#james vega fanfic

[shamrockqueen]

Predator in the desert

Chapter 1

Pairing : Bucky X reader (Post apocalyptic AU)

Warnings : R18, Kidnapping, Fallout new Vegas vibes, Violence, imminent danger

Word count : 1332

Bucky Masterlist

Scavenging the wasteland was generally frowned upon but not enforced by any laws. Not like there was anyone left to enforce them. But, many people deemed it unsafe and often not worth leaving the limited safety of one’s small shanty town to venture out into the desert wasteland.

You’ve been very lucky thus far, as you’ve broken this rule several times in the hopes of finding useful scraps to trade for enough food to fill your belly for the night. It usually pays off, if only a little. But a little is more than nothing, and it beats starving in the night.

Most of the things to be found were abandoned vehicles and the occasional junk pile that can be taken apart for scrap. Some hauls are better than others, and then there are some days where you don’t find anything. This was one of those days, as nothing popped up on the horizon while you wandered the dusty landscape. You’d hate to waste this trip on nothing, but you couldn’t go much further under this blazing sun.

At some point, you’d just have to call it quits and turn back toward town. You kicked the dust in frustration from the knowledge that you didn’t have a single scrap of food waiting for you back home and not a dime to buy some. You had a bit of water left in your bag that would have to last you the trek back, but you hadn’t the energy to turn around just yet.

You chose instead to hunker down in the shade of a large rock to sip from the near-empty canteen before making the journey back. The feeling of the last drop hitting your tongue was almost as heartbreaking as the lingering metallic taste it left in your mouth.

There wasn’t any time to dwell on it now; instead, you packed your bottle away and got back up.

At the time, it seemed no different than the same old shit life had dealt you every day, but you’d look back on this as a low moment. From here, there would be lower moments, but this one in particular would be the beginning of the end.

You didn’t see him following you from that high ledge; you didn’t see him climb his way down, stalking you along the rocks, but you did hear something. The light crunch of dirt under boots that weren’t yours rang right through your ears, making you stop in your tracks.

The footsteps stopped too as you stood idle, waiting out the dribble of sweat that ran along your back before whipping your head around to see…nothing.

A bit of weeds and dust blew through the barren tundra, but there was no living soul amongst it. Maybe you were hearing things, or maybe you were just an easier target than you’d thought.

Something was following you that day, something that easily evaded your line of sight just in time to take you out. When you turn back towards your path, your head is immediately knocked in the other direction with a burst of pain at the back of your cranium.

Your lights go out with a grunt before your now-loose limbs collide with the hard, dusty ground. You hit it like a heavy bag of rocks, leaving you aching and yet numb.

He watched you for a second, noticing the shallow breaths you still took and wondering whether he dealt too heavy of a blow.

Small rocks were crunched under his heavy boots as he got closer to kneel down by your side. He slipped two of his bare fingers along your neck before applying pressure near your jugular to feel the soft pulse of your heart still healthily beating.

The light bounced off of his dark goggles, only to be dulled by the rough plastic from the rest of his face mask. He stared back out towards the vast wasteland, watching as the sun still hung high above the dry landscape and burned down on the both of you. When he turned his attention back to you, he slipped his arms under your body to better carry you away.

Strings of light filter through your shaking eyelids every now and again as the world around you swayed back and forth. Few images can come through as you fight the black fog threatening to take over your consciousness. There was this tough gray-brown mass moving in and out of your limited field of vision, back and forth in time with the crunching of the rocky sand.

The blood starts to rush to your already-aching head, making it more and more difficult to force your eyes open. You can’t fight it anymore, and your sight is finally stolen from you. The light will only return when your position shifts and you're laid out on some oddly comforting yet lumpy bedding.

Your mind is cloudy, but you could still feel something wide and warm handling the back of your hair as the spout of a cool bottle is pressed to your lips. The second that the wonderful water hits your tongue, your body is moving upright to follow it and gulp it all up.

When the bottle is pulled away, the air in the room is no longer thin, allowing you to take a deep breath and open your eyes to your new surroundings.

Grayed wood and rusted metal made up a pretty rough but well-put-together room. Your eyes circled the area until they landed on the only moving mass within it. Him.

He was still holding the glass bottle when he came into view. His skin was tanned, save for the slashes of scar tissue that ran along his skin in thin white lines.

His dark hair was thick with sweat as it hung at just his shoulders, and his face still had a slight smear of black camo paint, making his face only half visible in your still blurry vision. You had to blink a few times to get the full picture, only to be left a bit speechless by the full image before you.

His muscles were tight and well defined, like they could snap forward and stop a punch within a split second, and they were on full display even through his dirty tank top. Yet, the sight that you linger on the most was his sharp gaze as it stabbed right through your skin. His eyes were a cutting and inescapable blue that made the blood freeze in your veins and the hair on your arms stand on end.

You’d never seen anyone like this in your life. No one could ever dream to look so healthy, let alone so strong. No, the only people left in the wastelands had hollow eyes that sank deep into their skulls, signifying their early demise. The set staring you down had far too much life inside of them, burning like a blue flame.

The only thing that stole your eyes away from his was the gleam of light that bounced off of the interlocking metal muscles that made up his left arm and hand. If you had the strength to do so, you would have kicked yourself for not noticing it immediately. There were few people left in this world with advanced implements such as that, and even fewer that still carried their emblems of war.

Your body felt numb as you stared into the dulled red star at the arm’s shoulder.

They were old stories told to you by the family you used to have; you never truly believed them, as you’d never seen such a symbol not once in your life...not until now.

All the stories that spoke of the red star ended in genocide and destruction. But, you were still alive.

You adjusted your gaze back to his still-stern face, unable to read much from him as his expression lacked obvious emotion. He’d kept you in one piece this far, but what would happen next?

Chapter 2

More Post apocalyptic AU

[nukacourier]

I hate that two siblings in media can't be even somewhat nice to each other without weirdos claiming they're incestuous. Bc why the hell did I see a post saying James and Francine Garret are in an "implied relationship" when they most definitely aren't. Like????

[ginbiscuit]

Multiclass

Fandom: Mass Effect Pairing: Jeff "Joker" Moreau & James Vega Rating: Gen Warnings: none Word Count: around 1,000 Summary: When Alenko suggests an evening of D&D, Jeff is game, if only to keep his mind off things and not spend his free time brooding. He didn't expect to have any revelations while playing, though.

Tags: Characters playing Dungeons & Dragons, this is just a silly little fic, introspection

Written for @spacebunshep/ @hatboyexcha

[heroofshield]

Rating: PG

Warnings: none this chapter

Summary: N7 graduation brings surprises & Diana Allers gets nosy

@anderfels

--

Diana Allers needed another big news story.

Since the war had ended, and with it her access to the Normandy and its crew, BattleSpace ratings had steadily declined and she needed something else to bring people back. “That and no one really wants to hear about rebuilding efforts again. Everyone wants to move on.” she thought while idly going over the footage from the medal ceremony. “But I should get a decent bump with Vega making N7. Him and Alenko always drew numbers, which is why I featured them so much.”

Bored, but wanting to finish scrubbing through the footage, she fast forwarded to when she was talking to Vega, Allers stopped at the part where she was asking about his personal life.

“Since you’ve been back on Earth, is there anyone special in your life?”

Allers made a face at her fake tone, she hadn’t even wanted to ask the question but her producers made her- saying that speculation on his personal life always tracked well. There had been rumors on the Normandy during the war that he’d been involved with someone, but she could never get anything solid to ask Vega about. Then he was spotted in Australia a few times while he was in N school but again, she couldn’t come up with anything solid to really run with. She was about to fast forward again when she paused, looking at how uneasy Vega looked.

“-haven’t had much time for personal relationships while focusing on N-school.” James vaguely answered, shifting slightly as he continued, “But there are a few people outside of the Normandy crew that I’ve kept in touch with and hopefully, I’ll be able to see them more now that I’ve completed N training.”

“Interesting.” Allers thought while jotting down the time code.

Read the rest on Ao3!

[ferindencadash]

The anonymous period for the @bigplaceexchange has ended, so I can finally share my latest fic!

But first! A huge thank you to @mallaidhsomo for the wonderful gift!! It was exactly the smutty, tropey goodness I was hoping for! I absolutely loved it and highly recommend y'all go read about Kaidan and James absolutely ruining the lounge's poker table. 🫣❤️

My own work, which I'm quite pleased with, is one of my rare non-explicit fics. 😅 (Still M-rated though, reader beware.)

Verschlimmbesserung (noun - German): an attempt to improve something that ends up making things worse.

Aka: Kaidan tries to play matchmaker with Shep and James and utterly screws it up (though I think he would agree, the end results are worth the idiocy along the way).

I had a ton of fun with this one! Especially with my magnificent beta reader @binaryjayne cheering me on and screaming about Stupid Bitch Disease (all three of them fall ill with it 😔).

[binaryjayne]

More Venko. Forever Venko. I am STUCK on this pair.

First off, I wrote a thing. It's this thing right here:

After the war, the Alliance and press catch wind of their relationship and decide to "redo" their wedding, making it an enormous event in the process. Both James and Kaidan want just a tiny bit of it for themselves.

Pairing: Kaidan Alenko X James Vega | rated G | 2.5k words | Part of the Honeymoon series

CUE THE OVER ANALYZING OF THESE CHARACTERS AND THIS FIC.

Spoilers for my Honeymoon series (and this fic in particular), but honestly, if anyone read the first smutty one-shot, there's nothing new or surprising below this line.

Okay. So, in this fic, both of them have an idea of how they want their proposal and wedding to go. Let's walk through Kaidan's first:

He got his suit tailored.

He made a reservation at a fancy restaurant.

He hired a violinist.

Does any of this sound like something James would be into? No, I really don't think so. I'm not saying James is simple, but he certainly has simple tastes. James values his connections to people over anything else. It's important to him that the people he loves are happy.

Would that proposal make Kaidan happy? Absolutely.

James? Not so much.

That approach to him would be stuffy and too much. Kaidan would find it romantic and understated, while James would find it over the top. He'd find more romance in an impromptu proposal on the back porch of their home while stargazing under a blanket. Granted, he's never going to not be thrilled at whatever Kaidan's proposal was, because at the end of the day he was always going to say yes (ignoring the fact that they're already married). But a little more consideration for what he might like would be nice.

I mean, a violinist? Really, Kaidan?

~

Now James' wedding plans:

Backyard BBQ

Only friends and family

Tattooed wedding rings

There's no spectacle, no expectation, just good food and good company. Would James love it? Yes. Would Kaidan love it?

ALSO YES!

So why does James think he'd hate it? Well, he doesn't, but he feels like Kaidan deserves more than something as casual as a backyard get-together. Kaidan deserves the violinist and the fancy dinner and the ring in the champagne flute. Those are big gestures that show just how much you love that person. Just because he doesn't find it particularly personal, doesn't mean they aren't traditional gestures for a reason. James doesn't want to be on the receiving end of that kind of affection, but Kaidan certainly deserves that type of luxury.

He doesn't realize that Kaidan would be thrilled to be surrounded by his friends in a tiny ceremony. There's no expectation to be a certain person or act a certain way. Moments like an exchange of vows should be private and only shared with your loved ones. He might want something a little more than a backyard BBQ, but under no circumstances would he hate a small reception at the orchard. No cameras, no titles, just love.

Oh, and he'd want real rings, but could be convinced to get a tattooed one as well.

~

So why am I highlighting this? Because they've only been together for a year, give or take a few months, and they're still learning about each other. It's why the whole thing turns into a fight because they don't truly know where they stand with one another, only knowing they're in love. They're trying, they want it badly, and yet they keep missing the mark.

It takes time, sooooo much time to truly know your partner, and they got married in the middle of a war, as figureheads in the middle of that war. There wasn't any time to do anything besides cling to the fact that what they had was real and would fight tooth and nail for it to survive.

They have more in common than they think, but are two very stubborn people. I've written them specifically to have trouble communicating, because I'm a dick like that. But if Kaidan would stop interrupting, and if James would stop acting on knee-jerk reactions, they'd find more success at getting to know each other.

So they keep screwing up. They're going to stumble, they're going to be selfish, they're going to misinterpret the needs of one another. And you know what? That's okay. They've decided they want to be together and are willing to put in the work to make it successful. They're not perfect, no relationship is, but growing together is what is going to make them woven together in a way that makes sense for them both.

Will it work? Who's to say, but they're trying. They want to make each other happy, but it takes time for them to truly know just how to do that.

But there's time now, hard-fought and well-earned time. Giant spectacle of a wedding or stargazing at the orchard, as long as their together, it's time well spent.

~~

So that's my thought process. The explanation is probably longer than the three or so paragraphs that it pertains to, but there we go.

[iheartgarrus]

N7 Month Day 8: Crash

(AO3 Link - Yes, yes, I'm very behind. In this one, Tali gets a strange visitor. Necessary context: This is an AU in which the quarians didn't create the geth and never left Rannoch. The First Contact War/Relay 314 Incident is happening, unbeknownst to the rest of the galaxy.)

Tali was just getting cozy on her couch with a cup of tea and a new asari rom-com when a crash sounded outside her back window. She bolted upright and turned around, brow furrowing. It was too loud to be some kid playing with a drone, and besides, she didn’t have any close neighbors. So what could it be?

She set her tea down and headed for the back door, not even thinking to grab her face scarf, and what she saw when she stepped outside made her stop short.

It was a ship - that much was clear. A small one, likely only meant to hold a pilot and maybe a little cargo, but she didn’t recognize the design as belonging to any race in the Milky Way. Tali wondered for a moment if she should call someone (who, she had no clue), but the thought that whoever was piloting that ship could be injured propelled her forward.

(After a couple of steps, she backtracked and grabbed her shotgun.)

When she was standing alongside the ship, she hesitated, uncertain what the right move was. The viewport was tinted, but she thought she could see a figure moving inside. She searched for some kind of latch she could open, but generally ships weren’t meant to be manually opened from the outside. In the end, feeling more than a little awkward, she knocked on the hatch. “Hello? Do you… need help?”

A few moments passed, then Tali jumped back as the hatch opened with a hiss, revealing an alien she’d never seen before. They were bulky, not quite like a krogan but more so than any quarian she knew. Brown skin and dark… fur? On their head, thicker down the middle. They were wearing navy blue armor, which may have added to their bulk, but she didn’t suspect it was by much. Their facial features reminded her of an asari, though a bit rougher.

As she finished her quick survey of the alien, she realized they were talking to her. She couldn’t understand a word they said, but she did recognize their hands above their head in a universal gesture of surrender and the way their eyes focused on her shotgun. In her shock, she’d forgotten she was holding it. Smart. If they meant her harm, she’d probably be dead right now.

The thought actually comforted her a little. As first contact situations went, this could be worse.

“Are you hurt?” she asked before immediately feeling silly. If she couldn’t understand them, odds were they couldn’t understand her either.

Taking a chance, she held her gun with one hand and pointed it at the ground, holding out her free hand in greeting.

Their facial expression changed into what would’ve been a smile on an asari, and they spoke again, grasping her hand instead of her forearm - well, close enough, she figured.

“Are you-“ she started again, then stopped and tried to think of another way to communicate her question. Before she had the chance, the alien winced and reached for their side. It was only then that she noticed the small bits of shrapnel sticking out of their armor and the dark stain surrounding them. "Oh," she gasped. "You need medi-gel." Before she could think better of it, she made a beckoning motion and pointed at her house, inviting them inside. "Come on, then."

[vesperfloyd]

Don't Think Twice, It's Alright

Since apparently I can somewhat write but can't read, got mixed up and did an extra treat for the @hatboyexchange for @ginbiscuit

I absolutely love the Vega/Joker pairing so this one was really self indulgent.

Read the whole thing on AO3

~~

Jeff Moreau could never bring himself to like guys like James Vega. Admittedly, not that he liked many people in general, but that kind of empty headed guy, only talking about muscles and guns, was very high on his personal chart of dislikes. The fact that most of the ones he had crossed paths with were also the same people that would chant him “creaky legs” or take particular satisfaction in mockingly calling him “Joker”, asking him to crack a smile every time he had to pass them in the mess hall, didn’t help either.

If that wasn’t enough, Vega had that unbearable everybody should be friends attitude.

Okay, he was attractive, no point in denying that, but since Shepard had brought him aboard the Normandy, he had tried his best to avoid him. He just knew there was absolutely nothing they could share apart from the mission briefs and the weekly game of poker, and he was okay with that.

[lonesurvivorao3]

Pandoras Box

Eris continues to make her way across Earth, tracking down familiar faces on her way home. Now - I love me some Vega, but figuring out the dynamic between him and her was quite difficult.

“Hey, Jimmy,” she said, tossing her head over the edge of the top bunk, waist-length waves swinging wildly.

Vega's reaction was abrupt and excessive, causing him to knock his head as he all but screeched. “Holy shit, Lola!”

He stared at her upside-down face, grinning like a Cheshire Cat, and decided someone must have dropped something into his beer at the bar.

The last time he saw her, she lifted a torn-apart Mako off him and Javik as if it weighed the same as one of Odette’s toys, dragged them back to the SR2, and then watched her get hit by a devastating blast from a Reaper beam seconds later. Those things obliterated everything they touched, but in the aftermath of the Crucible firing, Anderson confirmed she’d made it up there before dying in the cataclysmic explosion.

She arched an eyebrow, extending her hand to give his cheek a playful slap and pinch. “Oh, look at that face. Cheer up, Jim Bob. I’m sure you’ll find some poor unsuspecting girl to fall into your dicksand tomorrow night, hmm?”

He groaned and gave an exaggerated eye roll, definitely her, and now he owed Vakarian the hefty sum of one thousand credits. Ducking around her, Vega took ten strides across the cramped room to grab two beers from the fridge, asking what she was doing there.

Eris flipped down from the bed, took the beer and the other seat at the table. “You’re the fourth person to ask me that as their first question. It tends to make a girl feel rather unwelcome, you know.”

[danypooh80]

All I ever wanted, Ch. 105

Tensions are high after the mission on Thessia, but some people step up to get things back on track

https://archiveofourown.org/works/34461097/chapters/122281963

[binaryjayne]

I am out of my mind at how well this turned out. The chest hair! The hands! The seepy! THE CHEST HAIR!

I need to keep writing Wish We Got That Honeymoon so I can use this beautiful art!!!

Thank you so much, @doomcheese, your work is incredible

A commission pic for @binaryjayne 💕 of a very lovely and cosy future fic scene. Thanks for the chance to draw this, it was a lot of fun!

[heroofshield]

Chapter 11 is up! @anderfels

Rating: E

Warnings: Explicit Sexual Content, Vaginal Sex, Cunnilingus

--

In Puerto Rico to finally meet James’s family, she wasn’t sure what to expect, no idea what he’d told them other than she existed and was…someone important to him. Anna would be lying if she denied she was nervous, she wasn’t the kind who had ever met her partner’s family, but it was important to James so it was important to her.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that you were following me.”

Turning around at the voice, she looked at James trying to hide underneath the usual SR-2 hat and somewhat succeeding. Slightly tilting her head she replied, “I could say that you were following me. I’m just here for the surfing.”

“Good thing I know the perfect spot for that. C’mon, I borrowed my uncle’s car and drove it here.” James took Anna’s suitcase while she gathered her surfboard and started to walk towards the parking garage.

“Car? As in an actual car? Like using gas?”

“Yes, yes, and yes. I think you’ll like it.” James smiled a bit as they rounded the corner and he headed towards the red convertible.

“Ooohhh, you’re right.” Anna said as James stopped in front of the car. “That’s nice.”

“I know. He doesn’t drive it a lot, what with gas prices being what they are, but I thought for picking up my girlfriend he’d let me take it.”

Anna paused in lifting her suitcase and looked at James, “That’s the first time you’ve actually called me your ‘girlfriend.’”

“What? No it isn’t.”

“Is too.”

“Well…do you like it?”

Read the rest on Ao3!

[ferindencadash]

WIP Wednesday (time is a lie)

Tagged by @daggertongue Thanks! 😊

Sadly most of my writing lately has been academic bullshit, but I do have a very self-indulgent MShep/Vega AU in the works. 👀 Snippet below the cut!

No pressure tagging, if you've got anything in the works you want to share: @aleksxo @swaps55 @ginbiscuit @dandenbo @ankhegs-in-my-salad and literally anyone who wants to play (yes, you! gimme your wip!)

He’s definitely too young to be in the bar. The bouncer probably wouldn’t have bothered checking his ID, even if this was the kind of place that would actually do that. The man’s bulk alone would have most peg him for at least twenty-five, but most people wouldn’t really be looking. Shepard was looking.

Okay, ogling might have been a more accurate description, but in Shepard’s defense, the things he was doing with those hips were pretty ogle-worthy.

Shepard forced himself to turn away from the gyrating temptation on the dance floor. He was on the clock, so to speak; he had a job to do and not the kind that should be done while distracted.

But what a distraction he was. Even with his back to the crowd of shifting, sweating bodies, Shepard could still see those broad shoulders, that strong back, the narrow waist leading down to those goddamn hips. The picture of him was seared into his mind like the afterimage left behind from staring at the sun.

Shepard threw back the rest of whiskey, cheap shit, but this wasn’t a night made for the good stuff. He scanned the bar again before checking the clock over the bartender’s head; the guy should have been here by now. He scowled to himself. It’s not like he was getting paid overtime.

The bartender must have thought Shepard was trying to get his attention and made his way over. He figured he might as well grab another drink while he had the chance, telling himself it would look suspicious if he was at the bar for too long without one.

“Buy me a drink?”

Shepard looked up as the hulking figure from the dance floor slid gracefully onto the empty stool to his right. The sudden movement displaced some of the stench of stale beer, replacing it with a light trace of cologne and the slightly heavier scent of fresh sweat. It made for a heady combo.

Shepard realized he had been staring a little too long, the other man watching him expectantly with a hint of amusement.

“Uhh…” he very eloquently replied, looking toward to the entrance than back to the man beside him.

“Aw, come on,” the man nodded at the dance floor, “you enjoyed the show, least you could do is tip the dancer.”

[binaryjayne]

Kinktober 2024 Day Four: Cuckolding

I am so behind on Kinktober.

James has been a brat all day in hopes that he'll get punished. And he does. He's also a hardcore sub.

Rating: E | Words: 3.4k | Pairing: Kaidan Alenko/Female Shepard/James Vega

[universallydestinytaco]

Even More SF Fanfic Prompts!!

Y’all voted and I listened!! Here goes nothin’!! ALSO Please refrain from making any of these NSFW okay?

EDIT: So apparently in the Spanish Dub for SF Charlie's girlfriend is named Zoey and I made this post before that info became more well-known and prior I dubbed her as Susan....Zoey is a cute name OMG

Alan and Glep go grocery shopping, Alan is driving the cart and Glep is hopping around inside the little basket a little kid would sit inside of.

Folklore AU with Charlie as James (not to be confused with that one asshole…), Zoey as Betty and Pim as August.

Jennifer x Shrimp but make them wholesome yuri.

Jennifer, Zoey, Mustard, Smormu, Amy, Marge and her wife Glep on a girl's night out...and Amy, being the absolute bitch she is, she greatly annoys the others (feel free to add Yuri!Shrimp if desired).

Mr. Boss drinks from the fountain of youth and transforms into a 30-something again and OMG he’s this suave Anime bishie and he is like so totally hot you guys!! 🥰

Charlie and Zoey have officially broken up, Pim (repressing his own jealousy) attempts to get the back together by setting them up together without the other knowing at Spaghetti Disco with “secret admirer” letters but Charlie starts to reciprocate feelings for Pim realizing he wrote the letter…oh and you bet there’s totally gonna be angst via miscommunication, hurt/comfort, a chaotic food fight and homosexual fast dancing (inspired by @oui-oui-madame-baguette).

Mr. Frog robbing a casino in Las Vegas x Shamelessly opportunistic gold digger!Reader who is given the choice to either ruthlessly backstab him or genuinely make a connection.

Pim is just a regular guy making people smile and secretly pining over Charlie by day….but nobody knows that the little smiley face button pinned on his shirt is actually a henshin he uses to transform into his magical alter ego who fights off supervillains every night, he also has an arch-rival who is more of the classic lone wolf anti-hero type: now this dude doesn’t have any superpowers but he specializes in cool gadgets while donning a badass mask….he is also totally NOT crushing on Pim’s alter ego! Pim is (not all that) shocked to find out the civilian identity of this tall, dark and cynical is under the cowl! (It’s obviously Glep /jk we all know it’s Charlie)

Mer!Pim falls in love with Cha- *record needle scratch* waaait a second that’s just one of my own silly little AU fics I’m working on ALSO speaking of which y’all can check out the preview to here! Spread the word!!

[bivicennial]

One of the little bits of worldbuilding lore I really appreciate in the NW is how both vampires and witches have very distinct cultures around raising children.

Like, Thea and Blaise lose their parents and are immediately taken in by an increasingly long list of relatives, because witches (especially Harman witches) do not let their children be abandoned. It's a very village-centric society. Everybody pitches in to make sure the kids are looked after and cared for, all 90s matriarchal commune style. Even when Blaise is actively causing like, mayhem and destruction, the Crone of All Witches decides to take her granddaughters on full time despite being ninety years old and running half the goddamn Night World.

Comparatively, the vampires have a very... aloof style of parenting. It's quite business-like, and focused mostly on monetary support rather than emotional care. Vampire kids are expected to teach themselves most of their survival skills basically on the streets. Darwinist, y'know? Because vampire children are given a lot of what humans (and witches, it seems) would consider very adult freedoms, and are treated as functional members of Night World society quite young. It seems to be expected that most vampire kids who aren't kept in an enclave will learn how to defend themselves or they'll get fucked up. And if they can't defend themselves, well. Weakness gets culled, and all that.

There's a lot of examples of it, too. Vampiric parenting is pretty consistent across the books. James's parents support him financially, but he lives in an apartment by himself at the age of, what, sixteen? Probably younger, considering he was living there for a while by the time Secret Vampire starts. And Ash doesn't seem to have any consistency in his life, but he does spend all his time partying in Las Vegas, while it's implied both his parents are living on the east coast in an enclave. He goes to fetch his sisters when his father tells him to, but he never gives the impression that he especially likes his father, and in fact suggests that if Quinn hadn't been around when his father called, he might have ignored him. There doesn't seem to be much love lost there. And we don't even have to get into Delos's relationship with his father, the guy who treats him like a living weapon at best.

Actually, the closest thing to a loving, functional parental vampire relationship seems to be Jez and Bracken, and they only have like one scene together. Even then, he let her run around San Francisco without supervision from the age of five onward, and that's never treated as being especially outside of the norm. He makes sure she has a place to stay and goes to school, but he doesn't seem to keep track of her daily activities at all, or he does and doesn't care what she gets into so long as he doesn't personally have to deal with it.

And unlike the witches, there doesn't seem to be as big of a push to take on extra kids. That's Morgead's whole thing, that he's got a bone to pick with all the elder vampires that just ignored him when he was abandoned by his mom. Even if they do take in the kids without parents (like Bracken does), vampire parents don't provide much attention anyway. With Thea, she sees a whole future surrounded by other witches and continuing her education under the tutelage of her family. She was eighteen and would have continued to be monitored and cared for for years. Whereas Ash got attacked at the age of twelve, killed a much bigger vampire, and every single person who could have watched out for him was like "yep he's good give him a credit card and let him go do whatever" and he just does.

Honestly, I could talk about each of the characters' childhoods in depth individually, but maybe I'll have to save that for later. Or fanfics or something.