((and now i have nothing. Maybe we should have a plot-planning session? Everything seems to be getting a little redundant right now.))

*sends a message*

Allen stayed with Asta long after she fell asleep. He was confident that he could hold off his hunger long enough to stay with her for the night. After all, it was already nearly midnight and he barely felt anything. Surely he could go one night without going anywhere... It was still early, but he fell asleep, Asta in his arms. His last thought before he fell asleep was that he hoped that he would be able to hold out long enough when he woke to find something to eat.

When Asta woke up the next morning, she had no idea what time it is. The only thing she knew, was that she was in the practically iron grasp of Allen. She couldn't help but to sit there and smile, but she needed to get up, too.. and he wasn't letting go.

"Allen," she whined, beginning to struggle within his tight grasp a bit. "Let me up, I'm hungry." 'Hungry' meant that she wanted to take a shower so that she would smell nice when he woke up that night; she liked smelling good anyway, though.

Allen wasn't sure what time it was when he woke... But he knew that he wasn't supposed to be awake yet. Something had woken him... Any thoughts about what had woken him vanished when hunger tore through him. He was ravenous... and the warm, squirming thing in his arms smelled delicious. That must have been what had woken him. How lucky that his prey had come right to him! Without another thought, he bared his fangs and sank them into the warm throat.

When he opened his eyes, she smiled, and began to worm away, but he soon had pulled her back to him, and her mouth made a slight o-shape. He didn't look like him self.. Next thing she knew, he was attached to her neck, and pain ripped through her. She let out the biggest yelp, and instant tears came to her eyes. "Allen?!" she cried. The only thing about this she knew, was that if she yanked away (which didn't seem possible), only half of her neck would go with her. "Allen.." she said again. She hadn't imagined that this would feel this bad.
"You're hurting me.." Not like he seemed to care at this point. Asta looked defeated though, and closed her eyes as she tried to endure what she was hoping, would only be a few more seconds before he realized what he was doing.

Allen wasn't sure what was happening when he came back to his senses. He was aware of something warm and soft in his arms, and the delicious taste of fresh blood in his mouth. That didn't seem right... He didn't remember leaving Asta's apartment, let alone going out hunting. He froze when the implications of that sank in, and he very nearly jumped away from the bed. He'd bitten Asta!

He had indeed, been bitten. She lay in the bed by herself now, blood on her neck, and a little bit on her face. He'd been on her for a while, and now.. she had lost so much blood, that she was unconscious. Her body was exhausted. She had lost so much blood, that now, her body was in rapid recovery mode. And it was bad.
Anyone would be able to tell Allen by now, that she'd lost far too much blood.. far too much..

Allen panicked. He'd bitten Asta, and she was dangerously pale. How long had he been feeding on her?! Hands shaking, he dug out his cell phone, and then stopped. Who could he call? Certainly not a hospital, not and still be able to explain things... The only one who would know what to do would be Ana. Frantically, he called her. After a few panicked moments of explaining, he heard a knock on the door.

"Allen?" Ana's voice came from both the phone and the door. "I can't come in until I'm invited."

"Then come in!" Allen called, his voice a bit high in panic. Asta was getting paler as they spoke. Almost in an instant, Ana was in the bedroom and gently examining Asta.

"There's only one thing I can do for her," she said once she was done. "The best I can do is turn her. You've already started the process, and if you leave her be now, she'll just die."

Allen was quiet for a moment before he looked away in silence acceptance. Asta would probably hate him afterwards, but at least she wouldn't be dead.

Taking his gesture as permission, Ana gently made a cut on her own arm and held it over Asta's lips, letting her blood drip into the girl's mouth.

"Rise and shine, fledgeling..." Ana said softly.

Asta's body was limp and cold as Ana examined her. She was gone, in essence. But after what felt like the longest time, Asta's eyes opened, and she looked up to see Ana and Allen looming over her. She blinked for a moment, still feeling light headed, and she was very quiet. Soon enough, she pushed herself into a sitting position, and then she felt it.

"Oh my God.." she breathed, looked at Allen as she grasped him to get up. "I'm so hungry.." She was starving. She felt like she'd never eaten before, and it was like a monster was gnawing at her insides, desperate to eat just anything. But after a moment of the silence, she cocked her head to the side, and inhaled. There was something in the room that smelled good. She had no idea what was happening, or what it was, but it was something... Allen and Ana both looked extremely worried, and with a pout, she looked at Allen first. "What's wrong?" she asked. Her neck hurt.. Oh wait.. no! And then it hit her that she'd been bitten.

"I'm okay though, right?!"

Allen hesitated. "Define 'okay'," he said. Ana rolled her eyes at him and looked Asta over.

"You're a little pale, but a good meal will fix that..." she murmured, almost to herself. The puncture marks on the fledgeling's neck would finish healing once she had fresh blood in her system. Ana needed to hunt, as well, so she would take Asta and Allen with her. It was as good a time as any to teach Asta how to hunt for herself. Taking the girl's hand, she pulled her up from the bed.

"Get changed," she said. "We're all going out to find something to eat."

We?

The word made Asta look between the two of them, and as she did, her eyes paused on a guilty looking Allen. "What's wrong...?" she asked again, this time focusing more on the boy. "What happened, Allen?"
Asta wasn't stupid, and she could tell that there was something that was really wrong with the situation at hand. She glanced back to Ana, and after a brief pause, pushed Allen off into a corner. "What did you do?" she asked softly.

"It was the only way to save you, I swear!" Allen exclaimed. "I-I panicked, I didn't know who else to call!" He looked away. He wouldn't be able to bear seeing hatred in her eyes. "I can understand if you hate me now..."

"If I might interrupt?" Ana asked gently. "I believe it would be best if we went out to hunt and continued this conversation later. It would be detrimental to us all if a new fledgeling is kept from her first meal."

She tensed suddenly, and looked down. There was no worse feeling in the world than one of betrayal. And by far, she had been ultimately betrayed. That was how she felt about it, anyway.. Asta's face looked incredibly sad, and then suddenly she lashed out, a hard smack landing on the side of Allen's face. "I hate you!" she spat. She didn't.. maybe.. But..
Asta began toward Ana and then past her, and toward the front door. Allen had done something that Asta was going to deem as unforgivable. What made him think that she wanted to be like him in the first place?

Asta had no idea how to hunt, but she got the general idea.. and once she was out of her apartment, her actions had no thought, and the first person who passed, a man, was
pounced upon and drug down to the ground. Even with his screaming, she was an animal, and she ripped the throat from his body so fast. By the time she was done, she had no idea what had happened.. only that she was covered in blood, and in tears.. and that Allen was to blame for all of this.

Allen's head snapped to the side as she slapped him. He knew she was upset... Hell, if he were in her position, he would be upset too. Her world just got turned inside out. Hopefully, she'd be able to forgive him... eventually. If she didn't expose herself to the sun, she would have forever. He felt terrible about what happened... He hadn't even realized what he'd done until after it was over. He had warned her not to try to wake him, though, he was sure he did. More than once, even! Still... it wasn't her fault that he skipped a meal. Not really.

She couldn't believe what she just did! It was a man, someone.. like.. what she used to be. Now she was a monster. A terrible monster.. And she just took the life of a man that had done absolutely nothing wrong. He hadn't even looked at her when she stepped from her home.. And now, his lifeless body lay before her on the concrete, half of his neck gone to God knew where.
Asta was in hysterics, and soon enough, she was hiding her face in her hands from what she'd done.

Seeing that she wouldn't be able to talk to Allen (not that he would listen if she tried), Ana went outside to try to find Asta. She was only half-surprised to find the girl in an alley, face buried in her arms. There was a mangled body on the ground, and Ana could smell the blood everywhere.

"Asta?" she said softly. "Come on, I'll help you clean up. I know it's not easy, in the beginning."

Asta was to her feet much faster than she had anticipated that she would be. "Get away from me!" she cried, shoving Ana away, and running. She didn't even know where she was going to go, but with this blood on her body, leaving wasn't the smartest of ideas. It was a horrible idea. But she had no where to go now. Allen was still in her apartment, and now she wanted nothing to do with him. Ana was affiliated with him in this, so she was as good as useless too. Asta was going to do this on her own. She just didn't know how..

While Asta was faster now than she had been, she still didn't know how to use her speed efficiently. Ana was around her in a flash, cutting off her escape. Just as quickly, she had her arms around the younger vampire, pinning her arms to her sides.

"Foolish fledgeling!" Ana hissed in a low voice. "You would squander the gift that has been given you? You run off now and you are as good as dead! The hunters would make you their prey before sunrise. I know the transition is difficult. I know you are scared, and hurt. But you will listen to me so that I can help keep you alive until you have the good sense to do it yourself!"

"Gift?" Her voice was filled with astonishment of the cruelest kind. "This is no gift, this is a cruse!" She tugged out of the grasp. "Let them kill me! Better for me to be dead anyway! What makes you think that I would want to kill, or hurt anyone!" She didn't care if it was for survival or not, it was the lifestyle of a killer, no matter how they dressed it up and made it sound. She was a murderer. She knew she killed that man, she was not stupid, nor gullible.
"I don't want to live like this! Why should I even live at all?!"

"You don't have to kill," Ana said, a bit bluntly. She still didn't let go of Asta, not confident that the girl wouldn't run at the first opportunity. "I haven't killed in two hundred years. And had you listened to me before, that man wouldn't have died, either." Here, her voice softened a little, though her grip did not. "True, some call this a curse. I would rather see it as a gift. I never asked for it either, fledgeling. I just made the best of it. You would do well to do the same."

Asta wouldn't look Ana in the eyes, and she felt the sadness welling on the inside. She felt so.. dead.. Not in the literal sense of course. But her life was over, and a new one was beginning, one she didn't want. It was not how she wanted to live her life.. and now, it seemed like hers would never end.
"I don't want this, Ana.." Her voice was very sad, and soon enough, the tears came. "How could you do this to me...?" Referring to both she, and Allen, of course.

"In Allen's defense, he must have warned you not to try to wake him, although he probably didn't know what would happen," Ana said softly. "I only did what I had to to save you." Turning Asta around, she gave the girl a hug. "I never wanted it, either, Asta. I was taken away from my family, my husband and little girl. But I look at it as a gift, a second chance. I was going to be executed, and my sire took me away from that. While my circumstances are different from yours, you should take it as a second chance as I did."

She didn't wake him up on purpose.. She just wanted to get out of his arms.. and he wouldn't let go of her.. It wasn't like she intentionally went out to wake him up. All she wanted to do was get out of the bed..

Asta continued to cry well into the kind embrace, and wrapped her arms around Ana. Ana was the only friend she had now, and she would have to keep her. "I just... I don't know what I did to mess up my first one.." If only she'd left Allen alone the first time. If only she'd just apologized when they collided on the sidewalk, rather than try to catch his eyes.

"You didn't mess anything up, Asta. If anything, you can say you made your life better," Ana said softly. "Now you can be anyone you want to be, and in a hundred years, you'll be able to see the sun again. And you know," she added, almost hesitantly, "Allen was panicking when he called me. Something you're going to learn is that you're not in control when you're in the middle of the bloodlust. He probably had no idea what was going on until he came around and saw you there. You can't hold it against him, no more than he can hold it against you if it ever happens to you."

Using the sleeve of her sweater, she dried the blood-tinged tears from Asta's face. "Come on, let's clean this up, and then go back to your apartment. If Allen is still there, we can manhandle him back into his own apartment until you're ready to deal with him."