Ava Blake is a goth girl sweating through four layers of black at a Hilo, Hawai'i art school, where everyone assumes she's a vampire. She's just an insomniac trying her best to manage her bipolar diagnosis, and hopelessly devoted to an anonymous, medical ASMR podcast and the calm voice behind it that whispers "fangs for listening."

Then an off-camera classmate unmutes to say the fangs in Ava's in-development video game are on the wrong teeth. Ava knows that voice.

Lei-Ānuenue is Native Hawaiian, deadpan, guarded, and an actual vampire. She considers herself straight edge: she's never bitten anyone and she has a fridge full of sort-of ethically sourced blood bags. She does not date fans. How could either of them know which part of the wanting is real?

A sexy, sapphic vampire romcom with jokes, fangs, and a recording closet that hears everything.

Tropes:

Human x vampire

Fan x creator

Opposites attract

Grump & sunshine

Bipolar rep

Open door, high heat

College setting

Quick read

cover art by @ney.tui and @whatphoebereads_ on Instagram

11.3k word short story