Note: I have nothing to do with Here is Greenwood and its characters except to be a fan who enjoys the OVAs a lot. This story is my extrapolation of the storylines as seen in the OVAs. I apologize if this story doesn't quite fit in with the manga.

Kazuya stirred and slowly opened his eyes. He blinked a few times, trying to remember where he was. Then, as he remembered, he smiled.

Finally, for the first time since the dreams began he could remember what happened after the boy apologized to him. Only this time, he wasn't remembering a dream but what had really happened. Which meant that everything before then had been reality, too, except that he hadn't been wholly aware of what had been going on. Now he did...but the knowledge didn't scare him.

Instead, he felt happy. Pleased. The feeling that had nagged him all day--that he'd failed to do something and something terrible would happen as a result--had finally passed away. The boy...the vampire...the boy had needed his help, had been needing his help from the beginning, and he had provided it, as he had provided it since the night Shun read from that book and hadn't done the night before.

The boy...had he...

Kazuya turned his head to the side, scanning his room. Relief washed over him when he saw the boy.

He frowned. Something was wrong.

The boy had brought the chair from his desk closer to the bed and now straddled it, his arms resting atop the seat back and his chin resting on his arms. Even in the dark, Kazuya could see the misery and sadness on his face.

Kazuya slowly sat up, blinking away the dizziness that accompanied his rising. "Are you all right?" he asked.

The boy laughed harshly. "I should be asking you that," he said bitterly. "Are you all right?"

Kazuya hesitated, then nodded slowly. "A little dizzy, but nothing more."

"The dizziness will pass," the boy said. He said it curtly, almost angrily, and Kazuya flinched. But he suddenly realized that the boy wasn't angry at him; he was angry at himself.

"Look," Kazuya said, reaching out and touching the boy's arm lightly, "why don't you tell me what's wrong? Maybe I can help."

"I took too much blood from you," the boy said, looking away.

That stopped Kazuya. Why should it be bothering him? The boy had been drinking his blood before, and Kazuya hadn't felt any different when he woke up. "I don't understand," he said.

"No, how could you?" the boy said. "Just now I took too much blood. I actually made you faint because of it. I usually don't take that much, but I just couldn't control myself."

"It can't be that bad, can it?" Kazuya asked. "I mean, surely it's happened before."

"But not to you!" the boy protested. "I haven't been taking that much from you!" The boy stopped. "I'd better explain. I've been visiting you almost every night now for a little over a week."

"I know."

"Usually I--" The boy stopped again. "You know?"

Kazuya nodded. "I've been having the same dream over and over again. You're always in it, and you're always apologizing to me for something. I never remembered what it was until tonight."

The boy groaned. "I'm sorry! I thought you were asleep when I visited you!"

"I think I was," Kazuya said slowly. "But a part of me was awake and it remembers everything now."

The boy jumped up. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he said quickly. "I'd better go. I--"

Kazuya caught the boy's hand. "Wait," he said.

The boy froze.

Kazuya sighed. "Look, maybe we should start all over. My name is Hasukawa Kazuya. My friends call me Suka, and my brothers call me Kazuya."

The boy blinked, then slowly sat back down. "Brothers? I only sense one other man in this house."

Kazuya felt himself flushing. "Well, actually, I only have one brother. But I call two of my best friends 'brothers' because that's the way we feel about each other."

"I...see," the boy said.

"So," Kazuya said gently, "I guess you're the vampire my roommate summoned."

The boy winced, then nodded. "Yes. My name is Matsumoto Haruki, but my friends--what few I have--call me Haru."

"Okay," Kazuya said. "Uh...what do you want me to call you?"

"Call me whatever you want," the boy said. "After everything I've done to you and everything I've taken from you, you're entitled to call me whatever you feel like calling me. Monster, blood-sucker, leech, bastard..."

Kazuya shook his head. "Haru," he said softly. The boy--Haru--jumped at that. Yet, Kazuya could think of nothing else to call him. Maybe he hadn't known a whole lot about Haru from his dreams--certainly he hadn't known he was a vampire--but he'd come to think of him as a friend. After all, Haru had always apologized for what he was doing, and that was what a friend would do, right?

And friends didn't let friends berate and insult themselves, especially when the reproaches were unwarranted.

"Haru," Kazuya said again, "you're not a monster. A blood-sucker you might be, and possibly a leech, but unless there's a question about your parentage, you're not a bastard either."

Haru looked at him, a sort of happy incredulity on his face.

"And as to you not having friends," Kazuya continued, feeling his face growing warm, "I'd like to think that we're friends."

Haru just stared at him.

"I mean," Kazuya stammered, "you've always been polite whenever you've visited me, and I'm sure you're gentle since I don't remember any pain being involved And, well, when you came tonight, I could see how much you didn't want to take my blood. And I told you that it was okay."

"But why did you allow me to drink?" Haru demanded.

"I don't know," Kazuya admitted. "You needed it, and I trusted you." He laughed nervously. "Isn't that strange? I mean, I've only just met you...well, officially, anyway...and yet I trust you. And friends trust each other, right?"

Haru blinked, then slowly smiled. "Right!"

"Good," Kazuya said. "Now, do you think we could sort of clear a few things up? I mean, you look American, but you sound pure Japanese. And how did you even find me here?"

Haru held up his hand. "That's a long story." Then he cocked his head. "Could I get something to eat first?" he asked wistfully. "I'm really sort of hungry right now."

Kazuya's jaw dropped. "Eat? I thought you needed blood to survive!"

"That's part of the long story," Haru said.

Kazuya stared at the other boy, then nodded. "I'll get something from downstairs," he said. "Just stay up here."

Kazuya reached for his crutches and slowly got out of bed. He started to stand, but his foot--the one not imprisoned in the cast--was apparently sleeping, and he lost his balance.

Before he could catch himself, however, a strong arm caught him around the chest and a firm hand grasped his shoulder. "Are you all right?" Haru asked.

"I'm fine," Kazuya said. "Thanks."

"No," Haru said, his eyes scanning Kazuya's face. "Thank you. For trusting me and...for offering friendship."

Kazuya flushed. "I'll go get that food," he offered. He pulled away--but gently, so he wouldn't give offense, and smiling all the while--and left to go downstairs.

* * *

"Kazuya, is that you?"

Kazuya nearly jumped out of his skin. He spun around as quickly as he could on his crutches, nearly toppling over until he collided with the wall. He winced. "Yeah, it's me," he said. "I didn't mean to wake you, Sumire."

His sister-in-law gazed at him, a worried frown on her face. "You didn't have another nightmare, did you?" she asked.

Kazuya shook his head. "No," he said. "They've all been good dreams. Only the last one was about food, and it made me hungry. I just came down for a snack."

"Oh, okay," Sumire said. "Don't forget to clean up when you're done."

"Yes, Sumire. Good night."

"Pleasant dreams, Kazuya," she said as she shut the door to her and Kazuhiro's room.

Kazuya breathed a huge sigh of relief and made his way to the kitchen.

"That was close, wasn't it?"

Kazuya nearly jumped out of his skin again. "Haru! What are you doing down here?"

"I came to help you," he said. He grinned. "I don't think you'll be able to climb the stairs and carry a tray at the same time, not with those things," he said, pointing at Kazuya's crutches.

Kazuya blinked, then smiled sheepishly. "I guess not," he said.

They raided the refrigerator, piling enough food for two people on the tray Kazuya took out. As an afterthought, Kazuya also prepared two cupfuls of instant ramen. He wasn't especially hungry, but he felt awkward eating when no one else was, and--just in case Haru felt the same way--didn't want his friend to feel uncomfortable either.

They made it upstairs, Haru gliding up quickly and silently, Kazuya hobbling along as best he could. By the time he made it back up to his room, his new friend had already begun devouring one of the ramen cups.

"You must be really hungry," Kazuya said, snagging a piece of chicken from the tray.

"Not really," his friend said, slurping up some noodles. "I'm more thirsty than anything else, but this is fine."

"Can we talk about that now?" Kazuya asked. "I'd really like to know why you're eating food when you need blood to survive."

Haru swallowed his mouthful. "It's something I picked up along the way."

"Maybe you should start at the beginning," Kazuya suggested.

Haru nodded. "Let me just finish up the noodles, okay?"

Kazuya kept his mouth shut, nibbling at this and that while Haru continued eating. Finally, Haru set aside his chopsticks.

"Well," Haru said, nibbling on a piece of chicken, "for starters, I look like an American because my father was an American. He married my mother and they went to America, but he died in a traffic accident, and my mother returned to Japan. When I was born, she named me Craig Haruki Woodrow, after my father and her father. However, we returned to her family, so I became Haruki Matsumoto, and my friends call me Haru."

Kazuya nodded slowly. "Then you've lived here all your life," he said. "I guess I jumped to the wrong conclusion."

"It's okay," Haru said. "People always mistake me for an American, so they always expect me to speak English to them instead of Japanese." He shrugged. "My mother made sure I could speak both languages, so it's not a problem."

"Oh." Kazuya felt a brief stab of regret that his own mother couldn't be there to do something similar for him. He shook it off and opened a can of iced green tea. He handed it to Haru.

"Thanks," Haru said. He took a long sip. "Now, what's next..."

"How old are you?" Kazuya asked.

"Let's see," Haru said, rubbing his chin. "I died shortly after my seventeenth birthday, and that was a little over a year ago, so I guess I'm eighteen."

Kazuya blinked. "What? But I thought--" He stopped and shook his head. "I jumped to the wrong conclusion again," he sighed.

Haru shrugged. "It's no big deal." He stopped and frowned. "Well, maybe it is. I died young and it's only been a year, so maybe I'm still attached to life. I don't like hurting people, and I really don't like taking blood from people when I don't have to."

"But you need it," Kazuya pointed out.

Haru nodded. "I do, but I try to limit how much I take from a single person. Usually I'll go out to a club or something and work my way through the dance floor. In all the noise and lights, no one notices when I lean in and take a quick sip of blood from someone, not even the person I'm drinking from. After about twenty little sips, I'm no longer thirsty, and if anybody gets dizzy, they just attribute it to the lights and the music. By taking a little from a lot of people, I avoid weakening anybody too much and nobody faints from blood loss."

"Until now," Kazuya said softly.

Haru sighed. "Until now," he agreed. "But let's not get ahead of ourselves. I found that, as long as I had some blood each night, I could eat regular food to keep up my strength. So, after drinking from five or six people, I usually went to a restaurant and had dinner."

"But you haven't been able to recently," Kazuya said slowly. "You came to me instead."

"I didn't want to," Haru protested.

Kazuya held up his hand. "It's okay," he said, grinning. "I don't mind. I'm just a little surprised, that's all."

Haru sighed and shook his head. "I wouldn't even have taken your blood except that something went wrong that first night." He closed his eyes. "The night your roommate summoned me."

"What?" Kazuya pressed. "What went wrong?"

"Well, you see, your roommate summoned me somehow, and I came to see him. Only I didn't know that he was a student living in a boys' dormitory. And when I entered the building, I was going to the person who'd summoned me, only I wound up finding the book that was used. But I couldn't reach it, because it was in another room, and all the rooms in your dormitory count as separate dwelling places."

Kazuya held up his hands. "Wait!" he cried. "I'm getting lost! You came to Greenwood--that's our dormitory--to find Shun, but you wound up finding the book he used instead."

"Yes...if you're roommate's name is Shun."

Kazuya nodded. "His name is Kisaragi Shun, and he's a boy, even if he can pass as a girl."

"That's the one," Haru said. "He was in the top bunk, you were in the bottom one."

"And you couldn't reach the book because it was in another room," Kazuya continued, "and all the rooms are like separate houses. And you need to be invited into a home in order to enter, right?"

"That's right," Haru agreed. "The summons acted as an invitation, so I could enter your room, where your roommate had read the spell. I would have tried to approach him, but there was some sort of charm on him that protected him."

"A friend of ours loaned him a charm he'd gotten from his grandfather."

"Okay. Anyway, I couldn't reach him. And before I could come up with a plan to get to him, I became terribly thirsty. I'd used up a lot of energy fighting the succubus your--"

"Wait," Kazuya interrupted, "the succubus was there, too?"

"I destroyed her," Haru said. "I couldn't enter the other rooms because that's my nature, but she could have gotten into any room in the dormitory at any time and done more damage than I ever could. I didn't want her to kill any of you, so I fought with her. She's the one who accused me of being too attached to humanity."

Kazuya shivered. "I'm glad you're on our side," he said.

Haru grinned briefly. "I destroyed her, but as I said, I used up a lot of energy doing it. After I entered your room, I became thirsty. I was going to leave, but I found myself trapped within the dormitory, which meant that I couldn't go to a club to drink some blood. Ultimately, you were the only one I could reach."

Kazuya suddenly remembered something, and he started to laugh. "I don't believe it," he said.

"What's so funny?" Haru demanded.

"I told Shun that nothing would happen to him unless it happened to me first," Kazuya explained. "I never realized that I'd be predicting the future so accurately."

Haru smiled briefly, but it was a bitter one. "I'd have preferred not taking any of your blood," he said. "You were in such bad shape that I felt guilty for taking advantage of you like that."

"Look, let's just forget about that, okay?" Kazuya pleaded. "At least it was you and not the succubus. Now, what's done is done, and nobody got hurt--except the succubus--and that's all that matters."

"I could have hurt you," Haru said. "Tonight, if not then."

"I don't--"

"When I drank your blood," Haru pressed on, "I only took enough to sate the edge of my thirst. You usually fell asleep near the end, but tonight I actually made you faint. It means--"

"It means," Kazuya interrupted him, "that you needed the blood. You didn't have any last night, did you?"

"How could I?" Haru said. "I was trapped in the dormitory until the barrier that kept me there was altered somehow." He paused. "You did something, didn't you? That's why I could come here tonight."

Kazuya flushed. "Well, I guess so." He looked up. "Up until last night, I'd been having the same dream, where you came into the room, apologized to me for something, and then...well, I guess it was real, and that was when you drank my blood." He sighed. "But last night, you didn't come. Instead, I had a horrible nightmare that I didn't want to return to, so I was up most of the night." The memory of the mummy crushing Haru surfaced, and he quickly shut it out.

"Then tonight," he continued, "I didn't want to have that nightmare again. I wanted to see you again, to have you come in and sit on my bed, and apologize, and do...well, whatever it was that you did. So I sort of prayed for you to come and visit me." He felt his face burning with embarrassment, but he looked Haru straight in the eye.

"Then I owe you a lot," Haru said. "I think I was dying in there. I couldn't get any blood, and the food I'd found in your room couldn't help me."

"And you hadn't had any blood since two days ago," Kazuya said softly, "and you took a lot tonight."

"I tried to control myself," Haru said. "I truly did, but I couldn't."

"I told you to forget about that," Kazuya reminded him. "Are you free from the dormitory now?"

Haru sighed and shook his head. "I don't think so. The only reason I could get out was because you had specifically called to me. I couldn't veer off in any direction all the way here."

"Well," Kazuya said firmly, "you're going to stay here then, at least until I go back to the dormitory."

"But I can't--"

"You need blood, right?" Kazuya said. "Right now I'm the only one you can reach, so you have no choice."

"You don't know what you're asking," Haru countered. "It's too dangerous."

"Haru," Kazuya said, yawning. "There's more we have to talk about, but not right now. You can stay up in the attic. No one goes up there. And every night I'll bring some food up here so you can have that as well."

"But--"

"Haru," Kazuya said softly, "it's what a friend is for."

Haru sighed and nodded. "All right," he said. "I'd feel better if you were fully recovered, though."

Kazuya sighed. "So would I."

Haru frowned. "There may be something I can do about that," he said slowly.

Kazuya blinked. "Really?" he said. "What?"

Haru shook his head. "I need to think this through first," he said firmly. "I'll tell you about it tomorrow night--tonight, I guess it is now--all right?"

Kazuya sighed, then nodded. "All right." He slowly lay back in his bed. "I'll see you tonight?" Despite Haru's agreement, he was still afraid that his friend would try to stay away, hurting himself again.

"Of course," Haru said. He went to the bed and drew the covers higher. "Good night," he said softly.

"Good night, Haru," Kazuya said. He closed his eyes. Then he opened them again. "You ate our snacks?" he demanded.

"I'll explain later," Haru said meekly.

Kazuya stared at him, then nodded and closed his eyes.

"And...Kazuya?"

Kazuya's eyes flew open. "Yes?" he whispered.

"Thank you."

* * *

Haru waited until Kazuya's breathing slowed before he left the room.

As much as he hated to admit it, he had no choice but to depend on Kazuya for everything. He wasn't about to betray his new friend's trust by taking blood from his brother and sister-in-law. But as a result, Kazuya's life would always be in danger from him, especially if he couldn't control his thirst again.

And if he couldn't break the spell over him...if he was trapped in Greenwood forever...then what?

He sighed. He'd worry about that later. Right now he had to think about something that could help his friend...or cause him more pain and suffering than he'd ever endured. Would the advantages outweigh the dangers? Would Kazuya even agree to it?

While he thought about it, though, he could help Kazuya in a more tangible way.

Haru gathered up all the empty dishes, then quietly went downstairs to the kitchen. Once there, he noiselessly washed and wiped and put the dishes away.

It's the least I could do, Haru thought as he went back upstairs, first to Kazuya's room, then to explore the attic.

It's the least I could do for my friend.

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