackled him, death quickly tried to grab geno's arm before he could push death further into the ground.

Death flipped geno over so that he was sitting face to face on deaths lap and tried to pin him down. But geno pushed him so that he was off him and tried to pin death from behind. But death twisted around and pulled out his staff from his cloke and held geno with it.

The staff was pressed against geno's chest while death blocked him from moving by pressing geno's back against his own chest.

"I- huff - win" death said happily as he caught his breath.

Geno laughed and brought his legs closer to him. "Nope!"

Geno pushed his legs forward so that he and death flipped over and rolled down the small hill.
"Woah!" Death gasped as he lost his grip on the staff and let go of it as he rolled down the small hill.

Geno's back hit a tree and death fell on his legs. They both started to laugh and catch their breaths.

"I-i guess it's a tie then." Death said in between breaths. Geno nodded, too tired to argue that he clearly won.

Once they finished catching their breaths they stared at each other for a second before going back into fits of laughter.

"That's the most fun I've had in years," death laughed.

"Me too," geno laughed back, "why are we laughing we were supposed to talk about serious things!"

Their laughter roared louder, they didn't calm down till about a half an hour later when all they could muster were giggles.

"So what are we now?" Death asked after he finished laughing. Geno shrugged and thought for a second.

"Do you want to be friends?" Geno asked, death thought for a second before bluntly saying "I've never had a friend."

Geno gave a small laugh, "I haven't had a friend in years."

"I win in that depressing contest then," death laughed which made geno go into a fit of giggles.

"So, friend," death said in a joking tone, "what are friends supposed to do?"

"I'm pretty sure we insult each other," geno said jokingly. Death shrugged, felling tired again. He felt his eyes droop as his exhaustion started to come back.

Geno saw death slowly dozing off, and stayed quiet. Soon death fell asleep, laying his head on geno's legs like a pillow.

Geno let his new friend sleep peacefully.

Ok I'm just saying here and now this is probably my favorite chapter I ever did.

I also got lazy in the last drawing
Lol

OH YA GUYS

You know the one chapter where geno tried to use magic and he ended up in a lot of hurt? ??

Ya so basically geno's body was trying to get that stuff out of him.

Because for Dr. Kim when he tried to use magic it was more of a burning pain and stings but it wasn't that bad.

For geno it was full on ' kill me the pain is too much ' pain

So it geno's body was going like this

Geno's body : ok wtf is this? It's blockers but it has magic and determination??? Oh hell to the naw we already have enough determination so let me get rid of that werid stuff in the most painful way so geno doesn't die!♡

Ya, that's what happened. Lol

Anyways I hope you enjoyed this chapter ♡

Pepe! Out!