Title: Not Much Of An Apocalypse
Pairing: Yuu x Tagiru/Tagiru Yuu
Chapters: 1-1||Words: 3,000
Genre: Supernatural, Romance, Humor||Rated: PG
Notes: This takes place in an AU.
Challenge: Story Request/Gift-Fic Challenge; written for person is Paige Matthews1; Diversity Writing Challenge, section D, #83: write an AU; Pairing Diversity Challenge, prompt #1, tension
Summary: The zombie apocalypse has begun - kind of, and Tagiru wants to know why one of them is knocking on his door and asking if he can come in.

Tagiru slammed and locked the apartment door, trying hard not to hyperventilate. He didn't think he was having a great deal of success, but he forgave himself for it. Who wouldn't hyperventilate at the end of the world?

And everything had looked as if it were going so well this morning, too. For a change he actually had all of his assignments done, and he thought most of them were in decent enough shape. He wasn't a genius, not like someone he could name who turned up in most of his classes and annoyed him by the fact he existed, but he made it through, and he'd been happy enough like that.

Until today, when he'd gone outside, intent on a brisk walk -which wouldn't have at all included finding where that certain someone was and perhaps doing a little verbal strutting about how he had everything completed. He'd turned a corner, and there they were, an entire mob of them!

He sank back against the door, closing his eyes. Right. He didn't need to think about this. Well, he did, but not in a way that would lead him to getting eaten like everyone else there had been. He needed to find a way to survive. Maybe he could call his parents and see what they knew? Or maybe it was on the news?

He didn't move away from the door just yet, though. His legs still shook and the thought of what he'd seen ghosted through his mind, tiny fingers of fear walking all over him.

Zombies are not supposed to exist. He didn't want them to exist. There were plenty of things he didn't want to exist, and zombies came close to the top of the list. Ghosts weren't too far from the top, but they weren't as horrible as zombies. Zombies wanted to eat you. That was it.

Tagiru had a lot of plans for his future after college. Not one of those plans included either being on a zombie's menu or eating people himself. They did involve being awesome enough to amaze the entire world, but he hadn't yet decided what he was going to do that would accomplish that.

Though perhaps saving the world from the zombie apocalypse could do that?

Oh, he liked that thought! A slow grin began to make its way across his face. He'd never bothered watching any zombie movies, but he thought he could figure it out. Zombies ate people, yes, but they weren't smart about it. He was smart. He could do this.

Almost as if the thought of someone smart brought him up, Tagiru remembered one of those who'd been in the zombie horde. A very familiar face, indeed, though not one he'd been looking for while out that day.

Not one he'd admit he'd been looking for, anyway.

Amano Yuu. He's one of them. In fact, he'd been the one that Tagiru had punched in the face. And then ran from. Completely not screaming at the top of his lungs. He'd just been surprised and needed to work it out. Screaming like that was for people who weren't him. Who weren't going to save the world in the most awesome fashion ever.

But the thought wouldn't escape him now. Yuu was a zombie. Yuu was a people eating monster that wanted to eat him. And everyone else, but Tagiru had seen the zombie starting to lurch after him, and he still didn't know how he'd made it back up here without the thing that had been Yuu beating him. And eating him.

His stomach rumbled. He hadn't had lunch yet. He was also thinking too much about eating. Bad idea. He hadn't actually seen any of the zombies gnawing on someone, but he knew that they would, and that just wasn't what he wanted to have in his head while he hunted for leftovers.

He didn't even feel like getting up right now. What if he tried and some zombie -like Yuu- started banging on there wanting to get in?

Well, maybe he could brace it. He couldn't sit here all day and all night. That wasn't how you could save the world.

Which brought up the question of what he could brace it with and the fact he didn't really have anything. Having one of the smaller apartments made everything great when it came to cleaning, but when it came to having stray items around he could push against the door? Not so much.

"Tagiru?" The voice came from the other side of the door, accompanied by a perfectly normal sounding knock. "Tagiru, that's you in there, isn't it?"

Tagiru once more attempted to steady his breathing. He didn't even considering answering. He knew that voice. He'd heard it raised in so many classes, always with the right answer, always telling what he didn't want to hear, and at times mocking him gently when he got something wrong.

Yuu wasn't supposed to be able to talk anymore. Zombies didn't talk. Zombies just moaned and ate people. Or ate people and moaned. He doubted they had any schedule for it.

Which meant that something was going incredibly wrong somewhere in this world, because he'd seen Yuu was a zombie, and yet Yuu was talking to him! And talking to him very clearly, with that usual undertone of 'Tagiru has done something ridiculous and I'm going to tease him until he can't stand it anymore'.

"Tagiru, I saw you. I know you saw me. Believe me, I know you saw me." Yuu's voice sounded a bit more muffled, more so than the door would've made possible. "Let me in. I think you made a mistake."

"Letting you in would be the mistake!" Tagiru snapped. "I'm not stupid! You're a zombie!"

A long, low, drawn out sigh. "Tagiru. I'm not a zombie. But please, invite me in. I can explain everything you saw."

Tagiru bit his lip. If he tries to eat me, I'm going to kill him.

Slowly he unlocked the door and cracked it enough so he could peek out. He kept himself ready to slam it shut a moment later, and hoped that zombies didn't have super strength. Maybe he should've watched more zombie movies. Then he'd know what they could or couldn't do.

On the other side stood Yuu, looking much as he had when Tagiru had last seen him on the street, gray-skinned and in tattered clothes, with streaks of blood here and there. Tagiru drew his breath in with a sharp hiss and started to slam the door closed again, when Yuu grabbed hold of it.

Maybe zombies really did have super strength, because he couldn't move it now.

"Tagiru. You've never seen a zombie walk, have you?" Yuu lifted up one dusty eyebrow and Tagiru blinked at him. He'd always been under the impression that zombies couldn't talk anyway. That was all that kept him from running for the window, if he couldn't shut the door.

"A what?" This had to make sense, somewhere. He just hoped it didn't make sense in some place where he wasn't.

"A zombie walk. People have them for a lot of different reasons. The people in it get dressed up and put on make up to look like zombies and go around like this." Yuu gestured at himself. Tagiru eyed him a bit more closely. Some of the gray did look a little like makeup, now that he took a better look at it. And the blood...well...maybe?

The longer Tagiru stood there saying nothing, the more amused Yuu looked at him. "If you don't believe me, let me in, and I can go wash all of this off. Then you'll see."

Tagiru might not have agreed, if his stomach hadn't put its own voice in the matter, declaring it wanted to eat, and there wouldn't be any eating while Yuu stood on the other side of the door.

"Look, let me in, let me clean up, and we can order something. I'll pay for it."

Nothing else Yuu could've said would've made Tagiru step back from the door. "As long as it's not filet of human. Or leg of person."

"I promise, it won't be." Yuu stepped inside, as graceful and elegant as he'd always been, in that way that always made Tagiru wanted to strangle him just for existing. It wasn't fair that someone could be that perfect. And if someone could be that perfect, then why did it have to be Yuu? "Now, where's your bathroom?"

Tagiru pointed it out to him, deciding not to lock the door just yet. If Yuu somehow was a zombie that could talk and wear makeup, he didn't want to lock himself in here with him. Jumping out the window wasn't that great of an idea, either, since he was four stories up, and he hadn't checked to see if the fire escape worked properly.

In hindsight, that probably hadn't been something to leave to the last minute. While Yuu cleaned himself up, Tagiru sidled his way over to the window and peered outside.

Everything seemed to be going just the way it normally did on a pleasant weekend afternoon. People wandered here and there. He couldn't see any zombies, or people dressed up as zombies.

"You can't see the rest of the walk from here." Yuu spoke up from behind him, and Tagiru didn't care that he jumped, whirling around to face his unexpected guest. Yuu smiled at the sight of him. "You were checking for zombies, weren't you?"

Tagiru kind of wished that he hadn't been. Instead he just shrugged. Yuu looked much more like himself now, with faint traces of makeup left on his clothes and nothing more. His skin was its normal healthy bronze, and his eyes as always held that hint of amusement whenever he looked at Tagiru.

"So, not a zombie?" Tagiru wanted to get that perfectly clear before anything else happened.

"I am not a zombie." Yuu crossed his arms over his chest and nodded firmly. "I told you. That was just a zombie walk. They happen a couple of times a year. There have been fliers up about it for the last month. I think I even mentioned it to you once."

Tagiru couldn't remember having had that kind of conversation. But, he realized, to be utterly fair the moment the word 'zombies' or any kind of undead had been mentioned, he would've checked out as soon as he possibly could. Some conversations he didn't want to have. Ever. No matter what.

"Maybe." He shrugged, looking around for wherever he'd left his list of restaurants that delivered in the area. "You said something about dinner." He knew that Yuu didn't have the kind of tight funds that he did, so if Yuu was going to buy him something to eat, he was going to make certain that it was worth it.

"That's right." Yuu made his way over to the battered couch and settled down on it. "You can pick what you'd like. I'm not all that hungry myself."

That sounded better and better to Tagiru. He found his stack of menus and started to sort through them, looking for anything he hadn't used recently, just for the variety of it.

"So why zombies?" He had to say something while looking for his dinner options, and he still wondered why Yuu wanted to pretend he was one of the flesh-eating undead.

"They're fascinating, actually. But I don't think you really want to talk about zombies, do you?" Yuu leaned forward, much closer than Tagiru had thought he'd been.

"Uh, what?" One day he was going to learn how to be graceful and intelligent and how to react sensibly when things like this happened. Today, clearly, wasn't that day.

"What were you doing out there earlier? Looking for something to eat?" Yuu asked. Tagiru fidgeted, casting his gaze down at the menus.

"Yes?" He wished he weren't lying about that.

Yuu's smile still contained that lazy sort of confidence that infuriated Tagiru more than anything he could think of. He didn't like it, but seeing it sent shivers through him that made no sense at all. He hated it and he wanted to see it whenever he got the chance.

He grabbed one of the menus and stared down at it. Doing so was infinitely preferable to looking at Yuu right now. "Yeah. I'm really hungry." Maybe if he said that enough times, if he did enough food things enough times, he'd even convince himself that it was true. Better yet, he'd convince Yuu of it. He could lie to himself and not get away with it and be okay with it, but for Yuu to figure out the truth? That wasn't going to happen. Not at all.

Yuu's gaze didn't move from him as Tagiru fumbled around in search of his cell phone. "We could always go out somewhere for dinner if you really wanted. We don't have to order in."

That didn't make any sense at all to Tagiru, so he clung to what he could. "I don't feel like going out right now." They'd probably see some of those zombie walk people, and he wasn't ready for that yet.

"As you wish." Yuu remained lounging on the couch and Tagiru wondered why he didn't tell him to get off it. There was a perfectly suitable chair right over there, and Tagiru liked to lounge on the couch himself.

Once the phone call ordering the food was put in, Tagiru curled himself up on the chair and stared at the ceiling. The ceiling was infinitely more watchable than Yuu, annoying little prince of perfection that he was.

"Why did you come over?" Tagiru asked after an interminable stretch of time. "You didn't have to try to explain this to me." He could've just laughed it off, especially when Tagiru figured out there really wasn't a zombie uprising and turned up for class.

Yuu's reply came after an equally unmeasurable span. "I wanted to make certain that you were all right. You looked out of it." He rubbed the side of his face, and Tagiru could just make out redness there. "Though you do have a pretty good right hook, I'll say that."

Funny, he would've thought that his hit would've made more of an impression. At least a bruise. But maybe he didn't hit as hard as he thought he did, no matter what Yuu said. He shrugged anyway.

"You didn't have to. I would've been all right." It still didn't make any sense to him. Why would Yuu care?

"Of course you would be. You're always all right, aren't you?" A smile tugged at Yuu's lips and Tagiru wondered at the way his stomach suddenly danced and swirled around itself. Maybe he was getting sick? He didn't want to be, not now.

Another knock at the door, only this time delivering food instead of a not-zombie. Tagiru settled down with his dinner and poked one of the bags. "I got enough for you if you want it."

Yuu shook his head; Tagiru honestly couldn't remember seeing him eating before anyway. It was hardly unusual; someone like Yuu probably had exquisite meals delivered via limo to his apartment -which was much larger than Tagiru's, of course – and the idea of eating off anything less than genuine handcrafted diningware would never even occur to Yuu.

Regardless, eating helped him to relax, and Yuu's presence helped as well. Tagiru wasn't sure of how or why, but all manner of words flew between them, and somewhere, Tagiru found himself agreeing to watch a few horror movies, just so he'd know if a real zombie apocalypse happened. Tagiru suspected he'd end up watching the inside of his eyelids more than anything else, but he wasn't going to tell Yuu that.

"We can watch them at my place," Yuu suggested. "You can even spend the night if you want."

Now Tagiru just had to know. He fixed Yuu with his best stare, which didn't come close to piercing anyone with fear or terror, but he tried anyway. "We've barely talked to each other all this time. Why are you asking me over?"

"Because I want you to come over, Tagiru. If I didn't, I wouldn't ask you." Yuu rolled his eyes. "And if you want to know why I want you to come over, then the answer is, because I do. Just because we haven't talked doesn't mean that I don't want to."

Tagiru hated being outdone in logic, and Yuu did it so very easily. The only way to work through this that he saw was to hang around the guy more. He'd figure out how to outsmart him sooner or later. "All right. It's a deal." Not a date. He could not have been happier that that word didn't sneak out of his mouth. Deal. Not date.

Yuu lounged back on the couch as Tagiru tossed a few things into a bag. He still couldn't believe the other had actually hit him. Very little else could've caught his full attention, though.

He licked his lips, feeling the sharp points of his fangs as he did. He was hungry, but not for the kind of food that Tagiru would order. Tagiru would provide it, but he wouldn't know, not until much, much later.

He would have to explain this to Tagiru as well too. There wasn't a zombie apocalypse going on. There weren't any such things as zombies.

Vampires, on the other hand...

Well, hopefully Tagiru wouldn't flip out once he knew. He could slip a few vampire movies into their marathon and see what his reaction was. It wasn't as if he didn't like Tagiru. But some secrets needed to be told at the right time, and the right time wasn't usually when someone wanted to stake him.

Tagiru would understand. He would help him to understand. One way or another.

The End

Note: I was waffling over how to put the whole story together and then the idea of Yuu being a secret vampire participating in a zombie walk hit me and it would not shut up until I actually wrote this story. So, here it is.